company junk trip

from left, me, Ben, Bonnie & APAC boss, Joerg Zobel

Last Friday, was our company junk trip.  We all left for the junk trip at 12:30pm, you can opt for not going but if you did, you've just gotta stay in the office and work~!

Some of my friends think that this is absolutely a great company to be working for, well, I sort of think the same.  Put it this way, which employer would let all the staff have half a day off and then pay for a couple of junk trips for everybody?  Not that many I would guess.

Anyway, we arrived at Lo So Shing Beach (Lamma Island), played some beach volleyball, dipped in the sea for a bit, had a few beers and some form of food, karaoke sessions and a fall into the speed boat... hehehe

looking alright there...

Bruised! Around the knuckle of the right thumb.  The forearm felt bruised as well, just not visible that's all.  Should not have played beach volley ball at this age, especially it's been a couple of decades since I last played!!   Having said that, it was really a lot of fun.  Chasing the ball, doing the serve, falling over... fun fun fun!

I still remember we had to take tests for PE when we were in the girls' high school.  We had to do running, jumping, throwing, basketball, volleyball, soft ball and all!!  And those were not the only sports I did (not good at them at all though), I also was a gymnast (school team), trained at least twice a week; went swimming with my brother every Saturday, rode a bicycle everyday and played badminton quite often as well.  So, I was fit, skinny.  Now, if I walked up 20 steps quick I'd start panting!  But swimming is OK, cycling should still be OK, Yoga is OK, dancing to the right music with a few pints of Guinness is OK as well.  Hehehe

Anyway, we had an awesome time out of the office and hey, don't get jealous, let me know if you want to join the company hahaha

The long distance swimmer is back on the attack!

Yes, this day the 14th of August, 2011, Adrian completed his first long distance ocean swim in HK, in a long long time.  Close to 2 decades to be exact.

I have always known that he's a good swimmer, therefore encouraged him to go back to long distance swimming because he was a good swimmer when he was a teenager.  He swam in a relay team across The Channel twice when he was a teenager.  Put it this way, how many people do you know that has swam The Channel?  Though he was in a relay team but it is still impressive, and he did it not once, but twice.  Now, that, is something that you can brag about when you sit down with your grand kids when you're 60.  I always thought that it's a pity he didn't go further in swimming.  There wasn't a platform for him to do it, the school wasn't doing enough for their swimmers.  He thinks otherwise though, he said, "we wouldn't have been able to meet if I continued swimming and eventually make it to some international races."  Well, this I must agree hehehe for I did not know how to swim until I was about 14!

And so, with only a few sessions of swimming in the pool downstairs and some snorkeling in Pulau Tenggol, off he went to take part in The Deep Water Bay Ocean Swim.  It is a 1.4km swim, not a lot compared to what he did in The Channel but it was definitely a lot of hard work considering how long it has been.  Here's the course map.  

Before he decided whether or not to take part, I actually did some research on the past races and found out that the fastest bloke did it in just over 17 minutes.  But cheeky me told him 24 instead hehehe.  So he jumped into the pool and did some laps.  The last practice he had, he swam about 1.8km under 30 minutes.  But of course, that was just swimming pool.  It a totally different story when you swim in the ocean.

We got up, well Adrian got up at 5am and I got up just about 5:45am.  We got to Deep Water Bay at about 7am --  we were the first ones there.  Registered and then waited for the other participants to slowly turn up.  It rained for a little a bit just to terrorize me, the one who didn't bring any form of rain gear.  Of course Adrian wasn't worried because he's going to get wet anyway!  But luckily it only lasted for about 10 minutes.

So we arrived, one of the earliest to be there, Adrian got himself registered and numbered and wristband on.  Looking good, eh?

The event started at 8:30am this morning.  There were 278 participants, aging from 10 to 60+.  We were quite intimidated by the amount of super fit people participating.  V-shaped bodies, six packs... But I said to Adrian, "that doesn't mean that they are good in the water (of course he knew that), but you are more streamlined to do it!"  My theory is, their stiff and squarish bodies get more resistance in the water than him.  Have you ever seen a skinny shark/dolphin/whale?  In fact, look at the fastest fish, they are not skinny at all!  ;-p

Despite the lack of training and the "age" factor, he completed the whole course in just about 26 minutes!  100th in the overall placing and amongst the 39 swimmers in his age group (35-39), he finished 10!  Not bad, eh?  He is quite impressed by the results as well, although he didn't think he did as well as he did when he first got out of the water.

catching his breath

And of course, we are all very proud of him.  And, Adrian, has decided to participate all 3 races next year!

