Wonderful Drama

I confess.. i love my Korean, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Japanese Dramas. Currently absorbed with the daily broadcast of Moonlight Resonance. Great fuzzy warmly drama at its best. Moi needs my daily dosage of the show manz.. :)

Celebrating One Year

We took leave today, in celebration of the day one year ago. We woke up late and wanted to go for a quick swim. That was aborted with the gloomy weather. The dearie cooked porridge with some steamed chicken and veg for lunch.

Geisha Blossom Tea

Celebration Set at TWG Tea

We headed to Ion for shopping and tea. Had glorious tea at TWG Tea. Very expensive, very chic tea (although I must say, its more packaging and marketing than anything else). We ordered the celebration tea set.. which comes with finger sandwiches, scones with cream and jelly and macaroons. The dearie had the Geisha Blossom Tea and I had the Bian de Rose Tea. Hee, the experience of having luxury afternoon tea was a rather grand one.. although too heffy to be done often.

Dinner

We walked around a fair bit and moi bought a pair of pretty pink havaianas and 2 dresses. Opps, no more shopping for the month. We ended with dinner at Watami. Quite good Japanese food, not too expensive.

Salt Caramel Swiss Roll

We even came back with Salt Caramel Japanese Swiss roll from Arinco King. At $18 for a small roll.. its no wonder there's no queue although the Swiss roll is great. The dearie got Bak Kwa from Lim Chee Guan.. so he's pretty happy. Its a simple day with the dear dearie.. am glad to be off work.. ha ha.. am i starting to hate going to work.. ? ;p

We are One..Dearie and Moi

12th Oct 2009.

We are one, one year into this new chapter of ours.

Five years ago, i asked: " who are you smsing?"

The cheeky one smsed instead: "you lor".

Thus started the series of SMSes, chats and dates.

We got together after a month, he says we only really got to know each other after we started dating.

Its true. And a blessing, because we are similar individuals. In our world views and many what nots.

We're also lazy peeps, although i am the more lazy and laid back one.

That explains for the surprise pressie i got today. A complete set of pearls.. starting from the bracelet and earrings, and the surprise pendent necklace. He splurges on moi, and makes me so guilty that i din get anything for him.. *Opps* Sheepish smile*

Happy One Year, of blissful married life.. dearie.

For being the wonderful hubby that you are.

For being my good friend and partner.

For understanding me.

For luving this lazy slacker wifey of yours.

My dried Flowers..

The lovely flowers from the dearie lasted about a week plus. I took a final picture of the half dried flowers..

Flowers, bloom in full glory for the shortest time.. just like a woman's beauty, I was thinking. At least it was sparklingly pretty in the short life span.

Gratitude

At the train, everyday, the message reads:

"There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude. A quiet joy"

I totally agree. So very simple, yet so difficult in actuality.

Wanna Travel

I so wanna travel the world.. so wanna pop by Bangkok, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Penang for shopping and food. Japan, Switzerland, USA for scenery, shopping and food. The travel bug bits..

New Routine

The dearie is back on shift work..although he needs to do only 1 night shift per week. This has altered our established pattern. When he's on afternoon shift, i can stay longer at work because i dun have to eat at the in-laws. It also means less home-cooked food. Yeeepps.

Its actually straining to be putting long hours at the workplace. Especially when one knows that one has no career luck with the series of unfortunate incidents which leaves one feeling low on energy. The glass always seems greener from the other side.. whichever side you happen to be viewing from. * Sign* Nostalgic about the old work place. But, i guess its a blessing to be able to fret about such trivial issues. Not needing to worry for the basic necessities in life. One is never contented with one's lot in life.. that's why we are constantly unhappy complainey peeps. Learn to count our blessings on a daily basis... Yah!

Simply Hawker Fare

A well know foodie mentioned that one should not waste one's calories on yucky food. Its kinda true.. i luv my Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Italian, Western and Chinese cuisine although i am quite a non fussy eater.

These days..i find myself not being able to stomach food thats too sweet and non too palatable. On the other hand.. i'm beginning to enjoy great hawker's food. Especially my Prawn mee, Minced Meat noodles, Fish slice noodle soup and Yong Tau Foo.. although i still don't fancy laksa, chicken rice much. Currently trawling the island for great hawker makan.. yummy!

Prawn Noodles from East Coast Road.. *Slurps*

Side dishes

Minced Meat Noodle from 'Seng Kee' at Changi Road (Near Eunos)

* Drools* for great homely heartlander cuisine from good hawkers.

Gifts from the Dearie

Advance 1 year anniversary gift from the dearie.. Classic pretty pearls. :)

Plus, my lovely pinky roses in full bloom. It's coming close to a year of wedded bliss. God bless, for many more wonderful years to come. He makes me think all's not lost even if moi career's a flop.. coz there's more to life than work, like family and luv. Its a choice, i guess, in taking a leisurely take on life from the onset..rather than to wait for sunset to reap the rewards of one's labours.

Sept 09 in Summary

Sept is a month whereby the newbie learns on the new job. Sept is a month for meet ups with the friends, with a few baby full months and a wedding dinner. Ouch! the poor wallet. Its a month of pay cut as well.. although its been a great month with moi's birthday to close off the month.

Dinning @ Togi's with Fen

Met up with Fen for my birthday meal.. at a restaurant i've been wanting to "share share" with her, coz she appreciates Korean Food way better than the dearie. Its one of my favourite hole-in-a-wall-hidden -out-of-the-way kinda restaurant which we happened to chance upon one day.

Kimchi Pancake

It lacks the gloss of major restaurants in terms of ambiance and service, but i quite like the friendly lady boss. Togi's is hidden in chinatown and serves up simple homely-styled Korean cuisine, complete with the requisite small side dishes. It does a rather good bbq grilled streaky pork with lettuce which the dearie like. *Yums*. Ahn-Nyong-Ha-Se-Yo.. Gahm-Sah-Hahm-Ni-Da without going to the land of Kimchi.

Spicy Bean Seafood Soup, Rice cake with Yellow noodle and dumpling

We had the kimchi pancake, spicy bean paste seafood soup, spicy yellow noodle with rice cake and dumplings and stone bowl mixed rice. *Glurp* Happie, with the great meal and great company. Life can be so simple, yah.

Every year this day..

Yupz, its a practise of mine not to work on my birthday. So, moi is off on 30th Sept, this birthday of mine. I hope to be able to uphold this practice. Happy Bithday to Moi.. :)

Its a simple day. Waking up to home delivered roses from the dear dearie. He's a man of few words, so the wordings on his card touched me loads. The roses were a tad expensive, but oh so pretty and lovely. Thanks my dearie.

Flowers from the dearie

Cake from the sis-in-law

It was lunch with the in-laws at Crystal Jade. Followed by shopping with the dearie at Tampines Mall and Ion. The day ended with a birthday feast at " The Line". Treat from the mummie.. a total indulgence and oh so very expensive that its gonna be just this once. (too bad the camera battery went flat, sobs) The bill was a heffy 400 bucks for the 4 of us.. for oysters, crabs,seafood, sashimi, sushi, indian station, asian cuisine, italian and a wide variety of other items. There was even rock melon with parma ham and sun-dried tomato. *blurp* totally used up the calories count the past few days. Hello 29! Goodbye 28 ;(

Allo 29, in advance!

We had a lovely feast in the homeland. The babes and the partners, with baby Kayson. In early celebration of this donkey's birthday.

Lovely ice cream cake

Han and Malcom brought yummy giant Sri Lankan crabs from little red house. Hui and Richmond did great deep fried buns. Jinny and Noven got wonderful ice cream cake (the exact same cake the dearie got moi last year). Moi, i did my roasted lemon rosemary chicken and mango with pomelo (or yang zhi gan lu)

Chix drumstick before roasting

Its a jolly feast alrightz, in the comfort of the homeland. With cute kayson keeping us all entertained. Its a great advance birthday celebration..simple, yet festive..its great having the babes with moi, along with dearie and baby kayson.

Pretty in Pink

Oh, and i really heart the pretties gift the babes got moi.. can't believe moi is turning 29 in a few days time. 9, the last year of my glorious 20s.. urrghh.

Paper Writing

Paper writing or mini project wannabe becomes a daunting task for the newbie without sound knowledge of the existing policies.. especially a topic so vast, so unsubstantive.

Oh wellz. I rather be blogging instead..the timing is so very wrong with the birthday looming and the celebrations planned... aiz..there goes this lovely week.. ;(

Carbon Copies

This is a generation which grown up under the ethos that one needs to study hard to move up in life. Yet, upon getting the requisite degree scroll..life becomes empty. You may not get to choose the type of job that you are passionate about.. you end up doing work for the sake of working and for money. Not really happy, yet not really unhappy because you are already more fortunate than many others..

Sometimes, it takes alot of courage to chase your dreams. Yet, the most pitiful are the ones who never have any dreams to chase. Life is simply living the motions of living. Carbon copies in this society of ours. I think, a blessed person is someone who is passionate about something, whatever that thing may be. Sometimes i wonder, if i had not been realistic in getting the required education, or had done badly enough to fail my exams.. would i be a more happy person chasing a realisable/unrealisable dream?! Like working in the hospitality line or working in the fashion line.. ??! * Ponders* Will i ever find something i am passionate about? This dreamless me..

