ARGHHH!!

AAACHHIIINNNG!!!

So cranky that I can bite someone's head off any moment ...grrrwwl........

当你离开的时候

我想起了 遇见你的时候 想起你眼神里的温柔

想起了我们第一次牵手 我闭上眼



想起当时你怀里的颤抖 似乎 那么害怕失去我

然而到后来 我什么都没有



当你离开的时候

Friendly with Ex-nationals

Sometimes I donno whether it is a good idea to pit yourself against a team preparing to go SEA Games when

(i) you hasn't got the fitness to even be confident enough to clinch gold for IPPT 2.4km
(ii)you hasn't done much of a lunge tackle for 2 months at least
(iii) worst of all you are "relegated" to playing midfield when you have been playing wing-backs all your life.
(iv) you are playing with some people who are not from your team (hmm..didn't really apply to me though. My front, right, back were all my comrades! :) So no excuses..darn!)
(v) one of your team mates jokingly call yourselves the "has beens" and you agree..to a very large extent :p

I am feeling the after effect now :s my gluts are twitching again from the unfamiliar posture of lunging. but at least legs dont feel heavy. Unift yes, sluggish..hmm..surprisingly no. But donno whether can handle heels for the next few days..

Of course, I think it is good that the other side has a "weak" team to practise their tactics, but I think we gave the them a pretty good run in some way :p (actually I was counting the counter-attacks and the times we manage to breach their defence or stop their passes..and we didn't even train..no?!hahah~cheap thrill!)

7th day of detox. Another 7 days to go! Woohoo~

Grocery Shopping Quickie Therapy

Woke up with headache and feverish. &^%* What a way to end the weekend. Couldn't even go jogging as planned.



But it was a fruitful weekend! Went prom-dress shopping with mum and sis (for my sis.. not me!) and after that it was rushing to aunt's place for cookout. Did 3 dishes in record time. With my 招牌菜-原味鸡, it was a sellout! Baked a butter cake as well, and it was a success given that it was the first time I tried doing it. I am discovering the Martha Stewart in me yet :p


After that it was going to “美美的地方”for late night coffee/tea. It was really a sanctuary, given the wide space and high ceiling. Always the best place to hang out and chat, dont have to squeeze with the everybody else at coffee joints and having to shout to be heard.


Anyway I figured it was cos I forgot to bring water out..which was why I was super dehydrated by the time I was home. Which also explained why the condition this morning ..argh..


So it was sleeping and drinking (water of course), sleeping and drinking, sleeping and drinking..until I woke up at 6 plus and decided that was it.


Looking back it sounded like heaven with all the sleeping, but I wished it hadnt been while I was feeling under the weather :/


Anyway washed up, grabbed some dinner and watched some TV. After that decided to head out and buy some "rabbit food". So headed towards the most happening place in rural west, which was packed with people (but of course, most happening already mah..). Just remembered that I had wanted to check out Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album for a while already. So made a detour to the CD joint.

I think people usually buy the album for probably only one song? Which was what I did - "Tears dry on their own". But I like some of the others as well.

But this girl's pretty screwed up with all the powder (and I dont mind her compact powder)..and the husband is like ..urgh...what a pity

So after that it was back to original plan. Went to NTUC and was wondering if I still want to do the same salad stuff, and decided to do something different. White button mushrooms, abalone mushrooms, plum tomatoes,oohh..my favourite butterhead lettuce..lemon..hmmm..no more cucumber. no, I dont want zuchinni..they really have quite little selection when it comes to lettuce :s

Went home and stir-fried the mushrooms with salt and pepper (hmm..should have bought oregano) in extra virgin olive oil. And viola..my sandwich filling/salad topping for the next few days! Guess it will go great with grilled cheese?

Even grocery shopping gives me the retail therapy good vibes..but headache still wont go away! argh!

Detox Day 2

Today is the 2nd day of detox. Woohoo~

Not that I was that chirpy yesterday. The effect kicked in after lunch when I was almost nodding off, and almost couldn't last my way home. When I was home, it was a battle between the angel and the demon - to log on or go straight to sleep?? (of course the angel won cos I figured I'l be slapping myself in the face for starting on detox yet making myself more acidic as it is by keeping late nights :s). It had been quite bad especially last week when late nights (都是Facebook的错！:/）and too much meat (hmm..Uno..yum... :p) are giving me super stiff shoulders and cold hands, coupled with bad sleeps = DARK EYES CIRCLES!!. That was enough to make me cranky and decided to jumpstart engine again.

