How I organized my birthday party

I organized my own birthday party this year. It's been years since I had a birthday party.

I'll admit to having party anxiety. My key reason? Wondering whether it was such a good idea to spend way more money on food, compared to DIY-ing it (or more precisely, getting my mum and grandma to cook). My mum was pretty dubious about the whole affair, but I was determined to do it my way and went ahead anyway. 

As readers might know, my dad is undergoing chemo for cancer at the moment. With mortality staring us in the face, it gets a little more pressing to enjoy life right now. I really don't know if this will be the last birthday that my dad will be here, so I didn't want to have any regrets.

So I jotted 3 things down and kept going with the party even though I worried about it while making plans and confirming details. Namely:

Make it good.

Make memories.

Make it happen. 

Here's the lowdown on the details.

Venue: the Garden Slug, a laid-back little cafe in a sleepy neighborhood on the east coast.

Food:

• Caesar Salad with Multigrain croutons, bacon bits and a touch of citrus zest
• Platter of German Bratwurst & Herby Chicken Chipolata Sausages. Served with French wholegrain mustard
• Signature Oven-baked Wasuga Chicken Wings. Served with home-made tomato relish 
• Slow-Braised Red Wine Beef Stew with Chunky root vegetables
• Grilled Dory Fish topped with Antipasto, drizzled with a lemon herb sauce
• Signature Brownie Popsicles (yummy!)
• Iced Lemon Tea

Decorations:

• Flowers that I picked up from Cold Storage on the day of the party, and trimmed to size. And these were held by...
• ...Quirky lab beakers that I discovered in our store-room during the Great Paint Job of 2011
• Little butterflies made with Martha Stewart butterfly punch
• A train of paper flags from paper I picked up on sale at Paper Market ($5. Score!)

People:

Family (18 of us) and close friends, slightly over 35 in total. I was so pleased that my whole family in Singapore could make it.

Big surprise:
My cousins sang a song for me! With guitar accompaniment! So sweet.

Totally worthwhile extra:

In what was meant to be a surprise for my family, I hired a professional photographer to take photos of the event. Yong Sak was professional, pleasant and obliging. Usually I'm the one taking photos but having someone else capture the moments & details was great and freed me up to talk to people. Plus I realize I'm not that adventurous when it comes to posing for my own photos, so having someone suggest photo poses was new.

Party favors:

My aunt was so cute - she brought a basket of little sweets that were appreciated by the kids in particular. And my grandma made nonya kueh. Love her.

I enjoyed:

Having my family chip in to help with the set-up and packing-up. 

I realised:

It's important to make the effort to keep relationships going, especially old ones. They're like trees - more beautiful with age.

I am glad:

That my dad was well enough to enjoy himself.

That my guests mingled so nicely.

That it went smoothly.  

Mission accomplished. Thank you God!

Old Neighbourhoods: Tiong Bahru

This year (and indefinitely), travel plans are on hold.

Which isn't a bad thing, as it's pretty relaxing staying put.

And there are quite a lot of things to do in Singapore if you put some effort into doing more than the usual eat/shop/chill combo.

Like sight-seeing around Tiong Bahru and taking photos of old buildings. Admittedly, food features quite strongly in this sort of adventure too.

Tiong Bahru Market, home to delicious local food (and cheap too).

Old buildings.

Round the corner from Seng Poh Lane, there is Por Kee Restaurant (good zhi char food - yummy!) 

I love sights like this. Low-rise buildings, roads, bright yellow lines on dark grey roads, set against a clear tropical sky.

The story behind: cat in the doorway

So anyway I thought of a new random series - 'the story behind' my instagram photos. Or at least, some thoughts behind a photo.

Where: Haji Lane

When: A warm day in June, after lunch and on a day of tending to medical matters and whatnot. 

With: The BFF

What: 

I like the old shophouses, peeling paint and graffiti, contrasted with air-conditioned interiors and purveyors of pretty trinkets and atas items.

