My MIL's Wish

I am feeling exhausted as I have just returned from a 10-day Chinese New Year holidays back in Singapore. This time we finally got to see the inside of our apartments, after waited for more than 3 years. All other apartments in the area have already been completed, making ours the slowest of them all...Actually, it's not a bad deal for us as we are not in a hurry to move in and neither are we thinking of renting the apartments out for returns anyway. We get a few thousand dollars of compensation from the developer for the delay.

The very next morning after arriving in Singapore we met up with 2 Interior Designers to discuss carpentry works and some minor renovation works for both apartments. We will have 6 bedrooms, 5 toilets, 2 living(1 big and 1 small), 2 kitchens, 1 formal dining and 1 casual dining combined. In total for 7 of us in our family including the old folks, we will have 2000 sq. ft. of space. Not bad at all, considering that my hubby and I had stayed in a 380 sq. ft. apartment in Hong Kong for the last 4 years...

We confirmed and decided on one of the designers who had given us a very good layout with careful considerations for all of our family members. We will be getting the 3D drawings of the proposal Wednesday this week and I will be going back again on Saturday to choose the materials. I hope to be able to decide on all the necessary things by then and need not fly back again until the actual removal which will probably be end March.

On the 1st day of the New Year, we went praying and blessing as usual and the medium spent quite some time with D, telling him to work harder and aim higher for his PSLE. We are all hoping that he will do well and get into a good secondary school near to our new place. My MIL wants me to have a baby this year, telling me not to delay anymore and telling her son the same. I hope it can be as easy as she thinks...Hubby is doing his Masters in Hong Kong and won't be graduating until end of the year, I have a contract here in Hong Kong until end-June this year and I think it will get extended again. The only way that I can get back to Singapore is resigning from this company which is actually paying me quite well...So, it's really not so easy.

Bad start...

I have to admit that I had a great weekend but unfortunately I do not have a good start to my week today. First of all, I received an email from an Admin Assistant in my Shenzhen office informing everybody about changes made to the seating arrangements for the Annual Dinner tonight which I am not involved in and so are all of the staff in our Hong Kong office. (Except for the President and 2 other Managers with teams in Shenzhen). We were told by our President from last year that we would not have Annual Dinner this year due to bad business and tight budget but our Shenzhen counterparts are having one as usual...

Then our stupid Admin in Hong Kong made us sign an acknowledgement agreeing to some changes made to the Employee Handbook with effect from today but did not state clearly the changes made...And the best thing was when we told them that we will not sign because it's not written clearly, they told us that the acknowledgement letter was prepared by the HR consultant! That's the ultimate bullsh*t that this company can come out with, paying stupid monies to some stupid consultants and depriving the staff of an Annual Dinner. How can we expect any loyalty from the staff?

This is really a bad start to the week....and we are having a meeting with all those id*ots later at 4pm...

Weekend Update - Movie, walk and Spa.

I had a great weekend. Starting with a morning session movie at UA Citygate and cried my eyes out watching "Hachiko". Richard Gere looked really old in the movie but still as handsome and as charming as always. "Hachi" was really cute when he was a puppy! Love his eyes! Much like my very own Coffee's. If I can afford to have a big house, I would really love to have a Akita Inu! It is such a handsome breed! And maybe also a Golden Retriever! And a Shiba Inu!

Took Cookie to see the vet for her teeth as her milk teeth won't drop and her adult teeth are coming out. The vet told me that she will have to be fully tranquilized for extracting the teeth and suggest that I have it done together with the de-sexing surgery. I don't intend to de-sex her though. I would love for her to give me more cute little puppies that resemble both Coffee and her! So, I will have to check her teeth hygiene more regularly so that she will not get tooth decay. Anyway, the vet checked her and told me that she has a slightly weak right knee. Not very serious but may develop into arthritis when she grows old. Coffee has strong bones though and everything is fine with him. And fortunately we went to the vet as we found out that they have missed 1 vaccination. I thought the pet shop told us that they have had 2 vaccinations when we bought them? Anyway, they are fully vaccinated now, including the one for rabies.

After the visit to the vet, we took the pups to the Inspiration Lake near Disneyland and had a great walk. We didn't see any other people walking their dogs and I suspect that dogs are not allowed. Anyway, there was no sign so we didn't care. Both of them had a great workout running and walking around the lake, and so did the both of us.

