Counting down to my first overseas worktrip

In less than 30 hours, I should be on the plane to Shenzhen to conduct staff training for my Franchisee over there.

Feeling really anxious and excited at the same time. Because this is my first overseas worktrip and I only received the instructions last weekends. 

However, I am definitely more excited than anxious as this will be a good exposure for me and I had long-wished to check out our overseas Franchisee.

I managed to pack my luggage a while ago and hope I didn't miss anything out. Would need to check my luggage another round later tonight and add in the missing items. 

Heard that weather will be bad these few days as the monsoon approaches. Praying hard for everyone's safety and good health. Do pray for us too k! 

I very much wish to blog live while I am at Shenzhen but it is a pity China does not have access to Google and its affliated programme such Youtube, Facebook and Blogger! However, I will try to draft my blog when I have the time to and post it once I am back to Singapore. 

By the way, anyone notices the changes to my blog interface, colour themes and blog banner? I did it with the help of a friend who is good in web design. I personally like it a lot as it looks "cleaner"

and "neater" now. In addition, the blog banner now includes all the three special someone in my life. ^^ 

I am still touching up on my blog design so stay tune k! 

Meantime, don't miss me when I am not around! :P

7 more days to my Big 37!

Haha! Please tell me you don't believe I am turning 37 in a week's time! At least I don't! :P

Well, time flies.. really flies... another year has passed and so many things had happened in this one year. But I am glad all that had happened are good things. My life had finally changed for the better. I believe many more good things will come along in the next one year! 

正能量，来吧！

As usual, I always like to do a recap before my next birthday. So as to remind myself to treasure what I had achieved that did not come easy, and continue to work hard to retain what I have...

Still Slim and Pretty!

I always use my photo which I took in 2013 to "scare" myself and to remind myself what I had been through back then. I am glad I am still slim and pretty.

For those who forgot what I had been through may read about my "iVain: Obasan to Hot Mama Journal"

http://jolene428.blogspot.sg/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B08:00&max-results=50&m=0

Before Slimming (64kg)

After Slimming (48kg)

Don't be shy if you wish to find out more about the TCM Slimming Programme I went through in year 2013 to slim 16kg in 3 months. It is definitely achievable for everyone who sets his/her mind to slim down. 

Email me your queries at jolene428@gmail.com and I will reply within 24 hours. ^^

Let It Go

I still remember how unwilling I was to say Goodbye last year to the workplace I was so attached to, but yet also the workplace that had tormented me emotionally since 2011...

But I knew I had to leave because it was not doing good to my self-esteem and self-worth. It took me a few months and lots of tears to finally let it go.

I now learnt that we should only work hard for bosses who are worthy of us, who can make us feel proud of ourselves and who knows how to unleash our potential and polish us into gems.

I also accepted that Life was not all that unfair to me afterall. I did suffer injustice for 3.5 years but Life was kind to me towards the end of my career in that workplace. Life had introduced me good colleagues, good bosses and new good friends...:)

Life gave me the chance to leave my unhappy career with happy new memories...

A New Beginning

Ending of an unhappy career usually means a new beginning in my work and life...

This new beginning did not come easy. But it makes me realized that, by keeping my options open, opportunities will come along. 

I am happy and thankful in my new career. Work is busy but I really love the busyness, because I am working for someone who appreciates what I can contribute to the organisation.

My new career is definitely not perfect. There are office politics and there are 小人 too. But at least I know that my new bosses have "eyes". I know I can trust that they are unbiased and with good characters. I also know that the majority of my close working colleagues are kind and want the best for the organisation. 

Missing My Travelling Sprees

Suffering withdrawal symdrome from my travelling sprees last year. 

I definitely can feel the itch for not being able to travel this year, as much as I did last year. But I know I have an empty piggy bank to fill up again before I can plan for my next long trip.

I am thankful for the opportunities "to see the world" last year. I enjoyed the visits to BKK and KL to catch up with my long-lost friends, and I had fun spending a good 10 days in Taiwan with Qiuling.

My trip to Taiwan was especially fruitful. Not only, we covered the north-west part of Taiwan, bought tonnes of food and beauty products, I also make a new Taiwan friend. It was also addictive to experience travelling alone. 

Pinky and Me on plane alone

I don't mind sharing that I do have plans to travel alone again by end of this year. And I am determined to make more friends around the world, so that I have more opportunities to travel alone to visit them :P

But I also do not mind travelling with new travelmates too, because I always believe travelling with different people helps to make me a more accommodative, understanding and considerate person.

