Christmas was a quiet affair this year. I didn't even go to church cos its extremely crowded. so on Xmas eve, my dad brought me n my mum to Golden Mile for dinner. Its a place serving steamboat, zi char and chicken rice. we ordered a steamboat set for 3, 5 dollars of chicken and rice to share. yummy yummy... the steamboat ingredients were fresh and clean, the chicken was oh so smooth, can even rival the famous boon tong kee! the satay was bit disappointing though.
Sunday, went over to my grandma's place for dinner. it was to gather for the "dong zhi". we do it every year. but b4 gog over, i made cheesecake for the gals and made almond cookies using my fourth grandaunt's recipie. when we came back, i was bz decorating n trimming the cake to make it look nicer.
On Monday, the gals came over. winn wasn't free so she didn't come. we had pizza and. yummy yummy... although i didn't eat the whole slice of holly jolly pizza cos of the peppery sause base, i took the crust only, it was soooo cheesy n yummy, great for cheese lovers! the chicken came hot n piping, so it was yummy too. i love hot n piping kfc chicken, hate it cold... i cleaned up the whipped potato and coleslaw, yummy yummy... dinner was steamboat and bbq at marina south. mum say never ever wana go again, cos we came back stinking. its been quite some time i last went there already.
Tuesday was my chemo. amazingly, i passed my blood test the first time round. usually, i'd have to take a booster and go back another day for chemo. so tuesday was a sotong, blur blur day for me...as usual, after chemo, went home sleep till dinner time, but not much appetite aso. received a surprise from my thai ex-colleagues. they had sent me a new year's card with a little gift from p'kae. it was a pair of teddy bears, gal n boy, wearing denim clothings, soooooo cute! Hopefully this would be my last chemo session. in 2 weeks time, i have to go for another scan b4 dr hwang confirms if i'm off chemo already or not. so the joy of finishing chemo before new year will only be known after new year...
Ystday made cookies again. made almond cookies again and tried sugee cookies. sugee cookies were successful, so happy! so since after baking it was kinda late, we went out for dinner. went to the porridge buffet place at kiliney road. they braised items are always there everyday, but the rest of the dishes changes. the braised items ystday were not up to the usual standard, but the cucumber with fishball, braised duck, steamed chicken with braised sauce, fried chicken wing and stir-fry spinach were good. for about 10 per person, its really a good bargain... been there a souple of times already. but i was "lousy" ystday cos i did not ate as much as i could usually whn i'm there.
today, sis came back from taiwan. helped her packed goodies for properly for her friends, mum's frds and relatives. the pineapple cookies she brought back were yummy! when its my turn to go taiwan?
Warning / Disclaimer: As they always say "Entries are blogger's own thoughts & does not represent Blogspot's stand... You may be addicted or offended by the following rants, so carry on at your own risk... Feel free to leave your two-dollars worth by leaving a comment or Screaming at me...
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
All I want for Christmas
As we inch closer and closer to Christmas and rejoice once again for the birth of the Holy One, there are so so many things that are just running thru me. hence, the sleepless nite and another of those "early morning" entries.
Dear asked me what i want for xmas. to me rite now, nothing else material will satisfy. During the last one and a half years, many things has happened adn i only hope God will grant me 2 xmas wishes.
1. Health for everyone ard me, my frds, family, relatives, distant relatives, dear and his family, etc...
2. Dear and I will be a loving couple rite till the end of time or our lives, whichever is earlier.
During this one and a half years, both my grandmas got to have their breast removed. in this entry i toked about my downs n my dad's mum and how i n my cousin are freaked out. ironically, i'm down with nose cancer, not breast cancer. next week, my mum's mum is scheduled for the op and weeks of radiotherapy will follow. now that when i'm almost thru n done with it, it seems to be coming back all over again, but to my mum's mum. I'm totally freaked out and worry for all my grandaunts and aunties. toked to my mum a little, seems like my dad did a somewhat like a tumour marking test for breast cancer, but he passed. will it skip one generation? and thru this i know a secret that has been kept from me for 24 years, my mum is adopted. so, although my parents are cousins and my dad passed the test, i shouldn't be that freaked out. but by strictly blood relations, its my grandma n grandaunt who are victims already. I wouldn't want to see another victim to any ladies of my entire extended family. but, i'm still freaked out.
How it started... apparently there was a free checkup by NKF for frequent donors or something like that. my mum, aunt and grandma went. n that was when it was discovered my grandma's tumor marker was high. but it was "traced" to her kidney n liver and CT scan did show something there. n while waiting for further scheduled test and scans for her kidney n liver, she felt pain in her breast. and that was how her breast cancer was discovered. about her kidney and liver, still yet to know the seriousness of it.
Live life to the fullest, how true is that. today, my mum n i went to ntuc to get some groceries. on the way back, we took a cab. whn the taxi driver heard, sunset way, he immediately toked abt the owner of chin huat live seafood and how young he was to die at the age of 52. he said, ren sheng duan duan ji shi nian, jin tian bu dong ming tian shi (life is a short span of tens of years, today u would not know what will happen tmr). live life like its the last day, that would how i wana tell myself from now on and how i wana tell my kids in future. God let me escaped death, I dun wana be so close to it once again so soon. i can never ever forget the look on my radiologist's face when he saw my PET scan and said he wanted me to have chemo straight away.
Dear asked me what i want for xmas. to me rite now, nothing else material will satisfy. During the last one and a half years, many things has happened adn i only hope God will grant me 2 xmas wishes.
1. Health for everyone ard me, my frds, family, relatives, distant relatives, dear and his family, etc...
2. Dear and I will be a loving couple rite till the end of time or our lives, whichever is earlier.
During this one and a half years, both my grandmas got to have their breast removed. in this entry i toked about my downs n my dad's mum and how i n my cousin are freaked out. ironically, i'm down with nose cancer, not breast cancer. next week, my mum's mum is scheduled for the op and weeks of radiotherapy will follow. now that when i'm almost thru n done with it, it seems to be coming back all over again, but to my mum's mum. I'm totally freaked out and worry for all my grandaunts and aunties. toked to my mum a little, seems like my dad did a somewhat like a tumour marking test for breast cancer, but he passed. will it skip one generation? and thru this i know a secret that has been kept from me for 24 years, my mum is adopted. so, although my parents are cousins and my dad passed the test, i shouldn't be that freaked out. but by strictly blood relations, its my grandma n grandaunt who are victims already. I wouldn't want to see another victim to any ladies of my entire extended family. but, i'm still freaked out.
How it started... apparently there was a free checkup by NKF for frequent donors or something like that. my mum, aunt and grandma went. n that was when it was discovered my grandma's tumor marker was high. but it was "traced" to her kidney n liver and CT scan did show something there. n while waiting for further scheduled test and scans for her kidney n liver, she felt pain in her breast. and that was how her breast cancer was discovered. about her kidney and liver, still yet to know the seriousness of it.
Live life to the fullest, how true is that. today, my mum n i went to ntuc to get some groceries. on the way back, we took a cab. whn the taxi driver heard, sunset way, he immediately toked abt the owner of chin huat live seafood and how young he was to die at the age of 52. he said, ren sheng duan duan ji shi nian, jin tian bu dong ming tian shi (life is a short span of tens of years, today u would not know what will happen tmr). live life like its the last day, that would how i wana tell myself from now on and how i wana tell my kids in future. God let me escaped death, I dun wana be so close to it once again so soon. i can never ever forget the look on my radiologist's face when he saw my PET scan and said he wanted me to have chemo straight away.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Mango Sales!
For the past week, i been trying to finish up the cross stitch for my mum's frd. at last it was done and completed a few hours ago. nothing much happened in the past week except this... boring week i guess, sew n sew... only today was exciting...
was supposed to have chemo on wednesday, but white blood cell count low, so given booster n was back at the clinic today supposingly for treatment. but after discussion with dr hwang, it was decided that i'll have chemo on monday.
cos if i would have to do chemo today, then 23rd would be the next dose and then i'll not be energetic enough for the xmas wkend. although the 2nd dose can always be delayed to the 27th, we would only be left with 2 days to play "catch up" cos the "resting" period between the 2 doses of each course is a maximum of 13 days. which is kinda risky considering i always have low white blood cell count. So, on monday, it would be better cos anyway, i can only start the 2nd dose on 27th, so the timing is just nice...
Hehe... Mango sales started...
so, since no chemo today, i indulged in one of my fave things-to-do. Mango was having sale since ystday, so i took the opportunity to walk ard the Mango in isetan wisma. usually during sales period, i cant find clothes of my size, but i spent a total of 253 bucks today... n including a skirt my mum picked for my sis, it was a grand total of 319. yikes! i cant imagine how much would it be at original price even wif 5% discount with my Mango card. the scary thing was i stepped into Mango at 10.45am, within a span of 5-10 minutes, i think more than 40 pple stepped into the area. talking abt 5 minutes early, i'm always so lucky. *beams*
Tip for everyone during Mango sales:
- always remember what sizes u wear. it would be easier to try on clothing later as u can only bring in 5 pieces at a time. n since u can only bring in 5 pieces at a time, knowing what size u r, u can avoid bringing different sizes of the same design in to try, hence wasting time.
- grab whtever u think is nice. there's simply no time for u to slowly walk round the shop once n thn go back for that piece. u might not even find your size. put it this way, Mango sales are machiam warehouse sales. sometimes certain designs may not have certain sizes.
- if it suits u after trying, hold on to the piece. this is to facilitate those on budget to shortlist later clothings thy wana buy and clothings thy dun wan to.
- for outer layers of clothings like jackets, cardigans, slip-ons, dun bother going to the fitting room to try.
- go round islandwide. when there isnt sales, some designs can only be found at certain outlets. dun take for granted that the larger the Mango store is, the more designs they carry, WRONG! some smaller stores carry designs not avaliable in the bigger outlets. its the same for sales period. so move around to c other designs u dun see. if you like a certain design but no size, try another outlet cos thy dun chk stock during sales period.
- Mango has different ranges, sportswear, basics, casual, blah blah. basics by far have the most discount. so during the norm period, u kinda like a piece, but not despo to get it, wait for the sales period. but if u really really really like it so much, get it on the spot, dun wait for sales cos even if there's the design, there might not have yr size. even if there's your size, it might not be the colour u want.
