Thank you.......

Thank you for attending my wedding especially to those who play an important role in making the day a perfect one.....

Finally got the long awaited pics from the photographer

www.edmundleong.com/soonguaneliz

I will try to load all to a webby coz his URL only consists of main essence of the day

PS... Thanks to Mr Anything for drawing our anime pic.....

Year End Appraisal Time

It is time of the year again for all employees to write their own review and for their managers to gauge their performance for the entire year... Not really looking forward as it will mean that another year has passed. It seems like i do not much to write about myself - does this mean that i didnt perform well or i am not a good promoter for myself???? Time really flies, this is my third review, my third year in the company liao leh....

Anyway today i went back niang jia for dinner, sumptuous home-cooked food on a weekly wednesday, and found that my doggie Scotty is sick so i put a blanket over him to keep him warm. He looks so ke lian....

S@mmi Concert 13 Oct 07

Going for two concerts for the same artiste in less than 6 months - who else can attract me other than S@mmi Cheng, simply love her! Bot the tixs on the first day of sale to watch with Di on the very first Sat i returned from honeymoon... didnt really realise that it costs $170 till tt day i saw the tickets. haha

S@mmi started off with wearing a short wig, blindfolded as described by the media.... and this brings me shouting and screaming for her the moment she stepped onto the stage.

She changed to this long wig with short fringe which i find it nice and this makes me more tempted to cut mine short, something which i always wanted to.

Special guest of honour - Steph Sun.... S@mmi described her as a bamboo when she first met her haha... Steph looks so petite besides S@mmi and lacks in the crowd appeal, quite a few ppl went for toilet break when she started singing all by herself. Maybe becoz the fans they attract are from different era??

The screen then flashed quite a few S@mmi photos taken in the past and i find this picture especially eerie.

The concert ended with my favourite dance medley, followed by her wearing a stylo white suit with low cut front showing her red bra.

No encore as she is down with throat infection, felt a little disappointed and left driving the bluey car with the bluey top and a bluey mood.........

In comparison (2 plus 1 minus)

HK concert

+ more effects in terms of lighting, stage deco

+ more worthwhile as it is cheaper and longer

- dont understand some of their conversation spoken in Cantonese

Singapore concert

+ more homely

+ seats closer to her but

- cannot really see her as i am blocked by super huge lightstick held by her fans infront

I miss blogging....

Finally i get to blog again after fixing the internet in my new room.... Well i have so many things to update. hmmmm what shall i start with??

My new lifestyle........

Still trying to load my things from "niang jia" to my new place, packing and unpacking is no easy task, I still have a suitcase left lying there for me to clear. Washing my own clothes is another chore which i need to learn and get used to, never ever have to worry about when to wash, when to hang and when to keep and iron. Now, i have to set a schedule to do all these and most importantly try not to dye my white clothes black. =)

My wedding videography......

Our video is nicely done up in chapters by Ernest with our studio pics as the DVD cover, got from him through our garden as he stays diagonally behind our place. I can only say that he is GOOD, patient, sincere and dedicated and will definitely recommend to those who are getting married soon. Our face is full of smiles each time we watch the video as he captured all the nice moments - ben being waxed, relatives saying those auspicious blessings with male genitals as one of the word symbolising giving birth to a baby boy next yr, BE's anxious looks during solemnisation, etc...

My studio pics........

Got to know from zozo that our pics are being displayed in the studio as it was shown to our mutual friend who intends to use them as her photographer. They also post our pics on their blog as a form of publicity -> http://chrisling.com/blog/?p=21. Felt so honoured =)

Both of us really miss the times we spent preparing for the wedding.

How i wish.......... =)

A visit to the person i fear most in my life

My tooth chipped when i had lunch a few weeks back, felt so sad and lost my appetite while i was enjoying a lake cruise. Decided to bring myself to the person, whom i fear most since young, when i return to Singapore to get it filled and it took me 2 hours before i get to see him, narrating "The story of my chipped tooth in Prague".

