Happy SG50

This weekend Singapore is celebrating it’s 50^th Birthday! Not only does this mean that there are loads of celebrations taking place, there are fireworks going off all the time, and there are street celebrations planned, it also means that the government has been seeding the clouds for the past week to try and get the weather 100% perfect for the weekend, causing endless rain all week long, but even better, they have granted us an amazing four day weekend to really ensure that we’re able to celebrate the occasion properly!

Team celebrations in the office 

Most of the expat communities has therefore added a couple of days to the weekend and have already packed themselves off for some sunny weather at various locations around the globe. However, with Nick still needing to work a few more public holidays to make up for the extra days he needs before our wedding (having maxed out his allowance at other people’s weddings) we will be in Singapore on the Friday and the Monday, with a cheeky little escape plan on Saturday night – back to the happy place in KL for a little break from what has been a very stressful reality for the past few weeks.

The start of the SG50 cake stash 

To kick-start the celebration, I arranged for the team to have a little Thursday afternoon tea in the office. I forced them all to wear red and white, I decorated a corner of the world, and I stocked up on Singapore SG50 treats. It was pretty low key, as it always is when our little group of 6 (sometimes 7) gets together to mark a special occasion. Still, there was cake and coffee – no complaining from me! 

Treats, flags and team colours. Check!

Invites are on their way

It was starting to feel like we have had our wedding invite hanging around for ages – which is because we really had! Having confirmed all the main details at Christmas, we got the invites ordered and delivered at the start of the year (thank you January sales) and have had them hidden away ever since.

            First they went to Nick’s work for safety, following both fire and flood at our flat, we were worried about having to get a brand new load ordered following the famine / plague / whatever else we might have had to deal with.  

Momentous occasion, gross photo!

Thankfully, the flat related disasters have dried up (for now at least), so before our trip back to the UK the invites came back to the flat so that we could get our hand-delivered options ready to take back with us, and then after a couple of early weekend mornings spent addressing, stamping and sealing, today was the day.

            Our selection international invites eventually made it to the post box this morning (a few days later than planned as I didn’t wan to risk posting them in a leaking mail box on a stormy day). So that it’s – they are on their way. Now we just have to hope that Singapore and UK mail does us proud and that they all make it in one piece!

All the green

We’re stepping up the healthy living in our flat these days. Carbs and red meat are out, green and veggies are in. Even our fish is green now!

30-Before-30 Countdown

I am always a bit slow off the mark when it comes to working out how old I am. For some reason, the birthdays come and go but I completely forget to add a year when people ask me my age. As such, a good few months later I have just realised that I am now 29 years old.

            Whilst this doesn’t really impact anything, it does mean that the countdown is well and truly on if I am still planning to try and complete my 30-Before-30 List.

            Realistically there are a couple of items on there that I am going to struggle with (travelling to Las Vegas for example will be hard for me to arrange from Asia when we are also working through the payments for a wedding, but with the exception of one of two more challenging items that remain on the list, I am going to do my best to work through as many of the remaining items as possible.

            It’s time to get planning!

Invites are good to go

It’s been quite a long process, and one that I have really enjoyed without feeling overly pressured to rush through, but we’ve now reached the end of one of our only on-going wedding projects. The invitations have been written, addressed, sealed and stamped with our little wedding stamp.

            They are now bagged up and good to be mailed this week. It’s going to be a little tense sending them all out and hoping that 100% of them make them over the UK and to their intended recipient, but fingers crossed they all make it in one piece!

Dinner plans

This weekend we didn’t really have anything too much booked in, so Nick invited a couple of his work colleagues and their lady friends over for dinner on Saturday night. This is always a fun game researching and deciding on what to make, the early start at Tekka to buy all the veggies and meat from the local wet market, and then a day spent faffing around, clearing up the flat and getting ourselves ready.

We opted to make the same Thai lamb that we roll out when we have people around for causal dinners. Then there were salmon and cream cheese treats to start with and a selection of brownies and blondies for pudding.

Nothing too fancy, but we had a lovely evening of eating and drinking (a bit too much). Sunday was incredibly unproductive as a result!