Simplicity

Yes, I’ve fell sick. Have gotten high fever and my body just feels lethargic. I can’t believe that I still went back to work today to look through the class materials, despite my 2 days MC. Perhaps I should put my MC up onto Ebay. Haa.

It’s tough falling sick, especially when you have a job like mine. You simply can’t afford to fall sick. Worrying about makeup lessons, CL duties etc is enough to make you feel worse. Well, guess what I really want to say is in my title.

Baby, thank you for taking care of me when I’m unwell. I really never expected you to wake up at 3am to get me my medicine. To have my parents call me up to check on me too is really heartwarming. In addition, to have your good pals message you to express their concern makes me feel happy too.

Thank you all.

It’s the time of the year again..when the instructors are allowed to have their weekends off! Come to think of it…we only have 4 chances in a year to enjoy the weekend’s fresh air. Sad, but true. What better way to spend the weekend with people who matter the most…my family,bff and Mr Poto!

Friday -went out with Mr Poto and bff to Seletar to change my evening gown. Then spent our supper bitching about our little ‘xiao rens’ at work.

Saturday - Excursion at the Singapore Zoological Garden with Mr Poto! I’m really glad that we manage to fulfil his ever lasting wish…maybe he should be working at the zoo after all. We had loads of fun, and I realised that I’m pretty good at capturing classic shots! Hee. Maybe I should really consider taking up a photography course. It was really amazing to see these animals during the various shows. However, a part of me feels sad for these animals. Just imagine a snake was slithering in the woods and oooopppss….it got caught and for the rest of it’s life, it will just lie there for people to take pictures. Oh well, it all depends on the angle we view the situation from.

Here is a nice shot that I captured on the Saturday evening.

Dinner was at Big Eater at Bedok. I’m really thankful for Mr Poto for bringing me there. Though it’s not seafood by the sea, you alone provided the beautiful scenary for me! The food was delicious…simply loved the Hokkien mee and crab! Ooohh, will definitely be visiting there again soon.

Sunday - One day trip with the family to Malacca! Daddy and Mr Poto took turns to drive. And I must say, I’m pretty impressed with Mr Poto’s driving skill and sense of direction. With good company and good food, it’s simply a perfect Sunday!

Can you imagine all these good food going into my stomach in just one day??? Counting down till the next term break!

Boyboy!!!

If you paid attention to the blog on “It’s a small world after all”, I mentioned about bringing Boyboy to the East Coast Park on Vesak day with Mr Poto. Presenting to you….the new short fling of my life: Boyboy!

Boyboy is actually Mr Poto’s brother’s dog. His ex-gf gave boyboy to him, so lucky right? I really enjoyed playing with him at Mr Poto’s house during mother’s day. He is simply soooooo adorable, even when he was humping me. Haha.

Mr Poto was so smart to come up with the brilliant idea of letting me spend a day with Boyboy over the Vesak day as his first birthday present to me. He wanted to fulfill my childhood dream of owning a dog. I was thrilled to bring Boyboy home with us. Boyboy is a really smart and friendly Shih Tzu. He is very affectionate and loves to follow wherever we walked around in the house. I tried teaching him the ‘Bang’ trick, think I’m halfway there already.

After being the 1 day proud owner of Boyboy, here are some of my afterthoughts.

1) Singapore is definitely not a very pet-friendly country. It was hard to bring him along for meals. We had to tabao food in the end.

2) Having a dog brings about quite a bit of attention. People will just look at you and the dog, making remarks…”Oh, soooo cute!” Hence, if you are shy, perhaps it wouldn’t be a good idea to bring your dog out for walks. Worse still, it will be even harder for celebrities.

3) It gives you a different sense of purpose for life. It can make a person become more mature and responsible. You are forced to learn how to take care of another life. You have to take care of your pet’s needs. You would constantly be thinking about your pet, worrying if he or she is hungry, thirsty, happy etc. I even woke up much earlier than my normal timing with Boyboy in the house.

4) It gives you a sense of joy and the feeling of being wanted. In what other scenarios, will you have another life following you wherever you go, even if to the toilet. (Apart from unrealistic fans chasing after their idols.)

Overall, I realised that I really would love to have a dog of my own. But on the other hand, I feel that I will be devastated if one day, my dog should pass away. Just like, how I am missing Boyboy now, though he should be living happily with the brother…

My happy memories…

Last Sunday, one of my 5 years old student, Kate, sang a few songs to me. I was blown away. She reminded me very much of Connie Talbot in Britain’s Got Talent. The first song that Kate sang was also ‘Over the Rainbow’…she was able to sing with vibrato, and she had the voice of an angel.

Here’s a video of Connie Talbot’s ‘Over the Rainbow’:

Kate also sang a few songs from ‘Hairspray’, that I couldn’t even sing with the fast beat. But she was able to sing those songs effortlessly. I was really impressed! I guess I am not just teaching geniuses, I am teaching future superstars too!

Lately, work hasn’t been running too smoothly. But I realised that it’s really and truly the wonderful darling colleagues there (present and past) that makes life there bearable. As quoted from Ah Ying, “one day when we look back, we will be glad we went through all this shit with each other.” My heart was touched.

Yes, it’s all about the people. There are the gems of the company. They brighten up my days there with the pureness and kindness of their spirits.

Here is the day we became the assembly line ladies. It’s a great feeling to be in a team where everybody was willing to work hand in hand.

Here’s a tribute to the wonderful ladies that brought laughter and joy to my worklife! Without these ladies, I wouldn’t and couldn’t have tahan these 3 years there. Thank you ladies! =)

Hee, I know that my birthday is coming soon, and one may think that this is a blog on my birthday. But nope. This is a belated blog on Mr Poto’s birthday.

The 8th of April marks a very special day, a day that brings an angel into the world. It seems as though that I can never do enough for this angel. I wish for this angel happiness and good health always.

Once again, we celebrate this special day Mr Poto-style….BUFFET! Buffet was at The Melt. Nothing really much to rave about, but the desserts were simply to be an indulgent experience there. Once you reach the restaurant, we were greeted by a huge array of beautiful desserts. And my heart melted. Hee.

I am most proud of the photo-movie that I did for Mr Poto! Each time I saw through the movie, tears wanted to roll down my eyes.

I do hope that he had a most wonderful birthday experience. Once again, I am thankful, thank you being the angel by my side, now and forever.

Sitting at the fountain.

Mum’s cooking.

Enjoying my classes.

Being appreciated.

Waking up naturally.

Meeting up with friends.

Having a public holiday to look forward to.

Getting a snail mail.

Listening to good music.

Having the time to eat breakfast with Mr Poto.

Having the time to spend an afternoon with Mr Poto.

Catching a good show on HBO accidentally.

Shopping for promotional items at the supermarket.

So far, I have got all these down…and still counting. =)

I had the most scary experience on the taxi last Saturday on my way to work in the morning. As Mr Poto had to attend his school’s speech day, he couldn’t fetch me to work. As I got on the taxi, the cab sped off in fast speed. Well, I can handle fast speed. In fact, I was happy to think that I may reach my workplace early.

And…that’s when the driver uncle started to brake suddenly quite a number of times. I started to feel a little uncomfortable. After that, the driver started to have weird actions, shaking his shoulders. It seemed as though he had uncontrollable movements. Yeah. Even MORE worried.

The most ultimate scary experience came when he started to DOZE OFF at the traffic light!!! Oh my gosh! The car behind us had to honk in order to wake him up. I was soooo nervous and thought that I may not get to work in one piece. He even missed our exit and blamed me for not giving him directions! I was really contemplating if I should complain about him to his company. I even noted down his licence plate. However, I did not want to make him lose his livelihood. So, that’s that.

All in all, it was one HELL of a ride!!!

Simple, unique, friendly. That’s the Harris style. They had me at just the first word - simple.

When we first reached the Harris resort, we were greeted warmly by the ’smiley sunpeeps’ (a term which I denoted for the Harris staff). They are casually dressed in their orange colour code. What I like most about the sunpeeps is that they smile genuinely at their guests. It’s like happy lala-land. Think it would be really fun to work there.

So far, so good. So, where’s the imperfections, you might wonder. Well, there were quite a number of imperfections during our stay there. For instance, the room had a couple of black spots in the room. Part of the mirror was rusted with black spots, the room just wasn’t as clean as I hoped it to be. The 3 hour spa was also cut short into just 2 and a half hours. The food there was quite expensive, and the live band wasn’t that fantastic either.

Can you spot the error?

However, despite all these imperfections, I still found it to be a perfect trip for me. The room was comfortable. The spa was reinvigorating, especially doing it together with Mr Poto. He even slept through the spa! Food was expensive, but they provided great fun and atmosphere for the guests. The themes were rather unique and creative. I love being a onlooker where other guests get saboed to play games. The sunpeeps will come and offer their handy hands to help you take pictures, and they were really quite pro at it! Live band may not be orchestra-material, but their music make you want to sing together with them. More importantly, every second was magic when it is spent with the person you love.

Our spa under the sky

Entertainment wise, it was much better than Holiday Inn. Bowling practically filled Mr Poto with soooo much joy. I almost won him, if not for that stupid shoelace! Swimming was great, except that I was practically causing a tsunami with my turbo kicking legs.

National team bowlers??

Shopping was fantastic! (clear throats) I meant supermarket shopping. Everything was sooooo cheap, especially the pads! I shan’t disclose how many packets did I bring back, but I’m good for a few months at least. Hee. At their Batam town, we had our fill of the ever-so-delicious-and-i-oh-so-missed-it ROOTBEER FLOAT!!! In addition, our stomachs express their gratitude for introducing to them the yummilious J.CO doughnuts!

We were shopping at one of the bookstores in Nagoya Hill, and I came upon something very interesting. I just happened to flip through some of their greeting cards, and guess what. There are really some very intriguing cards in Batam. They have break-up cards! There are also cards made for chasing after the opposite gender, as well as cards for rejecting them. It was simply hilarious! I would have loved to buy back all their cards for keepsake. Hee, here is a sample!

There was one funny incident. As I was trying to take a picture of the Harris resort logo, an angmoh looking guy saw us and offered to help take a photo of us with the Harris logo. I was pleasantly surprised at how other fellow guests are sooooo friendly. Have we all been influenced by the Harris gene? Well, we agreed to his offer. Mr angmoh started walking further and further away, until Mr Poto was worried that he would take the camera and run. Then, mr angmoh asked us to step further back too, in order for him to capture the logo. I was already picturing in my mind how the picture will turn out. Haha, here it is.

Definitely a keepsake! (Taken by GM wo..)

And guess what, Mr angmoh turns out to be the general manager of Harris resort! He even passed us his namecard when we were checking out. I have never seen a more amiable GM at any other hotels or resorts. This goes to show that when your management is good and proactive, you get motivated staff!

Lastly, never leave a beach without your imprints!

I know it’s been a term since my hong kong trip, but I just haven’t gotten down to really blog about it. So here it is! (Warning: lots of photos coming up!)

Day 1:

Mr Poto and I reached the airport around 4am, full of excitement in our hearts! We always look forward to taking the aeroplane. Can you imagine, his first air experience was with me…hee.

In no time, we arrived at the land of dim sum. The weather was lovely, it was rather cooling. I have heard so much raves about the wanton mee from wm that it was my first food tasted in Hong Kong! And boy, it was quite nice! The wanton mee is different from Singapore’s version. Their wanton mee only came with soup and there isn’t any char siew.

After that, we just roamed around the various shopping centres and night markets around the Mong Kok area. Hong Kong feels just like Singapore. We felt right at home. However, the streets were a little confusing for us, as they have a zillion street signs. The crowd crossing at each road junction was equivalent to the twice the passerbys at our Orchard Road.

When you are at Hong Kong, it’s as though you are re-living the commercial. Shop and dine, shop and dine, rest……then shop and dine again! We had at least 5 meals in a day. Haha. Supper was great! We found this amazing claypot rice shop at the night market near our hotel. The oyster omelette was phenomenal! I love the sauce!!! We had that for supper for at least 3 nights there!

As we were walking to our favourite supper place, we came upon a couple of aunties and uncles performing by the street. They were having their own mini karaoke sessions, in public! How cool is that? Here’s a picture of them.

Day 2:

Our 2nd day at Hong Kong was spent exploring Causeway Bay. This is like Orchard Road of Singapore, where all the branded goods and upclass shopping are. Uh-hmmm, this is also where I bought my first GUCCI bag!!!

Look what I found…..Krispy Creme Doughnuts!!!! They are soooo soft and yummy!

We also did some shopping at H&M before heading for the peak. We walked for quite a while to get to the Peak Tram station. On our way there, we saw a lot of reporters gathered in front of an art gallery. I thought that we were going to see some big shot Hong Kong superstars, maybe Andy Lau! Gasp! But, in the end, all we saw were some female models. Chey!

Here we are at the Peak Tram Station. Mr Poto and I had a blast there! We took a lot of funny photos at the Madame Tussle musuem. Some of the wax figurines looked really real. Gradually, we learnt the technique of taking good pictures with these ‘big shots’. It’s all about the eye! My favourite is Andy Lau!!!! I wish I could bring him home.

After LOADS of pictures taking, we went out to the peak. Oh my, it was REALLY COLD! I was practically freezing in my pathetic cardigan. I thought that this was the best time where the female lead can cuddle up to the male lead for warmth, like in any good old movies. Guess what? Mr Poto became more like Frosty the snowman! Who ask him to act so ‘garang’ in the morning and refused to bring out his jacket.

Day 3:

One word to sum it up…DISNEYLAND!!! I’ve always loved Disneyland. This is my 2nd time at this magical land (first time was in Japan). But, it has always been my dream to go to Disneyland with my prince charming. And there I was, with him. I felt right in my element there, as I know that I’m an eternal child. And I’ve finally managed to take the Winnie the Pooh ride, which I have missed in Japan’s Disneyland. The Disney parade was fantastic! There is something about these familiar and fuzzy characters, that can always bring a smile to your face. The Magical Christmas fireworks display at night was SPECTACULAR!

Day 4:

We had the most amazing dim sum this morning at this Hakka restaurant. We were there before it actually open as their dim sum is 50% off in the morning. The service was really fantastic! The waitresses were so friendly, that even their own people were amazed at their politeness. (Yeah, don’t expect the people there to treat you nicely. It’s their culture.)

We did some SERIOUS shopping at the Espirit warehouse, where everything just seemed so cheap. I could see little birds flying around my head. Hee. We had dinner at this famous Macua restaurant. You should see how they eat over there. Their dinner order was like breakfast, lunch and dinner combined! No kidding! I really wonder how  the ladies there stay soooo slim. Do they all have tape worms inside their stomachs. Envious! And they should really have quite high salaries, in order to feed themselves to a feast for every meal.

We went past Peninsula Hotel, and it was simply amazing! The lightings were so beautiful!

Our next stop was to ‘The Arena of Stars’. Feels weird stepping on the handprints of those celebrities. Why would they want to be stepped on? Funny. The symphony of lights was quite nice. It really showcased the skyline of Hong Kong.

Day 5:

Breakfast was at our favourite dairy restaurant. We saw this really funny guy at the airport. He was dressed in this cute white bunny suit and singing Christmas jingles on the airport shuttle bus. If only everyone was more spontaneous and happy like him! I would love to wear a bear suit, with a cute furry bob tail at the back. Here he is! (Only managed to capture the backview.)

And now, for the finale to this long long blog, here is my favourite photo to close it off. I took this photo while on the bus to the airport. 

Till the next vacation!

Woke up this morning with zero expectations. Even thought that I will just stay at home and play mahjong. My dearest mummy woke me up and told me her big plans for the day, and I was ready to spend my good Friday.

We had lunch together at Shang Palace (Shangri-la Hotel). The dim sum was fabulous and relatively inexpensive. I love the papaya pastry! It’s soooo soft and crispy, that it practically just melts in your mouth. And lucky us, we got that dish for free! The bill came up to about $70 plus for the 3 of us. I even met my ex-parent and child at the restaurant.