Christmas 2014: The One With The Christmas Baubles

It has been an unspoken tradition for my good friend Evan and I to meet every year during the Christmas season to snap photos along Orchard Road. The last Christmas light ups photo-taking with Evan was in 2011! We completely left out 2012 and 2013 as 1) the decorations weren't really spectacular, 2) either of us was overseas, 3) it was really difficult to find a date to meet. How delightful it was when we could partake in this "tradition" once more for Christmas 2014!




We first had dinner at Dean and Deluca flagship store at Orchard Central. Since Dean and Deluca hit our shores in 2012, I've always been meaning to experience what so many people have been raving about. "Icon of New York City culture and lifestyle", "defining brand in gourmet food retail around the world", "international array of artisanal products" etc, my appetite was indeed whetted! However, we felt that the food wasn't worth its hefty price tag. I think I had the American Country breakfast. The scrambled eggs were not really warm and fluffy and the sausage had a weird porky taste.




Evan had the Bacon Macaroni and Cheese which looked quite like lasagne. The bacon was served later in another dish. We both thought the bacon was mine as bacon usually goes with American breakfast, right? She was scraping the bacon onto my plate when I asked her, "Didn't you order bacon something?" That was the first enlightening moment. The next was when we suddenly recalled that she ordered Mac and Cheese and was scrutinizing the lasagne look-alike. So here's the final product of how the Bacon Macaroni and Cheese look like!




I got Evan a nanoblock minion to which she was screaming like a muted Banshee much to my amusement. Laughing, she showed me a photo of her minion plushie and another nanoblock character. Just great for adding on to her collection!




Evan was the first friend besides my colleagues to receive my customized magnet. I always love to personalize some parts of my little gifts to people as I find it a lot more meaningful that way. People think I'm so creative that a few were mistaken that I hand-made these magnets. I didn't hand-make them though I did the designing and digital aspects of it (which took many nights to complete) before sending them for print. I will write more about these magnets in a separate post so look out for it!




Orchard Central had a pink Christmas theme and "pretty in pink" is a befitting caption to this wefie.




We had some full length shot because we started helping an "auntie" to take photos with her phone and then the auntie followed us everywhere as we helped each other to take photos. More so of we helping her to take photos actually.

Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary. This shot wouldn't have been possible without the auntie's help so thank you Auntie!




More wefie moments. What you don't see are the decorative props swarming with people from all angles.




We had to take turns to snap photos with the decorations or angle other people away. Sometimes, we had to make do with slight photo bombs.




Nevertheless, we would always have a great shot to choose from in the end.




We simply had to do our signature bauble reflection shot and walked from Orchard Central down Orchard Road just to find reflective baubles. It was weird that most malls didn't have the clear reflective and unscratched baubles we were looking for until we reached Paragon. But why oh why were the baubles so near to the ground?




We looked stupid crouching down to take photo of baubles so we tried to act cool. Pardon the big hands and phone.




And then as we walked on, we saw more baubles within standing reach and felt so stupid crouching earlier on.




As if taking photos with the iPhone 6 wasn't enough, we also took using Evan's Canon S95.




The story behind these flowers was that Evan nearly dropped my phone onto the flower bed in front of us and she went, "Ooh, nice flowers!" -_-|||




Replicating the signature 白痴 Chipmunks smile! Look at my hands. I look like I'm going "Wheeee!"




The signature idiotic ear-to-ear smile in bauble shots was totally inspired by Dale in the classic Disney short film, Pluto's Christmas Tree which was one of my favourite cartoons when I was young. Here's the screen capture from the cartoon I found on YouTube.




This is the classic 1952 cartoon if you're interested in watching. I bet some of you grew up watching these classics.




Ok how about a normal, non 白痴 (non-idiotic) smile?




The Dog look.




And by now if you're still not sick of our bauble faces, this is my favourite shot to end this post.




[All photos in this section were taken using iPhone 6 and Canon S95.]

Christmas 2014: The One Where Everyone Said, "No Gifts, Ok?"

With a few groups of treasured friends to meet, Christmas had to start way early in 2014 as there were schedules to accommodate to before everyone disappeared from Singapore over the next few weeks. All the close friends who met up in early December declared that it would be a Christmas meet-up without gifts as it was way too early for our gifts to be ready. After all, the gift of friendship and love far outweigh any other material gifts.


~*AVJ at Outback Steakhouse*~

That Group That Shall Not Be Named (aka AVJ) met up in early December for an advanced Christmas dinner at Outback Steakhouse.




Viv and I started on the food first since April would be late. This bread, as what Viv and I felt, was so damn good that we finished everything without saving a single crumb for April.




Viv's steak with potato wedges and garden vegetables.




My steak with mashed potatoes and garden vegetables. The steak was so-so; I was expecting more from an Outback Steakhouse.




April is a super health-conscious babe that we were quite taken aback when she replied the waiter on her two choices of side dishes.
"I will have the fries... and the fries!"




We ordered chicken wings to share too.




Drinks and desserts to share.




We caught up with one another with serious matters as well as loads of bimbotic laughter and tears from laughing. That's what you get when there are 2 bimbos in the group. No prize for guessing right who the 2 bimbos are!




We were attempting a The Dog style of photo without the use of fish eye lens. We concluded that April and I looked quite dumb with our The Dog face while Vivi looked like a sinister cat with a sinister up-to-no-good smile.




The result of Vivi's creation using some photo app.




Jo and April were trying so hard to get a good shot and even switching seats for better lighting.




Viv and April got a great shot in just one try. Ok, twice coz there was a guy in the background for the first shot and I simply had to angle him away.




There was a raised platform somewhere in the Millenia Walk filled with Christmas decorations and we decided to take more shots there.




Viv said it was one of the rare times I wasn't in heels and had to take a full length picture of us together.




I'm not too sure why there were floating dots of lights on our faces. With the iPhone 5 front camera under very dim lighting and trying means and ways to angle the selfie stick, it was so difficult to capture a great photo of the 3 of us.

And yes, the first shot seems to be the best after all.




[All photos in this section were taken using iPhone 5.]



~*CJC at Charlene's Home*~

CJC (Cyn + Jo + Char) and family gathered at Charlene's place for a cozy advanced Christmas dinner.






We had a Asian fare of zi char dinner.




Top L-R: chilli crab, black pepper crab, sweet sour pork
Bottom L-R: toufu with minced meat and vegetables, nai bai vegetables, rojak




After dinner, the adults lazed about while the kids got active.




As usual, Jase is not just the good kor kor to his mei mei but to little Dylan as well. My godson is really a big and mature boy now. Can't believe that he would be in Primary 5 this year!

Look at how sweet Jase is to Mia.




Sweet little Mia looked so innocent here!




Cyn Mommy and Mia.




Dylan is no longer a toddler but quite a fine boy already. The first and last time I was at Charlene's place, he was still a cheeky toddler who loved to be around ladies. Now as a boy, he is more shy towards us but really sociable with kids, especially to Jase whom he looks up to.




It was really hilarious and cute how Dylan imitated Jase's every move.




Still as cheeky as ever, Dylan's cheekiness manifested during play. I loved to watch the 2 boys play football. Jase would be the goalkeeper and Dylan would keep doing fake moves and hopping over the ball instead of kicking, much to the chagrin of Jase.




Godpa Kh and Mia photobombed Jase and Dylan.




What a sweet picture of Godpa Kh and Mia (who looked like she was boxing him).




When Kh put Mia on Dylan's "throne", she felt really happy and kept smiling coyly at how she had gotten the throne seat of the house. I wasn't able to capture her coy smile.




Kh made Mia fold her arms and cross her legs, an action that I used to do as a toddler whenever adults say, "Fold your arms and cross your legs." Mia actually remained in position, looked at all of us and smiled coyly. Lol!




"Fold your arms and cross your legs."




Godpa with his little girl.




Godpa with his little man.





You know Facebook is really smart at face recognition whenever you do tagging? Well, Facebook keep mistaking Kh for Jase. I always chuckle at this mistake.




I realise that CJC didn't take a picture together that evening so here's a throwback one from last June which some of you would have seen before.




A parting anigif shot of all of us being spontaneously clad in red and black.




[All photos in this section were taken using Canon S95.]

As some of you would have known from my Instagram, I caught a full blown URTI bug and was so sick from the flight back home from Hanoi with no other medication but Panadol Extra. Flaring red tonsils, super painful throat, uncontrollable coughing, leaky stuffy nose, feeling like I'm drowning in my own thick mucus, pain through one side of the nose and forehead, blowing small trails of blood out and feeling like a useless bum sleeping and sleeping and sleeping.

Right now, I see zig zag flashes of light on my computer screen and I guess I could do nothing more but to sleep.

Hope all of you are keeping well and are in a better state than I am in the first week of 2015!