September 2012 Part 2

Here are the events for Part 2 of September 2012. 

Karen's Wedding
Karen is among my first poly girlfriends to get married! The bridesmaids decided to organize a dinner to celebrate the last day of singlehood. Nana and me joined in as well. Picture take Wen's facebook. =)

The lovely bride to be (already married now) and the girls

The wedding lunch took place on 23 Sep 2012 at Carlton hotel.

Snapshots of the wedding

Really feel happy for Karen that she has found finally found the one to spend the lifetime with. Looking forward to the coming weddings for the group of girls.

HI Exams
After working in the insurance industry for 7 years, I finally took my 1st certification. This is the so called easiest among the papers. I made it with a one time pass! This will not be the last paper. Will work towards collecting all the relevant certificates for career advancement.

HI Exam

Last day of September 
On the last day of September, had brunch with Baoqi & Maytong at Robert Timms. The food was not too bad but I find it not warm enough. The food were more of luke warm when they are served.

Brunch with Loves

After brunch, we went Isetan Scotts, I bought my 1st bottle of Yuzu Shochu!After a dinner at Ippudo drinking Yuzu umershu, I became curious on Japanese wine. Isetan Scotts was having some Jap fair and it was fated that I should buy.

Yuzu Shochu

On the same evening, we had a family gathering at Brother's house to celebrate Sheena's birthday. Bought some food from zhi char stall and snacks from Old Chang Kee.

Party Food!

Bro's honey baked wings

The party ended with eating brownies baked my me. A little too sweet and overbaked.

My Bro and Sister~

Happy Birthday Sister!

Till next time..

September 2012 Part 1

I have many events which I want to document down. I just can't seem to begin from which one so I decided to do a summary of events which occurred in the month. I wanted to put everything in one post but I have more events to update than expected. I summarized in 2 post instead.

Outing with Waicheng
Though we chat almost daily on MSN and Whatapps, we seldom go on a girls outing! The rare chance came when the guys in our group went diving. So we went on an 二人世界 date! We always like to use such intimate terms. The purpose of the outing is to look for bridesmaids dress for Huarong's wedding. We decided to wear blue to go with the other two bridesmaids. I settled for a convertible dress. Waicheng manage to charm the sales person and got herself a free tube!

After many rounds of walking, we rest ourselves at Maison Kayser at Scotts Square. The cafe was crowded  but we did not wait long for a seat. Waicheng ordered a croissant and I order a raisin bun. Both tasted nice and most importantly fresh. The coffee taste good too. We spent about $20 in total.

Maison Kayser

Hossan Leong Show 2012
Wanted to watch the Hossan Leong Show in 2011 but missed it. Went with Nana this year. The show was good. I support local talent. Haha~ The theme for this year's show was travel and foreign talent. The jokes mentioned were mostly related to Singaporeans. Na and me took a cute photo that day.

I am in good company!

The Village
The younger sister started working in Esplande in July. She bought me and the Parents to watch the highly raved Taiwan play, The Village, 宝岛一村。The play is about 3 families who are China immigrants and their lives in The Village in Taiwan. What ought to be a temporary stay became a permanent one. The play begin in 1940s and end at 2000s, Although this play depicts the history of Taiwan, it is also applicable to Singapore which is also an immigrant countries. People from different countries like China, India and other countries came and settle down in Singapore and make it their home. The play trigger many emotions which leaves people feeling nostalgic. On a lighter note, the sponsors gave every audience a bun after the play. The bun had a significant meaning in the play. This was a rather refreshing ideal to end the play.

Till next time..

Baking

After many years, I finally had an oven! Oven was sponsored by my Dad. I will repay him with my baking outputs. When I was younger, my dream is to open a cafe selling my own bake stuff. But as I grew older, this dream is impossible with the harsh reality. Nevertheless, I am happy being a home baker. :)

Been chatting with Waicheng on baking for sometime. Been inspired by her each time she gave us her baked goods to try.  She recommended Joy of Baking. There are demonstration videos attached to each recipe. The step by step demonstrations are really useful for new bakers like me.

For a start, I baked Chocolate Chips Muffins. The recipe is of course from Joy of Baking, The reason I chose to bake that was it does not require an electric mixer. I have yet to buy one. I will get it soon. How can a baker not have an electric mixer! Lots of recipes required that to mix the batter evenly.

Some pics of my baking process:

The batter in the muffin tray, I sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. Mix cinnamon powder with sugar and you will get a nice mix of cinnamon sugar. Like what the recipe says, it adds a light cinnamon flavoring to the muffins.

Batter in muffin tray

Something is baking..

Tadah~ The output~

Enjoy my bake of labor.. Haha~

The muffins tasted better than expected. Does not taste too bad for a new baker, My mom found it too sweet. I shall lessen the sugar level next time. Baking feels like a therapy to me. No matter what the output is like, I know I did my best! It will get better each time. Can't wait for my next baking session. :)

Till next time..

Nights Festival 2012

Went for the Nights Festival 2012 with Baoqi and Tong. 

Nights Festival 2012 was held on two weekends, 24& 25 Aug and  from31 Aug & 01 Sep 7pm to 2am. Admission was free.

This is the 5th installment since it was held. My initial thought that the activities was only restricted to those at the museums but I was wrong! There were many more activities. More information on the activities can be found here. Most of the activities are held along Bras Basah area where all the art related organisations are at.

Here are some of the exhibits which I visited:

MIMOïD II

The facade of Singapore Arts Museum was transformed to different themes. The picture I took was when the building was transformed to some forest theme. Music was played during the transformation. It's quite an interesting visual experience 

Seeker of hope: Works by Jia Aili

Although it may not seem like but I kind of like going to paint exhibition. Each art pieces represent a message which the artist want to bring across.Some may be up to our imagination. Jia Aili's works are a reflection on the dramatic changes in Chinese society after 2000. 

I particularly like this piece:

The art exhibition is held at Singapore Arts Museum from 6 July to 23 September 2012.

Exhibits from SAM 8Q

These exhibits in 8Q does not seem to be Nights Festival related. Nevertheless, we still went for a visit since admissions were free. 

 A room full of colorful drawings. Visitors can also contribute to filling up the wall. The trees remove of those in the movie, Lorax. 

The theme of this exhibitions is on boxes. Visitors can also contribute by drawing the the boxes. This is one which I found really cute. 

The title of this exhibit is Grow a garden in the dark. The room is filled with paper leaves and butterflies. UV lights were on to create the glow in the dark effect. 

Review for this year's Nights Festival wasn't as good as the past year. Since it was my first time, I find it pretty impressive. Will be there again for 2013 Night Festival!

Seven Years

One of my sec school classmates initiated a meet up in Facebook. The last time we met up was 7 years ago. The previous meet up was for Esther's farewell. Esther had went to US for further studies. The group of girls were mainly those which I get along well during my upper secondary days.

I was late for 2 hours due to last minute work. I was still contemplating if I should go since I was so late! I asked them to wait for me. Could not miss the chance to see them. I was glad I went. Great to see them after 7 years! One of the girls, Junwei is getting married! Friends of the same age group inviting you to their weddings is a sign of aging. I wonder if I can ever get the chance to hand up invitation. 

A photo collage of us, 7 years ago and later. 

The 2005 photo, from left: Irene, Junwei, Esther, Baoyun, Serena and me. We still look pretty much the same. The 2012 photo would have been picture. Serena was feeling tired that day and did not want to have her picture taken.

It's not easy to reconnect with old friends. The feeling is familiar with a bit awkwardness. This can be understood because seven years is not short time. We have already lead different lives and only reconnected now. We may not be a closed knit group. I still hope to be able to meet up with them at least once or twice a year to get updated on each other's lives.

This is a beginning of a new friendship. :)

26

After reading Kenny Sia's blog, I got inspired to note down 26 things I did or happened when I was 26 years old.

1. Deleted some some 'friends' from Facebook. It is a start to get negative people out of my life. 
2. Rejoined ex company. Make a promise to myself to work hard. I am slowly working towards my goal.
3. Cast my first vote for General Elections.
4. Cast my first vote for President Elections.
5. Visited Cameron Highlands for the first time. 
6. Became colleagues with Yvonne again after 4 years. Working in the same department but different sections this time round. 
7. Went on a day trip with my family to JB.
8. Went on a trip to Thailand with May Tong and Baoqi for the first time. Visited Hua Hin. A small but beautiful beach town in Thailand.  
9. Went for my first palm reading in JB. The palm reader mentioned that I am not a stable person at heart. I will not settle in the near future. 
10. Visited Kuala Lumpur and concluded that I will not visit the place again unless necessary.
11. Participated in Adidas King Of The Road run which covers 16.8km. 
12. Participated in 2 10km runs, Standard Charted Marathon and Nike Run.
13. Shifted to Rochor to work for about 4 months for Phase 1 UAT. That was one of my best working moments ever. I miss everything that is associated to the times there. 
14. Visited Pulua Ubin after almost 10 years with Nana and Wen.
15. Celebrated Dad's 60th Birthday in Oct 2011. 
16. Went to Hong Kong with family in April 2012. Conclusion is I will not visit Hong Kong anytime sooner. Need to take a break from countries which feels like Singapore. 
17. Went on a day trip with Nana, Gong Zhi and Wen to Kukup and JB Premium Outlet. 
18. Started to read books. Current interest is self development books.
19. Started doing scrape booking. I am not really a creative person but my designs are made with love with the recipients in mind.
20. Did my first gel manicure. Normal manicures are history. Gel nails is perfect for clumsy girls like me. 
21. Revamp my wardrobe. Cleared away almost half of my clothes.
22. Spend about $400 on dental care. My small jaw is causing food to stuck easily and thus decay. Extra effort will be placed on dental care from now on.
23. Went Bangkok in May 2012 with Yvonne. 
24. Improved my intake of beer. It is really a significant improvement.
25. Attended 1st Beerfest event with the complimentary tickets from AK. An event for beer vendors to display their products. Also a great event for friends to gather.
26. I am a much better individual then I was at 25.

I am now 27 years old. I will strive to be an even better individual in the different roles I played in my life.

The best has yet to come.

Cheers,

Lynn

The end is the start of a new beginning

February and March zoom past like a F1 race. 2 months seemed to flash in a moment. All I can recall is I spent 80% of my time working. Working 6 to 7 days a week. The longest record of working hours clocked was from 9am to the following day 4am. 19 hours of work! Nevertheless, it was was quite a memorable experience.

New system has officially go live on 09 April 2012. The end of my busy days? This is just a start of a new beginning. Working in this project has trained me to become an overall a better person. I have learnt to be more tolerant and flexible in uncertain situations. I like things to be within my control but uncertainty is something we cannot avoid in our lives. The best way to deal with uncertainty could be to go with the flow. Enjoy and get something positive out from the process. 

The journey of uncertainty has just begin. 

Are you ready for it?

We are masters of our own destiny

We Not Naughty

Caught We Not Naughty yesterday with the poly girls. I personally liked the movie. The perfect movie formula, humour plus lessons to learn.


Lessons I learnt from the movie:

1. Love your Mother! No matter how she is like, she is still the one who suffers and bring you to this world. (:
2. No matter how bad the situation is, always think positive.
3. We can blame the society, the world for our problems. However, we will eventually be the one facing them. No use pointing fingers at others for our issues.
4. We are masters of our own destiny. We cannot change the past but we can control how we want our future to be like.

The movie made me thought about many things.Life is short, we only have this much time to achieve our goals and get it right. It's already the 2nd month of 2012. I have no concrete achievements yet. I have in mind what I want to focus on this year. Need lots of commitment and motivation to go on. I know my hard work and persistence will pay off. One of the things I must do this year is to bring my parents on an overseas trip. I will aim to bring them for at least one long trip once a year. Hopefully, it can be a country they have not been to. 

Our parents have spent a lifetime taking care and earning a living for us. Now it's time for us to do something for them. While we are busying growing up, we have forgotten they are growing old too. Love your parents! 

Crabs at Uncle Leong

Meet up with 2 Yiwens and Nana for dinner on 人日. Unlike many, my family do not have the habit of eating together on this occasion. According to the Chinese, humans are created on the 7th day of lunar new year. So, it is considered every Chinese's birthday on 人日.

Dinner was at Toa Payoh's Uncle Leong. The food was nothing to rave about but not that bad either. Conclusion is Melben still serves better crabs!

Uncle Leong

Nai Bai

Pumpkin Prawn

Guinness Pork Ribs

Salted Egg Crabs

Crab Bee Hoon

2 Yiwens - Agnes & Eugenia

Me & Nana

Overall, the dinner was great. Good company make up the lack of quality food.

Will be going Phuket with the girls this August. This the be the first time the four of us going on the same trip. I have traveled with the 3 but not together.

I am looking forward to the trip! (:

下一站，幸福？

好想去北海道。。想要去幸福车站。

或许，下一站就是幸福？

In loving memory of Febby

Received a sad news that my cousin's dog, Febby had passed away. Felt really sad though we know that Febby was of old age. I even carried it on Monday at my Uncle's house. Febby used to live next door before my cousin got married. It has existed since I was in secondary school. Never would I expect that Monday was the last time I saw Febby..

Febby, you will missed... May you rest in peace in doggy heaven. :~(

Change... Again!

I switched back on blogger again. I still prefer blogger's layout and the ease of posting. Manage to 'custom make' a simple layout using the available layouts. I am simply spoilt for choices with the options give. I decided to go for a simple blue background. Blue is still my favorite color. :)

Today marks the first day of Lunar New Year. My family do not usually go out today. My uncles and aunties from my father's side will visit us. My grandma used to stay with us which explains why everyone comes over. After my grandma passed away, this practice still goes on. The next eldest in line is my dad's eldest brother who happens to live next door. Families in the past seems to like to buy flats near to each other. There are pros to this but conflicts are unavoidable too.

Over the years, relatives who came become lesser. It will be the usual few families who will appear. Talking to some relatives is kind of awkward. The feeling is worse than talking to strangers. I am sure many of us can identify with this. My dad's side of family is big. He had 3 sisters and 6 brothers. Each family has an average of 3 children. I have a lot of cousins but close ones are only a handful. When I mean close, it only means we can talk during family gatherings. About 1/4 of my cousins are born in the 1970s and the rest of us are the 1980s gang. Those that appear in family gatherings are the 1970s gang. Among them, only like half appears too. They are my eldest uncle children and my brother. Others does not seem to want to associate with the extended family. When i think of this, i feel kind of sad and disappointed. But I guess, this is life. If one day I happen to see some of my cousins on streets, I may not even recognize them and vice versa.

Picture of my sisters and 2 cousins who we are closed to. They are Lydia (2nd from left) and Theresa (2nd from right). They are sisters. Both are younger than me. We can be considered playmates since young. My auntie would sent them to my house and my grandma will take care of them and my siblings. Theresa will be getting married this December. Really looking forward to this as it has been sometime we attend a close relative's wedding. Hope that I will be able to help out in her wedding. :)

Will wrap up the post with a few pics taken recently. :)

Taken during Reunion Dinner:

Reunion Dinner 2012

Mummy's 58th Birthday Celebration

Taken on 1st day of Chinese New Year:

My lovely Sisters

Mummy & Me

Parents

Family. Missing Bro and SIL. They went HK for CNY.

***