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Archive for April, 2009

Great end to April ^^

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

As I alluded to a couple of posts ago, April has been even crazier this year (you see, April has always been a busy one for us). In spite of it all, I always look forward to April and it’s not just because we get a zillion public holidays (although we were cheated out of one this year), it is more so because April is a month full of my favourite people’s birthdays, including yours truly – moi.

After going to the incu party at the Australian Museum last night (great one too!), we retired early and hoped to be up for the first moments of my 33th year, but alas, we fell asleep six minutes prior to midnight!!!

Tats from the “ink u” bar at the incu party 29.4.09

Thank you all for your well wishes via texts, emails, facebook and phone calls.

Hugs x

Tags: April, birthdays, incu, ink u, tattoo
Posted in Blah blah blah | 2 Comments »

新祕 Michelle

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

I realised a few nights ago that apart from booking the banquet venue in Taipei, I’ve done absolutely NOTHING! Given it’s only six months away I thought it’s about time I look at having someone do my hair and make up (at the minimum) to ensure I look decent on the night!! Anyhoooo, of course I had no idea where to begin so I sought the advice of my dear cousin, Julia, who is super in tune with what’s going on in Taiwan despite being based in LA.

It was after reading her long email of advice that I realised that in Taiwan, there is a profession called 新娘祕書 or shortened (as everything is in Taiwan) to 新祕 - literally translated as 新娘 (bride) 祕書 (secretary). But no, technically they aren’t a bride’s secretary per se, more like a bride stylist. And guess what, not surprisingly, 新祕 is huge business in Taiwan!! You see, despite Julia’s recommendations, I got curious and decided to google for more, and wow, there were heaps more!! But being a bit ‘uncertain’ of stylised brides, I was a bit hesitant to go with ones that weren’t on my cus’ recommended list - after all, I could turn out to be an Asian teen pop singer with blings in my hair and multi-coloured makeup so I decided to stay safe, and went with Michelle (well, deposit to be paid, but she’s free on 14 Nov).

There are some galleries of her works (or visit her blog) and I must admit, some are a bit ‘much’! hahah.. but I am confident that at least my dresses won’t be so fancy and so hopefully my ’style’ won’t be too over-the-top. I think it’s kind of fun - I just hope I don’t end up a total joke!! mmmmm… sure will be interesting!!

Thanks Julia for your help! x

Tags: stylist, 新娘祕書, 新祕
Posted in All things Taiwan, Wedding | No Comments »

Marque

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Ben took me to Marque on Saturday night for my birthday. Why Marque? Because he knows I love French and Marque is a recent 3-hatter

No photos were taken apart from this of me with my pre-dessert.

Marque only offers a 8-course degustation menu on Saturday evenings, which is fine by us because tasting menus allow us to sample the ‘best’ a restaurant has to offer and we enjoy taking the time to eat.

All the Marque dishes were very adventurous and creative with an interesting blend of flavours, textures and colours. Overall, the dishes were good but we must confess, we thought they were all a bit over-the-top (I guess as with all things, we prefer things nice and simple). Each dish had so many different tastes that while they didn’t contradict each other, they didn’t fuse all that smoothly in the mouth either. At times, the tastes were so confusing and overwhelming we struggled to know what we were eating.

On the positive, one of our fave dishes of the evening was the cured ocean trout. The trout was juicy and was well complemented with a lemon and dill jelly which was certainly very interesting. We also loved the chef’s various purees, of which the cauliflower was certainly outstanding.

To call Marque food French is certainly a bit of a stretch as the entire meal tasted more modern Australian than even contemporary French (I suppose duck liver is pretty French though) but it was sure an experience and we applaud the chefs for their innovation and the staffs’ superb service.

Degustation meal $145
With matching wine $75
Cheese dish is optional so only go for it if you enjoy your cheese. Ben had the goat cheese with rhubarb.

Tags: birthday dinner, degustation, French food, Marque
Posted in We heart FOOD! | No Comments »

Little visitors

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Life has become so crazy lately with lots outings, visitors and just when we feel like we’ve caught up with life, we have fallen a few steps behind again .. arrrgh ;p

My matron of honour, Lucy, and her little boy and girl were in town last week (they’ve since left and I miss them dearly).. Anyway, it was so great to have Lucy here. We spent a late night over creme brulee tea and chocolate cake talking about how we can get the tailor to make the bridesmaid dresses.. Sorry if it sounds a little too petty to bring up but it was not the talk as such but more the process of how we just chatted (even if it was about dresses) and threw ideas at each other and sometimes, I really miss that. You know, having a good friend on the same wave length who you can just bounce ideas off? This may sound trivial, but sometimes such trivial things are the most cherished.

