December!

Woo hoo! The last month of the year has arrived!

I am soooo looking forward to my new home.

Completed the last (almost) of purchases last weekend with homeware and kitchenware, knives, utensils, containers for: rice, sugar, salt, flour, corn flour, spices, oil, sesame oil etc etc.. Very happy now! The reno is also proceeding smoothly. Heard that it can be completed by christmas!

Finally had time to relax last saturday - went cycling in the morning with jo & co!! Nice sunny morning! Followed by a sumptous dim sum lunch. That's a good start to a weekend isnt it? This weekend there's a wedding lunch to attend, and we've to pay up for the rest of the furniture that will be delivered soon. So some running around to do. And on sunday, church, followed by another sumptous dim sum lunch at dong hai (east sea) at shaw. Quite obvious that I have cantonese in laws.. but dim sum is one of my fav, so not a problem with me.

Talking about weddings, I counted.. I already have 9 to attend next yr.

1 in Jan

2 in July

2 in Oct

2 in Dec

2 dates not revealed

Think this garden looks good for a summer garden wedding :-)

Happy happy

Renovation is proceeding smoothly (i hope). I havent seen what the contractor has done to my home over the last 3 days. Heard that they have started hacking the tiles. It's a good sign.. means that they have started work! We have bought most of the stuff needed for our home too, - dining table
- book shelf
- extra drawers
- everything in the toilets
- cooker stove & hood
- sofa
- chose tiles for toilet and kitchen
Tomorrow we will be going down to check out the status of our home and how many lights we need to buy so that's a task for sunday afternoon.
Realised during this time that I am definitely not as detailed as kenneth. He measured every single part of the house in every room every space- height and width included - which was useful in calculating how much the tiles would cost (charged psf).
Fingers crossed.. the reno would be completed by the end of the year. Really looking forward to that day!

Meantime, the financial crisis is hitting us hard. Reading bad news every day. Today there were talks about citi merging wif another financial institution. Scary! Can you believe it.. the share px is less than US$5!?! Everything is tumbling.

Besides work and reno, am happy that jun is back in Singapore. We managed to meet up quite a few times so far.. let me see. We had dinner at astons once, rgs reunion, togi dinner, swimmers' meeting, and 1 more time at parkway. Quite funny listening to the conversations that jj and kenneth have.. from banking, to experiences in the surgical theater, to national geographic. Haha. :-)

OK i shall update again soon..

Renovation

Things to do:

A. Living Room
1
Supply & install TV cabinet cum back drop panel for LCD in selected laminated finish
2
Supply & install full height cabinet for utilities @ Dining
3
Supply & install mirror at Dining
4
Reposition living room aircon

B. Master Bedroom
1
Supply & install master room full height PVC head board
2
Varnish wardrobe (no change in door) and change hinges

C. Bedroom 2 (next to master bedroom)
1
Supply & install study table cum full height bookshelf in selected laminated / veener finish
2
Varnish wardrobe (no change in door) and change hinges

D. Study Room (next to kitchen)
1
Supply & install full height wardrobe in selected veneer finish

E. Kitchen & Baths (1&2)
1
Supply labour & tool to hack existing wall/floor tiles, sanity fittings, vanity long bath etc.
2
Supply & apply waterproofing with level screed
3
Supply & lay selected wall tile include sand and cement screed
4
Supply & lay selected floor title include sand and cement screed
5
Supply & install vanity counter with bottom cabinet and top solid surfaces (basin & tap etc by owner)
6
Labour to install watercloset, basin, tap shower set. Etc supply by owner.
7
Supply & install mirror with glass shelving at Bath 1
8
Supply & install glass shelving at Bath 2
9
Supply & replace all water and discharge pipe within Bath and Kitchen
10
Supply & install kitchen cabinet top & bottom, top with solid surfaces (black granite top) and finishes in selected laminate/ veneer
11
Hack low wall (next to window) and extend kitchen cabinet (bottom) to the end of the kitchen.

General
1
Supply & install 1000mm height shoe cabinet at Entrance (about ~200mm above the ground)
2
Supply sand & varnish to 3 nos Bedroom
3
Supply machine to polish existing marble
4
Provision sum for alter and reposition socket, switches etc.
5
Replace aircon pipes and replace 3 nos air-con to bedrooms (Brand - Toshiba Inverter Sys 3, RAS 3M 20 SACV)
6
Replace main door and wrought iron main gate lock set
7
Varnish all 8 doors in the house (1master, 2bed rms, 1 kitchen, 2 toilets, 1 storeroom, 1 main door) and change hinges if necessary
8
Paint the whole house

My office space

Been so tired recently with a lot of things like meeting up with friends, planning reno, meeting contractors etc etc.... haven't had time to sit down to clog the interesting things in my life. Let's start with my work. My office space has been interesting not only because of the upheaval in the financial markets, the crashes, the bailouts, the capital injections, the plunging exchange rates.. but because i get the see the terrible construction going on outside and all around my building. Here's what it looks like.. TOTAL MESS! It's worse when they are digging (my building vibrates), when it rains (looks like poo) when the are piling (terribly noisy).. and worse of all, it takes forever.

