i’ve got mail!

one of my besties was feeling really down the past few weeks and she confided in me. there was nothing much i could do except give her my fullest attention in the form of a listening ear whenever she needs it.

so we chatted late into the night. she poured out her troubles. i tried to console (i suck at this), gave some advice (more like sharing my own experience) and nagged and nagged (oh i’m good at this! ha).

it was like old times. been a LONG time since i’ve been on the phone for this long, talking about all sorts of different things. you know, like talking about one main issue, then deviating to something else, realise that we have gone off-track, and then go back to the main issue again… …

and surprise surprise, i received a card yesterday! a thoughtful thank you card…

so sweet right? a hand written card, sent the old fashioned snail mail way.

gal, you know who you are. thank you for the sweet gesture. you really don’t have to do this! i know we weren’t the type who could express our feelings well so we seldom chat much. but you & i both know that our friendship is rock solid. and we know each other appreciates whatever one has done for the other. i hope you don’t ever ‘need’ me anymore (you know what i mean) but if you ever do, i’m always there k.

and remember, things can only get better!!!!

woo hoo!

finally, the weekend is here. soon enough.

daytime this week has been not-so-good. received sickening news at work. i’m going to have a new boss. the big boys up there decided to give the finance organization structure a revamp and move the teams around as they wish – like monopoly pieces.

i’m pissed about the developments. and i’m even more pissed about the lack of devlepments. this time round, i am not going to sit around and mope without doing anything. i’ve already highlighted my concerns to one level and if nothing comes out of it, i am going to escalate to the next level.

the best thing out of this is that i spoke to dearest about how i felt about the whole issue and he is supportive. if things do not improve, i might just throw in the towel. i can’t always hang around and be bullied just cos the big boys think i need this job very badly right?

anyway, i know i am being ultra cryptic here and you won’t understand much of it. originally i wanted to relate the whole thing at length and then lock it up but i’m just to lazy to do that. anyway, you are probably not interested in what i have to say about my work anyway. heh.

nightime, on the other hand, was not-so-bad! on wednesday, dearest picked me up from work and we went pak-tor-ing! it’s been some time since we’ve done that. dearest was dressed very smartly that night as he went for an interview earlier and maybe he felt very executive, so we went to marina and esplanade and mingle with the working class. ha.

dinner was at the glutton bay – steamboat in individual claypot style, cooked over charcoal, plus a mini bbq! it was rather special but the slow cooking time disappointed us a little (cos we were sooo hungry!). food is alright, not exactly fantastic but not bad enough to complain about.

then we strolled under the cool breeze, hand-in-hand… it feels great! to be able to spend time with someone you love in the middle of a lousy work week. and then we did something which we’ve never done before in our 7 years together! we went to 爱琴海!

i’ve been to the music cafe before with my ex-classmates but not with dearest. and dearest had always wanted to go. most of the times when we go to marina square together, we will walk pass, think about going in but never did. this time we finally did! yeah! it was pretty enjoyable… i think we might just go back there again.

i was so pleased by the mid-week dating that i slept like really really soundly that night… and… overslept the next morning! wahahaha…

work sucks. but i’m happy when dearest is around.

meeting the old pals later! should be full of gossips and complaints later… yeah! =)

it came and went

14 August 2009 – two thousand five hundred and fifty seven days of togetherness.
it was our 7th anniversary. how time flies!
8 months ago i had imagined to myself that this day might be the day when i receive a diamond ring.
heh. the wish didn’t come true. in fact, we didn’t even celebrate the day with gifts, like what we used to do for the past 6 years.

but it’s ok! i wasn’t disappointed at all.

instead, we spent a long weekend with sheena and jackson in genting. jackson drove us all the way up, and back again! where to find such a selfless pal? so we spent most of the time gambling. wahaha…. no shopping, no rides – just eating, gambling, eating, gambling, sleeping and gambling again.

as usual dearest and i didn’t have much luck but we still enjoyed ourselves a lot.

we returned home on sunday and then at night, dearest and i went to harry’s at chjimes and watched the first liverpool match in the latest epl season. i have decided to join dearest in being a liverpool fan. hahaha… finally, like after 7 years! well, liverpool lost. but it’s ok. they are a strong team.

and today, i was on unpaid leave and dearest and i went to topone. guess what? we got ourselves like really high on martell. in the afternoon! hahaha… so we went home by evening time and crashed out.

after about 2 hours’ sleep, dearest woke up and went to the toilet. when he came back, this really hilarious conversation took place:

