I'M A GRADUATE

i'm back for good. well, at least for the next two years. i've successfully completed my 3 year commerce degree, majoring in accounting and finance. one major phase in my life is over, and i guess i'm moving on to the working phase that will probably last for decades.

i'm currently thinking of taking a break for half a year before i start work. during this time, i will look out for job opportunities (most likely, being an auditor), take up lessons such as baking and sewing, sign up for yoga or gym (haha!), do charity, and travel!

i just want a good rest. doing absolutely everything i want to do.

mum, dad and kailin specially flew up for my graduation. sadly, yenlin couldn't come as she's currently having her exams in st louis university in washington. before this, my brother and i met them in new south wales for our annual family holiday. we spent 10 days in sydney and new castle. it was such a relaxing trip, i hope to blog about that soon.

they got me a really huge bouquet, a university of melbourne teddy bear, a card and a sliver plated leaf necklace. they all looked so happy to see me in the regalia. & i love the candid shot of my dad with the teddy, charming! i suggested that as his new profile picture. :)

i'm really thankful to have known rachel and her family. throughout the past four years, they've helped me in many different ways. her family is always so welcoming towards me. i've received so many gifts from aunty jean, i can always randomly pop by at rachel's house to chill whenever i'm at orchard, join them for family dinners, and our mums occasionally meet up even without rachel and i being present. its really amazing how two random girls who were "forced" to share a room together for a year to become so close. i really hope all these won't stop, though rachel and i won't be studying together anymore.

i blew and framed up this picture as cindy's 21st birthday gift (aside from the sewing machine). will definitely blog about her crazy 21st birthday celebration 2 nights ago, just wait. cindy has always been and probably will be my best studying buddy. somehow we study the same way and we get our assignments done real quick together. we all can have many close friends, but how many are actually similar to you? for me, cindy's the only one i know thus far. so many people say we look alike, really? i don't see the resemblance.

i stayed with merrie for the last 2 years, she's really the best housemate i've had. i'm a neat freak, and thank god merrie's one too! we share almost everything in the house, and she's always helping me with household chores and errands. i'm not exactly the best person to live with, and i wanna thank her for putting up me. she's also my listening ear, and definitely the one who heard most of my ranting! oh, and i know who to call if i've korean bbq cravings. she's definitely up for it!

the above are some of the hundreds of photos we took. i felt like some film star, with numerous cameras pointing at me. big thanks to cindy, dad, and wernie for taking all the pictures! i have yet to get my hands on all of them, and i really can't wait for the studio shots!! :)

it was one of my happiest days in melbourne. so great to have your family and close friends all around you on one occasion. graduation ceremonies for the commerce faculty were held over a period of two days. everyone were beaming in smiles as we were not only celebrating graduation, but for the friendships we've made over the years. i hope these friendships won't die, even if we don't get to see each other often.

my graduation dinner was at Jacques Reymond, one out of the two three chef's hat restaurants in melbourne. needless to say, food was really good and expensive. most expensive meal i've ever had in my entire life! i made reservations 3 months in advance, and they called me one week before the actual date to confirm the booking. they are really high in demand. however, the portions were entree sized. for that money, i think we could have eaten better at other lower hatted restaurants. anyhow, it was for my graduation celebration and the experience. :)

no idea how to thank my parents for everything they've done for me.

Exhilarated

one of the best things that had happened to me over this summer break is interning at Citi.

last night was Citi, GTS' annual Chinese New Year dinner at Ritz Carlton. there were 70 tables in total, and guests were big shots from companies such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Prudential, OCBC, EDB, JP Morgan, BNP, etc, etc. the list could go on forever. it was nice to be asked to help out at registration as i always wanted to experience a corporate world event. last night was my first.

for the past two days, work had pretty much been around the topic of CNY meals. had a CNY department lunch at Singapore Recreational Club last thursday, everyone was just in a let-loose mood, it was great! that day, i stayed at Citi till 8pm as i was in charge of helping haixiang to print name cards for 700 guests, and making sure that tables had 10 persons each. it was a tough job since staff kept requesting to change sits to make sure they had their clients on their table.

last night started off with me, an intern, at the reception desk welcoming guests, and ended off with me seated at the VIP table. all thanks to Larry Komo, he's the man! initially, i was at the last table located at the end of the ballroom, table 77, since i just wanted to check out what the atmosphere was like. then came Larry, who forcefully placed my hand on his arm and ushered me right across the ballroom to the front table. it was a high pressure, 6 Managing Directors, and 1 intern. but, i think i did pretty well. :)

that's why i love the people in Securities Funds Services. they always make me feel so comfortable no matter how high their ranks are. i will really miss them when i head back to melbourne.

its a pity i didn't take any pictures at all, was too busy mingling around. everyone was in their chinese traditional outfits. the guys were in their changshan, and the ladies were in their cheongsam, including me, i wore a white one. everyone looked great, i really hope i can get my hands on the pictures from the professional photographers.

thereafter, i joined some of my colleagues from Financial Institutions at Lunar, located at clarke quay. met so many other Citi people from Equities and Trading, awesome shit. they were really friendly to me. kept asking me to sing, and drank for me whenever i lost at the dice game. by the way, it was my first time at a KTV, good experience i guess. i got home at 4.30am in the morning.

tell me, how not to love Citi? i don't wanna leave.

