It’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun. This Christmas, Stella and I surprised Ronald and Nat at their home in Hong Kong and spent six eventful days with them, Bernie and Zhao Ting which took all the stress and fatigue accumulated from work for the past six months. Going to Macau, experiencing emperor-like treatment at a spa in Shenzhen, both for the first time has made this trip an unforgettable one.

It’s also been a while since I shopped so much. In Hong Kong, Stella and I exchanged our birthday presents with me receiving a nice Prada wallet and a Calvin Klein Jeans bag from her, and to her, I gave a large Marc Jacobs wallet with its traditional double metal clip front, something she really wanted for a long time.

The damage doesn’t stop there though. I’ve also tailored 5 pieces of shirt in Shenzhen and bought a pair of leather shoes and black pants at Tangs, Singapore. Items still unchecked on my shopping list are a pair of casual shoes, shirts (TGIF types), more pants(!), office bag and a new cupboard for the books piling on top of one another in my room. Ikea, here I come!

For a nice climax to this lovely Christmas celebration, Stella and I had a great dinner with four other friends at Forlino, an incredible Italian restaurant at One Fullerton. Great service, wonderful food, attentive staff, combined with unexpected complimentary items such as appetizers and bottles of still water made the signing of the name on the bill such a positive experience. I don’t usually do fine dining at the same restaurant in one year but I think I’m going back to Forlino soon.

Christmas is over and the new year is approaching. It’s also time to review my spending budget and save up for a trip in April. Here we go!

Couldn’t find Patrick Suskind’s Perfume; reading Murakami’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. After which, Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and another Murakami’s After Dark awaits me. This should keep me busy until January at least.

Been really quite tied up at work recently with another case and not initiating any outings with friends, in fact, I hardly even went out with Stelly. That’s why we’re really looking forward to our holiday. That would really make a good end to the year, with good news coming from the missy from her workplace.

By the way, "We need to talk about Kevin" has really been one of the best books I’ve read in 2008. After putting myself through several serious books like the why-the-hell-did-I-finish-a-textbook "Making Globalization Work" and less serious ones like "What they teach you at Harvard Business School", it’s been a nice break going back into fiction again. Heck, I even bought myself the one about the diaries of a London call girl which literally read as fast as a diary, and as intense ;)

I’m going to find this book named "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. Will update once I’m done with it.