And so I managed to survive the crazy month of audit. The last minute requests for information, the last minute mad rush, and the overcoming of nerves during the audit itself. For that, the hospital managed to get re-accredited. Hurray for it, now it’s peace time for me (or so I hope with all the Christmas ideas/orders and OT Day coming up ).

With all these mad rushing happening, I cannot help but sometimes think back fondly on the more peaceful times that I had. And so, let me rant now on the things that I miss when the times were good.

• I miss photography.

I was looking back on my other photo blog and realised that it’s been a really long time since I last went on a photo shoot. Just walking around anywhere, looking for angles, objects to shoot. And the poems that I managed to write in accompaniment to the photos, even I myself was impressed. Not that the poems were of great quality. It’s just that I could somehow feel the emotions that I was feeling so at that time.

• I miss clubbing.

It seems like eons since I last went to a club to just dance myself crazy. I’m not a good dancer, but I cannot deny that I just love music and moving along with music. The constant rhythm thumping along with your heart beat. Ha, that may sound weird, but it certainly gives me the grooviness =)

• I miss the old school days.

I sure miss the times when I was still studying, when there were no politics, just assignments to rush for. Not to mention that there were long school holidays for one to play and relax. Man… I miss being young! Haha…

• I miss playing sports.

It’s been quite some time since I last played some team sports. I enjoy the adrenaline and teamwork that keeps me going, the going forward in search of a score, a goal.  Plus, I was in such great shape, with a nice tan and all.

Hmm… With all these reminiscence, I wonder when can I get a chance to do any of these again though I don’t think I can do some of them at all anymore, like being a full-time student again. Boo… =)

Looking back at my blog, it is like ages since I last blogged! There must be lots of cobwebs here now that needs dusting, not to mention the dropping in readership =) Oh well, the busy days at work just got to me these few days, that I just can’t wait for my year end trip to just let my hair loose!

Anyway, here’s a short entry here on the times spent at the Esplanade – one for personal leisure, another for work.

First up, Stomp!!

Yes, I finally got a chance to watch Stomp after so many years. The Boy was very kind to accompany me again, as we appreciated music made out of our every day items. Being a music person, furthermore a percussionist, I was very much amazed at the way they made music out of mundane items that would have never ever crossed my mind that they could be used they way they were. The use of lighters was one, as we were amazed at how they played with the light and the different patterns of clicking to a magical display of musical art. I also loved how they incorporated martial-arts-like movements into their performances that just blew my mind.

What entertained me the most? It was the nutty display of antics by the performers themselves, that just tickled my funny bone, and got me laughing non-stop from the start to the end. What can I say… You really got to watch it yourself to get what I mean! =)

Anyway, the next performance that I got to watch was Dunas, a world premiere which features Maria Pages and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Due to work collaborations between IMH and Esplanade, some of my colleagues and I were treated by the latter to a sumptuous dinner at a Japanese restaurant, before heading off to enjoy the performance. Of course we didn’t just had fun. We did discuss about future projects for collaboration, though we seemed to have more play than work =P

Dunas, as part of the Dans Festival, featured contemporary flamenco dance and abstract dance. While I admit that I do have trouble appreciating abstract dance, their place of visual effects like light, shadows, visual effects through the use of the visualiser, and shapes through curtain drapes was utterly fascinating! Perhaps this might inspire me more to watch more dance performances in future (though I do think that I might prefer to take up dance classes with Zhuo Wei instead, haha) =)

Have you ever heard of the floating bookstore?

Well, it was only when my colleague told me about Doulos that I knew that such things existed. Hence over one of the weekends when it was docked at HarbourFront, I got Bingrong to go down with me to check things out.

Armed with my puny camera, we braved the long queue under the hot sun before we got on board Doulos. Thankfully it wasn’t too long a wait, as we decided to skip the tour and head straight to the bookstore.

With books surrounding me, the Boy could obviously see my excitement, as I delved straight into the craft and food sections. Sadly, there wasn’t much on the former, but the food section was huge enough for me to go gaga over them. (I recently have been into books again, but that’s another entry on its own).

So after much deliberation, I finally settled for Party Food by Linda Doeser. I’m hoping to get my hands down on trying out the recipes in the near future, or when I’m married *cough cough*, so as to feed the Boy silly, or our guests when we do have them over for mini parties (or so I hope).

Something interesting to share is that all books on board Doulos are not priced in any particular currency, but in units. So for Singapore 25 units = SGD$1. With my book costing 200 units, I paid only SGD$8 for it, which saw me going really happy with such a bargain purchase! =)

At the end of my purchase, we decided to call it a day since the weather was pretty scorching. As usual, we wanted to end it all with a couple picture, which was met with much difficulty. Firstly, the sun was too bright at that time, resulting in us looking all tiny-eyed. Secondly, there were many people walking about, so it was not easy trying to get a decent picture with the ship as our background, minus all those people.

But after much perseverance and patience, we finally got our lovely couple picture, with that sunshine smile and our ‘big big’ eyes. Say cheese! =D

Just a week from my birthday, it was soon time for me to plan for Bingrong’s birthday. With his hatch day landing on a weekday, I decided to celebrate his birthday on the weekend ahead of his actual day, as I made reservations for Prive.

Having heard/read much reviews from Ericia, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try it out on the Boy’s birthday.

Hidden in a little corner from its other cafe/bar, we were introduced to a really posh and quaint area.

Somehow, we were 1 of only 3 groups of customers, which made us feel a little weird with so many eyes looking at us. But we soon got use to it, as we enjoyed really great customer service.

While waiting for our orders, we were treated to a complimentary ’starter’. Unfortunately, I forgotten the name of it, but I thought that it was very nicely presented. Plus, it tasted good!

Our starter was crudo, made from hokkaido scallops, sakura prawns, olive oil, yuzu and shiroshoyu. While it was fresh and tasted great, my only gripe was that it a tee little bit too tiny…

My main was the rare duck breast and confit of duck leg (top) while Bingrong had the grilled kurobuta pork chop (bottom).  Seriously, our mains were really really sumptuous! I particularly like my duck breast despite it being rare and slightly bloody. But paired with the persimmon-like fruit, the combined taste was really really nice.  Bingrong’s pork chop on the other hand, tasted really great with the apple sauce.

For dessert, we had the molten center chocolate soufflé. Nice, fluffy and soft, it’s no doubt it was the recommended dessert by the waitress.

So, with all these delicious dishes, it is no wonder we are such a happy couple. To me, it reminded me a lot like Fullerton’s fine dining, only that it is more affordable.

And at the end of our dinner, we were treated to nice lighting and views of the marina =)

Which of course called for another couple shot =)
Happy birthday my dear darling! =D

And just in case any of you are wondering, I got him a nice Picard card holder =)

To celebrate Mid Autumn Festival, Bingrong and I got our hands dirty by making our very own mooncakes!

Carrying on the craze from work, I borrowed some of the mooncake moulds home as we got started in the early afternoon. Even Bingrong’s mom joined us in the making =)

After 2 long hours, we finally got our mooncakes done! Green, sky blue, purple and white, it was actually pretty nice to see the multi-colours all nicely done!

And something new and special for this year was that we tried making mini mooncakes using Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse moulds. With special thanks to E’s Joie, I managed to purchase these cute moulds, bringing some variety and difference to the usual round/square shaped moulds =)

Anyway at the end of our session, we realised that we had some small bits of leftover green, blue and purple  snowskin. This saw us mixing them together to ensure that we had enough skin for the last batch of our green tea fillings, which turned out to be pretty nice! Unfortunately, it can’t be seen clearly in the above picture, though I thought it would still be nice to share about it =)

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!!