happy birthday to me!

no longer in denial... i am officially embracing myself in my 30s! yah... i was 30 just 2 days ago... now 1 year older... hopefully getting wiser too!

after last year's glamourous 30th party, decided to go back to the low-key, no fuss birthday. went for lunch at BK with my sis and E, before proceeding to shoe shop with the 20% birthday discount at Pedal Works! bought 2 pairs of shoes for myself (yes... i am SUPPOSED to STOP shopping!) and 1 pair for my mom. hehe... always the same routine before checking in to M Hotel. we relaxed with a bit of tv watching before hitting the pool! swam quite a few laps, then soaked in the jacuzzi. after the almost "once a year" exercise, the appetite was built up for a good buffet dinner at cafe 2000. realised i also had a voucher for a bottle of house wine, so we had a bottle of red since we took red meat. we were really full at the end, but E mentioned to the server that it was my birthday when we were paying the bill. so i got a complimentary slice of cheese cake together will a singing choir. hehe! we adjourned back to the room and played some card games like heart attack and bluff etc... so retro right? then we watched transformer on hbo before the day ended.

this morning, my sis went to church early, hence leaving me to the room all by myself from about 8am! so i decided to pamper myself with a room service order of continental breakfast. so i had my breakfast in bed, in front of the tv. after a short break, i got my bubble bath ready and read my cosmopolitan while having a good soak in the bath tub! such a great way to have a rest and relax birthday. hmmm... maybe i should throw in a spa treatment for next year? hehe!

here are some pictures... only on yesterday's celebration. the rest will be posted when i completed my christmas gatherings next week (yes... there are more... its 12 days of christmas remember?)

the complimentary bottle of house red. quite like it as it wasn't too dry.

my main course - grilled lamb

enjoyment - wine & dine

the free piece of birthday cake!

my continental breakfast served to my room!

2 mini muffins - banana & chocolate...

and scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns with pineapple juice & tea.

merry christmas

its my favourite holiday of the year! christmas!

maybe coz it is near to my birthday? maybe it is a season of great feasting (but i do that for CNY too)? or is it because of the official reason for all the shopping? could be because of the cool weather in sunny singapore? more likely because of all the gatherings with friends (new and old)?

whatever the reasons, it is my favourite holiday and am simply enjoying every minute counting down to it! will be posting pictures of my many makan sessions when i am almost done with all the gatherings! till then...

merry christmas to all my friends!

gearing up!

time past so fast... after weeks of preparing, shopping, wrapping, spending and eating, christmas is just days away!

christmas has always been my favourite season for the year. maybe because it is near my birthday or it's always a time for meeting up with friends, especially with some friends that we seem to only meet during birthdays and christmas!

celebrations always starts early with christmas shopping! although you feel super broke after all the shopping, it seems worth it when you see your friends smile when they open their presents (hopefully it was a geninue smile than a "oh... but thanks for your thought" smile! i think i consider myself someone who puts in an effort to buy presents, not simply buying for the sake of buying. so that is why i always pray that i understand my friends well enough to give them meanful gifts to their liking and needs!

till date, i have already received some presents - one still remained unopened (yes HJ - i am a good girl, still waiting for christmas!), one received from an unexpected supplier (after years of working with her, this is the first time i received something from her), two that i already know what present i will be getting but still insisted on my sisters to wrap it! haha!

so the gatherings will officially starts tomorrow! lunch and dinner is already booked. i am so looking forward to it (although i don't think my stomach can take too much of the feasting!) must control, otherwise all my clothes for new year will not fit! haha!

experimenting

after a few busy weekends, this weekend is really a laidback and relax "me" time.

so while i was doing my grocery shopping on saturday, i chanced upon a cook book for "100 chinese desserts". flipping through the pages and suddenly felt the urge to try out one of the recipe! so decided to see if i could find the ingredients for my dessert experiement!

so... here's my work of art - pumpkin pudding 金瓜糕in pieces, can you see the 2 different texture of the pumpkin - smashed & diced

here's how it should look according to the cook book - quite close right?

