The Little Pixie's Workshop

Tin man

2012-02-20T21:44:00.001+08:00

It seems like I have reached the crossroads again.

The other day, I asked Abbie whether I should continue to become a specialist or learn how to manage people. Both path exists. Each has a different potential and ending. The thing is, I can only choose one.

To be honest, I am tired of being analytical, competitive, focused and systematic. These are my strengths which I am beginning to loathe because it is making my life so difficult. So here I am, in the Land of Oz to begin my journey as the tin man. Even though it's not likely that I can pick a good heart off the streets, maybe it's still possible for me to grow one through sheer hard work.

Parenting 101 @ Home

2012-02-04T16:08:00.001+08:00

Had the most stressful day today hoping that I wouldn't fail my FTT.

Paranoid yes, but I haven't been taking exams for quite a while and failing my FTT could have devastating consequences, including rebooking the damn test again which will be at least 1 or 2 months away, cancelling all my March lessons and wasting so much time. All in all, delaying my chance of getting a driving licence.

Reach home real tired and on an empty stomach. Couldn't sleep due to some random headache again (should have my head checked) and played some Monster Galaxy. Still couldn't sleep, so came out to boil some prawns to eat.

Good thing I came out.

Bypassed a very pale and sweaty mom who seemed low on sugar. At the same time, dad emerged from his room with many questions on why his new damned iPhone wouldn't work. Was on some sort of panic mode because of mom, but I didn't let it show.

Fed mom her pink guava drink.
Boiled the prawns.
Found out what's wrong with dad ('s iPhone) while eating the prawns.
Checked mom and gave her more pink guava.
Washed up the dishes.
Fixed dad's toy.

Yay I think I'm real efficient.

Good thing I managed to fix dad's toy without calling the call centre. I dislike call centres because they give friendly instructions that don't work/make users look dumb. I also dislike how people keep using the same method but expect different results. Madness.

In need of a holiday

2012-02-03T21:57:00.002+08:00

I just skipped my e-trial today at 9.15 PM. I'm just too tired and broke to catch a cab to Ubi to do another e-trial. I'm having my FTT tomorrow morning and I hope I won't regret today's action.

I'm having some time to breathe because the bosses are out on a tradeshow in Germany. It's their first, so if things work out well, they (or rather, we) should be very busy very soon.

Anyway I think I'm in real need of a long break away from work and everything else. Just with Abbie and nothing else. Say maybe a couple of weeks to Eastern Europe or something. I don't have that much leave to take. It's just that everyone else in my department has already taken their time off. Everyone but me.

I took many days off last year because mom was in critical condition. But the entire episode was draining. All in all, I haven't had a good rest for a long time... to the point where I felt that life was pretty meaningless if I continued to work like I do for the next 365 days.... even now, I have this feeling that I want to quit my job, upset my perfectly routine life to do something else... like visit a pyramid, swim with dolphins, take pictures of the aurora borealis or climb a mountain.

Anyway, Prague seems like a good place to start. And with the Euro going down so nicely, it's now or never.

p.s. think I got the travel bug real bad. Just took out the scarf and beanie that my aunt gave me a couple of months ago to wear.

Just another life update

2012-01-25T22:51:00.003+08:00

Driving
I'm into my 7th driving lesson today. 4 more to go this weekend, it's insane. Still I'm glad I'm making progress by not having my engine stall today :) It's rare but given favourable road conditions and instructors that do not frighten me and make me forget everything, I can actually remember to switch to gear 1 ALL THE TIME. Like WOW. Didn't know I had that stuff in me. Now I just have to work on remembering which gear I'm in and stop glancing at the gear.

Also took my FTT etrial today for the first time. I failed like 2 out of 5 times. Risky but still not bad considering that I didn't study much for it. Now I just need to complete the remaining papers this Saturday and memorize the answers. My FTT is next Saturday and I'm going to be so screwed if I flunk it.

New Year with In-Laws
It's my first new year with Abbie's relatives and I must say it's better than what I imagined it to be. Haha. At times, it's quite enjoyable though most of the time it's just tiring.

Somehow I find meeting my part of the family (mother's side) more stressful because of the faces that I need to remember and because they kept on asking about mom's condition. I mean, my mind was still deliberating whether I should tell them about mom's recent vomiting episode. And before my mind could decide what to do, my mouth automatically opened to tell everyone that she was fine...And she was after all - after exiting the A&E. There's no need to make everyone worry on New Year's day. But after telling everyone that she was fine, I felt confused again because I'm not sure whether I should have withheld that information. Also there's this guilty feeling of not being honest because I didn't know how to answer difficult questions like the cause of her vomit. Like how should I know when even doctors didn't know. And then I'll get frustrated. And the whole stress cycle starts again.

Topping the "worst new year experience" is spending the night with Abbie in Abbie's room. With his single size rock hard bed, it's a disaster for sure. Because the bed is so hard, I can't sleep on my side without my side aching. So I have to sleep on my back. But sleeping on my back takes up more space... not forgetting that Abbie is top heavy, so it's really crammed. And getting all crammed up means I can hear and feel every single sound that comes out from Abbie's mouth including his murmurings, heavy breathing, snoring and not forgetting the occasional muscle twitch or jerk. Yup. No matter how much I tilt his head, he couldn't stop snorking or snoring or whatever you call it. Just resulted in different sounds coming out from the same hole. Almost died on the spot. Finally had to do a 180 degrees turn and sleep beside his leg, which is much better. I survived two nights. I could have gone home on the second night, but it was a personal challenge. I told myself that if I can't survive two nights in Abbie's place, I'm shitting myself about staying with my in-laws for the next two years.

Work
I'm getting a little confused again about what I want to do.

And to be honest, it feels really lonely at times. Even in a small cozy company such as this, I can't find someone with similar wavelengths except for my boss. He's good with most people so it's not surprising that I can click with him. It's just that being buddy-buddy with someone who can tick you off anytime...isn't ideal.

At this rate, I've been hoping for a while that they would hire another local graduate, even if this means more competition.

Of course it doesn't mean that I can only click with local graduates... but at least we would have something in common... higher chance of finding someone with the same wavelength. One can always hope.

2012

2012-01-09T13:58:00.000+08:00

2012 is going to be a busy year for me. First time blogging from my HTC. But hey it works. I just had lunch but got stuck in the rain. Am waiting for the rain to stop before I make my way back.

I just spent about 2.6k last weekend on critical illness insurance, investment linked insurance and term insurance. I really just wanted the critical and term. But yielded to peer pressure for the investment linked one. It's still affordable so I'm all right. Now I just feel like canceling the savings insurance that my mom bought for me. I will choose a suitable time to end it.

Last Sunday was my first driving lesson. I'm learning manual and I aim to get my license before abbie does. This is my goal. Hope I can do well even though coordination isn't my forte. I can't wait for abbie to get us a car. The days of public transport will be finally behind us.

This year the responsibility of managing logistics has also fallen on my shoulders. This is not much different from last year end, but our warehouse supervisor left so we are still adjusting to his absence and the additional work. My Saturdays are now half burnt because I need to check up on things over the weekend. Not that my boss imposed the additional working hours on me, but more like I needed to be around just to make sure that things are ok. Besides it doesn't seem fair that others have to work when I don't. And I'm still very new to this so better to be more careful.

19 more days to go

2011-12-07T08:32:00.000+08:00

It's December and the pace of work is crazy. 19 more days to go until Christmas...I can rest after that.With so many late nights out in the retail, I have not been spending enough time with mom and I felt guilty about it when my boss asked me yesterday night if this was okay.

It probably isn't. But what can I do?
There's no solution. But since it's only 19 days more, maybe I don't need a solution.

Holiday Inn
Had my wedding dinner at Holiday Inn and the food and service was great. No complaints about it. We were so ill prepared and last minute because we brought forward the wedding till so early, but they did whatever they could to accommodate. Even finding the march in songs for us just a couple of hours away from the event, helping us control our wine supply...and making special arrangements to cut up my mom's food into tiny pieces...

The suite that they gave us also had a great view of the skyline.

Would highly recommend it.

Jess Haute Couture
What I like: the design of the gowns, her recommendations/advice, the make up artist Regine, the pictures, her ability to meet our tight timeline and the videographer's work/Steven.

What I don't really like: the photoshop artwork, the service and the needles that poked my hubs and one of my jiemeis.

The artwork was simple so I just don't see why this should take so long when it's just about rearranging the pictures and adjusting its transparency. The designers in my company (whom I think are way better) can probably finish 10 albums a day.

Also, it's not like the service sucks because she was rude or anything. It's just that she isn't that friendly. I don't expect her to smile all the time, but at times, she just seems plain unhappy with us. Maybe it's unintentional... like she can't help giving that kind of vibes and we can't help feeling unwelcome. No apologies from the needles.

Basically, I wouldn't discourage a friend from going to her, but I will definitely think twice about recommending.

Anyway need to go to work.
Ta!

Future Planning

2011-11-30T08:23:00.000+08:00

Mom
Good news. Mom's chemo seems to be working pretty well because I think she's looking less jaundiced now. I'd be surprised if the blood test proved otherwise. Also she seems to be less moody just now. Or maybe it was Dr. Ang that brightened her day.

I don't know because I have been working till real late these couple of days and having late dinners. Like 10pm and reaching home at 11. Just enough time to change clothes and plonk on the bed.

Work
Work wise, I'm still hanging on. Some more important duties were relieved because it's risky to put me responsible - I could "suddenly" be not there. I can't say I'm happy with the decision, but I know that this is a sensible and right choice. Just can't help feeling disappointed. That's all.

Wedding
I'm having my wedding banquet this Saturday and feeling somewhat numbed. After so many installments of weddings: ROMs, Gate crash, Tea Ceremonies and such on different days, this feels like another rerun of the same thing, except with more people.

This is an occasion for the parents (at least in my opinion). I just hope it doesn't stretch till over 11 pm.

Children
This would definitely be the next phase of my life.

But I've decided that people can forget about it until I have at least travelled half of the places that I want to travel. And there are some places that I want to travel more than others. I would like to visit Japan and Korea before I die, but these are not countries I'm dying to visit.

France, England, Scotland/Ireland, Switzerland
Germany, Czech, Hungary, Austria, Greece
Scandinavia & Northern Lights
New Zealand
Spain, Portugal
Egypt
Russia
USA
Japan
Korea

Gate Crash Highlights

2011-11-29T08:13:00.000+08:00

I have been trying to update my blog but as each attempt lead to extremely long (but incomplete post) I will settle with a brief and happy one.

