evielovestotravel

Molly Bear

2011-06-23T15:40:00.001+12:00

Our latest addition to our pet collection. Little Molly Bear, roughly named after my maternal grandmother with a twist in the surname. Haha... its a family joke from "Beh". We got her from a farm 20mins away from Oamaru at 8 weeks. She's a tiny little thing, barely 1kg but can be fiesty. She managed to scare Jerry, a 8kg heavy weight with a snarl and sent him scurrying off.

She loves to curl up and sleep a lot. Such a little pudding.

Here she is playing with her snaky. She was scared of it at first.

She can sit upright like a little teddy bear. Isnt she cute? She's a long haired Siberian, like Jerry. Only her fur is longer.

Finally got her to sit still for this pic.

I wrap her up in newspaper sometimes when I carry her. She uses her claws a lot, common for baby kittens. Ouch!!!

Carrot Cake, Bak Chang, HCR and Jerry

2011-06-10T22:24:00.001+12:00

I'll call it as it is. 10 days into my official unpaid holiday leave, I have been busy! Obviously no one or only a small population have heard of the Dragon Boat Festival where you throw rice dumplings into the river to appease the spirits, much less you can find bak changs on sale on the streets of Oamaru. I made some and discovered that I wasn't the only one in Oamaru to make them. Mrs Liu, my Taiwanese Sifu made some too! We exchanged some bakchangs and had some green tea. Yums.

Bak Chang
Before you view the graphic images below, please understand that I have never wrapped a bak chang before, and though I've eaten lots, I have never learned the art of tying it. Before I endeavoured to make them I did some research on the internet for the best recipe and finally decided on Mrs Leong's Recipe book and youtubed on how to actually tie the dumplings in a neat triangular bundle. I managed to find some bamboo leaves in Christchurch before the quake, actually, I bought the bamboo leaves ages ago (along with some lotus leaves) but have not used them. I honestly would not have known it was Dragon Boat Fest save for an advert in Dunedin. Anyway, it tastes pretty authentic to me and I left out the nasty stuff like split green beans.

I used minced meat, candied melon and all the other stuff in the recipe.

The assembly line. Rice is prepared and seasoned, meat cooked, bamboo leaves softened, pot of hot boiling water ready to go. I had some raffia strings. While I did know how to fold it in a triangular bundle, I didnt know how to tie it and keep it secure. So it ended up a little flat but still secure. Improvision. Who knows mabbie next time, we'll have flattened bak changs?.... nnnnoooott!!!

So the strings are all over the place, doesnt look too pretty but it tastes pretty good. From 1kg of glutinous rice, I made about 35 bak changs. Thankfully I had LK and two babes to help finish them with pleasure!

Perhaps the view of the sea will win some points off the badly wrapped but very delicous bakchangs?

I enjoyed making it. Had lots of fun but next time, I'll improvise and just chuck everything into a steam tray. :)

Carrot Cake

No one's birthday in particular, well, my mother's is coming up but I can't possibly send it to her. Anyway, I suddenly had a thing for carrot cakes and cream cheese frosting. Its like, carrot and cake? Carrot cake and cream cheese? Who in this beautiful world decided that they taste good together? Who tell me? I wanna shake your hand and kiss you. Its the best thing ever. To console myself, the cake is made without butter, has raw sugar (not very much of a consolation) and the best part, it helps you see at night. Yup, just one slice of it will help you see in the dark. Something in the carrots, that will do you good. Just eat. hmmmmm..... Its lovely and moist on the inside. hmmmm....

HCR
Hainanese Chicken Rice. After the disappointing much awaited meal at Pow Sing on our trip back, I needed to find something that can satisfy. The prima deli boxes of make it yourself HCR is not too bad really. If you are far from home and need some HCR, try that or you can do it the hard way. Boil the chicken stock, cook the rice with chicken stock and some fat, ginger and garlic, throw in a pandan leaf for a hint of oomph. Boil the chicken and throw it in ice water to make the skin and flesh jellylike. etc. I dont have a picture of it, I didnt think it was necessary. But with the leftover chicken, I drowned it in Shaoxing wine and chucked it overnight in the fridge. OOOOOOhhhh...... throw some corriander leaves over it and its Drunken Chicken! Hics!

Jerry
I realised I haven't put many pics of my big little kitten. Here goes... Jerry over the year(s)

When he first came is was a cute little baby cat. Not the best behaved but we loved him lots... somehow.

See, climbing everywhere, even on our dining table before he was banned from the living room.

The basket seemed huge then.....

Waiting by the door of the living room. He knows he is not allowed in there. Isnt he adorable

Chillaxing on my lap

Slowing growing bigger and his tail is getting bushier.

Downright tubby. Check out his beer belly!!

Look closely and you'll see that he brought his ginger friend home. He neutered by the way... what was he thinking!! It was so cute, they were meowing to each other before ginger went away.

Snuggling on the sofa beside me. He's only allowed in the living room on supervised visits. He knows he's a rascal.

His fav sleeping position, heads up , tails down.

Aint he tubby.... LK feeds him lots

His other fav position. love to rub his tummy

Snuggling on my blanket! Definite no-no. But he's such a sweet little rascal.

Grouchy he didn't win the Steampunk competition in the Oamaru Mail or does he think he should be the Oamaru Male? hahaha....

Bye for now everyone. Hugs and kisses

Life and Times of a Housewife

2011-06-10T21:10:00.000+12:00

So week 1 of being a wifey was rather excellent I must say. Did lots of things with the house like putting up new drapes and voiles, new blinds, doing up the bathroom and putting things together. Just doing anything but studying!! Subconsciously I procrastinate? haha... no... I think I just am procrastinating. My assignments are long due but thankfully its via correspondence so they can't catch me!!! Anyway, I will endeavour to complete my assignments!! Jiayou!

North Island Campervan Trip
As promised, the photos of my long overdue campervan trip to Auckland up northeast to Cape Reinga, back down on the western loop to Hamilton then to the Coromandel Peninsula all in a grand total of 7 days. We flew up from Christchurch to Auckland and back. We rented a Kea with Shower and Toilet which is really cool. Had all the luxurious necessities like a gas stove, sink, heater, TV and DVD, Radio, hot water,very comfy king bed, microwave etc. Splendid. I want one!!! A bigger campervan that is.

TV and DVD, Radio right in front of the bed

Comfy King sized bed. There's aircon in the van too!

Another view of the bed.

View of the campervan from the rear, walk thru to the drivers seat. :) LK enjoying life in the campervan.

Side view, thats the sink and gas stove and behind it is the shower/toilet

The beds turn into a dining/living area during the day.

With a campervan, you can stop whenever, cook whatever, eat whatever, sleep wherever, meet whoever and travel however. :)

We camped by the sea in Takapuna in Auckland.

Campervan site in Takapuna Auckland. Those in the pics are caravans that you have to hook up to cars.

Gas stove and below it is the fridge/freezer. Super awesome compact kitchen.

One of the beaches along the coast of Northland. We didn't take many pics cos we think Kakanui beach, which is 5 mins away from where we are is a million times prettier.

Stones in Keri Keri. Love the town of Keri keri, nice, warm and easy.

Lighthouse at Cape Reinga. It is actually a significant site for the Maori, about souls departing.

Look closely and carefully and you will notice two seas meeting, the Tasman Sea and the Pacific. Really mindblowing!

Closer look at the light house

Kauri Tree in Kauri Forest.

So we were more fascinated with driving around in the campervan than the actual sights that we went to. Didn't think very much of Coromandel, didn't like the drive around the winding, narrow roads. The cathedral cove, the famous scene in Lion, Witch, Wardrobe was sort of closed off but LK when down anyway. We had a go at the Hot Water Beach where you dig a hole in the beach and have your own warm spa. Apparently, there are geothermal lines going on below the sands and you just have to pick the right spot and boil your bum in it. Nice on a cold windy day. Haha...Our trip also cemented the fact that South Island was a much better place for us. :) And we want a campervan of our own! :)

I think this blog may have too many pics, will carry on with another just ahead. :)

Wifey

2011-06-01T23:46:00.000+12:00

Its the start of my three month hiatus from work. Unpaid, unfortunately but rather rewarding for my first day, on the first of June. So rewarding that I actually have time to water the plants! So what did I actually do on my first day as wifey. Woke up at 914am, didn't want to get out of bed so I reached over pick up my read of Queen of the Sun: A Modern Revelation. A quick shuffle out of bed to draw the curtains to let some light thru before cuddling back under the covers. Definitely, highly recommended must read book would put in a review on it when I have time. Was kinda hungry while reading but the thought of walking to the kitchen wasn't as exciting as the next line on the page so I kept on. 10am, okay, hungry enough. Strolled out the door, snuggled my little sweet rascal lying belly up in the corridor staring cutely at me for his breakkie. Gave him a tickle and greeted him with a "Good morning my little fat cat!" and walked to the kitchen. Heated up the oats that my husband left for me ( he woke up at 430am to prepare to work and had to kiss me up at 530am just before he left just to make sure I knew that he was going to work). Left the oats to heat while I tried to go downstairs to feed the cat. Tried because Jerry would zig zag along the steps as I went down. I have no idea why. Picked up his tray and washed it, refilling it with water and some Friskies. He went gobbling it up as soon as tipped over his food. He came upstairs not long after and trotted up and down the corridor. Alright, I opened the door and off he went galavanting somewhere.

Hopped up the stairs and had my bowl of oats while watching Will and Kate: Road to the Altar on E! Never seem to bore me watching that. They look so good together. Prince and Princess. Sweet. At ard 11 when the show ended, I spent some time mucking around before deciding to water the plants. Put in some organic blood and bone for the plot which I intended for my herbs, watered out new, apparently hardy dwarfe peach trees and spring onions and corriander in the hot house. Hearing me sing ABBA's One of Us while admiring the great job my gardener has done Jerry jumped up from behind the fences and came to say hello. Rubbed his head against my legs then ran away. He jumped in my way while I was watering the plants and I gave him a gentle sprinkle with the hose. He seems to like it. Haha... not.....

Almost 12. What's for lunch? Had to actually be wifey not pretend you know. Dug up from prawns and squid from the humongous chest freezer that we had, found some fish bones and chicken bones. I've got my menu for the day sorted. Easy Peasy. Did all the dishes, scrubbed out the slow cooker and started boiling some water in it. Had some left over rice so, fried rice it was going to be. What sort I wonder? Sambal perhaps? Nasi Goreng? Ahhh..... Thai Pineapple Rice paste in the pantry and some canned pineapple. Cool. Lunch sorted. Prepared the stuff and started cooking. I doubt you'll want to know exactly what I did to fry the rice. When the water was hot, I chucked in the chicken and fish bones in the slow cooker with some dangui , ginger and wolf berries. Thats dinner sorted. Loved cooking, had the great view of the sea while cooking, played a piano CD and just smiled. Hmmmmm..... wifey. I can do that.

120pm, hubbs is home from work, brought in the mail and the papers. What news could little Oamaru possibly have? Had lunch with leftover seafood Assam Pedas soup with crabs, prawns and fish. Hmmmm....
Sleeeeepy after lunch I was. Nooooo.... I didnt' sleep k. I did the dishes, rare but I just loved it. Hmmmm..... the big blue ocean kept me company while I cleaned up. Smiles. Somewhat tired from doing whatever I did this morning, hey cooking and gardening can be tiring k. Hopped in bed in the guestroom to finish reading the book. Its soooooo goood. Hubbs woke up ard 3 to go prepare to teach Mandarin. Printed some stuff last minute, as any well prepared teacher would do and said goodbye, poking me in the leg. Like what the hell? I was still happily reading my book in bed. Anyway, before he left, the caught the cat idling in the garden, caught him and passed him to me through the window. What a cute little furball. No... I'm still not getting him a cat door. Do you know that burglars can actually reach in and open the door through the cat door? Anyway, I finally finished reading the glorious book. Felt uplifted yet depressed at the same time. Read it and you'll know why.

4pm. Stretch!! Hungrish.... prepared my therapy room for a friend. Put some lemon and peppermint oil in the burner, heat up the room a little, put the kettle on and went to cuddle the cat. Had some hot choc with almond biscuits while watching the ocean..... bliss... more smiles on my face. Hubbs came back just as I was finishing my afternoon tea. My friend came early, had a treatment for him. Great guy! Had a good chat while treating him for over an hour. Had a short chat after. Shut the room down after, fed the hungry cat again and walked to town. Night air was cool and the stars were out glistening in the moonlit night. Had a short session of Arnis, love em stick fighting. Hiak! Played with a little girl and a really tall guy. Hiak hiak!! Drove home with hubbs. Had our dinner of leftover pineapple rice and the lovely fish soup. hmmmm..... yums. Decided that washing dishes at lunch is good enough for a wifey. Tried to play with the sleepy cat but he was adamant not to be disturbed. Cats. Watched tv instead. Got onto Facebook on Zuma Blitz! Got some fortune cookies and extra mojos. Looked at what Wills and Kate were up to, preparing for their Canadian Trip and something about Fifa elections *yawns*. Here I am, recording my first day of being a Wifey. Hardly exciting but very happy. Could I do this forever? A.B.S.O.L.U.T.E.L.Y...... mabbie.....

So there you go, page one, chapter one. 2 years of moving here, away from the rest of the world, secluded and isolated. Not much in a way of " lets play mahjong!! or lets go get durian!! Or lets go yum cha!!" but still very happy nonetheless. Me day. Yay. Love you. Kisses.

And they lived happily ever after?

2011-05-11T17:33:00.001+12:00

Its been almost a year since my last entry. As much as I have stopped reading blogs, I've stopped writing my own. Is it just a passe or just laziness? Doesn't matter. I'm just procrastinating from what I'm supposed to do anyway.

End of the Chalk and Blackboard?
I've made such a hard decision (gags) to quit teaching. Hahahaha. Officially my last day of teaching was on my Birthday and my what a lovely birthday present it was to myself. One of the best I'd say. E.V.E.R As much as I love sharing the world of biology and whatever else I have to teach to a classroom full of wide eyed seeming eager, knowledge-hungry crowd of restless teenagers, I love not doing it. Hahahahah. Anyway, enough gloating. I do like to teach I must say but I'm very keen to change my listening crowd to that of an older, more mature and ernest group of people. Hopefully, one day, I can . And hopefully it would be a subject that is useful, meaningful and helpful to the world. Something which is more heartfelt and beneficial to the human race. Who knows what it is?

Totara Estate
The place of much beauty and solitude. More solitude than beauty but somewhat exciting nonetheless. I've got to make the best of everything. This is where I'm working. Before you get toooo excited, its the birthplace of the frozen meat industry in NZ. Beautiful old Oamaru stone buildings in a picturesque setting. An urban gal taking much delight in settling into her rural country job. I work amongst preserved archeological building remains and hungry sheep.

One of the four buildings on site.

Two years in NZ
So elections in Singapore have come and gone. Two out of the very many ain't exactly super exciting but I'm not into political stuff. Its interesting to be able to compare governments at a superficial level ( in my case) ie whatever is in the superficial news. Doesn't bother me too much. I'm not about to do a point by point comparison about Labour and National or the Green party (Political Parties in NZ) to PAP or SDP or WP etc. But I do know that housing and cars are considerably cheaper. (Petrol prices are about the same) And I don't have to worry about paying ERP when I drive into town.I can speed up to 100ks here (or more sometimes, ahem). But migrating here and settling in has been pretty much smooth sailing except for the nail biting, heart wrenching bit about trying to get a full time permanent job. Love the four seasons in a year and sometimes in a day, love the rainy weather (when I'm cosily at home by the fire watching DVDs). Decided that we both are not true gardeners at heart, at least not yet and left the gardening to a pro. Thank heavens! But I've been really busy doing all the things I've never got to do in Sg. I'm into TKD, Arnis, Yoga, Massage, Aromatherapy and watching lots of Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan DVDs etc. Pure B.L.I.S.S.

Holidays have been mostly confined parts of NZ but the trip back to Sg in Dec 2010 further cements the reasons why we left. Except for the parts when I met up with friends and family over food and more food. Doubt we will be going to Sg soon. Cheap Air Asia and Jetstar fares simply means you... yes you.. the privileged one reading my blog... can come visit.

Royal Wedding
I'm not a Prince William fan nor Kate Middleton fan but the royal wedding has won my heart with truth and beauty. Its not an act for one and its not arranged and I hope they will live happily ever after. Love Pippa too.... :)

Singapore and Australia
Here are some pics taken on my camera phone when we were in Sg and Oz. The highlight would definitely have to be Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Pity we were 2 weeks early for the Australian Open. One day, one day I will be there..... Better yet, I'll go for all the grand slams. Better yet, I'll go for all four with Nadal winning each Slam. Better yet, I'll meet him, the King of Clay!

A Sg flag in Rod Laver. Seriously!!!

So thats all for now. Procrastinated enough. Will definitely upload campervan pics of our tour of the North Island soon. Stay tuned!

Jerry

2010-07-13T22:11:00.000+12:00

We've got a little Kitty

We called him Jerry

He's very furry

And a little fiesty

When you call him

He'll come arunning

Into your arms to be cuddled

He likes to be huddled

But not quite bundled

He's fun to play with

He's fun to fondle

He likes to be tickled

Under his chin unless he is fickle

Then he'll bring out his paws

Out comes his claws

They can cut like mini saws

But our little Jerry

Its ever quite so merry

In our house he is cheery

He's our little dearie

-First Time Cat Owner, who would never have kept a kitty in her little country.

At Home in New Zealand

2010-05-12T23:24:00.000+12:00

Hi ya!!!
It has been such a long while since I posted absolutely anything here.

I've been caught up in heaps of things like my new job and settling into our house and simply enjoying life. I've been happily giving in to my new 'hobby' of being a drama addict, watching all the China/Taiwan Wu Xia and anything with Ariel Lin Yi Chen in it. I'm not all bum though. Been busy planting spinach, bak choy and all sorts of herbs in my garden, been travelling around the country to Dunedin, Queenstown, Christchurch and Ohau, been making all my sedap kuih-muih that I never had time to do in Singapore and all sorts of other things.

I've discovered the gift of time and how absolutely wonderful it is. Not regretting I had to travel all the way here to discover that precious gift. Don't ask me what time I knock off work cos you'll be biting your knuckles and foaming at your mouth. All I can say is that I work when I have to and play when I want to. In Singapore it is, I work when I have to and play whenever I can!!! [ Needless to say I don't have to take my marking home and toil for hours on end marking scripts of exam papers and preparing for lectures during my weekends!!!]

The people here are brilliantly brilliant with the common goal of living life to the fullest and enjoying the sun when its out. I've met so many wonderful people in this town that I never imagined I would. That positive energy is so contagious, it just grows as long as you know how to nurture and treasure it.

A picture speaks a thousand words. So I'll put a few pictures.

Front View of the House: Below is our internal double garage with a nice storage space for our chest freezer, firewood, bicycles and other barang barang. The windows at the top are our open concept living/dining/kitchen windows which face the Pacific Ocean and the harbour. See our little greenhouse to the bottom right, it has nice tomatoes and capsicums.

View from our house: We get lovely coastal and town views

Side View of the house: Our lovely vege plot.

Inside our house: Cosy Living, Dining and Kitchen all facing the sea. We get the best views of the sun rising out of the horizon. You can see the Penguin Colony from our place (but you can't see the Penguins!!! unless you have Clark Kent's Supervison)

Obviously these shots were taken when we just got the keys to the house. The house is now cleaned up, full of furniture, food, fabric, firewood and other fabulous stuff. I'll tidy up the house and take an updated one for you to see...... soon.....

Sowing the seedlings of love: Well, I didn't actually sow them from seed but I bought them in seedling form and nourished and nurtured them with good organic fertiliser and love. The front rows are bak choy and the rows behind are spinach and lettuce. Right at the back are pumpkins and to the far left back are the corn. Very front left are the carrot tops. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we have harvested the carrots and corn. Unfortunately, we will not be growing them again. Fortunately, we will be growing other things in their place.

Ohau: This isn't the Ohau Ski Field but a tramp near Ohau where the snow capped mountains survive the hot summer and melt the glaciers that run into waterfalls and streams. It was a rather easy climb up and the view is just spectacular!

Lake Ohau: Doesn't this give you a sense of peace, calmness and space? Oohmmmmmm

Well, that's all for now folks. Till then a gazillion hugs and kisses to my three little Js, Sil, Bil, Cha, Issi, Chloe, YY, Cupcake, Bro, Azzie, MJ in Japan, Joyce and XY and whoever else reading my little bloggie.

Addictions and Outdoors

2010-01-31T18:37:00.000+13:00

So, I haven't posted in a long while. Simply cos, I've been busy working and getting addicted to drama serials. Good heavens! Since watching Eagle Shooting Heroes 2008 with Hu Ge as Guo Jing and Ariel Lin Yi Chen as Huang Rong, I've been trying to watch as much as I can online. But with my shady understanding of cheem mandarin words, I need the English subs to prop me along the story line. I seriously haven't watched a lot of TV since I got hooked and missing the Australian Open (and watching Nadal play... I know he retired....) hasn't bothered me one bit. Though I would have loved to watch Justine Henin's backhand slice.... Sighs, anyways, here's to give you some idea.

Ariel's really a fantastic actress and has an even better personality to match. This is what staying in a small town with approx 15,000 people (and thousands of penguins) and hardly any exciting shops does to you I suppose. I have been listening to her songs and short clips from U tube. Perhaps I'll watch Eagle Shooting Heros for the third time?

Outdoors

New Zealand is famous for the outdoor adventure, tramping and camping and whatever else. I went abseiling just the other day and really enjoyed it! It took a lot of core strength and effort but its worth it! I went up to the Cape, this cliff overlooking the sea to water plants in a Conservation Effort.But the sun here, is really unlike the one in Singapore. The UV rays pierces your skin right through. Oh well, I have enough melanine to last me for a long while. We went biking the other day to Kakanui, about 9km from here, with a couple. Had a cuppa at Seaview Cafe then stopped to collect mussels on the way home. I was too lazy to take out my camera to take a shot. But its all very beautiful and picturesque.

Victorian Fete

2009-12-14T09:55:00.001+13:00

One of the main attractions of Oamaru is her Victorian Heritage and Whitestone Buildings. In summer the locals spill out into town in their Victorian Costumes and penny farthings (olden bicycles with a huge wheel in front and a tiny wheel at the back) to exciting parades and fairs. There was the Heritage Parade, Christmas Parade and Victorian Fete.

Victorian Fete
Its like a Victorian Pasar Malam really except that its during the day and there are no pirated DVDs on sale. Most of the locals were decked out in Victorian costumes with their parasols and poofy skirts. There were street performers, bands, food, stalls selling all sorts of stuff. It was a really hot day and I had heaps of fun!

Mayor Alex Familton and his wife in Victorian

Wheel of Fortune. This is a real money making scheme. You buy some numbers, spin the wheel a couple of times and see who gets the draw.

Victorian Ladies Watching a Performance.

The people here are generally biggish. I feel like I belong! Haha.... not that I want to........

The parade started at about 1030am to 430pm. By 6pm when we had a drive around, there was not a rubbish bin nor prob nor stage in sight. It was as though nothing ever happened. Cool.

Twilight

2009-11-24T23:37:00.000+13:00

Have you watched the movie?

Goodness gracious me. I would never have watched it till someone lent me the DVD to watch. I feel so compelled to write a review on it. I was writing it in my head as I was watching it. Goodness gracious me. This would prob be the few occasions where I write reviews. Goodness gracious me.

Twilight- The Movie
To the adult/parental population, you might double take and ask , "Twilight Zone, you mean?" Far from, my obtuse little friend. Far From. Its a potpurri of teenage romance, vampires, blood, wolves, drama, geeks, action etc. While watching the movie I could see snippets of several movies and tv shows. Here goes, in no particular order.

1. X-men : Some of the characters look like that and some action/stunt things are borrowed from there

2. Days of Our Lives: Somehow the slowpacedness of it all reminds me of that

3. Seventh Heaven: The family scenes remind me of that.

4. Interview with the vampire: enuf said

5. ER: Cheezy hospital scenes

6. Memoirs of a Geisha: Thats the look of the vampires' faces

7. Matrix: Some of the stunts reminds me of that. Edward reminds me a little of Neo

8. High School Musical/Grease (without the singing) : lots of school scenes and silly conversations/cars etc, teenage romance thingies...., prom nite, new girl to school effect

9. Windtalker: The red indian /wolf tribe who comes to the rescue

10. Me, Myself and Irene : The cop father who looks a little like Jim Carrey

11. Murder She Wrote: Bella's sleuthing about Edward

12. Moulin Rouge : Edward's passion for Bella reminds me of Ewan's to Nicole's (except the raunchy parts)

13. Never Been Kissed: The baseball scenes

14. Harry Potter: The baseball scenes reminds me of the flying ball game in Harry Potter ( I never really appreciated Harry Potter)

15. Harry and the Hendersons: The numerous forest scenes

16. Star Wars, Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith: The bad/stiff acting bits by Edward and Anakin. The fingernail scratching on chalkboard scenes.

17. Pirates of the Carribean: The african american in the strange suit reminds me of a pirate

18. Lady and the Tramp: The scene where Edward and Bella were having dinner at the restaurant, except Edward doesnt eat

19. 27 Dresses: Where the two girls were trying clothes for the prom

20. Cinderella/Sound of Music: Where Edward accompanied her to the prom and they danced in the gazebo

21. Superman: Edward's always "Watching out for her", flying around trees etc

22. Tarzan : Why would a vampire fly from tree to tree to impress a girl?

Well, there you go.... 20 over movies depicted in just one show. My overall review is that it is a combination of one of those tragic taiwanese love serials + Dracula + X men. Watch it!..... only if you are a female, a teenager/or unmarried woman who thinks men will do absolutely anything to ensure your lifelong happiness and safety (or that there is THAT SOMEONE still out there), lives in a world of fantasy and delusion or if you miss Superman.

HAhahahahahahahahahahahaha. New Moon.... out now.

Baking, Partying and Gardening

2009-10-03T12:18:00.012+13:00

Hey There!

So, apart from running around, chilling out, going to dinner parties, birthday parties, getting things done, working, and enjoying NZ life, I have found bits and pieces of time to cook and bake! Especially with the school hols of about 2 weeks, have had lots of time to rest and play! With my handed me down culinary skills and Mrs Liu,my new cuisine shifu, we have been cooking up warm delights in the cold winter season. Here are some pics....

Tau Siah Piah with Special Taiwanese Style Filling of Mung Bean, Minced Pork and Shallots:

Flaky pastry in the Making

Rolled, shaped and ready to be baked

Baking in the Making.... I dont' have one already made, again, as soon as it comes out from the oven, it went into our mouths and who cares about taking pictures when you are eating something yummy?

Bak Choy in our garden, A special variety which grows flowers! But the leaves are so sweet and yummy, grown on our very own special homemade compost! Yes, yes, SS was the happy gardener and chef. The greens grown here are really sweet, we grow our own coriander and the house comes with lots of mint and a mini strawberry plot too.
Our Garden: In the background is our neighbour's campervan. Its pretty cool inside, cosy and homey.

Chee Kuih: Specially made with this steamer rack I bought from the 2nd hand store.

Carrot Cake: Specially made version with prawns! Mrs Liu made the cake and I fried it up for her.

Char Siew Soh! With homemade charsiew, lovingly marinated, grilled and stewed. I finally know how to make the flakey chinese pastry skin. It has many layers and its crispy. Wanna make other stuff soon!

Riverstone Kitchen: This secretly lovely place I read about in my student's essay. Its actually rissotto, I didnt bother taking too much time to adjust the flash on my handphone camera, I just wanted to dig in! But check out the view at the back! There are snow capped mountains across the huge fields. This is really a upperty gourmet place to wine and dine, a bit like Holland Village in Singapore.

Scrumplicious Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Sorbet

Will post more pics soon!

Here's a big hullo to everyone in Singapore! Especially the little ones, JS, JW and JY! Study hard for your PSLE JS! Get lots of A****s! If you get A* for Science, I'll buy you a huge chocolate bar!

Happily Busy and Busily Happy

2009-09-22T21:10:00.007+12:00

Hey Everyone!

Long time no see! Anyways we have been really busy here in NZ and having lots of fun too! We've met heaps of people from all over the world! There are people from Tonga, Samoa, England, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, Fiji, Poland, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Ireland etc. Its really fun getting to know them and their cultures.

The schools here are pretty awesome too. Their classrooms are well decorated with all sorts of art work and crafts and has a really homely feel. Most classes have a sink in the rooms, a couple of computers and the tables are arranged for group learning. I love the schools I'm helping out in and the teachers here are fantastic. I didn't have such a fun classroom when I was in school. Comparatively, it was pretty clinical. White painted, single files of desks facing the blackboard, a huge teacher's desk in the front of the room, cabinets to keep exercise books out of sight, no hands on resources (except for the science labs), two noticeboards flanking the blackboard, all very neat, a notice board at the back with notices neatly pasted and a wastebasket and a broom next to the door. Sometimes we got to decorate the classroom for Chinese New Year or Hari Raya but that was about it.

Recess (its called Playtime here... how fun does that sound) was a quick 25 mins which included walking down from the fifth floor, queueing to buy food from the canteen, finding a seat in the canteen, finishing your food, then going out to play in the field or basketball court or along the corridors with our yeayeas and our skipping ropes or 5 stones. Here, the kids have two playgrounds (with this really cool tarzan swing), free to play balls which no one steals its just scattered on the floor, a huge field, a sandbox etc. No canteens which means you have to pack your own lunch and tea. One thing that saddens me is that many of the kids eat stuff like potato chips and cheezels as part of the lunch or for snacks. Its like part of their daily diet. Anyway, its not much of my business. But the kids here are really allowed to be kids. School starts at 9am and ends at 3pm (SHARP!) with breaks for 2 playtimes and lunch. How cool is that! No waking up before the sun does! The best part.... NO EXAMS!!!!! NO EXAMS to grade you and channel you to whatever stream which you are too young to be streamed for at primary school!!! No stressful PRIMARY SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATIONS... after primary school.... you just go to a secondary school. Sighs..... By 330pm, the school is dead quiet. No one's around. Why? Cos everyone here has a life.....

Anyway, enough comparing.... we all had our good times in which ever school we were in anyways. We had the best times of our lives with our friends and made the best out of every fun and stressful moment in school eh.....

On another note: I had loads of time to bake and cook too! I think I've cooked more lunches here than in one year in Singapore! I've managed to cook up my own chicken recipe, made Chee kuih, baked muffins, made Tau Sar Piah (with friend), made my own egg toufu, made my fav fried hokkien mee, Prawn noodle soup, teriyaki salmon, curry mee, bought a cool grill to bbq as well. Oamaru is a pretty small town and we have to go to either Dunedin or Christchurch to get some Asian groceries. But thats not too bad... I'm gonna make lots more stuff soon.... :)

Alrighty, here's some pics for you Sil... I think putting it up in Facebook is easier but I'll put it up here anyways.... Goodness me... it takes decades to get it up online.

Christchurch: Avon River near the town centre.

Mt Cook: Hooker Valley walk. It was fun to walk!

Mt Cook: Before our 1 hr drive into the Mt Cook itself.

Queenstown: The Cable car ride up was fantastic!

Glacier: One of them... cant remember which

Arrowtown: Chinese Settlement.

Cheers' Mate!

Living in Oamaru, New Zealand

2009-08-07T20:39:00.010+12:00

Hello Singapore!! Happy National Day! Hahaha....

Anyway, I don't really miss Singapore except for my friends and family and .... i guess... thats it.... haha...

We have moved to a lovely and cosy rental house with a wee view of the sea. It has 2 bedrooms, a large living area, 2 fireplaces but we only use one, an open concept kitchen, a cool pantry (which can be a little bigger if you ask me), one bathroom, 2 toilets, a laundry room, a garage, and gardens of course. It comes with really friendly retired neighbours who we have spoke to more than our neighbours at home. Oh well....

The weather is lovely, a cool 10 degrees when the sun is out and about 5 when the moon is out. What else have I been doing? Besides working part time in schools and entertaining my in laws who are here to visit (and cook and clean and pack and shop and everything else they wanna do) and trying to find time to rest.... honestly I have been really tired and busy. After the stint at the motel and trying to look for a permanent job, I am really tired. I have driven 3 hours to Christchurch (one way) and back in one month, to Lake Tekapo (2 hrs one way) and to Fleurs, to the Elephant Rocks, Glenavy, and everywhere..... as much as I love driving, its just..... tiring.... I havent had time to really live the NZ life of chilling, relaxing and reading a book. Not to mention gardening and cooking. Sighs... but I'm lovin' it and enjoying what comes my way.... I need a holiday!!! A real non driving holiday.

But the people (and the little doggie, whose custody been returned to the owner.... she's cute eh, but she's not mine k.... haha) we have met so far are awesome!! Singaporeans, Kiwi's and ppl from other countries who have settled down here have been good as gold!

We just moved into our rental for a week and snuggled in pretty quick. Had to get the electricity connected ( many companies to choose from, so monopoly on that unlike..... ), got our internet ( there's a company which is flexible enough to do it for a short term without penalty and it comes with a phone line with free local calls unlike......), rented a fridge for short term ( little pricey but who doesnt need a fridge, eh). Lovin it lots and lots.

Anyway, here are some pics.

Our house in Oamaru. It would cost us a gazillion dollars to rent one like this in Singapore. But our neighbours and landlord are priceless (though the house has a weekly pricetag).

View from our house. Thats the sea in the background. The Pacific Ocean.

Our warm fireplace in the middle of the house to heat us up in the cold winter nights.

Firewood. We would never dream that we would buy firewood, chop firewood and light a fireplace. But we have 2 trailer loads of it and its well used. :)

Thats all for now babes and dudes..... See ya later!

Pringles New and Old Tricks

2009-06-14T09:24:00.003+12:00

Here's Pringles showing her new and old tricks.

Pringles!

2009-06-11T21:42:00.009+12:00

We are staying at a motel which comes with a little dog. And my what the cutest little dog she is! A little white Westie who wags her tail and follows ard anyone who eats apples or any other food. She loves her little treats of duck duck (this duck thingy) and does a crazy interval run after she has does her business in the garden. She hardly barks, unless is to warn us of someone and she has the friendliest little smile.

She understands what we say but of course she cant reply lah.... and happily ignores us when she feels like it. She has her own arm chair for sleeping and loves to sit by the fire in the cold winter nights. She hates to be bathed and will run to hide under the bed when you bring out her bath towel. She hates to be blow dried but she'll patiently wait till you are done with her. She's such a darling. She loves to be hugged and massaged. Her ears will twitch when you call her name and if she's not ignoring you, she'll look at you with the most adoring face a dog could have. She'll lick you to let you know she's near...(so you won't step on her).

Here's a Video of her trying out a new trick. She ends up surrendering.

At Home in New Zealand

2009-06-11T21:00:00.007+12:00

Hey everyone! We are in NZ for a while. We stayed in Christchurch for a week before moving down to Oamaru. We had a blast in Christchurch mainly checking out the Asian Food Marts. They have more variety than NTUC, Shop and Save, Cold Storage, Sheng Shiong, Econ Mini Mart Combined! In one shop you can get all the interesting things from all over Asia. From India's Papadum, Marsala Tea, Matter Paneer, to Japan's Sake, Teriyaki, Wasabi and pickled ginger, to China's Vinegars, Smelly Toufu and Flours, to Philippines Banana Sauce etc, to Thailand's Tom Yum, Pad Thai and Curries, to Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia etc etc.... its so cool! I especially like the baby octopuses they have! I even found my favourite Tean's Crispy Chilli Prawn Paste and Singapore's infamous Green Chilli, Pickled Lettuce and even Kanah Cai! And..... some of the prices are cheaper than or comparable to what we are paying in Singapore! Really! We have been ripped off!

Anyway, here are some picts:

We went to this Cantonese Place called Foo San in Christchurch, tucked away quietly in the corner of nowhere. Great Dim Sum at good prices!

Our barang barang arrived safe and sound in Christchurch. It only looks like a lot of things but it really isn't much. Cant believe I left my Indesit oven behind... haha... I wish I brought more of my kitchen toys though.... I miss my nifty gadgets.... and all the wonderful things I had to sell or giveaway..... I really miss my salad spinner and my weighing scale, my rice cooker and breadmachine... my chawanmushi cups, my sukiyaki pot, my teppanyaki hot plate, my 3 in one grill, my ice cream maker, oh... my lovely and super useful lock and lock containers... my baking stuff.... I miss my entire kitchen.... waaa haaahaa... ( but here... I get to buy more stuff... hahahaha)

We bought a fantastic Toyota Corolla, our first car in NZ. Fantastic engine, manual winddown windows, key lock, no air bags but fantastic auto gear change and powerful.... vroom vroom....Though its like more than 10 years old, its better than the Nissan. The car needs Antifreeze!

Orni! We found some Fijian Yams from Countdown( a supermarket) and SS bought some to make Orni.... the yams here are thicker and less mushy so it isnt as smooth.... but its yummy all the same from our secret family recipe.... haha

Joyful Restaurant.... Fantastic place recommended by another Singaporean. They have really good food and we went there for lunch almost everyday. I didnt take all the food cos as soon as it arrived, I din bother to take photos... only this one... but trust me, their Roast Duck Noodles..... Hmmm hmmmm... best in the world!

Fleur's Place. The most renowned place in New Zealand, known for its seafood dishes. We managed to find this place only cos we went with people in the know.... haha... Actually, we missed the tiny sign which said Fleur's Place the first time we passed through. The food is excellent... We loved the Seafood Chowder and fish. Yumms! The desserts were to die for but no one... (except me) had room for dessert.... so.... I'll be back!!

Thats all for now. More on Pringles soon.

More of New Zealand

2009-04-17T02:02:00.006+12:00

The steepest road in NZ and possibly the world, in Dunedin. There were cars zipping up and down and there are houses right on top of the hill. How did they get the cranes up there? Yellow Eyed Penguin in Oamaru. The penguins walked right up to us from the sea to their nest.. so cute! There are "Penguins Crossing" signs along the roads... and no... Penguins cant read.... LOL.... hahahahaha

Oamaru and the historical white stone buildings. So quaint! I expected to see horse drawn carriages and ladies with parasols strolling along....

White Cliffs along the way between Mt Cook and Oamaru. Had to drive thru unsealed roads. Looks a bit like Cappadoccia in Turkey.

The Hermitage at Mt Cook. We managed to get a room with the view of Mt Cook. Absolutely Splendid!

A statue of Sir Edmund Hillary in front of the museum displaying his humble life story. He's looking at the Mountain he practiced on before attempting Mt Everest.

Memoirs of a SchoolGirl

2009-03-26T04:10:00.007+13:00

Nostalgia....Sweet memories, silly school girl notes about boring teachers and dumb boys, about what to do after school and during recess, birthday cards with the cutest decorations, christmas cards dating back to 1980s, autograph books with "roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, but not as sweet as you..... all gone...... Most of you will be surprised that its gone only now....Truth is, i had space to store them all until now.... hahaha

Buses
Thats why I have so many things...like bus tickets.... remember those days where a man comes to you after you have just sat down and asks where you are going, gives you a quote then you pay him some money, then he clips this ticket and hands it over to you. Not long after, if you are "lucky" a bus conductor will come on board and check your ticket, if you underpaid, off you go.... those tickets underwent an evolution from an ordinary paper type to a better quality paper.

Then, a few years later, they replaced the ticket uncle with a machine. So they placed a money bin next to the driver, you put the money in to roughly where you wanna go, he gives you a ticket and you sit in the bus happily till an Man in White comes up and you realise its too late to leave the bus cos you were sleeping and have paid a little less than what the bus company deserves....

Then another few years later they invented a little flimsy plastic card where instead of paying the driver, who has to waste time giving you some change, you store some monetary value in it, and shove it into a machine next to the driver, which will then give you a couple of choices of values of which to deduct, you are supposed to make a wise and honest decision and press the correct value. Grab a seat(or not) and pray that the Man in White doesnt come up before your destination. If he finds that you have underpaid.... you'd thank the lucky stars that you were caught just that once of out the 77 times you took the bus.

Then another few technological years later, they replaced that card with an EZlink card where there are two machines. One near the driver and another at the exit of the bus. When you board the bus, you tap the card, then you alight you are supposed to tap the card..... only when you alight.... BUT.... due to the goodness of the education system or the streetsmart upbringing due to good parenting, as soon as you board the bus, you tap the card again at the next stop but pretend not to alight(somehow) , thus paying for a cheap fare again......So now, after much research and money well spent to prevent such petty theft which causes losses in billions of dollars, they invented a system where you cant tap the card unless you want to alight, under the very watchful eye of the bus driver. ( honestly, i'm sure you have seen it before, there are still ppl who tap the card way before their destination)

I've taken the buses which are rickety and noisy as those buses from Malaysia when I was young. Those non airconditioned buses were like compulsory, no such thing as air con.... even the taxis were non aircon. Then slowly things changed when the introduced the air conditioned buses, ppl who wanted to save money would wait for the non aircon buses. Really, I know of some who did that. Then eventually all the buses became air conditioned, then the taxis were too. Later on the MRT started with just a couple of stations, one of them was Ang Mo Kio I think. I had my first ride when I was about 9 years old. Now it blossomed to a huge spiderweb stretching from Changi Airport to Joo Koon, whereever that is, with loops here and there, with circle lines of various colours. No wonder Singapore is under going such a major renovation. More shops, more malls, more condos, more flats, more buildings, more people, more parking lots, more of everything except space.

Taxi
Didnt really take many taxis growing up.... no, didnt have a car, it was mainly trishaws and buses.I still remember those mini buses.... and car pooling where you had to have 4 ppl to enter the city so there will be a queue near Marine Parade CC for ppl to queue up, if you needed extra ppl to fill up your car, thats where you need to go.... and near the highway towards the city, there was a sort of mini shelter where policemen/women would be to count the heads in the car, i remember cos I had to sit up right so my head could be counted... so funny... but the state of taxis have evolved. For as long as I can remember there could only be certain brands of cars that could be taxis, the Toyota Crown for one and there were like only 2 cab companies. To me, it was the black and the yellow. Now, there are so many types with the mercedes benz, the london cabs, the minivans, with all sorts of colors, red, green, silver, white, etc. Its mind boggling... and the prices of the taxis.... I dunt wanna go there but I dare say, if i were working, I'd rather slog to keep my car than pay for the cab fare.

Why did all these come up from finding a couple of bus tickets (which to my family's relief, I threw away), cos so many things have changed in just a short span of time. Its not all bad i must add, its actually good for the country and efficiency. Its just different. Everything here changes so quickly. So fast.

SO
With all those physical reminders gone, here's to my good ole friends who were in school with me and all those times we've shared. I pray that I'll always remember those days with boring teachers and naughty things and we'll meet up and we'll try to remember the best times of our lives!

A tribute! (Mainly to those who read this blog)
TYY- all those late nights, bowling, (roller) skating, eating chestnuts on the bus while studying for the O levels, playing netball, cycling, walking ard barefooted and those troublesome irritating boys!

Azzie- our cooking sprees, our gazillion notes and letters, our gossips, our home econs club, going to your house and demolishing all of your mothers good cooking and all those troublesome and irritating boys!

Des-the late nite talking, the notes and letters, written and posted, the three way calls with Gordy, those cute guides you fancy ( haha... I remember who....) all the growing up woes and ideas....

Who else reads my blog that I know since way back?

NZ Photos

2009-03-23T04:53:00.008+13:00

Mt Cook, view from about 45min drive away. Lovely clear day Salmon Farm near Mt Cook, can fish for your own Salmon, how fresh is that!

Salmon Farm

Mt John at Lake Tekapo, having a treat after a long climb

View from Mt John, Observatory for the Night Sky

View of Lake Tekapo from Mt John

Lake Tekapo with Glacial Blue Waters

Motel near Lake Taupo (North Island)

Sumner Beach, Christchurch

Cathedral Square, Christchurch

New Zealand Experience

2009-03-23T04:00:00.012+13:00

We had a fantastic 2 months 3 weeks in NZ. We covered quite a bit of the entire country. Rented Cars and Stayed at Motels and Friends Places.

North Island:

Auckland- a short stop to getover Jetlag, stayed at Quest Apartments, really lovely
Rotorua-Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, with clear hot pools and geysers

Napier-small town near the beach

Wellington-visited Friends, some shopping

Taupo-stayed by the lake the size of Singapore

Hamilton-visited Friends for Christmas

South Island:

Christchurch-simple uncrowded city centre with a good balance of Asians

Timaru-Fireworks over Caroline Bay for the New Year

Lake Tekapo-camped near the glacial blue lake and hiked up Mt John

Mt Cook-Hermitage Hotel with a glorious view of the mountain, Hooker valley walk and learning all about Sir Edmund Hillary

Oamaru-Sweetest Penguins that come up close and personal, where cars stop for penguins to cross the roads, made friends!

Dunedin-stopped at Moreki boulders along the way, university town with plenty of hills and steep slopes, Albatross colony

Catlins-stayed at a fabulous beach house by the sea, Penguin encounter, Fossilised Forest, Seals

Invercargill and Bluff- end of SH1, too early for oysters

Te Anau-Stopping point for Milford sound

Milford Sound-Bring sandfly repellent! Mirror lakes, interesting one way traffic lights from 9am -6pm only through the tunnel.

Queenstown-Adventure capital of the world, touristy, stayed at Breakfree Alpine Village which had the best view of the lake and mountains, Cable car up the hill, watched ppl bungee, Mediterranian Market

Wanaka-smallish town, hiked up Roys Peak, 1.5km high, we took 5hrs up and down

Franz Joseph-Walk up close to the terminal face of the glacier, cool!

Greymouth-short stop

Westport-well......

Nelson-sunny town with a huge beach front, horrible stay at Beachside (Roadside) Apartments, bought tennis racquets, good flea markets

Golden Bay- Sunflower Motel right on the beach! Golden sands and tennis on the bay!

Blenheim-well.....

Kaikoura-Fantastic drive down, lovely coastal views, swim with the dolphins(we will do it when we go back there again)

Christchurch- another stopover

Oamaru- I know how to make pretty beds! Made friends, organic fruits, snuggled up with Pringles (the dog!), had a taiwanese steamboat

Christchurch-Another stopover before a flight to Wellington

North Island

Wellington- Stayed with friends, Penray Farm, BBQ, Ice Cream by the Park

Palmerston North(Awahuri)-Real life gunshooting, farmstay, Merino Wool factory outlet

New Plymouth-Americarna

Hamilton-Overweight with all the whitakers chocolate and honey!

Bangkok

Chang Massage!

View From the rooftop of Rotorua Museum

Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, Clear hot springs

Maori Showing us how to make skirts using flaxseed leaves

Maori Dance using the poi

Rainbow in Rotorua

Nissan Sunny for Rent 2009

2009-01-21T18:04:00.002+13:00

Car for rent.

Nissan Sunny 1.6 Manual
Good Car
Rate: $35 a day
Insurance: buy your own and pay for everything
Duration: Now till mid march

This is for real. Good drivers only.

Email me.

NZ-Queenstown

2009-01-21T17:39:00.004+13:00

Hi all!

We are currently in Queenstown now. We had a fantastic rate ( thank goodness for WOTIF!) on a motel (Room with kitchen) facing the lake and mountains for just NZD$96 per nite! Its really gorgeous, glass balcony doors lead to the the best view ever! Anyway, its a really touristy town where you can do anything from skydiving, the bungy jumping, jetboating, kayaking, paragliding, tramping, skiing ( in june) etc. The views are fantastic! We didnt do any of those though (where got money!) But the tramps are free so we drove to Glenorchy, the drive to the mini town was superb with the roads winding around Lake Wakatipu with the mountains lining the waters edge. Really Fantastic. Anybody needs a place to go for their honeymoon or 2nd or 3rd honeymoon?

Mt Cook
We went there sometime ago but its worth blogging about.We stayed at the Hermitage which is this really huge hotel right in front of Mt Cook. It was a good thing we stayed for 2 nights cos it was raining the first day and could only go for the Hooker Valley walk (4hrs) the next day. It was a really fantastic walk. Highly recommended! The highest mountain in NZ. Next to the Hermitage is the Sir Edmund Hillary Museum where they keep documents of his life and a mini planetarium (our omnimax is way way much better and bigger....)

Curio Bay
I wonder if I already blogged abt this but anyway, Curio Bay is in the Catlins, near the South eastern end of NZ. The beachhouse we stayed in was right on the beach in front of the sea. Nearby is the fossilized forrest which dates back millions of years ago when NZ was still part of Gondswana (before the plates spilt), can still see the remains of the trees. There is where the penguins come up to their nests in Summer. No cages, no fences, you can go right up to them as long as you maintain a distance of 10 m. They are so cute!

Milford Sound
I'm not listing these sights in order, so if anyone reading this has a map of NZ and wonder if I flew from place to place.... Anyway, it was a long a windy drive up to the sound. It was lovely, but wasnt very impressive, esp after you have been for an Alaskan Cruise... Sorry.....

Singapore!
Hardly miss the place except for all my friends and family! I miss playing MJ at BEC or anywhere else for that matter. The uncrowded and ERPless roads here are a marvel to drive! I'll be missing Chinese New Year too, one of the first ever I think. No ching cheong blasting in your ear when I go to supermarkets. No auntys scrambling for mandarins and blocking your way at the cashiers. No endless queues for parking at Chinatown or all the shopping places. No angpaos for my little ones... ha ha..... No tedious but fun making of pineapple tarts, no new year visiting, no losing money playing blackjack/poker ( i rather lose playing mj... haha).

Well, those of you working, do take care and dun stress! Plan your next hol ok and go for a long long time.....May the force be with you!

