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Oft misunderstood soul. Shy, reserved, likes to stay in the background, but inevitably mistaken as not shy, extrovert etc. Originally meant to be a culinary blog, but in due course discovered man does not live on cake alone..hence the waffle.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

So My Friends Know What I've Been Up To

Actually, my main purpose of keeping this blog is for friends near and far to know what I'm up to these days. After the last "photo fiasco", whereby some reader thoughtlessly blurted out something to the someone that resulted in the blog now being heavily censored, I wondered if I really should bother with this Limited Edition. Afterall, I already maintain a gym blog, and a food blog, but alas, in our busy world and lives, I still see a need to keep in touch with friends. This is my little way of doing so. Very unilateral, but well, at least when we meet, they tell me they know what's going on.

So, what HAS been happening? The school holidays came and went. Feeling guilty for leaving the kids whilst we attending WIASO's birthday in Vietnam, we brought them to Singapore for a holiday. Baby girl has just gotten her new passport and I was eager to use it. (First child, when got her passport, got to go on a trip with overnight flight and all....2nd kid, still got flight, but only 7 hours, 3rd kid, well, still managed a 7 hour flight...now with 4th kid, car ride to Singapore).

But not before the arrival of Nestle Nick from Japan which coincided with me suddenly being "happening" again. On the Friday night, I was at Isthmus, at a party hosted by the Hostess with The Mostess.... Free Flowing Champagne, Bollinger, no less, foie gras, tapas, finger food, and the most wonderful durian bavarois. The side entertainment, which is unbloggable, was also memorable. We then adjourned to Frangipanni, now a very one gender skewed establishment on Fridays, to continue partying. That lasted till 3am.



The following night, we were at Isthmus again, having dinner with Nestle Nick, his pregnant wife, Nestle Naveen, together with Mr CIMB, his lovely (also pregnant) wife, Plankton Pussy and KTT. (both of them) Because of the early impending drive to Singapore the next morning, it was a relatively early night, as I was still zombified from the late night on Friday.

Amongst the highlights of Singapore were the night safari, the DUCK TOURS (Msians pay the Msian Ringgit equivalent for the duck tour, ie, RM 33 per head instead of S$33....Singapore knew it was Visit Malaysia Year I guess). Also, I got to visit friend's bakery, in South Buona Vista Road.




We stayed, thanks to my elder Singaporean cousin, in Changi Beach Club, a lovely resortish styled private club, where accommodation is reasonably priced, by Singapore standards, and rooms large. I initially thought 4 days in Singapore would have been phenomenally long, but time zoomed by quickly. It was very nice of my Singapore rellies to turn up in large numbers to meet us, in what was almost like a mini wedding dinner.

Shortly after returning from Singapore, Chubby Sabahan threw his housewarming party. As Nestle Nick was still in town, I dragged him along, DRAG being the operative word. A very different kind of party, I have to admit. Again, very gender biased. The highlight had to be the "beauty pageant", where nominated contestants had to answer very difficult questions, such as, "If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?". The tiara eventually went to the most seasoned contestant of all, who probably made up the questions himself.





Left that particular party at 3.30am. Spouse had left about 1am, followed by Nestle Nick at about 2.30am, and me at 3.30am.

The next day, rest eluded me, as I was hosting dinner for the Red Planet crowd, (the same Red Planet who the night before was donning a tiara as if she was Venus, Goddess of Lurve), so that was another exhausting day. Slaving over the stove, hosting dinner.... the night before had sapped the energy of most of the guests, who are almost all above 35, and take longer to recover, compared with the nimble and lithe 20 somethings.

The next day, due to rain, plan A which was to have a picnic in Lake Gardens was scrapped, and I had to play host in plan B for the group of friends who had gathered in honor of our overseas visitors, Mr & Mrs Brash, and Rev and Dr from Cambridge.

Somewhere along the way, we got invited to the play, URMI, which was the local production of the Tempest. Courtesy of ExFCI who was in a starring role, the show was actually beyond my expectations. The props were visually quite stunning, and Shakespeare actually managed to keep me awake.

Brother in law's birthday drinks, held at Izzy's, Northpoint, made my record for skipping Friday Bible Study unparaleled.On another Saturday, we had a potluck at Glamour Groomer's house, with the more sedate crowd that ensured I got my 8 hours of sleep on a Saturday night. And last Saturday, I forewent an evening at Max's with the food bloggers crowd, to attend my colleague's housewarming.

And last night, was dinner with the Everybody Loves Raymond Group. Food review here.


So that's what I've been up to lor.

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Monday, June 11, 2007

Yet Another One Hits The Big Four

This post is mainly for the benefit of previously Bangkok Lawyer, now Singapore Lawyer, and the Khaws since their presence was sorely missed at this function, the 40th of WIASO. (Woman I am Scared of).

On the 26th of May, we all congregated in the Unesco Heritage Town of Hoi An, an hour's drive away from Danang, in Vietnam. The journey had taken almost 24 hours, door to door, because Air Asia only flies to Hanoi at night, and by the time we arrived in Hanoi, we checked in to our hotel, there wasnt much else to do. And first thing, the next morning, we were on our way to the airport again, headed for Danang.

Anyway, on the first night (25th May) we were just chilling out, and had a lovely local dinner at a place called Hong Phuc... The highlight was the 1 litre buckets of cocktails, at very cheap prices. In retrospect, I guess the alcohol they used might have been a bit suspect, hence the massive hangovers suffered by some of the people.





With a great warm up on the Eve of the actual Birthday, we were definitely expecting to topple the birthday girl on the night itself. Alas, she was suffering a migraine, and therefore did not partake in much booze at all. In fact, I reckon it was a pretty poor show all round in the drinks department, because of the 4 bottles (2 gin and 2 vodkas) we lugged there at the behest of birthday girl, 1½ gins and 1 vodka remained untouched. In fact, due to inconsistent aircraft rulings on liquids, even in check in baggage, we had to forfeit all the bottles. I digress.

On the night of the birthday, we gathered (after earlier secretly gathering for a rehearsal for a "surprise presentation") for pre dinner drinks in one of the rooms. Verve cliqout flowed freely, and the dangers of drinking of an empty stomach were soon to become obvious, for me, at any rate.

Not sure if WIASO's other half or the hotel had arranged this....rose petals on the bed with a teeny piece of cake and candle. Looked very wedding budoir.

Guest had actually flown in from all over the world. Hong Kong, Perth, Romania....

The Malaysian entourage.




Dinner entertainment, at the restaurant (name now escapes me). The restaurant has fantastic ambience, by the seafront, and in yonder sea, a string of floating lanterns. Not sure if they were meant to be decorative, or squid bait. By this time, I have to say the verve cliquout had gone straight to the head. In case you're wondering what the heck I have donned on, it's an Egyptian galabia, deliberately given to me by HRH, so that I can look like his slave.

After dinner, which ended pretty early, we adjourned back to the hotel. By this time, I have no coherent recollection of the night's events, but am having my memory jolted by pictures taken on my camera. We obviously then presented our surprise presentation, a parody to the tune of Tom Jones' DELILAH.


Now by this time, I REALLY cannot remember a thing. We obviously were causing a ruckus, and other guests must have complained, prompting the hotel to move us to the bar, the Amsterdam Bar. A suitably loaded Ipod provided the much needed retro music.








Well, vows of temperance aside, the next day, (and an entire day in bed, wretching and nursing a major headache), it was a delightful experience. Wonder who's happening 40th will be next.

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