A Toy Story Celebration

Last week had been a very busy week for me. On Tuesday & Wednesday, I was busy with Round Table meetings. On Thursday, Friday and this Monday, I went along with my MD for meeting with clients.

It had been a very steep learning curve for me but I truly enjoyed these meetings and trying my best to soak up as much information as I possibly can.

Honestly, in Asia culture, nothing beat a simple handshake or hello and this will make a world of difference for future correspondences.

On Saturday, one of Adrian’s buddies – Kenneth, celebrated his son 9th year old birthday at his home. K’s wife (Joanne) had kindly extended the invitation to our family a few weeks back. As Adrian was scheduled to work on the NDP, I decided to bring the children to the party on my own.

As their home is near to Buangkok MRT, so our easiest route was to go via MRT-CIRCLE LINE- NEL. For the 1st time, Anthea and Anders had the chance to travel on the Circle Line. Honestly, it is pretty much like MRT, so it does not really make much difference to them. The only complaint they had was – why were we changing so many trains…haha.

We arrived at K’s home around 6.30pm and coincidentally, as we were walking toward his home, we saw the F16 flying passed us. They were heading toward the Padang for the aerial display.

The birthday celebration was held at the BBQ pit and there were lots of delicious BBQ food. Both Anthea and Anders had great fun at the playground located just next to the Pit. While we ate, we also had the chance to catch up with his buddies on their latest development.

I am impressed that all of them are upgrading to condominium and living an impressive lifestyle. Well, I guess that’s why the Chinese saying – “一种米养百种人“。 We belong to the Low-income family group, thus we can only stay in our humble HDB home…keke : P

To me, the utmost import thing is family happiness and health. Seeing the children growing each and every day and learning the right values in life beat the luxury of life. The best deal is we are debt free and I am able to choose my current role as a work from home mommy. Truly able to take things in my own stride and as the family progress, the role can be upgraded too. I believe in 一份根耘，一份收获。。

DisCoveries Saturday

On Saturday, Anthea’s school had an open house event and this year event was themed as Discovery Talent on 17 July, 11am to 3 pm.

This year Anthea’s class is involved in the Speech and drama performance. Her class was putting up a short skit – The shoemakers and the elves.

Around 12 noon, I brought her to school after sending Anders for his tuition class. We reached her school around 12.15pm and she met up with her form teacher. They were doing a round of rehearsal before the real show at 1pm.

At 1.15pm, the parents were all seated in the classroom and waiting anxiously for the children to start the show.

Anthea and few other classmates had the role of the narrators for the skit and she did the introduction for the show. I was impressed with the play and thought that the teacher and children had put in great effort for the show.

After the show, Anthea went around the school compound to collect Stamps for the puzzle game. She was having loads of fun with her classmates.

Adrian brought Anders to join us after his lesson and we met one of his childcare friends, Pamela, at the school. The parents are deciding if they wanted to register Pamela into the school for her Primary Education.

Anders went around the school with Pamela and he had fun playing the games with her. Finally around 3pm, we ended our tour and went home for our afternoon fiesta.

In the evening, we went over to my girlfriend home; she had invited us over to her place to view the NDP Fireworks. Both Althea and Anders had requested to have a quick swim at the pool before dinner and firework.

We reached Cindy’s home around 6.30pm and they went by the poolside to have some water play. Angus also joined them when he reached home from his enrichment lesson.

Then we had dinner around 7.15pm, Dave had kindly went to packed dinner from a Zi-Char near their home.

While having dinner, we chatted and enjoyed the companionship. Interestingly Cindy and Dave are planning a yearend holiday to my DREAM destination. Now we are talking of a possibility of going for a holiday together, if I can convince myself over the LONG HOURS of flights….hehe : P

Around 8.15pm, we saw the fireworks coming out from the Padang area. The view was very nice and the children had fun viewing it. We even joked that we should go over to their home on National Day itself.

Anthea and Anders had fun playing with Angus games/toys and also they had the chance to play WII. Anders truly enjoyed it and asked if we could get a set too.

Both the adults and children had so much fun that we finally left their home around 10.30pm.

