Very Important Lunches

I'm back by popular demand! ;p I jest ;p Received 2 feedback from my friends over lunch asking for updates to my blog (think they are just being kind;p) so impressionable me is back to blogging again. Just a short one though ;p Catch a few minutes after lunch ;) Must say that I've not eaten at this speed in a long time. Lunching with 7 guys is really quite a challenge!

As some of you may know, I'm moving from one phase of my life to another phase of my life soon (a bit of an exxageration..but somewhat true).

To mark the completion of my current posting, I have embarked on a culinary trail around my current workplace. Have pre-planned my lunch menu for 3 weeks. Gotten a bunch of 3 other "accomplices" ;p Just to ensure that I will get to finish eating all my favourite food around the area before I move off to my new/old place ;)

Monday marks the beginning of Kestrel's culinary trail :) We braved the heavy downpour to make our way to Chin Chin at Purvis st (hope I got it right) for hainanese porkchops ;) Yum yum. Picture attached ;)

Tuesday was lunch at Sushi Tei. A treat - courtesy of my lunch "accomplices" ;p So sweet of them :) Took a nice pic of them as well :)

The trail will continue come next Monday....probably around the Circular Road area. Readers, if you are interested to join, please let me know ;p

Holding Hands

Hehz. Another of my misleading titles? Read on.


First thing first, would like to say my thanks to quintessence and stardust979 for the ever engaging exchange of comments to my posting on "Daisy" ;p Thanks a lot for "boosting the "readership of my blog"(quintessence exact words) hehz.


Would also like to welcome a new reader to my blog, codename warren foo ;p Thanks for the encouragement and compliments! Kestrel will endeavour to blog more!!



Got this very nice pic from The Ugly Betty Blog http://blogs.indiewire.com/uglybetty/archives/hands.JPG
was thinking it would be a good complement to today's blog :)

Got inspired this afternoon while on my way to buy lunch back to office. It was a rainy and gloomy day. So I guess it's not too difficult to imagine me, armed with a big umbrella, walking gingerly in my heels, avoiding puddles along the way.

Saw this middle-aged couple (probably in their 50s) in front of me. The husband was holding on to his wife's arm as she kept her wet umbrella, to prevent her from slipping while walking on the wet steps. After the couple had kept their umbrellas, they proceeded to hold hands on their way to the eatery. I was right behind them. Somehow or other, I found the back view of the couple holding hands, making their way to something as mundane as lunch oddly touching. Hard to explain. yeah. Kestrel is a romantic at heart. Coupled with the rainy weather outside. It just felt rather heartwarming. hehz.

In any case, I did a quick search on google on holding hands after lunch and found the following amazing facts that I thought I'll share with all of you. Reinforces my romantic notion that handholding is good hehz

Do you know.....
a) holding hands may help to reduce stress?
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20061220/holding-hands-may-reduce-stress

b) Hand-holding is the one aspect that’s not been affected by the sexual revolution,” found this lovely article from the NY Times. quite an interesting read
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/fashion/05hands.html?pagewanted=1&en=df52753c074593e8&ei=5088&ex=1317700800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Last but not least, some trivia and techniques that came out from the google search, hehz. For your interested folks out there..
Top 10 ways to hold hands
http://www.romancetracker.com/top-10-ways-to-hold-hands-with-your-sweetheart/

Slowest ever

Once again, it's rainy weather and I am back early in office from my lunch break. Thought I'll just update my blog..had some fun reading the different kinds of comments I've been having on my blog ;p

Just completed the AHM (Army Half Marathon) or now known as the Singapore Bay Run on sunday. (I was already thinking about blogging this halfway thru the run hehz)

*have added a picture of my finisher medals for the 3 AHMs that I've completed*

New route this year...same starting point, longer route in ECP and ending at the floating platform at Marina Bay. Unfortunately, it was my slowest ever half marathon. Am a full 10 mins slower than my timing for last year, which is absolutely demoralising. In my 3 years of running, this was the longest that I've ever taken for a half marathon. Am trying to attribute it to the congested running lanes in ECP (longer route there, means I get stuck at a slower pace for a longer stretch ;p), starting 5 mins from the start line and perhaps a wrong strategy of going too slow in the first 10km. Wanted to try a new approach this year i.e. to run at a slower pace for the first 10km..conserve energy..such that I will not slow down exponentially by too much towards the last 5 km....

Had a really leisurely and happy first 10km..was merrily past the 1 hr mark after 10 km...but the pace started to slow and get congested in the middle of ECP..that's when I really start to tire and feel frustrated...keeping pace with the people around me feels kinda slow..but to constantly overtake others saps up a lot of my energy..so I was really really tired by the time we turned out of ECP eventually. Muscles were horrible fatigued and close to cramping by the 15km mark....kept reminding myself that I shouldn't slow down to walk...tried to speed up to prevent the cramps from developing. Didn't want to stop. Sprinted at traffic junctions so that I will not have to stop at the red lights.....

Made beelines for the drinks station that serves isotonic drinks (cos salt is suppose to help prevent cramping)

Oh, I should really emphasise that getting drinks at runs like that requires some form of strategy and technique. Let me explain. The drinks stations tend to consist of several tables laid out with drinks. Most runners will tend to aim for the first table for the drinks. Hence, a lot of people will congregate at the first table. If you are running for timing, don't want to queue for the drinks or crash into people who grab their drinks and dash off from the drinks stations, always head for the middle or last few tables of the drinks station ;p Less of a hassle. Don't have to fight with people for drinks. At places like that, it's always every man and woman for him/herself. All the stuff about "ladies-first" are never observed. I've had to jostle with many guys for my drinks, or endure getting elbowed at drinks station at runs like that;p Last but not least, it's always rather hazardous at drinks station. One always run the risk of getting hit by cups thrown by other runners, tripped by cups/ bottles (if they serve the drinks in bottles) on the lanes closest to the drinks station. So gotta be real careful around there;p

Back to my run. Had to endure the last 6km..before getting fooled by the finishing line banner outside the stadium, only to realise that it's not the end, and we still had to turn into the stadium itself to reach the finishing line. Found the energy to sprint into the stadium eventually..just for some face-saving grace arghz. Was wearing a red running cap which really helped. My friends spotted me running in from the grandstand and were waving madly to me. So it was easy to meet up with them to just complain about my performance after the run hehz ;p

Next run coming up. Shape Run - For women's only. Gotta put in a better performance. Am looking forward to the goody bag ;p At least, I won't be getting magazines like Men's Health again ;p I hope they give me some spa vouchers :)

Daisy

pictures downloaded from www.daisy2006.com

hehz. thought I'll do a short blog in response to stardust979's comments.

Yes. the movie that I was talking about is Daisy - a korean movie.

Quite a beautiful but sad movie...the kind that leaves one with lingering afterthoughts...always the "whys" and the "what ifs" in life.....would have loved to discuss the movie in detail.......

I find the classical piano pieces that were used in the movie hauntingly familiar. Think I've played that particular song before...shall go digging through my piano scores to find out more.

Stardust, can you recognise which pieces those are? Sounds to me like they are from either the romantic or classical era...definitely not baroque...chopin or schubert?...I can't quite put my finger on it......and can't figure out from the korean website....

Flowers and their meanings

It's one of those "off" days...packed lunched back to office to eat while surfing the usual blogs that I read...am rather cheered by 2 friends' blog...

1) to know that one friend is making good progress in her running :); and

2) to read about the cute antics that my friend has been up to with her new baby. New mums are usually very trigger happy. Readers like myself never fail to be cheered by the pictures of the cherub's rosy pink smiling/ sleeping face or wrinkled crying face. It's such a joy to see pictures of babies who are always naturals in front of cameras, absolutely photogenic. No pretenses and poses.



Was watching a DVD on Friday night. About a killer, a detective and their common love interest, a painter. Movie was shot in Amsterdam and played around the central theme of "daisies" - which in the movie stands for "hidden love". Whenever there was a job for the killer, he would notified via a pot of black tulips that was left on his doorstep. A pretty moving love story..but really rather sad..

*pause* went to rescue 2 colleagues who were caught in the rain. Now back to continuing before I start work again.

Following the movie, thought I'll do a google on flowers and their meanings and share it with you folks.

