Back in Action, after a long missing in action

Oh great, I'm finally back after a long absence...

Been really lazy, perhaps it's to do with my carrying an extra load 24 hours a day, coping with my work, studies, and the family. Patrick hubby has been most supportive, driving me to and fro work, and now even twice a week after I finished my studies. With each day, I can feel the load increasing, baby's been most active. There's the sudden kicks or punches that he would be giving me sometimes, the somersaults he's practising around inside me. My other 3 boys have been most curious and fascinating by all the movements they are feeling when they placed their faces or hands on my tummy. It's 27 weeks into my pregnancy, baby's sense of hearing is really sensitive by now. Maybe that's the reason why he's moving exceptionally a lot during the evenings when he hears all the noises from his 3 older brothers. A horrifying discovery, my weights increased to 6kg, oh my god...

Into the module of Labour Economics for my studies now, I'm kind of dragging my given assignments, I got to be picking on my brains soon and start working on them.

The 3 little boys are still as hyper active and noisy as ever, Bryan the youngest have been noticeably really close to Patrick hubby. Acting cute with his two white front teeth smiling sweetly as he constantly sticks around... Christopher the eldest, as usual has all the uncountable homework to deal with each day. Nicholas is doing kind of a good job being a big brother to Bryan recently.

Guess the election is soon to be here, our district's MP Gan Kim Yong has just visited our home with his group of followers. Questions of how long we have stayed here and whether everything's going well around the neighbourhood and our family. I was telling him things are good and so on...

Finally found time to read TODAY newspaper, after a kind of busy day at work in the office. I was reading and reading, when I came across the Prudential advertisement. Then YIPEEeeee!!! I saw that my name's under the list of winners for a set of ASUS eee notebook. My 3rd set of notebooks won so far this year! Patrick hubby thought I was joking with him initially, but then he checked and realised it's for real. But it's kind of a bother since there's going to be like 4 laptops in our house, maybe we should do away with one for sale....

Folks, I be busy for quite a while...

I'm going to be busy busy busyyyyy.... for quite a while.

Working on my part time study's assignment, 20 long pages of killing essay on something I'm not good at, something I basically hate.

Tracing Historical Development of Trade Unions in Singapore

Going through thick historical reference books at the library makes my eyes hurt, blurrish, and brain burnt. Staring at the years of history from the early years of 1948, is just killing. Eventhough it's a group work, it's kind of like everyone's got to go through the same reading routine before coming out with the draft. Dateline of submission is on 4 August 2009, so I be working hard to get through this "Hell".

There's a total of 10 modules throughout the entire 20 months long course. I have only got through 3 of them, the current subject is really not my cup of tea. Hopefully the rest of the 6 would have me going through smoothly and without much hiccups.

Just look, you can see I'm going "green" just by working on this subject alone. Let's just say, I'm not the UNION type of material.

Anything that's popping up in my mind...

It's a rainy rainy morning, I woke up at 5:45am this morning and noticed that it's started to rain. Strong winds blowing in, fighting its way through the gaps of the windows and from under the door. A tiring day since I got home really late from my study last night, and following a chit chat late into the night with a friend... Patrick hubby and I are just so tired when we got up this morning.

Anyway, we managed to get ourselves washed up and dressed for work, it's still raining as we got into our car. The traffic is really slow as our vehicle drove along, there's a vehicle breakdown, following another incident of vehicles collision. Such things always managed to make themselves happen everytime on rainy days...

Finally, I got to work and Patrick hubby continued on his way to work after dropping me off. The view from my office is simply lovely, dreamy, foggy, and making me all sleepy.

As the time ticks by past the morning peak hours, the traffic on the road started loosening up. Otherwise the road shown would always be jam packed with vehicles.

It's Wednesday! I'm going for a check up this Friday, have most fortunately managed to get a referral from my family doctor, a senior gynae for my pregnancy. Following a painful 2nd pregnancy from a doctor on duty as my gynae wasn't around, it's really unthinkable to be going through the same thing again.

From tracking records, baby's into the 4th month now, still as active and bubbly as usual. Occassional shifting around, ensuring to give me some punches and kicks here and there, perhaps to remind me of the pressence.

