Hello & Goodbye

One random post coming up:

1. I hope it is not too late for new year resolutions but I have 2 that I am hoping to keep and they are really simple things a) Opening my mails – you wouldn’t believe how disorganised I can be at home. Last year, my stack of unopened mails was maybe higher than an Oxford dictionary. I only cleared it in my annual spring clean for CNY, I had a cheque for 700 bucks that I failed to cash out because of my tardiness. Geez. So a very simple resolution – to be prompt in opening my mails.

b) Always have cash in my wallet. Btham said something last year that jolted me to my senses, she asked why I always don’t have enough cash when I go out with them and I realised how true that is and my wallet is always empty. It’s not that I am broke but just super lazy to withdraw money. It’s just a tad sad to have to see my bank account dip just that slightly each time I withdraw money – heh. So yes, I will aim to always have at least $XXX cash in my wallet.

2. I recently purchased Johnson&Johnsons lotion for night - “Melting Away Stress” - and I must say, it is really effective. I like to think it is resulting in my deep and restful sleep each night but I’ve recommended it to my sister who claims otherwise =( It smells really good and is very calming (at least to me) - not sure if it is just psychological or a placebo effect so I’ve read some reviews online and it works on others too!

3. So looking forward to the one week’s break next week. My sweet new  boss called and asked if I wanted one week off and I was like “Yeah!!!” I don’t have much planned since it came at such short notice but definitely going to run all those errands I never had time to or procrastinated:

- Getting that Burberry bag we dug out from our mom’s old wardrobe to be refurbished (we finally spring cleaned and cleared most of the stuff)

- Going to the tailor to alter all those online bad buys

- Rebonding my hair – undecided but am about 80% sure I would do it

- Rest and Relax

- High tea on a weekday

I just need to find the right kakis for some other activities too!

4. My last day is on Friday! They have been so nice about me leaving and I really hope that there’s no hard feelings. I’m now tying up the loose ends and finishing up some of the projects that I was working on but generally nothing much to do. I guess I want them to know that I would work till the last hour, finish whatever I have been given and will definitely put in my best and be professional.

5. 2 news of proposal recently – Spongebob proposed to WY (it was quite expected given their flat purchase) and the BF’s bro to his GF in a dramatic ra-ra way onstage at Boiler – I would have been so embarrassed but it was a very sweet moment captured and posted on FB – nice! I just want to say to the BF - No pressure!! take your time, I don’t want the outwardly pressure to affect you or us in any way okay?

First up, Happy Lunar New Year to all! May the Year of the Rabbit bring prosperity, good wealth and health to you and your family. Let’s all Huat together =)

As we usher in the Year of the Rabbit, I took the opportunity to reflect on the Year of the Tiger and what it brought. It sure was hell of a good year, the year that was very kind to me.

Here are my highlights (in somewhat a chronological order – the good and the bad)…

• Diagnosed with Alopecia areata, had steroids injected into my scalp (ouch!) and am almost recovered. It is still wispy but at least it is no longer patchy. Only a few people knew about it and the BF was extremely sweet – following me to each and every doctor’s appointment
• The Ex-Company went through a M&A – a most tumultuous time in my career as I worked without knowing what the future entails.
• Rock-Climbed!! Okay, it was not the first time I rock-climbed but doing it again was fun! I would love to do it again.
  

  Spidey to the rescue

• Bought 1/2 a car, the other 1/2 belongs to the BF! A Suzuki SX4, we named Sunday – because it starts with a “S” and contains a “Y” – heh. This little baby of ours have been draining my hard-earned money, but when the BF asked if I have ever regretted buying it – a big resounding “No”. It has been more of a blessing to have our own ride whenever we need it. (ps realised this is one of few pictures we have of Sunday, oops)

Sunday's Booty

• The IJ gal pals chartered a yatch for 1/2 a day and we set sailed to the middle of nowhere. It was one relaxing Sunday with us tanning on the deck and taking tonnes of pictures!
• Took a beating in paintball. My team lost 3 out of 3? Or was it 2 out of 2? Anyhow, we were the big losers of the day! It was my first time and probably my last – it can get quite boring eh.

This is war!

• Took Sunday out on her first roadtrip on a 4 car contingent (17 people!) to Melaka! It was one hell of a trip – so much drama, but way fun and one that we would remember for life (which only means that the teasing of mrbu will never end).

drama in melaka

• The IJ gals finally went on a trip together! Something we have been planning for the longest time ever. It was meant to be the Hen’s night for YW but alas, circumstances changed which meant we celebrated the Hen’s night without the Hen. I had lots of fun on the trip, shopping wasn’t as fulfilling with 5 girls of differing taste but what matters most is travelling with friends – talking cock and becoming much closer than before

I love bangkok - a different experience each time

• The biggest event of the year for the IJ gal pals – the one thing we talked about, discussed about, met ever so often about – the marriage of YW and YW. We were the jiemeis but this time extra special since it was for someone closer to us. Alas, we are looking forward to the next one already.. Cheers to that! (heh – speaking of which, we are so losing that bottle of champagne to Btham – boo). Congrats to the newly-wed!!

