Pooped!

Man, I'm pooped.. these past few days have been fun but oh-so-tiring. All-day activity makes for a very tired me! We had my relatives over to our place today cos some of them had yet to come over.. so it was more cards and more eating and more fawning over the baby. It's fun entertaining, but man, it can also be pretty tiring...I have to give mad props to the hubby for being so sporting and for getting into the CNY spirit and entertaining all the relatives. Thank you, hon!

Thankfully everything went well... there was no puke on the floor this year (as opposed to last year).. so that was a relief. We had loads of help from everyone who brought food (that being mom, dad, linnet, joe and my uncle and aunts who had to go "lim kopi" somewhere else cos er, we don't have coffee in this house... ) and everyone who helped themselves to the stash of food that we would otherwise have had to finish on our own.. Thank you all for preventing the inevitable wastage that would have happened. As is, we still have 2 whole tubs of egg rolls that have to be eaten sometime... any takers?

I sooo don't want to go to work tomorrow. Am having yet another anxiety attack just thinking about it. These past few weeks have all been about zero motivation and me just thinking of taking leave to avoid work. Sigh. Problem is I have meetings all days this week and most of next... so the earliest I can take leave is next Thursday. poop. Well, we'll see.. may just apply for leave to give myself something to look forward to...and a day to sleep in.

Ugh, sense of dread is washing over me right now... the artificial high left behind by consecutive episodes of Charmed and the O.C. has been eroded away... grrr... off to shower and then bed... here's to a *hopefully* restful night...

2nd day of CNY pics

So 2nd day of CNY brought more lo hei...more snacking and the traditional game of gin rummy. Usually the gambling begins the night before but this year all the kids were getting old and decided that playing through the night wasn't going to happen... so we tried to make up for lost time at Twa Kim's house before dinner... a couple of rounds of blackjack later and I figured we'd better progress to gin rummy cos the luck was not with us. heh.

The older generation was not out in full force for gin rummy. My dad and aunty angie are the king and queen of the game.. but he had to bail to get ready for their friends who were coming over and she was "ban-chan"ing us.. ie giving us a chance by playing without money. hah. Tis a pity. Hopefully we can get them all out for a game today. We're having them come over today so hopefully they can all be coaxed to sit down with a full deck. heh.

So after plenty of eating (dim sum with mamah at Da Dong at chinatown for lunch, snacking all afternoon and then dinner at my aunt's), the 2nd day drew to a close.. here are the pics...

Gin rummy & blackjack
Getting ready for the 3rd lo hei in 3 days
Elodie and Vee - I have never seen a kid who likes the camera more.. Wesley likes the camera itself, Elodie likes having her picture taken!
A not very flattering self portrait of us both
Mass dance - almost-senior-citizen style!
You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out...and you shake it all about...

more chinese new year pics.. and a gripe

grr... i woke up and the house was stinky. opened the windows in the living room and trudged into the kitchen to see what the 2 idiots have been up to. true enough, one of the idiots has pooped on the toilet floor OUTSIDE of their litter box. grrr. wtf? these 2 will be the death of me... they only seem to do this when they know kale is out in the morning so that it will AGGRAVATE me. ACK.

ok, anyway, on a happier, more festive and joyous mood... (hmm)... here are some more photos. now that i am recharged from a nite of not-so-good sleep (more on that later)... figured i have the energy to put more pics up while i munch on my aunt's homemade "ba-hoo" rolls (aka pork floss rolls, which admittedly don't sound too appetising for the foreigners but trust me, they taste really really good).

The lunch crowd.. we had a smaller crowd so for the first time in a long time, we were all able to sit at 1 table
Me trying to distract Elodie at lunch
Taking a breather after the pre-dinner prep. Selene, notice I'm wearing the t-shirt you bought for xmas?
Pre-dinner crowd lounging
Adult table putting all the lo-hei condiments out while teacher Joe yells out the traditional greetings
Lo-hei-ing in full force
The agar-agar fish Aunty Kwai made

So yeah, back to this not-sleeping-well thing... erm, I'm sad to say that my hives are back. Grr. They've made a vengeful reappearance after over a year. The last time I had hives was around the time we got married. The doc said it had something to do with me being allergic to humidity and temperature change (which in singapore does not bode well for me.. er).. but Kale seems to think it's a nervous tic type thing. I'm beginning to agree with him. My sinus allergies and hives seem to alternate... which makes me think that they're a response to some pyschological trigger. Which bums me out cos I can't figure out how to make them stop short of taking anti-histamines every episode which I'm loath to do. hmm.

