Sweet tooth's wish came true

I wrote a post last year, about celebrating my 39th birthday in the office with colleagues. In the post I kind of mention that I don't really enjoy such a "mass celebration", as birthday is personal, and it's no big deal.

This year, because I felt so special about turning 40, I told Alice outright that I do not appreciate such an event and asked her not to do it to me (Alice and Tricia are usually the organisers as they are the only ones who remember and bother).

Me, Alice and Caroline arranged to have lunch on the 10th with Eva and Huifen, who left the company as of 31 Dec, and with Tricia who is on maternity leave. To me, it was meant to be a belated farewell lunch treat to the 2 who has left. Turned out that the girls took it as my birthday lunch gathering. Alice "complained" to them that I didn't want to celebrate with the rest in the office. Tricia said that maybe the rest will give me a surprised party even if Alice was banned from organising. I told her that I'm not worried, cos the rest are "没心肝" ones, ha!

I was quite touched as they bought me a strawberry shortcake.  I had wanted one for my birthday for the past 2 years, but it never materialize.  Finally, my wish came true, on my 40th birthday.

Something amusing happened that afternoon back in the office.  It was also Jingjing's birthday on the 12th, so Alice did buy a cake and did the usual birthday celebration in the office, but just for Jingjing.  The rest of the "没心肝" ones (from finance department) were also invited to Jingjing's celebration.  And they actually took a slice of Jingjing's cake and came to my desk and sang me a birthday song.  Ha!  I think I'm getting more and more mean as I age.  I actually thought that what they did was quite wacky.  It proved my point that no one, other than Alice and Tricia, bother, so I'm gleeful that I'm not celebrating my big day with them.

Here's some photos of the great friendship that was built in the past 2 years in Jabil.

from left: Eva, Caroline, Me, Alice, Hui Fen, Tricia

Some candid group shots (by Tricia) which I find cute and spontaneous

Turning 40

Turing 40 is of big significance to me.  I have lots of thoughts to share, where shall I start?

I don't remember how I celebrated my 30th birthday; probably I didn't.  From young, my birthdays were never important to me.  I didn't feel special, I didn't have any needs (eg present for myself) to be fulfilled.  I count my blessings daily, I take stock of my achievements and happiness regularly.  I feel confident in growing old gracefully, and my age has never been a secret.

It was not a sudden change of attitude about birthday; the strong feelings I had about turning 40 is a result of events that occured over the past 2 to 3 years.  In short, it is mid-life crisis that has hit me.  It sounds cliche, but it's true and real..

Looking back from this point in time, it's not difficult to explain or to see why.  In the years before graduation, life's purpose and pursues were crystal clear.  There were much to be learned and discovered through school, books, and our quest for knowledge and skill sets.  The goals were clear, that good results was the way to future success.

In the first 10 to 15 years after graduation, there were so many idealogy for us to work towards, in both personal and work life.  And so much was achieved too - career, marriage, savings, house, kids, and stability of life.

Should I say, that at the peak of my life at mid to late 30s, it had never crossed my mind that what comes after the peak is, inevitably, the downturn.

So I guess, I was hit hard by mid life crisis.  "Suddenly", I was no longer as energetic as the younger graduates.  "Suddenly", the promotions slowed down.  "Suddenly", life at home has became monotonous.  "Suddenly", I started to question, something that I had stopped questioning a long time ago, about what life's real purpose is.  "Suddenly", I realised that I'm not invincible.  "Success" was an illusion, like a pair of tinted glasses that I was looking at my life with in all these past years.

Fortunately, life is a journey in which we keep on learning.  Some lessons were learnt easily, some lessons were learnt the hard way.  Toward the second half of last year, I have started to move on again.  I am passed the bleakest (and steepest) ridge.  Now that I see what's in front of me, I hope I'm having a good head start to the next phase.

The wish to have a memorable celebration to mark my 40th birthday occured to me in the second half of last year.  I was having dinner with Lili when I told her that I will have a "个人演唱会" at partyworld on my birthday.  Then during a chit-chat with WS, I told her that I want to do a commemorative "个人专集" (photo) while I'm still pretty.  I couldn't decide what to do then, as I also wanted a night-out (away from home, bed and kid) celebration party.

I did some online research on photo packages; I also thought of asking if Winny or Lixing will do it for goodwill.  Eventually, it was the staycation that materialized, cos during the Deloitte gathering on  15th Dec, Ginny and Joc expressed interest in participating if I organise one.

On Friday the 10th of Jan, and the weekends of 11-12th Jan, I had such eventful and emotional (happy and unhappy) birthday celebrations.  I'm not sure if I will be blogging about the unhappy moments and incidents, but I will definitely blog about the happy ones! 

This has been such a long outstanding post.  It felt great to finally pen down my feelings about my milestone.  I'm going to end here, with a positive note for all my friends turning 40 this year: LIFE STARTS, AGAIN!, AT 40!!

