Steamboaty Goodness

The bro-in-law is gonna study his masters overseas for a year starting from Sept. He requested for a steamboat dinner coz he's not gonna be back for the new year. So we had steamboat for dinner on Sunday.The mother-in-law is a great cook, and she prepares yummy steamboat with great ingredients. Well.. technically steamboat is not diff to prepare but alot of effort is involved.. plus,she makes the fishballs and green chili stuffed with fish paste herself. I like the fishballs she makes, although I am not a big fan of the item.

It was a great meal.. with the family eating over a long meal. .We usually eat steamboat for the reunion dinner on chinese new year or an elder's birthday. Was great that I get to enjoy my clams and wat nots..plus the sweet broth with kway tiao and bee hoon when the items are all cooked. Totally yums.

Home-made fishballs

Homemade chilli and loads of veg for the steamboat

Its a great way for the family to bond over an inexpensive meal, or rather, its more expensive when eaten at restaurants. Plus, this babe just luvs her soupy meals.. *slurrpps*

clams, crabs, fish slices, pork slices, sotong, prawns, fish balls, stuffed chilli

Can't wait for the next steamboat dinner.. hee, we may end up doing a mini steamboat meal for just the 2 of us.. ;p

Liking Coco

We managed to catch CoCo Avant Chanel yesterday at the movies. Just had to catch the movie coz i am a fan of Audrey Tautou and Chanel Bags.. one of the must have baggies in the wish list of moi.. a Chanel classic flap bag.. *drools* ..

The dearie was a great spot, he sat thru the rag-to-riches-love story-epic of a movie with moi, with nay a complain that the movie is not a genre he likes. I noe he would prefer to be watching jack neo's latest movie.. and yet he choose a movie moi wanted..;p

Audrey was great.. the story of coco was inspiring indeed..the focus of the story cleverly focusing on her early years and the rise of a modern woman ahead of her times. As opposed to her later years and the war period. Boy, an glad we managed to catch the movie on the big screen.

Fruity Luv

I thought the slice of pomelo looked abit like a heart.. it's lovingly peeled by the dear dearie.. many many slices of the sweet citrus fruit for wifey. Bliss is in the simple things he does for moi. The meals he cooks. The little things.

Instant Banana Nut Muffins

Instant Banana Nut Muffins for breakfast tomorrow

Moi has no talent in baking.. so on a weekday nite, instant muffins makes for a simple bake. Add 2 eggs, milk and oil to the premix and mix.. whalah..can be done in 5 mins.. plus 15-20 mins of baking in the oven..although i still wanna come up with a totally home-made yummy banana nut version one day.. :)

Box of Premix

Milk, Oil, Eggs and Premix

Instant Muffins fresh from the oven

High Tea with the Babes

Moi met up with Han and Hui for High Tea at The Regent's Tea Lounge today.. Tits was great to meet up with the babes for girly chats. The babes who share a great portion of my uni years.. the happie years of uni and pre-uni are memories that i cherish the most from the growing up years. With work, family and many other commitments.. we seldom have time to meet up. I so wish we could meet up more often.. Plus, makes good reason to splurge on nice food at great places ;p

Our table

Luv the berries loads

Compared to Rose Veranda and Goodwood Park's Tea Lounge, I like The Regent's ambiance, selection and quality of food the most. Although the selection of Tea is limited compared to Rose Veranda's. Hee Hee.. its definitely my place of choice for High Tea..quiet, and the air con is non too cold. A great Sat with the babes.

Drools...

Reaching the bag quota with the 2 new baggies purchased courtesy of the 2 dear gal pals. Well made bags are indeed alot more affordable overseas. Still in leather crave as well. Hee Hee.. but i can still drool over pretty baggies rightz?! Not even in the league of the coveted Birkins and 2.55s as yet.. (*Hints* to the dearie..)

• Liking for Balenciaga Bags recently. Giant Work Bal, in pink some more.

• Bayswater Red Patent leather bag from Mulberry although i dun mind trusty black too.

Boring Classics... to withstand the test of time.. ;p

New Found, Long Lost Friend

The workplace has a practise of introducing new staff with a pic of the newbie. Someone saw silly old moi and found me familiar..Wha Hoo..its a long lost primary schoolmate of moi's. We used to be really great fres.. who just kinda lost touch after going separate ways in sec school. She went to a better sec school while moi languished at a neighbourhood school.. and we found new fres and moved on with our lives.

