Miss me..

Yong arrived safely in Thailand.
Called me to say that he's already missing me last night.
It's going to be a long 17 days ahead..

Yong's Send-Off.

Yesterday was the date that Yong was scheduled to leave Singapore to head out to Thailand for a 17-day long exercise.

We went out for Mac breakfast and than headed back to Sin Ming to pick up some stuff as well as to play with Roxy. Thereafter, we headed to Vivo for me to complete my Christmas shopping. Yes, its all done (99%)! Came home after a movie - The Informant! (Yong kept emphasizing on the '!' behind the title). This was the first time I've seen him thinking after a movie. He kept asking questions and was really wondering about the movie. I will do a short review of the movie after this post.

Anyway, Yong got me a winter peacoat from Zara - which I've thought long and hard about. It costs S$199. I was thinking of ordering it from VS as its usually about USD99 (before the various type of dicsounts). However, for me to enjoy the tiered discount - I had to spend more. Decided against it. Also bought some turtlenecks from Mango. These are all in preparation for the Japan trip next Feb (ya..laugh all you want but when you can't find stuff in Jan/Feb for a trip - see who has the last laugh lor). Might be travelling to Shenzhen/HK for a short bis trip with my boss so had to prepare as well.

Came home with all the prezzies in hand and started wrapping them. Stopped when Yong asked me to spend time to watch TV with him before we go over to his mom's house for dinner. Sent him to the airport and waited while he checked-in. The whole area was filled with men!!! Anyway, I left around 11pm and headed home. I should have listened to him and not drink the cafe latte at Dome last night!! I came home an couldn't sleep!!! So, I packed the house a little and wrapped all the presents! Done this at 12
midnight!! Can't show you guys the presents but here's the presents wrapped.

Presents for family - Ami, Michelle, Kang Wei and Verene (Ma's present is already at Sin Ming.).

Presents for some of my closest colleagues.

Under the Christmas tree.

Some presents are missing as they've yet to arrive from overseas.

More wrapping to come!

Slept close to 2am last night and woke up at 955am as Yong called my mobile telling me he has arrived safely.

After a tough week at work..

Well, work was kinda sucky the past week with various crappy stuff happening to me.
However, I had a great lunch with a bunch of great colleagues yesterday!

To top things off - Yong got a surprise call in the evening asking to 'borrow' our house for a drinking session by some of our closest friends.
Although I had a call at 1am (which I totally forgot), these gatherings really made my day.
It was fun to meet up with this gang of friends and simply chit chat (not the full gang was here though).

Pardon my sleepy face - was taken close to 12midnight (way past siam bu's sleeping time).

Went for supper at 130am (still on the call) at Geylang and walked home after that.

Popped in to bed at close to 3am and woke up (relunctantly) at 830am to get to work.

Thanks to Yong for waking up with me and fetching me to work this morning.

Back to work...

Christmas Shopping.

Well, as with previous years, I am an early planner and shopper. This year, I can safely say I'm 70-80% done shopping (as well as wrapping the gifts) for my list (and Yong's list of course).

Kiasu right? But I always believe that the stores are cursed! Nearer to Christmas its either the stocks are out or the item prices are jacked up one lor!! Needless to say there's also the crowd that are like fighting for the best buys or rather last minute buys!!

My mentality? I go shopping and when I see something suitable for someone - I will buy and keep. Money flows out slowly too! Not so heartache!

Came back from Genting and found this tucked in a corner of the living room. Yong had went out to get a Christmas tree whilst I was away and he set it up all by himself (minus the star and skirting - which I had to go get it myself). He kinda gave himself away (as usual) before I left for Genting but I had totally gotten a shock at how pretty it looks. 100% for effort!

Thank you so much for the wonderful Christmas Tree and the effort put in to decorating it.
Lastly, a photo of the tree and the presents below it.

On Hong Encore Concert in Genting.

Headed up to Genting the past weekend and it was mighty fun albeit too short!
Took the coach up leaving Singapore at around 1030pm on Friday night - it was drizzling.

I remember we took a family trip to Genting when I was younger (Michelle was around then) and I fell really, really sick on the way up. Vomitted and had a terrible tummy upset - think it was the ride up or some flu bug that hit me or maybe I ate something wrong. After that, I had really avoided going to Genting (it was always KL). In 2006, we went again (Ma, Ami, Mich, me & Yong). This time round it was much much better - at least we went to the theme park! Oh, don't ask me about gambling - I'm not a gambler and I don't understand the people in the casino who gamble till they have no money to go home or argue at the table or tell other players to do this and that. Seen that before too many times and it's just plain scary the way people become when it comes to gambling. 输不起,不要玩 or rather 赌 in this case. Daddy always taught us from young that we have the choice to gamble or not - if you choose to do so and lose money - your face cannot be black and you cannot blame others.Reason? You made the decision to gamble - no one forced you to do so.

Back to this trip - we arrived in the wee hours of the morning and can't check-in lor! So hung out at Starbucks and went to the casino. Checked in at around 12 (though I think it could have been done earlier..haha) and I just slept like a baby until evening. Went for dinner and than to the concert.

