Wednesday, October 7, 2009

:: 8 years :: *For most of the pictures in this entry, you could click on them to enlarge them!* Just about 2 weeks ago, it was our big 8. We celebrated our 8th year in a tranquil fashion. No special holiday trips, no big surprises. Just a simple day that we jointly planned, to spend quality time with each other. HortPark has been launched for quite some time now and I had always wanted to go and have a look. I'm always in town / city /commercial areas on work days so it was really a nice change to be amongst peaceful greenery. Lots and lots of colorful fishes! Blue, Green, Orange, Red, Small, Medium, Big. You name it, they have it. The water wasn't the clearest; it was a little murky in fact, but it was still very nice to see so many colours swimming around. Bright colors certainly bring a cheer in a person. :) The entrance to HortPark. Different shades of green. Green is a good color for the eyes and it brings about a peaceful feeling. So I guess it's good for the heart too. The beautiful landscape. No snow-capped mountains, red autumn leaves or rainbow-coloured spring flowers but it was still such a beautiful sight. Clear water and deep green trees against pastel blue skies lined with cotton clouds. Start of our excursion in HortPark. We were still fresh and energetic! We started off at HortMart where they sell gardening and landscaping products. Looking at the flora and fauna there, I was so tempted to buy a few packets of seeds back to plant. Doesn't matter what type of seeds they are, it will definitely be a pretty sight when they grow and blossom. With vibrant colors like this, it's no wonder these cactus need such sharp spikes to protect them from natural predators. Then there was the insectivorous plants section and this is one of them. This is probably a pitcher plant that attracts insects with its nectar, which drop into the receptacle if they crawl over the lip of the tube. Downward-pointing hairs inside the tubular leaves stop insects from climbing out once they alight, and liquid in the bottom of the tubes contains enzymatic digestive juices that disintegrate and consume the animal once it wears itself out trying to escape. Hmm... I should have put an ant on the plant to see for myself how it works exactly. *evil grin* Hmm.. I don't know what flower this is but it looked so pretty I took a shot of it. There were countless other flowers in the park that I saw and took photos of, but that would be too many to upload here. I will post them on my facebook. So, you know where to look for more photos! :) This was taken in the recycling garden. It's a very interesting garden where most of the things were made from recycled materials. This used to be a watering can shaped like a duck, now it's home for a plant. This used to be sculptures for some dino-park and now it's part of a garden deco. One of my favorites - the Triceratops Dinosaur. I think it's because it looks so girly with the frills and purplish-grey color. After the extinct dinosaurs, there's also the legendary dragons. Then my favourite insect - the butterfly! You all know I love butterflies right? Because it's always colourful, even those without bright colours would somehow have some fascinating patterns on their big wings. And this is the silver garden featuring a collection of silver, grey and white hued plants set against a backdrop of green dominated landscape. It is restful by day and somewhat mysterious by night. Then we set off on our nature trail walk. That's Alexander Arch behind us. This is the Forest Walk with elevated raised walkway with heights ranging from 3 to 18 metres brushes the canopy of trees and offers a bird’s eye view of the forest. The walkway is made of triangle metal grates, similarly to those covering our drains so if you looked down, you would be able to see the ground below. That was quite a scary experience for me because I'm afraid of heights so I had to try hard not to look down from wherever I was standing. In this picture below, this is probably the highest point of the walk and in the right corner, there is a "short cut" - where one could climb a steep flight of steps instead of walking up the walkway. And of course, that was what I did. It's tougher on the legs, but easier on the heart/mind. Haha.. The nature trail is made up of a series of different walkways and connections such as the Alexander Arch, Henderson Waves, Faber Walk, Canopy Walk over at least 9km. So, we couldn't finish the entire trail in a day. Which is also a good thing, because we can go back again! After the nature outing, we went out on a shopping and dinner date. All nice and ready to go out! I initially refused to get this present because it was really a splurge. We haven't even spent so much on our holiday trips and I felt that it was really too hard on the pockets. But dear BQ wanted to pamper me since it was my birthday and also our 8th year anniversary. Not like he doesn't pamper me at other times, but he wanted to make this very special. And look at him, so happy even after burning a big hole in the pocket. Holding the present full of pride. :) Here's my present! My very 1st LV bag at a quarter century! I really love my bag a lot. Thank you so much! Some people might be asking, wow... LV for this year, what's for next? Nah... my next present doesn't have to be of higher monetary value than this. There is no benchmark for my presents and I don't judge by the value of the gift. Even if my next present from BQ is a paperbag, I'll still love it. We had dinner at a very nice restaurant - Bedrock Bar & Grill. The ambience was excellent, with an interior warmly lit with orange hues of lamps. The service was impressive with friendly and knowledgeable staff who knew the menu very well and made great recommendations. It was as if I went through a mini-lesson on the different types of steaks, from the stage of how the cows are bred to which part of the cow a particular type of steak is, [omit how they are slaughtered], to how they are frozen and then prepared. The interior was so dim I couldn't really get a lot of clear pictures of the food. At the end of the dinner, the restaurant gave us both a lovely surprise! We wanted to order their desserts and after we asked for the dessert menu, they brought out this chocolate fudge cake with a [literally] sweet message. It was really so thoughtful of the staff! The staff were very friendly and also observant. They did not chat too much (I have seen waiters trying to be too friendly that they stand at the table and chat and chat and chat so much that the dining guests had no time to have a conversation with each other). Neither do they walk past your table every 5 minutes to check if there's anything you need; they do so from a distance and are careful not to make you feel like you are being watched. There was a lot of privacy and I was just very impressed that from the short conversation I had with the staff, they remembered that it was our 8th anniversary and they made it a point to make it special. 5 stars out of 5 for Bedrock Bar & Grill! Happy 8th Anniversary.

