Friday, December 28, 2007

Reflections of 2007

It's the last Friday of the year. I think should be a good time to start blogging/bitching/complaning/whining( whatever you call it!) for the year that is going to past.

Let's start by reviewing my resolutions for this year and probably renew them for the coming year.
1. Diet. Results: Yeah, I think I did a good job in that, although a bit slacking coming to the end of the year...sigh, but will work on those extra kgs sumore the coming year :D
2. Read/complete my old books. Results: Yeah, did quite a bit of reading this year. Completed some books, and bought new ones and completed those. So I still have some unread books. So, will work on those the coming year too.
3. Travel. Results: I did! And the biggest achievement was getting myself out of the country and headed to Bangkok. After that it was a couple of domestic travelling. I have that in my blog. Merdeka Road Trip + Langkawi Trip. The coming year? Might have some places in mind. I just hope I have the financial support I need for that.
4. Shop less. Results: Nope, I think I did just the opposite for this year. Sigh, that resulted to less savings and a higher sum in my credit card bill to settle. SO let's try the same resolution next year...although I doubt it'll work.
5. Doing something less ordinary. Results: I did. I took up teaching, seriously, something I didn't think I would have the patience to. But for this 4 months, I'm still okay. I have another half a year to go.

So on the overall, I think making achievable resolutions are quite satisfying in a way. Actually, I'm quite happy about it. Of course you also "grow up" throughout the whole year. It's been an interesting year.

Phantom of the Opera - Esplanade Theatre Singapore. Yeap, yeap. Superb show. That was in April. My very first fine dining experience was this year. Thanks to the projects I was in. Quite a fulfilling year for the taste bud. Tried a lot of good food. Yea, makes the loosing weight part a bit harder. This year is Starbucks year also. Too much of that this year. Working on getting my 2008 planner. 3 more drinks to go. I'm crazy dy. Continue on...First ever bridemaid's duties to carry out...which brought me to a small town of Sitiawan for the first time. First time on the luxury bus to Singapore. Of course, it's not all jovial throughout the year. There's also some down times. This year I felt the most depressed about certain things, but then I'm choosing to forget them and move on.Emotional roller coaster year. Oh oh...forgot, this year is when I shifted office from Sunway. We've got a couple of new colleagues, which is kinda fun. My vacations/trips were unforgettable. Had a great time in Bangkok, Langkawi and the Merdeka Road trip. Health wise, only worth mentioning about my chicken pox week lor. Went for detoxing, and ended up join Amway for that. But I'm not an active member, so no worries, I won't be coming up to you selling stuff. Oh ya..the new opening of Jusco bukit tinggi. Created quite a buzz here. New items added: my Ipod Nano, my new specs ...will be aiming for that new phone next year.W910i...hehe.

So that's about all for this year... 2007 was a great year! There's a few days left in the year, let's all embrace and celebrate it! (I hope my pay is in already for this celebration to take place.. :P) Have a good time celebrating your 2007. And I've just noticed that my blog sitemeter has reached 1000. Wow..thanks to everyone for your time to read this.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

More recap ..

So last weekend was winter solstice. A day where we eat tong yuen. No pics yet, but what the heck? Just thot I'd blog about it. It was an interesting session with Mell and her family. It's the first time that I've experienced making tong yuen from the beginning till it was cooked. :D We went through the whole process of mixing the glutinous rice powder till colouring it. Then we start making them into little tong yuen balls. Mell's mom made the sugar syrup to go with it. We did it in 5 colours. Pink, green, yellow, white and BLUE! Yea, debut with blue. It's the first time I see it too. We tried with blueberry too. They were feeling innovative and wanting to try something new. And so we did it. Tasted a little sour, but then didn't taste that bad after a few. We had the gula melaka filling too...quite sweet. We were at the whole thing for more than 2 hours I think. It was very fun and satisfying. Thanks Mell.... **hugs**

