jasmine-tay.blogspot.com

CNY Reunion dinner

2012-01-22T23:55:00.000+08:00

Had a simple reunion dinner at my mum's elder sister house just now. It's been ages since I had home cooked food and I felt so.. warm and happy. :)

I call her "Emama" and I'm closer to her than my mum because she took care of me when I was a little girl for a few years and she sincerely cares for my well-being unlike my mother.

She told me that whenever my mum talks to her about me, my mum will start crying. She said that my mum misses me a lot... When she said that, I was scoffing and choking on my porkball because I don't believe my mum can be so sentimental or emotional over a daughter that she doesn't really love. The only person she loves in this world is herself, and the only other person is my brother.

Anyone else who she claims she loves or who claims that she loves them is lying to themselves or seriously deluded and needs a bitch-slap from me to wake up from their self-perceived fantasy of hope and craziness.

I have said this once and many times, but people who judge me for being "so mean" or "so bad" to my mother can go fuck off because they know shit about her and how she treated me since I was young. She stole from me, lied to me, hit me, tortured me (mentally & physically) and basically is the main culprit of my predicament today. Only very close friends or people whom I let into my inner circle knows the true story. Only a handful knows the whole story.

By the way, my mum wasn't at the dinner. I only agreed to go because she's going overseas on a tour assignment (she is working in Five Stars Travel as a tourleader).

I am working tomorrow and on Tuesday and basically the whole week except for my 2 OFF days. My colleagues and clients are all asking me "Y U NO OFF ON CNY?!" .. Well, I volunteered for the CNY shift when my boss asked me (though he was embarrassed to ask me but he has no choice because alot of people were on leave, even the foreigners and he kinda knows I have no family) and I will always try my best to accommodate or help others.

People may think that I am weird, or maybe they might feel sorry for me, staying alone.. being all alone for CNY with no festivities, no family, blah blah blah.

Well, that's life. Life sucks and you die.. That's what I use to believe but recently things have kinda changed and I have renewed hope that somehow, maybe things are improving for me. *fingers crossed*

And I won't be alone during CNY. :)

Gelish Nails for CNY

2012-01-20T15:14:00.000+08:00

Just went for a Gelish manicure for CNY.. it's super red and usually I will go for silver colour, but since it's Chinese New Year, why not? :)

My nails are super short because I was doing intensive spring cleaning and housework and many of them cracked.. :( So my manicurist have to trim them all to similar sizes.

No worries! I shall try to maintain them to grow them longer! ^^

Cotton Wool

2012-01-17T16:22:00.000+08:00

I only use a particular brand of cotton wool from Daiso. Ettusais has something similar but they are selling it at more than 3 times the price of Daiso.. so it makes economical sense to buy from Daiso instead. Problem is, they either always run out of stocks or they don't stock it. Whenever I see it, I will grab 10 boxes at one go because I never know when the next batch will come in..

Sad thing is, for the past few months I can't seem to find this brand in Daiso and I was so desperate when I got to my last 1/2 box in early December, I started panicking and told Wany about my predicament.. She's super nice and sweet to donate 4 boxes to me from her own stash (she likes it too)!

A few days before my Christmas party, she SMSed me to inform me that she found the stocks in Simei's Daiso and she's gonna buy the whole lot! I believe there are over 30 boxes in the store! The salesperson nearly fainted when Wany said she wanted EVERY BOX!

Out of the 30++ boxes, she let me have 20 of the boxes! :)

Carried them all the way to my house for me!!

Awwww.. My best friend is the best! :)

20 boxes!

This is how it looks like.. The quality is damn good at such low prices. The next time I see it in Daiso, I will wipe out the whole shelf.. 30, 50 even 100 boxes I will buy them all! Bwahahahahahahhaaha!

Christmas Presents from Wany!

2012-01-17T15:16:00.000+08:00

Wany gave me lots of stuff for Christmas last December and I did not have the time to blog about it.. I didn't know what to buy for her so I decided to treat her to watch Wicked the Musical.. more on that soon. :)

The paper bag she used to wrap the present is damn old school. We bought it together in Secondary School!! I moved house so many times that it is lost..

All the presents!

Personalized Calendar!

She even put in special dates like PHs and our birthdays! :)

She got me another calendar cos I told her I need a calendar with squares and space to write stuff.

It has pop-out kitties! :)

Pretty ribbons!

This was before Chloe chewed away the ribbon to a small stump. -_-

New Year's Eve in Batam

2012-01-16T14:02:00.000+08:00

This entry is so late because I am really busy with work.. And I just came back from Bangkok yesterday night.. Had a good rest there but back in Singapore I am plagued with nightmares again. Sigh.

Welly & Santi went to Batam after my Christmas Eve Party (oh! I need to blog about that!) to stay for a week before flying back to their different hometowns.

I wanted to go and join them for a few days but unfortunately taking leave is a major pain in the ass because I am working the midnight shift for 4 months till March 2012 and the night team has very limited manpower so we can't take leave as and when we desire. :(

The plan was to go on 30th December and return on 1st January, staying for 2 nights.. But there's the problem of having to find accommodation for Chloe at the last minute (during this peak period somemore!) and I had a braces appointment on 31st December which cannot be rescheduled.. so finally I decided to go on 31st December right after my braces, come back on 1st January and go straight to work (my shift starts at 5pm).

It is a very hectic 1N trip, but it's ultra fun! :)

After my braces appointment, I met Elson at Harborfront MRT. Our ferry was to depart at 2.50pm but we had lots of time to spare so I went to change the timing to 1.30pm departure.. usually we have to pay an admin fee but the nice lady made the change to us for free! :) Yippee!

In the ferry~

The ferry was playing "Fast Five" and I fell asleep halfway cos it's so hot (also I have become a vampire with my upside down shift).

Santi & Welly met us at the ferry terminal and I was soo happy to see them! Squealing and screaming like mad.. Hahahahaha!

Our first stop was LUNCH!

Usual place, Sederhana! Woohoo!

Elson & Welly

Welly is our appointed treasurer again and he is counting money..

The Guniangs! :)

Welly paying for our lunch~

Can they deliver to Singapore please??

Afterwards we went to the supermarket to hunt for Elson's brother's shampoo. Some baby shampoo which can make the hair grow thicker or something..

I wanted to play with fireworks so I made Welly and Santi go hunt for it with me... Imagine my horror when they are charging 1 arm 1 leg for a small box of fireworks. SGD60 for one box! I only paid SGD5 for one box in Guangzhou! Well, it is in China.. but still! 12times the price!??! It is sheer madness! So I gave up my idea of playing with fireworks and I will let other people buy and I shall see for free. Heh!

After walking around we went for our massage session.. super cheap and good because Welly got member price! :)

Right after the massage, we went to check-into our hotel! We stayed in iHotel which is one of the better hotels in Batam. :)

Group picture! ^^

Deluxe Room

Giant bathroom!

Zchar dinner time!

Initially I asked Welly to reserve 10 crabs for the 4 of us, but after 6.. I surrendered. Heh!

After our dinner, we went to tabao my Murtabak Manis before heading to karaoke!

Previously the last time we ate this it sucks.. but this time the BOSS is there and he made it himself personally! Boss level Murtabak Manis!

Mad nice! :)

During the whole 3 hours they kept playing long songs and looking at me cheekily. OMG. It's a long story, but basically I was trying to run but Elson was blocking the door and Santi guniang offered no support, saying she is in Welly's gang. T_T"

Ended the fun karaoke session with a super fun song.. Party Rock!

After counting down the New Year at the karaoke, we headed back o the hotel for more celebrations! Welly's belated birthday! :D

I still owe him a birthday present because I have no time to buy one! :(

I told him I owe him first until he comes to Singapore.. He made a few wishes before blowing out the candles. I told him he must be very specific cos previously I made a wish at the same place and it came true BUT there was a catch because I wasn't specific enough. I wished that he will get a job in Singapore -- which he did but... his S-Pass was not approved! Damn. Anyway, one of his wish already came true! He is so happy that he was speechless and breathless when I was on the phone with him. Hahahaha! ^^

So our theory is true! Wishes come true at iHotel Batam! LOL!

The next day we went our separate ways.. Santi went back to her hometown, Welly went back to his and me and Elson came back to Singapore..

It's been almost 3 weeks since I last saw Santi & Welly and I miss both of them so much! They may be coming back in March or May and I CAN'T WAIT!!!! If you two are reading this entry.. I MISS YOU SO MUCH! COME BACK QUICKLY!!!

That concludes our Batam NYE 1 night trip. :) More to come!

Operation "Save Jasmine's iPhone"

2012-01-10T18:30:00.001+08:00

I was tweeting the other day and I realized that there's 3 little dots on my screen.. I thought they were dead pixels and was so upset..

So when I had the chance to meet Brendan, I showed him my phone but he told me it's not dead pixels!! YAY!

However.. it's dust! Dust particles! I was wondering how the dust particles could go inside the screen.. and while I was cracking my head open to explain this stupid phenomena, he examined my phone further and showed me a gaping hole near the sleep/wake button!! OMG!

Can you see the hole? I don't know when it happened!

Also, note that the SIM tray has cracked until 90% of it is missing. Sigh.

Upon further examination..he told me that the screen.. one side is dented in, one side is popping out and the antenna is uneven.. OMG! Also.. he figured the battery is pretty much cui (fucked-up) since it depletes so quickly.. Why is he able to diagnose so much problems with my phone in 2 mins while it took me forever to wonder what's wrong with my phone and also not notice the gaping hole? I am super non-observant. :(

After his diagnosis, I was kinda emo-ing for a few days because I really want to keep my 3GS and refused to change to the new 4S. This is my 1st iPhone and it has been with me for over 2 years and it has sentimental value! :( Moreover I don't like to use microSIM..!!

Thank god Brendan had a wonderful solution! He offered to operate on my iPhone and change the battery for me because he happens to have a spare iPhone3GS that belonged to his friend but he gave it to him cos the motherboard is screwed. He actually dismantled the phone and took pictures and posted on FB. I was like super mindfucked when I saw the pictures. -_- I thought the phone is totally dead, but he told me other parts of the phone is working.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT HE HAS A SPARE iPHONE3GS HANGING AROUND HIS HOUSE!? OMG.

Anyway, he brought his equipment and tools over to my place and thus began the iPhone operation to save my iPhone! :)

My iPhone was still running on OS4.1.2 while most people are running on iOS5 and I kept refusing to switch over because I don't want my phone to have any potential problems.. moreover I have quite a number of games or apps that I downloaded when he jailbreak my phone for me last year..

But I decided to let him go ahead and update and restore the phone.. So now my phone is no longer a jailbreak phone. For now. Heh.

Brendan unscrewing the screws of the spare phone while backing up my phone..

He actually arranged the screws according to position and REMEMBERS where each screw belongs when he assembled the phone back!! I asked him why so troublesome.. and he said not all the screws are the same length and if placed wrongly, the phone may not work. T_T"

First look into the phone after the screen is pulled open..

Note the orange stickers? Those are numbered, so you have to open them according to the numbers.. He pulled open each one and explained to me what each component is.. Speaker, camera, touch sensor.. I think? OMG it was so technical that I kinda blacked out for a while. LOL!!

Dissected into 3 parts.

Battery, motherboard & screen

The new battery that's about to be transplanted into my phone..

My screen..

Back of the screen..

He said to use my old screen first until it become really cui then he will change it to the newer one. I think he knows I am super chor-lor and the next thing to go might be my screen. =.=

Oh! It's really dusty inside! And the rubber surrounding the screen is like peeling away. OMG. And my SIM tray is totally cui to the maximum until cannot save.

Now my iPhone is as good as new! Yay!

Thank you Brendan! :)

Lunch at Sushi Tei with my sister!

2012-01-10T17:42:00.001+08:00

Last friday I went to meet my sister for lunch at Vivocity.. We were supposed to meet at 1pm to go to Soup Restaurant, but I slept at 9am cos I finished work at 6am and I had to do housework and stuff.. so I was late!

I reached Vivocity around 2.10pm and she called me to tell me that Soup Restaurant closes at 2.30pm. Super sad voice cos she really wanted to eat the Samsui Chicken.

Oops. =X Sorry!

So we changed plans and went to Sushi Tei instead... They only either had the bar counter seats (NO!) or the window seats.. I was squinting thru lunch cos it was so sunny and I just woke up... Especially since I seldom see the sun lately.

Me and my sister~

She keeps complaining that the MRT fares are expensive cos she has to pay adult fare now.. So I went to top up $50 in one of my spare EZlink card to give it to her and also gave her $100 as "pocket money". She worked for a month and only earned $360... NOW SHE KNOWS earning money is tough! Tsk. I worked for my own money since I was really young so I am more independent than her. :P

Feeding my sister and making her fat.

Agedashi Tofu! Yums!

Look at the leftover rice.. My sister go and dig out the "liao" and ignore the rice cos we over-order.. OK.. I over-order.. as usual.

Miffy (her mascot) sun-tanning

My sister's iPhone cover.. super cute right!

"WHO AM I"?

I am soooo good at this game though it's my 1st time. Hahahaha!

My sister stressing and guessing..

Belated Christmas presents from my sister!

Thank you puichi! :)

My sister is the only family I have.

2012-01-09T01:00:00.000+08:00

Brendan asked me yesterday, "Why does your sister call you Jappie?"

I think it sounds like Jap-pie like a short form for Japanese?

I really don't know how it started, maybe I should ask her.. but the pronunciation is "zeh-pee" like a cuter version of Jiejie..?

I read her blog and she dedicated a section to me, which is super sweet of her.

It's true that at one point in time I didn't really speak to her because of several reasons.

She did not understand why I left home. Maybe she even blamed me for turning my back on her.. Moreover my dad was telling her bad things about me and maybe she kinda believed him.
She was too young for me to confide in. It's difficult to share serious adult stuff with her. (and she's like so childish and innocent)
She had her own life to lead without worrying about her elder sister's.

Most importantly, I distanced myself away from her to protect her. Living with a stepmother who has her own daughter and interests to protect is a major bitch. Especially if the woman hates your real blood elder sister. If she was close to me, her life will be even more miserable and her position in the family will be more precarious.

It's also true that Pipimon kept quarreling with me whenever she comes to me for help and I always help her without fail or looking at the price or consequence. That's because after I helped her out of her fix, she will disappear from my life again until the next problem comes along. He felt that I shouldn't spoil her or even entertain her when she only comes to me when she needs help.

Once I spent almost a month's part-time pay check on a Sony Digital camera for her birthday present cos she really wanted a digicam and I wanted to buy something that is good and not those cheap substandard ones. Thing was, she borrowed it to her stepmother for a holiday.. and that's a double whammy cos firstly I spent so much on it for her while barely making ends meet (this was when I was still studying in SIM), and she actually borrowed it to the witch! Pipimon and I had such a huge fight over it, I nearly slapped him because he was so fucking sarcastic and said so many bad things about my sister. Wait.. I think I did slapped him.. I can't really remember.