Anyhooo, it was so good to see little Ethan (our page boy) and his sister, Charlotte. Kids grow up too quickly for my liking but it was so much fun interacting with the little kiddos, they are so carefree and each with such different characters and temperaments. Seeing the Ho siblings makes me think about how our kids will turn out. Gosh, I wish they take after Ben’s gentle temperament and not my bull-like stubbornness! Ha!

Tags: charlotte, Lucy, visit
Posted in Family & friends | No Comments »

Another thing sorted

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

We have to really thank Sussan for videography. Her extraordinary spreadsheet, detailed with comprehensive costing and inclusions, a true masterpiece, was wonderfully helpful. Of course, she is so organised she had all the reels too, which she generously passed on for our information - such a sweetheart!! THANK YOU!

We weren’t set on having a videographer (gasp** gasp**) - I mean, photos are what most people look at right? But we were easily swayed when a friend said that as the couple on the big day, it’s very easy to miss many other special moments that happen on the side. Plus, photos of speeches would be exactly that, still images rather than animated speeches full of joy and laughter. We were sold. We just needed to find a supplier.

White is the supplier we engaged. Reasons? First, we like their style, especially their unobstrusive approach that they so clearly value and heavily promoted as something that sets them apart from their peers. Leigh is also a very professional lady who knows what she’s talking about and best of all, they are able to prioritise the production of our DVDs so that we can show our guests in Taipei a five minute reel of our big day in Sydney. Oh and they also filmed Guy Sebastian’s wedding.. oh la la.. **Rolls eyes** ^^

Tags: film, videography, White
Posted in Wedding | 1 Comment »

Where to?

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

We thought we’d make up for a lack of posts in recent weeks with a double punch this week, and of course to wish you all a very Happy Easter!

The ‘pretty beach house’ was sent to me by one of our staff, little Charmaine. And wow, it is not just a “pretty” beach house, it’s uber luxurious with an equally astounding price tag to boot. Thanks Charmaine, but when are we ever going find the time to go there? Well, mmm.. there is always the HONEYMOON!!! ^^

It’s quite timely because we have been faced with the “where are you guys going for your honeymoon” question quite a fair bit in the past few weeks. So where we hear you ask.. To be honest, we’ve not really thought about it (shock horror… ), actually, that’s not technically true as we have thought that maybe we could honeymoon in Hawaii or for some reason, maybe the Greek islands. Then we thought maybe we can check out Korea after our Taipei reception. Now, we are thinking maybe like a hot spring in Nikko… But all talk, no action! Ok, again that’s not technically true either - we’ve looked into some but nothing has really grabbed us to the point where we think WE MUST, but there are quite a few that are looking interesting, whether it be in Australia or Japan. Yes, we obviously need to do more research and venture beyond our comfort zones!! Any suggestions?

Pretty Beach House

Spa resort - Hakone Ginyu

This is quite fun - Paperbark Camp

Tags: Honeymoon, Travel
Posted in Travel | 1 Comment »

Hosts of our wedding reception

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

We actually confirmed these two beautiful people’s availabilities much earlier in the year, so I apologise for not sharing sooner – me bad!

Geeyoun Kim
The lovely Geeyoun! We are so pleased to have Geeyoun as one of our MCs. I met Geeyoun ‘officially’ in the year of our Masters studies back in 1998 (10+ years ago!) I say ‘officially’ because we did the SAME course in university but we never attended the same class and we both do not recall having ever seen each other before our Masters year - I refer to those as the wasted years because Geeyoun is the fun-est girl ever and I can’t believe I missed out on three years of Geeyoun fun! Geeyoun has always been the most supportive friend and one whose words are always comforting and wise. Being a successful marketer, she’s also very creative, super organised and thoughtful so we are 110% certain she will be FABULOUS in her MC role - we can’t wait!!

Andy Wang
Ah, Mr Wang.. or fondly referred to as duldul (or dad). Andy is an incredible guy, who often describes himself as someone who is ultra daggy but don’t put yourself down duldul, you are tonnes of fun and totally daggy in a very cool way! LOL. I first met Andy back in high school but didn’t get to know him well until university where we shared quite a number of classes. You may not believe this but Andy is a seasoned wedding MC (see how popular he is!!!) so we were mighty pleased when he said YES to our request (I know he prefers to just enjoy the night without the hosting responsibilities so we are doubly thankful for his generosity.)

THANK YOU ANDY AND GEEYOUN! You guys totally rock and we are so sure you will make our night super special.

WE LOVE YOU! x

Tags: Andy, Geeyoun, hosts, MCs
Posted in Family & friends, Wedding | No Comments »