2 more weeks of being Miss Leong

I thought it would be a simple affair but just now my good friend, Stephanie asked me if there’s a lot of preparation, I listed out 70% of the things I have to do.. and woah… yes it’s a lot of work…

The things we have to do..

Buy our wedding bands (done)
Bought ours from Goldheart after looking for 3 – 4 days. Simple band with gold in the center and mine has little diamonds all round =) We have the sweetest wedding band pillow too
Decide on the date (done)
Jon chose the date cos apparently it’s a good day for him. 11th of June is our 29th monthiversary but it’s a Sunday so 10th was good.
Venue (done)
Yup as I mentioned: it’ll be at esplanade the V tea room. The place Jon proposed to me
Find Solemnizer (done)
We found a prof to be our solemnizer! Just met him today. He seems really experienced and responsible, so no worries of him MIA-ing on our big day. Told us the process and gave us some advice too
Decide on Menu
Still discussing the menu with Dawn. We decided to settle on a menu that’s 50+/pax. It’s the cheapest they had. Trying to increase the variety. Went to Lawry’s today becos we had a 1 for 1 voucher. Thought it would have been quite nice to hold our ROM there too.. but too bad already gave them the deposit =(
Guests list (done)
Tentatively, it stands at 59 pple. It just keeps getting longer n longer and I wanted it to be a private cozy affair.. I’m only inviting 15 frens while jon’s inviting 28, so not my fault =p
Invitation cards
Took a whole afternoon to decide on the words for the invitation card Invites really pretty and ada n I went bras basah to buy materials to write the names. Took me several days to finish writing the names. Have not finished sending them out though..
Write our vows
We will be working on them sometime next week.. hopefully
Find Make up/Hair/nails artist (done)
Fortune center for $138 only, hope she’s good. Has 30 years of exp and does makeup and hair for celebrities
Find pretty, princessey dress (done)
Mom made me a really pretty purple dress with pink ribbons
Find matching shoes
Bought one pair already but mom thinks it doesn’t match.. so have to search again
Find matching purple shirt for him
Found one at tampines, will be going Taka to continue our serach
Find Videographer (done)
Found one at $238. Includes 2 hrs coverage and a MTV
Find Photographer (done)
The lady at the V tea room will do it for me
Balloon decorations
Getting Vivien, my boss to help me. Have not settled the details with her yet
Flower bouquet
Mom will be helping me. Have not decided the flowers I want
Flowers and ribbons for venue and ROM table
Mom will be helping me but I have not even decided what I want!
Decide on the aisle
Thought of having an aisle of rose petals but there’s a lot of other problems. Moreover, the place is really small so they have not told me where my aisle will be. Dad’s walking me down the aisle.. =)
Buy guest book
Still looking for one.. can’t find a nice one though.. any ideas?
Send out reminders on theme and dress code as well as date and timingWill prob do that a few days before the reception
Get a receptionist
Thinking of Meiting or Noel. Noel will be good in getting pple to write hee
Theme and dress code
We didn’t specify it on the invites but we did inform everyone we invited. Since my dress is pink n purple I’m going to have a pastel theme. So light pink, purple, blue, yellow, etc would be good. Dress code is formal.

Still have a lot of other small little things.. but yup that’s a brief highlights of all the things we have to do.. can’t imagine planning for the Chinese wedding.. thank goodness I’ll have ada to be my wedding planner

Our longest trip together: China

Our China trip was quite alright, not the best trip I would say. Food was pretty bad, super oily, salty and fatty!! Still, I had a nice time with Jon, Ada & Meiting.


Shopping:
We got conned several time with some pathetic, magical high tech toys, bought super expensive Long Jing cha, Tai hu pearls and some fake goods. Bought a lot of pajamas, some working skirts and winter coats. Shopping in China is not the best, only managed to buy things from Shanghai and Beijing

Sightseeing:
In Shanghai we went to see their Oriental pearl tower, Shanghai version of CBD as shown in MI3, some old town, huge bookstore, Nanjing road and Shanghai tan. We took a cruise on the west lake in Hangzhou, went to see Yuefei and spent a bomb at the Longjing tea plantation. At Wuxi, they had their famous Tai lake and their pearls which I wasted money buying. Went to see 2 gardens that some emperor loved and ‘world’s number 2 spring water’. At Suzhou, we went to the famous Hanshi temple, a silk mill and a tea pot shop. Can’t remember what we saw at Nanjing though. Basically same message throughout: Hangzhou has their miraculous Longjing tea, Wuxi their miraculous pearls and teapots and Suzhou their miraculous silk. They are fantastic salespersons but after listening to so many miraculous products we can’t helped but roll our eyes. Beijing was nice, especially the Great Wall and the food there was the best. Beijing duck is really good too! 3 of us also got the chance to be princesses for less than $5/each.