I know it sounds contradicting since I turned my back on my family and moved out.. but, "what are family for?". Of course, being the logical sound person I am, I value family kinship with terms and conditions. I don't blindly follow protocol or let my life to be dictate by a bunch of people who are blood related to me yet treat me like shit just because they think they have the right to.

My sister is the youngest out of the 3 siblings. She was always bullied as a child by my younger brother and mother and there's no one in the family who stood up for her except me. I felt responsible for her. She looked up to me, respected me and even worshiped me (at one point, I was like a God to her). Though she had my brother with her in her new family and home, my brother is a selfish bastard who will look out for his own interests first and foremost before helping anyone else.

I do crave for family love.. for a good husband to take care of me, for a loving family relationship with my in-laws and also start my own family.. but for now, all I have is my sister and I will never ever forsake our relationship for anyone or anything.

She is still young and needs time to grow and sort out her thinking.. and who knows.. once she has a boyfriend she will disappear again, but I will always be here waiting to catch her when she stumbles or fall.

I love you too Puichi! :)

Naked 2 Urban Decay

2012-01-07T23:55:00.000+08:00

So happy I managed to buy the Naked2 Palette from Urban Decay! They were selling it for 1 day only at Ion Orchard's Sephora and I managed to get it cos Sze Yuen made a detour there to buy it and her friend was queuing so I just asked her to help me buy one! :) I no need to queue and I got the limited edition set! YAY! It's $80 but Sze said online all sold out and Ebay selling around USD100 without shipping.

Happy max cos I always wanted a natural colours palette like this and apparently this is super lasting. (Sze read a lot of good reviews about it) ^^

JasmineMichelle's Wedding

2012-01-03T23:26:00.000+08:00

This is super belated.. but here's a short post on JasmineMichelle's wedding.

It was the night before I flew off to Europe.. I did not want to go at first cos I was emo-ing over Pipimon's death and I felt that it's quite superstitious if I were to go 1 week after his death. She did not mind and insisted me in going, so I did and gave both her and her hubby my blessings.

Anyway, she's Yaya's younger cousin and I call her Smallgirl because we have the same name and it's easier to differentiate us.. Moreover she's so petite and also younger than me..

I super love her pouffy princess gown! It's so dreamy and beautiful!

Wayne & Joyce came to pick me up and also sent me back! Thanks guys!

The door gifts

The menu

Wishing them a lifetime of joy and happiness!

Final Braces Update!

2012-01-01T21:23:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year everyone! :)

I spent New Year's eve in Batam with Santi, Welly & Elson! It was really fun and I will post more pictures soon! :) I stayed for a night and came back to work today. :( Blogging during my breaktime now..

Santi and Welly went back to their respective hometowns! Gonna be months before I see them again! #emo.

I thought I can remove my braces yesterday and was so hyped up about it, but my dentist begged me to put it on for another month cos she wants it to be more stable and secure before removing them.. Imaging my super duper disappointed face. :(

Anyways, she gave me her solemn promise that I can finally remove my braces during the next appointment! 04 Feb! Hurray!

My final colours are silver and blue.. ♥♥♥

Can't wait for next month! YAY! :)

AWESOME 25th BIRTHDAY PARTY!

2011-12-26T05:19:00.000+08:00

This entry is all about my 25th Birthday Party held on 16th October 2011 at Santi Guniang's condo function room at the Arte. I decided to post this entry first before my Christmas Eve Party entry.

Before I go on about what happened during the party, I must say that this was the happiest birthday celebration I ever had in my entire life. I paid for everything by myself, I planned for everything (food, games, prizes), everyone had fun, and the best part was Pipimon did not object or quarrel with me leading up to my birthday!

I insisted in paying for everything myself because I told Pipimon that if I am the one who pay for everything, he has absolutely no right in commenting or being sarcastic about "wasting money" since it's my money and not his and I have all the right in the world to spend my own money on my own birthday.

He wanted to sponsor me $800 but I refused to take it.. At his insistence, I finally allowed him to pay for the birthday cake, barbie cake, fruit tarts & old school cakes (I think it's around $270) cos he said he want to contribute something -- I gave him the T&C that he cannot use the cake as a reason to make sarcastic or hurtful comments, he accepted that and I accepted the cakes.

If you are a regular reader of my blog.. you might have already known that every single year leading up to my birthday, Pipimon will become a crazy bitch and make my life miserable.

On my 20th birthday we had a big fight after my party because I drove my friends home and left my dad's two maids to do the cleaning up.

On my 21st birthday I went to Bangkok with Wany because I want to avoid him, refusing to let him spoil my 21st. I should have a big party that year, but my dad has disowned me by then and I wasn't earning much as I was working part-time and studying at the same time.

For my 22nd, 23rd and 24th birthday.. you can read it in my emo entry I posted last year.

Birthdays are a huge deal to me.. that's why I was very sad that I did not get to celebrate my 21st birthday in style.. I planned for my 21st birthday ever since I was 10 years old! I was watching a drama series on TV and this girl had a lovely party celebration and at the end her dad gave her a Volkswagen Beetle! Ever since then I started planning for my 21st, but sadly I never had the chance to celebrate...

So for my 25th, I decided to have a big (but not that big) celebration and have all my closest friends come and gather together and have fun.. It's a milestone after all, since a girl stops aging after 25. Hypothetically of course.

This year he was very supportive and really accommodating to my plans and everything. He went with me to choose the cake, balloons, prizes for my lucky draw and also my plans to have a Polaroid counter and games corner.

No snide remarks, no sarcasm and no "why you spend so much money" comments at all.

Perhaps it's because I warned him a few months in advance not to ruin my big quarter century birthday, or maybe somehow he knows it might be the last birthday he can spend with me as he's really sick, sicker than he let on.. I was packing his stuff and I saw 5 bagfuls of medicine! Much more than what I thought he was eating everyday!

Anyways, I am glad that my last birthday celebration with him was a happy one.

Ok... enough with the flashback and background story.... Here are the pictures from the party!

Delivery of my Barbie Cake! This is for decoration purposes! :)

Old school cakes! :)

My Polaroid counter!

I will take 2 pictures with each of my guests and they can decorate them, keep one for themselves and one for me!

My sister's design :)

Ice Cream Tower Game

Someone managed to stack it all up!

Joyce couldn't come cos she had to go to India on the very same day, however her boyfriend Wayne very nicely offered to help us with the logistics! He sent Welly and Pipimon to Nex Mall to collect my birthday cake because the stupid shop don't do deliveries at all!

They also collected my balloons! One rabbit, one elephant and 20 lousy golden/white balloons that died before the night is over...

Pipimon and his new pet. =.=

And the most beautiful balloon of all (featured in many Polaroids), my GIANT Hello Kitty balloon! SO CUTE! :) It's winking!

This is my birthday dress!

I bought it in KL in some atas shop where Nathaniel was my style advisor. Pipimon was sitting outside some bench and stoning. Makes me look slim can? Haha! And my legs look so skinny! Love my newest Sony camera!

My Polaroid collection is increasing! :)

I ordered Thai food from Thai Orchid catering because there were Muslim guests and also I did not want the typical Chinese/Western dishes. Apparently the Tom Yum soup was fantastic cos it was finished very quickly! :) I also ordered additional different side dishes so my guests have more choices to choose from.

As usual, I over-ordered and there were lots of left over food! Luckily my guests ta-baoed most of them home so it won't go to waste! :)

Pipimon's friends also made jelly cocktail and some Malay kueh thingy that was super delicious but I forgot the name.. They also brought a beautiful cake stand for my old school cakes & barbie cake!

After the food, it's time for games! I appointed Nathaniel as my Game-master! :)

I have included 3 Bingo cards in the welcome pack for my guests. Inside the pack, there is 1 lucky draw coupon and 1 magnetic photo frame for them to stick their polaroid on their fridge.. ^^

Don't ask me why I look so.. psychotic here.

Everyone concentrating on their game cards...

We gave out a Kopitiam gift card to 3 lucky winners! Pipimon insisted on me buying the Kopitiam gift cards instead of Starbucks because he said it's "Halal" and very useful. T_T"

Afterwards, it's time to PIN THE PRINCESS!

Instead of pinning the Donkey, Nathaniel helped me choose the Princess version. I was skeptical at first, thinking nobody will wanna play such a kiddy game.... BUT I WAS WRONG! There were only 20 crowns up for grabs (so not everyone can play) and people actually snatched for the crowns! OMG!

This is how it looks like after various attempts to crown her.

It's super fun and hilarious because the contestant will be blindfolded and Nathaniel will spin him/her around 3 times. They will have just one chance to pin the crown on and the crowd will go "ooohhh!! noooo!! yes!! up!! downnnn!".. I laughed until I nearly fainted!!

There were 4 persons who were very close, so we had a rematch and my sister won! :)

Me, Cynthia & Debbie! aka the "Apple Girls"

Taking photo with them while waiting for my friends to bring the cake down for me.. Cynthia is still working in Apple while Debbie left before I quit in November last year. Glad we are still friends! :)

Time to cut cake!

I always wanted a number cake because this was really popular during the 80s and 90s!

One side is Strawberry Short Cake and the other side is Chocolate! Double flavoured cake! Love it!!

Nathaniel bought the giant long candles for me!

I wanted long candles to have more time for picture taking! :) We actually burnt one to experiment how long it can burn.. and it took 15mins before it totally extinguishes! (That's Nathaniel's hand in the right side of the picture).

YAY! 25 candles!

Inviting the smokers with lighters to come help me light up my candles..

I don't know what I was doing..! and Nathaniel look super blur..! LOL!

This is actually our last shot together before he passed away..

With Pipimon's friends~

With Pipimon's relatives~

My "Travel" friends I met in my jobs at CTC and Namho. :)

Nathaniel, Santi, Hallie & Welly!

My Apple gang :)

Cynthia, Debbie & her hubby Alrick

Alrick and Debbie :)

I love her polka dot dress! I didn't wanna do a dress code but she came in my favorite print!

My Singapore Poly Gang! :)

Weiling, William, Yaya, Joel, Lynn & Money

Queen Gang!

Yaya & Money, without Joyce :(

Lynn and Joel :)

Wayne (Joyce's boyfriend) and Brendan :)

Jeannifer (Pipimon's friend) and my sister's hand holding the Kitty.

Ok.. I should have a shot somewhere with my sister but I can't find it! :( Let's just imagine there's one here ok?

Two knives for two cakes!

TIME FOR THE MOST ANTICIPATED EVENT OF THE NIGHT!

Instead of buying door gifts for everyone, I decided to do a lucky draw instead. The prizes are:

Nintendo Wii
$50 Vivocity Voucher
Chocolate Hamper
Gift card from Kopitiam

And the grand prize winner is......................

WELLY! :)

He was so shocked because he was standing at the back helping me film and take photos of my party.. When we announced his name, he was like not paying attention until everyone yelled "WELLY!"

ALL MY PRESENTS!

Feel so super loved! ^^

Swarovski Hello Kitty from Money

Thomas Sabo Charms from Wany & Joanne (who couldn't come)

Look at my collection! :)

I have since added in a Eiffel Tower charm which I bought in Paris.

"Red" packets!

From Lela & Adil

How they know I like Paris?!?! :)

From Joel & Lynn :)

From Debbie! She and her hubby gave me separate gifts! Haiyo!

The Hello Kitty is sooooooo cute!

From Debbie's hubby Alrick!

From Kak Ya

BEST WRAPPED PRESENT OF THE NIGHT!

From Nathaniel

Chloe kept wanting to pounce on the flowers!

She actually managed to chew off some petals and ate them!!!

Super expensive earphones from Nathaniel! OMG!

From Yayin, who left early and couldn't join in the games and cake-cutting.

Thank you for the beautiful pen!

She said the water bottle is for last year's birthday.. Haha!

From William & Weiling

There were too many presents to take pictures of individually!

Hello Kitty Polaroid camera from Yaya, HuiXian, Smallgirl and hubby
Handmade Hello Kitty Kindle cover + cutesy stuff from my sister
Hello Kitty rice cooker from Cynthia & Effendy (who couldn't come)
Hello Kitty dolls from Pipimon's friends
Royce chocolate from Jeannifer

I hope I don't miss out anything.. ^^

Elson couldn't make it but we had a makeup dinner and he gave me a belated birthday present!

Brendan brought me out for a nice dinner at PS Cafe and also gave me my birthday present that was delivered late so he couldn't give it to me during my party.. It's super nice! :)

In total we took 60 Polaroids I get to keep half of them. :)

More Hello Kitty stuff in my book shelves now!

There were hundreds and photos and lots more videos.. I have posted all the pictures on Facebook back in October. The videos are still in my laptop... A few were damn hilarious, especially the ones when Brendan dared me to inhale helium and talk like Minnie Mouse. T_T" So embarrassing but so funny!

I am thankful to the following people for making my party a huge success:

Pipimon
For not being a bitch and allowing me to enjoy myself thoroughly before, during and after my party. He also helped to entertained my friends by being a good host as I had too many people to attend to during the party.
Santi
For helping me book the venue at her place
Welly
For helping me to be the official photographer and capturing so many beautiful memories.
Wayne
For helping to ferry Pipimon and Welly to collect my cake & balloons
Nathaniel
For being my gamemaster and style advisor
Yaya
For helping me buy the Polaroid films and lending me her Polaroid camera to take all the beautiful pictures (I did not open my present from her yet)
My sister
For being my door host and taking attendance, handing out door gifts and instructing people to fill up their lucky draw coupons

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-25T07:30:00.000+08:00

My party was a huge success!

Chloe is super exhausted and is sleeping with Squirt now..

More updates about my party next week! I am super tired and I gotta go catch some sleep! Need to go to work at 5pm later!!

Office Christmas Party

2011-12-23T23:54:00.000+08:00

After meeting Cynthia, I cabbed to work and was just in time for our office gift exchange and party.

In case you don't already know.. I am working in American Express Membership Travel Service department.. My job scope is to help the cardmembers with their travel arrangements. There's many different types of credit cards and charge cards under AMEX but we only service the highest tiers of charge cardmembers.

Our office is at MapleTree Business City which is at Pasir Panjang Road. It's a really beautiful office area to work in.. I will take more pictures when it's day time because it's usually at night when I come to work and it's too dark to appreciate how lovely this area is. There are fountains everywhere and beautiful art sculptures. Recently they even put up a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the square. :)

My office occupies 3 levels and there's a staircase in the middle that connects all the levels.

I call this the sleeping sofa..

Cos we can hide inside and sleep.. but I never tried it before cos during the night it's really dark and scary. There's 2 pantry on 2 levels and it's really pretty too! :)

Group picture of my team!

There's a few people missing because they are on leave/working late.

If you can notice my handbag at the side.. that's where I am sitting, a window seat! The view is nice.. we can see the sea from my desk... however, usually I can't see anything except for the flyover because it's at night when I am working..

Look at my eyebags! :(

My colleagues kept commenting how nice I look in Red colour because usually my clothes are all black/white/grey.. I told my team leader I gave her a lot of face cos I bought this top especially for the office party. T_T"

Some of them kept harping on how fair my skin is.. at first it's flattering but after a while it becomes irritating when they kept on asking me why I am so fair and white. I AM NOT! I am just a little bit fairer than most people but I am not those super chio porcelain skinned girls! :( And some of them go to the beach regularly or go swimming so why they still complain that they are tanned?? Avoid the sun!

My presents!

I only bought the compulsory team present + department present ($20 voucher + Famous Amos cookies) and one gift for my team manager cos she gave me a gift, and one for Jennifer who was my ex-manager in CTC and also the one who introduced me into AMEX. Both gifts were last minute buys at Vivocity after my lunch with Cynthia cos I had no time to shop! >.<

Gift from my Secret Santa (Team).
My nickname is Tinkerbell but my secret santa spelt wrongly.. Haha!

We had to give 3 choices of gifts for our wishlist and I wanted either book vouchers, travel containers or a tupperware. My secret santa gave me 2 items from my wishlist.

My gift from the Department's exchange..

It's been a long time since I post "self-shots" of myself.. Usually I don't put make up when I am working cos it's at night and no one is around! Also, my eyebags are quite jialat and I am paler than before since I am seldom in the sun anymore... so I am avoiding the camera a lot these days..

There were lots of food and 4 log cakes! 2 of them were untouched so I chose one to bring home for my Christmas Eve party tomorrow! Yes I am having a Christmas Eve Party! My first ever! Yay! :)

Christmas Lunch at Marche

2011-12-23T22:24:00.000+08:00

Cynthia wanted to borrow my Bingo Game for her Christmas Party.. and we've never went out together for lunch before so we set a date few weeks ago to meet today for lunch! :)

I am super busy and my schedules are so tight that my friends have to prebook me when they want to meet up! Madness!

Anyway she chose Marche cos she hasn't ate there in years and wanted to eat the Rosti..

My one and only red top..

I bought this top because I have a Christmas Party in the office to attend a few hours later. Yea. Off day also must go back!! :( And it was raining! I had to call a cab from Vivocity to fetch me to my workplace which is like only 6 bus stops away because the rain was too heavy and I didn't bring an umbrella (no sheltered walkway).

My Christmas present from her!

She said the box is actually given by my ex-ex Company, Apple for all the staff as Christmas presents and she thinks it's so pretty so she reused it for my gift. She keep saying "Pai seh! Don't mind ah!".. Why should I? It's really pretty! :)

Hello Kitty Bedroom slippers!

Hello Kitty Towel!

I treated her to lunch because I did not have time to go and shop for Christmas presents. I keep telling everyone that the only place I can shop at with my kind of sleeping hours, is at Mustafa Centre and I refuse to buy anything there as gifts for people.. So weird! It's a place to buy luggage, electronics and stuff by not Christmas gifts or presents!

Anyways, gonna post my Office Party pictures soon!

Universal Studios Birthday Treat!

2011-12-17T23:17:00.000+08:00

Joyce was in India during my birthday party but her boyfriend, Wayne very kindly came to help out during the day by driving to Nex Mall to help us get my balloons and my giant birthday cake.. Joyce don't know what to buy for me because everything she suggests, I will say "NO! Too expensive!" or "NO! I don't need it!".. So they decided to bring me to Universal Studios as a birthday treat!

All expenses paid!!! O_O

We agreed to meet at 9am but I overslept, as usual. Before you think I am a pig who sleeps in, I am working the night shift now and my timing is topsy-turvy so usually I sleep around 6am and get up at 3pm.. So in the end I only reached USS at 9.45am, but just nice as they have bought the tickets and queuing to go in.

THE QUEUES ARE MADNESS!

I went to USS twice last year and we did not need to queue to go in the main entrance! OMG!

They bought the fast pass so we can cut all the lines! The admission tickets + fast pass is over $120 per person!! I wanted to suggest buying the fast pass cos I expected the queues to be crazy but she preempted me and bought it before I arrived! OMG!! I don't mind paying for it since we can save a lot of time, but when someone else buys it for me... I feel so bad lah!!!

And this girl refuses to let me pay for anything! She bought me a super cute Gloria pen, a Magic Potion bottle and even lunch!!! She kept saying she is sorry that my birthday present is almost 2 months late.. but hey, this is a super cool present can?? :)

Anyways, we started the day by taking pictures with the giant Christmas tree.. During the night there will be performances here.

And our first ride is..... TRANSFORMERS! :)

Look at the wait time!! 180mins!!!

The queues were mad long! I don't understand why people don't take the single rider lane if they don't want to spend on the fast pass tickets. No need to sit together during the ride mah! If scared, don't take. Simple. What can your friend do? Hold your hand in moral support??!? I don't see the point of wasting 3 hours of my life queuing for a few minutes ride.

Anyway, with our fast pass tickets, we zoomed pass the queues and got front row seats! :)

Silly guy said he's afraid of the flash. T_T"

The dashboard at the front row

The ride is super damn cool!! OHMYGOD! If only movies were like the ride!!

Bumblebee!

If you noticed, Joyce was carrying a giant plastic bag like thingy.. that's our ponchos cos it rained halfway.. But even though it's raining (drizzling), the rides still continued! Woohoo!

Lunch time!

After lunch I gave Joyce HER birthday present & card.

I bought the card in Paris. Super fun! Must scratch for the message!

The hidden message! ^^

SK Disney Charm Bracelet

Took another new ride! Madagascar! :)

Front row seats again! YAY!

Group picture!

Po!

All hail King Julian!

I sat the roller coaster by myself for 4 times! The 1st time we went together, the queue was only 5mins long so we did not use our fast pass.. After the ride they gave up saying it's already scary enough and the Blue line is more scary than the Red one.. So I sat on the Blue one by myself for 3 times using the Fast Passes, and 1 more time on the Red line. A lot of people diao me when I went 3 times in a row to sit the Blue line cos the queue was damn long and slow-moving.. so when they see me alone, walking pass them 3 times.. i think some of them got a little pissed. But hey, who ask you so cheapo? Y U NO buy fast pass too??

I used their remaining passes on the Red Line to bring a couple in because I was a bit giddy from sitting the Blue one 3 times in a row... T_T" We stood outside the ride randomly waiting for a couple to come by.. it's their lucky day cos the queue was 45mins by then and by using the fast passes, we cut all the way to the front and managed to have first row seats! Woohoo!

They need to leave early as they had a party to attend so they missed the fireworks and some of the rides. But overall we caught all the shows together except for the Madagascar Penguin dance which I watched alone after they left.

I roamed around alone until 8pm++ until Santi & Welly arrived and we went to Chilli's for dinner!

I like the table, but they say very old-fashioned and ugly. :(

Welly and Santi!

We ordered two main courses to share cos it's too much to handle 1 main course per person.

Always room for desserts! :)

My sister's 18th birthday!

2011-12-16T23:59:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOANNA! :)

This silly girl didn't have any plans for a party but she did not inform me earlier.. She said that she's going out with her friends but at the last minute she SMSed me to ask if she can join me and my friends for dinner at Liang Court cos she's only going for a movie with her friends..

On her actual birthday and she has no plans!! When I told her "YOU ARE ONLY 18 ONCE!!" She replied "I have another 364 days to be 18!".

FML. My sister is more matured than me.

Birthdays are a big deal to me because it's the day you are born.. the day you came into this world and who knows whether if you can celebrate your next birthday? Life is short and we have to find reasons to celebrate and be happy!

We met up at Central and before she arrived, Wany & I went to hunt for something to buy for her as a surprise because I did not plan to meet her and I have no time to shop for a proper birthday gift because I am working during the night shift and most places are either closed or not yet opened when I am free.. I refuse to shop at Mustafa Centre for my sister's 18th birthday present!

Anyway, I decided on buying a balloon for her since she loves balloons a lot! :) We hid in the corner and waved at her when she was walking towards us.. then I went "TADAH! SURPRISE!" and showed her the balloon.. ^^

ELMO BALLOON!

She loves Elmo for some reason.. I just think it's gay but Wanwen says it's sexless. My sister likes Miffy more, but for some reason it's very difficult to find Miffy merchandise in Singapore. Do you know Miffy is from Holland? I always thought she was from Japan! I went to Amsterdam and one of the shop assistant was so pissed when I asked "Isn't Miffy from Japan?" OMG. More on that later when I blog about my Europe trip (Real soon! I promise!)

We met up with Nathaniel and 4 of us went for Ramen Dinner!

Two little girls sitting beside my sister was like eyeing her balloon with envy. LOL! Too bad! Ask your mama buy for you!!

Ramen with two eggs! Yums!

Later we met up with Santi & Welly and went for pudding!! Our favourite pudding from Tampopo! Super yums! I thought they can finish a lot (6 of us) so I bought 13 cups of Pudding.. I wanted to buy 18 but they were like O_O "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"... Hahahahhahaha!

I also bought 3 slices of cake to be my sister's birthday cake.. Sorry I didn't give her a complete whole cake, but they only sell the cakes by slices and my friends were like "Ehh! 8 slices to one cake! How to finish!?!?"..

In the end we only ate 1.5 slices. 1/2 was thrown away -- wasteful! And I made my sister bring home the other uneaten one.

Why my friend's appetites so small one? Tsk!

My sister with her new mascot!

I bought this Miffy in Amsterdam for her.. she requested for a mascot of her own because I have my own Hello Kitty Mascot.. This Miffy is the smallest doll I can find.. I also bought her a bigger one. :)

Her birthday celebration may not be as grandiose or fun as I would have want it to be.. since it's only a simple dinner and dessert session.. but I hope she enjoyed herself..

Dear Joanna, I want you to know that no matter how shitty life can be sometimes, you always have a friend/sister you can turn to and rely on. What goes up must comes down. Everything goes around, comes around. Live life to the fullest, embrace change, grab hold of opportunities, don't live in the past, be strong and always remember to "Hope, believe and achieve"! I love you now and forever! (And I mean now and forever.. like "until the day the ocean doesn't touch the sand" kind of forever.) MUACKS!

And... I still owe you a proper birthday present! :)

Brunch at PS Cafe

2011-12-08T02:02:00.000+08:00

I went to PS Cafe on 3rd December with Brendan for brunch..

It's a lovely place to just sit and chit-chat and enjoy the scenery.. that's if it doesn't rain!! We were there for a few hours and left minutes before a thunderstorm hits! Super lucky..

Food!

Giant plate of truffle fries!

We always order the fries but always end up not finishing it cos there's just so much!!

My Chicken Caesar Salad

The salad and egg is yummy but I don't like the chicken..

I forgot what this is.. but it's some brunch set he order..

That day was a super busy day because I had to go for my braces in the morning, wait for Chloe's food delivery, go brunch with Brendan.. Also, Wayne fetched Chloe home (she stayed at his house when I was in Europe) and we went to the airport to meet up with Nathaniel and Welly and had dinner at Sakae Sushi while waiting for Santi guniang to return from her Korea trip. Mad rush but mad fun.

Oh! I will post pictures of my braces soon! I thought I can remove them but my dentist who is a super perfectionist insist that I leave it for another month for her to consider the next month to remove because ONE BACK MOLAR is crooked! One!!! OMG. She went for maternity leave for 2 months and two of her colleagues assisted her to change my bands and she's not very pleased with the results. Kinda like me.. like to do things by myself and having high standards.. but it's so anti-climax! I thought I can remove them before the New Year! So they gave me a 31Dec appointment and if the last tooth is cooperative, I can be braces free before 2012! :)

Journey of healing..

2011-12-06T23:58:00.000+08:00

It's been a month since Pipimon suddenly passed away..

I am eternally grateful to my group of best friends who stood by myself during this period of sadness & lost. A millions thanks to Brendan, Welly, Santi, Nathaniel, Elson & Wany for always being there for me whether if I need someone to talk to on the phone, a person to rant to on Whatsapp or to meet up in the middle of the night because I am lonely and crave human company..

Many other friends also expressed their condolences to me by messaging me on Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Whatsapp and calling me.

It is hard to lose someone close to you, regardless if it's a friend, lover, sibling, parent. It is especially hard to lose someone who is supposedly to be in his prime and seemingly in good health and he just left suddenly with no warning, no goodbyes, nothing.

We have plans to go to Europe from 13Nov-25Nov, visiting Paris followed by Amsterdam.

Instead of cancelling the trip, I sent his ticket for refund and I went ahead with the trip alone. Many people said I am brave to go to Europe all by myself but to me, it's not just a holiday. It is a healing journey. The 2 weeks in Europe alone probably saved my sanity, because I was in a different place and had so many other things to think about other than dwelling on the unhappiness of Pipimon's death.

It's a free and easy tour so I have to make all the decisions and arrangements by myself..

Where to go?
How to get there?
What to eat?

In a different environment, you are too preoccupied with experiencing new sights, smells, tastes, etc that you won't really have the chance to think about unhappy stuff. It feels like I am on one of my tourleading assignment, staying in the hotel room by myself and wandering around by myself without Pipimon.. only difference is during the night I have no one to call or SMS to share about my day..

So I am really grateful that Brendan spared the time to video conference me for a few hours everyday when I was in Paris. Also to a few of my other friends who constantly whatsapp me to make sure I am still safe and alive...

During the 2 weeks in Europe, I did not manage to stay in constant contact with my friends because Europe has a 7 hours time difference to Singapore. When I sleep at 10pm in Paris, it'll be 5am in Singapore.. So usually when I reaches home there is no one to chat with.. I only managed to chat with Wany once when I was in Paris because I went home early (4pm local time, 11pm Singapore time).. The only person that stayed in constant contact with me was Brendan cos he is always online during the day as he needs Skype to conduct his work with his overseas counterparts.. Usually I will wake up at 6am local time and spend the first 2 hours of the day chatting with him or just sharing about my previous day before getting ready to go out and explore Paris. I was unable to skype with him in Amsterdam cos I woke up really late, like 11am or 12noon cos Amsterdam is basically a nightlife city where most of the shops open late so I will stay out really late and wake up late.

Surprisingly I enjoyed myself a lot in Paris even though it has a reputation of being a place full of stuck-up locals.. the food was great, the weather was lovely though on a few days it's really cold and windy, Eiffel Tower looks much better in real life than in pictures and the locals were very friendly and nice to me. I had one of my braces band fell out and I searched on google for a dentist and she fixed it for me even though it's closing hours and she did not charge me a single cent!

