Seldom do I say I have a busy week and a busy weekend. However, I must confess that this week was nothing but BUSY. I wanted to take a day of leave during the week because I wanted to go for my facial. Its been like 2 months I've not gone for my facial. Though I still regularly do my scrub and mask at home, it still doesn't feel enough. But, my managers didn't give me a confirm answer if I could apply for leave as we were suppose to start our UAT during the week and it didn't happen!! :(

I was out almost every weeknights with the exception of Friday because after being out the whole week, I was totally drained. Stayed out late on Wed and Thurs and therefore, Friday had a bad headache. 1 of my colleague left us this week. (I meant he resigned and his last day was Friday). It's sad because being in the Finance department, there are just so few guys and now another 1 is leaving us. The good thing is that I know he is leaving for greener pastures and of course I wished him all the best! As usual, we treat people for their farewell lunch and this time, we had it at Serenity at Vivo City.

The Menu

 Paella Valenciana - Saffron, chicken, Spanish chorizo, tiger prawns, squid, half shelled mussels, rice. Damage- $43.00

Initially, we had these 3 types of rice and 1 pork knuckle which cost $39.80 (sorry no picture) that was shared between 11 of us. Pathetic right? Most of us only had like 1 scoop (not even 1 mouthful of the rice) and it felt really sad. We were all still like super hungry. :( Thanks to the recommedation of the staff there. Oh yeah..and because all of us were still so HUNGRY we decided to give the restaurant another chance and ordered desserts, hoping that it will be better...

La piña gazpacho - Pineapple with Spanish sweet wine and serve with vanilla ice cream. Damage - $10.80

In addition to the above 3 desserts, we had another 1 which I didn't have to chance to take a picture of it. But bascially, its called the Pastel de Chocolate which is made of A light and moist cashew nut brownie with caramel candied orange & your choice of ice cream. Damage was $8.80.

Taking all the food that we had, anyone can make a guess how much the bill came up to?? ok...the total bill was...

a whopping $292 inclusive of 7% GST and 10% service charge!! Extreme right? After paying such price for the food and all of us left feeling so unsatisfied. I really wouldn't recommend the place to people who wanna eat to their heart's content. Oh well, for those who want to try something different and are willing to spend a little more, the Spanish food is quite authentic.

Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant http://www.serenity.com.sg/index.htm

#01-98/99 VivoCity

Tel: 6376 8185

Fax: 6376 8184

Email: info@serenity.com.sg

After a unsatisfying meal, the good thing is that since we were at VivoCity, the group of us were fortunate enough to have bubble tea as well. Yup, no KOI but "Gong cha" is a good replacement.

 I guess probably these are the "recommended" flavours. Thanks to Ley San that took all the orders for all of us. She was queuing and I was busy snapping away.

Signboard of Gong cha at VivoCity.

11 of us. Big group eh?

Arrival of Ryan Nathaniel Wee:

Usual habit of mine. After I am awaken by my alarm, I will usually check my phone. Click on email, followed by twitter and then facebook. (that's the bad thing about such technology). As I clicked on facebook, I saw my good friend status update: The REAL deal or another false alarm. I continued to do my own stuff and got ready for work and as I stepped out of the house, I sms-ed her, "So is it real or false alarm?" She replied " real'. Whaaaaa, I felt so excited for her. She's a real good and long time friend of mine from seeing how she pak tor, married and tried for baby till pregnancy and now she's giving birth. I waited for like hours to hear news from her and finally at around 9+, I received an SMS from her "Ryan Nathaniel Wee says hello to all the uncles, aunties, kor kors and jie jies. A chubba bubba weighing 3.81kg @ birth." Yippeee!! my friend has successfully given birth to a healthy baby boy and it was a natural birth. After gym today, I visited her at Thomson Medical and finally got to see the cute little boy.

flowers for the proud mummy. I didn't know what to get for her coz I felt she will have plenty of chicken essence, bird nest, baby clothes. So, flowers to cheer her abit. :)

Ryan Wee crying for milk. He was struggling coz' he's super hungry and even started pulling our his mittens and crying for milk.

finally manage to take his face. he looks so satisfied after the feeding and sleeping so soundly again. Keep growing strong,  baby wee, see ya in a month's time :)))

After the visitation to the hospital, I made a trip down to Singapore Expo for Sitex 2010 and the Mega Flea Market. Seriously, I think sometimes the way I shop for things, I am becoming like a man. I went to both, knowing what I already wanted and targeted on just these 2  things. As I stepped into SITEX, I zoomed in straight for GPS. First saw Garmin, but felt it was expensive. So i looked around, ignoring all the distractions. Finally, I saw 2 other booths selling GPS. The sales person was asking me what specs am I looking at etc and being a woman, I told her this:

" I just want a GPS. 1 that can bring me to places. Easy to use and most important cheap."

BINGO, I found it! My new toy - definitely a useful one. Now, I need not drive around by gut feeling anymore and no longer do I need to plead my brother to lend me his. Yipee!!

Holux GPSmile 61F - Bought at $139

Besides, the GPS, I got this as well-->

Bra Travel Bag which cost me $25. I first saw this during the last Mega Flea Market but didn't manage to buy it. I then saw it again at Takashimaya, but it was selling at $80+ and so this time, I decided to try my luck and see if I can manage to grab it from the Mega Flea Market and yes!! I found it!!

