honeymoon in new zealand

I know this is long overdue but here there are..some selected pics of our honeymoon in nz. It is really a beautiful country with mountains and lakes. We only went to the south island this time. I love Queenstown the most! It is very scenic and the city centre are packed with shops. There are also many "adventures" for you to try out within the city itself, e.g. jetboating (it's fun!), para-gliding, go-kart, chair lifting, etc. I really recommend nz if you have the opportunity to travel. And here, are some spastic photos..

outdated updates of our wedding day..

finally....i'm back..

not to bore you with old fotos but would like to share with you these old fotos of our wedding day..

1) Wedding Tasks for my hubby - He was such a sweet boy, performing all the tasks, handing out angbaos willingly and waxing his super hairy leg. And he managed to come out with a short and sweet poem that means everything. :)

2) Hi Tea (provided by Oriental) in our bridal suite before our wedding banquet - Delicious pastries, sandwiches and cakes, but champagne was not good. All the fresh fruits and choc coated strawberries, yummy!

3) In our bridal suite after the wedding banquet - Look at the beautiful rose petals in the bathtub and the spacious bridal suite. We were having our dinner, which Oriental "da bao" for us.

Guo Da Li

Date : 27th Oct 2007

Nong Li : 9 yue 17 ri

Time : 3pm

Today is Guo Da Li, meaning my hubby is coming over with stuffs that he wants to marry me with to give my parents. And my parents are going to give them my dowry. This time is a ji shi, hence, hubby and my parents-in-law step into our house right after 3 in the afternoon. Below you can see my dowry and the cakes that my hubby gave us. Did not take photos of the other stuffs that he brought to marry me.

October 21st

Oct 21st is my hatch-day. Supposed to be celebrating this day happily with my hubby, but unfortunately, caught a flu cum sorethroat virus. Anyway, managed to get through the day with a tissue on my nose and continuous sucking of strepsils. Went to have steamboat at Joaquim in Suntec. Couldn't really enjoy the food as I was feeling sick.

Shiseido Make Up Class

Signed up for a make-up class with meiyan and yuzhen. Mama has been nagging at me to "pls" go and attend make-up lesson to learn how to do make-up properly. Since there was this opportunity, we decided to go together. Just pay 20 bucks and go for a 2hrs class. At the end of the class, we get $20 back in the form of vouchers and a goodie bag. My skills sucks, but managed in the end. My face felt "lopsided", coz left side was "painted" by a professional and the right side was done by amatuer, which is ME! haha..anyways, this is the end result.

TADA!!!

Yuzhen and I. Couldn't see yuzhen's nice blue eye shadow here. And meiyan was missing as she has long left us to go for her hot date!

Haha..think 1 class for me is definitely not enough.

have a peek!

let u have a peek at the new additions in my house.

fridge!

sofa!

cozy corner light!

master bedroom light!

the next IN thing

FACEBOOK is in! Click to register for an account.

http://www.facebook.com

I may be a bit slower than the others, but I recently set up a facebook account and only tonight, then i finally figured out how to use and play around with it. It's really fun, with many different applications. Best thing is you can share as much fotos with your frens as you want. Try it!

dinner with our italian mentors

After almost 2 yrs, we finally met up with our italian mentors again...here in spore! Both Massimo and Daniele were here for business trip. Last night we organised a gathering coz 1) Daniele is flying back to Italy tonight and 2) Massimo had just arrived in spore.

Daniele (the biggest guy) was so sweet! He arrived with red roses, each for a girl. A true romantic for an italian. *sigh* For the guys, he bought a lantern for them to share. Hahas. It was fun having to meet up after so long and to introduce them to our local food. We had a sumptous seafood dinner at No Signboard Restaurant.

wish list

finally, our wish list is out, as requested by my family and relatives.

we welcome any other suggestions if you have thought of other items that are not listed above.

