**Iris' Castle of Happiness ^_^

personal thoughts on GE 2011

2011-05-05T10:44:00.009+08:00

After reading my cousin's blog and some friends' blogs, i realised how lazy i was for the past few months. hahaha.. i haven not update my blog diligently. work and studies are taking up most of my time. during my free time, i only wish to slag and nua in front of TV dramas after TV dramas. :D now i shall revive my blog!!!

topic for discussion today: GE 2011 - the most "in" and hot topic discussed in Singapore recently as this is the most exciting GE we have experienced for many many years. as a Sporean, i would like to note down my tots as well.

in 2 days' time, voting will commences. for many 1st time voters, this is surely an exciting moment. for people like me, so much so we would like to do our part as a Sporean, we can't. as our constituency is securely taken care by our honourable MM. but still i had been following the updates abt GE 2011 and i have so much thots everyday. whenever i go home, i will sure share my thots with my Aunt. So she said "if you have ur views, u shld pen them down." yeah, y not? since i have my own platform - my blog. i dun have any flowery description, watever i am writing is how i felt.

though i dun study politics, i am very interested in what is going on with our government and political system. Simply becos this is my home, a place where i belong. i am concerned how the system in placed will affect my life, my loved ones's well being and our future. after hearing so much from all parties during these 2 weeks of campaigning, i am more assured to stand by my views.

Aunt and Bro always said tat i pro-PAP. oh well, to a certain extend, i do admit. my point of view is very simple: i go for the party who can make Spore grow as a nation and move forward for better prospects. my support goes for leaders who wholeheartedly care for us regardless of race, religion, gender and age at grassroots level and at the same time be able to assist Singapore to gain recognition at an international level. didn't PAP done all the above? for tat, i respect them and i am really grateful for wat they did for us. of cos, there are areas which i am looking forward for improvement by them and i know they will do it. PAP is still PAP and they stand by their directions and beliefs. but for the new generation like us to accept them, they just have to fine tune their style of working. make us understand and convince us will be more feasible than throwing harsh words on us.

of all issues discussed so far, personally i tink only 3 issues are really relevant. the rest of them r just picked up becos there's a need to stir some noise for argument for GE.

Issue 1: Housing
YES! Singapore houses r getting more and more costly. furthermore, many of them r suppose to be public housing which shld be made affordable for general public. Govt is and in fact did make changes to ease this prob. they may have step in too late to curb the rise in pricing. but personally whatever have been suggested by our dear opp parties are not feasible. Rental Scheme for housing? i almost fainted when i heard this. House is an asset. shouldn't we move forward towards an era which almost all singaporeans get to own an asset? i am definitely for the idea of Home ownership and i am sure many people will be proud to be a home owner. just days ago, one of my fren told me that he is proud being an owner of the flat he is staying in with his parents. so for all that, y do we have to go backwards 5 to 10 yrs with the idea of rental scheme for housing?

if one would like to own a flat/house, one needs to just go within one's means. if you can only manage a normal 4-room flat, y do you have to force yourself to go for a 5-room DBSS flat? adding to ur monthly burden and u will have tons of debts to clear.

if one would like to own a flat/house, one will have to work for it. how can one expect the govt to pay half and u pay half and then u own the flat? so can govt stay half in ur flat then? u just have to work for whatever u wan to own.

Issue 2: Transportation
congested MRT, buses and traffic... i totally agreed. i gave up taking MRT to work as i can nv get up the train at TPY so i chose the alternative of bus. long waiting time during peak hours and i agree too. at times when i am in rush, i will complain "stupid! why the train is taking 6 mins to come?"

but i have stayed in Australia for 3 yrs, as compared, our situation in Spore is really not as bad as the big cities. in Aussie, we have to wait for almost 20 mins for bus, ferry or train. as compared, 6 mins is really nutting. if u r really rushing, practise self discipline and step out of ur house 6 mins earlier than usual.

overseas visitors always praise tat Spore's MRT system is very well-connected and organised. i agree with that. with the new upcoming MRT lines, i believe our transport system will be even better. but all these systems take time to be built and integrated to our current transport system. while waiting for the systems to be fully ready, we jus need to seek for alternative and go around the inconvenience. for instance when i travel to Tampines from Dobby Ghaut every sat, i used to take EWL and that takes me about 30mins (including waiting time) and i can't get a seat most of the time. So i chose to take the Circle Line from Dobby Ghaut to Paya Lebar and change to EWL to Tampines. It may take a slighly longer time (abt 35 to 40mins), but i can find a seat and the carriage is less crowded. we just have to be a little less lazy and take the little effort to seek for an alternative if u tink the usual route is not ideal.

Issue 3: Influx of FTs
i think this is an issue that has been amplified and is an issue which almost all developing countries will face. in Aussie, there are such problems. in Macau & HK, there are such issues as well. and people in all these countries are complaining too. but we can not stop FTs from coming in. we just have to live with it and work the best way out of it. when i was in Australia, we are known as the foreigners and i am sure the Aussies see us differently. As foreigners then, we did not care much for the locals as well. 80% of the bus or trains are full of us - foreigners, speaking in our own language. the Aussies are feeling uncomfortable but we didn't care and carry on and so the locals will just have to tolerate. Back home, we are the locals and other nationalities are the foreigners and we are complaining about them. felt as if in foreign land when almost half of the people in the train or bus speak in different languages, blaming them for causing an increase in housing and increase in cost of living. blah blah blah... and becos Spore is small, we can see foreigners everywhere we go. not like in big countries, they are scattered all around. personally, i oso felt uneasy with so many of them around and i do have some prejudice against certain nationalities. but since they are here already, we just have to accept them and learn to live with them. personally i felt tat Govt may not have prepared us well enough with this sudden influx. hence it seems like a sudden shock to most of us and the integration part is still lacking. so there is a need to improve on the integration part and not stop them from coming in totally. Govt need to do something, Sporeans oso need to do something on our part. be more tolerance and forgiving and accepting.

other issues: Income Tax, GST, COE...

Income Tax: 20% as compared to many countries of 40% to 50%, i tink tis issue is not an issue.

GST: 7% as compared to other countries of 10%, 13% or more, this is not an issue too. in some countries, u may not see the GST as listed but it is already included in the price. so we tot how come pple dun need to pay GST like us? oh well, but their items already cost more than ours cos GST is already hidden within the cost.

COE: rising COE so cannot afford a car, then don't buy a car. simple as that. unless u really really need a car, then just get one within ur means. car = status, so many pple want to buy a car? i think this is quite lame excuse. so when one cannot afford a car, one dun have status? and one will start to scold Govt for rising COE. stop acting like a child and be more responsible for ur own desires. if u wanna a car to represent ur status, live with the rising COE and stop asking Govt to do u a favour to cut on COE so that u can satisty ur desires.

Issue of Govt use our money to invest unnecessarily and lost our money in investment: people blame govt for losing our $$ in investment. 1stly, no one aims to lose $$ when doing investment. investment comes with risk and the lost in investment was unexpected. 2ndly, invest the $$ so that we can "grow" the $$$. is a fact tat u and i know. for instance, in personal context, with our own $$$, we will seek to "grow" our $$. we buy lottery, shares, bonds and other investments to "grow" our $$$. to be real, who dun like to have more $$$, right? govt is trying to "grow" our $$$ as well. 3rdly, if govt dun invest, they will be scolded as well. people will say "govt so stupid, dunno how to invest and earn more $$ for us". see how difficult it is to please Sporeans.

above r juz some thots which i can recall and would like to pen down my thots.

basically i am a sporean with simple wishes. i just wish for fellow Spoeans to be less demanding and learn to give and take and not expect to be treated like kings and queens and demand for watever they want. i just wish for fellow Spoeans to think for the big picture in making Spore progress together as a nation and not be calculative in the nitty gritty issues and hinder Spore's development. i just wish for fellow Spoeans to understand that we need leaders to lead us into developing as a global city recognised at international level and not leaders who wanna make use of our reserves unnecessarily and not leaders who have not lived in Spore for more than 30 years and coming back now to say they want to serve the people.

my wishes sound very pro-PAP? haha.. I just felt that we are far too small to be able to have too much differences in our political system. Yes, we can have alternative voices but we need alternative voices that make sense. If we can have that, i think it will good for our political systems. however, if we can't have, i rather do without as it will only jeopardize the stability of our govt. since school days till now, whenever i write the SWOT analysis for Spore, secure and stable govt is always the 1st criteria i put down under strength of Spore and i hope i can still do the same for now and in future. whenever overseas friends comment abt Spore, their first comment is always "Spore has a safe and stable govt." i hope i can still hear such comments in future.

i dun get to vote and exercise my right as a Sporean. i really hope my friends who have the right to vote will think carefully, be objective and vote wisely. it is our future that we are talking about. we cannot afford to lose too much as we do not have the ability to withstand it. honestly, if anything goes wrong to Spore, i doubt we younger generation can hold on together and weather the tough times together as a nation. simply becos our new generation of Sporeans are too pampered, lack of exposure and self-centered. we can't do wat our forefathers did, we can't do wat our grandparents or parents did. most of us are simply too arrogant and ignorant.

When 27 meets 27

2011-01-29T14:36:00.002+08:00

When 27 years old falls on 27 Jan 2011, I was a happy and contented girl. I was not overseas, not away from home. I went to my favourite hotel - Goodwood Park hotel for a casual high tea. I met up with my good long time frens for bday celebration. I'm surrounded with lovely pple who sent me heart warming birthday wishes. Wat more can I ask for right? I'm always easily contented during birthday as lOng as I get wat the desired attention. :)

One yr older and One yr wiser.. Wish tat 2011 will b a good yr for me and tat my bday wishes will cOme true. I'm not too greedy to have 3 wishes, rite? Haha...

Praying Hard

2011-01-13T11:55:00.002+08:00

Is the new year and i should start the new year with a happy post. however, i just would like to share my thoughts on the current flood situation in Brisbane, a place where i spent 3 yrs of uni life.

as i was watching the pictures and video clips and reading the updates about the situation, i teared. my uni, the apartment where i used to live in are all in waters. familiar places around the neighbour are flooded as well. really heartbreaking to know tat.

praying hard tat the situation will not worsen and that everything will get back to normal soon. praying hard that my friends in Brisbane are safe and sound.

on the other hand, i felt really lucky. lucky that nutting of such happened when i was in Brisbane. is really a blessing in disguise

i can't hang on anymore...

2010-08-26T00:43:00.004+08:00

"be contented with current moment & work the best out of it" --- somewhat it is hard to maintain this belief for long...

my aunt said to me: "face it and do something abt it OR leave it and live with it. is your call!"

haiz.. hanging on is one thing and when reality is there, it is a totally different issue. i dunno how long more i can hold on to my belief, i dunno if i have the energy to hang on, i dunno how and what i shld do to make myself feel better and carry on with this journey. i noe i need to find the balance and the motivation to hang on BUT is the motivation good enough to cover up for whatever is lacking from DAY 1? i still have a BIG question mark in my mind.

i noe it is time for me to do something rather than wait for something tat may not even come by. i hesitated initially but now i am very sure tat i need to do something before the situation stay stagnant for long.

praying hard and really need all the good blessing.. :)

"Experience Macau" Roadshow 2010 - 16 to 18 July

2010-07-06T22:03:00.003+08:00

Announcement!

"Experience Macau" Roadshow 2010

16 to 18 July @ Plaza Singapura

Do go and support us! Take part in the lucky draw and Great Macau Hunt to stand a chance to win a trip to Macau!!!

See you then~!! :)

in remembrance..

2010-04-18T16:27:00.003+08:00

a pair of spectacles, long sleeve shirt, tailored pants and a smiley face.. tat's my impression of my granduncle since young. he doted on my brother and i since young. whenever we stayed at his house in Malaysia during school holidays, he took good care of us by showing us around and bringing us around for good food. he knew that we love to eat durian, he would prepare lots of durian for us to enjoy although he is one who don't eat durian. he knew that chewing gum is banned in Spore, he would prepare a few boxes of chewing gum to welcome us. during then, he did not have any grandchildren. hence, he treated both my brother and i as his own grandchildren and was always very delighted to see us.

well-respected and well-liked by all his relatives and friends, he treated everyone with great hospitality. he is knowledgeable, witty, smart and humurous and he is able to talk to us about almost everything and anything under the sun. a 100% family man who takes excellent care of his family. he loves his wife, he dotes on his children and grandchildren.. he plans for their future and always ensure that they are given the best. he gives everyone fair treatment and he is never judgemental about anyone. i guess that is one of his unique attribute being a Chinese doctor for over 40 years..

is a pity that he has left us but i know he will always be remembered by his beloved family, relatives, friends for who he is.

买东西，吃东西@ 珠海，澳门，香港

2010-03-20T15:37:00.015+08:00

I went to Macau, Zhuhai and Hong Kong with Yunci, Fiona and Philip earlier in Jan. It was a trip planned since last year when Jetstar launched the "one-for-one" airfare. heehee... & for the 1st time i am visiting Macau as a tourist! though straight after the trip, i had to stay back in Macau for meeting, i still had absolute fun during this trip! pictures tell thousand words... so enjoy the following pictures ba...

@ Macau

yeah!!! i went for the world's tallest and highest bungy jump @ Macau Tower! The tower is 338m tall and the bungy jump is abt 223m high. & i conquered it! the feeling was great. standing at the tip of the platform, i had a sudden urge to back out but there is nO way i can back out. so i had to juz go ahead and jump! heehee... it was an unforgettable experience and i am proud of myself tat eventually i still go ahead and i didn't chicken out! heehee...

chocolate cake... my reward after making the jump!

Fiona, Me & Yunci @ Restaurant Platao

for the 1st time i took public buses in Macau. well... very straight forward and convenient actually. though it is quite squeezy during peak hours which is same in spore.

Food that we ate in Macau

Portuguese Food... how can we miss that when we r in Macau!

Serradura... my all time fav!!! & i tink Fiona is hooked on it too. haha... i'll eat more for u when i go back to Macau next time... :p

Sardines...

Garlic Prawns...

Cod Fish... different method of cooking...

duck rice...

@ Hong Kong

on board First Ferry going to HK...

Dragon Hostel @ Mongkok... our accommodation in HK.. simple and very clean... cheap leh... only S$60 per night per person...

TV in the room... very good ah...

the toilet is very small... the toilet bowl will be wet when we bath as tat is where we stand at to bath...

on board the tram up to the peak...

at the peak... misty misty... no view at all lor...

& is cold... brrrrrr.....

on board the cable car to Lantau Island...

we took the crystal clear cabin so it is actually glass bottom which we can see thru...

self taken shot...

nice view from the top... though it is quite cloudy...

met up with Grace - my ex-housemate in Aussie. so happy to see her as we had not seen each other ever since we all left Aussie after grad..

Food we ate in HK..

Osyter Cake! yummy yummy...

claypot rice... delicious...

tried before beef claypot rice? haha... they have a wide variety of meat... chicken, beef, frog leg... yummy ah...

"XU LIU SHAN" dessert... sweet sweet...

coconut fungus something... very good for health...

wat's tis ah? i oso forget ah.. some kind of dessert la...

typical breakfast set in HK... macaroni with sliced ham, eggs and toast & hot tea/coffee

we went for steamboat! as i wanna to enjoy the feel of a table full of food and slowly dipping them in the hot pot...

yummy... time to feast!

mango dessert...

mango sago..

peanut with glutinous rice balls...

Bidding 2009 GOODBYE with happiness, laughter & joy...

2010-03-20T15:04:00.005+08:00

What did i do for Xmas & New Year 2009? Oh well... it was a rather busy period for me... after a busy period at work in the last quarter, it was time for me to rejuvenate and to re-connect with my friends. so during the festive period, i spent quality time with my dearest frens. here are some photos taken during some of the gathering...

1) Xmas Celebration with Sec Sch - 2/4 frens...

usual once a yr xmas gift exchange...

a group photo before we look forward to the next xmas gift exchange...

me and some of the gals...

2) Tess' visit to Spore during Xmas period...

finally~!!! Warren St's Baobei-s r together once again!

haha... certainly i miss the days in Aussie with the gals...

Tess' 2nd visit to Spore... how can we miss out on taking her to Singapore's latest attraction (then) - Singapore Flyer...

view from the top..

the capsule...

3) New Year Countdown celebration with my Spice Buddies

we booked a room for a night to countdown to NEW YEAR. here we were, at the Ascott Apartment @ Raffles Place.. excellent location to see the fireworks at Marina area and cosy room, just nice for all of us...

spacious and cosy...

bathtub! heehee...

fully equipped kitchen!

our pot-luck dinner.. cooking was not too smooth as stove was not functioning well... so for next time when we go back again for celebration, we decide to ta-bao hawker food! ideal leh... :)

we r missing Jasmin! but still worth taking a group photo...

Lian & I...

Lin & I..

Jun & I...

Jas! u owe me a photo... i took with all of them except u. u shall be with us for this year's new year.. yeah? Fingers crossed tat u dun have to go count things or pple again... haha...

