Formula One Singapore Grand Prix

I had no interest and didn't follow any racing cars or whatsoever. Singapore held an annual Formula 1 Grand Prix ever since its first contract in 2008 in Marina Bay. This event is a big deal in Singapore as it boosts tourism revenue, and everyone talks about it. The cheapest ticket price is around $200+ and it could go up to a few thousands depending on the seats and/or suite. Anyway, being held in Marina Bay, which is the central business district area, bus schedule gets affected, bus gets detoured/skipped bus stops as they prepare for the F1 tracks. and I am one of the victims of this road closure and diversion :( I hate taking MRT right after work because it is so jam-packed like sardines. Haiz. and I have to take bus some more. ok enough about complaining, now lets get to the F1 itself.

We were fortunate that we had free tickets to this race, courtesy of my dad's private bank, DBS. And our tickets were inside the DBS suite! How nice, so we had the option to go outside and get an up close look on the car race, or seated nice and comfy on a sofa inside the suite & munch on snacks hehe.

Sky Suite ticket

We were invited to view DBS new office before the race, where we played simulator & got some afternoon snacks :P Then we took the duck-hippo ferry to proceed to our suite. 

Upon arrival.. The suite was inside the 4-storey building there. From outside it looks like a motel 

Once we were inside, we ordered some juice and took some snacks. 

and we were given a gift

Outside the suite, our view was the starting line.. & across it was where the drivers/cars were parked

Complimentary ride: Singapore Flyer! Yay! the normal ticket price is $33/person

Back to our suite, in time for dinner & watched the race.. Below was where the team/drivers were preparing etc

Below is some videos of the race:

After watching the race in real time probably a good 4-5 laps or so (and hearing the sound vroom vrooom so LOUD), I went back inside and headed downstairs for a free 10 min massage. After that, I just got some food & drinks and took photo of the suite. They provided afternoon snacks, dinner & supper. Impressive! 

The race lasted about 2 hours and fireworks were displayed across the Singapore skies as soon as the race ended. It was pretty. I was excited for the Katy Perry concert. We got the special wristband, which was the fanzone band which basically we got to see Katy Perry in a very close distance. But the walk to the concert area was very far as our suite and the concert place were on the extreme opposite of each other. We walked for a good 40-45 mins. By the time we reached there, we were exhausted and surprisingly the fan zone area was quite full as we were late by 30 mins. So we didn't get to see Katy Perry real close. And apparently there wasn't any seat, it was a standing area. But we still had fun though! We didn't finish the whole concert because we were certain that the transportation by then would be a disaster. hehe

On the way to the concert

Katy Perry!

Will i go and see F1 next year? Probably not. I felt it's good for the one time experience. But I would love to watch the concert :)

I am a Quarter!

Yesterday, I turned a quarter of a century! I am old!
Thank you for dear friends, family & colleagues who have wished me well, surprised me with cake & dinner & treated me a bday lunch & my mom who specially made the trip all the way from Jakarta for my bday :) I am blessed indeed.

My dear Richard asked me what I want for my bday, and I told him I want a handmade card. During our dating years, he used to make me his handmade cards, which I didn't get any this year. This bday wish is undoubtedly considered demanding & time consuming because he needed to think of an idea & execute it LOL. Despite his extremely busy schedule, I am so touched that he was able to pull this through.. and the card (the story) portrays our current everyday life very well. Definitely a well-thought, creative idea with cute drawings on it.. I am so HAPPY! best bday gift thus far :)

I am proud to show it to the world, here it is:

And here is my very unique bday cake from antoinette. Arigato!

Pink Ribbon Fondant Cake

This is considered my first fondant cake ever, solo, no help from whoever.. and I dare to make a ribbon some more >.< Well I did make a fondant cake before with a friend in the US, but that doesn't count because she helped me a lot with it.. But anyway, I wanted to make something special for my sister bday, and it's been long since I last baked. The result (i.e the sponge cake texture & the fondant) could definitely be better, and dunno why my fondant sweats every time I took it out from the fridge! sigh.. maybe because of spore humid weather??? I still need to do a lot of practice with fondant and baking.. Practice makes perfect, but usually I get bored easily so we'll see when is the next baking & fondant session :) I always admired people who can decorate with fondants so nicely, neatly and so cute & creative with those little figurines hehe.. I wonder how they can do it.. 