Anyway it's good that got people doing it with me, always good to have company :D Was munching on my sweet potato this morning when I realised that the routine is becoming so easy and routine, compared to when I first started and found it a chore to stuff one apple and one sweet potato down so early in the day. Guess it'll be easier once I experiment with blending all those stuff that I need to chew into powder and just throw them into the morning mix..

And they are going to show Sex and the City on MIO TV! Heard the familiar opening tune on Class 95 and remembered the time when I was chugging through the whole 7 seasons of episodes (Fenny, if you are reading this,the DVDs are still with me)

(And also Fen, if you are reading this, try the Sex & the City quiz on Facebook!)

I'm "Carrie Bradshaw"! :)))

I am very perturbed. My Windows live updates and MSN show that I have 42 emails in my hotmail in box. But the problem is everytime when I try to hit the hotmail website, the page hangs like there's not tomorrow.

Thought at first that
(i) all the junk application that I have been downloading is slowing down the whole system - so I spent half an hour uninstall many application (including maple story which I have given up hope in continuing the quest) (yes..maple story..I play kawaii kiddish games sometimes.)

(ii) my lappie is going to crash again aka replay heartbreak of 2002.

But when I tried the other websites, they were running fine! Am I the only one that hotmail is refusing to serve now?!

Anyway main thing is that I came across this forum post on civil service. Really like the writer's sarcasm and thought it would have applied anywhere else even in the private sector. Posted the url to my hotmail account, but cant retrieve now -.-"

Too bad, cant share.

So ended up surfing around and came across one product website (shall not name which one), and I was quite perturbed. Smart consumers will always verify, verify and verify. But if a website, being the front of the product and company to the world, does not even state where is the origin of ingredients, location of manufacture..I have a lot of question marks left unanswered.

Anyway was on the train of thought that being a smart consumer is never easy (you need to understand the ingredients, compare prices, compare opportunity cost, compare the effort spend getting the stuff??)..was mucking around wikipedia and ended up wiki-ing "consumerism"

"Consumerism is the equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption"

I know I'm sure am happy whenever I go shopping :p

"SHALLOW!"

I know, but of course that will rank after reading a good book by the beach anytime.

相信

On the way home today, was talking to Ms V.

Ms V 说她的不甘心。她说，以前脑袋里，2% 里头有一个很小的声音，问自己这一生就这么过了吗？做工，半工半读考到一张大学文凭，再继续做工。其他98%的脑袋瓜大声的哄着，“你的一生就是这样了啦”

所以她的不甘心。

相信真的是一个好奇怪的东西。很多人，相信别人都比自己好，就没办法相信自己还不错。有时相信真得很重要。相信一生就这么过了，一生也就这么过了。相信还可以过得跟好，可能就会过得更好。相信会不好，跟相信会好，真的差很大。所以我很佩服MsV， 还肯相信那2%的小声音，给自己那么大的动力，一直让自己更好。

有时，相信心里要的，可能世界还会原银奉还的给你。所以要小心，心里头想的东西哦。Just like someone told me, what you get is what really you want. So I am very careful of what I wish for nowadays.

(我心里想的，和你想的一样吗？）

I'm not a foodie!

I knew it. People are starting to think that I am a foodie cos of my recent blog entries..

-.-"

Am not!

Since I cant blog about my work (which doesn't make much of difference since there is nothing much to blog about), usually the most interesting thing of the day will be something different or special, which usually occurs during meal times when there is divergence from work. Just happens that the places where the meal happens are interesting as well.

But anyway, bottom line is that usually it's more of the company that makes the meal interesting:))

And also just happened that most of the interseting stuff today occured around food.

Baked a super big choco cake :p~

Final product without the rum. Still moist and yummy!

And went for dinner with a bunch of old friends

And ended up sitting for 4 hours straight, starting from main courses, then decided that our table was empty enough for too long to not attract angry stares from the waiting staff and decided to order dessert, before proceeding to crystal jade to continue the next round when the last member joined us after she finished up her work. Had to walk back to car to top up carpark coupon cos didn't expect to stay until so late.

It has been at least 10 long years at least and even longer for a couple of us, and we have travelled to so many places together. Went through the many coaches, the injuries (Jun Zi, thks again for washing my xxxxx when I broke my hand that time..患难见真情哦~hahaha) and torturous fart-legs.