Amsterdam was horrible at first because the place I booked initially is in a super dodgy place where I have to climb 4 flights of narrow stairs up to the apartment where the room I lived in is super smelly cos it smelt of cannabis and cigarette.. :( I endured one horrible night there before I managed to find another place to move.. The first few days were really foggy and there's nothing to be seen.. It's like a scene from "The Mist" and I kept imagining giant insects flying out of the fog and attacking me.. Instead of giant insects, I got dodgy men who were drunk or high on drugs harassing me at the first place I stayed in.

I am really touched that my "Rah-rah Team" came to send me off and meet me when I return from Europe! Brendan came to my house to pick me up and Welly, Santi & Elson came to my house to meet up before 5 of them went down to the airport together to meet Nathaniel there. Brendan also sent me home when I came back to Singapore.. I am so happy to see all 5 of them when I came back because I touched down at 6am and it's freaking early to be at the airport at that time!

Even though Pipimon left me, I am lucky to be surrounded by friends and people who love me. I am blessed that I am not alone and there are always people who loves me and cares for me.. Nothing comforts a grieving girl better than a good support system.

I will blog about my Europe tour soon.. it's been 2 weeks since I am back but I am busy with work because I am working the midnight shift now for the extra allowance.. the allowance is 50% of my basic salary so that's a lot of extra money.. I need to work really hard to support myself and Chloe since I may have to move out of our apartment soon as the contract is void with Pipimon's death (he signed it, not me) and I have to find another place to live in a few months time. As I have Chloe and lots of stuff, I need to find a whole apartment to rent by myself and with today's market.. it's quite difficult to manage by myself.. But we'll see how it goes..

Wish me courage, luck and hope. :)

17th Braces update!

2011-12-03T14:21:00.000+08:00

Blue and Pink!

I pretty much ran through most of my favourite colours and I am at a lost of what to choose now. Hope this will be the final braces visit and the next time I can remove it!

Pipimon passed away...

2011-11-10T04:56:00.000+08:00

This is my 777th post.

I am so utterly shocked, upset and guilty right now.

I came back late on Friday night, reached home around 1am and went to buy Macdonalds before walking home.. I finished so late as I wanted to clear up all my work to have a worry-free weekend with Pipimon before going back to the office next Tuesday.

At 2pm after my lunch, I called Pipimon but he did not answer my call.. He messaged me around 1.30pm so I thought he was sleeping.. I called him again at 6.15pm after my work but he did not answer.. I called a few times and still no response..

At 10.30pm, I sms him telling him "I have so much work to do :( Still in the office", but still no reply.

I tried calling him using my office phone and handphone but still no response.

This is not the first time that I am trying to contact him but unable to reach him. There were cases before where he fell asleep and was in such a deep sleep due to his medication that he can't hear the phone ring, or he left the house in a hurry for work and did not bring his phone..

At 12midnight, my colleagues who are working the night shift offered me a ride home and on the way I keep trying to call him but no answer.

I was still calm as I thought he was too busy to go home to collect his phone, since it's so late and he couldn't be sleeping at this time.

I bought my supper and walked slowly back.. on the way I tried to call him 3 more times but no response..

At the corridor, I saw his bike and my first thought was "He's at home! Must be sleeping.. lazy pig! Hope he don't snatch my french fries!"..

When I opened the door, I felt a sense of dread as the house felt empty.. Chloe is there, but she did not come and greet me like she used to.. the house is dark but I can hear the fan in the room... I turned on the light and shouted "Pipimon! Are you there?".. There wasn't any response but Chloe was barking..

I ran into the room and it was empty!

Strange.. where can he be?

I ran to the toilet and it's empty!

Where the hell is he??

I walked to the side of the bed and there he was, lying sideways... I yelled his name, "PIPIMON! I AM HOME!!!" But there's no response.. "Pipimon! Don't play! Why you sleeping on the floor??"

I touched his feet and they were cold.. stiff and he was not moving!

"PIPIMON! WHY ARE YOU NOT MOVING! PIPIMON!!!!"

No response...

I saw the blood near his head and the truth hits me like a 10000 ton truck..

"He's dead." I told myself..

I yelled at him again... "PIPIMON WAKE UP!".. but he did not move. Then I tried to plead and beg... "Pipimon... wake up please.... we are going to Paris next week! Please please please wake up!"

All the while I was grabbing his feet and shaking him but he refused to move.

I dialled 995 and was hyperventilating.. I told the dispatch "My boyfriend is not breathing.. I think he is dead. My address is Blk XX Bendemeer Road #XX-XXX".

Less than 10 mins later, the paramedics arrived.. they pronounced him dead at 1.08am on 5Nov.

The lady paramedic than told me they have to hand the case to the police and they will be here shortly.

At 1.45am, the two policemen came and looked at the body and asked me a few questions:

Was the door locked when you came back?
Did he complain of any pain recently?
When was the last time you saw him?
When was the last time you spoke to him?
Who was the last person who saw him?
Does he have any medical history?
Who is his family doctor?
Who is his immediate family?

To the last question, I said "Me. He only has me."

Pipimon's parents passed away years ago. His dad died of heart attack in his 30s and his mum died of kidney failure less than 10years ago.. His siblings are missing cos they have some argument over his mum's medical bills and proceeds of the sale of their house.

The only person I could think of to call is his cousin, Kak Enah.

Pipimon is a Muslim and I don't want to do anything wrongly. I don't want him to end up in hell or some horrible place just because I screwed up his funeral or burial.. Moreover, Kak Enah and her family is the closest relatives that Pipimon has.

They came around 3am and informed some of his other friends and relatives..

At this moment, time was a blur.. I only remember sitting down on my bed, looking down on Pipimon's body and begging him to wake up before the coroner come and take his body away.. I touched his feet, tried to uncurl his clenched fingers.. I touched his face which was blue-black and bruised.. I pinched his "pipi" (cheeks) and all the while I keep begging him to wake up but he just lay there..

His body became stiffer and colder and his body started to turn blue-black all over.

I keep crying and blaming myself because I finished work at 6pm and should be home by 7pm or latest by 8pm.. I should have found something fishy and rushed home when he did not answer his phone call... The guilt was overpowering, overwhelming and I felt so bad that I wanted to kill myself there and then for not being able to save him.

A mountain of regret and guilt washed over me.

Why did I stayed back in the office till 12am+? It's the latest I've ever stayed back (on my birthday I stayed till 10.45pm but I spoke to Pipimon on the phone a few times). Why did I not rush back to check on him when he did not answer my phone? Why did we spent our last weekend quarreling? Why was I so harsh on him? Why was I so mean with my words? Why did I even contemplate on leaving him several times during our 5.5years together? Oh my god.. He did not even asked for a breakup once. Not even once during our relationship, no matter how pissed off or angry he was with me.

Sitting on the bed, looking at his body, I felt angry with him.

Why did he have to die on a Friday night? Why didn't he have a heart attack on Thursday night cos I was home early around 8pm.. Why didn't he choose Saturday instead since I will be with him the whole day? Why Friday? Why today? Why why why why why why??!?!?!?!?!??!?!!? We were going to Paris next Sunday after years of planning! He told me he's going to love me and take care of me forever! HE PROMISED ME! How can he leave me without saying goodbye?!?!

Sitting there staring at his dead body.. I have so much to say to him. So much to tell him.. How I wish he could just turn his head and look at me and tell me "I love you, sorry I have to leave you..."

I sat there thinking, did he suffer? What time did he exactly died? How long did he suffer before he died? Did he die just 1hour before I came back? Would I be able to save him? Will I feel worse if he died in my arms or if I found his dead body? What was his last thoughts? Did he think of me? Did he try to send a telepathic message to me saying that he love me? Was it painful? Why are there so much blood? Did he bite his tongue? We were going to Paris! How dare he leave me alone!

Guilt, regret, anger, sorrow, grief, disbelief, fear..

I never ever experience so many strong waves of emotions in my life before.

Then I sat on the floor and hold onto his feet before the coroner took Pipimon's body away.. That will be the last time that I will have the chance to touch him..

I was then informed that I have to be at SGH at 8am tomorrow to collect the body.

I took my phone and SMSed a few of my close friends.. Telling them that I found Pipimon dead beside my bed and I am going to SGH in the morning.. I used his phone to SMS his two best friends and one of them called me back immediately, saying he will pick me up tomorrow and send me to SGH. His other friend is in Jakarta and he said he will fly in on the earliest flight he can catch..

From this point, my memory is kinda hazy cos I was zonked out. I was so upset that I had to be held when I walked..

Pipimon's friend sent me to SGH mortuary.. he sat with me until my friends came and he left cos he needed to work.. One by one my friends started to come.. Santi, Welly, Money, Nathaniel, Tim, Joyce, Wayne and Pipimon's relatives and friends came too..

Welly & Santi went to buy cakes and tea for me and they all tried to convince me to eat something but I was so upset that I felt like vomiting and fainting and had no appetite at all.

I reached there at 8am but couldn't claim the body as his cousin's husband provided his details to the police when they came.. I had to wait for his family to come (late) at 8.45am before we were given a number (11) and to wait for the state coroner to release the body..

They allowed 2 persons inside to view the body, so his cousin's husband must be there since his details were recorded and they let me in too. I would have thrown a bitch fit if I was kept out.

We were shown into a room and there's a glass panel. Behind the panel is where the bodies are wheeled so the family members can view and verify that it's the correct body.

I cried uncontrollably at this point cos his face was blackish and his body was covered in a body bag. His face was frozen in pain and I felt so terrible and sad I nearly fainted.

I staggered out of the room and remembered hugging Santi and crying like crazy.. than we went back to the waiting area and waited for 1hr+ as the state coroner need to certify if the cause of death was natural or unnatural..

Around 11am+, they declared his death to be natural causes and released the body. He was sent to a Mosque beside the Muslim Cemetery.. I don't know the exact name cos I left all the details to my friends who were holding on to my handphone and handbag.. Pipimon's handphone is with his friend as he need to call his other friends to inform..

Two of his friends were there, and I hugged both of them and cried like mad again.. Than we stood around waiting for his body to be cleansed and wrapped..

My phone kept ringing non-stop and messages kept pouring in because I posted on Facebook that Pipimon passed away..

I had no mood to talk to anyone or reply any messages. I was like a sad, sobbing zombie.

But I remember talking to Wanwen, Elson and my team leader Elaine.. not sure if I spoke to anyone else.. it was such a blur.

The body was cleansed and they wrapped his body in a white cloth and only left his eyes uncovered.. than they invited everyone to see him for the last time but we can't touch him..

I remember looking at his eyes and thinking "What beautiful eyelashes...But I should trim his eyebrows.. so messy". A bit random but I really had that train of thought.

Than they carried his body outside the cleansing room and covered it with a metal cover and carried it into the prayer area.. only men were allowed so the women had to wait outside.. After a short prayer, he was sent to the burial site..

I remembered walking to the mini bus which Pipimon's friend arranged at super short notice for us, and I saw Brendan walking towards us.. I was shuffling towards him and I saw sadness in his face which was a reflection of my own sadness.. I did not say anything but just hugged him and cried..

Than we all went to the burial side and they lowered his body into the grave.. putting a wooden rectangle around his body, than put a piece of wood on top before putting soil into the grave. There was no coffin.

After the soil was half filled, a man said prayers and I was told to scatter flowers all over his grave... My hands were shaking and my whole body was trembling.. Trying hard to control my sobs... I hear many sobs behind me as they see me struggle with this simple task... Strong, brave, happy Jasmine is a sobbing mess now with shaky hands scattering flowers over Pipimon's grave.. Cheerful, friendly Pipimon who is always cracking lame jokes but is now underneath a few feet of soil..

Afterwards I shuffled my way out of the burial site onto the pathway...

His niece thanked everyone for coming and asked for forgiveness on behalf of Pipimon and informed everyone that whoever lent Pipimon money can go to them..

Than Brendan sent me, Santi, Welly and Nathaniel to my house.. Wayne & Joyce fetched Money to SGH to collect her car cos she rode in the bus with us.. They all came to my house to accompany me..

Vivien and Janice (my ex-colleagues from CTC) came to my house after work and gave me money like what we do when we go to a chinese funeral.. I told them to keep their money but they insisted.. it is quite a big amount.. My other friends wanted to give me but they felt awkward and weird cos there's no wake..

My sister and cousin came later at night and sat with me till almost 2am...

At this point in time, I was awake for almost 48hours and feeling so damn light-headed..

After they left, I said a little prayer to him and fell into a deep sleep.

I can't remember if I dreamt of him, but I hope I did.

The next day, I went out with lunch with Welly, Santi & Nathaniel.. than we went to NTUC to stock up on drinks as my friends wanted to come over to accompany me and my fridge is empty..

Elson, Debbie, Effendy, Cynthia, Wany came in the evening..

Everyone left around 1am and Nathaniel and Wany stayed with me till 4.45am before I shoo-ed them home to get some rest..

On Monday, Brendan accompanied me the whole day.. we sat at PS Cafe for 7hours before going to TCC at Great World for coffee.. He let me watch "Eat Pray Love" and it inspired me to go to Europe by myself..

Tuesday morning was spent sleeping and I spent the afternoon crying.. I called Singapore Airlines to cancel and refund Pipimon's ticket, then went to collect my Euro train ticket at Dynasty Travel (and sent his ticket for refund), then met up with Wany & Nathaniel for dinner at Liang Court.

Today I went to JB with Elson to colour our hair together and we ate Japanese food for lunch and drank coffee at Coffeebean and basically just chit chat..

Everyone keep asking me "Are you ok?"...

I don't want pity. I don't want fake sympathy. I want company. I need to have positiveness around me.. I need to have happy people around me instead of people giving me the sad face and asking me if I am ok.. I am not ok! What are you gonna do? Pity me? Cry with me? That's not going to help me cos I am crying my eyes out whenever I am alone.

I am so sick of crying. I have permanent triple eyelids and my right eye is bigger than my left eye now.

I am strong.. too strong to show others my weak side.

I let my guard down and cried so badly during the funeral/burial cos I was so distraught that day.. but that won't happen again..

I can't believe he is gone. I told him for granted, thinking he will always be there for me and will come running when I call him because he loves me so much and will never ever leave me.

Even though we did not take any wedding vows, he took our relationship very seriously and never ever said "Let's break up" to me.. I was the evil bitch who kept initiating a breakup whenever our argument reaches a certain point. 90% of the time he will apologize to me if we have any arguments even if it's not his fault..

It's not only sadness I am feeling.. It's regret, guilt and despair.

What am I going to do without him?

