Journal of a Journey

How is Yoga?

2011-01-10T13:23:00.002+08:00

Well, today is my second day and I must say there were times I feel like just stop and walk away. Yes people, it's hard. Don't even think that it's just stretching and making interesting poses.

Even it is hard and in the middle I thought and wonder am I sure if I can take it I told myself that I am not going to give up. I have given up a few times and a few things in my life BUT I won't give up this time.

So that makes it my second session and I am hoping to make it for the rest of the year.

Now, let me wrap up my weekend adventures.

Saturday - I decided and told hubby that we shouldn't hit the gym that day as we have tons of things we needed to do. We:-

Went to the bank.
Went to Mustafa
Went to City Square Mall and have some hong kong food at STREATS! YUMMMMYYY
Walked around City Square Mall (Quite impressed with the number of food places over there)
Went to find out about the cost for the planks for the mattress (I hope this will solve my back pain problem)
Went to Casurina Cove to pick up my pendant my MIL sent.
Came back home and washed the car/waxed the car which took us over 2 hours!!!!(So, I guess we still did our workout just outside the gym)
When we got back to the house, hubby was starving and asked me to make him the noddles with minced meat and we polished it off.

Ended the Saturday with just some drinks and dinner at home.

Sunday - The moment we got up, we got ourselves ready for the gym. Of cuz while doing so, I squeezed in on my laundry.

I managed to start on my weight training for my UPBW.
Chest
Back
Shoulder
Biceps
Triceps

Also, I managed a HIIT for 20 mins! Pretty awesome it was.

Duration : 20:32 minutes
Distance : 2.20 km
Calories burned : 116

Sweat level : Really Good!

After gym it was around 12 noon and we headed to the travel agent to get my passport extended and to apply for hubby's visa for our February Trip.

Over there we decided to get some Burmese for lunch and hubby had the usual Mee Shay and I had my Kyaye O Si Chat :) Had to wait for awhile and it came only after hubby had already finished his food. :(

We came home after lunch and Enu rang the bell literally 2 minutes after we walked through the door at 2. So, finally the house is nicely broomed and mobbed and me likey!

The project we did this weekend was to make a little gate for Tinkle Bell for her to walk in and walk out of our bedroom. As it happened that she would be scratching the door in the middle of the night as she would get bored and want to go out. After that she would be meowing and scratching the door from outside in the morning cuz she wants to come in the room and jump on top of us and do her business.

The moment hubby made the hole she went through it! Hubby was extremely happy with this handy man work and that his little daughter knows how to make use of it. I will take picture of it and post it soon. The second thing we need to do is to add a flap on it so that it wouldn't look as ugly as now because we have a cut out card box stuck there at the moment.

That was our little project and in the evening once Enu has done and gone we went out to Arab street to meet up with Jit and Kanu for Sheesha and middle eastern food. We went to this place called Nabin at Haji Lane. Not too bad. I love the ambiance, food and the Sheesha over there.

We called it a night around 10:00 and after dropping off one of our friends we got home around 10:30 so hubby decided that we'd skip gym for today.

Anyhoo. I will keep you posted more of my plans on my workouts for the up coming weeks.

Leaving you with Tinki on hubby's side table.

Happy New Year! Hello YOGA!

2011-01-05T16:44:00.000+08:00

I know I know, I'm a tad late with this HAPPY NEW YEAR thing BUT! boy I have so much to tell you about how my first 4 day of New Year went.

1st Jan - We did not spend a single dim! It's something really silly or rather cute and may be a little not very convenient tradition. We'd like to believe that if we do not spend a single thing on a new year day we will not have to spend so much for the rest of the year. So, even when we went out with Jit and Kanu to Arab street for hokka and dinner we told them that they will have to treat us since we won't be spending. So, they did!

It was my first day back to the gym also and I was pretty happy to be back I must say.

2nd Jan - For the very first time Hubby and I went to the Church together and I had my holy communion. It was just lovely. After church we had lunch with my old friend and believe it or not, a hawker stall which I used to eat like 4 years ago is still around and best of all the stall owner remembers me! It was such a surprised.

We also went to meet hubby's friend's second daughter. Which we were supposed to do for a long time.

3rd Jan - nothing much exciting happened. Oh, I picked up our tickets to go back home in Feb.

4th Jan - Woo hoo, my very first Yoga lesson. Hatha yoga and it was just amazing. At the moment I have mixed feelings about it. I do admit that I was feeling totally energized for the rest of the day where it was one mad day. I had so much drama to take care of at work and my work ended only around 10:30.

Today 5th Jan - My arms were super sore BUT we went to the gym and I ran! For some reason, I know I need to lose a few kgs well I know exactly 6kg. So let's see if I can do it. I somewhat know I can.

BTW, so far we are doing good at the kicking of bad habit front :)

Last post for 2010

2010-12-31T10:57:00.000+08:00

So, I guess now we can say we made it through 2010 and on to 2011. We had many nice times with friends and family and hoping this will continue for the year coming up ahead.

Managed to hang out with my best friend before the year ended. Just wanted to share some few last photos.

For hubby and me, we'll just be counting down to New Year at home. How about you? Any plans to go somewhere to count down?

1 more day to 2011 and resolutions

2010-12-30T16:04:00.000+08:00

So, looking back on the resolutions for 2010...how did i Do?

Be a more cheerful person. - I think I somewhat accomplished this. :)
Be more positive about life. - Same goes for this.
Run 10K by December 2010 - So did not happen at all BUT, I'm willing to put this for the 2011.
Kick some bad habits :) - Same for this, BUT, I'm going to continue this resolution for 2011
Save money - Accomplished this somewhat :)
Be more patience. - Patience, I think I did this too.

So, here's 11 things for 2011.

Kick my major BAD habit.
Save x amount of $$. (have to set an amount)
Travel to a new place with hubby.
Get back to healthy eating and do one round of BFL (who wants to join me?)
Be a more confident driver
Be more organised especially in the hand bag :)
Be more active
Read more books
Make sure to to meet up with my best friend (girls outing) once a month.
Decorate the wardrobe room and master bedroom
To run a 10 K by June 2011.

2010 Reflections

2010-12-28T11:02:00.000+08:00

Since it is near to the end of 2010 I thought of coming up a list of things that happened to us in 2010. Memorable ones as well as major mile stones for hubby and I.

January - Believe it or not, I had to re-read my posts to find out what exactly happened in January and viola! We decided on the contractor for renovation. (Eric! who did an excellent job with the house)

February - Our 2nd Wedding Anniversary and did lots of shoppings for the house such as Fridge, Air condition, Stove etc. I also got an iPod as our anniversary gift from hubby.

March - Celebrated my 31st birthday with my best friend couple at a really gorgeous Japanese yakitori restaurant. Also, shopping for the house continued. The renovation began.

April - We moved in to our very first own home on the 9th of April. It was an awesome feeling. We had a few house warming parties too for gorgeous friends.

May - Started having some issues with work and boss. Wasn't really good and serious consideration of quitting that job.

June - Decided to quit the job but boss tried to keep me and I thought of giving a second chance.

July - 4th of July marked Tinkle Bell one year with us. We also made a trip to India. It was lovely. We visited Bombay for the first time.

August - I got my CHEF AT HOME book from Ben!!!! Hubby and me did some projects around the house like putting up some photos on the wall. Dad undergone his hernia operation. Yoong, my hair dresser found a bald patch on my head:( I cut my hair really short. Decided to quit the horrible job for good.

September - 1st September I gave my resignation letter without any job in hand. With Jesus' blessings, I was offered a job to start on the 4th of October. Thank you Lord. Hubby took me to Universal Studios with Jiten and Kanu.

October - Started work at my new job.

November - Hubby's 34 birthday at Ochre at Orchard Central. It was lovely. We put up our first Christmas tree at home. Light up some Diwali lights and Hubby did pooja. We booked our very first brand new car (Chevrolet Cruze on the 14th of November)

December - Collected our Car on the 17th of December. Many Christmas parties happened. Cakes, cookies and bread tried and failed. Roasted a total of 4kg chicken for 13 people for Christmas.

It surely is amazing to look back and see what has happened in a year. I will be doing a resolution post soon.

Have a great day ahead all.

From Blondie to blackie

2010-12-16T14:47:00.000+08:00

Yes! as a result of hoping to make my roots to blend it with my colored hair and also to let the hair grow longer I changed my brown colored hair into BLACK! and the next think I saw in the mirror was AEON FLUX! or ADAM's Family! For some odd reasons, I think I like it. I was really worried and bothered at first whether if I'd like it or not BUT, seems it's different. I haven't had dark hair color since I was15 years old so I think it's about it.

Anyhoo, that was that. Also our car got registered yesterday so now we should be collecting it within a day or two I believe. We were hoping to be able to collect it on Friday but it might not be possible so Sunday it is. I must admit that hubby wasn't so thrills to see me with my dark hair yesterday but I'm sure he'll get used to it. He did say he want to ban me from going to my hair dresser. Oh well, I think this is the max test I'd probably be doing so I guess he's too late now :)

Since we got the news about the car and also I wanted to go and show him my hair I suggested that we go for Sushi for dinner to celebrate and he agreed! I had my Sashimi fix yesterday which was pretty awesome.

When we got home, we decided to watch a movie and we watched The Last Time. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it but hubby did. I feel it was a so so movie. Nothing much to rave about I feel.

I think that's about it for my updates for now. I will surely load some photos in next posts.

Cheers.

10 more days to Christmas

2010-12-15T11:03:00.000+08:00

There are some drama at work at the moment but I'm still not letting that take away my Christmas spirit. It's only 11 more days left for Christmas. We will be hosting a Christmas Eve dinner at our place for hubby's office colleagues. Well believe it or not, it'll be both Non Vegetarian and Vegatarian guests I will have to entertain and prepare food for. So it will be fun.

So far I have already come up with a menu and I think I'm quite happy with it cuz most of the stuff can be prepared ahead of time. I like that idea. I really hate that I will have to keep worrying about having to keep the food warm or be presentable without having to abandon the guests. I do not want to be stucked in the kitchen when the guests arrive and I'm still cooking. Oh well, know what I mean.

That just means that I need a lot of practice and research. Mean while, I must say that around our block, there are lots of gorgeous Christmas lights and I must share that with you.

Enjoy.

Some shots

2010-12-09T14:01:00.000+08:00

As you know I've been wanting to try out my camera and learn how to take nice pictures. So here are some shots I tested last night.

Enjoy. Nothing much happened last night. OH but Bones season 5 started last night so it was pretty great.

First Christmas gathering - Best Friend

2010-12-06T11:34:00.000+08:00

Yes, I did mention that this month nearly every weekend is going to be some sort of a celebration or a party didn't I? So yes, last Saturday was with my best friend and her Fiancée. Friday evening, we were supposed to do some shopping and we ended up not doing it because hubby left office late and he was cranky and so was I. With that, we decided to make lunch for my friends with whatever we have in the fridge and that was chicken breast. So Schitnels it is. Also, I've got a bag of mushrooms and since I've been so much in love with the breaded mushrooms tapas I decided to try that out and I must say they were a success. YUUUMMMYYY.. If you have never done so, please do it.

Dinning table setting. (Without all the food on it )

Dinning table setting. (With all the food on it )

I made, potatoes and peas mash and it looked really awesome green!

My green funky mash

Chicken Schnitzels with breaded mushrooms.

Steamed brocoli and cauliflowers with oliver oil, dash of lemon and pepper.

Believe it or not, after all those cookings and cleaning up we went and played tennis from 7 to 9 and after all that we were officially pooped. We knew that we will definitely be suffering the next day so we rubbed ourselves with tons of pain relief rub and I also took 1 pain killer before I went to bed that night. So thank for all that, our Sunday wasn't that painful. However it was still a busy day.

Little one's food has ran out so we went to Vivo and did some shoppings. Finally I decided to get a membership for La Senza.

From Vivo, we went to Chevrolet showroom to get some paperwork done. No, we still do not know when is the car arriving.

It was already around 2:30 by the time we left the showroom and got home sat for like an hour and headed back out to Orchard to meet Hubby's aunt to watch The next three days and have dinner. It was pretty tiring and orchard was packed with people that we couldn't get a cab so we walked around and ended up taking a bus home and got home around 11 pm.

Now, I shall leave you with some Christmas lighting snaps at Orchard.

Let it begins...

2010-12-03T11:39:00.000+08:00

Christmas celebrations that is. Yes, my best friend and her fiancée couldn't make it for my Christmas eve's dinner so I'm making a special early Christmas celebration for them tomorrow at home. It'll be lunch. Also, we've been just told that a tennis court is booked for us tomorrow evening. So! another weekend of full action begins....

Today we'll be going to Sushi Tae i to celebrate two of the team members' birthday. After that I'll be heading off to my other office and hoping to be able to head out early so I can do my grocery shopping for tomorrow. At the moment hubby's already requested what he would wants so I just have to do that BUT, now I am in search of a good dessert which won't make him feel super guilty. Let's see if I'll succeed.

Last evening, it was pouring down like mad and I had to do the Veg dinner take away duty. So I got us Komala's from Tanglin Mall and sadly they didn't have any Briyani so just with Dosai and Puree. I wasn't so sure if that was just enough so I went and bought some mushrooms and herbs from Market place. Still wasn't sure what I would make. Got home and thought of Quesadillas so I just did a simple mushroom Quesadillas in case the food wasn't enough and it turned out amazing!

SO simple yet so satisfying. Sorry didn't get the chance to take any picture of our dinner last night. However, I was a happy girl because I manage to buy some flowers!!!!

Shall show you all tomorrow when I get a chance to take the picture.

Fireworks in the sky

2010-12-02T15:34:00.000+08:00

There has been this freaky thing happening to me lately that every time I thought of someone, found out that that some is not well or got into an accident. Should I not be thinking of people that often? Weird! right?

Anyways, so I went and bought some snacks and a bunch of roses for the friend of mine who just came out of a surgery a few weeks ago. Then I walked home and before we knew it, we suddenly heard loud boom sounds and hubby shouting fireworks fireworks and true enough, when I ran to look out the window, this is what we saw.

AWESOME right???

So we're having early Christmas lunch for my best friend couple this weekend.

Crappy evening but friends and dinner made it better

2010-12-01T12:12:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I must say was pretty challenging. I ended up getting home around 8:30 or probably even closed to 9. Then I got a call from hubby saying Jit and wifey coming over to pick us up on their new Cruez to celebrate.

I said crappy evening because leaving office at 7 pm and found out that it was pouring so heavily that tried to call a cab more more than 45 mins and couldn't get through. So decided to take a bus and all the buses were packed. I was darn hungry as well that I became very cranky.

Anyhoo, so I got home ran inside and bugged hubby to make something for me to eat so he made me Moh Hin Kha (Burmese fish noddle soup). I ate it up so fast. The next thing we knew was they were already downstairs waiting for us.

We went to Margaritas at Dempsay hill and it was a gorgeous evening. Sadly, I didn't eat anything apart from having some pieces of Tequila chicken from hubby with 2 YUMMMMY daiquiris!!! woo hoo

Cheers everyone. It's 1st of December..

Super unhealthy and healthy meal weekend

2010-11-29T11:12:00.000+08:00

So we had a busy busy weekend as always. We did accomplish quite a number of things including a HUGE grocery shopping and sending off stuff for family. Enu hasn't been coming for the passed month so we've been doing the cleaning the house ourselves. Saturday was pretty tiring. We started off the day with laundry, cleaning and tidying up and we headed out to hubby's friend's kid's 1st birthday and I was having really bad sneezing fits.

Bangers and Mesh for Saturday night dinner. (SUPER UNHEALTHY)

Steamed Fish and Sliced ginger beef stir fry with TONS of veges for Sunday Dinner

For Sunday, we cleaned (yes again) and we went for grocery shopping. I was quite happy that we managed to get loads of vegetables and also FISH! After having super unhealthy meals consecutively, I've decided to get on back to healthy eating bandwagon.

Also, we managed to squeeze in fruit juices with carrots, apples, star fruit and oranges that we bought. YUMMMMY......

Hubby's 34th Birthday

2010-11-26T10:40:00.002+08:00

I know I promised that I'm back to update regularly but I didn't manage to. In any case, here's some updates here. Both hubby and I have been extremely busy lately that weeks are just flying passed like no one's business. Last weekend .....crap, I can't even remember what we did last weekend. Oh wait, ok on Saturday we went back to car showroom with Jit and Kanu as they were also set to buy the same Chevy as us but sadly it didn't happen as the prices had gone up. Then hubby and I went and roam around at Autobacs drooling at the car assesories. By the time we got home we were really really pooped and didn't even manage to think about going out for his pre birthday dinner. So that was Saturday.

