beloved bel

People have been asking me "how's life?" these days knowing I am enjoying some time off work.  The first day of freedom, I felt really weird.  In fact I woke up at 540am (it's summer so it's all bright and cheery by 5am) and I could not get back to sleep.  I started to think of the weekly 8am meeting at work and told myself not to be so silly because I started to feel nostalgic and sad.  K being a light sleeper saw me tossing and turning and told me "don't be crazy, get back to sleep…" In the afternoon I thought I'd take a 20min walk to our high street to get some food and also some flowers for the house since I will be home for most of the time now.  When I was there, I was greeted with groups of school kids after school hours - giggling, laughing, chasing one another down the road - and the sight just looked really foreign to me.  The whole day I kept having this thought of "omg I am jobless?!".  Silly I know.  It's just realisi

Warning: emo post ahead So that was it.  I said good bye to my friends, colleagues, manager and team mates,  I've been arranging farewell lunches and coffee catch ups with people I would love to keep in touch with.  Lots of eating and coffees! For the first time probably, I had no Monday blues.  I went in to work with a somewhat heavy heart.  So emo I know... I did not do any work on my last day.  I had the usual Monday morning team meeting followed by breakfast with a colleague and another ex team mate for a coffee.  When Ade gave me a card he coordinated with the junior bankers, I was very touched.  In fact I thought I might cry.  I opened it and closed it immediately, thanking him and saying I will read it later.  He even accompanied me to M&S to get sweets for my team.  Over here if it is your birthday, or if you are leaving, you usually buy sweets (anything sweet - cookies, biscuits, gummy bears, Percy Pigs, cakes) for your team. And within my team, we have a traditi

The alarm goes off at 7.20am.  I snooze and finally roll out of bed at 7.40am.  I take 20min to get ready which K says is a long time because all he needs is 10min (still trying to figure out how does he do that).  I usually decide on what to wear the night before so I don't waste any time.  Make up is done within 5min.. and he is usually at sitting at the stairs hurrying me "it's 8am!  Quick, let's go!"  Sometimes it sounds like a threat "Quick!  I'm gonna go first!  Don't want to miss the train!"  We take the 8.04am train so yes we are cutting it very fine.  We are lucky enough to live 2min from the train station.  In fact, where our garden ends is the station carpark and then the train platform. (We seriously considered putting a gate at the end of the garden to make the morning walk more bearable.) I arrive at work about 8.45am where my team is usually in by then.  Everyone works hard in the team even though official working hours starts

I've recently made a huge life decision.  And that is to say goodbye to my job and also to the firm which I have made my home for the past 10 years and 4 months.  Yes the very first company I've worked for since I graduated and oh how far I've come, and how much I've grown. I still remember how I got my first role in the bank.  Imagine me: fresh grad not knowing what to do in life.  All I knew was I could earn decent money working in banking and all I remember was trusting God and praying for my career and future.  One evening after dinner I still remember strolling at good old Junction 8.  I bumped into a uni tutorial mate D and I almost didn't want to say hi because I didn't know her well.  Fate would have it that we should say hi and when she told me where she was working, I was full of envy if I be very honest.  There I was trying to figure out my career path, there she was telling me she is working for a top investment bank.  But because I still think tha

I've been recently reminding myself to use my juice blender more and more.  If you recall, I bought it last year to make mango sago pomelo, an Asian dessert, as part of our Come Dine with Me competition amongst our friends.  And the machine has been stagnant until a few months ago where I used it to make some rock melon milk shake which was pretty refreshing. Paul who sits beside me has recently been bringing in a fresh blended juice concoction every day for breakfast and I always would ask about his "breakfast of the day".  One day he would have a mixture of frozen berries, and another he would bring in a green juice.  Sometimes his berry juice would also have some oatmeal as well, since it's breakfast.  Personally, I'm not sure about raw oatmeal in a fruit juice.. On Friday he brought in another green looking juice and again I asked him what's inside.  He told me apple, kiwi, cucumber, spinach and lime.  Ooh doesn't that sound refreshing?  I like the

I was tempted to title this post "Spring in the Garden" because really the weather only warmed up this past few days.  But this being June, should technically be the start of summer. I risk sounding like a farmer but friends, this is the growing season!  The grass in our garden has been growing steadily and hubby Ong has been mowing the lawn consistently too.  In the process we have witnessed the undying spirit of the cute but strong daisies in the lawn.  They get mowed away but not before long do we see them sprouting up again like nothing has happened.  The Ah Q spirit of the daisies. We went to church this morning and everyone was raving about the great weather.  We came home after lunch and I thought I could take some photos in the garden and share on my blog with you. So here they are.. a little tour of our garden.  Let's start from the front, right after we step out of our kitchen door which leads into the garden. I bought a pot of eucalyptus plant and it