quiet confidence

Korea Day 2 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Decided to break down the longer days into several parts or else this is going to take forever!

Day 1 was super packed but Day 2 was going to be even more packed. But well, at least we had a good night’s sleep rather than cramped up in an airplane seat!

Our hotel: Cheju Oriental

Check out the lobby… looks kinda posh right….

until you see…

But ok lah… still quite cosy.. with nice traditional touches..

Morning started with kimchi – what else?

And also the highly anticipated abalone porridge! Our tour guide Michael did prepare us mentally that it’s abalone porridge without abalone (ok have la, but very tiny!) Still despite Joe’s face, it was very tasty! I liked it!

Off to attraction 1 of the 7 we were going to visit that day! Yes, seven!

Seongsan Ilchulbong also known as Sunrise Peak, is well known for its beautiful views of sunrise. If you are wondering, we din go and see the sunrise lah! Too early lah!

It is a lava cone created by an underwater volcanic eruption some 5,000 years ago. I din know how it looked from a bird’s eye view till I saw this picture online! Beautiful!

All ready to make our ascent!

It’s beautiful!

As you make your way up, you will see lots of small and big rocks.

You see the rest of Jeju Island from here!

We’ve reached the top!

Some shots of our tour members!

Auntie and Uncle who had great stamina! Uncle was wearing stylo milo Converse shoes OK? =)

Making our descent down!

Last look and last pics before our 2nd stop!

Stay tuned for the next part of Day 2!

Korea Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Apologies that it has been taking me so long to update on my trip to Korea… there are so many photos (from 3 cameras) I don’t know where to start! Anyways, here goes…. (warning: extremely long post and we are only at Day 1!!)

My family have been talking about having a holiday together for a long time and finally it has come to pass as we embarked on a holiday to Korea!

My mum looks super cool with her CA t-shirt and matching pink luggage yah! You rock Mum!

She looks cooler than us, with an attitude too! =D

On flight Korean Air, not too impressed cos there were no individual TV screens and the stewardess were kinda fierce! I’m serious!

Find the stewardess uniform kinda funny too! They had this pointed scarf around their necks and a “chop-stick-like” clip on their hair.

I’m so afraid their “chopstick” will poke me! Hhaha!

We reached Incheon Airport around 6:30am in the morning and was shocked to find out that our tour guide had not arrived yet!

Well we had breakfast and then gathered to meet the tour guide, Michael.

He was apologetic but was also witty about it, saying we all looked like we were going to kill him and looked like he was our enemy! Through the course of the trip, we would appreciate his humour more and more cos it really made the trip so fun!

Early in the morning, and we were off to Kim Chi School!

There are actually 200 kinds of kim chi, not just the usual cabbage one we are all familiar with. Kimchi can be made from abalone and ginseng too!

Ginseng milk, yums!

Listening attentively…

to our Kim Chi teacher… but actually nothing to do…

We just had to rub the chili into the cabbage and wrap it up~

Joe torturing his Kim Chi!

Adriel’s masterpiece while ours looked like…

Photo oppt time!

First meal in Korea: Ginseng chicken soup!

I found it quite bland but the rest liked it! We could pour in more Ginseng wine into our soup if we wanted.

Then off to Gimpo Airport for our flight to Jeju! Guess who I saw at the airport?

Can you see him?!

It’s Lee Min Ho!

And who else did I see? The guy in the middle – Kim Hyun Joong!

First stop at Jeju – Jeju Folklore & Natural History Museum.

Jeju is famous for its oranges… I also know this cos I watched the drama “My Girl” and the main lead sold oranges she picked on Jeju!

Jeju kids and their handmade toys

Everyone listening attentively to the tour guide! Btw, in the old days, a typical house in Jeju has a thatched roof held in place by ropes of straw to protect against the wind.

Being an island, the residents of Jeju depend on the sea for their livelihood.

Jeju is also well-known for its “hai niu” – female divers who dive without any diving equipment to catch fish, seaweed, octopus, maybe even abalone. According to my tour guide, a lot of them are widows whose husbands lost their lives at sea and they had to learn to do this for survival.

I took this photo cos of the English text… read it and tell me if you understand what it means?

Another thing unique in Jeju is the little baskets the babies are placed in. The mothers will use their feet to push the basket forward and backward, keeping their hands free to do other work.

