Monthly moments: July

On the one hand, July was pretty stressful.  

On the other, it was also a month of meeting old friends and new ones, celebrating life events and enjoying solitude and finding new peace and purpose.  

On balance, I think it was pretty great.  

On to the next one!

I found a new journalling partner in Jia Min.  We sat in La Ristrettos and had drinks and wrote and grinned at each other over breakfast, and for one hour, all was right with the world.

Ann-Marie and I had brunch and she brought me a beautiful tote bag and bracelet that she'd picked up from a holiday in London.  Afterwards, I went with her and her fiance on their wedding photo shoot and helped with changes of clothes and carrying bags and pulling at skirts.  The couple looked gorgeous and the photos, promising.

The best part of the day though, was the massive dinner we walloped at Garden Slug afterwards, while she rocked her still-styled hair and eyelashes and posed for yet more photos with Yuan Wei.

It's awesome how couples seem to come away from wedding photoshoots with a great sense of humour about how absurd it can be to have a sweating guy shouting at you over a camera to elongate your neck when there's sand flying in your face.  Here, they're re-enacting the loving gazes they were made to give.

One of the best moments of my month was meeting a good friend from when I was doing my Masters.  Anjuly flew in to Singapore for work and we spent a night eating hawker food (sorry, Mathai, about the out of focus picture!). When I realised that her hotel was parked right behind Orchard Towers, my sense of mischief kicked in and I suggested we go for a snack and drink there.

A killer Thai beef salad and coke turned into a spontaneous night of barefoot dancing in clubs amid the ladies (and ladyboys) of the night.  We giggled and watched the transactions and sang 90s hit songs with the cover band.

Jia Jun lives in the same country, but since we hadn't seen each other for 6 years, it was just as much of a reunion.  We met with Priya for German food at Brotzeit and talked about all the times we'd pretended to be synchronised swimmers in the pool in my old estate, or yowled songs so loudly at my piano that the neighbour could hear.

I haven't had much time to knit this month, but I'm working slowly but surely on a knit and yarnover pattern with this Moda Vera wool in Bailey.  The spontaneous pink stretches give the colour a different dynamic and the yarnovers are both fun to knit and create texture.  For what it's worth, this is my favourite wool I've knitted with so far.  The spongey tubelike structure makes it easy to manipulate and tough to split and because it works on 4mm needles, it's less clunky than it looks.

July was a month for eating the snacks my parents brought back from Japan including this beguiling Tokyo Banana biscuit that is filled with a slightly buttery banana cream.

And in July, I got to catch up with one of my best friends, Mel, while her dog, Kaiser, made friends with Chip.  We spent several hours chatting at my place and it was like curling up with the most comforting mug of hot chocolate ever.  We laughed and ate cookies and the dogs' claws clicked around us as they snuffled up crumbs.

I can't get over how alike they are and how we probably own the exact same breed of dog without planning it.

I hope I get the chance to meet as many friends in August and to share as many laughs and cups of coffee, to spend time reading and writing and introspecting and to sit quietly, and just be, under a delicious mackerel sky.