Zap the cool girl

I love my edaname (soya bean)!












What a satisfying meal!

Peek-a-boo.

Play time :)

Time for my beauty sleep.........zzzzzz

Ruth in her cosy home

Zip taking a nap

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Sis managed to get free tickets for the Corpse Bride for her good friend and me on Tues evening. I was happy to catch the animated movie as I like Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas. The movie started out in grey tones with the butterfly the only colourful character in blue. The expressions of the characters look either sinister or sad, skinny or fat. I like the piano piece played by the lead character, the guy voiced by Johnny Depp. Sis thought the corpse bride looks beautiful. I would have agreed if her right eyeball doesn't pop out of the socket every now and then. Hee. Parts of the show are a little draggy while I feel some scenes should be further fleshed out. However, it was an enjoyable movie with me tearing a little and smiling in the end :)

Zip cleaning himself

I'm getting ready. 1.....2.....3........

First on my right side.......

See how big my eyes can get. Don't I kook kind of creepy? Hee.

Taming Salt

Salt has been with us since 12 May 04. After his brother has left earlier in Apr this year, Salt has become less friendly. I used to stroke his back but for the past few months, he seems quite snappish. This evening, I decided to place my hands in front of him and see his reaction. He bit my finger lightly before running away. I tried this several time and he would react similarly or just run away. I want to be able to hold him soon and not only be able to do that when he is dying like his brother. I shall try to get him used to my hands again.

Instant noodle dinner

Last night I felt like cooking and this was what I cooked. The instant noodle was overcooked but after adding some marmite, sambal chilli and ketchup, it tasted quite nice with the egg and shitake mushrooms. Mum told me that I should have used udon. I will remember that the next time :)

What do I really want?

I have always have the luxury of having enough free time after work on weekday evenings and weekends to spend time alone (baking, reading, blogging, relaxing, etc) or go out with family or friends. However for the past 2 weeks, some of my colleagues and I are asked to help another division with their work and this involves working on weekends till probably end Oct 2005. Suddenly, I have less control of my free time. I have stopped my tennis lessons and told my friends I can't meet them in the meantime because I can't confirm whether I can leave office on time or have last minute assignment or meeting. No time for baking too :(

This feeling makes me question whether I'm staying in this job for the right reasons. Sometimes I feel that I'm not appreciated, I'm wasting my time not doing the things I believe in or feel passionate about. Sometimes I feel fortunate that I have a job and earning a good income after working in the same company for the past 5 years. Sometimes I wonder what I really want. I hope one day I will find my answer. And that thought kind of makes me feel lighter :)

I'm happy for my 3 girlfriends

Last Sun, I attended my girlfriend, Weiling's wedding dinner. Although that evening was the first time I met her husband, he seems like a very nice guy. I'm happy that Weiling has found that special someone to share her life with.

At around 12.30pm, I was one of Yang Ling's friends present to witness her and her guy's solemnisation ceremony. It was indeed special as the Justice of Peace did some simple Buddhist chants and shared some interesting Dharma stories about sharing a happy married life. Everyone is happy for the couple.

Next Sun, I will be one of the sisters for another good friend, Huijuan. In the morning, I will be accompanying the bride from her house to the groom's house and in the evening, I will be one of the emcees during her wedding dinner. It will be another occasion for me to feel happy for another girlfriend.

My computer is alive again!

Last Thurs when I was surfing the net @ home, something in the CPU blowed. I was worried that my hard disk or mother board was affected as it would mean loss of file and more money needed to repair the CPU. I have also been busy and I was glad when Mark the computer repair guy could make it at 5pm just now. In 15 mins, he put the CPU to order by just replacing the power supply box. It cost me $140 altogether but I'm happy that I can surf and blog now :)

Visit to SPCA with Mum

I was on leave yesterday and decided to bring Mum and 2 bags of old clothes and shoes to SPCA in the late morning. The bags were for SPCA's jumble sale held every Sat. Dad called me when I was getting ready to leave the house and he was driving his cab 5 minutes' away from our house and wanted to give us a lift.

