Finally get to meet up wif chris after 2busy weekends of salsa & travel. ;)
We finally get our warm butts out of the house on sat afternoon despite of the on/off raining weather.. typical ireland's weather anyway.. Got on the Dart n went to Howth. ;)
Although it does looks reali blue n great weather in the pic.. it was cold n raining earlier when we juz reached howth. Pics @ the harbour were taken after our fantastic lunch @ Deep 2 Restaurant.




Starter - Mediterarean Soup.
It is really GoooooooooD!!


Seafood platter for 2.
Chris Favourite - the prawns tempura!
My fav - prawn salad
The seafood is so fresh here n so much cheaper too!!
Salmon n calamari r very good too.. Geez.. the whole plate is cool!!


Dessert - Death by Chocolate
Needless to say.. this dessert blows the 2 of us away too..
Im a choc lover, but for chris, who doesnt take too sweet stuffs.. he likes the dessert too.
its not too sweet, n the combination is really perfect!


The whole restaurant has realy nice ambience with a very cool bar & heaters all around the plce. Good Food, with good service from the servers, wat else r we asking for.. we r giving both our thumbs up for this plce! For this lunch, it is even less than 40euros in total! Great Deal!

Have been really busy for the last 2weekends, that i am feeling a little burnt out i guess..
Was @ the dublin salsa congress on teh St Patricks' Wkend, and last wkend, was @ Stockholm wif rebecca & her bro, Enoch.
My very 1st experience of snow, never to tink tat it wil b in stockholm though, but stil, it was a pleasant experience.
It was freezing despite of the layers i had put on myself.. .. wasnt reali expecting tat cold.. ;)
were walking ard the city til our toes were totally feeling tat they're frozen.. that we stopped into shops in betw to let our freezing toes to warm themselves up.. lol

Stockholm.. wel.. im looking forward to go to copenhegan to check out the plce.. cos stockholm, doesnt work it well on me.. mayb its the cold, mab its the buildings are too structured.. i dun reali know.. but wel, at least i have been there n know it doesnt work on me. ;)

So.. 2 weeks of busy schedule.. which also means that i hav not meet up wif chris for that long too.. he has not seen my new haircut in person yet too.. although he had seen it on the webcam..

feeling so tired right now, that my brain is not really functioning properly.. wanted to write other stuffs tat was goin on.. but juz cant tink straight.. gues, i'll hit my bed.. at such early time.. 1030pm... ??!!

it has juz been such a reali crazy week after the nite shifts, that ther were so many thoughts, feelings flashing past through my crazy mind.. tat, it almost reali drives me crazy..
Ther could b only 1 word to describe it.. CRAZY!

nevertheless, it was stil pretty an awesome wkend, although i cant spend the wkend wif chris.. wel, tat is mainly bcos tat i was attending the dublin salsa congress during this st patrick's wkend. So 3full days of salsa workshops during the day & Salsa dance parties @ Nite..

This is the one of the best times too, to dance wif really gd dancers, frm overseas, which of cos i did.. honestly, i dun reali know who they r, or their name.. cos i am rather quite clueless abt the european salsa scene, wel, its doesnt reali bothers me much, cos all i want is to have a gd dance!

Finally get the chance to update my blog, my god.. i reali dont reali like to work one 1week of night shifts sometimes.. But luckily, before i go on working on the nights, i had a great weekend spending time with my sweetie, Chris, ;p

Went to watch U2 3D movie wif him on Fri night when he's over in dublin. Took random pics wif us in the goofy 3D glasses before the movie starts
http://chris-chrisgray.blogspot.com/

Then, on sat, after my dance practise, we went back to the north to his plce, got the last rain to portadown, and spent the night @ his plce, as we're going to East Midlands, UK, to get his new baby. That was my 1st time going over to his plce, 'meeting his family', honestly, i was really nervous & scared too.. we woke up early on sat morning to start baking scones n muffins, ;)
Scones for his family, as he told me tat his parents love the scones tat i baked the last time he brought home.. so, this time got him to help me with the baking as well, ;) muffins are for my team mates, n of cos, they're delicious, lol. It was really great fun to be baking with him too, after knowing from his mum tat he doesnt help her with her cooking, im glad he did, with me. ;p

So after gettin a few hours of sleep @ his plce, we took an early flight to East midlands, and it was our 1st flight together, out of ireland. ;) wel, it can be considered as our 1st trip, but we didnt reali take lots of pics though... cos most of the time, we're on the road.

Not surprisingly, me in the car.. fell asleep.. and.. ... .. i was asleep most of the time in the car...!!
tat explains why there isnt many pics.. ;p but still, we did have a gd trip (i think).. cos i wasnt much a trouble to him.. and i did tried my best to be awake especially when he needs me to tell him the directions from the list he had printed out before the trip.. kekekkeke. And after driving from Uk all the way to Wales.. we took the ferry back to dublin, & drove back to his plce. Just in 2days, we had already took almost all the transport on earth!! Train, Car, Plane & Ferry!!

Finally received the DVD of my sis's wedding day yesterday, n watched the whole dvd today. Although it was abt 2mths ago.. but it seems like it was only yesterday! Everything is still so fresh in my mind! to tink tat i am actualy rather absent minded person.. can b quite 'blur' at times..

Honestly, i am reali proud of my sister as when im tinking abt her while watchin the dvd.
Im happy for her that she has finaly found someone who loves her, her happiness. im reali glad that at least both my parents n my grandmas, get to attend to one of our wedding dinner.
When i looked at our family photo, and as my brother & me are so similar in many ways, and knowing our characters.. the both of us wont get hitched in these near coming yrs. LOL

And to see all the smiles on all my family members' faces, juz made me very contented, and missed home even more.. .. i cant believe tat i am already looking forward to july, as my mum, aunt irene n uncle are coming over for visit!! !! and of cos to Nov, to my vacation back home again.. wel, tat wil need some sorting out of the holidays as well.. gotta speak to my manager asap!!

Have been tinkin wat to write abt.. ther has been so much goin on since im back in dublin from spore.. other than the fact tat i am stil coughin my lungs out for almost 2weeks, the rest are goin on pretty wel, i would say.. this damn cough has been reali botherin me a lot for these 2weeks. and honestly, i would even sometimes wonder if i'll die frm it.. damn! i reali dun wan to go on antibiotics, n tats the main reason y i didnt see my GP. cos i was on antibiotics 2weeks b4 tat, when i was @ berlin! hopefully i can recover by the end of this wk.. if not, i would reali need to go back to my GP.. shucks.. i hate medicines!!

YES, i HATE MEDICINES!! Ever heard of the sayin..? 'The worst patient in the world is Doctors (& Nurses to actualy)
Recently have one pt, surprisingly who is a psychologist n counsellor in one of the colleges, who is also havin panic attacks & anxiety disorder..

i often wonder, how ironic can life be? wel, it does happen most of the times in life.
Tats mainly bcos, NO ONE IS PERFECT.

was havin another pt, who happened to b (was) a nurse, like more than 20yrs ago.. but seems like she kinda lost touch wif it as she bcame a hsewife. anyway,to cut the story short, she's simply not one of the most pleasant pt to hav.

So Since ther's no one perfect, nothing is perfect in this world.. but y is there pple out there, seeking for perfection??
Wat is perfection then??

my mind tonite is totally running wild, which i dun know y, one min i was tinkin of something, and the nex min it changed.. and my headache is comin into me.. prob i am juz too tired.. always talk/think a lot of nonsense when im in the 'trance state of mind'..

i shld go to sleep n not tinkin of when am i goin to die.. sometimes i do wonder if it is the med condition tat i hav tat is causing me to fall sick easier now..
i dun usualy fall sick when i was back in spore.. honestly, i reali totally blame on the freaky cold weather in dublin! but im goin to stay in this freaky dublin for mayb 1-2more yrs.. we've decided to stay, giving the r/s a chance to see how far can we both go.. we both dun like to stay here, but hav chosen to stay..

See.. How ironic life can be?? weird isnt??

1st time baking on my own, without anyone assistance, and wel, i must say i am pretty proud of myself with the results! lol
i stil can remember my 1st time baking in spore, choc chip cookies, for xmas to my colleagues, of cos with my sister's help. and tat was reali so long ago!

wel, i have decided to bake cookies for this Valentines.. bcos.. chris loves cookies. ;p
so was looking thru the internet for some recipes for cookies, and voila! found this fabulous website and got my hands on it!

www.joyofbaking.com

1st round of baking, the cookies turned out fine, and i brought it to work for my colleagues to try.. and wel, i was waokin on V day itself.. so thought, bringin the cookies for those who r wokrin with me would b reali sweet n nice.. and everyone like it.
So on Fri morning, woke up very early to start baking the cookies for Chris , Channey n Rebecca. ;) and so this time the cookies turn out even better!! ;)


This is the difficult part when this part is very delicate.. when it is stil in the dough form of cos..

Had the mini hearts as well... ;)
voila!!!
wel, had some remaining dough.. so made one big heart.. ;)

Chris bought this frm japan.. REALLI beautiful!!!!!!!
& my Valentines presents ;)
He was very happy to get the cookies.. wel, i lied to him tat i gave all the cookies to my colleagues, took no pictures as i was busy baking n tired frm it, forgot to take pics.. & he really believed tat! lol

wel, he got the 1st surprise when i gave him the mini ones, then the last surprise is the beautiful ones. ;)


On sat nite, we had dinner @ this reali nice restaurant & we're so glad tat we did dressed up for the dinner. cos it is reali quite a posh plce.. check out the website!

www.pearl-brasserie.com

so bcos of tat, i didnt dare to take many pics with flash.. juz didnt wan to embarrass ourselves, u know wat i mean... dun reali want the ang mohs to tink tat im so suah ku! GRIN

this is our dessert.. tiramisu
our side order, mash potato
chris's main dish, Baked Loin of Rabbit Stuffed with Prawns
wel, i had the market special, fish... very fresh!! n delicious!!!!!!!

This yr CNY has been one of the best times i ever had in Ireland, & frankly speaking, im reali glad tat i got to know all these fellow singaporeans frm the internet, www.meetup.com

This CNY house gathering @ Joyce's residence, is such a heartwarming event, and im sure tat everyone of us had a really great time & it does make me forget abt how much i wish i shld b back in spore for CNY..