ST 20th Anniversary Dinner @ SUNTEC

yes, as i've mentioned previously, this is the dinner and dance that i was referring to. with my barely recovered toe, i slipped on my heels and went for the dinner. i managed to last for the whole nite, even walked quite a distance around clarke quay for a place to have "dinner" coz i did not had enough at the dnd.

hossan leong and vivian were invited to be our hosts and there were short musical performances. everything was ok except for the table allocation. as this was a dinner for the whole of st in spore, there were about 500 plus tables. tables were allocated randomly and hence we do not know the people sitting around us. for the whole nite, most of us were trying to walk around the big ballroom to look for colleagues and frens to take memorable pics. this was a big minus for the dnd as there is no point in allocating tables randomly in hope of one to mix around during a dinner of about, say 3 hrs? most pp would prefer to sit close to frens and colleagues instead. anyway, managed to find a few frens and colleagues for some pics together.

NATAS 2007

first time went to NATAS fair. this year it is at expo instead of at suntec usually. hubby and i were waiting for this year's NATAS to book our honeymoon. we have decided to visit New Zealand for our honeymoon. thought there will be lesser people today coz its the first day, and somemore its a friday. you would expect most people to be at work right? but no, there are still as many people. dunno why these people do not need to work.

anyways, we booked our honeymoon trip! its seriously not cheap, but, its honeymoon, so..*smile* furthermore, we have heard good comments and reviews about NZ, so NZ will still be a place that we will wanna visit be it this time or in the future.

gave ourselves a little treat at spageddies, marina square. i love their tomato bruschetta! u have gotta try it! i cant say for the pasta though. not fantastic and definitely different from authentic italian way of cooking, at least for the aglio olio. a disappointment.

my poor toe II

felt much better when i was walking around the office today. went home and took off the bandaged immediately. however, my toe is not any better. erhmm, maybe a bit better den before but definitely not ok yet. im starting to get worried dat my bone may be broken. :/

anyways, waipo called and ask bout my toe. now it is bandaged up again with waipo's remedy. mama blended ginger and mixed with cooked rice and applied on my swollen foot. according to waipo, this will help to lessen the swelling. my foot feels really hot now.

i have to say, mama really did a good job in bandaging up my foot. it feels so nice and comfy unlike previously doc mai's bandage. mama say she can go help out doc mai. hahas.

my poor toe

i seriously have no idea what exactly happened, but i found myself on the floor on sun morning. before u start laughing, no, i did not roll off the bed during the night. instead, i did woke up in the morning as usual, i thot i slept late, and in my rush to get up to check out the time from my phone, which was on the dresser the nite before becoz my batt was being charged, i din noe dat my left leg was numb and i juz fell. stoopid rite! and i ended up with a swollen fourth toe. i seriously hope its not broken. should not be. went for tui na and zhen jiu twice, and eating pills to stop the swelling. so suay!

i think i got famous with my bandaged toe, limping around in the office. i tell u, i juz realised that almost everyone in the co has a story bout their fractured limbs, sprained ankles or toes, etc. hahas. i swear, pp start coming up to tell me bout their previous experience with fractures and sprain. but i was so embarrassed when i tell them how i sprained my toe, when i dun even have any idea myself!

best thing dat happened today when i was walking back from the pantry, a colleague (i dunno who she is and i dunno even noe which dept she is from) stopped and asked wat happened. my reply was juz, i fell. the first question she asked was, will u be going to the dinner (my co is have a D&D, for the first time in my 3 yrs there, this sat)? i was like i hope so. then she continued, oh u muz go, dun waste the tics, i wan to see u at the D&D. *sweat.* do i noe her? she talks to me as if we know each other for so long, but being the frenly me, of coz i juz smiled and chatted with her. mayb she was juz being frenly? but i juz had this funny and weird feeling.

anyway, hahas. look wat happened when u go to work with a bandaged toe.

hehhlow..

*waves* finally..here i am again..haven been updating my blog..following being the reasons:

(1) too tired after work everyday. most of the time dun feel like using the comp at home after staring at the comp for the whole day.


(2) boring life. nothing interesting to share with u guys.


(3) gonna stop updating my reno pics, so dat u guys will get a surprise during my housewarming.



yup, talking bout that, i better start my wish list.


see, told ya, boring.

Love and Marriage

A friend recently forwarded me this. I found it very meaningful as it illustrates love and marriage in a very simple way.

A student asks a teacher, "What is love?"

The teacher said, "in order to answer your question, go to the padi field and choose the biggest padi and come back. But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick."

The student went to the field, go through the first row, he saw one big padi, but he wonders....maybe there is a bigger one later. Then he saw another bigger one... but maybe there is an even bigger one waiting for him. Later, when he finished more than half of the padi field, he starts to realize that the padi is not as big as the previous one he saw, he knew he has missed the biggest one, and he regretted !!!! So, he went back to the teacher with empty hands.

The teacher told him, "...this is love... you keep looking for a better one, but when later you realize, you have already miss the person...."

"What is marriage then?" the student asked.

The teacher said, "in order to answer your question, go to the corn field and choose the biggest corn and come back. But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick."

The student went to the corn field, this time he is careful not to repeat the previous mistake, when he reached the middle of the field, he has picked one medium corn that he is satisfied with, and went back to the teacher.

The teacher told him, "this time you bring back a corn.... you look for one that is just nice, and you have faith and you believe that this is the best one you get.... this is marriage."

- Author Unkown

reno update

I went down to check on my renovation progress yesterday with hubby, papa, big sis and bro-in-law. Both the toilets were hacked already and there was 1 worker laying the new tiles in my master bathroom. If there were no change in our toilets, yesterday should be the handover date. But looking at the progress, it was definitely impossible. Our dining benches arrived while we were there.

Anyway, was quite happy as I finally can see something in my living room. :)

Some pics on my renovation. Presenting our model of the day, my ELDER sis......*clap clap*..*whistles*..

dream bathrooms no more...:(

Received a bad news today..mum-in-law doesn't like the colour of our bathrooms. As you all know, the older generation will always prefer bright colours to dark colours. She found that our bathrooms are too dark, both are grey in colour, and she doesn't feel comfortable with it.

Well, our bathrooms were (past tense now) grey as both of us liked the idea of the dark bathroom. It gives the modern and classy feeling. But then again, since my in-laws doesn't like it, and also mama and papa mentioned it before, we decided to change with much reluctance. Besides the part that we have no more dream bathrooms, there will be cost incurred and delay in handover.

Since this is something that we have no control over, we decided to be optimistic. Went to the bookstores today to check out some ideas of bathroom design. Kind of choosen a brighter colour, light earth tone. It looks nice and classy from the design books and hope ours will have the same effect. Looking on the brighter side, we can take this chance to re-route the piping, so that hopefully, they can be concealed, and also, for the designer to remeasure the size and distance of the vanity cabinet to the toilet bowl. Come to think of it, it may be a blessing in disguise. In any case, everybody is happy, and that is the most important.

Anyway due to all these changes, the handover date (originally next week) is estimated to be end of august but I have already requested it to be slightly earlier as hubby will be moving in early sept. Hope everything turns out well.

10 August 2007 - "Moving In"

Today is supposed to be a "ji li" day for moving house. Thus, we chose to "move in" to our house today at 5pm. Hubby and my in-laws came out from JB, with all the stuffs that are required for a small ceremony to before we "move in". We had to do it before the renovation finish as lunar july is round the corner and as chinese, we believe that it is bad luck to move house during the month of lunar july.

Before actual moving in, my mother-in-law put "xiang lu" at five corners of the living room. Hubby then have to pray and leave joss-sticks at all 5 corners. After that, my mother-in-law gave hubby a cup of holy water and dunno which plant leave to sprinkle the holy water all around the house, especially at every corner. When all these are done, we then started the simple ceremony.

