a new year!
January 1st 2013 is ending but it is not too late to sum up the things I am grateful for for 2012...
1) The opportunity to celebrate the new year (2012) in Taipei with some of my cousins. An awesome holiday...
2) Lunar New Year: a time spent with both maternal and paternal family with feasting
3) The colleagues I met in Rhodia and now, a new opportunity in a new company.
4) My niece and nephew, the terror and smelly baby, who spent 2 months with my family along with my 2nd sis... I missed them and wished they are back...
5)My darling pineapples, who despite our busy schedules, still make the effort to meet up regularly, and motivate each other in life, relationships and exercise...
6) A chance to go for a short weekend getaway with my two fellow guides buddies, the three musketeers(?!). We are usually joined at the hips during guides, despite being in different patrols and positions. We finally had a holiday together, even though it was to Bintan and not Spain (after like 9 years since we graduated from STC?)
7) Another tribute to my alma mater STC, to which I went back for some alumni event to see how the school looked like, and met with fellow schoolmates. No matter how we don't like our schools, it is still a place where we forge everlasting friendship and a place that held fond memories. If not for STC, I will never meet my pineapples, and be part of the Three Musketeers.
8) Threesomes! Sara and Lik... Without them, my whatsapp groups are not so scandalous sounding... I'm glad Sara could fly back to Singapore for a holiday from the ulu cold faraway place country known as Canada... Had an awesome birthday playing tourists...
9) How can I forget my Divas from poly? May we take part in more picnics and runs in 2013!
10) The foreign workers here in Singapore. I don't care what those bigoted Singaporeans say.. I am grateful that you guys are here making our lives better by doing the jobs we do not want... I know many of you did not choose these jobs but thanks anyway for keeping our streets clean, constructing our buildings where we live work and play and service (even if not all of you are that fanstatic, but as the hokkiens say: mai hiam buay pai)
11) My government, who despite not making all very good sound decisions (to each our own opinions), we are not in the state of despair like some developed countries facing very bad financial crisis. They do deserve some thanks as no matter what people say, it is not easy being the top guys (although they have plenty of minions)... My country is not in the reds and I have my basic needs provided for.
12) Last but not least, God and my family. Without them, what is 2012 and 2013?!
mich..
11:57 pm
1.5 months in the workforce and I'm still surviving. Work is so far so good, with a few OT here and there. That's the downside about my job - overtime. On the lighter note, I'm "actively" running every Thursday (or try to) with my Pineapples, although with different reason from them. They are crazy. They run to lose weight because they think they are FAT while I just run to A) accompany them B) keep fit... I'm kinda worried for some of them... But it is their life.. not that running is not good.. but excessive exercise when you dont even love it is not and not forgetting the diets... They wanna be slimmer and wear cheap online clothes... and obsessed with the weight... and here I am treating the run as my regular form of exercise to be healthy... since it is recommended to have regular exercise.. haha...
mich..
11:38 pm
Horrible service experience over at Party World @ Nex
If you ever want to go KTV around Serangoon area, I won't recommend the Party World over at Nex. Simply because the experience there was horrible. No doubt my friends and I had an enjoyable time singing, but service wise it is questionable. There were a few things that ticked us off. Firstly, 3 of us (XH, HR and AC) had ordered our 2nd drinks (each of us were entitled 2 drinks) somewhere in the middle of our session. We waited and no drinks came even after about 1 hour, when the remaining 3 of us ordered our drinks. We went out to remind them and they came in to take our orders (KP, SP and I) as I thought they already had the original three orders. KP, SP and my drinks arrived and the other 3 drinks were still missing. We reminded them and still no drinks arrived. Bear in mind that this happened when it was during our last one hour of our session. We waited until we called both for room service and went out to speak to the staff for our remaining drinks to arrived. Not long after this incident, our session had ended and we proceeded to check-out. The next thing that made us boiled was payment! We found out that they never keyed in our details and have to wait. The waiting game we played with them was not fun at all. There was no one asking us for last order or even giving us the bill while we were in the room (which is a standard procedure with most KTV including Party World). It was like they had forgotten about us. Other minor details we faulted with them includes: 1) unable to refill snacks bowls; 2) they want us to order our drinks via the online system, YET the menu were not complete. What we saw online were considerably less than what was reflected on the physical menu; and 3) even though we ordered online, they did not entertain our request, which brought me back to the point where they forgotten about us.
Their only saving grace was that they apologetic enough to give us a 50% discount (they only charged us for 3 pax instead of 6) without us asking. However, I am pretty sure that none of us will be gracing them with our presence ever again.
I would gladly pay slightly more and go to Kbox where at least I know I will get better service and a better deal, not like as if Party World is cheap in the first place. This whole experience just reminded me why I didn't like to go to Party World. I don't seems to have good experiences with them.
mich..
