The 1st gift that the husband, then boyfriend bought me is a diamond bangle in white gold. I already had a good-sized diamond bangle which I purchased impulsively. I love to choose my jewelry, and I don’t always love jewelry.

He promised not to buy ring; he bought a solitaire ring as proposal ring; I returned and exchanged in less than a week’s time, solitaire ring scratches. As the ring was among the highest priced series in the jewelry shop, I had to choose another pair of earrings to make up the difference.

The husband has since learnt to buy practical gifts.

More than often, men are ‘trained’ to believe that the more expensive and glamorous gifts they buy for their partners, the more it shows how much they treasure and cherish the relationship. I am not sure if that proves to be true for others, but I think, the value of affection cannot be weighed on the scale of materials and prices.

I don’t really know what happened in between, but we are 5 years old! I mean, the marriage is 5 yeas old!

I am still talking about our love story and wedding day as if it just happened not too long ago, and it’s already been 5 years since the big day. Besides growing older in physical appearances, I think we are still young lovers.

So, on commemorating the 5 years mark in our marriage, the husband found a perfect gift.

I have loved typewriters forever. I especially love vintage typewriters. Like historic architecture, that once housed people of a long time ago, and there must have countless of stories within the building, or of the building. Typewriters, operated by a real person, must have typed so many moving words, formal letters, and stories of a completely different time and cultural background.

So much, only imagined in my head. That alone, fascinates me.

The sound of the typewriter is like music to my ears.

I imagine, back in those difficult days, job must be scarce. The sound of typewriter indicated that the typist had a job. Sound of importance and self-esteem.

Yes, I also love hot seals, envelopes, manual inking pens, and beautifully pressed letter notes.

Although I love vintage tools, equipment, and architectures, I don’t resent technology. I love new gadgets too. Some days, what we have and use will be vintage. I embrace the past and the now.

I hardly hint. If I want something, I take proactive action to make it happen; or to dismiss it as passing desire. I have wanted a typewriter forever; it is just in the lower priority group due to various considerations such as space constraint, and the time needed to source for a typewriter and the ribbons. Singapore moves very quickly and hardly known for keeping slow-moving stock – profit justification.

The husband has been looking out for a vintage typewriter, and gave several finds a pass due to unattractiveness of the machine and other factors. He had left his contact with the antique shop so that he could be contacted immediately to view new arrivals of old typewriters.

The shop never phoned.

He checked on the shop regularly anyway. A week before we left for our Anniversary Vacation to Chiang Mai, he spotted the perfect typewriter!

Needless to say, he bought it without hesitation. It was not in exact mint condition, some parts were rusting badly. He had the shop sent the machine for restoration – he was told that the restoration work will be performed by a aged mechanic.

The husband had told me that he bought me a gift, but left me to guess what was it. I made several crazy guesses, but I couldn’t think of anything that I really wanted at this time. I always want something, but I don’t need anything. The hints were that it was in my ‘to-buy list’, it had to be ‘made’ hence not readily available, and it can be used, but I would probably not use it often, and that I would not allow him to use it. (Oh well, the last hint was useless, I don’t really share many things with him, I even have my own quilt!)

My last guess was Wacom Inkling! I would love to have that, and it is taking forever to launch in Singapore. So, perhaps he placed a pre-order for the Inkling!!!! I was confident of my guess, but he denied. All the more, I confirmed my guess.

Today, the husband came home wearing a cheery expression on his face. ‘Your gift is ready!’

After unwrapping the typewriter, he went on with the ‘story’ of this very meaningful present…

More than 80 years old machine – Imperial Model 50 Typewriter, introduced in 1927

It is important that the machine is aged and dated back to way older than both of us – even with our ages added up!

The old age of the machine signifies that we will continue to enjoy many anniversaries, and celebrate our love even when we are 80 years old.

This sturdy machine survived World War II, and it still types; perhaps not as handsomely, but it still types decently, presenting a different charm.

The Typewriter

He gives me a typewriter so that I can type our love journal with this typewriter.

I sure hope he meant it as analogy! This cutie pie is not exactly the easiest thing to work your fingers on! I guess I will type a few love notes with it, but long story, erhm, please get a carton of correction tapes! This gorgeous does not correct! Say, it’s a machine of truth and perfection! ha!

Thank you, dear. I love the very meaningful gift, coming from the very thoughtful you.

Now, what would you buy when we hit the 10 years mark? Can’t wait!

