Lunar New Year eve

It's here finally. Lunar New Year eve. Mr Tiger going for 12 years vacation soon. Welcome Little Rabbit.

Before I left office, I "spring cleaned" my desk. Ensure my desk and little tortoises are clean and nice. Luckily I could get a free transport back home. My sister picked me up from office and headed to Pasir Ris. Otherwise, I would have to take bus + train + feeder bus which would take about 1 1/2 hours.

When we reached home, my mum had almost finished the preparation for tonight's dinner. We just continued to do the simple tasks like opening canned abalone, mushrooms etc.

Before our steamboat dinner, we had Yusheng first. My sister bought it from Sushi Tei. It was my niece's first time doing the 捞鱼生 and she was so shy to say out her wishes loud. However, she enjoyed it. At the end, her small hands were all covered with the juices. Hahaha...

We had varieties of dishes and enjoyed the dinner. As usual, my stomach was so full after the dinner. :)






Cute rabbit cushion


银柳

One more day

Wooo.... so fast.... one more day to go and it's Lunar New Year eve. Time really flies.

I really think the Year of Tiger is a hectic year for me. Work non stop... Hopefully, once it crossed to little Rabbit Year, my life will change to a better one. Just simple wish... let me have more rest...

Our company declared that we can go leave office at 3.30pm. Strange lah... why 3.30pm??? Shd be 12.30pm mah. Anyway, I wish I can finish work fast and can leave office early. :)

Count down for the Little Rabbit to appear and to send off Mr Tiger.

Surprise

We were talking about whether we would get our pay earlier this month. Usually, it will be banked in by 4th of each month. Since CNY is around the corner, do not know if we will get any advance pay. My colleague hopes to have early pay so that she can prepare for CNY.

I was making payment for my citibank credit card bill via Standard Chartered E-saving account. It was very convenient. Just need to monitor to ensure the payment will go thru in a day or two.

Was checking my POSB account and surprised to see that our pay was already banked in. Wow... efficient lei. Shall let my colleagues know. :)

So fast. Left 2 days and it will be Chinese New Year eve.

Done all shopping for CNY

Finally, its the last Sunday where we could prepare for CNY. My brother in law drove us to Marine Parade to buy drinks at Fairprice Finest and it saved us money to take a cab.

We completed the preparation on our part and now leave the rest to my mum who will prepare for the reunion dinner on coming Wednesday. As usual, we will have steamboat at home.

So far, our company yet to declare early release on Wed. However, it is such an important day and believe we can go back earlier so that all can have dinner on time.

So fast, year of Tiger is going to end and welcome the year of Rabbit. Hope this year will be a wonderful and better year for me and everyone. :)

Tomorrow is last day of January and I am prepared to work late. Finish all work on time so that I can relax and enjoy the CNY holidays.

It rained the whole day since yesterday evening. Felt sad for those stalls in Chinatown. Once an year for them to earn $ during this CNY period and their business will be affected due to the downpour. Hope weather will be better in next few days so that people can go and do last minute shopping.

Rain rain go away. Let my laundry dry dry (No sun... difficult to dry)... :(

Spring cleaning

This morning, I woke up rather late as finally I could sleep longer on Saturday. Did spring cleaning on our store room and our bedroom. Changed bedsheets and preparing for CNY.

We went to Chinatown again. This time was to buy work pants for my dad. His pants are all worn out and better buy for him now. Otherwise, he may end up one day where his pant will be torn during working hour. It will be so embarrassing. Problem is... he don't feel embarrassed. We felt it for him. Hahaha.

Had porridge for dinner at chinatown 长城. It was drizzling and all tables were full. We managed to find the way to the 2nd floor and was glad that it was rather empty. So lucky... after we were seated, more people came and the place was almost full. :)

I bought new blanket as the one I am using is worn out and has been more than 5 years. Change a new one for the new year. Flowery one.... :)

No Movie

As we could not find a suitable movie to watch tonight, we decided to just to have dinner instead. Ah Cheng joined us but we left office very late at around 9.30pm and there was limited choices of food to eat for dinner.

After some thoughts, we decided on Carl's Junior. It had been a long time since I last went there. I ordered Hawaii Teriyaki burger and it was very nice. The pineapple was good. We chit chat during the dinner and finally able to relax after a long workaholic week. I returned home after 12 midnight from Mon to Tue. So tired.

Don't think I have the energy to watch J drama tonight. Shall just take a rest and sleep earlier tonight. :)

Bus bus, where are you???

Went to HarbourFront Centre for lunch with my colleagues. Met up with few of ex-colleagues and was fun. It was like in the past when all of us were still in same company.

