White Neck the charmer

The sky was gloomy and it rained soon after I went down to feed the cats.

I couldn't find most of the cats as they would go into hiding when it rained. I did manage to feed Noisy, White Cat, Shadow and White Neck.

I spent quite a lot of time with White Neck who doesn't like the rain. He was meowing to me, eating and rubbing his head and body against my legs and I would hug him and stroke his head and neck.

Feeding cats responsibly

When I feed our community cats, I will serve the dry cat food and water on plates.

Some people would sprinkle the floor with dry cat food or leave left over food on newspaper and they don't clear them after the cats stop eating them. This is littering. If I see the food left unattended, I would try to clear them as I don't want the cats to be blamed for the irresponsible acts of such people. They think they are being kind. They are not. The problem is such feeders do not feed openly as me and my mum. They are ghost feeders - they just leave the food on the floor and leave. If I ever bump into them, I will nicely give them a piece of my mind.

This morning, I also had to use newspaper to remove a big pile of dog poo on the footpath in the park. It was dog poo as cats do their business (big and small) in the soil part of grass patches and bury their poo. This is not the first time that some irresponsible dog owners walk their dogs and not remove their poo. I remove them as I don't want the cats to be blamed too.

Curry fish head

This was yesterday's dinner with stir fried dou miao and BBQ chicken wings. It was quite a nice meal but not something that we can eat regularly. Too rich.

Cartoon Angel

Bungalow and Beng Hiang

I just realise that I have visited 2 eating places that start with a "B".

For lunch yesterday, my 2 friends and I ate at Bungalow Tapas Bar & Grill at the new extension of United Square. We wanted to try Matsuo Sushi Restaurant at Goldhill Plaza but it was so packed that we couldn't even get in. Joan then remembered reading about Bungalow and we really enjoyed our set lunches there. By adding $4.50 to the cost of our main course, we ordered mushroom/chilled tomato soup or salad, tea/coffee/orange/lime juice and a scoop of ice cream.

Carrie and I like the homemade mushroom soup as we can taste the little bits of mushrooms. Joan had the salad.

Grilled oregano chicken with some raisin rice for Carrie who found it a bit bland.

I like the spicy prawn linguine but I had some difficulty peeling the prawns using my cutlery instead of my fingers :)

Joan enjoyed her seafood fuscilli in caper sauce.

We were satisfied after ending our lunch with chocolate ice-cream.

The ambience is nice too.

The friendly operations manager also came over a few times to check with us how we find the food and also let us know of Bungalow's other promotions and plans. The average cost per person is about $22.

Dinner with Joan and some more friends was at Beng Hiang Restaurant at Amoy Street. This place serves Hokkien cuisine. The kong bak paus,

fish maw thick soup (yummy with vinegar),

oyster omelette

are good.

The noodles taste not bad to me - e wet version of hokkien mee and I can taste the prawn broth that goes into the gravy but some of my friends find it not very tasty.
The ngoh hiang is popular there.

We also had yam pie.

The portions there are quite huge. The small order of kong bak paus comes in 10 paus! So it's better to go there in a bigger group or with big eaters.

Joan was very funny to try heating up one of the paus over the pot of hot Chinese tea.

The restaurant also gave us complimentary beancurd skin, barley and ginko nut dessert

With good food and great company, I was wearing a smile yesterday :)

TCM and Bitter medicine

My left ankle is still slightly swollen and it still hurts a little when I walk at certain angles. I remember a colleague in a department who is a TCM practitioner and volunteers at some free clinic, so I called him on Tues morning if he could take a look at my ankle when he was free. Before the end of the work day, I was in his cubicle with 3 needles poking into my ankle for 15 mins. The accupuncture did help to reduce the swelling a little. As I am comfortable to the sensation of the needle poking me when I donated my blood, the needles don't disturb me. My colleague said such swollen ankle is common. I told him I don't think other people are as clumsy as me. He said I have high tolerance of pain to only approach him then. Hee.

On Thurs, he prescribed me some Chinese herbs and for the first time, I visited a medical shop near my place to get the herbs and brew them that evening.


Angel was curious what I was doing in the kitchen :)
I think I downed about 400 ml of the bitter slightly sourish liquid and had to suck on 2 rock sugar immediately.

I'm not sure if it's psychological effect but I feel alert and good even though I have been only getting about 6 hours of sleep.

However, my ankle hurts a little more when I had to carry the carrier with the female cat I managed to lure into for sterilisation on Thurs evening. Mum helped me to brew the medicine and after drinking it, my ankle seems to feel a little better.

