Thankfully, the plane landed safely and we got to our hotel. Slept till noon (actually I could sleep on but Chris got me out of bed for lunch) and went to a nearby mall for lunch and window-shopping. Walked around with Peixin and Zonghe; then went our separate ways as Chris and I went for a massage. Dinner at Mexican Moon Cafe with all of Karen's friends. It was quite a big group and we were roughly split by our choice of accomodation. There was Xinyi, Mavis, Ina, Yunlin, Zonghe, Peixin, Chris and I staying within Cebu City. The others stayed at Mactan Island's beach resorts (Plantation Bay and Maribago). It felt like freshmen orientation night as we went round the table introducing ourselves and how we met Karen. It became apparent to me that most of Karen's friends were known by the educational help we provided; I was her university nanny while Xinyi helped her passed A-levels.
Bright & Sunny Sunday For Snorkelling
We Board The Chartered Pump Boat On A Narrow Plank
Random Chit-Chat With Karen
It Was A Bumpy Ride As The Waves Were Strong
Everyone Prepares To Snorkel...
Ina & I Stay Onboard As Fish Feeders
(I could not snorkel because it was less than a month post-Lasik and I could not swim)
On The Trip Back, I Thought I Found A Comfy Seat...
On the last day of our short holiday (Monday), the girls and I found out that Havaianas was doing a roadshow at a mall... and we could customise a pair! That's us with our flip-flops after an hour of waiting in line for our turn to custom-make our Havaianas. Yunlin, Peixin and I all had the same colour combination because those were the remaining available colours left for our shoe size. It is not exactly my type of neutral beige colours; but I was happy to have part of my name on each slipper (Min on the left and Yi on the right) with two Swarovski crystals on each as well. I picked Xinyi's colours (hence the tick beside her) and I would have loved to have her colours... I think the royal blue sets off the gold straps very well! My pair came up to SGD38 (inclusive of the additional charges for alphabets and crystals). According to Yunlin, this is very good value because off-the-shelf Havaianas cost more and ours were customised with crystals and all.
After the exciting flip-flops shopping, we trawled the city of Cebu for the elusive fresh fruits stalls to buy some mangoes. We finally found the place after 45 minutes of walking (with a pit-stop at MacDonald's for coke float) and this is typical Minyi hassling the fruit lady for a discount. I think everyone was very entertained when I asked for a bunch of bananas as a free gift when the lady could not offer a good discount!
Thus concludes my exciting holiday to Cebu and it was fantastic because I rekindled lost friendships (Xinyi and I knew each other from Hwa Chong Students' Council but lost contact after graduation) and made new friends!
p/s: thanks to yunlin who took these pictures!
To cut a long story short, I gave Shiling the details (as we had both agreed to do our surgery together some time ago and were waiting to save up) and it turns out that Dr. Lee is quite famous in the LASIK circle and a few of Shiling's friends have had their surgery done by him when he was based in the public sector. previously before moving to Gleneagles Shiling was equally impressed with the promotional package price and we decided we will take the plunge and do it now instead of later. My LASIK ended up costing S$1K more than the normal promotion price because my myopia is considered moderately high (R:700; L:675) so Dr. Lee recommended that I undergo customised blade for better results (customisation cost me S$500 more each eye). Dates were set and the deed is done.
It is fantastic beyond words to describe how I can see clearly without my glasses first thing in the morning. I save so much time not having to mess about with my contacts when I get to work and I feel so good that I do not have to mess around with contacts when I get home. My eyes feel great and I love it that I can see well without the use of glasses or contacts! It was quite surreal the first couple of days after LASIK as I was not used to having perfect vision 24/7 and I always felt like it was time to take off my lenses.
I do not know if this is some strange behaviour bubbling up inside me but everytime I see someone in the streets with glasses - I want to tell them to go do LASIK. It is a life-changing surgery which only takes 20 minutes! Why go through the pain of wearing glasses when you can have perfect eyesight and never worry about dry eyes or taking off your contacts?
If you are interested to go for LASIK, the clinic I went to is Parkway Eye Centre. They are still having the $995/eye promotion so do not miss your chance to have perfect eyesight at a steal!
disclaimer: in case this sounded like an advertorial, Dr. Lee did not pay me to advertise his clinic. I am thankful for the lifestyle change that LASIK had given me and Dr. Lee is a very good eye doctor whom I would recommend since I have experienced it myself.
p/s: chris keeps insisting that LASIK is the 2nd best decision I made in my life (dating him was the 1st) but I would like to say that I do not think I made a conscious decision to date Chris; things sort of happened . So based on that, LASIK remains the best decision I made in my life. And September 5th shall live in history as the day.