#1370.

My loots from the States arrived! Whoopie!! The boyf had been so busy so he accumulated my purchases over the last 6 months and shipped them at 1 go. I couldn't even recall that I bought these stuff and many of them I don't like it already /:

The boyf also bought this bag for me as a surprise gift! Hehe thank you baby, so sweet (: really love it lots!!

Also, as part of the surprise, he threw in matchy couple stone rings! The green one is his birth stone & he picked out the black pearl for me. Love cute quirky stuff! :D


Shopping aside, the girlfs and I trying out new photo apps in office. Hehe.

Jen has since left the team and the new girl on-board is crazy funny! Her name's Ash and she talks super hilarious stuff that always crack us up. Happy team! :D

#1369.

It's barely a month since my birthday and boyf's birthday is over already! I'm super happy my little surprise turned out to be a success. I was initially racking my brains over what to get for baby since his bouquet of roses really touched my heart. I wanted to do something special too!

I thought of a few ideas (sorry not sharing here because I might use these ideas some other times) and finally settled on zchocolat! :D

Did some research online and realized that zchocolat offers international shipping via DHL (very trusted because I've worked there before and I know their awesome service level). What's more, they have a comprehensive range of chocolates suitable for all occasions!

I chose the Firecracker from the birthday collection because of the reasonable price and quantity. I was sooo excited at the thought of baby receiving this birthday gift. I know he would love it given his sweet tooth :P

I like how zchocolat offers a personalized touch to your gift by allowing you to engrave on the box for free! Like how awesome is that!!! For a small fee, you can make it even more exclusive with ribbons & stickers. The ordering system is simple and fuss-free too!

*Sorry if it sounds like a paid ad but it's not! I just felt so overwhelmed by their awesomeness! Heh!

Anyway, what makes zchocolat stands out from the usual chocolatier is their top-notch customer service. Since this was a surprise for baby, I wanted to make sure the delivery was done on his birthday (or it would defeat the purpose, no?)

Also, I need to know the time of delivery so that I can arrange it to be delivered to his work place or home. The friendly customer service rep was so kind and helpful & super prompt in their response. She answered all my queries and even advised what needs to be done to ensure a smooth delivery.

Ok, enough of words!


On the night of his birthday, his brothers (SXD) decided to Skype him I thought it would be fun to join in because I haven't met them for the longest time! But we tried calling him for 30 minutes and he just won't wake up. Hahaha my lazy sleepyhead. Can't blame him though cos it was 5AM PST. I almost wanted to give up when Keeguan managed to wake him up and they conferenced me.

Guess what they did!! Jeffrey decided to play a game to see how well we know each other. But I think he's just secretly jealous. Hehe. So he asked weird questions like what's her favourite colour, number, brand, etc. I was quite surprised baby scored well :D

Also scrapped this page for my dearest boy (:


Happy 24th birthday sweetheart! I love you.

P.s. I finally mustered the courage! Will share the good news once it's confirmed because I don't wanna jinx it! :D Must be the birthday luck!

#1368.

As usual, I'm sitting in front of my laptop and flipping through my diary/journal/planner to see what I've been up to the whole year.

First on the list is my beloved sweetheart Dennis Ong - 19 months and we are more in love than ever. Thank you for being my boyfriend, soulmate, confidante, family. Whenever I have problems with work, home, friends, he's always there to lend a listening ear (even though we're now eight thousand miles apart). Thank you for showing me that LDR can work and it certainly gets easier by the day. I'm always counting down the days till I get to see you again! (:

It was such irony that I helped the boyf apply for his NOC application cos he was so busy he didn't had time & was afraid he'd miss the deadline. I hurriedly fill up the online application and even made such I don't make any mistakes. Yet in my heart I didn't want him to go. Before every interview (3 in all) I would wish him good luck & all the best. I knew he could ace them but in my heart I hope he committed a boo-boo so he didn't have to leave me. The memory is etched so clearly in my mind when he texted "I got it!!!" The bittersweet sensation.

This is what he said to me & I'll always remember "Baby, thanks for being by my side. I know the next one year gonna be tough on us. It'll be emotionally draining but we'll both hang on you understand? I love you baby." Now that we're almost halfway through the journey, I'm proud of you baby! Have lots of fun, just make sure you come back in one piece.

We celebrated our first anniversary at Cameron Highlands! It was pure bliss to be away from everything else. Boyf doesn't have to go for dance, Scouts, project, meetings, tuition, etc. So it's just 100% time for me. Hehe. Sadly I accidentally deleted all the photos from my camera ): I did save some of them and will probably blog some time soon!

Boyf passed driving to prepare himself for the States. Finally after many years and 5 attempts, he made it! Now it's my turn. I'm proud to say I've dragged my lazy ass to book & attempt BTT and passed! Now for the rest of the lessons, mhmm...

Next, our little business venture which didn't quite take off. One thing is for sure, lesson learnt! Never dive into something which you're not even convinced of yourself. Nevertheless it was a good experience even though boyf and I quarreled so much over this.

In the middle of the year, I attended my convocation. It was a sad event for me because I had a bad migraine the whole day. And my dad didn't really wanted to go. So it's just the boyf and I. Took only 1 photo. But it's ok!!! I've bought my gown and will take photos with baby when he graduates too!

I got myself a job at Citibank at the start of the year - straight out of NUS! 10 months into the job and I'm pretty comfortable with it. Although at some points it really overwhelms me because way too much $#!+ is dumped on my shoulders. But I'm learning to say no, to stop volunteering to take up more work when I can't cope. Financial advisory is always on the back of my mind so sometimes I'll take a step back and re-look my career options.

Took part in a photography competition and came in 2nd! Woohoo! But I'm not updating my food blog as frequently now. Nevertheless, I'm maintaining it because I'm sure one day I'll go back!

Friends wise, hadn't meet up with Thirteen for the longest time ever. I guess everybody is just busy and it drifts apart. Keeping a relationship alive takes time and effort on both ends. But I'm still glad we're friends. Sisters are as bonded as ever. With the addition of baby Clarisse to sis Ting's family, it certainly adds colours to our lives. Such a sweet angel! Shingzers are also meeting up less often because all of us are working now. Last but not least, AK have all turned 21!! They are eating less now, making less noise. Finally the girls have grown up.

First time taking part in the politics of Singapore and there were 2 major events - General Election and Presidential Election. Glad I did research and cast my vote wisely.

Techie wise, I'm into digital scrapbooking now. Because the resources are free and fun is endless. You can re-use all the goodies!! But I'm not giving up on real scrapbooking just as yet. It's giving cards and little handmade stuff to people that makes me happy. Also a BB to Android convert because BB failed me too many times. I'm so happy with my HTC now!

Last but no least, watched 8 movies in all.
Red Riding Hood
Hall Pass
Rio
Lost Bladesman
Kungfu Panda 2
X-Men First Class
Horrible Bosses
The Change-Up

Boyf and I opened our 2011 resolutions and we failed terribly! He, for one, did not accomplish a single resolution. Fret not baby, we'll work harder. We made our 2012 resolutions which are more like personal goals we want to achieve. We also decided that resolutions shouldn't be kept away because we need to be constantly reminded in order to take action. So when he comes back from the States, we're gonna pin our resolutions up & work hard towards them! :D

Wow, happy 2012 all. X

#1367.

The last of my birthday entries is about the celebration by AK - my beloved Animal Kingdom! :D Until today, I've always felt it's super heartwarming to have known this girls through CCA and the bond is getting stronger by the days.

We celebrated my birthday in conjunction with Christmas since they're so near to each other! This year's Christmas celebration was very different from what we used to had. We usually gather at someone's house for potluck or pizza, but this year we decided to eat out!

After some discussion on FB, we decided on Garden Slug! It was tucked in a little corner of Telok Kurau and we had some trouble finding it. Fortunately we made a reservation because it was full house on Christmas Eve!


Verdict: the pastas all failed but the mains were pretty good! It was a cosy little place except that the seats were placed too close to one another and it became really noisy.

To make me stand out as the birthday girl, they all decided to wear blue / black & I didn't even realized. I thought it was pure coincidence! :P

Sabby was the first to give her gift because she wanted us to sit through dinner with Santa hats! Yushu couldn't make it but she was sweet to bake cookies (together with Sabby) for us!


It was drizzling after dinner so we continued wearing our Santa hats :P

The place was too crowded and noisy so we adjourned to Weili's place for gift exchange & countdown!



All the gifts are really from the heart and I was so touched! Hoonie made cards and it was a great achievement considering she isn't crafty! Felina bought sky lanterns so we could all write new year's resolutions. Weili bought scented candles from Thailand! Kathy gave little card holders (totally my kind of thing). And I bought post-its! Uber cute ones!

They also presented me with my birthday gift - I asked for them! #shamelessmaximum

Super love all the scrapbooking goodies they've picked out for me. Not the usual flowers / laces / pink girly stuffs so that I try out different designs! :D Love them lots!

#1366.

Ying organized a dinner date + gift exchange for the few of us. It's a blessing I managed to find friends (locals & similar age group) in a technology organization of a bank. I recommended Watami because their prices are so reasonable and they have superb food. The wait was pretty long at Raffles City Shopping Centre - about 30 minutes or so. Thankfully we could go shopping and they promised to call us when our seat was ready.



Since there were only 4 of us, we decided to play a mini version of Dirty Santa. I guess I was in birthday luck cos I picked 4! Cheryl picked 1 and it happened to be my gift. She loved it so much she was praying she didn't get exchanged away. Haha.

My number was 4 so I picked Ling's gift. Unfortunately I don't have ear piercing so I couldn't use the beautiful set of earrings she picked out. I decided to exchange with Ying (who picked Cheryl's gift) so I got VS body mist in the end! Happy me! ^^

#1365.

My team also celebrated by birthday. It was supposed to be a surprise but I thick-skinnedly hinted that I wanted cupcakes if they are celebrating my birthday. Hahaha. They had no choice but to ask me what design, what colour, from where, etc. So I went with them to choose what I liked! :D


I also got Papermarket vouchers from my colleagues!!! Omg insanely happy!!! Thank you Ann, Ja, Hao, Kuma, Mark, Cher, Ying & Gwen. Can't wait to go shopping at Papermarket!!! :D


That evening, my director also invited us to his house for a Christmas party. His house is freaking huge!

That's two-thirds of our team!


After dinner, director's wife introduced a game of Dirty Santa. There were many variations but we played the simplest one. The rules of the game was easy0-peasy, yet it got all of us excited! Everyone was to draw a number from the ballot box. This number also corresponds to the number tag on the gifts.

E.g. Jo picked #1 so she opened gift #1. Like it or not, she has to keep the gift. Ann picked #2 so she opened gift #2. If she don't like it, she can exchange with Jo's gift. Mark picked #3 so he opened gift #3. If he doesn't like it, he can choose to exchange with Ann or Jo. Hence, the person with the biggest number can choose whatever gift he/she fancies!

I wasn't very lucky and my number was #2 so I went home with a not-so-interesting gift. But it's all fun! :D

#1364.

Happy 2012!!! New year, new beginnings, I'm pretty darn sure this is gonna be a fabulous year!!!

Updates from my birthday last year :P Had a simple lunch at Marche with Shingzers girlfs. We got to meet Jiayi (Aimee's boyf) for the first time and he's such a nice guy! Cannot wait for baby to be back and all of us can have a good meal together (: