In between

So there goes 4.5 years of my life and this chapter is coming to a close. I'm halfway through my end of year break and counting down the last few days at my first job. Time flies and in a flurry of more work and more late nights, my 3-month notice period is almost over! I never imagined I would leave. After all, I was happy. But I have to try this out. I need to make this change, so I won't look back one day and wonder what if...

Yesterday, I went back to the office to pack. I'm amazed at how much I managed to collect and stow away within the confines of a 2m x 2m space. Box after box of documents, precedents, books, memories... Good thing I don't have to lug it all home since the husband will be inheriting most of the Singapore-law related stuff. But that leaves me with another .... five boxes to deal with. And I'm not done packing! Will just leave that to Friday...

Meanwhile, I've been tasked with prettify-ing the apartment so that it will finally (after more than a year of occupancy) be in a presentable enough shape for visitors at Christmas, and the tougher job of getting the little one reliably toilet trained, amidst the other housewifey things to do...

For a start, the last few pieces of our furniture finally arrived on Monday! But because we installed the TV before the console and shelves arrived, we now have to shift it, cos it is so totally not centered....

Poor Baby

Mischka got her appetite back and was finally eating yesterday afternoon after picking at her last 2 meals. We thought she would be fine but her condition suddenly took a turn for the worse – her poo got bloody and she was too weak to sit up. I freaked out when I remembered what minneyme just told me a few hours earlier about Ashlee’s ordeal and was immediately reduced into a bawling heap, crouching next to Mischka’s pen. The sweet baby tried to sidle up next to me and I saw her tear too… *heartbroken*

Hubs was the calmer, saner one – called the vet and asked if he could meet us at the clinic (it was past 11pm) and we rushed out with Mischka cradled in a box. The taxi ride seemed all too long, and Mischka got more and more drowsy in my lap. Scary thoughts kept running through my head while I kept my hand on her warm, soft body the whole time, willing her to keep breathing… I needed to feel that her heart was still beating…

We finally reached the clinic. After some checks, Dr. B confirmed that it wasn’t parvovirus (thank God!), gave her a jab, a dose of dewormers and some antibiotics and tablets. We’ll have to watch her carefully the next 10 days.

The poor baby still isn’t eating her full meals and tires out quickly, but at least there’s no more blood… I hope she gets better soon… =S

Mischka or Manuka?

After deliberating for several weeks, we finally took the plunge, and added this little baby to our family

Our darling 3-month old english cocker spaniel!

Getting her ready to be brought home - a puppy shampoo, 5 mins under the dryer and some powder had her smelling sweet :)

Pitstop at mum's place before we head home

She was pretty well-behaved, and only woke up to whine a little a couple of times in the night. But we ignored her as much as we could. It was heartbreaking, though, to hear her whimpering, and yet not be able to cuddle her. Sigh... you have to be cruel, only to be kind. But she's a strong girl! She made it through the night and woke up with a ravenous appetite, wolfed down her baby share of puppy food in no time at all. I'm so glad she's eating well and we didn't have to resort to the tinned food the pet store gave us for "just-in-case".

We missed her so much, we came home during lunch break to check in on her and she was thankfully fine, except for a bit of poo-mess. Toilet training her is tough! I hope it doesn't take too long more... =S

But for now... we need to decide on her name... What do you think? Mischka or Manuka?

All the Law Things

Chanced upon this on RollOnFriday... Funny!!

Misrep!!

So 2 weeks back, I called up this dance studio that I found after endless hours of surfing the net which DID let adults take exams and even go en pointe! I was keen on trying out the Level 1 classes, and who knows, get spotted or something. The website said to "Audition". Huh?...

Spoke to a very helpful lady who suggested I just try the Inter-Foundation class on Wednesdays. Woah... So I did say I had stopped at Grade 4 years back, and had restarted ballet a few months back. But to start me at Inter-F, a Majors grade??? Mad. Despite my protests about doing such an advanced level, she insisted anyway, and said it'd be ok, that they were only using RAD Inter-F syllabus but not taking exams. Eh?... *sceptical*

Decided to give it a shot at the trial class today. All jittery and a bundle of nerves on the way there - Mr. F was supposed to have a reputation of being difficult.... what if I look stupid or dumb or am plain klutz...