Lessons to be learnt in the future:  turn on AC when doing fondant thingy and make the fondant layer thicker. But anyway, I am proud that at least the cake overall is edible.. I edited the cake a little bit so it does not look that shiny & wet hehehe :P 

without fondant

the cake

Pigging out in Hong Kong

Just got back from HK few hours ago. (actually when I post this, it was already close to 1 month) The trip was very short, arrived Thursday late at night, and departed Sunday morning. So in total, I only had 2 full days, including the half day Friday in which I roamed the busy street of HK & shopping & eating all by myself (because Richard was still at work). I went to 4 different malls in 1 day, scattered all around kowloon and hong kong islands. I really had a high expectation of the food and shopping there. But honestly I am a little disappointed. I feel the food is equally good in Singapore, and the shopping is so-so and rather expensive there. But hey, it was the memories that last a lifetime :P

All in all, I find the HK breakfast is quite funny that they have macaroni soup and ham for breakfast, like the below pic from the famous Australia Dairy Company. There was a long queue but the line moved pretty fast because they sit you whenever there was a vacant seat (you'll most likely sit with a stranger).

I also tried the steamed egg pudding (below) because the online reviews mentioned that it was delicious. I just thought it was okay. I found that the portion is too much for 1 person, but I finished it anyway because I didn't want to waste food. 

Probably one of the best meal I had was this dim sum place called Tim Ho Wan. Apparently it has one michelin star, and maybe the cheapest michelin star restaurant. My favorite was their bbq pork bun. I even bought those yummy buns on my last day on my way to the airport because they are conveniently located inside IFC mall where airport express station stops in this location and I brought it all the way to spore for my sister to try. It looks something like this:

We did try an interesting Japanese restaurant at Rakuen whereby we tried the first time in our life - seaweed grape & squid ink fried rice! Both of them were really good! 

Okay, not forgetting my first meal in HK, which was milk tea and crisp bun served with sweet condensed milk..Drooool...

Enough with the food pictures, I am going to close this post with a photo of us atop of the Peak! behind is the HK view, even though the sky was quite gloomy that morning. 

4 Years Ago

...I ended my job at Sandisk..my very first job.. which I loved being an employee there..
..I then decided to improve my Mandarin and went to Beijing for 3 months..
while waiting for my graduate MST application from SJSU.. and..
it was our first long distance relationship then.. after we got engaged..

So much things and happenings within those 4 years..
4 years seems to be just in a blink of an eye..
I remember 4 years ago in 2008, I watched 2008 Beijing Olympics, very first few games, over at my sister's house in the US [the Meadows] before I left for Jakarta & Beijing for a couple of months. And now it's already 2012, London Olympics has just begun a few days ago!

And those 4 years between 2008 - 2012, I've accomplished so many milestones in life: graduation [Master's degree], wedding, got a job at Deloitte, left Deloitte, and made a bold move to Singapore last year! even Richard also has many milestones in his life including changing majors and switching career move.

I must say... some of the decisions we've made weren't easy, and yet looking back, we knew how much blessings God has poured out to us throughout our journey. Looking forward to another 4 years ahead! 2016 Brazil Olympics & more life experiences & blessings :)

Alone again

Happy July! We've reached half of year 2012! How exciting..

Anyway....

About the same time last year, hubby went to HK and Singapore for his internship for 10 weeks. That meant I was in the US staying at home alone for most of the nights - except when his brother came for his summer internship in San Jose and when my brother stayed over to accompany me. Thank God I also had good friends to kill my time during weekends, and crazy super long hours at work on weekdays!

