{Day Trip to Desaru Fruit Farm}

Went to the Desaru Fruit Farm with M and my mum yesterday.

LIKE
- the time spent with my mum. Priceless!

- the photos that I took with mum. I'm thinking of making a mini-album for her. It's bee a while since we went on a "trip" together.

- the monkey that we saw, so adorable! OK I realised the picture below looks a little scary. But the real monkey was cute... only 5 months old. Like a baby!

Oops!!

- Fresh Passion Fruit Drink - So yummy!

- new knowledge learnt.
1. Did you know how to tell the difference between a naturally grown durian and one that's forced to mature? Now I know.

2. Can you tell from looking at the appearance what a mao shan wang durian is and is not? Now I can.

3. Finally, I've learnt to see the difference between a white flesh and a red flesh dragon fruit, just by looking at the uncut fruit. Yeah!

4. Oh yes and that Dragon fruit is really from a cactus plant. Ok, so what if you knew that before me? It's still new knowledge to me :P

- This trip is free. Complimentary by York Hotel. So generous of them!


DISLIKE
- food with houseflies flying around. Half way through lunch, my stomach cried out for help. And yes, I LSed at a JB toilet. It's the most unpleasant and disgusting toilet experience with extreme stress and pressure knowing that a long line of people are queueing outside. I NEVER want to eat there again! But... I was so helpless. sigh.

- pecked by a goose. So sneaky! I was engrossed looking at the monkey and this goose came charging towards me and pecked me... ?????

- "near white" colourless and tasteless durians - what's the point of a durian fiesta, eat all you want, when the quality of durian is simply not acceptable.

- Travelling. We spent almost 6 hours traveling (both ways) and sleeping in the coach. Of which 1.5 hours was painful because they had a DVD on and it was SO LOUD and the content is SO NOT appropriate for children who were on board... what can I say?

 -to wear not one but two travel stickers... why??

- Weather. Hot! Hot! Hot!

- Unmet expectations. They brought us to this popular wanton mee place. I had my hopes all high and up. The wanton has like 1/2 teaspoon of meat and that's it. 2 of those and a few slice of cha siew. The sauce is not even fantastic. :(

We ended the day with late dinner at York hotel. Had a great time actually dining out with mum and catching up on our recent camp experiences.

Love my mummy!

{Back Home}

Started another mini-album project for a GF. Every time I start I feel so lost. Not sure what to put, where to put, how to put. It just looks blah at the moment. Need some inspiration!

Been away 4D3N at JB. I miss home! And I miss our local food....

Really enjoyed the time together with family and friends. More importantly, questions that I had were being answered along the camp... God is good!

One thing really good came out of this was that I was very well rested. For some reason I sleep very well in hotels. The moment my head hits the pillow I'm off. I get up refreshed! I like!

The office is closed for the next three days! Woo hoo! I plan to scrap a little, shop a little, catch up with people a little and sleep a lot!

{No Weekends @ Home}

Somehow June's pretty packed with activities. Every weekend is taken.

Last Friday - stayed out with girls. Went home on Saturday. Yes! I stayed out! The very first time since I got married 4 years ago.

This Thursday to Friday we'll be away in JB for church camp.

Next Saturday, we'll be going to JB again, for a one-day fruit farm visit with my mummy dearest.

The following Saturday will be dear Ir's long-awaited wedding day!

{Jubolicious Ice-Cream Cone}

Yes! My nephew's back! Lil Chinese-French boy! Super cute! Here's some shots of him having his very own ice cream. Now I understand why mothers have so many photos to scrap. Kids are so photogenic!

{Julien Andre Chassin}

When it's good, instead of thumbs up, it's finger up!

   

Oh... too much ice-cream in his tiny mouth... COLD!

   

Another big bite!

  

Having His Very Own Cone!

Finishing Up!

{Girls' Night Out}

{Studio M - Studio Loft}

Spent a night with 3 fabulicious ladies at Studio M - Studio Loft to celebrate Ir's hen's night. Small but very smart use of space. I love it! Clean lines. High bed. Table/Seating area near the window was a very smart design. Pull out sofa bed was nicely designed. Checked in and met 3 other ladies for dinner at a Jap restaurant. Wah very expensive, the scallops were my favourite!

Headed for some drinks later and in the midst of that wa la! Her hubby to be showed up with a bunch of roses, went up on stage to declare his love and sang her Wonderful Tonight. Gave her a few sweet kisses and left us girls to celebrate the rest of the night. So sweet right??? (That's going to be his triumph card for a long time.) - Of course SY was the engineer of all these, got to give it to her - always coming up with such fantastic ideas.)

Went to Velvet to have some celebrative fun - oh my, oh my... really can feel the age difference :D

Ir was the first to crash in bed. The remaining 3 of us ordered Mac's delivery, ate on bed (YES! We ate on the bed coz' we didn't need to worry there'll be ants biting us the next day), chatted and slept.

J was freezing upstairs on the sofa bed because there was no blanket. Her protective covers were a bath robe and her towel :) Ir, SY & myslef were tuna packed on the Queen sized bed downstairs. Through the night I had 2 human heater, one of my left and one on my right. I was hot. Then when I got out of the blanket I was cold. It was a hot-cold-hot-cold night hahaha...

Woke up in the morning, took our time to wash up, laughed at each other's "getting ready habits". J win... take so long ha ha ha. Went for comfort food - Ramen - not bad, quite nice. I would return. Then headed to the Book Cafe for desserts. Traditional apple pie with chocolate ice cream. Wah... very happy. Then it was back to the hotel to spend remaining few minutes of lazy saturday away before we checked out.

We've got to do this more often, it's really quite fun! :)

{Professional Slouchers Caught in Action}

{This Is So Random}

It's 1.13 in the morning.
I'm slouching on my bed with the laptop on my lap.
Eyes are feeling kinda heavy.
Stomach's digesting all that has been deposited today.
Back of my head's hurting with a throbbing pain.
It's been a while since I'm up this late.
A small part of me enjoys this late night blogging.
The rest of me just want to log off and go to bed.
Would I be tossing and turning till morning?
Would I be in and out of sleep?
Or would I actually fall into deep sleep?

I'll never know if I continue to stay here... so, it's off to bed now.

{Project: Farewell Phoebe}

Tomorrow's Phoebe's last day with us, sob sob. We're going to miss her so much. She's been such a big part of the team!

Photos taken by Phoebe. Thanks to her clicking and snapping, this album was made possible!

Kept making the same mistake of making the album too thick. The rings that came with it wouldn't keep it closed properly. Had to replace them with ribbons instead. Well, it still flips :)

 

 

Made a tag for everyone to leave a personal note for her.

{I Fell Right For It!}

{Sleep vs Chocolates}

We enjoyed an appreciation lunch at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scotts today. I had NINE scoops of chocolate ice cream and several other chocolate desserts.

For those who know me, you might have guessed it right.

I'm wide awake now. Experiencing what I call "chocolate overload".

I knew I shouldn't have overdone it, but it's been so long since I enjoyed just eating chocolate desserts one after another.

Although it's a free meal, but I'm paying for it now... or rather, I traded my sleep with chocs.

{O Happy Day!}

The weekend came and went so quickly. Didn't get a chance to scrap anything, but I sure did a lot of window shopping. Yes, you read it right. Window shopping. Ate lots of comfort food.

Saturday
Lunch at Crystal Jade Golden Palace @ Paragon - About 10% more expensive, but I must say, the quality of food is MUCH better and the ambience... I like! Service is good too!

Window shopped at Paragon, Duty Free & Isetan. Finally bought a pair of black fit-flop. Oh my! Super Comfortable. You have to slip your feet in to experience it and be sold on it!

Dinner at Fish Market - Greenwood Avenue. Mussels with white wine sauce, superlicious! Fish & Chips... not too bad.

Sunday
Lunch at Food Court - Kway Chup, Yummy...

Window shop again at Paragon and Ion. My heart sank when the salesman said, the last bag was sold yesterday. Limited edition. I knew it, I shouldn't have hesitated and just bought it! Now, there's none for me... Convinced mum and aunt to get a pair of fit-flop each. They wore it immediately and shopped around in it the whole day. They were extremely happy with their good buy because IT'S SO COMFORTABLE!!!!

Dinner at Crystal Jade Korean Ginseng Restaurant. Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup, Spicy seafood & beancurd soup, Seafood Korean Pancake, Yummy side dishes...

Even though all I bought was a pair of fit-flop, I'm suprisingly happy :) I'm eyeing on a bag... a big bag... a bag I really like. (Evil grin....)

{YES!}

The feeling of being FREE from events for the next one month is absolutely awesome! It's finally over! Monday to Thursday this week, every single day... yesterday was the ultimate full day thing. We did it!

We had such a great supper last night. All of us had dinner at 11 plus last evening. We were just too tired and too hot to eat during the event and too busy making sure everything is in place. We had a really great time catching up, laughing about things... Got home at about 1am.

And P... we're so going to miss her when she leaves. She's part of the team, part of our ups and downs, part of our everyday life! Office will be so different without her. Each time we talk about her leaving, you would see those huge eyes get watery... awww..... love this girl!

K was so funny observing and imitating J. It was HILARIOUS! Highlight of the night was when K imitated J's "excitable" face! It was such a sight!

J must have missed all our "Fun" sacarcism and attention. Some things never change. You can only get so much of lame jokes at any one evening ha ha ha...

Well, the days ahead at office will certainly be a new chapter for us. With new person coming in, everyone have to adjust to new work habits etc. For now, I really just need to rest. It has been one of the busiest month ever. The last time I was this busy was when I was in advertising... it has been that long :)

Will try to get some scrap work done today.

To a bright, beautiful Friday. YES! We all we get through what we have to and be glad that we have a better tomorrow to look forward to!

{Good Food Makes Me Happy}

So, after a really tiring week, M made it all beautiful last evening by bringing me to a Korean restaurant. It's not a fancy restaurant. It's very homely and makes me think of Korea.

Read quite a lot of good reviews and saw them from a tv programme. Here's my accessment:

• Fantastic range of side dishes that comes with the main dish. 13 different varieties! Woo!
• Taste was not too bad. It wasn't mind blowing, but it made me feel like I was in Seoul.
• I liked that it was set up this Korean father and daughter team! Nice!
• The writings on the wall, gave it a personal, homely feel.
• Very reasonably priced.

What I felt was a little lacking:

• I guess it's difficult to get the Korean ingredients and still make money.Things like beansprout, beancurd, tang hoon. The ones in Korea, taste different in texture. And I've not tasted quite the same in Singapore since our return last year.
• The pancake was a little bland, but it was not bad.

Overall, I described this to M. It's way better than all the other Korean restaurant's we've tried in Singapore. Some of them were simply not acceptable. This is like the top of the bad that we had in Singapore. And the bottom of what we had in Seoul. So it makes it, not a bad choice when we're in Singapore.

Check it out, give it a try!

Kim’s Family Restaurant
17 Lorong Kilat #01-06
Singapore 598139
Tel: (65) 6465 0535
 
Ooh.. there's 2 Korean restaurants there. Don't get mixed up.
 
There's even a Korean super market just a few units down. It's amazing the stores they have on this little stretch at Lor Kilat (Around Bt Timah area). Tucked away, yet such precious finds.
 
There's 2 icecream places there. The one nearest to Kim's is absolutely yummy! Try the Mao Shan Wang Durian ice cream. Oh my! It' nicer than durian! They also had interesting alcoholic options like Orange with Bitter Chocolate, Lychee Martinee Ice Cream etc. Nice, cool, little place. Udders is one of the 3 winners of the Emerging Enterprise 2010 competition! Try it! Ask to sample the flavours before placing your orders!

{3 Down 3 More To Go}

May's a month swarmed with work, work and more work. So many things happening all at the same time. Everyone at office is just exhausted. We're hanging in there, by the grace of God. The last 3 events are all happening next week! Woo hoo! After that, I really want to take a break. So tired!

1. Office Packing & Moving
2. Organise fundraising dinner
3. Launch a new School of Ministry programme
4. 3-day Seminar
5. 1-Evening Prayer Meeting
6. 2010 Graduation Commencement

The fundraising dinner went well. We were delayed by 10 minute, but generally, everything ran like a clock-work. I'm just thankful it's over.

By the time we settled in that evening, and lay in bed, it was 12 plus. I'm a person who cannot just fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillow. I need 3-4 hours to wind down. My mind would be running, my heart is racing, I'm still in "active" mode.

If you do the calculation, you might have guessed it. I was tossing and turning all night after the dinner.

1040pm Dinner Ends
1040pm-1130pm Pack up onsite
12am Arrive home
12.30am - 6.45am Toss & turn in bed
7am Plan to get up and go for breakfast with M. BUT I fell into deep sleep then.
7.50am Alarm clock rings.
8am Crawls out of bed. Head to work.

I was really stoned and in a daze that morning. My head was pounding and I just wanted to sleep! Before I could continue to dwell on how tired I was, work took over again. We were busy preparing and packing for Monday's seminar.

I just can't imagine the logistics and the packing after the seminar and the very next day, we have graduation to handle.

We need much grace and strength to run this final lap. Not just me, but everyone in office is exhausted.

{Her First Hand-Made Gift To Him}

J called and wanted to make a "shadow box" for her BF's anniversary gift. She came over last Saturday afternoon and I think I might have changed her views on scrapbooking.

Before she started, she said this would probably be her first and last attempt. After the session, she seems pretty open to do it again.

The part she enjoyed most was distressing the edges. There was a "glow" in her eyes as she scraped the edge of the well cut paper to give it a raw look and fascination took over as she added some "colors" to give it a burnt look. I myself, am a big fan of distressing stuff :)

We even came up with a "sales pitch", a "story" on God, perfection, imperfection all linked together. I don't even remember what it is now, but at that point when the idea was birthed, we had a really good laugh over it!

It was a really nice time to catch up with her and do something I really enjoy. It was a form of "stress release" for me and a time to catch up with an old friend.

The boy and girl transparent tags gave it a really cool touch. Love that idea!

{Completed!}

Finally completed the mini-album for a friend. It's a farewell gift. This wouldn't be possible if she had not taken so many pix that day. I realised I'm not a photo person. I brought the camera and all I took was 3 photos ha ha ha... She went around snapping here, snapping there and we were all avoiding her. But in the end, I must say, her photos made this album possible!

Here's a sneak-peak. Will post more when the gift is given :)

I especially liked the distress combination of Old Paper & Vintage Photo. Looks really cool!

Keep Moving Forward

I wish May would go by quickly. Such a busy, busy period.

Got 2 mini-albums in line, trying to squeeze up every little time I have. It's a real challenge. Got started on one of them. It's almost there but not quite.

The other is still kinda laying around. Basically because the photos are not ready yet. Who knows? I might change it to frame instead.

I think I'm there's something in me that cries out for me to keep to confined spaces. I want so much to have stuff sticking out of the mini-album, but the organiser in me is not allowing that. Each time i put something out of place to make sure it sticks out, I end up putting it back in place. Neat and tidy within the given space. It's like my constant need to work within a confined space, a boxed up cubicle. To be covered, strapped down. Psychologist would say that's a form of insecurity. Really?

Anyway, just wanted to drop a note to say, I'm alive :)