CNY Updates

Well, I've been pretty busy over the CNY and that's why this blog has practically been dead... Let me update a summary of what was going on.....

Chinese New Year Eve - Praying, cleaning and more Praying
Woke up early morning to help my dad to cook and prepare for praying. Usually CNY eve is busy for my family. Lots of cooking and praying. Then after eating lunch, we will clean up the house, vacuum, mop etc. Shortly after that, we will prepare for dinner. This year I suggested steamboat so had to prepare the stock and ingredients.... After dinner, more preparation for the praying session at mid-night. Fruits, vegetables etc etc.... I also went by to Baozhu-jie house to pray, from 1am to 2 plus... Very tired after that. Thanks to TM for sending me & Apple home. :)

Chinese New Year Day Chu Yi- House visit & Granny's home
Slept in till quite late as slept very late the previous night... Woke up at about 1030am and was chatting with my mum in the living room. Then shortly, helped her to prepare lunch and I was the main cook for this meal. Basically my aunt (father's sister) came with her family to Bai Nian. After lunch, cleared up and then went to Granny's house in JB. Surprisingly, Granny also prepared steamboat for dinner... Wah, two days in a row, must stay away from it for sometime.. :P It was nice catching up with relatives and cousins etc. Stayed overnight there in Granny's house. They love to play blackjack every year.. This year, I no win no lose... hoho.... Came back home on afternoon of Chu Er.

Chu Er - Back home and tired
Got home at about 6 plus as it was a long jam at the Causeway. What a "brilliant" idea for the JB customs... Had to walk all the way in, about 20 mins before we get the passport "chop" then go down the building again to take the bus across the causeway. Those who've been there will know what I mean. Old people and kids... Will be most jalat... Somemore, previously if too many ppl taking bus, we can easily opt to walk across the causeway, but now with the new customs, it's not possible at all... It's at least 1km longer and everywhere is blocked. Stupid design. :P

Chu San - Doc visit and more cooking
Was supposed to start work on this date. But I decided to go see doc and gotten a 2 day MC coz wasn't feeling well. Had a very short but nice afternoon after that. I thoroughly enjoyed it though it was rushed... ;) After reaching home, found that my bro asked his frens over to celebrate - coz he no need to go to jail coz of drink driving offence. So last min, there's no much food at home and mum gotta go buy and I'm in charge of cooking.
It was a nightmare... Really... His friends stayed overnight and made so much noise, I think I practically din sleep at all... Really pissed me off... Luckily Chu Si not working else sure dead. Wonder why people alwiz do things without thinking of others... PISSED....... And oh, Auntie Chua, Auntie Chun-jie & Auntie Ya-si from the religious group came to our home to bai nian too. :)

Chu Si - 2nd uncle visit & Sis bf came
This is an interesting day. Again, I took over the kitchen and prepared dinner. Am glad they like my cooking and the food I prepared. 2nd Uncle (mum's bro) came from Sabah in Malaysia and visited us. They chatted with my mum and stayed for dinner. At about 8pm, my sis's bf came with his twin bro to visit us. Pretty amazing as both look alike. Seems very nice ppl and gentle creatures... ;) Chatted with them till almost midnight... By this time, already feeling I'm going dead... Haha... Slept in soon after and rested as i'm working the next day - which is today.

Chu Wu - Start work and busy terminating ppl
Wat a way to start work... It was not that busy this morning, till the CEO of company sent email saying that 3% of employees globally will be terminated. That's about 200 employees. So with this, everyone is busy learning the new termination processes so to aid HR in the termination process. Sad to say, I'm really feeling sick today. Sore throat, bad flu and a slight cough... Sigh... I wish like sleeping now. 30 more mins before I can go home and hit my bed... Peay for me, not so much work again next week with the terms....

And oh, will be uploading pics and photos soon of my little nephew... So cute... I wanna bring him home... hee...

Out of my mind...

Help... I think I'm going crazy... mind has not been working well the past 2 days... Then juz now, I wanted to take my cup and badge, so I can go toilet then pantry to refill my warm water... But instead of grabbing the badge, I grabbed my headset and got "stopped" coz I cannot bring it with me. It's stuck to my CPU....

Not in the right state of mind... sigh...

Falling sick.. At this juncture

Sigh... Never thought I'd fall sick. Last night, suudenly, I felt cold then started sneezing badly. Then this morning, I woke up with a pre-sore throat feel.. Those kind is damn dry and wanna have sore throat attacking....

Took some medication juz now... Hopefully will help a bit. Else CNY coming and it's bad....

Moreover, my skin has not been getting better. Those who know would have known my skin has been bad since I came back from KL in Dec. A lot were saying could be caused by sandfly. Went online to read a bit about it yesterday and it sounds so eerie. Perhaps it's time for me to visit my doc soon for some opinion... My beautiful skin... sob sob.... :(

Exercise... After a long break

The last time I went exercising was like... in Nov last year with Apple. Been wanting to exercise but lazy to do it alone... finally this morning had a chance to go jogging at the park near my home with Apple & her bf, TM, Lvying mei mei and Uncle Lee... Though I joined them late and din really jog, but at least it's a long starting point.

I was very tired after jogging a short while, so in the end, was strolling most of the times.. The 2 ladies really can jog, pei fu pei fu... guess it'll take a long time for me to slim down.... heee....

Then we went to have breakfast at Fajar... It was fun eating and joking. Then later, going to West Mall with Apple for hair cutting and treatment... Hopefully can be fast fast.. Previously need so long, almost 2 hours... coz that place is alwiz crowded...

Coming home to cook dinner later... :D

And oh, you-know-wh0-u-r.... Thanks for everything last night... Really really like it! :)

Primary school friends meetup...

Met up with Maeve (Lingxiu) & Charlina (Xianxian) on Thursday evening. I reached there earlier than expected so I went shopping at NTUC. Bought 2 thermal cups, 3 photo frames and some other stuffs, total of $70. Din expect to spend so much, hoho... But these are necessities I need.

It was a very nice meetup session for the 3 of us. the last time all 3 of us got together was almost 3 years back! Gosh, can't believe that. Part of the reason is becoz Charlina is alwiz flying around, so it's hard to catch her to meetup. Our little gal is getting married soon, end of this year and it's pretty tough on her, with her future hubby in Abdu Rabi (Dunno if I spelt this correctly), but it's a place near Dubai. He's been working there for more than a year... Not ex to maintain a LDR... not to mention preparing everything for the wedding herself since he is so far away... Wow... Really amazing!!

After dinner at street cafe, we went to Mac for some drinks and only got home at 10 plus... really tiring, but it's worth it, 3 years meetup once! Hopefully we'll meet more often in future before Charline gets married off to Adbu Rabi.. :D

$$$ spent....

The weekend passed by juz like that.... While I was updating my previous post on Grad photos, my 6th aunt n cousins suddenly popped by, without informing us in advance. In the end, I had to logoff and cook dinner for them. The 2 little devils wanted to eat instant noodles, so I cooked for them first before cooking the normal dinner for everyone else.

After dinner, played computer with them for a short while till my student Joan, jio-ed them down to play badminton, so I brought them down at 7 plus for badminton, till aunt came back from market with mum... Then I had to psycho them to board the car, coz they din want to go airport to fetch their dad and wanna stay here till their mum fetched the dad then come back fetch them. It was a tiring night, trying to spill my brain juice over the dinner dishes and the 2 little devils... lol....

Then on Sunday evening, we cooked simple dinner, "cai dou fan". After cooking, jioed my mum to NTUC to get groceries and stuffs... I also got 2 cans of abalone and paid for all the groceries. I think it's the first time I spent almost $200 on shopping in NTUC... LOL... I guess partly was becoz of the many stuffs we bought in adv for CNY and also the 2 cans of abalone. I opened 1 can yesterday morning to cook for my colleague. Hope it's to your taste! :)

Workload in office has been bad since 2009 started, partly coz of the new viruses... Duhz... From the normal 50-60 tickets a day, now we are clearing more than 200 tickets and calls a day and each of these is time consuming... Well, at least our jobs are safeguarded right now... :P Hopefully things will resume normal pretty soon... Hectic might be good at times, but not others... :\

My graduation photos are here!

Finally, my graduation photos are here already.... Heee.... I din expect them to arrive today, though this morning I was just wondering when they'd arrive! :)



Me, receiving my award from the only representative from UK that day. The others were all from Malaysia. At least look more impressive receiving the award from an ang moh, right? :)


Another one, close up one... Pardon me as these were taken from my digital camera as there were no soft copies and my scanner is down, hee.. So take again into camera and upload is easiest!

