A sweet surprise indeed!

Our final days in Geneva (just 3 more days to go) saw me packing up stuff and passing some of the useful items and/or food over to our friends.  I was feeling a lot better so was out and about making arrangements to meet up with friends to catch up over coffee.

I’ve been meaning to catch up with L over at the Swiss Watch Blog after her surgery but had been too ill to do so over the past 2 weeks.  So, I was really glad when I received an email from her last week asking if I was free for tea before our departure from Geneva.  Yay to an afternoon out, for I really wanted to could catch up proper with her.  I asked if it could be a bigger gathering asking if the other gals were free, I knew I wanted to meet with A (The Switzerland Hughes) to pass her our rice-cooker.  L said she would arrange, but I thought no one else other than A could make it.

Boy, was I wrong!  I rushed in carrying 2 heavy bags filled with stuff for the pair but as I stepped in, I was greeted with shouts of ‘Surprise’ by familiar faces!  So it seems that L had been planning this surprise and I was not to know that the rest of the girls were going to be there.  Must say they were pretty good at keeping me in the dark for I met with S from Schwingen in Switzerland earlier that morning for coffee and she gave me a quizzical look when I asked if she was going to join us for tea.  I also met with N at for a morning session yoga but there was no mention of the party.  L, you certainly did a great job on planning this little surprise!  Thank you! 

That’s not all!  A lovely spread of afternoon tea delights (they knew I was crazy about making macarons) were prepared in my honour by these superb ladies.

It was indeed an afternoon that got us all on a sugar high – macarons from Laduree from A, home-made peanut butter cookies by N, home-made pumpkin brownies by L, home-made matcha (green-tea) tiramisu by T, chocolates and other treats from S and L.  We had girly conversations and stuffed our faces silly with the sweet treats.  The girls also compiled a little online album filled with the adventures that we had taken during our stay in Geneva.  Aww.. thanks ladies for everything!  Once again, am really touched.

Prior to moving to Geneva, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make any friends and I’d probably become a hermit by the end of my expat journey.  Honestly, making friends from scratch can be rather challenging but looking back, I most certainly did not become a hermit for I’ve gone on to make this small but amazing group of friends.  How?  One of the ways was through blogging.  It has really opened doors for me here and after that, we kinda expanded the group further by pulling people we knew separately into the group.

Thanks again ladies for the wonderful memories and the great times that we spent together exploring Geneva.  It was short but I’m thankful that our paths crossed.  It’s goodbye for now but hopefully we’ll get to see you real soon.  And be sure to give us a shout-out if you ever come to Singapore. 

[All photos courtesy of L over at the Swiss Watch Blog]

P.S: Vain me talking here but I wished I put on some make-up before leaving the house.  And let’s not talk about my bad hair day! 

Singapore food feast in Geneva

It had been an interesting weekend of sorts. The first weekend that we stayed in Geneva after 4 entire weekends of traveling. This weekend was extra special for we invited our friends over to our place to sample our Singaporean cuisine. I also extended the invitation to KT who’s currently studying in Paris to join us in the feast. He had wanted to come visit me in Geneva and I figured he would probably miss Singaporean food by now, so it all fell into place.

The Man and I cooked up a storm in the kitchen. We made Gado-Gado, Chicken Satay served with Ketupat, Curry Chicken, Prata and Kaya Puffs. I think we did pretty good and did Singaporean cuisine proud thanks to pre-mixes and sauces that comes out of a packet! The little intern and the Style Princess also chipped in by helping to design place-cards with descriptions of the food for our guests. Thanks guys!

We’ve been really lucky to meet up with these lovely bunch of ladies and their respective other halves. And it’s pretty amazing how we all kinda ‘hooked’ up with one another. Long-short on how we all met: Sam over at Schwingen and Switzerland was going to be moving to Geneva in June/July, she found me through my blog, we started emailing one another and the rest was history for we became fast friends. Sam introduced me to L over at the Swiss Watch Blog for she moved to Geneva approximately the same time as we did. We hung out a couple of times and explored bits and pieces of Geneva together. And I met Wildcat over at Switzerland Hughes through L and we hung out one afternoon over at Carouge. I guess that’s the beauty of living overseas and having the opportunity to meet different people from different countries through different ways.

It sure was a fun night with great company bonding over wine (loads of it) and the food that we so loved! And it does feel that we are finally settling into Geneva.

[Additional photos from Collage 2 thanks to KT ]