long weekend

isn't it great when you wake up on a rainy monday morning, and realised you didn't need to drag yourself out of bed to get ready for work?

my long weekend actually started at 1pm on friday. why? coz i was on half day leave :)

so my weekend started with a shopping trip to takashimaya. its the last day of the members' sale and the place was super PACKED! you would have thought the things were for free! was there for 3 hours and spent more than $600! almost got all the gifts... almost! haha! but the pressure to shop during the sale is bad... kept telling myself i will have someone to give the item to... coz i just want to grab and go, not wanting to come back another day and pay the usual price!

anyway, originally planned to go more places, but i was so tired and mentally drained up that i gave up and left for home with 4 huge bags!

met my sis and mom for breakfast on saturday, originally with the plan to order christmas turkey at ntuc. but dear me forgot to bring out the ntuc card. so have to make another trip.

sunday was finally the chance for me to meet ade's prince lucas! went to his first month party (though he is almost 2 months alr!). his eyes are so cute and is a duplicate of his mom!

today was the official start of my christmas gatherings! met RL & HJ for steamboat at tiong bahru. of course, the best weather for steamboat with the pouring rain. so i received my first presents. only knew what RL gave since it was "wrapped" in a see-through organza bag! haha... now hands itching to open HJ's present coz she said must only opened on Christmas! haha... maybe that's why we decided not to wrap her present! hehe! i just love to see the expression of the receivers. at least i know if they like it or not. so i always "force" ppl to open their presents! haha...

spent the rest of the day writing christmas cards and wrapping presents... oh dear, no mood to work tomorrow... christmas is so near!

old time's sake

haven't attempted to blog or download pictures to post on my blog/facebook since my laptop was rescued from its death... didn't want to risk crashing it again till today... seems a bit stable after 1 week...

so this past week has been spent catching up on the good old days with the kfc family... yup... met up with different groups of kfc friends all within the week.

started with my usual dining kakis - lil'c and AH for dinner at m hotel's cafe 2000 before proceeding to drinks at j bar... yes... martinis on a tues night... plus its 1-for-1. LY was supposed to join us, but had to work late so looking forward to another gathering with her and SY soon...

attended LSC's wedding last sunday and was glad to have the chance to catch up with good old friends. it was like a mini D&D rehearsal for them - lots of photo-taking!!!

my fav girlsits like a d&d table photo

me & the bride

had dinner with the ex-marketing gals from kfc/ph (the non-mothers) at brewerkz... haven't seen some of them for a long time... but it was also some what awkward that its seems like 2 separate groups at times... maybe it was just me :)


today, caught up with RL and CH for an english hi-tea at intercontinental... nice environment if you want to sit, relax and chit chat. great time to update each other on our lives, especially since all 3 of us are working in diff companies now. more of such sessions should be planned :)

our 4-tier english hi-tea

look at her happy face!

all ready for the ham & melon bruschetta

looking towards to the next gathering... SC's baby shower... can't wait to see her princess :)

died and resurrected

my faithful laptop that was keeping me company for almost everyday for more than 4 years died on me yesterday! a blue screen greeted me last night when i turned on my laptop... it couldn't reboot as well... how will i describe my reaction... i was devastated...

when i brought it to the office to seek my IT dept for help, the first reaction that my IT exec gave me was a shake to his head and a sigh... my heart sank... apparently my hard disk is the problem. which is sxxx news! i don't back-up my stuff! all i told him was PLEAAASSSSSEEEE save my files... my pictures... my life in summary for 4 years...

in the afternoon, i was given a good news! he managed to retrieve my data.... now i just need to buy an external hard disk to save all my data (now sitting in his computer). he detected some virus... cleared it... and my laptop is resurrected and able to boot up again!!! yipee! now, here's the bad news... i will need to shop for a new laptop soon. more money to be spent.

coincidence?

had my company retreat today... the 1st of four sessions. its different from my previous company... no overseas trip (yup... not even in jb)... i am not going as a participant, but as part of the organising committee...

