In the spirit of Halloween....

Something for the kiddies:

Lovely Surprise

Came home from work last wednesday and found this ~

Introducing the new PR chick.....

Yes I know, I have been slack...sorry sorry...don't abandon me...

This post is really abt answering some qns that i have been getting from friends over the last month...like "have u found a job", "what r u doing so early on msn" and the occasional "great! u found a job, how is it?"....

in short, to the above concerns, yes pple, i am officially gainfully-employed (again) as of 2nd Oct 2007...yippeeeeee

to be honest i wasn't sure abt the job...small company again...little pay....and the PR role i was offered is pretty unfamiliar territory...

but after a good couple of weeks with them...i can honestly say it's really FANTASTIC...the pple are nice...i get to learn from the current Marketing Manager...there are systems in place...and most of all, a lot less stress being that i am not ultimately responsible for the whole marketing dept.....pay is really really low...but hey, less stress so i guess it's kinda worth it...even tho i start at 7.30am...but i can swear to god i am seriously a million times happier than at that f***ing plc!

however there is an issue at the moment.....i am very comfortable with the workload...and altho i think i am ready to take up more...i really dunno if i want to...it's a very very fine line btw challenging myself and going back to those dark times where stress and sleeplessness takes over....

but it's not really up to me to choose...i dunno why i seem to be ending up in companies where the staff t/o rate is damn high...the Mkting Manager is leaving next week....i have been offered by the boss to take up her role with significantly more pay of course (altho he has not specified the amt yet)...and i can either choose to hire an assistant or do it ALL myself...the difference obviously is how much pay i want to get...

well, life is not always good timing issit...had it been one year later, i wld have put up my hand, no hesitations...but now, a little unsure tho...i really don't want to over-promise and under-deliver...yet i think i can do it...how how how....

the boss has already begun to test me...hopefully he will be pleased and i get to make the call on what i want....

Please God, can you let me have an easier 2008?

The Visit

Finally finally!!! After 6 long years later, Andrea dearest has decided to grace me with a visit!!! No no no... I am not complaining...so happy already...there's no space inside for anything else other than excitement!!

The poor girl so badly needed a break...and it was great that Serene came along as well...can't believe I got to meet her first before the others...hahah

Day 1 started out pretty good...made breakfast for all...(and discovered that i cannot talk and cook at the same time)...we then spent the whole afternoon at Freo...walked the markets, drank the beers, ate the seafood...even met an old secondary school classmate! pretty amazing story i tell u...the girl saw Serene first...but when she approached our table, Andrea realised it was an old classmate of ours...the girl even called out our names without blinking an eye, while i was like still thinking it was one of Serene's friends...i guess the most hilarous part was afterwards Serene admitted she didn't even remember that girl's name either...

all i can say is, Serene, u seriously crack me up...this incident is just the first of many to come... :) Probably the most memorable thing said during the entire trip was after i commented that I did not scale the Great Wall of China coz it was super steep...u actually replied that it's probably coz the ancient Chinese knew martial arts and have qing gong...they didn't need to walk down the tiny, slippery and steep steps... !!

*if i cld put an emoticon here i wld*

i think it would have turned out to be a pretty decent first day, have the poor dear not ended up puking her guts out the rest of the evening...oyster allergy it seems...poorthing :(

Thank goodness medication helped...or it could simply have been that she threw up absolutely everything...if not, we probably would have cancelled the trip to Margaret River...

"Selfishly", Mere was the self-appointed designated driver...yes yes, he wanted us chill...but i think (ie: know) he probably didn't trust us girls to drive...hahaha...when we came home he admitted that he didn't think we cld hack driving at 150km/h to overtake the trucks...duh....

Saw some pretty cool stuff on the busselton jetty...didn't know that you could fish for squid like how u wld fish for regular fish...ermm..then maybe it should be called squid-ing instead? Too bad the underwater observatory tour was later that afternoon so we couldn't check that out...but yah, i thought it was too far a walk anyways...the tram no longer runs on the jetty...so if we were to get to the observatory it was gonna be a 1.8km hike! i am freakin lazy i know...but it was also pretty cold lah!

Candy Cow was next....but hey, I just wanna say i am happy to be there...but it's not like its my mooooossst favourite place in the entire universe can? yes, i like fairy floss...(see above pic for fairy floss bigger than my head...raspberry flavour somemore!) yes, i think the candy & fudge making is pretty cool...but i dun eat them anyway...AND, i only WAVED to the guys making fudge coz he smiled at me first! serious!!

we were so tired at the end of the day that we just bought dinner back to the very very nice motel and ate in front of the TV...the nite was capped off with a couple of rounds of scrabble (forgot the mahjong set) on which Andrea won both times...tho we are still abit suspicious of "twirly" as a proper word...

the next morning was a mad rush of taking in what Margaret River has to offer...after a quick brunch at The Berry Farm with to-die-for boysenberry pie, scones with home-made strawberry jam and savoury scroll...we jetted off to a few different wineries, a venison farm (didn't see deer leh, only 1 insane dog) and most importantly, the Margaret River Chocolate Company...

