its december!

ok... 12 days of december has gone, but december has always been my favourite time of the year!

what's not to like about december? most of the people i know do not have the mood to work in december. people are usually clearing leave or going for holidays (those with kids or are teachers like my sis). then it is the happiest holiday of the year - CHRISTMAS! time for catching up with friends, feasting (though bad for the waist line) and shopping for christmas presents (VERY BAD for the wallet!). maybe it is because i am a december baby, hence i have a soft spot for this month.

since a kid, i love the thought of receiving letters and cards (physical ones, not the electronic ones). until now, i still enjoy opening the letter box everyday hoping to receiving an unexpected mail. unfortunately, i get bills, mailers and junk mails most of the times. till today, i still maintain the tradition of writing christmas cards to my close friends, even though i hand it to them instead of mailing it. today, R just commented that she seems to receive the most number of cards from me! haha! just shows that the younger generation doesn't appreciate the card culture as much.

anyway, my christmas celebrations started today! the first gathering with R and HJ! we had a pot luck session at HJ's house! thanks for inviting us and the hospitality! received my first presents for the year! as usual, R and myself will open each other's presents and will have to keep HJ's present till 24th as per her tradition! hope they like the presents specially choosen for them and the cards that came along.

when i got home, i was happy to see another pressie waiting for me! and this time, it is a parcel from US! my bestie J sent both my birthday and christmas present and cards early this year! super happy with the great start to my festive season... t'is the season to be jolly!!!

oh yes... happiness continues as i am watching wild rice's christmas pantomine - beauty and the beast tomorrow! yey! never missed any of the productions since they started in 2003 with cindere-lah!

adjusting

it has been more than a week at my new work place. so what have i been doing? besides store training for the first 2 days, i was pretty much left on my own (at home). was basically reading files after files off the laptop, a bit aimless too. guess it didn't help that my boss was not in town. felt a bit lost and not used to the flexible timing too.

well, today is my first day meeting up with my boss. started the day at 10.30am (told you about the flexible timing) at one of the restaurants, had a discussion with my boss and ops guy. this was followed by lunch and then went to view a site before heading for further discussion at my "office". yes... we sort of have an office now, the space sponsored by our franchisee - they cut up an area for us and fixed up 4 cubicles, some shelvings etc. it is good as we will have an official office address and a proper place for us to hold meetings when necessary. the only negative point - it is at ANG MO KIO! yes... really far for me, but thank goodness that my boss is not an office 9 to 5 kind of guy, so we are not expected to work at the office :)

so while my only 2 colleagues are so used to flexible working environment (my ops guy has been doing regional work for the longest time), my boss told me i got to get used to such work style. so it will take a while for me to get adjusted, but i will learn :)

late on day 1

sigh... for the first time in my career, i was late on my first day of work!

the journey to tampines is realllllllyyyyy long... almost 1 and half hour bus ride from my home to tampines interchange. and guess what? i took another hour plus to get home. not too bad an achievement for the cab woman right? i am amazed too.

quite a short work day today too... coz my ops director was not feeling well, so he let me off early. only worked from 10.15am (yes.. supposed to be 10am and i was still late) to 5.30pm. so i managed to reach home before 7pm even with the long ride

ok... no more late start tomorrow... going to bed now... must leave the house at 7.30am to reach at 9am!

closure and a new beginning...

have been lazy to update my blog for a while (i know... too much of facebooking alr)... so what has happened to me since i announced my resignation? busy with clearing my cubicle at work, busy with handover, busy with feasting, and this week... while i thought i will slack at home, i was out everyday!!!

ate so much for the past weeks, couldn't imagine the number of buffets i went, the amount of food i consumed. thank god there were many business lunches that i didnt take pictures of, otherwise, you guys were get bloated from seeing all my makan pictures! but one of my friend said i should be glad that people bothered to ask me out for farewell lunches, at least that means my PR skills is quite alright!

so here was my social calendar for the past weeks:

29 oct - Marriott Hotel, Marriott Cafe (buffet): my first farewell lunch starting with SPH

2 nov - shaw house, tonkichi restaurant (jap): it was more like my fellow resignee andy's farewell lunch

3 nov - orchard hotel, orchard cafe (buffet): lunch with my media agency

4 nov - shaw house, east ocean (chinese): dim sum lunch with BKAP

5 nov - Soup Restaurant (chinese): lunch with wayne (procomp)

5 nov - Merchant Court hotel, ellenbourgh cafe (buffet): crabs buffet with my colleagues

6 nov - ION, japanese restaurant (can't remember the name): lunch with my own team

11 nov (yes... it continues after i leave) - ION, Watami Restaurant (jap): lunch with mediacorp tv

12 nov (this truly is the final one) - Bugis junction, swensens: dinner with a group of store managers

in between, i was eating with my family and other friends! phew... i think i really need to detox for a while! like i mentioned, i didn't get much photos for some of the makan sessions. so here's just a quick collage of some pictures taken!

when will it ends?

