纯粹闲话。。。

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-16T14:38:00.002+08:00

As with the recent year, we didn't make any reservations anywhere and just went to City Square Mall and anyhow pick a place to dine. We had steak at Aston:

Pretty flowers from Eloh:

My 12th V day's present:

Thanks Lao Gong!!

Another weekend flew by..

2012-02-16T14:33:00.002+08:00

The acupuncture at the chinese physician has been working well for me so my mum decided to join me last Sat:

Then on Sat night Eloh and I went with my PIL to the new Changi City Point to have dinner:

Went with my mama and Sis to Chinatown OG to shop and it was quite stuffy there and I was trying some jackets halfway and almost fainted.. A sales person standing near me and my mama had to support me and bring me to the nursery room to rest a while. So embarrassing..

捞啊捞!

2012-02-09T23:09:00.003+08:00

Had a total of 14 Yu Sheng this year! 真的吃到怕。。。

No. 1 was before CNY at Chinatown food centre.
No. 2 at my department lunch 2 days before CNY.
No. 3 at my house for reunion dinner.
No. 4 on 初三 at Ichiban with lunch kakis.
No. 5 on 初六 at coffeeshop near my house.
No. 6 on 初七人日 party at my house.
No. 7 on 初九 at Nana Thai. 头儿's treat.
No. 8 on 初十 at Sakae Sushi with lunch kakis.
No. 9 on 年十一 at my organisation lunch party.
No. 10 on 年十二 at Kam Boat restaurant. My immediate boss's treat.
No. 11 on 年十二 at my mama's place. Bought from Ichiban.
No. 12 on 年十三 at my house party with my colleagues.
No. 13 on 年十三 at nearby coffeeshop with my colleagues who stayed to play MJ.
No. 14 on 十五元宵节 at my mama's place. Made by Uncle EG:

Colorful 元宵:

Homemade 盆菜：

We also went to Tse Tho Aum Temple for prayers in the morning. Cute CL carrying my bag:

Nice Vegetarian meal:

--------
年十三 party at my place - We order delivery from thaitogo:

Dinner was with Aggie & LPC:

It has been an eventful CNY. :)

Office CNY Treats

2012-02-09T22:46:00.001+08:00

My 头儿 gave the whole section a treat at Nana Thai on 初九:

Our organisation had a mass Lou Hei party on 年十一:

Then on 年十二 my immediate boss gave us a treat at Kam Boat restaurant:

好丰收的一年!

人日 Party

2012-02-09T22:35:00.000+08:00

Invited my 大姨，大舅 & 舅舅's to my house for a party on 人日.

Happy nieces:

Nephews playing Wii:

Buffet from Meihao99:

Lou Hei Time!:

It was also 大舅's birthday that day and the 表姐s bought a cake to celebrate for him:

It was a tiring but happy day! :)

脚又肿了。。。

2012-01-28T20:30:00.001+08:00

After a day's rest yesterday, my knee "slimmed" down this morning and I can finally bend it beyond 90 deg smoothly and without pain.

But we are having a mini lunch party tomorrow and Eloh had to work half day today so I had to sweep and mop the floor and wash the toilets myself.. And halfway through the cleaning I can already feel my knee swelling up again. Sian...

Anyway, Eloh came home, we had lunch, set up the Wii game set in the playground room, then just when we started playing Super Mario, the LG serviceman came knocking on our door, to repair our 55inch TV.

Eloh actually called them few weeks ago about the internal film at the edge of the TV peeling off and they said need to wait for new stock to arrive. Never thought they will just come by to repair without prior notification. Weird. But it was a less than 30mins job and is most timely since we have guests tomorrow. :)

Dinner time I suggested driving somewhere nearby to eat as I can't walk much. We thought will ask PIL along but MIL had gone to her friend's place. So in the end we had Sze Char with my parents and sis instead at a nearby coffeeshop.

My fifth Yu Sheng and the rest of the food was yummy! Will definitely go again. :)

Btw, heard this old song after our dinner just now:

CNY Day 2, 3, 4 and 5

2012-01-27T22:30:00.001+08:00

As usual, we had lunch at my 外婆's place on Day 2 of CNY.

Mini Buffet from Neo Garden

We usually meet Bro's family briefly on CNY Day 1 so on Day 2 we will ask the cousins to help take a group photo for us:

Family Photo CNY 2012

We left around 2:30pm and went to Courts, Tampines to shop a while before coming home to continue watching the free movie channels. :p

Day 3 was back to office day. Went with my usual lunch kaki for Lou Hei at Ichiban Boshi:

My fourth Yu Sheng

Some goodies that the office welfare bought for everyone to share:

Yummy Pineapple Tarts from Chilli Padi

Day 4 of CNY - My immediate boss started that day and he gave us each a 开工红包:

开工红包

开工大吉！

Today on CNY Day 5, I decided to take leave to rest, partly because I've been feeling very tired the past two days, and mainly because the pain in my right knee have gotten worse recently. I went to see a chinese 推拿 physician last night, who said it's probably because my pulled ligament in Dec last year hasn't fully recovered and I still 爬高爬低 when spring cleaning and walked a lot when doing CNY shopping so the injured portion is now inflamed and swollen again...

The physician helped to massage the joint a bit and told me to 少走动 so I thought might as well just rest at home today bah.

Tomorrow is Saturday. Yay!

CNY Eve and Day 1

2012-01-23T21:58:00.001+08:00

CNY Eve

Left home around noon time as needed to collect the dinner Pen Cai before 2pm. What we did not expected was that the car would refuse to start. Eloh checked and thought it might be due to the battery and we decided to call AA and walked to the MRT station and took the train to Bishan.

We had a quick reunion lunch before going to Crystal Jade to collect the Pen Cai:

甜蜜的一餐

There was a long queue at Crystal Jade and as the rep from AA called and said he was arriving when we just started lunch and Eloh told him to wait half an hour, I suggested that he go home first while I continued queuing.

The Pen Cai + Yu Sheng was too heavy for me to carry so I took a cab back home (luckily there was no one in the queue).

Dinnertime:

My 3rd Yu Sheng

After dinner, Eloh and I went over to my parents' place to chat a while before going to Far East Flora to shop for flowers:

We only bought carnations as nothing else caught my eyes:

Today - CNY Day 1

We had steamed pumpkin carrot cake for breakfast:

Then went to my parents' place to 拜年, then my in-laws' place, then Eloh's grandma's place, then to Eloh's 大舅 place, and saw a hen with its small chicks loitering around:

Then finally to my 4th Aunt's place:

The 7 ladies in the family


Yummy 猪脚醋 made by 4th Aunt

We reached home around 5pm, watched a movie on the SCV free movie channels (for CNY), then Eloh went to fetch PIL from 大舅 place, then we watched some more movies.. Going to call it a day after watching "The Spy Next Door".

恭喜发财！Huat Ah!!!!

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000+08:00

财神来咯！HUAT AH!

CNY coming soon!

2012-01-21T21:21:00.002+08:00

Mandarin orange from our staff welfare:

Me and the nieces in CNY attire:

New bedsheet that we bought from Bangkok. Cost only around $30.

Steamboat with my parents on CNY eve's eve:

Sidetrack - Niece CL munching a muffin:

Cooking and Jam Hsiao Concert!!!

2012-01-15T09:49:00.000+08:00

Grandma who will soon be turning 90 fell down at home on Thu and fainted for a while and was rushed to CGH immediately.. Good thing my 大舅 and 舅母 were with her then.. I went with my mum to visit her at CGH on Fri evening and Eloh went to meet us there.

Grandma was discharged on Sat afternoon so Eloh and I proceeded with our earlier plan to go to her place together with Mama to 送礼 for CNY. 大舅 suggested that we fry the 年糕 that they sliced on Thu but did not get to fry. So I went to kaypoh and helped 大姨 since I've never fried 年糕 before. It was fun!

We left around 4pm, dropped Mama, came home and bathed and rested a while before going to Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch Jam Hsiao's concert.

Everyone were so happy and high and stood up at the very first song - 狂想曲:

The subsequent costumes/clothes he wore:

My previous cam would never have been able to produce photos this clear when zoomed in:

007?:

I guess those peeps who like his songs are the lively type so everyone kept standing up whenever there's faster songs and swayed to the music.

We had loads of fun! Jam Hsiao Rox!!!

====

Today - Woke up at 7:30am and decided to bake some cookies to give to our families and share with my colleagues:

Love the smell of baking in my kitchen!

Recent Eating

2012-01-14T09:30:00.001+08:00

Lunch with colleagues WW and AL at Professor Brawn's Cafe:

Went for a meeting around City Hall area on Wed. The meeting ended after office hour so I went to shop at Robinsons. Eloh came to meet me and we had dinner at the Skinny Pizza:

Both meals were ok, but nothing enticing. :p

New Year Decor!

2012-01-08T15:49:00.000+08:00

We spent most of today on mini spring cleaning and decorating the house. Decors at our door:

Eloh decorated the whole plant and pot himself:

New Year goodies, some from from Woodlands, some from Chinatown. The 柚子 is my papa's gift and wish for us:

过新年真开心！

New Year Shopping Day!

2012-01-07T22:39:00.000+08:00

As with the past years, we had planned to go for the following CNY shopping trips this year:

1. Goodies from Woodlands loop, Bengawan Solo and Bee Cheng Hsiang Factory Sale
2. Decoratives from Chinatown
3. Flowers from Far East Flora

And we decided to go today since Eloh and I will be watching Jam Hsiao's concert new Sat and Eloh will be helping MIL to distribute pastries to some relatives on Sunday, and the weekend after next would already be CNY eve.

We first went with my Mama to Defu Lane to send some old tupperware for servicing or replacement. I took the opportunity to check out the footpath that I called a quotation to construct when I was doing my School Attachment 18 year ago, and also brought Mama to try out the famous Ridyadh Prata.

We then went to get some skin care product at Toa Payoh, before going to Woodlands for goodies shopping.

We then came home to unload the goodies, rested a while before going with Papa and Mama to Chinatown to shop for decoratives, then had dinner and Yusheng at the hawker centre:

The last stop of our shopping package was a visit to the Far East Flora. But none of us got anything this time:

It was a happy shopping day! :)

初一吃素，初二。。。

2012-01-02T10:44:00.001+08:00

Yesterday

Went with my parents and Eloh to Tse Tho Aum Temple to pray and have vegetarian meal for lunch yesterday.

Then went with mama for leg massage as my knee has been aching since before Christmas. Went to see doc last Monday and doc said I might have pulled my leg muscle, probably when helping my parents with the tidying after their house renovation.

We sent mama home and came home to catch up some TV programmes, before fetching my parents for dinner at the nearby re-furnished hawker centre.

Today

Eloh and I went to Bishan and bought a Gen 1 Doraemon from a new shop there, then went with Doraemon to watch "We bought a Zoo" together. :)

It was a touching show. We came home, rested a while, before going for steamboat dinner with PILs.

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New Year's Eve's Wedding dinner

2012-01-01T12:28:00.001+08:00

Was invited to Eloh's cousin's wedding dinner at the T3 Crowne Plaza Hotel last night. Eloh's bro booked a hotel room there so we went to fetch PILs before going to visit their hotel room and going to the ballroom.

Dinner was served at 8:30pm and lasted until 11:15pm. I told Eloh that it was interesting to have such a long dinner on New Year's eve. :)

After the dinner, we went up to BIL's room again to rest and chit chat a while, before going down to count down at the hotel lounge.

It was the first time we count down with many other people and as we counted down, I felt a bit sad that a whole year has passed by so quickly.. It has been an eventful year, we moved house... I got an advancement... then I went through a most unhappy period at my workplace for a while... On the other hand, I feel happy a new year has finally arrived, new year represents new hope, and I certainly hope that many many good things will happen this year. :)

Looking forward to an eventful, joyful and fruitful 2012! Happy New Year To All!!!

