My Husband, My Fashion Advisor

Over WhatsApp,

Me: "I'm thinking of getting this dress, (sends link). Maybe I can wear for C's wedding? What colour should I get?"

Him: "Green will blend in with the grass."

Me: "Yah, that's true."

Him: "Black is common."

Me:"Red?"

Him:"Yah, red."


And so, I bought the red dress :)

Going The Distance

It's always been our dream to experience working overseas.

Well, luck is definitely on his side because he recently got offered an opportunity to work in the HK office for almost 3 months. I'm so envious!

It all happened so quickly that we were shocked when he was given less than a month's notice to start his short term stint there. I contemplated asking my boss if I could work from my company's HK office, but didn't try as I knew the proposal would only get rejected.

Well, he's leaving this Sunday and it still feels surreal. We've never gone through a long distance phase in our relationship so I don't know what to expect. I like to think that I'm a relatively independent partner but I'm sure I'll miss him. The Shire will feel emptier and I know there'll be days where it'll get lonely. Who's gonna listen to my work rants, kill the insects in the house and help me with the household chores? :(

But looking on the bright side, I look forward to catch up sesssions with girlfriends (if they have time for me!) and solitude time. It helps too that HK is in the same time zone as Singapore and he'll just be a Skype call away. Thanks to promo fares and redemption of miles, I'll also be flying up to visit him every three weeks, so it's not that bad, right?

Turning A Year Older

My hatch day was a quiet affair yesterday.

I had a mini 'picnic' with the husband at the Shire (the new nickname I have coined for our tiny home which looks like it is built for hobbits, but more on that in another entry).

We spent the rest of the day checking for defects and adjourned for dinner at Momoya, a small Japanese buffet restaurant by the former owners of Hanabi.

Preparing the 'picnic'

At our balcony

There was no birthday cake nor fancy dinner, in fact the day was tiring and dusty. But I wouldn't have spent it any other way.

Our First Dance

We were chatting with some friends when the band invited us to share a first dance to Lifehouse's You and Me. Wasn't planned and it caught us off guard.

It might seem from the photo like we were indulging in the moment but really, we were more embarassed and trying our darnest not to step on each other's toes!

Still, it was nice :)

Cause it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why
I can't keep my eyes off you

PS, thanks MY, for capturing the shot!

Two Is Better Than One

Photo by Eadwine, Plush Photography

I remember what you wore on the first day
You came into my life and I thought
"Hey, you know, this could be something"
'Cause everything you do and words you say
You know that it all takes my breath away
And now I'm left with nothing

So maybe it's true
That I can't live without you
And maybe two is better than one
But there's so much time
To figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking two is better than one

I remember every look upon your face
The way you roll your eyes
The way you taste
You make it hard for breathing
'Cause when I close my eyes and drift away
I think of you and everything's okay
I'm finally now believing

That maybe it's true
That I can't live without you
And maybe two is better than one
But there's so much time
To figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking two is better than one

(What was supposed to have been my walk in song)

Sneak Peek

Photo by Eadwine from Plush Photography

The Final Countdown

I know it may not seem like it (judging by the number of wedding vs new home entries), but i'm more excited about our new home than the wedding.

And this just came in the mail today.

If nothing goes wrong, the expected TOP would be in February/March and we should be getting our keys sometime in March.

What a splendid way to celebrate my birthday next year.

The countdown begins!

3 more months

Over the weekend, we bought our wedding bands, booked our honeymoon accommodation, confirmed our Justice of Peace and sat down to choose our pre-wed photos. I’ll write about these in greater detail soon, but can I just say what a great sense of accomplishment it is to strike off some items from our to-do-list!

That’s still more to be done, though.

This weekend’s agenda includes a trip to the tailor to get the fiance’s suit made, eFiling at the ROM website, firming up our guest list, hunting for ideas for our invitation cards, and going for our food tasting session.

With 3 months more to go, I’d be lying if I said we are not starting to tear our hair out over the stuff to be done.

I can’t wait for the big day to be over so our weekends, stress levels and finances can resume normality. But mostly, I can’t wait to embark on this new journey, with you.

The Accidental Find

While geocaching, we stumbled upon a 'secret garden'.

Love the peacefulness and tranquility of the place. How nice it would be to have a picnic with friends by the water someday.

I wonder if it's crowded during the weekends.

Hooked on Geocaching

One of the most common gripes I have about being a couple in Singapore, is that there's nothing to do, especially on weekends.

