Name: Karen Yeo
Burpdae: 16th June
Email: karenyeocp@gmail.com
MSN: sapphire1641@hotmail.com
My Wish List
Karen's Top Priority
Good tenants
Renovate whole hse in 2 yrs' time
Pyjamas Party
Slim Digital Camera
Karen's Secondary Priority
Learn Ballroom-dancing
A Light 12" laptop
Okinawa/Kyoto/Hokkaido
Set up my business
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Visit Serena & Jordan
Karen Writes:
This afternoon Audrey, Ruxin & I went to visit Serena & Jordan. It's been only a week since the delivery and Serena is already very pro with taking care of her baby. SerenaI believe you are doing a great job in taking care of Jordan. Power!!! Continue to take good care of yourself while busy taking care of Jordan ok?
After that we went to City Plaza to shop for heels for our wedding shoots and actual day. Ruxin bought a silver pair and I bought a white pair with crystal heels. As you guys know, I'm not tall enough so we need at least 3-4inches heels. Don't be deceived by the looks. It's actually very comfortable to walk in cos it's cushioned & has a platform in front. Suitable armour to walk thru 50 tables during the banquet dinner. Damage: $120.
By the way, the Auntie who sold us the heels is too agressive & pushy in her selling skills. She was not willing to let us try the different sizes until we are more or less confirmed with the design. If not for the design, we would not have bought from that shop. Boycot!
Last Friday Daniel & I went for our Gown & Suit Selection at Graceful Creation, JB.
We were prepared to spend a long time at the Bridal Studio since Ruxin spent about 5hrs settling her gown selection. Well.. I guess since our photoshoot is a theme package, it's much easier for us since we only need to choose 7 gowns from their 20 gowns in the theme package. And the girl who helped me with the changing, Vivian, was really efficient. In the end we only took about two hours to settle our selections. But we need to go back another time in May to choose our Actual Day Wedding Gown & Suit, as they will have more new arrivals by then.
My 7 gowns for PhotoShoot include:
A pure white gown with sweetheart neckline and Taffeta Silhouette
A Victorian style white gown with lacey high neckline & long sleeve with ballgown Silhouette
A black shimmery tube neckline gown with A-line Silhouette
A yellow-green Mermaid gown with long & widespread train of black trimmings & flowers
A white tube neckline gown with train of red trimmings & flowers
A purple gown with tube neckline and Taffeta Silhouette
A white layered gown for outdoor shoots
Prelude to my PhotoShoot
Poor Daniel didn't have a choice over what he will wear as they already have a matching suit for each gown. So whatever I choose, he wears the corresponding suit.Sorry!
Indoor Photoshoot is scheduled coming 7th April. I believe we will have a fun time then.
In the book "Heaven is So Real" by Thomas Choo, the author writes in Chapter 6 & 7 about her experience of how God led her into a garden, a paradise of beauty, love, joy and peace. This is what she writes in Chapter 7:
.... and returned to a place I had started to call "animal mountain". This is a wonderful place I briefly described in the previous chapter - a place of peace and joy where all animals coexist in delightful delightful harmony.
The Bible depicts this peaceful place for animals in the book of Isaiah, where the prophet proclaims:
"It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says the LORD." - Isaiah 65:24-25
.....The Lord's "animal mountain" is a place of eternal joy & happiness. It is reassuring to know that animals will live with us in paradise. So many people wonder if their pets will be in Heaven, and I am happy to let them know that heaven is a place of beautiful flowers, peaceful animals and glorious radiance where people and animals alike will never experience pain, hardship, death or suffering ever again.
My last moments with Tummy keep coming back to me and I kept thinking to myself that maybe Tummy would still be around if we had noticed him earlier. Until Daniel read me this verse from the Bible and this passage from the book…
To Chai Luang & all those who lost their pets: I hope this brings comfort to your heart as much as it does for me. Our pets are in a better place where they have great company and their needs are all well taken are of. And we know that we have given them the best provision, attention and love when they are still around. They will always live in our hearts.
Tonight has been a devastating night for me as I witnessed Tummy's Death.
