The Annual Function

Tits the first function of the organization that moi is attending. The event was held after work, with shuttle service to the event venue. Only a few colleagues from the unit attended the event. Moi, i only went because mountain turtle moi have not been to the Singapore Flyer before and wanted to check out the place. Plus, a chance to see the flow of the event.

Table Decor

Compared to the more glitzy annual dinner from the previous organization.. tonight's event was more heart warming because it was a divisional event. More like the event i attended for the previous workplace. The glaring difference, is that the people around me were laughing more care-freely, for even the big bosses were participating in the fun. Even though the budget appears smaller and the venue and food not as atas. (well, not dwelling into work undercurrents yet)

The requisite function games

The newbies had to perform in 4 groups.. although for some reason which i cannot fathom, moi was not included even as those who joined the same time as moi were conscripted into the groups. Haa, whether even the reason for the left out, i am glad. For, i am a behind the scenes kinda person and invisibility suits me just fine. For i realise that its not the colleagues around me that are getting younger. Rather, its moi who is getting older by the day. Its a more sanguine and grown-up moi reacting to work-life. After nearly 5 full years in the work force.

Lucky Draw Prize

And, the most amazing part of the night? I won the 8th prize in the lucky draw. Now, thats a lucky win for someone who's never even won any lottery/major prize at all. Although i was joking with the dearie.. "lucky in small wins, unlucky in work". Heck, l'll just enjoy the ride and see how this part of the journey goes.

Looking Back

The good thing about blogging is that you would be able to return back to your thoughts, captured thru yesteryears. In a rather narcissistic manner.

Although what i am afraid of, is that the musings remains constant throughout the years. Even worse, would be the realisation that the years have been frittered away in a colourless drab existence.

An example: " Yah!! Its friday tomorrow!!" [ repeated in countless posts down the road].. which pretty much sums up this work week..[ feeling repeated many years down the road]. Urrgghh!!

To end this post: Yah!!! Its friday tomorrow!!

Wrong Bus.. Again!

There's a reason why moi's a self-proclaimed silly old donkey. .or goofball! Cannot recalled the countless times i've done silly things. Stopping at wrong MRT stations and other misadventures are my forte. *Signs*

I confess, guess what i did today? I took the wrong bus (again!). Staying 2 bus- stops away from a major interchange means that i usually pop onto any old bus for the feeder ride. BUT.. there are 2 buses which does a loop a junction before. And i cannot seem to remember the 2nd bus which i cannot take! So, it not a once bitten twice shy kinda scenario. Coz one forgets after a long lapse after being bitten.

When the bus came today, i vaguely remembered that i shouldn't be taking the bus (it was that vague k..). But, i checked out the route summary board before boarding. It said XXX street. That's where i usually alight.. so i bravely hopped onto the bus. Am guess what, yah.. its the wrong bus. *Aiyah* Moral of the lesson.. must take wrong bus a few more times! i'm sure my pea-sized brain would finally register the forbidden bus no! Or.. could this be a sign of aging.. ;p

(although the dearie noes this is a common occurrence in moi's life. So he's none too surprised when i confessed)

The mystery of the missing work pass

Sleepy eyed.. i walked into the lobby of the office building this morning.. And was jotted awake trying to find my work pass. Gosh!

I almost flipped over my entire bag. Hard as I tried, I could not find my work pass! so i had to change a visitor pass and was in 2 minds about it the whole day trying to figure out the whereabouts of the missing pass.. worried that i had to report the pass as lost and shelling out monies for a replacement. Plus the inconvenience of using a visitor pass.. *Glurp*

So this silly donkey rushed home after work.. hoping that the elusive missing pass would turn out somewhere. It did!!! *Phews*

Guess where the missing work pass is? caught in between the pages of the copy of the free newspaper i pick up yesterday. I had tossed the paper aside upon reaching home. The pass was just in between the pages of the paper. Aiz.. Silly old moi. *heaves a great sign of relieve*

Attended a R.O.M

We attended a young couple's R.O.M on Saturday. Its quite the family affair, with many of the dearie's extended family out in full force. The extended family is a big one, with many many boisterous cutesy little darling babies from the cousins. Heeeh.. its rather tiring looking after the young-erms.

Baby Megan.. my little niece..utterly adorable

The couple had rented a chalet at NSRCC for the event. The place is a great place for celebrating family events.. little Javen had his birthday celebration there is Sept! They spruced up the place prettily, with heart shaped balloons, flowers, feathers, photos, ribbons in full force. There was even a video montage and cake -cutting ceremony.

Ha ha.. my own R.O.M which we did at our new place a year ago seems simple in comparison. But i guess, no matter the format, venue and frills and wat nots..its how you make good of your life together as mr and missuss after the ceremony that matters. :)

R.O.M decor

The event was the highlight of the weekend, which was otherwise subdued. We are beri nua.. with weekends spent catching up on lost sleep.

Its Saturday!

Yippee........................ its finally the weekend. Sleep. Precious Sleep.. how i missed you!

Life Is

Life is.. being able to sit down alfresco-styled at any old cafe with an iced-cold coffee drink. With a book in your hands, reading and watching the world go by. Soaking in the late afternoon sun ray.

Pasta.. Again..(By the Dearie)

This is the dearie's version of pasta. With tomato and portobello mushroom and some fish. Yup, we woke up late yesterday.. had lunch (the pasta) before the dearie and mommie left for hair stylists. Moi, I waited with a cup of ice cold latte and a story book at the McDonald's nearby. Totally stuffed with food the entire day. Yah, we are quite homes people.. day offs are just for slacking.

Pasta for Dinner

The dearie is on afternoon shift and i din wanna pack dinner back. So i rustled up some pasta with portobello mushroom. Erm, the sauce came in a bottle lah..and we're out of spaghetti , but at least its half home-cooked..

Feels good to do abit of cooking in the kitchen. It made moi feel more domesticated. Off tomorrow.. feeling happy (despite the work piling up in the inbox at work.. aiz)

Just the Worker Bee

I had dinner with the ex-colleagues last friday. The ex-asst mgr gave a treat and he invited moi. Before some of them came, i had time for a quick catch up with the 2 dear colleagues. I so miss them, for they made staying at the old place fun!

I was also duly reminded of the very reasons why i left the work place and why i should be grateful that the new place provides moi with the very factors i was looking for. Like no or veri little customer interface, no operations with need to deploy loads of staff to man the counters. Being able to take long weekends without guilt and being able to eat out for lunch with the whole unit. Being able to go for training and no needing to do shift in the long run basis. Factors which were missing from the old job that I was so determined to find elsewhere. That were definitely push factors while the pull factors was a chance at doing a portfolio i've always wanted.

Yet, intrinsically i am at times nostalgic about the old organisation and the work which is a tad more dynamic in nature. But i've come to realise that there is no perfect workplace. Its a matter of adjusting your mentality and moving on if you believe there is a better organisation and culture out there.

The new workplace is indeed no where perfect. Errors in the handling of matters at the workplace, are reflective of the underlying problems of high attrition and lack of proper procedures and hand-over. I am only afraid of the implications of the errors when correlated with performance and rewards.

Yet, for me, the new workplace is not as bad as the old..as I have guessed. Its just that one has limited memories.. or rather, awareness fades with the passage of time. Hence, i dun wanna forgot the very factors which propelled the switch.. as one gets more familiar with the new place and the little bits starts to erode the old memories. The complacency and smugness sets in..

Anyways, i'm not looking for a promotion or anything on the radar.. my goal was to give myself 2 years to build up the CV..so i guess, just do the job like a true blue worker bee. Although there is no big honey pot at the end of the rainbow, at least the little pot of honey is good enough for daily living. For having that little pot, already is a blessing in itself yah.