He did a quick check and found another 3 more teeth which requires filling, so this makes it 4 in total. Oh my gosh! I clench my hands together while he did all the drilling and filling, i tried to keep myself occupied thinking of something else and reminded myself to keep breathing. After some time, my saliva flooded near my throat and this triggers the vomitting symptoms which i hate most. I kept myself cool till it is over - my teeth got filled but my pocket got a hole.

Finally back in Singapore

Back from my 16 days of honeymoon covering 7 countries, it is extremely fun but 16 days is more than enough as both of us were totally exhausted with all the sightseeing, shopping etc and most importantly we miss home.

We were so excited when we board the plane flying back Singapore and when we touch down, i became so patriotic and sang to my hubby

'This is home truly where i know i must be....."

Nothing is better than home, we also miss the food as we were so sick of bread, pasta, pizza, scrambled eggs, salads etc and my face kind of become fatter becoz of these food...

We plan our food routine and went to Geylang "Wan dou sek" for Dim sum - order spareribs, chee chong fun, otah, shrimp dumplings, porridge, fu pi roll, chicken feet, sugarcane juice.... Yummy!!!!

I will try to blog on my trip and wedding once i got those pics sorted out....

A Visit to Registry of Marriage

Went ROM to collect our cert yesterday... the last time i went there was for my cousin's solemnisation which was so many years back and this time round, i am there to collect my own cert. Time really flies.....

our queue number - 104 symbolises I love you???

We need to raise our right hand and then read out the oath - we are above 21, not married before, confirm that we came here to collect our cert, etc... so funny Then we took a pic outside the office. Actually i never notice that the ROM logo is showing a man and a woman hugging each other till i upload this pic in my bloggy.


Here's the doc which will certify that we are married on 15 Sept 07 as Mr and Mrs Loo.....

Even though i have a few days of break before the big day, there are so many errands to run and BE is down with cough... i shall try to finish as much as i can before i go for my manicure tomorrow and also hope BE can get well soon.

My Hen's Night

Prior to me and Be having our hen and bachelor night on the same day, we went to the hotel for a mini rehearsal together with our emcees, flower girl, page boy and pianists.

Kids are always kids, it took us some time to train them up to walk down the solemnisation and ballroom aisle - they are either too slow or too fast so my cousin came up with an idea asking them to remember the no of steps before they reach the finishing - 25 steps for the solemnisation and 40 steps for the ballroom.

Here's a pic which i took of them using the dummy flower basket, dummy ring pillow and dummy table stand - Dar..... =)


After the rehearsal, me and BE part our ways for our own program. I went My Secret G@rden to have dinner with my sisters - nice cosy place but limited food selection.

I shared the crayfish and scallop spaghetti with cousin, looks appetising isnt it?? coz the crayfish looks big, taste is so-so only.

Then, we head to MOS for clubbing.... Di, being the devilette in nature, had the devil theme for the party and got me the devil bar and a red hair band as she cun find the devil ears but she rem tt we could get it at the bridge near MOS so we went in search for it before entering the club. To our surprise, it is 3 for $10 so we got one for each. So cute hor???

For some reason, the devil bar cannot be brought into the club as they say it is sharp??? so no choice we have to leave it with them. We went in with our blink blink ears and got many ppl's attention as we were so distinctive and it is obvious that we were there for a hen party. =)

Thanks for the party babes.........

My new creation - ring pillow

I am proud to present my Me-to-You Ring pillow creation with some help from mama to sew up the pillow.

Me-to-You bear is chosen as the ambassador coz this is the first bear BE bot for me abt 6 years ago to keep my mouth shut when he was driving as he finds me distracting. Haha

Di came over to my house to stay over yesterday as we need to catch Vball finals today - her last overnight stay with the single-status me =) Didnt manage to wake up on time as i had a dream and felt that i need more sleep so i laze in bed for another 30 mins.... The female finals was really exciting as both T.N.T and The Red Team are both super good with their spikes. Like Di, my hands felt itchy after watching...

Then, i head to C&C's housewarming... nice gathering as it consists both ops and sales team. Went to mit mama after that and shop at People Park Complex and OG thereafter, felt so tired....

My Wedding Book from Japan

Got wedding gifts from hei all the way from Japan as she cannot make it for my wedding day given that her school semester has started...

In fact, deep down in my heart, i will really wish that she is around as she is one of my best buddy.

Also i will want her to see her wearing dress which she dreads... hehe


Here's a cartoony drawing of how me and BE's lives will be after getting married......


Our happy new life starts.........



Ohayo (good morning), itte kimasu (i am going out), itte rasshai (be careful when you go out), okaeri (I am back), tadaima (Welcome back), oyasumi (night) -> our daily conversation




Both of us will have dinner together...
Itadakimasu (Let's eat)
Douzo (Please)






We will do household chores, watch tv, drink coffee together.....

Watch the stars together at night........

At the end of the book, hei wrote us a very sweet message....

A closeup of the message

I am so sorry that i cannot make it for your wedding. From this moment, you will start your new life... Must jiayou... I will wish you happiness throughout your whole life. Wish you and Guan happiness forever and have lotsa babies.

Hugs and kisses Qiao =)

Meeting with Solemniser

Thanks to BE that we finally got Prof Yu Sh1 M1ng to be our solemniser.

Reasons why we chose him

• Bilingual
• Positive comments posted on bridal forum
• Decent looking
• NUS Prof as both of us studied there

From all the email correspondences, he seems like a man with little words... but after the meeting we had with him today, he is actually someone who is rather chatty... Being the Real Estate Dean/ Vice Dean, we talked about the recent property trends and Joo Chiat - my future home, etc.

After our meeting with him, we went over to meet Prof Wong, BE's Honours year mentor as he was invited to our wedding.... He resembles a chubby version of Xu Guan Wen with a red puffy nose as he is down with flu. Being a life science prof, he is conscious that virus will spread so he really sat very far away from us, worried that he will pass the germs to us. So considerate of him....

Come to think of it, how come i never consider inviting my honours mentor, Prof Chia? hehe

Food tasting day

Food tasting is normally held one or two months before actual wedding day but we were a little bit late as we only had ours on 28th Aug which is less than 3 weeks before our big day. Knocked off early so that we could catch up with our hotel coordinator, Sh@mini, before the dinner...... managed to finalise the usage of our bliss stars, table arrangement, program outline, etc... As our solemnisation starts at 6pm, the briefing for our coordinators and emcees will be extremely early @ 3.30pm.
The guest table arrangement will be in gold theme and similar what is shown in the pic below, alternate tables will have their center flower piece in martini glass so as to create a varied effect.

Closer look of the assymmetric table top flower arrangement

We are free to choose from the many napkins designs which they offer and we got alternate designs of tuxedo (center) and the snail looking napkin (extreme left) as the hotel coordinator mention that this looks like a pair....

On the whole, the food was so-so but i prefer the dinner atmosphere which we have this time round as compared to the family dinner which we had last year @ Parkroyal after we told our parents that we are getting married. Thank god that both families can click so well and i hope it can maintain this way forever......

Bleeding financial markets

Woes in US mortgage market is creating a huge volality in financial market, causing share price to plunge down and many people abandoning their investments to safer havens.

Why at this time??????

I have been slogging since the beginning of the month, working 10-13 hours almost everyday till i dont even dare to make appointments with friends after work to give out my invites...... Not enough time to prepare for wedding and still have to work like hell.

Monday soon........... =(

Officially one month before i change my title to Mrs

I am left with a month for my big day and i seem to have so many things undone. Ahhhhhh as much as i like the whole process, this is driving me a little crazy especially when i need to work for long hours recently. Hahaha but i still enjoy it and counting down to see how BE will be sabo by my creative sisters, my parents will put on the veil for me, we walk down the aisle together to sign the papers, etc........

A year since i accepted the ring.....

Time really passes so fast.... i can still vividly remember the whole proposal process and how i announce to my family, friends and colleagues last year.....

I called up my parents who went to watch ge tai as it was the seventh month then and they tried so hard to hear what i am trying to tell them so i shouted on the phone till second pig could hear me from his room...

Phoned all my close friends and told them about it...... the conversation went like this
Me: "Hey i got something to tell you"
Friends: "What? You getting married huh???"
Me: "Hehehe yah lor....."
Friends: "Wow really?? congrats leh hehe"

Went office the next day and then smiled happily to all, then they asked "Why look so happy after celebrating your 5th year anniversary?" Then i showed them my blissful face and then the 'thingy' on my finger...... haha

My busy Saturday.........Out with second pig, banquet florist, prawning

Shopping with bro

I didnt i didnt mention but my BRO is back and will be in Singapore for good... yuppie so happy to see him around. The three little pigs woke up rather early for no reason so we decided to send big pig to the ferry terminal as he needs to go Batam/ Bintan.... Then i pester second pig to Ikea as i need to buy some stuffs for my new room. Thereafter we went to TM to search for pressies as we have so many birthday celebrations to attend - cousin's 21st, niece's birthday, new nephew's 1st month.... We spent the whole morning and reached home abt 3 just nice for me to take a half hour nap before we go out again...Second pig sent me to meet BE then to his friend's birthday party.

Florist shopping with BE
BE and I went to visit the in-house florist for our wedding banquet at Verdun Road near Mustafa Centre. The place was nice with alot of glasswares and lights for us to chose from. Initially we wanted chandelier lights but he showed us another one which is the latest and bigger which has a greater impact as compared and this costs more...... =( We had the discussion for 1.5 hours and this is what we had finalised.... It will be a big hole in our pocket as we didnt factor this to our budget... haizz

For the Grand Ballroom - ivory, lime green and white with Burgundy stage backdrop

• Huge and long lights with ivory seashells, the person is so nice to import another 2 more for our wedding. We had to pay for rental, electrician to fix the lights and additional to cover the original gold stage backdrop to Burgundy.
• Assymentric floral arrangement for all our guest tables. If we were to add hydrangea, our favourite, to each table, this will cost us abt $30 each.... which adds up to be $1800.... ouch!!!
• Tier floral arrangement with candles in the middle of our 20 seater donut table
• 12 pedestrals along the aisle and on the stage, florist has decided to put in hydragea free yuppie.....
  

For the Grand Gallery - burgundy and white

• 9 martini glass with candles at different heights
• side cocktail table with crystal floral arrangement
• red petals on the aisle as we walk in for our solemnisation
• Burgundy floral arrangement near the walkway to the recept.

Prawning with BE, DAR and his sis
After dinner, we went prawning.. it has been the longest time since we prawn hehe. Quite disappointed as we only manage to catch total of 6 prawns in 2 hours but the prawny is much bigger hehe....

A creative invention

Mama got tickets to go parade with godma and brought back this fan which i find it so creative. While using it in the office when the aircon gets alittle warm, i realised that the wording is more than just HAPPY BIRTHDAY...... it is so funny.........

First it goes HAPPY BIRTHDAY and the words will move round and round.......

Then, it has Sing@p0re and moves round and round........

Next, NDP @ M@rina Bay and it goes round and round again.....

Lastly, as the lettering comes out .... I .... Love..... i tot it will be Sing@p0re but it turns out to be the manufacturer brand - AKIR@ hehehe

This is so interesting and i think it can be a good item to use if one wants to propose or convey sweet messages across.... no one will expect it has wordings on it and it can be given as a normal gift when one feels a little hot due to the weather.... When he/she uses it, Surprise!!! with a secret message hehe............

K@zu Sumiyaki Restaurant

As suggested by Xiao Tian Tian, we, together with YX, had their post birthday dinner @ K@zu Sumiyaki Restaurant Cuppage Plaza #04-05. This is also a place highly recommended by Junie.... Didnt really feel that Cuppage will have such nice jappy restaurant, in my impression, it is a sleazy place packed with all those Jap KTV lounge.

The service wasnt that good as we were practically ignored by the waitress even though they sight us at the entrance. We were spolit with choice as there are so many different dishes to chose from. YX just left this important task to me and XTT, then we order and order till the final bill become more and more........

(L-R, top to bottom)

• Cabbage with miso paste? - i am not a fan of vege but this appetiser is really nice with the sauce and it can clear the oily taste in your mouth.
• Umeshu with soda @ $10 - this drink goes well with jappy food.
• Tomato @ $7 / $12 - abit exp for a tomato, nice and juicy.
• Uni with Tofu - nothing spectacular about this dish but the uni is fresh and not stinky.
• Foie Gras - abit oily.
• Shitake mushroom - well-seasoned.
• Botan ebi sashimi- sweet and nice, it took us some time trying to divide two prawns into three portion. After finishing the fresh, the waitress offered to deep-fried the prawn head for us.
• Grilled sotong @ $20 - i like this as it is QQ and yet not too chewy, tastes good with salt.
• Mochi with ??? - dont remember whats with mochi but it gets stuck between the teeth as it is very sticky.
  
  
  
  (L-R, top to bottom)

• Wagyu Beef Sashimi @ $20 - always wanted to try beef sashimi, weird as i am not really used to eating beef raw but not too bad
• Quail egg rolled with pork and asparagus roll - Yummy!
• Corn - too salty but can taste the sweetness in it.
• Chicken wing and chicken skin- dont really like the chicken skin as it is not grilled till crispy, it feels like we are eating the fats.
• Hotate and Gindara- hotate is so-so, Gindara is fantastic - fresh and tender.
• ???- dont remember whats this dish is and it is diff to tell from the pic hehe.
• Deep fried prawn head - this is the dish left from the ebi sashimi, they fried it till it is so crispy.
• Mushroom - another kind of mushroom.
• Chicken heart and pork belly - i love the heart as usual heehee.

(L-R, top to bottom)

• Japanese Wagyu Beef @ $60- there is several choices- Aust, US and Jap but we were only left with Aust and Jap so we chose Jap which is the most exp for a try. The beef really melts in your mouth as it has a little fats in between the meat.
• Grilled Botan Ebi - it is sweet but the fresh is stuck with the shell.
• Sweet potato - initially they cancel our order coz of the quality of the sweet potato. When we were abt to finish our meal and waiting for the dessert, they came back and said that they manage to grill one so we decided to go for it.
• Sesame ice cream with mochi- i prefer this
• Mochi with seaweed - i dont like this as it tastes weird with seaweed.

It is time for the bill and it comes out to be........... didnt really have such expensive meal before but it is definitely a nice place to dine at next time provided if we dont order many takai dishes.... at least now i get to know whats nice to have.

After dinner, XTT wanted to sing KTV but i cannot as i have to work on National Day....... =(

环岛追追追

I need a break after a hectic week at work... Met up with zozo to go Bugis with the intention of looking for a Chibi Anime style artist for my bridal shoots but i cannot find the one which Anything recommends. So, it was a wasted trip. If anyone knows of anybody who can draw such portrait, please let me know hor.

Then we went to Orchard to meet ah Di to shop, it has been a long time since i last step into Orchard on a Saturday hehe. I got myself the blink blink wedding heels from Anna Nucci, another item to check off from my list of "to dos".