Jeju is apparently an island made out of a volcano and there are lots of rocks all around. Btw, there are 3 things that Jeju is known to have a lot of – rocks, wind and women! Read more about that here!

Rocks, rocks and more rocks! And because they have so many rocks, they crave them into this statue called ‘Grandfather Stone’ or dolhareubang. They are there to remind them of the hardships their descendents have suffered.

Apparently, if you rub the nose of the statue, you will give birth to sons! Hmm…

Some other fun shots… posing with/as hai niu!

Next stop: Dragon Head Rock – a lava formation that looks like a dragon head

That’s the Dragon Head! Does it look like a dragon to you?!!?

Couple shots up next… what we will be doing very very often over the course of the trip!

The ladies with all the pails are hai niu!

They are cleaning up the seafood they have caught.

Adriel managed to charm a photo out of one of them!

I think their job is not easy….

Here we are enjoying some snacks, then checking into our hotel and proceeding for DINNER!

Seafood steamboat!! Yums!! I loved it though the rest din! I am quite into shell fish.. that’s why I have Pu Tien Bee Hoon (not the restaurant, from food court lah!) at least once a week! I love it! Oh man… I just realised that means I eat cockles every week! =(

It was a tiring day and yet after dinner, we still went to walk around.. they have this shopping street called Tapdong Street but we were quite hesitant to buy stuff cos we heard things at Seoul would be cheaper…

Kinda quiet but it’s a Tuesday night after all… there were some trendy shops… the guys’ stuff here are definitely trendy but prices are not cheap!

Lee Min Ho is everywhere!!

His F4 counterpart, Kim Bum, also very popular!

Hmms…. at first sight, it was cool… on closer reading……!!!

We chilled out at a nice cafe (free wireless!) and then called it a day by shopping at a huge supermarket… more pictures of that again…

Phew…. finally done with Day 1!!! I deserve a pat on my back for that! … Wait, I still have 6 more days to go…. aargh! Patience everyone!!

Our F1 Experience!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:16:00 +0000

I know this is super outdated but I have been busy ok! Hahah!

With the kind blessings of Edmund Tay, we got tickets to the qualifying session of the F1 race! Seriously, have never been too keen on F1 especially since last year we tried to watch the inaugural night race on TV and changed channels after around 20 mins? =) But it gets exciting when you are on the scene and get to catch the live action!

We took a shuttle bus from Kallang MRT.

Here we are on the bus, happily showing off our tickets! Btw, they cost $1388 each!

After alighting, we happily made our way to the grounds.

Yes!!!

Before you reach the actual race track, you will go through this place called the F1 Village where there is a stage for live entertainment, F&B outlets and of course, stores for F1 merchandise!

Then we went to find our seats and realised there was nothing much going on other than practice sessions! The qualifying session was from 10pm – 11pm and we were there close to 8! Hmm…. so we explored the grounds.

The lifts that bring VIPs up to the VIP area!

Chicken wings at $10? Are u kidding me or what? Must be specially F1-trained chickens!

So guess what we did? We went to City Hall to chill then came back again! HAHAHH!

Pictures taken from our seats! Basically, what you do is watch the cars whirl by, occasionally take pics and hope that a car will crash near you! Hee! It kinda got a bit boring after a while since we knew nuts about F1! Worse still, the cars were so loud and noisy, we had ear plugs on and couldn’t hear the broadcast commentary! But Edmund’s mum was there and her enthusiasm was contagious! She knew everything about the teams and the competitors! =)

Hamilton no.1 in pole position!

All in all, it was an experience of a lifetime! Thanks Edmund and of course, Edmund’s mum! =)

Check out the video to have a feel of the race!

F1 Qualifying Race (26 Sep 09) from Emily Ong on Vimeo.

Joe’s Graduation Ceremony

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:33:00 +0000

After 3 plus years of hard work (and not forgetting the love and support plus editing capabilities of his wife!!), Joe can finally call himself a graduate of UniSIM!

Can you spot Joe’s name?

Joe waiting for his name to be called!

The awesome buffet spread but there’s no free lunch in the world! Must pay for entrance tickets to the graduation ceremony leh! Eat more eat more!

Joe’s proud parents! =) Mum was so cool in her glasses! She started wearing them during the speeches cos she said they were so boring and she wanted to catch a few winks of sleep! Hahha! She even said church was more interesting!