With all the stress at work, comfort food is a must. My favourite is almond cream!!! Not many places sell nice smooth authentic almond cream. I am glad there are 2 near my office that are really yummy and handy when I am feeling down. Absolutely love it. Doesn't it look good? (ok, i know some people cant stand the taste or smell.. but it's one of my fav, besides ice cream)





And of course, you cannot miss out the daily dose of caffine.

Life is tough as a working adult.. need to pamper myself. But then again, I have so many things to save for these days like repaying my home loan, saving for renovation, saving for my israel trip, saving for the red packets of the people getting married (already 8 on my list for 2009).. and the occassional baby shower presents. This is a life of a 26-yr old in singapore.

Back to SF

Finally we're back in SF!

Stayed at a really nice and conveniently located hotel at the union square, which serves free wine and cheese with biscuits from 530-730 everyday. Awesome!! The first hotel we stayed at was a kimpton hotel that also served wine.. but i prefer boutique hotels with 20+rooms.. find it a lot more cosy. The service is better too! 

So anyway, we went on a wine tour to Napa and Sonoma valley.. went past a golf course that was called CHAMPAGNE golf course! Can you believe it? Anyway the scenary was great, and the sun was a lot brighter than in SF though it's only a 1hr drive away. 

More pictures during the wine tour..

Oh by the way, we only came back with 2 bottles of wine, whereas we shipped half a dozen to my sis for her birthday. Too mean to myself?

The next day we went to the SF bay bridge - see the fog in the picture. I could hardly see the bridge!! I think I only managed to see to abt half the height of the bridge. There's this perpetual fog in SF so this is quite normal. 

At the bay we came across this ship/tanker used in WW2 and decided to visit it. Turned out to be quite interesting also as they were showing us what the ship was used for during the war, what went inside the engine room etc. Didn't help that I was not a history student... but pictures taken were still worth while. Apparently it's 1 of the 2 boats that didn't sink during the war... mmmm...

Alcatraz island tour took another day. This was an eye opener. It's an old prison (shut down a couple of decades ago) used as a museum now. We can only get there by boat (and there's only 1 company offering the boat service!!) and guess what... we missed our boat cos we were too slow to get out of the hotel. Almost thought we had to write off the US$50 ticket but thankfully we managed to squeeze on to the next boat. 

That's about all for the honeymoon. 17days, 16nights, 7 hotels, 5 places. Seen nature, history, culture, people, the beach, tried different food... no regrets for the big hole in my pocket. :-)

 

Las Vegas

Fifth Stop - Sin city

Finally, we took a FLIGHT instead of a bus or train. And next destination - Las Vegas!!

Stayed at one of the hotels along the Strip and upgraded for $50 a night to a room on the 33rd floor with a HUGE bathroom and a jacuzzi (top left pic in collage), which was very useful cos Las Vegas is quite boring during the day except for all the shopping centres and pretty architecture and themes. It's way way way too hot to walk outside by the way. Ghiradelli chocolate ice cream was the highlight of the day... it's sooooo yummy and but it's a little too big so I felt really full after eating it. At night we watched Ka (Cirque de Soleil) which was really nice! In the end, Las Vegas turned out to be a place where we did quite a bit of shopping for myself (clothes) and for the home (quite a bit of decorative items).. which added to the load in our luggage. 

Fourth stop

Los Angeles!! Our hotel this time was also a very nice one (this is the 8th one in the last 2 weeks), quietly tucked inside a residential area off Sunset blvd. We had strawberrys with chocolate for a welcome gift and a note + dinner voucher from my sister. How sweet! 

Le Montrose

Santa Monica beach

Did a sand bath for my feet

Universal Studios Hollywood! Although it's my 3rd or 4th time here by now but many things have changed.. still enjoyable after all! 

Santa Barbara

Ok I'm back.. really bad updating my posts.. so where was I?

Third stop: Santa Barbara

I really LOVE this place. It's a small town and everything is so serene. The beach is great, weather was fantastic.. and so was the food and the hotel. Absolutely no complains. 

We went on a whale watching cruise, did cycling, sat on the beach, walked around town.. RELAXED! 

Reaching SB by train

Cycling & enjoying the coastline

Fine weather!

Our hotel - very petite place

The food! Look at those gorgeous scallops (top left)!!!

