Goodbye 2006; Hello 2007!

2006 in retrospect:

Sports
On the average, I managed to jog at least once a week throughout the year. There were months when I jogged 3 times a week and months when I didnt jog at all (due to work commitments!). So I guess that kinda average out once a week. Hee.
The Hubby and I completed Level 1 of our rollerblading class and we are able to rollerblade reasonably OK.

The Hubby
The Hubby worked overseas for the first time since we got married. He was based in Kuala Lumpur for 4 months during which both of us took turns to commute back and forth to spend weekends with each other. I stayed over at my parents' place on most weekdays when The Hubby is not around - gives me more opportunity to spend time with my parents and Coffee.

Family
I spent more time with my family this year. I visited them almost everyday and made it a point to set aside time for minimum twice a month family dinner on Saturdays. My brother travelled on his own for the first time; he went to Manchester. My mum saw snow for the first time in her life when she went to visit him.

Coffee
Coffee has become an even larger part of our lives. My parents love him and dote on him a lot. I got him tons of new toys and a new bed this year. He put on 2 kg this year.

Frens
I made the effort to catch up with close frens on a regular basis; send SMS to let dear frens know that I am thinking of them; took the time to listen; to lend a shoulder to cry on...

Travel
Shanghai, Sydney, Saigon & Hong Kong - those were the places I went to for work. For leisure, it was only to Kuala Lumpur & Krabi.

Business Class
Call me shallow or call me sua-ku but its also the first time I took Business Class on board a flight this year; and subsequently I went onto Business Class a few more times. I actually thought its quite bad coz how does one get back to Coach Class after that? But I later found out that its not too bad; I even took Budget Airline! We humans are really good at adapting to our environments.

Work
There were good days and there were bad days. August, September & October were bad months when I worked till at least midnite everyday. There were days when I feel like killing myself; and there were days when I felt much better.

Physical
My hair is still long and I put on 3 kg!! I have not grown taller.

Looking forward to 2007:

Sports
I want to jog at least twice a week on a regular basis; and no averaging this time round! I also want to start doing yoga regularly.

The Hubby
The Hubby will actually be travelling more frequently in his new job. He will still be based in Singapore but will be making frequent 2-4 days trips to countries in the region, specifically Hong Kong and Taipei.

Family
My bro will be back before Chinese New Year. He will graduate this year if he decides not to do his Honours. I am hoping to have enough money to sponsor my parents on a holiday this year. I want to do it for them while they are still healthy and are able to travel. I also want to bring a dear aunty to Bangkok (she has not been out of Singapore her whole life).

Coffee
Coffee will continue to be as naughty as he was in 2006. I am sure that he will continue to get many more new toys and treats in the new year.

Frens
I hope to maintain close contact with frens, making an effort to meet those that work near me for regular lunches, celebrate each other's birthdays, laugh more together and be available to share their sorrows too.

Travel
For 2007, I am planning Taipei, Beijing, Hokkaido & New Zealand for leisure :)

Work
The highlight for this year will be the completion of my contract in April!!! Finally!! My boss wants me to extend till June as we are having a Division Finance Conference in Beijing in April and I am supposed to conduct training then. I don't mind staying till June and then hopefully take the rest of the year off! Hee!

Physical
I want to get a new hairstyle and lose 3 kg in 2007. Also, I am planning to go for Lasik in 2H 2007.

Bollywood nite!

Pre-DnD preparations
I went to get my nails painted a golden colour (to suit the Bollywood theme) in the afternoon. The dressing up in Bollywood style was a family affair! Wearing the Punjabi suit was fast and easy for me; but I had problems pinning the jasmine flowers to my hair. So in the end, daddy and mummy had to help me with it! I felt like I was an Indian bride! Ha!

During DnD
Venue at The Legends at Fort Canning Park. The theme was Bollywood. We had a marquee built outdoors. Started off with cocktails and there were stalls at the side selling indian cushion covers, henna painting and Indian fortune telling.

Monica and mi

Henna painting my hand

It was Dennis, VP of Technical Services that picked out my name in the lucky draw.