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Catching up and chicken chop

2011-12-31T18:01:00.001+08:00

Ex-colleague MG came back from her Studies downunder and arranged to meet me and Gd fren for lunch on Thu. We met at Ion Orchard and had curry rice at a Jap restaurant in front of the food court.

We bought a set of soft toys for her and she gave us each a Koala soft toy and a big chunk of chocolate.

Then yesterday, I went with Eloh to City Square Mall and had 豪大大鸡排 for dinner. Yumz!

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Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T14:47:00.000+08:00

Christmas at my office

Department lunch party:

Goodies from my colleagues:

Christmas Eve with my in-laws

Eloh invited the in-laws to our place for a party on Christmas Eve. We ordered delivery from Thai-to-go (not bad) for dinner and bought a balloon for nephew as we didn't know what to get for him:

BIL and SIL brought a log cake:

Christmas Day with my parents, siblings and nieces

We ordered a mini buffet for 10 person and invited Uncle EG to join us:

The after dinner activities were Wii game and presents unwrapping by the nieces:

The nieces trying out their new dresses in my wardrobe:

CM in her new dress:

She only agreed to change back to her own clothes when I told her we were going to eat chocolate cake, but asked me who's birthday it was, and later asked why the birthday cake looked so different:

Thanks all for the presents, and for celebrating Christmas with us! :)

Dinner at Todai

2011-12-26T14:01:00.000+08:00

Bro TW gave all of us a dinner treat at Todai after receiving his year end reward, the night we returned from Taiwan.

Happy us on the way to the treat!

Eloh with the cute nieces:

A nice shot of CL:

Photo taking with one of the Elephant:

Thanks for the treat Bro!

Taipei and Kaohsiung - 4 to 10 Dec 2011

2011-12-26T13:49:00.004+08:00

Have not been blogging for a while, partly because I had been busy, helping my parents with the cleaning and packing when they moved home after the renovation, and partly because I was sharing my laptop with Sis JS when she was staying at my place:

Anyway, the trip with my in-laws during the first week of Dec was tiring but enjoyable. It was also an interesting and good learning experience to travel with a two year toddler. Bro-in-law had to reschedule the flight due to some national service commitment so he could only join us in Taipei on day 4 so Eloh and I helped SIL SR to take care of nephew for the first three days.

Day 1 - Travel to Kaohsiung via high speed train from Taoyuan Airport

The high speed train from the Taipei Train Station to Kaohsiung was a pleasant ride:

We stayed at this nice hotel that is very near the Liuhe Night Market:

And had dinner at the Liuhe Night Market that night:

Day 2 - E-Da Theme Park and Shinkuchan Night Market

We took the MRT and then transferred to a bus to get to E-Da Theme Park:

Father-in-law was still unwell from flu so MIL stayed with him in the hotel that night. We packed dinner for them before going with SIL SR and nephew CD to Shinkuchan Night Market for our dinner:

Day 3 - Dream Mall and 瑞丰夜市

We wanted to go to 佛光山 in the morning but FIL was not feeling well so MIL stayed with him in the hotel again while we went with SR and CD to Dream Mall where there's a lot of cute stuff and a big Doraemon shop (Woohoo!!!):

Lunch was at Sushi Express which serves very yummy sushi:

We went back to the hotel and tried to persuade FIL to join us for dinner at a Korean restaurant across the street, but he preferred to stay in the room so we went with SR and CD and then packed soupy stuff back for them again:

Then we went with SR and CD to the very busy Ruifeng Night Market:

Day 4 - High Speed Train Back to Taipei

Another fun ride back to Taipei and reunion with Bro-in-law at Cosmos Hotel:

It was quite warm that day and we didn't even had to wear a jacket. We rested a while before going to 西门盯 to shop and shared a bowl of mee suan at the famous 阿宗面线:

Dinner was at a Ramen restaurant at Taipei 101:

We also celebrated nephew CD 2nd birthday at the restaurant. :) :

Then we took a close to 20mins walk to the "we were told less than 10mins walk from Taipei 101" 临江街Night Market.

Day 5 - 九份老街

Day 5 was real cold, about 14 degree. We took a train and later bus ride to the 九份老街.

I like this place and hope to go again next time, when it doesn't rain the way it did then:

Dinner was at Din Tai Feng restaurant at the Shopping Mall next to the 忠孝敦化 MRT station:

Day 6 - 晶华商场 and Shilin Night Market

It was still raining heavily so after having breakfast at a cafe near our hotel, we decided to go to 晶华商场 that has a lot of indoor children recreation places and spent about half a day there:

We chanced upon the shop that sells famous pineapple pastry, bought many boxes and went back to the hotel to deposit the items and rested a while before going to Shilin Night Market for dinner:

The original 豪大大鸡排:

Day 7 - Check out, Karaoke at Partyworld, flight home

We had breakfast at the same cafe again, then checked out from the hotel, left our luggage at the hotel and then went to 中正纪念堂, before checking in to a room at the Partyworld at 西门盯 and had our lunch there:

We shopped a while at 西门盯 after the Karaoke, took some snacks, before going to hotel to collect our stuff and going to airport to take the flight home.

Things we bought from the trip:

Recent eating..

2011-12-02T14:38:00.001+08:00

Am on the way to dental appointment again.. Took few days of porridge and finally went for Japanese pasta with Eloh at the Nex on Tue. Maybe because of the light meals before that so the Mentaiko pasta and Eloh's baked rice were particularly yummy.

On Wed, AL wanted to have lunch at Wasabi Tei so there we went. It was the first time I ate there though I've worked nearby for more than 6 years. Not nice though. The raw fish was tasteless.

On Wed night I went with Sis to DTF for dinner. I was still feeling full from the heavy lunch so shared some dumplings and soup with Sis.

Last night, went with colleagues to Oasis for porridge.

Now what should I have for dinner tonight?

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Recent Happenings

2011-11-25T18:24:00.001+08:00

The renovation at my parents' place started on Monday so Sis moved to my place and parents to Bro's place on Sat and we went out for dinner at the SWA Garden Teochew Restaurant after the shifting.

I found the food ok though Bro kept saying that another Teochew restaurant that I can't recall eating at was better.

Then on Sunday, Eloh's cousin HS invited us for her 21st birthday celebration at Kian Seng Seafood Restaurant. We forgot to take notice of FIL's ordering of food and it was only after he ordered that we realised that he ordered 10 dishes for 10 person..

The food was so so only. And there were lots of leftover.. Poor Eloh's cousin, the meal must have cost her a bomb. Hope the red packets we gave are enough to cover the cost.

I was having toothache since biting on something hard few weeks back and a colleague who knew about it suggested that I visit the dentist he goes to. So there I went this Tue afternoon and the dentist convinced me that I need to do a root canal, having repaired it at least 5 times since Pri School. But it was very expensive, more than $2k for just one tooth...

The process was quite ok and painless with sufficient anesthetic. I even went to get some stuff home to cook pumpkin chicken porridge that Eloh said was very yummy.

But I started feeling pain later that night and by Wed afternoon it was so painful I had to take time off home to rest.

Then yesterday afternoon I went for the scheduled cleaning up and proper sealing. There the dentist found pus oozing out after opening up the temporary filling and when he tried to clean up the root canal I felt intense pain and kept telling him it was painful.

But he said it's due to inflammation and can't be that bad.. Finally after a few painful piercing I starting sobbing and he finally 甘愿 to stop and took an X-ray and realised that my root canal's length is 21.5mm when normal people's root canal is 19mm (the one he took during 1st round was not clear but he just proceeded assuming my root canal length is normal)... And he still have the cheek to say no wonder I felt pain since there's still a short length of root canal (nerve) not destroyed... Roar...

I was too sick (felt nauseous and giddy after all the pain) to scold him and had to go vomit before continuing with the treatment... The rest of the treatment was conducted with stronger anesthetic so wasn't that bad anymore.

But back home, I had to bear with the swollen gum and probably still inflamed internal tissues when the anesthetic wears off.. :(

Today it was even more painful... Really hope that the inflammation will soon subside.. I don't want to have to bear with more pain to remove pus or anything, after spending so much and already gone through so much pain. Sob Sob..

Sale, Crabs and Playground

2011-11-13T21:01:00.001+08:00

Went with Eloh to the Robinson's members' closed door sale on Wed, as we had some gift vouchers to use. We were surprised to see their staff approaching us with trays of finger food (cocktail sausages, fruit tarts, sandwiches, cheesecake etc) and sparkling wine every now and then, on each and every floor. There was also a fashion show at 7:30pm and we both felt it was a very interesting (and a bit atas) experience for us.

I got for myself a pair of itti and otto shoes, at 20% discount:

Nice! :D

Oh, one thing worth mentioning, we later had dinner at the basement food court and the 小笼包 sold there was cheap and very good. There's also a stall selling Indonesian Bak Chor Mee where we saw a lot of Indonesian patronising, must go and try some day. :)

On Fri, I went with MT and JD, DM for Crab Beehoon at Don's Pie, initiated by dear MT.

It was nice to get together and catch up, now that we are all working at different offices.

On Sat, we continued to build up our little indoor playground, by getting a toy slide. And we invited CM to come over to try out the slide that night:

The slide is a bit too small for CM though. But it is just right for nephew CD and he played on it many times today, before we went over to PIL's place for dinner. :)

Long Weekend

2011-11-07T15:54:00.000+08:00

Saturday
Nephew CD and SIL SR seem to like the Zoo Lego set very much when we visited Robinsons last week. We offered to get it for CD's 2nd Birthday next month but it was sold out so we went to look around and found it at Bishan last week. So we went with PILs to send the present to BIL's house on Sat:

It's a fun and interactive set of blocks. Looking forward to playing it again with CD in future. :)

We had Zi Char for dinner at the hawker centre across the street from BIL's place:

Sunday
Had arranged to go fly kite with Bro's family around noon time but there was some miscommunication so Eloh and I came home to bake muffins instead:

It was mainly to test if the oven handed down from the previous house owner is functioning well so I didn't buy the proper muffins tin tray for this. And some of the paper cups sort of gave way due to the moist mix. It tasted ok anyhow.

Then dinnertime we went with my parents and Sis to Chinatown for 松鱼头:

There was miscomm again and Papa who went off saying that he will order chicken wings came back a long time later with four cups of sugarcane drink, while we had already bought five cups while waiting for him:

Had to packed three cups home later.

Today
Went to the Phoon Huat that is right across the street from my house to get some baking materials during lunchtime:

Can start baking once again. Yay! :)

Eloh wanted to get a high chair to put at his parents place for CD to sit when they come by, so we went to Ikea to shop shop in the evening. We also bought a high chair for our house for our guests' kids, and some toys and a car track carpet for guests' kids to play with when they come by:

Look forward to the next time our guests and their kids come by, to play with the toys. :)

Dinner with in-laws

2011-10-30T22:17:00.002+08:00

Arranged with PILs to have dinner together on Deepavali and MIL's Sis also joined us. We decided to bring them to the Hansang Korean Restaurant for BBQ grill at Square 2:

We ordered a set meal for four person but the staff suggested that we add a meat dish as there were five of us. And we ended up having too much meat that night (吃到怕).. Good thing FIL was very satisfied with the meal.

Then yesterday, we celebrated MIL's birthday few days in advance at the Kiseki Japanese Restaurant at the Heeren:

The interior decor and indoor playground were identical to the Buffet Town at Raffles City. Service was good and there were a good spread of food selection:

Too much eating this week.. Having indigestion today... :(

Kite Flying at Marina Barrage

2011-10-30T16:26:00.000+08:00

Eloh and I were off one of the weekday some time back and CM wanted to go to MB. So we went to fetch her from school and brought her, CL and my parents to Vivocity for dim sum at Bosses Restaurant (黑社会):

Quite good and service was very good

Then we headed to MB for kite flying at the Roof garden:

The above photos were taken using my iphone. Below were taken on my new G12 using Auto mode:

Mama said she must try since she's never flew a kite before

Papa with his grandchildren

A video of CM flying kite:

Photos taken using vivid effect:

Taken using poster effect:

CL 也要 fly kite

After kite flying, we went to the fountain area but CM was most disappointed to find the place under construction. We were all tired by then so went back to my parents place to rest before da bao dinner home to eat.

