Bali Re-lived

the photos were take by an amazing photographer... marcus bell
everything that came out looked more than the usual run-of-the-mill wedding photos but took it to another level. absolutely breath-taking

click on this link for the sneak preview http://www.studioimpressions.com.au/blog/loan-melvin-sneak-peek-wedding-slideshow/

but before that, crazy photos from the photo booth which photos tickled me to no end

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Bali Withdrawal

2012 has been a year of travelling highs... from Aussie land to Shanghai to Japan and the latest Bali. Everyone usually associates Bali to be a place of sand, sea, water sports, babi guling... basically a land of calm indulgence. However, for me, Bali is the place where my cousins all get married at. We've been blessed to own a villa in legian as well as a bed and breakfast which were closed for a weekend in order to cope with the influx of family all congregating to celebrate the union of my cousin, Melvin and his gorgeous wife (& a new addition to the family) Loan.

It's been quite a few years since we've last had an excuse to fly in all the same time so it was an event all the cousins were looking forward to especially since we all live in different countries now. Ce Michelle and Loan's efforts made the weekend extra special and basically nothing short of epic. Dinner on Friday involved tea ceremony and then it was a pre-wedding gathering/dinner at Villa de Daun catering both local baliness food as well as a touch of Vietnamese food to reflect Loan's heritage. During this time, lots of catching up was done, good food consumed, Jason got to show off his sleek dance moves and Matthew gave us a preview of his voice... which he performed and sang during the wedding dinner.

Melvin's one half of an awesome brand, Song for the Mute and like his siblings... everything he offers is amazing. I'm just waiting for him to start a girl's collection so that i can start purchasing stuff. Lucky for me, he had a pair of pants i really liked on hand, and since he's so small, i could fit so not only did i get a scarf, i got a 2nd item from this brand too! finally....

our villa...

then Saturday rolled around...
it was off to Conrad for the wedding ceremony, dinner, after party, and after party debacle

both the bride and groom looked simply amazingly gorgeous

after the ceremony, we all got to let go white balloons

this was us 6 years ago at Melvin's sister's wedding

and us now

all the boys have grown up... now everyone alot fatter bigger than me and it's just great that even though we've all gotten older, living in different continents, some things just dont change

unfortunately it rained on us, but right after the ceremony... so dinner was adjorned to the ballroom. the mc for the night was pretty cute but most of all, he did a great job keeping things light and entertaining while thinking on his feet. i do need to get tips from him for future references

but back in the ballroom... the weather definitely did not damper our festive mood as we ate, made merry and moved on to the speeches. as the best man, matthew performed wonderfully strumming his guitar and singing and a very touching speech to cap it off. the after party started with Leo, Melvin's latest friend which had a great story behind their friendship. Leo was the "basker" melvin had hired from performace school in Paris to sing Loan's favourite tunes in one of the parks in Paris so that he could go on one knee and propose. Leo came all the way from London to join in the festivities, perform and send his wishes to the couple. also on stage that night were other friends from the aus band, bricks of berlin... they too are my new favourites. once all the formalities were over, the bar opened and let's just say it was an epic night, i did not will forever remember haha

these were photos mainly from my camera and i cant wait to see the official ones which i wouldnt doubt would be great.

even after a week... everyone's still sending out new fb updates on how much bali is missed and just looking through the photos, it was definitely #1 on my wedding ratings. the pple, the atmosphere, the cousins, the parents willingness to let us get absolutely thrashed, the stories of the night, the friends made, everything just came together so well, it made bali amazingly epic and even that doesn't do the job. after such a high, missing all these people makes life in sg a little mundane and sad. it will take another wedding for it to happen again and as much as i hope it won't take another 5/6 years for someone else to get married, i'm essential next! pressure's on to really just find someone coz topping this would be very difficult haha

to the new couple and my awesome cousins
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Naima & Kona

my good friend in LA, nic recently adopted 2 Tamaskans and i think they are absolutely beautiful
Wolfies&Cookies

