The Inevitable

The inevitable has finally happened
Of course, you say, it was inevitable
[That sounds vaguely like a line from the 'Matrix']
But... but... but...
But this inevitable occurrence has been a year in the making!
The hubs has finally been sent to a small town in Europe for work for a few weeks
*sigh*
That leaves me with time all... to... my...self...
I would normally be OK with that, but we've been living together for so long
We've got a routine, you know
He'd wake me in the morning
[Because he leaves earlier for work]
We'd have dinner together
Come back at the end of the day and I'll tell him about my day
Great listener he is
[He usually doesn't gossip about his work day]
See, routine
Now that he's not around
[Because of the time-zone thing]
Who am I going to whinge to?
Oh, wait!
Email!!
I'll have to email him!
*grin*
Hmm... kind of reminds me of when we were dating
Have we come full circle?
I was living in Australia and he in Singapore
And even with the measly time difference, there were heaps of emails bing-bonging
Not to mention the expensive phone calls as Skype hadn't been invented yet
But have no fear
Have passport will travel!

Short dramas

When I first started to watch Korean Dramas, I was applauding their use of different casts for one and the length of their episodes. They are usually 62 minutes long with only one advertisement break. Good stuff!

On top of the normal 62-minute episodes, the dramas are usually only 16 episodes long which I've taken as a 'just nice' length. Too long and you'll start to lose the plot as however cute the actors and actresses are, you tend to want the drama to move on to the end.

As I was saying, they also have 35-minute mini episodes which could go on for over a hundred and fifty episodes long. Even in normal drama length, that's pretty long, isn't it? These mini episodes portray the drama in everyone's point of view for nearly everyday of their lives.

I'm currently watching one called Happiness in the Wind which is nearly approaching the end. I think there are 175 episodes long and it's about episode 163. I need to fast forward these last bits as it's starting to become a little draggy. Maybe it's because I'm not really interested in knowing what happens to every other person's daily life but I'll have to wait it out. Maybe someone on the internet has just put up scenes with just the lead actor and actress?

Catch Ups

It has been a great year this year... I know, it hasn't really ended as yet, but it has been an odd year for me in terms of catching up with old friends. Ever since I moved over to Singapore, I've been the one going back to catch up with them. This year, all of them came over to visit Singapore, all at different times of the year, which was probably a pretty good idea coz when we gather together for a catch up, we might not get an equal opportunity to do a proper catch up.

Thanks girls, for making Singapore a stop in your holiday... I guess it's my turn next year, huh?

Thirteen Toes

Recently, I decided to try a french manicure on my toes and it turned out ok... if you look at it from far *grin* my hands are not so steady, unlike the manicurists.

Anyways, I was pointing this out to the hubs and he wondered if I could paint an octave of piano keys on my toes. He thought I only needed ten toes for that but there are thirteen keys in an octave, eight white five black.

So... if I had thirteen toes, would that look funny? Would anyone even know that I have an octave on my toes if I painted them black and white?

Three of Three

The real day
Lovely Spring day
The sun was shinning
The birds were chirping
A slight wind was blowing
I couldn't ask for a nicer day

It started off with church
Then teas, money and jewellery
A short luncheon with the best company
A trip around town and a tree lined street for some pictures
No rest for the weary
Cozy dinner reception with the best entertainment

And that was my wedding day 8 years ago, yesterday
Happy times...
It still is!

Food Blog : Clifford @ The Fullerton Bay Hotel

Recently opened, this five-star hotel, The Fullerton Bay, houses only 100 rooms (read exclusive), an AMAZING poolside bar (and when they say poolside, the bar surrounds the pool), one other indoor bar and this restaurant. The hubs and I couldn't decide what to have for our anniversary dinner and decided on this. Can't say that we're sorely disappointed, there were some nice bits to the meal.

