* Secret Garden *

Friday, June 22, 2012

Kudos to Revival

I am alive!!!

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*Daniel Chia Smiles at |8:34 AM| *

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Friday, March 19, 2010

Movies Update

Having been watching quite a few movies recently, movies like "Being Human", "Alice In Wonderland" & "Green Zone" are shows that I won't recommend people to watch.

However there are three movies that I strongly recommend you to watch:

THE COVE

First of all, this is a MUST watch! This show has been screening on GV Vivo exclusively for the past many many months. Why so long? I dunno. Maybe to create awareness of what's happening in Japan. Even if you are not a dolphin-lover, you will feel alot after watching this show.

Dolphins aren't just another cute mammal, but after watching this show you will know how much we need to protect them from the "hands of humans" especially when they are so innocent & trusting towards humans.

Basically this show talks about how dolphins in captivity aren't as happy as they seem to be in dolphin-performing shows. Due to the increasing need of dolphin supply worldwide for dolphin-performing shows, this lucative business has led to the massacre of 29,000 dolphins annually along a particular coastline in Japan in a town call Taiji. The fishermen go out to the sea every Sept to create alot of noise in the sea to confuse & stress-out the dolphins & "corner" them into the cove, where some good ones will be hand-picked by the local dolphin trainers & sold worldwide for about $150,000 each and the rest which are not chosen will be brutally killed on the spot and create a "red cove" suggesting the amount of blood shed. Some of the dead dolphins are packaged in the market & labelled as whale meat. Japanese generally do not eat dolphin meat, so this was shocking to them & worst still many who eat "whale meat" may be exposed to the high mercurcy toxic content found in Dolphin. Most of the dead dophins are thrown back into the sea. While watching this show, I can't help but really teared.

Many Japanese are not aware of this as the cove is prohibited for entry. Some foreigners caught footages and evidence of this happening in Japan & made this movie for worldwide awareness.

I don't think is screening anymore. But you can buy the DVD! Better still, if you can take part in the campaign to stop this killing. Visit http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/the-cove

The Book of Eli

Quite a long movie. Will take some time to understand what's happening. The beginning shows how the world is like after a battle of eliminating all bibles in the world and a catastrophe where the earth was directly exposed to the sun due to a hole in the sky. Of course, most died & few survived. Those who were borned after this incident couldn't perceive the world of abundance (which we are living in now) & the "knowledge of God" was not heard & known to anyone Very inspired by the faith & fervency this man Eli that he will accomplish the task that God has placed in his hands. Classic example of an ordinary man doing extra-ordinary thing. The highlight of the show is right at the end - Surprising ending!

HACHI

True story of a faithful dog Hachi who walks the owner to the train station every morning and returns back in the evening to "fetch" the owner outside the train station. One day, Hachi senses failing heart and tried all sorts of ways to prevent the owner from going to work. But to avail the owner took train to work as usual & collapsed at work & died. Hachi continued to wait outside the train station for his never-coming-back owner for the next 10 years!!! Before he took his last breathe, he finally got to "see" his owner coming back.

Can you imagine that? 10years!!! I think besides God, there's no one else who will stay so faithful to us.
Daniel: "Wanna keep a dog?".
Me: "Nah... I don't have the heart capacity to face the death of my dog."

I have the DVD. Ask me if you want. A must-watch!

*Karen Yeo Smiles at |10:48 AM| *

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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Feb is soon over...

Wow it's Feb 23rd already... It felt as though I just started Feb not too long ago.

Seriously I don't really know how I spent my Feb...

1st week - meeting a couple clients, open bank accounts, settle all the finances arrears & putting my finances into order, getting Valentines' Day present and spring cleaning.
2nd week - spring cleaning and more cleaning... and the beginning of all eating horrors!!!

Starting from 12th Fri: Daniel's maternal side reunion dinner
13th Sat: Daniel's paternal side reunion dinner
14th Sun: CNY Lunch @ my maternal side, Pai Nian @ Daniel's maternal side, CNY Dinner @ Daniel's paternal side, Meet RX & Der for coffee
15th Mon: Pai Nian @ my paternal side, meet RX, Der, KChia, Audrey for movie & coffee.
16th Tue: "Visit" Daniel's grandmother @ Mandai Crematorium, Lunch, Mahjong & Dinner @ Daniel's Yeye house.
17th Wed: Go JB for hair colour & cut, massage & dinner again
20th Sat: Feast again becos my father strikes lottery.

Man!! Been eating non-stop & I feel so sick of eating all the CNY goodies & feast... but I guess I'm not the only one who feels this way. Time to cut back on what I eat...

And then just yesterday we had our company's unit "Flying Start" which is an annual event that our individual unit will have to kick start the year. Well... this year we have it much later (usually in Jan) becos some people were overseas...however we have it at one of our familiar places Tenah Merah NSRCC...

Started with the session with a ice-breaker where everyone got to say something about themselves that our colleagues may not know....

Starting with Bernard: Father of two, Lohei for 5 times this CNY alr
Doreen: Bought egg tarts from her house downstairs
Evelyn: Mother of 2.5
Eunice: Had long hair before
Chiu Yen: Loves Cats... yEEKS!
Shannon: Acted in upcoming movie "Being Human" & will be screening on 4 march
Esther: Youngest in the family
Sherine: She's actually 28! (revelation!)
May Wu: Have cats in his house
Eddy: Love fishing
Joanna: I can't remember what she said
Valerie Kok: LOVES $$ very much!!!! (very obvious!)
Jesslin: Hates cats
Me: Fearful of cats & have 2 hamsters that stays in a "bungalow"
Derrick: Likes to wears toe socks!

Next...."Self-Revisiting" exercise....
What have I discover about myself in this revisit?

The top 3 Values that are MOST important to me:
Expertness (being good at something important)
Personal Freedom (I don't like the feeling of "being forced" to do things... or should I say "I hate" or even to the extent of "I shut down"?)
Affection (warmth, caring, giving and receiving love)

Other values that also important:
Emotional Health (Handling feelings, inner conflicts)
Family (Happy & congenial living situation)
Pleasure (Enjoyment, satisfaction, fun)
Physical Health (Attractiveness and vitality)

Am I consistently acting on these important values to get or to keep?
Do I commit my resources to these values?

Our decisions in life are based on our values.
Choice - We are what we choose.
Commit - We resemble what we revere (What we give ourselves and resources to)
Consistency - When we are uncertain, our values as the co-pilot will take over.

Ended yesterday with the managers treating us to a sumptuous meal at Jumbo Seafood.

Lohei - To kick-start our business goals and heart desires with a high note!
Words of blessings to say with the various ingredients:
Lime - Ji Xiang Ru Yi Salmon - Nian Nian You Yu Five Spice Powder - Wu Fu Lin Men Green pkt powder - Qing Chun Mei Li Red pkt powder - Hong Yun Dang Tou Plum Sauce - Ai Qing Tian Mi
Amen to all the above!!!

Derrick being very fascinated by the "brib" provided by the restaurant for eating chilli crab.

Feb really passed very fast and I have not submitted any case! Oh dear...

I can't say that I have wasted my Feb becos there's always a time and season. Well... time and season for family, fun and relaxation is over.... time to be focused again and start cracking and work towards my production & income goals for this year!

*Karen Yeo Smiles at |2:41 PM| *

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Quick Updates

I guess I agree with Kenneth that blogging community kinda synchronizes with one another - either we blog alot or we dun.

Ruxin was telling me at the beginning that she wanna be very consistent in blogging this year. So far 5 entries for the whole of Jan..... not bad, although wasn't what I thought "consistent" to be. Maybe she's just to sian to blog since everyone isn't blogging.

I guess everyone's just busy. Some are in new transitions in work (Daniel, Audrey, Ruxin, Keeliang, Karen Chia, Alvin - mostly finance-related) or new transitions in life (Evelyn preparing son for Primary School, Jiaying & Serena pregnant) while some are busy with preparing their new homes to move in (Kenneth, Serena & Jiaying, Yohandi) and some are just "busy" with their everyday mundane life and have nothing much to update about (like me)... haha..I guess I just have to start somewhere.

Ok, a quick summary of Jan....

First of all... started the year with a new HP.

Samsung Omnia PRO B7320... not the latest model for this series and not the "in-est" i-phone but works perfectly for me.

Features that are very impt to me:

Makes storing and searching of contacts intelligently (very important!)
Has interface to allow me to fix, edit and track for my schedule and appoints daily (very important!)
Can sync contacts, calendar and files easily to the PC (very impt!)
Can write sermons, documents (very important!)
Light, sleek and nice-looking! (Very impt!)

PLUS points

It's Windows Mobile, operating Windows 7 which means I can open and edit my frequently-used working files via Microsoft Word and Excel.
SMS msgs are linked up via individual person's name. Which means I can always see all the past conversations I had with a person in a window, just like MSN.
Can set up email accounts. So other than checking sms-es, I can also check my gmail before I sleep.
IE
Facebook

Next, while most CGs had their thanksgiving at end of 2009, our cg had a late thanksgiving on 2 Jan, at a cafe along Tanjong Katong Road, something like Miss Clarity. The buffet offered mostly fried finger food, which in my personal opinion isn't very satisfying for dinner. And the funny thing is that during Alvin's short sharing about his vision for the year, he shared about how God sp0ke to him about building "Good Physical Health" and that we will eat more healthier and do more sports together as a cg. I was really laughing in my heart as the entire cg had just helped ourselves to the most sinful buffet dinner filled with fried food.... Heehee.... No offence Alvin. :)

Used to think that our 32" Samsung LCD is very good and cheap until we met this "LCD guru" while browsing for one. Samsung has got very good quality screen but you need a good processor as well. So we bought a bigger one - the latest Philip 7000 series - Superb processor! Always wanted my house to have a consistent style (Modern, Sophiscated, define lines) but we know how we have to slowly acquire them one by one. Have achieved that in my master bedroom and toilet, so now we work on our living hall to have that consistency as well.

