Jan'11 in Singapore

It has only been less than 3 months since my last visit when I attended Zee and ys' wedding. This is also the first year which I will not be spending cny in singapore. This arrangement seems better since my friends are not tied up with home visits (though I'm missing out on the red packets!) and I still get to spend time at home.

So I think I have become pretty good at planning my trips and I don't try to squeeze my time to meet everybody in the world. These trips are starting to tire me - maybe age is really catching up. And though many people say singapore and Hong kong are very similar, I feel the difference. I can't really put words to those feelings. I feel sad leaving both places and happy upon return. Perhaps such is double happiness (or sadness).

I must say my relationship with mum has improved by leap and bounds. As time passes, I become the adult and she the kid. Here's a picture of her having Peking duck at summer pavilion. :)

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Jan'11 in Singapore

It has only been less than 3 months since my last visit when I attended Zee and ys' wedding. This is also the first year which I will not be spending cny in singapore. This arrangement seems better since my friends are not tied up with home visits (though I'm missing out on the red packets!) and I still get to spend time at home.

So I think I have become pretty good at planning my trips and I don't try to squeeze my time to meet everybody in the world. These trips are starting to tire me - maybe age is really catching up. And though many people say singapore and Hong kong are very similar, I feel the difference. I can't really put words to those feelings. I feel sad leaving both places and happy upon return. Perhaps such is double happiness (or sadness).

I must say my relationship with mum has improved by leap and bounds. As time passes, I become the adult and she the kid. Here's a picture of her having Peking duck at summer pavilion. :)

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March - in a post

I did not manage to keep up to my resolution of updating this space as and when i like.

But i've been missing in action, not without good reasons.

Work is just never ending. I guess I shouldn't be worried that I'll be the next to be axed. heh. The thought leaders are ever thinking of ways to give clients the edge. the buzz word is V A L U E. Same research methodology, same quality control, same data output? Ours provide more VALUE. This qtr is all about winning.

Life wise, march is a month of birthdays. mine, and a special few others. :)

Eileen was in HK to visit! Eating around, and shopping were realllllly good! I'm now a proud Giordano ladies member. More discount is more savings! and.. according to Dr. poon, i have a space suit at home. Later when asked jason if the jersey jacket looked like a spacesuit, he pointed out that my down jacket looked more like one :(

I got a new pair of Agnes B shades - the red matches my hair colour!

Mum and bro spent 9 days in HK too. I fed them full, and my bro gained 3kg. His bungy jump scared me legs weak. When jason saw me, he asked why i was trembling. To think i had actually wanted to do the jump with my crazy ass bro! We had such a packed schedule that after they left, i slept for 15 hours.

It was really nice to have my mum here on holiday. She's always so happy when she's here, but gets teary eyed when she's about to leave. The unit is empty without the two of them with me. I definitely need to get a new place once the lease ends. the landlady is simply too irresponsible.

The past few days have been raining. It gets cold, and my nose always starts to drip.

rain rain pls go away. Don't ruin my disney weekend.

Extended

The plants in the apartment are going to DIE if I don't water them for another month.

But I just did. I'm not sure if I should 'pluck out' the yellow leaves?

Called home a while earlier and spoke to mum.

Mum: I was just asking your brother if he misses you.
Me: (Right, sure he does) Ma, Boss wants me to stay another month.
Mum: Huh?! what.... I was just telling him you'll be back in 5 days' time! Eh, got help me buy Sally Yeh Concert DVD not?

I miss home already.

All pink and fluffy

visited sis' booth at Ngee City Open Plaza this afternoon and had nail art done for free! It's some breast cancer society charity fund raising event, and the breast cancer society, being Marie France's adopted charity had a booth at the event too.

I remember watching an episode of the Oprah talk show and it featured this lady who had been through breast cancer (and removed both her breasts) and brain tumour and STILL managed to SURVIVE. AMAZING.

Health is really wealth.

