New year, new look

New Year. Time to present to the world with a better version of me -

New hair, new clothes and a renewed resolve to conquer the world in my 5 inch heels, among other things. Hee

You know how the Chinese always pray for a good year ahead, failing which they will spend the year quivering in fear avoiding water, marriage, and women with surnames beginning with "P" or "L" or "C".

But I choose to believe that life is given to those who take it.

I had a hell of a 2010 defined by memories of me beating incredible odds, meeting incredible people, learning incredible things, finding incredible luck, feeling incredibly dejected, behaving like an incredible asshole and getting incredibly drunk.

And such is life.

So come 2011, who knows what I'll learn, which new places I'll visit and what opportunities might come knocking on my door. But whatever it is, 2011, I am coming straight at you.

And perhaps, just perhaps, this year, I will take a leap of faith.

Square-necked "Audrey Dress" in Grey from Sophisticate @ 51 Telok Ayer Street #01-05 Singapore.

CNY promotion at Sophisticate boutique from now till CNY. 10% off 2nd item, 15% off 3rd item. Exclusively manufacture, limited pieces available (only 2 - 3 per size, per design).

When I grow up...

I want to have an awesome Executive Biography.

It would be completed with an orchestrated smile, airbrushed skin and a lofty title.

But I will write myself the awesome Executive Biography.

Because of late, I've been scarred from reading the Executive Biographies of many Senior Executives, that are written by outsourced professionals with a misguided sense of humour.

• Some are empty-caloried fluff; others are so mindnumbingly technical that I'd rather read Sumiko's Sunday columns.
• Some develop the kind of creative conflict within the bio that makes the Sino-Japanese relationship look like a pillow fight.
• Some come with personal pledge creation like "My Personal Motto is Ever Onward!"
• Some so disturbingly personal that I won't be surprise to learn from the bio that the Executive uses Herbal Essences Shampoo and goes for bikini waxing twice a month.

Onsen

You can Onsen with your mother

if you can accept that nakedness is just a state of being.

And it really helps if you are extremely short-sighted.

@ Toya-ko

Snow capped town

Just outside our cottage - Log Yukari

Ningle Terrace - 1km from the cottage

白い雪が街を染める頃にも
君の側にいさせて
私これからも
困らせてばかりかもしれないけど

白い雪が溶けて街が
鮮やかに彩られる頃も
こうして君の事が大事で仕方ない私でいたい

XOXO,

Isabelle

Fall is the season for Hairy Crabs

Fall means different things to different people, the crisp air, the turning leaves, Halloween, and if you're really lucky, pneumonia. It's also the time when even I have the common sense to put some cloth over my bare shoulders and swap my tank tops for a cable sweater.

To the Shanghainese, Fall is the season for eating hairy crabs.

I have always assumed that the Shanghainese' love for hairy crabs, like their obsession with powerpoint presentations and their preference for women with hairy armpits, was just part of the many fascinating and complex cultural traits that a Singaporean like me will never understand.

I was in Shanghai in October, when the palm-sized crustaceans with bushy claws from the Yangcheng river matured, and I witnessed how the city went wild with cheer after 8 months of anticipation. There wasn't a chinese restuarant who didn't offer this not-to-be-missed delicacy.

Served with chopped ginger and vinegar, the hairy crab is prized for its rich and creamy orange-coloured roe. A lot of effort is spent shucking open the shell to suck out the roe, and the meat though sweet, it is thin. Bad ROI if you ask me.

But savour it with a group of friends over a few rounds of Chinese wine or sherry, it's not hard to see why they make a culture of gathering together each year during fall to have hairy crabs.

Sometimes it's easy to overlook simple joys like the change in season. And perhaps Fall is simply the season to celebrate friendship.

I'll be back before the winter chills. Till then ~

Blue is the colour of Good Taste

Ariel: Have you ever seen anything so beautiful in your entire life?
Flounder: Wow, but umm what is it?

Ariel: I don't know
Scuttle: It's a dinglehopper!

(excerpt from Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid)

Who said that money cannot buy happiness doesn't know where to shop.

Some styles are timeless; some colours become legendary.

Nothing sings pretty like a lil' something from the trademark blue box.

But nothing excites me more than a thoughtful gift that captures the pulse of my personal and professional life.

Mr Robin Egg Blue is a passport holder

(Although The Little mermaid and her silly little friends wouldn't know what it is)

And the prettiest one I've ever seen.

Besides what better way to brighten the day of overworked immigration officers at airports

than a dash of colour and a bit of stylish inspiration from NY's Fifth Avenue.

Bangkok - The land of unexpected adventures

Thailand is a land of smiles for tourists, and they say that if you know how to exercise your tourist rights, you'll never be bored or alone. Whether you are revelling in the company of with a bewitchingly beautiful woman with a strangely deep voice, or feasting on authentic Tom Yam Gung, more often than not, a traveller would stumble upon an adventure that wasn't quite planned.

Now, there is no better way to experience Bangkok than to take its mass transit system or the BTS. In fact, it is the best way about Bangkok, because one would have to be living in Siberia for the past decade to not have heard of the famed rush hour traffic jam that makes double boiling chinese soup seem like fast food.

So it all started with me losing my way after I alighted at the Chidlom BTS Station.

I must have looked really sweaty and lost in my 4 inch spikes and black Karen Millen dress after walking for about 300 meters in the Bangkok humidity, when a guy stopped me in my tracks with a smile playing at the corner of his lips. He is clearly not local.

"Hey beautiful, whatcha doin? Are you lost? Where you from?" he asked with a thick accent that I couldn't quite place.

I stared at him dumfounded. English-speaking people are really rare in this country and when you see one, the last thing you want to do is to say something dumb and fuck up your chance of ever finding your way around.

"Yes I'm a bit lost. can you please point me to Ploenchit Road?"

"Yes, I'm lost, can you point me to Ploenchit Road?" he mimicked.

"I'm sorry? Do you or do you not know?" I quizzed, my annoyance slightly rising. There I was, late, lost and alone with this dude who was obviously trying to be funny.

"I'm sorry? Do you or do you not know?" he mimicked again.

Annoyed, I threw my hands up in annoyance and tried to turn my heels to walk off, but he blocked my way and pressed on, "Hey beautiful, follow me I know the place that you want to go, follow me. Cmon, follow me. Are you going for a meeting? Can I sit beside you and watch you?"

"I want to follow you wherever it is - this place that you are going to", he urged.

This time, I was completely creeped out.

If it wasn't because he look like he is well-versed in tribal warfare and could probably outrun an Olympic runner, I might have unleashed my unfiled fingernails on his face or sprinted off in my 4 inch heels. But no, he looked like he could out-wrestled me even in a clown suit.

So being brilliant at figuring out situations like this, I did what any intelligent woman would do when faced with a confrontational man: I pretended to have period cramps and demanded that he help me to purchase a pack of sanitary pad from the nearest convenience stall.

So there I was standing in the middle of the road doubled over, clutching my lower abdomen in mock pain and shouting, "Quick, go get the Kotex pads with wings! I can't move, it's too painful!"

Needless to say, he was not amused. Barely a minute into my acting, he muttered a "dumb bitch!" and strode away, as if the episode never happened.

The moment he turned his heels, I straightened up, finger-combed my sweat streaked hair and sashayed towards the nearest building to get guidance to my destination.