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. :)