.: asylum for the sane :.

It’s been 10 days since I got it. I guess it should be blogged about because it is kind of a personal milestone – my first branded wallet!

Well it was actually a gift from someone who’d like to remain anonymous to the rest of you. Truth be told, I had wanted to get it as a present for myself (because I love myself), but I guess someone loves me more.

When I was younger, a wallet has always meant something very personal to me. It was where precious photos and mementos (tickets, stickers and other odds and other odds and ends) were housed. Personal artifacts, memories. That has always been how important a wallet is to me. And I always take ages to find a new wallet, and will hold on to the old one that was practically tearing up at the seams – until I found the perfect wallet.

That was the way it was until I lost my wallet in 2006. Instantly, a part of me was gone just like that. The things I lost in it were irreplaceable and I’m not talking about identification cards and credit/debit cards. I was quite crushed after, and then tried to pick myself up again – with another wallet which lasted me another 4 years. And then it got really worn out, then I switched to another – which was off-white in colour and got dirty and ugly pretty quickly.

And then soon after the bond just disappeared and I stopped using wallets altogether. Those who have seen/known me in the past year (up till 10 years ago) would have wondered why I am using a Harrods coin purse that was getting dirtier by the day, and instead of being filled by mementos it was overflowing with coins, folded notes and a mountain of receipts. It was unsightly, and it was a travesty. I guess everyone was too polite to ask.

And now, I have this very, very pretty wallet – in a colour that somehow has defined me. I’m not sure how the journey will be for the two of us but I hope that it will last us both years of precious memories.

Thank you once again to YOU

For the longest time, I’ve asked for nothing more than to be happy. Life experiences have attempted to rob me off my perfect bubble of “happiness”, and many a time, it did work. I’ve tried my best to not feel jaded and for years, all I’ve ever wished for was to be happy. But what does being happy really mean?

In this book by Francois Lelord, a psychiatrist by the name of Hector explores the world to know the true meaning of happiness. In his travels, he met people from all walks of life who have stories to tell. From these stories, and his own personal travel experiences, he comes up with a list of what makes people happy / what can ruin happiness

And the list is as below. I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of some of the things listed. Up till last year, I was making comparisons of my life to that of others (point number 1). How they’ve reach life’s milestones that are still somewhat out of my reach. And it made me very, very unhappy. But I managed to shake the feeling off last year, and focused on the here and now (point number 3) of my own life. Honestly, I’ve been happier since – because my life despite all the imperfections isn’t so bad after all.

1. Making comparisons can spoil your happiness

2. Happiness often comes when least expected

3. Many people only see happiness in their future

4. Many people think happiness comes from having more power or more money

5. Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story

Points number 7 and 10 are are also poignant to me. I guess all those years I’ve wanted to be happy without knowing what or how I was going to achieve it – and that brought on more unhappiness. As for point number 10, I’ve always believed that if you love your job, it isn’t really a job, it just become a part of your life – almost like a hobby where you get paid. And years back when I was on the hunt for my first job, I told myself that my happiness comes first – that I need to be happy where I work, and with what I do. Money shouldn’t ever compromise that.

And today, after grasping that belief over the years, I’ve finally found a job that fits both criteria.

6. Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains

7. It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal

8. Happiness is being with the people you love; unhappiness is being separated from the people you love

9. Happiness is knowing that your family lacks for nothing

10. Happiness is doing a job you love

Not too sure what it feels like having my own house and my own garden, but I can definitely relate to being loved for exactly who I am. And let me tell you, it’s the best feeling ever. In a society where perfection is key (actually that applies in my own head too), it’s almost a heaven-sent gift when you’re loved as you are – turning your mere imperfections into the ultimate perfection.

Ditto on point number 15, new experiences (be it on travels or on an everyday basis) makes you feel so glad to be alive.

11. Happiness is having a home and a garden of your own

12. It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people

13. Happiness is feeling useful to others

14. Happiness is to be loved for exactly who you are (People are kinder to a child who smiles)

15. Happiness comes when you feel truly alive

Truly agree with point number 18. I’ve always gone against societal conventions and as long as I know that it is not illegal nor harming anyone else, why shouldn’t go ahead with how I live my life?

16. Happiness is knowing how to celebrate

17. Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love

18. Happiness is not attaching too much importance to what other people think

19. The sun and the sea make everybody happy

Point number 20: a case of thinking if the glass is half-full or half empty. Sometimes a different perspective changes a lot of how we feel about things. Also, a little healthy competition is always good, but too much of it can poison everything.

