Be careful what you wish for...

2 yrs back - "Oh, I won’t hesitate to remove my 2 other wisdom tooth too when necessary ;p"

1 colleague had her wisdom tooth removed recently and I said over lunch that I feel like removing my other wisdom tooth too, esp when there was a slight swell around the gums these few days. Lo and behold, the gums started to swell on Mon and experienced pain when chewing on my right side. Went for an Xray on Tue and scheduled the extraction on Wed - 2 days before Xmas!

A minor surgery was done (cutting the gums which was partially covering the lower tooth and drilling was also involved *gasp*) and with that, I was on soft diet for 2 day. "Thankfully" I was able to go back to normal diet on the 3rd day which is Xmas day/Grandma's bday! Mummy cooked up a feast of chix rice, wasabi prawns etcand the greedy me still ate 2 bowls of rice, seating through till the 2nd round as I needed more time to chew. Haha

3 weeks since the extraction and my left tounge is still numb. Read online that the senses might be back to normal in days/weeks/months/years or even NEVER! *Fingers crossed*

2 years later - I didnt really like the experience this time as compared to NDC. There was no calls from the Doctor to check on my (numbness) situation ever since I told him about it when I went to remove my stiches 2 weeks back..*roll eyes*

Work is...

• scary when the people you work with are (too) smart in this 'game'
• funny when people let things happens the way it has become
• sad that I have to put on a plastic mask when dealing with certain people
• fun when I laugh and bond with my lunch khakis

p/s: 英雄難過美人關 - so true!! just that the men in our company are not 英雄 la...

An invitation to Hong Kong!!!

Received a phone call from an hotel representative today and at first I thought it was a sales call to arrange for a meeting. However, she said that she’ll like to invite me to HK as the HK Tourism Board is arranging a familiarization trip - Cathay Pacific will be sponsoring the air tickets and their hotel will do so for the accommodation!

However, I knew that this invitaion has to be approved by my direct supervisor, followed by our dept’s VP and also the legal dept. Our company has always been very strict about compliance issues and I know that this has only a 10% chance of approval.

Anyway to cut the story short, it was rejected from my direct supervisor even before she asked what the purpose of the trip is. She gave reasons of compliance issue etc etc...la la la

Why I am so not happy over it:

1. You didn’t even know the purpose for this trip and you rejected it! After I told her that it’s an initiative from the HK touisim board, she gave another reason which goes “Oh… anyway we’ve selected the country’s hotel already etc etc ”

Don’t give me the crap la!!! This is not a invitation for site visit to the hotel, it’s from the HK Tourism board to introduce their country lor!!

2. I received a call that night and got to know that someone asked our vendor for F1 tickets!! Oooic..... so....

Invitation from a tourism authority = not compliance
Asking vendor for F1 tickets = compliance?!?!!!?

Well, I guess the bottomline is, it's always the case of who's invited and how that person is going to make the “invitation” compliant...

com⋅pli⋅ance 
–noun
1. the act of conforming, acquiescing, or yielding.
2. conformity; accordance: in compliance with orders.
3. cooperation or obedience: Compliance with the law is expected of all.

**Definition of Compliance from Dictionary.com**

Day 4: Osaka

After having breakfast in the hotel, we proceeded to the Shinkansen (JR) station to make our way to Osaka.

Along the way on the high speed railway, we saw the Mt Fuji which was awesome and I had my camera clicking away. Unfortunately, Mt Fuji was not on our itinerary for this trip. Will definitely visit it someday! The train journey took about 3 hours and we upon reaching our Osaka hotel (Comfort hotel), our luggage which we sent over at Narita airport has safely arrived. We rested for a while before heading to Dontobori where all the Osaka’s food awaits us! We didn’t try the Kani Doraku and went for street food - 2 servings of takoyaki balls and yakisoba which we enjoyed by the Dotonbori canal. After filling our stomachs, we walked along the canal and realized that we've reach the end of the Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade which is also very near our hotel! (we acutally we took a train from Shinsaibashi to Namba).