thought i can finally scream out loud that this is over... who knows there will be so many twists and turns!

shortly after i made an appointment to meet the 3 heavenly kings to tell them my final decision, i received an sms from the VP of marketing & ops of my franchisor. he just found out about my resignation and wanted to meet up for lunch. at lunch, he was asking if i was keen on working for them instead. he did not officially offer me as he wanted to find out if i was keen before he speaks to my bosses...but from what his "kah kia" told me, he saw from my body language that i seemed pretty certain of my decision to join the new place.

then the 3 heavenly kings actually thought it was a good idea to join my franchisor. this was such a surprise! it was more of a selfish reason for them as they thought that if i joined them, my bosses can ask them to let me stay and help till end of the year before joining them.

so what's my decision? well...although my current brand is definitely a much bigger brand, more established, i am not so sure about joining them now. the head would say go for it, but my heart is leaning towards the original job offer. am i confusing you? i am confused myself. just got to trust my guts and go for what i have decided alr. let's not let a little distraction gets in the way.

it should be d day

it has to be... tomorrow i will reply my management of my decision... but obviously, i didnt really need to reconsider. it is more like i hope they finally accept it and allow me to inform my team and do what is necessary - TO FIND MY REPLACEMENT. of course, in my heart, it will not be easy to find someone to replace me. i am a bit thick skin lah, but i always think i am the best mah! lol! please let them accept and it will no longer be hush hush!

hush hush

given my resignation letter on friday... but was told to keep it hush hush until further instructions from the 3 heavenly kings from 16th floor.

very much wanted to tell my team, to prepare them but can't...

if you asked me how i am feeling - excited, elated, hopeful, relieved, stressed out? i am also not sure... too much hush hush has given me mixed emotions... oh well... let's see how it goes...

what a month!

usually when i am missing from my blog, it means there is nothing much interesting happening in my life. it is a totally opposite story for the past weeks of absence! september has been such a busy and eventful month for me!

1) realised on my calendar that i have so many friends' birthdays in september - hence many dinner plans (some belated celebrations in october!) and 1 pink party (trust LL for her theme parties). so once again, happy birthday to my dearest lil'c, ms seaweed, LL, LP, mountain tortoise, Jenny, Judy and Corina... what a list! then there is my girl - kim (1st oct), so still within the same period!

2) the perks of being a marketing manager - free tickets to all sorts of entertainment events! singapore was in the limelight in sep with F1 night race again! was invited to F1 race at the suite with food, drinks (free flow of champagne for me!) and most importantly air-con! great experience for me... then was given a last minute ticket for F1 rocks on the same day! had to give up watching no doubt at fort canning for F1. so benefitted my dear fren *wink*.

had my first experience of watching a 'live' recording of singapore idol. while others queued to grab their seats, i got ushered to my 'reserved seats'. that's the perks of being a sponsor! haha!

then there was free tickets for the gala premiere of the movie 'FAME'. really talented bunch of young actors, definitely sang well to make me wonder, why can't our singapore idols be like 15% of their talent? oh yah... the funny thing - i was sitting a row behind the singapore idols!

3) wedding of 2 of my store managers. it has been a long time since i was jie mei, emcee and co-ordinator for a wedding. although stressful in a way, it was an honour to be entrusted with such important tasks for the couple's big day! tiring event as we started the day early in the morning, rushed to the hotel after a quick change of clothes and the dinner!

4) the last and most important thing that happened in sep... i was referred for a job interview... experience a few first - an interview via skype, another session at a hotel business lounge... quite different from the usual office interviews... so what is the conclusion? i will be taking up this new job and tendering later today (9 Oct). will review more after i tender... i trust my friends here to be hush hush abt it till the dotted line is signed!

quite an exciting sep for me ya? october is going to be equally exciting (i hope)!

welcome to the 30s club!

last week, my bestie finally joined the 30s club!

as she was celebrating her actual big day out of town, we postponed our celebration to this weekend.

was joking with lil'c that it was really stressful planning for her 30th birthday... first the present! what will be a present she will like? think this was a headache since the days of kfc! so finally i decided on getting a charm from juicy couture. then the store in singapore doesn't sell the charm bracelet. so while i like more than 1 charm, decided to just get 1 as well as another bracelet. shopping for her almost tempted me to get something from there! haha! anyway, was so scared that she will not like the design that i chose, had to give her the pressie earlier so that it can be exchanged within the 7 days! luckily, she was happy with it! phew! haha

so for part 2 of the celebration, the venue became the headache. lil'c wanted a yacht party for her 30th, but after much sourcing around, it wasn't that affordable!!! haha! so both xiao beng and me gave up on that plan. decided to surprise her with a overnight stay at the yacht club instead! told her we will celebrate with an overnight stay at M Hotel using my voucher. managed to kept it as a surprise all the way, though she suspected something was amiss when i insisted on meeting for lunch instead of meeting at the hotel. but she didn't guess the venue, so i hope she was happy with the place. so it was a girly party for the princess, completed with hello kitty decor, balloons and "tiaras"! after lazing in the pool in the afternoon, we were all prepared for a dinner with bbq food and a nice view of yachts. after desserts, we went back to the room and complete the girly day with face masks! haha! choose those that prevents wrinkles, anti-aging and rejuvenate youth etc! that's signs for being in the 30s club!

hope you enjoyed yourself!

counting down...

to the last hours of my medical leave... sigh...

...no more waking up late
...no more day-time tv
...no more facebooking all day and night
...no more messy hair throughout the day
...no more boss-free days

another countdown - someone's big day: joining the 30's club! haha! happy birthday in advance and hope you are having a great time in bali!

ouch

i scared myself looking at the mirror this morning! the bruise sort of spread (that should be good), but it seems to get bigger!

tried very hard to take pictures to capture the bruises... so here's the best i could do (forget how shabby i look at home ok. focus on the bruise!!!)

my left cheek

my right cheek

hope this gets better by sunday. dun want to go out looking like an abused person! imagine the stares i will get!

days of no verbal communication

thank god for msn / sms / facebook!

what would i do without these technologies during my 10 days mc from removal of my 4 wisdom teeth? Can't open my mouth to widely and with cotton gauze stucked in my mouth, i can't really talk much... so communication is restricted to the above wonders. of course, the bad news means replying to my office emails / sms. but it is also where i received lots of well-wishes from friends and colleagues. thanks for all your concerns! its not painful... just still having the "bloody" taste in the mouth. somehow, it is still bleeding... not terribly, but still need the gauze to stop the bleeding. hopefully it will stop by today!

lil'c wanted me to post pictures of my 4 wisdom teeth. but i thought it will be really gross. firstly they returned me the teeth, still bloody (sorry for grossing anyone out) in the bag. I wanted to wash it clean and decide to listen to one of my colleague's advice and soak it in mouth wash. but i totally forgot abt it till the next morning, so the teeth went green! haha! anyway, after soaking in water for another day, it sort of got better, but i still think it is gross to post it on my blog.

so this is the third day of my mc, still eating baby food - porridge, porridge and more porridge. but this morning, i tried eating a slice of pandan chiffon cake, i actually took like 25mins to eat 1 thin slice. so i guess i will have to take it slow for the type of food i eat for now.

enjoying the fact that i get to sleep late these few days, but starting to get bored with local tv in the afternoon... yes, even with cable. so i am embarking on the journey of watching my comfort dvds starting with SATC all over again! so its season 1 for now... let's see how long it takes for me to complete the full series with the movie :)

my tooth of wisdom

while chewing my vegetables (yes... vegetables) during dinner yesterday, i felt a piece of "stone". so i spit it out and realised this piece of "stone" was actually part of my tooth! its about 0.5cm, considered big to me. quickly checked if which tooth it was, if it was bleeding etc. realised it was the last tooth, no blood and no pain.

went to the dentist today and was told that the broken tooth was my wisdom tooth. apparently it was already broken, so any pressure to it would have chipped it. then the next news - i would have to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth! given a choice to do GA or LA. being one of those who do not want to subject myself staring at my dentist while getting my tooth extracted, and not wanting to subjecting myself to the pain twice, i made a decision to do GA. as i will get 10 days of mc, i need to plan the dates properly to ensure my work and personal schedule is not badly affected.

so pray for me all - THE DAY: 24th Aug, 12.30pm. my operation (hopefully just the teeth and retain my wisdom! haha!)

therapeutic saturday

had quite a therapeutic day today...

after a late night yest, woke up at 10 plus this morning by my sister. my god-sis has invited us to her place in the late afternoon for a popiah / pie tee party cum mahjong session. sounds familiar? i had an exact same itinerary last sunday! like my sis said, i will not reject a pie tee treat...

so while waiting to go out, i decided to get started on the petit puzzle i bought last week. its a disney horoscope puzzle and the design for the capricorn is using donald duck (one of my fav). so why is it petit? the puzzle pieces are so small that they gave a tiny tweezer as a tool to pick the pieces. it was quite relaxing to piece the puzzle together and as it was great that it can be finished within hours (knowing me, i will lose my enthusiasm if i had to drag myself to complete it in days).

the final product - all framed up

football season starts again today. lucky liverpool is only playing tomorrow, so i won't be getting any adrenaline rush tonight. so its a nice peaceful saturday for me...

post long weekend

even if it wasn't such an eventful holiday, it feels great to not work for 3 days. go shopping on one day, mahjong another, then nua at home for the last.

going back to office was dreadful! no mood at all even though there were plenty to do. thank god i had to go for a meeting in jurong today, so i left office after lunch. of course, there was a dinner with RL and SC to look forward to! plus... my meeting ended early, so i was in time to meet RL earlier than expected and took the train down to vivo city.

dinner was great. not so much the food, but mainly the company! havent met SC for a while, so catching up over food, updating each other on our lives. it made the start of the work week easier... tmr is mid week alr! now can't wait for friday for another catching up session!

familiar faces

started this year's regional conference today at pan pacific hotel - SINGAPORE. yes, you read right. SINGAPORE. my 2nd year, and still no chance to travel out. haha.

anyway, this time round is a bit more "easy" for me as this is the second time. met familiar faces that i met last year, met new faces to the names on the emails. one familiar face caught my attention at the registration this morning - the ex-ops director of kfc malaysia. went up to say hi and realised he joined the malaysia franchisee just 3 weeks ago as their CEO.

the world is so small yah? you can bump into people after circling round in the industry.

milestone at work...

you must be thinking what achievement did i do at work? well, its not really work related... but still something worth remembering, the first time i bring my girls out clubbing! haha! unlike my ex workplace where the team hangs out after work very often. think this is only the 2nd time i went out with my girls after work (the first was a birthday dinner earlier this year).

so i decided arrange a clubbing session with my girls (i am a hip and happening boss mah! lol!), especially since one of them has never gone clubbing before (going with her mom to zouk doesn't count) and the other only went with her friends that leaves by 12 midnight!

so we started the night after work with dinner at Central's Manhatten Fish Market. we didn't really planned where to go, so we made a round at clarke quay, before settling for... zirca! haven't been there myself, so didn't mind trying. it was pretty much like MOS's main hall... we got a seat upstairs as it was less crowded with seats! we had drinks, danced at our table (yah... a bit loser right?) before we decided to cross over to Rebel. hip hop and r&b is so much nicer to dance to! plus a super crowded (and young) crowd, we managed to squeezed into the dancefloor.

so we had drinks, we danced, we club hopped, we stayed out late till 2.30am! it was a pretty sucessful night out, especially since this old bones haven't been clubbing for a long time!

a pix after dinner

our first drinks

just before we left, still very sober! haha!

REDS fever

dun worry... its not another strain of influenza... but LIVERPOOL FC (the mighty REDS) came to singapore as part of its asia tour!

obviously caught the REDS fever and went through a frenzy for 3 days!!! those with my facebook account would have "witnessed" my crazy weekend. so i decided to summarised the 3 days here!

fri - 24 Jul

took half day off from work to kick start my fan crazed moments. rushed down to collect my new cammie (yes... i bought a new camera for this event, my current cammie is only 1.5yr old) at chinatown, then speed to novena just minutes before 2pm (time of event). just when i was feeling down about not being able to get a good spot, the commotion started as the mpv that torres and carragher arrives and right in front of me! too bad for the tinted glass, but i definitely saw the 2 players!!! after much zooming of camera on stage, it was quite impossible to take clear pictures due to the crowd and my distance. the only chance was when they went into harry's bar for a closed door interview, but only through the glass with their back facing us... then they got back to the stage to sign autograph for the lucky fans. that was when i spotted a spot at the barricade at harry's, it has a clear view of the mpv, so i stood there, patiently waited and finally got rewarded! they decided to walk the longer route and walked right past me!!! OMG! lucky me got the close-up on video!

after that excitement and a quick late lunch at BK before proceeding to national stadium. waited from 4pm till they let us in at about 5.30pm. then patiently waited for the arrival of the players for the training session! although it was a short hour of training, i was already excited for the game on sun

sat - 25 jul

just a short 2 hours, i literally got red from the sun tan at UOB Plaza, the stairs facing the singapore river. sat under the hot sun waiting for the bum boats ferrying the team. was so excited when they appeared! this time, i was armed with my new camera fully charged! thanks to the 12x optical zoom, i was able to get real clear pictures of torres and gang.... (HJ, photos to make you drool again)

sun - 26 jul

being kiasu singaporeans, my sis and i went to the stadium as early as 2.30pm to attempt to get good seats for the 7pm match. unfortunately, there are more kiasu ones (earliest at 10.30am), especially since it was free seating at kallang. so i managed to get 6th row, had another tan ( my colleagues called me a red lobster), almost dehydrate just to catch my fav team in action. but i thank rafa benitez for giving the fans their money worth... torres played for abt 30mins (3 times more than the bangkok match), got to see almost the whole team and maybe the last of alonso. though i am praying he will not go to madrid, but it is almost certain that he wants to leave. thank you for all the good memories for the past seasons... we have the best midfield in the world!

now i have REDS withdrawal syndrome... all the way till the new season starts next month!

busy july

haven't been updating my blog for a while... usually its because i got nothing to update! this time round... i got so much activities in july that i got no time to update! haha!

