Busy as a bee these days

So, this month, my project team has been swamped with work since last month. I am just hoping that this year, I will be able to do well at work and in my personal life. I don't know why but I hold plenty of hopes abduction expectations for the year 2012.

As the deadlines press on, we seem to lose the urge to go out for long lunches and heading out. No choice, so I'm going to just hope that this project will take off well and churn out huge profits for the company.

Life has been pretty packed for me since the start of the year. Not only did I spend the new year period working from home to finish my project deadlines, these weeks see me packed to the brim with work stuff. Lunches are mostly rushed affairs and I always feel perpetually tired. Can't wait for the project to end!

Not just being busy with work, the boyfriend and I still have to carve time out to research for our pending Taiwan trip next month. Till now, our itinerary is still not finalized. Hope to settle it by this week!

How's the year treating you?

Week 1

Day 1: Interesting roof details at Barracks

Recently, I have been getting plenty of ideas on decoration and house details. The roof details look really cool and the LED lamp looks very quirky. Love it!

 Day 2: Abujiu (actually, her real name is Brownie) suntanning in my living room

Made me panic for nothing! She was hiding somewhere behind the chairs and did not respond when I called her. So naughty. I thought she went out of the house!

Projects 366 and Happiness

Coincidentally, 2012 is a leap year so this year, there will not be a Project 365, but a Project 366! Project 366 is a project undertaken to document all 366 days of my life in 2012. Each day, I will upload a picture that reflects my moods and items that capture my attention. Interesting, right?

Alternatively, I will also be starting Project Happiness. Project Happiness captures everything that makes me smile and happy. It is a way to list down everything that I am thankful for. I hope this year, 2012 will bring plenty of blissful moments and blessed times! Count your blessings daily!

So, what made your day today?

A brand new year brings forth a brand new me

It seems like I will be tempted to start blogging again at this time of the year, every single year. I guess, it's the new year effect. Every year, on 31 December, I will get this sudden urge to sweep the slate clean and start afresh. Full of hopes and anticipation for the new year, I will develop huge plans and all sorts of projects, big and small, for the coming year.

Okay, before I get on with the New Year stuff, here are some of what goes on before New Year's day. One the eve of New Year's Eve, The Boyfriend and I went to New York New York for fish and chips for dinner before I head home to work on my proofs. I think this is the first time I've to bring work home to work over the new year. Oh wells. At least I managed to finish everything before New Year's Eve evening.

MFDOW

Whatever the heck does it mean? In case you haven't noticed, today marks my first day of work officially after my days at University. After a year working full time during my first year in University, I decided to take things a notch slower and continue being a full-time tuition teacher after getting my degree.

Now that I'm ready to take on the working world once more, I'm sure glad to land a position at my company as I'm sure I will be able to learn a lot over here. The people here seem pretty nice and I really hope this will work out really well.

I have to admit, I'm pretty shocked to be shown to my desk and lo and behold, on my desk there sits a pretty little Mac. It pretty much scared the help out of me as my only experience with a Mac was using it to surf net for maybe 2 hours and even then, I wasn't really used to all the different aspects of the foreign OS.

Suffice to say, I had to take some time to get used to the functions and formatting. I sure hope tomorrow will be a much better experience with my Mac. The first day at work is pretty all right. I was shown around by HR and my Direct Supervisor, both seem to be pretty nice ladies.

After some incident with the bus route, I reached the office hurriedly and joined the briefing by HR. HR showed the new staff around and after a talk with the department head, my Direct Supervisor briefed me on some departmental notes and showed me around the place. Despite being introduced around my department, I realised that the first round of introduction did not really stick with me. Hope that within this two weeks, I will be able to recognise and get to know more colleagues and friends.

So, here I am, typing this entry via email on my mobile. It feels truly weird to be lying in bed at this hour of the night, all ready to drop into slumberland. I guess, I should go sleep early as suggested by The Boyfriend, since I have a totally busy day tomorrow. Not only do I have a full day of work, I also have a four hour tuition lesson after work! Gosh, I do hope I will be able to make it through.

So, here it is. I've officially gotten a full-time permanent position, which provides CPF. I guess, Mommy and Daddy will not be nagging me about finding a "real" job nowadays. I wonder when will they finally realise that I've started work?

What is your dream job and how are you feeling about your current job?

It's a lonesome Friday night.

Emo Abujiu

I am not sure when it all started, but The Boyfriend and I started to have this regular stay over thingy. I guess, it started when he got his job and in order to spend more time with each other, we decided (or rather, I strongly requested) that he should come over and stay over at my place every Friday night instead of having to wake super early to come over on Saturday morning.

Initially, he was pretty reluctant to do so. Now, I somehow feel that it has progressed to a stage whereby he pretty much likes it. I am not sure how much he likes it, but I love having him over on Fridays and being able to wake up together. Although he is always getting tired and sleepy much earlier than me, which means an earlier bed time for me, I still love having him over.

Having said all these, normally I would be in bed and The Boyfriend, who belongs to the type who can fall asleep in a snap, would drift off to sleep while I just lie there trying to fall asleep listening to his sleeping noises. I miss having him next to me in bed, making his sleeping noises and having someone next to me when I wake up from terrifying nightmares. I miss having someone accompany me to the washroom for mid-sleep pee sessions. I miss having him next to me when I open my eyes in the morning.

I mainly just miss having The Boyfriend stay overnight at my place. Since he started working, we have not really missed much Friday stayover sessions, thus here I am, suffering Friday Night Stayover Withdrawal symptoms. I miss you, Dear Dear. Must work hard okay? I will be looking forward to next Friday night.

Do you couples also have your own rituals and habits? Share them with me!

Recipe for French Onion soup

Ah! The glorious, rich burst of savoury sweetness!

Someone requested for the recipe of the French Onion soup that I posted on my Twitter page, so here it goes! The idea of making French Onion soup again came from The Boyfriend as my first attempt was an utter failure since it tasted like diluted stir-fried onions. We concluded that the reason was because I used chicken stock cube granules dissolved in water instead of chicken broth. Thus, this time round, we used chicken broth in a can instead. This recipe is a result of our guess and check cooking method and it turned out to be very flavourful and delicious. It is truly of restaurant standard, if we say so ourselves!

Anyway, I hope you guys will try and let me know if it tastes good! It is not very difficult to attempt but the results are really tasty. Here are the simple ingredients: