Last Day of Business

I went to my parents' hawker stall with a heavy heart this evening.

It's the last day of the stall business today. After a good 5 years of doing 'zhi cha' at Holland Market Hawker Centre, they have decided to hang up all the woks and pots. The business has not been doing well for the past few years and the deterioriation of my dad's health, they decided to call the day's end.

My brother and I were brought up through the flame and bustle of a 'zhi cha' stall. My parents (& uncles and aunties) are in this business way way before my cousins and ourselves are borned. They have been moving around places to places all this while and this is the 2nd time I had this feeling. The other time was the sale of the coffeeshop that was co-owned by all brothers and sisters of my father. The feeling of lost and not knowing what's next was unbearable for my parents as they are those people that 'cannot sit around not doing anything'.

However, on the bright side, they deserve a good rest after so many years of working. We have grown big and independent so now it's time they should have a good rest and live the rest of their life to fullest, not worrying no income to feed 2 children.

My in-laws and family and myself went down this evening to give our last support as everyone is going to miss the delicious cuisine. Ironically, there was no ingredient left and this mean we got no food ! Ha ha ha, in the end, we made do with whatever was leftover and some good dishes were still served.

Nevertheless, my parents are going to take a good rest and scouting for a small stall to run a smaller 'zhi cha' stall to pass time and make some income for daily butter and bread. But many good dishes will surely be missed by many people and one of them is definitely ME ...... .....

My Birthday Blessings via SMSes

These are the blessings sent thru sms from my friends ......

Sunny

~ Happy Birthday ! Happy 30 ! A ha ha.....

Shikin

~ Welcome to the 3 'o' club. Happy Birthday !

Adeline

~ Happy birthday to you! May all wishes all come true. Have fun today. Cheers

Michael

~ May I here wishes you a very Happy Birthday. Good Wealth & Good Health

(my bro...he really know what I need, walth and health...ha ha)

Wai Theng

~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! enjoy your day, hv fun :)

Lay Hong

~ Happy Birthday! :)

Fiona

~ Galfren, here's wishing u Many Happy Returns for your BIG 3-0. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Muacks and hugs!

Kelly

~ happy happy birthday! may u b happy n beautiful for many many years to come...

Joanna

~ Happy Birthday! Welcome to 30s club before me...heh!

(hers coming soon...... :>)

Jian Ming

~ Congrats. u r now officially 30yrs old ! happy birthday!



From the above, you can see how happy some of my friends are when I entered the big 3......coz I'm one of those that birthdays fall retty late in the year....which means I can still laugh about I'm still in my 20s when they are all already 30. So, you can see how happy they are when I join the 3-0 club......

:<

My BIG 3 - 0 Day

I was awake at 9am with the strong sun shining on me. I thought I was going to laze around at home the whole day to watch DVDs. But Alvin also took leave, on the pretext, it's my birthday, and I ended up accompanying him whole day, not the other way round.

I grab a slice of my Tiger Roll. Birthday must eat cake mah....


We had prawn mee for breakfast before heading to HDB Hub as Alvin has something to check with HDB. After which, he insisted we must catch a movie at The Cathay. We had a 1 for 1 Deal promo sometime ago that was valid on during weekday off peak. S since both of us were off, he said we must watch a movie. So we watched the Andy Lau's new movie at $6.50 for 2 persons.

He decided to visit Vivo City after the movie as he never been there before. And today is a weekday, the crowd should be okay. But how wrong we are ! The carpark was packed with cars, the malls are bustling with so many people. He was so wowed by the massive space and the shops they have. This is also the first time that I combed all 4 floors of retail/fun spaces, although this is my 3rd visit. We ended up with nothing but tired feet. In fact, we actually stole a break at Macdonalds (over at Harbourfront) before completing the mission (of visiting every part of Vivo City).

By then, I was too tired and we decided to head home to rest before gogin out for dinner. I WAS REALLY TIRED as I dozed off in the car and crawled into bed almost immediately. I took an hour and a half nap. It was such a wonderful feeling to be able to nap on weekday !

There wasn't any big celebration but it was good to be able to spend such an important day with the person important to me. I think this is good enough whether what we have done.

Happy Birthday ! ! !

