Busy Xmas!!!

It's a late posting on Christmas!!!!

This year Christmas has been a busy one for me. Shopping for gifts, preparing gifts and decorating up my cubicle.

Look at the below...guess which one is mine?

Yup the first one, didnt look too bad compare to Yuan's right? Ermm well, of cos i cant be as meticulous as her...haha...

This is what i received this year!! I heard staffs complaining that they were caught off guard with the culture of gift exchanging and those seniors was also saying that it seems to be a "In" thing only recently. Ermmm..guess i am not the culprit???

Got this from Val

Xmas eve celebration was supposed to be at my sis's new home but seems like i had mistaken and mixed up the dates.

My try on honey roast pork.

Burnt!!!

An Almost finished product

Due to insufficient time, I cant make it look very roasted!!! The end product looks like this...the skin isnt crispy enough...


Don;t belittle this unfinished product...it was just as good and cleared....

The feast started! It was potluck this year, so everyone brought their dishes...

This Xmas is a cozy one...and the weather really made it felt like Xmas!!!

Headache Xmas? Commercialize Xmas???

How many of you experience the “teeth grinding” thing when u suddenly received a present from someone that is not so close and making it worse, a gift that one look at it and you can tell that it was something picked from the storeroom?

What comes to my mind first was, “Shit, I need to get one more gift” followed by “Where can I get a cheapskate gift to send back”.
So where does the 诚意 and 心意 appears in the above scenerio?

Haha..nowadays buying Xmas gift has become a "Must"...do you feel disturbed at the thought that you have not done your shopping yet? What about feeling frenzy when you can't find the right gift for that person.
Struggling between budget and giftS?

It is so stressful to celebrate Xmas!!!!

Unlike in the past, we will buy when we see something nice...we will give when we feel that we should give to that someone, now we are kind of force by circumstances!

Anyway, Xmas is still about being Happy and sharing!!! So buck up my friends, if you really feel it carries no meaning to buy a gift for someone you are not prepared to spend on..then don't =)

Merry Xmas!

My Fantasic Saturday!

Finally, my first pre xmas gathering and as mentioned in my previous blog, we wanted to try Botejyu at liang court. Especially after being reviewed in Wo BAo...

http://www.botejyu.com/
Basically it's an okonomiyaki specialty shop. I know Taka has a small little cafe at its basement selling okonomiyaki but this shop is the first big scale restaurant in singapore if i am not mistaken.

Cooking on display


We ordered 2 different okonomiyaki



This calamari is so different and it tasted fantastic


Something nice about this restaurant is that they offer self service to the toppings.



End product after top up





Price is reasonable and Right now if i am not mistaken, there is a discount for citibank credit card holders. Worth trying although not the best, we enjoyed the food.

N

Yes, they are hiring if you are interested~~

My Xmas Tree

As the dates drew closer, the festive mood grows stronger...
It has been so long since I felt this way and to bring in the festive mood, I gathered my dear “neighbours” to assist in decorating our cubicles in office!

Unsure if it was due to religion issues or cultural issues, there wasn’t any Xmas decorates in the office before. If you would like to have it, you shall display in that small corner of your cubicle. I think this is a precedent this year from me. Haha

Xmas Socks which i got from daiso and i got very little ended everyone seems to be asking "where is mine?"

The intial setup but we included more after this picture was taken!

A live Xmas tree i received as my gift exchange from jessie l!

Merry Xmas to all....time to do your xmas shoppings if you haven't!

Xmas wishlist

I finally saw a similar design pair of Gola last saturday. It was quite similar to the last pair i worn. Now i am pondering if i should get it. I don see this design outside anymore and it is going to be a regret not buying it....
Should i or should i not?

I wanted to keep my expenses real low this year. Not planning to do any extravagant Xmas shopping and any form of expensive gift exchanges. Just some nice dinner with colleagues!!!

Work is loading me non stop these days...

I got to watch my own budget real tight!

Ermm there is this question that i have been asking about this background song, You're beautiful by james blunt. Do you think that he entered the music too soon?
Haha..everyone told me that it was on purpose that he started singing before the music was right!!!
If i am going to do it this way, i bet all would have laughed at me...

Spoiler

The mood all gone....i cannot imagine history repeating itself once again.....5 yrs ago??? If anyone remembered what happened 5 years back when i was in poly year 2, i am facing something similar to it.

Over friendliness kills.....the worse thing, i am a victim out of it. Nothing done, nothing wrong...didn't even think about it...end up, i ganna....

Let this be a warning to me....and i hope everything will just end here....

Festive Mood....

