Hello, Kitty!

The cutest

My girlfriends are the best - not only do they tolerate my very frivolous and bimbo side, they often indulge it. 

Case in point, dear J gleefully made sure she passed these cute saucers to me before I headed out for the holiday. "Something random and fun! I saw these and I KNEW I had to get them for you." she grinned. 

I unwrapped the boxes and burst out laughing. Of course she had to - two cutest Hello Kitty ceramic saucers, that were just the right balance of cute but not tacky. The artwork was beautifully done and the saucers were well made too. 

When I asked her what the Japanese script on them meant, she deliberately did a Google image translation to show me. Literally "Hello, Kitty". LOL. I was so amused. 

Took these plates out on the first day of LNY, to have a piece of pineapple tart, and one almond cookie. I'm not usually one to have sweets for breakfast, but these were surprisingly not cloyingly so, and perfect with a cuppa Americano. :)

Blends right in with my home decor

Sunny day in Yangmingshan | 艳阳天，游阳明山

It was nice to see that Murphy (or the weather god) wasn't completely heartless and blessed us with a full day of sunshine. So off to Yangmingshan we bounded. It was a gloriously sunny day, so bright I had to edit my pictures as they all turned out overexposed, and so hot that I was sweating and walking around unglamly with my leather jacket over my head as shelter from the sun. Oof.

Still, it was a good, good day. : )

Pretty blooms.

Dainty blossoms against that blue sky.

A stolen moment. Sweet love.

Blinding sun

A happy dog

Smokey and pungent

Perspective

Vacation time!

Off to a much needed short week away!

As the plane took off, I gazed out at the lovely tufts of fluff amidst those gorgeous blue, and breathed a sigh of relief. This is really happening. A trip that at one point was under a potential threat of being cancelled. Thank goodness it all worked out and I was still able to proceed without having to resort to any fights (verbal ones of course, I'm a lady, okay).

Looking forward to reacquainting myself with this city that I had last and first visited over a decade ago. Then, it was actually the height of summer, and as much as the city charmed, the heat and humidity which I was too familiar with put quite a dent in the experience. This time around, the weather promises to be much chillier, hovering between the high 10s and low 20s on average. Whee!! Can't wait, and even the forecast of rain doesn't dampen (LOL) my enthusiasm. I've packed my nifty cool weather gear, and my trusty umbrella. In the worst case scenarios, am sure we can duck into malls or cafes to while our time away watching the rain. No bother at all, we are on vacation, but not in a rush, and are happy to just see and visit what we can, in our time.

So hello Taipei, it's nice to see you again. It wasn't love at first sight, but I have good feeling that second impressions will be better. Let's see. :)

Sunday gym date

Gotta say I'm really enjoying the gf's new "cult" membership. Bright and early one Sunday morning, she and her partner came by and whisked me off to the gym since we were all intending to go for a workout at the same time that day.

Funnily enough, we strode into the gym together, then went our separate ways for our individual workouts - them to their respective aerial yoga and Powerplate classes, whereas I needed a hard-ish leg workout, something I tended not to have the luxury of time to do during the week. It always feels good to not have to rush through my session and feel like I've done enough to exert the muscles on all fronts for some proper DOMS to come.

Then some 1.5 hours later, we reconvened at the gym's lounge area, and proceeded to the basement for a quick lunch.

As much as I am used to my originating outlet for Virgin Active at Raffles Place, I really do enjoy this new Tanjong Pagar outlet. Not only is the space larger and more equipped, the shops and facilities in the spanking new Tanjong Pagar Centre is really quite a fun mix. It was such comfort to tuck into some hearty clam chowder at the Seattle Pike Chowder in the basement of the building after an all-out workout. Moreish and satisfying, it was just the right balance of saltiness and creaminess. According to J and D, who have tasted the real deal from the original shop in the States, it's pretty legit and a proper franchisee. Let's hope that this nifty outlet hangs around for a while more.

Thereafter, we adjourned to Jewel coffee upstairs for a lovely cuppa each, fortifying and reassuringly strong. Yumms. Being the all-out friends they are, they then dutifully gave me a lift back before going on their way home.

What an awesomely wholesome Sunday. Definitely looking forward to more of such healthy shenanigans! Hehehe. :D

My yummy chowder - no pics of gyms cos we are all serious athletes. Oof. :p

My new thing: swishy skirts

Our warm and humid climate here meant that I tend to shy away from wearing jeans or long dresses and skirts which just feel too heavy and even warmer than I can tolerate - I am one of those who is deathly heat-averse so I do everything I can to avoid getting sticky and sweaty when I'm out and about.

In the recent months however, I have taken a shine to swishy flowy skirts that make me feel like either an all-powerful witch or a dreamy princess, depending on the colour and design, hurhurhur. The light fabric makes it rather breezy to move about in while not getting more heated up than usual, and there's just something special about having those light swathes swish around my ankles and floating gently as I walk.

And so for lunar new year, I donned one for the second day. Wasn't about to chance wearing one when I had to commute a lot, so this was great for the day since the programme was only to visit the sister's renovated loft, then catch that awesome Aus Open final.

This was a particularly dreamy skirt that I had bought off some online shop and hoarded for months waiting for a right occasion and mood to wear, and that day was perfect for it. Paired it with one of my favourite easy white tops that matches nearly anything and just drapes flatteringly and comfortably. It was rather fun to prance around in it, even though I had to take care when going up the stairs to prevent my feet from getting caught in the overhanging fabric. Heh. It's a skirt that's not for the clumsy. :p

Pastels and polyester make a winning combo

Anti-gravity Yoga: Fun!

Happy space :D

The gym often feels like a giant playground to me, and this is one of the reasons why. Incidentally it was also a big pull factor when I decided to switch to this gym when I wanted to switch my membership.

I love, love, love this class - to me, it's reminiscent of various different activities, which are all fun stuff I enjoy doing. All while getting some strength training in. So much win. Yaay!

First off, it always reminds me of a super swing, which is also my playground fave, except you can do so much more, and it's considered working out.

And while it's technically a yoga class, it's much more dynamic in some ways than a regular practice. While I recognise the yoga postures that have been improvised to incorporate the use of the "hammock" to help you deepen your bends and stretches, the various inversions and flips actually reminded me of all the fun tricks we used to do back in my wild high school days - I say wild cos I was a tree-climbing, flip-around the parallel bar, tent-pitching Girl Guide - which just sounds like one of those uncivilised elf living in the woods. Heh.

The difference from then and now? Doing these flipping around now require much more strength from the arms, legs and core, since you are doing all these using a piece of cloth hooked to the ceiling. There were quite a few positions that can be a bit tricky to get into during the first attempts, and you really need your arm and core strength to hold yourself steady while manoeuvring into place. That awesome burn. 

Did I mention that all the poses sound super bad-ass as well? Superman, Bat, Queen Bee.. I can't help but grin and feel like a superhero when getting into these. Not forgetting the swinging using your core to balance, tummy down and using your arms and posture to propel you into bigger, higher swings. I was transported back to that exhilarating experience with the trapeze one holiday in Bintan some time back.

And that's why after every class, I walk out on a high, not sure if it's from all those inversions rushing blood to the brain, or just because it felt like a fun hour at an air-conditioned playground. Heh.

Either way, I'm definitely hooked. ;) Now to convince myself to set aside more time for this, despite the low caloric burn. Because it makes me a happy, happy girl. :D