- Go every few days to check stock. cos they do replenish. there might not have yr size today, there might be a few days later once they get stock from the warehouse.
- for petite size people, try not to wait for sales period to get the clohtes u really like. majority of the sizes left are for S-M and above. but if u really wana wait for sales, try the first few days, the XXS-XS sizes are still avaliable in a handful. for eg, particular design in particular colour has 10 pieces hanging, but only 1 or 2 would be XXS-XS, the rest would be S-M and above. getting 253 bucks of XXS-XS clothings on the 2nd day of sale is already considered heng...
but really, mango sales is really worth waiting for. 319 bucks for 2 skirts, 4 tops, 1 cardigan and 1 slip on.
got a call this evening from p'kae... chatted with her for a while. it been quite a while since we last talked. they received the chocolates on tuesday. stupid post office, so slow, they told me 3 working days, turned out to be 5 working days instead.
time to zzz...
was supposed to have chemo on wednesday, but white blood cell count low, so given booster n was back at the clinic today supposingly for treatment. but after discussion with dr hwang, it was decided that i'll have chemo on monday.
cos if i would have to do chemo today, then 23rd would be the next dose and then i'll not be energetic enough for the xmas wkend. although the 2nd dose can always be delayed to the 27th, we would only be left with 2 days to play "catch up" cos the "resting" period between the 2 doses of each course is a maximum of 13 days. which is kinda risky considering i always have low white blood cell count. So, on monday, it would be better cos anyway, i can only start the 2nd dose on 27th, so the timing is just nice...
Hehe... Mango sales started...
so, since no chemo today, i indulged in one of my fave things-to-do. Mango was having sale since ystday, so i took the opportunity to walk ard the Mango in isetan wisma. usually during sales period, i cant find clothes of my size, but i spent a total of 253 bucks today... n including a skirt my mum picked for my sis, it was a grand total of 319. yikes! i cant imagine how much would it be at original price even wif 5% discount with my Mango card. the scary thing was i stepped into Mango at 10.45am, within a span of 5-10 minutes, i think more than 40 pple stepped into the area. talking abt 5 minutes early, i'm always so lucky. *beams*
Tip for everyone during Mango sales:
- always remember what sizes u wear. it would be easier to try on clothing later as u can only bring in 5 pieces at a time. n since u can only bring in 5 pieces at a time, knowing what size u r, u can avoid bringing different sizes of the same design in to try, hence wasting time.
- grab whtever u think is nice. there's simply no time for u to slowly walk round the shop once n thn go back for that piece. u might not even find your size. put it this way, Mango sales are machiam warehouse sales. sometimes certain designs may not have certain sizes.
- if it suits u after trying, hold on to the piece. this is to facilitate those on budget to shortlist later clothings thy wana buy and clothings thy dun wan to.
- for outer layers of clothings like jackets, cardigans, slip-ons, dun bother going to the fitting room to try.
- go round islandwide. when there isnt sales, some designs can only be found at certain outlets. dun take for granted that the larger the Mango store is, the more designs they carry, WRONG! some smaller stores carry designs not avaliable in the bigger outlets. its the same for sales period. so move around to c other designs u dun see. if you like a certain design but no size, try another outlet cos thy dun chk stock during sales period.
- Mango has different ranges, sportswear, basics, casual, blah blah. basics by far have the most discount. so during the norm period, u kinda like a piece, but not despo to get it, wait for the sales period. but if u really really really like it so much, get it on the spot, dun wait for sales cos even if there's the design, there might not have yr size. even if there's your size, it might not be the colour u want.
- Go every few days to check stock. cos they do replenish. there might not have yr size today, there might be a few days later once they get stock from the warehouse.
- for petite size people, try not to wait for sales period to get the clohtes u really like. majority of the sizes left are for S-M and above. but if u really wana wait for sales, try the first few days, the XXS-XS sizes are still avaliable in a handful. for eg, particular design in particular colour has 10 pieces hanging, but only 1 or 2 would be XXS-XS, the rest would be S-M and above. getting 253 bucks of XXS-XS clothings on the 2nd day of sale is already considered heng...
but really, mango sales is really worth waiting for. 319 bucks for 2 skirts, 4 tops, 1 cardigan and 1 slip on.
got a call this evening from p'kae... chatted with her for a while. it been quite a while since we last talked. they received the chocolates on tuesday. stupid post office, so slow, they told me 3 working days, turned out to be 5 working days instead.
time to zzz...
Sunday, December 11, 2005
1st cheesecake failure
Forgot to mention in the last entry about my raspberry cheesecake i made aft lining the fruits on the baked cheesecake i made for my mum's ex-colleagues... First time i failed soooooooo badly!
It was a chilled cheesecake and i wanted to make the raspberry swirls in the cake so that it would look like the ones sold in secret recipe. the fresh raspberries bought were sourish and raspberries have lots n lots of seeds, so my plan was to make seedless and not so sourish swirls in the cake. the right thing i did was to dilligently mash the raspberries thru a mesh to puree it. but the wrong thing i did was to add the raspberry jam directly into the puree without putting it thru the mesh to take out the seeds. turn out there were some seeds, thus the texture, to my expectations, wasn't tt smooth afterall...