Beaten

Totally beaten by the flu virus; had not been this ill for a long time.  The sequence was broken, after the terrible cough on Sunday and Monday, kenna infection in the respiratory system to the left of my nose. It is so painful, that I raised white flag immediately - went to dr goh again. Antibiotic was prescribed, which I very gladly accepted. I hope the pain will go away soon. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinusitis

CNY D2/3

Our nth time to Malacca, so I shall just mention things that comes to mind:

i) Told WK, but he didn't listern to me, that D2 is different from long-weekends, no jam, no need to leave so early. I felt like a fool, reaching at 8am to 拜年...

ii) Time passed really very slowly for me, boring and hot, most likely due to my illness

iii) I'm not in the mood for rude behaviour, so I told WK "He has such bad manners!" HAHAHA!!! And on Day 3, I rubbed it in somemore..."Didn't see him the whole of yesterday and today; here's his ang bao, you take care of it!" HA!

iv) Lynn had a great time, because her cousins were there at the same time. They destroyed quite many things together. Mabel and Matt are known as the "破坏王"!

v) We did not see any fire works or fire crackers, because we went to bed before 9pm

vi) Our car's aircon is faulty. I guess we can count ourselves lucky that it only act-up when we reached the Tuas bridge. We did not have aircon for half-an-hour.

vii) Hmmm.. I had quite a bad start to the Horse year, didn't I?

Hopefully I will enjoy my next trip better. [could it be because I didn't get to shop :)?]

Here are some photos

WK's mum in her new top that I bought for her.  Lynn in her new skirt that WK's mum bought for her

(i) Newly grown pineapple - its red

(ii) Halfway there - still red in some areas

(iii) Fully grown. This one is special, it has 2 "heads"

Luckily she had company for the whole day, so I get to rest

The morning before we left for Kulai.  Lynn and Mabel were playing with Momo.  I was trying to get some photos of the dog.  Girlie's hubby was very thoughtful; (he knew what I was trying to achieve)he instructed the dog to run outwards, so I managed to get these 5 nice shots

CNY D1; Chinese tradition and values

Mentioned in my previous post that on the eve of the eve, me and my 3 colleagues went Ikea for lunch. We talked about CNY of course. All 3 of them complained that CNY's boring, especially when visiting their hubby's relatives. Most of the time is spent sitting around, watching TV and waiting for the time to pass. The teenagers will be playing with their phones the whole time.

What's described above is really quite common; I do most of what's mentioned above too. The only slight difference is that I see visitation as my duty and responsibility as the younger generation, and believe that it is important to keep our chinese tradition going. I feel good when I see the older folks enjoying their catch up. I can tell (from the smiles on their faces) that they appreciating our visits.

Had a conversation with WK's mum on similar topic on CNY D1. I was asking her if we should all go visit her aunty that evening, after the 3 of us finish with our rounds to my relatives'. She mentioned that when she's no longer around, we will not be visitng her aunty anymore. I shared with her what my Dad taught me. My dad ever told me that tradition will go on. It is true that we won't visit her aunty when she's gone, cos we don't feel close to her aunty. Instead, Lynn (and her kids) will follow me to visit my aunty, whom I feel close to. When I'm gone, Lynn, with her kids and grandkids, will wish to visit her uncles and aunties (eg Juin who is more than 10 years younger than me) whom she's close to.

This is how I enjoy my CNY, with the correct values.  Anyway, I have my candy crush on my phone, ha!!

The eve of the eve and the eve

Back to CNY!

My CNY break starts on Wed, which is the eve of the eve.  My company's shutdown on the eve (Thurs), but most people took another day off on Wed.  So on Wed, there were only 4 of us from my department of 13 who turned up for work.  My boss, who was on leave too, was nice to allow us to "OTOT" (own-time-own-target).  The 4 of us went for lunch at Ikea (was supposed to be my treat to them, but I forgot to bring my wallet out, so Surin treated us instead), and they went off from there.  I left at 2pm. 

Went to meet some friends at Suntec in the afternoon.  In the evening when I was heading home, it suddenly occured to me that I'm experiencing the onset of a bad fever.  Whenever I fall ill, it's almost the same sequence.  Firstly, I will get a sore throat.  Then I will feel "shaking", ie fever.  Then running nose may or may not be next.  Finally in the 3rd day or so, a cough will develop.

I was suppose to do final marketing on Wed night, in case some of the shops were closed on Thursday.  Of course I didn't make it.  That night, I stock up on lozenges, ate 2 in the span of 3 hours, took 2 fever pills and went to bed early.

On Thursday morning, I was still drowsy that I forgot that Lynn still has school (short hours) that day.  After WK sent her to school, I asked WK to accompany me to complete my purchases.  True enough, I discovered that Old Chang Kee was closed for CNY already.  So intead of fried fishball and sausage, I bought fresh ones from NTUC. 

That day, I survived by downing another 2 rounds of fever pills and a few lozenges. 

In the afternoon, I cooked and strung the fishball, otah fishcake and sausage (boiled or toasted) on satay sticks, cooked the 冬粉虾 and went to my uncle's place for swim (Lynn and aunty Cindy only), BBQ and potluck reunion dinner. 

I didn't take much photos of the gathering, I guess because my energy level was low. 

