Busy Weeks

So busy - we hadn't been at home on all the weekends in December, except Christmas Eve and Day ironically, ha. As weekdays after work were too short to shop for presents, we only had 2.5 weekends to do it. Last Sat (17 Dec) was originally reserved for Christmas potluck party with our cell group but was last minute replaced by a movie premiere to watch Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, an invitation from hubby's office. Hubby had to show face as his director was away.

Quite a number of hours in the last week before Christmas were spent in gift wrapping. Tiring as done at night, after work... But the pleasantly surprised expression on each receiver's face & their praises made all the efforts put in worthwhile ;)

On 23 Dec, our office was officially closed for half day (pm). So shiok to be enjoying half-days on 2 consecutive Fridays (16 Dec & 23 Dec)! Met June for lunch at United Square before my BRT treatment at 3pm. Bakerzin's set meal was pretty good (except for the slices of bread that were as hard as cardboard!) & the catch-up with June was great. By the way, hubby & I are impressed at the pace Jun speaks... as info shared within that 1 hour+ at lunch took me the whole night to update hubby! Ha...

After treatment, I went to meet hubby at his office. It's a 1-hour long bus journey from Thomson to Telok Blangah.. along the way the bus braved flood and heavy traffic (almost everywhere!). We then had a beer & early Christmas 3-course dinner at The Chamber, Robertson Walk. I like the food but not some of the drinkers there.

My Grilled Chicken Skewers with potatoes.. Nice!
Hubby had Lamb shank with red wine sauce.

Christmas Eve, we popped by at the Christmas party organised by hubby's aunts & uncles (maternal) at One Shenton.

We brought a bottle of Champagne to the party ;)

We stayed for an hour+ & then adjourned to Liang Seah Street with June & Eugene for drinks.



We headed back home around 1am... had only 4 hours of sleep and attended morning Christmas service @ 8.30am!! I"m proud that hubby & I didn't doze off at all! :D

Current Fav

Lemongrass soda. Nice!

My Secret Santa !

Last Fri we only worked half day & had department Christmas lunch at Senso (@ Club Street). Had a nice lunch filled with fun & chats with colleagues. When it's time for gift exchange, I was the first to be called & was pleasantly surprised that my Secret Santa was our boss. So undoubtedly he bought something that was over our individual gift budget of $25.

Thank God for the hand cream as I was actually searching for a good one recently.
At first I nearly blurt out that the box was so crumbled but am glad I didn't, as it's from the boss :D

Finally!

We've bought all the presents... exactly 30 pieces!

From now on just need to focus on wrapping them. As hubby knows I like to dress up our presents, we purposely made a trip to Kin Soon in Arab Street this morning to get more ribbons.

The "naked" presents are all placed by the tree now.. soon they'll be dolled up ;)

JPO

Last Fri hubby attended an ex-colleague's wedding dinner & I went out with 2 of my colleagues. We'd dinner & then drinks at Firefly. I haven't been to a Canto club for many many years. Still not my cup of tea, hehe. We only reached home past midnight as hubby came to pick us up at 11pm & sent them back.

I only had 4 hours of sleep (& hubby had 4.5) before we rushed to an outing organised by hubby's company. It's a lil trying having to wake up after only 4 hours of sleep & some beer the night before.

JPO was opened on 2 Dec & we went on the 3rd.
That day, altogether 11 coaches were organised by hubby's to go up!!!

We didn't expect to buy anything there but in the end we bought quite a bit including some Christmas presents, Adidas shirts for hubby, a Gap dress and La Senza's underwear were too good to miss (10 for RM50!!!). The highlight of the shopping trip gotta be the Coach bag hubby bought for me. It wasn't very cheap but I like the size & the silver strips.


Gonna keep all our purchases for the coming CNY so as to make myself feel less guilty :P

Whole Night of Fun

It's a great Friday night... with lots of alcohol and laughter :)

Had originally planned dinner/drinks for last Sat with Vince & his siblings and we made reservation at Overeasy. However some of them couldn't make it so we changed to Friday instead. Asked to change our reservation but it's already full when we called 2 days before & they only accept walk-in. According to them, there'd still be seats at 5ish but would be on waitlist if we arrived at 6ish. And we believe as the Fri evening before last, we wanted to dine there (firstly, I fell in love with the outdoor ambience & second, the previous dining experience there was great but it's a pity that I was too sick then) but @ 7.15pm, the waiting list was so long that they only called us with confirmed seats 1 hour later... by then we're already filling up our growling tummy @ One Raffles Place's Sakae Sushi.

Then we'd the idea of going back again with the siblings.

As the rest could only be there around 7pm, I volunteered to go get seats after work. Left for Overeasy right after work together with one of the colleagues, Adeline. Since there's 1-for-1 on house pours during happy hours, I thought it's a brilliant idea to ask Adeline along - 1) to take my second drink as I wouldn't be able to take 2 alone 2) it'd be a great opportunity to catch up with Adeline 3) to keep me company for that one hour+ before the rest arrived.

We reached Overeasy slightly before 6pm & we could only be on waitlist for an outdoor table. But at least we got a booth seat inside.

