On Mission

These recent months, I've seen a few programs about celebrities going on trips to do charity/voluntary works.

I've gone on a similar trip as well. That's 10 years ago & a mission trip to Chiangmai organised by my ex church... a really eye opening 1 for me.

A visit to the slum in Chiangmai city on the day of our arrival.
Tip given: to walk through the area in high alert mode as security within was very low. Also not to peep into the squats as strangers were usually not welcome.
Looking at the living condition, I really couldn't imagine if I were to stay there. We're so blessed.

The 1st day's activities were pretty light as by the time we arrived & settled down, it's already in the afternoon.

On the 2nd day, we had a crash course on Thai culture - what were the to-dos & taboos.. & spent some time in learning some basic words to get us around. The most interesting part gotta be the practical "test". We're split in small groups & being brought to a wet market. Each group was given a fix amount of bahts & a list of items to buy that were needed to prepare for the evening's dinner. So we had to use the newly learnt language to get the required items & if it's more than the amount we're given, we had to bargain. It's fun & a great way to learn a language. It's also useful for my subsequent work trips to Bangkok when I shopped ;)

Besides paying visits to some pastors/mission schools/missionaries... to know more about the mission field in Chiangmai & to pray for them, we travelled to a few interesting places ....

At the Agape Home.
It's an orphanage but not a normal one. This was home for those children with HIV/AIDS. Their parents had either died of HIV/AIDS or were unable/too ill to take care of their children. And some were abandoned babies. Precautions we took - cover all open wounds with a plaster. We could carry the babies but had to be more careful of their movements & not to be scratched. We truly admired the founder & the baby sitters who had so much love for these babies.

We went to the Street Kids Home. These kids, age ranging from 4 to 16 years old, were abandoned by their parents. Some were even formerly sold to syndicates which used them to beg for money on the streets.

We're travelling up in songthaew (meaning 2 rows) to a church in a minority tribe.... if I don't remember wrongly, it's or related to the Miao tribe.

The road was like this all the way up. When we reached, one of the guys wiped his face with tissue & turned out to be brown. We then realised it's the same for all of us! Apparently our foundation that day was the soil.

I was teaching the kids some songs.



Game time.

Our last stop was Mae Hong Son.
Crossing rivers & bridges to the Shan Village, located in the mountain, just next to the border of Myanmar. The community there was made up of Burmese refugees.

A closed school

You won't believe that.... this was home for the lil boy & his mum.

Another one.

Seeing the condition of these homes, even the shabbiest one in Spore would be a haven to them.

Trekking down to visit more people

We organised a 'carnival' for the villagers. That night, we brought much happiness to them especially the children.

When we're leaving, all of them formed a line to bid us farewell.

This place, comparatively in a much better condition than those we visited, was where we spent 2 nights. The whole place was made of straws including the flooring & elevated by lots of bamboos. The arrangement was all guys in 1 room & all girls in another. But straws didn't block out any sound at all, so much so that when one of the guys snored, all of us could hear it so well that as if the noise was right next to you! And when 1 walked past, the noise of the straws travelled the entire place. And it's sooo cold! But we're all thankful enough to have such an experience.
(* Both of us were busy playing with a very cute lil kitten)

A group pic before we left

In these 10 days, I've gained lots... & somehow that year's Christmas, which was 2 weeks after we returned, had an added meaning too.

3 Weddings in 1 Month

3 Oct, Cousin Kelvin's (Daddy's youngest bro's son) wedding banquet @ Hyatt.

30 Oct, J's (ex-colleague from PwC) wedding banquet @ Furama River Front. All pictures are with another ex-colleague, who's taking ages to circulate.

1 Nov, Cousin Ann's (Mum's 5th younger sis' eldest daughter) wedding banquet @ M Hotel.

Our wallet has gone on a "crash diet".. 3 ang paos in a month. Hmmmm.

A Lovely Evening

Capella Singapore

On Tues, we had our 4th Anniversary dinner at Capella Singapore, in Sentosa.

This is 1 of the bungalows built in 1880s during the British colonisation which now become a luxury hotel after restoration & extension.

