Looking back - Driving

I never thought I will really go learn driving one day, and I really did! And tonight was my last revision lesson before my test on coming Monday, 3rd Jan.

Looking back, from the day I went to BBDC with Apple to register etc, cannot imagine I've really come this far... I remember clearly we went on 15 Jun and I was persistent in taking school instead of private. I've also made up my mind to take auto, but Apple persuaded me to go for manual and I DID sign up for manual... But luckily, the very next day, i regretted and went back to BBDC and paid $10 more to switch over to auto. hahaha....

Subsequently, I went for the theory tests and lessons (Yes, I mentioned tests first coz silly me completed all my tests, before I realised that I need to attend the lessons)! >.< Along the way, I was wondering how come I never get any instructor from my fixed group G8030, though from day one, I asked for fixed group... Kinda frustrating... Luckily, things started to change from Stage 3 onwards... All instructors who coached me were from my fixed group. :) Except for one instructor whom I'm super afraid of, the rest are generally very nice and friendly. It was only till beginning of my Stage 4 lessons that I fixed one specific instructor. And I had a mindset that all my instructors in my group were all uncles and aunties, till I met Tsang SY who was the youngest in the group! Boo-hoo... hahaha...

Ironically, the usually quiet me while driving, had a lot to talk about that session and Tsang was telling me of a weird old man he met in the lift at his block, so after that we had lots to chat about. And because of certain points he brought up to me which I find is very true, I decided to fix him for my subsequent lessons, except for the last one tonight as he's not working on the night shift...

Sim (the lead of fixed group G8030) took me. I think this is the 4th or 5th time he's taken me and he's generally a very nice instructor too. Very courteous and friendly. Actually, he took me once in Stage 1 and I find him impressive, but too bad he's the lead and we can't fix the lead as our instructor, else I'd have fixed him from Stage 1. Tonight, I was asking him if he thinks I can pass, and he said "Sure can lar, have more confidence, you are doing great!". I was like... err... hopefully I can do this well in my test also lor... But what he said did boast my confidence up. :) Thanks Sir!

He was also telling me, today there were 7 trainees from our fixed group who took the test and he expected 2 of them to fail, but in the end, all passed with flying colors! Wow, I'm amazed! He's also super nice, proposing to the school for increment and some badge thing for his team if the passing rate is more than 80% or something like this... I wish I can be like the 7 trainees who passed and get their license today! Can I? :P

Anyway, was blabbering to Tsang and another instructor, HH Ong, if I really passed on 3rd Jan, I'll cook some food for them. The food in the BBDC canteen, really CMI! :P We'll see if this wish comes true. :) Of coz I'll include Sim and Seetho in the treat if I passed! Hee...

Gambatte!!! 3rd Jan

Officially transitioned!

I'm officially 100% in the new department as of today.
Actually last Thurs, I already received an email from the Global Support Mgr in Irvine informing that I can fully transition over to the new dept and thanked me for helping out the last 60 days at the desk, training the new lead, but as I was on vacation on Fri, things did not get moving till today. :)

Feels a bit weird and lonely at my new desk... But gotta get used to it. Praying that I can do well in my new role and scope, first ever in Asia Pac. :P

Gambatte!

My left hand won yesterday! I went and came back!

Remember my post yesterday about asking my left hand to play scissors paper stone with my right hand? My left hand won, so I went ultimately! :P

Not too bad.. though I predicted the causeway will be jammed up like hell coz of the long holidays and it's a Sat evening, with factory ladies going back to JB... I shopped around City Square for an hour plus while waiting for 6 aunt to pick me up to Cousin Queenie's place... I seriously have no idea now to go. Even if I were to take the public transport, I only know how to go granny's place.. But not logical for me to travel to Skudai and then come down to Pelangi again... So shopping lor.. Though I dun really like shopping, but there's a little corner in City Square that I alwiz like. :)

Reached there and din eat much as I had a heavy lunch with my parents at home... Saw the little nephews and practically went yaya with them and played so much.. Had a hard time chasing after 2 little devils... LOL... Aoyi has juz started walking steadily not long, so he keeps falling down.. After he falls down, he will laugh out loud.. Pengz.. Got a feeling he purposely do that one lor...