Baby's Breath: Innocence Begonia: A fanciful nature
Carnation-red: Alas poor heart Carnation-pink: I'll never forget you
Chrysanthemum-yellow: Slighted love Daffodil: Regard, You are the only one
Daisy: Gentleness, Innocence, Loyalty and Romance
Forget Me Not: Faithful Love, Undying Hope, Memory, Do Not Forget
Lavender: Loyalty Lily-white: Sweetness
Lily of the Valley: Humility, Sweetness, Return of Happiness
Rose, Red: Love and Desire
Rose-single red: I Love You
Sunflowers: Pride
Tulip: Love and Passion Tulip-red: Declaration of love

On hindsight, I recall getting a sunflower bouquet from a friend when I had a really bad fall and was limping around in office. The sunflower definitely cheered me up. I guess we do need to have some pride to pick ourselves up after a bad fall.

Looking at the meaning of Lilies, I guess I can better appreciate the use of lilies in wedding bouquets. Some of my really sweet friends do love their lilies.

A purely platonic friend once bought me two of my favourite flowers for my birthday. On reading this, I guess we will both chuckle and be glad that he bought the pink version and not the red version.

Coming of Age

Happy National Day! :) (I bet there are many blogs which start with similar words today ;p)

Went for 2 old friends' house-warming (well, they married each other ;p) today. Basically, all of us drove our own vehicles and converged at their place. For the infrequent drivers like myself, we got lost along the way, but eventually found our way there ;p Similarly, when we left the place, well, 2 of us left together, and followed each other's car to find our way out of the suburban maze in the west back home to the north ;p

Just a sudden realisation while driving back. In the past, all of us would have arranged to meet at the MRT station and walked to our friends' place together. With the coming of age, most of us are lucky enough to acquire a set of wheels, or have the means to gain access to loan a set of wheels. We don't really have to car-pool that much these days. (Hmmz. Maybe there's scope to be more environmentally concious ;p) We trail each other along the same routes in separate vehicles instead of taking the same vehicle. What a stark contrast.

The things that come with the coming of age...

Everything in Its Time

It's been a while since my last entry.

Hehz. been sorely tempted to leave single liners like "Kestrel is busy figuring out what shape her petronaus will take - maybe the shape of the gryphon ;p" *lousy joke huhz*

But then again, I decided it's probably not worth it to leave such lousy one liners. Ok. Maybe I was just too lazy and too caught up with reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the nights. The crack at the gryphon was more because of the 10th anniversary at my old JC that I attended last sunday and also the gryphon theme that I got for my handphone yesterday. Courtesy of aadvark ;p

Attended Corrinne May's concert at UCC yesterday evening. I've been a fan of hers right from the very beginning. Quite proud of the fact. :) I can still remember first seeing her perform at Fort Canning. In the days before the release of her first album. Was very impressed by her voice, songs and the sight of her strumming her guitar on stage. V country and indie style. Simply loved it. Following that, I guess I was behaving v much like a teenaged fan. I actually turned up for her next performance at Borders. Apparently I was caught on camera and this clip played over and over again on Arts Central. Didn't even know about it till my colleagues told me ;p Since then, I've continued being a fan. Buying her CDs and attending both her concerts at UCC.

Back to talking about the concert. As always, Corrinne delivered a wonderful soulful performance. The combination of piano, keyboard, strings, guitars and drums coupled with her vocals packs a solid punch. Though I gotta say that I seem to have a preference for songs from her older albums instead of the new. Nonetheless, the songs never fail to tug at my heartstrings. Yeah, I spent the first half of the concert feeling rather emotional for some weird reasons. Maybe the music and the lyrics are just too good..

Thought I would share one of my favourite Corrinne May songs with you guys :) Rather like the lyrics...about how Everything has its own time...


E V E R Y T H I N G I N I T S T I M E
Written by Corrinne May Ying Foo & Carole Bayer Sager
Copyright 2001 Corrmay Gourmet Music (ASCAP) / All About Me
Music adm. by Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI)

Sometimes I wonder what lies ahead
How long till my hunger is fed
They say it's hard to make it in this part of town
So many people on this merry-go-round

Some folks try astrology
Some turn to crystal balls
To find an answer,
To get through it all
I just fall on my knees and I try to pray
In the silence I can hear Him say

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time

I often feel like I'm two steps behind
Somebody must have moved that finish line
There are a thousand reasons
Why I should give up
But I'm stubborn in the things I believe

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign

'cause maybe there's another plan
One I still can't see
A little surprise, like your love in my life
Funny how time changes how we see

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time
Everything in its time