Christmas Celebrations! (23 - 25 Dec 2006)

Back to where I first started this blog, it's Christmas time now. I really enjoyed myself this long weekend doing simple stuff with my family. The mood started at work on a Friday where everyone was happily exchanging gifts, eating and feeling merry. Then came the long weekend. Dear and I watched Charlotte's Web (which was really sweet and touching) on Friday night.

On Saturday, we went to watch a concert called Passion at Victoria Concert Hall. It was a band/group from Sydney that performs music that hails from anime and video games. There was a drummer, a guitarist, a pianist and 2 violinists. Quite an interesting group as they come from Japan, Australia and Russia. I kinda liked a piece they played from a game called Chrono Cross. Another familiar hit they played was the SuperMarioBros theme. Although I don't really know these anime stuff well, the concert was actually quite enjoyable.

Then on Christmas eve, we had dinner at my Uncle's place. As usual, there was a spread of food and the Christmas tree was surrounded with lots of presents!

Here's the food and some more pictures with my cousins

At the end of the party, we collected some presents which our family bought for us. I guess you can say that my favourite was really my newest watch...thanks to Dear Dear who bought this lovely pair of matching watches for our Christmas gift... :)

On Christmas morning, we attended a Christmas service together on invitation from a friend. The nicest part was when the whole hall lit candles and sang songs like 'O Holy Night' and 'Silent Night'...it really felt good.

Later that afternoon, Dear and I prepared for a simple pot luck dinner we were going to have with his family. We ordered pizza and Mummy brought fried bee hoon, otah, KFC etc. Thank goodness it did not rain today and was quite breezy. We had our dinner then watched some TV, while Phyllis, Ivy, Dear and I played some UNO. Haha...childhood game!

With one more round of gift exchange, that about wraps up our Christmas celebrations and long weekend... It's back to work for another week before Countdown to 2007 :)

Wisdom Teeth extraction...eeks! (16 Dec 2006)

This week Dear Dear had 4 of his wisdom teeth extracted at one go!! That was really so brave of him to do it one time so that he will suffer the pain all at one shot...haha. The 'minor' op lasted around 3 hrs! As a result, he had really swollen cheeks and could not eat too well at first. But I would say that he seemed to recover quite fast. Most people I heard would be on liquid diet for at least a week. Dear was already eating slightly more solid food after 3 to 4 days. Anyway, this pic was taken outside VivoCity. Wanted to show his puffy cheeks, which don't seem to look that bad on photo after all.. Ha...

Grandma's Birthday (13 Dec 2006)

Quite a bit happening this week...this evening after work, my family celebrated my paternal grandmother's birthday in advance. We had dinner at Grand Shanghai restaurant next to Corpthorne Hotel. Another filling meal!! Anywayz, Happy Birthday MAMA! Thank the Lord that she is still going strong...

Mini Christmas Party (12 Dec 2006)

Since I started work at my new company, I was informed that there would be a early Christmas party this evening for the Airtime Sales and Market Research team. That day, we were allowed to go off work earlier around 4pm to get dressed for the occasion. It was an International Costume theme, so guess what, my Indian punjabi suit I bought for my previous D&D really came in handy!

Anyway, the event was held at a pub in Red Dot Museum. Drinks were free flow and some food was catered. Many of the Airtime Sales people came dressed up in different costumes representing Japan, Korea, India, Holland, China, etc. Although I do not know a lot of the staff yet, I did get introduced to a few people. There were quite a few games and some prizes to be won. I think the best part was really when the 3 heads (Long Jong, Melvin and Edwin) were 'saboed' to do individual dance items to Alex To's really 'hot' song - Tuo Diao (Take off your clothes!)

Well, not much luck with the lucky draw, but I was also saboed... :O Yeh, they wanted to know who were the new staff on board and got them all to go up front, blind-fold and dance to whatever music that was being played till we were told to stop. I think I really felt soooo paisei after that coz I probably dance like crap!!

