October's love & warmth: friends & family

October's not just about gadgets, branded goods & my fav cookbooks. There are my family & friends who surrounded me & made me feel extremely loved and appreciated. My friends, friends' children, Fred's friends, our friends, our family. Without them, life will be meaningless. So here's a tribute to these wonderful folks.

I was so HAPPY when I received this BD card drawn & designed by Darryl. There's something about what a child does that warms an adult's heart, like no one else can. And something about a friend who simply knows how to move my heart.

Then, there was also the note from Aunty K & Aunty Trina's little pocket book with her lovely stick man drawing.

My folks' blessings to me: happiness, peace & health. They have been watching over me since the day I was born until now that their hair has grown grey (that's with Daddy!) Amazing parents they are!

These people have made me strong in my life. Without their love & friendship, my life will most definitely be empty. They are just like the huge gigantic tree in the background of this picture. 

October's excitement: iMac, Oakley, 2 Jamie's cookbooks! Woohoo!

Mad about iMac! (in a good & a bad way)

Unpacking the iMac was quite an experience in itself, not to mention exploring the features of this machine.

P.S. As of 2 days ago, we only discovered that F9 key in Mac is Expose, different from PC keyboard.  And we had to google high & low to find out where the heck the 'refresh' function for excel worksheets  was! We finally found it: Command + =

Fashion 101: How not to look like Ah Beng in Oakley.

Beng?

Sporty... but not doing Tour de France leh.

Brown or black? Wah, tough choice!

Black lah! Aiyoh, almost the same color mah??

My Cooking Bibles

Karen just added to my single collection for my 40th birthday! Neat! 

Then I went & exchanged with my credit card reward points 'Jamie Does...' 

I am over the moon! Even before I start cooking...

To Gucci or not to Gucci

Nowadays, I get opportunities aplenty to laugh at myself. Since a couple of weeks ago, I contracted what I would call a Gucci-fever. I started checking out Gucci online & going into the boutiques on weekends to touch & feel the items (I mean bags for now). Then I trod purposefully to Coach, touched & felt some more what I picked as comparable items & in a discerning, scientific manner, tried my judgement at which designer bag was worth its luxurious price tag.

It helped when I engaged the hubs in an assignment - you need to help me with an engineering perspective. Ah! when I phrase it correctly, I win him over as ally. Believe me this - he is even more discerning & has a wonderful taste for colours, materials etc. & I totally respect & lean towards his suggestions. Not bad for a man really. ('Good pick!' - said to myself)

So my cous, who's merchandiser for Gucci, got harassed by me lately with emails of numerical codes. I 'begged' him nicely to check out if he could get me 'good p-lie, good p-lie!' (like the touters in Phuket or Bali would say) haha! He's now busy with a company event so I soothe my fever with ice-cream and cakes for the moment.

Below is a conversation I just had with my sister over my Gucci infection. I seem to be seriously ill. Looks like my sister nor my mother, who traditionally would nurse me back to health (either physically or emotionally) are going to be helpful with this latest bout of disease.

Last Saturday, on my hurried field study trip of Gucci, I dashed past Miu Miu. I pointed it out enthusiastically to the hubs & proclaimed out loud - "Remember so-and-so we know was crazy about this brand, you know, Mu-ee Mu-ee!" 

Today as I was surfing the web, I found out I have murdered the designer brand totally. Haha!! No wonder I never owned a designer handbag, ever. Cos I can't spel-ling it co-llect-ly & I can't s-air it co-llect-ly as well! Ha! So I had hell-of-a-good-time laughing at my atrocious attempts to pronounce all these French/Italian labels. In case I do promote myself to consumption of designer goods one day as a lifestyle (stifled-by-my-own-laughter!), here is a helpful link I will need to survive on. And experts like juz2bsure.wordpress.com to go to online.

Meanwhile, I continue to experience symptoms of a fever for Gucci GG Twins tote & a mental torment of to-Gucci-or-not-to-Gucci.

Amazed: my niece's & nephew's artistic talent!

Ash, my niece has been a talented artist from a young tender age. Well, strictly speaking, she has more talents, including story telling & writing.

As she grows older & learns the way of IT (as all children do in today's cyberage), she puts iPhone apps into good use by creating wonderful, free-spirited designs with them. Here are a couple of her creations & one of which is for my birthday 2010.

She took some effort to discover how to ditch the templates & design her own sea here.

Tristan, my nephew is 4 years & 6 months. He draws Safari, his fav stuff toy of late, here.

Quite a replica, I would say.

And this is actually his representation of his family car - the word VIOS, as precise as he knows it.

 It is actually a 3-D image (pointed out surprisingly by his sister). 

Wow, I was drawing 1-D stick figures for God-knows-how-long. The only thing I could do creatively was colour inside the lines.

Alfresco dining while the SCO entertained! Chin Yi Yi's Birthday Celebration

The Horrible Haze left! Yay! Picnic at Botanic Gardens: Chin Yi Yi's Birthday Celebration

Ashley's turtle (Episode 3): Glitter glitter disco movie! (featuring Bloomy & Spotty ~ again, guest appearance: Pinky)

Here's my fav niece's third attempt at movie-making with Gloomy & Spotty. There are her usual 'blackout' moments. No humans inside this one. But we (as in me & Fred) still love watching it - for her sweet voice, animation & imagination. 'Cos one day, before we know it, she will be all grown up into a sweet lady. So we savour every moment she's still our sweet little girl now.

Ashley's Turtle (Episode 2): Bloomy now has a brother, Spotty

This video tracks the growth of the children. The first of this 'turtle' series was made in December 2009.

Guest appearance: Tristan Thor rehearsing his dance moves for school concerts, one of which is danced to the tune of La Bamba & shaking maracas!

Uncle Fred's Birthday Song

Uncle Fred's blessings received: wealth (cai yun xing wang) & health (shen ti jian kang)!
Perfect combination.