Bought Sofa and Coffee Table. Love the shape of the italian-inspired sofa, slightly curvy and irregular so I can place it anyway I like for a unconventional look. And the Tata Bear that Daniel gave me many years ago sits well on the sofa.. Hehee... A nice carpet is still missing to complete the look.

A TV console.... same style as the coffee table, define lines of tampered glass.

And Daniel finally fulfills his dreams of having huge ball lamp. Always stop him from buying whenever we go shopping becos there's never a unique one plus easy to clean. Dun think you can see the surface of the ball lamp but it has a unique texture and easy to keep it white! Initially wanted to buy two or three to hang down at our staircase but it will cost us a bomb just to bring in the scaffolding. No choice Daniel can only enjoy his ball lamp in the hall... Wait till we have more $$$ ba!

And not forgetting some nice home deco items.

I love my living hall now.... except for the aircon and feature wall, which will be our next project. As for now, we shifted the previous sofa, TV console and LCD upstairs to create a Entertainment Room. So dearest friends, next time we can play mahjong, boardgames and Wii upstairs in the air-con room!

Also, our P78 team unit meeting resumes! Really not used to it yet cos we have stopped our meeting for some time. But I guess we just have to fulfill all righteousness for the MAS requirement. Sigh... But good thing that it's not always just numbers reporting but we also get to meet in a nearby cafe at the ICON Building. It's a new Korean cafe which you will probably see in Far East Shopping Centre as well. Coffee normal, not as good as my fav Starbucks, but serves toast in an interesting presentation.

Mini-toast comes in many flavours. This is Caramel with Chocolate. Cream is fresh and not "Jer-lak"

By the way this is a "mini" toast - enough for a person. Their "normal-sized" toast is giantic!!!

Mini-toast with Latte set = $4.80. Reasonably-priced. Try it if you have a chance!

Next, celebrated my brother's birthday over last weekend.

My siblings and I

My brother and his girlfriend Clarabelle.

Last of all, I also had attended two weddings, one after another in one weekend! *Burnt*
Well... no choice. Like Daniel says, while others say "Red bomb" when receiving wedding invitation, for our case it's "returning deposits" that people have placed in our wedding.

Didn't have any work appointment before attending WenKai & Ivory's wedding, so took some time to dress up.

All set and ready to go!!!

Had such a good time playing with Clarice all night. She has personality of her own, very talkative, action-packed, extroverted and active, which isn't very much like her Daddy Alvin and Mummy Andrea.

And yup had a good time with my good friend Claire as well. Looking forward to our date!!!!

And of course the pretty bride, Ivory! Congrats! And I am so happy for her.
Sharks! The photo is so dark and both of us are so small in the photo. As usual... Daniel's photography skill. Sigh...

Okie.. that's all! Hope to bring more updates soon.

P.S Don't forget to help me take part in the exercise in my previous blog entry. Thanks!

Labels: brother's birthday, Ivory's wedding, living hall

*Karen Yeo Smiles at |12:02 AM| *

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Who am I?

Dear Friends,

Recently I helped my sister in one of her modules by selecting adjectives that describe her from a list of adjectives provided using a program.

I think it's very interesting as it will reveal what people think of you and whether
what you think of yourself is the same as what others think of you.

Daniel & I would love to know our results too. Can you help us by going to the following website? Will only take less than 1 min. You can also do it for yourself!

http://kevan.org/johari?name=KarenYeo
http://kevan.org/johari?name=DanielChia

Would really appreciate your help. thanks :)

Cheers
Karen & Daniel :)

*Karen Yeo Smiles at |6:38 PM| *

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Friday, December 18, 2009

It's a Boy & Girl!!!

Hey we have an ANNOUNCEMENT to make!!!

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We don't have scans like Jiaying's to show all of you...

But

We have got some PICTURES!!!!

Yup... Not babies...but Hammis......

Daniel have been bugging me to buy hamsters since our wedding but I have been crushing that idea of his.. becos since the death of my house rabbit Tummy, I really didn't want to have pets anymore cos' I don't think I have a strong heart to face their death.

