one crazy day

it's no secret that i've a bad maccas habit and had been craving a maccas breakfast since before christmas. but with maccas being closed over christmas, there was no scratching that itch. so as soon at it opened after the bank holiday, i was on it. not proud that i woke late and succumbed to an uber ride (from hell) but still managed to miss the breakfast hours by a couple of minutes :( scored two lousy leftover hashbrowns but no sausage mcmuffin. boo! in my haste to get to maccas that morning, i literally ran outta the house in my pjs, without realising that i'd end up out of the whole in said pjs the whole day. there was the slight logistical issue of picking up a friend's car. she kindly lent it while she's in sg for a few months, and after some coordination  / miscommunication with her cleaner, managed to swing by hers at the same time the cleaning lady was there to pick up keys. with wheels came a newfound sense of freedom! went to liberty and got a whiskey cabinet on a whim. the plan, really, was to buy baby things but all that flew outta the window because, well, priorities.

after miraculously getting whiskey cabinet into the borrowed convertible, it was off to duke's for drinks. again, in my pjs and i didn't know where to hide my (un made up!) face. the next table, incidentally, was a bunch of uhmurikan doctors talking about the boards. so i eavesdropped and maybe picked up some tips, or not. they were pretty drunk by then and annoyingly brash.

memory fails as to what exactly happened after dukes, despite my not having much of said martini. maybe dinner in the 'hood, maybe not. but what started as an relatively early morning maccas run quite quickly escalated into a whole day affair. oops :)

cheeky

one of the biggest things i've taken on this year is doing up a flat for someone very dear to me. it's a labour of love because omgosh i've been on a home-improvement fix for the past few months. of course, there's a builder for the professional stuff but i offered to decorate, without realising how much time it'd take. and how much harder it'd be to coordinate deliveries as, well, it's not my flat and i'm not there normally. but i did truly enjoy the process and if i may say so myself, it's looking mighty fineee. scored these sweet placemats (cute but poor quality, boo!) and thought they were so funny. and maybe i'll post more photos of the "after" to show you the finished product. instead of doctorlawyerindianchief, maybe i should rebrand myself as doctorlawyerinteriordesigner. ah, if only. i love how what's in my head manifests in real life when it comes to decorating. spent hours and hours sourcing for furniture and cute little things to make it a home. like the funniest poster of a monkey sitting on a crate drinking gin, to match the pallet coffee table we found on ebay. and the little banksy wall mural for some edge, and using mirrors to make the place look bigger. it's stuff like that that really gets my creative juices flowing and hmm i'm just so happy it's a good place for N to be based for the next five years.

late night shopping

it's no secret that liber*ty is one of the mister's favourite haunts and yay for extended opening hours. we went by late one night and slowly made our way down amidst the christmas glitz.

stating the obvious

 

i've a thing for wooden block lettering. when i was shopping on the mister's plastic (and 50% discount!) earlier in the week, i couldn't resist this little gem for our bathroom. 

that's all.

press launch

swedish colours, english design. 

too cool.

bicester

K was an absolutely sweetheart and offered to take us to bicester for some retail therapy. truth be told, while i'd gone to new york to buy my wedding gown, the manfriend was still suit-less. well actually, we bought his wedding suit in milan but he couldn't resist wearing it, and has worn it on such high rotation that it's no longer special. so we'd to get him something new. which we did, among other finds, and now he's not allowed to wear his wedding suit #2 till the actual wedding. 

and while the manfriend was shopping up a storm, K and i chilled at the pub because we are shopping-averse. that's it, you heard right. i don't like to shop :)

a corona! at last!