The recipe i had called for the raspberry puree to be mixed thoroughly into the cheesecake, not "swirled" in. so the gelatine was meant for the entire cake, including the raspberry puree. the mistake i made this time was not dividing the gelatine portion into half to stabalise both the cake and the swirls. after chilling the cake overnight, the swirls were still watery cos there wasn't any gelatine to stabalise it. spoilt the entire cake cos the watery swirls separated the cake into layers. i cut a slice to try and it was a torture eating it...
so today evening, i took the cake n separated it from the base. i threw the base away and made a new one. after standing the cake in a mixing bowl for a while, i mixed it. no more "creative" swirls, mixing it thoroughly just like how the recipe called for.
Now, it does not taste that bad already, but i definately could use a little less raspberry jam and a little more fresh raspberry. too sweet, no oomph of cheese...
It was a chilled cheesecake and i wanted to make the raspberry swirls in the cake so that it would look like the ones sold in secret recipe. the fresh raspberries bought were sourish and raspberries have lots n lots of seeds, so my plan was to make seedless and not so sourish swirls in the cake. the right thing i did was to dilligently mash the raspberries thru a mesh to puree it. but the wrong thing i did was to add the raspberry jam directly into the puree without putting it thru the mesh to take out the seeds. turn out there were some seeds, thus the texture, to my expectations, wasn't tt smooth afterall...
The recipe i had called for the raspberry puree to be mixed thoroughly into the cheesecake, not "swirled" in. so the gelatine was meant for the entire cake, including the raspberry puree. the mistake i made this time was not dividing the gelatine portion into half to stabalise both the cake and the swirls. after chilling the cake overnight, the swirls were still watery cos there wasn't any gelatine to stabalise it. spoilt the entire cake cos the watery swirls separated the cake into layers. i cut a slice to try and it was a torture eating it...
so today evening, i took the cake n separated it from the base. i threw the base away and made a new one. after standing the cake in a mixing bowl for a while, i mixed it. no more "creative" swirls, mixing it thoroughly just like how the recipe called for.
Now, it does not taste that bad already, but i definately could use a little less raspberry jam and a little more fresh raspberry. too sweet, no oomph of cheese...
Friday, December 09, 2005
Fruit cake, Chicken Little, shopping, Man U disappoints...
lazy lazy me will equate to a long long quite/very long entry...
Sunday: woke up late. then got my dad to drive me to the supermarket to get some ingredients for baking a xmas fruit cake minus the alcohol. whn i came back, i started to chop the cherries, walnuts and apricots. by the time i finish, it was already dinner time. so dinner first thn bake cake! cake took a total of 4+ hours to finish baking including preparation. by the time we finished it was already abt 12 midnight.
the cake turned out not bad. it had the taste and oomph of a fruit cake, but all fruits sinked to the bottom! i reckon the batter was not heavy enough, thus must add a bit more flour. the top of the cake was also very very dry. so either must add more apple juice or cut down baking timing...
Monday: dear took leave again. but it was a bad day. not as happy as the other days dear took leave to accompany me. we left the house to have lunch at food republic. all was fine till we reached food republic about 1pm...
i wanted to try the noodles at one of the restaurants there. it was the chinese restaurant n i was quite gian on the soy sauce chicken noodle. since there wasn't any seats in the "common" area, we decided to sit in the restaurant itself n dear would get somthing from the restaurant. as we enter, we simply sat down n i went to get my food first while dear remained in out seats to reserve the place. i ordered hor fun instead, got my food, carried my tray n made my way back to the seat. on the way back, i saw the lady captain ushering dear to another seat saying the place we were occupying was actually for a place for 4. n after we shifted seats, she started to place towels n our tables and said it was complusory for these and drinks. at this point, dear asked if there was service charge, i knew what he was thinking... cos i was thinking the same too.
when we entered the restaurant n sat down, NO ONE bothered to come and serve us, asking how many people, blah blah like how normally restaurants would. i bought the food n carried the tray MYSELF, even after being ushered to new seats. NO ONE bothered to carry the tray for me. after sitting down, no apologies nothing, just shoved us the towels n drinks. if i wasn't hungry almost to the gastric extent, i would have gave the tray to the lady captain n walked off with me dear.
so since there was no service charge, i n dear open one eye closed one eye. dear started to order his duck noodles and a dumpling soup for us to share. that's when dear got a bit pissed. i was pissed too, but had to act nothing, cannot add fuel to fire... hehe... i'm a very very slow eater, exteremely slow. i can be the first to start eating but the last to finish. i took at least 25 minutes to finish my plate of noodles. when i was having my last few bites, dear's food came... my goodness...
dear refused to accept the food, making the manager to bring back to the kitchen. in the end, we did not use the towels too and the manager took them back. in the end, we were only charged for the drinks.
we made our way to cineleisure to collect the tickets n walked around to find a place for dear to eat. i got distracted by zhuan zhuan again... this time round, it was chicken little. there were 2 machines, one on 3rd floor which was empty, one at basement was could not accept any coins. by the time we settled down at the sushi place in cineleisure, it was already 2pm. it was such a coincidence that Jen was there with her frd too, and were seated opposite us with the converyer belt in between. the movie was at 2.30. so dear quickly ordered udon, a handroll and tempura. while waiting for his orders to come, i mouth itchy, n grabbed 2 plates to eat. chatted a bit with Jen too. we waited n waited till 2.25... no sign of food. so we got the pple to count the 2 miserable plates n got out fast. suggested we get popcorn or nachos or something, but dear said he was not hungry. i bought drinks while dear we to the toilet. when we entered the cinema, it was already pitch black. less than 5 trailers later, the movie started showing...
so excited to watch the movie! so excited to c chicken little! soooooo cute! the movie wasnt as good as the chicken itself. basically i only enjoyed watching the cute fella, not watching the movie. the incredibles was better... after the movie, i bought LJS shrimps and fries and we made our way home. dear went home for dinner only coming over again to look for his newspapers.
