Weekends… October 30, 2008

Sorry.. has not been updating my blog recently.. Just came back from my hometown last weekend.. Due to Monday is a public holiday – Deepavali, we had a long weekend. Eventhough I had to work for half a day on Saturday, I decided to make a trip back home. 

It was good to be back home, eventhough it was rather chaotic back home. The journey home and back was quite a challenge. The crowds for both ways are really horrifying. The fear of not getting a ticket back and the relief of finally securing one without the need to wait at least 2 hours was something we do not wish to experience too often. On the way back to Singapore, the cars are being jammed for nearly 3 hours before reaching JB immigration and after the immigration, it takes nearly an hour to queue to get up the bus to bring us across the causeway! With this crowd, who says the country are going into recession? People are still travelling to other countries to shop, to spend money!

The reason why I went back was to see if I am able to help my parents, knowing they will be quite tied up getting my bro room ready for his wedding in December which is roughly a month and 1 week away. I went back at the right time it turns out, as my parents are changing the floor linolium for mine and my brother room. So furniture has to be brought out, my dad took this opportunity to repaint both our rooms and our doors. So after the new linolium is being put in place, furniture has to be moved back and to return all the stuff back to the shelves. This is where you find all the long lost forgotten things, when we go though all the things and some brings back many memories…

Of course being back home, it is never go to waste that I take this opportunity to eat the local yummy food! The grill sting ray with sambal (very very spicy indeed!), cuttlefish with kangkung and of course Ah Lam red bean with jagong drink! The best part? my mum’s home cook food the next day… It is a norm that we always eat out – everytime have to think what to eat, where to eat.. , when we have the chance of eating some home cook food. It is such a luxurious treat and my mum’s cooking is the best!

Mamma Mia.. September 23, 2008

” ..Mamma mia, here I go again; My my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again?
My my, just how much I’ve missed you; Yes, I’ve been brokenhearted; Blue since the day we parted
Why, why did I ever let you go? Mamma mia, now I really know, My my, I could never let you go…”

I am sure many will find that the above song sounds very familiar to them. Yes it is a song from ABBA. They are quite a popular band in 1970s and some of us does hear their songs since young! Now they even created a popular play at UK and Australia called “Mamma Mia” and this play are based on their songs. Now they even made a movie based on the play.

It is about a young couple getting married, the bride is looking for her dad and she found out that she has 3 possibilities and she is unable to determine who is her actual dad. So she invited all 3 dads to her wedding without her mum’s knowledge. This is where the story unfolds. Since I watched the play at Melbourne around 6 years ago and had just watched the movie last weekend, of course nothing beat the play but the movie was quite nice with a touch of comedy and of course the songs are nice eventhough Pierce Brosnan - the former James Bond 007’s voice does not really match the songs. But overall it was quite nice and quite relaxing to watch.

Picnic.. September 7, 2008

Nowadays, normally when we celebrate friend’s birthday, the normal practice is go for dinner/lunch at restaurant or cafe. Sometimes, the birthday boy/girl will rent a chalet to celebrate their own birthday (normally 21st birthday – the day we get our freedom key!)

However today, we celebrated my friend’s birthday in a different manner.  Something we don’t often or never do before.. which is PICNIC! Initially, we thought we are joining an event at Fort Canning. However, it turn out to be our own picnic birthday event! It was quite fun.. We have pizzas, chips, drinks (hei.. non alcoholic ok.. not everytime we say drinks mean alcohols.. we quite innocent.. cheh wah! ehem…)  and someone even brought the picnic mat and basket! wow.. it is really refreshing experience…

One of the organizers (who is AK & SP) even organized games as well! We played Charate based on the cartoons that we watch when we were young. But found out that there are some cartoons are not in our eras! But it was real fun.. at least its something different then the normal dinners! We even played the new game – Pictionary. This is a game where we scatch the words from the card and your teammember will have to guess it correctly. The one that reach the finishing line will win the game. As this is the first time all of us are playing the game, I think we did not really understand all the rules of the games. But it was quite fun and to test our our drawing skills! Wonder what idea will we come out with for the next birthday girl/boy?.. ideas?

Finally Here!! September 1, 2008

After such a long wait, from last year I have been waiting deligently for it.. and its finally here! Its WALL E!

It is a very nice movie, eventhough its all animation, like cartoon.. but its funny and nice to watch. Its about a cleaning robot with human feelings. His job is to clean the earth and he met n fall in love with this female robot from an outer space cruise where all the humans are. Its very funny when Wall E followed her back to the space and started to get in trouble.  But of course at the end is a happy ending when both robots ended up together.. haha.. its quite funny.. I ended up watching the movie twice in one weekend!

Really wonder if in future will earth become that dirty that all humans have to move to somewhere else to live? How will the earth be like in 100 years later? hmm.. well.. eventhough I will not be around then.. with all the pollutions that human is generating, with the global warming, will it come to a stage of the situation like ”day after tomorrow”? hmm.. when will human being help to save the earth..? probably never?