However I guess I gave in.... to support Daniel & his "fantasy" to be a "father". As he always try to convince me "Dear please let me buy hamsters can??? It can prepare me for fatherhood leh" Ya ya....

Anyway yesterday during lunchtime we saw this really cute cream-white hamster that keeps walking on two feet in the petshop at Suntec and the petshop says she is a "Pudding" species under the Winter White Hamster family. Pudding is said to be rare as they have rare genes that make them cream-white and Pudding mix with Pudding seldom produce Pudding. So I guess it was this "rare" verb that sparked off the compulsive buy. We name this Pudding "Citrus" because we observe that she has quite a Zesty & active personality.

This is Citrus.

To give company to Citrus, we choose a normal Winter White which is a boy and we name him "Crayon". Why? Because there were a few moments that he just sat quietly at a corner and faced the walls just like how La Bi Xiao Xin (Crayon Xiao Xin) would behave when his mum scolds him. Indeed Crayon has a very meek personality.

This is Crayon.

Daniel also bought this very impressive home for the two of them that looks like a Cyber SpaceShip. In Daniel's opinion, it looks like the Esplanade.

Cool right??? Since we can't leave them in the car, I brought them back to my office after lunchtime and my colleagues think that the hammis have upgraded from the shatters in the petshop to a bungalow now. Some of them says that this liken to boss's "771". Haha...of cos! This home costs almost $100.

Like excited parents, Daniel took alot of pictures... Enjoy!
They are really very small & tiny.. Come & see them soon!

Labels: Citrus, Crayon

*Karen Yeo Smiles at |6:13 PM| *

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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Past Memories ....

It's strange how some memories can erase themselves totally from our brain's storage space never to be remembered again while some only to disappear from the temporary storage but still remain dormant in our harddisk, waiting for the day to be retrieved again.

Sounds like a novel hor?

Ok let me continue in my novel writing mood....

Somehow this part of my memories have been forgotten for quite a long period of time...until someone in my primary school gathering reminded me of this past. Yesterday I went home and my mum asked me to clear this box in the storeroom, which I call "My Memory Box"- One that contains stuffs of my past relationships.

In a section of this box, I picked up some drawings and a huge drawing block filled with drawings, all of which were given to me by this boy James during my P6 days.

As my friends talked about this guy during our primary school friends' gathering, memories just floated back.

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James took the same school bus as me throughout the 6 years but we had never crossed conversations. Maybe for hormones reasons, somehow James caught my attention and I found out that his birthday was coming. I gave him a Bobdog mug which was his favourite cartoon character. On the same day that I gave the mug, I was caught by surprised when he got my house number from a friend and called me at home to tell me that he will be coming to my house to pass me something. As I watched him running across my carpark through my house windows my heart was pumping very loudly. The next moment I found this piece of paper slipped through my house door. Afraid that it will arouse my mum's suspicion, I ran into my room with the paper.

Wah I tell you when I saw the red heart between the Bobdog and his girlfriend, my heart was screaming on the inside like nobody business, totally elated!!!

What happened after that? Of cos at that age there was no such thing as "Can you be my girlfriend?" but he continued to do a few sweet things. There would be times when he would reserve the seat beside his on the schoolbus and signal me to sit beside him when the bus arrived at my house. Sometimes he would passed me scolls of drawings which comes with a small paper covering words like "I like you" or "Thank you!"...

Awww... thats's so sweet, so romantic right?!

Those remaining 5 months were the happiest days of my primary school life, filled with the purest happiness. Think about it, I was fat, ugly, low-profile and definitely not the sweet type.

And mind you, he wasn't ugly, in fact girls would categorize him as quite handsome and cute. Really don't know why he would like someone like me. Or is it out of sympathy? Maybe. Maybe his eyes paste stamps? Haha.. but for whatever reasons, I can say that he gave me an extra boost in my self-esteem and had made me feel that I'm someone special. It was a good feeling and no one has ever made me feel this way EVER.... and also AGAIN!!! No one. Serious. (Daniel, heard that????)

I guess this is what we call 初恋 in Korean Drama. Haha...Not too bad ah for a 不起眼 girl... at least this is an experience that not all pretty school girls can buy....

Once we went out together with my younger brother to watch a movie.. Ya ya, my brother was just a 挡剑牌... But that's about all, we didn't hold hands or anything. It was a BGR but just a mutual crush that vanished after we went to different sec schools.

During our last week of school, we exchanged some drawings which we spent weeks to finish.
He can draw very well right? Can't imagine that they came from a P6 boy...

Why do I wanna blog about this? Because all these pics are going to end up in the rubbish chute after the blogging... Don't worry Daniel, I'm not going to keep them cos they don't mean anything to me now.

Labels: P6 crush

*Karen Yeo Smiles at |1:49 PM| *

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