S, M, L, XL

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

Right now at this present time in life, what brings a smile to your face? Warm words of encouragement after a long day at work, a home cooked bowl of chicken noodle soup or simple white congee when you've caught the cold, a photograph with your family or friends on that awesome trip, a surprise from your significant other or just relaxing at home with a nice cup of tea whilst watching TLC ;)? Well for me, at this current moment I'm looking back at some random photos and a lot of them made me smile. Maybe one of these days I'll post some photos from my Jan/Feb North America trip. So much fun and amazing food. I'm really craving for that next vacation which is coming up in exactly 72 days.  

No. 1 on my happy list: yellow ducks <3

My close friends know that I totally squeal when I see a cute yellow duck. It all began like 5 years ago when I went to Tokyo with Karen. I got this lil coin pouch and it's been with me ever since. I think I brought the duck craze to HK...and when the giant rubber duck from Florentijn Hofman came to town, daaannng the city went crazy for duck-themed products. I have to admit that I did go check it out in Tsim Sha Tsui, pushing past the tourists and locals alike trying to take photos of this adorable balloon sculpture. What's not to like and I'm glad I got to to see it. o'.'o 

No. 2: Sugar Cravings

Yes, as one might tell from my instagram photos, I take alot of dessert photos. I can't help it and I try occasionally to take less obsessive omnomnom photos. I've been trying some gluten free products and anyone in HK should totally check out Little Giant in Causeway Bay. They sell a nice variety of gluten free and organic foods (Dr. Schar is awesome!) Nevertheless once in a while, one does need to indulge and overload on sugar!! ^^ 

No. 3: Buying silly things

haha  a surprise online purchase from J. The famous ostrich pillow!!! haha Yeah it's totally hilarious and nerdy. I'd bet it'd get alot of weird stares if I wore it in public.  

No. 4: Cooking with my man. 

We've got our aprons on, radio streaming and it's just pretty therapeutic chopping and stirring away.  Ever since we've got the persian rice cooker in LA, we've been doing tah dig (crispy rice) ALOT. I never ate rice before during meals but now I can't get enough. Something about basmati rice, they're so fluffy and light. Nehoo the other day we made slow cooked baby back ribs for the first time with our own spice marinade and a slathering of Stubbs bbq sauce afterwards. I was telling my mom how the meat was falling off the bone because we cooked it for 2 hours but she laughed because she preferred it to be chewy and quick bake in the oven. Nevertheless definitely will try to do more Chinese soup and change up the dishes. How on earth did my mom cook for us almost every single day.. and until I was in my teens I don't really remember helping her that much much. 

No. 5: My recent love ~ballet~

About 3 weeks ago I began taking ballet class with my friend and starting in July I'm going to take 2 classes per week to train on flexibility and other spiffy moves hehee. You might thing golly isn't she abit old to be starting ballet, well the answer is no. I'm going to see how far I can go and I look forward going on pointe in approx 1 years time (hopefully less if I gain enough strength). hehe I always enjoyed watching ballet performances and although I did take some ballet classes when I was 5 years old, it never occurred to me that I should try again until my high school friend recently asked me to join her.  So here I am, loving it and wishing that I started earlier. For those who want a good glimpse of the lives of some talented youngsters, check out 'First Position' an American documentary about kids/teens who train obsessively in hopes of earning a spot in elite schools. For me of course I do it part time and it's a nice change from the using running/elliptical machines.  Oh additionally I really enjoy stretching too :P  Of course long gone are my gymnastic years but would be nice if one day I can touch my knees with my nose. I've never been this excited for class and it's also nice having that time aside just for yourself. What do you look forward to accomplishing? Be it something trivial or large, everyone should keep up their interests and/or pick up a new hobby. :)

I see blue hairs growing

Have to admit the weather in Hong Kong hasn't been too great recently. It's been raining alot but when there is sunshine, everyone is just thrilled. :) I think we take too many things for granted, in particular very simple things like fresh air. Yes I know HK is classified as being polluted but hey better than Singapore this past week. It shot past 300 PSI and there was an urgency to distribute N95 masks to all staff there. It's unfortunate that other countries such as Indonesia aren't even get the media's attention with all these forest fires be it natural or man-made. 

Meanwhile, when there is sunshine on the weekends we were lucky to enjoy it on the boat..twice this month :) I must try to take advantage of this hot summer weather. Before you know it, that crisp autumn weather will come round again.

 

Beautiful Tai Long Wan in Sai Kung

First time at paddle boarding! We went paddled all the way to the beach and back.. It was really fun and not as tiring as I thought. Good core muscles? I highly doubt it. :P

 

Round 2 - just this Sunday after T3 passed. HKO claimed it was going to be raining the whole weekend but we got some clear skies.

At the Tin Hau Temple, Joss House Bay built in 1266. Tin Hau is Goddess of the Sea and protector of the Fishermen, plus little did we know it's the oldest and largest Tin Hau Temple in Hong Kong. After Bai Sun off we went to Lei Yu Mun for lunch.

Crispy pork and other delicious stir fried foodies. Ate too much and approximately 30 minutes after lunch, started getting motion sickness and kept burping this bad boy out +_+"

Jet pack rocketeer? heh We've seen it on tv before but seeing it in real life is so much cooler :)

Eat Dance Laugh

A few weeks back I went to Bali for Peter and Carmen's wedding. I probably should have stayed longer but it was perfect and I couldn't have asked for more..relaxed and just soaked up some rays after consecutive days of rain in Hong Kong.

Yay for sunshine!

Seafood and SC friends *omnomnom

The balinese massage at InterCon was really good but just make sure they don't play the balinese xylophone on repeat for 90 minutes. XP

My pretty nude pumps girlfriends <3

Breath taking view of the ocean. 

From a touching proposal on the ski slopes of Japan to the fun filled wedding in Bali, the lovely high school sweet hearts exchanged their vows in front of close family and friends.  Congrats to Mr and Mrs Kim! :) 

Ho leng ah

The romantic and whimsical constellation of lanterns floating above us 

Time to say bye :( Although I had a very brief vacay, it was a great getaway trip and the Singapore layover was super cool too. We went to the fish spa for a pedicure, sun bathed by at the airport pool (very Anthony Bourdain I know) and had some yummy Singapore foodies. 

 

 Perfect drink to make my belly really happy =D Until next time, have loads of fun because summer is just around the corner!

A New Chapter

So it's been over 4 months since our big wedding day. Some people ask us hows married life like are there any big changes since moving in together?  I'm pleased to announce that the Q1-2013 has turned out with very positive results. heehee jokes aside it's been good and we've also been cooking more healthy meals than before. In the past we used to be ordering subway/ebeneezers/tsui wah all the time but now we definitely try to eat healthy meals wherever possible.

After coming back from the US in Jan/Feb, Taco Bell has truly inspired us to make our own crunchy hard shell tacos. So darn good especially the carne asada beef with our own mix of herbs (i.e. cumin, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, chili powder, salt, pepper etc)

Trying to make healthy salads and persian rice most days of the week. It might seem like we're health nuts but I have to admit we still have our occasional jee pao dan go and haagen dazs ice cream cups. Got to have that after a long week. ;)

Oo we also got 3 new goldfishes from Tung Choi Street in Hong Kong. We were having trouble getting the cycle going during the first week which unfortunately led to the death of 2 goldfishes.. The third one had a rough 8th day (he started floating upside down) but we nursed him back to health and he's looking good now! Abit lonely I'm sure but it's been a few weeks and the ammonia levels are down to a safe level. yay!

And spending alot of quality time together. Although J has to travel to GZ quite often, I try to keep busy with errands or exercise after work. Can't believe it's almost May which means summer is just around the corner!

Emo elmo

Less than 2 months to go.. you know what this means (for the bride)? Time to get really nice toned arms and start running again for Unicef at the end of November. hehe I've started working out my arms by doing a whole lot of repetitive light 5 lb weights because I simply drool every time I see Kate from Lost / Evangeline Lilly's arms. On the downside, not much progress has been made on my side.  Guess I'll need to boost it up a notch and lift 8-10 lbs.. :P *Roar! It's funny when I tell Asians that I want nice toned arms and they give me an aghast expression like 'why would you want to do such a thing and look muscular like a man?' haha Obviously my objective is not to look bulky with terminator guns but having that bit of definition is really nice. :)

