Man must be happy!

When man is in good mood, they give you gifts and adore you.Flowers from baby ron and Russian dolls from EJ.And many more to come...he called back and asked me if i will like a coat which he thought was lovely. I kindly decline ( which was kinda of stupid on my side) coz i thought we should be thrifty. He was in heaven since last Friday. Now ladies, i know how to get what you want. Make your man HAPPY!!!

Weekend Retreat Part II

My fellowship grp leader .she is a real cool babe. I learn so much from her and husband. SHe is so confident and mature. I am glad i am with them .
Sunday school gang excluding EJ. I am gg to start helping out the next following week and i was totally thrilled to be able to serve. I am glad that things work out. I am very thankful that i got to know them better during this retreat.
Min, the ever sassy babe from malaysia but has been in Uk for the past ten years. Linguist and a talented gal, she is one with interesting personality whom most guys will find it attractive yet too hard to deal with
Mel , the financial controller of the church
Out in the field to hv some fun with football and fresbie

And i want to join in as well.... My name is Joel and I am 2.5 years old
My name is Talia and I am only 18mths
I am wondering what is this big sister doing over here
Joel is blocking my view... he wants to join in the fun as well
Now i Have a better view.geez:)

Reuben!!!I love you!

hey ,my name is reuben and i am 2 years old!!!
I love to stick my fingers in my mouth and pose..
I also like to give smiles coz i am a happy baby!!
I am not too happy now coz i cannot join in the fun to play soccer.
I can only look from afar...

Isn't he lovely and adoable???/I love him so much.ARGHHH....SO adoroable with his clear blue eyes and blondie hair....i wish he was my prince charming.Ahahhaha..no more ang moh babies

Missing Jigsaw

This morning was heavy. Woke up with a thumping heart.Probably, the love one was away in New York and would not be back till next week. Something seemed to be missing . Like a missing jigsaw piece from a complete picture.You never realised any differences till there are changes.You try to search for a reason why but you couldn't find any. Suddenly, only this rang to your heart:"Absence makes one's heart grown fonder."You thought how true is that.

0.5 year wedding anniversary celebration :)

Ron's Main dish: Beef with whipped potato

My Main dish: Hackle with spanish minced meat
Scallops with truffles for starter

Decorative piece

I looked fat with this purple jacket which i hv no worn since Korea trip in 2003

Ron is very pleased whenever there is nice food!

Love,sometimes all you need is love

Driven by Love -- From China to America
How I launched a new life in the United States by resolving to follow a girl.
By Donald Tang, DONALD TANG is a vice chairman of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.September 3, 2006