Wedding

Arrival of groom and victims

After very little planning and plenty of last minute, I still think the gate crash was a success. Just the night before, siskapoo and I stayed up late to create the "perfect and very appetizing looking" sabo foods for the gate crash. To me, creating "entertainment value" was the main objective. Haha.

Ganbei

Essence of Sour

And initially I was worried that there would be lack of rowdiness since the girls are so proper, they don’t yell or scream very much. But of course, it turned out that their innocence have made the guys very unsuspecting of what was to come.

Globs of wasabi hidden underneath all the whipped cream and chocolate sprinkle - A colleague's suggestion
The girls told them that this was sweet. Finish it all in one bite.
The rest is history

Bitter stage - Dark chocolate (85%) with feta cheese on a biscuit
The cheese smells really bad
Even the nice presentation can't save this dish

Groom trying to act cute

Celery and carrot juice
Comes with a little umbrella

Lollies mark the end of the torture

Food art


All well ends well All four of us are tiptoeing with all our might by the way But only one is caught :)

A temporary equilibrium

2011-11-10T23:15:00.000+08:00

The dust has settled recently.

I'm not sure if another storm is coming, but I know even if it does, there's nothing that I can do except to sit it out and survive it. The wedding preparations are more or less done in my terms. This means that all important decisions has already been made and we're just tying up the loose ends now and waiting for the wedding to unfold. Assuming all goes well, I should be properly married on Dec 3 and that's that.

Work wise, I'm still paddling along. It seems like I didn't miss much during my absence. Plenty of backlog to clear though. There's upsides and downsides. Work is mostly the upside now. The silver lining amid other things crashing down on me.

These days my mind is really messy (if it's not already messy to begin with). I find myself thinking about work at home and thinking about home at work... not to mention getting frustrated about how my mind isn't working as it's supposed to. I pick up every call with unknown numbers now, even in the middle of meetings... only to get pissed off when it's some stupid insurance or banking promo. Damn credit cards. I also find myself looking at mom to see if she has changed colour or something. Paranoid.

Anyway there's some good things to look forward to this weekend. Food tasting session at HIA this Saturday afternoon and having my sisters put on their altered gowns at the bridal studio afterwards. Hopefully mom has the appetite to enjoy the good food.

Disasters, wedding blues and such

2011-10-29T00:19:00.006+08:00

Well it's been quite a long while since I last blogged. Things are spiraling out of control. Mum's sick and I'm getting married next month.

What else. Oh, and there's this pile of work that I have to wade through every time I miss a day at work. It's punishing because the work just sits in my inbox and doesn't really go away. Then again, it's probably my own fault for taking work so seriously, especially those which aren't really that important, but nobody else is doing it.

I've been thinking a lot lately. And I hate to say this but when the going gets tough, I think I will still have to work. It's common sense. True, there might come a time when I have to take a block of unpaid leave, but for the time being, I'm probably the best candidate to bring some money home to sustain the family. It will be sufficient, although I don't think I will have any savings left if I'm the only one working. I'm all prepared for dad to quit, although it would be much better if he still keeps his job. I certainly hope he does. In the meantime, I'll be searching for a part time cleaner to help out with some chores over the weekends. Mum likes a clean toilet bowl and bathroom, a non-sticky floor and a dust free fan casing. Siskapoo mops the floor sometimes, but I don't really think it's clean...

Anyway I just finished my bridal photoshoot last Wednesday. It was raining intermittently the whole day and I was cold throughout. Had a really bad migraine halfway through and almost gave up on the outdoor photoshoot. I only managed to scrape through the whole thing because Abbie was giving me the "it's a once in a lifetime thing" and gave the sad look. Didn't really have that much energy to push through my protest so we went along with the outdoor shoot even though it was raining. We went to the Art Museum. Everything about the photoshoot was impromptu since we didn't have much time to do research on our favourite places to take pictures. But I think the whole thing turned out better than expected. We're going down to select the photos tomorrow. Hopefully we can all agree on the same photos.

Pachi

2011-10-10T23:18:00.000+08:00

That's the name of my new robo. It runs as fast as a bullet and spins on his wheel like laundry in a washing machine, it's hilarious. I should probably get him a buddy soon since it's really weird to have a solo robo.

Woody still lives in his giant 4-level mansion by the way, but outside my room since he makes a hell of a noise at night rummaging his seeds, gnawing the cage and goodness knows what.

I'm housing Pachi in Woody's old aquarium. It was originally meant for Woody but it turned out to be too small. I remember buying a house for Woody's aquarium about a year ago. He stood on top of it and climbed right out -_-. That was an epic. Now this aquarium is finally put to good use. Perfect for Pachi.

By the way, I'm still shocked by their size difference.Was expecting a 1:2 or 3 ratio, but it looked more like 1:8. I had always thought Woody to be a small Syrian. Apparently it wasn't.

And it's a nice and cute teddy.... only if you're larger than it. Otherwise, it's just a big fat bully.

This Weekend

2011-10-09T23:21:00.000+08:00

Ramen Dinner @ Holland V

New addition to the family

Sleepy old fart

Cute Beans
Gift from boss

T.G.I.M

2011-10-03T08:46:00.000+08:00

Today marks the end of a very busy weekend and the start of (yet another) very busy week.

Did plenty of stuff over the weekend, starting with dinner on Friday evening with my colleagues and the boys from STGCC. One of the rare times I ate lobster (I think this is the 2nd time for me) and many other yummy seafood at the hawker stall near my workplace. Watched Johnny English with Abbie afterwards. My stomach had a good workout.

We spent Saturday shopping at Marina's Muji, eating shabu shabu and admiring hamsters at one pet shop corner. I almost bought one Roborovski because it was so cute, but luckily I didn't because that would be extra responsibility which I'm not sure I have the time to undertake.

By the way, I finally bought my Muji duvet cover... but Only because Abbie let me. Now it's sitting on my bed like some oversized toufu spilling out. I love playing with its poofyness. Heavenly.

Sunday was mostly napping, playing with Abbie's monster pet shop (it's only available for iPhone users, drat) and dinner at Abbie's place. Would have wanted to take Nikki out for a walk but it was too late. My fault because we left the house late. I had to finish watching the last episode of Shining Inheritance (K drama). I'm not a big fan of sappy K drama and this would be an exception. A pure waste of time as I could have spent the time studying my basic theory instead. Oh well..

Time to rush off to work. And thank god it's Monday. Time to clear my inbox.

Tired

2011-09-26T08:00:00.001+08:00

Today marks the start of another hectic and tiring week. Somehow I don't feel rested after the weekend. I haven't been spending enough time with Woody and I haven't been cleaning my room. And my plan to drop by Abbie's place for dinner didn't materialize. We went to watch smurfs instead. La La LaLa La La LaLa LaLaLa.

I finally figured out how to work my new phone, which is a good thing. The bad thing is that there's hardly any nice phone cover or accessories in the market for HTC. Everything's catered for the iPhone. Oh well, what was I expecting? Anyhow, I won't be able to use it properly until later this week when the thing bridges over. I need to attend some safety talk this Thursday and I hope the phone would be ready in time to help prevent me from getting lost.

Oh yeah, and guess what... we forgot to apply for our HDB flat. Such nonchalance....

Abbie said he will do it tonight. He'd better. Otherwise I'll strangle him next weekend. This one's too big to miss. We're going for Punggol (again). There's sale of balance flat in some seriously good locations (AMK, Queenstown, Bukit Merah). But no, we're not going for lottery tickets.

I think this sale of balance flat is really just a decoy to draw people who aren't serious about buying flats away from those who are in desperate need of one. Yep, we're desperate. Not sure if it works but good job for at least trying.

Going in circles

2011-09-25T09:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday turned out to be a silly day.

I woke Abbie up real early (like 9 AM) so that we could go to my company to purchase the monkey speaker. The plan was to return home for lunch and make a dash for CDC afterwards as they close at 3. I showed him around my workplace and we left shortly... only to have myself called back to the office halfway during the return trip.

Why the mad rush? There's this prototype that we have to collect in Ubi and deliver immediately to China so that they can use it for their production meeting on Monday.

Came home, dropped everything, stuffed food into myself for 5 minutes straight and went down to be picked up by my boss. Good thing I ate because it was dinner time when I returned. I also managed to collect my training manual and do my eyesight test at CDC. I had no Nets (borrowed from Boss) and no glasses for eyesight test. Talk about dumb luck. By the way, I'm taking my basic test in November.

The only thing that screwed up my day was that I didn't print out any commercial invoice for the delivery. So there was this mad rush to print it out via our supplier's printer (my bad) while the Fedex guy waited. Ouch.

Today I'm going to be busy figuring out how to work my new HTC phone. Not my favourite phone but still an improvement compared to my previous phone. What's missing now is just the term insurance and HDB flat application.

Spend Money List

2011-09-23T23:04:00.000+08:00

Buy litter and seeds for Woody
Submit photo to CDC and collect kit
Buy phone
Apply for HDB flat
Buy term insurance

Motivation

2011-09-20T22:04:00.003+08:00

I finally enrolled myself into driving school (the ubi one). Already paid the money, but I think I am supposed to submit a photo of myself and collect some booklet or training kit. Bummer. Will do it this weekend.

I shall use the extra time in the morning to go through the MCQs. The content is seriously killing my brain so I hope to get it over and done with ASAP. Maybe 2 weeks and no more.

Thereafter when I passed the damned test, I should probably have lessons once or twice a week. Saturdays, and maybe Thursdays during late afternoons.

My motivation is to get my license before Abbie does (and for all the wrong reasons) :D

New resolutions

2011-09-13T00:37:00.001+08:00

It's a little bit out of nowhere but I have decided on the following:

NO WORK ON SUNDAYS

This decision has nothing to do with religion. I just think I am over committing myself to work (at regrettable proportions in decades to come and I want to prevent that). So from this weekend forth, I will spend Sunday mornings with mom, afternoons at the gym (maybe) and evening with Abbie's parents or my relatives.

It's a little regimental, but suits me fine as long as I achieve my objective (which is much more important than just not working on Sundays). I'm hoping to expand the territory to Saturdays once I got the hang of it.

Divide and conquer.

DRIVING LESSONS

So far it's all just talking and talk is cheap. I don't visualize myself getting a license anytime soon if I don't enroll in school. I will enroll this week, with Abbie's advice and siskapoo's.

I have gotten the goahead support from my boss for the lesson schedule so that's all the clearance that I need to get started.

No more delays and no more nonsense.

Sick again

2011-09-01T20:45:00.000+08:00

Diarrhea this time. Oh well, better this week than next (because next week's my birthday).

