Wonderful memories of Arene Kuan

On this day, 20 December 2013, I shall remember for the rest of my life, one of my closest friend – Arene Kuan has passed away.

It came as a shocking news for me, as well as every other people who knew her too. Never thought this kind of news will come to us so soon. Too soon. Too soon till I couldn’t accept it. If I couldn’t accept it, I feel for them about how the rest of her family member dealt with this sudden death.

I first knew her when i started working in PSB Academy. We were in the same department, and very soon we were lunch kahkis along with Jeremy and a few others. Slowly, the number of people reduced to me, her and Jeremy. Then came along QY who registered as a student here, and GK who converted from P.T to F.T. Time passed so fast when I am with them. Then I got into a relationship with a fellow colleague whom I married too. Then she became my manager, so I report to her. She has been very kind and always willing to teach us things that we need to know, listening to my whatever things that I wanna say. During all these years, there are many important events of my life, Β and she were there. Supporting me, giving me ideas. Nevertheless, she’s the best mentor and friend I ever have.

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These photos were taken in 2009 when I first joined PSB Academy. Ah Bao was her newborn baby rabbit by one of her female rabbit who got pregnant after a staycation at a pet hotel. She really took great effort to take care of this little bunny which was tiny when I first carried him. And sad to mention, Ah Bao passed away last year.

She’s the easy going kind, but it doesnt necessarily mean that you can push your limits. She’s a nice lady, if you need help she will always be there to lend a helping hand.

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July 2009 – Taken at Eve’s wedding. She was the emcee for Eve’s wedding as well.

She’s always the person cutting the cake for everyone’s birthday including her own birthday cake.

December 2009 – Christmas & New Year’s satay & Partyworld night.

May 2010 – First Happy Family Outing

September 2010 – Arene’s birthday in the Office

September 2010 – Shunjie’s 21st birthday

December 2010 – PSB Academy D&D

Singing Session

December 2010 – Christmas in the Office

January 2011 – Jeremy’s birthday

January 2011 – Happy family BBQ session.

February 2011 – Happy Family CNY gathering.

May 2011 – Guan Kun’s birthday

May 2011 – Arene came to send us off to Taipei at the changi airport. It was a surprise and very sweet of her. It was a pity we never got a chance to go for holiday together anymore.

June 2011 – A night of Agar-ration

September 2011 – Arene’s birthday

September 2011 – Shunjie & Jianhui’s birthday.

October 2011 – Shunjie’s POP.

November 2011 – Pertina’s farewell

Happy family celebrated my birthday in 2011.

November 2011 – Celebrated Poh Leng’s graduation and then our birthday in the office.

December 2011 – Kate’s Surprise birthday!

December 2011 – Sha’s birthday

After that Arene brought me and Sha out for dinner. As a year end treat for us.

Dinner with the people from my department.

Once in a blue moon, we would go to Chomp Chomp to nom nom.

This is our 2011 countdown party at Quan Yi’s home.

January 2012 – Jeremy’s birthday

January 2012 – Our first TWG of the year.

February 2012 – Lawrence’s Birthday

February 2012 – PSB Academy CNY lunch.

May 2012 – Chen Xi’s 21st. Arene treat us to Lawry’s because she won some contest and got $1000! πŸ™‚

May 2012 – Li Hoon’s Birthday

May 2012 – Guan Kun’s Birthday

May 2012 – Remi’s birthday

June 2012 – Quan Yi’s Birthday

July 2012 – Kwok Yang’s birthday

July 2012 – Big boss’s Birthday

July 2012 – Derrick Lee’s Birthday

September 2012 – Martyn’s Birthday

September 2012 – Arene’s and Shunjie’s birthday.

September 2012 – PSB Academy Teambuilding at Serangoon Garden Club

October 2012 – Shirley’s farewell.

November 2012 – Kwok Siang’s birthday

December 2012 – NYE countdown party @ Partyworld, Nex. πŸ™‚

January 2013 – Jeremy’s birthday

January 2013 – Jeremy bought a new DSLR, so we took a photo together. πŸ™‚

March 2013 – Our Japan Trip. It’s a pity that she couldn’t come with us. Very nice of her to drive me from my house to the airport. For this, I will never forget.

