Celebration 2

Cele surprise with colleagues on Nov 29

My colleagues started asking me about my birthday plans 2-3 weeks before the actual day. Simply becos they would never forget that they tried to ask me out for dinner last year, and I told them I couldn't join them cos I'm meeting my frens for my bdae cele... And so, the joke now is my bdae cele is as MAJOR as Chinese New Year, cos I celebrate 15 days... heee...

Anyway, it was supposed to be a catching up session with an ex-colleague. And so, I did not suspect anything, since I thought we agreed to cele my bdae after we all return from Vietnam... The funny thing was - when we were on our way there, my boss carried a big bag (my cake inside).. and I still asked her why she had to choose that day to bring a big bag home and it din seem like her to do such things... I even peeped inside the bag.. but it din looked anything like a cake box to me...

During dinner, one colleague suddenly became flustered and pulled me out, saying she needed to go to toilet cos she suspected she might have stained her skirt and wanted me to go with her... Although I thought the behaviour was not like her at all, I still did not suspect anything... I'm such a goon, right? hahhaa

And so, this birthday cake was a complete surprise! It was good... Not too sweet raspberry chocolate cake! From one of our vendors! heee...



Surprise 2: Another colleague hid a pressie underneath my table on Nov 30...



Surprise 3: Someone said this of me before... that I am easily touched by the little little things people do... Well, what's wrong with that anyway?

My handphone rang whole morning on Dec 1 with all the well-wishes smses - from colleagues, friends and most importantly, my good fren who's now in US... Can't wait for her to come back... And also, some friends with whom I din really stay in touch during the year... Even my ex-tuition kid msg-ed me! (nah... Jo, you have your one-second fame... heee) I'm truly touched....honest...

Some of the little gifts from my pals...





The puffies' celebration







And the puffies are not done with my cele yet... hee...

Celebration 1 - I'm getting fat(ter) from all the cakes!

Which cake is the prettiest? heee

Cake Number 1 (A complete surprise from my colleagues and ex-colleague!)



Cake Number 2 (A very sweet gesture from my baby brother)



Cake Number 3 (Who else but from the puffies whose mission is to save the world before bedtime? - Isn't Bubbles so darn cute?!)

It's mid-November 2007 already...

Lazy evening at Cafe Domus - November 3, 2007

A little cafe tucked along a stretch of "shophouses" in Little India - away from the hustle and bustle of town...

Appetizing nibbles, cool beer, an oriental photo backdrop (which we did not understand what it was doing there; nonetheless, it got the two vainpots happily posing for photos), a romantic courtyard...

Some say we look like real sisters... what do you say?



Mambo@Zouk on November 7

It was disappointing because the music was not retro enough! Defeated my purpose of going there... Plus, I had 2-3 other groups of friends who planned to join me at a later time, but gave up meeting me as they could not get in at all. The irony was - I was not even able to squeeze my way out just to say "Harlow" to them...

Felt so bad having them make the trip. It all started innocently with me telling my frens that I might want to go Mambo... Everyone's instantaneous responses then were along the lines of "Go there to mix with the kids? No way!" or "You are kidding right? We are too old for that!"

But voila!

On that day, everyone "miraculously" contacted me that day and asked me if I was really planning to go... and said that they would go down to join me...

Ahhh... see? Everyone is indulging in reminiscence of the goodie ole days... Those were the days...

Anyway, that night was just madness, madness and more madness! The place was packed like sardines. There was no place to move/dance at all. If you even tried to move an inch, please rub shoulders, bums, chests, etc, etc, with everyone... Gross... The queues were still so long at 1 plus...

但是，那晚至少有一件稍微值得开心的事。我和我的华初姐妹约了另一个我们在读书时期蛮“要好”的朋友。很奇怪- 在见到他的几分钟之前，我们几个其实蛮紧张的。毕竟，我们已有至少五年多没联络了。只是有一天吃饭时，闲聊之中提起他,就心血来潮的发了简讯给他, 问问他近况如何和是否要出来叙叙旧。

其实，我们只是抱着问问看的心情，心想也许他会怀疑我们是否有什么目的；多年来根本丝毫一点联络都没有，莫名其妙地就问人家要不要出来吃饭，不吓坏人才怪！怎料,他豪爽地一口就答应了！

就这样，那晚好像就回到以前读书的时候。话匣子一打开，我们就噼里啪啦地有说有笑。 他说我们一点也没变 – 我还是当中最chee-na 的一个，英文水平在我们当中最差的一个，说英文时有时还因为发音不标准而闹出笑话。美荧还是一样地用某种口吻提起她的妈妈。惠群。。。 啊！好像没说到惠群变了没...

Anyway, the point is after so many years, he seems to be the most financially successful among the few of us... While we are still seemingly struggling to "make ends meet", our dear friend here owns a SLK, a prada phone, amongst others...

AND - as usual, I was the ignorant one and innocently asked what a SLK is... "A SLK can buy me three to four Hondas..." was the answer given to me... Woah - imagine how my jaw dropped...

It became the hottest conversation (**read 'gossip') topic among the three of us the following day... But whatever the case, we are happy for him that he's doing very well now. We also agreed that the three of us seriously needed to review and re-chart our priorities again so that we are able to own/wear all branded stuff from head to toe, from inner to outer wear by the time we hit the big "3"!!! Gosh...

Walking Zombie

Something’s weighing super heavily on my mind… Just can’t seem to shake it off, no matter how…

And this is seriously no good.

I’m like a walking zombie at work. I am just doing my work but not really putting much brain cells into it…

The result? Work performance has been seriously affected.

The number of occasions in which Boss showed me her puzzled face is gravely on the rise. She did not really question me because I guessed she trusted I knew…

I know that if I were to continue behaving like this, I am walking on a mine field and Boss may just erupt anytime. If I were her, my patience with myself would be running super low by now too…

But somehow, unfortunately, I still can’t sort out my thoughts.

Worse, this has to happen when the year-end review is coming… Darn…

Some colleagues also told me that I seemed to be in a world of my own these days. I do not seem to be as bubbly as before and would just walk with a straight face whenever I pass by their work stations.

Even when I’m having casual conversations with my friends, I have become rather absent-minded and I can easily lose the conversation thread… No, I’m not talking about IMs but even face-to-face conversations.

I need a break.

Or rather, I think I need a break – to sort out my thoughts. To get my priorities back on track again. And this needs to happen fast.

Wish me good luck…

My dear cousin's BIG day - October 20-21, 2007

Posing for the camera at 6 am in the morning...



Isn't she just so beautiful?



One of the hurdles at the main door was to have the groom's chest hair waxed - a request from his bride... Poor thing..

Side note: in the end, the OTC wax strips did not work and the 姐妹 had to make do with him just plucking one strand of hair out. But that's "torture" enough for him that he let out a high-pitched scream!



Walking in confidently, not knowing there were another few more hurdles to clear before he could get to his bride!



Waiting in anticipation for the church door to open to receive his bride...



Walking down the aisle...



"You may kiss the bride now"
Side note: My cousin-in-law quickly kissed his bride before the Father told him so... that even the Father teased him... so he got to kiss the bride twice!



The 姐妹



Moi and another cousin dearie



Wishing them everlasting marital bliss!