On the road again

Tis a nicely overcast day at Changi.

Friday Night

I is tired.

Original Sin

With the prospect of a late night and/or weekend of work, it seemed
like a good idea to dig in to a good lunch. Absolut penne - laden with
sun-dried tomatoes and slivers of mushrooms in a rich sauce - from
Original Sin at Chip Bee Garden, an area that manages to be both atas
and chill-out at the same time.

Oh I am looking forward to my next holiday... And now, back to work.

Oh Scrappy Day

Lunch time and my colleague and I indulged in some creative activity.
Made cards for some people including cute round cards for all 19 of my
sunday school kids :)

The round stamps belong to my colleague. They work really nicely! And
I love my Love Elsie stamps with the little ladybug. Whee.

Louder than the radio

Dessert Fit For A King

It's durian season. And mangosteen and mango season. Yesterday my
colleagues and I had lunch at one our regular coffeeshops. Someone
bought a whole durian - the full works, not just sterile flesh in a
styrofoam box. After our main dish and drinks, we dug into dessert. It
sure felt like a lazy Friday afternoon.

In which I uncover some subconscious fascinations with farm life

Carolyn shared this blog called Dutch Girl Cooking with me. The Easy Butter recipe consists of cream, salt and pepper. Easiest recipe I ever heard of in my life. I'm not even sure it counts as a recipe (ponder ponder ponder). Still, I was amused - both with the post as well as with my own fascination over the photos. Wow, it turns into BUTTER!!! I think I have deep subconscious fascinations with farming life (and picnics. and adventures. oh boy.), wrought by all those Enid Blyton books I used to read.

I'm bemusedly sharing another blog that I read. Ahem, it's called (building) a little house by the woods. She writes about her work-in-progress farm, how she got there, and cute little craft projects.

If I'm not careful, my romantic notions about farm life may find me settling down in the Kranji Countryside.

For Chelle

~ For Chelle who is super free right now ~

1. This lady used to do design work for martha stewart...very cool stuff. I was inspired by her self-described favourite (craft) trick and her birthday party favours.
2. I like blogs with stories about lives and a bit of creativity thrown in. Now this is a fun project I would like to do someday. Hmm, bug me so I actually get it done.
3. Oh I can totally understand this lady's print addiction. I've saved lots of stuff over the years to re-use in great new ways. But your stuff, my dear, takes the cake :)
4. Of course the ever creative Ali E. ... you might be inspired by this love mini-book/card project.
   

manda :)

Night Out

I'm really quite a homebody. I get tired if I'm out too much in a week. Like if I know I'm going to be busy several nights or have a busy weekend ahead, I start thinking of taking leave, get a little respite from all the activity.

But the occasional night out leaves me feeling refreshed and alive. It feels good to have a change and a total break from everything.

Tonight I met some old friends...it was funny how people just seem the same no matter how many years you haven't seen each other. The only things that have changed are the husbands / houses / job changes and so on that have happened in between. But really, it's like we were still in JC or something.

The other day, Feli and I collected our new ICs (one of those rites of passage...) and we were like, I still feel 20! Being competitive, she had to say she felt like she was 15. Hahahah.

In this day and age of ultra fast communication, it is so nice to have that human touch.

* * *

I got my new Marvy square punch!!! I am such a nut over stationery... :)

Starlight, Star bright

One of my dreams is to see the Milky Way some day.

This comes close: seeing a whole sky chock-full of stars at Tekapo, NZ. Incidentally, tekapo sounds rather Hokkien-ish... oh yes, it sounds like tea-po or something like it (I believe it's the name of a fish that I really really love, fried and shredded and in a bowl of da-mee. yums.

:)

I wish I could linger but...

Today will be busy.
A new IC to collect.
A baby to play with.
Bulletin to do, in church.
Helping out at a senior citizens' CNY dinner, with my very limited hokkien/mandarin.

Side note: I am thinking of signing up for a course on photoshop for scrapbookers.

ttfn!