Sunday and we did some house chores the moment we got up and then we set out to meet with hubby's Aunt and we went to watch Harry Porter, The deathly hollow Part 1. I loved it but hubby and his Aunt thought it was just an OK show. Oh well, to each their own :)

From the movies we went to Robinson and got my white fluffy bath mat. The best thing was it was 20% off woo hoo!!!! You won't believe it, after the shopping we went home and again, we had to set out to the Aunt's place to have dinner and help solve her wireless internet connection. Yes, I'm telling you hubby is their personal pc technician.

So it was our extremely tiring weekend. I didn't even mention that we did the house chores and other craps like laundry and cleaning. We didn't even manage to do any grocery shoppings.

Monday - : Nothing much happened except and I did manage to go shopping for Hubby's birthday gift :) and some drama at work made me reached home only after 8.

Tuesday - : Hubby's birthday and we both went to work and came home a tad early and we went to Ochre for dinner. It was THE BEST dinner for 2010 so far and I really hope Hubby enjoyed it.

Wednesday & Thursday nothing much exciting either. Except I feel a tad too tired and felt like as though I was going to hit by a flu bug but I hope not.

Well so now for this weekend. We do have a few things lined up to do...

Shop for Mom/Dad
Shop for Ashi's 1 year old son birthday gift
Pass the stuff to send for home
Go to Ashish's son's birthday
Clean up the house
Do laundry
Do grocery shopping
Might go to SITEX

So sorry this is just words only post and no exciting pictures.

Hi ya hi ya....

2010-11-19T15:36:00.000+08:00

Wow, I just realized that my last post was on the 24th Sept and it's less than 2 months but it felt like ages. Well, if you are wondering where have I gone to, I didn't go anywhere actually BUT I started at my new job since 4th of October.

It's not great but it's OK. Something new. Also, I haven't managed to cook much either. No cakes, breads nor even juices that I have done since my last post. Pretty bad come to think of it.

Well, do not fret I am back and I will do my best to keep you guys updated with my news.

First start, we bought our very first brand new CAR on Sunday but it will need a few more weeks to be delivered. We are hoping it will be delivered in December and not in January.

It's a Chevrolet Cruze. Ok, I really do not know about the rules of copying photos from the official websites to here. Even though I am not doing any marketing activities I don't want to get into trouble. So, people please do use our friendly and always helpful Google to check out how it looks like if you want to to.

If not, you can wait till I can take the actual photo of the car when we get it.

Catch you guys later.

P.s The decos are up and so is the tree ...woo hooo.. I just love Christmas Season.

Last day at work

2010-09-24T23:50:00.001+08:00

Many thing is happening. In my life as well as in my head. Well today is actually the last day of my work and I don't feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulder. Not sure why and on top of that I'm feeling so crappy. I feel like I can't do things in balance. There are a lot of things I feel I'm lacking in my life especially with regards to my family. Anyhoo, I really feel that I need to sort out my life and things in my head.

On a different note, here's our dinner yesterday.

Well, I didn't cook these as I was having such a bad headache, it was takeaway from Vivo City. Our usual vege spot

This! I made. Sweet potatoes chips! Amazing stuff.

Tinki playing with her pole. Thought it's about time add some of her pictures.

Yup, we got some F1 tickets for hubby's brother who is a F1 fanatic and cousin.


My quick and easy Bee Hon (Kyar Zan Kyaw)

So, today I got home around 4:30 and my I was sitting at home not sure what's happening in my head. Then, my hubby's sis in law and nephew were going out and I was at home sitting and thinking to myself. Hubby came home around 7 and I broke down telling him how I feel about myself that I could never do things right for my family. After a little while the sis in law and nephew came back and we planned for her to go and watch the F1 qualifying rounds. Around 8 30 hubby's cousin came by and we sat around and chilled for a bit and I whipped up some bee hon for all of us.

Anyways, I really got to sort out my head. How can I have peace with myself. I don't know.

Smoothie week truly

2010-09-23T10:08:00.000+08:00

Blue berries smoothie ooohhhh ya! when we realised that strawberries smoothie should have been perfect for a Thursday breakfast, I remembered my frozen blue berries and raspberries. Yes, that's something new I figured out on saving fruits which don't get used within a week. I'd freeze them and just throw them in my smoothies or lemonade.

Doesn't it look so sexy? Yeah, it does and tasted darn good too. Ok, let me rewind to yesterday evening. So, I was so pumped to go for a run BUT, the nature didn't let me. It was pouring down when I got home and decided to just started baking something. Something meaning BREAD! yes, I'm so not giving up on it just yet. Remember my crazy shopping for the baking stuff on Sunday. Among a lot of flour, I also picked up this 5 grain Bread mix. I thought I'd try that but truth is I wasn't so happy that it is a pre mixed. Sorry I am a "from the scratch" girl. That allows me to know what is inside of something that I'm eating.

Also, I found a recipe for buns and I thought why not. Whenever I hear wholemeal, whatever it is, it makes my heart skipped. So here they are. The buns turned out OK not great as the it needs to be a little bit more fluffy both hubby and I feel. Well, definitely a second try is on the way.

The bread of cuz came out 90% perfect. I was so in love! The dough actually raised!!!! I was such a happy girl to see it! So here they are.

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With that, I made us dinner. It's my all time favourite Peprika and lemon grilled chicken with steamed broccoli and grilled asparagus.

Today, hubby's sister in law and nephew are coming and let's see what sort of food they'd like to try.

Smoothie and a mug of cleansing tea for a start

2010-09-22T11:24:00.002+08:00

Yesterday there was no exercising for me. I was just telling my hubby yesterday that I might have to go for my eyes check up because I have been keep having headache nearly every evening. Yesterday was not so bad though. I took that as an opportunity and told hubby that I was not in the mood to cook. So we just made noodles with onion and sheesh kabobs. Been awhile we had that so it was quite yummy for us.

Then we watched "I hate Valentines day" and it was a sweet funny movie and called it a day. Yes sorry, nothing exciting happening last night.

This morning though was good. I had my breakfast order placed since last night :) Yes, I had to place an order for my breakfast to hubby if I want something special if not Masala Chai is by default.

So here's what our breakfast for today was.

Yup, Strawberry smoothie (Strawberry, frozen bananas with milk) Hubby made it

After such great healthy smootie, I came to work and chowed down this beehon with ~~salami~~ luncheon and fish cake. I know, so not good at all. I'm still going through the transition period.

This is my cleansing tea I brought from home which I got from Jones the grocer. It looks like uhmmmm you know what pack ya? ha ha

So I did it!

2010-09-21T10:13:00.001+08:00

Yes, yesterday evening I was feeling so pumped at work and getting all ready and geared up for a run in the evening. Of cuz I was so worried that I might just back down on it. While I was at work, I was preparing my playlist and even tried to find the Nike + iPod on my phone. I used it on my iPod Touch before but I wasn't sure on the iPhone so I thought I'd prepare them in advance so I won't have any excuses. So yes, you can say that I was pretty much well prepared.

The moment I got home, I kept telling myself that no matter what you are going to feed Tinki and change and walk straight out of the door and that's what I did. Well let's just say that I managed to step out to do what my mind was set to but was my body ready? I did run a while and then I had to stop. I have been really under estimating the outdoor running and oh boy have I got a lot to catch up on.

As soon as I get home, I was looking forward to make something really refreshing and I thought of my Dragon fruit! So I made dragon fruit and fig juice!

It was just what I needed after the run/walk of 40 mins :)

My Stats

Run/Walk : 35 mins
Distance : 4km
Calories : 239
Sweat level : Pretty good for a second day

I need to calibrate my distance. So I can get an accurate distance next time.

Mad shopping for baking stuff

2010-09-20T10:27:00.002+08:00

I can't even think of where to start about our yet another busy weekend. 2/3 of the weekend I was actually in pain yes, not good at all but I was happy the amount of stuff we still managed. We got a few deliveries on Saturday. The air conditions got servicing and who ever has air conditions, I truly recommend servicing them every 6 month! I never knew it would make any difference and IT DOES! Especially the unit in our bedroom was having some sort of sound and it's Mitsubishi brand and after those guys did what they did, it was like the first day of installation again, no more sound and didn't even notice that it was being turned on! After that, my MIL's TV was delivered and hubby and I are testing it out in our bedroom :). So we've got a 42" Tv in our room and now we're having a second thought about having a TV in the room. hhhhmmmm We also re-arranged our living room and I think it's much better now.

