Old friends in new city are always nice. Especially one that I have known since I was 13. Any more old friends coming??

We are in the Caribbean baby!

We went straight from Savannah to warm, sunny Caribbean! Took the easy way out by taking a cruise…

First Stop: Mexico!

Met our guide for the Mayan ruins at Tulum. Ruins set next to sea and Ken took great shots of the view. After ruins, time to head back to ship but refused to leave Mexico without some tacos and margaritas. Had some Mexican beer, pina colada and mojitos as well. Shared with Ken, we are not alcoholics. Tacos were the best I ever had.

Next stop: Cayman Islands!

We went snorkeling at Stingray City where the waters are postcard blue and green. The stingrays just came right up to you and let you hold them! Kissing a stingray is fabled to give you 7 years of good luck so of course I had to kiss one a few times.
When we went back on the ship, decided to try the stingray legend and played a round of jackpot. Made US$1 on a 2-cent bet. Not too bad.

Ya Man, we are in Jamaica!

Land of Bob Marley! We arranged to do some horseback riding up in the mountains. I had a pretty white horse named Sasha that got a little moody so I was switched to the even-tempered Prancer. Ken said pretty white Sasha is like my pretty white Berrie at home, very bitchy. Ken’s just sore because Sasha made an attempt to bite his horse.

A super nice touch was the towel animals left on our bed every night:

Savannah, Georgia

This is so overdue I know. Ken and I made our way to Savannah in Jan for a bit of the famous southern hospitality. The town, with its 27 squares, is really really lovely.

Even the airport is pretty!

Our first dinner at the Pirates’ House:

Yah, it’s supposed to be haunted here:

Time Capsule:

Candy Store! There are days when i still miss the pralines…

He’s a good man:

Forest Gump was shot in thsi square:

We went for a ghost walking tour around the town:

Ken wanted to see an old fort…

More Pics!

The young think they live forever and though we all know that’s not true, that never stops us from behaving otherwise. Never a big fan of Heath myself but his death did stir a little something in me. Maybe because he was Ken’s age, or because I remember him looking so young, healthy, fearless in A Knight’s Tale. I was curious about the vigil set up outside his apartment which was a few blocks from me. I made my way down today and brought a dozen roses as well. Thought of leaving just 2 but decided that he deserved the entire bouquet afterall (So ang, you owe me 6 pink roses). Bye Heath, I really like you in A Knight’s Tale.

My Best Friend’s Birthday

He woke up today grumbling that he is 1 year older so it looked like I should feed him some blue mountain coffee to lift his spirits somewhat. The call from his parents did ease his sulks and I am hoping dinner later at Harold Dieterle’s Perilla (The season 1 winner of Top Chef!) might cheer him up more. Chin up boy, leave your pouts to when you turn Thirty… In the meantime, Happy Birthday dear!

I defy labels

I decided that foreign languages are not for me and so no more Spanish classes. To fill up the free time I have now, I signed up for a course with FIT – Intro to Fashion Styling. It sounds so fun and useless that it is almost perfect. The registration form asked for my occupation and I paused for a moment before putting ‘homemaker’ down. When I told Ken about it later, he made one of his irritating faces and said what I do hardly qualify myself for that title and that I should have put down “clean a studio occasionally” instead. He can be a real idiot at times.

It’s been non-stop action since we got back from our vacation as Fel was in town on a whirwind hunt for a wedding dress. Being the good friend that I am, I zipped around town with her from salon to salon. It’s tiring but all so fun. It’s hilarious how we automatically lapsed into Mandarin when we need to bitch about dress/people/designer/anything. She looks really good in her final choice and I am sure she will be breathtaking on her big day. So happy to be able to be part of her wedding in this way and I get to see her in her wedding dress first!

So now, it’s back to dealing with the laundry mess from the vacation. Hate, hate, hate it and in anticipation of the ironing nightmare we have to deal with, I ordered a garment steamer a few days back and it arrived in the mail yesterday, so fast! I immediately set it to work on the “pile of shame” (a term coined by Ken) and the pile disappeared in no time! In fact, by the end of the session, I was looking around for other things to steam. I have revolutionised housework!

To continue these housewifey instincts, I made some corn muffins today. 6 muffins from a 50 cents mix, I think I am making real economical sense here. Almost as much sense as my spree at Victoria’s Secrets – sale at 75% off now. I vow never to buy $2 corn muffins (unless they are from Kenny Rogers) or VS at full price ever again. I think I have just made my first new year resolutions.

Happy New Year

It has been a wonderful year. Having a feeling 2008 will be able to hold its own as well.

Dim Sum Ducklings:

I love the smell of fresh pine so it’s great to see fresh Christmas trees for sale everywhere. The fresh kind is the best and believe me when I say once you have a fresh Christmas tree, you will never want to go back to the artificial ones again.

In my first 2 Christmases as Mrs Lim, I would drag my Mr Lim down to one of the florists in Thomson to lug home a fresh tree. He went grudgingly the first year but in the second year he went: Sure, why not? So gals, it is entirely possible to train your men.

Given the tight Manhattan space we have this year, we have given up our Christmas tree for Christmas stockings! 5 in all, including the ones for the other 3 Lims coming up to spend Christmas with us. Christmas with family, now that’s the best kind of Christmas.

Drive to Nowhere

We are feeling free, free, free cos Ken has finished his exams! So we decided super last minute to drive out to suburbia America just for fun, with very little idea where we would end up.

We drove first to Fire Island, a summer hotspot which is pretty much deserted this time of the year so it feels like we have the entire island to ourselves. It was freezing cold but I wanted to visit the lighthouse because lighthouses always feel so sad and lonely.

Then we had yummy yummy lunch at the very charming Cold Spring Harbor. There was a pretty heavy snowfall the previous night so everything was whitewashed for our visit. Ken was understandably in a very good mood so I actually managed to take him shopping along a pretty row of shops for Christmas presents.

It’s fun to be spontaneous. I love these road trips where it’s just us 2 in the car, stopping whenever and wherever we wish because we need coffee, photo moments, pee breaks or just because. I will sing, I will whine, he will drive, he will read maps, we will talk. Very nice.