Tuesday: went walk walk with my sis. first stop, cineleisure, main focus, to zhuan zhuan for chicken little! haha... but we had lunch first. i had chicken chop spaghetti. a bit regret, chould have asked for the rice instead. anyway, after lunch, tried to zhuan zhuan again, but the 2 machines still out of order. my sis tried for other stuff as well.
next stop, plaza singapura to look at mickey mouse tees and to check with starhub regarding the free tv giveaway... on the way, we stopped at OG orchard point to buy snacks! at plaza sing, no nice tees, so din buy anything. but mouth itchy, bought a box of double cheese takopachi and share with my sis. yummy! loads of bacon wrapped in flourball! loads of cheese too! but i think they accidently switch off the power for the heater for the cheese cos the cheese was cold n lumpy...
then we made out way to suntec. also to zhuan zhuan. we at last got out chicken littles and other charmy kitties and my melody handphone accessories. we spent about 45 bucks, damn our luck was bad... bought a scoop of ben n jerry's coffee ice cream which was so yummy yummy and crossed the road to milenia walk to candy empire. there, i got a box of chocolates for my thai ex-colleauges and proceeded to our next stop, marina square.
at marina we shopped ard, walked ard. i bought a t-shirt and a keychain that had a glove, baseball and bat on it. then we sat down to wait for our parents to join us for dinner. i had a cup of tea while my sis looked thru her zhuan zhuans... when my parents came, we had dinner at sakae sushi. Dunno if its just for marina square outlet, but its quality has gone up. after dinner, i showed my mum a top i saw at esprit but she had no confidence of altering it, so did not buy in the end. thn i bought a pair of shoes too. by the time we reached home, it was already 9+.
after online for a while, watch tv, blah blah, i tried to take a nap to wake up to watch the chelsea liverpool match. but i cloudnt sleep so stayed up all the way. it was a boring 0-0 draw. thn i went to sleep... or rather nap... cos...
Wednesday: woke up late. too sleepy i guess. it was already 8.45 when i woke up. rushed to bath. just then, my sis woke up too n says she wana come along. by the time we left the house for the clinic, it was already 10. had to go clinic for blood test although it was rest week.
time spent at the clinic this time round was longer then usual cos the nurses were very bz. when i was walking ard, i realised why they were so bz cos it was almost full house, so many people have their chemos. after my bood test, as usual, my white blood cell count was low... so i was given a booster. went for lunch at food republic again... hehe... this time round i had economical rice. mum had yong tau foo n sis tried the kway chap. the kway chap was not bad but my economical rice was just the avg, the kind where u eat, but not comment cos there are no comments at all. the moment i drank my sis kway chap soup, i was like, "quite good leh", now tt's the difference...
after lunch, walked ard at isetan a bit thn walked over to the post office at taka to post the chocolates to thailand. after that, we made our way to the supermarket to get some stuff cos my mum wanted me to bake a cheesecake for her ex-colleagues. then mum went home on her own first while i n sis went to bugis to get her bag.
upon reaching home, i went straight into action. took out the cream cheese n butter to thaw. did the base and let it set in the fridge. measured the rest of the ingredients, blend blend, bake bake. timing was just nice, cheesecake done by dinner time. left to cool down at room temperature while having dinner. when grocery shopping was done in the afternoon with mum, i forgot abt the canned peaches and strawberries. so after dinner, i left the cheesecake in the fridge to chill n dad drove us out to buy. n of cos, since i was doing the shopping, we ended up with things not targetted for! haha... anyway, the strawberries were 15 bucks for a 250g pack and apprently from korea. not that we have a choice, they are the only strawberries avaliable.
upon reaching home, i started to place the fruits on top of the cheesecake. and while cutting the strawberries, i knew why they cost 15 bucks! they were so damn bloody sweet! i told my mum, from now onwards, we shall buy only 15 bucks strawberries and she laughed. within 5 minutes, the strawberries were in our stomachs. the usual strawberries would not be done in 5 minutes. maybe 3 days instead, cos we would only eat about 2 at a time, too sour...
stayed up again for the man u match. called dear to wake him up. damn disappointing. lost 2-1 to benfica, ended up last in the group and exited from the champions league. since man u placed last, cannot even quali for uefa. the most disappointing european competition from them since i supported them when i was in secondary 2, about a decade already... scholes put us ahead in the 6th minute, but we could not hold onto the lead... sigh sigh...