New Zealand

2009-01-05T13:51:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone!

I miss ya all! :)

Basically, I'm going around NZ in 3 months, was in the North Island (boring) but now we are in the South Island ( gorgeous!) We rented a car and bought a tent to camp out (at times). South Island is really beautiful with the numerous mountains, lakes and driving is superb (speed speed).

Driving
Is so fun to drive here. No ERPs, no traffic jams, no horning, everyone gives way. As soon as you signal, the car behind immediately slows down and gives way. The speed limit here is like 100 km/hr.

Food and Shelter
Expensive! But we try to stay at motels where we can cook. A bacon and egg breakfast can cost as much as $15-18 a plate. But we try to cook our own. Many Chinese takeaways here too, so no prob. We bought a tent and some utensils to camp by the lake and stay in cheaper tent sites. A tent site costs about $30 for 2 px (shared facilities, with ducking quacking outside) while a motel costs abt $110 (comfy with kitchen and tv and own parking lot.. some with spa... u get the idea)

Lake tekapo
We just came from Lake Tekapo which is a gorgeous blue lake with snow capped mountains surrounding it. We went up hiking to Mt John (dont be fooled its only a 3hr climb).

Christchurch
I LOVE CHRISTCHURCH! That summarises it all. It has lovely beaches and a small unovercrowded town- take that Orchard Road!

Christmas Sale!
Those intending to buy camping/kayaking/outdoor stuff shd come after Christmas. their sales are really good! up to 70%. We bought Chaco sandals at $150 NZ, Adidas dri-fit from Rebel Sport as low as $28NZ. A 4 man tent after discount is only $77 NZ and since the NZ currency is lower now.... things are abt .15% cheaper.

Singapore
I do miss all of you, esp at my work place. Do take care and enjoy school!

I wish i had pics to show you. Will upload when I'm back. Take care all!

Lombok: Qunci Pool Villas

2008-09-14T03:31:00.033+12:00

Lombok
Tranquil and peaceful, a small tiny town with lovely unspoiled and barely commercialised beaches. If I were to compare it to Bali, I would say.... its mre peaceful and quiet and the town is -90% of Bali. There were hardly more than 15 decent restaurants in the main beach area of Senggigi and only 2 decent supermarkets which sold souvenirs as well. Many places are closed due to lack of tourists and the prices of the hotels are rather reasonable. We found a couple of good places to eat and absolutely loved the beach. Since I'm so inlove with Qunci, I'll show you that first.

Qunci Pool Villas: It is prob THE best hotel we have stayed in. Ocean view, outdoor shower, infinity pool, coconut trees..

There's always something so relaxing and calming about coconut trees swaying in the sea breeze dont you think? The sound of the leaves brushing against each other, humming in the wind. The light breeze from the ocean pushes the stems ever so slightly

Even those triangular umbrellas complement the coconut trees. The infinity pool over looking the sea.

The deck chairs are the perfect place for suntanning and chilling out. If you wanna enjoy the ocean breeze without the sun, just hide under the shade of one of those cool triangular brollies.

Here's another look of the infinity pool. I'm so in love with this place.

Breakfast is fantastic! You can have it by the pool, the beach or in the open concept restaurant. Banana juice please! Yumms !

Qunci Restaurant, overlooking the sea. Prices are rather affordable and the food is good. Great standards and service.

The ocean view villas. See that beautiful glass doors? it opens out into the view of the ocean. Can you see the ocean? Open the glass doors and you can hear the waves softly brushing up the white sands of Mataram. Looking for the telly? There aint any! Its just as well! Just watch the ocean.
View from the bed. Our little patio and gorgeous view.Our personal pool villa for one night before we switched to the villa right in front of the ocean. Nice little personal pool with not much privacy but it was fun to have our own mini pool to ourselves for just one day! Just float in the pool and gaze at the swaying coconut trees. I'm such a sucker arent I. Mabbie I should just buy a coconut tree....

Outdoor Shower and Toilet. In the afternoon, you shower under the coconut trees (swaying and rustling in thr breeze), at night, you get to shower under the stars!

End of Lombok Part 1

Khmer

2008-07-07T02:40:00.010+12:00

Cambodia

In our recent group trip to Cambodia, my eyes and heart were pretty much torn open by the Tuol Seng Museum and the book "When broken glass floats" by Chanrithy Him. We spent about one week in Prey Veng helping local teachers with English lessons. It was a good week, restful and insightful. Prey Veng itself was a smallish local town with no cause for tourism.

We had a good time with the local teachers and friends. Khmer food was good.... pretty much like Chinese Food. Visited the rural villages and a local primary school. We visited a village in need of help. There was help available but there is so much red tape and mindset matters to consider. There are quite a number of NGOs there, many goodwilled people hoping to rebuild Cambodia after the devastation.

Khmer Rouge
Well, I've never bothered much about history especially when I stepped into my supposedly choice of study in University (why did choose Arts??!!). I only bothered if I visited place of significance in the country eg, Auschwitz- where many millions of Jews were killed by the Nazi in Poland etc.... Ok... Khmer Rouge. Khmer actually means Cambodian and Rouge is Red. So Red Cambodia ruled the country under Pol Pot and basically murdered people of all intellect. Watch " The Killing Fields" for more gory, tragic details. Its sad what the people had to go through and it was such a mindless massacre. The torture, the torment and the tragedy was really heart breaking. To me, it was worse than the the Nazi regime simply cos the people in the Khmer Rouge army murdered and tortured each other. As in one moment you were torturing someone and the next, you were the one being tortured by the next person who was going to replace you as executioner or torturer. I cant express how I feel! Can you?!!!

The heart of Prey Veng

This mud/water filled plains. The tide can wash this place out.

Teacher's Training College, Prey Veng

The teachers we were working with. They were introducing themselves.

Local market selling fresh produce in Prey Veng

Planting Rice in a field off Prey Veng

Tuol Seng Museum aka S21. Doesnt it look like a peaceful serene school? It WAS a school till the Khmer Rouge took over and converted the lovely classrooms into torture chambers.

Inside the Tuol Seng Museum. Our guide was explaining how the Khmer Rouge soldier tortured the prisoners. Basically they were left on those iron beds for 6 months without getting up, tortured while on it and 6 months later killed.

More to come after i finish watching the tennis game of a lifetime on Wimbledon. Watch the number 2 beat the number 1. Did i say beat? I mean, whip. No prizes for who I'm rooting for! Go Matador!!!

All things new- Singapore

2008-06-03T02:30:00.018+12:00

I'm back from outer space..... !

Pan Pacific@Orchard

Really had to take a break from all the hustle and bustle of work. We checked out the new hotel in Orchard. Good location but the rooms and facilites aint fantastic. By the way, Fullerton has a good room promo with choc buffet thrown in. If I were 10kg lighter, I would have gone for that promotion..... haha....The rooms are super small.

Online Shopping
I love onine shopping! Check out http://www.jcpenny.com.sg/! The prices are in SGD! Good sprees on Forever 21! I bought the Acapella CD by the von Trapp children online too. Bonds from Australia, organic online, so fun!

Bike Trail

-From Bedok to Fort Road to Changi and back to Bedok

We rented bikes from Bedok on an unusually good weathered day but pity it had to be a Sunday (crowd ! crowd!). Had to manouver our way through the crowd. Met the beach babes and a grouchy little one at Carls Junior at the new big splash! Its really pretty the place.... they have this Old Town outlet from Malaysia.... pity it was so crowded.

Anyway, we reached the end of Fort Road then back past Bedok to Changi. The new link is super cool. Could watch the planes take off and land and all the cars and motorbikes racing by. I think it was the same route as the Sun down marathon.

We started at 335 to Fort Road. Took a break at Carl Junior for abt half and hour then all the way to Changi and back at 730pm. Our bikes cost $49. Cost of not storing it at my house..... priceless.....

SONY Vaio

Me bought a new gadget! I love the SZ series..... lovely......

Southern Ridges
After reading about the exciting new route, we decided to check it out! By the way, the info in the Sunday Times is rather vague. We woke up at 630am, picked up the family, had one of the expectedly crappiest breakfast in Tiong Bahru. Parked at VivoCity then took bus 100 to Alexander Road.Unfortunately the directions in the Sunday Times aint too good so we had to walk a bit to Alexander Bridge. Our Route was -one way, from Alexander back to Vivocity.

Start Point: Alexander Arch

Colonial Houses along the way.... I think I came across a gravestone nearby too...... Raised walkway...can be pretty high

Pretty view of the sea

Terrace Garden... It used to be much prettier and "whiter" Along the trail.... lovely forest greens

Henderson Waves. Interesting architecture....
View from Mt Faber

View of Sentosa.... taken 2 june 2008.... i think this landscape will be different in 2 years time..... anyone buying Sentosa Cove?

It was about a 2 hr walk from Alexander back to Harbourfront. But the weather in SG, wat can u expect.

Cant wait for SIL's Wedding this Weekend! Yeah.... Another hotel stay!!!

A Blog of Sorts

2008-04-11T02:21:00.005+12:00

Its been such a long time since I blogged cos I have nothing much to blog about really. Nothing's really been happening in my life apart from a few odds and ends.

Basic Massage Course
Well, i really love this course and how it was conducted. It gave me a good view to the human anatomy, bones and muscles, origins and insertions, how to massage, how to ease tension before and after a run or exercise. We are even considering buying a massage bed to practice, so friends, family, countrymen, noblemen, start taking your queue numbers. You can choose from a female or male massuer, air con or non air con room with nice spa music and some wholesome bread and tea after. No children please. :)

Mahjong
I have been playing at the uncommonest places of all, shall not reveal where but having lots of fun! I bought this mini, portable mahjong set which comes with a mini table. Its absolutely fantastic! Admittedly still not very good at it but enjoying every game that I try to win and learning from my stupid mistakes.

Hair
Help! Shall I rebond or do a digital perm? My cranky dry wavelike hair is driving me crazy and with the inflation and all the prices may shoot up in time to come so I hope to do it real soon. Wat shall I do?

America
Do you think the currency will drop further? I do wanna go to San Fran, NY, LA, Chicago, Hollywood, etc, Then again, I can name u a dozen other countries that I wanna go to too.... But since the prices are falling, doesnt it make sense to go.... soon?

Eat Love Pray
All you thirty (or fourty) something babes or gonna be thirty or so babes this year.... yes you....... This is a really good book abt life's little troubles...... I'm only halfway through it (thanks to long working hours) but I love it.

Work
I know some or rather many people who work longer than me but on average, I work like 10 hrs a day. I'm grouchy. Things can be done you know. NOt that I have not suggested. there are times I work for 15 hrs a day. Its tiring. at least 2-3 days i work like 12 hrs. it sucks.

Food Review

It has been a long time since I wrote in. Here's some

Crab Party
Location: opposite serangoon stadium
Ambience:7/10 (alfresco, aircon and non aircon
Food:
Javanese Crab Curry. The sauce was rich and creamy with that light lemongrassy touch. So darn good! 8.8/10,
Prawn Paste Chicken. Well fried and just well coated with prawniness 8.2/10
Bill: Crab, chicken and spinach and 2 beers $79!
Return factor: Definite! With family too!

Vittles
Location: Sembawang
Ambience: 6.8/10
Food: Steak (portion was pretty small) but good. Burgers, really good with a one for one promo with Citibank. Overall 6.8/10
Price: about $35 for 2
Verdict: Good food but not really worth the drive.

Ginga Japanese
Location: Riverview Hotel
Ambience: 6/10
Food: there was teppanyaki buffet but we were a bit late so we had the set meal instead. My teriyaki chicken was good. but the teppanyaki beef wasnt very good. Chawanmushi was goo but not worth the bloody $8. Prawn tempura had standard but wasnt worth the price.
Price: utterly ex and not worth the money
Return factor: Mabbie not

Astons Express@Serangoon
Location: serangoon gardens
Ambience: kopitiam... so go figure...
Food: Good steaks, just dont go for well done. The porterhouse( most ex $25)is great! Forget the soups. The grilled chik pasta was good too! Love it!
Price: cheap to reasonable
Return Factor: Always

Botanic Garden Noodles at Serangoon HawkerCentre
Location: Obvious
Ambience: Hawker Centre.......
Food: I love the soup! esp the mini hot pot
Price: $3-5
Return Factor: Always!

Durian 717
Location: highland centre
Ambience: alfresco
Durian: All sorts.... as long as its durian.... its definitely good
Return Factor: as long as there is durian, its definitely definite.

Korean Food at Novena Square II
Not good, not worth the money, eat maggie mee better, dont bother about it.

I cant wait for this Sat. A treat for us decade away cousins.... yay..... more soon...

A Day In Time

2008-03-12T20:24:00.010+13:00

Know how i come up titles for my blog? Just whatever that comes to mind, especially if I have nothing in particular to write about.

Lunch with the babies
This is the first time in my entire life bringing them out. They can finally talk and walk properly and dont need a diaper change. Cool. I just came back from lunch with them so memories are still fresh in my mind.

1135am: I picked them up at their grandparents place. The main gate opened and the first one to run out was Ginger.... the dog. She must have been frightened by the three noisy children in the house. Anyway, they were ready, shouting and trying to run away from me. Thats funny i thought, there were coming out for lunch with me. By the way, if you are wondering why they are running away from me is cos they call me the Kissing Monster. I used to run after them and kiss them. Not that traumatic right? I think it was more traumatic for me to run after them, cutting through their ear piercing screams and having to hold them down (they can be pretty strong with their kicks) and plant a kiss on their cheeks. Nah it aint as bad as it sounds.

Right. Since it was my first time, I decided I could only handle 2 out of 3 of them. Before you run, you gotta see if you can walk.... know what I mean? They were ready with their waterbottles, jackets and enthusiasm. So cute and in a second we were about to cross the road to my car. It was then when I knew its gonna be alright cos they didnt immediately run across the road. They stopped. I asked are there any cars? NO! they said and ran into the car. No one wanted to sit in front... which was just as well. The older one, JW sat in and you know what he did? He immediately buckled up!!!! JY the little girl followed suit. A quick wave to Grandma who I suppose was happy to have some peace and a zen moment before she went to work. Their oldest brother, as soon as I arrived said Hi and as soon as his siblings were about the wear their shoes, he ran to the computer room shouting "YAY"! So I suppose I'm doing him a favour too. Ginger went back to her quiet spot to chill out before the screaming returned.

1140am: We were driving along. For like 30s alls well, was talking to them about art class and what they wanted to buy (we were going to shop for their birthday pressies) They were talking to each other and within 5 minutes, JY took JW's toy and he started screaming and whining to get it back. It was more amusing than annoying. By the way, JY is younger then JW. So they had a hide and seek and a name calling thing going on at the back and the last I knew someone was calling the other stupid. Sigh.... the next thing I knew,the object of their affection was thrown to the passenger seat next to me, on the floor. More screaming of "where is it?!!" So i said, you need to be quiet because I'm driving. Immediately, there was a hushed silence, led by JY. She's an angel isnt she? Surprised, I turned around and JY had her finger over her mouth saying, Shhh.... driving... So cute!

Anyway, there was an obvious hush till we arrived at United Square. Phew.

1200pm. One thing about kids and cars, u tend not to speed. Dunno why. Mabbie cos I wasnt on the highway. So we parked on the 4th floor and took the lift down. They wanted to shop first before lunch so we went shopping. I thought JY wanted a pink shirt. But after looking at some shops with really cute pink shirts she kept on saying NO! so i figured she changed her mind. Went to Toys R Us and they went off. Played with toys etc etc. JY initally wanted this pseudo daytona for babies thingy which was really pathetic to some Little Pet Store. JW has been buzzing about this Maple Story thing eversince he got into the car. There werent any in the store so he settled for some action figure with an interchangeable blade. Before we could pay, JY wanted to open her toy. As MJ would say.... ** faint** .....

By the way, they can jump on to escalators by themselves too! We went down and passed this anime store and sharp eyed JW spotted.... " MapleStory"..... and wanted it. So I said, ask they lady at the counter if she had any. He refused to ask. JY spotted this Princess card thing and wanted it. I told her to ask the lady and she did. So I encouraged JW to ask too, only after seeing his little sibling go for it did he ask. Sigh.... Apparently this game, you can buy online credit points to buy stuff online. And this game.... is so lame. Kill sheep and goats? Ok, non violent, I'll give you that and it allows kids to communicate online. Just didnt click with me.... I guess playing Mr PacMan will not click with many people either... It costs $10.70!!! ok.... He wanted one for like $32+ bucks.... I'll leave that to his mother.... So I bought that and walked out of the shop wondering how much this Maple story creators are worth.

1245pm: So we went down to their supposed "Chicken Rice!!! Chicken Rice!! shop" but as any kid would do, changed their mind when they saw Mc Donalds. Not even my ultra super Jedi Mind Tricks could change their minds. I doubt even Yoda could. So Mc D's it is. It was so cute. JY wanted chicken rice but JW wanted McDs so they had a quick conference. They huddled together and whispered and agreed. Should have taken a pic. They went in an somehow, seem to know where the Happy Meals toys were on display and decided that what they wanted. Mc Nuggets Happy Meal with Milo and 2 toys. Pity they only had one kind of toy. Suddenly during the meal, I forgot to ask if they wanted to pee. JW said no but pointed at JY and said she did. JY said no. OK, not good. At times like this i wish they had their diapers on. Ok, so after the first part of lunch, we went to the loo and JW hurriedly went in.... hmmmm.... Then we went back to Macs for dessert of Ice cream. Only JW wanted a sundae so we both watched him eat. JY tried to open the packaging of her toy with her teeth. You know how some toys are packaged, sealed with hard plastic, without a cardboard backing. So she tried to hack her way through with her teeth. She started trying at Mc Ds.

1pm. I went in to Just WholeFoods to check out the organic flours for my bread. Prices have increased!!! I told them to wait outside while I went in. By now, JW had his toy out too, ( his packaging was made of cardboard backing, so he had an easier time) and JY was still hacking her way in. I decided to buy some unprocessed bran and was outta in 3 mins. Decided it was enough for the day, though I had a lot of fun just watching them. Went up to the parking lot. Decided to belt JY in a little tighter so she wouldnt be so squirmy.

130pm: we were headed for home. It started raining. By the time I reached SIF building, JY had hacked a large hole in her toy packaging and JW helped her to tear it up using his Chi Aikido power. She thanked him sweetly(after my prompting) and he said " whateverCome" ....* rolls eyes* I supposed she assembled the toy too cos once in the house, she told me to push a button and the whole toy opened to some mini playground for monkeys.

Got them safely to Grandma's House. And true to his word, JS was happily at the computer killing sheep and buying magic shoes...( for a bargain of 200k too!) online. JW happily announced his newly acquired 10000 credit points to his brother who replied with a "mmmm" without looking up from his game.

It was a good rainy afternoon to snooze... so I.. will after I blog this.

Melt- The World Cafe Oriental Hotel
SS treated me to my bday dinner. Lotsa food. Pretty good quality too. Loved the slipper lobster and the waffle and icecream. Should go back on thu to suns for the bbq as well. Cool.

Chillie Padi
Had dinner with the family for my birthday there. Good food. GOod durian chendol and lovely petai. Had fun. Must go again.

NO Signboard
Fil treated to celebrate Women's Day. Yay!

Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre
Its so huge! But we went a bit later cos it was raining in the morning and early afternoon. I dont think its much cheaper but its hard to compare cos prices of many things are going up. Its scarry. 5 apples for $3. two peppers for like $2. $3 for a large yam. $2 for 1kg of bread flour. I dunno. Tell me.

Well, thats all for now.

The Gap Year

2008-03-09T04:33:00.011+13:00

Well, basically a GAP year is .... i took this off Wiki... so all rights go there... Its so right :

A gap year (also known as "year out", "year off", "deferred year", "bridging year", "overseas experience", "time off" and "time out") is a term that refers to a prolonged period (often, but not always, a year) between a life stage. The most popular gap years are taken pre or during matriculation in a university or college, between college and graduate school and a profession, during a career change, pre or post marriage or having a first child and pre or post retirement. It is generally a practice undertaken by those from developed countries.

Look at the last line... it says DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. I wonder if Singapore falls into that category. I know that at least the mainstream bulk of singaporeans dont do it. There are many an adventurous souls who have taken their own GAP year or years but its still not as popular here than overseas. I would love for singapore to have that. As in, take a no pay leave just to do a GAP year. Why dont we?

Mahjong
What a lovely game! It all started when me and SIL taught MIL how to play mahjong during CNY. It was hilarious, me and my mediocre mandarin, not fully knowing how to play the game but trying hard. But MIl was good.... she won quite a bit on her first lesson. What were the men doing you may wonder? If only they could start their own game!! I mean, I know a whole bunch of guys who play, like my uncle and at least quite a handful of my male colleagues..... Perhaps they world shouldnt be segragated by male and female species... just those who play and those who dont. Admittedly I'm not good at it but i really enjoy it.....

Played with my cousin too and we decided that we'll bake CNY goodies during chinese new year, make a bundle then play mahjong for the rest of the year.... throw in some SPA and we're good.

Then the icing on the cake was playing at Gracie's. With the help of my new shifu... Diane. She's good! I learnt many tips. Then went to play with my mother and her friends. haha.... Shall we have a game too SIL? :)

Breadmaker
Breadmaker breadmaker, bake me some bread....I seem to be buying all sorts of electronics eh. From my 3 in one waffle, grill and sandwich to my ice cream maker, to my photoprinter, to my top of the pops Panasonic digital camera and my 8 gig memory card, my Philips hair curler and straighter etc, to my Osim massage belt( which i gave my dad, cos i figured his fast growing watermelon compared to my.... well shall i just call it a flabby belly..... ), to my hand massager. Anyway, I din pay full price for everything..... I had vouchers for some and if you know the nature of my job, I have to spend some money to buy techno stuff so there.... Thats how i can effort it all.

Anyway, back to my lean mean bread making machine. I LOVE IT! Breville. Bought from Tangs. Baked lotsa bread. But mainly I'm trying to go for the wholemeal organic thing. By the way SIl, the bread i made u guys was from organic whole wheat flour.... mabbie thats why its so good... :)) I cant wait to try more. So fun! Its like u dump all the ingredients in the container, plunk it into the machine, press buttons and off it goes. U get bread when u want bread. :)

Birthday
It seems like just yesterday that i celebrated my 24th birthday. I still feel 24. Well.... mabbie more like 14. I still hop, skip and jump. Run, prance and leap. Have a care free attitude on life (to some extent) and feel as young as a horse.... literally. But since this is therapeutic blog, I need to come to terms with the fact that I have left the 20 something club and just submitted my registration form for the 30s club. I got a shocking " hello Ms think u are still young" letter from the immigrations department, telling me to change the photo on my ic etc. They will be shocked! I look almost the same. ... ok ok... rounder in the face and fatter around the hips, thighs and belly area, not to mention arms, butt and calves and everywhere else.... but spiritually i look the same.... they should have a machine to take a photo of the soul.... it will be young..... Sighs.... so there... i've said it all. As i'm one of the few who have my b day earlier that most of my friends..... I just have one thing to say...... it aint over till its over!!!! go figure....

Those of u who are still in your 20s... treasure the number (20 something) and how physically fit you are, how good your metabolism is without working out much, how you can just go to a club and enjoy ladies night with heart thumping music, dancing with strangers and just getting drunk stupid, and puking into drains without anyone giving u strange looks. That all changes when u have a reputable career and have to wake up at 6am the next day and watch your life pass you by while u stroll through the agonies of life. bleah....

Bouquets
This is really a tribute to my little learners who did so well for the recent exams. I'm so proud of all of you... them actually. They dont know i have a blog..... haha...One of my students got 6 As. And some were so sweet, they messaged me to thank me. Such dears. U know, when i was a student, I dont ever remember hugging my teachers. Nope..... And one of the most heart warming things is that your students come up to hug you or ask if they could have a hug. Eversince I started, I've hugged some of my students... girls of course.... from the crying ones to the ones who were leaving, to the ones who needed comforting. In the beginning I never really thought much about it. But it suddenly dawned on me that I took this hugging thing for granted. Cos there were students there who are so loving and thoughtful and sincerely sweet... of course there are students out there who are not... haha...

Anyway, I'm happy for them and I want to say that I replied them saying that it was really through their hard work and effort. If I could make them get good grades, everyone in my class should get an A. Not everyone did.... so their fantastic grades had nothing to do with me. Love them.... really really do.

Metaphysics
The book that i was looking for in Borders was in that category. So all i can say for now is I;m looking into it and not a total disbeliever.

BSM
I'm doing a really fun and exciting course right now. Its the basic sports massage course. Conducted by SSC and the lecture is given by Aized! She's like the guru of sports physio or something.... I remember those days when she was still in CJ and me and Az would like hand around etc. I just realised that they were all zeddy, azzie, tazzie and rizzie.. so cute.... I love the hands on session. Fun fun fun!

