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December 21, 2011

Short Trips

We're finally going back to Bangkok after missing it for a year. Seems like Poppy has gotten over his trauma of "too-much-of-Bangkok".

Wanted to do the trip for my birthday, but unlikely that my leave will be granted so we're bringing it forward to March instead. February will be reserved for the Mister's Genting getaway after unsuccessful plans for Japan. Not feeling up to much travel for the year, so we're spending a little more on this trip. Accommodation-wise, we'll be staying at Shanghai Mansion Boutique Hotel and Grand Diamond Plaza Suites this time 'round.

Very much glad we don't have to lug our loot around because we're taking a suite at Grand Diamond, just beside the Platinum Mall, for the second half of the trip. And looking forward to chillaxing at the pretty Mu Dan suite at Shanghai Mansion and tucking in to the yummies in Yaowaraj for the first couple of days.

The suite room at Shanghai Mansion




The suite room at Grand Diamond Plaza Suites




Oh, i miss Bangkok. Hope everything's peaceful and well throughout the trip.

December 17, 2011

Fantasyland

Had our D&D at Shangri-La hotel's Island Ballroom last night.

The first time our department is dressing up and we snagged the Best Dressed Table, Best Dressed Female, Top 3 Best Dressed Male awards!

Not forgetting, 3rd Prize for Best Christmas Decoration competition held earlier in the month.



众神云集 together with Danny aka King Tut

With ET (Athena) and GL (Perseus)

With Saul and AS (Hera)

So much fun, we're gonna do it again next year!

November 25, 2011

Swamped.

Hello, my much neglected blog and readers (are there even any?)

Our Team Retreat has just ended. Lotsa fun with awesome food from Mad Jack Cafe and Hyatt's Straits Kitchen, and our Vegan and Apple pot pies from the baking session.

Picture courtesy of AS =)

And now although we're piled with different projects, we're all uber enthusiastic about our upcoming themed D&D. Bought our costumes online a couple of days back, and expecting it to arrive next week. And, riding on Black Friday sale in USA, i've just helped them order accessories from F21 before work today. Next up will be the make-up tryout. Exciting!

Well, of course the peak period begins in less than a month. So we're resting up and preparing for the madness. My team is tying up the loose ends for the current project, then i'll be helping out with part of the Orientation.

Busy? Definitely, but happy.
Credits to Poppy for being super duper sweet all these while. He bought us the tix to the 3D Puss In Boots, and we had a great time yesterday evening.

November 04, 2011


It's been so long since I've been so upset.
I hope this feeling goes away soon...

October 27, 2011

Back from Korea.

Back from the tour around Korea... and i survived the killer packaged tour itinerary that's more hectic than my work. Rawr.

Started clearing work emails from home since i arrived home yesterday evening, and managed to finish them today in the office. Feels great to be back at work. Had a few moments of low period earlier this month, but i'm back on my feet now. Hope it lasts for a good long time.

Pops has been recurrently sick since 2 weeks ago. Fever's gone but he's down with rashes. Poor thing has been on medication for the longest time ever. My absence meant that he's been largely staying at home alone... why of course, he's sneaked out to meet the Alex-es and attend Zavier's baby shower.

Bought him a little pressie from Tiffany's while i was away for our 5th anniversary this weekend!
Couldn't resist and gave it to him in advance. Hopefully it cheered him up a tad.

October 18, 2011

Out of Town


Out of Town

Seoul Far So Good Part II


Bittersweet October.
The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
- Carol Bishop Hipps

October 16, 2011

PureConnect

Released this month - my new loot from Brooks PureProject™.


Fits like a dream <3

October 03, 2011

Just because...

A month since i last posted.
And here i am blogging just because schmelly Poppy says i'm lazy.

Off to Korea again in 2 weeks' time.
Nui says it's blistering cold there now. Gotta bring out my autumn/winter wear and wash them before my trip. Bummer.

Ok, back to work.

September 01, 2011

Back in Town

Back from Seoul last week, but instead of uploading all my pictures from Korea, i'm till trying to clear my backlog from Cambodia. Luckily, the mister's taking charge of all the laundry. Yay!

Just a couple of pix for now...