I like the quirky things you find along the lane, really dingy on the outside, and right along a narrow road (watch out for the occasional vehicle!). The cat in the doorway (name: Jack) looking out languidly onto the street was an unexpected sight. It's funny how things and places sometimes remind you of people - and the cat reminded me of my brother, who likes cats.

I like how I found a little respite & oasis in the middle of my day. If I could bottle up the feeling of that day, it would be a little warm and fuzzy.

Here's looking at you, kid

I had a good time gallivanting tonight. Bought new craft stuff from Made With Love that I can't wait to use. Serendipitously bumped into Chelle who has a discount card! Whee. Hopped over to vivocity where I met up with my cousin who's temping at the national geographic store's Big Blue exhibit. Oh, the funny questions passers-by have asked...is it real?..(feeding time's at 4, she says, deadpan. She has her dad's sense of humour.) Anyway, the exciting thing to a stationery freak like me was there were free notebooks up for grabs! Fill in a short quiz related to the exhibit and exchange it for a notebook at the nearby very cool Nat Geo store. I want to go back to the Nat Geo store soon and check out all there cool stuff. the exhibit's on only till 3 may, folks! I know, I know - I've been caught, hook, line and sinker :) Ok I just had to say that.

You give me (F1) fever

I had a VIP box at the first ever F1 night race!
Well, it seemed like that anyway.
My aunt's suntec city office overlooks the F1 circuit near Raffles Boulevard where there are 3 curves in the road quite close to each other.
So I joined her on Friday night when the teams were doing test runs.Perched myself on her office table, munched on a carl's junior burger and fries, slurped my coke, and watched the cars go round the circuit like newbies on Need For Speed (here we go now). They went round the corner gingerly. They got better at it with every lap they took, and the progress was really cool to see. Above them, long lines of cars passed by serenely on the Benjamin Sheares bridge (why am I not surprised that there's a wikipedia entry?). Incidentally, Dr Benjamin Sheares delivered my father. How cool is it to have been delivered by a man who later became Singapore's 2nd President?

Back to F1. The cars were very loud. And that's an understatement. There was an incessant buzzing sound, which was loud and clear even from an enclosed office space!

I expanded my knowledge of the F1 universe... In addition to the instantly-recognisable Ferrari red, I can now tell a Mclaren-Mercedes car (orange and black...but looks like red and black). And a Honda (err I think it's white and green).

I wasn't an F1 fan but it's much more interesting to me now.

Sunday Afternoon

Finally made it to MAAD, the Market of Artists and Designers, which is held on the first weekend of each month. Well I don't know about the 'bustling weekend market' it was billed as but it was interesting. The folks from the proletariat poetry factory made me wish we hadn't disposed of our old typewriter...saad... I liked their whole set up, the cute red jumpsuits and the whole i-am-a-slave-to-the-poetry-machine thing (read about them here).

Then on to Chinatown for dessert. Just a taster, though - we have got to make it back there for a whole afternoon of exploration and culinary delights!

In the evening - a date with my cousins to watch Camp Rock. "b-t-w, your lip gloss is sooo not glossy anymore"...ha ha! That is my new favourite lame line which I shall be using with great relish at the next opportune opportunity with the JB-besotted teens in my life.

On a more serious note... my grandma had a health scare this morning, though it turns out it is probably just vertigo and she's resting well at home right now. Still, she decided to divide her jewellery among her 5 daughters and 11 grandchildren. I don't know what to say. Sigh.

Publish Post

Fri nite out

A Friday night out actually requires some effort on my part. I'm one of those people who get energized by peace & quiet rather than going out and painting the town red. Still, once I'm out I enjoy myself. Even if I do get sleepy at a really early hour (let's just say some of my friends' toddlers sleep later than I do).

Tonight I had dinner with my folks and a family friend, auntie esther. Oh, and as the saying goes, it never rains but pours... a couple of days ago, my colleague bought these pricey & exotic mooncakes. Turned out my dad had a liking for them, so I got him a box yesterday. Kinda nice to be extravagant with your nearest and dearest. Then tonight, guess what auntie esther happened to get us...??? So now we have TWO boxes in the fridge. My dad is a happy man indeed.

