Back from BKK, a lighter me

As we left for BKK (I only take a few photos)

See SP's blog for more photos...

I' m back!

Safe and sound!

And....3 Kg lighter! ( I m making some progress in my new yr resolution of losing 8 kg!)

Of coz, I m not talking about the weight of my luggage..

All becoz of the plate of chicken rice I ate the day before we left for BKK....

Till now, I m not sure what was wrong with my stomach...stomach flu? or food poisoning?


Before boarding at budget terminal

Anyway, I set off to BKK with an upset stomach and throughout the trip, I suffered severe diarrhoea*..

*the urgent and almost immediate need to go to the ladies almost every few hours.



Lucky for me, we spent the bulk of our shopping time in air-con shopping malls. And the two gals were very kind and accommodating..they did not eat much good food during their trip just to accompany me on my rice-porridge-sandwich-milo diet.

I was weak most of the time, and as I drank more water, more frequent I would make trips to the loo...


While waiting to be checked in at Ambassador Hotel

But I had fun anyway :D

And I m sure the gals did too!

It was funny how we 'tortured' ourselves by lugging heavy shopping bags and walking at least 10 km within the shopping malls.

It was funny how we had instant porridge, noodles and sandwiches for one of our dinners at the hotel cafe. We were too tired to find food and given my condition, we could only consume those stuff.

It was funny how we had our own 'fashion show' in the room, trying out the clothes bought. (there were no trying in the wholesale platinum shopping mall)

It was funny how we 'sell' our clothes to each other when we found that we could wear them.

It was funny how 3 of us tried our best to find things to buy from the same shops to get the wholesale discount (we need to buy 3 or more to get the cheaper wholesale price)

It was funny how we managed to squeeze all our stuff in the luggage and managed to check them in even though we exceeded the weight limit by 3.3kg.

It was funny how we even managed to shop and buy something on the last day even though we had less than 200 baht per person.

It was funny that our best meal in BKK was at the airport's Mango Tree Restaurant, using the spare cash from our VAT refund.

It was funny I recovered from my upset stomach only on the last day of the trip and with not much baht left.



Back in S'pore - tired but happy :)

Sidetrack: I just received BBDC cheque for refund of my account balance. I m pleased to see that I only spent about $2,375 for the entire process of obtaining a licence. (from theory test to fixing of car to the paying of the coverted licence) ;D $ well spent!

Thought it's interesting to share...

From SP's blog

Gambler addicts are not throwing money into the sea.
The truth is, they are making their whole family to jump into the sea.

How true...

It's confirmed confirmed

We are going to BKK.

We were still contemplating whether to postpone the trip as we could not get the hotel we wanted until last Sat.

So it's confirmed that we are going.

:)

Finally, a trip with the two gals after 2yrs? 3yrs?

I m getting excited now ;)

Sidetrack: I drove hubbie's 'open-top' last sunday to Chinatown and back. I even practised vertical parking and now I can park a lorry! hahaha :)

One resolution down!

I passed my driving test :)

I almost did not make it......

I was almost late for my warm-up session at 9.15am this morning due to a little incident.

I reached there and the instructor on duty at the counter specifically informed me that where my no.46 car is parked. It seems that I was the only one who fixed the car for the test.

A young, good-lookin' malay instructor was my warm-up instructor. He must have sensed my nervousness, he tried to make me feel better.

"Do you know something good?"

"What?"

"Your car number is same as your address! So lucky!"

I was stumped for a moment.

You see, my hse postal code is 460046.

".....of coz lah! I specifically booked the car but not because of the number, its because I ve been using this car for training."

The warm up session was ok and I did route 10. He commented that route 10 is a easy route.

Soon, the warm up session is over. I got to the 2nd floor for the balloting of routes and assigning of testers.

To my surprise, I was given test route 10!

But my happiness was shortlived and nervousness once again took hold of me, as my tester was the last one to come into the room.

I followed him to the car and he looked friendly in the 1st impression but, alas, when he was in the car, he became serious.

At the beginning, in the circuit, all was well... then I hit a kerb during parallel parking.

I felt as if the whole world has collapsed on me. To make things worse, the tester scolded me...

"Did you know you hit kerb?! I can't let this off...tsk tsk..." he shook his head and started marking on the paper.

Trying to keep myself calm, I remembered the advice from ms Cactus. I asked for permission to re-do the parking. Re-did the parking but not as good.

My morale was low and thru' out the circuit, the tester nagged me on checking before turning....

When I was about to turn right to the centre's gate to go out for route 10, the tester slapped his hand on the dashboard....

I was caught unaware and did the emergency brake too slow. He said it was too slow and done improperly.

I felt like crying then.

Out the roads I went with a very heavy heart. I did quite ok for the roads and got no problem in changing gears up and down. But along the way, the tester nagged me on my late safety checks a couple of times.

I thought I was a gone-case liao...

After the test, I went up with him to the room.

He started lecturing me. Tears welled up in my eyes, as I looked at my so-many-ticks paper.

I heard him mumbled a number but I could not hear him properly. He pushed the paper towards me and I tried to see my score but tears has blurred my vision then. I tried not to blink in the fear that my tears flow, then....I saw the tester smile.

It was then I know I passed :)

The Ultimate Test

Tomorrow is my practical driving test and tonite I m having my last revision lesson.

Did I mention that I heard a really bad piece of news from my 2nd last revision lesson?

As it was the new year, there is a swop.

Testers from my driving centre (BBDC) have been 'swopped' with the testers from Ubi centre!