Agghhh... the agony as figure starts changing, tummy protutes out, hips and buttock are increasing the width. My beloved high heels are being packed into the shoe boxes, I won't be able to wear them for the next 6 months at least. Even my walking seems clumsy, as my breathing gets heavier, taking long deep breaths...

I need a new BAG!

Yes, I seriously need a new bag, something that would be sophisticated and hardy enough to let me carry it in style to work, as well as to private functions. Something that would accommodate all my stuff, my A4 Document File, my diary, my cosmetics, my mobile phone, my purse, etc...

(Yes, that's how much stuff I lugged around everyday)

Then, I came across this soft quilted shoulder bag

Coco Classics Black Soft Quilted Shoulder Bag

at this online shop Alice Wonders selling a variety of bags.

I'm fallying in love with the lovely quote of the bag by the seller

"Take me from your office to the loft scene. Guaranteed style longevity".

Even better, they are holding a promotion contest for readers to get a chance to win a choice handbag from their shop.

Visit Giveaway Contest to find out more and GOOD LUCK!

Finally it's Friday

Well, am I glad it's Friday today. Nothing fanciful, nothing interesting, just a quiet uneventful day.I'm thinking of having piping hot steaming 小笼包, with sweet minced pork filling, lovely soup that actually flows out as your bite a small tiny hole by the side of the skin. The skin should be good enough to hold in the filling as you pick up using your chopstick and place it on your spoon. Many places are selling this delicacy nowadays, yet most of them doesn't pass the test. The poorly made ones come with skin that breaks as you attempt to pick it up with your chopstick, thus losing the wonderful sweet soup that are held within.

Hubby and I have this favourite stall that are just situated within The Beauty World Shopping Centre just at Bt Timah Road. The stall's right within the hawker centre right on the top floor of the shopping centre, it's not Ding Tai Fung nor Crystal Jade. Yet, the 小笼包 here is simply heavenly, the pork filling is fresh and sweet. You can even ta bao home and the little pieces are still wonderful, the skin works wonders and holds the filling just great.

Lay Peng my buddy at work is on leave today, feels really quiet around here... Luckily there's still Mr. Ang and Mr. Murugan around, otherwise it would be like dead quiet since most of the guys' overseas. Fair weather today, no rain and the sun's out.

Was talking to my colleage Sara from Beijing office, finally saw her photo and knew what she looks like. Really sweet and lovely, I'm someone whom's a sucker for photos. It's really kind of weird to be talking to someone or writing emails to when you never knew what they look like.

Things are kind of strange in the career world, I have been hearing like forever how who and who is whom's favourite or girlfriend, so they are kind of "shaking legs". This is weird. I am wondering why the hell are they even working and not just staying at home if they are really so "big shot"?! People have said to me, she's the girlfriend of who and who, so try to be nice to her, don't expect her to do her part. Goodness, just the other day, someone made another remark. "Do you know this person has got like 2 degrees under her, the favourite of some big shot, very capable, and blah blah blah... so this person does not need to do her job eventhough it's her work scope" Come on, yes as in the working world, such cases exit. But we do not have to condone every cases, I still make the so called "girlfriend of who and who" work when she is suppose to. Too bad.

The two notebooks I have got are under 冷冻, don't really have the need to use them since I have got my own notebook and hubby's got his office piece. Anyway, the Toshiba piece is simply too pretty to use, I still like in being kept under wraps in its packaging.

Given the men's TIMEX watch to father in law since his birthday's approaching, maybe I will just leave the lady's TIMEX watch alone and keep it in "cold storage" too.

Christopher's exam is finally over and it's much calmer at home without the stress of revising with him again and again, hubby can finally breathe. Nicholas and Bryan have been extremely naughty, wonder how long it will take for Nicholas to actually stop his nonsense behaviour.

Approaching Mid Year 2009

Had a busy Saturday, sending our 小黑 for a thorough grooming job at Prospeed.

We were at the workshop by 9:00am as per appointment, and the job was done by 5:30pm on the same day. The result was stunning, all the acid rain markings, stains, and dirt were gone. From the outside to the inside, the engine and boot area all look brand new! The interiors of our car were steamed sterilised and smelling lovely. Prospeed definitely is professional, and all the staff were just so polite and service oriented. Winning the S$360 grooming voucher was simply wonderful. We felt 小黑 sure is much more happier after his spa.

Following the collection of our baby blackie after his spa session, we went to Patrick's parent house for a short gathering before going for our dinner. The restaurant was full, but thankfully we made an appointment a week before. However, the food were more of a disappointment. Perhaps we weren't use to the type of Teochew food the restaurant's serving. Just felt the food could have been done better. The person taking orders were too pressing, sales pushing all expensive stuff on the menu to us. There's hardly space for considering, this is even after I have told her to come back only after we are done discussing.

Sunday's quite a stay home affair, I am more prone to tiredness nowadays and the bed seems to be a huge magnet. Patrick said I'm just so lazy recently... But I just couldn't help it, hopefully I will get better soon. Though I'm tired, I still face difficulty finding a good sleeping position, thus, it has been making me more tired.

Major Happenings....

Our house is all hyper with a happening, there's loads and loads of discussions going on. Pros and Cons all flipped out for analyse, dilemmas, etc.
Finally after a week's of "what ifs", "how", "oh dear", and all, our family's came to a decision. It sure wasn't easy. Things are going to be a lot more considerations and planning in the future for our family.

Things aren't all rosy everyday, there's bound to be ups and downs. Hopefully, our decision is going to be a good one.

A kind soul is offering me US$11,000,000!!

Hello dearest one.

It is good writing you today although we haven't known nor met each other before. It is true that this letter may come to you as a surprise. Nevertheless, I humbly ask you to give me the benefit of doubt and hear me out.

My name is Mrs. Nandalia Ryan from Solomon Islands. I am married to Mr. Tyler Dave Ryan who worked with our Embassy in Ivory Coast ( Cote D'ivoire ) for a period of 9 years before he died . We were married for 12 years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.Since his death I decided not to remarry due to my religious belief . When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of US$11,000,000 (eleven million American dollars ) with a Bank in Cote D'ivoire. Presently this money is still in the custody of the Bank in Cote D'ivoire. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Eight months due to cancer illness.

Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church, organisation or good person that will utilise this money the way I am going to instruct herein.I want a church, organisation or good person that will use this funds to help the orphans, widows and other people that need financial assistance. Using part of this money to build companies and establish businesses that will create job opportunities for the jobless population. l took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money . Moreover, my husband relatives are pagans and it had been their wish to see my husband dead in order to inherit his wealth since we have no son. These people are therefore not worthy of this inheritance. This is why I am taking this decision.

I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my ill-health since the presence of my husband's relatives are around me always. I don't want them to know about this development for security reasons.As soon as I receive your reply I will give you the contact of the Bank in Cote d'ivoire where this fund is deposited. I will also issue a letter of authorisation to the bank that will prove you the present beneficiary of this money. I also want you to always uplift me in prayer.

Any delay in your reply may give me room to search for another good person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.Hoping to receive your response soonest.

Thanks and Remain blessed.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. Nandalia Ryan

Wow, somebody's wrote me a email to offer me US$11,000,000!! That's a lot, in case you don't know, it's Eleven Million American Dollars!! Wow! That sure is a lot to make one's heart thump in excitement! Above is a copy of the email sent to my Yahoo! mailbox.

I told myself it's hardly got to real, how the hell would anyone want to give some stranger such a huge sum of money?

I wrote back with warm wishes and hoping she would not be suffering too much. Then this person wrote to me twice, hoping I would accept! Wow, this is really an extinct species, dumping money to stranger desperately?

Finally, she wrote to me, thanking me for hopefully willing to help (when I haven't said anything). The email asked me for my name, address, contact numbers and my photo. Honestly, I wish this person had been much more smarter. It's highly noticable that the first the email was sent through a Yahoo! Japan's email, subsequently it changes to Yahoo! Thailand's email.

I wrote to tell her I am really sorry that she is so sick and willing to trust a stranger like me. I am so touched that I am asking the Embassy of Ireland for help to arrange a visit to her!

Hopefully she will enjoy this last email of mine to her, and get so touch that she will not be able to email me anymore. Seriously, if you intend to scam, at least be much more smarter than the average brains.

Fairly wonderful weekends...