D: 我们的 dice 赢多少？
K： har？
D： 我们的 dice 赢多少？
K： aiya， 不要 talk cock lar
D： 我没有
K： talk cock leh
D： 我们躺在这里可以拿多少钱？

at this point in time i finally realized that dearest wasn’t joking
the conversation carried on for a little while before dearest himself realized that he was talking nonsense
and then we had a really really good laugh over this

die, my dearest is becoming a gambler! hahahaha…

another weekend which passed by too quickly

Friday 10th July

dearest set off to JB with alfred & gang and then picked me after work.
so we went to east coast park lagoon for dinner & beer
then off we went to… Marina Barrage! we wanted to go kite-flying (with a lovely huge lizard kite, courtesy of buck my colleague) but there was absolutely no wind!
what a bummer…

Saturday 11th July

a movie marathon day for dearest & me! FOC! cos we watched dvds at home.

first it was “Departures” – an academy award winning japanese drama

it was a slow movie… but dearest & i weren’t the least bored. because the story is touching. jaslyn, if you feel like dropping some tears, watch this, can borrow from me. nice and touching…

then we watched “Goal III”. dearest & i first caught Goal in the cinema and i absolutely heart Kuno Becker, so we watched Goal II on dvd which wasn’t as good as Goal, yet we still insists to watch Goal III.

but well, Goal III sucks.
firstly, Kuno Becker is no longer as handsome. because now he has hair
secondly, Kuno Becker is no longer the main lead. though his has the most exposure in the poster
thirdly, one of the main character died. just like that.

sucks. bad movie. thank god we caught it on dvd and not in the theatre.

so after 2 movie marathon, we went out to dinner and dearest braved the rain to ta-bao durians back home.

back home, we watched another movie! “12 Rounds”!

hmm… actually this is the second time we are watching this show. the first time, we fell asleep like 5 minutes into the show. it’s not a bad movie really… your typical action movie, like speed. but i have to admit i fell asleep again, and during the most exciting part! so… you can deduce for yourself how nice the show is.

so yeah… 3 movies in 1 day! wahaha… really no life huh?
it wasn’t that bad, really. lazing around at home…

Sunday 12th July

First things first.

daddy: what did you 2 eat last night?
me: huh? durians. why?
daddy: wah… damn smelly! it’s so smelly it woke me up. didn’t you hear me waking up to get air freshener?
me: LOL

funny daddy…

so dearest and i met up with jackson for some sports. i was the one who was kpo to suggest cycling followed by swimming. worse still, just as we were turning into east coast park, i suggested to cycle to changi coast road, cos it seems like the in thing to do – every now and then on the way to work i will see many cyclist along the long long road.

and i had to suffer from my words.

so we started from macdonalds. once i got seated on the bike, i knew it will be a bad ride. the seat is damn hard! butt hurts!

i won’t go into details but the ride was really really torturous. i was a bad cyclist to begin with – as in, my sense of balance is bad. i could cycle straight, but i can’t make a good turn. if i ever need to u-turn, i will need to stop and turn the bike around myself, on my legs. and i was always tensed up cos i was afraid of falling.

so, imagine a tensed up body, resulting in aching hands and wrists, cycling like… what… 10km?
ok, i dunno how long the distance is, really… but from macdonalds to changi coast road (somewhere before the changi exhibition center… i couldn’t endure far enough to changi exhibition center), and then back again… it must be like….. DAMN far, isn’t it?

anyway, i gave up. on our way back to return the bike, i gave up just before the bedok jetty. dearest had to ride his own bike and hold mine at the same time, while i walked to the food centre to wait for him to come and pick me up in his car.

wahahaha…

am i a loser or what? dearest couldn’t stand me. he thought i was being a baby. ha…
oh and did i mention that i couldn’t balance myself at one point and ended up scratching the back of my knee a little.
jackson was worse… we left him alone for a period of time cos i absolutely had to rest and i guess he was too bored alone, so he did a mini stunt to entertain himself and lost his balance and jumped off the bike. heard he scratched his leg & hand.

i think jackson will never want to cycle when i’m around. ever. hahaha…

after cycling, dearest & i went to soak in the pool at nik’s place. it was… SHIOK…

and then we met up with alfred & nik and had dinner… and then they decided to catch crabs. and guess what? for the first time, i volunteered to go home instead of joining them. tired… too tired… and my butt hurts…

i hope the gang is having fun right now… and now that i have completed this week’s task (of blogging!), maybe i can watch grey’s anatomy now? just 1 episode before i go to bed… just to satisfy my ‘craving’? yes?

yes. season 3 here i come! yippee!!!