Before I go into the food bits, let me start on the service crew. 80% of them can't take a simple order. 100% of the 80% are unable to recommend from the menu. Doesn't this just set the mood. But the both of us were too into the fact that we're hungry and needed to be fed straightaway to get up and leave. Besides, there were only 2 other tables... not much of a scene, huh?

With Western fusion food on the menu, it wasn't difficult to decide what to eat. The hubs had the lamb and I the beef. We had a bowl of mushroom soup each and shared a platter of lobster and scallops carpaccio. A free flow of two different kinds of bread had me going. I took the white one which was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and the hubs had the multigrain one. With the butter came a shredded duck dip. It tasted almost like tuna, but had a little ducky-ness to it. Apparently this restaurant is famous for this duck dip and it's offered free flowing with the bread. Warm white bread, heaps of butter, slab of duck dip. Yummy combination!

Right! The entree. Scallops were from Hokkaido, raw and thinly sliced. I'm not one who's into raw food but this one just melted in my mouth. The lobster was done al dente and it tasted like lobster, nothing extra special. The soup was interesting. It definitely didn't come out of a can... very creamy and slightly bitter from the different mushrooms used to make it. The 'ravioli' that was in the soup was a total let down. The skin tasted like won-ton and I wasn't sure what the filling was. The hubs liked the soup, go figure.

The lamb main was alright. It was a lot of meat. The mini samosas were average too. We didn't even notice the bed of ratatouille till after the dishes were taken away from us.

My beef was supposed to be a wagyu one. These days, I can't tell the difference. It was alright. Nothing to rave about. The fries were coated in something before being deep-fried, making it crispy and the metal pot was a little warm to the touch.


For dessert, I had the creme brulee which wasn't yummy (caramelised sugar at the top needed a hammer to break), but the mini madeleines that came on the side were. The hubs had some espresso with rum and lemon peel. At the end, the espresso was on the house... only because they forgot to charge us for it. So much for five-star service.

I'd probably go back just to eat bread with butter and duck dip... maybe they'll change their main menu with the season.

Food Blog : Ku Ra

I love how Singapore is so multicultural that you can find almost any food from around the world here. Having said that, tonight's dinner was probably screaming for us not to try it. Maybe we'll go back in 6 months time...

Ku Ra, a Sapporo (Japan) Ramen little cafe, has probably been opened for a week, maybe shorter. They are part of the Ajisen chain of Japanese eats. Their official opening day is this Thursday. Menus are still soft laminated, probably waiting for the 'real' (read official) menus to arrive on Thursday. It was heartwarming to discover that the tiny cafe was full of people.

The hubs ordered the white miso which was pretty close to what we remember from the ramen we had in Hokkaido. He lapped the bowl clean!

I tried their Shoyu and was sorely disappointed. The soup was too salty, making the noodles salty too and when I asked for a bowl of warm/hot water, the waitress smiled and asked if the soup was too salty! She brought me some plain broth instead, but that wasn't enough. I had to add some of my room temperature water into the soup and in the end, I didn't even drink the soup. The Cha Su was alright though, right amount of fat and moist meat.

One interesting thing they had on the menu was fried chicken soft bone. What they've done is to roughly chop the soft bone, found where the bulk of the breast meat of a chicken is, into 1" sticks, dip in a light tempura (little too salty) flour and deep fried. What gets served is an interesting crunchy snack!

The Gyoza was nothing to tell home about, the hubs says it's too 'Chinese' tasting.

Da Moon

After a week of haze and blurred visibility, it rained really heavily over the weekend and tonight, clear skies. It's things like these that makes you appreciate the amazing skylines that Singapore has to offer.

Da Moon

Jewellery Pieces

Bvlgari makes really, really great jewellery pieces. I'm not going to compare it to the other jewellery houses, because it wouldn't be nice... every jewellery house has its own design and way of making it.