Tummy, together with Sponge, are both Netherlands breed and have been part of our family since the day my sister brought them home. They even carry our family name - Tummy Yeo and Sponge Yeo, that's how close they are to us.
Tummy has been sick for the past few days & have not been eating. We brought him to the vet and was expecting him to recover soon after the vaccination like the previous time. I was even playing with his tail and patting him this afternoon even though he wasn't eating yet after the vet's visit. Who knows the last time I saw him was when my mum noticed that he wasn't able to lift up his head anymore. He was lying straight in front of me. I stroked his head and he tried to lift up his head and dropped again. i thought he was fine and was responding to me. But he kept doing it a couple of times as though he couldn't stop himself knocking his head. And the next moment he stopped breathing.
Tummy's death came too sudden & unexpected. Everyone in the family was very sad and cried. When I saw my mum's unbelieving & crying face, it reminded me of the time when my white local rabbits passed away when I was still in secondary school. My mum was so devastated as she took care of them & their 10 babies everyday when she herself was pregnant too.
Tears couldn't stop dropping even as I write now. Tummy & Sponge have been my company in good & bad times. There are some mornings that I was awaken by Tummy becos he "escaped" from the balcony and always likes to visit my bedroom in particular. There are times when he will come "begging" for rabbit treats. There are times when I was sad & lonely & would cry with him. And every night just before I sleep, I would check on them to give them a Good Night stroke on their cheeks *They love it! & make sure there is enough water. They have brought so much joy in my life. I was even thinking to myself that I would definitely want to take a picture with them in my wedding gown on my day. But I will never have the chance to do it with Tummy again.
Daniel says we will meet our pets when we go heaven because the Bible says that in heaven, lion lie beside sheeps. I don't know if that's true but Tummy, I'm sad to see you pass away before my eyes. I love you and I will always remember you my friend... ...
Sat night Keeliang arranged a surprised bday party for Karen Chia by getting Daniel & I to join them after their dinner at the Pump Room tog with 3 other Karen Chia's colleagues. Pump Room is a nice pub in Clarke Quay with a nice entertaining band, that serves their own brewed beer "Pump Room Lager" - Pretty crisp & light, & you don't get drunk even after drinking a tower. Karen Chia can testify to that. She's a good drinker. I guess she will be the one to "da" the alcohol on her wedding banquet. She has indeed inherited this trait from her mum (my Mum-In-Law)...Haha...
For so many years Daniel has been requesting me to dance with him whenever there is an opportunity & my ans has been No, No & No! However last night I gave in & yup...I had my first dance with Daniel, Keelaing, Karen Chia & her colleagues. I must say that although I had my portion of silly & unglam moments on the dance floor, it was even more amusing looking at Keeliang dance (or rather stamping his feet on the floor "_")
Sunday after Church Service, CK zone held their 1st event of the KingKong vs Godzilla Bowling Competition. This is my first time playing bowling with Javier. After failing to hit the pins a few times, the gals tried to teach Javier the "Angel Style" which is to place the ball on the floor and pushed it forward. Of cos our image-conscious Javier wouldn't fall for such "Angelic" name & adopt such unglam & Gu Niang style. It's really funny to see him blush whenever the crowd cheered for him each time his ball hit the pins. This is also my first time witnessing Miss Cool (Jewel) outside her usual cool & indifferent look - She actually clapped her hands when Audrey had a strike and boo-ed me when I hit nothing. Imagine her expression! Urgh! How dare you! Haha.. Children are funny.
Anyway I had another first time with our very own Javier Tan! oh my gosh, this sounds so scandalous but it's nothing close to that. The story goes like this... ... ...
Audrey & I were about to leave the Ladies when we heard Javier from outside.
Javier: I need the toilet
So we showed him the way to the Gents but we realised he was all by himself.
Audrey: Can you manage by yourself?