We also did a lot of cleaning chores and another of my fried yellow noodle for the Saturday lunch which of cuz we polished! After so much of house chores before we knew it, we had to go out to meet hubby's Aunt's family. I also tried to make Baya Kyaw ( Dahl Vadai) for tea time snack and we had some left over that we took to the Aunt's house and they also polished it! I was quite pleased with my first ever attempt of making it. Sorry guys, I didn't get a chance to take pictures of it and I am pretty sure I will be making it again and I will make sure to take pictures then. I will surely put on the recipe on the Food page though. Dinner was at Jumbo at Dempsey. This was the second week in a roll of Jumbo dinner and chili crab. Since we were at Dempsey, I went to Jone's the grocer and bought a "Calming Tea" for myself to try out to see how it is. I tried it first thing when we got home and it was really mild and lemony gingery smell and I quite enjoyed it.

As for Sunday, we made up for our grocery shoppings that we missed on Saturday. We left home around 10 in the morning and since I have been pestering hubby to take me to the Phoon Huat shop we went there first. They have everything baking materials but sad to say that I didn't find the two main thing which I have been looking for. Wholewheat flour and Active Yeast. Instead I bought whole meal flour, molasses (I have yet to think of where I'm going to use it to make what) and five grain bread flour. Then we went to do our grocery shopping at NTUC and guess what hubby found!!!!

Yes! Active Yeast and I also found what I was looking for wholewheat flour and unbleached all purpose flour!!!! How amazing! So I told myself not to underestimate the local super markets! And guess what I made as soon as I got home! Whole grain apple pie by Michale Smith of cuz!!!! It came out unbelievably good. Hubby of cuz didn't quite like the crispy crust of the whole grain BUT I loved it and so was the Aunt's family. Yes, they dropped by in the late afternoon to our place and I gave all of them a slice each and they loved it.

After they left about 8 I was already feeling quite famish and decided to make some chicken curry with rice but hubby protested and asked for noodles AGAIN! yes, so I told him why not I make Moh Hin Kha with the flat rice noodle and he eyes just lit up so here it is. Moh Hin Kha for dinner.

Also, I have been wanting to try out the pomegranates and I finally bought some. They're pretty expensive though, $3.5 for 2 :(

Leaving you with some sun set shots on Sunday and a champagne snow skinned moon cake.

Catch you soon.

My first attempt on Indonesian

2010-09-17T10:01:00.000+08:00

I left office around 5:10 yesterday evening as I really couldn't be bothered sitting and doing nothing plus there was some renovation happening right on top of the office and it was as though my head was constantly being pound with a hammer!

So I went home with this huge headache and it lasted the whole evening. That didn't stop me from making dinner. Something which I was thinking of the whole day and wanting to try out. It's actually an Indonesian vegetable dish which hubby's aunt's maid makes most of the time when we visit their place. The only thing is that I'm not such a big fan of coconut milk and I do know that this curry needs coconut milk. It's called Sayur Lodeh in Indonesian I believe. As my best friend has been requesting me to write up the recipes I will be doing so and will start with this one. All the recipes will be under Food page. I actually did google the recipe for this BUT I didn't quite like most of what went in SO, I did some changes to it and I made it my own version.

Here's our dinner last night.

Sayur Lodeh (Indonesian Vegetable Curry)

Crispy tofu (Shallow fried tofu)

Fried tofu salad (Burmese style and my Dad's favorite)

I promise to write down all the recipes. After dinner, we watched "The Hammer". It was a really sweet and nice movie. We both just fell in love with it.

2010-09-16T15:36:00.000+08:00

It's official that my last day will be on the 24th. Looking forward to it and same time feeling kind of worry. Well I just pray and do my thing and no need to worry. So, I have been thinking lately about doing a challenge again as remembering Ben's BFL challenge request. BFL normally is a 12 weeks challenge. I should be doing this BUT I think I'm going to challenge myself one week at a time. I've come up with this weekly challenge idea.

18-Sep	40 mins - Run
19-Sep	45 mins – Strength 30 mins - Yoga
20-Sep	40 mins - Run
21-Sep	45 mins - Strength 30 mins - Yoga
22-Sep	40 mins - Run
23-Sep	Rest
24-Sep	45 mins - Strength 30 mins - Yoga
25-Sep	40 mins - Run
26-Sep	45 mins – Strength 30 mins - Yoga
27-Sep	40 mins - Run
28-Sep	45 mins - Strength 30 mins - Yoga
29-Sep	40 mins - Run
30-Sep
1-Oct	45 mins - Strength 30 mins - Yoga
2-Oct	40 mins - Run

Let's see how it'll go. I'll also be recording of how much I run and what weights I use.

What have I done???

2010-09-16T10:00:00.001+08:00

Ok, so I got home quite late last night as I had to go and sign my contract letters and also had to meet up with my predecessor and boy have I got a lot of work cut out for me. It is going to be a huge politic jungle and war going to be it seem but hey, I'm not going to back out and leave just because I got scared. I will do whatever I can. I know I am stronger that I think. Ok, I just hope that I'm saying all these to psych myself and the next day I would be writing about wanting to quit. I must be very well prepared.

Here I come library, how to survive and thrive in office politics! I think I will need a lot of exercising and mental preparation. Like....

[Source]

So, today I'm going to ask my current job for early release. Meaning, I would like my last day to be on the 24th rather than the 27th. If this go through then it means that I will have 6 more days to count down. Sorry, there is not food stuff in this post as I only had cup noddle last night as didn't want to bother hubby. Feels like after a long time I came back home after hubby.

Ok, one thing I need to ask probably my best friend is if it is ok for me to have a photo from a website and also put the source of the photo? I don't like getting trouble for something which I don't know of.

Will catch up again soon.

Ah chooooooooo

2010-09-15T11:38:00.001+08:00

I was in bad shape yesterday as my allergy acted up and sneezing and my nose was way worse than a running tap. It only started the moment I left the house for a meeting and it became bad to worse. Not good at all. So I ran straight to the doc and got sick leave and loads of med. Hubby joined me for lunch by ditching his gym yesterday as the clinic was just downstairs of his office. Really sweet of him

After lunch, I went straight home and went to sleep till 5:15. It was a really good sleep but I was feeling weird and drowsy when I woke up. Anyways, I was feeling better after watching Drumline on tele and hubby came back home. So I made some quick dinner. Also, I have totally decided that we shall not buy anymore frozen fish EVER! Fresh is way better!! If you recall, I bought tons of meat the other week and I bought 2 pieces of red snappers. I made 2 pieces into curry and the last piece I made fish tikka with the masala that hubby's cousin in Bombay gave me. It was delicious. My first attempt at trying to fry fish this way and I am pretty sure there are going to be many more of these little guys. Hubby said it'll be great as snacks for the guests next time.

Then as usual, I made some greens too. I cannot make do without any vegetables with my meals.

Steamed green beans

Grilled asparagus

My best fish curry (sorry, not that good looking)

With that we ended the day and this morning I made a tropical smoothie to load ourselves with Vitamin C.

In the smoothie :-

2 frozen large bananas

3 pieces of pineapple

2 oranges

splash of orange juice

a hand full of frozen blueberries

I'm leaving you today with these gorgeous sun sets shots I took yesterday. I was trying to take the rays and not too sure if you can see. Enjoy.

A productive Sunday

2010-09-13T12:18:00.001+08:00

So the weekend was over with a great accomplishment for us. Our another project of sorting out hubby's tools drawers/cabinets was a great success I must say. Hubby's task was to make pull out drawers in the cabinet and mine was the organisation. The project actually stretched over Saturday and Sunday basically because we were still too sore and tired from the Friday workout/run.

Now, I'm a happy girl when I'm in our two other rooms. The closet room and our guest bedroom. The closet room is where I gave hubby space to keep all his tools. Some snaps of all the cables and his tools after I did my magic :)

I feel like I'm one of those shop keepers from an electronic shop with lots of spare parts packed in plastic in a drawer :) Well that is how it is supposed to be! If you want a neat and tidy place and easy to find everything. It's see through. I think I have become a bit of a neat freak in the past few years. I just hate to see things lying around and it gives me headache and get irritated. Believe me, I used to be such a messy person well a little messy but I'm not so bad that I live without any clean clothes or rats coming out from under my bed. :)

Someone (sorry, I really can't remember who) told me once, "everything should have a place". I think I am so living by that line now. Whenever I get something I make room for it. If I have no place to put why get it? Also may be another reason is due to my excessive watching of "Clean house" ha ha.

