light, love and translucency




this weekend was one of family and love + a lovely husband who cooked dinner for my family who came over. we had a wonderful evening celebrating mama's birthday - pictures, london bridge, narnia, prawns, light and fluffy cake - and today, husband and i went to have ramen. we also bought a crumbly-topped cream puff from tampopo deli at the basement of liang court. we both agreed that while it was quite alright, it wasn't exceptional, not like the kind we bite into and stare at each other with big, eureka-moment eyes and not speak to each other until the titbit is devoured - this time there were a few quizzical moments of trying to figure out if this was really the cream puff.

source

unconditional love: when your husband does everything for you when you are busy and still bothers to buy you a rose when he goes to the market.

Some more things...I love:

+ spending time with the family - the siblings, the parents, the babies.
+ cool wind in morning as I write from home, after a wash of rain
+ reading good writing
+ husband coming home and lots of hugs
+ husband's mega headphones to envelope my world with aimee mann/ ash/ cardigans while I write, and while I sense the writing coming together, and while the air is still cool, coming in through the window in an unexpected rhythm of whispers

weekend

yesterday i had a nice dinner with parents at sixth avenue - coffee shop western food - followed by ice cream at guthrie house.

and today, husband decided we should go to town and i bought a pair of brown suede and leather shoes to replace my faithful massimo dutti brown leather heels that has been faithful to me for the past three years. i'm going to try to prolong its life somehow. once in a while when we decide to go on these impromptu trips to town it's always nice and sweet, sharing a chin chow drink and a red bean japanese snack along the way. we tried tampopo for ramen and decided it was not bad. they put little crabs (live ones, for the special menu) in a glass bowl at the entrance to show you its tiny size. the crabs were red and translucent and blew bubbles. like babies.

then we came home and took some pictures with mingyao's new film camera because we were nicely dressed up for town. i went for a run after a long while...need to build up my stamina...

good weekends

the best birthdays are when you can take time of to spent time with those you love. this year i was able to be off work and husband and i planned a relaxing day out about town. first he indulged me with breakfast at wild honey at mandarin gallery - on friday early noon there's no crowd, which adds to the birthday bliss! - we shared the tunisian and scandinavian breakfast - we liked the former better - and i loved mingyao's queen b drink. next stop we went shopping - on a weekday, free of crowds - and husband picked out some things for me. back home we had a little rest before walking to blooie's for beer, portobello mushroom burger and cajun fries. it was a quiet night.

on saturday, sammie opened her home for us. rachel cooked lemon chicken and we da bao-ed stir fried beef with bittergourd and 'salad youtiao'; sharon cooked a peranakan dish and ying and steven brought cake. it was good to have ying back after a year. later in the week sammie and i met up with ying and we had dim sum at imperial treasure and talked like old times. we brought ying to wild honey and i introduced them to the queen b drink and shared a canadian breakfast - thick pancakes with fruits and maple syrup.

this inspired our breakfast the following week - husband made me a spread of pancakes, gourmet sausages, bacon and half-boiled eggs.

over this weekend we decided to visit jibiru japanese beer craft bar behind 313 somerset - it was nice to try the different japanese beers alongside the snacks of fried everything - small snacky prawns, soft shell crabs, ika...under the cool winds, just talking and laughing. impromptu date nights with husband is great.

happy second!



yesterday we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. we slept in late and after husband sneaked out to watch television in the morning i dug into the wardrobe and brought out his present from Milan - a set of Biba oil and vinegar blown glass containers from Skitsch, designed by Dovetusai Studio - I recall in amusement all the animals I have brought home for him from abroad; this time from Milan it is a wooden shark bottle opener and these duck-silouhette containers. we don't use olive oil and vinegar in abundance but the containers were too beautiful not to have. in the evening we treated ourselves to a dinner at Equinox restaurant, on the 70th floor of Swissotel where there was a grand view of the Marina Bay Sands and the surroundings and we had dinner as the sun set. It was a nice evening of dolling up and going out and ended off with a stop at the supermarket in the basement.

image: what a great wash of colour; photo from new york times; these are not the containers i bought! i'll take a picture soon.

tonight we are going to a birthday party.

i thank God for the loveliest husband who tolerates my occassional lady meltdowns and is willing to listen to all my whims. BFF!

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yesterday i went to view my completed project. i can't really describe how i feel. if there's something that will draw me back to architecture, this really is it. i feel that no one in singapore comes close to the work yh does. no one at all. i mean, who would have thought the panton triple spiral lamp would look awesome here? it takes a great mind to really open up my mind. it was nice to see my friends again and the best clients. i was glad i took my husband along to witness what i had been doing the past year.

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i think gold is coming back. it's already back! silver is...blah - too safe, not enough character.

source 1, source 2

awesome



last night the husband said - can we celebrate valentine's day on one of the days in tokyo? and i asked why and he said, just please and i asked what will we do and he said - you'll see - or something to that effect.

the perfect husband strikes yet again.

image source

hoorah for perfect husband + and perfect mail!



yesterday there was a package in the mail - cardboard. crisp! white! with just a simple 'priority mail' sticker and mailing address in front. It was my first subscription copy of Apartamento, that husband surprised me with a few weeks ago! i took a photo of the packaging - it was quite a celebratory moment. maybe it was good that the magazine hasn't come to singapore cos now it feels more exclusive, and getting stuff in the mail is so great! i've brought it to work but i'm not sure i'm going to read it yet, but just in case i want to flip through it before the actual sitting down this weekend to devour it through.

husband said that it's my valentine's day present and i told him that it's a very romantic gift because, diamonds and expensive girly things - anyone can have those (if my husband got me those i'd love them too, anything he gives me i like!) - but only my man knows how much i want my apartamento #06.

hoorah for perfect husband!