Free parking! We're happy that the first thing that greeted us was a good one:)

The Knolls, where we had dinner. This obviously not taken by me as it's already 80% dark when we arrived.

Hubby was "studying" the menu while I was snapping away...

Tried to capture the nice view before the sun set - the pool & the South China Sea

My hot honey with lemon slices. The waitress offered me this drink when she knew I was having a bad throat & cough. She even replenished the honey for me. We're very impressed by the personalised service & even more when we realised that it's complimentary.

The attentive waitress volunteered to take some pix for us & even told us where to stand to get the best view. But it's too dim to see the pool & the South China Sea.

Hubby's order - Sliced Beef Bistecca. Appparently it's a good choice & a generous portion was served.

My order which was a wrong one - Chicken Makhani. Thought it's some Western cuisine :(

Very good service. We actually wanted to order desserts together with the main course but were advised by the waitress to take our mains first & see if we still could take in desserts thereafter. Not pushy at all. And it's like a private dining as each table (6-seater) is sectioned & you have a choice to keep the doors opened for the breathtaking views. Interesting.

We chose the Dessert Tasting that allowed us to select 4 types of desserts from the menu.

After desserts, we're invited for a tea sampling session. This invitation is extended to all their dining guests every evening.
We had Straits Chai - a spiced & very perfumed tea. So good after a meal. I like!:)

At the end of our dinner, we're billed for only our mains, hubby's Kilkenny & the dessert. Besides the assortment of bread, my continuous supply of hot honey with lemon, the rich serving of belinjau cracker with belachan dip throughout dinner & the spiced tea were complimentary.

After dinner, we took a stroll around the hotel.

At the outdoors of Bob's Bar. Too bad I wasn't fit for any alcohol that day. But hubby promised to bring me back there for drinks;).. in the late afternoon perhaps, so we can enjoy the picturesque view while chilling out...

A long flight of stairs in white. We imagined the classic scene of a bride gracefully walking down the stairs to her guests... Hee...

The evening would even have been better if we could be there earlier & if I wasn't ill.
But it was still a very lovely one with hubby :)

It's our 4th Anniversary!

4 years of marriage & we're still honeymooning stage :)

We'll have a small celebration this evening. Looking forward to it!

After The Move. I.

So we moved out of our 1st home end of Aug. The handover of keys was on 3 Sept, took place @ the lawyer's office.

Shifted in to Aunt GS' on the same day we moved out.

Then exactly 2 weeks after we stayed @ Aunt GS', we're on the move gain. I wasn't very comfortable there mainly due to the location. It's sure near town, in Upper Thomson, but there's a shelterless walk of about 10mins from their house to the bus-stop. And the room was a lil small for the both of us & our belongings.

Which means before we could get settled down, next move was in the plan. And it's no joke to have to carry 10 boxes of belongings amongst others (yes, TEN boxes along with a big luggage & many other loose items. We've underestimated ourselves as initially I thought we could do with just 5-6 boxes during these 4-5 months) up the long flight of stairs & then down within 2 weeks especially we didn't wanna cause any damage to their wood flooring.

But we did gain something during those 2 weeks. We got to know Aunt GS better as there're nights we chatted till past midnight. Wouldn't have the chance if we weren't staying with them.

Where we're staying now is an interesting place. It houses Uncle CH's China girlfriend, Con who's moved out of her place & us, who're homeless for a few months. Ivan onced joked "Welcome to the 避风港!". Haha.

But it wasn't that easy for us to move in. It's a flat passed down by Vincent's late grandparents which is now under the care of their children (Vince's uncles & aunts). For the last couple of years, the flat was like a dumping ground, keeping all kinds of big & small items by everyone. Which was why we didn't take it into consideration when we're looking for a temporary place to stay. Then recently, Uncle CH spent some money to renovate & refurnish the place for his girlfriend, who's just moved to Spore, to stay. Con took the 2nd room. The 3rd room naturally became a 2nd storage including an old divan set previously used by Vince's grandpa, 2 drawer chests, a wardrobe & many miscellaneous stuff. So firstly, with the agreement of all uncles & aunties, we made arrangement to donate the mattress to a halfway home & the town council to dispose the divan. Then we cleared the store room so we could shift as many items from the room to the store as possible. But obviously the 5-door wardrobe & the 2 chests couldn't be accomodated & they're all stuffed with things & also, they're in very old condition. Thankfully, the walls were painted, windows were changed & there's air-con. So we just gotta think of some DIY ways to try to make it more livable yet being able to keep our loads of stuff with a smaller area due to the old furniture.

After clearing the room except these 3 'antiques'

The new look after a small scale makeover.
The white 3-drawer chest was quite a catch from Ikea @ only $89 for short term storage.

Tis our cozy lil room for 4-5 months.

The favourite item in this room is this piece of cloth I bought from Spotlight. It conceals a small wooden & cloth drawers we took with us from our old home. Wanted to dispose it after transporting our stuff but glad that we didn't. It serves a good purpose now to store the miscellaneous items that we use regularly.
But I'm so over the yellow wood kind of furniture, this cloth was hence bought.

And we retrieved our mattress & TV from the warehouse

Situation like this, we'll go to Ikea for some fast & cheap solutions.
Spent a few hundreds & just 3 days in getting the room ready:
- curtains from Ikea $57
- fabrics from Spotlight (to conceal the old furniture) $80
- clothes hangers (with rollers) $70
- drawer chest from Ikea $90
- table lamp from Ikea $20
- toyogo boxes $50
- retrieval & delivery of mattress & tv $50

We really thank God that we got helping hands along the way.. most primarily, we're thankful that the place was revamped just in time. Then Con volunteered to help us with the move from Aunt GS. And when hubby's overwhelmed by all the assembling of racks & cabinet, Ben came to our rescue & he's really good at it.

So now, we're like staying in a hostel with a few housemates & it's the very first time for me. Besides some getting used to, it's certainly a better place to stay for the next few months.

What an experience..

Mum's 七十大寿 Celebration

End Aug, mum celebrated her 70th Birthday amidst the busy packing which got a lil overwhelming as it's getting nearer & nearer to the move. I'd say it's quite a good break from those packing chores.

Dinner was @ a Chinese restaurant in The Chevrons. A bit far but food was generally ok. And had the chance to catch up with the cousins & got some juicy news.. hehe ;)

Crab coated with salted egg. Nice! The crab claws were big & stuffed with fresh crab meat:)

Movie

We've been going for movies every weekend. Sometimes 1 show, sometimes 2.

This afternoon, we watched 500 Days of Summer at GV Grand. I was chewing pop corns for more than half of the movie. Shortly after I finished the pop corns, I dozed off ! And I've never slept in cinema before....

Then I woke up, just in time to catch the last bit of the show. I must have looked funny, if the gal next to me did notice, there I was busy eating pop corns half the time, the next minute when I wasn't eating, I fell asleep... hmmm.

Glad that the movie was free.

Last Sat's wedding dinner @ Hyatt

Was a nice one... a rare get-together for us all @ the youngest counsin's wedding dinner.

A pic with the cousins & sis :)

Group pic. This crowd is only less than one-third of the complete family.

Hubby was actually on standby for recall that day but thank God that it's not activated. So glad that hubby could attend the first wedding dinner with me (my side of relatives). 1 Nov will be another first with my maternal relatives :)

Stock Take

For this trip, my shopping was controlled... but I still bought more than I originally planned to (exchange rate - S$1 = RM2.45):

• Redken Vivagen Treatment: approx S$28 vs S$38 in Spore
  
• Levi's Patricia Ultra Skinny Jeans: S$93 vs S$150 in Spore (lowest @S$100 during last month's promotion of 2 pairs for S$199)
  
• Vichy Total Pore Resurfacing Essence @ S$35 vs S$49 in Spore
  
• 1 pair of FOS skinny jeans @ S$18
  
• 1 pair of flip-flop @ S$10
  
• 1 pair of sandals @ S$15
  
• 2 tops @ S$10 each

As for hubby, he bought very few items as he'd prefer to keep the money for my shopping (my hubby's really great!). His:

• 1 GAP tee @ S$10 (I love that it's in a gorgeous pink, with nice graphics)
  
• 1 Seed office shirt @ S$12

Besides the above, we bought 5 pairs of slippers from Times Square, each pair @ S$4 only! The 4 of us had a spree at the stall as all of them looked so nice & cute... hee..

The water melon is hubby's, the cat belongs to me... & we're wearing at home now... so comfy:)
The pair of cherry slippers is mine & hubby chose the one with 2 lil tortoises.
Bought the same cat slippers for sis.

I like the 2 tops I purchased. The grey 1 goes very well with all my skinny pants (& jeans too) & the white tiered top is flattering on the figure :)

I could have bought a few if we weren't on budget especially after the extra S$350+ spent on air tix. Hmmmmm....

And I realise that this is a good way to keep track of when I've bought what... always referred to my past entries when I needed info ;)

Our Trip

We've been back from our short trip for more than a week but I was too busy with some other stuff to update.

The idea of going to KL together came up out of the blue... guess all of us needed a break. Very quickly, we reached a confirmation & booked our tix with Tiger Air, that's a month before our trip. Morning (0720h) flight for us as we like to start the day early while Con & Ivan chose to leave on a noon flight.

On the day of departure, we reached the Budget Terminal @6. But the lady at the check-in counter referred us to the Customer Service section after taking quite a while on our booking. Then this was what happened at the CS counter:

TA staff: "Sir, are you sure you've booked this morning's flight?"
Us (worriedly as with this question asked, we knew something's very very wrong....): "Yes ..."
TA: "I've got bad news for you (looking at both of us)... you're not on this morning's flight."
Us: "Are you sure!?"
TA: "Yes. And the worst is... you've missed your flight, that is, yesterday morning 17 Sept..."

That's the nightmare for any traveler!! Upon hearing the bad news, I wanted to faint...! We'd doubts in the said mistake as when booking online, we're talking to Con/Ivan to confirm on the dates. And 2 pairs of eyes (mine & hubby's) checked the booking details. But the staff said it's in their record & our fault was that we didn't print a copy of the booking. Our printer at home was spoilt & we saved a soft copy in our PC (& our PC is now in the warehouse). Hubby thought of printing a copy from his office's printer but lately he got so busy at home & at work that he'd missed it out. I was wrong for not reminding him too :(

The staff was quite helpful though. He told us that it'd be costly to get on that same flight by then (S$400+ for 2) & that the cheapest walk-in fare would be by Air Asia. We thought of giving up the whole holiday plan, just forfeit a night's accomodation but eventually decided to try Air Asia since we're already all prepped for the trip. Then we paid S$7+ for a cab, just to move from BT to T1 where Air Asia is. Sigh! Air Asia quoted S$360 for both of us including all taxes & an additional 15kg for checkin luggage. We took it. The only consolation was the departure time wasn't too far apart from Tiger's.. @ 0750h, meaning we'd still arrive early morning. We also had to call our driver in KL to change our ETA timing :( So we paid a total of S$525 to fly Spore-KL & return. We just got to think "Ah Q-ly" that it's still cheaper than taking SQ, ya? Such a dramatic morning..... I've never met such screwup in my life of traveling so far.... :(

By the time we arrived in KL, we've kind of got over the unpleasantness.

Checked in to the Orchid Club room @ Parkroyal.
All thanks to the Prestige card we have, we paid only S$107nett/night while Con & Ivan paid S$94 for a deluxe room. But frankly the deluxe room was nice enough, newly renovated with an open concept... unlike the one we got during our previous trip.

Ready to shop! Before that, have a dose of hubby's fav Green Tea Latte :)

We spent the afternoon in Sungei Wang... got the items in my shopping list :)

Back in the hotel... redeemed our tea & cake for 2 (1 of the vouchers we'd from the membership package) while waiting for the arrival of Con & Ivan. Their flight was delayed for 2 hours & adding on to it, it started to rain since late afternoon which led to heavy traffic.
By the time they finally arrived, which was 3 hours later than original plan, they're already quite lethargic.
When Con called & informed us from Singapore, we told them their situation wasn't the worst :\

As it's raining since late afternoon, we'd dinner at a noodle house in Sungei Wang followed by shopping.


We shopped till almost all the shops were closed. Then returned to the hotel to freshen up before meeting up again for drinks.

Club Quattro @ Avenue K is the latest club in town, which is located just across the Twin Towers. A cool place to chill out. It carries the name of 4 seasons - Spring (Lounge), Summer (Restaurant), Autumn (Club) & Winter (Bar). Interesting.

Having drinks in Spring :)



Happy happy after a few drinks ;)

Nearly 2am... all of us were already quite intoxicated by then. Wanted to check out the popular Autumn Club... but we're not willing to pay for cover charge (patrons from the other 3 'seasons'
weren't exempted) as told by the waitress. For some fun (under the influence of alcohol I guess), we wanted to try again at the entrance with receipts we chalked up from the drinks. Con & I talked to the 2 ladies at the door.... & yep, the 4 of us managed to get in for free! We're so proud of it;) Who says girl could only charm man to get her ways, huh? Haha.
It's really crowded inside.. so we left in less than half an hour & after some dances to try to work the inebriating effect off.

3am. Having supper nearby...
It's been a long time I haven't drank like this... not a lot (2 mugs of beer, 1 vodka+cranberry & 1 Kilkenny) but already got praises from hubby.. hee... as nowadays I'd usually doze off after a bot of beer at home, in front of the tv. So he'd try to not let me drink when we're watching something interesting. Haha.

Looking fresh again the next morning!

Brought Con & Ivan to our much craved Char Siew. And this was our 2nd visit for this trip. They liked it too! ;)

While Con's doing mani in Sungei Wang, we went for foot massage just a level down, the 1 I went during our last trip. Hubby doesn't enjoy massage, so he waited for us. Quite cheap... @ RM35 for 40mins.

Krispy Kreme!

A pretty fruitful shopping trip @ Times Square. Were looking forward to the 大排档 dinner. We're greedy, especially when we didn't get to eat the previous night due to rain, & planned 2 stops in a night... opposite Ritz Carlton (our usual treats of the delicious 鸳鸯, yong tau foo & 蜜糖金吉 drink...) & Jalan Alor. But very disappointingly, it rained heavily again. So we proceeded to Pavilion instead to have an early & light dinner, then street side hawker supper later.

Dragon-i Restaurant, Pavilion.
Very nice Shanghainese & Szechuan food yet cheap (for restaurant standard)... eg. a big bowl of ramen was only @ RM12. We ordered so much that it wasn't a light dinner anymore....

Clockwise from top left:
- The only dish I didn't really appreciate.. beacon wrapped veg?
- 四川担担面. Looks spicy but actually not. Nice... like the peanut soup.
- This dish seems intimidating with the number of dried chilli outnumbering the meat. Con thought it's too spicy for me but nope.. I don't find it so at all. Hmm... My (chilli intake) level has improved huh :) Anyway, the deep fried chicken was crispy & tasty.
- This hubby's & my fav! Deep fried prawns coated with salted egg paste. Very special & yummy!
- Very good 小笼包 @ only RM8
- The french beans with minced meat was as delicious

In the end, we didn't have supper. There went my 鸳鸯.... Sobs~ Hubby hit the bed straight after returning as he'd been having headache for the whole day & got worse at dinner. I stayed up till 2am as I was too engrossed in battling with my mobile phone game :P Only the next morning I got to know I was actually the last 'surviving' party as Con & Ivan couldn't beat the exhaustion & slept @ 10.30pm, all 3 of them went to bed without showering. Hmm... Quite a hangover they having.. Hee..

