The JunkPads

Suneet's wonderful idea of creating a blog for ourselves, being inspired by Ingmar's iirree. It was a Thursday afternoon (although the first posting said Wed - donno why) and The JunkPads was born. More like a junk yard for 6 office pals to "dump" their life stories. It'll be a great place for me to "visit" the guys after I leave (sob sob) and also for frequent updates.

Geography Lesson

It was Julian who introduced the "Animaniacs" to us. Impressive indeed! Try this for a georgraphy crash-course...

Letting Go

After a gruelling week in Bangkok (not from the conference but from the mental torture of deciding between staying or leaving), I finally found the courage to break the news to the boss. "I'm moving on..." I said. "You're leaving your Baby," she said. I know. But I'll always have the great memories of my 4 years from Merchant Court to The Stamford to RIL to the Red Team. It has been a whale of a journey. I've learnt, grown and matured.

Another rung of the ladder. Another experience. Not sure what's in store for me but will surely do my best. My "Baby" will never be forgotten. It was a tearful farewell - painful but necessary. "I'll call you back when I have the position in place," she said as we bid farewell. Till then...

Another 7 weeks to go... I'm sad, truly :-(

The Heart Is Easily Broken

Chanced upon this on Cai Kang Yong's blog and couldn't get it off my head since yesterday. How terribly true. Talk about a picture speaking a thousand words. All couples should have a copy of this picture to constantly remind them of the fragility of love.

Blog Therapy

Blogs can be entertaining - really! For me, blogging and reading someone else's blog could even be therapeutic. I really enjoy Mr Brown and never fail to check it out every other day for updates and listen to his podcasts. As I did so yesterday, I chanced upon his coverage of XiaXue's Top Seven Most Disgusting Bloggers. And there he was again - Steven Lim. OMG! He really is something. You need to be "something" to do that to yourself and have an ego so huge. But it was really entertaining watching his home-made videos - you have to check them out for comic relief. I assure you will not be disappointed.

As I "kaypoh(ed)" other people's blogs, I chanced upon Cruz Teng, popular 933FM DJ. I must say I do enjoy his morning programme - from home to work, he and Weibin never fails to make me laugh (albeit alone) in the car :-). From his blog links, I found the blog of one of my favourite Taiwan comperes - Cai Kang Yong. Now for those of you intending to improve your Mandarin, this is the blog to check out. Kang Yong is witty, intelligent and very very good at what he does. The writing is immaculate and some even inspirational.

Blogs widen your world.
You realise there are people less fortunate than you.
You realise there are people who work so hard to overcome obstacles in their lives (especially illnesses).
You realise there are people who live life to the fullest, despite obstacles and troubles.
You realise there are couples who are truly in love AND married.
You realise there are people who are desperate for attention.
You realise you are not alone...

People laugh at bloggers and blogs. Well, you just don't know what you're missing. Try it some day. You'll see...

Gideon Was Once FAT!

Was supposed to search for pictures of the Golden Gals' BKK trip in 2004 and found a CD of Gideon's pictures instead! Gosh was he FAT then... so cute he was (still is of course) and CHUBBY too. You know, like they say, enjoy every moment and these are definitely some of those unforgettable moments :-)

And this is one of my all time favourite pictures of our baby...

In A Happier Place

Got an sms on my way home from May that Joanne had passed away. It was not surprising as her condition had deteriorated the past week. My regret is that I procrastinated going to visit her since I found out about her condition last October. And I can't even go to her wake tomorrow as I'll be going back to Kunshan again for another week! I believe Jo's in a happier place now with Him - free from the suffering and pain she had gone through the last few years. Her passing has taught me the lesson to never leave things till tomorrow - or it may just be too late. I never got down to seeing her and I never will again. Sorry Jo. And goodbye. You'll always be remembered for your strength, determination and faith.

