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..

20 years of Medical Record

There is this Chinese Physician whom I had been seeing since I was a little gal.. although after we moved house in my teens, I had not been to the medical shop in umpteen years.. besides, the medical hall has also shifted to other locations and we lost track of its current location. The mummie went on a tour to Vietnam last year and..wha cha you noe, the old physician whom I used to see.. he was on the same tour.. and mummie actually remembered how he looks like and asked him if he is a chinese physician. Bingo! And the best part was that he vaguely remembered me as a little gal he used to treat when mummie mentioned my name.

Recently, I had wanted to try chinese medicine as the 2 visits to the western doc had not cured moi of the persistent cough..so mummie brought me hunting for the medical shop from the yester years. Based on the conversation with the old physician on her tour last year, she had a vague idea of the medical hall's current location. Hee..we managed to find the medical shop today..

• The shop assistant asked: " Have you been here before"
• Moi: "Yes.. many many years ago"
• Shop Assistant: " I can try to trace the old records if you give me the address"
• Moi: " I have since moved.. its many many years ago..you can try this address ..xxxyyxx (ie old address)
• Shop Assistant , after finding for a short while: "Yes.. I found your old records.. it states that your last visit was in 1993"
• Moi:.. "wha.. thats like 16 years ago.."

I was so utterly awed by the fact the the sheets of paper making up my medical records dated as far back as 1987.. when moi was just a 7 years old child..it even records my medical problems of lack of platelets in my blood.. which was the reason that brought mummie to chinese medicine in the first place..

I had given my old address thinking that its impossible for such old records to still exist..Who's to noe that this tiny medical hall and the old physician had actually keep medical records which dated so far back. The assistant mentioned that they have been throwing away medical records of patients who no longer consult at the medical hall thru the years.. I think its my affinity with the physician and the shop.. that my medical records have not been thrown away.

Nostalgic and totally awesome.. although its a pity that the old physician does not do consultation much these days as he teaches students these days. Must book appointment wan.. so another physician treated moi. Hee, will be great if i can see the old physician again.. ;p

Porcupine Moi

Sometimes i feel like a porcupine when i am on the defensive. When i feel hurt and defensive, the spines come out in full force to protect the wounded pride. Yet, the spines are often directed at those who care the most for this silly one. Perhaps its because of the secureness of their love, and the underlying knowledge that thy love ones are the only ones who will unconditionally forgive the sharp spines..thoughtless actions. Oh.. Thou really have to remove thy spines for the unmatured gal to grow up...

Our first attempt at Steak

We brought 2 pieces of sirloin steak at the supermarket a few days back, with the intention of conjuring our first home cooked steak meal. We managed to whip up a fairly decent meal of steak for our first attempt tonight. We din manage to thaw the meat fully before cooking and had to recooked the meat after starting the meal..opps. The button mushrooms were meant for the home cooked mushroom soup which din materialize coz we forgot some ingredients in the recipe. So, we had vegetable soup from a can, with pan fried mushrooms and some country walnut bread to go with our steak. Plus red wine to complete the meal. Oh..and the meat sauce came from a packet too.

Our first steak meal

Hmm.. although the dearie thinks its easier to simply pop by the western food stall downstairs for steak at cheap prices. Moi thinks its an entire different homey experience in rustling up an entire meal ourselves.. will definately try to do the mushroom soup the next round.. :)

Indulging with the Gal Pals

Its not often that I have such a long leisure break from working.. so the lazy moi actually organized gatherings with the friends that i hold dear. Those who noes me well will understand that lazy lazy moi is neber the organizer for meet ups, often.. its the rest who comes up with the gatherings.. Weell, its my first long break in years.. so..i'm veri free, and wanna indulge abit with my best gal pals before chonging at the new work place. So.. its buffet galore the past 2 days.. ;p

Met up with Fen on friday for our outing to Rose Veranda at Shangrila hotel, weekday high tea. The place has 102 tea selections.. the tea lover moi is in tea haven..ha..We had the high tea buffet.. The savoury food selection was rather limited, although i did enjoy the sushi. I was so stuffed with the savoury choices that i could barely managed with the selection at the dessert bar. But, high tea is about scones and baked items.. especially with the great selection of teas available. I started with a wellness tea called " life and beauty" and Fen Fen had the Pai Mu Tan with Melon. We ended the meal with a sweet fruit infusion tea called "sweet kisses" which had notes of strawberries. I liked Fen's Pai Mu Tan tea veri much.. it really had a faint smell of melons..

Just heart the pretty tea set

Fen was saying that we would need to go back 50 times to finish trying out the entire selection of teas!! Its a nice place to seat and enjoy high tea with its pretty france-made teapots and teacups. My only regret was that i got quite sick towards the end of the meal with a headache, so i din make a good chat partner for Fen and we din manage to "walk walk" at Ion. Ha.. gives me good reason to return again for more high tea, although i like the high tea at Goodwood Park Hotel's L'Espresso a tad better.

My dessert selection

Fen's dessert selection

My 2nd buffet indulgence was this afternoon's weekend buffet at Jing Resturant, located at my favourite part of the country. Just heart the waterfront.

Jinny brought her hubby and baby Kayson.. He's so cutez that we gals had a great time going ga ga over him..or rather Han was going ga ga.. while Hui and I were more sane..opps. The food selection was extensive and of good quality..well worth the moolah, considering the exorbitant ala carte prices. I will definitely be back for more of the buffet.. in time to come.

Din managed to get a good pic of the buffet..

For moi has had enough of buffets to last me for some time. Too stuffed..Great food and great company. What more can one ask for?