july is like my pre-tv football season. got invited to watch the man u vs malaysia match in kl last week. will be catching my fav liverpool in action first on friday at training (thanks grace for the ticket!), then followed by the match vs singapore on sunday. :)

last week was the busiest! had a company chalet cum bbq session to reward the SRC committee members after our 1 year reign! so checked in after work on wed, played mahjong overnight till 8am, freshen up and went to tiong bahru market for our seafood and meat shopping and of course yummy breakfast! went back to marinate the items we bought and continued with mahjong since we were afraid that we will not wake up in time for the bbq! played till 6pm and we went to start the fire for the bbq! thanks to brenda, we had fried bee hoon, popiah, curry veg while waiting for the bbq food! we chit-chatted and waited for the last manager to turn up after work. by the time we packed up and washed all the utensils, it was 11ish. after we all bathed, we couldn't decide if we want to sleep or not! we played another round of mahjong but decided that our eyelids were too heavy to continue that we slept at abt 2am. woke up at 8am as i had to rush back home to wash up, change and attend to a pre-launch party by BK ION. yes.. back to office while i was on leave. finally went back and slept at 3pm finally.

thot i would rest over the weekend? wrong! woke up at 7.30am to start my journey to KL. what was supposed to be a football trip turned out to be a major makan trip! from bak kut teh, fried hokkien mee, bak chor mee, A&W, bak kwa burger, muah chee, krispy kreme... phew! i get full reading the list of food! all these in a 2D1N trip!

so this week, besides the match, i got a pair of twins' first year party to attend to before rushing to kallang.

i also had many supplier's luncheon to attend. a total of 3 in this week! had to push another to next month, coz i cannot eat anymore! haha!

the following week will have another launch party at BK ION, a play on thurs and a musical on sat!

phew... that's all for my busy july!

reality strikes

there is a chinese saying that goes "针不刺到肉, 不会痛"... loosely translated as you will not feel the pain till the needle pricks you.

never really felt how H1N1 affects you mentally until it really hits you! a colleague of mine got confirmed of H1N1 today. so a frenzy started within the office with temperature taking everytime you step into the office, disinfecting the office, checking out what are the next steps and of course everyone turning paranoid!!!

most of us were not in the mood to work today. on one hand we are worried about our colleague, on the other, we are worried about ourselves.

well, life goes on... so now i am definitely more concern about hygiene...went straight to the bathroom when i return home, wash the clothes i wore today immediately and ensure ample use of hand sanitizer and of course keeping track of my temperature. keeping my fingers crossed that that will be the one and only case happening near me!

celebration of friendship

these 2 weeks reminds me of 2 significant dates to celebrate some great friendships of mine!

27 Jun 2002: the day i joined kfc, the day i begin a wonderful journey with many great ppl... happy 7th anniversary to lil'c, sharkie, dowager, lusty mama (xiao beng joined a couple of weeks later, but can still count you in! haha!). actually forgot abt the date until today... lil'c - we must have post-celebration dinner ya? :)

4 Jul 1994: this is definitely a milestone! 4 great women walked through the good, the bad, the happy and sad moments of the past 15 years with me... from young school girls starting our polytechnic studies to "young" (haha) working professionals! shared many happy moments shopping, eating, bitching, clubbing etc. although we all have different priorities in life now, we definitely make it a point to meet up, celebrate birthdays, festivals etc! although we didn't get the chance to make a big celebration as we wanted to, but will still look forward to the dinner!

here's to more years of friendship pals!

bad publicity = PUBLICITY

spent the past 2 days surfing the net at work. nope... i am not so free, but busy googling for my own campaign online. why am i doing that? my creative has officially created a big hoo haa in US! yes... unbelievable! such big news that there is a total of 15pages of results from google!


so what is the big deal? apparently some marketing blogs/websites had commented on my current creative, critising the sexual innuendo of the ad. it was termed as the BJ burger ad! it has since been caused a stir in the online community in US for the past 2 days. funny how the ad was running for 3 weeks in singapore without causing much hype, then suddenly within these 2 days, my campaign has shot to be such talkabout campaign not locally but all the way to the states! imagine getting a request from a nbc journalist for my comments (i cannot even get local news network to talk abt my campaigns). imagine being talkabout by celebrity gossip websites like perez hilton, entertainment weekly etc!


wow... what a frenzy my campaign caused! i wonder if i should be happy or moody. was damn sianz to be critised as "a marketing team of jnr high boys", tasteless, insensitive, degrading to women etc. i so want to shout out to them that the marketing manager is A WOMAN!!!!

then everyone else told me that i should be happy and proud... as a marketer, any publicity is PUBLICITY! what's more, a campaign from the tiny dot of singapore is getting noticed and talked about in the online community of US. i was told that i should put it in my resume! Totally having mixed feelings... sigh

happy birthday E!