This is where the famous Glico Running Man sign and other neon lights shine up the night. Took some touristy pictures before walking down the shopping arcade and back to our hotel as Mummy was rather tired.

What I did @ Melaka

So what do you do when you visit Melaka again after 13yrs?

I ate ALOT...

Upon stepping into Doris auntie's house, we felt that the long journey of 8 hours was all worth while. We gorge on kutupat, habeehiam, asam fish, wine + ginger soup, chilli fish the moment we hit her dining table! And she's one of a cook!

We made reservations and even a trip down to select our dishes 1 day before our "group" dinner @ Aunty Lee. Jon-boy said that as compared to other Perenakan restautnts in Melaka, the food is pretty good. But be prepared of the unwritten "rules" - the cook will determine the size of the dishes; ayam bulaek is in the menu BUT even if you order in advance, and if they dont serve it to you on that day, it means that they do not have enough manpower to prepare the dish; the cook will fiinsh serving 1 table before preapring the next table order - this is pretty ok, as it means that all your dishes will be served out promptly; reservations is a MUST! Total bill - SGD 100 for 8 pax - super worth it as the food is fresh and sedap!

I visited the famous Jonker Walk ...

A weekend pasar malam which sells pretty much the same things stall after stalls. And they do have quite a number of cool chill out bars /cafes in the alley. Gonna check them out on my next trip.

I paid my respect to Uncle Johnny & got to know my cousins better...

I had a quick (cousin-ly) chat with Daphne and she shared with me that she's starting a new job the following week but has yet to tell Doris auntie *a small secret between us* Also, I cant wait to attend Jon-boy and Linah's wedding next year!! Linah is a very nice girl and I really feel the happiness for them.

All in all, I had a good time there and is looking forward to my next trip up!

What I ate in Malacca

Saturday
Late lunch - kutupat, habeehiam, asam fish, wine + ginger soup, chilli fish & prawn
Supper - delicious wanton mee, chicken wings, fried oyster ommelette

Sunday
Breakfast - fried beehoon/kuay teow, big paulunch -
Lunch - Bei Zhan
Dinner - Peranakan @ Aunty Lee - delicious! asam fish, sambal kangkong, chincalok ommelette, beef rendang, curry chicken, toufu, fish maw soup, chendol
Chinese dessert @ The Jetty

Monday
Breakfast - duck noodles, fried beehoon/kuay teow
Lunch - chicken rice
Dinner - porridge steamboat

Tuesday
Breakfast - big pau and char siew pau

Speed dating for me ; )

I once said that if I'm still single at the age of 25, I'll go for blind/speed dating. And I actually did so yesterday! This high tea cum board games is organised by SDU-SDS and it started with SK asking me if I wanted to join; sensing that she's kindda interested to go, I agreed to it since it's my "plan" to do so too when I hit 25.

Surprisingly, it's was quite a big event with 180 turnouts @ Holiday Inn. We were first assigned to 3 different clusters (by age grp) and 8 pax each table. The emcee warmed everyone up by playing some mingling games 1st followed by the high tea which you start to talk to the people at your table. After the high tea, we started playing the board games and had to move between 3 tables for 3 different games.

All in all, it was a eye opening experience especially so if you go with an open mind as it's not all about desperately searching for The One. In fact, I had a good time chatting with the ladies at my table + knowing people from the different working industry.

Passed a few contacts, won a voucher for 2 to Settlers cafe and that was all about it! Too shy to ask for numbers la... :p

Received 4 calls which came around the same time (9pm-ish) today and I think I'll not answer any unknown numbers for this week.

Day 3 (morning): Shin Yokohama

We had a night stay at Shin Yokohama before moving to our next desitnation - Osaka. Hiroko auntie booked us a room at 新横浜国際ホテル which was walking distance to the train station. The night stay cost SGD 238 and it was the best hotel among the 3 we stayed for this trip :p

Dinner was at Tenya which is apparently a fast food chain all over Japan. Haha... Mummy LOVE the tempura there so much that she cant stop raving about it whenever she view the picture. Now that we know its a chain, we fret not in having to go all the way to Shin Yokohama to have a 2nd taste!

