Homecooked dinner

Mom prepared the ingredients and guided Dad in cooking the dishes. I was happily drinking the soup in front of me before attacking the other dishes :)

Birthday porridge :)

After feeding the community cats with mom this morning, I suggested we made some brown rice porridge for our lunch. We cooked the porridge in the small rice cooker. I used the Jap dashi stock to make the soup base to add to the brown rice once it was cooked. Coriander, crab stick, long beans and instant oats were the other ingredients. Mom also steamed a corn.

I couldn't help taking a few photos of the simple yummy porridge.

It's nice to be able to take my birthday leave today and be home with my family and cats and have home cooked meals.

Bobby

I call him different names - Bob, Bobby, dear, sweetie, darling and when he is naughty, he becomes "Notty boy" or "Notty Bob".

When he is out of our room, he is quite a sweet cat if he does not try to get past the barricade to the room where Angel is. Sometimes, one of his eyes will look smaller than the other - taking a short break while keeping an eye on his environment? :)

He will hop onto the kitchen cabinet counter at times and sit on it. Look at his leg dangling! Haha.

Don't worry. We don't prepare food there and Mom or any of us will clean the table surface or kitchen sink before we prepare our meals.

Cheese Fondue and Pizza

On Sun morning, a good friend invited me and her friends to her place for a cheese fondue party. I have tried making it with her a few weeks ago to make sure that the cheese fondue will be a success too during the party. We followed the recipe from a library book - pour white wine (table/dry) into a double boiler, stir in corn starch coated cubes of cheeses (gruyere, swiss cheese, cheese depending on your preference), add in some white pepper, continue stirring until it turned creamy.

Her friends helped with the making of the fondue too and we transferred the fondue into a slow cooker to maintain its temperature and consistency while we dipped pieces of capsicum, green apple, bread, cherry tomatoes, cocktail sausages and baguette into it. The fondue is really for cheese lovers. I also made some honey lemon drink as it is refreshing for the hot weather.

As my friend had some ingredients for pizza and we had some leftover cheddar cheese and veggies, she suggested we could make some pizza for dinner. (The cheese fondue was our lunch.) We all had fun making the dough and "decorating" our piece of dough. At 6pm, our pizzas were ready and we tried the different pizzas. Some of the pizzas had the left fondue as toppings. It was really a cheesy day :)

Good food and dessert

After the SAM visit, we girls headed to Keong Saik Rd (Chinatown) and had dinner at Kok Sen Restaurant. It's actually a coffeeshop. We had sweet sour pork (lean and tender), prawn soup (like prawn noodle soup but more potent and minus the noodles), steamed egg with century and salted egg and stir fried kailan. Dinner was yummy.

We walked around Keong Saik Rd and Neil Rd for a short while to digest our food before the girls looked for the dessert place recommended by a friend. It's Seventh Heaven located at 10 Raeburn Park. I think it's not easy for people without cars to get there. It's behind the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and nested at some commercial building behind the security counter. So it's actually quite safe with the security guards around in the secluded area. Hee. Joan had to call the dessert shop for directions and the lady over the phone asked us not to be scared and just drive up the slope, past the carpark gantry, park the car and look for the security counter. Haha.

The staff was very friendly and offer us small samples of coconut ice cream and green tea ice cream to convert us into fans. The ice cream was made by the shop and it tasted really good - the texture and taste are somewhere between rich ice cream (eg. Ben and Jerry) and gelato. I really like the green tea one - there were bits of brown rice and tea leaves and it wasn't too sweet. We ordered a platter of 3 ice cream flavours - chocolate (supposed to be dark chocolate but it tasted more like chocolate and whisky), salty cookie and cream (not bad but not salty enough) and black forest. We also had warm and soft chocolate cake. The cake was good and the accompany scoop of vanilla ice cream was interesting. I think they added cinnamon to it.

The next time I want to try their sea salt caramel. It was out of stock that night. I want green tea ice cream too :)

Singapore Art Museum (SAM)

I visited SAM with my friends, Joan and Ann on Sat late afternoon to view Wu Guanzhong's paintings. I vaguely recall seeing his name in the papers. We read his biography on one of the walls in SAM and he has been through a lot to pursue his love for art. I like his oil and inking paintings of nature, houses - the colours, dots, strokes or even the black chinese ink against the white paper created beautiful scenery and objects. He also did one of the pandas.

The photo above is not the works of Wu Guanzhong. Joan commented that it's nice how the museum uses red walls to bring out certain aspect of some art pieces. We like the chandelier looking lighting made of porcelain and shaped like dangling flowers. If you are interested in the works of Wu Guanzhong, his exhibition is ongoing until 16 Aug 09.

Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty

Sis and I watched the 2 seasons of Vampire Knight over 3 nights and 1 afternoon this week and finished watching the 26 episodes last night at around 12.30am. I like the story and how the characters were drawn but compared to Nabari no Ou , it is more complicated due to the romance element. It is not the straight forward happily ever after storyline. There are darkness (presence of evil characters), sadness (death of loved ones). Of course, there are light hearted moments. Sis and I as usual teared and cried at certain scenes.

The anime is based on the manga series of the same title and the story revolves around a school (called Cross Academy) attended by vampire students in the Night Class and human students in the day class. The Chairman of the Academy set up the school, hoping to establish peace and harmony between humans and vampires. The leader of the Night Class was a Pureblood vampire, Kaname Kuran who was respected by his fellow vampires. The Chairman took care of 2 children, Yuki and Zero who both had a sad past and were the Guardians of the Academy to ensure the students of the Day and Night class observed the rules. Kaname was very nice to Yuki and he was the one who saved her from a level E vampire when she was little and brought her to Chairman Cross. Zero came to the Academy a year later when his family was killed by a Pureblood vampire. Zero appeared gruff to Yuki but cared deeply for her. The question when we were watching the anime was whether Yuki would end up with Zero or Kaname.

While discussing with Sis about the anime earlier, Sis asked me to look for another interesting anime. Watching anime is addictive and a luxury. I can tear my eyes away to eat, feed the cats and attend to some tasks but I didn't revise Jap, do some office work, iron clothes as originally planned. I guess it's okay to watch anime once in a while but I need to control the frequency, knowing how time consuming it can be :)

Baking pizza

My friend and I met this afternoon to catch up over lunch and tea and also discussed the recipes for cheese fondue and bread we could use from library books we borrowed. When my friend suggested we tried the fondue recipe and baked pizza at her place, I was game.

She let me knead the dough and guided me as she had baked it before using her recipe. It was fun and quite easy. I only sprinkled part of the pizza with capsicum as Sis and Dad don't like it. Under the mozzarella cheese were prawns, bacon and pineapple. The end result was this and I brought the whole thing home while my friend and her hubby had a smaller square one :)

Our cheese fondue was also a success. We used cheddar, Gruyere cheese and white wine. It tasted great with the baguette and capsicum. We will be making the cheese fondue and baking bread a few weekends for now and enjoying them with more friends.

Japanese noodles from Daiso

Mom got me a packet of Japanese flat noodles from Daiso and I tried cooking them on Thurs. I cooked for mom and myself for lunch and did a dry version with some cornstarch, so that it won't be too dry. It tasted quite yummy. I put bonito sauce, yuzu hot sauce, kailan, sausages, meatballs and green chillies.

Mom's fungus sweet potato dessert

I told Mom about this dessert I tasted and like and she made her own version full of fungus and sweet potato.

This was her 2nd attempt and we finished it over a few days. She made the 3rd batch and we are slowly savoring it.

Birthday dinner for Sis

Mom cooked a yummy dinner for Sis on Thurs. Sis and I took leave partly for her birthday and also to plan our itinerary for our Tokyo holiday in May. Sis also doesn't usually come home for dinner due to her work nature, so it was nice to have dinner together at home.

We had this ginger chicken with wine (sis' favorite and request),
dark soya sauce fish (my favorite dish),

spinach and hairy gourd soup.

Bob and Joy

Bob was hiding initially when Joy was in my room. However, after a while, he was less scared and Joy could stroke and carry him. He even rubbed himself against her towards the end of the visit but Joy said Bob is still very attached to me as he would rub against me too. It's nice to see another person with affection for Bob. Joy commented that Bob and I will be sad if she adopts Bob. True, we will be initially but if Joy and her family loves Bob and Bob and their cat can get along or accept each other, we will be happy again.

Joy and I discussed and think we can try to let the 2 cats meet at her place. That will probably take place in May after my Japan holiday and her working trip.

Joy, I can still smell your perfume on Bob's fur just now. Hopefully that will help him to remember you the next time you visit :)

Bob's afternoon out of my room

I took a few photos of Bob when I let him out after my lunch. He is now resting on the floor in the living room while Angel is in my parents' room with the door closed and other defenses such as the weird fence, bottles of water and orange peels I blogged about earlier.


A potential adopter, Joy will be visiting Bob later. This will be the second time she and her 2 sisters see him. About a few weeks ago, they came too and Bob was quite freaked out and went hiding under the sofa or the toilet or under my bed. It's quite surprising as Bob used to be friendly with people when he was a community cat in the park. I guess after a year interacting just with me and my family, he lost that. Joy told us that she likes the look of Bob and the feelings she has after seeing the ad on Cat Welfare Society's adoption bulletin board. As I guess with that feelings and me hoping to find Bob a better home with more freedom, Joy and I decided that she could visit him again.

Bob is still meowing when he doesn't like to be cooped up in my room. He is still interested in the barrier separating him and Angel. I'm still sharing my pillow with him and my head is usually warmed by his body. I still get some scratches and bites from him on my arms when he is frustrated. He is still the cute guy I see when I go to my room and when I wake up :) But the sad thing is both still can't get along and either one will be unhappy being cooped up.

The last of yam soba

I have been trying to finish the packet of yam soba, so that I can try other brands. Today I made a bowl from the last strands with some veggies I found in the fridge, sausages and egg. For the soup, I put in the dashi/fish stock satchet and also added in this Jap yuzu hot sauce I got from Isetan Scotts supermarket. I like the taste and the dish made a nice satisfying meal for my lunch.

Angel on Ikea plank

Dad is creative. He likes to DIY and recently, he put up a plank from Ikea and shower curtain to cover his new TV in their bedroom. I don't know the purpose of the plank though but it seems like a great place for Angel to relax :) Oh and I like the blue tones of the curtain- bright and chirpy.

How I eat my capsicum

I like green capsicum/pepper, not the red or the yellow. I find the green one less sweet. I like to eat it with plain bread or toast it on top of cheddar cheese, some toast wheatgerm and bread. Yummy!

10 down, 2 more to go

The last time I wrote about being assigned to be the secretary of some senior management meetings. I started in Dec 08 and I have completed 10 sessions. The 10th one was yesterday from 4.45pm till 8.20pm. The 1st agenda item already took more then one hour of discussion and we had about 6 items. Anyway, I will try to draft the minutes and send them out to the directors for their comments by this weekend (my own target) before clearing with CEO by mid-week. Then hopefully, I will do 2 more meetings, as scheduled and be able to lead a more "normal" life.

The experience wasn't that painful. I get to see the decision making process, the dynamics, etc. The content of the discussion will be boring without the personality, experience and passion brought in by the participants. I am not one of them, just someone there to make sure the projector and my laptop run well for the presentation slides, to get presenters to come in at the right time and to record the minutes of the meeting.

I can't wait for my duty to end by end Mar and then I can give myself a little break :)

Watching anime

I have not been crazy about watching anime. The only time that came close was quite some time ago when Central (TV12) was showing Inuyasha at 11.30pm. Mom, sis and I would try to catch it on those weekday evenings. But that anime was quite long and came in a few seasons, so after a while, we stopped chasing after it. The storyline revolves around the adventures of the half-demon, Inuyasha and a schoolgirl, Kagome and their friends in fighting demons. Both Inuyasha and Kagome were from different era and had special powers. I like the storyline which is interesting, funny and sad but it was hard trying to catch up with it. Maybe I will try to follow the later seasons when I have the time.

Recently, I was listening to the Jap song on Sweeteepye's blog and like the tune. I was curious and started to find out what the anime Nabari no Ou was all about. Last Thurs till this Mon, I was watching the anime. I love it, the storyline, the music, the characters (how they were drawn and the colours). I laughed at the earlier episodes and as the story gets darker and sad, I teared/cried at times.

The story is about Miharu, a schoolboy who had some secret art/power in him - he didn't know about it at first and people (who were ninjas/samurai in the Nabari world) were interested in his power. Some became his friends and others just wanted to use the power for their own gains or to create their ideal world. It shows how misguided some people can be by destroying lives around them just to get what they want. There is also goodness where strangers became Miharu's friends and were there to help him. Another important character is Yoite who had the power of Kira and was also called the Death God. The scenes of him and Miharu were very touching as the 2 of them were similar in some ways and they shared a special bond.

I also like how the anime portrays some baddies with some goodness in them and even the good guys had some secrets they were keeping. Things were not what they seemed to be. It was fascinating to see how the story developed. I feel it's kind of unpredictable. Initially, I was attracted to the ninja fighting scenes, then in the later part, it was how the feelings and emotions of the characters were played out.

Most of the guys in the anime (especially Thobari Sensei)look cute and I initially thought one of them (Raiko) was a girl with his pink colour hair. Thobari sensei (another good guy) looks very cool and he was very funny to have a phobia of taking any form of transport. I managed to catch a few familar Japanese words that I have learnt but my eyes were catching the English subtitles all the time. Nabari no ou is only 26 episodes (about 30 mins per episode). I'm not sure if this is the usual length of anime but Inuyasha was more than 100 episodes. It will be wonderful if I am able to understand the anime in Jap. That is, if I continue to persevere in my Jap lessons (still at basic level and not been studying hard for it).

I don't think I will get addicted to another anime soon. Anyway, I could only watch it late at night when I finish checking on the community cats and the 2 rascals at home. But I have been feeling good about being able to catch Nabari no ou. At least I don't feel that I have wasted my time and it's not often I get glued to the computer for hours other than for work. Hee.

Another calico cat sterilised

Another calico cat appeared in my area. She looks well fed and is friendly. I wasted no time a few days later (on Tues) to trap her and asked a friend to help me to send to the vet for sterilisation.


Yesterday, I passed her in the carrier to a Malay uncle who wants to keep her as a pet. His wife and roaming pet cat recently passed away. This new cat will also be another roaming pet cat. At the moment, the uncle is keeping her indoors or in the carrier to train her to know that his place is her new home. I wonder if she will know to go back to his place to sleep after he releases her. We'll see. Either way, my parents and I will be feeding her as we also fed the uncle's previous pet. He stays at the ground level and let his previous cat pee and poo outdoors. He just left it to us to feed his cat and probably sometimes shared part of his meal with his cat.

Cooking on Sundays

I have been cooking simple meals for myself last Sunday and today.

Last Sun, I had the yam soba soup with veggies and egg. Angel jumped onto the sink counter and looked at my dish curiously.


Today, I made a dry version of the yam soba with kailan and egg while trying to bake some organic brownie from a premix I bought from Jasons supermarket. Both were yummy!


For dinner, I used the rice that Sis couldn't finish with her bak kut teh to cook fish and veggie porridge.