Yippee! My cake has garnered some fans!

Wohoo ! Teppanyaki coming up....

Bro & cousin acting all cute .. isn't the apron adorable ?hehehe

Me posing again as usual ... = P

Dad, the chef wannabe ... now you know where I get my posing skills from ??!
See how creative we are ..placing our golden peaches (real ones okie) as decoration! What an expensive cake!hahaha

Grannie looking so pleased ...yeah !

Err,so where is the part about fans ?? Aiyah, shy lah ...hehehe

Story goes that we were happily enjoying our cake at the reception area when mum decided to cut a slice for the chef and before we know it, a couple of the waitresses came over and asked for the recipe cos it was yummy ! Apparently they have shared among some of them and liked it . Yippee !!

Happy Birthday Mum & Grannie!

Going for a birthday dinner tonight at some Teppanyakki Place on Jurong Hill (yah I know ... Japanese food when I just came back from a week of that!hahaha ) and decided to bake a cake for the fun of it.

Mum's birthday was yesterday and today is Gran's lunar Birthday .

Stage 1 - Love the colour of the cherries & pineapple shreds

Stage 2 - Fresh from oven & smelling real yummy

Final Stage - Mum's favourite pineapple upside down cake (though I think the colour is not rich enough) Anyhow, it's good for an amateur = )

By the way, gran did all the hard work of whipping (by hand) the mix ... I just did the measurement and decoration ..hahaha

Japan Trip Day 1 - Osaka

Barely 6 hours into the 1st day of work and I am all totally zonked out! Help!!

Hmm so I figured to cheer myself up, I will relook (like the 5th time!)at my photos (not many lah, just 1014 shots !) from our Japan trip...hehehe

What's pics of us without showing the food we eat right ? So here's some fun shots of the fun stuff we ate at Universal Studio.

Chocolate Ice cream you think?

Nah, its smoked TURKEY DRUMSTICK ... quite yummy especially in the cold weather !

How about time for some SNOOPY custard bun ?

And it's Gone ....awwww ...

Adorable Elmo making an entrance ...

Our little snack at the cafe... pretty okie but it sure was expensive!hahaha

More pics of the fun we had at Universal with our favourite characters. Actually we had to wrestle with Japanese kids (and kawaii girls)to get those shots ...hahaha ... shameless Singaporean you say !

Rides were fun too (ask Sand abt the bump in head from Spidey ride..hahaha) and my butt was wet & frozen when us 2 sumo squeezed ourselves into a tiny boat and zoomed down Peppermint Patty's Slide. Err .. think we were the only 2 who screamed all the way down . Aaaahhhhh .....

Our 1st Japanese meal -Ramen, Gyoza & Chye Sim (??)

Cards & Cake

A card for my favourite colleague cum cubicle neighbour, Karen, who is mummy for the 3rd time!Hehehe

Cards made by Sandy and me ...mostly done for mummy to give to her friends.

Our first impromptu cake baking in my new toy....an Oven !
The joy of watching it baked!hehehe

Wala !The final product ...

Amazing Race Asia Season 2

http://amazing-race-asia.axn-asia.com/season2/teams/

Ok I know I am a bit SLOW (like this is episode 6 already !) but I LOVE Amazing Race Asia Season 2! What started as watching out of boredom has manifested into an addiction and a case of national pride! Hahahaah ... go COLIN & ADRIAN !! It also helps that there are not unfamiliar faces since we frequent the same gym . (Yes, I do gym ok ... maybe once in a PINK moon which is more rare than the BLUE moon ...hahaha)

I almost nearly sobbed when Team Japan (Sawaka & Daichi) lost to the Malaysian Dancing Mums (aaarrghhhh !!!) cos I think they are such a sweet group and they tried so hard. Just pure bad choice to choose deliver instead of slither and groaned in exasperation when they made their choice... but thats life

Of cos what is reality tv without eye candies ? We all love beautiful people dun we ?! So it is no wonder that Marc & Rovilson (Team Philippines) and Paula & Natasha (Team Thailand) has garnered a huge fan base and is probably the drawing power behind the show.

And thankfully this was one episode where Teri decided to keep her cool (and her abusive language) and not lash out at poor Henry at every little thing.She is so totally irritating and her voice just rings in my head after each outburst.hahaha... but that is coming back in episode 7.. some things just do not change

Kudos to Conservation Projects - Keong Siak Street

For those who frequent Chinatown (thats me!), am sure you have heard of Keong Siak Street.

During the 1960s (that's WAY before my time okie..hehehe), Keong Saik Road used to be a notorious red light district in Chinatown but these days it houses many boutique hotels and is a conservation project under URA.

Love the buildings, brings me back to Singapore in the yester years

Pictures taken in a temple.

Dun the 水缸reminds you of the 司马光 story ?

And who can forget the wooden tables in coffeeshops in the 60s ... Kopi O jij puay !!

As well as the beautiful motifs that adorn the floors and walls of these buildings.

Thank God for Friends!Merry Christmas

And counting .....

229 stamps (yes, imagine that!!) and still counting ....

Here's a snapshot of my toys ... hehehe

And my latest buddies from Penny Black. Totally adorable!!