Yeah! with this entry... 2009 ended with lots of laughter, joy, fun and happiness. i am delighted tat 2009 was a happy and fulfilling yr for me. i started on a new job which i enjoyed very much. it was something i was looking out for. i got my driving licence. something which i had been longing for. :D

cheerios to a Happy & Eventful & Fulfilling 2009~!

Welcome 2010 with higher hopes, greater expectation!

Hello Baby Javier~!

2010-03-20T14:17:00.008+08:00

Visit to San San's house.. Hello Baby Javier!!! cutie baby boy, active as expected..

"cutie boy! Aunty Wee Wee & Aunty Pat shall visit u again soon... yeah? :D"

Aunty Pat & Baby Javier

see how happy is Baby Javier... laughing out loud..

yeah... with us around, he is always smiling and laughing... :P

Aunty Wee Wee teaching him on "objects" and "colour"... heehee...

wow... more laughter~!!!

Javier:"aunty Wee Wee and Aunty Pat, pls come more often to play with me!"

Aunty Wee Wee & Baby Javier...

Bloggie Revival

2010-03-20T14:13:00.004+08:00

HELLO Bloggie!!!! It had been almost 6 months since i last update my blog. i guess my faithful readers r all tired of logging on my blog and yet there are no updates for them. oh well... so for now, i decide to revive the blog by putting up all my updates for the past 6 months. mostly pics so that i can keep it short and sweet and then i can start afresh from tis yr onwards. shall diligently take photos and keep my blog alive!

my recent trip to Macau

2009-09-24T19:13:00.009+08:00

Anything possible can happen has happened during my recent trip to Macau!~

firstly, last min call from office to inform me that i have to extend my trip due to unforseen circumstances. my 1st instinct was "do i have enough clothes to last me thru out?" though is extension of 2 more days, i still muz have enough clothes ah. my usual practice is i will bring at least 1 set of extra clothes. but for tis trip, i brought juz enough for 4 days. so i have to do washing la.. haha...

then upon reaching HK airport, flight arrived slightly late, so we were late for the ferry. can't board the ferry which we were booked on, have to wait for the next one in abt 2hrs time! that eats into my rest time before the actual program starts in the evening. how nice can that be, right?

then on the day when i was supposed to go back to spore, Macau was hit my typhoon! it was typhoon signal 8 on the night when i was supposed to fly back to spore! get to stay in Macau for 1 more night but i dun really wanna that. due to critical weather condition, i was basically kept in the hotel all the day for tat extra day gained due to flight delay. & i have nOt seen a glass window with masking tape in real life before... haha...

a scene which i only see in movie... :p

anyway, i shall let the photos do the talking. too much to share, juz too lazy to type. haha...

Task 1: Mega (Spore, Thai, Malaysia) MICE Planners Familiarization Trip - 10 to 13 Sep 09

That's my Spore TEAM!

during the dinner @ MGM Grand... with Begger's chicken!

during the formal session with the Macau Trade Partners... all my agents were very well-dressed. Bravo~!

@ Rocks Hotel... one of my fav hotel in Macau... Classical, victorian style...

@ the Lion Dance teambuilding session... all perspiring like mad! but it was rather FUN~

@ the Grand Hyatt Macau...

all geared-up for the hard hat tour of Grand Hyatt Macau! due to open in end of Sep!

1st peek at the Grand Hyatt Macau hotel lobby...

the grand ballroom...

the open concept kitchen Mezza 9 Restaurant...

During the lion dance...

my 1st time...

@ The Venetian Macao

Ryan Giggs... my fav player from Man U... @ Man U Experience in Venetian

the pool outside the Italian restaurant in Venetian...

the royal dinner... grand leh...

Food I ate during the trip..

Appetizer... i love the dish in the middle... yummy~

yummy... shld be chicken... i tink~ haha...

the Serradura is simply delicious! can i have a 2nd serving, please?

satisfying breakfast with Wanton Mee... the very local style... i love it

"Ha Zi Mee"... can't find in spore lor...

the rather fishy Bacalhau (cod fish)...

2nd Task: MGTO Golf Challenge

my 1st time into a golf course...

my room in Westin Resort in Macau...

spacious room indeed...

Portuguese food

Clams... really nice...

fried cod fish cakes... yummilicious

african chicken... signature dish...

Sardine... not my cup of tea though... too much bones la

Portuguese Seafood Rice... i like it~

while my golfers were enjoying their golf, i made a trip to some hotels with my colleague from malaysia. we were not slacking lor, we were inspecting these hotels leh... see how hardworking we r. haha...

@ Waldo Hotel Macau

how i wish i can stay in tis room...

comfy comfy... luxury leh...

well well... it was a great trip to Macau for me. i really learnt quite a fair bit from this trip. not only did i get to polish up my Canto (though i still sounded quite weird), but also managed to learn on how to react to unforseen circumstances calmly and in a professional manner.

Pri sch frens gathering

2009-09-24T19:09:00.003+08:00

last month, i had a gathering with my pri sch friends. we made a trip to the newly open The Central @ Somerset (was it tis name? haha). tried out this Korean BBQ. oh well, korean food after all is korean food. turn all of us into vegetarian! heehee... but it was rather good and unique experience. most of all, the company was fantastic. i muz say, gathering with tis bunch of childhood frens always bring back fond memories, cheeky moments and tons of laughter...

a table full of vege~!

of cos there were meat la...

& this ginseng chicken soup... nice~

my childhood frens since pri sch.. some i knew since pri 1 and there is one who happened to be my nursery fren! haha... counting the years back... wow...

YES! i am trying to make Yunci look ugly here by asking to hold on to tis pose while enjoying her food... haha...

NDP long weekend travel to Malaysia

2009-09-24T18:43:00.007+08:00

i noe my blog seems dead and all my entries r way outdated... please bear with me la... cos had been so busy lately. now that i have a little breather, i shall upload all pics for my past 1 mth plus happenings before more photos accummulate along the way.

over the NDP long weekend hols, i made a road trip to Malaysia with my cousin SW, WK, niece Lynn and Auntie Cindy. it was a relaxing and fun trip. we had lots of laughter along the way and forever teasing Lynn whenever we can. haha...

1st stop to Malacca

@ WK's auntie's house, we were welcomed by a garden full of lovely flowers and greeny plants... passion fruits hanging around...

red flowers...

Lynn's fav... Momo, the naughty daughter who keeps irritating Lynn.

In KL...

while we were enjoying the real ice cream from baskin robins, Lynn had her eyes set on this "BIG ice-creammmmm" light bulb! haha...

the authentic and typical malaysia style wanton mee... black sauce...

typical hakka mince meat with noodles... great taste!~

on the train... only cousin SW and i were interested in acting cute... Lynn was more interested in her puzzle...

In Genting...

while waiting to check in to hotel, Lynn had some good entertainment by doing the puzzle...

the indoor theme park...

the cable car ride...

Lynn is obviously enjoying leh...

welcome to outdoor theme park...

the outdoor theme park...

the "3 elephants"

Lynn and her new found fren...

Family Outing to Singapore Zoological Gardens..

2009-08-02T00:52:00.009+08:00

haha... another outdated write up abt the family outing to Singapore Zoo abt 2 weeks ago.

after the Bird Park, we decided to go to the Zoo for a day of fun and excitement. for me & my 2 aunts, it was more like a day of break from some tension at home. well well... lately, alot had been happening at home. an escape once in a while is good for us. so tis day out to the Zoo was really good and fruitful. smell the fresh air in the open and get to see the wide variety of animals in the Zoo. for the last part of our trip, Lynnette had the best fun when we went to Kids' World. she had a good timing getting drenched while running around in the water fountain for kids. as for me, i had great fun running after her to make sure she was okay. of cos i was drenched too but it was okay for me as the weather was just too hot... water splashing on me helped to cool down. heehee... Lynn enjoyed herself and her Ah-Yee, ME enjoyed myself too! :)

we are going to the ZOO ZOO ZOO! how abt u U U?

a ride on the Rhino...

meet the white tiger who was doing his "cat-walk" while visitors were busy taking photos of him...

the wild boar tat only has one horn...

Lynn & her BIG BOOTS! heehee...

woohoo! see how high tis seal can jump!

indeed, he is a good player in frisbee! nice catch!

SEAL: how come no encouragement? applause pls!!! i'm all ready to receive compliments!!!

afternoon nap after lunch... lazy polar bear enjoying the sun while lying in his private air-con area...

the Rhino...

the zebra... nice lines...

the ostrich...

the Lions...

the giraffes...

BIG black bear...

in memory of Ah Meng, the icon of Singapore Zoo...

hibcus flowers in zoo...

some lovely purple flowers..

forget the name of this flower.. anyway, it looks quite fake but it is real!

2nd visit to Macau

2009-07-04T15:03:00.011+08:00

Haha… received many complains abt not updating my blog. Paiseh paiseh… had been very busy ever since I came back from Macau… come to think, that is abt 3 weeks ago liao. I went to Macau for abt 1 week for meeting with my bosses. Really great exposure for me & really learnt a lot. Shall not make u guys read on wat I did during meeting. All u guys need to noe is tat I was sick during 1st day of meeting. I was puking halfway thru the meeting, lucky I headed fast enough to puke in the dustbin instead of the carpet! Haha… & it was another round of drama-mama at the airport when we arrived Spore. A suspected case on board the plane for the “flu” so there was quite a hoo-ha at the airport. Thank goodness it was okay in the end. J anyway, photos shall do all the talking now…

Taipa Houses Museum - one of the MUST visit place when u go to Macau. very lovely ambience.. look at my next photo & u will noe...

take a stroll @ the museum... enjoy the breeze and it is really lovely... serene surrounding...

just nice it was Lotus Festival when we were in Macau so in time for some lotus in action...

my personal fav among all..

the blooming lotus among all...

Macau's landmark - Ruins of St. Paul...

view from Mount Fortress @ the Macau Museum...

fountain with tiled drawing along the street...

amazing artwok along the street...

romantic, isn't it? this scene captured my attention when i was on my way back to the hotel at night. the lighting, the building, the cobbled street... made this lane simply perfect for a romantic photo shoot at night! :)

1st accommodation was @ Sofitel Hotel - 5 stars hotel

view from my room @ 14th floor...

from the bathroom, u can see the room clearly thru the glass window

the queen size bed! comfy...

TV and work desk...

2nd Accommodation @ Altira Macau - 6 stars hotel

the toilet... rather open concept with 2 sliding doors only...

see the bath tub? BIG ROUND Bath tub!

double bedding so i have 2 beds!

TV and work desk...

view from where i stayed at... 32nd floor!

photo in the toilet!

tea & coffee!

yes! it can play my ipod...

personalised service.. whenever i switch on the TV, i am greeting by tis screen!

room service! when i was juz lazy to go out for dinner...

Site Inspection @ City of Dreams... The Bubble show...

water splashing downwards...

Bubble is some sort of illusion show in an Omimax theatre layout..

Dragon is the main lead in the show...

Site inspection @ Hard Rock Hotel

the lobby where stars posters were placed at... Jacky Cheung!

the swimming pool...

Video... Part of The Bubble Show...

Family Outing to Jurong Bird Park

2009-06-30T18:16:00.001+08:00

super back dated post which was not posted. earlier in June, we (me, Aunt Cindy, Cousin SW and WK) brought Lynnette to Jurong Bird Park. Aunt Cindy has a corporate card which is FREE admission for 4 people. since Lynn is not yet 3 yrs old, she do not need to pay any admission as well. heehee... Lynn previously explored the Singapore Zoological Gardens so this time round, Birdpark is a total diff experience for her.

as for me, it had been donkey years since i last step into Jurong Bird. Definitely a great experience for me as well.

welcoming us at the entrance r some lovely and bright looking birds...

the long tail macaw

long neck Flamingo..

The Eagle!

Lynn was quite terrified by the big eagle that her smile became so stiff... haha...

i forget wat is the name of tis bird... yellow beak.. look kinda blur.. whahaha...

another one... which i forget the name ah...

more birds...

show at the hawk area...

Lynn's fav... the penguins!!!

the grand show at the amphitheatre.. started off with many many flamingos...

birds flying pass the hula-hoop

the Swan...

the Pelican...

the African Waterfall Aviary

Spore only waterfall... man-made one... haha... donkey years ago, me, Lin and Lian took a pic here during an excursion trip! haha...

raining heavily so we were stucked at the pavilion... Lynn enjoying the raining scene...

Happy Birthday by the parrot...

Baking Session with Pri Sch Frens

2009-06-08T16:36:00.003+08:00

busy weekend for me! heehee... i have enough of being grounded at home becos of the foot injury. i shall blog abt my Sat and Sun's activities in 2 different entries. 1st entry will be on Sat's activity with my pri sch frens. we had our long awaiting baking session @ Waileng's house which is located at the far end of Spore, Bukit Panjang. to Me, Yunci and Jasmine, Waileng's house is juz so out of place. haha... but since we promised to visit her at her house, we will make a trip there no matter how far it can be. afterall, we r there for an interesting purpose which is BAKING! heehee... the end products was nice.. juz need some fine tuning. i guess we will be better after a few more tries! heehee... & we concluded tat for further gathering, we shld set it at pple's house. it can save us on spending too much and we can nua longer at a place. next gathering venue... maybe at my house for some traditional Hakka dishes... woohoo~!!!

Photos for the day:

preparation for some serious baking...

we r really doing our part for the baking... not play play only...

thanks to Waileng for her hospitality and we really made quite a mess out of the whole place...

Yunci was fighting hard with this bowl of mixture... she stirred so hard, machiam training hard for her dragonboat race. haha...

the stirring in action...

the human grinders... we were using our hands to smash and grind the cornflakes into small small pieces...

Apple Crumble in baking action...

the end product: Apple Crumble... looks yummy...

well, the verdict was tat we need to improve on the base, otherwise all will be good! haha...

end product: CornFlakes cookies... different taste as compared to usual chocolate cookies. verdict: we need to smash the cornflakes to even smaller bits...

fruitful and fun baking session... journey back home was quite a distance but still we had an enjoyable time. is always lovely and nice to gather and meet up with frens on weekend, esp after a week long at work. heehee... shall look forward to next gathering soon...

Cutie Baby Boy...

2009-06-01T10:16:00.003+08:00

it was a painful weekend at first but it became a lovely weekend in the end. painful becos i went for accupunture for my leg foot. hope the accupunture works and my pain can go away real soon.

anyway, on the happy note, a new life was born on Sat. woohoo~!!!! really wonderful and pleasant news. over the past few months, other than Mummy San San was anxious, Aunty Patricia and Aunty Wee Wee (ME) had been quite gan chiong abt welcoming the new baby boy anytime tis week or next week.

on Sat at abt 8plus to 9pm, when San San sms us to say tat she was in hospital to await for the delivery, i was quite shocked cos the expected due date was abt 18 days later. woooo... baby boy really can't wait to see the beautiful world. then at abt 11plus, we received San San's sms to inform us tat she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. whahaha...so Pat and i can't wait to see the cutie baby and decided to visit San San the very next day even though we noe it will be quite troublesome to visit hospital in times of all the flu tingy. I guess the urge and enthusiasm to see the baby beats everything.

Mummy San San and cutie baby boy... soundly asleep after having milk milk...

look at Cutie's rosy cheeks..

yawnz! yawnz ah... while he was trying to visualize tat he is still in Mummy's womb and try to sleep well, his mummy and 2 aunty-s were busy chit chatting... so he tried to peek at who r talking in the room.

when Cutie open his eyes, 3 camera phones started to snap all the way... haha... healthy baby though is a bit small size at birth. well, with the tender care from Mummy and Daddy as well as all the uncles and aunty-s showering him with love, care and concern, i am sure Cutie will grow up to be strong and healthy.

y do i call him Cutie for now cos his parents haven decide on the name yet. a few names to consider, will reveal his name when i attend his Baby Shower in 1 mth's time. meanwhile, let's juz stick to his name being Cutie! :)

Cutie & Aunty Wee Wee.

Wee Wee is my nickname in Poly and all my poly frens call me Wee Wee. so Cutie will address me as Aunty Wee Wee, I guess. haha... when i look at Cutie, i can really feel tat time passes so fast. juz abt few yrs back, i was still in poly with his mummy. when she would try to keep me awake during lectures and when she would keep bugging me not to sms during class. yeah and now San San has become a Mummy already. i guess the next time when 3 of us, me, Pat and San San meet up, Cutie will be tagging along as well. heehee...

my poor feet...

2009-05-24T23:26:00.001+08:00

stain of the herbs is still visible on my ankle and sole... the pain is still there on and off... aiyooo.. i nv knew it was tat serious. abt 1 mth ago, my feet got stuck in the drain. as i was in a rush to office, i juz hurry off when i got my feet out of the drain, without even checking if my feet is okay. then as days pass by, i felt the pain when i walked. the pain is somewhere at my sole but i still did not pay attention to it until recently, the condition seems worsen. tat was when i decided to pay the sinseh a visit. when the sinseh tried to find out where the problem is, he saw tat my feet is a bit swollen. so he used a stick to point out to the ligament which i injured. the moment he tried to press hard on tat injured portion, i really cannOt tahan liao. the pain is juz unbearable. yes, my feet is really swollen and i really sprained my ankle ah. faint sia... i din noe it was tat bad. sinseh said tat if i did not treat my injures, i will sprain my ankle very easily in future. he said tat within these 3 days i muz not injure my ankle again and if i dun feel the pain after 3 days, i shld be fine. well, today is 1st day and i still feel the pain la. hopefully tomolo and day after will be better. aiyoooo... how come so jialat and yet i din realised sia... haiz...