Dinner was a 4 course Indian fusion food with a dessert buffet at the end. Entertainment during the dinner was a live band, tons of group Indian dancing, games and of course the highlight of the evening was the lucky draw. I won a weekend night stay at the Sheraton Singapore - happy that I won but unhappy that it wasn't an overseas Sheraton so I won't have an excuse to bug The Hubby for an overseas holiday. Hee! But I guess I shouldn't be complaining.

After the DnD

I came down with an infection in my left eye. It was swollen when I woke up on Saturday morning. :(

Curse of the Golden Flower

If you have not caught it and you hated previous Zhang Yimou's movies, then don't waste your money on this. At the end of the movie, I turned to The Hubby with one word: "Huh?".

Quiet Christmas

For the past 5 years, every Christmas eve was an insane rush for my whole family as we prepare the house and the food for the annual party on Christmas Eve. My parents enjoyed having frens over during this time and it's a great opportunity to catch up with frens and all. Last year was the first Christmas Coffee had with us and he was so happie and excited!

For the first time since my parents had the current place, we did not have the party this year. My bro is in UK and my mum flew over on Christmas eve night/Christmas day early morning. So we reckon that it will be a quiet Christmas for 2006.

The Hubby and I went over to a good fren, William's place for Christmas eve dinner and we had a good time catching up and tons of fun playing the new version of Uno :) I was at the airport at 430am to see my mum off and it was already noon by the time I woke up on Christmas Day. Hee! :P

Final day of Bliss

My foot + his foot = Our feet

The Hubby nuah-ing on a hammock

Matching shirts! - We got them 5 years ago on our honeymoon.

Last meal in Krabi - Fried spring roll

Fried chicken fingers

Grilled chicken with mushroom sauce

Mi at the resort entrance

A bit sua-ku but its my first time walking on the tarmac to board the plane

Bliss - Day 5

Achievements for today:
1. Got onto RaRa's back in the sea
2. Finished my book
3. Er...er....

That's mi on RaRa's back in the sea

Non-alcoholic Mai Thai and Thai white wine. The Hubby ordered the wine and it tasted so horrible that he didn't wanna finish it!

Grilled Seabass for lunch

Krabi Fizz at the Martinis Lounge in the hotel. Its mango juice with sparkling wine. Nice!

Krabitini - a mix of martini, mango juice, passionfruit juice. Yummy!

Bliss - Day 4

Schedule for today: Breakfast - Beach - Lunch - Movie - Supper - Sleep.

Sunbathing on hotel's private beach with a good book

Fried Shrimp Cakes - we really love them!

Thai Noodle Soup

Grilled Salmon

Tom Yum Cup Noodles for supper - it was yummy!

Bliss - Day 3

1. Walked around Krabi town - reminds me of The Hubby's hometown in Malaysia.
2. Took a longboat ride and explored a limestone cave.
3. Had a lomantic dinner on the beach with The Hubby. :)

The landmark of Krabi town - ancient man traffic lights. There are actually 4 of them at the cross-junction.

Mi on longboat with Khao Khanap Nam in background

I feel like a tomb raider

The dinner setting on the beach

Both of us at the dinner. It was very nice eating with sand in your feet.

Bliss - Day 2 @ Ao Nang Beach

Went to play with the resident baby elephant RaRa after breakfast. She is 3 years old and weighs 1200kg.

RaRa posing with Mi

Mi attempting to feed RaRa with mi mouth

Spent the day walking around Ao Nang Beach. The place reminds me of Bali.

Fresh pineapple from roadside stall

Lunch!

Yummy fried shrimp cakes Yummy (very fresh) seafood pasta
Yummy fried rice
Another Tom Yum soup

Bliss - Day 1

Spent a peaceful week in Krabi, Thailand. No fixed plans, no deadlines, no mobile phones, no emails, no rush hour traffic jams, no ERP, no Excel spreadsheets.....

All we had was the sun, sea, sand, sleep, food, sea breeze, massages, idleness.....It was total bliss, very good for the soul. I should do this more often :)

Day 1
We arrived in the evening on the first day. Went straight for dinner at the hotel restaurant before crashing for the nite.

