Singapore June 2009

While I still feel like it, I think better get it all down otherwise it will just disappear into the depths of my memory...it really helps that I'm still on semster break atm...

I'm super glad this time I managed to take close to 100 photos in a short span of 1 week...even though I retained all censorship rights, there are still a good chunk of shots that can be published...hehe...(*ahem* at this point, I'll like to say payments are accepted for the maintenance of personal privacy and the perseverance of dignity)

Here were some of my favourite moments in chronological order...

Zouk/Vivi Nails - Pregnancy News. Unfortunately my reaction was wasted on Jason. I'm really happy for Jelly but this news makes me feel really ooooooooold...as I said before I left, it is going to be strange that the next time we meet she will be pushing a pram and carrying a diaper bag...haha..I may need a bit more time to adjust...still, I look forward to meeting her first-born and no doubt Jelly and Mark will be very excited to show off their little one too...

One hungry mummy...

Pump Room - Smashing place with my favourite gang. What's not to love? Zouk was shit but this place is awesome! It's here that we took the most photos...I had a great night and I am sure everyone else too...ok, except maybe Dana who spent the night and early next morning prostrating at the alter of the porcelain god...

annoyed that the boys spoilt our photos lah! see...real mature!

the poses got worse as more drinks were consumed....

and I swear you guys are a bad influence on Meredith (tsk!)...see the discrepancy?...

At this point, I think the only likely person to pay me to remove photos from here are my husband....

Soup Restaurant/Timbre - Somehow or rather, Mok tends to get us free meals at the Soup Restaurant...no complaints tho...Meredith and I both love the chicken and sweet potato leaves *beams*...we had so much food that day that I honestly was worried we won't be able to finish it all, considering Meredith was the only male at the table since Leon wasn't able to join us...Pity that was the only time I got to catch up with Jun...it was unfortunate she couldn't join us at Timbre that same night, whereby we finally convinced Mok to grab some drinks with us...I believe this was like the first time in more than 4 years (?) since we met Mok for drinks and stayed way past our bedtime...

THIS photo must be framed man...since when have we managed to get Mok out so late at night???

Other noteworthy mentions are my fish-spa experiences..(I was at Kenko twice in 4 days!)..if you want Shiok-Shiok experiences the best person to talk to is really Dana...and our night of KTV...and SPEAKING about KTV...i've got the video as promised...



Look at Jason pretending he doesn't care..somemore pretend clever huh..read to Galvin..I threw the potato chip at him in the end..and he promptly ate it!...anti-climax seriously...Wahahaha...Jason, you better pay me good moola to take down the video....heheheheheh

I apologise for all the mad cramming of activities night after night...I will take into account our ages next time I'm planning to come home for clubbing/chilling/drinking etc...Till Next Time!

The Long Overdue Post (Sorry Dana!)

My excuse: Busy studying last semester lah!

Anyhows, I got to say, I am still very touched by the fact that Dana made up her mind pretty quickly when I asked if she would come spend Easter with me. I honestly was just talking cock and you know me, I can be really whingy - I moaned that I virtually get no vistors and I miss everyone...less than a week later, our dear friend got herself booked onto a flight. (PS: I need more friends who can make up their mind like that)

It may not seem like a big deal to some, but this was the first time Dana had to travel on her own. It was a very harrowing experience for her indeed with taxi booking miscomms, gusty winds and rain, a lugguage with a noisy wheel and (!) the failure to obtain an Australian visa. We are lucky to have had Jelly save the day...otherwise, I think Dana would have been scarred for life and will never talk to me again for convincing her to come visit me. Ha!

I'm just glad she got here in one piece, noisy luggage and all. :)

Lovely day at King's Park

Everybody knows my activities pretty much revolve around food...that does explain how fat I am these days. The following is a snapshot of our lunch at Elmars'...don't worry, everything was shared amongst the 3 of us...

Pork Knuckle and my favourite Sauerkraut

Yummy tasting plate with various sausages, hams, cheese and dips

The photos don't do the food justice man...this swan valley restaurant is totally recommended (by me of course)...best to go with at least 4 other friends....

The other foodie thing we did was to cook mee siam one night. The lucky girl even scored a double-yolked egg!

please ignore the mess behind Dana...I'm not a very good housekeeper...hahaha....I believe we stayed in another night coz she wanted to try the instant mee-sua she found at a Perth Chinese grocery store...funny girl bought a shit-load of the instant mee-sua back to Singapore only to discover the local Shop n Save has them as well...

I was a little sad that her trip lasted only 4 days. But at least during that period she exprienced her first fishing trip, even though the massive pelican got fed while we went home with nothing. We also watched Keane play at Metro Freo...awesome gig...glad I got to hear my song live! Only regret was that we didn't stay till the end and there were no photos! Boy were they cute...

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Here's to great fun with a very dear friend and hope Meredith and I will have better guests sleeping arrangements when we finally get the house built!

Watch This Space....

got reminded (yet again) to update and post all those bloody photos...who ask me not to have facebook right?...ok lah, will do it soon...i still have photos from Dana's trip to post :)

Recipe

I'll share something with you today. The recipe for Chicken Rice...so simple you won't believe:

Ingredients List:
Chicken
Ginger
Garlic, Spring Onion, Coriander, Chilli
Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Sugar, Salt, White Pepper

Chicken
Ensure pot has enough water to cover the chicken completely. Bruise 5-7 cloves of garlic and 4-5 large slivers of ginger and add that to the water. Boil Chicken for 20 minutes in the covered pot (25 minutes if Chicken came straight from the fridge) on high to medium heat. Turn off the fire and leave chicken in the pot for a further 10 minutes before taking it out.

Sauce for Chicken
Mix soy sauce, a little bit of sesame oil, a teeny bit of sugar. Add a touch of white pepper and it’s ready to be poured over the cooked chicken.

Garnish
Coriander (roughly chopped) and spring onion (sliced lengthwise; makes it nice and curly!)

Rice
Cook rice as per normal. Use chicken stock from cooking the chicken instead of water. Feel free to ladle in the garlic and ginger from the chicken stock or put in a new batch of garlic and ginger. Add salt before cooking the rice. You can also put in a chicken stock cube if you like (It’s not cheating; I did it!)

Chilli Sauce
Blend chilli and garlic. I usually use a 50-50 ratio but it’s up to you really. You can also include coriander in the blend. Add soy sauce, Japanese rice vinegar (or lemon juice) and sugar.

Ginger paste
That’s just a ginger and spring onion blend. Mixed in with canola oil and salt.

EASY ISN'T IT?

anybody whom have ever been away from Singapore for more than 6 months usually become quite an expert in dishing up Singaporean hawker fare....

maybe next time i'll share somemore "secrets" with you...secrets which anyone of us who has ever been a poor uni student before will know :)

seriously, for those of you who have never left the comfort of your parent's homes, do you know:

• what flour goes into carrot cake that makes it so chewy?
• how to successfully rid the stench from pig stomache when you want to make kway chup or peppery pig organ soup?
• how to make the broth for mee siam from scratch?

you get my drift....

and no, i'm not bragging...all i am trying to say is that you guys have it good back home...if i crave anything that resembles Singaporean cusine, i have to either make it myself or, settle for something cooked by Malaysians, which can be nice, but just not the same...no foodcourt ta-bao for $3 ok...

The only thing strangely that none of us (not that i know of) could ever replicate, was ta-mee...u know, like dried mee pok with fishball, mince pork and mushroom...with chilli! if there is really a secret for it..someone please tell me....

Of Cheap Airfares and Presents...

yes, i'm only updating my blog coz i have some spare time today from being away from work....i'm just so tired i couldn't bear thinking abt sitting at my desk for 8 hours today...though, i cld be bothered to get up at 7.30am to text my manager and tell him i wasn't coming in...ha!...but in all seriousness, i do have a migraine and a really sore spot towards the mid-left on my back...

Bring on the Cheapie Flights!
I have not had so many vistors in a short span of 2 weeks. Goodness, i think i've caught up with more pple in Perth this past fortnight than the last 2 years combined. Not surprisingly, these happy visits have tossed my otherwise mundane perth life into chaos...i am still recovering from the late night of coversations over tea and chips...

Oh, i do have to give my congratulations to Kevin and Nancy. The sneaky bugger finally proposed while they were in Perth. How apt! I am just so thrilled for these two...everyone's been waiting for them to get hitched! :)

Jun's currently in Perth for her first ever visit to Australia. We met up for a simple bbq dinner at my place last night. This was soon followed by heaps of wine, chocolates and strawberries...Just a taste of how wine-tasting can be like down at Margaret River i suppose...I think Jun's over her allergy to alcohol but she can do better!

I will be catching up with Aileen tonight and hopefully Emily over the weekend. We'll see how we go...i do have an assignment to complete but we'll see...i'll choose meals and drinks over research and writing any day!!

Surprise!
If we weren't married, we would have been dating for 13 years on Sunday. I think after so long, he's finally EMBRACED the element of surprise.

I honestly can't believe he would have bought me a gift and really nice one at that. Someone from the company of turquoise boxes must have naked pictures of him somehow..if not, how on earth did they make a repeat customer out of him? hahaha...nonetheless, i am one very happy person...Thanks dearie!!

He has sworn off more annivarsaries except our "real" one in September. Ah, we'll see.....

No Facebook..EVER!

hate to break it to you guys but i seriously doubt I'll ever get down to owning a facebook account...yeah yeah i am breaking my promise...whatever!

BUT, I've started twitter-ring (if that's what it's called these days)...haha...soooooo much better...no need for the patience of buddah to upload photos....AND if I do have the PATIENCE of buddah, i'll just upload said photos here...

by the way, just wanted to *ahem* recommend a trashy reality TV show that has captured my attention for all 4 seasons already...go watch Ladettes to Ladies...i'm sure you'll find the clip on youtube or something...totally hilarious...i wouldn't normally recommend shows to anyone back home coz you guys are already way ahead of us in the tv stakes, but this..haha! you don't get nudity and vulgarities on free-to-air do you? Anyways, go watch and tell me if it isn't the most funny thing ever! (Dana: have you watched it? is this the place you really want to enrol in?)

Speed (Up)Dating

Yeah yeah yeah...i DO REALISE i should update more often, i should get a facebook account, i should stop wasting my gym membership, i should save more money, i should clean the house more, i should spend more time doing meaningful stuff, blah blah blah...


if i did all of the above and more..i might as well go save the world and the economy right? let me be me...hahah..

so, starting from where i left off in Oct 08:

• Our birthdays were totally uneventful. I can't even remember what we did to be honest...Our friend had his big three-oh though..heheh
• Went on our first holiday in what, 2 or 3 years? Beijing now has a lot more to offer than the usual sights. If you do get a chance, do visit the little cafes and shops on nanluoguxiang (South Drum Lane) near the now-famous Lotus Market. Trip highlights include our nice little dinner of fried scorpions, silk worm larve and other oddities...lowlights? well, for the entire trip, we only managed one photo with each other..brillant!
• Mere did very well in his exams if you must know. He even has a CPA cerfiticate to prove his place in the top 2.6% percentile *beams*.
• Talking about school..makes me angry that Curtin upped school fees by 3.5%!! damnit!!
• i've signed up for a sewing class...please don't let me break the needles again...after which Mere and I are thinking of attending a Bahasa class...please lah, we are not those poseur types..choosing French or Italian lessons can..we are practical people..Bahasa is a good-to-have in our work...
• Mere is on a rampage...healthy living and all that...its working for him..but the salads are boring me to tears....i may start a i-hate-lettuce campaign soon...hmm..on deeper thoughts, i think it's just his ruse to stop me from eating out so often...not happy!
• Talking about turning 30, our friend finally bought his CAR last week. :)
• I'm trying to find another dog that looks like Shiro...
• Oh yeah, and coz we loved our trip back to Singapore in Dec so much we are coming back again soon. June 24th's the date and coz we are only back for a week, please clear your diaries and think of places to go ok?...lesbian nights optional..

nah, don't say i never update arr....

1 down, 1 more to go...

well, another 2 more papers for us if you count his...at least he's finishing up on this friday...so i don't have to get my own birthday dinner from KFC like i did a couple of years ago...besides, it's a friday so no KFC!!!

someone's pretty uptight about the upcoming exams...
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"don't like that lah..can give me a nice photo or not?"

well, at least it wasn't the middle finger....

someone else can always study and sit the CPA exam for you....

my next one's an open book so i am feeling pretty relaxed about it...my plans for the rest of the week is to complete an assignment (nearly done!) and hopefully consolidate my notes in some semblance of order before the open book exam...

the exam is be done online...you have a whole week to get it done but you only have one shot....originally it was going to be released from the 3rd Nov onwards but i will be flying off on the 2nd and seriously, no stable internet connection in Kolkata apparently...so i requested to sit for the exam earlier...the lecturer's so nice...he opened it early for everyone! hahaha...

on that note, folks, i'll be away for 3 weeks from the week of 3rd Nov onwards...don't miss me too much :) As usual, I'll get my stop-overs in Singapore (good ol' SQ)...so listen up pple....take out your diaries/blackberrys/whatevers and take down these dates...

• 2nd Nov, Sunday - Back for one day, flying off at 9pm on 3rd Nov, Monday
  
• 7th Nov, Friday - Back for the weekend with a colleague..flying off on 10th Nov. Monday

Pam, we can celebrate your bday early on the weekend? or would you prefer to spend the celebrations with someone else? :P

I know there's a very small window of opportunity and everyone's really busy...if we can't meet up we can't meet up...i'll be back again in Dec :)

Oh Oh...before I go, I thought I'll leave you guys with this photo taken at Taboo when I was back in Sept...luckily i don't look fat-faced in this!! and i do have to apologise for that guy's nipples..really marred the otherwise lovley shot...-_-

Just Because....

hello to you..YOU who can still be bothered to read this nearly-dead blog...well, today's a decently good day...coz i've just handed in my first uni assignment and i got home early so i've decided to post this entry..and guess what, i'm also going to post up some photos! yay....

first let us back track to March 2008...when i was back in Singapore for my dad...here are some super long-awaited photos from then...

our lovely friends who used to reside in Perth..they have all now deserted us for sunny Singapore and Brisbane

and their kids..."melvin junior", "little catherine" and "roy junior"...i'm sure u can match them up with their respective parents...now all we need is a "little karen" for a complete set!...

and here's catching up with some of my most favourite people in the whole wide world....luckily no pictures of us at Luna...only this decently glam shot at Fashion Bar...

wait...i lied..i do have pictures at Luna...but..ahem...since i'm trying to maintain a PG rating here..it shall not be published...let's just say it involves a gi-normous wall mounted poster and air (ass) kissing....

There were obviously more photos with the girls as well, but sorry...i'm vain...i look terrible in those photos...so while i'll give them to you (someday), i won't be posting them up here too...:P

Fast forward to May 2008...my first work trip to Vancouver to meet our global marketing team...great trip i got to say...work-wise it was definitely fruitful...and the food and shopping was simply awesome as well...here's a pic of all of us at a cooking school...great idea for a team building event but not so sure about the menu...blue cheese with chicken...hmmm....

i also shelled out about 100 bucks for my first ever sea-plane ride...it's a 20-minute plane trip which basically starts by taking off on water and landing back down on water as well...mere reckons it was super cool when he did it in Indo visiting Newmont's Batu mine site so he insisted i try it out in vancouver...well, i wasn't as excited as he was but i got to admit it did provide a very breath-taking and unique view to vancouver....already one of the most beautiful cities i have ever been to, the bird's eye view just made it so much more wonderful....

so cute right...a heart-shaped freeway...

ok let's bring ourselves back to current time...last week i attended my first ever user conference in the Philippines...pretty shocking considering i have been with this company for nearly 3 years...duh...so here's me with $1,300 worth of excess baggage...

i was basically there simply to make sure nothing went majorly wrong...and if things went awry then i've got to fix it...so, sadly, there wasn't a lot of time for me to go shopping or do any interesting for that matter...i was staying right next door to a massive shopping mall for crying out loud...and yet i only managed to pop in for a couple of hours on the last morning that i was there...

BUT i did get to do one cool thing tho...and that was to try the local delicacy - Balut. My first attempt at balut was at a restaurant...looks good doesn't it...but bear in mind this dish is aptly named "balut surprise"...

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TADAH!

Don't be grossed out just yet!!...let me explain...balut is an egg with a semi-formed duck embryo...it's usually a 16-day old embryo..any older and you'll get feathers and beak...what you are seeing here isn't the duck embryo at all..it's really only your regular hard-boiled egg with slightly more prominent veins than usual...presumably coz there is (was) an embryo in there that was feeding off the nutrients from the egg itself...


"balut surprise" was decidedly a very westernised version of the real deal...so after dinner, we requested to go find a street vendor and taste it for what it was meant to be...

my very willing-try-everything colleague peeling open the REAL balut...

and here's mine after eating/discarding the yolk and egg white...

(you can't actually eat the white as it is very very hard..hence the name balut, meaning "stone")

...now you get the embryo at the bottom...

ok, i guess you can be grossed out now...:P

a bonus of most of my work trips is that i get to have a free stopover in Singapore..how can i resist right? i had a really FAT weekend...eating and eating and eating...and drinking and drinking and drinking...

what capped off a really fabulous weekend was my time at Wine Connection with my favourite bunch of people again...best friends in the whole wide world!!!!

Eying - Thanks for always being the life of the party..love your vivaciousness always!! Hope Hei wasn't too bored..
Siheng - Don't panic about your wedding plans...it will be fine...so nice to meet your wife finally..hope we didn't scare her to much...hahah
Jason - I've never had someone who has ever been so anxious to celebrate my birthday..this is certainly the first!! Love you to bits for that!!!
Mok - I'm so glad you are always there when I come back...unlike some people...(just joking!)...wish you all the best in your new job and i certainly hope we can work together!
Andrea, Serene, Dana - What fun would it be at Taboo without you guys...our Mr. Popular would have simply ditched me after introducing me to Jackie for the 7th (or was it 8th) time in just as many years...

See you all again in November!!! Hopefully i would have more entries by that time....

It Suddenly Occured to Me....

It has dawned on me that perhaps if I don't update soon...a few things would happen:

1) Blogspot may permanently shut down my blog and being the padantic hoarder that I am...it would completely devastate me if ALL entries were gone...forever

2) Andrea may die without ever reading another update from me....how can i ever bear that thought!

3) I may forget my login and password.. .which would then render this blog useless...which then might make option 1 happen....which would then make option 3 happen as well....*it did TAKE 2 tries before i managed to log in*...

such is life...