We played a lot of bridge together and watched a lot of TV at night.. went for massages too =)

China is a nice place to go if u wanna feel rich and have not enough money to go anywhere else =) Our package was only $1022/pax for 10 days and 1 domestic flight. Quite value for money I would say..

A Wonderful Month

April 2006 has been a really wonderful month for me.. Especially the 11th and 28th of April

11th April was the date I signed my first ever job offer. I have accepted a job offer to work in UBS Fixed Income sales. Mainly, I will be servicing clients’ request when they require particular fixed income products, such as bonds and its derivatives. Of course, on the other hand I have to sell products that UBS have on hand to clients. UBS have a really warm and nice corporate culture, which is the main reason why I really wanted to return to UBS. I had a really nice time interning there last June and I made several good friends there. I heard from Zhizai that there’s a SMU girl working at equities, he’s working at forex and with me in fixed income, I have completed the SMU coverage in UBS. I quite excited to start work on 19th June, but on the other hand, nervous that I will not be able to perform. All I can do is enter with the right sprit and just trust the Lord in guiding me and blessing me with wisdom and favor.

11th April also happened to be my 27th month with Jon. He has been very supportive throughout the past 2 years. He has been really sweet to me and endured all my rubbish and endless whining and demands. He is extremely calm, peace loving and logical. Of course, there are areas that I do not like about him but I guess I just have to accept them. For one, he totally dislikes planning and he’s not the romantic type that will plan a evening out at the beach, etc. Everything is super last minute. It’s fun sometimes but occasionally, I wish that he can just plan more romantic night outs, other than on anniversaries and birthdays. But I guess I can’t ask for too much huh..=p

28th April was the day Jon proposed to me at the V tea room in esplanade. Unfortunately, on the way there, I had a really bad fall down an escalator and hurt my leg. My right leg now looks like it got scratched very badly by an angry cat. My leg was bleeding but I did not want to think too much about it, so we just continued our plans, after a visit to the pharmacy. We had a pot of tea as usual and after awhile, the staff brought out a really good Chocolate Cheese melt cake. It’s really one of the best, if not the best chocolate cake I have even eaten. It’s very rich and fudgey and I would not recommend it to people who are not chocolate fanatics.

When the trolley was near our table, we saw some very small, cute and exquisite round boxes with a little dog sitting on top of it. When I requested to look at them, the server told me that they are carefully hand made in London and each piece is unique in the world.

She also took a bouquet of tulips and passed them to Jon. He then gave the flowers to me and said some really sweet and sincere words and with that, he opened one of the boxes and proposed to me.

I was really very happy and he was really relieved that it was finally over. Later that night he spoke to my parents and asked for their consent and blessings. We are planning to have our ROM at the V tea room on 10th June 2006. It’ll be a high tea reception and we’ll be inviting a Justice of Peace to solemnize our marriage. We’re still looking for a solemniser, so if anyone knows one, pls inform me ya? Tentatively, the menu for that day would be..

Norwegian Smoked Salmon Fried Rice with Salted Eggs
Winter Pear Teacake
Lovers’ Brownies
Baileys Irish Cream Teacake
Swiss Berry Tea
Majestic Queen’s Tea
Jasmine Rose Petals Tea
Café Americano

For those who have never been there, it’s a really pretty tearoom with a Venice theme and it’s located 01-02 Esplanade. Their stuff is pretty pricey, with a pot of tea going for $8, their liqueur teacakes at $15, cake melts at $19.50 and normal warm bakes at $8. Guess you’re really paying for the ambience and the fantastic service.

Finally, April is the month I finished my FINAL final exams at SMU! Except for my internship and community service report, I’m done!! All I have to do is rent my gown and get ready to receive my certificates!

So here’s to my first job and my new life with Jon!

Growing up is no fun..

Just got back from a short trip .. went batam over the weekend to rest and relax. Went for massage, water sports, hair treatment and basically have fun with Jon, my brother and his sweet girlfriend.