Here's a picture with my current colleagues who were there. From left: Clara (my boss), Me, Lee Lian, Yvonne.

Here's another taken with some other colleagues

Christmas Lights in Orchard (9 Dec 2006)

This weekend, Shin Yee (my ex colleague) invited us to her home for housewarming. Caught up with some of my ex colleagues there over tea. In the evening, Dear and I then took time to walk down Orchard Road to take some Christmas photos with the decorations. In a way, this has become a yearly affair for us. I still remember doing the same in 2005...time flies indeed! Anyway, we had dinner at Fish & Co. at Borders before we started to walk down from that part of Orchard Road. I feel that this year, the decor is not as nice as some years, but nevertheless, to see Orchard lighted up and people really shopping and happy, makes me really enjoy the Christmas season. It is indeed my favourite time of the year! Time to buy presents soon...

A short break (1 Dec 2006)

After my last day with DHL, I had a short 1 week break before starting work at the new company. Took the time to rest and relax a bit. The first thing that Dear and I did was to take a short day trip to JB. Wanted to go to KL initially, but our plans didn't work out due to Dear's schedule. Anyhow, better than nothing. We took the public bus into JB sometime around noon and shopped at City Square.

Some pictures while waiting for the bus at Woodlands as well as at the customs checkpoint..

Overall, did not have that much stuff to buy from JB, but I was pretty happy and satisfied when I bought 3 pairs of shoes which were rather cheap! :P

That's us having lunch at Kenny Rogers...

We left for Singapore quite early around 3 plus as we had a dinner date the same evening. Dear brought me to the Jewel Box at Mt Faber so that we could enjoy a bit of the 'snow show' that they were promoting.

Below is a picture of our 'fine dinner'... actually it did not taste that great, so not really value for money. We also captured the snow foam that was blowing out for quite a while. On another side, one could actually feel more of the snow foam while they played Christmas songs. It was certainly an enjoyable day :)

Last Day at work... (29 Nov 2006)

Today is my last day with DHL...quite a difficult decision I made recently to leave this job and move onto something different. It has been a good 1.5 years stint and I'm really glad to have come to know a big bunch of really nice people. Be it my own department colleagues, or colleagues from other departments... I am truly glad to have known them and worked with them in one way or another. Somehow, this was really a place where I've grown in work experience, challenged myself and put in quite a fair bit of commitment, pushing late nights like nobody's business!?!

Want to particularly mention a few people that I want to thank...especially if you ever came to read this. To my ex-boss and friend, Jasmine... thanks for hiring me. It has been great knowing and working with you. Pity you left so soon...but appreciate all the advice you have given me every now and then. Hope to cross paths with you again some day! To my direct working partner, Andrea...thanks for bearing with me during the half year that we had no manager...for slogging it out together, for eating pizzas, Mac, 'zi cha' and goodness knows what else we've ordered?! To my ex-HOD Peter...you were a nice and patient boss to work with. To many other people....June, Ade, Linda, Wai Yi, Karen, Alvin, Edmund, Thomas, Lynn...etc...thanks for your friendship! :-)

Ok, now for some parting shots... my work area below after it has been more or less cleared up..

My farewell dinner at Rice Table (International Building) with June, Thomas, Steven, Linda, Andrea and Adeline (who came later)
Here's a few more pics...

Old Car...New Car (19 Nov - 25 Nov 2006)

After much thought and financial calculations, we decided to sell our first car, a red toyota vios as the trade in value was really quite good. Here is our last weekend with it....

