Lace & Teacups

As some of you would know, my sister is getting married. In three weeks. Gaaaaaaaah. I’m totally fine with her getting married but her wedding is like a constant ticking in my head as I’ve got a million bridesmaid duties to fulfill. In December, I helped out with her wedding photo shoot (a Singaporean tradition), which was a pretty fun but tiring experience that took up a whole day. I wanted to share the day in pictures but as you know, the bride’s gown isn’t supposed to be seen before the wedding day (a Western tradition). While we have the former tradition contradicting the latter since the groom was present at said photo shoot, I still can’t spoil the dress surprise until the day of so bear with me.

Instead, I have coverage of … my sister’s bridal shower. C wanted a bridal shower instead of a bachelorette party and she wanted an English tea party thing. So two of her good friends/bridesmaids decided to recreate the Madhatter’s tea party in our garden. If you recall, I had the same theme for my birthday party last year, but they definitely did a way better job.

Everyone got a character card for a game. I missed the game because I took a nap somewhere in the middle of the shower since I was terribly tired from uh, staying up on Friday night.

Tables were set with bright tablecloths, towering flowers, ribbons and good china.

For a tea party under the Mango tree.

Alice and the Queen of Hearts were invited too (her friend who worked in a publishing firm got the characters blown up and printed into photo standees!).

Of course there were cakes and cookies and tea.

Eat me!

and Me!

Drink me!

Flowers lining the boardwalk. After setting up all the tables, chairs and food, welcoming aunties and friends, I zonked out into a long arse nap. I was up the night before until 6am so you can imagine how exhausted I was. Anyways, the bride was happily chatting with her friends and it started pouring – perfect time to nap! The end.

New Year, Better Life

I turn 26 today. Wooohooooo yaaaaaay brrrrrreeeeeehpppphhhhhhh! (That last sound is supposed to be that roll up paper thing that you blow into and it sounds like an elephant sneezing)

25 was truly a great year for me. I feel like I’m more confident in my thought process and rationalizations (you have no idea how important yet difficult this is in my job), I’m a teeny weeny bit more mature and I’ve pushed myself hard physically and gotten stronger. Achievement of the year was passing my CFA level I, which sadly, is pathetic in my opinion in the greater scheme of trying-to-change-the-world but still, it means I beat at least 50% of the candidates who made it to the exam hall. I hope I was a good friend in the past year and I want to be a better person – a better listener, funnier, more widely read, less lame and less awkward at networking/social events.

I used to judge how good my year would be based on my birthday celebrations. Usually the celebrations are awesome – friends come together, we eat a lot, dress up, do silly things, party. But some years my birthday just sucked -100 on a scale of 100. One year I flew back to the States for school, arrived on my birthday and was jet lagged for like 18 out of 24 hours. Then the person I was dating went to a party and got hit on by a girl and I found out from a few friends. Yeah not the best present. Another year, the person I really wanted around for my birthday refused to drive down. My 2 buddies took me out to a winery and we drank nice bubbly and had Thai food for lunch. But then I let myself get all miserable and spent the night crying.  Those were the same years I had the craziest stressfullest times job and internship searching.

Alas I realize birthday celebrations are not an indicator of how the year will turn out. My 24th birthday celebrations were pretty darn awesome (2 days of clubbing, dinner with friends, spa during the day) and then my grandpa passed away. Life changing moment on a theoretically ”good” year. This year, I had a relatively subdued but nonetheless fun celebration. I didn’t club at all/do a zillion shots. I had a lovely Young Hollywood -themed party with all my friends around. And I genuinely enjoyed seeing them and catching up, which doesn’t always happen when I throw ambitious parties. Today, I got lots of birthday wishes and my sister bought my favorite Cedele cake – the chocolate hazelnut crunch cake – which I will gleefully break my 4HB habits for an hour, to devour. So I think this is me maturing. Celebrating life without too much madness, but still free and mad enough to do something fun… and I like it.

So thank you. God, family and friends, for making my life what it is. I lack a decent paycheck and I’m floundering in the wilderness of what-should-I-do-with-my-life but boy do you make my life anything but dull. I feel blessed because I have people who tolerate me, who are willing to have a beer after work, who love me despite how downright ridiculous I can be sometimes. Thank you, I love you and here’s to another year of greatness.

