Celebrations after celebrations

Some time ago, i ceebrated my XX birthday!

! Got a surprise from my colleagues @ NUS. They bought a cake and celebrated my birthday for mi in the office. Thanx to Yi Jia & Zann who went to purchase and bring the cake to the office. Was really touched by their kind intentions. Though i onli started work @ NUS 4 months ago, they are realli nice to mi. Attached are some pictures taken by Normalah......

Full of pretty gals: (L to R)

First row: Normalah, myself

Second row: Yi Jia, Hwee Nee

Last row: Fidah, Susan

Gals from AA Section: * Missing Yi Jia

(L to R): Fidah, myself, Zann

After that, i met my hubby, Yingwei for a good buffet lunch @ Shangri La, The Line.

Food was good, though expensive. Appreciate Yingwei's effort in bringing mi out for a good meal. Afterwhich the hearty meal, we went to Raffles Place to collect something, which he did not want to reveal. Upon reaching there, i have alreadi guessed that we were there to collect flowers. The florist is Eunice, a very pretty lady. She knows Yingwei becoz he has been buying flowers from her since 11 years ago. She can also recognise mi......Anyway, we also collected another bouquet of flowers for Eileen who is having the same birth date as myself!! We will be meeting Jeff & Jaslin @ Eileen's place @ 11pm to give her a surprise celebration...

We went to Sun Tech next to do some shopping, walking ard. After sometimes, we rested our tired feet @ Coffee Bean Cafe where we sat there for 3 hours, chatting about past, present and our future! This was realli a good and enjoyable session for us. Have not been realli spend so much time just to chat... We later caught a short dinner @ Food Republic before meeting @ Eileen's place.

Jaslin has actually bought a gift for mi which is realli useful for mi....Thanx, gal! She oso "collaborated" wif Eileen's Mum to open the house door for us so that we can sprang a surprise on Eileen!! Hee! Fun! She was touched to see us wif a cake & flowers... Afterwhich, her hubby, Ah "Gong" who is based in Hong Kong for his job, came back to visit her...also bought a birthday gift, a LV bag which she has eyed for quite some times...So sweet! Imagine this, we stayed till 3am to chat......

Here are some pictures of the celebration:

The following day, we have another celebration @ my Mom's place. All my siblings & their children came and .... See the attached pictures for my pretty nieces & handsome nephew...

See their mouths...Hee! So cute, rite??

But, PLEASE dun count the candles!! Hee!

11 good years alreadi...Oh God...We are blessed!

Guess wat, today is exactly 11th anniversary for Yingwei & myself. We have been together since 1996. Time realli flies! It may seems to be long to some people. But at least to both of us, we find that these 11 years are not as long as it seems. I cannot say that we have a very smooth relationship throughout these years.

There are Ups and Downs always, at different stages of our relationship.

To keep our relationship going, we agreed to have open communication, ie. there is always room for discussion for all kinds of problems. There is no such thing of unsolved problem. I recalled that when we first started our relationship, I used to be rather self-centred, always demanding him to keep me accompanied, leaving little time for himself. Not that i am defending myself, this was normal for me as he was enlisted into NS, right after we got together. However, somehow, we managed to talk it out (of course, after a few quarrels), strike a balance and sort of the differences. I agree that the beginning stage was not an easy one. We are two very different individuals. He is a superb outdoor person while i perfer to stay at home most of the times. There were instances that i broke down because I could not accept the differences between the both of us. I knew he was also battling these issues within himself. Luckily, we both learnt to accept each other's interests and differences. In fact, after so many with him, i am a better person now. Meaning that i am not so "slack". I was someone who did not like to do things alone as i am born in a big family with 3 elder siblings, looking after and giving in to me. I am extremely afraid of loneliness. He helped me to change for the better. He encourages me to be more daring and try new things. I learnt to be more independent and can do things by myself, without relying on other people. I can go jogging and shopping alone. In fact, i enjoy being alone sometimes. This may sound weird to some, but truly, it is nice to be alone sometimes. I recalled there were times that we argued over the issue of "Your Friends are MORE IMPORTANT than mi" - quoted my own words. Because of me, he also missed out a number of gatherings with his friends. Of course, he really yearned to go for his gatherings, but because of me, he chose not to go. Looking back, i found myself really unreasonable and selfish. But i have changed for the better now. We found a compromise for each other. To let him go for his gatherings and at the same time, i can be by his side, i need to go to the gatherings with him too. Being a timid and low self-esteem person, the initial stage was bad. I dun feel comfortable at all. I dun know his friends and yet have to maintain a happy face all the times. As time passes, the more we go for gatherings together, i sort of got used to these newly-found friends. I began to enjoy meeting new friends. This also helps to build my confidence in myself.
After so many years, i am now his personal secretary. Whenever he is not in town, i am always picking up diverted calls from his friends & insurance companies. I can now say that I know and can get along with most of his friends. Some of his friends are also good friends of mine too. Isn't that great?