Mis-Spelling Queen

Hee, I'm such a mis-spelling queen that my General paper teacher onced asked moi if i had dyslexia, in front of the whole class not less.. its really a wonder that i managed to pass GP.. ;p Which is the reason why http://www.dictionary.com/ is on my list of favourites at work. Besides, the "word of the day" link, provides a great way to learn one new word per day..

I truly heart the day i discovered the site, and microsoft word for the spell check function.. is my saving grace in english..What i usually do for words i can't spell, i will do a rough spell of the word in dictionary.com and the correct spelling will pop up..although sometimes i forget to double check..;p ( well, i suspect i'm not suffering from dyslexia.. but simply too lazy to memorize spelling..opps).. Hee, thanks to the kind soul who pointed out the glaring mis-spelling which i have just corrected.. ;p

Baking Blueberry Muffins

I came across some blueberries in the supermarket and decided to bake some jam-filled blueberry muffins using blueberry yogurt, fresh blueberries and blueberry jam.

Blueberry goodness

Wet and Dry Ingredients

I used the recipe from Happy Home Baking but tweaked it a bit. This reminded me of my first baked items which had been instant muffins from a box of Betty Crocker premix. I quite like the muffins, although the fresh blueberries which i added caused the muffins to be a tad soggy, which the dearie din like..

My muffins.. with the soggy bottom.. opps

Hee, well.. at least it was an attempt.. i will have to leave out the fresh blueberries the next round..and not overmix the mixture when combining the wet and dry ingredients.. ;p

New Watch..First one of this year.

When I got the Tag in Switzerland last year, i told the dearie that i would not get any new watches for at least one year.. hee, but i really could not resist the lure of having more casual watches for daily use.. so, i succumbed.. and got a simple casual puma watch online.. for variety and alternative days.. Well, at least i din get the seiko black watch with pink dials which i really wanted.. ;p And my online purchase was delivered by courier last nite. Yipee.. been spluging abit this month, in lieu of my japan trip. Hee.. appears like moi is trying a tad hard to justify my purchases huh.. ;p

I heart the rose gold against the brown leather

Day out to Liang Court

The dearie took a day leave from work today, so we ventured away from our usual haunts in the east to Liang Court.. a shopping centre that i've been wanting to visit for some time.. to eat Ramen and shop japanese products.. Coz its a place where japanese expats hang out with mainly japanese restaurants and a japanese supermarket.. ;p Well.. i din get to visit Japan this year afterall..

The riverside at Clark Quay looks picturesque with the bright colours on the buildings..

And we ate at the restaurant which sparkled off this trip.. Tampopo (Coz i have read abit from other blogs mahz)..We arrived slightly after 2pm, so the restaurant was not packed.. we ordered the signature "Black Pig Shabu Ramen". The texture of the ramen was great..springy and chew, plus the milky orange broth had loads of chili flakes.. anything with chili is yums..and the Mentaiko Layered Pork Cutlet set was good.. worth a visit if we are in the vicinity.

'Black Pig' Shabu Ramen

Mentaiko Layered Pork Cutlet

The second thing that brought me to Liang Court was shopping at Meidi-Ya.. tits great to be able to explore rows after rows of jappy items..we bought lots of my fav fruit jelly.. momo..grapes..manadrian oranges.. pineapples in soft glooy jello.. I first had the jelly which bro brought some back when he visited Japan years ago.. Its great that the jelly is widely available in sgp these days (Isetan Scotts, Japan speciality shops and supermarkets).. Supermarket walking makes me a happie gal..

My fav jap jelly

The third thing I had wanted to do.. was to check out the Trung Nguyen Cafe .. so we had vietnamese coffee to end off the trip.. The coffee was typical of vietnamese coffee served at the small cafes dotting Ho Chih Min City.. super sweet..these days, i can't take sweet staff too well.. but drinking Trung Nguyen Coffee reminds me of my past trips to the country.. although the last time I was in the country, I had my coffee from Highland outlets (machan starbucks of vietnam..) Strangely, vietnamese coffee seems to taste better when we are in vietnam..

The cafe

Our coffee

Hee hee.. having done the above, in this rather idyllic day of ours.. the long trip across the island was worth it .. :)

Another weekend gone..

Friday Nite: We managed to catch Harry on the big screen on friday nite.. the dearie booked the tics thru AXS on his way to work.. so we got great seats. A fantastic start to a "muggle" weekend..complete with sweet and salty popcorn goodness.. The movie was fantasy at its best.. it was great to have the book transformed into visuals.. darker and more edgier, like the series as it moves towards the finale..can't wait for the last 2 movies..although the yearly movie gap time would warrant re-reading the books, or re-watching the preludes..

On Sat, the dearie also rustled up some pasta for our lunch.. the man can cook.. he makes me feel so guilty..i should be the one cooking for him.. Our pasta served with the mummy-in-law's home made norh hiong .. a kinda fusion meal to start the day..

The dearie's pasta

We ended the day with a trip to Ikea Tampines.. for dinner and to walk the sales..Being a member sure has it's perks.. Free flow of coffee and soft drinks to go along with our meatballs and chicken.. Great food at food court prices.. although the place can be a madhouse on weekends .. chalk-full with families.. Weekday nites are definitely better with a more sublime crowd and great for browsing pretty deco items..

IKea staple: meatballs, fried chix wings and drumstick set..

On Sunday: The mummie can over and we did late lunch at one of the hawker centres near the homeland before she left for her mj session nearby. had abit of shocking yet not totally unexpected piece of news. I guess.. everyone has their own lives to lead.. some follow the well taken path, others venture further out.. all by choice.. so who's to judge and be stereo-typical? One can't stop worrying though.. although the dearie feels that "what will be will be". We all have our lives, which we try to live, to the best of our abilities. It is a different society we live in now..*Fingers crossed, big time.. for the little boy*