mass call 2011, incidentally post #200!

"I can think of perhaps 2 other occasions in your lives that will rival this day in terms of significance and honour. One would be the day you take your marriage vow and the other, the day you become a parent and hold your baby in your hands for the very first time..." - excerpt from speech by Vice-President of the Law Society Lok Vi Ming, S.C

was called to the singapore bar on saturday 27th august and am very glad leave the profession, ironic as that is, on a high note. having finished what i started, it was fine and fitting closure to a good five years. enjoyed every moment of lawsch and have been incredibly blessed with wonderful people along the way. pupil-ing on the team i pupil-ed on was a privilege, and hand on heart i can say the chances of ever working with an (almost) perfect team like that again are very very slim :(

grateful for the mentorship i've received, and even more grateful for the support and encouragement of those i respect. my lawsch dean was my referee for medsch applications and i am convinced i was accepted because he wrote so nicely. yay to the close of one chapter and the beginning of the next. i leave in exactly two weeks and am excited beyond belief.

"This is a profession that leads you to be involved in the lives, businesses, the hopes and aspirations of people from every level of society; from the weakest to the most powerful among us; because the law is part, and rightly so, of every aspect of our society. This is a profession that allows you to be a teacher, a counselor, a protector, a healer and a friend to people who seek your help and to people you are paid to oppose." also from Lok S.C.'s speech.

 

 so with that, it's goodnight but not goodbye.

p/s on an unrelated note, 27th august was really a day of milestones seeing how i also voted for the first time! 

p/p/s have a soft copy of the law soc veep's speech so if you were at call and are interested, drop me a line and i'm happy to send it over.

hit the ground running sydney

landed bright and early at 545am. despite arriving at such an ungodly hour, adam was sweet to offer to pick us up. before we linked up, i picked up the guide and map that i ended up never opening. talk about superfluous :)

started the morning right with one of the best breakfasts ever at the iconic bondi cafe. i'm not much of a coffee fan (gimme tea anyday!) but even picky wicky me was impressed with this cuppa. and who'd have thought it be the first of a steady stream of excellent cups.

walked off breakfast along bondi and checked out bondi icebergs from a distance. doesn't the pool look so inviting in the day? revisited icebergs a few evenings later and it looks so different at night.

and some bondi mosaic as spied on the promenade...

sun's out, surf's up!

p/s: have scheduled the sydney posts to publish at 9am daily for the next few days so do check back if you'd like to see more of sydney and the hunter valley.

sydney

just back and can't wait to share more about the getaway down under over the next few days. had a wonderful wonderful time with friends and so grateful for great food and better company.

billy jean

back from perth and have some major spring cleaning to do! before starting work, i was supposed to get my open water dive licence. but i was unceremoniously summoned to the office a week earlier than anticipated. in protest, i spent what would've gone towards my dive holiday on a suitable work wardrobe. fast forward two months and upon being accepted into medsch it dawned on me that i would have no need for said work wardrobe. so i now have a whole lot of hardly worn, pre-loved work wear that i'm putting up for adoption. timing works out beautifully though, and i think yvie's gonna be the biggest beneficiary in this self-styled clothes coup.

currently clearing through six months of clothes and other barang barang that i've somehow managed to accumulate, and billy jean is playing. funny how i'm catapulted back to our 80s parties at the gula villan (yellow house) on campus in stockholm u. we wore our "bad taste" clothes, almost all procured from beyond retro, and belted out the chorus in unison. for some, it was probably the only english they could muster but bottle in hand and song on lips we'd while the night that never really got dark away. 

good times, and hanging with the aussie crew down under really brought all these happy happy erasmus memories bubbling back to the surface of my consciousness. we swear we don't live in the past, but sometimes it is so very hard to avoid the self-indulgent nostalgia trip.

lunching with yvie at cocotte tomorrow because we're intent on being ladies who lunch, just for one day, then filing my call papers back in the office. and then we'll see where the wind blows :)

Home-to-be

I woke this morning to an email that I’d been eagerly anticipating for some time.

Relieved to know that I got my first choice for accommodation – a single room with en suite bathroom in a flat of 6 rooms. It’s 240m from the library (yes I’ve google mapped it because I’m OCD) and less than five minutes walk from the nearest tube station. Whew!

Now to start applying for my visa.

Oh and I’ve gotten my gym membership too so yay to exercise and all its associated benefits. Snigger.

Peter Pan Syndrome

Phuket (image from jetsetter.com)

As an undergrad, I knew it was exam season when I began feverishly planning my post-exam getaways. Am slightly ashamed to admit that I’d be at the copier frantically Xeroxing the relevant lonely planet, instead of the textbooks I should well and truly have had my nose in. So after consistently spending eight semesters that way, it’s little surprise that the escapist in me has carried this guilty pleasure to the big bad working world. Less than two weeks to go before I’m done with my training contract and I’ve been spending every free moment (outside office hours, I should add) plotting where to go and what to do. Headed to Perth the day after I’m done at the firm, and then to Sydney over the National Day pseudo long weekend. After that, I’m tempted to take up a dear friend’s offer to be his guest at Turi Beach and drag granny along for some gma-gdaughter bonding.  Also currently torn between Phuket and Bali for early September. Being especially masochistic and trawling through every single deal imaginable on www.fascinating.travel in an attempt at creating my own spreadsheet to compare the various specials. Guess short jaunts are the way to go in this pre-departure period. Seeing how I’ll be away for the foreseeable future, I’m all for maxing out my year-long Australian visa and exploring the South East Asian backyard.

Psyched and counting down the days :)

Now if only the pasture I’ve been dreaming of being relegated to would materialize…

Bali (image from jetsetter.com)

where i goa

had the privilege of guest posting on littlepaperplanes for ash's the escape artist series. 

this is what she had to say about the post!

In the latest installment of the Escapist, Jo goes to Goa, where she enjoys conning connoisseurs into thinking she’s an art aficionado, reading personals in the loo, and mixing with a whole bunch of wonderfully weird (read: eccentric) folk from around the world. For a getaway that’s a little bit off the beaten track, how about investing some time exploring India? It is after all !ncredible*.

please go see :)

another one for the road

i got this off le love but somehow feel it's more applicable to when i see boss' name on my phone. truth be told, he's not called me yet but every time i see his name in my inbox, my heart stops momentarily. and not in a good way. 

so, that's my convoluted way of saying it's back to work and this space will be quiet for awhile. wish i could take leave, and travel, and post about my pseudo-eggciting life, but alas no such liberty is granted to an entry-level employee. in fact, i'm not officially an employee yet so even that's a bit of a stretch. 

be back, eventually!

<3

the happiest place on earth

it's been awhile since i was last in tokyo disneyland but my inner 7 year old was not-so-secretly thrilled to be back. it was familiar yet new, and the electrical parade has got to be my absolute favourite part of each visit. there's something magical about the lights and music. the afternoon parade's fun, too, but the electrical parade at night is infinitely superior in my books. remember lining the sidewalk when i was -really- 7 years old and waiting in eager anticipation of the first float. happy memories beget happier memories and i'm glad that some things don't change. 

so you can imagine how ironic it was to learn of families (some personal friends, too!) being trapped at disneyland during the earthquake. there's something inherently wrong about the happiest place on earth turning into a disaster relief centre. while in more pleasant circumstances i'd have jumped at the chance to stay overnight at "the park", not being allowed to leave while the rest of tokyo went to pieces (or so it seemed) must've been terrifying.

that said, we did leave the park safe and sound after the electrical parade. the mickey handgrips never fail to crack me up. talk about attention to detail! and after the day's exertion, we went to our regular powerplate place for a hearty table bbq.

so that concludes the most recent tokyo series. stay tuned for some singapore restaurants and bars that i've visited recently, before the hiatus resumes.

tokyo in february

was fortunate to make it to tokyo and back in february, shortly before the tsunami and following tragedy entered our consciousness. didn't have time to post the photos before disaster struck, and then posting in the immediate aftermath seemed churlish and insensitive. there's no point to this, no political comment to make, just sharing happy memories of my favourite country and hope to return one day. have absolute faith in the japanese solidarity and fortitude, am heartened by how refined and gracious they have been in the face of the disaster. glad that there are good people doing good things, which is always an encouragement to us all. 

on a less sombre note, follow this genial japanese gent as we did when he met us at the train station and brought us on a grand tour of hakone, and then to the ryokan. as usual, we were early. even more predictably, when the ryokan tells you check in is at 3pm, you may check in at 3pm and not a minute earlier. hence the grand tour to while away a sunny afternoon in... ohmyword i can't remember the town name anymore!

sort of like alice following the white rabbit down the rabbit hole, don't you think? we didn't know where he'd take us!

have scheduled a post a day for the next week - do check back and revisit japan with me :)

it's been a good run

the good news: i passed my bar exam -happy dance-

the bad news: have been summoned to the office a week earlier than anticipated. as such, the final fling to phuket is no longer happening.

but i've had plenty of time to get my mind around this crazy little thing called work. unlike previous batches, i was spared the one month of pupillage right after my final exam. which translated to a glorious extra month of grad trippin'. similarly, because i only start at the firm after the release of the bar exam results, i scored an extra (almost!) 8 weeks of holiday after the bar exam. previous batches resumed pupillage right after the bar exam.

(am also counting my blessings about having an extra week on most other pupils who started yesterday)

so there are many things to be grateful for. and after being on a perpetual holiday (or so it feels!) since year3sem2 (read: april 2009) it is high time i grow up and sober down. there's much to look forward to - am excited about this big transition and upbeat about crossing that final threshold from student to trainee. "employee" would be a tad presumptuous, seeing that i need to be retained after the six month pupillage before i'm officially part of the firm. 

exciting times ahead, despite the hedonistic joyride coming to a screeching halt. thank you for reading, thank you for being a friend and happy trails, wherever they may take you :)

(photo credits to judith and the tumblr universe)

2010: the year in review

2010 was a good year with many transitions and here are some of my favourite memories.

Adjusted to being back in Singapore after a glorious six months in Stockholm. Had the final semester to complete, took my last undergraduate exam in May and was off to Europe for six weeks on a graduation trip. Made sure I got home by June 17th for my grandfather’s 88th birthday. graduated in early July and went on course full time. Took the professional exam (7 consecutive exams!) in December and ohmyword where did the year go?

To answer all the friends who’ve been asking why I’ve been traveling like crazy instead of working, well, my graduating class lucked out and we only start work in February 2011. Previous classes traditionally started work in June, a month after their last exam, then resumed their training contracts right after finishing the Exam, i.e early December. Without boring you with the technical details, there have been some industry shake ups and with new rules in place, I only start work after the results are out. And nobody knows when that will be! Not complaining though :) Why wouldn’t I appreciate a two month break before starting work?

But I get ahead of myself. This was supposed to be about 2010! So. By the time February 2010 came around, I was starting to feel the familiar wanderlust itch and decided it was time to travel. Had ingeniously planned my classes such that I had a (crazy) two day week. This inverse weekend was a childhood dream of mine and am so glad I managed to pull it off in my final semester of university. So with ample time on my hands, I went to the Middle East (Bahrain, Riyadh, Kuwait and Dubai) around my birthday.

View of Bahrain from the Capital Club

Lunch at a traditional village in Riyadh

Hovering over the oil fields in Kuwait

Dubai

After the Arabian adventures, I joined friends in Phuket for the weekend in their holiday home in March. Had the best time languishing in their villa and got some snorkeling done, too!

By the time April swung round, I decided to take my “take home” exam to Hoi Ann for a family friend’s birthday party. It was an unusual holiday where I spent a few hours after breakfast banging away at my laptop before holidaying the rest of the day away. There was a UNESCO site to be seen, and lots of Spanish “fiesta fiesta” after dark.

Made it home in time to submit my paper, and then it was time to hunker down for exam season. Crammed for a week, had exams for a week then it was off again, this time to Paris! Went up the Seine to Normandy and back, stopping each day at a little Seine-side town (Les Andelys, Rouen, Normandy, Caudebec, Honfleur, Vernon, Giverny) for fresh produce and mini-excursion. 

After a week on a barge with great food and better company, my parents handed me over in Paris and we continued to Tuscany (Pise, Bibona, Monterigionni, Rignana, Chianti, Siena, Lucca). Tuscany was amazing, vineyards as far as the eye could see and endless olive groves. Had the best wine, and freshest olive oil ever. The carbo-heavy holiday with pasta pasta pizza pasta was a carbohydrate queen’s dream :)

Spent some time in Paris before going on to Stockholm where I had a glorious week with my friends who were still there. It was a second shot at being on exchange, and ironically it was as if I had gone back to say “bye”, seeing how I left Stockholm for good last year, while everyone had just left for Christmas. Then again, saying goodbye for a second time to all the beautiful people I had grown to really like was just awful.

This is where the graduation trip gets exciting. I bid Stockholm “hejdag” a second time and went on to Spain all by myself. Plus points for bravery! Was in Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid but it was as if I wasn’t meant to be on my own. Multiple chance meetings meant that I was blessed with ready company (and good food) as and when I wanted some. 

Parc Guell, Barcelona

El Tigre, Madrid

Concluded the great graduation trip as Jeanne’s guest in Aix and was spoilt rotten by her warm provencale hospitality. One last night in Paris in my home away from home in the 16th and then it was back to Singapore for Gramp’s 88th on 17th June.