Think I see whether if I can find some old photos from last time..KL 2001 maybe?

Scents

The nice part about long drive home after a long day is blasting the radio when a good song comes on -today it was Radiohead's "High and Dry". Didn't want to take down Southern Sons yet, so next time ;)

Have been noticing smells a bit, especially the perfume people wear. Whenever someone walks past I actually sense a tinge of what the person is wearing for that day. That was once I had involuntarily breathed in the air and held it (it was nice smelling by the way)..subconsiously until I was wondering why do I feel out of breath?!Nice smell draws me :p

Somehow, have always been linking smells with memories of persons (I'm thinking of specific people as I am listing them out):-

Lavender baby powder

Normal baby powder

Dove showergel

Davidoff Coolwater

Malboro Menthol Light

Some spicy-smelling perfume

Car perfume (the cheapo kind)

Some chinese medicated oil (that is warm smelling and all comforting)

Certain smells are so distinct that I will be able to remember the person, the events and emotions connected with the smell. For one, the smell of lavender baby powder will immediately bring me back to Aug last year, when it was associated with stroke and death. Which is why I still cringe whenever anyone dosed with the same powder walk past, even when one full year had gone by.

Though realised that a lot of other people don't bother to dab anything for work, but I'm fine with that. But it's always quite frustrating and annoying when something don't smell good comes near you and you are forced to stay in close proximity. And I am not complaining about those who can't help it but sweat, eg manual workers - more those who cant be bothered to make it an effort to wash up. Why punish me for your laziness? :s

Which reminds me, got to get new peach air freshener for my car..make Macy smell like new again, and better rides home!~

Namaste!

Today it is Nepalis food. (I don't want my blog to end up like a food journal..will only remind myself of the no of runs I have to do to compensate :s)

Anyway dear Mei 校长recommended this Nepalis restaurant at Albert Park Hotel that she always go. Was half an hour to round up the last bit of changes to some powerpoint slides, so in the end reach at 8pm, with stomach growling.

As usual food is great!

A spread - mutton "something", goat cheese, spinach, mushroom "something", and garlic naan.

Served with mango lassi subsequently :)

But then I didn't really have time to take photographs as was talking to 校长's friend Sue. She was telling us about her 6 months (?!) backpacking trip to India alone (??!?!?) 15 years ago. (what????!!!! when there were no internet/mobilephones?)

Sue narrated how she spent the 6 months, starting from pacifying her parents to allow her to go, to depositing her passport with the Singapore Embassy in New Delhi for supposedly 3 months only, and her trip around India, crossing into Bhutan and staying at Nepal for 3 weeks on a shoestring budget of less than $1500, travelling, eating and living local, before returning to the embassy 3 months later than promised and realised that she forgot to inform the embassy. And how she encountered her most happiest, saddest, angriest moments all in that 6 months.

Now you understand why I forgot to take photographs :p

And of course heard more stories from 校长on her 3 years in Nepal, running her Thai restaurant. Too bad that I didn't have the chance to go Nepal. (although Huahin was a totally different experience as well, and definitely not the spa resort kind)

The world is really very big, should really grab opportunity to step out to see.

And You Were There

I dont even know where to start.

I heard the song on radio. And it got stuck. All the way back home. And even after the shower. And still cant place a finger on the title of the song.(?!)

Cant remember the title or singer, yet cant get it out of my mind -.-"

Went to open up my CD stash, cant find anything that may trigger my memory. I can only remember that it was a song played on the loop during my JC days, together with my other all time favourite by Extreme (I even had the lyrics written out in my notebook :p). It was back to the fiefdom during the orientation days again....

Excruciating :/

Went to Imeem to search on the blind..and suddenly it crept back after half an hour.

Can I take your smile home with me
Or the magic in your hair

The rain has stopped
The storm has passed
Look at all the colours
Now the sun's here at last
I supposed that you will be leaving
But i want you to know
Part of you stays with me even after you go

Like an actor playing someone elses scene
This could not been happening to me
But you were there
You were everything i never seen
You woke me up from this long and endless sleep
I was alone
I open my eye
I know
I am not alone
I open my eyes and you were there.

Found it and embedded it :)))



At least one good thing that came out from a boliao Monday

Tasty Peranakan for Great Satisfied Tastebuds!

