Archive for Friends

Now I know what they call it HAPPY birthday…

December 17, 2008 · Filed under Birthdays, Dinner, Family, Friends, Just Us, Random Babblings

An absolutely pleasant surprise, a delicious dinner, a decadent birthday cake, not one but two presents and a whole lotta love.

That basically sums up my 23rd birthday. Thinking about it makes me smile all over again.

My brother certainly wasn’t lying when he said “spoil market” because it was JY who orchestrated the entire thing. From telling me “we’ll have dinner, just the two of us” from the start and misleading me (literally, he told me we were going Pariss to eat. Waraku is at the other end.) right up till I saw my parents in the restaurant and then bluffing me again about not having a birthday cake when one from St. Pierre appeared (Grandma Stroobant’s Flourless Belgian Chocolate Cake from St. Pierre no less).

As if all that wasn’t enough (I was already totally beaming and grinning like a cheshire cat) he presented me with an envelop (naughty fella used his company’s envelop). On the top it says, nicely printed in stylish curvy font, “To satisfy the Literature Worm in you”. Flipping over was an invoice from Amazon.com with an order of “The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset”. But wait, there’s still more! While I was a clapping my hands in sheer excitement he presented me with another envelop. Similar to the first, this one read “To satisfy the Foodie in you.” Again, another Amazon.com invoice. This time it was for a whole year’s subscription of Delicious magazine.

What really touched me is not the presents but the fact that he knows exactly what would make me happy and puts in so much effort. He remembered how I said I was upset about no birthday dinner last year and this year obviously made it a point to ensure one would take place. On top of that, the presents were not something I told him I wanted. Rather, he paid attention and noted the things I liked. Especially the Monty Python Dvd set which I think I seldom mention or only pointed it out when we were at HMV once or twice. His generosity also overwhelmingly shows how much he loves little ol’ me which in all honesty can be very annoying, unreasonable and just plain stubborn.

Above all, i thank God for being so gracious and giving me such a wonderful person to love and be loved by. Of course not forgetting my amazing parents for the “stawberry and chokolat” chocolates and my brother who so generously gave me $40 worth of Kinokuniya vouchers. To Elliott too for coming and adding in his signature witty comments, making the dinner and car ride home even more memorable. Thanks also to Janet for the present (which I’m excited to use before the sale ends)!

Special thanks to Ally for cleverly deducing it was my birthday yesterday from my msn nickname today and treating me to a yummy lunch at Sushi Tei!

(:

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All Grown Up

August 25, 2008 · Filed under Church, Friends, Wedding

It’s quite funny how so many of us are not looking at the camera.

hurhurhur.

(:

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Memories on the Mountains…

July 28, 2008 · Filed under Church, Friends, I'm a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N, Personal Quirks, Travel

I actually just wanted to post “Avenue Q is open for booking!” but after watching the church camp photo video montage (mum requested to see it on our tv), I felt like sharing a little bit about the camp.

Even before the camp, God was already teaching me much, especially since I was in-charge of games (again) this year. During one of the committee meetings, I remember the committee members saying they wanted something more from the games this year, like a “structured experience” not just for the finale night game but also on Wednesday night, leading up to the must-have-without-fail fruit fair.

It seemed like a good and exciting idea at that time, but little did Jun Qiang and myself realise how much work we had gotten ourselves into.

I met up with Amanda one evening to discuss games and we sat at Starbucks for hours cracking our heads. How were we going to make the program seamlessly move into the game? How were we going to involve all the campers? Were they going to get the game? Were they even going to realise the game has started?

Thank God that by the end of the night, we did come up with something. By then, we were exhausted and a gallon of creative juices had been wrung dry.

The finale night planning was the worst. Busy schedules prevented the games committee (made up Jun Qiang, Amanda, Nat and myself) from really getting together and brain-storming. Things dragged on until we really started panicking two Sundays before the camp. I remember we had a meeting after church until 3pm and then met again at Jun Qiang’s house at 6.30pm. That meeting (including dinner of course) lasted way after 11pm. Once again, another exhausting and frustrating meeting, but at least we accomplished the basic storyline. Haha. And thanks to Jun Qiang, we all got sent home!

During the camp, all three games, including the indoor games on the second day, were each different learning experiences in itself.

For the indoor games, after a particular game, our super-competitive campers started a rather big dispute with regards to the rules of the game. I, honestly, was taken aback and quite confused as to how I should address the situation. But thank God for my other game com members who were a little less confused and more calm than me. We huddled together and came to an agreed solution that although didn’t appease everyone, allowed the games to carry on and everyone continued having fun.