Thursday: quiet day today... continued with the cross stitch for my mum's frd while watching tvb serials. dun think i have ever mentioned abt tvb actress, myolie wu hang ee, hu xin er in chinese.
all along, i preferred to watch tvb cantonese dramas in cantonese not chinese but would never spent money renting or buying vcds or video tapes. then i started to like her after watching her act as a girl who's low in iq. from then now, i started to buy the vcds of the serials she's in n watch them in cantonese. usually these vcds are only avaliable after the serials starts showing on cable. so i would watch in chinese first on cable, then in cantonese on vcds. then finally the serial would be on a hong kong channel, tvbj on cable, and i would watch again... haha... its only after i started to like her, then i got crazy over the tvb serials vcds...
Sunday: woke up late. then got my dad to drive me to the supermarket to get some ingredients for baking a xmas fruit cake minus the alcohol. whn i came back, i started to chop the cherries, walnuts and apricots. by the time i finish, it was already dinner time. so dinner first thn bake cake! cake took a total of 4+ hours to finish baking including preparation. by the time we finished it was already abt 12 midnight.
the cake turned out not bad. it had the taste and oomph of a fruit cake, but all fruits sinked to the bottom! i reckon the batter was not heavy enough, thus must add a bit more flour. the top of the cake was also very very dry. so either must add more apple juice or cut down baking timing...
Monday: dear took leave again. but it was a bad day. not as happy as the other days dear took leave to accompany me. we left the house to have lunch at food republic. all was fine till we reached food republic about 1pm...
i wanted to try the noodles at one of the restaurants there. it was the chinese restaurant n i was quite gian on the soy sauce chicken noodle. since there wasn't any seats in the "common" area, we decided to sit in the restaurant itself n dear would get somthing from the restaurant. as we enter, we simply sat down n i went to get my food first while dear remained in out seats to reserve the place. i ordered hor fun instead, got my food, carried my tray n made my way back to the seat. on the way back, i saw the lady captain ushering dear to another seat saying the place we were occupying was actually for a place for 4. n after we shifted seats, she started to place towels n our tables and said it was complusory for these and drinks. at this point, dear asked if there was service charge, i knew what he was thinking... cos i was thinking the same too.
when we entered the restaurant n sat down, NO ONE bothered to come and serve us, asking how many people, blah blah like how normally restaurants would. i bought the food n carried the tray MYSELF, even after being ushered to new seats. NO ONE bothered to carry the tray for me. after sitting down, no apologies nothing, just shoved us the towels n drinks. if i wasn't hungry almost to the gastric extent, i would have gave the tray to the lady captain n walked off with me dear.
so since there was no service charge, i n dear open one eye closed one eye. dear started to order his duck noodles and a dumpling soup for us to share. that's when dear got a bit pissed. i was pissed too, but had to act nothing, cannot add fuel to fire... hehe... i'm a very very slow eater, exteremely slow. i can be the first to start eating but the last to finish. i took at least 25 minutes to finish my plate of noodles. when i was having my last few bites, dear's food came... my goodness...
dear refused to accept the food, making the manager to bring back to the kitchen. in the end, we did not use the towels too and the manager took them back. in the end, we were only charged for the drinks.
we made our way to cineleisure to collect the tickets n walked around to find a place for dear to eat. i got distracted by zhuan zhuan again... this time round, it was chicken little. there were 2 machines, one on 3rd floor which was empty, one at basement was could not accept any coins. by the time we settled down at the sushi place in cineleisure, it was already 2pm. it was such a coincidence that Jen was there with her frd too, and were seated opposite us with the converyer belt in between. the movie was at 2.30. so dear quickly ordered udon, a handroll and tempura. while waiting for his orders to come, i mouth itchy, n grabbed 2 plates to eat. chatted a bit with Jen too. we waited n waited till 2.25... no sign of food. so we got the pple to count the 2 miserable plates n got out fast. suggested we get popcorn or nachos or something, but dear said he was not hungry. i bought drinks while dear we to the toilet. when we entered the cinema, it was already pitch black. less than 5 trailers later, the movie started showing...
so excited to watch the movie! so excited to c chicken little! soooooo cute! the movie wasnt as good as the chicken itself. basically i only enjoyed watching the cute fella, not watching the movie. the incredibles was better... after the movie, i bought LJS shrimps and fries and we made our way home. dear went home for dinner only coming over again to look for his newspapers.
Tuesday: went walk walk with my sis. first stop, cineleisure, main focus, to zhuan zhuan for chicken little! haha... but we had lunch first. i had chicken chop spaghetti. a bit regret, chould have asked for the rice instead. anyway, after lunch, tried to zhuan zhuan again, but the 2 machines still out of order. my sis tried for other stuff as well.
next stop, plaza singapura to look at mickey mouse tees and to check with starhub regarding the free tv giveaway... on the way, we stopped at OG orchard point to buy snacks! at plaza sing, no nice tees, so din buy anything. but mouth itchy, bought a box of double cheese takopachi and share with my sis. yummy! loads of bacon wrapped in flourball! loads of cheese too! but i think they accidently switch off the power for the heater for the cheese cos the cheese was cold n lumpy...
then we made out way to suntec. also to zhuan zhuan. we at last got out chicken littles and other charmy kitties and my melody handphone accessories. we spent about 45 bucks, damn our luck was bad... bought a scoop of ben n jerry's coffee ice cream which was so yummy yummy and crossed the road to milenia walk to candy empire. there, i got a box of chocolates for my thai ex-colleauges and proceeded to our next stop, marina square.