What did I get for him, you ask? No..thing? I make coffee every morning, that’s very consistent loving gesture.

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We started a restful and unexpectedly interesting vacation before kick-starting the year of Dragon.

When we booked the room, we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we just didn’t expect a series of pleasant encounters and experiences while staying in a small and somewhat private compound of 4 independent traditional Thai houses.

We’ve been needing a well rested vacation, to catch up with reading, and just physical and mental rest. Apart from achieving that objective during this vacation, we have enjoyed great company during our stay – from the exceptional hosts (young Chinese couple who speaks considerably good English and fluent Mandarin), and the 3 house-kittens and occasional visits of other cats from the neighbors.

Bonus and lessons:
1. Our Mandarin ought to be improved; half the time, we paused in between sentences and tried to figure out the appropriate Chinese words to express our thoughts, while communicating with the hosts.
2. We have traveled to Thailand countless of times now, it’s a shame that we hardly knew the history, or culture of the Thai. From this couple, we learnt a tad more about Thai living, and also took an inside perspective into the Chinese culture.

By learning, we may then hope to understand the behaviors and attitudes of people from all over the world, and all walks of life.

From the colorful and lively night bazaars – Saturday Bazaar, Sunday Bazaar, Regular Night Bazaar – to serenity. There is no moment of boredom. Of course, there are tons of established day tours that we did not take much interest of, since our main objective is to do less for more.

We eat (too much), walk (a lot too) and play with the house kittens.

Don’t believe me? We had Thai food (most of the time); Japanese food; Italian food; regular food, exotic crazy insect snacks (nah, I took the photos, but don’t dare to try) and what do you know, we had the honor to be invited to a cozy birthday celebration with the lady boss!

It’s a near two-weeks stay, and we are not eager to explore the whole of Chiang Mai. We know we will come back again. On our 2nd day in Chiang Mai – since we arrived in midnight on our first night, the considerate host merely gave us a brief tour around our villa, and left us to rest – the informative host gave us a substantial amount of information of where to go, what to eat, and how to get around places.

We only went far for food, that includes The Good View restaurant located along the Ping River – it reminds me of our Boat Quay, but less rowdy; Fuji Japanese Restaurant at Central Airport Plaza – a huge shopping market with more upmarket brands and better restaurants.

Oddly, we rarely visit temples; not in Phuket, Bangkok, Bali, Siam Reap, nor in Chiang Mai. Personally, I don’t prefer to go out in the day, since I feel that I am completely incapacitated by the heat and sun.

Just a few more days left in this beautiful city, we decide to sit back and ‘hang loose’ – as if we had any hectic day, to begin with. Ha!

This is one of my best vacations. Staying in a big enough villa means more personal space. If you live in a hectic and fast paced city like we do, you will appreciate the bigger and quieter personal space where you feel ‘freed up’ from being caught up with too much happenings.

We have brought our iPads, and a notebook. We made a conscious decision not to work during this trip. We’d always worked even when we holidayed, that put our mind in constant ‘thinking for work’ mode. We often felt more rested, but not completely discharged of work load when we pinned our mind around improving our working methods.

This lodging has been more than perfect. I managed to catch up with some reading, and lots of sleep. I had worked continuously for too long, I need the restful sleep, badly.

We are staying at ‘ChiangMai Summer Resort’. Be warned, there are only 4 villas, and they are fully booked for now; and bookings have been made till April 2012 for most days. Be sure to book early, or you may be another – amongst the many interested tourists – who came and went with disappointment. We’ve been here for 10 days, we know for sure.

On some days, I secretly gloated over my good fortune when the others disappointedly left. They exclaimed, ‘So beautiful!!!! Are you sure there is absolutely no vacant room?’.

This place is new, but quickly becoming the highly rated and recommended hotel. A renowned journalist in China visited and made a rave review, within hours of her recommendation on ‘Weibo’, endless of inquiries are received and visitors flocked to view and reserve rooms. Seriously!

References: ChiangMai Summer Resort on Facebook
ChiangMai Summer Resort Official Website

P.S: This is not an advertorial, other than the usual friendliness and warmth, we receive no special payment (in kind or monetary) for recommending this exceptional tucked-away gem.
P.P.S: One of the reasons of this post – I found the wordpress for iPad and can’t wait to try out! The detailed blogging on this trip will be blogged when we get back.

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Lunar New Year is only significant to me because it usually coincides with our wedding anniversary; of course, sometimes, Lunar New Year supersedes our anniversary.

We are both self-employed, no doubt we could travel anytime we want; we just need to make necessary work arrangement to fit the schedule. However, Lunar New Year is a good time to travel because it is one of the most celebrated holidays, wherever Chinese are, and we know Chinese are everywhere! It is the time when many companies, local or Multi-national, shut down operation for as short as 2-3 official public holidays to as long as 7-10 days. Many Chinese employees or employees who celebrate Lunar New Year take the opportunity to return home to reunite with their families.

Work activities are slower. It may not necessarily be true for my business, since a higher fraction of my client base are Caucasian nationals.

This year, we switch the rooms between the work room and the bedroom. I am liking the new arrangement and bright color scheme. The white sheets and quilt covers (we have separate quilt, I don’t enjoy sharing blanket or quilt) brightens the room. We saw a ruffled throw while shopping at Ikea, and decide to use it to refurbish the headboard of the board. I like all things washable. That pretty much tells you that I go for fabric sofa over leather sofa. I like to take things apart and wash.

For the ruffled headboard, it’s really just easy peasy tying loose knots by the side. I don’t want to sew anything permanent.

I hope you are having fun preparing for the Lunar New Year, if you are celebrating it; otherwise, just have a great Dragon year ahead!

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Since we moved to this apartment some 12 years ago, we do not have analog clock for common use (the mum bought multiple alarm clocks for her own use; those that sounded off in the weirdest hours, or not sound off at all, get my drift?).

I can’t read analog time. In one of the episodes of my obsession, I bought many swatch watches and guess watches, back then, they were the most trendy accessories. I wore them to match the outfits. (The obsession shifted to digital when BabyG came in big, I chose BabyG over Rolex! Now, you should have a better grasp on the term ‘Obsession’.)

Not necessarily the most comfortable accessories. There was a tiny fear when around elderly people, for some reasons, I must looked very approachable to the elderly. There were many occasions when the elderly people asked me about the time when I was wearing the analog watch, I thought I was going to die of panic attack! I couldn’t really read the numberless watch – fine, neither could I read the numbered watch; I couldn’t ask them to read from my watch because they couldn’t see well! Stress level? Maximum!

There were too many stories and screw-ups over analog time reading, so when we moved, we stick to strictly digital.

So, it’s nearing Lunar New Year – falls on 23 Jan in 2012 – and even though I don’t celebrate this holiday (oh well, not entirely true, we kind of celebrate it by running away from it for anniversary holiday!) there is much to do at home.

I was out with friends on Tuesdays, and a good friend, Belinda, said it best that I would maximize the day by packing the day with as much activities as possible. The last time I was out of the apartment was early December, and we didnt’ get to do much for the day.

After the lunch meet-up, the Pony and I headed to Ikea at Tampines. I had not been to that branch, so it was exciting.

I planned to buy new curtains and bed sheets, and definitely wanted to avoid getting new furniture since this apartment is so packed now. Since we are waiting for the new place to be ready, I thought it would be wise to just wear out whatever furniture we are using now, and dump them by the time we are ready to move, that way, we have lesser things to move, and lower the risk of damage while moving.

Anyway, we didn’t get to buy the curtains as our curtain rods are custom-made. We bought bed sheets, drawer systems, mini bolsters, small table lamp for me, trash bin, rug and some other miscellaneous stuffs.

Stationery drawer system for the Pony to tug under the work desk.

4-tiers large drawer systems for my supplies. We would have gotten the 6-tiers as I am needing more storage space (expanding vertically due to space constraint) for all the supplies, but it was out of stock.

The Pony grabbed a desktop board (add-on) so that it doubles as a work table. It’s really useful, I store some packaging materials in the top drawer, so that when I pack orders on the top board, everything I need is within reach. It does make work more efficient.

I have been crazy about flip clock forever. I have searched for a giant flip clock (the vintage type that was commonly used in clinics and hospitals during the 80′s), but to no avail. I am still searching for it, but I am happy to settle for the small ones for now.

The Panda toy belonged to the Pony, but he decides that black & white panda matches my new flip clock perfectly. The Xboy is not very happy about the arrangement, but I don’t really think he has a choice. So, now, they share the same territory.

I bought a stacked stand to replace the old stand (both from Ikea). I like the white color and the more girly floral pattern. I built it 2-tiers with narrower shelve on the top-tier and broader shelve on the base tier.