We were greeted by the barking dogs when we entered the pound. For Mum, it was her first visit. We first peeped at the hamster cages and see what kind of hamsters were hiding under the sawdust. Then I went into the cattery while Mum chose to remain outside and watched me play with the cats. She said she didn't want to give the cats false hope that they are getting a new home.

This good looking chocolate coloured cat was quite shy and didn't really want me to stroke it.















This cat was the first one to greet me and settled itself on my feet while I squatted and said my hellos to the other friendly cats. After cleaning itself for a while, it focused its attention on me and then the lanyard attached to my camera :)

Mum liked the colour of this cat who was a bit aloof but comfortable with me touching it.

This cat was licking the face of another cat. So loving!

This manja cat kept rubbing its face on my feet and sandals. It was so adorable and whenever I looked at it, it would meow loudly at me and start its rubbing habit on my feet over and over again. It was quite a nice feeling to have my feet stroked by a cat.

This black cat surprised me twice by just hopping on my lap to have a slightly more elevated view of the cattery. I would tease Mum by asking her "Shall we bring this cat home?" Haha. Of course, I know it's not possible with me at work during the day and having activities in the evening. I'm dreaming of a day when I can work from home and be able to keep a cat companion with me.

Gathering @ Slushy's house on Sat

On Sat afternoon, we met up @ Slushy's house to cook late lunch/early dinner. I help Fairy Godmother to prepare her mushroom chicken soup. Hui Jen baked portobello mushrooms with shredded cheese. Slushy made potato salad with hard boiled eggs and fruit salad. I bought bananas and strawberries and added to Slushy's salad. I also brought along my choc cake muffins for them to try. Slushy quickly took a picture of the food before we started to feast.

As promised, Slushy gave an entertaining presentation of the photos and video taken in Seoul when she was there for a conference and holiday. I felt as if I was there with her too. She got us girls this cute souvenir (the dangling one) and the one on my thumb was a thimble from Joan when she went for a meeting in Seoul last year.

Shredded veggies in french dressing

Mum was inspired after trying the shredded carrot, radish and cucumber from the Japanese bento set I ordered @ a foodcourt some time back. She recently tried her hands to make her own version using some French dressing and I like it so much that I had ate them with mum's fried rice and my breakfast of bread with margarine spread and toasted wheatgerm this morning! Yummy.

Chocolate Cake in muffin cups

Yesterday afternoon I decided to bake a batch of choc cake after the good reviews from my family. However, this time, I used Phoon Huat's dark choc couverture drops instead of Cadbury's Dark choc. For the whipping of the egg white, mum and I used her electric mixer instead of our arm power. Although it was faster, the mixer didn't do a thorough job of beat all the egg whites well. We still had to do a bit of hand whisking. Instead of big aluminium containers, I used muffin cups. 13 cups were used and mum said that's a lucky number :P

Before 30 mins was up, we could smell some burnt "aroma". I took it out and the skewer test showed the cake to be cooked. After dinner, mum and I tried one of the cake muffins and I found the bottom burnt. The cake tasted less sweet than the last time and not as souffle like. Mum still preferred the last batch of the choc cake. Dad had it for breakfast and likes it. Sis agreed with Mum that this batch has less kick. I will try to perfect it the next time!

Leftover pizza

Yesterday afternoon I shared the remaining 3 pieces of pizza with my parents. I'm happy that they enjoyed the taste of pumpkin and zucchini slices in between the flat bread and think layer of cheese. I can bring them to Yogi Hub the next time.

The microwave packaging Yogi Hub used for the pizza is interesting. The box has a Singapore's Green Label and printed a website address: http://www.microwave-packaging.com. I checked out the website and read in the press release page that SAF has been using this paper box for soldiers' meals and food can be kept warm up to 4 hours. Now Yogi Hub is using it to hold take-aways too.

Dinner @ Yogi Hub

Last evening was another lovely dining experience with Joan. We went to Yogi Hub @ Madras Street. There is another outlet @ Boon Tat Street but Joan said Madras Street outlet is better and bigger.

