Batam bitching.

Batam bitching.

Since our gossips constantly stretched beyond our catch-up sessions, we thought we'd take it out of Singapore for a weekend. There really isn't much to say about the destination really, apart from expensive cab fares, cheap food and the most painful (and embarrassing) massage I've had to date. The highlight was of course girly company, dirty secrets and a lot of late-night laughter. Is it any wonder I returned more tired than before I left? ;)




Traveling with Polly Pocket (see how her ponytail curls?) and Rapunzel (growing out her hair).



The sudden rain foiled our plans for vegging out by the beach, so we headed to town for a cheap and good lunch that satisfied my post-Bali gado gado craving. How do the Indonesians do it? I've never had such tasty ones here.







Dinner at a near enough kelong, and sharing shocking secrets over drinks at the hotel bar. I shook the babes out of bed in time for breakfast the next morning, but I didn't get any post-brekkie sunning in. I was kidnapped from my deckchair just when I'd settled down for some poolside monopoly in the shade. Gotta hate them to love them.

Raindrops keep falling on my head.

Raindrops keep falling on my head.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovelesslife/2443119836/

I am gray today, gloomy and down like a morning fog. ~ Colors by Kira Wiley
I feel like I've rolled out of the wrong side of bed every single morning this week. I hope that changes tomorrow.

Crumbling resolve and sleepy heads.

Crumbling resolve and sleepy heads.


picture from inmagine

The silly things I do when I should be in bed! The days leading up to my weekend of boisterous gossip and sleazy old men are filled with weeknight events. A pre-beach date with my waxer, my "business" date with the girls, Friday's Zouk event, and perhaps an office-hour tipple? We're only young once I say!

My Sunday Shangri-La.

My Sunday Shangri-La.


picture from inmagine

a tangled canopy of rain-drenched leaves
the snap of twigs beneath my feet
shafts of sunshine shyly peek
between weathered trunks of aged trees

hints of citrus and heady musk
whispering crickets in bristled grass
faded Polaroids of rendezvouses past
darting around like motes of dust

the enclosed sanctum of young love's plight
reveal gravelled roads once hidden from sight
enlightenment dawns in gilded light
the discovery of Shangri-La inside the mind

Weekends in print.
music: ingrid michaelson ft. jason mraz - you and i (live)






dinner at eil's. thai chicken salad. prawn pesto tagliatelle. flourless chocolate cupcakes. grey goose cocktails. floating on our backs. goodbyes. rainy days. good friday indoors. chick flicks and a surprise striptease. seafood cream angel hair pasta. shrunken lemon curd tarts. klee. raspberry mojito. spruce burger. the worst lemon meringe pie in history.

Hello again. I momentarily forgot all about indulging my inner-narcissist and the next thing I know, two weekends have zipped by. They've been good though - a healthy mix of swirling activities and lazy me-time. Work's eased off a tad and I've been working on reconnecting with weeknights which are now mine again. This inevitably means surfing travel sites, which explains my impromptu tickets to Perth. Finally I'm going downunder! I'm totally psyched! Fremantle, Swan Valley, Margaret River... ooh don't get me started.

Early this week, I said goodbye to the pool I've spent so many days of my youth at. Soaking up the sun, learning how to plunge, practising a very dismal dolphin style, talking about love and life between laps... I'm thankful CH's left the condo only to move into another apartment in our neighborhood. Good Friday was spent in good shelter with the rain pouring outside, slurping seafood pasta and drinking yummy (now I don't use this often for wine) Moscato, chomping down on ruined lemon curd tarts and garlic chips, doubling over with laughter at Olive's totally unexpected striptease in Little Miss Sunshine and cooing at the sappy scenes in The Lake House.

I finally got to check out Klee last night as well, after a day of morning yoga and brunch with my folks. It was closed for a private event E had an invite too, so I got to sip my drink it a relatively empty bar with no hints of the maddening queues I've read about. A raspberry mojito and a whiskey sour later, an impromptu visit to a suddenly booming Spruce and my insistence that we wait for a table had us seated near the back of house. It was a cool night, and all the better to chomp down on our burgers messily I say. The Spruce Burger wasn't as good as I remembered it to be, but aren't most things? It was too late to feed my tiramisu craving when we finally got to the darkened shopfront of Da Paolo Gastronomia, so we ended up settling at a cafe for a dessert platter and the worst lemon meringue pie EVER. We could taste sugar granules and a hint of the ocean in the filling. Seriously fishy, but all in good fun. It reminded me of the time we were in a teahouse that was a supposed institution in Mumbai and ordered drinks that tasted like drain water.

Skimped out on bits and pieces here, but it sounds like two well-spent weekends no?

In need of pocket-sized om.

In need of pocket-sized om.


picture from inmagine

It's been an activity-packed weekend, and while I feel pretty accomplished what with all the karaoke-wailing, long lunches and dinner parties, I don't feel like I've had time to really chill out and take stock before tackling my impending deadlines.

It's a short work week ahead, but one with lots to be done. I have a chunk of wild meat waiting to be collected, a date with the butcher, two personal deliveries and an interview. All before lunchtime tomorrow. I'd probably be pulling my hair out just like in the picture, if I have a private moment. Stress is good. Sometimes. But I sure am glad the weekend's a day closer this week. ;)

Butterfly babies.

Butterfly babies.

I've got a last minute interview scheduled for tomorrow morning and those baby butterflies in my belly are starting to flutter their tiny wings. I'm not star-struck, but there's something about shrewd women that leaves me intimated yet slightly in awe. I have no choice but to strut in there and kick ass. Now keep your fingers crossed for me will you? ;)

Meanwhile, this is the only sane portrait from last night's insanity.



From fake birthdays just so we could have our cake and eat it to a falling gecko on my head, lewd jokes fueled by overactive imaginations to downing too much way too quickly in a whirlwind drinking game... I'm curious to know just what adventures we'll get into when we head off to a tiny Indonesian island two weeks from now. I'm psyched!

Tiny ironies.

Tiny ironies.


picture from inmagine

There's nothing like a cool autumn breeze, sending the past up with the leaves
Watching all the clothes on the line in a sidestepping dance with the neighboring trees.

Once in a while, my imagination gets the better of me.

Savoring Saturday.

Savoring Saturday.

"There's nothing like a cool autumn breeze, sending the past up with the leaves.
Watching all the clothes on the line in a sidestepping dance with the neighboring trees."

I can't think of a better soundtrack to my easy breezy Saturday than Bic Runga's A Day Like Today. And it's incredibly catchy.

I never realized how enjoyable walking could be until last year, where I probably covered over 100km on foot in Paris and Rome. We may have neither the nicely-cool weather nor that many cobbled paths, but Singapore is actually a very walkable city. Your feet can take you places, as long as they're not trapped within 4-inch heels.

I like how I can plug in my iPod and how my stride goes on autopilot once my thoughts start wandering. I had Rachael Yamagata for company on this afternoon's walk up Mount Faber, and I took a couple more minutes at the peak looking out to sea and enjoying the cool breeze on my sun-warmed skin. Life's always good when savoring such simple pleasures.

A shower and I was out for dinner and a movie with E. Confessions of a Shopaholic lived up to my fluffy expectations, and more. I'm a fan of the book series and watching Isla Fisher live out Becky Bloomwood's antics had me in stitches. It's a light-hearted and trashy feel-good sort of movie - right up my alley!


picture from http://www.nitrolicious.com

It's amost 3am and I'm nowhere near sleep. Looks like the iced mocha and Tippy Darjeeling tea have yet to cease their caffeine magic.

The birth of a sashimi snob.

The birth of a sashimi snob.


picture from inmagine

I usually make it a point to avoid tricky company privacy laws by not blogging about work at all, which really explains why I haven't been blogging very much as work has become an extremely huge part of my life. I've always feared that I like the vagabond pleasures of life a tad too much to actually commit to a full-time job. I never expected I would swing the other way and morph into, quite possibly, a workaholic.

Anyway, I thought I'd blog about a recent lunch I had with A and J, since it is technically non-work related. We were supposed to be headed off to a hilltop cafe that serves the best chocolate cookies, but fate (and the knowledge that the seafood was flown in from the Tsukiji fish market that morning), intervened and we found ourseleves seated at a table in Tatsuya with elegant kimono-clad waitstaff bustling about. Tatsuya, an independent Japanese restaurant located at Goodwood Park Hotel, was my lesson in proper Japanese dining and my one-way ticket to sashimi heaven.

Hokkaido crab, delicately sweet. Sea urchin (uni gunkan) maki - who would have thought the black spiny facade of the sea urchin would belie its sunset-yellow, melt-in-the-mouth texture? Sweet shrimp (ama ebi) nigiri-zushi, with seriously sweet shrimps (oddly but nicely starchy) twice the size of those I've seen. Arkshell (akagai) nigiri-zushi, each bite releasing the subtle flavors of the sea. Then J and I got to compare what A describes as "fat and fatter" - the chutoro (fatty tuna belly) and the otoro (fattiest portion of the tuna found on its underside). The entire meal was accompanied with bites of dried pufferfish, which tastes almost like a less oily but equally addictive bak gwa alternative.

The meal, which I believe cost A three arms and three legs, has possibly turned me into a sashimi snob. Can I ever step foot into another sushi bar without reminiscing lunch?

And is it any wonder that I love the job that has opened up a whole new world of gastronomic opportunities before my very eyes? My taste buds have been exposed to a whole new palette of sensations in these few months, and I've had the chance to dine at places I would otherwise have to pay an arm and a leg for (and because of that I would have been quick to dismiss as snooty).

I really do feel like Alice in Wonderland, albeit lost in a world of prancing Wagyu beef steaks and o-toro sashimi dancing on chopsticks instead of talking animals.

I just don't know what to do with myself.

I just don't know what to do with myself.

The mind's stronger than the body, but sometimes the latter wins. I can't remember the last time I had the entire day to myself, and I just don't know what to do with the hours! I've slept, I've eaten, I've fallen asleep on the couch while reading till Bobby Chin roused me from sleep with his sexy husky TV voice... and I can't wait to go back to work tomorrow.

Secret sunset weekend.

Secret sunset weekend.




Drunk on laughter, raindrops and twilight's rainbow.

Pimm's & Lemonade under the stars.

Pimm's & Lemonade under the stars.




Ran's flying off to Japan tomorrow, and I'm glad work didn't get in the way of our farewell drink date last night. After consuming a day's worth of calories at Carl's Jr. with CH (the Original Thick Burger is so, so, so good), we headed down for some good old Pimm's & Lemonade at The Queen & The Mangosteen. I think it's my favourite drink after the mojito!

She finally brought along the "love letter" I wrote to her seven Valentine Days ago, and I was mortified. I don't remember ever calling her "老公" and "baby"! Haha! She has since evolved to becoming my beaching and running kaki, but it was good fun reminiscing the good old Crescent days.

Work has been eating me alive otherwise, but I think I eat enough to pay for my keep! And the little things, like my first personal media invite, make it all worthwhile somehow. We copped out on a lunch event today, but ended up going to lunch nevertheless. I had my second Carl's Jr. Original Thick Burger in a 24-hour span, and still enjoyed every bite of it, though I doubt I could handle one tomorrow. Haha.

I'd love to slip into shorts and a breezy top for the picnic with the girls tomorrow, but work beckons. It's my first working Saturday in a long, long time, and one right after a 9.30am - 11pm Friday workday. I'm sticking to the top and the shorts, and the flip flops as it is not an official workday. Maybe, just maybe, I'll make it to the picnic, and to E's award party at Zouk. Fingers crossed.


