The Aftermath

ohhhhh boyyyyyyyy........ the festivities is killing me!

Right. It rained from Christmas night all the way until last night. I dragged myself out of bed at 6am yesterday, called the office to check if the Amazing Race was still on and the crazy people who work there said yes!! I couldn't believe it!! In that rain!!! So ok, I dragged myself in and got the job done and left in the afternoon to brave the rains and go grocery shopping (again!) for the bbq. Then I got home and crashed. I could not stay on my feet anymore. Anyway, we managed to have the bbq anyway in the patio but everyone was ok with that. We had fun, lots of good conversation, some very good food (esp the steak, yums), a bottle of port, lots of beer, some Baileys and some Kahlua. I finally got to bed at 5.30am and slept till 2pm today. Tomorrow I got back to work.... aaaaarrrgggghhhh.... thank goodness for the long new year's weekend again. I do not know how I am going to drag myself in to work after that! My resolution for 2007 is to get my fat butt into the gym and with Sunny's help, work on it until I lose at least 20kg... 10 of which was put on just over this weekend I am quite sure.

But no, there's the new year's weekend to eat again as well as my upcoming birthday. I've already been booked by various friends already. I'll have to sort myself out and arrange this properly otherwise I'm going to be an idiot and leave some people out which would be unforgiveable. Oh no, I just remembered... I've been invited to dinner tomorrow night! Aiks... ok, no lunch tomorrow for me.

Right. Ok. Diet. Exercise. And the dogs need a bath cos they've been playing in the rain and they stink. Horrible buggers but I love 'em.... heehee...

It's Christmas!!

What a fabulous few days it has been. We had our office party last Friday... oh my goodness... there was sooooo much food. We all had enough to eat plus tar pow too! And I joined some of the DS folks for dinner at Astons that night. It was my first time going there and the food is really good and very reasonable too :-)

Saturday I went bead shopping, then I went for a much-needed massage!! And I made 15 new earrings over the weekend... I'm quite proud of myself actually (*patting myself on the back*). These were bolder and a little less sweetie-pie which doesn't quite grab the DS folks. Here are some pics of some of my faves -


Last night was the best though. I went to midnight mass with my catechumens. A was so sweet, she went really early and got us the front pew right smack in the middle. D was scheduled for duty at the 9pm mass and wanted me to go with him but I had wanted to go to the midnight with my cats. So what's a girl to do? Go with the husband and sit alone or go with my cats and have friends around me? As it turns out, the big guy up there solved the problem for me. F called yesterday afternoon. His family were all going to be at the 9pm mass while he was rostered for the midnight, so he asked to swop with D. It was perfect!! D got to rest a bit before going to mass and I got exactly what I wanted :-) It was an absolutely beautiful mass... I almost got as bad as A (she weeps at everything)... sigh... I still get teary eyed just remembering the celebration. After mass, J invited us back to her flat and we gossipped there till 5am.

And this morning, I dragged myself out of bed to go to Cold Storage to buy veggies for Christmas lunch with the family. It was so much fun (the lunch, not the grocery shopping)! Mandy tried to help me find a nice skin for my blog but I think I got distracted. Well, I'm beginning to grow into this skin... it's so bare it's almost zen... hehehehe...

ooohhh yes.... Iggy bought some balloons and we tried our hands at balloon twisting. You should see Iggy go and then you should see what he twisted go too.... hahahaha... he's so funny, feeling all important and professional twisting those balloons... you can see it on his face! hahaha... I'm glad I still remember how to make the dog that Jan taught me at the chalet ;-P

Hmmm... what's happening tomorrow? I was supposed to be on leave but there is something I must do and I was also asked to help out at the Amazing Race so I will go in early and cancel my leave for the morning. We're having a bbq at night too so I need the afternoon to buy and prepare stuff. ooohhh... look at the time. I have to report in tomorrow morning at 8! If not for blogging, I would be asleep by now... I only got max 6 hours sleep the last 2 nights combined and have been on the go since 8 this morning.

Paused a bit there to go over my weekend... it was a blast and I managed to do everything I wanted to do, even going to midnight mass and for that and everything else, I only have Him to thank. He makes all things possible :-)

Friends

Whew... what a week it has been. I have been sooo busy at work it's unbelievable! And despite all the business, what have I actually achieved? I really can't say cos it's been a week of planning and shopping and organising and just getting things that need to be done, done.

Tomorrow I am off to JB with Sr C and Br P. Br P's back from Rome for about a month and he needs to get some stuff from JB. Sr C is along for the ride. I'm glad she's going then she can keep me company.

I am at the moment feeling sad cos J had said she wanted to go with us and would take leave to go. But each time I asked her about it, she would say, yah must take leave, but she didn't. And this morning she didn't come to work and I was told she had taken leave today. She didn't even tell me :-( So much for friendship. How can the person who's supposed to be your best buddy and who works with you don't even tell you that she's on leave?? I suppose my friendship doesn't mean very much to her. And G... he finally sent an email so at least I know he's not lying in a hospital bed somewhere. I suppose my friendship doesn't mean very much to him either. It's best just to be by myself and not bother about people who don't bother about you I guess.

We'll see....

Back to work

Work is so blahhhh.... it's my second day back after a glorious week of leave and I wish I was still on leave, naturally. Who says you need to veg out at some beach in Phuket or Bali or go crazy with shopping in Hong Kong or Bangkok to have a real holiday? I had one right here in Singapore... doing whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted. Of course there was the wedding to help prepare but that only took up one afternoon.

Well, the dogs finally got bathed. So nice to touch them now all soft and fluffy :-)

Br. P is back I think either tonight or tomorrow. He called yesterday to say that he would be back tomorrow but that really depends on who's time zone he is talking about. It'll be nice to see him again. He's only back for a month then back to Rome for a few more months and after that, hopefully they'll let him go and he can come back here for good. It would be great to have him back here again to talk to and to put me on the right spiritual track. Not to mention a great movie buddy too :-)

G seems to have disappeared. I hope he's ok and that he would mysteriously appear again.

This must be all just blabber to you but it is my blog so I can write anything I want. Actually, the reason I am posting was I wanted to post another pic of my bro and his new bride from last Saturday's wedding so here goes. It was taken with my Ixus i-zoom and I'm a really crappy photographer so this is as good as it gets :P Salud

A Quiet Sunday

Things currently doing : blogging, reading Doggiesite, printing pics, downloading pics from cam.
Music listening to now : BodyRockers' I Like the Way You Move
State of mind : numb on a sleepy Sunday

What a party it was last night at Caroline's & Iggy's wedding! I am so pleased for them... I haven't seen Iggy this happy for a long long time. And the baby's a boy!! They announced it to everyone at the dinner last night... even the couple didn't know what gender it was but the gynae had sent them a card that very afternoon and Best Man Adrian W got to do the honours of making the announcement. I think there wasn't a dry eye in the restaurant then :-) That's them after the announcement... sniff...

The restaurant is great... the staff are great, especially Gaz the CEO and Christine the coordinator.

I haven't drunk so much in a long time - 1 glass of beer (Tiger naturally), 2 glasses of champagne (Moet et Chandon & Verve Clicquot) and 3 glasses of white wine (Crossings). The wine was fantastic. We brought 5 bots of champagne, 15 bots of red, 15 bots of white and 4 bots of Maccallan single malt. Plus we had a 20ltr keg of beer too. We were left with 5 bots of white and half a bot of single malt. Jolly good for a small party of 70 people :-)

It's probably the best wedding party I'd ever been to. The JP was really nice and it was wonderful he managed to join us for dinner. He told us he is friends with the owners of the Orchid Garden and that he had mooted the idea of turning that private garden into a public attraction and was the one who suggested having a fine dining restaurant there. Well, good for him! hahaha... 76 yrs old and still going strong... he goes to the gym 3 times a week would you believe... and I think he's got such a lovely job marrying people - always seeing happy faces and being invited to dinners hahaha...

ooohh... it's 1pm now - I think I'll go have a class of that lovely white. I took 2 bots from Iggy last night. That's a perk of being carrier of the prezzies and wines :-)

I'll bathe the dogs after I've had that wine.

That's the wedding cake. I picked it and there's a story to that too and maybe I'll tell it another day ;-) Oh, by the way, it was delicious :P

Best week this year

Wow, I just realised I haven't posted in quite a while. What a nice week it's been. I've been on leave following the big event at work. It was very hard work but we had fun, as usual. Friday night was the pool party at Marina Mandarin which naturally had people being thrown into the pool. Saturday & Sunday was the event weekend. It poured on Saturday and I got soaking wet but on Sunday we had the best weather. It ended with a bbq which ended in people being thrown into the pool (again) but I managed to get out before people got drunk enough to start dunking (but not before having 2 beers and 2 chicken wings).

The worst news last week was F's father passing on very suddenly. She text'd me early Friday morning which left a sour feeling at the pit of my stomach. I went to the wake with Cat and Jan on Saturday afternoon after work. It makes me sad now to think of it.

Well, tomorrow's the big day... for Iggy and Caroline, that is.... they are getting married!! I'm looking forward to it. Oh yes, I picked up my chinese blouse on Tuesday after visiting the Orchid Garden with the bros. It was green!!! Aarrrrgghhh... I'd been sooo looking forward to the amethyst but green was my 3rd choice of colour so I guess I can't complain. Funny... the tailor told me green's a more popular colour then purple, so how come they ran out of the purple??!! Sigh... I guess it'll have to do...

Oh good grief... I just remembered I don't have a bag for tomorrow. I saw a Guess one that is so lovely but I'm not willing to spend $179 on a bag that I'd probably use only this one time.

Oooh.... the girls are sharing the cushion.. how sweet :-) I just had to snap this pic of them. By the way, they stink as they haven't had a bath in 2 weeks. I MUST bathe them tomorrow.

I've been soooo lazy this past week... well, actually, I haven't. Monday was D's birthday and we had lunch, then Tuesday I was out with my bros and then went to pick up my chinese blouse then had dinner with the in-laws at Beng Thin. Wednesday I went to the hairdressers and to buy more beads. Thursday and today I spent making more stuff for Doggiesite. Oh yes, I transferred altogether $135 each to DRS and ALL. Not bad for a beginner ;-) Anyway, a week's leave just isn't enough. I am not looking forward to Monday, I can tell you. Sigh...

Time for bed now... goodnight!

More of Beads

Wow. The fundraising jewellery thing is doing well. The best selling item so far is the earrings pictured here. I quickly made a pair for Louise on Sunday and snapped a quick pic and uploaded it into the forum this morning. And I've already received 6 orders for it. Wow. I didn't know grey was such a popular colour. Perhaps I should do more of the subdued colours from now on. The sweetie-pie and bohemian colours aren't all the popular... at least not on DS ;-)

Well would you believe D made it to the top! All in 15 mins 27 seconds!! For a mid-lifer who doesn't exercise that's not too bad :-) He even beat some younger, fitter people who have been training and participating for years in the vertical marathon. He said the view up there was spectucular and even better was the sense of achievement. He's been talking non-stop about it since Sunday... heehee..

Can't keep my eyes open much longer. Goodnight!

Blah Blah

It's 1.06am and D's getting ready for the vertical marathon tomorrow :-P

I suppose as the supportive wife, I should go and cheer him on but what the hell am I going to do while he's struggling up 72 storeys with lead-like legs? I s'pose I could go shopping but let's see if I can wake up tomorrow morning.

One of the Jans and I went bead shopping today. The other Jan couldn't come :-( but we had fun anyway. As usual, I spent too much but it was necessary. Really. So Jan's got a brand new pair earrings and a necklace that she made herself and she's really pleased. It was a very pretty design in baby blue. And oh, I got the pearls finally, although they didn't have some of the colours I wanted but they are soooooooo lovely... very classy and just nice for the Christmas collection (like real.. heehee..).

J just pm'd me... she's starting a blog to post all her designs. I wanted to do that too but I have been browsing the web and some other people's designs are really really lovely and so creative. It made me think twice about posting my amatuerish work. Never mind, hope SG finishes the website soon and it can be a dedicated webby to raise funds for the animal shelters.

Boy, it's really late now. What's D doing still up? He's going to fall asleep on the 6th floor if he doesn't go to bed soon.

By the way, that's a pic of my goldfish FuFu. He died something ago. His body alone was a big as my palm.

More of Beads and Something About Friends

Oooohh... I'm looking forward to tomorrow :-) Not just cos it's Saturday but also cos I'll be meeting with my best gals, the Jans. They wanna learn about jewellery making from me... heeheehee... infant teaching infants... should be fun :-P

We're meeting at the bead shop then going for lunch and after that, we're all coming back home here to just do the girly stuff. I've so many orders to fill I hope I can get them all done by tomorrow but I doubt it. I've had so many requests to see what I've done and SG hasn't finished the webby yet, so my next post will contain pics of some of the stuff I've made.

Oh yes, I went to the tailor yesterday to get an outfit done for Iggy's wedding. Bloody hell... Jan told me she got hers done there at $100+ but it turns out her memory ain't that great. Must be the chemo. The blouse is going to cost me $260 but it's going to be lovely. It's a chinese brocade in my favourite amethyst and is a mordernised variation of the traditional qi pao. I'm going to pair it with jeans and my shimmery gold Americaya wedges (hey, Americaya has some really nice shoes now). I made this to go with the outfit :-) I shall make a pair of earrings too and maybe a bracelet as well.

Of Dogs and Beads and Religion

I think the time's off on this thing. My last post was typed in the wee hours of the morning here in sunny Singapore but it shows 8.49pm on the blog. It's not my computer clock either. It shows 12.33am now and that's what time it is here.


Well today was another boring day at work. My back hurts, probably from all that bending and slaving over the beads the past couple of weeks but I can't wait till the weekend so that I can start on more designs.


Well, I was at RCIA tonight. Fr B spoke about baptism and there were plenty of questions. Just wait till he gets to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony...! hehehe... I should have brought my journal but I didn't. Someone wanted their kids to be baptised with them at Easter. They kept saying infant and in the end, we realised the kids are aged 9, 6 & 2... hardly infants. Apparently there was some miscommunication or something and they weren't too happy the parish priest told them that they couldn't be baptised as a family. Sigh.... I suppose that's what the RCIA is for... to learn about Christian living and to find out the truth in the old adage "man imposes but God disposes". Hope they make God's choice and not their choice.


The girls are at it again... playing and playing. Russ is fast asleep on his cushion. Tinkerbell was napping quietly then Gypsy decided she wanted into this room as well (she had opted to stay out earlier) and when she got in, they went at each other. They've stopped now. Russ is so cute... he doesn't bother about the girls at all. They do their thing and he does his.


These are my beloved dogs :-)

Of Dogs and Beads

Well, I managed to bathe them all today, getting myself soaking wet in the process. When will they learn that I am not the towel??

Just so you know, I have 3 dogs - 2 jack russell terriers, Russell & Tinkerbell and a mongrel, Gypsy. Russell's the boss of course and Gypsy bullies Tinkerbell although Tinky's the one who oriented Gypsy into this household and made her welcome when she first came to us.

Speaking of dogs, they're the reason I started this blog. I had this brainwave of making costume jewellery to sell on Doggiesite forum http://www.doggiesite.com/ to raise funds for a couple of dog shelters. So much for the brainwave. The forumers aren't buying many although I get nice comments and people who say they like my designs. Well, if they like it so much, why don't they get some? There're cheap and all the profits would be going to the shelters so it's all for a good cause. Anyway, this girl from the forum offered to start a website for me. I'm such an idiot when it comes to such things so I said no. Then someone else told me why not put it up on your blog? And I was thinking, "As if I have a blog. That's for narcissistic egomaniacs". So, here I am....

Here's a glimpse of a few of the stuff I made...

I'm pretty proud of them actually. They're not too shabby if I may say so myself, considering I've only been doing this for oh, 2 weeks. Yes, I didn't know nuts about jewellery making and I went ahead and had the brainwave anyway. But there's this nice lady who runs a little stall at Thomson Plaza selling all these materials who's been an angel giving me pointers and design ideas even though she charges people to take classes.

So ok, that's it for now. It's late and I have work tomorrow. Goodnight, reader :-)

My First Blog

wow... my first blog... doesn't this thing come with smileys?

I can't decide on the template, so will stick with this first and maybe change it later when I found out how to do it. In time, I will find out more about blogging and how much I wanna say here but for now, I'll just ramble, so bear with me :-)

Well, HI to everyone. Oh look at the time... I have to eat now don't I? And there're the dogs to bathe too. Smelly buggers... hope I don't have to chase them around the house again to catch them for a bath, especially that Gypsy. I'll have to think of a new way to sneak up on her.

Well, thank you for reading my blog thus far. Hopefully I'll get more interesting next time ;-) (and maybe find a way to add smileys).