And this time, today, hubby was off on the plane to HK for his 5-week training. :( and this means.. I will be home alone again! Not fun!! Too bad I just started work last month so can't really take long leave yet, otherwise I would have gone to HK for a longgg time to accompany ric & eat & shop hahaha... Luckily this time I can just walk literally less than 5 mins next to my condo to visit my sister & niece. And due to closer proximity between spore and HK, I will be visiting him early August! yay!!

I will be counting days till I see him again!! 4.5 weeks to go! Muachhhh ^_^

Picture below taken @ Changi airport eating KFC before his flight

Europe!

Earlier this year, we managed to tour around western Europe with our newly wedded cousin and her husband. We tagged along their honeymoon :P Anyway, with a group tour of about 30 people, off we went for 14 days to begin our exciting journey in February. It started with a trip to London, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and ended in Italy. We were fortunate the weather was quite cooperative, it was cold, but bearable, and it got more sunny as we travelled south to Italy. A week before our trip, according to the news, it was so cold and freezing in Europe that the Venetian canal was (quite) frozen. We enjoyed our vacation and we took hundreds and hundreds of photos. If you ask me which city/country is my favorite... I would say... Paris and Switzerland. I love Venice too. Can't just pick one :P

New Job

After 6 months break from work since I left DT, I started my new job yesterday, 1 June 2012 as an Executive in corporate banking in Singapore. Totally new to the nature of the job so I am kind of scared of not being able to perform & potentially meet with clients alone one day...but at the same time excited for the opportunity to learn and be able to relate to Richard's job in a way (talk in the same language :P)

Two things that I miss the most about working in the US are first that I drove to work, so I could easily had lunch at home and took a bit rest and get refreshed. Here, I have to wake up earlier, and took a 30-45 minutes bus depending on the morning traffic..so eating lunch at home is nearly impossible. Second, somehow the office cube was much bigger in the US (my office), I feel that here, people work so close to each other, cube and tables are squeezed thus less privacy.. Ohhh and there was supply room in the US so I could easily get notepad and pencils and other stationery if needed.

And three things I miss the most of working is I miss my sleep time. I miss playing with baby niece Elin. I miss doing grocery and shopping and even any activities  during weekdays when there is less people = less queue.

Highlights of Year 2011

• Worked crazy hours at Deloitte especially during busy seasons
• Took a short spring break  and went to Santa Barbara and Disneyland Los Angeles
• Went to Chicago and visited Purdue university  
• Richard interned at Citi Singapore in Summer, thus our first long distance marriage for about 2 months
• Visited Richard and my family in Singapore for 2 weeks in the summer
• Baby niece Elin was born
• Richard graduated from Stanford University receiving M.S. in Management Science and Engineering
• I received my CA CPA license, finally!
• Quit my job at Deloitte
• Made a bold move to Asia for good, at that time, we have no jobs secured for both of us
• Celebrated paternal grandparents' 60th diamond wedding anniversary

Start of a Reality

April 2nd 2012 is the first working day for Richard at Morgan Stanley Singapore. And yes, we are living in Singapore for good right now. We decided to go back for good early in December, and so we packed our things, did some garage sales, did a lot of cleanings and donating our stuffs, threw away some stuffs. It was a bittersweet moment as we decided to leave the US after ~8 years living there, leaving behind our good memories and friends, but we are excited for the journey ahead.

It was a tough decision. At that time, we had no jobs secured in Asia and so we had no certainty of where we will be. But we knew it was our time to go back to be closer to our family & after we've done our logical assumptions of pros and cons of living in the US vs. Asia :P . Off we go to our home land, Indonesia, on December 16, 2011 trusting in God fully that He will lead us next...

And now looking back for the past 3-4 months, we are so grateful through our struggles and unseen plan, God graciously gave my hubby a job in Singapore. We knew it was God's perfect timing. This job requires my hubby to work long hours, I am sad in a way that we'll have a lesser time together but happy for him that he found a job that he wanted and thankful for God's providence for our family.