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this weekend i did too little work (but i will buck up from today!), ate free ice cream with husband at orchard central - too thick, too gooey, too much peanut butter in the mix; i think the next ice cream i want will be pistachio gelato - went to the supermarket, watched national geographic - hippos, crocodiles vs lions - met brenda for tea at starbucks - had two drinks, cold tea and hot coffee later - went for a run in new running shorts - nike, baby blue and white.

a thought about bedding

in milan i saw my dream bedding set - more like the comforter - at the wonderful rossana orlandi shop but i did not buy them for several reasons. why? they were made for scandinavian homes and the pillow cases in the set were much bigger than the standard size here. i think that was the main reason why; besides that it only came in a super single size and i'd have to buy two for my king-size bed. but i think the pillow cases were the main reason; and maybe it won't go with my bedroom carpet though if all other factors were right i might relocate the carpet just for the comforter. but that leaves me with a resolve to save money so that i can have something in my home designed by the same duo - my current design crush. i saw a table designed by them in tokyo in the cibone shop but to lug back a table, and during that scary earthquake time - okay and it wasn't very cheap.

Goodbye Weekend

over the long weekend we, in fairly chronological order:

+ went to park way parade after touch down and had lunch at crystal jade - charsiew and duck rice and siew mai to share
+ a walk through parkway borders and saw with delight someone reading the magazine
+ bought salty green bean bun from the food court for tea time snacking
+ watched recorded runs of 'the noose', which wasn't so funny this time
+ watched jack johnson's 'en concert' dvd, which was beautifully shot, and wished were were able to go to his tokyo concert, and hope that one day we can attend one of his concerts
+ had east coast charcoal-grilled chicken wings before dinner, which was east coast braised duck rice with super chili(s) - plural because you have to mix both the salty and sour chili into one paste
+ had little scoops of anderson's cookies and cream ice cream from the tub
+ cycled out at night and shared a carl's junior fish and chips meal for supper (it wasn't really supper, just a tempting treat when you're out)
+ had super crab beehoon in soup at far east square and ordered extra yam (that tastes awesome with the sour chili) but decided after that that there was too much yam and next time we would have to share one extra portion.
+ went to strangelets in great anticipation of the sale but didn't buy nothing because the things we wanted were not on sale or even after sale were above our budget
+ had korean food at katong - bulgogi and hite beer and kim cheeeeee!! and had to walk home half way cos we were too full. on the way home mingyao said he wanted cadbury easter eggs. we finally found them at the the esso petrol kiosk's 7-elevan and binged on chocolate eggs at home
+ went to church very early on sunday at 630am and went to chinatown after that to do marketing (which usually means husband selecting the food and talking to stallholders and me just following meekly/ half-sleepily behind holding the plastic bags, sometimes choosing the vegetables and fruit) and had awesome yong dao foo again except this time - where were the chestnut bits in the fish paste???
+ had bengawan solo kueh kueh for tea (i had kueh lapis and pandan chiffon) because brunch was so early
+ read latest monocle, elle decoration uk and vogue uk - mostly bought to try to spend off my last euros as the duty free magazine stand; and the latest issue of apartamento arrived in the mail - yay! but i can't read it yet because i have to study for my final theory in three weeks. this time cannot fail!

what an awesome weekend with husband! and all the wonderful food - to satisfy my cravings for local food after ten days of pizza, pasta and weird local italian cuisine comprising too much cheese and too bland risotto, some even cold (although there were some respites of familiar chinese food in between, ironically those were the happiest meals) - there's nothing like the food culture back home! in between the events above i took naps to recup from the tiring trip and jet lag (could barely keep awake during friday's church service) and did a bit of sketching that was quite a nice feeling.

pants felt a little tight by sunday so i went for a short run in the late afternoon. note to self: always check if the radio has more battery or else the running music is terribly interrupted. but still it was a nice run because it was not too hot and the park connector is cooler, sheltered by trees. i did discover though the damage the walking in milan had done to my knees and had to have a more careful run.

now as the week starts we are back to staples and i'm loving husband's double-boiled watercress soup and herbal steamed chicken for tonight. and next week we are a-celebrating!!!

we can now tell the time



this weekend we finally put up the plywood clock with the sweeping hand we got from tokyo, had some friends over for a meal, and churned out lots and lots of writing. still churning out right now!

the perfect husband said -

he has a plan. for this saturday. we will visit your grandmother, watch a movie (with our free tickets) and then come home to sleep.

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after coming home from grandfather's wake on sunday we still had a few hours before dinner at his parents' place and like one of those times when you are most productive when you only have limited time, he had the car washed and next-day's-dinner-soup and food defrosted and i vacuumed and mopped the house and wiped the surfaces and we had another load of clothes washed.

i love a good clean mopped floor. influences of my father, methinks.

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rest



well i was reflecting on the past months - it's been quite an interesting experience, observing a product photo shoot, proof reading (giving tuition comees in handy), looking for stories, encountering things like writer's block (i did have such blocks in architecture and i've learnt, it's the same everywhere, to overcome these blocks you just keep doing and you'll get at it eventually, that and reading/ looking out); calling myself a writer instead of an architect - you get more blank stares than the 'wow's that i used to get and i do get some satisfaction seeing my works published. the gist of it is this, my ex-boss was right - it's the same everywhere, so i think architecture was good training. i will always be a part of both.

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today i went to borders to hunt for the ever elusive apartomento; instead i got monocle issue 40 - monocle mag always makes me happy, there is so much potential that consumes me for hours. on the home front, we have a new addition courtesy of artemide; on the beauty front, they've stopped bringing chanel teint innocence foundation to singapore - a horror because it was the perfect foundation; just that little bit of glimmer with a not too oily texture - so i've forced to experiment.

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i like these looks very much - flow and pattern - one resolve this year is to have more colour in my wardrobe. photos from this is glamorous

blue green red







new things. a new bowl made in japan from tangs kitchen department. and a bonsai from tiong bahru market - whilst waiting for the orchids to rebloom in six months according to ee lin, we need some other green decoration.

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thank you husband for being the sweetest and buying ba chang for our breakfast and bringing me a cup of water in the study.

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