Happy xx birthday E! (haha! a woman's age will be kept a secret!)

couple of weeks ago, while planning the date to meet for E's birthday. she popped her birthday request - a strawberry shortcake birthday cake! (yes... 15yrs of friendship means being open to each other about presents request!) she even provided me with the place - prima deli. i told her i will give her a surprise.

so here's the surprise for her! customised strawberry shortcake cupcakes! went thru a couple of websites searching for the right person to order the cupcakes from. finally settled for "cupcake obsession". the lady was nice and came out with the suggestion of what toppers to use. i only requested to add the cat topper especially since she like cats!

here are some pictures of the cupcakes (stupid me forgot my camera, so took a few with my handphone. the rest of the pictures are still with E)

the 12 cupcakes - nutella cream centred cupcakes. yums!

the birthday gal happy with her cupcakes! (i hope)

close-up of the strawberry shortcake topper made of fondant!

and the cat that i requested for

me with strawberry shortcake!

family day 2009

its finally over! after all the months of planning and the last few weeks of kan cheonging, the family was finally staged yesterday!

although it was a super tiring day for me (being in the committee), it was also quite fun. especially compared to last year! oops! not trying to praise my committe, but it was a total different experience from last year. and i dare say most ppl will say that too. i think this is also the first time i felt the competitiveness and team building spirit from the store managers. seriously... never seen them in this light before. some store managers really thrown me off-guard.

i think i also got a bit fierce during all the tele-matches! trying to be the partial chief judge mah. haha! the weather was good to us too. although there was a slight short drizzle during lunch time, it was a breezy day with sun... not too hot as compared to the previous day!

the only blooper for the day was the injury of one of our finance gal, who sprained her back while playing the olympics challenge. its also the first time i had to call an ambulance! thank god she was ok. was just given pain killers and do not need to be hospitalised.

now it is over... also my last event in my term as SRC committee member! so i can rest for 2 years before it reached my turn (if i am still around in the company!) haha!

countdown

counting down to tmr's family day after about 4 months of planning. just praying that the weather will be good to us and have a good turnout!

got to wake up at 6.30am tmr - worse than work!

idol fever

the recently concluded american idol season 8 has rejuvenated my interest for the idol franchise... yes... cw would have so agreed with me... coz we both have the adam fever! haha! with that in mind, maybe the upcoming singapore idol 3 could spring some surprisely good talent like AI8.


well, i have another legitimate reason to support SI3, we are sponsoring the show! haha! so to be politically right, i have to have faith in the programme right? so we attended the press conference on fri where the judges and hosts were revealed. and of course, the privilege of being sponsors... getting photos taken with the hosts! haha!... reminded me of the days the kfc marketing team were split into 2 camps - the taufik and sly camps during season 1. and us getting the chance to take pictures with them during a mediacorp trade event. haven't got the chance to find the photo taken with taufik as it is in my old laptop. so couldn't show you the differences! haha!

sugar overdose

the sweet tooth was busy the past week...

the artist at our printer was leaving, so we ordered some cupcakes for her. quite a last minute job, so we thot we were quite lucky to get these lovely & tasty cupcakes at an affordable price with less than 3 days leadtime!

went for dinner with lil'c and gc at a nice italian/spanish restaurant at greenwood ave. haha... upmarket place that i will never venture on my own. nice food and ambience (except for the strangely nasal sounding musician). well, the tiramisu was nice but the panna cotta was quite disappointing...

shared the appetizer - melon with parma ham (the melon wasn't that sweet... i miss those in spain!)

the tiramisuthe panna cotta that wasn't up to my expectation! haha!

went to central with my sis on sat, and ended up with loads of snacks! haha! some of the highlights:

mini jap donuts - very crispy and yummy. we had maple syrup, cinnamon sugar, banana choco, peanut and sugared

mini fish tokiwado pancakes - each finished in a bite! flavours we tried: red bean (must have for my sis), chestnut, chocolate and kaya

and at the jap supermarket, we bought snacks and something i found interesting and ah dee will definitely too...

salt creamy caramel pucca bisuits!

Tix to the 'kop'

Yipee! Collected my tix for the liverpool match! Something to look forward for july!

flu scare continuation

thats me at work on friday! result of my paranoid boss!

flu scare?

down with a slight itch in my throat last night, and it didn't seem better this morning. towards the end of the day, i suddenly feels that i might be coming down with a flu! the runny nose seems to be starting. took my temperature after dinner and it was at 37.6! then again, it could be because i've just finished my soup tang hoon. so waited for a while before i took another reading and it became 36.5! well, just popped 2 panadol, hope i will be ok for tmr. otherwise cannot go work alr. my boss is super paranoid abt the swine flu. so staff that are sick and without mc will need to on unpaid leave. sianz right?

sigh... plus this is one packed weekend ahead! sigh...

shocking monday

the atmosphere in the office on a monday morning is not so typical today... no monday blues... but highly intensed.

what started as a normal monday morning turns out to be one of the most shocking day in my career! my finance manager got terminated of his service this morning... without any warning... not verbal or written... think no one in my office expected it. yah... he wasn't doing a good job, he was always late, he fall asleeps in meetings, he is defensive when he makes mistakes, he doesn't have computer skills (i.e. a finance mgr that doesn't know how to use excel!), he wasn't the most popular person in the office... BUT, we didn't think that was the way to treat him... he probably doesn't think that he was in the wrong at all (old and in denial)... so while i was also one of those who complained abt his work, my boss has always defended him to everyone... to the extreme that we give up complaining! so instead of giving him a warning letter or verbal counselling, they just shoved him the ultimatum - the letter of termination.

