March was....(a long overdue post)

....a hectic month for me.
Firstly, I packed myself off to China for a 7N/9D tour which took me to Suzhou, Hongzhou, Wuxi, Nanking and Shanghai. Those cities are actually about 2 - 3 hours drive from one another and with the new expressways that China has been building, the journeys weren't tiring and the cold weather was of some help! BTW, the temperature was always below 10 deg. C and dropped below zero during the nights, but by that time I had warmly checked into the hotel!

I went to Shanghai because DD and two friends won a trip to represent their uni/Malaysia in the Henkel Innovative Challenge and since I don't have to pay for her fare....I took the opportunity to visit....lol.

The Oriental Pearl Tower (formerly used for TV broadcasting)

The China Pavilion
(only one still open to public viewing after the 2010 World Expo)

More photos here. :)

After China, it was time for NNC 4th Anniversary get-together at Rose's house in Shah Alam on 19th March. Like previous years, there was a gift exchange among the members plus a GINGHAM HEART challenge set out by the Headmistress aka MW! I quickly set to work on the heart since it wasn't too difficult to put together. My inspiration was from one of Tilda's design.

~ Tilda inspired heart ~
the background is a knitted cushion cover

Cupcake Apron - exchange piece drawn by Mel our resident cupcake Queen.
The apron fabric was a dish towel bought at Ikea. ;)

All the Pretty Hearts!
(photo by Nik)

I'm not going to repeat what happened on that day. It's here, here, and here!

- o - o - o - o -

Before the month ended, our company hosted the Annual dinner for all the staff in Penang. So we make our way to the Pearl of the Orient on Friday 25th March. We stayed at the Golden Sands Hotel, Batu Feringgi, Penang, but the dinner was held next door at the Rasa Sayang Hotel. This year each branch has to put up a performance (and it was a challenge) and I'm proud to say Ipoh branch won the first prize for our rendition of "Satu Malaysia" the theme song of One Malaysia! Yeah, Ipoh branch boleh!! :D

Ipoh branch BOLEH! Yeah!

The next day (early evening) we boarded the Superstar Libra for a cruise to nowhere. It's the first time I spent the night on a boat (a large one), but I still felt the boat rolling on the wave and it made me dizzy for a while! lol As we sailed at night, there was not much to see (and it was also raining), I spent the time inside the casino and lost some money! :(

A view from the upper deck

Phew! How the month flew.....thank you for visiting!