Happy birthday to my brother Julian!!  Composer extraordinaire of this gorgeous piece played here by the lovely Maria Duenas ..read more

Sailing on a yacht to celebrate a special birthday is a dream that in Singapore can become a reality. With fingers crossed (it was rainy season after all), we took the plunge and booked a once in a lifetime experience for our daughter Eliot's 18th birthday (YachtBookings.sg*) We arrived at the meeting place in Sentosa Cove with homemade chocolate cake, champagne, and pizza (via a delivery sent to the departure point). The girls, on a break from their exams, exchanged hugs and then followed the skipper to the yacht along the pier. Passing the docked mega-yachts, balancing cake, presents ..read more

If it's no longer mozzarella di bufala, tiella with scarole and olives, or pizza...then it must be Singapore! Notwithstanding the misleading t-shirt. And supposedly fried rice with kimchi, a dish I first tried when I arrived years ago and have been ordering ever since from my local food court, is also an excellent jetlag remedy. Something I need because that 6 hour difference is pretty brutal. After so many years of travelling this Italy to Singapore route, I do have my own trusty, time-tested system which consists of 3 basic rules: 1) Stay up as late as possible (last night I made it until 2 ..read more

There's nothing like family support...at least from my brothers. In fact, I just realised that if there are any secrets I wish to keep to myself, the best place to do that is in my blog. As there is pretty much no chance at all that they'll read it. Especially if I send them a direct link to it.  Watching movies and eating pizza together...well, that's another story. We're definitely on the same page.  ..read more

After living for so many years in tropical Singapore there are certain things one takes for granted: the sun rising and setting at the same time every day, the heat and humidity,  the availability of soup for breakfast and so on. After the past few weeks in London though, I've had to give some certainties up. It's sunny outside? Not necessarily warm, in fact, throw in the wind and it can feel relatively polar. It's light outside? Could be either 5:00 am or 21:00 pm.  And while I like a bit of unpredictability in my life, one thing I definitely wasn't expecting was to get my hair suck ..read more

When I was a little girl,  my biggest fear was the Wicked Witch of the West. And even though it was irrational, I was positive she was under my bed with her green-painted face and scary laugh. I was sometimes paralysed with fear my whole body stiffening even as I pretended to not be afraid of something that was clearly impossible. That's the thing about fear. Your body reacts to it even when your mind is busy reassuring you that your worries are unfounded. The fear itself might be irrational but the reaction it provokes is very real and leaves you helpless. To this day, I remember exa ..read more

After living 16 years in Singapore, there are certain things you don't take for granted. And I'm not talking about the humidity...no, it's the opportunity to eat amazing food at any time of day. So if say one were enjoying a brisk walk through Covent Garden, in the heart of London, it's perfectly understandable that the Din Tai Fung sign promising delicious soup dumplings would beckon more forcefully than Circe to Ulysses...I admit I'm weak. I love everything about London and from today that includes its dumplings.  ..read more

Mom, my very first role model, a comforting cold hand on a feverish forehead. Always happy hear from us regardless of the time. Our biggest fan, sometimes embarrassingly so. Occasionally, I wondered who exactly she was talking about in such glowing terms when on the phone with a friend of hers, only to discover...it was me (or my brothers). Always hoping for a yes to staying up late to watch old British thrillers and eat ice cream. And if you wandered into the kitchen early the next morning, there she was drinking coffee (when did she sleep?) Excited to hear your news, rejoicing when it wa ..read more