Have a look at all the photos here.

Pulau Tenggol - part1

This trip, we spent 5 days on an island on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia - Pulau Tenggol.  We were completely amazed by the place and we were already talking about returning to the island the 2nd day of our stay.  It is very raw, very quite and very beautiful.  Not as superb as Maldives but not far off.  However, if you're looking at a resort like what's available in Maldives, you should not come here.  It is purely original, not decorated at all.

We took a coach at 10:30pm the previous night and arrived at the jetty at just about 5:30am, the boat arrived at 8:30am, as scheduled, to take us to the island.  There was a storm out in the sea so the water was very rough, so rough we were drenched when we arrived (so drenched that there was not a single dry spot on our clothes, including underwear!!) and it was just a one-hour boat ride!  However, one amazing thing about the sea being so rough is that I could see numerous baby rainbows by the side of the boat because of the all the splashes!  So many that I lost count!

As soon as we got off the boat, I spotted a cat.  It was a really unique experience so I will blog about it separately later.  But if you can read Chinese, this will tell you about the interaction between me and the cat.

The room was a very simple and basic room, with hot water supply all day long and electricity from 6:30pm to just about 9:30am.  Very little mobile network coverage - just one or two bars at all times, and no internet access.  It is somewhat more isolated than some of the islands in Maldives.

The resort is owned & managed by Malaysian Chinese and run by the local Malays.  The dive master, Robin, is a very friendly and funny guy.  I was, for 4 days in a roll, the only Malaysian guest in the resort, I was out numbered by Dutch, French, Aussies, Spanish and Mainland Chinese！And so, I've been called "ah moi" almost every time he saw me.  And when he asked Adrian if he knew what it meant and my lovely husband said, "cheeky little female!" and he agreed!!!

On the very first night we arrived, we saw turtle laying eggs on the beach and we also saw milky way!!  Neither one of us have ever seen soooooo many stars in our lives.  It was simply breath taking!!  Of course, this trip being the celebration of our 2nd anniversary, a kiss under the milky way was inevitable!  hehe


~ to be continued ~

小米小书迷

昨天又去了书展听讲座，蔡澜的 “蔡瀾@微博妙答”。 

从草草不工的连载开始拜读他的文章，近而买他的书，好像认识了很久一样。 

香港人都很慢热，于是第一个举手上台玩了一下，也问了很想问的问题，没什么深度的问题，星期六下午，太严肃对不起自己!  还胆粗粗毛遂自荐要当他的徒弟。。。还留了联络。。。 everything crossed!  

喜欢看他写老友，他的老友都超有趣，羡慕！ 虽然我也有很有趣的老友，可是很多时候都是我比较有趣。。。  

这是其中一本蔡澜写老友的书，前天刚买的，昨天看完：

倪匡閑話--老友寫老友續篇

spider woman? naaa... just monkey....

photo taken by the beautiful Ms. Cat Mok!  Thanks, pretty!

The hair dryer was a lot heavier than normal today, in fact, last Thursday too.  Why?  Well, because I'm restarting sport climbing, after, slightly more than a decade!! 


It was introduced to me by a very good friend and I fell in love with it in an instance.  I still remember the first session I had -- I got home with crippled arms!!  I didn't even have the strength to scoop some soup out of my bowl!!  My mom ended up helping me!  I literally used up every bit of energy in my arms. 


Now I stopped for more than a decade because I did not have any support then, well I was young and thought that doing what the other half asked me to do or not to do was alright even though that was something that I really enjoyed doing.  It is different now.  I've got Adrian and I have his full support in the things that I do even if that means he won't be able to see me for a day.  He's such a wonderful man!

