Quiet Celebration

This time last year, I thought that I'd want to do something big for my 30th. A huge party perhaps, or a day out; something wild, something crazy.

This year, by the time my birthday rolled round, I'd completely changed my mind. After all, I'd already done the trip to London for my birthday treat! And I still have Jaffa cakes and rolos and Galaxy bars to feast on...among other goodies.

Decided on going to Overeasy for dinner with Bar Boozer. I made it just in time for happy hour, wahey! Was rather disappointed though, that rum wasn't included in the happy hour drinks. Nor was Red Bull, so I couldn't have my usual Rum&Coke, nor my substitute poison, Vodka RBs. My other choices? Gin or bourbon. Seeing as how gin is even grosser than bourbon, I settled for a bourbon whiskey. Had two of those, afterwhich I switched up to rum. Best Roman Coke ever!

Was a decent dinner, they do good burgers. But the service wasn't exactly the best! Since it was rather noisy, we decided to stroll across the bridge to the Esplanade, where we hung out at Harry's.
Decided to move on to SoCo 7-Ups, which I hadn't had in ages! Harry's was rather understaffed that day, but I'll give them this: they mix brilliant drinks! JUST the right ratios.

Shoes arrived not long after, and Tink joined us when she was done with work. And then....shots all round! Tequila...it makes me happy! Plus, Patrón tequila is good stuff!

So...alcohol consumption was...let's see if I remember this.

2 x bourbon whiskey
2 x rum & coke
3 (4?) x SoCo 7-Up
4 x tequila
1/2 x Guinness
Few sips of some very good single malt.

A decent amount for a 30 year old, especially one who was on the tail end of jetlag, hadn't been sleeping well, and had been in the office since 7.30am. Not too bad at all!

I was PLENTY buzzed, I can tell you that! Of course, after having the requisite prata and teh tarik supper, I was sobered up, but feeling oh-so-happy after spending a wonderful evening with 3 of my best mates.

And then I come home, and I see this waiting for me:

Thank you, Doof!

Flowers also make me happy. (Mum told me they'd arrived just after I left for dinner!)


Another thing that makes me happy? Starting the alcohol headache before I sleep, which means minimal hangover! Plus, as a wise old woman of 30, I now know enough to stick to either dark or light alcohol, drink lots of water, and to keep a bottle of water next to me. Woke up feeling tired, but no headache!


And then dinner today at Sis2's place. Weekend of friends and family. As close to perfection as it gets.

What a Wonderful Monday!

Monday started off rather drearily, as always. Did NOT want to get out of bed! Finally dragged myself to the office, and it was all uphill from there! Just had a general good day at work, and then went to tutor Kay and LG after that. Had such fun with the kids as always, all four of them! And then went out for a couple beers after with Shoes. Well, I say 'couple'. It was only a pint and a half of the black stuff. Would have had more if it hadn't already gone midnight! Isn't it great to be mates with your students' mum? Better yet, drinking kaki!

Got home about...12ish? Chatted with Mum for ages. I always love our late night chats, where we talk about serious stuff, and throw in completely inane things as well. Back in the day, when a teacher in school (I can't remember which one, but I remember what was said!) told us that our parents are our best friends, I didn't believe her. But my Mum is by far one of the best friends a girl can have.

Anyway, it's 2.30 in the a.m. now, it's just started pouring; thunder, lightning, the whole shebang. Perfect sleeping weather! So off to sleep I go, with just under four hours before the alarm goes off.

And tomorrow! Afternoon will be spent with Mum, Sister V, Mike D, their kids and Baby Girl. (I get to work in the morning first, though!)

What a fantastic start to a week that is just filling up with loveliness! Thank you, Universe. I am so very blessed. ♥



PS: Doof, know how I said I'll email ya? Well...not going to, now that I've blogged. :p

Kismet, I tell ya.

Went out today after work, to meet up with a bloke I recently got to know. Met up with him for coffee, which is really just leaving an escape route, no? If we don't like each other's company, hey, it was just for coffee, and we can cut and run. If we enjoy each other's company, we can extend the evening.

Which is what we did. Ended up going over to his place, where he cooked dinner and we just hung out for hours. Had such a lovely evening, really!

Left his place about half eleven, even though I was really tempted to stay a bit longer (and I knew I was welcome to!), and was thinking that I'd just had two wonderful evenings in a row. I was going to grab a cab from where I was, but I decided to swing by 7-11 first. So I walked the other way towards 7-11, and I actually walked the longer way by mistake. Clearly, the mistake was meant to be made, for that's when I ran into none other than my favourite older male first cousin. (The fact that he's my only older male first cousin is completely irrelevant, of course.) I didn't literally run into him, but I would have, had I not looked up from my phone!

