Merry Christmas!

When I was growing up, Christmas was always my favourite holiday of the year, even more so than Chinese New Year. Though not Christians, my family had a tradition of celebrating Christmas. It was a great reason for us all to get together, decorate the Christmas tree, have a big feast of roast turkey, beef, honey baked ham, lasagne / pasta and the whole works, and my favourite part would be when my brother and I hung up Christmas Stockings next to our beds and waited for Santa to come by with our presents. Only we never managed to meet Santa, or rather, we didn't realise that our folks were our Santa Claus. till many years later.

As an adult now, I love Christmas for quite different reasons. Shopping is fantastic! Virtually every shop in town is having some form of a SALE, slashing prices, making all efforts of restrain very futile..

This year's Christmas is quite quiet and simple for us. No fancy or loud parties. Just gatherings with close friends and family. Yesterday after work (boss declared half day off, much to the excitement of us all!), I went to vist my best friend Jessie and her baby Shun. Jess is home to attend her sister's wedding and will only be here till Saturday night. Had to catch her and her baby before they returned to Japan.

Shun is extremely adorable. We had to try quite hard before he would let go of his toy and show off his handsome face to the camera. Jess had to step in when Shun started crying....haha! I probably need more practice with kids. And by the way, Happy 6 months Birthday baby Shun!

After an afternoon at Jessie's place, I met Colin for our Christmas eve dinner at Su Korean Cuisine at Far East Plaza. Had previously eaten there with Kat, and we both liked the food, hence I decided to bring Colin here. We ordered the Set Menu for 2 people, which left us really stuffed!

As with most Korean restaurants, this one served an assortment of 8 side dishes, which were all quite yummy.

There was a choice of grilling our own meats or have them grilled in the kitchen (for those who don't want to smell like BBQ after a meal). We chose to grill our own meat since it was more fun that way. The meats were quite well marinated and were tender and tasty. While Colin preferred to eat his meat with rice, I preferred to wrap them up with the lettuce leaves provided, adding a small dollop of bean sauce on the meat. Upon biting, the crisp cold lettuce leaves provided some balance to the hot juicy meats, which somehow made me feel less guilty with the indulgent dinner!
The set meal also came with a seafood beef soup, which we topped up to a Ginseng Chicken Soup. The soup had one whole chicken in it, and the chicken was stuffed with glutunous rice. I found the chicken quite tender, but Colin felt the soup a bit bland with not enough ginseng.
Orchard road was crazy crowded last night, and boy were we glad we did not have to drive through it. While Colin navigated our way through Scotts Road, I could not resist snapping a few shots of the Christmas lights!

Happy Holidays!

Tis the season!

December is probably one of my favourite months of the year. This is one month when half the office would be clearing leave, and the other half of the office is perpetually on a high. Though in the insurance industry, this is the season of renewals (which equate to higher work volume), many of us are going for longer-than-usual lunches, organising drink parties after work.... Catlin had our company lunch at Senso restaurant at Club Street.

Er Jun brimming with eagerness while everyone else was either busy chatting or scrutinising the menu

The bread basket was yummy....I especially liked the scone-like bread....

My appetiser of smoked marlin carppacio with orange and fennel dressing.

My main course of Homemade turkey ravioli in foie gras and aged balsamico sauce

Dessert for me was "Vin Brule" frozen semifreddo with toffee sauce The party continued after lunch where we adjourned to the bar next to the dining area. That's Angela and I, the organisers of the lunch. All 28 of us got into a big circle with crossed arms to crack the Christmas crackers together, which was really sweet! After that was a free flow of drinks, noise, and fun!

The Zorros of our office, Er Jun & Jimmy

The babes of the office....sorry boys, no photos of you! After the gift exchange. That's me, my toilet buddy Hui Zhi, and Anna (I'm her secret santa and got her a La Source foot scrub and cream to pamper her feet as she loves wearing heels!) That's me and my secret santa, Marilyn! No prizes for guessing what Marilyn got for me. A box of yummylicious chocolates from Candy Empire.Check out Lionel's happy grin when he saw the Hooters calender which was in his Hooters gift pack! Lionel flipped through the calender at least a dozen times that afternoon! This gift was also one of the most talked about one amongst the boys of the office! Cheers to a very happy Christmas!