After the tools department, I moved on to our guest/office room. The room has been screaming for help for many months and I finally did it! Here are some of the before and after shots.

Before

The after office desk

Office shelve before

Office Shelve After

Closet room before

Closet after 1

Closet after 2 (The little pile on the floor is hubby's gym clothes. yes, he prepare them every morning before work).

So, what do you think? I know there are still a bit of work required but I think we did a good job for now. Definitely there's room for improvement.

Next projects :
1. Fix Tinker bell's scratch pole. (hubby wants to make it taller :))
2. Sort out documents
3. Fridge organisation/cleaning

BTW, in case if I haven't told you. My in laws AND my Mom is coming to stay with us on the 30th. Soooo, it's going to be a fun house :)

Sore day

2010-09-11T20:13:00.003+08:00

At least today I didn't wake up at 7 in the morning. In fact we got up around 8:30. Not too bad right? Then I decided to make us a green smoothie.

This morning smoothie consist of : -
2 cups spinach
3 small size frozen banans
a hand full of blueberries and some rasberries
2 cups of milk

Hubby did some work on the computer in the morning and also finished up on the chairs while I did some housework and he decided to work on his tools cabinet. While he started that I made us a very unhealthy :D breakfast. Well once in a while, we do indulge ourselves. Bacon, scramble eggs and grilled tomatoes with wholewheat bread.

After breakfast we continued to work on the tools cabinet and I sorted most of his tools and LOOK at the amount of stuff he has!! I think he has every single tool a man would need. Half way through, we decided to go to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping as we were planning to make Mee Shay for lunch. Both hubby and I were so sore from our workouts yesterday. He did his leg workouts in the gym yesterday and I went for a run and today my legs are just too sore:(

When we got back, I realised I forgot a few stuff I forgot like pickled chinese veges :( So, we just had it without the pickled vegs.

Here it is. So, we ended up having lunch around 4 30 and now we're so stuffed! Seems, the dinner will be around 9?

BTW, my ex trainer is now keen on getting back on BFL and so I'm joining him on the challenge. Though he's in Canada I'm sure we can track each other's progress online.

Selamat Hari Raya

2010-09-11T01:36:00.003+08:00

It's Hari Raya today which is a religious holiday for Muslims. So wishing all my muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya. You won't even believe how fast today went by. Also, you won't believe what time I woke up. 6:59! Yes, imagine on a holiday I was awake at 6:59 am! I feel like for holidays, I have so many things I can do and I shouldn't waste a single minute at all. So I got up and went to watch some tele as hubby was still in his dream land.

Well the one thing I must update is that I went jogging/running outside today!!! while hubby went to the gym. It was my first time running outdoor and also after like nearly 7 months of not running so I could only do like 3 mins of running 5 minutes of walking then another 3 minutes of running. Yeah, don't laugh. BUT hey I tried and I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep on trying to run outdoor from now on. Save on Gym membership. While on the way back, I stopped by the train station and bought Mee Soto (gosh, what do to? I'm addicted to it now.) for myself and Mee Rabus for hubby. Met a Eurasian lady and started chatting for a few minutes.

My addiction, mee soto from the train station

Tinker Bell, giving my food evil eyes :) Yes, yes she's so concentrating on my food.

I really don't know if I should be giving Mee soto to a cat

Then we went to watch Resident Evil 4 in 3D with Jit and Kanu and it was not so bad but a lot of things/stories/reasons seems to be missing. Well you have to go and watch it to understand what I'm talking about. After that hubby and I had to run to the airport to meet hubby's sis in law and his nephew for awhile. They did a short transit at the airport on the way to India.

From there we came back home around 7:40 and around 8:30 we left for JUMBO to have a celebration dinner with Jit and Kanu. It was a lovely evening/day. Here are some fun shots from there day. Also, hubby is now working on the chairs while I am updating my journal and Putu is lying around keeping us company. It 1:06 am now.

Vivo city, Moon cake fair. Yes, it is already Moon cake season now.

Love the colors

Jumbo at East coast park

Sorry, food came and only thought of eating. No time to take pictures before diving in :)

We polished it all

Some interesting stuff. Click on pic to view in zoom. (If you are interested)

Are all those really fierce dogs? They all look cutie pies to me.

Remember! Stay on the right Track

Wake boarding park at East coast

Hubby and Tinki hard at work :)

Booo hooo, 2 more days till Monday kicks in again.

Good news

2010-09-09T21:40:00.000+08:00

So there's a good news that I'd like to share. So I've been offered with a new job! Yes, so no rest for the wicked and a friend just posted a message that it's rather no rest for the best ha ha. Well wish me luck or all the best for my new ventures.

Anyhoo, here's our vegetarian dinner and I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking to my plan for the dinner :)

Chickpeas salad and mushroom, zucchini and green peas with Pratas. Enjoy.

Confused!

2010-09-09T11:10:00.001+08:00

It's is Thursday and am planning to make dinner at home. I'm hoping to make something different this time instead of curries. So, I've soaked the chick peas over night and still soaking at home at the moment while I'm at work. The dinner menu so far I have in mind is:

Chickpeas salad
Grilled zucchini and sauteed button mushrooms ( I might throw in some greens in here. Some green beans may be?)
Some ready made Prata ( I know. I wish I have some wholemeal wraps at home but I don't).

Wish me luck!

OK, this morning we were so planning to make some tropical smoothie with Pineapple, oranges and banana and guess what happened! The orange juice which I thought we still have in the fridge for uhmm many months has gone bad :( So we ended up with banana smoothie.

This is the first time I polished off a banana smoothie. In it,

There's 3 normal banana and 1 frozen banana with 2 cups of milk. That's it but it tasted delicious!

So my tropical smoothie will be on another day.

Burmese for Dinner

2010-09-08T21:23:00.001+08:00

So I came home around 5 today and decided to make something Burmese for dinner and as you can see, I made chicken and potato curry, tomato salad and chinese greens. As for my day, nothing much exciting and just counting down my days with this job.

Grills for dinner

2010-09-08T08:20:00.000+08:00

It was a strange day yesterday. Afterall, the meeting in the evening got cancelled and I came home around noon. Did a few things around the house and thought I'd send in some more applications. In the evening, I decided that it's about time for me to do the grocery shopping! I got EVERYTHING. All kinds of fruits:-

Apples
Oranges
Pineapple
Banana
Rasberry
Blueberry.

All kinds of meat and vegetables. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE grocery shopping?? Yes, I do. We timed it so that by the time when I was done shopping hubby left the office and we came home together :) He carried the bags up. I did the major tiring shopping you know, someone has to do the lifting :)

I got Salmon for us as it's been so long we had salmon for dinner. so here it is.

I don't normally like to have much gravy or sauce to go with my grilled meals except chilli sauce :) So it can look dry but trust me, the salmon was just way too juicy to be dry.

Here's my red ruby I had in the afternoon yesterday and yes, finally a decent photo of it. :) Thanks to my little canon.

How can I not, share this view with you all. Isn't this amazing? Lovely dust.

Gorgeous day

2010-09-07T15:42:00.000+08:00

My lunch and snack for the day

2010-09-06T22:51:00.002+08:00

Yes, I think I should totally stop accompanying our business partner! Darn he can eat eat and eat! We had break fast around 9 :30 and around 12:30 he was hungry and wanted to go for lunch and asked me to accompany him. So I thought ok and didn't think I'd eat but since we've got a meeting to go to at 3 I thought I might as well eat and that's what I had for lunch but I had very little rice though.

After the meeting around 4 he wanted to go to Naranjan and I took him and there and he couldn't decide on what he wants to get!!! So going back and forth with this decision making we decided to sit and sip Lime soda at Muthu's which was just next door to Naranjan! Then he got the smells and couldn't resist that he ordered mysor mutton AND MADE me eat some of it! How MEAN!!!

I am so going to need to hit back the track soon! That is running I mean.

Well today am going in late as only 2 meetings for the day.

Good morning Monday

2010-09-06T11:43:00.000+08:00

I welcome any time for a 4 days work week but then I think I should be treasuring each working days for now as I feel like I might missing having to come into work. Oh well, like what hubby said, whatever happens happens.