The fruit fair game was the most trying for me. While planning, Amanda and I overlooked a lot of details that were never addressed even during the game itself. A lot of miscommunication, hiccups and a lack of foresight led to a very messy start, hasty changes during the game and a dramatic ending. I was at my wits end and very very very discouraged at how everything was turning out. While I was in my corner as the “banker”, I remember just wanting to cry.

But every time I wanted to, someone would show up at my “bank”, or a committee member would say that the campers are actually having fun and getting the game, or an encourager would appear with assuring words. Looking back, I realise perhaps how childish I was to let my emotions so easily overwhelm me when the situation really wasn’t that bad. I do take myself too seriously at times and tend to take the entire blame when something goes wrong. But when it all ended, I had even more encouraging words, thank yous and a hug from a friend.

The finale was well-worth all our time and effort. I wouldn’t say it went smoothly without a hitch (as again, there had to be so many last minute changes) but it was fun fun fun. Even though we always have a drama night at every church camp, I think we brought a little something this time, involving everyone from start to finish.

Most importantly, God touched my heart during the camp again. Besides the games, God made sure I had a lesson to learn from each day’s message. Being “Complete in Christ” took on a whole new meaning for me. And I thank God, it wasn’t just a “church camp high”, but a feeling that is still burning in my heart.

Though many things happened throughout the camp, I still want to go back to the mountains with its cold morning breeze, the cool serenity, God’s creation surrounding me, the clean crisp mountain air, the delicious scones and of course, the memories.

Next June, anyone?

(:

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Some things just never change…

June 29, 2008 · Filed under Dinner, Food, Friends, Personal Quirks

For example,
How Michele will be late and have to take a cab down to meet me.
How Gina will just let out a loud burp and an equally loud “excuse me”.
How the three of us will get lost.

Haha. Two days ago on Friday, I finally had a chance to meet up with michele and gina. Was so nice to be able to see them again. We were, sorta, “inseperable” in uni because we did a lot of similar modules, especially me and michele who only did 1 module that wasn’t the same, so people just assumed “if you want to find michele, just find gina or kat” etc. So it was kinda like a “reunion” of sorts. Haha.

Given that I’m supposed to be a food writer and never been to botak jones, they insisted that we have dinner there. The interesting thing is that none of us knew where exactly in ang mo kio the shop was. Haha. Our brilliant plan was just to meet at ang mo kio hub and find our way. Well. In the end we did. Haha. But that was after a few phone calls, a wrong bus ride and asking the bus uncle as well as a random stranger at the traffic light. Haha.

Since it was my first time at botak jones, I decided to get the fish and chips. The queue was long and tables mostly filled with people eating botak jones (plus a lot of raves about it from friends) so expectations were a little high. Unfortunately, despite my hunger, the fish and chips failed to impress. It was dry, hard and kinda tasteless. Thankfully the tartar sauce was nice (saved the day!), the fries were decent (thanks to the cajun spices) and the coleslaw was one-up from KFC’s. Michele’s cajun chicken was pretty good though, tender and flavourful. But otherwise, I think the quality and taste of the food wasn’t enough to justify its $6.50 price tag. I rather eat the western food at hougang central. Haha.

After eating, I (no surprises here) suggested dessert. Haha. You can’t blame me! I was totally unsatisfied with dinner! (Although, due to sheer hunger, I managed to finish all the fish) We decided to go back to ang mo kio hub but as you can guess, we had no idea how to. Haha. So we just walked to the nearest bus stop, whiled our time away while waiting for the bus by taking the usual silly shots, boarded the bus which (surprise surprise) took us one big round. Haha. But hey! We eventually got to our destination!

Dessert was at Anderson’s but the apple crumble kinda sucks and the scoops of ice cream are so tiny. Haha. Oh well. We left Anderson’s at 10:30pm with the intention of taking the bus home but me and michele just had so much to catch up on and talk about we ended up chatting for the next one and a half hours sitting down at some random staircase near the bus interchange. Haha. Some things never change. And I’m glad it didn’t.

I miss those two and it was really nice to see and hear how’s everyone doing. It’s also nice to be reminded of friends that you know will stick by you when you need a shoulder to lean on.

So now, I’ve been left with the task of making sure us three girls meet up on a regular basis.

Geez. Probably one of the hardest things to do!

(:

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Random Church Camp Photographs!

June 18, 2008 · Filed under Church, Friends, Travel

Just because my blog is getting a little too serious and too boring…


amanda and i with a gorgeous hilltop view behind


my long-suffering games com members – nat & amanda


me, fiona & stephanie @ the BOH tea plantation


eating ice cream in cameron highlands – cold weather + ice cream = doubly happy kat!


me & kenneth @ Bala’s Inn waiting for our scones to arrive!


fooling around with the “tv” nat drew for drama night – notice the height difference!

More peektures when I get them from my bro!

(:

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Thanking God for the Little Little Things…

June 18, 2008 · Filed under Church, Friends, I'm a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N, Personal Quirks

Most of the time, we take things for granted that we don’t realise it’s actually God at work.

Caught up with quite a few things to do, I couldn’t join the girls earlier at 2pm for the Sisters’ Retreat. I smsed Estee and she told me about worship and workshop happening later at 7:45pm. But by the time it got to around 5pm, I was just so “nua” and lazy to go all the way down to church (this is serious laziness speaking here, since church is just a straight bus and 15 minutes away). Then, we got a call from my cousin Dennis who said he was popping by. Hmm, I thought to myself, excuse not to go because I’ve got visitors!

Initially, they had only planned to stay for a while as they were due for dinner at home at 7:30pm. Interestingly, they decided to stay till my dad came home at around 7:15pm. And that’s when Dennis offered to send me down to church.

Honestly, if he hadn’t offered, I think I would have been perfectly contented to stay at home and justify it with some crappy reason. But thank God Dennis came because I had a good time with my two nieces (laughing our heads off at Mr. Bean and talking about Hannah Montana, Cory in the House, Zack and Cody, iCarly and the Jonas Brothers) and of course, the free ride down to church!

I also felt apprehensive about going for the sisters’ retreat but those worries were quelled the minute I got there. I haven’t been to YF for the longest time ever and was worried about not being able to talk with the younger sisters. Thankfully, Amanda was there and the younger sisters were so sweet, talkative, funny and friendly. Strangely enough, I felt like a big sister! Haha. Definitely not in terms of size though. :p

We had a good, albeit short, time worshipping God together with our beautiful voices, embarrassing ourselves while playing games and listening to Stephanie share during the workshop. She shared about emotions and how even Christians (and not just hormone-raging teenagers) have trouble controlling their emotions. I couldn’t agree more with her…

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Spanish Sensation

April 21, 2008 · Filed under Church, Food, Friends, Personal Quirks, Shopping · Tagged , , , , , ,

Saturday night was pretty fun and hot hot hot!

Us girls from the office were supposed to meet at 7.30pm at city hall but not so surprisingly, everyone was late, except, surprisingly, Lili. Haha. When I arrived at about 10minutes late, she was already there. Shiqi said she was “on the way”, Karen was still at the Esplanade after her rehearsals, Charmaine was on the way too and Tracy totally forgot we were meeting for dinner (despite being the one who set the timing, according to Lili).

After all the waiting and indecisions over dinner, I finally got to put something in my tummy at about 8.45pm at Cedele. Not very fantastic food actually. The focaccia was lovely but the chicken was crumbly and dry and my avocado was a measly 2 slices (as you can guess, I ordered the chicken and avocado sandwich). To make matters worse, the iced tea was left un-syruped but we, including Charmaine and Lili who also ordered drinks, were too lazy to walk over to the counter and get the syrup. Haha. How lazy could we get…

But all the time wasting and passing had a good thing come out of it – JY was about to cab down from Orchard to meet me! Yay!

Mel was fantastic during the dance. I’m not exactly being biased here, just ask anyone else. I think she was the most into the dance, most intense (you should have seen her killer expression!) and appeared to have the most passion for it too. But ok. Perhaps it helped that she does have Spanish blood and is ang mo. Haha. The other dancers were Japanese and locals, so I guess it seem relatively strange to see them doing such a forceful and sultry dance. And overall, kudos to all of them from the dance class!

Unfortunately, I had to leave early (it was already past 11pm) as I had church the next day. Also, it was my turn to teach Sunday School. The teaching went ok, despite my disrupting cough and Uncle Alex handing out Prize Giving photographs to the kids (which I got too! Sadly, it’s also my last…) which was really PRAISE GOD! No doubt I was nervous, especially about potentially teaching the kids wrong things about God and what the bible passage was saying, but thankfully all went well. I did stumble here and there because really, I’m not used to talking to small kids much less teaching them. I found it tough having to think of ways to phrase and structure my thoughts into a sentence that 3 primary 4 kids could understand. Well. One lesson down, 5 more to go!

JY came to church to meet me after class and it was fun just hanging around before we left for lunch with my family. Glad that we managed to drag my brother along too. Initially JY planned to treat everyone to Carl’s Junior but interestingly enough, my mum wanted Cafe Cartel. Haha. The menu has changed considerably since they first started, but more or less remains the same in terms of what sort of food they offer. Not too fantastic though, considering the prices, but not that bad or inedible either.

