Wanderers Summer Ball 2009

Matt's rugby club organized a Summer Ball for players, social members, their WAGs (wives and girlfriends) and their friends..... very generous.

Since many companies in Singapore are cutting down on cost and not doing many parties like D&D, it was a nice change for many of us.
We got to dress up, get loose and dance.
The theme was the Wanderer's color, 'black, white with a splash of red'.










It was actually the first formal event, organized by the club for the club.

They invited founder of Wanderers (it was founded in 1995) and Sponsors, awarded players by categories, for the year of 2008/9's games.


Matt aka "DJ Dumpling" did the music.
He enjoys this as you can see.

Although he is a bit annoyed when people take over the laptop or tells him what to play... and it means we had to stay until the end, sober...
But he still volunteers everytime... anyway...

It was a very nice event indeed.

Emi & Daichan's Singapore weekend

Yay! They came to visit us for the weekend!
Arrived on Saturday, we went to dinner at Robertson Walk "Red House" for Chilli Crab with Daichan's business partner Jeffery and his family.
I invited Masano-san and Toshiko-san who brought Lynn-chan! She is so chubby and quiet and soooo adorable! Everybody wanted to hold her!

(except, I asked Matt to hold her here.)







On Sunday, we went to see the "Ballet under the Stars" at the Fort Canning Park.

The usual gang plus the visitors (like Emi & Daichan) was there.
Again, plenty of food and drinks and good vibe.

Ballet was good too. It was divided into two section, the classic and the pop.
Classic ballet was beautiful (reminded me how I was mesmerized by ballet when I was a little girl), and the Pop was cool, with funky music.

The Indian group next to us was clapping their hands to the music "Kiss" by Tom Jones, which was funny. No shame in the name of fun.





That night after we came back home, Daichan surprised Emi by reminding her their wedding anniversary which they had no time to celebrate 2 days ago. They opened a small bottle of Moet at the balcony, which I think was so sweet.
They are the most loving couple I've ever known.

And so my own standard has be raised...

Ernest & Airish's ROM

My colleague Ernest, finally tied a knot with his beautiful girlfriend Airish.

Ernest normally sits next to me at work and I hear him organize for the wedding, deal with Airish's family, or some times argue with her on the phone, on small matters, like passionate couples.... often I give him my advise to chill and relax. I know I am not the best consultant but I feel I am old and wise compared to these two young and emotional love birds.


They had a simple and nice ceremony and party at Villa Bali in Singapore.
And in December, they will have a massive church and reception party in the Philippines.

I am sure Ernest and Airish will be happy together and build a cute funky family!

Raymond's wedding weekend in Jakarta

So Raymond finally got married to Grace. We all hope for his happiness and everlasting loving marriage. It was an intimate and beautiful wedding party.
Raymond's sister singing "Loving You" was classic! - well, it is a difficult song to sing.

Matt & I stayed at Four Seasons hotel where the wedding was held.
Emi & Daichan was invited too, so we went together, had few drinks at the lobby bar, as well as at Cork & Screw - Afterall, Saturday was the only night out in Jakarta. At the wedding and at C&S, there were many of those typical salon goer girls posing endlessly for the digicam. It made me feel... (not old) but mature... heh













In the daytime, Vanda, Rani, Puput, Aki-san, Yoshii, Itien and all the children gathered at Mandor.
It felt different to be among my cousins, now that we are mothers/mothers to be.
I was also happy for the Manadonese food... :)













Last day we went to see Dad and went for Italian. Dad was pleasant and also gave me his CDs - ambience, bossa nova, oldies, Japanese etc. Matt also got some golf set and a cover from Daichan. Cool!













Then there's Rikki.
I know I'm related to him so he looks cute to me, but he really is such a heart melting sweetie.
I'm not even confident I can adore any other baby like I do for Rikki. Not even my own...

But! it's so exciting to know I'm going to have a niece!
Yes, Rikki will have a younger sister!
And I will have a boy... oh no...too much for me to even think.

Naomi O'Leary

That's my new name from now until I die.

It's actually more of a big deal in Japan, because people call each other with their surname.
Takeya-san.
When I went to get my new passport at the Japanese Embassy, they called me...
"ORIARII-san! " - that was weird!

I think the sweetest memory of me and my surname would be the PE t-shirts in our Sho-Gakkoo in Japan.
Every year for 6 years, mom with her awkward writing, but better than Emi or I, did her best to write and stitch on the t-shirts for me.
In Chu-Gakkoo everyone's name was printed by the printer, so we were all relieved of the pressure.

