happy rufflicious twenty eleven!

Life has been a bit of a crazy whirlwind since Christmas eve. Loads of feasting of every sort, as well as my Come To UK And Be A Teetotaller Fantasy mocking at me and saying "kiss my arse". Nevertheless, it's the New Year already! Twenty Eleven. . what a fulfilling the last year has been, in a very different sense from all my other years, especially in making me more resilient and certain about the Leaps I take. Here's another long PhotoFest of a post-- saying goodbye to 2010, wrapped up in the ribbon bows of beautiful revelations and immense gratitude; and a hello to 2011.

Brighton has so many restaurants we took it for granted that we'd find some place easily. Happily, we booked a place at Bali Brasserie online but did not bother voicing our mutual suspicion that it'd be fully booked as there was no confirmation call. I took my time to concoct an outfit (it's really hard in winter when you wear more than a layer as compared to my trademark Five Minute Dressing in Singapore), laying out possible combinations on the bed. As usual, D did his "You sure we don't need to order a taxi there" thing which got me retorting, "Do I look all precious and delicate to you like a Ritz girl" and he laughed saying, "Yes". Sometimes this whole You Look Like A (High Maintenance) Posh Girl irks me-- you have to understand that being misunderstood for many years by all sorts of people when I'll quite happily take the bus everywhere and shop at charity stores makes me quite upset. Bali Brasserie, however, was fully booked, and my fantasies of amazing Indonesian and Malaysian food had obliterated away. We walked loads, wandering in and out of various restaurants that were either fully-booked or in D's words, "too regular for the New Year". Eventually, we found La Fourchette, a restaurant we've always wanted to go to but end up going elsewhere, and settled in. . .

The tables were sprinkled with sparkly glitter and shiny celebratory embellishments, which I used as test subjects objects for my little digital camera.

And of course, another set of feathery eyelashes, this time with long bits at the side as compared to the extremely thick ones during Christmas. These look a little like tribal markings when I look downwards, and were the talk of the night, whether by passersbys, people jumping into the cab after us, and in the casino. Plus, layering The Demonness Lipstick over Stila 24K Lipgloss in Merlot gave me glassy lips with a tint of wine. The joys of makeup! (And of vanity!)

The food was fabulous. Five stars. D had oysters with garlic gratin served on a bed of coarse sea salt, whilst I had scallops with pumpkin puree decorated with a circle of chocolate sauce. Absolutely divine.

One of my favourite shots of the night. Pity my camera isn't fantastic, as long as it doesn't die on me, I'll love it.

I chose chicken stuffed with crayfish and leek for my main course, whilst D had an amazing beef fillet. He recommended la gourmandaise de la fourchette for dessert, suggesting that it meant 'feminine, delicate. . a selection, platter' and my eyes lit up. Purrfect for greedy people, a description which the head waiter laughed at. There, an opera cake, hazelnut mousse-y cake, raspberry layered cake and icecream with a coconut-eggish topping which tasted like kaya was unveiled in front of my eyes. Together with glasses of white wines, Shiraz, Singapore Slings and Ports-- what a yummy night.

We were given light sticks for the night. As well as loads of party poppers for midnight! "I am Obi won Kenobi. You are Darth Vader" D went, and I laughed because, I wanted to say that too! Sometimes we find it vaguely scary that lines like "It didn't materialise on this side of the galaxy" come out of each others' mouths at the same time. Unanimously, and for the first time.

The above shot was our "Happy New Year" Facebook photograph.

The Light Sabre Bands we wore all night. The whole restaurant burst into some celebratory Ring Dance, and convinced us to join them. Which I did, of course, after pulling D along. It was fun, a little insane but hey, it was the New Year! Spent with an amazing man with whom life is an open book, and an adventure that is both calming and exciting.

Loving the white feathers. . after white-toned fairy lights on the wooden beams upstairs in The Lair, this is definitely inspiration for doing up The Bedroom Which Feels Like A Yurt.

Guess who was waiting for us, perched gloriously on a low wall, as we came out of the cab. Bounded up the stairs, turned around for loads of strokes and loving and purred insanely like clockwork.

After so many hours, I was dead tired, but D kept delaying sleep in every form, by first going, "You're gonna like the breakfast, anyway!"

The first breakfast of 2011 ;)

And last, outfit details. Since this is first and foremost, a fashion blog ;) . .  At least, for now.

As stated earlier, I took a little more time than usual to pick out an outfit. This beautiful champagne gold dress was bought from a charity shop at Cambridge. But somehow, I wanted it to be more. So I pulled out my black zip-up brocade dress from Reiss for the first time, and tied the gold dress' ribbon sash around it. I have a penchant for picking out Decorative Items and this ruffled bolero from Sixties Inspired back at Singapore was no exception. And voila, I faked a fancy long black coat! I'm also convinced that decorative tights make all the difference since the devil is in the details. This sheer polka-dotted grey pair was only a pound at Primark and looks divine. The shoes were from River Island, the long black opera gloves from Ebay, the necklace from Accessorize and the earrings my mother's. Channeling Queen Amidala.

Because I have feathered hair pieces lying around my shelves at home, I stuck one at the back of my hair. Pretending to be an exotic bird can be fun.

 

D wore light-coloured Italian flare pants and it was only upon looking at the restaurant photographs that I realised our colour schemes matched.

Happy New Year my friends-- may Twenty Eleven be big and momentous! And with even more time gone, I realise there's a bigger backlog of photographs. So look forward to more posts, more sketches, more creations and more food posts! Have a Devilishly Pleasurable rest of your lives ;) x