Getting started and A lady I didn’t like

Life’s a bitch! LOL! Nah, it really isn’t. Because I think it is not a female. haha! No sexist intentions here, but I think at present Life’s great really. To know that you can do so much more than you are doing right now in this time frame. To know that the possibilities are endless and there are always chances that things is going to be so much better than before, IF we move our ass and get started with doing things which brings us to that state!

Hmmm.. I guess the beginning is always the toughest. Thats when Life is really a Bitch. When you get started, you are always faced with inertia. Possibilities are made to look impossible. What you say that is achievable seems to be unsurmountable. You are running but feels like you’re chained to cannonballs. You are swimming but the water feels like thick grease. *Hmmm.. sounds like I am so in need of Gatorade huh?*

Why am I feeling this way… coz I really wanna get started to run a distance (as in really put on the running shoes and run a few km). Which is nowhere near getting started. But I am pressing on… trying to be more disciplined and press on when my body threatens to surrender from the years of under-utilisation. Can you imagine, my initial attempts in running resulted in stitches at my waist! MY god, I haven’t had stitches when I run since Primary School la! So behold my countrymen, Suet shall press on and emerge victorious!!!!!

I am terribly slack as a bride to be really. My friend who is 15 months away from her wedding is already taking drastic measures like eating some weight loss pills and doing crunches every day, complete with some exercise regime regularly. I am totally slack even with 6 months more to go. I would really like to think I am normal… I would like to get trim and toned for my wedding, but some bride to be-s seem to be making pre-wedding preparations sounds like a disaster… omg.

Lets chill people. Lets do whats needed and enjoy the process. At the meantime, I would still love to indulge in my favourite sinful fares once in a while. *Awwww… please don’t tell me I am supposed to abstain from them?! A few sinful calories won’t do much damages!* heheh!

Of course on a more rational note, I am happy with my current weekly work out plans, eating things I like and oh yes, I’ve been getting off work a little earlier these days! Thats an achievement! So life’s generally going great for me.

******

Just to share a little experience I had today.

After Darren bought his spectacles from a shop, I told him, “I will never come back to this shop and buy from that lady. I don’t like her.”

Darren was surprised that I didn’t like her, coz he didn’t see the rationale behind it.

The lady was recommending some specs to Darren and say that he needed something sharper (which will enhance his proffesional image) and that his current specs was too ’student-like’. Ok, fair enough. Then she said to me, “Ay, you don’t mind. He need something more mature, coz he look younger than you leh.”

*roll eyes. ROLL eyes. ROLL EYES! |||-_-

Then she went on, “After I gave birth, my husband also look younger than me, thats why I made him buy specs which are squarish and sharper… blah blah blah…”

ok fine, her husband looked younger than her too… but thats AFTER SHE GAVE BIRTH!

*roll eyes even more.. |||*_*

Walau eh. Her sales tactics are really pretty adverse compared to most places ah…

Some truths hurts, but I think most women are probably petty in this department. And I guess its usually better to just highlight the positive, than to contrast the positive.

Conclusion: I am petty. And I still don’t like her. Hmph! And Darren had a good laugh over my pettines…

A Different Valentines

Valentine’s this year has been an extraordinary affair. How did you celebrate yours? I hope it had been sweet, warm and memorable all the same. Well, not all valentine’s need to be celebrated with the significant other. It is a season of love nonetheless, so if you are single, I hope u find your significant other soon or seriously, just go ahead and enjoy the wonderful freedom of youth!

As you can see from the pictures below, Darren and I celebrated the day with home cooked dinner at the comfort of our homes! Under the star, with a bottle of ‘faux’ wine, chocolates, candlelight (a la chocolate fondue tea light), and our main course.

We had pineapple pork chops. Darren grilled the pork chops and I lightly stir fried the vegetables. It has been quite an experience! A very memorable one indeed!

The Chef ??

The Setting

The Non-Alcoholic Wine (and Un-glam bucket)

The Wine, The Main Course and The Fondue

The Funny Husband

Like real hor? LOL!

Homecooked Pineapple Pork Chops!

The Waiter

Chocolates for Me!

Chocolates!

Birthdays on Friday

Friday night has been a smashing affair. Lots of catching up with my uni guys and girls. Haha! “Uni guys and girls” sounds so funny actually… cuz I guess I have never really felt like I was in Uni. Hahah!

We caught up about work life, job hunting, personal life etc. One of my girls gotten and proposal from her bf, and wedding bells will ring probably nx year. Some are working and some like me are still hunting. To me, each meet up with old friends when I was working always give me much comfort. Comfort to know that despite venturing into the strange new world, the good old friendship is not far behind.I hope our meeting on Friday had felt the same for them – although we really have not been separated for all that long! LOL!