In the span of 16 years that we've lost touch.. we've bum into each other like probably only once in Uni..and we've both gotten married and the fre already has a baby boy as well. Obviously we've changed and grown.. yet, we had been close fres when we were so very young. Life is quite funny at times.. Lines that cross can become parallel and yet converge together again. And oh..not to mention that she's gotten herself the same "ang moh" name that i did, in the exact letterings some more.. so we have quite similar email addresses.. ;p

We met up for lunch today and caught up with each other. She's also fairly new, having been in the workplace only 5 months before moi. We're from different sub units.. one floor apart. Its great to have one more lunch kaki.

Most Week Nights

The mum-in-law is a great cook. Most alternate weekday nites, we troop down to her place for dinner. Chalkful with healthy vegs and great soup..plus a glass of fresh fruit juice which she rustles up for us. Add in the ultra cutez nephew and niece..both of whom are in the really cutesy phase.. and the equation is complete. Its really bliss to be able to play with them.. the simplicity of their actions.

Hee, by the time we get home at night.. its about 9 plus 10.. Totally conked out.. no wonder we are quite sleep deprived at the end of the work week ;p

Another Fav Meal of Moi

This has been a great foodie weekend. We went for dinner at another of my fav restaurants for dinner.. i simply heart the xinghua Pu Tien "Lu Mien" or "Lor Mee" from the restaurant. One of the reasons is coz its a soupy noodle dish that feels rather home cooked with rich broth.

"Pu Tien Lor Mee"

And, the chili.. which is spicy-sourish fiery perfect condiment to the meal. Moi is a chili lover.. and the chili is simply wonderful yums. Perfect with the Lor Mee.

My fav.. the chili..opps

We also quite like the deep fried Tenggiri Fish and Drunken Cockles. If its just the dearie and moi eating, we normally order the fried Tenggiri fish with a bowl of Lor Mee.. or Spinach with salted egg, century egg in stock with the Lor Mee. Our kind of simple meal which just makes moi a happie gal.. Tons of good chili with the food.. that's why moi cannot be a foodie..coz it usually feels like i am eating the chili instead.

Deep Fried Tenggiri Fish

Drunken Cockles and Wintermelon in orange juice

Dessert to end the meal. Yam Paste

This round, mommie dined with us.. so we ordered more items. The wintermelon in orange juice was alrightz. The yam paste dessert was also good. Its been a happie weekend for moi. :)

Yummy Promfret Steamboat

One of my favourites of all time is soupy food. Moi is contented having soupy food anytime..so its no surprise that "Fishhead Steamboat" is one of my fav casual-can eat-veri often kinda comfort food. There is a rather good stall at the Tampines Round Market that sells decent "Fishhead Steamboat". We pop by quite often for the steamboat.My favourite is the promfret steamboat. The fish is sliced into thin sashimi-like slices for you to add into the boiling hotpot. The fish bones are thrown in way before by the cook to richen up the broth.

Broth with veg, fried yam and fish bones

Fresh Promfret slices for cooking in the hotpot

The steamboat itself ranges from $25 to $35 and onwards. I guess the price diff is for the size of the fish. The soup base is sweet with the essence from the fish bones, fried yam , vegs and wat nots that the vendor throws in. The fish broth gets sweeter as you add in the fish slices and there's unlimited top up of the precooked broth . Hee hee, one of my fav hawker centre meals.. I can have many bowls of the soup.

Our meal of Fish steamboat with Satay and Kangkong. Yums

Add in some small dishes like chili kangkong and satay.. and the entire meal is completed. Ha ha.. moi truly have an old auntie's taste buds as the dearie says.

Should I ??

Hmm... still deliberating.. should I order this??!! gossip girl season 2..

Its gonna be available via Amazon on 18th Aug. Aizzzz..i so wanna save the moolah..

Urrghh..Pricey Ride..

Mummie came by the office to wait for moi after work today. We took a cab back to mum's place in the West to pick up her car for the ride back to my place. This differs from my usual routine of train riding home. Urrgghh... we were struck in the peak period jam for the longest time. The cab fare was a hefty amount with the surcharges added in. Moi has not ridden on jam-struck cabs during peak period for the longest time that I've forgotten just how fast the meter jumps. Arrh. Wow.. i have just been duly reminded..the sardine-packed but mostly reliable ( minus the occasional disruptions) trains will do.. for the moolah can surely be lunch money for a week, which is alot..aiz. heartpain for mommie, who paid for this hefty cabby ride of ours.

