Christmas Gathering

I had my final 2 xmas gathering last week and as my sis is rushing her work so i only have 1hr to upload and draft this entry. So here we go.....

Date: 26 December, Wednesday, with my Poly Girlies.

Menu ...a bit salty to my liking though and pricey considering we even have a 1-for-1 for the main course.

After our dinner, we started with our x'mas exchange

All of us with our present. Notice what denise do to the present i give her. She change it to a vampire lucky cat.

Before i complete off this gathering, let me introduce you all to my godson.

Date: 28 December, Friday, with my best friends @ Ma Maison

Food is to my liking but i find that it is pretty small portion for seafood dishes. There is also a not bad-looking manager who make your dining experience more pleasant.

Pictures of us including our present

Last but not least, i am pleased to announce that my dearly girlfriend will be expecting their first baby next year May..Hurray! Our gathering will be more interesting next time with the baby around. The whole group of us is so happy for the couple and eager to know the sex of baby so we can start preparing for his/her arrival. As i looked back to when we first met and now each of us are in our different stage of life...some married and pregnant, some still looking for the Mr. Right but is glad that we are still together for each other throughout these different phases.

That's all for this christmas and this year as I have to return the computer back to my sister for her work now.

Happy New Year to All! May 2008 be a great and happy year for all!

What's Happening???

Hey there, wondering why haven't i been blogging lately?

One reason is that nothing much happened over the past weeks except for i started my first xmas exchange with my uni girlies. Sorry for the lack of images as you can actually find them on their blog under Lynnie. She is real professional blogger who takes lots of pictures during our gathering. The good news is that 2 of my girlies are expecting their home and so there will be 3 official wedding (another girly is waiting for her home as well but they might get married first even without the house) round the corner in 2009 or late 2008. Phew! I have too many good things earlier part of 2008 (1 wedding and 5-6 babies) so if their wedding is during the 1st half of the year, i think i am going broke at a super fast rate. Anyway, all are good news so congratulations to them all!

This week is actually a crazy week. If we are wondering why? It is because i hang out with my ex-pgers colleague during the eve of Hari Raya Haji. Again it was a battle of who has the least amount of sleep. We were playing taboo throughout the night as well as rounds and rounds of "Polar Bear" Game. Not sure if you know about what is a "Polar Bear" game, it is actually a game of wits and acting. The rules of te game are as below:

1. First, we need to identify one player as the Moderator.
2. The moderator will get everyone to close their eyes and identify 2 players as Polar Bears. Polar Bears are evil. They will kill the villagers in the night and so it is important to identify who is the polar bear and vote them out during the day.
3. The moderator will then pick a guru who is actually aware who are the polar bears and have to guide the villagers to vote for the polar bear before the polar bear kill him/her during the night.
4. Lastly, the moderator will also pick a doctor who has the ability to save someone every night after the polar bear kill.

Hope the rules are clear enough as we actually went through half an hr before finalising the rules and how to play. So typical of pg-ers...everyone has a comment.

But it was still fun hanging out with them. It make me feel that i am back in my school days. After all the games, it was movie time where we all eventually lose out to 周公 around 5 in the morning. After 2hours of sleep, we are all up and preparing to leave before it started to rain cats and dogs. But we were too slow so we are again stuck in the house playing Donkey and guessing games. After all these, my energy will already at the rock bottom where i headed home to sleep while the remaining 4 went on for a movie marathon of national museum 2, golden compass and the warloads. OMG! I realli saluate them man! and they all put through without dozing off during the show while i am sleeping away at home though only 2 hrs more but i was purely lazing at home.

Msning them again on friday morning to saluate them to another sleepless night, they pull me out for dinner again promising that it wldn't be another late night. So there i go after work and see them playing boogle in facebook in the office...when did they get so happening especially after i left? They used to be so serious and workaholics when i am around except the annual offsite where most people will get drunk.

Nevermind, we headed to a very cool place at Arab street called ambrosia where we just hang out talking through the night. Then walking from Arab street to Mustafa around 130am. What's was us thinking about? By the time we reached there, we were all dog tired. It was after a short drink that i called a day as my mum was screaming away frm home while 3 of them continue xmas shopping at Mustafa and my other colleague went home to wash her clothes before she head back to Philippines for Xmas.

After all these crazy stuff, i am now down with a cold. I guess i am realli old and can no longer take long period of sleepless night.

I missed you all！I will believe the next gathering wldnt come so soon since u all will be back to ur busy schedule of meetings and alignments once January come. But i am still looking forward to our next gathering of Paint ball challenge.

