A Tribute

Don't know why, miss daddy a whole lot these few days. I've been missing him all this while.. just that I usually can get a better control of my emotions. But not this time. It's taking much longer this time.

Haven't forgotten how daddy looked like... not even a bit. His face, his voice, his posture... etc... always fresh in my mind. Doesn't seem at all that I haven't seen him for 196 days, haven't talked with him for 199 days....

Daddy's a man with extraordinary iron-will. He'd set the best example for all of us & we're so proud to have him as our daddy. He'd never complained a single word.. not even during the last few days when he's suffering immensely. He always looked calm... I guess he didn't want to worry us. Once in the hospital I cried uncontrollably in front of him after a close shave & he told me not to cry as it'd affect him. Daddy wants me to be happy. He'd always wanted me to be....... when I came out from the previous relationship, he gave me lotsa encouragement. He told me "as long as you're happy." He's the one who stood by my decision (in being with Vince) & helped to talk mum into accepting my choice. He's my shield against all the unwanted criticism from others.

It all started when hubby told me about his colleague's ailing dad. He demands a lot from her who's working & also has her own family to busy with. Then I thought about daddy. Indeed I'm a blessed gal to have such a wonderful daddy. From the day he's diagnosed, he never ever required our help nor put us on a guilt trip by getting disappointed if we're too busy to keep him company. He never called me to ask what time we're going home, never asked me to get him anything, never complained that he's suffering too much. He's always so considerate.

Since young, he'd never beaten me.. never. Unlike my bro & sis who'd ever gotten thrashing from him. When I recall, not even scolding. Nope... as far as I remember, he's not scolded me before. He always talked nicely with me & brought me around with him when I was small. I'm always daddy's little gal.

He'd also been the handyman at home.. he's always the giver & used to buy small things for me. Sometimes I was so mean to think that he's being a lil too nosy as very often those he got for me weren't what I liked.

He's very hands-on.. he could repair from leaking water pipes to almost all the electrical appliances (perhaps not the big ones like fridge & washer). Throw him a watch & he could get it ticking again... Very impressive. But all of us had taken him for granted... couldn't stand the mess with all his stuff lying around.

Daddy knew nothing about computer & only started to learn about 4 years ago, after he retired. He grasped the knowledge in just a few months & even knew how to burn dvds from what he'd video-recorded. He's more technologically advanced than any 1 of us in the family...eg. when we asked him to record a show on tv, he'd do it with his dvd recorder.

Even when he's already very sick, he still got things done for us. It's only towards the last 1 or 2 months before he's admitted to hospital he'd no energy to play with his toys. My heart was like being hammered when he started telling us where his things were placed & how to operate certain equipment. Now I really hope that he could be nosy... I want him to meddle into my stuff...

Towards the last few days in the hospital when he knew it wasn't possible for him to go home again, he kept telling me to bring 1 particular equipment to hospital so he could show me how to operate it, saying it's too complicated even if we've the manual. He's so concerned about his 'treasures'. However it's too late... didn't manage to bring it to him & daddy eventually told me, with a very weak voice, to study the manual myself.

Sometimes when I'm sad, I'd imagine what daddy would have said to encourage me. Sometimes when I play with Tubby-boy, I'd think how daddy would discipline the naughty kitten as he's a cat-lover too. Whenever I see some elderly couples who're still loving, I think of daddy. How nice it'd be if he & mum could still walk hand-in-hand & enjoy their old age together... especially now that Vince & I can somehow provide for them & they could live comfortably.

Seeing how mum gets on with her life is a really great encouragement. I'm sure she's moving on because of daddy too. He wants us to be like him... being strong & face difficulties courageously, even during the most trying ones.

Afterall, the biggest comfort is... there's not much of regrets for me & Vince. We'd spent lotsa time with him at home & in the hospital & it's truly God's grace that he could walk me down the aisle. And God is good, when He takes away one He replaces with another. Now my dearest hubby is the handyman in the family.

duo looks

Hubby likes my new look resulting from the newly purchased makeup. Been having this blushy face with glossy lips for the longest time. Still like it but wanna try something a tad different - 'Fair'-looking, sans flush, with emphasis on eyes & matte Chili lips.

Am happily playing around with the 2 for now... Vain vain... Hee.

Too short a weekend

Yepyep... every weekend's too short! What to do? Happy hours always fly by~ ~ ~

On Sat, woke up from a satisfying 9-hr sleep & it's already close to 11am. Didn't intend to ZZZ till this hour... but who cares? Hee...
Went to Sun Plaza for a so-so dim sum lunch... also bought some sundries there. Can you believe it... I stayed in this particular beauty shop for more than 1 hr & bought over $120 stuff. Just shampoo alone costs me $53 (after a 10% disc)! Then back home for a short swim.
After the dip, my sweet hubby did laundry while I indulged myself in a nice shower... with the new products I bought. Hehe!
Out again past 4pm... were going to Vince's aunt's place @ Compass Heights in Sengkang & we're being VERY late. Guess watz the occasion? Her eldest daughter's 10 y.o. birthday party. Hanged around for nearly 2 hrs before leaving for Orchard.
There, enjoyed a cosmetics buying spree... spent almost $250 on MAC blusher + lipstick & Shu Uemura liquid eyeliner + 2 eye shadows + concealer. Also bought an eyeshadow palette with a generous variety of colors from SaSa & 3 nail polish from Face Shop. Then got myself a lovely dress from Forever 21 to complete the 2-hr+ shopping trip. Sometimes I marvel @ how we gals can be so efficient & productive when comes to shopping huh!
Which means this makes up to nearly $500 of beauty products (incl morning's) in just ONE day! WOW! This the 1st time for me (don't talk about those visits to beauty salons) & don't think I'll allow myself too many times to spend like this @ 1 go.

And if there's a BEST HUBBY AWARD, I'll definitely nominate my dearest honey! He didn't even bat an eyelash throughout... instead he said as a girl I should enjoy the privileges I've & even consoled me by saying that if he were a gal, he'd have bought much more than me! Haha! I know he's trying to make me feel better after burning yet another hole in our wallets. He's truly too sweet... not only walking around with me happily (& you know how much shopping stamina a gal has.. ha!) but also helping me to choose the colors & designs, giving me his opinions, joining long Q @ the cashier for me... Never once did I hear him complain. Thank u honey.... muakzz!!

Sun... nothing much. After the morning routine, shopped somemore but couldn't get anything we like. Reached home 5pm. Brother & family came... watched a movie on cable tv together & had a pretty late dinner. Went to TPY Lor 8 for satays, chicken wings etc. All of us were so bloated after the hearty dinner!
Had planned to zzz not too late but caught up by this Korean serial we'd been after lately. Have tried to switch to the replay on every Sat instead but sometimes gotta miss it if we've to be out, eg. last Sat... hmm! Anyway to our surprise last night's la fin of the show & had a total twist in the ending. Quickly got ready to sleep @ 1am but the unexpected outcome made me nearly sleepless...

Still can't get over the ending..... sad........

Of house parties & dining out

I'm not a photography-inclined person. I'll forget all about our camera when I'm too busy... or should I say WE.... but those great moments were supposed to be captured, like during our wedding bash, after the wedding with our families, my work functions & the last 2 parties, ETC.... Hmmm... disappointed with myself....

So, there're not many fotos to see herewith.

6AUG (SUN)

Had a great lunch gathering with Vince's relatives. It's full attendance. They're ever so supportive... the 1st guest arrived as early as 11am! Also told them no need to bring anything (which's why we intentionally didn't put it as "housewarming") but all of them still got us gifts & mostly angpaos.

Hubby & I were pretty disappointed with the catered food though. Taste wise.. not up to our expectation & it's not cheap! And the quantity they gave also quite weird.... there're some leftovers for most of the food items but we ran out of fruit punch & dessert. Funny huh... those're supposed to be low value stuff & yet they gave us much lesser? Nevermind, that'd be the last time we gonna use them.

I did chocolate fondue which's meant for the kids but turned out that the adults were the ones who crowded around it! In less than an hour, the strawberries, marshmallows & (biscuit) sticks were all gone & it's the same for the 2nd replenishment. I'm surprised it's so popular... Hee...

