December – a time to take things slow and to relax. It is also a period for travelling. Looked through a few good friend’s blog and realised that most are reciting their travel encounters overseas.  Like them, me and hubby have been travelling both for leisure and for work.

Thailand (Bangkok) Trip: 2/12/2009 – 5/12/2009

A shopping paradise. Need I say more? More than half of our time there is spend shopping and mall hopping. I must agree withthe girls – the things are dirt cheap over there. However, unlike what they said, I didn’t morphed into some crazy shopaholic there. I didn’t buy as much as I thought I would over there. However, I have the quiet satisfaction that my half-filled luggage was filled up and it weighed 2 kg more.

Hubby being the scenic lover he always is, planned a day of sightseeing as well. We visited temples and some tourist hotspots, which Opps!, I failed to recall now. We had a very relaxed time in Thailand and there was no rushing around BKK like what the gals did the last time they visited.

Though Hubby was very enthusiatic about trying the “Tup-Tup”, I was kinda wary of them. We were nearly conned on the first night and the following morning. Both by 2 elderlies whom looked like total nice, friendly people trying to “help” unknown tourists like us. Thankfully, for Hubby’s quick thinking, we managed to got away safely. I was quite pissed and was thinking where the hell is their integrity. 

After a day of rest and rushed packing, I was on my way to Changi Airport Terminal 3 at 5.15 am on the morning of 7th Dec. I was heading to Shanghai with my1 of my Sec 1 dance girl in tow.

China Trip: 7/12/2009 – 13/12/2009

This is for my work trip. I have to wake up at like 6.30 am everyday and I thought it was the holidays already. Basically, it was supposed to be an extra dance practise for my dance gals with the experts. I must say that the gals in Hangzhou have really excellent genes for dancing. Their slim body structure plus their flexibility has caused alot of hoo-haas and giggly admiration amongst my dance girls.

I visited Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai within a short span of 7 days. One very important fact that I must mentioned  about these places is that it is FREAKING COLD! I was always bundled up like a “Ba Zhan” and yet I still feel cold. My hands are always numbed  from the cold even though I had my gloves on. My nose and cheeks are always numbed and red from the cold and I feared that my nose will dropped  off anytime. Me and my colleagues have to resort to wringgling our nose and massaging our face now and then to get the blood flowing. I suddenly missed Singapore’s bright and sunny weather then and wished I was back home. Unlike what my colleagues have been telling me that cold weather is extremely cooling for one to stay in, I seriously bet to differ for a myraids of reasons.

1) I have to put  on so many layers of clothing to pre-empt the cold weather that dressing up in the morning is a total chore. Thermal wear, long sleeved shirt, sweater, jeans, gloves, woollen socks and sports shoes. I still feel cold with all these on.

2) Going toilet becomes a total pain in my a** as it is a hassle removing so many layers of clothings.

3) My whole body becomes a total wreck within a mere of 1 week. Because I forgot my moisturiser, my hands and legs became shivelled and wrinkled, like those of an old lady. Thankfully, my skin condition has retored to what it used to be, back in Singapore. Phew!

4) Washing hands became an agonizing chore for me because of the extremely cold water. Though unwilling to wash my hands after each toilet break, I still forced myself to do so as I couldn’t bear using the same pairs of hands to have food.

The only excitable thing worth mentioning about the cold is that it is really fun seeing “smoke” appearing out of our mouth when you speak. It became an entertaining game for me and my dance girls as we started blowing “smoke” at each other face. Silly us!

I thought the food was almost similar to what we have in Singapore. Apparently, I was wrong.  One thing I noted about the food is that it is extremely salty. Guess salts are really cheap stuff over there. However, it is extremely a nice and warm feeling seeing the waitress put hot pot of soup on our table. Though I must say that the soups we had, has little variations. In the end, everything tasted the same. Thankfully, they have veggies and fish. They were such edible dishes that it was wiped out within mere seconds.

Actually, I kinda like the tour guide. Because I feel that he gave a rather good introduction to all the states that we have been. In fact, I enjoyed listening to all the stories told by him. And I was quite impressed by this fellow - he is a very good geomancer! He wowed the group of us by telling us our future.

Things I learnt about the various states I visited:

Hangzhou – Famous for Longjin tea and lovely folk tales like Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai. Enjoyed the majectic performance put up in Song City. Excellent slogan they have,”Gei wo yi tian, Huan ni qian nian”.

Suzhou – Famous for its garden. Lovely scenic views which I believe Hubby will love to see.

