Feel this moment

Taking a breather from completing my seemingly impossible work deadlines. Time has been flying a little too fast this year, can't quite adapt to the fact that we're moving into the second half of 2013 already. 

2013 has been comfortable so far. I've learned that as much as I detest a routined life, my body appreciates the routine. I now have better sleeping hours, better eating habits, an exercise routine and have massively cut down on binge drinking. Being more selective at what I do, better control of time. I reckon if I were to ask any of my colleagues, they'll prolly agree that my lifestyle has taken a noticeably change, no more labeled the 'party girl'. 

I guess in many ways, the younger me would have thought my current lifestyle as boring. But what surprises me the most, is how I'm happier, somewhat contented (yea, I don't believe in being contented in life, because it fuels complacency), and more driven to achieve personal life goals. Perhaps the happy-go-lucky me is letting the goal-getter me take reign for a bit. 

Responsibilities aside, I still had lots of fun being young! Not much of a life documenter nowadays, but thanks to social media and smartphones there are snippets here and there. So, here's glimpses of what I've been up to in 2013.. 

Spent labour day atop a helicopter pad, sipping cocktails watching the sunset. My memories sometimes fail me, and I barely have recollections of special moments, like this one. Got to write these down and count my blessings, to remind myself that I live a blessed life and I should quit ranting / complaining. 

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Inevitably, we all have to work.

Like I said, it has been a pretty comfortable 2013, even work wise. Yes, there are bound to be bad days, but at least there are the good days, and two cute company to brighten up my bad days. :p

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Recently spent quite a bit of time playing board games at Meeples. So spoilt for choice when picking a game for the night. The above game is power station, think people in accountancy / finance would find this game entertaining, so much budgeting involved. Tsk. I love Saboteur more! It's much simpler and engaging!

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Simple date night at Ikea.

Gorge down 20 meatballs and a plate of fried chicken wings.

Man, those chicken wings are to-die-for. Very delicious.

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Ee Mey won us free tickets to Sticks, Stones and Broken bones @ PJLA.

It was a one man show, and this guy has brilliant body coordination.

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The ever famous Lau Sa Pao at Jing Xuan Dim Sum.

Nope, I don't eat these lau sa paos, nor do I eat all kinds of pao (with the exception of those stuffed with meat filling) but I would happily pop siew mai and har gaos in my mouth.

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On crappy work days, a good dinner salvages the day.

Gotta love the salmon sashimis from Rakuzen, thick cut, decently fresh.

Bottomless green tea to rant about work day, and make plans for weekends. 

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Ahh, and on Fridays, tapas and wine! 

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Whipped this up one random Sunday night. Spiral pasta with shrimps, chicken slices, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. Sprinkled with all herbs found in my kitchen - oregano, basil, rosemary. Stir fried together with lots and lots of garlic.

I reckon I should spend more time in the kitchen. It has a therapeutic effect on me.

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Ever since Z got me hooked on this game, we have been spending too much time on this sunk cost game. My best loot so far from one of the attacks!

#clashofclans

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Caught The Drums live in KL!

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More food! Steamboat on rainy nights.

Friend staying in the vicinity of Old Klang Road recommended Coco steamboat to me, and it was so good I brought the family and the bf on separate occasions to try this. Think what attracted so many patrons is their very delicious milky pork bone soup, plus fresh ingredients to pair.

Must try the stuffed pork balls. SO GOOD.

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Catch up session with colleagues at the newest cafe in Bangsar.

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With the girls at Wei Sern & Jaymee's wedding.

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Short escapade to Krabi!

We spent so much time sleeping / resting, rejuvenating self from the hectic city life.

This is us sunbathing at one of the random islands when island-hopping.

Divine tom yum at random restaurant.

They were so generous with the serving! 

Went kayaking at the mangroves too!

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Nerdy weekends with nerdy bf.

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"Abang, bagi teh tarik kaw, kaw, kaw ok?"

"OK."

