Happy International Women's Day

To all the incredible, smart, and incredibly smart women in my life!
xx

Highlights from Singapore!

It's been more than five years since I was last in Singapore, and it was incredible how much the city had changed!

In 2007, the city was just preparing for its first Grand Prix; this time, the entire financial centre had changed and welcomed such megastructures as the Marina Bay Sands hotel (which has an incredible infinity pool more than 60 stores up) and the Supertrees — a lush, green attraction that's part of Gardens by the Bay — are drawing loads of tourists everyday.

Despite all the newness, though, I was still drawn to a few areas:

Little Tekka market in Little India. I LOVE this hawker centre - there's so much delicious food on offer  that it's difficult to choose just one dish! 

On our first visit to the market (we went back twice in four days), I settled on chicken rice. Yum.

The Indian gentleman at this crêpe shop some impressive facial hair! His crêpes were DELICIOUS - we ordered sweet ones (with sugar and bananas), but they're also yummy when eaten with a savoury, tomato curry-type dip.

Someone recently pointed out that Singaporeans are all about "drinks in bags". This is teh tarik in a cup, in a bag. Cold drinks come directly in a bag.

Dozens of sari (and other printed silk and cotton garments) vendors upstairs... love the colours!

We also explored Haji Lane, which is near the Tekka Market and full of independent boutiques selling unique clothing, accessories and household trinkets. 

 

I particularly liked this store, K.I.N., which stands for Know It Nothing and is "a multi label boutique" for men. 

It stocks a bunch of international brands like Gitman Vintage, Robert Geller, Norse Projects, as well as a good (very small) selection of magazines (I was pleased to see Hobo, which hails from Vancouver there) and some locally designed garments, too.

We bought a couple of these "Nasi Lemak" t-shirts by Nom Nom, a brand that "celebrates Singaporean food culture"... on shirts! I love nasi lemak. 

  

 

We also fell in love with this tiger rug from Nepal. It wasn't outrageously expensive (it cost SGD1000, which is about $800 or £500), and if we hadn't been off to Thailand and Myanmar next, I might have tried harder to convince Elliot that we needed it...

Next time... (If anyone is heading to Singapore and feels like bringing something back to London, let me know!)

A last look at Haji Lane.

A final highlight: a trip across the causeway to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, where we stopped for some bak kut teh before heading to the mall. 

A lot of Singaporeans head to Malaysia for shopping (the exchange rate works in their favour - so much so that the Singaporean government requires you to fill up your gas tank to a certain level prior to crossing the border to discourage people from going over just for petrol), which we did too, but the pork bone / spare rib soup at this little restaurant was the tastiest I've ever had and, on a trip full of incredible meals, still one of the most memorable!

Me too busy getting ready to eat to look up at the camera!

Tay sisters on vacation

Found these funny photos from my sister's visit to Mallorca (her and her boyfriend took a very welcome, three-week sojourn to Europe in the middle of their year-long tour of Africa).

Typical Tay sisters on vacation. :)

Mallorca, Trip 47: Es Trenc

After over two years of being in a long distance relationship between Europe and Canada, I moved to London... and Elliot and I are still doing the long distance thing. But hey, London is a hell of a lot closer to Ibiza/Mallorca (what's two hours compared to 11?), and really, there are worse places he could be based for me to visit. Many, many worse places.

Anyway, I have just one last visit planned for the end of September, so I thought I'd share some Instagrams of my last two summer 2012 trips to the sunny isles:

A weekend destination: Es Trenc, Mallorca

The walk from the parking lot at Es Trenc to the beach itself involves passing by several decrepit houses that were nearly finished before construction was halted: apparently, you can't build houses on the beach. Not sure what the whole story is here—you'd think the developers would have gotten the permits first, but then again, it IS Spain—but here's the result. 

Something about the fact that thousands of people pass the development each summer somehow makes it less depressing and ugly.

But why not?

Our beach umbrella. We have gotten a LOT of use out of this little number.

More graffiti on the beach. Great colours and cheeky kids!

Taking photos in front of the graffiti wall.

Elliot lifted himself up to look inside...

And I got a leg up. 

(My butt looks quite large in this photo.)

My favourite beach snack. 

You just can't resist buying one while saying "Magnum G-O-L-D???!!!!!"

Another weekend destination: the city beach in Palma. 

Testing out my new Tucker NYC jumpsuit on the beach. I had the opportunity to meet the designer, Gaby Basora, during a trip to London in the summer, and it was a true privilege. She designs all of her own prints and is SUCH a lively, gregarious person—a true pleasure to be around.

My teeny weeny leopard print D&G bikini. This got quite a bit of wear this summer.

That day, at city beach, we also saw a set of butt implants. Very bizarre.

Anyway.

One of our favourite little restaurants in Camp de Mar, which does a good paella.

Spanish olives are the BEST.

  

A 5-second August recap

A quick recap of the last, er, MONTH!

First there was the Olympics...

I saw Quebec's Alexandre Despatie dive at the Aquatic Centre...

These were Despatie's second Games and he didn't do very well - but the guy cracked his head on the board and had to get 20+ stitches not 6 months before the Olympics, so let's give him a break, shall we?

I also walked around the Olympic Park again...

I even got chicken mcnuggets at the world's largest McDonald's (which isn't actually this one, but the OTHER one at Olympic Park - see second picture below)...

I wandered the London 2012 Megastore (but didn't buy anything)...

And then I went back to Vancouver for the amazing, super gorgeous #AdrianxMalania wedding, which took place in the massive forest-backyard of one of Adrian's best friends, Tim.

Here's my friend Paul looking quite dapper, taking it all in:

 

And then I came back to London and started a new job! 

How's that for a super-quick update?