dins with dippy

summer ball at the natural history museum was such a novelty! was running late (was on the train back to london frantically trying to beat rush hour traffic) and there was definitely some hurried gussying up back home. but all good and still managed to catch the clowns outside the museum, even though they may have shown us less tricks as we were hurried in to catch the opening address. amazing how they managed to pack so many tables into the ground floor, there was almost no space to move. and it was hot and stuffy (london! summer! can't cope!) and the next table kept stealing our standing fan, they played the pregnant woman card then we played the pregnant woman card and it was quite comic because our pregnant woman wasn't looking very pregnant just yet.

gutai collection

the purpose of the trip was ostensibly to see our hosts art collection at the museum. call me left-wing but i think it's such a waste when collectors buy premium artwork for their personal collection, as if such national treasures are a social good and should remain in the public sphere for communal appreciation. maybe that's the point of collecting i.e. to have something coveted that no one else does. so i found it very generous of our hosts to lend their private collection to the museum for everyone to enjoy.

they've incredible foresight and acumen, always one step ahead of the curve and supporting artists just before they become commercial successes. hosts shared some pretty jaw-dropping anecdotes, like how they were the only one to bid for a certain piece at an auction, securing it for a steal and a fraction of what they'd have been willing to pay should there have been a bidding war. i wish i had their ability to peer into the  crystal ball. the sort of appreciation (60x in a couple of years... OMG) is unheard of in stocks / property etc. and it's hard not to be swayed by the potential upside to such investment. 

also, i realised how appallingly little i know about art and wished i was more aware of what's out there. it's almost as if art's a luxury few can afford as we pragmatic singaporeans focus on bread and butter professions. i can tell you about medicine, and maybe a little about law, but am far from being well-versed in the art scene. would very much like to be able to hold my own, to look at a painting and instantly appraise the confidence with which the brushstrokes were made, the emotion it conveys, the concept behind it, why the artist did it that way etc. aware that so much of it is marketing, about grooming and pushing more bankable artists but do feel it's an area i need to know more about. feel shallow, otherwise.

national gallery

singers is beautes and constantly changing and in turn i'm constantly amazed by the new sights and sounds that seem to spring up in my absence. the national gallery is one such attraction, and one close to heart because it used to be the supreme court and i've had many school trips there, and more laterly as a law undergrad / baby lawyer. to be fair it'd already moved by the time i started pupillage but remember wandering through with out of town friends before it was converted. slow on the uptake and after seeing no end of instagram photos felt the FOMO and wanted to visit too. tell a lie, it was hot and i was grumpy and it's supposed to be the coldest aircon in town. oh the way to my heart is through climate control...

was too cheap to get a sticker and tried to saunter casually into the galleries but was stopped by sharp-eyed docents. it was only the third docent who discreetly said that singaporeans get free entry and just needed to show ID at the ticket counter in exchange for said sticker. oops ;) did just that and made it into half a gallery before getting bored and making for the rooftop bar instead. that's about enough culture for one day!

spot of culture

one of my oldest and dearest friends came to stay last week. there are actually photos of us at each other's third birthday parties and beneath the shiny exteriors resort to similar toddler behaviour when together. T is a massive history buff and i knew we'd to visit the cemetery (not morbid) as part of the london tour. it's a place i'm familiar enough with having gone for many slow walks but never with as an observant an eye. when T stopped suddenly and burst out laughing, i tried to see what was so funny about a headstone. and there it was. the photograph speaks for itself but trust T to appreciate the significance of the victoria cross and how the deceased was one of the first few in the royal*naval*air*squadron (hope i got this right!). all that would've been lost on me, not knowing any of the acronyms nor being able to properly place them in time and space.

and when we finally broke free from the cemetery, it was onwards to the natural history museum. didn't have massive amounts of time as T had a train to catch but we made do. picked just the one room (dinos, duh) and were like kids in a candyshop. absolutely enthralled. don't have a personal mantra, but if i were to pick one, never lose the wonder would be in the running. because, really, there's so much to take in and the world is such a big and wonderful place.

dimsum sunday

a couple of sundays ago, the mister was out of town just when i was craving dimsum. but if there's one thing that unites overseas singaporeans (and the token hongkong-ers), it's chinese food! was glad to rally a fun bunch and went to princess*garden for the first time in maybe a year. keep forgetting how good it is, and how while we get to jump queue at royal*china, PG takes bookings and also appeals to my not-so-secret impatient soul. a sg friend and long time londoner who's so kindly taken us under her wing commented that it's a pity we don't hit up PG more often, and she's right. unforch was too busy stuffing our faces so the only photo of lunch is one of me surrounded by towers of bamboo baskets. representative no doubt, but maximally unglamorous. after dimsum, said sg friend and i went for a wander around the 'hood while the rest studiously went back to work / catch trains across the country. we wanted to go to to the mcqueen exhibit but were clearly lacking the required organisation to score tickets for a sunday (bought wayy in advance).

no loss though, the rest of the V&A was free (even better) and i happen to love china (the crockery, not the country) and was most pleased by the rows upon rows of table service on display. it's tucked away on the 6th floor and super quiet, also appealing to my crowd-averse sensibilities. 

 

despite being based round the corner, it's embarrassing to admit it's my first time at the V&A. always pass it but somehow never stop to venture in. and after the cultural experience, we popped by the church bakery to support the bad boys bakery, yummiest baked good from hm brixton. calories for a cause!

london by night

much as i whinge about london living, i've gotta admit at times it's pretty darn sweet. passing houses of parliament at night never ceases to make the mister and i slow down, almost unable to believe that we really live here. having grown up in london, it was a childhood dream of the mister to return as an adult. and me, well, i'm equally surprised how we ended up in ol'blighty. medsch?! did not see that one coming... what is really nice is how when i first met the mister in 2007, one of the first things he told me was how he wanted to live in london. and just over four years on, he (well, God) made it happen. it hit us quite suddenly one day how we've morphed into un-recognisable urbanites. something about being in a queue in the rain at 845am on a saturday morning, to enter a gym that only opens at 9, sobered us up. to be fair, it was the first time we've shown such enthusiasm to be yelled at by the slightly scary russian lady (spin class, for the uninitiated!) and in line with my clinicals-inspired spurt of healthy living. also, we were hours away from our weekend foray for a binge in bray. BUT STILL! our former selves would never be up that early on a saturday in singers, much less be in a queue for anything other than bak chor mee.

we've yet to return for a saturday spin class, but london is slowly but surely growing on us. it's restaurant week and the mister had booked us two dinners on saturday but somehow we managed to find time to walk through somerset house. what struck me was how the above photos received such a response over social media. a dear italian friend i met in stockholm while on exchange in 2009 happens to be doing an LLM in london and was quick to recognise the building, as did a friend who's moved back to singers for work. i suppose there's just something about london's subtle charm that compels you to identify and react to her attention-holding beauty.

blast from the past

we almost had to postpone our wedding because the mister had an arbitration hearing in london two weeks after. i remember an awkward phone call when he very delicately tried to break the news that his dream wedding, the one he'd been planning for years (haha) might not happen. long story short, before we could say plan B, the mister was offered a job in london and moved. talk about a collective sigh of relief! so as you know, the wedding went along as planned and all's right with the world.

doesn't mean we don't like knowing what if!

fast forward to two weeks after the wedding, to the very same hearing the mister was originally involved in and here we are meeting up with the team! glad that he left on the best of terms and everyone still gets along fabulously. i miss the team i pupil-ed on with a vengeance (hi shoo! hi xj! hi adam!) and seeing how kai was working for a good 3 years before relocating, i can only imagine how much stronger he feels for his team. we caught up on the last day over great thai food, followed by whiskey and cigars, and kebabs even later. in a strange way, it was a good closure and i'm very happy that he's where he wants to be, doing what he wants to do. we don't miss practice, but we sure miss the team culture and sheer awesomeness of the colleagues who have become firm friends.

free shot of culture

never tire of sunset by the quay, and it's even better from the viewing gallery. enjoy the occasional musuem visit, even more so when it's free, and we caught the setting sun from the top before slowly making our way down through the different storeys of exhibits. was stuck in the gift shop for longer than i'd care to admit. such clever gifts and nifty concepts. i wanted to buy everything but settled for some postcards and left deliberating the most minimalist of japanese bento boxes. maybe next week.

conned

 had a friend in town for the weekend and we arranged to meet near his hotel at green park. as K and i emerged from the tube, the aroma of grilled hotdogs was almost too much to bear. however, as we were headed to hong kong diner for lunch, i shelved the hotdog craving, only to have it hit me with a vengeance later in the evening. 

alas, the hotdog vendor was no longer outside green park :( 

undeterred, K said that there was always always a hotdog cart at the british museum. knowing what a culture buff he is, i should've smelt a rat. but my greed got the better of me and we trooped to the museum...

...where the ever-elusive hotdog cart was not to be found.

and that's when i realised it was all part of a sneaky ploy to squeeze some culture into the day :(