The boys had their share of fun at the fund raising event too, having fished two tanks of guppies each, though i secretly pity the fates of these guppies, especially under the care of the little one. =_=

still gotta make it for work tmr. shall have an early night.

Happy Birthday Axel~

Axel's birthday is today, but we celebrated it over the weekend and went to Sakae sushi.

Boy, can these boys eat their sushi.

The moment they sat down next to the conveyor belt, there was no end to the plates of sushi! I probably should bring them to the sushi buffet sometime. I miss those times when going for sushi buffet was such a highlight of the week!

Chu Er & San 2007

Accompanied mum (aka Empress Dowager) to her massage session yesterday at Wellness Village Spa. So while she's at it, I entertained myself by walking about Panpac, taking pictures. Trigger HAPPY! HAHA.

Noticed the patterns around the hotel... Big Orange/Yellow/Red lanterns; rattan chair, cupcakes, the carpet and my sling.
There's a huge cake made up of many many little cupcakes... If only they're real! I think it's to celebrate Panpac's 20th birthday.

Chun Lians

Round and about the spa place

And it's off to visiting mother's friends!


Wanted to wake up at 8am today... but woke up at 11 instead! Mr Goh had to give me a long endless morning call before i finally woke up.

Intended to go to FF for some workout, but ended up using just the sauna, before we had to leave for 'Just Follow Law' at Vivo.

The show is not bad, but not fantastic. Mr Goh enjoyed it though, said he can identify with how 'arrows' are shot in the company, and how everything must 'black-and-white'. I thought they have gone overboard with product advertisements. Gone are the days when the sponsors are only made known when the credits roll. Fann acted well, surprisingly and Gurmit is just... gurmit. we both felt Mark lee would have made a better Lim Teng Zhui. And as usual, jack neo will not miss having those heart warming scenes in his movie.

This girl, sitting next to me, was LAUGHING DAMN LOUDLY. like, HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR! HUR HUR HUR HUR HUR! which was quite annoying. I hate watching shows with a bad audience.

We walked about Vivo and they have this shallow pool at their top level. The pool looks damn dirty lor. Usually, the base of the pool is tiled blue to create the crystal clear blue waters effect, but this one is tiled BROWN (obviously trying to discourage people to swim in it). But hor, still a lot of kids swimming in it leh! and they come prepared too! swimming trunks and towels! -Faint- walked another metre further from the swimming kids and we saw this couple washing their feet in it. EWwwwwww.

Trigger happy moments again. I'm really having a lot of fun with the collages. Many thanks to ~* ros *~ for the tip!


Vivo is definitely not a place to go have your dinner! The really good restaurants have such long Qs! We settled for SHIN KUSHIYA.

Clockwise from top left: Warm Mixed Salad with citrus soy dressing-Yummy! Japanese potatoes with fish roe-not so yummy. Grilled rice with minced chicken fillings (Mr Goh says this is the Japanese BA ZHANG). Me making the pregnant fish kiss, which now i think is quite lesbo. The restaurant-which plays bossa nova music, making it... not so jap. Mr Goh prying open his jap ba zhang. Inside the jap ba zhang. Our yakitori and etc. Middle: SHIN salts-with spicy, plum and green tea flavoured salts.

Food was not that fantastic. Quite salty leh. I think the Yakitori place at Cuppage (I think called Kushinjin) is still the BEST wor. served HOT, not warm. And not too salty. and the staff speaks Jap. and the music... hmm, i don't remember the music.

Do try out Kim Gary Hong Kong restaurant at Vivo, but you may have to queue for at least 30 minutes or more.

Random thoughts:
Mother made noise about me going to Bai Tai Sui before the Lunar New Year. =_=

I only ate TWO mandarin oranges (at once, just now) for the past few days. Will have to finish as many as I can tomorrow....before my dental appointment on Thursday morning!!! Sure DAMN PAIN... na bei.

time for bed.

blessing in disguise

I saw my brother limping as he walked to the door last night and i knew instantly what happened. what with the rainy weather and the slippery roads, it is not the least expected BUT definitely is something which we all hope will never happen again. Thank goodness nothing was broken, just cuts and abrasions.

I watched him squirm in pain as he dripped the ever potent dettol and Herbal Oil aka Qing Cao You onto the wounds. I couldn't help but laughed. Yeah, i know it's really mean, but hey, it's really hilarious. A macho man squirming in pain. He laughed too. :)

Mr goh said it's actually a blessing in disguise, to have your first road accident and escaped with minor scratches. I couldn't agree more. At least now i'm certain my bro will be more careful on the roads, will know how it worries my mum whenever he puts on that helmet and vroom-vrooms on his Phantom.

heard some bad news recently though, a school friend met with an accident and wasn't that fortunate. i can just imagine how devastating it is to her family.

Is everything fated to be?

The breakdown of our 4 year old washing machine almost caused a family crisis.

by that i mean the family falling apart. It is ridiculous. my mum seriously need to control her temper. Maybe I need to control mine too, but compared to hers, mine is really 'small house see big house'.

and i don't know what's up with my bro. trying to act cool and quiet.

BAH.

pls make tmr a better day.

A retro night with mum

Slipped on my 'happy dress', put on fancy dangling earrings and little tote and I'm all ready for Fong Fei Fei's concert Saturday evening with my mum.

I must say I looked and felt retro with the polka dotted 'happy' dress. I just lacked platform shoes and a polka dotted ribbon for my hair to complete the retro picture. Can still afford to throw in some bubble-gum shades for an extra dosage of fun.

Anyways, it was a really enjoyable evening. This lady, well-known for her various hats and powerful vocals, has been singing since the early 70s!! Her first song was in 1972 lor.... and it's amazing how there are still fanatic fans supporting her all these years!! FFF's probably in her late 50s but still look very pretty, like late 30s!

Stage and the supporters


The concert lasted for 3 hours or so and towards the end, I was sceptical that there will be an encore but at the same time, hoping that there will be people chanting the magic words for FFF to come out and sing again. And they did! So her most loyal fans were going, "Encore, encore, encore..." and we find ourselves shouting encore too. It was fun. Heeh. and the funny thing was, FFF came out after 5 min, and said, "Did I change fast enough? I was afraid you guys would leave!" That tickled my mum and up til today, she's still talking about it.

We were given free light sticks too! Sea of lights...

This is one of my favourite songs she sang that night.
<掌声响起>
孤独站在这舞台听到掌声响起来
我的心中有无限感慨
多少青春不在多少情怀已更改
我还拥有你的爱
好像初次的舞台听到第一声喝采
我的眼泪忍不住掉下来
经过多少失败经过多少等待
告诉自己要忍耐
掌声响起来我心更明白你的爱将与我同在
掌声响起来我心更明白歌声交会你我的爱

We could hear from her voice that she was trying to control her tears when she sang this. and honestly, I could feel tears rolling in my eyes too. She is really a superstar and her songs, the ways she emote, really gan dong dao wo. And my mum, I could see from her eyes that throughout the entire evening, she was transported back to the 70s and 80s, back when she was about my age, still a pretty young thing and reminiscing those times when she’d go for tea parties and song and dance. And that made me want to tear even more. I don’t know why, do I feel sorry for my mum that she’s lost her youth? Or do I feel happy for her that she’s finally able to ‘xiang fu’ now that all her children are grown up? Hmm...

Anyways, I love oldies. The songs from the past really have a different flavour and feel to it. I wonder if Stefanie sun’s songs will have the same effect on my children 30 years down the road...

wild, wild, and wet!

It has been a fun, wild and wet weekend, bringing the boys out to downtown east for some splashing good time. It's always so nice to see them again after some time, to notice that they have another tooth growing or changed their hairstyle or scarred their knees, whatever. It's the magic of being around kids. No matter how mad you are at them, you can't bring yourself to hate them. You just want to nurture them and shower them with love. I like bringing the boys out every few months just so that they won't forget us (my mum, my brother, myself, mr. goh) and I know how much it pleases my mum whenever the boys come to visit.

