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I'm the Quintessential Girl Next Door
Or so you think.

Sunday, November 8

12:33 AM

Hello. We've just crossed the very precious Saturday (now past midnight) and I'm trying to find some time for blogging. Today's been a long day. As much as I want to sleep now, like right now, my hair's still wet.

We attended our 4th MPC session today at W&J's place. Met up with the other couples and over the period of 6 hours really bonded and had quite a bit of fun, especially dinner over beef straganoff, pizza, salad and apple crumble. :) It's kinda sad MPC's ending in 2 weeks especially when these people are starting to feel more like close friends than acquaintances.

After we left Frankel, we headed towards Century for our Saturday night movie. Decided to give town a miss since it was already quite late when we finished dinner. Caught the korean flick 'My Girlfriend Is An Agent'. Think I was too tired to enjoy the movie properly but I heard plenty of people laughing so there you go. Your pick.

Dear turned a year older on Wednesday and it's been a stretch of celebrations with him all through the week - with his folks, with my folks. I can't help but think of how we would celebrate our birthdays in our new house next year. :) Some photos below.

Christmas is coming soon! :) Everywhere I go, from Raffles City to Orchard to Tampines 1 to Ikea, it's always this huge atmosphere of Christmas and celebration that hits me. It's a good hit and I like it. Although it's still more than a month away, I look forward to spending Christmas this year. A different Christmas with a special meaning, as I journey through RCIA. As with other years, I can't wait to shop for cards, christmas eve dress and gifts for my loved ones. And yes, shopping while the christmas carol is on repeat mode in all malls! :) Carols never fail to make me happy (and spend a lot!) .. haha

As the year draws to an end, I also look forward to the coming year and all that it promises! Till then, there's a major meeting this week and I pray that all will go well during the meeting.

Oh yes, there's BOW at noon tomorrow, not much time left to sleep. Nights everyone!

Gina

Wednesday, October 28

9:24 PM

Okay, quick one cos I'm rather tired and there's so much to do and on top of that, I plan to sleep by 10pm.

I went for my 1st appointment at HDB today. It was such a funny yet nice feeling to purchase your very first property! I was constantly being referred to as 'co-owner', sometimes I didn't realise the HDB officer was talking to me. Haha. The part that was not so nice was probably the part where we had to hand in the cheque for the apartment. Haha, but we're super looking forward to it, so I think the money's gonna be worth it for a beautiful home. :)

We will be getting our keys pretty soon! Yayness! I can't wait till reno work to begin and end and to see my dream home come to fruition. It feels like time's gonna whoosh past again. It's been 4 months since I shifted into my current new place (so fast right!!) and the same amount of time will see me in Feb 2010, with 4 months away from the big day. Haha

After the appointment, we went for lunch at Sizzler with Aden. He bought us lunch! I missed the salad bar since the last time we had Sizzler's - which was in Bangkok. Of cos, in the Land of Smiles, we paid a fraction of the price here.

We spent a while at Sizzler talking and chatting - anything and everything. Afterwhich Dear and I headed down to Holy Family. Went to KCBC where we spent quite a while. I bought some books as well as a couple of crucifix pendants. Really pretty ones. I like the one in gold. :)

Drove down to TM for movie - Julie and Julia. The food looks SO good, even though I went in feeling full with lunch, I was close to salivating at every scene where either Julie or Julia cooked. So, NEVER EVER watch that movie on a empty stomach! You probably just head out halfway to buy snacks at the candy bar. On the whole, the movie was okay but I was hoping for a different ending. Don't wanna spoil it for you all, go watch it, maybe you may agree with me.

Dinner was with Dear and Mum. Simple one but all the same, great company. It's now 9.30pm (1/2 hr to bedtime!) and I've got a list of things to do (arising from my leave today).

Sigh. Gotta go send some emails out and then I'm off for the day. The day was well spent, I enjoyed it so much. Sometimes, all you need is a day off on a weekday. It's not the same as your typical Saturday or Sundays.

Everywhere you go on weekends, people are rushing, running with time, so much so you find it difficult to relax but on Wednesday, it seems different. People seem to walk slower, the time seem to past slower, you seem to get more done yet feel less tired.

I need more Wednesdays like this. In the meantime, it's Thursday tomorrow so enjoy all of you. Looking forward to Sunday. 3rd session of MPC and it's All Saints Day! Attending evening mass instead plus farewell to Fr Johnson.

Nights! I'm gonna read my new books in a while!

Gina

Sunday, October 25

10:09 PM

A short sharing on my key takeaway from the 2nd session of MPC on Saturday.

**********

A Gift From God

Persons are the gifts of God to me. They are already wrapped, some beautifully and others less attractively. Some have been mishandled in the mail; others come as "Special Delivery".

Some are loosely wrapped; others very tightly enclosed. But the wrapping is not the gift, and this is an important realisation.
It is so easy to make a mistake in this regard, to judge the contents by the cover.

Sometimes the gift is opened very easily, sometimes the help of others is needed, maybe it is because they are afraid. Maybe they have been hurt before and don't want to be hurt again. It could be that they were once opened and then discarded. They may now feel like 'things' rather than 'human beings'.

I am a person; like everyone else, I, too am a gift. God filled me with goodness that is only mine. And yet sometimes I am afraid I would be disappointed.
Maybe I don't trust my own contents. Or it may be that I have never really accepted the gift that I am.

Every meeting and sharing of persons is an exchange of gifts. My gift is me; your gift is you. We are gifts to each other.

************

Go ponder on it and have a blessed week ahead. :)

Sunday, October 18

5:03 PM

I'm back (again!) from the States! Was shuttling between Los Angeles and San Francisco last week for work and while it's good to be back (cos I miss him too much), I also wish I could spend more time while I was there.

By the way, the weather's great. Cold, but great.

The temperature was averaging around 10 degree celcius and it was a wonderful breeze that greets you every morning. Something you don't find here in Singapore. Either you're hot or you're wet (cos it's raining), it's never a nice chilly breeze. I don't even get the chance to pile up on the sweaters and shawls here compared to in LA and SF which I actually do enjoy although it makes me look fatter in photos. Hee

In anycase, I'm back and life goes on. WORK, for one - goes on. That's for sure. I'm just glad to have met the many people I met there as well as the group of lovely ladies from work who were on the same trip. We never quite got the opportunity to get to know one another in Singapore but I'm glad that over this trip, we really got this chance to know each other and bond in a nice way. :) The 36 hours flight (18 hours x 2 way) was definitely worth it.

Whatever free time we had on our hands (which was not much), we went to explore the varsities and the campuses.

Impressed. Envious (of the students). Anticipating (to return).

More photos are uploaded on facebook so you can view it there. Oh yah, photobucket is showing some 'account inactive' message on my blog that's making it look so messy. What's going on? Can anyone tell me?

The weekend following my return (which is actually today and yesterday) was also filled with fun events! Dear and I attended our first Marriage Preparation Course (MPC) at St Joseph's Institution (SJI).

This quarter's intake saw a large group of engaged couples all gathering to journey with their other halves towards marriage. I seriously wasn't expecting such a big crowd but it's really nice to see everyone there. There were couples of all profiles, some older couples, some as young as me, some from different countries, New Zealand, France, US and of cos, Singapore. The one thing that's the same for all is that everyone's happily engaged and eager to take the next step in their lives.

My group's made up of very interesting people. I hope I will get to know them better in the weeks ahead as we journey together. :) My presenting couple is also very friendly and engaging and I'm sure it won't take us long to warm up to them. They will be hosting the coming session at their house. :)

For Dear and I, the MPC allows us to see each other from a different light, to understand why each of us do certain things, say certain things. I've heard horror stories of couples breaking up midway through the programme and never making it to the altar but I'm confident we won't end up that way.

It's probably gonna gel us even closer after this. Even after the first session already, it's starting to show. :) I hope I'm not making it sound like some miracle programme for problem couples, but instead it's a programme that's designed to help couples who help themselves prepare for marriage, so yah. I think I've pretty much summed it.

Looking forward to the next session already. Till then, some homework to be done. Hee

It's Monday tomorrow, already. Yes, I know. The dread, the drag, the unwilling, but think about it. To be employed, to be able to wake up to another day, to be able to live in an environment without natural disasters that separate families, to be able to be loved and love, to be healthy and safe and not starving or suffering from diseases and illness, that already makes us one of the world's luckiest people.

So we don't really need to wish for good luck on a lucky penny or a lucky rabbit's foot (it probably isn't that lucky since it's foot is with you). Luck doesn't happen that way, at least to me. All we need to do is to count our blessings, no matter how small because you never know what you have may be a great deal to someone else and to also make our existence impact people around us in a positive note. That's what really matters at the end of the day. :)

Sorry if this entry is a little too dry or appears like it's trying too hard to be inspiring but these are really just some thoughts I have at the back of my head after a long day at MPC and church. I'm not perfect but I do hope through my ways, actions and words, I can make someone I love, someone I know, someone I care about happy.

Ok, enjoy the rest of your weekend! :) I still have work which has accumulated during my US trip, which I have to clear.

P.s 8 more months to Mrs Lee! :)

Love,
Nana

Sunday, October 4

12:02 AM

So yes, I'm back from my short holiday at the lovely Land of Smiles. =) Shopping was fabulous! I cannot emphasize enough but I love, love, Platinum Mall. (I went there all three days!)

Dear is quite scared of me going there, I think. The moment I hit the mall, I go into practically every shop inside and I think there's close to 500 of them. Haha! I just wished I bought a couple of clothes which I was contemplating. This always happens.

Anyway, weather was extremely good for shopping, which was very very very hot. Well at least, the rain only came at night when we're having dinner back at the hotel restaurant or already snuggled to sleep. In any case, Dear has promised me the next trip soon!

Work's still busy. I think I'm burning more midnight oil working than when I was studying.

Flying off to US this week. Needless to say, I haven't packed, which I need to start soon before I get too bogged down with work in the next couple of days and end up having to rush in the last minute.

Weather forecasts for LA is about 18 - 20 degrees and San Francisco is hovering around 12 degrees. I better bring thicker clothes to keep warm.

Oh yes, Congrats to Ryan and Laura who tied the knot this afternoon at Raffles Hotel! =)
In related news, we collected our wedding bands today! It's really pretty and comes with a small diamond, I love it loads! Looking forward to the day when Dear puts it on for me!

Attending noon mass tomorrow. Haven't been to church for the last week due to travel, so it feels like it's been a while since I attended mass. Okay, need to crash soon so that I don't end up late for church tomorrow.

You girls and guys out there enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll see you when I see you again.

Btw! Really great movies coming out - 500 Days of Summer, My Sister's Keeper, Jennifer's Body, Coraline.

XoXo

Saturday, September 26

11:19 AM

I woke up at an unearthly hour at 8am this morning. Yes, on a Saturday. Anyway, I'm now watching the Project Runway (S5) marathon on Discovery and I have been doing so for the last 2 hours. It's really good (bitchy) stuff, continues all the way till evening, unfortch I'll be heading out in a couple of hours and before then, I'm hoping to sneak in some time for a nap.

Just ......AFTER I finish some outstanding work on my lappie cos I'm flying tomorrow morning and badly want to clear stuff. I know - I still have time to blog. haha, have to la, else I'm becoming a human robot. I even think I'm getting better at multitasking. I quite sucked at it to begin with. I could be talking to you and doing up a report but somehow after I say something to you, I end up typing that very sentence into the report. Go ahead and laugh.

Flying off for a short holiday tomorrow morning. Haven't packed. I really need to start. When I return next week, it's gonna be another WOAAH before the week ends without a warning again. Really fast. How can we change that?

And before I know it, I'll be on the US-bound flight to LA for a couple of days and San Francisco for another couple of days for work. Plus the many many many hours on air. I'll also be stopping over at Tokyo when I head there and Korea when I am on my way back. I just hope for a smooth trip, no hiccups at the meeting and event.

Okay, think I better get back to work. Hope everyone's doing great. Enjoy your upcoming weekend and I'll see ya all next week if I find time to blog.

Gina

Sunday, September 20

2:39 AM

Firstly, a BIG thank you to everyone who have sent their birthday wishes, whether through facebook, sms, email, blog - I feel truly loved knowing you guys remembered. :) Thanks also for the gifts!!

So I turn 23!

It feels like only 2 years ago I was turning 18 followed by 21 not too long ago, how did time manage to pass so quickly? In any case, I don't feel any bit older at 23.

In fact, I am rather excited to be turning 23. You could say, life starts at 23 for me. Graduated, enjoying my job, people at home are doing great, starting my own family in a year's time, learning to be independent, all these lead to the excitement of turning a year old, a year wiser.

Anyway, for this year, I decided we shall celebrate it in a different way. It has always been heading down to hotels for buffet but I thought - why don't we have both food and fun? And tadah, the idea of K-Buffet came about. Hahaha

Plus, I've only been to karaokes with cousins and friends, seldom with family so this was an excellent opportunity to do so.

7 of us headed down to K-Box at Marina for 4 hours straight of buffet and singing! It was so very fun and enjoyable. I hope everyone enjoyed it too!

Some photos of the evening for your viewing pleasure!

Guess what's inside?

My 'birthday cakes' - baked by Alvin and Daphne. Thanks guys! =)

Anyway, it's a long weekend ahead so enjoy and sleep in late! That's exactly what I'm intending to do. Hee.. 1 more thing to be excited about turning 23 -counting down to my Bangkok holiday!!

Happppyy! Already looking forward to turning 24! Will probably be at my new house next year, can't wait!

XoXo

Gina