During dinner at Jon’s place today, we started talking about how we are generally pretty introvert people. I am pretty talkative in front of closer friends but generally I do not really talk to people I do not really know; unlike Noel or Joel who can go on and on regardless of their audience

Both of us thought about it and realized that we were both very outgoing people during our secondary school days. We talked more, played more and basically have more fun together with our friends. I figured that friends in our secondary school tend to be like-minded and more carefree. Who cares about fats, it’s off to KFC and other fast food eateries every day for us. We all joined CCAs because we really wanted to and not because it’ll look good on our resume. We had fun together as a class and no one bothers to be ‘politically correct’ or make calculated moves or backstab others, which are some of the things I see in school today. Of course during our younger days there’s no such thing as boyfriends and I guess having a boyfriend since secondary 4 changed the way I spend time with my friends and vice versa..

So I guess growing up is no fun, growing up takes away the simple pleasures of life.. but guess i can't complain that much.. cos being a child these days is no fun either..

A side note:
Anyway to my dear friends out there, thanks for sticking by me all these years. Thanks for being the same old you, regardless of how life treats you.

Especially my dear ada it’s been 12 years since I knew u and 9 years since we became best friends. We grew up together, went thru O and A levels together, got our driving licenses, went for exchange togets, saw 23 countries and 4 continents togets, you saw me thru all my boyfriends, we spent our 18th and 21st birthdays togets, and all the other important events in our lives! I look forward to u being my wedding planner and me being your bridesmaid and of cos being the godmother of your children!

To all my dear friends out there, I love you!

I'm home..

I’m back on this sunny island.. and yup most of you know I’m really sad to be back..

Sad that I can no longer enjoy all the beautiful sights and freedom of Europe and peaceful, well-rested days in Rouen

Being back in Singapore means..
Losing my own room and freedom…
It means weekly deadlines and project meetings…
It means having to start looking for a job...
It means having to unpack and settle back into my sad life in Singapore..

Basically just having to go back to my stressful days..

Still in the mist of packing and unpacking as I have just been chased out of my brother’s room. At least I’m not living out of a box anymore.. as compared to a few days ago.

I’m really glad I went for Exchange.. it’s really an experience of a lifetime. I saw and enjoyed a lot, I went through hardships as well and I made some wonderful friends as well.. My exchange in a nutshell..

Visited about 18 countries and countless cities, got molested once in Italy, pick-pocketed twice at Italy and Portugal, got spat at once in Paris, took 1 flight within Europe, took more than 100 train rides, longest journey was 37hrs from Kiruna to Oslo, bought about 6kg of chocolates from Belgium, bumped into Singaporeans twice..

Highlights of exchange:
Fulfilled my dream of seeing the northern lights! Saw it thrice!! Awesome!!
Went to Santa Clause Village and took a photo with him. Saw quite a few letter posted by Singaporeans to him
Crossed the Artic Circle Line
Stayed at the Ice Hotel
Went for a snow mobile and dog sled tour
Saw my first snow
Count down at London Eye
Went to all the markers mentioned in Da Vinci Code in Rome

That’s all I can think of now.. most of them occurred during my last leg as it’s still fresh in my memory. The past events have already been blogged by Ada, so I can just go to her website to read about it =)

Being back in SMU is quite overwhelming.. the school is huge and it’s pretty cold with all the security measures and glass panels. Sometimes I miss the coziness and warmth of the old school.. on the other hand, I’m thankful that we’re in the city.. so much easier to meet up with friends and also a lot more convenient to go shopping and eating as well.. I also feel safer leaving my laptop around and leaving things in my locker because I know our school is like a fortress.. slowly getting used to the new campus.. have not been to the Econs or IS building yet.. have only eaten once at kopitiam and Killiney.. food here is really expensive..

Also beginning to sign up for recruitment talks and trying to apply for more jobs.. I’m stressed when I hear pple getting such wonderful and high paying jobs.. but I’m also stressed when I hear who n who have not gotten a job.. I think job hunting is a really stressful process and I really hope I can get it over and done with.. but the biggest problem is I am not passionate for anything.. except for being back at UBS.. which is pretty impossible.. so other than UBS I do not really know what I want..

Oki off to Mkt101 class.. bleah.. sianz.. taking IT n law which is hell for me.. and Biz Processes which has hell a lot of work.. but thk God I am only taking 3 and auditing 2 finance courses.. one to learn and the other to see cute charming prof heehee..

Last Night in Rouen

Today is the last day I have in Rouen. Last night sleeping in my own bed.. something I never had all my life.. last day of having such a slack and easy life.. last day of.. many things..

After my last paper on Thursday evening, ada and I invited all the HK pple for dinner and we had our last meal together.. it was quite sad leaving them.. but thankfully, I think it was greatly reduced by the fact that we’ll be meeting again next June when Ada, Meiting, lulu and I head to HK for our grad trip.. pity I only got to know many of them better during the last few weeks.. but I guess it’s better late than never ya..

