The 'Smelly Sofas'

It is really frightening how Mum and I can just end up shopping. We walk into Tangs @ Vivo intending to buy 2 blouses for Mum to attend her friends' children's wedding, and we ended up buying clothes for me and Jie too. But I must say that we made productive buys. I really loved the red coat I bought and I can imagine using it for CNY, overseas etc. I'll put pictures up when they are washed and tagged.

Anyway, Jie and I drove down for practice at night. This kind of practice:



And I ended up laughing my head off at the 'smelly sofas'. Sounds weird? Inside joke.

Cheers. Its gonna be a long night tomorrow as we count the new year in.

Toaster Monster

Despite my recent exploits in conquering the frying pan, I have been unable to successfully operate a toaster or microwave for the matter. Thus, when it comes to preparing breakfast other than bread and spread, I usually end up in a rather disastrous outcome (think, setting the toaster on fire).

My family is well aware of lack of affinity with such appliances. Hence, I woke up this morning to find these things pasted on my Lifebook, courtesy of my dear Jie.

I settled for the sausages, but despite me following the timing accurately, ended up with 2 rubbery planks that even hot mustard couldn't save. Praise the Lord for leftover tau sar piah and a general lack of appetite.

I spent the whole day doing almost nothing, before going out with Dad to check out our new jogging routes @ West Coast Park. Needless to say, the 'Adventure Playground' was littered with tots and its perimeters lined with parents, grandparents, maids etc. Despite having the designated jogger's path seperated from the 'anything with wheels' path by a snaking river of cowgrass, my jog was interrupted by whizzing kids - and even adults - on skate scooters. Hence, though West Coast Park features a more scenic view and climbing apparatus to accompany the jog, I still prefer the solitude of Henderson Waves.

If not, I'll head down to the pool and gym.

The Christmas Dinner, and Snowballs

The long-awaited Christmas Dinner has been cooked, served and dined. Surely it was nothing like the lavish spreads we see on television, in fact it was a rather modest affair, but I was glad to see everyone together once again and have yet another opportunity to help out in the ktichen.

Before we left for my grandma's house, I simply had to document the latest Christmas-themed nibbles to enter my fridge.

These chocolate balls were simply insane. I have never tasted anything so sweet that it sores up the throat upon the first swallow. Anyway those milk-coated balls were appropriately speckled with red and green spots and packaged 'milk-carton' style - perhaps to give the illusion of eating snowballs straight out of Santa's house.

So this was how Jie (who did not think they were too terribly sweet to consume) ate them:

The gathering was opened with a session of Guitar Hero and Rock Band (oh no, I fear a GH addiction) but we soon deviated to the food. We started with some appetisers, courtesy of Mum who detoured to Joo Chiat to pick up Durian Puffs and these delectable donuts.


And before we stained our palates with the rich taste of roast meats, we indulged in salmon sushi, courtesy of my aunt. I have to admit that I am not a fan of the popular Sakae Sushi, but it had been a long time since I indulged in Japanese fare so I helped myself to the fish and topped it with lots of wasabi.


And finally, we proceeded to the main table for the highlights.


And everyone could not wait to feast.


I had to give special mention to these two dishes, since they were proudly homemade by Eden jiejie and me.

Potato Salad

Quartered hard boiled eggs, sweet apple and potato chunks and chopped celery folded in with English Salad Cream and topped by freshly sauteed bacon ( no cheating with bacon bits). I had the opportunity to saute the bacon bits, and after dodging spurts of oil which intermittently flew out of the pan, sprinkled them over the aforementioned contents. I would have preferred to forego the English Salad Cream - which got too cloying after a few mouthfuls - but since everyone else loved it, I emptied 3 whole bottles into the huge yellow bowl.

The next homemade dish received a warmer welcome than the turkey.

