Like A Rose
Dan Lai
26
may_fifteen@mailcity.com
Engaged to the sweetest angel in the world
Loves to sing, watch movies and DVDs, swim, play balls, read self-improvement books and travel with my dear
Our Last Valentine's Day as an Engaged Couple
Valentine's Day Eve was a Friday. So it was easy for me to arrange flower delivery to dear's office and surprise her as she may have thought that I will only send on Saturday. But being very sweet, dear wanted me not to send any flowers to save money. However, she was too late in telling me that.
After work, I met dear and her sisters to catch Breakout - a Korean dance (Hip Hop / Breakdance) comedy. We went to eat at Marina Square and then walked over to Esplanade. We had great seats and the show was totally great.
The next day, dear and I tried something new for the first time in our almost 9 years relationship. We went to the HSBC tree top walk. We covered an amazing 14Km distance by walking there and back. After that, we had to reward ourselves with our favourite prawn noodles near my place.
In the evening, we went to Taste of Thailand in Yishun to have our dinner. Dear wanted to save money and thus preferred to skip those Valentine's Day packages which cost a bomb. How thoughtful, understanding and down-to-earth of her! Although that place was filled with people, we did not wait very long for the seat. Most importantly, we were able to eat our favourite dishes. We were enjoying the food so much that we forgot to take photos when they were first served.
Later after a sumptuous dinner, we headed down to Kallang Leisure Park to catch Bride Wars before we call it a night. Happy Valentine's Day and Happy 8 years and 9 months anniversary dear!
The Month of Presents
For my birthday, my dear gave me 3 presents:
It was really thoughtful of her to find out what I need in a very subtle way and all these came as a huge surprise to me! Thanks dear for the hair conditioner, book on golf techniques and a brand new bracelet.
For Christmas, as dear knew that I will be travelling quite intensively in the next few months, she asked his dad to buy me a suitcase all the way from US. Thank you my love!
Celebrating Christmas in the Green Way
This year’s Christmas season, if you realized, is a very wet and cold one. It was almost raining everyday in December and that was the closest we can get to have a snowy Christmas. Hence, there was no need to blast air-conditioners at home to simulate the Christmas feel. In Las Vegas, snow was seen for the first time and in China, the weather was exceptionally cold as compared to the past years.
My fiancée’s youngest sister showed me one trick to be green during this festive season and I am so proud of her. After she wrapped some presents, she took the scraps of wrapping paper to paste on those gifts that were meant for the family members. In this case, you literally fully utilized all the wrapping papers and thus avoid throwing the small and seemingly useless parts away. Moreover, you will save on the total amount of wrapping papers used and some trees too.
I once saw an episode on “Friends” when Monica Geller ironed the wrapping papers after opening the presents so that those papers can be re-used the next round. I think we may not need to go to that stage but it sure is an interesting concept.
Sumitomo Chemical Asia Dinner and Dance 2008 - Retro Active
Being part of the organising committee of this event for the second time, I more or less have an idea of managing the expectations of our fellow colleagues. Of course, the committee tried our best to bring the best quality to the event with the dedicated participation of the hotel staffs and the event management company. We wanted our every segment to be as special as possible.
For the entrance, we had our MD sitting on a Vespa and being pillioned in to his seat. We had a MTV made using the song "Dancing Queen". The MTV captured a rather different side of all the staffs. We choose a "Retro" theme to get everyone to dress up and fight for the best dress award. We made the lucky draw as entertaining as possible but using balloons bursting and "Deal Or No Deal " style. As a whole, I think everyone was happy with the door gifts, food and activities that evening.
Char Yang (Dabu) Association - Youth Group Charity Event
On the 2nd of November, some of us met at the association building in the morning before setting out to Singapore Flyer to meet the beneficiaries. At about 10.30am, most of the people had arrived and we made our way into the capsules. As some of them were wheelchair bound and the rest had difficulty walking normally, we had to be quite careful. Overall wise, it was quite a good experience doing our part for the less fortunate and it was really a meaningful event. Although there were moments of discomfort especially when the beneficiaries started to become easily agitated, we still try our best to provide a good time to them and care for them. I really respect and admire all those social workers who had to face such situations everyday. Salute to you all!
Generosity
Mother Theresa was in Calcutta, India, when she met this Catholic widow who was requesting for some food as she had two starving children at home. Being kind and merciful, Mother Theresa brought food to the hungry widow's dilapidated house. Upon receiving the food, the widow was extremey touched but she refused to let her children start eating. Mother Theresa was puzzled and so observed her from afar after she left the house.The widow was seen taking some of the food and went away. Mother Theresa was wondering whether this widow was going to sell away those food meant for her family for alcohol or things like that. When the widow returned, Mother Theresa questioned her. The answer that the widow gave was that she was bringing half of those food to another Muslim widow who had four starving children at home. This is a clear illustration of "Love your neighbours" in the commandments.