Javier didn't ans our qns, went into the Gents, browsed a bit (wondering what was he browsing for?) and he came out saying:
Javier: I don't think I can
And off he went, straight into the Ladies as if he knew we would follow him in. He chose a cubicle, went in & put down the cover... wait a min.. put down the cover??? Don't tell me he wanna poo poo? After about a min, there was still no noise inside the cubicle.
Audrey: Are you ok? Can you manage by yourself?
There was no reply... ... ... ... Long silent ... ... ... ... ... ...
Javier: I don't think I can
Audrey & I suspected that he poo-pooed and needed help in cleaning. And this Audrey looked at me as if her face was saying "ok you do it" There & then, I braved myself to the occasion. But the door was still locked. I was thinking in my heart "Why hasn't he opened the door? Is he having second thoughts after asking our help since we have not helped him before?"
Me: Can you manage? Do you really want us to come in?
Audrey: Aiya, this Karen ah... ask so many questions.. Just go in la!!!
And the door was opened.
Javier: Wait ah... he sat & pooed some more.
Ok.. He wasn't paiseh for not opening the door. He just wasn't done with his business. I was thinking too much.
Yup, it was't difficult cleaning anyway. But I do have difficulty buttoning up Javier's pants. It was a bit tight & poor Javier had to breathe in so much to get it done.
Javier, time to learn to button up & clean up yourself and get ready for Primary School!
Karen Chia's Bday is this coming Sun, 22 Mar. That's right!~
So last night we went back to Haven's Grill & introduce my future family to this proven restaurant. Thinking back, it's seems like I'm always the one who got pin-pointed to suggest places to eat. Do I look like a Food Guru or something?? Some good places we have been are like hmm....Five Star Chicken Restaurant (East Coast Road), Waraku (Cuppage), Hua Yu Wee Seafood Restaurant (Upper East Coast Road), Boss Restaurant (VivoCity), Haven's Grill (Joo Chiat)...ya?
This time round we ordered: A bottle of House Red Wine Soup - French Onion Soup (same as previous)
Appretizer - Meatball
After visiting for the 2nd time, I feel that the appretizer portion can be bigger. Only enough to share between 2-3 people.
Main Course - Sirloin Steak, PorkChop, Baby Ribs, Creamy Mushroom Linguine & Pizza. The Linguine is super worth for it's price. Nice but perhaps can try requesting for it to be more "wet" the next time round. Pizza is 10" & is super thin & nice! That's right.. it's a must try. Good to share in a group.
Audrey mentioned in her blog about a few people who's good at mimicking. Let me tell you who's good at mimicking Indians & Filipino & Hokkien Aunties - Karen Chia! We really had a good laugh in the car hearing her mimicking them. That's right~We have a hidden talent in the church. In fact, we suggest that she should join our church drama team. She's super good!
It has been ages since the gals in our click hanged out tog. Oophs, in fact it's our 1st time since we normally hang out tog with the guys. Anyway RuRu, Audrey & I went to this restaurant at 191 JooChiat Road, Haven's Grill.
We had a great time enjoying
French Onion Soup;
Cheese & Ham Portobello (Big Mushroom) as appetizer;
Baby Ribs, Sirloin Steak, Chicken Stew as main course;
A glass of red wine each.
The executive chef, Thomas Lam, says his style of cooking is much like Jamie Oliver. Although he doesn't use salt & msg on his food, his food is delicious as much of the natural taste is preserved with good use of herbs. He shared that he's currently teaching delinquents & school drop-outs cook & set up small businesses. He also desires to be able to design a kitchen environment that is conducive for the hearing-impaired one day. Wow! We are talking about a man who desires to change lives & be a blessing to the society more than just his passion in cooking!
It sets me thinking that me being a Financial Consultant, we are more than just giving quality advice in investments & savings - We play a very important role in the society by protecting our clients adequately with life insurance, personal accident & hospitalization needs. We play a very important role in assisting our clients to preserve & enhance their finances. That's what make us different from a Property agent or a Car Dealer.
My mum & I had a conversation about undertakers and we kinda agree that undertakers earn good money and you can't bargain with them regarding the funeral wake expenses.
True hor... who dares to bargain for such things... like very bu siao (unfillial) if we do that.