From top left to right: Me, Bjorn Olausson, Ng Lay Peng

From bottom left to right: Pow Wan Fei, Benny Gustavsson, Ang Hock Seng

Here's a lovely photo taken of the few colleagues I adore, it was taken during our company's New Year dinner for 2009. Bjorn's our business unit's boss. There's my buddy Lay Peng, she's the executive secretary to Bjorn, my sister, my best friend in the office. She's also my senior (the extinct kind!), you hardly find your senior teaching you everything she knows nowadays. She's always doing many things for me, covering up for me when I'm taking leave and on medical leaves. She sent me lovely presents for christmas, birthdays, and even presents to my 3 little boys. Now, how many such wonderful buddy can you find from among your colleagues in the workplace? Yes, please envy me now...

I have finally completed the 2nd module presentation and report writing for my studies (after much stress). It's left with the exam next week and a week rest before the 3rd module starts! Hubby has been wonderful, he arranged for us to stay at Royal Plaza Scotts last Friday. It is a very welcome gesture, something for us to get away from our daily routine of stress. We made reservation for the S$168.00++ room package, it comes with breakfast for both of us at the lovely Carousel. Being corporate customer, we were upgraded to the Deluxe room and enjoyed the privileage of a late check out the next day at 1800hr. Hubby used his amex card and we were upgraded to the Club room. Overall, the stay was good, cosy room, there's a glass which actually links the bathroom to the room view. For privacy, there's the bind...

Our dream is to experience every hotels in Singapore, so far, we have accomplished only a few...

1. Pan Pacific Marina Hotel

2. Ritz Carlton Hotel

3. Carlton Hotel

4. Hotel 81 Chinatown ( we won't stay in another budget hotel ever again! )

5. Hilton Hotel

6. Royal Plaza Scotts

Sunday, I suggested to Hubby about going condo viewing for the Mi Casa which is just a street away from our house. We brought along the youngest (Bryan) since the elder two boys wanted to stay home. It was all bright and sunny at 10 plus in the morning. The condo is a project by Far East Organisation, their system is such that there are rows and rows of housing agents seated under the tentage waiting for viewers to show up. We were told the project is only officially launch next week and we are at the pre-launch. A ERA agent was assigned to us. He seems rather senior and experienced but honestly, I kind of pity him as he seems to be in a state of low morale and yet trying his best. I told myself to be nicer to him, hoping it will booast his morale in some ways.

In the showroom, there's a crowd, housing agents, viewers, bankers, and technicians (still fixing up the model of the property). Seems like they are launching the blocks of Mi Casa in phases, so as they go along, they add in the new blocks. Sales seem pretty good, we noticed that some agents actually hold access to different units, perhaps they are given the option or perhaps they pre-booked the units?!

From the show of the chart, it seems like units are going fast. Whoever said it's the economy recession now? Or perhaps people are striking lottery overnight and I have missed out the chances since I don't buy lottery? 3 room units going at estimation of SGD 790K (after 16% discount) are going fast, even more so for the 2 room units.

We were told that there's a 1 percent discount for residents staying nearby, and another 15% of discount for whatever reason. Hubby and I were tempted, but we told ourselves it's really not that worthy to pay such price for a CCK condo unit. It wasn't even freehold and if we get a second hand unit elsewhere which is freehold, the price could easily be SGD 600K now. So, we just went around soaking in the astmosphere of the showroom and other people excited over the units.

Just as we planned to leave, it had to rain, so we had no choice but to stray around.

Our overall vedict, our financial status now doesn't allow us to dabble in property, my 3 mischevious imps still need a large surface area to move around in. So, our current home is the best choice yet, they are having enough space to cycle and drive around in their motorcar...

Something about my current studies...

Something distressing... one of my pet crayfish died yesterday, it's the biggest one I have caught to date. Then this morning, another big one died!! Wonder what's wrong with them, I have been getting home late these few days to be able to do anything. Hopefully the other fellows will be alright.

My part time studies are kind of tedious, especially with a deteriorating mind, it isn't easy. Perhaps as we human beings grow old, our brain cells sort of die off? Hopefully I would be able to get through the whole 20 months course wonderfully.