Old Airport Road Hawker Centre
We discovered this really fantastic kaya toast! I shall take a pic and send it in. Forget Yakun!! The bread is crisp yet had that nice texture of bread. Good butter but a little to little kaya. But it was good. And the lor mee is also good. yumms.

No Signboard
We had crabs! I think i must have crabs everyyear for my birthday. Yumms. the one at geylang is the best of the best. Thanks for the Nigella Express SIL! I've been so eyeing that book!!! Yay.... Shall I email Nigella to get her to do an Asian tour? Would so love to meet her and be her little helper. I'm just waiting for her to come up with slightly healthier recipes. Butterscotch banana muffins looks so good in the book but not on my flabby belly.

Vacationless on a Vacation
It isnt as depressing as it sounds. I'm actually happy to spend sometime at home to sort out my life. Need the break to wonder that ever happened to the last 4 years of my life and if it needed to be changed. Still wondering.....

Well, i think that was quiet a mouthful for the day. Take care and i'll see you soon.

A World of Goodness

2008-02-08T17:47:00.000+13:00

Cant really think of a proper title but many good things come with feeling good. What are the good things? Well one of them is that wedding bells are in the air! Sil's (finally) getting married after months of speculation and rumours..... haha... yes..... and to the delight of Mil especially, who seems to be smiling non stop from ear to ear.....

Another was my short getaway which almost didn't happen to Bintan. See the pics, enuf said.... Especially for my dear pres.... sorry for taking so long.....

The Pool at Nirwana Garden Resort.Its facing the open sea and had little jacuzzi bubbles along the sides and even a pool bar! Just soaking in the pool was so therapeutic!

You just wanna soak in these bubbles forever.

There's something about the coconut trees swaying in the breeze that gives you that relaxing feeling.

Thats me by the hammock by the beach. Its so relaxing! This was just after a fantastic breakfast buffet and just before my trip to the spa at Mayang Sari for a Javanese Massage. The massage was ultra fantastic I tell you.....

Lovely view isnt it! I wish I could stay there forever. To be honest, one night was good enough. We went on Friday afternoon, went to the pool to chill, then went for dinner at the Kelong, went to to Pasar Oleh Oleh which seems to stand in the still of time. Not much of a change since I went there many years back. The next day after breakfast, went to the spa for a great massage, came back to soak in the pool some more then had lunch at what used to be Mana Mana Beach Club now known as Nirwana Beach Club. Took the ferry and came home. By the way, you can give the Bandung factory outlet a miss..... Oh on our way here, met my dad's pal who gave us free ice cream and coke on the ferry. How superb is that!

Ong Lai and Kuih Bangkit

I was delighted to have so many people helping out-- I had my cousin, niece and nephews, uncle and (ss to some extent ) and MJ! to help out. It was fun! I basically followed the same recipe as the last time. In total I had some what of a baking marathon. Started on Sat to make Pineapple Tarts, Sun to make Kuih Bangkit, Mon to bake some cakes and took a break on Tues and baked on cake on Wed just before reunion dinner. I love baking!

My cuzz and MJ hard at work. Check out the metal press in the centre..... Not for the faint hearted ok....... I'm a serious Pineapple Tart maker......

All the pretty tarts lined up in a row(s)

My secret helper. She is really efficient and a really good worker.... You just have to put up with her whines once in a while but she is really good..... She's cute too

Dont worry, my stuff are not for sale so dont go calling the Ministry of whatever or Stomp.... but according to family reviews, I gather they are diarrhoea-free and yummy! And a bonus is that its preservative free...... cant make it calorie free though......

Dr Png is back!

Yay! After years of studying in a foreign land, Berber is back as a doctor. Congrats love! Nothing better to chat with a babe you knew since JC. I also had a nice long chat with YY on msn on one of the dull mornings about matters of the heart. Sweet......

Chloe

That sweet child.... I must blog about this.... I dont ever recall having been kissed on the lips by a one year old. So sweet..... such a darling.....

A proposal

I propose that CNY be declared a three day holiday. And Hari Raya and Deepavali be at least 2 days for everyone to bake healthy treats (instead of buying off the shelf ones) and visit families.... Of course its not enough you might add...... just vote me for presidency and I'll make the relevant changes to the holiday structure..... why dont you......

Till the day I decide to upload my eastern europe pics....

GONG XI FA CAI!!! TIAN TIAN FA CAI!!!

Eastern Europe Photos Part 1

2008-01-13T14:56:00.000+13:00

Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.....

Its gonna take forever to upload. My comp's pretty fast I must say (can be faster I suppose) but with 8mps... Its agonizing... but for you I will......

I'm gonna write a little bit more abt my travels instead of just the title ...so.... one day, hopefully, if my blog is decent enough, I'll get some advertisers, some sponsers, some free trips and perhaps even some money. Yeah, that's my resolution for the new year..... lets see how long it lasts. By the way, are there any openings for a travel writer Azzie? I'm up for it!

You know, this is really taking a long time to upload. Any one knows how to compress the pics and is willing to tell/show me how? Picasa doesnt work for me...... I have no idea why. Well, you realise that after 2 pics the image sizes have become smaller. Feel free to click on it and look at it. I think it takes a shorter time to download ( or so I say)

Bonn, Germany : Beethoven's House

We went there cos FIL wanted to go.... you know me... I dont even know the difference bet Beethoven and Mozart etc. We were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the house so I only have some exterior shots. The interior was very well maintained I must say. There werent many photographs around at that time so it was a lot of hand drawns and paintings. Well maintained..... its a good thing he wasnt born in Singapore..... his precious house would have been demolished to make way for some road or highway.

Christmas Market in Cologne

One gorgeous thing about travelling to Europe in winter is that there are Christmas Markets everywhere! It makes the cold more bearable I suppose..... Run into the market to grab a bratwurst and gluhwein(hot wine) and paddle around the crowds..... Its really fun. The trick is to look around and try not to buy too many things.... and dont freak out when you pay like 3.50 euros for a sausage and a bun.... take it or leave it......

Automatic Bag Storage in Cologne

This thing is truly amazing. Only the germans can pull this off with such precision too. What happens is that you put in like 4 euros and the box will open, chuck in your luggage and collect a card. The door closes and then reopens again but your luggage has magically disappeared. Chuck in more of your luggage and the same thing happens. When you are ready to collect your luggage, go to ANY of these boxes, slot in your card and your luggage will magically appear within 40 seconds!!!!!

Its snowing in Krakow, Poland

I spotted the snow on the plane before we landed, though I was sitting in the centre aisle. The flickering of the lights from the wings reflected blots and spots of beautiful whirls. I told SS it's snowing..... I dont know why he refused to believe me.... We landed on a bed of snow... soft and white..... hmmm.... like a cross between marshmellow and ice kachang.... It was such a blessing..... dint have to dream of a white christmas anymore..... These European pilots are fantastic thay can fly in all sorts of weather...... Anyway, this was taken at a park near our hostel. Lovely isnt it......

At night in Krakow

This was taken from our hostel/apartment in Krakow. Like many places in Europe, they can build up to around 7 stories or more without the need for an elevator. Lugging up my backpack wasnt hard I must say but with all the weight of the thermals, down jacket and hiking boots it was like wearing an armour.... And though the outside is cold, as soon as you enter the building, you'll become warm rather quick, cos you're sheltered by from the winds. And with a backpack and many layers underneath, your cant possibly take everything off, so its like a sauna in there. Our apartment was neat.. literally.... had a basic kitchen and roomy bedrooms. Nice place...... The heaters are really good. And in every hostel that we went to, no matter how cheap, there was a very good heater, so much so that in some places, we had to open the window!

Thats all the patience I have for now..... more to come soon.....

Gatherings

2008-01-07T03:54:00.000+13:00

It has been a pretty exciting week with the mahjong gathering and the family gathering part I and II. Hopefully the mahjong gathering can expand into many parts and subparts too!

Mahjong@Gracie's
It was the last day of the week, a short week but with enough excitement with the new faces and long (draggy) meetings. After a long rather entertaining wait (went to check out CE's new room and having a girl to girl chat) we went to Gracie's house for a nice therapeutic game of mahjong. It wasnt very therapeutic at first cos I was still trying to pick up the game and trying to recall the basic strategies, in addition to reading the chinese charac and to remember which wind will get me one or two doubles etc. But after my darling pres left, my luck seemed to have changed and I fulfilled my goal of winning at least one game ( I won a total of two) and another for 8 doubles cos I picked up the winning card myself. Yay! More mahjong sessions to come. Its only the warm up for the New Year. :)

Supper@ Thomson
Another small last minute gathering but it was really good to see you again MJ. Through sleepy and tired eyes we managed to catch up and munch on an unfantastic Bak Chor mee. Where have all the good bak chor mee's gone? Take care my dear and don't overwork. You only have one life..... LIVE it!!!

Sil's B Day
Finally, I get to eat crabs! You can tell how much seafood we ate in Eastern Europe by the stuff MIL ordered for dinner. I don't recall seeing an ounce of meat. No signboard has THE BEST crabs in the world! It was a good meal, everything that I was longing for the the land of beer, wine and meat. Happy Birthday SIL! I hope you like the bracelet. If its too big, let me know, they can remove more links.

Khoo Gathering
Another 2 birthdays, one for my uncle, Sunny and my dear long lost cousin, A. Again, another good resturant and more good food. We went to Bumbu at Kandahar Street.... did you read about my haunting stories? Bumbu has one of the best Thai-Indonesian food at good prices. We had lots of food and lots of fun catching up, in addition to the noise created my the 3 youngest babies. There were about 18 of us and we had the privilege to sit at the kid's table. Literally. No matter. There was more food since the kids... let me rephrase that, since 2 of the 3 kids dont eat that much. We had a lot. Steamed fish, pandan chicken, beef rendang, 2 salads, seafood curry, green curry, prawns in chili sauce, brinjal, kangkung, olive rice, garlic chicken etc. Not to mention 2 types of cake at the end. It is a rare occasion we were just missing 3 more cousins and one cousin-in-law and one spouse. After dinner everyone came back to my place to check it out. Thank goodness I was trying to clean it up (early start to the CNY). Took a group photo and printed it out. I wish we had more time together.

Stainless Steel
It must have been a traumatic year, 2007, that I hadnt noticed the trend in stainless steel jewellery. Now, to make up for lost time, I feel the need to buy more. There are a couple of stands in Suntec selling them and in Czech, there was a pretty upmarket store selling really nice patterns. So I spent over a hundred bucks buying stainless steel metal, of which could have been put to more use somewhere in my house. ( either... the money or the steel.....) But I'm happy.... and happiness they say is in your hands......I bought stainless steel rings to decorate them.... :))

Von Trapp Family
I'm utterly in love with the von Trapp family. Maria von trapp inspired the musical, The Sound of Music and after my SOM tour in Salzburg and buying the necessary kitsch SOM souvenirs and overpriced goods in addition to an autobio written my the real Maria (not Julie Andrews) I was also truly inspired and touched. I kept singing ... the hills are alive and my fav things and the lonely goatheard all day ( at least in my head) and I'm so into it so much so that I even dreamt of the von trapp family. Will tell you more about the book and her life in time to come.

Sales
When we came back from Europe, I had the urge to shop. Even I was surprised at my desperate desire to give away good money for clothes and jewellery. Then I realised why. I hardly did any shopping in Europe. There were 2 trips to H&M, a couple to the stainless steel jewellery shops there, and the SOM souvenirs, a couple of wines. Those were my main shopping highlights cos either the things to too expensive, not worth the effort of lugging it in my backpack or that I simply had no space cos my backpack was full of winter clothing. So when I came back the mere sight of the word S-A-L-E made my heart leap and sommersault, and tumble with joy. No more Euros!!! Yay!

Pics
I have about 16gigs of photos. some are worth 8megapixels each. It will take years to upload it. But I will. For you, I will.

Have a happy week ahead.

Hai ho hai ho..... its off to work we go!

2007-12-31T04:06:00.000+13:00

I'm back in sunny, hot, humid, rainy and wet Singapore..... unwilling of course but what am I to do?

Eastern Europe
It was a wonderful 33 days with rather good weather (no blizzards) though a fog held up our plane for a short while. Mostly rather cheap actually except for train fares, even our sky europe budget airline ($90 incl taxes) from Sofia to Vienna is cheaper than some of the asian budget airline prices say from Sgd to Penang. Here are some of the highlights ( in order)

Germany
Dortmund- Christmas Markets
Bonn- Beethoven's House esp for FIL

Poland
Krakow- Wawel Castle (nothing fantastic), great snow!
Zakopane-Ski Town (we didn't ski)

Hungary
Din quite like the people there, rarely a smile and always grouchy
Budapest- Christmas Market, Castle Hill

Romania
Brasov-small piata (town square), Bran Castle (Count Dracula's Castle), Singaporean run guesthouse!
Bucharest-tallest Christmas tree in Europe (abt 20 storeys)

Bulgaria
Prob my favouritest country of all cos the people were friendly and hospitable and sweet
Veliko Turnovo- Fortress, great food, Hostel Mostel
Sofia- easy walking

Vienna
(stopover to Czech)

Czech Republic
Ceske Budejovice- Piata, Christmas Market
Ceske Krumlov- in 1000 places to see before u die, its a beautiful town with snow capped houses and little alleys for shopping
Plovdiv- Old Town with a couple of Romanian ruins
Prague- beautiful city, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, bought many stainless steel stuff

Austria
Salzburg-Sound of Music Tour, really exciting and enjoyable!!!! Really ex cos its central europe, not exactly eastern, Old Town,Christmas Markets etc

It was a fun trip, cold weather but its ok if you layer up with thermals and a down jacket. Most of the easten european countries are about to join the EU so prices are going up but its safer and not so remote. SOme countries are still rather poor for example in Bulgaria, the University professors earn abt 300 euros (abt SGD$600) .

More pics and travelogues to come!

Driving in Singapore
I hate the ERP. I hate carparks which are always full. I hate parking rates. I hate the road tax. I hate the insurance. I hate the nasty drivers on the road who wont give way. I hate the speed limit in the KPE. I hate the speed limits in general. I hate it when u have to filter out from a small road into the expressway. I hate it when people take a long time to park with a long queue at the back. I hate to top up my cashcard and watch it get beeped away at ERP gantries. I hate the increasing number of ERP gantries. I hate the CBD. I hate taxi's which stop at single lane roads. I hate the traffic jams. I hate the increasing number of cars on the roads. I hate people who dash across roads and people who talk their own sweet time to jaywalk. I hate non automated carparks where u have to stick your head out and shove in the cash card at impossible angles. I hate topping up petrol. I hate to wash my car. I hate it when it rains after I wash my car. I hate the birds after I wash my car. I love my car. I love driving. I hate driving in Singapore.

It Feels Like Its Christmas

2007-11-12T15:23:00.000+13:00

Hello Hello!
Doesnt it feel like christmas? The rain, the gusty winds, the fresh air. Its almost here. I hope to have a white christmas. With some luck and lots of hope, I may just have it. Hahahahahahaha..... I'm dreaming of a white christmas...... All it needs is for the plane to hmmm... unethical but...... for the plane to be grounded in Frankfurt. (cross fingers) *blizzard blizzard* We'll be heading east to eastern europe, hopefully hitting Poland and its surrounds and hopefully passing by(with a night or 2) in Austria. More When I get back!

Bread
Found some time to bake. Had this strong urge to let out the bakeress in me. Since I dug out all my baking stuff, I thought I might as well bake 2 different kinds of bread. I made the Italian Ciabatta which is really easy to do with mainly instant yeast and olive oil and salt and the Jewish Challah, a soft buttery plait texture.

Ciabatta Dough

Challah Dough

Ciabatta in the Oven
Baked Challah

Ciabatta and Challah

SSC Rugby

After the Rugby World Cup I was inspired to behave like a rugger, especially when provoked... so beware! I love the game, its brutal yet classy in its own way. I think what I love most was that the guys are big (pity that not all are as good looking). Armed with my new Pana FZ18, with an 18x zoom and good image stabilizer, I managed to catch some real men in action over the weekend. It was just 7 a side, nothing like the full thing but there was some eye candy to be had (if u are single.... hahah) Since I am a (rather) true blue fan, I watched the game more than I took shots so I din get many. Here's one. We bought the shirts for abt $30 and got caught in the rain on Sunday.

Lei Garden

I have blogged abt this previously. Here are the photos of the yummy food.
Tan tart. This eggcustard pastry simply melts in your mouth. Its fantastic. 11/10!

Leisha (dont know the correct spelling) Tang yuan. Coated with peanut with an ooozy black sesame filling. The best!

More on Food and Rugby

2007-10-21T03:05:00.000+13:00

Rugby!
Its the finals! Springboks vs the Roses. Habana vs Wilkinson. Since the All Blacks are out, I either have to look for another favourite team or choose a second favourite team. Hmmm.... which team has the next best Haka?

Hooked on Heads
Went to check out this place near Sin Ming. Saw it on ieat. The half head $18 came in a claypot. A little too sweet, no brinjal, got some kick but not enough to knock me out of my head or bring my entire family. The best is still at Bottle Tree. We tried their mee goreng too.... oklah. Nice simple clean ambience. $2 for parking. They have some sample menu for lunch which seems quite uuhua....
Fish head curry: 5.7/10
Mee goreng: 6.8/10
Ambience: 7/10
Return Factor: Naaahhh...but there were some comments on the mango sticky rice..... hmmm... mabbie for that......

Imperial Treasure
It was one of the rare times I went to a restaurant alone. (it really might be my first time alone in a restaurant) It was exhilarating. I felt like really good like a lau pan niang (it helped that I did lots of shopping before and was carrying lots of bags) .... Cos I get all the attention from the service staff and I have the huge task to choose what I want to eat without telling someone. I had xiao long bao and some soup. All four pieces were mine! Waahahaha it was yummy.... I think I was the only babe in the restaurant alone. So cool.... so therapeutic.... shd do that more often.
Xlb: 7.5/10 ( one piece broke with all the juices spilling out while still on the bamboo)
return: Definitely.... with... or without ... ss hahah muacksss...

O briens
Why oh why did I have a craving for it? I don't know... Just had to have it. But when we went there and I saw the menu I was like, well, can I get out of here? Anyway, I had this tandoori tortilla and ss had turkey cranberry. Not at all fantastic. Wished I went to Subway. Sighs....
Food: 4.9/10

Toast
I bet you dont know that there's this really cool deli behind Taka. Good wholesome stuff. The have all sorts of salads, sandwiches and cakes. Nutella cupcake etc etc. They have so many flavours which were all eye candy to me. I managed to resist the temptation of even remembering how yummy it looks. Been there before, don't know if I blogged about it. Anyway, was good.
Food: 7.8/10
Ambience:7.4/10

This Jap restaurant at Key Point (opposite Concourse)Ok admittedly, another place from ieat. I have been intrigued by this Wagyu beef thing and wanted to check it out. There was this grill like thing in the table and you can order meat/vege/seafood to grill or there is even a shabu shabu thing going on. So I tried the cheapest Wagyu beef ($16 something) and ss had this other beef thing. Quite fun to grill it over the stove. In total, with 2 meats, one mixed vege and one bowl of rice was about $60. Quite ex.
Food: 7.6/10 (go for the more expensive wagyu)
Return: Well..... hmmm..... rather look for a better place with wagyu.

Bakery
The arab street area is so glam. Love the ramadan lights. We checked out this eatery called Bakery. Tried the sticky date pudding and tiramisu.
Sticky date: Good combination, could still taste the dates and love the caramel sweetness on top. Not too sweet.8/10
Tiramisu: It tastes like a low fat version, no ooooppph. Light and unflavourful. Still like the one at da Paulo. 5/10
Return: No!

Tim's Cafe
This little Nepali run, mostly western food place at Toa Payoh. One of the cheapest western food with good quality and service. Very nice. The chocolate almond cake is moist and just right. Go there for Nepali hospitality and warmth. Chicken with lobster is only abt $15 something. In case you miss Nepal, they serve momos and pakora too.(I can make it!)
Food (for the price): 8.5/10
Ambience: Just nice, under the HDB, simple and functional.

All things Beautiful

2007-10-14T22:55:00.000+13:00

Fav Shows
Kimora Life in the Fab Lane. I love the show, not necessarily how KLS (Kimora Lee Simmons) does things but interesting show. I like E! in general (saves me money from buying the $10+ tabloid magazines. Poor Britney and her kids. Forbes Million Dollar Weddings etc. Sigh, Life of the Rich and Fab......

Latest Toy!
LK bought me a Panasonic FZ 18! How did I know he bought it for me? He had no interest whatsoever when we were at Alan Photo. We ( I actually) was out to by the Canon S5, done my research on dpreview and steves and decided to get out of the Panasonic leash and get a Canon. But when I tried it out, I felt the stabilization aint as good as my FZ10 Panasonic. The feel wasnt right and the imaged that I viewed wasnt vivid enough for me. S5 cost about $715 or so. I din wanna regret so I asked about the Panasonic FZ18. LOVED IT. Absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED it. It has 18x zoom, 8 megapix, intelligent iso and many other easy to use features what I discovered later on. Bliss! It cost only $650 and I bought a 4gig SDHC (high speed card) It can take almost 2k of photos! Bought a spare battery and adios I'm all set for...... well, many places actually.... we're between Israel, Vietnam, China, Hokaiddo, Australia, US, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Syria, Africa etc... ALLL I wanna do it all!!!!

WarakuAt East Coast
Fantastic meal with the family on Hari Raya. It was so super crowded but the wait was worth it. I tried this Beef Soba with Sesame dressing. Din't feel like something creamy but I had this THING to try it. like MUST try.... after I did, well, a bit rich, even for me who is trying to cut on all things creamy and rich but once you had a couple of bites its kinda nice. The natural creaminess of sesame seeds goes pretty well with the soba and beef. A definite MUST try for Cabonara-like pasta lovers. Kinda like the Cabonara Inspired Japanese noodle sauce. The menu was extensive and will definitely have to return with my colleagues!

Ok so were going to the park for a walk.

Adios!

Remind me to blog about Beauty products and such the next time ok.

Rugby World Cup and Random Thoughts

2007-09-15T19:14:00.002+12:00

Random Thoughts

1) Remember how in Sec school or JC when we took MCQ papers and had to shade those nasty little boxes with a 2B pencil. Well, those are called optical mark sheets. It marked by a special machine attached to the computer. Very easy to use and very fast and efficient. Error rate of 0.5%, took only one human being to churn out answers for 250 scripts in less than half an hour. Cool huh..... Well, it aint cool when the school only has one of those machines and it BREAKs down just when the exams are in. What a joke! Where's all my taxes going to? Sigh......

2) Starhub Digital Cable!
Ok, so I'm a new convert, slow but at least i got it already! I love the Discovery Home and Health. Downsize me!!!! Its a great show. I wanna be on it. Anyone knows how? I love it how some of those overweight people go for a surgery and lose weight so quickly!!! I mean, whats the point of dieting and exercising? Check out AFC, its sooooo incredibly boring except for out local Makansutra programmes. They should have runs and reruns of Jamie O and Nigella forever, that would keep the viewership up!

3)Rugby World Cup!
Adopt me All Blacks!!! I can be the ALL BLACK mascot...... wah hahahahah... ok, after my 12pm suntan in Bali, Chao tar is one of the best terms to describe me. Rugby is such a cool game, the guys really really go out to get the ball, I mean they whack, chase and hug each other all at the same time. Talk about team bonding! Compared to soccer,where there is a lot of pretense and juvenile pushing and referee challenging, this holigan's game, played by gentlemen (rugby) is full of heart and soul.The passionate hakka or war dance before the game is as intense as their desire to win. I have only one word for soccer..... koo niang...... Wah hahahahaha

4)Relax Urban Haven
Aiyo! That place was like a nursery! THe ambience for a facial is awful! the therapist was talking on the phone while massaging my face! NO face mask used of course! SHe was scolding this kid who refused to wear shoes and it was a nightmare! I was more tense than relaxed..... at the sound of a child's voice! I mean, people actually have to get away from children to chill out and here I am, paying good money for a facial with a kid! If I wanted to chill out with kids, I just have to drop by my cousin's house for 5 mins and I would be satiated for days! Never will I go back there again. Its in Kensington, at Serangoon Gardens by the way.

5) Singapore Women's Weekly Turns 10!
Oh How i love the magazine..... Congrats! I'm a faithful, addicted fan!

6) Coconut Oil
Have you read abt the miraculous benefits? I neednt say more! Google it!

7) Silk Air Flies to NEPAl!
Man!!!!! It brings Kathmandu and EBC closer to home! Yeah right, as though I'll ever trek there. Hey bro mabbie you can go to Nepal?The babes there are sooo pretty.....!

8) Google Earth
I'm soooooooo hooked on it. I travel the world in the comfort of my home. ITs sooooo cool!

9) Did I mention I bought a Canon Selphy?
I Print Print and Print and Print and Print and Print.... you get the idea.... Good buy!