20.07.2013 – Big Mouse Birthday

09.08.2013 – My first and last National Day with her. She gotten tickets for the National Day Parade, and she asked me because I never been to one before. I am really touched by her actions.

31.08.2013 – Happy Family surprised her at her house after dinner with her. We had dinner somewhere else, but she said she’s heading home after dinner so we decided to give her a surprise by appearing at her doorsteps with birthday cake. Never thought that this would be the last time we will be celebrating her birthday. Her birthday present was us getting her car air con, which was faulty for quite some time, repaired.

04.09.2013 – We gave her another surprise birthday celebration in the office since she was away on her birthday.

Dear Arene, although you may have left us. But you still missed by many people.

I miss you Arene!

A day at Singapore Botanic Garden

Alright alright! Time to update my blog! It’s been a while since I took some time to write my blog because I was feeling tired and always doze off.

Finally went to the Singapore Botanic Garden! After so long! It’s better late than never!

But my wish is still having a picnic at the Botanic Garden. How cool is it? I think that will be so fun! πŸ™‚ Anyways, I went to Botanic Garden last Sunday with Suzy (Sze Tien) for some photo shoot! Yea, some real photo shoot! Need to really improve on my photography skills (and get to know how to operate my camera) and my editing skills. I shouldn’t be buying my New Love and put it in the dry box and collect dust. I bought it for quite some time, and I still have not master the technique. That’s quite sad huh. I will not say it’s pathetic, but rather I did not have companion who will accompany for photo shoot. So glad that Suzy shared the same passion as me! Perhaps the next time we can ask Edwin out too! Since he has passion for photography too. He’s the first person in our group to own a DSLR. Lol. Ahhh, so miss the days in Vietnam! The beef noodle and all.

Anyways, we arranged to meet up at 8am at Orchard. After breakfast at Shaw McDonald’s, I decided that we should walkto Botanic Garden. =] It wasn’t too hot then since it’s still early. While we are on foot, we took some pictures, saw some cute dogs and many joggers. And finally we are at Singapore Botanic Garden!

Seeing the entrance makes me excited! And walking into Botanic Garden, we ain’t the early bird. There are many people who are much more earlier than us! We see people having picnic (how wish I could join them), practice singing or vocal, feeding the fish and swans etc. It’s so fun!

And by the time we covered half of the Botanic Garden, we are thirsty and tired. The day was really good and perfect for such event! The next time we go, we shall bring our own water bottle! And it would be best to have a picnic there! Still thinking about it. We decide that we should come back again to cover the other half of the garden.

Below are some of my works!

These are some of work which I felt it’s not too bad. So, if you are reading Β my blog, perhaps you can give me some pointers! I can’t do much editing because I don’t know how to use photoshop (I will learn to master it once I’m done with my studies), and I used the software that comes with the Canon camera. =] I hope Suzy can help me install the Adobe Lightroom soon. πŸ™‚

I am so happy when Suzy say I’m getting better at taking photos! πŸ˜€ I think we will be going for a night shoot at MBS soon! After my exams that is.

And I really need to concentrate on my assignment and exams this month. So looking forward to the Taipei trip!! Since we couldn’t go to Japan anymore, we decided on Taipei. We are going on the 13th May – 19th May. Since my Taipei friend has helped me settled on the hotel (we are staying at Royal Seasons Hotel, Taipei) for the 6 nights. Which means what? A jacuzzi in our rooms!! Cool isn’t it?? Really can’t wait to go!

Really need to pray for the world. Japan just suffered another 7.4 magnitude earthquake, and I think Mexico too. Pray for them.

New Year Resolution 2011

I am looking back on the resolution list I made for myself last year, and this is what I got,

New YearΒ Resolutions

January 4, 2010 by jaymeetan

I was reflecting myself for the past year and what have I done, and once again, I have accomplish nothing. Not that I am incompetent, but this is where laziness steps in. Ok, I know it’s just a crap full of excuses. I have yet list down my New Year Resolution for 2010. And this year, I only have 3 simple wish (no more hoping, yearning for LoVe) and they are:

1) To get my driving license
2) Get started on my degree program
3) GAIN WEIGHT!

Yup, the strike off ones are the one I accomplished this year.

I started my degree program in April. Along with Jesslin, and got to know some awesome groupmates; Celest, Gina, and Sylvia. Although doing groupwork can be really troublesome at times because of the coordination work and what’s not, I still have my fair share of fun and laughter.

I passed my driving test on the 6th December (which is not long ago), on my second attempt. The first one was a flop because I was too nervous and it was raining so heavily. But, I earned my experience from that first attempt. And that’s one of the happiest day of my entire life.

So, what I didn’t managed to accomplish was the 3rd on my list, gaining weight.

Actually, I can’t really say I didnt accomplish it, I didnt even weigh myself! So, let’s count as 1/4 done. πŸ™‚

Next, the new year is approaching and I think I need to come up with a list to make sure I accomplished it at the end of next year. πŸ˜€

And the feeling of accomplishing something on your list, really feels good! WOOOOHOOO!

  1. I WILL graduate from UCD.
    Sounds lame. But, getting back the not-good results can further demoralize myself. Some times, I think I want to give up on getting the degree. It’s really killing me. I’m not good in business at all. My English is worse than my Chinese, and my Chinese isn’t any better.
    The flesh is weak, but only God makes me strong.
  2. Get the date for my traditional wedding.
    It’s hard because the bf seems unwilling; to have a traditional wedding. He feels it’s an obligation. Some thing that is against his will and he has to do it because our parents wants it, not him. To him, money is a constraint also.
    I believe to have more faith, that God will guide us through the whole process, and provide us with the sufficient cash for the wedding in 2012.
  3. Friendship.
    Strained friendships. I don’t know if I should just leave the group, or stay.
    Distance. I can feel myself distancing from all of you. Afterall, no sense of belonging.

    Well, at least I know, all these people didn’t know me after all these years.
    After all these things, I know, I don’t fucking exist. I know.

    When life fails you countless times. When friends forsake you. Only God will never fail you nor forsake you.
  4. Gain weight.
    I think I can never leave this out from my resolution list until the day I grow fat.
    In Jesus’ name, I will grow healthier each day.

I think that’s all for my list. Not very sure if I have some thing to add-on later. Hopefully not. πŸ˜€

Cast your cares unto the Lord!

A simple prayer works wonder than popping so many pills everyday!

As you people know, I was quite frustrated over the rashes thing that happened a week ago. I popped pills faithfully everyday and have to bear with the morning coldness (because people told me I cannot shower using warm water). So upset! But now, I AM WELL AGAIN! In this process, it really shows how many caring friends I have! Thanks girls for asking! You girls deserved a BIG HUG FROM ME!! Hahahaaha!

Uncle Jeremy‘s daughters came last Friday because there is no class for them… PSLE oral exam, so no class for them. So lucky. How I missed being my mother’s child. πŸ™‚

So the girls were stuck in the office because they aint allow to walk around the campus, it was until I went in the office then I saw them. Such lovely kids. Hahaha. Please don’t tell me go and have one kid. Having own baby is different from playing with other people’s kid. You get what I mean. Anyways, Charlyn was playing with my iPhone and so, this is a picture of me she took. A dying face. Which surprisingly, not too bad. I was talking about me dying soon, because of the hives and what’s not, Charlyn say “Jie Jie, since you are going to die then buy this Zinger buddy meal… you treat me and my sister this….” Innocent kids. LOL.

After work, still feeling depress about the Hives, God speaks to me.

“Cast your care unto the Lord!”

I heard it. And decide that feeling depress isn’t what I want! So, I prayed while I was having my shower. I prayed hard that Lord will heal me and take away all my illness! Red spot did appeared the next morning, but then it was gone forever after that! I stopped my medicine which doctor says I must continue for a month! Thank God for his healing! Maybe you guys might think it’s just some psychological kind of thinking, but I seriously felt God’s presence whenever I pray to him. It was raining so heavily that morning for me to shower in cold water, so I full blast WARM water and shower happily while praying hard for God’s healing. And, no red spots after that. God cleanse me while I was having my shower! Amen!