I never had someone so close to me died before. And I found the body..

I always say I don't believe in God but I really hope He exist.. I pray that he goes to Heaven and he is in a happier place.

I pray that he forgives me for all the wrong I done to him and I pray that he knows that deep down I love him a lot and I really really am thankful and grateful that I have the chance to spend the last 5.5years with him. I pray that he has lived the happiest 5.5years of his life with me and he has no regrets being with me.

I pray he died with me in his thoughts and he left quickly without much suffering.

I thank God for the friends I have who stood by me this difficult time.

God bless him and everyone around me.

He shall be greatly missed.

5.5yrs together..

2011-11-01T01:46:00.000+08:00

We made up today cos we don't wanna waste time arguing anymore.. We spent the whole of Sunday at home not talking to each other! He even slept on the couch on Saturday night!

Sigh.

I don't know why we have such intense arguments sometimes (or extreme cold wars).

We behave like a married couple without the marriage cert and the kids.. I wonder if things will change after I say "yes" and sign that damn piece of paper.

We are going to Paris next Sunday!! YES! Finally we are able to travel to my dream destination! I highly suspect he is going to propose to me there because he already bought the engagement ring.. I am still not sure if I will say "Yes".. Quite undecided about the whole marriage thing with him.

Starting to prepare for our trip! We even wrote a list of stuff to bring on the whiteboard he bought for me that is stuck on the kitchen's wall.. The board is for us to write messages to each other.. Like "Please remember to eat the bread" or silly stuff like that.. also for me to stick my vouchers cos I have so many of them and I always can't find them when I need them..

We are flying on Singapore Airlines and booked our apartments through Airbnb.com! I am so so so so excited! 2 weeks in Europe! We are spending 1 week in Paris and 1 week in Amsterdam. Why Amsterdam? Cos it's Pipimon's favourite city.. don't ask me why... I would rather go to Italy or Switzerland but since I chose Paris, he gets to choose the 2nd city. We are flying in Paris and out Amsterdam and will be arriving in Singapore on 26Nov!

Wayne and Joyce have very kindly agreed to look after Chloe during these 2 weeks! :)

Birthday treat from Joyce & Wayne!

2011-10-29T23:00:00.000+08:00

Joyce and Wayne treated me to dinner at jPot! They wanted to buy me a present but I told them it's alright cos Joyce did not manage to come to my party and I already have everything that I wanted..

Here's my complimentary cake from jPot for being their member..

Happy Birthday to me again! :)

Pipimon wasn't there cos we had a argument just as we were about to leave the house.. He's so irritating sometimes! He asked me how much his new shoes costs, and I said $40! He got angry cos it's $60! Like how would I know how much a Timberland shoes costs right? ARGH!

Afterwards Joyce and Wayne fetched me home.. :) Thanks guys!

French Gelish Nails!

2011-10-29T15:42:00.000+08:00

Isn't it pretty?

I am so addicted to pretty nails again! I thought I cured this expensive addiction of mine.. but it has came back to bite me! Now I change my nails' designs every 2 weeks! LOL!

I woke up this morning and went to do my nails.. Pipimon left the house early cos he went to Samsung Service centre to pick up the camera he sent for repair.. He even bought chicken rice back for me but I already ate as I woke up and left the house right after him to go and do my nails..

We were not really talking cos he's upset that I went out so late with Brendan last night.. Sometimes I think he needs to give me space because I am not a little girl anymore and I have the right to go out with my friends and stay out late once in a blue moon..

But I guess he's just upset cos no one fed Chloe and he called me twice and I didn't pick up cos the place was quite noisy and I only called him back like 1hr++ later..

Anyway, we are meeting Joyce and Wayne for dinner later.. Hope we will be talking by then..

Birthday treat from Brendan @ PS Cafe!

2011-10-29T10:30:00.000+08:00

Brendan came and picked me up from work yesterday..

I made him wait for 2.5hours! T_T" I had so much work to do!! I keep telling him "I am leaving soon" but I couldn't leave cos new emails keep coming in. :(

Lucky he did not strangle me!! Heehee!

He also gave me my birthday present! It's a super cute pink leather Kindle cover! Niceee!! I will tweet about it soon! :) He said sorry cos it was delivered late and he couldn't give me during my birthday party.. But it's ok cos he brought home my Kindle before my party and returned it on that day with over 800+ ebooks! Most of them were what I "ordered" from him! YAY!

Our initial plan was to go to Vivocity for dinner but he drove over to my workplace after a 1.5hrs wait there for me and waited another 1hr at the taxi stand before I appeared! Oops! As it was quite late by then, he drove me to Dempsey Hill's PS Cafe for a late dinner and the food was yums! Super romantic and cool chillout place!

Thank you for the treat! <3

Birthday present from Elson!

2011-10-27T23:54:00.000+08:00

Met Elson for dinner at BaliThai at Nex Mall earlier on.. We are supposed to meet at 7.30pm, 1.5 hours after I officially finish work but I only arrived around 8.15pm!! :( I feel so bad for making him wait so long, so I treated him to dinner.. Moreover he did not get to come to my birthday party as he needed to work.. come to think about it.. maybe he should treat me for missing my party! LOL!

Anyway it's been years since I ate at BaliThai.. the last time I did was at Tampines Mall with my mum and 3rd Aunt after I bought a Sony Ericsson phone with my own money. I was 17. Wow! That's like 8years ago! Madness!

Anyway, the menu is kinda confusing cos it's Indonesian food and Thai food together..

Chicken Tom Yum Soup. Super sour. I don't like it.

BBQ Chicken... Yums!

Pandan Chicken! Love it! :D

It's madness cos all 3 dishes are chicken and Elson is doing a Chicken Rice business now.. which means he eats Chicken everyday! LOL!

Milk Tea tastes like syrup shit. Yuck.

Red Ruby (Not nice) & Tapioca (Nice).

The food is hit and miss.. so I don't think I will be going back again.. for Thai food, the safer choice is still Thai Express.

My birthday present from him! :)

Birthday present from Pipimon

2011-10-26T23:57:00.000+08:00

Pipimon bought me a bag to put my Polaroid camera in!

I received the Hello Kitty Polaroid camera as a birthday gift from Yaya, Hui Xian, Smallgirl & her boyfriend! Only Yaya came cos the rest were busy.. I love the camera! Really cute! I haven't got a chance to use it though.. :)

I will blog about my birthday party real soon! I wanna blog a really long and detailed entry about it! :)

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-10-21T23:50:00.000+08:00

It's my birthday today!

But I am in the office working.. :( I did not take leave cos Pipimon is working and I have nowhere to go.. Moreover I celebrated my birthday last Sunday with a fabulous party!

This is my workdesk and I am seated near the floor to ceiling window where there's a lovely seaview. :)

Today is our Employee Engagement Day! We celebrate all the October babies' birthdays and today's theme is Sari Day! I did not wear a sari cos I did not want to borrow or buy one.. If I borrow I have to dry clean it! If I buy it, I'll wear once and keep it to collect dust!

With my Team leader, Elaine!

She is really sweet and patient and I am so lucky to be seated beside her cos it's instant information and help! Hahahahhaa! :D

With my trainer, Daphne! She trains the new hires and I love her!

Blackforest cake!

I stuck on 10 candles! Hahahahaha!

I won a Quality Superstar award! :) Also received rewards for compliments from our customers! Happy!

They were giving out the cake while I was on the phone.. Yup, we use headsets at work :)

My slice of cake!

I got the chocolate piece but I did not eat it.. Fattening like mad! I just secretly throw it away so no one can force me to eat it. Heehee!

Today I spent the WHOLE day working! I left the office at 10.45pm! No joke! I even took the wrong bus! Instead of taking the Bus 31, I took Bus 51 cos I was so tired I saw the wrong number and I ended up touring Commonwealth, Queenstown and Tanglin.. 45mins later I ended up in Clarke Quay! It would have only taken me around 15mins if I took Bus 31 and NEL train! :(

But it's ok cos I am going to Batam tomorrow! Happy! It's gonna be another round of birthday celebrations! Woohoo!

Dinner at Marche with Wany!

2011-10-20T23:40:00.000+08:00

It's my birthday tomorrow!

Treated Wany to a dinner at Marche! :)

Lots of yummy food!

She ate the strawberries and I ate the mangoes. Hahahaha!

We wanted to go for a karaoke session but I have to work tomorrow so we have to skip it. :( But I am glad we had a few hours to chit chat and catch up cos we didn't have much time to talk during my birthday party.. :)

Dinner with Santi, Nat & Welly!

2011-10-19T23:52:00.000+08:00

We planned to go to Batam this weekend so we met up at Harbourfront for dinner and also to buy the ferry tickets! :) We bought tickets from Batam Fast instead of Penguin cos Santi & Welly have existing tickets they bought some time back that they can use to revalidate for this weekend's use.

We had dinner at the Orange Lantern!

Nat's Beef Pho

Welly's spicy Beef Pho (not nice)

Afterwards we went to our favourite place for dessert! Fruit Paradise! I love the cheese tarts! My favourite is the Mango Banana flavour.

Can't wait for our Batam trip this weekend!

Do you know it's the Number 1 reason why people come to my blog? The Batam entries I posted pulls in lots of traffic from Singaporeans who googled Batam. Maybe I should start a website cum business to bring people to Batam. :) I shall chew on that idea..

Seoul Garden & Sogurt!

2011-10-19T00:09:00.000+08:00

My sister drew these for me..

2011-10-15T23:32:00.002+08:00

Yesterday she tweeted me a picture she drew of a Tarepanda!

It's so cute!

I was telling her she used to draw me pictures of 2 rabbits (me and her) and surprise me when I came home from school (10yrs ago). I will choose the best ones and stick it on my bedroom door and she used to come into my room, lie on my bed and admire her artwork.

Today she tweeted me a new picture that she drew...

It's a picture of two rabbits and it's MAD CUTE and MAD NICE! :) Thanks pui!

Marble nails for my party!

2011-10-15T12:03:00.000+08:00

1 year ago..

2011-10-10T23:14:00.000+08:00

This is one of my all time favourite picture!

I love my skin, my hair colour and I was contended with my weight! This was 1 year ago on 10 Oct-10 and now I'm so fat!

:*( I seriously need to stop my yo-yo diet and lose weight for good before I hit my 30s and the fats will be permanent residents and will never move away!

Soup Restaurant @ Changi Airport

2011-10-08T23:49:00.004+08:00

Met up with Joyce & Wayne for dinner at Soup Restaurant! It's our treat as Wayne very kindly took in Chloe for a few days when we went to Kuala Lumpur 2 weeks ago.

I like the outlet at Changi Airport cos the decor is really authentic!

Pipimon!

Joyce and me! :)

Pipimon kept yakking away with Wayne.. so me and Joyce ignored them and we had a girly talk ourselves. Haha!

We ate a lot! So much until we had difficulty walking.. Hahaha! Wayne bought a new car and he gave us a ride home afterwards.. :D

We also bought Bak Kwa for Wayne's mother.. Hope she likes it!

15th Braces Update!

2011-10-08T15:34:00.003+08:00

Purple and pink for my party next Sunday!

PPP Purple,Pink,Party... it's all "P"s, get it? Hahahahaha! Okok.. Very lame I know.

Anyway, I did not update last month's braces!! It's multi coloured, green on the top and pink/white below but I did not take a picture.. That's because the Samsung camera sucks and I really hate bringing it out.. And the Canon SLR is so huge and heavy so I am so lazy to take it out to use it.

After buying the new Sony HX9V camera, I'm starting to take more pictures! :) We bought the camera at Changi Airport Terminal 1. Pipimon spent a lot of time researching on a new camera for me and we decided on this. After buying it, he saw in techie magazine that it's the No 1 digital compact camera and he's so happy with his choice! I love the camera cos it takes really pretty pictures!

My dentist Dr Anna Tang is on maternity leave so today it's Dr Choy who changed my braces for me.. His technique is so much different than Dr Tang. Both of them are good, but I can feel that Dr Tang is more specialized in braces. Dr Choy is more gentle though.. Hahaha! And he is more throughout that Dr Tang. Anyway, she'll only be back on 19Nov.. So next month I will be seeing Dr Choy again before seeing Dr Tang in December.

I'll most probably be able to remove my braces in December! ^^

Afterwards, I will do teeth whitening and then I will finally have perfect white teeth! Hollywood smile! :D

I won a lucky draw! :)

2011-10-06T23:00:00.003+08:00

There's a supplier showcase at my office where different hotels, cruise liners and airlines come to my office to showcase their products and services.

Each of us had a timetable to follow.. And as there are too many suppliers, we can only see up to 6 suppliers from the list, with only 15 - 30mins time allocated each.

There was a lucky draw at the end of the showcase, but I was not present as I was at one of the supplier's presentation when they handed out the prizes..

Imagine my surprise when I was give an envelope with my name on it when I went back to my desk! My colleagues were screaming my name like "JASMINEEEEE! YOU WON SOMETHING!" And I was like "Haiyah.. what is so good about the lucky draw? Confirm some dodgy gift one..... "

I was so shocked when I saw that the prize is.........

2 nights stay at St Regis Bangkok's Caroline Astor Suite!

It's a suite! Not just a room but a suite! And it's worth $1250 per night (without taxes)! Super happy like mad! Of course there were other prizes.. and some of them are:

1 night stay in HongKong Mandarin Oriental Hotel
2 nights stay in Langkawi Datai Resort
2 nights stay in London Hyde Park
2 nights stay in Hoi An Nam Hai Villas
2 nights stay in Monte Carlo Paris Hotel
2 nights stay in Tokyo Seiyu Hotel
3 nights stay in New York Taj Hotel

And many more! It's sheer madness cos many of the hotel stays are in suites and the prizes are worth up to $4000!

It's not even D&D but just a simple supplier's showcase and the prizes are so fabulous! I am so lucky to be able to win the Bangkok prize as it's near to Singapore and I don't have to spend a bomb on air tickets to be able to use them! :)

Maybe it's my birthday luck? :D

Polka Dot Nails in Red & Black!

2011-10-02T18:23:00.001+08:00

Are my new nails pretty? :)

It's October

2011-10-01T23:27:00.000+08:00

Yippeee!

My 2nd favourite month of the year is here!

My top favourite month is December, but more on that 2 months later..

I love Octobers cos it's my birthday month and there's an excuse to eat, buy and do whatever I want all in the name of "It's my birthday!".. :)

This year I am splurging on a Birthday Party it's a milestone in my life! Quarter century! Oh my god!

My party planning is half-way completed and I have around 2 weeks to get everything done! I will update more when I have the time to do so.. But meanwhile, check out my tweets! :)

Martabak Manis!

2011-09-30T22:55:00.000+08:00

Pipimon's friend brought back Frozen Martabak Manis from Batam for me!