So proud of you dear! Keep on keeping on, your dream job is on the way! =)

Boys over Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:20:00 +0000

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Korean version of Meteor Garden! Well, although the show has a lot of Korean drama clichés, it’s still a really nice show! It's currently showing on Channel U on Saturdays 9:30pm!

Some of the common Korean drama clichés I have observed:

Main lead is a rich brat who’s often spoilt, mean and not quite likeable except that he looks really handsome and is rich
Often, behind that spoilt façade is a tender heart who lacks love from his parents or had some failed relationship
His love interest is a spunky sassy gal who’s very big-hearted and well-liked but very poor
The gal has an eccentric family made up of silly parents, who always hope she ends up with a rich guy, and a cute sibling that she’s close to
The guy has an ultra-domineering mother who looks down on the gal and her family
Guy and gal falls hopelessly in love through a series of comedic coincidental situations
Mum opposes and sets up an arranged marriage with a gal from a well-to-do respectable family
Guy and gal overcome all odds to end up happily ever after!

Why I really like Boys over Flowers! (although it's kinda typical)

The male leads are really good-looking and there are 4 of them!
The leads all dress very well! Love their style!
I really like the female lead, she’s very sweet and likeable and she has the fairest blemish-free skin! She can act silly-cute and when she cries, you feel for her!
The exotic locations like Macau and Mallora
The really grand and classy homes the rich guys live at
A cute and equally spunky fiancée in the middle
A lot more character development for the various characters especially for the main male character, torn between his obligation to his father and the family enterprise and his love for the gal
Love the side stories too for the other 2 guys esp the sunrise/sunset building declaration of love
And this is the only Korean drama that Joe actually watches with me! I half suspect that he's more interested in what the guys are wearing though =p

Going to Korea for a long-awaited holiday next week with my family, super looking forward to it! Maybe I will get to meet the stars of Boys over Flowers? =P

Bag Shopping!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Recently my hubby blessed me with $$ to go shopping!! Hee, that’s a really great gift! =) I really needed to get some bags cos the straps of my usual black weave bag were peeling and the zip of my weekend bag had come apart!! Checked out Charles & Keith and din see anything particularly outstanding and I keep thinking I will see lots of people on the street carrying the same bag!

Thankfully I discovered a blogshop carrying nice looking bags at really affordable prices!!

Check out the bags I “yventually” bought =)

This bag cost $26! I think it looks classy and reminds me of a Hermes Birkin, sort of anyway! Only complaint is not enough wide pockets inside.

The second bag cost $29! I love the gold chain detail. The swirls on the bag are apparently inspired by Marc Jacobs’ Rockabilly Bag! (see last image) And despite how it looks, it’s incredibly light and the pockets are more than enough for all my miscellaneous!

I still had money left over! Hee! Thanks Dear!

ET Zone Adults’ Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:55:00 +0000

It was an intense 3 day 2 night retreat (ok more like 2 days 2 nights CAMP!) at Mercure Palm Resort! You can read about my earlier reccee here =)

The adults enjoyed themselves so much that they are asking when’s the next one happening? Hee! That shows the success of our retreat!

I was so busy that I din take much photos so following are pics I took off Facebook!

Coach on the way to JB!

The fun has already started!

Arrived!

Getting keys to the rooms!

Dinner time!

My cg having dinner (eer… dun bother trying to find me, I’m not there!) Busy setting up for the first session!

Where our sessions were held .. apologies for the blur pic!

Everyone enthusiastically doing up their team placards! Adults are a creative lot ok?

Managed to get pics of Team Moses and Team Paul =)

The next morning we had morning prayer, another session and free time for the groups to come up with their drama! Btw, dun despise the adults ok? They can act alright? Lots of hidden talents were unveiled during the drama performance! More on that later…

Outdoor games! Seems like water bombs are a top favourite! Or any game that involves getting wet like the fishing game!

The fishes Lian and me made till late at nite!

They can’t wait to catch the fishes in the pool!

BBQ dinner by the pool! Cool! (Ya I’m not there! Hahah!)

The highly anticipated drama performance by the teams!

The Egyptian dancers … Aaron was a really great dancer! Hahha!

Guess who Alex is acting as? Moses! Check out the belt on his head!

And we had prize presentation and that’s it……! So short right? We had many many requests to lengthen the retreat and we will!! =) I know many of the members played games till late, went bowling, swimming, etc.. the next day!

Finally can take some pics with my cg!

