Monday, September 29, 2008 Y
I'm not an avid fan of race car, or sports for that matter. But I'm totally in love with Disney's Movie "Cars" which is done on a race track. Then comes the F1 race in Singapore. It's incredible that I stayed glued to my seat throughout the whole race that started at 7.30pm till 10+pm. Of cos, in the midst of it during commercial break I changed channel to 33 and watched a few minutes of High School Musical 2.The race was breathtaking. I still don't get how the race actually proceeded, or what's there to be so obsessed over. But when you see cars overtake one another when they're just a few centimeters apart, wow~ The feeling was like "Woosh! Wow! That was a close shave before their tires kissed!"Usually we see race cars movies or other races, cars could overtake one another. But it's quite hard to do so in the SG race cos probably the limited space. But nevertheless it was a good race. And I'm proud, being part of it - Even as a spectator at home watching tv.And I realized something: Even racing cars, you gotta think not only how to win hands-down, win your opponent, collect points, overtake your opponents, but also think tactics. How many pit-stops you have, and when you take that pit-stop determines if you win or lose. It's just a fraction of a second, literally. Because on the race track, everything happens within that 1 second.PS: Do you know RACECAR spelled backwards it's still RACECAR? ;)
Y The Lady @
10:55 PM
Saturday, September 27, 2008 Y
When we were eating the chicken kebabs, I told the family that next week(which is today) I wanna break and not cook. But then very soon, a few days later I started thinking of what to cook. Of course, I didn't make a big deal out of it, nor did I make it the centre of my universe. Cos' I really forgot about it as time goes by.Then this late morning my mom suggested we cook tonight, and she wanted to cook Pork Chop. Of course I'm stoked! I totally forgot about the words I said the night abt a week ago, on me not wanting to cook. Seriously, when mom suggested cooking today and wanted to find recipes, the cooking fever ran through my body and I felt really excited about it, and a lil' rejuvenated even.Spent a while browsing through the web for Pork Chop Recipes. It's not that we don't know how to cook. My mom and grams make the best Hainan Pork Chop. And being a Hainanese, we love to eat that. But we always eat that! Nt to mention we had leftovers of the herbs we brought for the roast chicken, so we were looking for ways to use them before they turn bad. Lucky stars were shining on us, cos' the herbs remained fresh! ^_^ So we went to get Jamie Oliver's recipes once again. I find that I like his recipes and his way of cooking and everything: From ingredients to methods to serving the meal. Papa Constantine(the chicken kebab recipe which we consulted last week - That was just not for our family) .Anyway... reached Grams house and immediately went to work after lunch. Not the pork chop, but my Honey Joys! It was a total hit with the kids! According to the teacher on the kids' reactions, and their reactions and thanks. It just made my day even brighter that day, cos the day I gave them the treat was on my birthday itself! ^_^
And I had gathered answers from verbal surveys, and the kids wanted more of it for Children's Day. I personally wanted to make them more on that day, plus another class, and my friends. Quite a number of batch of Honey Joys. But I don't mind the work, cos I love being in the kitchen, esp Grams' kitchen.
Her kitchen's big and spacious, with good storage space and transition from one place to another is easy as breezing through the whole area. So the atmosphere is set, the mood is right and it's bonus for me to cook there and feeling happy and enjoying myself, doing the things I love and loving what I do.So basically the pork chop we cooked tonight wasn't done by me, cos i wasnt around for that part. Had lesson. I did the corns though, cos it wasn't in the recipes. It was something I kinda sorta improvised: EVOO instead of Butter or Margarine like we use during BBQs, salt and ground black peppercorn. Peppercorns, not black pepper. You can still taste a lil small bits of peppercorns. I wasnt really thinking when I added the pepper, until I actually added it in. But the flavours are pretty nice, and it's nice when you ate the peppercorns with the corn.. Natural sweetness with a hint of salt and a smaller hint of peppercorn for the scent and flavor. =)Today's Pork Chop was my Mom and Grams' work and their credits. They combined Jamie Oliver's method with their own methods: The usage of Thyme as well as Honey. Thyme was suggested by Jamie. And Honey? Well, Honey was suggested by Grams, cos that's what she likes to use if she's marinating poultry. It's delicious having a combi of Western and Asian flavouring! A twist of the recipes but not a drastic twist to ruin the recipe. Instead, it sorta tune it into our channel of taste buds for us Chinese! ^_^ SWEET!!!!!!!! =D
The recipe included potatoes, parsnip and pears, so we went to NTUC Fineness before we headed over to Grams to get the necessary ingredients. I'm totally in love with that place. You can find almost anything there fresh! From asian food ingredients to a whole selection of herbs that are not easy to find in SG to a whole wide range of Cheese and other stuffs!