Peanut on the left. Cheese from the right.

I love the cheese flavour! It's so sweet and yummy and I can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!! Yummy!

Balloons!

2011-09-29T22:26:00.001+08:00

I bought balloons for my birthday party! Aren't they cute? ^^

New Thomas Sabo Charms!

2011-09-27T20:43:00.000+08:00

I bought two new charms for my Thomas Sabo Bracelet! :)

Santi Guniang's Birthday!

2011-09-18T23:53:00.003+08:00

It's Santi guniang's birthday next Saturday on 24 Sep but she has to work on that day and I will be in KL so we had an early birthday celebration today! :)

Treated her and Welly to dinner at Jpot Vivocity! Also went to buy a cake to surprise her..

Birthday cake from Awfully Chocolate!

Super happy that Welly is back in Singapore now and I hope he finds a job soon so we can hang out like we used to do last year! :D

Bintan Fam Trip

2011-09-11T23:25:00.002+08:00

My company sponsored us to Angsana Resort and Spa at Bintan for a 2D1N Team Building + Familiarization trip! :)

So on the first day (yesterday) we took the ferry to Bintan together and we had lunch at Banyan Tree's The Cove restaurant. It's a set lunch and apparantly it costs around SGD60 but the food was.. meh.

Here's a photo of my team in my workplace. My team leader Elaine is the lady 2nd from the left.

Afterwards we went for our Team Building exercise. There were 4 games in total and we were split into 4 teams randomly. My team won, but the stupid thing was, there wasn't any prizes. T_T" What's the point of winning if there are no rewards? Bragging rights? Meh.

At night, a few of us went out to Pasar Oleh Oleh for dinner and some light shopping. Most of the others stayed in the resort to swim and party..

It's my 1st time to Bintan and I have not heard much good reviews of the place as everything is in Singapore dollars and there's not much shopping there.

Well, I kinda enjoyed the trip cos I don't have to pay for anything except for my dinner and my own 1 way ferry ticket back so it's good. But will I pay to go back again? Probably not.. It's really boring and the beach is similar to Singapore's.. not those crystal clear waters with fishes swimming around. Meh.

I bought my own ferry ticket back because I refused to come back with the group.. their ferry timing is 4.30pm, which means they will reach Singapore at 6.30pm local time!

The weekend is supposed to be our rest days but it's spent at Bintan which is not technically a leisure holiday so it sucks if we only arrive in Singapore at night.. so I bought my own 1 way ticket back and arrived around 1.30pm.. Plenty of time to do my own stuff!

I took the shuttle bus back to the Bintan Ferry Terminal and took the ferry back by myself. It's not that adventurous as others may think.. anyway I've always travelled by myself when I lead tours overseas in the past.. I like the feeling of being alone anyway.. It's fun. :)

I took a total of around 480 pictures but there's too much to upload. Moreover I'm not in most of the pictures so I'm not uploading them..

Feel like going back to Batam! I prefer Batam to Bintan! There's more yummy and cheap food there! Murtabak Manis!!

Fitness First Membership Card

2011-09-01T23:45:00.000+08:00

I've been going to the gym recently.. here's a picture of my membership card..

The picture was taken on the spot and it's quite blurred, but at least I don't look that horrible cos I did not have any makeup on and I did not wash my hair that morning, thinking I can do so after my work out. Hahahhahaa!

Also, I won a Starbucks giftcard in one of my company's employee enrichment activities! :)

It's so super chio! :)

Glee 3D Movie Premiere!

2011-08-31T23:50:00.005+08:00

A few weeks ago Wany & I bought tickets for.. GLEE the 3D Concert Movie which sneaks tonight!

The movie was sold out in 2 days and luckily I received the email early enough to inform Wany and we bought it before it was sold out!

Because it's shown at 7.30pm and my shift ends at 7pm, which makes it impossible for me to make it on time.. I took half day leave just for the movie!

It's shown at Marina Square Golden Village and I reached there around 3pm and walked around waiting for Wany to come because she had a project meeting and could only reach at 6.30pm.

We had dinner at Waraku using the $20 for $40 voucher from Groupon before going to collect our tickets. :D

VIP yo!

Each of us were given a Goody bag. It comes in Orange, Red, Blue, Green.. but we cannot choose colour! The people giving out the bags are such snobbish shitty bitches. "You cannot choose colour!"

Wany wanted the red one so I took the green one, even though I really wanted the orange coloured one.

Here is what's inside the bag!

Free nachos set with a medium sized drink

Instead of eating the Nachos we ate Garette's Popcorn which I bought earlier from Citylink Mall! :D

Before the movie started, there were lots of talking and time wasting by a emcee. There was also a group of "singers" who are out of tune. We paid $22 and it comes with the freebies but we did not want the stupid performance. Bah.

There were 3D spectacles in the bag! :)

The movie was nice.. but it could have been better if they included a storyline in the concert. I guess it sells by itself since it's GLEE. But I wished they could have put more effort into the movie for their fans. :(

Anyway, we enjoyed it overall and it was nice singing along to the songs. ^^

Selamat Hari Raya!

2011-08-30T21:02:00.004+08:00

SELAMAT HARI RAYA EVERYONE!

Woke up bright and early for a manicure! :)

Took a cab down with Pipimon to his cousin's house..

Look at all the yummy stuff! :)

His niece baked all these by herself! I showed lots of self-restraint in not gobbling these yummies up because I will need to run them off in the gym.

Now whenever I look at a snack I will think of them in terms of minutes spent on the treadmill. :(

Hari Raya Kueh

2011-08-29T23:20:00.002+08:00

Pipimon brought me to Geylang Serai and we bought some Hari Raya snacks!

Instead of those cheap 3 for $10 types, we bought the nicer ones from Raja Kuih near City Plaza Mall. It's around $7.90 to $11.90 each, but they are super yummy!

I brought them to work today to share with my colleagues! :) I sent out a picture of DOMO hugging the tidbits and invited them to help themselves to the snacks I put on the table and everyone was amused with Domo.. hahaha! They said it's really yummy and all the snacks were finished by the end of the day.

Kindle!

2011-08-29T22:29:00.000+08:00

I ordered a Kindle last week and it arrived today!

I put my office address instead of home address for the delivery as there's always someone at the office mailroom to receive the parcel on my behalf during office hours. :)

I collected it after my lunchtime!

Couldn't wait to go home before opening it! :D

It's soo cool! Only thing is I can't use the Kindle Store function on the device as Singapore is not in their approved list. I tried using it and after a few hours I was locked out of my Amazon account from ordering new books! I tried setting up another account and order the book but I was still locked out.

So I set up a another new account and this time I disable the wi-fi function on my Kindle. I can only download free books or buy them and transfer into my PC before using the USB cable to transfer to my Kindle. Longer method but at least I won't be locked out again.

I am super happy with the Kindle cos I can compress thousands of books into one device! :D Especially if I need to travel overseas, I only need to bring one book! YAY!

Oh, did I mention this is my birthday present to myself? :) Heehee!

Curry Day!

2011-08-21T12:40:00.002+08:00

Today is "Cook a Curry Day!"

Coincidentally it's also the day my ex colleagues have organized a Pot Luck gathering at my ex Team manager's new home! So I cooked Chicken Curry! :)

Royal Carousel, again!

2011-08-20T22:35:00.004+08:00

Long queues! Even if you have a reservation, you still have to queue!

The interior of the restaurant~

Before the crowd swarm the food station!

Dessert Station

Fondue Fountains

Pipimon

Me & Wany

Macaron Car!

This is the 2nd time we are back and we are very disappointed because it seems that the crowd is full of "Yao guis" who have not ate in 10years! They swarmed the counters and SNATCHED the food! Ohmygod. For a "high class" buffet, we were super shocked by the crowd.

Not only that, the chefs did not refill the food stations on time and the place was super messy and dirty!

Bah.

Sleepy Chloe

2011-08-17T22:19:00.000+08:00

Chloe is getting ready to sleep.. Good night y'all!

Fruit Paradise at Plaza Singapura II

2011-08-16T23:23:00.002+08:00

Met Santi Guniang for dinner at Plaza Singapura and afterwards we went to Fruit Paradise for desserts! :)

She'll be helping me book my venue for my birthday in October! Yay!

Chloe's new hairstyle!

2011-08-15T23:01:00.000+08:00

Twin ponytails :)

Fruit Paradise at Plaza Singapura

2011-08-14T20:56:00.001+08:00

It's SUNDAY!

Woke up late than went to Plaza Singapura for lunch..

It's empty cos it was 4pm! :)

Had the crab spaghetti. Cheap and good!

Pipimon had the Omu Rice.. It's yummy!

FRUIT TARTS! ^^

Afterwards we went to Nex to look around for party ideas.. My birthday party planning is going into full swing!

I have decided on the location, sourcing around for a birthday cake, deciding on the door gifts, short-listing the theme of my parties..

As for the guest list, I have drawn up a list of 70 people and will be eliminating it down to 40-50 based on whether they are available. But basically I am only inviting people I am in constant contact with.

It's my 25th birthday party and I want everyone to have a good time, so my party budget is gonna be quite high thus I won't invite riff-raffs to the party.

2 more months! Yay Yay Yay!

Had a cup of my favourite yogurt and now I'm 2 stamps away from completing my membership card! :D

VOCAPEOPLE LIVE!

2011-08-13T23:58:00.003+08:00

I spent the best $80+ in my life today! Vocapeople live in Singapore!

The show starts around 7pm so we went for our dinner at TampinesOne Bakerzin.

Pipimon and his horrible seafood pasta.

I finally tried the Braised Pork Rice!

It was always out of stock at Vivocity when I am there for dinner several times last time.. Finally tried it today and was quite disappointed cos it's was too sweet! The mushroom soup was fantastic cos it's piping hot!

There's also a free flow Artisan bread counter which we ignored cos we were in a hurry to finish our food before taking a train down to Max Pavilion beside Singapore Expo.

Anyway the service sucks. The waitress seems oblivious to the customer's waving. they seem unpleased to come and take our orders and looked like we owe them a living. Fuck them! No matter how much a restaurant spends on renovation, top chefs.. without a group of good waitresses, it's bound to fail cos people just won't go back!

Ok. moving on..

THE SHOW WAS FANTASTIC!

They were good at forbidding people from taking pictures of videos so only one part of the act was on Youtube. The rest of the show were great and very interactive! Thank god we bought the best tickets and chose the middle block instead of the side block. The side block had front row seats but Brendan suggested middle block even though it's the 5th row from the front.. Luckily we did that cos the two big screen on the side of the stage (where the side row is facing) were turned off during the show! So despite paying the same price as us, they had to strain their necks to see what's on the stage!

You can see that the chairs were a bit dodgy.. but it's ok cos the performance was great!

Brendan is happy too. Haha!

I am so glad we made the effort to buy tickets to catch the show cos it's really fantastic!! I hope they come to Singapore again cos I will definitely go watch them again!

It's just sad that the place was not sold out cos not a lot of Singaporeans know about them, preferring to go chase after kpop popsters instead..

Too bad if you didn't catch them Live! But you can go Youtube and have a glimpse at their awesomeness! :D

Braces on a doggy! :)

2011-08-11T00:17:00.000+08:00

Cute dog with braces! :) Maybe Chloe should get it too. Heehee!

New cosmetics & perfume!

2011-08-10T21:30:00.000+08:00

Look at all the stuff I bought last Saturday! :D

I went to DFS Galleria hoping to find the Dior lipgloss cos I have 20% discount if I buy there.. Unfortunately it's out of stocks (AGAIN!) so I had to buy it at Isetan at full price $43. The stupid saleswoman at DFS still have the cheek to tell me "Whole Singapore no stock! Worldwide shortage!". Full of bullshit.. I didn't wanna argue with her cos I know she's talking nonsense.. All the major departmental stores have it.. Only DFS don't have it cos they have poor inventory control!

I bought a new Chloe Perfume at DFS though.. Wanted to buy the Love Chloe but chose this instead cos it's a woody scent which I absolutely love and I wanna try something new. :) The salesgirl gave me a miniature Love Chloe when I declined to buy two bottles of perfume to be entitled to their free gift (Pouch, mini perfume, mini lotion). She kept persuading me to buy two bottle cos she said the gift is nice and is NEW. Told her I have the gift already and I got it in Japan in December 2010 when I bought ONE bottle of Love Chloe and that shut her up.

Don't you just hate idiotic salespeople who pretend to be so smartass and like to talk nonsense to you? It may work on gullible people, but not to a well-travelled or well-informed person like me ok? I do my homework and research on prices when I like something or always buy the same thing. I am not really price sensitive (I bought the Dior lipgloss at full price instead of waiting) but I am allergic to idiotic salespeople who attempt to "smoke" me.

Since I was at Isetan, also stocked up on my Ettusais makeup. Bought the sparkling pact and the tinted eye concealer.. I asked the salesgirl why the sparkling pact is no longer selling in HongKong and she said that Japan has stopped producing them, so Japan has stopped selling, followed by HongKong. Singapore has remaining stocks which will sell until discontinued.

I was so worried and horrified when I heard that.. I wanted to buy 20 of them to keep until I find a suitable replacement.. But it costs $40++ for one and it's crazy to buy so many cos it's so expensive! So now I am considering of buying at least 6 next month, which will give me around 6 months to find a suitable replacement for my compact powder. I really like the sparkling pact and I am so sad to see it being discontinued. :(

Anyway, the salesgirl at the Ettusais counter is really friendly and knowledgeable so there's hope in the service industry cos not all are fucktards trying to smoke customers into buying things they don't need just to hit their own sales targets, or to tell lies or make up stories when being asked a question they don't have the answers to.

Happy National Day!

2011-08-09T23:57:00.001+08:00

I had a great time at Marina Bay watching the NDP live! :) Pictures in my facebook! Gonna go sleep cos I have to wake up early for work tomorrow..

Chloe kidnaps Kitty

2011-08-08T23:53:00.002+08:00

I was taking pictures of my stuff with my mascot, Kitty.. Chloe pounced on it and ran off with Kitty in her mouth and spent a few minutes happily chewing on it before I snatched it away from her.. Here's some pictures..

So cute but.. NO! Cannot bite Kitty!

New toothbrushes!

2011-08-07T17:10:00.001+08:00

At anytime, I use up to 4 toothbrushes..

I have 1 in the toilet, 1 in the kitchen, 1 in my bag and 1 in my office. Usually the one in the toilet wears out pretty fast cos I brush my teeth twice a day with it..

Toothbrushes don't last very long for me because of my braces so I have to change them regularly.. I also have to use the special type of toothbrushes that are more expensive than the normal ones.. So when I saw that it's only selling for $5.50 each (Usual price $9), I asked Pipimon to buy 6 pieces for me! I wanted to buy more.. but can't just spend money like that. :(

Travel sized toothbrush

I also bought the travel sized one to put in my handbag and it's red! Matchy matchy with my Burberry :D

New Clothes!