As it was only a night stay, we shopped around the shopping centre which is located beside the station and didnt had the chance to visit the famous ramen museum. Anyway that wasn't really my concern as my pirority was to get my hands on Ramen Jiro in Tokyo!! kekeke

What the....

In March, I was tasked by J to work on an invitation design for a conference which was to be held in HCMC. Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m a designer or expert in doing such things but having done some doolings prev, i certainly was interested in this task.

So, I started doing a HCMC city theme with the famous City Hall picture in the invitation. Next, was asked to do an Amazing Race theme. Sure, that sounds fun! I surfed online to check out the amazing race clue card picture and did one out. Then there was some ding dong-ing going on the text etc. Therefore I sent the working file to J to amend the text.

2 days later, he sent the file back and I opened it - other than the size of the card, and the picture of the City Hall, it was with a whole new design and text!!What happened next was damn ironic: Couple of days after the invitation was emailed out, J came to me and said something like "Hey, good job on the invitation, heard some good feedbacks on it"

HUH?? I beg your pardon!!!! Perhaps he was telling me that to show his appreciation of me working on it but seriously, I don’t need that when 90% of what I’ve done has been changed.

When working on such "projects" I can’t help envy the marketing folks whose ideas are always so cool, so apt, so appreciated.

=======================

Was roped in to help out for a company’s event sometime in July and did whole lots of stuffs prior to the event and on the actual day itself. As part of the committee, we got to get a jacket each. Therefore I did a size fit from the vendor and made sure I placed the right size order for myself – XS.

So after the event, the event organizer passed me the jacket and I told him I ordered 2 XS - one for myself and other colleague. However, he passed the XS to his participant which left him with only 1 XS now. He then passed me the S and passed the XS to the other colleague! I did so much shit and you cant give me the correct size for the jacket which I placed the order?!!?!

Felt so unappreciated that I dumped the jacket into the cupboard which stores all my samples. I don’t need something which fits too big for me OK….

Hello Uncle Johnny

15th Feb 08 - I didn't got the chance to say "Hello, Uncle Johnny" after my last trip in when I was 12 yrs old, whatsmore a "Goodbye Uncle Johnny" when he left us.

10th Aug 09 - I paid my respects and brought him his favourite chicken rice, bananas and nescafe. Together with Daphne , we stayed for about 20 mins before I threw 2 coins "asking" if he has finished his meal.

I hope he enjoyed it :)

Day 1 & 2: Home stay

We took the 11pm SQ flight and arrived at Tokyo Narita airport the next morning. When Hiroko auntie arrived at the airport, we arranged for our luggage to be couriered over to our hotel at Osaka.

This kind of courier service is really good especially so if you do not wish to lug your luggage all the way to the hotel when travelling by public transport. For a fee of around SGD 30, you get to travel light and do not have to worry about carrying the suitcases up the stairs and walking around looking for your hotel. There’re a few of such companies at the arrival area so pop by to any booth for enquiry. Just remember to have your hotel details on hand to fill up the form.

. cakes . store @ Uneo .
. hot soba with deep fried shungiku . Uneo station
. mentaiko . Kimura Takuya .

I can’t really recall where we went on the 1st day beside Uneo (Ameyokocho) and to Hiroko auntie’s house area but there’s no way i will forget dinner! We had fresh sashimi and sushi and after which I never see these 2 dishes in Sg the same way again unless I pay the price for it.

Though it was only a night stay, I truly enjoyed the experience of soaking in a hot bath, sleeping tatami style, waking up to Jap breakfast, helping to do some housework, having the cute neighbour twin boys over to visit us and also to meet up with Hiroko auntie’s mum!

Coming soon...

Why seat belts are so damn impt!

