In the brand new year to come...

Bless our marriage so we will always be as loving or even more;
Teach us to be good keepers of the money You provide us;
Lead us and we both shall walk hand in hand through all turbulence;
Remind us to count Your Blessings every single day;

Amen.

Exploration

Recently we've heard that the shopping mall near our place, Sembawang Shopping Centre (SSC), would be ready for business any time before Christmas. It's long overdue for completion as works started more than 2 years ago if I've not remembered wrongly.

From the facade, we thought it's going to be another hearsay spreading around. Afterall, their opening date had time & again been postponed numerous times.

Last morning while topping up petrol opposite SSC, we saw cars queuing to enter its carpark & people getting in/out of the building. So it's really completed. And we joined in the fun too :P

There're lil surprises here & there from exploring the mall... The biggest one gotta be - Astons is here, in the very north!:D Then there's Daiso, a much smaller scale though. Quite a selection of restaurants & bakeries in SSC... interesting...

We went to SSC again just now and there's even a much longer queue of cars waiting to get into the carpark. We're glad that on both occasions we made the wise choice of parking in front of the terrace houses that's within walking distance. So we confirm that only few people working this week :)


And about Astons

We're such loyal supporters of Astons. Used to frequent theirs at East Coast Road & Serangoon Gardens till the crowd went a lil too crazy (imagine having to take your dinner as early as 5pm in order to get a seat?). Maybe better now that there're more outlets. What's worth commending - their standard is as good across all outlets, or as far as those we've visited before. So far no one, whom we've recommended Astons to, has any negative comment about them.

Besides the above 2, we've so far visited them in Tampines (coffeeshop), Ang Mo Kio (coffeeshop)... And I tell you, their fellow stall holders obviously hate them. In fact we've just been to another one in Cathay Building on Sunday.

Just now, we'd an early dinner at 5.20pm as we couldn't help but wanting to visit their SSC outlet :P By 6pm, the place was full but we think their appeal hasn't gone in full force yet. From the behaviour of most patrons (standing long enough in front of the restaurant before stepping in), you could tell they've not known Astons.

One of their nicer outlets, in SSC

What we've got for Christmas ...

An assortment of items from The Body Shop with net worth of S$60 (after 50% discount).

One day, I met cousin Ann for lunch & we went for a Christmas shopping spree at TBS. My original intention was to get presents for hubby's & my colleagues as well as some of our siblings & relatives. Half an hour later, I left with 2 big bags of TBS products & S$210 spent. Was relieved that I managed to settle those presents that I wanted to but at the same time, was a bit upset & shocked that I bought so much for myself as well.

So when hubby asked me what he should get for me, I handed him the chunk of loots from TBS which he packed into a nice "hamper", displayed in an acrylic box. Times are bad, I've to learn to be thrifty. Having said that, eventually I still bought 2 handbags, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 tops & 1 dress, all in the name of CNY (to make myself feel better).

As for hubby's, I bought him a nice shirt.

Merry Christmas! :)

We're so busy for the last 3 weeks. The first week was work for both of us, then the last 2 were for the Christmas festivities.

All in all, I've wrapped 41 pieces of presents this year (including hubby's colleagues, my colleagues/friends and our families & relatives)!

Presents for my boss/colleagues/friends
+
2 boxes of Royce chocolates (not in pic) that were for my ex-bosses, wrapped & kept refrigerated.
For our families & relatives. All these were wrapped within 5 hours that were split into 2 sessions - 23rd night & 24th afternoon.

Besides having quite a lot of time dedicated to Christmas shopping, here's a summary of the past weeks ...

The weekend of 13/14 Dec - Busy looking for a gift for PY & Brian on Sat & attended Zoe's 12th birthday party in the evening. After church on Sunday, we'd breakfast with PY & Brian & then visited their new home. Had a good time catching up. Their apartment at Estella Gardens looks great, especially their walk-in wardrobe. I've been longing for one ever since 3 years ago when we're looking for our place but were aware that we couldn't get everything I wanted with our budget. I'm so gonna have it one day... the ultimate would be to convert a room into a boutique-style walk in closet... hubby has promised me one (he didn't say when though, ha!)...

OTT a lil... This is my dream walk in wardrobe (but I would like it better that the wood is in white or black instead), best if I can put an island in the middle for my accessories. Well, I'll have to dream for many years to have a closet of this size....

18 Dec - I had a 2.5-hour Christmas lunch with my ex-boss, DG, from the previous company. Plus travelling to Bugis, my lunch that day took a good 3 hours. Thank God I've a very nice boss who gave me the 'greenlight' to do so:) It's so nice to be revisiting my old office. And I bought DG & my ex-colleagues an Awfully Chocolate cake. We'd Japanese food at KŌ, Hotel InterContinental. DG, who had recently visited France, also brought back a gift for me from the ex-Principal. Had a very good lunch... we caught up on things & chatted like old friends, which had never happened before... perhaps because there's no restriction now that we're no longer employer/employee.

