Memories of US trip

I have given myself the challenge of selecting a photo or 2 of the various places to be blogged :)

Monterey Bay & Pebble Beach


San Francisco

Lombart Street


Victorian houses at Alamo Park

Napa Valley

Grapes @ the Castle Winery

San Jose

The dinner prepared by my friend, Jasmine

Las Vegas

Near the Box Office @ The Mirage where we bought our tickets to watch the Cirque du Soleil's Beatles Love. I love the show!


Colourful hot air balloon "floating" at the Bellagio

San Francisco again

The sea lions @ Pier 39

Simple healthy food

After travelling to US and Hanoi the past few weeks, I still think homecook food is the best and I love mom's porridge. She cooked this for me some time back and it never fails to make me feel happy eating it.

Not that I don't love the mexican fastfood and pancakes in Vegas, the dim sum in San Jose, the sustainable fish tacos in San Francisco, the pho in Hanoi, I have to watch my diet. I got to eat my friend, Jasmine's dishes of stir-fried kai lan, steamed fish and baked chicken, etc and it reminded me of the nice homecooked dishes back home :)

Second time in Hanoi

After back from US last Mon, I'm now in Hanoi to attend a meeting with my bosses and colleagues. We arrived around 12.30pm. I was quite happy that I didn't get any headache in US. But earlier, I actually had a dull one. I'm not sure if it was because I was getting hungry or it was rather warm walking around the dusty streets with my colleagues. It could also be due to insufficient sleep last night as I was packing my luggage and clearing some work emails. Luckily I feel better after some welcome dinner and a shower.

I visited Hanoi with a friend in 2005. I remember enjoying the food and art galleries at the Old Quarters, staying in the junk boat at Halong Bay. This afternoon, I felt a bit disappointed by my experience. Perhaps it's because we only explored the area near our hotel and some uninteresting shopping centre (Mustafa is more interesting). Hanoi seems unchanged from 5 years ago.and there are still many motorbikes on the streets.

I am missing home already. Just 3.5 days and I'll be home this Sat evening. :)

Off to US for a holiday!

I'm now @ one of the PC terminals with free internet access @ Changi Airport. After clearing work emails and finishing up the last bit of packing, I only slept from 12.50am till 2.15am. It must be the excitement of going on a long holiday that I didn't feel very tired and I even had the mood and appetite to have a full breakfast of bread, cereal and fruits. Dad was very sweet to wake up early to send me to the airport and even accompanied me from check-in till I entered the departure hall.

I'm looking forward to this 11-day holiday to visit my good friend :) Hopefully when I'm back, I'll have the time to blog about my experience.

Japanese Film Festival 2010

Cute poster for this year's Jap Film Festival. I read the synopsis and watched the trailer for one of the films, Air Doll (R21). Interesting. Mime-Mime and ASYL seem worth watching too. I must check their schedule when it's out.

Terrible Infants

A fascinating musical of short stories about the lives of some strange kids, injecting dark humour and a moral at the end. A little girl made of scraps of fabric. A girl who told tall tales. A boy who was stinky and turn things moldy. A boy who was so quiet and got forgotten by people around him. The lines were witty. Excellent performance by the 5 actors who danced, sang, played various instruments and with the help of props and puppets brought the stories alive. The stories were quirky and at times sad. My sis, friend and I enjoyed the show very much at the Esplanade Recital Studio last Fri evening.

This is their website: http://www.lesenfantsterribles.co.uk/

Cutting my hair short

I had been keeping my hair long for the past few years. Friends and family said I look nice with rebonded hair but I don't want to subject my hair to heat and chemicals. It takes me a long time to dry my hair and in this hot humid weather, it was hot to leave long hair down and I felt the hair band pulling the hair from my scalp when I tied it up.