Back to this sport climbing thing, it's just climbing on some climbing walls, not on some real cliffs, I used to call it indoor rock climbing.  But it's obvious that it's called sport climbing now.... It's safer, more convenient, it's like an instant noodle in climbing.  No need to prep your trip and plan your route long before you climb.  You just turn up after work, in front of some climbing walls, with a couple of friends, and there you go, you can start climbing!  Ain't that wonderful?

Well part of the reason why I enjoy doing it is that it's not too physically demanding -- no jogging, running, sprinting, walking uphills... ya, ya.  I'm not a big fan of aerobic exercises maybe my heart and lungs are damaged goods haha  that's why I practice yoga and the only aerobic exercise that I enjoy is cycling.  hehee...

O ya, I get one special bonus doing it as well -- I got to know some very healthy youngsters (who loves outdoor activities and the challenge), they are soooooo different from the good old Hong Kongers that I know!!  Amazing!!

2nd part of Adrian's birthday celebration

Well, the first part, I haven't blogged yet hehehehe but the 2nd part was soooooo good that I have to blog it immediately after a nap that followed hehehehe

Well, I treated him with our 2nd Champagne brunch (we had our first one in Macau, in Aurora).  I brought him to Cucina in Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel in TST.  It was on the 6th floor and we were sat by the window with Victoria Harbour in sight, bright sun light, a bit foggy but I would still class it as a good day, by HK standard hahaha

not the best but good enough by HK standard, well the sun made it up

Although I haven't been a great fan of champagnes but I like the idea of having a slow morning/afternoon out of the house and a bit of booze and a lot of good food.

There was the very popular Hokkaido long leg crab, oysters, lobsters, great salami and ham and super delicious soups.  Also, the dessert line was almost perfect, and Adrian has had 4 coffees (I had to forbid him from ordering the 5th!!)........

All in all, it was great and I was thinking that we should do this when Steve & Rosana comes over to HK the next time and when Mendy & Chris come back to HK in June.

At about 3:30, we left the restaurant (though the brunch ended at 2:30, we stayed until the afternoon tea started.... baaaaad~~) and went home for a well deserved afternoon nap -- had to get ready for the rugby game tonight! 

And, now, we're off to our rugby game!!!

My New Toy - X'mas 2010

Went to the Hong Kong Christmas Bookfest 2010 on Christmas eve.  Bought some books of course and then I spotted a counter that sells Logitech mouse and stuff.  It wasn't the mouse or keyboard that caught my eyes.  It was the Kanvus products that caught my eyes.  I have been looking at similar products for quite some time now and found that the better quality ones are usually quite pricey. This one wasn't quite as expensive.

I tested it a bit and it was not bad!  It was on sale as well.  The sales assistant introduced the Kanvus Life 106 to me as I'm not a hardcore graphic designer (actually not a graphic designer at all!!), and I just like to paint, so this should be perfect for me.

Yes, I bought it.  For less than HK$800 I even got a set of 6 colour markers as gift!  hahahaha!  So I got it home but I didn't want to open it until after Christmas.  So I waited... anxiously...

Then it was Tuesday, when I got to stay home on my own.  I took it out and set it up.

Tada!!

This is the first painting that I painted.  Just scribbling and practicing... but I like it so it's here.


And this morning, again, I'm on my own.  So I sat down, and played with my new toy again (mind you, I'm not a man or a child but I do love to play!)

And this is what I got...

  

my first "water colour" painting in a long long time!

It feels really weird painting without having to use paper and real colour and you can "undo" your dabs!!  I'm not sure if I would grow to love painting like this more than the conventional way of painting.  But it looks like it's the most sustainable method for an amateur.

I'm still looking at my options with ceramics here in HK -- a studio could be a good idea.

My latest piece - 開心 (Open Heart, means Happy)

I'm almost a genius!

Free-IQTest.net - IQ Test

Ya ya, I took another IQ test this morning, after the one called Mensa Workout that I've taken last night at the Mensa website... I only scored 22/30, I think 2 of those that I didn't get was because my English is not good enough... eeeeeee!!

Well, looking at the Score Guide from the one I've taken this morning, I have an IQ or 141... And then I was told that I have to add some 5 - 10% on top of my score because English is not my native language (I wonder if there's anything in Chinese out there...).  That would make me... erm... a genius then!!! WAAAA~~~ I could be in the same category as Einstein!! 