quite pity him lah... when i thought of a 60 year old man, driving in the heavy rain this morning... angry and shock of his sudden lost of job... i don't know how to describe, but it was not something we want to happen... it is worrying coz who knows if it will ever happen to me

you can officially call me an aunty

not in mannerism ok... but there is a new generation in my family and that makes me an official (god) aunt.

my god-cousin has welcomed his baby girl lyssa into the family last month, and today i met her for the first time at her first month party. its amazing that her arrival means the family has officially became a 4-generation family. although we are not exactly blood related, it was happy to see a new face i will see for the future new year and birthday gatherings.

so here's the picture of my god-niece... time will fly and soon she will be calling me 表姑姐!

ouch...

ouch... that's the sound i make every time i tilt or turn my head... yup... i hurt my neck or shoulder this morning. after my bath, i was drying my leg while bending down and when i got up, i heard a "snap" then followed by a sharp pain at my neck! OUCH!!!! it feels like a stiff neck, basically felt like a strain from my neck to my right shoulder...

one of my colleague had been suffering the same pain for more than a week. i hope i don't get to that stage. so tonight, it is 2 salonpas for comfort.

thank god for rain!

nope... not you RL! haha! but it is finally raining now... hopefully keeping it this way for a while to cool the surroundings!

the heat for the past weeks has been crazy... perspiring the moment you are out of the shower! a short walk from my living room to the kitchen to hang clothes was unbearable! no matter how much we try to control the air-con usage, we have been tempted many nights to turn it on!

so rain rain, please don't go away!

the week in a nutshell

havent had the mood to update my blog... coz the weather is too hot! haha! no inspiration! so here's what happened in my life in the past week!

it was a busy long weekend with the good friday holiday...

- fri: went to watch "the confessions of the shopaholic" with my sis, god-sis and their friend. after the movie, we went for a seafood session of the yummy salted egg yolk crab! totally sinful, but 100% satisfying!

- sat: was home preparing for the early kick-off of liverpool vs blackburn. great game and restore the lead in the table for a few hours.

- sun: busy busy! went for an ex-colleague's baby first month party near hougang in the afternoon. it was great catching up with the ex-marketing gals. went home for a short break before going to esplanade to watch CATS. didn't expect myself to enjoy it that much... haha... not a feline lover mah... but it was really entertaining and the interaction with the audience was great! my sis called it her close encounter with the meows!

the week at work wasn't exactly eventful... or should i say, my heart wasn't at work as much...

- tue: went to the airport to renew my airport pass... managed to catch a ride with my area manager. since i was at the airport, i couldn't give up the chance to buy popeye's for dinner! was done before 5pm, so managed to reach home early! hehe! then slept early for the early morning Champions League match. although liverpool didn't go thru the next round, we definitely showed more mental strength by pushing the game all the way!

- wed: actually blogged abt it alr! haha!

- thu: went with my colleague to check out the newly renovated east point store... the ugliest colour used...fyi... i got no say in the renovation works :( gave up on my P&M dept. also decided to check out the new tampines 1! the crowd is madness!!! i love my quiet and serene south-west part of singapore... the east is definitely not for me. and the surprising thing... i actually took a bus back - a total of 1.5hr journey home! boarded the bus in broad daylight and alighted in the dark!

- fri: met E and sis for dinner at GWC. went to kushinbo and must admit, our "stamina" is no longer that good! haha! but made my money worth with the crabs! yup! crabs again!

- sat: met up with RL, CH and SC for dim sum high-tea... as usual, it was good food and great company! and i took bus and MRT for the day... yup... no cab at all! even after the grocery shopping at vivo. cab queue too long!

that's a long posting... so till the next posting!

sharing of experience

helped an ex-agency friend today... he is lecturing at SIM part-time and was arranging for his students to speak to someone in the marketing / advertising industry. to inspire and let them gets first-hand advice on the industry etc...

it was so funny when he called me as i never expect to be qualified to share my experience with aspiring marketers! i mean, although i have been working for 12 years... yes... i don't seriously think that i chalked up enough experience to motivate people trying to break into the industry! role model? i am definitely not!

anyway, the experience was fun... about 10 students, sitting at BK Liat Towers... sharing with them how i started my career, my views on the industry and my advice for them! hehe... actually they were pretty shy... only 2 of them asked questions... the rest were asked by their lecturer! took abt an hour plus... hope i didn't scare them away and make them change major! haha!

mechanical jinx

wouldn't believe how jinx i was with anything electrical / mechanical. left work right on time to meet my sis at tiong bahru plaza to buy some stuff at popular and dinner too. as i was walking towards the taxi stand to meet my sis, and just went i pass mcd...i suddenly heard a loud "pah"! the lights in mcd went out, as i look further, the whole stretch of stores were all in darkness! oopsy... was hoping that it was only for the stretch at the atrium. but when we walked into the mall after my sis came, we realised that almost all the shops were affected. even the food court in the 3rd floor! surprisingly the common area and some fashion outlets still had lights. in the end we tried our luck at the basement and managed to get some jap bento for dinner.

