A little note to both of you...

Dear Yoshi and Rika,

I wish I could write this little note in Japanese. But given those times that I have spent with both of you, I have come to realise that language may not be that huge a barrier afterall where friendship is concerned. In fact, I thought there were lessons that I had learnt from both of you all these years despite being miles apart most of the time. You have shown me that happiness is simply simple little joys in life, happiness is appreciating every little thing or thought that comes your way, happiness has no expectations, happiness is vast and borderless, happiness is infectious. I thank you for all those smiles and laughter that you have brought into the lives of others. Rika, I think anyone would fall in love with that smile of yours and I was telling Mark that you're definitely someone that everyone would love to love :) If both of you are reading this, just want to let you know that it's great to be able to have spent those days with both of you while you were in Singapore. Hope that both of you have had a great time too! Keep warm...

Love,

SB

A lovely Monday

Brought Sunny Baby over to my very good friend's place. Ha, Baby dearie spent most of his time exploring every corner of the house, especially the spot where Dino and Doni were. Well, a pity they could not seem to get along well maybe coz Sunny Baby was such a stranger to both of them. I guess dogs guard their territory well. My very good friend bought curry fishhead for me again! Yummy! Spicy and delicious! Finished almost the whole plate of rice. As usual, dear Charlotte pestered me to stay longer and later into the night. Ha, my dear Charlotte, if I did not need to work the next day, I would surely stay over and play with you till late in the night. See ya soon dear :)   

Catching up!

One of the loveliest things in life is to find time to meet and catch up with friends. Thanks Edmond and Joyce who have been putting in great effort to organise and get in touch with all of us, appreciate much! Haha, will be looking forward to Joyce's mee soto. Oh my goodness, I am hungry just thinking of it :)

Against all odds

This must be one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended. Beautiful not because of the ambience, decor, food or gowns but beautiful because of the connection of two lovely individuals and their story. Finally, against all odds... My dear friends, Z & J, you cannot imagine how happy I am for the both of you and thank you for sharing your joy on this very special day of yours. My best wishes to the both of you as you embark on your next part of your journey together...with much strength, faith and love for each other.

Everything with friends and fries

If you were asked what friends are for or give me ten good reasons why we should have friends, what would your answer be? Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised that we could all have varied answers. Well, I think it's really okie. No matter what friends are for, in the busyness of our lives, let's not forget to find time to catch up, get in touch and stay connected. I am glad we did that Friday :)

Let's chat

Caught up with Angeline and Nura...they're tired but glad they still took time to meet up. We chatted over Subway sandwiches, fries, calamari and fruits - our dinner :P Hmm, sometimes, I think in the hustle and bustle of life, every one of us do need time and space to share our thoughts and understand various perspectives...Well, I guess we had a good chat.

At the mahjong table

Hmm, this picture certainly does not really match the content of my post but took this picture while lazing at my friend's place eating soya bean curd...After a night of mahjong, we stayed overnight at my friend's place, it was really a lazy Sunday morning the next day...yawn!

I think I first played mahjong with my grandparents and siblings. The three of us were still kiddos when our grandparents taught us. Ha, my father wasn't really happy about us learning how to play mahjong :P If I can still remember correctly, we had that mahjong table in our Whampoa three-room flat and my late grandfather was trying to go round the table to give advice as the three of us were playing with my grandmother. As a child, I don't think I know how to strategise so that I could win big bucks. Well, as an adult now, I still think that I don't know how to strategise, I probably do not even know the rules of the game well :P Just last weekend, was at a friend's place to play mahjong. They were talking foreign language to me at the mahjong table, I didn't understand some of the terms mentioned but thank goodness, my friends were patient and tried explaining to me certain rules (or maybe coz we were not using real money :P). Oh my, but I think I still went away a little blur, numbers have a way of causing confusion in my life at times. Sigh, my number sense is really poor... But guess I did learn a little at the mahjong table that night, well, at least I am not the biggest loser :P

The many tosses

Toss to excellent health, happiness, prosperity ...and friendship :)

The CNY meet up

They ain't ugly, they're my friends, haha :P

My favourite from Swenson...black pepper seafood pasta :P

I am sure CNY is also a good time to catch up with friends, with busy friends :P Well, real glad that the three of us decided to meet up for lunch today. Ha, I suppose there's lots to chat and catch up. By the time we went on our separate ways, it was already almost dinner time. Nura is still as crazy as ever and Angeline looked like she has not slept well for days (But she has really got a great appetite today, bravo Angeline!) :P ...Take care gals :)

Meet the drama queen

Happy happy birthday...dear Kat, dun ever let me lose sight of that smile k :)

I huff and I puff! ...Sorry Wolffy, try harder!

I have never seen anyone making birthday wishes like this :P

My really good friend's Charlotte

Ha, trying to give me her sweetest smile...Oh my, I realised today that she has grown taller :)

More drawings?

Satisfaction with a smile :)

Drawing her favourite Christmas tree on her little whiteboard...Christmas is over, my dear :P

My really good friend's...

Dinner...it has been quite some time since we had fishhead curry together.

Giving it a shot...numerous shots I must say, but no worries, keep trying k!

Meet Doni...I have never carried a dog who's so still...and frightened of strangers :P See that fear in his eyes?

Cruising into the new year...

It's real nice of YT to still make an effort to keep in touch. We met up on New Year's Eve together with Liana for lunch and then tea. Sometimes, the interesting thing is that there's hardly any time to chat while at work and what we probably could afford at work would be just a friendly smile and "Hi" along the corridor. Very quickly, we need to run for a meeting or class. Let alone a conversation over a cup of tea in an informal setting. Ha, but glad we had a good chat that afternoon over tea :)

Over a meal of mee soto

Zai invited us to his place for dinner on Friday night. How time really flies, I thought it was just one year ago that Rene, Joyce, Edmond, Raymond and I had homecooked mee soto at his place. It's certainly great to meet up again! As usual, we ate lotsa homemade Hari Raya snacks and cookies made by his mother. Goodness, his mother can really cook and bake. I hope all her recipes would be passed down generation after generation. As usual, there's much catching up and thunderous laughter, oops, hope we did not create much disturbance to the quiet neighbourhood in the night. Zai's pretty much the same, sporty and adventurous :P You know, we need good gardeners to maintain the garden of friendship, really appreciate Zai's effort to organise our meet ups and gatherings. You know, it's never so much of what food we had but I thought it's indeed the strengthening of the bonds of friendship over a simple meal of mee soto...with lotsa ingredients, the soup was addictive and the chilli was shiok! :P

By the beach

Took a walk with Rene along the beach while the other three decided to jog, it was a nice evening to take a stroll. A part of the sky was cloudy but clear enough to see sunset. We met at the seafood centre for dinner, decided to feast at Jumbo :P Kinda crowded for a weekday. Where we were sitting, we were also able to catch a glimpse of sunset. We kinda sat facing the sea too, beautiful evening to dine by the beach. Well, it's certainly great to take time to catch up with one another every ten weeks :)

Where am I?

Guess where am I...no idea?...Reflecting on that bridge

Evie and Benson came over to Singapore for a short weekend trip. The last time we met was in Taiwan, hmm, probably about two years ago I guess. I remember they were great hosts over in Taiwan then. Ha, love to hear them talk too, marvel at their fluency of Mandarin and have always been impressed by how much they can share about the happenings in their lives. Pretty simple and nice folks :) ...After a dinner of bak ku teh last Saturday, both of them went on the Singapore flyer while the rest of us had ice cream and went silly gaga with our apps on our iphone :P That evening, I kinda felt like a tourist myself too...*shameful*...it was my first time walking across Helix Bridge and went over to Marina Bay Sands. Well, at least I did :P

A little note for my very good friend

Dearest Guiyu, thank you for that thoughtful text just now...You know, you always remember those little things, wonder how you do it. Most of all, you always have a way of caring for me, it's certainly something that I am always thankful for all these years. Before I go to sleep tonight, I just wanna thank you for always being there...not often seen, not often spoken of but always there...never out of sight and always shining like a star in the sky...

Birthday babies

Met up with ex-colleagues on Tuesday, celebrated Joyce's and Rene's birthday too. Great to see Julia, Jes, Chu Hwei, Shirley and Edmond! The crazy bunch of us once again created much noise and laughter in the restaurant. Warning: If you are having a romantic dinner with your special someone, never ever reserve a table next to ours :P That fateful night, almost lost my favourite pair of slippers :( Left my pair of slippers outside the private room that we booked for dinner and was shocked when I could not find it when we wanted to leave. Guess what, it was discovered that one of the waiters actually wore my pair of slippers! Can you beat that?! And it was also obviously too small for him! Well, he kinda got a scolding from his manager. Anyway, too tired to bother so much, just glad that I still have my pair of slippers :P

My very good friend

My very good friend went to Tokyo Disneyland and got me a pack of Winnie the Pooh cookies. It was a nice package, put it this way, you will never be disappointed with the packaging when purchasing merchandise at Disneyland :P But guess what, silly me left the package together with a box of Japanese chocolates in the restaurant that night. Thank goodness, I called the restaurant and managed to get them back the next day. Those mean alot to me, let alone the thoughtfulness of my very good friend :)...Today, I was having Winnie the Pooh cookies for tea. Each cookie was shaped and designed like Pooh. I dropped one into my cup of Milo and it was floating, ha, showing Pooh's chubby face and big tummy, he was smiling as he was floating happily in the Milo. But well, not long after, he was being scooped and...hmm, guess you know what happened to him. It was too difficult for me to resist despite having a sore throat and cough :P

My very good friend nagged at me like the way she did about ten years ago I guess (Ha, but she never really did stop nagging at me all these years :P). That night when we met, what she said seemed to have reminded me of how I felt ten years ago...

When the warriors meet...again :)

In the midst of the bitterness of the green tea, there's sweetness and enjoyment as one savours it long enough...

We celebrated Edmond's birthday at Sushi Tei last night. It was great meeting up with the rest and catching up. There was so much laughter, too much I suppose, the waitress actually came to us and politely asked if we could just keep our noise level a little lower, oops! Everyone of us was busy with our own lives, fighting all kinds of battles :P but I thought when we came together last night, we kinda really let our hair down and really messed it up :P I feel that there's always a difference between "friends" and "colleagues", not every colleague can be a friend. To have a true friend amongst your colleagues, count your blessings always :) Appreciate much that Joyce and Edmond have always been making that effort to bring us all together, glad that we are still keeping in touch although three of us in the group have already left our previous workplace. Well, may the warriors meet again...and again...and again :)