Ah Zheng's wedding

The 2nd wedding I attended this year was my cousin Ah Zheng's wedding at Sibu, held last Saturday. The 1st was of course, the Yeos' wedding =) ah the memories- sleeping at 3am to iron wedding dress and waking up at 6am.

When I was younger, my family and I used to drive up to Sibu (my mum's hometown) almost every Chinese New Year to spend it with our relatives. You can't say you'd spent a REAL Chinese New Year until you've experienced it in Sibu =) The neverending fireworks, the REDness everywhere, age-old traditions, and the festive atmosphere...

Anyway. 27th of December is supposed to be a good date to get married. Hence the amount of cars on the road/parking spaces decorated with pink and red ribbons.

Dad drove all the way to Sibu on the 26th, together with my other cousins and family. Attended the wedding and lunch the next day before heading back to Kuching at night.

Photos to tell the story:

Older cousin styling younger cousin's hair =P
Btw younger cousin's sister is the one getting married
"older" cousin is the next in line to get married *teehee*

with my lovely cousins!
Ah Zheng (bride) and Florence, who's studying at Auckland uni

lil brother "pulling" the cloth attached to the groom's car...
apparently it's a tradition done to represent the bride's family not fully letting go of her =P

at the church
I love the spontaneity of this photo =)

the bridal party. so cute right the ring boy. not sure if the teddy bears he's carrying come with the rings or not. The flower girl behind him NEVER smiled even once, even the maid of honour is not smiley either

choir singing in the background

l.o.v.e

kissing photo deleted at cousin's request =)

the moment everyone's been waiting for.. the kiss!
but coz paiseh so only a peck on the cheek

lighting the candles- something new to me as well
both the bride and groom's parents light a candle and give each candle to them, the 3rd candle (middle) is then lit by the bride and groom.

the whole BIG family =) see the ring boy super duper cute!
notice also the ah ma standing next to the groom. She has an LV-lookalike handbag, her glasses super thick and round =P
I'm hidden somewhere hehe

The photoshoot+photo album+video had costed more than RM3000 according to my cousin! *look of horror* Apparently it's not uncommon to spend heaps on wedding photos and skimp on other expenditures. Anyway, congratulations again dear cousin!!! =D

More photos uploaded on facebook yesterday. Will blog about the new church building at Tabuan Heights soon. Was great meeting up with some of the youths who came back for the holidays: Debs, Ik Sung, and Lionel. Didn't have time to go for a drink/chit chat due to the lack of time =( but I'll see you all again during CNY holidays!

MIA

Sorry for the lack of updates this week!

I'm stuck with super slow dial-up connection at home, meaning it's impossible to upload some of the hundreds of photos I took throughout this week.

Went with cousins & family to Sibu (about 6 hours drive from Kuching) yesterday morning. Had a "reunion dinner" last night and caught up with more cousins/relatives from Sibu. The wedding was held this morning at a church, followed by lunch at a local restaurant. Drove back to Kuching at 3pm-ish, arrived at around 8pm just in time for dinner.

Going back to SG tomorrow night =(
More work awaits me. Not looking forward to writing the long report at all.

I didn't even have the chance to eat laksa or my fave char bee hoon YET.

But I am going back for Chinese New Year again for 1 week!!! =D

tis the season to be jolly

The free optical mouse that came with my laptop has DIED on me. *frowns* So I'll be taking twice as long to write a blog now using just the touchpad which is OK to use until it comes to blogging. I'll get one when I go home to Kuching this coming Wednesday. *whhhhheeeeee!*

Some random pics taken in the past week:

looks familiar? hehe =P
for those who don't know, Queen St was my home this year @ Dunedin, NZ

mee sua!!! at a cafe @ bugis, where I had late lunch with Jaslin last week before shopping and church. It was not bad, quite authentic actually.