Went back to Granny's place and met up with my other niece Sally.. She's super duper cute and I even fed her milk and water and carried her for quite a while. I absolutely adore infants!!!

Spent the night at Granny's place and little cousins Yilin and Huaiyi (6th aunt's kids who are very close to me), wanna come to Singapore with me, but were disallowed. They threw tantrums till after 12mn and I'm so tired... And oh, Yilin got 2nd place in her class for the final exams... So proud of her... My student whom I'm tutoring also got 3rd place in her class! Sense of satisfaction...

Woke up today AM super early, before 7am.. Can't sleep well as it's too cold. My sis turned on the aircon and I was directly under it.. :( Granny woke up early too and we chatted on a lot of things. It's really a blessing to have a granny to chat with.. If only she's closer to me.. Not across the causway.. so inconvenient to visit. :( She's my only grandparent out of 4 who's still with us! Must treasure! Simply love the simple fried bee hoon she alwiz cooks lovingly for us.. Was sharing with my mum how amazing my Granny is.. she has almost 30 grandkids... but never fails to remember what food each of us like. Today she purposely cooked all the food me and sis liked for lunch! Awwww....

And ok, here are the pretty pics we took of the kids yesterday and today!

Me... Caught hold of little Aoyi while he's running around the place


Little Aoyi with his 2 yi-yis...


That's my cousin Queenie and her new born, Yanxuan... Big baby! So kawaii, but too bad I've no chance to hold her or take pics with her yet...


Me & sis w Aoyi... Aoyi says "oops"


Me w cousin Yilin & nephew Aoyi


Nephew Yan Jin... Yanxuan's elder bro


Me w little Sally after her night feed.. Poor gal juz had 2 injections today and was cranky the whole day.. Stupid burse use wrong bandage and her legs are so sticky... Had to clean up for her this morning before I came home


Beautiful baby.. Sleep in yi-yi's arms... And oh, I'm also her god mother! heee...


Burping Sally after her feed.. She loves this position as it gives her sense of security


Cleaning her sticky bandage for her this morning... My cousin's not very good with babies, and sought help from me..


Almost naked Sally, preparing for her morning bath...


Sally, having a nap after her bath n feed.. Stupid me, cut her hand wrongly.. Was helping her to cut her nails and accident happened. I felt so super duper bad.. but really lucky both my cousin n her hubby did not blame or scold me. :( Brave little Sally stopped crying the moment I carried her after I noticed her finger bleeding and din cry anymore after that... :( Bad me!

Still hesitating...

Should I? Should I not?
I juz came back from my driving lessons at BBDC... And now, I'm in a dilemma if I wanna go to JB. One of my cousins' daughter is having full month celebration. Why dilemma?
It just rained and the weather looks threatening... Will it rain? Will there be jam at the causeway?
But on the other hand... I really feel like going in to meet the 2 newest addition to my extended family... Both my female cousins gave birthday in Oct/Nov and I've yet to meet the 2 little sweeties! I WANNA SEE THEM!!! Headache...

My left hand is playing scissors paper stone with my right hand... If left wins, I'll go, If right wins, I'll drop the idea and go swimming with Apple dear! :P

And oh, here are 2 pics to share of my own cutie rabbit




See, she loves to face the wall... Mian bi si guo at her normal resting place...
Sometimes, she even go into the tiny place in there and stay there for a long time.. Mayb gives her strong sense of security? Personally I think she's too fat for that space. :P

Nice catchup with another of my dear > Shihua!

Haha... Suddenly feel so impt again. :p
Ok, fine... After last week meetup with Apple, I met with Shihua dear yesterday... It was actually a planned outing we had since early Nov. The previous time when we met, we already set the date to meet... Power... :D

We had dinner at V8 Cafe in Bugis and it was another nice chat. As usual, we will be wondering how we became the closest of friends, especially since we dun have anything much in common. Heee... I guess this is fate. :)

I made her a jigsaw puzzle as well. (No bias, 1 for Apple, 1 for Shihua.. Both of my best frens got 1 each)... But unfortunately, silly me forgot to bring it along.. So the puzzle is still with me. :( And to think that my Shihua got me a cute gift instead...
And here it is:-

The gift, with its original wrapper before it was destroyed...


The box, after the wrapper was destroyed by yours truly


And ta-da.. The cute gift! A little "flip" calendar. That's GREEN in color...