Anyhow, enough grumbling. The hubby's back from his round-the-island bike ride. Off to lunch with the rents and my grandma soon... more pics to be taken today at my aunt's house... and more eating! mmm...

Picture updates

Congrats to Dave and Lisa on their new baby boy... the latest addition to the Buonerba clan - Luke Joachim Buonerba! They have a penchance for complicated names... Kale says we'll win the "complicated name" game yet... err. Sure.

Today was the first day of Chinese New Year.. eating, more eating, more eating...and that pretty much sums up the day. Have uploaded some pics for the benefit of my sister who's missing home.. don't think these pics will do much to help that, but you can at least laugh at them...

Kale looking not-too-satisfied with his big bowl of salad at dinner on Friday
The "adult table" at the Reunion Dinner "lo-hei"ing
Standard shot of yu-sheng... many more of the same to follow over the next few days
Me trying to coerce my cousin's daughter Elodie to give up her oranges for a red packet... much better deal, no? .
Elodie nabbing Kueh Bangkit from the table ... mmm..

Ok, will put up more pics tomorrow. It's late, so shall potter off to bed and prepare myself for Day 2 of eating. Kale's going out early in the morning for the traditional 2nd-day-of-CNY-around-the-island-team-ride. When he gets back, we'll head over to my aunt's place in the afternoon for more food, gambling and bad tv. woo hoo. Coyote Ugly's on tomorrow nite at 10pm too.. woo hoo!!!

G'nite y'all...

the eating has begun

man, i'm stuffed.

we've been eating since 9am this morning. non-stop. man.

didn't sleep well last nite due to the new sheets that were unbelievably scratchy. i'm never believing the damn thread counts on the packaging ever again! woke up, called selene... wished her a happy CNY then headed over to the 'rents. had some breakfast, drove over to my granddad's... had a full meal there. forgot to pace myself.. duh.

drove over to my grandma's... managed to evade the snacking there...and then started on tim sum for lunch at 1:30. had more than i should have had... and we just made it home not long ago. trying to catch a short nap before heading off to my parents' for dinner.

will upload pics later today... didn't seem quite so festive this year.. think there were less people around this year.. hmm... and selene was sorely missed! =(

ok lah... sleepie time... later...

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy Lunar New Year to all!! Half hour more before we usher in the Year of the Dog.. woof! woof!

Just got back from our reunion dinner. It was a loooooong dinner. Am so so tired. Am going to wash up and tumble into bed. Am so glad we wisened up this year and decided to do all the CNY stuff BEFORE the reunion dinner.. as opposed to last year when we were up past midnight changing sheets and floormats, getting money for ang baos, filling ang baos, etc. Phew.

All that's left tonight is to lay out the clothes for tomorrow, wash up and crash. Sweet!

Happy CNY to all.. especially to my sis who's experiencing her first CNY away from home. I know it sucks, especially when everything else seems to go on as per normal and ppl have no clue it's a special day... but hey, at least you have friends to celebrate it with, no? CNY was always the hardest time of the year for me when I was away...

