This particular dress, which I wore for the first day of CNY, caught my eye because of its origami inspired design and the cute embroidered sparrows sprinkled all over. It looks almost like a painting, don’t you think? The well cut silhouette accentuates the female form, making this the perfect alternative to a cheongsam.

Her hard work and resilience paid off. She stayed true to her art for the decades that followed and became a common fixture in the media and the Peking opera scene in Singapore till she retired some years ago. I remember that one of her proudest moments was when she received the Cultural Medallion award in 1992. For years thereafter, she would beam with pride whenever anyone made mention of the award.

I was surprised to find a clip of her interview for the award on the internet. If you’re interested to find out more, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

credits: http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1364_2009-09-14.html

Now, my grandmother has mellowed with age, in tandem with gradual memory loss. Her memory has deteriorated to the extent that she tends to repeat herself several times during a conversation. Sometimes, she can’t recall if I am already married and on other occasions, she would be urging me to procreate and respond to the government’s plea for a higher birth rate. Nonetheless, the one thing that remains unchanged is that child-like sparkle in her eyes which continues to express her relentless zest for opera and life.

It may be a scary thought to depart from this earth, but to die without having lived is much worse than one can imagine. To follow in my grandmother’s footsteps literally is no mean feat, but I can at least try to abide by her mantra and embark on a path that passion takes me.

Thank you grandma, for being my inspiration.

Two days ago, I had my reunion dinner with my in-laws at Dian Xiao Er, one of my favourite mid-tier Chinese restaurants. In line with the festive cheer, I threw on a tangerine ruffled dress to partake in the season’s festivities!

If you ever head down to Dian Xiao Er, be sure to try the flavourful duck and crispy cod fish as these are highly raved dishes that you won’t want to miss.

At S$28++ per pax for the dimsum set, the food was not bad as there was a wide selection of dim sum. However, if given a choice, I would still prefer Royal China or Peach Garden .

Chinese New Year came early for my family this year as the first lohei celebration started last Saturday at my grandmother’s house.

It has become a tradition for my extended family to gather at my grandmother’s house for reunion dinner every Chinese New Year. We hardly get to meet one another usually as we all have hectic schedules but without fail, year after year, we would all make it a point to meet and catch up during our reunion dinner.

And here’s presenting one of my favourite cousins, Shuya, Shuhai’s elder sis. She’s a whiz at iPhone games (she was holding her mum’s iPhone in the photo below), is extremely bright and not to mention very hyperactive too. I could barely keep up with her energy level and was hopelessly exhausted by the end of the night!

Oh and kids nowadays are so vain! We took a couple of photos, but this photo below was the only one that passed Shuya’s QC test. LOL!

We ordered the set meal for 2 persons and the food was so yummy (I love puns!) that I practically wiped out everything on the table single-handedly. I actually finished the whole bowl of kimchi soup by myself! No wonder JW always tells me that my eating habits are burning an enormous hole in his pocket.

Just before Sushi delivered Leonidas, all of us gathered for a massive pig-out session at Vivocity’s Shin Kushiya. This is another Japanese restaurant with absolutely yummy yakitori and grilled dishes.

JW and I chanced upon a quaint little cafe called Le Chocolat Cafe at Club Hotel on a dreamy afternoon after our visit to URA. We were immediately blown away by both its exterior and interior as it reminded us of cafes typically found in Europe. It was a breath of fresh air.

I never realised that we had so many talented architects who are capable of creating beautiful buildings and transforming our cityscape into a magical work of art.

Many of them have international accolades to their names and wow, I must say their works definitely do not pale in comparison to their contemporaries in the western world. Some of the more interesting works that caught my eye include the origami house by Formwerkz Architects, (above) inspired by origami planes and the Stadium MRT station (below right). Who would have thought that such amazing architecture existed on our tiny island?

Besides these state-of-the-art designs, there is also a myriad of conserved buildings and shophouses in Singapore that add spice and character to the overall city scape. I promise you’ll see more of these buildings in my following post.

Finally, here’s what I wore to the exhibition. This lovely grecian-inspired maxi dress was a gift from ClubCouture. I’m very honoured that ClubCouture has invited me on board their ClubCouture Ambassador 2011 programme. I’ll talk more about that soon, and you can be sure that there will be more goodies from ClubCouture coming your way!

Here, I tried to strike a balance by pairing my pretty floral bow top (it’s a reversible top with a cat print behind!) with simple white ruffled shorts for running errands on a weekend.

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