Then let's fast forward to Christmas Day. Wow...9-hours of shopping. Tiring! Frankly, don't think in the end we bought much. Tried clothes got la..but buying them, very few only. But good enough for this year and a couple of months before my wallet start to bleed again. Thanks SC for the wonderful shopping experience. Haha..can't believe we actually queued for the Giordano sale. And other crazy stuff we do.. I really miss uni times. Oh ya, was too bored over the weekend and bought myself a new pair of specs! So ...will be wearing more of it dy! To office, to go out, at home, to shopping! Muahaha... So it was a good shopping spree trip. Spent more than I expect. I'm so broke. I hope my pay comes in soon! No pics for now. Maybe next time...

Monday, December 24, 2007

Last week of December...

Wow..we're coming to the end of the year. That's pretty fast!!! And I haven't been blogging much. So let's rewind a bit. 19th December...my ex-roomie's b'day. Muahaha...finally old liao leh!!! Welcome to the club.


There she is..all smiley getting old. :D Nice cake too!

We ate at Mizi Shabu-Shabu. Those with personal hotpot. Taste,erm..as I always think, you can't really mess up steamboat. The only thing would be the raw ingredients are not fresh...which is not the case. So it turns out to be okay. Ohh..can comment about the sauces though. not that good la. :P So here, need to say a big thank you to Wei Jing for doing the organizing...this is the best organiser you can find la...he even sent this out to us:



What a good planner...Digi so lucky. So if you guys interested to get to this steamboat place. Search no more. Here's the map!

It was nice meeting up with everyone for a small chat. After that fulfilling dinner. We had the cake cutting thingy. Fruit cake. Nice! Mr and Mrs Wong was there. Horng Jau, Yong and Tio too. We got to movies after that. I Am Legend. Turns out to be not so bad. :)

So...quite lazy to blog on. Haven't got my pics from the tong yuen thing.Will update again once I've got it.

Friday, December 14, 2007

The weekend that was..

It was a beautiful wedding the past weekend...It was just lovely and my brother can give a very touching speech. Yealor..imagine if a guy confess his love to you in front of everyone, can be a bit corny but still, you'd shed a tear or two listening to it.

Pre-Wedding Day

So I got to Singapore on Friday morning. Long queue at the Woodlands immigration. Waited almost an hour there. A reminder to first time travellers to Singapore from Malaysia by coach: First checkpoint in Malaysia, only your passport is required. Second checkpoint in Woodlands, Singapore, take all your belongings along. This is what happened to a lady. At Woodlands, bus dropped us off. She went dashing to the immigration without her belongings and after an hour after passing the checkpoint, she got back to the bus to know that her belongings were left at the earlier drop-off point. The bus driver wasn't being that sympatethic also la, they just asked her to approach the immigration personnel for her baggage and left her. She wanted to take the bus all the way in to Beach Road. So I don't really know how the lady settled her problem after that la. Been travelling too much on my own, tend to be selfish once comes to the checkpoint because there's a lot of irresponsible bus drivers that will not send you all the way to your destination. So what I normally do is being kiasu a bit, walk a bit faster, get pass the checkpoint faster and make the bus driver arrange me a transport in if he decides not to go all the way.The bus journey was quite bad, considering I was coughing all the way. Didn't really catch any sleep on it. Reached at about 6am. Got my bro to come out and fetch us.

Then the long day started. My parents had it all planned and not informing me about it. SO fine, thought I'd go along. Breakfast in the market, then travel to Chinatown...all we did was walk and walk and walk. Damn tiring. I was coughing my lungs out already. Up to a point where I lost my voice, all that could come out was noise. Anyway, they got checked into the hotel about afternoon. Then everyone got their wanted rest. So did I~! Then after a couple of hours of sleep, then it was time for dinner. We had this ala-carte buffet in TeaHouse in Chinatown. Quite worth it actually, SGD28++. Chinese style, with over 50 choices of dishes to choose from. After dinner about 8 something, it was walking time again. Just walked a while then we got home. Saturday starts REALLY early.

WEDDING day

This is another wedding culture I learnt. Teochew ppl in Singapore will pick auspicious time starting from 4am to 6am. According to my 2nd brother, they want to settle things before the sun rises...gosh, really early. My brother was suppose to pick up the bride at 5.45am. Well, I was suppose to be picking up my relatives and bringing them there. So I had to leave home at 6!!! And I was kinda late a bit. :p Told my relatives I'll be there about 6:15, ended up there about 6:40. Need to prepare mar~! Anyway, dilly-dally till I got to brother's place at about 745. That time the bride was already back at home. She was introduced to all my aunts and uncles. All we did was wait for the auspicious time for every event to happen. Entering the bedroom, tea ceremony, picture taking. We went to my brother's room and saw a list of events, schedule for the events on wedding day. From 4am to the night event. My sis-in-law planned it all, right from the beginning to the end, including contingency plan too~! Finally saw Ashlynne after sooo long. Getting very very adorable. Met my brother's heng dai also. Can't remember all of their names. I think I only got Eric coz we sort of met online in facebook. Saw Hsu Kiang and Ming Ho, my bro's good friends back in Klang days. We were all chit chatting till afternoon, after the buffet lunch.

Sent off my relatives back to their hotel, we were off home to get some rest, bathe and prepare for the night dinner. Got to the restaurant at about 4 plus. Make-up and hairdo...then about 6 plus, people start to arrive. Got chocolate fountain also~! Didn't eat la. Busy walking around and ...acting busy. :P Most of the time talking to Hsu Kiang and Ming Ho. Think they are bored also coz don't really know many ppl there. The restaurant was nice. With really big heart shaped helium balloons. All pics with my brother...so I can only describe in words. Couldn't be in there to see their first march in coz was helping my bro out with the stuff at the reception.Only got in after the food presentation. Food was excellent. The singers were good too. Not a bad idea. Then the video sessions...all came out to be quite nice. :) Took a lot of pics I think. Need to see it frm my brother the next time. I don't look that nice for the pics anyway..sigh. The night ended at about 12? I don't know, wasn't keeping track of the time. All I know was my hair was still wet when I fell asleep in the living room in front of the TV, think the Golden Horse awards was going on.

Post wedding

Morning, woke up for breakfast at Yumcha with my relatives.I was all packed up ready to go back home...but my cousin wanted to stay longer, so we postponed the idea of going back to later that evening. Nothing much, just walking around, Centro, Clarke Quay and Orchard. Finally I get a taste of TCC!! Food is excellent. Cough was killing me, so didn't dare to drink coffee...should've~!!! Only took tea, not too bad. Food was gooooddd. Need to go there again. Didn't get to see lights this year. Well, can miss it this year la. After a long day of walking, took my relatives to take the bus from Johor. We got on the bus at 12am and reached the next morning at about 630am.


Well, the wedding's over. One thing that got me frustrated was how the whole arrangement with my parents and relatives were done. I was thinking of getting back soon coz I can still take it up to the last day when it all came out. Didn't want to throw any temper out, but the last day was a bit too much and I just walked away. Yea, probably not suppose to lash out just like that coz relatives are there...but really couldn't take it already. I wanted to go home there and then. I don't get why there was so much confusion at the first place...so glad I'm home. And I hope I don't have to be bringing relatives around for now.

Already a week after, my bro should be enjoying his honeymoon in Italy. Hope it's a good weekend ahead for all. Christmas plans should come into play already. It's just around the corner~!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Wai Ling's Wedding...

Attended Wai Ling and Choo Tian's wedding early November. Didn;t really have the time to grab all the pictures until recently. A big congratulations once again. Still newly weds, and I just got a glimpse of the pictures frm their honeymoon in Australia. I see that you have a great time there. Still wishing you the best in your future as husband and wife. Here will upload a picture of the beautiful bride and groom that night.


