Archive for July, 2008

Matt’s 25th

It’s Matt’s birthday tomorrow and I’m real nervous about it. He said no presents (although I’ve already given him an Agnes B work bag and CK Eternity fragrance the past month) so I’ve came up with three recipes to cook for him for dinner tomorrow.

I’m a more confident baker but I guess I have to give this a shot. During the past week, I kept asking my friends if I should have a rehearsal dinner and instead of reassuring me, they all thought I should. :( Thanks pals!

I’m just gonna go with my instinct (I’m a woman after all right!) and trust that Murphy doesn’t come visit tomorrow… It would be so terrible if Matt has to deal with eating bad food on his birthday… :(

Will update about how it went soon… *crosses fingers*

Culinary god, please be with me!

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Tuesday afternoon frolick

I met up with Jules and another fellow journo, Yuen Ling, whom I travelled with two years ago for lunch at the new PS Cafe at Palais Renaissance. The place was very nicely set up and it was especially relaxing where we sat, at the patio overlooking the Thai Embassy.

The food was slightly above average, as usual. You know, typical PS Cafe quality. But nonetheless, I still enjoy going to their outlets. It’s the ambience and service that always win me over. And this new outlet has a hot waiter to boot, so most of our five sense were appeased. 

Yuen Ling was quite late so Jules and I had a nice private time before she arrived. Jules mentioned to Yuen Ling that we have a very strange friendship and for a while, I wondered what was so strange about our relationship. It started off about four years ago as a working relationship. With me as the journo and she the PR. I was doing the Tech Girl column in CLEO (I know, how unbelievable, as my tech bf will attest to) and I was liaising with Jules for Panasonic.

And it all just started from there. We’re not friends who meet up every week, unlike how I am with the girls but it’s funny how we would go “eh, wanna go for coffee later?” “Ok!”. I’ve known her for a couple of years and have travelled twice together but somehow, we only got closer and see more of each other the past year.

I would always remember how supportive and sweet she’s been. When I was really down and out last year, she took off early from work and appeared on my doorsteps with a pot of sunflowers. Even this year on my birthday, she also sent me a pot of sunflowers – this time even bigger and with a soft toy. I joked to her that she has been the only one who sent me flowers in my life (silly boys from secondary school aside). And her flowers on my birthday had got many colleagues asking me incessantly who was the guy. Hahahah! And she made me happy imaging that I had a secret admirer.

And this was the last picture I took with my long hair. After Jules dropped me off at The Heeren Shops, I proceeded to spend three hours in a salon getting my hair chopped off and catching up with gossip with Eugene. Sue said I look like Kirsten with my new hair now and went on to talk like Kirsten to me……….. And I’m honestly not sure if that’s a compliment……..

After the haircut, I picked up my drycleans, grabbed some purchases at CK Calvin Klein and then met my cousin Nicole (as affectionately known as Ah Ru) for a yummy Thai dinner. It was an expensive meal of “Fine Thai Cuisine” but it was quality time spent. She’s the only one who literally grew up with me and it’s always a joy to see how the two of us have turned out and are still close as hell.

Matt was very distracted with my new haircut when I got home, which was a good thing cos that meant he didn’t notice my shopping bags. And I’m safe saying that here (I think) cos I know he doesn’t check out my blog. Hee!

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New best friends

Matt took to Kirsten immediately after the first time they met. Kirsten, surprisingly, warmed up quickly and in no time, played up a storm with Matt. And there would be times during the week when Matt would ask me, “Is Kirsten coming this Sunday?” And I would be like, “How about Seth? You don’t like Seth?!” And Matt would say, “But Seth just sits there!”

And I would be like “…….”

Last Sunday, Matt needed my help to take some pics in the park for his work and we brought Kirsten along. That girl, as usual, wanted to go to every playground she saw and Matt was ever obliging. The two ran and hopped along in the park as I strolled on my own. It was absolutely delightful seeing the two – the sight totally makes one melt but then again, that’s just me… :)

After the outing at the park, we brought Kirsten to the neighbourhood shopping mall so Matt and I could pick up the tickets we booked for Red Cliff, which is, by the way, really good. And when we were headed back, lazy Kirsten got Matt to carry her on his shoulders all the way home.

While on Matt’s shoulders, she sang Old Macdonald and Matt was testing her about the sounds animals made and Kirsten got them all down pat. And at one point, Kirsten went “Uncle, uncle, uncle!” in her usual sing-song way and that girl only does that to people she loves. That must have touched Matt somehow cos he couldn’t stop grinning for a while.

Matt said something to me afterwards and it got me thinking and smiling about the future and I have a feeling that there’s definitely the future that we both imagined about.

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Congrats PF!

For finally popping Kristy Seah Su En yesterday! Love the Chinese name, by the way, PF!

Can’t wait to see the baby girl. :)

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The night of near-clubbing

Belle, Pom, Sue and I went to both Zouk and The Butter Factory on Friday night and ended up spending a total of 15 minutes indoors. The only indoors we got in Zouk was going up to its office to collect our complimentary membership cards. And Butter was way too smelly for an extended stay.

So what did we do? Went for supper twice and hung outside the clubs and took silly pics instead. Bleah.


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Nosy auntie

The misfortune of staying in a low-level flat and especially one that the neighbours from the opposite block could literally look into your entire bedroom is that you get really nosy aunties being total voyeurs by their facing windows.

A couple weeks ago, my mum returned from the wet market and told me in part embarrassment, part amusement that an auntie who works at a childcare centre below my block was telling how how another auntie who stays on the 7th level in the block opposite my bedroom was telling her that I have a white boyfriend.

Asked her how she knew and she proudly admitted that she saw Matt and I in my bedroom through her kitchen window.

Gosh. The things these auntie could get up to… It’s times like these that I’m totally reminded that I’m staying in heartland Singapore.

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Surprise trip to Langkawi

It happened more than two months ago (how time flies!) but it’s nice to recall the trip by writing about it in here. About more than 3 months ago, shortly after we met and before Matt left for a work trip in Adelaide, we were in a cab when he and I were just listing about the cities/countries we have visited. He was actually writing down as I rattled off.

Then when I was done, he said, “Why don’t we both take a week off and go somewhere?” I was like, “Really?!” cos I had never taken a day off in my one-year of work at my previous workplace.

“Yeah! Let’s take a trip somewhere.”
“Where?”
“It’ll be a surprise.”
“What? But I need to know what to pack!”
“Hmmm… It’ll be a beach holiday so you’ll know what to pack.”
With widened eyes, “erm, ok…………….”

Impressively, that boy didn’t let slip of anything up till the moment we were in the airport more than a month later, looking at the huge departure board. I was just observing his line of vision to get a hint of which belt we were headed for. As we were nearing the counter, I went, “Langkawi! We’re going to Langkawi!” He just smiled and asked if that’s ok cos that was the best location he could get within the short time that he had. Silly boy. Of course it’s ok. Doesn’t matter where he’d gotten, it’s really the thought that counts.

Langkawi is a really small island but it’s truly beautiful and the food… Every single meal, no matter how cheap or expensive, was gastronomic. For some reason, the stay in Langkawi made me a really hungry person. I was whining for food every second hour.

We rented a scooter for a day then a car the next. I really enjoyed being in the front passenger seat, next to Matt cos I felt (and I’m gonna risk sounding demeaning to the female gender) taken care of, in a way. I never felt that way before and was relishing the experience.

I often think back the conversations we had during the trip, the walks we took on the beaches, the dips in the sea, how it felt to be riding behind him on the scooter and the bloody hikes he insisted we went on.