Friday, October 2, 2009

:: some birthday gifts :: Other than shopping vouchers, the many lunch and dinner treats, I also got some other special presents. This one from my sister. She knows I like COACH.. Something useful and in a color I love! Violet! I could bring this on days that I don't want to carry a big bag with a fat wallet. Just bring out a dainty little purse! Perfect for any day! Another present in the mail. A funny singing card with a personalized song. The P.S button really works. At first I thought it would just be the card singing again.. This time, it was a REAL VOICE. A voice that I knew. What a pleasant surprise! Very well sung! You could be a rock star! :p Ta-da! The present that I excitedly unwrapped. Yay!! A bag! A bag! A bag! In a color that matches almost all my outfits and fits almost any occasion because it can double up as a business bag (it looks like it's small huh? you'll be surprised it can fit A4 files!) as well as a casual bag. Bright blue sateen lining! Cool! I like! Thanks thanks thanks all my loved ones and friends! Be it a lunch treat, dinner treat, vouchers, small gift, big gift, weird gift, just birthday wishes with a smile, handshake, flowers, cards, via sms or facebook, whatever that is.. I love them all and I love you all! :) :) Birthdays are great; they are greater when people I love remember.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

:: quarter century part 3 :: Mother-to-be XY treated me to lunch at one of my favorite places - Coffeeclub! Haven't met her for some time and look at how big the baby has grown! In just a few months, she's gonna POP! I had quite some fun touching the big tummy.. it feels so big like it's gonna burst anytime if I poke hard enough. Quite scary actually. It feels like it's a separate tummy now - when I tickled her tummy I even asked if she could feel it. Her answer "YARRR OF COURSE! IT'S STILL MY TUMMY OK!" then I realized that it's just big, but it's still the same tummy..only with a baby inside. Haha. Ok, motherhood must be very interesting. Wait till it's my turn; I'll probably document everything like a documentary. But WAIT. Not so soon. At Coffeeclub, you have got to try this... The best muddy mud pie! You can't get this anywhere else~ The sticky oreo base is so yummy! Siwei was part of the birthday lunch as well because she is also a September baby and our dear XY mom-to-be is so busy she wants to kill 2 birds with 1 stone - celebrate 2 friends' birthday over 1 lunch. So busy huh.. But thanks for taking time out of your very busy schedule to treat us to such a nice lunch! It was fun playing with your tummy! :: a special night :: BQ brought me to shop for my birthday gift but I didn't get anything. Nothing that I fancy yet. Why bring me to shop for my gift? Why no surprise? Well, because I'm a very practical person; I'd rather he get me something that I like and will use so I tell him not to get me anything on his own because I am very very picky. Had a nice dinner at Bellini Grande. Very cosy restaurant with great service and food. I liked the ambience.. or maybe it's the company? Ugh. Eeks. How can I write such mushy things on my blog? That's so unlike me! Eeks. There were more surprises at home! Birthday cake - strawberry cheesecake! I LOVE IT! Yummmmmm... Thoughtful BQ knew I already had many cakes so he got me a small one. Happy birthday to me... and I made the same wish. He didn't try to guess my wish, but I think he knows what it is and made the same wish for me too. Haha. A little present for me before I decide what I want to buy. Another of my favourites - CHOCOLATES! I love love love chocolates. And Royce chocolates never fail me. Yummy yum yum.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

