Reviewing 08

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone~ :-)

Time really flies, and we are at the end of the year yet again. A good time to look back and reflect on what have we done in the past one year.

Jan:
Started the year with ah mi's cousin's solemnization. Spent lots of time stressing over the flat issue. :S Backache galore for me too as I spent quite some time at the specialist. (heng can claim ah)

Feb:
Ah mi survived the much dreaded CNY, and I got diagnosed with slipped disc. :( We got another bad number in our balloting attempts and felt quite miserable again. :(

Mar:
Got officially downgraded to PES C9L2, so more or less no ICT lo~ (downside: have to live with backaches for rest of my life :S) Enjoyed some nice quiet weekends too, while we still KPKB about the flat issue.

Apr:
April balloting began and we tried our luck once again. It was going to be our last ballot before we go for a resale flat. Ballot results came out and we got queue number 1190 for 490 flats. We also went for our first Marriage convention which was a series of marriage prep talks. :)

And of course, April was the month for dear ah mi's birthday, and she looks prettier with each passing day (must be the effect of being loved *blushes*)

May:
Planning and budgeting for our wedding had officially started, even when I was doing some ad-hoc planning previously. With our disappointing April ballot results, we began to look out for nice, affordable resale flats. :-( Oh and Sunghwa came to visit with his newly wedded wife and we had a nice gather with my long lost pal, Made. ;-)

Jun:
After the planning session, we thought that we had better get the process going by checking out bridal studios and stuff. After running around in the hot sun and getting ambushed by sales assistants from bridal studios (trapped for hours), we finally decided on the bridal studio and the pre-wedding photography. We even got our wedding bands as a bonus~ ;) Another noteworthy event this week was the first ever parents meeting session for us. It's kinda scary at first, but we managed to survive it.

As for the flat issue, who would have thought that after getting a queue number of 1190 for 490 flats, we could actually get a flat. We got a 2nd storey flat, but it was really better than nothing and we are really really pleased with it. :D

Oh we also confirmed our big day as 27th Sept 09 @ Swissotel Stamford, which supposedly is good for the both of us.

Jul:
We finally got the keys to our new flat and it's a huge bunch of keys. :D

This month was pretty much spent on the checking and cleaning of our flat. Also, there was quite some unhappiness in the wedding planning due to expectations of parents, but it was quite expected.

Aug:
We welcomed baby Jonah to this world with his proud parents, Howard and Karen. Here's hoping that Jonah will be a healthy and happy baby~

Had a nice trip to the Zoo with the guys this month too. Quite a lot of ranting, this month too, so I guess it was not a very good month for me. :-P

Sept:
Celebrated my little cousin's 21st birthday and accidentally disfigured his cake (told you not purposely le :-P)

Did some more confirmation with our wedding vendors and attended ah mi's cousin, Sharon's, wedding too.

Oct:
Found out that there is going to be another Formula 1 race in Singapore in 2009 and the final race day is going to be on our wedding day itself! @#$%&!!! Was quite busy doing some damage control and contingency planning.

Also, our wedding bands were finally ready after a second resize due to my fat finger. The next problem was that we do not know what we want to engrave on the ring.

For our flat, we found that we are not going to be the first occupants of our flat as it already had occupants living there, and they are BATS! Our new home suddenly became a real bat cave (eat your heart out, Bruce Wayne :-P)

Nov:
My birthday! :-D

Officially started our hunt for furniture and made our very first purchase of furniture, which is a nice dining table set.

We also had our very first fish spa at Harbourfront, which was very interesting and very ticklish~

Dec:
Went for our first cruise on SuperStar Libra, and probably gained 5kg together after eating non-stop on the ship. We visited Phuket for a very brief tour and went back to the ship to carry on our non-stop eating. :-P

We also got our wedding shoes, and ah mi took the chance to stock up on her dwindling supply of shoes.. :-P

I got the chance to organize my annual class chalet for my JC classmates, who are more or less still in contact with one another, which is fantastic. :D

As for Christmas, we had a nice Christmas lunch at Loyd's place, where we had a great time in the company of our dear friends.

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And that, is about all for the year of 2008. It's a year of ups and downs, and in summary, it has not been a very kind year for me and I'm quite glad that it is finally coming to an end.

Next year will be an even more hectic year, but there will be more things to look forward to, with our new home ready, and our wedding happening in September. I can't wait to go into the next year with ah mi by my side.

An early Happy New Year to you all, and have a blessed year ahead!

Pete signing off for 2008.