Despite our years of getting together, we both agree that there are always new challenges along the way. As a married couple, we must look at the big picture and discuss over the issues calmly. We should not let any issue snow-ball and become BIG Problem. By then, it will be 10 times tougher to solve. Of course, it is easier to say this, but difficult to carry out. Just one way that i calm myself down whenever i am mad with him, i always think of the goodness in him and the happy times that we both spent together. Indeed, we have lots of happy moments together over the years. We should treasure each other. Destiny brought us together as a couple. But to keep the relationship going, it can only depend on both of us. We have to be truthful, trust and listen to each other always. The both of us still have a long way to go and alot of obstacles to overcome. I hope to walk with him till the end of my road. Hee! May God Bless Us!

Good Colleagues r hard to come by....

Time have realli passed so quickly. It has been 7 months tt i left teaching. I dun miss much of that kind of life, other than my good, close colleagues, my cutie students & the feeling of being in class etc.... Anyway, I met up with my X-colleagues @ No Signboard Restaurant on last Monday's nite for dinner. There were two purposes actually - to have a meeting-up session & to have farewell dinner for Mrs Lau who is is retiring & Hwee Hwa who is going to teach @ prison school - Noble yet brave! Anyway, we arranged to meet up @ 7pm. I was the 1st to reach as the route to Vivocity from NUS is of less traffic, at least. Took the West Coast Road, juz have a number of big trucks though. Luckily I was earlier, managed to get a big table which is actually meant for 12 people, for the 9 of us. Subsequently, my X-colleagues came in groups. Some went home first to rest & change while some came straight from school. Mrs Lau even brought a bottle of champagn!! We ordered set dinner for convenience as we were busy chatting away. As we waited patiently for our food to be served, we decided to have sips of the champagn first. So all of us were given a wine-glass, except myself!! Reason - *Shh, cannot say* So sad, everyone was holding the wine-glass but myself, holding a tea-cup!!! How ironic... But no choice! Anyway, we toasted to wish both of them happiness & good health in years to come. Food was finally served around 8pm. As we feasted on the food, we chatted and laughed at Chelvam's jokes. There was this funny one that i must share with you. There was a particular afternoon when Chelvam was around Geylang, after his 'A' Level Exam briefing. As he was walking along the Even numbered street, he was being "approached" by a Chinese woman. Of course, Chelvam could not understand a single word tt she said. She then took out her handphone and punched some numbers into her phone, which she later showed to Chelvam. It was 60!! You know wat it meant? Yes, u may have guess it right. That was the price tt she quoted him!!!! Upon seeing this, Chelvam quickly shook his head and walked away. Hee! Wat an experience that he has in the broad daylight!! We laughed and even spectulated that 60 may be in Pounds or US$.
It is not that we were mean to discriminate such women, it's juz that we found tt the way she communicated to Chelvam was rather hilarious! We thought we will only see such an action while bargaining @ Phuket where the stall-owner will take out a calculator to punch in the price. Who knows, maybe in future, there maybe more "different" methods to bargain abt prices. Anyway, this is just something to share.


These are some photos taken during the dinner.
Seated (L to R) - Xiao Huimin, myself, Waiping, Kong Lin & Hwee Hwa
Standing (L to R) - Mrs Lau, Ai Phing, Jake Hooi & Chelvam
See my teacup???




After the nice dinner, it was about 10pm. Since all of us were feeling great and not wanting to go home (my hubby is not around too, hee!), we went to Coffee Bean to have 2nd round of drinks + cakes!! Sinful, but we didn't eat much though. We continued our chatting and laughing till 11.30pm, when the shopping mall's fire signal rang. Initally, we were not sure what's that. But after the signal, there was an announcement to say tt the shops will be closing...So, that could be the alarm to inform tt the shopping mall is closing. Hee! I only reached home ard 12am...God, i dun feel tired at all!! Hee!


Surprisingly, i dun feel tired on Tuesday! I even went out to meet Yingwei's secondary buddies @ Maple Bar, our usual Hang-out on Tuesday. The bar serves free-flow of sushimi & clam up to stocks last. Guess tt they just started to serve fried chicken wings...we ordered 16 for 6 of us...Chatted happily and only reached home ard 11pm...Not feeling very tired still. Think i am beginning to enjoy this period......So nice!

Things have changed ……for the better (of course*)

Juz cleared my “safe” zone and now into the “enjoyment” period. Although i am beginning to see something appearing, I am happy!!! For those who are not aware, I am not telling. Hubby said better not say…Sorrie!



Like this picture very much! Yingwei took me to Botantic Garden to eat Spicy Crabs and we went for a walk after the delicious meal on a Sunday evening.



Like to share wif you an experience on the road today. Yingwei is not in town, flew to Africa last nite. So today, I drove to work myself. Usually, when he is around, he will drive mi to work and have breakfast wif mi. Anyway, that’s beside the point. As usual, I take the route via Anak Bukit, Ngee Ann poly and Clementi before reaching NUS. There is usually a jam building up around the UniSim area. There are usually many cars waiting to do a U-Turn to get onto the road to UniSim. Usually I would take the extreme right lane, despite the jam (Coz I lazy to filter) So today, I decided to keep to the centre lane. There was this Volvo in front of mi, driving superb-slow and keeping a big gap between his car and the car in front. I guess that he is trying to filter to the left lane coz the centre lane is not moving as fast as the left lane. (which is not usual, left lane is supposed to be the slowest) Anyway, I oso “crawled” behind his car. Suddenly, he juz filtered over to the left, “forcing” the car on the left lane to slow down so as not to bump onto his car. This is a common sight as we usually see a lot of such drivers on the roads. Guess what, as I was “cursing this Volvo driver” in my heart for being inconsiderate, a traffic police (aka TP) appeared on my right. He filtered swiftly to my left and signaled to the Volvo to stop his car ahead. True enough, they both stopped at a slip road at the side, without obstructing the traffic. I did not see what happen next coz I am driving and cannot stop!!! So the moral of the story is “Drive safely, Put on your signals and Give ample notice before filtering, Filter only when there is sufficient car-space”. Actually I have seen worse drivers. Especially on the expressway, there were a few incidents that accidents happened because of tail-gating as well as travelling at very fast speed despite the rain. There should be at least half a car-space between your car and the vehicle in front of you for safely.



Perhaps, in this way, there will be less accidents and driving will be a pleasant experience to all drivers. I am not saying that I am a good driver. But at least, I think I am a Safe Driver, giving ample notice and space while filtering. Of course, I dun hog the road as well. If I find that I am driving too slowly on the right lane, I will filter to the centre lane to ease traffic.

Enough of driving car & traffic stuff……
There are some tasks that I must do over the weekend:

• Tidy my clothes – Put away those that I cannot wear to make space for new clothes


• Buy more clothes


• Meet friends to buy farewell gifts for two close colleagues who are leaving, although I have left the school on March this year


• My ex-colleagues are coming to my place for a Gals’ Chat @ my place tonite


• Meet close university galfriends for some catching up


• Visit my parents and fix a date for the Annual family gathering @ Sentosa

I foresee that I will have a busy weekend ahead. This is great as my hubby is only coming back on Tuesday. So I dun worry that I will be bored at home, doing nothing and sleep a lot...........

Thoughts on 25 Sept 2007......

It has been few weeks that I last jotted something down. Was rather busy @ work, always feel very sleepy, concuss before 11pm almost every day!!! Guess that the only thing that can keep me awake will be my Favourite, MJ aka (干泳)!!! Of course, I would need to catch some nap first before my Game. For those who dun know, we always have our “weekly” dose of MJ on every Friday Late Nite, usually start around 0000hr. But our sessions has recently cut down as we always lack one leg aka “三缺一 “. Actually I am happi to have the sessions once a while. To me, it is more of a MJ session as we usually chat a lot, update each other while playing. It is enjoyable to be with such good friends occasionally. Oso, it is proven in Hong Kong that MJ will keep people from becoming senile when they are older. Hee! I am to be SENILE-FREE till I pass on.

Last weekend, Aliying and myself went to Grand Copthorne Waterfront for our Complimentary Pre-Anniversary Nite Stay. We were given Room 2517 at Level 25. Really enjoyed the stay very much as the view was great and the room was of Executive Standard, just a bit smaller than our Wedding Suite. We were both extremely pleased with the Buffet Breakfast which we missed last year. This time, we really ate till our stomach near to “burst”. Hee! 要吃够本! Aliying was nice to bring me to do Manicure + Pedicure @ Grand World City, which was about 5-10 minutes walk from our hotel. After that, we had a nice dinner @ Kenny Rogers. Really loved the steamed veggie, tasted so nice. *YUM * YUM*

Aliying has left for Shanghai on Monday afternoon and will be back only on Wed morning. Follow-up by 4 sectors – Jakarta on Friday and will be back on Saturday evening. It is my niece, Nicole’s 6th birthday on this Saturday. Of course, we will celebrate for her. I have already ordered a 1.5 kg ice-cream cake from Swensons. It has the pictures of the Princesses – Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel aka Little Mermaid, Cinderella etc. She is into princess theme now.

She used to go after Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty as well as Barney & Friends. I guess that she has already grown up to be a adolescent, no longer the little timid girl who freaked out whenever the neighbours’ puppies barked @ her. Now, she is brave enough to hold her brother, Glendon to walk the corridor without fearing the barking. She will be joining Bukit Panjang Primary School next year as Primary 1 student.

Sooner or later, Glendon boy, Carisse girl & Leia girl will also grow up and go primary school, secondary school & complete tiertary education. By then, i guess we are all quite "old" ......
Will we have generation gap? Nicole is quite close to me. She respects me and will usually listens to me. When she grows up into teenager, will she still be as close to me? I remember i used to ask her,“以后等小姑老了，你会牵我的手过马路吗？还会跟小姑说悄悄话吗？” Her answer is always,“当然的，我一定会的。” 她总是很天真得这么跟我说。I guess that I should believe her words coz people always say that children dun tell lies.

Time will tell......

Mid September now....

Times really passes so quickly. It is already mid September now. It has been a while that I lasted login to pen down my thoughts. Yingwei is not in town currently. He flew to Perth yesterday and will be back tomorrow morning. Actually he was supposed to be flying to Dubai/Istanbul but he swapped flights with another FO to spend more time with mi!! So sweet of him.
Some updates over the two months…..

I have officially worked in International Relations Office for 2 months at least. Work was rather busy last month, especially the preparation of IED & helping some Profs to write papers for their study trips. But I must admit that I learn a lot while writing those papers. China is more advanced than I thought. Think that I should go China to take a look once of these days (*when I can fly*)
Jas has given birth to Baby Zorion (*hope I get the spelling right*) last Saturday, after 17 hrs of labour. Guess what, her water bag burst while she was @ my place on Friday nite to play MJ (as usual, that’s how we spend our Friday nites) Luckily, Karen was around to guide her. Dave was cool (at least from his appearance) enough to drive her back home to prepare herself. Finally, baby boy was out on Saturday 2041hr. He is so cute, looks like his Dad.
There was an earthquake struck out at the sea yesterday nite, around 7.10pm. It was scaled 8.4 on the Richter Scale, located on west of the Sumatran town of Bengkulu. That is about 670km from Singapore. Certain parts of Singapore could actually feel the tremors. I guess I must have felt the tremor too. I reached home around 7.10pm. After I entered my home and closed the heavy wooden door, I could hear my door shaking, liked someone was trying to push my door. Thinking maybe someone was at the door, I opened the door to check. Nobody was there though. After a while, there was the shaking again but it stopped shortly. Little did I expect that I was actually experiencing the tremors of an earthquake, until I watched the news headlines on TV. Happening hor!!
Both Yingwei and myself are looking forward for our upcoming stay @ Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, where we held our banquet last year. This stay is a complimentary anniversary night for both of us. We are going there for as our quarterly vacation though we had already went Osaka, KL & New York during May & June.

Oops, time to knock off….I am logging off…See u next then! Will pen more thoughts on my next note. May U have a happi week ahead!

Guess Wat...I chopped my hair!!!

After long long years of long hair, i FINALLY decided to call it quits!

On the eventful 5th August, 10.30am, i went to Kimage to look for Yvonne, my favourite hairstylist for 6 years. I need to catch her before she goes off to deliver her baby boy. I told her i need a new look. I am really bored to see myself in long hair. She told me that the trend now is to keep short hair. I was thrilled!!! So coincident! I am thinking to have short hair. I told her that i want something short yet stylist. She said she will cut short and highlight with a tint of red...She even cut a fringe for me. So exciting!!!

I felt lighter to have short hair!! Hee! So nice!

Yingwei only saw my new look on the 8th August as he just returned from Paris. He likes my new look! Hee! Not many of my friends have seen mi with the new look. Guess, they will be shock to see mi with short hair. I remember telling them that i cannot have short hair as i will look boyish and my face will look very round. In another words, i will look fat!!

See, this is the new me!! A bit different and look younger with compliments from my colleagues.

* If you want to check out with my hairstylist, Yvonne, she will away from Sept and only be back in Nov. She is working in Kimage @ Bukit Panjang branch. No promoting for her, just share with you about a good hairstylist who can offer you practical and trendy hairstyles which suit your face.*