Shoes Shoes Shoes!

I am trying to swear off heels (and no, in case you are wondering, I am NOT pregnant!). It is for the simple reason that wearing heels, especially very high ones, is VERY EXTREMELY bad for your body!

So I have been looking at flats every time I shopped for shoes these days. I picked up three pairs at one go from Her Glass Slippers the other day and the mission was all accomplished within the lunch period on a weekday! OK OK, I admit it was a longer lunch than usual :)

These black with pink trim ballerina flats has the softest leather ever and is really comfy! Aren't these adorable? They are designed as fishes and even have "scales" on the body (that is, around the shoes). These brown leather flats are strips of leather weaved together - very comfy too!

I still have many pairs of Ferragamo and Bottega heels (some of which are killer heels!) in my shoe cabinet and I haven’t figured out what to do with them yet. Any takers? :P

Beef Stew!

Decided to be domesticated and cook. It has been such a looooooong time since I last cooked (baking at Been's place does not count). And I took the easy way out this time; I used the slow cooker :P

The cut carrots and celery. I love celery! Cut potatoes Beef cubes The sauce that makes the base for the stew gravy Putting the ingredients into the pot Next goes the carrots and celery. Nice mix of colours! Last in are the diced tomatoes, garlic and 1/2 a bay leaf This is how the stew looks like8 hours later - not that appetising...Supposed to cook it for 12 hours. This is the final product! Looks good, huh? It was yummy too! :) I am so inspired that I am already looking up the recipe book for the next dish! Stay tuned!

Chinese New Year 2009

The 15 days of the Lunar New Year is finally over! And I cannot be happier!

As I grow older, the Lunar New Year means less and less. To me, it is just a time to spend money without getting anything "physical" in return. At least when I go shopping, I get clothes, shoes, handbags, food, etc when I spend money.

But for the Lunar New Year, I have to give "ang pow" (otherwise known as red packets) to my parents and to some relatives. Inside these "ang pow" is money as a token for good luck for the new year. Of course, the amount of money can differ depending on who the recipient is. The ones for my parents are the ones that will make me bankrupt someday! But then again, I only have one set of parents who brought me up; who put up with all my nonsense all these years; who love me unconditionally; who supported me in all the decisions that I made (whether good or bad); who dotes and spoils Coffee as much as I would have;.....

Until the next Lunar New Year....

Waikin One Live in Singapore

I missed Waikin Chau the last time he was in Singapore and I told myself that I would catch him the next time he is in Singapore. Booked the concert tickets on the first day it went on sale - so I had pretty good seats in front :)

The concert started at 8pm sharp and went on for 2.5 hours without any intermission. He went off at 1030pm and came back for a 1.5 hours encore! Which means that the concert ended at midnight!

It was one of the better concerts I went to. He had a good rapport with the audience and you could sense his sincerity in his performance. He actually cried when he was saying the last song.

The stage setting for the concert. The theme was "Rooftop" so the stage had things which you would find in a typical rooftop I like this style of his - casual setup with a guitar - non pretentious His costumes are not as fancy but his rapport with the audience and his voice made up for it
Waikin got a very good review in the local newspapers after the concert

Quote of the Day

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be...It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for."

- Erica Jong

Terrible Thursdays

I hope this Terrible Thursdays trend does not continue into the whole of 2009!

There had been five Thursdays in 2009 so far and I was totally and absolutely so upset on three of them! That’s not a good record to start the brand new year with!

We started 2009 with New Year Day on a Thursday. It was a pretty good day – I went to test-drive the Mazda 2 and the Opel Corsa just for the fun of it. Then I did a nice 7.5km jog around Bedok Reservoir before heading for dinner with a close friend. So, first Thursday of the new year – nice and sweet.

I only worked for half a day in the morning on the second Thursday of 2009. My brother registered his marriage in the afternoon. Then I went to Tiong Bahru Plaza to pick up some running attire. In the evening, we catered dinner @ home for the couple’s friends to celebrate the marriage.

My brother got drunk during the dinner because his friends were making him drink all around. And my brother was upset with me over some things that I had said previously. Then I had a good heart-to-heart talk with my dad till like 2am in the morning.

Now, for those of you who know my dad, he does come across as being hip and modern. I used to go for karaoke sessions with him and he encourages his children to drink (whether for good or bad) from a young age. But at the core of his being, my dad is a very traditional Chinese dad who believes that his main duty to the family is to take care of and provide for the family and bring home the bacon.

So I was surprised that he cornered me for the talk. We talked about a lot of things – life, work, family, friends, happiness, marriage, Coffee and so on. I cried and I cried buckets. I cried till I could not breathe through my nose coz it was blocked by mucus. I cried so much till my eyes were so puffy and horrible looking the next morning!

The third Thursday was pretty “normal” (given that the definition of “normal” can mean very different things to different people). I caught up with Cindy over lunch at her cart in Suntec. There was a working dinner in the evening at Orchard. I still remember that we had Peranakan food.

I woke up with a pain in my stomach on the fourth Thursday of 2009. It was not like a stomachache pain nor was it a churning pain. It was that kind of pain where it makes you want to do nothing but to curl up in bed in a dark room and sleep it away. But unfortunately, I had to be at work. I went for a hard and fast 7km run in the evening hoping that the run will make me feel better. Well, it did make me feel better until I met up with a close friend for dinner.

We had a nice dinner at East Coast Park and took a nice walk after that. To cut a long story short, I ended the night feeling upset because of “expectations” issues.

I ended the last Thursday of January 2009 upset again. The day started out bright and cheery though and I bought a good Crystal Jade farewell lunch for my intern who was going back to school. After lunch, I got upset at work because I found out that my boss, for selfish reasons of her own, refused to allow me to go on an internal audit assignment of a Joint Venture property we have. I wanted to go for this assignment because I believe that it will be a great learning opportunity given that we do not have many Joint Ventures and I have not done an audit of a property before.

And then I got upset with a close friend and at myself due to some miscommunications (let me tell you: Texting through mobile phones can be such a bane!). It made me felt so horrible so what did I do? I went for a run – my usual antidote whenever I feel upset although I really don’t know if psychologically, I literally run because I am hoping to (figuratively) run away from it all! So I went to bed feeling upset on the fifth Thursday of 2009.

So there you go - some Terrible Thursdays in January. I am definitely hoping that the subsequent months will be much better - mabbe some Fantastic Fridays will be great! :)