A get-togather July 22, 2008

This weekend is when we rest and to recharge our energy after one week at work and to get ready for week ahead. Sometimes, weekend we meet up with a couple of friends for movies or for karaoke session, or we used to go for exercise activities – badminton, tennis, inline-skating. But now due to different schedules, it has been a long time we did not go out for such outings.

Last weekend I met up with Vin & KY for movie. We watched ” Red Cliff” which stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Lin Chi-ling. This is about the final days of the Han Dynasty where the bad Prime Minster declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance. From this movie, you get to learn some of the battle strategy where they test each others strength in both on land and on water. It is quite interesting to see how they think, strategize their troups and how to guess what’s their enermy thoughts and strategies. However, this is just the 1st part of the movie, therefore it left a feeling of “unfinished” feeling as you do not know who will win the battle of the red cliff.  Since this movie is based on the real history of China, before the 2nd part is out in the cinema, I still have some time to do some research..

But when you think bout it, in some days, we do require such strategies as well in our daily life. How we try to predict what our consumer needs, how they think, what strategies we should apply to make sure that the customers will sign the dotted lines, and sometimes, its not just dealing with customers, with colleagues, bosses. I guess sometimes, this is what makes the job interesting isn’t it? Then every client, you have to think of different strategies and sometimes just one client you have to think of several ones!  Of course the strategies will not be  the tortoise or the goose formation! We are just waging a different type of war in the modern working world.

Then in the evening, SP joined us for Karaoke session. It has been a long long time, I went out with them for karaoke, was quite good to meet up once a while.   ssh… I always use these karaoke session to update my latest chinese song knowledge. haha..

Getaway Trip – details.. July 14, 2008

Normally if I have visited the place, I will try not to visit the place again unless the place is very huge and I have not covered the place. But somehow, I ended up going to Batam – three times but all stay at different hotels. 1st time – Holiday Inn, 2nd Time: Turi Beach Resort and 3rd – Bintan View Hotel which I just stayed last weekend

Most people that goes Batam will go for the spa, shopping, water sports and many more. We took up a package that includes of a night accommodation (twin sharing), lunch, 3hours spa treatments, seafood dinner at Kalong and the next day breakfast. It was a just a rest and relax  trip for our section.

It was very fun as it was our first trip with this team with my boss and our GM secretary. We stayed in the standard room with balcany and was facing the sea. The view was really superb! They even gave us a fruit basket as well.. It was probably they knew we were from another hotel, so have to give us a good image of the hotel.. even the GM came out to welcome us… wow.. like VIP like tat.. But the fruits are quite pathetic as the bananas like can’t make it anymore.. but the gesture was greatly appreciated.

It was pretty fun as right after we arrived and checked in, we went for lunch at their coffee house. Food wasn’t up to our expectation but their beef rendang was quite delicious. Due to my colleague’s miscalculation of time, all of us are late for our spa appointment. So instead of 3 hours treatment, we only have 2 to 2.5 hours. But we had body scrub with steambath, massage, mini facial and followed by herbal bath. After the long spa treatment, we feel so relax and so clean!

We proceeded to our colleague’s room for some chit chat, beer/champagne drinking session. In this session we had a brief history lesson of our hotel as our GM secretary was with the hotel for a very very long time!

When the day turns dark, we proceed for our sumptious dinner at Kalong restaurant. We had black pepper crab, prawns, vegetables, calamari, tom yam soup as well as we added gong gong (seashell) and fried rice. Yumm.. Pictures as below to make your mouth waters.

Once our bellied are filled, we had a slow stroll back to the hotel and rest and relax at the lounge. It was there we had some drinks and a couple of us played pool, some went explore the hotel, while the rest just rest and enjoy the live music.

Around 11pm, we decided to go back to the room, some to bath and to get ready for the 2nd drinking session. Amazingly, my boss fell asleep and since we are unable to bring back all the bottle of wines and champagne that we brought from SIngapore, 5 of us continue with the session. To speeden up the process, we played cards and the losers have to drink. That night, we finished 1 bottle of red wine, 1 bottle of white and 1 bottle of champagne. Once the alcohol had been consumed, all proceed back to our own room to catch up on our beauty sleep!

The next day, we woke up just in time for breakfast before they cleared the food away. I just had some toast and fruit juices as did not have much appetite after the last night alcohol. To take advantage of the facilities, 3 of us changed to our swimming attire and decided to go for a dip. The remaining 04 persons relaxed at the shade.

That’s when the fun begins, with the help of my boss, we managed to throw 2 of my other colleagues who has no intention of getting wet into the pool.. and needless to say, we threw our boss in as well! How can we not to, right?. But there was a funny section when we were trying to line up to take a group photo, my colleague wanted to change the sequence of the line, and she lost her balance.. We had a glimpse of a slow motion of her going into the pool. It was really funny.. seeing her flapping her arms, trying to find her balance in order not to go into the pool but ended up a splash!

After the fun at the water, some of us went for spa, some had a friendly game of mahjong before checking out and taking the ferry back to Singapore… It was a really a memorable trip for our section! hmm.. wonder will we have more of such trip? Hopefully the next one is a sponsored one as well.. haha.. hoping.. hoping.. hoping..

