a weekend in new hampshire

tao hu, taoki-natto, and i seized the weekend with some folks a couple of weeks ago to lose ourselves in the lush, "well-established' foliage of fall in new england (we also took the chance to overdose ourselves on transfats in too-generous portions of everything). i may be biased, but i truly think autumn is the most beautiful time of the year, a time when all the elements of nature come together in just the right way. The leaves are wearing their best colors, the sun has mellowed from its fierce summer strength, the air has just enough chill to walk through without having to hunch one's shoulders. i think autumn is the point; winter, spring and summer, though gorgeous in their own ways, are just building up to it. It is in the fall that the earth matures into all it’s meant to be; the fields are ripe, the apples are ready , the pumpkins are set, the grapes are harvested, and crushed into wines (that IS the point of grapes, no?). by the way, these pictures aren't mine - i forgot my camera.

sugar maples in the shaker village in canterbury

flag hill winery in lee, NH

squeezing the goodness out of the grapes right after harvest, at flag hill winery

we hiked 1,786 ft up mount major - this was NOT a walk in the park ...

... but the view was well worth the climb

Halloween Parade

In the pipeline - the wacky personalities that will be part of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade from the New York Chapter!

the scoop on singapore chapter

met up with some of the singapore members of the club, who looked very fine, and appeared to have transitioned to new lives in their old homes quite effortlessly. oh, by the way, the food at this place (the soup restaurant, i think) was really quite good, although i think i could have enjoyed it even more on it if i weren't so busy asking kanelmo for her exercise regime.

back on my feet

Singapore can be a cruel bearer of truth -– weightwise, at least. In new york, I’m “skinny”, “little”, “tiny”, I need to “ go eat a sandwich before you disappear altogether”. In the Bronx (even the whole of new york), big butts are good; in singapore, they’re just a monstrosity. Back in Singapore, I have “aunty” arms, as a (very) honest friend pointed out to me; my tummy is sticking too far out in comparison to the concave ones I see on the MRT; and everything about my body is too big. Everybody looks like stick insects to me. The crunch (no pun intended) came when a friend’s mom said to me, “wah, ni3 fei2 le4, hor? Fei2 hen3 duo1 leh.” Always count on mothers (friends’ or your own) to tell you the BIG, FAT truth. And then I met ex-ceo tao huay for dinner, and it turned out she was running and exercising, and she looked good and healthy and trim. So I promptly signed up for the gym when I got back to new york. Four years after a failed attempt with tao gay at low-end Dolphin’s gym in Astoria, where sweaty men huffing and puffing away served more as a deterrent than a motivation, I’m getting on the treadmill again, this time at high-end gold’s gym downtown. Perhaps the lavender scent and swanky bathrooms will inspire me to work hard, if not the super svelte girls in their Nike garb. Target: 9 lbs in two months. Method: 30 minutes sprinting on tread mill three times a week for two months. Diet: cannot change. Wish me luck!



no more cupcakes... sob