Were these signs to tell us that we shouldn’t be on the road:

- Told Mummy that I didn't feel like accompanying K to collect the cake as she had to be back by 11.30am and it doesnt really "flow" with my gym class and facial appt timing.
- She mounted the curb when she was driving into my car park.
- She almost mounted the parking curb again when we were @ Adam market

We just passed Coronation Plaza when the accident happened. I think she was trying to filter to the right lane but didn't notice that the car in front of her was not moving. I said “got car, got car” and the next moment, she swerved to the left lane and hit the back of the ice lorry (which was doing a delivery and illegal parked) !

“Shit!, sure bang!” was what went though my mind during that split second.

Out came the 2 airbags and some smoke. K was still in kindda shock and she said that she did applied the brakes immediately. I went out of the car (fearing too that there’ll be an explosion) and check on the damages. Boy, it was BAD!

An ang moh came from a nearby restaurant and asked we were ok. Later a very sweet couple passed by and also asked the same thing. They next moment, they lent us their red triangle (which got crashed by another stupid car) and accompanied us till the tow car and the lorry driver and supervisor came.

Thankfully, no one was hurt in this accident. (answer to the title of this post)

And I'm so gonna belt up even if I'm seated behind in future.

Will my Nov "plan" trip come true?

* Marks & Spencer
* Harrods
* Bond Street
* Wicked / Les Miserables
* Roasted Duck
* English high tea
* My Dearest SIS!!!

London London London

All set for a healthy lifestyle!

. Adidas LFC top (love the stripes behind) . Nike waterbottle .

. FBT shorts . Gym welcome pack . Nike Air Strong Sister .

Maybe not...

Because I can't seem to have any (common topics) conversations with her,
Because I don’t agree of her doings,
Because I feel happier when I hang out with others.

Friend?

Perhaps she was merely helping out
Perhaps she thought I didn’t mind
Perhaps she’s not really a friend…

Arrogant

Just because you’re not a local doesn’t mean that you’re in any way of a higher status than us.

Do not use that questioning tone as if we’re too stupid to understand what you’re saying

Hmph!

What I ate in HCMC - Part 2

During this trip, I’m really thankful to HS and his staffs for bringing us around to try authentic local food.

Row 1:
We had the superb mixed beef pho @ Pho Hoa (this is the only branch and they do not have any franchise, not even the one in Sg is).

The seafood dinner was delicioussssss! For $50, the 5 of us finished off 1 kg of prawns (stir fried with assam and artery clogging pork lard) 3 plates of shellfish dishes and seafood porridge. We even requested for baguettes so that we can dipped it into the sauce from 1 of the shellfish dishes. That’s Singaporean style for you!

Row 2:
Wrapped with lotus leaf, the Ban Giao is filled with flavorful minced pork and black fungus, and the outer portion tastes like our chwee kuay. It’s so good that I bought a dozen back home. This resulted in my bag being checked at the Viet airport when it went through the scanner. Well, they let me “off” as they know that it’s merely their local food and this crazy lady likes it so much that she had buy them back home :p

HS said that Viet is not just of Pho or rice roll therefore he brought us to try this yellow noodles with a soup base which tasted slightly like tom yum with slices of fatty pork, prawns and fish cakes. Yet another delicious meal I had in HCMC!

Row 3:
I vividly remembered that duck fetal eggs are sold in Vietnam. And when HS suggested the different kind of exotic food (rabbit meat) we can try there, I said yes immediately to try the eggs! It doesn’t taste that bizarre: slightly like hard boiled egg with hard crunches in between bites. However, I did had trouble getting the last few mouths down my throat. :p

What I ate in HCMC - Part 1

Being in HCMC, I decided to forgo the air-conditioned cafe and opted to have our drink from a street side vendor. It’s just something I had to try – sitting in those plastic chairs; experiencing what the locals do. Those thirst quenching lime juice and sugarcane juice were so damn good that I finished them in less than 5 mins! Just ignore the scene whereby the vendor handled the ice cubes and money with the same hand :p

We were to full to try the delicious looking fried carrot cake and Bánh mì (Vietnamese baguette with bbq pork and eggs). Salivating while writing this.

