The Great Rewind

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~*January rewind*~

New Year's day

On the 1st day of 2009, we had a paternal relatives gathering at some restaurant in a clubhouse. An aunt of ours who migrated to Taiwan was back on our sunny shores since I last saw her a decade ago. She's a very gentle and pleasant lady who doesn't like taking photos due to her shyness. She suggested that we had to take photos of her unknowingly or she would look unnatural. Thus, we accosted her in order to have a picture with her.




The only nephew on this side of the family is such a cute and hyperactive cheeky little boy. All his uncles and aunts (who are my cousins) love to play with him.






His mummy is the oldest cousin and I always think she's such a hot mama. As I'm typing this, she has since given birth to a healthy baby girl. That's another addition of 4th generation.



Our Taiwan aunt actually gave all the cousins an envelop each. She called us, "xiao peng you" (little friend) as she handed out the envelops in order of rank. In each envelop was a blue note.


Some random shots






The older generation








The cousins' tables








After dinner, we hung around and snapped lotsa group pictures.

Family portrait


The cousins + 1 nephew


All the xiao1 tiao2 aka younger cuz




Oh yes a day before, I hung out my my sis and kh. We had jap food for the last dinner of 2008 and boy was it such a spread! We finished everything and felt so full.






After that, it was off to Zouk with kh's friends for the countdown.



As usual, that's kh being silly with my large bauble bead necklace.


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JW & Reg's Wedding

It was a boy meets girl, boy marries girl affair. Some jc mates were remarking that it was like watching 2 kids getting married as they've been a couple since schooling days.















Pardon my awkward pose above, wq and I thought we had to bend to allow all to fit into the frame. Obviously we were mistaken.

It was great to meet up with the jc bunch. I was surprised that we were the noisiest table. Actually for most friends' weddings I've been to, I always happen to sit at the noisiest table but I hadn't quite expected to be branded as the noisiest table with this bunch of friends that day. It then dawned on me that back in school, we were so super siaoz whenever we go out in uniform and behaving like siao kids. However, we've toned down quite a fair bit after we started going out to the working world.


We were so onz that we were the last table of guests to leave. Not until we see the drunk jw spouting nonsense. He was hilarious!



Credit: 90% of photos ripped from wq's Facebook. Thanx ah. ;)

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Springcleaning for CNY

As you can see, my room was in a mess at that time. Now? There's nothing on the floor at all. However, the same can't be said for my current room.





My room was filled with so many things as I often keep stuff with sentimental value such that when new stuff comes along, I simply leave them in their paper bags till I wanna use them.

When the barang barang started to engulf the puzzle lying against the wall, my mum chastised me for being so untidy and "unsentimental" coz of the puzzle. The puzzle was a gift from kh few years back and she wondered why it had been on the floor for the same number of years too.

"Why you dowan to hang the puzzle?"

"Coz on the floor very artistic ma."

It remained on the floor till before my wedding day.



dead shrivelled lizard



For Teachers' Day 2008, I only started unwrapping my presents when I was doing my springcleaning in 2009. That's quite awful eh? My mum always wonders in amazement how I could leave my gifts in paper bags unwrapped till they start to collect dust.








Same goes for the xmas gifts from colleagues







As mentioned last year or was it the year before I don’t like Teachers’ Day gifts. I love receiving gifts. I just don’t wanna open them as I know the presents would look a lot prettier neatly wrapped in colourful wrappers.


While clearing my old magazines, I realised that Fiona Xie is one hot chick who looks fabulous in any clothes. Even if she's clad in garish garb, she still looks so chio.







She's one lucky bitch.


Objects with sentimental value... snap a pic and off to the dustbin they go.



Above:
- Jotter book used to jot down rough notes during NUS lectures before transfering them neatly onto foolscap papers. That's the most important book in my life back then.
- The words "Jolene" and "Barang" were written by me. One fine day, kh and I went to the old National library to study. Actually it was just me researchin for a project work while kh armed with a comic book in his hands, accompanied me and sat at the table buried in his book. When I packed up my stuff, I saw the addition to my cover page and was quite tickled by it.
- Do you get the Chinese joke? Think dirty. I heard this over the radio and thought it was simply cool.


Another important book during uni days.




I've to throw this away too as over the years, the dust stuck between the grooves is too difficult to remove. As I was cleaning, a petal broke.




I found my nerdy blue specs in jc. Blue specs were all the rage during those times




Do you know why I post this up? Clue: Scrutinize the sofa.



Ans: I cleaned the sofa with a "magic sponge" which only required water. No soap needed at all. Look at how white that magic sponge made the sofa. I used to clean the sofa every year with very strong cleaner such that the skin on my hands would peel. With this sponge, all I did was add some water, rub and wipe the excess water with a dry cloth. I did not even have to use brute force to rub the sofa. Really quite amazing.




In preparation for CNY, I cut thick and blunt fringe for a new look. Everyone in my family hated it and asked if the hairdresser had made a mistake.




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CNY Eve

On cny eve, my dad was clearing the freezer and decided to arrange the dead prawns (that my da jie caught a while back) all in a row and got us to to basin to take a look. He's a funny dad.



If you think that the prawn with blue pincers up there is huge, I've got a story for it a few paragraphs below.

Have I already mentioned that fish people are funny people?

My da jie used to keep an arowana which died a while back. Its scales was gleaming golden with raindow tinge. My dad thought it was beautiful and instead of putting it in a plactic bag and throwing down the chute as what normal people would do, he wrapped it nicely in a transparent plastic bag and preserved it in the freezer.