at marina we shopped ard, walked ard. i bought a t-shirt and a keychain that had a glove, baseball and bat on it. then we sat down to wait for our parents to join us for dinner. i had a cup of tea while my sis looked thru her zhuan zhuans... when my parents came, we had dinner at sakae sushi. Dunno if its just for marina square outlet, but its quality has gone up. after dinner, i showed my mum a top i saw at esprit but she had no confidence of altering it, so did not buy in the end. thn i bought a pair of shoes too. by the time we reached home, it was already 9+.
after online for a while, watch tv, blah blah, i tried to take a nap to wake up to watch the chelsea liverpool match. but i cloudnt sleep so stayed up all the way. it was a boring 0-0 draw. thn i went to sleep... or rather nap... cos...
Wednesday: woke up late. too sleepy i guess. it was already 8.45 when i woke up. rushed to bath. just then, my sis woke up too n says she wana come along. by the time we left the house for the clinic, it was already 10. had to go clinic for blood test although it was rest week.
time spent at the clinic this time round was longer then usual cos the nurses were very bz. when i was walking ard, i realised why they were so bz cos it was almost full house, so many people have their chemos. after my bood test, as usual, my white blood cell count was low... so i was given a booster. went for lunch at food republic again... hehe... this time round i had economical rice. mum had yong tau foo n sis tried the kway chap. the kway chap was not bad but my economical rice was just the avg, the kind where u eat, but not comment cos there are no comments at all. the moment i drank my sis kway chap soup, i was like, "quite good leh", now tt's the difference...
after lunch, walked ard at isetan a bit thn walked over to the post office at taka to post the chocolates to thailand. after that, we made our way to the supermarket to get some stuff cos my mum wanted me to bake a cheesecake for her ex-colleagues. then mum went home on her own first while i n sis went to bugis to get her bag.
upon reaching home, i went straight into action. took out the cream cheese n butter to thaw. did the base and let it set in the fridge. measured the rest of the ingredients, blend blend, bake bake. timing was just nice, cheesecake done by dinner time. left to cool down at room temperature while having dinner. when grocery shopping was done in the afternoon with mum, i forgot abt the canned peaches and strawberries. so after dinner, i left the cheesecake in the fridge to chill n dad drove us out to buy. n of cos, since i was doing the shopping, we ended up with things not targetted for! haha... anyway, the strawberries were 15 bucks for a 250g pack and apprently from korea. not that we have a choice, they are the only strawberries avaliable.
upon reaching home, i started to place the fruits on top of the cheesecake. and while cutting the strawberries, i knew why they cost 15 bucks! they were so damn bloody sweet! i told my mum, from now onwards, we shall buy only 15 bucks strawberries and she laughed. within 5 minutes, the strawberries were in our stomachs. the usual strawberries would not be done in 5 minutes. maybe 3 days instead, cos we would only eat about 2 at a time, too sour...
stayed up again for the man u match. called dear to wake him up. damn disappointing. lost 2-1 to benfica, ended up last in the group and exited from the champions league. since man u placed last, cannot even quali for uefa. the most disappointing european competition from them since i supported them when i was in secondary 2, about a decade already... scholes put us ahead in the 6th minute, but we could not hold onto the lead... sigh sigh...
Thursday: quiet day today... continued with the cross stitch for my mum's frd while watching tvb serials. dun think i have ever mentioned abt tvb actress, myolie wu hang ee, hu xin er in chinese.
all along, i preferred to watch tvb cantonese dramas in cantonese not chinese but would never spent money renting or buying vcds or video tapes. then i started to like her after watching her act as a girl who's low in iq. from then now, i started to buy the vcds of the serials she's in n watch them in cantonese. usually these vcds are only avaliable after the serials starts showing on cable. so i would watch in chinese first on cable, then in cantonese on vcds. then finally the serial would be on a hong kong channel, tvbj on cable, and i would watch again... haha... its only after i started to like her, then i got crazy over the tvb serials vcds...
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Things i hate (Supermarket version)
Been wanting to write about this for months already ever since i'm ill and started to do more grocery shopping rather thn shopping for clothes, shoes, bags, etc...
1. The aisle is mine
How many times do u find pple without "license" to "drive" a trolley. whn thy approach an aisle or rack n stop to look for something, they carelessly leave the trolley parked rite in the middle of the lane. often, all aisles are wide enough for 2 trolleys to pass thru without banging into each other, but with people without common sense n leave their trolleys rite smack in the middle, i dun think so...
2. Mini trolleys
Sometimes, u do have mini trolleys for kids to push ard n do shopping like their adult counterparts or for adults like us who just need little stuff but lazy to carry a basket... however, these trolleys can be a nuisance when they are turned into "dangerous vehicles". how often do u c parents, allowing their kids to push the trolleys ard the supermarket at such a speed it seems that they are racing with each other? more often then not, thy dun bother to restraint their active kids n i cant imagine wht would happen if the mini trolley meets into an "accident" with the norm ones... i myself almost kena knocked so many times already!