This is from the wedding reception in Bukit Jalil Golf Resort. Match-made in heaven!

It was the very first wedding among my MMU friends that I've attended. So this was like one big round of reunion for us. 3 tables. Although some didn't get to attend, but it was indeed a merry event. Haven't seen those from Penang for quite sometime.
So we spent the whole night chit chatting away while we dine and enjoy the traditional chinese wedding banquet. Soon it was time for the bride and groom to do the traditional cake cutting and champagne pouring. Not long after that, the yamseng was done. The night didn't end just there, we got a few people gathered and went on to one of the nearest cafe to have drinks. We went on chatting till about 1 something. I got home at 2AM that night.

A week later, bridesmaid duties had brought me to Sitiawan. My first time in the town. People there speak Hock Chew, one dialect that is totally foreign to me. We got there on Sat evening. Had this really big seafood feast~! The oysters were big and fresh...EXCELLENT. Since it was on Wai Ling's dad, we don't really know how much did that dinner cost. But we were bloated once we're done with our dinner/supper. The next day started off VERY early with us preparing for the ceremony.The bride was of course very excited. Bridesmaid had something prepared for the groom. We weren't that cruel la...just some simple things. Started of with a questionnaire for the groom, for each wrong answer, they were required to finish off bananas~! Then came the bread action. We made him bite and form the words "I LOVE YOU". Then came the sweet part, we made him write life promises to his dear wife. :) Finally, as usual, comes the angpow for us. Then he went to pick up the bride...and said the sweetest things to her. :)


This was the wedding ceremony in Sitiawan. The beautiful bride surrounded by her ji muis.

After that, we went over to the groom side. After the tea ceremony, she tossed her bouquet and Samantha got the bouquet. :D Not sure why all of us are so scared about catching the bouquet. I don't really have this culture back here, so this was the first time that I actually seen a bouquet been tossed after so many weddings that I've attended. :P Lunch, we had laksa lor mee. Was told that it's one of the local favourites. We bought their famous chili sauce too. One dozen to be divided among the few of us. I bought 2 back. After that, we got back to the house that Choo Tian rented and all of us slept for that afternoon~!Really slept. We were really tired... slept till afternoon and then woke up and got dressed up for the dinner. Wedding banquet in Sitiawan starts at 5pm. You know, being from KL/Klang, we were not really accustomed to this time schedule and definitely the punctuality part. We were late for about half and hour, then we walked in and everyone was staring. They've already began eating their first dish. We just sat and ate, at that moment, we were quite hungry too. :P We didn't finish the whole dinner. Here's another new wedding culture that I just learnt: Friends and relatives of the bride side will not finish their entire meal and will leave much earlier before the rest. Too bad that we couldn't stay for dessert that night then. We ended the dinner at 7.30pm. 7:30...that's the time when people start arriving to the restaurants/hotels for weddings back here in KL/Klang.

We had a great time. Wei Jing, Siew Theng, Cheng Khoon, Shiang Lan and me were left to stay over for another night. So we got ourselves checked in to the hotel in town. ST, CK and SL left early the next morning coz they needed to get back to Penang to work in the afternoon. Wai Ling and her hubby brought us to buy biscuits. They called it "Kong Peah"...don;t ask me to translate. If you happen to be there in Sitiawan, people there would tell you about it, and it's worth a try. They are pretty good when taken hot. Biscuits with fillings of onion and pork. baked with the most interesting way, something like how they make naan, just that this is with filling. So we made our way back to KL after that. Stopped by Bidor for super-expensive lunch in Pun-Chun. Yea,a simple plate of wan tan mee cost RM5 there.In the same small town, RM5 can get you 2 plates in some other hawker centre.

So that's about all I'm blogging this time...wedding bells are ringing again this weekend as my brother officially ends his bachelorhood(which actually makes me a target to all my aunts/uncles asking when would be my turn). We'll see how that will go..