i'm home!

i'm so glad to be home..... and it was such a great feeling to come back to smiling faces and frantically waving hands. *smiles*

many thanks to chris, josh, hao, boy, ah yuh, geri, esther, grace, uncle joo ching and auntie jocelyn (also for sending me home with my huge luggage), vic, and last but definitely not the least, jon.

i'm gonna unpack my stuff, catch up on all the blog readings and perhaps write an entry. but my photos are not ready yet. maybe tomorrow.

it's so nice to be back!

no time to blog

the first few days at mattel hk has been challenging.

i'm so busy i can't find time to blog. emails are flying around and replies have to be composed.

it is 1am and i am jut starting to sort out my emails.

met poonie for dinner today and finally met henry. he seems like a nice guy, but a tad too quiet. perhaps it was because i seemed intimidating. but i'm glad he felt comfortable enough to talk more as the night went on. i'm happy for poonie that she's in bliss.

trade offs in hk

i traded a extra huge comfy hotel room in guanyao for one half its size (although it is on the executive floor) but with cable access 10 times of what i had last week.

wooooohhoooo...... i'm alive in blogspot again! but i'm starting to like my LJ account.

going to find my laundrette to wash one week's work of clothes, get my lunch, change RMB to HK$ and go shopping. after which, i'm accompany ann to meet her aunt for dinner at causeway bay.

temporary relocation

i just found out from the net that the chinese government banned blogs, which explains why i can't access my blogspot account nor view my blog. see here here to learn why the stupid ban.

oohhh... found a site that anonymously redirects me to view my blog. but i can't post entries coz i still have to go to blogger to do so. anyway, i'm glad i can view my comments and my friends' blogs. to keep updated on their lives. hee...

anyway, from now till sun, i will be blogging on my livejournal account to update on my happenings here. will move everything over to blogspot when i've finally gotten thru to blogger. (which will only be probably on sunday when i am in hk.) sigh.

barbie dolls

this is my first post since i landed in hk. currently in guangzhou, surrounded by headless Barbie©s. for those who have met me on msn, i have grumbled about my 13-hour journey from singapore to foshan (a city outside guangzhou).

for those who don't know, it was only a 3½ hour flight from singapore to hongkong. but i had to take a one hour airport express to the train station, where i took a 2-hour starbuck's break. then we headed for the kowloon-canton railway and that was another 2½ hours! followed by a one hour drive to the hotel, i got to the hotel and had my dinner at 10pm.

thank God it's a really nice hotel. from the garden outside, in the night, ann (my friend and trainer with me) commented that it looks like daoming si's house in meteor garden. and i've got photos to show that. i've got cable access in my room (thankfully, so i can msn in the night) but can't seem to access my blog. arghz! and mattel doesn't allow non-staff members to access their network so i can't plug in my laptop here. grr....

i'll try to post up pictures tonight.

back to work. nice people here. that's the great part. young and vibrant (100% women) team.

will update soon again.

leaving on a jet plane

i'm leaving on a jet plane, but i know when i'll be back again.

bye peeps. i'm off on a jet plane tomorrow morning at 10.20am. this is the last entry i'm posting till i get to guangzhou, which will be tomorrow night at 8pm.

please take care of yourselves. you know i will miss you all. leave me messages. i will definitely reply. and also, please take care of my sweetie for me.


leaving a few messages for people i didn't get to say bye to:

vic : hang in there! don't stress yourself...

denice and joy : study hard girlies! just a month more and it'll be few months of freedom.

juZ havoc pals : see ya guys and girls when i'm back. for aL's birthday dinner.

zihui : we'll go for our pedicure when i'm back okie? too busy these few days lah.... remember to rest! don't work so hard!

lynn : all the best for your assignments and exams! by the time i'm back, you'll be done!

random pics

pics taken from youth service today. no time to post it here.

birds on a prarie alert!!! check out pics here.