Walked into class and realised 5 minutes into class that it was really more like Adult Beginner "Intermediate Foundation"... i.e.... a lower level than the beginner foundation classes (level 0) that the studio conducted! Gee... what a clever/insiduous way of sneaking in an audition! Win.

Anyways, the exercises were easy, but the teacher was pretty strict and demanding. And I must say I've learnt quite a bit of technique in one session. Like, hey... i didn't know we were supposed to keep our heels as close to (yet lifted off) the ground as possible in grande plie... my tendons sure felt the stretch... *ow*... We also re-did exercises twice/thrice over to "get it right". All technical. Halfway through class it came to light that he's friends with my fierce-o ballet teacher from younger days. So that explains his.. erm... teaching technique... (he calls himself the dragon of the west and she, the east... go figure.. )

Sad to say, this really was a beginner-beginner class and there was no centre work. No pretty dancey adage/piroutte-y thingies. I was surprised and very disappointed when Mr. F said "Ok, see you all next week..." after releve echappes (albeit ad nauseum) at the barre!

Well, he did also tell me not to worry cos I still had it in me... "you are AA's student afterall!... just need some fine-tuning..."... and to join his Monday class instead. Level 2!!!! woo hoo!!! *deliriously happy* ;)

Celebrating One Year

to have and to hold...

... from this day forward,

... till death us do part.

Yes, we are ONE!! :)

Alexandra Ferri and Sting

Home Alone II

So hubs is off to India again on business... and since S was home alone as well tonight, and we were feeling kinda sick of the office, we decided, at 6.45pm today, that we would go off and shop/eat/watch movie, whatever... just get out. We even managed to bully H into chucking her work too.. haha... but being the super dilly-dallyers that we were, by the time we dissected Sections 29, 30(3) and 31(9) of the BTA, mulled over the last few documents, cleared our emails, and moseyed around, it was past 8pm. And we discovered that most restaurants are closed on Monday. Dang...

We finally ended up at the new Au Petit Salut at Dempsey and stuffed ourselves silly... S and I valiantly resisted the 4 course set menu at the outset, but changed our minds 5 minutes from having our orders taken. Lobster tails, foie gras, beef and souffle were just too tempting... ;) H on the contrary, was a good girl, and only had one entree, one main (melt-in-your-mouth kurobuta!) and one dessert.... We had a great time chatting and sharing the latest goss... All Monday nights should be like this! Sure helps to chase away the blues...

2 more days till hubs is home.

4 more days to the weekend!!

Weekend Warrior

After a harrowing week and a half, and a mad scramble to get submissions in by Wednesday, I did get my long weekend afterall!


Thursday, 9 Aug: Happy 42nd Singapore!!

We had Char-emy, D, I & K over for National Day. We were wading around in the jacuzzi when we saw the Chinooks with the giant flag fly overhead, followed by the fighter jets. Cool! And we were just about finishing dinner when the fireworks starting blasting away. We tried pointing them out to K outside the window but she didn't seem too interested... heh... think she preferred to concentrate on the food... oh we also discovered that there's a delay of approximately 2 seconds between real-time and the tv telecast.

Friday: Gardening and Attempted Exercise

After a late breakfast, headed to Mum & Dad's to feed their thirsty plants. Gee... it's practically a mini forest there - and it took us a good hour to fill up all the pots with water, indoors and out. I even saved Mummy's herbs from a nasty looking caterpillar. Visited Granny for a bit and brought her Jln Tua Kong meepok (yumz!), before heading off to ECP.

Team Hungry had to eat again, of course, and we ordered McDees at the drive-thru, fully intending to work it all off with at least an hour of rollerblading. But alas, hub's wheels fell apart after the first 20 mins and we ended up on a bench facing the sea, chatting and watching the turquoise waters slowly turn green in the setting sun.

Saturday: Burn, Fats, Burn!!!

Tennis! Gym! and Ultimate Frisbee! All in one (blazing hot) day! Whee!!! We must be mad.


Sunday: too soon...

Ballet class this week was a little challenging. My thighs were burning from the exertions of the day before, and the longer-than-usual series of jumps left my heart racing and my head pounding. But I'm pretty pleased with how my pirouttes are getting more steady, ever so slowly, and I think I might just about be able to manage a double on the right real soon. :)

Hubs took me out to dinner, and we decided to try something new. Our choice of Coriander Leaf was closed so we decided to give Ivory (Indian cuisine) a shot, and were pleasantly surprised with how good it was, and how huge the portions were. We had the Malabar Trio for starters - prawn, chicken and lamb, followed by chicken in chettidad curry and a mutton pepper fry, served with chickpea-green onion pilaf. It could probably have fed another 2 persons. But of course, Team Hungry polished it all off. Heh...