It was a great Discovery Saturday for us and simply gathering like this bring our friendship to another level of understanding, yes, Adrian just discovered that both Cindy & Dave are CSI Fans too….: )

友谊万万岁！！

Last Saturday, I had a wonderful gathering with a group of closed friends at the Global Kitchen in Pan Pacific hotel.

I had known this group of friends since my working day with the travel agency. After I left the agency in 1995, we still keep in touch. A few of them are still in the Travel industry with their new employer and some left the industry totally, like me.

Our last meet up was 2 years ago at my house and this time round we decided on a Hi-Tea meet.
We arrived at the venue around 1pm and everyone started, eagerly, to find out who is doing what now and where the person is working in…hehe.Throughout the 3 ½ hours of gathering, there were so much laughter and noise coming from our table. As the saying goes - 三个女人，一个巴刹。。There were 6 of us…: P

Beside enjoying the food and great selection of teas, I truly enjoyed the company of my dearest friends. The 3 ½ hours passed by so quickly.

When the Hi Tea buffet came to a closed, everyone was asking “where are we going next?” well since the mood is so HIGH and MIGHTY, we should go to Marina Bay Sands. I proposed and all concurred.

So we took the FREE shuttle bus from Pan Pacific hotel to MBS. As one of my girlfriends has a contact point in MBS. She contacted the person in charge and the Sales person brought us around the Hotel, the casino and Convention area for a quick tour. We even had the chance to visit the Sky pool. The view from the 59th floor was magnificent and we took the opportunity to take some group photos.

After the tour of MBS, we said thank you and good-bye to the Host. It was almost 6.30pm when we left MBS. As the evening weather was still good, we decided to walk back to Pan Pacific hotel. Along the way, we saw the Helix Bridge and try a walk on the bridge. It was a bit shaky and my girlfriends commented that it felt like earthquake.

At the same time as there was NDP rehearsal at the Padang, we saw the Singapore Flag flying passed above us and also the F15 jets. They were flying so low and so near to us, the sound was deafening.

Four of us decided to adjourn for a drink while the other girlfriends left to join their family/friend. My girlfriend brought us to the Mandarin Oriental hotel poolside for a drink. We were considering viewing the NDP fireworks from the poolside.

We ordered our drinks and some light snacks to go along with the drinks. As we drank and enjoyed the snacks, we were watching our time. Yes, at 8.15pm, the fireworks started and we were pleasantly surprised that we had the best spot to view the fireworks. This year, the fireworks displayed not only came from the platform, there were also “firing” it off from rooftops of Ritz Carlton hotel, a few buildings in CBD and the Padang too. So imagine our excitement when we can see all the fireworks from the different spots. It was just too spectacular.

When the fireworks ended, the hotel guests whom were at the poolside with us, clapped their hands in appreciation. At that point, i felt so proud of our NDP Fireworks. : )

We continued with our drinks and food after the fireworks and chatted till our hearts contended.

We, finally, called it a day around 10pm and went home feeling so Happy and High in mood. This had been the best gathering for our group and I know there will be more fun outings with my 大姐们 and I look forward to our next meet. Till then – 谢谢你们真挚的友情和陪伴。祝我们友谊永柱！！

Anthea 1st pair of Badminton Shoes

Beginning this year, Anthea started CCA with the Recreation Badminton group in school. As the name denotes, it was more for leisure playing than competitive playing. Before school holiday, she told me: “mommy, I have decided to quit badminton.” I asked her for her reason as I do not want her to quit for the wrong reason.

After hearing her out – citing as time waster as the teacher spent more time lecturing the children than on coaching them played. I approved of her decision. When school reopened, she went to her form teacher to tell her the decision to quit badminton. The form teacher mentioned that she will inform the teacher-in-charge.

Last Thursday, it was her scheduled PE lesson and they played badminton during the hours. The school badminton team teacher – Miss Ching was also doing PE lesson with her class and she saw Anthea played the game. Immediately she asked her aside for a chat. Ms Ching asked Anthea if she would like to join the school badminton team. After some persuasion from Ms Ching, Anthea decided to go for the trial training on that afternoon.

She was all smiles when I fetched her from school and she proudly told me: “mommy, Ms Ching asked me to join the badminton school team and I will be going for training this afternoon. You must sign the consent form, ok?”

