thinking of wishing an ex-colleague a happy birthday, and I unknowingly chose the old number.

me: "Happy belated bday p**!"
somebody out there: "Thanks."
somebody out there: "It's really late. Mine is in May."
somebody out there: "Btw, I'm not p**."
me: "Sorry! Have a nice day!"
somebody out there: "Hope it put a smile on ur face. U have a nice day too."

=))

Bought some cut chrysanthemums today, just because adding real flowers on dining table makes a world of difference.

the weekend in summary:
shopping at vivocity. sunset mass. changi coastal walk. dimsum breakfast. call from a friend sharing a good news. call from another friend informing he's in town.

Took half a day off today for visa application. What a bright sunny day to visit Botanic Gardens - we passed by on our way to the embassy. It's been a long time since I saw the nicely designed main entrance gate - back then there was still a food center in Taman Serasi :)

Counting down to holiday!

I'm sitting in a bus now, listening to Corrine May's song on my way back to office after an extended lunch hour at Parkway Parade. I think I should do this more often, it's definitely more refreshing than spending lunch hours in office.

After a seemingly endless work week, we started our weekend early by going to Orchard this Friday evening.

Our first stop was not planned. But upon exiting the lift we saw Sour Sally counter and immediately decided to try a cup. I was wondering how great their yoghurt actually tasted, as it's so popular in Jakarta. We chose medium-sized original and green tea flavour, with mochi and granola toppings. It's refreshing, as it's quite sour and not sweet at all, but I there's nothing outstanding that differentiate this brand with others.

Off we went to Tangs with one mission: spend the voucher. Finally decided to buy Cornell's pan grill with steamboat pot. The remaining value was used for spaghetti measurement tool and a water bottle. Mission accomplished!

Having additional family member means a myriad of adjustments. One question that everybody seemed to be asking was "who will take care of the baby?" The first few months were alright, as I was in maternity leave and both grandmas were more than willing to take turns to help babysit.

In the long run, our options are only limited to using infant care, hiring a nanny, and hiring a maid, if I want to continue working, that is. The 4-month long leave (the longest I've ever had during my stay in the workforce) made me decide that being a stay-at-home-mum is not my call. Being cooped up in the house for too long is not good for my sanity.

And so we began our quest to search for the maid.

We're fine with either Indonesian or Filipino ones. We contacted quite a number of agencies and all of them cited Hari Raya holiday as a reason why it's difficult to get Indonesian ones. So we interviewed some Filipino candidates. Only then, we were told that we needed to sign a contract with the embassy that the maid would be paid a minimum of SGD600. And a minimum of one day off. Even if the contract said otherwise. In other words, the maid could just sue us as and when she felt like it.

Filipino maids were crossed off the list. Left with Indonesian ones, we did some more rounds of interview. Most of them couldn't make it. We then decided to take a maid from an agency in Katong Mall and paid a reservation fee of $50. When we returned the next day, we asked the agency if she'd cleared her medical checkup. Only then, in a hush voice, they told us that the maid had "mild pregnancy" and should be fine after it's "cleared". Are you kidding me? Case closed, we canceled our reservation. Luckily we got our $50 back although we wasted a good few hours there.

An ex-colleague recommended a good agency in our neighborhood to me, so we went there. We took a transfer maid recommended to us as she fits the bill. We brought her home on 4th Sep, and she did quite well in house chores, although sometimes I needed to repeat my instructions.

After two weeks, she told me that her right wrist was swollen. According to her, during her last employment, a suitcase fell on her hand. It was already healed after some western and TCM medication, but now it suddenly swelled again. We took her to a 24-hour clinic as it was a Saturday. Spent $61. The doctor advised her to be back on Monday if it's still swollen.

On Monday, we're back to the clinic. The doctor made referral letter for A&E dept in TTSH. Off we went. Did registration, some waiting, payment, some waiting, x-ray, some waiting, consultation, some waiting, appointment booking. Spent another $90. Nothing wrong was found in the x-ray result. Some standard medications were prescribed, exactly like what's been given by the 24-hour clinic.

During this ordeal, she said that her hand was really painful, so she didn't work. She stayed in her room sleeping most of the time, if she's not out in the toilet or taking her food. It's worse than running a free hotel, I tell you.

We returned her to the agency the next day.

And now we are still in our quest to find the maid.

And I'm supposed to report back to work next Monday.

Took some time-out this evening after spending the past month being cooped up at home. We chose Clarke Quay since it was already late and other places might have closed. And Clarke Quay was so happening last night, with many activities going on. Bars and clubs were full to the brim with people watching world cup. I just noticed that now there are two extreme bungee rides near the river, the newer one is much more scary than the other.

Woke up extra early this morning to catch the sunrise from Changi Beach Park. It was quite cloudy so we only saw the orangish and purplish sky.. still pretty, though.

Had very heavy buffet lunch at Triple 3 restaurant, Mandarin Orchard Hotel. Told myself not to over-eat, but I still ate too much. Blame it to the variety of food, the almost non-existent topic for conversation and the super long lunch hour. For the price paid (50% off using certain credit card), the food was worth it.

Anyway, it was the first ever team lunch after 3.5 years with the company.

Today's agenda:
- Morning mass at SVDP
- Lunch at Ajisen Ramen Compasspoint
- Singapore Flyer ride (it's my first and I'm not sure I'll want to ride it again)
- Shopping at Marina Square (and did not remember to check out the brand new Parco Marina, what a wasted chance!)
- Changi Airport T3 & T1
- Potluck dinner at friends' place (otak-otak, meat pies, beef soup, fried noodles, salted egg prawns, french beans, honey chicken, fish head curry, sambal kangkong, ayam bumbu rujak, ice cream, fruits)

"inspired" by a friend (hi there! *wave*) who embarked on project 365, I decided to follow her footsteps and launch this new photolog of mine: silent encore. Hopefully I won't run out of ideas that soon and still have the mood to update this one regularly.

had a yummilicious weekend! went for ex-colleague's wedding lunch at grand copthorne waterfront hotel and then to 1st birthday party of friends' son. so I finished lunch at about 4pm, and had dinner at 6pm. loved the indonesian dinner menu - steamed rice with beef rendang, chicken curry, sambel goreng tahu tempe, tahu telor, ayam goreng kuning.. *drools*

we spent our sunday in orchard. it's been a long time since the last time I went there, and new shopping malls have been mushrooming like that's the only thing people need. mandarin gallery, 313 somerset, triple one somerset. I think I still can't find my own way navigating in ion orchard =p

had post wedding lunch treat from friends at waroeng 613, and then we walked all the way to ngee ann city. it's five days to christmas!

thank God the singing went smoothly for today's wedding, including for the beauty of the earth which was sung as march-in song, with the organ covering up some piano parts :p and now I can enjoy singing ave verum corpus as well, much better compared to the first time learning it - it was like a never-ending song then.


with that, I guess I concluded my singing contribution in friends' weddings.

can't believe it took me about 2 hours to reach St. Mary's from my office. terrible, terrible traffic jam. arrived there famished and in need of toilet visit.. :s


had our last choir practice before the big day this saturday. at first it just was not right. the balance, the blend, the dynamics, the tempo, the accompaniment, even the chords! lower the mics' sensitivity and you can hear close to nothing; make it more sensitive and you can hear all individual voices. sigh. the dilemma of St.Mary's sound system.


but after a few rounds, it gradually became better.. or so we thought, haha..

it's beginning to look A LOT like christmas.. a tropical christmas, that is. and with APEC 2009, all the more reason for the country to dress up even prettier.


at bugis junction:



at central:




at ION orchard:




after meeting a few friends for dimsum dinner at geylang lor 27, we purposely went to orchard road to enjoy the christmas light up. the more crowded the street, the better it was =p


the blue color theme from tanglin road..




was finally changed to gold at orchard road - scotts road junction..




tangs was bathed in gold..

today's lunch: steamed rice with beef rendang and sambel goreng
today's dinner: gemblong, risoles, pisang goreng, singkong goreng and kolak pisang


yum!

friday night's route:
office - bedok - budget terminal - home


saturday's route:
compass point - sentosa - vivo city - home


sunday's route:
church - buangkok - tampines 1 - home - budget terminal - home - east coast park - home - compass point - home - terminal 1 - home

we had lunch at NTU today! haha.. it was a suitable venue as we needed lunch in between choir practices, the earlier one was at SFA church and the later was at choa chu kang. six of us whizzed along the familiar roads, enjoying the greenery while making all kinds of nostalgic comments.


we were thinking of going to canteen A initially, as I wanted to pay a visit to north spine and see how it looks like now. but a quick check with the current students told us we better off looking for food at hall of residences, as today's sunday.


went to canteen 1 - it still looked exactly the same! maybe they did some repainting but that's all. the food didn't look appetizing. so we walked to canteen 2, which looked a little bit different. they are now called bus stop canteen, what a weird name. so we settled there with penang char kway teow, rice with diced chicken and chili, hor fun and roasted pork rice. had drinks and also snow ice for dessert. not bad.


maybe one day we'll pay another visit. I heard they now have sakae sushi and subway - on top of mcD.

bought this painting in old quarter, hanoi last august. promised myself to look for a suitable frame but the procrastinator in me kept postponing it.


finally yesterday I took its measurements, and this evening bought a square dark frame at ikea. had to cut away a few inches from the sides, and now it hangs nicely on the wall. mission accomplished :)