Private Party

It was seafood again, this time at Alan's place. And chef of the day? Chef Alan.



Seriously, quit IT already Alan. Your crabs are much better than what I had last night!



After that, it was MJ time, as usual. This time round there were 2 tables - the amateurs and the professionals.



Yukie wanna play too!

A Crabby Affair

For our March sales dinner, Bernard recommended Taman Serasi @ Botanical Garden for seafood.



Giant crab.



I feel that contrary to what people normally think of a sales team - competitive, aggressive and back-stabbing - our WW sales team is very united. More so compared to the technical team. We had the most fun whenever we get together.

Levi's Fashion Show

I went to work today and got the shock of my life!



My laptop is gone! Turn out I left it at home. Damn!

Minn had 2 tickets to the Levi's Fashion Show today and she asked me along. I was secretly feeling very happy because instead of bringing one of her funky friends, she brought me. Heehee.

The queue is horrendous. Reminds me of when I used to queue for Zouk.



There are all sorts of people in the queue - the Chinese nationals, the kiddos in their parents' clothes, the kiasu aunties, the loud punks, the nerds, the wayang wayang, the girls who came in matching outfits, the ugly fat bitches and so on.

As usual, the group of Chinese nationals behind me thought that if they stick closer to me, they can get in faster. #@*&^%&%##@

I keep complaining to Minn - shall we go shopping instead? shall we go MNG? shall we take the goodie bag and just go? next time can make sure we are in the priority queue by hook or by crook? Everytime I said something like that, she would throw me dagger stares. So eventually, we got in.

We saw celebrities like Terrence Cao, Erica Lee and Andrea de Cruz at the best seats in front while we can only struggle with our short necks at the back.



The show started and four topless came onstage.



Can't get really good shots because of the insufficient lighting.



The show was a mere 30 minutes, afterwhich we went home for dinner.

Yummy home-made dinner by Jack

Bloody Roadshow

I hate doing roadshows.

When I first join the company, roadshows were almost a weekly affair with 2 to 3 roadshows happening in a month. It’s funny how the principals enjoy doing roadshows even though the response at the end of the day is almost zero. It’s normally a complete waste of time, effort and strength especially on a full-day one. You would have thought that intelligent organisations will not do things that they do not benefit from, right?

But wrong.

These suckers enjoy roadshows so much that they expect their partners, like us, to share their passion and zest. Which seldom happened. And when you go back to the office after you missed a day of work because you took part in a bloody full-day roadshow, your unread emails can kill you. Totally sucks!

Today, unfortunately, I was assigned by my boss to attend a roadshow for HP. Sigh, sigh, sigh! As my colleague puts it, it’s NATIONAL SERVICE!



My equally wu nai colleagues.



During an event like this, where there are more than 800 attendees, you’ll get to meet a lot of weird people (read: irritating). There’s the cheapo uncle who keep coming back to our booth to steal our pens, the lady who told Alice that she should never get old in future cause they put you in old folks home if you do, the 3 senior blokes who shamelessly used our machines to check their share prices, the free-loader who only want us to provide free IT information, and the list goes on forever…

3 Shameless Blokes

An interesting booth? Totally NOT! It’s a booth giving out free coffee and, sadly, the only booth that attracts and hold the crowds.



Well, it helps that they engaged a pretty girl to hand out the free coffee.



These 3 aunties stood at the booth for a good 15 minutes drinking cups after cups of coffee.



Well, I suppose the only thing we can look forward to in all roadshows is the free food. Heehee.

This Tuesday

Something bad happened to me today. For those who already know, yah, it's unfortunate.

To make up for what I went through, we bought Bread Papa - yummy!



This lady refused to move her many bags for Jack to sit even though he stood there for quite a while with me sitting down next to her. Tsk tsk. I have no idea what's with the towel.



As you can see, Jack was pretty mad at her.



Derric brought us to a Lai Lai Family Restaurant for dinner. Well, technically Jarol did but theoretically Derric did!



Their best seller is their red hot (okay, I'm being cheesy) Taiwanese beef noodles.



Adult vermicelli. Errr.



Taiwanese dishes.



And it ended with a yummy red-bean freeze.

A Giant GIANT

The Giant Hypermart at Tampines (opposite Ikea) is finally opened for business. We went there to stock-up on our groceries. The place is huge!



Their carpark is giant too. And free.



A giant Giant indeed.

Don Don's Birthday

We celebrated Don's birthday over steamboat at his new place.



Mr and Mrs Lee with the choco cake.



Top-down, bottom-up.

Yeah!

Jack is back from Hang Zhou today! Me and Bian Bian are all excited!



Before picking him up, we had dinner at Swensen's.



Hiding from the rain under the brolly. The brolly was fake but it was really raining that night!



At the airport.



I haven't been here for a while and apparently, they had new things in placed in their loo.



The plane landed.



There he is!



Finally! The plane actually landed for a while already but because the pilot steered it to the wrong dock, they had to wait for 2 other planes to take-off before the runway could be cleared for them to move to the right dock. What the!



Jack was starving from the terrible food of the terrible flight and we went to Jalan Kayu to satisfy his prata-craving.



Thank you, you guys! For taking care of me for a week and for fetching Jack.
[MB, you looked very pretty in this pic!]

Office Politics

We have probably seen office political powerplay at some point in time. While some are obvious struggle for power, others are played behind closed doors among the very top management.

There are yet other political situations which are created by a single person for the sole reason of making it seems like she is indispensable and through the process hoping to obtain certain power over certain people who she has no business with!

Recently, a one-man political show in my office just ended with the goose in question being dressed down by the boss. At the end of it all, the saddest thing is - it's a one-man show because she is too insignificant to politic with. It's like creating wave in a river. Well, sad but true.

It'a back to peace now but I wonder how long it will last before someone starts to make wave again. Like Jack said, any organisation with more than 2 persons will definitely come into contact with politics regardless of how hard people try to avoid it. And like Mr Yeo once said, sometimes you don't even have to react and you are already part of it.

Sick

The flu bug got to me last night and I'm on 2-days sick leave.

Everytime I wake up from my short naps (the in-and-outta sleep kind), I will check my office mails, fearing that there might be some urgent things that I have to tend to. And true enough, there are definitely one or two urgent things that needed my immediate attention.

If I'm so indispensable, why is my pay so damn low? Guess I'm not indispensable then, more of a slave to irritating customers.

Talking about irritating people, here are 5 ways to dish an irritating colleagues (I have one in mind when I wrote these).

1. Ask everyone else out for lunch except her. When she turn to look at you, waiting for you to ask her as well, pretend that you forgot her name by saying, "Erm.. this who.. err.. shit.. anyway do you wanna go lunch.. this err.."

2. Call her desk phone everyday for 1 month to look for the person sitting next to her.

3. Borrow all her pens, one at a time, and don't return.

4. Turn off the loo lights while she is in the cubicle.

5. Ask her where she is going after work tonight and if she mention some fancy restaurant, ask her if she is sure she wanna go in that outfit she's wearing now.

Heehee.

My New Toy

On my way home, I met a friend.



My new toy. I've been wanting to get it for a while.



Apparently, you can only use their own brand of ink cartridges and paper which come together as a set - one box of 108 sheets will have ink cartridges enough to print just 108 pieces. Oh well.

Together Again

Finally! After 8 years, we're gonna be together again!



Of course, work will be on a different stress level compared to school. But I'm sure we'll make it through together, just like before.

Dinner with the Newbie at Esprit Cafe.

Welcome onboard MB!

To My Little One

Thank you!

Thank you for giving me joy. Whenever I was down, you were always there to lift me up.

Thank you for giving me laughters. Your silly behaviour never fail to crack me up.

Thank you for being my companion. When I was alone at home, you always come to cuddle.

Thank you for coming into my life. You changed my world the moment you became part of it.

Thank you for everything you have given us. We gave you 13 years of our lives, you gave us your whole lifetime.

Thank you, My Precious Little One.

This Monday

Fly Fly Away

Marketing left this on my desk. If only it's real.



When is my next holiday gonna be?


Contrasting

I bought 2 vastly different magazines today.




Mess OUT!

My table is done. Took me shorter than expected. At least I have a place to write now. Minn said the last time she saw me sitting down at my table was 10 years ago. Well, the mess just got outta hand back then.



Ancient photo of MB and me.



My earrings. Finally found a way to make them visible on a daily basis. Else I'll never find them and wear them.



My Tigger and Duckie shrine.



Pretty little lamp from Elaine.



Friends up high.




Bling

I dressed up my cam a little.




My Newest Little Friend

Tinie.

Three Hundred

Jack left on a jet plane this morning to Hang Zhou for work. I have a week to myself which I will utilise fully to clear up my room.



Caught the movie 300 yesterday and damn! It was a feast for the eyes with all the topless and sweating 8-peggers. Every spartan warrior looked too hot to be true. And whenever Leonidas (the Spartan King) speaks (okay, he doesn't even have to speak, he only need to yell), the kind of authority he command as a warrior king is simply amazing.

I have to say, a warrior empire in ancient Greek fascinates me.

And do you know, the gayish Persian King Xerxes...



...is actually this guy?



No, I can't believe it too! Make-up and special effects these days blow me away.



Dilios, the guy with an injured eye and a talent for story-telling is Faramir from Lord of the Ring.



I like him better with a shorter 'do and fringe.



[Source - Yahoo! Movies]

Shopping Day

Being the cheapos that we are, we made full use of a G2000 50%-off discount coupon and bought $999 worth of stuff, out of the $1000 maximum cap.



While shopping, my fake Balenciaga did this to me. That's why I'm an advocate of the real stuff (how ironic!).



Zooming-in.



Cute clock in the window display.



The men were in strips.



We had Thai food for dinner.

Multi-Tasker

I like to do 2 things at a time.

Like reading while shitting in the loo.

Like painting my nails while watching tv.

Like reading magazine while blowing my hair.

Like curling my lashes while typing this post.

Is this the predicament of a modern-day girl living in a highly competitive world trying to make the best out of it?

Grey

The Unidentified

I read in the papers today that the body of a badly tortured unidentified boy was found at a rubbish dump area at Shenzhen a few days ago.

The boy had his balls (yes, that balls) cut off, one of his wrist chopped off and about 20 cigarette burnt marks all over his legs. The authority suspected that a highly psychotic freak tortured him to death. Which is a reasonable deduction considering the circumstances.

Just how sick the human mind can get.


The Unknown

Recently, I heard a friend talked about her 8-years relationship going downhill and it's really sad to know. Have you ever been with someone for so long that you no longer know how you feel towards that person? And what will you do if you know that your future is no longer in that person's hands?

Will you make the change?


The Unfortunate

It was a sense of sweet bitterness seeing one of my ex-colleagues today. I finally learnt the truth about his much speculated dismiss (don't ask, I will not say!). Not that I haven't heard versions of it but today, I finally get the whole picture. And it makes perfect sense.

This ugly truth disgust me. You cannot imagine the things that people will do just to get to where they want to be. But well, what goes around comes around. Karma will see to it.

Crab Feast

Been hearing a lot about the famous crabs in Jackson but it's always a so-near-yet-so-far situation. So when Jess suggested going there today, we couldn't refuse. Plus we needed to have a private discussion too.



In anticipation.



Finally.



The best Man Tou ever!

The Roti Prata Man

Been wanting to get an external harddisk casing for the harddisk that Cass gave me eons ago and today I finally made a trip down to Sim Lim to get it. After going to a few shops, I saw a design I quite like at an Indian shop.



So I paid for it and I asked the Indian guy if he could help me put the harddisk in.