I'd never thought that I could possibly be a genius!!  But, they say, IQ is less important than EQ these days.  I think that's just about right, coz being a woman, I usually don't make use of my IQ when I shop, eat, fall in love, drink... etc. etc.  and my EQ must be somewhere on another planet when I get angry... I think some of my friends, who know me well enough can tell.

Conclusion,  although I have an IQ of a genius, because I don't really have very high EQ, that makes me... errr.... just A NORMAL PERSON!!   But I'm going to tell my mom and dad about my IQ anyway, just to make them proud -- having a daughter with an IQ of almost a genius could make them quite happy hahaha!!


Challenged Brian Goode aka Brain Good (my x-boss in the RCT) to it because he's one of the smartest person I've ever known... After the test, he said, "... not sure what happened, only 156."  @___@

Getting fat on whipped cream!

I went down to the wet market today.  Well, I was there to get the ingredients for the dinner, for Adrian - the one's going to cook... Didn't really know how he'd manage because he only gets off work just about 7...

As I was making my way back to the apartment, towards the end of the stretch of stalls, $20 for a box of strawberries!  Not the best in the world but good enough... I was very tempted and so I bought bought hehehe

Like I said, they weren't the best strawberries but they do look and taste good enough.  Then I start to wonder... eat it like that?  Nah~~~ And so l googled it... everything seems so complicated!  You can either make a dessert or jam... to turn these strawberries into some form of dessert, pastry and oven is a must... nope, I only have a simple microwave and a convection stove, a pot, a sauce pan and a pan.  Jam?  I'm gonna have to need to buy a glass jar and then the cooking and bottling and blah blah blah... bottom line is, it's a lot of work.

I guess just the normal whipped cream on that should do it.  So I googled it again... lucky me, I found the best anwer: how to make whipped cream from scratch (I just know Adrian wouldn't appreciate those that came from a bottle).

And so I went out hunting for cream and a whisk, at just about 5pm, 2 hours before Adrian get home and I have budgeted it to be just about $30.  I got them both at $30.  Although I had to look in 3 different shops for a reasonably priced whisk, so that I don't blow my budget hehehe

I managed to get back to the apartment just before 6, had the air-con on full swing, started cooking our main course, Chicken Chasseur.  Just about 20 minutes before Adrian got back.  Then I started whisking, whilst the chicken's being cooked.  It was really hard work (arm exercise!) but when you see it rise, man, it was wonderful!!  WAHAHAHA


Yup, we stuffed ourselves, after the Chicken Chasseur (that I cooked, as instructed by Adrian), we stuffed ourselves with the dessert.  I just chucked all the strawberry cubes into the whipped cream, mixed them up and then just served in the sauce pan.  And it was fantastic!  And I feel good about Adrian being able to have semi-proper dessert after dinner -- his mom spoiled him!!

This is how the saucepan looked... felt so much like licking it!!

も一度日本へ行きたいなあ～～

初めで日本へ行ったのは２００７年の十月だ。　メンヂィちゃんと一緒に東京へ旅行に行った。　すごく楽しかった。　買い物して、料理をたくさん食べて、温泉に入って、道をちょっと迷って、いい思い出だよ！

今月、仕事でも一度香港に戻った。　今度、昔からずっと欲しくて、理想な仕事ができて、よかった。　仕事、頑張って、主人と一緒に、今度の十月、も一度日本へ行くつもりだ。 　そして、鈴鹿サーキットで日本のF1グランプリを観戦できるんだ。　やった～～

Happily wedded at last! - part 2

We walked to the Lippo Centre to have our brunch after the registry. Then it was just me and Adrian, the photographers and the hired cars (with the drivers of course). First we had some shots in the car and then as the car got on the high way, we took some more nice photos too(I presume they were nice – we had the roof opened and stood as the car moved slowly to the exit of Lippo Centre, standing up waving and posing and all sorts of stunts haha!).

We went to Shek O and Stanley for our photos. I climbed the rocks on my 3-inch high heels and almost got myself blown off the cliffs by strong wind – so strong that I had to take off my veil as it was just about to be “detached” from my hair by the wind…!! And as we arrived at Stanley, it started to rain. The horizon did not look a bit like HK… it was simply phenomenal! I just wish I had the photos with me now so that I can show you what I meant!