21 Dec was 冬至. Bro & family came back for dinner (sis gotta work that day)... & we'd a ktv session before dinner. In the morning we got the Royce chocolates from Suntec before having lunch with mum in Bishan & brought her to J8 to get her CNY clothes. It has sort of become an annual schedule since 3 years ago when hubby & I successfully changed mum's image :P I guess she's in a way dependent on us now in choosing the right clothes for her.

Christmas Party on Silent Night at one of hubby's aunts' - GS.
Her 3-storey house of 3 months in Upper Thomson with a total 5,000+ sq.ft is awesome. That night, hubby & I were so distracted... By watching how the 10 over kids climbed her S$15,000 designer sofa while eating chips, pulling the $S3,000+ screen by the staircase made up of strings of crystal-lookalike balls, running around the house & banging all the doors, hubby & I felt really heart pain for GS. But she was so cool about it... hmm.

Family party on Christmas Day.
We'd so much fun playing the Singapore-version monopoly that some of us nearly lost our voice after the game:) We bought it 2 weeks ago from Carrefour after much hesitation but seeing how it gave us laughters & bonding time, we never regret getting it.

Currently we're enjoying a long break which we've been so looking forward to. Hubby ended work much earlier than me... his last day in office was physically 17 Dec as he attended a 1-day seminar on 18 Dec & his department's Christmas party was at our multi-purpose hall the following day (Fri) so he didn't need to go to office that day. Whereas my leave started on 23 Dec lunch. It's so tough to bring myself to office during those days that hubby wasn't working. No mood at all to work! But hubby dearest still faithfully sent me to office without any reluctance which helped me a lot. Hubby had to clear about 10 days leave before end of this year so he's having a 2-week break. Whereas I just need to take 4.5 days to enjoy a 12.5 no-work days as 26 Dec & 2 Jan 2009 are declared as additional holidays by my company. We'll only go back to work on 5 Jan. Yeah! :D

Movie Date

It's a very nice & cosy movie date on Sun night. A '3-course dinner' throughout the 150-min movie with some additional scenes (that we didn't get to watch in cinema).

Last morning, sent mum to church and then to meet her sisters as they're going for a 3D2N stay at another sister's place in Pontian, Johor.

So we blasted our SATC movie in the living room. Too lazy to be out for dinner so utilised our stock:

1st course - Farmland nuggets (our favourite among all other brands)

2nd course - 生面皇干捞面 (that is, Instant Noodle King's dried noodle)

3rd course - Ikea Blueberry Cake

Haha.

And we had Ikea's Kopparberg Pear Cider (4.5%) as beverage for the evening.

By the way, the Blueberry Cake was good.

Ikea's Blueberry Cake.
My no.1 selection is still the Apple Cake... very yummy with vanilla sauce/ice cream and especially delicious with crushed walnuts or almond flakes as topping. They don't taste at all like those typical ready-made pastries/cakes. And the best part's they're not expensive;)

Finally, the long wait's over!

Sex And The City movie! Yeah!

Been on a lookout for the release of DVD ever since the movie first shown in end May. Months had passed & nothing displayed. One day (about 2 months ago), we finally asked a staff from Gramophone & he told us that the DVD of SATC movie was banned in Singapore. We're like "huh?... but we already watched in cinema.. why banned then?" And we're disappointed.

Then last Sun, hubby spotted it when we passed by TS Causeway Point! Hee! This'll complete our collection ;)

We've already scheduled it to be our Sunday night entertainment. A great way to spend our PH eve. And yes, will be watching it for the 3rd time!

With some popcorns perhaps, honey? :P

Tis the season...

... to have gatherings ....

One for the family (my inlaws & members) a week ago, then one with the sisters last Thurs and last Sat, with all the good friends from my previous church at our place & now with their families too. There should be another one coming up with the secondary school classmates and one with the cousins from daddy's side. But I'm trying to push the next two to as late as possible (both supposed to be beginning of Dec)... kind of busy & it's tiring to have all within a month. Yet I was the one who called for all these gatherings.. mm...

Last Thurs, met the sisters for dinner at Picotin. The chicken & pizza were pretty good but I didn't really fancy the rest that we ordered (we shared 3 mains & 3 desserts). Ambience was quite good though. So all in all, we'd a great get-together.

Then It's a busy Sat. We're out till 3pm-ish and started preparing at 4. We'd lotus root soup, honeyed chicken wings, nuggets, fried bee hoon & beancurd almond. Our friends began to arrive from 6.30pm and we're glad that everyone came, even those who initially said they wouldn't be joining. Food wise, there were too much... before that I still worried we didn't have enough, that's why I prepared 4 dishes (& a dessert). We ended up having fried chicken wings, pan fried honeyed chicken wings & steam chicken (白斩鸡) among the other food. That's the consequence of not revealing what we're bringing.

Total 23 of us. It's nice mingling around and the kids had fun at the pool too. Very importantly, thanks hubby for entertaining the guests like his own friends. It's something I should never take for granted. :)