So before we jumped into the waters, we decided to have some ice milo at macs first. The weather was simply too HOT! And i was unpleasantly shocked to find out that one medium sized ice milo costs two dollars and fifty-five cents! sha ren fang huo.

Some shots at Macs:







Pity we didn't take pictures at WWW. Amos had a tattoo on his thigh and he believes that the "ink" has really gotten into his skin. So...we plunged into Yakult Professor's Playground first and the water was COLD. and off the boys went, up and down the stairs, bridges, ropes, splashing water non-stop. I must say I feel i'm losing stamina to be playing around so hard with the boys. We tried all the rides, almost (amos hasn't meet some of the height requirements). and lucky us, we found a fifty cent coin in the jacuzzi pool. hur hur. of which, became our play thing for the next 20 min or so. (someone will toss the coin in the air and it'll land in the pool and all the rest will dive for it) the boys love it.

The water theme park closes early, at 7pm. By then, we were very very hungry already. Hungry man is a angry (and quiet) man. We didn't talk until our stomachs were filled. hee hee. and then, we went to have icecream and took more pics..



can't wait for their next holiday..

amos the famous who vacuumed the poor hamster

damsel in distress

it's been a while... had quite a packed weekend. eventful i guess. first was the sweeties meeting which i mentioned. then was the sia interview the next day. here's a lowdown about what happened on saturday morning...

mr goh volunteered to chauffeur me to changi sia training centre. really appreciate that, gave me moral support too! and the interview was at a ghostly hour of 0840, haven't woke up before the sun does for such a long time! so there i was, together with like hundred plus other girls, starry eyed, all hoping for a chance to be one of the icons of singapore. machiam like american idols, seriously.

so we were divided into groups of ten for the first round of the interview. made a few friends and one of them was a st nicks cum NJ cum NTU senior! (whom i have nvr seen b4, vanessa's batch) the world is really small. she was really nice, and this was her second time for the interview (she got through 2nd round btw). so 1st round.... i was the first to be asked to give a brief intro about myself. i fumbled, mumbled and probably made a mess. those who spoke after me were detailed, confident and obviously so much better prepared than me. so i thought, that's it... 1st round will kenna kick out already.

10 min later, a man came into the room and said, " only two of you are selected in this group. for those whose name are not called, thank you for coming. the two selected pls follow me to another room." TWO! what are my chances... but i was lucky enough to be given a second chance! :) so i was determined to do much better for the one to one interview later. i was determined to speak confidently and not fumble. but i was disappointed. i guess even more so since i was not given the reason why i wasn't chosen. i thought i performed better at the second interview but obviously not good enough. so for the entire day, i felt inadequate. my ego was thoroughly trashed and i kept wondering what was wrong with myself.

thanks to all my friends who made me feel special again. :) i think i should be happy that i managed to get to the second round too. shows that at least i look somehow like a probable SIA girl. i think i will try again after i've gained some working experience. perhaps i'd be better prepared and equipped for it.

anyways, went out to town after that. met up with the hall people. dinner at marches. went to kbox lounge to chill out. quite a nice place leh. got live band there singing soothing chinese/eng pop. got espn showing also (good for guys who are bored by the male singers) and also a small pool table. those which u dong two 1 dollar coins inside one (good for amatuer players like me). and watched Kingdom of Heaven. quite a boring show, though controversial subject.

Then came mothers' day. had a good time with mum, bro, sis and the kids. we found out that amos vacuumed his hamster the very same day! poor hamster! axel(the elder bro) was vacuuming the floor and when he was done, he wanted to go turn off the main power. Then, famous amos went to vacuum the hamster. i believe he must be very amused when he saw the hamster being sucked towards the tube and i am sure he never meant to suck it in. but it did went in. So...the two boys were traumatised and cried. and my sis scolded them too. we had a good laugh over it. I guess me and my brother have to be blamed somehow coz whenever they stayed over and we vacuumed the floor, we would try to suck their skin also. and it was really amusing.... heh.