Till next year!

Looking forward to the long weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Yay! I think we Singaporeans all look forward to public holidays, especially if the holiday gives us a long weekend! Lots to look forward this weekend for me!

1) Sun will be doing a live chat on Facebook!

Sun is finally going to release her US album very soon and the video of the first single “Fancy Free” will be out tmr! I am expecting lots of cutting-edge music! It’s gonna be a change from the usual ballads she does for her Chinese albums! I love that she’s so versatile yah? =)

And tmr she’ll be having a live chat on Facebook at 11pm! Just login to www.facebook.com/sunhomusic and you get to chat with her live… hmmm… I wonder if I will get a chance cos I think there’ll be so many people!

2) ET ZONE Adult’s Retreat ENCOUNTERS 2009

The very first Adult’s Retreat is coming to pass and I am SUPER EXCITED for it! It started as an idea one year ago (yes one year ago!!) and it’s finally becoming reality! Many many Saturdays of planning at my place .. and now the final lap! Believing for an awesome time!!

Have a great weekend everyone! =)

Bandung (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:22:00 +0000

So basically we ate and shopped and ate and shopped! But we did a spot of sight-seeing when we went to check out the volcano, Tangkuban Perahu (Upturned Boat). It started to get colder and colder as we drove there and smellier and smellier! Hee!

It was nice and foggy and a great change from factory outlets!

There were horses for hire but we declined!

Lots of small stores too.

Throughout our trip, we stayed at Novotel and it was an enjoyable stay! We really liked the buffet breakfast every morning and best of all, they somewhat change the food items so you dun have to eat the same stuff everyday!

Our really comfy bed!

View of Bandung city from our hotel window, we were staying at the highest floor!

Following are some street snaps I took…

The green mini buses you see below are called angkot and you see loads of them on the street. If you are walking on the street, dun be surprised to have many of them honk at you and ask if you want to board. There are no bus numbers but instead various areas and locations are printed on the bus itself.

Many of the locals drive motorcycles as the traffic can get so jammed! So they have two vehicles, normally a MPV and a motorcyle. When they are rushing to get to somewhere, they drive a motorcycle. When the whole family is going out, an MPV!

Pastor Kong was gonna preach during the weekend and many asked if we would be staying till then =)

Saw this cool overhead bridge!

Graffiti on a school wall

Saw lots of these flags being displayed – think cos Indonesia’s National Day was just over.

Very fascinated by this regal looking boutique hotel at Dago

We had a fun getaway! =)))

Bandung (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:03:00 +0000

Fandy shared with us that when he came to Singapore, he lost 10kgs cos he din like the food at all – no flavour! Hee! The only thing he liked was Songfa Ba Ku Teh near Riverwalk!

Indo food has very strong flavours and something that must accompany every meal is sambal!

I am not very into spicy food so I would take a small little bit but I saw Fandy literally coating his food with the sambal!

He brought us to Bumbu Desa for authentic Sundanese food and it was really flavourful!

I just love how they really deck out their restaurant so beautifully.

The food would be displayed out and you just pick and choose what you would like. It’s not a buffet though! There was something like a peanut salad, ayam, tau foo, duck’s egg, a spicy sweet corn soup, rice with ikan bilis. My mouth is watering as I think about it!

Another restaurant we went to, Bali Cafe, was really pretty. We had lunch under a pavilion at the garden!

The food was yums too! We also had a lot of sweet drinks when we were at Bandung. See that green drink on the top right? It’s Avocado with Chocolate! Super rich!

Other sweet stuff too… On the top right, we have rojak but it’s fruit with spicy sauce, not the rojak we are familiar with.

More sweet stuff, tiramisu and other Indo food!

Here we have a drink called Soda Susu – very very sweet! They give you a bottle of soda water and a cup of condensed milk and you mix everything up!

Strawberry juice! Very fresh, a bit sourish-sweet with lots of seeds! A must-try!

Tehbotol – bottled sweet tea! Another must-try, it’s really refreshing! Very nice when taking a break when shopping!

Then J.Co~ we bought a drink and got a free donut!

See the photo on the bottom right? That’s kampung chicken! Very skinny but tasty!

We bought lots of stuff back home too, brownies from Amanda, cheese roll and banana cake from Kartika Sari, lots of keropak and Indo Mie!

I miss Indo food!! Thank God we bought lots of Indo Mie back!

