a birthday cake after missing one for years..

when young... all love bday cakes...

when i got older, i lost it for bday cakes...

now i'm beginning to appreciate it after many years of the absence of bday cakes....

and i just got mine 2 evenings ago!!! we had a christmas party @ ana's shop, for the last time :( cos she's moving out of the shop. i was so late, but that's another story. and they had a surprise bday cake for me!! it was so nice (and so rich the cake... lol) elvis said the cake completed my bday celebrations.. he's right... its been so awesome, and the cake just completed it.. yeah... :)

a really really great bday this year...

i had a really great bday this year, just yesterday. one of the best..

started off on christmas day, when my mom made dte gua mee sua for me, and hving that with elvis and my parents.

den yesterday, in the morning, i prepared food for a picnic that elvis n i were going for at sentosa. we wanted to go to the tanjong beach, cos its really nice and quiet. but the road was barricade so we went to siloso beach instead. for a non public holiday and a weekday, it was very crowded. the cools thing is that, its been raining for a couple of days. and yesterday, the day was bright and cloudy for the part when we were having our picnic, and sunny when we went for the luge ride. anywayz, when we reached there.. i got my bday present from elvis!! last year, the present wasnt 'suitable' for me.. this year, i noe he tried really hard, its pretty farnie... i got a zicornian (i dunno how to spell it) pendant on a necklace... :)


pictures clockwise from left: my bday prezzie from elvis; the picnic; bread cup with creamy chicken n veg filling; the picnic from another angle

i made bread cups and had creamy vegetable and chicken fillings and tuna fillings. we brought grapes, orange juice and a lot of chocolates. but we were so stuffed with the bread cups that din eat much chocs....








we walked to the luge station. waited really really long for the first luge ride. the first time we went up the skyride... i almost freaked out!! i felt so exposed to the surroundings as the seat we were on moved higher and higher. the first ride down the luge, elvis said iwas going v slow too. by the time we had the second and third rides, i was enjoying them already.

after sentosa, we went back to my place to washup and went to party at ping's place. as usual, meeting new peeps from all over, loads of alcohol, music, jamming... it was so fun... we had some fun at the expense of the host, joking over his lack of rhythm.. despite being a jazz musician... :P den ping passed us a 'light fruit punch' which turned out to be... eeks!! even his 'alcohol' buddy said it was strong for him.. it was pretty farnie.... den it was jamming time... a lot of singing.. a lot of tinkling of the piano... and i think the peeps pretty much likmy playing.. :) at the end of the day, they sang me a bday song. it was SO NICE!!

i was sharing with elvis, its been a good holiday this year. first, a long trip to bangkok. since i came back, two gigs, one of which i got to SING my debut. and this bday was so special and nice cos i gotta do things i like with my loved ones, all in one day!!!

thank You Daddy....

blessed christmas...

its been a busy but very enjoyable week since i returned from bangkok last thurs. in a week, God has blessed me with the chance to hv 2 gigs. One in a home party, which is something different, and one at TTSH again, with ping.

FOr the first, it was a little stressful because i had to be ready with a repertoire of at 70 songs (and i only had abt 24 hrs to prepare since i return home). For the second, it was really fun jamming with ping, and i did my debut singing in the public. well, kindof debut. it was so fun!! ha ha...

today played for christmas service. sound was bad, stvn was pretty frustrated w the sound.. but... well, i've kindof gotten accustomed to it and just 'live with it. or maybe cos i'm on piano, so i din care as much as if i were on the keys. ha ha.

elvis came by my place after service. we had a nice lunch at this new cafe called pinch of salt. the price was very reasonable. food was good. only the server taking us was a little 'blur'. but still... the service was pretty good. at my place, my mom suddenly realized i'll prolly be out all day tmrw and it'll be hard for her to cook the 'dte gua mee sua' for me.. so she said she'll cook it for me for dinner tonight. so for dinner, elvis joined my parents and i in my round table in the kitchen. my mom said a prayer of thanksgiving.. it felt weird... like... this is gonna be the 'last' bday i'm gonna b celebrating at my place like this.. this is gonna be the 'last' christmas i'll be hving with this place as my home... whilst i'm looking fwd to the future, i feel really nostalgic too... that life moves on so quickly...

after dinner, i dunno how i ended up starting to clear my drawers. i tink i wanted to show elvis my accessories, etc. ended up clearing the stuff... with elvis ard, i threw away a lot of things i've kept for YEARS. tickets and maps and passes from my previous trips... notes from a church camp yonds ago.. i finally cut up the expired credit cards (6 in all). stuff like that... i think its a process where i'm beginning to clear the past to move on to the future... its kindof strange... i told elvis there was a reason why its easier for me to trash some of these things.... i said... in the past i kept them for memory sake... to look back. but after showing him things i've done (trips, etc.), i've 'shared' that part of my life with someone, and so i cld move on and trash them.. strange ey... later after he left, i was telling my mom too that, actually in the past i tend to keep because i thot there will be days when i look back... but now that i'm moving on with someone else, there are many more things to look forward to... and so i dun need so many 'things' to look back to... strange again? ha ha.. i tink so.. but tt's me..

anywayz, am making elvis bring me out on a picnic tmrw to celebrate my bday! ha ha.. hope it doesn't rain. den will be a home party at ping's place. sat will be party at ana's shop. hmm.. my partying just only JUST started AFTER christmas... ha ha...

God is good.. so good .. so so good...thank You...

A Night on the Orient Express

I had the God-given opp to play for the cocktail of a D & D last night. It was really fun. The peeps were really really well-dressed, unlike during wedding dinners, where some peeps really dun dress up (some lah, you noe wat i mean, Singaporeans).

I got to wear the bright green dress elvis bought for me in Philippines a year ago, and it was really nice, i mean, i thought it matched the setting very well.

Ok.. other than the bimbotic stuff, I guess given that I've played in different kinds of settings (with singer, with violinist, with band, etc.), i'm starting to get a bit of the hang of things. No longer was I as nervous as I used to be, and am actually really beginning to enjoy playing the music, and sometimes really having fun producing those sounds to fit the atmosphere (rather than just playing 'safe').

I took my teacher's advice, to watch the crowd and play accordingly. Of course, tis is also only possible when I'm more at ease now. Its pretty fun, when you realize that you can actually 'twik' or 'enhance' the socials interactions going on. At the end of my session, the co-ordinator came and told me that she had comments that the music was great, and it created a good ambience for the cocktail. It was really really nice to hear that. :)

One thing interesting about playing for sessions is, I get to see the 'back' - logistical preps for all these glamm-ed up events, and get to see wat goes on in the 'front'. I've 'sat in' for quite a no. of briefings for the servers, whenever I'm waiting for my session to begin. Captains briefing the staff how to serve, etc. Its pretty fun and interesting - what's behind all the facade. :)

I am really thankful to God for all these fun. :) Also, very thankful for and to elvis for always being my faithful 'chauffuer cum chaperon'. ha ha...

yeah.. and just a quick update on wedding prep. we were pretty prepared for the second photoshoot @ the beach on thurs, we bought a helium-filled heart shaped balloon that says 'hugs & kisses... xxoxxo' ha ha, a picnic basket (i cant believe it!!), and some flowers as props. (to see elvis carrying all these things at marine parade is rare!! he's usually too 'practical' for those things added up.) but alas!! it was pouring the entire pm. so we've shelfed it to tmrw am at 6am!!! eeks... heh... so need to buy the fresh props again. as for the housing stuff, made our first deposit and starting to look through interior design mags compliments from AO.

life is good... life is beautiful.. because Jesus loves me... thank You!!

Entry 2: the photoshoot

we had a photoshoot yesterday too. so it was a really tiring but eventful day.

after meeting LL for breakfast at singpost yest, she dropped me off at elvis' to get my stuff. den elvis n i headed for ana's shop for the makeup and all. elvis got really nice dark pink and white roses to be used for the photoshoot. while i got the princess treatment in being dolled up, the two of them were working out buoquets of flowers ana says neva to let J see, or he will murder her! ha ha... it was really farnie to see elvis working on the flowers. and its really so sweet to hv flowers done up by pple close to me... they are not the 'florist-pretty' sort, but they ARE pretty.. and i dunno.. its just so sweet and nice... i loved them!

den V (our ex-colleague), our photographer turned up with 2 of my ex-students. ha ha.. i taught them music 2 yrs ago when they were in sec 1. all the sch song and theme songs.. ha ha... we took pics at blujaz and arab street, and when i was doing the touchup after the first set,it started POURING! if peeps use the term raining cats and dogs, i'd say, it rained cows and mutton.. oops.. i meant sheep... like almost all over singapore yest. ha ha... we were planning to take pics at punggol ... where the 'grassland' is (i hv no idea wat, it was V's idea.). but.. it was virtually impossible. i rem in the car ride there, i only asked God... for His best.. cos He loves us mah... so we went to punggol marina first just to wait out the rain. along the way, elvis thot of going to the airport instead. so at punggol marina, we met up w V again, and decided to go to T3 (and managed to leave the carpark within the 15 mins grace period. heh). its 'exciting' cos i've neva been to T3 before even tho i've thot of going a couple of times.