So, this week my bridesmaid dresses arrived and I almost melted into a puddle of unhappiness because my eyes were playing tricks with me and/or the lighting was really dim when I took a photo of the dress. Basically I ordered champagne color and somehow I felt like it was reaaally pale and totally lacking in color. I was upset for the large part of the day and even sent an email to the store telling them off sort of.  I asked them why the original swatch sample differed so much with the final outcome. Fast forward a few hours, I'm at home and taking the dress out from the plastic bag and to my relief the color is fine.  Just a teeny bit lighter than the dye lot sample but no need to go on a emo-eating rampage by eating a bag of nachos, croissant and more chips right BEFORE dinner out with Michael and Jan. :P  Stupid girl worrying over some slight color variation on a dress? *psh rolls eyes* I think I have the potential to be a real uptight fuss but luckily I'm pretty good at controlling my EQ..   Poor J has to deal with all of this..having to hear me out and trying his best to stop me from shoving munchies down whenever I have massive craving attack but also trying to be empathetic and letting me do what I gotta do.. Heh love you hun!! :P

Random thought of the day. You know how people joke around after you've been dating for a while and they say you have 'fu chai serng' (aka look more like hubby and wifey?) It's funny cuz we get that alot and I do think we have the same smile sometimes :] hehe J's off to Macau this weekend and I've packed alot of outdoorsy activities with biking on Saturday and hiking on Sunday followed by a mani/pedi right after to sooth any nasties. Okies time to head out and hope it doesn't rain!

Happy-go-lucky

Wow, it's been over 4 months since I've last touched this blog. *sheepish grin. Pretty crazy how fast time flies. At first everything was humming happily along but the past 2 months have buzzed by like a blink of an eye. Where even to start... How about some photo-updates taken during my favorite month? :)

J's sketch before his big master piece. I have no idea why I have a yellow chick or lil duck fetish but everytime I see rilakkuma my heart melts... Makes me feel so happy. :P 

Icing the chocolate and vanilla cake. Baking truly is therapeutic. 

Hard at work :P

Looking good? haha Trying to work fast because the icing wasn't quite right. 

Wow good job with decorating and didn't hurt that it tasted good! Good old Betty Crocker can't go wrong :D *omnomnom

So ever since Ms B's opened at Pacific Place (cafe called C'est la B) I've been loving all their cakes! Cake on the left is the: OMG - gluten free chocolate cake smothered in layers of chocolate mousse and fresh whipped cream. In between the layers there's meringue with cocoa nibs. It's sugar free too can you believe it? Then on the right side there's Be Gaga'd with thee lightest chocolate chiffon with grape jelly and blueberries. Outer coating of oreo crisps and adorned with marshmellows and silver lolly pearls. One word sums it up: YUM.

Okay, after all that cake eating..time to burn off some calories. A gorgeous October day on the Violet Hills.

Dragging my friends out for a hike on a Sunday morning. <3 y'all.

Almost there! Lunch is just around the corner.

At long last it's complete. ^^ Getting more excited for our big day as things are slowly coming together.  Although there were some frustrating moments with the card revisions as some people were not working on the correct versions..in the end the outcome was exactly how we wanted it to be. 

Annnd...just sixty some days to go. :) About a month ago we took our engagement photos at J's grandparent's home. Beautiful house & backyard..something not commonly seen in HK.  We took the entire Saturday taking some fun shots and grabbing some Indian food for lunch (super happy pegz). Originally we were going to take all outdoor shots like go to the park, somewhere green and carefree but in the end we listened to our photographer and wore some long gowns and took some indoor shots and the photos came out really nice. Was my first time with full make up and doing photo shoots like a model. I used to think models had it easy but dang was I wrong. After that one day of posing, I was sick for the whole week. Boss almost kicked me out of the office because I was sniffling so much. 

My gun's name is Munchkins and you better not mess with me. >:)

Wedding gown - Alterations on Nov 5
Wedding Veil - Purchased, arriving in mid Oct
Qua - Done
Cheong Sam - Fittings done yesterday, completion in Nov
Bridesmaid dresses - Arrived today. Fitting & alternations needed.
Shoes, Make-up artist, Hair Confirmed
Put together a schedule rundown - drafted
Pick and scan photos for slide show - In progress
Pick songs - In progress
Learn first dance - In progress (share more next time heehee)
Menu tasting - This Friday