I told you fish people are funny.

What did you say? U wanna see the beautiful arowana?

Hell no, I didn't snap a pic of the arowana!

Anyway I've forgotten if I've posted these pix on my blog before.

The wee morning when my da jie came back with a HUGE catch sometime in November.





"My goodness? Is that a lobster or a prawn?" I exclaimed.

"It's a prawn!" My sister answered excitedly.

"Well, it's a damn huge prawn then."

It was still alive and my sister decided to call it "lam gong" which means blue pincers in hokkien.

"That freaking prawn has a name? Now how are we gonna eat it?" I wailed, the thought bubble of having prawn steak poofed in the air.

My sis wasn't intending on eating it as it was quite an exhibit.

Comparing the size of lam gong with the next biggest prawn of that morning.




We cooked the rest of the dead prawns though.



The roe looks delicious right? *Bleah* It's nothing at all like those flavoured ones you see on sushi. Freshwater prawns are actually not tasty or maybe we should have bbq-ed them or something.

Lucky bastard got to live in the tank and bullied all the other prawns. It even ate some of them. Prawns are pretty cannibalistic; always feeding on their own kind whenever the victim was moulting. I hate lam gong! I was quite relieved when it died.



Some prawn videos...





These are the prawns my sis caught and kept in an aquarium tank at home. By the time I'm typing this, they're all dead. Ate one another up. I think it's really amazing how their roe could float on the exterior of their bodies without falling off.

Watch this till the end


If I'm not wrong, lam gong is still in the freezer as I'm typing this.

I told you fish people are funny.

After that, we went to ah ma's place for reunion dinner as usual. Didn't snap any photos except that of cheeky Dylan.

He's always moving around that it's quite hard to get a clear shot of him. This is the only clear one.




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CNY Day 1

As I was doing the collages for the CNY photos, I realised that I don't have any photos taken at maternal relatives' houses this year. The "population" at maternal side is too large and visiting of various houses would be short and hurried. We have more than 10 nieces and nephews while over at paternal side it's just Dylan who is doted by all.

Anyway here's my look of the day


The original dress was a long one which I personally don't like coz I'm a shorts and short skirt kinda gal. Hence, I altered it so short such that it gathered at the sides and am loving the dress since then.

DIY curls to go with my toot fringe



Beautiful springtime flowers at ah ma's place.




Cheeky Dylan who always has a cheeky smile plastered on his face was super grouchy here as he had just woken up. Can never have good shots with him.




He smiled at the sight of goodies.




After dinner, the du guis played Blackjack. Many people kept getting blackjack. Poor banker! I won about $50. Considering that my bets started from $2, I think that's quite a haul.




Feeling bored at night, the cousins decided to do for a chill out/ drinking session. However everywhere was crowded and we voted to go to the airport. When du gui/ jiu gui cuz asked the older generation if they wanna tag along, they were game for it. Hence, the whole entourage of us including my ah ma zipped off to Changi Airport at 11pm. It was so crowded there too.




Drink drank drunk






Interesting sticker found on one of the beer bottles. The sticker is currently stuck on my camera coz my du gui/ jiu gui cuz pasted it there and I tot it was cute so I did not remove it.




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CNY Day 2

On Day 2, we went to small aunt's place.

Her hubby is a good cook and I always love eating the dishes prepared at their place. It was western cafe-restaurant style in the day and steamboat at night. This is the uncle whom I wrote about last CNY about serving alcoholic drinks as beverages. Packet drinks cannot be sighted in their home. Oh there are bottled soft drinks but he forbade us to drink them unless we used them as mixers. *LoL*




Some random shots...



Trying to "shake" a 666.




Family portrait taken at small aunt's wedding a few years back.


Intriguing art



Times have changed. The xiao tiaos were the ones hogging the mahjong table. Hmm... actually it has alwiz been like this!



As usual, everyone would gamble. The circle got larger as more people decided to join in the fun. The bankers were very chum.





jiu gui / du gui cuz said he purposely wore the "Winner" shirt as he wanna be a winner.


Even little Dylan joined in. I gave him a 50c coin and told him to place it at a designated spot. He seemed to think it was really fun. When everyone screamed coz banker went bust, he also screamed and laughed cheekily. That's him feeling all squirmy at the touch of ice.




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CNY Day 3

It was my off day and I think I spent Day 3 slacking and doing work at home. Day 3 would usually see relatives gathering at my place. However for the past 2 years, we've stopped the tradition.


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CNY Day 4

Sidenote: Charmaine's cancer was not yet discovered during CNY

I took halfday leave coz it was the 1st time cyn and the kids would be visiting my place. For the whole day, I could not concentrate at work and wished I could fast forward the time to their visit.

When they arrived, the kids presented me with a box of Roche chocolates.

Charmaine whispered to me, "I tell you ah. Later you must open the chocolate ok?"

I guessed she wanted to eat them, that's why. Haha...

Oh yes, cyn seems to be the only one who liked my new hair.

She exclaimed, "Look like Fann Wong!!!"

... to which I went, "Huh? That's not a good thing! Her current hairstyle not very nice leh."

That was the first time my family members saw the kids. They called my mum "ah ma" and she was beaming all the way. She prepared and cooked lots of food for them but unfortunately their eating habit was warped coz of the eating of goodies during the CNY period and they could not finish the food.


After eating, we did a yum seng with our Yakult. Boy did we "yum" really loudly.



When my dad returned from work, cyn instructed the kids to call "ah gong" and they chorused like well-mannered kids "AH GONG!". I could see how happy my dad was too. They like the kids a lot.

My sisters also found them very cute but they were quite shy towards my sisters which is SO NOT THE CASE now. After Charmaine's cancer was discovered, my sisters visited them at their place and got bullied by them. Hahaha...

Jasejase came up to me and asked if I could open the chocolate and I said ok.

He said, "I tell you ah. You don't tell mummy I tell you to open ok?"

Wahahaha... such cheeky kids! First it was char then now jase.




Charchar my cutie little poser queen



After a while, the kids got bored coz my house ain't got any suitable toys for them. Then I dragged out my big bag of old Happy Meal toys and soon they were having fun with them.



And then I found some stickers stashed somewhere so we had a sticker pasting frenzy.






Jasejase my precious moment boyboy.


My sis also commented that he looks like those Precious Moments boys.

shots taken by Jase...


shots taken by Char...


Parting shot


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Continue watching this space. Gonna meet a babe now. =)

Signing off at 6pm,
Jo
20-09-2009
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~*February rewind*~

Suyin's Birthday cum Charity Gig

Attended an old friend's charity gig. I thought the gig that she did for her birthday was really meaningful. I could cry reading some of the kids' stories in the booklet. So cute, innocent yet determined to survive.

Suyin's such talented gal. Violin, keyboard, vocals...I think she would even play her clarinet the next time round.








Lo Hei at Work

We had a post CNY lo hei session with my department peeps.






Fallen petals

During this time of the year, the trees along the road near my block would start to have flowers blooming in beautiful pink. I can't figure out the name of the trees but I read from the Straits Times a while back that they're dubbed the Singapore Sakura.








Byng & WL's wedding at Grand Copthorne

Byng was very pretty that night. Her evening gown was a beautiful shade of red.

WL was ever the gentleman. He sang a song for her and my my, his voice was good. It became a mini WL concert for that little while. When the lights dimmed, people started waving their arms in the air. Light sticks ought to have been provided to complete the whole mini concert feel.

I took a video of him singing but guess I won't post or upload it anywhere.

Once again, we were the noisiest table thanx to kh who kept cheering and also thanx to all VIOS and their partners who YUM SENG soooooooooooooooooo long and loudly.









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~*March rewind*~

March updates here.

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Continue watching this space. Got 4732092373 more stuff to do than to blog.

Signing off,
Jo
30092009
3.37am

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~*April rewind*~

Metta & Colin's Wedding

That was the 2nd time I attended a wedding at One Rochester. Once again, a small scale wedding is such a cozy affair.

Everything about the wedding is so Metta. This is one couple who walked quickly and ran out to the fast number I Wanna Hold Your Hands instead of marching out. Meanwhile, the guests held sparklers up in the air.

Their speech was cute and humorous. Could really sense the love between them. I think they've been together for 10 years... no?

I simply love Metta's wedding dress. It's a beautiful white cheongsam with intricate lace design.

We were pretty impressed by Colin's memory. He gave all of us Shi****a babes firm handshakes and addressed us by our first names without any prompts from Metta as he looked us in the eye despite seeing us only once or twice.










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Psst... Your photo is in Style Magazine

One day, my sister was doing her hair at this salon when she started flipping an issue of Style magazine. She stopped short when she saw me in one of the photos. She recognised my bimbo friends too. The next moment, she was asking the stylist if she could cut out that page.

That was taken during the Style Party at Bellini Grande.

So my bimbo sisters... this photo is dedicated to you babes. My sis specially cut out for you all hor.



During that period of time, Bimbo Zanne commented that we better stop chiong-ing so much for our pictures may end up everywhere. Haha... Her relative saw our photos in one of the magazine/ newsletter and scanned it to send it to her.



That was way back in 2006 at Ink Club Bar. Ok to be honest, I can't remember the name of the bar at all until I looked back at my older posts. Wonder if the bar is still around.

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Click here for the rest of April's updates.


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~*May rewind*~

Mother's Day Dinner at The Pasta Shop

My er jie recommended The Pasta Shop at Wheelock Place after having had dinner there a while back and found the food to be not bad. Since, our family always go to Jap place for celebrations, we decided it was time for a change.

Before that, I haven't heard of The Pasta Shop and was expecting Italian. It turned out to be those fusion Jap pasta. I don't quite like Japanese pasta as somehow my tastebud doesn't like Asian flavour going hand in hand with pasta. As expected, some of the pasta wasn't great. However, the rest of the food that day was not too bad. My parents enjoyed their food tremendously and that was what is important.





The ice wine at the bottom left is not from the restaurant of course. My da jie bought it. I personally like it for the fact that it is not as sweet as most other dessert wines. Good ice wine should be sweet but not cloyingly sweet such that it lingers on your tastebuds.

Some nuggets of info about ice wine:
"Ice wine (or icewine, as one word, or in German, Eiswein) is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing a more concentrated grape must to be pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of more concentrated, very sweet wine. With ice wines, the freezing happens before the fermentation, not afterwards."

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine]


My sis likes to take ugly candid shots of me.

"Why you look so sleepy huh?"

"Because I am."



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Jase's Birthday

Every year, Cynthia would throw a huge party for her 2 precious kids together even though Jase's birthday is on 20th May and Charmaine's birthday is on 14th July. It's more convenient to celebrate both birthdays together plus the kids are so close to each other. However, with Charmaine's diagnosis, things changed this year and so Jase's birthday celebration was a mini one on a Saturday with just some close friends of cyn.

Little Charmaine was so cute when she told mummy she wanted to celebrate her birthday earlier than kor kor. I think she was unable to comprehend why kor kor's birthday had to be held earlier than hers this year.

The kids started to tear the wrappers off the present and at the same time called out to cyn mummy for permission to open. Hahaha... Cyn ah... your 2 xiao3 gua1 ah.









Durian cake was a wise choice as our feisty princess doesn't like durian and so would not pester to have some cake too. It was so cute how she acted like it was her birthday when she helped to cut the cake.


Jase playing with his toys



~

Jase was to have a birthday celebration in his school on the actual day. However, cyn mummy had to be in NUH with little Charmaine and was unable to attend his party in school. Hence, Charlene jie jie and Godma Jolene were to surprise him at school that day.

We met in Cynthia's house to bring the huge cake (from cyn mummy) and Power Ranger jelly (courtesy of Aunty June and me) to Jase's school.

That day, we found out that we could train up our arm muscles by simply carrying a box of cake or jelly and walking across a main road and a few streets. Guaranteed toned arms.

When we reached the school, the kids were still having their afternoon nap. Then after a certain timing, the kids got up automatically and dragged their mattresses to keep. Really adorable. We tried to spot Jase but couldn't.

His form teacher told us to wait a moment while she got the class ready for the celebration. It turned out that the classrooms are simply partitions separated by low walls and Jase's "classroom" was way back at the corner.

Finally, his teacher led us to the classroom. We saw Jase sitting at the middle table all by himself looking lost while his classmates were seated obediently on both the left and right tables. They were clearly excited as they kept craning their necks and eyeing the boxes on the table. Despite being excited, they heeded their teacher's instructions and sat rooted to their seats.

Jase looked really blur and sleepy as he sat at the table all alone. Then when he saw us, he let out his cheeky smile for he was really surprised to see us.

When we opened the boxes, all his classmates were awed by the cake and jelly. Some stood up to have a closer look. With just a firm warning from the form teacher, all of them scrambled back to their seats.

Really well-behaved and cute kids they are!

Some of them shouted from their seats,

"Jase you so good. Your cake got toys."

"Jase, later can play with your toys?"


Bottom left to right pix shows Jase on the phone with cyn mummy.




Once the form teacher gave the green light to crowd around the table, the children made a beeline for the centre table and tried to stand as close to the cake as possible.




Bottom left to right pix shows Jase giving out his birthday goodies pack to his classmates. Really kudos to cyn for being able to think about Jase's classmates goodie bags even when she's so bz with Charmaine.



There's also a short video of the kids singing the birthday song. However, Youtube is loading slow and Jase was making monkey faces at the camera and so I'll probably not upload it. =D

We had lots of fun interacting with the kids. It's been a loooong time since I last interacted with so many kids of that age. The kids were really sticky to us visitors and were really chatty. All of them are really cute but I happen to really like Jase's best friend. He's such a cute and innocent looking boy. Those tanned tanned, puppy dog eyes kind.

We were amazed at their voracious appetites. Some even ate 3 slices of cake! Jase's appetite had been really very poor during that priod of time. He merely ate a few mouthfuls of cake and a little slice of jelly.

After Jase had distributed his gift packs, we had to hurry back home to shower him and head down to NUH for the staff at NUH had not only granted Jase's wish of visiting Charmaine (kids were not allowed to visit due to the H1N1 at that time) but had also planned a surprise birthday for him too. They've been too kind and we could not keep them waiting.

Read more about NUH granting Jase's wish in this entry on ourfeistyprincess.

Charlene and I walked back to cyn's house with Jase in the middle holding both our hands, clearly elated at the day's happening. He kept talking and relating to us the day's events. Whenever he reached a "line" on the pavement, he would want to jump across the "river" and so we would have to lift our arms up while he flew forward and went, "Whee!" for like 3947392 times till we got home.

Over at NUH, a team of NUH staff actually gathered together outside the ward to sing Jase a birthday song and presented him with a card, a balloon and a gift.



Jase was so shy seeing all the smiley strangers that he hid behind por por.

What the NUH staff did not see was how Jase tore the wrapper eagerly after they had left.



That's our real Jase!

Charmaine also had a card -- a get well card.



Since our little chubby princess had got a mask on, cyn mummy and jase kor kor decided to cover their mouths to take a pic. Char was really conscious about her mask and was pretty upset that she was made to wear it.



We are really touched and grateful to the NUH staff involved for taking precious time off their busy schedule to arrange a mini celebration for Jase. Looking at the card, we were surprised to see so many big names of NUH there. Everyone's been really very sweet and thoughtful. Jase got to see his dear mei mei and Charmaine got to see her beloved kor kor.

After the hospital visit, I was supposed to bring Jase out to eat the big M as a treat as he hadn't eaten it for quite a long time. His appetite had been so poor that we decided any food would do if he was willing to eat. It was also meant to be a bonding time with godma and godson.

Cyn's dad offered to drive us to the nearest Mac Donald's but he made a wrong turn and we ended up at a very ulu shopping mall in the west coast region which doesn't even have Mac Donald's! How ulu is that?

