La Fleur x 852

On one of our days in HKG, Daddy brought us to his go-to lunchtime French restaurant near his workplace in Wanchai.

The neighbourhood has a very chill, sunny vibe and is a really eclectic mix of interesting curator-style shops, bistros, cafes, and Hong Kong style coffeeshops!

Don’t you just love the vintage packaging? I know its very trendy now to go ‘old school’ but I’ve always enjoyed the bright, kitschy colors of old Milo and Cream Cracker tins – never been a fan of minimalist designs.

One never-fail dessert recipe I use often is making a yummy dulce de leche, or caramelly, toffee like milk spread. You simply boil the can of condensed milk until it caramelizes to a creamy, light brown consistency and slap on some toasted white bread. Heaven.

Anyway Daddy’s lunch haunt is La Fleur – which serves very reasonable prixe fixe (fixed-price) sets.

He introduced us to the very friendly local owner of the small French bistro, which seats only about 30 people and, according to him, is permanently packed and very popular because of its use of great fresh produce.

The menu changes according to what is seasonal, which I think is awesome – that way the quality of the food is always kept high – and its a mark of excellence that a chef can adapt to what is available.

Produce fresh from France is jet-flown in three times a week, and La Fleur also has a stunning French wine collection.

Inside, its homely, wood-accented, and bustling with energy and the happy chatter of the cheerful staff.

Smoked duck breast with goose-liver mousse. The duck was smoky, salty, meaty perfection The mousse not bad, and the side salad extremely fresh.

The owner recommended the salmon as the special that day, saying it was fresh in this morning, so I had to have it !

Salmon fillet with a potato mousseline and capers cream sauce.

The salmon was just perfect. Tender, moist, pink flakes with that wonderful richness of salmon fat (Omega 3 is good for you). Its quite amazing how something so simple can taste so good when its cooked well. Really appreciate this after many experiences eating poorly cooked exotic fish at extravagant prices.

Up close!

Mark’s Baked Porkloin with Bacon and Gnocchi was also very good – simple rustic flavours.

Finished off with cups of HKG style coffee and tea !

Yes, we stayed on way after the lunch crowd left !

Comes highly recommended for a nice leisurely French lunch in between exploring the hilly landscape of Wanchai, one of  HKG’s hidden gems !

La Fleur,

16 St. Francis Yard, Wanchai

852 x 茶餐厅 (II)

My second Char chan teng recommendation is actually more of a coffee house serving Western mains like steak, seafood pasta, and the like.

These places are especially plentiful in Mongkok and open until very late ! You can find them behind the blue tarpaulin of Ladies’ Street or almost anywhere along Nathan Road.

This time we stopped at the rather cheesily named Sweetheart Garden Steakhouse.

When we entered the place, I felt a little like turning back. The furnishings were old, worn, fraying plasticky looking booths and the lighting was the kind of dim that no talented interior designer would ever venture to call ‘ambient’.

Just at that moment, an aging waiter scuttled past me with a sizzling hot plate of what looked like lobster and steak and then sloshed some crazily good smelling garlic sauce all over it. I was gripped. It smelled like Jack’s Place before Jack’s Place became Eatzi Bistro and boring. It smelled like the Ship, when all their staff were friendly Hainanese uncles.

Nostalgia is a funny thing – It comes at funny moments, when you least expect it, and it was enough for me to want to give the place a try.

Prices are very reasonable. It worked out to only about $20 per person for us, and we all had main courses plus soup and a drink.

Everything at Sweet Heart is delightfully nostalgic and reminiscent of older, better times. Watch !

Maggi seasoning on the side?  Something you will never see in today’s anti-carb, anti-preservatives, heck, anti-eating society !

Even the buns are so old school!!! They really remind me of the buns they serve at Western food stalls at kopitiams my grandfather used to bring me to when I was a kid.

Then the food came – huge and homey portions with no frills. There is no gastronomical revelation or delicacy. There is only perfectly cooked thick hunks of meat and seafood covered by a pungent but super tasty garlic pepper sauce.