Poor me was having constipation for the past few days until I shitted on Sunday (after popping 4 laxatives and prune juice). This is the major event that happened and everyone was cheering for me. And thanks to everyone for their precious advise on how to shit when I am constipated.

Dearest very hiao so he went to Browshaus to trim his eye brows. So I was looking at their products and almost wanted to do the eyebrow enhance or rather what they called the eyebrow resurrection. But because it’s $1.2K, Dearest says I shouldn’t waste the money because we are going ROM soon. Actually quite upset about it because I think it’s nice and save me the trouble. But, because I don’t own a Credit Card, I can’t decide because if I want to, I need his credit card. He says I’m using ‘future’ money. Every single time you swap your credit card, you are already spending ‘future’ money. So why i’s paying installment called spending ‘future’ money (花ζœͺζ₯ι’±)? That’s why I say, some times he’s talking rubbish. But I didnt want to argue with him, so I dropped that idea. I will do it in the future with my OWN credit card. 求人不如靠θ‡ͺε·± (depend on yourself rather than begging people).

Working with Uncle Jeremy means… BREAKFaST! Yay, enjoyed my breakfast. Especially Pretty Chou and Nano Blue. πŸ˜‰ (Uncle Jeremy says Pretty Chou looks ‘fat’ here, hahahaha)

Look! What’s in my packet of biscuit??

I think I’m getting iPhone 4 next month. Using bf’s plan. Hahaha.

Not good, at all

I don’t feel good today. Every part of me is feeling weak. My body is aching so much that I can barely sit and stand straight.

But, I do not want to sound and be so negative. I was feeling upset because the red dots keep appearing on my body and when Dearest asked if I’m feeling ‘depressed’, and I said I am. He said I am WEAK. Using such word on a girl isn’t that nice especially he’s not the one having rashes and all. He doesn’t understand the feeling of having all these rashes and see them coming back again can be quite ‘depressing’. After all, I’m girl. Which girl enjoys having red spot on them like everyday?

Nonetheless, I do not want to start arguing with him, so I told him that he should stop talking to me in case I sprout nonsense.

Doc says, I must continue the medicine for a month. *rolling my eyes*

While I was having my shower last night, I prayed to God that He will heal me, take all these red dots away from me. And casting all these cares unto Him knowing He will heal me because I’m his beloved child. He will take away this rash and it will not happen again. Having faith in Him feels really good. I prayed again before I went to bed. I will just keep praying until I get healed.

I want to go home now.

Parenting with Grace

Finally went to the church after a few weeks of absents (doing my assignments). First, we are overwhelmed by the numbers of youths we saw at the service. And then they announced it’s YOUTH DAY! And YOUTH is between 13 – 29 years old. I am still a youth. FOREVER YOUNG.

Alright, craps aside. And this month, it is coincide with racial harmony day. Everyone of us was given an orange ribbon to put on, reminding us about racial harmony. Racial harmony doesn’t come without price ok? Start treating other race well.

Yesterday’s message is about “Parenting with Grace“. It was a sermon by Pastor Prince a few years ago. Initially, I thought this sermon has got nothing to do with me, because I am not in the parenting stage yet. While listening to the sermon, I felt that this doesn’t applies only to parent-to-be, it can be applied on any one. Yes, I mean ANY ONE. Whether it’s young or old, man or woman, malay, chinese or indian. it’s regardless of age, races and sex.

The main topic is, listening with grace. Pastor is right. It never came across to us that we might hurt that someone with the things that comes out from our mouth directly. Whether with intention or not.

Listening with grace means to feel how the person feel.

Pastor Prince gave a few examples using his daughter.

Jessica (Pastor Prince’s daughter): Daddy, I feel so angry!
Daddy: Jessica! You shouldn’t feel angry! You are God’s child, you should forgive and forget.