Thai Fried Rice in Omelette

Mango Salad

The first of many Tom Yum soups

Eragon

Caught this movie. Quite nice. However, like a good number of movies these days, the ending sets the stage for a sequel.....

A Wedding

Lian got married early this month. She did away with the usual sisters-vs-brothers thingy in the morning. Instead she only had a ROM solemnization by the Singapore River followed by the banquet at Grand Shanghai restaurant.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor solemnization; there was a slight breeze and the sun has set. Lian looked really pretty (and very skinny) in her wedding gown. She was on the verge of tears when she was exchanging her marriage vows - so touching!

Been and I are the receptionist for the banquet. It was pretty fun though at time stressful when a lot of guests turned up at the same time. Fortunately, she had only 29 tables. The food at Grand Shanghai was very good - highly recommended for anyone looking for a dinner venue at a Chinese restaurant.

Not less than 2 persons ask me how I know Lian and I realised that other than Lian, I only know Been at the whole event. I got to know Lian through Been - through those pubbing sessions organised by Been where she has her group of frens hanging out together. But somehow, the 3 of us clicked very well. I guess the fact that we used to stay very close together (in terms of physical distances) did help in our hanging out together.

We are now planning for a holiday trip together - can't wait for it to happen!

Don't miss me

It's 1045pm and I am still slogging away in the office. My first late nite @ work since the Hong Kong trip.

2 main reasons why I am still @ work:
- Tomolo is my company "family" day; so no coming into the office. Day time will be some workshop/seminar stuff at the Le Meridien Hotel. Then a d&d at nite at the Legends at Fort Canning. The theme is Bollywood so I will be dressed up tomolo. Stay tuned for pictures! :)

- I am on leave next week. Taking my first "official" holiday for 2006 and it is in Dec! Quite pathetic I would say. I have travelled quite a far bit this year but the trips were all for work. I did extend a couple of days for leisure after some of the working trips but these do not count as "real" holidays coz I didn't get to choose the destination! Hee! I will be sunbathing and sipping lemonade with a good book by the beach next week. Yippee!

Don't miss me.....I'll be back.....

An even nearer neighbour

I am excited coz my good fren Been has bought a resale flat near my place. The two black circles on the map are our places.

That means that we are staying even nearer to each other than we are currently. Yippee! More opportunities to go jogging together and to go for suppers together! And of course, continuing to share a taxi home after a night of partying :)

Coffee time

Coffee: "Look what I've got on my nose!"

Coffee: "My last weekend of shaggy hair; going to the hairdresser, oops, I meant the groomer next weekend"

Favours shower

Everybody is asking favours from me. OK, make that almost everybody. What do I get in return for being so nice? Do people remember you? Not that I expect something in return when I do things out of love and goodwill for others but sometimes it does get tiring…

I have worked in Company A and Company E; I am now working in Company S. An ex-colleague from Company A is interviewing for a job at Company E and he has been texting and emailing me with questions on what to expect for the interviews, what are the tips and tricks to “ace” the various rounds of interviews. I have been nice and have given him a fair view of how things are. But I wonder if he is even going to remember and appreciate. This is an ex-colleague whom I have not heard from since the day I left Company A (more than 2 years ago) and suddenly we are in touch again.

I did a favour and spent one hour this afternoon talking to a potential new client for my vendor. The situation is this: Company S has engaged vendor C to provide consulting and systems implementation services. So I am the client and I work very closely with vendor C. Vendor C is pursuing a new client and this new client wants to talk to an existing client about the project and user experiences with the software. The new client is at the last stage of decision making and it was supposed to be my boss to talk to them. But due to schedule conflicts, it became me who spoke with them. So I spent one hour giving them a fair and honest view of the software. At the end of the day, if the new client decides to go with Vendor C, Vendor C’s Sales Director laughs all the way to the bank. That’s it. Full stop. Nothing else.

