My Life On The Move – Current Location: Houston

I have my wishlist! I went shopping yesterday and saw a few things I like. This year’s list have things from Tiffany, Gucci, La Mer, Victoria’s Secret and a few books (of course one of which is a cookbook).

I know what I am getting for Adam. I will get his gift today. I can only tell you after Christmas what it is as I do not want it to get back to him.

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to plan Christmas dinner! We will be spending Christmas this year with Beatriz and Richard over at their place. Some other friends who are not going home will be there with us too.

Beatriz and I will be doing the cooking and the guys… well… the guys will be drinking. We will have a turkey for sure so either we get one ready from the deli or I roast one.

I will be making roast potatoes, stuffing and gravy since that’s on Adam’s must-have list. Richard is Norwegian so Beatriz will make his traditional meal which is roast pork ribs glaced with Norwegian fruit preserves.

There will be salad and some other sides (which I believe will include bacon and ham) which we need to plan later today. As for dessert it could be pecan pie since we are in Texas or maybe my favourite cream brulee.

The girls will get the food covered and the guys will get the drinks. Richard loves whiskey so we will be taking a bottle of single malt over, I bought ginger ale yesterday, so that’s done. We just need champange, beer and wine which the guys still have time to get.

What else are we missing? I have the santa hats, Beatriz has got the Christmas tree and decorations up, Richard has the songs covered… what else?

I think I should think of pre-dinner munch… olives, pistachios, cheese and dips with crackers and some fruit. I guess that’s all. I will start making a list soon just so we have enough food. Somehow I have a feeling we will have too much to eat and drink, we’ll see.

Adam bought a suit for the wedding! I am so happy that is done. I love his suit, very stylist and the cut… I JUST LOVE!

I was getting a little worried when Adam has not even thought of what he wants to wear. 2 weeks ago I finally got him started looking online and that itself got him more motivated to go shopping as there are loads of nice suits out there.

He then told me that he wants to shop for his suit in London come January. His bestman is there and they can go together. Ok, great plan so I left it.

Since it’s holiday season, I have been out shopping quite abit and everywhere is on sale. From normal to designer stores (except for LV and Tiffany of course) every store is on sale. So I suggested to Adam to take a look at the stores here first, get an idea of what’s available and if he can’t find anything he fancies then look for something else in London.

I am also very sure things here will be cheaper. You can pick the same suit and that one in London will be more expensive. So off he went out shopping on his own Sunday and came home with good news, he found something he likes at Armani!

Adam placed a Hold on the suit because he wanted me to see it before he buys it so last night after dinner we went to the store. I love it. I love the material, the colour and the cut. Also it’s a new arrival (it’s not even on display at the shop yet).

The guys working there are really helpful and are great with recommending things to go with the suit. Adam tried on a pair of shoes that went so well with the suit. I am encouraging him to get it now

Adam tried on several shirs but have not fallen in love with any so we will be back mid Jan when the Spring collection arrives. I love shopping there. Staff there were helpful and nice. We can try anything on without having the feeling that we are inconveniencing anyone. We were even served champange while shopping. Now that’s great customer service.

Last year around this time I gave Adam my Christmas wishlist. In there are a list of things that I want with their price tag. Last year’s list had stuff from Gucci, Tiffany and some kitchen stuff I want like an ice cream maker and some other items which I don’t remember now.

Price range of stuff I wanted was $60 to $700. Adam had been making good use of that list throughout the year so having a list of things you want is very useful. You might want to start one and send it to your bf/husband if you have not done so.

Adam asked for my wishlist last night and believe it or not, I don’t have one. I was browsing my usual sites last night but somehow I couldn’t find something I want. It’s so unlike me. I wonder if I was tired or just bored of shopping since I have done alot over the last 2 weeks.

I’ll start on my wishlist today, together with a list of things I want to achieve today.

My friend Beatriz was going on a holiday to California for 10 days and asked me to petsit for her. I agreed to take her 2 Bettas (fighting fish) in for 2 weeks but they have ended up staying here for a month now and they are still here.

It’s pretty easy taking care of them. When they first arrived their home was abit too small. They only swam up and down their glass vase. The whole day I saw how depressed they were in that small home so I moved one into a big glass vase I have. Unfortunately for the other one, I didn’t have anything big enough except for a salad bowl… so yeah, I transferred him into a salad bowl.  Hey, I rather he be in a salad bowl until I get him a new home than to die of depression in that small house.

Once I moved them into their new home they were so happy! They were just swimming around enjoying the extra space they have now. Great!

The following day it was time to change their water. The weather that day was pretty cold (about 4C) and I was fussing around not knowing what to do since I was worried the freezing water might kill them. Adam came to the rescue and came down with a few rule:-

1) mix hot and cold water together, test the temperature of the water with your elbow. If it’s comfortably warm for you, it should be good for them

2) put in a drop of conditioning liquid into the water and stir well.

3) wait 30 minutes for the conditioning liquid to blend in with the water (only an engineer can come out with this one!)

So that was what I have been doing on alternate days since then. I bought the little one in the salad bowl a new home the following day. After checking out 5 shops with Adam, we both agreed to get him a really nice triffle bowl as his new home. This is Red in his new home.

The other one is Blue because he has more blue colour on him. Please don’t blame me for the non-creativity with names, I didn’t name them.

Believe it or not I talk to them everyday. Red is on the dining table and Blue is on the mantle piece. Every evening when we have dinner, we both look at Red and chat with him. Yeah, we are abit silly. I am sure we will miss them when they go back to their owner’s home, which should be soon. I think they should be back for Christmas.

I had a list of 10 things that I need to do last week but only manage to get 1 done – order maid-of-honour and bridesmaid’s dress. The dresses will arrive latest 11 Jan and they will then be sent to Malaysia and England to their rightful owner.

Last week I also manage to have the wedding favours sorted, all thanks to my sisters! They came up with the idea, got the items and even got them paid for! YAY! One less thing to think about. Thank you all. *Muaks*

Things that I need to do this week

1. Decide wedding cake flavour and place an order with the design which is in my head.
2. Purchase wedding topper and hide it from Adam.
3. Collect my gown and veil from the bridal shop and leave them with a friend.
4. Finalise flowers and book florist – I made another change again…
5. Get the wedding invites printed.
6. Get the contract for the bbq done, sign it and pay a deposit.
7. Book coach from Andaman to bbq site.
8. Make a decision on lighting and sound system for wedding.
9. Book return flight from Langkawi

On-going items that I am still working on

1. Songs for wedding ceremony.
2. Songs for reception.
3. Song for first dance.
4. Wedding celebrant – still don’t have one!
5. Photographer – spoke to 4 but samples from the 5th is on its way to Houston. Will see that before I make any decision.
6. Look for shoes to go with my gown.
7. Room bookings and hotel transfer for guests staying at the Andaman.

Items which are waiting for Adam to execute:

1. Book flight tickets – damn long route: Houston –> L.A –> Spore –> KL –> Melbourne –> Fiji –> L.A –> Houston. Flights for all destination with time has already been worked out, Adam just need to contact the travel agent. Flights to Langkawi return will be booked by me.
2. Book honeymoon resort. I gave Adam 5 options, he dislikes the 2 cheapest options (thank god!) and we are kinda set on one. We shall see which one he picks since he said he wants to give me a surprise. Just hope the surprise is not staying at the cheap one!

Last week while doing Christmas shopping for the kids, I was also shopping for myself. That was only because Schlumberger had a Christmas party on Saturday at Westin. I wanted a new dress. Since I didn’t find anything for myself while shopping for the kids’ Christmas gifts, I spent another day out with a friend shopping and while she bought 5 dresses, I bought none. Somehow I don’t fancy what I see and I don’t need another black dress.

This is the woman who bought 5 dresses.

Anyway the Christmas party was alright. They have a photographer on-site for couples who wants a photo taken. After the party they will develop the shots and send the photo to the employees. I am now waiting for ours to arrive.

They didn’t have an open bar, for liability reasons. In the US, if someone attends such functions, gets drunk and get into trouble, they can sue the organiser. So we were given 3 tickets each to get drinks at the bar and over dinner they provide free-flow wine. That should work out ok since the party has to end at midnight but somehow we ended up with 15 drink tickets.. hehe. That was alot of drinking if you include the wine we had with dinner.

They served a buffet dinner. I dislike buffets at such events because there’s always a long line to get food. My strategy that night was to have dessert first and main meal later to avoid the long lines and it worked out perfectly well for me! I was never in line for anything.

That’s us at the Christmas party. Now you know why I need to lose 5kg!

That’s the first Christmas party we went to this year. There will be another one this Saturday by the pool with some friends. Just an excuse to meet up and have some drinks before some of them travel home to celebrate Christmas with their families.

Houston is nicely decorated and wherever you go, you hear Christmas jingles. It feels really festive here and I love it.

I have been very busy last week. There’s wedding preperation and also Christmas shopping. This year we are doing things a little differently, only the kids (Adam’s niece and nephew) get Christmas gifts and everyone else gets a personalised calendar.

Adam is not a great shopper and has bad sense of timing so I ended up doing the shopping for him this year. If I wait for him to make time for shopping, we will end up spending the whole weekend shopping for gifts, Adam ends up with a sour face because he can’t decide what to get and we will send the gifts via courier and pay double the amount we had to just to make sure the gifts get to their destination by Christmas.

I spent 2 days shopping for the kids (and myself). I went to 2 stores and bought the things I think the kids will like. Adam will then pick from my purchases what to give them and once the selection has been made, I return the rest of the items I bought but don’t need anymore. I love the return policy here, it makes gift shopping so much easier!

Last week I also have some pretty weird dreams about the wedding. You can read about it here. It’s strange. I spoke to a few people about this but they didn’t have this problem when they were planning their wedding! Oh well… I just need to chill I think.

The wedding website that I signed up with sent me a list of things that needs to be done this month and on the list is songs. I have to decide songs for: -

• pre-wedding ceremony cocktail
• wedding ceremony
• sunset cocktail
• reception
• first dance

That is alot of decision to make. So I started with my song search last week. When I first started I got somewhat diverted. I listed 7 songs that I really like but they are all for the after-party. If you notice the list above, after-party is of no concern to me at all because we have a DJ. FOCUS YVONNE!

To set my mind straight, I went out shopping with a friend. 2 hours later I came home with a clearer mind and started my search, for real this time. After spending 4 hours listened to CDs and researching online, I kinda know what I want for the pre-wedding ceremony and sunset cocktail.

I spent the weekend listening to many songs and have came up with

• 3 options for walking down the aisle
• 3 when I walk off the aisle
• 2 options for our first dance

I am still undecided for the reception. Wedding planner suggested we hire a 3-string quartet but I was worried that they would be too loud or stops guests from talking or plain boring. An alternative to that is to play background instrumental music so we have more control over it. We have yet to come to a decision as of now.

Still some work needs to be done in this department for sure.