so headed to sembawang early in the morning. it was starting to rain and i kept praying for it to stop as the 2nd half of the team building games are done outdoor. it was really quite a miracle that it was really pouring from 9am to 1pm... we were almost prepared to activate plan b - the indoor games if the rain doesn't stop by the time the teams are scheduled to head outside. but just 5 mins before that, the rain stopped!

it was a pretty successful retreat... got to see a different side of the store managers.

so... you must be thinking what has that got to do with the title of my posting? hehe... half way through the event... one of the facilitators that walked into the room looks familiar... in half a second (yes... no kidding!), i remembered who that was! blondie from club med cherating!!! i was like OMG!!! then it was confirmed when the lead facilitator introduced his team and i remembered the name and where he came from. i texted lil'c immediately! sigh... it brings back great memories... not just him lah... but the fun time the ex-kfc marketing team had club med. haha... will wait till i get the pictures from my colleagues to post them :)

the 3 other sessions of the retreat doesn't seem that bad afterall...

ballsy for more meat

its finally here in asia...

singapore is the first in asia to bring in the BK Quad Stacker! yes! it has 4 flame-grilled beef patties, 4 slices of cheese, loads of turkey bacon! i personally have not taken the challenge of the quad first, but i finished the triple! :) btw, it is not that expensive, especially if you compared to my competitors! haha!

the nose starts running...

was feeling under the weather yesterday afternoon and for the first time, i did not need any push to take a panadol last night. too much stuff to do these weeks, plus my ops retreats (4 sessions) in the next 2 weeks. however, it didn't get better. instead it got worse this morning. my bosses were so scared of me! haha... scared that i pass the virus to them! finally decided to see the company doctor after lunch! but the doctor never give any mc! shucks! so i continued working even though everyone asked me to go home... plus i can't take mc tomorrow as my staff will not be around (1 on training, 1 on leave)... sigh...

but 1 good news came from an sms... SC welcomes the arrival of her baby princess today at 1220hrs! really wanted to go visit her, but decided against it as i have the terrible flu! guess i will just have to visit her when she is discharged. congratulations once again!

should go to bed early today... sniff sniff

catching up

what was supposingly a kiddo's party ended up as a real good catch-up session with my poly mates.

it was baby danielle's first birthday celebration at york hotel, with hi-tea. besides my usual gang of 5, there were also other poly mates that i have not met since our last poly gathering last year? anyway, the hi-tea was from 3pm to 5pm... then we decided to hang around at the cafe to continue chatting, catching up on the latest happenings and what girls are good at - gossips! haha! yes... a couple of us continued on even after the host left! i must say it was a pretty good session. maybe age is catching up, so like to talk about the good old days... lol! hehe!

that's the happy family with the adorable 3D carebear birthday cake! so cute!

happy birthday sisters!

october is always a madness month for me, coz both my sisters are born in october - just 3 days apart.

annita's birthday was yesterday - 25th oct, but she received her present the week earlier. treated her to sandy lam's concert. her idol mah... so she has the ticket stub to keep!

waiyu's birthday is on 28th, but she has her celebration today since her actual day is a working day. her best friend (my god sis) organised a barbeque for her. but i decided to make a special breakfast for her this morning. bought back a pancake mix from san fran and decided to make them today! complete american breakfast: spiced pecan pumkin pancakes with maple pecan butter & maple syrup, scrambled eggs & luncheon meat (forgot to buy ham lah). the pancake was delicious! i am so glad i lugged them back!the pancake mixthe american breakfast from my kitchen - the last piece of the pancake was a bit burnt!

then for her bbq, i cooked the prawn paste fried rice, marinated the beef & pork. although i didn't do much barbequing, i was also tired lor! there were loads of food! we ended the day with the cake of course! recommended the lychee martini cake i tried at LY's party and hope she like it too!

she didn't get her present from me yet coz she wanted to have a present to open on her actual day! haha! ok... so another 2 days to go... but i guess the best present was liverpool DEFEATED chelsea! AT STAMFORD BRIDGE! woohoo!!! happiness!!!

one of my unlucky day

how do you tell if you have a day of bad luck? today is one such day for me! although nothing major happened, but it was a day of mini-bad mishaps

- started the day by breaking the cover of my mug. its a porcelain mug with tea strainer, and its a gift from a friend. it slipped off my hand while walking to the pantry...

