A pathetic yet fruitful Christmas

23rd Dec
I was having slight sorethroat when I went out dinner with Hui on his birthday. The sorethroat became worse on the 23rd. The fever had not come to haunt me yet, hence I went as planned to hui's grandma's house to celebrate her birthday.

Later at night around 7+pm, we went to Hui's sister house for our early christmas celebration and gift exchange. We had satay, chicken wings, lagsane (made by both sisters) for dinner. And ofcourse not forgetting the delicious chocolate christmas cake. I loved the cake very much. The sponge cake inside was very soft, not dry at all! A pity I couldnt take too much as it was too heaty! We started our gift exchange around 10+pm. Each of us bought a present for an assigned party. I bought a Adidas top for Hui's bro-in-law. I had gotten a Nike Gym washbag from Hui's another bro-in-law. That's my first christmas present received on the 23rd Dec.

24th Dec
On the 24th Dec early morning, the fever devil had came. I knew if I don't cure my sorethroat, fever would be next. Hui brought me to the 24hour clinic to see doctor. I NEVER like to visit a 24hr clinic unless no choice because I had a bad experience at the Clementi branch. Few years ago, I had a fever and went to see a doctor. That was like 11+pm and therefore 24hour clinic was my only choice. The young doctor used the ear thermometer and put it through my ear to test my temperature. Then he claimed everything was good, no fever! I nearly fell off my chair! I came to see you in the middle of the night because I felt hot and giddy, and you could come and tell me I had NO fever??? My mum confronted him and he tested my temperature again, this time putting the thermometer further into the ear. And yes, I was indeed having a fever. Alright, enough said of the history here.

I went home, took the medicine and slept throughout the day on a Christmas eve. This evening, I'm supposed to have a gathering at Limei's house with my secondary friends at 6.30pm. We had gifts exchange as well and I had already prepared all the presents. If I don't go, it would be meaningless to distribute the presents the next time I see them. After some persuasion asking Hui to let me go, I climbed out of bed and we drove all the way to Jurong West for the gathering.
We had steamboat for dinner. I could only ate those soupy stuff and not the bbq food. After dinner, we had a chat with Peiyi (who's now residing at US) at 10pm through webcam. It's touched to see the strong friendship bond between these group of friends after we left the secondary school so many years ago. I really treasured our friendship alot.

After that, we proceed to cut the durain logcake. The heavy durain smell made me drool and wanted to eat so much, but I couldnt. Durain is too heaty for me especially when I'm still having fever at that time. Next program would be the gift exchange. I had received a total of 4 presents!
1)A customised magnet with my name on it from Olivia
2)A bedsheet set + towel from Phyllis
3)A cute T-shirt from Limei
4)A precious moment bathtowel from gift exchange (Through draw lots, I had chosen the one bought by Limei)

Xmas countdown 2006 at Limei's house
*Photos grab from Phyllis's imagestation*
We waited until 12am before leaving the place for home. I fell into deep sleep once I got home due to the medicine.
I stayed home on the 25th as I'm still having fever. 26th I was on leave and rested well that day.
27th Dec
I went back to office on the 27th Oct and found many presents on my desk! I had 3 gifts wrapped in nice wrapping paper, 1 box of Toffee chocolate, 1 bar of Tolberone, 3 Ferrero Rochers and 1 bag of assorted chocolates and sweets. Gosh, I felt so paiseh because I did not prepared any gifts for my colleagues. I promised I will buy next year! I had a wonderful team of colleagues in this company that was what holding me back from leaving this place.

Although I'm sick, but i had a heart-warming Christmas celebrations with family and friends on the 23rd and 24th. And also not forgetting the number of presents I had received this year, it was a fruitful Christmas for me. ^_^

And now, before I had even complete the antibotic course, stomach flu devil came to join in the fun as well. When I reached office, I vomitted and had diarrhoea a few times. I went home in the noon to see doctor and had gotten 2 days MC. Will be back to work on the 29th, which make this whole week, I had only worked 1.5 days...:D

Happy 26th Birthday to Dear

22nd Dec was Hui's 26th birthday. Had a cake cutting session with his family on the 22nd 12am! I was on 1/2 day leave on the 21st and hence went to Tampines to buy the birthday cake in the noon as well as looking for his birthday present. Came home with the cake, but not any present!