Just then, we walked past this Chinese restaurant with a huge banner displaying some irresistible promotion of most of their dishes. The juicy red prawns in the banner caught Jase's eyes and he asked gong gong if he could eat that. Both gong gong and por por beamed and was glad that he was requesting for food. I was smiling in my heart too when I saw Jase's eyes light up at the sight of the mini steamboat with prawns.

Most of the dishes were priced reasonably and so we ordered quite fair bit of food. I was too pai seh to snap pictures of them with cyn's parents around and only snapped this mini steamboat which I shared with Jase.



He ate almost half of this on top of gong gong's ee fu mee and some other tim sum. We were really thrilled at his huge appetite. Gong gong kept commenting that that was the most he had ever seen Jase eaten in a long time.

Jase was really very cute with his antics and words that the aunty waitress displayed a strong affection for him. She also commented that I'm very young. Me think she thinks I'm his mum. Hahaha...

I was so pleased with Jase's behaviour that day. He is most pleasant and agreeable and I'm so proud of him and proud of cyn for bringing him up so well.

He was really active and restless the whole day. Even on gong gong's cab on our way home, he was chatting non-stop and asked me to read him some stories from the book given by the NUH staff.

He was really cute and I was so glad to see him feeling so happy on his birthday even though he only spent less than an hour with mummy and mei mei.

After a while, he became really quiet as he leaned against me and fell asleep. When we reached home, I tried waking him up and saw a bead of tear at the outer corner of his eye. My heart ached when I saw that coz I didn't understand why he was tearing.

At that time, I wondered if he had missed mummy or mei mei or suddenly felt sad that mummy wasn't around to spend his birthday with him.

He was roused from his sleep and rubbed his eyes. Then, he slowly got out of the cab and held my hand, looking dazed.

I felt so sorry for him that I was about to bend down to hug him.

The next moment, he transformed into a little Merlion and I had his puke all over my thighs and shoes.

So that was why he was tearing! He wasn't feeling well. I guessed he overate that day. While I was washing myself and my shoes, that cheeky boy could actually ask for milk!

That's just how our Jasejase is.


~*~*~*~*~

F4 Tim Sum Gathering

Whenever I think of tim sum, I would think of this lame line:

"Hi, my name is Timothy Sum. You may call me Tim Sum."

So the F4 met up for an ala carte tim sum buffet at Jing, One Fullerton for my advanced birthday celebration cum meet up session.







For the variety of food available, I must say that the price is reasonable. We're also entitled to order chilli crab. I think it's a per table kinda deal.

I wouldn't mind dropping by again for tim sum brunch with my family the next time. The food was good but there were some dishes which used the same wasabi mayo sauce. We love wasabi mayo but got quite sick of the taste when we ordered 3 different dishes all laced with the same sauce.


Em says I alwiz fu1 yan3 her. Ok la... dun say I no goot ok? I post big big picture of you and your drawing on my blog for a memento of your sudden inspiration ok?




Off for tea at The Cookie Museum, Esplanade after brunch...

I love the Victorian decor to bits.

I walked past that place a few times and felt that I simply had to sip tea and eat cookies like some tai tai at that chi chi place one day. Hence, when em suggested The Cookie Museum, I was thrilled to fulfil my tai tai wish for just that day.

Alas, no photography allowed (quite snobbish eh?) so I had to scour for photos of its interior on Google. I hope the author doesn't come after me.





[Credit: www.sgdessert.com]



We had to snap these discreetly lor!



The tea was good but the price was hefty and the service was blah. Seriously, for the amount we're paying, they should really provide better service.

Whatever la. At least I've attained what I've wanted -- To sit on the plush chairs and sip tea like a tai tai. I dare say that was what all of us wanted too. ;P


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Bimbos at Queen & Mangosteen

On the eve of my birthday, I met up with the bimbo sisters. We all thought that the name of the restaurant sounded bimbotic and pinkish and voted to have our meet up cum advanced birthday celebration cum jie mei meeting for my wedding there.

The decor is anything but pink and bimbotic. Its ambience is reminiscent of an English lounge with brick walls, dark wood surfaces and dim lighting.

There were quite a number of raves for this place but the food certainly didn't match up to what I was expecting. Just take a look at the soup. The "skin" was already formed when it was served to us. The steak was well done instead of medium rare (or was it medium?)





Maybe we ordered the wrong the dishes. I shall try out other dishes should I visit Queen & Mangosteen again in future.

My crazy jie meis










When I was out shopping with the bimbos, I received a phone call which I didn't quite like at all. I was really very very sian of all the last minute changes for our wedding back then and was almost immuned to any more bad news.

And then this sweet mms came and brightened up my night instantly:









That's the best birthday gift ever.

But then ah, Jase lost the card. So I've only got photos of it and not the actual card. *Sobz*


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Commercial Time

I particularly like one of the gifts from the bimbos and would like to do a quick write up on it.

The Faceshop Peeling Day White Jewel



On the box, it states:
Precious pearls peeling for bright skin
This peeeling gel contains precious pearl powder that exfoliates the skin surface and removes impurities for skin that glows like pearls.

Description:
Formulated with jewel complex (Tourmaline, Amethyst, Pearl Extract), this exfoliator works like a at-home Crytal peeling which is a very popular peeling treatment done by a dermatologist. Tiny granules are mild on the skin but shows a great brightening.