Ho Ho Time (Part I)

I guess in one of my first few posts, i actually mentioned that there is certain festivals that i truly enjoyed and one of them is Christmas. Though i am not christian or catholic in belief, somehow Christmas is now a day that is not only celebrated by them but by all religion. For me, Christmas is a time where i will get little gifts for the people i cared for. These little gifts represent my thanks to them for what they have done for me over that year as well as a form of blessing for their coming year.

Every year this time, i will be busy arranging with my friends on when we will be meeting for our x'mas gathering and gift exchange. The below formulae will appear:

Gathering date + Gift exchange mechanics = Xmas Shopping List

Every year i will be cracking my brain on what is the best gift to all these people that i care for. Thus, i started my xmas shopping yesterday starting from Singaporean's shopping paradise: Orchard. As i am waiting for my bus to bring me to the next destination, i took a step back to enjoy the Christmas lighting which always help create that little Christmas feel in our all summer climate.

At the end of the long day, below is my 战利品 as well as a pair of sore feet and hungry tummy.

P.s. You might be able to spot your present in here.

Above that, every year i will also do my bit for the less fortunate and spread the love around. This year is no difference as i do my part with world vision. Hence, if you are interested, you can also visit the gift catalogue at world vision.

24 Hours without sleep...yawn

I guess it's been like 18 yrs since i went without sleep for more than 24 hours. Didn't imagine i ever make it through that again considering hw old i am now....not that i am that old either but i am just the early sleepers.

This all happen just because we didn't wanted to pay the surcharge for taxis. So we motivated ourselves through the games, drinks and gossip....and also bak kut tek as breaskfast in blastier.

We started with a disasterous BBQ where the BBQ stove went out of gas and the apartment guys couldn't get gas in without informing the management of the condo. So the 3 guys started building fire out of charcoal and the fire got too big and couldn't cooked the food without burning the food first. See for yourself below:

Considering that this is my 3rd or 4th time having BBQ session with P&G ers, i have concluded the below:

1. We shouldn't ever try BBQ again as we all sucks at it. The only edible foods were those pre-cooked food that we order and also the fruits and chips. So if ever we want BBQ, we can't do without chips and pre-cooked food.

2. When you put many P&G ers together, the leadership start to shine. Everyone start having comments about everything. So every decision or next step taken will need to undergo at least 15 mins of discussion. hehe.

3. They really play hard after all those hot discussion they have earlier on and all the hard work they have endur and submit in office. Everyone start relaxing and show a different side of individual. Not forgetting, the competitiveness start to show as well since everyone is playing out to win.

In conclusion, it was still a but fun gathering. Somehow i drop by the office as well and it all feel so comfortable and nice talking and catching up with everyone who i used to dread seeing everyday. I guess i have moved on a bit and start seeing them as an individual and a friend to me now. I guess they feel the same toward me as well as we talked and clicked so much better.

Till the next time, i see them. Take care everybody and please do stay in touch.

P.s. the host was actually not in the picture as she is away in the condo sending a final proposal to the global folks. See hw hard you have to work in P&G. As for me, my camera went flat on me when i want to take pictures with them. haiz.

Celebrations

During this special month where my mum have to endure hours of pain before my arrival and thereafter, endure more heartpain and fustrations during my rebellious times where whatever they say i will have comments for them. Yet, every year this time, i will always be out enjoying with my friends and forgetting about the pain and effort that my parents put in and endure till today for me. Hence, i guess it is about time for me to be more tolerance with them as they aged and become more nagging and also spend more time and do my part in taking care of them.

In addition to thanking those who took time out of their personal times to celebrate with me, i should also thanks my family for being patient and tolerance with all my nonsense and disrespectful at times.

Celebration part 1: - Dinner at Seah Street. Look at our dinner below. yummy yummy. But i guess the other tables actually made better choice where we keep spying on the food they order. We should drop by again next time and try the other food.


Dinner 2 - Su Korean @ Far East Plaza. No pictures as again we were all busy updating each other abt the happenings in our life as well as enjoying the food of cos.

Actually wanted to cook some simple meals for my family on the actual day as a small thank you for them. But unfortunately, i was actually sick the whole day...from a bad throat to cold and feverish. So the actual day was actually spend dozing away from the result of my medications. So sad hor? :-(

Still dun feel too well yet but hopefully things can keep better since i have no medical leave or any benefit yet. On the bright side, my favourite festival is 1 mth away...XMAS..yipee! All the sharing and lightings is so nice. Look forward to start my xmas shopping soon.

1st Week At Work

Finally the break is over and i am off to a new journey...a journey that i have been praying hard for.

