Zoo outing with friends

I took half day's leave on Fri afternoon to visit the zoo with my 3 girlfriends. We boarded the zoo bus from Grand Hyatt around 1.10pm. By 2pm, we reached the zoo and had our lunch near the entrance. There was a power failure and we were surprised that the electricity didn't come back until we were leaving the zoo around 6pm. We also couldn't enjoy the 20% discount from my OCBC credit card as we could only pay for our admission and tram ride by cash ($23 per person). My friend told the staff that they should feedback to their management that the customers shouldn't be penalised as the power failure wasn't our fault.

The photos I took:

The otters taking afternoon nap :)

The children dressed in colourful t-shirt. I took this while in the tram. If you could see through the blurriness, one of the kids in the centre in the purple top seemed to be sticking out his tongue. Notty! :)

The elephant show. I was lucky not to get squirted with water by one of the elephants even though I was sitting at the front row.


The Carribean manatees who looked gigantic and cuddly. Some hyperactive penguins swimming while the others just seemed dazed on land.


A colony of baboons either grooming each other or looking around. We also saw 2 males fighting and making lots of noise.


The White Tiger just resting and then grooming himself. That scene reminded me of my home cats and community cats :)


Another performance by the seal.


The last shot of another animal (the wolf) in the zoo.

Sis asked if I took this photo because of the half naked boy. Haha. Of course not, the subject is the jeep which is used to educate the visitors about illegal wildlife trade.

Somehow, the zoo doesn't seem as interesting as before when I visited a few years ago or when I was a young kid. There is also this question whether some of these animals are doing well in captivity or they are bored in their enclosure. But it was still fun to spend the afternoon with good friends.

purple sweet potatoes

Mom made some lovely dessert of sweet potatoes and fungus. I like the colour :)

Comforting porridge

Last Thurs, my parents cooked yummy dishes with plain porridge. It was the day after my brief teary moment. My mood had already lightened up and I took a photo of the food - omelette, super salty mini anchovies, pork floss (strange that mom added in), kailan with some fish prawn cake.

On Sat evening for dinner, I quickly whipped up some porridge using the Jap dashi (fish) stock and the rice that Dad had bought to go with his soup and couldn't finish and added some left chicken meat from dinner a few days ago. I also threw in some shitake mushroom and coriander. It tasted nice :)

[Looks like something is wrong with my home PC as I can upload the photos using my office laptop :(
It also shuts down on its own and I just upgraded it late last year. Perhaps I should consider a MacBook. ]

Problem with blogging

I can't seem to upload my photos. I'm not sure why. I wanted to blog about what I did over the weekend and tried to upload the photos with my text but was unsuccessful :( I'll try again tomorrow.

Feeling better after a cry

I came home after work, feeling hungry, tired, stuffy nose and with a headache. While eating my dinner halfway, I just cried. For myself. For not being able to rest because of all the work deadlines and follow-ups. I felt miserable. But strangely after the brief crying, i washed my face and could think clearer. I went into my room to check on Bob and he bit me on my arm, probably because I touched him on the wrong place. I was not angry with him. I sat there in the dimly lit room and just looked at him, stroked him. I decided to go downstairs and joined Mom and Dad to feed the community cats. The breeze and fresh air felt good. My headache had disappeared and I told them crying was healing. I guess sometimes I just need to let go and move on :)

Chasoba with salmon, edaname, mushrooms

I cooked this for lunch earlier. Mom said it's not bad. There is a bit of chilli sambal to give a spicy taste to the dish.

Bob in different poses

I managed to get a few nice shots of Bob sitting by the window.

And the last one of Bob with the photographer :)

Stripe the outcast

Stripe is very friendly towards me and mom. He allows us to hold his paws without biting us and enjoys a belly rub. The other community cats don't seem to like him though. Manja and White Neck will either avoid him or eye-ball or try to attack him.

The face I see when I wake up

Not very clear photos of Bob as I was using my handphone camera. He sleeps on my pillow and most of the time he will leave some space for my head to lie between his legs :)

Happy Birthday, Mommy

Mom's birthday is today but sis bought her a cake yesterday afternoon when we chanced upon Awfully Chocolate next to the vet clinic (after we sent Bob there for his vaccination).

Mom was of course happy to have all of us at home to enjoy the cake together. Mom and I could even enjoy a few seeds of durian. Hee.

Dad later went to bought back some chilli crab, veggies and chicken for dinner. I felt happy yesterday. There are times we were unhappy due to some issues but yesterday was a reminder that as a family, we can share our joy and face challenges together. They are the people I can count on for help and advice and I will be there for them too.