Lombok Trip

2009-05-03T00:58:00.027+08:00

alrighty.... update! update! got complains from my faithful blog readers again... paiseh la.. busy busy la... my latest update shall be my recent overseas trip:

abt 2 weeks ago, i went to one of the Indonesian island, Lombok for a 3 days 2 nights business trip. the main purpose of the trip is to know more abt Lombok and what Lombok can offer for its tourists as well as check out how the holiday resorts and hotels in Lombok look like. for me, it is my 1st time to Indonesia. yes! i had nv been to Indonesia although it is so near to spore.

basically for the whole trip, there were alot of site inspection on hotels and resorts. the schedule was so packed tat we hardly had our own time to roam around the place. however, along the way, the magnificent view of the coastal line and the mountains certainly created a very deep impression in my mind. if pple were to ask me abt Lombok, i will be reminded of its natural beauty of sand, sea and sun... YES! Lombok is very hot at tis period of the year as it is the dry season but i guess for such beach island destination, such hot weather can nv be avoided. haha... took a lot of photos over the 3 days, here r some of the lovely ones to share with all...

on board the plane when it was abt to land in Lombok's airport... from tis view, it seems tat we r flying at a height which is same as the mountain...

1st night stay was in Oberoi Resort, one of the very exlcusive resort in Lombok. it has its own road leading to the resort from the main road. it has its own jetty to ferry its guests to the outlying Gili islands. though it is located faraway (abt 40mins ride) from the main tourist area, Oberoi has its own uniqueness and the resort is well-equipped with all the necessary activities, amenities to cater to its guests. a resort tat is suitable for couples who r looking for a exclusive place to enjoy a world of theirs.

welcome dinner by the beach..

dining on the beach, under the moonlight...

the guestroom which i stayed in...

spacious...

cosy...

such a big bathroom!!!

bathtub!!! see the glass panel? yes, the little garden outside is open air although the garden is within the guestroom's boundaries. so basically is quite an open concept bathing area.

even toilet is open concept...

relaxing at the balcony...

feel like having breaky in room? hang the menu in tis scroll at ur door. breaky will be served in-room for u...

view from the pool...

day-bed @ the poolside...

view of the sea from Oberoi resort...

Oberoi's exterior...

fruits r MUST served items for every meal in Lombok

all kinds of bread for u to choose...

yummy american style breakfast...

Oberoi's exclusive ferry jetty for its guests...

view of the sea...

one of the Gili island

sun & sea.. perfect match!

arrival into Vila Ombak at Gili island...

sea view...

2nd highest category of villas in Vila Ombak...

own pool...

interior of the villa's room...

Hosted Pool-side Dinner @ Sheraton Hotel, located at the main tourist area - Sengiggi..

the lighting of the pool @ nite...

my Spore agents enjoying themselves while dancing with the performers during dinner...

the Lombok representatives for the dance... man in suit, Lombok Hotel association's president... young Dutch who speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesian... BRAVO! smilely looking guy at the back, Sheraton Hotel's GM. very frenly and well-mannered guy who is very good with his words and very approachable.

highlights for the whole lot of Hotel Inspection...

@ Holiday Resort

chalet style of villa...

the interior looks rather stylish and modern...

open concept bath tub... one of the common features in almost all hotels in Lombok...

@ Puri Mas Resort

lovely infinity pool facing the sea directly...

Villa @ the resort...

well-equipped kitchen in the villa...

@ Santosa Villa Resort (resort which i spent my 2nd night in). i stayed in the Deluxe suite which is the 2nd highest category of rooms in the resort... here it is:

the comfy bed...

bath area with open concept though the roof has a glass panel...

the bathtub where i soaked in for abt 45mins..

Villa @ Santosa Villa Resort, highest category of accommodation...

comfy bed...

own pool...

lovely bathroom...

the pool...

@ Puri Bunga Resort

nice swimming pool...

lovely sea view from the rooms...

interior of the rooms... unique and antique style of design..

best view of the sea from the rooms at the upper area...

Sengiggi Villa resort

standard rooms...

along Sengiggi Beach...

own massage bed in the villa, highest category of accommodation

in-the-pool bar...

the private pool shared by only guests from the 11 exclusive villas...

@ Novotel Resort, located @ the beautiful Kuta Beach...

flintstones' style of buildings..

interior of rooms...

the sea view...

mountain view... every sat, Hotel will organise breaky to be dine on top of the mountain... good concept, brilliant idea to intro some diff feel for the guests...

hosted lunch @ Novotel... yum yum!

interesting water pipe line...

horse cart ride as their mode of transport...

on the flight back... we were all very lucky as we sat in...

area of seats which food will be personally served by people...

heehee... Silkair BUSINESS Class boarding pass... 1st time i took business class. though short journey, it is still great! all thanks to Silkair's assistance...

High Tea with family...

2009-04-29T19:14:00.003+08:00

It was a busy and tiring weekend for me. I went to Lombok in Indonesia (updates in the next entry) for a business trip from abt 3 days and came back to Spore on Sat night. tat's y i missed out on the night cycling trip organised by my poly frens. well, i guess i have to wait till the next time round when they organised again. on sat nite upon reaching home, i quickly unpacked my luggage and dirty clothes as i noe i will b going for a high tea with my family on sun! hahaha...

with a late breaky eaten at abt 10plus, my aunt and i prepared ourselves to feast at the high tea at Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel. & before i feast, i did some exercise lor. i had to bring a box brochures to my office. i brought this box of brochures back from Indonesia so i tot i shld bring it into the office during weekend with a car, rather than catching a cab during peak hours on weekday.

when we reached Ellenborough Market Cafe at the hotel, it was not time yet. so we hanged around with the rest of the "hungry eaters" to wait for the aupsicious time. haha... at the strike of 3pm, we proceeded into the cafe. is time to feast!!! woohoo~!!! my grandma had a good time eating all the deliciaces as they r mainly Asian cuisines which suited her taste. as for the rest of us, we had a good time trying out all the different kind of food and dessert. i like the durian puffs very much. one mouthful into the mouth, the durian fillings will juz burst in ur mouth. woooo... yummy~!!! Lynnette had a good time too but kids having buffet really bu hua la. lucky is FOC for kids. she drank alot of water without eating much food. haha...

Ellenborough Market Cafe

hungry eaters having a good feast!

Lynn surely treated the cafe as her house ah... she walked around without her shoes! haha...

satay, chicken wings, carrot cake, fried noodles, crab claw...

appetizers.... salad, bread...

main course - chicken wings, crab claws...

all kind of desserts... Tang Yuan, "O-Nee"....

pastries... cakes...

yummilicious durian puff!!!!

after high tea, we went to Brother's house as Cousin SW has not been to his house before. & there is a piano at Brother's place. so being the one who is most musician inclined in our family, Cousin SW started to play us a piece of music. Lynn saw wat her mum did, she follow suit. she took a small chair and sat next to her mum and started to play on the piano. of cos her playing is not as pleasant as her mum's but for the great effort from a 2.5yrs old girl, a round of applause, pls!!! haha...

my long weekend activities...

2009-04-15T14:02:00.003+08:00

Good Friday long weekend holidays was a fruitful and exciting break for me! heehee... had programs lined up on both Fri and Sat. HOWEVER, due to my laziness, i have no photos to share as yet. still awaiting patiently for LI HUILIN to send me the photos taken for our gathering on Fri. once i received, i will upload all photos for both days' events onto the blog. rite now, juz have a read at our activities.

on Fri, the Spice gang met up for buffet lunch. our reservation was at 11am at Noble House. so being ambitious, i told them to meet at 10.30am at Tanjong Pagar MRT. haha... knowing all of our usual pattern of being late, i still took the risk to ask for such an early meeting time. in the end, within my expectations, ALL of us were LATE! haha... we only managed to reach Noble House restaurant at abt 1115am. lucky they din cancel our reservation ah. reason for us to go so a-tas to go for buffet lunch cos it was meant to be a combine bday treat from Jas and Lin together with my 1st pay treat. so we went for buffet and it was a really good experience. the dishes were yummy, ingredients were fresh and taste was juz rite. we cleared almost every dishes we ordered and we even had 2nd order for some yummy ones like the poached prawns, diced beef. when it came to dessert, we had a really scary order list sia... 1st round of order list was 3 bowls of herbal jelly, 5 bowls of mango pudding, 5 bowls of honeydew sago. guess wat? Lian and Lin had a serving of each of the dessert! haha... then we went for 2nd round of dessert with 5 bowls of honeydew sago, 2 bowls of mango pudding and 1 bowl of herbal jelly. YES! in the end, Lian had the most bowls of dessert! salute her ah! whahaha...

after lunch, we went for some indoor exercise. 1st stop was to Marina Square bowling centre for some bowling. donkey years since we lasted played bowling together. we had a good time laughing at one another, had a good time teasing at one another's "drainage clearing skill". overall, it was a very energetic session. we all played well and we did put in effort not to get too many ZEROs. heehee... 2nd stop was to the arcade centre next door. oso long time nv play arcade games together. well well, me and jun played the knocking game and we got so violent tat the whole machine shifted position! haha... & my hands got all red playing the smacking game. we had a race at the daytona car race. all these certainly brought back many fond memories. after much nua-ing here and there, we ended our gathering with lots of smiles, happiness and laughter. it always take us abt 1 mth to plan a gathering with full attendance so we had to decide on our next gathering now. not too kua zhang as all of us r having commitments here and there and such early planning can "book" everyone 1st. :D

on Sat, i went for a farm tour with my grandma, aunt YY, cousin SW, her husband - WK & my lovely niece, Lynnette. pleasant day for outdoor activities. Lynn had a good time running around the Aeroponics Farm (vege). when we reached the Fish Farm, we saw many big and small fishes. Lynn was so fascinated by the big sized fishes. we fed the fishes and they were surely hungry sia. all of them opened their mouths so wide and BIG! there were turtles in the pond, so we fed them as well. most of them were actually doing sun-tanning so we tried to distract their lovely sun-tanning session by luring them with the food. haha... it surely works when one by one, each of them slowly discard their sun-tanning position. :) when we reached the Goat Farm, i tot we can go in the barn for a walk. however, due to AVA regulation, such barn walk is no longer allowed. so juz too bad tat Lynn cannot get a close up look @ the goats. i had a close up look @ the goats a few yrs back when we brought our kids from Mentoring club for outing. Lunch was at Poison Ivy. all food served was fresh and organic. very original taste and healthy. pleasant outdoor seating arrangement which allow the customers to enjoy their meals even when the weather is rather hot with sorching sun. day ended with tiredness and happiness. Lynn had a fun time, i had a good time too.

Sun was housework day. spent the whole day doing laundry, sweeping floor and mopping floor. really became auntie maria ah. haha... but after 2 days of fun, i shld do some work to balance up. :p

*i realised without photos, i seems to tok too much ah. hahaha... paiseh for the long winded-ness*

the email tat made my day bright and happy...

2009-04-14T18:57:00.004+08:00

i meant to post tis entry yesterday but i was just too busy at work.

yesterday morning, after a fruitful and happy long weekend, i reluctantly reported for work and i was still feeling tired. as i opened up my email, something caught my eyes immediately. the subject line for one of the email wrote "Letter of Compliment to Ms Iris (Macau Tourism)". at once, my eyes opened up wide and BIG!

it was an email wrote by a lady whom i attended on the phone last week. she called to enquire on Macau as she would like to go to Macau for holidays with her family in June. i was totally stunned when i saw her email to my boss. she said tat she was pleased with my service attitude and that i was willing to help and passionate abt my work. she mentioned that she is eagerly looking forward to her trip and she even congratulate my boss for hiring the rite person for the job. haha... then when my boss called the office in the morning, the 1st ting he told me was "good job, iris". heehee... my day was totally brighten up by the email and my boss' words. at least i noe my effort is appreciated and i really did not expect any of such emails to come in. i tot in general pple wun really bother with such ting and i really wanna thank the lady for taking time to write the letter of compliment. it is a very good and pleasant feeling to know tat my hardwork, effort and service is appreciated by others and that i am able to provide some form of help for them. it is definitely a great motivation for me! :)

if i encounter any good service attitudes elsewhere, i will try to write in my letter of compliment as well as i noe it is going to be a positive motivation for the service provider in their future business.

GREETINGS FROM MACAU!

2009-04-12T14:59:00.020+08:00

GREETINGS FROM MACAU!

the significant landmark of Macau, Ruins of St. Paul

abt 2 weeks ago, i went to Macau for the 1st time. it was my 1st overseas trip for work purpose as well. a very fruitful and educational trip for me. my product knowledge abt Macau definitely was enhanced after the trip and i certainly had great fun along the trip with the company of a grp of lovely delegates.

DAY 1: Arrival into Macau

our 1st day arrival into Macau was abt 9pm at nite. warmly greeted by my colleague from Macau HQ, we headed to our hotel for a late dinner. upon arrival, we were welcomed by a 13-courses dinner. woohoo~!!! it was a wedding banquet menu, hence there were dishes such as suckling pig, shark fins, chicken and more. the food was tasty but it was too much for us to finish considering the late dinner was consumed at close to 10pm late at nite. after dinner, we headed to watch some greyhound racing. it was an eye-opener for me and many of my delegates. some of the delegates even had some fun placing bets. day 1 ended with a visit to one the biggest casino, The Sands. for me, i juz wanna take a look at how the place looks like. casino gambling dun really interest me at all.

greyhound gathered before the race...

a photo taken before the race...

the rather well-known Sands Casino of Macau...

DAY 2: Sightseeing around Macau Peninsula & Hotel Site Inspection

we being Day 2 with hotel site inspection at the various hotels around the area which we stayed at & it was around the area which was near to Macau Ferry Terminal. basically Macau is quite a small country, hence it is easily accessible by walking around the city. the weather during tis period of the year is cooling, therefore walking around is a pleasure exercise.

Jocelyn & I @ Goddess of Mercy Statue...

a foot on top of Macau Tower, 10th highest tower in the world...

bungy jump and sky jump r activities available @ Macau Tower.. for dare devils to give it a try. mmm.. i will do it when i'm there the next time round! woohoo~!!!

Chapel of our Lady of Penha

Macau Tower & 友谊桥 from afar...

along the streets @ the historic site of Macau..

the FOOD street in Macau... all the yummy local delights r located along tis street...

Wynn Hotel...

Musical foundation @ Wynn Hotel... performance is once every 30mins.. lovely music with great water formation...

within the Wynn Hotel shopping area, there is tis money tree display performance...

all the 12 horoscopes as shown here...

the chinese zodiac signs on the top @ the ceiling...

start of the performance... the crystal lighting will slowing descend thru the opening...

as the performance finishes, the ceiling will close up slowly...

@ MGM Grand Hotel...

MGM Grand Hotel is one of the deluxe 5-stars hotel in Macau...

DAY 3: Trip to outlying Islands - Taipa Island & Coloane Island...

the 2 very lovely islands located around Macau Peninsula. journey by car across the bridges is abt 15 to 20mins... i like the 2 islands very much as it gives pple a very relaxing and laid back feeling. is the very kampung and olden days way of lifestyle on the islands. historic buildings plus yummy local delights r the main attractions of the islands. as for Taipa island, there r additional attractions such as Macau Jockey Club, Macau Stadium as well as the newly development of luxurious hotel resorts. the 1st in place will be Venetian which has been featured on CNA prevoiously.

Lord Stow's Portuguese Egg Tarts...

the very Famous and popular Portuguese Egg Tarts in Coloane island... super yummy egg tarts...

猪排包... Pork Chop Bun... tis local delight is simply marvellous. the taste is juz rite and the pork chop is so juicy. with the combination of Ice Milk tea or Hot Milk tea, nutting can go wrong. yummy yummy...

a group photo taken with the chef owner @ a local Portuguese restaurant. very authentic Portuguese food... something not to be missed when u r in Macau...

food street @ Taipa Island... 官也街... local delights plus all the yummy pastries...

interesting road name...

Chapel of St Xavier... Mother Mary in the Chapel is dressed in the olden times Chinese Fairy Godmother's style of clothes... peaceful looking Mothe Mary overseeing the peacefulness of the little island of Coloane...

one the shopping area in the huge Venetian Hotel cum shopping mall...

the food court with a man-made ceiling in Venetian...

@ The Grand Canal of Shoppes in Venetian...

DAY 4: Sightseeing @ Historic Centre of Macau

Senado Square... shopping paradise in Macau...

some hotels which i personally like very much...

The Venetian Macau Hotel...

very english style hotel room...

spacious bathroom...

The Sofitel Hotel..

good view from the outdoor swimming pool of the hotel

classy looking hotel room...

jaccuzi facilities in the deluxe suite room...

open concept gym room...

ONLY outdoor swimming pool i've seen over these few days...

The Waldo Hotel

one of the designer rooms of the hotel, the HIP room...

panaroma view of Macau Fisherman's Wharf and Sands Casino from the hotel room...

Happy Belated Bday celebration for Philip!

2009-03-23T17:45:00.004+08:00

is belated bday celebration for Phil on Sat, 21 Mar. our initial plan was to go to Yuki Yaki for steamboat BBQ but it was FULL HOUSE! so we had to change to go to Ministry of Food (MOF) for dinner.

Katsu Rice Set...

Soba with Tempura Set...

Beef Sukiyai Set...

Sashimi Set..

with additional $3.30, we each had a dessert...

Mocha Milkshake for Phil

Mango with ice cream and crush ice... for ME!!

warm sweet potato and icy cold ice cream... Fiona's pick!

after dinner, we went to Timbre @ Arts House for chill out and tat's when Huiying joined us for the nite. lovely ambience, wonderful companion, interesting live band... the nite is juz so rite for relaxing and chilling... though at the end of the day, all of us r super tired... we really had fun... heehee...

Sakura Drink...

Tiramisu cake from Fullerton for Phil...

Classic Italian pizza... yummilicious...

half a dozen of shooters... wat drink is it ah? i forget liao...

the layer of TOBASCO floating in the middle of the drink... & tis drink taste kinda weird! SPICY and weird!

Girls in Black!

Phil & Huiying...

Fiona & Phil...

Me & Phil...

the only group photo of the nite....

lovely night out with poly friends...

2009-03-18T16:54:00.006+08:00

haha... before the photos overdue, i better update my blog 1st. not really fresh out from the oven but these photos were taken last friday. usually i will upload the photos on tat very nite but due to unforseen circumstances, i din had the chance to upload. & over the weekend, i din had any chance to use my lappy. so dragged till tis week, i received a reminder from Pat to ask for photos and i finally rem to download from my cam and upload on facebook and my blog here. heehee...

anyway, fri's gathering was with my poly friends and Ms Koh, our poly lecturer cum mentor. there were lots of laughter, jokes and happy smiles for the whole evening. apart from climbing the irritating and idiotic long flight of stairs up to Timbre @ Old School, everything was perfect for the nite. the company was good, the ambience was lovely and the food was yummy. Ohhh.. one more flaw: the fish & chip was uncooked when served to us initially. but Timbre did a service recovery by giving us a totally new set of fish & chip even when our initial one was halfway eaten. for tat, we compliment them. but the raw fish initially certainly shocked all of us. the nite went on well with our dedication to Ms Koh and i'm glad tat Ms Koh enjoyed herself with us.

the 2nd half of the nite continued after Ms Koh & Eugene went off 1st. June, Patricia, Jace, Bryan & I met up with another friend, Zach for KTV! woohoo~!!!! overnite KTV session @ Partyworld, from 12am to 4am. we decided on taking some shift work during singing in order to tahan thru the night. whahaha... after singing, we didn't go home straight as the only transport left will be TAXI which will cost bomb. we chose to sit down @ the 24-hrs Macdonald @ Shaw House to have our breaky while waiting for 1st train or bus. heehee... & we saw many interesting pple and happenings @ the macdonald. well, certainly the 2 guys may tink likewise as they shld be feeling rather uneasy. heehee... apart from these unglam scenes going on, we had a good time chit chatting, gossiping @ Macdonald. it was really a good moment of recalling all fond memories we had during our 3 yrs of poly life in NP. come to tink, we noe each other for abt 8 yrs.. pretty long ah...

alrighty! time to share some photos taken! till then, i shall await for the next poly gathering (hopefully more pple attending the next one).

group photo @ Timbre, old School

a table full of FOOD!!! & tat's the uncooked fish & chips!

crayfish spaghetti... quite normal.. but maybe when i ate it, it was cold liao so not as nice it shld be...

Me, Pat & Jace... top down photo taking always make our face look smaller but tis is a bit too close up la...

June & Eugene... couple looks... *oops*

Eugene & Ms Koh...

all the ladies for the night...

Bryan & June.. only pic with Bryan as my cam's batt decided to run dry as soon as Bryan arrived. haha...

the band in action... singing the song which we dedicated to Ms Koh...

ColorGenics profile

2009-03-12T09:16:00.002+08:00

seems tat everyone has tis one their blogs.. i shall try it too... here r my results:

http://www.goldinuniverse.com/

You have a vivid imagination and this is good. Great inventors, explorers all had inventive, imaginative minds. Your friends and acquaintances may consider you over-imaginative and given to fantasy or day-dreaming. So what ? this is a part of your character and charm.

You are very self-sufficient and methodical. You presume to know where you are going but need to find a person who will recognise the way you are, not be too demanding and who is, as they say in Italy, 'Simpatico'. - tis is pretty true abt me, i guess... :)

The situation at this time is one of considerable distress. You feel trapped and you are looking for some way out. You can find solace in the arms of someone who cares so long as there is no long-term emotional involvement.

You are being unduly influenced by the situation that is all around you. You do not like the feeling of loneliness and whatever it is that seems to separate you from others. You know that life can be wonderful and you are anxious to experience life in all its aspects, to live it to the full. You therefore resent any restriction or limitations that are being imposed on you and you insist on going it alone. - i would tink tis is really true abt myself... hee...

You are anxious about all the limitations to which you are subjected to at this time. You feel that you are not valued for what or who you are. You need OUT. So why procrastinate any longer - MOVE!

Crab & Durian Feast with Pri Sch Frens...

2009-03-01T01:10:00.003+08:00

it was a gathering which i had been organising abt 1 mth ago. it was so hard to fix a date with everyone as each of us has different commitments on different days. finally, a common timing was fixed to be on Fri, 27 Feb & initially the gathering was only among the gals. it was juz last week when i decided to get the guys as well. so trying my luck, i sms-ed the guys and i was rather surprised by their keen responses. it was a crab feast @ Melben Seafood @ TPY and we arranged for a rather late dinner @ 8pm.

dinner was good as the crabs for the night were fresh and yummy. & not to forget, the company for the night was interesting and great. we have been friends for almost 15 to 19 years & it is always good and enjoyable to meet up with such long time friends. we can update on our happenings as well as do some recalling of fond memories. i was pretty surprised by most of us as we were able to recall things tat happened way back during the days when we were only abt 10 to 12 yrs old. haha... & all these fond memories always create a good laughing session. i do look forward to more of such gatherings with this grp of long time friends though i muz say, organising such gathering with so many pple takes lots of patience and effort. haha... i was rather impressed by my own perservance and patience in organising the gathering despite so many cancellation, postponing and changes. anyway, at the end of the day, when all of us enjoyed ourselves and had great fun, all my effort were worthwhile afterall. heehee... furthermore, my craving for crabs and durians were satisfied in juz 1 night, esp for the durian feast. our decision to stall-hop was great and wise! haha... i shld start to plan on the next gathering whenever possible since such organising takes some time ah... heehee... up next shld be baking session @ Waileng's house, rite gals? hahaha...

a group photo after the crab feast and before the durian feast.

Outing to Marina Barrage

2009-03-01T00:49:00.003+08:00

It had been abt 2 weeks since i started on my new job. Currently I am working in a tourism marketing company and for the past 2 weeks, it was a period for me to get used to the happenings in the office and the operations of the various accounts. i am still adapting and learning the ropes, hopefully everything will carry on smoothly. basically the job scope is wat i am looking for and i hope tat my interests for the job will carry on to be boasted as time goes by. i dun really like to do things which dun interest me. thus, interests in the job play impt role in capturing my attention for the work.

since i started to work, i am rather lazy to online after i get back from work. my thinking is tat since i had been facing the computer screen for the whole day, i dun wana face any more of my lappy for the rest of the nite. i prefer to root myself to the sofa and enjoy the shows on TV. so i guess tat is the main reason y my blog had been neglected for the past 2 weeks. had some happenings for last weekend and tis weekend, so decided to update both entries together.

1stly, i went to the Marina Barrage with my family (Cousin SW, WK, Baby Lynn, Aunt Cindy and Grandma). weather was pretty cooling on the day when we were at the Marina Barrage and it was quite a pleasant trip as i had fun running around with Lynn. the place was rather spacious though there were many pple around - families having picnic and there were some events going on. however, i tink i was expecting to see more things. to me, the whole area seems under-utilised. hopefully when the surroundings r more or less done up, when all the construction work ends, the whole Marina Barrage will be fully-utilised to its max level. look forward to tat day... ^_^

anyway, here r some pics which i took @ the Marina Barrage:

view from the top of the barrage... trying to find the building which my office is located at... can't seems to see it clearly though...

Marina & City Hall area with all the hotel buildings, the Singapore Flyer

fountain within the Marina Barrage.. good for kids to enjoy water splashing...

the bridge for pple to walk up from ground level to the upper level...

the bridge with the gates or dams...

Lynn enjoying her chocolate pooky sticks... yum~ yum~

is Lynn trying to do "twinkle twinkle little stars?" haha...

Girls & Ladies...

2009-02-19T23:34:00.003+08:00

in general, i tink most girls/ladies tend to complain when someone commented tat they dun like their age. when one is being said to look younger than her actual age, one may tink whether the other party finds tat she is kiddy looking or childish in thinking. when one is being said to look older than her actual age, one will be rather upset and start to stock up on facial products, wrinkle cream and anti-ageing lotion. when we were young, we tried to dress as mature little adults. when we r much older now, we try to dress casually as over-age little girls. haha.. contradicting thinking indeed.

& as one starts to grow older, the way on how pple address u differs too. the very common example will be the encounters @ hawker centres. rem the days when u were being addressed as "小妹" or "Ah-Girl" by the chicken rice stall owner or fishball noodles seller? i rem tat when i was in pri 3, i had tis really short and tomboyish hairstyle. i was mistaken as "Ah-Boy" by the chicken rice stall owner. haha... then as time passed by, the greetings became "小姐" or "Miss". by the time when ur face starts to show the signs to show ur age, pple may start to address u as "Auntie". unless u manage to meet some really nice and kind hawkers who r so good & polite with their words, u will then escape the fate to be called "Auntie". & i am pretty sure tat these hawkers muz be having really good business from these "小姐们". heehee...

previous weekend's happenings...

2009-02-15T13:12:00.000+08:00

last weekend, it was rather happening and interesting. a fruitful weekend with lots of catching up with friends. 1stly on Sat, i went for the Safari Zoo Run with the girls. it was a 6.2km run around the Zoo and Night Safari. the run was flagged off at abt 4pm, a rather good timing. hahaha.. not much sun, cooling weather. as it was still early for the animals at Night Safari, we did not manage to see any interesting animals at Night Safari. When we were in the Zoo, we were greeted by different animals. our pace were slowed down as well as we would like to make full use of the opportunity to take a good look @ the animals. anyway, it had been donkey years since i last visited the Zoo, hence it was a good opportunity to re-visit the Zoo. & as quoted by Stella: "since we paid $38 for the run, we muz make full use of the money to enjoy the Zoo." haha... definitely! we took our own sweet time to look at the various animals such as Otters, Elephants, Polar Bears, Zebras, Giraffes, the "infamous" White Tigers and Orang Utans. our conclusion was tat Polar Bears had the best treatment. with a whole area to themselves as their playground and swimming pool as well as a private bedroom! hahaha...

after the run, we were taking a rest while waiting for the lucky draw which we were not tat lucky to win anything. Oh well, though we went home empty handed, i guess all of us had fun afterall.

Chimpanzee in action... this chimp looked like it was doing the guard duty as it was sitting far at the corner, away from the main group of chimp.

lazy pigs sleeping under broad daylight. and their sleeping position looked really funny. back to back...

the White Tiger territory...

we saw 2 white tigers. one was resting quietly at a corner while the other white tiger was super "AA" la... trying to attract everyone's attention by cat-walking up and down..

as for Sun, i met up with my Spice buddies for a gathering. it was supposed to be a combined bday celebration for Lian, Jun and myself. for me and Lian, it shld be super belated bday celebration. haha.. this gathering was organised abt 1 mth ago and after much changes and cancellation, finally we managed to meet up properly for a simple yet entertaining dinner @ the famous Melben Seafood! it was a long wait for the food to be served as the restuarant was full house. while waiting, we had our usual chit chatting sessions abt anything and everything under the sun. with Jun around, how could we miss out on the old jokes which always make us laugh whenever mention. together with Chee Wei and Ziqi, the atmosphere was even better as Jun had someone to sing along with. & usually one of us (Lian, myself, Lin or Jas) would be one of the target for the night. heehee... for the very night, i guess Jas became the most prominent center of attraction as she brought someone special along. well well, no matter wat was being said or commented abt, everything was juz for fun and laughter. nutting would be taken personally. i do look forward to the next gathering and if possible, i hope tat Lian will bring her special someone along. Lian, dun worry... i am pretty sure tat Jun will give the similar kind of frenly greetings to him. hahaha.. get ready for it, yeah~!

Melben Seafood is famous for the crab dishes and we ordered 2 different ones. Crab Beehoon Soup and Butter Crab (as shown here). this butter crab was simply delicious, esp with the fried "man-tou"... woohoo~!!!

photos taken before the actual feast starts...

& as Jas & her bf were late, we did not take any pic of them. & we oso miss out on our group photo!!!! hahaha... we muz be too hungry to tink abt tat ah...

Sentosa Flowers 2009

2009-02-14T11:19:00.008+08:00

paiseh to all my faithful audience ah... i had been quite lazy in updating my blog as i was hooked on a hong kong tv series for the past few weeks. finally today is the last episode so here i am with some updates for the past few weeks. heehee... quite outdated photos but nvm la. better than nutting mah. :)

during the CNY period, there was this Sentosa Flowers exhibition @ Sentosa. it is a yearly event and tis year i had the urge to go take a look. so i asked my cousin, Seow Wai who is a "花痴" and Aunt Cindy to go together. the flowers were not as fresh as i tot they would be. however, judging from the response of the crowd, i guess everyone still enjoyed the event quite a lot. as for us, we had our own fun too.

tis is the MOO MOO year so of cos MOO MOO is a must @ the exhibition.

alrighty.. u guys will be saying tat i act cute liao... well, with such cutie background, i muz act cute a bit mah... hee~

welcome to Sentosa Flowers 2009~!!! PS: there is something weird abt tis layout, rite? try to spot the weird part...

fresh morning greeted by this lovely Morning Glory~

the farmers' corner... with sweet corns, pumpkins, chillies...

"樱柳" haha... dunno correct wording or not.

looks like bed of roses, rite? but they r not ah... some very colourful flowers which i forget the name liao...

some funny shape fruit... or flowers?

spikey-pooky... is called powder puff flowers, i tink...

i like the leaves.. very unique design...

the orchid corner with all kinds and breeds of orchids... there were pure breed orchids and the really lovely cross breed orchids...

lovey-dovey...

awww... how i miss this place... i rem during my sec sch years, 2/4 had an outing to Sentosa and i took some photos here.. with Lian, Jas and Lin...

some CNY structures made by various pri, sec sch and tertiary institutions... materials used r all recycled items...

lavendar... lovely...

With all the pics of flowers posted here, i would like to say

"Happy Valentines' Day" to all~!!!

silly technical errors or pure laziness of human beings???

2009-02-06T23:00:00.005+08:00

beginning of the lunar new year, i encountered the 1st unlucky day of the yr. it was supposed to be my driving practical test yesterday. i went for revision lessons diligently from mon to wed in order to prepare myself for the test. i tried to read thru all the little notes i wrote for different test routes the night before so tat i wun forget to do the necessary lane changing at the respective junction. on thurs itself, i went for the warm up drive abt 1 hr before my test. i was waiting anxiously and nervously yet my name was never called. when i went to check with the traffic police dept, i was stunned by their replies. they DID NOT have my records! which means i can't take my test at all! WTH~!!! my 1st reaction was how can it be as i already paid for it. i even had my booking records and payment receipts printed out. i showed to the examiner, but they juz can't do anything. they asked me to check with the driving centre instead. at tat point in time, i was really agitated. i tried very hard to suppress my emotion and went over to the booking counter to explain my situation. i was referred to one of the senior staff in the office and he tried to look into the issue by checking out where was the error and try to resolve the issue by getting me the earliest available test date. he explained tat becos i did an online booking at abt midnite, the booking data was somehow lost in the process when they sent the updates to the traffic police dept at 12midnite every day. so i questioned them whether they have a 2nd round of confirmation for list of testees. i was given a very shocking ans as "NO". i was really disappointed by this ans as i tink there shld be some form of re-confirmation on both driving centres and the traffic police dept before the test. & another disappointment is tat since the driving centre allow pple to use online booking and transaction, updating shld not be done only once a day and when errors of such occur, they simply push the blame to technical fault. honestly, i dun buy their explanation. but at that point in time, i really can't do anything much. my mood is totally dampened and all i wanna was to be able to settle on a new test date asap. thankfully they were able to get me a new test date which is abt 1 week later and gave me a complimentary lesson. at the end of the day, it is not any complimentary lesson tat matters most. wat matter most is i prepared myself mentally for the test yet i was not even given the opportunity to go for it due to some stupid technical errors which human beings shld be able to prevent it if a little more effort was contributed...

now tat when i calmed down, i was able to blog abt my encounter. & to tink back abt wat my brother said abt viewing the issue from another point of view in a very "ah-Q" thinking: maybe if i went for the test yesterday, i would have mount kerb and fail the test badly. haha... i guess tat is the only way i can do to comfort myself now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME~!!!

2009-01-27T23:18:00.003+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME~!!! haha... today is my favourite day of the year although today is also the day when i am 1 year older. tis yr's bday is even more special as it is during the CNY period. well, tat is the good thing abt having bdays during end of Jan or early Feb or mid Feb. once in a while, our bdays will be during the CNY period. but tat dun necessary means double ang bao la. hehee..

today is my special day and i juz spent it in a simple way. there were no new year visiting today so i juz stayed home to nua & enjoy the CNY's special tv shows on different channels. Aunt Cindy decided to order pizza for dinner as a form of celebration for my bday. after dinner, i headed to Swensen's @ PS to have a 2nd round of celebration with my mother's side relatives as today is also my cousin's bday. yeahz~!!! me and Cousin Cindy share the same birthday. heehee... since Swensen's has tis Firehouse ice cream bday treat, we decided to go for it. however, my dear cousin forget to bring her IC. aiyoooo... end up, we only managed to get 1 Firehouse ice cream.

Swensen's Firehouse Ice Cream Bday treat...

the stars for the nite... Cousin Cindy & I..
*HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cousin Cindy!!!*

Me & the ice cream...
tis yr is a Swensen's ice cream bday year for me... i juz a Swensen's ice cream cake 2 days ago for my bday ah! :D

to me bday is always special and enjoyable. i am glad to receive blessings and wishes from friends and relatives. with their blessings and wishes, i love my bday even more. with 1 yr older on every bday, i hope i am 1 yr wiser every yr. my bday wishes r simple and straightforward. dun really wanna state it out but in total i have 3 wishes. hahaha... very greedy leh... :P Ohhh... btw, tis is the most "huat" bday i ever have. i tink becos it is during CNY, so i received a few bday wishes with "huat ah!". hahaha... of cos i wanna huat too so all these wishes r really good.

lastly, i would like to thank everyone for their wishes and blessings. THANK U very much!! :)

HAPPY MOO MOO YEAR~!!!

2009-01-26T00:07:00.000+08:00

HAPPY "牛" YEAR!!! Have a Great year ahead~!

CNY is one of my fav festive holidays as mentioned. i like it when everyone in the family gathers together for the new year, having reunion dinner together, laughing and chatting away. CNY reunion is an impt gathering in my family and usually everyone will be present unless unavoidable reasons. in the past when Grandma was still in good health, she was always the one who would cook really yummy food for us. however, as the years passed by, Grandma's health is not at the tip top condition and she is getting very forgetful nowadays. so we decided to let her take a good rest, sit back and relax and enjoy the food (of cos is quite impossible to ask her not to care abt anything. she would wanna contribute a fair share whenever possible & we tried our very best to accommodate her eagerness to help). for the past few years, my 2 aunties and myself have taken over the task to prepare the reunion dinner tat is usually cater to abt 18 pple as well as the lunch on CNY Day 1 which is usually cater to the same number of pple. it is never an easy task to prepare a meal for so many pple and all the preparation and purchasing of food will start way before the actual day. on the actual day itself, there r non stop preparation, cooking, washing up, clearing up to do. although cooking is not an easy job, esp when it is for so many pple, i still like to cook for my family. i like it when pple r enjoying my cooking and i simply love cooking. heehee...

anyway, here r the highlights of our CNY reunion dinner:

everyone was contributing a fair share for this new year.. even little Lynn helped out in placing the mandarin oranges into the basket. good job, Lynn!

since there were so many of us, the amt of food shld be sufficient to fulfill everyone. the ingredients for steamboat...

the steamboat set-up... many plates of chilli.. heehee... my family simply LOVES chilli!!

fried beehoon cooked by my uncle's maid...

dessert after dinner...

"Lo-Hei" before the start of dinner..

the slices of fish symbolise 年年有余!!!

“步步高升！万事如意！心想事成！大吉大利！

学业进步！生体健康！恭喜发财！”

as CNY Day 2 is my special day. so we had a celebration after the dinner to celebrate my day in advance. heehee... i am actually very happy as both my fav celebrations fall on the same day/period.

tis yr before i order the cake, i was pondering which cake i shld go for. i wanna go for the normal cakes but i tot maybe i shld go for something different instead. & so getting an ice cream cake shld be something which everyone will enjoy & tat was my final decision!

heehee... YES! tis is a Winnie the Pooh & Friends cake! & it is for ME! whahaha.... who say cartoon characters' cakes r for young kids?? Winnie the pooh & friends r my fav cartoon characters from Disney so i decided to get tis cake. the name of tis cake is "togetherness". i tink is very appropriate for a bday celebration with family as there is a great sense of belonging and warmth when i'm with my family...

well well... before i can request, all the candles were placed onto the cake. & so from the look of tis cake, my age is openly known by everyone! haha... yeah~!!! i am a quarter century old... Oh wait a min! not officially as it is still 1 day away as to date of tis entry. haaha...

Happy Birthday to ME! Happy Birthday to ME!... my wishes r....

hooo-hoooo....

surprisingly i did not have anyone fighting to blow the candles for me. whahaha... usually i will have a few "helpers" in blowing the candles...

Lynn was kinda excited and we were saying tat it was as if it was Lynn's bday. whahaha...

okiedokie. long day ahead. better finish up my TV show and hit for sack. :)

Pre-CNY Reunion Dinner...

2009-01-20T00:34:00.003+08:00

Chinese New Year is coming soon... in abt 1 week's time. woohoo~!!! CNY has always been my favourite festival as there r many new year goodies to enjoy, great opportunity for everyone in the family to get together, once a yr occasion for long time friends to meet up and gather & of cos not to forget the usual practice during CNY, receiving ANG BAOs! hahaha...

last Sat, i had an early reunion dinner with my family (my parents, my brother & sis-in-law). usually, my family dun have such practice and our reunion dinner will be together with the rest of the family which include my grandma, aunties, uncles and cousins. and as most of u shld noe tat i dun live with my parents. since young, both my bro and i have been living with my grandparents, aunties and uncles. due to my parents' work commitment, both of us have been taken care of by my grandparents since young and usually we would go back to our parents' house every weekend when we were younger. however as we grew older, we had different commitments, thus, this practice had not been in place for years. however, we will still make it a point to visit my parents every now and then. tis yr, my mum suggested to have a reunion dinner together and this was also the 1st year my sis-in-law joined us during reunion dinner officially as part of the Lim's family.

it was a cosy and heartwarming reunion dinner with my family and it was really great to enjoy the "warmth" from the steamboat as well as the warmth from my family. talking abt the steamboat, it had been a very long while since i last seen such an antique-looking steamboat. haha... my bro, sis-in-law and i were amazed to see such antique steamboat equipment @ my parents' house. my mum said tat she preferred to use tis kind of antique steamboat which uses charcoal rather than those which required either electricity or gas. she said tat the food taste nicer with charcoal. oh well, i would say it is definitely a different experience as lots of patience is required when such antique steamboat is used. & maybe i tink tat is y it makes pple enjoy the steamboat-ing moment even more. i tink the last time i was using this kind of antique steamboat was when i was really young (maybe abt 5 to 6 yrs old). is good to see it again. hahaha...

the antique-looking steamboat tat uses charcoal...

after the dinner, my bro, sis-in-law & i went for a movie, The Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁). i heard abt tis show from many pple and all their comments were very good and that created my curiosity for the show. i did not catch Part 1 so naturally when Part 2 was out, i did not had the urge to watch it. however, all the positive comments caught my attention so i decided to watch it. haha.. usually pple watched Part 1 before Part 2. for me, i watched Part 2 before watching Part 1 at home. nevertheless, i was not lost halfway thru the movie as my bro gave me a good intro on wat was shown in Part 1 and i myself have some knowledge abt the 三国 history.

i muz say tat it was a really good show. exciting storyline base on the history, impressive visual effects, interesting dialogue for the actors and actresses. with a show base on history and war, the atmosphere created for the show should be stern and gloomy. however, the funny and interesting dialogue created an enjoyable feel and allow pple to understand the storyline in a more relaxing way. & of cos, Tony Leung nv fail to impress me with his excellent acting skills. one who always maintain a high standard in his acting no matter wat character he is playing. one who uses his "eyes" (眼神) to act and he really knows how to "create a life" for the character.

happy things to share...

2009-01-09T00:14:00.003+08:00

2 happy things to share:

1st: last nite, Aunt Cindy went over to Cousin Seow Wai's house to borrow her camera for some photo taking. when Aunt Cindy reached, Lynnette was busy playing and did not notice that Aunt Cindy was at the door. until when she turned her head to look @ the door, she finally saw Aunt Cindy. without greeting Aunt Cindy, Lynnette's 1st reaction and 1st sentence was "阿姨 leh?". hahaha... 阿姨 is referring to ME! :) so Aunt Cindy complained that Lynn didn't even greet her and juz rem to ask for me. whahaha... well well, that certainly make me very shuang la. afterall, i really dote on Lynn very much. i really love to bond with kids so when i noe tat the kids r asking for me, naturally i will feel very happy and delighted. heehee...

2nd: i received my 1st birthday pressie! heehee.. it had been flown in all the way from HONG KONG! together with a letter of updates and good news, i received a pair of lovely earrings from Grace, one of my flatmate in Aussie previously. Grace, THANK U SO MUCH for the earrings!!! it is in good shape despite having to travel across a long long distance. i really love it and it is so my style! i am happy to hear all the wonderful updates abt ur life back in Hong Kong. CONGRATULATIONS on your wedding & new home!! send my best wishes and regards to Ming! if there is a chance, i really look forward to visiting u in Hong Kong. i will keep u informed if i have any travelling plans to Hong Kong. till then, take good care~!!! :)

Birthday Celebration...

2009-01-03T23:47:00.001+08:00

Happy Belated Birthday to Ivy & Happy Birthday in advance to Wen Hui!

today we went to Timbre @ Mount Sophia to celebrate Ivy and Wen Hui's bday. yeah! when a new year comes, there will be great opportunities to gather together to celebrate bdays and also for us to chill out together and chit chat. i can forsee more of such gathering coming up one by one.. very soon.. heehee...

Timbre @ Mount Sophia has pretty nice environment. cooling surrounding as it is on top of the hill and the outdoor concept gives pple the relaxing feel. it is definitely a good place to chill out. the only disadvantage i can tink of is for pple who dun drive. as if u dun drive, the ONLY way to go is to walk up a long flight of stairs from somewhere in between PS & The Cathay. it is no joke to climb up the stairs which is so steep and long when we r all wearing heels! haha... great exercise before the start of dinner ah... nevertheless, i tink it has been a lovely chill out session. Oh ya, maybe if Timbre can improve on their sound system, i tink it would be perfect.

Fish & chips set...

unique of presenting the food on a plank of wood, instead of a plate. & there were 2 types of fish. crumbed fish which is in a heart shape & the beer battered fish. quite yummy & filling, only minus point is the soggy fries.

Me & Lian with our drinks...
non-alcoholic shirley temple for me as i was not really feeling well & Lian had long island tea which is definitely not my type of drink

the bday girls... Wen Hui & Ivy...

Shupei & Shuwei with their drinks, Sakura... looks good...

Shuwei, Stella & Me...

i like Stella's drink, Tut-Tut... a drink with different transitions...

Stella & the bday girls...

Me & Lian & the bday girls..

Yap Jin, Junwen (Ivy's bf), Ix (Jenny's bf) & the bday girls..

by the time, the girls took tis photo, they were feeling numb after smiling for photo after photo... haha... well well, they were the stars for the nite, so we muz let them have a taste of being superstars with many flashlights clicking away... heehee...

a group photo with all the girls infront of Mount Timbre @ Old School..

btw, the bag which Wen Hui was holding onto was a gift from us. heehee... looks nice, rite? well, it was specially chosen by ME! heehee...

childhood friends...

2009-01-02T14:56:00.003+08:00

31 Dec.. a day when everyone is having all kinds of celebration to welcome the new year, a fren of mine will be celebrating her special day of getting a yr older! haha... indeed, i tink tat her birth date is really unique and easy to rem. after all these yrs of knowing her, i nv fail to rem her bday. how to forget such a meaningful & siginificant date, rite? haha... so on the 1st day of the new year, Xinxian, Jasmine & I met up with Yunci, the bday girl for a belated birthday celebration. her actual bday is on 31 Dec. as Yunci managed to borrow the car from her cousin for her bday the previous day so we get to catch a free ride from her from our houses. reason being: the close proximity of where we are staying as all 4 us belong to the Toa Payoh/Potong Pasir gang... yeah~!!!

Yunci, the Birthday girl...

Lunch was at Ma Maison @ The Central. Finally~ i get to try out Ma Maison. hmmm.. there are good comments abt the restaurant and pple r saying that i shld give it a try. well, personally i tink tat the decorations in the restaurant are rather nice and unique. however, although their set lunch is priced at a reasonable range and the quantity match up with the price, the food quality is juz normal. so for me, a 2nd visit to the restaurant will really depends.

Appetizer & Soup...

Main dish: hamburger steak & Omurice...

dessert was Ice Cream.. seriously icy cold ice cream with ICE within the ice cream lor... Yunci can't even finish up the Mocha ice cream as it was too hard! haha...

chilling out @ TCC... chit chatting abt anything and everything.. catching up on one anOther's gossips and happenings...

come to think, i know these girls since my primary school days. we knew each other way back when we were young girls. we walked together thru our teenage years & our lives of being students. till now, everyone is already working adults. how time flies.. 18 yrs of friendship... 2 more yrs to 2 decades. woohoo~ tat really signifies tat we r getting old ah. anyway, after chatting with the girls, i have anOther motivation to get my driving licence asap. haha.. we wanna go for road trip! so Yunci is urging me to get my licence soon so tat both of us can take turn to drive. whahaha... yesh! yesh!

~Happy 2009~

2009-01-01T01:26:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year ~!!!!

May 2009 be a smooth-sailing and peaceful year for everyone!

as we stepped into the New Year, here r my new year wishes for myself, my family and my friends...

for myself:
1stly, 2008 witnessed an impt milestone in my life. with my graduation in July, it marked the end of my life as a student officially. i am moving on to the next stage in my life but unfortunately, lady luck has not been shining on me. for the past few months, there were no news in my job search despite the numerous job applications sent to the various companies. therefore in tis new year, i hope to have a good start and able to receive some great news for my job search.

2ndly, i wish or rather i want to get my driving licence! is not juz a wish, is a goal which i wanna attain all these while. driving test will be in Feb, i hope all things will go well then. stay calm, stay cool, not to panic and drive steadily.

lastly, same goal as last year... i juz wanna be myself... appreciate myself for whoever i am, be happy in my very own way and lead a life in my own way.

for my family:
good health for everyone in my family, especially Grandma. age is catching on her. celebrating every year's bday seems to be a bonus for her nowadays. i juz wish tat she can enjoy her everyday happily. lastly, all the best at work for the adults & good luck for the children in their studies~!

for my friends:
those who r working, work hard and play hard! those who r still studying, jia you in studies! good health to everyone!!!

PS: as i said in my previous entry, i would like to finish on the updates for my travel. however, i realised there were too many photos to be uploaded. haha.. due to my good photography skills, i would like to share many of the wonderful photos taken. hence, the uploading of photos may take a while more. i guess by the end of tis week, all the photos should be uploaded and the updates should be done. :)

the incomplete blog entries...

