Juggling between work and family

Career Woman + Housewife = Superwoman

Ever since I started work, this is the first week that both my parents are out of town and I had to attend to everything that happens at home. From my sis to my bro to dinner to cleaning the house. *tireedddd* In addition, my work has been a rather big headache lately. With lots of places to run to and many unfinished paperwork, I can hardly find a space to breathe in.

Although it has only been two days since I had to juggle between family and work, it felt like forever. I really am envious and look up to those career woman with a wonderful family. I wonder how did they managed to juggle between the two. With another week to go for me to be a superwoman, I really gotta pray hard that I will survive. hahx.

Still, I love my work and family =)
-=challenges will not defeat me=-

Facebookieee

Am really amazed with what technology can do nowadays. In the past, a document will take a minimum of one day to reach you and information takes a long time to go travel around. And now, you are just a phone call away, a email away from the other party. How amazing, scary technology can be! With the ever-changing society, we are moving at a very fast pace to get a headstart in the game. And because of this, I think i am still trying to catch my breathe at work.
In any case, this is not really about work. More importantly, I am so glad that I have a face book account and I have managed to catch up with many of my old friends! Dropping them a msg every now and then to find out how they are doing. Looking at their pictures, see how they have changed since we've last met. It is just amazing how ppl changes through time and even to see myself change through time!
Although facebook is still a little hard to use, (with regards to the functions available) it is still a useful tool for me to communicate with friends overseas! Time to do more facebook stuff!

Comex Aug 2008

Ho Ho Ho!
Had a good time with Charissa at the Comex show yesterday even though both of us came out quite sick from the show. We were both very happy with our purchases! She managed to get her Creative Zen Xi-Fi player, which looks really cool! (I hope the spelling is correct) And I got my dad a bluetooth for his handphones (Which connects to 2 phones at a time! Ain't that coooool???) Then I got myself a lappy! Heex. Now, You will see me stuck to my laptop with my favourite game!
I was choosing between a few brands, Acer, BenQ, LG and Dell cz their prices are more reasonable. BenQ has a really cool laptop which has a 13.3" screen and pretty good specs but I haven't tried that brand before so I am a little worried on that. LG's promoter kept giving me all kinds of discounts and freebies so I was rather tempted to buy but their price a still a little on the high side and the specs wasn't as good for the price range. Then came Acer! One of my favourite brands. Their 12.1" laptop was selling at $1,298 and it was PRETTY! Unfortunately, I didn't really like the sales person.
So i settled for Dell. Their price is one of the best for the same specs compared with other brands. I got myself Dell Inspiron 1420, Expresso Brown cover.
At the price of $1,299, it comes with the following specs
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5750
Memory - 4 GB Dual Channel 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Disk - 320GB SATA Hard Drive
Screen - 14.1" Widescreen WXGA TFT Display with 2.0 MP webcam
Operating System - Windows Vista Home Premium
Graphics - 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Optical Drive - 8X DVD RW Drive
McAfee - 15months
Bluetooth - Dell wireless 355 Bluetooth
Wireless - Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band 802.11a/b/g 54 Mbps Mini-card
Warranty - 1 Year
The only sad thing... I can only get it in 2 weeks. =( But I am still quite happY! hahhx
After which Charissa and I had lunch at Marina Square. I forgot the name of the restaurant but it had really wonderful food! It was located next to Swensens and Ribs is one of its outstanding dishes. I had Grilled Chicken with mango slices on it, which was WONDERFUL! hahhx The mango was very sweet and it goes very well with the chicken. *Yummm* Charissa had Honey Baby-Ribs which looked quite nice too. heex. She even packed the ribs she couldn't finish back home to eat. So it must be of some standard!
Then went home after our lunch. On our way back, saw Vivien at Citilink but unfortunately she didn't see me. =( Nevertheless, she still looks so pretttyyyy =) Must catch up with her someday.
That's all for now!

random notes

I have no idea wat to name this post because i have no idea what i wanna put in this post.
Still trying to recollect my thoughts together and put them down in words but my mind is wondering off into so many areas that I don't have a topic in mind that I can put my finger to.
Life have been rather monotonous lately. I have been working, tv, sleep and the cycle starts all over again the next day. And on weekends, I don't really have any idea what to do. Together with my bf, we are like lost wondering souls. Hahx.
We have been planning our future, looking at flats that will be coming up, furniture we want in the house etc etc. hahh i think this part of my life is rather interesting. Really can't wait for this future dream of ours to come =)
On the other hand, Olympics have just ended, so don't really know what to watch out for on tv nowadays. AND Congrats to the table tennis players who have won the silver medal for Singapore! And BOOOO to the person who has made it onto the headlines infamously. Apparently the words that the person has said to the media at the Olympics has upset many people, and I think people will start demonstrating at the park against her. I think her future looks rather misty right now...
Oh well, time to go do other stuff!

Work Work Work

Yo! haven't post for a very long time. I have been rather busy with work lately, going home at 7-8. *tiring* But I like being busy. There's a sense of achievement. =)
I am currently working in this Civil Engineering Consulting firm, as a asst. proj manager. Heexz. Nice title right? Basically, I have been dealing with contracts, and also clients (which is the harder part). The company that I am working in is not those big international company, but I will have to say that we are rather "internationalized" with people from all over the globe. And I really like this working environment, cz it is not so tensed, not much of conflict with colleagues and basically, everyone is working together in harmony! *Yup, I know this is the best part about work*
And the second best part is that I get to drive home the company van, so I dun really have to go look for my own transport. =) Talking about driving, had a really funny drive home today. Knocked off at about 7, with Syah and Yihong. So I drove them to the places they wanted to go, and have came to realization that EACH and EVERYTIME I drive the both of them back, I run into Red Lights almost the entire trip back. Last week, it took me half an hour to get from pandan loop to bukit batok (hitting red light almost the entire way back), which would usually take a much shorter time. And today, I ran into red lights 6 times in a row. hahh.. I dunno how I manage to get that "Lucky". Maybe its about time I go buy 4D.
And also had another funny experience the other day. After boss left for some investigation, all of us left at about 630pm. I was the last one to leave the office, with Syah. And as we walked towards the passenger's lift round the corner, the goods lift on our right was opening. Both of us stared at the door, then at each other and started running in the direction of the passenger's lift immediately! hahhh. this was actually for a good reason. Our boss like to use the goods' lift to get to office/out of office, so we thought that he was coming back and just wanted to get out of there immediately. hahhx.
Wish I have some photos that I can put up, but unfortunately, none. =X
Shall show you guys pictures of my durian trip soon!

Aftershock of SzeChuan Earthquake

Just 10 minutes ago, the live telecast to raise donations for the SzeChuan Earthquake ended. Watching the pictures of the earthquake, the aftermath, the orphans really make me feel touched.
It wasn't anything extreme, it was just a singing performance to raise the amount. And I was really glad that they managed to raise more than 6 million by the end of the show. The most touching part of the show was the mother's love for her 3-4months old baby. It was really saddening to know that the baby will never get to know his mother personally, but only through a phone message that has her love in it. And to that mum, my greatest respect.
Although it was just a 3 hour telecast, it managed to play its message across. With this show, I feel more and more for the sufferers of this natural disaster and I really hope that the survivors will walk out of this darkness soon. My deepest condolences to them.

A Short getaway

Yo! Ever since i started work a week plus ago, i have been too busy to do things I wanted to do. Shucks. But i have been enjoying work so far, at least I hope i did. *hmmm*.. There is still some sense of uncertainty about this job but so far everything is going well....

Over last weekend, went to bintan with family for a short getaway!! The views are fantastic, and tadaaaa.. below are some of the pictures that I took while I was there..

Oh i love the colour contrast in the sky... prettyyyy... and the beach looks pretty too.. wonderful...
Look! This is one of the pretty shell-like stuff that I found on the beach. It has a very distinct flower shape. And almost every shell there is like this! with this distinct flower. interesting hehhh... I tried to bring it back to the resort but somehow it crushed in my pocket... *shruggs*

A Pretty view of the pool at the resort area. Honestly, it has a really wonderful ambience. And when you lie on one of those beach chairs, it is so breeeezyyy!!
Another vieww of the resort =)

Honestly, the stay was wonderful, however the food is not as great. *shakes head* Ooo and i had a massage there! It was quite nice and relaxingg... And i chanced upon this magazine showing Miniloc Island of Philippines. IT IS VERYYY PRETTY!!!! I wanna go there one dayy. maybe 5 years in the future? Cz one night stay for 1 person is 400 sin dollar (minimum) and nooooooo i don't have that luxury for now.

Didn't put any of my pictures in this entry cz i look totally awful! I think i am growing too fat. need more exercise. *ROARRRR* must be the after effects of exams..

CONGRATS!

A big CONGRATS to myself for completing 3 years of univerisity life. =)
ANOTHER big congrats for finding a job =)
BUT a BIG slap on the face for beginning work the day AFTER exams end. =(

Spent a really nice day out with my friends, xiaoqian and charissa, after exam ended yesterday. We had our lunch at Hogsbreath Cafe, which was ok but not really that fantastic as people make it out to be. Oh well, at least we filled our tummy =) Spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the place before we went off to do our own separate stuff.

And for today, it was the first day of work! I will say that there is alot of things to do, but I didn't manage to find that much things to do. Hahhx. Went on a site inspection with my boss, and it was quite interesting to see how bad a building can turn into with age. And learnt alot about buildings, what to look out for, some laws for the buildings, etc. It feels like school all over againnn.. hahhh... let's hope tml will be a better day =)

Quick Update!

The start of exams...

one hour.. two hour..

Took my Infectious diseases exam more than 5 hours ago and came out feeling quite unsettled. Deep down inside, I know, I have done this exam badly. Like everyone around me say, Don't think about it anymore, concentrate on the next exam. Yeah i wish. Still feeling unsettled.

One exam down, 3 more to go. Having Applied microbiology at 1pm tomorrow, and I am on the brink of losing all my brain cells. More memorizing, i am afraid, and after 3pm tomorrow, its down to another 3 days of memorizing.

Let me try to think of something happy that happened these few days. hmmmm.. hmmm.. hmm.. hm.. Okay, I can't think of anything right now. Still brain dead from the exams.

Wish me luck!

1 week countdown

Currently studying for my cardio CA2, which is tearing my brain apart cz i hate to read reviews and papers. -sighs- Even so, I really hope that I will do well in tml's CA to make up for the really bad CA1. CAs aside, I have another week countdown to my Finals. schedule is as follows:

28th April - Infectious Diseases (70%)

29th April - Applied Microbiology (70%)

2nd May - Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology (60%)

5th May - Human Physiology: Cardiopulmonary System (40%)

With such a high percentage for the finals, it will come to no surprise that I am damn freaked out! And to tell the truth, I don't have one module that I am confident in, and in fact, i am scared for all of them! Infectious diseases is tough, and my prof has already sent us a sample of what the format will be like. The moment i opened the file, WTH is all over my head. This is definitely not going to be easy. -shrugs-

Applied Microbiology, probably the one that I am least stressed about, but still worried cz I am not particularly good with the last prof's lecture notes. And as for neurobiology, I really enjoyed studying it, but learning that the exam is going to be 4 essay questions without the choice to choose really bothers me. As for the last exam on cardio, it is going to be MCQs and TFs. Everyone is going to think it is easy, but honestly, i am really bad at MCQ!!! sighs so this is another worrying one. Not going to be a smooth month up ahead.

