Life is busy

Wow, it has been more than 30 days since I last signed in to my blog. Every day is a busy day. All my focus is only about work, work and still work. Since Hari Raya Malay festival, to Deepavali, to the coming X'mas and continuing with Chinese New Year, I will be very busy with the sales orders for our Chocolates.

Every minute in the office is being occupied. Perhaps the next time you see me in my blog will be after the festival.

BTW, going to Taiwan for 8 days holiday. Will post more about my Taiwan trip after return from the trip.

S M I L E

Everyone needs a smile!!!

A single smile could travel round the world and make everyone happy. Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu. When someone smiled at me, I started smiling too. I passed around corner and someone saw my grin. When he smiled, I realised I have passed it on to him.

So if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected - lets' start smiling and get the world infected.

It has been a busy month since the start of September. Besides the year-end closing, the festive periods are also approaching. Everyone in the office is busy and the atmosphere in the office is ‘freezing’ + ‘saturating’.

Although the moon cake festival has just over, boxes of Moon Cakes are still piled up, both at home and in office. It seemed people hardly interested in eating moon cakes nowadays, perhaps is more of ‘healthy conscious’ and also ‘busyzzzz’.

Yesterday mum closed my brother’s house main door to talk to the neighbour without bringing along her key (around lunch time) …… and was being locked outside the house. Luckily she was not cooking or boiling water at that time. Also luckily she managed to remember my mobile phone number and called me for help. I managed to call elder sister and she got our sister-in-law to go home early from work to open the door. What an exciting afternoon for mum!

Cake Making session

At elder sister' home the weekend before last, we tried cake making as she has just bought a new oven and a electric mixer. I got her a 'Butter cake recipe' and the trial run was pretty successful. The comment from the children after tasting the Butter cake - 'um......not so bad lah'.



This is my recipe of 'Butter Cake' :

1) self raising flour - 175g

2) Butter - 250g

3) Sugar - 160g

4) Eggs - 4 pieces


Few drops of Vanilla Essence and some Lemon skin.

First, have to pre-heat the oven at 180 deg Celcius.

The, cream butter and sugar together until soft and white.
Add in few drops of Vanilla Essence and lemon skin.
Slowly add in egg one at a time and mix completely well.
Lastly, fold in the flour and pour the mixture into the cake tin to bake.
Baking time - about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Aiyo, forgot to take a picture of our trial cake.......

Sharing session

Last week I attended a sharing session. Two years ago, I also attended the similar sharing session and know a group of friends and we became good friends. Like me, we are all single mummy. Our husbands were the victims of cancer. Our childnren also grown up together. The sharing session provided the atmosphere to let us pour out and talked about the grief, the problems we faced and how we overcome it.

Grief is an ongoing process, even when our loved one may have already be dead for some time. This is a psychological process that requires time to heal. I believed TIME will heal our internal injury but we are the master of the time. How long a person takes to move on depends every much on the nature of the relationships with the deceased, the personal coping and the social support.

I have a big family with supporting brothers and sisters and the group of friends. These support are very important to me. It helps me to move on with my normal routine quite fast. I cherish these support.

I read a book that told us not to 'reinforce' the remembrance process. The grief and loss will always be felt during significant days like birthday and death anniversaries. In our heart, we will never never forget our loved one and things that he had done.

Fireworks

For the past few years, I would not missed the fireworks display.

The fireworks display this year was held on last Friday and Saturday. It's the celebration for our National Day. We went on Saturday. Heard the group that presented the fireworks was from China.

So many years, this was the first time I could see fireworks in such a pleasent environment. Felt like dreaming! We were standing in a big field, opposite One Raffles Quay and could see the fireworks burst into many patterns and flowers just in front of our eyes (in the sky). It's so wonderful and good! Fantastic! bravo!!

Thanks to Adeline, my friend for bringing us to this good location to have such a good view! :)

My daughter, Sandra got an offer at Republic Polytechnic, for the Diploma in Integrated Events Management (DIEM) through the direct admission programme introduced first time at all the polytechnic. It's her 2nd choice. She has accepted the offer and I am happy for her. Cos if she don't accept the course this round, in the year end enrolment, this will also be one of her 12 choices. By then, the competition will be even stronger.

Congratulation, Sandra. 'Jia You' in your 'O' level exams.

