Resolutions 2011

1. Be punctual (or at least, no more than 15 min late once a week)

2. Get open water certification in March ‘11 - certified!

3. Get motorbike licence by June ‘11

4. Climb Mt Kinabalu in June '11 - postponed indefinitely

5. Try more new experiences - sea sports? jet-skiing? - Sea sports in Batam :)

6. Travel more – March, June, Sep-Oct?

7. Exercise the brain - read newspaper daily, 4 books a month, write more and reflect more.

The brain is there for a reason so work smart and fast. Read the papers before/after work etc or watch CNA.

8. Exercise 4x weekly or die on Mt Kinabalu - need to buck up on this!

Practice tennis once a week and master enough to play a game (i.e. return at least 3 serves within the court).

Swim at least twice a week and jog once a week (gym with G).

Do not skip Muay Thai! Improve my roundhouse kick and reaction times in MT – don’t be so retarded!

9. Relax, enjoy life and be happy!
Learn to go with the flow and not over-plan or get upset when things don’t go according to plan. Remember Su’s words: Some things in life are out of control. You can either make it a party or tragedy.

10. Learn to love myself more, and others. Love my friends and family loads loads cos they truly deserve more.

11. Shop wisely - no more greys and blacks in my closet, esp sleeveless blacks and baggy greys. Get one or two more flats or a twisted ankle soon. Don't buy recklessly (i.e. not sure whether i like, or normal but overpriced goods). But BUY if you really like it!

12. Out with the old, in with the new! (this applies to clothes in particular... sigh) SPRING-CLEAN regularly

13. Widen my social circle but don't forget to meet up with old friends :) - must work less!!!

Not been feeling too great recently. But well, what's new? And it's often through these tough times that I learn to appreciate my friends, and the random beauty of life even more.

My long-neglected hobby. The pool looks so inviting even at night.

You know you're loved when you get two crunchy (and one soft) nougats. Because everybody loves crunchy more, and yet she gave you two! ;)

I have these friends whom I've known for ages. We seldom keep in touch, but yet we know - that we're always in each other's hearts. And every year without fail, I receive an sms from them on that very day. And secretly inside my heart, I feel myself melting.

And these friends, whom dote on me so. Who never forget me year after year, and always make the effort to keep me in sight and celebrate with me. They don't know though, that the day is special only because they make it so. Really, it's not because of me.

And then this third group of friends, whom I only got to know in the past year. Nevertheless, their antics never fail to make me smile. What with the ugliest birthday card I have ever received, hastily scribbled post-its stuck all over my workstation, the cutest lil' boss who shuffles up and surprises me with a birthday gift (again!), choruses of "Happy Birthday!" from 3 crazily fun project mates, and a magic cup cap that just reminded a friend of me.

What can I say? I'm touched to bits, and I don't know how to express this overwhelming feeling. August the 14th never mattered much to me, but apparently, it did to them. :)

Thank you, my dearest friends.

The days before the big move, everybody was busy packing and taking snapshots of our old office grounds. I'd thought I'd be so glad to move that I wouldn't feel an ounce of sadness. I'd even scoffed at fellow colleagues who'd said they'd miss the old office at Kallang.

But on the day of the move, as we took the mini-van over to the new office, I looked back at the old office where I'd spent the past year, almost, and I actually felt poignant. Perhaps cos my favourite security uncle wasn't moving with us. Nobody to greet me "cute xiao mei!" every morning in future. :(

And so we moved on Monday. A look at my new office below. We're located on level 2 and here's the door to our office...and the pantry located outside the office.

And here's my workstation. :) Brought lots of photos to decorate my "walls".

It's semi-open concept and there's no partition between me and my right-hand neighbour but other than that, I like it much more than my previous workstation. Notice my cabinet's filled with my own stuff. I've chucked most of the files in the shelf below my desk for easier access, i.e. nobody should have to open my cabinets and drawers to find anything now. No excuses!

