clean linen

Days leading up to 1 October 2016 were tiring and stressful, but I think they were all worthwhile thinking back to how much I enjoyed 1 October 2016. It went by too quickly. I miss wearing my wedding and evening gowns! heh. Here is the awesome Wedding Day Express highlights video done by Douglas and his team at XD Studio - LOVE IT TO BITS: I thank God for the great day He made it. He provided good weather and made everything come together so nicely. He gave us a great team of friends and vendors (Goderic for photography, Shirley for the bridal studio doing hair, makeup, flowers and of course the fantastic dresses, Douglas for video, and Joo Geek for MBS) who made the day so enjoyable for Eugene and me. It was everything I imagined, and so much more. I wish it went on just a little longer!

It is a family practice to have brunch on 1 January of every year. This year, we went to Grand Asia Restaurant. We usually eat dinners there. It was our first time trying out their dimsum menu. And with my dad holding the pencil and order in his hands, we totally over-ordered! The picture above is just a fraction of all the food we ordered... While waiting for dessert to be served, we had time to take more photographs... Yao Ern is getting cuter by the day and I really like this shot of Eugene looking so happy carrying Yao Ern:D May Ern's wide grin is really hilarious too... I am very thankful for my family!:)

I was up at 5.30am this morning to wash up and have a simple bun breakfast in the room before we left for Lotte Hotel, which was the reporting place for our DMZ tour. The 5 of us walked over and spent the rest of the day without my brother and Carolin because we were told that the walk up and down the tunnel was a very tough one and it was best that Carolin not to for it. It was a really good experience! It was an organized tour all the way. We were assigned seats in the bus and our English-speaking group shared the bus with a Japanese-speaking group. Throughout the trip, the tour guides would take turns to speak, although I noticed that the Japanese group got priority. We were the only Asians in our group. The rest were Caucasians, with a group of 4 clearly from the U.S., but I'm not sure about the rest. Anyway, our first stop was at the Dorasan train station. Next was the Dorasan observatory where we could look into North Korea. It was interesting to know that the area full...

We started the day with breakfast at nearby Hollys Cafe, then left for the 11.30am secret garden tour of Changdeokgung Palace. It was about 1.5 hours long and in the hot weather, it really took a lot of energy out of us. Gege didn't join us for the tour because he wasn't feeling well and has not slept well the night before. After the tour, it was Carolin's turn to feel unwell. So we had lunch without her while Gege joined us. For lunch, we walked about 10 minutes to a nearby restaurant that, in English, is called Korean BBQ Restaurant. I've no idea what is the name in Korean... But anyway we ended up having VERY yummy bbq beef rib and bulgogi, with a bowl of cold noodles that was most refreshing. The way back from lunch was a time spent queuing for street food and buying random stuff, like the dog clothing I bought for dear General... Haha. We also bought a box of strawberries that are REALLY sweet and only cost 1,500won. We had about 1.5hours to rest before we l...

We arrived at Incheon International Airport before 7am and settled for breakfast at Starbuck's after getting all our luggage. We then took a jumbo taxi (krw90,000) to our hotel, Fraser Place Namdaemun. Because of the morning peak travel, we left the airport at about 9.25am and only reached the hotel at about 10.45am. We couldn't get our rooms yet so we went out walking. We found the place to collect and activate our Korean SIM cards. Hungry, we found our way to this restaurant called Yoogabe Galbi Chicken, where we had really yummy and a satisfying lunch. They also provided free charging services for Samsung phones, which I was very glad to find because my hand phone was dropping below 20%. And I was also VERY glad that android phones mostly share the same connection head. It was then topped off with dessert at O'Sulloc. I was soooo sad to hear that they had changed the menu and no longer served yoghurt... The Jeju milk ice cream was too milky for our liking. We he...

Day 7 began with breakfast at the hotel, then we had a little service and took communion together at one of the smaller meeting rooms in the hotel. We then set off for one of the Ahava stores at the Dead Sea. We stayed there for about an hour and I felt so pressured into buying stuff. There were just too many things to look at and at the end of the whole shopping "event", I felt that the 1 hour given was not enough time so I ended up doing impulsive shopping, which did not make me feel very good, happy or satisfied about spending so much money. Our next stop was Masada. It is sad to hear and see that the Dead Sea is slowly drying up and what used to be 1 big Sea has now split into the upper and lower parts, if you can figure it out from the photo below. Masada was amazing. What an engineering feat in that kind of arid desert environment. If you look carefully at the photo below, you will see towards the upper left corner 2 rectangles that have a black portion at th...

In the same month of May but in different years, my grandfather, grandmother and aunty Jenni passed away. So around this time, we would gather as an entire Chua clan and visit their niche, which are presently all at the Garden of Remembrance at (faraway) Old Choa Chu Kang Road.  We would also take the chance to remember uncle Vincent, who committed suicide at the really young age of 19 when he was living on his own in Thailand. From there, we headed to Havelock Road, Mu Liang Zai Liang Kee Teochew Restaurant. There, jiejie, Edmund, gege, Carolin and May Ern joined us. Good May Ern fell asleep in Carolin's arms for about 30 minutes and woke up just in time, at about the tail end of the dinner. This is a shot I took of aunty Elsie interacting with May Ern as May Ern started to make her baby noises that, for simplicity sake, I shall just describe as "oohs" and "ahs". Didn't I catch a good shot?? hee hee It was a very simple family affair, but most ...

In celebration of my brother's birthday, the family had dinner at Crystal Jade Palace Restaurant at Taka, where we TOTALLY over-ordered. But it was a great time of enjoying good food and catching up and laughing (at least for me) at May Ern's antics and actions. We ended the night with a family photo taken at home - thank God May Ern woke up without much fussing and looked (somewhat) at the camera - I think this is a nice family photo!:) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEGE! I thank God for such a tech-savvy brother like you. I'm so proud of you for looking out and loving Carolin and May Ern sooo much while making it a point to keep in touch with the rest of the family and serving in church. I thank God He is blessing you with stability in your job and that while you work hard, He makes and will continue to make His favour so evidently work for you. I pray that God will continue to expand your capacity and enlarge your patience and wisdom as you grow in intimacy in Him:)

The Good Friday long weekend was one of rest (on Friday and Saturday) and activity (on Sunday) for me. On a side note, I'm really enjoying a slow down in my church involvement since I stepped out of the Youth ministry as youth mentor and I cut down my worship duty to once a month. On Friday , I woke up slightly later just in time to wash up and head out for dimsum brunch with my parents, brother, Carolin, baby and Carolin's parents. We went to Imperial Treasure Cantonese Restaurant at Great World City. I stuffed myself silly with the yummy custard buns and egg tarts - they were really good! The rest of the Friday and Saturday was spent at home, reading, falling asleep, waking up to disturb General, then reading again, falling asleep, waking up to disturb General, reading... and the pattern continued. I actually woke up for dinner with a headache, which my dad thinks is from sleeping TOO MUCH. Saturday was really free too. But I also spent the day preparing for cell...

So this is way overdue but I'm thinking, "better late than never". I had originally uploaded just the photos alone and saved it as a draft to add in the words at a later date. And erm... the "later date" seems to be about 3 months later... oops, hee hee. If needed, you may want to refresh your memory by reading my entries on Day 1 and Day 2 of the LCP trip. Anyway, day 3 of our LCP BKK trip was the last full day in BKK. It was a very very different and new experience for me because, for the first time ever in my life, I was driven to Platinum Mall, right into its carpark, and on the way there, the roads were CLEAR. We spent the rest of the day in Platinum Mall. Our longest break was for lunch at the Japanese restaurant (also first time experience for me). I was too busy shopping and looking at stuff and eating so I have no photos to offer you here:D For dinner, we ate at the Four Seasons London restaurant at Megabangna, which is a huuuuuuge mal...

I turned 26 over the weekend, and there was nothing big and super special about it, even though I think that birthdays should be big and super special as it is celebrating somebody's life and another year that has been lived. Nothing big and super special, but many small things that peppered my long and tiring weekend, which makes me thankful for family and good friends who took time out to get me cakes and presents and to spend time with me. Above picture is a summary of all the little things that happened over the weekend. Scroll down for more details!:) Friday, 4th April 2014 Before we started hearing in the Supreme Court at 9:30 am, Evelyn and Cindy surprised me with a piece of cake and a present - it was a pleasant start to the long day in Court that only ended at 6 pm. I then attended leadership cell meeting at uncle Daniel's house, and only got home at 11ish, if I remember correctly. It was an interesting experience, which I felt most acutely when the grou...