10) Dempsey
Jones the Grocer! Over the hill, over the limit, account bursting, bank breaking grocery shop! But its sooooo cool.... they have the all natural pink sea salt.... the saltiness bursts in your mouth with just a pinch of it (there are samples) they have all sorts of stuff, middle eastern candy, great cuts of meat, sauces,jams, chocs, pasta...

Culina: Another upmarket, Angmorean grocer. So check it out your self

Ben and JErrys!! Great decor!

Restaurant Review
Lei Garden, Cantonese food
Food rating:
Eggtart 11/10, the bestest bestest bestest ever! ir was small enough to fit in your mouth and the pastry simply melted when it touched the warmth of a human mouth! Graciousness..... lovely loveli lovveeellleeee

Char Siew Bao: 8.7/10 The filling was juicy with sauce made from good stock and the meat was so so good..... puts many GuangZhou resturants to shame. The dough of the pau was so soft and springy...... heavens!!!!

Liesha tangyuan: 9/10 THe warm black sesame paste just oooooooooozzzzzzzed out with one small bite and the glutinous ball is so soft and springy...... you have to try it......

Ee Fu noodles: 8.8/10 Well fried and simple yet flavourful. the green chilli is an excellent accompaniment.

Fried Carrot Cake: 8.9/10 A subtle hint of fragrance adds to the exquisiteness of this dish. CAN I BE AN OFFICIAL FOOD REVIEWER????????? excellent excellent excellent..... if it came with a complementary sauce, I'll gladly bump up my rating to 10/10.

Ambience: Classy!
Price: Pricey but it was a treat! Double the yumms!

Happy Mooncake Festival.... Can you see Chang er and the Rabbit?

Bali Lagi

2007-09-15T19:14:00.001+12:00

Hey Brotha! Great to hear from you again! Here is more of Bali to entice you! Weather was hot from 12-2pm. Unbearable! So its wise to stay indoors or chillout at one of the backpacker inns. You can always go for a spa or a foot massage.

PLaces to Eat in Bali
1) Dulang Restaurant
Its right next to Matahari Restaurant. ONe of the best places for Banana juice. The creamiest ever. I had the beef salad with eggplant and it was yummi!
Ambience was nice.

2) Sendok Restaurant
Its along the stretch of Kuta Beach Club.Cheap and the portions were huge! Try their nasi campur.It came loads of great stuff.

3) Warung Wulon and Treehouse Cafe
Many of these tiny restaurants have this banana goreng, or pisang goreng as we are more familiar with. Great stuff with honey or vanilla ice cream and another banana juice.

One thing to clarify, its not banana smoothie, its really banana juice. They just blend the bananas and some ice.

4)Many places along Poppies Gang 1 and 2
There are tonnes to restaurants, warungs, cafes, etc along these two which are full of Ang moreans ( you know like SIngaporeans so... Ang Moreans.....Learnt this from a student)

5) Indo National at Legian

PLace was recommended by Lonely Planet (LP) but wasnt very fantastic. Run by Aussies.

Shopping

Everywhere there are shops! There is this mall called Discovery Center with Krispy Kreme Donuts (tonnes better than Dunkin) THey gave each of us a whole donut as a sample. IT was hot and ooooohhhh so goooooddd....... not surprisingly we whacked like 6 diff flavours. Each is damn good!

Lots of Pasar Senis (agglutintation of shops selling t shirts and beach wear), some really expensive shops selling designersstuff etc

Kuta Beach

Sunset in Kuta

Kecak Dance by the Cliffs of Uluwatu
Banana Juice at Indo-National

Beef Salad with eggplant at Dulang

Bali

2007-09-15T19:14:00.000+12:00

Bali

Wonderful place to chill out and bum by the beach.

Here are some highlights of our trip

1) Stayed at the hotel with the bestest pool view of Kuta beach. I neednt say more. Mercure Kuta was a pool on the fourth floor which overlooks the sea and i tell u it is the bestest place ever! Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Just a tiny road away from the best and right next to Hard Rock (whose rooms arent that hot)

2) Surfing

And I dont mean just bodyboarding! We really took lessons to ride the wave! Just dont imagine the hawaiian pipes and huge waves but it was damn fun! Push yourself up, jump up and place one leg in front and look like a surfer! Thats it!

3) Shopping!

there are very few people, according to the locals, the tourist number has dropped after the 2002 bombings. Shopping was good, practice my bahasa with an indonesian twang and a big bright smile and enjoy bargaining. You win some you lose some but have fun! A spag strapped knee length cost abt $7 sing. A sarong for about $2-3. Coffee is a good buy!

4) Uluwatu

We went to watch the Kecak Dance at Uluwatu. Its right by the cliff simply breathtaking. Lets see if I can upload a shot video of it here.

Kecak Dance at Uluwatu, Bali

5) Food!

Bali has plenty of food! My favourite is the banana juice that is everywhere! Bali is known for their Nasi Campur, Mie Goreng and Grilled Seafood. Super good and cheap!

6)Babi Guling

Apparently there is this very good place near ubud so we hired a car and went out to check it out. It aint as great as Sitoh or Bourdain claims. Its at a place called Warung Ibu Okra. Give it a miss i would say!

Travel Details

We took Valueair and the whole trip of 5 nights with hotel transfer and one halfday tour and hotel with breakfast is $600 per px. Highly recommended to go and chill out. When I was there, I completely left my typical work mode behind and chilled out! IT was superb! Valueair is superb too! They have comfy leather seats, which are more comfy than the normal airlines, serve some food and give you a place to sit, so you dont have to scramble like other budget airlines.

I'm Alive!

2007-08-14T04:00:00.000+12:00

Hey beautiful!

I've been busy with life- enjoying it or otherwise. Went for a happy family getaway to Malacca over the hols. It was fantas! Stayed at Hotel Equatorial, had the best roast in the entire world, some pathetic shopping at Mahkota, had a good getaway from the annoyances and disturbances of Singapore.

Before I post pics here's some updates

1) Bought Canon Selphy 730
Its the best thing! Great photo printer, excellent quality prints, cheap too! The best things in life can be found at home (except for the roast in Malacca)

2) Pepper Lunch
Great interesting place to dine but seriously doubt it will last, the franchise will crash like Orange Julius.

3) Secret Hideout @Fairway near Eng Neo
Truly a place where there are more horses than people! A hidden gem with fabulous ambience pity the food aint fantastic.

4) Friends from Sikkim
Who has the privy of having the sweetest people of Sikkim (Yuksam) stay at your place? Had the most fantastic time when they were here. They made us Nepali cuisine, pakora, momo, hand made marcaroni. Miss them already. Night Safari was marvellous!

5) Cracked Windscreen
As luck would have it a pebble ripped my windscreen, thank goodness it was covered by my insurance.

6) Tennis Open
Can you believe it? Forget abt taking part, I'm organising one! You dont need play like a pro to organise one. :) Fun!

7) Weddings and Babies!
More on the way! What a beautiful year! Did I mention baby Zain? Such a darling! Quick have one more Az! Can't wait to see Chloe too!

8) Online cakeshops!
Chocabloc has fantastic fudge cake. 727 has the best durian cake. Nuf said!

9) Durian season
All you durian freaks! Durian season is almost over...... grab the best from 717 (no commission)

10) Ghost festival
Bought a couple of ghost story books from Malacca. Not bad. Othman Wok has really interesting Asian horror stuff!

11) Mooncake Festival!
Shd I make mooncakes? Hmmmm.......

12) Another Getaway!
The the land of mystery and charm, best sunsets and beaches. To an island I have been several times...... to Uluwatu and beyond! More pics coming soon!

till then..... it aint the end of the world till you've seen it all........

Xinjiang

2007-06-21T18:39:00.000+12:00

Yo Yo!

I'm back from my 20 day trip to Xinjiang. Here's a quick summary

Urumqi

Niftty metropolitian city with a large dose of central asian people. Its more of the Muslim capital of China where plenty of halal food and muslim people abound. But there are large populations of Han chinese too actually but they respect the area by not having pork in the chinese restaurants. Their dumplings are usually mutton or chicken. So cool huh.

Urumqi

The city has been ambushed by several branches of the French Carrefour and can be rather touristy. After a day we went on a 3N4D tour to Kanas Lake way up north of Xinjiang, near this little town called Buerjin. We had to take a local tour and had to face the idiosyncracies of the locals to name a few bad/annoying habits was spitting, trying to get out of paying for tickets, talkeing really loudly, not being punctual we waited up to 1hr for some of them, being plain rude, smoking in the dining area and many loud complains. Of course some were nice and friendly.

Kanas Lake wasnt impressive but the park that led up to it was beautiful, its hard to remember that you are in China, the developing country full of construction and demolition. It was like a beautiful countryside view of Switzerland/New Zealand and Alaska. So breathtaking!

On the way to Kanas Lake with Mongolian Yurt

Kanas Lake from the Top

Kashgar

From Urumqi we took an overnight train to Kashgar. Even the hardsleeper (2nd class) (has cushion lar and quite comfy... dont be mistaken by the name) is better than the Indian trains. Clean and the food on the train was not too bad and cheap!

Kashgar had a stronger muslim influence with buildings of Pakistani-Indian-Turkish designs. Still citylike, no carrefour but its developing pretty fast. Some of the best sites here are the IdKah mosque and the food! Lamb kebabs and my favourite Polo which is like briani without the yellowness of rice and curry. Food is cheap too! Unlike Turkey where Muslim restaurants still serve alcohol, the muslim population here is pretty strict. The women are beautiful, with fair skin and central asian/chinese features.

Kashgar

Mutton Seller along the street

The famous Sunday Market was somewhat of a letdown, it has modernized good for them i guess..... Gone are the shops off the donkey carts and mud encrusted walkways. Its was replaced by a huge sheltered market and concrete paths. Nothing very exciting to buy except bales of clothes, souveniors and local household tools etc, lots of spices and dried fruit.The Livestock market was a cool site with goats and cows lined up directly infront of kebab stalls!

Hami Melons! Xinjiang is famous for their rock melons and grapes and pears. All sweet and super juicy!

Turpan

HOT! It was about 40 degrees celsius! But we visited the best sites here. Tuyoq a little muslim village, Flaming mountains (Journey to the West), Jiaohe ruins (desert city ruins with historic value), Karez (ancient irrigation system which is ingenious!). We basically had every single meal at John's Cafe.

Tuyoq

Urumqi(Tien Chi)

Abt 2hrs away from the city was a Heavenly Lake. We stayed overnight at a Mongolian Yurt by the lake, far from civilization and had authentic homecooked meals. I has one of my best sleeps there and the stars were amazing! The lake was ultra gorgeous. Took tonnes of shots.

Tienchi

Mongolian Yurt by the lake where we stayed

Guangzhou

Boring place. Definitely not a shopping mecca. Food aint great no matter what the comparison is to Hongkong.

Will show you more pics next time!

Cheerios!

Photos at Last!

2007-05-25T21:30:00.002+12:00

Ok So I have finally been able to down load some photos.

Here' some from India.

This is Cheongsam. Sweet little darling who went around everywhere with us the first time iwent to Yuksam. Now she's nine and we hardly see her ard!

Arent the kids cute!

One of the traditional bridges that you have to cross to get to Dzongri. It supports many yaks and dzoes and other heavy stuff. Not too bad for a rickety bridge. Just have to recall some scenes from Indiana Jones if anything goes wrong.....

View of a snow capped mountain along the trek to Dzongri. Beautiful isnt it? Doing the same trek for the second time has its priviledges too....... It's like going down memory lane again...... with the horrors and the wonders of it all......

Howrah Bridge in Calcutta...... the park on the right is really very English and superbly well maintained compared to the immediate surrounding of the park.

Almost in Heaven

2007-05-14T02:25:00.000+12:00

Hey babes/dudes

Its slowly easing towards the holidays...... but but but.... still have work to do during the hols..... for the first and last week at least.....

Sat with the Babes
It was absolutely therapeutic to be with best babes! We have a new babe in our circle... a charming sweet gorgeous darling who dazzles with her most adorable smile! We bought breakfast from the gourmet stretch at Frankel of sausages, ham, eggs, brioche, quiches, eclairs and not to forget the utmost impt caffeine fix. So fun to buy food!

Went to the seaview apt by the sea... where else........ a dreamview! Yen cooked us breakfast! The rare few moments she dons on her apron for us. Played with the baby.... she cant stop smiling at me! So cute... she even tries to smile at me in the middle of a yawn.... so cute right! Played Citadel, this card game. Pretty fun! About gold coins, magicians, kings, castles and stealing... heehee.... Kidnapped the little darling for a bit for a photoshoot by the beach then went back for another round of bridge and tai tee. So fun! Ber's back too! What a coincidence!

Spiderman 3
Well put, good plot, a bit draggy, soapy at times but it had more dimension than the first 2 parts.
Love Tobey! So if you wanna know how guys can be so duh.... (even spidy) watch the first 15 min or so to find out..... How can they not know what they did wrong?

Mitch Albom
Great writer. Loved Tuesdays with Morries but For One More Day and 5 people you meet in heaven, basically the same style... same tone... most will find the connection and relate to the books cos its about life after death....in a nice family atmosphere. Will I read more of his books? Would be good if he could bring out more of his comedic side to the living world......

Pine Garden
One of the best cakes I had in Singapore. They have lychee martini cake and one of the best blackforest cakes! Good stuff! I think Ikea orders their cheesecake from them.

More babes
Cant wait to see Zain! :)

Its back to work and nurturing my white hairs till the hols!

Eating in Action!

2007-05-09T00:55:00.000+12:00

Hello Hello Hello! Missed me? Been working and eating and celebrating! The Months of April/May was a Month of Feasts!

There was
1) my cousin's Birthday at Mouth restaurant at Toa Payoh
- food not very fantastic

2) My dad's birthday at Jumbo Serangoon Country Club,
8/10!

3) preMother's day Celebration at Guan Hin at Whampoa West,
-Ah Hoi is much much better! 7.4/10 but the Ornee is dam good! And I had kuayteow with chai po for the first time!

4) Dinner with Relatives at No Signboard@Oasis
-Steamed prawn was awesome!

5) Checking out the much hyped Chili Crab and Crab Vermicili in superior sauce at Seafood Paradise in Defu Lane 10
-oklah... waited like 1 hr! Crabs are good but it comes second to the chili crb at No signboard at Geylang. crab in vermicili is ok la. Overall, 8/10

6) Checking out another supposedly famous Chili Crab at Ban Seng at Casuarina Road
- ok lah.... 7.5/10

7) Checking out the new italian restaurant in Serangoon Garden
- pasta wasnt good (5.5/10) and the pizza isnt fantastic but good... you know... like nothing special but got standard la (7/10). tiramisu (4/10) was overpriced and i think Pasta freca's is much much much better!

8)) Bring Mil and Fil to Soup Restaurant to try the Samsui Chicken
- samsui chicken is so so so good!

I have 2 more places to try out crabs before I semi retire from the crustacean menu.
Sin Huat and the place in Makansutra in Matter road. On a quest for the best!

Well, still busy with work but as it seems to get lesser, it suddenly gets more hectic.

More on Cakes!
1) Choc a Bloc
-Very very very good chocolate fudge. They have a website www.chocabloc.biz all the way in the lovely eastern hemisphere of our tiny island. But be warned, they do not have ready made cakes and pastries avail on hand.... you have to order online or give them a call.

2) Pine Garden
Lychee Martini and Blackforest cake! I have a couple more in the fridge (ration) and will tell you how yummilicious it is. www.pgcake.com

Amidst the huge popularity of the durian cajes at goodwood, I have yet to try it! I will make my way there as soon as I can get away to check it out.

Till Then, may the force be with you.

By the way, anyone wants a sofa for free? Look for the photo one of my past blogs. Really free. But you have to carry it yourself. Offer while stocks last. Sofa only ah......http://evielovestotravel.blogspot.com/2007/01/for-sale.html

Untitled

2007-03-30T01:37:00.000+12:00

Cant think of a title. Just wanna blog some thoughts.

1) True Horror
Watched the episode on demons last night. Interesting. They interviewed a priest supposedly the head of exorcism in the Vatican, the world of Catholics. Famous demons, satans whose names i shall not mention here. God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Eucharist, Holy Water, Priests they seem to be afraid of. So, there is a God. Must there be demons to prove it? There are many Gods or just one? Aliens? I'm open to different religions. Having said that however, having grown up knowing only one. Having believed only one. Yet open. Yet disbelieving in the existence of some but yearning only one. Hard to understand me eh? I think, after thinking about it, I dont disbelieve in some but I love only one. Can understand better? Lets not go there.

2) MatchPlay
Sure, I can hit the bloody green ball, 60% of the time during rally, 90% of the time during drills but like only 5% of the time during match play. My serves are getting better, at least I dont just pop the ball in, I actually try to hit it flat or spin it. Whatever. Just need to serve 100 balls a day. Right. Matchplay anyone? A partner a day keeps the bad balls at bay. Har har har har

3) Zain!
Congrats Az darlin! Havent seen your first born yet. Wasnt feeling well the past week and din wanna pass on strange germies to him. Gonna see you soon ok. You take care and hang in there!

4) Bro
Hey bro! Just thinking about you. Hows life? Any new inventions for me to try?

5) Heros!
Have you caught it yet? The most interesting show ever. I realised I like supernatural/unhuman like shows like Charmed, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Batman, Ghost Whisperer, Shutter. The human imagination and creativity which extends beyond our dimension. Cool. I mean besides thinking of what I'll do if I ever strike TOTO, thinking of things like flying and becoming invisible is like ultimate.

Alright housework calls.

TILL THEN... dONT MISS ME!

In and About in Singapore

2007-03-14T04:14:00.000+13:00

I wish I could say OUT and about of Singapore. Out of this puny island is really the place to be. Though Singapore is a home, it seems more like a money making place. I stay to make money. I need More SpAce!

Drive
the more we drive ard singapore, the smaller the puny island seems to be. For example, from our place to Lim Chu Kang ( no counting speed limits) is about 25 mindrive. from our place to Jurong Fishery Port is also abt there ( midnight, no traffic). From our place to neo tiew is also abt the same. BORING!!

I love the long drive, where you take turns to drive, stop over for lunches, stay at motels for a night, go up to 140km/h, no stupid drivers to block your way, stop at supermarts along the way to buy groceries, dont have to carry your bagpack (can buy as much as u want), fill up petrol at some isolated gas station, stop by rivers and mountainsides to savour a packed lunch, nap by a lake, waking up to a breathtaking view, wind down windows cos the air is fresh and cool, ample car service stops along the way. I dream I dream I dream I wish I wish I wish, I do I do I do ( as in really do it one day)

Jurong Fishery Port
Imagine the huge fishes that u see while scubadiving/on tv etc dead, in huge packs lying on the ground. Dead, fresh fish, sotong, prawns, crabs, stingray, sharks!! yes!! there were sharks with the fins removed!!! the smell, the sight and the sounds are all awesome! the drivers came with huge trucks and containers of mostly frozen produce, some were alive, like crabs etc. Go at midnight or 1-3 am. Closed on Mondays. Recommended in City Scoops (whose office is in Wessex Estate) they have a cash card system too. blah

Ice cream!
Been making my own, Nigella's recipes are great! Baci Icecream! bought the Ben and Jerry's recipe book. Anybody wants some ice cream?

Well, thats it for now folks!

All in a month's work

2007-03-14T03:35:00.000+13:00

Hello hello! Okie so I have not been updating my blog. my entry on "overloaded" shd be self explainatory. There are good times and bad. Shall update as I remember them ok so in no particular order:

Birthday Party
Celebrated my 24th (again!!!) with the entire family at Ah Hoi at 10 Mosque Street. Great old fashioned teochew restaurant. Meal was good for 10 ppl and 2 kids ( the biggest one, literally, is no longer a kid). We had roast, braised goose, birthday noodles, etc to name a few. the highlight was definitely the roast. And what i liked best was that there was no corkage charge on wine and champagne! So we had lots to drink! Guiness (yuck), beer, red wine and this really dessertish(sweet)champagne. it cost about $377. Thanks mummy! :)

SPI
Read the SPI files and even signed up so that i can read in the forum. Interesting book though it needs an editor. Shd read it. Have a few tales to tell too. go check it out www.spi.com.sg

Choupinette
Great french cafe near bukit timah. 607 bukit timah if i recall correctly. next to coronation plaza. their eggs benedict is ultra super delish! but ex! about $18 for 2 pieces, with juice and coffee. the moment i saw it i started whacking without taking a pic! so I have to go back again. when we went there, Pete's Creation were doing a film on the food. My goodness the female host is ultra bimbotic. The guy, Randall or something i suspect was from Kent Ridge Hall in NUS. He has a twin brother. Anway, when the set ppl called quiet! MIL dragged the chair... hahah..... so they had to redo a scene. HAHAHAHAHA..... but the choc eclair and the pastries were exceptional!

Food: 8/10 they have lunches too!
Service: 8/10 good looking guys ( for the young girls to drool on)
Return: Definite!
Ambience: simple with a touch of french elegance.
Try: eggs benedict and every single pastry they have!

takashimaya
By many strokes of luck, my cousin and sil gave taka vouchers! yeah!

Lim Chu Kang (farmmart)
So we drove to Lim chu Kang. Nice drive. Discovered many end roads in Singapore. Qian Hu is there, smells really kampungish. interesting. farmmart is an interesting place with all the farm produce and live animals were u can fish etc. will go again! :)

Kranji(Neo Tiew Cresent area)
I prefer this farm area to Lim Chu KAng actually. Near Sungei Buloh Wetland reserve and the surrounding area you can buy fresh veg, fish, etc. Bolly wood veggies have really good food. Love to drive through that area. however, dont go to :

Petals and Leaves
Service is awful! Some Waiters are blur(no one cute) food menu is limited. No proper system. food is not fantastic. Hot place.

Little Bali
Lock Road, hidden from the world is little bali. It has a bar and slightly further down a che zhar place. Great seafood. Nice little food court too.

Biopolis
You would think that state of the art or new buildings would have a decent ERP carpark payment system (where u just drive though without having to align your car near the cashcard machine and do an upper body stretch to fit the card into the machine etc). Dear dear. You'll be surprised. Cashcard parking( and its not just for malaysian cards!!!) buildings are nice, state of the art with interesting names like matris, chromos, neuros etc. all the offices boast state of the art or latest techno on life sciences...... food aint that fantas. Western food in the food court is lousy. the only thing i liked was that the food court had interesting mags that u can browse for free. High security. Why? Catch the IP thief? hahaha

Wessex Estate
Boring little colonial estate with few arty farty companies and mosssies. My friend, RK's Elan Pics is there, so if u need photog services with a large bank account, try it out.

Chip Bee Gardens
Baker's, Cooks, Foodies haven. My haven. From High end baking/cooking apparatus from Pantry Magic, to the most definitely cannot find in NTUC ingredients (BunaLun), to the gastronomic bakery of Da Paolo, the Gourmet for meat, to the all time fav Phoon Huat, the place is a home away from home. Lovely.

More to come!

Fantasy

2007-02-06T01:30:00.000+13:00

You wouldnt realise how much you love/enjoy/appreciate something till it has been taken away from you.

Tennis lessons. Yes. Somehow that was taken away from me and I'm utterly not overjoyed. Down in the dumps as some may call it. Rotten luck. Tough luck. Cant think of anything creative when you are in the dumpster can you. Unusual that I would let it go, I mean, I can find another coach cant I? Not when you are overloaded. (See previous post) It doesnt help that you are overloaded and your thing of ultimate joy has been taken away, stolen, snatched off your hands. Dang. Thats the way the cookie kingdom crumbles.... thats the way the chocolate factory melts.... whatever.

Needed: Tennis coach, Immediately.
Qualifications: Competed before, understanding and easy to talk to, willing to teach whatever you want.
Fee: Negotiable
Student: Eager and has some basic foundation (though not consistent)

India.
Been there 3 times! Done that 3 times! Enough! Have been blogging about it in my head but havent really blogged in here. So many things to talk about and so many things to say. Should show you a video on U tube. Search for Sikkim and you may just hit on the right one. Compiled by dear SM or MJ. Thanks babe! It was really well done!

Its hard to think of ONE highlight to talk about so I'll pick a few events.
1) Calcutta
Hate it. Dirty, dusty and polluted. Healthy me got sick within 3 days!

2) Yuksam
The gem of a village in the heart of Mt Kanchendchunga. Well, not really heart but its the starting point for the trek to Dzongri and Goechala. A blessed little place with the one of the most hospitable and enchanting people in the world! Love it then and more so now.
a) Snowed in Tskoha!
b) Mighty UT
c) Yak Butter tea! I tried some!
d) Triple X
e) Honey Bee!
f) KCC!
g) Gupta's
h) all the wonderful people who I miss already!

