Capturing those idling moments

Twenty-six letters in the alphabet, never underestimate them, never ever underestimate their power to form words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, passages, chapters and stories...when stringed together, they can possibly impact and change lives.

Wissh...wash...wissh...wash...Sometimes, before we know it, moments would just pass by so quickly, maybe not giving us enough time to savour them, or probably we could still be in such a daze that we are blinded to those little or beautiful things in life. Clear our lenses and enable ourselves to see that garden of beautiful flowers in front of us all the time.

Ever wonder what's at the other end of the tunnel? Ain't we all eager to take a peek? Darkness? Light?...Ever wonder what's like going through the tunnel? What would be our thoughts as we go through it?...Enjoy the ride even though it means going through a pitch dark tunnel.

Stitches

During my secondary school days, I really hated sewing in Home Economics. I seemed to enter the Home Economics room with much fear, with my heart throbbing faster than before. The needles around looked like they were gonna be aimed at me and I would probably be shot in a matter of minutes. Those sewing machines were like monsters, all ready to freak me out and crush me flat. Upon entering the Home Economics room, my Home Economics teacher would be standing at the entrance 'welcoming' us with hands at her waist, all ready to fire at those girls who were not serious and not paying attention. There was heightened tension and dark clouds of fear hovering above us as we made our way to the tables and then to the sewing machines. My hands became clammy as I started working on the sewing machine- the monster, praying very hard that I would not break the needle or there would not be much entanglement. I remember I would always asked Mummy to help with my Home Economics homework at home, ha! Oops, now the whole world knows about this. Well, but I am proud to say that Mummy is good with sewing, well, at least better than her silly daughter :P Anyway, agreed to help in a little project at work to raise funds for kids in Cambodia. Guess what, it's sewing. Well, okie, thought maybe I would give it a try since materials have been provided for. I did and I thought it's kinda not too bad an experience, maybe coz there's no need for sewing machines, heh! Managed to sew five little teddies, their heads :P Not the perfect end product but I am pretty sure every stitch represents my care and good wishes for every child in Cambodia. Hee, how much would you pay for each one of these? Well, to the person who decides to pay for each of these, thank you, I really did my best :)

My neighbour

Strike a pose gal! Ha, a good one, Mrs Ng!

Curry gravy wasn't too bad but the cutlet was not really tender and juicy.

Hmm, vegetables seemed better than the prawns, or well, maybe it's just me.

This was the best! We ordered two sets! Salmon sashimi was real fresh and good!

California maki...pretty decent and ordinary

Fried tofu, hmm...nothing really fantastic about this

This was complimentary. Delicious! Great sauce to go with salmon!

We always find time to meet up even though we don't work together anymore. She is my ex-colleague, my neighbour :) Well, neighbour in the sense her workstation was just next to mine for almost eight years. Heh, can never forget that moment when I told her I was leaving my previous workplace in a cafe at Vivo about two years ago, could see tears in her eyes, made me wanted to tear too...Well, kinda got a little scolding from her too. Neverthless, we told ourselves we will find time to meet up and I must say we have been. She's a good neighbour, we were kinda like listening ears to each other, I am sure there were tough times that we went through, well, there were those silly and crazy moments too. The meeting place nowadays has always been at a makan place, I guess we love to eat. Ya right, then after that, we would lament about how to get rid of those calories and fats :P She thought of having a buffet so I suggested Ikoi Japanese Restaurant at Hotel Miramar coz a current colleague recommended. Hmm, a very simple and small restaurant, cozy and the staff were pretty friendly too. Good value if you are one who loves sashimi, like my neighbour, still cannot believe she ate so much of those salmon, goodness, I am totally impressed (I am saying this for the sixth time?) :P Well, in terms of variety and quality, I think I would still prefer the Japanese restaurant at Greenwood but of course, it's more expensive. Dear Julia, thanks for those times spent together, for the past years and now. Till we meet again, stay funky, hot and pretty! Ha! Hope you like those pictures taken :)

A lazy Monday...or maybe not so

My pride and joy!

It always feels good to hear the sizzling sound of garlic in a frying pan. Seeing them turn golden brown and crispy could bring much delight. Well, let alone having the aroma fill the whole kitchen. Let's see...I think my hands still smell of garlic now, ha :P

I can't live without you - my dear vegetables. I thought I would like to have some broccoli, decided to poach some.

