new year visiting

made my usual rounds of visiting over the past 3 days…

had a peek at my cousin’s new flat in bedok.

went to my 3rd auntie’s [my mum's sis] place for lunch on the 2nd day. dinner was at my eldest auntie’s [my dad’s sis] place in aljunied. had lunch today at my 5th uncle’s [my dad's bro] place at bishan. basically overdosed on abalone, sea cucumber and mushrooms. :)

visited kiat lee & min xian in the late afternoon together with gordon, kai yeow, thng soon and doris. doris brought along her hawaii and japan photos for viewing.

it snowed very heavily for a day during their trip in japan. the snowscape was breathtakingly beautiful. they had a night’s stay in a ryokan and also visited disneyland.

then we left for dinner at the west coast hawker centre. tried to contact wee kwang to see if he’s at home but it seems that he had changed his number liao… trust him to do this sort of disappearing act.

after dinner, we returned to kl & mx’s place to finish up gordon’s bottle of ice wine. must have been the highlight of the day for ky. haha… :P

happy doggy year

sort of overslept today… when i woke up, most of my uncles, aunties and cousins were already here. some of my dad’s friends had actually came and left. :P hehe…

had to wish everyone present happy new year before rushing off to wash up. what early birds they are. it is said that what you do on the 1st day of the new year will set the tone for the rest of the year. that’s why there’re so many associated dos and don’ts taboos and whatnot.

does that mean i’ll get to sleep in for the rest of the year? haha… :)

after the last guests had left, we’ll take a break in the afternoon before proceeding to my eldest auntie’s [my mum’s sis] place in bedok for dinner. and we’ll probably play a few rounds of blackjack just for fun after dinner.

my usual routine for the 1st day of the lunar new year.

reunion dinner

we only have barbeque steamboat at home once a year and today’s the special day that electrical gadget is brought out for use for our reunion dinner.

it’s a wonder that the barbeque steamboat had never failed us these last few years. previously, we were using 2 other electrical steamboats and it’s the same routine year after year. i’m sure both will still work perfectly if they’re dug out from storage.

as usual, we had yusheng to kick off our reunion dinner. i had bought the fresh salmon from cold storage at takashimaya earlier today since i wasn’t working. i also bought a variety of mushrooms so that it’s not an all-meat affair for dinner.

one of the few occasions that the whole family is eating together at the dining table ’cos we do not have the practice of waiting to have dinner together at home. and it’ll be a formidable task to do so since wilson and estee have to work late sometimes. for me, i only need to on rare occasions. hence, dinnertime for us is whatever time we reach home on normal days.

thankfully [or woefully, depending on your perspective], none of us has yet the need to juggle multiple reunion dinners yet. hehe… :P

new clothes

have you bought new clothes for chinese new year? or are you one of those who don’t bother shopping for new clothes to wear for the new year?

as for me, i make shameless use of the tradition… it’s an excuse to buy new clothes without my mum complaining that i already have too much! hehe… :)

i wonder if those of my friends who have become parents observe this tradition of new clothes for their little ones. and what colour preference do they have?

it wasn’t too long ago that some of us have to shop for new clothes to please our parents. some are given instructions to wear something red, while others are strictly prohibited to wear black on new year’s day.

fortunately for me, my parents were quite easy with the dress code and do not insist that i wear red, so i don’t suffer from any post-traumatic stress aversion to red colour now as an adult. and since i don’t fancy black tops, neither did i cause them any grief with my choice of clothes.

in fact in recent years, i even try to look for a red top just to indulge in the festive mood. :)

spring-cleaning

i ought to tidy up my room this weekend. it has been in a mess for the longest time… but since i’ve no problems locating my stuff, i just keep putting off the clean-up. hehe…

the repeated delay is not helped by how little “free” time i spend at home. oh well, maybe i should’ve made it a new year resolution to have a clean and tidy room. :)

by the way, i really need to clean out my wardrobe too. got to be ruthless to give away or sell those clothes that i hardly wear anymore to the dog and bone man. but i fail miserably each time. sigh… and so i continue to expand my wardrobe without any corresponding increase in my physical wardrobe size.

i think i have enough t-shirts to last me for 1 whole month without me having to do any laundry. impressed?

and that’s not counting the shirts, long-sleeved tees, sleeveless tees and tanks! :P

so have you done your spring-cleaning?

collection

went to pick up my phone today after work. the collection took a shorter time than expected.

the staff who returned my phone informed me that they had done a software upgrade. couldn’t really diagnose the auto shut-down problem and the dictionary cannot save the words that i spell for my phone model.

duh!

back from hk

my parents are back from hong kong… finally.

seems like they’ve enjoyed this trip very much and bought quite a few things back. visited disneyland for an entire day, taking rides and even staying back for the fireworks!

the cold weather was manageable since they brought enough warm clothing.

they made a trip to eat at sweet dynasty, shopped at the usual malls, and prayed at the temples.

my mum gushed that the range of chinese new year decorations available there is so much more extensive and prettier. and she bought some really nice hongbaos back.

ict shortened

yeah! received notification that my ict has been reduced from the original 3 weeks to about 10 days.

the best thing?

now it commences on 13 february, a more culturally-correct date after the 15th day of the lunar new year. at least we can celebrate the occasion with family and friends if we wanted to instead of rushing to book-in.

nokia care @ wheelock

sent my 6260 for servicing while it’s still under warranty. been slightly cranky for the past week.

the phone shut down by itself several times after i had entered my pin number. on another occasion, it “hung” when it was starting up. didn’t know that phones nowadays are supposed to last only 1 year. tsk, tsk, tsk…

my previous 8310 lasted me more than 3 years and was still working fine when i traded it in.

waited for more than half an hour before my number was called at the counter. the guy told me i can only collect my phone back 2 days later. very efficient, hor? my goodness! imagine if i haven’t a spare phone…

on a separate note, i heard that a colleague had recently bought the new o2 atom and it was a totally bad experience. the os seems to be slow and unstable. the problems never really went away even after he got a brand-new replacement from the manufacturer.

my, my… must have been a nightmare considering the small fortune the phone costs. and technology is supposed to make your life easier, not miserable.

guess the mobile phone has intertwined so deeply into our everyday lives to the extent that when it’s not working properly or lost, we feel disconnected and “disabled”.

hello janet [and grace]

janet called to ask if i’m interested to go hong kong café for supper last night. she said eric had sms-ed her about going there to eat. i readily agreed since i quite like the food there and there was no dinner at home anyway.

when i reached eunos mrt, i tried to withdraw some cash from the atm but the machine just refused to surrender its money. and it doesn’t seem to have run out of cash. bizarre!

got a lift from eric from the station to the café. there was a good crowd considering it's 11+ on a saturday night. thankfully, we didn’t have to try too hard for a parking lot and table.

they’ve printed new menus since the last time i visited and there’re new items added. wait a minute… the prices have increased! :(

my favourite soup noodles now costs $1 more at $7.50, a whopping increase of 15%! gosh, i wish i get that kind of pay increment. :P

again, i’m very much tempted by the pictures on the menu to over-order. hehe…

janet tried the soup noodles on my assurance that’s it good while jason ordered the fried beef hor fun. it really smells heavenly when served, so much so that the guy sitting at the next table pointed out jason’s hor fun to the waitress and said he wanted to order the same dish.

eric and tracy decided to be adventurous and order something which they have not tried. eric had the fried pork ribs hor fun and tracy had the dry wanton beef noodles. both gave thumbs up for their choices.

janet was keen to go on to the desserts since everything tasted good so far. she went for the coconut showdown and jason had the mango showhand.

eric egged me on to order more desserts to share. decided on the black glutinous rice with vailla ice-cream, bo luo bao and peanut butter french toast.

actually, the coconut showdown is the same as our black glutinous rice dessert with the addition of coconut flavoured pudding which janet commented that she could hardly discern any coconut fragrance. eric remarked that the black glutinous rice dessert is a little bland for his liking but i think it's ok for me.

the french toast was diet-busting oily and too sweet ’cos it was deep-fried and i had been too generous with the syrup. oops! :P

i prefer the version at tong shui café. so there’s at least something which they can do better than hong kong café. :) haha…

overall, we enjoyed our supper and i had over-ate again.

burp!

raise the red laterns

red latern is the theme for paragon’s chinese new year decorations this year.

not the usual big and round type of old-styled laterns with yellow tassels but a modern, streamlined hexagonal version that’s tastefully chic and yet auspicious enough for the tradition-minded folks with it’s deep red hue. something very consistent with their upmarket clientele and mall image.

nice!

dinner @ home

no dinner at home tonight ’cos my parents had left for hong kong for a 6-day trip this morning. they’ll be visiting disneyland on this trip.

didn’t tag along since they’re traveling with some retiree friends of my dad and i don’t know any of them. plus they booked the tour barely 3 weeks ago.

the weather should be great… the news on tv forecasted temperatures between 15 and 17 degree celsius. a chance to be stylishly wrapped up in cool jackets, scarves and boots. might be a bit too cold for my parents though but still they can’t wait to go.

i’m also reluctant to join them since there aren’t many sales or suitable apparel for our climate in season now. actually i’ve been to hong kong a few years back with janet, doris and thomas in january too.

that was a trip made primarily to attend jacky cheung’s concert at the coliseum. a budget trip made via priceline where the 4 of us shared a room and flew united airlines. anyway, i digress.

since i’m back from work “early” [by my standards] at around 7+ in the evening, i decided to cook dinner since i didn’t feel like eating out.

went to the ntuc supermarket to shop for my dinner, while there, called my sis to tell her that i’m cooking. picked up some salad greens, 3 different types of mushrooms [shiitake, honshimeiji & oyster] and some chicken thighs. the bill came up to about $15.

dinner menu consisted of
* garden salad with sesame dressing,
* sautéed mushrooms with oyster sauce and
* baked honey mustard chicken thighs with mixed spices.

the sesame dressing from mccormick tasted different from the japanese one that i usually use. it’s fuller flavoured and tasted almost like the sesame dip that’s provided by those sichuan hotpot restaurants.

the mushrooms were actually too much for 2 persons but both of us finished it up anyway. the chicken thighs were cooked just right and tender although the marinade turned out quite watery.

overall, my sis is happy enough to wash the dishes for the dinner that i’ve prepared. :)

hari raya haji

have not been out because of the rain these 2 days. decided to go holland village for brunch with my sis. had wanted to eat at café provence but my sis changed her mind and wanted to have noodles so my mum came along too.

went to crystal jade lamian xiaolongbao. they have a set menu promotion for 2, 3 and 4 persons where you can choose from a reduced selection of the menu.

for the 3-person set meal at $37.80++, it includes a cold dish, a hot dish, a lamian, a fried rice and 3 servings of dianxin. we chose the jelly with sesame oil, egg white with crabmeat, hot & sour soup lamian, fried rice with vegetable and prawns, xiaolongbao, guotie and shredded radish pastry.

unfortunately, my favourite hongyou chaoshou is not available for the set meal otherwise it’ll be perfect. stuff myself silly ’cos my mum didn’t eat a lot.

after the meal, we went to take a look at anthro which sells all sorts of bric-a-brac including bags from god [imported from hong kong].

next we went to lim’s at holland shopping centre to look at their range of chinese new year decorations. they stocked this range of very life-like apples, peaches, oranges, etc that looks so real. my mum was tempted to buy some but baulked at the $3.50 per piece price tag. then we went grocery shopping at cold storage.

no trip to holland village is complete without me buying some bread home from café provence. just too bad the mini chocolates are sold out. :(

very wet weather

arrghhh… it’s still raining non-stop today!

amazingly, it has been raining since the early hours of sunday till now… and it doesn’t seem to abate any time soon.

have been holed up at home reading john grisham’s the broker since yesterday.

heavy downpour

gosh… it does feel like december all over again with such heavy downpour throughout the day. just the weather to do nothing but doze at home. :)

my sympathies to the guys involved in the terrorist attacks exercise at mrt stations and bus interchange today. your sacrifice of getting out of bed so early on a sunday morning when the rest of singapore is slumbering under their warm quilts deserves a special mention.

a salute to you folks for helping to make singapore a safer place for us all.

those who decried the inconvenience of the exercise ought to be dragged out of their beds and made to stand in the rain for being so unappreciative. hehe…

great world city

met up with johann and diane at great world city… wanted to pass diane the anne geddes wall calendar that i bought for her at the sale.

their saturday routine is to have lunch there with janelle and diane’s mum, followed by kiddy rides for janelle and finishing with grocery shopping at cold storage.

today, i learnt which are janelle’s favourite shops at great world city and her favourite ride there as well. now i even know her favourite toy at her favourite shop!

although she was running all over the place and being a handful generally, she’s still refuses to let me carry her. guess i need to buy more cookies. :P haha…

new look @ capital tower

my first workout of the year and the first time i’m at the capital tower gym since the re-opening on the 3rd after the renovations.

had not been working out regularly in december… partly because i had been busy at work, shopping for presents and laziness. not to mention that capital tower was closed for about 10 days.

feels good to workout again… pushed myself a bit. oh man, think my muscles are going to ache for more than a few days. :(

the newly renovated gym now has a more consistent look with the rest of the branches and a welcomed addition of the drinks bar. yeah!

any downside? i miss my channel 5 and 8 programmes on the tv screens. :(

c-jade express @ wisma

met up with alex for dinner… since he doesn’t have a dinner place in mind, i suggested the new c-jade express.

fortunately we were able to get a table easily, but had to share the table when it got crowded later.

the café operates on the now popular mode of placing your orders and paying at the counter while the food will be served later at the table. the difference here is instead of specifying your table number as practised at café cartel, you collect some number tags similar to mos burger to display on your table.

find that this is a less efficient way of serving the food as the staff have to go round and round looking for the number tags. would have been faster if they just have to serve it to the correct table numbers.

alex ordered the barbequed meat set that comes with a choice of 2 meats, a side serving of vegetables and a small serving of soup. while i had the grilled pork chop set that comes with a choice of soft drink. frankly, i’m disappointed with the pork chop. it’s neither tender nor tasty.

i also ordered black pepper potato wedges that does not even have a hint of black pepper. the texture of the wedges tasted like they’ve been boiled in water before they were deep-fried.

what could be worse? the wedges were not even warm!

and i regretted ordering the milk tea… it was too sweet and tasted like the teh tarik i can get for free from my office vending machine! argghh…

overall, i’m rather disappointed with the items that i tried today at c-jade express. it doesn’t seem to have meet the standards that i’ve come to expect from the crystal jade group of restaurants.

happy new year

hope you folks had a great time counting down the last hours of 2005 and welcoming 2006.

i was pretty bored at home so after dinner i went to sk's place to catch up and he plied me with drinks... argh... now i'm having a hangover.

it has been such a long time since i had drunk this much. and i don't usually have hangovers... that's not to say that i'm a good drinker, i just don't usually drink enough to have one as i seldom have more than 2 or 3 drinks a night.

so have you made your resolutions for the new year?

well, for lazy me... my resolution is always to be a better person every year. it's sounds like one of the those vague but feel-good kind of new year resolution. but i truly mean it and believe that no matter who or what you're now, you can always improve on yourself.

oh well, i guess i'm an eternal optimist...

i also resolve to spend more time with my family and friends because i know that one can never take things for granted and expect them to be there for you always.

lastly, i should also resolve to workout and attend my yoga classes more diligently so that i can eat more of my favourite desserts and cakes more often. hehe...

let's toast to more good times in 2006 for one and all!

ps: to my loyal blog-readers, i'll fill in the "missing" days for the last week or so of entries when i can find the time. :)