Christmas Pressiessssssssss

We had a present exchange this year instead of everyone buying for everyone..... But I must admit it was not properly done. Everyone was like waiting for each other and no one voluntereered for such task. And being the all rounder in the company, I was somehow the 'gifted' one to do the job. As much as I wanted to do it properly, the burden of workloads saddled on after the launch and there is no way I can put in extra effort to do this xmas thingy.

However, I am lucky to have drawn an easy to buy present for my colleague. She wanted this.

When I opened up her wish list, I really went 'huh???' in my heart. She wanted the latest version and I actually spent some time on the web understanding what's this tamaguchi revival is all about and what's so great about the latest version.

Although is out of the guideline budget, I am happy to give it to her coz she has been a good colleagues and helping me alot in my work.

Oh, by the way, the latest version is 4.5.

And so what pressies I have this year ? Not as much as last year, but definitely useful ones....

First in line..... from Wai Theng. A self played album of traditional Christmas songs with specially arranged tempo CD.

Next, were DEMANDED pressies from my lurpy sistas. Small gal reluctantly handed me a tin of choco which I pestered so much over emails. She had choco cake and choco for her 31st birthday but the poor gal was sick and thus we demanded for part of the pressie back. But this doesn't look like the one from the 'hamper'.

And surprisingly, Lao Niang gave me quite a pricy gift and it had really taken me by surprise !

& small gal gave me a Paul & Joe lip tint and a eye shadow packed into a black mesh bag, togther with folded hearts and strings of shredded paper which will given to her by her ex-bf. You actually wanted to threw away the whole box of hearts but decided to recycle and not to waste it....ai yo......

Another surprise was a gift from Uncle James, small gal's current bf. He was so sweet to has think of me although small gal said he bought gifts for all his female colleagues in the office, with assistants like small gal to do the wrapping and his secretary to print our name labels.

And I got what I wanted for my office X'mas pressie.....and I knew it was from who immediately, our dear Crowm Prince Jason lor... How I know? 1stly the pressie is too nicely wrapped, 2ndly it was already on my desk when I arrived office on Xmas Eve. He is not the kind of person who will wrap the pressie in odd shape and he is too honest to 'hide' the pressie. hee hee....

Then I have a packet of chocolate and sweets from stella .... looks like it is made in Japan....

Then, I got a set of cutlery and a hotplate of steak from Li Wah ! Just that they are made of eraser-material.

Last but not least, got another lunch bag from Boss !!!!

Oh this is not a Xmas pressie.... it's a very much belated birthday pressie from Wai Theng. It is a preservative free shower gel that contains organic lavender. It is so fragance and I nearly fall asleep after inhaling 2 sniffs from the bottle..... It's really good !

Javier's Month Old Party

This little piglet has his first party last Sunday.... He was the king of the day and everyone carried him like a precious gemstone (which indeed he is !). He did not touch his bed from 1pm to almost 9pm and I really pitied his parents as he refused to be put into bed that evening and they had to take turns to carry him almost throughout the night !

See how much he has grown within the span of 1 month.

Normal

I was reading the latest issue (Dec) of the Reader's Digest and came across a quote. It reflects so truly in today's way of life or you may called it - The Urban Survival Skill. This is like just the situation I & Alvin are in now and I want to share with all of you.

NORMAL is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffice in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so that you can afford to live in it.

~ by Ellen Goodman in The Bosten Globe

Javier Teo

Latest inclusion to my extended family.

My nephew was borned on 27 November, 1 week earlier than expected and caught everyone off guard !

We were all certainly extremely excited especially my parents in law. And I am officially promoted to aunty now ! You are definitely going to see more of him on this space !


2 days old

4 days old

A Singing Kangaroo

Today I received my 2nd pressie for my bird day.

I was only a day away from my boss, so being the good disciple of my boss, my lurpy sista courier his pressie over today becoz she will be in Bintan playing golf. So I also thick skin-ly ask for mine and was rejected and told off being sour grapes yesterday and so today. Being me, I shamelessly asked and asked and asked.

The other lurpy sista, small gal was taksed to send the BIG BOX of pressie over this morning. The courier man came and hand over a plastic bag. I took a peek in there and was shocked to see that mu lurpy sista had bought a pink box of Victoria's Secrets and a kangaroo for my boss !!!

Alamak !!!!!! I laughed and wrote back only to be told that the BIG pink box is for me !!!!! Even the kangaroo too !!!!!! Yay !!!!! There is a card too.... so funny !!!! I really had a surprise when I opened up the card. HA HA HA !!!!! So to be on the safer side, I decided not to open the box to give myself an embarassing surprise.....