3) Rajasthan
Interesting desertish place, cool in December
a) Camel trekking in the Great Thar Desert (Jaisalmer)
b) Staying inside Jaisalmer Fort and the breathtaking view of the Golden city
c) Dining in the fort under the stars in our own private balcony in Jaisalmer! Romantic choice!
d) Staying in Singhvi's Haveli in Jodphur was a delight
e) Jodphur is the worst place to shop
f) Indian trains are not too bad (provided you take the 1,2 or 3rd AC class and are not afraid of cockroaches and rats) hahahahahahahahahahaha (take the upper bunk and bring insectiside) hahahahahahahaha
g) the gorgeous view of the Blue City
h) Shopping in Pangharganj in Delhi.

I'll upload pics soon!

Till then, stay stress free and happy!

Overloaded

2007-01-16T02:12:00.000+13:00

Yup. Back in Singapore. Bored. Loaded with work. What's new? Can't wait for the next hol. Cant play tennis cos of the rain. Bored. Get me outta here.

Food REView
The French Stall
on the road behind jln besar, Serangoon Road
Hey bro! Here it is!

Food: 8.7/10
Ambience: Fusion of Kopitiam and Alfrescoish
Tried: the Chicken liver pate (i had half of half of half of half a 0.5mm bit) Apparently it was good cos the boys polished it up good with plain ole baguette. the duck rissotto, the pork chops and codon bleu. Good stuff! the choc souffle was oh so yummy and the honey cheese cake was scrumdelicious!
Service: ok lah
Return: yes!!!
Price: Reasonable, especially so when your bro treats :)

Spanish Tapas Cafe
Clarke Quay
Food: 6.9/10
Ambience: Excellent for chilling
Tried: Seafood Paella, meatballs and skewered meat, White Sangria.
Return: not for the food but for the chill-out ambience

Teochew Restaurant in Taka
Cant remember the name of this place but I love the food and the price.

Well, I miss the garlic lemon mussels in Fish and Co and cant wait to go back to PS cafe to chill. I wanna try the teppanyaki in Good wood park hotel. Have huge cravings!!

Ceramic Perm
Tried the all famous ceramic perm. not all that fantas on my hair but it has only been three days since. lets see how that goes. $100

Courts Megastore
Went there to buy my fridge. I bought the Panasonic Fridge which had a good size and this magic top thing where the fridge is on top and the freezer is below. cheap, plenty of discounts too! $759

NZ
Cant wait to go!

FOR SALE!

2007-01-10T02:27:00.000+13:00

FOR SALE!
ALL IN GOOD WORKING CONDITION

as of 10 January 2007 . Please help pass the advert ard. Thanks!

1) L -shape Sofa
 240cm long
 Removable and Washable Cover
 Less than 2 years

2) Coffee Table
 90 (L)x 50 (B) x 45 (H) cm
 3 drawers
 Acid-washed glass top
 Less than 2 years

3) Technics Digital Piano (SX-PC25)
 128(L) x 43(B) x 77(H) cm
 Hardly used, about 3 years old

INTERESTED?
**ALL PRICES NEGOTIABLE **
Leave a note on my comments with your name and contact number

There is no mee goreng in India

2006-12-01T14:49:00.000+13:00

I'm going back to India! This will be my third time! I went in 2002 for work/play/Nepal, then again in 2003 to Yuksam, Sikkim, then back again in 2006.

Our rough itinerary:

1-4 : Calcutta
5-12 : Yuksam, Sikkim
13-15: Darjeeling
16-22: Rajasthan
23-26: Delhi

So if anything THING happens.... you'll know where to find me.... hahahahahahahahahahhahhahahahah.

Leaving in about 7 hours time. Bored. Here a tip

What to pack for a cold country:
1. Good face moisturiser ( dry/cold weather needs a richer cream than what we are used to in our tropical weather)
2. Body moisturiser
3. Vaseline (esp if you are very prone to cracked skin)
4. lip balm
5. Vitamin C and Vitamin E (for face)
6. Heat packs
7. 100% polypropelene thermal long johns (heavy weight everwarm brand (made in NZ) is good)
8. A good sleeping back esp if u are trekking (get goose or duck down)
9. Good trekking socks so you wont get blisters
10. A good waterproof parker
11. Good fleece
12.Ski gloves (keeps your hands nice and toasty)
13. Remember to layer up with dry fit stuff and woolen stuff.
14. Beanie or balaclava, pref windproof.
15. Raincoat

Well, thats all for now, I'm going back to pack my stuff.

There is really no mee goreng in India, despite many indian "mama's" selling it here. They have however chinesised noodles esp in Calcutta. Looking forward to batura and pokara and momos. yums. No yak butter tea for me please.

Till then, take care, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Around in Rotorua

2006-11-29T17:17:00.000+13:00

Gorgeous View the area near OPC.

Driving along Lake Taupo I think. The lake is the size of Singapore! the population in NZ is the same as Singapore!

Haka Island in the distance. Its where the Haka was invented.... 'It is death,it is death it is life, it is life'

Spent quite a bit in this shop run by a Singaporean family who has migrated there. Coole! I wanna migrate too! they have an excellent fish and chips store next door.

Fish and Chips in News paper! Yumms!!! We had chili for the first time in 7 days!

Out and About in OPC, NZ

2006-11-29T17:06:00.000+13:00

Fish curry rice. Really good!

Ubique chalet. It has 2 rooms of 10 for kids and 2 rooms for teachers at both ends. there are 2 drying rooms, one for boys and another for girls, 2 bathrooms, several sinks and wash areas around for the kids to wash their own clothes. Each dorm has a heater and the teacher's dorm is way coole! if only all the hostels were like this!

The main OPC centre where we have our meals, debrief and table tennis and a shop. lovely 2 storey building where kids can play, chat and do stuff.

Inside the dorm where the kids are preparing a gift for the instructors.

More of NZ, OPC

2006-11-29T16:31:00.000+13:00

Jyothi is the OPC cook. Fujian Indian who has been working in NZ for a while. Sweet mama she is.

Kids helping to prepare dinner. It was fun!

We walked on this volcanic mountain and there were hardly any insects or nasty creepy crawlies.Despite the rain it was a nice walk, we were well layered with thermal, fleece, overtrousers and parker, 2 socks to prevent blisters and leather boots. We crossed rivers and rocks and had to go up and down steep elevations. Coole! The mountain trekkers hut. With all the wet stuff outside. It was raining the entire day and we walked and walked and walked in the cold.But its not too bad when u are well layered.

The toilet outside the mountain trekkers hut. No flush but ways cleaner than some of our toilets!

Inside the mountain trekkers hut. Its super clean, well maintained and has everything u need to survive except a tv. Haha... I'm the urban gal but it was nice and peaceful. Carrie taught the kids this game called mafia and they loved it! they all slept in sleeping bags in the bunk beds.

The instructors slept in sleeping bags on the floor near the fire. There is a shed for firewood and a tap and sink. Way cooles! No electricity!

More Adventures in OPC, NZ

2006-11-26T13:48:00.000+13:00

Well, this isnt exactly and adventure but they kids were given a duty to do so this group had to sweep up leaves..... are they really leaves? Have a closer look...

They are moths!!!.... some evolutionary/camouflage/nature this that occured

Having lunch in the middle of nowwhere after caving. Din take pics during caving cos the camera will get wet and you have to squeeze through tiny holes and crawl through minute spaces in the dark, anyway, caving was dun with glow worms, streams, pit holes and lots of kids to lead the way.

We went back to OPC after caving to get geared up with wetsuits, life vests, etc for gorging. Gorging is like walking in the river.The waters were icy cold and got really high, so we did not walk far... but far enuf to have a bit of fun. and we slid down this thing. superb!

Adventures in OPC, New Zealand

2006-11-26T13:46:00.000+13:00

The Outfitting/Gear Rental. Its huge, and it rents almost all of your outdoor needs except a sense of adventure and guts.

Kids awaiting their turn to get their outfits which consist of thermals, fleece tops and bottoms, over trousers and parker, helmet, gum boots, balaclava (beenie) gloves, an overnight bag and sleeping bags etc. so coole!

Kids with their new rentals, ready for an adventure of a lifetime!

BushWhacking: Literally. There is no trails nor path to follow, we had to trample on new ground, stepped on new growth and killed some bush. Found some new plants and made fast enemies with a few(who got trampled on by like 13ppl)

Ready to Abseil? We whacked bushes will we came to this steep drop off and had to abseil down. It was fun! I abseiled for the first time, again I had to avoid trees and all going down.

Flying Fox. Its way coole, down between the valley over a gushing river, the river was excellent and the ride was super! the kids had this pulley system to pull the person back to the start point.

Flying Fox pulley system. Simple fun and easy. NO complicated machines and stuff.

Rotorua, New Zealand

2006-11-26T13:26:00.000+13:00

I cant tell you how much I love New Zealand, I'll just show you pics. A brief of my ultra short 8/9 day trip would be

Day 1: Auckland-Outdoor Pursuit Centre (OPC) off Rotorua
Day 2 :OPC-Buch Whacking,Abseiling, Flying Fox
Day 3 : Caving and Gorging (River walking)
Day 4-5: Snowball fight/Mountain Trekking and Overnight in a Trekkers Hut
Day 6: Short Drive to Turangi Town and Back to Rorotua for Fish n Chips
Day 7: Adventure Thrills and Shopping in Rotorua
Day 8: Rorotua to Auckland

Will give u details with pics k. By the way, I must mention that we did not go there alone, rather with a bunch of 20kids and another instructor. So, if you see kids in the background, they are not mine but they did make our journey to NZ spicier and sweeter at times but can be numbing (at times speechless and bloodcurling) too.... But all in all, I enjoyed getting to know them, exchanging stories and food and J their instructor, our friend.

Auckland Airport

Maori Cemetery: Has to be on a slope with the high ranking Maori on higher ground

Huka Falls

Outdoor Pursuit Centre set up by Sir Edmund Hillary

First Nz Dinner of Beef Sausages in OPC. It was so-so.

Kids making sandwiches for lunch with beetroot, mango chutney, peanut butter, salad, ham, jam, butter, mayo, carrot etc. Of course, not everything goes in the sandwich at once unless the kids make them as such, usually, we get mostly horrid sandwiches will I stepped in to make our own and for our instructor.

OPC Dining/Kitchen. Very much hostelish where u set up and clearup on your own or as a group. Cool system (cos the adults din have to do anything) :)

The kids were split into 2 groups, we followed Carrie our OPC instructor. They kids were having a briefing with her. I was the official photographer.

Bird vulturing a moth. There were tonnes of these greenish yellow moths which look like leaves. Check out my zoom man. this pic was taken from afar.

The Day before a Holiday

2006-11-12T20:33:00.000+13:00

So, I'm going to Rotorua tomorrow. Yay!

Had an extremely tiring week. All I can say is that momentum is lame. Like hello...? Still managed to squeeze in sometime for tennis though. Fun. The weather is perfect for tennis after the rain.

Christmassy Air
Can you smell it and feel it? The cool tropical winter breeze, the closest we ever get to a winter season here in Singapore. The first christmas commercial. I used to love the Metro one and its jingle. Anyways.....

Tennis Arena
If there is a Singapore Badminton Hall, why can't we have a Singapore Tennis Hall? Just because you have to play badminton indoor, doesnt mean you can't play tennis indoor as well. Get my drift? Why must tennis players be subjected to the weather condition and badminton players have the luxury of playing anytime they want? Can you hear the thunder? All outdoor sports shd have an indoor court. Ok, I'll have some sportswomanship here, I'll even extend the indoor areas to soccer, rugby, cricket, softball, water polo etc. Like hello..... they are remaking the national stadium the exact same capacity as when we first built it. Like... din our population just increase almost 4 million and u are still building a small stadium.... which SHOULD have the option of a retractable cover!!! Stop thinking of constraints and limitations!!!

Well, I'm tired from a whole day of shopping. See ya!

Loves,
Evielovestotravel

More of Chloe

2006-11-12T13:53:00.000+13:00

Chloe Neville

2006-11-10T04:31:00.000+13:00

The photos you have been waiting for. One month old, chubby little sweetheart. What more can you ask for.

Photo Me Pretty

2006-11-05T22:30:00.000+13:00

Just a blog title that popped into mind not that I think I am pretty.... I dont have to... :)

MALACCA
Fish at this teochew restaurant off Jolker Street. Great stuff! I like the old fashioned restaurant. Very 1970s.

THE SUPREME EXCELLENT suckling pig I have ever ever had in my life. Great stuff! 100/100. A*****

Ornee or sweet yam paste. Good.... very nice....

The oldest Catholic Church in Malacca or mabbie Malaysia. But I'm not sure I got my facts right. Its just super old but of course it has been refurbished and renovated.

We had our Peranakan Food here. Great Stuff. Nice Sotong grilled with Kunyit and chendol.

The sotong grilled with Kunyit. Yums. We had quite a number of dishes for 6 ppl and it only cost us like $50.

This is the REAL reason why my parents brought us to Malacca.... no it wasnt to spend time with their daughter, it was for me to tell them that this milk crab is better then the one we had at Mellben. But seriously, it is not... Its one of the things which ppl expect you to say you know... hai.... honestly.... the milk crab at Mellben is like 10000x better. but the food at this coffe shop was not bad too... its just across from the old church

The haze from the beach front condo we stayed in. We shd have brought out racquets cos there were courts! well maintained too! The condo is run my a singapore management company so its well kept and nice. Lovely condo. Functional.

Malacca was fun. The Nike sale was superb and the Arena shop was great! Spent most of our money there. The coffee was good, the durian chendol was good. Everything was good. Not that I wanna go back there again.....

A Perfect Day for Tennis II

2006-11-05T05:52:00.000+13:00

Yup! It was a beautiful day for tennis. The sun was hidden, slight humidity not much heat. Nice. But I wasnt feeling all up for tennis and I guess it was shown all over my face. Affected. Seriously reflecting, I seldom get so upset, it only happened once other than this in this year. But it didnt affect my tennis I must say, so the losing of 6-2, 1-4 was not because because of the incident but of my pathetic playing skills. Hmmm.... need more private lessons.... LET ME WIN!

Anyway, it was a long day. Mentally tired. Emotionally drained. Had to counsell and talk... on a Sat... what kinda 5 day work week is this.......

So we went to Pearl River Palace at Suntec City for Dinner
Food: Excellent 8.4/10
Buffet: ala carte buffet of Gong Bao Prawn (Excellent 10/10), mini buddha jumps over the wall is very very good, the ribs in chef's sauce was excellent. and the dessert buffet is a help yourself to a good durian pudding (7.3/10) and black sesame paste (7.8/10)
Price: abt $32+++

Then went to Carrefour to walk ard till it closes at 11pm. Nice. Felt better after.

Over the past week, some highlights were

1) Jogging after dark
reminded me of jogging in NUS when I was staying in the hostel. I remember going down to the track at like 12 midnight to jog ard like got 20 rounds. Lovely weather. So cool, jogging under the stars. I could go on and on.... perhaps thats why I was slightly thinner.... inaddition to the stress of honours year.... hmmm mabbie i shd run at night

2) Via Mar
We went back there again for the paella. The service SUCKS. Baby squid is the most delicious! Squid ink paella was alright. filling. Baby sonia came with her parents. SHe is the sweetest little angel ever. bigger now.pretty. Carried her ard. they had some indianmusic night thing which was just groovy.

3) Din play much tennis this week sad

4) mixed doubles
played our first mixed doubles tog. i sucked big time. kill me

5) rained
it rained like 5 mins for a few afternoons just to give the courts a good bath then stopped. how to play like that?

pics coming soon!

Nokia 6288

2006-10-27T05:41:00.000+13:00

Hey! Its the last official day of work! :) 3 cheers! Alas, the word OFFICIAL holds true. Lets just say that i still have to work.

Anyway, I have my Nokia 6288!!! its a fantastic phone! Can make video calls and have all sorts of cool stuff like 3G tv and surf the internet. Its my first colour phone, my first polyphonic, my first camera phone, my first video phone, my first media player phone, my first java enabled phone, my first internet phone, my first phone bought by LK (more to come?), my first loudspeaker phone... you might like to note that its not my first radio phone. Wheeee.....

Well, its gonna be many busy weeks ahead. I think I'm pretty stoned out.

Farewell
We had a good farewell lecture today. Its a rare lecture to have. A fond farewell to a great person and mentor. We'll miss you deeply and terribly.

Tongshui
Yes bro! We went!! Quite nice but quite standard la. Still prefer Hongkong Cafe in East Coast though.... Any other coole place to recommend?

Well, perhaps in my next blog i'll put more pics.

Rest well sweethearts!

A Perfect Day for Tennis

2006-10-21T04:47:00.000+13:00

So this week has been hellish. Results were out, some didnt do as well as others, some crumbled, some faced up to reality, some were simply bochap. Well, I had to counsel a few of my students. Which was alright but what I remember most was the joy on some of my students faces. Some were beaming and exuberant. I guess not only they have put in tremendous amount of effort but I think their efforts have paid off. Well, at least most of them are happy.

Sent off another batch of Padwans. Preparing for one of the most important battles in Tatooine. The ceremony was alright. Nothing super special.

Only done some of my work, have more to do on Sunday, and Monday and I'm super busy all the way till next Tuesday. Yikes! Then I have more work lined up.... more yikes! Life is awful!

Anyway, the highlight of the week was today. Finished 1/10th of my work, came home, slept then played tennis with LK. Psi was about 70+ and it made the weather slightly less humid. We played for about 2 hours but I could still go on! It was fun! Then we went out for dinner at

Hongkong Cafe
We went to Hongkong Cafe at East Coast after tennis and I was starved out! It's a great cafe with many items on the menu. We tried
1) Xiao Long Bao -soso
2) Steamed Ribs - okie la
3) Glutinous rice- good!
4) Hot sour soup- good!
5) Seafood Ee mee- Good!
6) French toast with peanut butter - Good but oily
7) Durian Pudding- Ultra super duper excellent! Its like a hydrid of durian pengat from Swissotel Merchant Court and Durian ice cream. A definite bloody well try it!
with 3 drinks and 4 polo bao to takeaway, it cost us slightly less than $50.
Service: Similar to the one in Cafe Cartel except that you pay at the end
Return factor: with so many choices! I will definitely return!
Opening hours: it starts from 6pm all the way till 5am in the morning. coole huh.
Ambience: typical chill out cafe... a little noiser
Must try: the chilli! its made with dried shrimp and the flavour of the chili is superb!

On thursday, we went to
Sushi Tei at Serangoon Gardens
The food was well prepared and the prices are comparable to Sakae Sushi. We had the beef sukiyaki, various sushi and the cold soba. the ebi tempura was good! All in all it was abt $50 as well.
Return factor: definitely, since its so near by
Service: not bad
ambience: typical

It was been such a hectic week that I hardly have time to cook nor have the mood.

Preamble

2006-10-19T03:46:00.000+13:00

Well well well..... its the busy season now. I'm bogged down with a tonne of things. Year end stuff always comes in heaps and piles. And seriously, most is unnecessary work. A load of rubbish.

This is what preambling is all about... nothing..... Life is like a box of preamble. Bruhahaha.

Well, at least some family members are happy in Jiu Jai Kou (some part of China, near Chengdu). Its about time I took a plane myself. Damn. May have to reschedule next year's meetings and whatever to allow me to go on holiday for at least twice a month. Did I say twice a month? As in two times in 30/31 days? What I meant was once in two months. Once in 60/62 days..... nah.... I prefer the earlier......

Anything..... I'll do anything to prevent myself from working. its 1050pm on Wed night now. Project Runway is on. No tennis open. Not even a 1985 rerun of Wimbledon, which I would appreciate. Have you seen Steffi Graf play? She is the only Golden Grandslammer ever. They should take part in mixed doubles, the ex punk and the golden girl. It would be super fantastic.

Wat's fun to talk abt..... well, one of my fishes are swimming sideways...thats a good headline for now.

SIDEWAYS SWIMMING FISH
A fish was found swimming sideways at 915pm. A sure sign of bad health. Water quality appears to be good as many other fishes are still thriving in the pebbled tank. Suspected old age. Expected time of demise: 545am.

WOMAN DECIDES TO BLOG ......(instead of working)
Now thats a good headliner for Digital Life. Bruhahhaa

To bee or not to bee the Queen bee
-some stupid bio thing

Why did the vegetables invite the mushroom to their party??
Because he was a Fun-Guy (fungi) bruhahahaha

What did the spoilt phone say to its owner?
Get Nokia 6280

What did the spoilt owner say to the phone?
I cant even trade you in.

What did the phone owner say to her husband?
I want Nokia 6280

What did her husband say to the phone owner?
OK OK.... I get one for myself too.

Hahahahahaha.. so its 1106pm on Wed night..... boy... this is gonna be a real long blog.

Notice there's nothing much to talk abt my week cos it was full of nonsense, except for the wee bit of tennis i managed to squeeze in my work place. but even that was demoralising.

Its a sad week ahead.... mabbie the haze is getting to me.

Till then

Saturday

2006-10-15T05:08:00.000+13:00

Its a fun Saturday today. Started on Fri with a super high calorie supper from Chomp Chomp with fried oyster, hokkien mee, bbq chick, popiah, carrot cake, Big O durian dome etc in a haunted school. haha... okie la not haunted just spookie.... had fun, great supper people.

Had my spinster's night out with myself and the tv. There is nothing better than to have a tv watch you sleep. Wake up in the middle of the night and hear someone talking and laughing (from the tv la). I used to do that when i was young. Parents left me to myself, the telly was my best friend. Then, channel programmes started like 9am and ended at like 10pm. I dont think there was a TV3 (malaysia's tv tiga) nor an arts channel. It was primitive. then the stars were Xiang Yun and Huang Wen Yong. Michelle Chia was a very young star then. No such thing as remote control (mabbie there was but it's like a high end thing). The tv only had like 10 buttons. I can still recall..... so ancient.

Anyway, woke up late ard 10. No good news on my Nokia 6280. Students only pay $99!! Normal more worthy working citizens have to pay a hefty $238. So unfair! So, we'll wait. If there is no Deepavali promotion, there shd be a Ramadan promotion, if not, a Christmas promotion. Worse comes to worse, a New Year promotion. I seriously doubt i have to wait for a chinese new year promotion. We'll then again there shd be a Valentine's Day promotion. oki oki... enuf preamble

So coach messaged me last minute to say that there is training. Alamak! But it was worth it. Any tennis lesson is worth it. Backhand. Ya, still not consistent. enuf said. I know theoretically wat to do but physically, I am able to do it but i dont.... know what i mean?

Came home, slept.

Went to Amici Italian at Tanjong Pagar for dinner. Singapore Women's Weekly One for one. Good deal, 4 course dinner for 2 for abt $80. Interesting lah. Nice place. Food was alright. say about 6.9/10. Ambience was 7.2/10. Service 8.6/10. Return factor, prob but mabbie for pasta and pizza, not the main course.

What to do on a Sat night with the haze? Movies are ultra ex, driving ard scenic places are a headache... literally.... the haze gives me a headache. like when you breath in the air gets to your lungs but the particles affects your brain. somehow. so we went to .....

VivoCity
Major gigantic place with a huge mart and lotsa stuff. the decor is abit like Marina Sq somehow. Tangs, Best, and many others are there. Interesting. It was super crowded even at 930pm. Saw a fridge that i wanted for a rather reasonable price too! :) French Doors, less than $1.6. Mabbie I'll wait for next year's CNY promotion for that one. Whooppee!

A couple of days back we went to Kandahar Street to look for food. As much as I love pasar malams, this one wasnt very exciting. I think the Geylang one is more happening. Best thing to try? Dendeng!!! Best! Must go to Geylang soon!

Take care mommies! rest well and sleep well. Love ya!

All things baby

2006-10-14T05:10:00.000+13:00

No no..... stop touching my tummy and say "baby?".... its just fat..... there are so many new mommies, mommies to be and little babies lately. Such cute little darlings!

1) there is baby chloe. Havent had a chance to take a photo of her. Met her on her 2nd day on earth and had the grand privilege of rocking her to sleep in my arms. She's so sweet, such a darling. has daddy's face and mommie's pretty smile.

2) then there is Az's baby to come! yeah!! when is the due date dear? Cant wait! Many things to prepare for ya..... dont forget breast pumps..... electric are the best! get the twin ones..... :)

3) Baby laura J on the way soon..... a colleague who tries to assure me, no many times she waddles and puts her hand on her back to ease strain that pregnancy is bearable..... hahaha

4) so many about one year olds in my workplace. first walk, first word, first solid food..... so cute! there's sociable and funny little Amanda, handsome hunk Luke, sweet joyous smile En Ki, shy little Audrey, active little Brian

5) how can I forget best behaved baby girl Sonia with her wide eyes and sweet smile

6) WC's baby on the way too....

7) baby keziah from babyship..... so pretty now

I'm more excited about my alcoholic drinking field trip, flying fox etc to NZ and a hopefully weight losing trek up the Indian Himalayan mountains by the end of the year. And everything poking out around the tummy is just fat.... and more fat....

So I sat under the sun from 1 to 7pm today. Watching ppl play tennis. boring. I mean i would have loved to be on the courts for all that time. it would be pure unadulterated joy.