Thinking of making grilled fish for next week... Had chicken and pork. No lamb or beef cos I wanna cook something that appeals to everyone. Even the fish I had to consider, cos some of the family isn't "fish" ppl(including myself at times). Hehs~
PS: If anybody know the chinese name for "Parsnip" let me know... Family asked me what was it, I said it was parsnip and nobody got it. I didn't know anything abt parsnip, cept I keep hearing it so I know it's a kind of veg. Thx~ =)
~Pics below~
Labels: Bloated, Happy~, Satisfaction
Y The Lady @
11:31 PM
Thursday, September 25, 2008 Y
My birthday celebration fell on the day itself... Miki dear had asked: "You want Sat or Tue?" And I said, "Tue." So it was set. Met Hui & Miki at City Hall then set out to No Signboard for our dinner... Quite drama even before we headed there. Val was supposed to meet us as well, but we waited and waited and she was a no-show. Miki tried calling, Hui tried calling, I tried calling and her cell was off. We came up with loads of reasons why and, seriously, we really ran out of thoughts! Then Miki wanted to email Val(in case she's at home..then at least she could rush down or something), but dear Miki had a small glitch, and had to get Adel(who's in Aus) for help... Hui had her lappy with her, so she tried connecting to the internet, since SG is now a wireless island.
We had a HUGE bump for that. Hui couldn't connect after a no. of attempts and Miki had quite a few laughs of her own. Where was I? Smiling.. LOLZ! I couldn't do anything else but that.... Pissed? Maybe...but I was really hungry to even be angry or pissed off...... *we felt pissed b4 we knew why Val couldn't show up, which was after the meal did we then know it from her*It was a very happening birthday.... ROFL! And I was really tired and exhausted and sleepy after a full day work and going off for celebration with the ladies straight after work, that I started talking funny. No signboard was famous for its crabs, so we ordered a Sri Langka Chilli Crab, and an Oats Crayfish. Speaking of the crabs, the orange thingy inside the crabs are actually the crab eggs... But I gave it alot of new names that night: Fish roe, Chicken Eggs.. And the thingy in the crab's shell I gave it a new name too: Prawn Paste..When it was supposed to be crab paste. Hilarious. This is what happens when you don't get enough sleep...Overall it was a wonderful celebration... and expensive one too... Thanks very very very much Miki and Hui...... I think this was the most expensive round of feast we had. And every single time we go out, we always eat, and this time, it was no wonder. Next time, we're still gonna eat, but we're not gonna eat that expensive, but just equally warming and delicious. ^_^PS: Thx Miki, Hui, Rach, Mom, Dad and Sis for the presents and wonderful memories.
Y The Lady @
9:42 PM
Saturday, September 20, 2008 Y
After my roast chicken was a complete success, I wanted to try something else... Chicken Kebabs. I did BBQ chicken kebabs, grilled chicken kebabs - but that was in my own way.. For Asians' taste buds. This time round, went online in search for something else completely new and stumble upon Jamie Oliver's chicken kebabs, and somebody else' = Papa Constantine (no idea who is that).The end result? Quite alright... Oregano is a spice that is well known to the Westerners, like rosemary, thyme, cumin, mint, coriander(this is pretty well known for us too). For us, Oregano is a spice that has a very distinct taste to it once added to the chicken... I cut down alot of Oregano for the kebab, but still the taste isn't what I enjoy. I still very much preferred my own recipes.I'm so blaming myself for not using my own one, but a chef must always try new things. If not, how would I know my roast chicken was such a success that my Uncle, Aunt, Mom, Grams, Cousins and Sis are still talking about it after one whole week?!?!Not much ingredients were used for this kebab recipes: Chicken cubes, onions, capsicum, and cherry tomatoes. That's all. My own recipe? Chicken cubes, capsicum, button mushroom, pineapple and onion.Then did something else today as well... Since Tue I would be having crab feast, and initially I thought of getting sweets for my kids(sweets again, haiz...pathetic)... Decided to make them something tasty, just as sweet, but more healthy choice: Honey Joys... It's a cornflake thingy. Quite alright, gotta say. I've eaten it before, but nv actually done it before. So first try i'm quite satisfied with the results.
