Memories of my first trimester

I thought I will be the kind of mummy-to-be who will be very excited about anything and everything and will be busy with incessant blogging... turns out to be the opposite... this mummy have been very "lazy"... keke

I'm currently into my 16th week of pregnancy and is super looking forward to the disclosure of my baby's gender this Friday. Hope the scan goes through smoothly as in baby cooperates fully. This is like another milestone of pregnancy, where you will know what kind of stuff to start preparing for the arrival of the baby. I have been looking forward to every visit to the gynae. I still remember the excitment I was feeling when I heard the baby's very fast heartbeat for the first time and seeing the black dot aka baby sac. I was super elated during the 2nd visit seeing the baby growing. The third visit was even more amazing! We can actually see the baby's hands waving away and feet swaying. Till now, I still feel that the most beautiful sound ever is the heartbeat of the little one inside me.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I was busy asking around for good books recommendations, courses that I should attend etc... I was still very active then, even meeting up with friends a lot, and that was definitely before the fatigue and morning sickness kicked in. Shortly after, I was feeling tired and sleepy all the time, I go to bed as early as 7, 8pm. I started to puke as many as 4 times a day. I had to adjust to the kind of hunger pangs I was feeling and learn to avoid these hunger pangs so that I will not puke. The only impressive thing I managed to accomplish was completing the 3 intensive full days of Millionaire Mind Intensive. I'm like 1 month behind on What to Expect When You Are Expecting...

Overall, it was a tiring 3 months but luckily I had JQ by my side. I must say he took really good care of me, making sure I was feeling ok, buying food for me, being there for me. It's a blessing to have him. But I have to say, he is currently more pregnant than me! HAHAHA!

Robbed and harassed by loansharks!

Never have I imagined that the above 2 things will ever happen to my hubby and me... and it's even beyond my imagination that these 2 things will actually happen within a short span of 10 days! I was having a long break clearing leave and went on a short trip to Malacca with JQ's family on Boxing Day. On our first night in Malacca, just when we were heading out to dinner, a snatch thief on a motorbike had the audacity to snatch JQ 's waist pouch and took off!! Did I tell you this happened just outside the hotel at the carpark, and there was a big group of us like 5 or 6 of us helping to load Jimmy's Mum from the wheelchair into our car! The stupid Indian actually dared to execute his plans when there were so many of us there! I have to say JQ reacted very fast and put up a brave fight. He gave chase immediately and even threw a shoe at him, closing the distance between him and the Indian at one moment, BUT of cos, he did not catch him. Slippers and motorbike is not a fair match after all! Luckily, no one was hurt in this incident. JQ just had some scratches on his arms and feet. He lost a camera, all his $, IC, cards and all his personal belongings. It was such a blessing that I was holding on to the passports!

Our dinner plan had to be delayed while we called all the banks to freeze his cards and waiting for the police to come. The police took a very long time to come, and my hubby eventually had to go to the police station to take down statement. Needless to say, they took a even longer time to send him back to the hotel, almost 3 hours for a statement! When he came back, we realized that he had to go to 3 police stations cos they could not understand English well. OMG! He was also describing to us how it was like in their police stations. When he reached the stations, all of them were not in uniform. They were all casually dressed with their uniforms hanging somewhere. Worse still, they were all smoking and chatting away... and they are supposed to be the front line staff...

We had to park our cars away from the hotel as we suspect that this was a syndicate's doing and that these idiots were targetting our whole group. After the incident, we saw 3 other motorists taking photos of our cars from across the road! We managed to return home safe and sound after 2 nights in Malacca.

On 4 Jan 09, in the short 2 hours that we were at my Mum's place for dinner, another horrible thing happened to us. When we reached home at 8.30pm, we found permament marker marks on our front door! The message read Lim Choon Teck 08-30 O$P$! Hello, you are writing on the door of 07-30 lor! Don't they know how to read? Don't these runners know the difference between 7 and 8! There were also new messages on the stairway wall. Apparently, according to the police, the loansharks now harass the neighbours as well...Well, these people are really desperate. The person who owes them $ has already moved away. My new neighbour upstairs is also a victim who kena paint etc during their renovations... Their CCTV probably saved them from the harassment this time round.

Stay posted for photos of the graffiti...

There goes my US trip!

Just when I am announcing happily that I am going US soon, I'm even happier to announce that I'm cancelling my US trip cos I'm expecting the arrival of a baby Eve/Seth. As the trip falls nicely within my first trimester, we have decided to cancel the trip. Will just have to squeeze some time in future to make up for this one later... ;D

Looking forward to Nov 29

Yippee! We are finally going on our honeymoon after 2 years and 8 months into marriage!! It is really long overdue. If JQ sees this, he will probably say... excuse me, ehmmm... we have been to Bali, Bangkok, Genting etc, not considered honeymoon ah? My standard reply will be this is classfied as short trip. Anything less than 10 days is not honeymoon! haha, I very 野蛮 right? keke

Even though we are setting off in slightly more than a month's time, other than buying round trip air tix, and tix to O at Bellagio, nothing else is done. And ours is going to be a driving trip. Wish us luck man! =)

Energy Saving Facts

Read this in a magazine and decided to share this info...Let's put in some effort to save the planet and cut down on our ever increasing electricity bills...

Discovery 1
The energy saved from switching off the airpot for 1 day is sufficient to light up a 4-room flat for 2 days!

Discovery 2
It is 6 times cheaper to watch a DVD on your laptop than on your LCD TV!

Discovery 3
The energy saved from reducing the use of a storage water heater from 8 hours to 1 hour can power a frige for more than 24 hours!

Discovery 4
It requires more than double the energy to cook rice in a microwave oven than in a rice cooker!

Discovery 5
Running your clothers dryer for 1 hour uses enough energy to heat up an iron 140 times! Or make 160 cups of coffee with a coffee maker!

Sprained toe

This is how a sprained toe looks like!!



This is not my toe, it's my sister's. She sprained her toe during yoga today.

Auntie Evelyn finally went to St James!!

28 Aug, Thu was our fiscal year end. As there were guests in town, and we have not had a company gathering for the longest time, Danny initiated a gathering at Dragonfly and in his words, to celebrate a pathetic quarter. Hoon, Jess and I decided to jio Tricia along as well. The exchange of sms between Hoon and Tricia was hilarious!

Hoon: Join us to go Dragonfly tonite leh...
Tricia: What time you all going?
Hoon: 6pm to 8pm...
Tricia: Huh?!! So early? You all go there and set table ah!

HAHA. In the end, T did not go. And the gathering turned out more fun than we thought it will be. :p

3 needle holes and a big blue black!

Went for my first MSA-Parkway health check on 12 Aug 08 and this is what they did to my vein. There was swelling and the blue black just became bigger. The bruise only disappeared 2 weeks after the health check. This is the first and last time I'm participating in health checks organised by company. I will rather go outside and pay more than to let nurses practice their injection skills on me! :((

My adorable sister

A cute exchange of sms between my sis and Wei.

Wei: My frd moving to Buangkok...

Sis: Really? She married a Thai lah...

Wei: ??

Sis: She must have married a Thai, that's why moving to Bangkok mah...

Wei: You dunno there is this station called Buangkok in Sengkang ah?

Sis: Oops! HAHAHA!!

Faintz!!!

Inspiration

Was at ECP for dinner on Mon nite. On our way back, we saw a rare sight. There was this very old uncle learning roller-blading! And I mean really old! He is probably in his 70s already, wearing those kind of white singlet and uncle bermudas and all armoured. He looks quite frail and you can see that he is struggling with balancing on his blades. Kudos to him for having the courage to try all sorts of things at his age and kudos to his children who was by his side holding on to him. This is what I call quality family time. :p

National Day Rally

For the first time in many years, I paid more attention to the National Day Rally speech by our PM. For the first time, I was in front of the TV throughout the whole speech without yawning even once. I'm the kind that hardly pays any attention to the government policies with mentality that it probably will not help me much anyway. This year was different probably because the issues are of my utmost concerns, inflation and baby policies. Government announced a teaser earlier saying that they are looking at the Swedish model for baby policies. With that, there were a lot of speculation among common folks like longer maternity leave (maybe 6 months), paternity leave, increased childcare subsidies and flexi working arrangement etc. Some of it came true. Maternity leave has been extended to 4 months, but darn, there is no extended paternity leave...