*****

Certainly one of the best weekends I've had in awhile. I'm glad we managed to spend lotsa quality time together before hubs goes off on his business trip. I'm going to miss him bad...

sometimes i dream...

...of satin pointe shoes

...and how i'll never dance in them.

Quitting ballet was probably one of my biggest regrets. Deciding to get back to it too late is another. every sunday after class, I have to walk past the pointe class in the next studio on my way out, and I can't help but linger a while. I always feel a teensy twinge in my heart, thinking about how I could have been one of them but I gave it all up when i was so close.

Of course, now I just don't have the same strength in my ankles anymore, and a 1.5hour class a week is hardly enough to re-build that strength. I read about girls outside Singapore, never having danced before and then starting ballet in their 20s who find studios willing to let them go on pointe after a couple of years, and am filled with envy. It's so difficult to even find a studio in Singapore who will take adults seriously in class, much less consider pointe. Most classes are progressive, non-syllabi, recreational classes where the teachers aren't so strict. I miss the rigours of intensive training, repeating the same exercises just to perfect technique. I miss my nit-picky teacher, who nudged the back of our knees to test if we are holding our positions properly, smacked our butts, called us clumsy kum-suahs (her funny name for embarrasingly ungraceful little girls), and measured our waistlines monthly. I've never harboured thoughts of going professional, of course. But I at least want to be graded! (and yes, the meanie teenaged girls will prolly just laugh at old auntie me.... haha...)

At the end of the day, I know pointe isn't everything, and ballet is still beautiful without (at least to me). I love the music, the discipline, the graceful lines, the poise, the painful stretch in my aged muscles, the heady feeling of a piroutte (even if I can't do doubles anymore), the breathlessness after a series of jumps (getting old), and the tingly tired feet after. I love it - pointe or no pointe. And for all the wistful longing and aching regrets, I'm just happy knowing I am dancing again.

Thank you, darling, for egging me on (and bearing with my incessant, obssesive ballet talk)...

[Pics from (?) and Pond]

The Sweetest Voice

Listening to little Connie Talbot sing brings a smile to my face... :)

Last Weekend

What are the chances of us BOTH getting off work at 7pm on a Friday night? So we made it an impromptu date night Whee!!! Had a great dinner at Shunjuu – eating there always makes me happy, what with the smoky aroma and faintly charred bits on each skewer… yummelicious!! And the weather was just lovely, cool and breezy. We ate so much we could hardly stagger home with our very full tummies… ;p as if that wasn’t enough, we polished off the remaining Royce choccies in the fridge when we got back. Haha. *piggy*

Had to wake up (rather) early on Saturday cos the developers were coming in to inspect the defects that needed to be rectified before legal completion takes place end of the month. We’d spent a few hours frantically sticking fluorescent coloured post-its all over the walls of our apartment, and it now looks rather hilarious – check out our fuschia/cyan/magenta feature walls… [will upload a pic soon] So much for a home that exudes elegance and class. Hah. We’ll have to live with this until the developers send workers to come fix the flaws. Bleargh. Also called the F&P service people – the handle of our less-than-1-year-old refrigerator has gotten loose. I’m hoping they won’t be able to fix it or find replacement parts and will have to give us a new fridge. I’m lusting after the 519-litre bottom freezer one now… ;p [Editorial Note: Oh. I’ve since been informed by me mum that it’s wishful thinking on my part. They probably won’t even change the door. Dang.]

Afternoon was spent shopping for a birthday pressie for Char – didn’t know a diamond cross pendant was so difficult to find! We went to at least 3 different jewellers and what they had all looked kinda weird. The dimensions were somehow all wrong and the only decent looking one was way out of our budget despite the painfully teensy blingblings, cos it was fashioned totally out of ideal cut diamonds. In the end we got this luscious coin purse from her favourite label instead. Lurve the pearly iridescent finish! (hmmm, not so evident in this pic though…) Shopping, even if not for oneself, can be very fun. :)

2^nd pigout session of the weekend was our early father’s day dinner with Mum and Dad at Iggy’s. It was an enjoyable evening, and I liked the cosy setting and the oil paintings on the wall. The food was good, although some of it was, I think, a little overrated. Daddy and I liked the char-grilled quail best – it was crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside and slightly gamey (to mum’s horror…), and served with XJ’s favourite white asparagus. Piccies will follow when I download them from the camera. We missed out pics of a couple of courses in our eagerness to tuck in though.

