Photoshop-ed...

Thanks a million to the Japanese Make-up artist especially flown in for the event....

Happy Mother's Day cum 60th Birthday...

5 of us altogether - Mum, her bf, bro, guppy and me... We celebrated my mum's Birthday cum Mother's Day last night at Peach Garden @ 33 (OCBC Centre, #33-01, Singapore...)

Main dining hall was packed.. The other smaller private rooms were packed.. And thank goodness, as per my request, they reserved my table in a bigger private room, with about 6 - 7 tables and only 4 tables taken (including ours).. No noisy children, no crying babies, and we were pampered right from the start to the end..

View from the top...

The interior display in one of the private rooms which we were in...

Sou Dou

(Yummy!! the filling isn't too hot and its sweetness is just right...)

Fried Crispy Golden Prawn w Shredded Potato and Bacon rolled with Scallop in Wasabi Sauce

(Bacon and scallop is a winner in this combination.. the wasabi sauce is just right.. doesn't give you the "shoot to your nostrils kinda effect".. the bacon is crispy and the scallop wasn't overcooked.. The prawns, fresh and cripsy with a nice wrap around "towel" of shredded potato..)

Peking Duck

(The pancake skin is totally different from the ones available in other restaurants.. i can taste the flour - not too stuffed out with flour and a has a little sweetness to it.. The Peking Duck's skin, non-oily and crispy to the last bit.. A Thumbs Up!!)

Double boiled Superior Shark's Fin with Bamboo Pith in Traditional Chicken Broth

(Extremely generous pieces of shark's fin.. thick soup base.. not salty and sooo slurpy yummy good!! A hit with the elders..)

Pan Fried Maggie Venison Cubes with Fresh Mushrooms

(Very tender and not over-cooked Venison.. Marinated to the right level & pan fried to the right time.. Omph!)

Steam Fillet of Sea Perch in Teochew Style

(Another winner with the older folks.. Fresh fish and steamed to the right minute.. Perfect!!)

By this time, we were all 3/4 full. And we have some more dishes to go!! Oh my GOSH!!

Stir Fried French Beans with Fried Golden Mushrooms

(Very Yummy!! Simple, yet deliciously fragrant...)

Chang Sou Mien with Shredded Duck Meat and Fresh Mushrooms

(This is Yum Yum too! We all each had a small bite and had to tabao the rest home.. hahaa.. Too much food for the 5 of us..)

Finally, Chilled Water Chestnut...

(Not too sweet, cooling desert after all the heaty food consumed, and created epsecially for mother's day!!)

The food - GOOD!!!

Total cost - S$489.70 (including juices and chinese tea & tibits)

I'm glad my mum, her bf, bro and guppy like the food and the ambience.. And mum was saying, this is the first time I buy her expensive dinner.. Hmmm... That's SOOOooo utterly untrue.. Tsk! Tsk!

And yes, I'm quite their frequent diner... :)

Happy 60th Birthday, Mummy!!

Please proceed to your pick up point...

11:28am:

Missed call displyed on my mobile (96623_ _ _)

11:31am:

Ring Ring (caller id displayed: 64548745)

Me: Hello?

Machine: 3_ _ has arrived. Please proceed to your pick up location. Thank you.

I was blur for a while, but decided to ignore it.

3 seconds later,

11:31am:

Ring Ring (caller id displayed: 96623_ _ _)

Me: Hello?

Male: Hello? Sandra is it?

Me: Huh?

Male: Are you Sandra?

Me: No. You called the wrong number.

Male: Oh! Sorry.

11:32am:

Ring Ring (caller id displayed: 65525046)

Me: Hello?

Girl: Hello? Can I speak to Sandra?

Me: I'm sorry. You've got the wrong number.

Girl: Err, are you in Singapore Land Tower?

Me: My office is in Singapore Land Tower. But I did not call for a cab and I'm not Sandra.

(at that moment, I remembered I do have a colleague named Sandra.)

Me: I have a colleague named Sandra. Let me call her on the office phone and check with her.

Girl: Ok.

Ring Ring

Me: Sandra! Did you call for a Maxicab from Citycab?

Sandra: Yes.

Me: The driver is downstairs now.

Sandra: How you know?

Me: They are calling me on my handphone!

Sandra: They went down already.

Me: ok.

Back to my mobile.

Me: Hello? My colleague Sandra called for the cab. She said they are downstairs already.

Girl: Ok.

Me: Why are you all calling me on my handphone? Sandra called from the office phone. I'm not Sandra and Sandra and Priscilla are totally different names. Something is wrong with your system. Or the person who took her booking took the number down wrongly. Sandra don't even have my handphone number. You should be calling the office number and not my handphone number.