Thanks dear! :D

After dinner, we walked from Bugis to Dhoby Ghaut.. And upon my persistent persuasion, we went home! Without going for another drink... heee... Muacks..

Nice catchup yesterday w my dear Apple! :D

Hee... I juz wished her harpie birthday 2 days ago.. and on the same day, smsed her to check if she's interested to go for hair treatment with me yesterday... My scalp is really in a pretty bad shape, so I need the treatment badly. :(

It was not a pleasant encounter in the beginning... What happened was, I met up w Apple at 5pm after her work in the evening, wanting to go to the salon which we normally go to for the treatment, since I still have outstanding package. Unknowingly, the in charge who usually do our hair for us and even the few aunties who helped previously is no longer at that branch. Instead, met a super duper disturbing gal and unfriendly staff there! Normally when I flashed my receipt, the gals would know wat to do... Wash hair, cut, treatment, wash and blow dry... Not that difficult right?

I've been faithfully going to this particular shop coz all along I think they are very nice and professional. They do intro pdts etc, but no hard selling... This particular encounter pissed me off so much, I requested not to waste everyone's time and juz let me go to the newly opened branch at Gombak MRT... If I had known the original owner and her staff were all at Gombak, I wouldn't even make the trip down to Lakeside.. Waste time and piss me and Apple off only... People who know me knows I seldom flare up this way.. usually very meek and quiet and dun complain... But this is RIDICULOUS!

But anyway, after 1/2 hr big hoo haa and my persistent insistent, we were let off so we can proceed to Gombak for the hair treatment. Once in Gombak, things swing very fast into place and we got wat we wanted, without much waiting or questions. I even made a "feedback" to the owner on her staff in Lakeside and they gave us the better treatment for our hair instead of the one we signed up for in the package... So anyway, if I were to ramble on, the story will never end. It's not pleasant.. so juz throw it at the back of my head...

Now, part 2 of the story... After the treatment, we had wanted to go to Marsiling to meet Lynn mei mei for dinner, but because she's busy and we checked with her too late, so we went to Hua Jin vege restaurant instead. The food was not bad and we even saw a few religious class uncles and aunties there... Tsk tsk... After dinner, we walked all the way from Gombak to Apple's place in JE... I was the one who encouraged her, even though she was carrying the big bulky jigsaw puzzle I made for her bday cum xmas gift.. LOL...

It was really a nice walk and chat. We were chatting about our driving lessons (I'm taking auto lessons from BBDC, while she's on manual w a private instructor). I'm so glad I decided to take auto and spend a bit more to learn in skool... as Apple did not have a nice experience with her instructor... We also chatted about her upcoming wedding next year and I'm so super excited.. I think even more excited than her... also helped her to look through some places she's chosen for the wedding dinner and her guest list... LOL... Felt so impt suddenly! :D

It took us less than 60 mins to reach her place and we had almost wanted to walk from her place to TM's place in CCK, but in the end, din as she had 2 big bags of stuffs to carry over to his place... So in the end we took a cab... Thanks dear for the ride!

More to come... this is a super lengthy post, I know....
And here's the jigsaw puzzle I made for her:

Happy birthday to my dearest Apple!

Happy birthday to u, Happy birthday to u!
Happy birthday to Apple, Happy Birthday to u! :D
Muahaha... Treasure our frenship for so so so many years!
Take care gal and sorry that I can't spend sometime with u today.. but I promise, I will give u a treat and a present sometime soon~

Hee....

How long more?

我还能支撑多久？好累。。。

有感而发！

1）有一种单身，只为了等一个人

2）做人，也许单纯一点... 简单一点... 会更轻松、快乐些

3）人生的路途无法再重来一次，所以我宁愿勇敢向前，在人生的每段过程好好努力，试着不让自己后悔

4）在你想要放弃的那一刻，想想为什么当初坚持走到了这里

5）朋友不是你身居高位时邂逅的那些人，而是你穷困潦倒时依然在你左右的那些人

6）每个人都有自己的故事，经历不同的酸甜苦辣，也只有自己最清楚在走的人生道路，是苦是甜... 是喜还是悲..。

7）人生总难免会有失落、彷徨、无助......的时候，再怎么艰辛的路，我们也要继续撑下去。我们不就是这样活过来的吗！

8）觉得这句话有点可悲: 自己选择的路, 跪着趴着也要把它走完

9）女人最大的敌人是无法自拔..