It feels like Marvel gel. For those who haven't used marvel gel before, the paste turns into rubbery bits when rubbed onto the skin. These bits are actually the dead skin.

As for this product, I could feel micro granules exfoliating my skin gently. The rubbery bits start to form and after that, I could see a peachy glowing effect on my skin. Skin feels velvety smooth after washing it off and I cannot help touching my face each time I use it.

I'll give it 4/5 stars.


~*~*~*~*~

The Line at Shangri-La with Deardear

Kh and I are the stuffers kind and we've been on a trail to whack various buffets which are highly raved about.

The Line at Shangri-La has got countless thumbs up from almost everyone. I often hear my colleagues raving about it as the 2005 D&D was held there. I hadn't joined at that time and decided I would try it out on my birthday.

I dunno if I should review about this place coz I was pretty disappointed when it didn't meet my expectations at all.

The restaurant was enjoying a full house and of course that meant that there were loads of people. It sounded like Lau Pa Sat even when we were a distance away from the entrance.

Dun get me wrong, I love hawker food but I was expecting the ambience to be a little more peaceful. It was afterall a Monday afternoon.

The restaurant was filled with people of all shapes and size and from all walks of life. I spied one or two clad in T shirts and bermudas and mind you, these are not the typical caucasian clad in casual togs we often see as tourists in Singapore. Maybe I should not say anything more than they seem to come from a country where people talk at the top of their voices. Shouldn't there be a proper dress code?

The variety of food was not as overwhelming as what was often described and the quality was so so.

I should probabaly drop by for dinner buffet instead of lunch the next time.


Photos for now...



My appetite has been quite poor and I suspect my stomach has shrunk. I feel really full and bloated with half the amount of food I used to wolf down in the past.

sweetness overload


I think my memory is really bad. I can't remember what we did after lunch. Somehow we ended up at the West in the evening.

For dinner, we went to din tai fung for some Chinese food and realised we haven't taken photos of ourselves yet.






And as I'm typing this I realised something...

*Hollers to kh*

"Where's my present???"

~*~*~*~*~

Birthday Dinner with Family

I forgot the name of the place but the food is not bad.



Each person to a pot!


Yes, I know. I try as much as possible to avoid eating shark's fin after creating some enrichment material for my co with regards to exotic food and cruelty to animals while obtaining them. But but, if that comes as a set, I've got no choice.



~*~*~*~*~

Click here for the rest of May's updates.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Really sleepy now.

Continue watching this space.

Signing off,
Jo
04102009
4.31am
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~*June rewind*~

Meet the Parents Dinner at Peach Garden

Both our parents formally met up to discuss about the wedding over dinner and here are some food photos.



Only a few photos though. My FIL alwiz finds me amusing to take pix of food. Hehe...


~*~*~*~*~

Food Tasting at Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental has got the BEST wedding munu around. Before our wedding, kh and I had never attended any weddings held at MO and hence we weren't aware of how good their food is and their various signature dishes.

We only got to know anout our prudent choice from people who had good experience at MO. Whenever people heard that our wedding was to be held at MO, they all gave the thumbs up and said we could never go wrong with MO, be it the fantastic service or the mouth-watering dishes.

After having experienced all things pleasant during the whole wedding process, the actual day and the follow up, we were really glad that we chose MO to hold our wedding banquet.

There were a few pte msgs on forums and emails (how do you people even get my blog and email @???) etc asking for advice and to share about our wedding at MO.

I would love to do a write up on our experience with MO but I haven't quite got the time. I would also love to share about the various services we engaged for our wedding as the questions asked by many seem to be the same. (Whitelink related, Photoshoot related, JP, wedding advice) I'll definitely do some write-ups should the time permit. It'll be much more convenient if I've got some posts to direct people to.

Here's a little sharing about the food tasting.

Our menu for food tasting:

APPETIZERS

Mandarin Oriental Combination Platter

Silver Bait
Sliced Suckling Pig
Roasted Duck
Jellyfish
Prawn Salad


SOUP

Double-Boiled Shark’s Fin Soup with Chicken


SEAFOOD

Deep Fried King Prawns with Wasabi Mayo Sauce


MEAT

Stewed Duck with Five Treasures
Chestnuts, Red Dates, Sea Whelk, Taro and Lotus Seeds


Braised Baby Abalone and Dried Mushrooms
with Chinese Spinach


FISH

Baked Fillet of Cod in Superior Teriyaki Sauce
(Mock fish head and Tail)


VEGETABLES

Sautéed Broccoli with Fresh Scallops


NOODLES / RICE/ BUN

Crispy Mini Buns with Chilli Crabmeat Sauce


INDIVIDUALLY PLATED WESTERN DESSERTS

Double Happiness (5 portions)
Manjari Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Jelly and Mango


Sweet Passion (5 portions)
Passion Fruit Cream with Crispy Swirl,
Raspberry Compote and Pistachio Tuile


Boy am I hungry just looking at the menu and typing these words out.



1. Mandarin Oriental Combination Platter

2. & 3. Deep Fried King Prawns with Wasabi Mayo Sauce

4. & 5. Stewed Duck with Five Treasures

6. Double-Boiled Shark’s Fin Soup with Chicken

7. Baked Fillet of Cod in Superior Teriyaki Sauce (with Mock fish head and Tail)

8. Individual portion of cod fish

9. Mock fish head and Tail combined




Food at a glance:

Crispy Mini Buns with Chilli Crabmeat Sauce

Sautéed Broccoli with Fresh Scallops

Braised Baby Abalone and Dried Mushrooms
with Chinese Spinach

Manjari Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Jelly and Mango

The ribs glazed with honey at the bottom left corner were complimentary sample from the chef. We weren't supposed to have it but we could not decide if we should opt for the duck for our AD or change to the ribs. Hence, they sneaked 2 pieces for us to try.

