Where would you like to visit?

I think I need a break from work. Especially since I haven't have a decent holiday trip overseas since... 2013?

Haven't have the mood to work lately eventhough my figures is dropping. 

Let me see, 2012 I managed to go to two places.. Hong Kong and Thailand. I can't say I have much memory of the trip there but it wasn't that bad till I totally hate it. 

2013 ... Was kinda like a turbulence ... Full of ups and downs.. No holiday trip. 

2014... Managed a trip to Thailand with my secondary school friends.. Kinda a down trip because it didn't go as fun as I want it to be. Although the up was when I get to meet another friend who happened to be there on a trip with his friend. The end year was sucky. 

2015.... Planning a big trip and I really hope it will be a blast for I really need this break. Though I would love to go on a short trip mid year. I can't say this year is a good year.. There are things that I should have do but did not. I just hope that by mid year everything will turn out to be better. That my life will change for the better. 

Time to go on a short trip everyone!!!!!!!!

Lists of countries I would like to visit:

- Denmark 

- Sweden

- Finland

- Taiwan

- Korea

- Switzerland

- Germany

- Poland

- New Zealand 

- Japan (again)

Hopefully I can cover at least 2-3 next year!

Bye 2014 and Hello 2015.

A summary of my 2014!

Time flies. It's 2015 and we are already in March! 9 months till end of 2015. Although it may sound like a long time to Dec but if you think of it, Dec will come and find you faster than you realise that!

So fast that in 3 month's time, someone will be flying to Australia to study and stay there for good. As much as one would like to make every moment count, sometimes that thought of leaving that someone for good just push you away and not think about it.

ANYWAYYYYYYYYYY.....

It's DIM SUM DOLLIES TIME!

I bought an extra ticket in case someone could join me, however the people who shared the same interest as me are unable to make it. It's my fault anyway, for asking them at the last minute. Oh well, it was good having the seat beside me being empty. So that I don't have to deal with people who talks all the time or people who uses their phone. That pissed me off. I mean, respect the performers and their show! Don't anyhow do recording although I know the audience are as excited as I am, to be there watching it live. :)

The part where they encouraged us to bring out our phones. I was and am glad that I was able to make it for the show. It just so spectacular and I was reminded of how long has it been since I last watch a performance like this.

After the performance, we decided to drop by Harry's for a small drink and finger food. Such fun! And thanks to Christabel for recommending the Apple Cider drink during our meet up at Harry's @ MBFC.

So comes the annual 赵 family christmas event. :)

I will try to make it an annual event with games and gifts exchange so that we will meet up more often than just once a year for Chinese New Year.

This year is sightly better because dong dong, Sabrina, Cheryl and Stuart joined us. Sadly xiuwen jie & hubby were unable to come.

I rushed to buy the materials for the games after researching them online. I need to make some improvements on the forfeits for the losing team. Thinking of which, I had an idea for 2015 Christmas Party!! The ideas just came flowing through! OMG! Now I can't wait for Christmas 2015!

I am actually thinking of planning an annual event with the Heng family. I would like to do a Halloween party with the kids - I think it will be real fun.

Dajie collated the pictures for me. It's a pity we didn't get to take a lot of photos.. Maybe I need to bring a photographer next time.

Look at the gift exchange cards I had prepared!

It was fun initially however after a while it gets a tad boring. Maybe because there are too little people to do the exchange, I'm not sure. It was the same few people who kept getting their gifts changed. Anyway, I had some ideas for this year christmas and it sure is more exciting than last year!

We did Pictionary and it was fun! It was cool seeing how the mother and son had the same wavelength as it was always the mother and son who managed to guess each other's drawing correctly! I had managed to take a picture of the last one. See how artistic everyone is.