From Friday to Sunday, I went to Strasbourg in France, Luzerne in Switzerland and Luxembourg. It was Xiaolu birthday on the 16th so Ada, Meiting and I went to Strasbourg to meet up with Lulu to celebrate her birthday. Ate a really good dinner cos Ada mom treated us, so it was really nice. We had pizzas, salmon and pork. Strasbourg is really pretty and it’s very Christmasy and all. There’s loads of lights and beautiful Christmas tree, nice cathedral and big Christmas Market, apparently the oldest one in Europe. We also bought Christmas hats and managed to bargain from 3E/each to 1.5E/each, not bad huh.. We stayed at a hotel just opposite the train station. The room was meant for 2 people but all 5 of us squeezed into the room. Unfortunately, the controls were really strict and in the end after much negotiation, some of us were made to leave at 6am.

After Strasbourg, Ada, Meiting and I headed for Luzerne. We went up the Titlis Mountain and it was freezing!! It was -30 degrees and the wind was really strong that day. So strong that the chair lift was closed and Mt Pilatus was closed as well. Meiting did not know that we were going up a mountain so she did not prepare much clothes and she only wore a thin pair of boots. Poor her was suffering really badly from the cold. Thank goodness nothing happened to her. The 17th of December is the first time I really saw snow!! It snowed the whole day in Luzerne!! Guess I’ll be seeing lots of snow in Scandinavian.. maybe too much..? We also went to the city to see the famous Lion Monument and also Swiss Christmas market. After going to several Christmas market, I decided that they all look the same and sell the same thing. At the end of the day, we had 8.2 Frans left and since we were unable to change it back to Euros, we spent a really long time decideing how to use the money. In the end, we bought 1 large fries and a cheeseburger from Macs as we could not afford a meal, one pastry and one really small tomato with the remaining 0.30Frans. It was quite a fun activity and I was thrilled when I finally found a tomato that cost 0.30Frans.

Took 5 trains to Luxembourg and there we met one of our HK friends, Wing, a really nice and strong girl. She led the way around in the city and we went to the Christmas Market and bought Fried Potato patty. Quite good as it was hot and crispy =) Went to Leonidas to buy about 5 KG worth of chocolates for friends and relatives.. hard a really difficult time carrying it.. but thank goodness Wing helped me quite a lot.

Was supposed to go Reims today, but overslept and missed the train so stayed home and spent the whole day cleaning and packing. Ada and I have loads of things to carry tomorrow and both of us are super duble worried. We have probably more than 40KG each to carry to Maastricht, before we can post it back home. Holland postage is only ½ the price of France..so that’s why we’re brining everything to Meiting place to post. I did not plan to post thigns back initially cos I’m super low on cash but today when I talked to Jon and my mom, both of them were really worried by the amount of things I am going to carry all over Europe that they both offered to pay my postage fees.. so I guess I’ll be posting back some tomorrow and carry as much as possible.

We are 90% done with clearing our house. Brought down heaps of garbage and hopefully tomorrow our guardian will not be so strict and charged us for too many things.. if not I will try crying infront of her like what Christine did when they wanted to charge her 80E for her bed.. Better go sleep now.. need every single bit of my energy tomorrow..

See you all next year in Singapore! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Goodbye Rouen and France.. Thanks for having me these past months..

6 more days in Rouen

6 more days left in Rouen.. such a sad and depressing thought.. really dread the day of leaving this place and all my friends.. and having to go back to Singapore.. there’s a lot of things I dislike about this place, but I have grown to love where I am now.. choosing how I would like to spend my time and doing whatever I like, whenever I like.. the happiness I get from the kind of independence and freedom I have here is simply indescribable… everything is just so beautiful.. and suddenly 4 months in a foreign land seems like a really short time.. really hate the feeling of never being able to do this or that.. never having any more finance class.. never having ‘next week’.. having the last time of everything.. Every time something like that happens.. I just feel so sad and lost.. now even the thought of being able to see Jon again doesn’t make me less sad..