It was a total "coincidence" that we saw each other; he had picked that exact moment to walk out of the building, and I was walking past at the very same time! I don't believe in coincidences though...the Universe totally wanted me to meet him! I hadn't seen him since Christmas, and we haven't had a proper conversation in bloody years! So we decided to hang out for a bit, and we spent a lovely couple hours catching up and just having a laugh.

And I had not one, but two pints of Guinness. Doof had better be proud of me for that one.
I'm so very glad we got the chance to sit down, just the two of us. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed him until today. We used to be really close, and in fact, he was at one time my best friend, the big brother I never had, until life got in the way and pulled us apart. I'm hoping...nay, I'm planning to keep in touch with him more often. I'd really, really missed him!

Oh, what a wonderful weekend I'm having. And it's not even over!
In the past two days, I've met someone new, and reconnected with two old and so very dear friends. Tomorrow, I meet up with another old friend and her friends, therefore more new connections for me to make! We're going to Fort Canning Park to see my favourite Shakespeare play of all time! Yep, that Scottish one, whose name we will not mention, for it's bad luck to utter its name.

My life is filled with blessings, and it just keeps getting better.

I am so happy right now, I can't stop smiling!

But I'm also really knackered, and if I'm to wake up early enough to bake brownies for picnic, I'd better get to sleep right now.

Thank you, Universe. I'm having such a beautiful time!

Attack of the Killer Lizard

Wow, this has been some week!

Went out with the parents and Calis on Sunday, for Mothers' Day, and had a lovely time with them. Made plans to meet JJ for happy hour on Monday, but I couldn't make it for some reason I can't remember right now, so changed the date to Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon, Mum called me in the office and said that she had to go to the hospital. Turns out she was severely anaemic, and needed a blood transfusion.

Mum spent a couple days in the hospital, and she came home Thursday. I'm so glad and relieved she's ok. Calis missed her terribly when she was away, and I was, frankly, really worried, even though I played it down for Nan and Calis.

Anyway, I cancelled on JJ, and I also cancelled on My Girls (I was supposed to meet them on Wednesday), so I could take care of Calis and things at home. Today, I decided that since Dad was home and could keep an eye on things (and Mum!), I would go out for dinner and drinks. I'd spoken to Terry on Sunday, and we said end of the week, so I gave him a shout, and off we went!

Ended up going to Miss Clarity Cafe down on Purvis Street. I was there almost exactly a year ago! And me being me, I ate almost the exact same thing. Terry and I split everything - a lovely, thick mushroom soup, a delightful paella with chorizo, ham and bacon (can never go wrong with bacon, really), and the exact same dessert I had last time. And Terry and I both agreed that the best desserts are those that are a mixture of hot and cold, especially if there's chocolate involved.

Strolled around a bit, and went to Loof for drinks. It's quite amusing, really. I think the last time I met him, we ended up at Loof as well. We hung out so much longer than I'd thought we would, and I had a brilliant time. It's been years since we last met, and I really think we shouldn't let another couple years pass just like that.

Got home about 15 minutes ago, and popped into the shower. Hung up my towel, stripped, and then took off my glasses. Turned on the shower, and what do I see? A HUGE LIZARD. Alright, I'm really not sure how big it really was, since I'm blind without my specs, but I could tell it was pretty darn big. (Big for a house lizard, not big like monitor lizard. Thank goodness.)

I froze, lizard scuttled off. Thing is, I couldn't see where it had gone to. For all I know, it was hiding behind my towel! So I put my glasses back on, showered in double-quick time, brushed my teeth, and...well, I wasn't about to risk grabbing my towel! What if killer lizard had jumped out at me?! I COULD HAVE DIED.

Yes, I snuck out of bathroom butt naked and dripping wet. Thank goodness I always have a smaller towel hanging on the back of my bedroom door! I'm now safe in bed, and going to watch one more episode of QI before I have to wake up for work. In...4 hours, guh.

I hope lizard doesn't find its way to my bedroom. I really should booby trap the perimeter.

Red Bull Week; Day 2

Managed to make it to class on time, and felt knackered all day. Had a good time in class though, and it was lovely catching up with SheelyD and Sham and Koko. I think I might actually enjoy this module! It's a pretty interesting topic, and one that's quite relevant indeed to my interests. There's a lot of class prep involved with this module, which is always useful, of course. And our lecturer is really cool too; had some interesting discussions in class. He's so knowledgeable about this topic and I'm looking forward to more dialogues with him.

After class, I made my way to the National Library, where I started on my presentation for tomorrow. Well, technically, today now. Didn't spend as much time as I'd expected, because Bar Boozer's arrival time was a whole hour earlier than expected! Which just meant I got to see him a whole hour earlier than I'd expected!

Oh, it was simply lovely hanging out with Bar Boozer for the first time in five years! One would think that'd it be a bit awkward, what with not having seen each other for so long, and having the barest of communications in the meantime. After all, we just kept up with each other's lives mostly through Facebook statuses. But no, it was just so easy and comfortable and fun from the get go!

I find it rather amusing that we ended up getting tapas for dinner, seeing as how the first time I had tapas was with him, and when we met at Clarke Quay the last time, we also had tapas. What is that, our signature cuisine?

Really looking forward to hanging out with him again in July, when I get to crash at his place over my summer hols.

Decent tapas, good drinks, great conversation and chilling out with an old mate.  Now that's a perfect way to end an awesome weekend!

Oh, and where did the Red Bull come in? Right after lunch, of course! It's almost 2am now, and after only about 5 hours of sleep this whole weekend, I'm more than ready to crash. Say g'night, Ki. G'night!

Best. Monday. Ever.

Well, it got off to a bit of a rocky start. I woke up later than I'd wanted, so had to really rush.

Busy day at the office, but of course, I still had time to chill out a bit. And enjoyed lunch immensely. Mum's homecooked food is soooooo much better than cup noodles. Which goes without saying, of course. Mmmmmmum's cooking.
It was quite a coincidence, really. I packed the lunch last night, and this morning? Read the affirmation about eating healthy from now on. Then Bunny texted me during her lunchtime to tell me that she had a healthy sandwich for lunch.

Healthy food for the win! As long as you realise that chocolate and wine are healthy too...

Speaking of affirmations, they're really doing me good. I find myself looking forward to the next day's affirmation, and I get excited about discovering what the next day holds for me.

Came home straight after work, and Neal was here, being all cute. That kid is just over one year old, and he's already charming all the ladies. I fear to imagine what he'll be like at eighteen!

I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I had a pretty good idea that Doof would show up today, after his two weeks' off. Was slightly disappointed about 3.30pm, because he wasn't online yet, but I'd prolly gotten the time zones messed up. I can't even begin to describe how happy I was to chat with him again. Only two weeks? It feels like it was longer than that, and yet? It seems like only yesterday that we'd last spoken, because really...it's like no time had passed. After all, what's a couple weeks between friends?

Christmas was pretty busy for me, so I barely had time to miss him, and then there was work....so didn't really consciously miss him. But...I didn't realise just how much I'd really missed him until I saw his name pop up on chat.


I know I'm not over certain people in my past, but I know I'm well on the road to recovery when I can listen to love songs; I used to be filled with pain and that heartbreaking emptiness, which is why I refused to listen to the radio for a while. But today? I'm listening to love songs, and I want to sing and dance and I feel so light and filled with hope and happiness.




Happy moments of the day:
- Talking to Poptart!Boss in his office, and Big!Boss walking in and asking P!Boss what I'm all dressed up for, and then the two of them talking about me as though I wasn't there (in a teasing, good camaraderie all round way)

- Eating Mum's cooking for lunch

- Seeing Doof pop up online

- Going to the coffeeshop with my sis

- Talking to bro when I was giving him some school supplies, and having him be annoying, and me acting all annoyed with him. It's a sibling thing.

- Chatting with Doof online

- Hearing Doof's voice and listening to his chuckle again

- Making tentative plans with Yvonne for her to come over to my place on a Saturday to bake

- Cuddling my sis and singing Vincent (Starry Starry Night) to her (along with the radio, so I don't think I sounded too bad)

- Listening to love songs, and actually feeling uplifted by them

- My sis giving me a goodnight kiss


Today's Thanksgiving:
Today I am grateful for the Doof. He's been one of my best mates for the past 7 years and he's given me so much love and support. He's been there during some of my really low moments, and he's shared so much of my joys and triumphs. It's an amazing feeling to be unconditionally loved, and I don't know if he'll ever realise how much I appreciate him.



Tomorrow! Is Tuesday!

And it's also the day I'm meeting Sof after work.


Life, my friends, is sweet. And it's just going to get better, I know it.