Gathering with Friends and Colleagues

2011-10-25T20:36:00.003+08:00

My childhood friend from Pri School - Yen will be following her hubby back to Aussie in Dec and should be staying there for good. So Eloh and I arranged for her and the rest of my Sec/ Pri School buddies to have a gathering at my place last Sun.

We played the board game that Yen brought, which was quite fun:

Then had a simple lunch that were mostly catered after Mrs Pan arrived with my godson Ryan and his little sis Regina:

We chatted and agreed to arranged for another gathering (perhaps a K-session) before Yen fly off. We also made Yen promised that we will meet on 31 Dec 2014, to celebrate the beginning of our 40s, the same way we did the day before we turn 30.

=====

Also had a gathering with some of my colleagues on Fri evening at the Karaoke room at our office:

Had a good time singing and playing board games that night.

On course

2011-10-19T21:43:00.000+08:00

Went to attend a photoshop course on Mon, yesterday and today. It was a real cool course as each of us were given a set of Mac and Wacom tablet to use:

We were taught many of the latest coolest feature of Photoshop CS5:

Totally enjoyed the three days course. Am very tempted to get a copy of PS CS5 now. :)

Sunday Gathering

2011-10-19T21:28:00.000+08:00

Arranged to have dinner with my parents at Saizeriya, City Square Mall on Sunday and Bro (who has just returned from a business trip that day and we thought would be busy catching up his sleep) also brought KC and their kids to join us.

Had a good dinner and happy gathering. :)

Dinner and Dance 2011

2011-10-16T12:16:00.003+08:00

Have only attended dinner and dance once throughout my 6 years with the organisation. Most years it was because the limited seats have been taken up before I could get enough people to form a table. But this year the ballroom at RWS is much bigger so more people are able to join.

The food was quite good:

Nice ballroom too:

The dinner ended at 11pm plus and I later went with WW, AL and Aggie to the Coffeebean upstairs and chatted until 2am before coming home. :)

Irodori Japanese Restaurant

2011-10-16T11:54:00.000+08:00

We made a reservation for Restaurant Week on Fri but Eloh arrived at my office very late so we didn't get to enjoy the fine dining. To make up for it, Eloh wanted to give me a treat at Shin Minori but it was fully booked so we ate at Irodori Japanese Restaurant instead.

The food was not bad. The Sashimi was thick and fresh, though the soy sauce was not as good as those at Shin Minori.

The Obinmushi was quite good too:

May try Ikoi next time. :)

Sick on a weekend...

2011-10-09T12:28:00.002+08:00

Was having sore throat and runny nose on Fri morning but I still went to work and took a flu panadol before going out for an external meeting in the afternoon.

Had invited WW and CH (who are the last two of my closer colleagues who had never been to my place) over for dinner last night. Agnes who found out about it decided to invite herself (haha). I prepared Kimchi soup (again) while CH made salad:

We chatted a while, drank some red wine and they left around 10pm.

My nose was running like open tap after I bathed so I took flu pills and went to bed early.

====

Yesterday - Woke up feeling very miserable, raw respiratory system, blocked nose and bodyache. Took some medicine again, then went to run some errands for my parents before going to pick up a parcel from Yishun Post Office (bought something online and forgot to change home address :p), and passed a hamster cage to Uncle EG who recently found two hamsters at his house door and decided to adopt them:

Was having a bit of fever in the afternoon so had to take panadol before going to sleep around 5pm. When I woke up at 7:30pm, Eloh has already bought dinner and left in the kitchen, and left home to send PILs to a wedding dinner. He came back, rested a while, I took medicine again, then he left home again to fetch PILs around 10:45pm.

====

Today - Feeling much better, only a bit of sore throat, but whole body very weak.. Sian, wasted the weekend that I always look forward to. :(

Short Hair!!!

2011-10-02T21:55:00.001+08:00

After contemplating for months, I finally cut my hair short today.

I've not cut my hair shorter than shoulder length since the day I started dating Eloh, as he always said he preferred me with long hair. But lately he sort of agreed to me cutting it shorter so I started actively thinking about it.

It's a weird feeling to have short hair though. Feel very naked around the neck.. Haha...

And Eloh doesn't really like it as he thought it's too short. Nevermind, it will grow long very fast. :p

========
Tonight's dinner - Steamboat at PIL's place:

After dinner's extraordinary dessert - Fish Maw with Longan and Red Dates (It's sweet!):

Now back home catching up on TV programmes again. So many to catch, so little spare time..

Spending time with Parents

2011-10-01T17:05:00.003+08:00

Yesterday - We went to meet PIL and brought them to Chomp Chomp for dinner :

After dinner, we went for a short walk in the area before coming home to catch up on the TVB serials:

Today, Eloh went to work and he came back to pick me around 11am before joining my parents and their Reno contractor at Tradehub 21 to choose the kitchen and toilets' wall and floor tiles.

The tiles that they chose (same for kitchen and two toilets):

Next, we followed the contractor to IMM to choose their toilet bowl, sink, taps, kitchen sink, toilet paper holders etc.

Eloh and I left around 2pm plus to go to Long Di's place for housewarming cum baby shower (super late), while they went to another shop to get the metal drawers for the kitchen cabinet.

Left Long Di's place around 4pm. Rested a while back home, then went to meet my parents, Bro, SIL and the nieces for dinner at Yishun to celebrate Papa's 66th birthday:

CM kept chanting about going to the Kids Playground at level 4 so all of us went with her after dinner.

Love this photo:

Bro bought a cake so we went to our parents' place next. Mama added an interesting candle to the cake, that ignited sparks and opened up like a flower petal when lighted.

Happy Birthday Papa!

愿你天天开心！

Vroom... Vroooommm....

2011-09-29T23:03:00.000+08:00

A nice guy gave Eloh and I a pair of Saturday's F1 tickets last Thu:

So on Fri night I quickly went to get the Canon Powershot G12 camera that I had planned to get nearer to the Dec trip:

On Sat afternoon, we parked our car at Carlton hotel and followed the long queue from Raffles MRT station to slowly walk over to Zone 4, where we had access to. We shopped a while for the merchandise before having an expensive atas-hawker fusion style dinner at the food zone:

The 3rd round of Practice started at 7pm so we went to our seats slightly before then. We were seated at row 5 and the view was pretty good:

After P3 was Shakira's performance and fireworks performance:

After two hours wait, the Qualifying finally started at 10pm plus. We went to the bend area this time to standby (suggested by Aggie who is a F1 fan) and finally managed to take some clearer photos.

Lewis Hamilton

Mark Webber

Felipe Massa

We only took some photographs before the security came to chase us away from this corner. Otherwise we would have still been here when Kamui Kobayashi's vehicle crashed into the UBS banners shown above... :(

It was a very interesting experience for the two of us. Thanks 好人 for the tickets. :)

=====

My parent's block will be undergoing lift upgrading in Dec and they've engaged a contractor to do a major overhaul of the kitchen and two toilets in Nov, which they had wanted to do for years. So we brought them to IMM on Sun to look at kitchen accessories and appliances. They bought a kitchen hood and hob and a long marble dining table to cater for the many people at home:

The contractor will be bringing them to buy the kitchen sink and toilet bowl etc this Sat. I will be going to a colleague's house for lunch that day but hopefully the timing arranged by the contractor will be right for me to join.

This is really a year full of changes...

留一片藍天

2011-09-21T22:48:00.001+08:00

A Cousin posted this on FB:

还是好听！

Dinner that gave us a shock...

2011-09-18T21:08:00.002+08:00

Was preparing dinner just now so I closed the kitchen door. Little did I expect that poor Eloh will bump his head into the glass door...

The sound from the impact was so huge and it startled me so much that I screamed... It must be very painful as he squatted on the floor for a long while and a small bump soon appeared on his eyebrow area:

So poor thing.. 吓死我了。。。

The meal that gave him a bump on his forehead:

Think we really need to stick something on the glass door before someone bump into the door again... :p

Birthday Celebrations

2011-09-18T09:45:00.002+08:00

Sis JS and Uncle EG's birthday are on the same day so we arranged with the two of them to have dinner on Fri, a day before their birthday. Uncle suggested going to Mayim at Northpoint as he rather liked the food there. We ordered dishes that we didn't tried the last time and most were delicious.

Greedy us also ordered lots of desserts to share. But the desserts so so only.

Then yesterday we went to meet my parents, Bro, SIL KC, the nieces and JS at Thomson Plaza to have lunch at Swensens, to celebrate JS's birthday. I ordered Smoked Duck Salad that tasted really good:

Niece CM then went for Ballet class. The rest of us shopped for a while and I bought some skincare products:

We then sent parents and JS home before coming home to idle the whole afternoon, da bao dinner and later shared a bottle of Sparkling Rose.

Today: Dear 老公 bought breakfast for me! :D

幸福！！！

缘

2011-09-13T23:05:00.004+08:00

On the way home today, I saw a lady who at first glance looked very much like my Bro's wife KC. It suddenly struck me that if my Bro hadn't met and married KC, she would have been a total stranger to me. And I wouldn't even have given the lady I met today a second glance because it would not have meant anything to me.

Similarly, Eloh would have been a total stranger to me if we hadn't gone to the same Sec School. And even if we had gone to the same School but didn't meet again in NTU, and do bump into each other on the street, we may only have taken a second glance at each other and thought "Hey, that guy/ gal was from my Sec School", and just walk away... Then I would not have known his parents, his Bro and his Bro's wife, and their Son CD.

It's really interesting how so many complete strangers' lives intertwined because of the marriage of some other people...

真的是: 两个人手一牵，连命运都改变。。。

Korean Dishes

2011-09-11T20:48:00.002+08:00

Prepared Kimchi soup and Stir-fried Spicy Pork for dinner tonight:

Using the seasonings that I bought based on Colleague CM's suggested recipes:

Tasted exactly like what we ate at the food courts. Next time can cook for our extended families le. Hehehe.

========

Separately, saw this touching video on S.H.E's 10th Anniversary that I would like to share here:

Family Time

2011-09-11T10:07:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, we went to meet BIL, SIL and nephew CD at Chinatown to check out the 民宿 portion itinerary of our planned Taiwan trip in Dec. Back on the car, SIL gave me a Doraemon cooler bag with adorable Doraemon Mooncakes within:

So so cute!! Thanks SR!

Then we went to NEX with PIL to have lunch at 鼎泰丰:

It was the first time we tried the limited quantities (Last order before 12:00pm) 小笼汤包:

I used to lament that the food at the SG 鼎泰丰 are not even half as good as those in Taiwan and Hongkong but the meal yesterday changed my perception. The quality had definitely improved very much. :)

After lunch, we brought them back to our place and we discussed further and finally booked the air tickets for the Dec trip. The plan is to go on a few days 民宿 package tour before checking in a hotel in Taipei and go free and easy for few days. It's gonna be an interesting and different Taiwan visit this time. :)

Eloh, BIL and PIL then played MJ and the session ended quite late and by the time we finally found a place to eat at AMK Central it was already 8:30pm.. We waited very long for the food and in between I brought SIL and BIL to get the lantern that SIL and MIL wanted to get for CD. CD got a Thomas and Friends lantern and I got a Angry Birds Pig (so dumb, so cute) for myself.

The dinner only came at 9:15pm and it was 11pm plus by the time we reached home after finishing dinner and sent all home. Next time cannot allow them to start MJ too late man. :p

Chilling out with friends on a Friday

2011-09-11T09:48:00.005+08:00

WW added a Moto Ray Fish to her home aquarium recently and it cost her around $100.

And I have been teasing her about how costly it is for such a small piece of stingray when I can get from Chomp Chomp one big piece cooked with yummy sambal chilli at $12 only. :p

After talking about it for more than a week, WW, her hubby, Aggie, Me and Eloh decided to go to Chomp Chomp for yummy stingray on Friday. We also ordered lotsa goodies there to fill the whole table.