Apartments in Singapore are shrinking, building storage system vertically is the way to go to free up more floor area.

This is the 2nd flip clock in the same week. We ordered this through Groupon. It took forever to ship, it took frustration to get the incompetent SpeedPost to make sure delivery on the same day after they missed the delivery schedule, but I am glad it arrived.

Love the bare skeleton design of this clock. The concise time reading in black and white – what I read as no-nonsense assertiveness. The simple assembly and joints portray an unmovable sturdiness and confidence.

We will do a bit of spring cleaning before we take off for our anniversary vacation.

From now to the holiday begins, it is just sheer rush.

The books arrived! I think I have done better this time around, say, the credit goes to better camera, and lesson learnt not to resize and discard original image files.

I love consistency, or rather, I can be obsessive about consistency. I enjoy immensely by looking at the uniformity when the books are displayed on the bookshelf.

Blurb offers more alternatives in book-making now. I have tried my hands on the inDesign plugin (download from Blurb’s site), and it really works better if you want to spruce up the creativity in the page layouts. The booksmart application (also downloadable from Blurb) works fine, but if you are doing a thick book with many images, and large format separator pages, the application may crash; not if you are using a powerful machine, that is.

My old iMac (since 2007, and now a hand-me-down to the husband who will have 1 windows operating desktop + 1 iMac + 1 iPad + 1 notebook!) couldn’t handle the heavy duty process and crashed on me several times; although Blurb says that the application auto-saves your work, trust me, some crashes are more devastating and there is not enough time for auto-save.

Noticed the change in color of background from white to grey? Our wedding book (at the bottom of the stack) is spotting due to the high humidity in Singapore.

Good thing that Blurb is now offering premium quality book-binding technique and papers, and it is so affordable to print with them, I might just make another wedding book! Oh well, now that I have years of practices in book-making, I might make a better wedding book. Ha!

Lesson learnt:
Overly protective behavior can cause more damage – I kept the books in plastic wraps and stored them in the enclosed shelf (with see-through glass door). The problem with the insanely high humidity in Singapore is that mold may start to form in poorly ventilated areas. We never had problems with the books before until we bought a new enclosed bookshelf.

Now the books are back in the open shelf. I’d rather clean the dust than to have the books yellowing and spotting. That said, I decide to go with the grey color background anyway.

I print the photo book by year, by consolidating the trips into the same book. For that reason, I create separator pages (using several design and photo editing softwares) for each trip.

A simple separator page can be easily done by choosing a full bleed layout in Blurb built-in application, edit the layout and add more image placeholders and text.

I take notes during vacation; and record whatever matters to me every or every other day during the trip. I find it helpful to capture the details during the trip and not to procrastinate. Unless you have photographic memory, you would want to scribble the funnies, the crazies, the oddities etc on the same day when these events are still fresh in memory.

You will be surprised at the small details that fizzle out within short period of time.

So people say that a photo says a thousand words. I say, words say the exact words. We don’t really capture everything, unless you are doing a reality show or have a camera stuck onto your head 24/7. We tend to miss out some funny details that happened so fast, too quickly to be captured on camera.

I fill in the gap between the images with words; the husband tricked me into watching a puppy pooped in the street, it happened very quickly and my astonishment didn’t help in fishing out the camera in time to snap a photo too. This funny event is recorded in words, and will not be forgotten.

Then, there is the end page. I always include an image, but this time around, I have included a hand-sketched image of our love story. The kitty cat was added at the last-minute as the husband bugged me about it and injected the guilt factor, ‘where is our cat? where is our cat?’.

I include a short expression on the end page, mostly relative to what has been learnt during the year, especially during the vacations. You know how vacations can turn out so differently from what we have set out to do!

Tip (journal pages):

1. Cast the sketch – preferably in high-resolution of min. 300-350 DPI, and larger dimension (resizing is possible later) – onto transparent canvas in design software such as illustrator or photoshop.

2. Save the image as PNG format (which is one of the acceptable file format in Booksmart).

3. Select a text layout (depending on how much you are writing, there are various text layouts to choose from)

4. Turn on the guide for bleed and cut-off zone, ‘Edit’ the layout to add an image placeholder – bottom left/right, or top left/right.