His 26th birthday cake
I had a headache thinking what to buy and where to eat for the past few days. All the preparation was done on the day itself. I took leave on 22nd as well so that I could prepare the stuffs and gave him a surprise. Sent him to work and went down to IMM to get his present. I already had in mind what I wanted to buy for him. I reached at 9+am and the stores were not open yet. Therefore I went to Mcdonald to have my breakfast waiting for time to pass. I never like sitting at a place eating alone because I feel very pathetic as if I had no friends. But I had no choice because the shops mostly open at 11am.

I left Mcdonald around 10.45am and some shops were opened. Walk around the place and found something really cute from a shop. I stood there for a few minutes and kept laughing to myself. I asked for the price and since it was not that expensive, I bought it! That triggers me to play a little joke on Hui to see how realistic is this guy!

After I bought that gift, it was already 11.10am. The shop I wanted to go finally opened. I went in, walked straight to the counter and bought it. Next, I went to Daiso to get a heart shape gift box. Left IMM around 12+pm and went home happily to prepare gift wrapping.

After finish wrapping the gifts, I went online to book movie tickets at 9.20pm to watch 'Night at the Museum'. Hui mentioned he wanted to watch this movie when he saw the preview. Thanks to his bro-in-law, I used his userid to login to Safra website and managed to book a ticket at $8 each. Next in line, the dinning place. I had only decided on the place to dine at 4pm! I called the place to make reservation hoping it was not full yet and YES, I had successfully made a reservation for 2 at 7pm.

Just when I could finally relax abit, Hui msg said he could leave the office now.I quickly pack the stuffs, ate the tang yuan my mum prepared, and left my house at around 5.15pm to pick him up from work.

We reach Thai 1827 Restaurant at 6.45pm. The ambience and decoration in this place was great. The service was good and most importantly, the food was nice! I love the stuffed chicken wing! Since it was a fine dining place, you should expect the price to be quite steep. ^_^

Stuffed Chicken Wings
I gave him his 1st present at the restaurant. Due to the size and shape, he thought it was something as what he mentioned before that he wanted. Well, as I said earlier, that gift was meant to play a joke on him. I told him the gift he wanted was too expensive and I'm simply broke now this Dec due to all the christmas gift exchange coming on. That gift was what I could afford now + a nice dinner to compensate for the gift. Look at his disappointed face!

Isnt this cup meaningful? Especially to the WIFE!
It reads 'Quan Xin Quan Yi Wei Lao Po Fu Wu', 'Lao Gong Wan Shui'
Took a final photo before we left the place to go Marina Square. I had purposely chose a dining place that was not situated at MS or Suntec so that I could surprise him with the 2nd gift at the carpark, before the movie started. If both thing were at the same place without having to move the car, then by the time the movie finished, it might had passed 12am before I could present him that surprise!

When we reached the carpark, I walked to the boot and took out the 2nd gift. Well, picture says a thousand words.


Purposely put the gift in that heart shape box so that he couldnt guess what it was.
The piece of paper wrote "SURPRISE! Hope you like this box as if I had given my heart to YOU"
Well, luckily this guy was not that dumb afterall. He suspected something was hidding beneath the blue shredded papers.

Look at his expression now
And the gift he wanted was:


Hui's 26th Birthday Photos
PS: I shall now officially declare that I'm BROKE for the month of Dec & Jan(credit card bill for all expenses spent on this day will come in Jan!) !! Anyone wants to date me have to either give me a treat or dine at kopitiam! :p

Attended my first muslim wedding

17th Dec was an important day for my poly class/schmates, Yussuf and Siti. Yussuf was my classmate back in poly and Siti was from the other class, but same module. Both of them started dating when they were in year 2 and that was 1 year earlier than Hui and me.

Quarrals, breakups, patching back and many buckets of tears had brought the 2 of them overcome all obstacles and finally tieing the knot. It was great to see another friend of ours decided to build a family together.

