Wrist Corsages

These are the wrist corsages i made for Cin's wedding back in Dec 2009. I think they look quite pretty and Cin even asked me for one as a keepsake. Haha... i gave her the one i wore for the day as i was one of her sisters too!

First Encounter with Fish Doctors

Have you ever tried fish spa before? I tried it for the first time recently. Previously, I've always find that fish spa seems quite gross. Everyone's legs in the same pool of water..dunno if they change the water... same fishes... eugh... But well, Kenko at Orchard Central just opened and it's a spanking new outlet! Me and fren went in for a shoulder massage and they were having a promo of free fish spa with every 30mins massage. So, being typical Sporeans... free one just try lah!

The staff there told us that the fishes are known as African fish doctors and they will not hurt us as they will only nibble off the dead skin. Wow! The feeling when I first dip in my legs cannot be described!! It almost felt electrifying! abit like uSqueeze or something as well. I had to use my hand to cover my mouth to keep me from screaming and giggling out loud (it is a spa place mah...). It's so tense that my feet was arched down most of the time.... My legs must be full of dead skin cells as they were swamped with fishes... haha!

When we were done with that pool, the staff came in and asked us to try their other pools. Cos each pool contain fishes of different sizes. Apparently the one we went in to straight away had the BIGGEST fishes! Wow... no wonder the feeling was so intense :P trying the other pools with smaller fishes felt like "no-kick" after that.... hahahahah...

Work.. work.. work..

Work has been crazy these days, with projects to implement week after week. My Friday nights are mostly burnt and so are most of my weekends. And everything is such a rush with the Sales folks that we all have to scramble to put things right.

Luckily this week we have a break from projects implementation. I finally have my weekends to myself! Also get to clear some time-off for today and tomorrow. Yippee!

Lotsa things to do during this break.. go for yoga lessons (I've wasted 6mths of payment without attending any lessons, laziness!!!), visit Ion Orchard (mainly for the food :P), go Daiso to satisfy my shopping crave ($2 per pc shdn't do much damage..), catch Harry Potter movie! Hehe...

@#$%# Cabbie!

I had such a frustrating night yesterday. It all started with having to work late last night as there was a last minute request job to be done. Since I was informed late, I decided that I'd still go home for dinner after the job as Mum have already cooked my share. We could only start work at around 9pm as the users could only allow us to work on it after their operation hours. Initially thought it could be done quickly (like a half an hour's job) as it was a simply request, but ended up only leaving the place at 10:30pm!

 

Then there's the frustration with waiting for cab. There was a taxi stand there near Far East Square but the queue was a little long. But seeing that there's a constant stream of cabs coming in, I decided to just join the queue. However, most of the cabs were either on call or hired. Tired, hungry and frustrated, I called to book a cab. I gave the taxi call centre lady the "location no." of the taxi stand and waited while still in the queue. I was 2nd in line when I saw my cab zoomed passed by taxi stand!! I was like.. shit*! He missed me...

 

I contemplated cancelling the booking and take the next cab that comes to the queue.. since i'm so close to being the next person.. but thinking that it's quite bad for me to do that then the taxi driver has already arrived (sorta). So I got out of the queue and called the call centre again and told her that "your driver just passed me by, can you locate him and ask him to come back here?". The lady later told me that the driver is at another taxi stand near PWC building and asked if I can walk over there since it's quite near and the taxi would have to go one big round if he detour back to my stand. I was like... I BOOKED a cab, why would i wanna walk there? But i didn't say that lah. I told her that I'm not familiar with the place (which is true) and was thinking of cancelling the booking but when i wanted to rejoin the queue, a group of girls came and joined the queue.. so I told the lady to get the driver to come back.

 

Couple of minutes later, the driver himself called me.

 

Cabbie: Miss ah, I'm at the PWC taxi stand. It's very near your side. Can you walk over to my side coz I need to make one big round if I go back to you.

Me: Huh?!! You want me to walk down the road to your side?? But why aren't you here in the first place???

Cabbie: Erm.. (totally avoided my question), can you walk over? It's very near only. I guide you where to walk.You walk down the road and turn left, then it's on the right side at PWC building.

