Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
[NIV]
New phase. More changes.
What would the future bring?
PROFILE
ENTRIES
MEMORIES
TAGGIES
= P R O F I L E =
Joyz
03 February
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 X'mas Dinner
X'mas dinner was at Mel's place in Serangoon. We met at the NTUC at AMK Hub to buy the food and drove down to her place. It was then when I realised one of my uncles and his family live in the very same estate. Hah!
I helped Mel to wash-scrub the potatoes while she prepared the salad and heated up the spring chickens. We bought chips (as usual) and white wine.
Mag, Zhiwei and Abi arrived soon, but Joce was still nowhere in sight. She finally replied after many of our calls that she was held up by something at home and was on her way to Mel's place.
As usual, let the pictures do the talking. =D
It was a fun mini gathering. Let's have another one soon. (;
jOyZ blogged at 10:56 PM
~~~~~~
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 Highlights Of My Trip To Japan
As promised, here are the highlights of my trip to Japan.
It was our last day at Kansai Airport Washington Hotel, so I didn't really have the mood to take anymore pictures.
That's all, folks!
jOyZ blogged at 11:16 PM
~~~~~~
Monday, December 24, 2007 Thanksgiving Dinner
Dinner at Aunt Bee's was loads of fun! I was the unofficial photographer and had a great time snapping pictures of the kids. Haha!
Sensen, my brother's girlfriend, joined us too. By the time I drove the five of us to Aunt Bee's place, almost everyone had arrived except for Aunt Chan who was in church, and Wendy and her boyfriend Wenjie. I met Limin's boyfriend Chris for the first time. Gosh, he's REALLY tall! He towered over everyone and we've got some really tall folks amongst my aunts, uncles and cousins. Not me. I've got the genes of a dwarf. ;B
We had self-made popiahs for dinner! Woots! It's been a while since we all gathered together to roll our own popiahs to eat. Haha. There were so many people that not everyone could eat at the two tables in the dining room! I think there were around 20 of us in all. ;O And not everyone had arrived yet.
Ah, here are some pictures of my cute but extremely hyperactive cousin, Joshua, and my very mild-tempered 14-month-old nephew, Ming'en, the latest addition to the Tan clan. You can tell from the pictures that these two boys' personalities are such a contrast! (;
There you have it. The Tan clan, minus Aunt Chan, Wendy and Wenjie.
Alright. I'm tired. That's my cue to sleep.
MERRY X'MAS TO ALL!!! (=
jOyZ blogged at 11:42 PM
~~~~~~
I'm Back!
Yo! I'm back from Japan! =)
The trip was mostly tiring; more than half the time was spent travelling on the bus from one destination to another. The longest bus ride was 5 hours! I can't remember where we were travelling to that time though. Every night, we concussed late and had to drag-crawl ourselves out of bed by 7 am. *_* I'm never going on a package tour again!
Other than that, I pretty much enjoyed the cold temperature - except on our second last day there. The weather was really wet and the temperature dipped further.
I took heaps of photographs - simply because my first few shots of the same landscape, person or object were always disastrous. LOL. My brother complained that I kept taking the same things repeatedly. Haha! No worries. I won't torture your eyes too much. I'm only going to post the less disastrous ones up here another time. The highlights, so to speak. =D
Actually, I took some pictures using Joce's camera too. Mine died on me a couple of times while I was still clicking away. We'll be exchanging photographs tomorrow. It's going to be an X'mas chill out at Mel's place. I'm looking forward to Mel's cooking - if she's cooking, that is. (;
There's thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Bee's place later. It's going to be fun with the kids around. THEY ARE SO CUTE. I'm going to snap pictures of them. =)
Happy X'mas Eve, everyone!
jOyZ blogged at 11:46 AM
~~~~~~
Sunday, December 16, 2007 A Brief Update
Here's a brief update on my weekend.
My bestie came back on Friday evening and I met up with her on Saturday to have breakfast at Book Cafe. By the time we met though, it was more like time for brunch. Haha. Anyway, we updated each other on our lives. Mostly, our conversation revolved around her new beau, Samuel. I finally met the person himself when he turned up a little later to join us. He'd came back with her to visit her family.
Samuel is born and bred in Hong Kong though he conversed easily enough in Mandarin and English, albeit with the accent. It took me a while to get used to it. I thought he was a funny and witty chap, who clearly adored my bestie. The two of them enjoyed bantering a lot - 打情骂俏. Anyway, I'm just glad that she's happy with him.
We took a few pictures together, too. I hope she emails them to me soon. =) And yes! She finally passed me the Raymond Lam's CD album I'd asked her to help me purchase. In fact, she gave it to me as a gift - so sweet of her. =D
Well, I'll be flying off to Japan in less than 24 hours' time - finally. It's been more than 20 years since the last time I was there. I still remember visiting Tokyo Disneyland as a child. To think I'll be there again this Tuesday. Haha. Anyway, I'm more interested in taking photographs of the places we'll be touring this time round - and making full use of the new camera which I'd bought last month.
It's going to be an incredibly busy day for me tomorrow. Lots of last minute things to settle. Speaking of which, I'd better finish up my packing. Ciao!
jOyZ blogged at 11:36 PM
~~~~~~
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 The Mom's Overture
Here is a hilarious rendition of Rossini's William Tell Overture (one of my favourite orchestral classicals) dedicated to all the mothers in this world. Hahaha... (;
jOyZ blogged at 6:10 PM
~~~~~~
Friday, December 07, 2007 A Good Yesterday
Yesterday was a good day. (= It could have been perfect, but... well, I think I'm happy with it being good too. (; It could have gotten worse.
First of all, in the morning, Joce sent me the songs from Raymond Lam's first ever album 爱在记忆中找你! Actually, my bestie has agreed to help me buy the CD in Hong Kong before she returns to Singapore next week, but I was too eager to wait that long. Haha! Anyway, even though I have the songs now, I'm still going to get the CD - so that I can understand the Cantonese songs better by looking at the lyrics, and also to drool over pictures of the handsome entertainer. HEHEHEHEH. ;)~~~
3 different CD covers. Same content. I'm eyeing the one on the extreme right! If not, either of the other 2 is fine as well. =D
The songs are good. I have to agree with Joce - they are generally very KTV-friendly. The whole album is made better because he sings well for every song, his voice soaring effortlessly to hit the high notes. Other than the very popular first track, I particularly enjoy track 7 泼墨桃花 because of the very oriental melody. (=
Second of all, in the evening, I had a wonderful time with my girl friends at Dempsey. (= Thankfully, the rain had more or less ceased so I felt that God was making it easier for us to meet up. (THANK YOU, LORD!) I drove to NUS to pick Joce up and then opposite Gleneagles Hospital for Jann. Oh, Gina was actually EARLY for once! She was at Dempsey 45 minutes before we arrived! Haha!
At PS Cafe, the honestly-average-and-definitely-overpriced food, coupled with the less-than-perfect service, didn't go exactly well with us unfortunately. Maybe we caught the chef and the waiter on a bad day. Then again, if that was really the reason, wasn't it unprofessional of them to some extent? Hah... Anyway, we had to clear out by 8pm because they had this double time slot booking system (6.30 pm and 8.30 pm). We walked around to see where we could go. At first, we thought of going Ben & Jerry's for ice-creams, but Harris seemed like a better idea.
Over dinner and drinks, we caught up with Jann, having not seen her for a little over a year, finding out more about her beau Kurby. She's getting married next year on 24 May! Apparently, he proposed to her one month after they first got to know each other. I'm glad for her. She looked positively radiant! (; Of course, there were plenty of bantering between Gina and her. Gina simply enjoys poking fun at Jann. We really had our stomachs full - with food and laughter.
Jann had to leave early because she had to wake up early for work. The three of us stayed on and talked some more until well past midnight. By the time I got home after sending the girls back, it was about 1.30 am.
Despite the late night out, I somehow managed to get to school for Choir in good time this morning. Phew!
Oh yes, Cheryl is on the plane now on her way to Taiwan. It's her birthday today too.
PENG YEW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! xD
jOyZ blogged at 1:40 PM
~~~~~~
Tuesday, December 04, 2007 Planning For Retirement
I finally met up with the financial consultant yesterday. It was a mind-blowing session.
I need a little over one million dollars to retire comfortably at the age of 60!!! Maybe even more with all the increasing inflation rates!!! *_*
There were so many things to consider: daily expenses (food, transport, bills), entertainment and indulgence expenses, insurance premiums, health and medical expenses, and so on and so forth. I also have plans to further my education in Australia, buy a piece of property (remember my dream to own a swanky apartment?) and buy a car (okay, I'm NOT going to talk about my dream car).
Gosh, I'm wondering how in the world I am going to accumulate my wealth before I retire. As it is, I'm already spending more than 50% of my salary every month!!! There's no way my bank account can grow to that amount through mere saving up. NO WAY AT ALL.
And so, it's investment time - make my money grow.
But before that, I need to straighten out my finances.
I'm regretting having wasted the past few years focussing only on work and rest (because I've been so drained out by work), completely neglecting my finances. As long as I was receiving my monthly salary and seeing my savings grow (albeit at a super slow speed), I didn't bother much about my money.
Now that I'm into the next decade of my life, I've been bombarded by thoughts of retirement - from peers who are still single like me. (Interesting to note that those who are married can't plan for their retirement because they've got to focus on their family planning, while singles like me think of retirement. Hm.) I've avoided the issue long enough and it's high time I start planning for it.
Well, better late than never. I just hope it isn't too late.
jOyZ blogged at 12:59 PM
~~~~~~
Monday, December 03, 2007 Yo, What's Up?
Nothing much really. xP
I've been facing my laptop non-stop (except when I went to bed at night) from Thursday to Saturday last week. Scary? Yeah, pretty much so. And all I did was do some house-keeping on my laptop - deleting unwanted files and organising the rest. I've been so disorganised that it took me that long to rearrange everything in order.
I didn't even realise I'd developed stiff muscles until I went for facial yesterday when my beautician massaged my shoulders. I was in such intense pain that I almost teared. No wonder I had more headaches last week even though it's school holidays now.
Another scary thing: it's already December! Gosh, November certainly went by in a flash - thanks to the O Level invigilation duties I had. Very soon, 2008 will be upon us and a brand new school year will commence - this time with a new Principal. I've only seen her once from afar. I wonder how she's like.
Well, I'm most definitely looking forward to my trip to Japan with Joce. =D
To Japan 17 December Monday 11.40pm Departure from Changi International Airport Terminal 2, SG [SQ638] 18 December Tuesday 6.40am Arrival at Narita International Airport, JPN [SQ638]
To Singapore 23 December Sunday 4.35pm Departure from Kansai International Airport, JPN [SQ621] 10.35pm Arrival at Changi International Airport, SG [SQ621]
Unfortunately, I will miss my Choir's concert performance on the 23rd. It'll be over by the time I'm back. =( I should have arranged to go for a longer trip from late November to early December. I wouldn't have to miss the concert then. But I couldn't wait any longer (due to limited vacancy) and the date for the concert wasn't confirmed until after I'd booked my tour package. Now, I only get to be away for one week and I still miss their concert. ARGH! How frustrating!
Hm... I wonder if Marilyn could record the Choir's performance so that I can watch it later on. Even though I can't be there, at least I still get to see them performing on screen. Well, I guess we'll have to see how it goes. I know how crazy it can get at the backstage for any performance.
Actually, I took some pictures using Joce's camera too. Mine died on me a couple of times while I was still clicking away. We'll be exchanging photographs tomorrow. It's going to be an X'mas chill out at Mel's place. I'm looking forward to Mel's cooking - if she's cooking, that is. (;
There were so many things to consider: daily expenses (food, transport, bills), entertainment and indulgence expenses, insurance premiums, health and medical expenses, and so on and so forth. I also have plans to further my education in Australia, buy a piece of property (remember my dream to own a swanky apartment?) and buy a car (okay, I'm NOT going to talk about my dream car).
