Interesting Stuff

Before I start my super long post with tons of photos about The Singapore Airshow 2012, let me first wish all my girl friends and female readers a Happy Women’s Day!

I was at the Singapore Airshow 2012 on both the trade days as well as the public day and it was absolutely day and night!

On the trade days, the dress code was smart casual so no shorts and singlets! There were much less crowds and you got to see a lot more static displays of airplanes which was great! I got to view of the new 787 Dreamliner and Jackie Chan’s plane.  It was also pretty fun being able follow Vernetta Lopez around as she did her Live Roving report for radio.

By the way, the pink Audrey lapel shirt dress I’m wearing is from Eternity Loft  ( http://eternityloft.livejournal.com) and it fits like charm!

Public days on the other had was crazily crowded but the air was filled with a lot more excitement and OOOOHs and AHHHs from families and people from all over the region. They didn’t just come here because it’s business, they came to the Singapore Airshow because it’s the biggest aviation exhibition in Asia and they can catch a glimpse of the progression of technology and be fascinated and how men have taken control of the skies.

The flying display was obviously the highlight of the day. It was so mesmerizing seeing the planes zip pass right before our eyes, defying gravity, zooming straight into the clouds then emerging in triumph! I had 2 favorites I was hopelessly cheering for that day. The first one has got to be Tony Blair’s amazing stunt plane performance. When he did the ‘freefall’ on the Rebel 300, my heart sank along with it and when it soared again so did my spirits!

My next favorite is an easy guess. The Roulettes! The Roulettes are the current Royal Australian Air Force aerobatic display team and their demonstration was exhilarating! 18 aerobatic maneuvers were performed at a separation distance of less than 3 meters from aircraft to aircraft. It’s a beautiful illustration of precision, teamwork, synergy, trust and pure technical skill. I was totally wow-ed over! Even watching them a 2nd time on the public day didn’t make it any less amazing.

This was also the first time I got a close clear view of the B52 bomber! It was huge! The 2 thoughts that came to my mind when I first saw the B52 was if that was the plane I used for carpet bombing in the game ‘Generals’ and how did the drink B52 came to be associated with this plane. Super random I know!

The invited bloggers all had a great view of the whole ariel display from the private balcony of the restaurant. Clear wonderful view! The only complaint probably is that the weather was crazily hot! I had a slight sun burnt and that’s with sunscreen on!

I didn’t go around to see all the planes (there were just so many!) but I did make a stop at a few prominent ones! The Boeing 787 Dreamliner (no photos here but I instagram it that day.), the retired Boeing 747 from Singapore Airlines (yup, there’s gonna be no more iconic Boeing 747 planes for SQ passengers.), the unmanned drones (which is the future of flights) and F35- Lighting II which is one of the advance joint strike fighters.

And just before I left the Airshow, these planes were going pass my car so I really got to see them up close.

I’m posting this exactly 2 months after the event. That’s how much I’m lagging behind!

Every year, I’ll throw a Christmas party and the venue’s been at my place for quite a few years running. There’s always so much to do every year and since I usually do a little hands on cooking, it’s a whole day affair! I even had to miss Debbie’s party in the afternoon cause there just wasn’t enough time for me to make it to her party and back to cook.

After having so much left over turkey the last year, this time, I decided that baked rosemary chicken would be more than enough. I also decided to do my own honey baked ham, baked pineapples, sour plum and tomato granita, vinaigrette watermelon cubes  and chocolate dipped strawberries among other offerings. Thank goodness I had Andrew come help me in the kitchen! He was a super hardworking guest and a life-saver!

My godson and his family were the first guests arrive and I was still rushing in and out of the kitchen in my apron waiting for all my goodies to finish baking in the oven! A quick couple of shots with my little godson before I had to go freshen up. He’s such a cutie, no wonder he is Santa’s favorite!

By the time I rushed in to change, all my guests started arriving. I invited the same usual friends but I guess the circle must have expanded somehow (with plus ones and little ones) because there were about 30 people in my tiny little apartment! I even ran out of seats at one point! Thankfully most of them staggered their arrival so it didn’t seem that overwhelmingly crowded.

Louis and Emmie get really excited when there is a party cause they love people and they were more than happy to help entertain the guests while I was setting up the table. I bought the reindeer ears in London and the Christmas hats in Daiso and they have been wearing this costume every christmas for 3 years now.

Some of my guests asked me before the party if there was a dress code and I said “Red” on a whim! And the girls really all came in red! How sporting! Maybe I should come up with a more adventurous theme for 2012. Some of my very kind guests brought food to contribute the the Christmas feast!

Although there was so much food! Everything was wiped out by the end of the night! I guess I got the proportions just right this time instead of the massive leftovers I had last year.

I hope all my guest had a good meal that night. It was a relatively simple gather, eat and mingle party but I had  a good time knowing that all my friends were able to spend Christmas together. I’m pretty traditionalist that way.

