beloved bel

We just had the last bank holiday before Christmas.  We had no concrete plans but one thing consistent was that we wanted to take things slow.  We invited the Geesons over to stay over on Sunday night so we can hang out later and still continue hanging out the next day. On Saturday, Marketa invited us over for an afternoon tea at her new place.  They had their housewarming BBQ the weekend I was in Frankfurt and she wanted to do one just with us girls, which is really sweet. Yes she even had kaya just for me!  What a thoughtful hostess. On Sunday, bright and early at 9am, the hubby suddenly decided he wanted to drive out into the country, to Kent specifically.  I was disappointed I could not have a lie in and wondered where he wanted to drive to.  He said he saw a big lake not far from us and said we will drive there.  "Isn't it fun to explore a bit?"  Right, yes I guess so.  We packed a little bag of breakfast food and were on our...

After so many years here, even my relatively new manager knows I go Germany every Christmas.  And people don't quite understand how a born and bred pure Singaporean girl has German connections?  For this I will forever be grateful to Pris who very graciously welcomed me into her family more than 6 years ago when I came over to London.  Christmas is never meant to be spent alone and for that she has time and again invited me to join the Tews and that's how I came to know the rest of the family.  Sabrina (Pris' sister in law) was here in London for about 9 years and then she left about 3 years ago, now based in Frankfurt. I have not been to Frankfurt and work wise I am on good terms with the Frankfurt team.  They have been asking on and off when I'm planning to visit and so I thought it's time.  I could crash on Sabrina's comfy couch for 2 nights.  We have not properly chatted since she left London it seems?  At the same time, my NTU professor...

It has been a good few weeks since we went to the awesome San Sebastian (or Sanse for short) in Northern Spain in the Basque county.  Geographically I was told that it rains very often (more often than London in fact) but the food there is to-die-for.  One of the foodie treasures of Sanse is the miniature pintxos ("pin-chos") which is a slice of baguette piled high with meat of any kind, held in place by a what we call a satay stick, but the Spanish call it a pintxo.  For me, a peppers lover, I was in peppers heaven.  I especially loved their deep fried peppers, oohlala! We didn't even have to experience any of the Michelin star restaurants even though Sanse boasts of the highest concentration of michelin starred restaurants per one square mile.  Every night we moved from one tapas bar to another, choosing the pintxos we wanted to eat, along with either a glass of wine or a glass of beer.  It is common to stand around, chat, eat and drink.  The at...

In patriotic colours. K's collar was in tiny red and white stripes! Gosh we haven't had such a busy Saturday in ages!  We had 3 parties to go to, two of which started at the same time at 2pm, and finally a National Day gathering at Noelle's in the evening.  Ken and Yiling had arranged to celebrate Edward's second birthday on National Day since it's a Saturday.  And 9th August is Sarah's birthday which she had boldly decided to do a street party (in true spirit of Sisterhood at church, no less).  Initially we decided to go to two of them but K wanted to see Noelle and friends since it has been sometime since we last saw that group of friends.  I guess it's a good problem to have; an active social life.  Whilst we still can I guess. First things first.  9th August is Singapore's 49th birthday.  I woke up feeling all patriotic.  It's quite strange cos I haven't felt like that in ages!  I attribute it to Cindy's influence after spendin...