Someone said today he eats to enjoy..... and the way he eats...... is the way i would enjoy a good game (rally la.... so can last longer and wont be so demoralised so easily, and no one would point their finger in the air and call fault.... worse still..... double fault.... argghhhh). He eats a huge meal every Fri nite to reward himself. Just as he said that, i'm thinking that i would love to play tennis to reward myself as much as he enjoyed eating. Okie.... I need to reward myself soon..... how can ppl just play tennis once a week? thats absurd..... it should be played at least 4 times a week or even five times a week..... its like a big necessity!

Come on babes! quick get married and have babies.... .. yes i'm refering to you... all of you!!!!

Hugs and kisses!

Malacca- Sea, Shopping, Food and the Haze

2006-10-09T00:24:00.000+13:00

Just got back from Malacca. Great town, small, full of food and great shopping. Will tell you more with pics when I've uploaded it.

The haze is back, we missed the worse of it at PSI 145 in Singapore but in Malacca the haze was just as bad.

Well, i think its back to work for the next couple of weeks. things will start to get hectic with lots of work to do. All i can look forward to are my tennis sessions.

Jogging@East Coast
No, its not a place to eat.Went jogging on Fri morning between 7-830am at East Coast. It was exhilarating. The cool morning air, the fresh sea breeze, the sound of the waves, the morning dew, the early morning warmth of the sun. It was a beautiful morning. Jogged of abt 7km from Macs to almost Fort Road and back.

There were many groups of old people doing their tai chis and watever breathing exercises, some grandparents with babies, some strange men walking ard. They are demolishing the tennis courts at East Coast. It was such a lovely place for tennis, tennis by the sea. pity the courts are ill maintained. Hopefully they'll build a grand tennis arena there..... yeah right.....

Its such a nice feeling. I did weights by the sea,the sound of waves and sea breeze. Nice. Cant wait for another offday on a weekday.... wait a minute... that would be... soon.... hahahahaha

Baby Chloe is out! will see her tomoro. Stay tuned!

Love ya!

Rafael Nadal

2006-10-04T03:13:00.000+13:00

Hazy

2006-10-01T23:50:00.000+13:00

The weather is dreary. Its like London. Boring. I wonder how the people living near the hazy affected areas are coping. It must be terrible. Everything here times a million plus the sad fact that its their own country that's on fire but maybe for foreign benefit as well. Politics and business. Sad.

Just like Sports and Business. Apparently you cant just have talent and play. You need to abide by rules. RULES RULES RULES. Rules from associations, governmental organisations, international rules etc and I dont mean rules of the sport. Sad. My dear girl is facing problems and I'll stop at that. And the worst part of rules are is that is was set by people. People who may not have the right intentions. Sad.

Its a sad sunday.(today is sunday) NO tennis this Sunday. Relatives came over, made my usual Thai Pineapple Rice and Grilled stuff. ss made salad with mango. If you see how many recipe books i have you'll wonder why i cook the same thing over and over again.

Had tennis lessons on Fri though. Great stuff! Learnt how to return serve. where to stand, how to read the ball. split step, turn body. REACT fast. Thats the key. I love open drills. Went down to Marche for a huge mug of beer after. got 15% discount with HSBC or Citibank. Coole. Bought new tennis shoes. Nike , pink colour for $59.90 at Why pay more. They seem to be on permanent clearance sale.

Had tennis on Sat too. Volley. Cant get the hang of it. Apparently you cant just lounge for the ball, you have to shuffle till you get the right momentum to lounge for it. Then there is the issue of racquet face, the slice volley, the drive volley or the punch volley or the drop volley or even smash of the ball goes way over. Damn. Then there is the issue to the stun factor when the ball comes directly at you. I mean , yeah you should shift and move to either side, but its like when you are standing on the road, about to cross it and a car comes out from nowhere almost abt to hit you. Physically you are able to run and mentally you know what you shd do but the stun factor puts you in a spot where you just stand and stare. you know. thats why accidents happen. stupid. Then you just close your eyes and cover your head, denial. Deny that you are in a situation where you can be in control but just give up the chance to be... due to the stun factor.

Gosh, if i were to be pushed onto the MRT tracks I think I'll just get crushed. Where got time to hide under the tracks and crouch etc. Ok I think I better stick to driving. At least got some metal and an airbag (does my car have one? hmmm....) to protect me.

Well well, its a depressing Sunday. even my dessert of baked bananas with choc and marshmellows (with Baileys with a hint of caramel) and ice cream cant cheer me up.

What lies ahead in the week. More boredoom.

Anyway, i went to Bottle tree Village for the 3rd time this month! Went with Ah kuo. Made everyone try the curry fish head. The chili crab was terrible. the mongolian prawn balls were great. the mee goreng was excellent. everything else was ordinary. they opened the gate and we could see Pasir Gudang in Johor. They say Bottle Tree Village used to be the Sembawang Sea sports centre.

Kampung Wak Hassan.near Sembawang park. My dad says Wak Hassan got ambushed there once. Anyway, there are villas by the beach there. so nice!

Nokia 6288. I have not changed my phone since 2002. Whats wrong with paying more for 3G? Besides the fact that i'm not too rich this month, i dont see whats wrong with getting it. Right. I'll wait till Valentine's Day next year. Price shd have dropped far enuf my then, can bb?

I'm serious. The weather is affecting my mood. I'm hazy. going crazy. Someone play tennis with me PLEASE!!!!

By the way, HAPPY CHILDRENS' DAY!

Sama sama maju kehadapan
Pandai Cari Pelajaran....

Secret Hideout-Sembawang

2006-09-23T00:54:00.000+12:00

Well, amidst the hectic work schedule we managed to snatch sometime off to check out Sembawang Park and its surroundings. Its a really coole area, super secluded and serene. A little known beach, colonial villas, the sembawang wharves, a quick drive around will bring you to Yakult factory in Senoko.

We stopped by this cosy restaurant called
Bottle Tree Village
Location: way in one corner of the world, its not easy to find. You'll have to drive off the sembawang park, past the boring landed singapore houses through a dark one lane road, past a mosque to a cool lil village called Bottle Tree Village.
Food: Its a coole zhi char place, they have chocolate sauteed prawns!!! its so coole! butter prawn. the fish head curry was super delish! Fish head steamboat etc.
Ambience: Alfresco dining, literally under the stars, you can see the neon lights of Johor just across the straits. dim lights, sea breeze, swings, even a playground for kids.
Rating: we tried the
a)fish head curry: it was very fragrant and rich, thick gravy which went well with rice 9.7/10
b) chocolate coated prawn balls: its good choc, prob hersheys. the prawn ball was made of very fresh crunchy prawns ex though but well worth the try. admittedly i feel that prawns and choc dont go. $20 for 10 balls
c) sweet potato leaves: fresh and fragrant
Return factor: Definitely

Des, lets go for dinner here. Pick u up?

We drove around the area and found colonial like villas (haunting) but interesting. they have pretty cool road names like Montreal and Ottawa road.

Well, just a short entry for now.

Photo Album

2006-09-21T00:39:00.000+12:00

A photo speaks a thousand words and invokes a million emotions.

1) Car Crash

2)My tennis racquet in Holiday Inn-Batam
Tennis court costs $5 per hour. Not too bad. Decent and well maintained.

3) Nasi Goreng Istimewa at Harris Beach Resort

4) Holiday Inn Batam
Looks very condo like. Lovely pool with jacuzzi fountains, great place to chill and stone. No noisy kids!

5) Tea Tree Spa in Holiday Inn
Nice Cosy place

6) Nasi Goreng Istimewa at Holiday Inn

Holidaying In - Holiday Inn

2006-09-13T03:04:00.000+12:00

Yeah! We went to Holiday Inn Batam for a short break. It was fantastic! The company was great! Food was great! Rooms were great! Here's a list of what fun stuff

1) Played tennis! the court was nice, cleverly blocked from the sun
2) Tea Tree Spa! It was gorgeous. There is this huge jacuzzi right inside the spa. We brought choya and chatted and chilled out! the ambience was superdamn!Balinese decor, nice music in the background and in the evening they had romantic lights all over. we did a couple package in this lovely hut like thing. massage, javanese lulur, body mask, eastern massage, foot reflex and a nice cup of warm ginger tea after. the masseurs were polite and professional (as can be by their standards). The open air hut had attached bath and a tub! so romantic!

3) upgraded room! we got the 2 bedroom with a cosy living room and dining table. so coole! 2 bathrooms! it was nice!

4) Buffet in the hotel: Food was good! Nasi Goreng istimewa, comes with satay, ayam goreng, sambal etc.... Pasta and Rotisserie buffet, lovely lamb racks. INdonesian food made by the experts

5)walk to Harris: food there was good and cheap too! the place is full to happy orange people. we went to check out the cable ski which we decided not to do.... hahahaha....

6)pool:lovely freeform pool with jacuzzi and water sprouts, even a slide too! so nice

7) Number drinking game party: it was fun, a bo liao game but good for a party of 9. Baileys, choya, red wine, Bintang beer. overwork the liver a bit. good thing i had ss. hahahahaha

8) Cable TV! so many channels!

9)Shopping at Matahari, so cheap!

Well, I'd rather check out Club Med in Bintan than go back there. But it was such a nice break. *sighs...*

A series of unfortunate/fortunate events

2006-09-13T02:35:00.000+12:00

yes, it somes in series. a serial drama with many episodes. unfortunate episodes.

Episode 1
1) car crash
2) repair car
3) motor insurance is lousy (dont use L******)
4) Carless
5)I have to fork out money- cos my insurance is lousy. For the uninitiated: when u get a car insurance, make sure your
a) premium is low
b) access is low or zero
c) easy to report accident at IDAC or preferred car workshop

Episode 2
Found out my workload for next year

Episode 3
More work, no car, no fun

Episode 4
Road tax due

Episode 5
bills for holidays yet to come due

Episode 6
No car.

Episode 7
NO car

Episode 8
No car

But I'm such a lucky chick. I had great ppl to help me through the whole thing.

FORTUNATE EVENTS
1) dad came to help
2) my workshop ppl (family friends actually) were super helpful, with the exception of one &*&*#$%$% who asked me " why u crash the car??" ^&$%@#$%^&
3) the nissan guy was helpful n informative
4) since my car is under warranty, i get all new parts
5)the insurance itself is lousy but the service is not too bad... easy to report n friendly too.....
6) ss was cool abt it
7)my bro is helping me curse (thanks bro! i owe u one!!!)
8) dad offered to lend me his car (for one or two days out of the entire week but still.....)
9) i get to save money on petrol
10) MIL was at my place when i needed critical information

Ok.... will tell u abt happy stuff soon. like my cool retreat in Batam

Equinox and Powderful Cameras

2006-09-05T03:07:00.000+12:00

We brought Mil and Fil to Equinox at Westin, 70 storeys above Raffles City for hi tea. Food was much better than before, service was good and the view was EXCELLENT! Check out my zoom!!

Can you see the Merlion? Its probably rather puny eh?

This photo was taken at the same spot with my zoom maximised. A good optical zoom is a much have! with an image stabiliser of course. this was taken with the pocket camera.... imagine if i brought my Fx 10 with carl zeiss lens!

Food at Equinox
Salads/ Starters

The buffet Spread....

Great Views (not very clear cos of the reflection from the glass)
Check out the lawn tennis courts!

Its no Wimbledon but.....

Suntec from the Top

Quick go! Citibank ppl get 20% discount!

International Wine and Beer Fair

2006-09-05T02:41:00.000+12:00

Hey hey! Its nice to read fun blogs eh.... enough of those dreary old tsunami like waves which wash out all fun and play... its the hols.... (predicted: tsunami like waves will be back once hols end... bleah....)

Ok, so we went to the International Wine and Beer Fair (who wants to twangle with the crowd at Comex) at Raffles City. It was so coole! Free tasting of wine and beer from all over, the highlight for me was finding the semi sweet red which we had everywhere in Greece. Its damn good. But I din buy it at the fair cos you can get it at Carrefour anyway. Here are some highlights

1) Cornerstone has ice wine.... not as rich as inniskilkin, a bit young....
2) At the greek wine section, there was a french man promoting greek wine.... I found that interesting..... he had such a strong french accent. We bought the Samos wine (also avail at carrefour)
3) Some bitter sweet beer from Belgium
4) Tasted a japanese sweet potato liquer, very much like sake, very much like hard liquor, not sweet at all.
5) All were at a reasonable promotional price.

Lowlights
1) SO many aunties!!!! Either curious and asking stupid questions or show offy (like most singaporeans are) Blocking my way!
2) Too many comments.... one thing i realise about singaporeans. So silly. they give comments to the ground staff who are just carrying out orders.... they may not even have the courage to bring up the good comments to management to improve the situation. the aunties just blast them with suggestions to improve, what it should be, how it should have been done. So irritating. The ground staff just smile politely and nod their heads. the.....

Wine tasting
So I decided to rate wines we have bought and tried. This one we bought from Carrefour for $35.

it needs to breath a little, we found that a day after opening it, the flavours mellow a little more and was slightly smoother. Goes really well with grapes. Look at the colour, rich goldeny brown, sweet dessert wine. Not too heavy, not too viscous. French I think. Not worth the price really. I expected better. Then again, I'm no wine connoisseur, just going with what I feel about it.

Will take another photo of my expanding collection and show you... need to get fire insurance soon.... hahahahahah

Its the Hols!

2006-09-02T05:13:00.000+12:00

Come on everyone now 5, 6, 7, 8. Lets sing it *

happee holeedaze.....
happee holeedazee (echo)

its short and sweet,
fun and neat,
some of work and
some of play

We'll all be away
from the little greenies
we have seen all day
toiling and boiling
coiling and annoying

happee holeedaze....
happee holeedaze.....

its fun to be away....
HEY!

Some pathetic tune lah. Bored. I'm still digesting from the fantas wedding buffet. If you didnt realise, this blog is written on the same day as the " a Simple Wedding". So Federer's still playing. A boring game this one is. Did you catch the match between Andre and Bagdadtis? Andre's 2nd match and he won! yay! I would love to see him get trashed by Nadal. Wahhahahahaha.....

HEy des! great to find some excuse to call you.... So what new inventions are u working on? do you have to kill me and all my blog readers after u tell me? Anyway, will let u know when I get my web cam then I can see u!! hahahah

Tennis reflections
ss is down with the flu.... seriously doubt i passed it to him. No tennis for u till u get better.... in the meantime u can just watch me play..... wahahahaha. was just thinking of how i got started on tennis. its an interesting reflection. I think it really started in sec school where we were made to play mini tennis with those stupid sponge balls and plastic raquets. But I was too busy with bowling and my home ec club and netball to really play....

Jc: was made to play in the poorly participated house games. had enough good ball sense to hit the ball across the net ( but not in the court) . IT was hilarious. I remember playing with J my house captain. All I had to do was serve and he's suppose to "gao tim" the rest.

Uni: perhaps that was when I really got started, graduated from orange balls to ugly pink balls. it was embarassing! The only court with pink balls flying around. I'm not surprised if some flew over to the highway BEHIND me..... hahahahah

Work: played here and there. did some pathetic SSC course which i didnt complete cos i went to India to work for 3 weeks. Played with ss. now taking group lessons.

Making up for loss time, playing as much as i can before i get tied down by you-know-what. Wished I took lessons when I was younger. Sighs......Kill me.....

Well, still bored and still cant sleep. How? Nadal's not playing tonight.Okielah. till then.

US Open 2006

2006-09-02T04:19:00.000+12:00

Its windy eh, at Flushing Meadows. Watching the match between Federer and Henman
I love Federer's backhand. Its between calm (slice)or devastating (winner/killer topspin). Of course he has other styles as well. His precision is second only to Nadal.Hahahahaha. I'm a big fan eh. Whats that stupid tune they play during breaks. Its so crap.

Anyway, I havent congratulated my best babes! Congrats darlings! Cant wait to carry your little bundles of joy! YY and Az. Dont count on me to join the club anytime soon k.

Went out with the family to this delightful hangout near Dampsey Road, Harding Road to be precise.

PS cafe
Tucked away in the far corners of eerie (haunted?) singapore is PS cafe. Its so coole with indoor and alfresco dining, the wine list goes on and on and though the food menu is not as extensive, its delish!

Ambience: 10/10 I love it cos there are separate sections for dining, just chilling on sofas and alfresco. it was cosy and very relaxing.
Food: 8.6/10 we love the thick cut fries with the creamy limish dip. We tried the mousakka, the prawn penne, the steak sandwich, the beef stew, the salad and shared the key lime pie. Other coole stuff on the menu were : duck rendang, grilled fish, some other types of pasta, some salads, etc. dessert menu ranges from sticky puddings to banana cream pie and some other hip expanding stuff. on the bar counter were mouth watering glass domes of chocolate cakes, cheese cakes and pecan pies and whatever else.
Service: okla. some cute waiters but not very attentive and quite "duh!" moments. 5.6/10 i suppose
Return factor: definitely, i wanna try the longan martini! their cocktail list is fantabulous! More treats BIL? haha.... just kidding! Thanks for the treat!

There were many other antique shops around that area, not much light from the streetlamps. But a damn fun area. Just come slightly before sunset to see more stuff.

Tennis n me
I found something which relaxes me. I find myself thinking about it alot. if its not bio, its prob tennis. I've not really given up on baking but since I've put on like 100000000000kgs, i think I better put a stop to my concoctions of butter, sugar and flour. It's relaxing too but why do something to compound the 1000000000000kgs issue I have when I can hit some balls and exercise at the same time.

A Simple Wedding

2006-09-02T03:44:00.000+12:00

I was thinking of how entitle this blog dedicated to yet another wedding couple. It was a nice cosy meaning full wedding with the couple singing, the childhood photo preview, cake cutting, toasting (not champagne cos the couple was muslim). It was nice, sweet, meaningful and simple. Easy. Well, let me describe the wedding to you and you can decide for yourselves.

Debby & Aza
It was held at Royal Scotts, one of the few hotels in Singapore which serves halal food. The owner is some Bruneian Royalty, the Sultan himself I heard. Anyway, the buffets there are damn good! and the desserts are lipsmacking! Okie enug sidetracking.... back to the wedding

The reception was held by the poolside, as we entered the place we were greeted by the gorgeous bride herself and the beautiful guests (ladies) were presented with a rose stalk. so sweet. And were were given envelopes which told us which table we were at and in the envelopes were blank cards for us to fill in our wishes (pens/markers were on the dinner tables in the banquet hall)We hung ard the pool area, served fruit punch and cashew nuts. Not long after, we went into the dining hall.

Balmoral Hall or something, the room was just by the pool. Simply yet elegantly decorated. They had a band an and mc. Buffet dinner. Not the normal rendang and sambal goreng type ok. it was ....

Menu
Starters
1) Mango salad
2) Squid Salad
3) Thai salad
4) Nachos
5) Ham and cheese
6) some greens
7) Greek salad
8) Cream of asparagus and crab soup (yums!)

Mains
1) Roast beef (where the chef slices it up for you)
2) Chinese style fried rice
3) Seafood Paella
4) Lamb in garlic sauce
5) duck ala orange
6) Prawns
7) BBQ chicken
8) Chicken Pie
9) Salmon in Creme sauce

Dessert
1) Cherry triffle
2) tiramisu
3) bread n butter pudding
4) strawberry cheesecake
5) cherry thing
6) mango pudding
7) Fruits
8) coffee and tea

NO (whats that stage thing called? where the bride and groom sit stone- beautifully of course) No throwing of rice etc, not the usual kompang kamping-silat, gotong royong wedding where makciks sit around with huge vats of ayam goreng and beef rendang (not to mention gossiping on their latest models of handphones while doning on huge chains of gold around their necks and wrists)

It was very modern with a 3 tier cake cutting and not champagne pouring but some juice pouring on a cascade of champagne glasses. Photo video, band, not a single malay song- from Kenny G to Bee Gees. Table to table photos.

Another difference was that it was kept small. 11 tables only.

As usual, as i unconsciously do at all weddings (I'll be the last person to cry if thats what u were thinking!) I over ate, went over the credit limit at the dessert spread. The cherry triffle was good! So was the bread n butter pudding!

The wedding token was a sandalwood fan with their names engraved on it and cute tins of tea. So unusual right?!

Sighs....... I wish I was at your kenduri Az! It must have been crazy!!! 2 days of entertaining and dressing up! I havent seen your pics!!!

All in all, it was great. Congrats Debby n Aza! May your lives be filled with romance, passion and unconditional love.

Colic and all things fun

2006-08-28T02:55:00.000+12:00

So,i went to the clinic to see a western doctor for a second opinion. This was on the same day, I still had that gastric like squeezey, bloody painful thing on my upper abdomen, just below my sternum ( by the way, do you know that they are taking studies of the human body out of the syllabus?) I have many comments on that but nothing in black n white ya.

So anyway, I was in and out of the doctor's office before superman can wear his inner underwear (does he wear one underneath the one he wears outside?) Hmmm.... *ponders* so anyway, I told him watever and he said colic. Then I was like, "aint that for babies?!!!" he said well, adults can have it too. Lay me down on the table (no massages but some tapping of fingers etc) sent me off with 3 types of pills, one for gastric, one for stomach cramps and stomach pain. $28 dollars. Oh, I also asked him to take my blood pressure. it was normal!! 110/70.

So the point here is, which medical practitioner is better? the one who spent like 1hr with you, massaged you, talked to you (some jokes too) and asked you if you wanted chinese medicine or the one who just came straight to the point and cured you within like 2 minutes?

Anyway, I realised I made tonnes of spelling errors which looks like bad grammer/verb (whats the difference?- not bothered) just to jet you know they were typos, my grammer/verb/adjs are not all THAT bad.....

Had a greatweekend after a miserable Friday. Was suffering from morning till evening and felt better on sat morning. Went for tennis. Goodness! I was so off! Had to take like mini naps during water breaks. Really. Put my head on the tumbler and almost fell asleep from the heat. Din play as well but I'll feel even worse if i didnt go. I'll be miserable.

So Sat we went to Ikea, crowded. So many kids! not very cute when they are blocking my/the way. Went to this cool place for dinner. Dampsey's Hut. I must tell you about this area

Dampsey
Opposite Botanic Gardens, it looks like some haunted place but there are many coole alfresco restaurants near by. Its difficult to get to if you dont have a car and it super pitch black. Its somewhere near the MInistry of Foreign Affairs. There were afew, we went to Dampsey's Hut. I've been there before with YY and KB. Food's great! we had teriyaki chicken and dory fillet. and just chilled. Drove around.

HOlland V
Its been like a million years since I went there. It was so changed. Used to go there to chill during uni.I remember there was a Charlie's Bar and A death by chocolate. Its madness to go there on a sat night. we just drove past. So happening! Cold storage in Holland V is 24hrs!!!!!!!

The daily scoop
For my friends living in the western hemisphere.... there is a superb ice cream parlor nearby. Sunset Arcade in sunset way, Fantastic ice cream. Great Waffles! Cool flavours too! www.thedailyscoop.com Highly recommended.

Bras Basah
Great place for books! here's a secret for students. Want a 10yr series? (do you know what 10 yr series is extinct?, they only publish 5 yr series now) go to bras basah!)look for it in the 2nd hand shops.

Va va voom cafe
As promised, I returned and tried the pho beef noodle. Good. $5.80. Brought family too! We shall go again with you SIL!

Sheng Siong
Cheap stuff. Good supermart. Recommended by housewives, ministers and me.

Okie, here's to the week ahead.

Hey ber! i think you might be back in the land of potatos and bread. Miss u already. Hope the memories of the durian party will last u till u return!

Low Blood Pressure

2006-08-25T17:32:00.000+12:00

Low Blood Pressure
Yeah, that was what I was diagnosed with in Ma Kuang in Serangoon. Went in, there was a patient before me, so i read some mags. They had my details captured in the system, by ic number. So i went in thi s little room, He has a chinese doctor, can speak a little english, which complemented my little mandarin. Told him about my cold clammy, stomach pain, aches etc. It was a nice conversation, but this time when I didnt understand, I asked " Na shi shem me?" or "ing wen shi shem ma?" which translates to "lu kong shi me?" or " apa u cakap?" (did I mention I failed my malay oral) or in good english "What is it called in English?" {just showing off whats left of my linguistic skills)

Anyway, he took my pulse( you know, like those chinese drama series) but it listened to it for a very long time, on my right, then left wrist. Why left? Dont know.....
Anyway, after some blabber and exchange of words in english and mandarin, he looked at my tongue and took my blood pressure and diagnosed me with low blood pressure. 90/60. Not abnormally low but within the low healthy range. Perhaps thats why the National Blood Centre has never made me a member. I'm anaemic in addition to having low blood pressure..... the person who gets my blood would have more problems to deal with.