Yesterday was another productive day. So basically our weekend was such busy and productive that we both were so tired by the time we went to bed. We finished the chairs!!!! So now our dinning table and chairs are complete. We managed to fix our photos project too. Yes, nearly 95% of the photos were on the ground last week.

It was also last day for Comex and we went there and got a camera (Canon SX210) for myself AND a LCD Tv from Philip for MIL. The prices were really good with all those extra goodies. From there we walked around marina square and finally walked up to the Marina Sands area. No, we didn't go inside as Enu was coming over and took some fun snaps around the area. Enjoy.

F1 track

Youth Olympic Park

Youth Olympic Games

Singapore Marina Sands Hotel/Casino

Singapore Central Business District

Bridge connector to the Sands

Carl's Junior for Sunday Lunch after Comex

Sunday dinner Stir fried cabbage and grilled Okra

Burmese Indian Egg Curry

Here's my breakfast for today.

Mee Soto (isn't this picture way better than my crappy E71?)

Oh so busy!

2010-09-04T23:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, it's weekend and so it's a busy time for us. Boy, we went around a fair bit of places today. Since I started the laundry last night this morning before we went out, my laundry was done! How amazing?

Anyhoo, we set out around 9 30 to the specialist and thank God, he doesn't think there's anything to worry about and to monitor for another 6 months. From there we went and had some breakfast at star bucks at Paragon. It was a rather big outlet and amazingly there were short of staff and only 2 were running the whole shop. There were no plates to server the food anymore and many tables were filled with dirty mugs and plates but they were managing to serve everyone in the line. Then from there we went to Great world city, then home. Sat for about 10 minutes and went out to mustafa and then came home around 4 and we both were pooped. Sat for a few hours then went out to Ikea to get the rest of the dinning chairs and finally got back home around 9. So there. It was our Saturday for you.

In this madness, we managed to squeeze in a cup or red ruby :)

In my red ruby, 3 celery stalks, 3 medium carrots, 2 star fruits and 1 beet root.

Oh and about my doctor's appointment yesterday, it was as expected due to stress ( regarding my bald patch) and the doc gave me 3 steriod injection around that are and told me to go back to see him in a month's time.

After that appointment I went to see Aud's at her dad's office and was a good surprise to see her Mom and little niece too.

Around 4 I rushed back home to take the little one (Tinker Bell) to the vet for her annual vaccine and she behaves so well apart from her time to time hisses :)

Ok, for some reasons, I can't seem to make Tinki's picture to be centered! Oh well.

Time to sleep now. Well I might be getting a Canon SX210 tomorrow. Stay tune!

Comex 2010

2010-09-03T11:54:00.000+08:00

So, yesterday I went to Comex with a colleague and it was surprising not too crowded. Don't get me wrong. The crow was there but it's bearable. I bought a iPod/iPh 3 arm strap hoping I'll be motivated to start running again and also a silicon case for hubby's coming soon iPh 4. My colleague bought 2 laptops and he went mad.

Well from Comex I went to Vivocity because it was already 5 and thought we'd just have dinner at vivo. Then I thought of getting pedi and mani done. So I walked into this place in Vivo City and got my pedi and mani done. Boy, I don't think I'll be going there again. The service and work done by the girls were pretty good. HOWEVER! when I got a bill of $94 !!!!! I wasn't so thrill. It came down to even when you choose a scrub there's 12 + 15 extra AND to apply a quick dry top coat another $5 bucks! Boy oh boy. So not going there again.

Today, I've got my appointment with the skin specialist at 2:30 for my bald patch. I really pray and hope that it's nothing serious.

My best friend told me the other day - > I need to learn to relax. I really do.

Anyhoo, here's the bags from comex yesterday. Not sure if I'll be going there again with hubby over weekend.

I quit

2010-09-02T09:55:00.000+08:00

I just realised that I did not update anything yesterday. Probably because I had too much thoughts in my head. Well yes, I did it. As of 1st Sept 2010. I quit my current job. Well I have given them a month notice so most likely I'll be jobless by the end of this month. I will still be looking around for jobs and if something comes up and if I feel right I will take it up of cuz. If not then I will take this time to renew myself.

Hubby came back home with such a bad migraine and he couldn't even talk much. Poor thing. So I made us dinner. My original plan was to make kyar zan kyaw but there wasn't any kyaw zan (rice noodle) left in the pantry. So I settled with Sheesh Kabab with asparagus with instant noodle. Believe it or note hubby was ready for bed after the dinner and it was only around 8:30. Told him not to sleep right after dinner so he went to bed eventually around 9.

Believe it or not, I watched "Lipstick Jungle" for the first time last night on Hallmark. :) I don't know. I wish I'm like those other girls who would make a point to catch their favorite shows every week.

Here are a few pictures which I forgot to upload.

This is my favorite dish at the moment. Mee Soto. It's hot, spicy, comforting and just yummy.

The other day in office, it was one of the intern student's last day and they ordered Domino pizza. I'm not too sure if I'd quite like it. I think I prefer Sarpinos.

And this is what my food for the day. Well it's Thursday, so you can guess. (Apple and Green Tea) liptop with mixed nuts.

Marmalade and peaceful day

2010-08-31T14:20:00.000+08:00

As I was saying earlier this morning, today I didn't have to go into office which made me feel really nice. I think. So, I made myself a cup of masala tea with the toast.

It was really nice. The marmalade was given by Leena and she made it at home. Really sweet of her. So now, am at home doing some work/update journal. Soon will have to leave for another meeting which is just next door to my place.

Chicken melt

2010-08-31T09:30:00.000+08:00

Last evening, I decided to go out and watch a movie with hubby. So I bought us tickets for "The girl with the dragon tattoo". On my way home from work I was already planning dinner in my mind. So I got home gave a quick call and wish my Aunt and Uncle a belated anniversary and waited for hubby to be home.

I made hubby a chicken melt with our left over roasted chicken with shredded mozzarella and I had a bowl of left over moh hin kha.

These were the last 2 slices. The first two were consumed so fast that didn't get a chance to take any picture :) Yes, hubby loves sandwiches.

Today is going to be another challenging day for me at "work". Well at least I am not going into the office as there are 2 meetings to attend to outside.

OK, am going for a cup of Masala Chi with a Home made marmalade toast.:) Pics in next post.

The movie was quite good. I'd give 4 stars out of 5.

Our weekend projects

2010-08-30T12:02:00.001+08:00

So this was one of the project that we did. Our photo collage for our breakfast corner wall. It was a fun project really. We decided on the color of the frames first then the design then the photos. We printed these photos ourselves on the photo papers. They weren't great but they turned out not too bad afterall.

The next challenge was how do we hang these on the wall! So we stick each frame with valcro stickers on to a card box cut out and we stick the whole card box on to the wall with 3 M photo frame stickers. And then Viola. Just cutting the photos, fixing them in the frames and sticking and getting the whole thing up on the wall took us 3 hours and we both enjoyed doing it and we were really happy with our little project.

The second project was solely hubby's and it was the dinning chair that we wanted to test out. The picture is the end result. Forgot to the before photo.

Nice gorgeous Sunday morning with a bowl of Moh Hin Gha

2010-08-29T13:00:00.000+08:00

This morning we woke up to a perfect morning with chill winds and cold rain. I just loved it. I am more and more appreciating the little habit of cleaning up right after a party. That means when I wake up the next day, I can relax instead of having to worry to have to clean up.

So this morning, as we were just relaxing, hubby decided to varnish the test dinning table chair. Yes, we might sound strange as we only bought one chair to see if the color would match with our table. Well of cuz it didn't as we expected but hubby had better ideas and he decided to put a few codes of varnish.

While he was doing that, I made the most perfect Moh Hin Gha(burmese fish noodle soup) to go with the perfect morning. Yes, I do admit that I used it! I did! I opened up a ready made package :( BUT I am not regretting and shameful of it as it was AMAZINGLY good. So, if any of you out there wants to try out ready made Moh Hin Gha, I do recommend this brand. My sister in law bought it for me when I was in Yangon. It's by "Khin Htwe Yi" and the noodle was by "Myound Mya Daw Cho"

Instructions were also pretty clear and so easy to follow. Basically, just boil a couple of onions in 2L of water and when boiled, just throw everything in.

Enjoy. Update of the chair will be in the evening.