Ladies in Black

approximately 3 weeks ago, we attended the international commerce student society ball at crown. its our first time attending a school formal since we came to melbourne university, and i think that we should do this more often. its always fun to dress up and snap tons of pictures on the night. bad side is, money flies away in a blink of an eye.

jayesslee were there that night, icss flew them in from sydney just to perform for us. both of them are so sweet and pretty, and their voices are so good. go youtube them! :)

oh, jonny got nominated for best dress. too bad he didn't win, since our screams/shouts weren't loud enough to beat the table next door.

the four of us decided to go all black that night, and i think we all looked good. we were busy snapping pictures in between meals and performances, and all of them are up on facebook. honestly, the food served that night was disappointing. i didn't finish any of my meals. :( i actually expected much better food served since we were at crown.

our clutches, and jonny's extra cast.

dinner ended at 11pm, and we headed to the after party at bass lounge. while queueing for cabs, we saw this awesome huge limousine. the sound system inside was so good, better than clubs i guess. those college students were happily 'dancing' & popping champagnes inside.

this was at bass lounge. huge mistake to go there, the club was so bad. i'm never ever going back to that place unless its some friend's birthday party. the music was horrible, the lighting was like laser lights, the crowd was 3/4 guys and they were all so rowdy. if not for our curiosity and the free champagne that cindy won due during the lucky draw we wouldn't even have gone. we should have just booked a night stay at crown, it would have been much more fun.

Weddings on Weekends

this is an auspicious weekend, every couple is rushing off to get married before the year of tiger. 2 of my relatives got married, so i was relatively busy on both saturday and sunday. never really enjoyed attending weddings, due to the long wait of the same old usual type of food. somehow this time round, i was really excited so go witness the marriage of both couples. :)

Nicholas & Evelyn

Solemnisation on Saturday 23rd of January

was supposed to join the rest of my relatives to go for the fetch the bride cum tea ceremony early in the morning. but because, boyfriend was here in singapore, i decided that i should spent time with him. thanks to mummy's presence that i managed to get photos of the bridal ferrari as well as the bridal buggy.

ferrari belongs to the groom's family, it is not rented. have seen it many times before, but somehow the flowers makes it look extra special! by the way, do you know that you need a special license to drive it!

look how cute the bridal buggy is! apparently, the bride just stays less than 200 meters away from the groom's, so the groom fetched the bride using a buggy, while all the best men walked behind. i love how the car plate is done up.

lucky couple, how often do you get to sit in a bridal ferrari and buggy! :)

later i met up with my relatives at swissotel- equinox for the solemnisation cum buffet lunch. took the lift up to the 69th level and i was served with cocktails in the waiting room until the bride was about to do the wedding march.

not many tables for this one, as it was mainly the close relatives and friends. totally love their door gift. it's a bath puppet, serves as a soap (that you can change) as well as a sponge. adore the little bag. would definitely use it for toiletries when traveling, the hanger makes it practical.

finally the bride made her appearance in a long white gown. though it's not vera wang's, but i love it. their wedding album photos are so gorgeous, they specially went to perth to have their photo shoot done (since they met there). love all the gowns she wore. so nice!!!

the justice of peace was so funny, she made everyone laughed the whole way through. nicholas and evelyn made their own vows too, very touching!

finally lunch were served. appetizers were japanese, main course were chinese and desserts were western. i have to say that it's the best wedding buffet lunch i have ever eaten. like duh, it's equinox!

i'm loving my fetish for raw japanese-style fish.

wei wei, the cute and handsome page boy for the afternoon.

evelyn changed her dress halfway through lunch. love this one even more! very simple and elegant. especially the accessories she wore, i bet you it's pure pink diamonds.

Wedding Dinner on Sunday 24th of January

rushed back from wedding lunch in malaysia (right below), rested awhile before i started preparing for ritz carlton. i have to say that it was the most grand and best wedding dinner i've ever attended.

was served with cocktails before we proceeded into the ballroom. when we reached, papa and mummy immediately disappeared from our sight and went greeting their friends. took me quite awhile before i could gather the whole family for a picture.

technology nowadays is so advance and cool. there were so many photographers that night who kept snapping photos of us (and of course everyone else), and immediately we could see our pictures being displayed on the large screen in the ballroom. also, they printed out wallet sized photos and gave each of us one.

the ballroom was huge, there were 100 tables in total that night. couldn't believe it when papa told me that. the decor was pretty too, it was similar to fann wong's wedding, just that the trees were white instead.

see how the table was arranged. so cute right? that was the guy's, girls were much simpler.

the food was very good that night, all the expensive dishes. the menu was long, so was the wait. honestly, i was quite pissed off with the slow service, but what's there to do, weddings are all like that. the whole dinner only ended at 11.30pm, when it started punctually at 8pm. to make things worst, i got a bad migraine that night. sigh man, luckily i had my relatives as well as the photos on the screen to entertain me throughout the night.

see the little princess, alexandra, in the long pretty gown. she looked so sweet that night.

Chris & Crystal

Wedding Lunch on Sunday 24th of January

woke up early in the morning to drive into JB. rested at my aunt's house first before heading off for lunch at some restaurant. this was the couple's second wedding lunch/dinner, the first was in singapore. i missed it due to my grandma's birthday celebration.

my (not technically) cute wei wei! it was supposed to be a twist, i guess i snapped too fast. :)

it was a very simple and common lunch, but i had fun. :) love the videos that the bride made, the sound effects made it so funny. also one of the most creative acts i ever come across, i think there were like 5-6 in total. there was this act called kiss the celling. the groom had to wear lipstick, while his friends had to carry/lift him up to fill the heart-shaped paper (that was stuck on the celling) with kisses. cute!