Deep fried Prawn and Bacon Skewers

Most assuredly, this munchie tastes a lot greater than it looks. We were fortunate to get large succulent prawns from a long time fishmonger friend of my grandma's. The prawn bodies were then wrapped with bacon strips, speared by a tooth pick, then throw into a hot cauldron of oil to simmer to a reddish brown. Amazingly, while I faced arrows of oil shooting at me from the shallow pan in which I fried the bacon, the cauldron of oil cackled and bubbled endlessly but did not squirt anything at me. Anyway, I am now more confident of dealing with hot pots of oil, and might just conquer fried fish some day.

Family Gatherings are the only times where you can stuff yourself silly in the most unglamourous way even if your lip gloss smudges, sing off-pitch at the top of your lungs without damaging anybody's eardrums, and play badly on a guitar. Truly, there's no place like home. Now, Chinese New Year is in a month's time.

Boxing Day

I clearly remember rejoicing when news emerged that a Sephora outlet was going to open in Takashimaya. I was certainly looking forward to a one-stop cosmetics haven where I could grab all the products I need and adjourn for omu rice thereafter. A cosmetic haven is also on my list for the 'Corporations that every woman needs: to pamper herself!', the others being:

1. A well-equipped Gym which conducts kickboxing classes
2. Facial Clinic
3. Wax Parlour
4. Nail Parlour (though this service might be provided at 3 as well)
5. A host club.

Ok i was kidding with number 5. Back to topic!

As much as I enjoy shopping, my current cosmetic consumption routine of taking the bus to VivoCity for Make Up Store followed by taking another bus and the train to Robinsons for Shiseido simply wastes too much time. Furthermore, I was hoping to land my hands on some DDF products - a brand raved about in make up forums everywhere.

So imagine my disappointment when Sephora turned out to be a 2 unit shop which stocked little more than the average Robinsons. Sure they deserve credit for including Talika, but certainly we need more than just Clinique and Estee Lauder! In fact, the only well stocked range of 'new' products were their house brand shower gel and perfumes. As for DDF, I searched the entire store and much to my utter horror could not find it anywhere, so I proceeded to ask a random sales girl if they actually stocked it.

Me: Excuse me, do you have DDF?
Sales girl: (pauses a very long while. Enough for me to actually imagine a speech bubble appearing above her head which says : Crap. I dunno what that is.) No. Dun have.
Me: Leaves DDF and makes the long walk back to the car which has been holed up in some chicken coop slot in some grey building along Orchard road. (To the management: Seriously, majority of people are not anorexic midgets and they need to open their car doors at a larger angle than 10degrees.)

What a bad start to Boxing Day. But I always endeavour to find the silver lining in every dark cloud. And today's silver lining was served up this way:

Finally! I fulfilled wish no. 2 on my list of 'Things to do before the Holiday Ends' with a piping hot serving of claypot laksa. Dad and I were lucky that we happened to drive by Alexandra Village on the way home from Takashimaya and we managed a proper parking lot this time, albeit parallel (then again, Dad is such a superb driver that no lot is too difficult for him). This place certainly has many gems to fill the stomach and this laksa was so good that I definitely regret not ordering the LARGE bowl. Somehow the claypot seals both the heat and the flavour in, so much that it actually seeps into every strand of beehoon as well. I was so anxious to slurp it up that I almost scalded my tongue with the first spoonful of gravy. Dad finds claypot laksa too heavy on the stomach so he settled for some beef soup instead. We also had the chance to have some succulent fruit juice from the same stall:

I chose the ABC juice for a pseudo post laksa detox, while Dad indulged in Avocado juice. And yes, I could taste the beetroot distinctly within that thick red concoction.

The ABC juice doubled up as an instant refresher for my jog later than afternoon. As expected, my generous indulging in all things fattening this christmas meted out dire consequences for my pace and I felt as if I was dragging some weights behind each foot. I was sweating like never before when I got back.

And I probably undid all the work I put in for jogging with a dish I helped to cook!

This is a quick fix solution when you have leftovers from the Christmas feast. Rice + whatever there is and fry it! For this one, Mum and I threw in the turkey, ham, sausages, siew yoke, bell peppers, carrots, long beans, and we added fresh eggs.