Nanjing – Famous for its salted duck. Apparently, all parts of the ducks can be made into food product. Wow! Something which I did not know. But I still find the taste a bit too salty for my liking. I visited the Nanking Massacre Memorial Hall. “We can forgive, but we must never forget”. I doubt I can forgive the Japanese for the atrocities that they did. It is inhumane of them. They couldn’t spare a baby. It makes me realise that a country has to be strong in order to survive otherwise it will always be taken advantage of. I kind of dread going through the memorial hall and I left the place with a heavy heart. Honestly, I do not really like Nanjing. It gave me a kind of gloomy and spooky feeling. Perhaps its the weather. Perhaps its the history. I’m not sure. It is defintely a different feeling as compared to visiting Hangzhou and Suzhou.

ShangHai – Last stop-over before heading back to Singapore. Bascially like Singapore, very modernised. No prize for guessing, famous for its Xiao Long Bao. And it is famous for its night activites as well, hence the phrase, “Ye ShangHai”.

The 2 trips overseas has make me realise how lucky I was born in Singapore. I truely appreciate the clean and green environment I have been living in, in the past 26 years of my life. And I also realise that maybe I could preferred a more relaxed holiday, mainly beach resort style rather than going overseas with an aim of covering everything within a short span of time and making a mad rush about everywhere. I guess I have enough of a mad rush everyday, which I experienced during work.

I finally understand the true meaning of “Like Father, Like Son” after last Saturday.

I cannot stop suanning and laughing at my 老公 over something he did last Saturday. Shit! I cannot stop thinking of what he did. Just the memory of it can allowed me to grin the whole day.

I can’t blog about the incident though I have been itching to do so… I shall listen to my 老公 then and not embarrass him.

Had intended to bring my Mummy out for lunch to celebrate her birthday on Wednesday. But I did not manage to because like me, Mummy ended up with a sore throat that day and she didn’t feel like going to any places. 

Thankfully, Dearie had bought a Mango cake and we celebrated for her on Sunday. Though I would not say that this is much of a celebration as Mummy’s eyes were glued on watching the Taiwan drama on Channel 8.

And me being the nice daughter I always am, stayed at home and accompanied her. Mummy obviously didn’t waste the day and even taught me how to cook fish porridge.

Mummy: 有时候要自己煮。不要整天吃外面的食物，不健康，知道吗？所以要学煮一点。

天下的妈妈都是一样的. Always worried about their children.

It was raining then. A cheeky me decided to disturb her.

Me: Mummy, 今天你 birthday，就下雨。你 stingy lei.

Mummy turned around and scolded me.

Mummy: 你要死！没死过！没大没小！(-.-”’)

Though I didn’t manage to bring my Mummy out for lunch, I still like to savour the feeling of staying at home to accompany her. Basically indulging in the feeling of being Mummy’s little girl really makes my day. I guess it makes Mummy’s day as well.

[Written by Eric Sim]

Fans of this blog should be estatic about this entry.  The Husband seldom contribute a blog entry and hence, this is a rare event.  I am going to blog about my 29th birthday. 

I kind of guessed that Dear would have some form of celebration installed for me, but really have no clue.   Some days before the birthday – Dear : “I will have invigilation till 10am on your birthday.  Would you come and pick me up at 10am?”.  Me: “Hmmm, I will consider la”.  Dear: “Come la.”.  Me: “Okay”. 

As usual, I was very busy with work and was expecting to work late on the day before my birthday.  I wanted to go on leave with minimal disruption to the progress of work.  I worked till 8pm, and the progress was slow, so I “tabao” back some work to do.  On the way back home, I decided to stop over at Siglap for dinner and at the same time, continued with the unfinished work.  It was good progress, and I drove back happily.  When I was back at my carpark, my phone ringed.  It was Dear.

Dear: “Hey, where are you now?”.  Me: “Back at my carpark”.  Dear: “Why did you ignore my messages?”.  Me: “Did I?  I didn’t see them.  I’ll call you when I’m back home.”.  Dear: “Okay”.  I checked my sms and indeed, Dear left 2 messages, one on the “sian-ness of doing work review” and the other, a follow up of my apparent indifference to her first message. 

