Just to backtrack a little bit here. I've moved to Hong Kong since my wedding last June and gotten an internal transfer to the office here as well. Still learning Cantonese, but at least I'm starting to understand it now.

My 3 luggages back from London was a whopping 44kg!!! Think I only went with 30kg? The counter guy waived up till 40 kg and wanted to charge me GBP32 for each of the extra 4kg. No way! Took some reference books and lens solution out and got it down to 40kg. I held on to one bag for claiming tax refunds after checking in the 40kg though. After that, I put the books back into that bag. (See, they have already weighed it just now with the other 2.) Had to chuck the lens solution though.

Talking about tax refund, I collected the 3 tax refund forms and kept it properly in my carry-on bag the night before, so that I wouldn't forget any. Or so I thought. Turns out I wrongly took a hotel bill envelope for one of the tax refund forms, and the luggage it was in was already checked in by the time I went to get the refund! That was GBP32 there! Damn, what a mess.

Anyway, it's nice to be home in Hong Kong, but it's not the same without YY here. He's back only next Friday.

Did I mention that my direct reporting manager is now a South Korean middle-aged lady, NK? (She then reports to our regional boss, JT.) Seems to get my heart boiling everytime I receive an email from her. Don't wish to dwell on the past though, I'm sure you will hear more about it if I were to keep updating the blog.

She offered to let me go to S.Korea for a training with the team there next week. I thought "Why not? YY won't be here, and I haven't been to Korea before." So, I'm off again next Tuesday till Friday.

Fiaks. My comments account (external) expired, and now all the old comments are lost.

Gosh, this site has really been neglected, hasn't it? It's been an amazingly busy year since the wedding, and here are some updates for those who are still visiting:

Married Life
Pure bliss. YY is a perfect husband, so perfect that I feel guilty for bullying him sometimes. :) I'm trying my best to be a good wife too, although it's still some way off the mark in terms of cooking, housework..... oh well.

He bought this huge bouquet of flowers on Valentine's Day and had it delivered to my office. I wasn't expecting it at all and it was such a wonderful surprise. My first V-Day bouquet! I was grinning like an idiot the whole day, and the other ladies in the office were 'hating' it.

Hong Kong
Settled in my tiny 688 sq ft apartment. Although I wish it's bigger, the location and the apartment building itself is ideal - convenient for food and transportation; by the sea which makes for romantic walks. Sleepaholic and friends became my first Singaporean friends to visit since I moved here. We played 2 overnight mahjongs in a row! That was fun, but it would have been MORE fun had I not lost. My parents had to sleep in the living room when they stayed over.

Experienced my first-ever winter as well. I went nuts buying an brand new winter wardrobe. YY said I've spent more on winter clothing in 2 months than he did in his entire life. Well, a gal needs enough coats and scarves and boots to match right? Too bad the winter doesn't seem to be lasting as long as it usually does (I was told so). Which was why I had to bring as much of these new clothes as I could to London where I can wear them. That's for later though.

Work
Busy, busy, busy after the promotion. Job scope is enlarged and I now have to cover China as well. Regional boss is also based in Hong Kong, so I've been able to learn a lot from him and obtain career advice.

Which brings me to where I am now. London. Our company's head quarters.

Been here for the past 3 weeks with a team of 5 comprising members from each region. The job here is unprecedented and we are piloting the process, which equates to ambiguity and high stress. High exposure, but equally high risk of heads on chopping boards if we fail. Team dynamics wasn't that great in the first week, but it has sort of settled into an acceptable status.

Bonus payment and increment is due this month, but I've not received confirmation of the amount yet. Waiting like an abalone on hot plate. I witnessed that when YY brought me to a Tepanyaki restaurant for my birthday dinner. Very yummy as well. I'm digressing.

Shopping
Bought a champagne gold Anterprima bag (his V-day present to me) last month. Been shopping like crazy this few weekends in London since I'm so bored without company. That was before a Malaysian colleague came over though. We might go to Bath tomorrow. Her boyfriend's here as well though, and they had plans to visit his boss. So, I went shopping again today and couldn't resist buying a Burberry bag - beige checks/ black patent handles. I shouldn't be blamed for this. Afterall, I'm in London! Where else better to get a Burberry? Not sure how I'm going to fit everything into my lugagge(s) though. Hope that it wouldn't exceed the weight limit. It would, but I'm hoping they would just keep quiet about it. None of that nonsense about charging US$50 (??) for a kg.

