if only everything is as easy as gaining pounds

and so, all it took is just 1 month of feasting without care to gain that 2+kg! and it took me almost 4 months of excruciating watching of calories before I lost the same 2kgs late last year. what the....!!
but to go back time and say no to those bah kwas, pineapple tarts, prawn rolls, prawn crackers, kueh lapis.. I cant do it. :P

ok, back to watching what im eating again and have to get the brisk walk routine up and going once more...

anyway, met up with hubbi's friends for dinner and lo hei @ uncle leong seafood place last sunday. the crab was quite good though nothing fantastic. now im craving for a chilli crab dinner where I can have the whole crab by myself! *slurp*

some photos from that night:

I will be meeting up with my own friends for CNY this coming weekend - yeah! cant wait for that.

some outfits for these 2 weeks:

left: dress from zara

middle: pullover from seoul, jeans from 7forallmankind

right: top from bimba&lola, cropped pants from zara

紅樓夢What Is Sex?

caught this performance at esplanade theatres yesterday with the husband. though not an easy performance to understand, I found myself enjoying certain segments. rather thought provoking in fact. of cos as I was sharing with hubbi, Im not sure if im interpreting it the way the director meant it to be but I guess that's the beauty of art. it's really up to the individual to perceive and build the relationship with the subject. while I had briefly read before the "Dream of the red chamber" years ago, I cant recall most of the details. which is a good thing as the director juxtaposed lines from the book with visual scenes that may or may not support those lines intuitively. so I was really "seeing" the old scenes in new ways. in fact, some of the scenes which I recall from the book, I re-interpreted them in new ways that I have never thought of. which is rather impressive. but truth be told, it was not an easy performance at all. it raised more questions than giving answers.

normally, I was drawn to the "villain" of most books/shows especially if I deem them to be most reflective of human nature. but from the past till now, I just find it so hard to even reconcile with the "villain" 王熙凤's actions. not to mention liking her. or is that a case of her being too similar and i have no confidence of rising above her? hmm..

i must recommend the 主題曲《似曾》 of this show. i find the tune gives the feeling of us having no control over the vicissitudes of life. and the lyrics were brilliantly written by the director. and make you think about the difference between 緣分 and 注定.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snz9zzBr8OE&feature=player_embedded

似曾／韋禮安　《紅樓夢What is Sex?》主題曲
詞／林奕華
曲／陳建騏

有些人
匆匆一面
再也不見
如同每一天中的每一天
任隨掠影在浮光中
擱淺

沒有針 只有線
有些心事
來了又去
任隨亂想在胡思中
亂剪 亂剪

有些人
久久不見
卻在眼前
如同那一天就是這一天
且讓未來在過去中
纏綿

只有風 沒有月
有些思念
去了又來
就讓蜃樓在海市中
實現 實現

似曾相惜
未曾相遇
似曾相知
未曾相識

我 為何只能是你夢中的人?
我 為何只能叫你把假當真? 當真

未曾真箇
似曾銷魂
未曾意會
似曾動心

你 為何只能是我夢中的人?
你 為何只能叫我把假當真? 當真

有些人
漫漫一日
轉瞬平生
如同某一天錯過某一天
空教天長在地久中
化煙

好比參 好比商
有些星宿
來來往往
撮合隻影在形單中
團圓

有些夢和有些夢
有些人和有些人

CNY day 1

same old same old. visited in-laws house in the afternoon then it's to my first uncle's house where all my extended family from my mum's side came together!

 

GOAT xi fa cai!

may you and your loved ones be blessed with health & happiness in the new lunar year!!

 

 

family shots before heading out!

happy us!

 

we reached home in the early evening and now both boys are asleep while the husband are out meeting his peeps!

i will laze abit before turning in early. no more house visiting for us for the rest of the week which aint a bad thing. always good to laze at home to re-energize ourselves for the new week!

CNY Eve - 2015



finally, CNY is here! today was an extremely short day at work. I let the team go off at 12 and I scooted off shortly after that too.

picked up the boys and off we went to vivo!

we had a hearty lunch while waiting for hubbi to join us.

 

shots with my baobeis!

they insisted on the xmas stickies.. @_@

 

done a spot of shopping and I bought superdry tees for both the husband and myself. surprisingly, I find the cutting of their tees pretty flattering for me. good buy!

 

anyway, I was just at vivo yesterday - came here with my colls to catch 50 shades!! LOL. but sadly, as with most reviews & feedback, the show is a let-down comparing to the book and I found myself getting bored in the second half.

the reel mr grey is not near to the grey in my mind... :(

oh well, hopefully this film will revive such genre in the R21 space. hehehehe.

 

we left vivo for my big uncle's house to have reunion dinner with my parents & extended family. this year, the numbers dwindled further....

only 11 of us.. a far cry from the 20+ in the past...

 

anyway, obviously I like my new gg5 skirt a lot to wear it thrice in 2 weeks! :D

here goes: 

left: with zara top

middle & right: with forever new tops

12.02.2002 - 13 years together and still holding hands

last Thursday marked our 13 years anniversary together as a couple. :)

but this year, both of us were so busy that we can hardly find a common time slot to take leave together. :(

finally, we made time to have a nice dinner tonight after work. :D

of cos, elaborated plans were made so the kids were in my mum's safe hands for a FEW  hours in the evening. haha.

 

as usual, always eager to try out new restaurants for such occasions, we went restaurant ember based on recommendation by.... who else but gb!

and true to the recommendation, the food was awesome! ember was located within hotel 1929. simple décor but in general exudes a clean, quiet ambience. both of us were impressed with the quality of the food and it's a + given that the husband was really a picky eater. but bluntly put, not a fan of fine dining.

 

what im impressed with is really the fact that from starters till desserts, each of them were really yum. their starters were especially good.

bill for both of us came up to around ~$160 without wine which I thought is pretty decent.

 

yumyum

 

i know taking things for granted is almost like my second nature. I know he is still willing to continue this journey with me though he does not explicitly said so. I know that if I can turn back time and given the choice again, the choice will still be him.

 

and that is enough for now. until the next anniversary. or until the next blow up over housework.. :P

#4 lo hei @ wah lok

today, we had reunion lunch with my in-laws at wah lok. im glad we went here instead of some random hotel buffet. its still the nicest to have chinese food for reunion meals, no?

food aint bad but somehow i feel the standard is not as good as before?

 

after lunch, we made our way to suntec city to visit the lego store there which was disappointingly small. :(

still, a good stroll there given the super light human traffic..

 

weekend is ending in a flash as usual. the good thing is coming week is an extremely short one. :)

don't you feel 2015 passes faster than 2014? I think that.

 

silly shots taken with the elder son who can be too stuck-up for such antics at times now:

where has the time gone?

this week has been hectic at work - sometimes I feel like all I'm doing is just going from 1 meeting to another! @_@
so glad that the week is over.
yesterday, did #3 lo hei for this CNY with the marketing team in SG. always good to toss yu sheng during CNY! :)
and after work, a group of us left for jasmine's housewarming gathering at her place. as usual, after a few drinks, the same old topics surfaced again.. LOL.it's always the same conversations with this bunch. :P
good evening & night spent with the colls!

today is Vday! but as with most years, the husband and I did not celebrate this occasion. so same for today, we just hang out with the boys like any normal Saturday.
we made our way to taka today to collect the remaining CNY goodies that I ordered and we enjoyed the time spent at kino & lego shop here. I was so intrigued by some of the books I browsed there that I made further purchases at bookdepository once I'm home!
now I have 7 books in all pending delivery! cant wait for them to arrive. :D

the momentum started when I bought a book from popular last week and now the "engine" has started again. im ready to breathe books for a change from k-dramas. :P

eating too well again

training the tummy to eat well again in preparation of CNY this week!

met up with gb & jt on thursday for a super hearty yummy dinner @ a Sichuan restaurant at mosque street.

think we finished like 5 dishes between the 3 of us. over-ordering is the protocol for this group.

finished dinner pretty early so we decided to take a stroll around chinatown area for to soak in the CNY mood.

soaked in it we did indeed, together with sweat in the humidity and throngs of people!!

it was an idea that started out great then slowly unraveled to "let's get out of here asap"! LOL.

 

@ Chinatown!

 

after that, we drove to old habits café @ telok blangah for tea and desserts. it's amazing to hang out with these 2 who will go the distance for food. :P



interesting vintage themed café - their ice creams are pretty decent esp. the brownies & cream flavor

 

happy times spent chatting then its time to head home - it's just a normal working weekday afterall....

another protocol - we drive ourselves home.

so I drove myself home in gb's car before passing the baton back to them LOL.

 

yesterday, the good eating continues.

we had finance departmental lunch at paradise pavilion - all 12 tables! $888 per table just like a normal wedding dinner foodfare! *burp*

super sleepy when we were back in office at 2+pm.

 

and imagine, the very same evening, hubbi and I headed out to grand shanghai @ corpthorne hotel for wedding dinner. *super burp*

by the time i reached home yesterday, all the rich food is making me sick to be honest.

at the wedding dinner, I actually stopped eating after the 4th dish..it's just too much!

 

today, I look forward to recuperating my tummy abit by snacking on my..... CNY goodies!

ha equally bad. my first tin of melt-in-your-mouth bakeinc pineapple tarts is finishing soon and i just bought it last weekend. *tsk*

good thing im going to collect 2 more tins from taka fair mid next week. hiaks.

just have to accept the extra kilos that come with each CNY!

new role + 360

and so it has been confirmed - contract signed yesterday and announcement made today.
I will be starting my new role end this week. not much changes - still in the same functional team, going back to my old team though majority of the team members are new and reporting to the same boss.
but on the other side, new changes ahead too. for a start, back to month-end closing for me after sitting out of that for the last 7 months!
and going forward, I need to rely on and continue to hone specific skill sets that are more relevant in this new role. hopefully, my natural disposition of being positive and apt ability to build meaningful relationships will help me greatly in this space. one great tip from a manager is that one of the most key thing to constantly remind myself is now, it's no longer just me doing the work but I've to master the art of doing work through others. an art indeed especially I'm someone who is action-oriented and mostly accustomed to doing work at my pace.

we shall see how it goes but im positive as usual. as with all challenges facing us, an open mind and positive mindset will definitely make a difference.
no matter where and how I emerge later from this stint, im sure there will be growth. and I hold the key in ensuring that happens. so at times, if you are the very one closing the door in your mind, then don't get too uptight or surprised when you realize the light at the end of the tunnel is from an approaching train!

received my 360 report 1 week back as well and done a follow-up session with an external consultant. it was really interesting to find out how others perceive me in action at work. essentially, there are 4 groups of respondents chosen by me - 2-up managers, peers, internal stakeholders (1-up managers whom I don't report to and not necessarily from finance), team members of a project im leading - 15 in total.
the great thing that comes out of the report was the gap between how I perceive myself (I need to do the survey on myself too) and how others perceive me is not significant by any stretch for all areas. it shows that my self-awareness is intact and not haywire. *relieved*
generally, the report reveals top strengths of mine to be someone strong in execution & prioritization and definitely a people-person. nothing too surprising here. top areas of development are on conflict resolution and taking risks and be more innovative in learning. this is the interesting bit.

for someone who is non-confrontational and greatest fear lies in not being liked by others, I admit that there is nary a meltdown/blow-up at work with others for me. but I can be assertive and push back stuff that I don't agree with. but again, that only comes out after I deploy all the influencing/negotiation skills I have. so per my discussion with my 2-up managers and the external consultant, either I'm very lucky to never meet anyone that difficult before or I've always manage to resolve the conflict before it  even escalates to a "conflict" definition stage. my scores aint high in this area in the survey partly due to a handful of respondents rating NA or not as high score for me simply because they commented no opportunity to see me in action for this area.

on the bit on innovation, consensus with my boss/consultant is that that can only be drawn upon experience/exposure. but reading related materials can be a good start. for someone who is pretty good at taking risks, I was a tad surprised at how people see me not so good at it in learning. but as I understand better, im good at taking calculated  risks in areas that I know well or where I can trust others but perhaps it's the way finance peeps/I'm wired, taking the plunge in new areas can be really a leap of faith at times. and one that I find it hard to take the first step out. good thing is, innovation though largely hereditary can be trained (or so it is accordingly to my boss who read a great deal of such self-improvement books.

and the other interesting revealing bit from the 360 is that the peers & team members of the project im leading (also my peers from other teams) groups rated me consistently lower than the other 2 respondents groups. so there is this interesting and insightful (?) discussion with some on why is this so. hmm..

all in all, a good exercise. I need time to reflect on the discussion points I had with the consultant and hopefully I can formulate some acion items that are sustainable and measurable for the next 6-12months.

it will be sometime before I have the luxury to do a similar exercise - not exactly cheap and only relevant at certain stages of worklife. having said so, no one is stopping you or me to do informal catch-up with others to receive feedback from time to time!

heavenly sunday

i have the afternoon off again today! while the husband brought the boys to my in-laws house for lunch, I spent time in town shopping! :P thanks to dear hubbi.

CNY is just round the corner so on my to-buy list were CNY clothings and goodies! I didn't waste the 3 hours in town.. managed to get:
- a top from bimba & lola
- a shirt & dress from zara
- a pair of Melissa
- CNY goodies (cheese pineapple, kueh lapis, prawn sticks/rolls etc) from taka fair

yeah!

and once home, I rummaged through the wardrobe & shoe cabinet for stuff that I didn't wear for at least the past (half) year and I managed to pack away 2 pairs of shoes (almost mint new) + 10+ clothings to give away and threw away another 2 pairs of shoes. I just have to keep my # of shoes below 50......

now im definitely feeling less guilty.

and no more shopping for moi until my next trip!