How would I say “No” to sports, especially badminton…hehe. Yes, we come from a family of badminton players and athletics. Sport is naturally in our blood and we breathe the game too. : )

So since last Thursday, Anthea has officially joined the school team and her training is every Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Now that she is into proper coach training, I told Adrian we need to get her a good pair of badminton shoes. On Monday, it was Youth School holiday, so we took the opportunity to shop around AMK for a pair of shoes for her; we were unable to find a suitable pair.

In the evening, we went to Queensway shopping centre to look for the shoes. After some searching around the many sports shops, we finally decided on a pair of Victor badminton shoes for her. It was just the right size for her and she was very happy to own a pair of badminton shoes.

She is now very enthusiastic about badminton and I am really happy that she has this opportunity to be groom for this sport.


Hope she will LOVE it, just like Adrian and I did during our school days. : )

NDP 2010 Combine Rehearsal

This year Adrian has been assigned NDP logistic duties again. Yes, his officer seems to like to give him NDP assignment..hehe.

Well, he took pride in his duties and has been fulfilling them on most weekdays and weekends for the practices. Missing out on our regulars weekends families’ dinner but he always tell the children: “Country comes 1st and he must serve it before his family.”

We are proud of him and for his scarifies, we were rewarded handsomely…hehe. Usually before the actual NDP Preview and National Day Parade, the organizing committee will have few rounds of combined rehearsals to improve on the parade for the actual day. For these rehearsals, publics were given tickets to attend the parade and show.

On Friday, Adrian came home with 4 tickets for the CR on 03 July 2010. The children were very excited and were looking forward to the parade. As we had an extra ticket, Anthea invited her best friend, Maya, to join us for the parade.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a light tea-break at home before setting out to fetch Maya for the Parade. This was our 1st time to the Parade@ Padang.

We reached Odeon Tower around 4.30pm and started walking from the building to the Parade Square. As we were walking along the road, we saw many people walking in the same direction and we were all dressed in REDS. Amazing support from the public, even though it was just a rehearsal, we still came in the DRESS CODE requested by the committee.

We had tickets for Blue Sector and the marshal directed us to the zone. As we walked, the marshals were all shouting to the public: “hi, welcome to NDP 2010”. I felt I walked in to a Giordano store…haha.

Our 1st stop was to collect our Goodies bags and this year tote bags are Designers bags. We are the 1st batch of public to get our hands on the bags and inside each bag – there is a Fun Box, bottles of water, Singapore Flag, a flipper and Poncho. The tote bag is so much neater & practical to use compared to those previous year goodie bag.

We got to our seats and settled ourselves before the parade commenced. Around 6pm, it started to drizzle and we took out the poncho from our bag and used it. I had brought along umbrellas too.

The parade started around 6.15pm with the marched in of the different contingents followed by the Guard of Honor. The parade & ceremony commenced after the “President” arrived. As usual the children were excited when they saw the helicopters flew passed with the Singapore Flag. The F16 saluted the Nation with their fly passed.

This year the MOBILE COLUMN is the main show display and there were many different Mobiles that were introduced. As we were seated a little too far from the main road of display, we had to keep watching the Big Screen to seen the different Mobiles.

It got a bit boring for the children and at this point, it was still drizzling. So we made the decision to leave the parade and head for our dinner.

We had Macdonald’s dinner at Odeon Tower and the children had a great time chatting with one another. Anthea truly enjoyed Maya’s companionship.

After dinner, we sent Maya’s home and we went home for a good hot bath and finally settling down to watch a good match of World Cup between Germany & Argentina.

Overall the children had enjoyed the NDP combined rehearsal and now they are looking forward to the actual National Day Parade and we will watch it from the comfort of the home.

The only setback I felt about his year NDP 2010 was that it was not as interactive as the previous 2 years shows. Also because of location – the show seem to be a little pale in comparisons with previous. Anyway, good thing was we managed to see it LIVE and experienced the real thing and of course, our Designer’s Tote Bags…haha.

Kids in Charge & Happy Birthday Daddy

We had another sport-fun and indulgence weekends. Yes, it was the annual Kid’s in Charge event organized by Anders childcare – My 1st Skool. This year the theme was Sport and the event was held at Serangoon Stadium on 26 June – from 9 am to 12 noon.