5. Save the layout as ‘left journal’ (or whatever makes sense to you)

6. Repeat the steps, but this time, mirror the image to the opposite side.

7. Drag the finished sketch image into the image placeholder; resize and position as you wish.

Optional: If you only want to have one format (i.e. right page), you can always try to manipulate and arrange the pages in a way that the journal page will fall on the right side.

Preview – use the preview feature to see if everything falls within the bleed and cut-off guideline. On blurb preview, the PNG image may appear fuzzy but the print will turn out fine, so don’t be too worried about it.

On the back cover page, I am more inclined to select a sunset or relaxed expression. I also include a short text expression about vacations and travels. Honestly, my views towards vacations and travels haven’t changed much, so I am running out of expressions. Perhaps I will include the country-specifics on the next print!

I am so glad that in spite of my crazy work schedule (which is now booked till April 2012!), I managed to get these 2 books printed. Now, we can really start afresh!

We are leaving for our Anniversary Vacation on 19 Jan, so it’s work work work before we can let the hair down!

Have a great year ahead!

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So, you seriously think I can only crochet and craft? Really?

You are sooooo right about it! The yummilicious Mee Siam is cooked by… (drumrolls) MeMe’s mother, of course! It’s a complicated dish, involving home-made mouth-watering chili paste – same kind taken with Nasi Lemak – and whatever spices to make the gravy.

My eyes have been ‘permanently’ sore and watery due to long hours of working on computer and crochet work.

I am happier yesterday than the day before; and happier today than yesterday.

I have finally booked our lodging for upcoming vacation in Jan – over the Lunar New Year period, and I am quite happy with a 2-storey villa with 2 living rooms, so that the Pony could occupy the large living room on the ground floor which is also exposed to the natural elements; while I could take the well sheltered quaint living room (more like a study room, from the photos I see) that is furnished with a fan, and possibly air-con.

The Pony gives me a bigger budget, but if you have been following this blog, it’s easy to notice that we almost always go for boutique hotel, or 4-star hotel. Our vacation is rarely under 1 week; it’s always 10-15 days. Sometimes we stay in different hotels according to itinerary; we will then decide which location will be booked with better hotels.

Some of you go for short trips, and each trip may be 4 days 3 nights, and even if you were to splurge on regular 5-stars hotel, perhaps it may amount to $900-$1000 – Yeah, I’m not talking about suite or 6-star, know what I mean? – imagine that amount multiply by 4-5 times.

Anyway, I decide to go with this very new resort – yes, I mean VERY new, as in, probably ‘no one stayed there before yet’, that new – because of the spacious area and privacy. I love buffet breakfast, but that is what I always have to trade-off with boutique hotel, which is unique, but smaller in scale too, normally boutique hotel offers continental or American breakfast, but not buffet breakfast – understandable, economy of scale is not achieved due to low head counts – but I really really need (keyword = need) a balcony.

A room without balcony feels repressed and constricted. I don’t want to feel trapped. No, I don’t have Claustrophobia, but the Pony and I work literally everyday – even when holidaying – and there is a need to feel free.

We are traveling to Thailand – a part that we have not been to – and oddly, not many hotels have balcony for rooms!

I am just sorting out the check-in/check-out time with the resort now, and hopefully all things go well. Did I mention they have a kitchen equipped with microwave, fridge, toaster, and even washer! Yes, Washer!!! I would like washer. I haven’t bought any new clothes forever, and if I grab some tees or tops from the local markets, I would prefer to have them washed before wearing. My skin doesn’t do well with unwashed new clothes.

The booking was made last night, so I was happier last night than the night before. I finished 1/4 of another order – consisting of 4 items in the order – today, so I am happier today than yesterday! I take pleasure in simple achievement, everyday.

I hope your weekend have been a great one, and taking it easy preparing for the year end holidays, including the Lunar New Year for 2012 which comes earlier than usual.

(best viewed in full screen mode  – the grey icon beside blurb logo)

Singapore is an island, city island, fine, it’s an urban island! So, we hopped away from Singapore to Krabi Island, then to Phi Phi Island, and then to Bali. I love the pseudo quaintness of an ‘island’, perhaps it has a more relaxing pace, or somewhat existed only in the imaginary world? I think the world is overcrowding.

That said, I love everything about resort island, except the sun, heat, and humidity, make sense?

The book is done and sent for printing with Blurb – together with last year’s travel photobook which has been long overdue.

I have printed with Blurb since after our wedding, and when Blurb was still gaining baby steps in the book printing industry. I loved them then, I love them now. They now have the professional line and better papers, I might just reprint the wedding book!

