Sianz

Went for facial on Friday which effectively means tt my whole weekend will be plagued by crappy skin. Considering how much I’m spending on facial, I’m expecting that the problem will be solved, and not be aggravated. Am quite pissed and running impatient…

So ended up spending more money on my stupid face during the weekend, this time on oral supplements. Am praying tt they work, cos I have like less than a month left? The focus now is on calming all the irritating big outbreaks, the rest can be covered by makeup for the big day, then later must spend even more money treating the problem at the root. Arghz.

Friday was made even more crappy cos after suffering at the hands of the facialist, I go home to find that my laptop is no longer working thanks to my stupid idiot cat who had to go run around and knock the table down, bringing my laptop crashing to the floor. It can no longer start, with error message stating there’s some cable failure. Which according to my IT friends, means some form of hard disk failure. =(

Following my LCD screen crack in dec 07, I pestered TJ to get me a portable hard disk drive so I can back up all my stuff. But because of procrastination and an overall dread to handle all stuff electronic, it was left unused and untouched. So I’m even more upset, faced with the possibility that ALL my data will be gone, including all my lovely photos I’ve collected over the years =(

And now, I just realize that my ideal cupcake design is complicated and maybe can’t be made =(

Severe Monday blues…

Life Lessons

TJ and I have been attending this marriage preparation course conducted by Focus on the Family (the Singapore affiliate) every Tuesday evening for the past 4 weeks. One more week to go before we “graduate”. It’s a group session, where 6 couples sit down and listen to this old, recently retired couple talk about their life, love, marriage and anything under the sun. Many many tips from them, including marriage, financial and life lessons…

Looking at them, I’m very inspired to be like them, to have a strong relationship, to have an open, loving relationship with their children, to live life happy, knowing that they’ve led the life that they wanted, and have no regrets…

Which brings me to examine my own life. I’m happy relationships-wise, very excited that I’m going on this long life journey with TJ, family and friends are also supportive and caring. But I guess there’s still this big hole about what I really wanna do with my life, career-wise. I feel like I’m stuck in a rut, I surf net everyday, shop online, chit chat with friends, totally no motivation… The money is alright though, and the friends are great. Just that I’m getting too comfortable here, and that’s totally scary.

What do you want to do with your life?

2 years on

“Celebrated” my 2nd anniversary working in my company yesterday. Guess time just flies even if you don’t enjoy what you do, and I must say that it’s primarily due to the crazy bunch of friends I’ve made, and the little perks here and there.

Was slightly disappointed with the bonus announced, while the quantum is quite large, it was totally off the “canteen talk” amount, which was hard to understand ‘cos our profits increased by damn a lot, but somehow, it appears that selling off assets is still the best way for staff to earn more money.

Oh well, new colleague is here, she seems nice and eager to learn, but I’m lazy to teach her cos she’s only here for 2 mths plus to serve her notice period… She wanted to transfer here, but before the transfer occurred she decided to do MBA, so she tendered, and serving 3 months notice here, which makes it difficult for me to really pass her stuff to do…

Maybe it’s time to start looking for options

the LS girl

Cambodia was a good trip, with Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh and the fun massage/pedicure sessions w the girls... not to mention the bear sanctuary! for photos, you can check out my facebook...

alas, have been suffering from diarrhoea ever since I returned from Cambodia, which I found out later that I was suffering from Bacillary Dysentery, thank goodness there's no bloody diarrhoea or what not, but the number of times I can visit the toilet a day is no joke. not to mention I just received a call from MOH to check what did I eat to kena this, and the guy sounded quite relieved that I'm an "imported case"... guess this means less investigation on their part...

in the meantime, the LS continues as I miss out on all the fun and yummy food =(

on a brighter note, this is a surefire way of losing a hell lot of weight

Orh-bi Good

Orh-bi good

Meaning: Serves you right

Usage: See lah, tell you don't eat the curry already cos it's spoilt, then you eat already diarrhoea. Orh-bi good.

Term often used with a arms clucking motion...

Definition posted here 'cos I happen to know some people who don't know what this term means!

Advice?

Basically somehow I was talking to boss about my wedding plans next year… So he asked whether this will coincide with the “busy” period at work, fair enough…

Next morning, he called me bright and early asking me whether I was free to go in to discuss something with him. Then he started to ask me stuff like this: (Items in brackets represent what I was thinking)

Background: A few days ago boss was discussing with big boss on job rotation plans for me… and boss just got married in Dec 07, which is not too long ago.