Most of them stayed around the mulit-purpose hall catching up with 1 another while the rest had a ktv session. The children pool is just in front of the hall & the kids had lotsa fun playing there.

By the time all of them left... around 6pm.... I was sooo tired & knocked out as early as 9.30pm.

Oyes... the day before (Sat) we went to Far East Flora @ Thomson Road to get flowers for our home & the multi-purpose hall. Guess how much we paid for a bunch of 10 sunflowers + 1 lovely bouquet of exotic flowers with 2 large purple Proteas + 1 biig bundle of baby white daisy pompons + another huge bunch of I-dunno-wat flowers (u know.. those small "berries" with lotsa leaves which we usually find in bouquets)?? Total: S$21.90. The 10 stalks of sunflowers cost only $4! So cheap right?? Very worth it, somemore they're being used not only for 1 party, but 2! We've got soooo many flowers that the backyard toilet instantly became a mini florist! Guess hubby was somehow stunned by the big quantity of flowers I bought, hehe...

Realise that fresh flowers can really enliven a place & that I'm beginning to love floral arrangement! Hmmm....

At least efforts not wasted as all of the relatives noticed the pretty flowers & were full of compliments.

8AUG (TUE)

Took half day & rushed home to cook. Colleagues would be coming after work. It's gonna be a very simple dinner & ktv. As I'm not a good cook at all, it took me nearly 3 hrs to prepare a fried rice (my signature dish!), pan-fried honey chicken wings, a scramble-egg dish & a chocolate fondue. Within which more than half of the time was spent on the chopping board! Felt so hot & oily.... Good that I'd already prepared a soup & another dessert (beancurd almond) beforehand. And 1 of the colleagues brought devil curry.

Come to think of it, actually I'm quite impressed with myself lah... having prepared everything by myself including mixing the drinks & even brought some of the things down by myself. Hehe. By the time hubby returned, he only had enough time to chill the beer for me in the icebox.

The greatest consolation after all the hard work in the kitchen was praises from my colleagues. They're surprised that I could cook so well (which I don't think so). They especially liked the soup & it's the 1st to go. Of course it's tasty as I'd dumped lotsa ingredients into the slow cooker! Well... be it they're being polite or encouraging, I was so very glad to hear compliments & see that they finished up the food... hee!!

Hubby's so nice to help me entertain my colleagues like his. As part of them in the ktv room & the rest in the hall, both of us gotta take care of a group each.

Happy that 1 of my ex-colleagues, Zen, brought her "professional" Canon EOS camera! So all pix that nite were taken by her. Pic taken with another ex-colleauge, Edwin.

Theresa & Zen's handsome son, Akira, who's half Jap

Zen, Evelyn, Me

A close ex-colleague, Lee Lee & family.

Celena & Henry

All girls pic! Claris, Carmen, Lee Lee & me

Group pic w/o Zen, Henry, LeeLee & family

Guess they'd a great time singing & I'd no choice but to end it @ 11.15pm as we supposed to clear the place by 11pm. Definitely didn't want the security guards to send reminder... they're already being nice to have closed 1 eye.

It's nearly 1am after the washing & packing... then dragged my tired body to shower. It's certainly not ez to have 2 gatherings @ 1 shot. Really thanks hubby for doing most of the packing & clearing up.

9AUG, NATIONAL DAY

Woke up slightly past 12pm... mum cooked lunch. Felt sleepy again after meal... so hit the bed again! Only woke up around 6.30pm. Took some snacks & watched a lil of the NDP. Last minute arranged with sis & family & brought mum for a late dinner @ a Chinese seafood restaurant in the Bottle Tree Village, only about 5-min drive from our place.

A very refreshing place to dine out once in a while. So not Singapore! Very Batam, hee... Just when you thought it's the end of the road without any street lights, after passing through lines of trees & some scary forests, we saw a small town leading to Bottle Tree Village. The ambience was great, overlooking the sea & Malaysia (across) but food only so-so. And yes again, we didn't bring camera.

Made-do with our hp camera. The background is actually sea.

Imported Bottle Tree!!

10AUG (THUR)

Our Monsieur Soh wanted to pamper his dear wife by bringing her to Rochester Park for dinner & drinks.

