Tuxes and dresses

Just wanted to run a quick appology by you all, since I have really missed two Wednesdays in a row now blogging! I’ve been very busy preparing for the big event (see below) and then I got some kind of flu. Have been out like a light since early this week, and am still so and so, but really wanted to get this text out there asap.

Some of my current assessories

So now we have actually survived our first ball in Singapore! And it was truly gr8! The last time I was at a ball was during my senior year at A-levels; the dress was actually sown up, but by one of my friends’ big sister. I had found the fabric myself on sale and I can still remember the strong odor of a specific glue, since it was one of those disco-ball-fishnet-creations, with glittering confetti-like features. The latter were glued on and hence the dress had to spend several nights on the balcony, before it was suitable for the salons of the Main Hotel in Jonkoping, Sweden.

Not too much smell of glue in this one I hope!

When we were invited to the Midwinter Ball hosted by the Swedish Business Association in Singapore, the main thing one focuses on is of course what to wear. I was baffled when I realized how many alternatives there were for a bloody tux; buttons here or there, folded like this or that, fabric with quality from that or another country and so on.

Jonas at Roy’s in his new tux

I asked around where would be the best alternative to find a nice dress, googled on costs and how fancy the dress actually had to be (since ‘black tie’ can be slightly shady), as well as vacuumed the entire scene for good tailors and seamstresses. It actually took some time, since you don’t really want to be under-/over-dressed nor spend an absolute fortune and want it to be done rather quickly by someone where communication is OK. 

Overall, it was easier than in Japan (most nice dresses that I’ve liked in the past go up to ca size 32 in Tokyo, which is not really my scene), but it still took some digging. I of course wanted Jonas to like it too, since it’s actually an event where you get dressed up together. I ended up trying almost 50 different dresses until I found ‘The One’ in a tiny start up boutique focusing on sowing copies of original runway ensembles. Unfortunately it was a cocktail dress, but who said it had to stay that way?

Preparing the ball room with decor and counting how many people would be placed at each table, since default was set to eight or ten settings per table

Then it was all the smaller details for both of us: shoes and what height of heels, handbag, neck tie or bow tie, jewelry, pleated or non-pleaded shirt, gloves or no gloves, room for watch in the sleeve or not, scarf or shawl or maybe bolero, hair and so on. I am now so grateful we did a small wedding.. It’s great fun to plan things like this if you have the time and an unlimited budget, but it’s slightly stressful when you’re unsure about both the outcome and the time frame.

Some of the other preps included me writing all the placement cards for the ball..

The final decisions fell on buying half a dress and adding lengths and extra fabric at the seamstresses Mama&Misse at International Plaza on Anson Rd for me. I finally went with a black pearl necklace, no gloves (since I was literarily sweating in between my fingers as we were leaving despite the AC) and a black satin clutch. Jonas decided on Roy’s Tailor in Holland Village and a classical tuxedo with a black bow tie, with a modern collar cut. Both places have been really great to deal with and we already feel comfortable staying there as clients in the future, IF the clothes survive the next six months or so.

Some of my accessories

The night itself was filled of very nice activities such as welcome champagne at the sun deck by one of the pools of the 5-star Goodwood Hotel, very classy table settings sponsored and designed by Style Nordic (Victoria, you really have an eye for this!) at the even more fancy ballroom and a superb main course.

The morning weather fortunately picked up during the day and we had a lovely evening

 

So did some of the morning hair

Handsome man in progress!

Posing 1: trying to show off the dress, which was hard

Posing 2: trying to show off the hair, which didn’t really work out either, lol!

One of the entrances to Goodwood Hotel

The ball was held in Windsor Ballroom

The only negative for me, unfortunately fell on some members of the serving staff. Since I’ve been working serving tables and being behind a bar desk on and off since I was a teen, I was actually quite astonished regarding the level of skills displayed, along with some of the attitude. Situations like leaving my plate alone while I’m still eating from it, does seem like a no-brainer.

However, the flow of wine was very eminent, the music really captured the mood and entertaining group SOLO was fab. The atmosphere was very high, there were so many absolutely beautiful dresses, tuxes and hairdos and the speeches were very much to the point. And there was a lot of dancing going on; we even had to move our table! The light setting was magical and the program in general was very well thought through regarding enough time between courses to catch up and become hungry again as well as pauses for getting ‘fresh air’. We also had a very amusing event where my better half got dragged up on stage by one of the very fancy female artists; he really gave us a good show, even though slightly embarrassed!   

Jonas on stage with parts of SOLO

All in all, this is definitely something I’d like to do next year and thank you all for a night to remember!

First visit from family in Singapore

On the 5^th of November we went to Changi airport to pick up the first family visitors from Sweden: Jonas’ excited parents! We had prepared with a BBQ fiesta by the pool, so after viewing the premisses, some soaking in the water with ice cold wine and beers we had a smashing first dinner together in almost 2 years.

First taxi ride together with exhausted but very happy Jeanette and Hans Moeller

The first day downtown we got tickets for the tourist Hop-On-Hop-Off bus from Suntec City. We went all around Singapore, stopped for lunch at La Pau Sat (central hawker center situated in an almost European looking parlor), walked through 1-Fullerton to the Merlion, took the boat to Clarke Quay and continued to Brewkertz microbrewery for more fun.   

 

From the bus roof

 

From the boat deck

 

From the beer rim

On the Monday, which was also a Singaporean holiday, we took the MRT to the Botanic Gardens and had quite an interesting time in the Evolution Walk, Orchid Gardens and Ginger Plantagenet. Unfortunately we had to get lunch there (hotdogs with a pale pink color, chewy chicken nuggets with wet battering and very old nachos; not recommended), but made up for that with dinner at Chijmes. 

 

Decision time on which route to take

 

Description of stone trees; had never heard of them before 

 

A stone tree

People getting wedding pics in the Evolution Garden

 A beautiful ginger flower

 A 'new' orchid I haven't seen before

 Another 'new' orchid I haven't seen before

The spectacular scenery at Chijmes

The next day we went to Holland Village to try out parts of our midwinter ball gears; we had lunch at the local hawker, checked out The Butcher and La Fromagerie and then took a bus to Chinatown. We had a good runaround with appropriate beer stops and finally took a taxi to Greenwood Bistro for their fabulous Tuesday Oyster Night. It’s really, absolutely fabulous.

 Interesting frogs on the Chinatown Bridge with the business district in the background

 Jonas walking into Chinatown

 Hans and Jonas hanging out at Sago St in Chinatown

 Start of the outstanding dinner at Greenwood Bistro

 The oysters..

 My squid ink pasta

  

The entire Wednesday was devoted to chillin by the pool, having hawker center food at Serangoon Central and dinner at Chomp Chomp. It was rounded off with a late night swim and after party at our balcony with dry Martinis and poker.

Moeller Sr and Jr had some issues floating, so sorted this out engineering style

It was then time for the high roller day. E started off at the Marina Bay Sand’s Casino, went up to the Skypark on the 53^rd floor, had Singapore Slings and lunch at Raffle’s, did some shopping at Orchard and finished off with a quick beer at Boat Quay before we shot up to the 64^th floor, 282 m:s up in the sky to 1-Altitude.

 The Moellers at the entrance of Marina Bay Sands Hotel

 Hans and Jeanette at the Skypark on the Marina Bay Sands

 Hans and Jeanette at Raffle's Hotel in Long Bar having slings and throwing peanut  shells on the floor

 All the Moellers at 1-Altitide looking down on Marina Bay Sands

 View from 282 m:s over Chinatown and the business district

Evening view from 1-Altitude over the Marina with the Singapore Flyer to the far left (Ferris wheel), a golf coarse lit up in the distant, the lotus shaped, white Science and Art Museum, Marina Bay Sands Hotel and finally the Casino in from of it

The weekend became a long fiesta with sleeping in, tanning by the pool with support beers and tropical fruit. We then headed for the ‘real’ quite early Chomp Chomp where we fortunately got hold of a table. We ordered chili and black pepper slip lobster, garlic baked tiger shrimps and together with grilled sting ray fillets it was ten times better than the traditional chili crab we’ve had so far. And so cheap! We also managed to squeeze in a lovely Swedish dinner at our friends’ (thank you Anna and Micke) with amongst others herring and snaps, tried a tuxedo and had kwak beer.

 All four of us at Chomp Chomp

 Jeanette and Hans having Belgium beers at Happy Daze

 Jonas getting fitted for his tux in Holland Village

All in all we had a fantastic week and hope they come again soon!

Final touches

The main thing that happened during the week was that we got out new phones! I never have to worry about my phone changing operative language to Latvian ever again! Bliss. Fortunately I have huge support from my babe, or I think I’d still be trying to sort it out three days later.

 
Jonas being slightly fed up with the new phones..  

I also finally found frames for our paintings and pictures from Japan! It hasn’t been that easy actually and a place tends to feel rather soulless without anything on the walls. Today we have finalized drilling them up properly so now our apartment looks much more like a home.

 

Hokusai over our is beautiful, but also sort of a reminder about what happened in Japan

 

One of the bright and fun paintings from South Africa

 

Three pictures from Kyoto and Narai

 

Three winter pictures from Hiroshima, of Fuji-san and Sweden

 

Various Japanese prints of famous locations and buildings

We’ve now set the last touches regarding furnishing and decorating, including filling the place up with suitable plants. That means really stuff that survive me. I’d love to get orchids all over, but I just have a natural occurring tendency to kill them even from a distance. I swear, it’s enough if I’m in the same room. It’s such a shame, ‘cause they are absolutely gorgeous over here. Everything else is kept as simple as possible and it has really started feeling like we live here for real.

 
One of the window sills with Singaporean money plants; very nice plants; very unkillable plants

I still miss the people in Sweden and Tokyo and things like the Japanese metro, sushi and politeness, but the quality of life for us here is a lot higher. I really did expect the ‘all-fun-new-n-shiny-feeling‘ about Singapore to be gone by now, but both of us still thinks it’s really great here. I also thought I’d almost be bored, since it’s a very small place really, but since there are so many cultures here we know so little about, there’s always something exciting going on.  

 

The many cultures are really evident everywhere

 

Fogging is a strange thing they do here (pesticides brawled out by machines to prevent Dengi mosquitos and other insects from multiplying); at first I thought there was a fire 

 

A normal snack for the evening in our current household: banana crisps, cashew nuts, olives and pomegranate  

On the Sunday we were dinner guests at out friends’ new condo on Marine Parade. They were at floor 20-something with direct ocean view and balconies running on both sides of the apartment. It was very, very nice. We were also served western food from an oven! I really miss our oven in Sweden.. I actually even miss the 20 x 30 cm fish grill we had in Tokyo; at least you could make garlic bread in that one. Now we have a micro wave and have used it once. It sucks. Anyways, thank you Steph and Duane for a lovely dinner!

 

View over the ocean and parts of the marine ship yard; note the tennis courts on the building next to them!

 

Looking out from the dining room

 

The other balcony towards the ocean

I spent the week meeting up with a lot of people for lunches and coffee, in between shopping around for a dress and finding a tailor to sow up a tux for the Mid Winter Ball. We have just joined the Swedish Business Association of Singapore and the ball is supposed to be the shit.

 

Invitation to the Mid Winter Ball by SBAS

I was also taken to the National Museum of Singapore for the first time and it was quite a sight. Thank you Jess, Nima, Anette, Anna and everyone else for all the help!

 

One of the more interesting sculptures

 

It’s very popular to get married at the museum

Then of course it was Halloween! Since there were quite a few hick-ups with changing the phones, we had to spend the entire day doing so. When we finally got everything to work it was too late to sort out costumes; I had a wild idea we’d go as Swedish football players, but we scrapped it. Instead we met up with friends at the Promenade, The Sail, Barcode, Blujaz and Souk.

 

Walking through the marina

 

It’d be a drag if you accidentally leaned against this elevator panel; our friend was living at the 48th floor

 

Reinout and Jonas in full speed

Happy Halloween again everyone ;)

Halloween celebrators in Singapore