On closer inspection, it actually comes out all Christmassy and all:

Green, white and red. A familiar combination that occurs in all sorts of products every December, even in the humble fried rice. Amazingly, my brother and father thought it was good! And I was relieved that it did not turn out too salty despite the sodium laden ingredients we threw in.

My posts nowadays have been centered on nothing but food, food and food. I shall be back with more, after the Christmas Lunch tomorrow.

The Christmas Season

So yes, 23 hours and 7 mins of Christmas Day has passed and I finally have the chance to sit down and blog about the things that happened during the holiday season this year. The family did have a Christmas lunch (and dinner) today over at my paternal cousin's place, but I have no photographs to show simply because I was too preoccupied with playing Rock Band and Rummie. In fact, Jie and I got so caught up with Rock Band that we didn't even manage a full lunch. Hunger only started to set in after we reached home and hence we begin feasting - almost immediately - on the leftover turkey, siew yoke and popiah that we brought back from lunch (hence the earlier parenthesis).

However, I am blessed to have another Christmas lunch to attend this Saturday and I am rather certain that I will return back with a full stomach as well as a camera bursting of pictures. Simply because this lunch would be over at my maternal cousins' place, the group of relatives to which I am comparatively closer to.

Hence, apart from the above-mentioned lunch and Rock Band, the only other thing the family did today was to attend church. I had expressed my feelings for the music event in an earlier blogpost with a picture of Gazette's Uruha. Now that the music event is over, part of me is still sunken in such an emotion, namely because of 'key' troubles with a classic christmas carol. But, I shall have to chuck aside my humanly sentiments in favour of what He has to say.

On this note, Mum and me took a trip down to PS 2 days ago and were happy to see this as part of the decoration:

Almost like a 3 dimensional version of my Sunday School books. Lovely. I bet it struck a chord with my mum, the ever so hardworking Sunday School Coordinator.

Then we headed over to Spotlight, since Mum decided to (gasp!) sew the curtains for the new house by herself. Entering Spotlight was awesome. Encountering rows and rows of fabric like this

and this

put together in a technicolour tapestry! A feast for the eyes.

But of course we were looking for raw materials for curtains, and so sifted through stacks of this

and more of it!

And I simply had to laugh when I saw this

The use of a literary device - the fricative! Was this divine intervention, or what? Maybe God was hinting that school is starting soon and I'd better snap out of holiday mood. On hindsight, it appears that God was indeed making his presence known as well. Here is another testament to that:

How often is it that 3rd Commandment appears in print medium apart from the most famous book in the world? And here it is on a piece of fabric designed for clothes!

Well, we emerged from the divine Spotlight with good stacks of lace. Now the hardest part would be to get down to sewing the curtains. We barely completed the first step - unpicking the extra strip of fabric along the top - and boy it was so much harder than expected. But heck, there's so much more work that needs to be done for the new place I'd just grit my teeth and work with the needle and thread, and 2m long piece of lace.

Yesterday we encountered a rather disappointing incident regarding the new house. However, it did produce 2 rims of silver lining as well. Firstly, it served a bigger incentive to get the new house ready for habitation ASAP. Simply because that disappointing incident could have been avoided if the place was ready. Secondly, it let us to discover the way to cook corn in a toaster. Mum did it a la barbecue style, with silver foil and all. And it emerged excellent.

As sweet and juicy as it would have emerged from a steamer. I had 3 chunks to myself.

A delicious Christmas Eve dinner. Speaking of which, I still have not given up my dream to host a lavish Christmas banquet for family and friends, and I believe I would be able to host it over at the new house. Next year maybe.

And, before I hit the sack, Camello (the crayfish) started to freak me out again by attempting to crawl out of the red tub. The creepy sound produced when his feelers and claws scraped against the smooth plastic surface convinced me that he had to go for real. So, this is what happened of him:

Good riddance. May you enjoy your new home @ Pierce Reservoir. Bet your fellow shelled counterparts will declare you King of the Puddle, since you definitely outshine them in the size department.

