My BFF

~ Posted on Monday, October 3, 2011 at 12:25 PM ~

 

This post contains quite a number of headless photos.

(Okay, okay, before you decide to exit out of this post, it is NOT a grotesque post,

more like I actually had to trim off the upper body portion of the pictures shown in this post.)

Reason is due to my BFF being a very personal person (she doesn't even have a profile picture in her Facebook!) and I totally respect that principle of hers (cos I'm kinda like that too, only I masked my paranoia of being stalked by ermm.. showing more pictures of Ben? Theeheeeeheeee...)

So anyway, a bit intro on how she was so privileged (ehem ehem... sorry, can't resist bragging... it's the ego I tell you!) got to be my BFF...


She was just 4 days older than me, although I was quite often mistaken as the older one, thanks to us being vertically challenged by 3 inches difference.

We met at high school, were classmates together towards the last couple of our high school years. Sat near each other during classes. Hang out with our other friends after school, at McDonalds, doing revisions and sometimes playing UNO cards to pass the time.

At 16 years old during school holidays, we worked at the same departmental stores as part-time sales promoter to earn some spare cash for our own expenses when school holidays are over.

At 17 years old plus, she (and another close friend of ours then) accompanied me for my 1st date meeting with my hubby then PEN PAL.

At 18 years old, while waiting for our final exam results, we again worked at the same departmental store but we were under different clothing brands though still on the same floor. She even helped matchmake me with my hubby who is then starting to court me.

Then we drifted apart after we got our high school results, she continued on with her A levels and university and I went to a college, got my IT Diploma, jobless for a while, then worked part-time at a souvenir shop before finally managed to find a job in the IT line.

After about 4 years plus, our paths crossed again when I recommended her to my company (the subsidiary I'm working with happens to have a vacancy), she didn't get to work at the same subsidiary as mine (unit trust) but she was offered a post for the insurance subsidiary. Because the IT department were centralised under Group IT, we ended up working in the same office floor, in fact, her cubicle is just a table away from mine.

Those days were fun, at least we get to complain and share our work grouses. We go for our lunch together, go home often together (her house is about 20 minutes further than mine). We went to the company dinner together.

Picture below from left to right: My BFF in white and black floral dress, me in peachy chiffon dress.

And then she left to another insurance company, while I left to join the banking industry (both of us still in IT line of course) but we still kept in touch, going out for drinks and chatting whenever we can (together with my hubby then boyfriend)

When my hubby's dad passed away in 2004, she attended the funeral wake even though she had to travel far, taking trains and carpooling with our friends who are going as well.

When my parents passed away in 2006 and 2007, she was there to support me too.

When I got married in Nov 2007, she attended my registration of marriage ceremony.

Picture below from left to right: Hubby, me with my bouquet of red roses and my BFF.

When I got pregnant in middle of 2008, we double dated (me with hubby, she with her boyfriend) and took a short 3D 2N trip to Cameron Highlands to celebrate my last holiday before Ben arrives. I was 5 months pregnant with Ben when we went for that fun holiday.

Picture below from left to right: Me posing with Ben in my tummy, my BFF.

Picture below from left to right: Me posing with Ben in my somehow very obvious big tummy, my BFF.

When her dad passed away in February 2010, no matter how we got nagged by my superstitious MIL (it was nearing Chinese New Year then and old folks have this superstitious crappy thinking that we should not attend functions like this before happy festival - bah humbug...), hubby and I made sure we attend the funeral wake and gave her the support she needed in times of sorrow.

And one time, after visiting a friend of hubby who recently gave birth (went to gave some advice to the new mum on breastfeeding matters), we went over to my BFF house and invited her along to join our dinner at a mall near her house. She gladly joins us (even though she gotta work the next day), then we walked around after dinner and hubby even managed to pester her to take Ben for a walk.

Picture below of my BFF walking with Ben...
Look at my little man bossing her around, showing her which directions to go!

It was a nice sight to see her tagging along after with Ben, it's not often we get to see Ben getting so comfy with someone so quickly!

Picture below: Look at how happy Ben is!

I just want to dedicate this post to my BFF,

thank you for being such a good and loyal friend to us.

It's nice to be able to have a BFF which you can talk to about anything and my BFF is a super good listener and we can just continue talking about stuff that happens long ago, kinda like we could just pick up where we left off long ago and resume chatting about the stuff as if it happens recently.

We wish you all the best in your life, be it work wise, family wise or relationship wise.

Read: 3 John 1:2 (NIV), Proverbs 18:24 (NIV), Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)

** P.s: Go and settle down already girl! We want to see you holding hands with your little prince and/or princess soon!

Maybe our kids can continue to be BFF too! :D

Still and always will love you loads girl!

Friends You Love ** FYI, this post was originally posted in Sept 2010 and I'm reposting this as an entry to the "The World's Greatest BFF" contest

Alyson is 1 Month Old Today!

~ Posted on Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 11:28 AM ~

Happy 1 month old to our dearest little Miss Alyson!

May God continue to watch over you and blesses you in everything you do!

Love from mummy, daddy and Benjamin ko-ko (aka brother in Chinese)

Operation Smile

~ Posted on Friday, September 30, 2011 at 12:24 AM ~

"My name is Min Zhu Lei. I'm three years old and already, I'm wary of strangers. All too often, they stare at me, or look away in disgust or horror.  

I have a cleft lip and my mother and I came to the medical mission in Xi'an, China looking for help. My family, including my mother, father, older brother and sister live in very poor conditions, and ever since I was born, we've been looking for an opportunity or money to get treatment for me. "

I first heard about cleft lip and cleft palate when I was pregnant with Ben in my 2nd trimester. Our gynae mentioned that in one of our monthly check-ups, he will do an ultrasound scan to check whether our baby is normal, in terms of whether he/she has Down syndrome and has cleft lip/palate condition. I was like 'Huh? What?' and read more when I got back home. It is heartbreaking for any parents to see their children having this condition. I came across this website and would like to share with you about "Operation Smile".

Some info about "Operation Smile":

"Operation Smile is a charity organization healing children's smiles, making the world a better place. Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft — often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life. 

Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided more than 2 million patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities. Thanks to the generosity and spirit of volunteerism shown by our supporters, we heal thousands of children per year. With your help, how many lives can we change tomorrow?"

If you have any relatives or friends who are in college, then this is one of the many ways you can help in supporting this great cause! All you need to do is to rent text books! Yes, you read it correctly!

Some info about CampusBookRentals.com:

"CampusBookRentals.com began renting textbooks in August of 2007. They served thousands and thousands of customers on more than 5,000 different college campuses in the fabulous USA. You can be confident in their customer service and reliability and they work like maniacs to get books to their customers on time, make things right when something goes wrong, and provide fast and responsive customer service.

Every rental comes with a worry free guarantee within the first 30 days of your order if you drop your class or change your mind, you keep more cash in your pocket up front, you can order from the comfort of your home or office, it doesn’t cost a penny to return your rented textbooks when you're done with them (they even provide the package), and you don’t have to worry about disappointing buyback prices at the end of the semester."

The awesome thing about this company is they have officially teamed up with Operation Smile for their 2011 Making a Difference Program. So for EVERY book rented starting now, they will donate a portion of those proceeds to Operation Smile.

Awesome right? So, do go ahead and spread out this news!

** Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts, opinions and words are 100 % my own.