"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. "

By: William E. Vaughan (American columnist & author, under the alias "Burton Hillis")

Merry Christmas to one and all! Indeed, things have changed a lot since I last posted (ONE MONTH AGO???). I have been given a wonderful career opportunity, and I have been having a good time lately.

Yes, I have left my job at Phillip Securities. I am now at a firm called "Providend". Similar job, but different company and different business model.

I think one of the greatest differences is that Providend operates a lot like a family. The people are warm and caring, friendly and kind, and yes, there's a strong Christian tradition amongst many members of the staff.

Although I still have some problems being released from where I was previously (long story), I'm already enjoying myself at Providend, doing some backroom work in the meantime, settling in and getting to know every person. As of Christmas Eve, I have officially met EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the Providend "nominal roll", because 1 of my colleagues, Evelyn, is on maternity leave, although she came back for the Christmas party.

Providend is different in the sense that we provide a fee-only financial consultancy service. In light of the alleged misselling taking place, I think our business model will appeal to many people. We have taken out the element of commissions in our advice, which leaves it much less biased and much more objective. If you are interested, we can always meet for a discussion.

But what strikes me the most about Providend is the closeness of the people. We have Games Day every Wednesday, where it's almost compulsory to attend. It's a wonderful session where the whole company (all 35 of us) comes down and exercise together, bond together and just see each other around. There's also the upcoming retreat, and of course, the wonderful Christmas Party that we had on Christmas Eve.

Although the games were simple, but I don't think I would have such fun if I played them in another setting. Being with the people just makes me enjoy it so naturally! I also had the chance to learn about the Providend Story, where Aaron, 1 of our founding members, shared with us the ups-and-downs of the company over the years, and how God has so kindly blessed us and seen us through. Of course, there's also the potluck! Just imagine 35 people (more if you include the interns) bringing 1 dish each, and that's the kind of spread you are looking at. For an idea how half of the spread looks like, you can see the picture below.

I cannot even begin to describe how warm and fuzzy my heart is this Christmas. Being a part of the Providend Family is indeed an honour to me, where I am able to work in an environment that I believe in, which is conducive to my growth and good people around me. Unlike many of my friends, I do not drag myself to office every morning, but there's a sense of anticipation where I can meet my new family members and get to know them more. I am very thankful to God for having shown me the way to Providend, and I really hope that He will keep me there for time to come.

As the title quote says, it is the best gift to be able to be surrounded by family members this Christmas, and this year, I have not one, but 2 families. Like I was sharing with Jack earlier on, a sign of the closeness of colleagues is by counting how many people are smiling in the company photo. See for yourself:

The Providend Family

Merry Christmas and a blessed holidays to everyone!

China-Macau-Hong Kong Trip 2008 - Day Six & Seven (12th - 13th Oct 2008)

I can't believe it took a month for me to finish blogging about one week, haha!

So the next morning, I woke up to a hearty breakfast at the Cafe Dome, which featured a huge long buffet line (and it really is huge and long)! Let's just say I haven't seen any buffet line as long as this in the world, and you can basically have anything you can think of for breakfast there.

After a full breakfast, I had a tiny opportunity to sneak out and walk around the exterior of the massive IR.

The sign at the main entrance

A very decent replica of the Rialto bridge and the tower over St Mark's Square

Same goes for the Dojo Palace

They even have an artificial lake outside

Behind is the massive accommodation block which has 3,000 guest rooms

This might give you a slight clue of the immense scale of the IR

And what's an outdoor lake without the famous gondolas?

Of course, there are greens too

If you peer in through the arches, it's actually the taxi stand

After this was checking out and a transit to the ferry terminal bound for Hong Kong. I can't say I like the ride very much. It was raining and the route is exposed to the open seas, so it was very choppy. I think a flight is even more stable than that. Reaching Hong Kong at 3+pm, we bade farewell to our 2 "madams" who went to wash up, while poor Jackie had to bring us to our hotel via taxi.

After seeing these 2 statues, it doesn't require a PhD to figure out where we stayed in Hong Kong

Ah yes, you can see it for yourself

The giant chandelier in the lobby is beautiful!

I could see a wedding taking place in the garden lawn from my room, very sweet!

The hotel's designed like an 18th-Century mansion, very classy indeed!

Compared to The Venetian, Disneyland Hotel's room is very ho-hum...

Umm... what you see is what I "stunned" back for my sis... Haha!

This is the entrance to the in-house restaurant, a very beautiful fresco!

It was getting late, and Mr. Yau arranged a very grand dinner for us later that evening. What to do?

One of the few pictures we took at the dinner. That's Mr. and Mrs. Yau, our kind hosts for the entire trip, I must say. Dinner was, well, usual. Overflowing with food (you can see the plates are full) and lots of toasting, which was quite fun actually. However, I'm glad my glass held beer instead of the XO that they opened. Sipping was my adopted "drinking style" for the meal :)

Following a very full dinner, as always, I went to talk around the hotel while Dad went to sleep. Since I was there, I couldn't give up the opportunity to walk around, right?

The outline of the exterior is lit up at night, with music broadcasted through speakers mounted all around the site.

Photography lesson, people: What you see may not necessarily be what appear on your camera. This is using the camera's default settings.

This dimness is much closer to the actual illumination. See the difference?

It's all about having a Magical Day at Disneyland!

And the chandeliers are really beautiful!!!

It's a 700m walk to the Park entrance. I decided to stroll over and caught this fountain before heading back to sleep. Flying back the next day!

The quilts even have Disney characters on them. I tried to arrange the sheets properly after I woke up.

Even the head of the bed has a graphic of the signature castle on it!

I really wanted to try the breakfast at the restaurant. I heard a lot about the Mickey Mouse pancakes, and you haven't really stayed in a Disneyland Hotel till you've tried them. Alas, we were too late for breakfast, having woken up a little later due to the exhaustion! Oh well...

But after a short break and a bite from the cafe at the lobby, it was off the the airport already. Time to head back home!

That's not my seat, but the one beside me. Taken using my handphone, that's why it's so noisy. It was a comfortable flight indeed! Managed to catch Tina Fey's "Baby Mama" on the wonderful 15-inch screen.

Afterthoughts: It certainly was an eye-opener for me, this time. I think the learning experiences are not so much the places that I've been to, or visited, but more of the human interactions. The warmth of our hosts throughout, whether in Mainland with Ms Poon and Ah-Mok, or with the Yau family... I think the extent to which they go to play a good host definitely beats many of us hands-down! I think some of the things they do, we won't even do it for our own relatives, let alone friends. It has definitely been an educational experience, and I aspire to be more proficient in Cantonese the next time I meet them!

Lastly, here're the links to my Photobucket! Sorry it took so long...

Photobucket: Macau

Photobucket: Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel

Photobucket: China-Macau-Hong Kong Trip 2008

China-Macau-Hong Kong Trip 2008 - Day Five (11th Oct 2008)

Ah yes, as promised the more interesting part is here.

We woke up rather early that morning to embark on the final leg of our journey in China. After having another too-much-to-eat breakfast with Ms Poon, we went down to Zhongshan City (中山市), the birthplace of the founder of modern China: Dr SunYat-Sen (孙中山). The city was formerly named Xiangshan (香山).

The actual building that Dr. Sun was born

The actual site where Dr. Sun was born

There's a statue of Dr. Sun when you step into the museum

I thought this is a very powerful quote by former-Chinese President Jiang Zemin. For those who cannot read Mandarin, a rough translation is as follows: "In the past century, the Chinese people, on the road to progress, have experienced three major historical changes, giving rise to three great people of the times: Sun Zhongshan, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping."

And that's us outside the museum

We were supposed to meet up with our "bodyguards" for the next 2 days, 3 of Mr Yau's children - Flora, Doris and Jackie, outside the memorial. However, since they were coming up from Hong Kong, it made more sense to meet them closer to Zhuhai (珠海), where we proceeded to have lunch at downtown Zhuhai. After lunch, we crossed over to our next destination by land: Macau (澳门)

It took a while to get through Customs. A little joke that I thought of was that some Customs officers already had lunch, thus doing things more slowly, whereas some had yet to go for lunch, which explains their faster-moving queues. Haha! By the time we crossed over, it was already 3pm.

Just outside of the Customs checkpoint was the bus terminal where shuttle buses waited to bring incoming visitors to the various casinos and Integrated Resorts (IRs) around Macau. It didn't take much difficulty to find ours, since it was the largest: The Venetian, Macau

Arriving at the IR's West Lobby, this is where we checked-in

It's a Saturday, but that alone doesn't explain the crowd

This is the bedroom, very grand indeed.

This is the living room, with an AIO printer and wireless router on the desk. It's a full suite, costing around S$550 per night.

The view outside the window: It's a mini-golf course below

Of course, a grand suite has a lavish toilet too. This is what you see when you enter (that's me in the mirror)

Shower cubicle and bath tub on the left

Dressing table on the right, and behind the door is the WC

We didn't have time to walk around the IR proper. It was already 4.30pm by the time we had settled in the room and washed up. The sun was setting, there wasn't much time left, so first things first, the Yaus had to bring us to do the "tourist-thing" since it was my first time there: a snap tour of the city.

A view of the Grand Lisboa, owned by Stanley Ho

A very familiar view of Macau for those who have been there before, because behind it is...

If you haven't been here, you haven't been to Macau: St. Paul's Cathedral (or what's left of it). That's me (wearing red hoping to get lucky in the casinos later), along with my 2 "madams" and 1"ah-sir": (L to R) Jackie (Mr Yau's 2nd son), Flora (eldest daughter) and Doris (3rd daughter)

That's us on the cannon platform which overlooks St. Paul's

I thought this is a very interesting candid shot of the 3 of them, all checking their cameras after they have snapped their fill. They're more into the "tourist-thing" than I am, haha!

This is a place called Fisherman's Wharf. It is right beside the sea, and you can see the huge bridge linking the islands in the background.

There are quite a lot of restaurants on both sides of Fisherman's Wharf


That's Dad with the 3 of them

At the end of the stretch, there's even a mock-up of the Colosseum in Rome

A view of the Sands Hotel, another project owned by the Las Vegas Sands Group

And this is one of the casinos in Macau, along the Fisherman's Wharf.

After this, we went for dinner downtown at one of the more famous restaurants. No private room this time, but still first-class food. I had my first taste of sea worms, which were baked with eggs and seasoned with spices. I couldn't taste anything out of the ordinary. Needless to say, our plates were never empty.

Now that dinner's taken care of (like I said, food is never an issue), we went for a walk around town. Macau's nightlife is bustling, lights everywhere! We went to buy some almond biscuits, then dessert. Just a stone's throw away was the Grand Lisboa and Casino Lisboa, 2 other landmarks of Macau.

The brilliantly-lit Grand Lisboa Hotel. Lights run along the lines and change colours frequently.

And right opposite it is the Casino Lisboa

After the trigger-happy camera-snapping that ALL 5 of us engaged in, we crossed over to another IR, the Wynn. Stepping in, it's easy to see that it's different from The Venetian.

From the Wynn, this picture illustrates the running lights on the Grand Lisboa better. That's the Macau nightline for you!

Stepping into the lobby of the Wynn, you can see the red-carpeted floor

Of course, shopping can be rather limited if one has budget constraints... Even their souvenir Wynn polo-tees are from Burberry

At one of the open areas, there's this beautiful and massive carving on the ceiling with all 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac

And below it is a globe-like structure

The top opens up in a circular-fashion, revealing a large screen. This screen then opens up to reveal...

A giant chandelier descends from the ceiling

And from the bottom, the globe-like structure opens and a golden tree rises from the bottom

The leaves are illuminated in the 4 colours of the 4 seasons. Nothing much, just a gimmick for people to throw money into the tree.

Outside the Wynn, there's a more spectacular show that's free, and definitely more eye-catching: the music fountain, a display of water sprouts and pyrotechnics

It helps to know the song they are playing to ("Holding Out for a Hero"), that's how I managed to catch some of the high points of the display.

Taking a cab back to The Venetian, we walked around the gaming floor and the Grand Canal Shoppes, just to look around before turning in.

This is the main lobby of The Venetian

Beautifully-painted ceilings

The mandatory photo-taking

The only shot I took of the gaming floor

The Grand Canal Shoppes take up the entire 3rd floor of The Venetian, which I can assure you is probably an even bigger floor area than Ngee Ann City. This is the main shopping area and has fake canals running through certain stretches. The shops are more mid-range, with brands like G2000, Zara, Esprit, Levis, Nike and so on, definitely more wallet-friendly than Wynn or even Four Seasons, which is next door. The entire area has a fake sky and is dimly-lit to emulate Venice in the evening, a good excuse to turn on the lights!

Well, who can leave out this "restaurant"... Haha!

There's even a huge foodcourt serving dishes from all over the world. Suitable for people on a budget or for those who didn't make it downstairs at the casino... Haha!

It's probably quite an honour for our cuisine to be featured here. It looks authentic too!

That's the view of the corridor from my room. Typical of the walkways that bring you to one of 3,000 rooms in The Venetian!

I wanted to try my hand at the table, but I was simply too tired. Besides, with such a comfy bed awaiting me, and an accumulation of late nights all the way, I gave in.

Little did Dad and I know, our 2 "madams" and 1 "ah-sir" sneaked down to the casino after sending us to our room.

Photobucket: Sun Zhongshan Memorial

Photobucket: Macau