A (birthday) gift that keeps on giving

My wonderful husband has once again proved that he knows me so well. How? By getting me a birthday gift that I absolutely love.

Want to know what Marlon's gift was? I'll give you three clues. These three pictures all have something to do with it.

Any guesses? See if you're right after the jump!

Let's get this party started

Last week was insanely packed (in a good way) and there's still so much I have to blog about. But that will have to wait, because *happy dance* it's my birthweek! 

Marlon sure knows how to get a party started, at least in my book. He kicked off my birthday celebration by treating me to a little somethin'-somethin' at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. 

And that is your sneak peek at Dutch Design Week. That's about all I can manage for now, but there will be more (lots more) when I get back. Promise.

In the meantime, I'm taking off to celebrate The Big 3-0 with a long-awaited trip to Istanbul. I'm excited to be crossing another big one off my lifelong travel wishlist. Ta ta for now and see you next week!

Wish list

Before I continue with my Rome posts, let me just say... it's October and it's my birthday month! Yippee!

It's a big birthday this year and I'm celebrating it in a big way with the trip to Istanbul. And since I've (surprisingly) actually made enough friends here to throw a house party, I'm thinking of doing just that.

While I must say I'm pretty content, there are a couple of odds and ends I'm obsessing about at the moment. It's been a while since I put together a wish list; I think my birthday is a good excuse to do it!

1. Adobe Photoshop (the only time I ever miss having a PC is when I think of all the cracked software I used to have)
2. An Apple mouse
3. The pretty Missoni scarf I saw at De Bijenkorf
4. An English-Dutch, Dutch-English dictionary (to further my language studies)
5. Parisian Chic by Ines de la Fressange
6. Design Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney (one of my favorite blogs, now in print)
7. Heck, any book from my Amazon wish list!
8. Love, Chloe perfume
9. A Flickr Pro account (thinking ahead for my blog)
10. A nice book of easy patterns for knitting or sewing

So many books on my wishlist! And I told myself I wouldn't buy any new books until I read every last one of my 38 (yes, you read that right) unread books. But if new books are gifted, that doesn't count right? Right.

A world of our own

Part two of Marlon's birthday bonanza was something I knew he'd always wanted, but would never buy for himself: a globe!

Google led me to Stanley & Livingstone, a small store selling a wide variety of globes, maps and travel guides in Den Haag. So I arranged to meet my German friend Robert, who lives there, for a quick coffee and a trip to the center of town to check out the store. "I'm meeting Robert for coffee," I told Marlon the day before his birthday. What he didn't know was that I was meeting Robert in Den Haag!

And what I didn't know was that Robert had his own ideas for my little visit. "We can bike to the beach, then back to town, then to the center of town for coffee," he suggested. "Er... maybe not," I replied, thinking of my fledgling repertoire of biking skills, which mostly consist of huffing, puffing and wobbling. "I'm a beginner! I've never biked here before!" 

Aba, di patatalo ang Aleman. "This is Holland," he replied. "You have to get on the horse—by that I mean the bike—sooner or later." So get on the bike I did, said bike being Robert's folding bike from Dutch mega chain store Hema... which, I might add, is not the easiest thing for beginners to practice on. 

Robert was pretty tough on me, I must say (must be the German influence). Even after witnessing my red-faced struggle to mount his bike and get it moving in a straight line, he didn't cave in when I wheedled, "I don't think this is going to work." (Marlon probably would have, though!) 

Instead, he wisely decided to not ride through city traffic and took me on a quick spin through the Haagse Bos (a nearby woods/park) to the Queen's Palace. And by quick, I mean 20-30 minutes... just about enough time for my legs to cramp, for my butt to become sore, and for me to wonder why I was pedaling frantically through the woods after an athletic, whip-cracking German tenor when all I really came here to do was buy a fracking globe! 

I did end up buying the globe that afternoon, and Robert gallantly carried it for me all the way back to the train station. (Maybe he noticed me hobbling and felt sorry for me!) At home, I hid the globe among the pile of moving boxes in the guest room, and tried to sit as normally as I could on my aching bum to keep the trip (and gift) a secret from Marlon... who was so puzzled as to why I seemed so tired that evening.

I went for a vintage-looking globe called the Renaissance globe, and chose a Dutch version because it was just so much prettier than the English one. I figured if we ever leave the Netherlands, it would be a nice reminder of our time here. I also chose a globe that lights up, because as my sister so wisely pointed out: "At least you can use it as a lamp, because are you really going to sit around in your spare time looking at a globe?" She has a point!

This globe has a soft warm glow that I like... and that Marlon does too!

The countries are up-to-date, but the globe is full of little details that hark back to the golden age of seafaring and exploration, such as sea monsters, nautical icons, and even the routes of famous explorers such as Drake and Magellan.

The secrecy, the sore legs and even the aching bum was all worth it when Marlon came home from his dinner at De Kas to see the globe lit up in the darkness of our living room. He loves his gift and I love it too!

