more food glorious food...

Today is a Saturday and I would usually cook dinner on Sats as CT and I would stay home to catch the "Return of the Condor Heroes" in Channel U. We are big fans of sword fighting...

Anyway, this was what I cooked for dinner tonight. Made a simple salad with thousand island, garlic mashed potatoes with black pepper as well as pan fried dory with herbs. Usually I cook what I like to eat because CT seldom tells me what he wants to eat even though I ask him as he is much an "anything" guy.

Talking about "anything"..did you know Singapore came up with a can drink called, "Anything" and "Whatever"? Ct think that it is rather lame but I think otherwise. Given the indecisive nature of men, the names were quite appropriate. I remember very vividly when I used to gather with my church friends to decide where to eat and we would always respond with the all too familiar word, "Anything". So, we jokingly thought that next time when we open a restaurant, we would name it "Anything Cafe" or "Anything Restaurant" so that people would think of us each time they respond with the word, "Anything".

When the ads for these drinks first came up, it did create a lot of question marks in people's minds. They were wondering if this was for real. I know I had the same reaction.

Most would see this as simply a marketing packaging, or perhaps even a passing fad that would not stand the test of market and time. That is too early to say - but as characteristics of such a gimmicky approach to beverage marketing, a hyped-up launch campaign is definitely crucial.
They took out some ads, some of which verging on the risque, e.g. the picture of a sexy woman accompanied by the line “I’m easy. I’ll take Whatever you give me”. There was a mild reaction (controversy?) to the campaign - some people think they are demeaning (which I’m fairly certain is the intention: you’d need all the publicity you can get, controversial or not - debates and letters to the newspaper forums would certainly fuel the curiosity and hype).

What they perhaps did not anticipate was a response of another kind to their ads. You see, they have lined cans around their posters (empty sealed cans). These cans were quickly vandalized - whether it be the bored teenager fiddling with it and opening the tabs, or from poor old women removing the aluminum cans for money. As a result, there were again concerns over the opened cans being a breeding ground for dengue mosquitoes - eventually the company pulled the ads down prematurely.

For those wondering what these two canned drinks serve. Well, the "Anything" drink serves anything. Haha..They serve any fizzy drinks from cola, cola with lemon, root beer, etc while the "Whatever" canned drink serves non-carbonated drinks- e.g. ice lemon tea, chrysanthemum tea, apple tea etc. Interesting right?


It seems that sales for these canned drinks have been so popular that most are sold out even before I can get my hands on them. How long will this craze last, I wonder...?

Caleb's 2nd gift...

Baby Caleb has gotten his 2nd gift so far. This time round, is from Aunty Esther who will be leaving to America for good in June. Sobsob. She gave him the whole series of "Baby Einstein" and a ornament that can be hung on the wall...


I am sure baby Caleb will love it.

Thanks Aunty Esther!

Spiderman 3

Today, after church service, CT brought me to Vivocity Gold Class to watch Spiderman 3. I am a lover of super heroes and this year is like a super hero show with movies like Spiderman 3, Fantastic 4, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. Next year will be showing Incredible Hulk. Hope it will be better than the first one, which I totally didnt enjoy.

Anyway, let's come back to Spiderman 3. The ticket costs $30 each person but of course, for friends or family members who know me and CT well, we wouldnt spend that kind of money for this kind of purpose. Totally ridiculous. It was free for us as we won the lucky draw during CT's company's dinner and dance event. And it was the last prize of the lucky draw which was still good. We won 2 gold class tickets. SO, decided to use it for this show since we both like Spiderman.

We were very surprised that there were a number of kids in the gold class theatre. And when I say kids, they are like between 5 years old to 12 years old. Very surprised at how their parents would spend such money and spoil their kids.

Gold class is basically a small private theatre with about 30 seats which come in pairs and can recline or lift up your legs. Very comfortable. There is also a table in between where we can order food-real food that fills you. For e.g set menus-burgers, sandwiches, etc..including snacks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. One set menu costs about $25 on top of the $30 bucks that you pay.

It is basically like sitting in first class of an aeroplane where the staff would serve you and provide for you a blanket.

I must say, it was an eye-opening experience which we will never go there unless...we win more gold class tickets free of charge.