I am so totally brain dead while blogging this. I attended a course by shirley taylor at holiday inn this morning and I thought it would be a good getaway from work.
You know i love to doze away in seminars, class and course, not that i find them boring, but due to the fact that i am not a good listener.
I had this habit of staring blankly at nothing and take it as a form of resting. Yes, like an Iguana, my eyes wide open, but my mind was blank.
I would say the course was rather interesting and very interactive and I would have appreciated it if they could minimise the level of interactions. It was basically "OVER" and there was no time for me to remove my focus. All the time, i just forced myself to concentrate as hard as possible. It was taxing!


Sista Cheryl, notice something familiar? I drew that elephant and the whole class never forget HAZE!!! Haha...

Nonetheless, i think i benefited from this course...it was fun and i made quite a few friends which we won’t be contacting anyway.

Right after the class, I got to admit I was very exhausted but it was such a chance not to miss venturing around orchard when i am already there. So I dragged myself and joined haze n yuan for more shoppings!

My motive or objective was to source the pair of shoes that i wanted to get since many months back.
I was yearning for a pair of converse ever since I came back from HKG. Everyone has their unique pair there and if you notice the recent “IN” footwear in Singapore would also be a pair of old school shoes especially with the craze over skinny jeans. It’s only a matter of time that everyone will start owning their pair of converse. Well, not surprising because in terms of fashion, we are almost 6 months behind countries like HKG, japan, Korea and Taiwan.

I took this picture actually wanting to post in my blog and ask for feedbacks.

The top one is brown, bottom one is silver...pure leather!



But when I saw it again in OG while making our way from taka to PS, this time with a 20% item sale, I just couldn’t resist bringing it home.
Anyway, this was a belated gift that lala, sotong and ting promised…thanks gals!!!

Just guess which colour did i choose in the end? =)

With 2 heavy textbooks and the pair of converse, we moved on to our last destination which is PS. Yuan wanted something from Daiso but ended up I bought more than her.

Some X’mas decorations I have gotten for my section as well as the I&CF gals!
I am not sure if it was just me, or the weather, i just felt the X'mas mood so strongly.
It has been a long time since we celebrate Xmas in office and I am so excited about it. Maybe tomorrow i might be back in office to start decorating and surprise my colleagues on Monday!!!

Hey, no matter how bad the times are, we should never avoid celebrating any form of occasions...it can be simpler, budgeted, small but never missed! This is my belief!!!

Last but not least, I have got 2 textbooks....with autograph...if you are interested in them, please contact me. I will just let it go for a reasonable sum....haha

Please, someone just take them away from me!!!!

Blessing in disguise

A few months back, way before Singapore was hit by recession; I was considering very much to seek out better opportunities in the commercial world…
Unsure if I was lucky or unlucky, nothing interesting came by and so I am still here.
I am grateful that I am still around although at times I am rather confused about job titles as well as remunerations.
Although, I didn’t acquire those tangible benefits, I did receive much more intangibles that sufficiently compensated for those lost. Appreciations and experience is one of them. Right now, the future seems promising as at now but normally huge changes does come with a price. At least I know, I am still holding a 51% chance that I will still be as popular as ever! haha

Passing on the above, I attended Alvin’s wedding yesterday at Marina Mandarin. As recently I am exposed to my sis’s wedding, in comparison, I had lots of displeasure about the dinner. Firstly, the crowd were basically in their own world. Disrespectful of the host, only 20% of the guests were responsive towards the MC. The most embarrassed part was the 3 cheers of “Yam Seng” where a total table of 40 guests, none responded. And the claps were short and inconstant as the bride and groom marched in.
Better service was expected from such a high class ballroom but the focus was not on serving but to finish the dinner asap. We got waitress coming to the table asking if they can clear the dished so promptly that at times, it was obvious that we were still looking forward to a 2nd serving. In traditional course, Eefu noodles were served as the last dish and normally by then, the guest would be filling. The whole table was still scraping for a 2nd serving shows that we are still hungry finishing at the 8th dish.

The best part was the table was those with 4 corners and you can see 4 people at the desk very carefully not banging their legs and cause a tremble to the desk.

Nonetheless, I would love to congrats Alvin and wish him a blissful marriage!

Finally Over!!!

It has been tiring, exhaustive and extremely tedious for the past few days. It has finally reached an end and we are glad that my sis's wedding had been successful! Thanks to the entire guests that were present that day to make things wonderful and apologies on the couple’s behalf if there were any inappropriateness in the hospitality.

Haha...i do not have any pictures for the wedding with me now. Just some shots of myself....I am so tired and i am going to rest myself!!!!!! Nurse all my energy back and tomorrow got to attend Fengli's solemnisation ceremony!!!