Jamie goes to Primary School

Time flies and my baby girl is already in Primary 1 now. She is still not reading well but at least I see progress. 

Jamie's K2 Graduation

Jamie 6yrs old birthday party

I was thrilled to hear and see her reading the books brought from the LSP.

We still believe she can catch up with her peers when she is ready to hit her milestone for her reading skills.

Jiayou Jamie! One day, you too can write your own blog! ^^

James Can Talk

In fact, these days we felt that James talks too much. Hahaha... But we are glad that the siblings can finally communicate with each other. 

James' first concert performance

James' big 3 birthday

Goodbye to a Long-term friend 

Ace was like an old friend to us because we had been through so much together with him. Laogong and I had our fair share of scares too during the last few months of Ace's life. We were grateful that Ace survived till his COE expired.

Thank you Ace, you had been a good friend! 

Goodbye for a Better Future

We could not bear to rent out our first love nest but it is not economical to leave it empty. Yet it is not big enough to fit 4 adults and 2 children comfortably. 

Hence, we will be renting it out for a better future for our children. 

Addicted to Staycations

We are busy filling up our empty piggy banks, hence unable to go for long trips. However, it does not stop us to become addicted to staycations (be it couple trips or family trips), especially staycations across the borders. 

Enjoying good currency exchange rate for the past one year had given us opprtunities to try other JB hotels other than KSL and Hotel Jen @ Puteri Harbour. We especially loves DoubleTree Hilton now for the good rates and friendly staff. But we really do not mind trying out more JB hotels to compare their service quality. 

I even thought of going on roadtrips with Laogong to different parts of Malaysia by public transport, like those "good old days" again when we were young and "poor" but adventurous.

Panda Supermum Reporting

This April happens to be the once every two years "supermum peak period". Once again, I am challenged and stretched to my max to test my endurance and time management. 

Lucky for me this round, because my new boss is extremely understanding. 将心比心, I will give her my best within my means even when I am tied up at home. 

I always treasure this opportunity to bond with my children and to train them to be more independent. I know we had been blessed so far with a good helper, but sometimes we really never know if she may change her mind suddenly. 

I also treasure the opportunity to cook for the family. Many people may have forgotten that I actually can cook. Maybe I cannot cook as well as my helper but I believe I can cook well enough for my children to finish up the food I prepared for them. 

However, having to spend more time for my children's routine work eg bathing, eating and putting them to sleep etc, also means sacrificing my Me and Sleep Time. Hence, I totally look like Panda Supermum now! Hahaha! 

Looking forward to be a Princessy Supermum once again :P

My Scheduled Belated Birthday Celebrations

Previous years, I would meet up my friends before my actual birthday to have a meal or/and some activities.

But this year, due to my helper's home visit leave, I could not agree to any birthday meetup before my actual birthday. Instead, I had to pack all my birthday celebrations on the long weekends from 28 Apr to 2 May 2016. 

28 Apr 2016 - I will be on Birthday Leave so I will be having a joint birthday celebration with my nephew, Keith, again! This year, we are trying out the newly opened Punggol Safra Indoor Water Playground! Look out for my review about it! 

29 April 2016 - Birthday High Tea with Uni Friends at Vintage High Tea @ Dempsey. Will do a Food Review! 

1 May 2016 - Helper will be arrived in Sg in the afternoon, hence Night Time should be going out with Laogong

2 May 2016 - Lunch Buffet @ Swissotel and KTV at Teo Heng, Suntec with 好姐妹. Will do a Food Review! 

7 May 2015 - Mothers' Day Lunch/Dinner with my mother

8 May 2015 - Mothers' Day Buffet Lunch @ Carousel with mother-inlaw.

21-22 May 2016 - Joint Birthday Staycation with Yvonne @ M Hotel

Who else want to chope me in May? Hahaha! 

Happening January..

28 January 2016. Time flies as we approach the end of the first month of the new year.

What have you done so far this month? Busy with your Primary One child like I did during the first 2 weeks and now busy doing our "last minute" Chinese New Year shopping?

Finally I finished my own CNY clothes shopping last weekends! This year CNY is so "early"! In just another 10 days, it is already CNY! There are so many things I had done in January and so many things I had yet to do~~~

Princess goes to Primary One

As many know, my little baby princess turned 6 years old last Nov and now she is in Primary 1! Like many gancheong and ONZ mothers, I took 2 days leave to "support" Jamie and to attend the curriculum and parenting talks. Through the participation of the two days orientation programme, I was lucky to find a group of enthu but not overly enthu mummies. Yes, it is important to be enthu about your child's academic but being with a group of overly enthu parents, we will not only add stress to our kids, we will also add stress to ourselves. Please lor, we already have to worry about bread and butter everyday, and now has to be worried about our kids' homework. Still not enough for us to be worried meh? 

