OUR FIRST THANKSGIVING DINNER DATE

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every day, Hubby and I start our devotional prayers with prayers of gratitude. And as I've said over and over, "Thank You" are my favorite words. So this could turn out to be our favorite holiday, haha!  

  

Thank you for the Thanksgiving Table
available at Dan Ryan's.
It was fully-booked everywhere else.
Location: Tanglin Road

Thank you for the four-course meal
we enjoyed!

Thank you for the time spent
with the newlyweds.

Thank you for one of God's greatest blessings --
a loving Life Partner.

Thank you for the healthy house salad.

Thank you for the thick, creamy, yummy pumpkin soup.

Thank you for the filling roasted turkey,
served with stuffing, candied yams,
mashed potatoes & giblet gravy,
green beans & walnuts.
This is our (Hubby & Me) first Thanksgiving turkey!

Thank you for the yummy dessert -
pumpkin pie.

Thank you for our super fun double date!
Gobble! Gobble!

Thank you for the festive lights along
Orchard Road. The night felt extra special.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." -- M. Beattie

GLAMOUR's WHAT TURNS MEN ON (AND OFF)

Bits from the article MEN TELL: What Really Turns Them On (and Off!)
from Glamour magazine, December 2011

Cleavage? Costumes? Just waking up in the morning?
Glamour got 100 guys to clue you in here.


Which of these evenings is most likely to get you hot?

• A movie with a sexy love scene - 22%
• A night of dancing - 42%
• A great meal with lots of laughs - 36%

Which would ruin the mood for you on a date?

• Her talking about her ex(es) - 26%
• Someone I've dated coming up and saying hi - 5%
• Her checking her phone every other second - 69%

Which look is the biggest turn-on for you?

• Sexy cleavage - 33%
• Lots of legs - 35%
• Anything see-through - 5%
• Good old jeans and white tank top - 27% 

---

My Hubby's answers (Yes, pumatol siya sa aking survey-survey-an this time.):

• 1st Q: A movie with a sexy love scene
• 2nd Q: Her checking her phone every other second
• 3rd Q: All of the above. (Me: Lol)

ART FOR ALL

"...you don't need to be a millionaire with a doctorate in Fine Art to buy (contemporary art)." -- AAF

Amen.

We're so glad to be here in time for the Affordable Art Fair (18-20 November 2011), held at the F1 Pit Building, right beside the Singapore Flyer. 

The SGD10/head entrance fee was worth it. For one, there's a free shuttle bus from the City Hall MRT to the fair and back - so convenient, especially since it started raining real hard after lunch. But mostly, the entrance fee was sulit because the fair was such a visual feast! On our minds, ang dami na naming binili. Haha! Art pieces sold for SGD1,000-10,000. But since we're still on career breaks, bawal pa mag-shopping. Besides, we don't have our own SG place yet so saan naman namin ilalagay ang art pieces? Lol. So we happily window shopped, taking in the beauty and creativity surrounding us. 

There were free talks during the 3-day fair. Hubby and I got to attend the photography session with Deanna Ng, an independent documentary photographer and educator. This was a first for us -- together for a photography talk! (You see, photography is Hubby's thing, not really mine.) My favorite bit was when Deanna started discussing the photographs on exhibit -- the concepts, process and shooting styles behind them. Sa technical, tune-out na ako. Hehe.

The Photography Talk with Deanna Ng

AAF is voted as one of the UK's
CoolBrands for 2010/2011
-- AAF website

In our dream world, the next five pieces were all "sold" to Hubby.

For the first two pieces pa lang, we already need SGD12,800 (almost half-a-million pesos!). Donations, anyone? Lol.

Buti na lang libre mangarap!

Huang Gang's "Dance Together"

Wang Guanyi's The Materialist Revolution I

More of the pieces for sale...

On our minds, amin na rin ito. Lol.

Above:
I liked the "One Roof"
environmental portraiture series.
It's inspiring me to do a personal project
featuring the people in my life.
Hmmm.

We thought these Chinese paintings were lovely, perfect for our very Oriental-themed first home in Manila...

The two Chinese paintings above
are by JD Chou.

Perfect for my Coca-Cola addict Hubby?

Sole mate ko? Hehe.
"Splendid Outing I"
by Hwang Sae Jin

The series below, I found disturbing...

We hope afford na talaga namin ang art pieces sa next fair. Hehe.

BENCAB's SANTAN

As I mentioned on my Elephant Parade entry, we're bent on seeing BenCab's Santan (Proud Pinoys!). So we dropped by the Singapore Art Museum over the weekend. At andun nga siya, in what seems to be a prime spot (sa harap mismo ng museum entrance, katabi ng SAM logo) - bongga! 

BenCab's Santan at The SAM

Inked

 "Santan...addresses the fact
that overpopulation, human-animal conflict
was some of the reasons
as to the dwindling numbers
of elephants in the wild." --
Elephantparade.com

Circus in Town?
It's the Elephant Parade!

P.S.
We saw more of the elephants at the Raffles Place MRT station but it was raining too hard to take photos. I think I found my favorite elephant there -- a golden one, decorated with bolts. I'll make time for a photo op soon.

TAPA KING AT LAU PA SAT

After being away from Manila for only a month and a week, we've been missing Pinoy food. This week's cravings brought us to the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market (nearest MRT: Raffles Place). The Pinoy stall choices there: Tapa King, Mang Kiko, Hapag Kainan and Baliwag. We were both in the mood for silogs, so nag-Tapa King kami.

Hubby had Tapa Queen (spicy beef tapa), SGD6.5, approximately Php227.50. OK naman. Oily nga lang. Perfect with his favorite Coca-Cola.

I had the Danggitsilog, around SGD4.5 (Php157.5). Yes, it was also oily. Pero dahil ang saya ko, I didn't mind. Was especially thankful for the generous serving of danggit. 

We promised ourselves, pag nakauwi kami ng Manila, even for a quick trip, araw-araw kami kakain sa (no, not Tapa King, hehe) Abe. We'll have all our Pinoy favorites -- sisig, adobo, crispy hito, crispy pata, gising-gising, pinakbet, sinigang... This post is making me hungry. Kain muna tayo!

ELEPHANT PARADE

Our first sighting of the elephants was at The Shoppes at The Marina Bay Sands, when we watched the "Wonder Full" show last 11.11.11. This week, we saw them again along Orchard Road.

Yep, there's an Elephant Parade here in SG! According to the website, "The Elephant Parade is the world's largest open air art exhibition of decorated elephant statues to attract public awareness and support for Asian elephant conservation." (These are no 'white elephants.' Lol.)

Read that "there are 160 life-sized fiberglass baby elephants, painted and decorated by international artists and celebrities." 

We hope to spot more of them. 

Filipino Artist BenCab (he opened Hubby's first photo exhibit last July) supports the Parade, see story here. We'll try to visit BenCab's "Santan" at the Singapore Art Museum.