Check THAT out ! Hahahaha. We spotted an elderly couple at the next table bracing themselves with their napkins and caught on really quick. Thank goodness for that.

YUM. Sorry photos are so blur. Booth was very small plus my lenses kept fogging up from all that steam.

K and I had the mini lobster, his with a Kobe beef steak and mine with a regular T-bone, which was rather tough. His Kobe steak on the other hand, was meaty juicy tender perfection. Mark also had wagyu, and his was even more melt-in-the-mouth.

HAPPY BUNS

What can I say ? A hungry bun with food is a happy bun !

Stop by if you have the time ! Make friends with the friendly uncle waiters and you might get more sauce and upgraded drinks like we did !

Sweetheart Garden Restaurant 花園餐廳

G/F-2/F, Wingco Mansion, 36-42 Soy St, Mong Kok, Hong Kong

French food next time !

xx

Libby

Mid-week Magic.

Hi guys,

Its been a long day today – a 14-hour work day, to be exact !

But I feel really good about it, surprisingly – starting to really get the hang of using all that new fangled technology and I can definitely transcribe better than I used to !

It’s been a pretty surreal two weeks, what with me already having interviewed Jay Park and Kim Hyun Joong – it’s completely different from what I used to do but I can’t say I don’t enjoy it.

In any case, here’s an article I wrote up today – hope you guys enjoy it and tell me what you think !

Remembering Emma Yong

The rest of my stories so far can be accessed on Yahoo! Entertainment’s blogs page, if you’re interested!

xx

Libby

852 x 茶餐厅 (I)

茶餐厅 / Char Chan Teng / Tea-houses are ubiquitous in Hong Kong.

They are generally the same – they serve up great coffee and tea and a whole range of fusion sounding drinks (lemongrass jelly honey tea anyone), Chinese noodle dishes, Western fusion (Beef Kway Teow with Swiss Sauce?), instant noodles with all kinds of protein, and a selection of yummy pastries and sandwiches.

They are the lunch and dinner choices of many HKG-ers on the go – and they are always on the go – and the food comes fast and fresh. There is also always a crowd, so don’t be alarmed if there is an empty seat in front of you that is abruptly filled with a stranger (just pretend he isn’t there and enjoy your food)

Turnover is high, but prices are cheap.

My go-to Char Chan Teng is Tsui Wah’s Central branch.

I also love Australia Dairy Company, but its a little out of the way in Jordan Had to pass on their lovely silky milk custard this time around.

Tsui Wah has several branches, with its Wellington St premises being the original one.

The Wellington branch was opened in 1967, and it fills three storeys which are opened as the lower floors slowly fill out. All six or seven times I’ve been there, its been full house.

Service is efficient, brusque, and if you don’t call out loud enough or wait for the waitstaff to take your order, you shouldn’t eat here, because no one will come – at least for a while.

Don’t come expecting anything fancy either. The decor ranges from slightly gaudy, yellow tile / wood laminate booths barely big enough for four people to squeeze in to kopitiam style wooden tables topped with glass and printed menus slipped in underneath. No frills.

Here’s me with two funky drinks we ordered that day – lemongrass soda water, and K’s honey calamansi whatchamacallit. Also pictured is the char chan teng classic Pineapple Bun (Polo Bun), but more on that later !

What we had this time round -

Luncheon Meat and Egg Sandwich

I.Always.Order.This

And this is why -

White, crustless, fluffy thick white bread – sandwiching – the fluffiest, smoothest, airiest scrambled eggs and crispy slivers of sinful luncheon meat.

This by the way, is just as awesome hot or cold. A, LY and I enjoyed it high altitude in the freezing cold at the top of The Peak, and it tasted like the best cold-cuts sandwich ever.

Although I think that the eggs at Australia Dairy are better in terms of creaminess, they don’t keep as well – they turned slightly rubbery after I carried them around for 2 hours (I just like to pick at my food).