Penang Trip – 27th to 28th June

better late than never… here comes the entry on our long awaited Penang trip.
the trip to Penang was supposed to be (at least to me) a havoc durian tasting trip. but alas… it was not meant to be. nevertheless, the 4 of us had lots of fun – with food, driving on tiny roads full of bends, and visits to temples (and… my poor useless tummy full of shit – no kidding!)

let me start off with a complaint – the next time any of you takes air asia, don’t bother to check in online and print out your boarding passes. why? because when you are at the airport, you will still need to queue up to have your passports checked, which is, fair enough… except that the queue for online check in is longer than the one for counter check in! and the dumbest thing is, after you show them the boarding pass which you have printed out, they keep the boarding passes and issue you with new ones! DUH!

random pictures taken at the changi airport, all of us still sleepy…

with advice from alfred, we decided to rent a car for our 2 days trip, and i’ll say, it was good advice! we’ve had a lot of freedom driving around, stopping as and when we feel like it to grab food, and not to mention the thrill (for the 3 drivers, not me) of driving up and down winding hill roads, which can suddenly change from 2-way lanes to 1 single lane – at a bend! wooo… that was scary (for sheena, i believe)

and here’s our car – a dark purple proton persona, and one of the drivers… heh. the indian guy at the top left hand corner was the staff from hawk-rent-a-car who was pretty friendly and had a shock when dearest took his picture.

and of course… must show you guys the FOOD!

there was penang laksa (duh… by the way this is my fav of all!), char kway teow, lor mee/prawn mee (jackson! i am very sure you ordered prawn mee, not lor mee!!), curry mee, mctucky fried everything (chicken skin, sotong, fish, chicken meat, etc), apom, oyster egg, bak kut teh, fish bee hoon, fresh tropical fruits, durian (not so good), etc… YUMMY!

we went to the toy musuem which cost us RM20 each (for non-malaysians). i was quite excited about it… until i stepped in. the whole place was a maze of display shelves with hundreds of small little toy figurines locked behind glass panels. if you ask me, it’s not worth the money. but then again, i’m not one who loves toys, so i’m not the best person to comment

and… i’m not writing this in sequence, but the first place we went after collecting the car was the snake temple. despite being given directions by the indian car rental guy, we weren’t that confident of finding the place until jackson pointed out “there! ular! ular means snake”. LOL. so we found the place.

contrary to what was shown on tv, the snake temple isn’t that huge, and doesn’t house that many snakes. but it was still quite cool because it seems like dearest is not as scared of snakes as i thought he was.

so it was a quick tour for us, some photo-taking and off we go to head to the sunway hotel.

we also visited the tropical fruit farm where i had my mini disaster of diarrhea immediately after eating the ‘fresh’ tropical fruits. so much so that i had to miss half of the guided tour. the saving grace was that the toilet has a long water hose so that i can clean myself up after every… erm… ‘burst’ (?). haha…

the uncle who was bringing us around for the guided tour was chinese, but spoke in english with an accent. on and off, the guys try to talk to him in mandarin or hokkien but he always replied in english. makes me wonder why. he wasn’t the sort to make jokes but was friendly enough to answer our questions. he was quite pissed off at another indian group who didn’t want to join in the tour though. ha…

we also went to the air hitam dam. just for fun because we were running out of places to go to

it’s like this huge reservoir with a small dam in the center. we walked all the way inside to go to the man-made waterfall, only to find that the area is off-limits

another temple visit – the reclining buddha. it was not easy finding this place. we had to stop and ask for directions a few times.

when we finally found the place and stepped in, dearest held my hand and said “do you feel it? it’s so peaceful here i have goosebumps all over me”. at that moment, i felt… touched… and held his hands tighter. he’s my love.

and another temple:

there’s a really sweet story here, but i won’t share it for now. heh…

and beaches of course!

and here’s the various busy scenes of gurney drive, the famous tourist place with all the delicious food, esp the penang laksa!

and last but not least… the place with the good bak kut teh… except that we didn’t like the taste very much…

ok ok ok… i know this entry is not exactly that exciting. but that’s because it is almost 2 am right now and i have a ferry to catch early in the morning. yes! dearest is bringing me to desaru!

got to sleep…

i survived!