Yay 2012, Au Revoir 2011

I’m sure a million people have blogged about their 2011′s and what they resolve to doing in 2012. Since I like reminiscing, making change and writing lists, this post will dutifully join the ranks of others in discussing the new year. These are my reflections.

Au Revoir, 2011!

1. Serving God -  at the beginning of 2011, I wanted to live a year more focused and directed by God. It wasn’t easy but every time I left it up to the big man up there and prayed, things happened. I got baptized this year, I started a Bible Study group (which involved teaching the book of Luke) and almost completed Acts with my other group. I learned to fret less and pray more. Singing in the worship team was even better this year and choir had it’s beautiful, ethereal moments.
2. The screen is red – This year was crazy for me at work. I witnessed “red screens” for the first time (stock price trackers turn red when the intraday price decreases) when the tsunami hit and learned that you can either ride out the turmoil or think quickly and buy some undervalued stocks while everyone dumps. The risk appetite required for the latter soon dissipated when the markets repeatedly churned with the unending politiks in Europe. I found it somewhat stressful watching stock prices diverge from fundamentals and philosophized quietly about the validity of my um, profession.
3. Win some, lose some – friends are a huge, huge part of my life. I’d rather have great, funny, loving friends over money, fame or anything material. At this point in my life, I’m making less and less new friends and working at growing “old” friendships which, over time, can actually feel like new friendships as people mature and gain new life experiences. Unfortunately, I felt like I lost one friend this year and it made me uncomfortable for  a long time. In fact, I still think about her and why things didn’t turn out better. On the social front, I think this year saw a lot less excessive partying (thanks in no part to clubs/bars in Singapore bordering on boring, crass and generally unexciting) and a nagging feeling within that I needed to switch up my party buttons to keep life interesting (just you wait, 2012).

What did I achieve this year?

• Kept my temper better
• Drank less
• Ate healthy and challenged myself with harder workouts
• Passed CFA level I
• Read more and wrote
• Launched bodybold dot wordpress dot com

Yay… 2012

I expect 2012 to be a tough year at the work place for a variety of reasons, crap in Europe and the U.S. elections notwithstanding. My own little world is changing too. My sister is getting married in February and I’m looking at making some big life changes. Here’s what I hope to achieve in the coming year:

1. Be inspired by God and inspire others
2. Make my money work for me and gain “financial stability”
3. Read a book a month
4. Be LOVING towards (and show it) my family and R
5. Learn boxing or a new sport and enjoy working out 3x a week
6. Do a pull-up and lift my body weight
7. Write regularly here and building up Body | Bold
8. Become comfortable at networking and lose the awkward turtle
9. Travel some place new, trek a mountain
10. Pass the CFA level II/ teach myself modeling

That list could go on forever. Here’s to a new year, happiness and a crazy, exciting life!

Christmas Card from an 8 Year Old

As I’ve said before, I have THE cutest cousin on earth. So adorable!

Dancing the Calypso on a Midnight Clear

Time flies and the year is ending. Another year, another opportunity to celebrate Christ’s birth. I know there are presents and lights on the trees, well-worn carols to put everyone in the gift-giving mood. I know the story of Mary’s immaculate conception, of Jesus’ birth in a manger to save us all. His life and death as studied in Luke the past year.

But every December I realize how easy it is to forget all this – the selflessness and sacrifice that Jesus made, for us. And I discover how many more don’t know why Christmas even exists, except that it requires one to buy gifts for others so that one doesn’t come off looking like a scrooge or a cheap.

We performed “Christmas around the World” this year for our annual church choir cantata. Hoor de eng’len zingen d’eer, kom alle getroues, Himig Pasko… carols and songs heralding Jesus’ birth, life and death in 16 different languages. It was pretty cool performing songs in weird, weird languages and listening to the Filipino, Indonesian and Chinese choirs rock the stage with their performances. The concert highlighted how different we all are, a bunch of strangers from 52 different nations brought together because of God and this was a glimpse of heaven.

I have changed much in the past few years. College was like four years of happily wading through the unknown without fear, while work life was and is, a struggle to define myself and what makes me happy.  Whatever anyone says about Christians, I am deeply grateful that I am in a relationship with God, working on my imperfections.