Bandung (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:34:00 +0000

Oops … sorry for the slow update, many people have been asking me when I was going to upload my Bandung trip pics! Here goes…..

When you think of having a holiday in Indonesia, normally Bali would come to mind. Well, apparently for Indonesians themselves, Bandung is also a popular destination for a short getaway. One major reason is the many factory outlets located in that city and from what we have gathered from those who have gone there before like Jared and Jerb, it’s a great place for males to shop!

And so we embarked on our trip to Bandung, with everything initiated by my dear hubby, for reasons that should be quite clear by now!

When we reached Bandung, we walked straight onto the airplane runway!

We were met at the airport by a recent SOT graduate, Fandy, whom Joe din know personally prior to this trip. We were linked up to him through Amber and Michael but he was so frenly and hospitable! Just like an old fren!

Most Indonesians there do not speak English well and we had to rely heavily on him to help us out with ordering and all. He was also our “driver” everyday and even paid for some of the meals when we couldn’t stop him in time! Really so touched by his hospitality and care!

On our 2nd day, he suddenly told us that he would be bringing us to his bro-in-law’s shop for a suit fitting! They were going to bless Joe with a tailor-made suit! Will put up pics when the suit is ready!

Shopping
Bandung’s factory outlets are located at 3 main areas – Riau, Dago and the area around Rumah Mode. Normally there would be sitting benches and well landscaped areas with built-in fountain within the factory outlets. Guess it’s to create a relaxing environment for you to do your shopping! You are also required to check in your bags at the entrance so you can easily select more stuff to buy without being impeded. Smart tactic right?

For the clothing there, there are hits and misses. As there are garment factories there producing clothes for brands, there are some overruns that get sold at the factory outlets. But more often than not, the items are imitation goods. You may see the branded label tag but from the printed design you know they aren’t the real deal! The jeans also had labels like Miss Sixty and Bebe... but eh... far from it! Ed Hardy T-shirts were everywhere!! (We din buy any in case you were wondering!!!)

But we came across some small shops selling made-in-Bandung original designs and they were pretty funky though mainly guys’ T-shirts. Some brands are VARC, Magic Happens, Satcas and Sash. You can click on the links to check out the designs, very cool! Why be a copy when you can be an original? =p

Out of the 3 areas, we find Dago the best for our shopping! We went there twice. Got lots of stuff from there. Of course, dun expect to get nice dresses and blouses, I bought mainly shorts, denim skirts and some T-shirts. Joe bought lots of T-shirts and jeans!

You can find out more about Bandung’s factory outlets from this blog.

Something interesting you can find in Bandung is a “Superhero Street” located at Cihampelas Main Street. The stores here sell mainly jeans and on the front facade, you will see different superhero characters!

Terminator!

Wolverine, Iron Man, Tarzan and the last guy at the bottom right is??

Other than factory outlets, Bandung also has shopping malls and one of the popular ones is called Paris Van Java. Fandy recommends it as a nice place to have a meal and chill with friends. One of the nights, we went for dinner with his parents, aunt and uncle, cousin, 2 other siblings, bro-in-law and niece! It was such a warm family feeling! =)

More updates to come!

Bandung – here we come!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Joe and me are off to the land dubbed “Paris of Java”, where the Sundanese people dwell. The land of cool and pleasant climate, cheap factory outlets (major reason why we are going there!) and delicious kuih lapis and brownie kukus. Update again when we get back on Thursday!

Skinny Pizzas

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:15:00 +0000

One of the nights Joe and me had dinner at Skinny Pizza at Suntec City . Hmm, the crust of the pizza is so thin it should be called Skinny Cracker instead! We ordered the set at $38 and it came with the following.

Yummy soups! We had the Portobello Mushroom and Sweet Corn Crab – both tasted very natural and fresh!

The main course, supposedly the highlight.. hmm… skinny pizza too thin! The meatballs were yum though. And the rocket leaves and fresh parmesan cheese! Real gourmet stuff!

Love love the fries! The truffle oil adds a nice fragrance and saltiness to the fries! Very tasty and different from the usual fast food kinds.

Paid another $5.50 for Spanish donuts with Chocolate Fondue which reminded us of the Chocolate con Churros breakfast we had in Spain. You thought you were full already but there will always be stomach for chocolate!

The restaurant is quite stylishly decked out and we managed to get the comfy sofa corner. A nice place to chill out at!

I also tried ROC Pizza at Golden Mile Food Centre during lunch with my colleagues. Now this is what I call a proper thin-crust pizza! The crust was of the right thinness, giving enough base to let the ingredients like the mushrooms and cheese shine through. The owner is a City Harvester too, so do support! Btw, know what ROC stands for? “Relax One Corner!” Hahha!

Skinny Pizza
Suntec City Galleria
#01-002

ROC Pizza
505 Beach Road, #01-109
Golden Mile Food Centre

SPH Ink Awards 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:13:00 +0000

SPH Ink Awards is a annual competition to honour the best in print advertising. In this day and age where there’s info overload and it’s tough to get people’s attention even for a few seconds, it’s surprising that 2 of the award winners in the press ad campaign category were copy ads.

What copy ads refer to are advertisements where copy (text) plays the main role in communicating the message other than visuals. The 1^st prize winner was the campaign “Life Before Death” done for Lien Foundation. I had seen several of them in the newspapers and they did catch my attention but honestly I did not read them in detail.

For the 3^rd prize winner, I saw them on MRT platform ads (which I actually took pics of using my HP some time back) and was immediately struck by its genius! The product is the Visa Signature Card, targeted to frequent travelers who enjoy a premium lifestyle. I love how the copy subtly brings out the personality of one who holds the card, while also mentioning the benefits of the card without hard-selling. The handwriting idea links back to the product name. Really find the idea behind it very refreshing like a credit card ad!

You can click on the pics for the full size version.

More pics of Joe preaching!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:40:00 +0000

With compliments from Ting who was sitting at 2nd row!

3 Keys to Last the Race = Sacrifice, Obedience and Tenacity which also stands for SOT School of Theology!

Receiving his certificate from Pastor Tan!

Edmund Tay – our leader and the one Joe learnt his preaching from! =)

Becky and Siong San’s Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:50:00 +0000

This is a super outdated post!! The couple is now back from their honeymoon and enjoying married life already! Btw, I am gonna intersperse my own pics with those of her photographer. You should be able to differentiate my pics from the pro! You can check more pics of her actual day here and here!

When we gathered at Becky’s wedding early in the morning, we were blessed with a handmade personalised card and pretty pouch, all nicely placed in a sweetheart carrier. Thanks again Becky for that personal touch!

Then the anxious wait for the groom and his entourage! But hey we were very very lenient with them!

They get chairs to sit around and solve a crossword puzzle?? Totally unheard of in wedding sabo history!

Then they get to enjoy potong ice-cream, ang ku kueh, paos and drinks! What is this!!??!!

Oh well, we are a gracious lot of sisters and we had our share of fun =)

Then it’s off to the Armenian Church for the matrimony, it’s a nice quaint church in the City.

Waiting for the march-in

Then it was back home for some shut-eye and back for dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The beautiful bride in her beautiful suite, with her handsome hubby and pretty frens!

The personalised candy from Down Under – love the taste! The heart-shaped dessert was a nice touch too! It was a fun nite catching up with the girls as always! Talking about marriage and chores and everything else under the sun!

Here’s to a happy marriage for Becky and Siong San in the days to come! =)

Joe preaching in service!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:53:00 +0000

Do you think Joe looks like Pastor Tan? A lot of people think so! What do you think? Hee!

Yesterday was SOT Graduation and it marks the end of a grueling 5 months of hard work, stretching of capacity, stepping out of comfort zone for all School of Theology students!

During the Graduation Service on Sun, Joe had the privilege to preach in front of almost 8,000 pple! WOW! I’m so proud of him!

Though I could tell he was initially kinda nervous, think he got a hang of it in time! His trademark humour started to show as the audience squeaked in delight at the following …

“From the SOT I was studying 12 exam topics. 11 times I was rushing my assignments; 12 hours a week I was serving fervently; till the last day of SOT I was still reading the Bible; 10 times I had been scratching my head, preparing sermons; 3 times I was preaching; 2 overnights and 2 weeks I was deep in Basement 4 on my knees praying..”

Best of all, his mum came for service to support him and I think she had a good time! Thank God for that! =)

Dear dear, you did well and I’m so proud of you!

UP the Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:57:00 +0000

I really liked this movie very much!

The story of love between the couple was very sweet and heart-warming!

