Korea Tour ~ 09 to 16 May

Back from korea trip yesterday. Is a 8 days trip to seoul and Jeju island, with my parents, bro, anne and her mum. initiatelly expected the trip to be boring cos expect to visit the drama location most of the time. However, surprising it turns out to be quite fun. The trip itnerary is changed accordingly with the initative of our pretty tour guide as the weather changes. I have a few "first time" in this trip, e.g. visit the open zoo which the bear and lion are just beside our bus, submarine ride and horse riding by myself...ha scare by fun! And weather at Jeju island is really cool and the trip there is fully filled with fun, like it :) Oh, the stay in JW Marriot hotel in Seoul is highly recommended ~ 6 stars, bedroom and restroom is super big..hmm restroom is almost the size of my own smaller bedroom. Also, the TV for all the hotels is 42inch LCD, thks to Samsung. Photos taken...hmm too many, got to sort it out first.

09 May ~ Take flight
10 May ~ Histortical Place Visit, Da Chang Jin village, Palace, Dong Da Meng shopping
11 May ~ Everland theme park which have open zoo concept, theme park, flower park..etc
12 May ~ Wine Tunnel & travel to Jeju Isiand, own time shopping
13 May ~ Visit the dagon rock by the sea, Mountain climbing, submarine ride, horse riding, mysterious road visit, visit bear museum, nanta show
14 May ~ Strawberry picking, water theme park, Spa.
15 May ~ Shopping at street, Lotte world theme park
16 May ~ Kimchi making, culture experience, last purchase of local food & home sweet home.

Tampines One

Today ~ 2nd May, went to shop @ Tampine One, good that the parking is ok. There is a few interesting shops & Japanese concept clothing, eatery & saka Inn, bakery. At least there is some diff for this mall compared to the rest, like it. Buy a nice pair of earring for myself & zq also get himself an accessory, some clothing from Uniqlo which interesting u have to remove your shoes before entering the fitting room cubicles, bought my fav red tea from a Jap store (i drank it in jap once...ex here) & makan @ the Jap mache kind of eatery place called Manpuku. Tried out some food there, I try the soba but is jus diff from the one i tried in Japan..not nice, wat i like best is the fruit paradise tart & the tea! Ramen is not bad also, chasiao is soft & almost melt in my mouth.














Aoba Hokkaido Ramen












Kitsune soba











Food Paradise Tart










Oriental rose tea















Interesting stationary shop @ basement.

BBQ ~ Badminton Grp

On 1st of May, the badminton grp have our annual bbq again. Manage to find a good spot with unoccupied bbq pit for us to place our things. As always we have our portable pits, table, chairs, cooler box all prepared by our handy man ~ Desmond, thus we can hv our bbq anytime, anywhere without worrying abt the pit. Surprising for this round, we finish almost all the food prepared. All the food are nice, like the chicken wing, roasted pork & otah.

The grp is slightly smaller compared to prev 3 years, a few cannot make it, thus feel some difference, hope everyone can get together to hv fun again.

Mid Apr of 2009.

Busy in early part of the week and even on holiday and sat...cos trying to coordinate some offsite work to be held on sat nite by my colleague. Learn something from the job. Sometime, saying or explaining too much might not help , so only said what is necessary.

Hmm...Thurs evening ~ 7 Apr, go ktv with ex colleagues and half the grp left early. Left the 4 of us and quite fun for the last song cos we singing "Jin4 Ge1 Jing1 Qu3"..15mins songs that consists of many songs that only sing a part of it. Each of us take turn to sing and try to figure whats song coming, enjoy the fun of it and hv a gd laugh.

On 8 Apr ~ public holiday, met up ea and cf...too bad im late so the starting of the gathering is spoiled. Dinner is nice as ea brings us to nice eatery place and hv nice ice cream too.