Tell a lie. Between Gramp’s 88th on 17th June and Granny’s 84th  on the 27th, I went to Saigon with two couples! But it’s not as heroic as it sounds, seeing as how they’re my oldest friends in  university and very dear to me. So dear that it erased any potential weirdness. But I did make sure I’d a single room...  ;)

Graduated in July with all the pomp and ceremony that my university could muster (i.e. not very much…) and, officially, began the prep course for the professional exam. But before long, wanderlust got the better of me yet again and it was off to Hong Kong to pick up my graduation present, then a road trip to Port Dickson over National Day in August.  

Realized how efficient  it was to travel over public holidays and made the most of the September Hari Raya long weekend with a trip down under to visit Team Australia and Jeanne in Perth. It was surreal to see the usual suspects on home turf and they took excellent care of me, with day trips to the Swan Valley for wine, cheese and chocolate, and more urban comforts like chic bars and the best burger in the city.

Back in Singapore, I played the happy tour guide with dear friends Roos, Floor and Javier visiting over the mid-autumn festival. Always thrilled when bringing friends around means I discover cool new places, too :)

And this is a bit jumbled but catching the National Day Parade from the sea was kinda funny because you get to see the flag and spare (that no one else sees!)

Having already paid for an Australian visa, a fortnight after getting back from Perth, it was off to Sydney to visit Dana and Kaier. Had a life-changing meal at Tetsuya’s, was unimpressed by Quay, and lunched at Lucio’s three days in a row.

That said, I still prefer Tetsuya's Waku Ghin in Singapore :) Singers boleh!

 
Went to Kuching for a wedding in late October and discovered the joys of freshly prepared Ko Lo Mee. Almost worth the squeeze that was a large dose of extended family! And after Kuching it felt like party season back home! Had a small "Sarong Party" for friends, in addition to riding "Bongo's Bus" at Halloween. In case you're curious, I went as a "fashion faux pas" (inspired by the many "bad taste" parties we had in Stockholm) which is way more scary than any blood-sucking vampire you might meet ;)

Threw a "Sarong Party" in September and was thrilled when the very obliging guestlist came in their kampong best. Do note Ee Hui the Sarong Party Girl on the right, complete with token white boy in tow!

Rounded off October with the Shanghai Expo a week after Sydney. Fell in love with the Puli Hotel, and felt like one in a million in the worst possible way in the jostling crowd at the Expo. China at its push-and-shove best :/ Thank God for fast passes and buggies. 

During the study break in November, I allowed myself to be lulled into a false sense of complacency and upped to Japan. Checked out two exquisite ryokans in the countryside before spending a week in Tokyo, my favourite city.

Of course, this also meant I returned with a week to mug and promptly had a mini panic attack.

Immediately post-exam, i seemed to have lost all urge to go out at night :/ and instead accompanied granny to hong kong for her first trip out of singapore in a decade! Thankfully after having her confuse me with the help (she calls me the help's name, and vice versa) I was released to India where I was certain she would never follow me. Which brings us up to speed! Just got home from a week in Goa with friends, hence this relatively late (but still early!) Christmas post. Wanted to say hello and thank you for your indulgence. It is a very long post. Season’s greetings and may 2011 treat you even better than 2010 did. Here’s wishing you a holiday season filled with warmth and love.  

turns out

i've used up my 1G of space at blogger so they want me to pay USD5 for more memory that is only valid for a year. refusing to be held hostage annually, i figured it was time for m0remysterymeatballs. lesson learnt: upload smaller photos. but welcome to this new space. some tweaks are needed but the tokyo posts should seamlessly continue over here come december 3rd.

incidentally, december 3rd is also the last day of my bar exam. read: start of two month pre-work holiday ^^

for new friends who've just swung by, i began mysterymeatballs as an exchange blog when i left for stockholm in august 2009. it was intended for as a memory vault of sorts for what i foresaw to be a whirlwind six months in scandinavia, and then some. had such fun blogging about being on exchange and the madcap adventures (haha) that i kept it as a travel blog even after returning home for good. 

picked mysterymeatballs because i felt it captured the essence of being on exchange in stockholm on various levels. everything was a mystery. you often hear of mysterymeat as cafeteria food. meatballs are almost as synonymous with sweden as ikea is. and, well, if you're feeling naughty. a well placed comma would give you a certain crudeness at the end. so 'm0re' mysterymeatballs seemed an apt continuation of the travel blog and we'll see where this takes me :) thank you for reading, and for sharing the adventure.

enjoy!