Dinner at De Kas

Every year, whenever I ask Marlon what he wants for his birthday, he simply looks at me with a smile and says, "I have everything I want." (Cue melting heart.) This year, I decided to pour my entire month's (meager) freelance earnings into celebrating his Big 3-0 with a three-part gift. 

Part one was the birthday dinner. I took charge of choosing and booking a restaurant. After running through a shortlist of choices from my trusty Time Out Amsterdam, I chose Restaurant De Kas, which sits in the Frankendael Park in the Oost (East). 

De Kas is located in an old greenhouse that dates back to the 1920s, and used to belong to the Amsterdam Municipal Nursery. Slated for demolition, it was rescued in 2001 by Michelin-starred Dutch chef Gert Jan Hageman and converted into a restaurant. 

It also still houses a small nursery, where herbs, vegetables and flowers are grown for the restaurant. The owner now heads the nursery, and together with a team of chefs, cooks up a weekly set menu of three starters, a main course and a dessert that is based on the produce harvested that week. I was hooked by the concept and the location, and thought it would be great to try seasonal food, something completely new to us. Luckily, I was right and Marlon loved it!

Whenever Marlon and I go to a restaurant here, the first thing the server asks is if we'd like something to drink. This always throws us off, and we normally end up going blink blink at each other... before ordering water! And that always throws the server off, because it seems the appropriate response is to order an aperitif... something absent from our food culture, and thus something we know nothing about. 

I was determined to be prepared for this restaurant visit, and thanks to a very informative thread in Fodors' forums, now I know! The Fodors foodies suggest a number of liquors such as champagne (the most common aperitif), grappa (which I've tried and hate), port and sherry, but the suggestion I liked most was to ask if they have a house aperitif and try it.

At De Kas, the house aperitif is champagne with an herb from the garden, which that night was the lemon geranium flower. Ordering an aperitif is the kind of thing that makes me feel like a grown-up!

I enjoyed the seasonal meal, which came with white wine for the starter and a red for the mains. Everything was so fresh, so light and so... so spring! I always hear the judges on Top Chef judges food with words like "bright" and "clean", and for the first time I understood what that meant. 

The not-so-bright part of our evening was when Marlon found a piece of steel wire at the bottom of his dessert. Yup... steel wire. I'm not talking about steel wool na pangkuskos, I'm talking alambre here. Though it was only about 2-3 millimeters, Marlon called the attention of the server.

The response of the staff was admirable. Three different members of the staff came over to apologize. The last was the manager, who waived the bill on dessert and immediately investigated the kitchen. She brought over a large mesh strainer and explained to us that it had most likely come from that. As we were leaving, we passed by the kitchen and saw her chewing out a pair of chefs. I thought the staff handled it well and it wouldn't stop me from coming back. I'm just glad nothing bad happened and that Marlon managed to enjoy every last bite of his dessert!

Before we stepped out, we stopped by the herb garden for photos. Our server gave us a little tour and pointed out the most interesting plant in the garden: oyster leaf from Iceland, so called because... they taste like oysters. Seeing our skeptical expressions, she plucked two fat, fleshy leaves and gave them to us to chew on. And you know what? They really did taste like oysters!

Nights like these are what make me extra thankful to have freelance work. If not for my rakets, I wouldn't be able to treat him and make him feel happy and special, like he always does for me. And I'm even more thankful to have a husband who enjoys such simple pleasures and shows so much appreciation for every little thing. It may be his birthday, but I think I got the best gift of all. 

28

i turned 28 last monday! and here are 28 things i loved about my birthday!

1. checking into the fullerton hotel with marlon on saturday. finally, all the clues revealed! (mad props to cris for figuring out the photo!)

2. the super duper high bed in our courtyard room. i want one now!

3. the high ceilings in the room!

4. the view of the river from town, the fullerton's main restaurant. with the pretty white trellises twined with bougainvillea, it just felt so colonial and fresh and precious! hahaha. it was nice to finally be on the other side of the river and seeing the view.

5. just lazing around with a copy of eldest, the second book in the inheritance trilogy. i had been hankering for a long stretch of time to just burn through the book and i finally got it!

6. getting to wear my hot pink maison martin margiela sandal boots! i got them at the barney's warehouse sale in new york and have only worn them once. these shoes make me feel like a million bucks!

7. the beautiful fullerton all lit up in the evening!

8. just having the esplanade across the road :)

9. a surprising sight from home... an ifugao dance at the esplanade lobby! it turned out to be a dance troupe from a university in tarlac, flown in for the singapore dance festival.

10. fantastic orchestra seats to dunas, a performance by flamenca maria pages and contemporary dance artist sidi larbi cherkaoui, to music by composer szymon brzoska. again, care of my hubby!

11. MARIA PAGES. OMG. the goddess of flamenco. powerful, regal, passionate and completely committed. there were really no words to describe her dancing. i must have cried at least 3 or 4 times during the performance. i really had no idea i could be moved to such an extent by a dancer.

11. SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI. beautiful, inventive, honest and just so totally free. this artist can do amazing things with staging and production, surpassed only by the things he can do with his body. one of the most jaw-dropping parts of the dance was when he literally became like flowing sand dunes, rippling and tumbling and shifting all over the desert. yung tipong sinabihan siya ng "okay. you are sand. blow around the desert. go." then he just goes "okay!" and completely transforms.