The carpark was full when we arrived so we gotta park all the way at the end & walked to One Rochester. A beautiful & lushly foliaged place to chill out & agree with hubby who said it's the perfect venue to go on a date with the beloved. Cool!

Should have brought our camera wherever we go...

Our hp cam couldn't even capture me as there wasn't any light on my side.

Ha! The washroom was the brightest! Näy......

Check Tis Out

The week ahead

Into organising some gatherings of late.

Should have 1 coming up this Sat with the sisters but 1 of them can't make it. And for the subsequent weeks in this month our da-jie's weekends are totally occupied. She's all the valid reasons... she's just gotten keys of her Hilltop apartment & is busy with reno & furnishing matters.

Then this Sun, a lunch+ktv session in store for hubby's relatives... both my FIL's & MIL's... shouldn't be that bz as we're catering for the group. I'll still prepare something small... a chocolate fondue maybe.

Another 1 will be next Tue, eve of National Day. Having a dinner + ktv for my present & ex colleagues after work. For this I'll be cooking... too few pax to cater. The menu is tentatively up but will be simple food. They better not expect much from some1 who rarely cooks.. hehe.. Initially we (me & the 2 close colleagues) expected the response will be very poor as we're quite a bunch of passives in the office when it comes to company functions (ehh.. I'm guilty too!). It turned out that most of them are quite responsive & some will be bringing their families as well. Hope it'll be a good 1 though I foresee some no-show on the day itself.

Shopping Pattern

Bought 3 pairs of shoes last weekend..... Everbest's having a 20% discount. To me they're not cheap & usually I don't spend much on each pair of shoes due to some bad experiences in the past. But these shoes that I like are too comfy to miss! And I'm still considering another... same design in diff color. Furthermore when hubby was getting himself a new pair of boots, I nearly bought another pair! Realise lately I buy mostly shoes & belts.... Bought no less than 5 pairs for the last 1 month... belts as well. Am I crazy!? Or many ladies out there are like this too right?

Dear Friend

Last morning, received an email from a long lost friend - J.B. .... & it's a real pleasant surprise!

Got to know him during 1 of my work trips to KL say............... 6 yrs ago?! (Wow! I don't even realise knowing him for so many years!). He's a maritime journalist with 1 of the national papers & had helped me out a lot. We'd meet up whenever I was in KL. He's the 1 who saw me in my worst form... when I got sooo drunk for the 1st & the last time & it's in KL. What I can remember was... only a few steps out of Beach Club, I couldn't take it anymore & had to sit on a curb. Almost immediately I threw up & it's a lotttttt! Really embarrassing but lucky I was in KL, hee! He helped me back to the hotel & only after making sure I was nicely tucked in that he left. Early morning when I woke up, I saw some post-its on the bathroom mirror... he left me a message asking me to take good care of myself etc... Sounds so drama right? Haha!

How fortunate I was.... to meet all the good male friends who stay by my side... whom I can pour my sorrows to. At that time JB had another job... he managed a pub in Bangsar at night. And I hanged out a lil there. I'm really grateful to him for trying his best to keep me company. He never failed to reassure me of his support... he told me that if it's getting too tough for me to stay in Spore, I could always go there & he'd take care of everything. Soon after he's transferred to be a business writer. But we still tried to meet whenever I was up.

Well, like said in our mails... though we haven't been in touch for the longest time, we know our friendship flows on... long & steady.

Jose, if you see this... just wanna thank you for being such a wonderful friend... also many thanks for your well-wishes to Vince & me. I really hope you'll be happy too. Cheers!!

Big Step Out

I'm finally overcoming my fear & have enrolled myself in the driving school (SSDC in YCK) over the weekend.

My beloved hubby has been my pillar of motivation... He's the 1 who finds out all the info & plans everything nicely for me. The practical lessons won't start so soon though, the earliest is end of this month.

Well my jie-meis will be very happy to know. All 4 of us took our basic theory together during school days & I was the only 1 who passed it. Now I'm the only 1 without a driving license (quite embarrassing leh). In fact, 95% of my gfs have already gotten their license to drive long ago.

So during this period if you were to see an "L" plate Honda Civic that can't really make it on the road around AMK/YCH, most likely it's me huh.