Happy birthday babe. A quarter of a century's not at all ancient, and I'm catching up! See you, hopefully, on your wintry shores in December! Watch the kaninabe in Chiba! ;)

"I want you to want me."

"I want you to want me."


picture from www.guardian.co.uk

Soul food.

Soul food.




I unwound over laughs, gossips and a late Friday dinner,
talked late into the night with one of my best friends over Starbucks iced chocolates,
lazed on the beach with the sun on my skin, waves at my feet and my favourite beach babe beside,
spent a lazy Sunday afternoon cocooned inside a cozy cafe-bar with my almost-lover while the rain poured on outside,
and discovered the nooks and crannies of nearby neighborhoods when I took myself on a walk at dusk with Norah Jones on loop.

Now what did you do this weekend? :)

Too much food.

Too much food.

I was kidnapped from my desk and driven in suspense to a rabbit hole for a loooong feast and lunchtime giggles.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/figmentsimagination/2983176951/

I feel like an extremely well-fed Alice in Wonderland. Now who's the Mad Hatter and the March Hare... heh heh.

Angels in disguise.

Angels in disguise.


picture from inmagine

Oh what a week it's been! Work's been pretty crazy with the looming deadlines, and tomorrow dawns the start of another week at the temporary madhouse. Work has dominated my thoughts and even invaded my dreams, but I confess that a part of me oddly relishes being high-strung. It would make the relief all that much sweeter when we finally go to print.

While every other sentence I utter revolves around work (I know, I've become one of those horrible workaholics!), I think some balance was achieved with dinners out, and of course some bopping at the Jason Mraz concert.



Good day sunlight, I'd like to say how truly bright you are, you don't know me but I know you see, you're my favourite star.

The mayhem and all that zipping around would usually turn me into an irritable monster, but several serendipitous meetings and pocketfuls of goodwill actually made my week unbelievably beautiful.

What would have turned out to be a horrible Thursday ended up being a wonderful one thanks to a really kind cab driver. My morning started off with me watching my only bus (and another one right behind it) whiz by across the road and an insane peak-hour cab fare. I rushed off work with several uncompleted to-dos, and realized that I was waiting on the wrong side of the road for the bus to the Indoor Stadium. I had to grit my teeth and hop onto another cab, which had to make huge U-turn that cost me an additional $4. The chatty driver kept my mind off the meter (almost) by engaging me in a conversation about David Archuleta, then slashed about two bucks off the final fare because he thought I was a "kind lady". Who's the kind one, really?

I bumped into a Hospitality senior while having tea with the girls a couple of Sundays ago, and while I didn't think much of the chance meeting, he turned out to be a great help on Friday night when I was at a loss of ideas after my disappearing interviewee. I'm still keeping my fingers and toes cross that my editor would approve the idea I pitched though.

And while I thought it was a far shot requesting to borrow a fedora for a photo shoot the next day by announcing it on MSN, a coursemate messaged me to say that a fellow coursemate (who wasn't even on my contact list till then) had one that he was willing to GIVE to me.

What am I, if not blessed? I must live in a world full of angels in disguise. :)

Too wired up.

Too wired up.

I've just lost my lead for tomorrow's interview/photo shoot. Not quite the thing I need at the end of an insane work week that had me dreaming about 14-hour work days and working Saturdays. Thankfully my ed is still surprisingly upbeat. I'll probably be hitting myself comatose against my desk if I worked for someone less willing to go with the flow.

Part of me wills the weekend to come that bit sooner, but the other fears that I'll be too charged to chill. /flop.

Absurdity for the soul.

Absurdity for the soul.

There we were, a group of seemingly nondescript women huddled around a table at a fast food outlet scarfing down burgers, fries and hot-dogs. You never would have guessed what we do for a living, or that it was our second lunch in the past hour.

I'm so swamped that I can't even think straight at times, but times of absurdity like these make it all worthwhile.

Loop.