All I could see was lotsa construction and hoardings, I walked down a little and came to a junction and still couldn't figure out where he wants me to go.

Cabbie: You should see a bus stop at the opposite side...

Me: I don't see any bus stop...

Cabbie: There's just one bus stop there! How about the HDB flats...

Me: I don't see any HDB!! There's alot of construction here and I dunno where you want me to go!

Cabbie: I'll guide you, it's very near only!

Me: (Super irritated!!!) NEVERMIND!! I'll just cancel the booking!!

Cabbie: Ok lah.. you cancel cancel lah.

 

Wah Lao! Cannot take it! I walked back to the original taxi stand and it's still filled with people! Sianz.. Called another taxi company this time and booked another cab. So scared the next cabbie would miss this stand again.. luckily he didn't and came in a jiffy. Very polite cabbie... though he had to request to stop at a petrol station mid-way to change small change cos all his money are in big notes. Oh well.. just not my day i guess...

 

Only reached home at 11pm and ate dinner then. Totally missed the last episodes of 2 drama serials that i was following. Sigh...  :-(

 

-- End of short story --

1-Year Older Day..

Birthday came and went over the weekend in such a jiffy that I barely remember what I did on that day, beside the nice dinner that frens prepared for me at night, in celebration for my "B" day :) We had homely cabbage soup with abalone!!! Yum yum! & Fried spicy prawns with onions… Both are nicely done and very tasty too!

Later on, it was coffee at The Playground at Big Splash. We had it at OldTown White Coffee Café. We ordered the signature OldTown White Coffee but was told that their hot coffee is sold out and changed ours to cold ones. Isn’t that a bit strange? I thought usually they make cold coffees by add ice to hot coffee that they would make first? Why would they have cold ones but not hot ones here? Eughh… maybe they make the cold coffee in advance and store them somewhere…. Ahem, but I can't really taste anything bad from the coffee though. It tasted like mocha coffee to me :) The buo luo bun I ordered was so-so only. The crust on top was abit too powdery for my taste. Crystal Jade's ones tasted better.

I guess when one gets older, Birthdays are less of a big deal so there's no need to go all out to party and celebrate it in a big way. For me, this birthday had been a great day spent with nice food and good company!

Happy Belated Birthday to Me! ;-)

It's the Flu Season

Sigh... I caught the flu bug again. this is the 3rd time in a month that I'm down with the common cold. This time, i was having rather high fever after I left work on New Year's Eve at around 4pm. Yes, my company only released us at 4pm while others had half day. Darn! 38.o degrees was the temperature shown by the time i reached home. I popped 2 Panadol Flu Max and went to sleep with my throat feeling very painful. I broke out into a sweat while sleeping as I din't turn on the fan and covered myself with my blanket (i had felt very cold when i went into bed).

I din't sleep well at night and had to place a cold towel to my forehead to try and bring down my fever. My fever persisted to the next day, New Year's Day and even risen to 38.8 degrees at some point. I kept taking the Panadol pills since there were no clinics in the vicinity that opens on public holiday and my mum made me drink Ling-Yang and Yang-sen drinks. Now I'm constantly feeling hot and kept sweating though the ceiling fan was turned on. I kept drifting into sleep too while sitting at my sofa. What a way to spend my New Year! Luckily my fever subsided in the late afternoon else i would worry if I've caught the dengue fever. However, throat still hurts like mad...

Today, I went to the doctor to get proper medication since i've developed a cough and my throat still hurts. Luckily my fever didn't come back. I told her that this is the 3rd time i'm sick with flu in a month and she says that it's ok as long as each time it doesn't last too long. She says that it's the flu season now and the viruses are always changing. Even she, who is stronger and more accustomed to viruses, was down with flu recently as well. Ok, I guess there is no cause for worry, but it's annoying to keep being sick and taking medicine so often. I must try and build up my immunity. Must rest more... still feeling very tired with the bodyache and all....

Sold another lanyard

Cheryl asked me to also make her a lanyard that's similar to the one I made for Gennie just that her requirements are to have them in white and blue. I figured she's more of a baby-blue gal rather than a bright-blue gal. Thus, made a similar lanyard that's with pale blue seed beads. Received her feedback that a lot of her colleagues commented that her lanyard is very nice :) I hope she likes it as much too.