i wonder how long was the black out as it was peak dinner hour, so even my biz will be affected... shucks! but it was the first time that i seen it happened and all customers were invited out of the restaurants. mcd even had crew standing at the entrance, subway had used chairs to block the entrance.

anyway, that is not all... when i stepped home, i proceeded with my usual routine... turn on the tv. to my horror, my digital set-top could not be turned on! i turned the main switch on and off, NOTHING! the blinking red light stared at me! quickly called the customer svc hotline, seems like the cable and the set-top might not be "communicating". 2 options - to make an appointment for them to come check and fix or exchange the set-top, the other is to make a trip to the customer service centre. the one at vivo closes at 9.30pm. i looked at the clock, it was 8.10pm... so what did the tv addict decides? grab the set-top and make my way to vivo city! couldn't bear to be without my tv... esp with desperate housewives and ANTM on mon nights! haha!

so that's my technically eventful monday!

回娘家

happened to be meeting a supplier at kallang place, which is a road across from kfc office. so i decided to take a bold step to go into the competitor's ground! haha! called ah dee to meet me at the lobby as i didn't take it was politically correct to go up to the office. so there i was back at the familiar lobby with the pond, chit chatting with ah dee and SC. also managed to "bumped" into some ops people too. after a while, ah dee needed to get back up to send an email, so they decided that it should be alright for me to go up, so i followed them right into the reliable slow and old lift of Esmart Centre! haha!

everything seems strangely familiar yet different! haven't been there since i left in July 2007! but felt so at ease when i see good old friends... the funny thing... they are not from the marketing dept! haha! as usual, mama s is still as hilarious! uncle p never puts on weight! still hears mc chasing for projections from ah dee! when mg saw me, he did come by and chit chat... it was quite amazing that he actually told me to "watch out for 8 apr"! wow... telling me his promo launch date! haha! then he surprised me by giving me a PH mug for the "pressure they have been giving me!" (this was in relation to the sales pressure of low prices by kfc & ph). mama s said i should go back more often to get freebies!

although it was a short visit, it was definitely fun... miss all the old friends that i made at kfc... hehe... like what mama s said - it was like me 回娘家!

the mysterious

since late last week, i discovered little "bite-marks" on my hand and leg... thought it might be some insect bites as it was also itchy! thought it will get better, but as days went on, the number of spots increased... and strangely, it is all concentrated on my right feet and hands only. have been depending on my faithful axe brand medicated oil to ease the itch. got a bit worried and went to the doc this evening. he thinks it is an allergy, but will take a lot of tests if i want to find out. so i was given some cream to apply and medicine to ease the itch... hope it will get better :(

new not always the best

guess i am just trying to adjust... seems to be having problems with my new lappie especially with the internet connection. biggest problem? i can't seem to log into my messenger!!! sigh...

looks like i got to trouble my MIS manager again. lucky this doesn't happened at my ex-company, otherwise i will never get help at all! oopsy... complaining abt the ex IT dept that i worked with! haha! but i am sure many will agree with me!

oh well, wish me luck with my lappie!

happiness meter on the rise!

happiness meter hits the roof today!!!

wanted to blog about my new toy from the IT fair today... first happiness with my purchase from my brave attempt to cut through the thousands of ppl at suntec city! went out early but there are of course more ppl as and/or more kiasu than me, it was jam packed by the time i arrived. so here's the picture of my new laptop :)

picture courtesy of hardwarezone.com.sg

happiness level 6/10 (coz haven't start playing with it)

mom knock off from work real early and she offered to get some groceries and cook dinner! for years, we only get the chance to taste her cooking during CNY! her new job does not require as much hours, so she has been home earlier too... plus she actually gets off tomorrow! hehe... so we can bring her out for lunch tmr without her rushing off!

happiness level moves up to 7/10

it is such a crucial night as liverpool plays man u in old trafford. we need a win to continue our chase for the title. after the massive win over real madrid in mid-week, i definitely had hope that we can win them... afterall, we beat them at anfield earlier this season, so why not.

what was unexpected was the result... not only did we beat them, we thrashed them 4-1! coming from behind a lucky penalty, we had 4 goals past their most reliable hands! i am one happy girl! 2 consecutive matches that we scored 4 goals... lets hope the momentum continues...

picture courtesy of liverpoolfc.tv

happiness level hits the roof to 10/10!!!

presenting another joy

went to my god-nephew (my god sis's son) first month party...

presenting kaiser fabian koh an jie

announcing the name

in the arms of my sister

first picture with the STC ah yees

my turn with the star of the day

he is such a cutie! although he was described by my god sis as a wailer and constant milk finder, he was pretty 乖 at the party... he was basically sleeping most of the time... or like the mommy said, he was getting the comfort of being carried in people's arms the whole time!


congrats god-sis for your new addition to the family!