Last post of 2009

Okay...this is it. We've now come to the end of 2009, and this would also mark the end of this blog. Well, I'm not gonna delete it, of course -- it'll remain part of my archived items cos I do cherish it! -- but a new year always symbolises a fresh start, and hence my decision to always begin a new blog for the year's records.

The link to my blog for 2010 is www.niles31610@blogspot.com. Bye bye, 2009 blog! Hello, 2010 blog!

Department 'outing'

Went to MJ's place for the second time yesterday for our department meeting-cum-lunch-cum-mini housewarming. She'd done up her house real good and was involved in every process, from making major decisions to considering the nitty gritties of everything. Not bad, cos her place is now so much nicer compared to what it was previously like. :)

Her house kinda follows a resort theme, and the furnishing's pretty much barang-barang style. Very zen indeed. My favourite spot would be this lovely heart-shaped pond that's right under the staircase and next to the dining area. I went to play with the fish in her pond with some other colleagues and our hands stayed long enough in it to let the fish nibble at our fingers. So ticklish...haha...

Lunch came once the proper business was all settled-- MJ got her faithful housekeeper to cook a range of delicious spicy items for us -- I especially loved the sambal chicken and garden salad, which went really well with the nasi briyani. There's also a cold fruit cocktail dessert which had an assortment of fruit swimming in cream and what tasted mildly like melted mozzarella cheese. Cool! Also tried the stuffed sour mango pickle for the first time...Sophia warned me saying that I wouldn't like it but I thought there wasn't harm in just trying it. Turned out I took a small bite and almost puked -- it's too sour and salty and there's too much Indian spice in it, I guess. I love the curries and sambal stuff and all, but now I know my palate's not too keen on connecting with so much spice all in one dish! :p

Heh, no matter how yummy the food was, it could never compare with the fantastic time I had playing with Bo, the large, handsome male golden retriever in the house! He's so affectionate! Bo was initially chained to his dog house at the back of the house, and Sophia and I started playing with him. Then upon being let out, he started running about joyfully, and leapt up at me a couple of times, leaning his whole weight on me as he stood on his two hind legs...my goodness, he's so strong he could even make me stagger backwards when he did that! Haha...so cute...and he seems to run and kick at the same time, throwing his butt in the air at regular intervals. Omg...so hilarious...and I also got whipped by his muscular tail several times...found out that it's a sign of his affection...haha...

Sigh...I went home with a lingering doggy smell on me and a longing for a furry companion of my own...

Potluck party on Boxing Day

It's been quite a while since a gathering for my secondary school gang was organised, and I was happy to be able to arrange one at home for everyone the day after Christmas. :)

Hubby and I had begun preparations for the little party a couple of days before that, getting the practical items and the gifts ready. That morning, half of our table tennis table was moved out to be used as the food table -- size was just right. :) We placed the snow globe in the centre to weigh down the table cloth and also as a little extra decoration. The bar stools and table from the kitchen was placed near the TV lounge so there're more options for seating. Then came the people and the food at 1pm plus... there were pizzas, loads of otah sticks, assorted nonya kuehs, chocolate eclairs, tiramisu, longan cocktail with almond jelly, chocolate sticks and balls, white wine and sparkling juice.

Heh, and there're the little presents that they took after drawing a number each before they left. Think each gift matches the person I thought most suitable to have it. Haha... :) Luckily, no one said anything about the haphazard style of wrapping. :p

We had quite a lively time, and I think it was absolutely great to see almost everyone hanging out together again after so long... sigh, now that we all hold different jobs and lead such different lives, it's more difficult to meet up as a complete group, but I know that we'd all try our best to make it happen if there's an opportunity. Everyone hasn't changed much in terms of personality, so the gathering brought back some funny memories of the times we shared back in school...I so miss those days!

Am looking forward to the next gathering, which would most probably be at Elmo's new apartment next year after renovation's done...so happy for her that she's finally getting her keys after four whole years of waiting! :D

Christmas :)

Talk about a sweaty Christmas... :p

It's been so long since our badminton bags and rackets saw the light of day ever since we took to playing table tennis at home, but they finally had the chance to go out on Christmas morning when Hubby and I met up with my colleague and her boyfriend for a game of doubles at Clementi Sports Hall.

Was a little worried that the game might be a bit too much for me to take cos they'd booked the court for two hours and I hadn't been playing for a while, plus just recovered from my cold, but it turned out to be okay, especially since after the first hour plus, we two girls left the guys to play singles while we sat chatting. Haha... (but my muscles still ached like crazy after that... even now! :p). The four of us also went for lunch at a kopitiam after the game. Overall, I quite enjoyed the session. :)

We also opened our presents early in the morning before the game. Beebee and Benne gave Hubby a Star Wars Christmas figurine, which is on display on top of our TV now. Pretty cute! And I got a nice pin board which I'll put at my desk at work. Stationery never fails to please me cos I'm such a stationery freak! ;D I got Hubby a WMF beer mug cos he's been drinking beer lately and I also got a surprise mini gift although Hubby'd already given me the DSi a few months ago (which he's still sore about cos it kinda spoilt the surprise he'd planned :p)...

TADA! Mini it is, indeed! So adorable! It's a TY Beanie Boo, a new series featuring plush babies with huge round eyes! This is Coconut, my new mini monkey... Heehee, I know I'm kinda past the stage where I wanna own plush toys, but this one immediately brightened up my mood...look at the sweet sweet smile...haha... :) Now it's just sitting on the couch next to me.

Now the word 'coconut' just sounds so cute. Haha. ^_^

Christmas eve meals and purchases

Met Beebee after her half-day of work (or rather, pre-Christmas fun in the office -- cos she didn't really do any work at all! :p) on Christmas eve last Thursday, but started my own fun shopping before I met her for lunch cos there were quite a few things I had to get! :)

Dropped by Kinokuniya first cos the watch book that Hubby had enquired about some time ago finally made it to the bookstores. Man! This book by the Singapore Clock & Watch Trade Association sure took a long time to reach the shelves, but I was so happy when I finally laid my hands on it, cos I'd made a few calls in hope of getting Hubby that for Christmas, but was disappointed by the lack of news about it. Though it didn't end up as a Christmas gift after all, I was just delighted to finally claim that hard-to-locate book. :p

Also bought a pair of Star Wars chopsticks (yes, can you believe it?!) for Hubby. He'd bought himself a pair that's blue recently (supposed to be associated with Luke Skywalker), but didn't feel shiok using it as he kept thinking of the red one (this one's linked to Darth Vader). To keep him from 'grumbling' further, I decided to just get him the red pair. Now he seems a lot happier using the Darth Vader chopsticks to pick up his food. Haha... :p

My next stop was the Christmas bazaar at Takashimaya -- so many cheap but lovely gifts to buy as simple tokens for friends! Since I was going to have the secondary school gang over for a potluck party on Boxing Day, I decided, upon Hubby's suggestion, to surprise them with little gifts that I would number and then get them to draw for the gift. :) I loved shopping around at the bazaar! Within a simple half an hour, I'd managed to pick up what I thought were cute yet practical buys at low sale prices. Also threw in a few extra buys for some colleagues as well... :)

Then Beebee came and we lunched at this Asian eatery named Central, I think. It's right opposite Ajisen Ramen. She had the trishaw noodles while I ordered the prawns fried rice. Then we shared the cold tofu layered with floss and some garlic cheese sticks. The noodles were normal, kinda like instant mee pok; the rice was okay, with quite a number of prawns, which was good; the tofu was nice; the garlic cheese sticks were -- hmm, quite bland and tasted like thin crisp dough, with hardly any filling. Overall, the food was ok -- nothing to rave about though -- but the service displeased us. So...uh-uh, that'll be the last time we step in there to eat.

We moved about to browse at more stuff -- Beebee also bought her Christmas gift for Benne and some other items. Then it was off to get her log cake and my dinner back from Ion. By then, the malls were utterly crowded and we were both starting to feel irritable cos we honestly hated such massive crowds! Anyway, I got dinner from this Korean chicken place -- they were handing out free chicken wings for passers-by to try and Beebee tasted one, saying it's good, so I thought to just give it a try. Ordered the tofu rice box and soy garlic chicken rice box with an additional caesar salad for some fibre. I was handed a device and told to return to the pick up spot to claim my food when the device lit up, but for it to work, I had to stay within 500m of the eatery. Well, that device never did light up, and I was running out of patience cos we wanted to check out other places for Beebee's log cake, so we just went and waited next to the pick up counter. Service could have been a little faster, but thank goodness the food was good. I enjoyed the kimchi coleslaw that came with the rice. Refreshing. :) But the electronic device idea? Innovative but not very efficient.

Spent the rest of the evening wrapping the purchases I'd made... think my gift-wrapping skills are still horrible but maybe it improved just a tad with all the practice I had that evening? After all, I'd never wrapped that many gifts at one go on my own! :p

Christmas parade in HDB estate

Last night, a surprise display of floats appeared along a road at our estate, which our kitchen window overlooks. Hubby first discovered it and hurriedly rushed me downstairs with him to check out the parade.

Turned out it's organised by a group of churches in Singapore. The floats were accompanied by volunteers dressed in lovely costumes that told the story of Christmas. There was also some choral singing. Apparently, the group had been cruising along many stretches of roads in Singapore, and came all the way from Orchard Road.

Pretty spectacular! It's a nice way to bring some Christmas cheer to the heartlands. :)

Reverie: Cirque on Ice

Hubby received a call last Friday, notifying him of his win in a lucky draw (which he didn't even know existed prior to that call :p) -- he had won four tickets to the performance Reverie: Cirque on Ice near the Indoor Stadium! All he had to do was print out an email and go collect the tickets with that printout and his Singapore Indoor Stadium Star Pass.

We were, of course, kinda thrilled by the pleasant surprise. After all, Hubby had voluntarily entered several lucky draws before, none of which presented him with any substantial win. And this one he won -- without even knowing he was part of the draw! :D Anyway, eventually we invited a couple, PS and Kenneth, to go with us to catch the show last Sunday. We had some time to catch up a while with them over a pizza lunch at our place before hopping into Kenneth's car for the ride to the stadium. Had a great time continuing our chat in the car -- it's been mighty long since the last time we met up at their place! :)

Hubby got a little bit of a shock when he went to collect his free tickets and was told that they'd been collected already. Luckily, he managed to clarify and resolve the mistake and so was able to still get his tickets. Haha. The show's staged on an ice platform and featured several acrobatic stunts and funny antics by a clownish character. It's supposed to take place in the form of a story but we wouldn't have understood the plot at all if we hadn't read the pamphlet description. :p Music and singing're both good, and we appreciated the various acts. But I guess since Hubby and I have watched Quidam before, our expectations were kinda raised, and this show didn't quite impress us as much as the former did back then.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself that day! :)