Short Weekend Getaway with the Mommie

It was a last minute impromptu decision. The mommie had booked a room at Genting as her boss was going there with his family. So there was a free ride up. The dearie could not make it as he was working sun nite.

If i din go with mommie, she would be by herself..eating alone.. Plus, i've always felt a tad guilty that i din have alot of time for her since i moved out although she used to be the center of my life when i was growing up. So, it was off for a short weekend getaway with the mommie. I noe, she dotes on moi loads, splurging on moi for the weekend.. am blessed that my family, dearie and his family dotes on moi. We took the coach back and reached the little red dot at about 7 plus. Feels good, to go on short getaways.

Herbal Jelly (available in sgp), But i just like having it overseas

Plus the cruise trip earlier on, its 2 short trips and 1 long trip for this year, although all the trips were taken with family. Wonder if I could hope on a plane and do another short trip before this year ends.. * Grins*

My Shopping Loot.. Courtesy of the Mommie.. Yippee

Its back to work tomorrow.. *Big sign*

Bliss, Blessed

MIL's Home-made salad sans salad sauce

Home cooked pork chops set, courtesy of the MIL

The dearie is working late today, so i came home late as well. The dear Mum-In-Law, Dad-In-Law , Sis-In-Law, little Javen and Megan trooped over to our place at 8 plus. Just to deliver MIL's home-cooked.yummy-licious Western Food for us. I'm so blessed to have wonderful thoughtful in-laws.. bliss as I chomp on the food... the pseudo chinese-western styled pork chops with the old school fries made from real potaoes which i used to cook when i was younger.. Hummhh.....

Wonderful Drama

I confess.. i love my Korean, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Japanese Dramas. Currently absorbed with the daily broadcast of Moonlight Resonance. Great fuzzy warmly drama at its best. Moi needs my daily dosage of the show manz.. :)

Celebrating One Year

We took leave today, in celebration of the day one year ago. We woke up late and wanted to go for a quick swim. That was aborted with the gloomy weather. The dearie cooked porridge with some steamed chicken and veg for lunch.

Geisha Blossom Tea

Celebration Set at TWG Tea

We headed to Ion for shopping and tea. Had glorious tea at TWG Tea. Very expensive, very chic tea (although I must say, its more packaging and marketing than anything else). We ordered the celebration tea set.. which comes with finger sandwiches, scones with cream and jelly and macaroons. The dearie had the Geisha Blossom Tea and I had the Bian de Rose Tea. Hee, the experience of having luxury afternoon tea was a rather grand one.. although too heffy to be done often.

Dinner

We walked around a fair bit and moi bought a pair of pretty pink havaianas and 2 dresses. Opps, no more shopping for the month. We ended with dinner at Watami. Quite good Japanese food, not too expensive.

Salt Caramel Swiss Roll

We even came back with Salt Caramel Japanese Swiss roll from Arinco King. At $18 for a small roll.. its no wonder there's no queue although the Swiss roll is great. The dearie got Bak Kwa from Lim Chee Guan.. so he's pretty happy. Its a simple day with the dear dearie.. am glad to be off work.. ha ha.. am i starting to hate going to work.. ? ;p

We are One..Dearie and Moi

12th Oct 2009.

We are one, one year into this new chapter of ours.

Five years ago, i asked: " who are you smsing?"

The cheeky one smsed instead: "you lor".

Thus started the series of SMSes, chats and dates.

We got together after a month, he says we only really got to know each other after we started dating.

Its true. And a blessing, because we are similar individuals. In our world views and many what nots.

We're also lazy peeps, although i am the more lazy and laid back one.

That explains for the surprise pressie i got today. A complete set of pearls.. starting from the bracelet and earrings, and the surprise pendent necklace. He splurges on moi, and makes me so guilty that i din get anything for him.. *Opps* Sheepish smile*

Happy One Year, of blissful married life.. dearie.

For being the wonderful hubby that you are.

For being my good friend and partner.

For understanding me.

For luving this lazy slacker wifey of yours.

My dried Flowers..

The lovely flowers from the dearie lasted about a week plus. I took a final picture of the half dried flowers..

Flowers, bloom in full glory for the shortest time.. just like a woman's beauty, I was thinking. At least it was sparklingly pretty in the short life span.

Gratitude

At the train, everyday, the message reads:

"There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude. A quiet joy"

I totally agree. So very simple, yet so difficult in actuality.

Wanna Travel

I so wanna travel the world.. so wanna pop by Bangkok, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Penang for shopping and food. Japan, Switzerland, USA for scenery, shopping and food. The travel bug bits..

New Routine

The dearie is back on shift work..although he needs to do only 1 night shift per week. This has altered our established pattern. When he's on afternoon shift, i can stay longer at work because i dun have to eat at the in-laws. It also means less home-cooked food. Yeeepps.

Its actually straining to be putting long hours at the workplace. Especially when one knows that one has no career luck with the series of unfortunate incidents which leaves one feeling low on energy. The glass always seems greener from the other side.. whichever side you happen to be viewing from. * Sign* Nostalgic about the old work place. But, i guess its a blessing to be able to fret about such trivial issues. Not needing to worry for the basic necessities in life. One is never contented with one's lot in life.. that's why we are constantly unhappy complainey peeps. Learn to count our blessings on a daily basis... Yah!

Simply Hawker Fare

A well know foodie mentioned that one should not waste one's calories on yucky food. Its kinda true.. i luv my Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Italian, Western and Chinese cuisine although i am quite a non fussy eater.

These days..i find myself not being able to stomach food thats too sweet and non too palatable. On the other hand.. i'm beginning to enjoy great hawker's food. Especially my Prawn mee, Minced Meat noodles, Fish slice noodle soup and Yong Tau Foo.. although i still don't fancy laksa, chicken rice much. Currently trawling the island for great hawker makan.. yummy!

Prawn Noodles from East Coast Road.. *Slurps*

Side dishes

Minced Meat Noodle from 'Seng Kee' at Changi Road (Near Eunos)

* Drools* for great homely heartlander cuisine from good hawkers.

Gifts from the Dearie

Advance 1 year anniversary gift from the dearie.. Classic pretty pearls. :)

Plus, my lovely pinky roses in full bloom. It's coming close to a year of wedded bliss. God bless, for many more wonderful years to come. He makes me think all's not lost even if moi career's a flop.. coz there's more to life than work, like family and luv. Its a choice, i guess, in taking a leisurely take on life from the onset..rather than to wait for sunset to reap the rewards of one's labours.

Sept 09 in Summary

Sept is a month whereby the newbie learns on the new job. Sept is a month for meet ups with the friends, with a few baby full months and a wedding dinner. Ouch! the poor wallet. Its a month of pay cut as well.. although its been a great month with moi's birthday to close off the month.

Dinning @ Togi's with Fen

Met up with Fen for my birthday meal.. at a restaurant i've been wanting to "share share" with her, coz she appreciates Korean Food way better than the dearie. Its one of my favourite hole-in-a-wall-hidden -out-of-the-way kinda restaurant which we happened to chance upon one day.

Kimchi Pancake

It lacks the gloss of major restaurants in terms of ambiance and service, but i quite like the friendly lady boss. Togi's is hidden in chinatown and serves up simple homely-styled Korean cuisine, complete with the requisite small side dishes. It does a rather good bbq grilled streaky pork with lettuce which the dearie like. *Yums*. Ahn-Nyong-Ha-Se-Yo.. Gahm-Sah-Hahm-Ni-Da without going to the land of Kimchi.

Spicy Bean Seafood Soup, Rice cake with Yellow noodle and dumpling

We had the kimchi pancake, spicy bean paste seafood soup, spicy yellow noodle with rice cake and dumplings and stone bowl mixed rice. *Glurp* Happie, with the great meal and great company. Life can be so simple, yah.

Every year this day..