Busy busy Saturday

2010-08-29T02:55:00.000+08:00

We were out and busy since 9:00 this morning. First was the grocery shopping for fruits and dinner for the evening. We invited our friends couple and I decided to make the apple roast chicken, roasted potatoes and tabouli. From there we came home and and dropped our shoppings and had to run out to Ikea to get some more photo frames for our project which we're doing for our photo wall. Then we rushed back home and had a quick lunch and headed out to our last class of our Mandarin course. It was really fun and interesting and I think I would continue to take the intermediate class. May be not in September but probably after that batch.

From there came back home and did the cooking marathon. Here's the dinner

Sorry about the blurry photo

Here are some photos of the view from our living room window. Enjoy.

And the fruits for the week fruit juices.

Golden mile yummies

2010-08-27T22:39:00.000+08:00

So it was a productive day at work today. Not great but it was OK. Meetings from 12noon to 1 and then from 3 to 4. Between the meetings, I had lunch with our business partner at a Thai place at golden mile. The 3 o'clock meeting was right next to golden mile so why not try the food there right?

Well, I must say it was rather really good food and I'm sure pretty authentic too. Here's what I had and apologies for the quality of the photos. As I said, my Nokia E71 takes pathetic photos.

Lemon Grass juice (First time trying and it was amazing nice)

Condiments (Sugar, chilli powder, ground peanut and chilli sauce with Fish sauce bottle) I wonder how often they replenish these. They put it in plastic cups/glasses

Minced chicken with basil and chili with seafood tom yam (best I've had in Singapore so far)

Mango with sticky rice (YUMMYYYY)

Donation and interesting history

2010-08-27T10:42:00.000+08:00

Last night after dinner, hubby and me were sitting at our coffee corner just relaxing and heard the door bell rang and we both jumped! Wondering who can it be at this time. When I went and opened the door there was a woman fairly young properly early or mid 20s standing there with the sweetest smile and asking to speak with working adults. So I asked her what it was about and she started explaining she was doing the fund raising for Singapore Cancer patients. I immediately asked her how much would the donation and how it works, so yes last night we did some donation to SCS and both felt quite good to have done something good for the community. She was so polite and humble. I invited her in and offered her something to drink. We really do admire those who can give them and energy for the community.

So what about the interesting history? I came in this morning to work and while chatting with 2 of my colleagues and talking about Youth Olympic Games they mentioned something about YOG being in Nan Jing for next year. They also mentioned that it's ghost city!! I got interested and asked them why so and found out when I Googled it. I cannot believe how people can be so cruel and disgusting.

http://www.gendercide.org/case_nanking.html

Vegetarian semi home cook with more pictures

2010-08-26T20:12:00.000+08:00

So I got home around 5 today and had a great and fun call with my Aunt. She loves the pictures of the house :) I was also having such a splitting headache and was not sure if I'd be cooking but then I wasn't in the mood to get out again. Therefore, I cooked us dinner. Potatoes with long beans and tomatoes and when I said semi is the package Rajma (kidney beans) masala. :) Well it works anyways. Also, take a peek at what's in my pantry.

Veg Dinner

What's in my pantry

More house pictures

2010-08-26T14:14:00.001+08:00

As promised, here are more pictures. There will be more soon. Stay tune.

My Tea and Coffee stash

Our main and drink fridge

Some Photos

Shower

Master Bath (his)

Master Bedroom with Tinki's place

Master bed room

Mast bath His & Hers (hers)

Kitchen wash area

One more day to the weekend

2010-08-26T09:42:00.000+08:00

Yes, it's Thursday today so hubby made us Masala chai for breakfast. I was supposed to be heading out for a meeting at 10 but it has been postponed so I took some time to take some pictures of the house. So here it is. More to come soon.

I must apologize that the photos are not in great order. I will need to adjust them again. There are many more to come. Stay tune.

Kitchen counter

Hubby's little bar

Dinning Area and Breakfast corner

Breakfast Corner

Guest Bathroom

Living Room

Tikle Bell says Hello

Tetley Masala Tea from India

Yes, Tinki only drinks water from her glass

Living room from Entrance

From the guest bathroom

Guest Bathroom Wash area

Please let me know what you think.

More appointments to be done

2010-08-25T21:50:00.000+08:00

This morning hubby came with me to the clinic and the doctor mentioned that the scan results are pretty much the same as last year. However, it would be good to just get the small solid cysts to get biopsy done so that we can have some peace of mind. So there, I have another doctor, specialist this time next Saturday. From the clinic, we went to KFC and hubby had his breakfast to go and I had mine there as I had some time to kill before a meeting.

Original twister meal without mayo without cheese and ice tea. Pretty good as I haven't had it for a few months now. The rest of the day was just pretty much normal work stuff and as I have said before, I had half my mind at work. I also was quite happy with some improvements I made to my journal. Check out my Food and Wine links. Movies will be coming up shortly. I made these pages so that I can create a list of food that I made and wines we tried. So check out my dinner below.

This is our dinner which we made together. Chicken schnitzel, baked butternut squash and steamed snow peas. It was DELLLIIIICIOUS.

OH! My bad! I've got a great news to share with you. I've got my Best of Chef at HOME!!!! Michael is finally home:)

I can't wait to try out all the recipes from here. I am so going to have so much fun. Also a few of my practice shots of sun set view from our house. Enjoy.

And now we're watching "Echelon Conspiracy".

Do it yourself

2010-08-24T22:26:00.000+08:00

Woke up this morning and hubby came to the bathroom to show me the greens. Yes, that means we're having spinach smoothie. It was great we managed to finish up the spinach in the fridge and the bananas. We had to let go of 1 avocado though :(

Went to work right before 9am and I noticed that I do not look forward anything at work at all. Most of the day I was basically looking around for which camera I should buy. I happened to come across to a few of the great digital camera tips blog websites and I got so motivated.

Since I was actually thinking of using hubby's camera to take photos, I have a lot of work cut out for me don't I? Here's a shot of our dinner last night.

It's sheesh kabab and asparagus, Quite delicious. OK, back to my day. I got a call from the clinic too and told me that they've got my ultrasound result and I'll need to go back to the doctor for the follow up. So I will be going there tomorrow morning. As usual, am worry but I am just going to leave it in God's hands.

In the cab ride coming back home this evening, I realised that I need to take control of my life and do what is right for health. That is both physically and mentally.

I feel like I have no more friends and no one really even to talk to. Hubby was really sweet and agreed with me that I will definitely need a break.

A good dinner and a great movie

2010-08-24T10:39:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was my yearly ultrasound scan and every year, I get so stressed before the scan and so I was again for the whole of the weekend but well now it's done and will have to wait for the clinic to call and tell me when to see the doctor. So that was my morning then came in to office and I have no idea why the woman in my office thought that I was taking half day leave when I said I will be coming in a tad late. Anyways, I shouldn't be complaining too much and I just grab my life situation and manage it.

So the day just went by just like that and got back home around 7. It was a nice evening I must say because I got to chat with my old friends like David and Fadzli. I was also very happy because my best friend has decided for the better and I am sure she will not regret her decision.

Another wonderful news is that my Dad is home and he's recovering slowly. He sounded still weak but I am sure he will get stronger slowly.

Ok dinner last night was sheesh kababs with gorgeous asparagus and instant noodle :) Yes we cheated but we were getting a tad tired with the left overs so it was a lovely dinner. Also we did a fun project on how we wanted the photos to be hang on the wall in our little breakfast corner. I think we came up with a decision now we just need to buy more frames.

One thing I forgot to mention about the weekend was that I went to Barcelo alone and had a quarter chicken all to myself and it was the most delicious meal for that day! Hubby was at his favorite shop "Challenger" getting a printer for his cousin.

After dinner, we watched "Undisputed III : Redemption". It was an amazing fight movie. I think I must find the I and II for this. After watching this, "Karate Kid" becomes like a cartoon. Well why am I even comparing it. They're just different. Anyways, I have decided that from now on I'm going to give some rating to the movies I watched.

So let's start with this. * * * * *

May be they just need to make the blood scene a tad less.