- then i read an email from my apac office that he heard that our supplier has stopped accepting orders for december promotion and heard that we have not placed our orders. after a check with my purchasing manager, she said i didn't confirm the product!!!! omg! it was discussed in my meeting every week and why didn't she ask the supplier or tell me abt the cut-off date? now i have to find a replacement product and explain to management on our "mis-communication".

- so another quick call to my apac office to discuss some stuff and got everything i asked rejected!!! couldn't believe my luck!

- then the cab that i took to a meeting almost bumped into the car in front coz the car in front braked suddenly! thank god nothing happened.

although its minor mishaps, i just felt that it wasn't a good day for me in a way! a better tomorrow?

reality bites...

reality sucks... reality hurts...

the truth kicks in officially today, arriving in a little white envelope - my credit card bill! have been trying to delay calculating how much i've spent for 2 weeks of happiness & joy of shopping and feasting. so right in front of me is the evidence that money can buy happiness (haha... thou short-lived)

this is my most expensive by far... yes... even with free lodging in san fran... guess air tickets are a great gauge of the inflation through the years... but this is also not a budget trip as compared to the rest of my trips. ate well, shopped a lot (this time, spent more on myself), stayed at hotel (in vegas) instead of hostels.

summary of my expenses:
Air ticket (SIN-SFO-SIN) $1,628.00
Vegas (flight + hotel) $702.46
Cash (USD1000) $1,435.00
Credit card bill (incl insurance) $3,093.99
=================================
SUB-TOTAL $6,859.45
GRAND TOTAL: PRICELESS (experience, memories and relaxation)

stop shopping!

while i am still waiting for my credit card bill to arrive, i was supposed to stop shopping after my shopping spree in US.

but someone in retail must hate me! received lots of mailers tempting me to shop and the biggest temptation? taka sale with additional 15% for cardholders! the additional discount given is usually 10%, so the 15% is pretty tempting! so since i was going to the world hunger relief carnival at escape youth park, might as well go take a look.

so i went to taka with my sis at 10plus in the morning, and in an hour plus, i bought another SWATCH watch and a disney schedule book and someone's christmas present! haha! how do i stop myself from shopping? sigh... is there a shopping anonymous therapy somewhere?

hot hot singapore!

its so hot in singapore!!! after 2 weeks of breeze and no sweat in USA, i am perspiring like mad these days!!! don't even feel like walking out of the air-con office!

the humid weather makes me even more sianz to work... how to get back the mood and momentum? this month is crazy with planning and lots of meetings... it is going to be a nightmare!!! its payback time after the holidays!

San Francisco

the best part of this trip is meeting up with joce and it was really a rest and relax part of the holiday. my usual trips are usually budgeted from lodging to food... this time round, sort of just let go... bought so much clothes (happiness), branded bags (unbelievably COACH), great wine & dining experiences (yummy).

earlier post on vegas photos, so here's the san francisco part:

wine & dine


italian (E' Tutto Qua) for day 1, ravioli with chicken, potato & brocolli in some pink vodka sauce. dessert was the souffle.

clam chowder & sourdough bread at pier 39

sweet treats...


home-cooked


yummy breakfast


lunch & dinner

dinner @cafe claude

french onion soup


beef stew in red wine
dinner @ Ottimista (a wine bar)
tasty risotto balls
braised pork
beef burger @ girl & the fig
last dinner @ firefly...
shrimp & scallop potstickers
lamb skewers
scallops with mashed potato
beef brisket


farmers' market



the sight-seeing
Fisherman's wharf & pier 39


alcatraz


legion of honor - muesum

the golden gate bridge

wine tasting @ napa

we even had a picnic!

the shopping (just some of it)