I CAME TO AMERICA from my native China more than 24 years ago. I had $20 in my pocket and spoke little English. I came to stay. I came for love. I was 17. I was 14 when I first met my future wife, Jean, at a math competition. It was love at first sight. It wasn't easy winning her heart. But she was all I could think about, all the time. I figured that if I could spend more time with her, something would happen. She was in the grade ahead of me, so I needed a plan. Over the summer holidays, I immersed myself in the course work for the next level and dreamed of jumping to her grade. I spoke to the dean about skipping a grade. He was intrigued, so he arranged for a series of tests and assembled a panel of teachers to grill me. I emerged with top scores in all subjects except English. So I promised the dean that I would work extra hard to improve my English with the help of the class deputy. He approved, unaware of the brilliance of the plan he was a co-conspirator to. The English class deputy was the girl of my dreams. I had learned a lesson: I could be the master of my own life journey if my dreams were powered by love and sustained through confidence, hard work and the willingness to take risks.Skipping grades was a rare occurrence in China then. It was 1977, Deng Xiaoping was back in power and education was in vogue, so I became an accidental celebrity. On my first day in my new grade, a blackboard at the school entrance proclaimed in huge characters "Learn from Tang Wei," which was my Chinese name. That didn't impress Jean though. She didn't seem interested in me. A few weeks later, our teacher was conducting a demonstration for other teachers throughout the city that included a challenging question-and-answer session with gifted students. When she turned to me, I didn't utter a word; I was silent as stone. She was dumbfounded, maybe even annoyed. The Cultural Revolution was still not too far in the past, which may be why I was forced to write a self-critical essay denouncing my behavior. I refused. Our teacher was livid. She told me that if I didn't write the essay, I could stay in her office forever.Jean came into the office to drop off some papers. Everyone had heard about my meltdown. She saw me sulking and asked if I was still coming for my lesson with her that afternoon. Bingo! I whipped off the essay to win back my freedom. When we met later, she was curious about my behavior earlier. This was my opening. I expressed my true feelings about her. The rest is history. Then the unthinkable happened. Her whole family was moving, not to another city but to another world. America! I decided I would follow her. I had no doubt that we would be together and that nothing would stand in my way. I was 17.One night I scanned the Yellow Pages and found the listing for the U.S. consul general's office. An "emergency" number was listed. This was certainly an emergency, so I dialed it. It connected me directly to the consul general's residence, and he answered himself. Luckily, he spoke fluent Mandarin and seemed delighted to talk to me. Americans back then had minimal contact with Chinese people. I told him my emergency was that my girlfriend had moved to America and that I had to move there to be with her. He spent the next three hours explaining what I needed to do to make it happen.It took nine months of intensive work to get all the forms completed properly, coordinating information between me in China and my girlfriend in the U.S., who was sponsoring me for a student visa. There was much correspondence with an array of bureaucracies, and about 200 love letters that I penned to her during this period. When all the paperwork was compiled, I contacted the consul general, my first American friend, with the good news. He was delighted but suggested I sit tight for a week as he'd be traveling. I didn't have a great reserve of patience back then, so I showed up at the consulate before his return. All I needed now was a visa. I was going to America!The visa counselor asked me two questions. "Why do you want to go to America?" "My girlfriend is there," I said. No Jeffersonian flourishes about wanting to live in a democracy for me. "Do you plan to return to China?" "That depends," I responded. She quickly jotted down a few letters on my application, stamped my Chinese passport "214B" and showed me the door. "214B," I quickly found out, meant that I had "immigration tendencies" — a high probability that I'd stay in the U.S. beyond my allotted time. I would likely never be admitted to America with that stamp on my passport. I was devastated. I returned to my new American friend. He had a new visa counselor see me. That's all it took. My life changed, and I'll always be grateful to this man. Jean eventually became an American citizen, and I was able to stay in the U.S. after we married. I later became a citizen too. Love empowers people to do wonderful things. As a nation of immigrants, we are an amalgamation of love stories from around the world. Not just the love between a man and a woman. It can be love of success, of democracy or anything imaginable. Every immigrant has his or her own special love story. This is my story of coming to America for love. Love is a powerful motivator. But you must have faith in yourself. You must work toward your goal ceaselessly. You must take risks. You must dial the consul general's number and tell him about your emergency. You must engage the dean directly. You must tell that girl you love her

[Taken from http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-tang3sep03,0,3386416.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary]

What i do in a week????

Hihi, just thought of updating what i have been doing so far. Everyone has been bombarding me with the same question: What did I do in a week? I guess i have a more decent report to make to all of you since i got myself a part time job for just three days in a week.
Henceforth: Monday , Tuesday and Friday, i will be working for Teachfirst to do some office admins and ad-hoc projects. Will also get to follow the COO to some secondary schools for observations.Thurday, i will be volunteering myself at TumbleTots. Wednesday will be my enrichment day at LBS.And not forgetting, i will be starting to volunteering to teach at a Sunday school in two weeks time. I am so happy!!!!Now that the weekly schedule is so packed , i wonder if i have time to explore London!:)

London Woman's Convention

God works in mysterious way,isn't he? I feel that he is answering all my prayers now,he is so near and i can feel that he is watching over me. Yesterday was such an eventful day. Soaking up in his presence at the London Woman Convention the whole day was thrilling.The highlight of the day was the Seminar: Submission of Marriage. I did not get to choose this as i bought the ticket during last week.Many of my churchmates have choosen others . I believed god has put me in this seminar for a reason. Lots of discusion with other women (mostly older) and you realise that all woman are the same.Critical, Naggy,to eager to take charge and sometimes this will not help our man to rise up as a leader in the family. There are cases of wife abuses, husbands on drugs and alcohol where the speaker found it hard to give a specific answer to them.We began to pray as a congregation for them I thank god that i did not have a husband like that.Submission , there is no hard rule to that but always remember how our lord submits and die for us ,sinners . We will know that submission is not shameful, is not demeaning but has its value and purpose. It does not mean inequality or we have to be agreeable to everything. Submission to our marriage involves unconditional sacrifice,respect to our husband both in speech and behaviour. God creates woman to be a helper but that does not mean that a woman is inferior to man. Woman can rise up in work place as well. Woman can take charge when the man is too busy work. Woman can take up leadership positions as well. All in all,god creates woman and man to be complement to each other.None will be perfect with each other and is how they try to work out between each other to achieve what god has for their designated divine roles.