Stressed

Unlike in SMU, which is probably the period of total stress now, NUS has another 2 weeks to the finals. But i am already damn stressed. I have 3 tests coming up.

Monday - Applied Microbiology (ENTIRE COURSE TESTED) 30%

Wednesday - Human Physiology (Essay - Respiratory System) 20%

Friday - Human Physiology (CA - Cardiopulmonary system) 20%

And added up together, its a high percentage for my grades. -stressed- I hope I will get good grades for human physiology cz i did really badly for my first CA. -praying hard- And the bad thing now is that I have not touched a single thing on cardio cz i have been studying for applied microbiology. -sighs- This is making me really stressed and depressed.

really hope to do well this term.. can't afford to jumble up anything. -sighs-

Dream Phone

I wanna get this phone. :D

And i have got it. =)

In silver colour, and its pretty stylish...

overly emotional?

tired? crazy? I don't know. I can't tell anymore.
-living dead human-

busy busy

Phew~ It's been rather busy, with labs, CAs and tutorials and closed the busy week with a short trip to tioman island over the long weekend. =)

Life in school have been rather fast-paced lately, in which I have been having trouble trying to catch up. With 1 lab due today, another lab report due next tuesday and a commentary on Alzheimer's disease due next monday, I dare say that i have alot of work to do this week. Not to mention my zero sense of music directions in my music class is driving me crazy, there's 2 birthday parties to attend this week as well. Oh! And I haven't actually started on my reports due next week. Sighs. This is going to be a rather tormenting week up ahead.

Enough with the complaints, I have had quite a interesting breakaway over the weekend. Along with caren and HK, I went to tioman with my family and nix. The bus ride there was totally horrible! Driver was rather slow and it felt like a sideways Pirate ship where we bob from side to side for the entire 4 hours trip (and it actually stated in the itinery that it was supposed to be 3 hrs ride). Another 2hrs boat ride to the tioman island (which again, stated 45min in the itinery). To add to our dismay, it began pouring as soon as we stepped onto the island!!! Trying to squeeze on the bus with so many other tourists wasn't a easy task. Not to mention that almost everyone got our butts wet as the bus was rather "opened". There was no side covers to shield us from the heavy rain.

Despite such an uncomfortable ride to the island, things begin to turn for the better as we checked into the resort. The chalet was pretty and felt so relaxing, with connecting doors for us to walk from one chalet to the other. Spent our first day exploring the pretty beach along the resort (but it was definitely not as nice as KK), and a tennis treat for 2hrs. Oh and we saw a coral snake along the beach!! We began to throwthings at the snake to see if it was alive, and yeah it was just lazing around the beach. Dangerous thing to have along the beach eh.

On the second day, which is a saturday, we went for a short snorkelling trip that is 2 minutes away from the main island. Pretty corals, big sea cucumbers and loads of sea urchins! There wasn't as much fishes as we expect there to be, but the fishes were definitely more vicious than the ones in KK! My sis got bitten by one of the fishes and her finger was bleeding non-stop! scary little fish, who ended our snorkelling trip earlier than expected. Oh well! And we went out of the resort to have a nice lunch with crabs and prawns in a chinese restaurant.

Shortly after, we went for trekking along the waterfall in which most of us were rather unprepared cz all of us wore slippers for the trek. Not to mention the hateful mosquitoes that kept bitting us, we have had a rather tormenting time on the trek. Even so, we still enjoyed the waterfall trek with the pretty chamelons and the cooling water in the waterfall.

Ended our day with a BBQ buffet ( which was horrible) and a game of pool in the games room. Continued with some work in the chalet and a game of munchkins which was rather fascinating. hahhx. The ride back the next day was another unthinkable trip, but this time round, the bus driver drove so fast that i felt like puking. It took us 2 hours to get from the Telok Munuk pier to JB, in which i think it is a record for the bus driver.

p.s. try to take boat from Singapore - Mersing - Tioman If you wanna go there next time. The bumpy bus ride is just horrible.