this is a quick update for all the dear friends who wished me well and gave me lots of encouragement.
the op was completed in about 10 min, by 10.55am. doc says it’s a success.
dearest came and fetch me home and i slept from 1.30pm to 6pm, waking every 2 hours (dearest set alarm for me) to put eye drops as instructed.
now, i feel perfectly fine. can see very well (hope it’s 6/6, will know tomorrow), except that i’ll see some halo effect on things with lights. this is normal.

i will blog more in details tomorrow, now must let my eye rest more.

i declare it was SUCCESSFUL!!! yippeee!
Dr Lee is going to get more business after i recommend all my friends to him! wahahaha…

by the way, i saw shuwen at the clinic. wanted to see kelvin (he came to fetch her) but my eye was too stinging then to open fully, so i missed the chance.

sheena & jackson called dearest after work to see if we are free for dinner.
dearest couldn’t make it as he was rushing for a deadline.
so they came all e way down to tanah merah to pick me up for dinner!
we went to tampines for the yummy curry fish head. a
nd sheena knows i’ve been spoilt by dearest all these years, so she asked jackson to pick e fish meat for me! and then they even sent me home after dinner.
and best of all, dinner was free!

where to find such great pals??!
thank you thank you thank you!!!

————————————————

reached home and had a quick chat with daddy.
and he started telling me about stuffs which happened to his girlfriend’s daughter at work.
i tell you, the feeling sucks.
sucks beyond any description.
i always consoled myself that daddy loves me the most.
maybe i have been deceiving myself all these years?

————————————————

an unexpected announcement was made in office today
something which meant that people may lose their jobs
basically, HQ has decided to consolidate the current many regions in only 3 regions
asia pacific is to merge with middle east
what this means is that 2 regional offices will now become 1
i won’t state the obvious but one can imagine the number of redundancies that will come by soon
will i be affected? i’m not sure.
frankly, i’m not VERY worried that i will lose my job
but i’m pretty sure that i will have additional duties
well well… this is going to be one interesting year…

happy happy things!!

• celebrating 6 years and 8 months!

early in the morning, when dearest and i had our usual morning call, he said ‘happy anniversary’ to me! yippee… he remembered! hee…

 in the evening, we met for dinner as usual. but this time round we went to the newly opened tampines 1 and had japanese food! i think it’s called manpuku or something like that. it’s like marche. the food wasn’t fantastic but i quite enjoyed it… after all, it was spending precious time with dearest

after tat, we actually queued up to go into uniqlo! i saw this really cute t-shirt but dearest felt it was too kiddy for him. so after a long consideration, we didn’t buy it.

 

• bought 2 lovely dresses!

then we walked back to tampines mall (the parking is cheaper there!) and on the way i bought myself 2 dresses from ness and also a belt to go along! both blue but i really love them. total damage $221.45 *phew*

and, totally inspired by the dresses, i went home and ironed them immediately! wanted to wear one of them today but ended up wearing another dress (which is brand-new, rotting away in my wardrobe for like a year?!).

i feel pretty! hahahaha…

 

• on leave tomorrow!

i didn’t mention this before but my company has mandated a 10-day unpaid leave for staff, effective from April. On top of that, we are unable to carry our unused leaves to next year. effectively, this means that i have a total of 33 days leave to clear in the next 9 months – this is about 3 to 4 days per month!

so, basically apart from the first week of the month, i will be taking at least 1 day off every week. 4 day work week! how shiok is that? nah… it’s not shiok at all because it means i suffer a 5% pay cut every month, and is still expected to complete all my projects and deadlines anyway.

but well, looking on the bright side, i’m off from work tomorrow! and i have many activities planned…

 

• planning to perfect my eyesight!

first up! i have decided to pamper myself and go for lasik treatment!

one fine day, a colleague stopped me along the corridor and asked if i’m short-sighted. cos on somedays i’m wearing spectacles, and some days i’m not. then he asked casually why wouldn’t i go for lasik? and he shared the success stories of him and his wife who were like serious myopic before, but now enjoying perfect eyesight!

so he recommended his doctor and i did a research for feedback on dr lee hung ming and he has got fantastic reviews!

so i made up my mind and will be seeing dr lee tomorrow for my lasik evaluation, which is just a series of tests to determine whether i’m suitable for lasik. excited!!!

at the same time, i have made another appointment to see the gynae for a regular pap smear test. both doc are at gleneagles… so convenient!

 

• meeting besties!

and then… after my appointments, i’m going to meet J&J! looking forward to hearing how recharged jackie is after quitting her job and also to cheer jaslyn up! we are heading to a fren’s restuarant at bugis… yummy avocado milk, here i come!

