Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Some nagging, and then .... Dinner with Peter G @ Lei Garden Chjimes

Terribly sorry abt the lack of posts. Firstly, I had been pretty tied up since 2 months ago. With work, work & work (some of you have said that my boss is very demanding, and although I don't disagree, I have to say it's the nature of the job itself that contributed). And then there were a lot more other stuffs & people that contributed to my major headaches for the past few weeks/months. Working with people with a selfish mindset, very matured adults with childish behavioural problems, pre-menopausal people (I think), and people who simply can't be bothered what goes on around them, have also been very challenging to add on. However, even with all these in tow, the sun still rises, the earth still rotates, life still goes on. Busy as I had been, I still found some time to party in between! Hehehe...

And then after that came some pre-biz trip prep work, the biz trip travel itself, and the post trip mess-clean-ups. Work just piled. But, I managed to survive. So then came a point where I was chased around to clear my annual leaves etc etc. Well, not that I don't wanna clear them earlier, but situation & time & people don't permit. When everyone was able to happily plan to go on vacations during long weekends and peak holiday periods, which happened to be busiest for me, all I could do was just sulk, shut-up and finish my work. Then I had to also consider work hand overs, rotation of staff/boss, and if anyone would drop dead if something went wrong and I wasn't there to try and fix the problem. And by the time it was off peak and I had all the time in the world to go on a vacation, no one else was free to go with me anywhere. Sigh... So last month, I got chased around to clear my leave, finally. They didn't wanna pay me the accumulation, neither was I allowed to bring that many days forward to the next year (cos it might never end!) So I just looked in the chart and started filling out all the dates that were not taken. Initially, I just didn't want to care and know who was in or not in. I just wanted to write everything I wanted and force to go on leave. But, the saint in me (kns) made me re-look at everything all over again (sigh) and plan whatever I could (which still didn't quite please certain people, but then how to please everyone when some snatches the 1st opportunities to go on leave, the other goes away from when to when but won't say until almost the last minute, and the other sulks & grumbles half the time when not permitted to go on leave). But having said that, I'm also sulking & nagging, hahahahaha!!!

In the end, I got my leaves approved. And I was just happily "not working" during that period. 2 solid weeks. but my mobile phone didn't stop ringing. And I still answered most of the calls. Not all, but most. I did lots during my 2 week break. A lot to catch up on. Family, friends, house, car, cooking, baking etc etc etc. Yes people, I cook, and bake. Earlier posts already proved it, and many have already tasted my culinary skills (may not be very very good, but good enough to make you ask for more), so don't doubt.

I'm now back at work, final Christmas week rush. And down with a flu, bad throat, body aches and mild fever at this point. Won't die, but just very grouchy. And I'm trying to respond a lot of emails and PMs on FB asking me what happened to my blog. Well, nothing happened to it. I was first very busy, then quite lazy. Then busy again. Now, I have a little bit of spare time on hand, so I'm gonna re-start my blogging. I have a lot of pics to post here, so I'll have to try and find the time to do that. How about a new post every day? Too much? Every 2 days? or 3? Hahaha... OK, BT will say "Talking many" if I just say and don't do. Hehehe...

Picture time. A week after we said our goodbyes to Roly, Peter came by to Singapore to say his goodbye to us. Well, in his case, the grass was greener on the other side of the river. So it wasn't exactly that bad after all. Any how, we went thru the same ritual of fantastic food, wine, and party. These were taken on 8th October.

Lei Garden @ Chjimes had to be it. The quality of food they served had never once failed me. Always delicious and erm, very expensive. But then again, I didn't pay for it, so I'm not complaining, hehehehe.....

Let me show you guys what we had that night, and what we all did that night!

Me & Michelle


Yummy Roast Pork


All time fav - Lobster Sashimi!


Double-boiled Sea Treasures Soup


Deep Fried Sea Cucumber stuffed with abalone & Shrimp paste


Steamed Red Garoupa - Very nice


Peking Duck - Very very very yummy


Charlie & the duck!


Charlie, Michelle & the duck!


Braised Veg with Silver Mushrooms & Tomatoes


Fried Duck meat in fresh lettuce leaves



Peter & Michelle loved lots of condiments in their Lobster Porridge



Michelle peeling the shell off the lobster legs for the very spoilt me!


Peter showing off his Mont Blanc fountain pen gift


Deep Fried Glutinous Rice Balls with black sesame filling - Shiok!


Some blah-tasting Chinese Pastry


Bird's Nest in Pumpkin Puree!!!


After that beautiful dinner, Charlie was very determined to drown Peter. So we adjourned to Charlie's all time fav watering hole. Cyclone, AGAIN!

My attempt to stick the Macallen bottle into Vincent's nose!


Some dice game that I never quite understand...






A bunch of half-drunk animals singing & cam-whoring




Vincent, Peter & Charlie hogging the pool table the whole night


Look at Vincent & Michelle! My goodness...


Charlie & Peter trying to negotiate on something special I think. See Charlie's hand-sign???!!!


2 men posing ala-Titanic, not impressive, hahaha



Michelle can sing very well!


Why fight over 1 bottle of Macallen? Can't these boys just open another one?


Peter just had to have the last drop


We all run when Charlie sings. Hehehe...


It's empty Michelle. No need to act cute!


Now we know who finished it that night!



See the ghost behind the 3 of us?





Charlie's gotten into serious negotiations it seems!






OK, that's it for now. I'm gonna have to sort thru the tons of pics I have in my camera & mobile phone and attempt to write another post soon. Come back tmr! Till then, Happy Hump Day!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

I'm on my way to China...

In the transit lounge in T3 now, waiting for my overnight flight to China... Will have to fly 6.5 hrs first to Seoul, then transit for a couple of hours before the next flight to Qingdao. Actually, I'm so tired. Physically tired. And I'm still aching all over, and my fever hasn't really subsided yet.

Right now, I'm praying that I get to sleep well on the plane, at least for half the journey. And I'm also praying hard that I don't get a noisy neighbour. Good thing SQ has almost always given me priority for seats at the emergency exit. So I have that extra leg room for my long pair of legs. Hehehe...

This time round, I'll be away for approx 4 days. And I hope I can get access to blogger/blogspot when I'm there. I managed to get access to blogger/blogspot during my last trip to Dalian. So if this time, I get access, I'll post up some nice pics.

OK, boarding call. Gotta go. Bye for now peeps!!!

Update: At 8.10am Korean Time/7.10am Singapore Time, I'm now yawing away whilst sitting in the transit lounge in Incheon, Seoul!

Friday, October 31, 2008

Roly's Farewell @ SG Flyer & Seafood Paradise

Apologies for the lack of blog updates. I have been super busy. Lots of errands to run and prep work & presentations to do before I fly tmr. Plus, the last 2 days, I had been down with a persistent fever & body aches that won't go away. Now I'm praying hard that my fever subsides well by tmr, so that I can make it up on board the plane.

Anyway, earlier this month on the 2nd of October, we bade farewell to Roly. Another one good guy gone. So sad. It's been a really long & draggy affair. Laying off ppl since months ago. Roly's the last one to go. He's been shuttling between Singapore & Australia for the last few years. Always appearing out of the blue every now & then. He wasn't really one of those whom I'd get surprised that they turn up at my office and then leave after a few days. To me, Roly was just a part of us (as in I consider him a local already). He's always low profile, glides in, stays a few days, then quietly flies off. And then some 3 weeks later, he appears again. He knows where to go, what to buy, where to eat, which numbers to ring for his own taxi. Cool guy.

So anyway, as always, farewells were more like an occasion there we all just sit down and pig-out. And of course quite frequently drink (read as sip very good quality wine). This wasn't an exception. But, after persistent nagging and persuading, we got ourselves a free ride on the Singapore Flyer as well!

So to Seafood Paradise, we went. But before that, we just had to eat the biscuits @ Popeye, and walk around the shops @ SG Flyer before we took flight.


Roly & the biscuits!

Me & the biscuits!

Michelle always so cute!

We walked past Kenko and saw some Caucasians trying out the fish spa. We were tempted, but 1st, we didn't have the time, 2nd, I'm very afraid the fishes bite or tickle. BTW, the fishes were BIG hor!


Part of the F1 street circuit around the SG Flyer, & the skyline of Singapore as dusk approaches.



My ticket to the flyer

And up, up and away we went! Our 7pm flight allowed us to see the lights change from dusk to night. The sunlight faded and the city lights came on as we went higher and higher. It was a very beautiful sight.



See the devil behind Michelle & me?

Jessica & me

Construction under-way for the IR

Pretty in PINK lights!




Frankly, after the ride went 3/4 way round and we were on the way back down, we started to get very bored. Apart from chatting n laughing amongst ourselves, and enjoying the scenery (again) there wasn't really much to do. Maybe it would be different if you went up there with yr other half (ah... romantic!!!)
We just had to do a group shot

Erm... No comments... (-_-")

OK, finally after the ride was over, we were starving. Very very very hungry. Headed for Seafood Paradise, and jumped straight into the food! Oh yes, and of course wine. LOTS OF WINE!!! I can't remember how many bottles we had. But it was a lot!

Pre-selected menu (But we added a lot more after that!)

Lobster Sashimi! My fav, and what I must have at almost every such dinners! Hehehe

And of course we had some wine

The Paradise Appetiser Platter

Double-boiled soup

Steamed Tiger Grouper

Baked Lobster with Salted Egg

Fragrant Crispy Duck with Teochew Spices

Braised Abalone & Honshimeji Mushrooms & Broccoli

Imperial Pork Ribs with Honey Pepper Sauce

Creamy Butter Crab (Looks like it's humping the other one below! Wahahaha)

Roly was checking to see if the crabs were really mating!

Ee-Fu noodles & lobster head porridge

Cream of Mango with Pomelo & Sago


See how happy Khim & Mei Chin were when they saw the lobster!

Happy Roly & his farewell gift vouchers

And a very happy us with a whole table full of food!

It was a fun-filled night, with a lot of laughter & memories to bring home. Lots of good food that kept us very full. And we are all very thankful. But we'll miss you Roly. Do keep in touch, always. And if you do come back to Singapore, just scream. We'll be more than happy to meet up again for some fun, food & laughter!

Take care. All the best!