Gatherings

The friday after my birthday... Met some friends at Shun Juu Izakaya Restaurant. We had some Jap food on skewers, 2 bottles of Kubota sake and lots of chatter. Adeline, Karen and Jasmine were enjoying the sake, too much and too fast. These ladies seemed so happy everytime they raise their cute sake cups. I always enjoy myself with the ladies. It was our 2nd dinner together, and already I'm looking forward to the 3rd.

The next day, on a nice Saturday afternoon, a little gathering was formed at my place. A few old schoolmates came together, brought food and caught up with one another. We went to the same school when were 13 years old (all through till we were 16 years old).

Daniel wasn't able to join us because he was still undergoing flying training in Perth with SIA. Shi Jun revealed that he, too, would be going to Perth for flying lessons on his own soon. We knew that it was always his childhood dream to be a pilot. Am glad to know that he's pursuing this dream. Jinde has not changed much, but is now into golf. His mum was so kind to cook us a big tray of delicious bee hoon. Adrian is with a BIG audit firm and he came with his girlfriend, another secondary classmate of mine. Guo Zhong had to go to Malacca for a business presentation and wasn't able to join us. Yanling, a successful banker, came with her French boyfriend, Arnaud.

15 years went by... and we are now in different places and phases of our lives. We have different types of conversations. We used to talk about bowling, now it's golf and Barclays Open. We used to talk about exams and classes, now we talk about work and our careers. We used to bitch about our lack of pocket-money, now we talk about applying for loans. We used to gossip about who was dating who but now it is about who has how many children.

The conversations will change even more in the next 5 years. We'll probably be talking about mortgages and properties. And along the way, I hope we'll be talking about our own weddings and parenting issues. None of us in this group are married as yet. Will Adrian and Weiqi be the first couple to walk down the aisle? And hopefully, the rest of us will follow suite.

A Birthday Getaway

Thoughts before the11th November

It has been a fabulous 27
and now I'm looking forward to
more fabulousity at 28.

Yes, in a matter of minutes, I'll be turning 28. But I must say that being 27 has been a real exciting and amazing time of my life. I've achieved a number of goals, which I've set out for myself (including my promotion to AVP and my first trip to Paris). I've got alot to be thankful for.

So, I'm thrilled. It's a fantastic age to be. It's when everything starts to get all serious and it's the age when dreams become reality. :)

I'd really like to spend more time with my family and hopefully be able to bring them for a short holiday. I'd like to also put in more effort and time in the romance department (I'm sure my mum would approve of it).

Woo... 10 more minutes... :D

Celebrating with a Wine Friend

TM brought me to Joan and Bowen for dinner. It was located at a little cozy corner of Macpherson Road. The decor was simple and almost cute. Rather interesting place. TM popped a half bottle of 2000 Chateau Beaucastel wine for the dinner. It was a nice Rhone wine. I simply like Beaucastel wine. Delicious.



And to top it off, he presented a box containing a 1995 Henriot cuvée des Enchanteleurs. That really made my day. Another bottle to my champagne collection! Yay! Thanks TM!

Have You Heard Charice's Voice?

Was watching Oprah on TV and caught a performance by this young singer, Charice. If you had not heard about her, I suggest you do so. She has an amazing voice.

Youtube Clip #1: Introduction


Youtube Clip #2: The Duet with Celine Dion

Home Cooked Food @ Greg Danker's Crib

Greg invited us to his place for the cook-out session. I brought the champagne and wines and the rest of them brought food. Greg whipped up 2 meat dishes for the party of 5, Legal Counsel Lim brought champagne ribs and dear Reggie baked Chocolate Tarts for us. It was a simple, cozy and warm affair.

Reggie & Legal Counsel Lim enjoying their wines.

Greg gets busy in the kitchen

Reggie digging for the pot full of meat

Greg's Eurasian Creation

Delicious stuff!

Chocolate Tart by Domestic Goddess Reggie Tan

Mondovino

Mondovino is the Italian word for World of Wine and is also the title of a documentary I had just finished watching. It is a documentary film created in 2004, which talks about the impact of globalization on the different wine-producing regions and also the influence of the famous wine critics like Robert Parker and consultants like Michel Rolland. The documentary also featured the difference between the big wine producers like Robert Modavi and also smaller old wineries.



I want to thank Arnaud for introducing this interesting documentary to me. Gave me a deeper insight to how wine producers think.

"A great wine transcends time and
is made from love, humility and nature.
It takes a poet to make a great wine."

Then There Was Dinner @ Kome

Lynnette, Binnie, William & Mr Yang had a nice dinner at Kome on friday evening. Amidst our busy schedule, we all found time to get together for a dinner celebration. It was a great opportunity for all of us to catch up and update one another on our lives.

And that was when Lynn announced that she'll be getting married in July. Congrats my dear! :)

We had alot of laughs at Kome. Chef Gary and Raymond created yummilicious sushi after yummilicious sushi and also entertained us along the way with funnies. Gary was so sweet to pop his personal bottle of bubblies in celebration of my upcoming birthday! Such a sweet guy!

Then There Were Cupcakes

I ordered some cupcakes for my colleagues before I went on my birthday vacation. These cupcakes were specially designed by Christine from The Cupcake Bakery by my request to have pink/white frostings and pretty flora icing petals as decorations. These cupcakes looked soooo pretty and it's worth every penny. These gorgeous cupcakes were also delicious!

It was my way to share the happiness and joy with people who work with me.

It Started On Thursday

I used to start my celebrations on 1st November. Perhaps it's maturity or pure laziness, but I find myself starting my celebrations a little later than usual. This year, the celebrations began on 5th November.

It was lunch at Ember with Amanda, Mich and Raq. 3 of them brought me out for a wonderful meal. I had my usual bamboo clams for appetisers, cod fish for mains and warm choc cake for desserts.





And later that evening, more colleagues celebrated my birthday at Harry's. We had a great time drinking away.

My big boss presented me with the gift from the department. A really useful gift for me ~ Wine glasses from Riedel!

Special thanks to Mich and Amanda for organizing the lunch and drinks session. These ladies put in alot of effort to get everyone together and for getting the right gift. :) THANK YOU!

Wine & Dine All The Way

I was out with my parents earlier today when I received an interesting question from TM through a text msg. He asked about my wine collection and what was I intending to get next. That made me think for awhile (I was still pondering over the question over dinner) and I arrived at an answer. I peered into my "wine box", which contained several bottles of champagne and other french wines, and asked myself what was lacking from there. My heart said champagne, but my logical side over-powered me and I mouthed the words "Bordeaux Wines".

Don't be mistakened. I do love champagne and I would never have enough of bubbly white wines. However, it is comforting to have a good old bottle of bordeaux wine along with a hearty meal. I used to love the seduction of Burgundy. But seduction comes with a price. A pretty heavy one. For now, I'd pay for a good bottle of champagne over a bottle of burg. I wouldn't mind an occasional bottle of bordeaux for variety.

For the upcoming week, the line up would pretty much be a champagne-filled one. :) I'm not complaining... it'll be wine and dine all the way to my birthday. I love November!

Barclays Open 2009

I had planned to stalk Adam Scott this year at the Barclays Open, since I didn't get to do that because he didn't play well enough to make it to the list last year.


When I got to Sentosa on saturday, I was distracted by Ian Poulter's suave stride and his flamboyant style. I decided to follow this golfer who was top on the leaderboard that morning. As Ian Poulter took each stroke with great confidence, his suaveness also charmed the crowd. He had so many females in the audience following him and snapping pictures of the golfer, including me! I was particularly impressed by his well coordinated outfit (including that outstanding pair of shoes which paired so well with his pants). Need I give you more reasons why I am now a fan of his?! Hahaha!!!

Ian Poulter before teeing off.

I was also pretty impressed by W T, a taiwanese golfer dressed in orange pants, who was playing in the same flight as Ian Poulter. W T's back swing was slow and steady, but packed with power as the swing came down. He was in control and yet so calm when he took his swings.

I didn't stay long at the Barclays Open this year. But like last year, I enjoyed the walkabout very much.

Hairy Crabs at East Ocean

I must say that they put in alot of effort in cutting my S$68++ hairy crab and placing it in a really fancy design. But still, I don't think I'll ever try eating hairy crabs in Singapore (unless I forget how it tastes like). After tasting those hairy crabs in Shanghai... nothing can match up. Not even these expensive creatures from East Ocean Teochew Restaurant.

Art Jam 2009

As the Art Jammers were busy painting away, I snapped a few shots of them. Look at how engrossed they were. We had loads of fun with the acrylic paint. It was my first time participating in such a huge art competition. It was a competition amongst a number of companies, from RBS, OCBC, BOA, DBS, Barclays, SingTel, Accenture, IMC and the list goes on...

We were having so much fun painting that we forgot it was afterall a competition. Heh! We managed to finish a piece of "art work" alright. Haha! It was titled "Evolution of the Perfect 10 Land". The theme given to us was "10", so we came up with the idea as we progressed with the painting. Haha! Frankly, I plucked this concept from the hat. We had to present our work, and frankly, we didn't know what we were doing as this was a first for most of the team mates.

But at the end of the day, we all enjoyed ourselves! We went for a round of beer after a hard day's work.

Artists at Work

My Creation

Our Finished Art Work

Lazing At Home On A Friday

It feels really nice to be on leave.

I had been feeling a little beat. The exhaustion was getting to me. I hardly knock off before 7:30pm. And I had not been getting any proper rest. Recently, I realised that I'm one of the rare ones who wakes up at 6:30am (ok, sometimes 6:45am) on weekdays. My colleagues found this really absurd. Greg asked if I was going to work or school. Haha!!!

Today, I'm on leave. Took a day off from work. Managed more sleep and woke up at 9:45am. to a hot plate of fried noodles. My mum actually cooked up a storm this morning for me. :)

The morning flew pass so fast. I managed to clear my wardrobe. Threw away 2 bags of clothes, which did not fit me any more. Some of these clothes were brand new (not worn before). I told myself I had to get rid of them, if not, they'd just be taking up space in my cupboard. But now, my wardrobe looked so bare. Guess it's time to do some shopping once again. :P

The weekend is going to be quite a busy one for me. There's an Art Jam, which I'll be participating. My colleagues wanted to form a team and showcase our creative side. Sounded like fun to me, so I joined. Little did we know that we signed up for a corporate community art competition (i.e. competing with the other corporate organizations). It'll be a full day event. Let's see just how creative my team is.

On Sunday, I'll be attending a colleague's wedding. The bride-to-be is an extremely diligent girl at work. It's nice to see this young girl dressed in her wedding gown. She'll be looking beautiful and all grown up.

Then, it'll be back at work for me on Monday. And 2 weeks later, I'll be taking leave from work for my birthday celebrations. Life is great!