I had been to supposedly more exotic and exciting places than Langkawi but had never enjoyed a holiday as much as this one. Maybe it was the company, but I left the island feeling that it was a truly special and romantic place. Then again, it has to be the company. :)

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All buffet-ed out

Met Chiang for afternoon tea yesterday for a quick catchup and the original plan was to go to Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge at Takashimaya for scones, cookies and tea but at the last minute, she suggested Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts instead and since I had never been there before, I thought why not. The high tea spread was affordable at approximately $25++ per pax. The food and spread wasn’t fantastic but I think one shouldn’t be too fussy when you’re paying just $25. There was free-flow sashimi and that justified the meal for me.

After the filling meal, I trundled to Tanglin Shopping Centre to meet Matt at his work place and we caught a quick drink at TCC before the boy went off to Hyatt Hotel for his buffet dinner. While waiting for Karen for dinner, I ran some errands (feels good to tick off the to-do list!) and then walked to Goodwood Park Hotel.

The original plan was to meet her in Holland Village but she suggested we have porridge buffet at the Coffee Lounge at Goodwood instead. Another buffet… But I was up for it anyway since I haven’t been to that particular restaurant.

Karen’s sis and bro-in-law joined us for dinner and though it was just the second time I met them, it wasn’t uncomfortable or anything. In fact, I enjoyed myself thoroughly, thanks to Karen’s bro-in-law’s humour and our common love for Jay. At one point, he even put his favourite Jay song on his mobile’s speaker while he tucked into his dinner in the sophisticated restaurant. I just looked at Karen with widened eyes while she and her sis literally rolled over laughing.

The couple left us on our own by 8.30pm and we caught up fast and furious even though we just saw each other less than two weeks ago. When Matt finally came over from Hyatt at 10 odd, we parted ways while the girl went home to pack for her one-week trip to Istanbul. How envious!

And after a buffet high tea and dinner, I’ll have a breakie one next weekend at The Ritz cos Matt and I have booked in a weekend stay for his 25th next week. And thanks to Candice’s tip-off, there would be fireworks to see as well since there would be a National Day Parade rehearsal the same weekend.

Massages, fireworks and yummy breakie… Can’t wait!

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coming together

I’ve met some of these people on different occasions, several times over the past few years since we graduated. But we had never came together as a group to catch up. So, thanks to Lena and her “You’d better be there!!”, everyone in the clique showed up last Monday at Arab Street, an old hangout of ours.

It was real nice because everyone was exactly the way they were. Lena was still the sarcastic one, Bern and her witty one-liners, Amy laughing to every other thing that Zul says and does, Zul and his “look at me! listen to me!” ways (amongst others), Jo and her love for delighting us with her ‘interesting’ life and adventures.

Hafiz used to be really argumentative in school but somehow, that side of him didn’t surface that night, which is, of course, a nice thing. However, he couldn’t get away from our jokes of his ‘high-flying’ occupation. I was still the one who asked, erm, not-so-smart questions and the victim of Zul’s idiosyncrasies. And of course, Sue, the other plus one of Bern.

As most of them puffed their lives away (I still love you pals!), it completely reminded me of the good (or bad in this case…) ol’ school days where we would hang out at the bus stop outside campus during lecture breaks.

It’s almost like a universal rule but like millions out there, we complained about jobs, growing up, money. Talked about love, marriage, weddings, houses, cars like how real adults are supposed to… But I looked at us and still couldn’t see how we could possibly be real adults. I think most times, we the play make-pretend-to-be-adults game, when essentially, we’re actually really just kids.

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Friends in paris


Taken from The Sartorialist

There’s something extremely alluring about this image.
Maybe it’s the lighting.
Maybe it’s the city.
Maybe it’s the wind.
Maybe it’s the laughter.
The friendship.
The good looks.
Or the main girl’s hippie dress, hair and pose.
And definitely the style quotient.

It makes me wish I saw this image live. Or that I’m the one who took this photo. And it makes me really wonder what the hell they were talking about.

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