The Kunshan Mission

Had been in Kunshan, China (an hour away from Shanghai) the past week preparing for the take-over of Traders Hotel. The hotel's new ownership by Kingdom Holdings led to Swissotel being appointed the management company of the hotel. The re-brand is scheduled for 1 July but if you ask those of us who were there the past week, this seems almost like Mission Impossible. The detailed legalities hasn't seem to have been concluded and more importantly, staff are jittery about the new management. The Exco team there weren't very cooperative. Almost the entire team had resigned. So Monday till Wednesday was almost a sit-there-and-wait situation. We tried to make the most of it, doing what we can. My checklist of 399 logo(ed) items & collateral kept me on my toes - meeting China printers and suppliers who claim they do ANYTHING. Even if they didn't do it, they often had friends who could produce it. I have yet to meet any supplier who said they were unable to produce something!

The Hong Kong / Macau Room was made our office. Everyone slammed away at their laptops relentlessly. Of course, I had to take pictures to document the take-over and this includes the sunset view from our make-shift "office"...

My shipment from Singapore arrived - much to my relief.

We tried to make the most of the evenings by going out for dinner and then returning to the "office". Suneet, Noel and I ventured into town (yes, there is a shopping area in Kunshan) and had dinner at this interesting restaurant. They put us in a little room which reeked of the smells of food mixed with sweat. Suneet didn't trust the cleanliness of the place and decided to bathe our chopsticks in the hot tea that was served in a thermos flask. The food was ok, except for the pork and fish fins I ordered. The pork was covered with dried chilli while the fins tasted "fishy" Ewww!

And the one fabulous dish we have almost every other day is the fish head soup. It takes about an hour and a half to cook and the soup is simply spectacular. We had dinner at Kunshan Hotel (the entire hotel smelt like the little room at the restaurant) and Annie ordered this giant. Noel insisted that putting his chopsticks in my picture would give a more accurate indication of the size (of both pot and fish head). China is known for its amazing literal translations of the English language. I spotted a huge SPA area on the way to the hotel with a "huge" name as well. Welcome to "Hai Kuo Tian Kong Take A Bath The Center" :-PAnd this scene of a burning van, spotted along the highway was also quite amazing.

It was a terribly tiring week in Kunshan and we have to be back there on Wednesday again. I really need a break after this... hopefully with Gideon and Terence to the long-awaited Gold Coast.

Serene Turns ...?

We celebrated Serene's birthday on Wednesday with a nice (as in the company and not the food) lunch at Doc Cheng's. For once, the four of us were not munching grass (as in salad), Janice's "staple", at Cafe Swiss :-) Food was so-so but the attention (not service) was simply a little overwhelming - probably so when they found out we were from Raffles and Swissotel. With the short time we had for lunch, we wished they would stop coming over at every course, asking if we liked the food. Argghh!

Anyways, Happy Birthday Serene!

Now This is TALENT!

Chanced upon this on YouTube and I have to confess that I was guilty of judging a book by its cover. I thought this was going to be another William Hung gig but boy was I wrong. Check this out and while you're at it, you MUST see Conny the little girl as well!

For those who appreciate Mandarin pop, check this out and you'll agree that Jay Chou should feel a little threatened by now. These are two of the most popular 'stars' of a Taiwanese version of "American Idol" - Superstar Avenue. Now sit back and be suitably impressed :-)

My GSS Find

Yes, call me 'slow'... just when everyone has almost savoured all the great buys offered at the GSS, I decided maybe I can find something for myself. The objective was a pair of Ferragamo pumps but the legs took a right turn into Gucci instead. There hidden in a corner (looking like a new arrival that wasn't on sale) was a unique blue sling bag. I walked over to the quiet corner, saw that it WAS on sale, and the rest was history. The blue babe now lies in the bedroom - my prized GSS find :-)

SHREK 'G'

It's Shrek mania and McDonald's had these crazy Shrek ears on sale for a charitable cause. Noel's and Erin's birthday party was held at McDonald's Kallang last week and a bunch of these were given away. Pity we didn't take a group picture 'cos there were more of us adults with those ears, than kids! But we got this one of Erin and her "boyfriend" Gideon :-) Awwwwww...

In Search of the Doctor

I remember the days when my sis had one of these - Dr Scholl's Wood Exercise Sandals. Never thought there'd come a day when I actually think they look really nice - kinda retro even. Problem is, can't seem to be able to find them in the stores! At least not these ones I'm eyeing. If you know where I can find them (apart from mail order), let me know.

Dreams In Flight

I received an invite from TIME for the Singapore Arts Festival opening performance La Fura dels Baus. Terence and Gideon came along. It was a "Free admission" event but because TIME was the magazine sponsor, guests of TIME got grand stand seats - which was great! Bumped into Ewe Leong as well... Anyways, the show got off to a pretty slow start with a shadow performance depicting daily routines like "eating", "watching" etc. Just when I was getting worried that the two boys were getting fidgety, the spectacular wheel of red and gold appeared! Magically suspended in mid-air, the wheel hovered above the crowd and the sight was simply awesome (though I was wondering at the same time what would happen if the wheel fell). And then there was this amazing aerial human net which suspended magically in the air as showers of fireworks lit the night sky. I think each one of us had different imaginations of what each act depicted. Gideon, for sure, believed that the wheel was from Planet Naboo and the human bodies on the net were actually Snow Troopers (for those who don't know, the planet and troopers are from Star Wars :-). As for me : Wow! I never got this close to fireworks! I wasn't even expecting fireworks...

Vintage Virgin

Was having breakfast at YahKun on Friday morning when I saw racks of colourful dresses being carted out to the atrium of B1 Raffles City. I passed by and saw signs being put up - Dust Bunny Vintage, Granny's Day Out etc. Hmmm I'd better check it out before the lunch crowd comes. So I sneaked out of the office at 11am and sinfully bought some items from Dust Bunny. I will not say how much was spent. I quickly called Jemej to inform her of my incredible find. I never owned any vintage outfits but always thought they were so one-of-a-kind and if worn properly, they were really pretty. The bag caught my eye first - I felt so Audrey Hepburn carrying it (or was it the "mirror trick"!?). Then I went on to the rack of dresses and voila... I was back in the office by 11.30am with Julian proclaiming that I must've spent too much money on "yellow (stained) armpit" dresses :-( Well, they were both black - thankfully :-)

A Day for Mums

Mother's Day is simply too commercialised to me. But still, we we were part of that whirlwind of Mum's Day activities which has sucked in many Singaporeans - lavish gifts, dinners with hiked prices and sudden surge of ads everywhere - each proclaiming the most thoughtful of gifts for mum.

As a mum myself, the best gift on this day is simply the joy of a healthy, happy child - my little monster G! I think the best gift this Mother's Day was him stopping his crying routine in the mornings when I drop him off at school. For some reason the past couple of weeks, he managed to hold back tears, say goodbye to me and even manages a loud morning greeting to his teacher! My gift from Gideon : a lovely card he made in school and a Mother's Day song.

Anyways, we figured our Mum will feel left out if we didn't do something special - so we had one of her favourite buffets at Swissotel Merchant Court's Ellenborough Market Cafe.

Thanks Mum for all you've done for us! Now I know what matters as a mother - not lavish gifts; just the simple pleasures of being with family and knowing your children are happy :-)

Gideon's 5th

No big bash this year since we just took a holiday in Bali. Sunday, 29 April was spent at China Square where we bought him his choice of Star Wars figurines. That evening was spent with Mum and Sis' family at East Coast Parkway where he could enjoy kiddy rides.

His classmates celebrated with him the following day at school. This year, Gideon decided on a Super Heroes cake instead of Star Wars (phew! Star Wars is going to be tough otherwise).

Happy Birthday Super Hero!

Bali Beautiful

The 4-day Bali trip was wonderful! We had been planning this for the longest time. Since the same 3 couples went to Bali almost 8 years ago, we had always been saying we should do the same thing again. We finally did it. This holiday was relaxing and absolutely fun. It was late Friday when we arrived in Bali, after a one-hour flight delay due to a computer outage at the Jetstar counter. Still, our spirits were high and we were simply looking forward to the villa we were going to call home for the next few days.

Seminyak Suites didn't disappoint. Our 3-bedroom villa was clean, contemporary and HUGE. Each bathroom is the size of a regular hotel room (or larger). I took these pictures from the website (better quality) but the real thing was definitely not far from what you see from the web images. Russell and Gideon spent most of their time in the pool. Their Gameboy was of course the other important companion throughout the trip.

For the adults, shopping was mainly done at Surfer Girl - Chris and Terence picked up some surf gear which were supposedly cheaper than in Singapore. The girls took some time away from the boys for a stroll along Seminyak just outside the villa. There were some interesting shops and we of course landed some good bargains.

The beach is just at the end of the Seminyak stretch. We spent one morning there and were of course swarmed by peddlers - from manicures and massages to caps and clips. Angie and myself of course lazed under the parasols for Kodak moments :-)

Jimbaran had transformed since our last trip there. It is now a thriving stretch of seafood restaurants. When we were last there 8 years ago, I recall only a few restaurants and they would pull tables and chairs onto the beach if customers wanted to eat with their feet in the sand. The beautiful sunset was breathtaking! As for the food, well it was definitely "tourist prices". The 6 of us (minus the 2 kids) paid almost SGD200 for dinner!

The Semiyak stretch is definitely good for families. Lined with shops, restaurants, supermarkets, cafes and convenience stores, you need not worry about running out of food or essentials. We spent quite a bit of time at this little outdoor cafe just outside the main supermarket where we got our daily dosage of beer, fruits and snacks. There is even an Internet centre right above the cafe.

It will definitely not take us another 8 years to go back to Bali. See you soon!

SWARMED

Yes, this is what's happening in the Red Office. All of us are swarmed one way or another. Stephan created the tongue of my "Talk of the Month" Beanie Bear (it's been hanging like this for the longest time, by the way). I thought it aptly personifies everyone in the office and looks quite funny. Everyone's slamming away at the keyboards for some reason. Well, another day of craziness and I'll be vegetating in Bali by tomorrow night - yahoo!

"Hi! My name is Jada Mathy."

I finally got down to creating a new "Me" in another world - a virtual world. After Stephan's explanation of www.secondlife.com and our intentions of creating a Swissotel in secondlife, I decided it was about time I learnt more about this amazing technology and site. In a nutshell, secondlife is a virtual world which allows one to create personas (humans, animals, half-human - anything you like). It is a world where more than 5 million residents reside to-date. Residents trade in Linden dollars (named after the founder Linden Labs) and Linden dollars can be bought through your credit card (US$1 = approx L$270). There is a 'live' exchange rate as well.

With Linden $ you can buy clothes, bags, land to build a house or a hotel, go for a haircut etc. Your secondlife character is capable of making friends, getting married, going to the pub, teleporting to another island etc. You make friends by typing a message just like msn chat. Starwood has already created their hotel "aloft" in secondlife. The hotel is built based on ideas provided by secondlife residents. This will in turn supposedly inspire Starwood in their creation of the aloft hotel in the REAL world.

Some argue that this site is a cult. Some are in awe of the amazing technology behind it. Some question the real personalities behind the characters in secondlife. Are they individuals unable to fulfill their real life expectations, thus using secondlife as an outlet to live out their imaginary and ideal life? I don't have answers to that. But I'm certain there are many secondlife residents, who, like me, are just curious what this virtual world has to offer. Since I created Jada Mathy, I've made about 10 friends from different walks of life and different parts of the world. So I suppose as long as one uses the techonology appropriately, there's really no harm.

Say hi to me one day - I'm Jada Mathy.