Thank you lord, for taking care of every little needs in my life. You know what are the lacks in my life and you complete them. I longed to dwell in your presence forever and pray that you will keep my families safe and sound.Amen.

Friday 13th?Is yours lucky or unlucky

The biggest tower,the white tower!!

Ron is too greedy with the fish and chips! At the Medival Tower...

Towers of London from afar London bridge is falling down....

If you have realised today is Friday 13th ,then you need luck to beat worst Friday in 500 yrs. Add up the digits 13/10/2006 = 13!!! Gosh , how true do you believe in this ? The traditional fear of friday 13th comes from a belief that adam and eve ate forbidden fruit on a Friday and that Cain killed his brother Abel on a Friday 13th.

Another theory is that on friday 13th ,the knights templar -a medival christian military order were arrested ,tormented and killed.As a result, you can see some office buildings do not hv level 13th or airlines do not have row 13.

Well, i think if you believe that is gg to be your unlucky day and you spend it in anxiety, i think you are more likely than usual to have an accident.

Anyway,mine wasn't. It was a lucky day for me!!BB took some time off to spend time with me as he would be occupied this coming Sunday and Saturday. We went to Tower of london.Great weather with lots of sunshine. Tower or London is impressive and interesting. It is not very big and we managed to cover the whole place in 3 hours. It reminded me alot of Harry Potter and inspired me to have a mediaval styled bedroom and party.

Sweet young ones

I enjoyed myself at Tumbletots yesterday with those little ones. It made me gleened with joy whenever they took a small step to try the obstacles. I like to see that they are confident of themselves and they are enjoying their time with friends. They are sweet bunch and I could not contain to give them hugs and kisses. No barrier when it comes to giving hugs. Everybody loves hugs and they responded well to me . The innocence , the trust and honesty...you simply cannot resist to adore them. All are worthwhile for the time spend with the young ones again. I will come back next week again.I am glad I went.

Rainbow

I always thought that rainbow is a good sign from heaven .And hence i will always get excited when i see one.It means good things are lying ahead and God will fulfilled his promises .

The last time i remembered seeing a rainbow is the one in Niagara fall.And before that when i climbed Ophir with BB Interestingly, I only see rainbow when I am intensely praying for something and thus it is a good sign frm haven to me.

Look how happy I am.EJ spotted me while on his way back home and he took this picture for me. I am still busy munching. At the background,is the mellenium dome.

fun!

On Friday night, I thought of having a MASK party but EJ is not back yet. So i decided to try it on BB. he looked very relaxed and reallie enjoying the cool cucumber mask.And guess what he received some comments the next day that his complexion looked more glowy dewy.:)
I accompanied Aileen to do her shopping at Bond Street.I love this woman.She is my sister in Christ. So matured in her walk and always readily to offer her advice.Independent ,sexy and confident,she is one woman who knows what she wants..even in her shopping.Went round with her the whole day just to get her specific good quality JohnSMedley knitted wear and her Polo Ralph Blue,black labels.(well i din know that pola ralph has so many collections until she enlighten me)
On Saturday, met up with another bunch of Singaporeans recommended by Corrine for dim sum at Joy Luck.Have fun but too bad the table was too big and I did not reallie get to talk to some girls over the desk
Wanted to post some pictures of the dim sum hahah but chge my mind and decided to post a picture of the Salmon which I attempted to cook for the first time. Not bad huh... the salmon is reallie fresh but we paid about 8 quids for 2 slices.WEll a small treat once every fornight for us

Paris Part (I)

1)First part of the Paris trip we went on the last week of September. Too lazy to upload all the pictures and too much to write about and hence decided to do a photoblog about this trip.I love Paris, is cheaper than london, very accessible and you just feel your creative juices can overflow when you are in this city.This is our minihoneymoon, prelude to the actual one .( God knows when it will happen?:)
Sherine, this is the car you bought!!!Well ron decided to pose a picture here coz this is from France. He is not a big fan of Peugeot. I asked him to pose coz i want a similar post like mine



2)I am not a big fan of Cartier but sisters-in-laws are. Winnie and Phoon, aren't you jealous? Well apparently seemed to be cheaper in Paris. I felt so weird coz Corrine worked here and she always used to tell me that she has to wait for her shipment of the jewellery she ordered from Paris. And here I am at the main branch. Very classic building, isn't it?






