Which means.....I will be tested by a tester from Ubi driving centre!!!

Grrr....Damn it!

"Very hard to pass if you taking your test from Ubi..." this is a very common hearsay

Jiak lat... :(

To make things worse, because of the new year, my instructors 'swopped' their cars too. And I can't get more practices on the car which I fixed for my test... zzz....

How, like that? Tink must pray for the best but prepare for failure tomolo....

It's confirmed

We have mulled and discussed over it.

We are still going to Bangkok next week.

It's confirmed and we are going to stay in Baiyoke Sky.

I m still keeping tabs what's happening in BKK.

BBQ get-together

Daniel aka Big Bird gave us a treat at his SAF chalet last nite.

Sumptuous bbq food, catchin' up with TV shows, mahjong, photo-taking and finally, 'old maid'...

Thanks, Daniel :D


(Missing in the photo: My lil' sis who helped us took the photo, Danny, Susan & Juliana who arrived later...)

PS: Hi pple, I only got one photo...waiting for the rest of the photos to update our yec blog ;)

Bangkok Blues

I'm supposed to jet off to bangkok in less than two weeks' time with ms biyong and ms ah-lian.

We are now considering to postpone/ to go ahead with our trip.

Bangkok just had bomb blasts during new year day and unexploded bombs were found in Asia Hotel....

We are staying at Asia Hotel.

I have discussed with the gals. There is currently no travel advisory on Bangkok from our govt. My view is that we should try our ways and means to either postpone the trip or at the minimum, change the hotel. At least, we tried to be safe than sorry.

I have checked with tigerairways for postponement of our flight to Mar. We are able to do that but would have to pay a fee of at least $70 per pax. And according to the airline, no one has called them to cancel booking yet.

It should be safe to travel. But we have to take precautions.

We are now trying to see if we are able to postpone/ change the hotel we are staying.
Looks like we are unable to change the hotel now from the latest email from ms biyong.

Hmm..

Go ahead with original plan? or postpone to a later date?

I will look out for bangkok news updates and hopefully by next week, we are able to make a decision.

New Year Resolutions 2007

Swedish ship : East Indiaman Götheborg

I don't tink I had any new year resolutions last year.

I tink I should have some this year.

So...my new year resolutions are....

1. To get a driving licence. (No, I won't get a car. yet.)

2. To complete the editing of my actual day wedding video. (yah, it's still un-edited)

3. To develop prints of all my digital photos and to arrange them into albums and then to arrange the albums properly in my cupboard. (this is tough..)

4. To have at least $20K in our joint savings account. (hubbie will put his heart and soul into helping me with this one)

5. To lose at least 5kg by june, and 3kg more by end of 2007. (based on weight taken on 1st day of 2007, after the great xmas and new year makan sessions)

6. To take part in the stanchart 10km run and run under an hour. (muahahaha...so farnie :D)

7. To eat more fruits, drink more water.

8. To make full use of my sanyo video cam, at least produce 4 videos in 2007. (Me no Jack Neo)

9. To accompany my parents to their medical checkups. (I will need their cooperation to let me know the dates of their checkups, they alwis refuse to tell me!)

Last day of 2006

On the last day of 2006....

Hubbie and I dragged the biyongz couple out from their cozy beds early in the morning for an educational trip to the Qianhu fish farm and the Farmart.

To keep them awake on the bright and cheery sunday morning, I passed them a blokus game to play on the back of the lorry aka hubbie's open-top...

We fed the goats and took the chance to take photos with them. We had a value-for-money six-course brunch at Farmart and we were so full that we even skipped dinner.

After which we made our way to Sentosa, to Siloso Beach where the preparations for the countdown party that nite were going on. We settled ourselves at the New Zealand ice-cream cafe (I forgot its name) and played 'Risk' till the sun sets.



As the road along siloso beach was closed for the countdown party, we had to take the bus to where we parked the open-top.

We ended our last day of 2006 at Changi Village kopi-shop, enjoying dim sum and tea, amidst the cheers of party revellers from the pub next to the kopi-shop.

Great year, 2006.

I had a great year in 2006.

As I reflect on my little achievements......

I had wedding jitters and got married to a wonderful man.

I caught the travel bug and got out of S'pore to Genting(Jan), Hongkong(Aug) and Japan(Jun). (ok, it may not seem that I went to a lot of places, but hey, it's considered a lot for me! And yes, I ve included japan honeymoon, also travelling wah...)

In work, I 'survived' the G.E period with 3 commemorative books, 5 town days/ exhibitions, unscathed. All these while planning for my wedding, looking back, I m pretty amazed by myself!

I started this blog and and I can't believe it's been a year! I'm pleased to see that I had entry/entries every month!

I had my moment(s) of fame.....I appeared in the papers twice this year..hahaha! this and that lah!

I have learnt to play mahjong and count the dais from my grand master aka hubbie and even have regular mj khakis! Dun pray pray!

I ran my 1st 10km stanchart run and completed it!

I took my first step to start my driving lessons and I finished my lessons! Now waiting to take my test in 2007....

I count my blessings for having....
- A bigger happy family (hubbie's and mine)
- A stable job, a roof over my head
- Good health
- Wonderful colleagues cum frens
- Inspiring and youthful YEC frens
- Eat-drink-have fun buddies cum mj khakis

Of coz, there were disappointments and 'suayness' but overall, 2006 has been a great year for me!

I look forward to a better year in 2007! ;)