12. the music of dunas, by szymon brzoska and ruben labaniegos. a combination of western music, moroccan and arabic motifs, and flamenco... even with some early music thrown in for good measure. the perfect complement to a stunning performance. please if you ever find yourself in a city where dunas is showing, watch it.

13. the post-show dialogue with the artists, describing their journey and their creation. i loved seeing maria's personality in particular, since she can just seem so godlike and imposing when she dances. she was completely endeared to me when she described how one part of the dance was conceptualized. she clapped her hands together gleefully and cried, "i want to be a tree! can i be a tree?"

14. two words. chocolate. buffet.

15. after all that sweetness, we suddenly craved for salt. so although we agreed to forego dinner, we ordered up a big plate of fries from room service and spent the last few hours of saturday reading in bed and satisfying the munchies. mmm.

16. waking up to my wonderful hubby. :)

17. spending pretty much all of sunday at the poolside like a pair of old white rich folks, baking in the sun in lounge chairs, reading and snacking on bar food.

18. speaking of ang moh tourists, there was an old white-haired french couple i loved sneaking peeks at. when she thought no one was looking, the old lady would pinch her husband's butt. hahaha. sana maging ganun kami ni marlon.

19. speaking of marlon. his company all weekend was the cherry on my sundae, the icing on my birthday cake. :) more than once, he remarked, "i feel like it's my birthday!"

20. buffet dinner at town. did we really need another buffet? not really. it was yummy though.

21. birthday breakfast at town on monday morning, my actual birthday! where marlon presented me with my birthday presents...

22. my new braun hair iron! bad hair days begone!

23. my new set of bobbi brown makeup brushes! this will stanch my craving for makeup classes for at least a few months. good thing there's youtube!

24. mostly skiving work on my birthday. hehe.

25. the sumptuous dark chocolate opera cake the office got me for my birthday. there are so few people in the office now that everyone got to have a nice big slice and i still got to bring a full third of the cake home!

26. a tiny slice of birthday cake every day! not good for my waistline but it has certainly made me feel like the whole week was my birthday!

27. opening facebook to a flood of greetings on my wall!

28. feeling loved and happy all week! i couldn't have asked for a better way to turn another year older!

Mystery solved!

well, partially, at least!

brilliant detective cris, a regular visitor to this blog, cracked the puzzle: the dude in the previous post is sir robert fullerton, first governor of penang! how she actually managed to find this out is almost as big a mystery to me as the clue itself!

which means that i'll be spending my birthday weekend at this gorgeous building downtown...

... a happy fact that marlon confirmed today! he decided to tell me early so i could plan what outfits to pack for the weekend. the man knows me, i tell you.

this makes it easy for us to just walk across to the esplanade on saturday evening, where he booked us tickets to a performance by world-famous flamenca maria pages! after which we can attack the fullerton chocolate buffet. ahh, bliss!

ten million pogi points to the hubby!

Wanted

do you know this man?

neither do i. but apparently marlon does, because this old bloke is supposed to be the latest clue to my birthday mystery. the running joke now is that my birthday gift is a time deposit, because that's the only intangible thing i can think of that i can open but not unwrap, and definitely not enjoy on my birthday. so when i got this particular clue, i jokingly wondered aloud if this dude's face is on money (it's not, at least not on any currencies that i know of).

aside from the dude, marlon scribbled these numbers in one corner. i'm thinking they are some kind of jumbled-up latitude-longitude combination, as i recently showed him how to get coordinates from a google map (right-click on the spot you want and choose "what's here?").

and there was a gleefully cryptic, delightfully cheesy message on the back.

then this evening, when i mentioned that our monday morning team meetings would be moved to tuesday mornings instead, he crowed with delight and told me that this new development suited his gift perfectly (my birthday this year is on a monday).

with this in mind, i guessed that "old-world charm" might be referring to a night at the colonial-type raffles hotel, and this dude might in fact be sir stamford raffles. but alas, googling images of the venerable old colonial master proved my guess wrong.

dum de dum dum. who could the lucky merman be?

Clues blues

the birthday guessing game continues.

1) i can now enjoy 1/4 of my gift on my birthday (previously, i couldn't enjoy it on my birthday at all).

2) marlon and i have talked about the gift recently. (thanks ha! now i have to mentally replay all our conversations for at least the past three months)

3) marlon will present me with a handmade clue this weekend.

still stumped! gaah.

Clueless

it's officially a month to go until my 28th birthday!

marlon loves to torment me with very cryptic hints about what my birthday gift will be. he finds an almost evil glee in making his clues so obscure that they end up confusing rather than enlightening me.

i figured i should keep track of these clues to see how they actually match up to reality later on. after all, past experience has proven that he's not beyond making up fictitious clues just to completely throw me off.

these are the birthday clues so far:

1) i can't enjoy it on my birthday, this year or any year.

2) it's light cream.

3) it's a thing that can be turned into an event.

4) it comes in three parts or phases.

any guesses? i'm stumped.