Down with a terrible cough.. and my back is aching like mad.. my fingers hurt from dun noe what.. cooked and washed too much for the party yesterday.. yupyup we organized a Christmas party but all guest had to pay 8E.. we had prawns, mussels, salmon, cheese, ham, calamari, seafood salad, pasta, paella, whipped potato, chocolate cake, chocolate tart, red bean soup, chocolate fondue, mini cakes.. quite a feast.. we played Indian poker with red wine.. thought them the Singapore version.. which is having one chance to chance your card, and anyone can add wine to a cup if he wishes to.. but in the end all the girls are cheaters, when any girl loses, we will not allow anyone to add wine, but when a guy loses, we will top it up to the max.. after that we played Bing Bang Ah.. and whoever does the wrong action will have to take a sip of wine.. in the end we managed to finish 2+ liters of wine.. which is almost 4 bottles of wine.. but no one got drunk though.. the guys and 1 particular gal can hold their liquor very well.. this gal is amazing.. she’s strong, national handball player, she can jump, do a lot of things as well as guys.. but yet she’s sweet, she can do a split, and she learnt ballet before.. so she’s simply amazing.. I admire her man..

A lot of clearing up after the party, heaps of washing to do.. lots of rubbish, leftover food and had to mop the entire place.. simply exhausting.. guess I do not really like to play host.. it’s so tiring having to prepare all the food.. and then u’ll worry that your guests do not like the food and there’s too much/little food.. and during the whole party I had to constantly watch over the dessert, clear the rubbish etc.. so did not really enjoy myself or eat a lot.. but I was too tired to really eat a lot anyway.. but overall I think it was still fun to have so many pple in our house and spend an evening together like that.. and I think it was nice that everyone came even though some had test/presentation the next day.. I myself had a terribly difficult time dragging myself out of bed at 9am to return the chairs and to attend my international finance class.. convince myself to go for the class cos it was my last class and my professor asked us not to skip classes anymore =p..

And now reflection of the past week..

Sat and Sunday we were out shopping.. we went shopping on Sunday, expecting shops to be open for Christmas, but in the end only a few shops were open.. learnt in my French class that it’s against the law to open your shop on Sundays, unless u are a shop that sells food.. Shops here are only allowed to open 5 Sundays a YEAR.. however, should you choose to open u on Sunday, like IKEA for example, you have to pay heavy fines to your prefecture.. very interesting culture.. this is mainly becos historically France is a Christian country so according to the bible, Sunday is a day of rest.. so even though they are no longer a Christian country, they still do it cos it’s in their culture.. interestingly my French teacher loves the idea that everything is close on Sunday, and she’s an atheist.. this Sunday, more shops will be open as Christmas is in 2 weeks time =) so I guess we’ll be out shopping even though I have a paper on Monday =p

Monday, we went Carrefour (AGAIN!) to buy food and drinks for our party.. thank goodness Ewin and Christine were coming over our place for a project meeting with Ada, so they met us at Carrefour to help us carry the groceries. Think Ewin carried about 15kg of food and drinks.. more than the 3 of us haha.. I cooked laska, bak ku the and green bean soup for the 4 of us.. felt quite tired too, cooking and washing.. think I am getting old =( but it was nice having dinner together and letting them try a little bit of Singpaore’s food.. though it’s not as good haha..
spent many hours on the net looking for an online flower shop to send flowers to my fren in Brisbane for her graduation.. but after searching high n low.. the cheapest I found was about $70!! Mad right.. I mean man of u prob think it’s reasonable.. but I dun think she’s someone who really appreciate or go gaga over flowers and she’ll be traveling with her family which means the flowers will jus rot at her place.. so after inputting our information, my credit card details and the message.. I changed my mind and decided to spend the money on other things when we’re both back in Sg.. but still.. feel guilty and sad that I din send her anything on her ‘big’ day =(

Tuesday, after class, went to another residence to have dinner with 2 China students. Managed to eat dinner at only 10+ cos the guys had project meeting and they took a really long time to cook.. but the food was good, and the amazing thing is these 2 guys never cooked in China, and only started cooking in France.. so I think it’s quite a feat for 2 guys to cook for us =)

Wednesday, spent the whole day preparing, hosting the party and cleaning up.. and lastly today.. I had 2 classes.. had lunch with a few Chinese pple for the last time.. this ‘jie jie’ treated me to Kebah =).. she’s a really nice person.. currently doing her MBA and she’s already married and planning to have kids when she return next month.. takes really good care of the other Chinese pple who are much younger than her.. after my French class in the afternoon, I came home to do some washing and went to rest.. cos felt very sick and my back is really killing me.. Ewin came over for dinner and we ate leftovers.. quite a feast haha.. he helped us take photo of us in our house.. and man he’s really good, at one single spot he can take 10 pictures from different angles.. can be a wedding photographer haha.. but ada said whoever is his wedding photographer is darn poor thing..

Tomorrow will be a day of rest.. and I guess it begins now..