great catching up w some ex-colleagues over korean bbq... star king @ tanjong pagar. that whole stretch there, where all the bridal shops are, is sooo occupied w korean restaurant lah! 

yeah.. and so that's me.... almost buffet every week..... gosh.. so not correct for someone whose wedding day is near.... 

and what's with the whole world asking me if ive started dieting already..... 

WTH?! 

悼念

to someone who once told me that she used to think that unfinished food are a wastage but she no longer thought so, because unfinished food will not be wasted as bacteria will still feed on them. 

to someone who once commented '人美戴什么都美'.........

起初很生你的气，不明白为什么你会选择这样做，而且还偏偏要在这个时候。

很生气你蒙骗我，过往的潇洒乐观原来都是假的。

很生气你为什么如此就放弃自己，拍拍屁股走，留下一堆为你心碎的人。

后来想想，其实你还是你， 依然那么洒脱，依然那么直接果断。

你的声音一直在我耳朵回荡。后悔为什么那时你出事时，我没有去探望你。

可能冥冥中早已注定这样的结果。也可能你真认为这是最好的结果。

虽然我不苟同，也不明白，但我相信你是对的。

永在怀念中。

姑姑, RIP. 

Hi-Tea @ ShanGriLa

met up w jc friends for hi-tea at shangri-la's rose veranda on last sat. and on the day of meeting, zh messaged to inform that he couldnt make it cause his wife was having contractions. and true enough, zh's bb gal arrived on the night itself!!! hahahah! bb cant wait to join us for hi-tea! congrats zh and jas!

so last week's hi-tea buffet was at shangri-la. 'last week', cuz last last week, i had it at regent hotel with my dear gals (will blog abt that later). hahaha, ok... been 2 consecutive weekends w hi-tea buffets. wowowwowowo. F.A.T!

i personally think that the hi-tea at shang is better than at regent's. the variety is wider w more cooked food. regent is more on dessert and cakes, less on the cooked food. 

DIY smoked salmon caesar salad w prawns. lol 

dim sums n the cooked food - potatoe, fish, chicken.. 

and of cuz... sashimi!!!! what is buffet w/o sashimi man?! to me, oysters and sashimis are a must! but unfortunately, not all buffet serve both, esp for hi-tea. regent, for one, doesnt serve either.

prawn noodles! also the DIY kind... hhahaha. can add many many prawns! 

desserts!!!!! both shang and regent are comparable in terms of dessert choices, but i would still prefer shang. but i realised, as i get older, the sweet tooth like having less and less effect liao. lol. eat abit of sweet stuff and quite reach the threshold already.

and then... more sashimi!!!! whack lah! 

and with my dear jc mates. bee and husband. and jon. =) 

great afternn just to catch up w each other. glad once in a while, we still do meet-up and keep the friendship going. 

and the buffet at shang is really worth it. dbs/posb card w 15% discount. in the end each pax only abt $45. not bad huh. and it's the only buffet which will come to us and offer us complimentary parking. for all rest of the buffets we went to, even when we asked, they will say they dont offer complimentary parking. so quite impressive. recommended! 

2 MoRe MonThs.....

2mths exact from now. 

officially counting down! 

woohoo! 

just hope by then i can swee swee go on my leave...

now the more headache part is the assembling of cards! urggghh...

and the montage.... which havent even started.. uh-oh. 

2 more mths 2 more mths!! 

huaaat lahh! 

CooKinG FoR TwO

when i was young, one of my fav toys will be those cooking sets. yes, i do love cooking... since young! of cuz, at home, with mum around, there's not much chance for me to cook. and i always believe in order to cook well, u will need good cooking equipments. unfortunately, mum's cooking stuff are those super old-school kind... so.... i wouldnt want to use them either!

and now that i have my own house..... it's definitely good chance to hone my skills! 

haha, dont under-estimate me.... i can definitely do better than just maggi mee!!

tada! laksa maggi mee! LOL

tada again!!!!!! salmon is one of my fav!!! eating them outside is expensive.. but actually, buying home to cook is also not cheap!

black pepper chicken and minced meat toufu! 

meat patties and spicy prawn beancurds

heart-shaped de! =)

ok... if u notice.... meat patties and eggs do appear quite often in my menu. lol. 2 of the easiest food to handle. and unfortunately, i have to rely alot on those ready-made sauces eg black pepper sauce, chilli sauce etc. v unhealthy actually. 

and also if u realised... i've only been cooking porridge. we do have a rice-cooker, but not washed yet and we havent gotten a side table to place the rice-cooker!! opppsy! but also good lah, less fattening. just a bit of rice can cook one big pot of porridge already! no joke! im also quite stunned by how much the rice can 'expand'. keke.

pan-grilled prawns... hiak hiak 

self-cooked food is definitely healthier than outside food as we will go easy on the salt, sugar, and oil. outside food are really really unhealthy de. but that being said, i realised cooking at home will only be worthwhile if many pple are eating. if just for 2 pple, it's really not quite worth the effort. 

firstly, if only for 2 pax, grocery shopping is a problem. most of the time, the food comes in packs which are too much for 2pax. so unless we cook half and keep half, the cooked food will be too much for 2. and we cant only be eating one dish. so usually will cook 2 to 3 dishes and that will end-up with alot of food for just 2pax! and the cost is not cheap also, can easily be $30 per meal.

then it comes the cooking part. cooking is easy, but i tell u, can sweat like mad during cooking! 

and then the worst part will come - cleaning and washing up! after cooking, have to wash the dishes, wipe the stove, walls, mop the floor etc etc... 

so, in conclusion, so much effort for just 2 pax, is actually not worth it de! the same effort and costs could have served 4-6pax.. that's much more worthwhile, isnt it? for 2 pax, we could easily settle with a $3 chap cai peng each... 

but i will still cook lah.. occasionally.. just for the fun of it! hehe.

and as mentioned right at the beginning, i believe good cooking starts w good equipments... so here... introducing some of my cooking friends..

philip air-fryer.. 

off hand cant remb the brand of this sauce-pan, but it's definitely one of the expensive brand... saw the brand at some department stores and damn expensive one. we got this as a free-gift when we bought abalone at the petrol kiosk during cny. this sauce pan looks big on picture, but actually v small only. good for frying eggs though. non-stick pan, i super lovvveeeeee!! 

and of cuz, there's happy call! a gift from soon-to-be MIL. loveeee it too! non-sticky and big capacity! but i personally find it quite heavy to use.. 

and... u know every morning/afternn in channel U (if u have the luxury to be at hm during this period), they will broadcast this JML home-shopping program. and in there, there is this ceracraft brand pans which are being advertised. i want to get those pans!!!!!!!!!!!!!! super cool pans which are non-sticky and dont need oil to cook!! wait till i finally purchase them, and i shall share more! hiak hiak! =)

安床 and 过大礼

the 2 big pre-wedding events - 安床 and 过大礼.

 

we had to do ours like 2 mths in advance of our wedding day, as apparently, there is no auspicious date for us in lunar june and july.

the preparation the day before... busy getting the required fruits and pasting the XI stickers..

huat ahhh! the pineapple looks cool huh. stylo-mylo 'hairstyle'. lol.

安床

heard many practices about this part of the wedding. some said cannot sleep on the bed after the 安床 process. some said the groom has to sleep with a guy on the bed (which I also happen to read on the internet). but according to our master, the bed cannot be left empty on the night of 安床 and after that, the couple can sleep on it. yeah.

completed! success! huat huat huat!

and the troop for 过大礼 - hubb, his 2 elder bros and his aunt

rain!!!! wealth wealth!!

the goodies

dried scallops.. one of the most expensive items in there

cakes... from this gin thye bakery which opens 24hrs daily... I wonder why the need to open 24hrs....who would patronise in the middle of the night huh?

traditional le bah

2 bottles of red wines

some of the items that mum requested - cans of pig trotters, dried scallops, dried oysters, wedding cakes, wedding cakes cards, wines etc...

and of cuz, mum returned many items too!

our new bed! with all the good blessings :)

and after that was fathers' day lunch at vivo's TCC... w my soon-to-be family :)

blessed.

