A wedding and a geometric-inspired party!

Yes, Rik and I are officially married under the law of The Netherlands since 1 October 2014!

Although our big church ceremony and celebration with both families will be in January 2015, it still feels different knowing that you are permanently connected to this other human being you didn't grow up with.

Here are a few pictures from the signing at the Rotterdam city hall.

Trying to reach my family on Google Hangouts so they can "be there" during the signing.

The moment we made our vows to each other.

After lunch at the swanky Michelin star restaurant in the Wereldmuseum, we took some "official" wedding photos, taking advantage of the beautiful weather we were blessed with.

A few days later, we threw a party for our friends, to celebrate the wedding as well as Rik's birthday. Here I am, preparing food for the geometric-themed party.

Riri very kindly offered her services to create the food menu for the night, as well as preparing all the sweet treats.

Everyone seemed impressed by those 3D geometric shapes! They weren't difficult to make, just a little tedious with the cutting, folding and sticking.

The complete party table.

It was fantastic that we have so many friends who wanted to celebrate this occasion with us. And some who even travelled from other cities to be here.

Time to cut the cake.

October 2013: Illustrations, boots, concerts, driverless automobiles, Halloween and Michelin star dining.

I've had a pretty eventful October and I'm going to share it with you because this is my blog, and this is what it's for. I hope you like the phone-quality photos.

First up, you may not know, but I've been selling my illustrations for a while now on my own webshop, as well as on Etsy. Earlier this month, I woke up to an email saying one of my birthday calendars had been purchased. Hoorah!

My friend Riri likes to order cards from me, and she orders A LOT. Because she always seems to be celebrating something or other for someone or other. That girl has too much energy. So anyway, this is a birthday card for her friend who moved to Stockholm, and who misses Dutch things. Riri and her friend decided to send a care package of Dutch items to her. Sweet.

I have been searching for these boots ever since I moved here. I finally found them after researching online (yes, online), and then heading to the store to grab them. Yup, I can't believe how I'm being efficient now while shopping.

We bought the tickets months ago, and the concert was finally at our doorstep. This is Goldfrapp performing at Paradiso in Amsterdam. It was fantastic. This woman does not need any post-production on album recordings. She was perfect, everyone was perfect, it was so energising and the all-enveloping electronic orchestral sounds just lifted me up into the clouds.

I went for a meeting with a client for the first time at their office in the Brainpark in Rotterdam. It's a super cool place, but the coolest thing there were the driverless busses. See how I took a photo including the windshield wipers so that you'd see that's the front of the bus... and THERE IS NO DRIVER. Very cool indeed.

In case you haven't noticed yet, I've been playing around with photo effects on my photos. How fun.

Halloween this year was at our place. For part of the decor, I made ghosts. I first tried a method I found online and even bought bloody clothes starch to get the fabric hard enough to stay in a ghost shape. But I think the fault was in the fabric. It just freaking doesn't get hard! So I used a needle and thread and hung the ghosts up from the ceiling instead. Simpler, cleaner and quicker.

This did not work.

This worked. With some fairy magic.

That's me, as an attacked librarian.

And finally, last night - although technically November, I will still add it here because who knows when's the next time I'll blog?? - I dined at a Michelin star restaurant for the second time in my life. This one, Amarone in Rotterdam, is a bit less posh than Parkheuvel (also in Rotterdam), but the service was still good and the food still interesting. Taste-wise, but not concept-wise. But well, we had ordered a special group menu, so I'll cut them some slack.

The amuse. And I can't remember what it was. Calf is there somewhere, I think.

The fellows I dined with.

The appetiser of liver terrine and quail.

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And that's where a photo of the halibut should have been, but I forgot to take the photo.

The main dish of fantastically cooked beef with beets and other veg. This beef was awesome.

I always find it strange when you have such a big build-up to the main dish - first you have amuses, then several appetisers, and then you get the main dish... and all of a sudden, like reaching the top of Mount Everest on your feet and then parachuting down, they present you with dessert. I mean, where are all the other amuses to prepare you for dessert?

ANYWAY, this dessert was my favourite of the night and I can't be more enthused about it. Finally, here was something that was a bit different, a bit more interesting and exciting. Here's a coconut on sand, made of chocolate and other coconut-based delights. This. was. brilliant.

This annual dinner was also an opportunity to thank the man who had been the council secretary for nearly 10 years. Congratulations, Ed, a job well done!

Shameless advertising of their restaurant on the chocolates. Well, the chocolates were yummy.

All the weddings in June 2012

It has been a while, and my holiday back in KL has come and gone. In fact, I just arrived back in NL this morning, so I'm quite tired but determined to stay up till a decent hour.

While I was in KL, I attended two weddings - one of them was Janice's wedding, one of my best and oldest friends from school. She married her boyfriend of eight or nine years and it was a really beautiful wedding. So happy I made it back for that!

The other wedding was Daniel's. Daniel is an ex-college mate of mine and it was through him that I met Schrobbenmaster. They were housemates while working at Nielsen and Daniel brought him to my Chinese New Year party way back in 2009. Sparks didn't fly immediately, but I grew to enjoy and appreciate, and heck, even want his company. Hehe. So Daniel's wedding was something both Schrobbenmaster and I could attend and relate to.

Besides those two main events, we did lots of fun things like sightseeing and chilling in Penang, hanging out in KL like old times (cinema, Bangsar, drinking, etc) and spending precious time with my family. I also attended Daniel's fiancee's bachelorette night - well, it was her second, as her first celebration was in Paris with a few close girlfriends.

It was that night that I met a girl, Ashley, who I later found out owns and runs a waxing and manicure beauty salon in Bangsar. I always support people who start their own businesses and grow it from the ground up. It's even one of my dreams to do that, so naturally, I have empathy for these people. She passed me her card later on at the wedding, so I thought I'd just plug it a bit on this blog, if anyone finds themselves in need of some brow/facial waxing or nailcare.

Her shop is called Apron Bay and it's on the first floor, so look up for signboards. I can't remember exactly where she said it was above, but it's on Jalan Telawi 4. The street isn't that long, so I'm sure you'll find it if you bother to look. If you want to make an appointment, the number is 03 2287 8081.

Let me upload some photos from my phone to my computer and I'll put them up in the next post... along with our new furry little addition to the house :) Till then, folks!

Happy birthday to me!

So this is my 600th post, I just realised. How nice that I've chosen to write a post on my birthday 10 days ago :)

The whole weekend was absolutely fantastic - Schrobbenmaster surprised me all day. I hadn't the faintest idea what he was up to, but it turns out... we spent the afternoon at the zoo! I've wanted to go since autumn last year, but it being too cold to be outdoors, we never bothered. So sweet that he remembered :D

For dinner, he surprised me yet again by bringing me to a Chinese restaurant almost around the corner from our house. Turns out that the owner is a lady from Penang who's an award-winning and Michelin star chef. And her husband is an award-winning HK dimsum chef. Ah, power couple. Even sweeter than finding this little restaurant hidden on a small lane, was that he had called previously to even request Malaysian dishes for me. Aww! So first we had the usual dim sum fare from the restaurant, and to finish off, Jenny, the owner, brought us her own self-cooked chicken rice and char koay teow. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera for the dinner because I had plans to go clubbing that night. But here are pics from the wonderful Diergaarde Blijdorp (the zoo).

Started with the ocean route...

The penguins were so cute and playful! And also way too fast to snap photos of.

Then we found the special place with the new baby polar bear, Vicks. It was his first day being allowed out of his 'house' and he's about 3 months old. So cute!

Those birds behind are of the most amazing fluorescent red. Such brilliance!

Trying one of frachely's special timer photos. They're quite fun to do!

Strange looking bird with a bird body and flamingo legs.

"Vulture with hernia - this vulture can only carry one person! And of course only on his back!"
Flying game for kids.

Too sunny... too sunny...

Mmm-aah-mmm-aah-mmm-aah.

I took photos of a lioness but she looked so sad I couldn't put it up. The lions are kept in the old part of the zoo that hasn't been renovated. And their enclosure stinks like crazy too. Poor lions *sniff*.

Anyways, after the surprise dinner, we met up with some friends at Level, the cocktail bar near our house, which was way too crowded, but we stuck it out and managed to nab two tables in the end. Got a pair of earrings and a gift voucher from De Bijenkorf from Vicky, Harry and Joel. I think I'm gonna use the gift voucher on something new for the new house. By the way, have I mentioned we're getting a new house? Can't remember...

And after Level, we wanted to go to Catwalk for some dancing, but it was waayyy too smoky even from the upstairs entrance. So we drank at this bar called Breakaway where girls were dancing on the bartop... and even the barman, who wasn't even remotely hot. And later on to Rotown where the music was slightly better but the sound system kinda sucked.

Was a fun night and I'm glad I didn't have to wake up the next day with a hangover! Gawd, I'm glad :P

Hello random girl who just poked her face into the photo and gave Schrobbenmaster a shock :P

Edit:

Here's a picture of me at the dinner, enjoying awesome dim sum!