Rasina's Birthday On the High Seas
Rasina's birthday party. She held it on board the Il Lido yacht, which sounds pretty grand but it's really only about 50 ft and although it has two bedrooms, it's not quite as large as I'd expected. Most of the boat was not air-conditioned, which I guess is normal for yachts, but in Singapore's humidity, I wasn't really thrilled by the al fresco ambiance. Still once we started moving out to the open seas the breeze picked up and it was quite pleasant. The Il Lido restaurant that owns the yacht is one of Singapore's best and once the ship leaves the harbour, they stop and serve a gourmet four course meal. It was quite nice and the food was very good.
I was quite relieved that Rasina had invited a pretty nice bunch of people, as I hadn't known who would be there and had some initial fear of being stuck on the boat with some pretentious or snooty society types. Thankfully her other guests were people I knew and liked, who were al nice and down-to-earth.
Arriving at the dock to board the yacht
On board with my friend Belinda, who owns Flower Diamond. The pendant I'm wearing is from her boutique. Behind us on the right is Dr Bernard Cheong, one of the world's top watch experts, who was my guide when I went to Switzerland last April for the Baselworld Watch Expo.
With Andrew, the yacht's captain, who is also the Il Lido restaurant manager
One thing about being at a party on board a boat is that you can't just leave when you want. We played some party games and enjoyed the sea breezes as we cruised around after dinner, and finally docked around 11pm. The annual Zouk Out rave/dance party was also taking place at Sentosa that same time, with revelers arriving just as we were leaving. Traffic was a nightmare and although they had called me a cab, I had to wait a while before it arrived and we then joined the traffic line inching its way out. Thousands more were arriving, ready to party the night away but I had my fill of fun for the night and was happy to be heading home.