Self-taken shot in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace

Group picture with newfound friends at Nami Island jetty


Meanwhile it's offloading shopping loot for the girls and tabulating the bills in progress...

August 17, 2011

Out of Town



Out of Town

Seoul Far So Good Part I


Waiting to board my flight at the airport without the hubby.

*Nervous*

August 10, 2011

7 days

Leaving for Incheon in 7 days, and i'm completely unprepared.
Well, we did make a trip to Mustafa to change a few thousand buckies on top of the USD we already have. That's about all, if that even counts as prep work. Muahaha. The hubby told me he'll plan the itinerary, seems like he read up a little and last night i tried to mark some places of interest, but last night we concluded we will just go shopping with the flow instead.

Had a rather fulfiling month, with GL's birthday dinner at OverEasy and a movie date, both with the fun folks from UniSIM. Then a dinner date with Helmi and Nora last Saturday, and a private date with Nora this Saturday. Hiak hiak. And my parcels from US have all arrived! Yay! Love Vida's booties, even Poppy agrees they're pretty.

Sadly, Mommy's down with viral infection and has been having bouts of high fever over the past week. Visited her over the weekend with some herbs and made her food. Checked with Bro yesterday morning, and heard she's feeling better already. Phew.

Ooh lala, such a fine month =)

July 26, 2011

Moving into my thirteenth day.
The past twelve days seemed much like a dream, except, of course, the part where Poppy was summoned overseas at the last minute for an assignment.

Being a bit too free, my uncontrollable urge for shopping has led to more sprees. This time, on top of the usual Old Navy/GAP and Forever21, i managed to get a couple of prezzies for Poppy from Amazon. Most of the packages have already arrived in Portland, waiting to be shipped to Singapore. Yay! i also bought a couple of items from local blogshops just to quench the hunger while waiting for my US parcels to arrive.

Now, i just gotta organize one more spree to utilize the US$100 Forever21.com voucher the good folks at NOC got for me as farewell gift. Hiak hiak.

Can't help but miss the times i worked with Vida, when we'd be browsing shopping sites and chattering excitedly...

Luckily Poppy accompanied me to the library last week, and we lugged home almost a dozen of books, so i've been catching up on reading and trying to stay away from the evil interwebs since then. The sweetsie also bought my favorite swiss roll just before his trip, so i have munchies to snack on while he's away.

And on Saturday, i went on a shopping date with Mommy. We raided Bugis Village and almost bought the whole street home! Then it was time to attend Leann's baby shower, so we sent Mommy home before heading over. Stayed for a bit, then drove to Ikea to buy some what-nots, then met Mommy and bro at the interchange for more shopping. Pops got one more shirt from G2000 (his third in a month), and we all grabbed dinner at Popeye's in Century Square before heading home. Nom!

Spent most of the next day picking out clothes to bring home and dozing off on the sofa, while the rest played mahjong. Mommy made us a sumptuous dinner, watched 华人星光大道, then had a late-night drive home.

July 15, 2011

Doing A Lot of Nothing

Busy spending most of my time doing a lot of nothing.
Been staying away from my games these couple of days, doing mostly reading, stoning, reading, and more stoning.

Life after dark is slightly more exciting. Did our usual JB dinner-petrol-car-wash routine on Monday; dinner with Angie, Zen, QL, Vincent on Tuesday; dinner at Alex & Pen's. Thursday was just a regular two-of-us dinner at the central followed by grocery shopping, and hopefully tonight, we can have a jog before light din-din.

Just had a slice of dragonfruit after some bread earlier on, now back to reading-stoning routine.

June 27, 2011

Happy Anniversary, Love!


Thank u for accepting the different faces of me,
the bad,
the worse,
the worst-est.

Thank u for engulfing me with tender love,
and at (many) other times
... the odor from your smelly armpits.

.
.
.

Thank u for sharing the good times,
and being there even when it's not.


I love u, my Sweetsie Popsie Poopie Pops!

Alex & Penelope held their housewarming in conjunction with Mathias' 3rd birthday.
The Make-A-Wish foundation and MacDonald's have generously sponsored the party for little Mathias who has been diagnosed with Menkes since he was a year old. At three, Mathias is unable to sit, stand or move agilely unlike kids at his age. Penelope has dedicated herself to caring for him full time, and a year ago, they have been blessed with a healthy second child, Zebedee. It's been a tough journey, and we pray for the best for them =)

That aside, we were discussing about planning a trip to Melbourne with Anders and Serina then i had to leave the party early coz I got recalled back to work (for the third time this month). Standby duty sucks balls. Aargh. I was SO upset that my weekend was ruined, that I was sulking the whole time when Poppy drove me home to get my stuff. I went for a jog in the morning, and was hoping i can get a good sleep tonight after the workout. TMD, kena called back to work.

Poppy tried to cheer me up by offering a nice dinner tomorrow after work, but i was totally not in the mood for anything. Blah. And just before leaving home, i got a message that sent me raiding the closet:

"Don't be sad ok... Open the bedroom door, open the top wardrobe..
A surprise for you... Hope to make you smile and a happy 1st month anniversary..
We will have more wonderful years ahead.."


The first two compartments i ransacked, had nothing special in them. Then i dragged the stool to the other side and found...


A brand new Longchamp Planètes!

He came up from behind and wrapped his arms around me, but instead of smiling and hopping around in joy, i broke down and started wailing. I felt (and still feel) so terrible about not having any presents for him and not even being able to spend the rest of the evening counting down with him. Boohoo.

This is indeed came as a huge surprise coz i wasn't expecting him to buy me anything since i have everything i needed plus he just got me the new lappie two weeks ago. He's such a sweetsie, isn't he!

The funny part was he asked me why i didn't open the bag up. He asked if i did not like it. And i was like: "i like it, but it's just that i'm not in the mood", but still went back to the room to open it. When i started opening the bag, he smugly added: "...but there's nothing inside anyway. muahaha."
中招 ._."

I wonder if Mich had any part to do with this. I'm pretty certain he got Adrian and Jessica to buy it during their honeymoon to Europe, but how did he ever know the exact size and color i wanted?! Oh, by the way he got himself a nice wallet from Longchamp too. Can't remember what it looked like exactly, but i think it's the Veau Foulonné:


No wonder he was reluctant to tell me when he went to meet Adrian up. Sneaky Poppy!
Now, left with just a couple of hours before i knock off, i'm gonna do some shopping online. I'll order his favorite cK and Gap fragrances plus the Crabtree and Evelyn India Hicks Island: Casuarina diffuser set to make it up to Poppy! Need to resist the Zee monster. Yawn...

June 20, 2011

Changes.

Many changes have been taking place.

Sometime early this month, i've finally decided and got down to it.
Poppy's has been uber nice to me since i arrived at the decision. We've been out for fancy meals, he offered to bring me for massages and shopping!

And on that day after work, he surprised me with a new Samsung lappie he bought at the PC Show! Yeah, my 2-year old desktop has been acting weird for a while, and has finally succumbed to motherboard and hard disk failure (...due to overheating from long hours of gaming). Was planning to revamp the gear in my CPU but he was a step ahead of me. Though i don't really appreciate his rationale behind buying a lappie - so that i can still get to play but can't hog it for too long?! He says i can now play my games in the living room while he watches TV so he won't be lonely. Which also means i can now nag at him while he spreads himself like a slab of fat on the couch.

Oh, i'm in such a relaxed state that i haven't managed to wake up until late afternoons (though i've been sleeping early). Last night, out of the blue we decided to login to play some games together on Viwawa. Actually, we were planning to play Rift but the patch updating was taking gazillion years. With that said, i've just finished configuring the wireless modem and the update is done, so i'm off to play!


Sure, many uncertainties lie ahead, but i'm sure everything'll be fine as long as we overcome it together. <3

June 09, 2011


It's a done deal.
Half the battle won.

Poppy appears to be exceptionally pleased.

May 24, 2011

Nom.

Was having a terrible headache which left me limp and nauseous on the office desk, and now i'm having this crazy craving for oysters now.


It's Tuesday, and Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro's having a promotion. I MUST convince the mister to go there with me later.