Let's catch up

Finally down with some time to blog. 

It's been a hectic 2 months after getting married, too busy enjoying myself in HK and US.. and back to work immediately. Finally had some time today to look at my honeymoon pics. 

First stop: San Francisco

A lovely place with a lovely weather. The hotels were great too, with their free wine and cheese selection every day. We were at SF for 3 nights on our first stop, stayed at one of the Kimpton hotels so needless to say it was great. Furthermore they had really cool tiger-striped bathrobes and bedrooms slippers. Coolest ever that I have seen. Located along 5th St, it was real convenient to get onto the tram to the bay. Of course, like all tourists, we queued about an hr to take the tram too. 

Second stop: Yosemite

This is one of our fav stops. No doubt it was hot (it is summer), waterfalls were "leaking" with water instead of free-falling - if you know what i mean- and we didnt have a car so we couldnt go around to other parts of the park. BUT it was wonderful. We stayed at a lodge facing the mountains.. breathtaking, esp in the morning. During the day we were walking around enjoying the scenery and the wonder of creation. Really really really nice. I would say it's even nicer than Canadian Rockies. 

Gtg now.. continue another time..

Super cute present

I know I'm 26 this year but this wedding gift is sooo cute! 

All the way from Disneyland USA from my bro Lionel. 

Album

Went to collect the photo album/ collage today. This one is done by the both of us. I think we put in about 10hrs or more just to choose the pics, the colours, the borders, the background, the words, the spacing, the alignment... everything from scratch. But we're really happy with the results. It's the effort that makes the result even sweeter I guess. We included wedding pictures as well as non-wedding pictures just to make it more unique. The album has 30 pages, of which 6 are non wedding pics. We also tried not to repeat the pics that are used in the "official" album that the official photographer is putting up for us.

Birthday

7 July 2008. Kenneth turns 29. And it's 19 days to our wedding.. a time to celebrate!! 

Birthday celebration this year was just a simple dinner yet one of the best dinners we've ever had in terms of both quality of food and service. And I'm really happy cos I managed to keep it a secret from Kenneth so he was pleasantly surprised. :-) I planned the menu for the evening and had it all ready and set for the night. 

Birthday Present from me - Lemon Poppy Cake

Dinner started off nicely with a cosy ambience and nice wine. 

Followed by a nice birthday "cake" 

Next year's birthday will be something different again.. looking forward to every year together. 

When we were young

One of the good things about uploading pictures onto an online album is that you can easily find pictures from the good old days.. and to see how quickly time has passed. The picture below was taken in one of the gardens in ntu.. probably in 2003/4.. I think we look so... young and full of energy?!?! Work is really sapping the energy out of us now.  

1 1/2 more months..

Janice has decided to give HK a miss... so it seems from her Facebook status..  I hope she's still coming back to Singapore though!!! Well.. another 6+ more weeks to the wedding.. kinda getting into the mood and getting all set up. Actually it's more or less done I think except for my invitation cards.. haven't printed the map of the church yet. Purchase of house has been completed so I'm officially the owner of a new home! It's a bit anti climax still cos I can't live in it just yet. But it's a good feeling.. yet at the same time my CPF account is literally zerorised.... all my 4 yrs of hard work.. (gosh, 4 yrs already?!?!). Time really seems to fly. It's June already and I almost feel as though 2009 is just a sniff away. Every day seems to be a busy day.. get up, rush to work, attend meetings/ write reports/ discuss cases, have a good lunch (that's always the highlight of the day), back to work, try to leave before 8pm, go for dinner, laze around at home and it's time to check mail/ chat on the phone.. before it's bedtime again. Weekends are packed too. 

Last sat I attended my cousin's wedding at My Humble House, which was quite a different experience from the usual wedding dinner at the usual kind of hotel ballroom. Besides the nice ambience and nice furniture, I found, most impressive of all, the "wedding cake" that was actually a mountain of eclairs/cream puff, each with some words or designs!!! That was seriously quite unique!!! As compared to most other hotels with a half fake cake.. this could be shared with everyone and it was really nice.  

And my schedule for this sat... dentist in the morning, going to my bridal studio in the afternoon to get ken's vest done, and in the evening I'm meeting my wedding coordinator to sort out the program and all the who's doing what. On sunday it's church as usual, bible class, then collecting my new house keys, followed by a wedding dinner (yet another one) in the evening. 

Life is such a hussle and bussle some times... Need to stop for a cuppa coffee sometimes..

9 more weeks

Counting down... 9 more weeks to go before the big day!! Getting all excited!