Haha I was pleasantly surprised when the order came. Proof that he actually take my request into consideration. Had good teh tarik catching up with high school friends in the end. An actuary, three accountants, an engineer and a doctor. All grown up. 

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Went for random hikes. 

This one was at Apek Hill.

Pine tree trail @ Cameron Highlands

So good to hike in cooling climate!

Can't wait for the day I visit the national parks in US.

Heineken x Zecora at the peak of Bukit Kutu

My crazy friends decided it was cool to enjoy ice cold beer whilst enjoying the spectacular hilltop view, which in theory, sounds perfect. In practise though, it is crazy to carry so much weight for a 8 hour hike. Tsk, still got to salute Peter for being awesome like that.

Look at their happy contented faces!

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Coffee and cake sesh at Artisan Roast. They say your closest friends would always be the ones you make during your student days. These friends are the ones I am always comfortable with. 

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More coffee conversations at CSHH, Singapore

When separated geographically with your best friend, catch up sessions are precious time to update each other about what we have been up to.

 One of the very few pictures we took in Universal Studios. 

Brought out the child in us everytime we visit theme parks.  

Was introduced to Bak Chor Mee by the bf. Egg noodles with minced pork, pork ball, pork innards, wan tan and salted fish in vinegar infused sauce. I had mine non spicy and I liked it.

Laneway Fest!

So happy to see King of Convenience perform live. (:

Came back two tones darker because of the scorching sun.

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Made a pact with Wae Lern that we will catch up once a month. Still ongoing!

Belated birthday treat.

Till today I can remember how good the squid ink pasta and wagyu beef were.

Cooked to perfection.

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OOTD 

Top - Random shop from Singapore

Shorts - Cotton On

Bag - Sister's

and this missy here is officially a doctor.

crazy happy for her. (:

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Bestie with her man!

..and us at Ippudo Sg.

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(: My adventure buddy, never a dull moment with you!

Looking forward to more upcoming adventures. 

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I love how thoughtful my bf is. (:

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Valentines' at Rils.

Utterly spoilt by him.

Looking back, 2013 has been fantabulous so far.

Shall look forward to brighten and fill the remaining of my 2013 with more memorable moments! 

At the same time, count my blessings. (:

Running of for dinner date with a girl friend now! 

Adios!

Self-refinery

In the midst of achieving personal goals.

Gotta hang in there.

I left a piece of my soul in Seoul (Part 2)

We went a little crazy picking hotels / backpackers for our 10 nights, and ended up staying at 5 different places altogether. Madness it was, packing and unpacking, dragging our heavyweight luggage through snow. But twas fun getting to stay / check out different rooms each night! 

Entrance of Banana Backpackers. The receptionists were mainly university students, and they are so hospitable! That's the 'tourists' wall right there above the brochures. They'll keep one of the polaroid and let their guests keep one for memories. I have mine slot between the pages in my moleskin. :p 

On our last night, we stayed in Studio 41st Hostel. It's located walking distance from Hongdae (filled with young adults / uni students). The room has an inbuilt kitchen and washing machine. How cool is that. 

The common area! We had our complimentary breakfast here.

The guys at Studio 41st recommended us to this cozy barbeque shop, manned by a middle age Korean dude. Very popular with the locals but definitely not catered for tourists. The only menu in sight is the ones stuck on the wall with Korean writings. Haha, we had trouble ordering what we wanted, so we nodded at whatever the shop owner said, and hoped for the best. 

TADAA! Glorious barbequed meat!! He gave us a hearty portion, and taught us how to barbeque the kimchi together with the meat (my first time seeing people barbecuing kimchi). We were also served side condiments and a delicious tasting soup. 

Noryangjin fish market is not heated, and visiting it on a winter night is not a bright idea although it opens 24 hours a day. Our main mission -- to gulp down some live octopus.

Bought a baby octopus from a random shop we passed, had it chopped at a dodgy eatery behind the market, and tried our fresh octopus sashimi (a.k.a. Sannakji)! 

Omg it was still squirming when we place it in our mouth. As disgusting as it may sound, it tasted very very awesome, like how fresh sashimi should taste! Won't do it again though, too cruel an act. 

Hongdae on a weekday night. Pretty quiet, at midnight. We wanted to try Charlie Brown cafe or Bau House Cafe (where dogs are allowed), but woke up too late on our last day in Seoul. Meh.

Freshly steamed red bean poppers on Insadong street!

Korean inspired boyfriend. :p

Wined and dined to usher in the New Years. Had Western for a change, wine instead of Soju. (:

So Koreans don't celebrate countdowns the conventional way. From what we interpreted from the locals, Koreans usually go outstation for countdown, like Jeju. Man, so there were no fancy fireworks to be found, only a crowd at Bosingak Bell, with some performances on stage.

Half tipsy, we stumbled into Yogane Dakgalbi, which in my opinion, has the best Dak-galbi ever!

AH LOOK CRAVING FOR SOME RIGHT NOW.

omnomnom.

I left a piece of my soul in Seoul (Part 1)

It's been 6 months since Korea.

Admittedly, much of my memories of discovering Korea are slowly dissipating. A post left in the draft for waayyyyyy too long! Eheh, since declaring today a chillout day (but feeling quite inspired to write, surprisingly), here's a peek into my touristy experience of Seoul.  

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I love new experiences. I love trying new things.So it wouldn't be strange for me to find excitement traipsing around in a foreign country during different seasons of the year. And boy, was I squealing with joy to have a chance to catch a glimpse of the city of Seoul covered in a blanket of snow. It was somewhat magical. 

We had 4 days to explore the nooks and crooks of Korea. What I clearly remembered was how cold the weather was, touching -20 degrees on the coldest days. Covered with four layer of clothings, we still felt shivers down our spine walking along the streets. Winter can be so unforgivingly brutal. 

But winter landscape is too breathtakingly beautiful. The picture above depicts Seoul covered in snow -- taken at dusk atop N Seoul Tower. 

Coincidentally our last sunset of 2012. 

Seoul is like a successful man wearing a tailored made suit, but pairs the suit with a classic old tie (a gift from his mum 20 years ago). Ok, my metaphor isn't that great, but all I wanted to say is I'm impressed by how Seoul managed to keep its traditional culture throughout the years modernising. 

Me with N Seoul. Freezingly pale.

Thousands of love locks along the walls of N Seoul. Each bearing a special meaning to a certain couple.

Spot ours! That's my boyfriend being corny. 

Quirky decorated cafes can be found at almost every corner of the streets. We were quick to comprehend why it was so. Nothing beats the feeling of sipping a cup of latte in a heated coffee joint watching the snow fall outside.

And of course, we had our fair share of coffee during our stay there. Our very first cafe was BEANSBIN coffee, a famous coffee chain around Seoul. 

... with waffles to pair.

Grand entrance of Changdeokgung Palace (창덕궁).

Very surreal to see a palace covered in snow.

We also made a pitstop at Bukchon Hanok Village. 

This is the one of the main street, where traditional hanok rooftops are juxtaposed against the skyscaper skyline of modern Seoul. 

Samcheong-Dong with Bakaksan (부각산) in the background.

Hehe, think I could totally fool people to say that this was taken from Switzerland instead.

That said, Samcheong-Dong is a hipster street filled with hipster coffee joint / bakeries. We wanted to try so many of the coffee places, but so many of them were fullhouse. Speaks of the level of coffee consumption in Seoul during winter. 

It was wayyyyyyyyyy too cold, as usual. So we spend a couple of hours sipping coffee, people watching. From my observations, Koreans dress impeccably well!

Z was very enthusiastic to ice skate at the City Hall skating rink. On a Saturday night, this place was filled with happy Korean kids, dating couples and even tourists were spotted! Romantic Korean ballads filled the air as people skated around the ice rink (or at least, attempt to! :p).

To our dismay, only a limited amount of people were allowed to skate in the rink. So you had to book your time slot, and wait in line. We decided to scrap this activity given that next available time slot was at least an hour away. But it shall remain on my bucket list!

We ended up in Lotte Mart to grab some souvenirs and local delights. Ermerged, the human traffic inside Lotte Mart is insane. Typical Asians are everywhere blocking every lane possible with their filled-to-the-brim carts. Not gonna reommend Lotte Mart unless you're kiasu and really like to get some cheap Lotte stuff.

Half an hour later, we were battered. Decided to have a quick bite instead, so we had my favourite Tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes) ! I LOVE TTEOKBOKKI!

Remember to catch Nanta' when in Seoul!

It was SOO funny and entertaining!! No dialogues, only rhythmic banging of knives, pots and pan. Highly recommended.

Note - Buy your tickets online for more discounts!

Ending this post with my favourite picture of the lot!

Taken with the frozen fountain behind us at Cheongyecheon Stream.

Part 2, coming soon!

Jeju Island, Korea

One of our main mission visiting Jeju Island was to hike Mount Hallasan, well apart from visiting the obligatory tourist destinations in Jeju Island itself. Afterall, it is known as the "Hawaii" of Korea. We stayed in Yeha Guesthouse, a clean and nicely decorated backpackers. 

Guests were given one complimentary beer each night!

We chilled at the common room, enjoyed how homely backpackers can be. No hotels can ever give you that awesome experience of staying in a backpackers. 

The walls stairs were lined with happy pictures of tourists from around the world. 

The next morning, we hired a cab driver to bring us around Jeju Island. Manjanggul cave was our first tourist destination, known as the longest lava tube in the world. We thread through the icy cold cave, avoiding puddles of water and uneven rock formations.

This was what we were rewarded at the end of the cave, a unique formation nicely lit. Given that neither of us were really interested in structures and formation, we were not very impressed, and were eager to turn our backs and head back to the cab. 

Our cab driver also became our photographer of the day! He was nice enough to stop at a few scenic locations along our journey to take a few pictures for us. There were two cute little kiddie chair placed there, so we took a few shots, and I personally like the one above a whole lot. 

Made a short climb up Seongsan Ilchubong Peak, supposedly a famous place to observe the rising of the sun. The view of the top was quite magnificent, you could get a bird's eye view of most part of Jeju Island. Very scenic. 

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Lunch! at some restaurant where the cab driver brought us to. We had seafood pancake, abalone porridge and some seafood soup alongside the condiments. The meal was truly worthy. We loved how fresh the seafood were, and how the soup warmed our cold bodies up.

That's Seongsan Ilchubong behind us! 

Seopjikoji, filming location of many a Korean drama. Would have looked more picturesque in spring, when the grass is green and flowers bloom. 

 Steep narrow stairs down the lighthouse.

Oh we also visited Jeongbang waterfall, the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean before calling it a day.

Monday Runs

For the past 20 years of my life, I've never taken fitness seriously. Things started to change sometime last year, where I decided to start healthy living, for several obvious reasons. So I joined a gym, and started going for group classes, which were fun and effective.

It was going all fine, until I noticed that some of the classes were so packed! I hardly had comfortable spacing to move around freely without worrying that I would accidentally kick someone (during body combat). So I decided to get on the treadmill and just jog / run.

Ok, yes, I admit I used to have bad stamina, and I used to hate running. So the first 10 minutes on the treadmill  running at the speed of 8, I was out of breath. I wanted to give up, call it a night and just head home to the comfort of my bed. But somehow, I managed to continue running on for 40 minutes, and that's when I experience the runners high. OMG I felt so good after the run!

So I inserted a new routine in my weekly schedule, to run every Monday.The end goal would be to able to comfortably run 21km by the end of this year. Gonna be tracking myself to work towards it!