beloved bel

A memorable Christmas 2008 (also my longest trip so far) Pris invited me a few months back to join the Tews family for Christmas this year and I thought that'd be really cool since this is my first Christmas away from family and to join another family celebrating it would be a good idea. finally seeing Pris after 1.5yrs! Like how Pris mentioned on her blog, we go back a long way in NTU days where we were in the same DG.. went on exchange together.. knew Stephan at the same time.. witnessed how they got together, and eventually witnessed their wedding! :D Day 1 London - Stuttgart First thing to stress is... feels really good to have someone pick me up from the airport, thanks to Pris and Stephan! My first ever since I came to Europe! No hassle of figuring out how to get to hotel, where's the train, etc.. :) Had a chinese meal at their fav Asian restaurant and then walked around the lovely Stuttgart Christmas Market (100 times better than the W...

Today is my best friend's Min's church wedding but sigh unfortunately I cannot be there in person... nonetheless, she still sent me a copy of their wedding invite which I thought was really nice. Min, hope you don't mind me putting on my blog! :) Congrats again dear and wishing you and Derek both a blessed marriage! Hope you like what Emily and I bought you... and the mini clip we recorded in my living room! (Must show me photos when I go back okie!)

Tonight I went to the German Christmas market at Waterloo area with Isabelle after work, highly recommended by one of my CG friends. And... it was such a letdown! They said there are 30 stalls and we thought it would be very nice, all things German, etc.... when we went there, it was along the river alright but the stalls are spaced apart from each other and the things which they sold did not catch our eye, nor was there any crowd. Just the occassional cold wind blowing from the river. We finished walking thru the stalls in less than 20min before settling down for dinner at Canteen. haiz... I think I shall just look forward to the real German Christmas market next week! (Seriously we think pasar malams back home are even better than this christmas market.)

EVERYONE loves Christmas, but in the midst of this festive cheer, dear friends, let us not forget the real reason we are celebrating this special day... :) "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior , who is Christ the Lord . "And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Luke 2:11-14

Thank God, finally the fever subsided and now what is left is the cough. I know my family has been worried sick especially I am miles away and seriously I was scared too since I've never had a high fever for so many days. I wonder how soon do people recover from fever and flu here without antibiotics and just based on paracetamol? I guess our bodies are different- people are used to not having antibiotics here but mine isn't, hence a torturing week. Anyway it's back to work tomorrow, something which I am looking forward to actually! This is officially my longest stretch of MC for fever & flu - 5 whole days in total! Unbelievable. One funny thing is that when I read back my blog, I realised that when I had my first bout of cold in the first week of Dec, I wrote a "bad cold" which was actually true but then when I compared it with the past week, I seem to have forgotten how bad the first bout was. It all suddenly pales in comparison. I actually spent 2 weeks of ...

I have been so sick for the past 2 weeks! First I lost my voice which I mentioned but that was fine, just couldn't talk but still felt okay. And then on the way home from Madrid, from Gatwick airport back to home, I caught a chill again and this time round, I was hit with high fever and flu again, and cough. Monday went to work but couldn't take it, left half day. Tuesday spent the day resting at home. Thinking I was fine, I went back to work on Wednesday but it was so bad, I couldn't stop shivering in the office and told my manager I had to go home. My temp was 38.3deg at night n I woke up shivering in the middle of the night again and in the morning, it was 38.7deg. I think I nearly fainted upon seeing my temperature. My whole body just felt like exploding and couldn't stop coughing. This cold weather is making everyone fall sick and there is a flu bug going around. Thank God for good friends though.. Cynthia brought a basin of ice water to my room and kept c...

We spent the last weekend in Madrid as planned by Eric n Co months ago. They wanted to watch soccer and the girls thought we'd tag along to eat, shop.. blah since we are not soccer fans. and oh no I think we picked the wrong weekend to go Madrid coz it was the 30th Constitution Anniversary weekend (something like a National Day?) and people just thronged the streets like anything! look at the crowd in the day and at night the famous Madrid bear; some guy blowing the bagpipe the Real Madrid Store; after the rain in a surprisingly quiet street We were totally caught by surprise and with a big group of 12 of us, it was logistically very difficult to find places to eat, etc. And then unfortunately I think the guys booked their tickets too late, they could only get seperate seats which they thought not much point so they gave it a miss. People were kinda protesting in the streets where we stayed and it was very chaotic. Oh no plus I've just recovered...

wow it's been sometime since I blogged! Well last week was monthend week; I was down with a very bad cold plus my colleague went back India for 3 weeks so in essence, I could not take any sick leave :( He went back Mumbai to attend his friend's wedding and we were all very worried for him as we could not reach him. (n just today he came back office safely YAY) Last week was a busy week coz not only monthend, we had a GEM Christmas Party (Global Emerging Markets which is the line of biz I am in) and it was a party with everyone in GEM. Front, Mid, Back office, Ops, Research, Risk, Trade Suppport, blah. And I turned up with my ultra croacky voice, no choice. It was quite a good event to finally label people's names with faces since we seldom have such a chance. Hmm an eye opener for me too I thought. They booked Bar Susho and with free flow of drinks paid by the front office bosses, so you can imagine the scene. ~~~~~ where the Christmas presents are! with Monica And then Fri...