 

A Short trip to the neighbouring Island.. July 12, 2008

This is going to be just a short and sweet one.. After all the hard scheduling me and some of my colleagues with my boss manage to make a short trip to our neighbouring island – Batam.

Even though this is my third time here but in all these trips I stayed at different hotels. This time round, we stayed in Bintan View.We took up a package which includes stay, dinner, lunch, dinner and 3hour spa treatment!

Now I am sitting on the hotel lounge enjoying the songs by the singer and the pionist after our sumptious dinner and our 3 hours spa treatment. It was a fabuluous experience and most of us find it the spa is still a little short. Obviously good things have to come to and end.. Well.. Let’s shall enjoy the rest of this getaway. Will write more in my next blog when I am back to the mainland.. How dreadful..

A New Image.. June 22, 2008

Sometimes, we have to take the courage and change our image once in a while.. probably just to create some newness and uniqueness in our life. If not, life can be very monotonous from our daily routine. We will not know what really suit us unless we explore them and then we will find what suit us and what’s not.

During my schooling days, I have always been having short hair up until I went oversea to study in Australia. Probably due to the cooling weather, when my hair reach my shoulders, it did not really irritate me so much. Back home, when my hair comes to shoulders, due to the hot and cold weather and we tend to sweat more it makes the hair starts to stick to my neck which it really irritated me.

I have been supporting my long hair for about 08 years, but got tired of it, therefore decided to just cut it short yesterday. Now I am having layered hair (slightly bob) up till my neck. The hairdresser asked me if i would like to have my cut hair as a souvenier.. Oh boy… nah.. I am not so sentimental on that.. Hair, we can grow back… so maybe one day I will let it be long again… if I have the chance to go overseas for at least 1 year! haha.. how I wish!

Well today, I had another badminton session with my RE colleagues together with SP. Was quite fun as this time we booked 2 courts for 2 hours and we have a court for all 4 ladies. So we played 2 hours straight! wow.. a really good workout! After the session we went to a restaurant called Oasis for teochew porridge! Was quite good and had a good time. Hope SP wasn’t bored as she did not know everyone there. Lucky one of my RE colleague’s wife is also working in Singtel and they have a common topic to talk about..

A happy weekend.. June 15, 2008

Actually this weekend, there was nothing planned and was planning to just rest and sleep at home. But at the end it was a most happy weekend for me.

It was because my parents are here for the weekend and my mum made my favourite butter cake!!! yummy! We stayed overnight at my aunt’s place who has a 3-storey landed property near Thomon Road called The Springside. They have a small pond in the house and has a 42″ plasma tv where we watched sports channel. Last night was the first time watching The Artois Championship semifinal on TV and able to see the talented tennis players ie. Rafael Nadal vs Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic vs David Nalbandian. My favourite player?.. hmm.. Novak Djokovic.. coz he looks so boyish and cute..

This morning, we saw some golf tournament where we get to see Tiger Wood’s in action! Even though I am not a golfer.. but got to admit.. he is good! Just imagine, he can send the ball straight into the hole in 1 stroke from the rough! It was a really incredible shot (plus a little luck) especially you can see that he was experiencing some pains from his leg!.. Cool huh?

After lunch, we watched a Snooker tournament. This is a really a sports watching day.. But it was quite an informative day, I get to understand so many types of games today. But the most of happy time was spending time with my parents. Has been about 03 months I have not seen them, it was really good to see them again. Really miss them so much.. sigh..

Will make a trip back to BP next month..

Away from home.. April 21, 2008

Most people here to get away from the routine, sometimes we just take a short break by renting a chalet in Singapore just for a short domestic break. Some people celebrate their birthday here, some just take it as a gathering, a family gathering. This is the time they barbeque, have fun, play games, some play mahjong together with their friends, relatives and family members.

Last weekend, my housemate had a 3 night free at the Costa Sands Chalet by their company, they had the chalet since Thursday night up till Sunday. Last Saturday I went over to join them for the last night. They had another 3 other friends over and was quite a quiet affair, eating and just another session of catching ups. They are my housemates secondary school mates..Played some cards at night till 2am (No money involve.. lucky.. )  

But when you see the neighbouring chalet, they have groups of friends, having barbeque and some open table - playing mahjong! But it gets quite irritating at night especially when they are ”pong” or “kong” or ”kau” so loud, while we are trying to sleep. These type of activities, should be organized when you have many people coming over and just have fun!

Without saying, majority of people are all youngsters and families! So in the morning you see young children running around, screaming their lungs out.. It was quite a nice get-a-little away from home.. haha..

After we check out on Sunday morning, by the time we get back, is time to crash on our bed… hmm.. nothing like our bed. But unfortunately, I had another meeting with my friend at AMK in the evening, I can’t sleep too long and after just 3 hours sleep, I got up and get ready to go out.. That day was also the first time I went for a stroll at a park with my friend near the AMK mrt station. Lucky I get to come back early and able to catch up on my sleep early that night.