It has come to the month of August and we are five months to the year end. What have we done so far.......... (think about it) Every day just passed so easily. Day by day, month by month.

This month August is also my birthday month....and National Day!!! Thank you my friends, for not forgetting my birthday :)

Yesterday got a piece of good news. Sandra, my daughter has been short-listed for an interview tomorrow at Temasek Polytechnic. It's her dream course for doing a Diploma in Leisure and Resort Management (her 1st choice application).
Let's wish her good luck!

Doughnuts

Today is Friday and we had our 'Friday Doughnuts' in the office as tea break.

My boss used to treat us doughnuts on Friday, so the term 'Friday Doughnuts' became a language in our office. As my colleague has just won small amount of 4D, at the courtesy of her, we have our 'Friday Doughnuts' again. Thank you, Jes! :)

Yesterday I passed by Suntec City and saw the 'Doughnut factory' shop from far. I thought the queue was not long and intended to buy few pieces for my two kids at home. When I walked towards the shop, I saw the huge crowd (hidden behind a pillar and a turn) queuing for the doughnuts. :( Disappointed, I decided not to queue. Children, may be next times if chances pop by (queue not too long), I will buy you the 'fantastic' doughnuts.

Direct admission to Poly

Today submitted the Direct Poly Admission (DPA) application for my daughter. She is looking forward to enter into one of the Polytechnic :- Leisure and Resort Management at TP (1st choice), Integrated Events Managements at RP (2nd choice) or Hospitality and resort Management at NYP (3rd choice). All the choices were related to travel industry, as she said was being influence by the father. :)

Let's pray hard and hope she get her dream course. Results of the application will be known on August 13, 2007.

Half a year has gone as we progress into July. Time passed very fast. Think about the new year resolution, I hope we all could fulfilled it by the year end.

My hope this year for my two children is I wish my girl could enter into a Polytechnic course of her choice, and my son will go to Sec 3 studying A Maths and E Maths, and Science. For myself, I hope I could continue my Yoga exercise every week.

Last week I bought a new Notebook, is Lenovo 3000 Y300, from my son's tuition teacher who sold to me at $1200/- (brand new). Consider very cheap. I saw in Courts the same model is selling at $2100/-. With a new Laptop, I am learning all over again how to handle the 'mouse' and different function of the Laptop (like small kids learing to handle PC).

Back to School

Today is the first day of school re-open (3rd term). Everything is back to normal. Wake up at 5.50am to turn on the heater for the two kids...... wake them up..... prepare breakfast...... drive them to school at 7am...... this is my routine every morning from Monday to Friday..... :)

FRIENDS COME FOR A REASON, A SEASON OR A LIFETIME

I received the following message from one of my friends, who told me that people come into our life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When we know which one is it, we will know what to do for that person:

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

One day Desaru trip

We went for our one-day Desaru trip with Five Stars Travel last Saturday, June 16. Woke up at 4.30am, we set off from our home at 5.30am and arrived Five Stars office at Golden Mile Complex at 6am. It was crowded and I overheard there were 8 coaches left for Desaru that day from Five Stars.

Although the coach was to set off at 6.30am, it did not arrive until 7.15am. We were bit impatience already. We set off at almost 7.30am. When we arrived our 1st destination in Malaysia (Huang Huo) for breakfast, it was closed to 9.30am.

The coach traveled all the way to Pengaran (Si Wan Dao) for seafood lunch. Maybe it was too crowded that day, we did not really enjoyed our seafood lunch.

After lunch, we proceed to Ostrich farm. On the way, it started to rain. This was the 2nd time I visited this Ostrich farm. The farm was very crowded and the boss could not really explain and demonstrate to us how to break an Ostrich eggs.

The rain continued non-stop. When we reached the Fruit Farm in Desaru, we could only sat in the coach and it drove one round in the plantation. This was the first time I saw Dragon Fruits plant, which is originated from Vietnam. There were also other fruits plants like Green Oranges, Mango trees, Jackfruits trees, ‘Ba long long’ etc etc. Of course at the shop, we could see everyone, including myself bought some of the fruits back home. The Jambu fruit was very sweet and juicy. I love it.

The main highlight of the event for this tour was to see Firefly. Although it was still raining, we could still travel out on the motorboat with our umbrella on. Hahaha, a very good experience. Finally we saw many Fireflies around the bushes. I could say at least the trip was not wasted.

We concluded our one day tour and back to Singapore around 11.30pm.

School Holidays

It has been quite sometimes since I last updated my blog.

It's school holidays FINALLY........ where I can sleep till 7.30am. During children school term, everyday I have to wake up at 5.50am. Wow, it's good to be able to wake up later to re-charge the battery (body).

This June holiday we do not have any travel plan. For the first 2 weeks of school holiday, both the children were still attending classes, CCA or other school activities. Holidays actually only started this week. But this Saturday, we will be going to Desaru for one day trip........ visiting Ostrich farm, Fruit farm, have seafood meals, and most importantly I hope we will be able to see the fireflies AND have a good times with our friends going along :)

Will share more after our trip.

Picnic at Sentosa

Yesterday afternoon we (me and the two kids), our two friends and their children had a funfilled picnic at Sentosa.

We drove into Sentosa at about 3pm, sat around the Siloso beach and chitchat. The weather was perfect for an outing. The children were having fun at the beach and enjoyed the skyride + Luge play. However, the waiting time for the Luge was absolutely long.

In the evening, we watched 'Songs of the Sea'. The new water jets and lasers at Siloso beach. I liked the background of 'Kelong' structure. The effect that waters came out from the Kelong was very beautiful. The sudden bursts of fire and flames also created dramatic effect for the show. However, I do not quite like the story line. Found it very simple and not convincing enough.

Shopping at JB

Yesterday I went to JB for visiting cum shopping (visiting my cousing). It was such a long time since my last visit to JB. The Customs check point was quiet (no crowd) and I manage to cross to our neighbouring country in less than 5 minutes.

Dont know if it was a Monday or any other reason, the few shopping complex I visited were not crowded at all. Anyway, not much excitement and should said was a boring day. I did'nt contributed much to Malaysia economy, spent less than SG50/-, could said mostly was on makan. Just don know why so many Singaporean are going in to JB to shop?

Well, may be Singapore GSS is better to shop!

Eat with your family

Today is ‘Eat with your family’ day. Hi, my friend, when was the last time you sit around with your family and take dinner with them together ?

Today I read the newspaper that reported that children who don’t eat frequently with their family are 61% more likely to smoke, do drugs or become alcoholics. Children who eat with their family everyday are 20% less likely to pick up those bad habits.

Hi, all mummies, let’s work together!
To get the family united and get the true meaning of love, we should make the family meal more meaningful!

Have a nice day and enjoy your meal today and everyday!

Money Melon

A good melon in Hokkaido is really a Money Melon.
Last week, Straits Times reported that two ‘Money Melon’ were sold at one of the supermarket in Hokkaido for about SG$25,000+. Do you believe?
Now I believed. Our tour guide of Hokkaido did said that most of the working people in Hokkaido will buy such expensive ‘Melon’ for their boss after they received their bonus as token of appreciation.

HOPE

Life is full of zest
There is up and down everyday
Some of the days we felt happy and some of the days were sad
Some of the days we were busy and some of the days were bored
Some of the days we have a clear mind and some of the days were blurred
No matter what, I believe
Sunshine will appear after a heavy downpour

HOPE
H Hope
O Offers
P Positive
E Energy

Forever Friends

To my special friends,
Someone who changes your life, just by being part of it
Someone who makes you laugh, until you cannot stop
Someone who makes you believe that, 'good people' still exists in the world
Someone who convinces you that, 'happiness' is always there waiting for you
This is Forever Friendship......

Thank you my friends, Adeline, Shih Mei, Lai Yee, Florence and many many more who cheer me on and made me walked over the 'darken' times.

This is the Hokkaido 'Jumbo crab'.

The crabs in Hokkaido are very big, but also very expensive. It is very fresh.

All the seafood in Hokkaido are very fresh and can be eaten raw as shashime

Dinner gathering

May 21, 2007

I was so blurred to have mistaken Riverside point and Riverwalk..... a lesson to learn...... 'dont take things for granted'
Without reading my sms, just heard the word 'River' and my mind assumed is Riverwalk opposite 'Central' and actually Riverside point' is also at the other side of 'Central'.
Hahaha, less than 5 minutes of walk distance, have made my friends waited for one hour last Friday.