30 November 2006

at the stroke of midnight, birthday greetings started to come in through SMS...

first was my colleague, SYL... then it was Steve, followed by Kenneth, Shaun and Jason... even, Ashok, one of my ex-student from Beatty Secondary where i was relief teaching back in 2003 SMSed me at 12:15am... another of my ex-student, Afiq, also SMSed me in the morning... so touched that they remembered...

in the morning, there was Kit, Christina (HR girl from office), Kelvin Ong and Kelvin Ho (the deafies who taught me the basic sign language and whom i used to blade with), Sophia (an ex-staff) and Hwee Kheng (ex-colleague), Siang Leng and Lik Kiam (ex-colleagues), my dearest Sarah, Melvin and Dominic and David, Triston, Angel (my cousin) and Wei Fern (colleague)...

SMSes came also from Arun (who is in Sydney Australia... managed to chat for a short while with him... we'll meet up in January 2007 when he is back for the holidays) and KC (who is in KL, Malaysia)...

finally, belated birthday wishes from Ming and Jiunn Wei, both ex-colleagues from different companies...

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mum came into my room to pass me the traditional ang pao...

we left the house for our shopping at around 2:30pm, just after the rain has stopped... first stop was lunch at Central HK Cafe... the best HK cafe in Singapore... shopping at Takashimaya was a disappointment cos the Christmas fair starts the next day, 1 December 2006... darn!!

next stop was Plaza Singapura... mum wanted to check out Daiso (the Always $2 shop)... had great fun going through the stuff... after that it was Aussino for their sale... 3 bedsheet sets for the price of 2... Carrefour was next... just to shop for some groceries...

finally, both mum and i bought a glass crystal pendant at the stall next to the escalator on the ground floor... dinner was at Wah Noogee with my family... nice food as usual... and great to have the whole family eating at one table... forgot to take a family photo... hmmm...

Central HK Cafe pics

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thank you so much to all who have made this 34th birthday such a memorable one... i love all of you...

Birthday Eve Celebrations...

this post is long overdue...

my staff celebrated my birthday for me at around 3pm... they bought balloons... and of all colours, PINK... they know me so well... and guess what they bought me... this cute novelty PINK g-string, with a pig head in front for the crotch... and a novelty condom... so that was their impression of me... hahahaha...

i had to ask Kenneth to come fetch me at Raffles City so that i didn't have to lug the balloons around... kinda embarrassing...

met Kenneth and Shaun to book our KL trip... hopefully there are hotels available... so looking forward to the trip...

after that it was Kok Lok noodle dinner in Chinatown... and ah balling at Food Street... chatted so much... until around 10:30pm...

Plaza Hotel Tuesday...

met Steve, Daniel and Tianwei for dinner at Plaza Hotel... they've changed the menu for the international buffet... was greatly disappointed when there was no longer roti prata and drunken prawns... instead they had some chicken and fried hokkien noodles... :-(

but of course, the evening was still a great one for we had fun updating each other on the latest as well as sharing and gossiping about everything and anything... from Sexpo to facials... from Tokyo to Bangkok... from KL to Taipei... and before we knew it, it was close to 11pm...

thanks for a wonderful evening and the Nike polo t-shirt... and thanks, Steve, for the ride home...

Monday Dinner @ Aerin's...

met Jason for dinner at Aerin's, Raffles City... forgot to take pictures of the food... but he had the chicken in tomato sauce and i had the fish & chips... both came in quite big portions... we had the calamari for appetisers that was pathetically few...

chatted quite a bit... and Jason expressed interest in the KL trip from 30 Dec 2006 to 2 Jan 2007... 4 days 3 nights at Capitol Hotel is about S$266 per person... probably will go down to book later this evening...

if all goes as planned, it's gonna be the first time that i am spending Christmas and New Year's Day away in foreign countries... yeah!!

