Blame It On The Weather!!

The weather is getting strange these days, not sure why but somehow it used to be pretty hot during this time of the year. Recently, it has been raining cats & dogs almost everyday!

To me, it’s very inconvenient when it started to pour as 1st, I hate my precious feet to be wet as it will definitely spoil my day, 2nd, I don’t carry an umbrella with me all the time, in fact, I don’t at all & 3rd, I will love the rain if I am not working!!

It was still sunny in the morning when I was on my way to work but around 11am, it started to pour and I could hardly see the beautiful skyline from my office. You can imagine how heavy the rain was… and thank God, I don’t have to lunch out. That’s a blessing as my buddy Jessie brought her delicious ‘Fried Tang-Hoon & Noodles’ to office for our lunch. Therefore, my lunch was an enjoyable one coz’ I don’t have to get my feet wet as I was in flats today!!

The office was very rudely cold and I was just freezing at my seat. It was so cold that I have no mood even to work; all I was thinking about was my bed! Man… how I wish my house is just next to my office… then I can sneak home for a cooling afternoon nap.

There are piles of work on my desk but the gloomy weather just made me lazy and I had to put all my work on hold!!! Moreover, our accounting system is under maintenance till tomorrow, and that is true. Honestly, I didn’t really do much work today as I really can’t find the mood and energy to work so hard on such weather…

Time flies and it’s about time to knock off, as you can see, I am using my office hours to write this blog which I don’t usually do… (errm... at times I do la... when really bored with work). Now it’s time for me to go home and be in the arms of my hubby… at least that is the best way to keep each other warm…mmmhh… (horns coming out!)

Enjoyable Sunday

Spending weekend with hub is the best thing. Our weekends are usually precious and always want to spend it fruitfully.

We decided to visit St. Anne’s for morning mass and was surprised to see Father Stanley Pang was the mass celebrant. It was really nice to see him back to St. Anne’s Church though he is currently on vacation and will return to ROME soon to continue his religious studies.

Went to Hai Tien Lo@Pan Pacific Hotel for lunch finally (as we have been planning…) and had the brunch buffet. It was a great spread of dim sums and a-la-carte brunch menu. The Buddha Jump Over The Wall or Shark’s Fins with crab meat were included in the brunch buffet for 1 serving per person. Obviously, we ordered the Buddha Jump over the wall coz’ we don’t get to have it often.

We enjoyed the dim sums (the usual ones), black pepper beef cubes, wasabi prawns, steam live prawns, steam cod fish, steam groupa with preserved eggs, mixed roast meat etc…the desserts were delicious too. Overall the food was very good and it was worth every dollar though it was quite costly for lunch. But thankfully, I had a 50% discount so, it was all worth it.
black pepper beef cubes
Fried Prawn in Thai Style

The atmosphere was fantastic and we were lead to our table which had a beautiful view of Marina Bay. Though it was in the afternoon but somehow the whole place made it romantic.

Well, if you are planning a nice and delicious lunch or brunch with someone special, you may consider Hai Tien Lo.

Chapped Lips

It’s not only a blue Monday but a very crappy one! For the past 2 weeks, I have been suffering from ultra dry lips and thought I might be dehydrated so; I drank lots of water till I have to visit the ladies often.

Anyway, my lips didn’t get better by drinking more water, rather it got worse! Yes, so dry till it felt like I had a piece of sand-paper on my lips! My goodness lor… I tried some home remedies like putting honey, lips gloss, lip moisturizer & even some cold sore cream!!! All the mentioned solution couldn’t help me at all.

Finally, I went to our company doctor this afternoon as I couldn’t stand the ‘sand-paper’ feeling any longer. The doctor told me that I might have allergy to certain things, like lipsticks, towel, toothpaste etc… I too couldn’t find the cause of it but anyway; hope that the cream she gave will help.

It’s really frustrating to have dry lips and not that my skin is not dry enough! Sigh…. Very fed-up! Currently, I am using the cream and so far, it’s helping a bit. Hopefully I will wake up with those wet lips again….

Firework Celebration@Marina Bay

It was a beautiful cooling early afternoon when I checked myself in at Pan Pacific Hotel for the weekend. We will be expecting a Firework Celebration at the Marina Floating Stage around 9pm.