Me: Can you help me put the harddisk in?

Neh: This one difficult to do. If I help you, you must pay me 2 more dollars.

Me: What?! You mean you sell your customers something that is hard to fix and expect them to do it themselves?

Neh: No no! Very fast, 5 minutes can finish.

Me: What?! 5 minutes you can finish you want to charge me 2 dollars!

Neh: ......

Me: So how? Can do for me or not?

Neh: Boss want me to charge you if I fix for you.

Me: Don't bluff! You want to keep the money for yourself right!

Neh: ......

In contrast, I went to another shop (a Chinese one), got an 8 dollars screen protector for my camera, and the Chinese guy actually offered to help me paste it on. He then proceed to clean my camera screen for a good 5 minutes (first with a special cloth, then a wet one, then a dry one again, and finally with scotch-tape to remove small dust particles) before professionally pasting the screen protector on. The best part is he only collect the payment from me after everything.

Tsk tsk tsk.

Family Dinner

MB with our Feng Shui ornament.



Had dinner at Brenda's place.



My new extended family.



My princess took a pic of me.

Jenny's Birthday

Happy Birthday Jenny!

This Sunday

We made a trip to Salvation Army to drop off my old clothes.



Someone's old toy.



Saw on TV that this Hakka Yong Tau Foo stall is famous. We checked out their food.



It is so-so only. Very home-cooked style though.



Jack had his hair cut.



Rainbow.



We went for a massage and headed home.

Sentosa Rendezvous

It's been a while since we went Sentosa for some sun.



We used to hang out here quite often when we were all still slim.



We are but 3 little pigs now.



Sunset.



BB was craving for some Korean soup so we went to Su Korean Cuisine for dinner.



I kinda like this effect.



MB's new toy.



Can you see us?



The yummy (but expensive) food.



The night ended with our fave activity.

This Friday

This morning I fought the ferocious MRT crowd just to get to a HP training with was utterly B-O-R-I-N-G.



At least the free lunch was not so bad.



These days, it seems like my memory is failing me. While other people remember when and where they met me before, I can't recognise them at all! Not even remotely. It already happened twice this week - once at an in-house training and once today at the HP training. It must be the ginko nuts. I need memory protection!



This evening we were back at Hilltop for teppanyaki.

Jurong Island.

A green factory with HDB at the far beyond.

The wind got stronger and stronger at the top.



Trying out the amazing zoom function again.



As usual, the food was damn good.



We took at walk at the nearby garden after dinner to digest our food.



Perhaps climbing stairs will help.



A plant in cage. Weird.

Moving Into the Future

Recently I had been cleaning my room a little and on a daily basis, I threw away old stuff, albeit bit by bit.



Some stuff had been around for years and during every spring-cleaning previously, I can't bear to throw them away.

But I feel that now is the right time.

Perhaps this signify that I am moving further and further away from the past and stepping into a new future ahead of me.

I am excited about it.

My New Friends

Introducing my new friends!



Tiko Ah Pek.



And Woolly.

The Office Handyman

Fixing his own phone line. Impressive!

Who Are Your Friends?

It's true when they said that it's through the bad times that you see who your real friends are.

Some friends may be there to share your joy and laugh with you through the good times. But when you are down and out, they are never there to share your woes.

Some friends may seem to be there for you but they are actually secretly exploiting you to satisfy their own selfish desires.

But there are some other friends who make sacrifices for you, care for you when you are down and worry like mad when you are sick.

And it's through the bad times that you realised who you can really depend on.

If you asked me, other than those true friends I can depend on, the rest are trash that should be dumped. Because rather than spending even a minute of my life with these less-than-complete people, I'll focus on my true blue great friends.

This Sunday

Family Lunch

It's my Chinese birthday today and mum prepared a sumptuous lunch for the family. She woke me up damn early in the morning just to make sure I ask Jack along. Hee.




