Movies and more movies

This weekend in particular had been quite an exciting one for us.... will reveal why this is so in due course :) In any case, there are many summer blockbuster movies that have opened so far and there's still more to come! This week we caught 2 new movies - Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I won tickets to the gala premiere for Shrek 3 (courtesy of my boss) so Dear and I went down to GV Grand for it. To be honest, much as Shrek was still entertaining, I still prefer Shrek 2. Somehow, I did not find the development of the plot in Shrek 3 that good.

The other movie that we watched, Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End was a really quite a long show...2 hrs 40min plus I think. I'm quite amazed by the effects they have for this show, but again, somehow I did not really enjoy the whole plot. It's getting more and more like some Indiana Jones movie.....the worse thing was...in the cinema that we were watching the show, there were 3 very inconsiderate young men that talked loudly, laughed loudly and were extremely fidgety. So much so that a guy sitting in front of them turned around and warned them fiercely to keep quiet and behave themselves. I thought a fight was going to break out! Ha ha....Anyway, they were really quite irritating and distracting throughout the movie. Can't believe some people can be like that.

Well, lots more movies that I'm looking forward to watch...Fantastic 4, Transformer, Ocean's 13, Harry Potter, etc. Hopefully have the time to catch some of them at least :)

Family Day Carnival

This weekend has certainly been a really eventful one. Part of the reason was because it was my company's family day carnival on Saturday and my department also set up an ice-cream stall to do our bid for charity. All proceeds that day went to 2 adopted charity organisations. Anyway, my dept split up to mend the stall at different times of the day and my shift was in the afternoon.

It was fairly crowded when I arrived, but most importantly, there was a steady queue at our ice-cream stall. We basically rented a traditional motorbike ice-cream stall, selling ice cream in cones, bread or cup. When I eventually took over for my shift, I was really glad that Dear (who also came along) was around to help me scoop the ice-cream. Quite a tiring task actually! Anyway, we really had quite good business that day and we ran out of cones and bread quite early on. I guess my dept kind of under-catered. Nevertheless, it was pretty fun trying to get people to buy ice-cream :) When the event finally ended, felt quite tired by standing the whole time. Still, I'm glad that we did quite well :) On Sunday, we went to Dear's uncle's housewarming party. Nice condo place with good amenities too. The swimming pool was especially huge and inviting :) Well, that about wraps up our weekend...back to work again.... : |

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers!

It's Mother's Day again and here's wishing all Mums or Mum-to-be a Happy Mother's Day! Actually last weekend, we already had our 'celebratory meals' with our mums. We figured out this weekend would be really crowded at many eating places, so we decided to go out and makan earlier. For my own family side, we had another gathering last Friday evening too, partially to celebrate one of my Uncle's birthday and also a dinner for my Grandmother...

Anyway, as I read in the papers today about how and what mums have done for their children, I also reflect back upon all that my mum has done for me. No doubt I find that she nags too much at me, but of course I know that she means well at the end of the day. Sometimes I feel that perhaps I have not done enough for her... I admit that many times, we tend to take the people around us for granted. That also sets me thinking that if some day I become a mum, what kind of mum will I be? How would I want the relationship between me and my children to turn out? I have many ideal thoughts, but how will it unfold? I think it only takes true experience to find out the answers.

Central Japan Trip (25 Apr'07 - 2 May'07)

We're back from our Japan trip, refreshed and happy with what we saw and experienced! Yes, Japan is a very nice country to visit and I enjoyed every moment of our 7D6N trip. As always, holidays are never enough :) Anyway, just like to share a bit of what we saw/experienced in the land of all things kawaii and lovely...

Day 1: Depart from SG to Osaka via SQ morning flight. We arrived in the late afternoon and our tour group (consisting of 13 of us) were scooted off to Shinsabashi, a well-known shopping district. It's a long promenade of shops selling clothes, shoes, etc. Daimaru, Takashimaya, Sogo were all located there as well. Hello Kitty shop spotted along the way too :) After some shopping, we had our first Japanese dinner at a restaurant in Shinsaibashi. Very good first meal, given we were pretty hungry! Finally after that, we checked into Osaka Plaza hotel for a good night's rest. Check out the toilet seat..so cool! It has a seat warmer control and butt washer where you can adjust the water pressure..haha..very cool :)

Day 2: Universal Studios Japan in the morning, Kobe City in the evening. Yup, in the morning we headed to the theme park for all the rides and fun. In Japan, they are more crazy about Hello Kitty and even Snoopy, so these merchandise were quite present everywhere. Some of the rides we took included Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Back to the Future, Backdraft, etc. The performance show WaterWorld and the parade of stars on the floats were all quite entertaining as well.

After shopping around, we were taken to Kobe City for a walk around, dinner and a view of the night scene before heading back to the hotel.

Day 3: Osaka Castle, then headed to Kyoto using the Shinkansen (Bullet Train). We started off the morning with a visit to Osaka Castle, though we did not actually enter the castle. After that, our tour group took the bullet train to Kyoto train station (the ride was only 20mins) and had some free time shopping at their underground shopping area + lunch. After that, our sightseeing began and we visited 2 well-known shrines. The first was Heian Shrine and the second was Kiyomizu Temple.

The day ended when we checked in to our first onsen (hot spring) resort for the night and also dinner. Here's where we had to sleep on the tatami flooring and had very Japanese style dinner sitting on tatami as well. Quite a cultural experience indeed. What's more, we both tried out using the hot spring (seperate for males & females) where you had to be totally naked! Quite nervous...hehe...Lucky when I went, no one else was around :P

Day 4: Checked out of onsen resort, headed towards Mt. Fuji. This morning, spotted a sakura tree outside the hotel area. It was a lovely sight to see the flowers drifting in the wind. The rest of the day was spent travelling towards the 5th base station at Mt Fuji, with toilet stops and lunch breaks in between. The rest stops in Japan are really so clean and they've got shops selling lots of stuff too. Interesting :) We tried some grilled unagi in teriyaki sauce and also bought some nice, big, sweet strawberries which were in season. Nice! Well, unfortunately we could not go up to the Mt Fuji 5th station due to the snow up there. It was also cloudy and rainy where we were. We had no choice but to head back to our second onsen resort to retire for the day. Another night of tatami and Japanese style dinner.

Day 5: View of Mt. Fuji, then Yokohama and Tokyo. This morning, we were really blessed with terrific weather after the rain and cloudiness the previous day. Clear blue skies meant we could see Mt. Fuji. The tour guide thus took us to a picturesque spot at Lake Kawaguchi to get a view of the volcanic mountain... That really made our day :) Here's our favourite photo of the trip.

The rest of the day seemed to have passed by quite quickly. In the morning we saw Mt. Fuji and before we know it, we were in Yokohama (which is very near Tokyo) shopping, eating and looking around. The main thing we saw there was this Cosmos World which was some outdoor theme park with a huge ferris wheel. Other than that, nothing much. We then ended up in Tokyo in the late afternoon where we had time to catch sight of Tokyo Tower (to me, can't compare to Paris Eiffel Tower) before shopping around in Shinjuku. After a group dinner there, we headed back to the hotel to rest for the night.

Day 6: Tokyo Disneyland + Free & Ez shopping time. We went to Disneyland in the morning and already the renowned theme park was packed with lots and lots of tourists, including Japanese! Not the best day to go to Disneyland indeed. We were partially affected by Japan's Golden Week holiday I guess. Anyway, we tried to play some of the rides but some queues were way too long that we gave up. Even with Fast Pass, some adventures had to keep you waiting 4 hours plus! It was crazy. Well, we enjoyed what we could, queued to have a photo with Mickey Mouse, and left the place some time after lunch for shopping in Tokyo city - Shibuya. Lots of fashionable (but also expensive) clothes, shoes and bags. I wonder where the Jap teens get all the money! Food is quite affordable though. So that was good :) That's it for the day.

Day 7: Asakusa Temple + Ginza shopping. This marks the last day of our trip. In the morning after checking out, we were brought to another of Japan's famous temple, Asakusa Temple. Here's where we had a group shot taken (1 of the families is not in. They were pretty weird and aloof so did not even bother to join us in the photo-taking). There's also a street with 2 sides sold many lovely souvenirs and gifts. Some last minute shopping here! After which, we were taken to Ginza area for some final shopping (more of all the branded stuff) and lunch. With a bit more shopping after lunch, it was time to say Sayonara.... Off to the airport to wait for our flight back to Singapore....

Well, that about wraps up our Japan trip. I really liked the place for its cleanliness, orderliness, very good service culture and great food. Looking forward to another Japan trip perhaps next year? Hokkaido maybe...Haha..anyway, that's for us to dream for now.... Back to Singapore, back to reality!

Pre-Japan trip...but poor Dear Dear fell ill

This weekend we prepared ourselves for our upcoming Japan trip next week. Went to the tour agency for briefing and Dear also got himself a smart casual jacket. Guess we were in a happy mood on Saturday. Unfortunately on Sunday morning, Dear fell ill. He started with a slight fever and I urged him to see a doctor so that he can recover in time. 2 hours after taking his first dose of medicine, Dear started to have fever chills.

It was quite a scary experience as it happened while we were driving to my grandma's place for lunch. We were almost reaching already when the sudden fever chills came upon Dear and he started to shiver quite badly...all this while he was still driving. We could not really stop to change over, so he drove on. Lucky it was only for a short distance more. After that, Dear really shook non-stop for a while. My family all got worried for him and all were busy getting him to lie down, cover up and put medicated oil all over his forehead! The afternoon was thus resting time for Dear while I took on the role of looking after him and checking his temperature every now and then. He hit a high 39 degrees at one point. Anyway, was really glad that he felt much better by dinner time, though he is still not fully recovered yet. Just pray that he will be well in time for our trip...