We then took a ferry from HK to Kowloon, as we got off the ferry, we took a few shots and before we knew it, the next ferry was docking already! As we were running away from it, people on that ferry cheered for us, it was unbelievable! Hehehe… Soooooooooo much fun!!

As we were making our way to our cars, we saw an accident at the taxi stand. One of the taxi just drove into the taxi in front of him in the queue! I sure hope that it wasn’t us that distracted him.

We were dropped off at Delaney’s, had a pint (yes, you guessed it, it was Guinness) and of course, some pictures taken (again!!) hehehe and then headed back to the hotel to prep for the banquet. It was just about 4:50pm when we finally made it back to the hotel. What a day what a day! And it’s not over yet!!

After a quick shower, Rosita put my face back in place, and we were ready for the tea ceremony! Yes, we have a tea ceremony, the Chinese way – where we serve tea to the family members and gifts/”Lai Si” were given to the bride & groom. We were late by the way. I made some last minute changes and that did not impress Adrian. Ooops! Ok, I make quick decisions and I know that if I waited I’d probably forget about it… but what so bad about me was that I forgot to tell Adrian about the changes!!! Me soooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaad!! Well what am I meant to do when I needed to make the decision and he wasn’t there?? Oh well, what’s done is done and I thought those were right decisions hehehehe

As the song “I was born to love you” by Queen played, we happily walked into the room in linked arms (Adrian said he was proud to be doing that but I didn’t feel proud, just overjoyed). I was sooooo touched to see all of our friends there cheering for us… man, I almost cried!! I had tears in my eyes I could hardly see!!! I know that this could be the last time I see these guys in Hong Kong and it’s probably going to be a long long time until we see them again! These thoughts just beat me. (We’re still working on our thank you emails, and, it’s not easy at all!!)

The food was fantastic, the music was good (well, songs actually, and Adrian and I chose them), the people were fantastic, the view at the Patio (we have the breath-taking view of Victoria Harbour, yes, yes, yes, it was a very clear night!!) was phenomenal, Percy and his team of waiters were great, in fact, the best I’ve come across so far!! I mean they are by far the best waiters I’ve ever been served!! They are always there but they are never there!! I mean, they are always there the second you feel like you needed them, and they are never in your way or visible when you don’t need them!! How good is that? I can’t imagine the amount of training they had to be put through… 35% more than the market price was well worth it!

The night ended early, well it was a Sunday and almost everyone had to get back to work the next day, some to Macau and some had to get back to ZhuHai before the border closes at 12am you see… we are really really happy that almost all of our guests turned up, only one thing Adrian wasn’t impressed was that this mate of his (who now works in Singapore) who didn’t reply to any of his emails/invites (hence no formal invitation was sent out), he turned up because he happened to be in town and thought he wanted to turn up in a pair of jeans… with his mistress… Well I don’t think anyone would be impressed anyway, only one positive side about them turning up -- we had a couple of uninvited guests to fill the space of the two invited guests that couldn’t make it… Ya, me bad, but I’m not thick skin enough to gate crash a wedding dinner, not with my mistress anyway! Took me some time to calm Adrian down though…

Other than that, the dinner went fantastic! There were so much divine food (although I didn’t have much >______< to eat but I was very happy that the food turned out to be delicious, well, according to our guests), tasty wines (which I had quite a lot of hehehe), beautiful tulips, and Jane even to play a song at the piano (she was too nervous and forgot most of it), got Zuzanna and I sang along. Well Rosana did suggest for Zuzanna to sing but I was distracted immediately after she said it, dunno by what though hehehehe Anyway she sang and it was great! Haha! In the end, Mark & Shirty and my mom had to take away with them one wedding cake each (the wedding cake consists of 5 heart shaped cakes 3 of which were consumed…), mom got herself a bunch of tulips to take back to the hotel… phew! What a night!! In fact, what a day! There are sooooo many people to thank for, for this wonderful day. Our families – Philip & Ann, mom & Dad, my aunt, my brother Chee Mun, his wife Chian Chian and his son Heng Heng; Jane; Mark & Shirty & Conrad; our honourable guests (Steve & Rosana, Tony & Zuzanna, Terry, Peter & family, Eric, Jason, Eddie, Paul Lee, Don, Michelle & Frank, Chin & Philip, Malcolm, Dave, Paul S., Kenneth Terry, Robert, ; John, Percy and his team (The Peninsula), Ann Choi and her team, Billy Yiu (we hired his cars and had him and his mate driving us around HK for half of the day), Rosita and her assistant, The Delaney’s, the Star ferry, the good weather, and everyone and everything!! We had a little more than 4 hours sleep in our room (2306) in The Peninsula, which was upgraded FOC by Peninsula, then we were off to our honeymoon! Wahahahahaahaa!!!