Times Passes

Time passed so so fast for this 3 days short long weekend. Its time for work tom. Arrghh.. why do time passes so fast when its not working time? hummp, guess i must admit.. moi is definitely one who works to live and not live to work.. oppsie..looking forward to the next weekend already..

The dearie made brunch for us today.. burger and scrambled eggs ( well, it was supposed to be omelette but that failed.. ;p). The burger was really yummy. Pics for the log. ;p

I've not have time to try baking this weekend, so its just the bakes from the week before. Low Fat Orange Yogurt Cake.. not too bad, although I would reduce the sugar the next round.. the cake was a tad too sweet for moi liking. hee hee, gotta polish up the baking skills.

This newbie has loads to learn

Its finally the long weekend.. long and keenly awaited coz the long daily commute means this silly one needs to catch up on Zzzz. One week on the new job. The old job was pretty rojak, which meant that i had combined surface understanding on a wide scope. The new job is more administrative, with a large base of "clientale" which we are servicing. Hence, workin fast, accurate and smart is the way to go. Moi, is of course struggling.. and found moiself to be lacking..coz i've not done purely administrative portfolios and is non too meticulous. Was after all a "Jack of all trades, Master of none"..

I was task to send out a series of emails, of which i made a few mistakes.. left out some.. send to wrongly. Kinda not good an impression to make. I was struggling with a long winded method and i took some time before i learned a more accurate and simple way to do the task. The young colleague taught..phewz.. which basically more accurate, effective and time saving. Wellz, this few days have shown that moi has loads of techniques to learn ( haiz, at moi advanced age somemore.. ;p). Sure hope i can master the requisite skills and techniques to handle the job.. for i have a nagging thought that my direct sup can be none too forgiving of errors.

My inadequacies in handling the job and bosses aside, other factors like quiet environment, non front line customer service, transferable long term skill, longer lunch, 5 day week.. ability to work from home are draw factors absent from the old job. So, this moi has to put on the learning hat and positive learning attitude to learn from the seniors, so as to achieve the objective of colouring up the cv in the new field.. aiz. Buck up .. buck up..;p

Being a Newbie

The thing about changing jobs thats freaks moi out is the idea of being a newbie. On the previous job, moi was the one who had been there the longest, the one that others come to for templates and wat nots. At the new workplace, moi is the newbie.. not a great feeling, having to start afresh, asking others for assistance. As per my character, I'm a tad reclusive and distant on first contact. Have-ta warm up fast. I miss the old colleagues at the old workplace loads today.

On a more encouraging note, the work culture appears more humane on first impression, at least. The lunch hours are longer, and there is no customer service component and 5 days work week. Well worth the paycut..hee. Wat more can this silly donkey ask for? Sure hope first impressions hold.

Moving Onz

Time flies when you are on vacation. The decadence of splurging, the luxury of elusive time. Its been a great break after 5 years in the job mart.. 5 full weeks of vacation.

• I've travelled ( although not as much and to the destination that I want to)
• I've rested
• I've read (both blogs and books)
• I've blogged
• I've shopped (both online and in the stores)
• I've watched some vcds
• I've ate at nice restaurants I wanted to try out
• I've played with the cute niece and nephew loads
• I've baked a fair bit

Many things which could not have been done in such abundance and easy pace on a working adult's schedule. Indeed, time is a scarcity these days.. and its time to focus on work.. or rather, work is a time consuming activity that takes up a great chunk of time. Being married, the rest of the time is split between the hubby, the family, the in-laws, the home, the friends, the computer. No wonder there are so many idiosyncrasies and illness that is associated with stress of modern living and the lack of time.

All the splurging aside, August represents a fresh start.. to be a frugal working moi. The end of my 20s is dawning, I've gotta save more for retirement and investment. I believe its possible.. when i first started working, I remember saving for months just to get a pretty bag i convert.. and when i was a poor struggling student in my final year, one bag was enough to last moi the entire school year.. there was also one year where mommie was in poor health and not working much.. the year, moi only had one part of shoes for the entire year. So, its time to readjust the mentality. The current lifestyle is comfortable..but, tits time to splurge less on frivolous stuff and to save for rainy days. Aizz..This probably means only one branded bag per year and to get more mileage on my personnel effects. so, this posting will serve as a 'reminder' to moiself yah..