Officially, it's my BIG 3 - 0 birthday NOW !!!

Coincidently, my boss's birthday was 22 Nov, mine 23 Nov and one of my colleague, 27 Nov. Since our birthdays are so close to each other and to spare everyone in the office of the cake - eating marathon, we decided to throw a party on 22 Nov! And it was on the way to collect my boss specially tailor-made cake, mentor and me made an impromto visit to a party shop, hoping to get a 'Happy Birthday' tag, we ended up buying many other things and the whole party became such a mini Mardi Gras.

Look at the table, we had so much food !!!! Can you imagine? 2 roast duck, 1 kg roast pork, 2 curries with Delifrance baguette, rojak, popiah, pan-fried dumplings, fried rice, fried noodles, fried hokkien prawn mee, bak kua, red and white wine, fruits, ang ku kuehs, cakes, and cakes, and more cakes, still cakes !!!!!! All thanks to boss and his good friends who send birthday cakes on his big day.



Do you like this cake? We specifically made - to - order for my boss. He has a liking to those traditional cream cake and we purposely make sure the cake is in his favourite colour, both outside and inside.



Purple has become his favourite colour after a 'shifu' said its his lucky colour. But pink is no way his favourite colour. He just like to eat those traditional cakes especially the pink colour part. He is now so into hokkien song, particularly 'jit kee sho ho sua' (1 small umbrella). So, we put a pair of umbrella on his cake ! Nice, right?

Are we getting too much into party mood? Or you are trying to be younger as you grow older ??? Dick Lee also threw a flamboyant birthday part when he turned 'half a century old'. Though, we are not there yet, some may come soon, some are coming much later (hee hee), don't you agree with me? The older you get, the younger you want to be....


Our birthday presents from our lovely colleagues. I got a gigantic Ang Pow !




Presenting - The mini Mardi Gras Masqurade !



The party ended minutes after 2pm and i cannot help but feel proud of the efficiency we had. We transformed the conference room back into the original state within a short time.

So now, I eagerly opened my gigantic Ang Pow..........


See what my colleagues got for me? Shopping vouchers ! PINK COLOUR one !!! They really know me so well.... hee hee


Fifi visited us late in the afternoon thinking she can escaped the cake marathon and how wrong she is.... She was smacked with the purple cake immediately she came. Ha Ha... in fact she help to finish that very last slice of cake that was supposed to be for my boss's 2nd round.

See what Fifi and Feifei got for me. I got a pair of 'blink blink' earings and a matching necklace. Fifi remembered I told her before that I can't wear fake metal earrings as my ears will get infection. So, they got me Perlini Silver. So thoughtful of them !



My mentor was trying to camouflouge the green hats after the party and so she tried by experienting to tie red garlands around the green cones. Green hats were never worn by men as there is a saying for men - 'wear green hat' means your wife is cheating on you with other man. Therefore, we decided to do something to the green hat as we intend to have a X'mas party later in the year.

Take a look at the finished product. Do I look like our X'mas tree ?


It was such an enjoyable birthday party although it was about like 2 hours but it has been one of the most memorable birthday I ever had. A truly 30th birthday !

What's going on???

The conference room in my office has transformed into a party room within minutes.

What's going on???

Stay tuned !

My 2ND Birthday Present

This is my 2nd birthday present !



NOT THE TABLE LAH !

It's the suede/velvet dark brown jacket I'm wearing. It's from my boss !

So nice, I like it a lot !

My 1ST Birthday Blessing

Always beautiful and blessed ..Happy Birthday

From : "havoc road people" Your 'good" neighbourhood

Hee hee :>

Kong Bah Pau

Just learnt something today.

We had an 'urgent meeting' after 6pm on last Friday evening. We were all scratching our heads what to have during the birthday party we decided to throw for our boss on this coming wednesday.

The birthday 'boy' himself suggested to have all traditional food. So we started suggesting having 'ang ku kueh', 'huat kueh', 'kueh neng ko', 'bah ku teh' etc, etc. Suddenly, we have the urge of having 'kong bah pau' and the temptation doesn't go away. So boss decided to ask his sis-in-law to prepare it for the party. We'll so excited about it !

Monday, went back to work and boss suggested no 'kong bah pau' afterall.