Googled and found few people with the same name. And I know, they were first...
Miss Irish Sun is Naomi O'Leary too.

Ned

How cute is he?
Lucy sent photos of him when he's playing in a garden shower.
All kids love fountains and splashing water outdoors!

22 weeks....

Oops! It's a BOY!

Had a thorough scan at another hospital where they checked the organs and parts of the babies' body.
Yes, it has everything it needs...
and more...

20 weeks...

Doctor couldn't tell for sure, and it's not 100% but he said
most likely it is a... Girl!

My 34th Birthday!

Matt is such a sweet heart.
The best partner anyone can have.
He is so thoughtful, smart, cute, funny, eventful, hard working, sensitive and cuddly.

I am so contented just being with him, so when he asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I could only think of spending time with Matt.
But he surprised me by calling my close friends to my favorite Japanese restaurant and made me feel like I picked the place for 2.





It was a lovely and happy day for me.
I also want to thank all my friends and family who send me messages of well wishes.

And it makes me think...
I'm such a lousy person who can't remember birthdays... I should be more thoughtful from now...

Shakespeare by the Park

We went to watch Shakespeare's play "Much Ado About Nothing", the modernized, localized version by The Singapore Repertory Theatre.
Twisting the original, the story is still a love comedy romance but is set in the colonization era of Singapore played by the Nyona and the British settlers.





















Thanks to Calven the organizer with a military precision, each of us brought something to contribute to make a very nice picnic. I made sushi rolls and fried chicken while others brought wine, beer, cheese, cold meats etc etc.

After the play, and when most of the audience were gone, we stayed back and fooled around a bit. Courtney jumped in the pool which was part of the theatre set, while the boys had more wine and beer... resulting in us doing silly innocent things like these...

my colleague's birthday

Nanthia is my senior in the team, who commutes from JB (Malaysia) everyday (1-2hours commute) but she is always on time. She is positive, jovial and is helpful to everyone. She also has a pretty face and a slender body for a mother of two!

Matt's parents 2days in Singapore

Terry & Jenny came back from Koh Samui and had 2 days in Singapore before leaving to UK.
















We had a nice dinner at Flutes@Fort Canning on Friday night.











Saturday, we had Yam Cha@China Town and went to the Asian Civilization Museum.










Afterwards, we went back home and spent the remaining hours chatting and relaxing.
It seemed Terry & Jenny had a good holiday.

Next time we see them, there will be a new addition to the family!

ah....Koh Samui

Matt's parents came to Singapore for 2 days then went to Koh Samui, Thailand first.
We joined them on Thursday night until Sunday.






The villa was booked by Jenny so it was definitely going to be some what lux, and it was. The best part is that there were almost nobody except for us! I don't know if it is credit crunch or just how the resort is made, but it was as if we had the beach and the resort all to ourselves. Now, that is an ultimate luxury!

The food at the resort was good enough that we really didn't need to leave the resort.

Except for the time when we went to Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts to learn how to cook Thai Red Curry, Chicken & Cashew nut with Vegitable mix and Thai fish soup.
I loved the part where I learned more about chilli and how to cook the curry paste.

The weather was nice and we all got a nice tan!

16 weeks!

The doctor drew the part where it's the neck and then the spine.

It's a size of a big Fuji apple now!

(but it's too small to tell if it's a boy or a girl. Maybe next month...)

Melaka weekend

Went for a road trip to Melaka (Malaysia) formally spelled Malacca - with the boys Calven, Sam and Matt on Friday morning.
On Saturday, Jules and Courtney joined.
We were 2 hours late for our departure and left Singapore at 8am... and was stuck in the traffic...
So It took us 8 hours to arrive to Melaka. (coming back to S'pore was 2 1/2 hours!)
















That night
we ate at the famous Chicken Rice with the rice made up as balls - the Melaka thing.





We also walked around the side where the old town charm remained - It was like Singapore in the 30s, not that I've been there, but I can imagine so...


The next day we ate more Chicken Rice balls, and we went to play golf.
The experts (Calven & Sam) played 18 holes and the amateurs (Jules, Matt, Courtney(he was better than rest of us)) played 9 holes.













Then we went for more sight seeing, dinner etc etc.

I went to bed early being a boring pregnant person, but the rest had a late night enjoying the down to earth atmosphere of Malaka night.