Had run some errands and rushed to catch the shuttle bus back to MBC. Reached the coach bay at 2.40pm and thought the bus would be there soon. However, we waited and waited... but no bus to be seen. One of my colleague asked whether it was a case where no more shuttle bus available. However, I was sure it will be operating also during non peak hours. Just that the interval is every 25 mins.

We continued to wait for almost 30 mins and finally the bus was there. I think we just missed one bus when we reached the coach bay and ended up waiting for another trip. Next time, must be earlier a bit...

Watched new J drama yesterday. First episode of 美咲ナンバーワン!! (Misaki Number One!!). Story about how a night club girl turned to a teacher. School stories and I like it! Shall watch episode 2 today. :)

冬のサクラ 美咲ナンバーワン!! official website

Heavy lunch

We had lunch at Mr Curry Japanese restaurant at The Central. Initial plan was to have Marutama ramen with our customer but due to no seats available, we diverted to other restaurant. Found this Mr Curry so interesting and decided to try it.

I was impressed by the decor of the restaurant. It was so homely... As it was already 1.40pm, it was rather empty. I ordered Port Cutlet curry rice and chosen the very spicy sauce. It was actually not so spicy. Luckily I asked for very spicy. The food was good and I will definitely go for the food again.

These 2 days, I had so heavy lunch either with friends/customers. No exercising and weight is going up up and up. So scary uh. Chinese New Year period will be another great blow for me. Lou Hei lunches with customers! How to reduce weight??? Or should I say how to maintain weight???

Homely decor :



Delicious food :

Good lunch

This afternoon, we went to VivoCity for lunch with Tulip. Chosen Akashi Japanese restaurant and we ordered 3 set lunch and 2 side dishes for sharing. Wow... I enjoyed the lunch. Food was good and "entertainment" by Tulip was fun.

After lunch, 小珠 went back to office with Tin. Supposed to wait for the shuttle bus that would arrived at 2.15pm but they missed the bus when Tin went to toilet. Hence they had to take public transport back instead of waiting for another 30mins. For me, I waited for my colleague to reach HarbourFront as we were meeting our customer in his office at 3pm.

A lot of paperwork to catch up after concluding some deals this evening. Was happy during deals concluded but sad that it meant I had a lot of paperwork to do... Had problem with my email system where emails were not sent out on time. Restart my outlook and glad that emails were sent. However, realised a few of them were not sent to recipients. Checked with 小珠 and she did not receive. Perhaps need to resend tomorrow. Weird and lousy server. Why always give me such strange problem... :(

Took cab home as it was already 11.10pm. While on my way home, I realised that I had mistaken tomorrow's date as 27th which I need to go for my eye checkup. Was wondering why tomorrow is 27th when today is only 25th. Checked reminder sms from SNEC and my appointment card. Ai Yoh... my appointment is not for tomorrow but Thursday. Luckily I checked, otherwise will have made a wasteful trip down tomorrow and some more, have to wake up early to reach there by 8.40am. Lucky lucky. I took for granted that my appointments are always fall on Wed...

Lunch at Akashi :

Booked our Japan trip tickets!!!

This morning, I accompanied my mum to Changi General Hospital for her Angiogram appointment. She was so worried and nervous since yesterday as she had no idea what will happen to her.

I surfed the net to check what is Angiogram and told her roughly what was the purpose. The doctor also briefed me before letting my mum to sign the consent form. This test/scan was actually for her thyroid. They need to extract samples of the nymph nodes for analysis. 2 needles were used to inject on her neck for the extraction. She said she could feel the pain... Her tolerance level of pain was usually high. If pain, would be very pain for me.

My brother accompanied us too so that he could go home with my mum while I continued to go for work. Reached HarbourFront Centre at around 11.10pm and decided to go and order hampers from Bengawan Solo for 4 of our customers. After that, took the free shuttle bus back to MBC.

Quite a lot of paperwork to clear before going home and finished at around 9.30pm. We continued to log in to SIA website to book our Japan trip tickets. Will be taking flight to Haneda airport hence the plane was not a big one. Already more than half filled up. Luckily we booked today. Otherwise, may ended up unable to sit together when more passengers make bookings. Airfare going to rise on coming Wednesday due to increase in fuel charge. Better book now before the price increase.

Yippy!!! We finally move one step nearer to our dreamland ~ Japan!!! Have booked outbound flight on 13 Apr night flight and inbound flight on 24 Apr after midnight flight. This time round, we will reach Singapore on Sunday morning and will go back to office on the following day. Fully utilizes the days we can spend in Japan. Will be focusing on Tohoku and hope we can see full bloom cherry blossom this time round. :)

New wave of J drama chasing

My niece came today and it seems like every time I see her, she tends to grow taller a bit. So fast that she is now 11 years old.

She was busy doing her homework so I went to Tampinese Mall with my younger sister and brother to buy new bedsheets. My niece said she did not want to go as her mum not going. Aiyoh... excuse lah. She was lazy. Anyway, my elder sister did bring her to White Sands shopping mall to buy some books. Spent $90 on her in just 1 hour.

For us, we managed to buy bedsheets from Aussino. Not many choices but still could get a set which is quite nice. Accompanied my brother to buy his clothing before heading home.

After my sister's family went home, I continued to watch latest epi of Naruto and another cute anime. Followed by the first episode of new J drama 冬のサクラ Fuyu no Sakura. Not bad and I shall continue to watch it. There are few more waiting for me to watch and shall watch them asap. Stopped watching J dramas when most of them ends for the last season. Its another beginning of J dramas chasing for me...

Tomorrow, need to bring my mum to Changi Hospital for a scanning on her throat. Hope all will be fine and its not a complicated case.


冬のサクラ Fuyu no Sakura official website

Shopping Shopping = Money Money gone

This afternoon, I went to VivoCity with my mum and sister. My sis wanted to buy a pair of shoe and was deciding between a pair at Ecco and a pair at Timberland. Hence wanted to go there today to have more time to decide on one of them. Went to Camper, Ecco and Timberland. After one round, my sister decided on the pair from Ecco. For me, I saw a pair each from these shops and finally bought one pair from Timberland. There was 40% discount and it cost just $131. Original price was about $219. Worth it uh. Now I have new shoe for CNY and also can wear this pair for my trip to Japan.

After that, we went for dinner at Modesto's and had a very filling dinner. So surprised that the 3 of us could really finish up the food. Luckily the pizza was very thin and not too filling. The pasta was for 2 person portions. The seafood platter was a last minute decision to order. Luckily we could finished them. We were too hungry!!!

I bought 2 T-shirts from Esprit and too bad the amount was just $90 where it was still far away from $150 which my sis needed to renew her membership. No choice lah. Nothing to buy liao. My mum bought some nuts from Pat's oven for CNY. I decided to try the preserved guava again. For the past 2 times I ate them, I had a very bad sore throat. If this time still get it, I will resign to fate that no more buying of these guavas from this shop. But hor... the guavas are really nice lah. That was why I was taking a risk to eat them. Haha....

In the end, spent money again today. These 2 weeks, I really spent a lot. Well, once a year for CNY lah. Spent my own hard earned money. I should feel happy. :P

Dinner at Modesto's

Weird movie

This afternoon, we went for another super long lunch. But .... I was running some errand for the company. Need to order hamper for our customers hence made a trip down to VivoCity again. In the end, we were back in office only at 3.30pm. So worried those colleagues who were 心理不平衡 would complain to HR... Hope no such colleague exist. We were late once in a while only and not everyday.

Rushed to complete my work as fast as possible so that we could leave office at around 7 - 7.15pm to catch our movie at 7.40pm. We took the free shuttle bus at 7.30pm and were on time to reach the cinema. We watched "Monsters" and after it ended, we were puzzled by the ending as it had no meaning. The whole movie was a bit weird as I thought there should be some fighting against the monsters by humans. However, it was more like showing how the main actor and actress went home to their own country. They still could watch the monsters "communicating" with each other without the worry on the monsters would attack them. Overall, still weird lah...

After the movie, I bought 2 sets of Japanese made containers for New Year goodies. They were so cute and I decided to buy them. We had our dinner at Max Brenner Chocolate Bar. Chose the waffle which we ate before (I think so lah) and we had difficulty choosing another one. One of the waitress came over and recommended us the chocolate waffle which she liked. We chose the one she recommended. True enough, it was good. We were very satisfied with the dinner (or should I said dessert?) and went home. No to rush to catch train. We were still very early as it was just 11pm. :)

Miura Haruma

Today, we left office earlier than past few days. Up to my limit liao. I was so tired and neck so stiffed until I need to get help from my colleague to massage for me before lunch. Felt so much better as it loosen up the stiffness. However, my head still feel very heavy till now. Got to sleep earlier tonight.

We have booked movie tickets for tomorrow evening. Chose movie "Monsters" at 7.40pm. Hope it will not be too scary. Haha...

Finished epi 1 of Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta with Miura Haruma as main cast with Toda Erika. Wow... he like suddenly grown up so fast. No longer the student student type in past dramas. He is now a teacher. Looking forward to the next epi.