I was able to meet my dear friends yesterday for lunch, to do our hair and dinner because I wore my sports shoes which are comfortable and provide good support. However, my ankle acted up again when I collected the sterilised cat from the vet clinic just now. Mum was very nice to massage my ankle and after "awing" a few times, Mum managed to remove the tight painful knots and my ankle doesn't hurt as much.

I usually try to derive meaning when I have to undergo some kind of suffering. For this experience, I think it's just telling me that I'm not as young anymore and can't afford to fall! :) I also find TCM cool and I think it's great it could be an alternative way for me to explore when I fall sick or in pain. Come to think of it, the past few times when I was done with sore throat and cough, I went the TCM way and it have been effective.

Angel's favorite toys

Mum has found this basket in the storeroom and used it to keep Angel's toys. Angel seems to like the basket and would hide in it or chew it.


She's also fascinated with the broom when Mum sweeps the floor.

Mini picnic

I went to Botanic Garden in the late afternoon to meet Flying Raisin, her hubby, niece and dog. BAM couldn't join us as her sweetie was down with fever.

The sky was quite gloomy and we heard thunder, so we were hanging near the visitor centre.

We ate some of the almond cake FR bought from Ikea, some of my cookies and drank my chill-out tea.

Around 5pm, the sky cleared up a bit and we went to the Symphony Lake to listen to some school bands' performance.


I haven't seen Kippie for about half a year and he looks more handsome.


We parted half an hour later. I felt good after breathing in some fresh air and also doing a bit of catch-up with FR.

Angel and Sis' mug

Angel likes to stick her head into Sis' mug and drink some water from there.

She is growing up fast and soon she may be able to do that anymore.

Orange cookies

I like these cookies for the subtle orange aroma from the grated orange rind and 1 tablespoon of orange juice and also the crisp. Strangely after I got good reviews from friends and family on the ginger cookies and orange cookies a few years ago, I moved on to try other recipes. Today I thought I should revisit old recipes that produce nice cookies.

The orange aroma is not as strong for this batch of cookies. I think I need to add in more rind next time.

Baking therapy

I have just baked a batch of ginger cookies. I feel very happy weighing the ingredients, mixing them, molding them and finally put them into the oven. And when I tried a few pieces of them, they tasted almost as good as the ones I made a few years ago. This batch tasted a bit different. As usual I didn't plan earlier and am ambitious to want to bake 2 different types of cookies. and I didn't manage to take the butter out of the freezer, so I substitute with Mum's cooking oil. Canola olive oil. I was a bit apprehensive how the cookies will turn out but they taste quite good.

I shall continue baking orange cookies and post a photo of them later.

Soup and cake @ Cedele Depot

Yesterday, Agatha and I visited Cedele Depot after work around 6pm even though we would be attending our company's Dinner and Dance soon. Anyway, food would only be served from 8pm.

I had chicken terragon soup.

Agatha had pumpkin soup.
The bread spread with butter was yummy

and we shared blueberry cheesecake.

We felt satisfied and stuffed.

I'm glad to have eaten before the D&D as the food at the hotel wasn't great. Too salty for me.

New dinner dishes

Mum came up with 2 new dishes -
fish patties and fish cake with beancurd and mixed veggies

AVA's RPO Pocket Calendar design competition 2007

Help Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) promote Responsible Pet Ownership (RPO) by designing a pocket calendar to spread the message: "A Pet is for Life – Do Not Abandon Your Pet".

If your design is one of the winning entries, it could be featured on AVA's 2008 RPO Pocket Calendar. For more information on the competition, please click here.

Dinner @ Sun with Moon

This evening, I met a friend who's back from Hong Kong for a short break. I suggested Sun with Moon at Wheelock Place for dinner as I like their set lunch but have yet to eat there for dinner.

We had pepper chicken salad,

salmon cheese rolls and

salted pork (tasted like bacon) rice.


All were yummy and I remembered to print out their 15% discount coupon and paid $33plus for the food. I think it's quite reasonable for the nice food and atmosphere.

The good food and nice company add a nice spark to my day which didn't start out well. At 1plus am, I was awaken by the water dripping from the aircon unit in my bedroom. I had to find 2 small empty pails to collect the water and clean away the water on top of my stuff before going back to bed. Before going to work, I was charging my handphone and I left home without it. I remembered when I sat in the bus but I was running late for work, so I decided to collect my phone during lunch break. I left office only at 1pm and managed to rush back to office by 2.15pm.

A few friends have also showed their concern after reading about my falls. Thanks! :) I also managed to find a day next Sun to meet my dear friend before she delivers her baby son sometime end of this month. Of course it feels good to be home, chatting with mum and sis, knowing dad is sleeping soundly already after a hard day at work and Angel nuzzling up to me.