2008-12-30T01:13:00.003+08:00

as year 2008 is ending soon, i realised my blog entries for 2008 r incomplete. yeah~ i din update anything on my 19-Days Graduation trip to the Southern, Central and Northern of Australia & my 1-week travel to Cairns, the last Aussie city on my list of travel. i already gathered all the lovely photos to be posted. hopefully i am diligent enough to post everything up before the end of year 2008. heehee...

post Xmas Celebration with Spice Buddies

2008-12-27T23:43:00.000+08:00

yummy~ yummy~ it was a lovely cum fulfilling buffet dinner @ Carousel located at Royal Plaza on Scotts. there were quite a good variety of food ranging from chinese dishes such as dim sum to italian pasta to roasted meat such as turkey & primb ribs to seafood to japanese sushi to desserts & fondue. the overall dining ambience and service level were generally acceptable, as wat i had expected after seeing the recommendation from the channel 8 TV show. personally, i like the italian pasta & desserts very much.

anyway, tis post xmas celebration had been planned abt 1 mth ago. i am glad tat all of us were able to attend. it had been quite a while since i last went out with the Spice Buddies & i had been missing out in the xmas celebration with my spice buddies for the past 2 years. tis xmas celebration is actually quite special and memorable for me. i really look forward to tis celebration gathering cum xmas gift exchange. & i muz really say tat we all had made great effort in choosing presents for one another. all along our gift exchange had been pre-arranged as in we had a specific target to buy the xmas pressie for. so in this way, the xmas pressie will be personalised for the particular person. tis yr, all of us really made an effort in personalising the pressie. great job, buddies~!!!

i not only had a good dinner, but also had a good laugh on all the jokes we talked abt over dinner. we can simply joke and laugh on anything and everything under the sun. jokes tat had been cracked years ago could still be in topic during every gathering. happenings tat had occured years ago can also be talked abt whenever we meet up. haha... i guess we will nv get sianz in talking abt all these history & it seems tat this kind of memories recall once in a while is rather useful and heart warming. in general, xmas is a season of blessings, joy, laughter and warmth. i am glad tat i have all these with me for tis xmas with my wonderful spice buddies around. :D

we r together as Spice buddies for almost 12 years & definitely more years to go!

here r some photos taken for the night:

@ Carousel...

cutlery set... quite nicely placed but take up quite a bit of space on the table la... hahaha...

after the appetizer, before the actual feast starts...

woohoo~ here we go! wooo... jun was enjoying his delicious Carbonara pasta... yummy leh~

when we were almost done with dinner, we had our gift exchange. it was a pretty funny scene when everyone took out the presents of all sizes and colours. although it was a pre-arranged gift exchange, there were still excitement as to wat kind of presents to be expected.

satisfied after getting the pressies... heehee...

i received a Sephora eyes shadow set & a personalised luggage tag with my name from Jasmin. i loved my pressies very much! thank u very much, jas~!!! muackzzzz

Poh Lian's pressie was from ME! it was a scrapbook photo album (details of the album will be stated at the end of tis entry). Lian, i hope u will like this pressie~

Jas' pressie was from Jun & it was skincare products from Crabtree & Evelyn. our comment for jun's pressie was tat he really made an effort to change and upgraded from Bodyshop to Crabtree & Evelyn. haha...

awww... Lin surely noes how to choose a pressie for Jun ah. hahaha... so Jun, do rem to inform us if u r wearing it the next time, k? hahaha...

Lin's pressie was from Lian. it was a personalise calendar with our photos printed on every month. on top of tat, Lian noted down all our birthdays on the calendar to remind Lin abt it. how sweet and nice of Lian ah... we were all very surprised by Lian's pressie as we never expected her to actually handmake the pressie. we were even quite reluctant to receive her pressie after the various negative comments and revied abt the present stated by herself. but in the end, she surprised all of us. hahaha... great work, Lian! i'm pretty sure Lin will make good use of the calendar. heehee... *no photos of Lin & her present. paiseh ah..*

i like tis photo very much... cos all of us look good! hee...

jun & I.. do we look like mother & son? haha...

Lian & I... ewww... a bit too close-up taken ah...

Jas & I.. hmm.. jas looks a bit tired sia... she had been busy with work. hope her peak period will soon be over and she can rest well ah...

candid shot of me and Lin...

after dinner, we had a walk along Orchard Road as i wanted to take some photos of the Xmas lightings. i dun really like tis yr's theme as i tink all the lightings look kinda weird. hopefully next yr will be better...

Details of the present which i gave to Poh Lian. is a scrapbook photo album which took me almost 2 days to finish up. is true tat i am quite free now so i had time to handmake the pressie. but even if i have limited time, i guess i will still wanna handmake the pressie. i juz like the satisfaction after i finish making the pressie. & i am always eager to look at pple's expression upon receiving my handmade pressie. :)

the cover page which was not planned to be done initially. it was a last min add-on as i felt tat the pink album cover will look rather plain without any decor.

1st page with the receiver's name...

photo of the receiver~

tis photo album served as a journey down the memory lane of the friendship among us, the Spice Buddies~

hahaha... the most classic photo~ when we were 16 years old, the nerdy looks!

when we were in our teens...

bday celebrations, chalet gathering, farewell gathering...

photos of recent years...

collage of photos.. signing off wishes from ME~

hmm... Jun said tat since i made one for Lian, i muz do one for each of them. well, if i have the time, i will do one for each of u but u guys have to wait for next few xmas. hahaha...

~Merry Christmas~

2008-12-25T13:09:00.003+08:00

~MERRY CHRISTMAS~

last yr i spent my Xmas in Australia. it was a simple celebration at home with Phil and Felicia with our home cooked food. this yr, i spent my Xmas eve and countdown @ Reagan's house. BBQ session cum Fondue indulgence. thanks to Reagan for being a good host in hosting all of us together with the workers from his company. there were lots of fun, laughter and enjoyment, especially when we were on the game of "Werewolf". it was my 2nd time playing this game. previously, my sis-in-law gave me the game as a pressie when i went to Australia for studies. & there was once when there were quite a number of friends gathered @ my house in Australia, so i took out the game and tat was my 1st time playing the game. it was quite fun as there were lots of argument going around. as for my 2nd time playing this game, it was a total different encounter. my brother and his frens had been playing this game for quite a long while, so they are considered as "old birds" in this game. last nite, during the game, they introduced many different characters so i got a bit confusing but it was really funny. so much argument going around. i am kinda addicted to the game as it was like a mind game. it is like a test to see how good one can act and deceive pple as well as a chance to train one in their observation skills. hahaha... 2/4 pple, maybe we can try to play the game during our CNY gathering @ Miss Lock's house. i tink it shld quite fun with so many of us. hahaha...

during the BBQ, my brother suddenly got the idea to lay out the food as if it was a face. does this layout look like a face to u? with eyes, eyebrows, ears, nose and a big wide mouth! :D

Fondue indulgence... yummy~ my favourite sia... but i tink it is really heaty ah. i can feel the after effect now..

side track: on tuesday, i was walking to YCK MRT after my driving lesson & i saw the lovely blue sky. i was attracted to the clear blue sky. it reminded me of Aussie's clear blue sky. so straightaway when i reached the MRT platform, i took out my hp to snap a pic of the lovely sky. however, due to the resolution of my hp, the colour was not as clear as wat i saw.

do the clouds resemeble big cotton candy? hahaha... well, for such lovely clear blue sky, there is a price to pay. the weather for tat particular day was extremely hot and humid. haiz.. y can't we have a cooling day with clear blue sky leh?

~Christmas gathering with 2/4 gals~

2008-12-24T13:35:00.020+08:00

It is Christmas Eve today & it is a pretty wet day. it had been raining since last nite. hopefully the festive mood is not dampened by the wet weather. & hereby wishing everyone "Merry Christmas! have a lovely Xmas filled with joy, laughter and happiness~!!!"

yesterday i had a simple yet heart warming xmas celebration with the 2/4 gals. it was a celebration filled with laughter, fun and enjoyment. haha... of cos, not forgetting our usual practice of taking photos.. lots of photos with so many cameras! hahaha... there were 10 of us and it was a pretty good attendance. :) Yiling had to leave early to get back to work so she was not the group photo. poor girl had to get back to the hospital to standby for calls.

9 of us taking a group photo after the gift exchange.

basically the agenda for the nite was dinner @ Waraku @ the Hereen. as pple were late (i was one of the late comer, paiseh sia) so our dinner only started at abt 730pm. although we reserve a table for 10, our attendance during dinner was not FULL. haha.. kinda paiseh to hold up so many seats. there was a grp of pple nearby to us who shld be celebrating Xmas as well. they had such a large grp of pple and they had to occupy 2 rows of tables to accommodate all of them. as compared, our "zhen rong" seems smaller. haha... but tat did not mean we will have less laughter. we still had great fun, cracking jokes abt everything and anything, especially when our food were served, we had a good laugh over the size of the bowls.

close-up comparison of the bowl size. really 小巫见大巫... haha...

within the mega bowl... chey~ tat much of food only..

morale of story: dun be deceived by the exterior look, thinking tat there will be a big portion within the mega bowl. haha... in fact, there were lots of inconvenience with such mega bowl. shuwei had a hard time scooping up the udon and i tink at the end of the meal, her hands shld be aching. haha.. Yiling suggested tat such mega bowls were used as prevention for spladdering of the sauce while pple are eating the udon. the height of the mega bowl is juz nice to cover up. hmm.. if tat is really the use, is acually quite useful la but still, the mega bowl is a bit too big la. whahaha...

i tink tis size of bowl looks much better. at least more "user friendly"

after dinner, we made our way to Peranakan for a drink, chill out and for the gift exchange. while waiting for Shiying and Meibin to arrive, we decided to start our photo taking session. whahaha... at tat very moment, ALL cameras appeared. there were like 5 cameras flashing here and there. instead of reacting to Yiling's request to chit chat, we were busy taking photos. hahaha... she got kinda pek chek. paiseh la, Yiling.. there are always other opportunities to meet up and catch up and we will definitely allocate time for chit chatting and photo taking for our next gathering, k? hee hee...

when Shiying & Meibin finally reached, we had our gift exchange. instead of the usual drawing lots practice, we improvised with some different ideas. after much discussion, we finally decided on a method of something like "guess who" for the gift exchange. basically the person will do a lucky pick from the pile of folded papers written with our names and after which, she will need to ask some "yes or no" questions abt the person whose name is on the piece of folded paper and there is a time limit of 1 min. the rest of us will answer these questions accordingly and before time is up, the person need to guess the name on the folded paper correctly so tat she will be able to take the respective present brought along by the person. haha... sounds easy but it was not as easy as it seems to be when more rules were added along the way. the sequence of the game was according to our birth months. half way thru the gift exchange, we realised it was not challenging at all. so in addition to the initial rule of not asking any questions abt the person's attire for the night, we were not able to ask anything abt the person's general appearance, occupation & any questions within the same category. whahaha... i tink it was kinda tough but there were lots of fun and laughter. heehee... luckily i was among the 1st few to pick the present. so all i did was to try to add on more rules to make it difficult for the rest and at the same i tried to make them gan chiong with the countdown of time. whahaha... at the end of the whole exchange session, Shupei and Shuwei did not manage to guess the name correctly within the expected time frame so had to wait to pick up any remaining presents. of cos, everyone still get a present eventually. tis "guess who" game is juz for fun and laughter, juz to spice up the gift exchange. i guess it did work to a certain extend with everyone's active participation in giving some correct answers and some misleading and ambigious ones. hahaha... i am certainly looking forward to the gift exchange next yr with fresh and new ideas. & of cos i am definitely looking forward to meeting up with the gals for bday celebration next yr. hmmm... is gonna be our mid 20s bday celebration ah... how times flies sia...

display of all the presents... different shapes, sizes...

look who's eyeing in the presents even before the gift exchange starts... naughty ah...

after the challenging "guess who" game, finally we got our presents! woohoo~!!!

here's our presents... woooo...

"open, sesame!" let's see wat is hidden within the wrapper..

yeah~!!! Poh Lian's present was from me (peel-off & wash-off masks from Faceshop), Stella's present was from Wen Hui (Reebok's shop bag) & Wen Hui received a present from Poh Lian (Takashimaya voucher..)

check out on the other end of the table... Meibin's present was from Shupei (a notebook with a shiny cover) and Shiying's present was from Meibin (shower and body lotion from Crabtree & Evelyn)

Shupei's present was from Shuwei (jewellery box) while my present was from Yiling (silver accessories belt)

Jenny's present was from Shiying (shower and body lotion from Crabtree & Evelyn) & Shuwei's present was from Jenny (Cream & lotion from Bodyshop)

everyone went home happily with all the lovely gifts. i think all our gifts r very useful, thoughtful and meaningful. great choice of gifts, gals~!!!

before i end the entry, juz to share some artistic pics of the drinks and food we had at the bar... do all these pics look like those pics in advertisement? heehee...

last but not least,

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!!!

Christmas is coming.. Year 2008 is ending..

2008-12-22T14:29:00.003+08:00

Christmas will be here in abt 2 days' time! woohoo~!!! haha... my 1st Xmas in Singapore after spending 2 yrs of Xmas in Australia. i am excited as it had been quite a while since i last celebrate Xmas with my family and friends in Spore. heehee.. last yr, i spent my Xmas countdown on Skype video chat with my Spice Buddies. tis yr, i can finally sit down with them physically to enjoy our Xmas celebration with sumuptous dinner and gift exchange. in addition, i am able to join the 2/4 gals in their the Xmas gathering and gift exchange. woohoo~ can't wait for both gatherings!

as for my family, i had a simple xmas gathering with my maternal grandma, cousins, aunties and uncles. Sis Lihong suggested to gather for dinner and celebrate xmas with grandma. Hence, we gathered @ Grandma's house yesterday for dinner. Sis Lixiang bought a small log cake and youngest aunt bought some kuehs kuehs along. in addition, my mum prepared some "tang yuan" for us as it was "dong chi". heehee... so with all these goodies, we had a simple yet interesting gathering. having dinner together, chatting and gossiping abt everything and anything under the sun. i like tis kind of warm and simple gathering with family cos everyone gets to speak to one another. is really alot of fun and enjoyment. i guess the next gathering with my maternal family will be CNY period. yeahz! as for my paternal side, we will be going to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve for a nature walk on Xmas day. whahahaha... together with Sis Seow Wai and family which means little Lynnette will be going too. tat little girl shld love it since she like to walk around so much. juz hope tat we wun be bitten too badly by the mosquitoes. hahaha... anyway, here is a photo of the log cake we had last evening... yummy blackforest log cake.

snowy white christmas log cake... yummy~

hmmm... since xmas is here soon, means tat 2008 is ending soon. so wat new yr wishes do i have for the new year? last yr i hope to graduate and do well in my studies. tis yr i am no longer a student liao so i cannOt hope for tat ah. hahaha... basically, tis yr i have 2 wishes. 1st: i wish to get a job i like. 2nd: i wish to pass my driving (best is on my 1st try). not too greedy to have 2 wishes, rite? further more they r practical wishes which i can work for. heehee...

the day when i was a Big Kid...

2008-12-14T23:40:00.000+08:00

On every Sunday, little Lynnette will go to one of her favourite place. yeahz~! is GUG (@ United Square) which is a learning centre for little kids like Lynn. today it was Lynn's last class @ GUG & it was also the end-of year party. so every kid will have to bring along a gift for the gift exchange and the parents will need to prepare some simple snacks for the potluck party. As Seow Wei Jie Jie needed to go to office to finish up some work & Lynn's Daddy dun really enjoy such party, I had the great opportunity to accompany Lynn thru the 1.5hrs lesson.

in order to prepare some simple snacks for the party, i woke up early in the morning to do some shopping. Seow Wei Jie Jie told me the items she would like to buy as snacks for the party, so i juz followed her instructions and got the following items:
- Ginger Breadman
- Mini Tart (with Chocolate fillings)
- Mini Donuts
- M&M Chocolates
along the way, i happened to see the little umbrella decorative items @ NTUC, so i tot maybe it would be nice to add on some decoration. here it is, tat's the end product of wat we bought to the party:

very colourful, rite? hahaha...

well, kids r attracted to colour items & our target audience r the KIDS!

upon reaching the learning centre, Lynn became so hyperactive and noisy. for me, it was my 1st time attending the class with her. as for her, she was so familiar with the procedure. so immediately after she took off her shoes, she sat next to the teacher who were stationed @ the entrance to assist the kids in doing some simple disinfection before entering the class. there were many balloons, balls and toys lying around on the mat in the middle of the classroom. after settling down, Lynn & I started to play with the toys and balloons while waiting for other kids to arrive. there were many kids running around & of cos all of them were accompanied by either their Daddy or Mummy. haha.. honestly, this is my 1st time attending such kids' enrichment class as an adult. in my very vague memory, i rem i attended some party celerations as a young girl accompanied by aunties. & now i am an Ah Yee already. so here i am, accompanying my little niece to her class. haha... with kids running around me & looking @ how Lynn enjoys herself make me feel very excited. it really started my day in a great way!

upon reaching, before Lynn's hair was all messed up after running around... hahaha..