Singapore flag arising...

Today is a Monday that I don't feel rested at all. Too many activities happening over the weekend: major makeover of our house and supporting the Singapore team at the Olympics. Rushed home from dinner to watch the game at 7.30pm and my eyes stay glued to the TV. There is a huge disparity in standard between the 2 teams. China's team has world no. 1, 2 and 5 players whereas Singapore team's ranking is world's no 6, 7 and 9. But I seriously think Singapore team put up a very good fight. I used to think that so what if they are good, their origin is still China what. But what JQ said to his kids made me think another way. Yes, they were born in China, but they are more Singaporean than us, cos they gave up their citizenship in China to live in Singapore, train in Singapore so as to represent Singapore. They are doing more things for Singapore. And he asked them what are they doing for Singapore... Of course there will be another school of thought, they are getting paid what, if they are not here, they would not have such opportunities. Whichever the case, they made it possible for us to see our Singapore flag rising at an Olympic event for the first time, so I'm still very proud of them! Go Team Singapore and may we see more stars rising to do us proud!

Latest update on my toe

I've started wearing track shoes recently and went for short jogs/walks. However, I still can't bend my toes that well. Visited a orthepedic and physiotherapist last week and realized that it's not my big toe that is affected. It's my second toe that is more stiff. So I have been exercising the wrong toe all this while! The therapist taught me a few things I can do to exercise and strengthen my toes and I have been doing pretty diligiently. So now I'm seeing some improvement. I've even started wearing my most comfortable pair of heels! Yippee! =) Give me a while more, and I should be able to wear my other heels liao. keke

BBQ on 08/08/08

It's been a while since Crucial had a get-together. This year we had a BBQ at a chalet at Pasir Ris again. That's what we normally do, cos there aren't that many places a big group can go, hang around, chill out and really catch up.


JQ looks very good in this pix hor...:p


Think I enjoyed this year's gathering more than previous years. I probably stayed long enough to really catch up with the rest of the guys. Food this year was super good too. Mag prepared 2 super yummy salad for me. Her potato salad was really nice. Bee hoon prepared by Dollah's wife was yummy too! =)

Meditation helps

Was in a super foul mood yesterday after talking to my boss. Can feel my face, eyes and body flushing red and hot with anger! Lucky Tricia lent a "MSN window and her eyes" to me to vent my frustration (with technology, it's no longer listening ears and a shoulder). She probably can relate to what I'm feeling cos we had the same boss once. Anyway, my EQ was just going haywire and I was feeling shitty and lousy and just looking forward to 4pm.

Planned to go for steamboat dinner at Lotus and since dinner starts only at 6pm, hubby and I decided to visit the Burmese Buddhist temple near Balestier. This place always have that magic aura of calming people down. We went upstairs to the 3rd floor and meditated for a short while in front of Buddha. It's truly amazing. I can feel myself calming down and peace taking over my mind. I feel a lot more lighthearted and refreshed after the short meditation. Just googled this temple and realised they have meditation service for adults every Friday 7-8pm. Think I will give this meditation a try one of these Fridays. =)

http://www.burmesebuddhisttemple.org.sg/index.htm

PS: T, what you said about S was very funny. I only had the mood to laugh about it when I recalled our conversation during dinner...:p So you think I should take the photos out?

No more good facials...

My favourite beautician is leaving! I have never had a regular favourite beautician before until I met C and now she's leaving, all her Boss's fault. Someone should send the Boss to some management courses. The way she's treating her staff now is like they are all her maids! All the horror stories of how she treats them, no wonder everyone is leaving when they have a chance. Such a bully! All her fault!

Big change!