Updates!

My ONE week of holidays or rather, study break, has passed and now i am back to my hectic schedule of lectures and labs. It was a enjoyable holiday, where i had my birthday celebrated + holiday trip to genting + etc etc. So below are some of the group photos i took with my friends!
My wonderful 2Bians! Thanks to the guys for coming even though you have to rush down to camp right after. THANK YOUUUUU! And to caren for coming even though you have a bad stomach that day. =)
Some of my friends from BISS + ISS + NUS. hahh all girls group! GIRLS POWERRR!
And to my fav group of friends, The Triossss... =)
Ah this i have to put up if not nix will be sooo sad. The one in the casing was given to me by nix. =) pretty gold bracelet!
And to the trios! for giving me a "surprise" on my birthday itself! unfortunately, the balloon has deflated and chewed to pieces by my lovely rabbits. sighs. oh not to forget, nix sent the balloon to its death by adding the first damage through the spinning fan..... awwwww..
Shall upload on my wonderful genting trip another timE! meanwhile, becareful everyone out there! There's a criminal on the looose... Hope the police catch him sooon....

Zooieee

Finally, we went to the zoo on sunday after much planning and waiting! So here are just some random pictures of cute fluffy animals in the zoo. hahhx. Here's the picture of the white-faced monkey (which I dunno the actual name)
A random picture that i took before Splash Safari started. hahh. look, there's another woman looking into the camera as well. Three different sorts of expressions. lol. One diao one, one with a sorta question mark face? and one that just wanna look into the camera i think. hahh
This is a really lovely white tiger! I saw them swimming in the water and i just wanted to join them! pretty little animals though they can be very dangerous. =(
Ah this is a really weird expression from nix. hmmm i can't remember what we saw that makes him give this expression... was it the snake?
And like caren said in her blog, We paid our last respects to Ah Meng at the zoo. She has such a nice resting place... nice scenery, with flowers surrounding her.
We ended our day with a wonderful dinner at CCK. Yummy, my fav chilli crab. -lick fingers- Oh yes, and i remembered we play alot of tricks on caren throughout the day. heex. Besides the bus trick, remember chris played another trick on you caren? hahhx. Okay, that's only for the trio to know and shall not be revealed to public. lol.

P.S. TRIO RULESSSSSS

SEA Night!

PHEW~ Finally, our first performance of the module has begun!!! We had to meet at 11am in the morning before the start of the performance. And this is how me and charissa looked in the pretty morning of the weekend!
However, I think we all were rather worn out by the moving of instruments. Look! There's both thai and indonesian instruments. tiringggg....
After moving in all the instruments, we stopped for a pretty photo of us at the Lecture Theatre!
This is how the stage we are performing looks like. Obviously they are still moving the instruments and it's still not ready!
Look! It's us in our performance attire. =) That's me and charissa, with joel in the background trying to eat us up i guess. hahhx
Overall, the SEA night was very interesting even though we had a awfully boring afternoon before the performance started. But I was damnnn paiseh after the performance cz my leg went numb and I couldn't walk properly! Mark, the guy beside me had to help me into the backstage or i think i couldn't have moved without toppling over my own leg. hahhh.
After SEA night, I rushed to desmond's surprise birthday party! So sorry desmond that i went so late! -apologies!- I think i screamed my head off when i was thrown into the pool by my BFF, Azman and Maureen.. -pouts- And to all those guys who wanted to join in the fun of throwing me down but decided to remain a gentleman, THANK YOU. hahhx. Then i went to caren's house for a game of daidee with her family via Hadi's car (thanks for the ride even though i am soaking wet!!). And to caren, thanks too! hahh for lending me ur dry clothes and sending me home after the game!

Happy VDAY!!!