random thoughts

as i washing brushing my teeth and washing my face just now, i had a random thought:

singapore idol is no longer about Singapore's most-talented singer,
but SingTel's best money-spinning artiste-to-be.
(almost comparable to those charity shows on tv...)

must be the post-effect of reading cleo, where the finalists were featured in an article about them shopping in heeren. (another publicity stunt. wonder how much heeren paid for that?)

another piece of information from cleo. i'll be watching movies after november 10. why? nicole kidman is starring in a "2-minute film [worth US$12m], the trailer for a movie that has never actually been made". it's an ad, directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge), for the iconic perfume Chanel No.5. and it stars hunky Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro (Love Actually)!!! and you thought the hoo-haa was for nicole kidman.

okie, so jon has his nadya hutagalung and i have my rodrigo santoro. fair and square!

shaking legs

here i am, really to finish up my work. my mind is constantly distracted. by survivor on tv. by the occasional msn chat window flashing. by the urge to read blogs. i can't concentrate. my brain is rebelling.

dad and mum are getting ready. they are leaving for the bus station in 20 mins. from there, they will be headed off to kl for leonard's wedding. corrina smsed me the other day to asked if i was going coz she wanted a shopping kaki. sigh. i'm missing my cousins' weddings. i don't feel good about it.

but there is something special about hugs. not the virtual ones that i am collecting below. i'm talking about the strong arm around my shoulder, with my head leaned against his shoulder. it's such a soothing feeling. it elevates whatever negative thoughts i have. my mind tends to blank out everything i give jon a huggie. that's the beauty God gave us... to be the shoulder to cry on for that someone who needs it. a comfort when we are down, a companion when we are lonely, a comrade when we are at war.

hopping off to see how mum is fussing over what else she needs to bring.

unprepared

i am not packed. save for some toiletries, two shawls, hp and digicam charger. i still don't know what i have to bring. i have not prepared for the presentation i am supposed to do to some executive president and directors of a big buying house in hk when i am there.

i have not changed any HK$ since mum is giving me her RMB first and i will return her in S$. i have not prepared the documents i have to bring for the training.

should i start worrying? but i am not.

bleah!

give me some hugs so i feel loved. haha... better still, send me hugs and leave me notes.





*HUGS* TOTAL!
give unpolished_gem more *HUGS*

Get hugs of your own

fishie, fishie

a day full of fishies... went shoe shopping at amara while waiting for clar who was stuck in a jam. bought one pair of slip-on heels from charles and keith. others which i wanted weren't available in my size.

met her for lunch at tanjong pagar. we planned to have the semi-buffet at m hotel, since her mum had the privilege card which entitles us to a one-for-one set lunch. it was sushi and sashimi galore. i think i had about over 10 slices of salmon and tuna sashimi each. with chawanmushi, salad, sushi, tempura, miso... and our main course of grilled salmon in butter sauce and grilled unagi. yummers! we ate to our hearts' content. snapped some shots for the heck of it.

got a call from jac who told me vnc at harbourfront had the covered pointy slip-on heels i have been looking for. so we headed down for a while. wow! the vnc outlet was so much more impressive than the citylink one, and it definitely had more designs. but left disappointed because they just didn't have the ones i want of my size in the colour i wanted. grr...... twice in a day!

anyway, headed off to meet jon and spent my whole afternoon bumming around... went to his kong's place for dinner. nasi lemak dinner - more fishies! bummed the night away too.

after one day of slacking, now it's my turn to mug for work.

countdown to guangzhou/hk trip: 3 days minus 1 hour 37 min

new layout

spent the past 3 hours figuring out html codes (again). managed to get my blog to half (or about 70%) of what i want it to be. just can't figure out how to give it a dark purple left and right border, as well as move my tagboard align to the right.

gonna try that another day. getting dizzy with all the codes.

so what's your take on the new layout?

with eyes opened wide

morning was a daze. i tried to pull myself awake when my alarm rang at 9am (as usual for weekday mornings). but i snoozed it till 10.15. woke up feeling drowsy. it felt like fatigue.

