Baby Shower for April Babies

A couple of weeks back, a few of us from the Asian Food and Friends (AFF) group,  organized a combined surprised Baby Shower for our dearest mothers' to be- Zue Lian and Hilda.  It must be all so daunting really to be in a foreign place and of all things bring a life into this world.  For that very reason, plus at the same time fast- forwarding my life, am thankful for the people I've met ( must say though, they have excellent Gynae's here!, so that's one thing I'm quite calm about; if you're wondering about health care in Chile ) I don't know if it's complacency or not - for me being in the same circle of friends, really cuts down the possibility of meeting new people in life and I sort of hunger for that at times. I look back to my time in Malaysia, and I did spend a lot of my time with foreigners and my work mates ( which of course were people I just met) I think, it sort of drives me or maybe it's the only way I know how to live because I've been some sort of a nomad.
Funny . I'm reading "blink" by Malcolm Gladwell now, and I found this interesting. I'm paraphrasing here an experiment carried out by the psychologist Samuel Gosling. He says it's quite plausible that people who have met us and thought about us for a mere 20 minutes, could have a better understanding of who we really are than people we have known for years. That in it self validates how at times, I look back and wonder how at times a "new friend" could be so refreshing in my life. So I feel lucky having met all these people. Imagine,  if I knew only the Malaysians here ( the 15 of them , yes there are only 15 Malaysians in the whole of Chile!) that would have been some pressure to hope that they would all love me. With my close knit of friends here, everyone makes everyone else feel so special.  We do at least try to catch up for lunch or go shopping and we're constantly calling and exchanging e-mails.
 Oh, and of course birthdays are just another reason to just go way over the top ! :)
 Sometimes I do wonder,  I wish a certain friendship blossomed or what if that friendship had more time. Then I step back and think, it's so okay that we don't click with everyone and plus if we're getting way less than we put out...
 that's just unnecessary in this short life of ours, no? Friendships should take effort but not too much. What was it again? It takes only 20 minutes. Maybe we're just better off moving on with our lives.
   Anyways, I'm happy that Chileans are very warm people - it certainly helps with getting settled in.  Plus, I've known many of Luis's friends since he was in Varsity in Chile. I guess it has helped now with my Spanish being a bit better and of course trying to be as positive as possible helps a bundle. I sometimes forget that many things are in our hands and its mainly just how we look at the situation. We all know that.

  When it comes down to it though -  it's really the quality of friends that make a difference
 ( Having said that,  it's not like I'm gonna stop collecting friends :)

 So, with that in mind,  I'm gonna make a conscious effort to keep these lot in the forefront of my thoughts as they are certainly some precious beings.  I'm so lucky, lucky to have met them all.
20 minutes aye - 20 minutes that's all it takes to possibly have a friend for life.
What do you think? I think I might take my chances :)

Hilda arrived first !  Everyone was there 30 minutes earlier to surprise her :) That's Ica our gracious host

Then Xue Lian arrived and was so shocked that I literally had to say " It's your surprise party, we are surprising you!!" ha ha

Ica who hosted us is a designer.  She designed also for the Warehouse and Topshop in London.  So, we had talent around, which really set the scene.  She drew the pictures above, one Hilda and the other Zue Lian, can you tell who is who?

and she also made these pretties

We had a very elegant palette - grey, pink, white, black ( white and the black was the cow in the group photo below)
 ( very sophisticated colours I must say, plus we're all in our 30s so...well suited)

and of course there was food - AFF is basically a group that gathers to eat and talk - so everyone brought a dish
( notice the pretty table setting)



I attempted one of my mum's traditional recipes - Honestly it didn't turn out like it should have.  So, the evening before the event,   I skyped mum and said " HELP" she said just grind a large onion and add some garlic and that should help. Well it didn't only help, it transformed the dish!!  Not sure how my mum does it, she's just an awesome cook.

Us :) Not sure why I wasn't smilling. I think I was a wee bit nervous with the person handling the camera ! That's the helium cow - so much better than the random colourful balloons we so often see at parties.
 ( they kinda remind me of a rainbow that might have just regurgitated into open space)

All the best my dearest friends! -  You both, no doubt would be fantastic mothers xx