the incomplete blog entries...

as year 2008 is ending soon, i realised my blog entries for 2008 r incomplete. yeah~ i din update anything on my 19-Days Graduation trip to the Southern, Central and Northern of Australia & my 1-week travel to Cairns, the last Aussie city on my list of travel. i already gathered all the lovely photos to be posted. hopefully i am diligent enough to post everything up before the end of year 2008. heehee...

post Xmas Celebration with Spice Buddies

yummy~ yummy~ it was a lovely cum fulfilling buffet dinner @ Carousel located at Royal Plaza on Scotts. there were quite a good variety of food ranging from chinese dishes such as dim sum to italian pasta to roasted meat such as turkey & primb ribs to seafood to japanese sushi to desserts & fondue. the overall dining ambience and service level were generally acceptable, as wat i had expected after seeing the recommendation from the channel 8 TV show. personally, i like the italian pasta & desserts very much.

anyway, tis post xmas celebration had been planned abt 1 mth ago. i am glad tat all of us were able to attend. it had been quite a while since i last went out with the Spice Buddies & i had been missing out in the xmas celebration with my spice buddies for the past 2 years. tis xmas celebration is actually quite special and memorable for me. i really look forward to tis celebration gathering cum xmas gift exchange. & i muz really say tat we all had made great effort in choosing presents for one another. all along our gift exchange had been pre-arranged as in we had a specific target to buy the xmas pressie for. so in this way, the xmas pressie will be personalised for the particular person. tis yr, all of us really made an effort in personalising the pressie. great job, buddies~!!!


i not only had a good dinner, but also had a good laugh on all the jokes we talked abt over dinner. we can simply joke and laugh on anything and everything under the sun. jokes tat had been cracked years ago could still be in topic during every gathering. happenings tat had occured years ago can also be talked abt whenever we meet up. haha... i guess we will nv get sianz in talking abt all these history & it seems tat this kind of memories recall once in a while is rather useful and heart warming. in general, xmas is a season of blessings, joy, laughter and warmth. i am glad tat i have all these with me for tis xmas with my wonderful spice buddies around. :D

we r together as Spice buddies for almost 12 years & definitely more years to go!

here r some photos taken for the night:

@ Carousel...

cutlery set... quite nicely placed but take up quite a bit of space on the table la... hahaha...

after the appetizer, before the actual feast starts...

woohoo~ here we go! wooo... jun was enjoying his delicious Carbonara pasta... yummy leh~

when we were almost done with dinner, we had our gift exchange. it was a pretty funny scene when everyone took out the presents of all sizes and colours. although it was a pre-arranged gift exchange, there were still excitement as to wat kind of presents to be expected.

satisfied after getting the pressies... heehee...

i received a Sephora eyes shadow set & a personalised luggage tag with my name from Jasmin. i loved my pressies very much! thank u very much, jas~!!! muackzzzz

Poh Lian's pressie was from ME! it was a scrapbook photo album (details of the album will be stated at the end of tis entry). Lian, i hope u will like this pressie~

Jas' pressie was from Jun & it was skincare products from Crabtree & Evelyn. our comment for jun's pressie was tat he really made an effort to change and upgraded from Bodyshop to Crabtree & Evelyn. haha...

awww... Lin surely noes how to choose a pressie for Jun ah. hahaha... so Jun, do rem to inform us if u r wearing it the next time, k? hahaha...

Lin's pressie was from Lian. it was a personalise calendar with our photos printed on every month. on top of tat, Lian noted down all our birthdays on the calendar to remind Lin abt it. how sweet and nice of Lian ah... we were all very surprised by Lian's pressie as we never expected her to actually handmake the pressie. we were even quite reluctant to receive her pressie after the various negative comments and revied abt the present stated by herself. but in the end, she surprised all of us. hahaha... great work, Lian! i'm pretty sure Lin will make good use of the calendar. heehee... *no photos of Lin & her present. paiseh ah..*

i like tis photo very much... cos all of us look good! hee...

jun & I.. do we look like mother & son? haha...

Lian & I... ewww... a bit too close-up taken ah...

Jas & I.. hmm.. jas looks a bit tired sia... she had been busy with work. hope her peak period will soon be over and she can rest well ah...

candid shot of me and Lin...

after dinner, we had a walk along Orchard Road as i wanted to take some photos of the Xmas lightings. i dun really like tis yr's theme as i tink all the lightings look kinda weird. hopefully next yr will be better...

Details of the present which i gave to Poh Lian. is a scrapbook photo album which took me almost 2 days to finish up. is true tat i am quite free now so i had time to handmake the pressie. but even if i have limited time, i guess i will still wanna handmake the pressie. i juz like the satisfaction after i finish making the pressie. & i am always eager to look at pple's expression upon receiving my handmade pressie. :)

the cover page which was not planned to be done initially. it was a last min add-on as i felt tat the pink album cover will look rather plain without any decor.

1st page with the receiver's name...

photo of the receiver~

tis photo album served as a journey down the memory lane of the friendship among us, the Spice Buddies~

hahaha... the most classic photo~ when we were 16 years old, the nerdy looks!

when we were in our teens...

bday celebrations, chalet gathering, farewell gathering...

photos of recent years...

collage of photos.. signing off wishes from ME~

hmm... Jun said tat since i made one for Lian, i muz do one for each of them. well, if i have the time, i will do one for each of u but u guys have to wait for next few xmas. hahaha...

~Merry Christmas~

~MERRY CHRISTMAS~

last yr i spent my Xmas in Australia. it was a simple celebration at home with Phil and Felicia with our home cooked food. this yr, i spent my Xmas eve and countdown @ Reagan's house. BBQ session cum Fondue indulgence. thanks to Reagan for being a good host in hosting all of us together with the workers from his company. there were lots of fun, laughter and enjoyment, especially when we were on the game of "Werewolf". it was my 2nd time playing this game. previously, my sis-in-law gave me the game as a pressie when i went to Australia for studies. & there was once when there were quite a number of friends gathered @ my house in Australia, so i took out the game and tat was my 1st time playing the game. it was quite fun as there were lots of argument going around. as for my 2nd time playing this game, it was a total different encounter. my brother and his frens had been playing this game for quite a long while, so they are considered as "old birds" in this game. last nite, during the game, they introduced many different characters so i got a bit confusing but it was really funny. so much argument going around. i am kinda addicted to the game as it was like a mind game. it is like a test to see how good one can act and deceive pple as well as a chance to train one in their observation skills. hahaha... 2/4 pple, maybe we can try to play the game during our CNY gathering @ Miss Lock's house. i tink it shld quite fun with so many of us. hahaha...

during the BBQ, my brother suddenly got the idea to lay out the food as if it was a face. does this layout look like a face to u? with eyes, eyebrows, ears, nose and a big wide mouth! :D

Fondue indulgence... yummy~ my favourite sia... but i tink it is really heaty ah. i can feel the after effect now..

side track: on tuesday, i was walking to YCK MRT after my driving lesson & i saw the lovely blue sky. i was attracted to the clear blue sky. it reminded me of Aussie's clear blue sky. so straightaway when i reached the MRT platform, i took out my hp to snap a pic of the lovely sky. however, due to the resolution of my hp, the colour was not as clear as wat i saw.

do the clouds resemeble big cotton candy? hahaha... well, for such lovely clear blue sky, there is a price to pay. the weather for tat particular day was extremely hot and humid. haiz.. y can't we have a cooling day with clear blue sky leh?

~Christmas gathering with 2/4 gals~

It is Christmas Eve today & it is a pretty wet day. it had been raining since last nite. hopefully the festive mood is not dampened by the wet weather. & hereby wishing everyone "Merry Christmas! have a lovely Xmas filled with joy, laughter and happiness~!!!"

yesterday i had a simple yet heart warming xmas celebration with the 2/4 gals. it was a celebration filled with laughter, fun and enjoyment. haha... of cos, not forgetting our usual practice of taking photos.. lots of photos with so many cameras! hahaha... there were 10 of us and it was a pretty good attendance. :) Yiling had to leave early to get back to work so she was not the group photo. poor girl had to get back to the hospital to standby for calls.