Currently, I'm into the 2nd module, touching on Management Processes and Organisation Behaviour. Guess what? Our group is doing Managing Stress in a Work Organisation! I am stress and so perhaps studying more stuff about what is stress, how is stress formed and ways to manage it, actually might help eliminate some of my stress? (Trust me, it doesn't work)

Instead of my stress decreasing now that I have gained more knowledge about stress, it's increasing. Stress from the report writing, preparing the powerpoint slides, and getting ready for the presentation. Date of submission and presentation is tomorrow, hopefully our group will be able to impress well enough to get a good score.

Lazy Saturday...

This is to the chipping lady...

Goodness, if you are reading this, you deserve a treat of kuay teow from me liao...
(I let you choose ah, thin or thick noodles?)

I have been lazy putting up the photos from our Hong Kong trip.
Doing study projects with lovely team mates, having a discussion this Saturday afternoon.
(Kind of lazy...)

Hubby and I getting stress over Christopher's primary one studies...

Having a presentation in front of the whole class next Thursday and the presentation slides haven't even been done yet...

Hear me offload...

Oh god, I seriously feel I have been bitten by the Laziness Bug.

I have been so out of touch with the following recently...
- Posting new entries in my blog
- Posting new photos in my blog
- Taking part in contests (that's why I haven't won anything for ages, it's becos I'm lazy)

Even I have been feeling so very happy just with the 1 week rest from my part time studies. Trust me, the test for my 1st module made me felt like a complete moron. Imagine the test was just a sheet of A4 paper and on it were 10 sentences. We need to spot the grammer mistakes and my mind went blank. I have wasted my life for the past 30 years... The 10 sentences look all fine to me!!! Oh dear... And the presentation test where 2 other group members and I had to present our report. We really sucks! Lecturer told the class beforehand that no one is to read from notes during the presentation, and we dutifully obey. We were given a chance to draw lots and ended up being the 1st group to present. The result, 3 of us panicking and forgetting what we were supposed to say. The rest of the other groups read from their notes in front of everyone. The lecturer said they were good. I learnt my lesson, for the next 9 modules, whoever told me I should never read from notes during a presentation, is deadmeat.

Tonight's going to be the start of Module 2's lessons. It's going to be 2 tiring days a week from now on again. I got to go for lessons twice a week after work and end up home only by 11pm.

Oh right, the past weekend was good. Saturday morning was spent with Christopher at school to take part in some handicraft session. Met with "ugly" parents, even doing handicrafts for the school community, people can get all kiasu. We are told to bring a pair of scissor, UHU glue and staples. I bought 3 pairs of scissors along and one by one were borrowed away by parents who don't bother to listen to instructions (they came empty handed). I ended up having to borrow from my neighbour parent who bought 2 pairs. Parents started to fight for seats, fight for things to do, fight for recognition... Christopher and I were early, we sat down and started to learn how to do the handicraft. Later, as parents started to crowd in, the teacher told us to divide into different stations for each stage.

I asked the teacher whether Christopher could stay with me and just do the weaving process of the ribbon since our station was in charge of cutting while another station is in charge of weaving. She is fine since he's young and other kids are running around. Another mother started to talk to Christopher and said since he can do it, so can she. If the teacher scold her for not following instruction, he should get scolded too. My goodness, I can't believe that a mature mother would say something like this to a kid. So, I told her I have checked with the teacher beforehand and got permission. She is unhappy and turn away. *sigh*

Finally, we finished our station's duties of cutting. I told Christopher we should be leaving as I saw other parents are fighting for a part in the last station of putting the ribbons on. This just shows how too many cooks can spoil the broth.

Returning home, we had a rest. Hubby was actually in a good mood, he actually brought Nicholas and Bryan out to the supermarket for grocery shopping. He returned with the 2 beaming boys, they actually bought some sweets too.

Around 2pm, we decided to go fishing for crayfish again and got my mum to go along. It was raining by the time we got there but we decided that it would be fine since it's drizzling. Heavy rain came and we ran for the shelter. Finally the rain stopped, we went all out and ended up with 50 crayfish! Haha! Really broke our record, it was a good catch, just took us about 3 hours. We were walking along the edge of the water and found a "giant" one on the grass, it is the largest we have seen, at about 25cm. Too bad it's dead, we wonder how it's landed on the grass, what a pity. But my catch wasn't too bad as I got a few of 13cm and one fat one at about 17cm with fairly big claws. We decided to release all the rest of the smaller ones back into the water. End up, we only kept 8 pieces of what we caught. We throw in one big netful and some Chinese students were surprised and ask whether they could have the rest. So, we gave the rest to them. We managed to get the newbies settled well into my tank and mum's tank.

