Wynn's wedding

My journey to Covenant Evangelical Free Church..

Attended Wynn's wedding last sat.. he's like my sister's friend's friend. Long story how we became friends but anyhow, the wedding was on 15 Dec.. and it was VERY FAR! Took the LRT for the first time in my life to reach there. It was quite an experience.. quite interesting. Would never have taken the LRT (from choa chu kang) if not for this. And I didn't even know there was a station in Singapore called Jelapang (see above) .. Anyway it took me about 1.5 hrs to get there from home. 2 exciting things besides the wedding itself - firstly, I finally know what it means for the windows in the train to be automatically "frosted" (again, see above) when the train goes too close the HDB blocks - basically it was a feature added in after residents complained of a lack of privacy I guess.

Secondly, I met my sister's friend at the wedding obviously.. and she is 7 months pregnant!!! How exciting! I have known her since I was 10, she was my sis's lower secondary classmate/ good friend. We even went to NZ together before. She got married 5 years ago.. I attended her wedding at Shangrila Rasa Sentosa.. and now she is pregnant! Oh, and her baby is due on the 29th Feb. Haha!!

DnD - and my prize!

Instructions before the game.. By the way, theme of the night was "Wonderland" hence there's a guy dressed in a SWAT outfit and another in Sherlock Holmes. Obviously I went as Cheryl.

But this didn't hinder me from getting my prize!! A videocam!

Wet weather

It's been raining every day here!!! Keeps coming and going. Clothes are not drying (pout)!! Anyway, so as you can guess, go carting was cancelled cos it was too wet. Oh well, happy that it's mid dec now.. counting down the number of working days to the end of the year!!! It's SEA games period now too and Singapore won a lot of medals, esp at swimming!!! Was watching the guys 4x100m IM relay on the bus on the way home just now.. Philippines won the gold medal but just simply watching it brought back so many memories. Happy days, happy days.

Meantime work has been getting stressful recently, enlarging my appetite for Lindt chocolates. Found 2 main ways to de-stress besides eating more chocolates (1) baking -- baked brownies recently and found that they were real easy and yummy!!! also serves as a good present for friends/ colleagues/ kenneth's family (2) shopping -- but i need to control to avoid major shocks at the end of the month when the credit card bill comes into my letter box!!! whahahaha.

Happy holidays everyone!

Updates

Updates here... maybe I should start with the bad news.

1) Wedding Dinner in HK has been brought forward - will now be held on 31 July 08.
Jun, not sure if you have received my email.. but I guess you'll be affected by this. Really sorry about it. Not sure if you will be able to make it still.... was like a last min decision that basically worked out for my parents and his parents. Am also going straight off for honeymoon after that so I don't have to come back from hol, work for 1 week, and go off to HK again for a "show face" wedding dinner. Anyway, really sorry...

2) Bought the wedding bands! Happy happy.

3) Undecided on destination for honeymoon. Really wanna go to Europe but I heard that Aug is a hot (literally) and hot (as in, popular) place. Hmm hmm... where can I go that's cooling, not too crowded, not too boring, not too city-like and that I've not been before?

4) It's december! A really busy month full of caroling practices (weekly), weddings (3 of them), office dinners (3 of them), Bible trail conference, Christmas, and my sis is coming back for hols!

5) Oh by the way, I won second prize at my company's d&d last week! A videocam! Just what I needed for my wedding! It's a JVC one, rather small, and costs about $900. Not too bad huh! The 2nd-5th prize winners actually had to compete in a silly game and I came out tops hence I got the 2nd prize! Haha. But it was the most suitable for me. 3rd prize was a digi cam. 4th was a karoake set. 5th was a dvd player.

6) Trying go-cart for the first time tomorrow with colleagues - stay tuned.

Happy birthday to us!

One more down

So happy! We've just booked our photographer for pre-wedding and actual day shots. Phew.. another thing off the list. This photographer was one of those recommended by the bridal shop but it was the only one that we both liked very much. Somehow when we looked at all the albums, this photographer stood out to us as being the best in terms of his style. We went down to have a chat with him (Robin) last Friday after coming back from Bali and had a feel of his packages and pricings.. thought about it over the weekend.. did try to check out some others, but they either did not reply, or were already booked on the 26/27 Jul. So on Tues evening we thought we should just go for it since we really liked his works. Went down yesterday evening to pay the deposit. So da tah!!! Happy happy! Apparently he received 2 other calls to do wedding shots on 26/27th July AFTER we called him on Tues evening but he'd already promised us so he turned them down. Sounds a bit like marketing talk but I'm not surprised if it's real because that weekend is really quite popular given that it's the last weekend before lunar 7th mth. Oh well, we're happy that we booked the photographer that we both liked. Initially we were not sure if we wanted to do the pre-wedding shots as we all know how weird it can be to be standing in positions trying to look romantic. But well... we reasoned that I will only wear the gown during this season and the album will be a good memory to keep and it's something that we will never do again (no matter how duh we look) so we should just try it and have fun!