20. Happiness is a certain way of seeing things

21. Rivalry poisons happiness

22. Women care more than men about making others happy

23. Happiness means making sure that those around you are happy

In a nutshell, Hector and the Search of Happiness is a very short, lighthearted book that could easily be a casual read. The tone is almost childlike, with vague details at some points where you’d need to think of what exactly the author is referring to in the present time and age. It is truly a cross between The Little Prince and The Alchemist. A delightful, almost magical read.

As I’ve mentioned briefly in my previous post, I watched Wicked last weekend! I’ve been so excited to catch it since the announcement of the musical coming to town in November last year, and have been bugging the mister ever since. The last Broadway musical we watched was Cats way back in 2009, so it was high time we caught another.

Plus it’s Wicked. You don’t miss out on Wicked – you watch it.

So we finally did. And it was spectacular. Loved everything about it – the set, the songs (Defying Gravity is a personal favourite, Not That Girl comes second) and of course the costumes.

I think the costumes that really blew me away were those of the Emerald City citizens. I mean really, I’ve never quite liked green, especially on clothes – but the costumes in One Short Day made it into and eccentric mix of high fashion and vintage chic. Here are two of the costumes on display at Marina Bay Sands:

I think I like the one above more simply because it comes with boots. So fabulous. But then again, the one below has ruffles. Who doesn’t like ruffles?!

For a better understanding of my obsession of the Emerald City costumes, take a peek at this video – and then tell me they aren’t awesome when worn on stage.

So of course when one watches a musical, one would get any relevant merchandise. So these are our haul of Wicked merchandise:

I got myself The Grimmerie and a witch’s hat keychain. In the show, The Grimmerie is this book of powerful spells that started the manifestation of the flying monkeys. But in real life, it is a book that stores all the behind-the-scenes details of the musical. I love how they included sections of the original cast in great detail.

Speaking of flying monkeys, FP requested I got him the Chistery monkey plush because he thought it was very cute. It seems he is the only one who thinks it is cute. The rest of us think it’s just creepy.

BUT during the curtain call, the actor playing Chistery took off his head gear and revealed himself in all his handsome glory. FP and I actually gasped when we saw what was hiding behind that mask throughout the entire show! He should have been Fiyero!

(wanted to find out the actor’s name but he is not listed in the principal cast list in the Wicked Singapore website!)

Sorry there’s no photos of the set and backdrop pre-show because it seems that the rule of “strictly no photography” was seriously enforced. Before the show started, they had staff looking out for, and stopping people from trying to take photos (even of themselves). During the show, these same staff stood by the walls of the grand theater.

No idea why this is so, because for the past few musicals I’ve seen it wasn’t like this.

Oh well, it still doesn’t make Wicked any less watchable. If you haven’t caught it, then you should! They have extended the show till March 2012!

Spent a few delightful hours at TWG last weekend for tea, desserts and awesome food. It was after watching Wicked, and it was really nice and relaxing to be just be there and enjoying good food and great company.

It wasn’t my first time at TWG, but it was the first time that we stayed for a really long time and indulged in quite a portion of the menu.

My favourite tea for the day was clearly the strawberry tea (but since when don’t I ever not like anything strawberry?)

Because the three of us were way too early for our dinner date with our other friends, we ordered some cakes to tide over the hunger pangs.

This was the Chocolate Fondant. That warm chocolate cake was too decadent for words, and paired with the scoop of Vanilla Bourbon Tea ice cream – it was simply divine.

This, on the other hand, was the Normandy Apple Tart. Excellent tart indeed, that goes very well with the scoop of Singapore Breakfast Tea ice cream by the side. There seems to be some kind of spice in the ice cream. Can’t be sure if it was cinnamon or star aniseed. But it was quite the flavour.

Later on, we ordered the Bolognaise lagsane to share. Totally forgot to snap a photo though.

When all of the dinner party arrived, we started ordering our main courses and here are some of the stuff we had (with the exception of my Smoked Scottish Salmon because sometimes some dishes are not photogenic):

Wagyu Burger

Foie Gras Terrine

Lamb Stew

To end it, I had a scoop of Chocolate Earl Grey ice cream:

Pretty great way to end a pleasant evening, don’t you think?

Just wanted to share my current favourite ring, a faux gold bird ring, and my best buy of the weekend, a replica magnet of Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night. I love it to bits!

In keeping up with my new year’s resolution of eating healthy, I’ve been on a lookout for nice restaurants that are kind to the waistline and yet taste yummy.

We had brunch at Pita Pan yesterday, since we were at Marina Bay Sands to catch Wicked anyway. For a restaurant that specializes in vegetarian cuisine, and promising “a pocketful of health”, it sure does serve really great food. We were quite lost at what to order, so they recommended we try out the red shakshuka and the Mediterranean platter.

And so we did, with freshly squeezed apple juice by the side.

I know that this is just apple juice but let me just say that it was really good apple juice. Perhaps I’m biased because I really do like apple juice and quite particular about it.

Moving on to the main stars of the meal, this is the red shakshuka that I spoke of earlier.

It’s basically this hot plate dish that comes with a naan-like bread, and you just have to dip the bread in it. I really have no idea what was in it but it was absolutely yummy. Hard to believe that it was vegetarian!

And this was very worth the price – it was only $9.90!

The Mediterranean platter was just alright. It came with the same naan-like bread, but this time in tiny triangles and an assortment of dips/side dishes for you to pair with the bread.

Sorry didn’t manage to take the other side of the platter (because we were really starving), but it included things like falafel, peanut dips and other dips that we can’t really recognize.

Though the platter seems to offer a fair variety of this and that, I feel that the price of $24 was not really justified. Yes it’s delicious and all, but the red shakshuka stole the show, despite its price. I think it’s our personal favourite for now!

It was quite an enjoyable lunch, as the restaurant was hardly crowded in the early afternoon. Great venue for a casual date, topped with awesome food. Who says vegetarian food are not yummy?

Address:
Pita Pan (Marina Bay Sands)
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands #01-87,
2 Bayfront Ave

New year, new resolutions. So for 2012, I resolve to:

Keep a healthy lifestyle
This will mean a healthy diet and frequent exercising. I had a staggering headstart last year to eat healthy and start running, but it wasn’t a continuous and consistent effort. This year, all’s that gonna change. FP and I gave ourselves till end of April to see some difference in our fitness levels and weight.

Be an early riser
A complete stretch because I am definitely NOT a morning person. Have you seen me on mornings after a night of little sleep? Maybe a more realistic resolution is “do not press the snooze button”!

Join a marathon
Although I may not be the fittest person around (ever), I’ve always wanted to be in a marathon of some sort. And now that running on a regular basis in on my agenda, surviving a marathon should be quite a possibility.

Rekindle my love for craft
In 2011, I hardly crafted, barely sewed – nothing creative that’s time consuming and handmade was produced. So this year, I shall bring the crafts back to life. Hello felt projects, scrapbooking and anything else that comes my way!

Don’t sweat the small stuff
This is a repeat of a resolution I made in 2010. I do not like making mistakes being the perfectionist that I am, but sometimes I do need to let things go. And most of the time, I get annoyed by a million little things that shouldn’t even affect me. I need to take a deep breathe and tell myself that whether or not I believe it, most of the time it’s only me who is bothered by such details that aren’t worth my time.

Soak in the culture
Read more, travel more, watch more theater productions, view more exhibits at museums. These are basically the things that make me happy and that I’ve always been interested in. So why not kill two birds with one stone?

So I guess that’s it for this year. Possibly the shortest list of new year resolutions by far, but its quality vs quantity right?

Overall, 2011 has been a 140% better (see what I did there) than 2010 and I’m very thankful for that. In fact, I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Sure, I started the year unsure and almost afraid of what’s to come after a very bad year in 2010. The first few months were a bit of a struggle but as we neared mid-year, things started looking up. For one, I snipped off my pretty long hair and made it a cute bob. I haven’t had short hair in 10 years, so this was a drastic change! And it was a good change, as nervous as I was all throughout the time at the hair dresser’s. And now, 9 months later, I’m still waiting and waiting for my hair to be as long as it was before!

2011 is a year where I put myself first, perhaps as a step to self-recovery from the trauma of previous years. I travelled a lot – all for pleasure and not a single work trip (for once), and perhaps because I get away so often this year, I am truly a happier person. Let’s recall some of my adventures while travelling.

It was a year of picking strawberries fresh off a strawberry garden…

and watching dolphins jump and twirl at sunrise

and meeting people from books:

and island hopping at its best..

and go-karting accidents (in Malacca – some trips I didn’t blog about)

It was also a year of many firsts. I flew all the way to Jakarta to catch a Paramore concert. That was one of the best and worst nights of my year (at the same time), but still an experience I won’t soon forget.