2011-08-07T12:04:00.005+08:00

I was lamenting to Pipimon that I need more new clothes cos I never really worked in an office environment that requires smart casual or formal clothing.

I bought quite a few dresses and smart casual tops these few weeks, but they were quite expensive.. I mean, it's not like Prada-expensive, but for the type of material.. Online blogshops are selling it for $12 to $18 and I am paying $39 to $48 for them just because I am not stick-thin like majority of the Singaporean girls.

It is difficult to be fashionably cute in a stick-thin society like Singapore where most of the girls are averaging 45kg and super short (155cm-160cm) with small sized feet of size 6 to 8.

I am tall, fat and have ginormous feet! How to survive in Singapore?

Most of the shoes in Singapore are only up to size 8.. and if I find a shop with large sizes, normally the cutting are small. For example, Mondo has up to Size 43, but their Size 43 is the same as Size 41 from other brands.. So they are just sizing their shoes smaller. I told the salesgirl that I will buy all the shoes I chose if she had them in my size.. got her excited for a while but ALL of them don't have my size, so too bad. I am a shoe slut, so maybe God wants me to be more frugal that's why he give me big feet so I won't buy 5 pairs of shoes a week since it's so difficult to find them in my size.. Or maybe I have big feet cos I am tall?

As for clothes, the plus sized brands with nicer designs are super expensive.. Like Dorothy Perkins and Marks & Spencer. The ones that are a bit cheaper are Saint Rolene with up to 7 XLs, but the clothes are super auntyrish and low quality. Many shops do offer large sizes, but they are just enlarged versions of the trashy designs found in This Fashion at inflated prices. Who the hell wanna pay $79 for a lousy dress that is Made in China with strings loose all over the hem? Siao bo? And the very few plus-sized blogshops I see are selling dresses at $42 and up for simple designs.. Why so expensive?!

The normal Online blogshops have nice designs but they are usually FREE SIZED.

I hate free sized clothings. LIKE WHAT THE FUCK? It's like men buying condoms. There's no size so it's free sized or "One size fits all". We all know that men has different penis sizes but why are all the condoms the same sized? If the man has a short penis does he have to cut the condom in half? If he has a long penis than he can only cover 3/4 of it? You see any one walk around with a slipper that is 3 sizes too small?

WHO THE HELL IS FREE SIZED? There's no such thing! It's a ploy to make life easier for clothes manufacturer to just produce one size for easier inventory control and also to force society to conform to that one body type. Either you are a skinny bitch who can wear nice clothes at cheap prices or you are a unlucky bozo like me who have to pay more for lousier shitty quality clothes.

Anyway, I usually frequent I&U boutique in Queensway Shopping Centre cos they have nice office clothings and casual wear similar to online Blogshops but their prices are doubled of what the online blogshops are charging, though their sizes are doubled.. so maybe that's how their price model came about..

Bu the ladyboss is quite pushy and kept piling clothes on me to try and pressure me to buy by saying "This looks good on you!" or "This is my best seller! A lot of girls buy!".. I usually spend hundreds there. The first time I spent almost $400 there (last november) and most of the clothes are in storage now cos I got sick of them pretty quickly..

So I am on the lookout now for cheap but nice looking clothes that are well made.

Pipimon suggested going to our market to have a look.. I was really apprehensive at first cos usually when I walk past, most of the clothes are SUPER aunty and gaudy..

But just now I opened up my mind and heart and went along to browse around.. To my surprise, I found a shop that has quite nice clothings at reasonable prices! Not everything is nice though, since the main clientele of the market are women above 40years old.. but I managed to find 3 pieces of clothings!

Two layered blue striped top & a Panda tee!

I LOVE THE PANDA TEE! The eyes are sequined! This is too casual for work so I am wearing it on the weekends! It's their last piece and I found it hiding in one of the racks! Happy like mad!

I also found a striped black top that is 99% similar to the striped black top I bought at I&U! And guess what? The price is halved of what I paid for at I&U! I chose the blue one cos I already had the black one.. I was so pissed cos it's 50% difference!

Actually the tops are around $27 to $29 each but the ladyboss was very nice! I casually asked for a discount and she discounted them and round them down to $66! Mad cheap! I wanted to bargain for $25 each but luckily I let her quote the price instead. :)

I am gonna go back again in a few weeks time to see if they have any new arrivals!

Also, if I were thinking of doing business I may go into plus-sized clothings. I will design my own clothings, set up a small stall & also do online sales.. I will base my collection on themes, like Polka Dot Dreams, Flower Magic, etc.. It's really good business and I can provide a service to all the plus-sized girls in Singapore. Good quality clothes at cheap prices!

Royal Carousel at Royal Plaza

2011-08-07T10:30:00.000+08:00

Yesterday Pipimon surprised me by bringing me to Royal Plaza for their high-tea at Royal Carousel!

My initial plan after my braces was to go to Tanjong Pagar market and eat my Peanut Icekachang, than take bus to DFS Galleria to buy my Dior Lipgloss (which was out of stocks again. Bloody hell) than maybe have lunch at Ion Foodcourt or something..

But he actually called and make reservations to surprise me.. So amazing! So we took a cab from Tanjong Pagar down to Royal Plaza.

I was wearing super lao-pok pol in my ratty T-shirt cos I did not know we were going for a high-tea! I would have wore a dress or something. 0_0 Haix. So unglam.

I did not bring my camera cos I was totally unprepared (see the ratty t-shirt above). I would have brought my SLR along cos the food are all so pretty! So I took all the pictures using my iPhone3Gs instead.. Not bad, but not really pretty and high resolution..

Indian Food Station

The Kebab is yums!

Laksa Station

Guess what I took as my first dish?

You would have never guessed it right unless you know me SUPER duper well. I think my sister may have gotten it right... I took Chicken Porridge with TauPok, Quail Eggs and Braised Peanuts! Some of the cheapest but yummiest items on the menu!

There were seafood, sashimi and sushi but I ignored all those. There were also Nasi Lemak with lots of hot dishes, Kueh Pie Tee.. blah.. but I ignored those too.

Other than the porridge and stuff I took a sampling of the desserts, cakes.. I ignored the ice-cream too! Hahahaha! Though I did try the fondue! My fave flavour was the white chocolate! I always think that people who proclaim loving dark chocolate a bit pretentious & act atas.. Who knows? When no one is looking they may be eating milk chocolate! Dark chocolate is so bitter! I prefer milk and white chocolate!

The dessert counter

Yummy chocolate mousse

Unidentified object. I suspect it's some sticky rice thingy.

Chocolate pudding! I was the first to dig a hole in this! Heehee! The middle part is soft and gooey!

All the ingredients for a good ice-kachang!

Look at the type of syrups!

Old school machine! I like!

Here are the prices for their lunch, high tea & dinner buffet!

Used my AMEX card for a 10% discount! :)

They are opened from 3am-5am for Muslims to break fast!

Thank you Pipimon for the treat! (He paid me cash. haha!)

Anyway we were talking about racism and misconception of the Malay race by the Chinese.. We both know a lot of Chinese who thinks that Malays are poor and cannot afford to eat in nice restaurants or hotels, and I bet a lot of Chinese whom we don't know also think the same way.

Like hello? It costs $75++ PER PERSON to dine at Royal Carousel for their dinner and they are perpetually fully-booked, with many customers being Muslims who are there to break their fast! Many Chinese I know only go to hotels for buffets if there are 1-for-1 offer or those 50% Off from the Groupon websites or something..

To side-track, I hate those 1-for-1 buffets cos when it's cheap, the quality of the food drops! The restaurant has to sacrifice something to cater to the cheap prices so that "something" is the quality of the food!

Royal Carousel ($45 per pax for high-tea) is super delicious and everything is so pretty and nice.. It's expensive but worth the splurge. You get what you pay for!

And though I may eat only the "cheap" food, I enjoy having the freedom of taking what I like and fancy without worrying about the portion or price cos at 1 price I can eat all kinds of stuff I want! Instead of spending $6 for a slice of cake that fills me up, I can take 8 small sizes of different types of cakes!

To me, a buffet is about quality not quantity!

Unfortunately most ignoramuses only go and hoot the oysters, sharks fins, sashimi cos it's "value for money" or "worth the buffet price".. sad thing is, some of them don't even like those things but only eat it to get their money worth! I know a few people like that and I feel sorry for them for being so dumb.

Anyway, most Chinese have this narrow mind-set that Malays are a lazy and useless bunch who are mostly drug addicts and never amount to much in life so they look down on them. I think it's a really wrong notion and misconception cos there are many successful Malays in Singapore! They are buying branded goods with CASH and driving nice cars now.. Not all of them go to Courts and buy furniture with $1 downpayment!

On the contrary, I know a few Chinese fools who go to Courts and sign up for their stupid kill people put fire price plans for stupid products they WANT not need. Like a TV can cost $1000 but the "easy repayment plan" with only $12 weekly payments will end up costing $3000 for the same TV! Mad or what? It's like legal loansharking through household products!

Everyone has their own opinions and being humans we will be judgmental or biased or have our own mindset and thinking.. but one need to be worldly, open-minded andbe humble in order to succeed in life and be happy. Why act like there's a stick up your ass?

Lots of people from the older generation are super racist (i.e: my parents), but I think the younger generation should behave better than them.. After all, we are supposedly better educated than the older generation!

13th Braces Update

2011-08-06T22:37:00.004+08:00

Today is the first time I go for my braces appointment and leave without paying! :) I actually forgotten that I paid off the whole amount and was waiting for my turn to pay until the nice receptionist reminded me that I don't have to pay for anything! Hahahahaha!

I chose all red for National Day cos I am going for the National Day parade next Tuesday! :)

I asked her to remove the bitch bracket on the top left corner but she refused! I told her nobody is gonna see my inner crooked tooth but she is adamant that I should have perfectly straight teeth inside and out and she said SHE can see it so it's bothering her. T_T"

So we came to an agreement.. instead of removing it, she tightened it and made it more compact so it won't rub against my cheek that much... And it felt much better! Though I would have preferred her removing it totally and gluing a bracket to the second last tooth, but since it doesn't hurt that much anymore I can live with it. Hope the ulcer heals soon!

I did a comparison picture from last year till now. It's been 11 months since I first put my braces and I am gonna remove them in a few months time!

Got much difference?

Hope it's worth all the inconveniences and the money!! I still don't like the gap between the top and bottom row on the left (right of picture).. Hope she can do something to adjust them.

Singapore's Biggest Tip Jar

2011-08-06T19:33:00.000+08:00

I saw this really interesting and innovate interacting display at Ion Orchard!

All you need to do is go to Canyouserve.com and allow them access to your Facebook, "Like" them and a few seconds later, your picture will appear in the screen as a "Current tipper". Than a $1 coin will roll out and drop into a giant tip jar at the bottom of the display!

They will also display your name on the second screen and you get to win prizes for participating! :)

This is the 1st time I see Facebook likes being used in such a clever & creative way.. Hope to see more of such stuff in the future! ^^

Captain America

2011-08-05T23:55:00.000+08:00

Watched Captain America at Nex Mall's Shaw Premiere cinema..

I told her that the last time I went to Gold Class at GV Vivocity, it's damn fucked up cos the seats are moldy (real mold on the covers!), there were half-eaten popcorn and fries on the side of the arm-rest (YUCK).. So our new favourite place is the new Premiere cinema at Nex.

The show is great but the ending is super kua kua kua. Easter egg at the end also super duper lame. I think it's all building up to "The Avengers" movie. That movie better be good, cos Iron Men & Captain America were just super extended trailers for that movie. If it sucks, lots of people are gonna hate Marvel comics for selling out to Hollywood.

Candies!

2011-08-04T23:22:00.000+08:00

One of my trainer in my new company bought us (the new hires) candies to congratulate us for graduating and also to encourage us! :) Super surprised and touched!

Beauty Products for cheap!

2011-08-03T22:25:00.003+08:00

Today is Day 1 of 3 of the Beauty products roadshow at Comtech, the building beside my office. There are many brands on sale, including SKII, Lancome, Dior, Clinque and many more.. Their official opening hours were from 11am-3pm.

These are the early birds cos we were there at 11am! :) The crowd at 12pm was mad!!! Lots of pushing and shoving!!!!!

All the products in unglam cardboard boxes.. Haha!

Bought all these for $40! :)

My best buy was the Estee Lauder 3-in-1 blusher for only $12.90! I bought the Clinque eye cream for $9.90 only! Super duper happy! Also managed to grab the travel sized bottles of the makeup remover and toner! Happy!

Hurts like a bitch!

2011-08-02T00:20:00.002+08:00

Remember I mentioned that I had a new bracket put in for my 12th Braces visit?

It's been almost 3 weeks and my inner cheek has not gotten used to it yet.. It's gotten so bad, I have a perpetual ulcer and it's becoming increasingly difficult to eat or talk.

Moreover I've become really really thirsty.. I drink an average of 300ml of water per hour, which is like almost 3 liters of water per day.. and that's a LOT.

Previously I had this crazy mad thirst last year, around September and I went to the doctor thinking I had some weird illness! The doctor even ordered me a full range of blood tests to see if I have diabetes cos it's one of the symptoms..

Luckily the test was negative! But I wasted a lot of blood and time going through the process.

Now I am experiencing this weird thirst phase again,I suspect it's my braces.. Maybe my mouth crave water cos of the ulcers that my braces is causing me..? Or I am somehow allergic to metal?

I don't know.. there can be so many reasons, but I think the root cause is my braces.

Anyway, I am removing it this Saturday so I am super happy! I am gonna ask my dentist to take the bracket out and put in a smaller bracket on my 2nd last tooth instead. I don't give a damn if the inner teeth are crooked! It's not worth the pain! Moreover I need to talk a lot in my line of work and it's impending my performance..

Maybe this is the pain that most people go through for their braces? If that's the case.. than maybe my tolerance for pain is not as high as I thought it was?

It would be easier if I don't have to talk so much, but I work in a call centre and I NEED TO TALK cos that's my job!!! My work is more important than my teeth.. for the moment. So I have to do something about it.

Saturday please come soon!

Branson's Baby Shower

2011-07-31T23:30:00.006+08:00

Received a FB invite from Philip inviting me to his son's baby shower.. He got married less than 1 year ago and so productive! He has a son now! Hahaha!

I missed his wedding as my grandma passed away last year and I couldn't attend due to Chinese superstitions.. so I told him I will definitely make it for his son's baby shower. :)

Pipimon accompanied me and we went to Raffles City shopping centre to look for presents and also to have lunch before going down.