The ribs were highly recommended by both our coordinator and chef. After we sampled the ribs, we immediately replaced the duck with the ribs for our AD. The duck was good but the ribs were really delicious. It's also a unique dish as we don't see such food at wedding dinner. For a non-ribs person, I actually liked it a lot.

We also changed our desserts to or nee (yam paste) coz MO's or nee is touted the best by many or nee lovers. We also thought that our menu consisted of too many unique/ fusion dishes that we wanted something traditional for the older generation.

After the whole food tasting, both sets of parents commented that it was the best weding dinner food they've ever eaten in their whole life. Our siblings also had nothing but praises for the food. However as advised by many wedded couples, we were rather strict in our written comments to the chef so as to maintain a high standard during the actual day.

The chef is ever so humble and thanked us for our comments. Our cute wedding coordinator laughed at our comments a day later when she received the slip of paper coz seriously ah, we wrote things like:

"The baby abalone is really baby. Can we have teenager abalones instead?"

Ok you get the drift.




~*~*~*~*~

Before Charmaine's high risk surgery




Here are some videos to share... Those of you who have been following ourfeistyprincess blog closely would have seeen these.

Click on each video to view in the Youtube page and to read video description.


2 days before surgery...

Jase & Charmaine retending to be cocoons & butterflies



Charmaine dancing fan dance in full concentration



Burying my poor sister as they termed her as the dangerous shark



Cheater bugs godkids... I can never win any game played with them



Oh yes, Jase made me a card for no particular reason.



Jase: Godma Jolene, I make for you. [handing the card to me]

Me: Thank you, Jase. You're so sweet.

My sis: Yah right. It's I make wan. He keep asking me to help him draw and colour.


1 day before...


Charmaine on kiddy ride at NUH



Running freely at NUH.


This was taken a day before Charmaine's surgery on 18th June 2009. Cyn mummy was indulging her with whatever she wanted to play that day. At that time, we were worried sick about the outcome of the surgery. Hence, we let her play all she wanted the night before. It's evident that little Charmaine was extremely happy to be running around in the presence of other kids. She was also happy to see "Uncle KH" who should now be termed "Godpa KH". This must be one of her happiest moments before the painful surgery.

Before I left, I gave Char a good long hug coz at that time (choy choy) I really really didn't know how the surgery would turn out. As much I alwiz try to do positive thinking, I'm afraid if things don't turn out as how I've imaged them to be.

Thank God that Charmaine is such a strong-willed little gal.

Her fighting spirits remains up till this moment.


~*~*~*~*~

Cards & Such

This came in really belated but it's the sweet thoughts that count. Imagine coming in to the dreary office and spying a little package on the desk with a note that states:

For Jolene's eyes only

Only to open and find a rather 3D hand-made card.



My superior-colleague left in June and this was what I came up with together with a crystal angel handphone bling (which is "chopped off" in the picture).



That's it for now. Still waiting for photos from her which we snapped during the farewell celebration.

~*~*~*~*~

Click here for the rest of June's updates.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Continue watching this space.

Signing off,
Jo
14102009
3.53am
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~*July rewind*~

Our Big Day on 10th July 2009



I know my frenz wait till become giraffes liao but there are simply too many photos from a few different camera.

600+ from Gideon; 1000+ from my da jie's DSLR.

The file size of the photos from Gideon is huge and my laptop simply hangs once I insert the DVD. Uploading them also takes a long time. Laziness and waiting just don't seem to go well together.

Will do a write up of my wedding with more photos in a new post IF I have the time.


Meanwhile here are some photos which I like and which I happened to have time to upload and wait wait wait.


Daddy and Mummy putting the veil over me



xiong di and jie mei


Just one of the many crazy shots


I realised that there isn't very clear shots of my gown's train from my Whitelink album. It's a pity coz one of the reasons why I chose this gown was for the unique train.



From my cousin-in-law's Facebook. Edited with captions by her.

~~Kehang and Jolene....the lovely cute couple...~~


~~Kehang's with my Takuya Kimura's face again...married liao still so cheeky..hahaha~~


~~hahaha our cousin-in-law also same....=p~~


So while we were posing for my cousin-in-law, Gideon snapped this.



Before the tea ceremony





My favourite shot of the xiong di and jie mei


Changed to kua to return to my family home for tea ceremony and all my jie mei love my kua so must take photo...


but before I go on...

How do you know when a friend is considered a bestie? When she/ they unabashedly exclaims, "Jolene you look so flat in this kua!"

Practically all my jie meis had the same response when they saw me emerging with the kua. Diaoz! -_-|||




Solemnization at Mandarin Oriental's function room with JP Dr Phua Tan Tee to grace the event. I hope to do a write up on Dr Phua. He's really good.

The whole function room was filled with laughter.





Cheeky kh stealing glances at me


and trying so hard not to laugh when I speak.


I do.



The very notti swordbearers who tekan kh no end. They are so cute yet super irritating.





Dear hs managed to capture the whole tekan process on her hp but it's like 10 minutes long. That's up on Facebook so those of you on my list can view it from there. =)

We were so thankful that after all the glitches, we still managed to have our swordbearer march in as what I've always dreamed of.