It’s affordable to print, and reprint. Singapore is humid, books and photos don’t last well. The wedding book that I printed with Blurb, is beginning to show yellow spottings, and back then, they didn’t have the best binding. Most importantly, they now have more ways to layout the book! We should never have to pay a bomb on wedding book, we should be allowed to make mistakes in layout, or change of mind of colors and arrangement later. Oh well, I actually printed 2 wedding books, one for the boy’s family to keep, on for us. Looks like we are going to have another – hopefully better since I have more experience with the book-making, heh.

I have used their in-house booksmart software, but my old machine – 4 years old iMac – had been so tortured, and all other softwares I have installed are so heavy, the poor loyal machine sprained an arm or two while I did the heavy duty 13MB divider page – and I made a handful of them. The application crashed more than I ever experienced crashes on my machine for the 4 years!

Now, Blurb has the InDesign plugin (and others, I didn’t really check) on their website under the ‘app’ drop down menu. I have tried the InDesign plugin, and it works really nice! Then, the Pony bought me a new iMac, and my old software – CS3 doesn’t run so well on Lion OS. Time is what I don’t have now, as I have to follow tight work schedule to get all the orders made and delivered in the timely manner. Right now, I am still trying to figure out what else are broken in the system; most are working perfectly well since my last OS was upgraded to Snow Leopard, I had upgraded and resolved most of the programs and incompatibility issues. It’s crazy that even the lastest CS5.5 is not fully compatible with Lion, the two companies are really not too friendly with each other.

I would love to shelve 2 weeks’ some time in April – a brief break from work – after all the orders are more or less completed by March.

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(best viewed in full screen mode  – the grey icon beside blurb logo)

I haven’t had time for anything, and I am happy to finish the photobook for 2010 vacations! Better, I finished 2011 photobook too!!

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My sister works as a financial services consultant (FSC) – commonly known as insurance agent. She is very sociable and likable. She has friends beyond imaginable context. From the time she started dating, we had changed the land line numerous time due to overwhelming suitors bombarding the phone all day.

Me? Of course I am the completely opposite! I had a more challenging journey. I preferred male platonic friends, because young female friends seem to have expectations that I could never meet. I simply do not understand the unspoken rules, and there are plenty in the circles of girlfriends.

Anyway, my sister offered to introduce guys from her work to me, when I was very single and available. I told her that I will not date FSC or self-employed. I preferred – still do – manageable risks. FSC is commissioned agent, and income can be unstable. I need some form of stability and routine in my life.

What can I say, never say never. What do you know, the Pony is a FSC too!

See, ‘we’ didn’t really begin at the bus-stop; but it is the starting point where the first subtle spark lit up.

It is difficult to pinpoint on how we started. We would have a less interesting day (not entirely boring, since I am a walking dramas-magnet, always) to tell basing on the day that we ‘officiate’ our relationship. Long story short, the boy bought flowers, the girl was super generous in offering the colleague a ride home since they live near to each other, the boy probably hated the idea but didn’t want to decline the girl’s request (That was when the boy was still trying to figure out the girl, not knowing that the girl would be absolutely fine with ‘no’ as an answer). The colleague decided to move a box of stuffs home since there was a car ride home. The boy thought his ‘plot’ was safe with the flowers in the boot, only to be stressed out when he saw the colleague with a box! The girl was very helpful and offered to help with unloading the box into the boot. The boy tried to block her sight from the boot. Thank godness, he didn’t die of heart attack! The rest is history, and I may tell the whole story some day on a separate post.

That day is not remotely the beginning. That day is beginning of a relationship in an official way – and bizarre manner! The beginning is always when this someone stands out from others, when that someone is in your ‘qualifying round’ of consideration as a potential romantic partner. It could be a very subtle gesture, or unbelievably exaggerated one.

I can’t even really tell you if it begins with bus-stop drama; or the exaggerated back-tracked to donkey years drama when the girl grabbed the boy’s hand; or cell phone drama when the boy bought the specific cell phone that the girl was saving up to buy, after he said nonchalantly that he didn’t like the design at all. Say, I have eidetic memory for things that don’t help me make more money! I tend to remember snippets of small stuffs very well, most of them don’t help with income generating or career advancement.