In the evening, we went to the MTM Spa at Novotel Citygate. I had a 2-hr facial session with special treatment for my eye bags and caviar essence infused mask for my face and neck. I slept through almost half of the session and left feeling my skin refreshed. I guess I have to start taking care of my skin as I approach the big 40. Hubby had a 30-minute head, neck and shoulders massage which he thought was too short.

Sunday was spent at home. Tried to tub with the pups but they were terrified of the water. They hanged on to us like crazy and wouldn't let go! Coffee was so funny, peddling with his limbs so fast even though he was out of water. I cooked dinner, made soup (black chicken and fish maw and conch) and fried vegetables with pork liver sausage. Yummy. (^-^)

5th birthday in HK

My 3rd Hello Kitty birthday cake! ^-^

I had a great birthday week this year! And for consecutively 3 years, my staff in HK bought me Hello Kitty cakes since they know that anything Hello Kitty will make me very happy. ^-^

On Friday, I had dinner with hubby at Olea, Novotel Citygate, just the 2 of us. It was a nice cozy restaurant which was not crowded and had an open kitchen where I could smell the pizzas baking. We had tapas, pizza and lamb cutlets with sparkling wine. The pizza was especially delicious. I think we will be going there for dinner quite often...

On Saturday, we had tim sum lunch with J and the Ma's at Lei Garden, Shatin. J was going back to Singapore that evening and his wife was out doing her last minute shopping, so he joined us alone. Lei Garden's tim sum was really good, too bad they don't have a branch at TST where my office is...

For dinner, we went to Amigo at Happy Valley with the Ma's. Ma shares the same birthday as me and he recommended Amigo after having a great time for his wife's birthday in December. It was an old French restaurant with a history older than me. The interior of the restaurant was very European with a bar on the ground floor and dining on the second floor up a winding stairway. There were oil paintings hanging on the walls and the chandeliers were lighted with real candles! There was also a live band consisting of 3 Filipino guys who could sing English, Mandarin and Cantonese songs going table to table obliging song requests and entertaining the guests with their impressive voices. The ladies were served first and presented with a rose after dinner. For birthdays, the signature cake (Napoleon) will be on the house and also a Polaroid photo of the occasion will be taken. Oh yah, memo pads printed with the guests' names will also be presented upon arrival at the table! I think they are for making song requests to the band.

Anyway, dinner was delicious, we had foie gras, escargots, clam chowder soup where the clams were fresh, fat and juicy, then we had the main course and then we had the most delicious souffle that I had ever had. And since it was my birthday, we were given the house cake which was also good but not as great as I had hoped. At the end, we had our coffees and teas and which came with ice cream balls coated with chocolate which was better than the cake. I think it's because I like chocolate better? All of the above for the price tag of HKD3570 for 4 of us without drinks. Not cheap at all and I would recommend going there only for special occasions.

On Sunday, we spent a day with the puppies and we brought them out to the park again. Cookie was ecstatic! She ran so fast! I love watching all the different variety of dogs at the park and having the dog lovers come cooing over Cookie being so small and cute. Apparently, many of them have had toy poodles but most them not as small size as Cookie. Coffee was terrified of all the bigger dogs that come sniffing at his butt. Such a funny sight. LOL

39!

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday. I had a birthday present hand-carried and delivered to Hong Kong from Singapore! My ex-colleagues from the warehouse remembered my birthday and had J bring me the present while vacationing in Zhuhai, Macau and Hong Kong with his family. It was really sweet and nice of them. ^-^

This is the 5th birthday celebrated in Hong Kong and same as previous years, I received flowers and my staff bought me lunch. The girl at the reception was asking me if I will have a Hello Kitty cake again this year....hmm...I wonder?

I celebrated my birthday with E and J last night at a private dining place called "家宴". It was a 8-course dinner and it was delicious. I would love to go back for dinner again in February or March, with hubby and the Ma's. Their menu change every month except for the 3 signature items which are the lobster salad, the prawn and the crab dishes remaining the same. And I think they will all love it. It costs HKD260 per person and that includes tea and service charges.

Ok, back to my birthday. I am 39 this year but I am not worried of being old as I do not feel old at all. I may have a few wrinkles on my face and neck, I may have put on some weight at my waistline, hips and thighs, but I am in good health and everything in my life is falling into places nicely! I am finally on my way to getting the MBA that I had wanted to get more than 10 years ago, my children are growing up beautifully, our apartments in Singapore are finally ready for occupancy, bought the car I had always wanted to drive, bought not 1 but 2 tiny toy poodle puppies and my marriage life is better than ever! So how much more can I ask for? I am HAPPY, very HAPPY. Om Sai Ram!