May 23, 2011

Week of Housewarming

Indeed, it's been a week of housewarming.
We attended three in a weekend - one in Sengkang, another in Punggol, the last in Ang Mo Kio. Alex and Penelope's in Bukit Panjang is coming up. And the next week or so is wedding week - Adrian & Jessica (at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa) followed by Angie & Zen (Republic of Singapore Yacht Club). It's a sunny-beachy-yachty wedding season!

Anyway, finally caught up with Nurmimi on Saturday. Grabbed a bite at Jalan Kayu after Derrick's housewarming, followed by Pirates of the Carribean 4 at Iluma. Missed their recent JB trip, so we've arranged another on Wednesday. Yay. Need to stock up some groceries and magazines before I'm on my banned-from-leaving-the-country-unless-urgent-and-approved standby duty.

By next month, I would've fulfilled the required twice-in-a-year standby, but alas, they decided to make changes starting from July. As if not being allowed to swap shift isn't bad enough, we have a non-travel standby duty, AND now, the few of us who have met the quota for the year, have to re-start together with the rest of the team. Ultra demoralized. I should really start packing.

For now, I'm only looking forward to, are my Forever 21, Old Navy and Korea Gmarket parcels.

Damn I feeling uncomfortable after gorging myself with snack noodles nuggets and one of the mid-size homemade glutinous rice with chicken. I need some chocolates to help digest the food.

May 17, 2011

Therapy

My mood's been pretty turbulent these few weeks, so I've been eating A LOT. Poppy's been very accommodating. He bought two tubs of ice-cream after our ice-cream ban for the past year or so, and just before our trip to Cambodia, he went all the way to Haji Lane to buy the swiss rolls I've been lemming to eat. We also bought some mangoes a few weeks back, and I went hysteric with the making and eating of lots of mango sticky rice.

I've been cooking almost daily. Making and bringing my own dinners to work for the night shifts, then back home in the morning and preparing my own lunches as well. It's kind of a headache trying to decide what to buy to office everyday, so cooking a simple dinner seems to be the best solution, and it's quite a mood-soother, except for days that I'm exhausted from other chores. I secretly enjoy seeing Poppy's expressions when he tastes my food. Trust me, it didn't look very good in my recent Catherine's-Homemade-Killer-Chili experiment though. Hah.

Speaking of mood therapy, I just bought a whole lot of stuff online from Old Navy, Forever 21 and Gmarket earlier this month with the girls and my brother. I'm not looking forward to my credit card bill this month.

Wanted Needed a pair of new heels but I wasn't sure about buying heels again off the net, so I bought a pair of sandals instead. The last pair of heels I got from GoJane was the right size, but the embellishments weren't in the right place and it hurt like mad. And since Armie's helping out at Ton Ton's wedding, and she was didn't have sufficient time to shop for her shoes, I volunteered mine (since we're the same size). Passed her 3 - 4 pairs, and Poppy caught me raiding the shoe racks. Took the chance to tell him those shoes don't fit anymore, so I'm giving them to Armie. (Then pretending to worry about what shoes to wear for the weddings this month and next. Heh.)

And finally got his permission to buy a new pair when we were at the mall on Sunday! He enforces a strict one-in-one-out rule on my shoe purchase because we have already bought three new shoe racks since we moved in. Not forgetting, Mommy is constantly reminding me I should relocate my stocks from Tampines. I HAVE NO MORE SPACE!!!

On a different note, I got myself a new pair of specs on Sunday too, coz the current one's scratched and blur. Poppy shopped for it with me from Queensway or somewhere, and that's 3 - 4 years ago! The myopia on both eyes have dropped a tad (about a hundred degrees on each eye), and that was the reason why I get headaches from wearing the current specs. Another couple of hundred dollars spent, but well worth it, I suppose. Been wearing specs pretty much these days, especially since one of the eyes is really prone to swelling the past two months. Had to wear specs throughout the whole Cambodia trip. Dang.

Meanwhile, work hasn't been all that good.
And I only managed to muster my strength to clear Custard's stuff away on Sunday afternoon. Memories of her still flood my mind and eyes two months after she's passed on. I still miss her. So much.

I cherish and enjoy Poppy's presence even more than before.
But when I'm alone, all I can do, is make futile attempts to comfort myself with retail and gastronomy therapy.