Tonight's adventure consisted of dining at Shatec's Rosette restaurant just off Killiney Road, about 5 minutes from Somerset MRT. Rosette, housed in an old colonial building together with a Shatec-run 3-star hotel, is a place for Shatac students to train on the job. It was cute to see them so earnest and in deep concentration - "Hello sir, how was the starter?""Could you give us your feedback about the main course?" I don't think I've had so much attention in a restaurant before, nor so many people smiling at me over the course of dinner. The place reminded me of a similar set-up in Hanoi for disadvantaged kids to learn a trade. I think this place is a great idea.

For $28 nett, we had a salad and scallop appetiser, soup, a little sorbet, stewed duck & duck confit, strawberry mousse for dessert and coffee. To keep things simple for the students, everyone gets the same menu with two choices for the main course. The food was decent and thoughtfully presented. Surprisingly, the place was almost full. Not your usual fine dining crowd, there were whole families there to support their kin, bunches of student types there to see their friends in action, squealing at the sight of them in chefs' attire or other uniforms. So it was a pretty laid-back atmosphere, though not for the students who were kept on their toes!

Handmade musings

I'm dreaming of handmade things. Cards, jewellery, prints...pretty artsy things. I wish we had cool craft-y flea market type places here, and a groundswell of artistry and craftmanship. I'm slowly browsing through the vendors exhibiting at the renegrade craft fair in Chicago.

6 months ago we were at a timeout-organised flea market which turned out to be ok-ayyyy. Pity it was a wet and rainy Sunday and there were just a handful of people wandering in to look. I remember some nice decorations for kids' rooms made by a Bali-based artist though, and I got a pretty necklace from these folks.

I like browsing people's shops in Etsy (oh what a nicely whimsical name for a craft haven). Like this one called Made by Hank. The pictures above are details of some of the bags this lady has made. I'm always drawn to POCKETS and HOOKS (in caps because they make me go Oooh! They just appeal to the ORGANISER fanatic in me...). I LOVE COMPARTMENTS for phones & keys. And the words she's sewen are so cute! I would do that...but for cards or little booklets, not for bags :)

I wonder if I could make anything for sale....just a little cottage industry. I wouldn't be surprised if handmade stuff is already or will be a big cottage industry in the next few years.

A pair of homebodies hits town

Tonight's dinner: French, Roman & Japanese... i.e. French onion soup, Caesar's salad, Tokyo chicken soup and ice lemon tea at The Soup Spoon, where the good folks apparently live for soup... The French onion soup was dee-li-cious.

Hazel and I, two self-declared homebodies, braved the crowds at City Hall to have a nice night out. Turns out I'm not the only person on this island to love notebooks, stationery, craft stuff and whatnot!

Movie Nite!

My first movie preview. Whee.
Despite the poor reviews, I enjoyed the movie. It was a welcome flight of adventure. Then again, I have been a fan since I was about 7 and had a crush on Luke Skywalker...

A Walk Down Haji Lane

Finally got down to pulling the Haji Lane pix together. This photo spread is dedicated to the gals who gamely walk down odd streets with me and share my love of a good adventure looking for the perfect spot for afternoon tea and great photo angles!

On this trip, we finally got to try Food for Thought, a self-described "quirky little diner where you can get great homestyle comfort food at a good price". The peach crumble with vanilla ice-cream was yummy (but it can get a little too sweet so make sure you have friends to share it with)! Food for thought is not at Haji Lane but is a short stroll from Bugis Junction and Bras Brasah.

At Henderson Waves

Recently we had a work outing to the southern ridges, all in the name of team building and healthy living... I'd always wanted to check out that walk. It was swelteringly hot but I had a good time anyway. Was left with cool photos and a sun tan :) this photo was taken in one of the so-called 'Henderson waves'.

Night at the museum

With my mum at the national musuem, exploring before the night festival starts. I enjoyed showing her the fashion and food galleries. She was very much interested in the making of a cheongsam and the illustrations of fruit. My mum's cool to do explorations with.