Wifey cooks: Home-styled Roasted Chicken

We've been wanting to try out roasting meats since we got the oven. So, when there was a rather good recipe which i found online, i decided to try roasting a chicken for our weekend dinner. We got a chicken and some potatoes from the market yesterday with the intention of doing up "Oven Roasted Lemon and Rosemary Chicken". However, this silly donkey subsequently found out that she did not have rosemary for the marinate. Urrghh..

Chicken marinated with lemon zest, salt, pepper, honey, and thyme

Oh well, so i replaced the rosemary with thyme instead as i had a bottle of it in the kitchen and hoped that the substitute would work as well. I also added a bit of honey to the marinate. The chicken was marinated for a few hours before it was popped into the oven for roasting.

Potatoes to be roasted with the chicken

Potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper was placed under the chicken. The entire roasting process took about 80 mins but the finished product was well worth the wait.

Into the oven this goes...

Wifey's roasted chicken, with slightly burned skin.. opps

Overall, the roasted chicken was rather yums. The dearie rates it as a good attempt by the wifey.. which can be further fine-tuned for serving guests. The top part of the roast (chix skin) was a tad over done, but the meat was great. Even the breast meat was juicy, and very tender. The potatoes were quite burnt.. so i would probably twig the cooking time and remove the potatoes from the pan after the first flipping of the chicken. Hee, can't wait to try the recipe a second time, with rosemary instead.. :)

This year's birthday pressie from the dearie

Hee.. the dearie had initially wanted to get moi a bottle of Chanel perfume for the upcoming birthday. Wellz, as the wifey was complaining that she has nothing to wear for work.. and the shop was having a sale ( yah.. i noe, these days i only buy when there's sales.. so auntish.. urrgg).. so.. this became the dearie's pressie for this year's birthday.. many many pieces of clothing.. Thanks dearie.. ;p

Family Dinners

The dearie's family are Teochews. They enjoy their traditional Teochew food like steamed fish, braised goose and cold crab. Coming from a small family, its feels great to have family dinners with the in-laws. Typical dinner outings involves the sis-in-law and her family, the grandmother, uncle and the in-laws.

The Requisite Cold Crab.. *Yums*.

The family enjoys traditional Teochew cuisine, and a favourite restaurant which we usually troop to for festive occasions would be SWA Garden Restaurant. The food is traditional, with an old world charm which is lacking from modern restaurants. The place itself looks like the 60s.. but the place is full to the brim with patrons on the weekends. Reservations are a must. I have been duly induced into the wonders of Teochew food upon joining the family. I must say, the food's great.. especially the cold crab.. fresh steamed fish, goose and the "Orh Ni" or Yam Paste with Pumpkin. The food's best eaten with family. Yums.. just like the meal tonight which is so typical of family outings to the restaurant, or any other good restaurants that does Teochew cuisine.

Trying Kyoho Grapes

Expensive Japanese fruits are quite the rage these days. We've been wanting to try out the momo that looks oh so pretty and prefect in their boxes. And the special musk melons that cost a fortune.

I find it quite fascinating, how fruits can be so expensive and yet so perishable that their worth diminishes with every moment after harvesting. Its like the clock is ticking down. We came across some Kyoho Grapes at Cold Storage when we were shopping after work today. Kyoho Grapes were going cheap at $10 plus.. or rather, cheap by Jappy fruit standards vis-a-vis speciality gourmet supermarkets. A splurge if you compare with other types of grapes.

So, we decided to try the grapes for novelty's sake. I like the sugary sweetness of the fruit with a hint of winey musk. Yums, but a tad expensive.. so its gonna be a very rare occasional splurge.

August In Summary

August is the month moi started a new phase, with a brand new job and entirely foreign portfolio. This newbie is still learning after a month on the job. August is the month of adjustment to full-swing working life, as compared to the laidbackness of July. New environment, new people to be pally with, new beginning career wise. The new journey is long.. with loads to learn and this gal has just began. The goal is to gain experience in the field for mobility. Pronto.

fav seasonal fruit- Duku

Newly discovered passion fruit

August is also the month for fruits. Yah, I am a true blue fruit gal. I just gotta have my strawberries, pineapple, grapes, cherries, raspberries, plums, peaches , lychees and many many more. Moi tried passion fruit for the first time. Yah, i know i am quite a 'swa ku' for a fruit lover.. and the month for 'Duku' or Lansium Domesticum as the fruit is also known as. I am totally addicted to this tropical fruit which is native to the malaysian peninsula and have eaten basket loads (or is it lorry loads) this season. Its a yearly, six-monthly addiction that wans with the end of the fruit season. Just heart the sour-sweetish flesh. I can easily polish off 2-3kg all by moiself. oh man.. this gal's got a self control problem.. *sleepish grin*