T3 turned out to be a really nice place to do the photoshoot cos
1. its dry (the outdoor rain can be quite depressing!)
2. its NOT CROWDED!!
3. its got nice places to take pics.
We had popeyes at T3 den proceeded to Orchard road for the last set. By then, elvis n i were 'dying'.. but V was still roaring to go... ha ha...

Orchard Road was pretty fun with the christmas decos. THe most fun part was when V was trying to use some trick to capture us over 2 - 10 seconds of exposure, us as the subjects, and the moving peeps ard as a 'blurry' set of images in the backgrd. but we had to hold real still thro those 2 - 10 seconds, and given our tall and lanky frames, it wasn't easy. Our CG was too high so we were swaying abt. ha ha ha... anywayz, we decided to do it across the road.. or the MIDDLE of the road linking from Scotts to Wheelock Place... the traffic lights for the pedestrains stay green for over a minute we figured!! so we can even try for 3 to 4 shoots (with the posture freeze for 2s for each shot). People were looking. There were even people who follow suit. ha ha... but it was fun!! sometimes u see 'ghostly' features in these shots. ha ha...

by the time we ended, it was over 10pm. i went to elvis place to just washup first before heading home. he was so tired... he cldn't even talk to me :'(

cant wait to see the pics! :D

Entry 1: my upcoming new home!!

yesterday morn, elvis called me at abt 8.30am.
E: guess wat?
me: wat?
E: we got the place!

WE GOT THE PLACE!! albeit on the costlier side. but we got the place! its pretty farnie how we chose this place.

Its a 13th storey, 5I flat, with 'unblocked' view, N-S facing. In fact, it was the FIRST flat we viewed. That time, we weren't impressed with the 'unblocked' view. I din like a column in the living room. That column actually made me consider to get an EM rather than a 5-room flat in the neighborhood.

So just last weekend, we went to view two flats again. Since I super bad with numbers, I actually did not rem the block nos. of the flats we viewed (not even a previous one we made an offer for!). So when we went to the 13th storey, I stepped into the recess area and was like.. hey.. very familiar... just like the first one we saw (more than a month ago) i stepped into the flat and thot wow... the layout is so similar... let's see that difference this place has ... until i turned to a wall beside the dining table and saw a photo portrait of an elderly indian lady. i was 'stunned' for a moment... HEY.. we've been here before!! the first place!

see, the first time we viewed it, it was handled by an agent. we only viewed the place to see the layout of 5I flats. We weren't even interested in it in the first place because of the asking price. that day, the owner was selling it without an agent. in other words, we dealt with 2 persons, hence we did not noe it was the same unit.

i was even more alert than elvis. he did not even noe it was that unit! ha ha.. when he asked me to take a look at the kitchen, and asked me whether it was big enough for me, i thot he was just kidding and pretending! ha ha...

anywayz, the second time round, we really liked the place. i guess after 'shopping' ard looking at the other flats, we learnt to see more out of this. sometimes its farnie how God brings us round so that we can appreciate things better. in fact, i thot, wah, if we ever got this unit, it will be God lor.. and it IS GOD!! ha ha.. so am praying that this will be our love nest with God... and praying that we will be able to bless others with this space in the future. :) i wanna throw parties!!! ha ha...

wedding updates....

peeps hv been asking how the wedding preps are coming along... honestly, we hvn't done much. ha ha. save for choosing the date, booking of church as well as the hotel.

tmrw and thurs, we will be doing 'casual' outdoor foto shoot. no gown. ha ha. because farmer's not supposed to be able to see my gown til the day itself! last sat night, we went scouting orchard rd and today arab street for potential sights for shooting. tmrw will be doing arab street, punggol followed by orchard. thurs will be sentosa. ana made me try on some pieces of her collection. among the 3 pieces, there was one really cute one, that was so suitable for the thurs shoot at sentosa. i kept bugging her to lend me, and eventually sell me, until she gave up and said it was supposed to be my bday surprise! oh me and my big mouth!!

last thurs we've made the order for our wedding bands.. after scouting for abt a month or so. they weren't the most 'value for money'.. but we really liked them... so.. ha ha...

we've just made an offer for a place we looked at on sat pm. its pretty interesting how we came to this place. i'll post more abt it, IF we get this place. paying a lot for it.. but we really liked the place.. so... we'll see...

i tink tt's abt the updates on the wedding i hv so far. why am i picking up on my blog again? i figure this is a way for me to rem my wedding preps. but i dun tink the way i'm blogging it is too intereting.. ha ha... but aiya.. can rem good oredi lah. :P