Happily wedded at last - part 1

After all the hard work, it’s finally came through alright – what a relief!

Yes, we are finally married! And I’m writing this in our honeymoon suite – a jacuzzi water villa at Veligandu Island Resort in Maldives!! YES! MALDIVES!!

Adrian came back to HK on the 1st of August and that was when we got all the final bits of our wedding sorted out… including meeting with John Ho of The Peninsula, our catering manager; Ann Choi, our photographer; finalizing the guest list; hiring a suit for our Best Man, Mark, with all the help we could get from Shirty, Mark’s better half; the songs for the banquet etc. etc… And other than all these, Adrian has to find as much time as he possibly could to see the boys and show Ann & Philip (my in-laws now) around and sort out my parents, brother & sister-in-law & his son and my aunt upon their arrival in HK... Honestly, I’ve never been sooooooo busy before!

Luckily, all the hard work’s paid off in the end – it was a wonderful wedding, by my standard la of course! One down side about it was that Phil & Tom (Adrian’s boys) were both sick and couldn’t make it. One of the main reasons we have the wedding in HK was because his boys are there. It’s really a pity. However, it was afterall a happy occasion, and the show must go on hehehehe

We have no photo to show yet, well, all our photos taken by Ann and her team are still with them and I think that our guests have got more photos than I have now! We have none!!! Arrrrgh!!

The day started off me getting at 6am (after just about 3 hours’ sleep in one of the most comfy beds I’ve ever slept in… yes, that’s the Peninsula HK!!)– I had to get showered and all to get ready for the makeup artist, Rosita.

Rosita arrived at just about 7am, and she got started straight away. I hadn’t been using a lot of skincare after I got to HK since the 26th of July, no facials no masks… Only applied some Sulwhasoo Overnight Vitalizing Treatment the night before and it was all right all the way – no problem whatsoever when the makeup was done. You see if your skin is not hydrated properly, you would struggle with applying the foundation and everything else would me more difficult to apply and will have trouble staying on for the rest of the day…

Ann Choi and her team arrived an hour later than Rosita when the makeup was just about done. Everyone else, my mom, aunt, Jane have arrived not long before the time that Adrian should arrive. Then it was 8:45, right after I got dressed, Adrian came knocking on the door. I must explain a bit here, it’s Chinese tradition that the bridegroom comes and pick up the bride in the morning, while the western culture doesn’t practice this. The bride has to make it to the church on her own… This bit, we followed the Chinese tradition hehehe… no games like what ppl would do these days, he just knocked and slipped through the “Lai Si” under the door and Jane got it and opened the door for him – simple and straight forward, just like me la~~~

He then passed the dowry to my dad, they shoke hands and then he got my hand (which forgot about the glove…) from my dad, ironically, like a business deal hehehehehe but hey, that’s because we skipped the tradition where the future son-in-law sends a set of big gifts & presents that represents good future and marriage to the bride-to-be’s house.

We took some pictures, well Ann took some pictures, then we started to head off to the Registry, in the convertible BMW we hired. Felt kinda unreal when we made our way to the car through the Peninsula’s main lobby though…

Got to the registry at Cotton Tree Drive, saw Mark half naked outside of the Gents haha! It was just too hot and he just had to cool down a bit, well Adrian had some cooling patches (you know those that were invented by the Japanese and you use them on your forehead to bring your temperature down?) on him hehehehe… Ann taught us that, yes, the one with the most wedding experience! Ha! Well, she’s a photographer and I won’t expect less. And Heng Heng, my nephew, found his best friend there, Conrad, Mark’s son, 6, who’s also a big fan of Transformers…!! That kept them busy for a long time!