First impression of the work place... pretty local and the surprising thing is the crowd is actually quite old...with colleague that is already a grandmother so you can imagine how old is my colleague. The good thing is i don't get to interact with them alot but only the usual hi and bye. My immediate team is actually young with my colleague only a year older than me but already a mum to a baby girl. My immediate boss is on reservist so i still didn't get to talk with him except via email. My big boss is those typical sales man which is good with words so will see how things goes with him but at least he is friendly enough to bring me out for lunch on my first day. As for GM, she looks very smiley and friendly but i heard that she actually sacked people without any signs beforehand. Hence, that's the scary part. I guess i will still have to monitor and observe for a while more since i believe all the old birds are all quite political. Furthermore, I also heard that they don't really like the Marketing team since the people don't normally stay very long in the role and hence they like to interfere with the jobs alot. So i shall be careful and lie low until i have better clarity of the culture.

How am i feeling after being in the role for 1 week? To be frank, I am actually a bit worried because often i feel lost and not confident. I guess that is because it's been a while since i was doing something related to marketing and i not very familiar with the car industry. I feel that my learning curve is a bit slow...not sure if it is because there is no clear transition or not.. I often feel that i need to be spoon feed. Hence, i am kind of worried that they might find me slow and like a fresh grad that need to be spoon feed. Hopefully, my confidence can start picking up and so people wldn't feel that they made the wrong decision of hiring me.

Enough of my insecurity... the good thing is i manage to change my working hours so it is now official that mon, tue, thur, fri - 830 - 630pm and wed: 830 - 530pm. Alternatively, if i manage to work longer hours on wed then i can have an additional day of 830 - 6pm. Yipeee! This mean i wldn't be missing or rushing for any of my post work gatherings...not that there is a lot but the feeling that working hrs are long make the day so dreadful.

That's all for now. Look for more update from me abt my job since i am responsible for events marketing and CRM...a profile that is missing from my portfolio so i need to survive thru and my marketing portfolio will be complete...

Interesting Quote:

"It is always easier to blame others and we forget to look back and see how fortunate we are."

New start

Tmr will be the day where i start my new job after 2+ yrs. Hopefully, i can click with the people and everything will be fine.

Bless me.

Farewell

After 2yrs 3 mths, i finally say bye to the first full-time job after my graduation... Procter & Gamble. It started off as a very cold environment with no one offering to join you for lunch till the end i manage to make many friends of different nationality. Never would i have thought that leaving that place will actually make me feel kinda of lost and sad. But i guess it is because i have actually developed feelings with the place and people after 2+ yrs and maybe because they are not that bad after all since that make me stay in a job, which i totally didn't enjoyed and have been complaining since day 1. So below are some of the snapshots of the farewell parties:

Starting from the one with the AP Networks. They are those who i complained and we motivate each other during the process. True friendship has really blossom over the 2 yrs and definitely hoping to stay in touch and attend all the other gatherings.

1. Dinner at Putien.

Waiting for a few others at the lobby.

Group Picture.

Menu of the day.

At the end of the dinner, I got myself a cookie book from 3 of the attendees. I have tried one of the recipe but it turned out to be too sweet. Will definitely try some of the recipes when i am free.

Last day in the office..as usual there is a farewell lunch for me, of which i choose pizza hut since i need to accommodate all the different diets requirement...vegetarian, halah. Happy to know that at least 20 turn up for the lunch to give me their blessing in my next role. So up till the last min, i didn't make any enemy and my reputation still stay. So if all dun turn out good as i planned, i might start pulling some strings and get a stable and boring job then. The funniest thing that happened was i actually got teary when i say my good bye to her. Sorry for the lack of pictures as i didn't bring my camera along as usual.

Last shot with my lunch kaki for 2+ yrs.

I got a surprise as the AP networks gave me a Coach Wrislet as farewell gift. So touched since it is something i have been aiming for a while. Sorry for the double chin since i was actually running around the office to settle all the paper work as well as saying bye so no time for a good picture to be taken.

Final Farewell: Arab Street.

These 3 ladies are one of the few that really click well with me so we thought of having a gathering before i leave or is it after i left...since the gathering took place on a friday after i left. The main reason is because we wanted to hang out late so weekend seem to be a better day as we all don't have to work the next day. We had a very nice dinner in a Turkish restaurant at Arab street..where we actually gossip and chit chat. After which, we actually hang out at a 24 hour turkish cafe at arab street where we actually played cards and just relax. It is such a nice place and we actually hang out till 2:30 in the morning. If you have a chance, should visit the place again. We also decided that we should always hang out like that again every alternate month. Looking forward to that too.

In conclusion, my journey at P&G though work sucks, the environment and people is something i will definitely missed. Hopefully, my new work environment will allow me to foster few good friendship as i did in P&G. Bye everyone who is part of this journey and thank you very much. Will relax and get ready for the next destination which is taking off soon.

Clarification

I guess i have not been very clear in my previous post since a couple of people actually msn or left comments for me. So to be clear, I have decided to P&G and start my new job in Kah Motors as Marketing Executive.

Thank you so much for all the well wishes that you have left for me. I will take all these wishes to my new job. :-)

Actually, there is not much to blog about this week except that i have already started transitioning and so have not much time to MSN during work. Furthermore, i am also required to stop my work from home so that i can transition. So i guess, i am a step closer to the new job...with regular working hours and no more MSN. I am still praying hard that MSN is available in the new job. hehe

Oh yah, other than transitioning, news that i will be leaving have started to spread around the workplace. So now, i am constantly explaining to people why i decided to leave. I should actually tape my answer and replay it every time. Will you know what is the most common reply that i have after explaining my reason? They wld ask if i did mentioned to my boss to find a position internally for me and my reply wld be i am only at the bottom of the hierarchy and in order for me to go into P&G marketing i will need to be at least Band 2 manager and how long will it take? 5 yrs or more? After this, everyone will agree that it was a right decision that i leave. As the days goes by, i am starting to have more confidence in my decision and it was indeed a correct decision even if Kah don't work out for me. Since i wldn't be moving anyway in my career if i continue to stay in P&G. Am i still not convinced? and actually trying to psycho myself here that i have made the right decision? hehe.

Another interesting thing i discovered is that there wld not be any announcement of my resignation in the department as it is actually a HR policy that no announcement will be made for people leaving P&G. so funny, right? So it will be slide in slide out arrangement (a P&G term) meaning today u see me and when u don't see me u will know i am gone.. However, i feel that it is a bit weird so i have decided to start breaking the news to people myself so that it wldn't be like i did something wrong and i am actually asked to leave.

Updates! Updates!

The past 2 weeks has been a very drama week for me. Reason being i was actually offered a Marketing position with Kah Motors. You might be wondering why would it be a drama week since it should be a dream come true for me. Afterall, this isn't what i have always been praying for. However, when the chance actually presented itself just after one interview, i started having doubts. Furthermore, the HR wasn't very friendly as she is constantly pressurizing me into giving answer.

After recovering from a state of shock, I decided to give it a try and informed my immediate boss abt my decision. Then surprisingly, they came up with a counter offer with another department doing customer business development. Dilemma again...since it was an area that i was interested in but have no confidence if i will realli be interested after actually doing the job. Hence, for the last 2 weeks, my mind was in a real mess and lost. For those who have been with me then, i realli appreciate all the listening ears that you have offered. I bet i was driving u nuts with my indecisiveness.

So after much delibration and imagine spirtual guidance as well (not to bored you with my decision making process), i decided to step out of my comfort zone and embrace what it is coming my way. Not sure if it will turn out good but i guess there is no 100% in everythings. I am fully prepared that there will be a lot of adjustment from my end and in adapting into the new work environment and culture. I bet in every job there will be areas for me to complain abt since i am the ultimate complaint queen. Lastly, what can be worst? At most just unemployment and then another cycle of job searching where i have actually do it for the past 4 yrs. Furthermore, it was also part of my plan to leave my current role in the next few mths.

So i will be officially leaving my comfort zone in next couple of weeks. Thereafter taking a short break before starting off in a new environment on 12 November. With this new job, i will be required to work till 7pm every mon, tue, thur and friday. Hence, for those who like to meet me after work next time, i will only be able to reach town by 745pm, earliest. So no more early krissy waiting for u all but u all have to wait for me.

Wish me luck in my future role.

Steamboat Dinner

It's our usual practise to always hang out at each other's birthday and our steamboat dinner is actually meant to celebrate the birth of our SQ girl 27 years ago. So since she has been serving others for the past 8 months, we decided to give her well-deserved break yesterday. We are all at her commands and preparing for our steamboat dinner. If i remember correctly, it's been a long long while since we last gathered at someone place for dinner. Thus, it was very fun just hanging out with each other over dinner and talking about anything under the sky and also updating each other of our problems and joys.

I guess nothing is happier than spending quality time with the people that you are truly concerned about. This friendship of more than a decade (to be exact is 14 yrs) is something that does not comes easily as we each move through different phases of our lifes and grow as a person and it is possible because each of us put in the same effort in mainting it. Thus, we should always continue put our best effort in sustaining this friendship to another next decade and a next and till the end of our lifes or maybe for our future generations.

It is really lucky that i have you gals around me all this time and tolerate me for all my nonsense and for who i am.

As the request by one of fellow members, i should include the amount of food we took in my blog so that we wldn't end up with excessive food for our next steamboat:

• 3 small white cabbage.
• 小白菜
• 1 packet of pork balls
• 1 packet of egg tofu and normal white tofu
• 1 packet of fish balls
• 1 tray of chicken fillet, fish, prawns
• 1 tray of fish paste thing...not sure what it is called
• 2 packets of 金针菇
• 1 packet of crab sticks
• 1 packet of japanese fish cake
• Some squids

I think that's about all we have last night.

Oh yah, after dinner, we were also introduced to a website. So if you are interested, you can download the game from http://www.mofungames.com/

I find this game pretty interesting too:

HK Cafe



Click here to play this game

P.s. Sorry as usual my blog isn't realli abt pictures so again we failed to take pictures of the people because we are all hot and sweaty.

Baking Time

I actually wanted to post it last week but somehow the pictures can't be loaded so after a few trials, i gave up.

So now i should blog about my baking experience last week. It was actually my first trial with Chocolate Fondant. So what's the result? Please see below:

Batch No. 001

Verdict: Over baked so the chocolate inside actually hardened so didn't manage to achieve the melting chocolate effect when cut.. :-(

After the first trial, i actually did a 2nd batch but this time it was under baked so when i tried removing them from the baking tray, the chocolate actually melted out so no pictures were taken.

Overall, it tasted okie so i will just give a few more trials until I manage to have the right effect. Will update again once i succeed.

It's finally the time to reveal

If you have noticed, during the early part of the year, i have been pretty active in sports, like rollerblading, salsa and have also actually planned to do more new sports, like golfing and swimming but these plans were never fulfilled till date. Many have asked, why have i stop going for my weekly blading? Initially, it was really due to pure laziness but now there is another reason behind it.

Actually, i wanted to share this piece of news in July when i was first informed but due to some old beliefs i have to keep it a secret until now. So for the past couple of months, i have been finding different excuses when people asked me abt this person. It is really difficult for me as i really wanted to share the good news but i believe this sort of news should be shared by the person. Since now it is official and stable now, i can finally make the announcement here. Okay....i shall not be beating around the bush. My sports buddy and good friend since my poly days, Ms. YY, is actually pregnant so i have no one to accompany me for my sports till next year. But we will have one more partner when we hang out, that is baby.

It was actually quite funny since the day when she found out that she is pregnant, we were still joking via MSN that there is not possible and it must be stress. So when she found out that she is actually pregnant, both of us were laughing away and wondering if the doctor has actually make a mistake and kept the news to limited people and even from their parents and in-laws in fear that they will be disappointed if it is really a mistake.

Little did we expect that the pregnancy will be of such difficulties since we were thought that there will be usual morning sickness but we never expected it to that bad since it is no longer morning sickness but more whole day sickness since she was not having any appetite, pucking quite badly, which eventually make it difficult to function properly at work as she can't even travel to work esp. since she has a boss who is so stressful and political to work with. I was asking the colleagues around me on the ways to help her feel better and finding different plums to improve her feeling.

There was a funny story here as well...i was asking one of my colleagues on the method that she used during her pregnancy since she is a mother of 2. She was proudly telling me that she doesn't have any difficulties during her 2 pregnancy. But few weeks later, she realised that she is also pregnant and now she started to experience morning sickness. Hence, both of us were laughing that she shdn't be too cocky earlier on.

Back to Ms. YY, there were times when she got really frustrated and depress so the only thing i can do is to entertain her, stay positive around her and let her vent out all the frustrations. Actually it was quite weird for me, since my friends or colleagues have already experienced motherhood and sometimes they will be sharing their stories with me and so i was able to share some of this stories with her and keep her going.

Though it seem to be a difficult process but there is also lots of joy that i can feel from the couple when she shared the experience of seeing the first ultrasound, hearing the first heartbeat, seeing the first smile, etc. I am very happy for her as this friend of mine moved on the next phase of life...motherhood.

If you are wondering why i seem to very part of the process, it is because I will be god mother of this unborn child which i have nickname as BB for the time being since we didn't know the sex. But now that we know the sex of the baby, I am also helping the parents-to-be to derive the list of potential christian names for them to choose from.

Which sex do you think BB is? The answer is “Boy". I actually got the right answer as i remember my ex-colleagues telling me that if it is a boy, the mum will be more sloppy and i think it is because there is a clash in the hormones and so the mum will have a more difficult time.