I would rather spend my money on a good piece of steak.. :)

Flu Bug

There seems to be a flu bug going around as my colleagues take mc and come back with a "sexy" voice that doesnt seem to go away for days. Thank God my immunity was strong enough and was protected from having the bug.


However, CT was not spared and he finally took mc after not taking one for the whole year. He was down with sore throat, cough, runny nose. After a day or two, his sore throat disappeared but along came with phlegm and cough.

Because of this, I decided to cook for him a soup that is good for lungs and cough.


I added a lot of stuff to make the soup really taste and naturally sweet.





This is what it looks like when I boil the soup under high heat. There's chinese dried vegetables, gei zi (wolfberries-which is good to add in soups. Has great antioxidant properties and good for eyes too), chinese almond seeds(the northern and southern ones which differ in taste), pork ribs, red dates, dried fig etc.

I put in over a big fire for about 1 hour plus. It was quite dry towards the end, so I added water which was ended up still sweet and tasty.

Final product being served......

This is the ingredients which I put. One bag full of stuff...

Hmm..just for the two of us to drink. Is it worth it?

Well, I think it is...anything for my husband... :)

Celebrating Kor's birthday

My brother's birthday is exactly one week after Pam's birthday. So, it was another celebration again. Lots of celebrations happening this May...

We also celebrated Mother's Day at the same time since it was just one day apart. Went to Zuko, a French/Italian/Fusion restaurant just outside my parent's place along Upper East Coast Road. Been there twice and boy, it was so much nicer this time round as we ordered lots of stuff and shared. Pam's parents came along too since we were celebrating Mother's Day.There were a total 9 of us,including our helper.


We first ordered two plates of tomato bruschetta,which is a grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.Very tasty and yummy. Then we each ordered soup-french onion soup and wild mushroom soup.After the soup, we also had escargot. It is one of my favourite dish since young but didnt eat it this time because of my pregnancy. One of those foods that I do not know I can eat or ot during pregnancy.

Then, our mains came. We actually ordered to share with one another. We had 2 plates of squid ink pasta (linguine), 2 plates of grilled chicken with veggies, 3 plates of grilled hokubee ribeye and lastly my bro's birthday cake.

Our favourite dish was the grilled hokubee ribeye which is actually a Japanese cow that is reared in Australia. So, it is really tender, juicy and fatty! Melts in the mouth.Very nice. It came with mashed potatoes at the bottom and sauteed veggies.

More food pictures..

The squid ink pasta dish has been the dish that we always order as it was unique and fun...Well, at least CT and Janine had fun with the ink...(or rather we had fun laughing at Janine at her expense..)


Another part during dinner where we laugh at her is when we made her eat a slice of lemon to see her reaction. Cheap thrill...

How fun..

And finally, this is a picture of the cake I bought for my brother..it was a choc truffle cake.

I always leave such dinners with the feeling as if I was going to be in labour soon..so so so full.

Colleagues gathering

This is now the exam period and we get to go home officially at 12:30pm. I would usually make use of such opportunity to go home earlier and mark my papers.

Today, met up with my colleagues and ex-colleagues for dinner at Katong Village, Waraku Japanese Restaurant. It is a decent restaurant with lots of varieties which took us a long time to decide what to eat. Finally, I ate a set meal which consists of a bowl of rice, a bowl of noodles, pork cutlet and jap salad. Very filling as the noodles and rice was quite big portion.

2 among the group, are my ex-colleagues who are not teaching anymore. One of them, Cindy works in NPCC CCA branch now while the other is just taking a break.

The one sitting beside me is Annabella, also known as Anna. I knew her from my JC days when she joined the swim team. After that, we swam together in NUS as Eusoff hall roped me in to swim for them and Anna happens to be from Eusoff hall. Those were the fun days.

Anyway, back to the dinner..

Some of my friends ordered steamboat style with rice-one was the usaul steamboat pot, while the other is the paper-style steamboat where the soup and dishes are contained within this special paper.

We ordered side dishes as well- potato cabbage pan fried flour with mayonaise which tasted really nice. It actually reminds me of takoyaki. The other side we ordered was the usual japanese fried tofu (agedashi tofu).

Above is a picture of what I ordered. By the way, the camera did not capture all that I ate...