We exchanged rings, my dad & Mark are the witnesses – western tradition, best man and bridesmaid are the witnesses but Chinese, the parents, so I had my dad as my witness and Adrian had Mark as his. Fair and square. Hehe!

to be continued...

Absolutely a master piece!

I couldn't stop playing it and it looks like they are having so much fun that I wish I was one of them!

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day 2009

O, so it was Valentine's Day again. But, unlike the last one, Adrian was here. He wasn't here. He's far far away from me. That kinda gave me the blues... hmm...

I knew he had things prepared but I didn't know what and so I was anxiously waiting for my surprise. This Valentine's Day was on a Saturday. However, some girls started receiving floweres on Friday the 13th already... at first I thought, "eh? how strange..." but then I figured it out... it was for the face! You know, the showing off? Ah ha! That explained everything. There was this one girl, who did not receive flowers, came up to me and asked me a stupid question, "So where's your flowers?" I thought I wanted to ask her the same question (I knew that was what she wanted) but I changed my mind as the words come out of my mouth... "You know what? Being such a beautiful and charming lady, gets people jealous enough, it will bring hatrate if I receive my beautiful flowers today... I'm very low profile, don't like the showing off you see..." Ha! She didn't know what to say and just sat back down! WAHAHAHAHAHA!

Adrian has asked me to wait for his surprises and that I should check the mailbox (the real mailbox, not email). On Thursday night, when I got home, I received a card, that says, "You're my sex bomb!" hehehe He's so naughty! But when I showed him later, he said that I should have waited until it was Valentine's Day! But but... but the envelope was opened! Can't help it la! hehehee I even showed him via the webcam that it was opened and I didn't even have to try! I received 3 more cards (2 small ones straight from the mailbox and 1 with a little teddy bear I had to pick up from the post office). He's so so so so so sweet!! That's my Adrian, the ultimate romantic fiance!

The next morning, I woke up and checked email... There were 4 emails from him...

This video came through first... Here, it's a video Valentine's morning greeting and I was told to stay in the house to wait for one more surprise... hmm... not leave the house... hmmm...

And then I opened the 2nd and 3rd emails and downloaded the files and there it was, the second video... while Adrian was chatting with me on Skype. hehehe (O, the video is muted because it has a song that's got copy right to it and so it's a silent one... it's Never Gonna Be Alone by Nickelback)

I was so touched even if I was still half asleep - it brought tears to my eyes! No one has ever done something like this for me! Tell me, how can you not love a man like Adrian? And I'm the luckiest girl, I got Adrian!

Thank you baby, I love you!

And then the third one. The subject, "Open only after the main surprise (not the card)" OK, so I got the main surprise I thought (you know, the 2nd video... I thought that was the main surprise!)... I opened the email, downloaded the file and with Adrian still on the other end of skype, I opened the video, I'm sure I heard him started screaming on the other end but it didn't stop me... Ah! The main surprise was flowers... oooooops!! only then I realized what I did... hehehe Sorry la!

We waited and waited until it was almost 5pm... no one sent me nothing... decided to call the bloke that helped Adrian arranged the flowers. He said it's been sent!! What??? Who did he send my flowers to??? I haven't received anything that looks like flowers la!!! And so he said he'd check. No reply. I chased him up again (I even pretended that I was just a friend chasing on behalf of Adrian!!) and again... at just about 5:30 or so, someone rang my bell! I thought it was the flowers but no, it was some neighbour trying to borrow a wine opener! Ya, just the right timing!!!! Arrrrrgh!!! Finally, at just about 6 the bouquet arrived.

The flowers were beautiful... erm just another note, it's the most beautiful compared to all the flowers the girls in the office received! Wahaha!! I've taken some photos and sent Adrian all of them! haha! I've pinned this one on my cubicle... the most beautiful bunch of flowers I've ever received... red roses and orange tulips... 2 other types of flowers (sorry, I'm not good at remember names of flowers... you can see them in the photo yourself, you tell me if you know haha!) and a lot of leaves!

