Christmas 2014: The One Who Wore T-Shirt And Shorts To School

The Christmas 2014 series continues and I apologize if I've caused you to feel the Christmas blue in January. The bad news is that it would probably always feel like Christmas here on my blog for the whole of January as I still have got 2 more Christmas posts coming up.

*hears unanimous groans*

I was racking my brains for a title for this post and then T-shirt and shorts came to my mind.

Why?

This gal pal of mine used to stay in a hostel during university days and always went for lessons in T-shirt and shorts. I thought it was really comfortable to be clad in T-shirt and shorts too and started doing the same. TF was the first friend I made in one of the tutorial classes in NUS, not counting all other friends I've already known who went to the same university. We did a project together back then and I would sleep over in her room. From then onwards, many people assumed that I stayed in hall just from my dressing and from the fact that we sometimes hung out together.




Everywhere in Orchard was teeming with people of all shapes and sizes during the Christmas season. Hence, we decided to go to a less crowded mall and were surprised to see that Cedele at Wheelock had no queue at all. Cedele has since become one of my favourite "healthy restaurants" and it is also one of TF's favourite place.




I knew I would love the scarf that TF got me just from the muted tones of pink, cream and grey. I used it a few days later during my Hanoi trip. As for the earrings, she told me that it is supposed to be inspired from the Chanel trend which I totally had no clue about. To which she said "Yeah, I had no clue too." The best part of the present was the sweet letter that she wrote to me. I always love sweet notes, letters and cards more than any physical gifts.

TF was the only person who opened the magnet from the packaging as soon she she received it. From what I observed, many people left the packaging on and stuck it just like that. It looks pretty in the packaging but even prettier without, especially in photos with the reflection glare eliminated. I also got a Belif travel size Christmas gift set for her and other gal pals. Glad she likes the gifts but you know what, I think her nails are the focus of this photo. Lol. 

I forgot the name of the dishes we ordered but we ordered almost the same thing just that TF's one was chicken with fruity berry topping...




and mine was fish and aubergine with tangy salsa topping.




Trying to cut down on tea but it is so soothing to chat over a cup of tea.




It is really amazing how TF and I would always be able to pick up where we left off and we could talk about anything under the sun without awkward moments of silence. Time is never enough for us that we agreed that we have to meet up more regularly. We met up a couple of times over these 2 years but prior to that, the last was in 2010! And then when I was doing this post, I realised that I've not blogged about our past few meet ups and decided to consolidate all my meet ups with TF in this post.








~*Tears, Laughter and More Laughter*~


Throwback to September 2013, TF and I kept trying to arrange for a weekend meet up as we always felt that those after work dinner meet ups would never be enough for us. The last we met each other was in 2007! Although we continued to keep in touch via messaging and social media over the years, both of us had wanted to pour our hearts out face to face.

I remembered telling her that no matter what, I had wanted to meet up with all the friends I consider close in my life coz I thought I might just die. I said, "You are the last close friend whom I finally managed to meet up and now I can go away peacefully." and she went "touch wood". Well I won't be sharing much but let's just say that it was a bad phase for us in terms of whatever that lies under the umbrella of health. She, on the other hand, was so strong and I really admire all that she had gone through. But well, we would have to rise from the dumps and so aside from slight tears, there would always be lots of laughter with this gal around.




We had Nando's coz Nando's could never go wrong. This picture garnered 120 likes and was 4th 2013 best moments on Instagram from the Satigram app.




And this was the #1 top picture of 2013 best moments on Instagram with 156 likes which was quite a mean feat considering that my followers were only 200-300 back then. We both scratched our heads and wondered what was so likeable about our 2 collages of girls in nerdy glasses. And yes, TF is still the type who would pin up polaroid photos at her workstation's notice board whereas mine are currently lying on my side table collecting dust.








~*At Domani*~


Throwback to June 2014, TF and I met up a week before her wedding . I love how our eyes had a bluish tinge reflected from the blue light of a billboard in front of us.




We had dinner at Domani which looks sleek and modern now. It used to be a lot better when it wasn't called Domani and had rustic brick decor. TF's slipper lobster pasta was soooooo good.




My vongole was disappointing with no hint of white wine taste at all.








~*TF's Wedding*~


Still a throwback from June 2014 but a week after the meet up at Domani was TF's wedding which was held at Grand Shanghai. It was the first time I attended a wedding whereby I didn't know anyone else. Ok I do see some familiar faces but I'm not close to them and besides they were all in bigger groups seated with people they know. I sat at a table together with some of her good friends and made new friends that night.