Birthday Present
It seems like the first generation of Galaxy Tabs has been phased out. The new ones are either too large or small. And the large ones doesn't have basic phone functions. So yeah, they suck. I guess I just have to look forward to getting my iPhone. I like it anyway.

Hair Problem
I finally splurged on something to help me grow hair. Not exactly balding but better to be safe than sorry.

Made a dash to get the meds after visiting the company doctor for diarrhea. I thought it was going to be a fast one, given that I have to glue my ass to the toilet half of the time, but no it wasn't. The queue was too long, so I decided to try my luck another day. The receptionist (sensing a loss of sales) stopped me and suggested that I go see another doctor under the same clinic instead because there's no queue. Did just that and regretted the decision.

First he diagnosed me with some stressful, anxiety problem when he saw that my nails were bitten (bad habit) and I wouldn't stop fidgeting (only because I needed to use the toilet). And then he weighed me and told me that I was too skinny and that my ideal weight is 57 kilos... all these when I was only there for something to grow my hair.

Towards the end of the very long consultation (like 30 mins), he was going on and on about how to use the topical solution, such as how to screw and unscrew the cap and how to apply it on my scalp. I'm usually quite patient with long winded people but geez, almost went mad inside the consultation room. Not surprised if I lost more hair instead.

All right, to be fair he is a nice doctor who is just trying to help. He caught me on a bad day, that's all...

Assertiveness
Have read and researched and in the end, it doesn't change a single thing because it's not something that I can study. What was I expecting?

Anyway the best way to find out whether I can or can't - I just have to be put to the test and succeed. There will be opportunities. When the time comes, I just have to have the courage to stand firmly.

There's a couple of other things that is consuming my mind right now, but I shall talk about it another time.

Plenty of Trouble

2011-08-27T20:33:00.005+08:00

Got into plenty of trouble this week for not thinking enough. Guess I deserved it for taking things at face value and for not paying enough attention during meetings. I have this habit of focusing only on issues relating to myself. It used to work in the past, but no longer. I need to learn how to focus for the entire meeting.

This week's mistakes has got me totally paranoid. Woke up real early this morning only to realize that I missed out something at work (again). Scooted off to the office to patch things up.

Nothing much for today except that I still have plenty of work to do.

Bought moon cakes for Abbie's parents, had dinner and cleaned up my room. Now there's only Woody's cage left to clean, the aircon filter to wash, editing and proofreading the HR handbook, the operations handbook, and reading up and drafting the T&C and privacy policy for our new website..

I have enough work to keep me busy for the next couple of months or so and then I would be busy again because it's Christmas. Sadly, what used to be hobbies are now becoming a burden. It's a good thing I didn't get myself a dog. I don't even have the time to admire my bioglobe or play with Woody anymore. I guess it's also apt to announce that I have officially retired from my Amigurumi career. Last year, my boss told me that I was crazy to waste my weekends crocheting when I should be reading up on labor laws, statistic reports and news etc to beef up my general knowledge and to improve myself. Was pretty indignant then because I felt that my time belonged to me and I can do whatever I want with it. It's only now that I'm beginning to see from his point of view and to be honest, I regret wasting that time and not taking his advice. Today, I have no time to crochet and I have no time to improve my knowledge. Damned.

Other complaints for the week: I realized that our electricity bill has jumped an additional hundred from an average of $200+ to over $350. No use whining over it or getting people to sleep early or not watch TV. It all just means that I need to earn more.

Lastly, a belated birthday gift for dad. Got it like a week back or so.

Towel + Flowers + Ang Pow

For me, it's not just the thought, but the presentation that counts too.

STGCC Hot Toys - Behind the Scenes

2011-08-23T19:18:00.000+08:00

Now that STGCC is over, it feels like a critical season has passed. It's anything but easy because I know some of my colleagues have lost much sleep over it. Still, I'm glad that the event turned out to be such a success and that I was a part of it.

Unstuffing the props and display cabinets

Cute Joker Balloons atop the exhibition booth.
With some luck, you may also spot my colleague up a ladder, painfully pasting each poster by hand

Another one working in a display cabinet to bring some "spirit" to the scene
It's a pity the face recognition mechanism for this diorama wasn't working on the actual days

That morning, I slogged hard in the ticketing booth together with my assistant, and with our backs facing the crowd as I sought to put as much distance between ourselves and our customers....

I was quite paranoid when the tickets started running low, but thankfully there were no disputes nor ugly scenes at the event..

For more coverage on the event itself, my colleague has uploaded some images to our facebook group. STGCC pictures

Mulling over my next purchase

2011-08-17T21:16:00.001+08:00

Going to get a new phone soon because my plan is due to expire in November. Will probably get one in September.

Torn between iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Have considered Blackberry also (and everything else), but I prefer iPhone to Blackberry as there are more entertainment features and lomo applications. iPhone is supposed to win hands down compared to what's available out there. It's small and has everything that I would want in a phone.

But I want more than just a phone. I want a fast "working phone" with a big screen. One that allows me to do my work quickly and not get a migraine from squinting and typos. In that sense, iPad is better, but it has no Microsoft Office. Why would I want to risk having my documents incompatible with everything else.

In the end, it seems like I can only get the best of iPhone and iPad if I get a Samsung galaxy tab. Confusing eh? The disadvantages: it won't fit into my pockets, making it a lousy weekend phone.

I guess there's no perfect solution after all, but there's still time for consideration.

My boss has a galaxy tab. I shall poke at it when I have time. Most likely, I think I will get the galaxy tab because Abbie will be carrying my bag. Hee.

LDR

2011-08-16T21:19:00.002+08:00

I never thought that this was going to happen. But now that there's a possibility that this is going to happen, I can no longer ignore it.

Yep, Abbie might be getting a scholarship to further his studies in UK for one year.

Am I happy for him? Yes of course.

I would be so proud of him. It is the road to all the good things and I seriously think it is necessary for him to have one. Some day in the near future, I would want to do my masters too. But the thing is, we're going to be apart for one year and that's really heartbreaking.

The sad thing is, I can't even say I don't believe in LDR anymore because we're past the boyfriend girlfriend LDR thing. I'm freaking married and can only make do with Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. And the even sadder part is that instead of moving in to stay together with his in-laws after our wedding (versus getting a flat), he's moving out. Like out of Singapore out. Ouch.

And he wouldn't let me drop everything and come along with him for one year.

Of course I can't. There's too much commitment here. Too many implications to my career. Maybe I would lose everything that I've been trying to build up. Maybe I won't. Work is really important, but still less important than my husband. Surely that's not unreasonable...

And don't tell me that one year is a short time. Time is relative. One year means nothing if you have a hundred years to live. One year is precious if you only have one year to live. How much time I have is irrelevant. I just want to live it without regrets.

And another thing, I believe that if I have what it takes to succeed, I will...no matter where I am.

Excited

2011-08-12T23:12:00.000+08:00

Despite the mounting workload and anxiety from the upcoming events, I guess I am also excited to see what we can put up and how the show would run.

To be honest, I think I am still quite affected by the sheer nastiness and rudeness of some people, and therefore this event presents me with some anxiety of having to face similar occurances. But what can I do? Like every other customer service staff who has been verbally abused before, I can only tell myself that I have already done my best and that this isn't personal.

Anyway, I had one of my worse bout of cramps today and had to leave work halfway so that I can go home and roll on my bed. Mom's been nagging about it too, so that adds to the pain as well.

Oh well, better this Friday than next.

Another thing, my birthday is coming up real soon. Going to apply for leave.

Busy meets Busier

2011-08-09T00:58:00.002+08:00

I've always known that my Mondays are super long days. But this is ridiculous. Meh, just finished up the last bit of work at 12:30 am. And am now waiting for my hair to dry before I plonk on my bed.

Guess what's more ridiculous.
Abbie left for work one hour before I did, and now...he still isn't home from work yet. Ouch.

I guess there's always a price to pay when you're out there trying to ace your career. At the very least, we're doing it as a couple, so none of us gets too lonely waiting for each other to finish work... though I doubt I want to do this over the long run even if I like what I'm doing. I still need a life separated from work.

Anyway, let's hope we get to enjoy our National Day guilt free. I mean, one can always hope right?

Typical lazy weekends

2011-08-08T08:13:00.002+08:00

Abbie munching on bread and mushroom soup
while watching another episode of Supernatural

Bookmark from Italy,
Been borrowing from the library but I'm having less time now to finish everything

Sleepyhead number two

Abbie was commenting how speckled Woody's testicles are...
Doesn't bother me..

My cute uglycorn residing in its basket

Good news, Abbie's gonna be sleeping over for the next few days because of National Day. But I think I will be busy much because STGCC is just around the corner. I finished last Friday at 8 PM in Suntec and had to cancel my dinner with Qiuqiu, and ended up eating a buffet at Suntec itself with my boss because I was so hungry.

And just to make you sick, I had the same buffet with Abbie yesterday.

This means that I'm not only super busy, but also growing super fat!

Too many things

2011-08-03T07:44:00.000+08:00

A lot of things has happened lately, especially at work.

I did things which I had never expected myself to do.
I did things which... upon more consideration, could have been done in a better way.
There were things that I should have done but didn't because I didn't know.
And there were things that I knew should have been done, but didn't because I haven't the guts.

Annoyed

2011-07-31T15:22:00.000+08:00

Adjusting the monthly repayment rate for my school fees is becoming a pain in the butt. The repayment for university fees have kicked in because it's been more than one year since I graduated. That is fine.

What isn't fine is how the CPF online system is so dumb, it makes my repayment for diploma and university separate. I've been wanting to clear my diploma debt first before pumping in the funds full for the uni one. Apparently, my request for increasing my dip repayment was approved while the request to reduce the uni one was rejected because the rate was too low. Which explains the large $600 deduction last month.

That makes 2 things dumb. The system and me, because being a "system person" I should have known better.

Day 8 @ Rome

2011-07-28T21:23:00.000+08:00

An outdated post that's overdue for a month maybe... this was our last morning in Italy, but it was a morning well spent.

Visiting Vatican Museum

Which of course, proved to be more popular than Iron Man (front)

And the back...

Entrance

Forgot what this instrument is

Impractical but Beautiful
Wish there was one in Singapore

Coffee with milk from the holy cows of Vatican
I mean it

Tiramisu with the same heavenly ingredients, I think

Vatican logo

Tsars' Faberge' Eggs
Each is probably worth a house, or more

Elaborate tapestry

Highly decorated ceilings

Such great heritage so well preserved. And learning through pictures, those were the days. I can imagine taking exams during those periods. There's bound to be an answer somewhere on the ceiling. Haha.