Anyway, it's deepavali today. Time to slack. Hope my diarrhoea will stop.

Baliiii

My first trip (and kenneth's too) to Bali!!! A rather short one.. less than 4 days but it was great nevertheless. We didn't do any sea sports so it wasn't as nice as what other people had described. Spent a day doing sightseeing.. went to the monkey forest, some old palace, a nice temple, an active volcano, and Tanah Lot (temple by the sea).. and passed by some really really really nice paddy fields. Also spent some time at the beach relaxing, and a lot of time at the villa which was just awesome! Not to forget the massages and pedicures.. :-) Some pic here that were taken.

(1) The volcano in the background and other pictures at Tanah Lot



(2) Temples and some nature reserves (didnt want to go too near the monkeys..)



(3) The villa (it's fantastic -- esp the tall trees that line the driveway... really creates a sense of tranquility) and the beach nearby

Turned 25

Turned 25 last Friday.. started off suprised by Kenneth's visit at 12midnight with a cake in his hand and a birthday song!! This, by the way, was kinda like the 3rd attempt (of him trying to bring me a birthday cake over the night before) over our relationship and the 1st successful one. Long stories over how the other 2 didn't work.. but this one finally did! So sweet! Guess that just made my day. Didn't have any fancy birthday presents this year.. more practical stuff instead (one of which is my very first manicure!). Spent the rest of the day pretty much relaxed. Went for DA Carson's seminar at night on reformation.

Pictures below on the night before and friday itself. The cake was from Zenden at Gallery Hotel where I went with my mum for dinner on Thursday. And this just adds to the list of cakes I have. I have 3 cakes this yr - this one, kenneth's one, and one from my parents. Not to mention I was just finishing the tiramisu I made last week!! My fridge has nothing but cakes!! Lastly, a really sweet bouquet of flowers from my colleagues.. it was the first time I carried flowers back from work (embarassing embarassing..)! The flowers came with a card that carried 12 signatures and notes too. Thought that was one of the best things that I'd ever received! :-)

Been cooking lots

Last week has been an exciting week.
Mum and dad were not in town!!! Maid was sent home after her contract ended.. so basically I had the whole house to myself!! Was quite a task cleaning it (once in a while), watering the plants (thank God it rained on most days, saved me the job), swept the leaves once a week, washed the car, swept the leaves from the car porch, washed my clothes, spent an hour to chop up a lot of garlic yesterday, and cooked dinner almost every day! Kenneth had dinner with me every day so that was fantastic. Am amazed at myself really (ah-hem). Finishing work at 6ish 7, trodding back in the bus, arriving home and finish cooking in erm.. 45 min? Not too bad. In fact I also tried making my very first tiramisu on thursday night in preparation for the weekend. It's almost gone now.. but I'm so happy that my first tiramisu actually worked out well!! :-) And oh, if you haven't tried it. Go try it! It's SO easy. Even someone like me can make it. I think everyone else who can read can make it. Now I will never spend $5 on piece of tiramisu again!!! Check out recipes onlines.. google like "how to make tiramisu". I think that will work. Comes with steps and pictures. Cant go wrong.

After a long week.. Weekends were crazy again... cleaning up, going to the supermart etc. Man.. I miss my afternoon naps!!! Guess that was because I watched quite a bit of tv too. Anyway, decided to reward myself with my favourite belgium chocolate ice cream!! Yummy!!! It's the best thing you can have after doing some cleanup and pespiring like a tap. I just love it.. yummy yummy.

And just to share my joy once again... am going on leave next week!! Can't wait. I bet it's going to fly pass.. but work life is such. Sigh sigh... accumulated leave is so precious but just gets snapped up like that. Going to be busy still.. meeting my pastor to get started with the marriage prep course, deciding on my evening gown, having lunch with friends, going for a short hol.. and maybe make more cakes?!

Counting down!!

I don't wanna move

Was such a sad day. My colleague/ team leader who came back from maternity leave today told me that I had to move out of my desk and sit in the empty seat next to her for easier discussion. :( That was a piece of news that I guessed was on the way... but I still didn't like it.

I love my desk now. I love sitting at that spot, the people at the table. Maybe I'm better working with men. But I'll definitely miss the one who makes me (any everyone else) laugh with his witty jokes, I'll miss the one who shares cooking skills and recepies with me, I'll miss the one who looks serious but cracks stupid jokes at times, I'll miss the one who guides me in my work and talks about getting my bf drunk, and I'll miss the one who is quiet but friendly.

In this new table, there are only 4 pple so far. No nice comments to say about them so I'll just keep my mouth shut. Anyway, pastor preached last week on James 3 (the untamable tongue) so I should not say anything. But yes, you get the point. I am upset.

Well, the only consoling thing is that the weekend is coming and I have a slew of activities.

Fri night - dinner with Diane

Sat morning - clean the house
Sat afternoon - buffet lunch with uni friends at carlton
Sat night - thinking of cooking something yummy

Sun morning - church
Sun afternoon - brunch with colleagues and thier family at paulaner brauhaus at millenia walk. no suprise that it's a german place i guess.. although i only have 2 german colleagues. but well, i heard that this place is quite good for brunch. their beer is really good!
Sun afternoon - visit zarina for hari raya

Mon - back to work.. again?!?!? Oh well, it's pay day so it's not so bad. Haha.
Can't wait for 26Oct to come.. I'm on leave for 10 full working days!!! Yipppppeeeeee!!!!!

Bridesmaid dress

Janice, have you found anything in Melbourne?

Bridesmaid dresses are actually quite difficult to find (in Singapore).
Jan and I walked for about 2 hrs last week and couldnt find anything for Jun's wedding.
We have the plan as follows
1) Jan will check out Blackrose in Melbourne (where my sis made my bridesmaid dress). She took along my dress for size purposes
2) If (1) fails, option (a) Jan will ask her friend to make the dress in China (where her friend did for her bridesmaid) or option (b), Jan will leave 1 of her dresses with me and I will continue to hunt for something in Singapore

Hmm.. I think we have a good plan in place.

Well, as for my wedding.
1) confirmed 2 friends who have agreed to be MCs for dinner and chairpersons for service (1 of them is a gal whom i've known for 20 yrs)
2) confirmed more or less the design of my evening gown (can't tell you yet until my tailor/ designer actually starts working on it)
3) confirmed with my colleague that she will take outdoor photos for me
4) still looking for shoes
5) still looking for a place to stay
6) met up with Joy for dinner as we both count down to 26 Jul 08!

It's the weekend!! Yippee!!! This week's been a good week cos I bought a really cool and comfortable pair of shoes (for some reason my left foot was hurting a lot) and a really nice skirt yesterday. Happy happy!

777-300ER

Oh wait, I must add something. The business class seat in the new Boeing 777-300ER is REALLY cool! It's huge!!! I was so amazed when i saw it..... the only word that came out (literally) was W-O-W.

Mid Autumn

It's mid autumn festival today!! The 15th day of the lunar 8th month.. lots of mooncakes to eat!!! Had a mooncake party in the office yesterday, with a variety of mooncakes, like lotus paste, yam, sesame.. and even durian.. yucks! The smell just fills that part of the room so strongly that it hurts. Haha.. guess I'm not that singaporean in that way.

Anyway, so sorry for the late updates. Have been really busy the last 2 weeks. Went to HK last week for work.. was a crazy week cos the manager there went off to korea for an urgent biz trip.. so i was alone for 3 out of 5 days.. and struggling. :( This week is not that good too cos I'm back here with the back load from last week.. and some carryover from HK. Well, the only consolation was that I had a really great time in HK meeting up with jj and shu (ex collegaues) who have recently moved in HK. Familiar faces always helps. Mum and dad went there half way for a short hol too so I went out shopping and eating a lot over the weekend. Met up with ken's aunt too.. worked in the cool BOC building next to mine.

So anyway.. yes it's been busy busy. Business trips are good for chalking miles, staying in posh hotels, eat-all-you-can (imagine all the yummy chinese food and tim sum (in a trolley) and deserts- of which some are terribly terribly high in cholesterol), but work work and work too. Oh well, can't have a free hol right? Haha. Anyway, my fav in those pic are the hot&crispy char siew bo-luo pao (1st row centre) and all the deserts (tan tan, red bean, almond cream..). Thinking about it just makes me hungry now.. argh.

Next exciting thing on the list -- Meeting jan this week to figure out how we are going to choose a bridesmaid dress for jun's wedding!!

September

How time flies.. It's already September.

11 more months to the big day... settled a few stuff

- church

- wedding banquet

- wedding gown and suit

- hair and make-up

To do

- flowers

- photography

- shoes

- rings

- caterer

It's quite enjoyable but tiring sometimes I must say. It seemed a lot more exciting when my sis got married last year. After choosing my own gown today, I can understand why my sis chose what she chose. Cliche as it sounds.. it's all about the "once in a lifetime" thing. Which is true... but I keep telling myself not to overspend.

Anyway, the weekend is here again. Always something to celebrate about. :-)

Pictures of some sushi made 3 weeks ago. Doesn't look that fantastic but it was Yummy!! Chef in action..

Starting my collection

It's weird.. I'm not even close to buying a new house, yet somehow I realised that I'm beginning to stock up stuff that can and will be potentially move to my new abbot in July next yr.

1) WMF Pots - my dad bought 3 of them for me last week at a Tangs sale. Small soup pots.. good for any use

2) Coffee Machine - this one is actually the old one (about 6 mths) in my house that has just been replaced with a more efficient one because of high usage (haha)

3) Carpet!! - bought this one from china on my recent trip. bought 2 actually, different size and of a different themes.. here's 1 of them. I think capets are a great way to brighten up the place and make a normal coffee table on normal parquet floor look more elegant.

4) Pillows - this sounds weird but yeah, we both bought pillows at a recent metro closing down sale where almost everything was going for half price!!

Well, I think I should stop for now. Need to find a roof over my head first. Latest news for flats is that owners are asking for $100k top-up over the valuation price. The usual is around $30k top up. Now it's $100k?! So for a flat that's valued $350k, total cost is $450k. That's just crazy to me. Seems like the tide is not moving in my direction. Sobs.

Fireworks!!!

Got free tix to watch fireworks at the floating stadium next to the Esplanade last night!!!! FYI.. the floating stadium was built this yr for the NDP because the old national stadium is now closed (and will be moved somewhere else).

Anyway, the fireworks display took only about 15min in total, but let me see how much time I spent getting there.

I spent 15min getting to city hall, 25min walking to the stadium and squeezing my way through the human traffic jam, 5min finding my seat, 30min of "pre fireworks entertainment" with 2 DJs, 10min of automated kites display (a bit boring), 10min of lights display (even more boring), and finally..... 15min of beautiful fireworks!!!! After the end of the display, another 25min squeezing through the human traffic jam again to get out, and 20min for some ice blended coffee at Pacific Coffee cos I was just too hot by now, and another 20min to get home.

Don't know how to load the video clip onto this website so I can't share the joy (or, pains I took to film it). Anyone any idea?

National Day

Happy Birthday Singapore!!

It's that time of the year again.. 9th August and this year Singapore is 42 yrs old!

The greatest part of it is the public holiday of course. :-)

Lots of people are taking tomorrow off though.. for a long weekend but I didn't choose that.

Had a great day today beginning with massage and shopping this morning with my mum. Bought 1 pair of pants and 1 pair of formal kinda berms.. haha. Impulse shopping I figured.

Went on to the Isetan supermart at Lido and decided to make sushi!! So we bought all the necessary ingredients.. like rice, seaweed, vinegar, cucumber, crabstick, inari (raw tuna) and some other stuff.

Met kenneth in the afternoon and we started house hunting again. Met an agent who brought us to see a flat at kembangan. Not too bad.. very big area, quiet yet pretty near the train station. But then again.. we were just basically viewing for fun.. not really having any intention to buy now. Just checking out the market prices.

Sushi making was the event of the night and of course watching NDP on tv.

A very fulfilling day! :-)

XinJiang

I'm back!! Sorry for the absence.. was away in China (XinJiang). It was a real eye opener for me.. and a very good trip indeed. Thank God for the safe journey and the chance to meet the teenagers there. It was quite drama cos we started out on a bad note with the driver and we ended up reaching our destination at 1am and it was literally pitch black on the way to the place. I almost teared when I reached. Seriously, I thought I was going to die that night in the wilderness and no one will ever find me. China is just so big.. it's scary. Or maybe Singapore is too small so it feels safe. Anyway, it was good to spend 5 full days with the students, listen to their life stories and also share my testimony with them. It's interesting to meet them because they are young teenagers but they are a lot more street smart than Singaporeans. They have a huge interest to learn English and get out of their country but money is usually the problem. Really makes me appreciate a lot of the things that I have here. They also taught us Wygur language (that's their tribal language) though we spoke in Mandarin most of the time. The kids are really fun loving people and they gave us all a Wygur name each.. and I'm called Gezel. Nice name! :-)

The country is generally very beautiful but the place is just HUGE. We travelled 900km from one part of xinjiang to another (that's like traveling from singapore to penang and more I think) just to get up to the mountains and stay in mongolian yurts. It was worth it I must say. Something that I probably will not experience in a long time, if ever, again. Lots of pictures.. lots of mountains and natural scenary. Have a look at the link below! Those are not the full set of pictures actually, these were from my 2nd sd card, but there are just too many to upload!!!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=503k87z.31rx6x2n&x=0&y=icpg5c

Anyway, came back at 2am on Monday night. The flight was delayed for 2 hrs plus due to bad weather. Was quite sad at the guangzhou airport too cos we ended up having to transit for almost 6 hrs!! So nice to be home now. Went back straight to work on Tuesday and finally managed to finish the week today. Yeh!! The weekend is here!!!

Sore Throat

Darts.. just when I'm preparing to go to China next week for my very first mission trip.. sore throat is creeping up. Can't remember when was the last time I had a sore throat.. probably a year back or so.. and it has to come now?!?! What bad timing. Not that I ate terribly heaty food over the weekend as far as I remember... oh gosh, I hate sore throats. Praying real hard that I'll get well before the weekend. Don't wanna fall ill when I go to China!!! Sulk.

It helps that my company is kinda flexible and I told my boss that I wanna work from home tomorrow. Brought lots of stuff back.. got to clear all the workload before I go on leave... sigh.. shall not think about work now. Time to rest and drink my next cup of water..

Batam

Just dug up some pictures from church camp.. actually I have a lot more in kenneth's camera which i have yet to retrieve from him. We usually take lots of pictures when we're out relaxing. Seems like a crazy thing to do but it's quite fun! The little gal along the beach is the super cute gal in my church, picking out mini seashells.

I really enjoyed the resort by the sea kinda feeling (bottom right picture). It can be a bit scary during high tide though (because the waves are literally under your feet - you can see and hear them, just can't feel them). Beach resorts look really nice in postcards and pictures though (refering to Jun's blog on her top choice for honeymoon - :-)). But it's so hot in Singapore that I doubt I'm really a beach resort kinda person. Prefer to see more snow-capped mountains in Switzerland, enjoy the beautiful scenery and music in Salzburg, or go for a hot spring bath during winter in Japan!!! Maybe visit Jan in Dubai too? Ooo... can't wait to go for my next holiday!

No more Germany

This is saddening.. my 1 month business trip to Frankfurt in October has been cancelled/ postponed.

Due to the stupid re-org, there have been changes to the team, changes to plans etc etc. And as a result, the team is short handed. And wel... I could still go because my ex global boss had promised me. But then.. it seems kinda bad not to help out in Asia when I can. Well, they said that the trip has only been POSTPONED, and not cancelled.. and it will still happen in future, even perhaps to london or NY, like 1Q or 2Q next yr. But changes happen all the time and I don't know if it will really come to pass. Of course, you have to discount that slightly cos they know I'm upset now. It's also quite sad cos I was intending to spend my birthday there, go for a holiday with my mum and dad to some parts of europe before the trip, and a holiday with kenneth after the trip. All of that is gone now! Sniifff.... but then, even if I did go to Frankfurt in the end, I guess I won't dare to still take leave before and after the trip. Sigh sigh.. so anyway, let's just keep my fingers crossed now. To think I saved up so much leave for my holidays in sept/ nov!!!!!!

Anyway.. that's a quick update. Shall enjoy the rest of my weekend for now... :-)

A day at the National Museum

We ended up at the National Museum on Kenneth's birthday in the end. How did this happen?

It was a last min decision after we found out that bus 36 couldn't get into suntec because of the NDP preview that night... and it missed all the suntec stops and stopped outside city hall mrt in the end. We were too lazy to walk back to suntec so we ended up going to the National Museum!!! We both can't remember when was the last time we ever went there so it was quite an experience!!! The place was pretty empty I must say. But it was a thorough history lesson.. where we spent almost 3 hours there before proceeding for dinner.

Re-org

Re-organisation in the office is always a bad thing.. people get moved around. New people come in, hopefully no one gets kicked out. Your boss changes, work flow changes, the team changes etc etc... sigh. And I was actually quite happy working with my small team - the american, german, and singaporean. Although all 3 of them are about twice my age, but it was great fun working with them. Things will change now. Oh well.. re-org seems to be happening all the time. And it has happened too many times already in this place. Just that this time it's pretty severe... I hope I will work well with my new colleagues.

That's not the worse. Even worse news today.. jin jee is leaving the bank!!! The 4 of us who started out together in the same team.. has only me left!! Leslie left first, went off to RP to teach. Eugene next.. to JPM. And now JJ!! Oh no! It's kinda sad because the 4 of us were really good buddies and we started out really well, though as strangers on Jul 15 2004, the day we started work, but good buddies not long after that. Sigh sigh. And JJ is moving out of Singapore too.. less chance to meet up. So you see... the banking world is such. Turnover is high. From the 8 Ops grads, only 2 are left in Ops. Plus me, still less than 50% in the bank.

On the brighter side... it's Kenneth's birthday today!!! Happy birthday!! I have picked out 4 places to go for dinner.. actually 6 places initially but 1 was fully booked (!!!) and the other was closed for a function. The 4 places are at rochester park, dhoby ghaut, holland rd, mt faber. Let's see what we feel like having tomorrow. I've booked all 4 anyway.. "kiasu" syndrome. No choice I guess.. it's a sat, it's the 7th July 2007, and it's Kenneth's birthday! Can't avoid to stand in long queues.

The weekend begins!!

I do

Too tired now to write down everything cos I need to sleep soon!!! Need to get up early for church tomorrow.. and came back late because of the screening of Transformers!!! It's a good show. You gals should catch it too!

Anyway, I guess you should know what happened... Kenneth officially proposed to me on Friday night!!! Aww... yah la, quite sweet I must say. But then again, it's a once in a lifetime thing. Some pictures for you to guess the story. I didn't collect the ring with him so it was nice to see it for the 1st time in its "finished" state when I wore it. Anyway, continue another time! :-)

Dinner at the Oriental. A bit chee-na but I like Chinese food so...

Must say that the desert was the cool part. It was a mango pudding with lychee sorbet in a cup on top of a cup of dry ice!

This really caught me by surprise.

The rest of the story as follows...

Planning planning..

I'm so excited cos it's Thursday... will be having my mission trip meeting tonight. Tickets have been booked so that's a whole load off my mind.
And tomorrow is Friday... collecting the ring! I don't know if I'll be wearing it immediately or not. Depends on when kenneth officially proposes.
I am still thinking of the other 9 "test" questions to ask him. Am I being too mean? *cheeky grin*

Checking out Hotel InterCon on Sunday too.. seems like a nice place to hold the banquet but will have to see it before we decide.
Grand Copthorne is probably out now cos the ballroom is just too big for my relatively few guests...