We first had appetisers of corn chips and dip and garden toufu.

The dip was tangy with a nice spicy taste to it. The toufu had bits of beans and veg pieces in it and wrapped with beancurd skin and sprinkled with sunflower seeds. And we greedy girls had stomach space for the main course!

The pizza came in flat bread layered with brinjal, pumpkin and generous amount of cheese. The lasagne had thick pieces of pumpkin below the lasagne sheets. Although both mains tasted good, I preferred the pizza. We couldn't finish the last 2 pieces of the pizza, so we asked the waitress to pack them away for us. I brought the take-away home, so that mum can try it.

I realised my initiations to trying out food @ these places (Whatever Cafe @ Keong Saik Road, Original Sins @ Chip Bee Gardens, Aiwo @ Raffles City and now Yogi Hub) that serve healthy and/or vegetarian food have been introduced by Joan. Thanks, Joan! Without you, I wouldn't have know that such yummy food exists in the quaint parts of Singapore.

Goodbye, Frisky

Mum called me in the afternoon while I was in Orchard Road, running some errand for Sis. She told me that Frisky was dying. The shopkeeper was sayanging Frisky in a basket in the morning and told Mum that Frisky had been eating well before this but not losing weight. This morning, she was stumbling and Auntie quickly carried her and put her in the basket to rest. She had also lost her appetite.

After I visited Sherry's mum and her babies together with Fairy Godmother, I quickly took a bus and walked for a short distance home. At the void deck of my flat, I approached the shopkeeper Uncle and asked him how Frisky was doing. He told me they had put her to sleep and went into his shop to retrieve some paper to let me see. Frisky was sent to SPCA and I saw "dying cat" written on the form. At least Frisky is no longer suffering and according to Uncle, she has lived long enough for more than 10 years. Goodbye, Frisky.

Early dinner @ Bakerzin

After window shopping at other parts of Paragon, sis was getting hungry and we decided to go to Bakerzin as we hadn't been there for a long time. This was the first time we ate there together. Previously, we went with friends.

Sis ordered profiteroles and some ham flaky pizza. I had one profiteroles and 2 slices of the pizza as I had a heavy lunch earlier. We actually had dessert first followed by pizza. Both were yummy.

Shopping with Sis @ Toys'R Us

I met Sis @ Paragon after having lunch with a friend @ Bugis. I didn't know Sis had wanted to buy some more My Little Pony and the ones she was eye weren't the usual collectibles but these:

I wasn't very helpful in helping Sis decide which one to buy. In the end, she decided to get the big plush toy which cost $49.90 as compared to the threesome @ $24.

There are many cute toys like the hamster and its ball and a tube for the hamster to slide through. So cute but I'm tempted to buy as I already have 4 adorable real hamsters. It's kind of weird that they pair a cat with a hamster.

Cute Power Puff Girls collectibles and an overwhelming range of My Little Pony collectibles:

Dinner with parents @ home

Today is the first time this week I had dinner with my parents. Mum specially cooked curry chicken after I requested for it.

The stir-fried caixin with pieces of omelette was mum's newest creation. Nice combination.

Mum was quite disappointed with the curry chicken as she has not tried this brand of curry powder and the curry turned out rather thin. However, I like the level of spiciness and we liked it better when we ate with french loaf than rice.

An evening with Slushy's mum and babies

After work yesterday, I decide to visit Slushy's mum and her babies, Ainsley and Nimbus. I bought some Teochew dry fishball noodles and Otak to have dinner with Auntie. Ainsley was all smiles in Auntie's arms. When we were having our dinner, Ainsley entertained herself in this immobile walker.

I let Nimbus out of the cage and scooped out the soiled cat litter. He explored the rooms, the clean toilet, hid under the chairs, sofa.

I carried him like a baby twice and he smelled very nice. Slushy must have given him a shower before she left for a conference in Korea. An hour later, I had to put him back in the cage and he resisted a little. At least, Nimbus didn't whine pitifully like when I first arrived. I will visit Auntie and the babies again this Sun before Slushy returns on Mon night.