In the morning we worked up early and had our breakfast. As Adrian was involved with the NDP, he could not join us for the event this time. We took a bus from our place to the venue.

Upon arriving, we saw the childcare teachers all busied escorting the children to the waiting area. Then the Guest of honor arrived around 9am and the “march passed” started.

After the march passed, the children were allowed to go to different corner of the stadium and play with the different sport. This will be our last time attending such an event. But somehow, I still like the one we attended in 2008 when it was smaller in scale and more personalized.

In the afternoon, we went back to rest before meeting our families for dinner at Eatzi @ Safra Yishun in the evening.

On Sunday, we had a Yum Cha lunch with the extended families. The original plan was to celebrate Adrian’s birthday at lunch but in the end, we decided to have the celebration at dinner time.

(aces family with our 1st niece - faith Tan)
My youngest Sister in law is doing her confinement and Adrian has been drooling for 猪脚醋and thankfully, my youngest brother in law invited the family over for dinner and Aunty ML has specially prepared the dish for Adrian…hehe.

So dinner was simple and yet sumptuous meal and Adrian ate till his heart was contented. I had picked up some tips from aunty and hopefully I can brew a good pot of the pig trotters…hehe.

After dinner, we had a simple cake cutting ceremony and everyone had a great time with the cake and also analyzing the World Cup results. : )

Happy CelebrationS!!

This has been a very exciting week for me and also a happy one for the family.

On Monday, I attended a farewell lunch at ex-company. My Ex-manager had completed his 4 years expat terms in Singapore and is going back to USA. I had worked for him for 2 years and he was really a nice boss to work with. Took the opportunity to wish him all the best and may our path cross one day. I was really thankful that my ex-colleagues still regarded me as part of the team and invited me for the occasion.

On Tuesday, my youngest BIL and his wife decided to induce the delivery of their baby girl – Taeia Tan. And Taeie arrived in the early morning of Wednesday. All was well for my SIL and her baby, they were discharged on Thursday.

On Friday, together with Anthea, we went to visit my niece at my BIL’s home. She was very adorable and pretty. Anthea enjoy her time with her new cousin and kept saying she is cute. She even had the chance to sample some of the confinement food and she said it was yummy…haha.

After visiting, we went to the nearby food centre for our lunch; the whole place was newly renovated after the market was burnt down recently.

On Saturday, we had a dinner with my in-laws and 2nd BIL’s family. As Adrian was involved in this year National Day Parade and he was scheduled on duty, thus he could not join us. After dinner, we went to my 3rd BIL’s home to do a birthday cake cutting for my FIL. Also at the same time, we celebrated Father’s day for the 3 fathers whom were there, so it was double celebrations.

On Sunday, we had a late lunch at New York New York@ AMK Hub. As it was Adrian birthday this month, so he had some vouchers and freebies, so we decided to give ourselves a good treat.

In the evening, it was a Father’s day dinner with my parents at a Zi Char stall in AMK Ave 10. Anthea and Anders managed to catch up with their 大舅，阿公和阿婆。They were busied chatting away and asking them different questions.

After a very sumptuous meal, we went home to rest and also caught the World Cup matches LIVE on starhub. Yes, every 4 years, we will watch the LIVE matches and both Adrian and myself will analyze the scores and the situation. Sometimes we may even place small bets on the matches. It’s the thrill of watching LIVE Matches, especially when your dollars are on the underdogs…: )

“Executive” Family Treat

We were booked for a weekend stay at the Fairmont Singapore and this time, we were given Executive treatment…hehe. Yes, my MIL has extended her Raffles Inc. membership and with the package, she is entitled to a FREE night stay at the hotel Executive floor and had kindly offered the room for us to use.

Since the last time we had already tried out the executive room in Swissotel Stamford. This time she booked for us the Executive Room at the Fairmont Singapore.

On Saturday after Anders’s tuition class, we fetched him and went straight to the hotel and checked into the room. We were given Room 2330 which was on the same floor as the Executive Lounge.

We had a Harbour View room and we can see the new Marina Bay Sands building from our room balcony.

