Happy Valentines Day!

We don’t really believe in Valentines Day.  We do cards, but nothing else.

            Since we went on best behaviour last February, Nick has been desperate to try out Raffles Afternoon Tea, so I slipped a little note saying that we are going to be going soon into his card.

Suddenly filled with enthusiasm for tea, and with a totally free Sunday stretching ahead of us, he quickly set about calling all other afternoon tea providers to see where we could spend our Sunday afternoon.

            Fortunately (for us, but not my diet), we managed to book the last table at the St Regis, and spent the rest of our day dreaming of, enjoying and recovering from scones, cakes and an awful lot of tea!

A surprise supper

This Friday we had plans for a low key supper in Little India with my new work buddy Sonya.

            Her boozy lunch slightly got in the way of these plans, and so instead of heading back for a quiet evening I went out to join her until Nick finished up work, and then we were going to slip away for dinner on our own.

            Somehow, but the most unlikely of coincidence, minutes after Nick arrived, he had to pop out for another work call, and whilst standing in a very small, ridiculously quiet side road where runners go to do laps because so few people are ever on the road, he bumped straight into Kate and Duncan.

            Kate and Duncan live in Hong Kong, and were passing through Singapore for just a few hours before their connecting flight home from a holiday in Lankawi. Rather than telling anyone that they were in town, they opted to have a quiet dinner, just the two of them.

Dinner at Lukes

Both our plans went out the window, and after a couple of quick catch up drinks we merged our solo dinner plans and had the most elaborate supper at Lukes, which was a real treat.

            Sometimes it’s the nights when you are planning to do very little that turn out to be some of the best!

Getting the balance back

This has been another very well behaved week for me, so far. I have decided that post-wedding I need to concentrate on not just eating cake at every meal, as amazing as that would be, but on trying to get enough balance throughout the week that by the end of the weekend I don’t feel gross and repulsive, but like I have still had a good time and plenty of chance to get out and about on adventures.

            This week has been my first proper effort, and it’s gone really rather well. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were set aside for very good behaviour, with gym sessions before and after work, and only healthy things for lunch, even when I met Jules for a catch up on Wednesday we still only went for vegan salads. Good work so far!

            Thursday was threatening to be a little bit trickier because we had a full afternoon planning session, which included lunches being ordered in, which normally means pizza for my team, but thankfully I managed to get out to the salad bar and order them all healthy food before anyone raised pizza as a suggestion, so I won one more meal along the way.

            Other than a few little lunch dates, I’ve had very little in my diary this week, so we’ve spend a little bit of time planning for some future adventures that are still to come this year.

            First up is our long weekend in Phuket over Chinese New Year next weekend. Then there’s Dubai for Erin’s wedding a few weeks afterwards, and now Hong Kong for the Easter weekend too. We have a few bits and pieces to sort before confirming a ‘glamping’ trip in Indonesia in June, and a KL adventure in May before our brief weekend at home for my birthday, but all in all, it’s starting to stack up!

            I had been worried that we would run out of holiday days before being able to do the final rounds of Asia that we need to get done before the end of the year, but judging by what we already have in the diary, I think we’re going to be ok!

Brunching on burgers

In Singapore, all the big hotels and restaurants offer free-flow set price brunches, mostly on Sunday, but sometimes on Saturday too. Generally these have a buffet on offer, with waiters topping up bubbles throughout the meal, keeping you well and truly lubricated and helping to ensure that you get your monies worth throughout the day.

            MeatLiquor is a London dirty burger chain that came out to Singapore in the past few months, and who got into the brunching habit fairly recently too. Obviously there was no way that we could justify all you can eat burgers at the end of last year, but hell, it’s January, and we’re starting afresh, so the occasional massive hiccup in healthy living can’t be all bad.

            So, we teamed up with Kev, we spent some time mentally preparing, and then we spent a glorious Saturday eating all we could off their delicious deep fried menu. I’m not going to say that I was proud of myself for the amount I ate, but we definitely beat the brunch, and that’s all that matters.

            I’ll spend the next few months trying to make up for it!

Crash My Crib

In an effort to get the people from work socialising a bit more outside of the office, and to try and ensure all us expats venture a bit further from our usual haunts every so often, I have instigated a new game for us all to play.

            We’re calling it “Crash My Crib”, and once a month a member of the team will pick a venue for dinner and drinks close to their home, and we will all venture out for a casual team dinner somewhere new, and somewhere that we might not ordinarily have chosen.

First up, we made our way around 30 minutes out of town to an area called Joo Chiat, which is a much more ‘local’ part of Singapore, where you don’t find huge numbers of expats, but there are some great places to eat (including one of Nick’s favourite steakhouses). Our dinner was at Chilli Paid, a traditional local restaurant, where Malay style street food is served up on plastic plates of rice, and the only drinks on offer are fruit sodas or local Tiger beer.

            It was utterly delicious. If we had gone there without people in the know it would have been tricky to pick what to eat and what to order, but with two Chinese speakers in the team, we power through an impressive selection of dishes, each and every one of which was utterly delicious!

            Sadly this will be our last dinner with SQ as she is leaving us at the end of this week, but it was fun to go and see where she’s based and to try out her favourite dinner at her favourite restaurant too! I wonder who will be picking the venue next! I already have two options lined up, but I’m keeping quiet to ensure that everyone else joins in as much as possible. We’ll see how long we can maintain momentum on this one for!