Have sorted out most stuff, finally got the soft copy of all the wedding pictures taken last month. Next week there's food tasting (yummy), going down to the lawyer's to complete the house transaction.. and then I probably will have to start finalizing my guest list and sending the cards out!!! And Yujun has just confirmed that she will be coming to the wedding dinner in HK!!! Yippee!!! Jun, got to tell u first, the wedding invite is in chinese! So I guess I have to address it to YuJun and JunJie? Signed off by MingEn and ZhiYang? Sounds weird. Haha. Anyway, happy happy... going to see Jan too in July too!!!... wonder if we'll take more silly pictures... or maybe more cool and relaxing ones like the one here :-)

Back from Perth

Came back from a real good holiday last night!!! It was quite an eventful week.. Perth wasn't that boring actually and in fact I think the place is nicer each time I go. It was my 3rd time to Perth in 6 yrs and most people think I'm crazy to go back there again and again, and this time I did not even drive (which is almost unthinkable to Australians). But it didn't turn out that way. I realised the secret. First of all, choose a good weather. Secondly, you have to go with a relaxed mind, see the flowers, listen to the birds, cycle round swan river, eat gelare ice cream, whop up the all famous apple strudel, go for a nice breakfast (i.e. waffles and cappuccino), drink wine after dinner and watch Federer vs Nadal in the Hamburg Masters title, go into little spice shops or home decor shops and think about what would be nice for your home, drink smoothies and grab a snack or two from croissant express along the way... and yeah, just take it easy! I realised that Perth is not too bad after all except that things can be quite expensive. Yeah it's quite small but it's ok, at least it's not jammed packed and crowded. Anyway, so much for my hols.... you get what I mean. Can't write too much today cos it's getting kinda late. To be continued.. oh wait, actually I realised my friend Liling has posted quite a number of our pics on her blog. You can check it out too via the link on the left. 

Stolen

Sigh sigh.. after all my effort to make the cheesecake on Saturday, I brought the cake (in slices) to the office yesterday, left them in the pantry fridge in the morning.. and when I went to retrieve them at 430pm... half the box was EMPTY!!!!!!!!! Someone stole my cheesecake!!!!!!!!! Argh. So upset man. It was so much hard work getting the cake done and someone just took it without asking. So rude!!! Must be those *n****s!! Too many of them on my floor and they visit the pantry most often.. whether for talking, snacking, lunch, high tea, after work.. oh well. It was a bad day.. i was so upset after that man. Haiz. Can't people tell that only plain water and milk is FREE? And even though I did not double wrap my box, or use some kinda black box, or label that it's mine, doesn't mean it's free??!?! Duh. Anyway, terrible la.

Here's my cake from the side. Looks a bit flat. I think the strawberries are in wrong proportion that's why. But yummy yummy.. 

On a brighter note, I'm off to Perth next monday with my jc friend Liling! It's super free and easy but we've booked like 4 day trips (cos she cant drive and my mum refuses to let me drive alone) so no choice. To most people it's unbelievable not to drive in Perth but I guess it's not too bad. I'll try and let you know. I think i'll miss home during this one week but it's just for fun anyway - first time traveling alone with a gal friend. 

It's thursday tomorrow.. another free dinner from office cos some overseas colleagues are down for a workshop. Quite nice to get free treats once in a while in nice restaurants at the expense of the bank! Something to look forward to! :-)

And lastly.. counting down to 9June when I get my keys!!!  And 1 more week before I get the soft copy of my pre wed pictures which we viewed last week! Nice nice. At least something to look forward to in life!

Holiday tomorrow!

It's the last day of April today! Poof! 1/3 of the year is gone.

 

Tomorrow's a public holiday.. cant wait to savour every second of it. 

I had free tix to watch Iron Man but decided to give them away cos Kenneth has to study for his exam and I think he's been lazing around too much. Guess I'll spend some time cleaning up my room or making brownies... hmm... or maybe try cheesecake.. something different. 

Actually to think about it, I'm going to Perth with my jc girlfriend in a couple of weeks time.. or 1.5 weeks to be exact. Just the 2 of us.. a random decision made a while ago during dinner because we felt we had been procrastinating for a long time. And it's probably not going to happen after I get married so.... we decided to just go ahead! But to think of it now.... Not sure what we are going to do there for 7 full days (which many have advised a wee bit too long) but tickets have been booked so we're just going to go along with it. Hotels have been booked but we need to look out for things to do now.. although I know everything closes at 5pm there. Gosh, i think i'll be in bed by 9pm every night else I have to bring some dvds there to watch. 

Meantime, counting down to the 26th July.. it's less than 3 mths away!!! Happy happy. And Janice will be back again (yeah!!) and Yujun will be back for good after that too (yeah!!). Wow, a good 2/3 of the year to look forward to!!

To make my day.. hopefully it'll be a bright sunny day tomorrow (like this one on Mt Faber!)!