Oh, what happen to my boss's pressie? I left it in his room !

So, this is my pressie from Victoria's Secret......

HA HA HA...so cute hor.... It is a pair of pyjamas with many many colourful circles on it. Think I will look like a clown if I wear this and go outside !

So you want to see the kangaroo and the card ? Here you are.

The Singing Kangaroo

I'm craving for... ...

As stress piled up in my head, with intermittance sleep in the night, no enough time in the office to do so many things despite giving up many lunch hours, I crave for.....

1) sweet stuffs as in choco, desserts, ice cream, etc, etc
2) meaty stuffs as in fried chicky wings, pork chops, steak, nice nice fish and chips, satay etc, etc
3) oily food as in cha kuey tiao, wet wet kind of friend hokkien prawn mee, etc, etc
4) MacDonald's fries
5) Coke Light
6) 杨支甘露

see...all the fatty stuffs.... & also ...

7) a good deep full body massage for 1.5 hours
8) a 一觉到天亮 kind of sleep
9) a 3 days 'nua' at home to watch HKG serials kind of holiday
10) a no-worry for money kind of shopping..... hee hee hee.....
10) another overseas holiday lor....

Birthday Card

It was such a pleasant surprise when I received a birthday card from a long time friend. As years passed, I have realised fewer and fewer people remember your birthdays, fewer and fewer well wishes and definitely fewer and fewer presents !!!

As years go, I don't really want to celebrate my birthdays, except dinners or teas or just a get together with loved ones, family member and close friends. Probably it is an escapism from reality to keep reminding yourself how young am I now....

But this year, I have no time to 'celebrate' at all ! The company once in a year major event is very close to my B day and so, last minute preparation and gearing up for the event has taken quite a fair bit of time, especially packing those DVDs, note pads to our global offices have indeed take away a whole chunk of my time to better use them somewhere else. So, no celebrate, no dinner, i guess... Even if I wanted, I don't think I even have the time....

Haiz.......

Well anyway, Happy (early) Birhtday to myself ! Hee hee hee.....

Gown Rentals

A friend mentioned about this site when I lamented that I don't know how to get rid of my wedding gown.

www.justgowns.biz

The owner had sent cool and updated gowns for rental at such affordable price !

If I had knew about this website, I would have go and loan it. But anyway, I also paid a good price for my gown and at least it is a design I liked very much ... so no 'heart pain'.

If you gonna attend a gala event and didn't want to spend the kind of money for something you wore for it once, check this out....

The Bowling Competition

Don't ask me how was the competition, how we played, how we fared ... ...

We didn't do as well as we did during our 1 and only training at East Coast a week ago. Everyone was playing below our own expectation.

Well, probably the venue no good, the ball no good, the lane no good, etc etc......

When my mentor read about my comments, she laughed and said I reminded her of one of her ex-colleagues in the company. When he didn't played well at the game, he blamed everything else except his skill.

My lurpy sista chose to believe me because I insisted everything was no good except my skill.

Hey, it's all the truth okay..... I can played past 100 points in each game during training despite me haven't been playing bowling for more than 10 years. But luck was just not on my side on the competition day itself... oh well, probably we have a very noisy neighbour 1 lane away who cheered and screamed and shaked the whole floor that most probably caused my balls to rolled sideway because of the tremors. And of course the noisy neighbour went on to win the best cheerleading award.

That must be the reason...... because I perform best under stress you know...... hee

Egypt

Went Egypt with my boss and colleague for our company's global meeting. It was such a rewarding trip and I was still pretty excited about the destination despite a little disappointment in the beginning. Being able to see the Pyramids right before my eyes was just so magnificent and awesome !

This is the pyramids and the Sphinx in the day........

This is the pyramids and the Spinx in the night....

The next day, we took a domestic flight to Aswan to board our 3 nights cruise along River Nile. Before we board the cruise, we paid a visit to Philae Island and we had to take a boat to the island to marvel at the temple ruins.

The temperature rose to 36 degree celsius in Aswan and there was practically not much shade or shelter at the ruins. And so all of us have to walk under the hot sun.

Ancient Egyptian art carved onto the rocks and stones of the walls of the temple. So of them are so tall that we wonder how the ancient people do it.

A nicely carved lotus like leaf or flowers on a tall pillar. There are so many of such pillars around and some of them have closed petals.

Finally we got to board the cruise ship. There were so many such similar ships docked along this part of the river. If we are gonna to find our own ships, sure board the wrong one !

Before we returned to the ship for dinner, we took a sailing boat, a felucca ride, to Old Cataract Hotel to watch the sunset. Sitting by the balcony of the Old Cataract Hotel, watch the sun sets, while the sailing boats drift along the Nile River, was such a peaceful and tranquil moment. I felt so relax suddenly and was enjoying every moment of it !