While life is good, it really isn't fantastic. Maybe a change is in order. If only I could eventually manage to let go of some stuff...

May 11, 2011

3 Years 6 Months


Enough is enough.


On a side note, much thanks to the mister for great support.
Love u, Poppy.

April 24, 2011

Back in Town



Back from our 8-day stint in the kingdom.
Lots of fun and (too much) sun - we came home looking like 4 roasted ducks, fresh from the oven.

Too lazy to work on the pictures now. Maybe later, maybe another day. Maybe not.

March 15, 2011

A Post for Custard


In Loving Memory

Custard
2006 - 15 March, 2011


A song dedicated specially for our baby...


妳並沒有离开我們
是搬到天堂生活

妳永远活在我們记忆中


March 11, 2011

好事成雙

Got a call from KTO on Monday telling me that I've won a return ticket to Incheon, Seoul (via Asiana Airlines) the NATAS lucky draw (where I spent a bomb a couple of weekends ago). I was still skeptical about it, pondering if it's one of those phone scam, even after they sent me an email with the prize collection details.

Alas, it's proven to be true, and I've collected the ticket on Wednesday. It's by far the biggest prize I've gotten from a lucky draw! Yay!

Unfortunately, the ticket's non-transferable so I have to make the trip myself and can't simply get Poppy to just tag along my October trip. And so apart from the short trips to Malaysia, I'll be in Cambodia, then Korea TWICE this year.

Was contemplating on giving up the prize since I'm already going to Korea in October, and after two 8D trips in the year, my purse is down with a big hole. Then Poppy dissuaded me, and says he'll go with me this time. LOL. After persuading for SO long to go with me in October, he refused, and now... IT'S FATE!

But since Poppy doesn't have much leave available to go for too long a trip, so we're making it a 8days stay, coinciding with his birthday in August. Heh. It's my third long trip this year, so I'm hoping to skim the luxuries for this one and do the planning myself instead of joining a tour.

Planning in progress right now. Excited!

March 07, 2011

Excitement.

Back at work since Sunday.
Surfing the TripAdvisor website and looking at pictures of places I'll be visiting next month in Cambodia. And boy am I motivated!

The first place we'll be landing in is Siem Reap.
Angkor Wat, Angkor Wat... need I say more?

Angkor Wat at dusk

Tony Leung's favorite spot on In the Mood for Love
(If u don't already know, I'm a sucker for Wong Kar Wai's films!)

After checking with my Cambodian colleague, it's gonna be the Khmer New Year, so there'll be lots of opportunities for great photos throughout the 3 days of celebration. Yay, for the boys.

We'll be putting up at Siem Reap Garden Inn, a family-run B&B, for the 4 nights in Siem Reap. Going for US$15 per room per night - which works out to less than S$40 per person for 4 nights. It's a steal! Of course, the reviews are pretty good.

Then off to Phnom Penh, where we all agreed to spend a little more for a better accommodation after the back-breaking days of hiking up and down the Angkor Wat. Boutique hotels have sprung up rapidly over the past years, there's plenty of choices for ur buck. Pity though, The 252, one that Rae recommended is already sold out. Then I hunted for others with a private plunge pool and/or jacuzzi as my objective. Heh.

And here it is, the Blue Lime "Standard Twin Room" for Tian Yong/LiHan and the "Private Pool Room" for ourselves. Yummy.

View of the private plunge pool from the bedroom

View of bedroom from the private pool


But before that, we are going on a trip back to Malaysia, with Dad and Bro, for tomb-sweeping. Bro and Poppy's first visit to 爷爷 & 奶奶's tombs, and a second for me after many many years. Not sure if Ah-Gong will be back home by then, if so, we can visit him too. And when we return, as the new member of the family, I will probably join Poppy and his family to visit his 爷爷's tomb.

Also, Luis will be in town for a day, during his transit from Japan back to Sydney, so we've arranged to catch up after my JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge at the Esplanade with my colleagues. Hopefully, I can "psycho" him to help me buy some of the Shiroi Koibito cookies, which Jasmine bought during her recent trip to Tokyo. They're delicious!

Then again, in May, I've got the Adidas Sundown Marathon with Poppy and a couple of other friends. Let's get healthy!