Yupz, its a practise of mine not to work on my birthday. So, moi is off on 30th Sept, this birthday of mine. I hope to be able to uphold this practice. Happy Bithday to Moi.. :)

Its a simple day. Waking up to home delivered roses from the dear dearie. He's a man of few words, so the wordings on his card touched me loads. The roses were a tad expensive, but oh so pretty and lovely. Thanks my dearie.

Flowers from the dearie

Cake from the sis-in-law

It was lunch with the in-laws at Crystal Jade. Followed by shopping with the dearie at Tampines Mall and Ion. The day ended with a birthday feast at " The Line". Treat from the mummie.. a total indulgence and oh so very expensive that its gonna be just this once. (too bad the camera battery went flat, sobs) The bill was a heffy 400 bucks for the 4 of us.. for oysters, crabs,seafood, sashimi, sushi, indian station, asian cuisine, italian and a wide variety of other items. There was even rock melon with parma ham and sun-dried tomato. *blurp* totally used up the calories count the past few days. Hello 29! Goodbye 28 ;(

Allo 29, in advance!

We had a lovely feast in the homeland. The babes and the partners, with baby Kayson. In early celebration of this donkey's birthday.

Lovely ice cream cake

Han and Malcom brought yummy giant Sri Lankan crabs from little red house. Hui and Richmond did great deep fried buns. Jinny and Noven got wonderful ice cream cake (the exact same cake the dearie got moi last year). Moi, i did my roasted lemon rosemary chicken and mango with pomelo (or yang zhi gan lu)

Chix drumstick before roasting

Its a jolly feast alrightz, in the comfort of the homeland. With cute kayson keeping us all entertained. Its a great advance birthday celebration..simple, yet festive..its great having the babes with moi, along with dearie and baby kayson.

Pretty in Pink

Oh, and i really heart the pretties gift the babes got moi.. can't believe moi is turning 29 in a few days time. 9, the last year of my glorious 20s.. urrghh.

Paper Writing

Paper writing or mini project wannabe becomes a daunting task for the newbie without sound knowledge of the existing policies.. especially a topic so vast, so unsubstantive.

Oh wellz. I rather be blogging instead..the timing is so very wrong with the birthday looming and the celebrations planned... aiz..there goes this lovely week.. ;(

Carbon Copies

This is a generation which grown up under the ethos that one needs to study hard to move up in life. Yet, upon getting the requisite degree scroll..life becomes empty. You may not get to choose the type of job that you are passionate about.. you end up doing work for the sake of working and for money. Not really happy, yet not really unhappy because you are already more fortunate than many others..

Sometimes, it takes alot of courage to chase your dreams. Yet, the most pitiful are the ones who never have any dreams to chase. Life is simply living the motions of living. Carbon copies in this society of ours. I think, a blessed person is someone who is passionate about something, whatever that thing may be. Sometimes i wonder, if i had not been realistic in getting the required education, or had done badly enough to fail my exams.. would i be a more happy person chasing a realisable/unrealisable dream?! Like working in the hospitality line or working in the fashion line.. ??! * Ponders* Will i ever find something i am passionate about? This dreamless me..

Wifey cooks: Home-styled Roasted Chicken

We've been wanting to try out roasting meats since we got the oven. So, when there was a rather good recipe which i found online, i decided to try roasting a chicken for our weekend dinner. We got a chicken and some potatoes from the market yesterday with the intention of doing up "Oven Roasted Lemon and Rosemary Chicken". However, this silly donkey subsequently found out that she did not have rosemary for the marinate. Urrghh..

Chicken marinated with lemon zest, salt, pepper, honey, and thyme

Oh well, so i replaced the rosemary with thyme instead as i had a bottle of it in the kitchen and hoped that the substitute would work as well. I also added a bit of honey to the marinate. The chicken was marinated for a few hours before it was popped into the oven for roasting.

Potatoes to be roasted with the chicken

Potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper was placed under the chicken. The entire roasting process took about 80 mins but the finished product was well worth the wait.

Into the oven this goes...

Wifey's roasted chicken, with slightly burned skin.. opps

Overall, the roasted chicken was rather yums. The dearie rates it as a good attempt by the wifey.. which can be further fine-tuned for serving guests. The top part of the roast (chix skin) was a tad over done, but the meat was great. Even the breast meat was juicy, and very tender. The potatoes were quite burnt.. so i would probably twig the cooking time and remove the potatoes from the pan after the first flipping of the chicken. Hee, can't wait to try the recipe a second time, with rosemary instead.. :)

This year's birthday pressie from the dearie

Hee.. the dearie had initially wanted to get moi a bottle of Chanel perfume for the upcoming birthday. Wellz, as the wifey was complaining that she has nothing to wear for work.. and the shop was having a sale ( yah.. i noe, these days i only buy when there's sales.. so auntish.. urrgg).. so.. this became the dearie's pressie for this year's birthday.. many many pieces of clothing.. Thanks dearie.. ;p

Family Dinners

The dearie's family are Teochews. They enjoy their traditional Teochew food like steamed fish, braised goose and cold crab. Coming from a small family, its feels great to have family dinners with the in-laws. Typical dinner outings involves the sis-in-law and her family, the grandmother, uncle and the in-laws.

The Requisite Cold Crab.. *Yums*.

The family enjoys traditional Teochew cuisine, and a favourite restaurant which we usually troop to for festive occasions would be SWA Garden Restaurant. The food is traditional, with an old world charm which is lacking from modern restaurants. The place itself looks like the 60s.. but the place is full to the brim with patrons on the weekends. Reservations are a must. I have been duly induced into the wonders of Teochew food upon joining the family. I must say, the food's great.. especially the cold crab.. fresh steamed fish, goose and the "Orh Ni" or Yam Paste with Pumpkin. The food's best eaten with family. Yums.. just like the meal tonight which is so typical of family outings to the restaurant, or any other good restaurants that does Teochew cuisine.

Trying Kyoho Grapes

Expensive Japanese fruits are quite the rage these days. We've been wanting to try out the momo that looks oh so pretty and prefect in their boxes. And the special musk melons that cost a fortune.

I find it quite fascinating, how fruits can be so expensive and yet so perishable that their worth diminishes with every moment after harvesting. Its like the clock is ticking down. We came across some Kyoho Grapes at Cold Storage when we were shopping after work today. Kyoho Grapes were going cheap at $10 plus.. or rather, cheap by Jappy fruit standards vis-a-vis speciality gourmet supermarkets. A splurge if you compare with other types of grapes.

So, we decided to try the grapes for novelty's sake. I like the sugary sweetness of the fruit with a hint of winey musk. Yums, but a tad expensive.. so its gonna be a very rare occasional splurge.

August In Summary

August is the month moi started a new phase, with a brand new job and entirely foreign portfolio. This newbie is still learning after a month on the job. August is the month of adjustment to full-swing working life, as compared to the laidbackness of July. New environment, new people to be pally with, new beginning career wise. The new journey is long.. with loads to learn and this gal has just began. The goal is to gain experience in the field for mobility. Pronto.

fav seasonal fruit- Duku

Newly discovered passion fruit

August is also the month for fruits. Yah, I am a true blue fruit gal. I just gotta have my strawberries, pineapple, grapes, cherries, raspberries, plums, peaches , lychees and many many more. Moi tried passion fruit for the first time. Yah, i know i am quite a 'swa ku' for a fruit lover.. and the month for 'Duku' or Lansium Domesticum as the fruit is also known as. I am totally addicted to this tropical fruit which is native to the malaysian peninsula and have eaten basket loads (or is it lorry loads) this season. Its a yearly, six-monthly addiction that wans with the end of the fruit season. Just heart the sour-sweetish flesh. I can easily polish off 2-3kg all by moiself. oh man.. this gal's got a self control problem.. *sleepish grin*