Often, the grime reality of life roughs things up for us. We tend to forget how this marriage/relationship begins. I am a hopeless romantic who harbors impractical dreams of what may become; I am also a highly realistic person who understands the reality of day-to-day basic needs. Like an undying grandfather clock, my ideas swing from the extreme left, to the extreme right. I’d like to think that when the journey ends for me, I will reach the standpoint of stillness known as ‘at balanced peace’.

I am told many times by other brides that they have boring love stories. Perhaps, if we take some time to retrace our footsteps, and try to recall how the first attraction begins, we may remember how the hearts fluttered when that someone passed by; or how unnatural we sounded on the phone or over a dinner when we first dated. All the special moments of uncertainties and reassurances, and the sleepless nights for whatever reasons, when recounted, unveil a unique story line – uniquely yours.

Often, we take things for granted. More than often, we are told by the ‘wise’ people to not look back on the past, as the past hinders the forward motion. I beg to differ. Good or bad, I remember the past, revisit and review. Even if I remember the bad you did, it doesn’t mean condemnation, when you decide to change, the record changes. Knowing your then mistake, and seeing your present improvements, clearly illustrate an important lesson being learnt and cultivating a better person in you.

I am beginning to be convinced that the problem with less sustainable relationships and marriages could be attributed by the current trend of ‘moving forward’ pushy theory. The memories of the past may not necessarily equate to emotional burdens. Many times, they are the answers to repetitive destructive behaviors.

The day at the bus-stop has become a story that we tell over the years. We are married for 4 years, turning 5 years in coming February.

‘Success’ is an inappropriate term to tag on relationship, marriage, or even life. Success is suitable to be used on measurable achievements such as career accomplishments, academic achievements etc.

How do we measure success in marriage? Years staying married with the same person? Come on, really? I have seen many married couples of earlier generations, they are married to each other for the longest time, yet it doesn’t warrant a happy or enjoyable marriage.

It is like quality of living vs cost of living. Cost of living doesn’t necessarily promise a good quality of living.

I don’t aspire to attain success in our marriage. I work towards maintaining an enjoyable and happy marriage – exactly what we have set out to do when we get together. I fail to comprehend why it should be any different once a dating couple becomes married couple.

This marriage is satisfying and enjoyable. I am allowed to be me, exactly the way I have been ‘designed’ to be. I am bizarre, sometimes too crazy, socially awkward, childish and play with a plush cat as if it’s a real cat, overworked, self-absorbed, yet, my partner continue to love me for who I truly am. You would know by now that, it’s a mutual, two-way tunnel, right? It won’t work if one of us has to compromise for less, or to be always accommodating to the other person.

On our early phase of dating, I made myself very clear that I am unorthodox and I am highly (almost definitely) likely not to change. I don’t believe in compromise. Compromise is overrated and an ‘abused’ term in marriage. We don’t compromise, we acknowledge our differences and communicate the differences. Differences are not necessarily bad. Put on your optimistic glasses, and you will see once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Be thankful that the partner is different from you, because this combination just concocted a brighter and vibrant world, a widened view than what you originally have, alone.

We have blind spots. The partner who is different from you is your extra super lens to spot those blind spots that you may never be able to see. Always know that human is designed to have limitations, so that in the perfect world, every beings are supposed to fit just right and in harmony, just like a zig saw puzzle.

We don’t remember all the tiny little details. We are okay with that. We have a common goal and vision of where we would be in our golden years. This anchoring vision helps keep us in track to where we head to.

‘Love Story’ is a concept to reflect the idea of when love begins. This set of crocheted amigurumi love-story is perfect to be displayed around where we will have our wedding photos in our new home.

Originally blogged on my craftblog:

Wedding, is a beautiful result of love; marriage, parenthood and family are results of the wedding. All these chapters and stages in our lives route to when love begins…
Life journey is sometimes challenging; some days are good, some days are better, some are not as great. Any day, is a good day to revisit the day when it all begins, and remembering the good loving sensation. In love, we find strength to overcome day-to-day challenges, for we know someone special is by our side, always.

The Pony enjoys home-cooked food, a lot. Unfortunate for him, the Meow he is married to, doesn’t cook; fortunate for him, the Meow’s mama is a superb cook!

We advanced the birthday celebration earlier this week, so I thought of hiring a ‘informal professional’ chef aka the mama, who specializes in home-cooked dishes – which are obviously exceeding good, if not better than most regular restaurant’s – to whip up a feast for the Pony on his birthday – as in, actual day of his birthday.