I can wait, I can wait... No, I can't wait!

March 05, 2011

Boring Weekend.

Custard's snoozing quietly in the shelf beside me the whole time.

Bored, I am, so I've decided to do up some 3D models of the new home. Of course, the floor plan isn't confirmed by the HDB, but I've got nothing in particular to do after finishing my chores, so here goes...


Top View: 4-room unit


Another View: Half-completed

I've been off from work for four days, since Wednesday, and Poppy happens to be working on each and every one of the days. Being so free, I went grocery shopping and made dinner everyday for the past three days. Being too free, I went for spa at the newly-opened Shine Studio at Clementi Mall, and signed on TWO packages - one for lower-leg IPL and another for underarm IPL.

The week before, I had four off-days too.
And I went to NATAS with Mommy, where we took up the packaged tour to Korea.


This month's credit bills are mad (exclusive of the two above-mentioned big ticket items) - a few thousand dollars on each card, though the bulk of it is Custard's medical bill.
I think I'm too free. I must find something to do and stop spending money. Nope, no spree for these two months either. Not at least till I return from the next trip, I think.

February 28, 2011

Broken.

Custard's declination for food has started again after a week of eating.

The week after her stay at the hospital, she was reacting to the food fine. And for the past week when I wasn't working, I continued to accompany and watch her as she feeds to keep her motivated. But just two days before I return to work, she stopped again.

The second day she stopped eating, I hand-fed her. She didn't react to the food despite having food dapped onto her mouth, just like the week before. After a few attempts, she got irritated and spit out the food. Not surprising, since that's exactly what she did previously.

So I thought it'd be good to let her mood settle, and went on to syringe-feeding the same night. Started her off with half a syringe for the two feeds on the first day (yesterday). And she's been ignoring me since then. She doesn't curl up against me when I sit in front of the TV, and she doesn't greet me like she always did. It hurt me a bit, but I knew it was normal, and I had to do it for her well-being.

And because I had to work today, I fed her a single full syringe at night when I got home. She fidgets, she yells, she struggles and protests her reluctance with all means possible. As she had her post-meal drink from her favorite cup, she didn't make a sound, but... I saw a quiet tear in her eye.

It totally broke me.


I wish I never had to do this.
I wish she'd start eating on her own.
I wish I have the strength to keep going on.
But I really wonder if she'll ever get better at all...

And all I can do is pray and hope.

February 23, 2011

Lunar New Year Part III

12.02.2011 Saturday - [初十]
Brought Custard in for her appointment with Dr Liang. By now she's severely dehydrated despite of the regular sub-Q injections, so Dr Liang says Custard has to be hospitalized again for IV drip over the weekend. Oh bother, we were expecting guests at our place, and we dolled her up already. But since it's more important for her to be treated, we did the necessary administrative stuff, paid and left with heavy hearts.

And the celebration continues. This time at Wilson & Phoebe's.
Picked MIL up and headed over. After din-din, the boys started mahjong-ing. Ended around 9pm and drove over to SAFRA for KTWee with his cousins and Tiffani. Halfway through, we were invited to join their "Beer-drinking" competition - one that puts drinking speed to test. Poppy "sacrificed" for us that night. Heh. Left around 4am, and were all dead tired.

Family Photo

13.02.2011 Sunday - [初十一]


Started the day early despite only reaching home in the wee hours.
Left Poppy in slumber, while I started preparing the food items and wait for the guests to arrive.

While I was occupied with the chores, I heard a faint knock on our door. When I walked over, I saw nobody but a big white envelope. The HDB logo was printed on the cover and my heart started thumping - not that we owed them any debts and they're here to collect money from us. LOL. Alas, it was our SERS package! ...and the rest is history

MIL and sis were the first ones to arrive. Poppy then fetched Godma & family over before picking Gong Gong & Popo from Wilson's place. The rest of the relatives came one after another. Mommy, Daddy, bro and our family of 17 arrived in the late afternoon, and our entire house was bustling with chatter.

After most have left, 舅舅, Godpa, Wencong and Poppy got to their mahjong game again. 母, Godma, Tiffani and myself rotted away on the couch while waiting. Had our mass V-day kisses when the clock struck 12am. Heh. Did the cleaning up after everyone's left and off to bed.


And this marks the end of our 2-week CNY madness.

February 21, 2011

Lunar New Year Part II

06.02.2011 Sunday - [初四]
Picked Gong Gong & Popo up from 舅舅's place in the afternoon to 二姨's.
二姨 made a pot of delicious pig's stomach soup - a Hokkien tradition, together with other yummies. She even baked a cake for Niel Niel coz it's his birthday today!

Debs, Gerald, Niel Niel & Abby

Second half of the day is at Godma's.
More eating. Poppy sent Gong Gong & Popo home and we headed home ourselves. His cousins insisted that he joins them for mahjong, like AGAIN, and I got a little mad because I'm so tired from waiting for his for the past few days. Once I reached home, I pulled on my running shoes and told him I'm going jogging, then he decided to go with me instead.


07.02.2011 Monday - [初五]
Got our well-deserved rest, finally. Woke up in the afternoon, grabbed lunch at IMM and did some shopping before heading to Sheng Siong at West Coast for groceries. We've got some colleagues & friend's over at our place tonight, and it's steamboat time.

The guys headed to the aquarium after dinner, then we were home to do the cleaning up.

A picture after din-din ^_^


08.02.2011 Tuesday - [初六]
Went to the clinic for medication for my sore throat. Then we had to bring Custard to Dr Liang for her review. Darn, the doc's on MC and we'll have to bring her back again during the weekend.

Nothing much for the rest of the day. Had our dinner at West Coast, and some more grocery shopping at Sheng Siong.


09.02.2011 Wednesday - [初七]
Another day to rest. Grabbed a late lunch, then off to Partyworld for KTV.
Did our jog to burn some calories from the New Year binge-eating sessions then went to Prata Planet to add some more calories back. Damn.


10.02.2011 Thursday - [初八]
Back to work for a day.
The team's out for dinner at The Magic of Chong Qing. Had the Lo-Hei (my 3rd for the year) and hotpot dinner. It's a fresh experience for most of the colleagues who are not locals, but I believe they enjoyed themselves much.

Chefs Vanessa & Armie having fun


11.02.2011 Friday - [初九]
'tis the Sentosa Flowers day!
We were up and awake by noon, prepared some drinks and snacks and drove to Sentosa.
Stopped for a bit to grab a quick lunch at KFC at the Merlion Walk, continued with the photo-taking and then got stopped for some air-con at RWS. Before we left the isle, we reminisced the warm and fuzzy feeling as we drove by The Sentosa, where we stayed during our 4th anniversary last year. Aww..

Taking a break ^_^

We headed straight to MIL's to catch some rest, then picked Godma & Godpa, and went to Loyang Tua Pek Gong. Did our prayers, took some pictures of the lanterns from last year's 春到河畔 and headed to Mommy's. Mommy made us some nice meatballs, and additional bee hoon for Poppy and myself, who hadn't had anything since lunch.

At Loyang Tua Pek Gong

Mommy and bro loves the LED TV Poppy bought for them last month. They got a HDMI cable and is now constantly watching movies straight from bro's lappy. Poppy seems tempted to get a set for ourselves too. Hurhur.

Anyhoos, sent everyone home and got back to our pad for some Zzz.


... to be continued

Lunar New Year Part I

02.02.2011 Wednesday - New Year's Eve
Woke up in the afternoon to send Custard for her final jab before the lunar holidays.
Headed home to finish up our chores and washed up, before going off to MIL's for our first reunion dinner. Second one was at Mommy's in the evening. Mommy and my aunts headed off to Chinatown after that, but we decided to go home to rest instead (SO tired from the pre-new year cleaning and preparation).


03.02.2011 Thursday - New Year's Day [初一]
As with previous years, this day is reserved for Poppy's paternal family.
Started off with visiting MIL's place, and having our lunch. Then visited 伯伯 & 伯娘's house - this will be the last year we'll be having our new year visit at this house. That's coz this old flat has been announced for en bloc a few years back, and they'll be receiving the keys to their new unit a couple of days later. Next year, we'll be seeing them in the new house! 伯娘's a huge Lego fanatic, so we bought her a set from the States during our honeymoon. She was so happy. Heh.