After the sinful dinner, we walked over to Udders for even more sinful ice cream:

The cafe provided pens for doodling on the glass wall. Aggie drew a Spongebob Squarepants and I added the starfish Patrick:

It was a fun and relaxing night out after a slightly stressful afternoon at work. Pity we didn't get to drink beer that day. :p

And so it begins...

2011-09-11T09:26:00.003+08:00

My turn my turn!

But their style of ransacking my bags are different. CM is the more dainty, detailed type and when she used to play my bags, she will scrutinize each item that she take out, place those she wants to play with behind her back and toss those she doesn't like aside. She will give up if things are stuck somewhere in the bag.

But for CL, she is the 豪迈 type and will take a quick look and throw everything that she takes out and will not stop until the bag is emptied.

====

Whenever I reach my mama's place early, niece CM will always ask to play hair styling with me. This day all three of us tied the same hairstyle but of course I wouldn't post my photo here to 吓大家。

The girls were distracted by the TV commercial ads and didn't smile for this photo though. :p

Yummy Mooncakes

2011-09-06T21:52:00.000+08:00

I managed to refrain myself this time and only took 3 out of the 8 mini mooncakes that I earlier bought from Jewels. The rest were all eaten by Eloh.

But I did finished one out of the two Or Nee flaky mooncakes that I couldn't resist getting when I bought one box for my parents. Was very relieved though when I weight myself yesterday morning and found out that I actually managed to lose another 0.5kg since gaining back a bit recently, which means I lost 2kg in total after moving house. 加油加油！

But then on Sunday Eloh's Bro gave PIL a box of the very expensive Home's Favorite Durian Mooncake, which PIL gave half to us:

And today my Bro gave us a box of the every year must eat Cheese mooncakes that he bought from Junction 8:

一年一次。。怕胖还是要吃的。。 But must work very hard to 捍卫 my body weight after finishing all these yummy mooncakes. :p

Pies and MJs

2011-09-04T20:12:00.001+08:00

Went to BIL's place today and they ordered yummy Shepherd's Pie for lunch.

Then we played MJ and I decided to play a while but was very lucky to have won a round. :)

Had dinner at a coffeeshop near their place (quite good) and is now on our way home.

Back to work tomorrow... :(

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Eat and Eat..

2011-09-03T22:33:00.000+08:00

Went for dinner with Aunt LD and Uncle EG at Yishun's Mayim Chinese Restaurant last Thu. The food was good and the choice of food was very wide:

And today my colleagues came to our house for a house warming party. It was the first time we had a real buffet set-up for our house party so I was very excited (I always thought we will have a chance to cater buffet at the old house but it never happened)..

Some colleagues bought us presents and some gave us vouchers:

The most interesting present was the one given by LPC:

Felt quite pai seh invited them to help warm my house but still made them spend money. :p

Mooncakes!!!

2011-08-29T21:55:00.005+08:00

My first box this year (for my house - 90% will be eaten by me). :p
Went shopping at Taka during lunch time and couldn't resist getting a box from the roadshow... There's still the cheesy mooncakes from Dragon Phoenix that I must buy each year... Must stop at 2 boxes this year else sure will gain super lot of weight like last year again. :p

The flexible hose for our bedroom basin tap has been leaking and Eloh had not been able to find the flexible hose of the same size as replacement...
So Eloh came to fetch me from office today and we went to get a bigger tap that comes with a normal size hose after dinner. Eloh rarely have any preference but he seemed to like this tap a lot so of course must buy lor.
Buy resale flat and retaining most of the things = really have quite a bit of things to fix here and there. Hope won't have anything else to fix for a while from now. :p

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dinner, Concert and Gathering..

2011-08-28T10:20:00.009+08:00

Thursday
Went for the 2nd appointment for the sold house on Thu evening and then went with in-laws for dinner to celebrate the completion of the entire house moving project. We went to Mellben, AMK and the queuing, waiting and eating took us about 3 hours.

Friday
Then on Friday, we finally went to the Jacky Cheung 1/2 Century Tour concert that has been a more than 7 months wait since we bought the tickets:

The first 45 mins was a musical that was sometimes a bit boring but the nostalgic feeling and touching moments to be listening to his 金曲 and watching his concert again was priceless.

Saturday
Then on Saturday, we invited Aunt LD who will be returning to SFO next Sat to our house for dinner.

New clock

2011-08-25T21:14:00.002+08:00

Our Casio Clock that had faithfully served us for the past 7+ yrs was found shattered into pieces on the floor of our new house last Sunday evening, after we were out for half a day. The hook that we had used was apparently not sturdy enough. :(

And so we went to the Molecules at Orchard Central on Tuesday night to get a new one:
We had dinner at Genki Sushi and had a fun time using the iPad to place orders and watching the car tray zoom over to our table to serve our food:
It's a happy thing to chance upon interesting places when we least expected. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Eating.. Cooking... Eating....

2011-08-20T22:42:00.005+08:00

Sis JS and I brought the nieces and our parents to the newly opened Buffet Town at Raffles City for lunch on Thu. The food was delicious and the restaurant was very child-friendly. The nieces had a very fun time playing at the big indoor playground. Think all of us enjoyed the 难得的 outing with the nieces:
Felt like eating Thai food yesterday so 心血来潮 decided to get some ready mix from NTUC to prepare for dinner:
Green Curry Chicken, Mango Salad (wasn't able to find very green mango), and Pineapple Rice:
Today - Aunt LD is in SG on a business trip so we went with Uncle EG, my parents and Sis to meet her for lunch at Crystal Jade, T3. The 盆菜 tasted very good and was really value for money:
Think I have already gained back at least 1.5kg of the 2.5kg I've lost recently. :p

Bye bye house...

2011-08-20T22:32:00.001+08:00

Went back to old house on Wed night to shift out the remaining furniture before handing over.
Shedded a bit of tears as I took photos around the house.. It was afterall the first house we had and the place we painstakingly decorated bit by bit over the past 8 years...
Goodbye, our first house. We will miss you dearly..

Trip to Bangkok

2011-08-17T19:08:00.001+08:00

I have only been to Phuket once with my parents in my early twenties and had not visited any other places in Thailand until this year because dear Eloh had never wanted to visit Thailand. He was kinda tricked into visiting Krabi earlier this year as he didn't really know it was in Thailand when I first talked about it. :p Having been convinced that Thailand is really a safe place, we can henceforth finally explore other places in Thailand.

Two weeks ago, after settling most of the things at home, we decided to arrange for a trip to Bangkok to unwind a bit. We consulted BIL and SIL since they go there very often and finally booked a room at Pathumwan Princess Hotel. It was slightly more expensive than a few other hotels but we chose it as my left ankle was still aching and thought could at least make short visits to the MBK shopping mall that was linked to this hotel, in case it is still painful by the time we travel.

Day 1 (14 Aug 2011, Saturday):

We took the noon time flight and reached the hotel around 3:00pm local time due to traffic jam. Was impressed by the warm reception and nice hotel decor upon arrival and most happy to see the link to MBK right next to the hotel entrance:
Liked the cheerful warm colors of the room and especially the daybed that I hopped onto few times each day, while declaring to Eloh "我的daybed!":
Our room was on the 25th floor and we could see the roof of MBK and the locations of many other shopping malls and hotels such as the Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon, Central World, Amari Watergate, Baiyoke etc.:
Satisfied with our room, we then walked to the nearby places, from MBK to the Siam Places, Siam Square up the Central World:
We couldn't find the Thai restaurant recommended by SIL so finally settled for the Asian Cuisine restaurant at Siam Paragon, which was not bad:
After dinner, we walked back to Siam Square through the Sky Walk from Central World and shopped a while at the night market before going back to room to bathe and rest.

Day 2 (15 Aug 2011, Sunday):

Breakfast was buffet at the hotel's cafe:
We then took a cab to Chatuchak Weekend Market and was wowed by the size of the market and large varieties of items sold there. It was bigger than any of the night markets in Taiwan or Hongkong that we have even visited.

We spent a few hours there and bought a bedsheet, some table runners, cushions and some decorative items for the house, a pair of sandals each, clothes for the nieces, nephew and myself, a bag and some souvenirs:
And also a painting that Eloh super liked:
Having deposited the items back in the hotel room, bathed and changed, and still feeling full from breakfast, we decided to head for Four Buddha praying via Tuk Tuk around 3:00pm. It was a very exciting ride:
After praying, we went passed the Arnoma hotel that Mama stayed at with her friends when they visited BKK few years back (good location, may stay there next time), passed by the Big C and headed for the Platinum. Had our late lunch/ early dinner at the food court there around 5:00pm. We ordered some Kueh and a enormous plate of Mango salad that was very yummy:
Shopped a while more after the meal and then bought some clothes and toys for the nieces and nephew. Then took a cab back to MBK and shopped a long while at the Naraya shop there. Afterwhich we were both aching all over so decided to go for a massage. Wanted to choose one that cost 350 baht but Eloh preferred this one that look more classy and cost only 50 baht more:
It was a good massage. :)

Day 3 (16 Aug 2011, Monday):

Decided to have Kway Teow soup at the hotel's buffet breakfast that day so that will still be able to take lunch. :p Then took a cab with nice pink burberry leather seat to Chinatown:
We were lucky to have found both shops that sells lotsa Doraemon stuff, based on the notes written by SIL SR (Thank you!):

Spent about 3hours at Chinatown before going back to hotel to unload our loot (photo taken back home as Eloh had packed the stuff before I could take photo):
Lunch was at the Kongju Korean restaurant at our hotel that was supposed to be our Day 2's lunch or dinner if we had been able to digest better, which seldom happens when we are travelling.. :( We ordered two set lunch which were yummy and cheap (350 baht per set). The portion was also so big that there was quite a bit of leftovers:
Went back to room to bathe and it started raining heavily so we cancelled our plans to go temple visiting and took a nap instead.
Then we decided to explore the 7 storey high MBK floor by floor. There were lotsa restaurants there. There's a whole floor full of IT stuff like Sim Lim Square, one floor selling furnitures and many other floors selling clothes and local produce.
Dinner was at the Fuji Japanese restaurant located at the 7th floor of MBK, recommended by SIL, which was quite good and cheap:

We bought too much from Chatuchak and Chinatown and couldn't fit those into the extra hand carry bag that we brought in our luggage so also bought a luggage from MBK that evening:

Day 4 (16 Aug 2011, Tuesday):

We were supposed to check out around 11:30am but still went to MBK to shop a while at the Tops Supermarket around 10:00am. Love the colorful and yummy looking fruits on display but too bad we were feeling bloated all the time so didn't get to try:
Reached the airport around 12:30pm and had our lunch at one of the cafe there after checking in the luggage:
Reached SG around 5:30pm and spent quite a while shopping for wine and fragrance:
It was a good trip and we are looking forward to another trip to Bangkok soon again. :)

Lunch with Mrs Pan

2011-08-13T09:41:00.001+08:00

Have not met dear Mrs Pan since Dec last year so we arranged to meet at Itacho, Bugis for lunch yesterday.

It was a yummy meal but pai seh that she insisted paying for the meal as my belated birthday lunch treat though. Wish we could meet up more often but know it is not possible due to her family and work commitment.

For dinner, I added some pumpkin to the rice in the rice cooker and it turn out to be quite tasty, like sweet potato rice. :)

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Happy National Day!

2011-08-10T21:54:00.009+08:00

Singapore's 46th birthday was also niece CL's 1st birthday!
We first went to our old place around 10am to meet the buyer to confirm the items that she would like to retain (such as the study tables and shoe cabinet that we couldn't bring over since there's already a U-shaped built in study table and two big shoe cabinets here). Will have to arrange for TC to remove those items that she doesn't want sometime next week before we hand over the house week after next.

