Grocery Shopping Online

Yipee, we've just done grocery shopping online yesterday. I've always felt that its totally unglam and uncool having to lag home kgs of washing liquid, huge packet of raw rice, cans and cans of drinks, toilet paper etc. So very unglam and totally auntiey yah.. But, the mundane necessities still has to be brought, coz they are necessities mah. The solution? Get someone to deliver your bulky purchases !! $5 for purchases over $100, i think its quite worth the moolah..I'm totally a convert.. hee..Poor delivery person, for all our purchases are heavy heavy items.. opps.

Of course online selections are limited and cannot totally replace the feeling of shopping at the physical store itself. The dearie and i can spend hours looking at the rows of items, before making our selections. So, it'll just be for the bulky items that we'll purchase online..best of all, you can do it 24/7.. :)

The Wifey Cooks

Since i'm on vacation, there's no excuse not to get hot and sweaty in the kitchen (pun intended hee..).. by cooking lah, and trying out new recipes which I can easily replicate for our dinner. Must be good wifey mahz, cannot make the dearie cook all the time..So for today's dinner, ta dah.. old cucumber soup and rice cooker claypot chicken rice.

Beri simple meal.. Coz the mother in law pre-prepares various cuts of meat in ready to cook packs which i just need to defrost. I had a pack of chix meat and used part of it for the soup and the other half for the rice. Just add chix, red dates or sweet dates and old cucumber and the soup is done. The rice is also easy, using a recipe i saw on a food blog i read, whereby you just have to marinate the chicken with light and dark soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and ginger slices and simply add the marinated meat and mushrooms into the rice cooker and cook! A beri simple and easy one dish meal which i will definitely be whipping up often. Will prob throw in abit of wax sausages to make it more claypot chix ricey for the next try.. yums.

Another Pair into the Shoe Closet

Yupz, tits the 3rd pair this month and i've not worn the other 2 pairs of 9west heels i bought in Macau yet.. but this pair is cheap and comfy. After offsetting with the $30 voucher i had, the balance was only $9.90 (which the dearie paid for hee..). Its such a comfy pair that i am tempted to get another pair in black as well, coz i always end up buying shoes which tortures my poor feet and gives me blisters.. ;p

a gal can never have too many pairs of shoes yah.. although the shoe limit otta be 10 pairs a year.. especially since i wear off the bottoms of the heals fairly fast.. For the record, moi have decided to set the bag count limit to 6 per year . *Fingers crossed* that i keep to my quotas..

The Dearie Frets

The dearie is fretting over his new specs which is considered his major purchase of the year. He thinks that he was coerced into buying the specs by us and that the shop has gotten the model wrong. Oh wellz, moi thinks that the specs makes him look sporty with the silver frames.. while he clearly prefers his old pair of Armani black specs..preference and taste is rather subjective anyways.. ;p

Wonderlust- Macau & Zhuhai

I like to travel for the elusive 'Been there at that point in time" feel. The traveller who is only stopping by for that few days. Also, for the chance to explore other culture, lifestyles, cuisines.

The first impression that Macau gave me, was that the city exists for tourists and gamblers. With hotels and casinos dotting the landscape. We flew by Tigerairways, which landed in Macau itself. Our hotel is 5 mins away from the airport and located on the Cotai Strip. The locale is the nearest to any airport I've ever been to and we stayed at the Bella Suite, which could accommodate the whole entourage.

Pics of our suite

2nd Day- We trooped over to Zhuhai, China which borders Macau on our second day. It was a hassle though, having to clear thru immigration on both ends. We managed to find our way to Wan Zai Seafood Street, where we choose our own fresh seafood from the many stores along the street. Great variety.. And we got a restaurant to cook our chosen items (the restaurant charges for the cooking only). Our entire seafood meal consisting of live abalone, prawns, oysters, crabs and veg costs around RMB $400 (S$80)..a totally yums meal.

Selecting our live seafood Cooked Version
Wan Zai Seafood Street

After a hearty meal, we went to the Gongbei underground mall which is just next to the Macau-Zhuhai Borders for some retail therapy.



GongBei Underground Mall

Did my nails at the underground mall as well. About $110 RMB for manicure and pedicure which includes nail art.

Having a "Tai tai" moment with loud colours..

We had drinks at an atas cafe called Cafe E.S.Kimo at the underground mall before departing Zhuhai.

My Apple and Rose Tea

Pics taken from the Macau side of the borders after our trip to Zhuhai. Its quite amazing how the cost of living is so much lower once you cross over to China..

Day 3- We explored Macau town and enjoyed the view from Macau Tower. Also went to Largo do Senado, which is the Macau downtown with its shops and cafes.

Spectacular view from the top of Macau Tower
Largo do Senado
Enjoying Steamed Milk Pudding at one of the cafes at Largo do Senado


Iconic Macau Landmark at Largo do Senado

For our last night in Macau, we managed to find a restaurant which served very decent Portuguese cuisine. The restaurant is called Restaurante "A Lorcha" which is located at Rua Do Almirante Serigo No. 289 R/C Macau. There are a few restaurants serving Portuguese food along the stretch. The food was wonderful and we had a jug of Sangria to go along with the food. We had Kale soup, Seafood soup, really fantastic seafood rice Portuguese style, unforgettable clams cooked Spanish style, Bacalhau (Salted Cod)with potato baked in cream and African chicken. Only the chicken was a tad salty and not to our liking. The meal was more pricey at about $700 MOP but well worth the moo-lah. We will definitely do return visits to the restaurant if we are in Macau.. Sluppz.

Dinner at A Lorcha
Signature Portuguese dishes like Bacalhau. Portions are huge and great for sharing

Hee hee, and of course, no overseas trip is complete without the requisite shopping. Better that spending the moo-lah on the reels rightz?. So tadah, my purchases..or rather, the only items i could afford coz everything else was so expensive in the touristy resort. My only regret was not having time to explore the supermarkets for items not available in Singapore due to the busy schedule. A must do for all my travels,yah.. Oh, and not having time to queue for Pork Cutlet burger from the famous Lord Stow's Bakery ; which is just by our hotel.. ;p

Till the next trip.. yah........

i wanna..

In this 1 month hiatus of mine.. :

i wanna travel.
i wanna read.
i wanna watch my soappy serials.
i wanna swim.
i wanna cook.
i wanna bake.
i wanna blog.
i wanna shop.
i wanna play with the cute nephew & niece.
i wanna have more 'me time'.
i wanna rest.
i wanna indulge and pamper myself... :)

Last Day @ the work place

friday was a day which i have waited anxiously for. yet, as i walked into office that morning, past the public area with the red plastic chairs, i felt a slight tangle of the heart, afterall, i have spent the 4.5 years in the organization, the last 2.5 years in the unit. good and bad times, good and bad memories. i've learnt alot in the past few years..from the big boss, from the exboss.. while i started out not noeing what i wanted to do, i now noe what i do not like to do, and the conditions that i can live with or without.

life at the unit has improved drastically from the madness that was 2007, with its workload, projects and new initiatives.. with more manpower, lesser and predefined workload, indeed life is good. my staff asked me.. " things have improved greatly, why are you leaving?". my answer: "this is the best time to leave". not when the conditions were tough, coz that means you leave because you are in a pressure cooker. leaving now signifies that my leaving is not because of the heavy workload. a myriad of factors, both push and pull. major long term considerations.. like passion for the work, public interface, shift work, constraints of the scheme, practises which i cannot concede with.. my regret? not making the move earlier, maybe..bittersweetness..

tingle of sadness, at leaving the colleagues who have become lunch khakis, good friends.. who share the same situation, aspirations of work and life.. of leaving the comfort zone. of uncertainty at the new place, with the posting still unfinalized at such a late moment.. an arbitrary decision from the HR department of both sides which may alter where i end up.. coz i am not gonna be doing the portfolio i originally moved for. hmm..the mantra to uphold: " if it does not work out, fret not.. move on..regret not the decision you make, but the decision you did not make.."

i surely will miss Mel dearly, and mdm R as well.. and my batch mates.. and team mates from the shift work era.. this last week was a furry of farewell lunches and dinners. after the deleting, shredding and clearing, the work station no longer holds traces of me, just like the unit will no longer hold traces of me.. its just this easy to erase me, the 2.5 years in the unit. the only mementos that i take away are my bags of personnel effects, pics of the work station, colleagues and the farewell gifts from thoughtful colleagues and fres.. wish me luck.. in the great move to the unknown yah..

( Gifts i will surely cherish....)

Stupid ah..

Sometimes i make stupid decisions at work that comes back to haunt me big time. silly silly old me. and sometimes i think too much about how my peers would discern me based on my ability at work, or inability rather. aiz. wats done cannot be undone. so so silly, so so glad i am moving onz.big time. dunnoe wat more stupid things i'll get myself into yahz. frivolous old moi who could have made a more respectable decision. still kicking meself inwardly...probably that's why moi thinks moi is better off doing a simple small biz.. ;p

Totally Crabby

Black Pepper Crabs

Special Yum Paste with Glutinous Rice

Mommie brought us crabs all the way from J.B for dinner. Black Pepper Crabs to be exact. Coupled with fried rice and special "orh ni ". She went shopping, eating with her m.j khakis early morning and packed and dropped the food off on her way to m.j as her m.j khaki stays near our place. Hee hee, totally stuffed with crabs. One big crab each for the dearie and moi. We love our crabs and usually enjoys the dish in the comfort of our house, so that theres no need to worri abt having no image. Still feeling full.. :)

Eastie Moi

The homeland is located within walking distance of great eateries and hawker centres. there's 4 hawker centres in the area, 2 of erm great for foodies looking for night makan. With some famous stalls like minced meat noodles and cheng teng nearby, we have expanded sideways by quite a bit. sobs.

The dearie had already demonstrated his cooking skills by rustling up a simple porridge lunch for us. Instead of eating at one of the 4 hawker centres or the numerous coffeeshops nearby, we decided to venture further out for some fresh sea breeze @ Changi Village..

We saw many families pitching tents, preparing for family bbqs along the beach. its a relaxy kind of surreal feeling that makes me wanna plan for a bbq for the family in the upcoming long break :)

We ended the day with dinner at Charlie's Corner. The fish and chips was better the first time ate there, but i still like the way they freeze their ice in the glasses for serving drinks..the dearie wants to try the 'zhi cha bbq seafood' restaurants the next time we pop by..

(dearie's fish & chips and my grilled fish)

We ended the day with a walk along the weekend flea market. A simple Saturday which marks my last working Saturday at the workplace. time flies. one more week before the long break.

Moi Brownie

I had a box of premix brownie which i bought some time back. Was home early one night, so i decided to bake some brownies. It took like 10-15 mins to add in the ingredients, and baking time of abt 30 mins. And ta da.. easy brownie..


Got the dearie to bring some to office for sharing with the guys and we kept the rest. Totally yums with ice cream.. ;p