So,we talked etc, he asked if I wanted a massage. Of course! Ma kuang Massotherapies are solid and effective. You dont get a nice flower to view when they ask you to stick your head in the little hole on the massage bed, nor do you get to listen to soothing balinese music and the lights are not dimmed. Instead you see his shoes, listen to the pharmacist grind up some chinese herbs and the room is flooded in bright white light. And as I mentioned in some blogs before, its not a relaxing massage. Its like killer, ironing out the suanness in the back. Feels like hell during the massage but it really cures the aches.

So he gave me some herbs to take, sent me off with $53 dollars less in my account but my back is ache free. Cant say much for my feeling of weakness or sudden pin prick like aches in my stomach and everywhere else.

Tennis from the ShiFu

2006-08-24T02:48:00.000+12:00

OKie, just in case i click the wrong button, I'll put in another entry.

Had a tennis lesson from an ex National Player. Forget the title. He is a personal coach anyone who love to have! What makes a good coach? Most of the time I just get drills with a small grp of 5-6 ppl. Not bad but having personal attention to all your little mistakes and idiosyncrasies. Describing the session I had with him will do him injustice. Go try for yourself! He corrected my attitude towards tennis basically. My footwork, my stance, my habits. He didnt enforce "THE BASICS OF TENNIS 101". He just noted my style of playing and got me to improve and gave me good hints and tactics. He taught me how to serve and I aced ss twice! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!! The whole mindset of tennis and the dynamics of it. WOW!

Didnt have enough, I had another private coaching with another coach who was great too. It was fun! I love to have coaches who really note and respect your style of playing and correct it from there. Had fun training and learning.

When I went for the SSC course a few years back, it was like a factory mould press style. EVERYONE had to do the same thing, comfortable or not, he will enforce BASICS OF TENNIS 101 on you till the series of lessons end. Dead beat. Of course that was much cheaper lar.

Cant wait for the US OPEN. Nadal's gonna rule the court, make federer sweat and force him into early retirement. HAHAHAHAHA...... Justine's gonna beat Amelie this time! Well, all the best to my fav players!

Till then, stay happy and stay tuned for more stuff from me. Love ya all!

To my friends

2006-08-24T02:24:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone! Its been a pretty long while since I blogged. First things first.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULES! I know I missed it my miles but I hope you had a great time on your birthday. Stay young and optimistic and ever so cheerful!

Happy Birthday Cupcake! Kisses & Hugs!

Actually I blogged once before but something happened, some click of the worng button etc and everything was gone. Anyway, I have tonnes to blog about. Shall we start with food or tennis?

Food: Been to so many great places lately.

Liquid Kitchen
We just went there yesterday. They have really good meals and deals. Most people think they are just a dessert and drink hangout but.......
Decor: cosy, great comfy chairs, tv (grab the remote and change it from stupid soccer to great tennis!) nice atmosphere and music

Food: Great stuff, we had the bangers and mash and the pasta. Not too bad, got some standard. Their desserts are just lip smacking yummy!

Deals: At least their happy hour is real. 20% off drinks unlike across the road where a pint (1L) cost $18 (outside only about $9)and their happy hour is buy 1 get one free. We're like .."duh!!!" They also have some 50% off and some other deals everyday of the week like, show them 3 different colors etc... fun.

Rating: 8/10, not very ex, great food, fantastic place to catch up with friends, drink and chill

Best part: they open till late, like 1am and have many outlets. Serangoon garden, bukit timah, east coast rd, river valley etc

Va va Voom! Vietnamese
Bright and sunny orangey place, just opposite Raffles Hotel on Siah Street is this fantastic Vietnamese place. Cheap and Good! Highly recommended!
Food: we tried the grilled chop with rice and the spicy lemongrass beef curry with rice. Next time I'll try the pho.
Rating: 8.5/10. shiok!!!

Spanish Tapas n Bar
Located in Clarke Quay, quite prominently facing the river, you'll not miss this place, just take a peek in and you'll want your living room to look like this! the chairs were low so you can just slide down and catch a siesta while the food arrives, the music is so groovy and the decor puts you in Spain in a flash. Nothing better than to order a spanish cocktail and chill and unwind after a hard day's work!

Food: We had the seafood paella ($33+ for 2-3 px), lovely! and calamari, okiela.
Recommended for: girls who love to snack on tapas and chat for hours...couples, aiyah everyone lah... even if you have a one year old....
Rating: 8.3/10
Return: definitely! wanna go babes?

The trouble with life

2006-07-30T15:10:00.000+12:00

As the days go by, my blog seems to get more and more cynical and depressing. Well, holidays are just like.... 4 months away!!!! yikes!!!

Here's whats keeping me busy:

Its part of a Protein Synthesis Process. This is super simplified and this process shown only occurs in Bacteria. The human system is much more complicated. Have fun!

Hey Bro! Whats up?

We went to a Peruvian Night on Friday, 28th of July at Bencoolen street. It was a night filled with Peruvian food and drink and a luckie draw. Small gathering actually. Like 50-70px. Food was good. There was this duck rice (not our local style), mashed cream chicken thing, a chicken on skewer thing, beef stew, fish salad with sweet potato, some tuna fish pudding. For dessert there was rice pudding and this super sweet caramel like thing. Nice. Had fun! most of the people spoke spanish. Ambassors were present. Pity the first prize was not a ticket to Peru. I mean, That would be ultimate promotion of your country right?

It was fun catching up with the girls again. Preganacy talk seem to be the highlight of our conversation: with a gynae to be (thats u Ber!) and a certified doc who is interested in Gynae (KB's bro) and me ( who has heard lots of detailed descriptions of the birthing process (and grossed out nonetheless) from our dear CY) and hearsays from aunts and mothers (through KB and her sister), we managed to freak YY out. Poor dear. HHAHAHAHAHA. hilarious. She doesnt have a choice does she? I do!!! hahahahahahahah

Anyways.... its fun to hear our conversations evolve. especially between me and Yen. I mean, we have known each other since 14. At 14, hardly caring materity talk, we babbled about cycling, netball, bridge, boys and watever teenage stuff that interested us... similar stuff in JC (but at a slightly higher level) including windsurfing and travelling. Then in uni was mostly to check out food from different faculties and clubbing. Then to credit cards and insurance and health when we started working and better places to dine and wine, diving etc. then to marriage- where the best gowns and photogs, how to survive living with another,and now, to babies. I'm sure our conversations will continue to evolve as we grow. Love you all babes! Ber, KB, Yen!!! Kisses kisses kisses and A gazillion hugs.

Well, its back to my protein synthesis. God only know when it will end.

By the way, its the 7th month. Is it true that Singapore is the only country with this Hungry Ghost Festival? Poor Getai King.

Got my new Tennis Racquet!!! YAY! Learnt the semi western yesterday. Great spin! but i have to alter my finishing. Fun.

Well, its a Sunday. I'm doomed to the house, stuck to the laptop (my blogging, I'm taking a break from work), bored to death. By the way, Class 95Fm is playing great music. Hardly anytalk.

Hope you are having a better time than me.

Till we meet!

Unhappy

2006-07-24T03:47:00.000+12:00

Yup, thats what I am. Bored. Nothing to be happy about. except for my new Seiko watch.....$130, sapphire, scratch proof(from ss). Lovely. Finally, a seiko watch. I have no probs with a casio( ss bought me one too)but always wanted a seiko.

So Roger and Amelie won the Wimbledon, good game, thrashed my fav players but it was a good game. Nadal will be back... with a vengence, Justine will continue working hard i suppose.

Meanwhile, I just realised my tennis strokes are wrong.it took just 15 minutes to correct it though. Hahahaha....

Work is though. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Well, I'll be in this unhappy state till say beginning of sept or end of it. depending. why? work lor.....

Pirates of the Carribean: sucks. fell asleep, even the funlooking gimmicks towards the end did not seem fun anyway.

Tiong Bahru market: newly renovated, nice, spacious.

Yahun Kaya@Raffles hospital: The kaya toast is not fantastic. they kaya is too little and the bread not toasted properly. too soft. coffee is good though.

Bencoolen Centre: that where we went to buy my Seiko. Other watches were damn cheap too, can bargain somemore. a nice looking casio of less than $30, silver, matt.

Bugis Junction: same old same old.

Qiji@ bugis: great concept. Halal. caters. laksa. mee siam. nasi lemak. popiah. mee rebus. cheap and good.enuf said

We went to the brazilian churrascaria last Sat. The one near 6th Avenue at Bukit timah. great concept. Great food. Nice saladbar with banana Basi or goreng pisang. the buffet style buffet was fun. The waiters will come over with long skewers and ask if you want it or not.They have a selection of beef,chicken heart, lamb (yums!)pork, fish etc.

Simply Bread, just across the road has great cinnamon rolls.

Hey what happened to the Cinnamon buns that were so popular last time? What was it called again? there were several outlets and it closed down one by one till there's barely a decent one left. Same goes with Rotiboy, but i think the cinnamon bunslasted longer. Bring back the paopao cha too!

By the way, g2000 and U2 has a great sale, look for someone with the VIP card to get an additional 15% off. it the max is 65% its great!! managed to get skirts for just over $20!

Bedsheets: buy the 460 thread count. I heard that theres an even higher number, same goes with the price. MAnaged to get a king size fitted sheet and 2 pillowcases for just $99. a steal! Pity couldnt afford to buy the quilt cover for $150 as well.....Sighs....

Contact lenses: If you are afraid of wearing glasses/specs with astig, dont worry. try the lenses. You wont feel as giddy as you would the lenses. I went to this place in PArkway and the guy suggested i try a pair. I tried a few to finally find a brand i wascomfy with. its ex though $180 for 6months + one bonus and they let you keep the one they let you try. I liked the shop but i wont ever go back. Its ex and i had to go back there like 3-4 times. Lens men.

Antichlorine shampoo: for those who like to swim in the pool or sea, there is an antichlorine shampoo in the market. $62! not even 1 liter. Ex. Did not buy, looking for a cheaper one. Hot weather, need cool water,put 2 and 2 together you get lots of chlorine in your hair and the smell aint great. Should I invest?

Folic acid: yes ber! i finally bought a bottle! cheap too with the GNC card. $9+ only. Will be taking it regularly.

Dano: the one in bugis either closed down or moved.

Moisturisers: Best: H2O

Well, its back to the unhappy life. Till then....

WIMBLEDON

2006-07-01T20:16:00.000+12:00

!!!WIMBLEDON!!!

Agassi vs Nadal. The match of the year. ex Punk from the US vs the Spanish Bull fighter. What can be better to watch?!!! Screw the World Cup. 8pm tonight. Pity Hingis is out. She kinda looks like Natalie Portman, Armidala from Star Wars doesnt she. Cute. Well, next year, June I'll be in Roland Garros to watch Nadal's victorious win then will just stay on to catch him clinch the Wimbledon Cup.

Food Reviews

Friends@ Serangoon Gardens
Rating: 7.5/10
Pricing: Expensive
Ambience: Nice to chill, cosy for lovers, just perfect for hungry people, bad for broke people. ( We were all of the above!!)Perfect for Wine people though we didnt try the wine.
Food: Pasta with mushroom and spinach. Al dente, perfecto... mama mia!, Roast Chicken. Yibba yibba!! good stuff.
Return: Definitely, with a bunch of people, when I'm not so broke.

Grapevine
Have I done a review on this?
rating: 8/10 (steaks were great!!!)
Pricing: Affordable
Ambience: relaxed, chill
Food: BBQ sotong, steak very good
Service: Damn bloody slow!!! our steaks took like 45mins. It takes a shorter time to kill a cow.
Return: YEAH!!!

Well, in transit for about 2 months+. Have to hang in there till my next flight. After my (our?) slurge in Beijing, with all the spas and the shopping and the eating, the Citibank bill had to come and spoil my post holiday memories. I really wannt go back to Beijing. I love it! Its nice and clean, (polluted la but still cleaner than Shanghai), cheap, people were alright. What more can a budget traveller who always exceeds her budget want?!!!

Mabbie we'll go to Guangzhou for a short hol or mabbie Club Med for a good tennis camp, a dive would be fantastic!!! Havent seen my underwater chummies for many years now. Banyan Tree would be ideal! mabbie the one in Maldives??!! (In my dreams!)

India in December, Sikkim for a trek and more Gupta's Banana Pancakes. NZ if everything goes well.... yay!!!

Airline woes
SIA's Krisworld is getting worse. Have I complained about it before?

Here's a crazy story. Some years before, met a bunch of airline pilots, got to know some of them, not well but enuf. Swore that if i ever took a plane and if one of them was piloting it i would get off immediately. Pity now the captain only announces who he is just before take off. No chance to get out. haha. Anyways, Emirates is a better way to fly now.

Till then.......

More of Beijing

2006-06-28T01:20:00.000+12:00

GUess what this is? Its a fire extinguisher!!! Really! THey used to fill this up with water cos fires are a rather common occurence there. So what happens in winter? Ask me!!!

When someone says, I Climbed the Great Wall of China. Ask them. For how long did you climb and how far? This part is damn steep. I wonder how my Grandmother managed this??! We went to a touristy pass, the Badaling area. For thrill seekers try Mutianyu or some where else. (do your own research!)

Da Dong Roast Duck. Voted the best Beijing Roasted Duck in That's Beijing Magazine. But it's sucks. ITs like eating cardboard, dry and some parts, hard. ITs supposed to be s superlean duck. Not in my recipe books! A roast duck is supposed to be fragrant, skin crisp, some oil but not overdripping with it. IT came with lots of unnecessary stuff.

Unnecessary Stuff the Da Dong Duck came with.

The Last Emperor Playing Tennis

Donganmen Street Food Market

Beijing Subway System. Pretty Crazy if you cant read Chinese Words. In English? Mabbie during the Olympics in 2008. Dream on!

A guard near the Tiananmen Square

Notes:
1) Toilet standards are much better in Beijing (compared to Shanghai). Some of the malls have better kept toilets than us (of course there are more which are worse)

2) A 500ml bottle of beer cost SGD$0.40.

3)CDS, VCDS, DVD, all original, from a reputable and accredited shop is less than $10 sing.

Beijing

2006-06-24T00:57:00.000+12:00

Our trip to the capital of China was a super delightful and restful one. This is the first time we ever stayed at one hotel for 11days. Here are some highlights and tips.

1) Oriental Taipan
A fantastic spa place, comparable to none I've experienced so far in Singapore. The rooms can fit 5 persons, all either for foot reflex or some foot reflex and massage tables, it had aromatherapy sets in every room, a plasma tv, some rooms had attached bath and toilets, free flow of food and drinks!!!! You can control the lighting, just press a button and a service staff will come knocking...and the best part, its cheap! Its high end range of spa and in no way cheezy. It makes spas in singapore crappy. Honest.

Check it out : http://www.taipan.com.cn/english/shop_jlb.htm

a) A four hand massage with aromatherapy oil for 1hr 30min is SGD $100 (before discount).
b) Foot reflex for 1 hr 30 min for $22 they have so much more!

2) Xiao Wang Fu
Best place to try Beijing food! they have this thing called "Basi" which is deep fried bananas (better then goreng pisang) and apples coated with warm malt sugar. Before you eat it, you have to dip in in water to harden the sugar so its crisp. Delightful!! The Xinjiang fried chicken with cumin spices super and the deep fried ribs in salt and pepper is exceptional. Suan la tang (hot sour soup) is alright. A cold starter of lotus root in black vinegar and sugar is phenomenal (never seen it before)

Basi

3)Xishui Silk Market
A shoppers haven for people who like to bargain ( really really bargain) for cheap and good clothes. Nuf said!

4) Xidan
Another place, much cheaper, much better than Ma Boon Krong in Bangkok. Really a million times better, cheaper and the sales staff (if you smile and make eye contact they are not as annoying as the bangkok sales staff). Forget Chattukchak!

5)Forbidden City
Pity the main supreme hall was under renovation but its majestic nonetheless. I think the tennis court the last emperor Puyi played on was made of concrete. Poor thing. I saw a photo of him lobbing in his pony tail. Not nearly as cute as Nadal though.

6)Great Wall of China
Its damn long, the part we went to was less touristy. another WOW! factor.

7) Quanjude Roast Duck
After having gone to the branch in Shanghai, we had to go to the headquarters.We went to the original shop (of course it has been renovated-severals times too). Best duck in China!

8)Dashilar
Its a fast disappearing hutong with touristy shops etc but its nice. While most of the street markets in Beijing have been converted to shopping malls, this is one of the few street markets left.

9) Summer palace
Still, mostly underconstruction but nice place. Its really a summer palace where most of the parts were kept cool under tall bushy trees and roofs. I doubt there were stalls selling Yanjing Beer for SGD$0.40 when Empress Dowager Cixi was around though. A huge lake, to paddle in.

10) Donganmen Food Street
This expensive street, very small scale compared to our Pasar Malam during the Raya month sold normal stuff like lamb, beef chicken on skewers, bread, sweets etc but it also sold exotic stuff like scorpions, starfish, sea urchins, sea horse, grasshoppers, testicles, snakes, some of the fear factor stuff we see on tv. We tried the scorpion. Okay, so ss ate most of it and i ate 5mm of the tail so wat? I bit a scorpion tail!!! it tasted like prawn crackers. yes. Yums.

11) Wang fujing
Too overhyped, all the expensive stuff, same prices as Singapore. NOthing much to say. It has the usual Giordano, Hush Puppies, Nike, Morgan, G2000, Folie Folie, H2O, fancyl all the american brands la. NO cheap bargains.

12) Tiananmen Square
HUge flat ground where masses of Chinese congregated or still do? when they want to complain/protest etc. Something Singaporeans have not done since............

Opposite side of the Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

13) Oriental Plaza Food Court
Lots of fantastic Food

14) Beijing 2008
Many places selling souveniors, real and fake. Prices are alright. about SGD $60 for a set of limited edition.

Note:
1) Souveniors at the International Departure Hall of the airport is ridiculously priced. Something which cost (and value) less than SGD$2, you have to pay about USD$10.

2) Arrive at least 3 hrs before departure.

3)No tips expected (whoopee!)

4) Taxi's are cheap! Mrt is even cheaper!

5)Go in Sept or early june. Never go in April or may cos there are sandstorms!

6) SQ standard really has dropped. Their Krisworld has the most boring movies ever. Pink Panther??! Firewall?? *Yawns* The air stewardesses still polite but some not as pretty lar.

Tennis Tennis Tennis

2006-06-07T23:08:00.000+12:00

my first ever 3 night 4 day tennis camp! GOod grief! Had an overdose of tennis till my hand/fingers hurt. Why? No idea..........

IT started off on Sunday evening. Went in, the kids played some games, had a camp briefing then I actaully worked into the night till like 2-3am. Couldnt sleep well at all. Bed was 2 benches, a mat over it, a cushion and a wraparound which i bought from bali. TO keep me company were dozens and dozens of mozzies. It didnt help that I was awaken at 630am!!!

But I played tennis for over an hour then had breakfast with the kids. PLayed more tennis in the afternoon. Assistant coaches was hilarious..... haha.... aka trying their very best not to hit the ball back. in the evening, we had a barbie. really goodfood from bbq wholesale.com i think. Couldnt sleep so i played more tennis.

next day, played tennis in the morning again, then it rained all afternoon, how dreary. had a accident of a cut chin. had elections. played tennis overnight. tennis marathon. the kids played really well.

the last morning, my back was aching, my body sore to the core. I need a massage badly. Came home and crashed out till 6pm.

Well, I tried out some tennis racquets from Prince. Though I'm a wilson fan, I might just be a convert. 03 hydrid. really good racquet. $210. Good buy.....

Going to Beijing tomorrow. Havent packed. still tired. too tired.

NUS Co-op
Went back tp the alma mater to look for bio texts. They organisation there is attrocious. I wanted to get Genes by Lewin. Din have. I found some embryology books under dentistry, some genetics books under infocommunications, some recipe books under mathematics, very few bio books. Mabbie i shd wait till the uni term starts.

Tennis Centre

A wedding to Remember

2006-05-29T02:41:00.000+12:00

Derek & Junia's Wedding

It was fun wedding, as usual i shall pen it down in sequence so I dont forget.

8am : Jiemei's Joy
Went to her place at East Coast, Y and D were making up for her. Poor dear had probs with her contact lenses. After she was done she looked as radiant and gorgeous as any bride would be.

Her mom cooked breakfast, tang hoon was yummy. Her brothers, John and James looked super handsome.

835: Groom is Late!
As punishment, he was made to do pushups, its not as though his brothers were very helpful..... had to name the jiemeis and the relationships etc. The best part was James had to help him out some. So cute. Came in, made to drink the standard xuan tian ku la. He puked in a flowerpot and dirtied his tie. Mommy in law came to the rescue to wash and iron out his tie. Before he could enter the room, the was made to comeup with and sign 10 commandments. Still wanting more, our bride made him sing for her before he could enter. it was funny!

930am: To church we go!
Had some last minute packup then went to the church of St Peter and Paul. Few people, like about 20-30px,it was just a service so its short. Had to sing in the "choir" which was made up of 5 of us, ellie, jeff, john, kb and me. The organist was young and did his best to play the tunes ( it was very last minute but he dod alright). After service by Father Thomas, we had pictures taken.

11am: An accomplice to phototaking
She took photos in the convertible outside the firestation area. i drove by with the photographer etc.... fun....

12pm: Lunch with KB at Prego
It was a great lunch, food is great! had the italian degustation for $45 + pizza. Went shopping, lotsa sales but nothing affordable which is nice.

330pm: went home to get my battery which i forgot with KB in tow.

430pm: reached fort canning to prepare reception. everything started after that. they had a tea ceremony and solemnisation, they sang to each other, didnt quite see what happened as I was registering the guests.

730pm: dinner started some cocktail appetiser, soup dinner and dessert with songs, dances and speeches inserted inbetween. I gave a speech. yikes! took photos etc.....

11pm: Surprised her at her Fullerton suite hotel eith her friends. Loved the suite! 2 storey with a fantastic balcony, pity not much of a view.loved the secluded bedroom onthe 2nd floor.

1am: Unwind at the Courtyard with drinks from the PostBar with KB till 2am. It was yummy. Alvin the photog came down to join us. Yen and Derek came by for a while.

Postmortem: Met some of my old sec/tjc friends, yiwen called from france/london,had some problems with the seating, the weather was absolutely perfect!, made friends with the photographer, somehow liked Grace, James's Girlfriend very much, loved the wine, had fun, who's getting married next?!! KB? BER?

At Fort Canning

The Happy Couple

The 2 storey suite at Fullerton

There and Back Again-Kallang Theatre

2006-05-20T04:33:00.000+12:00

ITs been a long time since i ran around the backstage of Kallang theatre. I could still remember bits of the backstage, nostalgic, sweet memories haunting me. it was like back to the future. The dressing rooms, the smell of make up and hairspray, the odours of costumes worn over and over many times, the props, the stench of dancing shoes, the place where people with the passion to dance gather and showcase their talents (or love).

Stepping back there on 18th of May 2006, Thursday. Perhaps one of the last years I can recall standing there on stage, with an audience applauding was in 1993. I started dancing since I was 5 years old, in Marine Parade Community Centre (it was known as centre then, then it became a club, now it has the library with starbucks!) Started off with Chinese Dance, we were taught the basics, the hankerchief, the red ribbon, the fan and we did special dances like the peacock dance and the mother hen dance, the snail dance (with umbrellas representing the shells), the cute doll dance (yang wa wa). Then we started taking ballet lessons and moved on to contemporary dances and fusion dances. IT was a wonderful experience. Looking back, i really did learn a lot from dancing. I danced from 5 till I was 15. 10 years of my life.

You cant blame me for picking up a red ribbon i saw backstage just now to try out a couple of moves.... it just seemed like yesterday I did my solo with 2 red ribbons (Hong chou). So nice. An the best part is that it seemed so natural to me, I remembered it all.It came back to me so easily. Sighs.....

I remembered sitting backstage in the dressing room and someone's mother is doing make up for me.

I remember that the entire troupe payed respects to an altar backstage and did a kinda group hug thing to wish each other all the best.

I remember them giving me a chinese name, though I hated it.

I remember eating chicken rice in the dressing room and the room smelt like it for days.( we have repeat performances).

I remember running around backstage of Kallang Theatre as though it was my second home, we started rehearsals early and ended late at times.

Kallang was not the only place we performed frequently, over the 10 years, we also gave performances at Victoria Theatre. I wonder what memories it will bring when i step backstage.

Anyway, we performed the last Bollywood dance of the year (hopefully), it was a grand finale for us. All did well. I think TL really put in alot of effort and time into this. Makes me feel small with my almost 50 people in my team and I have no idea the name of half of them. But I'm super bad with names.... even now, I forget some of whom are in my own...... It must the BSE.....

Food Reviews

Ah Hoi
Teochew Food at mosque street in chinatown. Very good sucking pig, crispy skin but it cost ($50) well worth it!!! pity i din bring my camera)Crayfish in really cool sauce etc. We also tried this 8 treasure dessert. interesting.....
Rating: 9.5/10
Service: 10/10
Return: Yes please!!!!! once a month enough to try all their dishes? Quick Sil treat!!!! Cant wait!!!