I Turned 45 : Oct-19

So, I’ve officially turned 45!! But, since earlier this year I’ve already declared myself as 45, so really turning 45 years old isn’t a great deal. I didn’t feel much has happened or things have changed much in the past year, so really, I have no urge to celebrate my birthday!

Nonetheless, my loved ones celebrated my special day making sure I felt special..🥰🥰

(1)  Buddies Birthday

10 days before mine was Sharon’s birthday. Dunno when it began, Huili, Sharon & I would meet to catch up, on the pretext of celebrating our birthdays & Halloween!! 👻👻

(2)  Family Celebration

Dor will always whip up a feast to celebrate our birthdays. And behold!! We have a birthday party!! 🥳🎉🎉

Hahaa.. this year my pa made a strange blunder!! Somehow he wrote my chinese name wrongly on the red packet he gave me as birthday present!! 😱😱

And he’s so embarrassed by it after I pointed it out to him that he immediately took it back & gave me a new rectified piece!! 

(3)  Cozy Family Celebration

This year, my birthday happened to fall on Deepavali again, and we have the luxury of a weekend-on-a-non-weekend to go gai-gai and makan as a family at leisure!! Since most of us have yet to explore the so-hyped Jewel 💎, we made our way there!

That evening, we sang my birthday song and cut my cakes.. I had THREE CAKES!!

 

Well, that’s how I turned 45. With all my girls towering over me, somehow I feel small and protected all over again! 

Collect step challenge watches for Papa and Mama : Oct-19

National health promotion board is constantly promoting a healthier life style for Singaporean and had recently launched the wave 4 national step challenge.  Thanks to ling, who told me about the carnival held at Punggol waterway point, I brought Papa and Mama there to collect their free step challenge watch.  After Papa surgery to remove his cyst in August, he had been suffering from stomach discomfort and indigestion and also lost quite a bit of weight, probably due to the trauma he underwent during the surgery.  I really hope this tiny watch would inspired him to at least walk a bit more and get stronger!

Karaoke organised by Gee Peng : Oct-19

In Oct, Gee Peng had kindly organised a karaoke session and invited us over.  Since July, Papa was not feeling well with his stomach after his cyst surgery, i think this session somehow cheered him up a bit which i was grateful about...

Crab Feast gathering with ex GSK friends : Oct-19

It was more than 5 years since we gathered for a crab feast cooked by Lily.  It was rather difficult to arrange after many left the company or changed their roles, including myself.  Finally managed to organise one this year thru the help of Whatsapp.  I was grateful for so many old friends to be able to join and catch up with each other.  It was heartening to see everyone well and healthy too.  Xuan and myself even performed 2 songs after the feast!

Buying crabs together with Lily

Gym Membership with Anytime Fitness : Sep-19

In Sep-2019, we finally decided to take up our first gym membership with Anytime Fitness at Hougang Central!

Although I had been exercising frequently thru' jogging and swimming, ling did mention about the importance of building up our muscles as we grew older.  So with the objective for us to stay healthy and strong, we visited the newly opened Anytime Fitness at Hougang Central and were kindly granted a week's trial to see if we liked it there.  The center manager, Alrick, was also very kind to coach us in using the machines and provided us some useful advice in building our muscles. After the trial, we made up our mind to sign a year package which was pretty attractive and also determined to visit the gym at least 3 times a week!  Let's see how we moved from here, I think we had made the right move. :-)

Traditional Lion Dance Competition : Sep-19

This year I participated with XinYang in their traditional lion dance competition.  The kids did a good job to secure the silver medal despite a minor mistake and gotten the score of 8.64.  Luke participated in another competition Yong Yang and did even better with the score of 8.67, also silver.  It was fun to be able to continue with this passion.

A brief work trip to Taiwan : Sep-19

This was my first time to visit our Taiwan Office, thanks to a new project this year which involved them.  I was to attend just a one-day workshop there, but I did taken the opportunity to go to my favourite 阿宗面线 to have a bowl of noodle and roam around a bit before the business day started. 😊

Haze back : Sep-19

Actually for about 4 to 5 years, we had enjoyed pretty good haze-free skies.  This year, the haze was back due to the plantation fires set up in Indonesia again and we had several days which were at unhealthy level, unsuitable for any outdoor activities.  Our mother earth is really going to be destroyed thru' the money mindset of the people.  Sadly, what we had sustained on earth over millions of years will soon be gone in just a few centuries i think. 

SG’s 54th Birthday : Aug-19

August, month of NDP and celebration of our nation’s birthday.. nothing extraordinary, until I saw a car with a huge stylo “Happy 54th Birthday, Singapore!” sticker on the front passenger door. Hey, I really like the two digits on that “54th birthday”! I must lay my hands on it before it’s all over!!

Thereafter, I’m always on the lookout for the beautiful 54th-birthday wordings on banners, billboards, advertisements, etc, and thinking how I can acquire something with those words, until I came across a fb ad. In particular, the shirts caught my eye..

I need to get the running singlet and the finisher tee!! In fact, I need to get the finisher tee with the ‘54km’ words!!

Catch is, I need to participate in this Run for Singapore 2019 online run.. But is this even a legit event?? I’ve never heard of online runs before, never heard of spacebib the organizer of online runs, and to pay almost $50/pax for the 2 shirts seemed a lil’ extravagant. After mulling over it for a few days, I decided to juz do it!!

Trying to jio some buddies to run & walk the 54km with me wasn’t easy.. no one expressed any interest even after I shared it with more than 10 persons in a few group chats. 4 days before the closing date for registration when I was prepared to sign up even if it’s all by myself, my most ardent supporter & hubby Victor said he’ll do the 54km together with me!! Yaaayyy!!! 🥳🎉🎉

So I signed us up 5 August afternoon, and on that evening itself, we had our very first walk instead of our usual 5km-run!! Prior to that I can’t remember the last time we walked.. but we walked that evening bcoz Victor was still recovering from a flu and a sinus infection. He couldn’t breathe as normally and could neither swim nor jog.. Eww.. Victor was unwell yet obliged to walk/run 54km with me in the month of August!! How sweet right? 💕💕

We logged 6.3km on our first walk. 2 evenings later, we did another walk and logged another 8.3km!! The task-oriented monster in Victor emerged thoroughly.. he suggested we walk to Coney Island and back on National Day morning! So we did, and logged 17km!! Then during our walk from Coney Island, we casually talked about Singapore’s very last kampong, and maybe we could walk there too.. And you know what, 3 days later on Hari Raya Haji holiday morning, we walked to Kampong Lor Buangkok and back, and logged 20km!! 😱😱 I felt like my legs didn’t belong to me anymore, and could break any moment...😨😨 I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much before!!😓😓

By then, we had received our run singlet in the mail. Just in time for us to wear it for our final run!!

There, we did it!! 54km in 10 days!! 💪🏻💪🏻✌🏻✌🏻

In addition to the tees, we also received a commemorative coin and finisher medal! Oh yes, we also got some reusable bamboo straws as extras, complete with its own washing brush!

Fire Dragon in KL : Aug-19

This year, six of us from our old NYJC pugilistic gang joined Xinyang in KL for their fire dragon performance.  It had been so long since we gathered for the sake of the culture we used to be so passionate on.


We booked a coach to shutter thirteen of us to Malaysia and smoothly arrived the event site on Friday afternoon, in-time for the dotting ceremony of the dragon.  After the dotting, we helped out in the preparation and then rested for a couple of hours before the parade started.  MPs of the state were also invited as guest of honors and the parade were blessed with other religious and culture groups participating.  At 7pm, the parade finally kick-off and with the fire dragon as the main attraction, we paraded for about 3km, an unseen occasion in Singapore nowadays.  The atmosphere was electrifying as we covered many tourist areas, drawing good amount of curiosity.  Although exhausted when we finally ended at about 11pm, it was a fun and priceless experience.

 

 

 

After the fire dragon parade, we were also able to spend some time to bond and tour around KL to rest and relax.  A well deserved break for everyone.