So we look like gambling king and queen eh?


Gambling king and queen can smile like bai chi too.



Speech & yum seng






I liked how Gideon always managed to capture my mum at her best so here's a photo of my beautiful mum and my very cute lao dou being amused by our speech.



My gawd! I took so long to update the wedding part coz of the slow speed of my laptop!

This laptop is threatening to crash on me and even though I bot a pink laptop recently, I'm SOOOOOOOO lazy to do back up and transferring of data from this laptop to the new one. Yes yes I know I have myself to blame should I lose all my data.

CHOY!


~*~*~*~*~

Some wedding gifts

I was really touched when I received a couple of gifts, cards and even ang pow from colleagues who weren't present at the banquet. They're just so sweet and their gestures really took me by surprise that I was at a loss for words.


This CD was put together by viv with help from a colleague from the marketing department.


It was played in the suite while I was doing my make up but coz I've to constantly shut my eyes during make up, I could not really watch it. Mine and his family members were quite tickled by the video though.


A cheeky cheeky voodoo doll from another colleague.


I'm not exactly close to this colleague of mine even though we're both in the curriculum department. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised when she handed me the gift and card.


Shared gifts from 2 different groups of colleagues.


They're so gao xiao lor!!! Pink mao mao slip and parenting book!!! What were they thinking??? Nonetheless, I was also touched as I'm not particularly close to them too.

The little gestures from nice people makes me all warm and fuzzy.

Even though most of them don't have my blog url, I would still like to shout out a big thank you to them.

THANK YOU!!!


~*~*~*~*~

Charmaine turns 4

14th July 2009... a happy occasion for Charmaine and cyn mummy.

For Charmaine, her happiness is of pure innocence. For cyn mummy, her happiness is of eternal gratitude.


Numerous gifts not just for Charmaine but for Jase as well... really thoughtful of all the donors and guests.



Middle top:
The cute little boy up there is Char's boyfriend. Hehe... She often tells us about him and now we finally saw him in real life.

Middle bottom:
When we saw the T-shirts, we just went "WAHHHH! So cute!!!" Jase has one too which he wore immediately.


What is a party without some dancing? Charmaine sure knows how to party!




A barbie cake...





similar to that from last year.



This was what happened to Barbie when Charmaine insisted on sticking the candles into the cake by herself.




Char was allowed to eat anything she wanted that day. She ate lots of cake. She loved the cream part best.




After eating some cake, little princess started her dance again.



The kids had a whale of a time... The Dora tent was enough to entertain them for hours. Charmaine was so happy to be mingling with her good friends -- something which she has not been able to do for months.






However,



Thanx to all the kind uncles, aunties, kor kors and jie jies who donated the gifts and also for making their way down to celebrate Charmaine's birthday and for making the occasion such a joyous one.


Oh yes, Jase wrote this


I tot it was my lost and found birthday card that he made the other time and was trying to open it. It was glued securely. Then, Cynthia came along and told me it's "ang pow" for my wedding. Next, Charlene also presented me with something.

AIYO!!! Really shouldn't have!

Would really really love for them to be at my wedding but it was quite impossible. That's one thing which I was quite upset about but hey, wedding is just for a night. I'm so glad for the friendship.


~*~*~*~*~

Farewell

It's my EOA's last day. What's EOA? Those temp staff who come in after A levels to work while awaiting to go into Uni.



She's also very morbid and could blend in well into the English Dept.

It was pretty cool when we both walked into office on her last day carrying plastic bags from the same morbid store. Hence, when she saw my bag, she immediately knew I got similar gifts for her from there. Then after that, she went, "Uh oh. I hope we didn't buy the same things."

Fortunately, we didn't.

According to her, there's only 1 such store in Singapore.


~*~*~*~*~

Click here for the rest of July's updates.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Continue watching this space.

Signing off,
Jo
15102009
12.53am
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~*August rewind*~

NDP 2009

First time I have ever attended NDP. Thanx to bro-in-law who had tickets for the whole family. He had the privilege as he was on duty for the whole NDP rehearsal and actual day.










Here's a video of the fireworks with "Count on Me" playing. I was tempted the record the people saying their pledge but coz I'm a true blue Singaporean, I stood at attention and said the pledge too.






~*~*~*~*~

Mum's birthday at Marriott Cafe

For mum's birthday celebration, we decided to treat her (and my dad) and that was the first time we had international buffet as a family.

My dad whacked soooooo many oyster that I wondered why he didn't get sick of the metallic taste. I would puke if I ate as much as he did.




The desserts look so yummy but they looked a lot prettier than they tasted.




And then after that, we went around snapping photos.






~*~*~*~*~

MIL's birthday at Melt the World Cafe

Oh yes I almost forgot to update about MIL's birthday coz there wasn't any photos taken by me that day. My bro-in-law took some but he always takes ages to pass them to me.

The day sucked for me coz dear kh treated the whole family to buffet and I was there having headache and vomiting spell. I looked at all the food and ran to the toilet to puke thrice.

I felt so bad for having my MIL worry for me. Glad that the whole family enjoyed the buffet though. I think my MIL enjoyed the buffet the most!


~*~*~*~*~

Click here for the rest of August's updates.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WAH! Finally completed after half a month! I'd better update my blog more regularly in future.

Signing off,
Jo
17102009
1.20am