HappY FaThErs' DaY

happy fathers' day! 

@ peach garden at chinatown point 

StuDy LoAn RePaiD !!!

was checking through my bank a/c transactions when i realised that the deduction to repay dad's cpf a/c for my study loan was extraordinary low last month. and then, it dawned on me that.......uh-huh uh-huh...

and a few days later, dad received a letter from CPFB, and soon after that, i also received a letter from CPFB....

and.......yes!!!!! my study loan was finally repaid!!!!!!!!! after a good 6years!!!!!!!!!!!!

for those loans that are taken from parents' cpf a/cs, we actually have the luxury to repay the loan only 1 year after working. and at that time, the monthly deduction amt was an amt that CPFB proposed, and by calculation, it will take me 6yrs to repay the full loan...

and now..... 6years..... have passed!!!! just like that!!!!!!!!!!! and that also means, adding back the 1yr luxury year, this year is the 7th working year for me le!!!!! 

and yes, coming aug will be my 7th year with the bank le..... cant believe that i actually stayed with the same bank since grad! OMG!!

and so now, im $289 cash richer every month! 

probably time to sign an instalment plan to buy something for myself..

afterall, i have been setting aside $289 every month for the past 6yrs...... just continue to park aside $289 should juz be the correct thing to do, isnt it? hehee.

DumpLinG FesTiVaL

ok, i know this is late, but i still wanna blog about this... cuz... the dumpling festival this year was really EXCEPTIONALLY quiet! 

i mean, in the past years, at least i see stalls selling dumplings. and there were years whereby i will tot of buying dumplings home for mum and future MIL. 

and not to mention that when i was really young, during dumpling festival, there would always be this aroma from the far end of the corridoor when my v faraway neighbours start DIY-ing their dumplings. 

 but this year was like... nothing?! literally. i mean i do see stalls selling dumplings.... but... it's just... different loh. no feel at all!

and it wasnt until i stepped into the office that i heard my colleagues mentioning, did i realised it was actually dumpling festival!

and luckily i made it a point during dinner to at least have a bite on a dumpling.. LOL. 

actually i do like dumplings.... but i will really avoid them, cuz it's ultimate guilty to eat one all by oneself. 

and then.. if im not wrong, dumpling festival is to commemorate this ancient guy who committed suicide.... 

uh-huh.... so committing suicide is something to be glorified?

this is one part about dumpling festival which i will never understand.

anyway, happy belated dumpling festival!! 

WhaT a WorLd

read the news about this taiwanese student hacking people in the train, resulting 4 dead and 20+ others injured. 

such news arent rare, as juz today, something similar happened in the usa, where the guy just drove and shoot the passer-bys. 

but i guess, cuz taiwan is much nearer to home, the impact is bigger. 

taipei's mrt... something so familiar to us..... imagine.. u, me.. or our loved ones could be in the train. 

how 冤枉 can it be, to kenna hacked to death, by some mad fellow like that. 

my heart goes out to the dead and injured. 

and to the prepatrator - may u die a million times in hell. 

