Someone's DIY party blog post inspired me to try making my own party fans and hats this morning. Am supposed to help out with D's nephew's bday party in June - the art part. And this can be one idea! Thought it might be cool to use recycled materials so as to teach kids to be more environmentally conscious. Sadly my fan is quite flimsy so nice to see but not so nice to play with till I find a more hardy solution heh.

These were flowers we bought for Mother's Day last Sun - bright and cheerful :)

I made some home-made barley drink this evening for falling-sick D and felt v proud of myself! Haha. It turned out to be quite simple; just that being unfamiliar with our induction hob, wasn't too sure which power level to leave it at and the over-efficient cooker caused the water to overspill again.. :P But one whole pot with half a packet of barley only yielded me two cups of barley water.. Think I shld put less barley and more water next time heh.

We also i-roboted our living room floor for the very first time (all thanks to j & s)! The machine turned out to be a lot noisier than expected; but was amused how cleverly it could go around (quite closely) the legs of our nice green chair. It seems to go around in random spirals and knocks its head all the time; floor seems clean enough though it failed to wipe away the footprint a guest had left at my living room floor tile :P

I have been quite a crybaby lately..

This evening, I suddenly started tearing in the middle of dinner and got my family very worried. My mum thought that my sis had said something mean to me, which made me cry. But I started tearing uncontrollably after sis' narration of a "bullying" episode in sch - it's her bday today and some ex-students (now in Sec 1) decided to visit her and got her a cake. Somehow many colleagues in the staffroom got to know about this (cos the students created a mini commotion) and they were not very nice about it. One even sarcastically commented, "Is this for Mother's Day"? My sis took all this immature and mean behaviour in her stride and tried to share the cake with others; but seemed like many of them remained jealous and pricky. I felt so unjust and terrible for my sis - to have such a nasty episode happen on her birthday and almost no one come to her defence.. It must have been so upsetting. And I didn't even buy her a proper bday present due to silly excuses like busyness with work.

I hope that much better things will happen to dear sis cos she deserves much better!

The weekend has gone decently well; but there's less than 25% of it left :( We bought some egg tarts from NEX for breakfast today! Was very happy there were still a few with the green tea crust available. The crust was pretty crumbly and egg custard soft and yummy; am inspired to make egg tarts again some time in the near future, with the foolproof 7-yr old recipe that Jacqui gave me eons ago. I need to find it first though heh.

We were really gluttony and had 4 egg tarts for breakfast heh. Two green tea, one original and one orange choc.

I also attended a church song comp yest and made a little recycled corrugated board sign for one of my cell grp members who got into the semi-finals... Quite pleased with my little art project - though it will have to go into the recycling bin (minus the ribbon and decal sticker) tonight :P

At Home on Labour Day :)

I made simple breakfast for us this morning - scrambled eggs and toast with blueberry jam and butter... and fresh blueberries in our cute Anthropologie bowl :P I discovered that the little egg roaster we got for our induction plate was not induction plate-compatible; and so had to use the huge pan for the eggs in the end :( Shall go shopping for another one soon.

My family also came over for lunch - and we got mum a yummilicious apple caramello cake from Cedele! There are bits of apple inside; with caramel cream and lotsa toasted oats, sliced almonds etc on the top. We finished half the cake at one sitting :P

We had our first mini cookout and used the oven for the first time this afternoon! The recipes from the book that C sent me were so tempting it made me feel like baking again! So I decided to buy new bake tools from Courts/Ikea yest and attempted a simple honey wheat pound cake recipe.. It was decently delicious; though the grainy wholemeal kinda texture may not appeal to everyone. The sides were also a bit chao-da :( After the dessert/breakfast cake was done, D attempted a everything-goes-in nutritious salmon cum roasted veggie dish, which turned out quite tasty though a tad too salty :P

I feel a little 'lousy' and weak as I have been feeling teary everytime I leave my parents' place to come back home... I wasn't even so lousy when I studied overseas; so not sure where the sudden abundance of sentimentality came from. Everytime we go back to eat, am sure to come home with some treats/ fruits/ or items for the next day's breakfast. I occasionally brood over my lack of friends/ a social network; but I really ought to be content and give thanks for my very nice family! And that most of the friends I do keep in touch with/ the couple of colleagues I know well enough are all very nice people!