Of course, there's always room for improvement. =)
Y The Lady @
10:14 PM
Sunday, September 14, 2008 Y
Roast chicken cooking in the process....
The completed roast chicken "project"!
Served on the table, chopped and ready to be eaten!
Our dinner table
Y The Lady @
10:55 AM
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Y
Despite the work effort needed was twice required during my attachment period, I actually enjoyed my time working. Quite alot of perks... Not the perks given by the company, it's the perks I see in my point of view... I counted them: All 7 of them. Pretty gd number for perks rite?Tiring, no doubt... The younger the children the more tiring and exhausting it is to look after them Sensing a flu on its way since my blocked nose keeps going on and off and my eyes are pretty much consistent with the tiredness and occasional bloodshot(towards the end of my day). What I'm lacking is actually a fever and sore throat.I'm back for attachment.. that's how I feel, and isn't bad, since I enjoyed my attachment times... A lot of "1st times" for me, seriously speaking. I'm a total newbie for these stuffs for younger children, no hands on exp or whatsoever. So...loads of 1st times. Best thing? Hm.. can't narrow it down.. The perks themselves are the best thingS (note the 'S'). I can feel the pain and joy of teaching, and tbh, I very very very much prefer to study than work, even though working gives u $. Enjoying Hi-5's song.. and it's a great song to actually dance to. I'm not very musically talented that I can plan dances and things, but doing my best. Enjoying every bit of the process, even if it means listening to the music over and over and over and over trying to get the lyrics right. I could sing the song now even w/o looking at the lyrics(what I've managed to pull together) & just by listening to the song.Well... I always could do that - learn songs by listening to them for hundred of times and getting the lyrics locked up in my mind. Dance, not on my list. LOL!Labels: Let's Rainbow 'Round The World
Y The Lady @
9:48 PM
Friday, September 05, 2008 Y
Random posts...#1
Recently picked up on my writing again, the same story, same characters, different 'episodes' and 'events' happening. Got a lil sick and tired of writing for a while, you can call it mental block or writer's block.Anyway, new ideas popped into my head and I picked up the pace again. Of cos, I gotta think of how to link up so many drafts and different scenarios so that the story actually flows.. Not that it doesn't... But it's just that sometimes when you write something, and you go back to it later on, you find it completely irrelevant and out of point that you dump that straight into the dumpster. Then after awhile, you realized that you could have kept the original idea, tweak it a lil and give it a splash of suspense. When there're alot of brainstorming, writing, throwing away, regretting, forming new ideas and etc, it tends to rock the momentum by quite a few decibels.And after stopping for about half a year, it's a wonder that I could still pick up from where I've left off. I guess once you've stepped in the shoes of the characters you made up (their personalities and traits), their names flowed to you, their every details just somehow fell into place, it's hard to even forget regardless how long it's been since the writer took the pen in her hands (in my case, typing on the keyboard).=================#2
Addiction to Facebook.. Gotta kick this habit, but it's hard when I have like what... a pet dog to look after, photos to upload, friends to add, quizes to take, gifts to create etc, and now a baby to look after.Oh yar, a baby... For the fun of it all or for whatever reason I started that, I don't intend to quit after I "gave birth" to adorable Penelope(my virtual daughter). LOL! Well... it's a lil weird, having a virtual baby, but it takes stress off just looking at the graphics which is really cute. Though it's only been a few days since she's "born", I can feel the work and effort needed to take care of a baby, even a virtual one... You gotta make sure he/she is healthy, happy and full and you have to make sure to spend time with the baby & give him/her some TLC(virtually)... Imagine how hard it would be to have a baby in real life. So, if one intends to have a child, MAKE SURE one is READY before having that child. In a matter of speaking, treating a real baby isn't quite the same as to treating a virtual baby. A virtual one requires your time whenever it works for you, but a real baby requires more than that.===============#3
Late nights.I hate late nights, cos I get more and more restless as time goes by. Looking at the bed when i'm feeling the sleeping bug crawling all over my body, sometimes it makes me go to bed, sometimes it doesn't work at all. Tonight is one of those latter times. But still, gotta shut off the pc and shut my eyes and get some sleep.Labels: body aches, exhausted, restless
Y The Lady @
2:07 AM
Monday, September 01, 2008 Y
This may be the longest entry I've ever written!The trip to Desaru was really wonderful, eventful, fun and tiring. Woke up at 5.30am and slept at 12.00pm =.=lll It was even more tiring than normal lesson days, but really fun and enjoyable. Tiring cos of the waking up early and also the shopping and the bs journey. Sheesh, the bus jerked and jerked on the road, turning it into a mobile cradle for me to sleep. It wasn't hard for me to fall asleep since I was really tired and I get bus-sick if I dun face the front after a long time.In the beginning, I thought only a few teachers were going, but then when I boarded the bus, somehow the teachers managed to get a total of 40 people for the package... Cos they included the kids. O Boy the kids! Luckily we have them on the road, they're really cute and adorable and made the whole trip even more fun than ever.First stop was breakfast, Yong Tou Fu. Incredibly filling cos we're not used to having such things for breakfast. We didn't finish the noodles/beehoon/horfan, cos we decided to cramp our stomaches with the content of the yong tou fu instead of all these carbo. But I had both, cos I've been starving since 6.30am(forgot to eat the slice of cake in my bag).Then we went to Desaru Fruit Farm to look at the different fruit trees and different fruits: Dragonfruit trees, jackfruit trees, longan trees, passionfruit trees, roseapple trees, guava trees, mango trees, banana trees and many other kinds. The only tree we didn't get to see was the durain trees, which was what most of us wanted to see and possibly taste the fruit, excluding me.And then at a particular section of the entire place, there're a few goats(big and small), abt 3 rabbits, 2 owls, 2 big ostriches, quite a number of roosters, 2 big turtles and a pair of ducklings. It was like a miniature zoo, minus the big animals and decrease the quantity of the animals. Then we went for Lunch at a restaurant... Seafood for lunch. You may think: "What? So fast lunch?" Yep... cos after the fruit farm we went to another place just about 10-15mins of journey and learnt about honey and stayed there for quite some time cos there was this mini mart where we could shop. I didn't buy much, wanted to save my money when we go to Jusco and in case I find something I like. Each of us got a box of fruits for us to taste after the whole visit to the honey shop which was part of the fruit farm cos we were showed some bee-'hives' which are shaped like boxes. All the fruits were specially from the farm itself.So.. lunch... Didn't take note of the name of the place. I think the best dish there was the soup and the crab. It's a mixture of chilli and black pepper (spicy but not so spicy that I can't take it). The soup was light. Also had herbal chicken, stir fried veg, deep fried butter lobster(half lobster for each one of us) and steamed fish. All the seafood were rather fresh. I'm nt sure about the lobster, since a few teachers claimed it had weird smell... I havent had lobster that was deep fried nor did I eat it all the time, so I really couldn't judge it or say it had whatever smell or taste... Even though, I still very very very much preferred to have lobster meat in salad when they're being served as part of the cold plate.Then we head over to mango farm... Which wasn't really a farm. We went there, see alot of trees that were behind the fences. Then before lunch the tourguide gave us a lil math sum to play. The prize? She treat us to mangoes if we got it right.In the beginning, everyone was very enthusiastic and started thinking about the sum. Me too. But math hasn't been my strongest subject so I slowly gave up. Before long, almost nobody went on with the Math sum. It was Teacher Deng who held on till the end and got the rght answer. And as promised, the tourguide gave her mangoes as a treat to bring back home.Curious about what Math sum was that?? It's at the end of this blog entry. You can try it out yourself! ;)
Okay, so when we reached the mango farm, we got to taste the mangoes and they were really sweet and juicy and slippery. And cos it's a family business, there's a small stall where we could purchase their mangoes fresh from the mango trees. It was up to us whether to walk into the forest of mango trees to see the fruits on the trees and the trees. Not many went in seriously speaking. Most of us were buying the mangoes after tasting it. Me? I went and played and looked after Lini and Mini, cos Yvonne I'm nt sure where she went. Like I said, family business so the people's house were just within walking range. The kids went there cos it was more shady and I followed them.
