The BEST Christmas Dinner EVER

Ah... Christmas is around the corner. Funny how it felt like just yesterday, I had Christmas dinner celebrations with my group of friends, exchanged gifts and due to our busy schedules, had one of the shortest Christmas dinners in history.

Yesterday, we had an early Christmas dinner with friends from our cell group - a newly created cell group for young couples, and a unique one at that. We had the dinner at Aprilla & Yosi's house - Yosi, an amazing comedian and Aprilla, an amazing party organizer who created a spectacular dinner for us.

Pictures were taken, the delicious dinner was served (at a table set like it was set for royalty!), and fun games were played. It was guys against the girls, and we couldn't have been more competitive. Us girls even threatened the guys with sleeping on the couch that night if we lost (jokingly, of course!) but we ended up scoring a tie between the teams and learned a lot about each other... For example, all guys apparently watched Hawaii-Five-O and James Bond movies, while girls know the contents of TV Guide by heart - we knew all the TV shows! One valuable lesson learned as well: never EVER bid for less than 4 seconds to guess something. You won't even finish your first clue by the end of the 3rd second. (Note to my dear husband Michael a.k.a. mancing69 on twitter: the show is called "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader", and NOT "Who Wants To Be A Fifth Grader?").

At the end of the night, after exchanging gifts, I didn't want the night to end - but it had to. All the way home, my husband and I couldn't stop talking about how much fun we had, and how happy and blessed we felt to be a part of such a dynamic, loving, fun, exciting, humble and generous crowd.

Someone wise once said "Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future" -- with these friends, I'm looking at an amazing and spectacular future ahead!

This special post is dedicated to our very special friends Shelvia, Doni, Aprilla, Yosi, Maya, Budhi, Awie, Fen, and special guests of the evening Sidney & Etha.

Sweating the Small Stuff

You know that book, "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff"? I first saw that book on the shelf of my then-boyfriend (now husband). When I saw it, I thought to my self, hmph. Not sweating the small stuff seemed highly unlikely for someone like me. I am a freak for details and order, how could I ever not sweat the small stuff?!

This is the kind of person I am: when someone gives me a printed out excel sheet and a line is missing, I send it back and ask them to fix it. When someone gives me a present with a bow on it and the bow is crooked, I fix the bow before taking it off and opening the present. When a colleague is erasing a pencil written sheet, I check the sheet, re-erase to make sure there is absolutely no trace of it ever being written and give it back to her. I spot mispellings of people's names in magazines. I clean a whole row of tv screens on an airplane to make sure my friends and I can watch spotless on-demand movies on our 13-hours flight (ask Boris, he'll confirm this!) I plan a minute-by-minute itinerary for all my business trips, including a scheduled bathroom break and try to squeeze in 15 minutes of shopping after lunch.

Yeah. Detail freak. Or OCD maybe - I am confused which one is more appropriate.

Anyway - not sweating the small stuff was near-impossible for me to do. Until recently, when I discovered that sometimes, letting things happen out of the norm and order is actually OK to do.

So here's the story: normally, on the last day of my trips, I would book a taxi in the morning to go to the airport. If my flight was 12, I'd book the taxi at 8 to leave at 9 and reach the airport by 10. But last week on Wednesday (my flight home was Thursday), I was coincidentally speaking to the reception and she offered to book me a taxi early. Normally, I would have said, "Oh, it's OK, I can do it in the morning." But that night, I sort of thought, well, why not?

It would have been out of the ordinary habit, and it would have meant me changing my minute-by-minute schedule the next day, but hey, why not?

So I agreed to it, and the lady booked me the cab. I went back to my room, thinking it was such a big deal that it changed my routine, but whatever.

Thursday came, and it was snowing cats and dogs outside, and the minute I got to reception, the guy on standby for the morning shift said, "You're so lucky you booked a cab last night, otherwise you would not get one. It's snowing today and taxi's do not want to take passengers when it's snowing."

I stood there with my mouth opened and my jaw nearly touching the ground ala Ally McBeal. It would have taken me forever to get a cab had I insisted on ordering one in the morning, and I would have missed my long-awaited flight home. Amazing!

Now, to some people, this might not be a big deal. To some people, this may only be making something out of nothing. But for me, it was a no bullshit kind of way to smack me in the face and tell me that life needs to take it's course sometimes, and made me realize that I can't try to plan and schedule every single thing. And sometimes, the course that is set out for us is better than what we planned.

Cutting the long story short, I'm home, I'm happy, and I'm a bit more open minded now. I can let go of some of the small stuff because my perspective has changed: (a) they don't matter that much and I shouldn't waste time and energy on them, (b) it's OK to make mistakes or miss a few things because if they work out, they work out. If it's a mistake, I can learn and move on.

The new year hasn't started yet, but I'm starting early with my resolutions. I'm not going to sweat the small stuff.

Technology Bites...

Do you remember a time when you weren't clutching on tightly to your BlackBerry typing away like your life depended on it? Do you remember a time when you weren't with a laptop desperately seeking a wi-fi location so that you could log on to your email or website to update something?
I do.

Last week, my life was turned upside down and around simply because my new onyx Blackberry decided to crash. I have no idea what happened, I just tried to turn it on after it suddenly restarted itself, and it just wouldn't load. I was lucky I had my laptop with me, as I was on a trip to Paris for work, but I just suddenly felt so disconnected with the entire world.

How did we get this dependent on technology? How did our lives entirely function and revolve around technology? And when technology fails me, I end up feeling pretty much completely lost. It was like I had to remind myself every few seconds or so that the world would still be there, things were still running, even without a Blackberry.

Is this a sign I need to go to gadget rehab?

Just Do It !

So I haven't written a blog in like forever. What's my excuse this time? Busy. What else is new?

I'm desperately trying to finish the seemingly endless book #2 - now, I'm at 65K words, and I still can't figure out how I'm going to end this even though I had an outline in the begining; I'm not just feeling it, you know? It's not how I want the book to end anymore, so I'm changing course. My bad, I fell in love with the characters too much, so I have to have the best ending possible for them, otherwise, I just wouldn't be able to live with myself.

Aside from that, I'm also busy crazy at my day job. Guests from overseas are constantly visiting our shores, reports are piling up, new projects are being initiated almost daily now - it's suffice to say things are really GOING ON right now. It's like I can't even catch a breath. And the travelling... Oh, don't even get me started on that. I've been to Singapore, Hong Kong, back to Singapore and will still be going again and while I do appreciate that I'll be able to use the miles for a family vacation (hopefully in December), can I just say that I am getting sick of airplanes? I feel like getting sick every time I board one. (Although, I must admit, I still love airports. And like I said in my tweet recently, the Hong Kong Airport is TO DIE FOR).

To top that off, I have 2 kids who are taking turns getting sick. It's like the viruses just love being passed on from son to daughter, then back to son, and back to daugther. And occassionally, like now, it gets passed on to me. I've been in bed for like 4 days now.

One of my best Twitter buddies @TigressReow said to me the other day "It's not EZ being Mom, Wife, Careergal, Author, Daughter etc when sick or w/sick kids" - and she's totally right. It's not even easy to do when I'm healthy and completely up and running!

But here's my survival trick: just do it. No - this is not an ad for Nike - although I am a big fan (of their products, not of their business practice). Seriously, people ask me all the time, what is my secret? How do I juggle everything I do and not go crazy? Someone even asked me: how many hours do you have in a day? The rest of us only have 24!! And my answer is that I just do it.

See, the way I see it, if you keep on thinking and trying to figure out how you are going to do so many things in a day, you'll never find the answer. Instead, you'd waste time just sitting there, trying to sort things out - things that will never be sorted out perfectly anyway. So what's the point in doing that? Do things as they come, keep your cool and just sail along smoothly.

Of course, there are certain things that happen in life that cause the balance to shift, like me getting sick now, and having to be in bed for 4 days. This is not expected and thus when I get back to my routine, I'll have to work faster to get everything done a little faster so I can get back to the normal pace later on - but from what I've learned, just keep a positive attitude and focus forward. Don't take your eyes off the goal. Give yourself deadlines and mark them in your head so you get the adrenaline rush you need to get yourself moving and constantly pushing forward.

Sure, you'll say "easier said than done". In the beginning, it'll feel that way too, for sure. But my advice is, believe that it can be done. It can. I hope this doesn't come off cocky or anything but seriously, I've done it. It can be done. Maybe not perfectly - because let's face it, we're all human beings so we'll never be perfect - but it can.

Who's with me to try it out? :)

Drum Roll Please....

Introducing...
My first book!

Can I tell you how crazy this feels?
No, wait, I can't. Not because I don't want to, but literally, I can't! I can't describe how amazing and surreal this feels! I am over the hills, over the moon, over the universe excited, and getting me back to earth is proving to be a huge challenge. It's just... amazing. Sorry, for a writer, I can't even find the words to properly describe this. It's embarrasing, really.

When is it coming out, you ask? Soon.
Where will it be available? I'll tell you when I know.
All I know now is that my dreams are this close to coming true, and I'll remember these moments leading up to the release of the book for the rest of my life.

Don't worry, I'm still keeping my day job just in case... ;)

Bye bye bag...

Ah, Paris... City of Lights? Maybe. City of Crime? Heck, yes!
I was minding my own business, talking with some colleagues in the cab ride from the Charles de Gaulle airport to the hotel when all of a sudden, the window was smashed and some dude (now, nearly 12 hours later I call him "dude" but earlier he was "jerk") grabbed my bag. My beautiful black leather Chanel bag, with some of my lifelines inside: iPhone, Blackberry, iPod, wallet (with cash + cards), limited edition Emilio Pucci pen, Chanel necklace, lipstick, business cards, passport, ID card, frequent flyer cards, and the list continues (unfortunately).

I was stunned, shocked and literally speechless. It wasn't until my friend kept shouting to the cab driver to call the police did I actually realize what had happened. I swear, when the window was smashed, I actually thought I was being shot at, and I didn't even realize my bag was gone.

After the shock came anger. It was like I was on an anger high or something, I couldn't stop being so upset at the stupid dude who took my stuff. I hadn't felt anger like that in a very long time.

Then, came sadness. I was so overwhelmed by sadness that I had lost some of the things I really (really) loved and depended on (i.e. Blackberry for tweeting and iPhone for all my games) that I kept crying and crying until my eyes felt like they were burning. Of course, while I was at the police station, I kept my cool, but as soon as I checked into the hotel, I cried buckets.

Now, after all that, what's left of me is wonder. I can't stop to wonder and ask so many questions: why did he need money so much that he would go to the lengths of committing a crime to get it? Why did it happen to me? Why didn't I keep my bag under my leg or something? Why didn't I see him coming? Why didn't the cab driver see him coming? Why can't the police catch him? What am I going to do with no money? How can I get back all the numbers and info I had in my phones? What happens after this?

Honestly, even though it's a long shot, but I have been telling myself that the guy needed an operation or needed to pay for college or something that cost a lot of money that he didn't have so he resorted to stealing. Somehow, this way of thinking helps me "forgive" - even though it's still nowhere close to being easy to do.

So they say that everything happens for a reason. I really, really, wonder what the reason is for this one. Seriously.

The Price to Pay

These days, nothing in the world is for free. Let's not even talk about products, there's even a price to pay for hearing. So yeah, naturally, these days, I am all about paying the price. Everything has a tag on it.

It all started with the news that my son needed surgery. I walked into the doctor's office with concerns that his speech wasn't as developed compared to other kids his age, and I came out with a "glue ear" diagnose and a piece of white paper that said he was scheduled for surgery on Thursday that same week.

I came out of the doctor's office with a blank stare, completely bewildered. How did it get to this? - I asked myself at the time.

Sure - it was only "minor" surgery. But every mother would concur that nothing is minor when it comes to our kids. The thought of my boy being unconscious and operated on with an IV stuck into his little hand in a scary operating room was just too much for me to bear. And of course, being the overdramatic person that I was, I couldn't hold the tears back at all.

Just before the operation, the nurses rolled his bed into the operating room and my son held on to my hand for dear life. He was so scared that I couldn't see color in his face at all. I'm sure we traumatized the crap out of that poor little kid. But it had to be done, what choice did we have? He woke up from surgery kicking, screaming, demanding that we take out the IV, and he ended up taking it out himself with blood splattered all over the place. (I know, eww right?)

This is what we had to bear: trauma, cost, 2 weeks of being away from home, the expenses of being in a foreign country, exhaustion, and additional costs of changing our tickets (which were promo tickets!).

But when weighed with what we got in return: my son's hearing back and precious time with both my kids while we were stuck in Singapore waiting for my son to recover post surgery. Fourteen priceless days with both my son and daughter, uninterrupted by work or people or television or anything!

Now if that's not well worth it, I don't know what is...