Jakarta - pre Hen's weekend!

What a fulfilling weekend it was.

Apart from a 2 hour delay at Changi Airport thus starting the drinking at Harry's...

Then the ridiculously cheap yet full-on whole day spa and massage indulgence...
Eating - is always more than just good, especially with my loud but loving family and extended family...

And a Girls Night Out with obscene amount of sparkling wine and clubbing at Blowfish, ending with private room Karaoke session at moemoe open just for us, surrounded by my favorite girlfriends...

And the highlight of this trip must be the Reiki experience and opening up of Chakra. I felt it man... I felt the master's energy, man...

On the way back, for the first time in a long time, I felt truly contented and grateful for everything.

James Blunt

I know.... But it's JAMES BLUNT!
(Matt's brother or Just like Matt, who just gets more cheer - according to Matt)
James Blunt produced a really good 1st album and a pretty good 2nd album so yes, it was definitely worth it.
He sang all of his hit songs like "HIGH" - what a great song!
He said in his 1st album, he got many reviews from people that "HIGH" is a song of Birth and "Good Bye My Lover" is a song of Death, having both Birth and Death in 1 album.
So he came up with "I'll Take Everything" for his 2nd album, which is a song of Divorce - and he got some laughs.
He sang for about 2hours and even ran over to the audience a bit, played piano/guitar, oh and what a unique voice! It's like wow...
So lucky to have such talent... though his hair was a bit messy and he wasn't as good looking as what I see from the music videos and covers. (Matt's definitely cuter!)

ELTON JOHN & the band

My first concert from a Legend. He came down for a one night performance in Singapore before going to Australia.
Ticket was $475 each, so it's steep for my standard, but if you think that it's Sir Elton John, we will all nod right? What more, now that my better half is English.
And did Matt hesitate? no.Show was supposed to start at 8pm, but at 8:10pm, I was still waiting for Matt to finish a meeting at Millenia Tower. At that point, I gave up going to the concert and was drinking a sorrowful consolation beer downstairs, alone.
But Matt wasn't going to waste his hard earned money for a boring meeting!
He came down and shoved me in a taxi and off we went.
The show didn't start til 8:45 and we managed to have a can of Tiger before it started.Crowd consisted mainly of Caucasians with average age of 40, with a male/female ratio of 1:1.
He sang many old and newer hit songs like 'Sacrifice', 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word', 'Tiny Dancer', 'Candle in the Wind', as well as songs that I would skip in the album like 'Crocodile Rock'.
But anyway, he sang for almost 3 hours with 2 encore songs, I thought that was very generous. And yes, he has a very good voice and he has that diva aura.
Also, thanks to Matt's live energy, we went up close to the stage, danced and held each other and waved arms to 'Don't let the sun go down on me', and I thought that was the sweetest moment.

My New Bike!

For being a good girl (or not?), Matt got me a new bicycle from a bicycle shop in East Coast!
Now I can go cycling with him!

It's so cute and makes me wanna ride my bike all the time!

Cindy and Alexis

Had not seen Cindy since last December. This cheeky busy oil trader girl and her restless boyfriend Alexis invited me and Matt for a BBQ dinner at their house where they moved in 2 months ago.Took Priya who came back to Singapore for the weekend. Matt and I was just looking for a place to move in around that area in the afternoon.
An old but chilled out house with a little garden. So seeing our friend settling down the way we imagined we would, was such an inspiration. It felt like we were meant to go to visit them that night. On that note, it was like a house warming party, but young Alexis is bored of Singapore and wants to work in Bali. I'd offer my help whatever I can as I know, this other power couple will do just fine wherever they go.

Sachiko

She came to Singapore for visa and I met up with her for the first time in 15 years.
She went to the wrong train station where we were supposed to meet and we delayed our supposedly amazing meeting, went out for drinks and got pretty high and loud, made me and my friends laugh, went back to my place for more drinks and decided to sleep over, next day she could not function well until 3pm, started having too much fun and almost missed her flight!

Being with her for 1 day and a half, I can say - That's the Sachiko I know.

Just hanging out

Iain left to China for work - we hope he will be happy and succeed, but we also think and kind of hope he will be back soon...

Favorite Power Couple

When Matt decided to move to Singapore, his friend in Japan introduced Matt to Simon who lives in Singapore for the past 6 years. That was just 1 and a half years ago.
That's how Matt found his buddy. Put the two together and it's a trouble!
Carol, Simon's wife is a super woman in many ways. A respected career woman, loving wife, witty and fun girlfriend. This power couple is leaving Singapore for good, back to London - against their will, what can you say, that's the expat life. They will be missed.

My one and only Nephew

Look how handsome Rique is now!



He's 9 months old and he just came back from his first social outing - meeting other Japanese babies and toddlers just like him.