@ chinatown with my mum when she visited.
I love the repainted old buildings there

so flowery hehe

Today I learnt 2 things:

1. Ms Sharon T (my flattie huneeeeey) has an online super stalker!!! Now we can start a "stalker-victims club" thing and talk in a circle every week about how our lives are forever changed by creepy people who enjoy stalking our every move. I'll now refer to Sharon's stalker to Mr STS (sharon t's stalker, makes sense right? =P ). The reason why her blog's no longer open for anyone to see is because Mr STS follows her blog FERVENTLY (I'm exaggerating, but who knows?), even her friendster and facebook accounts too. AND asks for her number too! So bear with ms Sharon as she tries very hard to remember the password to her blogger account to allow access to those she calls friends to read her blog, haha!

Speaking of which, I realised that I've been getting DAILY visits from a reader all the way from Garfield, New Jersey. I don't think I know anyone from there. Whoever you are, do I know you?

To Sharon: Miss you already! YESH innardless kuehchap and my fave fried bee hoon sooooooon! =D

I'm leaving S'pore for Kuching on Christmas eve right after work btw. Can't wait!

2. I found out that Kong Hee's (City Harvest's founder/pastor) wife is actually SUN Ho, the pop singer! I thought I'd heard wrongly when my friend pointed out to me that the lady he just invited to the stage just now was his wife- until I heard it again with my own ears. She hasn't been back in SG for more than a year now, since she's been granted PR at the States. And yes, she does look glamorous. It was then that I remembered her concert many years back in Kuching as the 1st ever concert I'd ever been to- and I even bought her compiled diary and autographed CD!

Anyway, church service this evening was AMAZING. Towards the end, everyone was handed a candle, and one by one, all candles were lit. The lights in the whole auditorium were turned off completely except for the screens, and from the first lit candle (pastor), the light was passed on to thousands of people in just a few minutes. The view was wonderful, but mostly the atmosphere was... indescribable =P We sang carols, made dedications for the new year, and wished each other Merry Christmas =)

Too bad I'll miss the Christmas Eve service here; I'll have to be at the airport by 7pm.

Sun waving to the crowd

Awww =P
I was sitting at the VERY last row btw
(this is when good zoom functions are useful)

The candles are lit!

Zoomed in

singing "Silent night"

Finally... my candle, shining!

The video above shows a snippet of the lighting of the candles

Ah, must remember to take more photos of Orchard Road nicely decorated before Wednesday. Till then, enjoy your last minute Christmas shopping, and spread the love and joy of this beautiful season. =)

It's all about class

December. The season of graduation.

Throwing of the graduation cap.

The graduation march to the town hall with mayor Peter Chin leading the way, the sound bagpipes reminding me of that memorable day in Studholme (2006) when we were woken up at 4am-ish for interhall sports training/orientation.

Wearing the regalia. With white grosgrain lining (I had to google image "grosgrain" GOSH)- I always thought that honours degree graduants would also wear hoods with fur linings, but sadly, there will be no fur. The colour of my hood will be "salvia blue" btw =) it sounds pretty.

stolen from Greg's facebook heheh just to illustrate to you non-Otago people
see how nice those hood linings are? compared to this next photo...

how grosgrain looks like. To me, it's just like any ordinary RIBBON.
of course, I have yet to see an honours hood upclose before, must remember to ask for photos from Jaq. photo by greenolive*

Taking photos (of course) in front of the clocktower.

More photos around university. Where we had lectures, spent the whole day in labs, had lunch at St David cafe & the link, Studholme hall, archway, burns, central library, computer labs, the bridge leading from the halls to St Davids, the river which even had couches thrown in before,... etc the scarfie life.

Showing off the degree certificate.

Smiling and posing for photos until your facial muscles no longer know the meaning of relax.

... guess I'll have to wait 1 more year to experience all that.

It's a strange thing, studying at varsity. 3, 4, or even 5 years for a bachelor's degree (6 or more for those professional health science courses), which may or may not guarantee a job- many who graduate with say, biochemistry, might never even work in a laboratory environment after graduation. But just having that nicely printed piece of paper with YOUR name written on it makes all the late night crammings worthwhile, doesn't it?

