clean linen

On special occasions, I'll go to Bernice to get my nails done. The last time I got my nails done was when my brother married Carolin last year, April 2013. I left my nails as they were because I'm such a klutz, hitting my nails here and there, and also I don't like having long nails. But anyway, another special occasion is here - CNY! So, last Wednesday, 22.01.14, I went over to Bernice's house at 7:30pm and got my finger and toe nails done by her over the next 2.5-3 hours. It was a good time of talking and being pampered as my nails came alive with colour and art... and the end product was most pleasing to MY eye (it also only cost $82 for gellish on the finger nails with free soak off and beautiful nail art - yay!): I really like how my toes are so happy and colourful! Now when I feel sleepy or just need a little perk-me-up, I look down at my toes' bright colours and actually feel a little happier about myself!:)

I was up at 5:45 to wash up. Still very sleepy because of the lack of sleep (we only slept at 00:30 BKK time the night before), I kept forgetting things and we were late for to breakfast, going down at 6:55 instead of the planned 6:45. Breakfast was very simple. But I enjoyed what is to me a holiday special of toast bread with egg and ham. The feel of the breakfast place felt like some cafeteria though, not very nice ambience. We left the hotel at about 7:45. All 17 of us squeezed into a mini bus. It was a 2 hour bus ride to the starting point of our tour of the floating market. I really enjoyed the floating market experience! My first buy of the day was a 700baht (about SGD28) giraffe made out of coconut husks which can light up. Actually Cindy was very interested to find out its price. The boat drew near to the stall and the opening price was actually 1,400baht! We talked about bargaining but that just meant that if she agreed to our price it was a done dea...

For lunch just now, I had phad thai from one of the thai stalls at Maxwell Food Centre. Then I had a Cornetto ice-cream for something sweet in my mouth. And now, I'm fighting very hard against lapsing into a food coma. 2 things that are helping me in this fight - hot Korean brown rice green tea, and music from the Original Soundtrack (OST) of Korean drama serial Miss Korea: I only started watching bits of this show from episode 6 onwards. A website I follow daily, www.koalasplayground.com only just started to write episode recaps of this show a few weeks back, starting from episode 8, if I remember correctly. Anyway, it is a very interesting show! I think when the DVD set comes out I won't mind buying it as an investment to pass time when I exercise on the treadmill (if I ever do that, haha). The chemistry between the 2 leads is FANTASTIC, and they act SO well. The lead actress' acting skills seem to have improved in quantum leaps, it's amazing. The storyline...

May Ern is my very first (immediate) niece, super-cute-with-chubby-cheeks daughter of my brother and Carolin, born 3.585kg and 50cm long, and the very first true-blue Chua of her generation. Just to be clear, she's not my sister (in case you get confused with our similar names)!:) I got all these photographs from my brother, and the last one is from my sister... My brother and Carolin experienced great favour in the process of childbirth. They went in at 6plus in the morning, starting inducing at 7am. The pain was too great so Carolin asked for epidural, and within 15 minutes (the nurse told my brother it usually can come 30-45 minutes after request) the doctor who was the best in administering epidural attended to Carolin! A vacuum had to be used because May Ern was facing the wrong way up, so they used to vacuum to turn her around. In 3 contractions, May Ern entered the world! I love this photo of May Ern tucked so close to mummy Carolin. It's so sweet! ...

LCP decided to go to Bangkok way before the political situation began. I think 5 people pulled out from the trip leaving 17 of us who could knock off work at 16:00 to reach the airport in time for our 19:35 tigerair flight. Eugene came with us to the airport so he could drive us back. We checked in... ...Then we went to the airport staff canteen for an early dinner. We ate wanton noodles, beef brisket and prawn dumplings from the Angmoh Noodle House stall. They gave us free tissue and the wantons and mee were good! The flight pushed off at 19:35 sharp. Once we reached Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, we were the only 4 to get the prepaid SIM card for the data connection, and were therefore the last 4 to start eating some food. The disappointing thing was that there was no phad thai and mango sticky rice. But the blueberry and mango smoothies, as well as the tom yum noodles soup and crispy egg noodles with pork, were nice. After supper, we headed to o...

After prayer meeting on Sunday, together with the youth mentors, their families and the Leungs, we headed over to Wei Chuen's beautiful new house at Sennett Road. The semi-detached was SO spacious and nice! Outside, it looks modern and cold, similar to my own home. Inside, there are splashes of colour that lend warmth to the house, and still very spacious and not at all cluttered in feel. The front porch parked 5 cars, with 2 just outside the gate as seen in the photo above.  The 4-storey house has a lift that is glass-enclosed so that as it goes up and down, anybody going up and down the stairs at the same time can also look into the lift and wave at the person in the lift, and vice versa. Rooms-wise, each bedroom had large toilets and even larger cupboards. The 4th floor opened up into a balcony meant to outdoor parties and BBQs. Then there was the large music room waiting to be filled up with more instruments, the play room that had a rock wall for the kids to climb, a ...

In recent months, we have a Korean family who has joined our church. They are the Kim family. The father is Yeon Tae. The mother is Anna. Their 3 children are Jenny, Paul and Esther, 16, 14 and 12 respectively. Yeon Tae and Anna have stayed in Singapore for around 9 years. Jenny and Paul studied in a primary school here in Singapore then went back to Korea for Middle (we call it secondary) school. Esther has been studying here in primary school. Yeon Tae has about 1.5 years more to go for his 4-year long bible theological studies, while Anna is just staying here learning English, waiting for him to complete so that they go to Pekanbaru to be missionaries. They struggle in their English but they are such great examples of missionaries who have complete faith and dependence on God to provide for them. Even their children speak with quiet confidence that when they pray, God will come through and will make a way for them. They live very simply because they don't have the means to ...

My cousin Melvin finally married his long time sweetheart Ying Shi. It is supposed to be a very auspicious day, and on top of that (or maybe this is a factor counting towards its auspicious-ness), it is also his 27th birthday. The dinner was held at The Ritz Carlton. About 70 tables! I liked how the waiting area outside the Grand Ballroom was really big, and besides the usual Photo Booth at one corner, there were chocolate sculptures lying around for guests to break off and eat. Even on the tables inside the ballroom, there were pieces of chocolates of 3 different flavours strewn artistically in the center of the table. One of my eldest cousins in the Tan family "sneaked" in this large piece of the sculpture outside. The chocolates lasted us throughout the night. It was a good and delicious distraction as we sat through the long waiting before the dinner and in between dishes. There were 6 dishes on the menu, but each dish had many expensive items. The servin...