Wedding stuff

So we finally kicked off some wedding stuff - and went to meet a hotel catering manager together to suss out a venue.

The dilemma has been on us for a while. I thought I like to have sit down meals coz I generally hate buffet reception. Always a crowd and a queue for food, hardly any place to sit down, you stand there with a plate of mass produced food (I know sit down banquets are also mass produced it just doesn't feel and look AS mass produced).

But given that the main wedding ceremony is at St Andrews Cathedral, we have to do a reception post ceremony so we will need to source for caterers to set up at the white tentage outside the church hall.

My folks are not big on buffets/receptions/church wedding but they will go with the flow. They have also requested to do a sit down dinner for family and we can't begrudge them that. I read somewhere where someone said that as much as the wedding is about the couple, it is also about the proud parents whose kids are getting married.

Initially, G & I thought we can manage to make this fairly small (something like 20 tables) and that was our agreed idea at first. Thanks to my mom's extremely fertile side of the family - these guys are taking up something like 6 tables. My dad's side of the family will take up another 3 - 4. That makes it 10 tables already. Plus G's side plus a handful of close friends/helpers for wedding we were hoping to invite - our original small do is starting to look like a fairly-large-do. And no thanks to kiasu people who are ALSO getting married in October, there are a few venues that are already not available. Anyway we will have to see what are still available and make our choices from there.

There is so much to do and the details worry me. I don't even have a wedding dress yet!

Slow day at work

Well there is stuff to do but I will get to that later.

Blogging is not in fashionanymore eh? I think everyone has switched to Twittering. It's faster, you write shorter sentences, it's more instant and you don't have to sit down at a computer and 'find time' to blog. You tweet on the go. I seriously hope Twittering is a passing phase coz I do find it quite annoying. It might just take away the whole face-to-face personal experience and further encourage funny spelling/shortcuts in order to fit the 140 characters quota. Smthin lk tis is v hard 2 read & is not reali Eng.

Starting to work on some wedding stuff - starting the guestlist, looking at bridal studios, looking at dresses, contemplating photos or no photos, caterers, dinner venue etc. Haven't really started and I was telling my colleagues 'Aiyah don't want to get married liao so mah fun!' What a cop-out I know! It's once in a lifetime you know but as G likes to say 'the wedding is one day, the marriage is for life' so we gotta know how to place our priorities right and set the budget straight too. Can't spend too much money on the wedding and then have not enough $$ to get a roof over our head. Our OWN roof over our own heads. But there is no such thing as a 'cheap' wedding - coz everything is so bloody expensive!

Oh hello there.... again!

I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS BLOG.

In fact I don't think anyone bothers with blogging as much anymore. I went through a few friends' blogs I used to read regularly and even their updates have lapsed. Unless they own a smart phone and blog on the go. That's a bit excessive but I may start doing that once I get my own iPhone. My Japanese colleague once said to me - 'what's up with Twitter and constant Facebook updates? Nobody is THAT interesting' and he's absolutely right. But in our little narcissistic little mind, damn we are important and people want to read what we are writing!

Random Ramblings was what it was meant to be - random ramblings of my life in HK and other random matters. Now that I have been back in Singapore for a year and half now, not that there is nothing much exciting nor interesting to update on my life in SG but somehow I slipped into the daily grind - work, home, TV, go to bed, next day, repeat and cccasionally meeting G or some friends for dinner after work. I must say I have been good with going home for dinner with my parents. With the 2 sisters married and living away from home and the lil bro in NS, it's just the 2 'old' folks at home with the dog and so I try to have a meal with them at least twice a week.

G reminded me of the blog the other day. I think he was thinking that perhaps I will use this to blog about the wedding preparation. Yes 16 October at St Andrews Cathedral - see you there. Been wondering how to go about starting the preparations now that we have about 10 months to go - very little time considering most people start 12 - 18 months ahead. On one hand, we want to keep it simple, on the other hand, how simple is simple? This is once in a lifetime! Very confused right now so I keep procrastinating.

Going to see the church premises this weekend and meeting a hotel to check out a possible venue this Thursday too. Hopefully by kicking off with these two activities, we or rather I would be motivated to get more stuff organized soon.

I may post again real soon, I may not. Coz I may forget about this blog again. I've only just turned 30 and I am already hopelessly forgetful......

Oscars

Yes yes, so I haven't updated this blog for the last 3 months.

I haven't forgotten - I just haven't found the time and the topics to blog about.

Watching the Oscars now and feel compelled to comment on Beyonce's unflattering eye make up (she looks like she has major water retention) and her thighs are incredibly chunky in this outfit

I did think that Hugh Jackman's opening sequence was fun and entertaining though.

AND JAMES FRANCO LOOKS SO HOT IN THAT TUX while he was giving out that award! So friggin cute! I want to squish him and keep him in my pocket!

Out of the many nominated movies, so far I have seen The Changeling, Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I liked all of them but I must say I dun understand how Slumdog can win Best Picture though. The movie reminded me of this other movie 'City Of God' - if you haven't seen it, please rent it to watch - it is fantastic and better than Slumdog in my humble opinion.

I am so tired and it's only Monday..... There have been recent events happening that seem to imply that getting out while you still can might be the most viable thing to do. But, after 8 years doing this, perhaps the inertia has set in plus the fact I'm not even sure whether I am able to find something interesting that commands equal or more pay. Aiyah frustrations that come with work are inevitable- but this particularly doesn't pay off when you spend days feeling underappreciated. Seriously another co-worker and I joke about how we should learn from another co-worker - don't work so hard but make sure every little thing you do is MAGNIFIED so it looks like you are a big deal. Plus make sure your personal life interfere in your work life so you end up working less days than your co-workers! HOW LOVELY! We are fools to work hard and even bigger fools to believe that perhaps at the end of the day there might be some form of reward.

Bleah. I think a nice new present for myself is needed to cheer meself up!

Crazy ass names

My dad had to help out with registeration of Primary 1 school kids and he jotted down some of the more hilarious names he saw today... here are some crazy ass names by crazy parents....

Aufa Syawan Ry Lee (whaaaat?!?!?)

Cyane (nice colour... oh wait.... that's cyan)

Alder

Kayven (Poor kid!)

Castell (the colour pencils?!)

Endreana (it just spells out ugly)

Win (BUT OF COZ!)

Kioko (Somehow sounds like a brand of Japanese instant noodles to me)

Keona (Leona but with a twist)

Jervis (probably fairly normal compared to this lot)

Zenn (how friggin pretentious are the kid's parents?!!)

You Jet (I can't even make sense of this)

Acme (Hahahahah)

Escher (the parent sneezed when trying to tell the registration desk the kid's name.... probably)

WHY OH WHY do people insist on giving their kids 'unique' names? We are turning into HK at the rate we are going.... Soon names won't be 'names' - it will just be randomly coined words, letters to create a 'sound'. GAH!

Rants

I read with great annoyance about people who want to put down the white tigers that attacked the stupid suicidal man who practically asked to be mauled. It irritates me when I read it but I just realised it will be a very long rant if I do blog about it.

I also read with great annoyance about the stupid JC kids and the hazing incidents - ACJC girl who gets tied up and pelted with paint and the SAJC boy who gets his genitals rammed against the pole and this reminds me of my secondary school days. I remembered some of the boys in my school did it to another boy on his birthday and he got a bit injured and when he went home and his sister saw his injuries and enquired about it, boy oh boy did they get into trouble! The boys were indignant for being punished but frankly the birthday boy did not spill on them - if it was in good fun, what is to justify the injuries? The girls were not any better - I remember a birthday - I don't recall whose - where plastic bags were filled with water and PELTED at the birthday girl. Well not just the birthday gal, any one since I think the boys probably delighted in seeing girls in wet school uniforms. I do think that some of the people who went as far as going 'I won't send my kids to JC' is being ridiculous. Alright, mommy's boys and daddy's girls better not go JC - in fact, to protect them from the crazy world out there where one might get eaten by white tigers, why not let them be home schooled? Gah!

Rant over! There was another newspaper report that annoyed me - the 'chope-ing' of seats with packets of tissue paper! But there are way more things in life that annoy me more than that and it's 6pm already so I better finish my work and make my way home! I'm addicted to this Channel 8 programme 'Life Transformers! that is on every Monday at 8pm' Yes, me and Channel 8 - who would have thunk?

Toodles!

Bad jokes... kinda...

Q: What is the bird of peace?
A: The dove.
Q: What is the bird of true love?
A: The swallow.


Q: What is better than roses on a piano?
A: Tulips on an organ.

If you don't get it, then I cannot help you lah!

There's life!

Yes, this blog is super dusty! I didn't find time to blog lah. I don't even update Facebook that much.

Not so recently I went to Hanoi for a holiday with G where we had loads of pho and braved the insane motorcycle traffic! I should definitely find time to chronicle the trip a bit. What with all my subsequent business trips, that memory might start to get a wee hazy.

2 days after coming back to Hanoi, I went to KL and back to Hanoi again for work. Then the week after that, I went to Bali for a week long marketing conference which was just.... too long.

I just came back from a 4 day work trip (1 1/2 days in London where it was bloody freezing! even in October!) and 2 days in Barcelona for an Il Divo launch event. My highlight was to see Simon Cowell and I did though I was a bit too shy to go up to ask for photos! I did see him coming into our London office when I was having lunch with my UK colleagues at their canteen.

Barcelona was really quite nice though I did not get much time to myself - I had the morning off as I was going to do a generic interview with the band in the afternoon but it RAINED that morning which made walking around quite difficult. I gave up in the end and just sat in the hotel in the afternoon to wait for my turn. I was quite paranoid about missing it. I managed to track down Loewe, Camper, Zara, Mango (all Spanish brands) but didn't find anything to buy. Yes I lust the Napa bag from Loewe, but at 990 Euros (almost 2K), while it was significantly cheaper than in SG, I could not bring myself to buy it! There was nothing nice at Camper either and it wasn't that cheap too - something between 110 - 140 Euros for a pair as well. Didn't buy anything from Zara nor Mango as it was mostly winter wear. Did manage to buy a top from H&M and at the airport, my last attempt to buy something - I acquired a Massimo Dutti leather sling bag at 69Euros (it would have cost S$195 in SG) and finally just coz I wanted something Loewe so bad, I bought a golden pouch thingy made of the softest leather ever. It's so pretty and soft I don't think I ever want to use it! I think I'll take it out every now and then just to fondle it.

Alright back to work. Will try to post pictures. Hopefully it won't be another two months before I dust the dust off this blog and start writing and put up pictures. Hee hee!

Hanoi!

Heading to Hanoi for a holiday 20 - 24 Sept! Not sure what to expect or what to do - but the plan has us arriving on 20th, stay a night in Hanoi itself, then head off to Halong Bay for a 2D1N tour on a junk boat! We then return for another 2 more nights in Hanoi and explore the attractions around there but I'm thinking for the last night, I do want to check out the famous Bobby Chinn restaurant.

Went back for another routine eye check up and questioned the doctor why my vision is still somewhat blurry when I look at the computer screen. I can drive, can watch TV/movies (Wall-E is super cuteeeeeeee! G & I want to watch again!), but the comp screen stumps me. I've adjusted the brightness to its lowest and still it's still quite blurry when I look at it. I've adjusted the fonts to be bigger as well and still not great. Doc checked my eyes and assured me that they are healing nicely and it will take a while to adjust but in the meantime, I continue with another new bottle of eye drops (my 3rd bottle of a different kind now) so hopefully it will all be okay when I return for my last visit in October!

Took some Vanilla Coke yesterday and that has induced a friggin cough! Crap!

By the way, can someone recommend me a good mascara that lengthens and doesn't clump, and a good undereye concealer? I realise my dark eye rings are horrible without my glasses hiding them for me!!!!

Lasik!

Once again, I have neglected this blog. I don't even visit it as often as I used to - as it used to be my home page in my old lap top.

So most of you would have known by now - I finally did lasik surgery on my eyes! YES! 6/6 VISION HERE I COME! Well, kinda....

I went for the surgery last Thursday and had 2 days medical leave and the weekend to recuperate. The surgery itself was super fast - it was the registration, reading the disclaimer and signing the disclaimer and getting ready for the surgery that took longer. Each eye probably took 2 -3 minutes apiece? They put me in those sterile paper scrubs, gave me a 'shower cap' then I went in to lie down on the 'operating' table. I just laid there and was told to look at a blinking red light. Since my vision was so bad, it was a 'kinda blinking' red light. They squirted what I believe to be anesthetic eyedrop onto my right eye, and the surgery began! I can see him put a small forceps gadget to ensure my eye stays open and then I can see a blade ( at least that's what I think it is!) over my cornea and then for a while, I couldn't see the red blinking light on that eye (coz the cornea flap has been cut open for the laser to penetrate I think). He just kept telling me to look straight and not tense up and clench which was a bit difficult to control when the laser started and the zapping sound merged with the smell of burning flesh. During the zapping, I was looking at a patch of bright red/orange light with a blackish dot in the centre (a bit like THE EYE in LOTR come to think of it hehehe!) The smell was the hardest part I reckon - I keep thinking 'hey this kinda smells like chao tah satay!' (Yes, trust me to think of food at that time!) And the right eye was DONE! He closed the 'flap' then put a protective shield thing over it and I could also see him using a TINY wiper thing to ensure the flap got no creases/bubbles. My left eye had a bit more problem - when they squirted the anestic eyedrop, either it was not enough or since I already knew what to expect, having done my right eye, I told the doctor I could totally feel the forcep on my eye and when he took the blade to the eye I was like WAIT WAIT WAIT I CAN FEEL IT! So many generous squirts of the eye drops later, off we go with the left eye!

My vision is still kinda not 100% yet for now but obviously I can see better than before. I've been driving since Monday but I let my neighbour Yang drive us home in the evening. At my last check up, my vision was +1.00 for one ey, and +0.25 for the other. It used to be -8.00 each! So now I have long sightedness which apparently is not uncommon and it takes about a week or two to stabilize. Things are still kinda bright so I wear sunglasses when I'm outdoor if not I squint like mad. Eyesight will fully stabilize in 2, 3 months time and the doctor says he believes when it is fully stabilized, I should be close to 6/6. People with less severe myopia usually can get 6/6 and usually sooner but since I was considered quite shortsighted, the 'guarantee' is not there but beats being half blind every morning when I wake up!

It is taking a while for everyone including myself to see me without glasses. Whenever I see myself in the mirror, I keep thinking 'Aiyah forgot to wear specs' which is damn cock I know! I just feel I don't look AWAKE! After another week or so, I will be able to put eye make up and hopefully I can make myself look more awake coz I'm vain like that hehe.

Ok shall not stare at the comp too much - the words starts to blur after a while! Later!