This story made me ponder upon the definition of generosity. Who is more generous? A millionaire who donated $100,000? A poor man who earns less than $1000 but gives $500 to help the more unfortunate? A really poor guy who cannot fork out money to donate but spend every weekend volunteering in the old folks' home and donates blood regularly? It is really not for us to judge. Anyway, I just donated $2 to help in the fund raising of another church. Surely, that can be totally disregarded as being generous.
Let God come to your office
Today the gospel was read by a visiting priest from St. Mary of the Angels Church. During his sermon, he related a conversation he had with an Indonesian lady who was working in Singapore. Despite being born into another religion, she came to the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) as an enquirer. She shared with the priest that the reason she was willing to explore Christianity was because of her Catholic employer and his family's good example. I really feel that despite that we are working and expose to office politics, the rat race and the realistic life of competition, we should always allow God to be with us in office. We need His advice, His guidance and His light to show us the way towards a honest, righteous and positive working environment. Many Sunday Catholics split their real life from a holy life. Maybe they can be combined just like the Catholic employer and his family. Time to reflect!
Shanghai Trip
Day 1 – 27 September 2008
Our flight was at 4.00pm in terminal 3 of Changi Airport. In the morning, we went to help out dear’s aunt in organizing her Kumon centre’s ASHR 2008 award ceremony. This is to reward kids who have excelled in their Kumon work and achieved higher than their level in school. It was nothing tough for both of us as we were only assisting in ushering and taking pictures. Though in the midst we were delayed due to the meeting with Viki and lunch at home, we were able to reach the airport considerably early. We walked around in the duty free sections to take photos, find magazines, books and etc before we boarded a rather warm China airline plane to Shanghai Pudong Airport. The whole flight was quite terrible with much turbulence and uncomfortable seating. There is a reason why people pay more for SIA flight. Despite that, the food was actually quite exquisite. After 5 hours, we arrived in Pudong and were welcomed by Adeline (dear’s sister) and uncle (dear’s dad). Taxi was hard to find and so we took a bus to Longyang Maglev Station and then a cab to uncle’s apartment at Dingxiang Road and Jingxiu Road. It is a condominium developed by Yanlord Town. As it was late, we just had some supper and chit chat abit before we rested to prepare for the next day agenda.
Day 2 – 28 September 2008
The day started with our brunch at Bi Feng Tang in Da Mu Zhi Shopping Complex. Of course, we ate all their local food like dumpling, noodles and etc. Then we headed down to Lu Jia Bang Cloth and Tailor Market to try, collect and pay for the tailored clothes. We also made some new clothes there and went around searching for new stalls with better tailors and prices. It was all about bargaining in Shanghai. It would be easier if you buy more. We also aimed to find some gifts for our bridesmaid and groomsmen. At the same time, we tried to look out for items to give our families. In the evening, we travelled to People’s Square where there were many shopping malls. We had dinner in Ajisen Ramen before strolling all the way to The Bund. Due to the golden week, the sightseeing tunnel was closed and that place was filled with soldiers and policemen. We even witnessed an unfortunate event of a female hawker who was selling toys illegally being caught by a few policemen. As the area was quite crowded, the lady was not able to escape and eventually had to surrender all her products unwillingly. What a sad scene!
Day 3 – 29 September 2008
We woke up at 4.00am so as to catch the train at 5 plus. Uncle booked a private van to bring everyone to the train station. Before we knew it, we were already in Suzhou after a few moments of comfortable rest in the train. From Suzhou train station, we crossed over one huge road and a large river before we took a bus to the end station which was within walking distance to Tongli Ancient Town. The tourist attraction was expected to welcome loads of visitors since it was the golden week and people from other parts of China would take this chance to take a look at this place. Luckily, we were there early enough to avoid the crowd. The town was retained by the Chinese government as a tourist site and inside it stood the exact buildings, structures that people lived in since hundreds of years ago. It was a extremely nice place for sightseeing with all the lotus ponds, rivers, bridges, pagodas, koi, gardens and etc. I imagined the place to be very serene for people to stay. Everyone led a very simple life down there. After we had some snacks in Tongli Ancient Town, it was time to check into Bamboo Grove Hotel, one of the most recommended venues for accommodation in Suzhou. We had a short rest before exploring downtown area in the evening. We had a Cantonese dinner which served the most tasty soup ever! After filling our stomach, we walked a long long way to Guan Qian Street which held Suzhou’s main shopping malls.