Singapore dreamin'

A Singapore shophouse spread in the NYT.

If anyone else caught A Kucinta Family Reunion on Channel 5... did they also laugh out loud when they saw the milo tin? I did :)

Isaac for Liz

Oh wow. I like the grey-ness as backdrop to the perky pink, the little bit of graffiti on the wall, Isaac Mizrahi sitting unobtrusively to the side... but what I really like is how a box swivels around with a little story and even a videoclip when you click on the key people in the photo. It was so cool, I was blown away.

From Liz Claiborne.

Un-whining

I love...the colour, the pseudo-maths-likeness, the painting on serviettes with real coffee (ok, he mixed in some paint) and of course, it was all about coffee which as you know, I get a kick out of...Christoph Niemann for the NYT


It was about 9:15 when I was done with breakfast.
I woke up when I wanted to, made coffee and toast, munched distractedly while I flipped through each page of the newspapers.

Come and shred the vegetables for yushang, my mum said.
Ugh, went every bone in my body.
Oh it's only 9:15, she mused. (This from a woman who's already done her ironing this morning)
Right - you didn't see me, I said, channeling penguins from Madagascar.

Ordinarily, I would love helping and getting in the way by taking loads of photos to boot.
But I'm tired out from the week! I'm still unwinding, mum... or un-whining, as she put it. Very cute.

So right now I'm surfing online.
Making my way down my list of frequently-visited blogs. Getting sidetracked on new ones. Yes, I know there's google reader but I like actually visiting the site in its full glory. I want a heart punch! Inspired by this party.

Valentine's day is coming up! I think I'll make cards for my sunday school kids.
But first, Chinese New Year. I think it's high time I cleared the Christmas stuff and other things that have accumulated on my desk. I'm feeling inspired to freshen up my wardrobe too. Tis the season, tis the season.

Time check: 10:26. Sounds of busy-ness are in the background. Time to plunge into the luan-si-ness...

Here's to the long weekend, woohoo! Xing Nian Kuai Le.

I heart my comfort drink

Very simple pleasures

A highlight this week:
A day in which work got done in satisfyingly good time, after which I scooted off to meet Hazel for dinner. I had just enough time to get home first and change into shorts and slippers (bliss!). I walked over to meet her (minor exercise! whee!). We had a nice little dinner of ribs, bbq chicken and oh my, the strawberry shake was good.

Memo to self: sit on swings and watch the stars more often.

Lunch time escapade

Weekend, at last

It has been a week of Monday blues. Or Monday greys. But actually I like both blue and grey. I digress.

I rarely dread going to work but this week was just a long, long, one with mostly late nights and delayed/short lunches.







I really needed a perky non-blue-or-grey screensaver for my phone, and this was it :)










I had a good laugh over this new magnet from Bee, though. Laughter and a listening ear really go a long way... Ack! Even my office furniture is blue!

Another bright spark in the week: Thursday night out with my group of 78 - but more on them another time!

Fresh

I started out on the 3rd of Jan feeling, well, fresh.
Giddy with delight over my new clear stamps and excited...

Fast forward to 7 Jan and I'm so tired. Work has been ... a trial. And one that continues... sigh.

Still, I had a good time in December. Here's about 4 weeks compressed in 4 seconds.

• Family trip to Sarawak. Retro, good ol' family time, seriously overused the words 'kolo mee' (hee! inside joke).
• Youth camp rocked.
• The mad rush to make Christmas cards. Make that two years' worth of cards since I didn't have time to use them all.
• Christmas. I did a honey-baked ham!
• New Year. Just don't tell anyone how boring we were.

Off yet again

Come 5pm on Friday, I will shut down my computer, gather my stuff and hop on the train to Changi Airport. I love Changi... My family and my aunt's family will be in Kuching over the long weekend. We have a hectic weekend planned. There are relatives to meet, a cat musuem to visit, waterfalls to seek out and a beachside pool to lounge by. Oh yes and seafood awaits! Whee.