i honestly thought they used to be known as the Margaret Chocolate Factory...but they must have grown bigger over the years...*shrug*...anyways, we got Pam her block of Rocky Road...which i might add, it's pretty small compared to those cheapo ones you can get elsewhere...but MR chocies are by far one of my favourites...i don't think she will be disappointed...only thing is...i just found out from Pam that Yousing loves Rocky Road too...oh well, that small block will be demolished in seconds i guess...hahahha...come to Perth next time lah..i'll take you there myself and you can go crazy shopping for chocolates....

the last thing we did before embarking on the 4-hour drive home was to go up to Dunsborough to the Whale Lookout...had to trek abit before we got to the clearing overlooking the ocean...met a few angmohs along the way...kept insisting the white sprays far far away were whales "playing"...*rolls eyes* honestly those sprays were nothing but sprays ok...dun lie to me can...BUT, we finally did see a whale...tho just a lap of the tail...it was lucky i suppose...it happend just as we were about to leave....

I think age has really caught up with us.......the Margaret River trip completely wore us out...we were all K.Oed that nite...

Slowly recovering from the trip, we got to a later start on Day 4...Mere had to go back to work so too bad he couldn't join us...we trotted down to Subiaco first thing and decided on a coffee brunch...Mere works in Subi so he knew of a great coffee place where I have been wanting to try as well...

If I told you that Stimulatte (great name isn't it?) has great coffee and that is why you should all go there...that would be such a lie...the coffee is great, yes, but that is not really the main thing...hehe...all i can say is that the SINGLE girls from Mere's workplace are frequent patrons of Stimulatte...and don't worry, guys can get their share too...:)

from there we went on to Leederville where Andrea bought a pair of cute sunnies...can never remember the shop name even tho i'm always there when i'm in Leederville...Andrea was tossing up between a pair of brown ones and a snazzy red pair...i tot both looked good on you anyways :)

Shopping in Perth...how can I not bring them to Harbour Town...where everything is cheap...ok, maybe not when compared to Singapore...but certainly not too bad lah...

Then it was to glorious King's Park...thank goodness the sun came out...it was all damn farnie at the whispering wall...you know, surprisingly, not many pple know that that semi-circle of a wall is actually one of those with the fascinating acoustic effect of being able to hear your friend sitting at the other end, metres away, whispering...

That evening, we had dinner in Northbridge...followed by a spot of Bubble Tea (the "infamous" Hot Lavender Milk Tea) at Farmosa...felt abit bad tho...Andrea and Serene came all the way to Perth...and we ended up having an asian meal and taiwanese bubble tea...pretty duh....but get them to tell u the story of WHY we had to go try the tea...makes for an interesting conversation...what was farnie was the way Serene reacted to the smell of the tea...dun worry, i agree..it stinks...

Sad to say...There are no pics for the last day of their trip...we simply had Shepherd's Pie for lunch and proceeded to Carousel for last minute chocolate shopping...

By the way, I just wanted to say here that 90% of the photos shown here were taken by the very talented photographer Ms. Andrea Goh...seriously, i think your phototaking rocks!

Below are some bonus shots that i hope you find cute...hahaha...check out the puppy tummy flab on the bottom right!!...

Damnit...shld have made that pic larger...nvmind...if anyone's interested let me know and i will send it to u....

This entry is dedicated to our dear friend Pam, whom for various reasons have been hard to catch up with and hence holiday plans were made w/o her....Andrea is holding ur Rocky Road ransom...u better go rescue him soon! Hope u enjoy the pics! :P

New Couch

Having lived in our current place for well over 3 years, it hasn't been (and will not be) given the interior decorator's touch...nicely put, the house is basic...but in all honesty, it sucks...

Don't get me wrong..i am fine living in "these conditions"...altho Mere might beg to differ...but there is really no need to deck out the joint when we did not have the (original) intention to live here for long...tho we didn't expect to still be here after 3 years!...we are procrastinators lah...

Our furniture are bits and pieces that we have bought/received over the years..our latest acquision is a "new couch"....given to us by the PILs becoz:

1) my FIL thought it was such a steal at $200 from the swap mart *roll eyes*

2) but it didn't match the PIL's furniture

3) our old couch needed replacing

the colour's not great but seriously, whatever....who cares if my furniture matched or not... *shrugs*....only issue...it's one of those microfibre ones...comfy for lazy asses like us...but bad also for pple with shaggy dogs...like us...can't win right?

we now have to resort to laying down the back-rest cushions on the seats whenever we leave the house...thinking that Shiro wld then be unable to jump up and get all comfy with the fluffiness...

how wrong are we....

I caught him snoozing on top of the back-rests one afternoon....not sure how he got himself up there...but so far, at least there hasn't been a repeat performance yet...otherwise, someone's gonna have an appointment with the cane...