Things I've Been Getting Up To (Pt 2)

On Christmas Eve - Family dinner, featuring the roast pork rib specially prepared by a friend. Succulent!

Morning after - big breakfast to aid recovery!

For New Year's Eve, it's the Chinese-style roast pork, to go with the...

Ikan panggang specially "couriered" from Jakarta. YUM-my!

Reduced to a pile of bones! *Burp*

Things I've Been Getting Up To (Pt 1)

The "salted egg yolk" colouring the sky at the end of a hot, hot day

Wesley's little fist, gripping my finger

Boxing Day - an excuse to deck up like a Christmas tree and head to town. Dinner at Tapas Tree, which was quite excellent (apart from the initial bad service). Well worth another visit! :)

Front row seats at the riverside

Haven't been to Clarke Quay in such a long time, I was surprised by the massive changes to it! It's all hip and happening now! Worth another visit. We walked through the happening crowd on our way out, gawking...

Lost and Found

人人大虾面

I was dismayed when I discovered that my favourite prawn noodles stall had uprooted and moved to a new spot somewhere in Chinatown. And before I could visit their new location, they had uprooted to somewhere else again. One day, while driving to work, I noticed a familiar name along Jalan Besar Road. Lo and behold! My favourite prawn noodles shop has been found! Naturally, I had to drag the first crowd I could gather here, at the first available opportunity. Even if it meant having to create some excuse for it! :P

Alas, one's memory and reality appears to be two different things.

The soup stock was not as thick and tasty as I had remembered it to be. A case of memory enhancing the experience remembered? Or have they lost their touch? Still, it's a pretty decent bowl of prawn noodles (though I ordered the pork rib noodles instead). And now, I'll know where to find them.

Three Weddings and...

At this age, one would expect to have exhausted the spate of weddings that one ought to have attended by this age. Afterall, most of one's friends are of the same age, and hence, ought to have held all their weddings (if any) by now. 

Now, it's seems there's a second wind. And this second wind seems to have picked up speed quite suddenly. For the month of December 2008, I had three weddings to attend. Count 'em. THREE. Come 2009, there's one more wedding in January in Sydney, and two more weddings in March in Singapore and Malaysia. *kwa kwa* The interesting part of all this is, the bridal couples are mostly in my age group. We're not hitting that second group that comes with the generation gap, where younger cousins/friends/relatives/colleagues are all rushing to the altar.

The bright side of all this? I can finally dig up all those purchases in my wardrobe that were bought with, "In case there's a special occasion requiring me to wear such a dainty/delicate/dressy/ornate/formal outfit" and start amortizing their purchase prices down...

 

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle...As with last year, I did the Christmas dinner for the family this year, catering the food in from the same source which had received rave reviews last year (why fix something that ain't broken, eh?).

Was a little better planned this year, collecting the food in advance, with sufficient time to clean up, wash and set the table with all the nice crockery and cutlery I have in store, wine glasses that get an airing once a year (yes, it was exactly last December these glasses were last used), and even the nice coffee cups I've never used since I purchased them in a vintage store in Melbourne some years back!

Table's set. Candles are lit. Appropriate aroma scenting the air. Music from iPod plugged in and playing in background.

Food's heating up in the oven. All set for Christmas Dinner 2008!

Needless to say, the succulent pork ribs were a hit. They were as tasty as we remembered it to be. 

Merry Christmas, to one and all! May 2009 be a year as full of blessings and happiness as 2008 had been. 

"First of many more Christmases together."

Here's to more stories coming up.

P/s. I even got my act together to shop (and wrap) all the requisite Christmas pressies this year! Many gold stars for me! Yay!

Snack

Dipping the duck-shaped cookie into my Milo at 3.30 in the afternoon. That plate of Hainanese pork chop rice didn't go very far... :D

A Beach Wedding

For Mx's wedding, we jetted across the straits for a whirlwind weekend of activities. But not without some (quick) moments of indulgences. Such as, drying off in the sun after a quick dip in the pool. Ah, that's the life, isn't it? To be able to say that one has just landed and is off to the villa, with plans for a dip in one's private pool? :)

And of course, we scheduled a quick spot of shopping in Ubud. This little old lady kept telling me I was bankrupting her after I bargained her down to 1/5th the opening price for a hand-painted woven basket. Good deals were had all round, as I'm sure I paid WAY too much for that basket! Haha.

Colourful slippers on display, tempting gullible buyers like us.

The little fountain leading to the wedding venue was most idyllic, with...

...the sunset as a backdrop to the exchange of vows. It's the first beach wedding I've attended in my life. Though romantic in every aspect, I think I'm far to pragmatic a person to not keep thinking, "Might have been better if the wind wasn't around to whip the bride's veil all over the place, almost strangling her", or "Those flower petals strewn oh-so-casually about are going to wilt in no time in this heat". So much for the romance of it all...like pearls at swine...HARHAR.

Afternoon Tea

After a thirsty but satisfying noon spent trawling through the wares at the Toyogo warehouse, we decided a long cool drink was in order, and headed to Colbar for a short getaway from the realities of the world. Don't order the mushrooms on toast the next time you're there. Waste of time.

But the Kickapoo was nice and cold. :)