We did some last bit of packing/ throwing before going over to Bro's place for lunch, prepared by Bro and Mama:
Our present for CL (Saw this bumper mat that SIL SR bought for nephew CD and thought it is a useful gift for a toddler.):
A cute birthday cake:
The party ended in the late afternoon and after sending my parents home, Eloh and I went grocery shopping and then packed some satay home for dinner. I also boiled some 蛋花汤 using the vitro-ceramic stove that's finally properly installed:
Dinner that we ate while watching the National Day Parade:

Happy National Day!!!

Skin allergy again..

2011-08-08T07:37:00.004+08:00

Been having skin allergy around the left arm eversince we moved here.
Thought it could be due to the chemical and dust from the new cabinets, furniture and most likely the bedsheets (it is especially itchy every morning).. It could have gotten worse due to the 7th month burning too.

Anyway, went to get another set of bedsheets on Saturday and immediately washed and spin-dry the same night.
Changed it yesterday morning and the clean bedsheets seemed to have helped. The rashes didn't itch that much this morning and have finally subsided slightly. Phew...

Twisted ankle..

2011-08-03T21:41:00.003+08:00

Was on the way to workplace after the kitchen pipe was replaced but suddenly twisted my left ankle in a pothole when walking along the pavement leading to the MRT station..

I could still walk for a while but felt pain when I tried to walk after sitting for a few stops in the train... :(

A colleague suggested that I visit a Sinseh at Toa Payoh but it wasn't opened so I hobbled to another that was nearby. The Sinseh said it wasn't 扭到 but 拉到经 and should recover within 3 days if I abstain from cold, spicy and sour stuff.

真麻烦。。 :(

Pipe leak...

2011-08-02T10:47:00.004+08:00

Saw water trickling from the boarded up kitchen U pipe area when we were cleaning the kitchen cabinet the Saturday before last. So asked the contractor to remove part of the board concealing the pipe when he came by last Wednesday. But the pipe wasn't leaking much so Eloh didn't want to change it immediately (despite my sharing of my past experience as TC officer...).

Then it started leaking badly on Sunday night (as I expected) but Eloh was still not convinced so we patched it with silicone sealant hoping it will go away..
As expected, pipe leak can only get worse and by last night it was dripping water so Eloh called our reno contractor and he helped to arrange for a plumber to come by today morning.. Turned out that the pipe was so badly clogged that water was stucked in the pipe and was forced to seep through the joints..
Finally replaced the pipe and luckily the plumber didn't need to dismantle the whole side cabinet (minor damage that is not visible externally). Phew...

==========

Our side table finally arrived and we went to collect on Fri night.
Last weekend was spent shifting remaining things from the old house.
There's still a lot of boxes and bags of items left around our dining and study area.. Will slowly unpack over the next few days..

乔迁大喜！Huat ah!

2011-07-29T13:00:00.007+08:00

Finally moved in yesterday, after many days of continuous packing at old place, loading onto car every night, then Eloh drives to work and we meet and unload the things at new place in the evening, then unpacking and cleaning, then back to old place late at night to pack and load again.

We also took leave on Wednesday to allow the contractor to finish up the electrical work and touch up the carpentry work (we used our own lock since moving over the big items on Saturday), and also to paste the wall paper (until about 4pm). Dear Mama kindly made us 泡参燕窝 that evening to boost our stamina. 谢谢妈妈！ :)
As advised by the Fengshui Master, we arrived at the door of our new house around 8:30am yesterday and Eloh brought in the lighted charcoal stove and left it in front of our hob cabinet with a kettle to boil water:
Then he came out and took the Goddess of Mercy statue from me to 请上神柜, after which I brought in the 柴米油盐, clothes and clothes airing poles as planned. I used the boiled water to make red dates tea for both of us:
We then went down to bring up one car full of items packed from the old house. Then drove back to old house to meet Bro who had taken one day leave and load his and our car with more packed items (have finally more or less emptied the old house). Managed to bring all items up within 3 trips with Bro's help by 11:30pm. 万分感谢！

Then it was hours of unpacking (we ordered Mcdelivery for lunch) and we managed to hide most of the unpacked items here and there before quickly bathing when my parents arrived. Mama made us nice 红枣莲子糖水 for 好意头:
My in laws came over around 6:00pm plus and the mini buffet for 15 paxs came punctually at 6:30pm as arranged:

All the guests left around 9:00pm plus and I quickly mopped the floor again and bathed before finally resting on the comfortable recliner sofa. 真的是累到腰都伸不直了。。。

Went to bed around 11:30pm but couldn't go to sleep. Been feeling so tensed and so tired the past days that I didn't even have the time to register the changes that has happened.. In fact was so tired that I even 开心都笑不出来。。。Think will need a few days to relax and get used to the new environment.. Will slowly do more unpacking when I feel more energetic..

Some photos of our new house:

House Moving

2011-07-24T22:59:00.013+08:00

We did the final round of packing on Fri night, sealed and labelled every carton and moved most of the cartons to the living and dining area in preparation for the moving yesterday.
The movers came on time at 8:30am and swiftly completed packing.
This entire compartment was filled up in no time so we only managed to move most of the large and heavy items that day:
Everything's completed for the new house, except for the wallpaper for the bedroom and the glass backing for the new cabinet that will be installed on Wednesday.

One big problem was however the hob that was installed mis-aligned with the hood:
I was so upset after seeing on Fri night that I couldn't sleep well and woke up at 4am yesterday... The contractor was also taken aback when he saw this yesterday afternoon. He checked with his carpenter and found out that joining point between the microwave oven and the baking oven compartments underneath the hob is limiting where it can be installed.

The contractor therefore suggested that the hob be installed vertically in order for it to be aligned with the hood. But even if he bring back the solid top yesterday, his carpenter will not be able to patch and return the top in time on Wed for our move in's “开炉” ceremony on Thu (due to overwhelming request for job completion before lunar 7th month)..
So we decided that he will come and remove the solid top on Fri instead. But that will mean the glass backing will not be mounted until the alterations are done (ugly). Luckily we only invited both sides' family for our house warming party on Thu night..

Besides meeting the contractor yesterday afternoon and receiving delivered items (TV, Sofa, Altar), Eloh also assembled the storeroom rack moved from old house and packed and tidied stuff while I swept and mopped the house many times, washed the toilets (lousy cleaning done by the contractor..) and cleaned the wardrobe.

Moved more things over this morning (still have quite a bit more and we intend to progressively move over before handing over the house in end Aug):
We spent today wiping and cleaning the kitchen cabinet, putting the pots and bowls in, then cleaned the built-in bookshelves (done by previous owner), put the books in etc... So many more things to be done, windows not wiped, kitchen door not cleaned, existing lights not wiped, toilets washed and washed still not clean, many things not unpacked...

Whole body aching everyday... 搬家好累好累啊。。。

Happy 36th Birthday to Eloh!

2011-07-21T21:48:00.000+08:00

Bought him a cake for his birthday yesterday (that I'm not allowed to eat...):
We went to check on the renovation work last night again but not much progress. They only installed the bi-fold door for the wardrobe.. :(

Still Sick..

2011-07-20T09:33:00.006+08:00

Thought I was feeling better yesterday morning but felt pain in the stomach again after taking fish ball soup for lunch.. It was a burning pain and propagated to my chest very soon.. I thought it was my gastric that was causing the pain so took Gaviscon but it didn't seemed to work.

Went to my parents' place for dinner and I only took rice with soup but the stomach and chest pain didn't go away even then.. Dear JS gave me a bottle of her gastric remedy - Magtasil. I took one dose on the spot but it only stopped the chest pain and not the stomach.. So Eloh brought me to the clinic near my place.. It was already 9pm plus by then (We went to take a quick look at renovation along the way) but there's still 17 person in the queue.. It was too agonizing to wait so we went home and I bathed, took the Magtasil again and went to sleep.

Woke up at 11.30pm feel feverish and burning pain in my chest again so Eloh quickly rushed me to a nearby 24hours clinic. The pain subsided soon after taking the doc's prescription at the clinic.. Phew..

Am on MC today.. Still having a bit of pain in the stomach but very much better than yesterday.

====

Updates on the house

The bedframe is up:
They should be doing the PVC and laminates for the bedhead tomorrow. The two boards on the bed are the side shelves that will be installed at both side of the bed once the wallpaper is done.

Both sides of the wardrobe were also installed:

The old and new kitchen cabinet are also almost done but they were still mounting the hood when we were there so I couldn't take any photos.

Think they should be able to wrap up everything today, clean up tomorrow and hand over on Friday as planned. :)

做“吐”子。。。

2011-07-18T20:44:00.009+08:00

We have arranged for most of our items to be moved to the new house this weekend. So we did a bit more packing yesterday before going with Uncle in the evening to Ikea to get some outstanding items. Uncle seemed a bit more cheerful and less gloomy than the earlier days when he first moved here. But we know he still missed the previous house a lot... Think I will also miss this place when I move to the new one next week..

Today
It's Eloh's off day so I took leave to settle the outstanding issues and we thought we will book tickets to go watch Harry Potter IMAX in the late afternoon.

What I didn't expected was that my stomach will suddenly reject the breakfast I took. Felt sharp pain in the stomach and vomitted twice around 11am plus so took some medicine and went to sleep a while. Was still feeling weak and cold around 2pm but didn't want to waste the tickets already bought so decided will still go for the movie.

Too bad I only managed to watch the 3D movie for less than 5mins and soon felt nauseous so had to rush out of the theatre to vomit again...

So it's back home to rest again. Eloh wanted me to see the doctor but my whole body was cold and aching so I told him I would rather go home and take two packets of gaviscon and sleep.

Felt better but still cold after sleeping so took some panadol, rested a while more then took a bit of Eloh's Ban Mian for dinner.

Hope can fully recovered by tomorrow morning...

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Enjoy & Relax

2011-07-16T22:19:00.003+08:00

Had booked tickets with Sis months ago to watch The Lion King today but Eloh had to be on duty again so Sis and I went with my Mama instead.

We had our lunch at Todai since there's a 15% discount for The Lion King tickets holders. It was a splendid spread of food and unlike most buffets, the hot food there were actually more delicious than the cold ones.

The food variety was simply too wide, such that I had to give many zones, such as the Pasta zone, the Dim Sum zone, the Soba/ Udon zone and even the Sushi zone a miss.

After the super heavy meal, we took a 10mins walk to the Sands Theater. Happy us waiting for the show to start (No photography allowed once the show started):
It was a very very good Musical. We were all jumping excitedly in our seats when the huge almost life size mock-up elephant came stomping down through the passageway next to Mama. Happy that Mama enjoyed the Musical too. Pity dear Eloh couldn't come along..

We went next to the new house to check on the painting work as I hoped the not so good portions might look different during day time. Was surprised that the marble polishing work has started and very happy to see that the three bedrooms' flooring were all smooth and shiny. :D
Mama was having a very bad limp and backache even before we met to go to MBS so we next brought her to the Hougang Festive Market for a back and leg massage.
The masseuse told her that her right leg is already slightly bent, which was why it's hurting so bad. The backache is also caused by her tilted walking posture due to the painful leg.. :( Will try to accompany her for more regular massage in future and hopefully can lessen the pain. 妈妈辛苦了。。。

Reached home around 9:40pm. Still full from the super heavy lunch so will just skip dinner and go to sleep once Eloh reaches home..

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Bought the console!

2011-07-15T21:45:00.003+08:00

Finally bought the console at IMM this evening. It's the one below but ours will be black in color:
With this, we have bought almost everything that we need, from many different places as shown in the table below:

Item	Purchased At
Rain Shower, Glass cabinet, Sprayers, Hanger rack, Toilet seats	AMK
Vitro-ceramic stove	UE Square
Downlights	Balestier
Bedroom ceiling light & Doorbell	Chong Pang
Mattress	Furniture Mall
Bedsheet & Quilt	OG-Albert
Altar	AMK
Sofa	Sungei Kadut
Console	IMM
55 inch LG Smart TV	Yishun
Soundbar	Yishun

Our existing fridge, washing machine, dryer and dining table will be brought over. Would want to bring over the study tables and bookshelf if not for the built in study table and book shelves that came with the house.

