stuffed like a turkey

thanksgiving came a little later than usual... instead of the traditional november, i had my fill of turkey in dec :) it has been a crazy few days... im still recouperating from the large quantities of food and alcohol i consumed over 4 days. and now that i've had a day of rest, jo jo is coming tmr!!! starting another round of alcoholic haze :)

i've been so spoilt this year... this was how i spent my christmas....

christmas eve.... dinner at gina's.... her dad made an awesome mashed potatoes with eggs and mayo and it was yummy! by the time i got there... i was the last one so no pictures. the turkey, ham and beef and other salads were prepared by equinox's chief
then it was back home to change and meet the boys at a pub

after numerous shots and glasses of beer... it was off to zoukmet up with my brother and his besties :)

25th dec 2009...
dragged my arse down to church for morning service all hung over and sleep deprived
and the best cure for a hard morning was christmas lunch prepared by my cousin-in-law's parents who flew in from ireland. it was absolutely delicious
just the protein side of the table... lamb, pork, ham, turkey, beefff all served on pretty trays
was hoping to catch the whole table that was brimming with delicious food

and i have to say these were by far the best potatoes ever.....

and of course tons of wine included... i think the drinkers averaged about a bottle and a half at the end of this.
then it was a quick rest at home where i was furiously making panna cotta for dessert for dinner... then off to kuma's for more wonderful food... her stuffing and turkey were by far the best thou ivan says that lunch's turkey was better and of course more wine there

26th was spent at overeasy/butter getting sloshed with the aussie pple,
27th was dinner with the girls at PS.... these photos will be uploaded once either sarah or sinclair chooses to upload them.... coz they both were having a camera battle

basically over these few days... the only time i got terribly drink, i had church the next day which made it "interesting" to say the least

even though this year was a lot more quieter than last year with regards to the number of cousins arnd... i had more friends to spend it with :)
althou i am desperately missing my friends elsewhere

hope u had a fabulous christmas too whereever u are!

drooolllll

arent they just beautiful?
sigh..............

random thoughts on a rainny afternoon

so ive been wondering if human beings were truly made to be with just one other person over many years... leading to the qn if marriage really works now, in these times

people and society keeps evolving thru time and now traditions and cultures are so worried that rituals will be lost forever. however, the one thing that is still so predominant is the concept of marriage; of finding ur soulmate and growing old together. of course marriage has changed to an extent where divorce is introduced so for the western countries, divorce is a norm and nothing much unlike here in asia. but this is for another day... today's thoughts are whether human beings are built to just stay with one other person over many years

i believe the concept of marriage "worked" for the 2nd generation from mine and older. back then, women were expected to serve their husbands, staying home etc... women had a certain skill set that were appropriate of those time. i mean even their dress sense were reflective of how constricted their movements were to be - the binding of feet in china, all our original cultural clothing like the qipao and those corsets and big skirts. as much as i admire them now, i cannot possibly imagine living my life with those clothes

fast forward to now, nearing the end of 2009
this past fashion season was highlighting men jackets for women
women now are brought up to think for themselves, to not be so dependent on their men, to contribute to household income etc... we've pretty much taken up every aspect of the mens role and more. so under these conditions, is it possible for 2 independent pple to coexist without eventually hating each other?
i guess the need to procreate could be an excuse but in these times, the cost of raising a child could and would instead pay for anyone's retirement. especially with the existence of elderly homes, the elders no longer need to really fully depend on their children to take care of them. so other than societial pressures y else do pple marry? y go through the whole process of staying together even after slips of the heart or tongue then eventually the relationship deteriorates till everything u say/do to each other is out of pure hatred.

i know this is being terribly pessimistic but when it comes to the matters of the heart is it not better to be pessimistic than the optimistic one? i know the pessimistic person of the relationship will loose out on the full experience of things, but if and when it ends, i will not be found moping around for days on end. and yes i know that consciously i enter into a relationship just waiting for it to end. i know its very unfair to the guys ive dated so far but i shd think they knew it in the beginning

but like all girls who've grown up with all those disney princesses, i do secretly hold out a hope that i might find my prince one day

turkey, ham, chocolate cakes...

i had a belated thanksgiving/early christmas meal today
my aunt made her turkey today and it was simply yummy! too bad there wasnt much left to bring home... but more next week when christmas dinner rolls around :)

attempted to bake my first chocolate cake with chocolate and candy cane frosting... the cake turned out better than expected thou i think i need to change the frosting recipe and i just might haf a full-proof chocolate cake recipe.... wished i remembered to take some photos today but everything was terribly rushed and it didnt even cross my mind truthfully
next time i'll try and be better at this...

so someone just commented that my life is most likely to be more interesting than her reading law.... haha
ever since moving back here, my once exciting life has been turned 180 and this i blame
1. the lack of interesting guys here
2. this island being too small and i refuse to get involved with pple with the slightest possibility of having similar common friends
3. i think compared to all my friends who have gone overseas, i finished having absorbed more of the US culture than i thot i did. this is coz of the present family and i chose to maintain friends of different backgrounds instead of hanging with the "real" asians in school. in turn, it intimidates guys here i think
4. emotionally i think ive spent it all dealing with family... any more complications i would probably have a breakdown haha
5. i definitely dont fit the typical local beauty types
6. im comfortable with the friends i have already, so meeting new pple isnt a priority
7. i dont haf my dearest friends arnd to record drunken soliloquies which makes life so much more interesting
8. the general lack of alcohol really or pple to drink with

so no life here is terribly boring... thus i have turned to baking to kill time, that now my cupcakes are just awesome :)

unfortunately now that this temporary home has no oven, baking will have to be on hold for awhile so i've decided to try other stuff that requires little/no use of oven such as jello.... keeping my fingers crossed tmr's elderflower+italian sparkling wine+berries jello comes out presentable or else im going to be stuck for sunday's function.....
am tempted to just make a bottle of mulled wine and bring that instead coz at least that is a sure thing..... :)

10 more days to Christmas

and what will u be doing?

was just sorting thru my pictures earlier this afternoon and stumbled across last year's winter photos


situation was so different .... friends and family and cold weather abound
this year is going to be different... i guess the closest thing singapore has to snow is constant rain and a slightly cooler weather? haha

Moments of Happiness

it has been a tough year... lots happening at home. this week has been especially tough... having to go through the physical moving of houses and frustrations that go with it.
Goodbye cairnhill.... u have been a good house and i've definitely taken u for granted

thankfully i got dragged to ZOUKOUT 2009... my 2nd ever zoukout! the first was very memorable..
bottles of rose sparkling wine to ease the headache and start the party offsarah and mery was terribly gracious and hosted us in at rasa using money earned from acrossthebloodyuniverse.com
and sarah clothed gina and i for the night without her knowledge :)

so the night was as follows
830pm - went in to get our entry passes; stayed for half an hour to check out the different arenas and offerings; back to the rm for more drinks
1030 - sarah gives up and goes to bed
1200 - watched fireworks frm the room
1230 - headed back to watch aeroplane
300 - gave up/grew bored so thus back to the room where everyone took turns to snooze
500 - got up and listened to armin play from our balcony
615 - woke sarah up to head down to finish up armin
700 - aldrin came on to play!!!
830 - jumped into the hotel pool
1000 - gina left to go home for church and i got some Zzzs in the room before checkout!

later on that night after a day of hardly any rest... 3 very sleepy and grumpy girls met up with a surprisingly energetic thou lack of slp guy to pick up johan!
he flew in for half a day on his way back to jkt....
after their pickup service, sarah and gina left jo and i at the naumi
1145pm - met up with my other jo at wala's for multiple rounds of vodka redbulls and acoustic singing this proved to be entertaining coz all 3 of us stumbled out pretty buzzed

and now i just spent a wonderful day out with johan... looking at singapore thru his architecture eyes, appreciating and looking at buildings as if having new eyes
came home, only for a breather before getting picked by johanese for a dinner and movie... ive been wanting to watch new moon after reading the series (even thou i knew it was going to disappoint)... but have had to keep postponing due to my move. this series has actually made me spend tons of time in my room just reading and im such a sucker for such things really... if only there is such thing as that kind of love out there
and omg... i really feel the age and wld love to stop growing coz i spend the whole 2 hours basically drooling over taylor lautner... only to come home, google him and find out he's significantly younger!! such a cougar moment heh

still need someone to go christmas shopping with... this year's pretty good, have ideas as to get everyone except one.... its always the good guy friends that i always seem to haf problems with. sigh... need to get the creative juices flowing :)
but i have already received christmas pressies!

aesop!








an avanti cookie press and icing set











also i was craving k chocolate balls :) and they were promptly flown over... im terribly spoilt