H and I were in Bali last week to attend our friends' wedding (which was so beautiful btw, more on that soon) and since it was just a week after our wedding anniversary, we decided to spend our last evening on a destination photo shoot with Sweet Escape by Axioo. We started the spontaneous photo shoot at Creamy Comfort (Axioo's cafe and office) and stopped for snaps at interesting spots along Seminyak - this area has really pretty cafes/restaurants!

It was my first time to Bali and I have heard so much about this island. Funny how it has never been on my list of go-to places all these years but now I'm yearning to go back there again! And it's true, the most beautiful sunsets occur here and I love beaches like the one we went to in Seminyak. It might not look like it in our photos, but the beach was so crowded (we were there on a Sunday). We are genuinely lucky our frames had no one else in them.

There was a lot of fun and laughters, plus our photographer, Dodo, was a joy to be with, which made the entire photo shoot a breeze. We were all hungry after getting ourselves wet (the waves were huge) so we walked out to the food street and got ourselves grilled corn on a cob (I love it!!!) and Dodo treated us to pork satays where were spicily yummy. And that was a good conclusion to our Sunday. :)

Photography by Reynaldo Tjandra (Dodo) from Sweet Escape
White dress from FMTPxTIPPYTAPP
Eyelash extensions by Dreamlash Korea

On My Birthday...

I am officially in my late twenties + one month T_T

It is not so much about growing older... It's more of having to conform to society's requirements of what I am supposed to achieve at this age and then realise I'm nowhere near. 

I have no idea why I'm not that big on birthday celebrations especially when my parents held birthday parties for my siblings and I when we were young. There was always a huge cake, nuggets, hot dogs, frozen fries and a table full of food. Funny how I don't care for birthday presents nor celebrate extravagantly on my birthdays when I'm all grown up. Probably because I don't need an occasion to eat cakes haha. As long as the day is filled with delicious food, I'm contented.

So anyway, the 25th of July fell on a Saturday this year and I had brunch at Artistry with my girlfriends! Food wasn't too bad overall, the best was probably the french toast.

The girls and I hung out a little more after brunch till it was time for me to head home to prepare for dinner with H. H made a reservation at L'Atelier Joel Robuchon @ RWS and we were both reallyyyyyy excited to dine there ever since that super awesome lunch we had at Joel Robuchon Tokyo exactly 3 years ago on my birthday too! We rarely splurge and indulge ourselves in such an expensive meal, probably once a year, so it was well-deserved! 

I believe the restaurant bakes the bread in-house. I really enjoyed the croissants and sundried tomato ones!

H and I both ordered the Discovery Menu so we each had about 10 courses. There were some hits and misses but the thing about fine dining is, it doesn't matter what you serve me because I will finish everything even though I don't normally eat that certain food. For example, artichoke. Everything on the plate just tastes yummy I don't know why?!

This was probably my favourite for the night! Sea bream with caviar! I couldn't figure out what was that green web vegetable looking thing but it was awesome.

Said artichoke. Tempura style and it was aahhhmazinggg

OMG. FOIE GRAS. OMG.

Dessert was incredibly yummy. I especially love the chocolate dome!

Lemon madeleine to go with coffee/tea. This is definitely one of the best madeleines I've ever had, loved the subtle lemon flavour in it!

Anyway, I didn't mention or post pictures of our main dishes (quail for me, beef for H) because they weren't exactly fantastic and we did not enjoy them at all. Everything else was good though!

And that was how I spent my day! :D

Late night thoughts

Feeling a little heavy-hearted as I always do the nights before H leaves for his work trips. He has been travelling frequently for work lately and I'm just :'( :'( :'(  There is the incessant worry about his safety when he leaves home. As I go about the days doing my things, I spend my nights looking forward to his return. Nights at home alone are well, lonely. I am totally fine with my own company, and alone time like these bring me back to my flying days. Only now, the roles are reversed. I fully understand the emptiness H felt for the 3 years when he dropped me off at the airport for my flights and the relief when I was safely back in his arms.

A lot of people know me as being "cold", "quiet" or "not easily amused" but I prefer to describe myself as "calm", "mature" and "not as expressive". I am only talkative, crazy and willing to share my opinions around selective people because to be honest, a lot of humans feel easily offended these days. Perhaps it is due to the low level of understanding among different parties or perhaps the horoscope/zodiac signs just don't get along. I don't like arguments and I would largely avoid it before a spark is even ignited because...pointless, a waste of time and all parties get hurt.

I didn't mean to digress but I just thought about how amazing it is to have H who truly understands me, stands by me and supports me in all ways. I believe this is the best kind of love and trust someone can give to anyone.

Looking forward to picking H up from the airport already. <3

H's Birthday Surprise

Before we left for our honeymoon, I thought I'll surprise H with a dinner with our friends. I'm not really one who can hide things from H so imagine how hard I tried to contain everytime I want to mention something about the dinner!

3 days before the dinner, I told H, "Oh, maybe we can go to Sabio by the Sea for dinner after my flea on Saturday. I kinda miss the caramel lava cake."

Then he got all excited and said sure, cause he misses the cake and all the food there. And then I made the "reservation" for two.

-

Meiting is loud by nature and I was a little worried that she wouldn't be able to keep it in or that someone will spill in the group chats. That Saturday, H came to join Meiting and me at the flea for an hour and in the first 5 minutes, I think Meiting mentioned that she's going to have family dinner that evening about 3 times. In my mind, I was like, "Omg she doesn't have to emphasise so much on that hahaha".

But anyway, I was overthinking lah because H is obviously CLUELESS. And I mean a whole new level of CLUELESS.

First

We were approaching the carpark when Jasmine and Eunice just parked. I was like, "OMG THEY ARE GOING TO WALK TO THE ELEVATOR AND OUR CAR IS GONNA PASS BY THEM".

And I was right.

We entered the carpark and they were waiting for the elevator IN FULL VIEW FROM THE CAR. I willed H not to notice them and continued staring at my phone while averting my eyes right and up right and up... I went "PHEW" in my head after he made a right turn.

Second

Tricia and John were not at the restaurant yet and their car was waiting outside the carpark. If they entered, I'm 100% positive H will notice because he KNOWS their car. Thankfully they told me they paid $20 for valet. Eh, there's always a price to pay for being late ya. Hahaha

Third

I went to the toilet to delay time while Tricia and John were walking to Sabio. When I got out, H looked at me excitedly with his eyes opened huge and said, "GUESS WHAT?"

In my mind: No he didn't see John and Tricia walking past please please please we are so close!!

He didn't.

HE SAW KEN COMING OUT OF THE TOILET, FACE-TO-FACE, DIRECT EYE CONTACT. 

Mind: He must've have guessed it argh

"Ken told me he's here for dinner and he asked me to pretend as though I didn't see him! Do you think he's gonna propose to Eve tonight?! He said there's gonna be a surprise!"

Mind: Shit you Ken, why did you go to the toilet instead of staying in your seat???!!??

H continued, "He went this way as well, in a white/black striped shirt let's see if we can spot them. What if they are eating at Sabio too?"

I entertained him with vague replies something along the line of "No lah, I don't think he'll propose in public blahblahblah".

"Then what do you think is the surprise he's talking about?". H probed while darting his head left and right trying to spot a Ken in striped shirt.

"I don't know. I don't really care.", I replied nonchalantly.

"Hi, reservation under Jessica Tham, please.", I said to the lady, as we arrived at Sabio.

"The table right at the end.", the server gestured without showing us to our seats.

Mind: Why didn't the server follow normal procedure and show us to our table?? H is gonna find out, he will be telling me any second now...

Everyone: "SURPRISE!!!"