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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a saturday of reading FT weekend almost the whole afternoon...you can read everything in FT Weekend - it really draws you in. this newspaper has got something for the both of us, the husband commented, and i agree.



on friday the office decided to check out papa palheta. lovely place at the back end of a shop house. good for k2ld's office that is upstairs in one of the shophouses - they can always come down for a nice chill coffee time. it's a really nice place and although they don't serve cakes, etc. i would love to bring the girls here one day, maybe when steven is back, just for the experience.

ladyfingers


this is my love swan bought for my husband bought in the lovely Gertrude street in melbourne that unfortunately i didn't have the time to wander the whole length of.


it was the leather handles on the tray that caught my eye. this and simple roses. i think i shall buy some this weekend...peonies for new year? i think they will be expensive but maybe for a treat, just one or two from the florist - these shall be my chinese new year decorations - roses and peonies!

image source


the are alot of things to save up for this year and one of them will be a bicycle. after i learn driving that is. husband and i always think of going off some time in the evenings and cycling late nights far into town and other places, for supper and other things. i think that will be romantic. but if i have a bike, it will be tough to decide what colour i like - currently, maybe, baby blue, brown leather and beige and/or something brassy - but now that i've thrown in something brassy, it's a little messy. gotta think about this seriously
.
i have one more wedding for the year this weekend and i think this will be a pretty one, given the bride is one of the sassiest people i know - one reason i love going for weddings is that i love to dress up - the prepping and the dolling and all.

photo source

thoughts

so i was speaking to somebody the other day who mentioned his girlfriend was staying with him, to see if they can live together before thinking about marriage, and he was also not sure if she was 'the one'. i didn't say this but my views on this were - you know the common saying, don't marry someone if you can live with her, marry if you can't live without her - i think this rings true for me. If you can't live without that person you will find all ways and means to live with her so you don't need to 'try' beforehand.

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over the weekend we watched 'the note book' on television. we had both watched it before, but separately. it's my favourite movie now - he says. crazy in love or none at all.

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dinner with granny over the weekend with aunt cooking up a feast, and present- opening later back at the yishun home. this year it was with two babies distracted by all the boxes and wanting to play with other toys than their own. fun.

Dear Husband,

Merry Christmas. You have been so good this year. I love you.

Your Sweetheart.

P.S. I'll be seeing you.

picture source: alila luang prabang

post it

dear husband/ i don't say this often enough but thank you today for + preparing and boiling tomorrow dinner's soup + folding the laundry while I go running + making my evening tea for me everytime you see me boil water + waiting for me everyday to end work + throwing away the lint from the tumble dryer because you know i hate to do that + buying me the pricer yogurts from the supermarket + etc.

i know you know me well enough
to know i'm lucky to have you.

jack johnson, from the clouds





a simple slab of butter or yuzu spread that we bought from tokyo, on browned crispy toasted multigrain loaf - a simple comforting sunday lunch when we're too full to eat much else...in front of the television with legs curled up on the sofa and a cup of tea near at hand. my accomplice. such love.

a birthday weekend

yes, da paolo was wonderful. i have always loved having dinner in the setting of an old building with the quiet whispers of conversation around. with a large open kitchen behind the bar and the after-rain breeze lending a shiver to the surrounding trees, we sat at the outdoor patio in the corner. whilst the tiramisu wasn't the best around, the staff were nice to sing a birthday song and we had great conversation.

it is always nice to dress up and go somewhere romantic, putting aside the everyday mundane to play 'date'...a darker eyeshadow/ a silk green dress reserved for occassions { i bought this one for our engagement photograph shoot last year, it was expensive but it was special}/ getting into the car and going somewhere other than to work or to visit the family/ in golden strappy stilettoes/ holding hands up the creaky winding staircase in the dark orange shadows of dusk/ finding our way together to the restaurant {the first time search} under the dewy streetlamp's glow/ - yes we have a reservation, mr and mrs choy. + + +

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click on the pictures to see them enlarged. magnificent grain.

on saturday morning i followed mingyao to a game of soccer organised by his company, playing papparazzi for the day with mingyao's superb zoon lens. i love taking photograhs with his camera. i went for a run at the beach in the evening to bedok jetty with all the fishermen casting their lines. i should do this more often. last weekend we attended zhiwei and kris's wedding. on sunday evening mingyao and i took photographs where i played with black and white film. i love film photography - i miss the graininess you don't get in digital photos. i will post some pictures later but meanwhile above are some pictures left in the first roll of film of our trip to tokyo in january this year that mingyao took. the beautiful intense light makes the contrast in the photos surreal.

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i'm not very good with html and i like simple formats so i've managed to tweak something out of the provided templates, which is currently to my liking. i wish the weekend would last longer, there is so much i want to do.

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meanwhile, do you know that the japanese snack koala no mache goes very well with kirin's afternoon milk tea served cold? we found a special version of the koala snack at the supermarket - maple syrup!

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i have discovered a website forty-six at grace, and the writer has an online shop called herriott grace that sells the most beautiful handmade cutlery and kitchenware carved out of different types of wood. there's lovely poetry in these handmade products.

it's my birthday today and husband got me a present from one of my favourite shops - strangelets. it's an astier de vilatte star shaped soup bowl made of white terracotta with burnt edges that i mentioned i liked before. it's such a lovely piece to have at home with all its imperfections. you can see slight bumps and dents where the potter held the bowl before it was completed. it's too pretty to use! but i will when guests come.

tonight we are going to da paolo bistro and bar at one rochester park. the ambiance looks nice on the website. i hope the tiramisu is good because i always crave a good tiramisu. such a lovely day to be at home when with heavy torrential rain in the morning that clothed the rest of the day with a cool breeze and mild skies. today the too hot sun takes a holiday.