Talking about guests, it's a headache formulating the guest list too.

Have a great week ahead gals!

Grand Copthorne

First choice hotel visited today.. with my parents and ken's mum (kinda like a last min decision but thought it'll be better to keep them in the loup and let them interact more...)

By the way, if you don't know where this is, it's next to Zouk! The hotel just like next door with the big water ball in its porch. Website at www.grandcopthorne.com.sg. I have always heard good comments about that place, from more than 1 source, like about the high ceilings (which I have a huge weakness for) and good food... so I thought I'd just check it out.

Disadvantage of that place is that there is no MRT nearby, so people who don't drive might have a major problem... although I did tell my mum that they can join the Zouk queue (haha).

The Grand Ballroom looked good on the whole.. ceilings were high enough for my liking. No pillars in between to block. But... the ballroom is kinda big and can fit about 55 tables comfortable (they said the max is 60 but I think it'll be too squeezy) but we only have approx 35-40 tables at max.!! So having such a big ballroom might make the place look a bit empty. Hmmm.. so this is something to consider.

Well, we will check out a few more before deciding. So that will only be confirmed maybe in a month or 2.

Anyway gals, he hasn't officially proposed yet. It's kinda complicated. He said he wanted to propose with the ring ready. But then he doesn't want to choose the ring on his own just in case I don't like it. So he sort of asked me informally... asked my parents... and then off we went! I got the ring that we also sort of decided a while ago.. the Lazare diamond http://lazarediamonds.com/main.html sold by Larry Jewellery in Singapore (this diamond is sold by different jewellers in the 6-7 countries that it's sold in).

It's a funny game now cos I know the "real proposal" is going to happen in the next week or 2, so the min he asks me out I start giggling.. and he gets damn stressed. Haha. But ya, I guess we have thought about this for quite a while, even started checking out houses in Jan this yr.. (just that we didn't buy, and it's more expensive now!!). So yup, I'll keep you gals informed ok? HUGS :-)

Getting married!

Hey, guess what? I'm getting married!

Ok, I know both of you want the story so here it is.
It all happened very fast.. Kenneth went to speak to my parents when I was in HK (last week), brought them out for a nice chinese dinner at The Oriental hotel and basically asked them for their permission. Actually the whole thing was quite a major hoo-haa (too long to talk about it here).. and in fact I didn't actually think it would go through, or rather, that the preferred date would be accepted by my parents. I told Kenneth he had to be prepared to answer a lot of tough questions by them. But in the end, my parents said ok!!! Well, not really all that enthusiastically cos they still think I'm young, he's young, we shouldn't rush blah blah blah but they didn't object or push back so that was an OK sign. But there were some "after effects", besides the part about being too young.... where my mum came up with reasons to push back the date (which for now is 26 July), like

1) Yujun is coming back in Apr, may not have enough leave to come back in July
2) Adult fellowship (in my church) happens every last sat of the month, cannot have wedding dinner on that day
3) HK is very hot in July/ August (we have to go there for a dinner)
4) Property market is very hot now, should wait for it to cool dowm

I think what she says is not wrong, although some more valid than the others.. but I think it's missing the basic point of why we want to get married. Anyway, the wedding dinner will probably be on Sunday cos I think it might be too tiring to squeeze everything in 1 day.

But anyway, since then (this week) things have been ok. Kenneth and I went to choose the ring already too.. bought it, had it sized today, and will be collecting it next week. First choice for wedding dinner venue will be visited tomorrow.. and if it doesn't turn out well then we'll think of something else. The rest should be ok to manage I guess. It's quite fast for 1 week I must say but then again I think we sort of decided on a few things months ago, like the budget for ring and place for banquet and all... ahem.. very systematic people here..

End of my update here... it's a big step in my life I must say. A bit exciting, a bit scary... but it's something we're committed to.

So hope you 2 can make it back in July next year!

Sights of HK

A nice train ride between the airport and the city. Posters everywhere showing the 10th anniversary of HK returning to China..

On the left, the most yummy drink in HK... half mango juice with real mangoes.. and the other half with lychee or aloe vera or grapefruit juice. Very yummy!!!

On the right, Illy latte - my daily dose of caffine.

Below, my yummy buffet lunch from Mandarin Oriental. The sashimi was fantastic... yum yum.

Colleagues from HK Loan Ops. And 1 from Manila Loan Ops.

A pleasant surprise!!!

But was sad to find out that the Manila colleague was actually in HK because the Head of HK had resigned! Working life is tough man.. or is it just this bank? Hmm..

Huzz and Buzz in HK City! A very crowded and slightly polluted place. Lots of people and shops... a real shop and eat city!

Back from Batam

It's been a long and exciting week! Was in HK for a course from Tues to Fri.. had lots of fun shopping too of course. But HK is just SOO crowded, esp at Causeway Bay where I was staying. Just loads and loads of people. Lots of pollution too. The course was pretty intensive but work aside, it was a holiday for me! Sandra bunked in with me so that was great company too. But feeling totally drained now. Hopefully my mint mocha next to me will keep me awake for the next few hours before knock off time. After coming back from HK at midnight on Friday, went home, unpacked and packed my luggage, slept at 2am, and 4 hrs later, I was on my way to church camp at Batam!! After another hectic 2 day church camp, I woke up at 440am Batam time this morning (540 SP time), checked out of the hotel, went to the ferry terminal, got onto the ferry, arrived in Singapore at 8am, and took a cab to the MRT, and came in straight to work!!! Busy busy busy. Church camp was a short one though.. but nevertheless a fulfilling one. We learnt about Eccl and about God's soverignty. Took lots of pictures with Ken at the resort too. :-) Will put them up soon! Back to work now!

Busy saturday

The weekend is finally here!!! But it was such a busy yet fruitful one I guess. This morning.. I went to a place that I haven't been in ages.. the GYM!!! Woo! Tiring I must say.. I went to Planet Fitness with Kenneth in Suntec and we attempted to exercise obviously. But more than the exercise, the look of the gym, the equipment, the pullup machine, the weights for arms and legs and all that kind of fanciful machines just opened a floodgate of memories all of a sudden. It seemed so fresh yet this all happened about 8-10 years ago.. I couldn't help thinking of times in the past when jiao lian would just push us to do weights.. and we would all be trying to do the 1-2 pullups. Obviously I can't even do 1 now.. but yeah, I could go on forever just thinking of the past. I also thought about the day I fainted in the gym. Can also sort of remember what it was like feeling weak and giddy... scary thought but well.. it's been 10 years.

Talking about the head thing (it's called AVM, or arteriovenous malformation), I just met my neurosurgeon again today. He happens to be the neighbour of my mum's pri school friend, whose son was getting married today. Whenever I see him, I think he's my "saviour", like he saved my life or something. But of course I know God did it all, through him.

Some pictures taken at Conrad today before the wedding...

So Tired..

I’m feeling so absolutely tired today. It’s been a long day in the office… walked into office this morning totally blur. I think I had a mini hangover last night. Went to Liling’s new condo (it’s a penthouse!!!) at Pasir Ris and had wine and cheese with crackers, chatted the night away! Only if it was a Friday and I didn’t have to go to work today. Oh well, but her house was really nice. 3 story penthouse – 1st story living room and kitchen, 2nd story master bed room and a small store room, 3rd story bbq area and a Jacuzzi!!!! She’s my first friend from uni who managed to buy a condo with her own money (and her boyfriend’s of course). Property prices are so high now.. such a headache. So anyway, I’m so glad that Friday is here and it’s the weekend tomorrow!! But.. I have some pre-course homework to do before the HK course.. argh…

It's June!

I can't believe how time is just FLYING this year... seriously.. month after month time just goes by. This June will be a busy one for me, it's time to pay income taxes, do more shopping during the GSS before the 7% GST kicks in next month, go to HK for training and holidaying (something to look forward to), go to Batam for church camp, attend mum's friend's (also my piano teacher's sister) son's wedding next Sat, get my hair cut (I do this every 3 mths), and visit the dentist today!!!! There was actually 1 more event... a treetop walk near MacRitchie today organised once again by my company's Rec club.. but someone was killed (4th case this year) by a falling branch there last week so that place has been closed until next week. I think that must have hurt.... ouch...

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/279525/1/.html

Lesson?

Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth --- Proverbs 27:1

Blue black

This is the state of my blue black 5 days after Paintball... it has progressed from purple to blue to red to now yellow-ish. The dotted part looked really digusting initially... it doesn't look as bad here. But I looked like I was having some kind of concentrated pimples/ measles/ rash... some really gross symptoms of a disease. But yet, instead of covering them up.. it was funny how on Monday a few of us were all comparing blue-blacks. Found out also that some of my friends were even hit on their head... am glad that didn't happen to me. 1 head operation is enough... !!!

Anyway, it's a public holiday today!!!!! But I was busy this morning, going to River Valley to meet a friend, went to Larry's in Orchard to get a GST form (and eyed some really nice rings.. haha), dropped my parents off at CSC, packed lunch from Man Zhu and went off to Kenneth's place for lunch. Then back to CSC to pick mum and dad.. and now I'm home! Thinking of watching Bridget Jones later... can't wait for Kenneth to finish his exam... that'll be in 3 days actually. Good for me but I think he's stressing out real badly!!!

Happy Birthday Mum

Happy birthday mum!!!

Part 1 - the cake

We had a mini celebration in church first on Saturday.. together with 2 other persons who had their birthdays 1 and 2 days earlier than mum.. The one in the middle is my Pastor.. he had an ice cream cake took ages and ages and ages and ages to thaw.

Part 2 of the birthday celebration - Shopping! Mum chose a matching Tiffany Atlas ring and bracelet that looks like this... nice ya?

And part 3 - dinner at Lawry's Prime Rib.. and more cake of course.

It's been a tiring weekend for me.. back to work tomorrow. Argh... why does the weekend pass so quickly... :(

Paintball

Went to play Paintball (a game where you shoot the opponent with a gun loaded with bullets that have paint in them) with my colleagues yesterday!! There were 33 of us in total, organised by the bank's Rec club!!! The interesting thing is.. of the 33 people, there were a couple of people from outside the Bank and a couple of people who are actually not part of the Rec club... but anyway, we met at Tanjong Pagar MRT at noon and took a coach to Orchid Country Club! Seemed really far to me.. but anyhow we reached in about half an hour I reckon. It was the first time for many of us so it was a trip to the unknown...

This game, I found out, is actually quite a violent one... you go into a "battlefield", hide behind obstacles, try to aim and shoot at your opponent (if he gets hit, he has to go back to homebase before he can continue doing anything else) and prevent them from reaching their treasure box and bringing it back to their "home", while you try to also avoid their attacks and bring your treasure box "home". Whoever finishes first wins obviously. There were a lot of tactics, crossfires, and of course... shots of bullets filled in paint.

The bullets, actually hurt. And the impact is so great that it can actually go through denim jeans!! Note that these bullets are shot at distances of around 30 metres on average!!! No joke!! Here are some of the after effects...

But well, after all the pain, the abrasions, the cuts, the blue blacks, it was great fun. Though I would call this Paint & Pain Ball.

Water Sprout

For some reason.. I decided that since today is a Friday, I should change to a bigger bag. And in my bigger bag, I thought.. might as well bring my camera. And guess what.. it was such a correct decision. I caught action of the Water Sprout at around 3pm this afternoon!!! It was like a cyclone/ twister kinda thing? Looked real scary initially as I've never seen this sort of thing before. Singapore being the safe place has never, up to now, in my recollection, experienced major natural calamities and of course I hope it will remain this way.
Anyway it was quite funny after a while because everyone (or almost everyone) left their desks and started taking out the handphone cameras to capture this spectacular moment. Look at this man.....

And some candid shots of the hoo-ha in my office..

The water sprout was gone after 15 min.. so back to work...

Katong Laksa

Guess what.. after staying in Katong for almost all my life, I had the real (I think) 328 Katong Laksa today for the first time!! It's strange how you never quite eat at places near you, but always have to think real hard about where to go for lunch/ dinner. And more often than not, we will end up eating at the same old places and grumbling that Singapore is just too small. Anyway, it was a good lunch trip today. Went there with my 3 colleagues/ bosses, 3 very different individuals, 1 German, 1 American, and 1 Singaporean but all very interesting people. Listening to them talk about how they proposed to their wives, how they look after their kids, how they have worked for x number of yrs etc etc... I wonder what I will tell my juniors next time when I reach 40-50yrs old. It may seem a long time from now but hey... time flies once you start work.
Anyway, back to the Laksa, it was fantastic!!! The rojak and otah were great too! My hp camera has died so no pic for today but I guess everyone knows where 328 Katong Laksa is, so do give it a try! :-)
Ooo.. and I bought a pair of red flatties yesterday too!! Cute!

Can't trust Tommy

Look at this price tag... first thing you notice... the price is handwritten. This is the story..

I bought (now regreting) this tee from TH last Friday and there were 2 tees of this kind left on the shelf. After trying it, and without calculating the price after discount, I decided to buy it and give myself a small treat... when I was going to pay, the cashier at the counter decided to be nice and gave me the other remaining piece (maybe it was newer). After keying in everything I told him that I decided to buy the one that I actually tried. While the cashier was reversing the old one and keying in the new one, guess what, the price changed!!! The first one that he entered in was actually $79 before discount. And this one was $89. Within a span of 30 sec, I realised I had to pay more!! Well, not that I wasn't willing to pay the price.. since I already knew it was $89. But I didn't know that the other one was $79, and I mean.. if you have 2 tees left, at 2 different prices... does this mean they changed the price and therefore they had the "sale"? And the price was actually handwritten (as you can see on top).. which you know.. suggests something fishy. Well, that event totally spolit my day. It was just so unprofessional, esp for TH. I called them up the next day again and all they could do was to say sorry mam, sorry mam.... I don't know if they know how their customer, me, feels. But it is definitely not a good feeling.

I guess my image of TH has been spoilt totally.

Collage!

My first collage! Doesn't look too bad huh?

Jun and Jan found out about my new blog.. so they said I have to update it from now on... oops.

Well, can't promise that I'll update it regularly but I'll try!! :-)

It's Friday tomorrow!!!! Yeh!!!!! Weekend!!!!

Oh, and Jan actually taught me how to use a feature in my camera to reframe a picture into another picture! Wow.

Girly day out

Finally.. I must say FINALLY, Yujun and Janice were both back in Singapore at the same time. I even took leave to meet them!!! It was such a special and memorable day.. so important that I have to blog it!