10）有一些人，貌似很坚强、其实比谁都要脆弱；有一些人，貌似很开心、可是笑容背后的哀伤谁又能懂

11）有些人很执著, 有时候不明白他们在坚持着什么... 在别人眼里他们就是这么傻!

12）不是因为你能带给我什么而爱你... 是因为爱你，而接受你所带来的一切

13）每一个人身上，都有一堆生活上的毛病或脾气...... 所谓爱，所谓幸福，不过是你找到的那个人，能够忍受你一辈子。

14）不是我脆弱了, 而是我从没坚强过...

15）一句平凡的话语，有着它的神奇，足以让另一个人开心一整天...

16）如果你認為是值得的，那就是值得的，無須太在意他人的想法...

17）即使你不是最好的, 甚至不是最适合我的, 但却是我最珍惜的

18）人的一生，總有一些說不出的秘密，挽不回的遺憾，觸不到的夢想，忘不了的愛。

19）爱一个人的感觉是心中放不下一个人，而不是寂寞时才会想起那一个人...

20）你的一点点付出, 却是另一个人的小小幸福!!

Driving updates

It's been almost 3 months since I last started my practical lessons in BBDC on end Aug. I remember clearly that my first practical lesson was 2 days after my birthday... LOL...

I just started stage 3 early this week and today's my second lesson in stage 3. Basically stage 3 is all circuit based, familiarization of the circuit and signs, as well as the different circuits within. It was a pretty big challenge for me when I went for the first lesson in Stage 3. I found that I had directional issues when trying to reverse and alwiz go the wrong way, even after thinking for long... Why? Sigh...

I went for my second lesson this morning and did S and crank courses, and I think I did pretty well... Only mounted kerb 2 times during S course and crank was ok, following the instructions from my instructor. Then becoz I did fast in these, I had sometime to learn directional change. Again, I had issues as it need reversing skills... LOL... Sigh... And guess what? today's instructor was the same I had on Stage 3.01... So she was laughing at me all the way......

Went downtown after the lesson to buy some stuffs and saw sales in Bras Basah.... My itchy hands cannot stop buying books, so I bought quite a lot of them.. all at the price of $1 per piece. I think my parent's gonna kill me.. no more space for me books! :P

Day 1

Today is day one of 7.... Feeling so down and can't sleep... and praying that you're safe and happy wherever you are! So looking forward to seeing you next week!

Hari Raya Haji

Hari Raya Haji to all!
I'm rotting at home again today, and I really love this rotting feeling of sitting down and doing nothing... Nice feeling~

Long lomantic walk with Shihua tonite~

After a few months, finally got a chance to meet up with this darling of mine! Hee...
Had wanted to give her a treat but becoz she's so full, she din eat anything... She just sat opposite me and watched me eat! I had a filling seafood platter in Billy Bombers in Marina and I suggested a walk since I was feeling super cold.

We walked all the way from Marine to Esplanade, to the Singapore Flyer, back to Esplanade, and then all the way to Singapore River, before taking a bus home from Clark Quay. It was a nice 1.5 hours of walk and we chatted so much. Once again, we were wondering how did we become the best of friends when we have so many things NOT in common. LOL.... I dunno when the chemistry started from, but it's been for really long. Almost 10 years?

We also took quite a fair bit of pictures as my darling likes to take photos, however I've yet to get any of them from her yet.. hee... Waiting to get them. :D

And oh, I just got my company phone yesterday. It's a Blackberry Bold and I've no clue on how to use it... Duhz.... Thanks to my wonderful helpdesk gals for helping me out and giving me training... hee....

Really down with flu~

I took the flu jab in office more than 2 weeks back (just before the CS conference) and din expect myself to fall so ill. I've heard of people who took the same jab and felt ill the next day or few days, but not as bad as me. It took 2 weeks plus for the viral effect to set in and I've got fever, cough, flu and aches.