Candy House at T3

If you spend more than $80 at Changi Airport and insisting to pay through VISA, you will entitle a chance to enter this Candy House and fulfil your dreams to travel back time and pick up some childhood memories that you might have missed. No age, height and weight restrictions.

You might be thinking, “what’s so attracting about entering this Candy house”. Well, unlike other Candy house you might have being briefed while you were a child; this candy house is a “CARD BOARD” Candy House (Not like Cabury chocolate commercial that you can chew on it).

They will issue you a “Tumbler” which happens to be a T3 memorable mug and you will be allow to enter the house and squeeze as many sweets into this huge mug.
One entry per person and if you happen to be lucky and meet a door keeper that is in good mood, they will allow your assistant to join in. As they do understand that the nice “Tumbler” with 1 or 2 person assistant will still holds the same amount of candy at the end of the day.

Some strangers appearing at the window smiling....in fairy tales stories, its either poor child trapped in the house or some witches waving to children to attract them in.....

End of the day...spend $80 on VISA and be granted this very nice trip to the "CAndyHouse" where all the candies can be found in a MAMA shop!

Unforgetable!

Before it came, we anticipated it, planned it and wished for it. But after it was over, what were left behind were just memories. (They pasted everything on mydesk)

I had a friend who asked me how I do i celebrate my birthday, as in how rowdy or peaceful I would love them to be.
My choice would be an unforgetable one. Be it rowdy or peaceful celebrations, the meaning of the celebration should be there. We celebrate because it's a joyous event and not because of the "need" to.

The recent terrorist attack in Mumbai left me wondering, that in life, things are often unpredictable and to be frank, every seconds that you are breathing is a blessing in life.

Therefore, Our life should be more meaningful and instead of expecting more, we should give more and expect less.

Condolence to the families that are affected in this merciless attack.

Fresh Bullogi at Terminal 2

This was my 2nd visit to Bullogi, and since my family has not tried it yet, I decided to treat them.
It is a sister company to Seoul garden but instead of a headcount buffet bbq, they are ala carte and focus more on services.
Price wise, I would say reasonable. However, compared to my first trip, I felt that the portions served was smaller or was it us, big eater?

Online menu and ordering system.

The sauce was nice.

The Chicken was well marinated. Seafood wise, except for the squid, the rest doesn’t tasted fresh. Overall, I think its perfectly fine, except….. WE STINKED after the meal and seriously, the strong stench that we carried not only kill everyone around us but even ourselves can’t take it. I had to sun my bag for 2 days in order to rid the smell away. Definitely a no to all of us ever to step in again!!!

Finally 27...

I hate to admit it...but i had to... im..officially 27 today!!!!
I should count my own blessing that after living for 27 years, i received so many well wishes from almost everyone in my phone book. Frankly speaking even from kaixin who has been missing from such a long long time! Lainey from Japan and even all the mothers and married classmates of mine!!
Poly year 1
Poly year 2
Poly year 3
Colleagues who have left...
Relatives
so many that i am unable to name all of u.

Nonetheless, i am very very touched.
Sigh all except for that sotong!! But anyway thats y she is called sotong!! Haha

I received this pair of cufflinks from Val this morning and as always, she never fail to give me a gift on all occasions. She is one of the most thoughtful boss!!!



I gotten this from my younger sis...A nike t shirt! I like the cutting and material of this tshirt!



Hongbaos and more hongbaos from my mum, sis and brother in law

Okay, may i continue with the part 2 of my lovely colleagues? there isnt an end to more surprises that ended myself in a fatigue mode. Extremely exhausted with this long run surprises that keep coming and coming!! I'm old after all and can't keep up my stamina with these little kids...thank god gene wasn't around, if not i would have suffered a combo hit!!

Haha, first...a great lunch at swenson and they sang me a bday song so loud that i believed half the crowd can hear. Minyi sends her regards after that lunch as She was sitting on the other side of the restaurant..lol

After lunch, joyce presented me this nice little blank cheque with $20 voucher! The problem is, the bank doesn't exist!

And then more surprise came when i reached home! they told me there was a bomb in my bag and i found more of the vouchers. Okay, now i am completely lost about my finance. What i should spend it on and how i should spend them...

Overall, i gotten myself lots of surprises and nice gifts that i like!!!

I felt blessed to have a nice family, nice friends, nice bosses and nice colleagues! What more can i wish for? And ask for???

Thanks everyone for an unforgettable 27 celebrations!

Happy Birthday to me, MYSELF!!!!

P.s, sorry everyone that the no. didn't strike! Maybe i didn't shout "Haut ar!!" loud enough.