New stuff from Ikea

2010-08-23T11:51:00.000+08:00

We had such a productive weekend and we're quite happy with it. Most of all we had so much fun at IKEA yesterday. I don't know why but every time I'm at Ikea, I feel like a kid again and feel happy.We bought,

A new cover for our 2 seater (the black one is in a bad state)
File boxes (Pretty cool ones)
2 stools/side tables for guest room
Shoe horn
Lint roller
Extra shelves for our pole wardrobe
New laundry bin
3 photo base shelves
Black and white photo frames (this is going to be our project to decorate our wall with our photos)
2 big glass jars (LOVED IT for 2.95 each)
Steel hooks for the kitchen rails
Extra cutlery drain dish
Hubby's tool accessories ( he can't live without getting some screws and drill stuff every time when he sees one)

I think that's about it. We spent about 350 bucks! The main thing we wanted was the chairs for our dinning table and we didn't get them because we somewhat forgot the color of our dinning table. We actually took a break during the Ikea shopping yesterday it was funny. After first half shopping we went to hubby's aunt's place for lunch then went back to Ikea while I did the second round of shopping, Hubby went and picked up his contact lens at Queen's way.

After 2 weeks of not having the maid clean the house, it was about time Enu does her magic and the house is in a great shape again. We got back home around 3:30 and Enu came around 4 and she cleaned the house for nearly 4 hours. Also, both hubby and me didn't waste any time the moment we got back and started fixing all the stuff we bought.

Last night, I wasn't in the mood to cook anything at all so poor hubby had to finish off the left overs and I had tom yam cup noodle for dinner. I was actually wanting to go to the train station and have Mee Soto but knowing hubby he wasn't in the mood to go out again I decided to just have something at home.

While dinner, we watched Karate Kid and talked to Mom for a little while as yesterday was her birthday. Karate Kid was actually nothing quite near to the original BUT we bought thought it was cute and Jaden definitely did a good job and he looks so much like his father! Sweet movie. Enjoyable.

BTW, I believe this is my 200th entry.

Friday evening dinner

2010-08-20T21:22:00.000+08:00

I was actually hoping to go out on a date with hubby but he had to come back home and I know what that means. It just means that we won't be going out. So I just decided to make something at home.

Fried noodle Yangon china town style and we loved it!! I was so amazed and proud of myself :) Just minced beef with tons of vegetables and egg noodle. It was really really good. Then I also took some pictures while waiting for hubby's return.

These are the views from our breakfast table side. Ok, now movie time and we're going to watch "The Wolf Man". Enjoy the weekend.

Goodnight.

BTW, my Dad's operation went well and thank you for the prayers.

It's almost gone

2010-08-20T13:30:00.000+08:00

Yes, the pain is almost gone this morning when I got up. Thank you Lord. Also, I just talked to my Mom and said that Dad's operation went well and that it took nearly 2 hours. Now we'll have to pray for a speedy recovery. Also I went to see a doctor yesterday for the bald patch and he referred me to a specialist. Hubby did a research online and this is what he found out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alopecia_areata. The appointment with the specialist is on Monday so let's see.

Last night since I was at home, I made dinner at home and it was quite nice. I made veges salsa which I learnt from my Aunty Jane. It's quite delicious. Basically it's a way of cleaning up the fridge. Then I made some cabbages in Indian way and we ate them with the last 3 pieces of chapatis. It was really yummy.

After dinner we watched Operation : End Game and it was another weird movie. Sigh. I think these few days we've been having bad choices with the movies. I hope tonight will be better. Can't wait for the weekend and it seems we're going to be pretty busy during this two days.

A short hair cut a bald patch :(

2010-08-19T10:08:00.000+08:00

I am not at work today which makes me feel really good and relax. I have been thinking last few days really seriously that I need to so something really soon before it gets out of hand. Which is my job. I seriously think it is effecting me physically and physiologically. Yesterday I got myself a hair cut and a colour touch up after leaving work at 4 in the afternoon. The doctor gave me 2 days medical certificate and why not I make use of it right?

Quickly of cuz I made arrangements with Aud to meet up as this is such a rare chance for us to meet and hang out. She came to my hair salon and we chatted. That was when my hair dresser said you've got a "hole" in your head!!!! I was like WHAT???? Then I realised what she meant was a bald patch. :( I got so scared and shocked for the rest of the evening. By the way I had my hair chopped really short and I liked it but I wasn't able to feel happy 100% as my bald patch was bothering me. Sigh. Is this another sign of stress???

Well, I want to do something from home. I cannot live totally without a job without an income surely. So what can I do? Anyhoo, here are the pictures which I have been promising you lot for many many months. Enjoy.

Firstly of cuz a start with Tinki.

A view from the house.

Tinki sprawl

Dinner set and new table cloth

With me in the shot

Spinach, banana, milk and blue berry smoothie

Not a great morning

2010-08-18T09:41:00.001+08:00

I just had a cup of hot water pressed against my tummy as I'm having really bad cramps. Woke up this morning and I so don't want to be in office. My legs are aching and so is my back and bad cramps with bad mood. Sigh. Oh well, I can't really remember how I even managed to get dress and now I"m in office.

Yesterday evening was such excruciatingly painful. One meeting was over around 3 45 and had to sit with partner till 5 at a cafe and moved to another cafe and sat and wait for boss and another partner till 6!!!! then had to sit with them and listen to their so non productive conversation till 8! Thought about just getting up and leave for about 10 times. What made it worse was that hubby was out with his cousin and Aunts at Universal Studio to celebrate his cousin's 18th birthday and I couldn't join. What a pain right? At least they managed to get a open ticket for me which valid till 31st December so I didn't basically waste anyone's money for having to go to crappy work.

Last night was when I decided that I really need to take charge of things now. I cannot be feeling depressed and let everything around me pull be down with it. I"m going to take charge of

Finding a new job
Take care of my happiness
Get back in to exercise

With that decision, I started applying some more jobs while waited for hubby. He came back around 9( I think) and he got me a super cute and HUGE betty boop mug and he also got himself a Universal Studio mug but not as big as mine :) He said it was really nice inside and that I must go and said he didn't take that many photos only about 700!!! ha ha. Sorry, I won't upload any of those photos because I haven't been there and see any of them yet.

Oh and I am terribly sorry for lacking in photo department. I was actually looking for hubby's camera memory yesterday to upload some and he left the memory card in office. Oh well.

Breaking dawn - FINISHED!

2010-08-16T10:48:00.001+08:00

2 days weekend was not that fun as compared to 3 days. Dah! everyone knows that. I seriously cannot remember how my weekend started but I know exactly how it ended. Let me just recall.

Oh yes, Friday night, I made fish curry for dinner and we watched "The Joneses" and it is a really cool movie. Both hubby and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I feel that it so true how the story goes in every day of our lives. Then we watched "Accidents Happen" and it was WEIRD. I am not sure how to describe it but if I come to think of it, I think it actually capture all aspect of life too but too depressing for us.

Saturday was such a busy day for us. I got up to know that hubby has already gone out to get some stuff from a grocer downstairs. He came back nearly an hour later and realised he actually went out to a super market to get the groceries for the dinner we were hosting for his cousin and Aunts. He made butter chicken and he was really thrilled to use the food processor! Yes, we used it for the first time. He was so so happy with the outcome except the chicken had gone a little too hard. Well there's always going to be a second try. He also made paneer and kulfi from the scratch. I only made paneer bhurji and dahl and cleaned up the house. We took it as an opportunity to use our dinner set and table clothes we bought from India. Yes yes, I promise to add the photos when I get home tonight. Hubby did snap some pictures. Of cuz we have reached our Mandarin lesson 8.

After the guests left, both of us were so pooped and head straight off to bed. There was so much food left and I'm sure we're quite good for the next few days without cooking. Sunday morning, I had a cup of tea and bagel for breakfast. I also made Spinach smoothie for hubby and me and of cuz hubby spilled half of it on his papers :). He was half way sorting his papers when I went to give it to him.

My biggest achievement this weekend is that I finished "Breaking dawn"!!! HOOORAY! I did it. It was such a great book. I am so proud of myself for completing a near 700 page book. I need to read more books. Now, I've just started "Eat, Pray, Love". I told myself that I must finish "breaking dawn" over the weekend and I did so I was really happy. While I was so engrosed in my book, hubby did the sorting of paper works and in the evening, we went out to meet with his relatives for dinner. I bought more fruits and spinach before we came back home at 10 :)

That was much about my weekend and let's see how this new week of mine is going to be.

OHHHH another news is that my "Best of Chef at Home" is ON IT's way. I'm so excited. Best of all, my friend is sending it as an early Christmas gift! I'm so blesses to have such friends. I got my Hsaba as a gift too from Ko ZH.