it's been a little quiet around here

because it's gotten really noisy in the real world.

spent last weekend moving into our first real home together. never mind it's completely unfurnished and we'd to borrow an inflatable mattress from kind friends. it'll come together, slowly, and creating a space to our own is really quite exciting :)

after we moved all earthly possessions into our new place, it's back to singapore for more wedding festivities. grateful how despite a demanding ful;-time job, the mister has gone into planning nazi mode and he's taking care of every little detail. again. love how he's freed me up to spend time with my grandmothers as he precision plans wedding round 2, and round 3. as if getting married once wasn't enough! 

back in singers, i get the fun part i.e. opening presents, trying to exchange what i can for cold hard cash and hosting our lovely lovely friends who flew in just for the party. the pups have grown and i'm even more in love with them as they develop personalities :) it's going to be a fun few weeks home.

started slow with a few rounds at my favourite colonial bar and the best company a girl could ask for. i miss them so and it was great to catch up proper (even though they were just in iceland with us heh). we go wayy back and have seen each other through so many relationships it's not funny. they know all these horrible things about me and yet haven't friend-dumped me yet! maybe it's a matter of time. and maybe things will only get better.

end of part 1

asian yeti spotted among the hot tubs

on a champagne high

it's one thing to pop champers at sea level, and completely different popping it at the top of a glacier.

bonus time

so we walked for six hours to get to the valley floor but our over-achieving group was so fast that we managed to squeeze an extra fjord in. those precious minutes perched on the edge on the cliff watching the sea birds and listening to the waves were well worth the 6am start and gravity-defying inclines. that's our guide, haukur, in the coolest icelandic jumper. part of me wishes i'd a similar childhood. hiking in summer, skiing in winter and spending every day outdoors. to him, trees are exotic because they don't grow naturally there. and malls are even stranger.

abandoned farm house

arctic fox skull

arctic fox pups

travel by plastic bag

it'd have been an utter waste not to make the most of our time there so the mister signed us up for a 13h trek. despite my initial misgivings, the chance to zoom down glaciers on a bonus plastic bag made up for the lack of sleep. of course, it took us forever to get to the ridge line, and on the way down we all passed out by the river for a post lunch siesta. good times!

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.

real time post interrupts!

(it's not the arcade juice stall but it'll have to do)

hello hello, trust you're enjoying the scheduled iceland posts :) it's been a good-busy two weeks since we got back. my in-laws (gosh! i've in-laws!) were in town for awhile so we played tour guide for a few days. well, more accurately, i played tour guide while the mister was at work. and then the mister was in italy for work, happily handing me over to a dear friend who let me stay over because, uh, i'm too chicken to be home alone. yes, have some growing up to do. noted. 

the rest of the week passed in a happy blur of catch ups, because it seemed like suddenly everyone and their mother, literally and otherwise, were in london! it was a fun, albeit expensive carousel of eating out, drinks, going out, and kebabs. we'd dinner with noe at sakura in mayfair, our go-to for relatively inexpensive quality jap and then drinks at pollen street social. now it's opened at gardens on the bay, we don't quite feel so ahead of the curve any more. went to my cousins' very posh local i.e. the phoenix along smith street in chelsea. i always thought one's local would be casual but oh no - this one was dripping with former etonians, present company included. pffft :/ and because we had more rounds than attendees (which numbered six, if you need to know) we tried not to bust our budget, resorting to indomie for dinner at home. indomie, pint after cheeky pint and potato chips and wedges = pure joy for this carb queen! took it easy on thursday, well easy as a coffee at covent garden and sofa time goes. the mister sniffed out a fabulous japanese find near bayswater that required a lot of walking to get to but was well worth the trek. and friday, oh friday! well, friday is a story in itself.

2am

driving to the beach to link up with the others

could almost pass off as the maldives

sunset

sunrise 10 minutes after sun set. 

you literally see the sun ricochet off the horizon like a ping pong ball!

we'd the tasting menu at our hotel before descending on our friends at the next beach for indomee. some times only instant noodles hit the spot. the sky was beautiful and the weather inviting as we sat on the beach nursing a good red. we befriended a geologist from durham (!) and bonded as the sun set and then rose again.

waterfall

and then we climbed to the top too!

white nights

after a five hour wedding dinner, i'm amazed we all had the energy to after-party till 4am. pity only 1/3 of the dinner survivors are caught on camera! the rest were boogeying too hard to pause for photos :)

photo credits to rui!

puffins

we drove to the ends of the earth to hang with these cutie pies. and it was well worth the trip, and the mister's military issued camouflage jacket. 

why, all the better for bird watching, my dear.

the next next town

we got married in a tiny off shoot from a rural road in a town with only a hotel and church. this cluster of cute wooden houses is all there was of the next next town about 30 minutes away.

midnight waterfall hikes

in true intrepid explorer fashion, we were compelled to climb everything we could climb. and because it was midsummer, we had to do this at midnight which felt like high noon. there was a random waterfall (i love how they're so random!) opposite our hotel and some of our guests had made it to the base (in skirts, no less!) the day before. but that was not good enough. we had to climb to the top. the cute waiter let us in on a secret local route which involved 2h of uphill walking. and so off we went! playing to our strengths, R and i decided that we'd the best view from a hill away and stopped there for deep meaningful conversation as the men continued to the very top of the waterfall and back.

glacier surfing in the snow cat

the day after the wedding, our entire party went up a glacier. 

