Latest addition !

Our new purchase as of 290306!

Cheap, stylish, sleek & slim. Can even be wall-mounted! But not gonna do that as it would mean additional costs & works to hide the cables. So we just place it at the centre of our headboard.

Been enduring the last audio piece, a very budget 1, for about a year which could only remotely control the selection of songs from CDs but not the power, radio, etc. So meaning, 1st of all, we gotta go right in front of it to turn on the set & choose either radio or CD mode, tune the frequency (no presets). As I'm used to having music throughout the night, most of the times we tuned in to 1 station but woke up to realise that it's "moved" to the "neighbouring" stations... sometimes when it's in the mood, it'd give us a Tamil 1 too...!

The budget set is now sitting in my office & I'm enjoying to the music while posting this. Home use is too lousy but good enough for me here & I'm happy! Hehe...

wassup over the weekend

Last weekend... nothing much happening but bz.

Sat. Went to market in the morning to get all necessary ingredients. Mum cooked dumpling soup with noodle for lunch. Yum yum...
Then preparing for the next day's popiah session. Began with peeling & cutting of the turnips. It sounded as ez as that but not so when you've 4 of them which weighed 3.5kg & gotta cut into strips, smaller than french fries. At the end of it, I got some blisters on my right hand. But the worse thing was, auntie bluffed me! We actually didn't need 4... maybe just 2! My mum was already laughing when she saw us carrying so many turnips back. You know what? I had to go 2 rounds to stir fry the cut turnips together with the dried shrimps & carrots before transferring them to the slow cooker to simmer over night. After the 2nd round, only half of the quantity was used up! Both hubby & me are rather convinced to get a bigger wok now.

In the late afternoon, went to visit hubby's newborn cousin (my FIL's younger brother's). Then we had simple dinner @ Bishan before catching a 7.10pm movie @ J8 - Failure To Launch. We enjoyed it... very entertaining! Can't remember when was the last time we watched a movie in a cinema... hmmm...

Sun. The usual sending mum to her church before attending ours & fetched her. Also had lunch with her at my honey's fav place - My Mum's Place & then visited daddy.

Went home to settle the rest of the stuff... so much to prepare for making popiahs! Boiling, peeling & slicing the eggs & prawns, stir frying the tau guas, washing the cabbages etc... Good thing mum helped out a lil in making the dessert (don't know how to say in Eng.. direct translation from Chinese - Big Oats, you know.. usually taken with coconut milk) & hubby baked the nuggets.

Had fun in wrapping our own popiahs & from the result of our making you'd know who're the really greedy ones! After stuffing several popiahs into our stomach, we're so bloated & yet we still had slightly more than ¼ of the turnip fillings as leftovers! So that's why I said just now we only needed 2 turnips... including the ¼ leftovers + the 50% uncooked ones which turned black (I didn't put in the fridge) & gotta be thrown away. Auntie bluffed me!! But received compliments from every1 which served as a consolation. Hee!

Then after doing a swift clean-up, we moved down to have our 3-hour ktv session till 10pm.

So basically, it's a cooking weekend... I don't prefer it to be my weekly activity though, at least not making popiah... It does sound simple but lotsa prepping works!

It's My Birthday !

15mins into my birthday, before lights off. Suddenly I told hubby that I, uncontrollably, did make a guess about where he'd bring me for my BD dinner & wanted to tell him my guess. With this dumbfounded look on his face which really made me laugh, he asked to switch off the lights so that I couldn't see his expression if I were to get it right. Here's how it went:
V: "so what's your guess? but wait, be it right or wrong I won't tell you o."
K: "Sentosa!"
V: "Huh? eh... why Sentosa?"
K: "no lah.. I thought you'd think that other places, like you (gay-gay) mentioned 1Fullerton, would be more ordinary compared to Sentosa mah. Furthermore we never been there to dine before."
V: "so does that mean this your preference since you mention it?"
K: "cannot cheat hor!! you can't change now based on what I said, anyway I'm just analysing what you'd think."
V: "ok! let's zzzz baobei!"

Was in tip-top mood. For the whole morning, been feeling restless as I kept thinking what other surprises he's giving me. I expected flowers though (anyway he asked me before whether I expect to receive a bouquet & I said yes). Then... @ 1215h, 1 of the colleagues came & asked me to go to the reception. She carried on to say she didn't know it's my BD & then wished me. So I guessed his flowers could have just arrived. While walking out, saw some colleagues were talking & joking. Couldn't see anything else... but from their excitement, it didn't seem to be as simple as a bouquet & they're all looking down! Could it be a fruit basket? Then when I turned right at the corner, this what I saw....

A "hot-air" balloon with many cute smiley balloons in it!

Height: 1.5m, width (taking the biggest): approx 0.9m.

There's no 1st reaction.... as I was truly stunned! I think I looked funny then as all my colleagues burst out into laugher. Never thought I'd receive such a unique & interesting present. Have to admit that Vince caught me by surprise, yes again...

Then after lunch while I was chatting with hubby over the phone, I heard birthday song & then saw some of my colleagues appeared at the door with a cake. So sweet of them!

Behaving silly with the cake before distributing

Claris gave me this early in the morning :

Was looking forward to our dinner, feeling happy with the colleagues' well wishes & they were so amused by the balloons. Every1 of them asked me the same question - how to bring back?? Then I received all sorts of suggestions: go home 1st & come back around 11pm to collect the balloons & take MRT home .... deflate it & after returning home, pump it up with a tyre inflator (where to find 1???) .... split it, the smiley balloons to bring home & leave the big 1 in office ... etc.

Had been staring at it the whole afternoon & wondered how we were going to bring it home. I doubted that it could fit into our car. Gotta admit that it took me a long long while to recover from the surprise, hehe. But whenever I looked at the 9 small balloons which were being squeezed into the "hot air" balloon & grinning at me, I felt so pampered & happy... & then would naturally bring a smile on my face too.

Finally my honey arrived at my office & when he saw the balloons, he's surprised too (& you should look at his facial expression!) as he only saw it online & then booked over the phone. He knew it's gonna be 150cm tall but didn't expect it to look that huge.. haha. We brought it down to our car & amazingly it got in! We couldn't imagine if it's bigger by another inch. Phew!

After settling the logistics problem, we set off! On the way, he revealed the secret.

Guess where we're heading to?

SENTOSA GOLF CLUB

Yeaah bingo! My honey brought me to Sentosa! Hee! In fact he'd made the reservation last week... so when I told him what I guessed the previous night, he nearly flipped & he said good thing the lights were off then! Haha..

Well it's still great... as I'd expected to dine @ Rasa Sentosa's Sharkey's even if I was right about going to Sentosa. Never would I know he's bringing me to this newly opened Italian restaurant Il Lido (click on for more info!). But me SK... didn't even heard of it before yesterday... hmm... My honey definitely did his homework well!

Panoramic view of the South China Sea

@ the bar

Ready for Dinner!

Excellent ambience & the view was beautiful... especially just before the sun set completely. The dinner was delicious... except the service was a lil disappointing initially. But the rest of the night was great! And it's not expensive.

after dinner

This was how we transported my big balloon back.

My birthday present from beloved hubby! - A Titus chrono watch

(error announcement: It's TITUS instead of Solvil, like previously mentioned though they are family members. Sorry!)

I love my B-I-G & 9 smiling balloons!

My honey's blocked! Too crowded I guess, hehe.

Thank you honey for all the surprises! I'm really blessed to have you. I LOVE YOU !!!

In less than 24hrs

My dear hubby has been reminding me that there'll be surprises in store for me on my birthday. He, who said he's more excited than celebrating his own birthday, was so mischievous... tried to lure me by dropping hints every day for the past 1 week (btw honey, just in case you didn't realise I KNOW those are not real hints ya? trying to decoy me huh?). And then poor honey, got it from me yesterday as I didn't want to hear anything about it anymore. Being really observant & smart (haha, self-proclaim 1 lah), I'm afraid if I were to really guess, I might get it right. Then all his efforts will be wasted.

So honey... it's not that I've no interest in talking about it, I just don't wanna disappoint you by knowing what's up your sleeve. Eh.... maybe I've over-estimated myself??
Well, I don't mind at all if that's so...

Running thru my mind .....

During my most recent trip I met up with an ex, someone who caused me lotsa hurts & whom I thought I had loved. Ironic as it sounded, we had our last fight on MSN & I left abruptly. He who made known to me before that he wouldn’t take such behaviors (slamming phone / walk away…) didn’t call me since then. On the other hand I already had enough & knew that’s the end. That’s years ago & no official bye-bye.

Though no more emotional residue after I made that decision, I felt I’d been short-changed, of a proper ending or explanation at least. Well the whole story, in a span of 4 years, sounds like a drama… so unreal… & I prefer it to remain as 1…

CK’s introduced to me through a mutual friend, Dato J, whom I got to know through work & they’re childhood friends. He said, in front of all their friends, that CK’s a filthy rich millionaire bachelor… “make him invest in Singapore!” he joked. No special impression on him that night as guys like him would be playboys, certainly no lack of girls & fun. Was just grateful that he helped to pass my time at the otherwise boring dinner @ HRC. All I could remember about him – had his own abalone business in Adelaide & enjoying life with all the wining, dining & partying. Totally forgotten about this person until re-met him a year later, same place with same friend – Dato J. He addressed me by my name while it took me some time to remember I actually knew him but not his name!
By then, he’d moved back to his hometown due to some problems arose in his family construction business & that’s when he shouldered lotsa responsibilities. 1 day shortly after I returned to Singapore, he called me @ work. The embarrassing part was that I couldn’t even remember him! The receptionist & some of my colleagues who overheard our conversation laughed till they nearly flipped. Initially I found him over friendly & he kept calling me “gorgeous” which really ughed me! He’s so persistent in inviting me over for a weekend party… to fly in just to attend some official-opening parties. Can you imagine? Flying in just to party over the weekend? As though taking a cab from home to Orchard to party izit? Crazy! But of course I didn’t know him that well then to tell him all these. So just said I couldn’t make it. However he didn’t give up & insisted on calling me again the following week. Goodness… I ever got so scared of his persistence that I literally threw my hp into the drawer when it rang. Finally he accepted the fact that I wouldn’t go there just for some clubbing sessions. What impressed me then was he intentionally made a stopover in Singapore for a day before going to UK! Since then we’re in daily contact & (according to him) his monthly phone bills could be as much as S$2k.

After some months, I had to make a business trip there & he promised to be the first person I’d see when I got out of the aircraft (fyi not the immigration). Apart from his family business, he’s associated with some police duties which I can’t elaborate. And true enough, when I came out of the plane, I saw CK was already waiting for me right in front of the exit, with 2 of chief police inspectors friends (think so as they wore 3 pips on each of their shoulders). That’s quite a scene… 1 standing on my left & the other on my right & CK was pushing the trolley upon claiming my luggages. All the way we received salutation from the police on duty…well that’s pretty flattering! Even they joked & said people must be curious to know who this lady was to have 2 senior cops to escort.

To tell you I didn’t like that kind of treatment, I would be lying. We were from very different backgrounds & all of a sudden, I thought I was living in his world. Everything he talked about & involved in was a novelty. But soon problems seeped in due to the sensitivity of his job… think about what we see in Jacky Chan’s movies… how he & the female lead being bugged (but of course not that exaggerating & minus the action-pact stunts!). Sometimes he’d just disappear for days or weeks when there’s a classified assignment. As he claimed he’d too much to juggle between 2 portfolios, he never had much time for me. No gifts on special occasions as well… it didn’t help at all considering the distance in between. But I didn’t mind being the woman “in the backstage”. It felt so different to be with someone with such impressive background. At 1 stage I did doubt on what he told me about his family background… could he just talk big? Could it be a scam? So I asked 1 of my business associates who didn’t know him in person but was coincidentally staying in the same estate. Indeed he & his family were very well-known. But so what? The confirmation didn’t get me anywhere. Lip service was no longer convincing. Slowly the very limited time left was spent on arguments. Then followed by the MSN thingy.