XO Prawn Noodles

This was the first time I tried TW’s XO prawn noodles and my reaction to it was mixed. The noodles were great – QQ, springy, and tasty with the XO sauce. The prawns were just middling – I felt that they were too crunchy and they were kind of cold from being doused in cold water (I think) to stop them from cooking after getting blanched.

I also wished that they would give me more of that yummy XO sauce to drown my noodles in, but at around $5, who is complaining really.

Chicken Chop Spaghetti

K ordered the Chicken Chop Spaghetti, which he said was underwhelming and I agree. I suspect everything was premade, because the sauce was flat, the chop was over tenderized, and the spaghetti limp and uninspiring.

Tsui Wah's Signature Milk Tea

What never goes wrong, though, is their signature milk tea. Its unbelievably smooth without that slightly bitter and acrid taste that can so easy surface when tea leaves are overused and over-brewed. It’s also very fragrant and perfect with …

Pineapple Bun (Polo Bun) with Cold Butter

The Polo Bun, which, for the uninitiated, does not actually contain any pineapple. Instead, its named after aforementioned fruit because of the crackly crust that emerges on the soft bun during baking.

The result is an impossibly scrummy sweet bun with a crusty sugary top (just like Japanese melonpan), and a soft, fluffy sweet interior.

I don’t want to scare you, but the secret ingredient that makes it so fragrant is actually lard.

Of course I have to level up an already sinful pastry into a heart attack inducing version by ordering it with a pat of cold butter. Let me tell you, it is worth it. A little of that butter will melt instantly into the soft bun, releasing the scrummy aroma of butter and sugar, and the rest provides cold, creamy contrast when you bite into the bun and wash down all that fat with your milk tea.

The rate we were eating, I’m surprised I only put on around 1 kg after the trip.

Tsui Wah 

15-19 Wellington St

Central, Hong Kong 

Tel: (852) 2525 6338

Part of our Tsui Wah pilgrimage inevitably continues at Tai Cheong Bakery for their famous egg tarts just one or two streets down.

To be honest, I was kind of horrified to see that they had refurbished the place. It just looked so sparkly and new and .. non-authentic that I had fears that their famous egg tarts (beloved by ex HKG governor Chris Patten) would no longer taste as good.

Well I didn’t really have to worry because a closer look into the shop showed that all the previous old ovens and trays and machinery had been kept.

However, the staff have been changed. I remember an old man in a stained singlet helped by his equally grumpy wife the last few times I was there. They have been replaced by aunties wearing uniforms.

Anyway we bought a box and the verdict?

K loved them, and so did M (he had three to himself the last time we were here) but I felt that they didn’t taste as good. For one, I spotted trays and trays of premade tarts in the back ground. Last I remembered, the old couple prepared the tarts a la minute and they almost always emerged piping hot, the wobbly custard and buttery warm pastry so fresh out of the oven that it was impossible not to make a mess eating it.

This time, the custard was rather solid and the pastry had hardened a little to more closely resemble the sugar crust pastry of a fruit tart, not flaky and buttery goodness.

Still, very good and worth a try. A tip though, if you want to bring them out of HKG, consume WITHIN A DAY. Or you will be rewarded with soggy crusts and hardened egg custard.

Tai Cheong Bakery 

32 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong.

That’s it for now, ta !

xx

Libby

Fook Lam Moon

Nope, FLM is not a bad word, on the contrary, its the best place for well made and relaxed dim sum that (I feel) is great value for the ambience and quality of food.

If you have been reading my blog (not to sound presumptous or anything) you would probably know that I’m a complete dim sum fiend – I consider it the one category of food I would have no problems eating every day for the rest of my life because of the sheer variety, the bite sized portions, and the distinct Cantonese flavor.

My sister D is exactly like me in this aspect and I suspect that we inherited this crazy love for yum cha from our mother, who has a very Cantonese, very noisy, and very huge extended family (MAHJONG! DIMSUM! DOUBLE-BOILED SOUP! SHOPPING!)

Anyway, the first thing that will hit you about Fook Lam Moon is how .. spacious … it is compared to your run of the mill, hole in the wall dimsum place in HKG.

I mean, I am all for the authentic, buzzing, noisy, greasy native experience but sometimes you just want to yumcha in peace and quiet without noisy aunties pushing trolleys full of steamers around that may or may not fall on your head if you’re in the way.

The crowd when we were there was pure Cantonese. No mainlanders in sight, mostly nuclear families ( Dad with Blackberry, Mom with Prada bag, two small kids and a helper) or suits entertaining clients.

Without further ado, the food, which I can only describe as refined. and major yummers, of course.

Century Egg Lean Meat Porridge

As you can see, I’ve labelled it “Porridge” and not Congee because, to my utter surprise, the version served at FLM was not the usual yummy sticky congee (boiled so long the grains have dissolved into starch) but rather a broken-grain porridge.

To be honest, I thought I would be disappointed but I wasn’t at all. For the rice grains were steeped in an amazingly tasty broth with a deep umami complexity that could only have been achieved with the best ingredients and long hours of boiling bones, seafood, etc.

Using the stock for congee would have been a waste. With rice porridge it was just right – enough contrast between the bites of rice and the yummy stock without being too rich.

Prawn Chee Cheong Fun (Rice Rolls)

Very good, but not very outstanding. The rice rolls were suitably silky, the prawns fresh, the vegetables blanched just right, but I felt there was something slightly missing in the sauce that would have elevated it. In any case, it was still better than most of the upmarket versions I have tried in SG.

Har Gow ( Prawn Crescents)

Perfect ! Refined, thin skin that wasn’t too thin/soggy after steaming – if you get it right, the skin should turn out almost translucent throughout, but most places are either inconsistent or get it too thick, making each mouthful that much more doughey.

Prawns were very fresh without the weird over-crunchiness from using soda water (cheap trick to make prawns look turgid)

Paired with some home made XO chilli sauce, it was crunchy chewy perfection.

Char Siew Pau (Roasted Pork Bun)

Again, gorgeous ( I couldn’t find ANYTHING WRONG with FLM’s dimsum, unlike most places where there are more hits than misses and only one signature dish done well)

Bun – Fluffy, not stodgy at all, light, airy

Meat – Incredibly flavourful, smoky, tender.

Wu Tau Kau (Deep Fried Taro and Pork Crescents)

My dad is a health aficionado and only eats organic rolled oats for breakfast, avoids red meat, and enjoys steamed fish and rice. Meaning he avoids deep fried food like the plague.

He insisted on only eating half of one of these but ended up eating the whole thing – because they were that good. I think it may be the minced pork filling inside – the ‘pang’ (fragrance) of the fried pork belly just perfumed the mashed yam. Soft, yielding, and scrummy on the inside, crispy savoury yam on the outside.

I wish my mum had been there – this is her favourite dimsum item.

Lotus Leaf Rice

I think I have run out of adjectives to describe good food. Plus, the picture speaks for itself. Every grain of that pearly glutinous rice was filled with flavour,  no grain was mushy, the rice didn’t reek of damp lotus leaf (as it is apt to do in dimsum places where they pre-steam the food or overcook the lotus parcels)

And the nugget of Yunnan ham inside was just the icing on the cake.

Finally, FLM’s signature dish, the Liu Sha Bao (also my favourite dimsum indulgence of all time)

Liu Sha Bao (Flowing Custard Bun)

On the outside – unassuming, plain looking little bun.

Inside – golden flowing sunshiney goodness.

I show you:

Liu Sha Bao (Flowing Custard Bun) after

What maketh the perfect LSB ? Try the Libby taste test:

1. Pick it up (yes you should be able to pick it up) – is the bottom soggy? Can you see a hint of yellow? If yes, FAIL.
2. Rattle the bun. Can you hear a slight sloshing that indicates the insides are liquid? PASS
3. Slowly tear the bun open down the middle. The filling should be just right to be held in both sides of the bun without spilling all over your plate. If yes, PASS

If the bun fails #1, it means that the bun skin was either too thin or the chef overcooked it / over filled the bun.

Failing #2 means that again, the chef overcooked the liquid and it is now blobby and gooey and now the flowing butterscotch liquid that it is supposed to be. It could also mean it was served to you slightly cold and not fresh

#3 – If it spills, too much filling. Too much filling is overwhelming and cloying.

Taste wise, your Liu Sha Bao should be the perfect balance between sweet and salty – the sweet from the custard, the salty from the salted egg thats beat into it. The consistency should be slightly more liquid than cream, and never grainy.

FLM fulfilled all my expectations except one – THERE SHOULD BE TEN AND NOT THREE BUNS IN ONE STEAMER!

Just kidding

With good dimsum and tea, anything can be overcome.

So there you have it – eating my way through Hong Kong to bring you the best dim sum ! Go to Hong Kong and try Fook Lam Moon – you will never be able to look at Crystal Jade again, let alone 126 (turns up nose snobbily)

Fook Lam Moon 

53-59 Kimberley Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon
Tel: (852) 2366-0286    Fax: (852) 2739-8063

Also has outlets in Wanchai, Tokyo (Ginza), and Osaka.

What are your pet peeves or favourite dimsum places ! Share !

xx

Libby

Burger Room x Central

On one of the cooler nights in HKG, we decided to head out for the best burgers ever.

Previously was reluctant to share it because its so awesome and its always packed but its really too much of a gem for you guys not to try out !

Its just a stone’s throw away from the Central area, where we were staying, so we hopped into a cab, did some walking to burn off pre-burger calories.

Little Red Riding Hood off for some carnivorous fun.

The Burger Room is a little off the beaten track along with a whole bunch of boutique eateries with quirky names. All the food along this stretch is comparable (or sometimes even better) than the overpriced cafes at Wanchai so its really worth checking out.

The space is tiny and no frills, seating 30 people at the maximum around no frills metal round tables and foldable chairs.

The vibe, however, is just great – the place is always full of well-dressed yuppies chomping on burgers, nursing beers, and the smell of buttered bread and meat on a grill prevails, cut through occasionally by the hiss of their awesome coffee machine and chased by the roasty aroma of the beans being ground.

Everything is self-service, you order your burger, pay at the counter, and get your own drink from the drinks fridge that’s closely guarded by one of their young male staff.

We ordered mainly the classics

This was K’s Pineapple Bacon Aussie-style burger, and eating it will just change your definition of what burgers should look and taste like.

Its a nice thick juicy beef patty, perfectly seasoned and slightly charred, on a bed of crazily fresh lettuce and tomatoes, topped with slices of fried bacon, a thick round of tinned pineapple, and finished off with their special sauce. All this sits between two fluffy toasted and buttered sesame buns.

K’s always been a small eater, but he finished his burger in a maximum of 8 bites. We worried that we couldn’t finish the burger, and we needn’t have, because it was so good that before we knew it, we were just licking our fingers clean.

These guys know their burgers, man. The attention to freshness and enhancing the burger eating experience is all there – there is no cutlery, you are expected to eat with your hands, condiments are provided but not recommended, and what I like best is the fact that they put peeled tomatoes in your burger – so the skin doesn’t get in the way of taking a good clean bite.

Yum, just yum.

I had the fish burger.

Equally orgasmic, in a different way – instead of beef it came with a deep fried sole fish fillet and home made tartar sauce.

I added fried onions, which just made it even more fantastic. The crispy sole fillet, crunch of the romaine lettuce, fluffiness of the fish, and the umami of the onions – I can’t even…

Let’s just say it was worth every calorie (and that means a lot, coming from someone as terrified of fat as I am)

My Dad and M had the Portobello Burger and Bacon Cheeseburgers respectively and all I can say is that there was silence at the table as we chowed down, only interrupted occasionally with ‘ More serviettes ‘ as we cleaned the carnage off our hands.