Lynn & the pool of balloons, balls, toys, kids & parents! hahaha...

class started @ abt 12pm after putting the toys away. Lynn is a very smart girl who knew to took initiative to put the balloons away in the black trash bag upon hearing the instruction from her teachers. Bravo, Lynn! the 1st thing to do before class start proper is basic greetings. the kids were taught to greet their fellow classmates, all the Daddys & Mummys around, the teachers and the only Aunt (tat's ME!). followed on, the teachers led the kids in singing different type of songs, doing some simple number calculation, recognising different alphabets and learning new words. Lynn managed to follow some instructions pretty well and fast but she could get distracted by her happenings around her easily. when tat happens, i need to grab her attention by doing the actions or singing the songs with her. hahaha.. yes! Big kid playing with little kid!

the proper lesson ended at abt 1230pm as it was time to party! the teachers divided the food brought by parents evenly and placed them on small paper plates. kids sat down on the chairs to enjoy their food while we adults started to bring out all the cameras to start snapping at different angles. as mentioned, there were a gift exchange session. so shortly after enjoying the food, the gift exchange session started. Lynn picked on the number "7" which was a small rectangular gift wrapped with Toys 'R' Us wrapper. other than the pressie from the gift exchange, the school prepared small pack of gift for the kids too. & Lynn seems more interested in that small pack of gift rather than the pressie. haha... party ended at abt 1pm & we headed for lunch. however, along the way we met up with some "obstacles". the kiddy rides allocated at different places in the mall attracted Lynn's attention and whenever she saw a cartoon character she could rem, she would wanna sit on it. i noe it was impossible to forbid her to sit on the rides and i did not want to disappoint her so i chosen to give in to her but with a limit. at 1st, i tried to negotiate with her by giving her some time limit but it din really work. so i tried a 2nd way with a countdown matter. when 2 of us started to do a countdown of "10" together, it works! hahaha... when we reached to the count of 10, Lynn knew tat she must get down & without arguing, she slowly get off the ride. I was really impressed by Lynn's sensible action. btw, when i said tat she wanna sit on the ride, it means juz sitting on it without putting any coins or money to operate the ride. though Lynn was a little cranky during lunch & refused to eat the food, i still tink is okay. cos she has been such wonderful girl for the day. i am glad tat Lynn enjoyed herself as i enjoyed myself very much. hahaha...

photos to share:

all the kids seated down for the party~ yummy food... there were Eclairs, fishballs, nuggets, Gingerbread Man, Mini tarts, Mini donuts, Mini Swiss Rolls...

Lynn trying out the taste of the strawberry eclair which i tink she din like it as she did not eat it. in fact, from tat whole plate of food, Lynn only ate the 2 fishballs & finished up all the M&M chocolates. as for the rest of the food, other than feeding me with a piece of nugget, she did not eat any of them. haha..

Lynn enjoying her favourite fishballs...

Lynn trying out the nuggets but she din like it... so there it went, into my mouth instead!

bubbles... woooo... but where is our little princess? haha.. she went to wash her hands with her Daddy.. aww, she missed out on the short bubbles blowing session...

see wat i mean by Lynn can get distracted easily. juz as everyone was listening to the teachers' instruction attentively, Lynn was distracted by the uncle (in white t-shirt seated beside us) who juz came into the classroom.

Lynn taking the pressie from her teachers...

Lynn showing off her pressie... :D

BIG HUG for the teachers before going off~

Lynn & her teachers...

Lynn on the Barney ride...

" Choo-Choo"... Thomas the train coming!

cheeky smile while enjoying her biscuits...

Lynn & I...

Side track: Xmas Lightings along Orchard Road

I went to Orchard with Jun & Lian on Friday. after buying Lian's stuff, we walked along Orchard Road to enjoy the Xmas Lightings. it was a special request from me & it had been abt 2 yrs since i last saw the Xmas Lightings in Spore... here r some pics taken.. not very clear though. will take some nicer ones when i meet up my Spice Buddies for xmas celebration in abt 2 weeks' time!

Family Chalet 2008 @ Pasir Ris

2008-12-11T23:59:00.018+08:00

Over the long weekend of holidays, my family had a fruitful, enjoyable and exciting family chalet gathering @ the URA bungalow. Aunt Yee Yong was lucky to be able to won the ballot for the bungalow for this Hari Raya Haji holiday period.

woooo… it had been 4 to 5 yrs since I last went to the URA bungalow @ Pasir Ris. For me, it was like a walk down memory lane when I passed by the stretch of chalets/bungalows along Pasir Ris Road. Haha… during my pri and sec sch days, going to chalets/bungalows is like a MUST-DO activity during every sch hols. & we can encounter all kinds of exciting and weird happenings during every chalet gathering. Haha… apart from the hassle in getting ready the food items and other necessities before the chalet, chalet gathering is actually enjoyable at most of the time. :D

for me, it was like donkey yrs since I last went for a family chalet. As for almost everyone else in the family & maybe little Lynnette who was still in her mummy’s stomach a yr ago, such family chalet is not too unfamiliar for them. it was only a yr away when they had a mega family gathering @ this same chalet. My aunties organized a mega family chalet gathering for the Chok’s family (my paternal grandma’s family). It was a family gathering across 4 generations and relatives from both Spore and Malaysia attended the gathering. other than weddings, I guess tat particular mega chalet gathering was the only family gathering attended by most of the family members. However, sad to say, I was among one of those who were missing in action as at tat point in time, I was still in Australia for my studies. Nevertheless, I was still “part” of last yr’s gathering as my lovely Aunt Cindy actually emailed me the chalet rundown and food menu for the chalet when she was doing the planning. How nice of her, rite? Haha… make me envious only… as for tis yr, I am back in Spore so I will not miss out on any of the family gathering. tis yr’s chalet gathering was not organized on a large scale basis as there was not enough time for us to gather so many pple from all families. In the end, we settled on a family gathering for the Lim’s family (my family)!

Day One - 5/12/2008: Check in to the bungalow

In the evening, we checked in to the chalet and by the time we cleared up and cleaned up everything, it was almost passed dinner time. So after Seow Wei Jie Jie & her family went to the chalet after work, we decided to drive the car out to purchase the items and food needed for the chalet and dinner for myself, my grandma and aunts. While Lynn was looked after by my aunts, Seow Wei Jie Jie, Wee Kwong and myself went to Giant for our groceries shopping! woooo… it was a LONG list of things to get for the chalet & there were so many pple shopping @ Giant then. Juz as our trolley were abt 1/3 full, Seow Wei Jie Jie asked me “so we shld be abt half way thru the list of items, rite?” so I laughed and answered “no ah. All those items in the trolley were not on the list. i juz rem those items by heart. the actual shopping will only start NOW! Haha..” & all 3 of us juz laughed. True enough, at the end of the shopping, our BIG trolley was completely FULL! The total bill came up to be abt $220 which I tink it was still okay for a 4D3Ns chalet with so many pple. When we went back to the chalet with the groceries and food, my dinner turned out to be supper! Hahaa… while we were away @ the supermarket, Uncle Eric and his family arrived @ the chalet. So with Machi (Uncle Eric’s maid)’s help, we started to prepare the items needed for next day’s BBQ. We decided to marinate the chicken wings and keep it overnight so tat it will taste better. All preparation ended pretty early so we were able to turn in early for the nite and be able to wake up for morning exercise the next day.

the living room, games section and the dining area..

the spacious karaoke room...

view of the bungalow from along the road...

the garden...

the BBQ area...

Day TWO - 06/12/2008: Playground, Beach & BBQ

Early in the morning @ abt 7am, Aunt Cindy and Seow Wei Jie Jie went for jogging in the park while I rode the bicycle along with them. The cool sea breeze and fresh air in the morning were rejuvenating. It certainly started off my day in a refreshing way. After the sumptuous American-style breaky, we made our way to the BIG playground with the kids. The whole playground compound was fully-equipped with all kinds of facilities such as different type of slides, swings, merry-go-rounds and a spiderweb climb (under construction). My little niece, Lynnette got so excited when she saw the playground and wanna try on each and every one of the facilities. As for my cousins, they were attracted to the various types of facilities @ the playground too. While the kids were busy enjoying themselves @ the playground, the adults were busy making sure tat they were safe and okay. As for me, it was a busy moment for me as I was trying to capture all the precious moments with my camera. Heehee…

lovely moments @ the playground...

Aunt Cindy, little Lynn & Seow Wei Jie Jie playing the see-saw...

Lynn & her cheery smile...

Lynn & her ugly face expression...

"choo-choo..." Captain Lynn & her Mummy on the way!

spin and spin until Lynn was a bit giddy after a few rounds... whahaha...

Wei Hui & Brian in action!

~wheeee~ Wei Hui having fun @ the children's flying fox..

Brian's turn to go for the flying fox...

Wei Zhi on the slide..

Lynn's new found fren.. a Jie Jie who was very frenly and nice in offering Lynn a hand in climbing up and down the playground...

Lynn trying to attempt to slide down from the tallest slide...

woohoo~ mission accomplished! arrived safe and sound @ the bottom of the slide... & she went for a 2nd and 3rd round...

merry-go-round and round...

it was fun for the kids sitting on it and it was a tough time for the adults who tried to put it...

@ the Beach...

before the sun gets hotter, we decided to proceed on to the beach. I tink beach and seaside will always b one of the fav spots for kids. Among all of us, I guessed Lynn was the one who enjoyed the most. She was running up and the down the beach and splashing water at almost everybody. Even when I was holding onto a camera, she did not spare me. haha… with her cute and funny actions, my camera juz went on clicking so as to capture the most beautiful side of tis little niece of mine. as Wei Hui needed to go for afternoon classes @ MindsChamp, so my cousins and their maid had to go back to the chalet earlier to prepare to go out. Aunt Cindy, Seow Wei Jie Jie and I carried on playing with Lynn @ the beach until it was almost lunch time. I tink Lynn still wanna carry on playing but she was very obedient when we told her it was time to go back.

Wei Zhi's berms was a bit too long so he had to roll up while he went into the water.. looks kinda funny though...

Lynn was busy walking up and down the beach to fetch water in cutie pinky flowering pot

Lynn contributing her fair share in digging a deep hole...

hahaha... guess who's buttock is tis? she purposely tried to block my view so i decided to snap a shot!

as Seow Wei Jie Jie was digging a hole, Lynn was trying to cover the hole by putting the sand back into the hole! hahaha... wat a help she was!

FINALLY~!!! yeah! the hole was deep enough to bury Seow Wei Jie Jie's leg.

Lynn running along the beach...

Lynn & Aunt Cindy splashing water at each other...

Lynn trying to get ready to continue her splashing of water... her next target was actually me when i was holding onto the camera ah!!!

Lynn trying to chase after Aunt Cindy. at times when the wave came in, little Lynn almost lost her balance and nearly sat onto the sand. whenever tat happened, she would blurt out "oh dear~!" hahaha...

kicking the water along the way...

Lynn running along the beach...

BBQ in the evening

In the afternoon, it was relaxing time. While Lynn was having her afternoon nap, the adults had our long awaiting mahjong session. As Grandma was not familiar with the usual mahjong rules of having “tai” to win, our stake for tat session was quite small. At the end of 2 rounds (dong & nan), I only lost $1.50. haha… then follow on, we had a short KTV session @ the karaoke room before we started to prepare for the evening BBQ session. Juz as we wanna start the fire, the rain came by. Although it stopped after a short while, the pit was wet! So we had to do some cleaning up before Wee Kwong could start the fire. Finally @ abt 630pm, the fire was started and at tat time, my grandaunt came by with her eldest daughter & her family. As everyone was hungry by then, the BBQ session went on @ a swift and smooth speed. However @ times, due to overwhelming orders, the chef made some mistakes in producing uncooked food and required a second time of cooking. Haha… we took turns to BBQ so tat it was not too tiring for juz one person to do all the cooking. When it was time for me to take over, I put my plate of food which consists of a piece of chicken wing, hotdog and chicken patty on the bench behind me. after a while, I turned around and saw tat ONLY the chicken patty was left on the plate! So I shouted “who took my chicken wing?” straightaway Seow Wei Jie Jie spotted the culprit! It was a black cat! It was enjoying my chicken wing and hot dog @ a corner. When I walked up to it, I only saw the bones of the chicken wing. !@#$%^... There goes my food! I specially BBQ those food for myself and put them aside to enjoy. In the end, it was enjoyed by the cat who stole my food!

BBQ pit... chicken wings and many sticks of mashmallows..

as the chef (ME) were busy preparing food, the kids were more keen on bbq-ing their mashmallows...

fire sparklers for the kids...

enjoying the food @ the dining area...

chit chatting after dinner...

as there were a short drizzle, snails came out of the bushes and sat nicely along the pavement in the chalet. my boy-cousins tried to use the sparklers to scare them.. very mean of them but tat is quite a typical action of guys who always like to try to be cheeky and funny...

BBQ session ended at abt 10plus to 11pm after my Brother & his friends who came by late to finish up all the food. After cleaning and clearing up, the REAL mahjong session was all set to get started! Whahaha… Uncle Eric, Aunt Pat, Seow Wei Jie Jie & I started on the mahjong session at abt 12am and decided to finish at least 3 rounds (dong, nan & xi) before we sleep. it was not really a good start for me. for the 1st 2 rounds, I managed to accumulate almost the maximum number of “tai” and yet I din win any of the 2 rounds. Haiz… although along the way I did win some, I am still one of the loser at the end of the session. The big winner was Aunt Pat ($15) and the one who lost the most was Seow Wei Jie Jie ($10). Hahaha… I lost abt $6 & Uncle Eric won only abt $1 as Grandma took over his share halfway thru & Grandma was not very sure on how to win with more “tai”. Can see tat Grandma really enjoyed the mahjong session very much. On normal days, she can get lethargic and tired easily, yet on tat particular nite, she managed to stay up with us till abt 3am to get thru the whole mahjong session.

Day THREE - 07/12/2008: last nite @ the chalet..

On the 3rd day of chalet, I had to make a trip out to Sentosa to attend my friend’s wedding @ Rasa Sentosa. It was quite a hassle as it was quite a long distance of travel. As Lynn need to attend some enrichment class in the afternoon so Seow Wei Jie Jie decided to go home in the morning to prepare Lynn for the afternoon class. I followed their car to Toa Payoh & made my way to Sentosa from TPY. It was so much easier for me in tis way. it was a wedding lunch @ Rasa Sentosa. The ambience was nice and the ballroom was nicely decorated. The food for the lunch for still okay and the most commendable part of the lunch was tat the portion of each dish was quite BIG. It was certainly more than enough for a table of 10. at the end of the lunch, while waiting for the couple, I saw a familiar face. Hahaha… to my greatest surprise, I saw Wen Hui! I din expect to see anyone familiar as it was actually my brother’s fren’s wedding. Since my brother can’t attend the wedding (due to clash of wedding in the same yr), so I became a his representative and moreover I knew the groom since my pri sch days. So most of the pple around me at the wedding shld be my brother’s sec sch frens and I seriously did not expect to see anyone familiar. Hahaha… Wen Hui was the groom’s distant relative. Wat a coincidence ah!

After the wedding lunch, I made my way to my brother’s house so as to catch a ride back to the chalet. As Uncle Eric and his family left the chalet & there were more space to accommodate more pple so my brother decided to have a steamboat session with his frens @ the chalet. While my brother and his frens were having steamboat downstairs, my aunts, Seow Wei Jie Jie and I were playing around with Lynn in the karaoke room. On and off, my brother would come up the room with Lynn’s favourite food – FISHBALLS! Hahaha… & at times, Lynn would go downstairs with a plate and fork and asked “舅舅, I wan fishballs.” Hahaha… so舅舅 (my brother) would quickly cook one or two fishballs for her. After watching Super Mummy on channel 8, Aunt Yee Yong started on another round of KTV. And Lynn was so keen to dance with her mummy as Aunt Yee Yong sang. At times, Lynn would oso hold on to the mike to sing her fav children songs. As there were a few mattresses in the room, so Aunt Yee Yong built an igloo for Lynn. Both Aunt Cindy and I were chasing Lynn in and out of the igloo making her screamed and ran around. Hahaha… I tink she had great fun on the last nite of the chalet cos I seriously had great fun running after her and trying to scare her. Whahaha...

Mother & Daughter lying comfortably & acting cute in the igloo...

the headache pose...

trying to do a back flip??? hahaha... failed attempt though~

On the last day, the check out time was at abt 9am. The cleaners came by quite early to start the cleaning. So Aunt Yee Yong asked them to clean up the 2nd floor while we quickly packed up the items in the kitchen at the 1st floor. Then as the cleaners were doing their cleaning and we were doing our packing, little Lynn was still soundly asleep. She was so deeply in her sleep tat no one was able to wake her up. Juz as we finished clearing up and almost ready to go, one of the cleaners said “dun forget to bring the soundly asleep baby home ah.” Hahaha… of cos we won’t forget. Is juz tat we did not wan to wake up her so early. I guess Lynn really enjoyed herself very much @ the chalet as I was told tat while she went home after her enrichment class, she asked to go to the playground. & when her request was not approved, she actually sulked and cried. Upon returning to the chalet, Aunt Cindy brought her to the playground after dinner and Aunt Cindy said tat she almost did not wan to go back to the chalet. Whahaha…

For me personally, I always enjoyed myself very much after every family gathering. I simply love the feeling of having so many people gathered together to chit chat and have fun. All the kids will be running around, adults will be chatting away and parents will b running after the kids to make sure tat they r okay. Although I dun have a very big family, the atmosphere at every of our family gathering is always so enjoyable and lively. Everyone in the family will try to attend the family gatherings and during every gathering, the feeling is always so heart warming with my loved ones r around me. I really missed this heart warming feeling during my days spent in Australia and I am extremely glad tat after I came back, there were various occasions such as Grandma’s 60th birthday celebration, my brother’s wedding and tis family chalet gathering to allow me to have a taste of this wonderful heart warming feeling once again. Heehee…

amazing kids...