 

it was cool.

mister & missus

so we were married over midsummer with our families and closest friends. the wedding was perfect beyond my wildest dreams and i was completely blown away by our awesome friends who stepped up and did everything. so much so my french tips lasted a good two weeks and counting. unheard of! there's something magical about white nights and the sun that didn't set. the first time i saw darkness was back in london. we drank too much, slept too little and danced like there was no tomorrow. 

mad props to the mister for planning the entire wedding and pulling off the absolute best time ever. i am so blessed to be his.

have a couple of photos on facebook but here are some that rui min, our very talented friend, caught.

bridal bouquet of wildflowers lovingly picked and assembled by weylin, singapore's answer to martha stewart, sans criminal conviction. she was a star! we were whizing through the icelandic countryside when suddenly she got Z to STOP THE CAR. she bounded out and started pulling wildflowers like there was no tomorrow, not realising that we were smack in the middle of a seabird nesting area. yikes. so you can imagine the drama as the birds make these awful squawks and starts dive-bombing wey who was weighed down by an armload of blooms. but wey isn't one to give up! she kept her cool and continued gathering wildflowers till she'd enough. and then back at the hotel, roped Z and MH into painstakingly helping her tend the stalks. thank you, wey, for risking life and limb for the most gorgeous bouquet ever.

walking to church

bemused tourists, and confetti shower that later took our 14 guests 2 hours to clean up. 

and that's it! 

signed, sealed, delivered :)

press launch

swedish colours, english design. 

too cool.

munchies!

i still get confused between singapore supper and english supper. english supper is what i usually call dinner (evening meal) and supper is after dinner, before bed. this is supper singapore-style, mind you. figured there was no better time than this to break open a bottle of vino the manfriend picked up on a recent trip to rome, paired it with good parma, monterey jack and multiseed from cocomaya (my newfound bread haven).

domesticity

a little slow posting but this is the bird that christened our oven. love the freedom food range - cheaper than free range but assuages my conscience better than regular battery hen. it was gorgeous, if i may say so myself, and after dinner i got the thickest, tastiest stock out of its bone. incidentally, this baby lasted us a good three days haha. cooking for two really isn't as taxing as it seems. also, the resident chef was impressed by the drastic improvement in my cooking. once upon a time in summer 2008, i landed on his doorstep in leuven for two months, promising to cook and clean in exchange for living there rent free. two months later, all i'd cooked was indomee (the dry type! still comfort food!) and skinned 1kg of grapes for him. neither of which qualified as long term sustenance. and the cleaning? let's just say the building was later condemned for demolition the summer after.

laduree

while i'm firmly in the pierre hermes camp, i can't resist some this laduree baby. the fortune / misfortune of having wonderful friends bust out the goodies and insist on fattening me for the kill. have had the privilege of hanging with the coolest aunty ever - she's X going on 16... she's present, carves time out of her busy wheeler dealer schedule, takes me for spins in her convertible and is always up for makan. i swear she's the worst influence ever. i thought i was bad enough but no, she stops on the hour for a 'snack' and somehow we power our way through burgers and cakes and macarons. must be all the sambal belachan coursing through our peranakan veins :)

aubrey

ever on the bargain hunt, we tried the GBP10 for 2 course lunch and a glass of wine at aubrey in the kensington hotel. in true singaporean fashion, didi had the appetiser and main, while i'd main and dessert. photographed is my victoria sponge with clotted cream and berry coulis :)

 

the restaurant has gorgeous wood panels and a luxurious country feel to it.

monkey see monkey do outside the embassy hotel where we went for dinner at kitchen joel antunes another night. the menu was simple but very well executed. enjoyed the fresh take on traditional dishes and the re-conceptualisation of mainstays like gazpacho and pork pie. so clever!

edamamoustache

my darling didi was in town last week and we went on a feeding frenzy. gripped by the biggest ramen craving, we found a quaint japanese hole-in-the-wall just off oxford street. the lunch sets were great value and because we were so hungry, we ordered four lunch sets to split between the two of us. we each had a ramen set (it came with gyoza!), a sashimi set and a tempura set which came with generous bowls of japanese rice and soup. one of the best things about my little brother is how he gives me the bigger bed despite being bigger than i am, lets me use the bathroom first and on an unrelated note, he also lets me eat as much as i want i.e. my share and then what i want of his. he is massively indulgent, allowing us to stop every few steps for ben's cookies, ice cream and cupcakes, and hugely entertaining. i'm so glad i didn't get rid of him while i could've ;) but that's a murderous story of first born jealousy for mama to tell.

roka - best meal in london so far

we'd family in town and i'd booked a GBP10 for 3 courses and wine offer for dinner. the manfriend took one look at the dubious neighbourhood, cancelled my reservation and booked us into roka instead. gotta love him and his high maintenance ways :) he possesses the most discerning palate i know and i'm the better for his picky wicky nature because roka was sublime. hands down the best japanese i've had in a long time and i even preferred it to nobu in milan. the mui fan looking rice dish at the end was my absolute favourite and when i saw how much dessert i was getting (mine, all mine!) i was catapulted further into gastronomical heaven. we liked it so much that we're going back next week with more family, flagrantly disregarding our "no repeats" policy because london has so many great restaurants and so much to offer that it'd be a waste to go back to one when we could be trying something new. then again, i could probably re-live our roka dinner over and over again...