Burger Room as fancier burgers too, like the Foie Gras Beef Burger and Hiroshima Oyster Burgers, which I’m dying to try but don’t have the courage to (just thinking of the calorific overload scares me)

There are pretty good sides and drinks too .. house-made coffee and Corona beers on top of the usual soft drinks, and

The hand-cut skin-on potato fries topped with cheese.

The fries are perfectly fried in clean oil (hence the wonderful colour) and gorgeously crispy on the outside, soft and potatoey on the inside. The cheese is just gilding the lily, in my humble opinion.

Satiated, we headed home.

Yes, my fashion-forward Dad wears Onitsuka Tigers. 

 

If you’re heading to Hong Kong, The Burger Room is a place you should definitely try out – go earlier than usual for dinner, because its always packed!

 The Burger Room

7 Caroline Hill Road, Hong Kong  

852-28909130

 

xx

Libby

HKG – Half my home now.

Hello !

I’m four days into the work week now and I’m waking up everyday reminding myself to be optimistic and trying to slowly but surely cure myself of a syndrome known as ST-sickness. It  manifests itself in the following forms of behavior :

1. Compulsively reading the papers every morning when they land on my doorstep (no longer free) and getting unnecessarily emotional and nostalgic when I see the bylines of my friends and colleagues.
2. Bloodthirstily defending the honor of the paper – I’m not sure why, but some people seem to think that leaving the paper = equivalent of a North Korean defecting to the South. No, I do not feel this way. At all.
3. Jumping awake in the morning to check my phone after hearing imaginary vibrations. This is the cause of a lot of my husband’s frustrations.
4. Constantly reaching out to my ex-colleagues (who are mercifully still my friends and love me) for whatever little tid-bit of my past life they can share with me.

I’ve been assured that my manic behavior is very in-line with people who leave ST. The methods may differ, but the withdrawal symptoms are fairly uniform across ages and seniority.

In any case – 852

Every time I go back its a slightly different experience. This time I was in a very pensive mood for most of the four days, ranging between depression about leaving my first job to euphoria at being (sort-of) unemployed for all of a week, to some kind of melancholic daze which is immunizing me from the reality that my whole family, which has been my strongest and best support all 24 years of my life, will be thousands of miles away in a few months time.

Home away from home:

Daddy’s new ride, which is really comfortable but I had a lot of problems getting on and off because its elevated and my foot always misses the step down ! Lots of people drive SUVs in HKG because of its hilly and undulating landscape.

Strapped in !

Lovin’ my ribbon tights !

These tights are like an epiphany for me – I really love the concept of garters but they are simply too skanky to be prancing around in in public – these are actually faux garters – full stockings, so you don’t need to worry about your stockings slipping down and you can get nearly the same look!

Bros x John Lennon

Our humble abode

Coooozy !

Headed down to City Super in IFC to pick up some fresh scallops, veg, very fresh kagoshima wagyu beef, and sauces to whip up a home-cooked meal for all of us in the apartment’s tiny little kitchenette !

View from the 42nd floor.

I’ve always been afraid of heights, but as I grow older and slowly overcome it, I realize there’s just something surreal and very calming about being so high up, the rest of the city and sea a diorama below you. My Dad says its perfect for reflection and I agree – sometimes I am so caught up in my life I find myself struggling to breathe and its difficult these days to find a place of complete peace, quiet, and serenity to reset your mind.

Back in SG, I go to the airport alone to clear my head. There is just something very soothing about sitting there as the world rushes around you in transition to somewhere else. It is a start point, an end point, a means to an end. Everyone is going somewhere and no where, and no one notices you, the eye of the storm.

xx

Libby

Benjy turns One !

 

Hi guys !

Sorry for the pathetic lack of updates and Hong Kong posts – I’ve just started at my new job on Monday and everyday has been exhausting but is getting steadily more interesting. By exhaustion I don’t mean from actual work – I’m still under training and learning to get used to using the Internet as a writing platform – so much jargon and so many new processes to adapt to! I’ve never thought of myself as a tech-noob, being as I use social media regularly and I also blog, but I feel completely tech illiterate right now.

Hours are better (so far), but I struggle with waking up by 8 am every morning and its taking all my willpower to get myself out of my bed and a toothbrush into my mouth. K claims I will soon get used to the fact that there are actually more hours of light than dark in a day so I’m fairly optimistic about becoming an early riser.

Benjy also turned one yesterday!

We baked him a peanut butter and carrot cake with strawberry yoghurt cream cheese frosting (don’t worry all dog-friendly) and topped it with a Rilakumma candle

“Moooommy can I just have a slice NAO?”

Our darling little pup has already been with us for 9 months and I just love him more and more every day. Much of our weekends are spent searching for dog friendly places or bringing him out for nice long walks, which in fact has brought K and I closer together.

Sure, there’s the guilt every morning when I say good bye and pack him into the kitchen with all his favourite chewies and toys, but every evening, it is pure bliss to hunker down onto the sofa hugging 5.3 kg of velvety dog and just watch telly and chat to K about my day. I think I could get used to this.

OK MORE POSTS SOON I PROMISE !

xx

Libby

Leaving.

Dear Friends and Readers,

Now that its finally okay for me to say it – I’ve changed jobs !

The reasons behind leaving my previous workplace were varied, conflicting, and ultimately the most difficult decision I have had to make in my whole life.

I’ve seen some of my peers and friends leave their first jobs with nary a care, looking ahead to the promise of the future.

But I’ve always been sentimental like that – and old fashioned like that – the first thing I thought of was – “What am I leaving behind” and not “What lies beyond my present?” – A question I constantly asked myself was, why are you leaving your dream job ? The job that you have always known you wanted, where you have had the privilege of  living and breathing Singapore’s heartbeat, where you have made amazing friends for life.

And I think the most straightforward answer I can put out here is that my priorities changed when K and I got married. I realized that my job was no longer just about me. To be honest, if I had still been single, I would not have left – I would have been content slogging 24/7 , pushing myself beyond the point of exhaustion but ultimately feeling that I had the most fulfilling job in the world.

But things changed when I became a wife – there are people waiting for me in my house, Little B and K, waiting for me to come back and make it a home. K, who has held my hand through 2 of the hardest years of my life without complaint, deserves better than a wife who is available only sporadically on weekends and absent most weeknights.

He deserves a good hot dinner, clean clothes, and a smile from me after coming home from a grueling day at work. Unfortunately, for the past two years, he got a stressed-out, angsty, and unhappy girlfriend/wife who was a ticking time bomb that may or may not explode at the mention of ‘dirty laundry’.

Then there is my family, who I so desperately want to see more of before they pack up and move to Hong Kong, possibly leaving me more alone than I have ever been. You only have one chance to be a good daughter, a good sister, and a good grand-daughter and Life is too short to not be around when they need you the most.

And my friends, who have had dinner dates cancelled on them so many times some have texted me to ask them if I was angry (?!) with them and avoiding them on purpose.

So it is with mixed feelings that I closed the last chapter of my life, as a crime reporter at Singapore Press Holdings.

I, excuse my french, kept my sh*t together for the whole of my last day but that night as I packed to leave to visit my Dad in HKG, I sobbed loudly into my suitcase. I honestly felt like I had physically ripped away part of my identity in leaving my job.

Come Monday, I’ll be starting out at Yahoo! as an entertainment journalist – something completely new and different from my previous job but hopefully, will be yet another blast to add to my growing list of life experiences !

I had originally intended to skim over this issue in my blog because I’m worried that its too personal and there are too many people reading this space but what’s the point – personal blogs aren’t meant for self-censorship and this is a milestone I want to look back and remember for the rest of my life!

Here’s to moving on and up !

xx

Libby

Home :)

Just got back, only slept at 4 am, and would like to spend another 10 hours snoozing in bed with Benjy with the AC on full-blast – recommendations on the best dimsum / burgers in 852 soon!