Today's food journey brought me to the east. Mei 校长highly recommended this peranakan place at Joo Chiat.












The actual restaurant

Was greeted by cheery plates and napkins, interesting wall displays and very friendly hosts :)

Was exploring the wall contents and found a photo of the shop owner (the one in black) ..wow,,what good figure :p








Since 校长already ordered the food in advance, the only thing was to choose what to drink.


It was a no-brainer, highly recommended - chin chow with gula melaka :)))









When the food came it was a spread!!


From centre (clockwise) : Bah Wan (肉丸）soup， udang nanas (pineapple prawn), salted duck soup (yummy!!!!), ayam buah keluak, fried fish








When the dishes was served I was looking at the ayam buah keluak and went, "buah what??!" And was directed to the wall:-


Was told that it was a must-try for any peranakan food joint. It's actually a nut, pre-prepared a few weeks in advance - the nut had to be soaked, and the center cored. After which the nut is chopped, mixed with other stuff before being stuffed back into the shell, and cooked with chicken.



It was supposed to go very well with the gravy. While the rest were enjoying the buah keluak so much All I can say, it's an acquired taste :s

But I loved the next dish so much!!!


Best crab! See the 蟹膏？？The crabs were from South African, and not listed on the menu, as the owner explained that she will only do it fresh, meaning the stocks were freshly acquired from the supplier. Which is the reason why the item is not listed on the menu.

The crab was so juicy that I had to keep wiping my wrist..just imagine that! We had it steamed plain and another one with their special chili paste. Both as yummy, but fresh stuff always taste best when eaten plain!


It was no problem for us to polish off the dishes. For a few moments there wasn't any sound over the table...muahahah~

Finally when I had a breather, I was looking at the walls displays, and realised that the place was featured in http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2007/03/tasty-buds-tasty-homecooked-peranakan.html. And read that the owner's great-grandfather is the actual "Joo Chiat"
(O_o)"

Anyway dessert time!

Kueh Lopez (or was it called something else?)











Creamy durian solo! Must try for durian lovers! The durian cream is really *&^$-ing nice!









Satisfying dinner! Still pretty full now...
(I really should stop blogging about food all the time..haha~)

First run at Pandan Reservoir

Procrastinated long enough.

After a lousy nap, still dont feel charged up. Remembered someone told me about "releasing negative energy while dancing at zouk"..hmm...while I was wondering if it is really about releasing negative energy or releasing endorphine, I decided that it's time to get some endorphine treatment myself.

Had been wanting to try running at Pandan Reservoir for a while. It looked huge. After many times of circling it at weird hours of the days for the past year, I finally stepped onto the pebbled tracks and started running. And realised that it is HUGE-R than it looked......*&^&%$ with all the curves and hidden nooks that was hidden from view at the starting point.

Instead of the usual 3 step-one-breath, I had to make do with taking one breath for every 2 steps..Run..run..breath....run ..run...breath...run run...breath.....breath some more...bleh... The wind blowing against didn't help. I always thought that runners always start left, but then I realised why so many people were running the anti-clockwise direction.

:/

Sigh..that's for not following up for maintanence after the last game more than 1 month. Paying penance as I was wondering to myself why at the 2.5km mark it had felt like forever. Thinking that by the time the league starts again in prob 4 more months I will have a lot of catching up to do.

By the time I was done at 5km, I felt that my legs were jelli-ed (jialat....and I was supposed to do like 4 times more the distance in 3 weeks time..I am so going to die..)

Passed by some weekend joggers, but majority were the workers from the nearby dormitary out to catch some fresh air. At one side of the hidden nook, I saw the water activity center which I saw the sign from the main road once. Someone was rowing in the waters, which kind of make a nice picture.Wondering if the next time if I will be able to carry my phone and run together to take picture..(think better dont, I might just drop it into the reservoir or something :p)

But at least I felt the endorphine was doing its job :) just that again my legs are going to protest for the next few days...bleh.