3. Kids
Some parents dun love their kids, tt's how i feel. with trolleys n people holding heavy baskets ard, thy leave their kids running ard the supermarket, even without trolleys. when i was younger, my parents always made sure i'm seated on the trolley, if i refused to sit, they made sure i'm either holding their hands or their t-shirt. kids, tt's why they are called, are short. sometimes i cant even c a kid in front of my trolley, so often b4 i move off again, i check to c if any kid is nearby my trolley. dangerous to have kids running ard the supermarket unattended. n when i say excuse me, the parents look at me as though i'm gonna kidnap their kid! if u're so damn afraid, hold on to your kid!
4. Counter hoggers
there is a good reason why the cashier scans items one by one and the prices flashes and its for u to check. soooooo many times, i kena these pple... these pple refuse to look at the prices, preferring to look at how their maids load the trolleys. after they pay the bill, thy stop rite in front of the counter, trolley n maid in tow, not moving aside to check the bill. n i have to "excuse me" to move my trolley to load n to "highlight" to the fella in front of me to shoo off.
5. Fogging
nowadays, freezers have switched from the open top ones to the open doors kind. the doors are all glass, fully transparent. i've seen stupid pple (sorry to say that), opening the freezer door and leaving it open, looking at the items, letting the hot air all go into the freezer, complaining that its cold, not choosing anything at all n close the door. in the end, fogging up the entire freezer that the next person has to do the stupid damn thing in order to find what he/she needs. y cant u just look through the glass door, shortlist a couple of items, open the door, take, close the door, examine to c if its the one, putting back those u dun want. argh...
6. The corner is mine too
before i forget, how many idiots do u often c parking their trolleys at the corner! adoi! jiu ming ah!
7. FIFO
fifo stands for first in first out. some places dun follow that, some do, but only for certain shelvings... sometimes the milk in front says "30th dec" but the milk at the back say "15th dec". so now, i'm a self confessed ugly singaporean who looks thru almost all the expiry dates of the perishables n choose the lastest one... dun blame me...
not tt saying excuse me is difficult, but all these are common sense! n pple guilty can avoid glaring at innocent ones who say excuse me. ohh, i've been stared at soooo many times, that i wonder is excuse me is a vulgarity.
1. The aisle is mine
How many times do u find pple without "license" to "drive" a trolley. whn thy approach an aisle or rack n stop to look for something, they carelessly leave the trolley parked rite in the middle of the lane. often, all aisles are wide enough for 2 trolleys to pass thru without banging into each other, but with people without common sense n leave their trolleys rite smack in the middle, i dun think so...
2. Mini trolleys
Sometimes, u do have mini trolleys for kids to push ard n do shopping like their adult counterparts or for adults like us who just need little stuff but lazy to carry a basket... however, these trolleys can be a nuisance when they are turned into "dangerous vehicles". how often do u c parents, allowing their kids to push the trolleys ard the supermarket at such a speed it seems that they are racing with each other? more often then not, thy dun bother to restraint their active kids n i cant imagine wht would happen if the mini trolley meets into an "accident" with the norm ones... i myself almost kena knocked so many times already!
3. Kids
Some parents dun love their kids, tt's how i feel. with trolleys n people holding heavy baskets ard, thy leave their kids running ard the supermarket, even without trolleys. when i was younger, my parents always made sure i'm seated on the trolley, if i refused to sit, they made sure i'm either holding their hands or their t-shirt. kids, tt's why they are called, are short. sometimes i cant even c a kid in front of my trolley, so often b4 i move off again, i check to c if any kid is nearby my trolley. dangerous to have kids running ard the supermarket unattended. n when i say excuse me, the parents look at me as though i'm gonna kidnap their kid! if u're so damn afraid, hold on to your kid!
4. Counter hoggers
there is a good reason why the cashier scans items one by one and the prices flashes and its for u to check. soooooo many times, i kena these pple... these pple refuse to look at the prices, preferring to look at how their maids load the trolleys. after they pay the bill, thy stop rite in front of the counter, trolley n maid in tow, not moving aside to check the bill. n i have to "excuse me" to move my trolley to load n to "highlight" to the fella in front of me to shoo off.
5. Fogging
nowadays, freezers have switched from the open top ones to the open doors kind. the doors are all glass, fully transparent. i've seen stupid pple (sorry to say that), opening the freezer door and leaving it open, looking at the items, letting the hot air all go into the freezer, complaining that its cold, not choosing anything at all n close the door. in the end, fogging up the entire freezer that the next person has to do the stupid damn thing in order to find what he/she needs. y cant u just look through the glass door, shortlist a couple of items, open the door, take, close the door, examine to c if its the one, putting back those u dun want. argh...
6. The corner is mine too
before i forget, how many idiots do u often c parking their trolleys at the corner! adoi! jiu ming ah!
7. FIFO
fifo stands for first in first out. some places dun follow that, some do, but only for certain shelvings... sometimes the milk in front says "30th dec" but the milk at the back say "15th dec". so now, i'm a self confessed ugly singaporean who looks thru almost all the expiry dates of the perishables n choose the lastest one... dun blame me...
not tt saying excuse me is difficult, but all these are common sense! n pple guilty can avoid glaring at innocent ones who say excuse me. ohh, i've been stared at soooo many times, that i wonder is excuse me is a vulgarity.
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