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*

Lunch with Mummie

Mummie treated moi to lunch yesterday at 211 cafe. I waited for her to pick me up from Clementi for the ride to Holland Village. The facade of the area has changed quite a bit with the passage of time. The McDonalds that had been there for years and years when i was in secondary school, when i was in uni..is now a black yellow building..much of the entire area has changed..Change is a constant everywhere, the old has to make way for the new. Just that this place features prominently in my childhood..Brings back fond memories of yester years.

New buildings replacing the old..

Lunch at 211 Cafe. Mummie's pasta vongole..loads of clams.

My Seafood Risotto.

Coffee to end the meal..

Hearting the new phone..

The trusty E65 has been with me for 2 years.. Its time for a new phone. Ended up with the Samsung Jet.. am hearting the new phone.. especially since i can finally use the handphone dangler that Hui gave moi for Christmas last year. A pretty angle made up of crystals. Am Happie Babe.. finally gotten many things done in this short break of mine..

New and Old Phone. Goodbye my trusty Nokia.

New Phone..With my pretty angel

Material Being

Finally gotten down to do a bit of cleaning round the house. Figured that i'll probably not make a good stay home wifey..cleaning's not really my forte..so having a day job is good.. gives me reason to outsource house-keeping. ;p

As I was going thru the many pieces of clothing, little bit of pieces of items i have, it struck me that.. being able to do a simple chore of arranging my material possessions that i hold dear, means ample security in the being. Of daily living. Not having to worry about bread and butter, basic amenities.. Its a blessing in itself.. in the boring predictability of daily living.

Someone once asked me what i want in life..i din answer den. Now, i'll say.. Just to be able to grow old in good health with my loved ones (hopefully add 1 or 2 great kids in the equation). With a job which i hopefully enjoy doing that pays for the daily bread. Just mundane predictability. No thank you to roller coaster ups and downs, please. And I'm blessed.

Cable's Back

Yupz, we've finally gone and gotten cable. Missing for 8 months, its finally installed at our new place. My Discovery Travel and Living, VV drama.. Plus, its hub station, which allows us to record our favourite programmes and series for playback.. Entertainment galore! The dearie and i are certified couch potatoes.

The process was kinda interesting. We surfed for details online and saw that StarHub was giving away $100 of popular bookstore vouchers. The dearie applied online halfway, aborted the application as we decided to swing by the store to apply and pick up the hardware instead. While we were at the store, we found out that the signal was not activated at our place and they had to send down the technicians. Plus, the $100 vouchers are only applicable if we apply online. Being the discerning consumer, of course we decided to submit online instead. In any case, the technicians will still have to come down for the activation and the charges have to be incurred. Plus, $100 is alot of stationery mah.. Price differential by mode of application and shaping of consumer behaviour.. abit of comparison brings some benefits.

Our Groceries delivered

The delivery man delivered our groceries in big boxes with a trolley. Definately heavy coz its mostly liquids. So very glad we did delivery!!

Items still in boxes

Items unpacked..

Weekend's Here

The weekend's here, surf's up..hee. We managed to eat a nice meal of jap food which i have been craving for at Tampines 1's Sushi Tei, although i feel that the quality has deteriorated over time. Our sashimi salad used to have more chunks of raw fish. The tonkatsu that came with our cha soba was almost breaking my teeth and abit sourish. I've always felt that i do not have a discerning palate, and am happy with simple food.. the tonkatsu was simply urgghh.. will not be heading to Sushi Tei for some time to come.

On a brighter note, we've gotten ourselves a photo printer for our camera and a pretty pink casing as well. Happie. Plus, we finally caught Transformers 2 on the big screen in sg. The bro had wanted us to watch the show in macau with him.. i find Josh Duhamel quite cute as Major Lennox.. Mindless Tinseltown entertainment at its best.. Eye candy, good vs evil , Optimus Prime leading the autobots in saving the earth from the evil decepticons..

i can still vaguely remember the transformer cartoon which was showing when i was younger...just like the care bears, smurfs, gummy bears, he men cartoons. Once upon a time, i used to think that i'll only watch cartoons my entire life.. those were the days. If you noe the cartoons i'm talking about, you are probably from my era.. ;p

My Gossip Girl

Golly, managed to finish the entire first season of Gossip Girl over the past few days. The series was seating in the drawer the entire few months and i finally got down to watching it. Hee, can't wait to get my hands on the second season. Too bad that we've decided to get starhub cable instead of mio tv..so i'll probably get it via Amazon.. one can live vicariously thru surreal drama, yeah!

The week's almost gone in a twinkle. Have read some books. More Books to go. Would probably add to the repertoire. Have watched a tv series. More dramas to be popped into the disc player. Been blogging a bit. The daily reading list of blogs have been expanding. Still kicking myself for not grabbing the Antique Rose Mabel Mulberry Bag that was so so heavy discounted when i had the chance to. Still wondering whether the postman will bring good tidings, still so unsettled and uncertain about the future. Still nursing the health. Still surfing the web. Still trying to eat healthy. Still saving up for the big ticket purchases. Still being just me. Just loving the "Me time".

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

Wanderlust- 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........