Durian season in the heart of Toa Payoh

This afternoon while walking to the koka mee coffeeshop for lunch, I once again walked past the eye-catching durian stall that appeared last week. The rows and rows of neatly displayed durians; the yellow sea of durian meat in styrofoam boxes on the tables and the basketfuls of durian shells tucked away at one side just triggered a photojournalistic urge in me... I am not exactly a fan of durians, but this durian stall in the middle of the row of HDB shops at Toa Payoh had this very authentically local flavour about it (pun not intended) that its very presence somehow made me feel happy... Like it suddenly made that 20sm of space feel and look very Singaporean.

After lunch, I wanted to go back to sneak a picture of the stall; but it was just too difficult to snap a picture directly in front of the lady who was enthusiastically calling out to passers-by to buy the durians... and so I sheepishly stole a bad picture of another more ordinary-looking and less visually appealing durian stall. There were in fact 3 of them within like a 15m radius - I suppose it's durian season!

I'm actually supposed to be catching up on some work (to make up for being slow in office) NOW but there's zero motivation... Am feeling more at home at my new home; though the stealthy strolling of neighbours' cats (that had stolen their way into my garden earlier in the night) past my living room sliding doors towards the gate (as I laze in front of the TV) will take some getting used to!

The sky has been rumbling and lighting up (without actually raining) for more than 2 hours now. Not that I am complaining, 'cos the cool weather has sent in some nice breeze into my study room... where I now sit on a $9 little Ikea stool in front of my iMac. It feels nice to be back home, back in Singapore :)

A walk down memory lane

I hadn't returned to Berkeley since I graduated in May 2006; and part of the reason why I decided to visit SF for the honeymoon was also to kinda revisit the sch and check out places I used to stay and hang out at.. Many of them were still very recognisable, though the shop mix at certain streets have not too surprisingly changed since. There is now Daiso on Telegraph Ave! Feels odd but kinda nice for students i guess. Was rather disappointed that Intermezzo burnt down last year though; and I doubt I'd ever get to taste my fav sandwiches and salads again.. :(

D commented that my campus felt really green; with really nice trees and all. Somehow I never really noticed nor fully appreciated all the trees in campus... but it really is a very pleasant campus. I wanted to re-taste all the crap food that made me fat - like the sinful cream-cheese rich black-bottom muffins at Moffitt Library cafe; but in the end I only treated myself to the original bagel at Hummingbird Cafe. Sadly it wasn't really the BEST BAGEL IN THE WORLD anymore; because I forgot to ask the guy to toast it nice and soft! It was still quite yummy though. We even hunted down ABC Cafe at SF Chinatown, in search of the cheap egg tarts... they weren't that cheap anymore; but still tasted alright. Crystal Jade egg tarts win hands down; but I suppose that's not the point :P

Since we were in Berkeley, I also revisited 1230 Josephine St... the walk from the Shattuck bus stop was unexpectedly long though; perhaps cos I always used to drive home and seldom walked home; and from one bus-stop too early! My memory of street names and their relative distances had grown hazy... and somehow tog with the sense of familiarity was a layer of foreign-ness... of knowing this place; yet not quite knowing it anymore. I think the place will never be as nice and memorable as I remembered it to be anymore; certainly not when the people I hung out with so often are no longer there. Actually I also had many long stretches of solitude in the campus - studying on my own, eating lunch on my own, walking from class to class on my own... 

 

Today is Day 2.5 of 'new life' at our new place and thankfully our living room area is no longer a warzone of clothes and random stuff! TV and internet also got set up this morning, and this is my first time logging in from a very bare and messy study room at our new place. I went home to pick up some more stuff + iMac earlier this afternoon, and I was unexpectedly terribly sentimental about moving out. Somehow looking at my little messy haven and nice comfy bed just managed to make me cry as I was packing... I remember wanting to move out when I first returned from the States; but somehow the warmness of living with my family has won me over and I was sad to "leave"... Dear mum also packed me lots of fruits, warm chicken soup etc to bring home with me; though I could very well get fruits from the mini NTUC just 3 min walk away at the HDB void deck... I hope I adjust well to staying on the ground floor, where cockroaches, rats and pooing cats can now easily intrude...

I finally caved in to temptation to buy a full pint of ice cream from the supermart just now... So we got Ben & Jerry's new flavour red velvet cake n before I knew it, a third of the pint was gone!! :( it's been a while but I suppose I remain perfectly capable of finishing a pint on my own. Gd thing D was more sane n helped relocate tub of ice cream back into the fridge ;) The honeymoon is turning out to be a comfort-food trip of sorts... :( I really need to work away the calories when we get home this Sun!

Revisiting my fav grocery store

I just walked past rows of cheap yummy looking pints of ice cream at Whole foods Portland and miss shopping at this supermarket! Kettle chips are also on sale at 2 big packs for $6, with new flavours like roasted tomato! And they now have free wifi in store too!