Dinner @ Sakae Sushi

Met my giggling GFs for dinner today. While waiting for one another, we all went to Borders and in the end, we bumped into everyone there. This is what I call telepathy.




Bathroom Reader

Got this today. It's about trivia things from the past till present day. Will post some interesting finds after I read it.



As for why I chose this particular book from the entire series, I guess it's obvious enough.


It's Official

It's official - we became sworn sisters!

BB bought us these pretty notebooks and inside, we drafted a certificate which we endorsed to officiate our sisterhood.



We also left comments about one another. I got them colour pencils to decorate the book.



With this, we became sisters for life! This is gonna be the start of a very wonderful journey for us.

Jack's Bad Landlord - Part II

So the main switch at the air-con compressor jumped and shut down the entire air-con system.

So we told the landlord about it and indeed he couldn't switch on any of the air-cons in the house.

So instead of turning the main switch back on, he said he needed to send for a technician to check it out.

So as we all already know, the landlord is stingy as hell and definitely will not spend money on a technician to do something he can do himself.

So he is just taking the opportunity to not let us have air-con in our room, since he don't normally use the air-con himself.

So stingy it hurts!

Tsk Tsk Tsk!

The Gambling Den - Part III

Since tomorrow is the last day of CNY, today is pretty much the last time we can gamble to our hearts content. The venue - Jack's place (not that Jack's place).

We prepared a mountainful of snacks and drinks for our guests.



We started...



...Then break for dinner...



...And a breather...



...And continue.



On hindsight, it seemed like I never won money after the first year I started CNY gambling probably more than 10 years ago =((

Jack's Bad Landlord - Part I

So the landlord went back to JB for the weekend.

So before he left, he soaked up all the metal grills and the stove heads of the stove in soap.

So in order to cook, we gotta wash up everything and put them back in place.

So damn scheming it hurts!

Tsk Tsk Tsk!

This Friday

Another Surprise

There was another surprise for me in the office today.



From my wonderful colleagues. Thank you!




Mini Curry-Puff

Jenny's mini curry-puff. Its filling is made of peanut thou.




Our Monthly Affair

We celebrated 3 occassions - 2 birthdays and 1 return.



The birthday boy giving a bobian look.



Playing the vicious drinking games.




A Whole New Level

BB, MB and I are bringing our friendship to a whole new level - we are gonna become sworn sisters! The traditional way! We are gonna be as good as family!

Old-skool, yes. But other than being bestest friends, that's the closest we can ever be. We are even gonna get something that belongs to just the 3 of us and in the most intimate way. How cool is that!

This is truly a perpetual committment we made to one another and in sick or health, we will stick through without fail. There will be no such thing as abandonment, regardless.

So it's no more Auntie Lynnie. It's Lynnie Ah Yi.

My 2X Birthday

Okay. It's 27. Damn.

My first birthday surprise came at about 4.30pm yesterday. From my giggling GFs of the WBF Club!




Not that original an idea but still a very pleasant surprise. Thanks girls! Love you lots!



The second surprise was from Jack. He queued for 2 hours for these...




...all because he knew I wanted very much to try them. Thank you my dear!



The grand-est and the best-est surprise of them all had to be this.



One-night stay at Scarlet Hotel. Woohoo!



The chandelier hanging from the 2nd floor.



The welcome drink.



The room.



Comprehensive bathroom products.



Old-skool ceiling.



Ours is the non-theme room which is pretty small. Unfortunately the bigger theme rooms are all under renovation. With the same amount of money we paid for our room, we can probably get a bigger room with better facilities elsewhere, but somehow boutique hotel gives you that luxurious yet uncommercialised feel that other 5-star hotels can't offer. It's almost as if you are separated from the rest of the busy world once you step inside.



Savouring Surprise Number 2 in Surprise Number 3.



The leather newspaper-holder on the door.



Soda, the jacuzzi.



The lobby.



After that it was off to dinner at Jack's place.



BB bought me a choco cake.



I had a great time! Thanks guys!