first week down

pleased to report that my initial apprehension was misplaced. to risk tempting fate, dare i say i love my job. when we first found out in march (?), i had a mini freak out and was desperate to swap my first job because it's not a specialty i'm vaguely interested in. all that stopped me from doing so was this overwhelming sense of peace that surpassed all understanding, so i didn't. and boy am i glad i didn't because unbeknownst to me, this is the best possible job for what's currently unfolding in my life. remain immensely grateful for provision and protection, because so much is beyond my control and i couldn't have planned this better if i had been the sort to plan. 

on a fab team in a challenging and demanding unit but feel supported and understood in a way i hadn't expected. we hear all these first job horror stories and it's hard not to buy into the fear. for obvious reasons (information government, patient confidentiality etc) i'm going to have to be deliberately vague about where i am or what i'm doing but always happy to share more in person. needless to say, things are looking good :)

what does get my goat, however, is the negativity and presumption i'm faced with when speaking with acquaintances and this probably isn't the forum to vent irritation. but when someone asks how things are then answers their own question with "must be very tough" i wonder if they're trying to be understanding / patronising / condescending. if you already seem to know then why ask haha. but it's not and i try not to get my heckles up and go on the defensive. because everyone needs encouragement and i'm less inclined to want to talk to energy-sappers. maybe it is tough and i'm in denial and here i am lapsing into war stories but another bug bear is when doctors say lawyers have it easier. they don't. i've been both. and lawyers work harder and have more demands made of them. why else would i tap out to choose the dark side?!! again, presumption and hm i need to stop taking sides :P doctors don't bring their patients home, it's lawyers who're on call 24/7 with blackberries. doctors know their rotas, have visibility re: being on call etc. lawyer's have fixed periods they know they're going to be busy over, but at any given moment, things can hit the fan and it's all hands on the deck without any warning. evidently didn't last long in commercial litigation myself but had dinner at home max four times in six months, and was in to the office for at least a day every weekend. so no, smug registrar who told me lawyers got off easily, no they don't and i've nothing but respect for the profession and their work ethic. 

as a not-so-funny aside: even today, on the rare occasion an email from my former boss pings in my inbox, my heart skips a beat (in the most adrenaline-driven, unromantic way) even though i know it can't be work-related!

pre-empting the need for hibernation this weekend, had gone easy on the social calendar this week but turns out i didn't have to and ended up going out with friends after work almost every night! which was great :) didn't anticipate having the energy to do anything else but wahey :)

checked out a new salad bar in the 'hood on wednesday with darling M who just turned 30.

 

had a fab south african style bbq at friends' beautiful mews house on thursday with newlyweds whose joburg wedding i had to pass on in the midst of finals. gracious hosts JP & F need no introduction, having been in copenhagen with them in october then NYC in feb.

met newlyweds L & N whom i hadn't seen since our first wedding anniversary in london on friday for sticks&sushi at wimbledon

and then malaysian*supper club with D &co. last night. oh and dimsum for 11 (but 14 heartbeats hehe) at lunch time today! so, truly, it's been a bumper week of catch ups and being back in london after summer means seeing all the lovely folk who've reconvened in this little city we call home (for now).

KL

summer time is wedding time and once back in singers, i hunkered down to my elective before realising that NGO work meant i'd to work weekends too. tell a lie, the NGO was great and non pushy / demanding but i was so keen i just didn't want to stop doing work for them. ended up biting off more than i could chew and over-committing, then not wanting to drop all the balls worked harder than i'd in some time. to which my darling sister commented that she's never seen me so busy, not even when i was a pupil. why, thanks.... but overtime was a means to an end and i managed to take work to KL (augh, oh no, morphing into one of those martyrs who humblebrags about work!!!) to attend a dear friend's wedding. was flattered to be one of two (!!!) friends at the wedding, because it was a small family affair. hopping across the causeway to KL also was an excuse to visit J and A. we met in stockholm in 2009 (!!!) and have had almost annual check ins, with J and her family graciously hosting me in aix over two summers, A and J hosting me in perth, they came to singers for our wedding celebration, A was in london last winter and they were coming to singers J's folks the week after. delighted to have had more time with them this summer and ever grateful for friends and friendships that grow with me. 