As zozo is going to be emcee for the dinner, we went to Tangs to try out some dresses which she can consider to wear on that day... It is either too formal or too simple so she didnt manage to find something she likes. Next we went to PS to check out the guest book at M@de with Love as sweet zozo volunteers to make another one for me as mine lacks the classy look =) thanks thanks

We decided to have dinner at Central, followed up by dessert at the chocolate factory. They wanted to try Marut@ma Ramen but it was already sold out at 930pm, so we had Curry udon at the restaurant besides it. Not too bad but all three of us cannot finish it as the udon is so thick.

Walked all the way to Robertson Walk where all the pubs are located and felt the difference between the past and now... it has become such a nice place to hang out and chill. Will try that one day. As we dont really know the exact location for The Choc0late Factory, it took us quite some time to find it. So happy that we found it in the end as we were so tired after the search..... Didnt manage to take any pics of the nice delicious chocolate cake Chuao, chocolate souffle and chocolate lava cake as no photo-taking is allowed there as advised by the waitress. =(

Had real fun out with these two ladies aka sisters and am so glad that they can click off so well, can pair up and sabo the groom in Sept. =)

BE is away.........

Have been working late hours recently and didnt really have the chance to meet or chat with BE. Felt so tired, sian, irritated and demoralised so he decided to buy me something to cheer me up before he flew off to Shenzhen. Miss him =/

Mi, here i come again.........

Cantodiva S@mmi Cheng is coming to Singapore for her concert on 13 Oct, a few days after i am back from my honeymoon....

Did contemplate if i should go for it since i already watched it in HK but i know tt i will definitely feel extremely sad on the concert day if i chose not to go for it... So i bot the tickets today to go with Di, so happy =) All thanks to CC for her information else i wont be able to purchase the best seats......

I went into office especially early to finish up my morning work so as to go online at 9am sharp to book tickets and we got ourselves PA-1 Row 12 Seat 5-6 if i am not wrong - a hole in my pocket again........

过大礼 on 六月初十六

What is 过大礼?

How my mama explain to my little cousin in simplified terms.....
Groom will come and order the bride so as to book her for the wedding day. Haha

It should be.......
In Chinese culture, an auspicious date is selected to Ti Qin (literally meaning "propose marriage"), where both families will meet to discuss the amount of the bride price demanded, among other things. A couple of weeks before the actual wedding, the ritual of Guo Da Li (literally meaning "performing the rites") takes place (on an auspicious date of course). The groom and a matchmaker will visit the bride's family bearing gifts like wedding cakes, sweetmeats and jewelry as well as the bride price.

Just because our actual wedding is on 八月初五 (only a few days after the seventh month ends), we have to arrange for our 过大礼 to be before seventh month for auspicious reason. Wanted a simplified version but in the end, we bot so many things @ Chinatown. Being a ribbon-lover, i tied all those stuffs with ribbons and paste "Xi" on all of them.

We will get from groom side:
1. pin jing
2. small ang pao as "nappy money" for my mum's effort in bringing me up
3. oranges (even number)
4. cakes
5. two bottles of hard liquor

From the bride's side:
1. Return a partial amount of pin jing
2. Take an even number of oranges out and return the rest
3. Give an angpao for your hubby to buy pants
4. Two bottles of orange juice in return of the hard liquor

From clockwise: lamps, Tam pui with those red dates - 多子多孙, bowls and chopsticks to use when consume tang yuan, face basin with toothpaste and toothbrush, sewing kit to signify that i will be a xian qi liang mu, yan zi - big and small "yuan"

Here's the cakes which i ordered from Choz - looks yummy =)

My two godsisters bought me this as my wedding gift, so sweet of them.... Both of them are still schooling and have to fork out their own savings to buy me this - must be a big hole in their pocket. Hehe

Wedding Invites from Lil-@rt

Finally my wedding invites is ready just in time for my 过大礼 tomorrow. There are two inserts one in Chinese and one in English which will be selectively given to our guests depending on their language knowledge or preference. It took me such a long time tying the ribbon nicely as it is not easy doing so especially with organza material...