dragged myself to my comp and turned it on. switched on msn and my two mailboxes. (it's becoming so conditional that i do that "unconsciously competently".) brought my brekkie into the room. brekkie was a slice of choc cake mummy left for me and a glass of super instant cereal.

oooohh.... many many emails. read through most of them. composed the replies mentally and decided to type it after my cake. after my brekkie, with the tv buzzing the taiwanese melodrama that accompanies me every weekday morning, i decided that i am still too tired to work. i will not make sense even if i force myself to do some work. (jon and i have concluded that it is the after-effects of a packed weekend. we seem to have the same problem every monday. mondays should be declared as post-weekend rest day. haha!)

woke up when sharon called at 11.30. chatted about matters in jakarta, her trip to bangkok, my trip to mattel and work matters when she was away. realised there was some mix-up and i had to meet her before she leaves for bangkok at 4.

arranged to meet jon for lunch at t2 mac. met tien hwa while he was at work in the airport. met sharon as well. exchanged stuff. she left for her flight. th left for more work. i left for lunch. hung around mac working on my laptop till 5.30.

side note. we don't understand why people can sit in mac reading books and magazines with just one drink when students cannot study there. the manager stopped all the students from studying, despite them having more than a drink on their table. but he skipped our table because 1) i was on the laptop so he probably assumed i was using their wireless broadband network (which is charged at $6 per half hour by starhub), or 2) we were doing WORK and not studying. it was absurd! the place was barely half-filled. i would totally understand if it was full, or maybe 70% to cater to more patrons. i noticed this mother-daughter couple who bought two drinks and reading magazines. so that is acceptable? hmm... where do we draw the line?

back to the day. the rest of the evening made me $150 poorer. braun buffel wallet (finally!). robinson's warehouse sale at expo. a commodite bag. a gym bag (i was in the illusion that it would encourage me the exercise more!). st ives apricot scrub. za oil blotters. two bedsheet sets. jon had his own stash.

lugging huge red plastic bags, we had a quickie dindin and headed home. i looked like a premature santa claus. (oh! but santa doesn't wear a racerback and jeans. haha!)

anyway, here i am. with a long to-do list, brainstormed when i sat in mac. thankfully 3 of them have been ticked off. presentation tomorrow. lunch with clar at m hotel on wed. (is she buying? hahahaha...) shall take the opportunity and pop over the charles and keith at amara to see if they have good bargains at their sale. and see if they have what jac is looking for.

for those who are wondering, my wound is almost completely healed. just that it looks like a scar now as it is still in the process of healing together. jon commented that he could hardly see it from a distance anymore. but there is still a few blue-black marks. looking more like scratches around the eye. but nothing to be concerned about. yay! i can open my eyes and see the world now!

before i go, a few wishes to send out....

happy BIRTHDAY to hao, jasmine mok, ben, and ke jia. may you continue to give thanks to the Lord who made your life possible and grow to shine for Him!

happy 5th ANNIVERSARY to hui and zongwei. many many more years to come.... and do i hear wedding bells soon?

CONGRATULATIONS to candice and keat on your engagement.

photo updates

here's me now!




jo bought us lunch at the executive's club yesterday. the food was nice but the view was breathtaking. but i think the view from the treasure's club at raffles city is nicer.

hah?

tired. burnt out. aching. sleepy. lazy. blah.

period.

watch this space for more updates.

the new me

i'm sinking in all the love showered on me by everyone who finds out about my accident. the pat of the back, the heartwarming hug, the squeeze on the shoulder, the spirit-lifting smile and the concerned shocked look... i feel so loved!

was having our usual bedtime chat on friday night with jon when he told me his new observation. he realised that i seem to have a new outlook in life after the accident. "you seem more happy now despite what we went through" was what he said.