Anyhow, time to log off and get some zzzzs. Need to rest up to survive the long day tomorrow...

it didn't even take the afternoon...

i DID jinx myself. just had a run-in with the boss. sigh.
didn't even last till the afternoon. duh.

where did this week go?

man, i cannot believe it's friday already. i can still remember my nervous breakdown over the weekend wondering how i was ever going to make it through the week. gee. this week actually didn't go too badly. surprise surprise. i've been feeling better, although i'm still pooped all the time... and work hasn't been too too crazy. it's been a little manic, but i guess nothing that i couldn't handle this past week. but this week is STILL going so i'm sure i've jinxed the afternoon.

the hubby doesn't get my whole "jinxing" thing...cos he says you can't jinx something just by saying something or talking about it... but yeah, it's a paranoid quirk that i can't seem to shake.

so many last minute errands to run for CNY. need to squeeze all those into my lunch hour today. grr.

we're going out tonite to celebrate... celebrate what? well, celebrate another complete year at my organisation... since tomorrow (which is the actual anniversary date) is chinese new year eve and we'll be going to a reunion dinner with my family, we figured we'd bring it forward to tonight. let's just hope i feel like eating when i get to the restaurant!

update more tomorrow (hopefully). need to do spring cleaning! ack. mandatory pre-CNY tradition. thankfully reinforcements (aka my mom) are coming over today to help...cos i'd be dead otherwise. last weekend was pretty much shot and there's no way i can get any cleaning done during the week. =(

now THIS is freaky

so, when i was a little tyke of erm, say 5 years or so, my mom and i went along with our family friends luang-yi (actually my grandma's friend) and her granddaughter vanessa mae to switzerland for a ski trip. this was when we were living in the UK when my dad was getting his degree. for those of you who recognise the name, yes, it's THAT vanessa mae - the child violinist prodigy. yup, that one.

anyhow, my mom had taken some video of our vacation... but due to the changes in technology, she had no way to get it off the original film reel used back then onto a playable medium in this time and age. she finally managed to get some film place to transfer the film and so we were able to watch it last night.

this is where it gets freaky. there was all this footage of us taking ski lessons (man, i was a round short thing at the time!) and sledding..and there was some footage of us going through this little swiss town. kale and i were watching the video and it dawned on us that the town that we were skiing and sledding in some 22 years ago is the EXACT SAME town that we went sledding in this past xmas break. and the best part? the buildings are EXACTLY the same.. the same hotel with the curling rink next to it, and the little church by the road. what are the odds? i think i even took pictures of the same fountains that were caught in the video!

my mom had always referred to the town as bergen.. pronounced that way... and she had said it was a 2-hour train ride from st moritz.. so even though we sledded through the town bergun this time around, i didn't think it was possibly the same place cos it wasn't that far from st moritz. but i guess when you factor in 22 years of locomotive technology, i guess it makes sense.

so yes, that's pretty neat. 22 years later, through no design of our own, we end up in the same little swiss town in the middle of the engadin valley... who would have thunk? even the sleds haven't changed over the years!!! the sled in the video was exactly like the ones we used for the 7km sled run from preda to bergun. wow.

how's that for coincidence?

seeck again

i'm sick again. poop.
was on MC today. kale came down with a cold and my resistance is so low i picked it right up. so for the 2nd time this year, kale and i were home on MC together on the same day. damn. altho i guess if i have to be sick at home, who better to spend it with than my hubby?

in a way, i was glad to be home... i've been kinda nervewrecked about work lately, and with me being under the weather, i really haven't slept through a single night. last night was bad, i had a mini-anxiety attack thinking about work... and about how i didn't think i could make it through the day feeling this tired and blah. so when i went to see the doc today (and found out that i had a "back drip" without me knowing it) and he gave me an MC, i felt this immense wave of relief. it's not me to feel this stressed about work... then again, it's not me to not sleep and not eat, so yeah, i'm just not myself right now.

something needs to change... perhaps it's hormonal, perhaps it really is work, perhaps it's the lack of restful sleep, perhaps it's been me feeling sick for a couple of weeks straight but this is turning out to be the most dreadful couple of weeks i've had in a looong while. i'm really dreading work... even class is a welcome relief cos it means i get to leave a little earlier twice a week to make it to class on time. the stress is ridiculous and the worst part is that i don't see relief in sight.. there are biz trips being planned and meetings to go to and projects to close and man, i'm just not in a mental (or physical) state to deal with any of that right now.

