It has been a pretty eventful weekend. First of all I'd just like to welcome 2 good old friends who have just come back for a short holiday - Clau from Oz and Suresh from USA. Welcome back, really missed you guys!

On Saturday night I attended a dinner hosted by one of our suppliers. It was a pretty impressive event, there was an exhibition on several brands of eyewear like Calvin Klein, Levi's, Jill Stuart and Mini to name a few. It was held at the Carlton Conference Room in JW Marriott. I felt like a tai tai shopping, trying on a couple of groovy sunglasses. This is the best part of my job (spending $$ for the company hehe..) as I get to try all the latest designs and I know what I look good in! Ended up making a purchase on Levi's eyewear. I really like their "premium" latest sunglasses which is this really huge bug eyed sunglasses which you can also use as a hairband. I generally don't look good in bug eyed sunglasses but this one was really nice. Quite loud too as the temples had huge Levi's brand engraving on them.

Anyway the highlight of the entire event was the contest. Grand prize = My Vi = my dream! I've never really won anything in contests, not even booby prizes. Quite "bad luck" (although I don't believe in luck). The only time I've ever won anything was cassettes (yup back in the good ol' days of cassettes) back when I was in secondary school. As they drew out the names of the participants in the contest I thought to myself "Oh well, another one of those days where I won't win anything". My brother got bored and decided to take a break in the loo. Just as he left, they announced our shop's name!! I could not believe it!! My heart was pumping fast from the excitement, and the wine and coffee which I had earlier accelerated it further! There were 14 prizes to be won, ranging from Nokia handphones to optical equipment to of course, the grand prize of My Vi. I thought, I'd be happy just winning the handphone, but of course deep down inside I REALLY wanted the car (some of you would know that I still drive a 9 year old jalopy and am overdue for an upgrade).

They first drew out the names of 14 participants, then from the 14 entries they did another draw. They allocated the prizes from the smallest prize (ie the handphone) to the grand prize. But the MC kept announcing one name after another and our shop was still not called out yet!! Could it be? Could the My Vi be mine? Hopeful.....very hopeful....and finally it was down to 4 contestants..that is the first 3 prizes plus the grand prize. I couldn't believe it! I made it that far!! For once in my entire life! Third prize was a lensmeter....and I didn't get it! Second prize was a drilling machine..... I didn't get that either...and then there was the 2 of us left!!!! I stood a chance of owning that My Vi!! Heart was pumping faster and faster....any faster I would have had a cardiac arrest!!! And finally the first prize ( refractometer - optical equipment) went to...........me. ARRRGHHHHH!!!!!! I was SOOOO close to winning a My Vi. My head was dizzy from the excitement. As I collected the redemption certificate for my prize, I was in disbelief. Disbelief because I had won something so big in my life and also disbelief because I was so close to winning a My Vi. Oh well I guess it was never meant to be. In any case, the equipment is worth about 25K so that would really help our shop. If I had won the car it would have been a personal gain but oh well, I guess everybody in the shop will indirectly benefit from it.

After all that excitement, I went back to my new place to chill out and sleepover. I really relish the silence and peace in my new place, with no one to bother me. There isn't much entertainment there currently, so it gives me a chance to really relax everytime I am there.

Sunday
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Woke up at 6.30am to accompany Jules for a walk in Kiara Hills. It was a lovely morning. For some reason it only rains on Saturday, my outdoor training day. Maybe I have to change my training to Sunday. Oh congratulations to Jenny who completed the Singapore Marathon within qualifying time despite minimal training.

Went to church as usual after the walk. Caught up with Clau over lunch at House & Co. Had my usual favourite beef rendang pita. Then rushed over for choir practice. I must say that although we can still barely hit the high notes, it seems less of an effort now to sing. Perhaps I am improving? I think we're getting there. Overall we have improved but a little off in timing in a couple of songs.

Ended the night by going to watch the Canticle Singers. The choir was much smaller this time. Their voices were good, although I must say the music arrangement wasn't particularly interesting. I think the music arrangement for our choir is 5 times better. But then their voices were 100 times better than ours...Met Liz for the first time after reading her blog for a few months now.

Saturday's exercise diary:
8.5km run on treadmill

Today's exercise diary:
4km run on treamill
shoulder presses
push ups
dumbell row
upright row
double crunches
bridge