Perfect One Man Show

2011-07-28T20:20:00.002+08:00

Not original but I so like geeky guys who can play so bloody brilliant on every instrument. Sings good too.

Agenda for this Weekend

2011-07-25T21:33:00.000+08:00

1. Captain America Movie
2. Return library books
3. Plan overseas trip
4. Clean Woody's cage
5. Clean(out) Abbie's room

This weekend's gonna be a simple one, but point 5. is going to be a lot more complicated than it looks. I shall endeavor to capture the transformation process.

In Transit

2011-07-20T21:31:00.000+08:00

I was very lucky today to witness our company make its new milestone for HR since so many years. All the nights of overtime suddenly seemed worthwhile, especially when I see how well my colleagues have delivered their content and so many people whipping out their iPhone to take pictures of the various slides that I have done. And to think that I used to spend so many more hours on school projects for the sake of delivering a 30 minute presentation to an audience who couldn't care less.

Now that the transition has started, the next few weeks is going to be a difficult one - considering that we have more things to roll out.

Just to digress a little, Siskapoo was commenting about how ironic it is for me (as one of the many drivers of work-life balance policies in my company), to not have any work-life balance.

Onward to something else, I am now facing a mini moral dilemma. After seeing how things are unfolding, I guess I don't really have to feel too bad. I just need to figure out how to minimize the damage that I would be inflicting on the other party (or maybe it could be liberation), I don't know.

Next year's itinerary

2011-07-11T23:51:00.000+08:00

Yes! I'm travelling again next year.

Not sure what led to Abbie's sudden awakening, but this must have happened for the better. Somebody up there heard my prayers.

More things to look forward to apart from marriage (which to be honest, isn't altogether that exciting anymore, and no more exciting than buying a new flat or getting a driver's license) and more reasons to be motivated to work harder.

Europe, here I come again. It's going to be very different from our Italy tour. It's going to be budget backpacking. We will need to travel light and refrain from over-shopping. Not an issue. I just hope Abbie doesn't flood our itinerary with an impossible schedule. My feet will stay bad for the next few days or so once it's worn down or damaged.

Loving the weekends

2011-07-04T07:49:00.001+08:00

Fresh cut strawberries

We went down to Ikea 2 weeks ago to buy 2 more shelves for our loot from Italy. Had the shelves erected last weekend morning much to Siskapoo's annoyance (yep now she's back).

Pierrot plush from Action City, Pisa lamp from Pisa, Siskapoo's cuckoo clock,
Little doll from Rome (but actually made in china *grumble*) and
most of the other decors from Daiso

Other steals from Italy

Embroidery from Florence
I bought this for 2 of my colleagues, siskapoo and 2 of my aunts

There's a story behind it. These embroidery can mostly be found in Verona, but as free and easy hours are so limited, there was only enough time for Abbie to make one for his friend. By the time I made up my mind to have one for ourselves, we were already in Florence.

We had passed by this shop during our tour and by the time our guided tour ended, the weather broke into a hailstorm (which is a pretty rare occasion, considering that we were approaching the hottest period of the year). This didn't stop us from running to the shop (which I can assure you, is quite far away) and getting wet and freezing and all. In retrospect, this was all worth it. Such a pretty piece of work.

Notre Dame Cathedral - France

Bought this during my stopover at Paris. Why buy the portrait when I haven't been to the cathedral?

I believe that if I see it everyday, I will subconsciously work myself there. Incidentally, I had a Venice painting in my room since early this year. I hope to go for another trip next year. Maybe a longer budget one to Switzerland and France. Life is too short to put off experiences. I've gotta do what I've gotta do.

Venetian Dolls, also made in China

But they're still cute

I bought 5 of them. That's crazy right? But they are too lovely to be missed, and they are less creepy than Venetian masks (which I also love, but I dare not have them in my room at night).

Now I have 3 of them on my shelves, one on my office desk and I gave another one to my aunt.

Chicken pitchers from Siena and a little cushion from Venice

Another hand painted porcelain piggy bank from Siena

A photoframe that lights up in the dark
A windmill souvenir from the Amsterdam airport

Finally, it's my prized dala horse from Sweden, courtesy of Siskapoo
I told her I wanted a substantial one and I got it.
It's 100 dollars and I almost fell off my chair
Thanks a lot siskapoo! :D

The Cog Turns

2011-06-29T07:13:00.000+08:00

I'm due to get my performance review soon and I have a bad feeling about it. I have done my best for all the tasks given, but I also know that those will not score me any points. Actually, I feel privileged that I even have an evaluation. It wouldn't be nice to find out how I did at the end of the year (like other departments do) when it's too late for me to do something.

Forget the previous post. There will be so much more things up ahead.

This should not have been any surprise because I have been preempted so many times. But I didn't know the "opportunities" in the distant future would come so abruptly and in such a manner. Now that it is knocking on my door, I feel not ready at all. And above all, I don't feel good about how the opportunity came by.

Still, I will manage. The unknown always appears a lot more threatening than it really is.

Hanging on like a little tomato

2011-06-26T08:53:00.002+08:00

Lately, I feel like I am losing control of the things that I have to juggle.

Most of the time, I would either be stuck in meetings or working on something administrative. Just think, I am my company's helpdesk for customers, suppliers and everyone you can think of. I am a backend sales person. I serve individuals, corporate, distributors and overseas retailers, just name it you have it. I am also a purchaser. I buy new products and place reorders for old ones. When I am in meetings, I am always the minute taker. And guess what, these aren't even my key roles that I'm talking about.

So what is my role? I think it is my job to help write and set policies, to deliver useful information to the management via my management reports and to bring the company to the next level by helping to establish and support new logistic processes to sell our things online and overseas, to set up an e-commerce and a website, to replace our old system with a new more linked up ERP type. These are the things that I want to do for my company. Am I there yet? Not at all. I see some progress but it is still painfully slow. I don't know why I have not given up.

I often ask myself why I allow myself to be subjected to so much administrative burden that I don't enjoy. Surely the management will do something if I say I want out. In fact, I have been given an opportunity to say whether I want to opt out of these tasks. And I said I didn't.

Because even though I can't find it in me to love admin, I know that if I don't undertake the responsibility of answering the same 101 help questions (that pop up in my email) politely and quickly, nobody else would. If I don't take minutes in meetings, nobody else would (or rather, could do it better than me). If I don't introduce ourselves nicely and professionally to new suppliers and impress them, no one else would. So who am I to say that I really want to help this company grow and yet stick my nose up when I am but the best person to do all the dirty and unwanted things up to a standard that even I would be proud of.

Still, I really hope that things would be all right in the end because I don't know how long I can hold on to keep things from falling apart. Anyway, there's a perfect little song for times like these by Pink Martini.

The sun has left and forgotten me
It's dark, I cannot see
Why does this rain pour down
I'm gonna drown
In a sea
Of deep confusion

Somebody told me, I don't know who
Whenever you are sad and blue
And you're feelin' all alone and left behind
Just take a look inside and you will find

You gotta hold on, hold on through the night
Hang on, things will be all right
Even when it's dark
And not a bit of sparkling
Sing-song sunshine from above
Spreading rays of sunny love

Just hang on, hang on to the vine
Stay on, soon you'll be divine
If you start to cry, look up to the sky
Something's coming up ahead
To turn your tears to dew instead

And so I hold on to his advice
When change is hard and not so nice
If you listen to your heart the whole night through
Your sunny someday will come one day soon to you

Uncertainty

2011-06-22T20:27:00.005+08:00

I have been very busy lately (and also having some difficultly wording my post) that I haven't been able to post the drafts up. They are still sitting in my blog in an unpublished state and I have given up trying to go into the details of what I'm facing now.

Relationship with Abbie is still great, if not better. I used to bug him about not spending enough time with me and it seems like my work is growing at such an alarming rate that I might possibly be more busy than him. Just last week, it was our 6th anniversary (since the day we met) and I totally forgot about it. I have never forgotten such an important occasion.

Work has taken a precedence over most of my life and I don't know why. I know I am passionate about it and my company. But there are now more projects than I can complete. Too many outstanding tasks. Too many questions that I cannot answer.

Suddenly I no longer have the energy to crochet amigurumis. I want to go out with Qiuqiu and Angela and Desmond but I haven't the resolve to call them up to meet without feeling that I am draining the last bit of energy that I have in myself. The chocolates and cookies that I bought for them from Italy are still sitting somewhere on my shelf at home. I want to visit Gin's new baby but I haven't found the energy nor courage to visit her alone.

There I was, reading The Happiness Advantage book on the importance of social networking and how in times of trial, people tend to retreat into their own shells instead of coming forth to capitalize on what social support has to offer. Being aware of this theory, I am still unable to prevent myself from succumbing to it. There is no resolve to change this habit or instinct.

Don't ask me what has become of my weekly voluntary work with the PFC. It used to be my pride, helping people. But now it just shows the lack of commitment and resolve I have - basically a poor reflection of myself. I think my friend there is still pissed with me over my poor attendance this year (or was it because I showed how hesitant I was in inviting him to my wedding. I was worried that he would feel awkward sitting with other people that he doesn't know but it is highly likely that the hesitation was misinterpreted). I'm sure this matter is not worth worrying over at all. It's just that this whole thing is sitting at the back of my mind and nibbling parts of it at some dark corner.

Right now, there is also a lot of uncertainty in my life. We still haven't a flat after so many applications. The initial plan was to move in with Abbie's parents after our marriage and learn to drive so that I can drive from his place to work. But it appears that no renovation has been done so far to his room. And his room... is still chocked full of junk, with little or no space for an additional inhabitant. It also seems to me that he prefer to move in to a new flat compared to cleaning out his old room.

Now I'm confused because anything can happen. I was prepared to sacrifice my freedom to live with the in-laws and now it appears that this isn't happening (which is both a good and bad thing). Now I'm sort of looking forward to owning my own place - I'm not sure how I would take it if I somehow have to end up staying at his place again.

If I can sum up how I'm feeling now, the only certainty I have now is uncertainty.

Surprisingly, the only good thing that I have now is work. I'm beginning to see some progress in some of the policies that we are trying to set, and the new e-commerce thingy. We are still far away from reaching our goal, but together I'm sure we'd get there somehow.

Still, I mustn't let this over-consume my resources. My boss told me the other day that he works only on Mondays to Fridays. Weekends are for family. I should probably do the same too. Not that I don't get to enjoy over the weekend. Sometimes I just can't resist checking my emails.

On a random note, something funny happened today.