Boss: OK let me ask you something, have you been together with your bf for at least 21 days 24/7?
Me: (Huh this is a weird question). Nope, we did go on holidays before, about 14 days longest.
B: Hmm 14 days not long enough you know? First week everything is nice and rosy cos you’re on holiday, only after 14 days will the bad habits start to show and can annoy you… even small things like squeezing toothpaste can irritate people and break a marriage
Me: Erm ok… (I’ve probably been through a lot more with bf than you w your wife [the whole China accident thing], so what business have you questioning my decision to get married?)
B: Then ok this is not really about religion, but what religion are you? And your bf?
Me: Erm we’re both free-thinkers (this is not technically true but easier to explain)
B: Ok then you both won’t have any issues w religion, but basically cos wife and me are Catholics, we have to attend a marriage preparation course before marriage, and we found it very useful, you should attend.
Me: (This is a good tip) Yah, bf and I are looking at attending such courses (as in we’re trying to find a good one to attend)
B: Yah, cos marriage is a big thing, need to take one year to adjust, are you sure you still want a job rotation next year? You’ll still need to move into new home, plan for wedding, and adjust to living together…
Me: (ok I think my personal stuff should remain personal) Yes I still want rotation cos I think I can cope, plus moving into the new home will be done in 2008, and we have planned enough buffer time for the wedding banquet so we can take our time to prepare…
B: Are you sure? Cos marriage is a big thing… even wife and me, when we first moved in together there was a lot of adjustments to do, even after the marriage preparation course… … …
Me: Yes I still want the job rotation… (Why he telling me that his problems with his wife?)


The discussion ended soon after, I had no questions for him and basically it was him talking most of the time and me feeling v uncomfortable with him firstly questioning my intention to get married, and also me discussing personal plans with him… sigh…

goodbye...

very stressed this week, what with the tons of stuff happening at work, and the need to take leave on friday didn't make the situation at work better... just cos my mum decided on a whim to change the date of moving house to this week instead of next. then after i come home from work dead tired, i still have to pack my stuff...

packing 20 years of stuff is not easy... too many things of sentimental value get dugged up, and have to be thrown away because there simply is too much stuff and not enough place at the new home...

it was a chore, until it hit me tdy when i was on the bus home, tt this will be like the 2nd last night i'll sleep in LHP, the place i've called home for the past almost 20 years, and i started getting all emotional and melancholy... it isn't easy leaving this place, the convenience of it, the tons of memories, and the lovely neighbourhood... not to mention all the yummy food at chomp chomp...

suddenly someone came to my place and took jewel away... jewel, my dog of almost 10 years, whom i have a love-hate r/s with as she bit tj the first time they met... but tj and jewel have made peace... and it was just so sad seeing her go... she was just so understanding, didn't bark at all, just sat there looking sad... it's like she understood that we had to give her away as she was just way too big for the new place... and from the looks of it, it seems she'll be happier in her new place, a fish farm at choa chu kang... where she'll have lotsa company and be happier (i hope) running around a huge new home... but it just doesn't seem right looking out to the backyard and not hearing her running over to lick my hand...

i'll miss LHP and all the memories...

CNY 2008

CNY was a blast, but i ate way too much, and gained 2kg just over 3 days!

didn't manage to mahjong too, but it was great just catching up with family and friends.

and yah, i learnt how to make homemade yu sheng (made it so many times tt i was getting quite sick of yu sheng)

took one day leave on Monday tgt with yun, ade and tj. and decided to go sentosa to get a tan! since jk was also on leave, he came along as the v nice designated driver

my fave photo over this CNY:

ok we both need more work at the gym and need to get a better tan too!

I am your brother

ok watched this on American Idol. Hillarious!

"I am your brother, we're best friends forever!"

another great weekend

great weekends are classified by some level of planning, great company and food, and of course my darling TJ...

Cheryl treated us to fish steamboat at Whampoa to celebrate her first paycheck. Spent 1 hr waiting for the food, but it was fun just chit chatting with my family... Following that it was mahjong back at TJ's and erm yah i kinda won quite abit (of chips, we dun play money)

Saturday was our turn to treat Chalene and Cheryl, pasta waraku, desserts at azaru sabo (i hope i didn't screw up the name). Following that we rushed down to parkway for a game of pool, (SJ is really damn zai), frog porridge at geylang, then drinks and chit chat in east coast park. All those we managed in JK's super beng subaru, we even blasted ah beng tetno to complete the experience!

Sunday was leisurely, and a great SO3D class gathering at marina waraku... we had the private tatami area which was perfect for catching up... i love this bunch of ppl. and to think we've known each other for 9 years! ok getting super old le...

great weekend

the great weekend started off with an afternoon half day with TJ. went to the outdoor bridal show at bugis green, checked out some wedding banquet places, and got scared off due to the supremely high prices... damnit, shd have gotten married like one year ago (haha)... but it was nice and leisurely, even did a spot of shopping!

met up with the OBS cherries for dinner at curry udon (Central), the unagi rice was good! but the place was a tad squashed for us 10 ppl... we adjourned to pitstop games cafe later, though it was slightly out of our age group, it was tons of fun hanging out with them and bitching about work (duh)...


Saturday was good, but started with bad news that our potential love nest was bought by someone else =( but it's ok, we'll wait for another one... then we went to attend Teck Chia's and Betty's wedding! a few screw ups here and there, but it was sweet to see her settle down...



Sunday was spent at brunch (or rather lunch) with the FAGs... we went to Riders Cafe, an ulu but absolutely charming place located at Saddle Club... the food was not bad, the company even better and best of all, we found a perfect place to take wedding photos!


after a leisurely afternoon, we headed off back to my place for yummy home cooked meal. i love pork ribs! =)

ok obviously i began blogging abt this last week, but didn't get to complete it...

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

apologise for the lack of posts. what happened is that my laptop LCD screen cracked and died, and it was in the workshop. I haven't got it back yet, now blogging on TJ's laptop. will get my lappy back 3 weeks later and $380 poorer, but tt's pretty ok...

Xmas came and went, didn't do anything special this year since TJ wasn't around, but did go to two bbqs on two consecutive Saturdays, where it rained both times. But it was plenty fun chit chatting with friends and family...

Today's the start of a brand new year, when I look back, time really seemed to have passed very fast, especially since I don't exactly LOVE my job... some recap what happened in 2007:

Work: another year in my company, made alot more friends due to my recreation committee, and also because of OBS. the OBS gang rocks... knowing these friends really make working alot more bearable =) came to the conclusion tt i can't stay long in my current position, really can't learn much from my boss, and i've come to disagree more and more often with him... but my colleague going on maternity leave and all makes him appreciate my presence more so hopefully this effort will be rewarded sufficiently...

Friends: new friends at work, met up with older friends... As more and more friends walk down the aisle, I forsee alot more catching up to do... which is great! (only not so good for the wallet)... the expansion of FAGs...

Travel: Penang, Batam, KL, Bangkok, Europe: Switzerland, Paris, Amsterdam... All fantastic trips! Hope to go on more...

Love: TJ recovered fully from his injury, and obviously "gained" more (weight i mean)... he proposed! and ROM is planned in June 2008 =)

Stuff to look forward to in 2008:

1) Shifting of the AW family home to a yet-undisclosed-location (rental), then sourcing and renovating the new AW family home

2) Hopefully a job rotation, if not then it's time to look for greener pastures

3) More travelling, either USA or Australia, with other small trips in between

4) ROM

5) Building our love nest

6) Planning the biggest party of my life =)

7) Meeting new friends, re-connecting with the old

8) Spending more time with my family, as I join a new one...

Happy 2008 everyone!

Shine

Ok, haven't been blogging. Actually I've resized the photos from the last few days of my Europe Trip, and blogged it out, but too lazy and not free to load them all... so yah...

anyway this song is dedicated to a special someone: Take That's Shine, currently playing on repeat on my lappy...

"Shine"

You, you're such a big star to me
You're everything I wanna be
But you're stuck in a hole and I want you to get out
I don't know what there is to see
But I know it's time for you to leave
We're all just pushing along
Trying to figure it out, out, out.

All your anticipation pulls you down
When you can have it all, you can have it all.

So come on, come on, get it on
Don't know what you're waiting for
Your time is coming don't be late, hey hey
So come on
See the light on your face
Let it shine
Just let it shine
Let it shine.

Stop being so hard on yourself
It's not good for your health
I know that you can change
So clear your head and come round
You only have to open your eyes
You might just get a big surprise
And it may feel good and you might want to smile, smile, smile.

Don't you let your demons pull you down
'Cause you can have it all, you can have it all.

Hey let me know you
You're all that matters to me
Hey let me show you
You're all that matters to me.

Hey let me love you
You're all that matters to me
Hey so come on yeah
Shine all your light over me.

Paris Day 3, Amsterdam Day 1

18 October 2007

Paris -> Amsterdam

We were due to travel to Amsterdam on a 1255 Thalys train from Paris Gare du Nord station, but we were unfortunately caught the transport strike. Very thankfully, our hostel is located not far from the train station, and we planned only to walk around our hostel area in the morning before we left, so we weren’t really affected much.

The Basilique du Sacre-Coeur (dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), is located on the top of Montmartre (or the Butte). The Butte is as tall as the top of the Eiffel Tower, and offers fantastic views of Paris as well. The Sacre-Coeur is the hippest church I’ve ever been to, because the art and stained glass within the church is decidedly more “modern” than other churches. No wonder, as artists used to congregate in the Montmartre area which is more laidback than the rest of Paris.

View from the Butte, the top most point of Montmartre

On the streets of Montmartre

We left Montmartre early, and reached the Gare du Nord station to take our train to Amsterdam.

Paris Gare du Nord station, the statues on the top represent 7 of the cities that the trains go to, including Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne etc.

The train was very crowded, but it was a good train ride as we were sitting next to a Dutch lady and her young daughter who just returned on a trip from Paris. She spoke good English and was very chatty, talking about her experiences as a reporter, asking us about Asia, Singapore, even though initially her daughter thought we were from Japan. And we also talked about how Asians can’t tell Ang Mohs apart, much like they can’t tell Asians apart. She also gave us tips on where to go in Amsterdam, and suggested we rent a bicycle to get around the place. They got off at Rotterdam, and after 45 min we arrived in Amsterdam Centraal.

We got to our hostel, a hip and happening place, abit too rowdy for our liking, and we had a very bad experience there, won’t blog about it, but ask me if you do happen to be interested. But our hostel was close to the Rijks and Van Gogh museums. We took a leisurely walk around the area, went to the supermarket and was pleasantly surprised to finally see cheap food, bought a lot of stroopwaffels , and got microwave meals to have for dinner. They sell Nasi Goreng and Chinese fried rice! You can even find beansprouts in the vegetables section.

Paris Day 2

17 October 2007

Paris

We’ve designated this “Museum Day”. First up was Notre Dame de Paris, which to me, was a humbling experience. The cathedral was lovely on the outside and somber on the inside, and I rank this the best church I’ve been to on the whole trip. The stained glass, paintings, sculptures inside were amazing. We didn’t go up the tower though.

Next, Sainte Chapelle, a Gothic chapel not far from the Notre Dame. It’s really small, and we spent quite a lot of time looking at the guide and identifying the biblical scenes depicted on the stained glass windows. The guide called the stained glass “a comic book sketch of the bible”. A pretty and interesting place, but not really worth the entrance fee in my opinion.

The delicate spire of Saint Chapelle

The lower chapel

The "comic book" stained glass

It started to drizzle lightly, the first and last time throughout our whole trip. We made a brief stop at the flower market on the Île de la Cité before heading to the Pantheon.

The art-deco Metropolitan sign designed by some famous artist

All the metro stations look romantic when taken on digital camera/film, but in real life, it's really quite filthy. I call this the "hard at work studying the maps"

We followed the recommendations on our guide book to this delightful little Creperie for some delicious French crepes. Yum!

The Pantheon is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome and was originally a church dedicated to St-Genevieve, but now functions as a burial ground. We spent quite a lot of time here, and it was great. The interior is filled with huge and very old paintings, sculptures and a famous scientific experiment, the Foucault’s pendulum, demonstrating the rotation of the earth. The pendulum actually tells the time very accurately. We also joined the free walking tour to the top of the Pantheon, and it was very good, we got to see the dome up close, stand on the outside of the dome, and admire the architecture up close and personal. Finally, we visited the crypt, burial ground to many famous French people including Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Louie Braille, Pierre and Marie Curie etc. Not much to see there though, because all the write ups were in French.

Don't know what this painting symbolises, but the fallen head is quite disturbing

Saint Joan of Arc. All these paintings are hundreds of years old, and yet still preserved wonderfully

Foucault's Pendulum

We made our way to the Musee de Lourve, through the Place de la Concorde and saw a small student protest near the entrance of the Tuileries Garden. We walked through the Tuileries Garden, but as it was autumn, there wasn’t many pretty flowers, and the very strong winds blew lots of sand into our eyes. There were many interesting sculptures around the garden too.