3) Can you spot the differences between these two pictures? Well taken from the top of Arc de Tromphe overlooking Champs de Elysee, their orchard road,lots of shopping.I can see the whole of paris from here!!Feel so great to be up there..now i can sing My french song about Arc de Tromphe to the kids with more conviction!!!Anyway, these two pictures are the same. I happened to upload two and decided to play a small prank.



4) Majestic Arc de Tromphe was build to Commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon, shortly after his victory at Austerlitz, it was not finished until 1836. There are four huge relief sculptures at the bases of the four pillars. These commemorate The Triumph of 1810 (Cortot); Resistance , and Peace (both by Etex); and The Departure of the Volunteers, more commonly known by the name La Marseillaise (Rude).

Be careful of some Chinese Ladies who loiter around this area to ask you to use your passports to buy LV bags for them. We are almost fooled by them. Though i think they are harmless,just want to get the cheaper authentic LV bags to sell in Asia,is better to be safe than sorry




5) Ron and I at the bottom of the Arc de Tromphe. Check out all the names of the soldiers who died in the French Revolution . Tons of them who have braved courageously in
the war. We need to pass by this structure to get back to where we stayed -- Hotel Darcet. A pretty decent "hotel " with decent toilets for the price paid but unfriendly service from the grumpy boss at times. Breakfast served every morning and i will recommend it for its strategic location

A blasting start to the week

Thank god that he has led me to a great fellowship group at the church. Attended my first meeting and it was awesome .Studied the gospel of John 1 and learned so much.is always good to come together to study the word.I never felt so comfortable in a group and praying aloud. This week started off with lots of activities .Fulfiling. Attended my first BSF on Monday(yes quite involved in bible studies over here as I think this is a good time to reflect and study the word) and was totally inspired and motivated. Having a woman bible studies fellowship is good and this allows me to keep on going even when I move back to Carolina and hopefully by the seventh year, I will complete my studies.

And not forgetting i started my Japanese class ( or maybe a refresher for me ) at LBS today. Silly me try to sign up the Intermediate which is too advance for me.Well make a couple of good friends which added on to my social circle.

Praying hard for the volunteering work which i am going to do at Tumbletots tommorow.Hopefully I will be able to get involved in some interesting work. Sadly, the Hampstead branch has replied and said they will not be hiring at this branch and this means I will not be able to earn some extra income. Probably i should just give up the idea of working and just enjoy my stay over here.

The Singaporean /Malaysian Party

Canary Wharf,look like Raffles Place right?

The river bank

Look at the garnishes, done by me !!Ha

Nasi Lemak Yummy!
Drooling Chicken Rice

The cook for the both Naisi lemak and chicken rice

The set up for the champagne and cocktail
A quick shot before the guests arrival
Part of the boys gang that night
Saturday started off with a blast with me and baby running along the riverside walk. It reminded us when we ran along Jersey City just opposite Manhantten back in July. But I prefer the Manhantten view to this . Partly, we are now staying near a Wharf so you feel that the area is pretty much disorganised with the cranes and ships docking around.

Anyway the pot-luck party was good. EJ woke up early to go to Billingate to buy clams and both bb and I were just too exhausted to tag along.He then came back and started to prepare his hainanese and Nasi Lemak rice . I am totally impressed and of course sneaky me decided to be his kitchen helper in order to steal the receipe. He actually cooked both dishes from scratch, including the chilli!!!It was incredible delicious and everyone loves it. This guy even prepared the summer cocktail drink called..(i couldn't remember the name ).

I am totally impressed by this bunch of lawyers and bankers .They cooked really nice food. We have delicious apple shruders,chocolate and banana fudge cakes, puffs, truffle,bee hoon,curry ,braised chicken.I filled my stomach till it bloated .Simply the food is irresistable.Aren't they great ?And they have awesome personalities!!!!Fun loving, wacky,sincere,bubbly,humorous...thank god for meeting them!!Totally changed my image of these people in the profession.

Well and did I mention this is a all Singaporean/ Malaysian thingy plus some BBC ( Britisn born Chinese) and CBC( Canadian Born Chinese). So is real fun and warm to meet people from your hometown again.Lots of fun that night but lots of mess to clean up because EJ invited over 25 people over in his squeezy little apartment.

And one more thing which is an interesting trend to note....These lawyers and bankers are all from RJC!!!!! I am wondering what happened to all the Victorians and Ron said how about the ACians?I replied," ACians have to depend on their Mamas and Papas and will not be here to venture ."Ron and EJ got pissed...........hehehe