Ain’t She Gorgeous!

I’ve brought my new baby home: the piece to start my art collection. It was painted by an Indonesian artist and is titled ‘Alone’.

The day that I walked by the gallery, I just felt completely compelled to go in. I had no intention of buying anything as P’s and my bank balanced were maxed out with wedding expenses. However, when I saw her, I got the same feeling I did when I saw the showflat for my condo: It was love at first sight and I had to have her.

The photo really does not do the piece any justice. In person, you can see the textures of the paint and it's truly stunning.

If you guys want to know the name of the artist or the gallery where I bought it, email me and maybe I'll tell you. A woman has to have some secrets! ;-)

My Wedding Bling!

Not to be a show off or anything, but I know that some of you guys overseas are curious to see my wedding and engagement rings. I chose a simple half-eternity band with seven diamonds totally 0.76 carats.

P has already promised to make it into a full eternity ring for our first year anniversary! Roll on November 2008 I say!

We Tied the Knot!

P and I had a wonderful wedding on Saturday evening and I am now a wife! I can still hardly believe it. But the 4.3 carats of diamonds on my left hand (P has a simple but classic platinum band) and the marriage certificate in my desk drawer proves that it’s true!

I don’t have all the photos yet and these are just a sneak peek. I will post more up on later in the week once everyone has sent me their pics.

We are both still quite tired from all the activities leading up to the event as we spent every evening last week with the wedding party and our friends and family who had flown in from all over the world. But it was soooooo worth it and I am extremely grateful that they made such a huge effort for us. Thank you everyone.

Well, what can I say about the venue? My dad’s partner and her family decorated it beautifully with cream roses and other complementary flowers. Every single chair was tied with hand-arranged sprays and all the table tops had so many floral vases and bowls on them! P made a joke when he saw the venue and asked if there were any other flowers left on our small island! They had also made four huge arrangements that they put on high tables and it looked very Greek and stunning. I even got to walk through an arch made entirely of cream flowers. How extravagent is that?!

The vanilla cake they also organized was really delicious! I love my bridal bouquet and refused to throw it ha ha, and am enjoying the gorgeous blooms at home for a few more days.

Our wedding favors were two types of silver Christmas ornaments, which everyone loved.

The evening itself was everything we had hoped for and more. Everything went off without a glitch and we managed to spend some time with every single person who had come. I didn't have time to eat but thankfully, a couple of flutes of Laurent Perrier managed to make it down my throat!

Our solemniser was so nice and she looked lovely in her cheongsam. We kept the ceremony short and sweet so that our guests could get the party started!

P’s witness and best man was Yeller Fever while the mum from the Canadian Family was my witness. The dad from the Canadian Family had a part to play too! He sang our first dance song ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol acoustic and it was amazing. I believe a few tears were shed due to the beautiful lyrics. It was simply perfect.

The speeches by Yeller Fever and P were also very good: heartfelt, humourous and to the point. They both made ‘jokes’ about me writing the speeches for them. Funny, guys, very funny! Hmmm…..

My dad seemed to have a lot of fun and got along very well with P’s mum, dad, uncle and aunt. After dinner, we went by coach to the dance club and my dad was the centre of attention! At some points, he had so many people surrounding him that it seemed more like his wedding!! As I was in charge of the cash and drinks, I had to stay relatively sober.

My dad and P made up for it though, and the latter was stripped down to just his trousers on the dance floor at one point! One of my male colleagues also tried to take P’s pants down, so you can just imagine what kind of night it was!

There was a hen party dancing next to our group and they attempted to steal P’s shirt. However, he wasn’t having any of it and held on tight, shouting, “Give me my shirt back, it’s Paul Smith!”

We finally rolled back to the hotel at 2.30am and as we were extremely hungry, had something to eat before we crashed out.

We woke up the next morning and looked at each other, happy and still incredulous that we were now Mr and Mrs. At about 7.30am, both our phones beeped. It was an sms from Yeller Fever, saying that he was just on his way home!

Truly, it was a WONDERFUL night and by the looks of it, not just for us!! Thank you to all our friends and family, you made the wedding simply unforgettable!

A Pre-Nuptial Update

I’m sure all of you are sending us good thoughts this week! Things are going very well and a lot of our friends and family (yes, including my future MIL!) have already arrived on our small island with more to come today and tomorrow.

We have been spending every evening with them, bringing them to the best places to eat and going to every happy hour venue in town. Although we are very busy, it has all been great and I’m enjoying every moment of it. I am so glad that we have these amazing friends who have flown half-way across the world to be with us on our special day. I must be doing something right!

There will be more drinking (groan) over the next few nights. Can my liver take it?! Well, I’ll just put on a stiff upper lip and get on with it. Cheers!

Four Floors - Revisited

P and I had our combi hen and stag night this past weekend with four close friends. As we have the Four Floors to thank for our serendipitous meeting just over a year ago, we decided to go back there to “recreate the night”!

We started out at my apartment with three bottles of champagne kindly donated by my dad. Yeller Fever took a break from his many Chinese women to make us his famous chicken curry. That is really saying something and I am very honoured! Thank you YF, it was delicious!

After polishing off the Verve and Moet, we moved on to vodka and beer. Although we were going to leave for the Towers at 11ish, we didn’t get out the door until half-past midnight as we were just having too much fun.

The original plan was to jump into two cabs, but as the Shipper had his truck with him, we took an impromptu ride to the Four Floors in the back of it! That was so much fun and we got some strange looks from other drivers ha ha. I guess it didn’t help that we were a little bit, shall we say, loud?

I didn’t realize how drunk we all were until I saw the photos Huney had posted up. I would show them to you all, but it’s too embarrassing! Besides which, I don’t think the other five would forgive me for sending them out. There were lots of “OH MY GAWDS!” flying around when we looked at the pics! As they say, what goes on at the Towers, stays at the Towers!

Needless to say, P and I had whacking hangovers on Sunday. As I will be in a gorgeous antique white silk dress for the wedding, I do not intend to drink too much. Famous last words? Check back here next week to find out!

What a Nice Surprise!

Today when I went to the ATM to withdraw some money, I got a shock, albeit a good one. I had $1k more than expected in my bank balance!

My lovely friend Twist, whom I've known for almost 10 years, sent me the money as a wedding present! Thank you thank you thank you.

I am veeeeeeeeeeeery lucky to have such great friends who love me so much! Oh, and whom I love in return of course!!

The Season of Collecting

The decorations on our small island’s main shopping street are up and so, I decided to get myself organized and decorate my Christmas tree as well! Perhaps inspiring some of you to do the same?

I have amassed a rather large collection of decorations over the years and is my wont, everything I have is either handmade or hand blown. It’s a joke amongst P and my friends that if you put the word ‘hand’ in front of anything, I’ll buy it! I am a self-confessed snob who just cannot tolerate cheap and ugly things, unlike some people I used to know. ;-D

One of my favourite items is this simple but stunning nativity scene:

The German makers only produce a limited number per year and this set was ‘sponsored’ a few years ago. Just as well really as it is the same price as the silk footstool! Ouch. But I didn’t pay for it so that’s okay.

I love the smell of real pine trees but as they can be a pain and I will be busy over the next few weeks with overseas friends coming for the wedding, I decided to put this up instead:


The wooden decorations are from Germany and Finland, while the crystal snowflake is Swarovski of course. P’s and my first Christmas was in 2006 and he bought me the entire collection of 12 wooden Star of David ornaments with various little figurines in them, which I just love!


On my sofa are silk Santa cushion covers from Jim Thompson bought on my last trip to Bangkok in 2004:


As I have some friends coming over this weekend for champagne and curry (I know, odd, but our group IS a mix of East and West!), I also decided to decorate the guest bathroom with my other Swarovski pieces and a tiny handmade wooden train.

The reindeer and tree sits on the soap stand in the shower. Cute huh!


The rest of the decorations are spread out in the kitchen:


Dining table:


Hall:


And finally, in the master bedroom, I have this angel pyramid that P bought for me. He says it reminds him of me because I’m such an angel. Got you! Bet you guys almost believed me for a moment ha ha ha. He did buy it for me, but an angel is the last thing I would remind him of. His nickname for me is Princess, quite appropriate I think!


And until next time, Princess ooooooout!!