Baby Claire

Our goddaughter Claire. Zhiming said that he 硬硬认 one. Haha!

Wedding stunt ideas

I think my bridesmaids will kill me if I make them do this:

http://sg.video.yahoo.com/watch/5612352/14729764

Luck needed

Back at work after spending the long weekend at Bintan with my little cousins. It wasn't as exhausting as I thought, perhaps because I was hiding in the shades most of the time (I couldn't swim this week), and also cos the food wasn't that fantastic. But then it felt good to have relaxed over the long weekend... especially before the final term starts this week.

Argh. Just the thought of going back to the far far away land gives me a headache - the long journey and evenings listening to profs speak with my eyes barely able to stay awake. @.@ The battle begins again. Wish me luck!

Reflections

Have been reflecting on quite a bit of things in the past few weeks: work, relationship, friendship, family, personal life etc. Realised that actually life could be very simple. You can do the things you like, you can live the way you like. Nobody can stop you from doing what you want to do. The thing is, I think people put pressure on themselves sometimes because they are scared of the consequences when they don't follow the norm. Not a lot of people will admit this but I think it's true. All of us are scared to a certain extent of being criticised/laughed at/ostracised etc etc right. So everyone tries (to a certain extent) to live the way people expect us to. And when we don't do what is expected, or don't follow the norm, the pressure to "justify" our actions comes. Either way, we ended up being super tired - doing the things that are expected of us, and then trying hard to justify it when we don't. So why not we just do the things we want? I don't laugh at you for being you, so don't laugh at me for being me. Period.

Second thing is, I really don't want my faith to be a faith of convenience. I really want to mean the things I say, and to believe what I say I believe. Not to mould certain things in a way I want it to be, just so that I can justify my actions. Yes means yes. No means no. A clear distinction between what is right and wrong. And if I had done wrong, I admit it. The lunch with F the other day, and the difference I sense in bro, touched me. Really really.

Third thing is, I don't think I am suited for the job, primarily in terms of the level of energy needed. I've been in the service for a total of 3 years now and have been falling sick continuously - I don't think this can go on. Not that I don't like the job (in fact, I do), just that between work and health, I will definitely choose the latter. So after this year's project, and possibly another one next year, I will make plans to slow down and scale down. And find time to enjoy the last couple of years of being a 20 plus.

Monday blues

Signs to show that I'm stressed: i) going to eat mala steamboat on a monday night i.e. heck it if i hv stomache tomorrow. ii) buying a hello kitty namecard holder at $15.90. i.e. heck it if ppl find me act cute or wasting money. I just like it. So what.

Arghhhh!

Grace's Series of Unfortunate Events - The (real life) Movie

1. Sick again on Monday.
2. Had tons of phone calls and follow-ups while I was trying to guest-collate wir.
3. Laptop displayed blue-screen just when I was about to send out the collated wir - and I was already rushing for time.
4. Had a headache doing the cont plan.
5. Laptop crashed just when I was about to send out the completed cont plan - and it was already past office hours. And it was Mr. Jang's birthday. And I MAKE HIM WAIT AGAIN.
6. Broke stuff at home in the morning.
7. Dropped my handphone on the stairs. It cracked.

- THE END (I hope) -

Happy 30th Birthday, Mr. Jang! :)

Mr. Jang celebrating his 30th birthday with pals and Chloe...


Mr. Jang having breakfast with me near Raffles Hotel...


"Happy 30th Birthday, Mr. Sunshine. From, Ms Grouchy..."

Church decoration ideas for wedding

While waiting for my hair to dry just now, I sketched out the rough ideas on how my church decoration would look like. I have started out with some self-made decor (which Lil said looked like bambo-sticks for hanging clothes) but have since outsource the whole plan to Mom. Nevertheless, have sent her a couple of ideas just for info. They are quite straight forward coz' there are certain restrictions (e.g. no candles / confetti) and there's limited time to do up the venue...

The celebration begins...

Mr. Jang is going to reach his 30th birthday next week and PL, our dearest friend cum insurance agent, came by to cook for him (with Sis as the assistant chef).

They bought the loveliest chocolate cake one can find. Yum yum.


Mr. Jang said we might as well practise cutting our cake... haha


PL and sis initially refused to take a photo cos their hair and faces were all oily from the cooking. But what the heck, it's not like we are going to use this photo for match making sessions.


It was a simple but cosy dinner. I especially like the 三杯鸡 but I totally forgot to take photos of it. Too hungry... :p

Pre-wedding counselling

Mr. Jang and I went to church at 9.30am this morning to start our first pre-wedding counselling class with PC. To be honest, I wasn't super enthusiastic about it cos I thought PC is more, erm, serious compared to PG who was conducting the classes for sis and OSH. I was a little worried about saying the wrong things, and having PC looked at us like we're mad.

Turns out, Mr. Jang, in his usual jovial self, did most of the talking. I glared at him a couple of times during the session to hint that "pssssssst... maybe we shouldn't tell PC about this!" but he happily went on to talk about everything under the sun. (Ok, maybe this is what the session should be like - open, honest, naked sharing - but still I was a bit more careful.)

And then came out-of-the-blue questions like, "how do you define marriage?" I went "er......" again coz' seriously I haven't really thought about this and was rather caught by surprise. To me, it was more like Mr. Jang proposed and I said yes, so let's get married! But I haven't really given a good thought to how I define marriage. Maybe just simply starting a family? I don't know if it's a dumb answer (?) but I have quite a simplistic view towards this.

Thereafter came the temperament test. Apparently, Mr. Jang's perception of me is quite in line with my perception of self whereas his perception of himself is rather different from my perception of him. PC joked and said that perhaps it's time for me to "wake up" some ideas about him. Okie. Funny.

At the end of the day, Mr. Jang said that we shouldn't take the test results too seriously, cos i) he might have misunderstood the questions and ii) PC also said that we shouldn't read too much into the details cos the indicators have to be read in totality.

I am not affected. Maybe just worrying too much like I always do. Afterall, although Mr. Jang said that marriage shouldn't change anything between us, I still feel that it's a huge step into the "unknown". But I know we'll be alright cos God is with us! And as long as we keep Him as the first priority, we'll be fine!

Fantasy and reality

Fantasy: Haoxiang sent me pics of her month-old daughter today. So cute! Also saw photos of her in France where she's staying with her husband. Both of them are living a simple yet 幸福 life! Ooh! And those photos made me miss France so much! Argh. If only I'm working and staying there too! I can go to the louvre or eiffel tower everyday. Just for fun!

Reality: Mr Jang and I went to meet a photographer for our wedding. I quite like his work although the price is slightly out of our budget. We're thinking of not doing professional videography and spend the money on photography instead. The package comes with a fine arts coffee table book, which is quite different from what I see from the standard packages. Can click with the photographer and his wife too, so most probably going for this fella (he does film photography too). And well, we really hope to settle one more item cos the date is drawing nearer!

Trial make up!

I went for a trial make up for my wedding on Sunday and ta-da! Here're the results!

Think this is the most traditional looking one. Am going for this when I'm gonna wear the Chinese Kua in the morning.

Am considering if I should continue wearing this pin-up style for the church wedding as well. Perhaps with a pearl / sparking hairband or something. Tiaras are too common now I think!

This is an alternative. Think I want to try letting my hair down (depending on how long my hair will be in Jan). A more casual look! Didn't really like the curls here though. Maybe if I'm really doing a half-up, I'll do the hairband thing instead of flowers (yes, those are tissues you see in the photo). And less curls... only waves at most!

I thought the make up looked too white indoors, but the outdoor look is quite natural. I like! :)

Happy birthday Sis!

Sis gave me and Mr. Jang a treat on HER birthday! Haha.. Ok don't say that I'm stingy. Me, Adel and Chick already gave her a treat at Seafood Center on Monday, and today I bought her a small cake. Going to get her an additional present!

Mum always says that I bully Sis when I was young. Oh well, some things don't change.

P/S: I know I looked damn tired. That's the look of being stressed out by work! Ok, I shall vow not be a nerdball anymore!

The hunt for wedding bands

Mr. Jang and I went hunting for wedding bands after we sent Gugu and Uncle Mushroom off at the airport. Most of the designs we saw were quite common but there were two that caught our eyes. One was from Lee Hwa - a rather thick, unconventional, funky kind of design where both bands had three diamonds on it; the other was from Tian Po - a very traditional and classic design which looked and felt quite solid (something like this). The Lee Hwa pair would cost less than $2000, while the Tian Po pair would cost a whopping $4500!

I actually prefer the Tian Po one. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing afterall, and we'd have to wear it for the rest of our lives. But then again, I can't imagine spending so much on a pair of wedding bands. I could use the money to go for a nice holiday. :'(

P/S: The salesman at Tian Po said that my diamond ring could easily cost more than 2 pairs of that wedding band. Suddenly I salut Mr. Jang for having the courage to purchase such an expensive thing. Now I believe him when he said that he has no more money left in his account. Haha.

While waiting under the sun...

We were all supposed to gather in front of the city hall today (early in the morning!) to take a group photo of the entire organisation. It was no joke. The sun was so scorching hot and everyone was really sweating like mad while waiting for the big bosses to come. Now I understand why Mr. Jang wants to take wedding photos in a cooler season. You really can't smile properly in this kinda weather.

