beloved bel

I've been channeling quite a bit of energy to our garden this summer.  These days I get excited reading garden magazines and that is the level of dedication I'm talking about guys.  This year starting June we have Daniel who comes to do our garden every two weeks and through him, I've learnt what we can do to improve our garden. (I've heard that Anita in my German family has green fingers.  My grandma back home too.  This post is for you both!) Reading garden magazines during tea time For a start, Daniel recommended buying some seeds to grow our lawn evenly.  I got us a big bag of grass seed where he scattered them generously on the lawn.  Then we got 6 big bags of topsoil for him to spread evenly on the lawn.  (Note to self: we probably need 6 more bags)  Thinking that was it, the next thing he suggested us getting was a long hose to water our lawn.  I guess you can't forget about the water can you?  I never imagine...

Just missing M who has moved to Singapore It has been a long time since I met up with my girl friends.  I arranged for us to meet up for brunch this past Saturday to celebrate Sarah and Kine's birthdays.  We decided on a convenient place to meet which was near Tower Bridge.  As we get busy with our daily lives, our meet ups have decreased but it's nice to know we can always pick up from where we left off. A tiny cake with a disproportionately large fireworks candle When the waitress knew we were celebrating birthdays, she gave us 4 glasses of complimentary Kir Royale. So sweet of her! We chatted and updated one another of our lives that morning and promised we need to do this again soon. Our parting shot As I needed to wait around for my next train home, I wandered nearby to my favourite bridge.  Never tire of the view of this bridge.  Whenever Google map takes us over this bridge to our destinations, I get all excited.  Yep, st...

This coming Tuesday will be Singapore's 51st birthday and today we hosted a SG National Day Potluck Lunch at our place!  It's always nice to have friends come over and especially nice if the sun shines and we can hang out in our garden. We sent the invite out about 3 weeks before and asked what people would be bringing, the only criteria that it being a Singaporean/ Malaysian dish.  Soon we had a list of yummy food and cheesy as it may sound, I asked everyone to come dressed in red and white! Group shot! "So patriotic" you might say.  I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder.  I mean, translating this to Singapore, if we were to host a similar party, asking someone to bring local food sounds a bit strange to me, no?  We probably would be eating local food everyday anyway.  I was texting a friend back home two days ago telling her about this potluck lunch and she said she tried to do the same back home for her colleagues and friends but the ...

Our farewell shot of the Ahrntal Valley with our hotel in the distance All good things need to come to an end and so shall this trip too.  On our last day, we decided to set off early and drive to Innsbruck which was about 2h away.  We said our goodbyes to the hotel receptionist who knew us pretty well by now. The drive was smooth and soon we arrived at Innsbruck with mountains in the backdrop.  I remember that winding road which took us down into Innsbruck where we had a breathtaking view of the city.  It's a big city.. well I say big because we just spent 5 days in the mountains so this was a big deal.  We had lunch in a nice restaurant along the motorway and so had 2h left just for Innsbruck.  We walked around with no fixed itinerary in mind, again relying on Google map (thank God for Google maps!).  We got a gelato each again. The river in Innsbruck with majestic mountains in the backdrop Town centre Love this beautiful buildin...