Cooking Mama Mia~

During my long break from the working life... one of the things i really enjoy doing was COOOKING...

Below are just picture for my attempts... mostly a spur of the moment... involving suddenly printing out recipes from the net and rushing out to the supermart to grab the ingredients...

Usually occuring during periods of time when my parents are overseas... so no one freaks out when i mess up the kitchen... But i always clean it up okay!

So in chronical order...
1) A simple dinner of saute mushrooms and bbq meatballs...

Mushrooms were a little salty, a little too much oyster sauce... but good on rice. The meat balls were made from scratch, with a little punch of charred flavors.... u get wat i mean... but still i get thumbs up from my bf and brothers... (with persuasion of course) hahaha

2) My Glorious Cheesecake and Rasberry sauce!

Made from scratch... cookie base, sauce and all... found a fabulous recipe... though i had to bake double the instructed time because my oven was not hot enuff... The center was too wet at first but soon set after sitting in the fridge for half a day... dun worry, its common. End result a really good cheezcake i must say... I will sure make it again. Erm.. maybe when i quit the next time.. hahha...

And i really LURVE the rasberry sauce... So simple.. just frozen berries... sugar, cornstarch and water.. boil and simmer.. It will go well with yogurt or icecream... sara lee pound cake... shortbread, scones, endless combi...

3) Cupcakes

Rolling along with my momentum on desserts, i decided to make golden butter cupcake with buttercream frosting... No quick mixes... but still it was fairly simple. The hard part was the decorating without proper tools...
Everything turned out ok.. taste a little sweet but really depends on if you like sweet... (its a dessert for godsake... so fuck diabetes...) Next time i will really want to improve on the looks though...

4) Ja-pa-nees Ka-ri & Sweet Potato Croquette
Actually this is my second attempt on this dish... Well i use the packet jap curry u can find in supermart... U can't go wrong with tt.. just follow the instructions on the box. But i kinda jazzed it up. I use Chicken Thigh meat (coz i think they are the best!), I cut out the meat to put in the curry. Use chicken stock made from the thigh bones instead of plain water. Added onions to make it sweeter. Pre-seasoned the fresh ingredients to add more floavours... Sauteed the ingredients separately for diff duration instead of all at the same time.. coz they do cook at diff time...
The 1st time i kinda messed up the jap rice by adding too little water... this time it was nice and fluffy... the trick is after ur rice cooker is done cooking open it up and air the rice for a while... it will seem really soggy at 1st sight... but after ard 10~15 mins... it will it just nice to serve!

The Sweet Potato Croquette is something i thought of... not from any recipe.. well fine... ok i adapted from the original Potato Croquette, only i made it with japanese purple skin sweet potatoes... (the best!). But i actually adopted the preparation steps from the DS game Cooking Mama... haha.. its too simple... so u can't to wrong.. It takes quite a while to prepare... esp when i was particular to make each of them the same size.. and perfectly circular hahhaa.. They were a hit with my brothers and fq's gf... it happens to go really well with the curry... Yippie for me... Will sure make them again someday...

Well.. so much for my cooking adventures... I really enjoyed them... esp when they all turned out so well... :) Good for a glutton like me.. at least i can feed myself hohoho...

BTW, anyone interested in the recipe I am glad to post them out upon request! hehe....

Italiano...

Think i look menacing on a vespa... hohoho... fierce huh...

Maybe i should start with 2 wheels 1st... since i think i'm hopeless with 4....

They have done it again

After their unsuccessful attempt at the "Pirated" Disneyland, China has done it again. (Ref http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678) This time they took a shot at HMV's Gramophone Dog.

Despite the striking resemblence, the Chinese insisted that its just a cat with skin problem... Yeah rite...

August 5th 2007

Special Day!!! It's our 7th Anniversary!!! (okay... kinda belated blog for such a special day.. but hey better than nothing... haha....)

FwaH... 7 yrs liao... And we SURVIVED... truth is it wasn't really that hard... You made it all so easy. I LOVE U!!

Okay... I shall not tell the location of where we celebrated our special day... but here's the view...
That's the NDP preview in the backgrd... kinda blur as i had a hard time focusing a windy nite. Still the nite was beautiful :)And another beautiful thing from him to me...

The same bouquet he got me on our 1st anniversary...

Sorry Damon...

Haha.. okay.. i couldn't resist it.. i almost forgot abt this pic until i scan thru my phone album... thought its cute... Sorry Damon haha...

After school we trainee teachers went to the new AMK Hub... to shop and well... fooling around..

Anyway... Damon is a polite and overall nice guy, really serious about helping the students... if any girl want to know him... it can be arranged.. ;)

(Hey not so bad to be featured on my blog... might just meet someone... haha... though not many read my blog, only those who matters hehe...) Perhaps one of these days i will feature all my bachelor frens... even my single girlfrens.. hmm...

To Teach or not to Teach... ? Is not the question...

The question is what the fuck are you teach!?

My teaching experience... Briefly... i taught for 3 weeks in Chong Boon Sec... and decided not to go ahead with the bond... So i tendered and served another mth of notice. My teaching days clocked up to 2 mths in total.
Many pple would think its bcoz teaching is "scary" and many probably couldn't take it... on the contrary, i find it can be something i can get use to... (Really... i had ponder over this for quite a bit... to make sure i'm not saying just to save face or something like tt...) So my Reason for leaving was... I wasn't ready to jump. I use "jump" because like jumping off something... once u do u can no longer choose but travel in a pretty singular direction. And i din leave my previous job for tt. I wanted to explore more...

So why teaching in the 1st place... out of curiousity and also i need to start my adventure engine.. and Just do it... try watever... no more stopping at just thinking abt it...

However, nonetheless the 2 mths teaching experience in Chong Boon had been memorable. With stories i see myself telling for a long time. And even after 20 yrs of my education, i never have so much respect for teachers... and also in some cases as much disappointment in them.

I was teaching Lower Sec Sci... Had some wonderful time and a couple of blood vomitting moments with the sec 2 kids... Also, i get to rub shoulders with some older kids from the upper sec who turned out to b very welcoming. Words (or simply my vocabulary) fail me when it comes to describing these kids... They are so "real", they can't even really lie or pretend... They love and hate so openly... i can only wish i can rem the last time i was like them... if i ever were. They had taught me more abt myself than i have to them in pythagora's thm. I only wish i could help them see their potential ahead... How much they will have if they just believe they can...

Besides the kids... i meet many inspiring pple working WITH the kids (any other ways wouldn't be rite... against, above, under, in... would be so wrong)...The REAL Teachers! The passion they spoke of really touched me. And most of them are not even taking half the credit they so deserve. Being in a neighbourhood sch was a big culture shock from me... but like they'd said.. put them in room full of "model" students probably shock them as much too... I also had the honour to befriend a few promising trainee teachers who really believe and wanted to make a difference for the kids... I wish them all the best on the path they have so bravely chosen.

Signing off...

Self Fulfiling Prophecy

So a few mths flew by, and yesh... i din not manage to get back to my stories. And the truth is.. much of it is already a little blurry... The last thing i want to do is to put in things i din really remember. Its one thing to not remember, and another to read an old blog and get an false "recollection" of the event. Kinda like cheating yourself...

Maybe i just tok abt the earlier events a little...

Lived the Dream... in a nutshell.... I dreamt and I'm still alive.. haha... It was quite an experience to step in a studio to do a recording... see myself on tv for split seconds... its was like 1.5 sec of fame haha... On the other hand, it was also quite a nitemare to stand b4 pro judges like Dick Lee and Ken Lim, and get criticized... (nv felt so small... I was nanoscopic...) and then worried abt how embarrassing it would b to be featured on tv with all tt criticisms. Den ironically, feel even worse when you find out the producers have totally cut out ur part due to lack of "entertainment value". It was a roller coaster ride... which in the end all i can say is "Been there! Done that!" haha... BTW, congrats and all the best to Fendi and By Definition!

Be a Star... well we paid 36 bucks each to enter the competition... I muz say the organizers are nice enough to hold about a zillion preliminary rounds to make sure they let as many pple thru to the next round. The multiple rounds allow all the contestants to fully warm up to the competition and have plenty of room and time to improve... and of course.... gather many of their frens and supporters to come pay for entry and vote for you!! Okay.. so it's a win-win situation. If u want to really get all the experience of singing to an audience, this competition is ur best training ground. And i got to give it to partyworld for finding all possible ways to earn our money. (Participation fees, supporters entry fees, supporters buying multiple entry tics to votes, and not to forget frantic paricipants booking ktv rms during the competitions to prac or just to kill long waiting time.) So what's the verdict u ask?? I got to the semifinals along with, i dunno... 100 other pple... and got eliminated down to only 16?? Not much sense of achievement... but its was good exposure.. now i am sure my nerves have a problem with me during competitions. haha...

Think i will stop here for this entry... coz i would like to dedicate an entire entry to my teaching experience... :)

Our 21st Century

So true in the 21st Century ...

Our communication - Wireless
Our dress - Topless
Our telephone - Cordless
Our cooking - Fireless
Our youth - Jobless
Our food - Fatless
Our labour - Effortless
Our conduct - Worthless
Our relationship - Loveless
Our attitude - Careless
Our feelings - Heartless
Our politics - Shameless
Our education - Valueless
Our follies - Countless
Our arguments - Baseless
Our boss - Brainless
Our Job - Thankless
Our Salary - Much Less

Got this from a webbie...

Backlogs...

Ok... think i betta make a list of things that happened lately before i totally forgot. If i have the time in future i will come back to them and provide more details.

• Live the Dream Walk-in shoot @ Music Clinic (8 Jun)
• Be A Star Auditions @ Partyworld International Plaza (11 Jun)
• Live the Dream Auditions @ Media Corp (17 Jun)
• Teacher Prep Training @ NIE (21 & 22 Jun)
• Helping Shan in 飞乐时空 Semi-Finals @ Junction 8 (23 Jun)
• Starting Enhanced School Experience @ Chong Boon (Since 25 jun)
• Live the Dreams Auditions with Judges (27 Jun)
• Transformers - Movie Review (31 Jul) *Transformers RAWKS!!!*
• Recording for 飞乐时空 Finalists' Compilation CD (1 Jul)
• Be a Star Preliminary Round @ Partyworld International Plaza (2 Jul)

So many things to blog abt... so little time. Most prob i wont have time to talk abt all well at least i have a timeline now to remember the sequence of events... haha... playing cheat...

Tribute to Flex...

It has been awhile... There has been lotsa stuff going on in the last 2 weeks. (I can't believe that it has only been 2 WEEKS! Felt like mths...) Well, i will try to touch on the events updates soon... i hope...

I happened to be looking thru pics on Misanthrope and found some backlogs of pics of places in Flex and also of my colleagues. SO! i decided to have a little tribute here for my favourite flex places and some of the pple i work with (Sadly, i forgot to take pictures with my ex-colleagues, only managed to catch some late birds still in the office after 6 pm). hehe...

Fav Spot: the Ladies' Bigger Cubicle

I know this is like... Weird... to pple.

But i fell in love with this spot every since my first day in Flex. (Kinda explain my extended toilet trips... hehe... *Guilt as charged!*) Bare with me here as i tell u more abt the Toilet du Flex. It is an ordinary and clean toilet, but wat is extraordinary abt it was its view. (Refer to pic above). Though only standing 6 storeys above ground, its view is unobstructed thanks to it location in the Woodlands Industrial Park.

Sitting on the porcelain bowl, with a tilted vision of 20 degrees above the horizon, one can enjoy doing they daily biz while looking up to the blue skies above. If expecting a long "delivery" one can also engage in a relaxing game of "Guess-What-Animal-is-de-Cloud"

Fav Room: The Pantry

Please do not be alarm... All the pics above are taken from 1 single room... The Pantry.

Before flex took over the building, this room was the main office of its previous owner. Extremely spacious, with ceiling to floor windows, he even had his own bed and fully equiped bathroom with bathtub. Wat used to be the bathroom is now the storeroom for the janitor, Aunty Mony. (its Mo-Nee, i'm not sure if it's spelt this way) Of coz, flex took away the bed and replaced it with a Ping Pong Table.

Besides Ping Pong, there is also a Dart Board and Fussball Table, courtesy of some ex-colleagues no longer with flex.

Wat pantry is complete without a coffee machine, a fridge stocked with drinks and an assortment of biscuits.

It was a place for relaxation, informal chit chats between colleagues, birthday celebrations, Yoga classes, steamboats, food sharing, breakfast, lunch breaks, 2 pm teabreaks, 3pm teabreaks, 4pm teabreaks, 5pm teabreaks, after work dart games, Anytime Pingpong matches, etc... The good times...

My Knick Knacks

I like to personalize my work space, thus explain my little roadside freakshow of voodoo dolls, flying pig, poseable idiot figure, yoga duck, headless sexy girls, etc...

My Ex-Colleagues

Newbies

Left to Right: Me lah..., Eric, Lake, Stacy, Bryan and Joshua

Veterans

Left to Right: How Young (how young? dunno?), Me lah..., Desmond

Same Batch: Kin Song joined flex in the same yr as me, but a few mths later.

Lots of beautiful memories, though i hoped i have taken more pics with the pple, guess there will be other times. :)