Facebook Springcleaning

Had so many requests in FB, that was clearing them for the past hour..sent a lot of hatching eggs, growing gifts, muffins, ice creams, cookies (making me start having cravings for the real stuff)..so for those who had received a lot of stuff from me..too bad,kena spammed! hahah~

But I still dont know how to play Human Pets..how come I kena bought?! Think going to ask next time I see my buyer..muahaha~

Hmm..dream holiday on beachy resort rekindled in Wishabi. Bora Bora sounds like a dream come through. But meanwhile Bintan will do!*wink*

深夜狂想曲

夜深人静时，你会想些什么？

想明天各种要做的事，安排的时间； 还是想今天的种种状况？

是想好久以前的往事，还是想对未来的憧憬？

夜深人静，自己最真的情感，会露现无疑。唯有对自己诚实一点，才不会晚上被跑出来的，吓了一跳。

Deepavali potluck

I was doing the 咸鱼翻身术this morning. Didn't get to sleep much last night, which I suspect could be the rose bud tea. Cos the moment I hit my pillow, I can sense the caffein wakefulness kicking in...but ROSE BUD TEA?! I didn't know rose bud has caffein?!?!The morning rain didn't help as well.

Darn. But I need to get the chicken for the potluck! So springboard-ed out of bed..and drove to the market further from my house, instead of the nearer one, cos I want to try my luck in getting freshly grated coconut (I cant believe it, the used-to-be ubiquitous grating machines that stands outside most grocery stores are so rare now..had to travel to specific market to find)

Anyway it has been real long since I had been to a wet market. I can only remember the time I was there with my mum when I was in like kindergarten or was it primary school?! But with all the freezers they really look different..but I also find that the wet market is less crowded then I remember..either it's cos it's a sat morning since a lot of people may do shopping only on sun morning, or the chain supermarkets are taking over majority of the pie these days.

Hmm...tough choice..

Had a few misses for the grated coconut though..asked a few stall owners but no luck, until the auntie who sold me rock sugar directed me to the stall, which was only a few stalls away from the 1st auntie at the fruit stall whom I asked -.-"

So anway it was preparation time after going home...

Steam and mesh..meshing is tiring ;(

原味鸡and thai-style pumpkin kueh

Steamsteamsteamsteamsteam....

Anyway the eventual outcome..taadaaaa~ My products with all their friends at the potluck table :)

Realised that whenever I am tired I am lazy to take photos..Seletar is a really nice neighbourhood..but the journey there made me do a double take if I am in our neighbouring country. And of course, nice place for people to rear the largest dogs on earth, like my friend's neighbour..got dogs for horses :/

Ok, you cant really see how big the dogs were, but they were HUGE!

But too bad, part of the estate got to move by end of next year, to make way for a Seletar Airport runway. Are we developing so fast that functionality is all we are thinking about?

Lappie laggy...

I am very perturbed. My lappie is running real slow now.

Being the techno - idiot that I may be (I know I already better than some who type with 2 fingers), I can only limit it to the following reasons

(i) my hard drive is overloaded with junk
(ii) some parts within my lappie are falling apart whilst I am oblivious to all these
(iii) my lappie is due to expire anytime soon as expected of a computer from Dell (I heard that somewhere when I was considering Dell then - it wont last! But it has been like what..3 good years?longer than then guy I was with when I bought it anyway)

I think it's better to do backup soon, esp all the photos which now only exist in virtual space. I think the last batch of photos that I developed from film was when I was still undergoing training in Hua Hin. The last time my laptop crashed, was devastating..

Woohoo~ turns out that I am going to cook again on Thurs. Just borrowed a recipe for dessert from Faith lao shi. I cant wait..for Thurs and at least one day of reprieve. Even my blog topics are getting dry :/

1st entry for Nov

I realised that my last entry was the same time last week.




Actually that was technically the case but then I drafted the entry on ArMS on the Sat itself, but couldn't finish it cos was drop dead tired, so left it at draft. Then when Sun came, had not mood to finish off, so rather did a short ditty. Then finished the draft on Tues (or was it Wed?)



Anyway, point being, for those who popped by during the week,sorry that there were no fresh stuff :((



Also, realised that the week just flew past like that. And tomorrow is dreadful Monday again.bleh.....but Deepavali is on Thurs!! :D



Anyway saw an interesting sight yesterday. Saw a Merlion on the road.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.

!!

Not that I find it ugly, but I just thought the resemblance was uncanny. But somehow I was laughing when I saw it.

Anyway playing with Facebook now, and found out that I have a lot of application request can??! (this "can" thing kinda rubbed off onto me ever since I read it on my facebook a few days back..trying to stop the impulsive word from coming out now and then). I wonder if I have time for so many applications, think better concentrate on my fluff pet :p