In addition to my daily work, I am also responsible for corporate sales, overseas sales, customer helpdesk, complaints and such. Placed in such a position, I am so primed to dears, thank yous, pleases and sorrys that I was at a loss today on how to write a complaint letter to one of my suppliers.

After writing one with some difficulty, I gave it to my boss and it was immediately rejected because even though it brought up all the issues, it was too polite. I took out the "please see attached" and "please advise" and it was still rejected. I added in some mean things and it was rejected again.

He had to suggest the entire structure and choice of words so that it sounds demanding and unpleasant. Funny how your job determines your vocab. Mine has certainly become more limited over time.

I'm back

2011-06-09T23:58:00.003+08:00

It's been a very tiring day for me today. I just finished unpacking my stuff and I still have so many things to settle.

Work

I just peeked into my email account today and I'm relieved to say that there is less than 100 emails for me to clear - a manageable volume if I spread it over the weekend. There are other things about work that I should be worried about. But given that I just came back from holiday, I hope the management will excuse me from my lack of wits.

Pets

Then there's another thing that is stressing me up a lot. Apparently all the shrimps in my Bioglobe died when I was away in Italy, even though I left them with proper care instructions to my Dad. They all died on the same day, 2 days ago. I'm supposed to be able to claim the warranty but I'm not confident of keeping them alive even if I have a replacement.

What's worse, my Dad bought a Bioglobe for himself. My fault actually. I should have given it to him seeing that he wanted it so much. I was thinking of giving it to him upon my return, but the globe didn't survive to be given as a present. Also, I didn't want him to spend that money on the globe. Oh no.

The good news is that Woody is still alive. Thank goodness. I rushed into the room thinking that he might be half starved or worse - dead too. But nope. He's all good except that he smells a little hamsterish.

Travel

Ah, I'm finally getting to the crux of the post. Nothing much for now as the photos are with Abbie.

The trip was good but it could have been better if there were less shopping on the itinerary and more free and easy time to explore, to sit still in churches, to have a sandwich at the piazza (city square, usually with large open spaces decorated with statues or fountains) and waste the day lazing around, waiting for the campanile (bell tower) to ring. 10 days is far too short to appreciate such a big country. The schedule was crazy, just touch and go. Maybe we should do free and easy for our future trips to other places. A tour group takes longer to do everything because we're doing it as a group.

All in all I would say that this is an educational trip on history and religion. More on this in my next post.

I'm so tired and disorientated now, I can feel my room shifting.

Day 7 @ Rome (part 2)

2011-06-07T18:07:00.001+08:00

We visited the Colosseum in the afternoon - a must do if you are visiting Rome. Unfortunately, we could only visit the Colosseum from the outside. The guide gave us about 30 minutes for free and easy, but the queue and tour of the Colosseum would take about 45 minutes or more. I guess this made Abbie resolute that we should go free and easy next time. I don't know. Is it so hard to visit the Colosseum and Trevvy Fountain on the same afternoon?

Abbie said he would be making this photo his desktop wallpaper

The Arc of Constantine just outside the Colosseum

We made our way to the Trevvy fountain later on. IMO there really isn't much there and I would have preferred to visit the Colosseum than to toss coins. I did take a peek through the grills to see what was inside the Colosseum and to be honest, there was nothing much. But the fountain had even lesser to offer. Just hordes of people all crowded at the same spot. So.

Side shot from where I was standing

Too many people in the middle so Abbie settled for a side picture

We spent the rest of our free and easy time in the afternoon buying souvenirs home.

Spanish steps
Our guide said something to the effect that girls who want to be famous
often sit on the steps and wait to get spotted

Abbie studying a map
Life is great when you don't need to worry about directions or shopping bags

We had this crazy time trying to visit many churches as we could during our remaining time in Italy. We managed to pop by two, but had to give the Pantheon a miss because it was too out of the way. Such as waste.

Day 6 @ Rome (part 2)

2011-06-06T15:13:00.000+08:00

We spent the remaining half of the day exploring Rome ourselves. The tour for the day had ended early - too early for us, so Abbie and I took the hotel shuttle bus to the heart of the city. Thereafter, we followed the trail of other tourists, which led us to the following places below.

We didn't have a guide explaining to us the meaning behind these monuments and ruins. So there you have it. Just the pictures only.

We initially thought that this was The Colosseum
But of course, it isn't

They have very nice litter bins

Ruins

Ice-cream bus
They move real slow

Rome at night

Day 6 @ The Mall (part 1)

2011-06-06T13:07:00.001+08:00

The mushroom says it all. We have no business here in The Mall. So we spent part of our time in their playground, drinking coffee and buying sweets.

Day 5 @ Florence (part 2)

2011-06-05T21:16:00.000+08:00

Florence. My least favourite place in Italy for various reasons.

Florence Cathedral

Our local guide there was so so. Couldn’t really understand her accent, and then she was late. This ate into our free and easy time. There is dog poo along the streets. Not the best place for a stroll. And finally, the weather there is too hot and erratic.

Do not be fooled by the fine weather

The first half of the trip there was too hot and then before we knew it, hail was falling and it rained for the next one hour or so. It ruined everything - our horse carriage ride, our visit to the woodwork shop and my shoes. Thank god I brought my crocs along. My sneakers didn’t dry for 2 days.

The toy shop that I didn't get to visit

The horse carriage ride that I didn't get to take

The flea market that closed before I could buy anything

The ominous bird that lurked outside the Cathedral

The sky that suddenly changed

The hail that suddenly fell

Empty streets

Littered with ice cubes

The shopping trip that abruptly ended

To be fair, we did see a couple of things

The open air museum

The Santa Croce

Michelangelo's David

The bottom half of the ceiling painting within the Cathedral

Which is of the devils..bummer
(the Angels are in the top half and hidden from view where the place was cordoned off)

Day 5 @ Pisa (part 1)

2011-06-05T13:42:00.000+08:00

The first half of day 5 was a short one. Our tour guide gave us a brief history about the construction of Pisa on our way there. And upon arrival, we spent the bulk of the morning practising tai chi before the leaning tower of Pisa, much like most of the crazed tourist there.

Nothing much here, except that some pictures make really good candid shots and wall paper. It also feels good to stand beside a monument so well known. It's a privilege to stand beside one because you'll never know how long the tower's going to be there.

Day 4 @ Siena

2011-06-04T13:07:00.002+08:00

We spent day 4 at Siena. This is the place where I bought most of my stuff, the chicken pitcher, the piggy bag and the large cookies. Siena is also my favourite place among all the places that I have visited. I should like to live there, if possible.

They have very nice winding road that goes uphill, down and around. The city is a little old, but a whole lot less crowded than Venice and absolutely charming.

Their shell shaped piazza (Piazza del Campo) is also interesting. You can only see the shell from a top view.

This is also the place where the Palio (horse race) is conducted twice each year.

Fountain beside the piazza.

Lunch was a quick pizza at a nearby restaurant.

Abbie had his usual gelato afterwards.

Door knobs in the middle of the door.
I could never quite get used to the idea.

Abbie pretending to post something.

Our tour guide took opportunity to rest during our free and east time.

If you enlarge the picture, you will be able to see two girls in the background laughing at Abbie. The girls are part of our tour group. Well, more on that later.

Another one of those embroidery shops

Flower shop

After lunch, we visited Siena’s Duomo.

Unlike the one in Milan, this one is zebra themed. Not my cup of tea, but they do have interesting stories regarding the city’s history.

Black and White's the theme

The she-wolf who saved the twins from their otherwise terrible fate.

Decorated ceilings

There was also this bit about Santa Maria’s thumb and head in a separate church. But by this time, my brain had already switched off.

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant. We had Lasagna for starters.

My first time having Lasagna

I had my Fiorentina steak for the main course. And for religious reasons, Abbie stuck to his chicken.

Abbie's chicken

Our tour group

There a total of 36 people (including ourselves so you are seeing only a fraction of them) but their profile is well represented in this photo. Mostly families with older children. I could tell that they are at least well to do and holding managerial positions in their companies. This put Abbie and I as the poorest (and the youngest) travellers in the lot.

Nonetheless, Abbie had a field day networking with these guys (and I mean the parents of course). He just loves to talk to people.

Day 3 @ Venice (part 2)

2011-06-03T18:33:00.001+08:00

After Verona, we made our way to Venice.

Abbie at the harbour

It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to visit Italy. The movies always gave an impression that Venice was a romantic place to be and I wanted to see for myself the beauty of the waterways and bridges.

I also have a small painting of Venice in my bedroom since early this year. It’s a good way of subconsciously reminding myself, the pilgrimage I have to make someday before I die. Incidentally, I recently bought a new portrait of Notre Dame in Paris. It is now hanging right above Woody’s cage.

Unfortunately, Venice is anything but romantic.

The place was packed to the brim like how Chinatown was during Chinese New Year. I forgot that there were many others like myself who wanted to see Venice.

So much for the Bridge of Sighs

Bridge of Sighs indeed.

A very crowded St Mark’s Square

This picture is funny.
You can probably guess what happened.

San Marco Basilica

Luckily for us, St Mark’s Basilica did not disappoint. This is my favourite Basilica. All glittery and gold when the light catches it.

My eyes!

I told Abbie that I saw something like the Goddess of Mercy for the longest time but he didn’t believe me.

I had difficulty paying attention to the explanation because there's too many things to marvel at. I only know that these aren't painted, but made of small stones, bronze and gold to become a mosaic. It's a lot more painstaking than just painting on the surface. It's amazing how nothing gets stolen.

A gypsy lady outside San Marco begging for money

They are a common sight at tourist spots. My guide didn't have nice things to say about them.

A digital clock (above) and an analogue one (below)

The analogue one only tells the hour, and it’s quite difficult to read.

If you look carefully, one o’clock starts at around 3-4 o'clock position.

Thereafter, we dropped by a Murano glass blowing factory before taking our gondola ride.

A quick photo outside the factory

I don't know how true it is, but our guide told us that people in Venice don't want to become doctors or lawyers. They want to become gondoliers. Each ride lasting about half hour costs about 180 euros. It probably pays as well as a professional job, less the studying.

A couple of gondolas

Our "driver"

Sights and sounds while in our gondola
The beautiful buildings and balconies in Venice

We passed by something like a restaurant
Or is it a boutique?

Picture with a gondolier

Their uniform is in black and white stripes, and they sometimes wear a white shirt on top of it.


Street vendors peddling their illegal LULU bag (terrible LV imitation)

Open air concert
It costs 10 euros for your cuppa but I guess it is worth it

Later on during our free and easy time, we made our way to the top of the bell tower. No climbing was necessary but we waited a long while for the elevator to come down.

The wait was worth.

View of Venice from the top

Surrounding islands that we didn't have time to visit

The bell

On the way back from Venice
Time flies when you are travelling

Our boat captain

In case you haven't already guessed, tonight's dinner was squid ink pasta.

Creepy jumbo squid
It's eyes is like 5 cm in diameter and so shiny

Abbie with black teeth
I know, it doesn't really show in this photo

Day 3 @ Verona (part 1)

2011-06-03T13:27:00.000+08:00

On day 3, we hit Verona first.

Our guide told us the story of Romeo and Juliet as we would be visiting Juliet's House there. Boring - because I read the story many years ago during my literature class.

A sweet shop in Verona

They also have many shops doing embroidery for aprons, baking gloves, towels and such. I didn't manage to buy any as we were in a mad rush to see Juliet's house.

As we approached her house, we saw an incredible amount of graffiti covering the walls.

Probably layers upon layers of “I was here” or “so-and-so loves so-and-so”

Juliet's Balcony

Statue of Juliet
See how her right breast is so much shinier than the rest of her?

They say that rubbing off Juliet's right breast brings good luck. Later on, I read somewhere else that it brings a new lover. Hmmmmmmmm *frowns*

We dropped by a small market place selling groceries and souvenirs. I know they don't match.

See how perfect and shiny the tomatoes are
Must be how they make such yummy pasta

Photo with Abbie at one of the fountains nearby

We dropped by the arena later on before going to Hippopotamus for lunch.

The Arena
We didn't have much time to queue and see the inside

We managed to grab a few shots with the gladiators roaming outside the arena. You have to pay them 5 euros to take 2 pictures.

Abbie tries to kill the gladiator with a rubber sword

His attempts were in vain
By the way, the guy really grabbed Abbie's hair

Winner gets the lady
Haha, must be retribution from grabbing Juliet's boobs

He grabs another Gelato to recover from the shock

Lunch was at Hippopotamus. They serve the best seafood spaghetti I have ever eaten. It was the first time I ran out of spaghetti first before I ran out of seafood. They were really generous with the cockles, the mussels and squid.

To the right is the Hippo Restaurant
The streets of Verona is lovely

The menu

Abbie waiting for his food

Abbie's penne spaghetti.

Really cheesy

Our free bread comes with free birds
The bread basket is about 30 cm away from me

They come to tables like houseflies. But they are so cute that I don't really mind having them on my table.

Tiramisu - our dessert

Day 2 @ Lugana and Como

2011-06-02T14:03:00.001+08:00

We made our way to Lugano on Day 2.

Our guide told us that we’d be done with the lake in 20 minutes so we would be better off visiting a second lake in the meantime. On the way there, we passed by plenty of countryside. Sheep, grass, crops, horses, grapevines, hay and whathaveyou.

We went round and round up the slope.

View of the lakes from the coach
It looks a lot better in real life

Before we knew it, we were already at the Swiss-Italian border.


Ducks in Lugano, Switzerland

Abbie and I

On a very clean and picturesque street

Abbie trying to be funny

They dropped us at Fox Town for some shopping and more food.

I regretted the huge pizza
It was cheesy and way over the top in size

Even Abbie was defeated because he already had his chicken earlier

Lake Como

Waves lapping up the shore

Houses beside the lake
It must be a really nice place to live

Abbie pretending to chill at a cafe

Our guide dropped us off a local supermarket to get some supplies

We came across some Lavender on the way back to our buses
They had plenty of bees hovering all over them, and I mean plenty


Managed to capture one on film

Back to our new hotel

Day 1 @ Milan

2011-06-01T03:42:00.000+08:00

This must be how Abbie travels.

Taken at Amsterdam Airport

We arrived at Milan on day one and was brought to the spacious Victor Emanuelle II Galleria.

We didn’t do much shopping over there. Just posed with a couple of branded stores.

But we did take the opportunity to grab a few bites and try out their gelato. I still think Milan has the best gelato.

You can find Abbie licking one of these in every town that we popped by

The flooring there is really elaborate.

See the Taurus bull?

Groin area is totally worn out

It’s supposed to give you good luck if you dig your heels into the centre and spin 3 times around it.

Lady patching up the floor

Abbie managed to spot JJ Lin chilling out at one of the Italian cafes.

What luck

The streets of Milan

Abbie and I with Leonardo

Streets in Milan

Getting water from some really old pipes? No chance
Rule of thumb - bring your own water

Later on we went to visit the Duomo.

Imposing, isn't it?

If you look at the Duomo from the sky, it is shaped like a cross. The Duomo in Milan is a Gothic church. Characteristics of Gothic churches include many statutes and spires. This one has more than 3,000 statues. I believe I haven't seen 10% of them.

It’s little gloomy when you enter inside.

Duomo interior

Somebody was playing the organ during our visit and it sounded really grand, with music echoing through the spacious interior. For a moment, I had this strange sensation that the cathedral was shaking from the reverberating sound.

Within the Duomo, there are many paintings and pictures to depict the teachings.

Stained glass with intricate images

They say that it's because people don't read or write much in the olden days and so in order to pass on the religion, they painted the stories instead. You can read the pictures like a picture book. But it is really a lot of work.

Decorated ceilings in the basement

Someone's grave

We climbed up the roof later on when we had some free and easy time. It was good exercise and it offers a great view of Milan. Not to be missed if you were there.

Our last picture

Too bad our battery went flat after that and we didn't manage to capture the city view.

Layers

2011-05-31T09:33:00.001+08:00

Woody froze upon seeing the extraterrestrial lifeforms contained in the Bioglobe (or is it fancy food?)
Never realizing that he too was also contained in a different way.

Aquarama

2011-05-29T11:58:00.003+08:00

Abbie and I dropped by the Aquarama exhibition after work to check out the fishes. Nothing much there apart from supplies and equipment, competition pieces and bigass fishes...

I think this is a Pleco with Santa's whiskers

Discus fishes
Brings back fond memories of Ruby and BBQ

There was this large black goldfish that caught my attention. Not because of it's sheer size or beauty, but because of its expression which bordered between cute and ugly.

Classic
and so human

It's got a huge mouth too

Bought nothing there.

I was actually looking for Bioglobe vendors but strangely they had none. I bought mine earlier at the most unlikely of all places - a book fair beside the toy carnival. The stall had 7 - 8 pieces for sale and that was all they had. Each design was unique and only 2 of the 8 globes had a green plant in it.

After bringing them home
I realized that there are 5 little inhibitants instead of 3

My colleague and I fancied the same design but I bought it in the end for various reasons. Main reason being because I really wanted it, and was afraid that other people would buy it. If I bought it first, I would still have at least the option to resell the globe to my colleague.

There were also many people handling the globe, so the life inside would have sustained more damage if I bought it later.

Finally, Abbie was on his way to meet me and I knew it in my heart that if I didn't buy it then, I will not be buying it at all.

Top view

Anyway I fessed up to Abbie about the price and he was annoyed at first, but he accepted my purchase on the condition that I take out 120 euros from my trip expenditure. Fair enough.

Now I just hope the shrimps will be able to survive during my 10 days absence. Most likely I will have to situate it in my Dad's room since there will be light and air conditioning on most of the time.

Bioglobe

I have read online about the controversy surrounding these little spheres and have decided that this sphere is no more cruel than rearing fishes in a tank. At most I would have killed 5 shrimps - a lower number of casualty compared to the casualties inflicted by any shrimp lover.

Congratulations

2011-05-27T08:42:00.000+08:00

Would not be able to attend her baby shower next weekend due to my trip. Maybe if I have more time today I will mail her a card. Or possibly hand deliver it later on when I return.

Clouding up the horizon

2011-05-26T00:12:00.001+08:00

Is the Iceland volcano.

Of all times, it has to happen this week. I called the tour agency today and was told that most likely the trip will go on. Insurance already bought so, now we can only hope for the best.

Anyway I just woke up.

Conked out in the evening because I had a migraine. It seems like going to bed for an uninterrupted sleep of 4-5 hours works best. Tried and tested on several occasions. I have had fewer hours of sleep before with Abbie around, but being the light sleeper that I am, I will just suddenly wake up to the same migraine that I have just before I fell asleep. This is also something that I hope to avoid during our upcoming trip.

No excessive sleep. No sleep deprivation. No skipping of meals and no having meals later than the usual meal times. No excessive junk food. No excessive sunlight and no excessive cold weather.

I guess I am more fragile than average when it comes to life. Tried to prevent the migraine from creeping up on me today by trying to crack my neck (like what Abbie suggested) and having my lunch on time. But it didn't work and the migraine eventually caught up.

Random Pictures

2011-05-25T07:47:00.000+08:00

New photo frame that lights up @ $50
Love the workmanship

Jumbo Woody

Hanging nuts

Some Random Things

2011-05-22T13:32:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I last updated my blog.

Currently Wanting...
Yoohoo siskapoo, I want a white dala horse x1 with blue or light blue prints. About 12 - 13 cm long. No preference for height and width.

Remember not to buy me any magnets or key chains.

Currently Watching...
I'm busy catching up on a rather old anime - one piece, for the past few weeks.

The latest episode is at 499.
So I have 200+ more episodes to go.

I always thought that all animes with a gazillion episodes tend towards the same kind of storyline - long draggy battles and plenty of fillers in between. But apparently this is quite different from Bleach and Naruto.

Upcoming (Work) Events...

There's going to be another toy carnival (License to Play) coming up this weekend at Suntec. I think I will most probably be stationed there for two days though I am hoping to get away with just one - considering that I am leaving for Italy next week and I have yet to pack anything.

There's also going to be an aquamarine exhibition held at Suntec over the same weekend. If I'm not wrong, the admission is about $8. I'll probably pop by with Abbie after my work.

Italy Trip...

I can finally smell it. Yay. Happy but cautious. Read online today that some volcano in Iceland is spewing ash again. Time to pressure Abbie to get our trip (and ourselves) insured.

Taking it easy

2011-05-09T10:53:00.003+08:00

We went down to Ikea to purchase a night lamp after Saturday's dinner.

Cheap and nice $6 lamp

It turns out that the ornamental sea urchin lamp tends to get really hot after a while, so it's probably not a good idea to make it work overtime through the night. So I'm betting my hopes on this $6 lamp (Abbie's choice of lamp).

And finally, after a very long break from amigurumis, I started working on a doily yesterday. It's something new so I'm still figuring things out as I go along...

To be honest, I have difficulty trying to understand the instructions. It's only when I put the images of the finished product together with the instructions that I get some idea how to go about doing it.