 

• getting bonus!

and… last but not least, today i received the bonus letter from my boss! this further confirmed that i have sufficient funds to do lasik! haha… and buy a few gifts for dearest, and more! hooray!

recap of long weekend!!

on to happier things!

this is a quick recap of my long weekend… just so that my little bird brain will have something to refer to a few month, or even just days down the road.

thursday:
dearest and i had dinner around bugis area, and then we decided to ‘chill out’ at arab street
walked around arab street trying to look for a cafe which serves a huge variety of beer
read about it on hungrygowhere and always wanted to try it
BUT! as usual my little bird brain failed me. can’t recall the name of the cafe!
in the end we ended up at one of the indian coffee shops
dearest and his teh tarik, me and my ginger-o
and so we sat and people watched

friday:
went for a movie!!!
guess where? causeway point… (?!)
long story short – i booked the tickets using ms bai (in case you still dunno wat it means, it’s my e71!) and the screen was soooo small… i chose the wrong cinema.
erm…
but well, fast and furious 4 was a great show!!! love it!
after dinner (damn! i can’t recall what we had for dinner!) we went to dragonfly!

saturday:
met up for a quick lunch and then went home to laze around
during evening time, caught up with phyllis for dinner and to pass her birthday present! i bought something which exceeded her expectation by 4 times! wahahaha…

sunday:
dearest and i originally planned to climb bukit timah hill… but well… weather was good, so we slept in late. =p
instead, we went for prata (how sinful!) at telok blangah…
i tell you, the prata is fantastic! and dearest ordered teh-o halia for me! woot! spicy…
the whole afternoon was spent freezing in topone – we sang from 12noon to almost 6pm. just e two of us!

yep, that’s it, our really normal long weekend.

to dearest: thank you. for everything. you know what i mean. i really really love you…

別怕我傷心

張心傑 is my favorite contestant on the latest 星光. love his voice. he’s not handsome (in fact he’s too round!) but i think he’s quite cute (oops).

just found this performance of his today (i dun follow this season faithfully) and i love it!

i remember hearing the original version by jeff chang when i was in secondary school (hmm… sec 3 or 4?) and i loved the song so…

and i had one of my best frens teach me the words and melody – yuling, was it you? my little bird brain can’t recall things more than 10 years ago but i vaguely remember. jaslyn, you were around as well right? not sure if jackie is around though. we were at east cost park, late at night, one of those stay over night parties remember? i think we were sitting around at the hawker centre and learning the lyrics…

anyway, i hope all of you enjoy the song as much as i do.

prawn fishing!!!

dearest and i went prawn fishing with his friends!
dearest and i have been talking about trying (yeah, we’ve never done it before last time) this out for ages but never really got down to doing it. a few days ago dearest went with alfred & e gang and the next day he brought me along!

after 3 hours, and $60, we caught 15 prawns. hahaha… bloody expensive prawns..
but the experience was fun. i’ve caught 2 or 3 myself! and seeing dearest and his total concentration… it’s all worth the time and money spent.

want to go again!!!

tai tai day @ hediard

it’s friday the 13th and phyllis & i are determined to have a fun tai-tai day again.
this time round, phyllis intro-ed this french boutique cafe Hediard beside tanglin mall.

it’s a really small cafe with only about 8 to 10 tables. the entire cafe is filled with a warm ambience of red colours. i love the place – its coziness and a bit of country style setting…

when we sat down and were presented the menu, i was at a loss….
firstly, the menu was mainly in french – or maybe they were in english, but i couldn’t make out what they really mean – things like tartine, croque…
secondly, the ala-carte prices are… well a little steep. thank god for set lunches @ $29.xx nett (weekdays only)

ok ok… picture time!

the presents are belated throw in (and throw-ins to the throw-in) xmas presents.

the cute tall milk glass has a story behind it.
when we were doing our xmas shopping together last year, and was at taka looking at glasses (for her colleague), i mentioned i will love to have milk glasses cos they look so pro… so this thoughtful phyllis kept that comment in mind and bought the really cute milk glass with many little lambs for me.

only to have me tell her: “aye… i’m lactose intolerant and dun drink milk anymore”. wahaha… she rolled her eyes…

still, i love the present! i’ll make it a breakfast glass ok (orange juice, apple juice, soya milk, etc)

here’s the food! ALL of them taste GREAT!