they knew all the good local haunts and i'm well impressed by their culinary sense of adventure. much braver than i'll ever be if the roles were reversed. they also very very kindly put me up in a swish hotel (!!!) because they wouldnt' hear of me crashing on their sofa. absolutely unnecessary but much appreciated and i did end up spending lots of time on their sofa, just not actually sleeping! 

cracking view from their apartment by day and by night

indulgence at the mandarin oriental. big fish in not so small pond! that tuna did not die in vain.

leisurely lunches

it's some time since i've cooked for friends. had family in town a couple of weeks ago and keeping them fed and watered was a great endeavour. flattered they prefer what i prepare over the gastronomical delights that abound in london (haha) and spent more time in the kitchen the week they were around than i had in months. but all good and i'm a natural feeder so it was satisfying and gratifying to ply them with home-made goodness. a dear friend was also in london and i've been wanting to have her over for ages! we'd already met up a couple of times during her trip, and for some great meals, and she was craving something home-cooked and veggie heavy. the beauty of london living and seasonal produce is, well, seasonal produce. i love the colours and summer flavour and texture of peppers. sweet potato strikes me as more autumnal but what the hey. tandoori chicken for good measure (hey, i love chicken!) and steamed salmon for a more healthy option. of course we washed everything with choya, courtesy of P who came round for dinner the night before (i'm on a roll!) so it wasn't all that healthy but hey, have to live a little. 

what i liked about this combination of dishes was how the veg and chicken were in the oven at the same temperature for the same time, easy peasy! and the salmon needed 10min in the steamer. so pretty much fuss free, and easy to time to their arrival. and after lunch we sort of sat around in food coma, having coffee, mango & peaches, and more choya. W is the genius behind my cornflower wedding bouquet and we'd such fun reminiscing about the wedding. self-indulgent as it may seem, three years have flown by and we were laughing about the advice Z, her husband, gave me the night before the wedding. it was 1am but the sun showed no sign of setting (incidentally, it was midsummer and his birthday!) and i was asking if i should write my own vows. to which everyone laughed and was, like, "seriously?! now?! 8h before the fat lady sings?" so i didn't. and he asked me if he'd been right, and he was. because really, you don't know what it's going to be like, or what promises one needs to make. it was a good night! the wedding party (basically 20 of us minus the >32s) were sitting in the banquet hall pigging out on pizza and kebabs lovingly carted over from the closest takeaway, incidentally an hour's drive away in the next next next town. we tried to get my sister drunk on whiskey coke, and then we went for a walk in the long grass to look for elves as the midnight sun shone on us. my dear bridesmaids couldn't find a male stripper (uh, the closest pizza was one hour away, what more strippers!) so my bachelorette's was perfect i.e. the whole wedding party (including groom) on a midnight walk as the babyfaced hotel intern told us stories about the hotel and environs. 

(photo credits to rui)

nigerian wedding

so the reason why i'd a room friday and saturday night in essex was because my very generous host had booked out the hotel. had a regrettably tenuous connection to the wedding couple but was up to attend my very first nigerian wedding. silly me, thought it was an english celebration for the couple's friends based in the UK. little did i realise that 90% of the 500 guests had come all the way from nigeria. and being the paranoid little poop i am, my ebola alarm bells started to ring. yes, i'm aware nigeria is a huge country and the chances of the guests having ebola was slim, but throw in air travel and possible transit in african airports and i got very worked up. that's why i'm only just getting round to talking about the wedding, when i'm safely out of the 21 day incubation period. when i learnt at the start of the wedding when 500 guests were under on glorious white marquee that most had traveled from far to be there, i inched closer to the open doors (thank goodness our table opened onto the grounds), tried my darndest not to shake hands nor cheek anyone, and made repeated trips to the ladies for the fresh air (good 10min walk to  the main building) and hand hygiene. of course, everyone i later related this to laughed at me :( and when i spotted a lone petechia the next day, i had a near meltdown. not fun.

oh and not just 500 guests but big names from nigeria (whizzkid, the jayZ of a-frickin-ca) were flown in for the party. didn't take much to turn me into a groupie (who kept a safe distance). weddings always make me think about mine, and gosh ours was so different. had lamb soup and pancakes at the next town for our 20+ guests for the wedding breakfast and were done and dusted in just over an hour. in contrast, this wedding breakfast was pretty darn marathon. started at 3pm and when i finally bowed out near midnight, the party was still going strong. what i did enjoy was the dancing from 6 onwards, and the endless supply of DP 2004 that the groom's father kept passing me. but too polite to chug my personal bottle, i'd share it round the table. then like magic, another would appear :)

waterfront living

as we made our way around the coast, the mister was conscious to choose places that were diverse to avoid comparison. our last amalfi stop was this stunning hotel that distinguished itself by being one of the few that opened right onto the sea. many of the others were built into the cliffs and the beach was a treacherous flight of stairs (or cool sub-terranean lift like at santa catarina!) away. and in line with his holiday theme of choosing a destination hotel and not leaving its grounds, this was no exception.

although quite unintentionally i managed to leave my hat in amalfi at the santa catarina. and only realised when we were literally a sea away at capri. and good as santa catarina was (the front desk was frantically trying to book my hat onto the next available ferry, and when that didn't work out, to send it by road to where we were staying back on mainland...) our scruples wouldn't let them go to all the hassle. so the mister, bless him, drove 2h each way on treacherous coastal roads in pitch dark to retrieve my hat. now i've received enough incredulous flack from family and friends to subjecting the mister to such inconvenience but it my defence, the jury is still out as to whose watch the hat was lost on. after recounting the facts to my oldest and dearest friend (hello darling fishboo!) over udon last week, however, even she attributed blame to me :( which was when i finally conceded defeat and accepted responsibility. being sentimental, this was no ordinary hat but one i haggled in pidgin french for and scored at a hefty discount for being charming (haha) when i was in honfleur on my graduation holiday. and it was this very hat that i wore all over europe that special summer when the thought of going back to medsch finally germinated and took root. in other words, it's irreplaceable and the mister knows after almost seven years together that it just wasn't worth not retrieving something of such sentimental value.

apart from being reunited with my hat, our little detour meant that we could meet friends for pizza in praiano! which was an unexpected bonus. yay for social media (they knew we were on the coast from instagram!) and real world catch ups with a friend i've known for over twenty years (yikes!) and his lovely lady.

as with all the other places we stayed, we were welcomed with some delightfully dry spumante and gorgeous sea views. the perks of visiting in low season and a potentially dubious loyalty program...

sunset over the horizon

the sea was freezing meltwater! don't know how the european guests (german, brit) managed a cheeky dip. we bemoaned our thin blood as we snuck glances at their goosebumps bigger than their biceps, then made full use of the heated pool, sauna and steam room that was virtually empty as no one wanted to be indoors on a sunny day. except me.

as a rather unfortunate footnote, after our brief night-time foray into praiano, we spent the next 36h at the hotel, eating all meals in. we'd what seemed like a nice dinner at the hotel's restaurant and soon after the mister was really unwell. on a balance, it was probably something he ate in the last 24h - AT THE HOTEL! relieved to be medical and able to manage the mister with supportive therapy and symptom relief. yay for our traveling pharmacy but you can imagine my absolute horror when we'd a 2h drive back to naples, flight to milan, and an hour drive to lake como ahead of us. did not appreciate how the hotel staff, while sympathetic, did nothing. then again, they were probably playing it smart by not being seen to accept responsibility. suppose i could have kicked up a huge fuss but we were on holiday and my priority was getting the mister better. and that's when i saw yet again how the mister is made of steel. he gritted his teeth and got on with it. i'd not felt that helpless in a long while. 1. cannot drive manual 2. never driven left-hand drive so i couldn't even volunteer to take over the driving. he did wryly joke later that him running on no sleep and plagued by nasty stomach bug still made for safer driving than me at 100%. thanks, sweetheart.

all that said and done, was unamused by a hotel that didn't do any service recovery. i expected better. as an aside, when we had our wedding lunch at the capella and two (out of 350) guests fell sick (and honestly i don't think it was capella food but for the sake of MIL/DIL harmony i wasn't about to point that out!!!) the team apologised and gave the stricken couple a voucher for a 8 course meal at the chinese restaurant when they were feeling better. now that's great service, and why they command top dollar.

oh where to begin

so i've been meaning to blog for the longest time, because, i'm conscious this is my last long summer break and i want to capture everything before it passes me by. then again, this whole reluctance is a little rich coming from me, seeing how it's my sixth (yeah, i know right!) three month summer break :) technically that's 1.5 years of doing absolutely nothing, just the way i like it. and what do you mean it's already july and i'm one month down?! noooooo....

and the (happy) problem with summer and london is that the world and his wife is passing through town. which means family and catch ups a'plenty. realise we've also only spent one weekend in london so far, seeing how i was back in singers for the first, in paris over the third, barca on the fourth. in laws have been with us since we returned from barca and i'm constantly reminded how blessed i am that the mister has awesome parents. they're gracious, generous to a fault and don't stop cleaning our apartment. it now sparkles like never before and you know those tests where someone wears a white glove and runs a finger along the shelves etc? yeah, we'd even pass that test dust-free. and because they're massive foodies, we've been spoilt rotten and stuffed silly with one good meal after another. even when the mister's at work, FIL arranges lunch with his london partners and we find ourselves finishing a very boozy lunch at 4ish. hmmm.  i think my brain and tummy needs time to recover from the onslaught. it's shamefully such a #firstworldproblem and again i'm quite overwhelmed with gratitude at how good they are to me. they've always been, and getting married hasn't really changed anything. phew! no monster-in-laws here. so when they leave, it's back to simple simple home-cooking. MIL asked the other day what i usually have for lunch and the surprising answer was i've yet to have a day at home on my own since the holidays started. looking forward to working out a little lunch time routine, and having dinner ready for the mister when he comes home from work. love being a housewife :)

and as with summer, our "revolving door b&b" (to quote the gorgeous MT who has a similar sideline in addition to being a full-time sexy corporate investor, i think) is in full swing. as soon as the in laws leave, we've dear friends from singers staying with us. now this couple is super special to us and they just got engaged. in fact we were at the third hand car dealers' when they told us and i just dissolved into a happy blubbering mess in the middle of the showroom. not cool at all! so celebrations are in order and i'm preparing myself for another round hedonism.

oh ya + btw we also celebrated our first anniversary in barca, well techincally first in london then later in barca. still pinching myself in disbelief that this wonderful wonderful man wants to be with me. we were a little cheeky and celebrated the sixth anniversary of our meeting in paris, and then our first wedding anniversary / sixth anniversary of our first date in barca. so do check back for some london, paris and barca posts, if you'd like to see :)

preparation

so the mister and i finally got round to going on honeymoon. we did go to the western fjords after our midsummer wedding last year but um 13h days where we're out at 5am does not a honeymoon make. come to think of it, neither does this 10 day boot camp with crazy amounts of kayaking, hiking, trekking, snorkeling and volcano walking. we did mini-moon in phuket shortly after our singers celebration but it took awhile to save up for this crazy crazy trip. also took awhile for the mister to get some time off work! but here we are and i'm so excited to be going to the galapagos. we're not glamping (boo!) but i hear the tent will be pitched for us. which means i don't have to put my newly acquired tent-pitching skills (learnt at wild*trials2012!) to the test. phew!

sigur*ros

is just about our favourite band on earth. it's one of the first things the mister introduced me to when we first started seeing each other. he'd a thing for them, and for iceland, from the very beginning. since them, we've roadtripped around iceland twice and had sigur*ros on repeat while we did. through no magic or trickery of our own (i mean, hello, it's ipod shuffle!) our song started playing just as the mister popped the question two years ago, and last summer i walked down the aisle to the very same song. so you can imagine how when we finally watched them live in concert, and they played our song, how overwhelmed i was and how pinch-me-i-must-be-dreaming happy that this time we were playing for keeps.

blown away (haha)

one of my oldest, dearest friends gifted us this gorgeous tealight holder (?) for our wedding. long story short, lest you think she's 6 months late, is that this is v2 of her amazing creation. couldn't believe that she designed it all by herself on a computer. tried to get my mind round it and this is how she humbly puts it.

"it's computer aided design.. i put in a bunch of code and draw a bunch of lines in 3d that tells it to 'make sphere', 'cut clouds', 'make twisty lines that look like a J' haha"

but i know better because this girl is sheer genius and her brilliance sends me into fits of inadequacy. so a big THANK YOU sweet C for what is going to be our table centrepiece for a long long time. and i like how if anything goes awry, i can always snap the lower limb of K and it becomes "joy". teehee!

gift that keeps giving

one of the more thoughtful, novel wedding presents we received came in the form of an olive tree. when W first told me that she and Z were gifting us an olive tree, i was quick to clarify that our tiny flat could only just about fit a tray garden, never mind a proper potted plant! but, W, naturally, was one step ahead. they'd adopted a lovely old tree in an olive grove in italy in our name. we received a certificate in the mail a couple of weeks later, and just as W predicted, once you sorta forgot you'd a tree, the goods made their way over. we now have the freshest, most fragrant oil three-ways, and exciting recipes n*udo included in the delivery. doing all i can to stop myself from drinking the oil neat so we just might have to start cooking with it soon.

after-party!

part vi: dance like there's no tomorrow

it's not a party without an after-party! the beauty of having the dinner at il lido was that we could turn the bar area into our own personal dance floor! wayne sandz, our multi-talented musician who went from playing smooth evergreens at lunch in a 3 pc set to jazz piano for our pre-dinner cocktails also doubled up as DJ. that man is incredible! and such energy, my goodness! he had a great feel for what would get our friends on their feet, not like the copious amounts of alcohol didn't help haha, and in no time we were boogeying like there was no tomorrow. wayne also brought all the DJ equipment,  lights and smoke machine... the works!

like a boss

just maybe the brainiest cutie (hellooo mr law clerk!) down undah

while everyone spent their precious saturday night with us (haha having worked before, i appreciate how awesome weekends are), team oz (pictured below rocking their blue steelz look sans JMak) came all the way from aix en provence, perth, brisbane and melbourne to be with us. who'd have thought that the wonderful friends i met stockholm three (!!!) years ago would be the very people at our wedding. yay for shrinking world and growing friendships.

and the ebullient (the best word i can think of!) miss A, of lavishley fame, working the dance floor :) she's one awesome party starter. just look at her!

and that brings us to the end of the wedding series. thanks for reading :) regular posting resumes tomorrow, with photos from a weekend getaway to geneva, one final hurrah before starting term.

dinner party

part v: dinner party

we deliberately chose a small ballroom so as to limit the size of our wedding celebration. we also had the luxury of a separate celebration for our friends. lunch was largely for family and our parents' friends, while dinner, oh dinner, was ours. we also did a straw poll among our <30 year old friends to ask if they'd prefer to join us for a sit down lunch or dinner and dancing. no prizes for guessing which they chose :) really glad to have had time with each group of guests and having two celebrations allowed us more time to focus on them. dinner went splendidly. il lido suggested a totally deluxe menu and we enjoyed it very much!

 

guess who dropped by all the way from D.C!

 my cousin, mr. august man, in action...

dr. koo reminding the mister to buy nothing less than 20pc chicken mcnuggets when i get the munchies. aww :)

"me? i'm not flirting!"