Now I’m looking forward to BBQ seafood and roast piglet(s) in Bali. Yummy yummy yummy….

If you ask...

I'd Still Say YesI love u most when we share a place
Those special good times together
It seems like our love cant get much better, no
'cos we were as close as two could be
We knew love would last forever
We're more than just lovers, we're
Good friends

And even if our love
Could drift away
I wouldn't even think twice
If I wanted love back again

Because I'd still say yes to you again
My darling for you I'd do it all again
Yes I'd still say yes to you again
Darling for you I'd do it over and over again
To you ya know I'll say yes
oh my darling only for you

~The Braxtons~

We now have a study table....

Yay!

No more iMac sitting on its own box on the floor.

No more drafting documents crouched in front of the screen.

No more backaches! :)

But… do we really want to have to work from home?.... =S

Saturday Indulgence

Gabes first toast: "Let nobody go home hungry or sober!" and so it was, a 6 course lunch, copious amounts of wine and free flow champers left us decadently drunk by 4pm... and lunch wasn't even over till 5.30pm...

and in our inebriated state, hubs and i got these for me. *grin*

Piccies from Chloe and Neiman Marcus

no more shopping! i promise..... (to try)....

Bugger...

It's been two weekends and I'm still battling this mother-of-all stomach flu bugs. Grrrrr.... Get thee away!! I MUST get well in time for this Saturday's Slow Food Convivium!!!!

Retail Therapy

Hubs and I woke up this morning (more like 1pm...) and declared we were going shopping - for what we didn't know yet. But we were on a mission.

First stop: pet shop. We fell in love with a honey colored goldie with the most beautiful eyes, but it would be too big for our apartment. I would have wanted a Weimaranner! such a gorgeous creature, silver-grey coat, sleek and muscular... but the lady in the shop said that it would grow so huge that it would be almost my height when fully standing. Yikes! Well, anyway, we decided to do a rain check on a pet - didn't want to be impulsive - but I can't take my mind off that cutie in the shop....

We headed to Great World City and after much pondering over colour, texture and pile, finally got ourselves a silver/grey/brown Bayliss rug for the living room (er... ok... didn't really mean for it to be a pup-substitute!). To top it all off, we bought this! *happy* I've been eyeing it for half a year now... I would have preferred this, but then we would have had to paint our bare white walls a different colour - too much trouble.

No new shoes/bags/clothes for me this month... =S

Of black ties, pink tights and satin ribbons

It's Sunday night and ain't it great - the weekend's only HALF over!! :)

Last night, hubs and I attended the SSO Benefit Dinner at the Shangri La, our first official black-tie event (the Enterprise 50 Awards a few years back doesn't quite count), and a perfect opportunity to play dress up! I finally got to wear the silk satin Armani gown and hubs looked dapper in his wedding tux. It was a lovely evening - pretty ok food and wine pairings, good music (our very own orchestra!), and because it was a Viennese-themed party, lotsa waltzing.. heh.. but not by us. ;p We just sat and watched them tai-tais and socialites with their escorts twirling around the dance floor. Thankfully, it wasn't too boring an affair as I'd initially feared since we had good company at our table (our friendly colleagues and a couple of clients, as the table was sponsored by our firm), and before we knew it, it was almost midnight by the time the evening drew to a close.

Today, carrying on with this weekend's dance-theme, I attended my first ballet lesson in more than 15 years, at the SDT. Was a little nervous - it'd been so long since I'd put on my ballet shoes, but it went ok. After awhile, the familiar plies, port de bras, rond de jambes, frappes, all came back to me, and I was having fun! But i'm paying for it now - my arms and thighs are deliciously aching. heh heh. Can't wait to progress to the jetes and pirouttes! Definitely looking forward to the next lesson :)

Ok, gotta run - meeting mum and dad for dessert after their play.

It's such a wonderful weekend!!

Much needed rest

So after a mad two weeks at work, the nights spent poring through crap, dinners past 11pm, ordering junk at 3am to stave off the hunger and keep awake, McDees breakfasts at 6am and watching the sun rise over the CBD, I've finally got the weekend off! And a long weekend at that - took leave on Monday and Tuesday is a public holiday. Yay!! Not going anywhere though, I think we both need to recuperate. The idea of sleeping in and not waking till past lunch time is just heavenly. Mmm... Ok, i'm off to hibernate... Over and out! Zzzzz.....

i want....

Chelsea dress, Felicity dress and Nola bag from Tocca

While waiting to go home...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

The Banyan Weekend

Holiday Essentials

Arrival

the resort

Seafood Sesh

Patong sights


at the beach

by the pool

in the pool

paradise pancake

rest & relax

by the lagoon

Dead

that's what my mac's battery is. barely 2 years old. and just a month ago i was marvelling at how i could stay unplugged for 3 whole hours surfing, uploading pictures, chatting, emailing and listening to music all at the same time. and all of a sudden the power meter on my toolbar registers as "no batteries available". crap.

the rest of the laptop is working well, screen is still great, sufficient memory, keyboard is fine, no damage to the shell... so question is, should i just get a new battery? or get a new lappie...?

Wednesday Afternoon

Mum's really ill :( -- woozie and weak, so I took the afternoon off to pick her up and drive her home. We're waiting till she feels stronger before we head off to the doc's.

It's nice being back at JPB, sitting here in my old room - nothing much has changed. The peeps complain that I don't look like I've moved out at all, what with all my junk still lying around... haha...

Anyways, some random afternoon surfing...

iPod got stolen - how about this new Nano? With some red-hot music for company, I promise I'll gym more often... ~ Apple Store ~

Larabee dot cake plate - ok... i can hear hubs screaming... "not another one?!?!" ~ Kate Spade ~

Mum's awake!! More laterz...

The Weekend Away

So we found a really good travel deal and zipped off to spend a long weekend at Banyan Tree, Phuket. We didn’t really think about what we’d do there, but there were a couple of very simple rules…

Rule 1: No talking / thinking / discussing work

Rule 2: No waking up earlier than necessary to grab breakfast before the buffet line closes

Of course, Rule 2 was promptly broken upon arrival, thanks to the EvilBerry and relentless clients. *snarl* Hubs even had to catch up on some work at the business centre on Sunday. Poor thing.

… and a small checklist:

Task 1: Get a tan!

Task 2: Spa-massage-spa-massage-spa-massage… you get the idea…

Task 3: Overdose on cheap seafood and authentic Thai fare

Task 4: Find the elusive prata man

And I’m proud to announce that it was MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

Well, except for Task 4 – we didn’t actually find our regular prata man, but did manage to get our hands on the original Paradise Pancake. The Real McCoy! – and not some pathetic, soggy, crepe-like imitation (which we succumbed to in desperation on the first night of our quest) that has somehow captured the hearts and minds of unsuspecting tourists. Bah.

What’s Paradise Pancake? It’s a prata with egg and fresh banana filling, fried to a crisp in lots of oil and ghee, then drizzled with condensed milk, chocolate sauce and a generous dusting of sugar. It takes skill to whirl the prata dough to a suitable thin-ness without breaking the skin and that’s why the imitators resort to using crepe machines.

We spent the rest of the trip doing little more than lazing by the pool, totally pampered by the attentive staff who would ply us with cold towels, iced drinks, peppermint sprays and refreshing sorbets. *Bliss*

Back at work today, and already looking forward to the long CNY weekend – soon as I get through the work that has piled up… *mutter mutter*

(Pictures to follow)

Obsess

Following on from liquid pea ravioli, I've been hooked on Hungry in Hogtown's posts on molecular gastronomy - mostly on Ferran Adria/El Bulli - and thought I'd share the link. Reading about his 24-course dinner at Alinea sets my heart racing, and my mouth watering... Ooh, and of course, Grant Achatz and Curtis Duffy are kinda cute too... ;p

Art or what?

(Pictures from Alinea)

Chocolate - passionfruit, kaffir lime, soy

Hot Potato - cold potato, black truffle, parmesan

Olives

Tomato

Lamb - date, mastic, rosemary aroma

Rabbit

Yuba - prawn, miso, orange

Quince - prosciutto, orange, juniper

Salsify - parsley, smoked salmon, steelhead roe

Hearts of Palm

Bacon

Beef shortrib

Crabapple