I've Survived !

Hello !

Greetings from Kaohsiung !!!!!

Hee hee... I've survived ! I've survived the operation training today... ...hee hee hee...in mandarin most of the time hor.... haa haa.... 80% lah....

Not too bad, I think.... The 1st 15 mins was much like a warm up, my brain fighting to find the right words to replace the English phrases as well as adjusting to a comfortable mode of speech.

All of them are soooooooooooooooooooo attentive and participating. None showed any sign of sleepiness, tiredness and dozzing off. And I am very surprised and felt very motivated.

Our partners in Kaohsiung are simply fantastic people ! I felt so embarassed as I never treated our overseas to this extend !

They had arranged for someone to pick me up at the airport and these 2 ladies stucked with me for a whole day, bringing me to go shopping at Asia's largest shopping mall, at my request... hee hee...A stroll by the Love River which is just beside our hotel, lunch at Outback Steakhouse, dinner at an authentic smelly beancured hotpot shop. And I must say the smelly beancurd hotpot is delicious.

Weather was good too, with an average of 25 degree celsius in the day and temperature fall to approximately 13 degree celsius in the evening. Even though it is pretty warm in the day, but the cool breezy that keep blowing all the time comprises all the warm.

Tomorrow The manager is bringing me to go sightseeing and I am so embarassed by their hospitality.... ai yo... how can we ever recipocrate equally should we have a chance to host them in SIN ?

Alamak.....

Kaohsiung

Yawn .... ....

Now I'm in Changi Airport T2 putting this entry happily away after a whirlwind shopping spree to stock up on my make up... hee hee.... I'm going on a working trip to Taiwan Kaohsiung..... ALONE !!!!!

It's gonna be fun .... I think....

Now, I'm going for a power dose (coffee) before I board the flight. If not, I'm gonna fall asleep onboard ! I can't because I have to finish up the nitty gritty of the presentation which I spent the past week doing it ! If I'm not doing it onboard, I gonna locked myself in the room to finish it later and I cannot got shopping ! So Sad !

Bye !

Happy Lunar New Year

Here I am in Genting Highlands, sitting in a public internet and gaming centre, typing this entry away. Oh, not forgetting I am surrounded by loud lasting guns blaring audio and the screaming of the boys when they killed a soldier or win a game !

As Ah Keong's Ah Gong past away about 1 month ago, we are not allowed to celebrate CNY and so we have to find entertainment to stay away from all the CNY activities. Oh well, this can be all nonsense as I have been staying away from home for the past few CNYs. This trip to Genting was confirmed in December before Ah Gong's demised in fact. Hee hee.... ...

We actually wanted to stay in SIN this year but as the CNY period draws nearer, you can say we chicken-ed out and decided to flee ! And so, by Dec, there is nowhere we can go except any self-drive holidays. And so Genting, which is opened almost 24/7 but 365 days.

We kicked off the journey at 5am and with 2 stops, we arrived in Genting at about 11.30am Thousands and thousands of people are already on top of this mountain celebrating the CNY their own way with their families, relatives and friends. We couldn't check in until 3pm as the rooms are not ready when we arrived. And to my atonishment, you actually have to queue to collect a ticket for check in, then you 'queue' (waited) again while your number is being called to check in at one of the 25 counters. But hang on, with 1000 overs rooms for check in on this particular day, you can easily have at least 200 or 300 people in front of you, also waiting for check in.

Luckily, we are quite fortunate as we are using a friend's booking for check in . He who arrived at 6am yesterday morning and already get a queue number and so, at 3pm, we just walk over to the 'missed queue' counter and did our check in... hee hee....

We had a deluxe room but it was not to my liking, no view, dim room, a tiny weeny tv, lucky quite a comfy bed. Everywhere you go on top of this mountain here is packed with people, but things are still under control as I still get to eat whatever I like though the queue is slightly longer, more noise yet still able to do some shopping.... oh yes, there is a new shop here, a Mango outlet ! Not the fruit mango hor, it's the spainish apparel label, MANGO.

And so, what am I going to do for the rest of today and tomorrow?

After this hour of internet, I'm going for a pedicure and then dinner.... probably I will go for a foot massage much later since they close at midnight. Tomorrow, I shall read a book and then I may go0 for a body massage in the afternoon. hee hee.... The evening is packed with a free illusionist show and we had purchased tickets to watch Sam Hui's concert.

And so, who say you got nothing to do in Genting except gamble !

There goes January and it's now ... ...

February !

January came and go in a flash for me ! I couldn't believe time is flying faster than I can ever realised it. And can you imagine this is the 3rd post for the year when 32 days had already passed by.

This is so scary and well, work could have contibuted a huge percentage here that January went in a flash. After the not-so-right-timing trip to Macau, Alvin's grandfather passed away on that evening after I touched down from Macau. On that same weekend, we had a fair at Suntec and I had to shuffle between work and fair and thanks, Ah Kong's funeral was over the weekend and actually missed work for a day. So much to catch up after everything is over and then we had our annual training the following week. CNY sales blitz the next and boom.... January was over. And almost every weekends were no breather with a company activity on one and the rest was packed with running errands. I haven't had any chance to sleep late for the entire January and I must say it has taken a toll on me and my tiredness are showing all over my face....

Therefore, I shall go to sleep now and put up more post in the next few days or so.

Macau AGAIN...

In another couple of hours, I have to get myself prepare for another trip to Macau. Same destination, see the same things, gonna eat the same food but - with different travel companions. This time, the trip was organised by the community that I was in as an volunteer.

This will be my 5th trip there and I'm gonna to take it slow even though the first 2 days of the trip is packed with many activities. Work has taken a toll on me for the past 2 weeks, waking up in the middle of the night thinking I had missed out something at work or jostling throughout the whole night in bed, trying very hard to catch a wink, without fail my mind is ramaging what has to be completed the next day at work.

In fact, it's a wrong time to be away from work this month as office is bustled with so many activities and events, all happening in the 1 month. Nevertheless, I have passed on my work to my dear colleagues and so I gonna jolly enjoy myself for the next 4 days, catch up as many beauty sleep as possible. Hopefully, my breakout will be gone by the time I am home and get myself into the busy-ness again.

See ya !

Happy New Year 2008 !

Goodbye 2007 & Welcome 2008 !


2007 had passed fast & furious without realising and I didn't have much chance to pause, look back and see what's I have achieved during the past year.


While preparing this post, events and matters of mine flowed back into my memories. I managed to pull off my own traditional wedding in June after 5 years' of 'break' after my R.O.M in 2002. We finally took the keys to our new flat in September. Not much changes in my job,
went on smoothly except first time in my life to manage expectation and learn to tackle the balance of work relationship. I am blessed with good family members, good friends, good colleagues and definitely my boss and mentor who had showed me the way, led me through and I truly believed I had 'grown' and learnt much more throughout these 3 years of working in the present organisation as compared to the previous 6 years I had worked in this industry.


Having said much, how did I welcome 2008 ?


I insisted to go to Esplanade to watch the firework much to the dismay of my 'ang' who started giving crap excuses from 10pm onwards yesterday. I even had to plan the route to Esplanade in order to avoid massive traffic jams before he gave his nod eventually.


So we embarked on the 'jounery' to 2008 at 11.15pm. We left home and drove to Capital Square at Church Street. We parked our car there and walked to Fullerton Hotel from there. it is about a 10 mins walk cutting through the buildings at Raffles Place. As we walked, the crowd got bigger and bigger. By the time, we got to Fullerton Hotel, the crowd were massive and we were blocked by the trees if we wanted to get a good view of the fireworks. So, we cross over to ONE Fullerton, only to be greeted with choke blocks of people. We scrambled to the roads where the traffic was closed for the countdown.


Minutes after we arrived, the clock striked midnight and booms of fireworks exploded before my eyes ! It was magificent, though may not be the best but it's the best I have seen so far. Here's some of the moments I captured throughout the 8-minute fireworks.

So, what's on for 2008 for me ?

Work should be getting more hectic and demanding. Moving into our new flat. Spending more time with my parents and my family members. Make it a point to wish my Wolveys happy birthdays for each of them. Biogical clock is tickling, hope to usher in a mickey mouse. Last but not least, don't have to be rich, enough for shopping, travelling and get by (hee hee) - but must be wealthy-ly HEALTHY !

CHEERS !!!!! HAPPY 2008 !!!!!!

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 ...