He said, 'It's always served at those 'HDB chinese party'. It's inauspicious.

Seriously, I really don't know and we nearly created a taboo. This is a very important lesson learnt. We have to be mindful especially when going to celebrate elders' birthday. You can just be chided for ignorant and worst, upset the elder instead of making him/her happy.

Nevertheless, we have changed to whole 'kong bah pau' party to Pizza party. Boss suggested california Kitchen Pizz. Never eat before.... He saif they served Peking Duck Pizza, 'Lup Cheong' Pizza, 'Bah Kua' Pizza, ai yo ..... can someone help???? I can't wait until Wednesday already........ all the pizzas sound so delicious......

Come to think of it, I haven't eat 'kong bah pau' before when I attend funerals leh????

Just now, while checking emails, read WT's email and Thanks to the pointer by WT's mum, otherwise we really nearly blundered the party ! She pointed out the above and no wonder my boss 'cancelled' the 'kong bah pau' party.

My 1ST Birthday Present

It was such a pleasant surprise when I check my email just now.

I have been lazy, sticking my butts to the sofa to watch DVDs throughout the whole weekend.

I received my 1st birthday present through email. C'mon ! It's not an e-card. Although it is something you can't touch, but it's something you can hear !

My mentor got inspired by a picture of me in a Turkish costume and decided to compose a piece of music out of it. She's actually using it as her homework for her music lesson. The piece surrounds 'ali baba' and 'mediterranean' flavour.

So amazing ! I simply just loved it. I just don't believe it's her 1st attempt to compose and arrange a piece of music.

I'm very touched. This is definitely the best birthday present I ever received for the past ** years !

Too bad I can't get it upload anywhere. I would love to share it with all of you. Well, I'll find a way.

I deeply thanked her for the time and effort she had put in (although 1 stone kill 2 birds, hee hee). This is definitely not an easy feat for someone who is doing it the first time.

Thank You.

And which 'swee' picture of me that gave her the inspiration?


Presenting you an ocean of Turkish 'Delights'......hee

fOOd !!!!!!!!!!!!

Since today it's Friday, I've decided to hop to Tiong Bahru Plaza to have a stroll.

An indoor 'pasar malam' has set up and you know what they are selling?

FOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My favourite traditional food, many of them.





Then I suddenly saw a many people crowding around a stall. Being a 'kay poh', I also walked over to join in the crowd. Oh ! They are selling durian pancake, REAL DURIAN !
No wonder so many people can't wait to sink their teeth into it. And then I realised it is from the superb durian mua chee from Taka B2.


I couldn't resist and must buy my favourite traditional snack - Tu Tu Kueh. The aunty kept trying to sell me her slef-claimed super good coconut filling. I have to frown to show her my displeasure and finally she stopped promoting. I only like peanut Tu Tu kueh, you see....


While I saw waiting for my Tu Tu Kueh, I couldn't help but kept looking at the adjacent stall selling sausages.....look at those cute baby sausages.......


I really feel like buying a box to eat.....

Help !!!!!!!!!!!! Can someone help ????

Maserati

Saw this Maserati along Upper Cross Street today.... So cool !

Slurppppp..................

Queuing Cups

This is what happens all the time when our Wah-jie went on leave.

Wah-jie usually comes to the office much earlier and she will put the water to boil so that by the time we are in, we had hot boiling water to make our coffee and Milo.....

However, she is on leave today and will be on leave too for the next 2 days.

Therefore, this scene will repeat again for the next 2 days. The water seems to take ages to boil ! I'm gonna change the boiler.

Hip Hop Parking Gals

Just saw this from Hossan Leong's website.

I thought it was funny and so I'm gonna share with all of you.

The famous Dim Sum Dollies - Parking Pontianak !

Company Outing

Remember I mentioned before that we are going fishing on Friday, 11 Nov?

Yeah ! We did !

Although it rained a little during lunchtime, but it did not dampen our spirits. We closed the office at 3pm. And all of us set off in 2 cars. Our long-time printer Bob was so sweet that he gave a number of us a lift.

We were given an orientation by the 'Crown Prince' (son of the owner) as this outing also served as a recee trip for one of out upcoming company's event. The fishing place was located in Pasir Ris Park. We were all caught by pleasant surprise that it was located so near to civilisation. It is just across the street from White Sand Shopping Mall or the Pasir Ris MRT and bus interchange. We did our fishing in the small ponds as the big ponds are for the regular and the pros. As most of us did not know how to fish, staying at the small pond does helps to get the fishes on hook so much easier. The small ponds are sub-divided into fish, prawn and crab ponds.

Fishing fish (what am I talking about??) is generally much more fun and also requires more technique. Do believe me? See below.


When the fish is caught onto the hook, your fishing rod will bend and shake as the fish is struggling to get off. So you must start to 'fight' with the fish to exhaust it. By then, everyone surrounding you will retreat as you will start to walk along the pond while the fish 'fights' with you. With some pull, release and pull, you will lift the fish off the water.

Our first catch of the day. A Pomfret !

Once the excitement is over, everyone get back to their position, hopping to be the next lucky one. Hee.....


On the other hand, fishing prawn was much easier and gentler. Look at my friend. See, she is so much more relaxed.

We can even sit down, waiting for the prawn to get hook.

I started to get impatient and grumbling the prawns are not biting the bait. There's no action and suddenly, the float on my rod dipped ! I was so excited and was screaming and shaking the rod at the same time. Expert help came and I caught the first prawn of the day, the largest too. Look at the loooooooong blue legs of the prawn !

See a close up.


Not long after that, it started to drizzle, and it escalated to downpour. BUT IT HAS NOT DAMPEN OUT MOOD ! NOT AT ALL ! See how serious these novice fisher are.

Even umbrellas came to the rescue !


But the rain just got heavier and we had no choice but retreat into the alfresco restaurant to take a rest. By then, it was almost to 6pm and our dear boss is hungry. So, we started dinner early with our prized catch, 4 pomfret and 4 prawns. Boss order more dishes to complement our catch.

Probably because of the rain, all of us are getting hungry and energy, my hand shaked while trying to show off our cooked fish.

Assam steamed Pomfret


Black Sauce Steam Pomfret


We had such a filling dinner and the rain stopped by the time we finished the meal. Dusk is approaching and so, we got back to the pond and continued fishing. This time, I decided to try my hands on the crab.

I was told that crabs usually hide along the side of the pond and so I walked up and down hoping to get one. We almost got one. But it got slipped when its pincers didn't catch the bait tiht enough. Anyway, I'm losing my patience by then and I gave up my rod, retreating to the back to watch the rest.

To my surprise, all my colleagues continued to fish quietly and patiently through dark fall. The biggest surprise from my boss who is famously known as a very impatient man. This is the first time I saw him so 'quai' and continuously express interst in one thing for such a long period of time. See, it's dark already and the rest are still so diligently waiting to get up a fish.


Finally, I had to put a stop to fishing as we had another agenda. We are going K-ing ! We had actually postponed the karaoke from 8pm to 9pm as everyone is still so engrossed in the fishing.

We proceeded to K-box at Marine Parade and scrooned the night away. We sang many songs and as usual, I can only picked up old songs. Jason refused to sing and we had to make him hold the microphone ad we accompanied him to sing a group song. He didn't know I was recording until he finished singing ! HA HA HA !

We laughed when my boss sang a chinese song of his era. We couldn't help, especially our Mabel, kept giggling. And he is also the only one who can sing hokkien song so I insisted he must sing my favourite Hokkien song so that I can record it down.

My boss is the best. He is a 10 o'clock man and all of us thought he will go home at 11pm latest. BUT, he stayed with us throughout the night until 2am ! That's a record !

It was one of the best company outing we had (since I joined the company). I have a truly good time and I believed we had bonded better.

Tiong Bahru Plaza

Yay ! Yay !

One of my favourite fast food restuarant is coming to Tiong Bahru Plaza soon ! I'm so happy !



I walked past TBP yesterday and saw renovation works was going on in the old premise of Delifrance. So, out of curiousity, I purposely walked over to have a look what's new is coming up in TBP. Hey ! MOS BURGER is coming to this part of the island. I'm so excited !

You can only find MOS BURGER in the city as well as newer heartlands. So, in fact, It's really surprising to have such a 'hip' fast food chain coming over to this old estate.