PraWning & FishinG

ok, I know im lagging, but yes, this was the 1st time I tried out prawning in sg.

we did prawning in Taiwan's night markets before, but it was less sophisticated. the pond was much much smaller, or rather, it was not a pond, it was just big trays of water. we could see the prawns clearly in the water, and we just use the hooks to hook them.

here, we could not see the prawns at all, so no idea if there are that many prawns inside. and I tot it's quite expensive, at $18 per hour per pax. but indeed, the prawns are ultra duper big. unfortunately for us, after an hour of prawning, we got NOTHING! booohooooo... unbelievable. but we did see some who ended up with quite good catch. good for them..

and then we went for dinner and after that wanted to prawn again. but then we saw that this fishing pond was opened. yes, fishing only starts after 7pm. and so, hubb happily tried fishing.

initially, we saw this family of 4, kept passing the rod to each other and kept running around the pond. i seriously could not understand what was happening till hubb explained. apparently, the fish in the pond are ultra big. so when they got hooked, there is no way u can pull it out just by that thin rod and fishing line. most of the times, the hook will just goes off, and u have to spend money on a new rod (at $5 per rod).

so what happens is, once the fish gets hooked, do not fish it out immediately. rather, 'play along' with it and battle it till it's tired... and then.... when it stops struggling, pull it closer to you and use hand to catch it!

that was what the family was doing! even after the fish got hooked, they let it swim around freely, moving along with the fish and that's y they are passing the rod around and running around the pond like mad!

and they are real good at it! think they caught at least 5 fish! but they are very irritating also, cuz when they run around the pond, they expect u to give way to them. wtf? didn't i pay to fish as well? y should i give way to them? idiotics.

and..... when i say the fish are big, they really are BIG!

yes, hubb managed to catch one as well, which we later brought home for mum to cook.

apparently, the fish did not struggle when he caught it...there were 2 hooks on it's body..think it managed to escape previous hookings, but already tired from all the battling.. very sad...

yes... ok.... such prawnings and fishing are really very evil... i also feel very guilty after that.. haii.... 善哉善哉

shall not do it often... cruelty!!

which part of the day is your fave moment? and which part of the day is your most hated moment? ever thought about it?

for me, the most hated moment of every day, is when the 2nd last alarm goes off. yes, 2nd last. not that i have many alarm clocks, but apparently, handphones nowadays can set a few alarm timings. and yes, im one who will set like 5 alarm timings. 

when the 1st one goes off, i will secretly smile to myself that i still have 20mins more. when the 2nd goes off, it means i still have 5mins more. when the 3rd goes off, it means i have 3mins more. when the 4th one goes off, it means i have the last 4mins, before the final alarm will goes off. 

usually i will not wait till the final alarm, so, by the 4th alarm, it will already mean WAKE-UP!!! and so that's y, when the 2nd last alarm goes off, it's usually the most painful and difficult moment of the day. 

and of cuz, b/w the 1st and 4th alarm, my mind will always contemplate if im okay to go to work that day.... hoho..

ok, and so, when is the best mmt of the day?

i will say, it is after i bathed, make-up all removed, body all cleaned, in pyjamas and specs... all ready to sleep, but just slacking before sleeping..... that mmt is the best! 

so everyday, i will go through the most hated moment, and the best moment. ironically, the most hated moment is at the start of the day, while the best is at the end of the day. so much for the chinese saying that 一日之计在于晨 huh.

and so, day in day out.. and now it's already mid-may!! it's just terribly and unbelieveably  fast. 

and no more PH Is june and july... hoho.. tough period!!

PhoTos SeLecTioN

and so, we have chosen the pics for our photo album. a much easier job than i thought.

we are entitled to 30 pics and that's the exact number which we chose, not one more, not one less. LOL.

truly proud of ourselves! 

actually we already went mentally prepared, telling ourselves not to add any pics. and we have discussed and knew exactly in mind how to go about choosing, so as not to deviate from the 30pics which we are entitled to. 

the end results are not bad, better than i expected. but the final number of pics presented to us was only 121. so it's really not alot to choose from, and choosing 30 pics is already 25%, so it's pretty easy-peasy. 

although the boss appears to be not very happy that we din top-up any pics.. but o well... we really do not want to spend any excess on this piece of the wedding... 

and now, just hope that they'll remain professional in their service towards us, cuz actual day is still relying on them, on make-ups, gowns, photography and videography!!! 

that's the prob with engaging the same firm for all services.. hoho

My first wedding gift and angbow =)