Another unexpected show-up

There is the horribly cliched yet undoubtedly true saying: 'a picture paints a thousand words'. Following these words, this picture - or rather, the expression of the person in this picture:

Unfortunately, this person (and thus HIS picture), does not belong to me. Thank you Facebook.

Very aptly summarizes how I feel about the music-related event that I am going to be part of this Christmas.

Oh GOD, miracle needed. Please. The hearts are ready, give us the technicality.

That aside, Jar Jar Binks has been usurped from the post of 'latest shocking discovery in my block' by a crustacean.

Jie and I first saw this crayfish at the bottom of the stair landing and dismissed it as part of the junk that my neighbours tend to throw out of their houses once they get bored of them. Yes, I assumed it was a toy, especially since it laid motionless there even when we walked near to it. It was only on our way back to take the lift that I noticed some creature crawling on the pavement. I simply cannot ignore crawling creatures and this is not because I love them. I need to glance at them, at the very least in 2 second intervals, so that I know when to flee should they come too close for comfort or charge at me for the matter. So that was how I noticed the crayfish.

I contemplated selling it to the nearby tze char stall or something but Jie's animal-friendly tendencies got the better of her. As I'm blogging, the crayfish is lying in a tub of salted water with an empty dental floss box to play with and some strands of lettuce. Hooray for Dad - nothing ever scares him - who swiftly swiped the crayfish off the pavement and placed it in the tub. But Dad has also expressed plans to release that creature into the Bedok reservoir or return it to the white flower pot, outside a certain neighbour's house (no, its not the jar jar one), which contains water, dirt and (surprise, surprise) 3 other crayfish! Talk about irresponsible ownership. For the matter, Lilbro John has suggested naming it Camello.

And before I hit the sack:

It actually stopped to pose when I whipped out my camera. Thanks Kitty.

Jar Jar Binks

'The Zebra Consequences' saturday show saw an unexpectedly smaller crowd than that of the day before. In fact, in my course of duties as an usher at the 2nd level, the number of ticket stubs which I ripped off the ticket and flicked into the white envelope could be counted on my fingers.

On the bright side, this gave us more time to explore the school compounds.

We even had time to sneak away from the doors, to do our own dancing on the steps.


But at least Mum came along today to watch lilbro John in action as part of the Crew in Black (i.e.backstage), and Dad was up and about with ushering duties as well, though he guided cars, not people, to their spaces.

We only reached home at 11pm, after the post-concert clean up and all, and indulged in some Turkish Pistachio Chocolate (courtesy of Clarise and Yong Xiang).

The chocolate was much sweeter than the local Nestle Products, but the salty pistachios neutralized this.

And guess who turned up at my neighbours' corridor today?

An armless Jar Jar Binks. Jie posited that Jar Jar was part of the Star Wars promotional props at the Tiong Bahru GV or something, and was carted home in a jiffy after somebody emerged from the midnight screening. As for the broken arms, Jar Jar was probably too wide to get through the exit but in his hurry to get the prop home, someone simply squeezed whatever part of Jar Jar that could get through the door, leaving 2 appendages for the Star Wars promo. But how often is it that one displays in public, something which he has acquired through rather discreet measures? Poor Jar Jar, just a few months ago he was probably the proud centre piece of a HDB flat, but now he's going to be thrown out with the other junk during the Chinese New Year Spring Cleaning.

I wanted to give the soon to be discarded Jar Jar more dignity with, perhaps, some portrait shot under some aptly styled chiaroscuro. However, I met Jar Jar at a time when my neighbours were congregated near the open window, and the only way I could even snap him was to pretend to be talking over the phone while not slowing my pace at all. So, my apologies Jar Jar, but I actually felt that saving myself from being pelted with mahjong tiles by angry neighbours was more important than getting a good shot of you.

Then again, there are so many on the world wide web.

The Magnetic Cat

As I said in my previous post, Jie has better luck with cats than me and yesterday she managed to catch this cat in action.