Day 4 – 30 September 2008
Our train back to Shanghai was at 6 plus and so we had one whole day time to spend in Suzhou. We went to try their famous dumpling which turned out to be quite delicious especially as breakfast. Then, we had a short visit at Tiger Hill before attempting to hire a cab to fetch us to The Humble Administrator’s Garden. One thing not so endearing about China was that touting was almost everywhere and it could be rather irritating especially to Singaporeans. There would be people with private cars trying to get us to take their transport instead of getting a taxi. That reminded me of Vietnam! The Humble Administrator’s Garden was actually rather similar to Tongli Ancient Town but with more specific histories in relation to the previous owners of the place. The name was in fact slightly contradicting because to me, the garden was definitely not humble!
Day 5 – 1 October 2008
Back in Shanghai, we visited a really crowded place called Yuan Garden (or Yu Yuan in Chinese). There was a temple there and many people went there to pray during the holidays. We wanted to try the Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao but were discouraged by the queue. We were just too late. Down there, we managed to buy gifts for Jade and Brian, Adele and her fiancé, dear’s grandparents, my grandma and parents. We bought the paper cuttings. I think they were really nicely done and definitely suitable for giving our loved ones as presents from Shanghai. It would be quite representative. We then walked around in the Shanghai Old Street, scouting for any cheap deals as there were a number of RMB2 shops. Finally, we reached Shiliu Pu Cloth and Tailor Market where I made another suit for the wedding. All these while, we were constantly searching for the gifts for our bridesmaid and groomsmen. At the end of the day, after much walking and bargaining, we ended up in Da Mu Zhi shopping trying out the Korean BBQ food as dinner. Before we made our way back to the apartment, we stopped by Nike Factory Outlet to shop for stuff for my sister.
Day 6 – 2 October 2008
We thought there was no need to wake up early but by the time we reached The Science and Technology Musuem, it was already swarmed by tour groups. In the end, we took about 45 minutes to get our entrance tickets and all tickets for theatre shows with suitable timings were sold out. It was quite an interesting place to go with the exhibits showcasing advanced technological breakthroughs. My favourite was the World of Animals. The showroom on the environment was slightly disappointing as I thought the information presented could be enhanced with better structural design and layout. Some information would not easy to read and more things could be included to make the place attractive to visitors. By the time we were back at the apartment, it was already 3pm and we had a late lunch before setting out to Huai Hai Zhong Road. Down there had many shopping centres and boutiques but our purpose of visit was to try the renowned Beijing Duck in a certain restaurant there. It turned out to be good but not exceptional.
Day 7 – 3 October 2008
We went back to Yuan Garden to attempt to buy the Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. We intentionally woke up earlier and this time we were fortunate. After about 20 minutes of queuing, we managed to get the steamy food and consumed them at a dirty corner – a true experience of local culture. The food was quite delicious but 16 of them would be too much to eat at one go. After that, we went back to Lu Jia Bang and Shiliu Pu Cloth and Tailor Market to collect the clothes and suits. Mostly, we were quite delighted by the output quality especially with the price we have to pay. More efforts were put in to scout our gifts for bridesmaid and groomsmen.
Day 8 – 4 October 2008
In the day time, we went to the downtown area of Puxi to do any last minute shopping before we packed our luggage for our flight at night. It was definitely enjoyable spending the 8 days with dear and her family and exploring more of Shanghai. Dear had been a wonderful daughter and fiancée all these time!
Walking at Hort Park
Today is the first time dear and I took a walk at the Hort Park and the bridges. I think it was quite a good walk with all the surrounding trees. I think I just found myself a new place to jog!
After our short stroll in Hort Park, we went to Vivo City as dear had to buy something for her mother. At Videoezy, dear bought the 9 seasons (I have the first season already) TV drama - Friends for me. There was a promotion such that the 2nd purchase will be 50% off. Thus, after doing some calculation, we felt that it was definitely worth it to buy all. Dear insisted to pay as she wanted to give me this for my birthday. Dear, you are always so sweet! I love you and thank you.
Spa in Bintan
Before I start putting up photos on our Bintan day trip, let me say how dear has always been so thoughtful and full of surprises. During Friday, when I touched down in the airport after my business trip to Hanoi, dear showed up to meet me. It was a surprise as she was supposed to go for her facial appointment. I really appreciate her sacrifice as I know how important a facial session is to ladies. Thank you baby! You never fail to love me so much!
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