om jai jagadish hare

diwali festivities continued the next day. and this was the damage. so i got what i always wanted. an om tatoo. i swore off drinks that day, but the night ended at "ice cold". 

diwali's dooba dooba

Dooba dooba rehta hoon aankhon me teri,
Deewana ban gaya hoon main chaahat me teri...

the diwali den

sante et salut!

 

dinner - alsation style

aperitif: couple of glasses of muscat. then tarte flambee (above). it's like an ultra thin pizza, topped with bacon, onions, CREAM cheese. perfect with pinot blanc and riesling. :-p...

alsace - oct 22nd-25th

This picturesque countryside sits on the east of france. border with Germany. quaint villages and route de Vin. if you always preferred red wines, alsace might shift your mindset. Alsation wines are essentially white. my favorites inlcude Riesling, Muscat, pinot gris and gewurtzaminer. nothing like what i've tasted anywhere else.

poetry moment on my way to alsace - 22nd oct

reflections from a gold mine

I travel on the open tracks.
Watching the country whiz by.
Witnessing light turning into darkness,
I capture the view in my mind’s eye.

Watched over by the pale blue sky,
Concealed beneath the site’s greyish haze,
Secretly caressed by the fiery sun,
Displays a field of gold-dusted maize.

Shivering, shaking, swaying,
The wheat dances to the rhythm of the drizzle.
Remnants of the rays reach the balls of hay,
Crackling them to life with a fizzle.

I started holding on to the memories of yesterday,
Missing the world I left behind even more.
Relishing in the wonders of today and celebrating the possibilities of tomorrow,
It was like I’ve never seen the world before...

Impressionist painter Claude Monet's garden

giverny on october 19th. felt like a botanist that day. 

LV along champs elysee

wanna check out the latest LV range? get in line. 

psycho in montmarte

 

first snap, first stop, and first sip in paris

it was 15th october. 7 am.
we were waiting to check into our hotel. so we decided to kill some time in this cafe close by. everyone started with pastries and expressos. i ordered a rose wine. a bottle followed soon after. second time we popped in, the waiter recognized us. one day, the hotel manager needed to ask me something, and he actually came looking for me here. 

on air france to paris 14th oct

woohoo! it was equipped with individual monitors! that should keep me entertained throughout the 13 hour flight. but i watched "guess who" twice because i couldn't get the remote to work properly. the guy next to me had the window seat. he ate, drank some beer, slept, ate, drank some wine, slept... not once did he visit the restroom! he finally woke up during the last hour of the flight. i was wondering why this wierdo was rubbing the screen with his fingers for the longest time.
after staring at him funny for a minute, i wanted to bang my head against the seat in front of me. bimbo moment #1. it's touchscreen.
doh! a lesson i learnt for the return flight.

au revoir paris...

Thanks guys! Birthday celebrations in france were awesome! The big dinners, the big drinks, the big…
And thanks Ben, for joining me in paris, and traveling with me to giverny and chantilly. There wasn’t a single unbroken bone left in my body after all that walking! Fortunately, I recovered in time for my vin route in Alsace.
"I… love paris… in the spring time…" 

birthday celebrations to be continued..

in paris!
i leave tonight.

my birthday eve

"i'm drunk bubblies, really! REALLY! REALLY!!!" 

nuggetonline dot com

number 5s at emerald hill.
11th oct. pre-birthday celebrations with my indo buddies. how "nugget" came about is a long story. all i can say is, we are the default "cina babis". the drink up there represents my infamous martini icon on MSN.

my best friend's wedding- endnotes

i just related part of my "discovery travel" experience to nurza...
and she wondered if i would react the same way to a malay or indian wedding. my response sent her roaring in laughter!
ON MR KINGFISHER'S HEAD, i wasn't joking or remotely trying to be funny when i said, "i don't think they are anything out of the ordinary".

my best friend's wedding - the finale

finally, one part of the wedding that required no explanation. the mixture: wine, beer and cognac. after counteless bottoms up of of "the legends fall" (the legends is the name of the restaurant), his buddies emptied the bowl meant for the door gifts, and found a better use for it. i tell you, i took a sip. it was naaaaasty. what happened to don after this? you'll have to place a special order for "my best friend's wedding - the making."

my best friend's wedding - fear factor 2

biggest suckling pig i ever saw. 

my best friend's wedding - fear factor

okay, now tell me this doesn't look scary. this, my friends, is a desert!!! i must have asked them 7 times if those were eggs. 2 hard boiled eggs topped with... syrup?? i really don't know what to call it. it looked like some chinese soup, boiled with dates, fruits and some unidentifiable herbs. i wonder what anthony bourdain would say. 

my best friend's wedding - the trailer

i found the whole ceremony extremely intriguing. looking at not the rate but WHAT i was snapping, they said i behaved like a tourist the whole time. 

my best friend's wedding

need i say more? linda looked simply gorgeous yesterday. 

my new toys

it has been a week since i got my laptop. haven't been getting enough sleep... i've been staying up every night, talking to the world. have to go over to linda's place in about 4 hours and i'm still up. i'm clueless about how and what i'm supposed to be doing. it'll be my first time witnessing a traditional chinese wedding. not a good sign for a bridesmaid huh?

forget about monday to thursday.. when it's not unusual for this sharaabi to land up in a pub after work. it's friday, and i'm not drinking. instead, i went to funan centre to pick up some computer accessories and hurried on home. what a geek.

don't give up on me yet "ice cold", i'll be back!!

shakey's birthday - 30th september

2 of the 3 bubblies. (don't have a picture on my digi cam with the 3 of us) sorry for the picture quality guys.. i'll have to cut down on me whiskies.. :)
location: their home at "the gardens". this also became my home #2, aka "watering hole at bishan". another 2 of my best buddies. we hit it off almost instantly. it was hard to believe we knew each other for only months. why so many best friends you ask? because i am just, that, lucky. OYE!