The poor thing gobbled a magnet, got it lodged at the back of its throat, and walked under a pole. Now, that explains the glum look etched on its face.

And speaking of Jie, we both volunteered as ushers for:

Taken from the complimentary t-shirt given to all the ushers

We arrived early, as usual. There was C-themed graffiti beyond the compounds of the school where the musical was staged - a charming attempt at working the C in different contexts.

Guess what? We'll be going back there in a couple of hours time. The Saturday show might just be more crowded so that means more work for the ushers! Till then,

RC Column has a co-contributor!

Exactly half of the items in the Random Cat column have been contributed by my dear Jie, the latest of which was snapped while she was buying lunch for me!

Cow-printed cat caught in the act of running away!

Jie seems to have better luck with cats than me. Let's hope we get a Calicoe or Ragdoll cat next.

On a sidenote, I passed my FTT! Now to kill the TP.

Local Pastries

This morning's breakfast was a refreshing change from bread and spread, courtesy of Mum and Dad's post-Ikea divergence to the ubiquitous traditional local bakery. I had my Lipton Tea, as usual, with these delectable pastries:

Gai Dan Gao
This was disappointing though. They looked delicious for sure but turned tasting like chewy sugared yellow dough.

Mah Ti Su
These were brilliant! Crisp, baked shell that flaked at the bite concealed an adequately sweet and sticky brown sugar paste.

Pong Piah
Another one to shout about, since it was pretty much just an enlarged version of the very delicious Mah Ti Su.

Mum and Dad also brought home these peanut candies, which aren't exactly meant for breakfast, but I simply couldn't resist them.

Imagine biting through a sweetened peanut casing to get to the soft and fluffy peanut powder within.

Mum and Dad probably don't know about my blog but I must say a big THANK YOU! to them for such a lovely breakfast.

However! There is a heavy price to pay for Sweet Indulgence and I set off jogging up Mount Faber again this afternoon. For me, every jog must be preceded by this routine whereby I sms Mum to say I'm off jogging, and she will always reply me with something along the lines of a prayer for protection. Today, she responded with such a witty one-liner that she really should get an award, a 'Quote of the Day' type of thing for it. Here goes:

Me: Going Jogging
Mum: OK, the LORD jogs with u.

Now, I wonder if the LORD wears Nike too?

After I returned home from my jog with the LORD, Jie surprised me with a Random Cat pic she took near the rubbish chute (thank you jie!).

This picture had put an end to my nagging suspicion that the Random Cat column somehow scared all the cats away from me.

Of Chips and Jogs

This morning featured a restful, quiet slumber and I only stirred, ever so slightly, to the warm sunlight as it filtered into the room, until the shrill rings of Dad's phone call had me falling out of bed.

Downed my toast and tea before finishing the last half of Stephen King's Carrie. I scored the tattered and frayed paperback from the neighbourhood Library on my way home from church yesterday. Strangely enough, I found myself laughing rather than spooked out by it. A first for a King novel.

Despite managing a good lunch from last night's left over red wine chicken mee sua, the hunger pangs struck somewhere around 3 and so Jie and I headed down to 7-11 for a quick fix (throwing all thoughs of msg to the wind at that). Jie settled for good old Vanilla Pocky while I carted home a canister of hot, fresh fries.

I just cannot figure how Jagabee manages to keep each strand of these pre-packaged chips as fresh and fragrant as fries just off the hot oil. Anyhow, it was no wonder that there were only 3 canisters left despite them being tucked discreetly at the corner of a shelf. And I was glad to savour them as french fries rather than as potato chips, with lots of chilli sauce.

Unfortunately for us creatures without the Y chromosome, snacking is a sin, but one that can be atoned for by indulging in another activity we love! A packet of pocky and a can of jagabee in exchange for an energizing run up henderson waves. If only we had so much time, all the time. (Or maybe its just me who should be taking up more commitments).

And I found something interesting at the junction just before the ascent up Mount Faber.

An abandoned Starbucks! coffee bottle. I bet its owner must have been another one without the Y chromosome and probably didn't have time for a jog today.