Went to see a doc last nite for the second time and was advised to stay home. Actually for the first 3 months of employment, I'm not entitled any MCs or leaves, but my manager was really kind to give me the day off. :)

Had a really really good rest today and I think I'm feeling much better now! Back to warzone in the helpdesk tomorrow! Gambatte! :D

Happy Deeapali, first holiday I need not work officially~

Happy Deevapali to everyone out there!
It felt so strange, how I used to go back to office most times during public holidays previously. I can earn OT pay (double pay) and slack in office with the aircon and my team members.

And today, I'm sitting here at home, doing nothing and slacking... I found back my holidays... Heee...

Going out shortly to trial making vegeterian dumplings for the religious youth class on coming Sunday! Stressed~

Finally back to normal

After the tiring and fruitful week last week, finally, my life's back to normal! Hee.....
My mgr asked to meet me in his room today and told me I did a very good job in the presentation last week and everyone was impressed, including the Irvine mgr. Her impression of me changed quite a lot when I had a short chat with her on Thursday during the team building. :) Phew~

And I'm so so so happy today! Finally get to see U again after almost 10 days! Was so super worried for u last week when I knew u fell so ill. :(

Dead tired~

Yeah... Finally, the busy busy exciting week is over!
Gosh... Can't imagine how I survived the past week, just like that! :D

Basically we had the first ever APAC CS Management conference in the Singapore office! And I was excited to be part of the team and event, though I'm so very the new to the team... LOL... It was a nice and great chance to see the site leads from the APAC region and learnt a lot from one another... Ok, let me go through some events in details....

Day 1 - 25 Oct
The first day of the conference. Pretty nervous and excited to meet the team. Finally did so at 9am when the conference officially started. Was not as scary as I thought it to be. :) We also had guests and manager speakers from Irvine, US and it was a great chance meeting everyone and introducing ourselves. I was pretty nervous as I knew the US snr mgr had not wanted to hire me for this post, but I was hired for it ultimately.
After work, I asked and seems like Laura from Sydney & Jisoo from Korea were interested to visit the Night Safari, so I went along to their hotel in the minibus and waited for them to freshen up. Nice chat with Jisoo in her room and she's super frenly! Walked to Far East Plaza for dinner and ordered local food for them, which they find delicious. Dinner was done and there were lots of laughters, before we took a cab to Night Safari. Embarrassed to say, but it's my first time there too.. Super dark and practically can't see anything much. The tram ride brought us around most times as most areas were "out of bounds" to walking tourists and visitors. Wrapped up the night at about 10 plus and we took a cab back.

Day 2 - 26 Oct
I think practically everyone's really tired, so we din have any event after work today. Good chance for me to slip home to catch up on my beauty sleep... Hee

Day 3 - 27 Oct
This is a very exciting day for me! Yes, me... Becoz I'm doing a presentation cum training for the IT applications we use in Broadcom a lot. Though I'm super familiar with it and have no issues, but becoz the Irvine Snr Mgr was in there too, I was extremely nervous, plus.. I've a fear of giving presentations and speaking out loud to more than 10 ppl...
The session was scheduled for an hour, but we overran by more than an hour coz of the number of questions I had from the team and assisting them to setup the application on their laptops. Phew, the big rock in my heart is now thrown into the deep deep sea, and finally a good nite sleep after so many days.
We also had team dinner at No Signage Seafood in Vivocity. 2 tables and 16 people in total. Hee hee... The food is not that fantastic, still prefers Jumbo. :P But it was a great nite for almost everyone else, drinking and making fun etc. I stayed clear of alcoholic drinks and sticked to my chinese tea... hee... Will upload pics when I have the chance to copy back the photos... :D
Took more team photos at the scenic views in Vivo and some were super funnie~. Ended the nite at almost 11 and thanks to Rick for sending me and Kim home~ The taxi queue in Vivo, is super scary, even on a weekday nite...

