Cherry hugs and chocolate kisses

Got an email from my boss yesterday and today. Well one is my previous boss - I just bought her a box of chocolates to thank her for her generous hong pow that she gave me when I left for Brussels, the second is the boss I had when I left the firm. They're both very cool and great role models for me... in terms of professionalism and also learning how to live life to the fullest. I was so lucky to have two good bosses during my time at the firm.

And replying to another email from a friend I met in Singapore gave me some time to reflect on my times in Singapore and the experiences I'm having here in Brussels. In Singapore I had a hard time dealing with culture shock and the fact that I had to start everything from scratch, meeting new friends and getting to know how to work in a company.

But now that I'm here in Brussels and I have friends here, I have Antoine here and I have managed to find myself a new and challenging part-time job, I'm discussing business ideas with a long-time friend of mine... I feel whole again. I feel like I really need to keep in touch with the people that I love and not let my old relationships collect dust, like they did a little while I was in Singapore.

So I've renewed my promise to ensure everyone dear to me, who's given me guidance knows what's going on in my life!

No mood to write but have new discoveries

I have a temporary writers mood block... so I started replying to emails and clicked on one of the curious gmail tag ads. It was called 'basic chocolate cake' www.101cookbook.com.

In 30 minutes time I had a mini adventure and discovered how to make a chocolate cake without sugar and white flour, who is Ginny Evans, a personal chef who specialises in food for special needs diets and a blog called Chocolate & Zucchini (two of my favourite foods).

It's amazing what you will find on the internet these days just by clicking from one blog to another website to another blog. I discovered a network of female chefs who have made it big and know how to promote themselves - they write cook books, they give private cooking classes and they know how to express themselves everyday to create a fan following.

Interesting concepts, great marketing. Things I now have time to explore and ponder.

Day Trip to Liege

On a spur of the moment idea, Yasmine and I went to Liege for the day yesterday! We explored the city just like any other tourist but with no prior expectations at all and it turned out fantastically :D

Liege being a tiny little town didn't require too much walking and there were churches, a palace, squares and shopping districts as expected. And giant steps, tiny blind alleys and gothic architecture from the 12th century which was unexpected!!

Crazy day out there leaving at 9:30am - one hour train - arrive 11am in Liege, quick pitstop at the tourist office, make a short plan of our we will tackle the town and then we were off! At 4pm we almost made it for the 4:00pm train but just missed it... were back in Brussels by 5:30pm.

Great day, cheap travelling and great time with friends... Yasmine coming at all from Singapore was a bit random but it was nice to have a little piece of Singapore here in Europe to remind me of the good old times.. (they were that long ago!) just one month :)