2008-11-30T23:53:00.003+08:00

kids nowadays can be very smart and fast in learning new things. yesterday, as i was baby-sitting my niece, i was assured once again that my little niece, Lynnette (Lynn) is a very smart girl who has very good memory and is a fast learner.

my cousin brought Lynn came over to my house in the morning and went home to get busy with the fixing of the fan at home. as Lynn was playing with the toys, suddenly something caught her eyes. yep! is the hula-hoop which i used to play with when i was in my pri sch. whahaha.. Lynn seems to be fascinated by this new toy. as there were 2 hula-hoops, so she requested me to play with her. so as i was demonstrating on how to play the hula-hoop, Lynn tried very hard to follow whatever i was doing. of cos, being a 2 yr old kid, is kinda hard for her to control the turning of the hula-hoop for the 1st time. but i think she had a good time turning here and there. as the hula-hoop is made up of many colours so i took the opportunity to help her to practise on her sense of colours. she could identify the colour "orange", "yellow", "purple" and "green" at once. but when it comes to the colour "blue", she hesitated and waited for me to give her the answer. haha... after putting the hula-hoops away, it was time for her lunch. so i grabbed a chair for her to sit down, so tat she could concentrate on finishing up her porridge. halfway thru the meal, she suddenly pointed to the chair and told me "blue". i was really surprised by her action and was really amazed by her learning ability. there is actually a difference between the 2 shades of blue. the blue on the hula-hoop is of a lighter shade while the colour of the chair belongs to a darker shade of blue. i am really glad tat she could still recognised despite the difference. then when she was drinking water from the cup, once again, she could point out that it was a blue cup. haha...

after hanging around at my house for few hours, it was time for Lynn to go home for bath and her afternoon nap. so as i packed up her stuff to get ready to send her home, i told her it was time to go home. instantly, she walked towards her slippers and started to put them on so as to get ready to go home. she even wanna hold on to her small bag of belongings as if she is going home on her own. haha.. her action of wanting to be a 小大人 was really funny and cute. she pressed the lift button for the lift and was all ready to lead me to her house. so i kept quiet and try to see if she could rem the way home. indeed, she could rem the way home and was confident abt it. all the way home, she was holding on to her own bag and taking the lead in front of me. haha... as we reached the void deck of her house, she suddenly told me "82B". YES! tat is the block number of her house. & she started to mumble some words which sounded like "toa payoh lorong 4". isn't Lynn amazing? she has such good memory and fast in picking up new things. of cos as she grow older, i hope she will get even better and learn as much as she could.

Dinner Gathering @ Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar...

2008-11-28T23:51:00.002+08:00

haha.. more feedbacks from my faithful readers tat my blog is seriously lack of updates. & if i dun have any updates, i will soon lose all these faithful readers. haha... okok.. in tat case, i muz try to update frequently. hmmm.. next few weeks shld be full of happenings which provide me with lots of updates for the blog. as for now, is an entry abt my dinner gathering with some of the girls @ Shokudo @ Raffles City.

it had been quite a while since i last see the girls so decided to arrange for a dinner gathering. after much arrangement, it was a Table for 5 Dinner Gathering. well, overall the response was still okay considering tat everyone shld b busy. the attendees for this Table for 5 dinner include: Shiying, Shuwei, Shupei, Stella and myself (San). haha.. coincidentally we r all the "S" clique! :D the initial queue @ the restaurant was long but bcos Shuwei & I managed to queue up much earlier, we were able to get the table pretty fast. judging from the pple in the restaurant and the pple queueing up, Shokudo is surely very popular and well-liked. i tink overall the food standard is acceptable. the concept is good and the resturant layout is especially ideal and appropriate for big groups of friends gathering for dinner or a dinner outing for a family.

still rem these characters from Sesame Street?? hmm... cuite Elmo, greedy Cookie Monster... i saw this performance @ Marina Square so decided to take some pics, oso to recall some fond childhood memories while watching Sesame Street...

Gobi's chocolate.. contributed by Shuwei who received these chocolates as Baby 1st mth old gift... nice dessert after the meal but the chocolates were little too sweet for some of us.

Curry Chicken Katsu Rice... looks good..

Version 1 of Omu rice (non-teppanyaki style).. the egg has tat very "FRESH" & "RAW" look...

Version 2 of Omu Rice (teppanyaki style)... taste a bit blend after a few mouthful...

my all time fav from Shokudo... Omelette! woohoo~!!!

By the time we finished our main dish, we r too FULL to go for sides. haha... so end of the photos on FOOD~!!!!

Time to FEAST~!!! erm.. wait! some photos to be taken 1st!!!

wow... Shupei very busy ah.. on the phone while taking photo and still had the time to act cute with a "victory" sign. haha... as for Shuwei, forever trying to act cute la.. whahaha... & Stella dun seems to be affected by this "phone-calling pose"... :P

i'm ready with my spoon to feast! as for Shiying, she kinda poor thing ah. when she held on to the fork and spoon, all ready to start, we stopped her again. haha.. cos photos not taken! heehee...

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar...

does tis look like a NEOprint shot? haha...

upon leaving Raffles City Shopping Centre, we saw this BIG xmas tree outside the shopping centre...wooo... nicely lit up ah! with all these xmas decorations and festive mood, xmas is really coming soon.. my 1st xmas in Singapore after abt 3yrs away in Australia. :D

my happenings...

2008-11-23T23:37:00.012+08:00

alrighty.. i received complaints from my readers for not updating my blog ever since my last entry on my Bro's wedding. well well.. there r happenings around, juz tat i am kinda lazy to update. haha... maybe i juz have a quick summary of some happenings.

1stly, last weekend, we celebrated my youngest cousin, Wei Zhi's 9th Birthday. it had been quite a while since i last attended any of my cousins' bdays as i was not in spore for the past few yrs during their bdays. it was a BBQ cum buffet bday celebration for my handsome cousin. as usual, my cousins' bday will always be flooded with many many kids which include their cousins as well as their friends. the kids were having a good time swimming in the pool, having fun with water balloons and running around. my niece, Lynnette was not in her swimming attire yet she was so attracted to the pool when she saw many kids having fun in the pool. so we had to borrow some clothings from Wei Zhi for Lynn to change out to so tat she can "afford" to get wet. halfway thru the dinner, my cousins Weiqi and Wei Hui & their maid, Machi started on a treasure hunt game which was suppose to be played by all the kids present. haha... being a "big" kid, i joined in their treasure hunt. of cos, my main motive was to guide little Lynnette along the way so tat she can have fun too. being juz a 2 yrs old girl, is hard for her to compete against those big kor-kor and jie-jie. so of cos, her Ah Yee, ME had to help her. in the end, we managed to find 2 packets of sweets. though we did not win the game, i tink Lynnette had great fun running around with so many kids. at the end of the game, Bday boy, Wei Zhi was a bit upset as he did not win the game. he was sulking while cutting the cake. well, he is a kid afterall. winning is something every kids and in fact everyone will like. so we can't blame him for behaving in this way but of cos we can try to explain to him tat winning is not everything. in fact, becos he is the bday boy, all the more he shld be gracious in letting other pple win. i guess he will understand. :D OH YA! we also met Wei Zhi's little GF, Careen at the bday party. haha... little Careen is very polite and friendly. she took initiative to say "hi" to Lynnette and tried to feed Lynnette with some cake. thru out the party, little Careen was very attached to Wei Zhi. she held on to Weizhi's hand wherever they went. haha... the very pure and innocent way of "love" between kids... simple and easy...

2ndly, yesterday, i went for a walk along Southern Ridges with Wen Hui. all along, i wanna take a walk along the Henderson Waves and Alexandra Arch. finally! i had the chance. thanks to Wen Hui for accompanying me when she had already done the walk before. though there was a light drizzle along the way which make us stopped our walk @ Hort Park instead of Kent Ridge, i still enjoyed the walk very much. nice view, good weather & lovely company... to make our walk more enjoyable, we even heard some lovely music on top of Mount Faber as someone was practising his saxophone on the hill top. haha... here r some pics taken along the way:

Henderson Waves from far...

along Henderson Waves...

Nice view from Henderson Waves..

the Hilltop Walk...

along Alexandra Arch...

beautiful wall art @ Hort Park...

creative art work with plants @ Hort Park...

3rdly, as some of u may noe... i started on my driving lessons during these past 2 mths. i hope to complete the driving course and get my licence before the driving centre moves out of its current location to Woodlands. haha... i dun wanna mention so much abt driving in case i irritate u guys by repeating myself on my encounters during driving lessons. instead i shall juz update on my progress every nOw and then. as of nOw, i have one last stage of the driving course to clear before i can sit for the practical driving test. so far so good for me @ driving. hope to maintain the standard and keep things going on smoothly. :D

4thly, as of now, i am still actively looking for a job. it had been quite a few mths. i am getting quite anxious but i noe i juz can't rush on some issues, especially when the situation now is getting from bad to worse. i will stay positive and keep on looking for a suitable job. hopefully things will look good for me soon...

Brother's Wedding

2008-11-06T00:39:00.003+08:00

had been busy and hectic weekend for me ah... reason being: it was my beloved brother's BIG day on Monday, 3rd Nov. so over the weekend, i was busy finishing up the preparation work for his wedding and doing all the last min confirmation on the wedding dinner's details. well, i only have 1 brother and being his only sister, i must do my very best to help out and make sure his day go on without any problems. & it had been quite a while since the Lim's family have such grand event so we were trying to make sure things do go too wrong.

during the DAY, we had the traditional customary ceremony and tea ceremony @ my parents' house @ Bukit Merah View. althought it was a weekday, my uncles and aunties and cousins managed to come by to witness the impt moment for my brother. i am pretty sure tat my brother felt delighted after receiving so many heart warming wishes and blessings from my relatives. as for the dinner at NIGHT, not only did most of our relatives came, most of my parents', brother's and sister-in-law's friends and colleagues came for the dinner @ Marina Mandarin Hotel to send their best wishes to the couples. minus some hipcups during the initial period of the dinner, the night went on perfectly well with well-coordinated timing. the whole dinner ended at abt 1030pm which was within our expectation. and of cos the tired couple enjoyed their nite @ the executive suite which was really cosy. as of the timing when tis entry was posted, my brother and sister-in-law shld be in Hong Kong, enjoying their short getaway trip as their Honeymoon.

with this entry, i hereby would like to wish them: Congratulations! and may happiness bless their marriage forever!!! 百年好合，永结同心！& oso 早生贵子!!! so tat i can be 姑姑 real soon... :D

enough of words... here r the photos:

Part 1: The Wedding Photos

the lovely couple...

my charming Brother... wooo... so long nv see him so shuai liao!!! whahaha...

pretty looking Sister-in-Law, Jayne aka Mrs Lim Wee Loon

nice smiles...

the couple in the mask...

beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder...

@ one of the oldest church in Singapore...

along the road...

chasing the sun...

Part 2: Morning/Afternoon Session...

decorations on the wall.. proudly done by the groom's sister.. & tat's ME!

the nOt so yummy lunch buffet...

arrival of the couple @ the car park..

Tea Ceremony.. 1st on the list: my Paternal Grandma...
woooo... i bet Grandma muz be extremely delighted and excited when she was drinking the tea as my Bro is her eldest and favourite Grandson. whahaha...

my maternal Grandma...

she waited for quite a while for the tea... & she muz be very "thirsty" ah. she finished up the whole cup of the tea! haha...

my youngest aunt from Mother's side...

she was the only one who rem to look @ the camera while drinking the sweet sweet longan & red date drink... surely nOe how to pose ah.. haha...

"大哥, 喝茶!"sound a bit weird la.. cos tat is not how i usually call him. i will usually call him "kor kor" or 姓林的! (with everyone's surname as Lim, he is the only one who will response when i called out.. haha) & he looked @ the tea for quite a while before he drank it lor.. trying to be funny leh... naughty brother tat i have... *ah-bish*

wedding present from ME~!!! is a photo collage in a shadow box...

a closer look... i developed some of his wedding pics & did a photo collage using scrapbooking method. well, juz a simple one as i only stArted to do it the nite before the wedding while i was watching how Hamilton won the F1 championship from abt 1am to 3am. heehee... :P

the groom's Paternal family & Jayne's Grandma (extreme right in 1st row)

the Groom's maternal family...

the brothers' & sisters' gang...

"rolling around" the bed! haha... actually it shld be done by a little boy but our young boys from the family were not able to attend the morning session, hence we had to trouble my 19 yrs old cousin to do it. he literally roll from one end to the other... Bravo~!!! well done, Ben~! (FAT angbao given lehh...)

the bridal car... lovely flowers decoration done my uncle. rem the car plate number so tat u can buy 4D! maybe there will be some luck in the numbers~! haha...

Part 3: Wedding Dinner

performance by the couple: Rumba Dance... (cousin SW, is not salsa tat they r dancing) both of them specially went for a 3mths express course to learn how to dance Rumba. though both of them learnt how to dance Salsa but both types of dances r different so there's a need for good coordination. overall, the dance was quite well done.. at least none of them fell down.. whaha... of cos, if they had more trainings, the effect will be even better~

the toast...

"yum seng", "yum yum yum.... seng"

the nuptial drink

photos of relatives & family with the couple...

Part 4: the other side of the night

before, in-between & after the wedding dinner, we managed to capture some memorable moments...

Lynnette & her uncle Wee Loon (the groom) & her mummy... "舅舅, congratulations~!"

Me & Lynnette...

Lynnette dominated the whole stage before the start of the dinner... she sang a few of her favourite children songs to entertain everyone.. whahah...

Weiqi, Aunt Cindy, Lynnette & myself... taking a breather in between the dinner...

after months of preparation, finally the wedding was a great success. all thanks to everyone's hardwork, effort and coordination. i certainly hope the couple had a great night and all the guests enjoyed the dinner. for myself, i had lots of fun. though there were alot preparation work to be done before that and there were quite a number of tasks to help out during the wedding, i still enjoyed myself very much. i am really very happy for my brother.. finally... my "kor kor" grow up liao! whahaha...

Happy 2nd Birthday to ME (Lynnette Yap)!!!

2008-11-05T16:33:00.009+08:00

Narrator: Lynnette Yap
Co-Writer: Iris Lim

Thank You to Ah-Yee (Iris Lim) for lending "a blog entry" to me (Lynntte) so that i can talk abt my 2 years old birthday celebration. heehee... it was a mini celebration as compared to my 1 year old bday but i had fun with my family. my great-grandma, grandma, grand aunts, grand uncles, aunties, uncles and my parents were present for my special moment. i felt really happy to be able to have them around to sing the bday song for me. i felt blessed with their bday wishes. not forgetting to thank my pretty Mummy for buying a yummy blackforest bday cake and my lovely Ah-Yee for buying a bday balloon for me. it had my favourite cartoon character, Winnie the Pooh on it. yeahz~!!! hmm... i guess tat's all abt wat i wanna say. without further a-do, let's enjoy some of the photos taken with my Ah-Yee's camera...

that's me!!!

with the bday balloon bought by my favourite Ah-Yee, Iris Lim (owner of this blog).

Thank You, Ah Yee! muackzzzz~

Me & my pretty Mummy...

my favourite Yee-Po who will always be prepared with balloons, bubbles and many more to create lots of fun and entertainment for me and the kids around...

hmmm... almost time to sing bday song & where's everyone??? candles burning out soon... bday song, pls!!!

yippee~!!! "Happy Bday to me! Happy Bday to me!

Happy Bday to Lynnette! Happy Bday to me!"

"hooo-hoooo..." blow candles, blow~!!!

me cutting the cake with Grandma...

my beloved family!!!

thank you to everyone!!! i had a great and unforgetable 2 years old bday!!! i am looking forward to my 3 yrs old bday next year with more celebrations with my family once again. okiedokie~ shall end the entry now... cya guys~!!!

Happy Birthday to our Halloween Baby

2008-10-31T00:24:00.004+08:00

Happy Halloween!!! woooo.... oso Happy Birthday to the Halloween Baby of the family, my beloved niece, Lynnette Yap!!! cutie Lynnette is 2 years old already. how time flies... i miss out on her 1 year old bday celebration last year. finally this year i can be here in Spore to celebrate her bday. yeahz~!!! with this special day, here is a blog entry with some of the photos i took for Lynnette over the last 3 months:

the little chatty, active and cute angel of the family...

Lynn trying to peel the skin of the pomelo with her plastic toy knife... whahaha...

Lynn loves to climb the ladder to reach the upper level cabinet in order to say "hi" to my stuff toys...

trying to make monkey face... :p

trying to show a kungfu stunt or aligator pose?!?!

Lynn's favourite obstacle course in the house.. she will always try to complete the whole course by herself and so far, we do not have to offer any help to get her through the whole course...

Lynn and her new found friends - Dino, the pink dinosaur, Fin Fin, the grey dolphin & Nemo, the fish...

little butterfly flying around...

wooo... there is even a fairy wand... *ding! ding! ding! i wanna many many toys!*

lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, cutie Lynnette~!!! we will have great fun for ur bday celebration tomolo! woohoo~!!!