Anyway the conversation went on to a funeral that my mum attended last year. She mentioned about one of the deceased's daughters who was not a giving person by nature, & did not give much money to her parents. Just before he passed on, he "scolded" her daughter for being stingy with her parents & took them for granted for many things. So during the funeral, my mum says for the first time the daughter decides to buy a good coffin with gold trimmings for her father. Right now, this daughter has moved out of her father's house as she felt uneasy staying there.
The spooky-ness starts here... It was said that they kept hearing "sounds" within 100 days of the funeral. And the daughter's husband saw "her dad" walking around in the house during the funeral wake!!! Creepy right?Haha.. don't read this at night. Anyway, my hair was standing given the eerie atmosphere and all the sound effects that came from TV at the background.. The Taoists believe the soul of the dead will come back to visit the family within 100 days of death. So I began to explain to my mum that when we die, my spirit will go to heaven or hell. Usually such incidents are done by evil spirits sent by the devil to imitate the deceased so as to impose fear within man's heart, and not done by the spirit of the deceased.
My mum taught me how to make dumpling today. The recipe is as follows:
Ingredients to make 55-60 Dumplings: 300gm minced pork 300gm prawns 10 fresh waterchessnut 250gm of Gu Cai (Those long thin stripes of green vegetables that look like chong) 300gm Dumpling skin Seasoning Salt little MSG Sesame Oil Pepper
That's it! Easy!
Cooking: Boil (for healthier choice) or Shallow Fry (to make guo tie)
Last night my mum & I managed to catch 2 horror movies over TV.
12 midnight @ Channel U - a Thai ghost movie about a pregnant woman who was harassed by a female ghost looking for her baby. Apparently this ghost needed this pregnant woman to help her investigate her mysterious death cause and the location of her baby. It turned out that actually this ghost (known as A mei when alive) had an affair with her teacher who is already a family man & got pregnant. The teacher obviously didn't want the existence of the baby to destroy his teaching career & family so he got people to drown her in a swamp. And Thai being the superstitious type, felt very uneasy about the fact that there is a foetus still in the dead corpse so the undertaker operated on the dead woman to take out the foetus. The following day, the undertaker sold the foetus to a rich man who believed that keeping foetus in the house can continue to bring prosperity to the house. So much so for fengshui...So the show ended with A mei taking revenge at the teacher & those who caused the separation of her foetus and her.
130am @ Channel 8 - a Hongkong ghost story which comprises of 3 parts and revolves around a team of undertakers and corpse make-up artists. The first part is about one corpse make-up artist's love for his beautiful girlfriend whom had an accident and had half of her face broken. She appeared to him & tell him that she wants to look pretty on her wake. So he makeup himself to look like her & guess wat? That's right, he laid himself onto of his girfriend in the coffin beneath the glass top & nobody actually realised that it's him. So yup.. he was buried alive with his girlfriend. The last 2 parts are very typical & not worth mentioning.
Actually I don't think I would have stayed up till 3plus to watch these ghostly movies if I was watching alone. Kinda scary to watch ghostly shows with all that scary sound effects when everyone else has fallen asleep right? But wat kept me going was my mum.. she actually stayed up to watch with me. To add to the eerie atmosphere, we had some spooky conversations too. She said "Next time when you are pregnant, better not watch this kinda scary shows, not good for the baby. Dun go zoo & see animals otherwise your baby will become like monkeys. Don't nail into walls. Don't use scissors on the bed..."Talking about foetus education taijiao ..hehee.. And the list went on....
I was in the train today with Daniel & his leather shoes kept knocking onto my toes & finally on the 3rd time, my biggest toe nail couldn't take it anymore and break! Painful sia~ & blood oozed out immediately.. see the pic below.. gross right? And you know what Daniel says? "You know what? Karen, Easter is coming & this is to let you understand the pain that Jesus went through on the cross. Also this can prepare you for the days of Tribulation"... Diao~~??? Feel like boxing him at the moment.
Oh man, I just saw this advertisement on the TV. One of the most popular boybands during our teenager years is back in action!