9 of us taking a group photo after the gift exchange.

basically the agenda for the nite was dinner @ Waraku @ the Hereen. as pple were late (i was one of the late comer, paiseh sia) so our dinner only started at abt 730pm. although we reserve a table for 10, our attendance during dinner was not FULL. haha.. kinda paiseh to hold up so many seats. there was a grp of pple nearby to us who shld be celebrating Xmas as well. they had such a large grp of pple and they had to occupy 2 rows of tables to accommodate all of them. as compared, our "zhen rong" seems smaller. haha... but tat did not mean we will have less laughter. we still had great fun, cracking jokes abt everything and anything, especially when our food were served, we had a good laugh over the size of the bowls.

close-up comparison of the bowl size. really 小巫见大巫... haha...

within the mega bowl... chey~ tat much of food only..

morale of story: dun be deceived by the exterior look, thinking tat there will be a big portion within the mega bowl. haha... in fact, there were lots of inconvenience with such mega bowl. shuwei had a hard time scooping up the udon and i tink at the end of the meal, her hands shld be aching. haha.. Yiling suggested tat such mega bowls were used as prevention for spladdering of the sauce while pple are eating the udon. the height of the mega bowl is juz nice to cover up. hmm.. if tat is really the use, is acually quite useful la but still, the mega bowl is a bit too big la. whahaha...

i tink tis size of bowl looks much better. at least more "user friendly"

after dinner, we made our way to Peranakan for a drink, chill out and for the gift exchange. while waiting for Shiying and Meibin to arrive, we decided to start our photo taking session. whahaha... at tat very moment, ALL cameras appeared. there were like 5 cameras flashing here and there. instead of reacting to Yiling's request to chit chat, we were busy taking photos. hahaha... she got kinda pek chek. paiseh la, Yiling.. there are always other opportunities to meet up and catch up and we will definitely allocate time for chit chatting and photo taking for our next gathering, k? hee hee...

when Shiying & Meibin finally reached, we had our gift exchange. instead of the usual drawing lots practice, we improvised with some different ideas. after much discussion, we finally decided on a method of something like "guess who" for the gift exchange. basically the person will do a lucky pick from the pile of folded papers written with our names and after which, she will need to ask some "yes or no" questions abt the person whose name is on the piece of folded paper and there is a time limit of 1 min. the rest of us will answer these questions accordingly and before time is up, the person need to guess the name on the folded paper correctly so tat she will be able to take the respective present brought along by the person. haha... sounds easy but it was not as easy as it seems to be when more rules were added along the way. the sequence of the game was according to our birth months. half way thru the gift exchange, we realised it was not challenging at all. so in addition to the initial rule of not asking any questions abt the person's attire for the night, we were not able to ask anything abt the person's general appearance, occupation & any questions within the same category. whahaha... i tink it was kinda tough but there were lots of fun and laughter. heehee... luckily i was among the 1st few to pick the present. so all i did was to try to add on more rules to make it difficult for the rest and at the same i tried to make them gan chiong with the countdown of time. whahaha... at the end of the whole exchange session, Shupei and Shuwei did not manage to guess the name correctly within the expected time frame so had to wait to pick up any remaining presents. of cos, everyone still get a present eventually. tis "guess who" game is juz for fun and laughter, juz to spice up the gift exchange. i guess it did work to a certain extend with everyone's active participation in giving some correct answers and some misleading and ambigious ones. hahaha... i am certainly looking forward to the gift exchange next yr with fresh and new ideas. & of cos i am definitely looking forward to meeting up with the gals for bday celebration next yr. hmmm... is gonna be our mid 20s bday celebration ah... how times flies sia...

display of all the presents... different shapes, sizes...

look who's eyeing in the presents even before the gift exchange starts... naughty ah...

after the challenging "guess who" game, finally we got our presents! woohoo~!!!

here's our presents... woooo...

"open, sesame!" let's see wat is hidden within the wrapper..

yeah~!!! Poh Lian's present was from me (peel-off & wash-off masks from Faceshop), Stella's present was from Wen Hui (Reebok's shop bag) & Wen Hui received a present from Poh Lian (Takashimaya voucher..)

check out on the other end of the table... Meibin's present was from Shupei (a notebook with a shiny cover) and Shiying's present was from Meibin (shower and body lotion from Crabtree & Evelyn)

Shupei's present was from Shuwei (jewellery box) while my present was from Yiling (silver accessories belt)

Jenny's present was from Shiying (shower and body lotion from Crabtree & Evelyn) & Shuwei's present was from Jenny (Cream & lotion from Bodyshop)

everyone went home happily with all the lovely gifts. i think all our gifts r very useful, thoughtful and meaningful. great choice of gifts, gals~!!!

before i end the entry, juz to share some artistic pics of the drinks and food we had at the bar... do all these pics look like those pics in advertisement? heehee...

last but not least,

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!!!