Next was the present exchanging time. This part got a little chaotic cause there were so many people oohing and ahhing over their gifts. The base of my tree was overflowing with presents. But everyone had something which was really fun!

I think I missed out a lot of people at my party in the photos and I never got round to asking everyone for a group shot! I shall make a mental note of that for the next party.

JW and E were the official photographers of the night. JW can be found at most corners of my house! He looks really stressed out when taking photos but he’s been taking really good pictures!

Everyone left at different times and I think my last guests left at 6am and I had a tornado of pates, pots and what-nots in the kitchen. Thanks goodness I had a dish washer and lovely sweet souls like, Andrew, Janice and Lian Khye who helped me clean up the place.  We all sat down for some more wine and champagne when it was all quite. Louis and Emmie worked as mascots to send each guests off to the door at the end of the night.

Was it tiring? Of course. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I don’t love to throw parties, and I hate to clean up. But I do enjoy having all my friends together, happy and contented. The quality time spent on an occasion like Christmas with family and friends are ranked pretty high up my priority list and I hope that there will be so much fun, laughter and happiness every year. Christmas is the time of the year I count my blessings.

Hey I know how very last season I’ve become when I’m posting Christmas photos and happenings in February! But life happens too fast too furious and I haven’t been having enough spare time to do massive leisure blogging. So I’m way way way behind! But better late than never right? And in the next couple of posts ( I just can’t fit all the photo watermarking and uploading in one sitting!), I’ll be touching on my Christmas season happenings.

Christmas has always been a big season for me. And it was almost an impossible task to find time off work to squeeze with the crazy crowd in town to do my Christmas shopping! I like to buy items for friends that I believe they will truly like and use so it takes awhile to pick and choose. It’s also pretty harmful to my own pocket to be tempted by the array of choices and wanting to get an extra one for myself as well! And then after choosing all the presents, it comes the wrapping! I did some wrapping at the stores but mostly I did some home DIY because the queue for gift wrapping intimidates me and I just don’t have the time to spare to wait in line. For all my friends who received Christmas gifts from me, I hope you like what you got!

This is taken at one of my usual weekly visits to my godson Leo!

He’s a little older and so much more fun these days. I swear he’s the happiest little kid! Every little silly thing can make him giggle for hours! I think Sushi has done a tremendously wonderful job of taking care of little Leo. He really is very lucky to have such a loving and capable mum. And I’m very happy to have such an adorable godson as well! Whenever I’m feeling stressed or tired, a photo of him can really perk me up! Sushi is constantly sending me pictures and videos of his daily behavior so I won’t miss out on his growing process as well!

Here’s an outfit shot of what I wore that day.

Almost everyone owns something from Apple. iPad, iPod, iPhone, iMac and I think my dogs want in on the action as well. See how they hover around the iMac all the time!

I started off blogging about my trip with mum to Malacca to take her on a food trip but I never had the time to sort through the photos to continue posting so bear with me as parts of this trip continue to be shared in a rather inconsistant manner as I post whenever I get segments of photos sorted out.

If you have ever been to Malacca, you will know that the Christ Church and all the surrounding red buildings are absolutely impossible to miss! Situated in the heart of the malacca town, these buildings are part of the listed UNESCO heritage sites.

The church built in 1741 was actually originally painted in white and only in 1911 did all the buildings in the dutch square get a red coat of paint. The color was so distintive that it remains till today, the hallmark of Malacca’s Dutch era buildings.

Inside the Christ Church you’ll find hand crafted pews that are at least 200 years old! The ceiling beam of the church was made from one single wooden tree truck and has no joints in it! Look out also for a brass bible and the inscriptions on the tombstones.

The area generally makes for a good photo spot and it explains the dozens of photos mum and I took as well as the countless of tourists in that area. Another building to note in the Dutch Square is the Stadhuys. It was built in 1650 and is the oldest remaining Dutch building in Asia and is now the home of Malacca’s Museum of History and Ethnography.

Next we decided to leave my park car and headed for a short stroll by the Malacca River! Before long, the sun had set and we needed to get a quick meal before heading back to our hotel.

Hailed as one of the best outdoor dance festival in Asia, it is the largest one in South East Asia and must go event for any hard core clubbing fanatic in Singapore. Despite that, I had no intention at all to go for Zoukout 2011 until the very last moments where I was swayed by friends. I’ve heard of so many horror stories of girls getting groped and molested while at Zoukout so I decided to be covered up in tee and shorts rather than strutting around in a bikini.

I headed down with Jun, Yitian, Regina, Fabian and JW. But we all met up with more friends that night such as Yan, Melvin, Kay Kay and Eric. It was a maddening crowded and it was a good thing that we camped out at the VIP Singtel teepee for most of the night so we had a fair bit of chilling space. Most of the peeps that went got pretty wasted and it was interesting to see how different personalities emerges when intoxicated. It’s a total release of inhibition which can be pretty fun! If you are wondering if I’m talking about myself, I’m sorry to disappoint as I was absolutely sober that night and even drove everyone out of the island for breakfast before sending them home.