As I opened my house door, it was dark, Pa was sitting on the sofa and surprise! Dear was there with me mother holding my birthday cake with 1 lit candle.   I was genuinely taken aback (I repeated said “kia1 si1 nang1″ after that).  This cheeky girl bought and collected the birthday cake from Crystal Jade, had my father-in-law send her down, “Ba kat” with my parents to be around, and cleverly calculated my time of return.  This plan was so detailedly laid out and executed that it would make PM Lee’s economic recovery plan look simple…Well, I requested for a birthday song (as usual) and the line was from Dear, and Mother finished it.  The tiramisu cake was simply delicious and I would recommend it.  Picture attached to whet the appetite of the readers.

The reader should take note that there was only 1 candle and Dear said this is to avoid revealing my “old age”.  Haiz, 其实，我三十还有得找. 

Next, the birthday card.  Sorry, the content is SIC (Staff In Confidence), but I will let the reader look at the cover – it is hilarious .

 For the record, Dear assured me that she will not say this to me.  Blogs have a wonderful intrinsic characteristic of being in eternal existence – I am safe.  The next step is to find the doctor to say the above line.

The birthday present.  It’s a watch! Professional and handsome watch.  The details of this watch shall not be revealed here, the reader may come up to me to admire my watch.  The most important thing is that this is given to me by me Dear and represents a lot to her and me. 

The birthday day.  It is spent leisurely, with a brunch at Coffee bean (smoked salmon sandwich and turkey bacon cheese sandwish, washed down with English breakfast tea). (Can we do this every weekday?)    Movie at Cathay – my choice here – This Is It. - the movie on the MJ concert that will never take place.  Dear accompanied me to watch this despite knowing that she’ll be bored by it.  Went to Seiko to repair my old watch, and dropped by Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza to see the last 2 contestants of the Subaru challenge.  I thought of eating ice cream and maybe brushing teeth in front of them, but decided against it for fear of retribution.  Dinner at the famous crab place (coffeeshop at junction of Still Rd and Joo Chiat Pl), which I had been wanting to try but had put it off for at least 4 years. 

The birthday of The Husband was fantastic.  The Husband could not have asked for more.

I have been feeling rather contented and cheerful lately. Nothing for me to feel sad about. Even better, when I do not have to see my students at all because they are having their post-exams activities.

And when I’m happy, I tend to think of food. Today, I am thinking of sashimi, sushi, crabs, Peranakan food and what have you. And I have been bingeing non-stop in school. SHIT!

A message to 老公 this morning, lamenting to him that I might grow fatter than him due to my bingeing recently, thinking he might soothe me by saying otherwise — only to see his reply:

“Your 老公 is quite thin, so you have got a high standard to keep up to if you wanna stay thinner. So sorry.”

(-.-”’) What the @#$%^!#^&^!

That’s my 老公 of 4 days for you.

As of yesterday, I am officially Mrs Sim now. Woke up this morning to see a ring stuck on my fourth finger of my left hand. It feels strange to wake up and realise that I am married. Guess I am still not use to the fact that I am already married. Major changes that took place:

1) Dearie became my 老公 overnight.

Sian’s blog post flashed into my mind after my solemmisation yesterday. I looked at a grinning Dearie and still feels that he is 100% boyfriend. Still the same old guy that I started dating a year ago. Only difference? We both had rings stuck to our fourth finger and promises that bind us together.

2) Having a new set of parents.

Guess I still need some time to get use to all these major changes in my life now.

Am extremely delighted to receive Xuan, Wenjing and Ting’s congratulatory messages the night before. Love you gals!

Had our solemmisation at Sze Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant with Prof Teo as our JP. Seriously, I could recommend that place for ROM. Extremely nice environment, good service plus good food.

The week leading up to our solemmisation, Dearie and I had a debate as to whether we should synchronise our wedding vows. That boy insisted that we should while I was adamant that we should not. To me, vows are supposed to be the promise that one makes to your other half and hence should be personalised. Dearie even did a poll with his colleagues and nontheless to say, I won hands down, with 80% of his colleagues agreeing with me. I thought this debate was over — only to have the JP telling us on the day itself that it is better for us to synchronise our marriage vows. You should have seen the smug look on Dearie’s face then. We ended up synchronising our marriage vows and me reading the vow that Dearie wrote, with a few added lines from my own.  

The solemmisation happened so fast and within half an hour, it was over, with the JP pronouncing us as man and wife. Prof Teo concluded the whole solemmisation by reminding us to remember the promises we have made to each other. And then, my 老公 Dear mumbled a soft question to the JP, “Don’t I get to kiss the bride?” The room bursted into laughter. I was embarrassed like hell and well, Dearie got his wish.

Received Evelyn’s congratulatory message later in the afternoon, asking how we celebrate our post-solemmisation. So what did we do?