The cartons were so well-drawn with so much detail! Love the dialogue-less montage which showed the couple’s relationship evolving and the ending showing Carl having a new adventure in the next phase of his life. You can read more about that segment here.
The beautiful multi-coloured ballons! Don’t you just feel happier looking at them?

The main lead is a grumpy old man but he’s so likeable too!

The very cute and chubby Russell! Reminds me of Henry! Hee!

Lots of thrilling action too, even heart-stopping moments!
All in all, a really entertaining and emotionally moving cartoon! I teared and laughed and had a good time!

The director Pete Doctor had this to say about the movie “Basically, the message of the film is that the real adventure of life is the relationship we have with other people, and it's so easy to lose sight of the things we have and the people that are around us until they're gone. More often than not I don't really realize how lucky I was to have known someone until they're either moved or passed away. So if you can kind of wake up a little bit and go, "Wow, I've got some really cool stuff around me every day", then that's what the movie's about.”

You gotta catch it!

Jeryn’s Manyue

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:09:00 +0000

After the reccee, I rushed down to the man yue of Desmond and Lauretta’s beautiful daughter, Jeryn. Oops.. I din take pics of her cos she was sleeping so soundly and peacefully! =)

Man Yue Goodies!

Such a cute cupcake yah?

Calvin’s such a big boy already! Can swim on his own!

Henry having lots of fun in the water, playing with a water squirt-er that’s not his!

Hee, love this pic!
Joe and Henry having a man-to-man talk over drinks!

JB Reccee

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:30:00 +0000

One of the Saturdays, we made a trip to JB to check out the resort we were going to have our 1st ever Adults’ Retreat at. We had lots of fun and I will let the pics tell the story!

Set off in the morning around 9 plus cos we had to wait for “someone” who forgot his passport!! Took some pics of Nicole while we were waiting at JW church. She looks so pretty with her long hair and she’s grown taller too! =)

We took the Second Link and it was quite a smooth trip in cos not many cars.

Then it was time to find our way to the Resort. Took a while cos we missed a turning. The Resort is very near to Senai airport. Hee, Nicole kept asking us when we would be reaching!

She started from entertaining herself and being entertained by Lian….

to this!

And we finally arrived!

A fountain greets you

A very spacious place!

BBQ Dinner on the last night! We will have it either at the pavilion or by the pool! Woohoo!

More places to chill and lounge around!

Don’t you feel your stress and tension melting away?

Lots of space for fun and games!

Now to check out the rooms..

Wow! With balcony too!

It was a good reccee! We are looking forward to the actual retreat in Sep! Sign up NOW if you have yet to!

Now, on the way to lunch at City Square!

City Square is quite a huge mall, there was even an indoor volleyball competition going on!

Jap food! Quality was soso but very cheap! A bento set only cost $20 ringgit!

Then dessert! Gelato ice-cream at $7.90 ringgit for 2 generous scoops!

Edmund Tan went for 3 scoops! And tried to convince us that the ice-cream is 99% fat-free! Hmm… read the fine print, it’s “up to 99% fat-free”.

Then it’s time for Home Sweet Home! Nicole was really cute on the way back! Telling Daddy to keep playing a certain track 4 cos it’s her fav song and then lifting her hands to worship God when “My Life My Song” was played! Love it too when she sings “Ele-elevation Your name!” Haha!

So see you there at our Adults' Retreat on 19-21 Sep! Note down on your calendars today! =)

Lining up the Taglines

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:09:00 +0000

In a bid to gain NEW knowledge, I signed up for a copywriting class with the blessings of the Bank. Before you get mistaken that copywriting is some kind of calligraphy, it actually refers to writing words to promote a person, a product, an idea with the objective of having the reader take some action. It's usually used for commercial purposes, for example writing for print ads and TVCs.

I had my 2nd lesson on writing taglines and it was really fun! The trainer, Justin Lim, creative director of Grey Singapore, shared 50 most memorable taglines. Sharing some below, do you recognise which companies they are from?

Because I'm Worth It
Just Do it
It’s the real thing
Finger-lickin’ good!
Don't Leave Home Without It
The Citi Never Sleeps
Intel Inside

We were also tasked to come out with our own taglines for the following brands!