Self-portrait.... I looked plump in these photos... I think partly was because my fringe was pinned all the way back... :P

Family portrait... this is nicest coz it came in a CD with the package and I juz uploaded it.... Heee....

My ex-tutor... Ms Anna Li

This is a post specially dedicated to my tutor, Ms Anna Li. I remembered vividly that she started giving me tuition when I was in P3 becoz my maths failed badly back then. I still remember I got 9/100 for my CA1 and mum was so angey with me and decided something needs to be done...

That's when Ms Li was hired as my tutor... She knew that my family financial situation back then was very bad so she only took a minimum fee from my mum. From her teachings, my subjects improved greatly, especially Maths... tredmendously.... She taught me all the way till I grad in P6 and also continued to tuition my siblings....

That was not all, when I graduated from secondary school, she knew I was working all kinds of odd-jobs and so encouraged me to start giving tuition to kids... She passed a few students for me to teach and during a period of time when she was ill, I took over more than 15 of her students... Wow.. Din imagine I can be a full time tutor, juz like that... Would not be possible without her encouragement & help... When I was in sec 2, she also recommended me to her relative's bookshop to work part time so I can earn some pocket $ and lessen my mum's burden.

Up till the time when I was in poly, we were still in touch. Nov 2000 when I was in Year 2 in poly, I wanted badly to go to the US trip... She sponsored part of my fees and even gave me some US dollars to ensure I at least have a bit more cash while travelling in the States. I was so touched.... But sadly, after the trip, we practically lost contact as she was busy with family, work and church... It was only till recently that she bumped into my mum then we got into contact again. She called me this afternoon on my cell too, asking if I wanna more tutees... But unfortunately, I'm not that keen at this point of time. Feel like resting more first. Though the conversation we had was short.. But it was really nice and I'll always remember her as my teacher, deep in my heart!

Thank you, Ms Li... for everything since I was 9 years old... ;)

My first trip to the Zoological Gardens!

Heee, this is my first trip to the Zoo.. Imagine, 26 years of my life, I've never been to the Zoo in my own country. A lot of my friends who knew, cannot believe this... Haha.. anyway, it was a nice and fun trip with lots of people.. All in all, about 40 people... din really go count... From kids as young as 8 months old to senior citizens over 65... :D

I went yesterday on 4 Jan with the religious group. Brought along kids from the 少年班there and I helped to "look out". Yingxin was also with me at times, so I cared for her along the way, helping her parents, heee... Basically, we went to the Polar Bear's feeding, the Elephant Show, the RainForest show and the most exciting water games for the kids - The KidsZone where they played with water etc...

Ok, enough of the words... And here are the pictures... A picture is worth a thousand words...


The Emu we saw...


The Big Polar Bear... It's a "He"....

The babies... Yingzhe in the pram (8 months) and his elder sister walking besides, Yingxin

Apple & Me...

I'm facing some issues posting pictures and words at the same time. Not sure what's wrong, but whenever I tried to post a pic, it will appear right at top of post and mess up the layout... anyone can enlighten me what settings to change in Blogspot for it? Aragh....

Anyway, more pics of the outing can be found on my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30335423@N08/

Another of my sister is getting married soon...

Congrats to Charlina, one of my best friends since kindergarten. Though we seldom meet as she travels a lot, but I heard from her thru msn tonight that she's getting married end of this year! So happy for her. Me, Maeve & her have been best of friends since Primary School and we do really treasure this friendship!

Congrats to Jason & Xueying on your wedding!

2 of my poly seniors from the Buddhist Society got married on 28 Dec. Had meant to post this on my old blog since it happened in 2008 but too bad I've been having issues with it...




But well, I can alwiz update it here. Tsk tsk... It's really nice seeing the people whom you know getting married, esp if the couple got to know each other and starting pak-toring when in the same CCA previously.... It was also a good catchup session with some other friends whom I've not met for a long time, like Lichoo, Ziqiang, Shanting, Xingzhen etc...




Here are some pics we took:-



Group photo of all of us from NPBS. Most are my seniors here.. :D






Those sitting at the same table as me... :)







Lichoo, me, Ziqiang & Shanting