Charity Dinner

What was supposed to be a Boys Night of Charity Dinner by the Rugby Association sponsored by Standard Chartered, due to few guys dropping out, at the last minute myself and my 'single' girlfriend was invited to join the dinner party. It's almost impossible to have a single, eligible and up for anything fun girlfriend who arrives on time, with a 2-3 hour notice to a dinner party and is dressed quite appropriate for the occasion! (Joyce is the pretty one with white shirts and black top). The other pretty girl is Daniella, Matt's friend from South Africa.

I guess majority of the guests were male and they were there for 2 guest speakers who's supposed to be famous in the Rugby world... but we were just chatting and drinking...

Next day, Matt, Joyce and I, and probably all 400 people in that room had a headache! damn red wine!

Sisters Trip to Bali

As a birthday gift from Matt to me (Matt had to go to Phuket 10s with his Rugby mates!), he got me a flight to Bali and a 2nights stay in Ubud to spend time with Emi.

We had fun when we were still students, when we were in the 20s and now, well into our 30s, we have just as great time, maybe better, because we are wiser and richer...

Had a lot of fun staring at the painting in the hotel room, which Emi end up buying :) This must be the theme of the trip.... And the the shooting stars....

Caught up with Momo-san who's soaking herself into the local life, made me feel like I too, dipped my toes in the local scene for the first time, in an otherwise very tourist/resort place.

Going back home, we both felt a little guilty for having fun. Thanks Mom for taking care of Rique, thanks Dai-chan for letting Emi go for the whole weekend and thanks Matt for the gift of good memories with my only sister.

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.

Last day in Bangkok

Woke up pretty fresh, we went to Chatuchak market, mainly for me and my shopping pleasure.
Many shops were closed but I managed to buy what I like under S$50. It's truely 'chiip chiippe'.
We had some time until Lunch time so we decided to take advantage of the chiiip chiip massage place for a whole body oil massage. And I mean the healthy kind. Or so I thought...
For lunch, we met up with Sylvie and Marc to a Moet free flow, all you can eat seafood lunch at Intercontinental Hotel.
From oysters, salmon sashimi to foie gras, we had a satisfying catching up lunch for only 1500Bhat each.
It was a nice weekend getaway, not in Singapore nor to Jakarta as usual.
This time we only scratched the surface, but we will definitely go back for more soon!

Wet in Bangkok

Woke up with a slight hangover, we headed out to a sunny day on the river.
Took the canal boat exclusive to ourselves (show off), we went a detour to the back canal, between houses of the local people, then back into the main river to the Grand Palace. Matt said it's a bit like Venice.

We then got off and saw the big chilled out Buddah and some temples.

The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water.
People roam the streets with buckets of water or water guns, even a garden hose and drench each other and helpless tourists, like us.
Originated by pouring water gently over Buddah statues symbolizing good luck to the New years, and also to celebrate the harvest which was brought by water, it's just seems like a good excuse to play with water.
We had been warned but was attacked, by what we thought were innocent playful kids on the streets, while riding on Tuk-Tuk on the way to lunch. We were drenched to our under pants with one good splash!
Saturday night, we went to FACE bar, and ate at Lan Na Thai.
Only after being recommended by Sylvia I realized that I do have to go there!
Lan Nah Thai and Hazara in Jakarta was once my playground, where Emi perfected her hosting skills 15 years ago!
And thanks to that, I met Steve who is now the Manager in Bangkok.
Matt and I got pretty drunk by the cocktails and the 2 complimentary Mojito from Steve, we went back to the hotel and had an early night.

Two Nights in Bangkok

This Bangkok trip was a X'mas gift from last year from Matt, and the date was randomly selected.
Little that we know, it was a New Years Eve in Thailand - Songkarn - which is celebrated every year on 13 April to 15 April.
The traditional things to do on Songkarn for the Thai people is to visit Wat (temples) and visit relatives, just like our New Year.
So the streets were quiet and we managed to avoid the infamous traffic!
We stayed at LUXX hotel, a stylish gayish hotel in the city (which was Matt's choice...). There are only 13 rooms and so the service was very personal. There was a wooden bath tab, DVD and iPod player in a room that has a living area, tiny kitchen (won't use it anyway) and a huge comfortable bed. I so support these boutique hotels!

Met Sylvia and Marc who just moved to Bangkok in January at 'Spring & Summer', a very posh Italian restaurant bar in a 2 story glass villa.
Oversized white and black bean bags were placed in a big garden, it's like having a chill out party at some billionaire's house.
After that Matt and I ventured into Patpong, just to experience what Bangkok's night is famous for. We went into King's Corner which I later discovered, has the largest collection of post-operative transsexuals in Bangkok.
But maybe because of the New Years and all, the whole atmosphere felt softened and tamed.
Here's Matt going for the favorite snacks of the Thai people - crickets, grass hoppers and bugs. Deep fried and seasoned heavily with salt and sauce, Matt said it's just like pork scrachings. We offered them to the girls and soon found ourselves popular among the hungry girls.

Matt's Best Friends

After the wedding, we drove up to London to meet Matt's closest friends.
We decided not to go to the actual rugby game, instead, went to a pub to watch it.
First we had lunch at an Italian restaurant where they greeted us with Champagne, then we went to a pub, England won and happily we went to a lounge for more drinks, then we went to Rules restaurant http://www.rules.co.uk/restaurant/ which was established in 1798, the oldest restaurant in London. It serves traditional British food and I had rabbit meat- a wonderful meal, then we went to an Oyster bar for more champagne and a gulp of an oyster.
Such looseness and merry good time.
Vicky, Jim, Ginge and Kiwi - said they will come to our wedding in August, which is really nice to know. They miss having Matt in London and Matt's finally missing living in London.

Horsham, West Sussex

Before and after the wedding, we stayed at Matt's parent's place in Horsham and also drove down to Brighton on the last day.
In Horsham, we went to the O'Leary's favorite pub, had wholesome home cooked food (oh, how Matt misses his sausages...), walked around the arcades and went to the family's hairstylist who keeps cute chickens that hatch lovely eggs!.
It was nice to get to know Matt's home town again.
Matt's brother Paul and wife Lucy and baby Ned came to visit us too.