I actually took a budget flight(not complaining, just highlighting a milestone – that goes to you dear hater), which wasn’t that bad after all.

Paramore wasn’t the only musical act I caught live this year. I won tickets to a Lenka showcase early in the year, and in October, I re-lived my fangirl days with BLUE at the ION Orchard fashion show. So awesome, I can DIE.

And speaking of musicals, I caught The Lion King this year (oh so many things unblogged!!!) It was fantastic.

Gadget-wise, who could forget the time I cracked my iphone 4 screen?

or the fact that I replaced both my pink sony vaio and my pink point-and-shoot with sexier replacements?

(oh yeah, this was the final look [sans the lens hood] of Sir Olympus’ makeover. I didn’t blog about him getting a faux leather sticker, but he looks cool doesn’t he?)

I kinda overdid it with spending on gadgets this year (no not really, because I really needed to get them replaced – and them *ahem* enhanced) but it was a good year on the gadget front.

And with a new pancake lens and a spiffy camera, came an influx of nice food photos

On the crafts/hobby front, no sewing was done this year for some reason – but I did attempt to bake. Successfully and not so successfully.

Attempt on red velvet cupcakes: More or less successful (turned out better than expected):

And one out of the box cupcakes (with edible glitter and all) which was a complete disaster! Besides the fact that I was trying to achieve the same effect as a photoshopped cupcake!

And of course our very recent adventure with ice cream making. Yet to make an ice cream at home!

Afterthought

As you can tell, this has been a pretty good year for me. And at some point I guess I started feeling happy about my life – but denied it for the longest time for fear of jinxing it. I’ve come a long way this year. I guess sometimes you just need to take a year just to focus on your own needs and wants, in order to find that spark of happiness again. My life is at such a stable state right now that I could barely even think to imagine in December last year.

This is the year I stopped living vicariously (and secretly envying everybody else’s life) and just focused on myself. It’s hard to just stop something you’ve been doing for a long while, and sometimes there’s minor relapses. But overall I’m okay. There’ll be a time and place for everything and not everybody will experience the same things at the same age.

I’m thankful that I’ve had the chance to travel to new places, meet new people, experience new food, able to afford the best gadgets (at this point). I’m thankful that my relationship with the boyfriend is even more heightened, and we’re closer than ever (how much closer can you get after 8 years? Go figure.) I’m thankful that even though there’s been a lot of changes to home life and family – the ones who matter are still close at heart and vice versa.

Lastly, I’m thankful for my awesome job that enables me to do techy things I enjoy and allow me to finally have a work-life balance. You’ll never know how rare work-life balance is until you’ve found it. And once you find it, you’ll never, ever want to let go

So this is me, signing off for 2011. Excited for 2012, because whatever happens, it’s just gonna be an awesome adventure!

A group of us went for an ice cream making class two weekends ago at Tom’s Palette.

It is actually surprisingly easy to make ice cream by hand – without any ice cream maker thingamajigs. All the tools/materials/ingredients we used, you’d probably have some form of it in the comfort of your own kitchen.

(and if I can do this and come out of it without any disasters, you can too!)

So we were given this ice cream making guide booklet, which also has several recipes that we can try at home. But for our session, the instructor chose horlicks flavour and the ever popular chocolate flavour!

We started off with horlicks.

First we mixed an egg yolk with some sugar.

Then we heat up the milk, afterwhich we added horlicks powder to it.

At some point we added in the sugar + egg yolk mixture to the horlicks + milk mixture. And then we cooked the custard till its nice and thick..

Once the custard is cooked, pour it into a bowl and give it one last whisk. Then it’s freezer time!

Moving on to chocolate!

The chocolate one started similarly to the horlicks one sans sugar so let’s skip a few steps and get on with the action!

The reason why we didn’t have to used sugar was because these cooking chocolate is already sweetened. So what we do next is to melt the chocolates into the milk.

And then we added cream to the very pretty chocolate milk mixture:

And then the mixture is strained..

…before giving it a final whisk and putting it in the freezer.

So while waiting for all our handmade ice creams to be fully frozen, we were given an all access pass to all the ice cream flavours that Tom’s Palette offers. Free flow of ice cream, fancy that!

I tried the ever popular salted egg ice cream paired with lavender. The salted egg one is absolutely delicious and a must-try for everybody! The lavender one left both genders with no consensus – all the girls liked it and all the guys said it tasted like shower gel.

So after a long, long wait – our ice cream is finally (almost ready).

We had to whisk the semi frozen mixture before putting it back in the freezer.

[and then we took a lunch break, because both flavours needed time to freeze completely]

So here are our handmade chocolate and horlicks flavoured ice cream!

It was a really fun experience, great date idea for couples!

It’s $60 per person (with free flow of ice cream!). You’d need to book in advance for it.

Contact details for Tom’s Palette if you are interested in the class:

100 Beach Road
#01-25
Shaw Leisure Gallery

My birthday this year coincided with our last day in Phuket. Since our flight was only at 10 pm that night), we decided to spend the day at the biggest mall in Phuket – Central Festival Phuket. Yes, I spent my 28th birthday hanging around a mall like an 18 year old. But hey at least it’s a world class mall!

One of the first things we came across as we started to explore the mall was these sushi doughnuts!

How could we resist. Of course we got them, and they were delicious.

And then we decided to have KFC for brunch! The KFC menu in Thailand is really interesting and the food didn’t taste like fast food (well except for the spicy drumlets).

This was my spicy roasted chicken rice:

We also tried the green curry chicken:

Everything was so yummy!

We decided to watch a movie at the SFX Cinema – a Thai movie at a Thai cinema, fancy that!

We got sofa seats at the price of a normal 3D ticket here in Singapore. Replica of our seat below, price excludes popcorn and drinks but still so reasonable!

We decided to watch this Thai movie called Summer Love. We’ve always loved Thai movies for its humour and because the poster looks promising, we had high expectations. But of course, we were disappointed. It was a plotless waste of time, but the sofa seats were really comfy. So I guess that balances everything out.

By the way, it was quite an experience watching a movie in Thailand. Somewhere in between trailers (and towards the start of the movie), everybody else in the theater suddenly stood up. We only knew that they stood up because our seats were right at the back. So we also stood not knowing what to expect. Shown on the screen was a video montage of the life of the Thai king. Very interesting experience, but I guess that how it is under a monarchy rule.

What’s a trip to the mall without a little bit of Starbucks? We had some cake and drinks in between window shopping and waiting for the movie to start (we got the tickets one and a half hour before the actual movie timing).

So I had some hot chocolate (not much else I can have at Starbucks since coffee is out of the question) and a strawberry shortcake (or was it cheesecake?) This cake was supposedly my birthday cake, lol.

Remember I mentioned that Steve Jobs died on the day we left for Phuket? Well this was what we saw at the Apple Store (can’t recall now if it’s an actual Apple Store or a reseller: tributes upon tributes upon tributes to the legend of a man.

Even little kids were writing tributes:

So I also took the chance to write one too.

So that’s our day at Central Festival Phuket. We couldn’t stay longer as our driver was coming to pick us up for the airport soon after the movie. I did enjoy my long birthday weekend in Phuket, I should travel out for my birthday every year!

One last photo before we were picked up. Check out the dark clouds looming again:

This is more like a quick photo post.

Apart from the beaches we encountered while island hopping, we also indulged in a few beaches (in the Kata area) during the 4 days we were in Phuket. So here are some photos to depict the relaxed mood of our vacation!

On our second day there, we took a very, very long walk after breakfast just to explore the place. And we discovered this beach. It was well-hidden and we had to go down this very steep flight of stairs to get to it.

But once we got to the end of the steps and jumped off the final step to the sand (I promise we were not trespassing though it sure sounds like it!), we found a small but nice beach with big waves.

Here you go:

Shoes came off and we went barefooted and just soaked up the view, the wind and the sand.

Because it was a really small beach, we didn’t spend too much time there. But before we left, I had this photo of myself taken:

It was the hardest thing ever for me to climb up the rocks. Almost gave up, but pushed on anyway. By the time I got off the rocks, I was wet from waves. I kinda like this photo – I look young and happy. While I know I typically look younger than I am, this one beats all odds. I look like I’m 16! And I look like.. genuinely happy and relaxed. That’s a rare combination, considering I’m such a grouch.

So the rest of the photos below are random snippets of beaches we chanced upon on day 1. Not really too sure of the names because we tend to just enter the beach instead of looking for a sign of the beach name.

Footprints on the beach:

The photo below was taken just before all the sand on my feet were shaken off.

This was taken late afternoon before we headed for dinner that first evening. Recliner chairs, abandoned for the day having done their job.

And finally, our very first sunset in Phuket:

Phuket = beautiful beaches!