I know that the mum-to-be is looking forward to my entry and i hope you are satisfied with my entry and flow of content. Congratulations to you once again and i am looking forward to my 1st godson next year Feb. Like i say, i have less interactions with baby boy but i will definitely try click with BB. I know that you get tired easily but you shouldn't slack too much at home. Remember my philosophy why woman get big butts after giving birth is because they sit too much during pregnancy. Not sure if it is true or not. :p

End Note: For those who will be scared after reading the above, i guess you shouldn't be afraid as the joy that i believe you will have is definitely worth all the effort and if you are prepared for it, you will definitely cope better with the changes. There are alot of people in this world that really wished that they can have the chance to go through such a process even if it is really that difficult.

Gathering

It's been a while since i last met up with my Uni-gals especially since everyone is so busy with work and committments. It took us at least one month in advance to finally find a date that everyone can make it. Out of the 6 of us, 3 of us actually have our own blog so i didn't bring my camera along since i am very confident that Lynnie (one of the earliest blogger) will be snaping away and updating the gathering itself.

Hence, to see what a wonderful time we had that day, just click on this link: http://quacktheyellowduckie.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-girlies.html

Look forward to seeing you gals again which most probably will be our usual christmas gathering or earlier.

My First Homemake Mooncake

I am actually those people who will always want to eat festive goodies on every festival like i must have 肉干 every Chinese new year, moon cakes on every 中秋节, etc. It seem weird that some of these festive goodies are actually available all year round and I don't eat them only until the festivals.

For this 中秋节, i decided to try make some homemake style moon cakes for my family since my parents are vegetarians and they normally can't find snowskin moon cakes in the market. Hence, after much surfing on the internet, i find the recipe and make my first snow skin moon cake for them.

Verdict: Edible but not fantastic. So I guess this will be my first and final batch of snowskin mooncakes.

After having some fun from the making of the snowskin moon cakes, i decided to further explore on other moon cakes and i manage to make the below baked moon cakes with red bean paste which is left over from snowskin moon cakes.

Verdict: My parents and myself prefer this sort of mooncake better since the skin is rather flaky but we need to reduce the sweetness. Thus, i should be making more next week for praying too.

In all, i manage to get the taste right so i will need to improve on my presentations. Look forward to my future creations since lately i have the mood for baking. hehe.

P.s. sorry for my poor photography skills.

MV Time.

Initially, i am suppose to blog about my gatherings with my best buddies. However, those photos taken during the gathering were deleted accidently. Hence, i started thinking about the content for this week and decided to further share all the latest music that touches my heart over the past few months or will get me singing along whenever it is on the radio.

Starting with all the love duet:

1。今天你要嫁给我



2。梁上伯与茱丽叶



3。 主旋律



4。Latest Duet with an oldie feel. 你是我心内的一首歌



I guess that enough of duet for today but apart of duet i am also into catchy or touching songs like those below:

１。小情歌 - How i get addicted to this song is because of Yes93.3 as it was highly promoted by the DJ and hence after constant exposure to the song, it actually get stuck to me as well. Furthermore, it was used as a theme song for one of the radio drama and being a radio drama fan, this song became a favourite as well.



I shall end today entry with the latest from Ah mei - Star Album which i am thinking should i invest in one:

如果你也听说



Hope it is not too many for you and you can enjoy it as much as i do. :P I will be off to my next 1st: to make snowskin mooncake. Hope it will be successful so i can share in my next entry.

Is this enlightenment for me?

It will be a short entry for me today.

Some time back, i went to a religious class and got some enlightenment through the process. The speaker of the night was actually asking the audience if there is always instances where we always find that our life is always not as gd as people or we always comment that 为什么我们的命会这么苦? The reason why we feel that it is bad is because we, as humans, like to compare with others and not willing to 放下. The more we compare with others, the more we will think that our life is bad or not gd as others. Like he say why humans are known as 凡人 is because 凡人就是又烦恼的人 and a lot of times all these 烦恼 are created by ourselves. How true is that? Since actually the cause of all my problems is that i like to compare with others? How come they can do this and i can't? How come they can afford this and I can't? Majority of the times, we will only compare things that we are not good at or can't achieve. We wouldn't compare with people that are worst than us. Actually there are a lot of people who are worst than me and they don't actually feel that they are worst of... Hence, the point is to let go and learn to be contented. Only if you are contented, you will be able to get rid of a lot of redundant 烦恼 that you have created for yourself.

I guess i have not reach that stage to let everything go. If one day, i am able to reach that stage to let go and look back at a lot things, things will definetly be better and I will really be a happier person. Not that i am not a happy person nw. Learning to let go and be contented will not be something that i can easily achieve but at least i will try to work towards that.

Finally, i will like to share a meaningful line from the drama serial, 7th Heaven, that i was watching this morning as my ending for this post.

"God will not give us challenges that we cannot handle. Everything will be worked out fine eventually."

Recently, i am also addicted to this song from the movie - 881 so i have attached the music video here to share with all. hehe quite surprise that i can easily attached the MV here. so you can look out for more MV in my future entry.

Romance Fannatic Part II

Early this year when i started blogging, i did an entry on picking up a new hobby, that is reading. As of now, i am pleased to announce that i completed all the words of Julie Garwood, who is pretty good with romance in old English settings as well as modern world. In her storyline, there will be main plot that get the leading guy and girl to fall in love. The way that discover their love for each other and how they resolve the mystery will get you glued to her works. Hence, if you are a romance fanatics like me, you can start reading her books.

Above that, i also completed another romance Korean show: My Girl this week.

I guess i am really a die-heart with all these romance shows. Though the plots usually involve Girl A falling in love secretly with Boy A who is also in love in Girl B. There is also a guardian angel for Girl A who will suffer at the side, trying so hard to get Girl A to notice him and protecting her from any pain. Through the process, the Boy A start to fall in love with Girl A. However, there is these obstacles that stop them from declaring their love for each other such as the evil plot by Girl B who can't believe she will lose Boy A to Girl A. At this time, i will be sharing a few buckets of tears for the couple. Since i just stand the sight of 2 madly in love people and can't seem to be together. Lastly, another key uniqueness is Girl A is not the prettiest or cleverest but she will still get the love of Boy A. Hence, it is good that is always a happy ending for all. That is why i never seem to enjoy those initial Korean show that got everyone hooked to TV as it is usually a bad ending with the guy or girl either dead or never together.

With all these happy endings that i have seen, will i ever have a happy ending for my life story? Will I ever meet that Boy A of my life?

My dreams continues......

Painful Week

Some of you might not be aware, due to my decision that i will quit my job by next Feb hence i have decided to pack my lunch to work daily as part of my savings programme or cost savings measure. Furthermore, my mum cooks everyday so it is actually not a difficult thing for her to cook more the previous day and i bring the leftovers to work for lunch the next day. Lastly, assuming our daily lunch cost ard min. of $5 and i work for 4 days a week, hence, i can save ard $80 per month. Though it is not a big amount but at least it can help me save a little more and maybe contribute to my monthly retail theraphy.

However, with the no. of people leaving my department, i have to attend their farewell lunch. I will normally attend such functions only for those who actually make my life in my sucky job slightly better. Hence, i am okie to spend slightly more for lunch for their sake. Since it is our practise that everyone treat the person who is leaving and normally we will go to a slightly better place for lunch.

This week alone i attended the farewell of 3 different people, of which one of them is my department director. Hence, the farewell was left to 2 of my colleagues to organise and hence when they send out the notice for the farewell dinner, i gladly accepted it since i can't be that anti-social. The day came and i was told that we were going for a dinner at Holiday Inn Hotel, Tandoor Restaurant - Indian Restaurant. First thing that came to my mind is India Food! OMG! Hopefully it is not those india vegetarian restaurant with all those yoghurt and stuff. So my colleagues and i went for the sake of attending. The good thing when we arrived is that it is not those vegetarian restaurant and i saw on the menu that we have chicken and fish. Phew! Then i was pretty impressed with the set ups and service since after every course we have fresh new cultery and the waiter are so fussy with the placement of the cultery. However, the serving is very small starting with an appetitizer consisting a drumstick, small fish fillet and small portion of mutton which i didn't touch. Then followed by the main course of Nann with small sauce bowl of chicken, prawn, chicken, mutton, cauliflower and peas. Lastly, the dinner was completed with a india ice cream for desert. However the taste is nt to my liking as it is a sour and super creamy. Thus i only took a bit. Though the serving are that small, i actually went home feeling damm full and bloated. That's realli surprising.

Considering my description above, i will have thought that the dinner + price (pre-aligned of $10 per pax) will be only around $ 60 per pax that i will be paying including my director share since there were at 10 of us to split her share. The shocking truth was the dinner was $70 per pax + $10 for present. Hence i have to pay $80. OMG! My whole month of saving + the farewell lunch that i went which is $20+. There realli goes all my effort of saving. Thinking through i guess this is the most expensive meal that i paid for myself in my life till date.

If you think that's it. I receive my phone bill from my trip in GZ and i have another shock.... total of $270 and i can only claim for $70 for work related calls. The rest was spend contacting the team since we were split. Come to think hw come it was only me who was asked to make those call and everyone was calling to my line. :-( There again per call per min is abt @ $1+. Hence, if you are ever in China, try nt to call via HP furthermore nt by pay as your roam service.

There goes all my hard work of saving. Must realli make it back next few mths.