Of cos I am not their fan but when I saw this advertisement, I recalled the first time when I went KTV with Audrey and Ruxin and they shocked me with their enthusiasm in Grasshopper's songs as they grabbed the mic and jumped onto the sofa and danced along with the songs coupled with actions. It was a cultural shock!!! Songs like yi qi san ba wu & ai bu pa, are the usual hightlights of the night. But of cos it is always so entertaining to sing with them even though they may sing the same songs each time we K. Gals, it has been so long since we last K, when's next?
My family is asking for 10 tables as part of our wedding "Guo Da Li" items. These tables will be mainly relatives on my side. On top of that they will be paying for another 2-3 tables on their own to invite their own friends.
Daniel's mum just told me that they may need to have around 16 tables for their relatives, church friends & business partners.
Wow!! That's like 29 tables on relatives alone! Since we have booked about 45 tables in order to use the columnless, high ceiling Crystal Ballroom, that means that we only have an approximate 16 tables for our personal friends. Anymore would kill our legs and smile muscles as we take pics from table to table.
Imagine 29 tables relatives : 16 tables friends
Man, I was like thinking in my heart.. Wouldn't I need to entertain a lot of people on my wedding night whom I dun really know?How to cover 10 tables on my family side and all other expenses with only 16 tables of friends??? How I wish the ratio is the other way round... No wonder I used to hear couples complain about how their wedding banquets turn out to be a family event & how they had to shake hands with so many "unknown" people on their day.
I know we have to respect & please our parents especially since we are the first in the family to get married. But I believe that there should be a good balance in the ratio in order for us to really enjoy our day by sharing our joy with people who are close to us. Not forgetting a good ratio can help to cover costs as well. Maybe a good ratio would be 25 tables relatives : 20 tables friends??? How to put across to our parents so that they can understand our concerns?
As the wedding date draws nearer, I can't help but start having wierd dreams...
dreams where anything can go wrong went wrong..
Dreams where my MakeUp Artist disappear without finishing my hairdo
Dreams where the ring bearer was missing
Dreams where I was standing outside the ballroom and without any preparation and prior notice, the door opened for me to march in as the MCee said "Let's stand up to welcome the Bride in!" As I looked in my hands, there was no bouquet. Worse still.. the MCee was asking over the mic "Er-herm~.. Bride? Where's your bouquet?" Every eyes looked at me with astonishment. (Feel like killing the MCee)
Dreams where my father was not beside me to walk me down the aisle & I did not know what to do.
Dreams where a good fren walked me down to save me from all the embarrassment. (Wanna guess who's that person?) As I walked down the aisle with my messy hair (Imagine the comb still stuck in my hair) I really feel like digging a hole to bury my face right away.
Nope this is not a novel. It happened in my dream. Probably at this moment if Audrey (left) is reading this, she might be saying "What a SILLY BILLY dream! This gal ah..." Yup.. this is how she talks.. usually.. i find it amusing too...Pre-wedding blues? Perhaps...but I am going to REBUKE this silly billy dream!!!
This afternoon my sister Sharon was helping me to publicize the "birth" of my blog to my siblings and cousins, and they all had almost the same response - "What? You mean you only start blogging at this age? Why all of a sudden?" Well..that's becos I was kinda inspired by all my good frens' blog entries, especially those from Serena's - so pretty....and Evelyn's - never fails to spark curiousity in me in finding out what's happening in my manager's life! Well...so I do have the desire to blog but...never motivated to bcos I'm not IT-savy enough to create a captivating blog for my entries.