Anyway, till we meet again…

Thong Yao

Pei Xuan

Sharon

The Coffee Club

Sharon and the Cake

Sandy, Yong Jie and Thong Yao

Sharon, Pei Xuan, Siow Hui and Suety

The Gang

Sharon and her present

Thong Yao and his present

Sandy and her present

And our gifts to the three birthday boy and girls are …

Thong Yao's Bag from Esprit

Sharon's Make Up from Sephora

Sandy's bag from Dorothy Perkins & Taka voucher

Chinese New Year

I was going to start writing this post when I realise a pretty strange phenomenon. In my family, whenever there’re other members at home, my dad would simply refuse to pick up the phone even though it is just next to him. Well, that just happened! LOL!

CNY this year has been an extraordinary affair. Bittersweet, heartwarming, happy, gluttony, outrageous and sick.

I spent the last 5 days in Kuala Lumpur. Thats my birthplace, my hometown. Much memories of the younger Suet were there – thats before she turned 9 years old. I missed my house, my kindergarden, my primary school, the market place, and the food. Its odd how when we misses a place, usually we misses the food too. I loved the Fook Keen Mien (M’sia version of Hokkien Mee), Bak Kut Teh (Herbal soup, not the peppery one), Dried Chillie Cuttlefish, Claypot Rice, etc. Some food can be found in Sg no doubt, but I think M’sian food is tastier becuase they do not save on the salt and oil. Junk food always taste good! (Btw, I really loved pork lard too! a little, not too much!)

This would be my last trip back to my grandparents place on the 1st and 2nd day of CNY. Next year on, I will be spending it with my hubby and in-laws. I guess this years CNY was spent with my dearest cousinswith the knowledge that its gonna be different next year, that makes it bittersweet. I welcome the change in my life, but I sure am going to miss the good old days and my dearest cousins who have grown up with me in the most funny way. We are all in our mid-late twenties now. We spent a good part of our adolescent years apart as many went overseas to pursue their studies. But we are growing closer each year now although we really meet up just once a year in CNY.

Every year we would spend a good amount of time catching up. At home and hanging out in town. This year, my cousins brought back their boyfriends. It was almost like we are all going to go thru the next stage of our lifes, starting out on our own families. I guess we are all happy for each other for finding our happiness. It has been very heartwarming becuase this year (I think this is the first time) that our conversations got into the next level of honesty. Why so? Because my extended  family is a pretty big one, while being close knitted, there are inevitably politics in play all our lives. Therefore, hardly I could enjoy a heart to heart talk – one where we could trust each other enough not to betray the confidence. Therefore, I am utmost touched when my cousins and I were able to chat into the dawn without feeling guarded or reserved.

CNY is always a happy affair for obvious reasons. I get Ang Paos!! I am sure I will enjoy giving them out next year, although I would miss getting the ang paos. LOL! It is always a jolly affair in the family. Yes, politics are still in play, but I guess my generation has learnt to look beyond that. We let ourselves immerse in the innocent playfulness and joyful noise in the home.

From CNY eve till the 3rd day of CNY, it has been a gluttony affair. We were eating non-stop man!! After lunch, we were fed with mandarin oranges, Kwa Chee, titbits, etc etc etc. Me and another cousin (who is one week older than me) developed a new hobby for biting Kwa Chee and drinking chinese tea and bitching about life on the dining table! So typical of an auntie! So with this new hobby, our mouth were kept busy before and after meals. LOL!! I so regret it now, coz my throat are starting turn a little sore.

Whats the most outrageous thing that happened during CNY? My family would usually open some liqour after lunch and ‘enjoy’ some drinks as a family. Its a way of family bonding I reckon. Well, they were basically drowning everyone else with alcohol. So far, there had been no fatalities and i had been able to avoid getting drowned. But this year, we broke our all time record. The family finished a 4.75litres of Chivas ‘mega bottle’ within 2.5 hrs. Thats like 6 normal bottles I was told. The last time I drank and got drunk was like 3 years ago… and needless to say I can’t hold my alcohol these days.

Alas, after 2.5 hrs, the whole family was totally knocked out!! Everyone scrambled to get some rest and suffered a hangover before dinner time. Only survivors were my grandmother, my mum and another auntie. Out of a total of 20 people? LOL! So how ’sick’ can CNY get? haha! Well, I don’t think any other family does it this way, and maybe this is not something to be proud of. But rest assured, my family ain’t alcoholics. We are really a normal bunch of people who got ‘too carried away’! LOL!

So thats my CNY. I really wonder how its gonna be like next year.

Spring and Pretty Blossoms

So Spring is approaching yea! I realised Singapore has its own kind of “Spring” too. They do not have colourful sakuras blooming like in Japan or Tulips aplenty like in Holland, but I was looking around at the flora and fauna around us and realised that flowers are gradually starting to bloom – here, there and everywhere.

The bougainvilleas are blooming. The rain trees are blooming. The common plants along the streets are blooming. Maybe not as plentiful as those in other countries and not as picturesque, but seriously flowers are blooming!

And seeing flowers bloom makes me happy. The colours and the vibrancy defines what life is supposed to be. But sadly, blooms are not meant to last. The flowering plants flowers only during certain months of the year, and then it wilts and then it waits for the time of the year to come again before it starts blooming.

With CNY approaching and because its the first CNY at my new address, we did some spring cleaning and decorated the place with flowers. Yeap, they are now about 1 week old and blooming beautifully!! Now, whether it blooms again next year will depend on whether I am a good gardener. LOL!

With and Without Algae

Specimen A - Flirty Pink Blooms!

Specimen A - Close Up

Specimen B - Passionate Red Blooms

Specimen C - Auspicious Bunch

Specimen C - From another angle

Pretty maids all in a row...

Focus on the flirty pink flowers

Focus on Flirty Pink - again

Specimen D - Purple Bougainvilleas

Don't you feel happy looking at them?

Specimen E - Some lucky plant to bring in prosperity

And isn't it lovely to have them greet me at my doorstep? =)

Specimen F - The Kum Kuat

The Kum Kuats for 吉利

Specimen F - The Jade Plant. This golden ship is supposed to deliver "wealth" into my house! Lets see if it works. LOL!

A little early but - GONG HEY FATT CHOY everybody!

He made me wanna…

I got on the cab after having my breakfast.

Its really great to have met someone so happy early in the morning. This cab driver was tuning to class 95 and he was screaming softly to Duran Duran’s Come Undone. I think if I am not in the cab, he would have become a rock star! But he was controlling his volume.

Probably I was in a good mood too. The way he enjoyed the song made me wanna go for a session in the KTV and scream my hearts out. Songs from Bon Jovi, Queen etc usually never fails to bring about the rockers kinda “high”. LOL!

This is so much better than some cab drivers complaining incessantly over bad traffic etiquette, bad government, bad this and bad that. Just sit back and enjoy the music!

Wedding Dinners

Yesterday, I went to a Malay wedding lunch of my poly classmate and a wedding dinner of my secondary school girlfriend.

I found new meanings to weddings actually.

Well, people of my age are getting married. I guess thats part of the progression in life. And its no surprise that we expect more wedding invites to come along in the coming years. While some has innocently lamented over the number of ‘red bombs’ they receive, I think these are bombs that all of us are really happy to receive. Apart from the ang paos that we gotta wrap, I am pretty sure we are all happy to participate in the celebration and be happy that our dear friends has found their partners. Who not only will walk down the aisle with them that night, but partners who will walk on the at times smooth and at times bumpy road ahead together. Its a cause for celebration really.

Yesterday has been an extraordinary oppurtunity that we met with people we lost touch with over 10 years ago. It has been quite an amazing experience catching up, knowing that they are doing well and good, knowing that they are still like what I remembered them to be. I found myself to be very comfortable in that newly found familiarity. It is a really warm and fuzzy feeling.

2 more wedding dinners to go in December. I think I am really looking forward to them.

When Everyone Doubted Me

Finally Exams over. It has been an arduous journey, filled with numerous evils that tempted me and almost lured me away from my final destination. But luckily, I always felt a pang of guilt when my books are out of sight for too long! LOL!

So the papers has been fine. Usually its really fine, until the results are out. Thats when we all lay blame on everything else but ourselves for not studying hard enough. But I really think, hope, pray that the paper is really fine. And its not that I am deluding myself.

So today has been a shopping day. I realised I have been locked in the mountains for so long that wearing slightly heeled shoes hurt my legs. It is suffering due to prolonged immobility. What the exams has done to me. It not only numbed my brains, but also my legs. I such a piece of sh*t! LOL!!

Today Darren did something that really touched me. I got my driving license sometime early last year. But due to the lack of practise, no one trust me to be behind the wheels. My dad would allow me to drive only if I wake up earlier and test drive at the empty streets near my house. But waking up early enough to test drive is a daunting task for me. So usually I would be happy to be the back seat driver.

Today, after shopping, I casually asked Darren if I could drive. Our location – Kaki Bukit. Our destination – Orchard. To my surprise, he reluctantly agreed. Though deep down, he was half praying I wouldn’t crash his baby. So with much ‘confidence’, I took over the wheels.