Another year older

Yup, that's right. It's my birthday and I'm another year older today :) It's nice to have your birthday falling on a weekend so you don't have to work on that day. Dear treated me to a nice dinner on Saturday and I must commend that Melt the World Cafe's buffet is really good... It's got a good variety and even their desserts/fruits corner was quite different. You could pick fruits you wanted like Mango or Jambu and the service staff would cut for you on the spot. As for the sweet stuff, I really enjoyed the ice cream waffle though I'm not really a 'sweets' person.

This morning, Dear surprised me with a lovely bouquet of roses. Thanks Dear! Really appreciate it. In the evening, it was another round of eating again. Think we really ate a lot this weekend. Feeling fat at my stomach!! Celebrated with my family and dear's family together by treating them to some 'zi cha' food. After which, they came to our home to rest a while before my cake cutting. Finally, a family picture to close the evening.

I look forward to a blessed and wonderful year ahead :)

A Good Friday and Easter Weekend

It was a good weekend break with the Good Friday public holiday just over. We had a couple of stuff going on this weekend, starting from Friday where we went to get a hair cut. Took some time to have lunch with my parents too and they kind of celebrated my birthday in advance for me :) Saturday was more of a day of relaxation and some KBOX singing fun for us.

With the lovely Easter Sunday morning, I decided to join my Mum at her church for the Easter service on her invitation. I guess it meant a lot to her that me and Dear joined her, along with my Dad too. Although it was quite a traditional service, I was still thankful to hear God's words through the Pastor's sermon.

As for the highlight of the evening, Dear and I attended his cousin's wedding dinner at Conrad Hotel. I find the whole circle of relations quite interesting with me and Dear's family... well, the thing is, I actually know some of his relatives before we both even met and we never knew this until we got married! Talk about small world. Anyway, the story of Dear's cousins Sabrina & Cheryl is that my Dad knows their Dad (ex-colleagues from many many years back) and we actually ever went on a trip together before when we were kids. So it was quite a big surprise to realise just a few years ago that they are Dear's cousins. However, I only got to really see them and talk to them this year as they had been overseas for some time. The coincidence does not stop there...another of Dear's cousin has a wife who happens to be my Secondary schoolmate.

Anyway, here's some shots of the wedding dinner:

Us with Dear's cousins - Sabrina & Cheryl

I love dogs!

It was a happy weekend for us and pretty much a poochie weekend too :) FIrst of all, I was really glad to find out that Nike had been given another chance to live again! Ok, this is my grandmother's dog I'm referring to. He had an ear infection and my uncle's family had decided that it might be linked to this meningitis illness (which he had in the past). They were quite ready to put him to sleep, but took one more chance to check out with the vet first. Turns out it's only a ear infection that can be cured with careful treatment! So hopefully he recovers...

Sunday morning was also poochie time for us as we headed to Bishan Park to check out the Class95 FM DOG WALK 2007. Despite the slight rain earlier in the morning, hundreds of dogs and their owners still came to the park. It was the first time I've seen sooo many dogs gathered together, so it was quite an interesting sight indeed! From this doggie gathering, you also realise what type of dogs most Singaporeans. There were the big dogs like the golden retrievers and huskies, and small dogs like the jack russell, maltese, schnauzers. One 'community' that really caught my attention were the Corgis! Check them out below :-)

Nihon...here we come!!!

It had been a rather busy week at work and boy was I looking forward to the weekend! I guess the main excitement for us is the fact that we booked a trip to Japan! We were more or less planning for a trip in Apr or May, so after a 3 whole hours at the NATAS fair this weekend, we finally signed up for a tour package that gave us the best value for what we wanted....So counting down now! If the tour group forms (which we were told high chance of confirmation), we'll be leaving in a month's time! :)

Long Weekend = Family Time

I had a long weekend this week mainly because I was on leave on Friday :) That day became the 'cousins' outing day. As my young cousins were having the March school holidays break, we decided to go out together just to have a bit of fun. We headed to KBOX for brunch and belted out some of the latest Chinese pop songs. After that was bowling time! I'm not very good at it at all, but we still played 4 games. My highest score was 83...pathetic...haha... Anyway, after the activities, my body totally ached on Saturday and Sunday (!) from the bowling. Terrible :(

Saturday was Dear's cousin's 21st birthday celebration, so we had dinner at the bbq pit they rented. Quite a simple evening spent with the maternal side of the family :) Check out the t-shirt that PaPa was wearing...it glows! Ha Ha...

Finally on Sunday, another round of birthday celebration. This time it's Dear's grandma's birthday lunch at some chinese restaurant at RiverView Hotel. The service there really sucked man...the waitresses also don't smile, all look so serious and 'du lan' : -| As it was alacarte buffet, we were quite pissed at the way they took our orders but yet took so long to deliver some of the dishes! Anyway, other than that, it was still a hearty meal. We end of with a really big family picture: