Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Sigh. This is not a spectacular start to the year. Deadlines for 2010 seem to much closer when you look at them from this side of the year. Let's see what's going on:
1. Wedding - 'nuff said. TONNES to be done, but we're taking it in our stride, spacing it out. Honestly we're having it better than most, as we've sussed out most of the major things already.
2. New place - half-fun, half-stressful. Gotta liaise with the architect and builder sometimes, but otherwise it's not too much of an issue - except cost. Obviously we'll be footing the bill when it comes to our own bedroom, and so far we've seen the budget for our bathtub. We've also visited the Teak & Mahogany for outdoor furniture, but that baby that I really want costs a hand and a leg. $4k to be exact. Bleargh. Time to source for cheaper stuff. We're looking at building an asian / bali-inspired room, but will have to see what our budget allows. My dad shot me strange looks when I declared that my bedroom's bathroom will not have a toilet in it. We're being pretty adventurous about the designing thing, which is great as it's really my kind of fun. As for the balcony area, no prizes for guessing what's gonna be there. I'm being made to allocate space for a relax-and-chill coffee corner in addition to my plant collection, which is why we were scouting for outdoors furniture. Hmm .. and maybe a small frangipani plant on the balcony, which is sure to invite comments from my dad again.
3. Work - I'm still struggling with a stupid study that I'm supposed to help do, and what's more there's the ever-annoying issue of trying to sort out my calls etc. Gotta speak to my boss soon about this. And there's the cardiac issue that's bugging me all the time - I keep wondering if I should have gone for the procedure back then.
4. Garden - I'm trying to re-build my plant collection. This is part of the renewal I was yammering about several posts down. Still trying to find a reasonably-priced water timer, and there's all the piping to be done as well. I bought myself 3 Cephalotus plants the other day, which was such a thrill! Talk about parallel evolution from Down Under.
5. Holiday time! I decided today that a break is MANDATORY. I'm feeling a little strained already. There never seems to be enough budget/time to do stuff that you really want, eh? We're planning to go to the Gilis, but what I *really* want is to have a long trip down to South America, to visit the plateau mountains and to look at the plants there. Oh well. Good chance of being eaten by the savages there anyway (I'm just kidding by the way.. just sour grapes about it).
6. Academics - time to take things seriously. Everyone's advancing in some way, taking some kind of exam, EXCEPT ME.
7. Website - yay, I got myself some web space!! =)
I think everyone's having a rough start to the year, but hang on in there and take things in your stride. Things usually sort themselves out, and even if they don't, you'll never lose what truly is important - friends and family. Oh dear. Waxing lyrical already.
Just a backlog on what went on for New Year's eve. Yx and I have designated New Year's as our official anniversary date, as that was when we started going out together and also it was the date when I proposed to her. And seriously, the other dates are kinda arbitrary and years down the road I'm going to end up in trouble for forgetting some weird anniversary date. Anyhow, we headed down to Liquid Kitchen at Thomson for a drop of vodka and a countdown there. The staff there were so sweet! Just on Xmas eve I casually mentioned to one of the waitresses that New Year's is our anniversary. They called on NY's Eve to ask if we were coming down so that they could reserve a table, and when we arrived there, we found that our table had been specially decorated. It was simple but heartfelt, and I really appreciated it. Penny the bartender also gave us a little gift, which was an Absolut Pears bottle filled with some strange jelly thing - I gave the Absolut Pears bottle (emptied) to Penny previously as she really liked the smell. Jeffrey happened to be free that night after work and came to join us as well. Since Yx didn't drink (she was still sick from a viral gastritis) and could therefore drive me home, I seriously indulged that night - my first in a long, long while. In fact, Jeff and I overindulged somewhat and ended up puking. Not pretty.
For our anniversary night itself, Yx and I had a disposable grill which we set on the balcony. We got ourselves assorted sausages, a couple of lamb loins which I marinated in wine and basil, and I also made a mousse de foie gras with the leftover frozen livers. For dessert I tried my hand at blancmanger with macerated blueberries, but it's seriously too much work. Now I'm reminded of why I don't like to do desserts. That last photo is that of Brownie, who insisted on coming out to the balcony with us but promptly fled at the sight of fire coming from the grill and he ended up hugging Yx for comfort through most of his time on the balcony.
Wenky
12:21 AM
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