A day of old friendships - CNY'17'D5

This year my CNY break officially ended on D4, ie 开工日was day 5.  But I took half day leave on D5, cos I have 3 gatherings planned for that day. 

 

Anyway, let's start with D5 morning.  It's the company tradition to bring in a Lion dance troupe on first day of work.  I gave the lion an angbao to just step into my room for a "jiggle"...  haha..

 

And my hair clip broke.  Took a selfie to check how I will look for the rest of the day at various gatherings...

 

Oh, there's also the FB notification in the morning of what I posted "today 8 years ago".  It's a super cute photo of Lynn when we did CNY visiting to my eldest Uncle's wife.  So I created this collage of then-and-now.

The first gathering that afternoon lasted 4 hours, with 4 of us out of 7 of the "Jabil Beauties".  Ha, this is our chat group name, which Alice picked.  When with good friends, 4 hours passes so quickly..  I'm so happy meeting and chatting with them. 

The second gathering was at KW's house.  I was wondering who will be there, and it turn out to be the drinking and smoking gang and some others.  KW moved to his new house last year April.  I'm impressed; it's beautifully done. 

Finally at 7pm, the Deloitte gang met at Toa Payoh Swatou restaurant.  主角 Serena 姗姗来迟, reaching around 735.  She came alone.  Later on, Lynn wanted to join us, and Serena asked her hubby to bring the daughter too.  Ginny was ill and couldn't join us, else we will have a perfect attendance photo.    We had a great chat with Soo Hui who came early about Secondary schools.  I think I will definitely consider St Nic after what she told us.

What a fulfilling day 5 it was.

Middle age

This year's birthday, I looked back at some of my old postings on blog and FB and realised that (i) I have aged, and (ii) I have been talking about going into the 2nd half of my life since a few years back (http://millidream.blogspot.sg/2009/01/half-way-there.html)

35th Bd, still youthful looking back then.

43, no longer earlier 40s, more like mid 40s.  If I had looked "not like 40" 3 years ago, now I definitely look my age.  Not complaining; although I am vain, I am not that obsessed.  Just stating my observation.

This year's birthday, was uneventful compared to 40,41, and 42.  Uneventful in a good way. 

Firstly, I celebrated with friends on Sunday.  Here are the photos for remembrance sake:

 I celebrated with my 2 darlings, with a simple dinner at TPY center.  That's the best that Mr. darling has done in so many year, so I shall be thankful and appreciative. 

Sweetie chose Black Forest cake. Took it to grandma's house to share.

There were the usual SMS, from the RV gang (ha! as if I'm from RV..), old friends like Hwee Shan, Weiyu, Lydia.  And my most loyal “美妹” Sze Yeng, and my extended Lim family.  I think these are going to be the folks who will wish me every year, till.. death do us apart?? HA!  Oh, I must not forget, the beauties from Jabil too!

And for yet another year/time, my dear MIL "forgot" my birthday, and in a "loud" way.. Whenever I discuss with my girl friends the topic whether parents in laws can ever be as close as our own parents, I always advocate "no", and that it is only natural.  I will tell the story of my MIL who tells me every yearend that the earliest birthday in the (extended) family is my SIL's (May), whose birthday is on 19 Jan.  I never bother to correct her, cos year after year, she will watch us celebrate my birthday on the 11th, and the next year she will still say the same thing.  I feel that birthday of children are very special to their mothers.  Thus I never expected her to remember my as well as her own.  Anyway, this year, she declared very loudly in front of the whole family during CNY reunion that May's birthday is the earliest, and still ask “是吗？”when the rest tried correcting her.  HAHAHA again.. 

Just realized that May seldom appear on my blog. Here we are at 海底捞 for reunion dinner of the Yap family.

My birthday wish for this year is: 
Find a higher  purpose, light up my fire, be healthier, be as thankful and as grateful as always

Recap 2016 (II) - Bffs

At different stages of my life, my BFFs changes.  BFF are defined as "forever", but circumstances change even if people don't. 

I had spent quite a fair bit of time with these 3 ladies in the past 2 years.  They are not in my daily life, but there are my mental support.  They are also the catalyst of change.  2016 proved to be eventful and emotionally charged, partly because of them.

2016, the year of relationships.  Thank you my friends. 

One last BD dinner in Oct before our Whatsapp title changes again..

18th Nov, sometime "new" that challenges boundaries. 

Weekday dinner: "give and take".  At Duxton Hill.  Can see the words on the plaque on the bar top?

Recap 2016 (I) - 20th Anniversary

These few years I meet up with old friends a lot lesser than in the past.  In the past, I have many different groups of gathering, like Sec school/JC//NTU friends/Deloitte/Gul/Chartered/Jabil. 

Back in 2006, I initiated a 10th year anniversary gathering with the folks from Deloitte, my first job upon graduation in 1996, where I meet WK.  There were 9 of us from NTU that Deloitte took into group 5.   Joc was very excited about that gathering back then, and she opened up her house for the occasion.  Then she said for quite many years that she will remember to organise one in 2016 for 20th year anniversary.

This year, she moved house.  Like 10 years ago, she stays alone, so she open up her house for the gathering once more.  However, during that Sat in Oct, only 4 of us could make it. 

It was the first time in 10 years that I met up with William.  He is still our 老大哥，initiating and leading the catch up topics.  The difference this time round was that he did not bring his children, who are already in Secondary school.  And the other striking point is that I was pregnant back then, and this time we brought Lynn, who was turning 10 year old in 2 week's time, to attend the gathering .  That was the first gathering.

 

Someone initiated a replacement date, and it was fixed on 11 Nov.  It was a dinner at Tiong Bahru area.  And all of us made it this time round, expect for Serena who is in Australia. 

We manage to catch up a little, since time was short and there were 8 of us.  Poh Chen, Soo Hui and Hazel did not change job for these many years.  We did not have much opportunity to catch up on kids. 

And then we went for drinks, and took these 2 pictures to send to Serena via Whatsapp.  We talk about more frequent gathering, but I wonder when will the next one be..

BD, gathering and celebration

(July and August)

Wk turned 44 this July; time flies.. Had a very simple, early celebration for him at home as I need to travel during his BD week:

Had a farewell dinner for the Tianjin plant FM during the business trip. I seldom post about my currently job, so here a photo of the colleagues from the northern plants.

Made it back in time for Ginny's BD dinner on 1st August. It had been some years since we celebrated her BD together. Right now, Joc is organizing a gathering in October for Deloitte gp 5 1996, to celebrate our 20th year anniversary of friendship! 

National day weekend came around; Lynn was invited to Victoria's (our Indian neighbor) BD party.  Here's a picture that WK took for them.

And I tried to organize a picnic for our family together with mum. But it rained hard that evening. So we ended up bringing the food to grandma's house and shared it with aunt YY too.  For the records, it was spaghetti beef Bolognese and chicken rice, which are both yummy!!

The Pokemon go fever had started, so Wk brought Lynn to bishan park on the Monday before national day holiday.  And they walked all the way to J8!

Pinsir on my bed!!!

And then on national day, I went Bangkok with Lili for a short holiday..

October BD girls (1)

I know of A LOT of October birthday girls.  Lili is one of them.

This year, because we wanted to visit Joc's new home, so we invited WK and Lynn along to the birthday dinner, else it will just be the 4 of us gals.  After dinner at Nex, we proceed to Joc's new home in Serangoon/Hougang

Lynn tried out the jacuzzi which was in the balcony outside the master bedroom on the second floor of the duplex.

After we left, they sent me a series of ''act cute'' photos through whatsapp.

Space out (Malacca Jul/Aug 15)

It was a girls-weekend-getaway trip, mainly to eat, shop, and space-out...

Traffic was great, custom was a breeze.  The tour bus was less spacious than we expected.

Hatten hotel is full of Singaporean. It is clean, new and efficient.  15 mins walk to jonker street.

My most happy expenditure is my manicure, makes me feel pretty the whole week :); it cost RM 40.

On the first day, Ginny and I chatted for an hour at a cafe, while waiting for the other 2 to complete their foot reflexology. It had been a long time since I had such a heart to heart talk with her. 

Here are some photos. 

We spent almost 2 hours at this shop, where Lili got a nonya baju. She tried on many, and finally choose the purple top and tailor-make the skirt. 

On our way back from jonker, we were treated to firework display.

We made a reservation at Teo Soon Lee (teochew food) for Friday dinner, but got carried away by shopping, so we rescheduled to Sat lunch. Some dishes were good, others so-so.

We got the pool cum jonker view room.

Relaxing in the pool on Sat morn.

Joc and I failed to remember that it is Ginny's birthday on 6 August, so we didn't celebrate for her in the first 2 days. I only remembered on day2 night. On Sunday morn, joc and Ginny wanted to laze in the room, while me and Lili went for last min shopping. We got Ginny a card, and gave cash as bd gift. Ginny sent us pic of the card after getting back to sg. Wish her good health and happiness. May our friendship be strong and lasting.

Count down!

During the work week of 27-30 Jul, I was counting down to my Malacca trip with Lili, Joc and Ginny on the weekend.  I sent them teasers from Tuesday, all the way to Friday morning before we were to meet for breakfast at 8 am.

Hope this brighten your mood too:

28 Jul

29 Jul

30 Jul

31 Jul

Just some pictures

4th Jan, Sat. I squeezed some orange juice for sweetie. She wanted to post some pictures on her FB account. I took few pictures of the juices, of her, and of us.  But I didn't allowed her to post the one with me, and she complained on about that on FB :). Here's the picture:

11 Jan, Sunday morning.  Tied up her hair in a slightly different style.  Happy birthday to myself..

11 Jan night, after dinner.  WK took a few pictures of the homely celebration. 

This is the "surprise" that they got for me.

17 Jan, Sat night out with the gals.  We stay out till 12am.. Up to this morning (Mon), I still exhausted