After 2 glasses of sparkling wine...here goes! CHEERS!

The bull into the new year

So, Genting won the bid for the IR and the market soared. Shucks, should have gotten in on a piece of the action!

We caught The Holiday tonight and it was good. Well, we loved it! Cameron D. looked amazing as always, but I guess it was the flipside of both love stories that really helped the film make the cut. We both agreed it was way better than Love Actually, so do watch it if you want a bit of love just sneaking into the new year :)


On another note, Saddam Hussein has been hanged. I guess even though he probably had it coming, it still stung me a little. Perhaps I'd imagined he would get a life sentence instead of the gallows.

Anyways, have a l00ooong great weekend!

With the year 2006 coming to a close, taking a peek ahead, it sure looks as though 2007 will be a busy year coming up for me!

Starting the year in January, I'll be flying to Hong Kong and Shanghai for my first (and maybe my last - I have no idea!) business trip ever...I'm currently planning for an extension of a day or two in both cities so it might come up to be a week and slightly more away in China. Anyone keen to join me? :) Bonus would be that accomodation should be taken care of...

After which in March, I'll be making my way up to Bangkok...

This will be followed by a trip to Bali in May...

All tickets booked and simply pending planning...I'm thinking if we can still do Europe and the US in July or September...hmm...

Happy Holidays!

We made our way down to the Conrad where we had an additional night's stay...they ran out of the Centennial Suite due to the popular festive season, and we got upgraded to the Presidential Suite! :)

And, dinner at Oscar's was amazing as usual :)



It's Christmas time! Have a very Merry Christmas :)

les choses qui me font le sourire

R's weekly sweeping and moping of the floor which feels so good to walk on. (And on record, I do appreciate it!)

Sitting in front of my flat screen with a big cup of steaming hot passion tea. My red teacup set does good.

Clean, crisp white egyptian cotton sateen sheets. Feels heavenly against skin.

Being hugged to sleep.

CHRISTMAS. Joy. Lights. Trees. Cheer. Food.

Staying home. I love it!

Spending time with my girls - G, EL, GA, Yappy, SC, SM, CT, RH, RC...

Waking up to wonderful music...

I call it the simple pleasures of life...

I think about what an eventful year it has been. And how promising the life ahead looks...

Have a good week - don't catch the nasty flu bug I caught!

I think it's funny how life turns out over the phases in time. Maybe interesting would be a more appropriate word to describe how I see it all. When previously I would think that I might never really move on and that in this lifetime it will always be somewhere inside me, somehow it's been slipping away slowly without my knowing and finally I feel it now that the void has slowly been filled up. I look at the pictures now and I can't help but feel that love was really blind. It's like how GA once told me, that once she looked around and realized that P was the best one around for her, she knew.

I guess it took a longer time for me. Facing the pictures I've come to discover I'm now in the scenario once described by GA. And I'm happy where I am. It's miraculous in a way yet a relief in a different aspect to know how far I've come since then. R and I, we've had happy days and not-so-happy ones too. But at the end of the day, I want to go home to him. For him to hug me in bed all night. And R does exactly that. But of course, I do wonder how would things have turned out differently if I'd grown up earlier. Yet, on hindsight, I doubt things would have improved and progressed should I have stayed in that spot in the past. All the experiences I've gone through would never have been.

With the year coming to an end, I pray for strength to follow my dreams, for patience to give and love even more, and for health towards happiness and success.

Trip Report Ultimo

We missed our Eurostar into Roma! But thankfully, despite being stowaways on the next Eurostar train and being slapped with a slight fine, everything still turned out wonderful in The Eternal City...The sights were truly breath-taking, and the Colosseum, Roman Forums, Palatine Hill, the Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, everything left such a deep impression on me and I'll never forget Rome! Our hotel River Palace Hotel was amazing, and we ended our trip on a nice note with a night tour of all the famous sights in Rome :) Again, wish we had more time in Italy...but all in all, I'll always have Italy in my heart! Ciao Roma! Ciao Italia...

:)

Trip Report Due

Last day in Firenze, am leaving for Roma in about four hours. It's been exciting...driving around the mountains for a spot of shopping, and visiting Pisa (yes, for the famous leaning tower which has been around since 1516?!), which was an hour's train from Firenze, we had a simple lunch of spaghetti di mare, heading back to Firenze, we did sightseeing on our own in town. The highlights had to be the Duomo Cathedral which was lovely (in the colours of green and red with white)...and the Palazo Vecchio where we signed up for an hour's tour of the secret passages :) The tour was fantastic! It was meant to be for a group of 12, but I guess no-one else cared to sign up so it was just the two of us...nice in a way, since it ended up being like a private tour given by a local guide (who spoke excellent english)...we were shown secret walkways and rooms which the public had no access to, and many of the doors were even hidden behind the old paintings. We also saw the back of the ceiling paintings in the grand political hall used by the duke Cosimo - how the paintings were held up by panels and panels of wood since the 15th century really amazed me!

Okie dok, gonna check out the shops before we head down to Roma :)

Ciao!

Trip Report Uno

Bounjourno!

Checking in from Italy...Am at Firenze at the moment. We just arrived this morning from Venezia. :) It's winter but getting warmer as we go downwards further south. Venice was chilly but it was soo lovely! Just like a beautiful dream! Our hotel was wonderful - they prepared champagne, it was very venetian, just 2 shops away from Prada, Gucci, you name it :) San Marco (Saint Mark's Square) was very nice...trigger happy me means we took quite a lot of shots. Once we arrived in Venice from Rome on Eurostar, we took the water taxi to our hotel (Hotel Violino). It was a nice 30 minute ride on the ferry then we took a short walk before arriving at our hotel. We walked around exploring Venice, visiting the Palace at San Marco Square, up the Rialto Bridge and along all the small little aisles and sidewalks. Everyone was so nice! The whole place was so quaint and I even found a shop selling little knights of the round table stuff - talk about a fairy tale! We also bought a mask and a few gifts. Pity we only had 2 days in Venice (utterly romantic!), and we've just arrived in Florence on Eurostar. Our hotel Globus is a stone's throw away from the Santa Maria Novella Station. There's a slight drizzle on and off, and the hobbled streets might be difficult to walk on at times but all's good and am looking forward to the next 3 days here :) We've just gone to the Duomo (amazing!) and walked around the piazzas...will be picking up our rented car tomorrow. Later! Have a good night :)

Ciao!

martinis and the lot

Dinner was nice :) Small and cosy...especially loved chilling on the couch with you ladies watching Dvds (and yes, it turned out to be quite a good film huh :p) - we should all definitely do this again sometime!!



We're leaving for The Eternal City this evening :)

Will post more when we get back! - I can't wait to see the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Leaning Tower, and so much more! Oh yes, and the shopping! hehe - I'll lug my Frett sheets back if I can!

See yas and have a good weekend!! Will meet up with everyone when I get back :P