My second favourite activity - food. Been missing Singaporean food since I moved to Hong Kong. My Malaysian colleague introduced me to this Singaporean/ Malaysian restaurant the other day. I went back there again today for both lunch and dinner. Paid 10 times the price I would have in Singapore, but it was worth it to settle the cravings. Of course, it's on company accounts....

Cheerios.

I desperately need some retail therapy AND I really NEED more new clothes and shoes and bags and accessories!!!

It's supposed to be a joyous occasion, but it's causing so much conflicts and stress. On top of that, I have to squeeze all the planning and appointments into the limited amount of time I have in Singapore. Cost involved is exorbitant and I'm already bursting the budget. Everybody has comments and criticisms, but not much help is offered. I should have just eloped.

Because my Taiwan tourist visa is only valid for 30 days, my boss has kindly agreed to let me pop by to Hong Kong for a weekend, so tata, here I am now. I have just witnessed a spectacular display of fireworks in Tsim Sha Tsui with YY. I would like to think that it's solely for my sake, but truth is, it's in celebration of China's National Day. Mixture of exploding flowers and stars and the myriad of colours. Splendid!

Back to Taipei tomorrow night.....maybe the typhoon due there will delay my flight and keep me in Hong Kong for another night *fingers crossed*.

My amateur attempts to capture the brilliance of my wedding rings. I'm still not that satisfied with it though, the photos I mean. The rings, I'm extremely over the moon with.

My Engagement Ring



My Engagement Ring & Wedding Band



Our Wedding Bands


These are in antique settings and mine's an eternity band. They are also engraved with each other's Chinese and English names.

Ooooo.....I like this condo - Carribbean at Keppel Bay, 'the pulse of waterfront living'.

Life's great at the moment - Love, family and friends. Not perfect, but great. I don't think I can ever describe life as perfect, I'm too greedy for that. Near-perfection would be if I do not have to be apart from YY still. He just makes me so happy . I'm contented.

Hmmm, my last entry was in April, which means I've taken a break of 4 months. What's happened in these last 4 months? Well, I have almost 90% of my wedding preparations done. I started my new job which is the best one I have to-date, partially explaining my long break from blogging....simply because the work is all-consuming. I have gone to Hong Kong for a 5 weeks assignment. YES, you can imagine how great it was to be with YY for an entire month! I have collected more 'chops' in my passport in this year than I have in the past 5 years and I'm working towards getting a Krisflyer Silver Card.

OK, I'm probably rambling but I'm just spewing out whatever comes to mind at the moment.

Hong Kong....pros and cons to the place. I love the bustling city but there are times when the crowd (and I seriously mean CROWD, even at midnight) gets irritating. Food's great - dim sum, steamed milk pudding, roast goose, chee fan, Japanese restaurants everywhere blah blah blah, but I also miss my fried bee hoon, carrot cake etc. Plus, the amount I spend on each meal is equivalent to an extravagant dinner in Singapore.

I took a weekend trip to Macau while in Hong Kong. 2 things stood out in my mind, the French Restaurant recommended by YY's 9th uncle and the traditional Portuguese egg tart we had to specially take a bus ride to buy.....YUMMMMMY~~~

YY and I took time off to attend a wedding expo and booked our HK venue decoration and our Chinese wedding outfits, mine a red Kua with gold/ silver threads in dragon/ phonenix design, and his....not sure what to call it but it comes with a chinesy cap and red ball in front. 3 styles were tried out during my trial makeup and I loved the 2nd hairstyle. Don't really care for the other 2 though. Anyway, I confirmed Rainbow because I liked her makeup style.

We also bought our wedding bands from Larry Jewelry where the engagement ring was purchased. Mine's a gorgeous eternity band and his is a matching plain platinum band. I keep taking it out and trying it on, can't wait to be able to wear it after our wedding day! This is a similar picture I got off the internet since my photo-taking skills can't quite do justice to the rings.

Sleepaholic and Alcoholic were in town for holiday, on separate occasions and it's amazing how we make more effort to meet up while overseas, as opposed to Singapore. Anyway, YY and I accompanied Sleepaholic to Shenzhen and The Peak, which wasn't as weird as I thought it might turn out to be, considering that they are meeting for the first time.

Of course, I met YY's family over the 5 weeks while I was there, for dinners and visiting their homes. In fact, I extended my trip after the job was done and stayed over at YY's house for a few days. Always a bit awkward in the beginning but it got better...hehe.

