{ Set them free.

Monday, December 21, 2009

{ freed on 22:19

Merry Christmas Extinct Gang!
This year our gatherings were all aimed to be hosted at our homes and lucky us got to celebrate Xmas at liyean's new house. Potluck party with great food-salad, pasta, grilled chicken, sheperd's pie, ham, mudpie! The atmosphere was heightened with liyean's decorations on the table, red scented candles and pretty flowers, romatic! And for the first time, all of us brought our partners so the gang was bigger and more fun!

What's a party without Xmas gift exchange which comes with constraints, no Bodyshop, no mugs, no food items! The gift has to be meaningful! Besides gifts exchange, there was also our Xmas cards exchange, year after year without fail, this gang have always been making it a point to write cards, even if we don't meet up, it will be via post! Sweets!

This year, to make things more christmas, more jolly, i went to learn how to make gingerbread man so that we could have a "Decorate your gingerman" competition. At first everyone was weary about how to go about decorating it, but after a while all the creative juices were flowing and it was super fun. As we decorate, we were eating the decorations too, to the point we were short of M&Ms. Of course we got to name our gingerbread man too!
Now, I will have to think of ways to bake a piglet shape so that when we gather next year for mooncake festival, we are going to have a "Decorate your piglet"!

With all the sugar rush and calories from the yummy food, it was time to exercise! Some played mahjong and the rest played Wii. It was real fun playing Wii with the girls! Just we know why it was great fun!

Good times are short lived, but it will always remain in our hearts and memories. Pity our party was on a Sunday, had it been on Saturday, we definitely would have partied all night thru'!

Our 2010 resolution would be to celebrate all our birthdays together!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

{ freed on 19:47

Dear & me in Bali for 3days!
Bali's not a bad place to chill and relax,but definitely got to be more prepared with snacks and drinks especially since it's a tourist area and things were pretty costly. Comparing Bali and beaches in Thailand, i guess i prefer Thailand being more affordable and food wise alot times better and more options. But surprisingly, Italian food in Bali isn't that bad and it was more reasonable then eating their local food.
We were short of beach time as we spent the one day sightseeing and only had the first day and last day before catching our flight to sun. Last day, sun was hidden by grey clouds and light drizzle, first day we only had like 2 hours plus to spend at the beach as we arrived in late afternoon. Might go back to Bali again, but that next time will be purely just chilling and relaxing at the beach and staying in the hotel.
I managed to use my Bahasa Indo, listening to their radio and understanding bits and pieces of conversations and communicating a little with our driver.

After sunny Bali, next up....wintery Osaka...akan datang in lima hari!!! That is 5 days! :)

Thursday, December 03, 2009

{ freed on 12:37

December has arrived, the last month of 2009. Just barely another 20 odd days before this year comes to an end. Many changes took place this year, can hardly comprehend the changes at all. Wonder what is to come in 2010.

This final month of 2009, gatherings for Xmas , travelling overseas, catch ups with friends...
Dear and me will be travelling to Bali and Osaka..2 total extreme climates, one is sunny and bright, the other is going to be cold and white. Our travel plans keep on changing because of the school holidays and air tix are hard to get..planned to do a 2-week Japan trip, but air tix are all full, so had to make a decision and cut our trip into half, just going for a week (chose Osaka over Tokyo, keeping that for next year). Then as dear has many leave days to clear, so we decided to take a short trip, a relaxing one to Bali, but this trip wouldn't just be both of us, there's bro and dad too!
Looking forward to the holidays, and the gatherings that are planted in the midst of the trips.

Last weekend has a SEC gathering, with a post birthday celebration for all the November babies. Gathering was great i guess, just that 18 people and the super long table didn't make movements and interactions that efficient. The next one is coming soon, for Xmas, but me and dear wouldn't be joining i guess, other parties clashing.

The most memorable party gathering planning i guess this year would be Extinct's Xmas party..most of us are travelling such that Erin had to use a Google calender to plot all our travelling dates to determine which are our outstanding dates left to meet up..kinda stunned us! But it was a great way to plan! And this time, partners are included, and we will be having double strength. This year is probably a year that we have been meeting up the most number of times and this is really fun and great! Our theme this year is all house gatherings, starting off at my house with BBQ, steamboat at Shiwei's, supposed baking session at Phil's been postponed and now Xmas will be at yean's house plus a house warming for her! FUN FUN FUN! :)

Dear and me will be celebrating our Xmas in Japan, though i am very sure that it wouldn't be a white one, but surely a fun and memorable one. We will be celebrating together with pam, ryan and aunt in Osaka together, because the 5 of us are all travelling together there, just that they are arriving one day before us and we are departing one day after them. This will be my 2nd overseas trip with pam, the first being in europe. A plus for me and dear, because we can have pam as our camera lady, taking couple shots for us, but i will also be their family photographer.

Let everything go well for this final month of 2009 and all things better in 2010!
:) For all........