Lovely Company At The Wine Company

Earlier this month, I had a lovely lovely evening under the stars with the very gorgeous Cindee. Up till now, I'm still amazed that the Internet had brought 2 strangers from opposite ends of the world to cross paths and become friends.




It has been a few years since Cindee and I became acquainted via our blogs-- a Canadian and a Singaporean "blogger" brought together with our deep connection in writing and similar passion for life. (We try to avoid calling ourselves "bloggers" as we feel there is a difference between a "blogger" and a simple person who writes her thoughts in her blog.)

She underwent a few blog transformations and domain change before expressing her unique style at misscindee and finally establishing herself at thestylishyogi where I hope she would not hop around on the Internet anymore. =)

Cindee writes brilliantly. Her writing doesn't entail bombastic, impressive vocabulary like how some people would associate with brilliant writing. Neither is her writing in the literary descriptive fashion. Instead, she expresses herself emphatically in an almost poetic manner. I love her words, I love the way she crafts her posts and I'm always in awe of her creativity.


About a year ago, Cindee sent me a belated Valentine's Day parcel.




The parcel was delayed and mishandled over at Canada's side. (I always hear of my Canadian blog friends complaining about their postal service.) Due to the tearing at the side of the package, the original package came wrapped in a waterproof envelop.




The Valentine's Day gift pack came with a CD compilation of Cindee's favourite songs, an eyelash curler and a tokidoki unicorn figurine. I love the unicorn to bits.




The unicorn she chose for me was hawt and devilish. It came with two horns instead of one like mainstream unicorns. I have a particular love for things which are off the beaten track at times.




The unicorn's name is Peperino. Looking at the (crushed) box, I like Peperino after Stellina and Bellina though I'm not as sweet as the latter two. I'm very sure Cindee chose Peperino for me for obvious reasons! *evil laughs*




I would love to hear Cindee's song compilation. Alas the CD was cracked due to the mishandling of the parcel and could not be played. =(




As promised in her letter, Cindee planned a trip to Singapore with her beau last December over the post Christmas and New Year period. Very soon, we were excitedly arranging a double-date dinner meet up with each other via Facebook message and emails.

[PS: I hope you don't mind me showing this portion of your letter. If you do, please shoot me a message and I would remove it accordingly.]

I arranged to meet at The Wine Company at Sentosa Boardwalk. Cindee simply loves alfresco dining by the water and I was quite certain she would love the place. Before the meet up, I packed her a Christmas stocking filled with girly stuff and a box of chocolates for her beau to show that he wasn't left out. It was really funny when he said he might just like the girly stuff in the stocking as well!




The Wine Company changed their menu. It looks like it is endorsed by some Japanese game characters.The very first time I was there to celebrate a few of my colleagues' birthday, I remember the menu contained some quotes which I like a lot. I did not snap a picture then and I told kh that no matter what, I had to do so that day. It was a shame I could no longer do so.





We finally meet the gorgeous couple in person and the gals exchanged hugz. I bimbotically exclaimed to Cindee that she looked just like how she looked on photos and she could actually return my bimbocity and said likewise.




It was still early for dinner and we decided to get some light bites to share before ordering our main courses.




Cindee insisted on a photo of kh and me for keepsake.




Old friends... New friends!




We shared the salad...




... as well as the cheese platter.




I do not understand the hubby's love for dumplings. He just had to order dumplings complete with ginger shreds and vinegar at the most western venue. The dumplings were shared too.




We were mesmerized by the lights on the stairs. I could tell how much Cindee loves this picture for she has made this her current profile picture on Facebook. Awww... so sweet!




The sunset was beautiful and even though we could not see the sun sighing into the horizon, we were treated to a visually stunning sunset sky.




Guess where were these taken?
In the ladies! When I saw Cindee bringing her camera into the ladies, I could not help laughing coz I do that at times too. She felt that there were many beautiful toilets in Singapore and she had the habit of snapping pictures in there.




After a few takes, the initial shot was still the best.




We spent quite some time in the ladies that when we emerged from the loo, the sky had already darkened. After we returned from the ladies, we were happy to see the boys talking and ignoring our presence. We were really glad that the boys hit off so well. There were times when the gals and the boys engaged in our own girly and boy's talk and there were also times when the four of us would chat and share stories of our lives as well as exchange knowledge of Singapore and Canada.




The boys ordered another bottle of wine and this must be one of the better white wines I ever had. The Steigelmann Neuftadter Pfaffengrund Gewurztraminer Auslese (pfalz) 2009 is a German wine with an exceptional concentration and a hint of delicate aroma of roses. A subtle sweet fragrance would waft into my nose each time I took a sip.




The boys had already tucked into their Chicken Pesto Cream Penne and Char Kway Teow before Cindee could snap any picture. Cindee and I shared these:


Scallop and Prawn Linguine




Crabmeat Spaghetti (This is one of their signature dishes and it is really flavourful, packed with generous amount of fresh blueswimmer crab meat.)




Having a love for all things beautiful, Cindee found little details like the lights in the floorboards simply alluring.




When fireworks came up without any warning on a day with no special occasion, Cindee mused that the fireworks had to be for us-- a celebration of our friendship.




I love this accidental beauty.




Already beautiful in the evening, the scenery was even more gorgeous when the lights dazzled at night. The heat and humidity from the day was replaced with cool sea breeze.






Sidetrack:
The beautiful evening was slightly marred by my annoying health condition. Those of you who have been reading my blog would know that I've been plagued with inexplicable tummy related pains recently. As soon as I stood up to walk over to the boardwalk for more pictures with Cindee, the sharp pain caused me to feel nauseous and break out in cold sweat. As I was posing for the picture below, blackness slowly overtook my vision and very soon I could no longer see what was in front of me even with my eyes wide open. I was scared stiff and held on very tightly to kh's arm. He got anxious after feeling my icy cold body as I grew heavy on him. Somehow, he managed to help me to the nearest seat and kept asking me to respond when I was feeling faint and losing my ability to talk. In retrospect, he admitted that I gave him quite a scare. He was afraid that if he did not keep me talking, something terrible might happen.




Sweet Cindee immediately got me 2 glasses of warm and cold water. After regaining my mobility, I sipped some warm water and gradually felt better. She was really worried for me and suggested some natural means to deal with the condition like detoxing and TCM if western medication isn't helping much. After some rest and feeling really bad that Cindee and her beau had to witness this, I was soon feeling normal enough to take a last shot with her.




I'm not too sure how some of you feel about meeting up with blogger friends or any other people you know on the Internet. For me, as much as I feel excited meeting a long time blogger friend, I was also a little apprehensive before the meet up. A deluge of questions like "Would there be awkwardness?" "Would we have nothing to talk about?" "Would the interaction online and offline be very different?" "I wonder how Cindee is like?" "Would we be able to click?" and many more kept flooding my mind before the meet up.

That said, both of us share the same sentiments that it was a indeed a lovely gathering under the stars with good food, good scenery and good company. We connected so well and simply could not bear to end the night. There were just endless topics to talk about that there wasn't even a split second of silence except when all 4 of us had food in our mouths. It was indeed a beautifully forged friendship.

"Love you right back! So happy that even tho we are across the world from each other we have been able to create such a beautiful friendship. Meeting you was exactly AND more than I imagined. Glad we could connect so easily with each other. Yes please let us know if you ever - no scratch that - WHEN you do come visit. hehe" -- Cindee


Cindee gave us a box of Max Brenner chocolate bon bons. The pink ribbon and the colourful geometric tin set my heart fluttering.




Outfit of the day:
♥ No label flowy white top
♥ ClubCouture sleeves draped vest
♥ Fleur Faerie tiered layer crochet shorts