Wedding Frills

This morning, I finally gathered all the ribbons, lace, flower I got the past week or two for my angbao box project! I hadn't done any craft project in ages, and was really excited about it! Though I knew I really shouldn't spend too much time on these frivolous things and tire myself out... but I just cldn't help it. It was something I HAD to do! I really cldn't bear buying those ugly angbao boxes with a wedding couple teddy pair and gaudy ribbons (yet cost a staggering $70!!) from the stores...

Very happy with my completed piece; as they go well with my vintage decor theme! :D

  my pretty craft materials...

 the decorated angbao box! (the box came plain, with just the angbao slot)

I laced the simple white guest book I got from Prints too!

If there is one word that can sum up how I feel this past week, it's the word "thankful". I feel extremely thankful to the lovely friends and family around me; who have so generously given up their free time and energy to help me with various bits of my wedding preps... I dun even know how to begin to describe this very warm, fuzzy feeling that I feel towards the ppl who have helped me in his/her own special way.. :)

2 more weeks (and only 5% of honeymoon planned bleah)! Wish I had enough leave to take the whole 2 weeks off!

Less than 3 weeks to the wedding and a million small things not done! And the million things is indirectly a consequence of my wanting to do things in a more DIY fashion.... :( I realised that it takes a good 20 - 25 min to fluff up one paper pom pom nicely, and this translates to minimum 400 min to fluff up my 20 pom poms! The time and effort that goes into this is... prob not commensurate with the meagre savings I got from asking my wedding florist to leave this to me... But it's too late, and I need to get them all fluffed up by this weekend, for handing over. Engaged mum to help out; but I think after two she already suffers from pom pom fluffing fatigue... I can do it decently well, but I just have no time! I suppose have to close one eye and fluff it up quickly and if it is done more uglily, so be it huh.

London!

I didn't really take many pictures in London; most of them were of food at Borough Market.. which had really high quality and enticing street/ market food. I loved the pretty pretty flowers at the dept store florists; why can't the roses at local florists come in more natural, neutral shades??

 

Poor rabbits :(

 

Dunno why they were selling portuguese egg tarts at Borough Market...

 

Extremely cute flower-pot bread! 

 

Colourful veggies :)

 

The beautiful great court at the British Museum

 

A pretty cool and inspiring quote at the museum

Cute flowers... Happy Valentine's dear friends!

It was a tiring but productive weekend! We FINALLY finished buying the lights for the house; and made some progress with sending out e-invites and penning down names and addresses for some hardcopy invites. We have slightly more than a month left now...

The actual house gate looks pretty much like what I envisioned it to be earlier! It has more blemishes when scrutinised close-up, but i suppose closing one eye for some trivial things will help me remain sane... 

Am on a short weekend work trip to London and there has unfortunately been a cold spell since last week. And so the weather these couple of days is looking pretty bad. It's snowing lightly outside and freezing cold! So though I had some time to spare in the evening just now; the temperature just made it too uncomfortable to walk down Oxford St for shopping. Shall hide myself in a museum or two tmr :(

I feel like I haven't written a proper blog post for some time... and sadly haven't written about anything else much besides home and wedding stuff. Even over this long CNY weekend, half of it has been kinda spent on wedding-related stuff... I dunno if this is a 'normal' ritual every couple goes through, but am starting to feel wasted having spent a disproportionate amt of time and effort online looking at wedding favors/ cake designs/ flower decor and such. I suspect it's just ME. And the growing bridezilla in me has repeatedly chosen these tasks over those that prob matter to me over the longer term... such as the acquisition of general knowledge through... reading of newspapers and keeping up-to-date with current affairs stuff, which my current job requires me to be.

Was also thinking about the wedding speech portion of dinner; and wondering why anyone wld want to say anything about me; and what can anyone possibly say...? Choosing WHO to give the one wedding speech for you is also a headachey decision to make. Perhaps the best solution is to have no other wedding speech aside from the one that D & I will give and save my dear friends from any trouble/ sleepless nights?

Need to remind myself not to get so carried away with making everything 'right' that I neglect to appreciate all the selfless things that my friends and family have and will be doing for me... I suppose weddings are still weddings and it's odd for a wedding to NOT revolve around the couple getting married. But just need to be mindful that it should also be a time to have fun, enjoy and appreciate the company of friends and family, so it wun end up being an overly self-glorifying, self-centred affair?

