It's CNY

It's been a while since I last blogged. I have been really busy since 2008 started. I took a more intensive German course and is attending classes almost every evening from Mon to Thurs for 2 hrs. Tired as that is, I can feel that my German is improving by leaps and bound.

I just visited Loop in London and bought some really beautiful yarns. However, no pics to show for now. Hopefully I will get around to taking some pics for the blog soon!

Finally, it's Chinese New Year! So 新年快乐!! =)

Seven Facts About Me

I got tagged by Eva.

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. If you translate my chinese name to English, it literally means 'Forest Beautiful Jade'. Pretty, isn't it? Hehe.

2. I gotta have my gadgets. I can't leave home without my Nokia N73, iPod Nano and Canon SD800.

3. Currently, my favourite color is red but somehow all my recent yarn purchases are more pink than red. My nokia and ipod are red though.

4. My all time favourite colors are blue and white though.

5. I am born in the year of the Goat and this year is a good year for me to get married according to the chinese horoscope. Haha.

6. I spent 9-10 years of my life dancing. I plan to do that again once life more or less settled here. Thinking of taking up salsa.

7. I hold a green belt in Teakwondo.

And I am tagging
Carin, Isel, Jasmine, Kessa, Lois, Paloma & Ruth

German lessons

Ich bin Jade. Ich komme aus Singapur. Ich wohne in München. Ich spreche Englisch, Chinesisch und ein bissen Deustch.

As you can see, I have already started my German lesson. The first lesson is all about introduction. Saying your name, where you lives and what languages I know. Yesterday, I had my second lesson where I learn to ask for directions as well as give directions. The teacher thinks that I am progressing very well. Well, I think I can read better than I can speak. Pronouncing some of the words is killing me!!! Oh well, I will just have to work on them by practising more often.

And I am finally knitting again. Yeah for me! I tried to squeeze in as much knitting time as I can. I went to London recently and surprise, surprise, I came back with some Rowan Cotton Glace which is on the needle now on its way to being transformed into a pink Orangina soon.

I have also made great progress with my secret project. I will unveil it in my next blog since the intended recipient already knows about it.

Next up, my friend asked if I can knit her a cropped cardigan. I sort of said yes and had been half-heartedly trying to find a nice enough pattern when I stumbled upon this. Isn’t that absolutely gorgeous? I think I will make that for her but with a much longer sleeves. I am going to see if I have anything in my stash that will work with it (probably not since she asked for a white one and I don’t have a lot of white yarns) and might start on it soon.

I finally unpack my yarns and was so sad to see that the bottle of Soak Limited edition that I got before I left the US is almost empty. The cap was either not closed properly or the pressure caused it to be dislodged, it has been dripping out of the cap slowly over the past 3 mths such that only a qtr of it is left now. =( Thankfully, I have all my yarns in Ziploc bag so nothing was ruined. I just end up with a box of nice smelling Ziploc bags. Oh well, such is life.

ETA: I just saw this at Eunny's blog and I am totally sold. This is going to the top of my list of must knit. Gotta knit faster!!!

I am back

Woohoo, I am all setup with my internet! But that's not the happiest thing that happened to me recently. I finally got all 16 boxes of my stuffs from the US!!! It was like Christmas Day to me, getting 16 big boxes of presents! Except these are all my stuffs and that I bought them myself. I cannot believe that this actually makes me happier than getting access to the internet!

So to celebrate my settling in here at Munich, I decided to subscribe to Interweave Knits for a start, ordering more yarns of course and lastly, I signed up for The Knitterly Letter Swap organised by Domesticat. THIS is going to be so much fun. I used to have pen pals all over the world. I don't know if you still remember or even know about this but back when I was 12 years old, there was(or is, who knows?!) this organisation that will collect $2 from you and they will allocate a pen pal to you based on your choice of countries. It was very popular back then. I had pen pals in Greece, USA, Hongkong and Australia at one point of time. And the only one who made it through with me all these years is the penpal from Hongkong. I even visited her there a few years back. Of course with the technology being so advanced nowadays, I sometimes got lazy and emailed her instead of writing to her. Hehe. However, I do think that writing is more sincere. I feel that it's awfully romantic when a guy chose to write a letter to the girl he loves instead of just emailing and SMSing her as per the norm nowadays. Of course the contents gotta be romantic as well. What do you think?

So anyway, I am really looking forward to knitting more regularly again. I haven't knit much in the past few months because of all these changes and I can't wait for life to resume back to normal soon so I can churned out more FOs and of course finished up that UFO that has been sitting around for a year now. I really like that sweater. I don't know why I am taking forever to finish it.

Thank you for leaving such sweet comments on my blog even though I haven't been posting much recently. You will be hearing from me soon either via email or through your blog if you have one.

Sue, Isel, Jas and Karen I miss you gals!

Where have I disappear to?

Just a quick one. I am in Germany now and was here since late February this year. Moved into my apartment already and is trying to get everything set up and settled in. Things do not happen as fast as I would like them to. I have a phone line now and is still working on getting my internet connection up and running. Since I only have internet access at work, I do not think it's wise to blog from the office. Anyway, I am very busy at work too even though I just started!

I am going to India for a business trip next week. Hopefully, my internet connection in my apt will be setup by the time I return so I can spend more time blogging about my life in Germany so far and of course my India trip.

Cheerio for now.

Happy Chinese New Year

A very belated Happy Chinese New Year! These are some of the 'ang baos' that I managed to receive this new year. ;-) It's been a while since I get 'ang baos'.

Anyway, I recovered and enjoyed my time in Singapore alot!! Spent a bomb buying working clothes as well. Today is my second day in Munich. Will update you gals later cos I am tired and feel like sleeping now even though it's only 8pm.

Feelings...

I am gone. I left the US last Thursday for good. I was so busy with the days leading up to my departure and then I am still busy since then which is why I didn't have a proper post about it.

It feels weird. I don't know how to describe it. It's like I am on a roller coaster where my emotion is concerned. I was down, crying even. Then I felt numb. I should be happy about being back in Singapore, yet I feel strangely out of place. Like I don't belong. I should feel excited about my impending migration to Germany, yet I don't. How sad do I feel about leaving the US? Not too much because it's after all not my home. But I do feel sad about how things have turned out over there if you know what I mean...

I don't know how I feel right now. If you were to ask me to describe my current state. Well, I feel rested. I look around me and everything just looks so weird. I feel like a stranger... Maybe I have been moving, travelling too much. Time to settle down and grow some roots? Then again, I am only away from home for 3 years, not that long a time. It feels like yesterday that I left Singapore for the US. Yet so much had happened for me.

Regardless, I am enjoying the wonderfully sunny weather here after the cold wintry weather of Virginia, US and London, UK. More on that in my later post.

For now, look! My first sock and I just turned the heels!