Lini was wearing slippers so the little stones kept on going into her slippers and every 2-3 steps taken she had to stop, remove her feet, brushed off the stones of her soles and I had to get rid of the little stones in her slippers before she put them on again. LOL. I've lost count how many times had I done that from the mini store to the house and from the house back to the bus. Hahahahaha! Couldn't help myself but laugh and even enjoyed it! =)
After that we had a short journey to Ostrich Farm. Oh boy, I've been looking forward to it since my mom told me about it.. cos we get to stand on the ostrich egg and it can withstand up till 100kg of weight upon the shell itself!!! I gt this info from the tourguide. See? I'm not sleeping even though we could barely hear her from behind the bus. This time the same thing happened with Lini... but instead of little stones, it was sand. Hhaahahs!
With the help of the teachers, I got a shot of me holding the egg (it was quite big) and also a piece of the ostrich skin. And I stood on the egg!!! Amazing isn't it? A small egg that can withstand up to 100kg of weight? Not that I'm 100kg =.=ll Hhahas! Also a few children stood on the egg as well..I was the only teacher that stood on the egg...and feeling like a kid! ROFL! =D Ms Chong had a lil incident with the Ostrich while I was trying to take a pic with her and the ostrich. The ostrich attacked her and her forearm was "kissed". Bad birdie!
Then it was time to shop!!! The bus journey was about 1hr before we reached a small section that was along the way to the shopping centre Jusco. We stayed there for about half hour for toilet break and if we needed to get some salted fish or other titbits or tau sa pia. I brought two packs of crackers there - 1 Jackfruit cracker and 1 big bag of fish crackers(Muruku) with alot of little packs inside. I slept like a baby during that 1hr trip, but then the tourguide's microphone woke me up for me to get off the bus and do some stretching.
Another half hour later (abt 5.30pm), we reached Jusco. Were given 1.5hrs to shop. In the beginning, I was appaled that they gave such a long time. But when I stepped into the place, it was HUGE! And I started to doubt whether 1.5hrs is enough... And for somebody like me who doesn't shop much, thinking that 1.5hrs isn't enough for shopping, it tells you something about that shopping centre.
We walked as a group: Me, Yvonne, Miss Karita, Miss Maria and her son from level one, to level two, to level three. By the time we walked to level 3(1 time round per level), half hour was gone. I head over to my destination - Secret Recipe to get the chicken pie I've been thinking about since my mom brought it home. Too bad they sold out the spicy flavoured one, that one was nicer than the original, but still I brought the very last piece of chicken pie and 2 curry puffs. Then Miss Karita went away. We went to shop in the shopping centre with Miss Maria and her son(toys department) until they both went away, and Yvonne and I went to shop at the Toys 'R' Us for toys. By the time we wanted to head back to the bus, it was liek 6.35pm. Was suppose to be back by 7pm. So went into the supermarket for a look and finally brought the australia nougats (2 packs each) cos we loved it so much.
Then came dinner - Went to Apollo seafood restaurant. We sat in another table, away from the teachers that we know and the kids... Went to sit with the group in front of the bus. Didn't really know them so was quite weird sitting with them at the dinner table. But as time goes by it was quite alright, with one Uncle cracking jokes every now and then. Our dinner selections: Sambal prawns, cold plate, shark fins, steamed fish, the yam-wall thing with veg and crispy beehoon, stir fried veg, rice, fried noodles, chicken and koropok and fruits. Not bad actually..... And we even caught a few minutes of the fireworks displays outside the restaurant windows. The Malaysians were celebrating their National Day yesterday, thus the fireworks. Althought, SG's fireworks are still nicer than M'sia, but a few kinds of fireworks wasn't on the SG's firework list.
And by the time we reached SG it was like 9+pm. And by the time we reached Yishun MRT it was about 10+/11+pm. Really eventful, took alot of pics and had tons of fun and food. Great trip to Desaru.
Okay, here comes the Math question:
1 durian = 4 ringgat
1 papaya = 3 ringgat
7 rambutans = 1 ringgat
You're given 100 ringgat
How many fruits can you buy with that 100 ringgat so that you spent all 100 ringgat and brought a total of 100 fruits?
Work it out! Have some fun! =)
Labels: Pictures taken on Desaru trip on Facebook
Y The Lady @
9:35 AM
