marley and me

my friend gave me this book as a Christmas present. Over the weekend, I proceeded to devour it, since I haven't had a good novel for a long time. and i must say, it's really a great book. really hilarious in many parts - the author has a wonderful way of making otherwise frustrating situations sound really funny and 'aww - some'. there are many moments which tug at the heartstrings. and the ending was so heart-rending that i was crying buckets in the car! (poor mel)

all dog lovers should definitely read it. and even for dog-neutrals like me, it really touched me to know how a dog can teach us humans so many lessons in life and love.

Pics from Christmas Party @ my house!

Date: 27 Dec



my gatsby chandelier!



bee-you-tee-full display of absolut bottles! (i have all) i've been collecting them every time i go out of country since JC 1 when i fell in love with the bottle designs and branding. but no, i don't drink a lot of it - in fact, most of the bottles are still sealed and full =b



our wonderful train station-esque clock that we got from portobello market in london on our honeymoon



joy trying to fit herself into our zebra divan, that doubles up as storage space.



me at the food table cutting my apple crumble to serve for dessert! the feast included roasted veggies, pork and peaches, aglio olio, shepherds pie, chicken stew and garlic broccoli. mmmm yum.



evon happily displaying the crumble



it was joy's birthday! =) cake was lovingly baked by evon



grace who is back from her studies as a nurse overseas! it was fun to cook with her before the rest arrived. here she is sitting on my precious ikea bench.

CNY is complicated

i'm only beginning to realise the complexity of Chinese New Year. On Sunday, i had a brief chat with my sis-in-law at church (thank God for her!) and was surprised to find out that there are FOUR family gatherings over CNY that we must attend. and this is just mel's side. my side also has two dinners. quite naturally, there are clashes in timings and dates. so, choices to make and some gatherings will be missed.

i guess it's difficult cos i want to spend time with my own family. i'm used to having time to slack over CNY too - just staying at home and watching tv. but now, with so many different dinners and lunches, it's all a bit... complicated. not that i don't love my in laws - i do! - it's just not the usual CNY.

and there's the added stress of having to buy goodies and stuff for family and self this year. normally my parents handle that kind of thing. i think i've only gone CNY shopping for foodstuff once or twice in my entire life! so it was a bit stressful to think of a list of what we should get, and to decide where to get it from etc etc.

the fun side of this is that we will get to spend more time with both sides of our families, and build relationships with the extended family, so i think that's a good thing. =) and i really liked decorating our home with some simple daiso stuff to make it more festive. theme of our first CNY is PINK! hee hee

and lastly, i'm going to try making my own pineapple tarts! well, ok, i'm cheating on the jam - i bought ready-made pineapple jam to use - but i'm making the pastry, which is a start right? my sis-in-law and maybe a few friends are coming over to join in the baking too! =) so i'm quite excited about seeing my very own tarties in the oven browning nicely (at least that's what i hope and envision for this Sunday)

jellybean junior chow

jellybean is officially dead =( quite literally, brain dead. =b

apple staff told me that her logic board is spoilt, and repairs would be about $1.3K. (WHAT?!?!??!?!?!) so we decided to get a new one. happened to remember there's a new mac distributor called Jazz1 at Parkway, so we went there for lunch.

really thankful because we were just in time to benefit from their new year sale! =D

the discount price + a nice salesman + my whining + intelligent reasoning and bargaining + GOD'S GRACE = macbook + 4G RAM + applecare + wrist protector @ $2100

good deal right??

i was really full of joy as i watched them packing jellybean into the box. but more than that, really thankful for this good deal. as it is, it's an unexpected expense, so it's good to know we got what we need at a good price.

that said, i am still quite sad about jellybean. mel was suggesting we can put her in our showcase, cos we have the bottom shelf empty so far =b

anyway the new macbook is called jellybean junior, in memory of jellybean. and why chow? er, cos that's mel's surname =) and i've decided it's high time i became used to that and embraced the new name. =)

jellybean's grey screen of death

my macbook (affectionately called jellybean) - actually mel and i share it - died last week =( We tried various means to revive her over the weekend, but to no avail. she's now at mac service centre @ wheelock place getting her illness diagnosed, but the outlook doesn't look too good. =(

chances are either the motherboard or connector is spoilt. hopefully it's the latter, cos that's a LOT cheaper to repair or replace. if it's the motherboard, we may have to think about getting another mac, cos it will be aout $1k to fix.

the hard disk also crashed at the same time (everything at one go man...), so quite a lot of my precious info is lost, cos i haven't had a habit of doing back-up regularly or frequently. sigh.

yesterday was particularly mournful, cos i had to hand my darling over to the service centre to inspect. i really felt quite dejected and miserable after that... but was encouraged a lot by mel's sweet smses, and encouragement from my colleagues, and remembering that it IS, after all, just a laptop.

was reminded today to trust God that even though it feels SAD right now, nothing happens without a reason. maybe its to teach me to be more conscientious about doing back-up and taking care of my mac. or maybe it's to show me how dependant i am on technology. or to give me a glimpse of how, if a single laptop can cause me so much 'grief', how much more painful real death is, and how much more precious life is. (i know, seems ironic that i learn about life from an inanimate object!)

so... hoping that the prognosis will be hopeful, and meanwhile, thankful that there's a spare PC in the office so I can blog this =)