Sorry for my long, dragging and complaining entry but my heart is still very pain.

Department Offsite at Changi Village Hotel

This has been a busy week for me. After returning from Guangzhou, i am off for our yearly department offsite - BCFCPHC (aka. Baby Care, Feminie Care, Personal health Care) at the Changi Village Hotel from thur - Friday. Sorry there wldn't be many pictures since i didn't bring my camera along.

As usual, the event started with the management or we called it as Leadership team updating the whole team on our results and plans for the next year. pure boring....hence, i spend the full 3/4 day drawing on papers and playing sudokou. hehe...Hopefully, the day was saved with the wits of the MC who is none other than my director's husband. But we can tell that my director is super embrassed by her husband since he was poking at everyone and sometimes the joke can get way of hand...you can trust me on that.

After which, everyone changed for dinner, that is F1 theme where they hired 2 babes who carried 2 umbrellas taking pictures with the team. What a waste of $. Then followed by all the newcomers dance performers which is the most entertaining since u can see who are the good dancers and who is stiff one. Lucky for me, i escape my by pretending to be sick. hehe.

Then we have the awards ceremony (both serious and fun award). This year, i was given the special appreciation award for my PADEX Leadership and execution. Unlike last year where i was awarded for one of my project and i got a photo frame which is still sitting in my drawer. This year i have a trophy and $50 takashimaya shopping voucher.

Below is an excerpt of my conversation with my colleague after my award:

M: Congratulations. Still said u dun like your role and then still can get award.
K:I dun like my role and so they hv to give me an award to make me happy. :)

Though, i get recognition from the management but i guess i am still nt satisfied bah.

After all this award ceremony, it is back to the usual partying which as usual i will escape to my room since i realise that these people really can make a fool of themselves by getting real drunk and doing lots of funny things. For instance, this year we have people who get so drunk that they can't even make it back to their room and end up sleeping in the lobby until someone discover him. Or people puke all over the place and lay on the dance floor. I also heard that one guy get so high that they actually harsess some of the girls in the dance floor. Not to say this guy is actually married and with kids.

I realli wonder are they really that stress and so they always get so high each year. Then they become the talk next morning or even the story repeats itself again next year. Realli dun understand them...afterall we are all adults and should know how to control ourselves.

Then the next day, we started with lots of exercise since our new GM is a health freak and i know that my fats level is actually under the obese catergory. But again, there is tis guy who is rather fit but yet both the BMI and fat content is also obese so i guess it is nt a very accurate measure then.

Lastly, we went to Puala Ubin for a half day of team building activities which actually cause me to stay under the hot sun and make me sick with sore thoart and cold. Hopefully, after all my beauty sleep yesterday, i am actually feeling better and it will be back to work tmr again. Haiz

I am back!

I am back from my Guangzhou work trip. It is indeed a fulfilling trip with lots of work and play. We really work and play very hard. With each day starting ard 650am, getting ready for work and workshop that normally end ard 6pm and then followed by dinner till ard 8pm and shopping till 11pm and then work day start again with email clearing till 130am.

What is better than pictures, which can speak a thousand words of my adventure in Guangzhou.

Starting with a glimpse of the place i stayed in: The Garden Hotel:My Room:

As per the name of the hotel suggest, it comes with a beautiful garden:

The shopping streets that we went:

Some food shots:

Pictures with the team:

Dinner with the AAI team at the restaurant: Kai Yue.
Picture taken at 上下九路

Taken at the desert shop at 下九路.

Taken during our ride in Metro (aka. MRT) to the tea market where we spend 3 hrs tasting different tea. Though we spend such a long time in the tea house and lose a day in shopping but it was indeed worth it since we realli learn a lot through the process.

Taken at the Guangzhou office with Global folk: Jay Cramer and NEA team: Takashi-san and Kino-san and lastly, GC representative: Sicy.

Parting shot at The Garden

Finally, to show you my purchases for this trip:

To end this entry, i shall give u all a must-go shopping areas if you drop by Guangzhou:
1。 北京路
2。上下九路
3。站西路 - 白马服装市场 - close at 6pm
4。人民南路 -状元坊 - close at 6pm
5。恒宝广场 - 长寿路

Heard that the below places have gd buys as well but i didn't make it due to time:

1。天河城广场
2。海珠购物中心
3。沙河福广场

If you like to buy materials for clothes, you can try 海印布市场 but note that it close ard 6pm. Hence, you need to go there early.

For tea, Guangzhou has the biggest tea market in China with 6000 distrbutor located at 广州芳村大道中。

Okie that's all for now. If u enjoy shopping, Guangzhou might be the place for u + it is only few hours train ride from HKG so it can also be a gd stopover for u.