One day more…

wordpress really gets on my nerves sometimes. for some strange reason, all our posts got misfiled under ‘uncategorized’; add to that, my html toolbox sporadically goes MIA and since i’m useless at coding, that’s really frustrating.

anyway, i’m taking today to mentally prepare myself for my new job. I’m joining the raffles place crowd – no more taking bus 13 to my suburban office, it’s the train ride from tmr onwards, along with thousands of shenton way denizens. hmm.

been scrutinising the news more fervently of late, hoping i don’t fall behind and instead, hit the ground running. i’ll be working alongside former lawyers, journalists and bankers, all of whom have given up their professions to join this firm/industry. I hope i’m making the right choice, and fingers crossed, i shall not regret leaving my former co.

here’s a picture to share – it’s a sneak peek of our ROM invitation.

zeee grande hyatt?

Went to confirm our wedding dinner venue this morning – friends, we’re having our makan at the grand hyatt. We have the Stamford Ballroom – so it’s an entire floor and private recept foyer for our merry-making!

The ballroom

The private foyer for reception

Had lunch at the relatively new Straits Kitchen and it was excellent food man….

so distracted were we that we forgot to take pictures of the yummy dishes – it’s essentially a huge buffet spread, cooked a la minute so everything is fresh – go try the orh luak, laksa, and roast duck! the indian counter serves a very good palak paneer, one of the best i’ve tried! Oh and they use different plates for different ethnic cuisines, e.g. Chinese motif porcelain bowls for chinese food, the steel plates for Indian prata, peranakan-patterned ones for the buah keluak, etc – thumbs up for the attention to detail. check out the decor too:

A corner of the restaurant adorned entirely with crockery (on left) and champagne flutes (on right)

Feature wall – giving me ideas for the house!

Hair here, there and everywhere (plus bored boyfriend)

Janis went for her hair and make-up trial on Fri and i must say – WOW. I’m not sure if i’m allowed to share the final ‘look’ yet – shall ask her. Let’s just say, i never knew hair could take on so many different styles. 🙂 Here’s a sneak preview of what happened during the extremely fun (for her) and extremely long (for me) 3-hour session:

Jyue Huey is her make-up artist. She’s from The Make-Up Room and she’s an excellent person to have on hand for weddings and events.

me? I kept myself busy reading a guide to investors’ relations….preparing for my new job. haha..and of course i took photos of all her “looks”. 🙂

our new house

finally got our keys. went with parents to perform an ‘opening ceremony’ on thurs….we had a good feeling when we first stepped into the place (not forgetting to hurl the pineapple and ‘huat kuay’ in, plus shouting ‘huat ah!’) – was a bit worried initially as we selected the unit without having stepped into the unit at all.

well, glad to report that everything looks good, and nobody got the shivers, etc while exploring each of the rooms! 🙂 here are some photos:

Our main door

Our balcony – what greets you when you first enter! (yes that’s a pineapple on the floor)

One half of our living area (intending to hack the left wall away to create an L-shaped living room)

A corner of our bedroom (going to make the left window area into a cosy reading corner)

A corner of our kitchen (kinda odd-shaped – it’s a bit like a, say, pentagon, i.e. 5-sided)

Shall post more pictures next time – we were too excited to really get any good shots!

drama-mama proposal

Khoon alerted me to this – if I had known this earlier, I would have plagiarised it! Damn. Then again, maybe it only works if I look like the fella in the video.

On another note, we are supposed to be writing our own vows. Haven’t gotten down to it, and I don’t wish to call on Google for help. In some ways, writing a term paper may actually be easier than this.

Lots of stuff happenin’!

The past few weeks have been a long lead-up to a new phase of my life (or shall i say, our life):

1. I’m starting my new job come Oct

2. Our ROM is in Oct as well, in fact, 4 days after my first day at my new company

3. We’ll be collecting the keys to our flat come Oct too

With these and more life-changing events coming up, i can’t help but feel a little ‘high’, partly from the excitement, and partly from what i suspect is anxiety mixed with enthusiasm.

First of all, my new job – i tendered just about 3 weeks ago. Having spent 2.5 years in my current company, and learning tons on the job, i felt the need to move on, and experience new challenges in a new environment.

I started in business operations, moved into corporate communications, and now, i’m going over to a firm specialising in corporate and financial pr. A big leap for me but i’m excited about the opportunity to learn and play in the big league.

As for the ROM, i’m equally excited – invitations have been sent out, and we’re just hoping things go well on that day. i’ve roped in Keith to be our designated chauffer cum manservant on that day..heh heh. I hope no one grumbles about the food or the capacity (we’re squeezing 50 ppl into a 1400sqf space). Hey everyone just come have a bit of fun k. Squeeze a bit lah.

This is where our ROM will be – Francis Cheong – The Atelier

We reserved a hotel room for the day too (shan’t name the hotel, but for those who are coming to our rom, you would know which one) – they didn’t even give us a discount (we were considering doing our wedding banquet there, and it would have been a nice gesture) even though they said they would. I wouldn’t have minded, except the staff didn’t address the fact that no preferential rate was extended, despite the fact that she said it was possible. Needless to say, we have struck them off our list. Our likeliest choice is the grand hyatt – excellent service, good value, gorgeous suites and ballrooms – so far, so good.

Oh, and i tailored a nice, french-cuffed white shirt for the event – i can wear it for work too, so it’s quite good value. hah. i hope it’s good, haven’t used this tailor before. I have long arms so off-the-rack shirts seldom fit nicely. Bespoke fits so much better.

Lastly, the house – reached home today and saw the letter from HDB informing us of the date for key collection. As we postponed the initial appointment, this was our ‘final call’, and of all days, it had to be on my first day of work at the new co! sigh. Just changed it to next thurs. So next thur/fri will be a mad rush. Thurs – HDB appt, plus dinner with parents AND in-laws (shudder), Fri – Collection of ROM docs + make-up trial (for her lah).

There goes my dream of having a good rest before my new job. SIGH.

p.s. had dinner with keith – he lost weight (sharper chin!) – result of conscientious diet, exercise, supplements and other goodies. So sarah if you ever read this, SMILE!

Free oat milk

You know what goes best with a McDonald’s Big Breakfast? An 8km run before that.

Whahaahah..anyway i ran for about .5 hrs and somehow got really lethargic – other half still enthusiastically going forth, by this time having overtaken me, and giving me a withering, smirking glance for good measure. They were having some mini-biathlon at east coast – singapore swimming club i think. Anyhow, i kept grumbling that i wanted to stop, and eventually, after 4km plus, we did. Pulling myself together, i decided to run back instead of walking back (very tempted, cos weather was hot).

Hence, the 8km, albeit in small doses. Popped in macs for breakfast, and two cartons of magnolia oat milk were placed on my tray –

me: ‘errr…i want ice milo, not this’

grouchy prepubescent ‘floor mgr’: ‘oh, this is free.’
cheap singaporean: ‘oh, ok.’

tasted rather erm, interesting. like oat with milk (duh..) Let’s just say i prefer the real deal, as in, eating my oats in milk, instead of prepackaged/precombined.

And the band(s) played on…

 

our wedding bands

her engagement ring (the one i carried around for six days while in melbourne)

 

8km before sleep gave me bad knees.

in an attempt to start some semblance of consistent training for the stanchart run (only doing mini-marathon of 10km), i did a larger than usual loop round my estate yesterday…. looping round the perimeter and back.

that’s 8km. did in abt 50min (which got me scorned at by janis). on pedestrian walkways. which means, i just did my civic duty by becoming one of the many human air-filters you see running along roads these days. hmm.

anyway, realised i need to build up my knees…stamina is passable but my left knee started hurting a little when i got back. that’s odd, considering i tore my ligament in my RIGHT knee.
well, my other half will be doing the team event at the run, so in a moment of foolish bravado mixed with misplaced attempt to come across as supportive, i registered too.

damn.

Small fingers are good.

Went to look at wedding bands today. Mum and Dad came along to provide support. Well actually, only Mum was slightly interested. Dad sat beside her attempting to conceal his boredom.

after a whirlwind perusal of available designs, the choice came down to two, 1) an irregular-shaped matt+glossy design, with 5 tiny diamonds on each side (hence 10, my favourite number), and 2) a traditional band with a row of glittering diamond across the top. The platinum ones were rather boring…so we decided on the white gold designs.
In the end, we settled on the first design, the second one being a little too OTT (must wear daily, can’t be looking like xmas tree). I think it’s cool, and rather symbolic, since 10 is my birth date. 🙂

and it turns out i have small fingers (knuckles big), so i didn’t need to re-size too much, which also means we pay lesser (lesser material maybe!). Did you know your fingers are different sizes at different times of the day? the size also fluctuates (well, not TOO much) according to temperature, e.g. in aircon, etc.

so anyway, i’ll post pictures of the rings when they are ready.