Nutritious soup

Mom never fails to surprise me with her creativity and every now and time she will make a new dish. She has made this melon/gourd soup before. It's used to make mock shark fin soup. She made this soup and put in meat balls and crab stick. Hardly a vegetarian dish but it's nice and colourful.

Mom's tao suan

It's yummy with bits of peanuts and sweet potato :)

We are all alone

Sis found me another lovely song by Angela Aki. It sounds familiar. An old English song.

Goodbye, Rambo

I received a call from the cattery before lunch today that Rambo has passed away. Mom and I visited him late last month as usual to feed him 2 small cans of wet food and clean him a bit, stroked him. He had lost quite a lot of weight but still ate a lot. We did discuss whether to put him down but he still seemed to recognise us and we hope the monthly jab for his gingivitis would help him.

But we still lost him. At least he is no longer suffering.

Angela Aki's Tegami

Cousin recommended this song and I like it. I have been listening it for a number of times and tried to sing along to the lyrics found here. But I have to skip a number of chinese characters. Hee.

Chasoba - my style

I like to cook my chasoba using the dashi fish stock with veggies I find in the fridge, egg, etc. I managed to find some broccoli and also added 2 scallop I got from Tokyo. The taste was surprisingly good :)

Belated birthday gift :)

2 weeks ago, I went out with my 3 secondary school girl friends to give them a treat. It's a practice we have for many years. We will take turns to treat as the birthday girl and the others will get her the gift she chooses after dinner. I treated them to Seasons Reasons @ Raffles City's basement. The food was not bad. I won't mind going there again.

After browsing at the bookshop, stationery shop, I decided to just get my presents from the supermarket. I chose organic milk, some flour mix for making biscuit/cake and organic apples. The girls also wanted to get me a cake, so I chose the swiss roll. I like edible gifts. Hee.

Porridge and dishes

Mom and Dad didn't cook their usual fried rice one Mon evening and they saved me porridge, squid, steamed pork, veggies, and mini anchovies.

Leftover shepherd pie and pickled veggies

These 2 went well together. My shepherd pie also seemed more flavorful after keeping it overnight in the fridge and heating up the next day.

Mom's fried instant noodle

Yummy with prawns and lots of veggies.

Bob and Angel

Bob and Angel are still living apart under one roof. Anyway, life still goes on.

Bob the chubby cat likes to just lounge in the living room instead of stretching his legs :)


Angel likes to hide under the rug in Sis' bedroom. Sis managed to capture some cute shots of him in action :)

Last day (8 May) in Tokyo

A good way to start a day is always with good food. That morning @ 5+am, I had some of the Aunt Stella's cookies - blueberry nut swirl and lemon cookies and some raisin bread. Yummy.


@ around 7.15am, we boarded the airport limousine bus to Narita Airport. @ the airport, we had ample time to browse around the shops as our flight was at 11.30am. I bought 2 tees and socks from Uniqlo and a cat terrycloth hanky from another shop. Sis bought a nice umbrella and some cute cat biscuits for Mom.


Gluttony me felt like eating again and I was glad I bought a nut loaf from thia Maison Kayser bakery recommended by Cousin and Cousin-in-law. I was enjoying every bite of it while Sis ate her choc chip cookie (from Aunt Stella).


Again, our flight had some 30 mins delay due to some computer glitch but it wasn't as long as our earlier flight. The plane wasn't packed too. The meal on the flight was surprisingly good. We chose the Japanese lunch set - cold soba, some seafood salad (of unknown looking slimey stuff), beef curry with rice and chocolate orange cake. There was so much food (and probably I had a big bun earlier) that I didn't finish the rice and the dry plain roll.

With time to kill, I watched 2 movies - Bolt and K20. I cried while watching both shows. Bolt the dog and Mitten the stray cat are adorable characters. I find Rhino the hamster funny and weird. It's a good movie, showing the devotion of the girl to her pet and vice versa. It's a feel good movie.

K20, a Japanese movie has Takeshi Kaneshiro as the lead character, Heikichi Endo being framed by K20, a thief who stealed from the rich. I like the part of how Heikichi trained to gain the skills of a thief in escaping and disguising himself.

Back @ Changi Airport, Sis and I had kaya toast and tea @ Yakun before Dad (so sweet) came to fetch us home. After doing some packing, I couldn't help but try a bit of Mom's banana cake and fungus dessert.

It was good to home :)