We stole into Timbre@Old School in broad daylight and took to the stage... Actually we didn't exactly plan to take shots in Timbre and were kinda taking shelter waiting for the temperamental rain to go away... but somehow the messiness looked kinda interesting and so we decided to give it a go :)

We received our pre-wedding shots today! There are quite a few nice ones to choose from, though I think we need to think up more creative shots than the nose-to-nose type of shots. I actually tried to do a "flags-line" put together with little pegs and twine the night before the photoshoot; it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped it will, but okie lah, the final product still looked relatively cute.

Here's our fun flags picture that spells out both our names, taken at Old School @ Mount Sophia :)

Sadly the weather did not hold up and so later part of shoot with the gowns had to be postponed to another day. It had better not rain again then! :( I got a little upset and slightly grouchy ard noon time when the intermittent drizzle got heavier and sky grew darker, cos it meant having to buy flowers again and wasting my balloons, on top of having to set aside another day/ half-day from my meagre balance of vacation leave for another shoot. Bridal studio also want us to pay $80 for re-steaming the gowns/suit that we didn't even wear!

Thankfully our photographer was pretty professional and his positive attitude prompted me to make the best of the rest of the half-day shoot for our casual shots. Think they turned out somewhat promising in the end. We will end up spending more $ for the shoot; but this episode also reminded me to look at the brighter side of things; and of the wonderful people around me (e.g. parents were nice about it and tried to comfort me a little, so did D... even though I'm sure D was also upset all cldn't go as originally planned)

Hai, these flowers (freesia + wax flowers) are now a little wasted sitting pretty at a vase at home ;(

Have been trying to prepare for wedding photoshoot next Tues and beauty comes with a pretty hefty price tag! Have to fork out more for more elegant flowers; french tips for manicure cost $5 more (and now some nail boutiques charge you CNY surcharge! what a way to rip ppl off) and pre-wedding shoot make-up costs quite a bit (with extension of MUA services chargeable at $100 per-hr with min of an hour)... It's so expensive to look nice :(

On lighter note, D & I prepared several props for some fun casual shots in casual wear...  Hopefully we will be blessed with good weather in this rainy season (the past week has been very promising) and that everything turns out well :)

My wedding florist must be quite disgusted with me 'cos I refused to pay $195 to rent 18 pom poms for a night and decided to go the harder way to look for my own online + ship them from the States + fluff them up myself and just pay her labour costs for putting them up at dinner. It ends up costing me about the same actually, BUT, I will at least get to keep all the pom poms! Haha I hope I will not regret this.

My sat mornings continue to be taken up by site meetings at new place, but things are starting to shape up and meetings with contractor (my uncle) are finally getting shorter. Yay! Both D and I are really relieved that my uncle turned out to be an excellent and extremely patient contractor - he also allocated his good workers to our project and they have retiled the entire first floor and the bathrooms quite nicely. People generally don't seem to hold construction workers in very high regard; but to me, good tiling seems to require quite a lot of skill, patience (and prob experience)! And I was really impressed by how they have managed to tile all the irregular outdoor portions of the house so nicely.

As part of DIY house-reno, I also attempted to design our own gate... and I am quite happy with my little gate design! But erm dunno if this can be translated that accurately into an actual gate design heh.

 

Today was a productive but tiring Monday off..  Day started at abt 930am, and ended at like 1030pm! Hmm hours-wise it was actually more xiong1 than work; but I ended up with some surprise finds/ bargains, including an off-the-rack dress I can wear for ROM, so I came home a broke but happy girl. Amidst all the shopping I even managed to catch a glimpse of the Abercrombie guys (in sweatpants only) outside the new A&F store along Orchard! The shoe-search was tough 'cos there just aren't that many choices out there within my budget; I managed to find something decently pretty, so if I cannot find anything else I'd prob just go with this pair.

It's so painful that I have to wake up at 715am tmr to go to work... :(

p/s: I have developed a newfound respect for good salespersons (who know their stuff and are not out to pressure you to buy a certain product/ model). It's also pretty inspiring to meet people who know their trade really well and look like they love what they do for a living..

I get easily stressed at work... so life is hard when it really doesn't have to be that tough :( And stress tires me out. Was stressed over two not super stressful things and ended up feeling very tired tonight/ yest night. I have another stress coming up... have to find wedding shoes in time for my gown fitting next Tues! Bleah...