I never expect to meet him again as definitely wouldn’t want to jeopardize my marriage, my hubby’s trust & the great love we share. But after so many years, I’m ready to make it a proper closure. You know… sometimes even if we no longer hold any romantic feeling towards that someone for the longest time, we would somehow question ourselves, why things got to be settled this way.

During the dinner, he’s talking about which national projects he’d clinched for his family construction business & how much $$ was involved in each deal. All these no longer interest me… in fact I was feeling bored! Because I’ve realized 1 important thing - how ever big business he’s doing with the government / how much his black S-class Benz cost / how exclusive his Porsche in Adelaide was / etc… what had all these gotta do with me!? During those few years we're together, did I ever benefit from any of his wealth & was I given a chance to share any of his problems & burdens?

As we talked, more were revealed. He’d a girlfriend for about 3 months & broke up couple of months ago. According to him, he has always been loving me (read: lovING ), but the situation he’s in didn’t allow him to focus on r/s. He said he wanted to call me so much but then he couldn’t promise anything. Things were more on track now. If we're back to those times, I’d have melted. But I’ve long awaken from my fantasy & I didn’t feel anything! Also, what I chose to overlook in the past I began to pick at them now (eg. his appearance, his arrogance...).

Anyway, most importantly I said something I’ve always wanted to tell him. While he’s so engrossed in expressing to me, I dropped the bomb by telling him I’m happily married now, my hubby really dotes on me & I would not want to do anything to hurt him & my blissful marriage. Yes… I did it! He seemed devastated & asked why I didn’t wait for him (I was neither touched nor convinced…). For the very 1st time he admitted it's his fault for how things turned out & that no matter what the future holds, his feelings would be the same. So much of what he said, it didn’t matter to me anymore or whether it’s the truth or not.

In fact have thought a lot before, guess what I used to feel was infatuation that lasted a few years? Because it felt good to be with someone so interesting? When I look back after all that’d happened, I’m glad I wasn’t given the chance to take the plunge. We’re simply of different worlds. I’m a real sucker for love-in-action (like pampering, attention & lotsa mushy talks) whereas he’s so tough that he wouldn’t show his emotions easily or share his problems with anyone because of the nature of his jobs… his reasoning was he’d rather take the rap himself than implicating others if something happened. No, it didn't move me at all, unlike in the past.

At least I’ve been there, done that & know what’re really important to me at the end of the day.
Last Thurs had lunched with Ro, she asked me whether I would choose TM over Vince if I were not married. My answer without a second thought - Nope. Ah well, if I hadn’t met Vince… both Vince & I think I’d have accepted him. Or even that Senior Manager who’s an ex-commando & drives a black Rav4? Or waited for CK??
Thank God I’ve met my prince. I can’t imagine I can be any happier than now.

After being with Vince, I truly appreciate what I’m having now & I know what I really need in a relationship. Like I’ve ever said, it’s the first time in my life that I feel so pampered & loved. We’ve excellent communication which I believe hold us closer, rather than being the listener all the time with nothing much to share about. From Vince, I’ve had brand new insights about selflessness & forgiveness, because of love.

So conclusion, I’m glad I made that move. I’m glad everything is as what it is now. And yes, I’ve settled that matter, my way!

BD celebration

Gave Vince a small surprise on Sunday. In fact it's a busy day. Started off by sending mum to her church before we visited my colleague's church. After service, bought some flowers for daddy as his niche is just next door, at the memorial chapel in the same premise. Then we went back to fetch mum & sent her home. After dropping her, vroomed off to pick my parents inlaw for a dim sum lunch in Chinatown. This nearly-80 years old chinese restaurant used to be very famous & now serves mainly regular customers. I was initially attracted by a promotion on its specialty - peking duck (how come I like peking duck more & more?!). However the dim sum there can only make it slightly above average. Will go back 1 day to try out the peking duck when we've more people...

Were kinda rushing home as we've booked ktv downstairs from 3-6pm. To our pleasant surprise, my PILs were interested to join us for the ktv session & my FIL even had the intention to swim. That's good I thought, they could celebrate Vince birthday together as well. As planned, sis & my BIL helped to get the cake. We're already singing our lungs out when they arrived. Arranged to meet them upstairs & got everything prepared before going down. And my dear hubby had a lil BD party.