Breakfast on the last day. We missed the previous day's due to the boozing.
Can you see the heavy-weight couple in the background? They're really good... I first noticed the girl when she's busy digging in a mountain size of rice & meat. Just then, she got up leaving their table, totally full of food including a plate that contained 5 pieces of danishes/crossaints, to get some more food! The guy had similar capacity as he busied himself with the food on their table as well as the spread out there. From their conversations, they're most likely Singaporeans. Hmm.

Holiday is always nice. But I'm not very contented with this trip... we paid S$300+ more but unable to enjoy the usual indulgences (if not more) whenever we're in KL.. the big one gotta be sans 大排档.

What the ................??

Last Sat hubby & I shopped @ Tampines' Ikea, Courts & Giant. It's a fruitful & pleasant trip but some people nearly spoilt our night.

Our last stop was Giant. Hubby & I were pushing the trolley together & walking towards the travelator. Then there's this Ah Lian (she's about 30?) carrying a kid, knocked onto hubby from behind. Hubby turned around & she just stared at him. Not bothered by her, we carried on our conversation. Almost immediately, she knocked onto him again. This time, hubby was a lil agitated & shot her a glare (by then she's already next to hubby). Instead of apologising, she turned & said something to the man (her husband? or boyfriend?) who's walking slightly behind her. Hubby couldn't believe that's the response he got & complained to me how rude this woman was. While he's doing that, I saw that man staring at hubby from head to toe.. as if hubby was the one who bumped into that Lian.

Just then they slowed down & we went ahead of them which gave me a chance to throw a dirty look @ that woman. Later hubby told me he heard her saying: "... see what? see %#$ ar...". According to hubby, the %#$ she said was referring to part of the male's sex organ, in Hokkien. I was more shock than angry. Thank God that He had my ears covered... otherwise most likely I might have reacted by saying out loud "it's a shame that a mother is teaching her child all these words!" (she's carrying a kid ok!). But after a few seconds, I wanted to laugh instead. Was this woman ignorant or plain foolish? She's referring to her own face as... the male's ...... ?? Did she know what she's talking? Really thank God that I didn't hear what she said otherwise it could have escalated into a heated argument though the fault was clearly theirs. But do you think this type of people would admit?

Shortly after this saga, still on our way to the travelator, there's another group of people comprised of a fat auntie, her maid, 2 kids & think there's another adult standing right in middle & somewhat forming a circle. As they're blocking us, we said "excuse us" & waited for them to move away. The kids were oblivious, the maid was stoning there looking blankly at us. Then when this fat auntie, who seemed to be busy with something but her kids, saw that we're gesturing (with our trolley) that we needed them to give way, she said loudly "say excuse lah!" while pulling her kids away. Pleaseeeee! Did we not say it?!? It's just that her deaf ears couldn't hear us!

What's happening to these individuals??!?! Did they decide to come out together & irritate people on a Sat night?!

Hubby & I talked about it in the car & we both feel that there is this group of parents who think that they, when out with their kids, are "大晒"... as if the world owes them & their children. But hello? We don't owe them anything! Their mentality - 'It's public responsibility to take care of MY kids' while they don't realise that it's actually their very own & prior responsibility to look after their kids in the public. If they fail to do so, is it right to blame others for not doing it?? Similarly, the reminder "Give up these seats to those who need them more" on public transport should be respected mutually. We giving up our seats is to make the society a more gracious one. Not to be taken for granted.

KL, here we come !!

We're having a 3D2N trip to KL next weekend.. hee!

There'll be the 4 of us... Constance, Ivan, hubby & me :)

Really looking forward to the short break as it's been pretty stressful for us recently because of the move......

Short-lived

I was out of touch for nearly 2 weeks. Firstly, due to the moving... then I was busy running errands relating to the house & also some that're not. Just when I was ready to get back on the net, my HP Mini died an unknown death! Unbelievable... it's only 1 year old! That's the problem of buying a newly launched product which belonged to 1 of the earliest batches.

As I desperately needed a laptop & my HP gotta be hospitalised for around 2 weeks, hubby bought me another 1, the cheapest we could find yet decent enough. I chose a pretty Pinky... the first pink thing I own for the last... 20 years?? :)

LG E310 @ S$899