I find myself now feeling obliged to fly home after work to revise school work and learn spelling and 听写 with Jamie. I am kinda of worried I will lose myself.. *cough* like our parents did. :P

However, Jamie surprises me every other day from being able to read new English words now using her newly picked up phonic skills, to getting 96/100 for her first 听写. I am never a very smart child, so I always choose to study smart. What I mean by study smart? Well, if I know I die also cannot remember a Maths formula then I will choose to skip that topic and focus on the other topics which I can score in. Similarly, since I don't think Jamie is able to score 100 marks for Chinese 听写, hence I don't find it helpful to push her unrealistically. I am happy for her to get 80-90 marks. Thus I was really happy for her when she comes home with 96 marks for her first 听写. 

I also love hearing all the stories she brings home about her new friends. Little Jamie is never good with names (like her Baba), hence she likes to give them "nickname" or "code name". Example who and who is her number 2 friend whom she got to know on her school bus. She was extremely thrilled (so am I) when a "3rd" new friend asked her to be her BFF! 

I am looking forward to hear more stories about Jamie's adventure in her Primary School. 

Prince turns THREE

Our prince ended his terrible two this January. But it does not make him an angel yet. Haha! He is still as cheeky but I have to say, he is more "reasonable" and he expresses himself so much better now. I love to be surprised by him every other day too, hearing the new words and full sentences coming out from his mouth. 

His princey look really melts my heart too and I have to consciously refrain myself from letting him get away from his misdeeds simply by giving me a kiss on my lips! Haha! 

Laogong's Birthday Staycation

Last weekends, we checked in at DoubleTree@JB again for Laogong's birthday staycation. Among the three JB hotels we had our staycations before (ie. Hotel Jen @ Puteri Harbour, KSL Resort and DoubleTree@JB, we personally like DoubleTree more. Not sure if Hilton is more upclass than Shangri-la but I find the hotel staff more approachable and proactive. 

I feel that the hotel rooms are more value for money too because for S$204, we can actually get a lovely and cosy one bedroom suite at DoubleTree@JB! 

We also get to sign up HHonours member for FREE. For the one bedroom suite, we are entitled to FOC pre-dinner liquor and canapés at the Executive Lounge, plus breakfast at Executive Lounge or Tosco Restnt instead of the main breakfast area. The pre-dinner liquor is really heavenly for us who can drink a lot. They not only serve good quality red and white wine, a variety of spirit and whiskey with different mixers, they also served bottled beer. The canapés were filling enough to be eaten as dinner too. 

Nevertheless, we still proceeded to have our "real dinner" at Tosco Restnt. The indoor ambience was great and you can also choose to have your food served by the poolside. I was very full, hence shared a pasta and dessert with Laogong.

The next morning we had our breakfast exclusively at Tosco Restnt. Love the omelette as always and the porridge too. 

Did CNY shopping for my CNY and new work clothes! Okay, frankly if not for our currency power, some of the dresses I bought at RM89-139 are not considered cheap for the locals. But of coz compared to the min $50s-$80s dresses selling in SG boutiques, the dresses I bought are considered cheap. 

After our simple dinner and 1-2hr jam at the customs, we got home to cut Laogong's birthday cake with our princess and prince! 

New Korean BBQ and New Chilling HangOut

I lately fell in love with Korean BBQ...

I not only went to Arirang Korean BBQ Buffet with Laogong to celebrate our 16th years anniversary, I also went for another Korean BBQ Buffet at Chinatown Point to celebrate Yeewen's birthday. I personally like the cooked food at Arirang but the meat served at Chinatown Point is of better quality. There are more variety of meat over there too. You cannot imagine we 3 girls could finish 4 servings of beef, 3 servings of pork and 2 servings of chicken! And not including the soups, sides and vegetables we had too! 

Arirang Korean BBQ Buffet

Korean BBQ Buffet at Chinatown Point

Chupito - Shooters Paradise but really not for us

Met up with Yvonne to "celebrate her new venture". We were adventurous and wanted to try Shooters @ Chupito and Tanyoto Steamboat Supper Buffet. 