Girl: Ok.

I cut off her line....

I was already fuming and this girl on the line only knows how to say, OK???? What ever happened to, "I'm sorry."??? And what kind of mistake is that to make!!

I spoke to Sandra couple of minutes ago and she said that she called for the cab on her clients behalf. She even gave the operator who took her call her name and Direct Line number, when the operator asked if she's Priscilla.

So, was the operator SLEEPING??

Or is it just the Friday the 13th???

Ka-Ching!!

Had 2 plastic bags worth of $1 coins... Couldn't lug it with me wherever I go.. So, off to the bank I went this morning..

Oooo... the sounds of Ka-Ching are ringing!!!!

Finally...

It was a sunny Sunday. Together with Glen, we met up with Mammie Gracie and proceeded a short walk to our "future"...

We were to start on our 1st baking lesson. I have to thank Mammie Gracie for also having taken an interest in this and signing up together with me for this course.

There is a cafe next door and Guppy would be there logging on to their wireless and playing around with Macky, while waiting for us to finish our lesson and for SiFu Trac to arrive. Oh yes, and not forgetting that they both are to be our guinea pigs / food tasters...

Mammie Gracie & I had plenty of laughs and errrr, there were a couple of times when I was pissed off by the indian lady sharing our table.. (Urggghh.. Thank goodness, I didn't have to partner with her.. Else till No End!! Hahaha..) Hmm.. I'm pretty sure I'm currently in a DO NOT step on my little tiger's tail mood... Else, I'll ROAR... We both had our little hiccups here and there while we were preparing for the Walnut Cake..And it wasn't boring coz we have soo much laughter and fun FUN FUN..

And in the end, we indeed felt happy and accomplised by the end of it..

So, till this coming Sunday................... Happy Eating!!

The School @ Creative...

Creative's Cafe...

Cupcakes...

&

Finally:- Walnut and Marble Cakes...

Quit Quitting Quitted Quitter...

One of the HOT topics of recent weeks :- QUIT SMOKING CAMPAIGN 2007

A friend was telling me the other day about the smoking campaign in downstairs, at Caltex House.

She said that they were mean to use a patient lying on the bed with a doctor and nurses hovering around. I promptly told her that it wouldn't have been a real patient and they were probably just aspiring actors or models.

Well, I saw them just this afternoon. There was indeed a "patient", a "doctor" and several "nurses" hovering around the area at Caltex House. The "nurses" were handling out flyers.

Well I must say that it's a very good brainstorm. Direct advertising.

It would undoubtly scare off the little ones and put an idea of what would and could happen to current smokers. Ponder Ponder... I smoke. Though no longer as heavy as before, ultimately, I still smoke. And I'm sure there are many smokers out there who don't give a hoot about this current advertising. So, yes, I'm gonna be like brushing this off my shoulder. I would quit for myself and not when someone tells me to (directly or not). I have seen someone's (who used to be closed to me) brother die from cancer coz he smoked. How he suffered and how he lived his remaining days. But........... I still smoke.

So, will I stop smoking?? Well, I might. I dunno.... I stopped a couple of times for a year or two. But I picked it up again. It was a poof kind of thingy. I just decided one fine day that I would stop and I just stopped like that. I didn't need any help nor did I speak to anyone about it.

So, for those of you who say that I should stop smoking. Give me time to be ready again. Like how I did for the previous times. :P

My Baby...

Alrighty... This entry is about my little Lhasa Apso pooh, Baby..

Baby doesn't like to eat macaroni.

I was told by Guppy the other day that Baby doesn't like to eat macaroni. I didn't get to see that coz I was out having dinner. She fed her with that and some canned and dried food. And whilst washing up, guppy noticed baby doing a up and down, bowl to newspaper motion. She looked hard and realised that Baby was actually picking up the macaroni from her bowl and placing them all on the newspaper!! Hahaha..

A couple of days later, while I was home and preparing dinner for Baby, I brought out 7 pieces of macaroni and mixed them together with her food. I stood by, patiently awaiting for that motion to come. And come it did!! Hahah.. Baby was sooooo funny!!! She really didn't like macaroni at all and started picking them up one by one, and placing them on the newspaper whilst Carefully licking and eating the rest of her food..

This morning, it was raining heavily. Baby's scared of the rain and would always find somewhere to hide herself.. This morning, while I was still in bed, Guppy got up to get washed up. She woke me and told me that she wanna show me something cute but I can't get angry. Blurry-eyed, I followed Guppy to my bed-room door. She opened it slightly and we saw Baby lying in front of the Earth God together with my mum. And Guppy said Baby was nodding her head together with my mum when she was kowtow-ing. Hahaha......