惜福 感恩

  

MandaTorY ReporTinG of ChaNGe oF Resi Add

I never knew that it is an offence if you do not update the address on your nric when you shift place, until a colleague told me recently. and yes, true enough, we received notification from ICA informing us to update our address.

hoho, cant blame me since I've never shifted........ that is until... now.

and so, I will soon be a westerner officially ie. someone staying in the west side. hohoho.

bye bye to the duper convenience I've always been enjoying ~~~~

Krispy KreMe

and so krispy kreme is in town! ok, it has been in town for quite a while already, and I've heard of the madness queue and hoo-haa that it brought along.

I first tried it at Australia and I remembered it being very yummy. and so, when an outlet opens in raffles place, im real happy about it!

tada!!

surprisingly, the queue at raffles place wasn't as crazy as that at orchard! in fact, not that long q at all. I think the queue for the fried fish horfun at golden shoe is longer!!

yes, the original glazed is still as good....

also tried the chocolate dream cake, but that was disappointing. not nice.

and it's not cheap at all! $2.60 for the original glazed and $2.90 for the assorted. real exp for a donut lah.. branded...

but I thought it's less oily than the other brands of donuts.. heh.. can eat more... LOL

AnnuaL LeaVes

im on half day AM leave today! meaning to say, leave in the morning, back to work in the afternoon. hehe. 

ok, from the so many feedbacks that i heard so far, many thinks that AM leave is crap. they would rather take full day leave, or at worse, PM leave. 

but then i tot AM leave is not that bad what. can sleep late, wake up take breakfast, relax for a few more hrs, then slowly make way to work. work for a few hours, then knock off again... shiok! 

im contemplating if i should take AM leaves frequently... anyway, havent i always been asking for a job which can let me sleep in late?? hehhee. seems like taking AM leaves will be the solution!! 

in the past, when i was with the very 1st dept, each year, i only aim to carry forward 5days of leaves to the following year. but as i shifted to the 2nd dept and now to the current dept, things changed. taking leaves is such headache that i ended up taking less leaves and carrying >10days leave to the next year. 

taking leaves is no longer that straightforward. it's quite stressful actually. have to ensure my things are cleared before i go, have to pray no last min things that come in just before i go else have to stay back late to clear, and have to worry about work that came in but uncovered by my coverer when im back. see? going on leaves seem more tedious than just going to work and clear stuff day by day. 

now taking leaves also need to look at the work volume... it's.... siannn! 

so i guess, morning leaves really are my saviour. i dont have to finish the work on hand, i can sleep in late, i can still clear my work day by day, dont have to rely on coverers (who most of the time, will also leave things for me to come back and clear) ... and i only need to work a few hours! hehehehe!!

and.... 1 day of leave is equivalent to 2 days of AM leaves! real savings!!

oh my... it's really non-stop coughing action! 

been one whole month already.. and... im still coughing!!! seen doc for 4x (or more?)... drank like 3 bottles of cough syrup.. and completed dont know how many doses of drugs..... but..... still the same.... grrrrrrrr

and so, there will be a new scorecard at work. 

honestly, i just hope things dont go wrong, in at least another year time... one year.... at least....please just let me shun shun li li pass this one year..... ***Prayyyy****

seriously, i also dont know how did i survive thus far. come to think abt it, it really is kind of a miracle that im still surviving in the same place. must be some supreme power helping me, somewhere, somehow. 

im proud of myself. really.

but as i stay proud, one side of me just cant help worrying. true that i did managed to climb out of the black hole, but.... it isnt that difficult to fall back in again.... right??

ok... back to the same point.... just pray that nothing drastic will happen in the year to come..... 

jiayou jiayou.... i will make it de...

counting down! 

2nd QuarTeR

hoho, there goes the longest working month! 

and also, bye bye to the 1st quarter of the year!

woah, time really flies huh!

we are officially into the 2nd quarter of the year already!

happy april fools' day!