the set also comes with red/white/rose wine, blended tea or coffee. so i chose rose wine (cos i’ve never tasted it before) and the waiter said: “sorry, we ran out of rose wine”. DUH! so i chose blended tea…

and so we carried on with our girly gossips and what not, leisurely finished the food, asked for the bill and left…

it was only when we were near borders that i suddenly exclaimed: “where’s my blended tea?!”
they didn’t serve me my tea! sigh…

and here’s the debut appearance of the mysterious phyllis – my dear friend of 12 years!!! thanks for bringing me to nice and atas places!

the place is nice, food is nice, but i can tell you, the service cannot match up to its image. what a waste.
still, i’ll head back there again and introduce to all my friends. i want to try their breakfast set some day!

after lunch we went shopping for a v-day present for dearest. it was… difficult. but in the end i managed to buy something from agnes b (something small & not so expensive)

it was one of the more successful outings that we’ve had. in the past, i run out of stamina really fast and will start to complain that i’m tired after a few hours. but this time, we walked quite a fair bit with me carrying quite a bit of weight… and i didn’t complain much. truly enjoyed the day…

when’s the next tai tai day going to be???

happy 牛 year!

now that i have completed one of my new resolution (obtain driving license), i think i need to add one more to the list – to blog more regularly!

i’m sorry, i guess i’m losing the blogging enthusiasm really quickly lately. i mean it’s like i could have blogged in length about the MayDay concert, or the Pan Mei concert, or the family dinner recently, or the shopping trip with sheena, or…. the list is pretty long actually… but i just didn’t have the mood to.

so yep, apart from the above, i’ve been erm… driving… haha… i’m still quite bad at it and worse still, picking up all the bad habits of a seasoned driver really quickly. but no worries, i’ll drive as safely as i can. hmm… doesn’t sound too convincing right? haha.

hope all of you have had a great reunion dinner tonight! me… erm, for once in my life i didn’t get to have any reunion dinner. dad went out pak-tor-ing with his gf, so i spent my evening time taking a nap. it’s alright! no complaints… though it’s indeed a little lonely, i’m actually feeling quite happy. because with this i realised that i’ve really learnt to look at everything with optimism – i didn’t feel neglected, or pathetic, or sad, or anything… i like myself like this!

ok, this i must declare – dearest has completed his studies!!! no more assignments, no more mugging! now’s the time to search for a good job, and then we’ll be on our way to action on our future! yippeeee!!! i’m proud of both of us, dearest!

on friday night, which is the last day of dearest’s school life, we went to sheena’s place for reunion steamboat! and we gave dearest a simple mini surprise birthday celebration (in advance as dearest will not be in town on his actual birthday) in the company of sheena’s friends and relatives. it’s a fun night! will love to do it again. sheena, we do this often at your house first ok! next time when i get my own apartment, it’ll be my turn to host and return the hospitality!

and then yesterday, i went out with dearest to run errands and do some last min shopping. and then caught a movie – love matters – with tracy and her boyfriend. and i must say, the movie is REALLY DISAPPOINTING. see, i’ve always been a supported of jack neo’s movies. never mind about how proud be may be (cos i don’t really care) but i like the style of his movies. his last movie was great but i seriously don’t what happened to this one. it was entertaining enough with the usual lame jokes but there was no clear message (other than men, cheating and sex) and no clear plot. so, my dear friends, you can give the movie a miss, especially when you’ve never liked his movies as much as i did. but i won’t give up on him just yet (yeah, die-hard… haha)

ok now… i’m really hungry. going to take a shower and then have my own reunion dinner – raisin bread and bak kwa… yummy!

to all my dear friends, here’s wishing you and your families a wonderful year ahead! stay healthy and happy!

countdown to 2009!

sheena invited dearest and i to lunar bar for new year countdown.
let pictures do the talking….

sheena was quite high and kept telling me how she’s happy to find a friend in me. i’m like shy to say it… but… sheena, i’m thankful for you too! i’m sure you know it…. hee…

i’m back

i’m sorry i haven’t blogged for a few days!
the week has been a blur with many activities lined up…

so on sat dearest woke me up to bring me for good old breakfast at CMC and then i accompanied dearest to njc for a soccer frenly. then i went for a class gathering – DHS 4K! and we had crazy fun playing wii & texas holdem all the way till 3am!

on sunday we skipped our usual badminton session and instead joined a silly young crowd togetehr with Tracy at the central, queuing for MayDay concert tickets. it was an experience – something which we hope we wouldn’t have to experience again. number tags were supposed to be issued at 11am, tickets issued at 2pm. we reached there at 9.30am and the crowd was already very huge. so we had to brave the hot sun and waited for 4 to 5 hours for the tickets.

the concert will be held on 4th Jan, and we will have to queue again (for good positions – can’t say seats cos it’s ‘free standing’, not free seating). argh… why can’t MayDay just SELL the tickets? i’ll gladly pay for them… haha

after getting the tickets, it was queensway then sunshine plaza then bugis junction… and finally? back to jackson’s home – for a game of texas hold’em, followed by MAHJONG! hahaha… dearest decided to pick up mahjong and so i am also learning along…

on monday, i called in sick due to sore eyes and slept the whole day. basically wasted the day away and the only thing i gained was lighter dark circles…

on tuesday, i was on leave and joined dearest, alfred & nicholas for lunch. after lunch, guess where we went? to alfred’s house… for… a game of mahjong! haha… then we rushed off to sengkang for badminton.

oh, badminton was interesting that night. because dearest suggested to switch partners, so dearest and sheena played as a team and competed against jackson & i. it was really awkward for me cos i wasn’t sure how to pair up with jackson. but it was great fun cos the game became so much competitive and we are jeering at each other. and the result? jackson & i won 3 games! woohoo! and the best thing was, dearest actually complimented me and said that for the first time, he realises that i actually play quite well! *proud* LOL

and finally, guess what we did after badminton (which ended at 9 plus)? we went to nicholas’ house. to play texas hold’em.

so ahem… towards the end of 2008, i declare that both keith & kerensa have been upgraded to ‘gamblers’!

tis e season to be jolly

lalalalala lalalala~~~

and so we sang along as we walked from the void deck of jackson’s home to our car. not before exchanging xmas presents with sheena & jackson!

we don’t celebrate xmas. in fact, i dislike crowds so i will avoid places like orchard where at the stroke of midnight, overzealous strangers will spray white foam at other strangers. *duh*

but i kinda enjoy buying presents for friends. it can be a real headache at first, but when you finally decide on the present, the joy and satisfaction is great!

presenting my xmas presents from frens…

but before that… a quick vain picture of alice & me… hehehe

and now the presents proper…

all the presents are so lovely…
i’ve been having a little interest in new scents lately and sheena got me envy me, a scent which both dearest and i like! the series of 5 books are specifically requested by me, and the lovely ckc book was something phyllis and i chanced on when we were shopping for each other’s presents. the book reminds me of ben ben… and dearest’s sister bought me a present too! it’s a huge soup bowl with a huge spoon! so sweet…. i think i’m going to use it to eat cornflakes…
and of cos, all the other sweet presents from jackie (crystal earrings & necklace), alice (PM jewellery box) and judy (bodyshop shower gels).

so… where’s my present from dearest?

i kept telling dearest there is no need to buy anything for me because i have nothing in mind that i wanted. but i was planning to buy something for him if i can find something that he would like. but then dearest said the sweetest thing to me: “let’s not waste money on presents for each other. we should be starting to save up for our wedding”. and my heart melted and felt all warm and fuzzy. yipppeee….

but… to make up for the lack of presents, we are going to batam tomorrow! i’m so touched that dearest actually planned for the trip and made all the arrangements. we are going pak-tor-ing tomorrow!

merry christmas everybody! have lots of fun & laughter!!!

Angel

one of my fav english songs, and one of the rare english songs which i can sing fairly ok and not turn it into a hokkien-sounding song.

absolutely love the “soulfulness” of the song.

first heard the song by Freya Lin Fan, and later Westlife. Original singer is Sarah McLachlan. Beautiful voice…

enjoy…

Spend all your time waiting
for that second chance,
for a break that would make it okay.

There’s always some reason
to feel not good enough,
and it’s hard, at the end of the day.

I need some distraction,
Oh, beautiful release.
Memories seep from my veins.

Let me be empty,
Oh, and weightless,
And maybe I’ll find some peace tonight.

CHORUS:
In the arms of the angel,
fly away from here,
from this dark, cold hotel room,
and the endlessness that you feel.

You are pulled from the wreckage,
Of your silent reverie.
You’re in the arms of the angel,
may you find some comfort here.

So tired of the straight line,
and everywhere you turn,
there’s vultures and thieves at your back.

The storm keeps on twisting.
Keep on building the lies
that you make up for all that you lack.

Don’t make no difference,
escape one last time.
It’s easier to believe in this sweet madness,
Oh, this glorious sadness,
that brings me to my knees.