First up, tomato ‘big’ prawns – as emphasized by the chef – cooked in special ‘Hong’s Sauce’ (The chef’s name is Hong), mainly includes fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce, soy sauce, and possibly other secret ingredients.

The Pony ‘attacked’ the succulent prawns the whole time, so you know if the picky Pony loves it, it MUST be good!

Next up, stir fried broccoli and asparagus with chicken slices and prawns – regular sized prawns.

For decades, the women in my household MUST have veggies, it is such a wonderful news that I hunted down a Pony who enjoys veggies as much as I do!

Next specials – kids’ favorites.

The Pony and I are the kids in the household now; in future, we will the parents to our future furkids, but in the human’s world, we will always be the kids.

We (Pony and I) do not take pork – personal preferences, not religion restriction, and just so you know, I don’t have one to begin with – so Master Chef Hong replaced the filling for the Ngo Hiang with minced chicken meat. You should know that Ngo Hiang is a Teochew delicacy – please don’t sue me for misinformation if I get this wrong, don’t bother to correct me either, I don’t really care – the literal translation of Ngo Hiang is, Ngo = Five; Hiang = Spices. I am guessing that originally the Ngo Hiang’s fillings consists of mixes of five spices ground into powder. I can’t tell you the spices, since today’s modern Ngo Hiang is very much modified and improvised.

The Master Chef Hong’s Ngo Hiang normally includes super ingredients such as diced prawns, chopped water chestnuts, for the crunchiness, sweetness, and extra juicy (psst… that is one special ingredients to make all the difference), egg – taste enhancement and acts like a ‘glue’ to stick all the ingredients together, chopped Chinese Parsley (similar to coriander) – optional, some people especially the men don’t usually enjoy this, and Ngo Hiang powder, and other seasoning. The filling is mixed well and become a ball of paste. It is then scooped and lay in a line onto the tofu skin.

Another dish that shared the plate with the Ngo Hiang was the deep-fried prawns – take note, big prawns – fritters. For the Ngo Hiang, we prefer to cut them in small pieces before having them fried, so that the sides are crispy too.

Normally we dip the Ngo Hiang in sweet sauce (in black); or just regular chili sauce for the Pony.

Star dish – at least to me – award goes to Kung Po chicken with cashew nuts and dried chili!

Master Chef Hong cooked this to perfection. I believe she fried the chicken pieces to lightly browned beforehand to add some crisp to the chicken, and then add all other ingredients – which I can’t tell you much since I have never really observed how she cooked this dish. I would think that a light splash of rice wine would bring out the taste though.

I had a lot of this, I love chicken and cashew nuts.

I gave the mama S$100 to buy the ingredients. She said that she ‘tried’ to spend it all, but she only managed to use up less than S$50. She gets to keep the rest for the hard work. It’s very low fee to pay for such a feast, don’t you think?

We didn’t finish them, it was just too much.

Where the Pony comes from, the family keeps leftovers for supper. Where I come from, we rarely keep leftovers. Mum thinks it’s not fresh anymore – it’s universally the home chef’s thing, I think, they are so prided of their cooking, they almost don’t think degraded quality food by time/elements are fit for consumption – so we always stuff ourselves to bloating point. I guess apart from genes, the women in this household is upsized for that reason. Pfft!

The Pony went for second round later in the evening.

This is what I think, in future, he will have a small section of the cabinet to store his ‘supper’ fast foods. Or, he could ask his buddy who will be living a block away from us, to go for supper. I don’t eat supper, and I hate the idea of cleaning up at last when I was supposed to be resting.

Ok, house rule must be in place!

What’s for dessert, you ask. What else, we will have snacks, and desserts and whatsoever in between with this giant tin of bisbis – our own way of saying biscuits!

See, this 4KG biscuit tin is a shocker. I asked the Pony to buy some biscuits, he asked which bisbis I would like to have. I told him the ‘traditional’ bisbis (first on bottom row – the colorful sugar icing biscuit) that he bought the other time. He merely replied, ‘hahaha’. I have no idea that the ‘hahaha’ means a whopping 4KG tin of bisbis!!

Fine, I love all the 4 types that he chose, but still, this tin of bisbis can feed a village, and we don’t have a village!

The mum came home late that day, after her majong session. It was past midnight, but she was shocked to her senses when she saw this tin on the table of the dining room.

There you have it, we celebrate, and over-celebrate our birthdays!

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