So, Bvlgari... about nine years ago, I bought my first piece of the B.zero1 range, a 3 tier ring. I still wear it from time to time, and I still love it. Actually I love all my pieces. After purchasing that ring, I was supposed to get the matching pendant for Chrissy, but never got around to it. I think it's just too huge a piece to be wearing everyday... I don't like changing my pendant all that often.

Over the years the jewel house has unveiled some new designs, they have even designed some interesting earring studs stops (check out the Griffe Diamanti range), but nothing has been more iconic to them than the B.zero1 range. To date, I have a total of three pieces from them and am lusting after another one for Chrissy *grin*

Hazy days

The haze is back in Singapore. At this time of year, almost every year, Indonesia burns their forest to clear them. With the wind and everything, it has brought the smoke over to our skies. The haze is different when compared to smog. Smog smells distinctly of burnt petrol fumes. Haze smells of faint regular burned non-biodegradable things...

As this burning happened some ways away... walking out of a building into the open, the air smells faintly burnt... like something has burned far, far away and the wind has brought the smell over. It's not suffocatingly thick, this haze, I think the atmospheric reading has been less than a hundred psi. It's amazing what our noses pick up.

I remember back in the late 90s, people had to wear masks because the haze was so thick! Schools were closing and outdoor sport activities were postponed. Luckily for us, it will rain nearly every other day, even for a little while, just to wash the air a little. Hopefully with all the weird weather that's going on around the world, the haze won't get too thick.

Here's a photo of a part of the central business district at dusk with the haze. I'll have to see if I can get a 'normal' day picture to compare.

Hazy skyline at dusk

Food Blog : Ichiban Boshi

It's been a while since we patronised this place. They are part of the Fiesta chain of Japanese food. This particular branch makes fresh soba. There's even an authentically looking Japanese dude showing everyone who walks by his skills in making the noodles.


Unfortunately, the noodles needed to be cooked a little longer. Other than that, everything else was good. The sauce wasn't too salty and after you've finished, you're supposed to mix the broth which the noodles were cooked in with the leftover sauce and drink it as a soup. Yummy!

We also ordered a side of ika tempura and this branch makes it not too salty.

The Coffee Club's Ice Blended Chocolate

There must have been something wrong with the dinner we ate tonight at Shoteppan. It was our second time at this particular cook-your-own-teppanyaki place (except we usually get them to cook it for us, it's allowed, I'm not paying money to cook my own dinner!)

Anyways, they must've lathered the MSG coz we were feeling rather thirsty about a half hour after the meal. Not only that, but the ventilation at the place didn't work too well and our clothes, hair and my lovely handbag was just permeating oiliness.

So the hubs decides to have something to wash the MSG from our mouths and chanced upon this place. I think it's the first time I've actually gotten anything from them. I'm usually the Coffee Bean or Starbucks chocolate drink kind of person.

The description of the drink had me and when the drink came...

This would be the most insanely awesome blended ice chocolate drink I've ever tasted.
Firstly it's a mixture of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and milk. The ice was so finely blended that it didn't taste like there was ice in the drink. And you know that they use real chocolate chunks to blend the drink because there were still tiny specks of it while you're drinking, like sediments. But yummy sediments *grin*

ps. It's twenty ten, twenty ten (20.10.2010) today...

Two of Three

The hubs and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary tonight. Eight years ago, we celebrated this day with a 9 course yummy dinner with our friends and relatives... all 450 of them. That's like a lot of people between the both of us, isn't it? Did we know everyone? Surprisingly, more or less *grin*

We weren't picky as to who attended our wedding dinner, as long as our friends and immediate relatives came. And came they did. I remember hiring a couple of buses to cart guests to the venue and back to a meeting point. The food was yummy (all my favourite!), company was boisterous and the hubs and I had a blast!

