Christmas 2006

This year the Christmas couldn't have come any quicker. We have just had enough time to breathe after all the hectic schedule in November and early December. We spent the last weekend shopping for presents for our family and friends. Vans, as usual chose with care each present so I think those who got it will be happy.

We had dinner with Vans' family on 23rd December, and mine on 24th December. Now we have to plan our festivities well, as we need to cater for both families :)

On Christmas day we went to church in the morning. Then Paul, Rebecca, Jean Nee and Jan Sen cameby to our place, didn't take any photos though. We then went to Charlene's and Paul's. Had a durian and rambutan feast in Paul's house... hehe :)

As you can see from the picture above we were any asked to sit on the stairs as those were the only "seats" available in the house, too many guest on that day.

This is the photo we took in Eric's new house, he was doing Christmas open house cum house warming. Made me feel like the "wide house, wide screen" advertisement thingy... lol, but thank God Eric's place was "wide" enough. Overall we had a eventful and tiring Christmas. This should be the last post of the year as we have do not have internet access at home yet, hope it will come soon. Should be off to a short camp in Sungai Chongkak on 31st Dec - 1st Jan.

Ah... I can look back at the 2006 Resolution and conclude whether we achieve those, or should they remain on the list for 2007. Well, to all you guys out there, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!"

Christmas Tree

Last night, Ken and I spent about two hours setting up the christmas tree. And i decorated the house with some garlands and baubles. Will put up the pic once we've got our camera back :)

Changes...

I once heard this saying, and it stuck to me like superglue. "Change is the only thing that is constant." What an irony I thought. But as I grow older each day, I find that the saying is very true. Today is same like yesterday in many ways, but it is also different and unique.

This past month Vans & I have gone through so much of changes. I sold my car, my BEL 7825 blue iswara. It served my family and I well for the past 10 years, so its time to sell it before no one wants it. So if you guys see that "BEL 7825" on the road, don't honk it, as you might get some unexpected response from the driver =) We are sharing a car now. Since Vans' office moved to KL Sentral, I'm dropping her off at the KTM in Kajang before zooming off to my office, and picking her up from the station after work. Planning our groceries every weekend, and cooking dinner every nite is nonetheless challenging and fun. After about 3 weeks of cooking, I sprang Vans a surprise yesterday when I left office a bit early and called her as I was reaching Midvalley to tell her we are having dinner. A slight variation to "dinnering" at home. We also dropped off Vans camera for repair, so no pictures to show :(

We are now part of 2 families, and alternating our time to dine with both every with can be a daunting task, especially during festivities. It ain't even Christmas yet but we are already planning for our trip back to Kuching during CNY, which will set us back by quite a bit, considering the fact that travelling during peak season is always expensive.

We are still processing the 2000 photos the photographers passed us, and about 700 from our friends. We'll post a "complete" set of photos soon. We'll also mail out some hi-res photos for those that attended, in case you guys wanna keep a copy, or develop it. So much for now.

Last day @ sunway

Today will be my last day at sunway. Our office is shifting to Plaza Sentral and next monday will be our first day at the new office.

We're all excited about moving into the new office with brand new things. However, we're going to miss our sunway office, with all the funs and sweet memories as well as the shoppings @ pyramid. I've spent 3 years and 8 months here and some of my colleagues were here close to 10 years.

And lastly, one of the things i miss the most would be esprit and mng sale :)

Looking fwd to a 'new start' @ Plaza Sentral next monday.....

How's Married Life?

Close to 3 weeks after our wedding.

A lot of ppl throw me with the Question “How’s married life?”. My answer to them “not much changes, as usual...” Is this a bad sign/answer? No, it is NOT! Cos we have been loving to each other all the time. When things are as usual, it means things are as great and as loving.

Ken told me he still in the vacation mood, maybe having me around makes him as excited as on vacation…. =P

I feel proud when he intro me as his wife, and so do I when I mention to others what my husband have done for me…. Husband and wife, how sweet, it’s our fantasy :)

Next Qs, “When do you want to have baby?” Eerrr... Not so soon... hehe

Our Wedding Day

After 13 months of planning, it was down to one big day, the most defining moment in our (Ken & Vans) lives. It has been hazy for the whole week prior to our wedding, but we asked for everyone to pray for good weather, and God did a miracle and allowed a day of fine & sunny weather amidst the haze, that came back the day after our wedding, and is still here today, almost a week after the wedding.

So much happened that day, I don't know where to begin. Why not I just let the pictures speak for the event :)

Ken & the brothers (heng tai) at the door of VansRelief on everyone's face after finally managing to get in

The bride waiting patientlyKen finally getting inKen & Vans with the "Brothers (Heng tai)Ken & Vans with the kidsWith Ken's familyAPEC Garden, Cyberview Lodge Resort & SpaAwaiting the guest arrivalThe Ring Bearer (Brandon Yeo) and Page Boy (Darrell Boo)The flower girls (Lydia & Leann Lai)The bride and my father-in-lawThe guestsOur parentsScripture reading in English by RuebenScripture reading in Chinese by Timothy OngUs at the altar, saying our wedding vowsExchanging ringsShanti (Wedding Coordinator) & Jeanette (Unofficial Photographer)The helpers - Jessy, Rebecca, Ee Vonne & Ee LingRebecca Yeo (Vans' sis) and her lovely daughters (our flower girls)The bridal carThe toast (Yum........... seng)Brian enjoying the moment with his bubbles

A special thanks to Shanti Kathiripillai for helping us out as the Wedding Coordinator. Our appreciation also to all that has helped out, Paul, Rebecca, Jessy, Eric, Tim Tham, Ee Ling, Ee Vonne, Raymond, Darrell, Brandon, Brian, Rebecca Yeo, Lydia, Leann, Yun, Shin Liang, Janice, Ming Ching, Lamberg, Wai Yeong, Jeanette, Ming Hui, Chun Keat, Peng Yew, Keen Fung, Cheng Han, Suh Hong, Kang Wei, Rueben, Timothy Ong, Pastor Sinnadurai & Sister Kamala & all those whose name is not mentioned. Without all your help and support, we would not have done it so smoothly.

I've uploaded the pictures taken by Shanti and Jeanette, but we are still waiting for the photos from our official photographers. Shall post it here when we get the CD. Meanwhile, click here for more photos.

Mr & Mrs. Kenneth Tham

I'm writing this blog in our Mawar Suite, Cyberview Lodge Resort & Spa the morning after our wedding. All the months of planning and coordinating has finally come to pass and the wedding was, well I would say a success from our point of view. At least we enjoyed it.

The song that I prepared for Vans was good, she enjoyed it, as well as all the surprises that came together with it:) The slideshow was ended abruptly 2 seconds before it was due, but nonetheless everything else went well. A big thank you to our wedding coordinator, Rachel Shanti Kathiripillai, who ran it like a professional wedding planner, according to my photographer. I'll post some pics here once the cameraman pass us some photos of the event.

We are packing now, getting ready to leave for KLIA, sending off Van's brother and sister, and also the flower girls :) This suite here is great, complete with jacuzzi, poolside view, pc with high speed internet connection, and loads of other goodies too. We ourselves are off to Langkawi tomorrow for a short trip. Putting up 2 nites in Awana Porto Malai. The real honeymoon though, will be in March, and Vans can't wait to get there, Gold Coast, Australia.

Signing off from Cyberview on 8th October, 2006, 10:16am.

Furniture & Electrical Appliances - On the Way!

We have booked our house furniture like months ago and finally it's time to see them coming in one by one... Nothing fancy or luxury but we are contented with what we can afford.

Ken and I had been agonizing on where to buy our electrical appliances after making a few trips to several shops... finally we settled with SehHeng for their customer service and extended warranty. Four of us (Yen & Brian tagged along)were off to Alamanda SenHeng where we're advised to head to since there are more choices there compared to Kajang branch.

Yen gave us professional advice on the washing machine. Rebecca suggested us to buy the same model of fridge which she’s using now. We spent about two hours at the shop and we settled with Samsung fridge, Toshiba washing machine, Samsung TV, Panasonic rice cooker. The best part is, we managed to get the sales guy to give us free gift which is: toaster oven, blender, kettle, hair dryer, towel and comforter. AND this is on top of the 3 Pizza Hut coupons and 2 steam iron we got from the “Scratch & Win” in conjunction with SenHeng anniversary. Needless to say, our lunch at Pizza Hut was paid for on that day. They will be delivered this weekend. Ken is going to post up some pics soon.

Very Very special thanks to all my beloved sisters for sponsoring most of the items hehehe. This is our highest achievement of the month!

Convocation

This is one of the very big days in my life and also for my family especially my parents and Ken. Anyone who had gone through the university life would know how proud it is to receive the scroll after years of hard work during their convo.

Well, i received my 2nd award of degree after 3 years of persuing Master of Engineering. I wouldn't have made it without the love and support from Ken, my parents, and my family. When i say my family, i do mean EVERYONE of them, everyone of them has played an important role during these years. Parents been encouraging me to stay strong as they know it gonna be tough to pull through both career and studies at the same time. Thanks to Mum for paying off the fees when i was still finally dependent on her and i just started working a job. She's the one who has encouraged me to persue Master right after i got my Bachelor degree. And i would regret if i didn't listen to her then.Dad is always there to remind me to take care of my health. Ken and Yen, the main contributors, hehe... for being my chaffeur to MMU, for all the meals they have prepared for me and the late nights Ken had waited for me to finish my lectures and so on and so on.Last but not least, thanks to my brother, sisters, bro-in-law, sis-in-law, nephews and nieces for the showers of love and support. Of cos, not forgetting my frens lar(Gosh, almost in tears when writing all these)
Last saturday (12-Aug-06) was indeed joyful. My parents, Ken and me reached MMU at 7am and we had already been directed to park quite far from the convo hall. I can't imagine where would the rest of them could park their cars if they came 15 mins later. we're still considered the lucky one. Once there, mum helping me to put on my robe and mortarboard, clipping it with hairpin to keep it in place. I didn't feel much nervous as compared to my last convo. Maybe i already know what to expect. While we're in the ladies, we saw a lot of late-comers nervously and clumsily put on robes and make-up. "That's why...should come early " as quoted by Ken... =P After briefing my parents where to go in and what to do in the convo hall, Ken took over the baton and direct them to the hall while me queueing up ready to enter the hall. Every postgrads received a stalk of rose from our faculties. Holding the rose, gracefully we entered the hall. The entrance was not as grand as what we had in unimas where everyone stood up and clapped their hands.

Then, chansellor (Tun Dr Mahathir's wife) arrived and declared open the convocation. Salute to her as she can really speak as good as Tun Dr M. After the speech, i just stand steadily and ready to receive my scroll. Didn't feel any nervous nor any stage-fright but only the surge of 'proudness' for myself, parents, Ken and family. I bet they are proud of me too hehe....
After 3 hours of waiting, they finally opened the hall and let us out. Everyone was squeezing through the small door to look for parents and friends. Been the 'experienced' one, Ken gathered my parents and told me to meet them at the 'waiting point'. Very quickly, we took our queue to have our studio photos taken. Then only we took out time to snap some photos around the campus. I received so many bouquet of flowers, one of them is from my sis Rebecca in Kuching (wishes from kch but flowers bought in campus haha)

Everyone is rushing out of the Convo Hall

At night, sis prepared sumptuous meal and Bob bought me my fav secret recipe cake, it was a surprise for me though hehe…

Vans with Brian, whenever there is a cake, he has to cut it =)

Finally, 3 years of hard work finally paid off......

Vans showing off all her bouquets

Ooppss… one more thing, my mum hinted me that the ‘round hat’ is more ‘funky’ than the square one and I sure look good in it… Haha…i will try my best....

A toast to our "NEW" post graduate =)

9 weeks to go

It has been a busy month as we were basically scrambling around every weekend to get things done. With about 2 months to go, we have to :-

1) Confirm the design and wordings for the Wedding Invitation
2) Make booking for car decor, bouquet and corsage
3) Arrange for food tasting
4) Confirm the number of guest
5) Collect the Wedding Photos
6) Confirm the delivery of furnitures + mattress
7) Confirm the date for kitchen cabinets + hood installation
8) Confirm the installation of curtains + railings

Phew... that's quite a few things to confirm. And moving into a new house and have it coincide with the wedding makes it twice as much work, twice as much fun, and twice as much cost :)

Well we have to plan our remaining weekends well coz there aren't many left and we'll quite busy with many upcoming events too.

12th August - Vans MMU Convocation
19th August - Genting trip with Rebecca, Lydia and Leann
26th August - Ken's company team building

Vans just had her photo being published on the WeddingsMalaysia.com website and she looks stunning.

10/7 - Our Registration

We have been struggling to choose a good date for our wedding registration at the National Registration Department and we finally settled for 10/7. Reason being its easy to remember, its the reverse of our actual wedding day, 7/10.
So other than being the day where most "male" species took leave due to time off from watching the World Cup final, of which I participated nonetheless, it was a very special day indeed for Vans and I. I hardly had 2 hours of sleep before taking off to Putrajaya with my dad, and Vans left home from Equine Park with her mom. Yen brought along Brandon and Brian as witness also, although I doubt Brian knew what we were doing :)

We were invited to a "Wedding Room" where the oath took place. I thought it was a simple oath but it turned out the to be the actual "Do you Kenneth Tham take Vanessa Yeo to be your lawfully wedded wife..." vow. So we both did so with a smile. We did brought along our rings, and exchanged it, before I was asked whether I want to kiss the bride. So overall it was almost like a real wedding, minus the crowd and the makan of course.
Due to our "low budget", or unavailability of manpower... haha... we engaged the services of a "professional" photographer that focused on our hands, instead of the whole person while we were signing the marriage certificate. But overall Brandon did a good job snapping the pictures.
The entire ceremony was over in less than 30 minutes, and we snapped a couple of photos before heading home, officially as Mr & Mrs Tham. But till today, Vans still couldn't get the hang of it, and doesn't like to be called Mrs Tham =)

Ken's Birthday

It was going to be my last birthday as a single, I was reminded by Shanti thru SMS. I was pleasantly surprised that quite a number of friends took time to wish me Happy Birthday thru SMS and phone calls. I guess technology does has it place, although some might argue that it lacks human touch, it didn't matter to me as I would have used the same channel of communication.

1st July always seems a special day :) We had decided since we got the IKEA catalog last year that we were going for the special item on offer for the month of July, a rattan chair going for RM49 each! So there we were, getting ready to rush in the entrance the moment the clock stroke 10am. Nah... we were actually there early to grab some curry puffs, hotdogs and coffee while waiting for the store to open. But as we have expected, many others were there early too, with the same intention. Since were getting the chairs, we though we might as well get some other bigger items on our shopping list as it would require delivery as well. So we got hold of a 6 drawer, er.. drawer chest & a coffee table.

Since we were there with Yen and Vans mum, we decided to bring them to the flea market in The Curve and had lunch over there. By the time we were done, everyone was dead tired. Vans and I haven't had dinner alone for a long time, so we went to Sg Long for some western food that nite, something we hadn't done for a long long time, and we couldn't finish the food!!!

Vans was very kind to have gotten me a surprise, a MP4 player with 2GB storage!!! She knew I like music and wanted it where ever I go. My camera phone is old and deteriorating, and these are the best shots I could get out of it :) Thanks dear, I like it very much!