OSIM
Ooooo… OSIM
Simply Osim
My favourite welcome home
That’s the spot
Hits the spot
Wellness in a box
No pain All gain
Have you OSIMed?
I’m going home to OSIM
Love the way you touch
OSIM … Oways with you

The real tagline? Inspiring Life

Crocs
Walk your life
The ugliest pair of comfort
Colourful Soles
Colour your Soles
Let’s walk together
It doesn’t bite
Crocs that don’t Bite
Everybody’s wearing Crocs
Comfy Crocs for the Funky Folks
A treat for your feet
Rocks your socks off
Crocs Rock
Crocs for Walks
Cheerful Rubber

The real tagline? So ugly they’re good

Fun? Try coming out with your own taglines!

Happy 20th Birthday City Harvest!

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:03:00 +0000

Happy 20^th Anniversary City Harvest, my dearest home church!

Last Sun, we had an anniversary service at Indoor for almost 6 hours and it din feel that long at all! I loved every minute of it! I teared many times during the service, so moved in my heart for all the things God has brought us through as a church.

I remember I first stepped into City Harvest at the tender age of 15 years old. And that moment changed the rest of my life! That very service I felt God’s strong tangible presence for the very first time.. He whispered to me “Em, I love you, I really do…” and I opened my heart to His reality in my life.

Through the years, as I grew up in the church, was baptised in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, grew in spiritual disciplines of prayer and knowing His Word, joined a cellgroup and started serving His house through ministry, tithed, gave, sacrificed… I just wanted one thing which was to love Him with all my life.

I remembered those younger days where I would go to Powerhouse to pray and just cry out to God.. to tell Him that I wanted to build Him a great house.

And looking at how City Harvest has grown and transformed, I would say it is now a “great house” with “greater things yet to be done”! I really thank God that I am part of this house!

Pastor Kong posted his anniversary message on his website, check it out! Some quotes below:

In the end, that is what City Harvest is all about―a place where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. This is our place and moment in history: to demonstrate a growing church that is passionate for Jesus, yet relevant to society, caring for the broken and marginalized. A church with a “holy worldliness.” That means holy disciplines that make us the people of God, but a worldly sophistication that makes us relatable to the world.

On this 20th Anniversary, why don’t we make a decision to love Him back even more every single day? Shall we do that? Shall we, once again, live to love Him more each day?

It was so apt that at the end of everything, it was not about how magnificent our church gets, but how much more we love Him each day!

Spot the typo?

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:40:00 +0000

I spotted this while I was waiting for my bus and I took a double-take! Isn’t that a typo?

In my mind, I was just thinking of the implications, MacDonald’s will sack their agency, their agency will have to rectify the error and reprint all the ads and pay for the installation…. But wait a minute, after checking their website… apparently, it is NOT a spelling error but that’s how they spell “Filet-O-Fish” …! Now you know!

One Year Together

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Wow, one year of marriage has passed! (actually it's more than a year cos our wedding anniversary was on 5th July!!) I did a little photo collage on some of the things we experienced together as a newly wed =)

It has been a great one year of living life together, doing housework, cooking, getting rid of mildew (!!), putting up our Christmas tree, going for jogs, putting on face masks together, going to Taiwan for a holiday, hosting guests at our place, having steamboats...

Thanks Dear for taking this journey of love together with me and though there has been tough times and emotional rides, we will keep on running this race we have started! Love you lots dear dear!

My 1st Blogshopping Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Em) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Ok here’s my first blogshopping experience I was supposed to share about! I’m on BonitoChico’s mailing list so I will get email updates when they launch a new collection. But, many times when I check my email, the collection’s has been launched for around a day or two so most of the clothes have been snapped up! At times BC will run backorders so one day I saw a backorder for this very unique dress. So I thought why not?

I quickly transferred my money over to the designated bank account via Internet Banking and posted a comment on the completed transaction details. After a few days I was wondering why there was no news yet on when the dress will be delivered to me. I checked the site again which stated that a mass email will be sent once the backorder has closed. Well, well… so more waiting to do… I did finally get that confirmation email about a week later which said I would get my dress 2 weeks later! More waiting!! But I guess some things are worth waiting for!

After 3.5 weeks later, I had the precious white envelope sent to my home! Thanks to my hubby who was home to receive it!! He was “threatening” to open it for me!! I was really excited when I got home, but not without first taking some pics of the parcel!! =)))

I like the dress very much though I had to wear a tube inside cos I find it too low-cut already. Of course, with the price $3X in total plus postage, you can’t expect European fabric! Well, I got quite a few compliments on it too! What do you think? =)