Autumn at Tuileries Garden

A nude sculpture with a super gay pose

We went to the Lourve at around 5pm since it’s open till 8.30pm on Wednesdays. The entrance fee is further reduced at 6pm on Wednesday, but we headed in at normal price anyway. As expected, we headed straight for the Mona Lisa. There were many tourists there, but the queues weren’t as bad as if you were to go in the morning. Up close, the Mona Lisa, though a tad small and grey, was fabulous. The brush strokes and everything made her very lifelike, and no reproduction in the world can ever replace seeing her up close and personal. Other than that, the museum is HUGE, and you can really get lost in it, as we got lost as there was something wrong with the maps. We spent about 3 hours walking around there, and by the 10^th Madonna and the Child painting, they started to look alike to me, and I was getting abit restless. I think, to really appreciate all the priceless pieces of art here, you’ll have to budget at least 2 full days, and take ample breaks in between to prevent fatigue. My camera battery was also flat, thus I didn’t get to take many photos of the Lourve L

It was a chilly, windy day and we were both craving for something hot and soupy. We found a little Japanese restaurant near our hostel and though the SGD 15 bowls of udon tasted more like mee suah instead, the tasty soup and noodles eased a little of my homesickness.

Paris Day 1

16 October 2007

Paris

As the Lourve was closed on Tuesdays, we decided to make this the attraction day, then tomorrow we can go explore the Lourve. Having being forewarned of the horrible queues to go up the Eiffel Tower, we decided that we would try going up at night, but I still wanted to take daytime photos of the Eiffel and so we headed there in the morning.

It was breathtaking to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time, and up close. Look at the photos and you can probably see why…

The interesting thing is that Paris was hosting the World Rugby Cup during this period, so there was a giant rugby ball hanging right in the middle of the tower, and even the All Blacks had their own rugby ball on the ground. And yes, Paris loves Les Blus (even though by the time we arrived, Paris was already kicked out of the competition).

We headed to Hotel Les Invalides just to see what it’s like and take some pictures. The Napoleon’s Tomb really looked spectacular from the outside, especially the Dome.

Entrance of Les Invalides

Napoleon's Tomb

We wanted to squeeze some time to tour the Musee d’Orsay, a museum that was converted from a railway station, but by the time we got there, it was late, and we were pretty put off by the queues, so we left to find lunch.

Beef Steak with Fettuccine, Chicken Salad

Next on the itinerary was a stroll down the Champs Elysees, past the Petit and Grand Palais, towards the Arc de Triomphe. The sun was out, the weather was lovely (about 22degC) and we took lovely pictures.

Grand Palais

Entrance to Petit Palais

Champs Elysees is a great place to shop. And I found Sephora there! Girls can really go crazy in that store, lotsa lovely, tempting perfumes and cosmetics! Had to practice a lot of self restraint, but managed to get gifts for the family as well as the girls too!

Super sleek car in the Citroen Showroom

Disneyland Paris was not on our itinerary cos we didn't want to hear Mickey Mouse and friends in French, but I still took a picture outside the Disney store

The Arc de Triomphe is situated right in the middle of a “star”, 6 streets radiate outwards from it, so although it was a pretty long walk scaling the monument, we were rewarded with breathtaking views. But if you are just there for some history, do you’ll be much better off joining the rest of the crowd downstairs admiring the Arc and it’s architecture and sculptures. While we were there, plenty of military personnel gathered around for some ceremony, and it was very interesting to see their decorative ranks, the beanie shaped berets, and the numerous old men who could be war veterans.

It was finally time for us to go up the Eiffel Tower. I was pretty tired by then wearing my cool boots that unfortunately weren’t very suited for long spells of walking but it’s the Eiffel Tower! But the queues were absolutely horrible, I think we spent a grand total of 2 hours queuing for the tickets and lifts up and down the Eiffel. There was a long queue to visit the ladies as well, and I was pretty disappointed with the ang mohs, as there was this old and frail lady queuing up to go to the ladies (the handicapped toilet was out of use), but not one of them let her go first, choosing instead to look the other way. That aside, it was really a once in the lifetime experience to ascend the Eiffel Tower, we even managed to see the sunset which was gorgeous.

Views from the Eiffel

Can you see the All Blacks Rugby ball in the middle?

The giant screen on the Tower plays highlights from the Rugby World Cup 2007.

By then, we were absolutely bushed, so we headed back to our hostel, grabbed a kebab on rice on our way back and retired early.