It's the first time both sides families got together like this. Very glad to see that every1 was very participative & enjoyed themselves especially my PILs who joined in the fun to sing. At the end of the session, they were happily chatting with my brother & BIL. Really thankful to them for helping to take care of my PILs.
Well it's definitely a good start.

Last evening, went to Cosy Bay for my hubby's birthday dinner. A simple & cozy 1... it's good! And guess what? my dear hubby bought me a birthday gift on his birthday! A very nice Solvil chrono watch... & that makes me feel really guilty.

Some of those that I bought

Eat & Shop

Had a short break with my hubby. Again, we shopped like there's no tomorrow... It's scary as I recount :

ME
- 15 tops consisting of tees, blouse, tank tops, halter necks
- 1 pair of slacks
- 1 skirt
- 1 self-transformed tube dress (from skirt)... gonna wear it on my birthday!
- 1 pair of culottes
- 1 pair of Levi's
- 1 denim capris
- 1 pair of shorts
- 3 pairs of shoes
HIM
- 5 short-sleeve shirts
- 1 long-sleeve shirt
- 1 tee 2 tees
- 1 pair of jeans
- 1 pair of addidas sports shoes
- 1 bermudas

Think I'm mad.

Last night, dreamt about our wedding again... we're so happy with daddy. All of us were so happy.

How I wish I could enjoy every single detail that happened on our wedding day once more.

But Time can never be turned back.

Boring dinner

Attended a Gala Dinner on the very day of arrival. Boring. Didn't know more than 5 out of the thousand over guests & wasn't in a mood at all to socialise. Being pulled by the organiser to stay on for some dances after the dinner but I sneaked back to my room upstairs.

O wat a nite ...

We didn't really sleep the evening before leaving for my trip, which's a Fri night. Filled with activities but not as great as we'd hoped to be. Guess it's just not my day...

- Took half day to Justina's & get my hair colored. Turned out the color was the same as previously Guess next time I better keep my mouth shut & let her do it all.

- Then gave my honey a pleasant surprise by waiting for him outside his office.

- Went Millenia Walk for a quick dinner @ the foodcourt, thereafter went to Harvey Norman as we heard there's a sale going on. Wanted to get our all-glass newspaper rack we'd missed it previously when it's going for half-price. When we finally wanted to buy it, no more 50% & also only left with a display, chipped unit. Now, not even the sight of the chipped display piece & nothing interesting. To compensate ourselves, went for Killiney toast & .......... disappointing.

- Went back to my office to get all the stuff needed for the travel.

- Hubby brought me to Cozy Bay & we had a jug. It's 1 of Vince's fav & I agree it's a great spot. But that night I wasn't in a mood to stay in a quiet, cozy, windy place. Felt sorry for my honey upon seeing the disappointment on his face. I do like the place & would love to go back 1 day. Really, honey.

- Took a round in Orchard wanting to find somewhere for a drink & ended up having chicken rice supper @ River Valley.

- Last minute decided to join Vince's colleagues at MOS. Were stuck in the long queue of cars into the carpark. It definitely looked happening, seeing the crowd & the type of cars going into the VIP lots. By the time we arrived at the entrance, it's already 1am... No special liking towards the place, perhaps it's too crowded or too distractive as since there're several genre-specific rooms, we moved around a lot. We may go back or we may not... I don't know, perhaps depending on our mood then & who we'll be going with. But we do realise 1 thing - we're more & more domesticated.. hmmm..... not a bad thing though, considering the amount of $$ we spent on our home, it should be the way.

Had only 2 hours of zZz before waking up to pack the remaining luggage. Went to visit daddy's before going to the airport.

@ Cosy Bay

@ MOS

In our car

Our Rio

Ta-da....! This is our looong-awaited new car! Yeah!

Our 1.4 sporty Rio. It's not an expensive car, in fact it's 1 of the lowest range but we're contented & very thankful. For the moment, we just need a vehicle to move around & this is already more than what we initially hoped for. Moreover it doesn't look cheap at all.

The color. Is it grey? Is it blue? Answer is - Olive Grey. Sounds interesting huh? It sure looks interesting too as it's supposed to be grey with a tint of golden shimmer, so (just like the sales staff, Mich, told us when we're choosing the colour) under the sun, we'll see our car in grey with a bit of gold especially the top, but other times it looks blue... & sometimes more grey. Almost every1 who'd seen our car was confused yet impressed by its chameleon-like look.

The story behind. Yes we've waited a good 3 months+. When we 1st placed order, we chose an auto, red 1. But we couldn't even smell that it's coming after cny...
Actually during the wait, we're harboring a lil doubts on whether we'd made a wrong decision in getting an auto car at this point of time. Sure it's more relaxed & convenient to drive an auto car but fuel consumption will be higher too. And around the same time, thank God we just happened to call 1 of the showrooms & got to know there's a shipment arriving in about 2 days' time but contained only manual cars. We quickly contacted Mich to see whether we could change to a manual 1 instead. Within the day, Mich came back saying they did have a few units on hand but no red car. As the remaining limited units were going very fast too, we quickly booked a white. Good thing the following day's a Sat, so we went down to settle all the documentation matters. But after looking at the white 1, I didn't like it & we wanted to take the black instead. However by then the black was taken too. Wow, going very fast indeed. So we're left with olive-grey & orange. Orange?? eh... NO for me & hubby. Problem was no viewing of olive-grey car in the showroom & only Rio has that color, no other models. After much hesitation & consideration, we finally made a daring move & chose our Olive-Grey without ever seeing 1 before.

So forget about RED, perhaps save it for our next car? Or till then depending on the evolution of our preference? For now, we've fallen in love with our O-G at 1st sight. Hmmm...

The Tue before I left, celebrated TM’s bd. Went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner & it’s not ex at all. FYI, the dinner’s on me (actually it’s hubby’s treat as I took $$ from his account to pay). Whether he’s being thoughtful or he’s really watching his diet, gotta thank him for giving it a miss in “chopping” me. But of coz I didn’t let him know the source of my $$, ha! He’s been footing bills all these years, be it extravagant or simple ones….

Also bought him a box of chocs from Royce & he loved it. Guess he’s quite surprised pleasantly as… ashamed to say it’s the 1ST time I ever bought him dinner & bd gift. Why this year…? Well it’s a gesture of appreciation & thanking him for being there as a great friend during all the significant moments in my life – when I was down & out (I was in the worst shape for a period of time & that’s when we first met), when I needed help @ work, when I celebrated the happiest day by marrying my greatest man, when I mourned the loss of my very loved one ……

As MG’s pub was just near by… we went on to have a drink there after dinner, on him. It turned out to be the drinks bill was more than the dinner. Enjoyed the chocs while having a pint of heineken & TM, a kilkenny. Quite a good chill-out time, catching up on work related stuff & others. Then after having another drink, a cocktail mixed by MG, I felt I had enough. Passed the other pint to TM (it’s 1 for 1). Though MG was being too generous to have the drink filled to the brim, it shouldn’t be that soon for me. Once upon a time, 3 rounds of boozing in a night usually with a variety of beer, bourbon/whiskey dry & wine was a norm for me (thank God I was out of it before I became an alcoholic). And now, my capacity has nearly hit the bottom. It’s not that good… I may need to drink a bit for work at times as more & more business events have moved from function rooms/restaurants to pubs, as far as my industry is concerned. And especially many guys in this line are 'opportunists'.

Left for home when I felt as if I’d had too much. My sweet honey waited for me at the basement car park where I alighted from TM’s car. He’s gone down to wait right after receiving my sms telling him I was heading back. Hit the bed immediately after changing & removing make-up. Good thing I felt fresh again when I woke up the next morning @ 6+.

A series of meet-ups in the list - with PY, Mel & gang, my jie-meis, the cousins, Wen ....... Not that easy for the moment as much time being allocated to mum. Will try to arrange nevertheless...