As usual, the children 1st and foremost request is always – Swimming Pool 1st. So immediately we changed and went to the pool for water fun. The poolside was crowded with families with children. I believed many families were also enjoying the staycation fun.

After swimming and playing around for about ½ hour, we went back to the room to change and rest. As we were on Executive Floor, we had the privilege to use the lounge. Cocktails were served from 5 to 8 pm. So I went to the lounge and took a nice cup of drink and had some finger snacks. At the same time, the receptionist also allowed me to bring back some snacks to the room for the children. The lounge does not allow admission to children below 12 years of age so they allow parents to bring food to the room.

When I brought back the snacks to the room, both Anthea and Anders were delighted and had a good time enjoying their tea break in the comfort of our room.

My parents in law brought my eldest niece to the hotel room in the evening to meet with us before the family dinner. My niece had a fun time playing with Anthea and Anders in the room while my in-laws went for the cocktails at the Executive Lounge.

After their cocktails, we walked over to Asia Grand Restaurant @ Odeon Towers for our usual weekend family dinner. My youngest brother in law and Sister in law are now in great anticipation on the arrival of their newborn this week. So our family tree will likely be expanded this week…hehe. : )

We went back to the hotel room after dinner for rest & relaxation with the families. We had tea/fruits and nuts as dessert and the children continued their play on the beds.

At around 9.30pm, the families went home and we rested for the night.

The next morning, we had our buffet breakfast at the Alligator Pear, it was by the poolside. This was our 1st time having breakfast by the poolside and it was a nice experienced for us.

We went back to our room and have a good rest after a sumptuous breakfast. Then around 11am, we went to the swimming pool again.

We swam for a good ½ hour before going back to the room to shower and change. We simply chilled and relaxed in the room till our checked out time at 2pm.

Then it was home sweet home for us. Another great staycation for us and we truly enjoyed the Executive Experienced.

4 Day 3Nights Sunway Lagoon & Kuala Lumpur Trip, 3 –6 June 2010

This is our family 3rd visit to Sunway Lagoon and 2nd time to KL and I must say – it gets better each time.

Day 1: Thursday, 3 June 2010
Singapore → Kuala Lumpur (MI 833 )Dep: 1615 / Arr 1705

It was a 45 minutes short flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Upon arrival, we were meet & greeted by the agent at the arrival hall. He briefed us on our next few days pick up itinerary and then fetch us to Sunway Lagoon Resort.

We checked into our room and I was happy and pleased to see that they had upgraded the rooms since we last stayed in 2006. The rooms seem to be modernized and also more hi-tech with all the electronic gadgets.

Immediately Anthea and Anders changed into their swimming gear and Adrian brought them to the pool for a quick swim. After swimming, they came back to change and we headed to Sunway shopping centre for our dinner. We had KFC as our 1st meal for this trip. I was so surprised that the KFC in Malaysia still served the bun which I used to dip with the whipped potatoes. : )

After a good dinner, we walked around the mall and discovered a few new shopping atriums. The place had changed and it is so much bigger now with so many shops.

Anthea and Anders had fun with the rides in the play area. After the rides, we went back to our room and rested for the night.

Day 2: Friday, 4 June 2010

We woke up to a nice sunny morning and had our buffet breakfast at the café. The Sunway theme park opens at 11am and we went in around 11.15am. The park admission ticket had now changed to include 3 parks instead of the previous Wet Park or Dry Park. So with our admission tickets, we could go to the Interactive Zoo and the Amusement Park within the theme park. Of course, the price of the ticket had gone up. For adult – RM$80 and Child is RM$65.


We had a whole morning of fun going round the different place in the park. Exploring the different rides and also trying a walk on the suspension bridge. The children were eager to get to the pool, so finally we ended at the poolside.

Around noon time, we decided to take a lunch break. As we had re-entry vouchers from the hotel, we were able to go back to the park later. So we decided to go for lunch and a short rest before going back again. It was the right decision as the children were tired out from all the slides and water play.

We had Macdonald for lunch and return to the room for an hour nap. In the evening around 4.30pm, we headed to the theme park for the water play. The children enjoyed them so much and finally left the park at its closing time – 6pm.

We went back to change and then headed to the mall for our dinner. We went to I Canton for dinner and the food was delicious.

