Happy Chinese New Year!!!

happy Chinese New Year to all my family and friends!!!

My birthday treat ... :)

Check out my Birthday dinner surprise by the Mrs....
Great location, great food, great company....

Birthday 33rd

I celebrated my 33rd birthday yesterday on the 14th of Jan 2009.

I have to thank my wife for arranging a wonderful dinner at the cosy island of Sentosa, on the romantic beach of Rasa Sentosa's Barnacles. The Seafood platter was a huge delight. Thank you, my dear.....

Also have to thank my family for arranging a surprise birthday party over the past Sunday. Thank you, my dear family members... makes me feel so fortunate.... :)

Thank my friends, Daniel, Ann and Baoling for braving a big Jap Buffet with me on Saturday. The Cheese cake is great!

Tons of well wishes over Facebook, sms-es and emails..... Thank you, people...

Lastly, have to thank my two sweet colleagues for surprising me with a tiramisu bday 'cake' yesterday. Really a pleasant surprise. THANK you....


Lucky me... 2 cakes and a tiramisu.... Lots of Love from my wife, family, friends and colleagues...
What more can i ask for? maybe a big Ang Bao for the coming year!! ahhahahaa.....

Colleagues can be friends?

I have been through a good enough number of companies to know that different people exist in different types of companies. Those you find in SMEs differ from Ministries, whom differs from MNCs and also those from Statutory boards.......

One fine day, a few days ago, a junior came to me and ask me a direct but simply complex question. Can Colleagues become real friends? can the deepest secret/worry/happiness be shared without a fear of the info being manipulated at work? Or being misconstrued to political play?

My asnwer to her is that the answer is complex. Look at the background, look at the person and look at the information given. But if you have to look so much and consider so much, does not seem much of a chance that he or she will become your friend.

Made me wonder also if some of my ex- current colleagues considered me as friends. I guess friends will not accuse people of some crazy stuff if really friends.........

Conclusion: SOME of your colleagues can be your friends while others.... just stay away from them....

Quote of the Week

Its back to Quote of the Week:

"I dont need a thousand options, I just need one damn great one!!!"

I saw this one somewhere in my dreams.... really gets you thinking if you should be somewhere ready to grab this One Great option or getting stable returns waiting at a particular spot.

Think about it...

Life is tough....

today, something happened that made me think damn hard about my policy of always listening and always helping ppl.

Seems like some ppl do not deserve helping or lending a listening ear...........

Why create problems for myself or being accused of being a nosey parker or a politics player? No sense at all.......

So i took a very very very long lunch (apologies sent to my boss) and thought long and hard about it. No Shits.... really cracked my brain up... but anyway, i came to the conclusion that I will still help. Still must give and still must help.... or else I will be a disgrace to my upbringing and also to my principles....

Hope I can do it!
:)

Year end Holiday trip.......(part 1: KL)

Hello Back to Reality!.............(as I crawled back into the routine of work…….)

It has been quite a happy holiday for the past week or so after me and the Mrs completed our KL and Cambodia tour…..

For our KL Trip

We started with a short 5 hours bus ride on the 27th of December to KL where our dear friends, Ah Tham, Yen li and their adorable 4 year old Ming Kit picked us up at the bus station. From then on, we ate and ate and ate till….. the NEW YEAR! Hahahaa… really tons and tons of good food and good company…….

I contributed to the Malaysian economy by doing my fair bit up Genting Highlands. (“God” rest Uncle Lim’s soul as we paid our last respect on the way) Well, that was one wish out of the way: Gambling on the tables for one full day. I must thank the Mrs. for being so patient by my side waiting for her husband to win a BIG one…… (shd have bought small on the last call.. damns…)

Along the way, we also enjoyed an Amy Yip Da Bao that was really huge! I think it can equal about 8 of our Singapore’s version of Da Bao. Not as delicious as the Kou Ba bao but an interesting find. There is also a need to mentioned the delicious Sunny Bao (a tim sum item that is filled with salted egg cream) that is absolutely mouth watering and the delicious soup found at the half way mark coffeeshops up Genting. The succulent taste of the double boiled prawns pampered your tongue that you can literally float up like the rat in Ratatouille………..

The highlight of the trip up KL was supposedly the musical of MamaMia. Well, it certainly lived up to its expectation: The musical and the fiasco before that. Hahhahaa……. So the story goes….. On 30 Dec, we set out 2 hours ahead of the show in anticipation of the crazy jam in the capital of Malaysia. Within 40 mins, Sheirly confidently drove us to our “musical hall” and exclaimed happily that we have arrived. Strangely, there were no huge jams, lots of parking space and no big banner advertising the show. In our own world, we proceed to spend the next 15 to 20 mins taking photos and enjoying the nice atmosphere of the Malaysian Tourism Building. Check out the photo......

As the phone rang, we heard the loud shriek by Sheirly that we are at the wrong place!!! Within seconds, joy and peace turned to nervous laughter, shock and !!!. hahhaha….. it was quite funny in a weird way….. Anyway, Ah Tham was on the other line giving instructions on how to reach the correct location. We had about 40 mins left to drive to the musical and in KL city terms, it is quite suicidal to even attempt. Amidst the left and right turns and U turns, somehow we managed to negotiate our way to the Istana Budaya in double quick time. Although a banner was seen and people were wearing more appropriate concert clothing, we rushed into the reception area to double check as we can ill-afford another mistake. Well, we breathed a huge sigh of relief followed by loud laughter as we join up with Ah Tham and Yenli.

Nearly forgot to mention…..Mama Mia was awesome in the second half of the show. For the first half, I think some of the singers’ voices were drown out by the volume of the music or they have not warmed up enough. Me and the Mrs are significantly impressed enough to decide to get a copy of the CD. (from CD shops of course and not there…)

Lastly, just like to mention that Sheirly has a lovely house that we were lucky enough to spend the last few days of 2008 in. Nicely decorated with huge effort on her part and impeccably clean that you may even slip on the floor. Baoling fortunately avoided falling on the impeccable floor.

We had a very lovely countdown party at Sheirly’s house with many close friends and lovely food. I also learned to play a 3 leg mahjong and rode well on my beginner’s luck to recoup some contribution to Uncle Lim. As we approach 2009, we even had a small cake cutting ceremony with many photos taken. Personally, will like to thank all the friends who have took care of us during our KL leg of the year end holiday.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! IT’s a GREAT TRIP and ALL THE BEST IN THE COMING YEAR! HAPPY 2009.

Stay tune for Part 2: Cambodia