The main character - noodles from Taiwan (from my father's friend). Cooking those for the first time and was wondering how to make it not too soft and well-cooked. I cooked them in boiling water and then transferred them into a sieve to drain. Let tap water run through them before stir frying them with the ingredients. Smart gal! Noodles turned out good, Q enough and right texture!

The ingredients...carefully and meticulously cut. Cabbage to add sweetness, slices of fish cake, shitake, eggs and of course, garlic to add fragrance

Woke up early in the morning near 7am and was wondering if I needed to go to work, can you believe it? Glad that it's supposed to be a holiday and that means I could go back to bed, well, I did! :P Visited Grandma with Mummy, spent some time with her and then headed for lunch and grocery shopping with Mummy (still feeling kinda groggy, probably didn't really sleep well the night before). AMK Hub was infested with people, had problem finding parking, nearly fainted in the extra big supermarket. Towards the late afternoon, really felt I needed some peace and quiet :P

Watched "Julie and Julia" on Sunday, a light-hearted movie. Well, trust me, you will never go wrong with Meryl Streep, she is good. Give her any roles and she can do it well. She played the role of Julia...in search of her passion, joy and direction in life I guess. She found it and she absolutely loved what she's doing - cooking. To be precise, french cooking. She was so determined to master the art of French cooking, I was very much amused by the onion cutting segment of the movie but most of all, I watched Julia with admiration for her courage and much determination in what she was learning. You know, Julia is the kinda of woman one would love to go to for a word of positivity and encouragement, even hearing her laughter would probably bring much sunshine :) Amy Adams did great in her role as Julie too. Still salivating over one of the meals that she prepared...crispy french toast with salsa like juicy tomatoes on top. The way they ate them left me craving for some of those! Maybe I should try cooking those one of these days :P Well, you see, was so inspired by Julie and Julia that I decided to cook dinner. Only myself and Mummy were home so just a simple meal but I did take it seriously :P Here it goes...stir fried noodles with other stuff that I like :P Well, what can I say, there's really joy in mastering the art of cooking :)

Forgive and forget

Miss Tan and myself were 'chatting' via smses about forgiveness late last night. She mentioned in one of her texts that one may forgive but may never forget. Well, I thought that was quite a good point that I have not seemed to think about. We always ask others to forgive and forget but can we really do both at the same time? She's probably right, sometimes, one can never ever forget even if he or she tries very hard to, or maybe it's a choice never to forget...Well, we kinda agreed that it could all boil down to expectations in a friendship or relationship, we all seem to have different expectations of life and people around us. I always feel that when there are expectations, there are bound to be disappointments. Maybe life is really not so much about meeting expectations of others all the time, it could be tiring. The most beautiful thing about a friendship would be having no expectations of each other at all and just enjoy the moments together, I am sure a few of you reading this would agree with me. The focuses of a friendship would be more on care, love and acceptance. It is kinda true that a friendship is like a garden, it needs maintenance. It takes effort to understand and care. If one values true friendship, he or she will not ever allow anything, any issues or anyone to come between or break this valuable friendship that is shared.

"Sometimes the measure of friendship isn't your ability to not harm but your capacity to forgive the things done to you and ask forgiveness for your own mistakes." ~ Randy K. Milholland

It also just came to my mind what a Father had mentioned during Lissa's church wedding some time back. I guess they were words of wisdom for the couple as well as for all of us. He said that there are four phrases (each with three words) that one must always remember and tell your partner even if you are not in the wrong, they are, "I am wrong."... "I am sorry."... "Please forgive me." and "I love you."

Fruity tarty tarts

The mixed fruit tart - real tarty and fruity

Room for some mushrooms?...Crispy but too much of the breaded coating and did not taste much of the sweetness of the mushrooms :P

Was at Raffles City yesterday, thought I must try the tarts at the Fruit Tart Shop. Those tarts seemed so enticing that it could be so difficult to resist them. I have walked past this restaurant a few times. I think there is also one oulet at Orchard Central. Well, since we had a not so heavy dinner last evening, Adeline and I decided to indulge on dessert :P We were deciding between one or two tarts and decided that we should not be greedy and to just try one first. We ordered a mixed fruit tart (one of the recommended ones), fried shitake (my decision! Heh, disgusting gal :P) and tea to go with the food. One of the other recommended ones was banana chocolate tart, think I will try that the next time. I guess sometimes the colours of the different tarts have a way of cheering one up, they were so bright and full of vibrance. Well, the lighting the restaurant did help to bring out the cheerfulness too. Hmm, I would say that there was really nothing special about the taste of the tart. Maybe I am not really a tart lover, the taste seemed ordinary. The cream was fine, kinda light but we still left a small chuck of it untouched and just focused more on the crust and generous serving fruits on each tart. The fruits were pretty fresh, slices of apple were still crunchy. The tart goes very well with tea, they served tea from Gryphon. Well, good to give it a try, trust me, you would really get attracted by the colours and cheerfulness of every tart!

The gift of solitude

"All our miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone." ~ Blaise Pascal

One week younger

One should be able to guess the two popular flavours - rock melon and green apple

Took a picture of this deliciously soft and smooth Chawamushi...then totally got myself immersed in savouring the different kinds of food, ignored photography totally :P

We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant at Greenwood Avenue to celebrate Jiaqi's birthday. It has been quite some time since I was there. The interesting restaurants there never fail to fascinate me. It was really crowded when we were there in the evening, it was kinda difficult to find a parking lot. Shin Yuu Japanese Restaurant (16 Greenwood Ave) is just a small Japanese restaurant serving ala carte buffet for the evening. Well, I must say we had a good time savouring most of the items in the menu. The sashimi was real fresh and sushi was yummy, I thought the rice was somewhat different from other Japanese restaurants. I remember eating beef cooked in different styles and lotsa seafood. I guess the wonderful thing about this Japanese restaurant is that the ingredients were all pretty fresh! The restaurant manager, Gary, was also quite a humourous guy, got us all laughing during the meal. I would say very good and personalised service. Ahem, the birthday cake for the evening was baked by none other than our dear Rene, ha, she is really improving. Great job! Dessert was gelato in a little retro looking cafe a few shops down the street. Rock melon really rocks and green apple was refreshing. Cookies & cream was boring in the eyes of Kat but still my love, hee :P

Dear Jiaqi, thank you for the lovely card and the little book full of quotes that calm and soothe, muack! Ha, I always receive a birthday card from you every year, that's really sweet of you. Well, sometimes I wonder, how many of us actually take time to write cards. But hey, what's really lovely are the words in your card, I totally agree with what you have written about friendship and I am thankful for the friendship that we share. To the gal who's one week younger than me, Happy Birthday!!

Beauty

People often say that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realising that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves. ~ Salma Hayek

Who's really your best friend?

She ain't fierce, she just wanted more cheese dip, hee!

Ha, thanks for trusting me with your new interest, a good and challenging drive indeed!

When we were still children, we probably would have someone whom we would call a best friend. As we grow older, some of us would wonder if we still have that special someone whom we can call a best friend. Every one of us has different definitions of who and what a best friend is. Guiyu and myself met during our JC days, she reminded me today that we have been friends for 18 years. Sometimes, I just could not believe how time really passes by so fast. Like what Guiyu said, our priorities may have changed, friends around us changed but our valuable friendship has not changed over the years. We don't really meet often but we stay close to each other's heart. I know she's always a phone call away, I know she's the person I can go to to share my heartfelt thoughts or even my little secrets, ha! Well, she would probably know all my little crushes when we were still schooling. Trust me, she has got a fantastic memory :p

Dearest Guiyu, thanks for your great company today! Thanks for the gift and card, couldn't agree more to what you have mentioned in your card. Hmm, best friend or not is not important to me but what's really important is that this friendship that we share means alot to me and you will always be a dearly treasured friend of mine...

A brand new day

Kids say the darnest things but my brother always give the darnest gifts (soft toys). Trust me, after receiving some queer looking soft toys from him a few times, ha! Well, I kinda woke up a little late this morning, was very reluctant to climb out of bed. It was near 7am and I quickly went down the stairs to grab my bag from the dining table. There next to my bag was a pink soft toy, next to that pinky poodle like soft toy was a little note..."We turn not older with years but newer every day. Happy Birthday Dajie!". Ha, I kinda chuckled, that was a really pleasant surprise! I burst out laughing when I 'activated' that poodle soft toy. Check out the video! I really felt brand new this morning, wearing a smile on my face :) Thanks Didi, hugz!! As I was blogging, Didi came back with a box of durians, ate lots with him, the whole house seems to smell of durian now :P

4 Oct 2009

Really glad that Didi was able to be around this weekend :)

My father always has a way of reducing the fish to bones, not wasting any edible part of it. Well, he has been trying to impart his skills to us and I must say that he has been quite successful :P

A dessert not to be missed in a Teochew restaurant - Or nee (Hee, it's yam paste). It's good, smooth, not very sweet and yam-my!