Before entering the expressway, I asked Darren if he was scared. He admitted he was. And I told him, I feeling a little scared too! He almost died on the front passenger seat!! LOL!! But well, it wasn’t very tough. We reached Orchard safe and sound. No scratch to his baby! See how happy I was to realise that when the world doubted my driving ability, my hubby put an enormous bet and placed his full faith on me! That was very precious indeed!

** Seriously, I had wanted to just take a short drive around the neightbourhood and stop at some carpark to let Darren take over. But somehow, once we reached the major road, it led straight into PIE!! That was when I knew there was no turning back! LOL!! Which explains why, just before entering the expressway I asked Darren if he was scared. Because I was seriously feeling the jitters!!

Such exciting experience!!

Plates and Bowls

Darren’s family officially moved into our home today. So its good bye Teban Gardens and Hello Tampines!

Its kinda funny, because I myself is starting to miss the quiet town of Teban Gardens. It has a very old-school, nostalgic feel. Whereas Tampines is a small satellite town in itself, a young and modern place. LOL! Its funny that I should miss Teban Gardens, because I don’t live there!

Anyway, i am exhausted from the whole day’s activity.

I had my reservations and worries about living with my in-laws. I mean there are so many horror stories you hear all the time. And differences in values and mindset means a little more tension along the way. But I guess, I should just take it easy and learn to enjoy myself with my new parents.

Long ago, Darren had shared with me that his mum has a whole collection of pots and pans, plates and bowls. Which kinda scare me. Coz I know that means an end to my Correlle collection and WMF stainless steel ensemble dreams. I was a little worried, what if all the cutleries she collected were a little ‘oh-biang’ (old-fashioned).

But today as we unpacked, his mum would tell me enthusiastically when she got this set, how she got it etc. From her expression, I see the pride and joy she has in her collection. I guess thats part of her ‘accomplishment’ as a housewife. And I must say, I really loved some of her pieces that I myself couldn’t bear to open up and use them. She was so gracious to say that “I myself can’t bear to use them and kept them for 20 over years. You should open and just use it la! Don’t keep them already.” Can you imagine how I felt? I was so touched!

Some of them were really fine porcelain pieces from Germany and Korea. Not those that can bounce off the floor if you drop them. But these are really fine China which are so thin, holding it too tightly could break it.

She gave me a free rein of where and how I want to place these items. Not commanding me as if she is the boss in the kitchen (which I was half prepared to accept if that happens), but she actually seem to respect the fact that I am the owner of the house (although I am not staying there yet).

So its a first step to a good in-laws relationship. Good luck to me!

Banish Negativity

Today, my mood at night as been less than chirpy. Maybe I am just tired. Exams are coming up. Someone asked me, ‘you not stressed ah?’. well, the answer is ‘Not yet’. Not yet, because I haven’t dug out my materials and see how much I need to digest. I guess once I get to that stage, I will be stressed. But I won’t let that happen. Revisions gonna be on the way soon.

My life simply revolve around my house the past few weeks. Yeap, thats stale news. We were supervising contractors, doing some DIY stuff, buying fixtures, cleaning up, blah blah blah. So much dedication put into it. I must say its slowly transforming from the previous owner’s home to our home. With our own touches added here and there. Though, it saps energy out of me and Darren. The home is also our source of energy and motivation. Strange aye! Things are happening really fast. While I am not moving in yet, Darren’s family will be moving in this Saturday. Woo hoo!!

And for the past 2 days, I caught the flu bug. Started sneezing like nobody’s business. My nose got super sensitive and it started running. I really pray that this bug go away quickly. I don’t want to be whizzing through my revision period.

Today, I gave myself a small little reward. It wasn’t planned, but I kinda had too much time on hand while waiting for Darren to knock off. I treated myself to a 30 minute shoulder, hand and foot massage at Kenko. This is the first time I tried foot massage, and I must say I can kinda ‘feel’ the hundreds of acupoints we have on our sole. I am not sure if it was because I didn’t clear my system thoroughly, but after the first 10 strokes that she executed on my sole, I felt something stir in my tummy. I felt like farting. LOL! The shoulder and hand massage was pretty much needed too, becuase I realised my muscles were all pretty tensed and aching.The session has been great. Only that I wished it was longer, so that I can catch a little nap.

**

When I logged on to blog tonight, I had wanted to rant about what the world is becoming. Especially after logging into Friendster and noticing that it has become a place for people to prowl on young little girls. Yucks. But I decided, nah! I should just focus on the positive stuff and bother less on things that get on my nerves. Too much negativity makes one sick. And I sure hope, thats not the reason why I am having flu now.