Man!! They started on the dot at 8pm!!! Ami, did the last one we went start on time ah? Anyway, was telling Ami yesterday over lunch that the culture there is somewhat different - cameras were flashing non-stop and the artiste even came down to shake hands and pose for photos. One even went all the way up to the top to meet with his fans. I think this also depends on how 'on' the artiste is. They belted out so so many old cantonese songs that even some I've never heard before (not that I know a lot also). They sang and sang until 11pm - 3 full hours! Kinda feel bad as the person accompanying me wasn't really well-versed in Cantonese and the whole dialouge was in Cantonese. I think there were only like 10% of the songs being sung in Mandarin.

After that, we went 'clubbing'. With the inverted commas as the music or rather the DJ that started the set kinda sucked bug time. Haiz. The lady after the guy was much much better. Oh, they played 'Nobody'..haha..nope, I did not dance to the steps.

Caught the movie 'Poker King' in Cantonese the next day - it was hilarious! We don't get Cantonese movies on the big screen in Singapore. Somehow, I feel that the language is so much more descriptive in nature as compared to Mandarin.Went shopping and bowling too. My last trip there was in 2006 - there was not much changes there. The shops and rides were more or less the same. There's one place I've never been to - Maxim's hotel. Apparently, its the creme de la creme of the hotels up there in Genting.
Note to self - must try staying there at least once.

The thing I disliked - people smoked every where they went. This may be a paradise for Singaporean smokers, you can smoke while you're gf or wife is shopping (must be thinking 'shit, spend money again!') or you can smoke after eating at the restaurant IN the restaurant (no need to walk 50m away from the shopping center wor) or you can smoke while you gamble (best match in the world right?) and for those who miss smoking while clubbing - YES! you can do it here and not kena from the bouncer!!! (word of warning - no smoking on dancefloor or the DJ will announce on the PA).

It rained almost every day we were there so the theme park was out. Speaking of theme parks - can't wait for Sentosa's one to officially open! Not a gambler but definitely a thrill seeker!

Dumb!

I'm sitting in front of the tube with my Toshiba laptop on my thighs and I am ultra ultra ultra full from dinner.
Thing was, Yong went for Tiger Brewery tour today and we decided to meet at home after work for some aglio olio dinner. In order to cook that, I headed down to Bugis to grab some ingredients. Well, I went to get my Topshop replacement card also lar. Didn't want to make a special trip over the weekend to collect it and it has been sitting there for more than a week.

At Bugis, I was approached by a girl (with a pimply face and a note pad) asking if I'd like to be a face model. I looked at her and laughed. I know I was rude so I apologised and say 'No, thank you'. Seriously, I think it was a scam! This was just the beginning.

After grabing the stuff for the Aglio Olio, I headed back to the mrt station to come home. Suddenly, I heard thunder and one of the girls in front of me asked her friend, "Raining ah?". I contemplated to myself - Kallang is 2 stops away, maybe not so suay hor? So, I got into the train and when it came out at Kallang - it was pouring. Haiz! What the hell was I thinking!?! 2 stops away lor!!

Alighting at the station - I debated - should I wait a little while and maybe the rain would ease up or should I take the train back to Bugis to buy an umbrella or should I try my luck at the 7-11 downstairs to see if they sell umbrella or should I run in the rain across the street to go to my mum-in-law's house to borrow an umbrella (ya, so many choices right?)? In the end, the train on the opposite track came so I hopped on to go back to Bugis.

At Lavender station - there was a screech and than the train stopped. However, the doors never opened. Then an announcement - dear passengers, the train was unable to stop in time at the station. passengers who wish to alight at this station please alight at the next station and take the train back. we apologise for the inconvenience caused. People were laughing in the train. It was really the first time I kena this kind of situation. Well, the train went to Bugis and heng it was able to stop 'in time'!

I went to Giordano to get my umbrella (Note: Gior umbrella's prices are fixed. S$8 with or without rain) and headed back to the train station. Now, I was thinking to myself - the dumbest thing that could happen now is that when I reach Kallang, the rain stop miraculously lor! Yes and no - the rain did not stop but it became a light drizzle! K**B**B (was thinking in my head) !!!! I don't care lor! Still open my S$8 umbrella and 'shelter' myself! Walk, walk, walk..this young girl came up by my side with no umbrella. I was sick ma, need to protect myself from falling sick again. When we reach the traffic light, it was red and the girl was standing in the drizzle. I purposely stood next to her, held my umbrella and looked at her. Ya la, I was thinking - obi no umbrella. It did make me feel better.Hahaha!

Funny!

I happen to come across a link to one of my colleague's blog.
(I think) He grew up in America and he's a Chinese but he's been in Singapore for the past 5 years (he keeps repeating this in his blog - almost every other post).
It's just so funny reading his blog and the comments that he gets from his friends and family members.

I guess as Singaporeans - we take things in Singapore for granted and its funny if we take a step back and see stuff from their perspectives. We will see things that we've never thought twice about before.

It's difficult for people to look at things that happen on a daily basis and just laugh at themselves or along with it.
People here takes things a tad too seriously but when I start acting funny - people call me gila and Mr. Look will ask me to stop it although I make him laugh and laugh.
Whose acting funny now?