Firstly, Happy VDAY to everyone out there! Hope everyone had a nice day today. =)
I think so far, this is one of the best Valentine's day for me. On the night before, I received this really pretty card on my doorstep. i was sooooo surprised. =)

My dad was the one who saw this pretty handmade card first. I thought it was reaaaally sweet. =) And within the card, it is a invitation., which i shall not discuss in details. heex. -privacy- Here's another picture of what he has done specially for me. Lovely right? I thought the picture on the computer was quite pretty too. -Big SmiLe- Oh, and the bouquet of roses was the surprise that i received this morning. Isn't it pretty? And mind you, it was handmade as well!
A closer look at the pretty flowers made by my loveeeeeely boyfriend. See the difference between the rose in the middle and the rest? Scroll down for bigger surprise!
Tadaaaa!!! Its a pretty ring inside the red rose in the middle. =)
Oh, and our day did not just end there. Nix cooked brunch for me at his house, which was totally lovely. =) panfried chicken wing, which is my fav! and we had it together with garlic bread, mushroom soup and baked beans. -yummyyy- Then we headed off to orchard for a walk around the place. First, we went to lancome to get one of the makeup that i wanted for a long time! Pen eyeliner! I am gonna try it on soon to see how it looks on me. And i redeemed a lipstick and a masacara. =) so much stuff for $39. totally worth it. =)

Walked around Taka after that. Wanted to go to the library to return my books but the library closed down. ANGRYYY!!!! oh well, then nix offered to carry the books for me after I whined like no one's business. hahxxx. After that, we walked around taka to look for nix's stuff and also did some admin stuff. Went to the basement to have some snack. While i was sitting at the table waiting for nix to get the food, I played with my new eyeliner. drew a line across my hand and kept the eyeliner. =) Then one of those angmohs came over and asked if i was a artist!! I was like..... noooo... And he said, "Oh i saw the artist pen that you have so i thought you are one, just like me. " I was like.. oh no i am not a artist. heeex. then i started laughing to myself. So a eyeliner can be a artist pen... -hmmmmm-

One of the pictures we took on the bus. -happy little couple-After that we went to Lot one to return my books, followed by a trip to westmall to get more admin stuff done which spent alot of our time.. -yawnnn- Took a nap at nix's house before we went to Long Beach for dinner. YUMMMY we had nix's fav baby squid, veg and a really nice New Year Rice. But the new year rice portion was wayyyyyyyy too big for us. It was like a portion for at least 5 people. Goshhhh....

Ended off our sweet Vday with a slow walk back to my house. =)

Wine Gourmet

Started off my new week with a blast! Missed the first 8am lesson and caught up with the Thai music lesson. Had a good time with my friends singing, playing music and just gossiping about others. hahhx.
Today is so far, the highlight of my week. I had a interesting time in my Applied Microbiology Lab, where we actually had a free wine appreciation course by my Prof. We had a one hour lecture about processes in food biotechnology, followed by an hour of wine talk. Learnt alot about how to drink wine properly, what kind of wine to drink and HOW TO GET DRUNK! hahh where can u ever learn that from??? I supposed you can only learn this from Applied Microbiology! We also got to sample both red and white wine, which tasted quite nice actually. The red wine was rather smooth, and the white wine was sweeeeeeeet. =)
And i guess some of us got rather tipsy cz the guys began spilling the experiment solution, adding in the wrong amount of solution, etc. Overall, GREAT TIME! =)
On a brighter note, I had a good time during CNY, and below is a picture of a really lovely dog that i saw at Nix's relative house.
P.S. Like my new blogskin?

despondent

random tv shows, occasional walks around the place, that's the highlight of my day.
however, i am feeling rather tired and don't feel like moving at all. or rather, i feel like my limbs are giving up on me. tirednessss....
exams are coming, with the first CA on 20th feb. I haven't touched any of my books yet and so far, have no decision to do so.
on the side note, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to all!