The Bo & I recently converted our dining table to our temporary work station (because the little guy sleeps with us and we’ll do anything not to break the STTN charm). And back then when I used to work till late nights in the office (often alone or with another colleague) – I would often blast the music on the radio at the desk and bop to it just to… you know to make the night easier to bear.

It worked wonders. Singing along to songs I knew the lyrics to. More often than not, it helped refreshed the mind like an internet browser and whatever mental block I was facing for that moment would eventually turn into a lightbulb moment.

So post-dinner this evening as I sat by the comp to complete some stuff, I asked the Bo – who was having a bit of a writer’s block himself while drafting an email – if I could blast the music. He said “sure!” and within seconds I was humming and he was swaying to the beats.

Amidst of music being blast through the dining/living/kitchen area for some 2 hours, the lovely husband took a walk to get us some teh-tarik, we reveled in favourite songs that were being played and what d’ya know – we coincidentally finished our to-dos at about the same time.

Despite the vast differences in the nature of our work, I love how he makes such a great pseudo-colleague.

SO. I haven’t been updating much on the blog.

It’s been hard to, when things you don’t anticipate to happen, happen. Hitting you in the face amidst motherhood firsts. And needing to deal with unfamiliarity such as the repercussions of a fleeting venture gone awry for other’s immediate gains.

But yay, I survived those rough nights. Literally paid a hefty price tag of a lesson learnt. Closure happened. And April came to an end.

Hullo May!

Amazing stuff have been happening since, unfolding it’s glory one after another, recharging me full with inspiration, joy & gratitude. I thank the Lord for that.

There’s so much I want to share and explode here on the blog albeit sounding potentially incoherent.I don’t know where to start. I don’t even know if I should. There’s this wee bit of hesitation for now but perhaps time will keep those worries unfounded.

In motherhood news: The little boy turned 13 months yesterday (whose counting?!) along with his ever-growing bag of tricks. He’s gained more confidence in taking a few steps just hanging on to my left or right pinkie which is so exciting when it happens! Though most of the other times, he trust going on all fours more than anything else. This week was also the first time I bade the little fella a “see you later!” as I left for the office one morning. He didn’t quite know how to respond except to wave bye back to me with his usual wide grin.

Yep, I’m officially a WAHM/PTWM now although only temporarily and so far it’s been good!

Initilaly, I was a bunch of nerves wondering how it’d be, leaving Liam for 4 hours and focusing on doing stuff that doesn’t revolve around him. But know what? Everything worked out way better than I feared. My moms have been utterly amazing in taking such great care of him – to the point of pampering him with lots of outdoor time that I had nothing to worry about at all… maybe except for the time when I got a little bored in the office loo and decided to log on to live feed to see how he was doing only to find that no one was at home (gasp! oh, turns out they went to the coffeeshop for some teh-tarik).

Being back at work after a long break has been a breathe of fresh air. I get to wear some heels, wear a dress on some days, carry a bag that doesn’t contain any diapers, put on makeup without worrying that my little man’s hands would smudge it across my face, people-watch gorgeous people in the heart of CBD, have colleagues, be able to joke and chat with colleagues anything not relating to parenthood/babyhood. And all these while not compromising on my care giving duties with Liam has been making me one happy mama. I even got to blowdry (not airdry) my hair for the first time since motherhood!

I’m still gobsmacked at the very awesome work arrangement, fusing my yearn to get the brain active with work + still being able to care for & bond with my son like before. Indeed God works in mysterious ways.

I didn’t know what was in store for me after dealing with the tail-end of April but on hindsight, those trials & tribulations were necessary in allowing me to appreciate the better things that happened ahead of them. I hope this quote gives you as much hope as it did for me.

Have a blessed May, everyone!

{Posing w Cailin. almost 16-weeks, wearing Mango tunic, H&M leggings, Kate Spade ballet flats}

So here I am, taking a picture with the sweetest young colleague that I’ve been working closely with for the past month at my temp work arrangement because we totally laughed our heads off when she walked to my desk this morning (she sits just opposite me) and we both realized that we were wearing similar outfits except for the colours of our tops.

And it got funnier when I told her how I wanted to wear colourful shoes like hers but was skeptical because of the recent wet weather and she, told me that she nearly went for black flats to pair with those leggings.

What a funny coincidence it sure was, considering she only comes in on Mondays, Thursdays & Fridays; meaning I didn’t get to see her for the last 2 days to tell her that I was even intending to wear (who does that, anyway?!).

;)

p/s: shared this pict on FB & received comments from friends that they were having a difficult time spotting the almost 4-months jelly belly. Hmm. That’s good news, ain’t it? I’m still grateful either ways – showing or not.

Are you a part of it yet?

I can’t wait to form my circles, video con with my group of friends all at the same time including those who are in Sydney & Paris for catch-up sessions and do crazy stuff with it!

Source | Google, Contagious

I’m in love.

<3

Through my 6 years of Media & Advertising, I’ve often lamented how I wished I had wonderful bosses who knew when to work and when to play AND a great working team culture AND great colleagues AND reasonable salary AND nice clients AND flexibility all at the same time. And now that I’ve blessed with everything (since Sept last year may I add) I’ve lamented about before & wished for , I’m suddenly letting it all go in the name of “doing what I need to do” next.

I still question myself from time to time on my level of foolishness these days. But maybe because these are also the last days. Or that I’ve never felt so blessed to have been in such a good place. Or that I just didn’t have an answer to the question of “why?” in the first place. I’m not even leaving for another offer!

But as with any good relationship, this might be the moment where boy/girlfriend says to the other: “let’s meet new people, see new perspectives, and then see if we are meant to be”

And I know I’d be missed, hopefully welcomed back really soon to embark on something closer to heart (someone say partay??)

The world’s a small strange place, they say.

I didn’t have much hope in being able to complete, but I’m now so happy to say that I’ve finished handing over, emailing the last batch of mails, fretting over work-to-do for the day. I’m practically at the end of the work tunnel for 2010.

Done. Finished. Completed the race. No more work for the rest of 2010…and a good 3 weeks in 2011. Ho Ho Ho!

I may have 4 kids to babysit for few days starting tomorrow, prepare for the Xmas luncheon I’m about to host on Sat, 2 luggages to pack warm clothing into, purchase my dosmetic flight tickets, get a compact camera in time before the trip but hey…just BRING IT ON because completing those things on the list just means that the next thing to look forward to is JAPAN and WINTER.

I really can’t wait to eat.shop.sightsee.go disney. Not necessarily in that order.

With 2 new folks (from HQ in Chicago) in town, and Viki asking me if I was gamed for a night out of Mambo Jumbo (something we agreed to do once every 5 years just to access how old we’ve become, or how young we still are!), I organized a last minute party to Zouk yesterday, shouting across desks to whoever else was interested to join in and made concrete plans. We were going to show our US folks what synchronized dancing in Singapore was all about!

We agreed to meet at 10, I only managed to arrived at 11 after some unforeseen delays here and there; still early by Mambo’s night standards no less – and managed to get a long nice table just beside one of the bars and right beneath the DJ. It was awesome, having all that space to ourselves, until some old man and his younger mistress came along to share it and even stopped us from taking photos (at one stage), just in case he might get caught fooling around…or that’s least what one of my colleagues thought. Hah!

And as always, some good things NEVER change. And the music really only started to peak from 12.30am onwards. We squealed, screamed, mimic the appointed dancers on the podiums, jumped around as we clang our beer mugs and cocktail glasses and laughed away. Oh boy, those feelings of good ol days of going almost every Wednesday then just came gushing into my very happy heart.

I couldn’t fit my compact cam into my teeny weeny bag, so here’s some low quality shots from the iphone4. Even the flash from the phone couldn’t save it. Blah!

alcohol for the soul

i must learn how to take more flattering shots

smile gone wrong :D

One of my bosses sent this to the team earlier today…

“Lets call a meeting and discuss” means “I have no time now, will talk later”

“We had slight differences of opinion” means “We had actually fought”…

“That’s actually a good question” means “I do not know anything about it”

“We need to find out the real reason” means “Well I will tell you where your fault is!”

It sort of cracked me up! Because, I’m guilty of the 3rd one!

for us meaning having good ole’ teh tarik & roti prata downstairs.

Here I’m breaking with Nu and Flexi.

Both whom I’m going to miss dearly come November!

Good prata place if you’re around Telok Ayer Area: Kamal’s Restaurant. (They serve good chicken Briyani too)

I was sending out a note to  inform all local markets that our office was going to be closed from 12pm onwards this Friday for 10th anniversary SMG day as we were going Sky Park at MBS and Kite Flying at Marina Barrage!

This very adorable dude from Korea then email me back a picture of his company’s recent SMG day event:

which was an envy really, because we were going nowhere near to any waters. But the laugh of the day has got to be when another colleague send me a funny picture of the same KR colleague:

Working with these Koreans are an absolute joy!

The nice bosses decided to let us close the shop earlier today, to take us a Brussel Sprouts for some celebratory food & drinks (for a very successful APAC summit!!!)

Whee.

The grub was absolutely fabulous. I’m not a mussels-girl, but boy I ate 15 and counting…in addition to duck confit, and lots more dishes which I forgot the names of.

The company was lovely too – all 3 bosses joking endlessly, lots of laughter going round the table. Cam whores coming out of their shells etc.

Aw man, I’m really going to miss this folks when I leave to take my long break.

2 of the wackiest