After a good dinner, we walked around the mall a while before going back to rest.

Day 3: Saturday, 5 June 2010

We woke up to a sunny morning and had a sumptuous buffet breakfast at the café. Then we went back to pack up and got ourselves ready for our pick up from Sunway Lagoon to Kuala Lumpur Berjaya Times Square.


We arrived at the hotel around 11.45am and checked into our room on the 39th floor. Once again, we went straight to the swimming pool and had a quick swim.


Then we went back to change and headed to the Times Square shopping mall for our lunch. The mall is huge and it has about 10th storey of shops and restaurant. There is an Indoor theme park in this mall. It is the Cosmos Theme park.

After lunch, we went to the theme park, as requested by the children. We went in and they tried different rides at the children section. They had a whole afternoon of great fun going from rides to rides. Both of them especially enjoyed the bumper car. : P

After almost 4 hours of fun rides in the park, we decided to call it a day. We had dinner at a restaurant called Uncle Duck and I remembered this was the same outlet we had eaten before during our trip in 2007. The food was nice and price affordable.

Day 4: Sunday, 6 June 2010
Kuala Lumpur → Singapore (MI 321) 1215/1305

We woke up early for our buffet breakfast. Our pick up was 9am and we were all set for home sweet home.


It has been a wonderful family vacation and Sunway Lagoon seems to be like our 2nd home or 3rd….just like Club Med. It’s a very family oriented vacation and the children had a splendid time.

I am glad that Anders is now enjoying more of the water fun and he no longer has fear in water. As for Anthea, she is still enjoying the theme park rides and I believe if we go back to the Cosmo Theme Park, she will be too tall for the kiddy rides.

Our Vesak Special

Vesak holiday was on Friday and so it was a long weekends for the family.

Friday morning, I was reading the newspaper during breakfast and noticed there were loads of sales and fairs happening. So after some discussion, we decided to head for the Singapore Book Fair at Suntec city.

We arrived at the convention hall around 11am. It was still early and many of the booths were still setting up. We walked around and the children were looking for books of their preference.

We found a booth that had Geronimo Stilton books at $7 per book. Immediately Anthea bought 3 of them. Anders bought for himself a Dino book.

Then we went to the food court for our lunch. After lunch we went for a bit of shopping at Carrefour before heading home to rest.

Dinner was with my extended families at Peach Garden. My In-laws were going to Hong Kong with my 2nd Brother in law’s family for the next few days for their holidays.

On Saturday morning, Adrian brought Anthea and Anders to my youngest brother in law place for a swim. I was busy with my Mariah’s duty at home.

Then in the evening, we went to Orchard Road for our dinner cum window shopping. Adrian likes the Mala Pot at 313@Sommerset. So as and when we were eating on our own, this would be our favorite hunt. We had Mala pot while the children had noodles.

After dinner, we took a slow stroll in Orchard Road and it was crowded. The Great Singapore Sale is on and people are busy buying away. We went to Takashimaya as the children wanted to go to Kinokuniya. Yes, seem like they had taken a liking to books and Adrian commented that he has companionship to bookstore now.

At kinokuniya, Anthea bought an Enid Blyton book and Anders bought a sport book. Both of them were very happy with their new books. At the same time, we managed to change our Malaysia Ringgit at the money changer in the mall.

Then we went to TCC@ Wisma Atria for our supper. We had drinks & cake and Anthea commented that – “this was a night out for our family, I really enjoy it.” Yes, there were TV Ads she had seen on TV that promotes Singapore night out and she always wanted to do one.

We called it a day around 10pm and headed home via the MRT.

It was a relaxing Sunday, Anders had his usual swimming lesson and Anthea went along to do her laps.

In the evening, we had dinner at my parent’s place. It was a spread of home cooked Beef stew and duck. As usual, the dinner was sumptuous and delicious. After dinner desserts were bird nest soup and my home made durian puddings. I was really happy that they enjoyed the puddings.

This has been a Zen and relaxing weekends for us. Nothing beat having the families around you and enjoying each other companionship on such occasion.

上海之旅 – 18 May to 21 May 2010

The four days in Shanghai passed so quickly and this trip had been an amazing experienced for me.