So far so good
I hope it turns out all right

Mother's Day Celebration, and post election

2011-05-08T08:42:00.000+08:00

We had set dinner yesterday at Nosignboard in Vivo, co-sponsored by Abbie. It's been a long long time since we had a proper family outing. Excluding new year visits to my relatives', I think we have stopped going out as a family for at least 15 years. Yesterday marks the first outing in that many years, so I'm really glad it took place. Too bad Siskapoo wasn't around to join in. I could use another mini sponsor. Haha!

Food wise, everything was pretty mediocre: the assorted platter, the cereal prawns and even the sharks fin soup. Thank god the white pepper crabs saved the day. I'm probably not coming back though.

Abbie entertaining Mom and Dad

Endeavor to capture Mom laughing has backfired

Abbie eagerly doing his duty as a good son-in-law
It makes me look bad...haha

Politics was an inevitable topic

On the GE
I can't believe my dad thinks that I voted out of fear. I decided to skip the part about me joining the YP. I can understand Siskapoo's rationale about having a more diverse parliament. I can see that the best opposition candidate is much better than the worst PAP candidate. I believe that some policies (such as CPF) needs some revision. But I still voted for my favourite party because I believe they possess the best brain power to manage Singapore at a macro level (and I'm not talking about internal issues like housing and inflation).

I have not gotten my HDB flat yet after so many attempts, and prices are rising, but you don't see me blaming the government for it. I find it ridiculous that we have this sad group of people who blames the government for everything, especially petty things such as the weather and low wages. If you have this thinking, it is no wonder that your wages are low - you'd rather place the blame on others than to be responsible and admit that you weren't good enough.

Happy Holidays

2011-05-03T12:03:00.006+08:00

Happy Things

A couple of things to look forward to this month: Mother's day celebration with mom and Abbie's mom (on separate occasions, and our trip to Italy. It's finally here.

We'll be having dinner at nosignboard with mom this Saturday and a steamboat dinner with Abbie's mom on Sunday. We just had a steamboat yesterday at my place and now Abbie's inspired to replicate it for Mother's day at his place. Hah.

Another thing, my company is considering sending me to China to better understand our factory operations over there. Nothing has been firmed up yet, so I don't think this will happen in May.

Smelly Marimo

I finally threw away the smelly marimo that I bought recently.

Unlike the first marimo that I owned (which by the way, never gave me any trouble), the second one is always giving me problems. First it turned the water yellow after a couple of days, and then I found out that it smelled bad. I thought I would give it time (and more washes over time) to see if it would get better. But nothing's changed. A smelly marimo is always a smelly marimo. So after washing it today for the last time, I made the decisive step to throw it away (albeit reluctantly). I think it's the right decision now that it is in the bin. This has been bothering me for a while, getting all stressed up on whether my plant smells.

Life's too short to worry about smelly balls, so away it goes.

Of Cheap and Useless Things

I bought this $1 packet of floor wipe from the local convenience store today and it sucks. I should have known. In fact, I knew it in my heart that it wouldn't be effective. But I didn't expect it to do damage, such as making my floor sticky. Some senseless paper hand towel manufacturer must have decided to widen their product mix by passing off their products as floor wipes. Argh.

No choice but to stick to the current brand which Abbie bought. It costs 10 times more but gets the job done and it leaves my hand dry and rough.

Holiday Inn

2011-04-28T08:20:00.002+08:00

After mulling over the perks and cost, Abbie and I have chosen Holiday Inn Atrium as the venue for our wedding banquet. I would have preferred Orchard Hotel's Hua Ting, but since wedding dinners are such forgettable events, it's probably not worth the excessive spending.

I've been to quite a number of weddings in the past and they are pretty standard - happy but bland occasions. with many formalities. It doesn't matter if the video and food is good. It doesn't matter if my gown is pretty, or that Abbie looks good in his tux. It is forgettable. This is how it is, even for my ROM. A wedding dinner would just be another grand repetition for the sake of "face" and "tradition" - which isn't important...to me at least.

What really matters is the marriage itself and Abbie.

View of hotel from ground level

Hotel reception area and atrium

Waiting
While the hotel staff swipes his card

+0000123456 anyone?

2011-04-19T23:34:00.003+08:00

I received a couple of weird calls last night.

About 5-6 calls from an unknown origin. And another call from the number +0000123456. What kind of number is this anyway? There was no answer at the other end. Sometimes the ringing would end before I could reach for the phone. In the end, I didn't have a good night's sleep because I was completely spooked.

Question: Why does such things happen only when I am sleeping alone?

This is not the first time I receive weird calls in the middle of the night. Maybe it's high time I change my phone number for good.

I met up with Desmond for dinner today. It's been a while since we last met. Came home to catch a few episodes of bleach online, clean out the room and stuff. I took out my second marimo to clean and for some reason, it smells really bad. If it doesn't smell better after a couple more washes, I'm going to donate it to my company's fish tank. The last thing I need is a wet and stinky moss ball.

This weekend, Abbie and I will be going down to check out Furama, the last hotel on our list before we make a choice and pay the deposit. I can see that he will have a hard time with the tables because of the number of people that he is inviting. Mine's pretty straightforward. I think I will just commit the bare minimum and increase as we go along.

Idleness

2011-04-11T13:28:00.000+08:00

My stomach went through some pampering over the weekend - Thaiexpress, Wendy's, RamenPlay, Watami, a pub along east coast park. Could have saved the money up for a good buffet at some hotel, but oh well.

Caught a movie with Abbie on Saturday - Rio. It's a great show by the way even though there were so many kids sharing the cinema with us. Simple plot with great songs and evil villains. Much better than Megamind (watched mega mind yesterday with Abbie at home). The weather kept us in. Went out in the evening for a hot bowl of ramen. That pretty much sums up my lazy weekend.

Relaxation Schedule
~~1. Shopping therapy~~
~~2. Food therapy~~
~~3. Smuggle Woody to work for a day or two~~
4. Rebond my hair
~~5. Watch a movie, maybe suckerpunch or Rio~~
6. Do nothing (I can't possibly do 1, 2, 3 & 5 and do nothing)
7. Ogle at Abbie

Relaxation Schedule

2011-04-06T18:02:00.000+08:00

An oxymoron :)

1. Shopping therapy
2. Food therapy
3. Smuggle Woody to work for a day or two
4. Rebond my hair
5. Watch a movie, maybe suckerpunch or Rio
6. Do nothing
7. Ogle at Abbie

Cosplay

2011-03-31T00:09:00.003+08:00

Here's the best cosplayer I've ever come across to date. Saw him on one of the front pages in deviantart and I was quite taken aback. I don't mean to sound mean, but this is a rare among the many ghastly cosplay pictures that you can find online.

Tidus anyone?

Ichigo from Bleach

Busy as a Bee

2011-03-28T23:27:00.003+08:00

Weekdays are occupied with projects, presentations, license applications and emails. Weekends are spent liaising with various hotels on our wedding banquet, monitoring the exchange rates for Euros, projecting (and keeping tabs of) our wedding expenses, crocheting amigurumis during that spare wee bit of time and cleaning out my room and Woody's cage.

I need a twin.

Stalkerish photo of me by my colleague
I'm too busy to take narcissistic photos of myself at work
But apparently, I'm still not too busy to post up pictures

All in a Day's Work

2011-03-26T10:13:00.003+08:00

Barney has received an award and it looks like the 红星大奖.

It's really heavy by the way
Makes a good paper weight

In recognition of his efforts in successfully
setting up a training framework for the employees

Here's Abbie doing a presentation on the aerospace industry and his company at Dunman High.

It was voluntary, so he's really got guts. I wouldn't want to do a public presentation if I didn't have to.

On my side, I'll be presenting my company's performance and analysis during the weekly HQ meeting from now on. I think it doesn't really count as a real public presentation because there's only 10+ people in the audience and I know all of them. But I guess it's still a good exposure.

Woody is Hypnotized

2011-03-24T11:13:00.001+08:00

Deviant Art Account

2011-03-23T00:09:00.008+08:00

Just for the sake of sharing, I have a deviant art account at http://thegreysheep.deviantart.com/ It's been active for about one year but I did not pay much attention to it until now. Only my best works are placed there.

I received a few favourites here and there, but the main point is that there's plenty of ideas that I can draw from the work of others, as well as some other crafts which I may choose to explore in the near future.

Work

I realized that I have been working and thinking excessively about work during weekends and after working hours on weekdays, at a level which isn't exactly healthy for me or my laptop. I feel uncomfortable shutting down my company laptop because I wanted the option of remotely accessing my work from home to get some work done. But then again, I have this morbid fear that if I leave my laptop on for too long, it might compromise its useful lifespan and crash on me.

I now spend my morning trips to the company
1. planning and cutting out my work for the day (most of the time) or
2. crocheting on the bus (sometimes)

For weekends, I spend a larger proportion of my time crocheting and to a lesser extent work (company).

Is this how it is supposed to be all the time? I don't know, but I think I need to draw a clear line between work (company), leisure work (crocheting) and leisure (doing unconstructive things).

It sounds ridiculous at this moment, but I think I need to shut down my laptop for good, toss away my hooks and threads, and spend more time doing unconstructive things, such as simply doing nothing. That will be hard.

Thoughtful

2011-03-21T21:27:00.010+08:00

Four more orders from my Aunt. Larger amigurimis.

And this time, I finally get to make whatever I want!

I have so many new yarns waiting for me to create something out of them. I can't wait.

Anyway I want to rant about my other passion, which in case you haven't already guessed, it's VBA programming. Both passions have much in common actually - they require me to create something from scratch.

I've been accumulating scraps of codes here and there since last year to help me with my day to day activities in mining data from many different reports. Recently I took a few days to assimilate all of them into one working file under 200kb. Now it's probably the most awesome thing in my laptop, this 200kb worth of integrated codes. It's like I've been crocheting amigurumi limbs and body all this while and suddenly I assembled them into something beautiful.

But unlike the amigurumis which is easily appreciated because of its cuteness, nobody will ever press Alt+F11 to check out the awesomeness of the 200kb.

Sigh.

A Special Connection

2011-03-20T10:38:00.001+08:00

I finished Freddy the bear yesterday afternoon and couldn't resist taking him for a photoshoot somewhere. This is the fun part.

In case you haven't already guessed, I'm trying to re-enact the scenes from Free Willy.

I created the background with my blue Fox sweater, the hands of my bunny plush, and the comforter that my aunt gave me.

Props includes styrofoam, play doh and a small metal bucket that my colleague bought for me during her trip in Japan.