Inspiring TED speech by Amy Purdy - double amputee and pro snowboarder, on how to draw inspiration from life's obstacles

Fridge Talk

I never thought that buying a fridge can be so complicated and mentally + physically exhausting. After several rounds of browsing in the past couple of weeks (we have been eyeing some Fisher & Paykel ones), we ended up buying a pretty big but reasonably priced two-door LG stainless steel one tonight. We hung around the fridge display area for more than 2 hrs, making repeated rounds to compare the potential candidates, their number of NEA ticks (ie. annual energy consumption) and agonising over the amt of premium we were prepared to pay for chio-ness (For the F&P fridges, the chio-er stainless steel ones cost abt $400 more than their plainer sandstone/white counterparts...)

Our purchase was something we totally did not set out to buy; but LG apparently produces good, high-tech energy-saving fridges. Hopefully we made the right choice; even if we didn't, I can regret later cos I can minimally sleep well tonight knowing that my fridge is not gg to be camouflaged by my kitchen wall :)

[p/s: I think I actually mentioned this in an earlier post - In our pursuit for chio kitchen appliances, we had initially set out to buy a SMEG fridge. But the poor space efficiency and exorbitant price tag quickly led us to strike it off our shortlist :P]

Need to snap out of a very negative outlook/ attitude at work :( Somehow many things seem quite pointless and bureaucratic; and in turn motivation level has plunged significantly of late. I have also been less nice to boss lately; including giving slightly sian3 looks when informed of the need to present stuff at dept planning sessions etc. Bleah... On personal front, life is pretty hectic with renov and wedding stuff to think about every week. I think my tendency to want to be perfectionist about the slightest details also makes life more tiring for myself... Perhaps need to learn to let go and enjoy the moment more, at work and outside work!

The highlight of my work day was a roundtable discussion chaired by my CEO with visiting CSC fellow & co on the "evergreen" topic of housing affordability. My office and another section in my dept kinda co-organised the event so I got to sit in the session as a back-bencher... While our visitors from the States left us with some 'food for thought' comments towards the end of the session, the "star" of the discussion was actually my CEO cos she was really really zai. I don't think I've ever had a boss so outstanding and clear and eloquent in delivering her arguments/views... She's also really skilful in disagreeing in an agreeable and sensible way. Have also found her very humble and approachable despite her very impressive achievements. Such an inspiration for ppl working with her :)

 

Christmas colors on the sunset deck of our junk at hazy Halong Bay

I didn't like Hanoi very much to be honest, and this time round we also had a series of unlucky/ unpleasant little incidents on the trip... :( Sadly my experiences with Vietnam haven't been that great; also ended up with like a bad throat/ nose due to the bad air, so I was pretty thankful to be back in clean and green SG heh.

Later part of this week was split btwn some bridal stuff and house renovation business. I got rather upset with the bridal studio's pricing policy for my made-to-measure evening gown (design with too many folds = $, two diff colors on gown = $, extra bow = $, cheongsam cut = $, extra crystals =$$$). On hindsight, I shld have asked more questions before taking up the package, but oh well sometimes you really wouldn't have known better beforehand. 

Quite a bit of the old house have also been stripped free of old wall/floor tiles; and it was interesting to see all the hidden pipes/ wires beneath the false ceilings and such.. This evening we also visited a SMEG showroom to checkout their bright and retro-looking fridges; but concluded that chio things can be rather impractical... so will prob give up idea of buying a very chio fridge and in turn try to settle for a relatively chio but more functional and reasonably-priced one. The Harvey Norman salesman at Millenia Walk also gave us a very informative overview on induction cookers, ovens and dishwashers... but need to do more homework and research bit more on which brands are more reliable/ durable... The 3 main contenders for the kitchen appliances (esp a good oven!) I want to get are BOSCH vs BRANDT vs ELECTROLUX... recommendations are most welcome :)

Tmr's early morning flight to Hanoi will be on Tiger Airways - an airline I honestly quite dislike.. But since the tics were really pretty cheap we decided to be cheapo and get them anyways. We didn't have time to prepare v much for this trip at all, but perhaps this wld be a good opportunity to just chill and do more of nothing after a relatively stressful few days earlier part of this week :) After > 4 mths of being grounded, I can finally say yay holiday again!!

Our office headcount increased by 50% this week when my new admin exec (V) started work on Mon. For now, find him a little tough to read because he seems to have the tendency to look a little sian/ sad even though I suspect he may not necessarily feel that way. And I think I prob shouldn't have used the word "cute" on some of the little things he decided to place on his workstation (like a sitting bear that's actually a USB hub and a trio of sitting monkeys with heads that rock from side to side) - he gave me a bit of a "What the..." face when I said that, but aiyah, he prob wasn't that pissed with me lah heh. Good thing he's very organised and a self-professed neat freak, so the newspapers lying around on the table got reorganised into nice neat stacks; cos V just "couldn't take it"...