The next day, Sunday, we decided to go in the afternoon at around the same time to see whether we could find any big ones. Mum got really lucky, she caught one huge mama and she's bursting with babies. There were hundreds of them. The babies were newly hatched and most of them dropped off and were crawling around in our container. We found some were clinging on to each other and were worried they might be biting each other. I told hubby I would keep a few of the babies and put all the rest back into the water near the seaweed patch. This way, there would always be crayfish for everyone. We did not manage to find any big one that day, hubby said that we should stop for a while to let the crayfish reproduce before I wipe them all out.

Back from long absence...

Arrggghhh... I'm finally back after a long absence, been occupied with my part time studies of rushing through report writing for the project with a blank mind. It's one week of rest before the next module begins.

In the meantime, my home tank is bursting with activities by the blue crayfish Patrick hubby and I have caught, not forgetting my mum. There's about 100 plus of the cuties we have caught, ranging from the baby sizes to the bigger sizes... Mum's home tank is holding about 30 of them while our home tank is holding 50. We have given a few away during our "prawning" trips, mainly to cute little kids whom haven't manage to catch any... Patrick Hubby has bought 2 reds from the shop and they are growing great with the blues.

Alright, all of a sudden, we are bitten by the prawning bugs which got us all crazy and obsessed. Sometimes we actually visualised the whiskers of the crayfish when we are sleeping!! Oh my god!

Haha, the smallest range from 3cm to the biggest at 16cm. We are feeding them lobster food pellets and bloodworms. Our tank has a block of wood and stacking rocks to let them hide in happily eventhough sometimes they fight. Now we have taken precaution to cover up the tanks with a net as the biggest one actually managed to make it's way out of the tank one night. Now, our tank is place in the living room which is quite a distance from our kids' room. The guy actually found it's way passed the kitchen, our study room and to the kids' room to pull on our maid's hair! She had a bad scare!! But it was initially when we started rearing them, now my maid's even capable to grab hold of them from the back as they wave their claws around.

There's been a few cases of molting, we actually found an empty shell one morning... what a pity we have never been able to capture the whole process. I told hubby they must be shy and only molt when the light's out at night.

新的一年，新的出发！

Alright, let me try to get a post down in mandarin (eventhough my mandarin sucks!).



新的一年，可有的忙。。。

三个小可爱，老大 Christopher 要上一年级，老二 Nicholas 要上幼儿园K2，老三 Bryan 还在家里称王（因为他才快要三岁）。 经过一番辛苦，紧张的为 Christopher 报名和为学校做了56小时的义工（minimum is 40 hours, but i did more because I'm kiansu!). 我们很辛运，他被入取了！！ （谢天谢地）

经过了紧密的圣诞，新年，就是我们的华人过年！好像有点太快了的感觉，使得有点喘不过气了。

今年又有我自己的 Part-time studies, 一个星期两堂课，又兼 Project... 希望我可以做的很好。

最近，我突然爱上了到 reservoir 的 fishing ground 捕捉小龙虾 (so called lobster or crayfish)。 在最初的时候，老公Patrick 和我可是一只都捉不到。 现在，我们可是捉到一共有30只大大小小的。而我们也有了一位好友 Rick 和我老妈的长参于。 收获也抱括一条 soonhock鱼，一条 catfish鱼。 有趣的是，我们昨天还发现了一种可爱的鱼，BumbleBee (超像 nemo).

Guess what, we have got a new tank kindly sponsor by a buddy friend Rick, he has lobang for fish tanks and managed to get us one that is 2ft. We shifted our lobsters of various sizes to it and added in a block of woods plus stones for them to climb around on. We caught one pregnant lobster over the weekend and it's bursting with eggs underneath... Hubby and I did not notice anything at first and when it was put into the tank, we saw all the tiny red eggs it's carrying! Lucky we managed to saw that and have since shifted the mama to a seperate small container to let it stay by itself.