kale's been an absolute darling, helping me out with pretty much everything and letting me whinge and whine and basically be a lazy-ass around the house... so at least when i get home i can let everything go... which is a lifesaver.

i've been so blah about everything, i don't even want to leave the house. just trying to decide what and where to eat is a chore. i swear i'm losing it. i'm more than happy to lounge around in my pyjamas ALL day... if only that was an option.

i have a full day of classes tomorrow.. bleah. normal class + a make-up session. sigh. and all i can think about right now is how i have all these emails that i was supposed to deal with today for work that i didn't get to cos my laptop is at the office and i didn't go in today. i'm also worrying about this meeting with my big boss that i didn't make *again*. it's a bi-weekly meeting and as luck would have it, the last time the meeting was held was also the last time i was on MC. hmm. does NOT leave a good impression.

i'm having another anxiety attack thinking about a full week ahead at work next week. i don't know that i can make it through another week at work let alone another 2 years. next saturday marks 4 years down for me... and i should be ecstatic, but instead, i'm just depressed and fed up with everything. something really needs to change. the question is what exactly. crap.

i know i should just take things one step at a time.. it's just hard right now when there's so much going on. sigh.

one hell of a day

today sucked. big time. i was stuck in meetings from 9am to 8:30pm. i didn't even have lunch to myself cos i had a lunch meeting. crap-o-lah.

i was NOT in a good mood by the time 4pm came around. grrr. i didn't get a chance to eat breakfast which the hubby kindly put together for me this morning (pork floss sandwich) cos i had to go straight for a meeting and it dragged till 11:30 when my next meeting started. then i couldn't really eat lunch cos i was over-hungry by then, and the waiter got my client's appetizer wrong so the whole table had to wait till his appetizer came and then we had to wait for all our entrees to be served (which i guess is proper etiquette seeing as how we didn't order starters)... and by then i had already had a half a loaf of bread while waiting (i probably exaggerate). the service at prego's sucks. it's waaaay slow. the food is good, the ambience is nice.. but the service is just atrociously slow. their waitstaff are very polite but man, they're heckuva inefficient!

so i had 3 mouthfuls of my lasagne...and then gave up. had a milo and my sandwich at 4:30pm, was glad that i did cos i was stuck in a meeting till 7pm and then another discussion till 8pm.

i don't think it was so much the hours that bothered me today. it was more that i had to be "on" all day cos i was dealing with clents. i couldn't just space out. the meeting this morning was a little adversarial as well so i was pretty much pooped after the adrenalin required for that. i think i was ready for home at about 2pm!

this whole job change was totally not what i expected. i didn't expect it to be a breeze but i definitely didn't expect the learning curve to be this steep. i feel stupid practically every day. it's a rare day when i feel accomplished..and there's only so long someone can feel this bad for before they break. it doesn't help that i'm hormonal (or am i?).. but yes, this sucks.

i'm going to take a looong hot shower now and then hit the sack, maybe some sleep will make things seem better. class tomorrow. ugh. another long day. groan.

Celerina part deux

More piccies... I promise a proper summary of the trip at some point... for now though, you'll have to be content with massive picture uploads. Still too pooped to blog much. Classes have started and the reading assignments have started piling in. Grrr...

Little German and Big German having a drink
"Lorenzo and Maurice".. don't ask!
The 2 "rabbits" trying their hand at cross-country skiing. (The instructor said the 2 bros ran off "like rabbits" the moment he said "go"!)
Meet Kale... with hair
Us, Sabine and Andreas at the Cresta Palace Bar where we totally took over the place..
My husband in a pick-up game of hockey.. *swoon*
The postcard worthy pic of the skating rink
The whole gang at La Piruett (sp?) - the cafe by the rink. Wonderful pommes!! =)

celerina

Here's the first instalment of X'mas pics.

Scenery from the train ride up to Celerina from Zurich
Preparing for Santa...
X'mas day
Da Buonerba boys with the standard issue hats
Candy cane girls...
Frozen hair
Carolling on Xmas nite in Samaden
The frozen lake in St Moritz
Us in church on Xmas day
The ski school and the Cresta Palace Hotel in the background

try #3

so after 2 tries last nite, i'm going to try and put up pics from jim and jessy's wedding last weekend.. we bought a new sony camera and these are the first pics off the camera!
*crossing fingers this works*

All the ah-yees and the "brothers" with the wedding couple
The after-effect of being up for 10 hours straight.. how much shabbier we look now than in the earlier pic.

will try to put up pics of xmas break soon.. shall not push my luck tonite! =)

first day of school

i just got back from the first day of classes for the semester. promises to be a "xiong" semester... 3 times a week, 3 hours each time. bleah. i thankfully managed to grab a quick dinner before class which eased my tummy from a horrible jerky cab ride along a super-jammed AYE. bleah.

was a good class.. just like old times.. hung out with my usual clique, made jokes and goofed around in the back of the classroom. so glad i have friends in class... it's the only thing that makes it bearable.

anyway, am home now. just sent my very accomodating husband down to grab me a loaf of bread so i can have a cheese melt. mmm. food... glorious food.. my appetite is back! woo hoo!

hopefully tomorrow goes well. today was a surprisingly ok day at work, guess after being stuck till 9pm yesterday in a room with the air switched off, anything is good! can't wait till the weekend though.

btw, i suck at keeping secrets. i sooo cannot join the CIA. bleah. i get these fits where the urge to spill my guts just completely overwhelms me. duh. my husband and i are like night and day... he's got a will of steel.. i'm just really soft. poop.

bleah

man, this sucks. the weather's lovely to sleep in. it's been raining and raining and raining.. ahhhh... and i'm stuck at work.

haven't been sleeping well... have been waking up in the middle of the night with an awfully dry mouth, forcing me to get up to drink water. which then leads to me having to get up and go to the loo cos i drank too much. ugh. vicious cycle. think my system is still dehydrated from our 0% humidity swiss vacation. ugh. my skin is still cracked too.. thank goodness the moisture is coming back slowly but surely.

i've also been under the weather. as a matter of fact, both of us have been. we both caught some nasty viral infection on the flight home which led to both of us being on MC last week. bleah. him with a fever and an upset stomach and me with a cold and sore throat. we were so sick that we slept 17 hours in a row on friday. phew.

attended the wedding of 2 of our friends on sunday.. i was almost too sick to make it, but managed to muster the energy to get up before dawn to go be an ah-yee. was good fun ... albeit tiring, but fun. will post pictures up soon. when i get the energy.

i apologise for the sporadic blogging but like i said, we've been under the weather and i've taken every opportunity i have to sleep. will attempt to get back to regular blogging frequency... soon, soon...

First post of 2006

Ok, so I'm a little late... we're well into 2006. Ah well...

We got back to Singapore last nite... caught up with my sis for dinner and a couple of hours later before she took off this morning to go back to Michigan. It sucks that we didn't get to spend more time together. Hopefully I'll be able to take a trip out there sometime this year. I'm not hopeful, but will definitely try.

It was an old-person's new year's eve for us. Crashed into bed at 10:30pm.. got woken up at 12:15pm by loud bangs. Turn out the Swiss/Germans/Italians love their fireworks. And I mean fireWORKS, not fire CRACKERS. Not the little puny sparkler type things - more the National Day kinda of *boom boom* pyrotechnics. I decided after tossing and turning for a half hour that if I couldn't beat them, I'd join them so I climbed out of bed and sat by the porch to watch the fireworks go off in the driveway down from our apartment. Was really quite nice.

I have pictures, oodles and oodles of pictures from the trip but they will have to wait. Too jetlagged and pooped to upload them now. I also have new year's resolutions, the most important one being to try to go with the flow more and ease the control freak in me. The next most important being to count my blessings.

Work today was tough.. left a little early cos I wasn't feeling too hot... came home, had dinner, crashed and woke up to catch the season finale of Laguna Beach. Watching back episodes of CSI... going to go to bed soon... this jet lag crap is harsh, dude.

Ok lah.. time for that shower.. catch you guys tomorrow when I'm hopefully more lucid.