It was my 2nd time attending a wedding at Grand Shanghai and I love that place. With the soothing Chinese music, smooth mesmerizing voice of the songstress and soft red drapings amidst dim lighting, I felt as if I was transported back to Shanghai in the 60s.




Food was not bad too. As we were seated at a smaller table, our food was portioned out individually for us at the side by the servers.




TF is a teacher and her Thank You speech was in the style of PowerPoint presentations! She drew much laughter from the ground with her "presentation" to her "students".




Her hubby, G, was so humorous that he even drew laughter while belting out songs for TF. He sang a Jacky Cheung's Cantonese song 每天愛你多一些 and an English song which I've forgotten the title, man he could sing really well! Ah yes, he is a teacher too and it seems the teacher tables were the rowdiest and most fun table to be at.




The candid, humorous and nonetheless lovely couple.




And finally a shot with the beautiful bride! And to quote your words in the letter, I love you a lottle too! xoxo




I'm always glad that my blog helps me keep my memory in check. I was clueless about the number of years TF and I haven't met prior to the more regular meet ups these 2 years and started using the search function of my blog to try to sieve out our past meet ups:

http://iamjolene.blogspot.sg/2010/08/unfolding-mays-folder-friends-and-food.html
http://iamjolene.blogspot.sg/2007/07/15-years-later-tf-and-me-met-again.html
http://iamjolene.blogspot.sg/2006/03/fab-feb.html
http://iamjolene.blogspot.sg/2004/11/ive-finally-got-some-social-life.html

I often relive old memories when I read my posts from long ago. I couldn't even remember some of the things I wrote about that happened so it is always a mix feeling of joy and nostalgia when I look back and reminisce.






My Internet modem was down the past few days and I was doing everything on my phone. I had initially wanted to catch up on blog stuff but doing stuff on the phone has its limits. I've replied to some but not all of your comments on the past 2 posts so do remember to check back. Appreciate all who addressed the issues in my verbal diarrhoea of ranting. It had also been a really tiring week and work would only get more this coming week. I wished I could press a pause button in life to take a break. Don't you wish there was a pause button in your life too?

Christmas 2014: The One With The Old Friends

On the Saturday prior to Christmas, I had a packed day meeting with old friends. That's like 2 gatherings in a day and there was a 3rd too but I had to give the other one a miss with a way-in-advance notice.

First, was a cozy tea party at Bei's house.




We weren't kidding when we said it was a TEA party.




Tiff brought along cupcakes and a swirled rainbow cake from Dean and Deluca. We also had gourmet chocolates (not pictured here).




Bei, Tiff and I had a hard time choosing which cupcake we wanted so we played a mind game to determine who got what. Pardon the graininess of these photos taken with a Samsung front camera. I had to brighten them many folds. These photos would not have existed if we hadn't sent the photos to someone. *winks*




Btw, xtina was not able to fall in that day as she had an early delivery and was in confinement. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and there Baby Sam was winking and calling out to us.




Tiff got the Christmas tree.




Bei got the Santa Claus.




I got Olaf, I meant Frosty, I meant the snowman.




And that wasn't a good choice for Olaf, I meant Frosty, I meant the snowman as he was soon decapitated by me.




Gifts for us! Ooh la la... Simply love the packaging and the great products that Benefit always has to offer. And simply love cozy meet ups with gal pals when we could chat to our hearts content.




For dinner, I met up with the Bimbo and Himbo group at Paulaner Bräuhaus.




Paulaner is not only famous for their German beer...




or any sort of brew and alcohol...




but for their authentic Bavarian "food, flair and coziness".




Paulaner's crispy pork knuckle, otherwise known as knusprige schweinshaxe




Breaded veal escalopes "Vienna" style with sautéed potatoes and cranberry sauce




Pappardelle pasta with tomato sauce, fresh basil and Parmesan cheese




Paulaner Brew House special platter




There was so much meat to share that we needed some greens... okay not green here... some vegetables.

My favourite dessert was the cherry one.




We had 7 in attendance that evening. Bimbo Jo, Bimbo Gerra, Himbo Kh, Bimbo Zanne, Himbo Jimson. Looking forward to a homely get together again with you peeps like in 2013.




Gifts for my gal pals.
Simply love the colours and application of Ciate nail polish that I had to get these mini ones for my gal pals. Sephora had them in sets of 3 with one definite OFF colour in each set and since I saw people opening to mix and match, I decided I would do the same too. It wouldn't be fair to me getting all the super OFF colours right? Some sets have got 2 or 3 very ugly colours and I bet it must be because of other people's mixing and matching. I'm always happy to receive sweet feedback about the things people receive from me and boy am I glad when some gal pals actually texted back to swoon about the colours they got after opening their gifts. The strange thing is that, they chose the packages blindly but got the set they liked. That is, for those who texted. I'm not sure about those who didn't feedback.




The boys got gifts too but the gals got more. *wink*




As usual, some people thought I handmade the magnets while some could not see the personalization of their name. They probably needed far-sighted glasses like my parents and for the umpteenth time, no, not handmade. I'm only claiming intellectual rights to the graphic and digital aspects.




[All photos in this section were taken using iPhone 6 and Samsung S4.]

I will disclaim my usual disclaimer whenever I'm super tired while doing blog post:
"I'm typing this post with half my eyes closed and nodding off to sleep. Proofreading and phases of edits would come after everyone has spotted my grammatical error, spelling error and weird sentence expression."

Be warned... impending verbal diarrhoea, ranting and incoherence ahead. Possible deletion of portion.

I sometimes wonder how do so many of you keep up with having blog posts every alternate days or once every few days and still manage to reply to comments and/or visit blogs back and reply with the ever sweetest comments (which obviously show that you have read or at least gathered gist of the posts) all on top of having a full time job/studies and/or managing a job and kids or being a full time mum? I really salute all of you who could manage your time so well. Do share some tips. =)

By the time I travel home from work, have dinner, shower and be all refreshed for the night, it could be 9-10pm on a usual day. Sometimes I fall asleep at weird hours only to wake up in the middle of the night to shower. I could only edit my photos and churn out chunks of paragraphs during pockets of free time in addition to a considerable state of consciousness. Such free time and good state of consciousness would probably constitute about 3--5% of my weekday. Breaking up these pockets of free time even further, free time does not only constitute blogging or managing other social media platforms. There are still so many other things in life to do than to engage in social media stuff. For weekends, I love to spend one day at cozying up at home which also includes doing some blog work (prepping a blog post, replying to comments and visiting blogs). Sometimes, both Saturdays and Sundays would be spent outside especially when there are meet ups and celebrations all falling during the same weekend and blogwork would have to be put on hold.

Talking about social media, Instagram is another thing which I wanna briefly mention. I would perhaps need a whole blog post dedicated to Instagram. No offence to any of you blog friends who follow me coz you are definitely NOT whom I'm referring to. I love to receive comments from my real friends and blog friends. I also love to receive comments from new friends who really engage or whom I find an affinity to. But I get so sick of cursory comments and shallow people who just want to chat me up or who try so hard to keep a conversation going when I've already replied with a comment that seem to warrant no more further reply from the other party. Yes, I appreciate compliments and I do thank some of these people. Yet, there are simply too many of the same individual giving similar compliments to so many pictures or different individuals giving almost the same kind of compliments that I think maybe, just maybe, it is not impolite if I do not thank them after all. Next come the people who assume and just shoot off comments thinking they know me very well and it pisses me off. It gets worse when English isn't their first language. I often have to wonder if they are rude or just using words wrongly. Giving them the benefit of doubt, I can't answer them rudely too and boy it takes so much brain cells to reply them. Some try to reach out in their language and so I take the time to translate on Google to roughly gather what they mean and reply in their language. But hey... why am I the one doing all the work of translating when they are the one reaching out to me? With the increase in followers, I can no longer keep up with my notifications and I thought "What a fine way to not bother to reply to comments anymore!"

Since we are on the line of notification, this reminds me of all forms of notifications that people could see, eg WhatsApp online timing, last read message, activities on social media etc...  and assume "Hey you are free to be online, to have read my message, to like like like and comment on Instagram... bla bla bla" Erm... let's just say that online timing or a read notification do not indicate that you have really read and digest a message. Activities on social media could be posted during commutes or breaks. Such time could only be constructive in certain ways and not in the ways which I want. One of my whatsapp group recently had a discourse on WhatsApp notifications and how misunderstandings are caused. Boy it was so insightful and how we understood one another's habits even more after that.

There you see... verbal diarrhoea. How my train of thoughts could link from carriage to carraige. I think I sound totally bitchy here but I don't care at this moment. Maybe over the next few days you might see this portion disappearing from my blog after some form of consciousness takes over Mean Bitch Jo once more. This is supposed to be a Christmas post full of love... Bah...

Edited to add (few days later):
Ok I feel better (while it lasts) after ranting and I shall just leave this portion here.