A closer look at some of the stuff at my workstation. Clockwise from the top left:

1. my "Do Not Disturb" comic, nodame-chan and my frolick badge from sminties

2. a 'durian' from the intern J, MS's craft heart to me during Workplan in March and memories of Tioman 2003

3. A healthcare benefits booklet from CCD division (basically I took it for the cute rats :)

4. Fifi's teddy pen to me in my makeshift pen holder, lots of quotes and a poem pinned to my wall, and Boss Tr's b-day gift to me last year - a white rat paper clip holder, with YL's lil' black rabbit clips peeking out from it

5. Memories from Osaka trip 2005, and other people who matter to me. Actually had more photos to display but there really wasn't enough space.

It's funny how much difference a conducive environment makes to me. I actually look forward to going to work in the mornings now just so I can see my pretty workstation! :)

Christmas this year was, unexpectedly, fun.

The first sign I had that Christmas was coming was a card from sminties, so early in the December mail. :)
I thought of baking for my colleagues, especially since one would be leaving us to join another division come January 09. But I guess I've grown too old. I no longer had the energy nor enthusiasm to do sweet little things like I might've done in the past. This was from a batch that I baked back in October I think, specially decorated for Papa cos I felt rather guilty, always making them eat the burnt or ugly ones.

And here are my gifts and souvenirs for this Xmas. Surprisingly, the office gift exchange went quite well. And there was much less clutter compared to the previous year. In fact, I was quite lucky and got a choice gift - a shoe bag that quite a few of us youngsters were eyeing. Heh!

Oh, and the necklace that YL got me with the "lovers' band" on it? The design is actually an imitation of Cartier's classic screwdriver design, and I only realised it when I saw the huge Cartier signboard at Taka the other day. No wonder bakushit was giving me funny looks, haha!

And lastly, Minnie Snow and Mickey Snow wish us all a very Merry Christmas and promises of a great year to come in 2009!

For my 23rd birthday, Deer got me an oven. So for her 24th, I decided to bake her some "mooncakes" from scratch (no, not `scratch my darling cammie). Unfortunately, my cupcakes and muffins always have a problem rising evenly. And the paper cup always gets burnt somehow.

So pre-icing, this is how they looked.

Ta-da! After decorating them (and cutting off the burnt bits of paper cup), they look much better don't they? :)

I'd put them in a durian mooncake box, cut out the cover and stuck it onto the styrofoam box so when I met Deer, I told her that they were durian mooncakes I'd gotten for her to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. For a moment there, she really believed me. In fact, she seemed quite excited cos she'd heard the durian mooncakes were really good! And then I got abit freaked and called my own bluff worryin that she'll be disappointed to find that they're not durian mooncakes after all...

We ended up going upstairs to Sky Park to have the mooncakes. (Misunderstanding there cos she'd thought they were durian mooncakes so we couldn't have them indoors at the restaurant whilst I knew what they were and kept wondering why we couldn't have them indoors at Sushi Tei. Incidentally, why do I always meet with accidents at Sushi Tei? Once I went with muiz and the waitress spilt green tea on my feet. Another time we went to celebrate my birthday and this waitress dropped a plate and chips of it flew everywhere and we'd to be very careful where we stepped. And this time deer spilt her own green tea...wahaha. Mebbe I'm jinxed but I still love their sushi!)

Because I was such a klutz and kept swinging the box around while i walked, i kinda got the surprise messed up and had to get tissue from her to wipe off bits of the melted "durian" and ta-da, i finally presented them to her!

She looked more puzzled than anything, and scrutinized the cupcakes for a while. So I told her that there was Oreo flavour, vanilla & nutella flavour and she asked if the ones with yellow icing were durian-flavoured. Apparently she was still wondering if they were a new kind of mooncakes. Unfortunately, they were just plain ol' vanilla with yellow icing. (I'd bought 4 bottles of icing colour from PH because I didn't wanna buy so many cans of different icing. They looked like printer ink and my mum believed me when I said so :)

But she was too full from our late lunch so she didn't try any. And in the end, we got this! A real durian mooncake from Home's Favourites. Haha!

So there was mooncake after all. :)

He's not a bum, he's an entrepreneur and i've a badge from his store!

the other day, i was all blue. and the next, he inspired me. or rather, they inspired me. everybody is striving hard for their dreams. so should i. somebody once told me this: i think we can live without the rosy hue for a while, and if we do have it, well, we're lucky. have faith, ah rottt. even a baby step is a step forward.

if given a choice, would you want to release an album or perform every Saturday night in the bar? :)