Christmas Potluck

Just like last year, we celebrated Christmas this year with the guys at Loyd's studio, and had a potluck lunch and did a simple gift exchange (although it was decided that we shall not have one this year, but we all brought something along ha ha). It was an enjoyable day, and we had a great time with the food that everyone prepared or bought, and a fun time with Wii that Pete brought along. Pictures to share:

Preparing the strawberries & marshmellows for the potluck

Packing the (ugly) strawberries & marshmellows to Loyd's place

Pete's successful attempt at teriyaki chicken

A feast:

Toon's stuffed chicken, Loyd's bee hoon, Johnny's potato salad, not forgetting Pete's teriyaki chicken...

...not forgetting pizzas from Sally

Sally & me

A tearful Sally from Johnny's X'mas surprise of a hamster for her

Having a good workout competing with Sally at Wii Boxing

Dessert time! David's delicious cheese cake, with my not-so-presentable chocolate-coated strawberries & marshmellows

Say Cheeeeeze...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ONE & ALL!

Packed Weekends To Come

As 2008 draws to a close, I finally sat down and worked on the timeline and checklist for our wedding and new home. Looks like 2009 will be a busy year ahead, with most of our weekends dedicated to our new home, and later on, the wedding. I hope we will not forget to spend time with each other away from the hustle and bustle of it all once in a while :) After all, us is what this is all about in the first place ya :D

Year end is also the time to meet up with friends, catching up and exchanging gifts, so Pete and I headed off to Howard and Karen's place last Friday. We had a nice home-cooked dinner of pumpkin soup, salad, baby carrots and cottage pie. Dessert was cheesecake and some strawberries and cherries that we bought over. Karen and I exchanged gifts: she received a Biotherm cellulite cream from me for her birthday, a box of chocolates for Christmas, and a little toy for Baby Jonah. We were presented with a Robinsons gift card for Christmas. Time to shop for more country tableware! We had a good time playing with Baby Jonah too, who is almost 5 months old. Here are some photos to share:

Us with Jonah

Can't wait to walk...but I suppose I have to learn to crawl first...

Finally...managed to flip over...phew!

With our timeline and checklist up, we set off bright and early (ok, maybe not that early) last Saturday to visit the Textile Centre in search of upholstery for our extra set of sofa covers. After a wild goose chase, we ended up at Joo Chiat and hit gold when we found an upholstery shop selling prints that are suited to country-themed homes. We went further down Joo Chiat Road, and managed to find another fabric shop with possible striped designs as well. We have not made a decision, and we hope to settle that soon, and place an order for our sofa!

We proceeded to town after, and managed to get my bridal shoes from Far East Plaza. Although they are not really the ideal pair that I would like to have, I figured that it is not really worth it to custom make and pay a bomb for them for something I will not be wearing too often. We headed to Great World City after, and it turned out to be a shoe shopping trip! Bought myself another 2 pairs on sale. Pete managed to get his shoes for the wedding too, and while he was trying them on at Hush Puppies, I tried on a casual pair that was on promotion, and we got that too! I think year end is a great time for shoe shopping due to the sales and promotions :D

Today's catch: Groom shoes, bridal shoes, a pair of slippers, a pair of slip-on heels, and a pair of comfy shoes from Hush Puppies :O

With the purchases, we ticked off wedding shoes on our checklist :)

Sunday came, and there were more purchases on the way. We managed to place an order for our hood, hob, oven and a storage heater with a shop in IMM, which gave us quite a good price for the items. We may go back to them for our other applicances in future. We went to IMM with the intention of placing an order for a bed we saw there, but on closer inspection, the workmanship was of a rather poor standard, and we decided to hold back on the purchase.

We went for dinner at the new Jurong Point extension on Sunday night, and had a sinful dinner at Swensen's. The new extension is really huge, but I think I will have lots of opportunities to explore it further in future :)

"I will take the mega burger...

...and you shall just have this little bowl of coleslaw ya"

With that, we ended the start of our busy weekends to come.

Cruise to Phuket - Part 2

Sarwardee Kar~ Pete here reporting the 2nd part of the cruise. (as my camera was used for the 2nd part. ;-P)

So after 2 days of cruising on the Straits of Melaka, we were finally here at Phuket~ The ocean liner was anchored offshore and we were to take another boat to the shores of Phuket from our ship. We took the shopping tour as the other tours did not seem to fit our style very much, and we did not do enough research on Phuket to be going free and easy. So here we go~

View of Phuket from the top deck


Look at my belly from all that food~


Down shot~


Up shot! Nothing to do while waiting for the boat


On the rickety old boat

On the beach, the downside of being in a tour with aunties was already apparent as we had to wait for the late comers. The sun was scorching hot, and ah mi was looking for anything that can provide some shade for her delicate skin. Interesting thing is that when we were disembarking from the smaller boat to the beach of Phuket (Patong Beach), we realised that there were several locals taking pictures of us. Initially we did not know what their intention was, but later you will see. ;P

View of the ship from the jetty


Sunny Phuket~


Squinting from the sun


Oh my delicate skin~

First stop - Cashew nut factory. Basically, it's a tourist trap lah. The factory already has arrangements with Starcruise to bring the passengers there as part of the tour. The cashew nuts there were not exactly cheap also loh. However, there was unlimited sampling there, so ah mi and I had our fill of cashew nuts and other local delights. :-) When we were back on the bus, several of the aunties were late as usual. :S

The cashew nut factory~


Giant cashew nut


Me trying to bite everything as usual~


Say NUTS~


What real cashew nuts look like (they are fake, by the way :P)

Next stop was a jewellery factory. Lots of shinies but nothing really interesting. :P

Third stop was to the biggest shopping mall in Phuket (Central Festival). We were supposed to stop here for lunch and the guide said that fast food places like KFC and McDonald's were here, so I was looking forward to having my McPork there. However, it turned out that our guide was wrong loh.. No McPork for me, so we had Phad Thai (what else do you eat in Thailand?) at the foodcourt above. It was okay loh (shrugs), but I think Thai Express's Phad Thai tastes better. :P

Phad Thai for lunch...


and Baskin Robbins for dessert (lose to Ben & Jerry's :P)

After lunch, we had some time to shop around the mall and ah mi's top place to be is VNC, a shoe shop (diaoooo~) We got a magnet (yah yah.. typical tourists) and a nice miniature tea set as decor for our new home.

After this stop, our last stop was a tourist trap place famous for their dried seafood products. Due to lack of time (all thanks to the aunties) we had 15 mins here to make our purchases. We got some "bahu" stuff for our families and we were all out of Thai Baht liao.

With this, we were on our way to the beach to re-embark on our ship. On the way to the jetty, we saw tables set up with many framed photos of us as we were disembarking. What a way to earn quick bucks.

So after the shore trip, we were back on the ship, starting our journey back to Singapore. It was kinda sian, as there was 1 full day in the ship, with nothing to look forward to except arriving in Singapore which signifies the end of our little holiday.

So what did we do on the ship? We ate, checked menu for the next meal, and ate, and checked menu again and ate. Occasionally, we played some games. Just wanna say that playing Jenga on the ship is not a very good idea. :-S

Our usual buffet meals~


Look out for a R(A) word :P


Timber!!!


This is an intentional pose by the way~ :P

And that, my friends, is our first cruising experience (and we won't be back for a long long time :-P)

Cruise to Phuket - Part 1

One of the most spontaneous things that Pete and I did was to decide to go on a holiday (which was not in our plans for this year) one fine Sunday when we were discussing clearing of our annual leave, and then made a booking for it within the next two days, and then boarded a cruise ship, all within about a week! Well, I guess this was not too bad. Initially, Perth was part of the spontaneous plans, but we decided that it would be too rushed to plan a good trip, and so we abandoned Perth for the moment.

We signed up for the 5D 4N trip on board Star Cruises' Superstar Libra to Phuket. It was the first time we were on a cruise. We decided being on a cruise is a definite way to relax. You practically eat and sleep, and then eat and sleep, and then eat, and eat most of the time. I feel that I have eaten enough for the month, and felt like a slug that I would not mind vacuuming the whole ship if you asked me to. That aside, I suppose it allows you time to really take things slow and just plain relax, which I feel sometimes you may not even get to do that on other tours and trips where you are always either rushing somewhere, with the aim of covering all the sights, or rushing to catch the last train or bus back to your accommodation.

We read, played board games, sat in the lounge and listened to live music, enjoyed the wind and sea on the upper deck... and then eat... and sleep... it was indeed a good break for the end of the year. Some pictures to share:

On the upper deck before setting off from HarbourFront

One for the album


Pete seems happy with his American breakfast


Where is the capi-toan?


Upper decks of the ship


Our little cabin


Medusa me


Happy Pete again with his Dim Sum breakfast


Our souvenirs from the trip...


...not forgetting a little something from Phuket for our future country home