Fried kuay tiao with chye poh

According to my father, there are only two Teochew restaurants which serve this dish. It's sea cucumber stuffed with minced meat (fresh!). Good try! I like the taste.

Steamed pomfret, not my favourite kinda fish but it's recommended. It was steamed the Teochew style. The soup was sweet and really went well with the salted vegetables!

Prawn roll...skin was thin and filling was fresh, not too oily

Braised goose meat (tender) with tau kwa (love it!)

Venue: Mong Hing Teochew Restaurant (371 Beach Road, Key Point, #01-18/19)

It's family time! My brother suggested a Teochew restaurant, one that he has read about when he's surfing the internet. Realised that his favourite makan website is "hungrygowhere.com", haha! Goodness, he has been eating non-stop for the past week. The pot is calling the kettle black, I guess I have been feasting for the past few days too :P Anyway, it always feels so at home entering a Teochew restaurant, you would hear people around you speaking Teochew, the sight of familiar dishes served and most of all, the best part of it all would be to be able to enjoy the meal with your family :)

The light

Once upon a time, there lived a little girl, a plain and simple little girl. It was Mid-Autumn Festival and she received a lantern as a gift. Never in her life has she received a lantern like this, she was eager to light it up and watch it glow in the dark. That evening, she took the lantern out to her favourite spot in the park, beaming with pride, all ready to show off the unique lantern that she owned.

She was filled with great excitement as she lighted up the candle. However, the wind that evening proved to be too strong, she moved a few steps and whoosh...light was out, it did not glow for long. The little girl tried in vain to light it up again but there was hardly any protection around the candle. She was a little disappointed as she looked at the numerous lanterns that the rest of children were carrying and the smiles all over their faces. She gazed at the sky, hoping the lady on the moon would light up her lantern. The moon was hardly in sight as the surrounding clouds was threatening to engulf it. The little girl decided to make her way home...

Back home, she placed the lantern on the table and lighted up the candle, there was no wind to destroy the little glow that came from the candle, there was a flicker of hope. She grasped her hands together, closed her eyes and...from the bottom of her heart, she wished that this little glow will soothe and bring much warmth to the quake victims and their loved ones...she wished this little glow will heal those who had gone through the trauma of the natural calamity...she wished this little glow will bring hope and strength to those who have survived and will end the suffering of many...

The little girl opened her eyes, the light from the lantern flooded the whole room, it was cold and there was a slight drizzle outside but there was much warmth in the little room and in the little girl's heart...

3 Oct 2009

The lovely people for the lovely evening! :)

Love the tiramisu!

The seafood pasta

The pizza that we never got to taste coz we were stuffed with too much carbo for the evening, ha!

The main dish that I have ordered...wild wild mushrooms

Another appetizer...the cheese went very well with the ham

The appetizer

A feeling of nostalgia?

Decision making time...selecting our main courses

The combination of black and white has never failed to captivate me

Venue: Soprano (7 Portsdown Road)

The birthday guy or gal in our gang would usually need to choose a place to have dinner. For a lazy me, I would be glad to have someone decide for me. One suggestion popped up from Mark and there was a kinda review report on it for my perusal too, ha! :P We went ahead and decided that we would have our dinner there. It was a rainy evening and somehow, the drizzle that evening had brought a soothing effect and peacefulness to the surroundings. Was thinking...with its lush greenery, maybe it's a good place to spend the afternoon, a lazy afternoon, away from the hustle and bustle of life :)

2 Oct 2009 - Part 2

Mr Handsome was trying to guess my age

JS: "This is the reason why we are here at The Prata Place!"

Chocolate prata, so crispy, you could eat it like potato chips!

Hot and crispy kosong prata! Curry was spicy!

Venue: The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)

Met up with JS, HZ and XY for supper. They had a craving for prata at The Prata Place, well, more for the chocolate prata that we had tried some time back. I like the kosong prata, not too oily and yet crispy. Curry was real spicy too! Although just kinda had dinner, still could not resist savouring one kosong prata. Needless to say, we had the chocolate prata too. One could really munch on it like a snack. My dear friends, thanks for the gift and the time spent together!