On 9 apr (Sat) ~ first or maybe the second time i played bumper car. Is located @ those pasar malam and i think quite ex, $6 for 10mins ride! But is really fun, i dun know how to control at first and keep bumping into station car and the side...screaming all the way. Finally, i managed and have a great fun. This is something i wan to do all along but dare not =D Glad i get to play it. Thanks zq!! Haa...he said i'm simple to be pleased.

On 10 Apr (Sun), finish the badminton game earlier, cos needed to go tomb sweeping. Instead of taking zq's car ride, i told him i wan to take the walk to sembawang mrt. Cos i wan to enjoy the cooling weather with a bit drizzling rain. And i like it :) It feels so good, i decided not to take out my umbrella. Some thoughts on the way...nowadays, people prefer to take car ride or on the aircon, if they will just to come out and take a walk beside the trees, they will discover the beauty of it..& also one might live longer if will to enjoy the nature more often.

Dinner on 01 Apr 09

Fried rice prepared by zq tonight, nice but luncheon meat too salty xp

Zq's Birthday Celebration with Family

Zq's birthday on the 29th Mar. So one day when i asked him how he wan to celebrate his birthday, he said he wan to ask his family over to our house and we wld do the cooking =.=". So tonight, on the 28th Mar we have the family gathering.

Initiatelly, we intend to hv the cereal prawn. But his dad not eating meat today and his bro & wife not feeling too well. So we have more vege instead. I prepared 5 dishes & a dessert: Bittergourd & Porkrib soup, Mushroom & Broccoli, Tomato Cai Xin TouFu, steam "Xue Yu" fish, Steam Mushroom Black Fungi Chicken with "Hua Tiao" wine (mum taught mi this dish & it is a success, nice!). The dessert is the Mango sago with chin chow. Aimei ~ his sis baked a duran cake...yummy. Is a tired sat but happy when everyone seem to enjoy the meal :)

(zq & his nephews)

Mum's 60th Birthday

On fri 27th Mar, Mum celebrated her 60th birthday. I decided to take leave that day to spend time with her. In the morning, we go swimming @ Yishun safra club. Few years back, she have took up swimming to reduce her back pain but i have never go swimming with her before. I am impressed by her professionalism, cos she was wearing a swimming cap to protect her hair and she offer me the sun block lotion =Oo .... I did not prepare all these at all...lol. And, i am more impressed when she managed to swim a very short distance ~ abt 2m and always try to keep close to the side, but is really not bad already..cos i wld never imagine mum can swim!

After which in the afternoon we go shopping @ Jurong Point in Boon Lay. we try the dessert @ "Ji De Chi". The mall get very crowded near evening time and we didn't see anything that we wan to buy. Abt evening time, dad, my bros and anne joined us for dinner @ a seafood restaurant. I surprised mum with a bouquet of red roses (this is the lst time she rece a bouquet of flower :p) and a birthday cake. The dinner is filling and nice too :) She seem very happy with the roses cos she hold on close to her thereafter :D

First handmade bracelet

On weekends, finally pick up my beads and tools and start making my first bracelet. Is for a gf's birthday. I used to be quite conservative with the design, after seeing xy's design. She kind of insprire me :) Hope to do something lovely and creative too. Quite like the final product. =)

cEsPaLs Gathering

On monday 09 Mar, have a get-together with my ex-colleagues at Bugis Shokudo. Have nice food, good laugh & nice catch up with everyone after so long :)

Dinner on 08 Mar 09

My favourite egg & beans
















Black pepper pork & beans

Yong Tao Fu soup

Prison Break

Another weekends spent on facing the LCD....being catching the American serial drama televsion series ~ Prison Break dvds. Is about this bro who plan the escape from the prison to save his elder bro who had been frame for murdering the vice=president's bro, fight for their iinnocence & how they try to get the organisation down who have support from the govt. The show capture our attention from the start, is excited, makes one want to keep on watching. One season have about 22plus episodes, there are 4 seasons and im only half way through season 2. This is the first english drama that have made me want to chase after the show, great show.