We then went to AMK to check on the painting work (Eloh wanted to see as he will be on whole day duty tomorrow). Different color themes for different rooms, all according to the Fengshui master's advice.
The living room is also pinkish tone and our master bedroom also yellow tone but the painted results wasn't satisfactory so won't post yet. Almost done. Next weekend can start to 摆家乐 le. :)

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又是非常累的一天...

2011-07-14T21:23:00.003+08:00

This morning, we went to HDB for the 1st appointment for the sold flat. Then went to 四马路观音庙 to pray. Then went to the nearby OG and finally managed to find a set of Yellow color bedsheets (as advised by the Fengshui master) that we liked.
Next was to shop for the TV at Millenia Walk's Harvey Norman as Eloh has got a $1,000 gift voucher to spend. We liked one of the 55 inch Samsung Smart TV but it cost $4,299 so we thought we would visit Audio House to compare the price and if still expensive will wait a few months for price to drop.

There we were however convinced by a salesperson that we might as well get an new LG model since we didn't even like to watch 3D. Plus this model had full web browser and cost only $2,499 (the Samsung TV with full web browser cost $4,799). But of course Eloh still wanted to go to Gain City near our new place to compare price again and we therefore also popped by to check on the painting work:
Not bad, they have completed the painting for the toilets, kitchen and storeroom and the ceiling for the rest of the house have also been painted. The friendly painter who was still there was painting the walls for the study and dining area and discussed with us how he will do the separation lines for adjoining walls with different colors. :)

Next we headed towards home and went to Star Furniture again and almost bought a TV console but too bad those two that we liked were all left with display set. :(
We finally bought the 55 inch LG Smart TV plus Eloh's dream Samsung soundbar at Yishun Harvey Norman and only paid $2,000 after using his voucher. :)

Reached home around 8pm. Did a bit more packing as Eloh has arranged for the mover to come by for quotation tomorrow. Going to bathe, then stone a while before go sleep. It's back to work tomorrow......

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Happy 36th Birthday to me!

2011-07-13T23:34:00.010+08:00

I am 3 cycle old today! 1 year nearer to retirement. Hoho!

Got another red packet from Sis JS when we were at my parents' place for Mee Suan. And not only did niece CM wished Eloh and I both Happy Birthday, she also gave me a present. She said “姑姑，这个给你。” I asked her what it is and she replied “这个是Trapezium" so I thanked her and kept it in my pocket immediately. Eloh was very surprised that she actually knows such a complicated word. :)
CM also gave me a new hairdo:

Today

Bought this cup noodle last night when Eloh asked me what I want for breakfast today (of course not hamster food lor):
Then I spent the morning revising for the evening Korean Class and waiting for Eloh to come home from his duty. We then went to Raffles City to shop for the bedsheet for our new bed (our current bed is Queen size so must get new ones for the future King size bed). We had an early dinner (4pm) at Watami and order the largest set for 2. Greedy me. Hoho.
Eloh had normal coca cola while I took Yuzu Soda. The amount of food that came was fit for 3 person lor. But everything were so delicious so we didn't really care. :D
We shopped a while more after "dinner" before I went for the Korean Class. Eloh then went to check on the status of our new house before going to his parents' place. Painting work hasn't started but the rain shower, sprayers, towel rack/ bar and mirror cabinet have been installed.

Hope the contractor will start painting work tomorrow. 没时间了。。:(

On Schedule

2011-07-12T23:16:00.011+08:00

All the rusty downlights were replaced and the spoilt crystal lamp in our bedroom was replaced with the one we bought last Fri. So pretty.. The base for the new kitchen cabinet and the washing machine area have also been cast. The Contractor also remembered to extend the base for the fridge area. They should be starting on the painting work tomorrow as scheduled. Phew.. So far so good..
On a separate note, my doting mama finally got to cook Mee Suan for me and Eloh on his lunar birthday.
We also bought a cake to celebrate our lunar/ ang moh birthdays that are only one day apart this year. So fast... 又老一岁了......

Another tiring weekend..

2011-07-10T21:10:00.006+08:00

Eloh was on duty again yesterday so I rested the whole day and only went out to meet Papa, Uncle and JS for dinner in the evening.

Today
We went to get another towel bar (last minute decision) for the common toilet during lunch time and then went to the new house to label the locations to install the fixtures, as requested by the contractor.
We also left a note with sketches on the color to be painted on the walls to remind the contractor.
Then we went furniture shopping at IFC and some places at Sungei Kadut:

Then went to Party World to sing song to relax a bit..
My blood pressure that recently went up due to the stress from the new post and running around for the new house finally went back to normal after the K-session. But it will probably go up again tomorrow... Sianzz...

Renovation

2011-07-08T22:54:00.009+08:00

Our renovation schedule:
1. This Wed/ Thu - Removed rotten part of cabinet. Removed discolored solid table top.
2. Today - Installed headboard for bed frame.
We also went to meet our contractor at this shop at Balestier to get some lightings. Then had dinner at the nearby famous Bak Kut Teh shop.
3. Next Mon - Install lightings.
4. Next Tue - Plumbing/ Wet works.
5. Next Wed to Fri - Painting work.
6. Following Mon/ Tue - Polish marble flooring.
7. Following Wed to Fri (20 to 22 Jul) - Install cabinets and bedframe. Chemical wash.
8. Sat (23 Jul) - Arrange movers to move things.
9. Sun to Wed - Stay in a house with no fridge and most of the household items.
9. Thu (28 Jul) - Move to new house. Yay!

So far we seem to be able to move on time. :)

Happy lunar birthday to me

2011-07-07T22:50:00.005+08:00

Had been so busy that I totally forgot about my lunar birthday until my mama asked if I'm going back to eat Mee Suan. But we had arranged with the contractor to choose the materials for our bed frame, wardrobe and additional kitchen cabinet that night and cannot delay further (else cannot move in before 7th month) so I told her I can't. Mama and Papa still gave me and Eloh red packets on another day:
Thinking that I will have a birthday with no Mee Suan, dear Eloh who had only cooked for me twice in our 7 years of marriage actually cooked Mee Suan and packed nicely for me to eat on the car before meeting the Reno contractor. So touched. Thanks 老公! Hugs!!!
Below were some of the materials we chose.
The contractor started dismantling the rotten part of the existing kitchen cabinet and removed the solid top soon after. The existing hood and oven, and the new stove will be shifted and mounted onto the new cabinet that will be installed opposite this one. :)
We have actually bought most of the items that needed the contractor to help us install, after praying for 动土 on Sunday morning, such as the altar, a mirror with cabinet, rain shower, fixtures and toilet seats. Also shopped around for the mattress in the afternoon and finally bought it at The Furniture Mall. We will take our time and slowly choose the rest of the furnitures such as sofa, console and dining table, since it is ok to move in without those. :p
Can't wait to sleep on the new mattress. It's super comfy with one layer latex, one layer memory foam and one layer pocketed spring. Thanks 老公 again for agreeing to buy such a good mattress. :)

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Latest Korean Drama - 我的公主

2011-07-07T22:40:00.000+08:00

宋承宪老了....

Collected house keys

2011-07-02T21:15:00.003+08:00

Finally collected the keys to our new (resale) flat on Wed, at around 4pm. :)

The power and water supply was cut off so we did a quick check, cleaning (dry) of the place before inviting PILs to come over around 530pm. Then Eloh sent me for my Korean class. We couldn't go back to continue cleaning and checking as there was no power supply (to see if stains can be remove or otherwise consider replacing), so woke up early the next day to check further.

By 12pm, we agreed that the condition of the cabinets, lightings and fixtures were ok so need only do painting, polishing of floor and our bedroom wardrobe. But may need to change some of the rusty fixtures such as the sink:
Then we quickly went for lunch at the nearby hawker centre (nice Prawn Mee):
Then went back to wait for the fengshui master that we had pre-arranged to meet at 1pm. Turn out that the location of the existing stove was not suitable for us so we have to make another cabinet to hold the stove while retaining the current cabinet for other use. But not possible to connect the gas pipe to the other side as the gas pipes are hidden in the existing cabinet, so we will have to get a induction stove now..

Then the 1st contractor came at 330pm, we brought him around to tell him what we want. Then he left, then the 2nd contractor came at 430pm. The 3rd one was cancelled as he can only come after 7pm and by then too dark.

By then my legs were swollen and aching with each steps I take, after standing the cleaning the whole day. In fact already been painful the past few days after the recent understudy with lots of walking.

Yesterday was my first day of work at the new place. Went out whole morning and stood and walked for 3 hours plus. Then had to rush a report the whole afternoon. But happy to have lots of work to do again. After work, Eloh and I went stove hunting. Reached home around 11pm.
Today Eloh have to do national duty and went out early and should be home around 11pm (usually). So I did some usual cleaning of the current house, then went with my parents to place order for stove but in the end cannot as the one we like exceed maximum voltage for HDB unit.

We shopped around Liang Court and UE Square and had lunch at Streats HK Cafe:
Then we went to my new flat to wait for SP Services to activate our power and water supply. My bro and his wife KC, Eloh's bro and wife, our nieces and nephew also joined us and CM and CD had a fun time running around the empty house.

I had planned to go to 313 to collect an altered pants after that but decided not to as my feet were aching badly. See how slow the swollen portion reacted to the pressing:
More walking tomorrow, and the days after..

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More treat and gift

2011-06-28T19:05:00.004+08:00

Today was my last day (half) with HQ and my current boss KL and job-buddy MV (covering person) gave me a lunch treat at the Imperial Treasure, Great World. It was my first visit to this branch and was surprise to see that the interior is real grand and spacious.
Had to follow the next office's colleague for visit in the afternoon so it was goodbye to HQ before lunch. Though sad to leave the place I've worked longest at, I managed not to shed a single tear this time. 我真的长大了。。。

But still felt a bit emo when the two very nice guys whom I worked closely with for the past 1 yr + bade me farewell after lunch, but I managed to quickly shrugged it off.

Oh, and I also received another farewell gift, from the two other ladies in my unit, one of them from my team.
Looks yummy. :)

Always giving people farewell, yet it felt so surreal when it's my turn...

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Now watching...

2011-06-26T22:33:00.005+08:00

Updated on 2 Jul 2011 - Latest TVB drama (好看！):
New Taiwanese and TVB drama:

Still watching:
Sometimes watching:

昨天，今天。。

2011-06-25T23:12:00.007+08:00

昨天

Yesterday was my last Fri /fruit day at HQ. Will be reporting for my 4th post (in this organisation) next Fri. Bought a bunch of bananas at $1 and shared the rest with WW and Aggie (Aggie was posted back to HQ beginning of this month).

Lunch was with Bro at Canton-i since won't be easy to meet for lunch in future. But may have chance to lunch with his wife in future, if she can. :)
Dinner was a farewell treat at Oriole Coffee Cafe @ 313 Somerset by some of the colleagues in my unit. Happy to have made some new friends from this posting. The desserts we chose were very delicious.
Two ladies from my team, MS and CM also bought me presents:
Pretty!

今天
Continued with our packing. Managed to pack the pots and crockery this morning (Before and after).
The number of packed cartons is growing...
Also threw away some stuff in the storeroom, such as the record books for my Poly and Uni's industrial Attachment.
And my 1st Ericsson mobile phone, our pagers... Must take photo and post here else won't be able to see these again...
Then went to my office after lunch to pack some remaining stuff to bring to the next office. Afterwhich we went to our future house for the final inspection. Then went to pick Mama and Sis to go get birthday present for niece CM, before going to Bro's place for dinner.

Bro prepared a sumptuous spread for us. Happy CM celebrating her 4th birthday (大个女了):
Been eating a lot again lately. Must cut down on heavy meals from tomorrow onwards...

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Longchamp Craze

2011-06-23T23:11:00.003+08:00

I had bought the Kate Spade bag in April as a reward for myself, intending it for daily office use, but realized that it is easily dirtied (and color fades easily...) so had to keep it for occasional use instead. :(

Then I suddenly saw and liked the Longchamp Victoire Powdered Pink bag in May so bought one for weekend use. Eloh offered to pay for it since our Wedding Anniversary was approaching then.

Then I regretted not buying the very popular, hardy, lightweight and 耐脏 Longchamp Le Pilage for office use. I especially need a very light bag now that my new post require me to be out walking around the whole afternoon (need to bring umbrella and water bottle) so finally place the order for a brown one last week.

Then since my mama had show interest over my Longchamp Victoire, since she also need a lightweight bag, and since I've forgotten when was the last time I bought her a present, I decided to get her a limited edition Le Pilage Tree of Life in blue too.

Our pretty bags:
I love our Longchamp bags. :)

朋友一生一起走。。。

2011-06-23T22:05:00.002+08:00

Met up with Yen, Ru and Ru's sis PL for dinner at Jalan Kayu on Tuesday. It was just a gathering but Ru made her a cake and I bought her a present as her birthday is next Monday.
Won't be so easy to meet up again once Yen follow her hubby back to Aussie later this year.. :(

====

Today - Received LPC's call this morning to arrange for lunch with me before my last day at HQ. So touched to receive a farewell treat from him, who is well known for his thriftiness, and for his busy work schedules. :p
有朋友真好！

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Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T13:53:00.006+08:00

Eloh had to work half day yesterday so I took bus 859 to Chong Pang to meet him for lunch and get parts to repair the toilet cistern that has been leaking for a while (received love letter from the water agency about high water consumption).

Back home, he repaired the cistern while I dismantled the single bed frame in our guest room and took out the paper cartons that Uncle EG passed to us after he moved house. Will start to pack the books and pots whenever we have the time.
Then shifted the bed frame to Uncle's place and helped him assemble the bed. He will keep it for Aunt L and cousins CW and ThW's future visits.

Then came home, bathe and went with parents, siblings and Uncle to Oversea Restaurant at Shaw Tower for dinner to celebrate Father's Day. The Char Siew was very delicious. But this plate cost $50. Very expensive lor. The rest of the items were yummy too.
Back home, I removed the skin of the rambutan fruits that Uncle gave us and packed the peeled fruits in a box for lazy Eloh to eat.
See I'm such a good wife (:p), don't know why a lot of people's first impression is that he sure bullied by me..

=======

Today, Eloh went RT and I cleaned up the house again as the buyer would be coming by tomorrow night, to exercise option and to let her kids view their future house. :)

Now having lunch with in-laws, TH, SR and CD at Kuishin Bo, Jurong Point.
After this should be shopping a while before heading home. May pack a bit more and catch up on some TV programs. But may need to give up one or two serials as not enough time to watch..

And it's back to work tomorrow. Weekend not enough.. :(

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On course

2011-06-17T22:30:00.005+08:00

Attended a course at International Plaza yesterday and today. Wanted to have lunch with sis JS who works nearby but the timing yesterday wasn't right. So I had my lunch alone.

It was the first time I attended a course with no refreshment provided.. And I only took 3 tablespoon of hamster food for breakfast (serving size was 6 spoonful) so I was very very hungry by lunchtime.
Couldn't find seats elsewhere so finally went into a Korean restaurant and ordered a lunch set that was very yummy.
Today I decided to skip hamster food and had a full breakfast at one of the interesting local style foodshops with Japanese style long table face the wall sitting arrangement at Intl Plaza.
Lunch was with JS at the voted Top 10 Ramen restaurant within Intl Plaza. Also nice.
Think people working at Tanjong Pagar are really fortunate, so many yummy food there to choose from. :)

Everyday eat so much, so decided to have salad for dinner with colleague Ah Hsiang who came to my place to borrow winter clothing.

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Sold!

2011-06-16T18:06:00.002+08:00

On Tue evening, we opened up our house for viewing again and finally got and accepted a good offer at around 10:00pm.

Our agent rushed back from Pasir Ris to quickly sign the documents.
But while waiting for the buyer and her agent to come over, another buyer agent came with his buyer's cheque to our door to offer $2k more than the 1st buyer.

There was a commotion when the 1st buyer and agent arrived with both buyer agents insisting that we accept their offer. After speaking with our agent to understand the whole situation, Eloh and I decided to honor our agreement with the first buyer.

And we knew we made the right decision as the 1st buyer started crying after the 2nd buyer agent finally left at around 11:30pm. She was overjoyed as she thought we would definitely accept the higher offer.

It was a most eventful and dramatic night but we are both very glad to have closed the chapter in a satisfactory manner. Just hope the upcoming sales procedures will go on smoothly.

And we can now start to pack our stuff and prepare to move back HOME in July. Yay!

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TV Serials

2011-06-13T22:53:00.001+08:00

Lately we seemed to be watching quite a few tv serials concurrently.

1. 探查过界 (HK TVB)
2. 古灵精探B (HK TVB)
3. 老友狗狗 (HK TVB)
4. 恶作剧之吻 (Korean)
5. 垂涎之岛 (Korean)

There's a few other serials, such as 犀利人妻，巾帼枭雄之义海豪情, 月之恋人，that we can watch but were not very interested so only watch a bit now and then.

But have not been watching local tv programmes at all so feel kind of 脱节 whenever people talk about local tv serials. :p

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Happy 7th Wedding Anniversary!!

2011-06-12T20:21:00.002+08:00

七年了。久到老公都忘了。。。:(

It was one of our most tiring anniversary. He went RT, I mopped floor and ironed 2 weeks load of clothes.. Then we were ＂大＂ by the agent, the 1:00pm viewing was changed to 5:00pm but never inform earlier.. :(

So we had no time to watch a movie or go sing song or fly kite or cycle. Just waited and waited whole afternoon again. 4 groups visited our house, some 2nd visit but still no offer...

But at least we had a good dinner at Ajisen Ramen.
Back to work tomorrow. :(

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Semi long weekend

2011-06-12T09:10:00.002+08:00

Sis will occasionally take leave and with mama will bring niece CM out for a lunch treat. CM had a couple of times asked me to join them so on Fri I took half day to join them for lunch at Sizzler Toa Payoh.
I always liked to drop by the HDB showflats whenever I'm at Toa Payoh on a weekday. So suggested that we go there after lunch. Think CM had a fun time running in and out of the showflats.

I later went to meet my colleagues/ ex-colleagues at The Ship restaurant in the evening to celebrate JL's birthday.
But the ironical part was that JL was feeling very unwell and went home, so we had a party without a GOH. But it was still nice to catch up again after the long break since the Feb gathering.

Interestingly, the topic that night revolved around the giving birth process, buying of house and retirement plans. We are all getting old...

=====

Yesterday we spent the morning cleaning up the house for the afternoon viewing. Then I went to Rebond my messy hair, which took less than 2hrs (good)!

Then we spent the whole afternoon sitting on the sofa watching TV programmes and people drifting in and out of our house and rooms. Was quite annoyed when saw a man opening my wardrobe. Told Eloh jokingly that I'll display my undergarments at eye level in the wardrobe to scare such rude people who dare to open my wardrobe next time. :p

A total of 9 to 10 groups came, as compared to the 5 groups on Monday evening. But so far only one offer. :(

The last group left at 5:15pm and we then jio Uncle who stays nearby for dinner at the Cze Char stall near Sembawang Park, before calling it a day.

=====

Today is our 7th Wedding Anniversary... Eloh went for RT so I mop the floor again. Will iron some clothes after blogging. Then will prepare for the 1:00pm onwards viewing again.. Hope someone will give a good offer soon...

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Sunscreen

2011-06-11T14:01:00.002+08:00

Will be walking in the sun once I start on the new post so have been searching hard for a good sun screen.
Have been using the Clarins Sunscreen for a while but it hadn't seemed to work well for me though it has SPF 40 PA+++.

Then someone introduced the Korean brand Be'Be'Co sunscreen which is very good. My face barely turn darker when I put on this. But the coverage is so good that my pores get blocked and pimples start to pop up after few consecutive days of application. So nowadays I only use it when I know I'll be in the sun for long duration.

The Kose day serum with SPF 20 PA++ works well on normal in door office days and Kose products have always work well with my skin so I have been using it for normal days. But it can be a bit oily around the T zone and not so long lasting.

The Nivea sunblock was an impulsive buy and I hardly use as it's oily and uncomfortable when applied...

Finally bought the recently voted best by some magazine's sunscreen from The Faceshop. Have used it for almost a week. So far still satisfied.

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学无止境

2011-06-07T08:08:00.002+08:00

Am early for the first day of understudy at my new workplace. Will be doing something totally different from the past and there will be a lot to learn. I certainly hope I will like and enjoy what I'll be doing.

Have also started my Korean language class last Wed evening. It has been fun, learning how to write all over again.
Also started opening my house for viewing last night. Hope can fetch a good price so that can pay off the new house sooner. :)

The month of June and July shall kick off several new beginnings. So exciting... So unsettling...

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Trip to Krabi

2011-06-05T22:45:00.004+08:00

Day 1 - 2 June 2011

We took the 10:25am flight and reached Krabi slightly before 12:00pm.

The taxi ride that cost about $25SGD brought us to the resort that we booked within 30mins. We were warmly welcomed at the reception and were served nice drinks and cold towels before being brought to our nice room with fantastic view.

Hungry, we went for a short walk and settled for a not so nice meal at a nearby restaurant (total $20).
We then took a walk to the Aonang Beach shoreline, and also checked out the suitable dining and massage places for the next day.

Then we bought some drinks back to the resort, booked the island tour ($37.50 per pax) the next day, and Eloh went for a swim at the pool while I just laze around.
Dinner time we went to explore the other side of the area, and had Italian food at the Aning restaurant which was quite good (about $15 in total).

Day 2 - 3 June 2011 (Our 12th anniversary)

Breakfast was included in our accommodation. We could actually see the downstairs' Mcdonalds and 7-Eleven signs from where we ate.
After breakfast, it was raining but we still embarked on the 4-Islands speed boat tour. It was like a roller coaster ride as we were sitting right in front. :)
First destination was the Tup island where we can waddle across the water on a strip of higher lands.
Then we were brought passed the Chicken Island to take a look at the Chicken head. Then stopped nearby for snorkeling and fish feeding.
I didn't join Eloh for the snorkeling since I ever tried in Tioman before and it turn out to be a bad decision as it the boat was swaying badly and I vomited just before the boat started for the next destination. We had picnic lunch at Poda Island and luckily we brought along the straw mat provided by the resort we stayed at so I got to lie down and rest a while before we went on to the next island.
The last island was my favorite, the Phranang Cave Beach with very fine sand and beautiful caves.
We reached our room around 230pm. Washed off the sand and then went to the place that we checked out on Day 1 along the Aonang Beach for a one hr relaxing Thai massage and foot scrub at only $17. Super cheap. :)
We shared a mango salad at a roadside stall (no photos as we only brought cash with us to the massage place) before going back to room to take a good shower, then went to the nearby row of BBQ seafood restaurant for dinner. All these for only $32.
Shopped a while at a supermarket and passed by the roadside stalls on the way back to our room. Watched Astro Boy before we went to sleep.

Day 3 - 4 June 2011

We had nothing planned in the morning so woke up later (to a corridor full of dead flies) and had a late breakfast.
Went to book the Krabi town night market tour at $12.50 per pax, then went for one hour Oil massage, also $12.50 per pax, at a nearby shop. Super cheap and very good massage. :)
Bought some snacks from a roadside stall while queuing to eat phad thai at another roadside stall. But it seemed to be a long wait so we decided to go for pork burger at Mcdonalds, followed by dessert at Swensens, but we ordered a bit more than we could finish, though it cost only $12.50 in total. :p
Back in the room, we took turns to dip in the balcony bathtub overlooking the cliff and sea.
Watched "The Bourne Identity" on HBO before going for the night market tour. In fact, have watch several nice movies the past few days, "2012", "17again", "There's something about Mary". :)

The night market tour that started at 6:00pm was a 30 mins ride from our resort. Was kinda disappointing though, as it wasn't big as we expected.
But we managed to try out some interesting food such as meat roll, grilled eggs, grilled squid and some sweet dessert like ondeh ondeh (total cost less than $5).
Also bought some souvenirs for people back home. Then bought a cup of 7-Up and sat in KFC for about an hour waiting for the bus to bring us back to our resort.

Day 4 - 5 June 2011

As usual, had our breakfast at the resort. Then went back to room to collect our stuff and checked out.
Then took the arranged taxi to the airport but the flight was delayed for one hour. :( We were both hungry by then so bought a cup noodle to share while waiting and then shared a sandwich on board the plane. Also bought a ring that is less than $10 from a souvenir shop. :)
Reached home around 5pm and both of us were super hungry. Had chicken rice at Yishun and were still hungry after that so we ordered Poh Piah and Rojak to fill our stomach. Then came home to pack the bought items for the people we bought for. Below are those I'm keeping for myself. :)
Lastly, just wanna share my dress code for the past few days. :p Day 2 deliberately wore an old tee and same pants as Day 1 for the messy island hop. Day 3 changed into lighter wear for night market. :)
It's been a relaxing and fun trip. Think we could come and try kayaking and elephant riding next time.

Ah Bear!

2011-06-02T09:22:00.001+08:00

Waiting to board the plane at Budget Terminal.

Saw niece CM's Ah Bear at one of the store so bought the pink one for myself and the blue one for CM since she already have two pink ones.

They will follow us to Krabi and celebrate our 12th Anniversary with us. :)

Pink Ah Bear will sit beside pink Giraffe in our display cabinet at our new house next time. :)

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Rusty already..

2011-05-30T23:23:00.001+08:00

Poor Eloh is still attending a meeting in his office now. :(

Was putting the clothes into the washer to wash and saw some powdery stuff on the floor. Took a closer look and realized that it was due to bad rust at the bottom edges..

Had initially planned to bring along the fridge, washer and dryer to the new house, but now... :(

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Dinner tonight

2011-05-30T20:40:00.001+08:00

Tired of having the Mcdonalds salad and didn't feel like eating the hamster-food-like muesli that I've been having for breakfast the past few days for dinner, so I bought lettuce, tomatoes, ham and italian dressing from NTUC to make salad back home.

The Italian dressing is much better than the Mcdees' thousand island dressing but I would have preferred wafu or miso dressings, dunno where to find though..

Getting more and more difficult to lose weight as I get older. :(

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跑跑跑。。。

2011-05-29T21:32:00.002+08:00

Just completed my 2.4km jog on the treadmill. Happy happy!

Eloh went for RT this morning so I changed the bedsheets and cleaned Bacon's cage.
Then tried to use baking soda to remove the stains from the toilets floor again but still unsuccessful.. Have tried all methods but I guess the stains have seeped into the tiles and cannot be removed already. :(

Went with Parents and siblings in the late afternoon to Uncle's place to see if he has settled in. Then all of us went to the Bottle Tree Village for dinner.
Now cooling down in the living room while chatting with Eloh who is ironing the clothes. :p

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Eat with "family" day!

2011-05-29T11:02:00.003+08:00

Friday

It was Eat with your family day and we get to knock off one hr earlier than usual. Wanted to arrange with Bro and Sis to bring parents out for dinner but they both had their own activities.

So I decided to go shop for groceries with colleague Ah 香 to cook back home and eat with our family (she with her bro at her place, and me with Eloh at my place).

But WW who left office late called me and asked if wanna go Buckaroo so both of us changed our plans to join her and AL. We ordered one dozen level 2 buffalo wings, half dozen fried chicken wings, onion rings, two clam chowder bread bowl and one bucket of beer to share with Eloh who came to join us later.

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Saturday

Eloh was working half day yesterday morning so I started the weekend house cleaning regime and also use the melamine sponge to scrub the kitchen and tv area floor tiles, in preparation for the uncoming house viewing.

Then Eloh came home to bathe and we went out for lunch and to get the gift voucher for NN who just gave birth recently. We reached NN's place around 3pm and stayed until 4:15pm because of MY 姐 who was super late and still kept asking me to wait for her.

Dinner was steamboat at my in-laws.

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Finally jogging again..

2011-05-23T20:35:00.002+08:00

Been lazy for the past two months and thought must really do a bit of exercise again no matter what.

Finally jogged for 30mins just now. :)

My pretty adidas shoes:
Black and white pair for aerobics and treadmill, black and purple for trekking, though we've not had the time to go trekking again since the MacRitchie one. :p

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Giraffe Power!

2011-05-23T14:11:00.002+08:00

Remember my nephew CD's pet toy?
We later bought one to put at PIL's place.
And last weekend I bought a pink one to keep. :)

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Another long day..

2011-05-22T14:50:00.006+08:00

Helped Uncle moved the last bit of stuff to his house yesterday morning and check his Internet connection to make sure that the wireless is secured. Then brought him to Chong Pang for breakfast and to get shower curtain (couldn't find) and some other household stuff.
After dropping him back home, Eloh and I went for the Universal Studios treat from BIL. Thanks for the treat!

Some photos that we took.

We didn't take any rides. Only went for the Shrek 4D show.
We had our lunch at Goldilocks. The fried chicken was really nice.
We went to picked my parents and Uncle EG to have Bak Kut Teh for dinner at New Soon Huat, Jalan Kayu, recommended by friend Yen.
Then we went to Ikea, Tampines to get the remaining stuff that Uncle needed to get, before calling it a day.

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Today
Will be having the valuation for our house at 2pm tomorrow so I spent the whole morning cleaning and tidying up the house while Eloh was having RT. He came home and we continued cleaning until 12pm before sharing a personal pizza and drumlets delivered by Pizzahut. Going to take a nap in a while. Tomorrow will be another busy day, gotta rush home for the valuation after half day work, then rush over to PIL place to make sure the fridge goes through their door at 4pm.

More busy days coming, change workplace and prepare to move house and almost the same time.. Luckily I have already shifted most of the things from my office cabinet back home (not sure if the next office will have storage space)..
Also have to tidy up the house as and when our agent arrange for people to view our house. Hope can fetch a good price. :D 加油吧！

Humpty Dumpy had a bad fall...

2011-05-22T13:56:00.002+08:00

Went with WW to the Penang Cafe at Novena Ville for lunch on Friday. I had Assam Lasak with Bandung Cincau and WW had Char Kway Teow with Three layer tea. We also ordered something like 五香 to share. All nice.
When crossing the overhead bridge to take a bus back to office, I missed a step, managed to grab WW with my left hand but my right palm scraped against the grainy floor while my right knee landed heavily on the floor. It was so painful I stood for a long while before I was able to continue walking. My palm was swollen and painful and my thighs ached badly until the next day, as I probably pulled the muscles when I fell... 真是冒失。。。

Back in the office, I received a call from Gain City informing that they will deliver the fridge to my PIL's place earlier than scheduled. I informed my FIL but he later called me to tell me that the fridge can't get through their main door so the delivery man sent it back.

So Eloh and I went to PIL's place after work to measure the main door again, but no matter how we measured, there was definitely space to move in an item with up to 710mm width. We really don't understand why the 680mm wide fridge that we bought can't fit...

We then brought MIL and her sis who happened to be at their place to Gain City again (FIL didn't want to go). MIL finally picked a much smaller fridge with 630mm width. The fridge was $799, $30 cheaper than the one that didn't fit. But we still had to top up $7 in the end, because they charged us extra for having to bring back the fridge, and for the delivery again. So we actually wasted $50 just because the fridge didn't fit.

We had claypot chicken rice at Ang Mo Kio Central and Eloh's aunt who's very understanding, suggested that Eloh and I go back first as she and MIL wanted to continue shopping there. Think she could tell that we were both tired.
So we finally reached home around 10pm, after a tiring and "painful" day..

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1st Appointment

2011-05-21T13:56:00.001+08:00

The day for our first appointment finally arrived on 18 May 11, more than a month since the seller accepted our offer for the unit on 7 Apr 11. Ours was at 8:45am and we left home around 7:15am yet only reached around 8:10am due to slow traffic.

We had a quick breakfast at Ya Kun before meeting our housing agent and the seller.
After signing all the necessary documents, and confirming that the seller will hand over the house to us last week of June, we went with our agent to meet the lawyer to settle the legal matters and ended the session at around 10.30am.

We then went to Ion Orchard as I wanted to check out a Longchamp bag that I was interested in. So we had lunch at Canton-I, then pop by my parents place to chat a while before returning home to rest.

Back home, we were delighted to see that our 金钱树's flower has blossomed. Hope it signifies many good happenings for us in the months ahead. :)

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Continue to eat and eat

2011-05-18T07:53:00.006+08:00

MIL called thrice on Mon night to look for Eloh who was OTing and only reached home around 12am. Her fridge stopped working all of a sudden and requested that we bring her to get a new one the next day.

So we went to their place in the morning to take measurements, then went to Gain City and Courts but couldn't find one that can fit into the current space for the fridge.

We suggested getting a bigger one and put at another spot but unconvinced, FIL insisted on taking the measurements back at their place and took over from Eloh and measured over and over again before finally sitting down on the sofa subdued.

To spare him the agony, I suggested that maybe the Bishan's Best Denki may have one that's able to fit. There, those that can fit were too small so FIL finally agreed to get a big one so off we went to Gain City again since the price is lowest.

The chosen one:
We reached home around 4pm and I put some ingredients in the slow cooker to boil 虫草乌鸡汤 for Eloh who has been working very hard, both at work and with helping my uncle with the house moving.

Had intended to go to the nearby foodcourt for a light dinner so can drink soup back home after that, but suddenly received SMS from AL and WW who stay nearby asking if we want to go Buckaroo for dinner with them. It was the 3rd or 4th time they asked (each time we had something on) so we agreed.
We went in their car but as fate would have it, the place was closed on every Tue. So we went to the nearby Crab Village that turn out to be quite yummy. Will bring our parents someday. :)

We shared 2 bottles of tiger among 3.25 persons (driver WW can only take a sip) so I was blabbering nonsense after the meal and somehow we ended up having desserts at Dessert Story at Northpoint. We even ordered one extra bowl as we were too greedy. But the steam milk was delicious. :p

The outing ended after we visited "That Aquarium".

We still had to drink the soup back home before we slept. 好饱的一晚啊！

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一样

2011-05-18T07:09:00.003+08:00

Was watching 石欣卉's performance at Super Idol 5, Taiwan and I asked Eloh - Why is she wearing my bag?
Then last night went out for dinner with colleague WW and her hubby AL. They brought us to "That Aquarium" at Yishun Ring Rd after that and I told Eloh we must buy the honey bee snails because it look so much like my bag too. :p

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Catching up..

2011-05-17T11:34:00.005+08:00

On Sat, my whole family went to Uncle's new house to help him shift all the big items from a bedroom where the movers helped him shifted to long before the previous owner moved out.

Think Bro and Eloh had a very good "workout". Me I only helped to give ideas on where to place the furnitures and remove the protective wrappings.

Oh, and also to pack things to my place for dinner as Bro say very 麻烦 to eat out with his two girls around.
But Bro you not 麻烦, I very 麻烦. Do you know I had to mop my floor 4 to 5 times after that? :(

On Sunday, I went with mama to the pre-arranged massage in the morning and facial in the afternoon. So after that we went to pick my papa and sis for dinner at the market near Chomp Chomp. Everyone ordered a bit end up a lot to eat.
Then yesterday went with old time friends Ru and Yen for dinner at a Thai restaurant at Jalan Kayu. Nice food and company.
Presents Ru bought for me from her recent Germany trip:

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2011-05-15T08:09:00.003+08:00

Remember my beautiful air plant?

It has been faithfully accompanying me at my office workstation for the past 3 years. But few days ago...:
Must be all the shifting due to the recent office renovation (I changed 5 workstations since April last year).. Or maybe because it knows I'm leaving HQ so decided it will not move again. :(