Now there is more reason for me to hang out at TBP.

:> :> :>

Discount Vouchers

I am receiving exceptionally more discount vouchers this month.

Anyone need any?

G2000 or U2 - 50% off full priced items. valid till 31 Dec
Perlini Silver - 50% off one single item. Valid till end of Nov
Espirit - 20% off all regular items. Valid till end of Nov
Eu Yang Sang - 20% off. Valid till end of Nov
The Bodyshop - 20% off. valid till end of Nov
Charles & Keith - 20% off. Valid till end of Nov
Giordano - 20% off. Valid in the 4th week of Nov
Popular - 20% off storewide
Nuroots - 15% off regular items. Valid till end of Nov

I'm Going Fishing !

We hit our target and we are now 20% more than what we have expected.

Everyone in the company is so happy and Boss decided to arrange for a celebration for everyone. We have decided to task our new gal to arrange this celebration. It was initially planned to go for a good dinner and then karaoke. However, after today's meeting and that we have to go for a site inspection for one of our next year's event, we have decided to make this site inspection to be our celebration outing. again, new gal was tasked to 'run' the outing.

We are going fishing !!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going to a place in Pasir Ris where you can do fishing and dine at the restaurant. I'm also toying the idea of make do this as a birthday celebration for my colleagues. November is the only month in the company that you will eat birthday cake until u puke. There are only 6 of us in our team and 4 of our birthdays fall in November, better still, almost back to back to back. So, I told everyone that we can considering making a 4-tier cake. The oldest birthday person with the largest cake at the base, and follow up and so on..... HA HA HA.... My colleagues scolded me, 'siao ah ! U think wedding ah. 4-tier some more.'

Correct mah ! Rather than buying one cake every other day, straightaway we got 1 'tall' cake, for 4 person mah.... I think you can't get a birthday cake anywhere like this here lor.

Anyway, back to outing. Boss is so excited that we have to close office at 3pm ! It's makes us even more excited ! I don't think I got the patience to fish. Morover, I scared to hold the worm. So I told my colleagues that I will buy bread to go there feed the fishes and they will fish the fishes that I fed. Hee hee.

But this also means I have to go work at 7am maybe ! Work is piling and I can feel stress building up. I know it when I begin to think of unfinished work and work that should be scheduled to be done. Just MSN-ed with Fifi telling her that my MAD meter will reach Phase 1 (hopefully) this year as Group contracted a good frieght forwarder for annual shipment this time. I am so happy ! I met up with them yesterday and they have already got down to work with advance contact with my overseas rep offices to get the groundwork done even when the goods are not ready. How professional and I'm impressed !

Not like last year, the contracted frieght forwarder make almost a mess to the shipment and worst, some of my agents are giving me hell when the consignment arrive. Refusing to receive goods and chalking up nightmarish high storage fee at the port. My MAD meter really shot up to dun know which phase that I have to call my mentor to ask for last minute help.

As far as this time around, as long as my dear boss dun spring last minute surprises for me. MAD meter will be quite constant. Good news is, my mentor is coming in to office to help me. Yay, yay, yay !

My Skirt is tight

I'm sad, very sad.

My skirt is tight.

I bought the skirt about a year ago and haven't been wearing it for some time, at least 5 months. This morning, while i pull it up my hip, it got tight and I have to wriggle my way to pull it up to waist level.

I wondered to myself, 'oh oh......looks like I'm going to outgrown the skirt'.

True enough, after zipping, the skirt hugs my buttocks and the zip cringed into a wave-like shape. I simply hate it ! I HAVE PUT ON WEIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have promised Fifi that I will go gym and Tony that I will join the Body Combat class at gym. Like Tony said, it will be very fun. Indeed ! It was fun. There is a lot of hopping, punching, kicking. It brought back memories of my primary school days when I learnt Taekwondo. It's just that Body Combat comes with disco-like music to help you to punch more and kick in zest.

It's a good form of exercise with every part of your body moving. I beginning to like it and shall make it a point to attend the class more often. Not only that, I am determined to lose that grammes that I have put on and therefore, I have to make extra more effort to go to gym.

Would you like to come along? :>