After dinner, we rushed to the 22nd floor to get a good position for the fireworks but the view is definitely not as good as Ritz-Carlton, The Oriental which is facing the floating Stage. Nevertheless, we managed to catch the amazing beautifully fireworks display around 9:30pm.

It started off with light displays, flying kites (which were used during National Day) and finally when the lights went off, the fireworks started. It lasted about good 15 minutes but we wished we could see more. It was beautiful and wished that Singapore should have more of such events.

You can view some nice shots that were taken….

St. James Powerhouse

Friday is everyone’s favorite day of the week as it means weekend is approaching! It was another busy day for me at work but the thought of meeting up friends for a night out at St. James just got me excited and started counting down the hours.

Though it wasn’t my first time visiting St. James PowerStation last night, but it was my 1st time at Powerhouse. We entered the premises free courtesy of our fellow colleague Patrick who is a member. When I stepped into Powerhouse, it was pretty big and the concept was not too bad.

It was still early then but you could see a small crowd in the house as early as 10pm. Some were showing off their dancing skill (though very awful and looked like they are doing the Singapore Workout Steps). Others were offbeat and some are just moving for the sick of moving along with the music…

The music wasn’t that great till the clock struck 12am. Music began to pump up and the crowd simply went wild. Though the music was like Trance, House and some mixture of Drum & Base played at Velvet & Zouk but somehow I don’t feel at home at all. It’s a mixture of young, working class & some wannabes and I would say… it’s quite fun to people watch if you are not the dancing type.

Man… I got to say that my colleagues were real wild bunch. They were so different when they are in the office and when they are high on alcohol. They can drink, dance and mixed well with one another even-though they met each other the 1st time.
Angie & me
Angie & Von Bored?
Rie & Me
angie & rie
Angie & Von

It was really fun and thanks pals for the wonderful outing…let’s do it again sometime ya…

Fun Lunch

It’s another exciting lunch invitation by our boss Minowa-san today and this time, he wanted us to try out the newly opened restaurant at The Central.

It was a Japanese Restaurant we are about to visit and he told us in the car that they served mostly food of Nagoya which means… different style.

Wakashachiya was the name of the restaurant and it stated there ‘Curry Udon’. A simple Japanese-like setting with Japanese variety shows on a TV above you. Like many Japanese restaurants, you expect a lot of yelling of ‘IRASHAIMASEI’(welcome) once you enter.

Checked out the menu and as it was my virgin visit, I picked the normal dish ‘Eel Set’ as to play safe. Majority were Curry Udon and being so me, I am no UDON person. When my food came, the presentation was already a plus point. I enjoyed it thoroughly as it was rather special. Well, in a sense, it seems like normal eel rice set you get at any Japanese Restaurant but this… you were given a choice of how you can eat it differently. It’s really OIISHI!

You have to eat divide the rice into four portion to a side-bowl. 1st, you try it as it is, with no other compliments. 2nd, you scope into your side-bowl and then add wasabi, chives & shredded sea-weeds into your rice and eat it. 3rd, you scoped another portion into your side-bowl and this time, you pour the soup to the rice and add some wasabi if you desire. Lastly, you can eat it whichever you preferred. It was all fun and great food. The Eel Set was $18.00.

Minowa-san picked Curry Udon with chicken. It’s the usual Japanese curry you see but it tasted pretty good if you try it. It’s not as powderish as those in that Japanese Family Restaurant. It tasted good with the additional chili spices.

It was indeed an enjoyable and delicious lunch!

The Alpha Course

I finally went for the Alpha Course which was invited by my childhood friend Susan. She has been telling me about the course and how people who attended experienced the Holy Spirit.

A few years back, I too heard a lot from my buddy Elizabeth who attended with her hubby and she actually experienced the Holy Spirit. I was thrilled to hear that but couldn’t find time to join the course. I have to admit that I was lazy and wasn't interested in courses organized by church. I felt like a total failure as Catholic.

Guess it was God’s calling for me to join this time as I faced a rough journey in my life recently and I am sure God is try to tell me something through his messengers. Susan continued to invite me though I have turned her down quite a number of times. Eventually, I signed up and attended the 1st lesson last night.

I was excited to visit Blessed Sacrament Church as my hubby & I got baptized in that church. The Catholic Farm is gone but the beautifully renovated Damien Hall amazed me. It really reminded me of those days when I rushed to church for my RCIA after work.

Registered ourselves at Damien Hall where the course was held. We were given a group name and hubby & I were in the group of my favorite flower, Sunflower. It was really all planned by his Almighty who knows me so well. I was quite disappointed that my best buddies Theresa & Zen were not in our group as Susan is in our group as a helper.

Dinner was served and we sat in our groups where there were exchanged conversation and getting to know each other. It was like school days where you get to meet different people and will get to know them better through the 10 weeks course.

Alpha course started off with a brief introduction of what we will be expecting in the coming weeks and then followed by the talk by Rev. Nicky Gumbel on video.

I am certainly looking forward to build my relationship with the Jesus and I want to experience the Holy Spirit.

Happy Birthday Jules

My warmest birthday greetings going out to my buddy Julie Png! A pal whom you can always count on whenever you're in need and will cheer you up whenever you're down! Oh yes... she is pretty good at mahjong too!!!

Pal, many hugs & kisses for you and have a wonderful and enjoyable birthday!

Love ya.

Chris Oh Chris

Watching ‘Rush Hour 3’ was superb for Sunday after a tiring short trip back from Kuala Lumpur since National Day.

The movie ‘Rush Hour 3’ is damn hilarious especially with the machine-gun mouth Chris Tucker! He is the main reason I watched the movie. In fact, if there is no Chris Tucker, guess it will just be the same old normal movie with loads of stuns by Jackie Chan.
Car Chase Scene

This time round, the story line almost similar to the part 1 & 2 but Chris Tucker was funnier! Well, fighting on the Eiffel Tower & car chase in Paris were cool and exciting to watch. Overall, I would give it rating of 9/10. It’s indeed a relaxing movie to watch if you are feeling under stress or perhaps needed to laugh your lungs out… Go watch it if you haven't.

Football Fever Is Back!

Yahoo!!! The EPL season is finally back again after 2006 season ended in May 2007. This season should be one exciting one to watch as there are many new players for clubs like Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

This season, we have teams from the Division 1 to watch out for; like Sunderland whose manager is Roy Keane (former player of Man United). Cool dude! Birmingham and Derby are back to Premier League and hope they will outshine some of the teams in the league.

Besides the teams, we have couple of players to look out for too. We have the Prince of Spain, Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Claudio Pizarro, Florent Malouda & Tal Ben Haim (Chelsea), Carlos Tevez, Owen Hargreaves, Luis Nani (Man United), Craig Gordon, Michael Chopra (Sunderland) and the brand new team formed by Sven Eriksson; Deiberson Geovanni, Rolando Bianchi & Martin Petrov (Man City). Cool stuff to watch.
Rafael Benitez & Fernando Torres
Claudio Pizarro & Jose Mourinho
Luis Nani, Alex Ferguson & Owen Hargreaves

Besides the EPL, I am also looking forward to the Euro 2008 which will be happening in June! Now I can start to countdown….

Yes, I don’t deny that I will be home watching all those ‘LIVE’ games since I have to pay so much for the bloody SCV Sports Channel! Man… it’s too expensive to miss one single game! Well, if there are people out there who wish to watch the ‘LIVE’ games at the pubs or kopitam, I will consider joining them too just for the atmosphere.

I am really excited to see if which team will outshine the 4 ‘heavenly kings’ to be Champion this season and crowning of the new Top Scorer!

Made My Day

It was one of those blue and boring Mondays… it’s the start of the brand new week though a short one but won't it be perfect if we don’t need to work...

It was a piece of cake that made my day. Yes, a piece of Tiramisu though there were selection of Mango & Chocolate. Around tea-time, that would be like 3ish and we were told by our colleague to pick up our cakes at one of the meeting room. When asked 'why pick up cakes when we didn't even order?' Jennifer told us that her boss bought the cakes.

Ishida-san, who already left kindly asked his ladies staff in his segment to order those delicious cakes from Bakerzin to show his appreciation to everyone in our office. How cool is that...
Mango Cake
Tiramisu
Me & my delicious Tiramisu

Mr. Ishida left Singapore on 28 July for his new assignment back in Japan. To date, he is the one & only Japanese who showed his appreciation to all staff after his departure. I was really touched by his kind gesture. We don’t get such nice bosses all the time.
Ishida-san

Thank you Ishida-san for the delicious cakes.