Place bras in bag holder and off you go~

Holds up to 6 bras (depending on bra style)

Bra bag holds bra size up to 36C or 32D

Oh yes, and that was my Sat..the week has yet to end..But I doubt I blog on Sunday. While, I am blogging this, I have yet another friend in labour at Thomson Medical. In fact, she's been inside since noon. Jia you ba~

你做了选择对的错的

我只能承认心是痛的

一个人是很好，但久了也会寂寞。

Reading asiaone is a daily habit of mine. Interesting articles captures my attention. So..as usual.. this particular article caught my attention -"Accountants have the highest chance of staying single". WHAT?!?! How can that be?? This is so sad, yet so true...:( Looking at my colleagues, I can't deny this plain fact. They spend so much time in office and sacrifice all their personal time just in the name of WORK. The article lists the TOP 10 professions of likelihood singles. Do read more about it here -> A single life

Therefore, I am so glad that I will soon be leaving this profession and embarking on a new one in time to come.:)

Sometime back in August 2010, I was reading from this blogger post that Kotex launched pads with designs. Yes!! Pads with designs and i told my sis in law about it. Muahahahah and today after she did her hair at Jurong Point she saw this and she got it for herself, her sister and me!! I know guys reading this will be disgusted and even "old school" people will wonder this -> why do you need pads with designs when its going to be soiled anyway? But oh well, since you're going to have to wear it on your period monthly, why not just wear a pretty one?? See the packaging below? 

 This package comes in 6 Ultrathin pads.

The girl-next-door collection. Comes in 3 designs!

Pretty right?? I think the packaging is so suitable for women. Knowing that the females will have difficulty in choosing which design to buy, so might as well have all 3 designs in a pack. Solves all the problem. Then we ladies, need not be standing in front of the shelves deciding for a good 5 mins which design to grab :)

Yesterday, I logged on to MSN and for those who uses MSN will know that there is this pop up and shows "Today news". I usually don't pay much attention to it but a title caught my attention yesterday -" Singapore may face brain drain of accountants". Whahahha..are you sure? As I read on the article, I even wondered -" Are you sure accountants are paid so well?" In the article, it mentions this:

Having been in the accounting industry for a good 8 years, let me give  breakdown. For someone with 6 years experience, accordingly, if the person is in Big 4, he/she should be a M1 (Manager 1). An M1 Salary is about let's say $6,000 per month.

Monthly: $6,000

Per Annum: $72,000

Bonus: ~3 to 3.5 months (taking the maximum cap of 3.5)

Bonus: $21,000

Total salary per annum: $93,000

Difference: $17,000

See its about a $17,000 difference!! For accountants who are interested to read more of this article, please do do here: Singapore may face brain drain of accountants - Channel NewsAsia

The past few months have not been the easiest part of my life. For my closer peers will know that I'm going through a phase of asking myself constantly ->  "Do I want to be doing accounting for the rest of my life?" This question has been daunting upon me since Jul this year. I started off applying for Accounting jobs in various industries (with the intention of finding out what's my current market value) . Being a fussy person in the choice of jobs, it made things even more difficult. I was particular about the location and industry. This is what I call being at the "crossroads". I can't remember how many resumes I've sent out, replies I've received and even the number of interviews I've gone for.

To cut the story short, after the numerous interviews for accounting positions, I felt that I wanted to give something else a try but didn't exactly know what it was. Then while surfing JOBSDB one day, I saw this advertisement looking for ex-auditors/accountants looking for career switch. I happily applied and was called up for an interview. While I thought things took a turn, after the interview, the person didn't call me back and I knew it was gone. But I managed to find out more about the industry, what does the person do on a daily basis, what is required of the person and the big players in that industry and started applying for to the big boys. Yes, I got called up for interviews with the big boys and there are some which I went for as many as 5 rounds. Just when things looked rosy, after 5 rounds they told me there wasn't any vacancy at the moment. At that point in time, all these became disheartening.

But I don't know for whatever reason, I went back to look for accounting jobs and at that time, I saw an advertisement for a job in the industry which I liked. Strangely, I also went to apply for a job in the new industry I wanted to join (though it wasn't 1 of the big boys). After a long wait, both jobs offered me a position.

The past 2 weeks have been stressful cause I wasn't sure of which to take. 1 offered stability due to the pay but it was the same old "accounting" job, while another was something which I wanted to try but there are just too many uncertainties. For sure, one thing was the pay factor. I will be taking a BIG pay cut and in fact it worries me. I consulted people around me, spoke to my family and friends in the industry and of course, I prayed about it. Somehow, no matter how hard I pray, it just seems like there wasn't an answer.

One was a stable pay but not something which I really wanted to do, another was something was I really want to give it a shot. I know for sure if I don't try it now, I won't even dare to dream of it in the years to come. But Lord, what about the $$? What if I can't make it in the new industry that I want to try? All these concerns make me so afraid.

Today, while my QT. I decided that I didn't want to even ask God about "which job to choose" since it seems like there won't be an answer and just focus on who God is. Amd you know what happened?  While reading the Daily Devotions which I subscribed to by this author - Rick Warren, this thing came upon me:

"As you enter your Decade of Destiny, it is important that you trust God with your finances. If you want God to bless you financially, you must remain focused on the truth that he is the source of your finances and he is the one who supplies your needs.

What does that mean? It means I'm not looking to an employer for my security. I'm not looking to my savings for security. I'm not looking to anyone or anything other than God to supply my needs."

I like the illustration that he gave " When I turn on the water, I don't really think the water comes from the faucet. I know that the water really comes from a reservoir. It just comes to me through the faucet. In the same way, the income that God wants to give me may come through a job or through something else.

But the source is God.