Durian Party

this evening, family spent birthday dinner numero uno at windows on bukit. oh the US premier roast beef prime rib! and the fresh salmon sashimi.. the pan fried foie gras.. the stewed lamb topped with mash potato.. the dessert array of bread and butter pudding, bite-size cheesecakes and chocolate brownies plus durian pudding etc etc.. have i mentioned the utterly carnivoric US premier roast beef prime rib?

i received yang's gift sent through royal mail all the way from durham! grey's anatomy dvd season one and part of season two.. which is extremely thoughtful of her since i only managed to catch two episodes before leaving for copenhagen. during dinner, jie and jimmy presented me with a pendant from tiffany's and for some reason, i was really touched by the gift.. i guess it is because birthdays were never too much of a big deal in my family.. cake was de riguer and dinner was definitely on the books but we were not into all that gift-sharing hug-hug-smoochy-smoochy sit-by-the-fireplace-and-reminiscent routine.. plus the ultimate gift from my parents- the copenhagen exchange.. this year feels extra special.

plainly-put: i am happy. contented. at peace with myself.

it has been a week since i returned. what have i been doing? nothing much going by the empty biscuit boxes in the trash and abused tv remote control as a result of over exertion. a decomposition of my day reads like this: breakfast. tv. lunch. more tv. reading. gym. dinner. tv. reading. bed.. this actually feels more like a holiday, compared to my europe vacations.

and what was i reading? jodi picoult's vanishing act. i think she is a pretty good writer. she is great at finding the right words to expresss herself.. it is like how we might be feeling and thinking the same way, but i would be incapable of jotting down my emotions word-for-word, much less come up with books that make you go, "hey that's how i feel too!"

 

on monday, i met up with secondary school friends for a durian party. some of whom i have known since a single-digit marked my age. toon, mingxi, maryann, jingyi, laurene.. it is amazing when you think of how we have made it through secondary school, junior college, university and the remarkable stench of durians.. and somehow managed to hang on to the fraying threads of friendship.

yesterday, i met with with dear dear diana for lunch where we spent a precious lunch-hour by the sushi converyor belt yabbering about school, mutual friends and our plans for the near future. i do think that after my exchange program -due to sheer indolence and a lack of email updates- i have lost touch with many.. and honestly speaking, i am not too bothered by that but if i were to lose a friend (like diana) who line of thought and sense of humour is comfortingly similar to mine.. i would be more than upset... i would be VERY VERY UPSET. haha

after lunch with diana, i hopped on down to raffles city and was amazed by the transformation raffles marketplace had undergone. in fact, i was pretty disoriented and as soon as i saw janson's supermarket, i ran into that familar sight and sought shelter in it, under the pretense of shopping for tomorrow's dinner. there is a japanese stationary shop where i could have just spent an hour staring at the different san-x stickers and kawaii notepads. there also many new eateries.. mental note to myself: all the better for my foodie adventures.
 
 
 


some pictures from raffles marketplace.. so that you would not react like a mountain tortise when you check out the revamped site.

off to read my new book 'the man who ate everything' by jeffrey steingarten..