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.

Tmr is my 2nd last day at work; but I feel so unready to leave. I mean not really because I dun want to leave; but more because there's still quite a bit of unfinished business and housekeeping stuff to attend to! Things to file away and shred; compiling outstanding work items to handover to colleague and such. Meanwhile, some emails still continue to creep into my mailbox, waiting for my reply/ further action. New boss has also been happily sending me things to read/ do, but realistically I prob wun be able to get to them till I start work proper next week. If only life could be more leisurely sometimes...

This is my last week of work at MND, and hopefully everything will be peaceful. Or even if there's chaos somewhere, hope it wun spread to my territory :P So that I can do some last min filing, clearing up etc in peace heh. Next Mon I will be back at good old Toa Payoh; several impt things also lie ahead in the next yr or so it feels pretty scary. Hope everything works out well.

3 particularly cool things happened during the trip.

One is kinda frivolous actually. I think i have been slightly brainwashed by L'Occitane ads and tourist postcards to think that Provence is synonymous with LAVENDER LAND. So like we were quite baffled (when we drove past some fields and took pics in midst of the lavender) why the very recognisable scent of lavender couldn't be detected at all at any of these spots.. Halfway thru the trip J decided to experiment with one lil stalk she picked... We sniffed pretty hard, but still no smell leh. One middle-aged French guy apparently noticed our 'antics' and gestured with his fingers to rub the lavender 'buds'... and voila! We smelt the fresh lavender fragrance immediately! It totally didn't occur to us that the scent had to be 'released'... cos I guess too used to smelling the processed lavender oils/ lavender satchets. But made me wonder how come the lavender satchets smell go good... have they all been pre-rubbed heh? :P

The second one was closer to my heart... Met up with Jeannice on the later part of the trip and had a really fun time hanging out together and catching up... Though (similar to J when we visited her in Japan last year) she initially had some initial reservations abt being a light bulb, her company was really enjoyable - and it prompted Derek & I to do stuff we prob otherwise wldn't have... like dining at the top few trip advisor restaurants more than half the time; disappearing into interesting stores we may not have stopped to explore etc.

The last one and most significant one involves a cute little Provencal hedgehog named "Sweet Hubert" we met on the trip... was somewhat smitten by his cuteness when I first sighted him at a souvenir shop. I took pics for keepsakes... and thought that was the last I'd see of him.

Hubert in my hands, his friend on D's shoulder...
 

Little did I know that he would suddenly make a guest appearance as a "ringbearer" on our last day in Paris...  :)