Two of the red lobsters we had actually mated last evening, hubby was all excited upon discovering them in action after we had our dinner. One of them forced the other to turn onto its back and it grabbed hold of the claws and hold on to it dearly with the rest of the 4 pairs of small legs... (interesting discovery).

I think there's ten over of them in the tank now... We were back at the fishing place on Sunday at 6 plus in the evening. I found only fishes and caught a few of the baby lobsters, just as it was turning dark, I discovered a really huge lobster with big fat claws but my net was too small to catch it in and with the sky turning dark... I have to give up and head for home. (wat a waste)

Let me take some photos when I have the time and post them here.... : )

Contest Junkie - Mr. Dallas

New Year 2009, my first gift of the year is very lovely, well thought out and unique. It's a really sweet surprise, I received it on a Monday morning (5th January 2009). Don't be surprise, it's because I was actually on leave today since I still need to be around to guide my maid around on how to bring the oldest boy to and from his new primary school.

The postman came and left me a registered parcel, surprise surprise, I found Contest Junkie Mr. Dallas' name on it! I opened up the package and found this lovely golden flower embossed box, on the box, it wrote " 富贵满堂", meaning good fortune and prosperity to the family. Find out more about Contest Junkie's second trip to China in Year 2008, he's having loads of fun in the winter land of China! http://cornflict.blogspot.com/2008/12/cornflict-giveaway-beijing-trip.html

Opening up the box, beatifully laid out in the yellow silk cloth, are a pair of dragon engraved chopsticks. There are two lovely painted mandarin ducks too, they are the chopsticks resters!


Noticed the chinese wordings on the cover? It wrote that food is the basic for human beings, and many other really lovely well meant verses.

A close up on the mandarin ducks and the dragon engraved chopsticks... really lovely...

I didn't know Dallas is going to be getting me something for the trip, plus, he's already sent me a lovely Christmas card for year 2008. Something you might not have noticed if you haven't been to his site frequently, he's a really young chap whom's still studying and already managing a blog that is huge on loads of traffic and contest links that are updated almost daily. Truthfully, I wonder how he gets all the contests' details daily. Oh ya, he's even been featured on the newspaper if you have noticed. A lot of achievements for a young lad like him...

I love gifts and surprises, but for one that is well thought, unique and with a lovely meaning behind it, that is not what you would always get. My first surprise gift for Year 2009 and I got this, it's really sweetttttt.....

HAPPY NEWWWWwwwww YEARrrrrrrrr!

恭喜发财，身体健康，万事如意！

(Gong Xi Fa Cai, Good Health, May All Things go Your Way!)

To all dear lovely friends, the New Year 2008 is soon coming to a close, let's us welcome Year 2009 with open hearts and hope that everything would be smooth sailing, everyone's health is at its' best and so on!

Guess what I have been up to recently? Something unglamourous, shocking and truly strange...

Hubby and I have been going "crazy" prawning, in case you don't know, it is prawn catching. We have been at reservoirs' legal fishing spots to catch prawns and baby crayfishs / lobsters, we have managed to get a good catch of about 20 crayfishs / lobsters so far. This is shocking becos we have never been into fishing, I am still twitching and don't even dare to touch my own catch! But, somehow, it's just so fun that we are hooked on it crazely at the moment. We have even got a guy friend of ours into this new found hobby. His aquarium is full of the baby crayfishs peeping from into the wood pieces he had provided for them to hide in. Hubby and I have got 3 little fish tanks to keep ours in.

We have got 2 red ones and 2 blue ones (with a red streak on each claws) living in one of our bigger tank, while the rest of the babies are residing in the other 2 tanks. I will post of photos of them in here soon.

Just the last trip, we ventured down to Kranji Reservoir at around 5:30pm and found that on the other side where the nature reserve is, people are digging for la la (clams) in the low tide mud. I persuaded hubby and our friend to go take a look at what the crowds were doing, found them having bucketfulls of la la. But if you are as scare of earthworms (big fat red ones) as me, complete with yucky sinking dirty mud, then forget it. By the time we were through, our feet were just so dirty and covered in mud, I felt all squisy seeing big fat red earthworms everywhere on the mud!