Many a times, we come straight into the point without realizing that the little children wants their feelings to be acknowledged by the adult. Whenever we said things like that, the children stopped talking, because

they felt that we don’t understand how they feel.

So, if you listen with grace,

Jessica: Daddy, I feel so angry!
Daddy: Oh boy, my dear, you do sound so angry. Tell me what happen or who made you angry?
Jessica: (telling the dad what happened)

It’s a totally different feel. This makes the daughter wants to talk to the daddy.

See, different feelings right? The first one stops you from talking to the person, the second one keeps you talking to the person.

Talking to Dearest is really frustrating. Rather, talking to guys frustrates me.

I was reminding him to TAILOR his shirt since he has been talking about donkey years that he wants to tailor one and since our ROM date is getting nearer and nearer each day. He thinks I am rushing him to tailor. Then he said, “it’s not necessary for me to TAILOR the shirt, I can just buy off RACK as well”. FINE. Who was the one who went into Zara all the times and look at the same shirt saying the same thing? Not me ok? He always say TAILOR shirt will be cheaper than going to Zara and buy. He said he likes Zara, but it’s a little expensive. Damnit. Can you buy a branded that’s cheap and still got quality? I say it’s just too hard to please him.

Next, I was talking about the Gelare ice cream waffle which I had not eaten for ages. Read again, I say GELARE. You know what he told me? He said: “Like this huh? You can go opposite Tiong Bahru Plaza bread shop and buy a waffle and eat.”. This leaves me totally speechless. Seriously.
a) you can just listen to it.
b) suggest to have some ice cream there
c) think again before speaking

He did none of the above. And I am not even talking about OTHER WAFFLES. I am talking about GELARE ICE CREAM WAFFLE. He can tell me to go TIONG BAHRU and buy when we were at SUNTEC. Really fuck up.

What makes the whole conversation even worse was,

HE TOLD ME SHOPPING NEEDS PLANNING.

No people, you didn’t read wrongly. HE told me this! He walked past Giodano, and saw that the Bermudas are on sale (U.P for one is $39, but if you buy min 2 pcs it’s $33), he asked if he should buy. So I told him “if you don’t buy today, you would buy it someday… so why not buy it today?” Then he say, why am I always rushing him to do something. I feel something for myself. I empathize myself for being in such situation whenever I am just reminding him. Then he says, whatever he says, it’s not necessary for him to execute it. What does he mean by SHOPPING NEEDS PLANNING huh? Do you understand? I don’t. He used buying a car (vs buying Bermudas) as an example. C’mon lah, how much is one car? And how much can a bermudas cost? Bloody hell. It just makes my blood boils.

And then I told him about the B.C (Bonitochico) warehouse sale, and I want to do. He didn’t reply me on this. So when I say I want to shop for some clothes because I don’t know what I should wear for Martin’s wedding. He say just get something and wear will do. I say I wanna look chio chio (pretty) that night, then he say I am not even the bride so chio (pretty) for what? Wanting to be chio (pretty) doesn’t mean I can only pretty during my OWN wedding, it’s woman’s nature wanting to look chio (pretty). And I feel super sian after that.

We went to attend Marriage Seminar on Saturday. I think it’s pretty good because it gives you a rough idea what you will be getting in marriage. Sometimes when I had such conversation with Dearest, I seriously felt that I cannot converse with him at all. And sometimes, the things he said really hurts me.

******

I was talking about GERMANY and ARGENTINA PLAYERS during lunch time. I commented that the Germans looks like giant and the Argentina’s player looks so short beside them. G.K says, Argentina players are taller than ME and they are consider tall compared to asians. Germans are like at least 1.9m tall. Ok, since when I am in the picture? So he say, “Ok, I don’t want to argue with you”. But the thing is, I am not talking about ME, GERMANY AND ARGENTINA. I am talking about GERMANY and ARGENTINA. Why am I in the picture?

World Cup. Saturday match:

Argentina : Germany

0 : 4

Germany won! It’s really a good game.

Paraguay : Spain

0 : 1

Spain.. do you think they can get into FINALS?