Wedding of the year!

• And the biggest event of the year for me – I found myself a new job!! I got lucky there – it is in a good firm with great culture and extremely nice team mates. My “neighbour” at work (our workstation is one arm’s length away) is almost like me – opinionated, judgmental and we both love rolling our eyes – except she is way worse than me. If you think I am opinionated, you haven’t met DNg. (okay, if you were the privileged few who has my password – things have moved a little on this front)
• One frivolous highlight: my first branded big ticket item =) the Bf bought me a LV – yums!
• The most important of all, my family and friends were all healthy and mostly happy (many found love in the Year of the Tiger).

Birthdays&Celebrations!!

Woa, that was quite a year for me. As it is, changes are on its way in the Year of the Rabbit and I am looking forward as usual to another great year.

Thank you to all who have been with me in the past year, be it in showing support and encouragement or simply by making my day or making me smile with your presence. Cheers!

Huat arh!

Well apparently, you do not need a year to make preparations for a wedding. In fact, you don’t even need half a year. My uni close friend* mate – Ah Bi – sprung a surprise on us for being the first to marry amongst us. When we met in January, we were still grilling him about his first new girlfriend and then in April we got the news of his wedding.

So anyway, the wedding was held last Saturday (*so proud, finally an updated event!) at Swissotel.

I had quite a great time with PS and YZ talking among ourselves, gossiping and of course, doing some investigative work =)

*PS and I all dresssed up!

*YZ and I – what’s with the grumpy look?

* With our Uni Mate Ray!

* private joke between CaptainBu, the BF and I

The ijclique celebrated B’s birthday this year with a Bang the wall! We met for a little rock climbing at Yishun Safra. We signed up with an independent climbing “school” located there. They have several climbing walls and when the instructor led us to the tallest wall, we all exclaimed – “are you sure?”.It was a  3 storeys high wall when there were other smaller scaled walls around.

A 2 hours climbing package with an instructor was only SGD100 for the six of us. Our instructor, Adnan (if I didn’t remember wrongly) was very encouraging and despite us signing up for the wrong thing (we chose to engage a harness instructor instead of signing up for a beginners climbing workshop), he was very detailed in his explanation and guided us through the rocks on the wall. He was shouting all the time and basically “walked” the course for us.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly, though a lil’ nerve-wrecking at first but we soon got along with the help of Adnan.

Gung-ho, fearless YW went first… and she set the benchmark so high, it was hard to beat until of course long limbs WY broke the record.

Yit climbed amidst a lot of screaming, B lacked some of those mental strength of Yit’s and Mel turned pale with blue. Me? My only aim was to not be the last! Hehe.

Side track: I have always wanted to try rock-climbing because I’ve always wanted to test my own mental strength or maybe really because of one of my favourite blog author. I have pestered the BF to go together but we haven’t found the right opportune to, so it was a good experience to try it out with the ijclique That said, I do want to go again!!! To challenge myself and go to greater heights! – literally. Perhaps I should ask the peeps along – don’t just waste those iron-pumped muscles on tight-fitting tee-shirts.  

After our 2 hours, we headed over to AMK hub for some lunch – Popeye’s and Koi!! A reward for our hard work. We then proceeded to B’s place to wash up, chit-chat and plan THE event of the year – The October Wedding!!

Girls being girls, we took nearly 2-3 hours to wash and dress up before we were ready to drive to Picotin at Bukit Timah for our nice dinner. We learnt our lessons from over-ordering, so this time round, we ordered and shared the dishes all around. I think we had steak, pizza, pastas, pork belly and some sides. This way, we could try a little of everything instead of being stuck with one lousy dish.

As usual, the topic of the day was the Wedding of the Year and our Hens’ night party in Bkk – although along the way we kept deviating from the topics. Hehe.

It was a fun-filled day and well-worth the hole in the pocket and the ache in the arms.

Jump for joy! Do you hear it? The sound of wedding bells ringing? No? I do!!!! I am so excited….

Nope, not my wedding bells but I am excited nonetheless. It will be the first amongst us. A lil’ surprising since she has never given us any indication and just last night dropping the bomb on us, over a MSN chat with an “I have an announcement to make”. 

I’ve got a feeling… wooohooo… that Sunday is going to be a good day.