It's a done deal.

Half the battle won.

Poppy appears to be exceptionally pleased.

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.

http://www.fishshop.sg/promos

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

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.

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...

3 Years 6 Months

Enough is enough.

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

Love u, Poppy.

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.

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

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!

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!

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.