There is going to be a BIG change in my company again. This is going to be the fourth time in 7 years, BUT this time it has more direct impact on the sales team on the whole. I thought the result and consequence of the last acquistion of LM was bad. My team, especially I, had to go through shit, turmoil and politics. I went through a phase of frequent headaches, pulling hair and vomitting and finally settled all the pertinent issues. Thought it's the time to kind of enjoy some harvesting now, but alas, there is an announcement to change the sales structure. How is that happening, no one knows for sure at this juncture. We will just have to wait and see and hope transition will be smooth and easy. SIGH! Is this a sign for a career change? :(

Sweet birthday surprise

My sister planned a birthday surprise for me this year and it was a success! Cos I did not have the faintest idea until I saw them at my place. Of course this was made possible with a good accomplice: JQ. JQ and I were out till about 9+ on my birthday. When we reached home, I saw him opening the shoe cabinet with the intention of keeping his shoes, BUT he took out his shoes and left it on the floor. I asked him what he's doing, and he said he wanted to air his shoes. DUH! I did not suspect that there was no space to put his own shoes. Next, I was babbling nonense to him in the kitchen. Usually, I will head straight to our wardrobe room to change out first and that's where my sis was hiding. So he had to lure me to our wardrobe room from the kitchen, wondering why I did not follow my usual routine this time. And there was my sister hiding in the wardrobe room with a birthday cake. BOY was I shocked. My next question was eh, only you ah? Mom never come? I turned around to see my Mom sneaking up behind me with a sheepish cute look on her face. You really should see her face, she looked like a small cheeky naughty girl so much so that I wanted to pinch her cheeks! So I was really really surprised, and touched this birthday. If you are wondering what happened to my Dad, well, he is just not into this kind of family gatherings. If it's proper dinner with table setting, he will be there. =) Anyone has any ideas how I can get my Dad to be more involved?

Busy June

June has been a really busy period. 2 overseas trip and my birthday month. Went HKG on 5 - 8th of June on a biz trip, and my Mom and sister went along with me. Free accomodation at 5-star hotel, why not right? The photos shown on hotel website was really nice and my sister was so enticed to go. When we checked in though, we were all scratching our head and wondering why the website looks so different. Anyway, this was not the best time to go HKG. Not only was it not the sale's season, it was raining almost EVERYDAY. First day we touched down, it was drizzling, second day pouring, third day black alert, all schools had to close. Lucky we stay in a hotel with immediate access to a big shopping mall. If not, my sis and Mom will be bored to death. There were news of floods at a lot of places whenever we watch the news. Lucky for us, on the last day where I had F&E with them whole day till about 4pm, it was clear weather, so we managed to do some shopping and I even bought 2 Rabeanco leather bags. All 3 of us bought Rabeanco bags this time round. =)

13 - 17 Jun, I went BKK with Junqi. Have not been on a trip for a LOOONNNNGGGG time, so I was really looking forward to this trip. We stayed at Marriott Resort and Spa and really enjoyed our stay there. Service was good, ambience was really good. The location is at Riverside, so in order to get to town area, we had to take a ferry to and fro everyday. Really nice and exclusive. All the goods hotels have this kind of shuttle ferry service at their respective hotels. Shopping was good, I think I did more shopping during this trip than the last 5 years combined. Every night we will go for massage to soothe our legs so as to continue the shopping battle the next day. Every night after all the shopping and walking, on the ferry back to hotel, I have this sizzling feeling in my legs! Food was not good though, tough to find vegetarian food in BKK. Our life saver was MK steamboat. Confirmed, checked and double confirmed that their soup base is soya. So we had steamboat for dinner for consecutive 2 nights. On our last day, I was simply dragging my feet to shop around. No stamina at all! I was on the look out for cafes constantly so that I can rest my feet! I'm getting OLD!

Swimming fun

Swimming is the only exercise I can do at the moment. Tried putting on track shoes the other day and gave up after walking a few steps. The wound portion still hurts when pressure is applied.

Swimming is going to be a weekly routine with my sister(I hope anyway). Brought my Mom to the pool for the first time in her life. It was hilarious. She has low water confidence and was very scared. Bought a floating board for her, and you should see the way she is hanging to it for dear life in a 1.2m pool. She was so cute, and we were trying to teach her to float and she was like screaming. Nearly died laughing... =) Hope things will improve as she gains her confidence. :)