We headed back to Dearie’s house as I do not want to invite unwanted attention to my hairdo. Basically, Mr Sim indulged in his favourite past-time – sleeping while I indulged in mine – watching TV. The dinner we had to celebrate our post solemmisation? We had MacDonald’s. Wow… What a way to end the day. Haha..

I spend my lazy Sunday afternoon yesterday, marking away furiously. Mummy Dear came by and chat with me after she was done with her housework. (Did I mention that I can multi-task very well? )

I was listening to some songs then and “Always be my Baby” happened to be playing at that time. I promptly asked her if this song is suitable for my march-in for my wedding next year.

She listened intently then shook her head and said:

Mummy: This song is boring. 你应该用 “今天你要嫁给我”. 那首很好听！人家听了会很开心！用这首！

Me: 很 overplay loh. This is more boring loh.

Mummy: Where got? You got no taste.

(-.-”’) Though Mummy can be really strict with us, she can be quite lame at times as well. This is one good example. Haha…

Dearie never fails to drop me a call every night to catch up on our daily happenings. Yesterday night, I decided to drop him a message first since I was too tired and I refused to go look at the shit I bought back from work (wonder why I bought it back in the first place).

Anyway, the message I got from Dearie caught me by surprise.

Dearie: Can I come look for my Dear instead? Will be at your house in 5 mins.

I called him immediately and his response of “have something to deliver to your house” left me mystified.

He arrived a while later and happily thrust me a box of mooncake from Hyatt Hotel.

Me: Its 八月十五 alr? No what?! Still 七月what!

Dearie: I feel like eating. Bought for you all as well.

That silly boy! Already so tired from work and still make a special trip down to deliver the mooncake.

辛苦你了！We will enjoy the mooncake! Love you!

Weekends has somehow become a busy period for me now – so much so that my running regimen on Sunday was put to a halt temporarily. I was determined to get back to my running regimen today. And Dearie was sweet enough to suggest that we run together. Our enthusiasm was met with dismay as it rained today.

Nonetheless, the rainy weather did not diminish our mood to run. We enroute to the gym instead of the stadium as planned initally.  After I paid the entrance fee, we proceed to the second level where the gym was situated. And then, I make a silly blunder which I feel extremely lousy and embarassed about – till now.

 On our way up, I saw the rubbish bin and promptly threw the receipt away. I swear that it is an honest blunder. I honestly did not know that I have to retain the receipt, which is required to be produce to the guy manning the gym on the second level. Upon reaching the glass door and seeing the file of people queuing to produce their receipt, I yelped, turned around and proclamied to Dearie that I have threw the receipt away. Dearie’s face contorted with mock horror as he stared at me stunned –  in disbelief.

We ran back to the bin and Dearie was the one to rummage through the bin. I stand by and tried to identify the receipt as Dearie did not want me to get my hands dirty. Thankfully, the litter in the bin was relatively few and hence we managed to find the receipt after a while.

Honestly, I was expecting Dearie to scream at me then when I confessed to throwing away the receipt. Instead, he was quite cool with the situation and even did the unthinkable – rummaging through the bin so that I don’t have to perform this dirty job. We had a good laugh about it after that.

I was really touched by what Dearie did. I didn’t expect such an amicable outcome. Could it be some other guy, I will probably be glared at and blasted for making such a silly mistake. Instead, Dearie handle the whole blunder like what a doting boyfriend could do. And my apology message to him later got me smiling away when he replied with “These are the little stories that makes our life interesting” as well as “You can continue to throw things away – I’ll promise to continue to volunteer to pick them up”. Make my day brighter admist the gloomy weather and my heart swell with love for this guy even more. I am glad he is the one.

Nonetheless, after this incident, I promise not to throw things away unless I am very ceratin that it can be discard of. I couldn’t want my dearie to rummage through another rubbish bin because of my silly blunder again.

Managed to catch the movie “UP” over the weekend. Thought it will be just like any cartoon – funny plot with crappy dialouge.

Somehow, the movie turns out differently. I like this movie. I find it very heartwarming and endearing. Talks about love between married couple as well as dreams and ambition. I hope my hubby will be like the old guy, Carl, in the movie. Still love his wife so much even after her death. The thing that touch me the most? He tries to fulfill her wish, though the unfulfilled wish seems like an impossible task to him.

It also make me think about what I really want to do in life apart from getting married and having kids. Funny, this has been what Dearie has been telling  me all along. I must really sit down during the december holidays and think about the things I really want to do in life…