White Day

Guess what's White Day? All I can think of is Shiseido's White Day where they give out White Lucent freebies haha. Apparently, it's a celebration in Japan/S. Korea where the guys reciprocate the gifts they received from girls on V-Day. I think it's just a convenient excuse cooked up by guys who are guilty for forgetting/neglecting/ignoring V-Day.

Anyway, was excitedly surprised to receive a call from recep saying that I have some flowers for me! Not that I can't guess who they were from haha but still, have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for presents and surprises?? Even though I don't think I really deserve flowers and dinner at Pierside cos all I got for TR for V-day was a Malcolm Gladwell book and dinner at The Black Sheep Cafe (and that wasn't even on V-day itself).

I asked him, why White Day? He said that he's very "ha-re" (I take it to mean that he likes Jap stuff). That said, at least he remembers that I only like red roses (none of the pink stuff!).

Very nice alfresco dining

I really like the fresh take on maguro sashimi - with a seaweed tampura skin

Braised beef cheeks with buttery risotto

Definitely my fav dish for tonight - sauteed potatoes in duck fat. SINFUL!

Juicy king prawns with rosti

Why I wanna go to Toronto again

Nutella filled donut balls from http://creampuffsinvenice.ca/. Where else can you find donut balls on every street!

Last year's family vacation

Since I'm in the mood (and partly to delay going to bed cos it brings work the next day closer sigh), I shall put up some pictures of our family vacation to the relatively fuss-free Bintan Lagoon last year. It's really all thanks to my aunt's meticulous planning that everything goes so smoothly each year that we head there. The only unexpected incident this year was the (fatal) visit of a disgustingly enormous centipede.

Artsy Sunday

A Girl's Dream

I'll vote Eleta's wedding as my fav wedding of 2010/2011 (I've attended 12 or 13 so far) purely for the ambiance and decorations. It's a 100% Martha Stewart style wedding complete with frou frou poms poms, vintage flower tins, wicker baskets, bird cages and the most amazing photoshoot! The whole wedding is so her and it's also so her to want to teach us how to make the pom-pom flowers even though she'll be literally an ocean away in a few weeks.

To top it off, they held their wedding at Chijmes! I can't think of a more fitting venue for this whimsical celebration. There's just something magical about the soaring vaulted ceilings in a cathedral, the chandeliers (a touch of modernity) and the Corinthian pillars.

What I really like about the wedding was that everyone was very chill and the couple took the time to mingle with their guests. I've attended some weddings where the only pictures I returned home with were of ourselves, minus the couple.

Happiness and love

My recent reading list consists of a strange pairing of topics - happiness and love, polygamy and adultery. They are pretty good reads though.



On happiness and women - Women, by and large, are slightly happier than men. But they are also more susceptible to depression... which suggests either that women are more likely to experience more extreme emotions, or that a few women are more miserable than men, while most are more cheerful (The Economist, Dec 2010). Quite true.

Neurotic people - those who are prone to guilt, anger and anxiety - tend to be unhappy. Neurotic people are not just prone to negative feelings: they also tend to have low emotional intelligence, which makes them bad at forming or managing relationships, and that in turn makes them unhappy (The Economist, Dec 2010). It's scary to see how the characterization of neuroticism is not all that remote.