So good... tomorrow is TGIF. Waiting for tomorrow night then can relax for 2 days. :)

New J drama : 大切なことはすべて君が教えてくれた



Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta official website

Another busier day

This morning, my mum cooked mee sua for us. It's my dad's lunar birthday. Only his birthday then have the privilege to eat the mee sua with lots of ingredients. Haha... Had a very filling breakfast today.

Went to HarbourFront during lunch time. Had Yoshinoya for lunch and went to the 1st floor to look for the cheap shoes from Everbest. Initially I did not have any intention to buy since most of the ones I think I like were with limited sizes. Finally, my colleague recommended me one and after trying, find it good so bought it. The best part is : it costs only $8!!! Cheapest show I bought.

Had a lot of work to do today and with my colleague taking one day leave, I had more things to cover. In the end, went home even later than the past 2 days. Left office at 10.30pm. Tomorrow cannot like dat liao....

Super Beezee

Wow... today was exceptionally beezee. So many enquiries and I wished I was an octopus.

After lunch at nearby coffeeshop, I continued to work and work non stop till night time. Was hungry at around 8pm and ate biscuits offered by 小珠. Its from Marks and Spencer. We ate half of the packet and finished the balance half today. Shall go and buy one packet myself. It was so nice.

Quite tired today and cannot concentrate. Watched one new J-drama and cannot finish it tonight. Eyes too tired liao. Shall continue tomorrow. This show has my 4th idol ~ Miura Haruma. Has been quite some time did not see his drama liao. Hope this will be nice. :P

Monday ends with late night

So fast, Monday going to end. This morning woke up, went to office, worked, back home, watch TV, surf net now and later sleep. This is now the routine for weekdays.

Originally I thought I could leave office earlier but due to a last minute rush to do expense claim for one of our overseas colleague, used up some time and ended up completing my work late. My boss going for biz trip tomorrow till next Thursday hence better get his signature first.

Our trip planning draft is out and can start to book tickets liao. Accommodation has been booked tentatively and change if necessary. I very kiasu. Afraid no rooms for the dates we want. After that, I can slowly draft out the itinerary. There are 3 months for us to do the planning. Now looking forward to April uh...

Dad's birthday celebration

This afternoon, we went to Paragon to meet my sister's family. Before heading to meet them, I went to buy my skin products first. Luckily all the items I wanted to buy have stocks.

Main reason for going to Paragon was to buy clothing for my niece. True enough that she managed to get 2 sets of dress that fit her. At this age, real difficult to find suitable clothing for her. She is neither a kid or a teenage. Bought 3 shirts for my dad too and my brother in law also bought his clothing and shoes. Hence this trip was really fruitful.

Just enough time to head to Riverview Hotel for our dinner. It was to celebrate my dad's birthday which falls on next Wed. We booked table for 6pm and was glad that we were early. At least they could served us first without rushing. When the crowds came, the waitresses were so busy taking orders and servings. We took the ala-carte buffet menu and ordered quite a varieties of dishes. Small portions hence we could eat different dishes. My niece was so surprised to see her bowl of cold soba. She commented why so small bowl and she actually ordered another one. She also ate two and a half bowl of chawanmushi. In fact, all the servings were small hence one can easily orders more.

Overall the food was good and value for money. Shall go there again in future. Need advance booking as the restaurant was full house and no seats for walk in customers.

Our dinner:

Shopping day

Today, initial plan was to go to Orchard Road to buy my skin products. However, changed plan to go there tomorrow as my elder sister's family will be meeting us at Paragon tomorrow afternoon as she needs to buy clothing for my niece. I can go and buy the skin products tomorrow as the place is just next to Paragon.

I went to Chinatown with my mum and younger sister. Went to OG first and walked to the street where new year goodies and decorations are selling. We bought some candies and nuts which are wrapped in convenient packets. The sky turned dark and it rained immediately after we finished buying the candies and some peanuts. Luckily my mum and sis had umbrellas. Otherwise we would be stuck there until the rain stopped. It actually continued to rain for quite some time.

We decided to take train to Clarke Quay to have early dinner. Suggested Watami as I did crave for the food there. Ordered dishes for sharing and we enjoyed the food. The restaurant was not crowded hence I think that's why the chefs could prepare our food slowly and nicely. Hahaha...

After that, we took bus to Bugis MRT station and changed to East West line heading to Simei. Bought 2 blouses and one three quarter pant there. Not many suitable clothing for me this time round. Next we went to ZTP where we spent $1700 there buying abalone, bird nests and 泡参. Wow... 大出血 uh. Once a year event to spend money there.

Dinner at わたみ: