jennis & wei nien

so excited about attending the wedding dinner at st. regis 'cos i've not been there. the john jacob ballroom turned out to be such a grand and understated beauty. of course the pretty floral decorations played a part to create this romantic and almost dreamy feel of the night.

was slightly late since i waited quite a while for the bus, fortunately the dinner has yet to begin although most of the guests were already seated by the time i arrived.

jennis surprised me with a fiery-red evening gown that was definitely befitting of the happy and auspicious occasion. :P

the dinner menu, although chinese, wasn't your typical 8-course wedding dinner. it was a beautifully and individually-plated 6-course dinner that consisted of traditional wedding dinner staples such as shark's fin soup and abalone as well as less common dishes like scallops stuffed in yam, fried olive rice and a delightful ginseng essence with longan served cold. something which i thought might be too much for overseas or non-chinese guest.

i read in 8 days that it cost in excess of $1.7k for a weekend wedding dinner here but i guess it's money well-spent if you can afford it. me and the gals went round to take more pictures after the dinner. the crystal chandeliers just beg to be photographed.

jasmine & colin

it's a blissful month at my former office since there're 2 colleagues getting married this may. but my wallet has to take a beating. :P

jasmine started the ball rolling today with gowns that were eye-catching to say the least, all thanks to her lanky frame.

saw rudy's wife for the first time. and everyone tried to avoid sitting with him and ohad. luckily i was early, else i might have to sit with them if my seat was taken up by colleagues who flagrantly ignored the seating plan. :)

the food was ok, and everything proceeded like clockwork.

lunch @ liang seah street

a special occasion today, so all the local staff plus the 2nd in command, ohad had lunch together at coffeeshop at liang seah street today.

after that, some of us adjourned for desserts at ah chew's. it's ohad's first time trying local desserts so the girls suggested something mild, 杨枝甘露. but i think he still prefers ice-cream. haha...

卧虎藏龙

wow... didn't expect my colleague, tan to be such a good singer sounding very much like 张学友. powerful vocals and very good technique too.

i'm impressed!

badminton

when was the last time you played the game?

well, i had 2 games in less than a week. played last thursday and again today with my new colleagues. gave estee's racket a good workout. actually the racket hasn't seen the light of the day since eons ago... even the grip was disintegrating already.

my palm looked as if i was playing with a piece of charcoal at the end of last week's game at geylang west cc. haha... it was all black. had to replace the grip last night.

there were only 6 of us this evening, winnie's hubby couldn't make it while seeni is in kl so pearlyn dragged his boyfriend along. this time round she had booked 2 courts so jasmine and i had 1 court to ourselves. had fun... i think i need more practice. :)

hp last day @ ibm

hmm… it has been quite some time since a colleague has left for greener pastures.

although hp actually belongs to another team, he was able to click very well with my team sometimes joining us for lunch.

i find him very helpful and ever-willing to go the extra mile for colleagues. he’s the expert to go to if you’ve got any questions on lc.

outside of work, he’s always joking and full of humour, never afraid of making a fool of himself.

a rather chatty person who probably can charm the birds off the trees. :P haha…

all the best to his future endeavours!

bodycombat & yoga

woke up early today 'cos i intended to go for the combat @ paragon.

jeanette, serene and sandy will be there for the class using the free voucher from the fitness first calendar. peslin, jeanette’s younger sister will be there later since she’s working today.

managed to reach the gym at 1:00 pm… very early for me on a saturday. surprised herlina at the reception when i told her i was there for combat.

the gym is filled with more people at this time and seemed to have more energy. rushed to sign up for class. it was a full class as usual.

i stood on the left at the front of the class while serene and sandy managed to find their spots on the right when they came in later. didn’t notice jeanette coming in.

had a good workout. sweated buckets.

jeanette had her sights on a personal trainer, chris. i told her he is a part-time model. she can’t stop drooling.

before we left for tea-break, chen hanwei was spotted leaving the gym too.

we went down to the basement to ah mei for kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs. after that we got back to the gym for yoga.

the class was crowded as usual. think it was a great workout for serene, sandy, peslin and jeanette. they’re not very flexible, can’t touch the ground with their hands without bending their knees. ;) hehe…

changing appetites @ marina square

ms tan and madam tan joined pl, serene and myself for dinner. :) had to queue for table since it’s friday night.

i had the teriyaki black pepper pork ribs. it came with fries and a serving of coleslaw. the food was ok. nothing to shout about.

pl had beef. jeanette had a seafood pasta while serene and marilyn had fish. pl remarked that her beef was nice and tender. the rest didn’t have any complaints with their dinner.

changing appetites feels like a copy of café cartel. even the menu and pricing are quite similar. in fact, there’s a café cartel just 2 units away.

overall, it’s just a casual place to catch up with friends over decent food if you don’t want to spend too much.

after that, we adjoined to bakerzin at millennia walk for desserts.

stuffed.

faint

a colleague actually fainted at work today. very drama, right?

i was at my workstation when i heard a commotion behind me. the next thing i know, he was lying down on the floor looking disoriented and too dizzy and weak to stand up. a great shock to us all since you don’t expect somebody who looks perfectly alright in the morning to collapse just like that.

he was brought to the clinic across the road and subsequently sent to the hospital in an ambulance. thankfully, it was just an ear infection and exhaustion and not something serious.

you must be wondering what kind of slave-driving company i work for or what kind of back-breaking job my colleague is doing?

in fact, i work in a company that belongs to the top 10 in singapore lauded for its hr policies. and my colleague’s job is desk-bound in an air-conditioned, brightly-lit office. definitely not a sweat shop by any standards.

so what happened?

complacency i guess… we’re not machines after all. you just can’t take your body & health for granted.

just because you’ve been able to survive on 3 hours of sleep each day previously doesn’t mean that you can do it all the time and think that you can get away with it without doing any harm to your health. something will give way someday. and don’t forget, age does catch up with you, slowly but surely.

like what i like to say, imagine 10 years down the road… if your health is in ruins because of work, would your company turn around and thank you in appreciation for all your efforts? and promise to take care of you for the rest of your life? nah, i doubt so.

your body is a temple, even if you don’t worship it, at least treat it with due respect ’cos it’s the only 1 that you’ve got.