Day 4 - 28 Oct
Official last day of the conference. Had long meetings in the mornings and lots of things for me to note, since I'm so new to the dept. But we managed to wrap everything up as scheduled at 2pm and packed up. Then we're off to team building~ Hee... Go where team building and do wat? We went back to Vivo again! Becoz the team was really amazed by Vivo and the cable car ride and Sentosa etc...
First, we went to Marina Bay Sands for the sky bridge. Super nice... Took quite a bit of photos here as well. Strolled around the place and enjoyed the scenic views, before we head off to Vivo. From Vivo, we took the cable car to Sentosa (complimentary from Canon). Not as exciting as I thought it to be... Yes, it's also my first cable car ride ever! Reached a 5 star hotel in Sentosa (din note the name) for the Canon event and we were all given the red red Canon Jap style "jacket" to wear. The dim sum is super nice and we ate lots of them... LOL... Thanks to my mgr for being so thick skinned and kept asking for more... haha... Left the place by bus at about 7.45pm. Super tired by then.
Went back to Vivo and the rest took sometime to do some last min shopping. Iris and myself headed to a souvenir store and bought some little gifts for everyone, since most of them brought so food and souvenirs from their countries for us! It was a pretty warm scene when we said our goodbyes. The ladies hugged one another and the guys shook hands. Of coz the ladies shook hands with the guys.. LOL... Again, called for a cab back home... super tired and reached almost 11pm again~

I think we took quite a fair bit of photos and shall upload some when I dun feel so lazy~

18 Oct, the day when I first started working in Broadcom 5 years ago!

Suddenly, I realised that today is my 5 year anniversary working in Broadcom!
Looking back, it seems like a lot had happened in my life the past 4-5 years... Dramas, learning experiences... A lot of first time working in Broadcom as a team lead also...
And now, 5 years later, I'm moving on, from a contractor to a Broadcom perm employee... Cannot image how much things have changed, but yet I'm surviving...

Special thanks to a special someone who made all these possible for me. Without u, I dun think I'll be here today! :D

Praying that I can do well in my new job when I fully transition over... Next week will be challenge for me... Gambatte Luvgreen~

Happy Birthday in adv, Sharine!

Happy birthday Shar!
Hope you enjoyed the surprise we planned for you on your big 21 2 days ago! :D
It was a nice and fun evening personally for me!
Hereby, wishing you staying cheerful, happy, healthy and successful!

Welcome to the adult world! ~

It's 10/10/10 10:10

This special moment... Right now... So cool....
And I'm sitting here at home to relax and rot a bit. :D

Congrats to Zhengyang & Chloe!

Attended a wedding lunch this afternoon. One of my sec skool frens got married today. We din really keep in contact after sec skool days, but since he invited, me and best fren Corina turned up. Other than a few whom I predicted to be present, there were a number whom I've lost contact since grad in sec skool and I can't even remember 1 of them. No impression at all. Pardon me Paul for that. :P

Nice catchup and lunch today! :D Ate too much, now indigestion... Aragh...~

My new role

Officially I've started on my new role as a Project Manager yesterday at work.
However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I will still need to be present at the desk to lead the team, till they hire a new lead and get the person trained up.

So, right now I'm doing both jobs... Luckily my new manager is pretty understanding and not demanding, so other than a bit of updating here n there, I'm not doing anything much in the new role as yet. And the transition might take up to 90 days....

New role starting tomorrow

I'm starting my new role tomorrow. Need to wear formal again, after 5 years of casual wear...
Anxious, excited, nervous~
Aragh... Hope I can get some sleep as my flu been quite bad the past 3-4 days. :(

More pics from Bandung trip

Entrance to the volcano






The stuffs they sell on the volcano. Pretty scary.. When you alight from the vehicle, swarms of them will come forward with their "gears" and try to sell to you, haggling prices. Other than the clothes etc, there are a lot of fresh strawberries




My parents. So sweet~ Never seen them b4 like this.. tsk tsk tsk




Me & parents.. We've been to the volcano - Gn. Tangkuban Parahu


3 sweeties... LOL... 11 years of frenship






The Buddhist temple Melon brought us too. Very quiet n serene. She got married in this temple too.. heee...









The place we went for lunch. Very unique. Surrounded by rice padi fields... Cool~




My dad's the photographer... haha




hee... this one so cute~




The food we took for lunch at the rice padi area... Super hot chilli... Cannot tahan


Rice plant.. My mum's very familiar as she used to plant rice in Malaysia since young


The castle hotel.. Super cool, owned by Melon's Hubby's fren...


Group photo








The one very nice and cool


And I love this the most... LOL

\
The hotel main lobby... Name of Hotel is G.H Hotel Universal.


Presidential suite


Normal room


3 princesses... hahaha


Nice view~