Tuesday 9 September 2014

Singapore. Segue to thoughts about weddings.

It's been a little while.
It's mainly that I hate typing on my iPad. I am home, with a proper keyboard, so here it is.

Heyyyyyy!

We just got back this morning. I can definitively say that a night flight (and the time traipsing around town awaiting said night flight) is far less stressful when one has had an upgrade to business class. Emirates do it well; they chuck in a transfer to and from the airport. Noice.

The purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of one of my fella's colleagues. With the added benefits of being in Singapore. Which means good food, great shopping, great people watching, staying in a nice hotel with a pool and jacuzzi and oh, good food. It was nice to get warmed up after a cold winter and a halting start to spring.

I have been to Singapore a few times. It has a few memories, including some bittersweet ones. It was great to create some new memories of Singapore with my fella.

Memories of lounging by the pool, partaking of the pool bar (can still not abide drinks in plastic cups). Reading books on a banana lounge (thanks for the Burial Rites rec K!) Books are far more enjoyable when read by a pool, while drinking a drink from a plastic cup and being caressed by a warm breeze.

Memories of looking at ALL THE SHOPS and ALL THE THINGS! I find the window shopping both exciting and overwhelming. So much choice! I didn't buy a lot, just jumped on the "shooties" (half boot half peeptoe shoe) bandwagon finally. I was quite restrained. I am finally getting into a "don't buy it unless you love it" frame of mind.

Memories of doing a bus tour of Singapore. The fella loves those city bus tours. I am a convert. The cheesier, the better. Plus good to learn trivia.

Gustatory memories of the Food! Chilli crab. Black pepper crab! Salted egg yolk crab! Working hard to get all the sweet crab flesh and getting your fingers sticky in the process.

The Assam Laksa. The curry!

The yummy brekkies. Gotta love a brekky buffet. This one had fried chicken in it. This may be a controversial call, but I like fried chicken better than I like bacon, unless said bacon is very good bacon.

And there seems to be a bit of a trend toward Fries with Truffle aioli. I can taste it now. The culinary equivalent of world peace.

The peking duck pancakes, at Fatty Weng restaurant. Washed down with Tiger Beer. Singapore has great beer weather and Tiger Beer with Singaporean food is a great match.

Anyway enough about food, I'm getting hungry and I am on a post holiday detox.

Most holidays involve a touch of the local culture (as I am a classy sheila). We went to the Peranakan Museum. You can learn more about the Peranakan culture here. They gave the world Laksa. So said one of my Peranakan friends when I first met him.

The Arts and Sciences museum  near Marina Bay Sands was hosting an Annie Leibovitz photography exhibition. One of the most iconic photography "voices" of our time. She took the famous pic of a nude, pregnant Demi Moore.

And the wedding. As per Singaporean tradition, the wedding took place over several days and events, with multiple bridal costume changes. It was a lovely wedding, in the way all weddings are lovely. The bride looked beautiful.  I really was honoured to be included. The food was amazing, and the view was even better.

That sounded all a bit...trite.

Weddings are a bit of a bittersweet thing for me. First there is the thing about marriage being forever, how that stings when you have had a marriage fail.

The inevitable memories of your own wedding.

I also wonder whether the true emotion, love and joy behind a wedding gets lost in all the pomp and ceremony. Or is that just me? I hope the bride and groom had those great emotions in amongst the mandatory busy-ness of the period leading up to the wedding. I am sure they did.

The fella and I have talked about getting married. Both of us have been married before. Both of us have a little ambivalence about it. It's not off the cards, just not officially on them. We have committed in the second strongest way one can (the buying of real estate) and are planning an even bigger commitment.

We have agreed that, if we do get married, there will be no white wedding. No minister. There will be great music, with lots of dancing. Probably a Mariachi band and a Salsa instructor. There will be good wine and lots of meat, on a spit. Kids will be invited, as watching kids dance is wonderful. Minimal speeches, as we both do enough talking in our jobs.

Or equally we could just bugger off to Las Vegas and do it in a Klassy way.

Having said all this, I am not averse to diamonds. Some of the fella's colleagues (he works with a few wonderful women) have taken it upon themselves to see that one is forthcoming for me. So they told me over dinner and a few wines at the hen's night.

God love them.

Anyway that is enough ramblings.

What about you...
Fried chicken for breakfast? Yay or nay?
Bacon? Crispy or not?
Where do you stand on the topic of weddings? 
Favourite Asian country? 
Do you like Laksa.

8 comments:

  1. Fried chicken for breakfast? With champagne.
    Bacon? Crispy.
    Weddings have their place.
    Love Singapore and Malaysia, I'm biased though.
    Love a coconut milk based laksa.

    SSG xxx

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    Replies
    1. You are my kind of woman. We should brunch soon.

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  2. I don't discrimate breakfast and ste pizza for breakfast for a few years. Although I prefer laksa over pizza!

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  3. A long time ago I lived in Malaysia with my first husband who came from Perlis. I loved the assam laksa or Penang laksa.

    I have tried to re create the magic here with varying degrees of success.

    So glad you enjoyed all that wonderful food.

    Sue

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  4. I am having second thoughts about knowing you after your anti-bacon sentiments!

    Tbh, I don't get weddings. To me, it's something little girls dream about so they can have a special day to be in the spotlight. I figure with the amount of awesome in me, every day of my life is my special day in the spotlight :)

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  5. Wedding sounds fab. Love a wedding that revolves around days of eating and festivities.
    In answer to your questions, No to chicken for breakfast, yes to crispy bacon, love a wedding (always so interesting to get a good feel of a couple's personality), Vietnam my favourite Asian country so far, yes to Laksa.

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  6. Bugger off to Vegas. That place is epic. I highly recommend it.

    ReplyDelete