Today was a really good day for Nanz and I.

We had been hurtling through Jan and Feb like two rockets when suddenly two weeks ago, Nanz said “Hey. What are we doing for International Women’s Day?”

A mad scramble and a half later, my good friend, the beautiful and most lovely Ms Daryl Teo (“Dee” for short), marketing manager of the Lo & Behold Group (they own Loof, White Rabbit, The Shack in Sentosa and OverEasy), offered to host a luncheon for us and 10 of our MVPs (much-valued pals) at the wonderful OverEasy, which is a “diner” serving amazing food and all-day breakfast (yes, truffle egg!).

We gathered at 12 today at One Fullerton. OverEasy overlooks the new IR and the Singapore River/Reservoir. It would have been perfect to be outside had the weather been 15 degrees cooler! OverEasy has a really chilled-out vibe about it– probably why there were quite a number of corporate types blowing off Monday morning steam with a great lunch! A bar divvies up the space into a dining and a lounge area. By night, I imagine the alfresco space fills up with couples and groups of pals hanging out listening to the live band.

As women are wont to do, we sat down and started talking nine to the dozen. Among us were Klessis Lee (a secretary and a mummy blogger), Daphne Ling (a mummy blogger and writer), Sunuja Naidu (editor of Today’s Parents), Cheryl Ng (a web-entrepreneur who used to bring in diaper bags), Novie Tan (an entrepreneur), Dr Lynda Wee (a training business owner and educator), and Nanz Inc’s wonderful writers Lianne Ong and Melanie Lee.

It was a casual lunch -but oh what a lunch! Dee is not the Hostest with the Mostest for nothing.

Drink of the day: Mint lemonade
Starters: Nacho chips with 2 dips: guacamole & spicy sausage
Soup: Mushroom and cream of tomato
Salad: Duck Confit Salad (baby spinach, peeled mandarins, cashew and tender chunks of duck)
Shares 1: Truffle Shoestring Fries Shares 2: Baby Burgers (cheese-covered steaks!)
Mains: Linguine with Chicken or Prawn
Dessert: Brownie (with chocolate shavings on top!) and the most perfect Apple Crumble ever.

As you can tell, the food was quite nearly the main event (and comes highly recommended by both Nanz and I – you will not regret blowing your calorie-count here).

As we munched our way to dessert, the conversations around the table were a wonderful mixture of work, family, children, husbands, weight loss (yes, that’s us, eating lunch and talking about lymphatic drainage) and exercise (or lack thereof). This was exactly what we imagined a cosy Nanz Inc gathering should be like.

“It’s fun that it’s just a small group of us,” noted Melanie. True, we could have real conversations in a group like this.

Our photographer Jeff Tan started off being the fly on the wall but pretty soon caved in to the wonderful company and awesome food. He did however work very hard (thanks Jeff) and we made every guest say a line or two about what International Women’s Day means to them, and what they feel are the best things about being a woman. (Of course, some talked about the lunch!) You’ll get to watch those clips soon!

At 1.15pm, SURPRISE! Elim Chew and her manager Ruth Quek and rapper Chitabee showed up! I had invited Elim but Nanz and I decided we should try and keep it a secret (in case the very busy Ms Chew had to bail — she came from a Barclays speech that ended at 12.45!).

Yes you read right — Elim brought her rapper. The woman has her own rapper.

“Other people tells jokes to get the crowd to pay attention, I bring a rapper lah,” she explained. Chitabee is a 22-year-old rap champ who, under the mentorship of Elim, has gone from what others saw as unremarkable, to a young man with his own business. He runs a studio that cuts albums for local acts. Chitabee is hired by Elim to warm her crowds before a speech.

Now, that’s what I call style. (Maybe I should consider a posse of Chippendales dancers to open for Nanz’s next speaking engagement…)

Elim brought the topic of social entrepreneurship to the table. We’re such busy women doing so much — why not think of a way to make our work or business do good while we’re working at it?

Too soon, sadly, the luncheon had to end and the various ladies had to go back to work, back to meetings, back home to the babies.

Thank you all for being there today! Your presence, warmth and comments touched us — do keep telling us how to make Nanz Inc better, and how we can help more women in greater ways.

A big thank you and kiss-kiss to the fantastic staff at OverEasy for giving such amazing service! We’ll be back!