:: quarter century part 2 :: :: Friday night with Uni bosom mates :: Remember that beautiful bouquet of roses? Not only I propped them proudly on my desk, I brought them out on my Friday outing. I struted down Vivo City proudly with my big RAD bouquet of roses and it was like BOOMZ. Wasn't in a PISS of BIGINI though. Just a nice blue flowery dress. The 3 musketeers [boy & girl combi] look at that leftmost constipated face It was the last last last thing on my mind that these guys would celebrate my birthday. I really thought they forgot! Like good old times, the September babies - Adrian and I would have a birthday celebration combo. Here we go... awfully chocolate cake! Posing with our cake and present. $40 Vivo vouchers for each of us. We suspected that Qilin got some staff discount being Vivo's landlord. Haha.. Making our birthday wishes.. I wish I wish I wish.... Hmm... so many people guessed correctly what my birthday wish was this year. Am I really so predictable?!?! Boys are boys. Look at that excited look. Come on, it's just cutting the cake. Do you have to be like you're high on drugs, Adrian??! And guess what, this WHOLE cake was dinner for the 4 of us. Yes, we each had a quarter of the cake. *puke puke* 3 good guys + 1 babe We look like we were in Japan! Wow... photographic effects. Actually, we were only in Food Republic Foodcourt in Vivo City. Speaking of tightening of belts... when we were students, we celebrated at Fish N' Co, Crystal Jade etc. Now we are all working adults... we celebrate at a foodcourt! It was still very very joyous though. I love you all no matter where you celebrate my birthday! We can even go to a hawker centre next year and I will still be happy! Qilin.... my dearest qmzm... who got us our vouchers, cake and planned the whole surprise. 嗯。。。你最好了你。。

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

:: quarter century :: I turned a quarter century about 2 weeks ago. And I started celebrating before the actually day... and I'm still celebrating... Every year, my birthday lasts a long long time because I have so many people who love me which I'm very grateful for. I love all of you too! So, there will be several parts to this birthday post. :: 11 Sep - Birthday lunch with Poly friends :: We knew each other in Poly year one - 2001. That's 8 years ago! Wow.. and it's amazing we're still in touch. Not regularly but yea, we still click and never run out of topics when we meet up. Mister soon-to-be-married Wenjie bought us beautiful ladies nice dim sum lunch at Peach Garden. Great view of the city from the 33rd floor of OCBC building Mister soon-to-be-married in his own words... “世界又要少一个好男人了” Ermmmm..... The dimpled babes

:: office surprise :: Someone sent a bouquet of roses to my office and it invited lots of "oohhss and ahhhss" and attention. I secretly enjoyed the attention - those who came up and just passed compliments and wished me Happy Birthday. Not those who exclaim so loudly that the entire office could hear and attract everyone to crowd around my bouquet of roses - those are a big turn off for me. No no no. I hate that. I propped the bouquet up proudly on my desk. There there there... you can see it. My desk is quite a mess though, hmmm but that's because I was working very hard. My desk is very messy when I'm at work. When it's clean, you know I'm not doing work. After our dreadful weekly Friday sales meeting, my team brought out a birthday cake for me. 2nd surprise!! Actually, it was not really asurprise; I sort of expected it. But I was still very happy that everyone was still in the mood to celebrate for me. That Friday was a terrible Friday for the whole team. As a team, we were 1 of the worst performers; and even our team leader got a thrashing from the sales head. Still, they put on their nicest smile and celebrated my birthday for me. And they sang a really loud birthday song ... Thank you so so much Team B! Thank you thank you thank you! My favorite cake from HANS. Chocolate Truffle. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to get a cake from HANS. Most of the food at HANS suck, but this cake rocks! :) Team B B for Best! You guys are the best! Thank you!!!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

:: happy teacher's day :: Happy Teacher's Day to everyone. As I've always said... everyone is a teacher to someone. So this day is a day to wish everyone a Happy Teacher's Day! After about 2 years of not giving tuition, I still receive many Teacher's Day wishes from my dear students. Very very happy to receive messages on my blog and in my phone. ".... so far my youngest and prettiest teacher..." ".... thanks for guiding....appreciate you..." or even a simple "Happy Teacher's Day" All these messages from students put a smile to my face. They also have themselves to thank for putting in the effort to excel in what they do. I probably only provided that extra little push or guidance but they are still so appreciative. It feels good to be appreciated... to know that you have made a difference in someone's life. Thank you so much you sweet students! (you know who you are!)