Smorgasbord of celebrations
The office peeps couldn't help but hold the ever so cheesy Christmas exchange this year.
Me and Ms Shopaholic wanted to circumvent the system and nominate each other as secret admirers so we'll get gifts for each other, since we already are going to do so anyway.
But thanks to the insane workload during the week leading to the event, I forgot to nominate her and was thus being admitted to the sweepstakes of gift exchange and was chosen to buy a gift for the boss.
..........
My Pre- Arranged Secret Admirer:
Although it was well over the allocated budget for my grade (which in my opinion can only get a box of fake Ferrero Rocher chocs from Watsons), there is nothing a bottle of wine from my collection can't do. I mean...what else would you give to a wine/beer guzzling brit?!?
My two colleagues who look like celebrities! Somewhat.
Try matching! (I do not look like anyone. No, not even Sandra Oh.)
The Border's 30% voucher came in handy during that period. I got some books for friends and I got myself many books!
My bookshelf is slowly but surely running out of space. I'll have to live with it for the moment till I get my own pad and have floor to ceiling shelves built!
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CPA games award presentation at Singapore Cricket Club's Bar and Billiard Room.
Its no biggie that we were the first ladies to step into that room. Not like I would have clamoured to be in it before anyway. Seriously, it probably was all just about men and their egos.
The bar which recently admits ladies is merely a basement in that club house. If you can look past the history of it being an all exclusive men's only club, there is not much to go there for actually.
It has a dinghy feel and I thought the place smelt musky even. Maybe it just me (and it being an underground basement).
My beloved netball girls!
Its sad that there are so few of us left. This is just the reality of the working world where people come and go so fast. We are not in school anymore....where no matter what, we play together for a couple of years.
Well...it has been an unbelievable run we had for the past 3 years. I hope I can play on for the forth...but...
let me just end off awkwardly by saying "it was good while it lasted".
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If there is anything one must do before the year ends, it would be to visit the National Museum for the Lourve exhibition of the Greek Masterpieces.
If you are not as learned about Greek sculptures as arty farty HamSam, join a guided museum tour (which is conducted hourly on weekends).
The sculpture that best represents him.
The Narcissist
And if you are at the museum, do also catch the GroovisionsSin exhibition. You would like it if you are a fan of Andy Warhol's art. The pop culture is definitely catching up and growing on me!
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Dinner at Stiff Chilli
It was shopaholic's turn to introduce us to a nice eatery...and she chose this quaint Italian restaurant along the most unlikely of places, Jalan Besar. It is identifiable by the huge chilli on the wall....and the numerous chilli padis hanging around the entrance of the restaurant.
The owner hails from a Balinese origin....hence the walls of the restaurant are lined with old pictures of their village in Bali. The pictures are almost primeval with all the bushmen-nudity. The decor of the place is antiqued with a slight quirkiness, trademarked by their food basket lamps.
They could probably improve on their ambience by playing some nice music. To me, music is everything. It makes or break something.
The only music I hear that evening was that strains of karoake music from a neighbouring ktv pub along the street.
The food is value for money with it being reasonably priced and gastronomically delicious. Their thin-crust wood-oven-fired pizzas are a must-try. We had the squid-ink pasta (without the black unsightly teeth because the ink is in the pasta! Brilliant idea isn't?), airflown Italian sausages pizza and chilli padi tiger prawns pasta.
Do also try their home-made ice cream. Particularly the trademark chilli chocolate ice-cream (its spicy!)
I know. Poseur. Wateva.
A Quiet Family Christmas
With a home-made log and nice wine to boot. Together with the company of your loved ones...it was a superlative Christmas.
I miss my SE K800i and I hate Nokia.
Wedding Etc.
I should back-track one wedding because I realise that I have a wedding before Ailin's....and that is...
Jeffery and Jessie's (3rd Nov 2007)
Jeff is a friend of HamSam...and through the numerous studying sessions we had at the Lee Wee Nam library, we became friends.