Baby was praying together with my mum!!!

CUTEeeeeee!!!

The Delights of Sweetness...

A few of us had Chocolate Fondue for supper last night at Holland Village. Prior to that, we had Shabu Shabu for dinner, chit chats and caught a very silly HK mahjong movie at our friends place..

Yummy... Chocolate Chocolate.. And I became hyper thereafter.. Hahaha.. We were goissiping and laughing and giggling..

And best of all, I got to have my fondue!!!!!!! Wahhaahaa..

Sickening...!!

My Home PC isn't a year old yet. But it's giving me a couple of problems, till i see the BLUE screen... I have had my PC hung and auto shut-off. And it's enough to drive me silly!!

Well, I did a partial system recovery. But not everything is alright. Example: I would have an error message about my webcam's desktopmanager missing a '-' which is the id separator). I was like, what the f***!! I've already uninstalled and re-installed and updated the downloadable software. So, why do I still have this error message thingy??

I may consider a full system recovery. Probably next week. I've not decided just yet. I've already done backups for all my stuff and especially my songs, videos and pictures. And if after the full system recovery it's still in this state, I'm gonna call em' up and fire!!!!!

Something Leafy...

I had home-made Cesar Salad for lunch today. Yes, I'm on a diet. I've been putting on weight and I know it's the time to go on a diet now.

No, I'm not gonna be having just my greens every single day. But it's gonna be part of my diet plan. It's prepared especially for me.

Well, obviously Guppy prepared it for me. She was tired from work. Yet after having a quick dinner of pasta, she got down to preparing my Casar Salad. She chopped and sliced and measured and mixed and blended. She prepared her own Cesar Salad dressing. I rejected the 1st round of it coz it was too spicy for my taste. I didn't like it at all and eh, rejected it on the spot. Hmm.. She looked dejected and tried to smooth-talk me to make do with it. But, NOPE!! I couldn't take it and I absolutely didn't like it at all. So I told her to prepare another round without the honey mustard. And, viola!! My very own home-made Cesar Salad....!!

Yummy!!

Where Was I??

I remember when I was 8 years old, I was having shoulder length hair, tied into 2 pony tails with baby blue ribbons by my mommy, in the mornings.

I remember when I was 8 years old, my daddy would be send me to school in the mornings before he set off for work and I would catch the school bus home after the bell rang precisely at 1pm.

I remember when I was 8 years old, I was separated together with others to the Yellow house team in school.

I remember when I was 8 years old, I was a quiet student in school & out of school.

I remember when I was 8 years old, I would rush home the moment the school bus driver dropped me off at my block in Bedok. Mommy would be waiting for me downstairs and I would run to the lift, and hurry mommy to catch up with me.

I remember when I was 8 years old, I would take my lunch of rice and steamed minced pork with eggs, in front of the television set at around 2.30pm, awaiting impatiently for the cartoons to start at 3pm.

That's about all that I could remember when I was 8 years old.....

And as the years flew by till I left secondary school, my would forget what had happened during those years. I remembered what happened at home. Where I celebrated my birthdays and which seafood restarurant my parents would take me to every weekend - what food I had and what kind of clothes I wore.

There's a limit to what I could remember. And I couldn't remember much of the other stuff. Who my classmates were during those times, what kind of jokes that were shared amongst the classmates and friends I had in school, etc... I knew I had blocked out most of the memories I had back then. Some were good & some were bad. Some bad incidents that had happened, I choose not to remember them & this would have indirectly affected my good memories.

I've tried recalling the good ones and ignore the bad ones. But it seems they are all drifting further and further away from me. I may not be one of the brightest in the class or school. But I always knew, I would make good someday. And this day would be here very soon. Mark my words, SOON - VERY SOON...

Do not look back into the past and look and aim towards the future. And that's precisely what I've been doing..

Food, Gossips and Laughter..

It was a hot and busy Sunday. Guppy and I woke up at 8ish and went marketing.

I had a small gathering with a couple of close friends at my place this afternoon. You can call it a mini house-warming.

Guppy and I prepared Chicken Curry, Mushroom Pasta (especially for a muslim friend) and some Mini Muffins.

I enjoyed the laughter and gossips and little chats we all shared with one another today. And though it was tiring, I must say that it was fun!!

2 of our friends stayed till dinner time where we had our dinner at the Block 85 market couple of streets away from my place. We even had an early happy hour of a bottle of red. Hahaha..