HUAT HUAT 新年快乐！ Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the Sheep! Too many people doing sheep so I decided to do 發財貓 (seems like it looked better in traditional chinese than in simplified chinese) or what we call Fortune Cat. My girlfriend painstakingly handprinted everything on my nails! It ain't easy but I really love it very much! She purposely drew one opened eye and the other is closed. If I didn't remember wrongly, she said the open eye is to welcome wealth/money and the close eye is to retain them. She spent at least 2 hours to do mine and I was the third in queue. In a way, I'm glad that she does this for close friends only and not for everyone. That makes it all the more special and I'm worried for her back and eyes too. She started around wish to 8pm and ended around 3am or slightly after. I felt so heart pain for her and at the same time I felt very proud of my nails!

This year I did not join my dad's family for reunion dinner. Instead, I invited my non-chinese friends over for reunion dinner. It was fun and we had steamboat together while Zham made siew mai for us to try - which was delicious!!

Leo baked peanut-butter cheese cake for us all! That's very sweet of him and look at it! I thought he bought it. It was delicious!!

Lastly, we did the lou hei for luck, health and prosperity. It was fun! I'm glad that everyone enjoyed themselves. :)

My Chinese New Year 2015 was a very fun event this year. I had enjoyed myself thoroughly. This is the period where I ate a lot for 4 days straight. By the end of the 4th day, I had ate a total of 6 lou hei! I'm not complaining because this is the only period where I ate lou hei and also where I did a lot of visiting at my cousins!

Ang Paos are secondary. What's important is meeting up with my relatives. :)

Brought home a tent given by my boss as she found it while she was cleaning out her storeroom.

Mark was quite careful about going in while Eli just ran in straight and declared it his home. Haha.

That's Mark entering it while staying near the entrance playing with the balls.

Dajie was telling us the conversation she had with Eli the day after he played with the tent.

Eli: Mummy, I want to go to my house.

Dajie: Where is your house?

Eli: In *por por's house.

*Por Por is his grandma which is my mom.

Sometimes it is really interesting to see how the toddler's mind works. The questions they asked and the things they said. That was way before they are introduced to the tainted world outside. They are so full of innocence and no judging of things.

What is justice? It's just a one-sided affair.

I don't know. Something just happened to someone close to me. Nothing to do with accidents or death but it was enough to affect my mood.

Maybe it's because of what had happened that caused me to have insomnia last night. I couldn't sleep and was just wide awake till 4am. I wasn't thinking about what had happened... Perhaps my brain was just trying to block it out.

Why make a person go through the humiliation when they already have no intention of listening to their employee's side of story and had decided the conclusion?

Why call it an investigation when it is not really at all for they are more worried about their xxx than protecting their staff because that xxx is not really right in their head and was bitter over a bad breakup????

(Sorry. It's up to your imagination on what xxx is because it is a little sensitive to put in the full term.)

Why have DOUBLE STANDARDS and not supporting their employees for following the correct procedures? Instead contradict oneself by bending towards their will? Doesn't that say something?

Why listen to one side and not have some trust just because they are (maybe) worried that words get round to high authority? So by covering themselves they chop off the limbs of an able worker. 

If you don't place your trust on your workers, if you don't support your worker, why do you think some will stray? 

HR although is powerful for they can make or break you however aren't they supposedly the ones to support us? Are they the one whom we feel that we can trust and relies on? How can they just let people suck up to them just to earn popularity points just to safeguard themselves? Throughout these years, my impression of HR had been diminished. I had always feel that HR are the people's person where they won't be biased or be influenced by others when passing judgement nor will they play politics. That we can go to them without worries knowing that their judgement will be fair and we will be safe in their hands and our secrets will stay with them till they die. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case.. How can one act to be concern for you and changed suddenly like they are trying to play balls on both sides of the court? To show they are nice and mean at the same time. I really have lose hope. 

This incident is enough to tell me all.

We are expendable. 

What's the point so giving so many days of leave when I don't have the luxury of clearing them. Planning and taking leave is supposed to be fun and exciting however it seems to be quite the opposite for me. It is stressful not from planning of itinerary but from work.

Teamwork? What is that? It doesn't seem to exist here for the 'parent' seem to be finding ways to break us apart and maybe be an individualist where we will become selfish pigs and started stabbing each other's back while they look through the glass windows.

What support when they are more concern about what others think of them than what we think of them. They are more eager to please the externals than the internals.

I just feel unjust for the victim who was not given any chance nor any slightest 'benefit of doubt'. No justice. Just treated like a weed who needs to be removed because it stood out like a sore eye.

And that wasn't the first victim nor the last I dare say. 

And finally, practice what you preach! Please la, you don't just point at the person just because they happened to be there for you to poke but touch your own heart and ask yourself the same question that you shoot at others - DO YOU NOT DO THE SAME???????????

I believe in karma.

Like the video: The heart wants what it wants

I think this is one of her nicest songs although the mv doesn't quite suit her.. Maybe it is because of her babyface.

It is kind of true. Why do some people stay with their partners although they treat them like shit / doesn't treasure them / cheated on them.. Etc.

The heart wins whe it comes to emotions.. While the logical mind is trying to talk and convince the heart that she (I feel heart is more like a girl. Soft, gentle, you know, when it comes to feelings) should just walk away in the nasty relationship that is bearing fruitless results. However the heart doesn't wants to listen and ignore all the warning signs and that resulting in a broken heart. The heart may lose faith in future relationships and shut herself in, or it may nosedive into yet another meaningless relationship - doesnt learn from the previous relationship and get hurt again.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij_0p_6qTss&sns=em

I hope those who are in a bad / meaningless / no future relationship, please try to walk away from it and don't look back. It ain't easy I know and I understand but it is better to break it off before it gets deeper. It won't bore any fruits but it will only cause you to be unhappy. Not point stretching the relationship any longer because just like the rubber band, the longer you stretch, it will snap eventually and you'll end up hurting no one but yourself. If the person did something bad to you once - lied to you, cheated on you, abused you verbally or physically, they can do it again. And it is even worse if it is a combination of more than one of the bad thing.

2014 is coming to an end, time to do some changes to yourself and your life perhaps? Do something for 2015, start it with a fresh chapter of your life, don't look back unless you want to learn from mistakes and not to run back into the arms of the person who hurt you ever and over again.

I have already prepared a small goal for myself and will try to achieve it in 2015. I am quite excited about it and no... It doesn't have to do with any make over or losing weight... I gave up on that thought long time ago.. I have a few goals lined up and I will try to make some changes to my life for once. And perhaps for once I will achieve all of them and not just one of them or none of them.

加油everyone for 2015!!!!!!!!!

A person who lied once will keep lying and never tell the truth. So when they start to tell the truth, who will believe? If the person wants to change, who will believe that they will or have changed for the better?

A person who can give out their numbers to strangers so easily just because they find them attractive or in the heat of the moment, the percentage of them cheating is there and trust me, they will cheat on you with the ones they are interested in or are attracted to.

A person who claimed to be proud of you as their partner but doesn't show it 

A person who abused you is a beast who even though claimed to be in a bad mood or is drunk hence they're out of control... That is just excuses. And they will keep doing it and it will not get better but worse.

The above are not worth keeping nor staying with because they do not respect you, they do not deserve your love.

Bangkok 2014

Before I head towards the trip, I thought I add something else too.

See, before my leave starts on 17/12/14 (I was clearing my leave), there was an email memo to offering Macbook at $600 for a 2010 series - which is a good deal right? So I bid for it and got my buddy to bid for it too. One of my colleague bid for an Asus laptop as well.

Then one fine day, that colleague of mine suddenly said in Whatsapp that he had 'won' the Asus laptop! So I quickly checked my email on my bidding status - unfortunately I did not have that luck.. Maybe it is because a lot of people are bidding on the same item as me. Oh well... I am eyeing a new MacBook.. which I am thinking of getting it when The Sims 4 is launch for Mac OS or I will just get it so that I can easily upload the photos when doing my blog stuffs as well as backing up of my photos. My iPhone 5 is crying out to me everyday to get the load off its back. I had underestimated my usage especially after my first nephew was born. Too many photos and videos of him and I had to resort to upgrading my iCloud storage size which later I became paranoid that my photos will not be fully backup into the cloud. Later, I decided to use my dropbox and tried to load everything in.. which my free upgraded storage trial had ended in November and so I am just stuck with the lack of space in my iPhone 5. I had to delete any photos deem unnecessary as well as delete games that takes up too much space in the phone. So my phone practically is just phone for calls, messages and perhaps to check Facebook when my iPad is not with me. Well, it is good in some ways.. like I will be able to spend time looking out at the scenery - which is impossible for me because the train I take everyday goes underground and never above ground.

Anyway, back to my leave from 17 November - 02 December.

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I didn't do much for my leave except to stay at home and played my newly purchased Dragon Age Inquisition. It was really..... I don't know how to put it but I felt like.. I was back in the game, in their world when I revisited Redcliffs and The Deep Roads. I tried to visualise how it was like in Dragon Age 2 and that feeling felt warm. I had been there and I had fought there.

DAI was slightly different this time.

I have to make a disclaimer first. All these are based on my personal opinion and it may not agree with you (if you are playing DAI).

The main character is like.. the leader of the Inquisition and they made the game with options and choices which will affect the story as it progress. You can reply with "I don't know" or with a firm "Yes" or a firm "No".  These will affect the people around you. They need answers and they need reassurance which you as the main character can choose to give them or not.. or even to let them feel more confused with "I don't know". There is a sense of responsibility and it is up to you as a leader to give them assurance or not. Initially I picked "I don't know" when they asked whether was I the chosen one or when will it all ends and whether can the hole in the sky be closed. As I played and get deeper into the story, I felt that I have to choose ultimately and it is either I make or I break - I chose not the latter.

The map is bigger with more exploration, a lot of running about to collect stuffs such as the shards, quests to earn experience and perks. Fighting style is quite different - there is not much options for the AI when they are fighting with you. If my memory did not fail me, you used to be able to control how much lyrium potion for the mages and health potions for the warriors. Now you have to switch to the mages in order to consume lyrium. Maybe I have yet to explore further to see if there is such an option.

It is kind of sad to see the mages and templars have all fallen apart and it was even more heartbreaking to see the grey wardens have either died or disperse because there is no need for them anymore - there is no more spawns. I had spent my time playing as a grey warden in DA 1 & 2 and I really feel for them. They are thinning out and a lot had died during the war with the spawns.

Anyway it will take some time for me to complete DAI.. somehow it felt kind of lengthy but I will finish the game eventually. I have Assassin Creed Unity waiting for me and I want to try playing the Multiplayer! As well as I had received an email notification that the stock for Lego Batman Beyond Gotham has arrived! So many games to play.. Oh, why am I not on leave at this time?

I had tried cooking a vegetarian style hokkien mee and it was good but could be better.. Maybe it will taste better with some 三成肉. That, I can only try cooking after January 16 - it's the 100th day.

It was kind of scary how big the portion was when the amount of noodles I grabbed was less than a fistful of it.

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Bangkok Trip 21 November - 25 November

It was kind of exciting when we decided to ride on this trip when one of our friends was going there on her business trip and was our first time to actually go on this trip. I mean we had talked about it but we had never fulfil it. Imagine this, we have been friends since secondary school.. friends of 18 years!

Frankly speaking.. I was quite skeptical when it comes to booking air tickets.. I took a budget airline once and I had actually told myself NEVER to sit on it again. Not because I am being proud but the experience I had was enough to make me think thrice or maybe if possible, to avoid it totally. This time, we took another budget airline... and I was telling myself.. since the incident had happened so long ago, it shouldn't bother me by now... which I was WRONG! One of them was on a budget so we had to get the cheapest air ticket.

The plane was the smaller one with just one aisle. I could feel the slightest pressure on the plane and especially when I was sleeping! As we were approaching Bangkok, the plane took a dip where you can just imagine my body turning green starting from my feet all the way to my head. I was so scared that I will vomit that I standby with a paper bag. The change of altitude was there and the landing... omg. My stomach flipped too many times that I had lost count. I was just glad to be out of the plane. However, I must say, the service provided by the crew was superb and far better than SIA. I still remember the service provided - they don't smile. Seriously. Budget airline crew fare better. They smile a lot and one of them (I think is a senior crew) participated in a joke we made when we were boarding the plane. It just made me felt at ease then.

The paper bag I had in standby.

I won't go much into details of where I went because I believe most of the places would have been visited by tourists who had visited BKK at least once. I'm sure Platinum, Pratunum, Siam Paragon, etc all sounded familiar to you right?

Photos are all courtesy of JW, our official photographer.

CX had a friend who recommended this place called "KarmaKamet" near the Emporium.

Nice place and the building looked like a combination of a greenhouse and a warehouse. Just beside the dining area was the scents - selling scented hand/body lotions, diffuser, etc. Basically aromatic oils.

The Dining Area - Indoor

I don't remember this area.. but it should be somewhere behind which I did not fully explored.

One of the fruit bowl that came with the meal.

The Big Breakfast that I had my eye on but couldn't have because it is all meat. I had some waffles instead which tasted too.... thick that I couldn't finish.

One of them drank coffee.

Out of the 4 desserts we ordered, only 1 did not have the cotton candy on it.. Initially it looked fun to have the cotton candy there but the novelty died down when the second and fourth dessert arrived with cotton candy on it. It was almost like an overkill on the cotton candy.. perhaps they should try something different with each desserts so that people would want to try almost everything to see what was it like? Something like a surprise?

We ended up placing the candies by the side and ignored it totally.

Me attempting to rape the first cotton candy.

"I'M GOING TO EAT YOU UP!"

"I TEAR YOU APART!"

"NOM NOM NOM!" *Happy* I have not eaten a cotton candy for so long that I had lost touch of the last time I ate it.. So I was quite excited to see such colourful candy sitting on top of my dessert.

If I am not wrong, this is the lavender flavoured ice cream and fillings inside the puffs. Overkilled and I kind of dislike the taste of the lavender. Too overpowering for me although it was special.

Much liked fruit stall at Chatuchak after walking around for so long. I did not spend much because it was the 3rd day and I had already overspent my $$. Plus I was scared to drink water (not because I was scare of their water or what) because I was scared that I need to pee and it was quite troublesome to find a toilet - it was usually full and you'll have to queue.. and usually there is no toilet paper inside. I don't mind visiting a toilet if I am a guy because I can just stand and pee and leave once I am done.

Our first time taking a bus ride. That was the bus ticket. JW said it cost $1 but from the looks of it.. it seemed to cost $8.. in THB of course!

We took a boat over to this place to walk around.. it turned dark quite early there and it was already nightfall by the time we were almost done walking. There was a lot of Japanese restaurant and I was really craving for a ramen! Boohoo... I cannot eat.

My journey back was quite bad too.. but still better than when I was travelling to BKK. At least there was no dip in altitude. When the captain announced that we were 30 mins to landing in SG, I felt so happy. For the first time ever, I do not dare to look out of the window (that was one of my favourite thing to do when flying). I kept asking myself when are we landing? My hands were clammy. Now I know how those people who are scare of flying felt especially so when they were forced on board. I almost felt claustrophobic when I looked at insides of the plane. It was so small and I felt so insecure and that I need to get out.

Anyway, before I end this post... I just want to share that I dreamt of deep fried chicken wings (oooooh... so crunchy), satays, chicken burgers, etc. Yum yum! I dreamt of all these when I was trying to sleep some nights back.

Good night!