As most may already know, we need to have charcoal burning at the entrance and we have to step over the charcoal and into the house. At the same time, we have to bring in 7 items for luck. They are, "chai" (charcoal), "mi" (rice), "you" (oil), "yan" (salt), "tang" (sugar), "cu" (vinegar) and "cha" (tea leaves). As we already have charcoal burning, we brought in the rest of the items. Also, to signify that we have moved in, we have to boil water and eat our take-away dinner there.

Check out the fotos below: Can you find the "lu" with the charcoal? We also put a red cloth at the entrance of our house. See the electric kettle that I bought? Costs me $89.90!! We sat on the cardboards at the platform for our dinner. Interesting and fun. *smile*

auntie??

Went back to balestier today to get 1 more "hamburger" light for our balcony. Decided to save money by just buying something simple since hubby say we might not even have the time to sit at the balcony to enjoy the moonlight, so wat's the use of getting something nice? Decided to save even more money not to buy lights for study and dining. hehe. So the remaining one is the light for master bedroom which we have asked our designer, Mr M to help us source for it.

Had a yummy dinner at TCC @ Bugis Junction.

Do you know if you spent 88 bucks, you can get be a TCC member for lifetime? Good thing is that it is not a one time thingey and you can accumulate the receipts up to 88 bucks. As a member, you are entitled for 15% discount when you spend 20 bucks and above. I knew this when I went TCC with my sisters a few weeks back and I told myself to keep the receipt so as to accumulate. Shitty thing is I threw the 64 bucks receipt when I cleared my wallet few days back. Tonight I just spent another 54 bucks. I could have become a member and get 15% off!!!!

Anyway, just a realisation today, that I'm becoming more and more aware of my expenses. Happily upgraded to the blue kopitiam card (entitlement to 10% discount when you dine @ any kopitiam) during lunch today, taking note of discount at Fairprice, was outraged by the 3 bucks difference between AZONE and Popular foolscap paper, feeling absolutely stoopid at wasting away a chance of getting 15% discount at TCC...is this a sign of me becoming an auntie? Or was I taking money for granted when I was young? Maybe I have finally realised that all my money are hard-earned and how I need to start to control my expenses now that I am married.

Hmmm...anyway, remind me of my "realisation" today when I shop for clothes, bags and shoes the next time yah?

happy birthday to QINGEE and HUIQI

We had an early birthday celebration for Huiqi and Qing yesterday. It was Huiqi's 21st birthday and they rented a chalet @ Downtown East. It has been too long since we last have chalet together as a WHOLE family. Had fun having BBQ food, playing @ the arcade, and playing gin rummy with my cousins. It was definitely a relaxing evening. Hope Huiqi had a memorable 21st birthday celebration. *smile*

shopping @ balestier

Yesterday was another day for "shopping @ balestier". Becoz of our renovation, we have become so familiar with Balestier and Jalan Besar now. Just ask us anything, we know it all. Hahas. Wanted to shop for lights, in the end, still couldn't find suitable light of our Master Bedroom but have already shortlisted one for study and balcony.

As we were waiting for the shop where we custom-made our sofa to open at 2pm, we decided to have lunch at the famous BAK KUT TEH at Balestier Rd. Queue was long most of the time and we wanted to try how GOOD issit. Since there was no queue, we decided to have our lunch there. The walls inside the shop were "decorated" all with pictures of the owner with celebraties from hongkong, taiwan and also our local scene. Before the food came, we were wondering, the food must BE good! It was quite a disappointment as the soup turned out to be too peppery for our taste, but at least the bak kut was not too tough. Anyhow, we finished all.

We have made a custom order for our sofa. Initially we wanted it to be in fabric but we were worried bout the maintanence in the long run, hence we decided to change it to leather. Yesterday, we went to change our order and to select the colour and texture of leather. This custom-made shop, Sanctuary Dian, was highly recommended in the Singapore Brides forum. They are able to make any design of sofa, bed, coffee/side/dining tables, console, armchairs, etc to the way you want it. If you like any specific design that you have found from the magazines, just show it to them and they will do it for you. On top of this, their service is good! It is managed by hubby and wife and both of them are attentive, patient and nice. They are not pushy and hard sell. Below is a perspective draft of our sofa. We have changed it from 3m to 2.7m.

reno update

AGAIN, updates on my renovation. Hope I'm not boring you to tears. Yesterday, we were supposed to meet our co-designer, let's name him Mr H, at 1030am to walk through our house together so that he will know what are the things that we are not satisfied with. BUT, at 1130am, he had not arrived, and there were no answer despite our repeated callings on his hp. Qun was also at my house, and only then did I realised that Mr H was supposed to meet Qun at 930am at her house, and he did not appear too! That's why Qun decided not to wait anymore and came to my house to take a peep. Mr H called back later, when we were leaving, and apparently, he overslept as he went to bed at 5am in the morning. Sigh. I guess everyone will experience unhappiness and displeasure with their contractors/designers at 1 point or another during the reno process yah? I hope I'm not the only one though. ANYWAY, below are the pics.

update on renovation

Haven been updating all on my reno status. Since I couldn't go down to my new flat during weekdays, the only day that I can go check it out is on Sunday. Now, I've been doing checks on my reno dutifully every Sunday. Below are some pictures on some areas of the house, as seen on 29th July.


















On top of all these changes, no pics for the below :

(1) My WIW is already done in my Master Bedroom.

(2) Platform for my bed and cozy area is up in my Master Bedroom.

(3) Bedside tables done, in the WRONG colour.

(4) Walls of Bedroom 3 painted.




Remaining stuffs yet to be done :

(1) Study table (according to co-designer, it is already in the making)

(2) TV console and featured wall

(3) Dining table and benches

(4) Featured wall cum shoe cabinet

(5) Headboard in Master Bedroom




Scheduled handover is on 18th August but he say he will try to complete by 12th August. I really hope he does because the lunar july month starts on 13th August! Anyway, we will "move in" on 11th August. We plan to dabao lunch, buy charcoal, rice, oil and salt, and kettle to boil water...to signify the "moving in". Anybody wanna come kaypoh? *smile*

Poor Hubby

Hubby went for a minor operation that day on his in-grown toe. He had been infected weeks ago, but only got around to seeing a doc after our ROM. The doc cut opened the infected area and half of his toenail. *squirm* Luckily, there were no pains as reported by hubby as the doc was professional in administering the local anesthetic. Still he had to rest for the whole week.

WEDDINGS

Came across a heritage exhibition in Parco Bugis yesterday. The topic is on weddings, I guess, as there were stalls which were set up by bridal boutiques and also jewelers. The highlight was this tallest wedding cake done by Intercontinental Hotel.

That's Ken and Barbie right at the top tier.

The deets are as follows:

I think the nicest part is this. There are write-ups and presentation with figurines on the actual scene of weddings of the 4 different races in Singapore.

Beautiful?

On Marriage

An excerpt from an article on TODAY.

Do you agree? I do.

last day of singlehood

Yes, tomorrow is THE day and today is my LAST day of single life. Went to pamper myself a bit, doing mani and pedi, then met qing for some window shopping. Still, I'm not feeling nervous. Had a great lunch at Bakerzin, and yummy dessert at Canele. Met future hubby at AMK for dinner. I know, i know, we are not suppose to meet on the day before, but to us, it just doesn't feel like the actual day, even though it is the official one. *laughs* Anyway, I went home and I had a BIG SURPRISE!! *wide grin* Got a basket of lilies together with some Crabtree & Evelyn lotion and bath foam from NOWELLI!! I'm so happy! She couldn't make it tomorrow so she said she made it up with the flowers. So sweet. Thanks girl! *smile*