With much anticipation, our new car arrives! Let's welcome our new Honda Civic! Hehe... : P

Christmas is coming...though it's only November... (18 Nov 2006)

Suddenly had the inspiration to decorate our home for Christmas...we therefore made a trip to Concourse to have a look at all the Christmas trees and decorations on sale. Managed to buy this 9 feet garland like thing and some Christmas decor. That night, Dear and I set it up...although it was really missing the lights, but we left it as it is... Ok, quite satisfied. Now just have to wait for the presents... :P

Errm..Bedroom Slippers?! (12 Nov 2006)

Ok, nothing much happening this week. We bought bedroom slippers from Daiso (the $2 shop), pink for me, blue for Dear Dear...hehe..

Born on the same date.... (6 Nov 2006)

Amazingly, Ivy and Mummy have the same birthday! Born on the same date different year :b Here we are celebrating in advance. Happy Birthday!

Bollywood Night! (28 Oct 2006)

Time for some Bollywood fun at my company's D&D held at Shangri-La Hotel. Got dressed up for the event and met up with my marketing colleagues. The programme lined up included the Senior Management performing a dance item for the opening (they were pretty good!) as well as many other games. Some staff had really nice Indian outfits. But I'm glad I kept mine simple anyhow : -) Check out some of the photos below....

Wedding Bells (22 Oct 2006)

Dear's colleague held their wedding lunch at Conrad Hotel today. That's us posing with the couple and some of Dear's colleagues...

Little India (14 Oct 2006)

Made a trip down to Little India this day to find some Bollywood outfit for my company's D&D two weeks later. The place was really packed and full of people as it was actually the weekend before Deepavali. Felt really hot and tired having looked and looked at all the outfits to find something that I liked. At last, I finally decided on this fuchsia pink punjabi suit and threw in bangle accesories. Bollywood here I come!

Phyllis birthday (13 Oct 2006)

Celebrating Phyllis birthday at Mummy's place. We had a really sumptuous spread that evening :-)

Mid Autumn Festival (6 Oct 2006)

That's just silly us playing around with lanterns in our home to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival! It was too hazy outside (PSI >100) so we decided against taking a walk in the park.

Christina Visits! (3 Oct 2006)

My dear cousin from UK came back for a short 1 plus week break and I was really glad that I was able to catch up with her right after our Phuket trip. Phil did not come back this time, so we brought Christina out for lunch at Junction 8. After lunch, we invited her to our home for a visit. Early this year when dear and me got married, she did not manage to visit our new home. So this trip, we made it a point for her to drop by. We ended up chatting and having tea for the afternoon. It has been quite an interesting year to have met Christina thrice given that before this, I last saw her like 5 years ago?! The first was when she and Phil came to our wedding in January. Then we stayed at their home when we had our honeymoon in UK & Europe around end April. Finally, we meet again in October. We might meet up again 2 years later perhaps...till then, take care Chrissie and stay in touch! :-)

Phuket Trip (29 Sep - 2 Oct 2006)

Recently, we took a short trip to Phuket and I must say that it was a good getaway from the hustle and bustle of work life. Though it rained quite a bit when we were there, we still had sunshine on some days and took the opportunity to visit a nearby island (though not my preferred one, which would be Phi Phi island).

When the weather was good, Dear tried out Parasailing on the beach. After much persuasion, I actually tried it out too. Ha! It was quite exciting when I first took off, but after that, it actually felt like...err..was that it? When you are up there, you don't really feel the speed at which you are moving. In fact, things seem to be moving quite slowly..

In the evening, we went to watch a cultural show called Phuket FantaSea. Buffet dinner was part of the package and tickets and I guess the place was quite interesting. It was like a mini theme park (minus the rides). We had quite a nice time there.

On another day, we could not go to Phi Phi Island due to the weather condition. We were told that the waves were too choppy. Felt a little disappointed, but we decided to go to another nearby island called Khai Island. It was the first time that I tried snorkeling! Quite a scary experience at first, but after a while, it was actually quite fun once you get the hang of it! This really inspired me to want to go for another snorkeling trip where the waters are really crystal clear....*dreamy*

Well, it may be a short trip, but I guess the company really makes it romantic ;) Look forward to another trip soon!