Yeah, I have heard a lot about “what goes around, come around”; “there is such a thing as retribution”; “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”; blah blah blah. But sometimes, you really wonder whether the good guys always win? Does it pay to be nice? Does it pay to be good? Is someone keeping an equation of the favors you have extended and the favors which you have received and making sure that they balance? Or should we not even be caring about such things but believe in spreading love and goodwill among mankind (this sounds so Miss Universe!). I don’t know…mabbe I shouldn't even be babbling about this but it's a thot that came to my mind.

A Battle of Wits

Caught this over the weekend. Very good not just coz of handsome Andy Lau and Nicky Wu but also coz of the subtle (if noble) message about universal love and peace notions, pride and power. Quite a thought-provoking movie.

Ouch!

As if the tension headache that I have been getting on a regular on-off basis is not enough to make me bang my head against the wall to take away the pain (ok, I know thats a bit oxy-moron but sometimes I really feel like doing that!), I went to slam the car door against the right side of my face on Tuesday evening!

It was raining meow and woof on Tuesday. I had to carry my laptop bag, my handbag and the brolly; and I was getting flustered. I could not park the car at my house coz its an open-air carpark (which means I will get wet regardless of the brolly) so I decided to park at my parents' place (which means I had to use parking coupons coz I am a law-biding citizen).

I was outta the car and while I was leaning forward towards the car to put the parking coupon on the dashboard, at the same time, I slammed the car door shut without fully extracting my body outta the car! The car door slammed right onto my right side of my body and right side of my face and my right ear f*king hurts! It hurts a lot, a lot! I was almost in tears! And the first thought that came to my mind was how much a full scale car accident would have hurt - its metal against human flesh!

I didnt think much about it after the incident, until I felt a pain behind my right ear yesterday. I cant see it myself but apparently, there is a red cut/bruise kinda thing behind my right ear. It must have been caused by the crashing of the car door against my ear against my spectacles frame; speaking of which, my specs do feel a tad weird...Sigh.

Quote of the Day

"It is not how/what you see yourself as, it is what people perceive you to be. Life is all about perception; and the sad thing is that often, perception is reality"

- Author Unknown

Update to VIP II

When I mentioned it to him, my dear fren Chye Hua reminded me that I forgot to mention 3 other significant incidents in an earlier post about the important people in my life. For the record, he doesn’t get to read this blog. This is what I wrote about him earlier:

Ng Chye Hua
This is the guy who listened quietly when I was at one of the lowest point in my life. This is the guy who piggybacks me up the stairs when I was on crutches so that I don’t have to do it step by step myself. This is the guy who brought me out to eat ice cream and look at stars when I was sad. This is the guy who would drive all the way to pick me up and meet me coz I want to meet him for lunch. This is the guy who does not judge me for the things that I had done. Need I say more?

#1
There was once when I was going on a holiday and needed 4 wheels to send me to the airport coz I didn’t wan to pay for the taxi fare (being the poor me!). I was asking around for a lift and in the end, Chye Hua actually went to borrow a Lexus GS300 to send me to the airport! Don’t ask me what did he do to lay his hands on the Lexus – I never found out too. Ha!

#2
Fungus came into my life coz of Chye Hua. He gave him to me when I was feeling really down. It was to cheer me up. Now the smelly and dirty looking dinosaur is sitting on a throne on my drawers at home. Dino’s name is derived from his colour - green & dirty. Cute!

#3
A recent incident: Who received a free ticket to the MotorShow and then pays for your entrance fee so that both of you could attend it together? Chye Hua did for me.

He is such a gem.

Quote of the Day

"It does not matter whether you make a difference to the world. What matters is that you make a world of difference to one person. "

- Author Unknown

Happy 2nd birthday!

Coffee: "So this small muffin is all I am getting for my second birthday??"

Coffee: "When am I going to get to eat the muffin?"

Coffee: "Ahhh....the candle is lighted.....here comes the birthday song!"

Coffee: "I am a happie dog!"

Coffee: "Me and my Mummy"

Bought tons of treats (didnt take pic of treats though...) for Coffee for his second birthday. Decided not to get him a birthday cake this year because he didn’t eat the cake at all last year. He only ate the meat that was in the cake! So it’s a simple muffin with a symbolic candle on it. He took less than a minute to finish the muffin!