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an Epic trip to Japan

last week, work brought be to Tokyo and my colleague, J and i decided to take this opportunity to explore the city. it's been 2 years since i last went but it was her first time so it was great just being able to walk around the same places once again. the weather was fantastic! nice and cool, even though we had quite a bit of rain, it definitely did not damper our mood. having taken the red-eye, day 1 was spent very out of it, but we did manage to make our way down to sadaharu aoki... they've gotten smaller at midtown, no longer serving their awesome matcha or sandwiches but desserts were as good as remembered. as always our eyes were larger than our tummy :)

just some photos from the afternoon, having to take breaks at starbucks in need of caffine

the table across had tiffany's bags under them, it was very funny coz it was definitely not from a shopping trip.

dinner was off to my favourite udon place! waited awhile for the specified seats but totally worth it :)

harajuku and yoyogi park

a wall full of ipads in one of the stores on otomesando hills

after a quick trip to isetan at shinjuku and getting lost in their massive food hall, k brought us to a remote neighbourhood restaurant serving japanese pancakes. it was my first time having it and it was awesome!

we left k to order for us as obviously j and i cldnt speak japnese and he did well. i dont really remember what he ordered but both came out great. for dessert we had traditional mochi and it's not what we're used to here in sg... it was served with gula melaka equivalent and possibly ground peanut on the top... it was really yummy i cld have eaten it all by myself if i wasnt stuffed frm the pancakes

then it was back to the hotel as j and i were planning to see the fish auction bright and early (well maybe not so bright just yet) but definitely crazy early at tsukiji market we actually woke up at 320 and made our way by 4? we made the 1st group of entry!

rows and rows of frozen salmon!!!!

then it was off to sushi dai for breakfast

dinner that day was more japanese food. a sweet friend took us out near our hotel and introduced us to good sake

my local colleagues were great and brought us out the next night.... it was off to find some ninjas!

with free flow sake and wine and beer... the night ended at the karoake room nearby. an absolutely crazy night :)

our search for shabu shabu brought us to shibuya

looking out for our 1michelin star tempura restaurant in roppongi hills before heading off to ghibli museum (we ended with their yummy milk ice cream!) and then it was yakitori night near ginza :)

lunch at the long awaited quintessence was just simple and great. service was by nobuo a very sweet jap guy who spent time in france and the chef was a really cute guy who can't quite speak english.

it was chef's omakase of 3 starters, 2 main and 2 desserts

it started with a warm soup made from local veg and iberico ham

a very simple clean dish of locally sourced goats milk, olive oil from spain with fleur de sel and i believe local onions

beer breaded unagi and artichoke with a califlower (im guessing here as i forgot what it was) foam

a perfectly cooked red snapper with garlic and mushroom, mushroom sauce and lady's finger. the skin of the snapper was first fried to make it crisp and then placed in high temp oven for about 10 mins before moving to a lower temp oven

a fatty piece of wonderful pork oven baked over and over again with mushroom sauce, a little risotto and local potatoes

pineapple tart top with really nice coconut cream

lunch ended with the chef's famous meringue icecream with caramel mist. it was amazing. it tasted like a light melty meringue. totally worth the calories and force feeding myself after all that food

Quintesssence should have had it's own blog post by itself really. a must-go when i go back next time

i also managed to catch up with min this trip.... she's just moved to tokyo and it was great seeing her for a quick coffee in ginza :)

this trip to tokyo was nothing short of amazing... j and i got to try gonpachi (where kill bill was filmed) and the food there was surprisingly good for a tourist spot and we got to eat at those instant ramen places where we had to pick our food from the vending machine before heading in. very very cool. got to meet some really cool people along the way too. hope to head back there soon... as this trip ends, the reality of having to loose everything i consumed there sets in. i guess going for more yoga classes would offset me gg out as im seriously broke now haha

missing all in tokyo
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