Next stop is 姑妈's. Because she's been having trouble with her knees and joints, her maid was the one who prepared the dinner this year. We still enjoyed nevertheless. Then we ferried both 姑妈 & 伯娘 to MIL's place for a bit of chit chat, then brought them to our house before sending them home.

Headed off to 三姨's place where Poppy battled against my brother, aunt and uncle on the mahjong table while Mommy and I went to sleep in cousin's room. They finally ended the "war" at 7am and we headed home to sleep.


04.02.2011 Friday - [初二]

Like always, this day is reserved for visiting 舅舅.
Seeing Nathaniel, Sharmayne & Abigail grown so much, Gong Gong + Popo were overjoyed and could hardly stop smiling throughout the day.

Poppy had the honor to take the photo of the attendees this year.


Sis and the two pretties - Sharmayne & Abby


05.02.2011 Saturday - [初三]
Had our brunch at McDonald's at the new Clementi Mall, loitered around a bit, and headed to MIL's. The usual chitter-chatter and the guys had their dose of mahjong. Godma and I waited on the sofa till we almost zonked out. Luckily they wrapped up around 11pm, and we sent Godma & Godpa home before heading to JB for supper and top-up our tank after these few days' island-wide traveling.

Abby & Niel Niel @ MIL's


... to be continued

Week 4 - 5

26.01.2011 Wednesday
Relatively boring day.
Had dinner at Dian Xiao Er, followed by some light shopping at West Coast Plaza.


27.01.2011 Thursday
Met Poppy at Vivocity after he knocked off.
Caught Shaolin at GV with Loh and YM after Bah Kut Teh at Food Republic.


28.01.2011 Friday - Sunday
Work work.
Took 2 hours during lunch on Saturday to bring Custard to the clinic for her fluids.


31.01.2011 Monday
Off day.
Went over to Foong parents' place, with a whole bunch of their other colleagues, to help them to paint the house. Started at 1pm after lunch, and finished at 6pm! Din-din on Foong at Cheng San market, popped by Seaview for a bit and headed home.

Ultra tired.


01.02.2011 Tuesday
After work, we picked up MIL and headed to Chong Pang for New Year shopping with Godma.
Got ourselves the usual dose from Ochado, shopped around the market before driving up to Khatib for MORE shopping.
Got home at nearly 3am. Another tiring day.

February 16, 2011

New Home. Soon enough.

Amidst struggling with getting Custard back to on the track of recovery and uploading the tons of pictures taken over the past weeks, we found great comfort upon getting this piece of good news...


'twas a huge gamble we took about 2 years ago, when we decided to buy this 30-year old unit. Much disappointed from our participation in previous balloting of flats, so we went for resale units instead. The already-announced SERS flats in Commonwealth were going at a ridiculous asking price range of 40 - 50 thousand cash per unit (COV), and we had to try our luck at guessing the next possible SERS location.

And so on the morning of our open house during CNY, we got a suspiciously thick envelope at our door from HDB, containing the SERS booklet and brochure of our future home. The new unit will be located at Clementi Avenue 3, where the current temporary bus interchange sits, diagonally across where our house is currently located. Still a street across to the central, just that there'll be no more overhead bridge linked to the MRT. Heh.


SERS Site Details
Milestone Information
Announcement Date
&
SERS Site
Deadline for Submission of Resale/ Transfer ApplicationsCollectors InquiryServing of Compensa-
tion Notice
Registra-
tion of Replace-
ment Flats
New Replacement Flat
ConstructionSelectionEstimated Completion Date
13 Feb 2011

Clementi Avenue 5
Blocks 321, 322, 323

By 31 Jan 2012Mid 2011End 20113Q2012Early 2013Early 2013Mid 2016


Thankfully the wait wasn't too long ^_^
Went through the documents given real quickly (too excited) at 2am, after he finished his mahjong session and the folks all went home.

We've a choice of 3-room; 4-room (85sqm); 4-room (92sqm); 5-room, and we started working on our sums since we're planning to get a bigger unit this time.


Poppy and I almost couldn't sleep that night even though we were dead beat from all the preparation and cleaning up!