Day 1 – Tuesday, 18 May

Departure – SQ 828 Singapore to Shanghai

Upon arrival, I took the Maglev Train from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to the Longyang Road Station. From here, I took a local taxi to the Renaissance Yu Yuan Shanghai Hotel. The Maglev train is similar to the “Bullet Train” in Europe/Japan and its speed can run up to 443KM/Hr. I was really impressed with its speed and it took me about 10minutes ride.

Upon checking in to the hotel, I met up with my UK Manager and we had a quick chat before proceeding to our 1st client visit.

After the meeting, we went back to the hotel and checked function room that we would be using for the following day Full Day meeting were set up in order.

In the evening, we had a quick meet up with the meeting facilitator and walked through a few pointers before heading off for dinner.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest.

Day 2 – Wednesday, 19 May

8 am to 4 pm was our full day meeting at the hotel. It was a very good meeting I was tasked to assist the facilitator in the notes taking. It was my 1st experience taking notes for such meeting and it was a great learning experience for me.

After the full day meeting, we had another client appointment at 5pm till 6pm in Pudong. As we were near the Financial Centre, my Manager suggested we take the chance to view the World Tallest Building - Shanghai World Financial Centre. Yes, we took the tour and went all the way up to the 100th floor of the building. It was a magnificent feeling when we were at the top. The only drawback was the view was a little cloudy due to the mist in the air.

Shanghai has all these supertall skyscrapers and each building has its unique “crown” to top the building and it’s an eye-opening experienced. Now I know our buildings are “small & pale” in comparison. : P

We had dinner at Tin-Tai-Feng at the mall in the building. As my Manager is a British and it’s her 1st time in Shanghai, I know it would be good to let her try as many Chinese dishes as possible. She truly enjoyed the 拉面和小笼包。

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and called it day. I went to the hotel pool to take a quick dip and at the same time took some photos of the pool, as requested by Anthea. At night, I had the chance to skype with Adrian and we updated each other on our happening in our respective S countries…haha. I also had the chance to talk to both Anthea and Anders on skype. It was assuring to know they were getting on fine and logistic had worked out fine too.

Day 3 – Thursday, 20 May

We had 3 meetings from morning till afternoon. It was a good exposure for me, especially to meet all these Clients in person and a simple handshake with everyone makes a difference.

As our last client’s office was based in an industrial part about an hour from city, so it took up our whole afternoon. Thank goodness, we had a very patience taxi driver, whom was willing to wait for us while we had a meeting with our Client. (He didn’t charge us for the waiting time…hehe.)

After the meeting, we went back to the hotel to change and freshen up before our next assignment. Yes, we visited another hotel recommended and took a quick look at the meeting rooms. After the viewing, we went to The Bund and had wanted to have our dinner there. However, some of the restaurants needed prior reservation and the one that was available cost a bomb, so we decided to find an affordable dinner venue.

The Bund night scene was simply beautiful with all the buildings of colonial designs. It felt as if we were walking in a part of Europe and it was also kind of romantic with the special lighting. However, the human traffics is equally BIG…haha. Just like what I heard before – 上海看人头。


As we were walking back to our hotel, we discovered a Chinese restaurant named 老北京and it was famous for 北京烤鸭. I brought my manager in and we had a very good meal of Peking duck with other small dishes. She enjoyed the dishes as much as I did.

Day 4 – Friday, 21 May

We had our final client visit at 11am and after the meeting, we went back to the hotel to do our checked out.

Then we headed off to the airport in the same taxi. My Manager was going to Hong Kong for other client’s visits and also to meet with her daughter who is doing internship in Hong Kong.

At the airport, we bade each other good bye and look forward to our next meeting…Singapore, Shanghai or London….just maybe…: )


Dep : SQ 833 Shanghai - Home Sweet Home.

Overall, I had truly enjoyed this working trip. I had the chance to learn so much and my best take away from the trip would be the Personal touch and saying hello to all my subscribers. Nothing beat this compared to all the nice flowery words on the emails.

Also another good take away on home ground is that they had learnt to be independent during my absence and logistic was all under controlled.

The doors are open and the opportunities are plenty. I look forward to my next challenge in the job.


Also finally i bought my own set of the 嗒嗒球!