Well, Guppy and I would like to thank (in no particular order), Grace & Trac, Adly, Junie & Vino, for taking time off your precious Sunday and attending this mini house-warming. Thank you Grace & Trac for the bottle of red. Thank you Adly for the Chicken Puffs. And Thank you Junie & Vino for your 6 pack Carlsberg. And lastly, Thank you Trac, once again for helping me out with my PC and the converting stuff. :D

Now, here are some pictures taken with Trac's Nikon D80......... WooHoo!!!

The Sway...

I feel the earth move, under my feet.

I see the sky tumbling down, tumbling down................

Well, I felt the earthquake this afternoon, say around 1+pm. I was in the office, chatting online with Guppy and G. I was already feeling sleepy and kinda drowsy coz of the medication that I had taken for my flu and cough, when I thought the screen swaying left and right, right in front of me. Initially, I thought that it was due to my being sleepy and drowsy. But, No, that was not to be.

I confirmed my suspicions when 2 of the pupils in the office said that they felt the building shake. It was there and then that I realised that I really did feel the building move. I wasn't Hallucinating...

And I guess, though it was pretty scary, but it was kinda interesting to be able to feel the tremors.. And well, I hope I'll be able to stay safe and nothing life threatening like this would happen. I've still have plenty of things to do and achieve in this lifetime...........

2nd Time Lucky...

This is my 2nd round of luck....

Yes, again it was being shared together with another 8 colleagues, but well, the truth was that I did win!! And that's the gist of the story..

CNY's Number 14th..

So unforgettable is the taste that I decided to buy a Small Salmon YuSheng with additional orders of Crispy Fried Fish Skin and Salmon...

Guppy and I, together with our friends, G & Trac tossed our final Piggy Year YuSheng...

And you know what?? Trac struck 4D!!!!

Is it good or what...

HUAT AHHHhhhhhhh!!!!

The 13th Day of the CNY...

Company Dinner - Peach Garden @ 33

The 7 course dinner was delicious!!

Food that I didn't like, I put them all into my mouth, chewed and swallowed them all down with zest. I couldn't help but to say, the chefs and the brains of Peach Garden did well and they sure did good. I'm a fussy eater and there are most food that I do not take. For example, I didn't like the usual YuSheng that were available in all the other restaurants. I didn't like a particular taste that was added into the YuSheng - maybe it was the sauce - I don't know. But, soo satisfied that I was with Peach Garden's YuSheng that I thought of patronising them, soon - Real Soon...

Roasted Crispy Duck accompanied with Roasted Pork Cubes:-

Duck meat and pork were really very tender and their skin, very crispy with a OMPH!! Not over roasted and just crisp enough...

Braised Shark's Fin with Shredded Abalone, Fish Maw and Sea Cucumber:-

The soup taste the way it usually is at your normal restaurants. It's not saltish, which means, it's healthier. I could see the the shredded abalone, fish maw and sea cucumber. Oh, of course, the shark's fin could be clearly seen and tasted too...

Braised Homemade Beancurd with "Fa Cai" and Lettuce in Crabmeat Sauce:-

Ok, when I see Fa Cai, I'll give the "ouch! I'm in constipation look" - simply because I don't eat that at all. But I gave it a try and it didn't taste weird at all. The homemade beancurd - is simply wow!! It has 2 layered colours. The upper half has been marinated in probably smashed lettuce and the lower, off-white - just like the beancurd that you see at the markets. It's innovative of them to have double colored beancurd...

Then came the TOTO results.........................

9 of us pooled our resources together and tried our luck.
Hahaaha!!!!!!!!! Congratulations to the 9 of us!!

We striked!!

Steamed Fillet of Sea Perch with Minced Ginger:-

Hmm.. I dunno what fish this is. But anyways, the fish is very fresh and there's a little buttery aftertaste to it.

Double Bee Hoon in Shark's Bone Cartilage with Live Prawn and Bai Cai Miao:-

The healthy dish is yummy. Bee Hoon not over / under cooked. The prawns very fresh and springy. The soup base doesn't have any fishy smell / taste. The shark's bone cartilage gave it a very different taste - doesn't have any of those commonly known fish bone taste like fish head beehoon...

Last but not least, dessert...!!

Deep-fried Nian Gao with Yam:-

I've never tried fried Nian Gao before. But when I tasted this, it was heavenly. And according to one of my colleagus, who loves eating home fried nian gao, said that the usual nian gao doesn't taste anything like that and ehhh, she prefers the tradional ones. Well, for me, I love this...

I'm thinking of bringing my mum to Peach Garden @ 33 for dinner on her birthday this May... I'm sure she'll love it!!