Lx and I woke up @ 6.30am on the last day in order to do some last minute shopping before our flight home. Breakast was at Nhu Lan as we wanted to buy the delicious Ban Giao back to Sg. Oh... how I miss the ice coffee in Viet and I’m not even a coffee person, that’s how good it is!

Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnel - day tour

. Breakfast @ Kim Café . Boarding the tour coach .

The tour started from 8.30am to around 6pm. Majority of the time was spent on the coach as the temple and cu chi tunnel is located quite far from HCMC. It’s interesting to see how devotees of the Caodaism come together everyday at noon for a prayer session. You’re not allowed to pose for a picture along with the statues as it will mean that you’re on the same status as the God.

. Temple . Prayer session .
. Cu chi tunnel . Tapioca with peanut dip .

Lx and I went into the tunnel and before I know it, we’re out from it. If I’ve known, I would have chosen the right side route which is longer and slightly smaller. Perhaps due to our Asian frame, I didn’t really felt claustrophobic or nervous inside the tunnel.

Lx, Shree-ann (new friend from SG who was travelling alone) and I went to have the famous Pho @ Pho 2000 (Pho for the President > as per signboard as Bill Clinton patronized them before). It’s pretty good but you’ll spot mostly tourist inside the shop. After dinne, we shopped around the night market and I had difficulty shopping as I did not bring out much cash. Shopping with limited cash in your pocket is quite a toture! Therefore, the next day I made sure I had enough Viet dong and Sing dollar :p

Back from Saigon!

It started with a work trip of 5 days followed by “Graduation” trip of 4 days with the girls.

Work for me was generally assisting in the logistics aspect – room booking, airport transfers, group activity and other misc stuffs to ensure that the conference will run smoothly. Though the breakfast in Sheraton is 1 of the well known place with a good variety of breakfast spread, I hardly had time and mood to enjoy the food. In fact, I hardly had any appetite during the 5 days.

While, things took a turn when the conference ended on Friday and we were in HCMC on our own!

As we were quite tired, we spent the Friday afternoon in Kim’s café stoning and drinking cheap beers before Lx and I headed for dinner @ Ban Xeo. Anthony Bourdain raved about it in his show, but like what HS said to me over the phone “Not nice one la”….I guess he's right. It wasn’t that bad but it's not worth the effort for us to travel all the way there (quite far from our hotel).

. Sheraton . baguettes . Ban Xeo .
. t-shirts . street vendor . lacquer ware .
. traffic . cone hats . mix fruit with yogurt .

After dinner, HS and his staff met up with us and brought us for drinks – a shop which sells tropical fruit shake (the jackfruit + mango juice, topped with ice cream was delicious!). That night, I had my 1st pillion ride on a motorbike and was holding to the back for my dear life as the traffic in HCMC is known to be quite 'scary'. However, I had 2 more rides on our last night in HCMC and it wasn’t that scary anymore, in fact I had a pretty good time and kindda enjoyed the ride.

to be cont'

After 7 years of friendship...

We had our 1st “trip” together in June 2006. A boat ride away from SG to Pengerang Kelong… well we had our passports chopped after all… keke

Come 17th Apr 2009, we’ll be exploring Mr Ho's city together!!



Hr & I will be there for our company’s conference 1st. Lx will then fly in and meet us on our last day of meeting. No detailed itinerary is out yet but since we’ll be there for 4 days, we’ll take it “nice and slow” amongst the buzzling city filled with motorbikes and noise :p

Back soon!

It’s just so ironic that when I’m back to my blogging feel, my dear PC had to show me the blue screen with a “Fatal Error shutdown message!

Well, it’s been 7 freaking long years since it has served me – through my poly to part-time degree days. It has finally decided enough is enough and had to shut me off without me saving all my pictures!!! Yup, that’s all I need to retrieve from my PC…

Anyway, I’ll be “turning” back time (from Oct 08) and jotting in my thoughts and memories back to this blog soon.