blue




no i did not buy new shoes.

today at the takashimaya members' sale, we got additional plates and stuff. we also bought beautiful japanese porcelain soup bowls. the first ones we spied were more colourful but expensive. we settled for a cheaper but still beautiful all blue set, which worked out to be even cheaper than corningware bowls.

we also bought pretty sauce plates - three for ten dollars!

i am so glad mingyao shares my love of blue porcelain.

dear husband at the other table. i love u.

happy birthday



today i had dinner with my family at a nearby thai restaurant Aroy Thai. the family came to my house for the first time since it was furnished and they celebrated my birthday with a cake. a second cake from Awfully Chocolate! - with cherry and rum. da jie gave me a book from urban outfitters - the curious case of benjamin button and siew jie gave me a topshop voucher. hui sent me a cute card from australia.

surfing






i love the pictures from this photographer.

yesterday mingyao cooked: steam fish in teriyaki sauce/ chawanmushi. we reheat the pork from his mother and ate it with bbq sauce and i came back from my run and stirfried the vegetables.

this morning when i was sleeping mingyao went to chinatown market and bought a whole lotta stuff back keep in the house for cooking - fish/pork/watercress/dried stuff for soups. i helped him to pluck the roots off the watercress - my first time ever doing it.

this evening my family is coming to siglap for dinner at aroy thai and we will have dessert at my house. we don't have enough plates yet. tomorrow we'll go to takashimaya's memeber's sale to buy more plates.

+ + +

there are certain things you don't think about until you have to do them. now i know how meticulous my dad is at ironing my shirts back home cos it takes a while for me to get to his standard. i'm so appreciative that in this day and age we can choose who we love freely - already household chores and eating takes up so much time in one's life, doing it with someone you love doesnt' make it much of a chore. it's just doing stuff - if work isn't so busy i'd gladly spend the whole day doing chores. haven't packed the stuff from my house yet. we've ivan and sabrina's wedding to attend later this afternoon at the church and the dinner tomorrow.

+ + +

i think i'm too sensitive. i feel bad about giving people trouble but it seems like i do it all the time, maybe my nature's too laid back. but i think i was a bit less blur at work when i started then i am now. i have to get the groove back and not be overwhelmed. i'm sure if i'm focused and compartmentalise my efforts i'll be okay.

+ + +

everyday should be a weekend!

my husband is the sweetest! last week it was the ah'hem time of the month and my husband passed me a toblerone (white with nougat, he knows i like that) that he bought because he observed that i would buy some chocolate to feel better. and today he bought me a pair of earphones because my running pair was wonky and one side was dead.

on saturday the cellgroup came over for a bbq and surprised me with an awfully chocolate chocolate cake. i nearly forgot about my birthdy. we super cleaned the whole house and i bought flowers ($6.00 in all) from the marine parade market to put around the house. sharon was so sweet she brought a cute tin box of flowers and famous amos cookies for housewarming presents. the bbq was so good there was lamb and mint sauce and alex bbq-ed a fish he caught out at sea and there was ravi's super thick and delicious hamburgers with bbq sauce.







i put my flowers out onto the balcony so they can get some sun when we're out tomorrow.
+ + +

on friday we took aim to the big fish grill at siglap for dinner cos it was her last day. the food is slightly pricy but good but not everyday kind of food.







ah hui hui i received your birthday card thank you very much i will reply you soon when i can! ah wei wei i will also try to reply to your letter!

my study chair has come!

housing



today we went to muji and bought a carpet for the study room. initially i couldn't decide between putting the oriental rug in the study and having a plain neutral coloured muji rug outside or inside. but anyways the beige muji rug we bought was too small for outside so we put it in the study.

i think in the end i'm happy that i stained the parquet all dark. i wouldn't have minded the teak-coloured parquet that came with the apartment but it didn't go with the beige marble outside flooring. it was either the marble or the teak and of course we had to keep the marble so the teak had to become dark.

still lots to pack from my parents' house but i'm a little busy now till august so i'm just unpacking a little every weekend. we also bought two white muji cushions to accompany and neutralise the other cushions on the couch with the floor oriental carpet.

that day we went to see carpets the carpet guy from iran gave us an education about the different grades of carpets. you can really tell the persian silk carpets' quality and craftsmenship and detailed imagery is way superior but of course so is the price. for the smaller one we bought for the master bedroom, one of the same size made of persian silk would be ten times the price mind ya. it's pretty but i'm in no right mind to be too precious about things about the house that you step on every day.

there are so many inspiring blogs about interior and decoration i'm too distracted. focus focus.

mingyao bought new squeezebox speakers for the bedroom that are super chio.

above pic from one of the blogs

this afternoon mingyao stayed home cos he was ill. he triple-boiled barley and kept the concentrate in the fridge. after dinner we blended that with ice. and hence we had barley ice blended! ah jies and ah mei and ah brother, i will make some for you next time!

new additions - patterning!













the soft furnishing is in progress - we walked down arab street and got some carpets. they give so much discount there - the shops there supply to shops in town which mark it up so much so if you want an oriental carpet don't buy it in orchard road. and we spied some lovely cushions - the white one with lovely pink flowers at the shop iwannagohome and the green and white one which looks kinda japanese, at british india. i've used my merimekko table runner to cover my computer and that's mingyao's temporary side table, a stool we bought from a shop called leyon near our place along siglap (that used to supply to harvey norman where they will mark up their timber things super high). and we found some nice hand towels - the blue and white ones - from ikea and i like them cos they look like they're from muji; and that's mingyao's side table from xtra in all its natural beauty. and i'm now a monocle suscriber thanks to mychoy!

today i went for a run. mingyao cooked dinner - stirfry veges, abalone mushroom and scallops/stirfry rosemary and mustard snapper/mom in law's tau kee and some soup.

i was feeling tired and out of sorts so mingyao was so lovely to make me rest after work while he prepared dinner. love ya loads.

expectations. so many expectations to live up to. expectations of God, expectations of family, expectations of bosses, expectations of yourself.