We concluded that Shooters are not for us. Harry Potter's Butter Beer tastes interesting though. We were pretty amazed by the amount of alcohol that was mixed into our looking harmless drinks. It was a cool place but definitely not for us. Haha! 

We finally tasted Tanyoto. Nothing fantastic really except for the interesting soup bases, ie, salted cabbage and fish base and tomato soup base. The seafood and meat don't smell very fresh either. After my horrible two nights at TTSH, I became very cautious about what I eat so I didn't eat much in the end. Won't go again.. :P

My January is so happening hor? But there are so much more to do before CNY. Hope I get to check these off my "To Do List" soon! ^^

Day 7-8 @ Taiwan (15-24Jun15) -九份人情，十分幸福 Old Town Charm

Oops! Sorry for the delay in blogging on the last three nights of my Taiwan trip. I was busy catching up with my family commitment and two more short trips, since I returned from Taiwan! 

I am really thankful to have my supporting inlaws and hubby who understand the need of my "short break". I understand very well that not everyone has my kind of "freedom" as a mother.

Frankly, by the 7th day I had started to not only pack my luggage but also tidied up my mood. It was a long 2.5hr ride (NT356 for 2 pax) from Hsin Chu TRA station (新竹) to Rui Fang TRA station (瑞芳) via TRA and the time was well-spent with me looking at my mobile calendar and arranging my schedule. My friends must have been surprised to receive my messages and how I had arranged my schedule as if I was not out of the country at all.

Seriously, for the first time in my life, I did not dread coming back to Singapore. I knew there was no pile of work waiting for me, nor not-understanding covering officers/bosses waiting to stab me (or had already stabbed me without me knowing, while I was out of the country).

Last few days of my Taiwan trip were spent in Jiufen (九份)、Shifen (十分) and Taipei (台北). This is my 5th time in Jiufen (九份) and my 2nd time in Shifen (十分). However, I love these two old towns so much that I don't mind revisiting them over and over again. 

If you let me choose again, I will like to spend more nights in Cingjing (清境), Nei Wan (内湾), Jiufen (九份) and Shifen (十分). I seriously don't feel that I belong to the modern society. I feel more at ease amongst the rich cultural heritage buildings.

We board the TRA train from Hsin Chu (新竹) TRA station and reached Rui Fang (瑞芳) TRA station at 11.07am. We had wanted to take the NT30 public bus to Jiufen (九份) and walked through the old streets to our Minsu (民宿). But the hot glaring sun at Rui Fang (瑞芳) TRA station that greeted us turned us off. Some cabbies which were stationed just outside the station waved at us and signaled that they would only charge us NT250 a car to our Minsu. 

Being exhausted from our ambitious 2 continuous nights of destination hopping and our luggages which had gotten heavier with the many facial products we bought from Hsin Chu City, we accepted the cabby's offer. The cabby even asked if pinky was filled with stones when he removed it from his boot :P Hahaha...

Arrival at Rui Fang TRA (瑞芳)

We alighted at Jiufen (九份) backhill (后山), enteance of Ji Shan Jie (基山街) near our Minsu and walked for about 10-15 min before we found the Minsu. The cabby was unable to drive us to the doorstep because the road was too narrow for cars to go through.

Our very cosy Minsu - Go-Walk Jiufen aka 閒晃九份. We paid NT1000 in cash for our one night stay. 

However, the Minsu staff told us that we were only able to check in at 4pm. They suggested that we deposit our luggages and visit the Jin Gua Shi Museum (金瓜石博物馆) since it was still early. 

As we walked towards the bus stop to catch the bus to the museum, we admired the great scenary just outside our Minsu! So pretty! 

We were feeling hungry and decided to have some lunch before we go to the museum. Found this "restaurant" less than 5 min walk from the Minsu. These 3 yummy dishes cost us NT290.

This is my 5th time in Jiufen (九份) but my first time to the museum. I heard about it but it didn't come across to me that I should sacrifice my shopping time to some museum. But since we had some time and Qiuling was keen, so we paid NT30 (2 pax) for the bus ride to the museum. As we walked down towars th

The museum visit took us about 3 hours but we were well-educated about Jiufen's history as a coal mining town.

3.40pm 

tour finished 

buy papaya milk NT80

6.27pm

gave the 3 packets of coffee. 

and bought 5 Nougats. share with Qiuling NT950

3 Mochi free

Alishan tea NT600 for 3 packets 

dong fen, dou gan and fishball soup NT90

gui Hua cha NT35

hai Liao NT100 for 3

Keychain NT60

pipa mi get free pipa juice NT200

8.13pm rest