Online games

Recently have hooked on to a new game in facebook ~ rock legend. Sometime game can be additive, This is the second game in facebook i have addicted to, the lst one is "Bowling Bubby". I have spend some late nites & whole day trying to level up, solving quest & battle against the other bands. It can be quite frustrating when the band members you have recuited is bought away by other band....etc. Is fun but i have to try pull away from the game else my panda eyes will be getting deeper & my household work will be piled up..ha. Finally today managed to work on the housework, having a clean house make one feel good too =)

On fri, have watched the Oscar winning film ~ Slumdog Millonaire. The storyline is unique, interesting and one that would make one feel good & happy at the end of the show. I like the Indian's dance at the end, very organised and fun.

Dinner on 24 Feb 09

On Tues, 24 Feb, zq decided to practise his cooking in my kitchen again. =p He prepared the Herbal chicken, Steam Fish & Vege. Though the chicken not as fresh...think is cos didn't have time to let it de-froze, the vege a bit salty, fish is gd. Good attempt :)

Yacht Ride @ Marina - Keppel Bay

On sat evening - 21 Feb 09, went to our first yacht ride @ Marina - Keppel Bay. Organised by GB's frn, the yacht took 12 of us for 4 hrs ride, left @ 730pm & cost $500 in total. One have to hold tight to balance in the moving yacht & most of time we stay on board to enjoy the breeze. It stopped to let us watched the Sentosa's music fountain performance & moved on to somewhere near Kusu Island where it stopped there & we have our dinner & chat till it turn back to the Bay. I managed to sleep at the front of the yacht and watch the stars. So happy to catch the shooting star "liu xing" & make a wish =P

Here's the link to the Yacht ride on 21 Feb 09

Tammy's Birthday @ The Boilers ~ 20 Feb 09

On last fri, went to St James Boiler Room for Tammy's birthday celebration. There's live band performance & the place more for drinking than dancing. We have fun & hope TM have a great time too :)

Dinner on 15 Feb 09

Tonight dinner is nonya curry chicken & vege mushroom. Actually the recent meal is real sinful & i wan to have simple light meal but zq pick up the interest of cooking and want to try out the curry chicken. Not bad but still sinful. =P

Step Aerobics

4 of my colleagues & i have signed up for step aerobics during lunch time which lasted for an hr & it started today, quite fun & really sweat it out. With the course, at least there's some motivation to do some exercise in weekday :)

Also today is dad's birthday, buy Angie The Choice's durian cake to celebrate with him & glad that he like it & took 2 pieces! :)

A Rose for the gals

Today, my colleagues & i went Aglio Olio (pasta restaurant) for lunch, for a gathering with a ex-boss. and there's a surprise for the ladies lunching there. As after we foot the bill, all the ladies will get a rose for valentine's gift =D A lady colleague & mi are "flower craze", thus we are very happy with it :) The day seem more beautiful with the rose on the desk..hee.

CNY: 14th day Dinner with my family

Enjoy the sunday as i get to sleep late, drink nice coffee and play badminton to sweat it out =P In the evening, my parents, bro & wife came for dinner. Zq & i decided to do up some dishes for them, also to experiment some interesting dishes we try when dine out. The dishes are: Potato & Carrot soup, Minced meat dipped in egg and fried, Cai Xin Minced Meat Tou Fu & i also hv the Mango Pomelo dessert :)

This dish is one of zq's fav as his grandma can do very nice minced egg meat last time. so he learned to cook this, this is prepared by him :)

This is the dish we try when we dine out bef, it used cai xin which is very interesting. So we try it out today & we all like it very much =D

Buy too many carrot & potato on sat, so the soup obviously is this =p

For this dessert, i have wanted to prepare for earlier frns' gathering but after searching high & low 2 weeks bef, there's no Mango in the market, not the mango season! So disappointed. But yesterday in the market, i saw them on shelf again, so decided to try out this nice & simple dessert. The recipe is here if u interested:

Ingredients:
----------------
600g mango (about 2 mangoes)
500ml mango juice
150ml evaporated milk
100ml fresh milk
300g pomelo (split into small pieces)
200ml water (puree with some mango)
250ml water + 50g sugar
1 tbsp cornflour + 1 tbsp water

Method:
----------
1) Bring 250ml of water and 50g of sugar to boil until sugar dissolves. Add in cornflour mixture, stir in low heat until mixture is smooth then turn off the heat and leave it to cool.
2) Cut mango from both sides, and cut the mango flesh into cubes.

3) For the remaining mango, add 200ml of water and puree. Set aside.

4)Split 300g of Pamelo into small pieces.

5)When the boiled water is cooled, add mango puree, mango cubes, mango juice and evaporated milk, milk and mix well. Finally add in pomelo and stir, if too thick, add water.
Serve CHILLED

CNY: 13th day Poly Friends Gathering

Today ~ 07 Feb, i play host to my poly gfs & their family. It has been so long since everyone get together =) With the food brought by everyone & the food i prepared, the result = a lot of food. Luckily some of the gals helped me to tabo the food home for dinner =P Happy that everyone can make it, inlcuding Joan who come back from New Zealand for sometime & thought our date is tomo, managed to detour to my hse for a get together. I only rate myself 5 over 10 for this gathering cos other than the poor food planning, i also did not spend enough quality time to catch up with each of them.

Will learn to be better host next time & have a better grasp on the qty of food prepared. Hope it will not be too long when the gals can sit together to have tea & catch up again :) Here's the link to the photos taken: Poly CNY Gathering

Interesting that all the daddies sit in front & carry their baby ;) The poly gals & Chee Hock are all standing behind.

In the evening, went to watch the "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", a sad but touching story that make one think abt yr life again. Life is short, treasure very moment of it :)

Dinner on 04 Feb 09

Tonight we have decided to dine in & i prepared zq's fav bitter gourd & pork ribs soup. i apply salt to reduce the bitterness but turn out that he prefer it to be bitter. =P I also done the stew carrot, potato & chicken pot taught by Yan's mum. I quite like it :)

CNY: 07th day Badminton Grp Gathering

Today ~ 1st Feb (Sun), instead of our regular badminton session, we have a break from the game & the badminton's gang came to my hse with their babies for some fun in CNY. We have steamboat, watch dvd & card games :) I think the highlights are more on the kids, esp Darren & Jaslin little boy. Cos he's so cute & chubby, everyone jus wan to have a photo with him & he seem quite cool abt it =P Great that everyone have some fun. Here's the link to the photos taken: Badminton Grp CNY Photos

CNY: 6th day Colleagues Visit

On Sat 31st Jan (6th day of CNY), my collegues came for cny's visit. Too bad, last mins a few cannot make it, else we would have more fun. Ashima prepare nice, yummy bryani for us. She bought her sweet 5 mth old son. Kushal also bought his family along :) Michelle also came. They are are non-sg, thus it must be interesting for them to come for cny's visit :) At nite, my in-law's family & an aunt came for dinner as well. A lot of washing of dishes thereafter =P Dead tired by end of day.

CNY: 3rd to 5th days ~ Malacca & Genting

Back from holidays trip from Malacca & Genting for CNY break with zq & my in-laws family. Is a 3 days 2 nite trip, I prefer the stay in malacca compare to Genting. In malacca, i get to try the wonderful nonya food again, esp the salted vege duck soup, yummy! & also some shopping :) In Genting, well...one advice is not to go genting in holidays time, cos it is tooo crowded. Everywhere there are people, thus it can be quite unpleasent. I have the photo taking out in the nite cool air/fog jus outside the hotel, which have reminded mi on the stay i have with my ex-colleagues few years back :) Link to more photos will be attached much later..nt yet uploaded =P Below are some of the photos i like best:

One of the jonker steet

A stall @ jonker street

This photo is taken from reflection, the window is actually a mirror =P

This photo taking reminds mi of the company trip with my ex collegues which we have some fun then.