Penny for a thought

I want to let everyone know that I have great friends around me!

This is so random. Because I want to be random!

Thanks Brian for his Godiva chocolate! =] Chou chou and I loves it very much! Haha!!

And then dinner with Darling! Feel so bad that I was late for almost 30 minutes because I went to CDC (Comfort Driving Center) to open an account so I can book my TP. But the instructor told me that he will be out of Singapore on the 6th July, so he told me he will book my TP for me.

So me and Darling went to Sushi Tei for our dinner. And I must say their good is really good!

This is what we ordered for our dinner. And after that dinner, both of us was so full loh! Can you imagine, 4 kinds of sashimi, 4 kinds of sushi and 1 sashimi salad and our stomach was already bloated. The sauce for the salad is good too! And the bad thing is, we were sitting at the corner so the servers cannot see us. We had lotsa of laughter that night. And I like this feeling. πŸ˜‰

Noticed this commercial on the “My Paper” today? Today I was talking to one of the colleague about this picture. Both of us thinks that this picture well taken. And I told her in order to take such a beautiful pose, this model must have gone thru hell. I was telling her jokingly that in the future I might ‘force’ my little girl to learn ballet. She was looking at me with a serious face and told me, “force no use one lah, must have interest”. And then I told her, I will start to create some ‘awareness’ of the ballet when she’s in me. And then I will play piano pieces every night so she will have interest in learning piano. To complete something that I want to do, but never got the chance to do. And then my colleague say, θƒŽζ•™ (Prenatal education) really does cultivate the interest in the baby as they grow up. BUT, I was really joking when I told her that I am gonna “FORCE” my kids to learn anything against their will.

If people say, child-birth pain is a curse from the Lord because Eve sinned against him, then why fear there is pain when you have the Lord? Because when Jesus died on the cross some 2000 yrs ago, the pain, the sin and whatsoever has been taken away from you by him. He cleanse our blood WITH HIS BLOOD. Thus we are no longer sinner. But the beloved child of God.

I truly believe that whatever you say, affects the baby.. because the baby listens to his/her surrounding even before they were born. I am trying to say is, what kind of parents.. brings up what kind of children. Don’t you agree? If you grow up in an environment with your parents screaming at each other, scolding all sorts of vulgarities.. you will grow like your parents. Never treat your partner well and such. But if you grow up in an environment whereby your parents teaches you values, I am sure you will grow up learning how to respect people, shower your love to your love ones etc. It really depends. Whenever, I heard the father of the unborn child keep cursing and swearing.. I am pondered.. What kind of person will the child be when he grows up. I will never want my child to learn vulgarities and maybe even, the first word that comes out from their mouth will be: “Fuck”, “CB”, “KNN” etc. I always try to remind boyfriend NOT TO EVER SPEAK TO ME like that. Not even in front of me. Because I never like the way the guys talk with words like “KNN”, “CB” coming out from their mouth. So sometimes, I don’t really like the way his friends talk. Too much “KNN”, “CB” and many more of the hokkien vulgarities that you can think of. All of us does scold vulgarities, I do. I try to minimize. At least, I don’t scold “KNNBCCB” or things like that. The most I will scold is “FUCK”, “WHAT THE FISH?”, “FISH” (to substitute FUCK). LOL.

THP’s birthday celebration

It was supposed to be a day of laughter, but because ah ma and papa quarrelled + THP fall sick, so we didn’t managed to execute our plan by taking THP out for a movie (How to train a dragon). So me and Dearest went home instead. We went to Gek Poh to have dinner and then went back home to celebrate THP’s birthday. He didn’t went for dinner with us because he has already taken his dinner.


The picture I went while I was walking back home. Spot the moon.

Dedicated to Amy

Dearest Amy,

Life is short. It’s a sad piece of news to hear. Please know that I will always be there for you no matter when you need me. For you are always my BFF. No matter what happens. Please take care of yourself because you need to take care of your grandma and mother. Please do not be sad over your grandpa’s death. I believe he’s at God’s right hand. Please don’t worry, he’s well taken care of. For God is with him.

Loves,
Yun