Vintage Flower Brooch

This is one of my favourite creation which i made some time back. I think this brooch has a vintage feel to it but too bad i haven't had a chance to wear it yet.. can't seem to match it with any of my clothing. Hee...

Arrival of my baby niece!

My second sister just gave birth to a daughter on 20 Oct! We were actually quite worried that she will give birth before my elder sister's wedding dinner. Coz we really want her to be able to join in the fun and joy of the wedding and witness the whole event as well. Well, lucky enough! She delivered just 1 day after my sister's wedding, which is the next day! Hee. now I have 2 nieces! Let's see when my elder sister will contribute to the Singapore population.. Haha!

The baby looked so small. I didn't have a chance to hold the baby as she's always sleeping when I visit. During my first visit to the hospital on the day of birth, she was already wheeled into the nursery (is that what you call the room where all the babies are?). When I next visited at the hospital again, I was just in time to see her being wheeled back to the nursery. Then yesterday when I visited her at home, she was sleeping and sleeping. no chance to hold her. But anyway, she's sooo small that I'm afraid to carry her.. Hee. She has a darker complexion than her sister, but her mummy says my first niece was also quite dark at birth but later became fairer. Dunno if baby will also be the same. But both nieces have a lot of hair at birth.. So cute!

Think we can only carry her when she is older and have more "awake" times :)

My Sister's Wedding

Recently, was busy with my sister's wedding. She had her Tea Ceremony on the Sat 2 weeks ago while her Solemnization and Wedding dinner was on the following Sun. Boy! Luckily it's done over 2 days. I was her bridesmaid and I was already quite tired out… can imagine how tired my Sis and Brother-in-law would be. Now, they are just back from Phuket for a short holiday and is back to work already. For me, I had a headache that came on and off for those 2 days and another 2 more days after that. Booked myself a massage session last Friday to ease my body strain.

1st Piece of Creation I Sold

Gen asked me to make her a lanyard last month as she thinks her company issued one is too ugly. Her requirement was to have it white-based so that it's easier to match her outfits. I only completed it recently as I was busy with the ring pillow for sister. This piece of work is officially the 1st piece of creation I sold :) Mailed it out last week to her. Hope Gen likes it & finds it good enough to replace her company lanyard! Hee...

Sawadee Ka!

Just came back from Bangkok over the weekend. Luckily we did not encounter any protests or inconvenience from the demonstrations currently ongoing in Bangkok. Before I went, everyone kept telling me to be careful lah... if there's any riot, run in the other direction etc.. But, the atmostphere there at the major shopping areas were still normal, like before. There was no feeling of riot or street protest at where I was staying. However, there were noticably less Singaporean tourists around. Foreigners were still plentiful though.

On my 1st day at Bangkok, we arrived and reached our hotel in the late afternoon. We left out baggage and proceeded straight to Erawan Shrine to pray to the Four-faced Buddha. Hmm… I found that it's better to go to the Shrine in the late afternoon as it's less crowded. The last time I came around noon and it's was super crowded with both locals and tourists. Next it was dinner at Coca Steamboat! One of my favourite :) the Tom Yum Soup was nice… different from our Singapore version.

The next few days were spent at shopping complexes, MBK, Siam Square, Siam Paragon & CentralWorld. Bought pasmina shawls, local snacks, lingerie, toiletries, t-shirts and Naraya products! Also when to get made-to-measure shirts at MBK. Quite cheap and efficient. 800+ baht for an egyptian cotton shirt which the tailor says is like Raoul. That's about $30+ SGD which is not too bad and they were able to deliver the completed shirts to our Hotel the very next day :) He originally quoted us 1200 baht but my fren managed to slash it down to just over 800baht.. Hehe...

Also tried this Health Land Spa and Massage Centre (www.healthlandspa.com) which was recommended by many tourist guides and online comments. Tried their Traditional Thai Massage at 450baht for 2 hours (~SGD$21) and it's pretty good. But think they spend too much time massaging my legs… wish they could do more for my back and shoulders instead. But the head and neck massage was pretty comfy. I wasn't too confident in locating the place myself so we took a taxi from the hotel. It's supposedly easy to get there via BTS but I find the surrounding not very touristy… Better to make advance booking with the Centre too! I asked the hotel to help me call in the morning for an afternoon massage. They have many staff there so I think it shouldn't be a problem to make an appointment on the day itself.

After the massage, we went to search for a local seafood restaurant (Lek Seafood) under Chong Nonsi BTS station. Found this restaurant on the internet and the review was quite good. The place was really quite run-down and probably wouldn't appeal to me at all of not for the review on the internet. We only ate the BBQ Jumbo Prawns and Steamed lime sauce Catfish. Yum Yum… l love to eat seafood in Thailand.. hee.. 200baht for 4 jumbo prawns (1/2 kg). That's abt $8.40 SGD. I think that's cheap too! But can't remember the price for the fish though.. hee.

Overall, I think the trip was a good one. SQ flight, hotel stay and experience there were all good. I shall be back again :)

Labour of Love - Wedding Ring Pillow for my Sister

Phew! I finally managed to finish the wedding ring pillow that i promised to make for my sister for her wedding in October. Actually i started working on it since many many months ago but the process was very slow and tedious... Had to go all over the place to look for different items.

I chose to use rabbits as the "wedding couple" as both my sister and her hubby-to-be are born in the year of the rabbit. Small, cute rabbit soft toys aren't that easy to find. But I finally found this pair (which were actually key chains) in a shop at Century Square Tampines Mall. Finding nice lace fabric for the cushion cover was quite a chore too. This piece was found at Spotlight. I wanted to buy one with white flowers but when i finally waited for the Spotlight sale to come, it's only left with the beige flowers... The lace for the rabbit bride's veil was found at Chinatown. The rest of the beads and ribbons were bought at bead shops in Chinatown and Spotlight.

After making the "parts" and some trial and error with the placement... the final product is finally completed! Hee...

Lymphatic Drainage Massage

I tried my first lymphatic drainage massage yesterday at a Javanese massage place yesterday. Hmm... it feels similar to those normal Indonesian massages that I had at Bintan but concentrated more on the lymph nodes areas which are like the inner and back of thighs and inner part of the upper arms as well. Wow... constantly rubbing deep into these areas can be quite painful. But well, I'm a girl of high pain threshold (I think), so it's still relatively bearable for me. An ex-colleague once told me that after doing this massage, you will stink as the body is expelling the toxic... but I think I still smelled ok after doing the massage.. hee..

This massage is part of their slimming menu but as I have sensitive skin, they decided not to use the slimming gel on me and did a 90mins massage for me instead of the 60mins massage plus 30mins steambath. Hehe.. it's fine with me since I dun want the steambath anyway and prefer the longer massage time. But 90mins still seems to fly by so quickly and it's over before I know it. Sigh... Not sure if it'll really help in aiding faster and better detoxification of the body though, which is what I wanted... not so much on the slimming... Let's see if my skin have any adverse reaction within these few days. So far it's still ok. *keeping my fingers crossed* if my skin's still alright then I can still go back to them once in a while to do this massage again, for detoxification :) I love going for massages...

Happy Birthday Singapore!

"Shine Singapore" - Singapore's 43rd Birthday

Hehe... fren won a pair of NDP08 tickets from company in a lucky draw and I got to watch the national day parade at the floating platform! Hurray! There was a slight rain during the start of the parade. Poor performers have to endure the rain and proceed anyway. Luckily the rain stopped when the night came.

The Black Knights were very cool :) their stunts were really quite impressive. So proud of our RSAF team.

I love watching fireworks!! in real life and at close range that is... the blasting sound makes it slightly more exciting and the glittering lights always brings a smile to my face.

Not sure if i'd be able to catch the fireworks shows on 22 & 23 August also at Marina Bay. Love the fireworks... but hate the crowd :(

My Niece is 3 years old

We celebrated my niece's birthday about 2 weeks ago. I saw this really cute iPanema sandles at a shop at Heartland Mall and was bent on getting it for my 3 year old niece :) But alas! there was no bigger size available and the new stock is not coming in till October. And it's only 3 days to her birthday party! I must have searched all the shopping malls in the Orchard area and although most of them do carry the brand... but they too are out of sizes. Left with no choice, i bought a much bigger size slippers for her (also from iPanema) from Tangs. Hope her feet grows quickly enough to be able to wear it soon!




Also couldn't resist buying this set of OshKosh clothes! They look soooo cute! I was helping my bro buy a set of clothes and his budget was $40. I completely bursted his budget by another $30+! Ahem... they really are too cute to give them miss.

But since Sis couldn't get her present in time, we decided to all share the presents. Wow! Spent over $88 for a little 3 year old's birthday... shared by my siblings and bro's gf.





Look! this lovely cake is my niece's birthday cake! It's really quite a huge cake. Luckily my bro-in-law's nephews love to eat cake and they took quite a bit.. else i dun think we can finish it after a very fulfilling BBQ dinner. Hee...

Me? A Bridal Designer?

Woa! Cin recently asked me if i could help her decorate her wedding banquet hall if the hotel she chooses have yucky decorations. I was 1stly very flattered to be asked, but was 2ndly very skeptical if i could pull such a big project off!

Cin: Eh, if my banquet hall's design is very horrible.. u help me decorate ok?
Me: Huh?! But i'm not experienced! Have never done this before....
Cin: It's ok lah, i have confidence in you. Besides, i just want very simple decorations with fresh flowers...
Me: Err.... but i'm not confident leh... what if i didn't do a good job.. I'd have ruined your wedding experience and after your wedding dinner.. i won't be your fren anymore...
Cin: Haha! Won't lah! You just conceptualise the design and the rest of us will help with the decorations too :)
Me: Err.... we'll see how it goes. See which hotel u eventually choose 1st...
Cin: Hee :)

I think it will be fun... but it would be a very tiring thing to do and would probably takes up a lot of effort and time.. But well... Cin's a good fren... if she really wants me to do it... i probably will... but *shudder* - Can I do it well?

Caught the Flu Bug

I've caught the flu bug and am feeling under the weather... Dad says i must have caught it from him as he was having slight flu 2 days ago. Mum also caught the bug from him too and we are both resting at home today. I've seen the doc to get an MC for today to rest at home. Would luv to have more days to rest more but there's a full-day meeting tomorrow. Shouldn't miss that else i'd be totally lost.

Doc says that it's very common recently as a virus is going around. I've got a 3in1 flu/pain/fever medicine and cough syrup which tasted yucky!! Mum didn't want to go see the doc so she took panadol cold relief instead. Dad took his own remedy - a small cup of hard liquor mixed with a big cup of hot water. Take this before sleep and you'll be well tomorrow - or so he claims. Hee...

Hope I'll be well before the weekends! I still have Yoga lessons to go to and it wouldn't be nice to go to class with flu... Yep!

Durians Season

I think it is the durian season now. Durians can be seen sold at every fruit stall. Even make-shift durian stalls are popping up here and there. Yesterday, Dad brought me and my friend to buy some durians to devour... hehe... actually wanted him to drive me to the Four Seasons Durian Cafe at Joo Chiat Place to buy some durians there. But well... Dad feels that there is no need to travel all the way there. So we went to the neighbourhood to buy instead.

We wanted to try the Mao San Wang, which i believe is currently the best type now, but it's all sold out. So the stall owner recommended Golden Phoenix to us and claimed that it's better than the Mao San Wang (but apparently it's sold out faster than the Golden Phoenix. hmm...). We bought 4 of it. Friend wanted to try the Ang Hie so the stall owner gave us 1 free! Hee... In total, the damage is $36 for 3.6kg of Golden Phoenix! Hope it's not considered expensive... else i would have been conned by that decent-looking stall owner :)

The taste is really not too bad! The Ang Hie is a little sweet but not too overwhelmingly so... and the Golden Phoenix is more on the bitter-sweet side. Oh i prefer more of the bitter one...

But 5 durians is really too much for us to finish... there is still 1 left in my fridge, masking the rest of the food in there with it's pungent smell......

Farewell Gifts - Lastly...

What to give to guy colleagues?? Hehe... Bookmarks!
But really it's just attaching something to the ready-made bookmark with a hole at the end.


Whew! These are all the creations I rushed out during the last month I was with my ex-company. Hope they all like these gifts I made for them.