Anyway, we were really bored while standing there waiting for the photoshoot to take place. Started to take photos of ourselves. Big big heads of the IPRDians!

BKK trip!

Had a fantastic time shopping, doing massages, eating tons at Bangkok over the weekend. Spent so much time at MBK but still I felt that it was not sufficient! In fact I felt that it was too short a trip and I haven't really enjoyed myself or bought enough things. Only ended up with one dress, a few tops, 3 pairs of shoes - very small case for a Bangkok trip! Was so so so sad that I had to come back to work. :( Sigh. But then again if I don't work I won't have money to buy all the shoes / dresses / clothes I want...

I think Dad and Mum really made the effort to organise this trip for the four of us. They offered to sponsor everything and Sis and I only paid for the air tickets - the rest was taken care of. I'm appreciative of the fact that they have always been very generous with us, despite the fact that we have already started working. Dad kept saying that it takes time and effort to maintain a family, and little things like going for overseas trips as a family count a lot. I think he is trying to impart all his "wisdom" to us... haha...

The highlight of the trip was the blue back on my chin - courtesy of Dad after two bottles of white wine. Sigh. I guess I was also asking for it cos Sis and I were sort of bullying him. Sometimes I feel that Dad's quite poor thing - he's gotta wait for us outside the shops when we spent hours trying shoes / buying underwears / selecting tops etc. And then he's gotta help us carry all the shopping stuff. Plus, he's the one paying for all the dinners and spas etc. Poor poor poor Dad. At times like this, I think he wished for a son. But then again, we are good daughters! Ahaha...

Oh well... perhaps he'd have a better trip in Perth this June, with just Mum and Sis (who'd probably spend most of the time with OSH!). :p

All that exercise

I have been swimming quite often nowadays. Ok - I won't call swimming 10 laps each time a real work out but still, I have been swimming. And I just went for an East Coast cycling trip with Chick and Sis today. We resisted the temptation to indulge in hot fudge sundaes and fries after our so-called work out. BUT by dinner time, Sis and I could not hold it any longer. We ordered the greasy chicken rice instead of the fishball noodle we were supposed to have. And erm, Mr. Jang bought 2 bags of potato chips for us after dinner. We started eating them once we got home, and tried to compensate for it by eating fruits at the same time.

Erm... I'm wondering now if all these exercises are making us fatter instead of healthier, cos we now have a justification to eat all the junk?!

Mr. Jang and I said that we would aim towards shedding 2 kg each by the end of the month. Apr 30 is fast approaching, and I'm quite sure I'm nowhere near the target. Ok - I'm definitely not gaining any weight, but am definitely no losing any either. Plus, I have no perseverance nor stamina. Mr. Jang can run a longer distance and swim more laps than me, while I will stop at the slightest sign of breathlessness.

Sigh. I better bring back that sports girl in me quickly if I really want to look fit.

Simei DBSS - done deal!

MR. JANG AND I FINALLY BOUGHT THE SIMEI DBSS FLAT (PARC LUMIERE) TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gosh. It's the most expensive thing I've ever ever ever paid for in my life and to be honest, I am not sure if I understood the full impact of this.

We were quite lucky cos we were supposed to rejoin the queue at 1pm today but apparently some people did not turn up so we were called to go there and wait around 11 plus. After another four more hours of waiting, monitoring the no. of units sold (like stock market), and trying to calculate our budget etc etc, we finally decided on this 5-room flat at one of the inner blocks because all the good 4-room flats were sold out. The unit isn't located at the ideal floor but it's within our budget and we like the unit no. Plus, my current place will only be 10 minutes away by car. And Sis said that we can take TPE to her place next time.

And so, here's to ticking one more item off our to-do list!

Simei DBSS - my first attempt at queueing for a flat

I spent the entire day queuing up for the Simei DBSS. Mr. Jang and I knew that people were already queuing up since yesterday but we didn't expect the crowd to be this big. By the time we got there at around 11.30am, our queue no. was 500 plus. The procedures were really quite confusing with the staff dishing out contradicting instructions. And then it was a long, long wait. At around 7 plus, the staff just announced that we should come back tomorrow. Argh! In the meantime, the good units were all being taken up! I wonder if it's worth going back tomorrow.

Sigh. It's my first time queuing up for a flat and already I'm thinking that it's quite a hassle. But then, it's part and parcel of the Singaporean life, hein?

Exams are over!

Exams are finally over! The paper was a killer but I'm so glad that it's over because it meant that I'm done with another semester i.e. only one more semester to go!

From now till the next semester, I'm going to make it a priority to look after my health. I haven't fully recovered from the stupid flu and at the rate I'm eating chocolate (my comfort food), I'll slowly but certainly become the fattest bride next Jan.