So I guess God knows my limitation and send this saviour to my life, my good fren RuRu!One evening, Daniel, RuRu and I were debating about who held their wedding banquets at Centrepoint Teochew Restaurant (Well.. you know we had so many frens who held theirs at this location). Ruxin was so certain that our colleague Gina was one of them, however I was also very sure that Gina had hers at Clarke Quay Tong Lok Restaurant. We eventually got into a verbal *fight* where Ruxin got so agitated and banged the table and said "I tell you ah.. I am very very sure..wanna bet?" Of cos, with my 100% confidence I took on the challenge & warned her by saying "You know, whenever Daniel is very sure about something & I am very certain about something else, 99% of the times I win... you sure you wanna bet?" Of cos, at this moment Daniel being reminded of all the cases he had lost to me, he couldn't agree with me less & was grinning at a corner, knowing more or less, Ruxin is gonna lose this time. And guess what??..... that's right, I won!!! And the prize? Ruxin is going to help me set up my blog!!! And she really did it ... and real fast....Thank you my fren.. if it isn't becos of that silly billy bet, I wouldn't have started my first entry!
Of cos, this page that you see now is created by Daniel as I have chosen a quite ugly blogskin for Ruxin to create.. My fault.. Sorry Ruxin for wasting your hours. Really appreciate the hardwork that you have put in....
Thanks to Daniel for creating a blog that is so me.....I love it! It's always my dream to have my blog contain memories of my life over the years even though I may not be able to blog about them anymore... so you get to see a flash of pictures of all my family & frens.. and you guys can also see how I have changed over the years.. from young to long hair, perm hair, short hair and back to long hair again...Daniel is so motivated by my blog that he also decides to create a new blog for himself... and it's so cute...Seems like one that belongs to a lady... do link up at Daniel Chia
Well... so much for my first entry.. tune in again for the next one...
Hi peeps, I just returned from an awards night with Prudential. This is my 2nd time to QC awards night at Swissotel Convention Hall. However, it's my 1st time together with my own unit P78 under our beloved Evelyn.
As usual, no luck with the lucky draw...3 laptops were given out each worth more than $3,400 per set. $3,400....I wonder what laptops they are giving out. Counting my chances, which is 1 ticket among 300 other tickets, my chance of getting the laptop is around....0.03333333%. Well, I don't feel so bad now....just 99.9777777% unlucky that's all... (=.=")
Anyway the dinner is alright. Great music, but sub-standard food. Worse of all for the 2nd dish instead of shark's fin soup....our dear 5 star hotel decided to serve fish maw soup... enough said, dinner failed me at the 2nd dish.
For next year Prudential has awards to send us to New Zealand and Korea. fantastic!! Both places I never been before.
Wohoo!! I will be eating, sleeping, hugging and maybe grazing grass with the residents of New Zealand
Come Dine with me
And of course Korea!!
Hey You!!
Opps...wrong Korea...let me try that again.... And of course KOREA!!
Soul of ASIA
Well, P78 let's go for it!! Ah well all in all, its a fine event. I will be flying off to Macau this April though and many more other events coming up in my life. Do tune in. Ciao!!
Poor Daniel didn't have a choice over what he will wear as they already have a matching suit for each gown. So whatever I choose, he wears the corresponding suit. Sorry!
And you know what Daniel says? "You know what? Karen, Easter is coming & this is to let you understand the pain that Jesus went through on the cross. Also this can prepare you for the days of Tribulation"... Diao~~??? Feel like boxing him at the moment.
Karen Writes:
ple on my wedding night whom I dun really know? How to cover 10 tables on my family side and all other expenses with only 16 tables of friends??? How I wish the ratio is the other way round... No wonder I used to hear couples complain about how their wedding banquets turn out to be a family event & how they had to shake hands with so many "unknown" people on their day.
Nope this is not a novel. It happened in my dream. Probably at this moment if Audrey (left) is reading this, she might be saying "What a SILLY BILLY dream! This gal ah..." Yup.. this is how she talks.. usually.. i find it amusing too...Pre-wedding blues? Perhaps...but I am going to REBUKE this silly billy dream!!!
One evening, Daniel, RuRu and I were debating about who held their wedding banquets at Centrepoint Teochew Restaurant (Well.. you know we had so many frens who held theirs at this location). Ruxin was so certain that our colleague Gina was one of them, however I was also very sure that Gina had hers at Clarke Quay Tong Lok Restaurant. We eventually got into a verbal *fight* where Ruxin got so agitated and banged the table and said
Come Dine with me