I always go and have a meal before a party cos if the food is not to my liking, at least I won't go hungry and become grouchy! Haha!

Couldn't find anything nice or useful so I decided to give them money instead.. Luckily I brought along a super cute angbao to put the money in (back-up plan). I think it's better also cos I heard that he spent over $1000 for the baby shower... So at least the money will cover a portion of it.. Haha!

We had lunch at Xi Men Ting..

The bowl of Lu Rou Fan is so huge!

Pipimon's scallop fried rice is very yummy!

Afterwards we took the train than a feeder bus to Esparis condo at Pasir Ris. I know the place very well cos I grew up in Pasir Ris so we did not get lost..

Cupcake tier!

Me, Debbie & her hubby! We were trying the cupcakes.. but unfortunately the cupcakes were dry, overcooked and.. doesn't taste nice at all. Looks nice though!

Fondant Baby!

Yummy old-fashioned cakes!

Traditional Red Eggs!

Saw the baby and he's really cute! Sleeping in a crib at the corner even when the room was so noisy! Also heard from the daddy that he is a really good boy and doesn't really cry at night! Good!

Debbie and Andy (another ex-colleague from Apple who also had a baby recently) were talking about kids and also asking when I am getting married and having a kid.. I don't dare to plan that far yet.. Taking each day as it comes..

There were LOTS of people there in the condo function room! So much people until there were not enough seats and most of them had to stand! We had seats but no table so it was quite awkward and difficult to eat the food.. Overcrowding is a party-killer...

At least the food was good though.. Phillip catered them from Neogarden. :)

Yhingthai Restaurant @ Purvis Street

2011-07-30T23:14:00.000+08:00

Chloe's 1st super short haircut!

2011-07-30T17:58:00.003+08:00

After sleeping on the decision on whether to bring Chloe for a haircut.. I decided that I should choose practicality over vanity!

Instead of going back to Petfolio, I decided to bring her to another groomer.. Reason being, Simon (owner of the shop) refuse to let her cut short hair cos he says she looks nicer in long hair. Like all the show dogs in USA who have long silky hair.. but our weather is super mad hot and I think poor Chloe is suffering cos I can't turn on the aircon 24hrs a day for her and her fur is really really thick!

So I googled for the nearest (and best) groomer near my house and brought her there.. We went to "Mad about grooming" at Rocco Baleastier..

I am really happy with the results. It's $55 for a full grooming session and here are some Before & After pictures of my darling Chloe...

I still need some time to get use to her short hair cut, but I think she loves it because she seems happy and not emo at all.. Also, it's much easier for me to comb her hair now since it won't get tangled so easily. :)

I kept lamenting that her fur is so short and she looks like a boy instead of a girl... But Pipimon kept comforting me that her fur will grow back.. :( But I think it just take some getting use to cos her size has reduced by around 30% since her fur has been chopped off and she looks boyish at some angles.. though some angles she still look really cute and pretty. I think it's all about angles?

But overall, I feel that she looks like a baby lamb now. Hee!

Should I cut off Chloe's fur?

2011-07-29T22:48:00.000+08:00

It's not easy maintaining her thick and long fur coat.. I am seriously contemplating chopping off her fur but she looks so pretty..

Everytime I bring her out, people will comment that she's so beautiful and her fur coat is so nice.. They don't know the pain both of us go through everyday!

When I comb her hair, the loose hair or tangled hair have to be brushed out and sometimes it's quite painful for her (imagine your hair being tangled and you have to comb out the ends), and it takes me at least 30mins each day to comb her fur and tie her fringe up. She's cooperative MOST of the times, but sometimes she gets grouchy and refuse to cooperate and keep still.

I am just worried that the weather is too hot for her to handle.. Hmm. How?

Hello Kitty Cookies

2011-07-28T00:09:00.001+08:00

Brendan gave me a box of Hello Kitty cookies & cake a few weeks ago when he returned from Japan for a business trip. It's his first time buying Hello Kitty stuff for me ok?? So touched can! Hahahahahaha.. I did take a picture of the box then, but did not show the inside of the cookie box.. Here it is..

The wrapper on the left, the box on the right~

There are only 4 pieces inside! LOL! But it's really yummy and I loved them! :) Hope he will go Japan more often and buy cutesy Hello Kitty stuff for me.. Heeheehee!

Jealousy?

2011-07-27T23:00:00.003+08:00

Yesterday, at Vivien's surprise birthday party.. I realized something strange... There were 3 tables and somehow or rather, my table was filled with all the people who have LEFT the company and the other 2 tables were filled with people still in the company..

Somehow there's an invisible line that divides us.

But I don't find it surprising.. I kinda expected it and I guess the reasons are:

Since we are no longer working in the same company, there's no common topic to talk about anymore.
We were never friends, merely colleagues. Thus, when we leave the company, those people has no more "ties" connecting to us.
They are envious, jealous, resentful (1 or all of these)

To elaborate on point number 3, why do I say that they are envious and/or jealous and/or resentful? Well, they are in their comfort zone of working in the same job and envy us (the people who left) for having the courage to jump out of our comfort zone to seek better opportunities. They are jealous because once upon a time, we were all drawing the same salary and were on a equal stand.. but after we left, our salary increased (some by two-fold!), our employee benefits were better (e.g: 21days Annual leave compared to 10days), etc. They are resentful because they feel that we are no better than them in terms of ability and skills but somehow we are enjoying better salary and of course, a better quality of life..

Of course they won't say all of these.. most of them will give you a fake smile and say "oh! good for you!" but my in-built radar for bullshit & fakeness from people have been fine-tuned and I can sniff them out from a distance.. Just need to counter their fake flattery with fake enthusiasm.

I had to answer many curious & some irritating questions on where I am working now, how much I am being paid, and some stupid gossip shit.. but I'm past that.

Happy Birthday Vivien!

2011-07-26T23:57:00.003+08:00

I received a Facebook Event invitation last Friday from WeeFen saying she's organizing a surprise birthday party for Vivien at Costa Sands Resort (Pasir Ris) in 4 days time, which is today.

At the point in time, there were little "Confirmed" guests and I guessed the main reason is the location.. Most people are working on a Tuesday and the next day so it's really troublesome to travel all the way to the other end of the island if you are not living in the East side.

Honestly, if it were at Costa Sands, I would most probably not turn up.. Not that I don't "give face", but it's a weekday and I have to wake up early the next day to go to work.. Not to mention the crazy transport costs (Taxi) if I were to go cos I will definitely not take the train back..

So I whatsapp WeeFen and asked her for more information about the party:

Booked the chalet yet? - No
Ordered the food already? - No
Ordered birthday cake already? - No
Who's paying for the chalet & food? - Dunno
Who's confirmed going? - Not sure

And being the nosy girl I am, I asked if she needed my help to plan and organize for the party.. Since I LOVE to organize and plan parties. :) I really do! I wanted to be like David Tutera and own a Events Planning company..

So I helped her arrange for a change in party location from Costa Sands to Santi's condominium function room which is located near Toa Payoh/Balestier. It is a centralized location and I bet more people will come.. moreover, the rental cost of the function room is only $15 (with a $150 refundable deposit) and it's really spacious and pretty.

Santi guniang was really sweet to help with the booking of the function room :)

And I also asked Nat if he would like to sponsor the birthday cake cos he has really good taste (if not the best among us) for cakes and he will not disappoint us, and he very nicely agreed to!

Next, I created a picture for the Facebook event using Vivien's picture and also update everyone with the details of the party, map of the location & how to get there.

WeeFen had the tedious task of collecting money from everyone that will go towards the food and the balance of the money will be placed in a red packet that we'll give to Vivien as a birthday present..

I think cash is the most practical and welcomed gift. You can buy whatever you want! Vouchers are quite restrictive as they have validity dates and if there's nothing you need from the shop that the voucher was purchased from, there's no point!

Anyways, I only ordered the food yesterday, 1 day before the event!

I know it's really last minute, but I don't know if WeeFen can get the minimum 30 people required and my backup plan was to do a smaller scale mini buffet instead of catering. Also, I was sourcing around for the most economical choice, cos we were trying to not spend to much money on food so as to be able to have more balance money to give to Vivien as her present.

But thankfully Neogarden is really efficient and fast! I called them at 1pm after my lunchbreak and they sent me an email and SMS confirmation within the hour!

The setup was done by the delivery guy, Vincent. He's so funny! He gave me a courtesy call 20mins before he arrived, set up the food in record time and even took a picture of us with the food with our thumbs up (he requested for that pose). Service is fantastic!

I guess my only complaint is that the portion of the food were really quite little.. It's for 30pax, but some of the dishes were enough for only 10 or 15pax.. So if you are ordering from Neogarden, order more! The total cost of the food + delivery and GST is $443.

Vincent gave us a hat as souvenir.. T_T"

And yes, I posed with it.. HAHAHA!

Here's Vivien posing with the food! :)

WeeFen conspired with some other girls on how to divert Vivien's attention so she won't know that we are surprising her with a party.. After some diversions and roadblocks, she arrived around 8pm and we turned off all the lights and surprised her.. She was so shocked that she nearly cried.. Hahahaha!

The sushi platter was wiped out in minutes!

Nathaniel sponsored the yummy birthday cake! :)

Vivien posing with her birthday cards, ang pao & cake! ^^

Organizers with the birthday girl :D

Janice, WeeFen, Peggy, Vivien, Me & Santi

With all the girls!

With all the boys!

And I was the cake cutter! I LOVE CUTTING CAKES! Please give me the job for cutting cake and don't fight with me for it ok?? :P

Overall, the party was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves a lot!

Bob Marley once said..

2011-07-25T23:28:00.001+08:00

Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around.

You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you.

When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself.

Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful.

There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are.

The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever.

Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all.

A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face.

In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby.

Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you.

You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon.

You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible.

You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you.

You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.

[Personal thoughts]

I don't think I will ever meet this "Someone" in my life, though I wish I can..

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie @ Paragon

2011-07-24T23:57:00.001+08:00

Met Elson & Santi guniang today for dinner at Ion Orchard's Food Basement, than we went to Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie for desserts!

I had the Mango Tea & a super underwhelming chocolate cake. As usual they ran out of strawberry shortcake. What's new?

Elson's choice. That boy don't like chocolate... -_-

Santi guniang ordered the Triple Cheesecake

Chit-chat, laughed, than went back home. Work tomorrow! Gotta sleep now! :)

VOCAPEOPLE Singapore Tour 2011

2011-07-24T23:55:00.000+08:00

I am a big fan of Vocapeople after seeing their video on Youtube over 1 year ago.. See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6EYrqIn0yI

They are a 8 member Israel-based ensemble performing vocal theater combining acapella and beat-box vocals to reproduce the sounds of an entire orchestra.

They have performed in Europe, Middle East & South America.. I wanted to fly to another country and watch their performance but it's quite silly to spend thousands to go and watch a 2 hour performance..

Imagine my surprise and happiness when I saw in 8days magazine that they are coming to Singapore! WOOHOOO!

Brendan agreed to go and watch with me and I just booked two tickets for Category 1! The best seats in the house!

There is a 1st row seat available but it's on the left block and my esteemed iPhone god want seats that is nearer to the middle so I chose the middle block, but 5th row from the front. :)

The tickets were $88 + $3 Sistic fee, so total is $91 per person. But I used my Mastercard and got 10% off, so after all the Sistic charges, it's around $82.20 per person! Still cheap! I told Brendan that the $5.80 savings per person can be used for his carpark fees. Wahahahhahaha! Maybe he will be nice enough to send me home? I'll ask nicely.. hahahaha! :D

Super happy! Can't wait for 13th August! Yay Yay Yay!

Ippudo @ Marina Gallery

2011-07-23T23:11:00.000+08:00

Had lunch at Ippudo with Wany today.. She had a craving since last year to try the ramen at this restaurant as it was touted the "Best Ramen restaurant in Singapore" by many.

Well, I raised my eyebrows at that bold statement.. as there are many Ramen establishments in Singapore and most of them claim to have the BEST ramen in Singapore.

To many people who have not tasted the original Ramen in Japan, they won't know what is good ramen.. I am not pretentious. It's a fact. Just like eating a local Singapore dish in another country.. it may be good, but it'll never be as good as the original in the original country.

It's all about the ingredients. Even if they are all air-flown in from Japan, it won't be as fresh as eating in Japan.

There are many variations on Ramen.. from Hokkaido to Kyushu to Osaka.. each city has their own flavours. Miso, Shoyu, Pork Broth..

Anyways, I really wanna go to Yokohama's Ramen Musuem! I was staying in a hotel that is 10mins walking distance from it but didn't have the chance to visit cos I was working. :(

Chasyu Rice

Shoyu Ramen

Service was horrible. They rushed us to take our orders and kept hard-selling their stupid sparkling juices and pressured us to order more side dishes. WTF! There wasn't a queue outside as we went around 4pm so why are they in a hurry to chase us away? Moreover, I hate it whenever someone comes in the restaurant and they start yelling "Welcome" in Japanese, trying to out-shout each other to prove that they are welcoming but instead irritating the customers!!

Afterwards we went to Centrepoint for ice-cream at Haagen Daz cos I had a 30% discount coupon from 8days! :)

Shopped at Cold Storage and found out that there's two types of my favourite chocolate, Crunchie!

Made in Australia $1.95 VS Made in UK $2.25

We went to Taka cos Wany wanna go to Kino and on the way up I went to check the prices of the Thomas Sabo charms cos she said the prices went up... and it was true! Prices went up by 20% minimum!! I asked the salesgirl and she cited "Increased labour costs" as a reason and said that the prices went up on 14 July.

WHAT BULLSHIT! Bah. I only have 3 of the charms and planned to buy at least 4 more.. now the prices are so high, I am not sure if I am gonna buy them now.. it's so expensive!! From $119 to $134! From $98 to $113! All the nice ones are super expensive now!

Lunch at Harry's

2011-07-22T20:02:00.000+08:00

Had lunch at Harry's today.. There's an outlet at my workplace. :)

Yummy mushroom soup $6

Mini Fish & Chips $10, Pizza $10, Caesar Salad with Chicken $11

My first time at Harry's.. cos to me, it's a drinking hole and since I don't drink, there's no reason for me to patronize them.. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out they have main courses! :)

In total, 4 of us only paid $11 for everything! We ordered 2 sets of the Fish & Chips & Mushroom soup and shared the rest.. It's cheap cos there's no service charge & GST.. moreover we get 15% off for using Standard Chartered credit card! Mad cheap!

We did not tip the waitress cos their service is damn fucked up. They pretend not to see us, talk to us in a very bored and condescending tone and generally seem unhappy to be working at all. Lucky they don't charge service charge cos it doesn't justify their "service" at all! Or maybe they don't charge that's why they don't give good service?