Monday, January 18, 2010

Some Resolutions ...

Ah.... into 2010 and to date I have not made any resolutions as yet. Tsktsk! After thinking about it and reading that almost every blog entry had blog owners making resolutions, I decided I shall be like everyone else and make some resolutions too.

So here they are:-

(1) To finish all existing toiletries and make up before I buy something new. (Of which I have a number of toiletries bought from Taiwan and Korea and erm... ok, this may sound gross from my Japan honeymoon too.)

(2) To be intentional to walk up the escalator towards people standing on the wrong side and stand close to them so that they can move to the correct side or walk right up the escalator. I figure it will give me and them some workout in a way and also make them stand on the correct side.

(3) To cut down on caffeine. It includes - coffee (urgh!!!! what have I done?!), tea (yes, green tea is still tea!!! Which also includes bubble tea!!! URGHHHH!! What have I done again?!!) and *drumrolls* this obviously includes soft drinks especially coke zero andandand...CHOCOLATES! Yes, unfortunately chocolates though my favourites (note:- that's milk chocolates for you.) do contain some amount of caffeine. Why do you think it makes you feel good and fuzzy other than the endorphins it releases? Hehe.

(4) To moisturise my thirsty skin regularly. Trust me, getting me to the bathroom is already hard enough and lazy me here did not grow up with the habit of lathering my body with moisturriser. I think this would probably be the second hardest thing I'll have to carry out. First of cos is... as most of you know ... getting me to the bathroom for my shower. Don't get me wrong, I love to bathe. I love the smell of clean skin and floral smelling hair. BUT the notion of being ever ready to bathe is really not natural to me like it is to most. Just imagine with me a farmer pulling an animal to the slaughter house. Yup, that's the same feeling I get when I have to go to the bathroom to bathe.

That's all for now. So far for the last 18 days of the New Year, I have been making progress with all four pointers above. *Pats own back* but we'll see how it goes by June 2010.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

2009 Flashback

2009 flashback! 2009 was a year full of many firsts! It was also a year where God truely opened my eyes and be convicted in my heart that nothing is impossible for God!!!


As we all know pictures speak a thousand words, I have compiled my 2009 here with some pictures through the year.


New Year's day of 2009, we celebrated this new chapter in 2009 at YR's place. Had a potluck and everyone guitar heroed with much laughter and lotsa food. This was my first attempt at cooking Pineapple Fried Rice for the potluck. To my delight, the bowl of pineapple fried rice was cleaned out! *Pats my own back... lol*




And then my world class (hehe) hubby surprised me with a trip to Lombok, Indonesia. It was our first time there. It was meant to be a one year anniversary surprise but I discovered about it early and so it became our retreat instead! Hehehe. When we arrived there, we were informed that we have been upgraded to a 3bedroom villa to ourselves. It was a sweet surprise though there were only two of us. Lol.



This was my first Chinese New Year as Mr. & Mrs. Chris Goh. After hosting CNY at our place, my hubby & I decide that if possible, we will try to run away during CNY to avoid history repeating itself. Heheh. Playing hosts during CNY is seriously NO JOKE especially when there are many, MANY (yes, MANY!!) screaming children, crying children, annoying adults, hungry ppl that seem to be extraordinarily hungry during this time of the year. ALSO, annoying neighbours who brought their WHOLE GANG of their EXTENDED family members to our place without informing us. AND what's worst was they came solely for the food, took alot of the food and left without much socialising. Yes, that's why we're hoping to run away from it all this CNY in 2010 if possible. Otherwise, CNY with our own nucleous family is actually very nice.



2009 I turned 3* hehehe. And my (have I mentioned world class? hehe) hubby together with Reina organised a secret surprise birthday party at Macdonald's. I think it was my first birthday party at Macdonald's with my adult friends. It was touching that they came at such short notice and I had a blast of a time playing kiddy games! Felt like a rockstar! Thanks again, u guys!

Of cos, my lovely husband also planned for a personal birthday surprise with just the two of us. He brought me to Dozo - a Japanese French fusion restaurant and the waiter made him posed with a kiss for me. Usually he (or rather us!) are quite camera shy with such poses. Heheh.
Nonetheless, the food, the ambience, the service at Dozo was excellet and I kindda like this pic! Of cos the company I had was the best!



Then came my family members' water baptism! It's always exciting to see people having a new spiritual birth, moreover my own family members! Praise God!




And to celebrate our one year anniversary, my hubby & I booked ourselves tickets to Taiwan. This is a picture I took of Ximending. It was my first time in Taiwan.


My first pair of Crocs - in Mary Jane style! My husband bought his pair of crocs and bought me a pair too as a first year anniversary present. My husband is an ardent fan of Crocs cos they are comfy! He has I think 5-6 pairs now. In hindsight, I have 3 pairs of Crocs now and they are all bought by my husband. Sweet!!! =)



Us happy in Danshui, Taipei. Happy One Year Anniversary to us!


One of the times that my husband dated me out for a special dinner. He researched and brought me to this place - Okinawa Restaurant. It was our first time there. The food was spectacular and unlike the typical Japanese food such as tonkatsu, japanese curry rice, sushi or ramen.

The food was unique, very fresh & tasty. It had a retro feel and we both love the food there.


Lol. The pic below depicts us playing with the props at Chinatown Heritage Centre. This was also my first time there though my husband has been there a couple of times. Together with my uncle at the background of the picture, we posed as though we worked in this retro tailor shop back in those good old days in Chinatown.



And mid year of 2009, alot of us usually get very excited for church camp. This year, we went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and had a wonderful time playing "red devils" in our 5-10mins showcase of Red Devils Vs. Jesus United. The showcase theme was saving the world. We came up with a soccer match of good vs. evil with the globe as the soccer ball. And of cos at the end of the showcase soccer match, Jesus saves the world by preventing the devils from winning at free kick time. Lol.






This is soccer Jesus. Cool right? And he sure does a pretty good job of saving the goals! Lol.



Having fun with a number of props during church camp.


Then after dinner one night with my family and cos we were soO full from the delicious dinner. We decided to go to Macritchie at that crazy hour of 9+10pm to walk our bloated tummies away.


Thankfully my torch/flash light crazy hubby has like 6 or slightly more torch lights? So we all carried our own torch (lol...) and walked in almost pitch darkness through Macritchie. There was absolutely no one at the park already but it was cool evening and oh-so-fun to have our first night walk as a family! See how dark it is even with flash? Nothing can be seen at the background though its all trees and plants and more trees.



The Singapore national day long weekend, Chris and I with a bunch of our friends drove up to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our first road trip with Mabel, Thomas and Alan. Pretty easy going and we had lotsa good food and shopped a fair bit. =) This is us with sweaty brows and foreheads and me looking uber tired from a long walk to get to the monorail to take us back to our hotel.




We had a gathering at Stanley's house for the first time. MustardSeeds had lotsa fun playing charades. It was a guys vs. girls event and the guys won - can you believe it?! A lovely group pic together... shortly after this pic it was an almost all out war of guys against gals in charades.

After church service one Sunday, we had our lunch at Kushingin Jap restaurant. It was my first time eating in this restaurant which is just few floors below my church auditorium. Having been in church for 5 years, this was my first time visiting this restaurant that serves pretty authentic grilled Jap skewer food. The prices are also very reasonable. This bento set cost me only SGD 15 if I recalled correctly. And look at how filled to the brim the bento set was? Worth the visit!


I took this pic of the coreteam during one of the meetings. It was our first time there as core team. I think it will also be our last. Hahahahaha. That's cos the cafe has since closed down. Not because the food or service or prices were bad. Quite like this pic and of cos this cafe since it was quite tucked away in a shopping mall with not many ppl in it. Which explains why they closed down I suppose.


We attended our first Intentional Disciple Making Conference (IDMC) together as a cg.



Alot of us learned alot from this conference and it was renewing our mind with new insights to the word of God.


The girls posing for the camera before the conference begins again. Lol.


And Korea happened. My husband asked me if I wanted to go to Korea in September and I thought he was joking. I told him the trip may cost us a bomb since we didn't plan or set aside finances for this trip. Lo and behold, God provided. Somehow additional income came in and our air tickets and lodging (which is the main cost of the trip) were all covered without touching our savings at all! Praise God for His providence and blessing!


This is us in A Twosome Cafe in Pusan. My first time in Korea with my husband with an almost all paid for trip sponsored by my Father in heaven. =)


Our first all vegetarian meal in Sanchon, Insadong in Seoul.


They had 20+ dishes. FYI - we didn't order that many okayyyyyy! Hehehe. There is only one menu and the price is fixed. This is what the menu consist of. Although the thought of vegetarian may put a number of ppl off, but these dishes were carefully prepared using the freshest of mountain vegetables and the taste is just superb! Never in my lifetime had I enjoyed an entire vegetarian meal tremendously. AND it was really filling too!




The first time we took a Viking together and enjoyed a Theme Park together. *Bliss*

Then Penang happened too in October. This time it was planned. Planned by me! It was a surprise birthday treat to my husband. He has not return to Penang for a good 20+ years now. He used to visit Penang regularly since his mum is from Penang. Again, this was my first time in Penang.




Us at Cheong Fatt Tse Blue Mansion in Penang.


Our first family board game together! We played Risk that night at my Aunt's place. Risk brings out the challenger in all of us. It was a night where everyone was instigating everyone to go to war to conquer new land. Hehehe.

In November we also had our department's first Amazing Race teambuilding event. Again here I must give kudos to God for blessing us with cool weather and holding the rain clouds back on the actual day of the event. Also, everyone commented that this was one of the best teambuilding events they had in a long while. Praise God! When He is in charge, I'm assured it will be a smooth event. This is a pic of the committee of the event.

The entire department after completing the entire Amazing Race.


In November, Chris and I also cooked for the first time for my best friend Joan and Chris. Yes, both Chris-es! =) Since it was an early birthday celebration for Chris and Chris likes cheesy stuff, we planned our dishes around this theme - Cheese!
So we had a summer salad (top left pic) - Watermelon with feta cheese. Then we made portobello mushrooms with (real) bacon bits and baked it with mozarella cheese (next to summer salad pic). Bottom left pic I cooked Mussels with Sweet Leeks (where's the cheese u say? It was cooked with cream sauce - cream is a cousin of cheese!! hehehehe). And Chris' special request to us was Nachos with melted cheese and shaved honey baked ham. For dessert, we bought a tiramisu cake from Cold Storage (which is so yummy!!! It is those Christmas collection cakes that are usually featured only during this festive season) and topped it off with Rum and Raisin and Cookies and Cream ice cream. =)

My best friend and Chris at our place for the first time.


Mustardseeds went to Batam together for the first time as a caregroup. We were so thankful that out of the blue, we spotted a tour guide that had brought one of the girls around Batam before. He brought us to have our Thai/Traditional massage at a dirt cheap price! SGD 20 for one and a half hours of massage (90 mins worth)!! Our initial arrangement with the hotel for massage was actually $50 and above for a 1 hour massage!! Ripofffff!!!
This is a pic of hungry us waiting for our complementary dinner. Zann arranged alot of the logistics and travel for our trip to happen and we are so thankful to have her too!!



The girls gather in in the room for a pic at batam! Lurve this pic!


Hubby & I played scrabble for the first time (with Japanese cookies from my bro and sis-in-law for our christmas present) and he beat me with 20 points more! I shall not concede defeat... HUUMMMPPPHHH. Hehehehe.


Christmas day itself we had a party for the first time in eons with the rest of my family at my Aunt's place. Posing for my hubby in reindeer hat. Lol.


Hubby & I on Christmas night itself at our family gathering.


That's not all to my 2009! Christmas eve service itself we were amazed that there were so many visitors - 13 in total from our cg. We weren't expecting many but all visitors came in full force. Out of these 13, 5 of them came to accept Christ and we were so happy and thankful to God for them.
Looking back at 2009, He has been consistently faithful and awesome. There were ups and downs in 2009 of cos but overall the year was great simply because He was in it and He was so involved in my life. It's touching to me because sometimes the human me still cannot believe that someone up there loves me so much and is crazy about me. And for 2010, I tell myself that I want to glorify Him even more and not let emotions especially during down times get the better of me knowing that my Creator is in control of everything! So for 2010, I wish all of you good health, lotsa love and joy and more importantly a positive perception for the New Year. =)