I was talking to my daughter the other day when she was here on school holidays and she told me that she would like to be a fashion magazine editor. It's good to have ambition and dreams but honestly, how many of us actually get to do what we like to do and actually make a living out of it? I have a good job, it is not my ideal job but it helps me provide for my family and also gives me a comfortable lifestyle. In that sense, I like my job but I hope that in 5 years, I can actually start to do what is really meaningful and what I really like to do. :)

Bye 2009! Happy 2010!

Hi! Happy New Year to all! Hope that 2010 will be better for everybody as 2009 was kind of a bad year for many.

The reasons I didn't write for so long were mainly due to studies which I have completed exactly 50% in December 2009 and pure laziness...hehehe. Anyway, it's the new year and I thought I should start writing again. So, here I am again! :)

Reflecting on the past year, 2009 was not a bad year for me at all! For one, I am still kept employed in Hong Kong and then I made some major changes to my lifestyle. Started playing bowling on a regular basis and even joined a league which was fun. Upgraded my bowling balls from 10lbs to 14lbs and made it over 200 a couple of times. Then I got myself 2 teddy bear toy poodle puppies which I had wanted for 4 years since seeing them (the species, I mean) for the 1st time during my Taipei trip in 2005. Coffee and Cookie, have brought us so much fun in 2009 and I am sure they will bring us even more love and fun in 2010 and many more years to come.

We have also moved house...all the way into Lantau Island for bigger space and better air. And we bought a car, not just a normal car but a beetle cabriolet! Life is certainly making a better turn for us here in Hong Kong and I am ready to stay for as long as I am needed here. The only problem is the baby issue...to have one or not to have one? For many people, things like this will be best let nature takes its own course but for our case, we will have to go through the IVF process if we want to have one and this process is going to take a toll on us, especially me and it sucks...

Plans for the new year:

1. Complete at least 7 subjects for my MBA.

2. Move the family into the new apartment.

3. Visit San Francisco in April.

4. Extend my contract in Hong Kong for 1 year.

5. Make baby?

Weekend Update ~ Singapore

Other that I had a flight delay back to Singapore on the cheapo Jetstar plane last Wednesday night, I actually had a nice weekend long weekend back at home catching up with my friends and family. :)

On Thursday, we had lunch with hubby's mum and uncle at my favorite prawn noodle shop on Upper East Coast Road. Then we visited hubby's birth place and childhood home on Onan Road which was to be torn down to make way for some private apartments. It was really rundown and I could feel that hubby didn't like living in it at all. The stairs leading up to the apartment was to him the scariest part of the place when he was young.

We went to some dog farms at Pasir Ris with D in the afternoon. Saw some pretty cute puppies but somehow, none of them were comparable to my Coffee and Cookie. I loved the Golden Retriever puppies that I saw but we do not have the kind of house for them...too bad. I would really love to see how Coffee and Cookie will interact with a Golden Retriever. It will be such a funny sight to see a big Golden Retriever being chased by the tiny Toy Poodles. Imagining the scene is making me smile... :) We didn't buy any puppies but the best part of the trip to the dog farms was a chance-meeting with a Malaysian van with the best durians on sale. It was really tasty eating durian out in the open, the unique Singapore experience.

We had supper with some old colleagues on Thursday night at East Coast Lagoon. Had some very tasty local treats such as satay, tulang, fried oyster omelet, cockles, BBQ stingray, etc. It was such a feast!

On Friday, hubby had to fly back alone because of his classes on Saturday but we managed to squeeze in a lunch with his whole family. His elder brother whom we have not met for a long time came too and I could feel that hubby was more than happy. MIL was really happy too, almost forgetting that her younger son was leaving that afternoon...I thought she didn't even say goodbye to him...

After hubby left for Hong Kong, I met some of my good frineds from school on both Friday and Saturday over some very good food again. Laksa, durian desserts, frog porridge...Yummy! I also managed to window shop at Ion, the latest shopping mall in town. The building structure was kind of special, but I thought that it was not very shoppers friendly inside. It was easy to loose your way inside the mall.

Sunday morning was spent quietly at home with mum and son before the flight. D is so fascinated with the yo-yo at the moment, he can do so many tricks with his yo-yo that I felt a little impressed. Now, if only he can put as much dedication in his studies and piano practices... N was out on a study group with some of her classmates and probably showing off the handphone that I had bought for her the day before. She's in puppy love now and I hope she enjoys her youth as much as possible.