Adeline has been a great colleague as well as prayer buddy ;)

At 7, hubby arrived & took over from Adeline. June got there past 7 & we shared some really juicy news that didn't realise time passed quickly & Con & Ivan reached past 8. Ben was the latest. He's really become a very hardworking young man, haha.

They managed to get us outdoor seats after waitlisting for almost 2 hours since 6pm. Fully enjoyed the view!





Snap snap snap!

11ish... we still didn't wanna end the night, so went on to KTV @ SAFRA Mount Faber.

2nd round of boozing started:)

June was sure in the mood to sing.. That night she sang more than I've heard in the past years, hehe!

Singer in the making :P

We're in such party mood that we still had no intention to leave even at 3am when KBox needed to close for the day. We left our cars @ SAFRA overnight. Con & Ivan took taxi home from SAFRA.. hubby & I took a ride from Eugene to AMK to save some cab fare. Eugene was really disciplined by keeping only to a couple of drinks that's why he's able to drive June & Ben home.

Been a long time since we last had such an extended happy hours.. everyone's so happy. And I drank for 9 hours (6pm - 3am) without feeling drunk or even high! I'd say that's record breaking, haha.

The 6th Celebration

Just before our 6th Anniversary, I was, again, sick. Very bad flu... my nose was all clogged up & my voice was almost gone. Anyway, we didn't plan for big dinner. Hubby had made reservation @ Level 33 weeks before our Day but we decided to go elsewhere instead.

On Actual Day

A lovely bouquet from hubby to my office

Overeasy @ One Fullerton

I only had enough appetite for a big bowl of mushroom soup & some wings.. hubby enjoyed his lamb burger though. I couldn't even finish half of the Erdinger.

Enjoyed our walk along the bay after dinner :)

The Following Weekend

We checked into Marina Bay Sands on Sat

We'd a pleasant surprise from the hotel when they knew we're celebrating our Wedding Anniversary - a full size Piper-Heidsieck Champagne & Sweetspot Raspberry Cake that worth a total of $130+

Free & unlimited visits to the Sands SkyPark



With such crowds at the pool, hubby & I will never wanna take a dip in there

Generous serving of TWG tea in the room

We opted for the valet parking as it's more worth it ($12 for 24 hours).
There we saw our ride on the screen:)
How it works - upon seeing our car appears on screen in the air conditioned waiting room, we will proceed to the drop-off/pick-up point at the hotel's entrance to collect our car.

Nice ....

The 1st sign of Christmas ! :)

Celebration Plans

So we're splitting our 6th Anniversary celebrations into 2 sessions since it's not convenient for us to take leave. A dinner on actual day and we've also made a booking for the weekend. It's somewhere we've been wanting to go. Good that it's an extended weekend since Mon is a PH in lieu. In another words, we have 1 more day of relaxing! :D

A New Journey

Yesterday marked the last day of our early evenings which we've been enjoying for so many months. However it's for the better as hubby is starting his new job on coming Mon. I've made a proposal to hubby (as I know him too well... he'll never suggest anything that needs me to travel a distance by myself) - on normal days, I'll go to hubby's to wait for him so he can focus on his work & doesn't need to rush off to fetch me. And I have my lappy to pass time ;) On some days if I need to stay a lil late in office, hubby will then come and fetch me. It's all flexible arrangement. Thank God that our offices are only a less than 15-minute drive apart.

We really thank Him for the perfect timing. After failing to persuade hubby to stay on for good, Uncle CH has been praying for a 6-month 'handing over' period. And hubby got an offer exactly 6 months later. Uncle CH only told us recently. Now that the uncle has his elder bro (who just came on board), Con & a couple of other staff to help him run the business. Imagine how much work hubby got as he used to do everything alone! I'm proud of you honey! :)

Last Month

Family BBQ @ Ivan's on 10 Sep but Ivan's overseas, hehe.

We bought a bottle of fruity sparkling wine & it's well liked by everyone:)

Pop!

The following Friday, had dinner with parents-in-law at a Teochew restaurant somewhere in Upper Serangoon. The few of us then went on for a beer at Mulligan's Irish Pub, Clarke Quay.

Spicy Drink

This was the drink I had @ Som Thai - coconut liquer, vodka, lemongrass, chilli padi (yes, chilli padi!) plus some others which I don't remember. Can you see one on the glass brim?

The Mobile Phone Saga

It first started 3 Sundays ago. I'd been wanting to switch to corporate plan but gotta wait till it's up for recontracting and also required to purchase a new phone.

So finally we're eligible to recontract - I converted to corporate plan and hubby, to bundle plan which enables him to enjoy a 30% discount on his current plan. As for the new phones, hubby had been eyeing on Samsung Galaxy S2 and since we still wanted to own the same phone, I decided to get S2 as well though I'd not forgotten how badly the first generation of Galaxy S performed.

As we sold our Incredible S at a very good price and hubby's $300 top-up was waived, we got to keep a couple of hundreds even after getting our new phones.

That night, I was so frustrated just trying to configure the phone to my preference. And I got paranoid over every lil hiccup/slowness I experienced with the phone (I was still not over with the bad experiences with Galaxy S). My mood was so affected that hubby made the decision of getting me another phone. The next day, we got rid of an S2 and, & without any idea of what phone to get, I chose a HTC Evo 3D. It's real bulky but I thought it should be good.

Besides very unique 3D effect on the pictures (the objects taken looked soooo real!), there's seriously nothing else to shout about. What's worse, I couldn't receive emails & even Whatsapp wasn't working! Tried living with it for a week & I gave up! Last Tue, hubby & I went back to the vendor & sold him the phone... it's so nice of him to take it back at a very high price (as high as a new set buy-back). After a day's consideration, I decided to get a relatively older phone - Sony Ericsson Xperia arc. But finally, I'm a happy girl. It's so slim & light & the camera is good! ;)

I'm fussy about phone - good camera, sound messaging/emails response & prompt internet connection. Whereas hubby's is simple - messaging apps & emails must work well. We liked Incredible S but it lost out on the camera & dropped calls pretty frequently.

Few days ago, we sold & bought again. This time round was hubby's who also gave up on his S2 as he, too, was unable to receive emails. Everyone's been raving about S2... so think we're the only 2 who think otherwise. So hubby joined me to be an arc user and got another round of "profit" as the selling price of S2 was higher than the buying of arc:)

A Cuppa

It feels nostalgic at the first sip of Dome's Iced Mocha with Gelato. It's my first coffee drink many many years ago (I don't drink pure coffee) & still liking it, though I don't take often now.

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It's A Long Week ...

... after yet another 4-day long weekend last week. To be exact, we'd 2 x 4-day long weekends in Aug.. so nice... Looking ahead, no PH for the next 2 months... Yawn~

The last long weekend started with a sumptuous dinner at a Thai restaurant at Robertson Walk, just next to our ex The Bar (& where Newsroom was previously) :)

Ordered too much... also had 6 pieces of Super-sized deep fried spring rolls that're not in the picture. But their Phad Thai and Tom Kha Gai were good & we'll definitely go back again for these 2.

A month ago, we found this nice Thai restaurant, SomThai. The modern yet cosy setup was appealing. The few segments of live piano music was also excellent for chilling. But we already had dinner then, somewhere we haven't been to for a long long time - the once very famous ba kut teh at Mohammad Sultan... where I used to frequent during The Bar days including a few times with my then-suitor now-hubby haha. Anyway, we decided to have a drink at SomThai instead. Hubby had his usual Hoegaarden while I had their SomThai drink with coconut liquor & we ordered some bites too..... My drink wasn't a nice one but that didn't deter us from going back. Visiting Mohammad Sultan has always been a good one, with so much to reminisce...

Celebrated mum's birthday on Sat.. we'd hi-tea @ MBS' Rise. Not too bad but the spread at lunch (& dinner) is more eloborated.

Pots of TWG tea (we all had Chamomile except hubby had Earl Grey) that came with the hi tea. We like.

We'd a long day out on Sun - after church, we went Millenia Walk.. wanted to get something from Parco but the brand was no longer there. But I got to indulge in my currently fav choco marquise (i ate 1 there & bought 2 home!). Then had dim sum lunch @ SAFRA Mount Faber. 3rd stop - Victoria Secret @ RWS. The last stop was ION where I bought some skincare products from Sloane. Usually on Sundays we'd try to be home very early to (mentally) prepare ourselves for another week's work. But we're not working the following day, so we could stay out late.

We didn't do much for the next 2 days... just stayed around the neighbourhood and went slow with activities... It's just great ...

Wedding Dinner @ Mandarin

At hubby's cousin's wedding dinner @ Mandarin Hotel on the last Fri of July

We all were pretty impressed with the special layout of this ballroom on the 35th floor...

We're sitting in the heart of the ballroom.. surrounded by 2 tiers of tables

A clearer look at the ballroom (pic from Mandarin's website)

Fullerton Heritage

Beautiful Saturday it was.

A quick pasta lunch before I'd my facial at Sloane's latest branch @ MBS. A relaxing 2 hours :) But still prefer theirs at Ion.

A full range of cosmetics & applicators... & this powder room is bigger than Ion's.. & I'd the privilege of using most of their cosmetics for the 1st time;)

Decorated uniquely with lots of bulbs... So is the entrance.

It's already late afternoon when I was done (& beloved hubby had waited patiently for 2 hours). Our next stop was Raffles Place.

Level 33 @ Marina Bay Financial Centre. Enjoying craft beers..

.. & the captivating view. Love the ambience & the excellent service. We'll definitely be back for more.

After MBFC, we'd an exposure to the Fullerton Heritage. Strolled from MBFC to Custom House, then Fullerton Bay Hotel, One Fullerton... & to Waterboat House (& read some history about Captain William Lawrence Flint, brother-in-law of Sir Stamford Raffles). Had been to Boathouse's Prelude with bosses & colleagues for drinks... very beautiful view at this open air rooftop bar. I so wanna go back with hubby. One day soon k honey? Hee.

Our long walk ended just right as we parked our car at UOB Plaza. A wonderful night... as if we're back to the courtship days... & I want more;)