The TWG Tea Company

today, i finally met the girl since last year's july. how sweet of her to take time out to meet me despite having exams in less than a week, and treating me to this afternoon tea as my belated birthday gift.it was my first time at TWG despite always drinking their teas at home. i find that their teas are so suitable for gifts. so fragrant and so prettily wrapped. i drank love me tea and teresa had her happy tea. they have a huge range of teas, was spoilt for choices.

both of us had CHIC - their tea time set menu, without macarons (since teresa said they aren't good). at the price of $25++, we had a choice of any TWG tea, 3 finger sandwiches from a choice of 6 different flavours, and a choice of 2 homemade scones or muffins served with jelly and whipped cream, or a patisserie from their trolley. good deal!

besides, the food was good, especially the scones. i love it! i think it's better than the ones sold at royal copenhagen. we stayed there for 2 hours eating and chatting, time just flew by! nice place, tasty food, and awesome company. i enjoyed it.

i'll be flying back to melbourne tomorrow. hence tomorrow is the stay-home-and-pack-your-luggage day. i had such a good break, reasons being; family, relatives, friends, food, shopping, parties, festivals, drinks, and citi. feeling recharged for year 3, i'm a happy girl. :)

1st Blue Box

never in my past 20 years on this planet did i ever expect that i will get a blue box this way. not the typical way that every girl would receive one. but still, it's meaningful.

i love how the salesmen took such a short time to tie this perfect ribbon.

oh wait a minute. there are 2 blue boxes?!

friendship bands, that's what we call it. from the old school coloured strings to the expensive solid silver ones. see how we are not so easily contented as we grow in age. sad but true.

yes, "the other half" is cindy phua. funny how we made similar statements along the line of, "i can't believe i'm getting my first blue box with you and not from my boyfriend", at the same time, in the store. we are planning to add a charm to our bracelets every year. a gift to her, and a gift from her.

Shopping in the Citi

i love spontaneous shopping trips where i come back full handed. woke up late this morning, due to the great clubbing session at rebel yesternight. had this strong urge to shop, and pulled mummy to town with me right after our lunch at home.

my first ever branded bag, LV's Neverfull. this has got to be one of my most random buys ever. i had totally no intentions of buying it until this afternoon, where my mum and i decided to check out a bag she has been eyeing on for quite some time. ironically, i got this (partly due to mum's words), while she left the shop empty handed.

i have always wanted to get myself something using my first pay, for memory sake. wanted to get a light pink salvatore ferragamo wallet since december. but today, i figured that a prada wallet, or topping up a few more hundred to get a bag would have been better spent. all's good.

how i wish i have a boyfriend to buy this wallet for. haha! anyways, this BALLY wallet is for my dad, the guy that i will always love the most. it is a gift to him to express my 1/infinity gratefulness to have him as a father. i really hope he likes it.

my past 2 months in Citi was definitely well spent. not only did i meet so many people, learn so much, and have great fun, but i have also earned the money to spend on such wants.

it was really rewarding.

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.

HOME

my favourite season of the year is here again. last year's first day of cny fell on valentine's day, and this year's falls on my birthday. couldn't be any happier that my ALL my relatives from my dad's side will be celebrating my birthday with me. :D

my relatives from JB will be spending their 2011 chinese new year at my place, since it's my dad's turn to host the reunion dinner. hence, a big group of 25 people will be bunking in my house. gonna be lots of fun with mattresses laid out everywhere.

mummy put in lots of effort to decorate our house. my house is officially RED RED RED. papa said she over did it, but i think it's just fine. totally brings out the chinese new year festive mood! :) i shall share some of the pictures i took today.

my mum handmade all the lanterns you see in these pictures. she just loves art and craft. i admire her patience in doing these stuff. hopefully, i pick up some skills. if not, i think i'll prolly hire people to decorate my own house for cny next time. haha!

i told you my house is red. oh my god, words can't express how excited i am for chinese new year. i just got back home from treating my family to dimsum for lunch at raffles hotel's royal china. it's sorta a formality since i got my first pay in my life, glad they enjoyed the food. :) now, i'm waiting for my relatives to come out from JB, and off we go to forum for our reunion dinner.

needless to say, mummy will do her usual flower arrangements to beautify our house.