I mean, there's only so much shopping, eating and movie watching we can do, right?

And so, earlier this week, we decided to break our routine and try out geocaching.

In a nutshell, geocaching is akin to a scavanger hunt, where you are equipped with GPS devices, instead of a map and the aim is to locate hidden containers, called geocachees.

We downloaded the Geocache intro app on our iPhones (it's free btw!) and drove to Ang Mo Kio. It made sense to hang out in the North as we were heading to the Night Safari in the evening and we wanted to look for our first geocache in a neighbourhood we weren't familiar with.

Photos from our little 'expedition' :)

Follow the compass to find your geocache!

Our first geocache which took us a while to find

A geocache usually includes a piece of paper to log your date and comments

Finding the second geocache was easy peasy but we almost got bitten by red ants!

The third geocache was a real toughie (which explains why i stopped taking photos) and had us searching high and low, with no luck. Perhaps it has been removed by someone?

Anyway, i'd highly recommend anyone with an iPhone to give geocaching a try, especially if you're like me and love the idea of treasure hunts. Just don't forget to bring along lots of water, sunblock and insect repellant!

Le Bistrot

We celebrated our 7th anniversary at Le Bistrot, a small French restaurant at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It was our first time there and we enjoyed the dining experience very much.

It was nice and quiet as we were the first two patrons of the restaurant.

We chose to have an entree, a main course and dessert each. I wouldn't recommend ordering 3 courses unless you are really, really hungry. I'm quite a big eater but even I found that too filling. I'll stick to a 2-course set in future :)

I had the Traditional Onion Soup, which was highly recommended. As a cheese lover, i relished in the generous amount of cheese, on top of the sweet caremelized onion soup. But i found the soup a little too sweet for my liking.

The fiance on the other hand had the Porcini Mushroom Soup which came with a feuilles de brick of foie gras pastry. C'est magnifique! Loved the fragrant whipped truffle oil/cream which was a perfect compliment to the soup. I couldn't help but steal a few spoonfuls of his soup. This was SO good and better than the Onion Soup, in my humble opinion.

For the main course, I ordered the Duck Confit (which I love more than foie gras by the way), served with creamy potato purée. I was surprised by the generous portions because most places only serve one serving of duck leg but mine came with two. A pity the duck was slightly overdone and dry.

He was deciding between the Beef Bourguignon or the Sautéed Beef Tenderloin. I persuaded him to choose the former, only because I wanted to see the dish that had Julie and Julia poring over in the movie. The beef, soaked in the red wine gravy, was soft, tender and very tasty. A nicely done dish, except I felt the serving could have been more.

For dessert, I had the Creme Brulee which also came recommended. According to the waiter, what made it special was the fact that you could choose three flavours out of six. The Earl Grey which i wanted was out, so I had the Dark Chocolate, Mocha and the Vanilla Bean. I didn't enjoy this as much because I'm not a big fan of Creme Brulee.

He had the Warm Dark Chocolate Ganache and Pistachios in Pastry, served with Pistachio Ice Cream. Again, i preferred his choice to mine.

Overall, it was still a good lunch, despite the misses due to my 'wrong choices'. On hindsight, I wish i had picked my options based on my preferences and instead of the recommendations. But at least I know what i won't be ordering, the next time we go back!

Seventh Heaven

Today marks the 7th year we've been together.

It's also the last time we'll be celebrating our anniversary on this date, before we become Mr and Mrs.

I guess time really flies when you're having a good time :)

I'll save the mushy words as this is public space but thank you for all the love, joy and laughter.

Happy anniversary, and here's to many more!

While he's serving the nation

It's the fiance's second week at Reservist and like him, i can't wait for it to end.

Although he makes the effort to drop me smses and quick phone calls, things are just not the same.

I miss our nightly long phone conversations about our days' details, a ritual which we've adhered to since we started dating. No matter how bad my work day is, he makes it better, just by listening to me.

Can't wait for this weekend.

A Hairy Issue

We had planned for our pre-wedding shoot with Eadwine to be on the Friday before the National Day long weekend.

Well, that's until the fiance dropped a bomb on me on Monday morning which was his first day of Reservist.

"Damn sian still need to cut my hair!"

(He had actually made the effort to get his hair cut 'shorter and with slopes' on last Saturday by the way.)

I guess it wasn't short enough.

According to him, the haircut he is sporting now is REALLY BAD.

Now that the shoot has been rescheduled, I hope his hair will grow out in time. Yikes.