I wonder just how much I'll miss Uni of Otago: rushing to lectures, the beautiful architecture, the student life, etc. I wonder how much I'd miss being a student. Well, it's true that we never stop learning bla bla BUT.. you get what I mean. I wonder if I'd stay in Dunedin OR go to another city in NZ for work OR continue on with postgrad OR decide to *gasp* leave NZ (which is highly unlikely but GAH pleeeeease save me the "So-are-you-staying-in-nz-after-graduation?" questions- those are for me to find out next year and for you to find out when I know the answers myself, thank you very much.

Oh, and it does mean a lot having the chance to celebrate the Pancakes' graduation this coming May =) having missed out on the major grad ceremony 2 weeks ago.

Sometimes I wonder if I CAN push myself to get that "1st class honours" title in front. It does seem flash, you get called out first when receiving the certificate, the chancellor probably smiles a little more wider at you (who knows?), and I wonder does it really matter or how would it affect my job offers BUT like Ron said (which makes sense too I guess): we're already doing honours, might as well walk that extra mile to get that 1st class (well, I paraphrased a bit).

This is what happens when I look through too many graduation photos on facebook =P

a week to Christmas!

I'm feeling... rather odd at the moment.

Not physically, more like emotionally. Many things running through my head.

Maybe it's because mum was here for a few days, we did shopping, spent time catching up, and I just sent her off at the airport about an hour ago. It's only less than a week before I get to meet my parents again, but goodbyes are never easy no matter the distance/time, right?

On the MRT heading towards Changi, I received 3 missed calls from my dad. Knowing that he wants to speak to mum, I handed my phone to her. After that, she told me that he had been in a little "accident". He'd injured himself by falling into one of those manhole/drain on the ground as its cover has been stolen. I'm unclear of how badly he was injured, mum will tell me more when she gets home tonight: all I know was that despite the injury, dad managed to drive all the way to Normah hospital himself to get treatment.

The funny/not-so-funny thing was, mum and I were just casually talking about how poverty has driven some people (especially illegal immigrants in Malaysia) to resort to stealing manhole/drain covers for scrap metal earlier this morning. *shivers*

Logging on to Facebook just minutes ago, I saw John aka bunny's status: he fainted in the MRT today! GOSH the series of unfortunate events today sure is making me a little more cautious, from crossing the road to walking through the dark alley ways with the construction workers nearby eyeing my every movement.

Anyway. Back to work until the clock saves me at 5.30pm tomorrow. Looking forward to watching "Bolt" the movie this weekend.

Till then- keep safe, friends. =)

the end of another weekend

I'm drowning out the sound of raindrops on my window by catching up with the latest episodes of Gossip Girl, listening to new Christian songs, and (going to) listen to the new CD produced by City Harvest Church entitled "Light of the City" I bought yesterday.

It's still odd going to church on a Saturday instead of Sunday, and I'm finding this free time very... surprisingly satisfying. =)

Joy Williams has always been one of my favourite Christian pop artists for the past few years. I started listening to her songs about 2 or 3 years ago, found the songs "nice" but soon found my new love with Nichole Nordeman songs. But now, I randomly stumbled upon her latest series of demos- WOW you've got to listen to her song "Lose myself" (track 4).




Lose Myself
written by:
Joy Williams and Steve Wilson

About the song:

"I find it curious that songs written nebulously in an
afternoon can somehow mean more to me retroactively over time. This is one of those tunes. I wrote this as a cathartic experience a few months ago, not really seeing the outline I'd drawn in the dark. Looking at it now, I see a confession about both fear that traps me and also strength that calls from The Deep...as an acknowledgement of my past, and as a declaration to keep learning to live without fear in the future."

Lyrics:

I'm so sick of hiding myself in everybody else
I'm singing in a burning building and no one can help
Stuck in my own room holding the key
It's just me

I know I've got a long way to go
It's too easy to lose, lose myself
I need another way to find me
It's too easy to lose, lose myself

I can't count the lines I crossed
The little gray mistakes
So busy kissing fears that only suffocate
I'd turn this ship around if I knew where I was
But it's filling up

I know I've got a long way to go
It's too easy to lose, lose myself
I need another way to find me
It's too easy to lose, lose myself

Unpacking all the years
Too close to the fireworks
Watch out
Too close to the fireworks

I know I've got a long way to go
It's too easy to lose, lose myself
I need another way to find me
It's too easy to lose, lose myself

Tourguides for a night

It's officially my 35th day in Singapore.

And today is officially one of the best nights YET.

Sharon T (my flattie huneeeeeey winks) and family came to SG for a SHORT visit- arrived yesterday night and leaving tomorrow afternoon. Met her and cousin at Chinatown mrt for dinner at a Chinese restaurant, had bubble tea at Koi cafe, brought them "touring" around the Esplanade, the malls around City Hall, and the Fountain of Wealth. All those places in about 3 hours, haha!

Chinatown. It's not even Christmas yet, and the lanterns are out already

crispy skin chicken YUM
look at all those chopsticks TSK TSK! cannot even wait for me to take a photo

cousin & sharon
gosh u guys look alike eh!

building @ Chinatown

Koi cafe @ Chinatown, most authentic Taiwanese bubble tea in SG
where we had our "small" bubble tea
absolutely yum that Sharon's cousin bought extra 2 more for their parents

flatmates!

a philharmonic quintet performing Christmas carols @ Esplanade
they're super talented: the lady in the middle arranged the songs- she's an engineer by day and a saxophonist by night, so cool!

walked out of Esplanade and saw another group singing carols
gosh the atmosphere =)

cousins enjoying the pretty night view

On our way to see the SG flyer, a lady stopped us and asked if we would like to write down our new year vision on little diamond-shaped tags, which were then hanged on the deco outside the Esplanade. See pic - Ron did it coz we're all too short =P

I love it when the wind blows and all the little pieces of paper with everyone's new year visions just swayed along with it =) So symbolic & meaningful!

home is where the heart is

A few pictures of my new home (for the next 2 months) here in SG as requested.

desk & chair with my new laptop

single bed (& extra mattress for mum when she gets here next week yay!)

the wardrobe (for once) is bigger than I need =P
I brought only a few sets of clothes thinking that I'd go crazy with shopping here
the other side of the wardrobe is practically empty

the kitchen (which we seldom use) & living room
there's even a dead cockroach in one of the cupboards under the sink...

1 of the 2 toilets we share (among 4)
there's even a magazine rack with a few fashion mags to read while doing your business, how convenient! ;)

"original" (ice OUTSIDE) milk tea @ a Shanghainese restaurant at Bugis area
according to them, the "fake" one has ice inside the drink haha

especially for Janice: Mr Mak & Chyi =P
according to the guy: they divorced coz Chyi demanded his fortune
according to Chyi: they divorced due to long distance r/ship. awwww

Chyi with her friends and sisters

jOSs & Chyi

chyi being chyi...

Met up with Chyi & friends/sisters after work at Bugis area. Finally got to see her (used to be blonde) now golden/brunette-ish hair. And her famous friends I always read in her blog. Lucky her, just came back from Hong Kong/Macau trip, going back to Brunei to wreck havoc there soon. Wish I have the time and money to go travelling all I want too.

Was great catching up with you, crazy hair lady. All the best for your internship thing at Brunei! Will definitely go find you if the family decide to go there during Feb next year.

Feels a little weird going back to Buona Vista mrt at night since for the past month I've been going there only for work. So proud of myself for not getting lost walking back from the mrt station back home just now, haha! (it's about a 15-min walk based on my walking speed)

Again, happy graduation to all you graduants! especially to my dearest Jacqie-huney who got her 1st class honours (no surprise there) and all the pharmacy gang! =)

The day I became a millionaire

I'm now typing from my new room! =D

It's a 4-bedroom HDB flat at Holland Drive, just minutes away from where I work (the Biopolis). Super convenient with many food courts, restaurants, and supermarkets just a few blocks away. The place is more expensive as it's where all the expats working at biopolis lives. So there's actually a lot of angmohs walking around here that I feel like I'm back in NZ, haha!

My flatmates are nice nice people! Have not seen one of them yet, but gosh they are all professionals. Like REAL professionals: one which I spent 2 hours talking to just now waiting for the key from landlady is a doctor working at the general hospital, my colleague at GIS, and another girl (have not met yet) is a nurse. Makes me feel so UNprofessional, being a student and all, hehe. They're all Malaysian girls, and the doctor is even from Kuching. The place is nice and cozy, would need to buy more things though, for example bedroom slippers coz the floor gets dusty easily.

So I went to Batam yesterday. We missed the 11am ferry ride intended to take, so arrived there only at past 1pm. Unfortunately due to lack of planning and being too dependent on the visitor info centres (which they don't have there at Batam -__- ), and also as there's not much to do there, we started off feeling very disappointed with the trip. The ferry ride costed $40 per person for a return trip, thankfully the exchange rate made everything seem cheap in Indo.

BTW 1 SGD = 7,000 Rupiahs
or RM1 = 3,000 Rupiahs

So when I went to cash out some money to spend there, I became an instant millionaire. =P

on the ferry ride to Batam

I thought it's short of Batam Fried Chicken.
But it's actually short for BEST Fried Chicken. ooOOoooOoo

at Nagoya Hill SC.
I think the fake santa looks creepy- his face looks deformed somehow.

mocha fudge sundae at the megamall.
1. the mall is anything but mega.
2. the sundae is OK-ish, but anyone could have made it.
3. the waffles I ordered as well tasted so bad.
4. I don't like those preserved cherries, meh.

Nagoya Hill shopping mall.
only the ceiling was nice =P

After walking around feeling so depressed looking at the sad sad shopping malls (imitation goods everywhere), we caught a taxi to another mall (Nagoya Hill shopping centre) and tried looking for a (non-dodgy looking) massage centre. The most non dodgy-looking massage centre we chose to go into was called "Isabella" =) Price for 1 and a half hours of traditional Thai massage (supposedly very relaxing) was 100,000Rps (try converting, it's so cheap).

We hesitated- very long- before finally going in. Didn't take photos of the place. But upstairs, the place was divided by curtains (like the general hospital curtain dividers) into separate makeshift rooms, each "room" comes with a mattress on the floor and hooks to hang clothes.

When I first went in there, I saw the shorts and towel provided and didn't know what to do. haha! I never had a "real" full body massage before. The massage lady (most probably an Indon girl) peeked into my room and told me to change. I felt so paiseh the whole time with only a short towel and shorts on. =P (How would YOU feel if someone pulled down your pants and massaged your butt?)

Me: "tukar baju kah" (change clothes issit?) (pointing to the towel and shorts on the bed)
Indon massage girl: Ya (nods head, looks amused)
Me: (pause) (looks back at the towel) "baju dalam juga?" *gulps*
Indon massage girl: (nods again, looking at me as if I couldn't have NOT known that)

Tried to relax but GOSH it was painful. She's really good at massaging the pressure points though. So even though throughout the whole thing I was cringing and trying not to say "ouch" too many times, the end result was good. I never felt so energised and MASSAGED my whole life. haha! My muscles still hurt a little now, but yes it is worth the money.

Amazingly, Ron fell asleep during the massage session. Don't ask me how. Ask him. haha!

After that, the super kind taukeh offered to take us to a nearby seafood restaurant to have dinner, then took us back to the ferry terminal in his flashy sports car. He's like our guardian angel for the day =)

Seafood was super cheap. Ordered butter prawns and sweet & sour chicken, the bill came to 71000 rupiahs- which is just a little over SGD7!!! I'm amazed. If there's one reason I'd go back to Batam for (which I won't), it's for the cheap seafood. =P

So the first ever "escapade"/adventure- very ahem interesting and a real eye-opener. Will definitely plan more thoroughly for the next trip- be it Melaka, JB, KK and/or Macau (just maybe).