The walk was still great, I found many marine lifes along the mud which is nearer to the water edge, seems like corals which actually opens up into a flower... Then, there were a lot of horse shoes (a kind of crab) around.

If you like such stuff, bring your family or friends down. Be sure to check up on the low tide timing and be extra cautious not to venture out too far.

It's Christmas Eve, following by Christmas Day...

How's everyone of you?

It's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the next,

have you bought all the necessary gifts?

I have been busy preparing for my colleagues, friends and most importantly, my three little sons. Finally, it's time for me to take a short break.

I wish all of you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Eileen

Nothing in life is perfect, I am trying to be strong each day...

A lady walks into Tiffany's. She browses around, spots a beautiful diamond bracelet and walks over to inspect it. As she bends over to inspect the bracelet more closely, she inadvertently breaks wind.

Very embarresed, she looks around nervously to see if anyone has noticed her little accident and prays that a sales person doesn't pop up right now.

As she turns around, her worst nightmare materializes in the form of a salesman standing right behind her.

Cool as a cucumber and displaying complete professionalism, the salesman greets the lady with,

'Good day, Madam. How may we help you today?'

Very uncomfortably, but hoping that the salesman may just not have been there at the time of her little 'accident', she asks,

'Sir, what is the price of this lovely bracelet?'

He answers,

'Madam, if you farted just looking at it, you're going to shit yourself when I tell you the price.'

How many times have I been sad, as in real sad, this year 2008? I know that nothing's perfect in life, it's the salt and pepper occassionally that will make you appreciate your life better. I have a family, my husband and 3 lovely kids, including a house, a maid and a car... There is my career that I can't complain much about in this gloomy economy, friends both good and bad to balance out each other...

Okay, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow and I'm feeling really down. Something happened, and I am very very upset right now, I need to find someone to talk to, but I can't seem to find that someone. How many colors can you see around you? I can only see a shade of grey. 我的世界是灰色的，一片黑暗的。

My life has dropped to a the deepest of the deep, just the other day, someone was still sending me something about whether it's possible to cry when you are underwater. Yes, I am certain it's possible.

Bringing You WINTER from Sundsvall

Snowy white winter, so very magical and mysterious, I am going to save up very hard to spend at least a week of winter in a snowy white country! My boss sent me some photos of his hometown Sundsvall in Switzerland, now it's winter and snow is everywhere, this will be so till March 2009.


Look at the all the white snows covering the trees, it's freezing cold and animals such as the porcupines, the bears, the snakes, all are hiding up somewhere sleeping.

Look at the moon! White as the snow, hanging up high in the sky, shining down. It's so so magical.

During winter time, the daylight is short, darkness approaches so quickly that it sort of turns people lazy and depress. Sort of makes you felt like going to sleep early and no mood to do any other stuff such as shopping and taking a walk in the dark out on the snow...

All the snow needs to be clear away, especially when your car is cover fully in snow, one needs to ensure it's not going to freeze your engine. Walkway needs to be clear too, so that one could travel around.

Alright, it might not be much fun for people whom lives in such countries where months of the year are spent getting all freeze up and not able to travel much with all the snow. But I still love it! Just like how my boss love our sunny island and getting all sun tan to get his skin damage! haha!

He hates the part of ensuring the house is equipped with well working heat insulation and heating system during winter, wearing thick clothes and having problems with laundry (the part in getting them dry), being stuck at home most of the time when everywhere is covered thickly in snow, day turns to night so fast that it makes him depress... haha! That's the different pespective of views when each side of the penny thought that the other side is always better.

It's December once again! The lovely month of the year which is just great for a escape from our daily slogging at work. Are you thinking of escaping to a quiet relaxing place which allows you to leave all the stress which you have been carrying for the past one year?

I am thinking of doing just this, a voice inside me is telling me to escape, break loose from the daily timetable of reporting at work lifestyle. I'm dreaming of a lovely sandy beach complete with gentle blue sea for me to take a dip in. Just like a hermit crab, relaxing in it's own world.

Green palmy trees surrounding me as I relax, birds chipping away and the bright sunlight shining down on me. So Zen and Calmy on the soul.