Vday Cliche

I try as much as possible to avoid speaking/writing cliches, and detest participating in any form of an event which I deem has been 'cliched'. So, as Vday approaches, I know for sure I would not be spending an evening in precocious heels, grasping a sturdy hand, and squeezing with other couples into a restaurant of sorts (all thanks to Cupid's misaims). But! In the name of friendship, I shall allow myself to slip into the cliche of Chocolate and Soft Toy proliferation.

At this juncture, I am hoping to add more pictures of the Soft Toys and the chocolates which Sarah, Germaine and I received from Carrey. However, the 'IE has stopped working' box stands in the way each time, and I have absolutely given up!

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.

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.