The next morning after breakfast, the cruise sailed and we dock at Kom Ombo to visit its ruined temple.

The temperature was getting too hot by then and I had to use my umbrella to block away some rays while continuing the sightseeing.

That night, we had a dress up party and all of us were dressed up in Egyptian costumes and we had a good laugh at each other.

We had breakfast on the sun deck the next morning while we continued to cruise down the River Nile. Enjoying the morning cool breeze while gazing the scenery and enjoying the breakfast was such a luxury that I am still missing that moment now.

The afternoon was spent to visit the Luxor Temple. There was so many people there. Following the guide and try to listen to his commentary was quite difficult as too many groups were visiting the temple at the same time.

Rows of sphinxs on both sides of the walk path leading up to the Luxor Temple. We were told it used to be as long as 2km but unfortunately, a huge portion of them were destroyed.

We also visited the UNESCO site - Valley of the Kings. The resting place of many Egyptian kings who were buried underground. Some of them are buried so deep underground that we have to walk long routes underground or to do 'step aerobic' to underground.

We didn't have the time to visit the temple of the Queen and so we can only do on top of a pile of sand and took pictures of it from afar.

We also visited the Kahlili Bazaar on our free day as there wasn't a connecting flight to go home immediately after the meeting ends. And we managed to get some souvenirs here for our colleagues who worked hard in the office while we were at meeting and sightseeing in Egypt.

Bowling Training

This is the first and the last bowling practice we had on last Thursday for the competion tat will be held tomorrow..... hee hee

So you can see that the gals get worse as they bowl and the boys get better as they bowl.

So our conclusion is : The gals INSISTED not to warm up before the competition and we will INSIST the boys to warm up as many as they can !

Ha ha !!!!!!

Hope we can do better than this during the competition....

Aiyo ! I am so stressed !

Journey like a lifetime

I lived 5 bus stops away from the office. The journey usually takes about 5 mins usually. In the morning peak hour tme, the maximum it takes was about 20 minutes at most, even on rainy days.

This morning, it just took forever to reach the office. Traffic is usually packed. There were at least on 2 occasions that the bus did not move at all and I saw the traffic lights changed to red TWICE. This is the most terrible mrning ride I EVER EVER had in my whole working life.

I purposely left the house early so that I can be in the office early to clear my work, but no ! I am still late ! This is incredible, for people who know how near I lived from the CBD will be shocked to know I took 40 MINUTES to reach the bus stop at the office.

By the time I arrived at the office, I have no mood for everything. While I was running the weekly reports, deejay from our national radio reported the massive bummer to bummer traffic jam from Havelock to Church St is due because of a roadwork near Chruch St.

The bloody authority got no better thing to do on a Monday morning is it ?????

Bowling ....

It has been donkeys donkeys years since I last played bowling...

I used to play actively during my secondary school days as there is a bowling alley near my school during that time. Now, that entertainment centre has been soooooo rundown and being abandoned for many many years.

Since then, even moving to Poly, I hardly touched the ball even though my bro became so actively involved in the sport at that time and even competed very frequently.

Fast forward to about 6 weeks ago, my boss happened to book a time slot at the temporary makeshift 'bowling alley' at Velocity for the 40th International Bowling Competition. After donkeys years, this is the first time I touched the bowling ball again. Felt very awkard and just couldn't bowl as I used to do during the younger days... Well, rusty liao mah....

Anyway, coincidently, our association arranged for a bowling competition and my boss wanted to take part....and so all staffs are being roped in to be the members, reserves and supporters. But I need more supporters because being the 'cannot lose face' attitude, I gungho-ly filled in 10 supporters and now I still got NONE !!!!!!

So you come support me okay ?

Date : 06 Nov
Time : 1830 hours
Venue : Orchid Country Club

Whirlwind Week

After a whirlwind trip to Egypt and now I returned to face piles of work in office. I think I need at least another day or 2 to get settle down and continue with where I have stopped the week before.....

Egypt - a fascinating, enchanting and captivating country..... equally enough to put you off if you are not well prepared in certain aspects and such off guards are simply a turn off when touring in this countries...

Oh well, I shall get the pics sorted out by this weekend and keep you guys posted and jealous ! yak ... yak ... yak ...

My NEW Flat (bare)

Welcome to my (botak) flat ! It's a HDB 5-room flat @ 110 sq m.

I took the keys to my new flat last Friday, 28 . 09. 2007. This day is a good day for both of us, according to my mum.....both our chinese horoscope never clash that day's lunar date. Moreover, it's my mum birthday and so, 1 stone kill 2 birds....I will also remember when I got keys to the flat....