REPEAT CHORUS

You’re in the arms of the angel,
may you find some comfort here.

a ful-”filling” start to the weekend!

a couple of weeks ago this conservation took place between me and daddy:

D: why are you still at home, can go to work so late?
K: today my company is announcing retrenchment namelist.
D: oh, will you be affected?
K: nope! *confidently*
D: aye seh! (in hokkien)

LOL. isn’t my daddy funny? i was very amused by his reaction. me and daddy is always like that, talking like friends.

on friday, i took half day leave and when i reached home:

D: take half day again ah? you not worried you will get retrenched ah?
K: aiyah, won’t one lar…
D: hng! (basically he thinks i’m too full of myself. LOL)

moments later…
D: you waste money ah… always take leave to come home and sleep.

well, the truth is, i took leave so that i can doll up and join dearest and his friends for a sumptuous buffet dinner at Ritz Carlton. it’s a pre-celebration for Alfred’s birthday.

it’s a pretty pricey dinner @ $76 nett after 10% discount with HSBC credit card. but it’s got a good spread of seafood.

now… let the pictures do the talking…

don’t you absolutely love the seafood spread? there’s actually a lot more variety than this but i didn’t try them because i wanted to save the stomach room for seafood and seafood and more seafood! love the oysters and flower crab! yummy! and the desserts were not bad too. but we had too much seafood and couldn’t fully enjoy the desserts. oh, and the shitty looking thing is tiramisu… my FAV!

throughout the dinner, all of took many photos… some decent, some really cheeky!

couple #1

couple #2

getting all excited before the feast starts

 and now… some silly antics during half-time

the gay pose

i’m gonna kill you

let’s kiss and make up

hi… see we sooo cute?

alfred say: hng… i can also be very cute

sexy!

and i’m the little bunny….

eeeww… so gross i dun wan to see!

YES! we have finally conquered everything!

 

and now… the main ‘attraction’ of the day:complimentary cake from Ritz Carlton

*i wish i find a pretty girlfriend soon…*

and that’s the end of our wonderful buffet dinner.
you won’t believe how many tables are celebrating birthdays! one after another, the different shapes, sizes and flavours of cakes just keep being dished out from the kitchen. every 5 to 10 mins, the live music will play the birthday song. strange.

and soo… it’s the xmas season again! so how can we not take pictures with the xmas tree?! haha

and yup.. that’s it…
straight after dinner, the dearest ran off to the loo… haha… ate too much.
and for me, i didn’t sleep well the whole night because i woke up every hour to pee!
i didn’t know that eating seafood will increase urine amount!
no more buffet for me for a long time….

sentosa here we come!

yippee!! in another half hour, dearest is bringing me and the doggies to sentosa! together with alfred, jason and audrey…

my doggies are now frantically barking away because we have leashed them and they know that this means they are going for an excursion!

and we ordered 933 golden pillow curry chicken bun to go along…

yeah yeah yeah!!!

looong weekend

yippeee! it’s the long weekend… no work on Monday because of deepavali!
and no work for me on Tuesday too because i’m on leave!
WOOHOO!

it was double date again on Friday after work.
we went to dinner at T3 – sakae teppanyaki and then headed to a thai disco at city plaza.

ordered a bottle of martell. martell plus green tea is my best drink – i can hold this drink really really well.
unless i had the wrong food before drinking.

and oh man did i had the wrong food.
5 glasses later i do not feel even a bit high but i had to make my way to the toilet and induce puking.
i felt so bloated!

and i puked. lots of brown liquid and guess what… lots of garlic.

i’ve always suspected that too much garlic causes indigestion for me. and i think i proved it then.
everything in the teppanyaki meal (except the chawanmushi) is prepared with garlic – lots of them.

i was convinced that garlic was the culprit but i couldn’t really understand why.
i did a search online and saw that it’s been documented that garlic causes indigestion! well, i still dunno why, but at least i’m assured that i’m not strange and troublesome who is ‘allergic’ to garlic.

in the midst of my ‘research’, i also found the answer to why i feel bloated with coffee or tea with milk, but not so with black coffee or black tea. the answer is: BOTH caffeine and milk causes indigestion. thus when combined, one gets bloated more easily. oh, and peppermint can cause indigestion too! no wonder because if i drink peppermint tea, i feel bloated too.

so, must be disciplined and avoid these foods in future!

wanted to write more but i’m dozing off… need to wake up 5 hours later to book badminton court, so better turn in now… night…