On the personal front, I have to try to settle reno stuff by this Sun, as we are trying to start work next week! Major stress, cos i cannot seem to decide on the bathroom tiles, esp for the ones in the main bedroom. Spent quite a bit of time yest trying to draw up what kitchen can look like; and it was pretty satisfying when I finished; though I felt really exhausted at the end of the day and actually slept before 12am for the first time in a long while. Am now supposed to be doing some work; but am really too lazy to get down to them :(

"Nothing worth doing is ever easy" - words of wisdom from a dear friend!

today I uncovered a pretty silly SOP required for reimbursement/ making purchases. All I wanted to do was to buy a few post-its that my dept admin inventory didn't already stock (they have yellow ones but i needed other colors). The officer in charge of stationery purchases shared with me (to my disbelief) that I had to put up an approval paper before I cld proceed with my (claimable) purchases. In fact, I was told, I had to get approval to buy just about anything. While the officer was nice enough to offer to put up the approval for me; I just thought this step of seeking approval for the most petty of purchases was just plain silly and a waste of time lah. D says it's some new SOP put in place after the SLA saga and not unique to HDB... Think this new procedure has been in place for a while alri, just that I didn't need to make out-of-pocket purchases until now... isn't it kind of an overkill.. why cannot just apply this SOP to bigger purchases. Maybe I shld find out more about this and try to "complain" when I am free ha. Meanwhile, perhaps I shld just stick with yellow post-its for my meeting to avoid creating unnecessary work for other ppl :(

there are a 1001 things to do every weekend and I find myself feeling more tired than rested pretty much every Sun night.. and it's another dreaded Mon tmr! As usual, we did a little bit of wedding/ house stuff during the week. I finalised the design of my gown on Fri, but didn't  quite expect the BV designer to suggest that I put myself on a strict diet plan... the challenge is for me to take 2 inches off my waistline by Mar next year - a tall order for someone who loves snacking and isn't particularly conscientious at exercising :P But I suppose I can try to watch my diet a little more and stay away from unnecessary carbs. Also went down to Balestier to take a look at tiles this afternoon; am now racking brains over the type of tiles/ layout for the bathroom/ kitchen... DIY can save us quite a bit; but it's certainly a lot more time consuming!

This morning I accidentally sent my director an email meant for my boss, which had my frank comments on what I thought about his comments about our slides...!!! (obviously it was not meant for his eyes at all) I immediately realised my boo-boo while the email was being sent; but there was nothing I cld do... In my dismay, I hurried to my boss' room and I think I cldn't stop saying "oh no oh no" for the first 30 seconds... Boss was nice enough to try to call the ISD guys to see if anyone cld do anything for me; in the end I also called the SOE guys myself - who informed me that LN had no recall function whatsoever, unlike Outlook. Hai, so in the end had no choice but to send a supersede email to my director to ignore the bad email... but erm obviously tt made it more obvious... Though director later emailed me to say "no worries", my CEP prob fell to rock bottom overnight... It's been a while since I last did anything so silly, but oh well, it happens :(

Have neglected blogging this past week 'cos life was slightly stressful starting last Thurs, when we had to do some major changes for a set of slides to be used to brief CEO for the first time. The worry wart in me reared its head the whole time and so I fretted over the contents of the slides a little over the weekend and for most of Monday... Thankfully everything went quite well on Tues; and both boss and I got to take a slight breather! Through this episode though, I was reminded of my own pessimism and perfectionism. It's nice to have optimistic ppl around me to balance off the negative thoughts.

I chanced upon a really cute creative poster on Etsy... feel tempted to get it, but then it's damn ex for a piece of paper.... Good reminder though. To chase and not just follow your dreams!

Last Fri, I interviewed ppl (tog with boss) for the very first time... It felt slightly intimidating trying to appear confident and seasoned to potential hires for my new office, but I gradually warmed up towards the end of the session. It turned into a pretty interesting first-time experience seeing things from the OTHER side.. The candidates turned out to be all pretty decent; and though we wished for a candidate who posessed ALL the qualities we were hoping for; it was clear at the end that things dun usually turn out that way and choices and trade-offs had to be made. Oh well, at least there were promising ones and hopefully we can get along well with the person who decides to take up our job offer!

Amidst the busy wedding & house reno planning, I also decided to embark on a little twice-a-week photo project with J; and I've been trying to take pictures every other day over the past week. Was initially slightly concerned abt time commitment and whether it wld induce daily stress in us... but so far things have actually turned out pretty well; and the little project has subconsciously led me to look more closely at things around me :) This week I think I took too many photos which wun be used as formal entries... so just sharing one of them here. This is a pic of the display window at Pullman Bakery@Millenia Walk.

A fair chunk of my time now is taken up by wedding planning and home stuff! While home stuff has been somewhat lower on the priority list, we may have to gear up and spend more time researching and thinking abt it in the next few weeks as it seems that getting a ID to do up the place will be quite out of budget :( Incentives are not really aligned and IDs obviously propose things that will milk as much money out of us as possible; by 'innocently' inserting unnecessary feature walls for aesthetic effects; recommending "premium" finishes etc etc. After sitting through 2 initial proposals, the scrooge in me is starting to feel very tempted to plan/ design everything ourselves and just get a contractor to do up the place... After all, I think we have decent aesthetic sense and taste; so hopefully things wun go too wrong...

On a more frivolous note, I stumbled across some cute accessories yest when checking out a florist. A vintagey flower ring! Am not quite a ring person, but cldn't resist getting it. :D

Poor D is down with chicken pox and has voluntarily quarantined himself at home since Thurs so as not to endanger innocent souls to this annoying infectious disease... Thankfully I already got it in P4, but it a truly indelible experience since chicken pox scars left permanent scars on my face :( I only have my itchy hands to blame!

As a result of D getting chicken pox (and me having to explain D's absence to ppl - at cell group, when I went to bridal studio etc) everyone started telling me about Shingles (which is apparently just as gross, if not grosser!). I also ended up using public tpt a lot more than I wld otherwise have - the longer travelling times/ hassle of using various modes of public tpt to get to places suddenly made me feel that I have been somewhat spoilt by readily available car rides fr D most of the time...  :-/

Also spent a good few hrs this afternoon trying to source for a value-for-money wedding photographer... but seems pretty tough to find folks who are good and cheap heh. This guy is pretty good but out of budget... Eventually got quite sian and gave up after shortlisting like 3; shall check these out first and hopefully they make the grade. Recommendations are most welcome!  :)

Had a most enjoyable long weekend (took Mon off) hanging out with girl friends, watching DVD movies and visiting more bridal studios... Esp the hanging out with girl friends bit. Feel that I have somewhat neglected the hanging out with friends bit (partly also cos not everyone is back but more ppl were suddenly back briefly over weekend) so it felt really nice catching up with them..

The bridal studio part was actually rather hair-raising as I really cldn't decide btwn my final shortlist of two studios and spent quite some time fretting over whether I wld regret after signing up for either. But as with many things in life, choices have to be made and so I finally forced myself to decide today :) Somehow just deciding on a studio magically made me feel somewhat accomplished...

Here's a pretty hilarious video by Mr Brown on the presidential candidates...

I have always found my offices too warm but the new office is unbearably cold. Now I have to wear my cardigan everyday and the cold hovers ard my body even when I go out for lunch etc. I suspect my recent little cold/ sore throat was the result of the Antartica-climate in my office. BUT... apparently boss and MIA neighbour's cubicles aren't as freezing as mine! I suddenly realised it today during discussion with boss, cos both of them have window panels where the warm sunlight can stream in to neutralise the cold. But my station only has walls and no daylight :( Perhaps it's time to get help to make my officer warmer.

We've barely started with wedding preps (so far, have gone to look-see at a few bridal studios and mainly did online research for venues) and the "road ahead" already seems somewhat intimidating. This afternoon, we attended a caterer open-house; and the salesperson seemed pretty surprised tt we were still pretty hazy about what we envisioned our wedding to be like despite planning to hold it in about half a yr's time. And then there are all these horror stories floating ard abt having to book venues more than one yr in advance... Another immediate hurdle ahead is successfully finding a cosy non-hotel/convention centre venue that can take like 300 guests or more... Hai, foresee many dilemmas and frustrations ahead!

On a brighter note, I stumbled across a lovely gown yesterday that almost looked like it could be IT. But sadly had to let it go 'cos it had to be bought (not for rental) by today :(

Cute finds I sighted at Wood Would (stationery + paraphernalia store) this afternoon, captured with my new camera!

Lovely ribbons!

A craft book I wanna get!

  

 

New Toy!!

I finally bought a new compact camera over the weekend... and am pretty satisfied with the first few shots I took with it this morning. Looking forward to more fun pics but without the weight of a DSLR :P It also comes with a few fun artistic filters, which I used on my shots of my office:

 

 This is what HDB Hub looks like from across the road..

 My little 'cosy corner' on the drawer-top

 

My cutesy stuff close-up, in dramatic mode :)

 This weekend in pictures 

Some pics from the NDP preview on Sat evening; and my quick attempt to use my long-neglected oven. Heh, but my apple cinnamon muffins are instant-mix ones, from the sorely missed Trader Joe's...

 
 

 

 

Invisible enemies

My stuff fell prey to some creepy floaty neighbours TWICE this week at my workstation! Ok, I am not talking about the real creepy supernatural beings (though I also hope they are not lurking around) but an enemy by the name of.. MOLD. I thought my office was freezing enough to keep such thingies away, but I was very wrong. Earlier this week, I happily bought a box of blueberries and strawberries from the entrepreneurial fruit-stall uncle (who has a stall at the basement food court, but now regularly pushes a cart to various floors to hawk his goods at lift lobby). I then left them out in the open since we didn't have any fridge in office. But I discovered with horror yesterday some white furry stuff on my remaining half-box of strawberries... so had to throw them away. Guess the freezing temp was not freezing enough to keep these hardy fungi away :( Err... a tuperware that I used to bring some fruits to office also kenahed cos I forgot to wash it and left it out for maybe 2 days :(

Heartland gem!

Today my dinner started with a warm green tea baumkuchen cake... not from any fancy/atas pastry shop but a little cake/noodles cafe at Toa Payoh Central called Wheat Baumkuchen. It was really yummy - even better than the baumkuchen from Taka B1. Yay, now I have yummy green tea cake right at my doorstep :) This little shop also sells five types of cold noodles, each named after a creature (most of them were sea creatures, like penguin; seal; dolphin etc). Somewhat random, but I guess it's kinda cute. But due to the faint association between the creatures and the contents of each dish, I alri forgot the creature that endorsed the soba I had :P I would def go back there for dinner!

I suddenly need to be very well informed and well read and it feels somewhat intimidating and exciting at the same time. Exciting because I will hopefully grow much less ignorant in the next yr or so but intimidating cos I am expected to know so much more about everything (trends, current affairs, econs etc), Have unfortunately been suffering from partial brain-rot the past few years :( Perhaps I now need to set aside one hour or so everyday to read newspapers, newsmags etc but doubt I'd have the discipline and willpower to last for more than 1 week ha. Well I will try lah, though I know I'd never get very good at doing these things... At end of day, they are just not 'my element'...

Today I asked my MIA neighbour (who's no longer MIA) a random qn about his namecard - whether he had any preference for the Chinese translation of his designation.. cos these chapalang stuff just got sent to me since I'm the lowest life form in my tiny office of 3. NMIA neighbour (in his late 50s I think) walked over and told me that it didn't matter to him since he didn't know any Mandarin (he learnt Malay in sch instead). The reason? Cos the Chinese teachers in sch then were really fierce; whereas the Malay teachers were much nicer and gentler...

Today's Day 2 of work back at HDB. Things are still relatively peaceful; and the environment is very quiet. My office is a little set-up tucked away in a little corner behind the lift lobby, with a total of... 6 workstations and a tiny discussion corner. So far, there's a total of 2 inhabitants in our little office (in the past 2 days at least). The 3rd person (someone senior) has apparently been MIA, so my boss and I have had the whole place to ourselves! Hopefully this MIA neighbour is easy to get along with... i mean, when there are so few of us, 1 unpleasant colleague makes a huge diff... :P

I get a nice corner with lotsa wall space right at the end, but it's currently relatively empty and undecorated, except for my santa mug with a santa-holding-on-to-cup-rim spoon; a few postcards of takayama/ gassho-style farmhouses stuck on the side of my big cabinet; an unmagnetic whiteboard; self-decorated IKEA magnets on my magnetic cabinet door and a little dish cloth with black cat-face prints covering the top of my little chest of drawers. I want to make my workstation feel more homely, but have yet to decide on what pictures/ posters i should put up. Maybe a potted plant/ cactus or two and cute vases would help.

Hope things will remain peaceful in the weeks to come! Heh. So far so good, except that I have to readjust to using LN (instead of Outlook) all over again... Am also not used to having to meet/ co-exist with so many people at the lift lobby... The exponential increase in number of fellow lift-riders is somewhat intimidating.. though I dun even know many of them. I suddenly cannot imagine/ believe that so many ppl actually work at HDB Hub... Guess I had also better start working bucking up, so as to live up to my fanciful title of "Head Strategist"... Right now, these shoes are too big for me to fit comfortably in; and what I need to do in the coming months is still somewhat hazy :(

By the way - this is my cute santa mug hehehe.