A week ago, I went to my hairstylist and told her to cut my hair to about an inch below my ears. She commented that looking good is not a priority to me and I want to go natural and use organic hair products. She's right in a way but I think I can still look nice sporting a short hair cut if I bother to style it a bit. Now it's a breeze to dry my hair after a shower. Most friends said my short hair is refreshing but what really matters is I like it :) I will have to put my hair clips and hair band away and I don't think I will need them for a long long time. It also means I have to visit my hairstylist more frequently. This is a right decision I've made this year :)

Bob & Bobby 2

Before I turned 32 last month, it was just Bob.


Sis gave me Bobby 2 as my birthday present.

This is how Bob welcomed Bobby 2 :)


Sis got herself one too that resembles Angel :)

Mini cheese & choc chip buns

I tried a recipe for milk buns a few Sundays ago and improvised by added shredded cheese and chocolate chips. Luckily they turned out quite nice. I would prefer the buns to taste sweeter but the cheese and choc give the plain taste bread a nice touch.

Mommy's special porridge

I feel very happy whenever I eat Mom's porridge. It's simple and full of ingredients, but mom doesn't cook it often, so it's a occasional treat.

Angel behind the curtains

The curtains are one of Angel's favorite hiding places.

I like how he stuck out his paw :)

My room-mate and my pillow

My room-mate will just happily sleep on my pillow without leaving a space for my head. I'll then try to find a space in between his legs against his tummy :)

Talented singer: Inch Chua

After reading about her in today's Straits Times, I visited Youtube to listen to her works. I'm impressed. Here's one of her music videos.

Good Friday weekend and Sis' Birthday

Sis' birthday fell on Good Friday this year. I suggested that we and mom had lunch @ Japanese Dining Sun @ Chijmes.

Angel was lounging on top of the dining table when we were getting ready to leave the house. Mom always said Angel looks kind of sad like he knows we won't be home to be with him.

Dad had to work but he was very sweet to pick us up in his cab. Sis took a photo of him on her Holga :) Our birthday girl was wearing a lovely dress bought from Trove Shop @ Esplanade.

Lovely blue sky and fluffy clouds over @ Chijmes.


Our feast. We were very disciplined and ordered a tofu cheese cake to share :)


After a satisfying lunch, we took the MRT to Bugis and walked to Haji Lane. There are a few interesting shops - Sis and I bought some clothes and accessories :) One of the shops, Dulcetfig has 3 resident ginger cats. We also met a stray cat outside another shop.

Dad met us after his work for dinner @ Army Market.

On Sun, I planned a lunch for all of us @ Imperial Treasures @ ION Orchard. Dad wasn't working and could join us. He doesn't really fancy Jap food too. He had beef and fish slice porridge and all of us shared roast pork (which Mom did like and complained of strong porky smell), chee cheong fun (that came with yummy peanut sauce). Sis had one with roast duck meat tucked inside the rice rolls. A nice plate of fresh Hong Kong kailan. Xiao long bao. The last order was siew mai and I butchered it into smaller pieces and ate with chillies.

After lunch, sis and I brought Mom to Mandarin Gallery, 313 Somerset and Orchard Central. We had some teacakes and teh-si @ Toast Box @ the food court of 313 Somerset, so I only had space for a small bowl of melon soup @ Far East Plaza for dinner after all the good food. I think it was an enjoyable weekend for us :)

Lemongrass - my favorite homemade drink

The ingredients: pandang leaves, lemongrass, ginger, water and rock sugar

I tried to present the drink in an aesthetic manner with the lemongrass :)
But it doesn't really matter when it was just me drinking it.

Feeling sick and well

I felt a bit nauseous while having lunch today. Coupled with a headache, I was a bit worried if I could take good notes for a meeting at 4pm. After visiting the toilet (not to puke fortunately) and laughing about work with my 2 colleagues, I felt better. I even enjoyed the 4pm meeting as my boss and the visitor know each other and it was a light-hearted discussion. I don't look forward to writing the minutes tomorrow morning, but I feel good that I don't feel sick anymore. Maybe it's just the weather - freezing in the office and heatwave when I had to go down to Golden Landmark hotel to send some materials to a visitor. Maybe I haven't been getting enough sleep. Whatever it is, I'm glad I can write this, think clearly and enjoy the rest of the day :)