a bientot, NYC

so many things to see and do, so little time. but most importantly, mission accomplished! with less than 100 days to go, i was starting to panic a little that i had not gotten my dress. conventional wisdom dictates that wedding dresses are sorted at the very least six months before the wedding. and believe you me, there was no shortage of horror stories of the last minute gown scramble. thankfully, this whole gown hunt took all of thirty minutes. i kid you not. had anticipated it to take hours and hours, maybe even repeated trips to various boutiques and having to devote much of my limited brain space to sussing out the right dress. but whaddya know, one hit, one kill. sure, tried on a couple after just to be very sure that the one was truly the one. and it was. i got such a high from this overt show of hyperefficiency that i was on cloud 9 for the rest of the trip. gown shopping? pfft. piece of cake. ironically, it took longer to ring up the dress at the till because in my excitement i'd forgotten to tell my credit card company that i'd be stateside and they blocked the charge -_-  

yay to fuss-free, drama-less gown acquisition. don't know why i had bride wars playing out in my head. was nursing an irrational fear that i'd end up in a tug-of-war with another bride-to-be. not even close :)

being in new york again for the first time in almost five years felt like an awakening of sorts. mega envious of those lucky ones to call it home and am sorely tempted to take the boards once i graduate and do my training there. am less enamoured by london and hopeful that we too will be across the pond in due time. seeing how the manfriend grew up first in new york, then london so i'm pretty sure there won't be any complaints on that front!

thanks for reading the new york series. have been to cambridge since, and am now in phuket catching some tropical rays as the manfriend remains in the throes of wedding planning. be back soon xx

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.

oh the shame

so i bought this ridiculous hat for wilderness weekends away but it was so blooming cold this afternoon that i chose function over fashion. as i pulled it over my ears, i thought, "who's going to be out on a day like this? it's ok, no one's going to see me..."

and of course, mr. murphy was right on the moneyy. bumped into more people on main street than i have the whole month i've been here, and saw each of them make a huge effort to stifle their smirk.

note to self: save hat for wilderness.

further proof of conversion

as with any new experience, i held out for awhile to decide whether it was worth investing in. not to make it sound more dramatic than it really is, it's analagous with being in a relationship, isn't it. say you were sort of going out with someone, and things don't progress as well as you'd like, you'd be able to shrug it off with a "well, we gave it a shot..."and get on with your life if you hadn't invested very much in it. however, if you'd poured heart and soul into this mysterious phenomenon labelled "going out", chances are that seeing no return of investment (ooh, big word) might leave you wanting to buy a one way ticket to the moon.

maybe that's my way of justifying commitment phobia ;) which, for the record, i do not have. in fact, seeing how we think we crossed the four year mark a few months ago, think that makes me more a commitment junkie.

back to investments!

had the most awful afternoon in town trying to find a telco that would give me a 24 month contract. i ricocheted down main street from one telco to the next but to no avail. this fruitless pursuit ended at car*phone*w*arehouse where a complete stranger asked me if i'd like to move in with him. hate to be a tease, but that's another story for another day. long story short, until i've lived here for more than 3 years, i've got a non-existent credit rating and no one will give me a 24month contract (and free phone). it's a chicken and egg situation because until i've a post-paid contract, there's no way to prove that i'm credit worthy. but no one would give me a contract. have thrown my hands in the air and resolved to get an iPhone4 (no, not 4S) from hong kong and send it up with my darling brother next month. sure beats waiting 3 years for the iPhone7...

decided some retail therapy was in order after four wasted hours of futile phone hunting. buoyed by infatuation with the great outdoors and the prospect of future trips (we're going to yorkshire in a month!), i was meaning to have hiking boots procured and brought over with my brother. however, during my self-indulgent sulk, i chanced upon a store that had hiking boots on 50% sale and scored the only size left (thank god for small feet!) for GBP34. don't think boots go for S$70 back home either. the same store had other offers (buy one get one free) so i got two pairs of long thick hiking socks for the price of one, and my waterproof gloves came with a free woolen hat :) funny story: the adult gloves were too big and amidst my desperation, i discovered that my hands are the size of an eight year old's. great for surgery (except maybe ortho) and not much else. 

and because it was dark and i was bored, i laid out my spoils and took a photo. see the leaf in the corner? that was unintentional but symbolic ;)