Staff Lunch 2015@Ritz-Carlton

I attended our NIE Annual Staff Lunch 2015 at Ritz-Carlton with the theme of YesterYears Singapore. :) I wore my mother's dress which she wore when she first arrived in Singapore in 1970!

My Table 9

The opening show was Sand Painting which was quite unusual and the painter depicted the development of Singapore from kampong to the modern city it is now.

The Director gave the welcome speech which was followed by the usual Award Ceremony - Excellence in Teaching awards and Long Service awards. Buffet lunch followed after that. In between lunch, there were the pre-drawn lucky draws, Tribute to Pioneer Educators, games and performances. 
We all had a great time relaxing with our friends and colleagues.

Me in my mother's 1970 dress and a vintage red lace handbag.

My Early Bird gift as I arrived at 10:50am :)

My girls have assumed ownership of the gift :P

Staff Lunch 2014

Today is our organisation's annual staff lunch, 11am-3pm, Mandarin Orchard Hotel. This year's theme is Travel Around the World. The organising committee was dressed as stewardesses and pilots. It was kind of cool. :) Some of the tables were dressed in national costumes of the country which they have selected to represent. It was a riot of colours. 
As usual, I arrived early (perks of staying just at the edge of the city), just 10 minutes before 11am and immediately qualify for the early bird gift - a SIGG water bottle. Not bad at all lol. :) I took a couple of photos with colleagues and friends while waiting for the ballroom to open.

Photo with colleagues (me in cheongsum :P)

My table 22 was right near the stage and right next to the VIP table (consisting of all the deans and director) - the result of me submitting the names of our table in early, actually within an hour when registration started! :P 

My lucky Table 22

Photo with colleagues

The usual speech given by the director, then followed by the award ceremony. After that, buffet lunch commenced at 1pm. The real exciting event was of course the lucky draw lol. Our table consists of 10 people. However, only 4 of us were present - 1 had resigned, 1 had just given birth (ahead of time), 1 was recovering from illness, 1 had family emergency, and 2 couldn't make it (forgot their reasons). Guess what, 60% of my table won a prize (and half of them weren't at the staff lunch lol)! How lucky is that?! :P Oh, I didn't win a prize this year. Apparently I have used up my luck when I won the 2nd prize (a 41" LCD TV) a couple of years back. So I am accumulating my luck again haha. :P

Our director, Prof Lee giving his last speech to NIE family as he is stepping down in June 2014

My colleagues and friends, together since 2004/2005

Photo with Prof Lee

The staff lunch ended right on time and I took a couple more photos with colleagues. There were 64 tables so it was hard to look for colleagues and friends. :P

Staff Lunch & Awards 2013

Our organisation had its staff lunch and award presentation today at Orchard Hotel. This year's theme is "Happily Ever After... Fairytales and Enchanted Creatures". Lots of people dressed up as various fairytale characters but our colleagues and friends at our Table 16 didn't bother to dress up lol. Our table is right by the stage! All because I sent in our name list exactly 10 minutes later after I received the email for the staff lunch registration! Hahaha. Talk about being kiasu. :P
I must say this year's attendance is overwhelming. By 11.10am, the early bird gifts were all gone! The staff lunch started at 11am.. you go figure. :P As I was a little late this year, I partook in the photo taking which took me half an hour to line up for and also the tarot reading. The reading was disappointing because the reader skipped quite a few cards and he didn't do reverse reading. :( I could read tarot myself but I decided not to embarrass him by questioning him. I would have done a better job. Sigh. Wasted my time. I could have queued up for the caricature drawing instead! 
At 12 noon, the director gave his speech and followed by the award presentation of Long Service Awards, Excellence in Teaching Awards, and Excellence in Service Awards. Our dear friend and colleague, Dennis received two awards this afternoon - 10 years Long Service Award as well as the Excellence in Service Award!!! So happy for him. :) :)

Dennis receiving his 10 years Long Service Award from the Director

Acting cute while waiting his turn for the second award lol

Dennis receiving his Excellence in Service Award from the Director

At 1pm sharp, lunch started. It was buffet lunch and a few of the dishes were delicious. A lot of us went back for seconds and thirds lol. :P There were also table games and lucky draws in between lunch. The MC for this year is actually quite good and his jokes were cracking up us like nothing. :)
The staff lunch ended behind time but nobody minded. We were all enjoying ourselves. 
Dear Table 16 friends and colleagues, thanks for a wonderful time laughing and bonding. Next year, same table again, ok? Yes, I already have the name list ready for 2014's staff lunch! :P

The wonderful friends and colleagues at Table 16 :)

Staff Lunch 2012

My good friend and colleague gave me a lift to our staff lunch at Mandarin Hotel. We arrived around 10.40am and therefore entitled to the Early Bird Gift lol. We could choose from either Shaw movie tickets, NTUC Fairprice $10 voucher or thumbdrive. I chose the voucher because I could pass it to my father who often shops at NTUC Fairprice. :)
There were a number of pre-event activities - glamour shots, caricature sketch, silhouette snipping, airbrush snipping and hair extensions. As a memento, I would always go for the glamour shot. :) I was actually lining up for the caricature sketch but it took too long. After 40 minutes, I was still in the queue. I decided to "cut my loss" and joined the queue for silhouette snipping. Within 10 minutes, I was holding my silhouette lol. :)
By 12noon, we were seated at our Table 21. :P It was the usual people at our table - DK, YZ, C, CD, G, K, S, and a new colleague, YX. The goodie bag was really good this year - Garretts popcorn, postit notes, pen - useful and practical stuff. :) The buffet was not too bad, had the famous Chatterbox Chicken Rice. Yummy! :) This year's MC was really good too. He was funny without trying hard and without being rude. We were all laughing so hard with his jokes and antics. :)
Our Table 21 was really lucky as well, with 2 people winning prizes from the top 25 prizes and 1 person winning from 26th-100th prizes. Not bad at all, considering there were about 700 people (70 tables) at the staff lunch, amounting to about one from each table winning something. And we had 3 prize winners from our table alone! :)
The fun ended at 3pm. I am already looking forward to the next staff lunch lol. :P
Oh, what I went as? I was Fiona from Shrek 2, the before transformation haha. :)



My PERI team - "Jasonette", "Fiona", "Ponyo", "Star Trek"

Decision Made

Excitement is really building up at my work place with regards to Saturday's Staff Lunch at Mandarin Hotel. Everyone is discussing what they will be going as. I have finally decided who I will go as. :) I get to dress in my favourite colour too, Green! Haha.

What Are You Going As?

That has been the most frequently asked question at my work place for this week! Lol. This coming Saturday, our organisation is having a Staff Lunch with the theme of "Going to the Movies". We have to dress up as a character in a movie that appeared in the year that we joined the organisation. :) I joined in 2004 and there were a couple of 2004 movies that I enjoyed watching such as Harry Potter 3, Van Helsing, Dawn of the Dead, The Chronicles of Riddick, Resident Evil 2, Alien vs Predator, Anacondas, Blade 3, and i, Robot, lol. Not exactly easy to dress up as one of the characters from one of those movies.
I have dressed as a Hogwarts student during one of my MOE HQ staff retreat (and won first prize for best dressed character! Lol) so I don't want to do that again. Let me think about it... I may go as a character from the movies or I may just go as myself. :)

"Lucky" and Lucky

Updated 2 March 9:46pm with more photos from colleagues. :)

Our institute is having its annual lunch (with a "Going to School" theme) today from 11am to 3:30pm at Orchard Hotel. I was there on the spot at 11am because I stay really close by lol. I qualified for the early bird door gift haha. :) There were 3 pre-lunch fun activities - glamour shot, fun button and tattooing. I was only interested in the photo shoot and fun button. I managed to get both done without the hassle of queueing up since I was early haha. :)

By 12noon, most of my table-mates have arrived and we were seated at Table 10, which is my lucky number lol. For once, all 10 of us were able to make it, again my lucky number lol. The director gave his speech, followed by the presentation of long service awards and buffet lunch! :) After lunch, there were some activities. I was "lucky" and got sabotaged by my table-mates to be the "class rep" for the first fun activity. I, like 72 other "class reps", had to stand on my chair and provided much laughter to my table-mates as I had to do things like put coins into my ears, tie a napkin round my forehead, wear 3 men's belts, etc. I have to admit, it was quite a funny experience haha. However, we didn't win this activity as we didn't have some of the items required by the emcee lol. There were also performances and one of the performances was actually a repeat of the performance at 2007 staff dinner. Those who were at the 2007 dinner immediately remembered it and started gesturing to me. Why? Because I was "invited" on stage for the same performance back in 2007 lol. Yes, I tend to be very "lucky" like that lol. :P

After the performances, came the highlight of the lunch - the lucky draw!! Hahaha. It was the draw for the top 10 prizes, starting with the 10th prize first. Most of us stayed till the end of the lunch for this moment lol. As it got closer to the top 3 prizes, I was thinking to myself it was okay not to have won anything as I really enjoyed myself this year with the great company. When all of sudden, I heard my name being announced! WHAT?! I had won the 3rd prize, a Sony 40" LCD TV!!! Goodness me!! :) :) :) My colleagues were happy for me too and clapped really hard, especially those from my Table 10 as I went on stage to collect my prize from the director. Told you, 10 is my lucky number haha. :)

Table 10 group photo before Director's speech

3 beauties queueing for food haha :P

Still eating my dessert even though being sabo-ed and standing on the chair for the activity haha
Ok, what else you want me to do? Bring it on! Haha

Listening attentively, one of us might be the next lucky draw winner! OH, that's me!! haha :P

Photos with friends and colleagues :)




Final group photos before "school" is dismissed


More photos with friends and colleagues before we parted ways :)





I had lots of fun at the staff lunch because of the great company. It was an excellent time to catch up with one another, out of the office environment where everyone could let down their hair and just have fun. :) Ok ok, I also enjoyed the lunch because I won a prize!! Hahaha. :P