Muslim wedding was so much simplier and easier compared to our chinese traditional weddings. Guests could get to choose which side of venue they want to go. Either the bride's side house for lunch, the groom's side for dinner or both. The lunch/dinner reception was held at the void deck of the bride's and groom's house. If you were late and the couple had left the place for another venue, you could just find a place, sit down and leave anytime when you had finish the food. The risk here would be any strangers could just act as the couple's friend and had a free lunch/dinner!

We reached Siti's block at Marina Drive at around 12.20pm. Hui and me met up with other classmates and chop a place to sit down. We saw Siti sitting at the stage alone without Yussuf around. Guest started coming in nearer to 12.30pm. At 12.30pm sharp, drums and musicals started beating from the carpark. We then saw Yussuf walking towards the bride with a gang of instruments players playing the instruments behind him. When he walked towards the arch that leads to the bride, the groom had to first pass the sisters guarding at the entrance. Although it's similar to our chinese gate-crashing, but it's so much easier! Yussuf passed them some packets of stuffs, which we think it contains $$$, and the ladies just let him through!

This time, the bridemaid had already sit beside Siti using a hand fan to cover the bride's face. The groom had to say something, talk to the bridemaid and then he was allowed to see Siti's face and went up the stage to sit together. Not sure what's the meaning of this but guess it's just another traditional rules.

Best part about muslim wedding was the couple just need to sit at the stage and the guests would take turns to take photos with them. Unlike us where we need to walk around tables to take pictures with the guests!

After the photo-taking session, the couple would leave the place to proceed to another venue. Infact the time you saw the groom arrived and the couple left the place was only less than an hour. After the couple left, we continued eating and chatting till about 2pm before leaving the place.

Cogratulations to Yussuf & Siti and may the 2 of them be happy together forever!

Congrats to the newly wedd

My First Christmas Tree

When I'm old enough to understand the meaning of Christmas, I never had a chance to own a christmas tree at home. My mum always says we have an altar at home and therefore not allowed to place a tree in the house. To the elderly, Christmas belongs to the christians/catholic event, and having an altar and a christmas tree at home was like a disrespect to the Buddhist religion.

But I remember when I was very young, think 3 or 4 years old, I do have a christmas tree at home. A tall and big one. It was even taller than me at that time! It was back at my old house in Blk 364. My daddy brought it home one day after work and the 3 of us (Daddy, sister and me) decorated the big tree together. Being a small kid, I did not know the significant of having such a tree at home and what it was for. I just find it really beautiful once the lightings were up and decorations completed. At that point of time, my house did not have the altar yet. That's probably the reason why my mum allowed that big tree to enter into the house.

Now, as a grown up who had attended, organise and celebrated tons of Christmas parties, I had always wish to have my very own big and tall christmas tree at home. This year, I fulfilled half of my dream! I wanted a christmas tree to be displayed in my bedroom. Due to the size of the room, I could not afford a big one. We search high and low for a 3-4 feet white christmas tree with those fiber optic attached but we couldnt find. Those with fiber optic were the green trees.

Thanks so much to Hui's bro-in-law, he managed to get for us from China and imported into Singapore. It was real cheap compared to those christmas tree selling in Singapore. Most importantly, it's the color that we wanted - WHITE! The tree comes with the fiber optic and red star ornaments attached and have a turning function when it is switched on.

Last week, we received our christmas tree from Hui's sister. It was indeed very nice. Few days later, Hui and me went out to buy some decorations for the trees. Due to the size, our ornaments need to be in smaller size. We had a great time shopping for it. The tree is now residing at one good spot in my bedroom.


Before
After
With lightings

Camera Vs WIFI

Recently I changed my MSN nick to the following:

After awhile, I got many messages poping up telling me which HP I should choose and their reason. Ofcourse the key point to consider when buying a handphone depends on whether the handphone provided you the feature that you want, then we move on to the design and appearance.

For these 2 handphones, if both had about the same features, but one had a better camera resolution, however without WIFI and the other had WIFI but lose out on the camera resolution, then is the camera more useful to you or the WIFI (with the new launch of 3years free WIFI around many areas in S'pore)?

After a few days of polling, the winner goes to......*drum rolling*

Sony Ericsson K800i!