Hello.....a nicely vanished fire proof door and a fancy iron gate greeted us as we exited from the lift.... My parents-in-law said I got a 'condo' like door and iron grille...heehee....

This is the living room.... I got a SPACIOUS living room, invisibily joined together by the proposed study room which is wall-less at the moment. I intend to make it a study room area but will not make erect a wall to segregate into a room. Because I like the natural light coming into the dining area, through to the kitchen. Moreover, it's MY DREAM to be able to 'play' my computer and watch TV at the same time. So, I must make sure I achieve it this time....

But I got to trade off with tiny rooms, with a pathetic master bedroom. Our initial plan is to keep the room as it is but looks like I got to make 2 rooms into 1 now, given the MASSIVE things I have now in my old 3-room flat. There's no way I am going to discard a lot of things because most of them are collected over these years, specially for my this new flat. Haa haa !!!

I also have a tiny storeroom much to my mum's dismay.... (all mum loved HUGE storeroom). Contray, it can be a blessing in disguise as the bigger the storeroom, the more things I'm going to keep in there...quite headache too....it is going to be..... But I do find the kitchen small. I would loved to have a squarish kitchen instead of a long one. But anyway, I'm not going to do a lot of cooking so I guess it is fine. But I promised myself I want an oven the next time I have my own kitchen so I need to find space for it.

But I must say this 'made in china' flat is pretty well done up especially the toilets which I am quite happy with it. Not forgetting the doors and iron grille gate, the windows and the 2-in-1 taps all installed in the toilet sinks and shower rooms. I always like 2-in-1 taps like many 4 and 5 star hotels, where I can have hot, warm or cold water anytime I like !

Anyone, want to 'fatt choy' ? Don't you think my unit number is nice ???

Before, we left, some of the flats are already undergoing renovation and so we kay-poh kay-poh and went to peek at one of them. This flat actually erect a wall to separate the cooking area and the laundry area which I am quite impressed with the idea of the designer. Think I can adapt this and do some modification to suit my own design.

Nice Quotes

Rummaging through my drawers today and I found a little booklet where I used to copied down some of the quotes I've came across over the years.....

Here are some that I like to share with all of you.

You shall not worry, for worry is the most most unproductive of all human activities.

You shall not carry grudges, for they are the heaviest of all life's burden.

You shall face each problem as it comes. You can only handle one at a time anyway.

You shall not try to relive yesterday for good or ill, it is forever gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life and be happy now.

You shall be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear ideas different from your own.

You shall count your blessings, never overlooking the small ones, for a lot of small blessings add up to a big one.

快乐的秘诀 ： 不是做自己喜欢的事， 而是去喜欢自己做的事。

伟人之所以伟大， 是因为在他们不想那么做的时候， 做了他们不想做的事。

如果你不能改变环境来适应自己， 就改变自己来适应环境吧 ！

If you are not riding the wave of change, you will find yourself beneath it.

There is an island of opportunity, in the middle of every difficulty.

The happiest of people don't necessary have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Think what is good, speak what is kind.


**After reading the little booklet, it has somehow enlighten me once again like it used to be and I will put some of them into good use now **

The Javanese Spa

I've haven't did a massage since the last scratch at Contiki Bali Resort late July.

I am in need of a good knead but don't know where to go too. The masseue at the previous massages I went were not using enough strength to loosen my knots especially on my legs and shoulders.

Chanced up this spa at Telok Ayer Street, took a copy of their flyers at the door and realised the prices of their massage menu quite reasonable. A 90min massage with herbal oil cost $75 and I decided to try it out.

The local malay or Indonesian masseue didn't ask me a lot of questions like where pain, where need more attention, etc. She uses enough strength and more strength at the tight knots and strain area. She could actually knew which part of my body that need more strength and focus as I noticed she spent more time massaging those places.

I must say she was good.

I also found another Javanese massages online and decided to try it next month before I gave verdict and settle for 1 of them as my regular massage hangout.

More update on this next month.

Aaron Kwok in concert September 2007

Aaron Kwok was getting more and more manly and charming as he aged. He looks so good at 40 years as compared to almost 20 years ago when he burst into the entertainment scene. I do not like him in his beginning years as a singer as I felt his vocie too girl and he can't really sing well. As he progressed and focus more on acting in movies, I saw his improvment and he was getting better and better, just like a polished porcelin.

At the height of 40 years old, he still looks ultra fit and toned. He changed into so many outfits during his concerts here and it is definitely a feast to many eyes as well as he groovy dance steps.