The best part about Chinese weddings is that you usually get money as a present. I didn't get to count the amount of money we received, but it was enough to pay for dinner after everyone left and had maybe a couple of hundred left over. That's considered a good thing *grin*

Last year, our anniversary dinner was particularly bad. I can't remember the details (you'd want to forget these kind of things) but the hubs tells me that we decided to have steamboat at home and for some reason the base wasn't heating the pot right. Which meant we were sitting at the dining table for maybe a couple of hours, slow cooking all our food. Baddd...

This year, we decided to eat out, seeing that it's a Tuesday night. We ended up at one of our favourite restaurants, No Signboard. Their dishes have never failed to fill us. We even take guests there, when they can't decide what to eat.

BUT the experience was a little of a let down today. Just as we were starting on our crab, I noticed that one of the claws looked like it had fungus growing... you know, when crabs get injured, their flesh turns bad and black... which means that that part of their body was starting to rot. We had the dish re-served, which was a bad idea coz they took another half hour to cook it. By the time the dish arrived, we were kind of full, the earlier dish of drunken prawns (I miss drinking herbal soups!) and claypot tofu had settled. But we took our time eating it and it was yummy! I don't know if the kitchen decided to give us the freshest crab, but the flesh was so sweet, even with the chili sauce which it was cooked in. AND you have to order the fried buns that go so well with the sauce, I could just eat the buns and sauce and not worry about the crab.

So, that's two out of three. We haven't decided where to go for our third one yet...

Spoilt for choice

I can't believe how spot on the saying 'spoilt for choice' is.
It's only Monday today, and I'm thinking of having the same dish for lunch for the week!
With the crazy weather we've been having, haze plus rain, it has put a dampener on my lust to explore.
So let's see what lunch delights bring... tomorrow!

Catch up weekend

I'm trying to clear the hard disk of all my recorded Korean dramas throughout the week, but am failing miserably. I should really stop typing now and go back to finishing my fox drama, which ended maybe a couple of weeks ago? Yeah... watch the telly, girl!

Corelle Ware Part 2

Now that the USD is at its all time low against the SGD, I decided to surf the internet to have a look at how much Corelle plates and bowls would cost me, if I were living in the US. Baddddd decision.

I can't believe the prices! It's like a 70% discount from what we have to pay here and they have ALL sorts of designs. Like 10 times more than what we get here. My all time favourite has been the Plum series, but all my plates and bowls are the Winter White ones. Somehow white just makes everything clean and expensive. But I have a few Plum pieces.

After browsing the World Kitchen website, my new found favourite is the Cherry Blossom. A set of 16 costs only USD50!!! Now, how long do you think it'll take for them to bring this design over to Singapore?!

Homecooking

The hubs is out at a wine party with his workmates today and I get to cook one of my favourite pasta dishes.

Prawns on a bed of Spaghetti cooked in olive oil and finely diced garlic

Sao Joao Festival

Every country, no nearly every city has their own festival. Singapore celebrates a number of festivals, mostly cultural based like the Mid Autumn Festival, Deepavali, Thaipusam and Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Porto, a little town in Portugal, has one of the liveliest festival, the Sao Joao Festival. It's a celebration of the Saint John the Baptist. Held near the end of June, the annual party actually goes on for more than 12 hours, starting the evening before. Everyone comes from everywhere within the city and gathers at the town center to just celebrate. Massive street party! The thing that grabbed my eye about this festival is the fact that if you find someone gorgeous, hit them over the head with a plastic hammer! And here we thought walking around the neighbourhood with lanterns is weird...

Food Blog : Aoba

Aoba is known for its Hokkaido Ramen and it was one of the few Ramen places in Singapore where the bowl of soupy noodles reminded me of the Ramen I had while I was in Hokkaido.

Anyways, these days, everything's starting to taste a little too salty for me, plus I wasn't feeling like a bowl of noodles yesterday, so I ordered a bowl of Cha Su on rice instead. Didn't have much expectations but the Cha Su turned out to be extremely yummy! The Cha Su serving was generous, the pork itself moist and tender and a little salty on its own but with rice... mmm... Mind you, I also ordered a plate of squid tempura (whcih wasn't very nice), a plate of pan fried gyoza (which was yummy, served with vinegar) and a plate of yakitori asparagus wrapped with bacon.