Their militarised affair at the Fullerton was tastefully done.
No wedding is complete without me ransacking their bridal suite!
On our way up...we couldn't resist a photo moment in the well polished elevator doors.
The boys monkeying around in the room...and even stealing a banana from the couple's fruit basket. 
I'm in love with the coffee machine in the suite! And the different types of ground coffee available to pop into the machine. It took sheer determination to pull myself away from the machine without making a cuppa for myself. 
Narcissist HamSam 
It was his attempt to look like a motivational life coach. Heh...attempt failed.
One for the cellphone's wallpaper.
All the pictures on that night was taken using my trusty SE k800i...which I have since traded-in for the new Nokia 6500 slide. Let's just hope the 3.2mp Carl Zeiss camera would work wonders for me too.
Not posting pictures of two weddings that followed, for lack thereof of them. They were weddings of some family friends with the foggies.
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Kelvin and Sophie (24th Nov 2007)
Sophie was my bible study leader in my formative years. Together with Spunkice and Vanilla, we definitely caused her much headache then...but without her patience and guidance, we wouldn't be what and where we are today!
The solemnisation at our church...
The banquet @ Merchant Court
The food was sumptuous and the live band...err....lively. :P
I met up with so many old friends. People whom I think I will only ever see again at my wedding.
Its amazing (and alarming) that so many of the married folks are carrying a toddler (or toddlerS). What happened to (first few yrs of) blissful marriage without kids!?!?
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Melvin and Grace (8th Dec 2007)
Grace and Melvin are my cell group mates from church.
They beat us to the altar at an alarming pace. When HamSam and I first joined the cell....they weren't together yet.
Now, 2 yrs down the road, they are hitched!
Their wedding was contemporary and out of the ordinary. Black (and white of course) was the theme of the wedding. Thankfully their parents are open-minded enough to embrace the colour choice of their wedding!
Melvin – The Groom, the Performer, the Host and the Fashionista 
Grace – The subservient Bride 
The Corsaged-Girls
The bodyguards
My personal bodyguard.
And that about sums it all for the Wedding Fiesta of 2007. Its time to bring out the wedding cheklist to start planning for mine!
Do email me any useful tips, materials, website etc. I can use!
Weddings Galore (Part 1)
Finally, I attended the last wedding of the year-end wedding season last Saturday. I guess there would come a point in time where you would be so numb to all the weddings attended that it no longer moves you...
But these weddings definitely give me the impetus to start thinking about what I should do about mine. I'm consoling myself with the excuse that I need not worry about it yet because it is not going to be till 2009. Pleeeeennnnttttyyyy of time..... NOT.
Not that the pictures aren't already floating around in Facebook (which by the way is a smashing tool to share pictures and irritate friends by tagging them in ugly moments), here are the weddings of my friends once again (in chronological order)!
Andrew and Ailin (24 Nov 2007)
Ailin is the one and only bride I know of who deliberately put on weight and fatten herself up (from a stick figurine) for her wedding. Isn't she a beauty??
With Joel (The Maid)
The expectant Groom and his ally.
Look at how lovingly she looks at him...Awww...
From Day...
To Night....
In the bridal suite with a magnificent view of the city skyline.
With Andrew...the groom with the love-sick puppy eyes
Is it me or does he always look grouchy in photos with me?!?
As compared to pictures of him with other girls!?!? *fuming*
Table Mates
And on an unrelated but worrying note....I'm turning into a she-male!!!!
Posting one wedding is taking longer than I expected...Hence I'm going to have to divide the post into a few entries. Watch out for Part 2!
I caught David Sanborn in concert last night! He is such an amazing performer and a definite maestro with the Sax. And needless to say, he is so much sexier than Kenny G (I don't like guys with flowy and curly locks).
Yes, I'm sitting at the FIRST row...
Ping
jeremy
Claracadabra