Lost and Found

I admit it. I've lost interest in blogging. The novelty has worn off. After less than a year. Whilst I used to blog quite religiously previously (Colin once had to threaten to throw my PC away before I could tear myself away from the computer to spend time with him), I have not blogged for almost a full month! Last night in bed, Colin said, "Darling, why have you stopped blogging? I'm sure your loyal readers (actually read: my husband and my dad) get disappointed when we go to your blog and see no new entry."

So, here I am. Back in action, trying to reconnect with my lost interest. :)

This month has been crazy at work. With christmas approaching, and holiday cheers all round, you'd think that everyone would be having a jolly time, partying through this last month of the year. Think again. That couldn't be further from the truth. Truth is, in the insurance / reinsurance industry, December is a month of renewals and last burst of new businesses to reach business targets. This is the month that we are discouraged from taking leave unless absolutely necessary. For me, its the month to tie up the appraisal exercise, prepare for salary adjustments, renew employee benefits, organise christmas celebration, and many more!

On a personal front, I'm proud to announce that I finally started on my Introductory Golf Course. Its been forever since I thought of picking up golf, well, not exactly forever, but it was one of my resolutions when I first became a home-maker back in February this year. Didn't quite get to doing it of course. But after a very subtle "kick in the butt" by Colin (he bought me a full golf set and golf shoes for my 30th birthday), I decided that it was time to take the plunge! Its been 2 lessons so far, and I'm loving it!

And just last weekend, Colin and I drove to Sofitel's Palm Resort at Senai for an over-nighter. I spent most part of the mini vacation sleeping, but we also managed to fit in some fun, wholesome activities! We visited the driving range on our first day there. Here's Colin setting up our clubs. Ok. Most of the clubs were his. I had only brought along 1 miserable club to hit a few balls with. Hey, I'm a beginner golfer afterall! That's me trying to hit a ball with my no. 7 iron. Notice all those holes on the grass patch? Quite a few were caused by my golf club! Hitting those little white balls was not quite as easy as I thought! Now, I know my attire ain't quite appropriate, but hey, its Malaysia! *grin*What I didn't count on was the countless mosquito bites I got at the end of the session! I was getting so grouchy I almost swore off golf until Colin told me that you don't usually get so many mosquitoes when playing golf!
Next Stop : Bowling alley (air-conditioned and mossie-free!) We had the entire bowling alley to ourselves, which was really great as we could make as much noise as we fancied and I did not have to worry about embarrassing myself with my lack of ball skills!No prizes for guessing how my game went!
Here's the score of my best game! 85 points! hahaha! and with plenty of "drain cleaner" shots!
Our bedroom at the resort had a very inviting king sized bed in which I spent a whole lot of time!

Feasting at the Mong Kok Hong Kong Cafe at City Square.Value-for-money and yummy honey peach and passionfruit drink that was big enough for both of us through dinner and we could even pack the remainder into a normal sized cup for our movie afterward. We caught 2 movies over the 2 days, The Golden Compass (Narnia-like fantasy movie starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig) and 30 days of night (gory movie starring Josh Hartnett and Melissa George).

Our lunch the 2nd day at Teck Sing Paper Baked Chicken restaurant. Were so hungry we didn't remember to take a photo until we devoured the yummy chicken, fried baby kai lan, hot plate bean curd and watercress soup.

Though this was only a short 2-day 1 night getaway, we thoroughly enjoyed every moment and look foward to many more getaways to come!

On a last note, am so glad last night when my phone rang and the familiar voice of my best friend Jessie was on the other end. She's back in town to attend her beloved sister's wedding, and will be staying here till the end of the month! Can't wait to catch up with her and her baby Shun!