All nicely packed up in my new suitcase ....

And what is stamping without all kinds of ink .... hmmm ......

Not forgeting the embellisments (ribbons, brads, stickers etc), card stock & punches .... and on and on and on ...

I am a HAPPY GIRL .....grin ....= )

My Sunday ....

What does one do on a cold and rainy Sunday ? Sleep in of cos! Rainy days are made for snuggling in bed, all nice and warm under the blanket .. dreamz ....

Unless of cos, one stays with her granma who wakes at the crack of dawn and thinks that sleeping beyond 9am on a weekend shows a lack of discipline ..aarrggghh ... sigh ..

Good thing is that then I would have ample time to dabble in my new hobby so here are some of my amateurish work ...=)

Undeniably, Flowers are girls' best inspiration

Christmas Holidays...

Peek- a-cake !

And what is fun without the usual mess ...hahaha... you have to yet to see the floor !

Christmas Prezzies from Weilin

I Love Christmas ! Check out the cute snowman Wei Lin made for us ...so cheery !

Do we really know ?

Just attended 2 days of Recruitment & Retention Conference organised by Asia Business Forum and boy do I have information (more accurately frameworks) overload !

Having to sit through 16 speakers in 2 days is definitely no joke and honestly the retention rate fell sharply come Day 2.Talk abt retention and engagement .. how ironic ..hahaha

Really, most companies have the same talent development framework or retention strategies (using different terms to make it more sexy probably) if they are willing to engage pricey consultancy svs. But what sets me thinking is that how many HR practitioners do genuinely believes in the impact and good they bring in the strategies they implement ? Do they live, breathe these beliefs ? I dare say, not many.

Over the past days, I have met up with HR folks that fails to inspire which is so very sad. HR being the voice of the management, feeling the pulse of the people and proclaiming that People are the company's best (if not ONLY) asset & competitive advantage , yet in a social context fails to be an ambassador of the company brand and values.

So what makes a good HR practitioner ? Spare me the "people person" pitch cos in today's environment that is already a given. Strategic Partner ? Yah, we all aspire to be but are we really ? Do we even know what is a strategic role or what the company's business strategies are ?

Questions after questions which will probably keep me up all night .....now you know why my team gets stressed everything I attend a sharing... = P

More cards ...guess which ?

Bet this is easier to guess right ? Which is mine and which is Sand's creation ? Too bad Anna & Lynn have kept their master pieces so no pics to showcase.

Any way, each panel is a done using different techniques like stamping, embossing, etc as well as usage of different types of ink (pigment, dye, vesamark ...etc etc etc ..hahaha) and various material base.

Indeed card making is a VERY expensive hobby (more expensive than my previous hobby of beading.. sigh) and I won't be surprised if my current stash hits the thousand mark soon! Shhh ...mum is so NOT reading this ....hahaha

So if any of you intends to buy me Christmas present (hint hint HINT !) I only want PENNY BLACK rubber stamps !! HEheheh ... ok ok.. thats asking for a lot cos each stamp costs almost $40 ...blink blink blink ...I still love you all in any case ...muack !!

By the way, if you are reading this, you are invited to my Christmas Party on 25 Dec @ Sengkang lodge yah. Invitation will come soon once I get back to the office ... = P

Our new past time - Card Making

I admit, I am real bad at colouring so when I learnt that I had to colour the designs during the cake making class with our adorable "cher Normah", I was all stressed up.

Of cos the artists among us (i.e meaning the rest of the girls!!) were happily painting and mixing colours and the most pro amongst us even had shading okie ... show off .... hehehe

Make a guess which of the above designs belong to me, Sand, Anna & Lynn???

Baby Jun's First Steps

Just gotten off skype with Baby Jun and the entire family was watching intently as he wobbled on his own for the very first time!! Yes, Baby Jun has taken his first step ! Wished I could be there to capture all on video ...hehehe

Talking abt babies, I just received this little surprise from my colleague for her prince's 1st month celebration. Isn't the box adorable ?! I love the baby blue silk ribbon and was happily swinging it on my way home... =)

And surprisingly everything is still in its place when I

opened it up...hehehe

What a nice variety too. And there are little details like the ring of border around each egg and the catalogue neatly rolled up in a scroll.

And a cute Thank You card from the Baby to top it up ... how endearing !

ICE3

For those who hang around Serangoon Gardens will probably have heard of ICE3(cube) . One of the cool ice cream cafe where berms and flip flops is the dress code of the day and friends gather to catch up with each other in the casual ambience.

Thot the bunny is pretty cute. Love the big butt ...hehehe

No prizes for guessing what I took. Yup, my all time favourite, Choc FONDUE! Had fun creating my own version of "kebab"

Sand had her EYES WIDE OPEN which is mocha ice cream topped with lots MILO and choc chips and syrup ... oooohhh ....

Lynn decided to go fruity tutti with blueberry, mango and strawberry ice cream all at 1 go ! And the sunflower choc bits is nice and crunchy too ... yumm ...

"Alcoholic" Anna decided that rum & raisin ice cream with Bailey is the way to go. Cheers !