Since we were at Marina, we just had to stop by Gloria Jeans to pick up a cup of $2 coffee. Haha. So cheapo. But honestly, for a non-coffee drinker like me who would not pay $5 for a cup, this $2 gimmick really works. Then again, I’m sure it works for most bargain-hunting Singaporeans.

Oh and I also picked up a pair of shoes from Primavera! Bright and cheerful in yellow, perfect for spring!



Anyway, enough talk and on with the peektures!

Mel and her husband, Cuong


My (un)lucky draw stub.


Ladies dressed in an assortment of colours and polka dots!

Finally, after waiting for an hour, Mel’s performance starts…



(:

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I spoke too soon…

April 12, 2008 · Filed under Friends, Shopping, Travel · Tagged , , , , , , ,

*bleah* Just when I thought everything was finalized, set and all ready to go to Club Med Bintan, the PR emails to say we can’t go next Wednesday. Why? Because the executive chef we were supposed to interview is on LEAVE. The first thing that came to my mind was “what are the odds man”. So yes. It’s been postponed yet again to sometime in May. I wonder if the PR feels bad about it. Geez. And, we won’t be able to photograph the kitchen because it’s undergoing renovations. So ridiculous. They know full well our story angle and our requirements, they know what’s going on at their resort, and yet they still want to invite us over to do the story. What utter rubbish! Lousy PR skills. Lousy lousy lousy. Pfffttt.

But ok. The good things that came out of it is that I will have more time to plan for my Sunday School lesson and I won’t be so tired when I go for the Flamenco Festival on Saturday at C.H.I.J.M.E.S. Can’t wait for that actually. Looking forward to seeing Mel do her Spanish thing and meet up with the girls. Should be an absolute blast. Two other colleagues are coming along too. Haha. It’s always interesting to see your colleagues (behave) outside of the office environment. Hmm. Which reminds me, I need to get a dress for the event! Mel says that the girls usually come in pretty dressed with frills and flowers. Shopping time!

Actually, shopping time isn’t as exciting or fun as before. Many many many many countless times I have gone out shopping with JY only to come home empty handed. There just isn’t anything to buy, or rather anything that fits me and comes with an affordable price tag. Sure Mango, Zara and the other generic staple brands have smaller cuts but one glance at the price tag and I immediately put it back. It’s annoying really. Can’t wait to go to Perth where they have Supre (i.e size XXS)!

Speaking of Perth, I’ve been bugging JY for the longest time about the exact dates which we will be there. Being in the magazine industry, taking leave requires a lot of planning due to the strict deadlines. However, he has yet to tell me. Bah. Absent-minded. Hurhurhur. Another thing I’m worried about Perth is getting air tickets! Might be easier since we’re going during an off-peak period and when it’s winter in Australia but you never know. My parents have already booked a flight to Sydney and it’s all full despite the flight taking off only in September! That’s a good 5 months ahead! And it’s not exactly cheap mind you….

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Teach me how to bake…

March 24, 2008 · Filed under Baking, Birthday, Church, Friends · Tagged , , , , , ,

First up, as usual, do accept my apologies for the lack of posts. Its not that I don’t have anything to talk about. It’s just that I’m plain lazy. Heh.

Secondly, my sincere apologies to Jim for forgetting his birthday! (It was on the 19th of march by the way…). To make it worse, BOTH Amanda and I forgot about it. Heh. So sorry fella. You know we both didn’t mean to.

And so to make it up to him, we decided we would do a little celebration for him on Sunday. Amanda would get the card and I would get the cake.

To show my sincerity, I decided to bake the birthday cake instead of merely handing over a few notes in exchange for a run-of-the-mill cake from the local bakery.

It’s been a while since I baked actually. I never really got down to doing it as much as I wanted to. Partly because the ingredients themselves was going to cost quite a bit and there never really was any good reason to bring out all the pots, pans, equipment and not forgetting all that washing and cleaning up to be done.

I baked Jim quite a large slab of brownie. I must say it turned out pretty good. I was quite impressed really. The brownie wasn’t typically sweet (i.e cloying and sore-throat inducing) but turned out with a yummy crusty top, moist centre and just the right sweetness. It probably had to do with the use of dark chocolate instead of the usual semi-sweet chocolate chips. Delicious stuff, I would definitely bake it again…some other time.

To complete the cake, Amanda and I arranged the letters J-I-M with mini-smarties. Simple and yet provided that personal touch to a plain ol’ brownie. Pictures are with those two so you’ll just have to wait till one of them remembers to send it (or rather, bluetooth it) to me!

Happy (belated) Birthday again Jim! We still owe you a 23rd birthday present!

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