that set me thinking for a while. is it true? am i really exuding happines amidst my injury? "yup" was my answer to him. i can feel the positive vibes in me. i see myself smiling more often than before the accident. even as i relate the accident to concerned friends and family, i keep assuring them that i am fine. this injury has been pretty painless for me (save for the occasional itchiness which is unbearable for a itch-prone person like me). if i was to complain about anything, it just had to be the discomfort the bandage poses to me, not allowing me to open my eye more than half. *sneeze* ouch! (and that too.)

getting back to what jon said... i feel different. and it has nothing to do with my 6-stitched wound on my eyebrow or my racoon-like right eye. but it definitely has everything to do with what God did for me during the accident. the first two nights following the accident, before i fell asleep, i could visualise the accident in my mind. but it didn't bring me fear. on the other hand, it showed me gratitude. i have said this a million times, and when you have been through what i have, you would do the same too. i'm so glad i'm alive! i thank my Lord that i'm alive!

i could have died. i could have been blind (since i missed blindness by a mere 2 cm). i could have been disabled. there are so many "could-haves". and what i was reminded on saturday was "rejoicing in our problems". this is truly putting the Word of God in action. it's really faith in action. yes, there are times when i think why i ended up like that (usually when i stare at myself in the mirror) and the what-ifs which would have avoided the incident. but it came rarely. i refuse to let myself wallow in misery.

was speaking to a friend last night. i was telling her, we hear of such accidents and cases often in the newspapers, news and word of mouth. but we simply find ourselves going "oh, so poor thing" and move on. it never moved us seriously. it never meant much to us. more often than not, we are oblivious to them. i find myself guilty of this before.

nothing beats a personal experience to change your life. i was in a taxi yesterday on the way to my cousin's birthday bbq. the taxi driver was on the ECP going at almost 120km/h and i found myself going back to the accident scene. i immediately told him to slow down and told him what happened to me. he looked at me in my racoon eye and he understood. he apologised and continued the journey at 80km/h. i hope i served as a reminder to him that life is more important than the mere amount he could get from shortening passenger times and increasing passenger turnover.

right now, i can only give God all the glory for preserving both jon and i. life and death is truly a thin line apart. (in our case, it was only the distance between a cross junction.) most of us do not recognise that death is no respecter of age. so do not take your life too lightly.

we often belittle the little things in life that makes the difference.
we take too many things too lightly.
we take for granted the things God has graciously granted us.

do you know where you would be if you were in my shoes, and the odds were all against you?

here's the thing!

for those of you out there who are still clueless about the thing that flew and hit my eyebrow during the accident, here it is. and yes, the whole section was dislodged and flew at my eyebrow!



by the way, more than 3 people have actually commented to me that the pic i posted below of my wound and swollen eyelid looks more like a make-up trial gone wrong. does it really look like that??? hmmmm.......... good or bad? hmmmm...... *wonders*

thankews!

thanks everyone for your concern. for all the SMSes, msn messages, comments left on my blog, phone calls.... all your love is greatly appreciated. boy does word spread fast. before i couldn't even post my long long entry on the accident, people seem to have found out about it. freaky! haha...

i'm feeling much better now. managed to catch a movie yesterday to get my mind off things. caught "the terminal" with one and a half eyes. it was a wonderful story. i had this psuedo-actress-concealing-her-identity look yesterday, walking in suntec city at 6pm in a pair of sunglasses. haha. it was fun, and jon constantly dissuaded me from taking my sunglasses off. wanted to do so to see the reactions of people who walked past me. (i also looked like a mistress who got bashed up by "the wife" and her kakis.)

currently, it is just the discomfort of a swollen eyelid covering half my vision.. the stitches are surprisingly fine. no pain at all since i had them done. thank the Lord for it.

i guess He knew the ugliness of the swelling and the stitches were already too much for me to handle. hee... and praise Him that i only took painkillers twice so far. once after i got back from the hospital and once yesterday afternoon.

anyway, posted up a pic of my stitches, since jon said i have to keep evidence of my injuries for the future. just in case there are after-effects (which i hope not). please continue pray for smooth recovery.... at least for the swelling to go down first.



oooooooohhh.... HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!