That night, other than the events stated above, Aunt Cindy also organised games (Bingo, with real money pool) and a belated birthday celebration for WS and I.  She ordered a cake that says "happy belated BD", ha!  She had gift packs done for me and WS.  Come to think of it, I should say a big thank you to her for her efforts and thoughts.  But that night, I was not able to appreciate much that's going on, as I was tired.  Well, I must say, it is also because of the late comers that cause the event to stretch to 9pm.  This goes to show that punctuality is indeed a virtue.

In her gift packs, there were a few old photos of me and WS when we were young. Here's a classic one, dated 1992, when she was 8 and I was 18.

  

A different venue this year, for yet another CNY reunion dinner, for the same old people of the extended Lim family.  So the wish for "many happy returns" is not only for birthdays, but for festivals and gatherings too!

**MANY HAPPY RETURNS**

December update - W and Penang

After browsing through >300 photos, I decided to do a one post update for the whole of Dec.  If not I will always be behind.

It was really a busy December, with holiday (hotel staycation, chalet, overseas), work (out of Singapore too), gatherings and celebration all happening in a month. 

1. Sentosa/W Hotel 8-10 Dec
[I was wondering what we did for the first weekend in Dec, and realised that we spent a short evening out at Orchard Road, which I have already posted.  That weekend, I spent time setting up Chrismas deco at home, cos I was going to be fully engaged in the next few weekends]

WK booked a staycation at W hotel at Sentosa cove for Sun (8th) to Tue; I thought that I can take 2 days leave, but ended up too busy to do that.  I have a colleague (expat) who stays at W residence, so I took a lift from him to office on Monday (worked half day morning).  Went back to Sentosa in the afternoon to join Qiu Yun and the kids to try out IFly.  Stayed over on Monday night, and still went to work on Tuesday afternoon after check out. 

W Hotel is very beautiful.  If I have done this post earlier, it would be full of pictures.  It is very secluded, more suitable for people who drive.  If it is the busy, sandy side of Sentosa that one like, W is not a good choice (Silosa beach resort and Rasa Sentosa will be better choices). 

Hotel lobby (outdoor)

Hotel lobby (indoor)

View of the pool from Hotel lobby

WK bought a new toy, a under water camera, which captures very clear (under good sunlight) and beautiful underwater pictures.  I don't have the pictures in this laptop, so I'm going to steal 2 from Lixing's blog:
http://lxingg.blogspot.sg/2013/12/w-hotel-sentosa.html

I took quite a few photos of the very chic deco:

Lynn loves this hammock, which unfortunately is not in our room, but outside the spa at L1:

Here are 2 file photos of us doing the Ifly.  It was fun, not that scary really.  Worth a try!

 

 

Here's 2 more pics, from Lixing's camera/blog too, of Qiu Yun and JJ:

2. Deloitte gathering 15 Dec
In mid Nov, I planned to organise a lunch gathering for the Deloitte gang.  I didn't want to clash with the Christmas weekend (21/22 Dec), so we set it on 15th Dec (Sunday).  Subsequently, WK and myself need to go on biz trip.  WK left home at 3pm on 15th itself for his flight to Shanghai, when most of the gang were still at our home, and I left for Penang the following day (16th).

Didn't take any picture of the gathering, just spent time catching up with old friends.  It's heart warming to see old friends again, sharing tales and life stories, of us growing "old" together (ha!).  Hazel's elder girl is already in Secondary 1 in 2014.  Another beautiful and intelligent young lady in the making..

Here's some pictures prior to them arriving

Lynn posing in front of the tree with her present from QiuYun

Fake Poinsettia, completing the Christmas look:

3. Penang Work cum Family trip (16 to 21 Dec)
The furthest that WK and myself had driven to in Malaysia is Ipoh/Cameron Highland; we have not been to Penang.  During this work trip to Penang, we planned in such a way that they (WK with Lynn and his mum) arrived on Thursday morning (while I'm at work) and we leave together on Saturday night.  On Thursday and Friday nights, I got 2 different colleagues to drive us to the famous food hunt for good Penang food.  On Saturday, we visited Penang hill.

The accomodation was good, as I upgraded from a single room to a duplex (paid for the difference myself).  The duplex is on the 3rd floor which is the same floor as the swimming pool and gym.  In the day when I'm at work, Lynn enjoyed some hours at both facilities.

The food was a disappointment.  Penang's so called great local food is what you can find in Singapore (eg fried kueyteow, fried egg oyster), except that the taste is different from Singapore's.  While I can accept the differences, WK's mum criticize every thing that she ate.  While I prefer the Singapore versions of almost everything, I really love the Penang laksa.

Our hotel room, view of first floor from the top

View of the top from the first floor

The first floor is quite spacious

While Penang hill can't be described as awesome or breath-taking beautiful, it was a good family outhing for us on that Saturday.  It was cooling up in the hills and the view of the city is great.  So here's a few pics to conclude this mini getaway, squeezed into our hectic schedules, for family bonding.

The cable car ride up was smooth and efficient (this view is taken from the top of the hill)

City view

This grasshopper cost me RM5, but didn't even survive the day (lost in transit!)