More Acquisitions

2011-03-20T10:29:00.001+08:00

New swivel chair from Ikea @ $55
Assembled by Abbie

My very first pair of Crocs
A tad expensive, but I suppose they are twice as hardy as the usual pumps
Hopefully they are comfortable enough to replace my sneakers

Rainy Saturday Afternoon

This weekend is another lazy one. I managed to get Abbie to wake up at a record time of half past ten, but the afternoon rain kept us indoors till mid noon and Abbie had to go to Ikea to buy some photo frames for his company event. So we ended up not having enough time to recce any hotels for our wedding banquet.

We covered a couple of movies at home. Not a bad watch. But I covered only the second half of both movies. Most of the time, I was busy with the amigurumi and photography...four in stock now, only nine more pieces to go.

I realized that chameleons are suddenly a hit these days, with the Rango movie and Rapunzel some months back. One of these days, I shall try my luck in creating them.

Busyness

2011-03-15T22:37:00.002+08:00

I've been up to my neck in work these days but I'm surviving.

Sometimes (and I mean just sometimes), I wish was dumber.
But for now, I'm still thankful for the things I know.

Farewell @ Train Station

2011-03-13T15:42:00.004+08:00

I am finally done with my aunt's amigurumi orders for the quarter. Decided to have some fun with them before they are sold.

Siskapoo bids siskapoo farewell @ the choo choo train station

Have a good trip in Sweden, she says
Yep I will, and remember to call starhub to activate my sim card, yelled Siskapoo

Aside: Sure thing, as long as I can remember
which I most certainly don't, unless I'm making a joke out of it

Rango

2011-03-13T09:40:00.002+08:00

Abbie and I went down to Ion Orchard for some window shopping yesterday and we found an incredible shop selling miniature set of furniture and other woodwork creations. It's located on the fourth floor beside threesixty marketplace.

Unfortunately, prices are also incredibly unaffordable (but not unexpected), so I can only press my nose against the glass ogle at their works from behind.

We also watched Rango later in the evening. The cinema was packed with kids (as I had feared earlier), but they weren't a bother so everything is good. Nothing much to say here, except that I like Johnny Depp and Rango reminds me of captain Jack Sparrow.

Fun with iPhone Apps

2011-03-11T21:39:00.002+08:00

Proud of Abbie
My graduation lion is wearing this medal now

Abbie and his colleague

Scruffy with his new choo choo train from Daiso

This was done with a Night Shot app
I had Abbie record me doing a treble clef with a torch light in the dark
and the app would compile it into a picture
Magical

OCBC Cycling Marathon

2011-03-06T12:15:00.000+08:00

Sleepy Saturday

2011-03-06T01:25:00.003+08:00


Meet my latest creation - Scruffles He's one of the rare pieces that I'll be saving for my mini exhibition

Life is peaceful.

We spent most of today snoozing in bed and watching a movie - social network. I probably clocked 13 hours of sleep or more, which explains why I'm still awake at this hour...

Life lately

2011-03-04T08:17:00.002+08:00

Photos for the wedding montage. We spent the remainder of last weekend looking through Abbie's baby photos. He was a fat, round and tubby baby, though really cute. Not posting any images here since I don't want to ruin the surprise.

My favourite photo of Abbie below. No longer a baby, but picture perfect.

I think I own the same bicycle when I was young.

Weekends are here, so I've more quiet crocheting to do. Ran out of cotton though. Abbie's gonna scream.

Declaration of Joy

2011-03-02T00:40:00.007+08:00

I love Abbie.
I love being married.
I love my room.
I love my job.
I love mom and mom (in law) and
I especially love their food.
I love my aunts.
I love my workspace.
I love my colleagues.
I love my boss.
I love Woody.
I love Moori, my little marimo and Mr. Cacti, my new cactus.
I love my amigurumis and my burnt weekends crocheting them.
I love making things for people.
I love it when people are happy with the things I make for them.
I love myself.

and of course, Siskapoo @ Scotland, who is gutsy enough to down cow blood pudding.

This is my life and I am loving it.

What's brewing - Couple Amigurumis :)

2011-02-27T00:46:00.000+08:00

without lomo effect

Work in Progress

2011-02-26T11:17:00.000+08:00

2 bunnies left to customize

The Point

2011-02-24T08:09:00.003+08:00

Nothing much to say here, except that my faith in the company has paid off.

I will prove people wrong about SMEs.

Of course, I have much better things to live for than to care about what other people think how I ought to live my life.

But this shall be one of the less important things (which is still important nonetheless) that I will drive home, in the minds of people who are closest to me.

On Married Life

2011-02-21T21:44:00.009+08:00

Living with Abbie

Funny things happen when somebody stays with you.

For one, I am still trying to get used to Abbie's presence over the weekend. On Friday night, I momentarily forgot that Abbie was with us and shrieked my head off when I saw this black and huge gargoyle-like figure crouching in the middle of our living room.

Of course, it was just Abbie kneeling on all fours to peek into Woody's cage. He was doing it in the dark and my imagination got the better of me. Dad thought it was hilarious even though I was so freaked out and annoyed.

The tables were turned on Saturday morning.

I tried waking Abbie up to no avail. So I left Woody on Abbie for his usual morning hike on Abbie's biceps (to tickle him awake) while I left to go to the bathroom. And Woody peed. Wow, talk about impeccable timing. Apparently, hamster pee wakes Abbie up pronto. I could hear Abbie screaming from where I was.

We spent our Sunday evening at Abbie's place for dinner.

Nothing much here, except Abbie was urging me to do something stupid, like putting my face into his dad's bucket of frogs.

Italy

We are going to Italy!

We signed up a 10 Day Italy package with SA Tours and paid the deposit. This shall be like in the movies - Abbie and I on the gondola, blissfully in love, or something to that effect.

That is in the movies.

In reality, we all come back to Singapore to continue working. And our email inbox will explode in our faces. I can only hope I will still be smiling then. Haha.

Baby Shower Present to Gin

2011-02-18T23:26:00.001+08:00

An Inspiring Speech

2011-02-18T21:24:00.002+08:00

Today my boss shared with me an inspiring convocation speech by Adrian Tan a couple of years back. I've no recollection of this speech before, so it's really a mini blessing that I manage to read this in the end.

Life and How to Survive It

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That's the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There's a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remaining silver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn't do that, I would've been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth.

I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It's not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many.

That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn't say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one's looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the true worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart. You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don't, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.
You're going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there's no life expectancy.

Chinese New Year Dinner

2011-02-17T08:12:00.002+08:00

With my company this time at YWCA.

Nice decor at their lobby

I was joking with Abbie the other day about how different we are. It's not something to be proud of I guess, but we only took 4 days to plan and execute our CNY dinner. Abbie on the other hand, has been sourcing for gifts and vendors since late last year. His company event is in March. I know the scale and significance of his event requires serious coordination and planning.

We still have a long way to go, but I think we're finally making some improvements where it counts.

The crew, hard at work

I think the highlight of the evening wasn't the food or prizes or the magic show. I got to see the management team do incredible stuff - such as playing the silly role of a Da Tou. One also managed to do a perfect cartwheel.

Mini lion head

My big headed boss trying to put on his spectacles
Pun intended

And of course, the dance moves by our fellow colleagues. No pictures here, because my camera doesn't capture movement very well.

Trophy for the best outlet
I must say William did a terrific spray paint job on the bearbrick

Yep, that's it for the CNY dinner last Tuesday.

On a separate note, I managed to modify my Christmas teddy into a thank-you gift in time for tonight's dinner with Qiuhan.

It's a good thing I had the resolve to drop by Cat Socrates last weekend to collect the bear and buy some postcards even though I was feeling so lethargic and lazy.

Valentine's Day Celebration

2011-02-15T08:05:00.003+08:00

Dinner yesterday evening was at Carlton's Mosaic. I managed to knock off on time when it counts.

Lobby Area

They brought us to this outside pool area where there's supposedly better ambiance: water, trees, candles and balloons. I had my reservations but it turned out all right. The weather was really good. Still, I ended up feeding a few mozzies.

Appetizer
Love the oysters
Love everything on the plate, even the lemon

This is definitely the place you don't want to dine in during your first date. Can you imagine shelling prawns, slurping on oyster goo and trying to crack those snow crab legs with your teeth? It's a challenge to eat them in a dainty way.

Soup

Our mains: mine

His main

I actually prefer his pork belly. If taste could kill, this is it. Heavenly to the taste buds are the many thick layers of fats. This is truly a dish that only Abbie could enjoy without guilt.

Our dessert

Gift for the evening

Abbie was telling about the great pains he took to find me this pair. He even showed my photo and earlobes and all to the sales person. Talk about psychotic analysis of my ear lobes. Anyway he has made Mrs Ho a very happy Ho Ho Ho. Lame yes.

Still, I feel quite bad not getting Abbie any. I don't know, I haven't any time to whip up anything. I was too focused on his birthday so Valentine's day was short-changed

Abbie cut his Icing Room cake

ROM coverage

2011-02-14T23:47:00.007+08:00

There's plenty more which I didn't upload, like maybe 50 - 60 pictures worth 1 GB or something because I haven't the time to shrink all of them down to become internet friendly. So I ended up picking only the best ones - the ones I look better in. I know it's unfair, but give the bride a photo shop break.

A pair of Forever Friends plushie from my aunts

Our rings

Posing with the works of others

Shimmery bouquet
They come off pretty easily, so we had random glitter all over

Abbie and I with my aunts
There's another one with my uncle and cousin as well
But it shows my legs which looked thin and spindly...so

With my very tall in-laws

The Management Team of Big Box
From left to right (My boss, my boss, my boss, my boss)
Nobody's probably looking at my legs, but god they are thin

Our signage
It says, "One man by himself, is nothing"

"Two people who belong together make a world"
Indeed

Hoping that everything will go smoothly

Sleepy angel

Beautiful teacups

Yummy cupcakes

Juicy canapes

Little angels guarding our napkins

Posing with angels
I received a pair of Tea Cosy angels twice
The first was given to me from my colleagues, the second pair came from the shop owner

Trying to focus on the reality of what's about the happen


The moment

This is Abbie's official imprisonment
Sweet moment to behold

Inking "The Contract"

Pretty picture on the wall

The bosses again

Photo shoot at Fort Canning

Hide and Seek
The dome is actually quite dirty

A rare moment when I'm taller than Abbie

Lift off
I'm glad my dress didn't come off

Someone is hungry

Piecing up the puzzle

To the No.1 Fella

To the No.1 Fella who belongs to me