These are all (but one card, which arrived the follwoing Monday) that I have received for my Valentine's Day from, yes, my fiance... him only...

This is how it looked when I put them into the vase...

And after about 2 weeks before all of the flower rot, I made them dried flowers...

I love you Adrian Lydiard! And thank you oh so very much!

Time

I'd bet you know who sketched this. Yup it's me. I have this pinned on my partition because I want to remember the first day I started work in the Venetian.

I've been in Macau for approx. 27 months now... things have turned tougher these days but I'm still hanging here. Got to know so many interesting friends. Although some have already left the place but I do continue meeting different people. Every so often I realize that I'm around mostly Mat Salleh/Gweilos when I'm socializing. Sometimes it feels like I'm one of them and yet I'm not... strange feeling. Yes, I'm an expat here but I'm not very different from the major population here -- Chinese. However, not many Chinese hang out with Mat Salleh let alone Chinese girls. I would sometimes look around me and find that I'm the only Chinese girl in the crowd. Some friends even call me Gweipo...

I know I'm not an average girl all my life. I live a very different lifestyle from my closest friends back home. Sometimes I feel like an outsider around them. Some of my theories or my concepts are alien language to them. Despite all these, I still manage to make some really good girl friends here -- Mendy, Edith, Luria, Jane and Chin. In a way, we are all the same -- crazy and yet we make sense -- we are some of the most sensible girls in the region. hahaha!! At least that's what I think of us.

"If your man doesn't appreciate you... he's a stupid dumb arse..." that's what I've been told. And my reply was, "If he doesn't appreciate me, he doesn't deserve me..." hehehe!

I will hang tough and stick around until one day they no longer need me here and I will show the other parts of the world my charm hahahahahahaha!!

What a disappointment!

Last Thursday 28/03/2008 (I only have time to blog it now), we went to Oriented.com's Happy Hours (which is "simultaneously" held on the last Thursday of every month in more than ten cities around the world, providing international networking opportunities and global guanxi for members) in McSorley's, in The Venetian with Kenneth Terry, Eddie and Jane. As usual, the Guinness was good but because I've had too much to drink the night before, I only had one. It was a good place for friends get-together tho.

At about 20:15, Derek showed up and we've decided to go to the Lion's Bar in MGM (the link is for you to identify this place when you come visit Macau... read on and you'll see what I mean) but before me and Adrian got into Kenneth's car, Kenneth said he wanted to get something from his office and left us in the carpark for about 5 minutes. That was when we had a disagreement. It stopped when Kenneth returned to the car but I was still upset. It was about an accusation that Adrian made against one of my friends, which I was dead sure that Adrian was incorrect. I had to defend my friend.

Anyway, we arrived at the Lion's Bar and we made up before we even sat down but I needed more time to wait it out. When I finally calmed down, Adrian had decided he wanted to give us a kiss, but not in front of the friends - they'll tease us for sure! And so he grabbed my hand and we walked out of the bar and kissed right by the side entrance of the bar. (note: surrounding the Lion's Bar, is the casino - all 3 sides) Just as we started our kiss, a couple of security guards came at us and "told" us not to kiss there because it was the casino and that we had to get back to the bar!! hmm... that wasn't so nice! I understand that we're in Asia, which looks like a more conservative region but there was not a single sign that says, "no kissing"! Coming from a Muslim country, Malaysia, which is supposed to be very conservative, I couldn't figure it out, what do you think a gwailo like Adrian would think? I know that minors are not allowed in the casinos of Macau, and so are government servants, but no kissing is just unacceptable. And they had to send 2 impolite security guards to humiliate us???? Ya, right, we were just gonna provoke all the gamblers, who only had interest in what was happening at the gaming tables, by kissing at the side entrance of the bar!!! Can anyone please tell me if kissing is not allowed in casinos in Macau? And that it is prohibited???

I have decided to try kissing in all the other casinos in Macau and see how many casinos will send impolite security guards to tell us off... hehehehe

But I have to say that the band was pretty good. Just try to remember you can only kiss outside the casino! O ya, I saw Mark A. Brown in the same bar that night, enjoying the night... I wonder if he has ever been told off because he was kissing his missus in some casino... hmm...