Goodbye

It was hard to make this decision to leave.  But when the act of giving the letter was done, everything seems easy enough.

I do still have feelings for this place.  Afterall, I had been there for 8.5 years. Not very very long, but it’s not short either.  That place saw me through my studies, bad economy where retrenched news were heard every now and then, my happy and heartbreaking times, my pregnancy and the growing moments of baby Dawn.

Well, I am looking forward to my new challenges.  Though every workplace has their pros and cons, I am quietly hoping that I can fit into the new place and job fast.

So, some memories of my little comfort area in that old place…

↑ My workstation.  The very 1st owner of this space, the pc, the phone and everything else! Saw Dawn’s picture? Those cutie photos perks me up when I was frustrated with the work.  She’s my little motivator ‘cos i need the money for her milk! haha!

↑ The little cosy pantry area in the training centre.

↑ I am going to miss these vending machines!

↑ Look at the biscuits/bread in the vending machine! Just nice for that little tea break.

↑ This is where my coffee was served every morning.

I bought some parting gifts for my colleagues.  Though they are simple gifts, I spent like 1 hour outside the store with Dear and Dawn, trying to pick out the gifts for 19 of them. Spent a few hours to stick the names, the personal notes and the magnets.  Dawn chipped in her help too, but most of the time she tried to peel out those stickers which I had already pasted properly.

↑ The front.

↑ The back.

I was worried that I will cry on my last day, you know those kind of feelings that you packed your once-messy table to a clean one?  Dear smsed me near to 5:30pm and told me to be bold. And I am glad I am. 

Birthday!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Took leave from work because work should be the last thing in my mind today. Hmm…yah, I agree that birthdays are no big deal but I chose not to be bothered with things that doesn’t make me feel good and could potentially spoil my day.

So being that it’s my day, I went for a relaxing facial and massage in the morning. Talking about facials, I used to go once a month before I have Dawn.  But now, If I want to go for a facial, I will need to apply leave from work! So I ended up going for facial like once every 2-3 months.  Eww! No wonder the glow on my face is slowly diminishing. Plus the fact that my age is adding up every year.

Dear bought me to this chinese restaruant at Tiong Bahru and I totally forgot what’s the name of the eating place. But the butter crab is superb! Though there’s no gravy (which is a pity because gravy goes nice with man tou!), but I have no complains.  And I don’t mind going back to this restaurant again, just to have the butter crab ↓.  Heh.

Besides the crab, we ordered the Oat Prawns ↓ and the champaign pork rib.  And these are enough to fill us without taking any rice.

I had a very peaceful & enjoyable dinner, because there’s seldom opportunities to enjoy a feast without having to feed Dawn, and doing disciplinary work on Dawn’s table manners. And looking at the mountain of shells ↓ infront of my plate, I know I had a satisfied meal. Thanks Dear!

Ewwww~

My Goodness!  Half a month of no entries.. Not that I am having that “blog drought”…but I was too busy with everything else and ended up too tired at night to even log in to write.

I went away to Malacca for some work matters for a week too.  Initially thought that I could have some time to upload some photos taken in Malacca, but I was so wrong.  Had to work till late at night most of the days over there..for those slightly early nights (which is 9ish or 10ish pm), I would just want to hit the bed and snore..heh

Just a note here that I am still around, alive and kicking.  Will upload photos and write more about the trip, my little girl and everything else soon!

端午节，包粽子。

Sunday (8 June 08) was “Duan Wu Jie”. Though I am someone who doesn’t really know how to cook (too blessed with a mother who cooks for me, so have not master the art of cooking YET), but I always wanted to learn how to wrap the rice dumpling (”Ba Zhang” in Hokkien). Its a skill which not many youngsters nowadays know.

Duan Wu Jie (is 端午节，not 粽子节！！) came about because of a hero.  You can read the story here.

I had a chance to learn from Dear’s family on how to wrap Ba Zhang on Saturday!  It was fun learning and seeing my little improvement from an almost shapeless Ba Zhang to something which finally looks like Ba Zhang! Besides Dear’s mother, Dear’s sister is also very skillful can! Her Ba Zhangs are all in very nice shapes!

These are the 2 Ba Zhangs for my breakfast.  The right one is wrapped by me..with obvious tell-tale signs. 

The bottom tip is not pointed enough, means, I did not shape the Ba Zhang enough when wrapping it. The 2nd picture shows that the leaves are quite loose…which also means that my grip was not very good when wrapping it. Heeee..

Very delicious Bah Zhangs! :p

I found this step-by-step guide on how to wrap the dumpling, a nice guide!

Baby Darryl is here

Carine gave birth to Baby Darryl today! Went to Thomson to visit them after work today. Darryl was sleeping all the time when I was there…sleepy

Dear came to Raffles and met me for lunch today.  We were caught in a sudden heavy downpour.  Initially planned to go to Asian Kitchen for some soupy stuff, but because of the rain, we went to the Japanese Resturant at Far East Square instead. Both of us were too full with our set lunches and 10 pcs of maki that I ended up eating the filling of the last maki.  And naughty me decided to create something silly using the leftover sushi rice and the cucumbers.  Pardon me with the bad clarity of the photo because it was taken by my mobile phone and the lighting condition was bad because of the gloomy sky.

Cute?

A Day in the Singapore Zoological Gardens

We finally brought Dawn to the zoo today. Had been wanting to bring Dawn there because she will always point excitedly to the animals shown on the TV. It’s a good way to futher stimulate her growing mind.

I didn’t know that the Zoo is just a 10 mins ride from CCK interchange.  I thought it’s far away! And its quite convenient to take the train to CCK and change to bus 927. It brings us right to the doorstep of the Zoo!

The entrance fee is $16.50 for adults (without the tram ride) and it’s free for kids below 3 years.

We saw quite a lot of animals, though some were hiding in the shade due to the weather.  The tiger, the lions, the giraffes, the elephants and many others.  We were always on the move and never stayed for an animal show. The zoo was quite crowded due to the weekend. 

 We saw this statue built in the remembrance of Ah Meng.  Ah Meng, adored by most Singaporeans, passed away in the beginning of this year.

We were all tired after all the walking in the zoo.  Dear was carrying Dawn most of the time so that she can see the animals.  Instead of having her relaxing in her pram, we made Dawn walked too. Kids need some exercise!

Admission Fees - $33

Time Spent in Zoo - 2 & 1/2 hours

Energy spent - countless (+ litres of sweat dripped)

This Sight >>>>>

>>>>> Priceless.