It was too much food so we had to doggie bag some of it and I had porridge tonight. The Cha Su really, really goes well with porridge. I wonder if I'll be able to just doggie bag the pork bits, come back and have it with porridge the next time!

Cha Su Don

Hot! Hot! Hot!

The weather's been really crazy these past couple of weeks.
It's so HOT these days.
I can't even think of writing anything today because it's super hot, sitting on the couch probably sweating!

Luncheon Meat

Growing up in a Cantonese family, we've always had porridge with pan fried luncheon meat, fried dace with black beans and a minced-meat-long-beans dish. It's usually a Saturday ritual, maybe to cleanse our system from a week of oily food.

So, ever since we started eating luncheon meat, it has always been the Ma Ling brand, from China. It's infamous here in Asia, only because the meat is finely minced and it's not too salty. If you haven't tried it, you should. It's really different from the taste of the big brands of Spam (which brings back happy memories when I saw them being sold everywhere in Naha!) or Tulip.

About 3 years ago, something nasty was found in Ma Ling's luncheon meat and it was recalled, taken off the shelves and the company looked to go bust. Three years on, I'm glad they didn't. They're back and they're still as yummy! *grin*

Ten Ten Ten

It's the 10th of October 2010 today.
Did you end up doing something special?
Or was it just another ordinary day for you?
I cleaned the house.
There were too many 'clean me' spots and I had the time.
I love the feeling of a clean floor.
Could do some floor angels but I won't because the house is extremely muggy!
I'm sweating as I'm typing this... sitting directly under the fan.
The hubs ate something bad and slept the whole arvo and night away.
Dinner was a bowl of instant noodles, onion oil flavour, for me and cup-a-soup for the hubs.
I guess it was just an ordinary Sunday for us.

Cleaning the Kitchen

How do you get rid of all the oil that's stuck EVERYWHERE in the kitchen? It's not like I cook that often. Plus I don't deep fry or wok fry lots of things, although, after eating so many meals these past couple of months in hawker centers, the wok is beginning to grow on me.

Anyways, back to cleaning. Yes, how do you get rid of all that grime?

I tried cleaning a section of the kitchen today. It was fairly easy with Mr Muscle, a metal scrubber and some tissues but my fingers are paying for it. And that's only on the kitchen tops. I don't know how to get rid of the grime that's stuck to the kitchen cabinets! Maybe I just need a new kitchen *wink*

Parking lots for women drivers

I read an interesting article in the newspapers today. Since a part of the Central World Mall in Bangkok was blazed in May this year, they've managed to finish refurbishing it and is now opened to the public. Central World Mall is kinda huge in Bangkok, third largest in the world, it's a one stop shopping mall, could probably spend a whole day in there if you're really looking for something to buy.

Anyways, they've added some 200 parking lots just for women drivers! I wonder what kind of message they're trying to get across. The fact that women drivers need wider parking lots as it's difficult for them to park their tank-like vehicles or so that they won't be hassled while trying to get back to their cars. Whatever it is, I think it's a novel idea. Malls in Singapore should look into that too!

Food Blog : Fish & Co

The Fish & Co chain is one of the casual restaurants I can keep going back to, a favourite dish being the Swordfish collar. They started off serving grilled or fried seafood with french fries or rice and veggies. The only thing which I didn't like about their dishes was the pathetic broiled rough cut veggies which they serve on the side. Their menu has expanded and now they serve filo based pizza and pastas.

Recently, the outlet in Great World City has added a all-you-can-eat salad bar to their menu and have expanded their choices of side dishes to the main courses include coleslaw. Not run of the mill, full of different kinds of shredded vegetables and it tastes like it's freshly made! The vegetables are crunchy to the bite and the dressing is not overpowering. I hope all the other outlets pick up on that too.

Vacation Photographs

My younger brother is currently on a vacation for which he's not bringing along a camera.

Since the dawn of the camera, everyone has been sporting one while they're on vacation. And it's primarily used to capture pictures of places they've been to. But with this day and age, and of course Photoshop, you could use whatever photos that are published on the web, superimpose your head and body into the picture and voila, you've been to the Antarctica without having to leave your house!

So why do people still bring along cameras and are happy snappers while they're on vacation?
Habit?
It's what everyone's doing?
Don't like the angle of that particular picture on the web?

I'd like to think that it's the fact that they might not have had the time to visit all the touristy places while on their vacation or that they can't be bothered scouring the internet for pictures and superimposing their head and body onto it. Plus it's also fun to leaf through the thousand of pictures when they're back. Everyone complains about it being a chore, but it does bring a smile... pleasant memories.

Coffee Machine

I'm on the hunt for a coffee machine. It's for the hubs. I don't drink coffee. Tried it for a couple of years while in Uni, Vienna coffee with three packets of sugar was my poison and then, just like that, my body started to reject the smell and the taste. It's weird.

Meanwhile, I'm so grateful for the internet. Scouring the web for a coffee machine that suits our needs has never been easier. I haven't settled on a particular machine yet, there's no need at the moment, or maybe I'm waiting for one that'll make hot chocolate too!

Eating Guests

No, I don't actually eat my guests, I don't like human meat and they know it. In fact, some of them like the guest room so much that they keep returning.

What do you do with your guests food wise? Do you bring them to places you'd like to eat when there are more people around or do you try to get them to suggest what they'd like to eat?

Most of the time, my guests are undecided. They have no idea what they'd like to eat and I'm not sure if they're just being polite. There's a reason why they get asked, it is so that they won't have a bad image of the country they're visiting, right? Plus it's their vacation, surely they don't want to be stuck with a meal which they don't enjoy, seeing that their time in that particular place is limited. I for one, am not shy to make a suggestion *grin*

Anyways, that's not the important part, I guess... we're just gathering for a huge catch up, so it doesn't really matter if the food's nice or not, right?

Playing with Satay

We ended up at the Laguna Food Center in East Coast for dinner tonight and among the usual dishes which we 0rder (Chicken wings from Teddy Bear and dry fried bee hoon) was the Satay from Harun. 30 sticks of chicken and 10 of the mutton. I don't know what it is about their marination which makes the chicken and especially the mutton yummy. There's no taste of lamb and contrary to what everyone tells me (that they all get marinated from the same provider) Harun's satay is definitely different.

Here's what my lil brother did to his sticks after he finished. I think the cleaner person must have cursed at us come cleaning time!

Sticks of satay

R.I.P Mrs L.K.Y

Celebrate life as if it were your last day...
Life's too short to sweat the small stuff!
Don't worry too much about life because you could just keel over and die in a minute...

We all know this, so why do we still persist in making life difficult?

Right, I won't let this post get more morbid that that! Only because my thoughts are running all over the place and if I were to translate them onto this blog, the post itself will not make any sense.

The current prime minister's mom passed away peacefully at home earlier this evening. She was the wife of the first prime minister of Singapore and has been pivotal in shaping this country, although her actions are never in the spotlight. Behind every great man, there's always a woman rings so true in her case.

In keeping with the short post, I'll leave you with one of my favourite quotes which I sometimes do (especially the singing thing *grin*)

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt.
Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."
-- Mark Twain

Binary Numbers - Uniting the World

Today's date can be looked at in Binary form

The American way of looking at it
100110 = 32+4+2 = 38

The rest of the English speaking world
011010 = 16+8+2 = 26

Maybe that's the reason why there are always differences between the US and the rest of the world?

Ah, but come 10th of October, the whole world will think alike!
101010 = 32+8+2 = 42

42, the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!)