Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

If I had all the money in a world, a substantial sum would be spent on art. In particular, art AND charity. And that is why cheelihart is so close to my, well, heart!

Her paintings are exactly my style and reflects my own personality to a large extent – optimistically colourful, bold and expressive. I dare say it reflects the personality of the painter.

The painter is no ordinary painter. She is a mother to four, a devoted wife to a paeditrician (Ban Hup is also an accomplished photographer), an accomplished and well-travelled banker and a dear friend to top it all. I have been colleagues with her for the past 13 years but to prove how little I know of her, I didn’t know she could paint until a month ago! Shame on me. Anyway, better late than never. I keep asking myself, how is it possible for a lady with so many talents to be accomplished both at home and work? I bet I can bake better cupcakes than her – hah!

I am proud to support local artists, plus if you make a purchase between now and end October 2011, 20% of the proceeds will go to Living Hope – a charitable organisation which is very close to my heart.

Hop on to her website and try to guess which piece I’d recently purchased.

The surprised biker chik at her birthday event

Funny tom-yam kuung

Too much green curry, perhaps?

Or a ticklish steamed sea perch with lime & garlic?

At one point, she was laughing so hard, she wanted to give me a flashy digital camera. Just so I would stop making her laugh.

Has an excellent sense of humour. The British sort. Funny with a straight face.

Great room mate; always allowing you to take your shower/dump first.

Doesn’t nag even if you drop pieces of chips on her side of the bed.

A bit conservative, but you’ll find out that it’s an act once you get to know her.

SEXY!

Acts well in a posh environment as well.

.=

Highly recommended.  

WARNING: may use eye liner for unscrupulous purposes!!!

I love giving people surprises. Happy ones, of course. Did you know that my ambition when I was little, was to be a clown? Because for the simple fact that I liked making people happy. So foolish haha.

Anyway, when an opportunity presents itself for a surprise, how can I pass it?

As you know, Patsy, Shireen and I have been planning for ages to steal away to Bangkok for the weekend. Besides 4 mothers chilling (of course, Patsy’s mum who came along couldn’t get rid of HER daughter), we had also wanted to do an early birthday celebration for the St Patrick girl. Wheels in my head start cranking.

THE STAGING

Three weeks before departure – I have Patsy’s hubby mobile number (you may wonder why – deng deng deng!!) so I sent him a text message asking him for contacts of her friends in Bangkok. He said he would revert the following day. He didn’t. Well, he’s a man. So being a woman, I pestered him some more and reminded him to delete our little text exchanges. He gave me a name and email of Patsy’s ex-colleague, whom she is still in contact with.

Two weeks before departure – I emailed the said friend. It was a cold call. I introduced myself and explained the reason I was contacting her. She responded almost immediately. See the difference between a woman and a man? Anyway, she was roped into the grand plan. All she needed to do was to keep mum and show up on that day.

At the same time, I asked Patsy’s husband for her mother’s number, and I texted her about the plans. She is one sporting woman. Her only role was to play blur. She said that she was naturally that (funny woman because that is so not true!!) so it wouldn’t be an issue.

One week prior to departure – I scoured the internet for good restaurants in Bangkok that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, yet classy enough for a birthday celebration. I read so many reviews that I was cross-eyed. After days on the internet, just 2 days prior to our departure, I found this little gem that NEVER had any bad reviews. Not even “OK” reviews but all were GREAT reviews. I promptly booked the place since the place only seated 18 people. Think cosy, hmmm.

THEN.

The friend in Bangkok (let’s call her Tatch just for the fun of it) said that she had forgotten that she had a prior engagement on Saturday night and couldn’t make it. I asked if she was ok for Friday night. Positive! With that, I had to call and change the booking date. All using my wonderful Thai. Kidding. They speak perfectly good English.

We were set to go, or so I thought.

THE HICCUPS

Who would have thought that getting to the restaurant was going to be an adventure in itself? Firstly, at 6pm, the road in front of our hotel was all jammed up. Upon enquiring, the bell hop told us that it would take at least 30-45minutes to get to the restaurant. We were better off taking the BTS skytrain. Immediately, I called Tatch and asked her for directions. And because we were all going to dress up, I suggested that we walked in our flats and put the shoes in a bag so that we can change later.

Secondly, none of us had any sleep the night before for various reasons. We caught an early flight in and shopped the entire day. By 6pm, we were pooped. So Patsy suggested that we leave the hotel at only 7:30-ish. NO FREAKING WAY! I had made reservations for 7:30pm. So I panicked and tried looking for the reservation slip that I had printed. I called the number. No tone. I called again, using all sort of prefixes. No tone. I marched downstairs to the concierge and asked them. It was a freaking number in France!! How did I miss that the country code wasn’t +662, which was for Bangkok? Must had been the panic. So how? No phone number? Desparate situation calls for desparate measure. I paid THB100 for 30mins usage of the hotel’s internet facility. Did what I had to do and spent the rest checking emails and FB-ing. Afterall, I had already paid for it. With a relieved mind, I strutted back to the room like a proud peacock, that everything was under control, and took my time to get ready for dinner. As I was in the shower, I heard the door bell. When I came out, Shireen told me that Patsy had come asking how come I was on FB. SHIT! She knows I don’t subscribe to a data plan. I kicked myself for updating my status, which obviously blared on her FB! Smart-thinking Shireen told Patsy that I’d probably paid for internet to email my husband. Great one, girl!!! I told myself, no more errors after this. Only an hour more.

THE JOURNEY

You’re saying, what? We haven’t come to the climax yet? No. Just like good sex, the longer it takes to climax, the better the climax would be.

We left our rooms at 7:45pm. We had gone over to Patsy’s room at 7:30pm sharp but she was still getting ready. SIGH, woman!!! Luckily, the roads had cleared up so I suggested taking the cab instead. I told the driver the name of the street but he obviously didn’t understand what I was saying. The concierge said something to him and off we went.

We came to a junction where we waited for the longest traffic light in the world to turn green. When it did, only 3 cars passed before it went back to red. My heart started to race. Tatch texted me to tell me she was already there. When we finally went passed it after what felt like 2 hours, the cabbie didn’t know where we wanted to be dropped. So, I randomly (based on intuition – BAD CHOICE) asked him to stop outside a McDonalds. I asked around and everyone pointed me towards back to where we came from! The side walk was crowded with people and vendors selling wares by their make-shift stalls (think pasar malam) and here we were, all dressed to the nines, probably looking like hookers out to get their prey. We walked for a good 20mins, and in between, I had made 4 phone calls to the restaurant asking where they were. Finally, we hit the Soi we were supposed to be on. I wasn’t sure initially so I walked ahead while the rest waited.

I walked and walked and walked deeper into the dark Soi. There were barely any cars or people. I gulped with fear but kept pushing on. Afterall, this was supposed to be a BIG surprise. I couldn’t screw it up now. And FINALLY, I saw the sign of the restaurant beckoning to me in its pink neon lights. I quickly called the rest to walk ahead until they saw me. Some 5 minutes later, I saw a flusterred Shireen and a Hokkien-mee faced Patsy who barked, “Dinner better be damn good!”. Can’t blame her. She had worn her 5inch biker chick heels.

I saw a lonely lady sitting by the table, with her back facing the door, which I presumed would be Tatch. I walked in first followed by Patsy who stormed in. All was well worth the aching calves when Tatch stood up and greeted Patsy. The moment was, PRICELESS. Patsy’s mouth broke into a big “O” and for once, she was speechless. Yes, can’t imagine her being speechless, right? Afterall, Patsy had earlier asked Tatch whether she was available for dinner on Saturday and was brutally rejected!

THE HAPPY ENDING

And thus, we enjoyed the rest of the evening having first class food and top notch company. Never mind that we had a mini bonfire on our table and everyone was too tired to react. Never mind that Patsy had a stuffed up nose (from all the walking?) and couldn’t taste the food. Never mind that we were all about to pass out when the last course was served. We had a jolly good time. REAL jolly good time.

Hope you liked the birthday present, Miss M.

We had the most A-M-A-Z-I-N-G girly trip! Lots of stories but can only share a few. Rest belongs in Bangkok. I’m exhausted as I hardly slept or rested the past 3 days so it will take a while until the stories start flowing but keep your eyes opened!

I’d just realised that I couldn’t upload photos because of the size of my photos (about 2MB each) hence I found a tool to decompress it for quick uploading onto web pages.

First, photos of Siem Reap:

A priceless photo since the temples are closed to the public after 6pm.

Can you see how steep the stairs are??

Tough life for the little boy who goes around the temples, collecting empty plastic bottles for re-cycling

Outside the famed Angkor Wat complex

Our happy pizza!

Now, photos from December Ipoh & Penang trip:

Bradley with Kulim Ah Ma (who passed away yesterday – may her soul rest in peace)

Enjoying the “welcome drink”

Chilling in progress

Playing sandcastle by the pool side – how cool is that?

But nothing beats warm water in a bath tub

Lost World of Tambun – can continue to remain “lost”; nobody will miss it!

Two rabbits in a petting farm

A couple of birds

And porcupines in a glass enclosure
 

Next up, photos from Macau.

The year of the rabbit will prove to be a challenging year for me. I am highly optimistic though as the almanac says, for a dragon, it’s recommended for a change of job or a secondment for career progression. VT and I are both dragons (and both Scorpions).

We spent the first two days of CNY doing what we always do – 1st day at VT’s granny’s house and 2nd day at my parents. Met up with all of our closest friends on the 3rd day, most of whom are working & residing in Singapore, and what do you know, there were 5 pregnant ladies in our house! I had to stop breathing less I get “infected” On the 4th day, we had a small do for VT’s colleagues.

The kids had way too much fun – with all the sugared water and junk food! It was allowed (not by me) on the excuse of it being CNY. I had to hide the cookies and prawn crackers on top of the fridge so that they won’t see them!

While everyone else’s post has a blow-by-blow account of what they did, actually, I don’t recall us doing much except for perpetually eating and just generally, having a good time as a family. We did enjoy the closeness shared when we were together with our families and friends, so that is enough blessing to start this lunar new year.

Another year older, another year wiser? I wished! It’s really just another year older, isn’t it? I was greeted by Bryan first thing in the morning as he is an early-riser.

Bryan: Happy birthday mummy!
Me: Thank you, Bryan.
Bryan: I’ve got a special present for you.
Me: Oh, what is it?
Bryan: a HUG
*awwwwww*

Brandon & Bradley were both still clueless And then, there were those birthday messages left on FB by fellow bloggers and friends. You all made me feel like a queen!!!! Thank you so very much.

I went to work as usual since I had run out of annual leaves, well almost. Only 2 more days left for the year which I’m keeping for emergencies. I’ve been a “spenthift” with my leaves this year – I get 30 days off annually but left with two days with 2 more months to go! Oh, well.

The girls at work had treated me to a grand dinner at Pressroom @ BSC the Friday before but on that day itself, they treated me again to yummy fish head curry, a spa voucher at Jentayu Spa (my favourite!!) and a set of spa-ish body wash-scrub-lotion. Yumms!!!

The girls from work. A close colleague also baked a lychee cheese cake for me.

Then I got a little surprise from the Pumpkins, who wished me a happy 25th birthday with these super-cheery flowers. Thanks, Patsy – especially when you had to go through all that trouble in getting them!!

After work, I went to grab some groceries at BV and bumped into Annie Q, who was so thoughtful as to get cupcakes for me. She even hunted me down in Village Grocer – pai seh!!!! Thanks Annie, dear!

VT bought me the dress I was wearing above as a present. Actually, I had bought it as a gift to myself but he hijacked it so that he didn’t have to crack his head about what to buy! We had dinner at my in-laws since it was a weeknight, complete with my favourite coffee (cheap) cream cake from those old-fashioned bakery shops.

The best bit of this year’s birthday? To have my 3 happy, healthy and laughing boys with me on this special day. An added bonus was that VT managed to postpone his work trip so that he could be around. Oh, by the way, Bryan and Brandon blew the candles and also massacred the cake with the plastic knife. At least I managed to squeeze in my wish

What a day!!

Most of you commented how “cool” Bradley looked in the previous post.

Well, he was only warming up.

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How about that for some action, peeps???

Their first date involved sleeping together (my, oh my!)

Their second date involved sharing a pram (with Brad getting whacked – for being too fresh, presumably!)

Their third date was a whole lot more decent – coffee at Starbucks. But being non-coffee drinkers, they both had milk in exchange. This has possibly got to be the most civilised meet thus far. Well, they were supposed to share a couple of tumbles together ala Hindi movie style but due to a series of bad luck, the lovebirds ended up just standing next to each other and smiling politely.

Can you guess who Brad’s girlfriend is?