Just over the last weekend, I visited YY in Bangkok where he is on a job assignment. Super hot and dusty, plus my body wasn't feeling too great the first 2 days. We just hid in spas (highly recommend Let's Relax and Wasikan) during the afternoons. Ventured into Vertigo, top of Banyan Tree Bangkok, for dinner on Saturday night. The view was great (but not as great as Hong Kong's night view, I think) and the food was ridiculously expensive. We really enjoyed and savored the lamb though, too bad the steak was a bit disappointing.

One un-welcomed side effect of these travels and good food is my weight, which has been shooting up. NOT GOOD, since I'm a bride-to-be and my diet plans had never worked out too well. Just kick-started my body today with a session in the office gym. Seriously deteriorated, I can only run for 20 min.

That's it for now. I'm off to Taiwan again next Sunday for another job assignment.

Dear friends, sorry I have been so busy there are no updates lately. To summarise:

My first trip to Hong Kong was wonderful. I loved the place. YY proposed my first night there and we went shopping for a diamond ring the following day!!!

Now I'm so busy planning for the wedding to be held in June 2006 (solemnization plus lunch for immediate relatives in Singapore followed by wedding dinner in Hong Kong). I'm completely swamped. Hope to at least settle on the major items like bridal shop and venues before I start work in May, after which I won't have so much time on my hands to research the net the whole day.

Fellow shopaholics, a wedding is the biggest shopping spree you can have, what with the wedding gowns, wedding dinner, makeup artistes, photography, videography etc.

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don't believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof). Agnosticism is a philosophy that God's existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe. agnosticism 96% atheism 67% Satanism 67% Buddhism 50% Islam 50% Judaism 46% Paganism 38% Christianity 25% Hinduism 4% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

S***! I knew it was too good to be true! Fotopages is going to start charging for its services and free accounts will no longer enjoy the unlimited storage space we are using now. Boohoohoo , I have to start searching for another similiar service soon. How the hell am I going to migrate all the pictures I linked previously?!

The general plan for this 1.5 months:
a) Wake up at the normal time 7am and chit chat with YY (we use webcam and internet telephony) until 8am when he leaves for work.
b) Go downstairs and jog for an hour.
c) Shower, rest and have brunch.
d) Go for my leftover slimming sessions (not very effective), facials, free massages that can only be utilised during work hours etc.

I just got back from Step b). Amazingly, despite having stayed in this estate for nearly 15 years, I discovered a part of it I never knew about. There is a jogging/ cycling track, which I can start at from below my block, circling the outskirts of the estate covering about 3-4km (I'm guessing, since they stopped the indicators at 1.5km).

The sides of the track are lined with colorful flowers and trees which provide plenty of shade. Exercise stations sprout up every other while. I chosed to go jogging during 8am because it's still relatively cool (as cool as it can possibly get in our climate!) and slight breeze kiss my face occasionally.

Although I attempted to jog, I was out of breadth even before 5 min! It's 10 times more difficult to run outside than it is in the gym. I ended up walking most of the 5km (to the end and back) and compensated by climbing up 17 floors of stairs to my house.

One thing I noticed, dog poo! I wish those dog owners would be more considerate and pick up after their own dogs. Yucks! Otherwise, it's a very pleasant way to start the day. I might even stick to the plan afterall.

P.S: I have a craving for MacDonald's pancakes after reading Nic-aholic's blog. Contemplating whether to indulge now......

Yesterday was my last day. I will start my job (in Co.B) in May and it's in a ulu area which is relatively near my home. (Co.A couldn't match my expected salary.)

As I walked along the revamped Raffles Place Exchange tunnel to the MRT station, I felt a sense of loss. I've been working in this area ever since I graduated. It was a vibrant place, teeming with people all dressed to impress. Lunchtime is full of possibilities. I can eat at the hawker centres, food courts, small cafes or restaurants. If I don't feel like eating, I can shop in the area or hop onto the train to Orchard Rd. Errands can easily be settled as there is such a wide range of shops and services within a stone's throw, from banks, stationery stores, CD shops etc. I can meet my friends in town after work for dinner.

No more of these in the new place.

It also hit me when I woke up this morning at 7am. I will never sit at my cubicle in our nice, big and posh office again, chit chatting with Su whom I face. My work station looked bare after I was done stripping it of my postcards and packing my belongings yesterday.

Yes, there are many 'push factors' for me to leave this company. That's not to say I won't miss working here. Afterall, I've been here for 2.5 years.

However, no point in dwelling on these things anymore. The new company can offer me higher pay and more in terms of training and development. There will be plenty of travelling opportunities. So, I'm moving on.....