Jason refused to accept my treat... saying that it's bad luck for him to accept a birthday boy's treat... hmmm... wonder how true it that...

thanx Jason, for the book and for the company... we should do mahjong again, but definitely not in KL... ;-p

Taipei Sunday...

met up with my student to discuss and plan out my Taipei itinerary... 4 days of sight-seeing and 3 full days of shopping... great stuff...

the only problem now is that i don't have a place to stay for 23 and 24 December 2006... the last resort will be to stay in my student's apartment up in the mountain but gotta trouble his mum to drive us there... which is not very nice lah...

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attended my cousin's wedding dinner at the Singapore Expo in the evening... what a place to hold a wedding dinner!!

met up with my uncles / aunts / cousins... fun to play catch up... though i was also busy playing Nintendo DS... hahahaha...

Fun-Packed Saturday...

Saturday started with facial at Body Image... some Citibank promotion @ S$28... 1.5-hour facial followed by a close to one-hour sales talk... and i still didn't sign up with them... oops...

rushed down to Partyworld Orchard to meet Felix and his friends for karaoke... nice to meet new people, i guess... coincidentally, Kerry (whose cat had an "accident" and he had to bring him to the vet), Jensen (who was called back to the office to finish a report) and i were all late... Felix and his friends were happily singing away when we arrived one by one... hahahaha...

dinner was at Plaza Singapura Crystal Jade Kitchen... nice food... except for the fish porridge cos the fish got bones one... *faintz* during dinner, Nic, Felix's friend, showed us a magic trick that had us fooled for at least half an hour... of course, we were highly entertained by his jokes and riddles too... a fun guy indeed...

we went shopping after that and Kerry bought me a nohohon (click for more details) for my birthday... it's the second one he has given me... the first being in 2004... so kawaii neh... Jensen gave me a card holder... practical leh...

met up with Kenneth and Shaun for Happy Feet... Kenneth couldn't stop talking about The Free Will, a movie he had watched in the afternoon... probably i will go watch it purely for the sex scenes since the movie is in German...

i didn't like Happy Feet cos too draggy and too much of social messages... also the singing went overboard and after a while, one gets sick of it... only consolation has to be the animation... and some nice sequences...

the day ended with coffee and cakes at TCC... all five of us... talking about cats... bitching about the "sister" waiter... nice...

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thanx guys for the birthday presents and for celebrating my birthday and the company on a Saturday...

Thai Friday...

met up with Shaun & Kenneth for dinner at Thanying Thai restaurant in Amara Hotel... i was nursing a bad sore throat and yet i requested for Thai food... lolz...

it was great to catch up with the two of them... we always never seem to run out of stuff to talk about... thanks to the both of them for the mouse paperweight from liuligongfang (琉璃工房)... it's in my favourite colour yellow... don't think i will use it as paperweight lah... too precious...



after dinner, we went to Kenneth's new place in Eunos... nicely done up... i like the cosy study room... with the TV, books, music, CDs and couch... nice... Shaun and i were busy leafing through the photo books on travelling, Nelson Mandela, etc... had a good laugh at Kenneth's childhood pictures...

thanx guys for a wonderful birthday evening...

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back to the dinner, the main draw of the dinner has to be the dessert buffet @ S$8 per pax... here's what we had...



drinks




coconut and lemongrass...

food



pomelo appetiser...



spicy tom yam soup...



vegetables...



fried fish... to be dipped into the green curry below...



green chicken curry...



garnishing...



toufu...



fried rice...

dessert

mixture of pastries and fruits...

Inspiration...

was given this by the Adidas people after collecting my race pack... supposed to write something inspirational and pin it on my back during the run to inspire the people behind me... what if i am the last one? who to inspire? hahahaha...

what should i write leh? suggestions, anyone??

SG Marathon Race Pack

collected my race pack during lunch just now... queued for an hour... *faintz*

here's my number... time to buy 4D again...



the runner's t-shirt... same blue colour...



my bus ticket... so early... gotta wake up at 4am... race day sure got tummy ache like mad...