new house, new life

not as I planned it

my first attic

on a little lane along taiyuan lu .. must be an inspiring space .. waking up to live music in the morning .. am I still dreaming ..

18 weeks

and two days.. and still counting.

I miss it.

After a meal.

Over a drink.

When I'm taking a break.

When I've completed a task.

When I feel like it.

Like now.

bath time!

once a year, babies, just once a year! and see how clean you smell now, little rosemary mints!

父亲节快乐!

Happy Dada-day!

( 张家的帅哥)

Cocoa Island

A new red-eye flight on route to Johannesburg takes us to Male. The small airport is not as rugged as I remember from 1989, but it is still simple and orgainized. A smart-looking young man called Toby greets us and walks with us to the 4-crew boat which was to take us 45min southwards on the Indian Ocean to our island home for the next 6 days. Toby says the island was hit by a ferocious storm in the previous night and according to our travelling companions, the forecast was for thunderstorms all week. But within 30min on the ocean, my anxiety was dispelled by a good omen. A spirited spinner dolphin (whom I'd like to believe is an old friend) greets us from a distance, making a small display of acrobats in the sunrise. From that moment on, I knew I was home again.

finally arriving at Cocoa Island

morning call by the resident crow

breakfast!

welcome to our "backyard"

our home for six days

bring your own trumpet!

our coast guards were baby black-tipped reef sharks

second floor view of the front of our dhoni #822

happy feet at the deck

let's romp around

our resident trumpet fish

sturdy sandcastle still standing after a stormy night

snapped by triggerfish!

me, myself & I

here's a happy heron

pool view or ocean view for you, madam?

our travelling companions, sok & sam (plus-one)

when the temperature cools down

drink at dusk, at the bar

I wish, I wish, I wish ...

Gone Fishing

Cocoa Island, Maldives May 5 ~ 9

internal mew-nologue

hmm.. looks like the little one is awake..

lemme check if his bum-bum is clean

yes, sweet-pea, it's just me..

sigh.. boys.. can't live with them

..can't live without them!

my all-time fave channel

national geographic

fall in love with me...

soft as morning dew

gentle as ocean breeze

and just when you think it's safe..

gotcha!

how much are the kitties in the window?

rmb4,500 each for these little darlings... got 2 new toilets instead, for my two little darlings

one month later

now I am ready to start not-smoking-for-one-year!

beezeero-1 here I come!

the muse A.K.A. soul mate

There were nine immortals
Once in the land of Zeus
Each one of these lasses
Each one a spellbinding muse

From old Greek mythology
To ancient French and Latin
A muse breathing poetry
Can forever haunt your dreams

In this urban reality
Two kindred spirits entangle
Drawn by deepest affinity
If you believe it's possible

In a land of mediocrity
A mortal finds inspiration
When music meets poetry
This muse is my redemption

Look Ma! I can FETCH too!

Excuse me, are you a Jack Russell?

3 weeks later

attended the h&m kylie-glam party at the science & tech museum on wed.. "she looks good for her age" (1968 means she's 39y/o) .. god forbids that I ever get decribed like that..

..3 weeks later, I didn't even realize I was at a non-smoking venue!

80

30 packets of instant noodles.. 30 double-a's batteries.. 30 half-straws from jz.. 30 triple-a's batteries.. 30 packets of asian gourmet seasoning.. 30 packets of rolling paper
and tadah! one sony cybershot h5
happy 80th birthday for someone who was born 50!

seven

ok, so by now all the nicotine by-products are outa my system and the tap water in Shanghai does taste funky.. and in the next couple of weeks my blood pressure will go back to normal, which for me, probably means it'll be a bit low.. and my immune system will show signs of recovery ... ahhh... immunity.... will I become immune to incurable diseases like numbskullesion and dimwitology.. which leads me to quote this last line in the Children & Passive Smoking section of a certain .au.org site

"A child who eats a cigarette or cigarette butt can become very sick."

i don't even know how to respond to this..

B.Zero-1

it has been exactly 47 hours since the fateful ride on 2gg's BatMobWil to Chek lep Kok

apparently, after 12 hours most of the nicotine is outa ma system
and after 24 hours, the carbon monoxide in my blood has dropped dramatically, giving my more oxygen in my bloodstream...

so how come I was so sleepy last night??? maybe it was just the over-zealous screwdrivers, piper pink & lychee martinis at armani bar on Sat night??

B.Zero-1 by the way is NOT another cocktail concoction ordered by ninja-ew-turtle.

B.Zero-1 is my guiding light for the next 29 daysB.Zero-1 will be keeping me focused.

B is for brainwave, B is for bold, B is for brenda, B is for brilliance and oh yah.. B is for bvlgari!

can't view my blog again

damn!

cheer me up, NOW!

two birthdays and a wedding

I always cry at weddings. Crying after one?

witch craft!

sms 06-March-2007 08:35, from one witch to another

"I dreamt soks pregant :) "

we held our tongues so we wouldn't break the spell...

And this little golden pig cried ee-ee-ee all the way home!

congee FAT boy!

mama went home for chinese new year and papa went to boota-pest and left me & jiejie at home.. uncle tommy came everyday to feed me lotsa biscuits so now I am phat-boy!
ps did you de-code the title yet?? It's how I say 恭喜发财 in cantonese!

bosphorus, where east first met west

after spending two intense days with my new italian family - inside the swissotel with an invitingly glorious view of the bosphorus, I finally got a take in a breath or two of Turkish air on Saturday afternoon, wandering around the old part of town, into the famous blue mosque that looks so much like something out of a fairy tale, where I half expected to see Rapunzal let her hair down..

one grand bazzaar and a shisha later, I was beginning to forget that I came to Istanbul for business - it helped that my peers were real people who like me, have a crazy appetite for life! Downtown in Taxim by the Mahmara, the traffic was buzzing with life at 3pm or 3am, where the snow doesn't dampen the spirits. And one brief hour in the Museum of Archeology takes you back into time, even before the Otterman, Constantinople and Alexander the Great, when the land was known as the Byzantine Empire.

one night in dubai, one week ago

from the arabian gulf, into the dubai creek where trade began ~ now the old town of a new city. One hour drive south, along the coast, past prime private real estates, you will see Burj-Al Arab: epitome of modern-day dubai architecture, ultra sleek glass & steel, with its distinct coastal-ethnic style. Venture on to one of the palm-shaped man-made islands, and you witness the magic of money. Alas, one hour east, you will see what it was like just 30 years ago - endless miles of desert.. an amazing city, built by men with vision and imagination; which will undoubtedly will go down in history, as the metropolis representing the Golden Age of the UAE civilization.
driving into the sunset towards the Jumeirah beach, we found the Souk Madinat quite by accident - which is best described as the Xintiandi of Dubai (souk means market). I finally bought myself a dishdasha ("it's for men!" I heard the alarmed sales girl whisper) - a romantic white robe traditionally worn by the Arabic men. And driving back north along the coast, we had the good fortune to be cruising at snail's pace, alongside jubilant locals who were out in the streets, waving their national flags, hanging out from their cars and doing the victory dance - all these from winning the Gulf Cup. A first it seems; and a priviledge to be a part of.

sunday brunch in hong kong

If i hadn't had so many good experiences with the customer service people in the past, I would most certainly have made a scene 2 thursdays ago at hsbc. Fortunately Jason & Kitagawa kept their cool & a sense of humour until we made it to the still-smoking-permitted Armani Bar (which Simone promised to take us in Milan but hadn't... humphh!). Then as usual, our eyes were bigger than our stomaches at Lei Yue Mun - I think lobster sashima came out of my ears afterwards. And as promised, 2gg's apartment has a view of the open sea - but lo & behold, those posh apartments at Cyberport have talking elevators which trapped Meng & myself in twilight zone, conversing with a digital recording of a women's spooky voice LET ME OUTA HERE!! NOW!!! (pleeeeaase 2gg, move back to the comforting mid-levels where we can walk up to the peak or down to lankwaifung)

Jordan

"A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high
All across the land dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born

A silent wish sails the seven seas
The winds of change whisper in the trees
And the walls of doubt crumble tossed and torn
This comes to pass, when a child is born

A rosy hue settles all around
You got the feel, you're on solid ground
For a spell or two no one seems forlorn
This comes to pass, when a child is born"

Jordan Tan (Jan 9, 2007) , sister of godson Ryan (Jan 7, 2004) and baby girl to Linda & Richard

From the name of a river flowing between the countries of Jordan and Israel. The river's name in Hebrew is יַרְדֵן (Yarden), and it is derived from יָרַד (yarad) meaning "descend" or "flow down". John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ in its waters, and it was adopted as a personal name after crusaders brought back water from the river to baptize their children.

happy birthday to me!

bang!

another new year's celebration with 2gg! as usual, she was a superstar from the moment she landed in PVG - always happy to trot along doing this & that, always loaded with amusing stories, always game for mid-afternoon champagne & always jolly to meet new friends.
this time, jennie & sophie came along with jolyn and for one night and we even had cousin heng & may with connie... just imagine, women from 20something to 30something to 40something to 50something to 60something creating havoc from guyi to jz!

new year's eve at glam bar was... pretty perfect! i think martha had more fun than arnold - but then again, she always does!

resolutions get harder every year for me... offer my opinion only when asked for it! which means this is my only outlet to air my royal views! thank god for blogs!

finally, the most impt event over the weekend, 2gg bonded with her god-daughter & her little brother k2.. and after she left... this is the sms i got:

"Actually missing them a tini tini bit"

black-out

6pm hh on thu with brenda... nothing unusual... 1 glass of red wine... massive download... nothing unusual... 3 glasses of bacardi coke... chatting with random people... nothing unusual... 10pm dropped off by brenda... nothing unusual...

6am woke up in bed with ZERO recollection of anything after 8pm... huh? complete black-out?! what was that about??? super scary stuff!

thank my lucky stars the girls at velvet kept my computer bag safe for me!

xmas with mgg

certainly dusseldorf is not a typical german city... even then, the excitement drove me to spend an entire day indoors to do mindless household chores for mgg!

but then again, given the chance to meet a nbf in the form of an syt... it was worth the trip!

thankfully we had the good sense to escape via choo-choo-train to amsterdam on christmas eve... window-shopping in the evening, self-administered facials, boots-a-hunting, pub-a-hopping, mad italian students, an american tourist of 6-years, a fireplace in the lobby of Hotel V, aimless wanderings from one square to another... the best parts of the trip? fighting over garbage & a farewell footrub!

so... the only 2 things I can moan about... not getting the chance to see amy & joel in london.

HOWEVER! Ryan Air did deliver my long-lost ex-wife to Milan for 9 british pounds! and as if it was at all possible, pam has become more entertaining & WORSE! even more beautiful post-sprogs... and so secure that she actually didn't get offended when I compared laura & audrey with my furry four-legged babies!