1:14 am
After a spell of joblessness (yes, I left Rhodia after my contract ended), I'm starting work tomorrow at a Japanese company. Fun. So what had I been doing for the past 2.5 months of bumming around? Well, Jessie came back for holidays so I was a part time babysitter and tour guide. Not that I am complaining. I do miss the one terror and smelly baby. The house is now very much quieter and after they left in June, I slept my July away (as well as going for interviews etc.). One thing I'm going to miss about being a bummer - my afternoon naps. Ah well, work = income = money to spend. However, as my new job requires me to wear uniforms, I can't shop for clothes anymore. Bummer. More excuse to buy shoes then. =D
mich..
10:59 pm
Bintan getaway...
Over the 14/15 April weekend, Jo, Lik and I finally went on our beach getaway. As with most other trips we planned, it was either cancelled (WYD Madrid 2011) or modified. Our beach getaway was shortened to the weekend and it was either Bintan or Batam (of course we chose Bintan). This was my 2nd trip to Bintan, the first being 2 years ago for a company retreat. Both times I stayed at Nirwana resorts, which I will recommend to anyone. Nirwana is pretty much self contain, with a wide range of activities available, paid or free. Food is also not a problem as there are eateries of varying pricing scattered around the resort. The best part is that there are a range of accommodation too, from the cheaper rooms of the Beach Club (which we stayed) to the mid range rooms of Nirwana Garden Resort (where the hotel, buffet breakfast and pool are at) to the more expensive villas (Mansa Sari *I think that's the spelling* where the Spa resort is located... similar to that of Banyan Tree but cheaper).
Upon arriving at the resort, we went to Pasar Oleh Oleh for lunch a traditional Indonesian massage, which was quite shiok.. After which, we checked into our hut and went to the beach abate the rain. Tested out my Waterproof bag for the camera. It works. For just $14, I am now able to use my camera in water, or water related activities without fearing my camera will be spoilt due to contact of water. =D We had pizzas for dinner and it was GOOD! Had them at the F&B outlet at the Beach Club. After dinner, we were suppose to pig out after putting on our masks. Bad idea. After the mask session, we were so relax that we slept - at 10pm!! It was a pretty good sleep.
The next morning, after breakfast, we went wakeboarding, or tried out wakeboarding (in my case). Conclusion: Michelle has no arm power at all... I even had the privilege of having a personal instructor to come down to the water to tell me what to do.. hahaha.. Honoured indeed.. After wakeboarding, we went back to our room to "nua" and tried to dry our wet stuff before checking out.. After that, we continued drying our stuff at the F&B outlet of the Beach Club since we were under the sun. "So Aunty" according to Jo. Three guesses of what we had for lunch - YES, pizza and garlic bread again... haha.. we rested some more before heading to the pool, just so we can have a feel of the infinity pool and lounge at the "jaccuzzi" section. Thunder and lightning soon followed and we went to the beach (don't make sense I know) where Lik and I started throwing frisbee at each other and Jo played with her camera. We finally decided it was time to wash up and and lounge by the beach (the same old Beach Club F&B outlet) drinking coconut till it was time for our pick-up to the ferry terminal. We accomplish all of that except for the coconut.. they ran out =(. We had ice-cream instead. Oh well...
All in all, we had a real good relaxing fun time in Bintan and dreaded to go back to work on Monday. Back to reality. But that's life...
mich..
11:30 pm
Having a kid at home is bad for your mental health in a way. My 3 year old niece is staying with us for 3 months and by the 3rd day, I degenerated to a 3 year old kid, playing with (more like entertaining) her. We had a stuffed toy war - my purple carebear vs one of my thumper (in her words, bear bear vs rabbit..). Ran around the playground, and I concluded I'm too old for them.. I was surrounded by kids and my only way down was the sliding pole. I do not have much problem sliding down.. only had problem getting to the pole since the "doorway" was kinda narrow.. ended up bumping myself.. Asides from our playground adventures, my family, especially my sister and I who are her entertainers when we not at work, have to watch children shows with her. There is only so much Playhouse Disney, Sesame Street (cue Elmo song), Chuggington etc we can watch.. It's different from wanting to watch to reminisce our childhood, and watching it because we have to.. on repeat mode... Signing off... "La la lala. La la lala. Elmo's song...."
mich..
10:59 pm
OK.. I finally dragged my butt to write a new post, keeping this blog alive. Hooray!! I wonder, what's the point of having a blog nowadays, when everything is being posted/shared/keep track off online via twitter, facebook, path etc?? Ah well... I simply love weddings. It is the more enjoyable and happier occasion where you get to see "everybody". The only time where you will get to see most of your friends or relatives (especially relatives) is either during a wedding or a funeral. Just attended one of my cousins' wedding. What a boisterous affair with practically the whole village participating. Massive crowd indeed. Also, it is a good thing to have a huge family. Reason being, they are your wedding helpers - ushers, receptionists, treasurer, and most importantly, your coolies.. hahaha...
mich..
6:59 pm