As usual, the whole night of our conversation was about students and our school. Hmm..what else could it be when teachers gather together..

We also celebrated Irene's and Kelvin's birthday. Kelvin is the one who recently left our school to take a break. We got them a simple mango cake. We were stuffing the cake into our mouths as we were all so full already.

Caleb's first new baby clothes

Just recently, my best friend, Marianne gave a set of infant's clothes to baby Caleb. I was pleasantly surprised and moreover, it was really cute. I definitely cant wait to buy stuff for Caleb but I know I have to really hold back as people would pass down some old stuff to me and friends/relatives would buy stuff for Caleb as well.




And I also do not want to spend too much on baby's stuff which he would outgrow very fast...

So anyone with baby's stuff which you will not use and would like to donate to baby Caleb, do let me know or pass them to me soon! Thanks! :)

Celebrate Pam's birthday

Today, went to Changi Airport to celebrate Pamela's(my sis-in-law) birthday. We went to "Soup Restaurant" and had lots of food. We ate beggar's pork rib, samsui ginger chicken with lettuce, sweet potato leaves with sambal, lotus root soup, bean curd, noodles. It was very yummy.



Last but not least, we had ice cream cake from gelare which mum bought.

Janine cant help but stare hard at the delicious looking ice cream chocolate cake.

CT and I had to rush lunch as we had to go down to hospital for our antenatal classes. We were about 5 mins late and the class started already and immediately, the instructor made us to exercises which she taught us last week. I was telling CT that I might just puke from the filling lunch.Haha...

It was fun attending classes at the hospital to prepare me for the birth of baby Caleb. I had learnt a lot about my body and to prepare me mentally. During today's class, we recap on the exercises taught-abdominable exercises, pelvic thrusts, pelvic floor muscles exercises, breathing exercises etc. Today, we learnt about preparations for the different stages of labor-what to expect and what to do.

The instructor also taught the husbands how to massage the wives while going through the stages and how they can help. So, it was fun having CT massage my back and doing the breathing exercises with me.

After class, I went to my mum's house to rest and bathe. Then we went out for early Mother's Day dinner which my church organised. It was the Mandarin Ministry that organised it. So, CT and I invited my parents and my mum-in-law. We all went in my mum's van.

Dinner was at Qian Xi Lou at Civil Service Club which I have been there almost every year since I joined teaching as they hold the public service swimming meet there. So, quite familiar with the place. Too bad I cannot compete this year because of my pregnancy.

Oh...forgot to mention that Janine came along as my bro and Pam went out to watch "Spiderman 3". So, I was given the task to babysit her. It was tough keeping her occupied and amusing her during the journey as she was so active and I was so inactive.,,because of my weight and tummy.

Glad my mum helped a lot throughout the dinner.

The dinner was filled with performances and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were a group of ex-convicts who were drug addicts that came up on stage to sing a couple of songs. Very touching. One of them even shared his story about how he started taking drugs and joining a secret society when he was 13 yrs old...and how his mum kept worrying about him.

He kept going in and out of prison many times and to many different prisons. But his mum never failed to visit him though she was very disappointed. Each time he got out of jail, he wanted to start afresh but he would always go back to his old ways. He then talked about how he met a guy whom introduced him to go church and from then on, he changed for the better.

After his mum saw his tremendous change, she also accepted Christ. His mum was there at the dinner and she too gave her testimony about how she went to temples to pray for her children as all 3 of them were drug addicts. She even paid a lot to the monks there as they told her about different solutions like burning incense paper and drink it etc..She was desperate. Even when the son accepted Christ, she told him that he will surely not last and will go back to his old ways. But, it was indeed a miracle that he didnt go back to his old ways, but instead went around giving his testimonies to people about his miraculous change in him after so many years and how God has been really good, working in his lives.

His dad during the tough times even had a mistress and when the mother gave her testimony, she shared that after accepting Christ, she learnt to forgive him and even invited him and the mistress to church. Such peace!

It just brings to my mind about a verse from the bible," I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

There are just so many testimonies going around about God's goodness and even I, myself have lots of stories to tell about what God has done in my life and will do in future. I just cant wait to spend my entire life with Him and please Him.

Reality fanatic

For the past months or so, I have been catching my favourite 2 reality shows- American Idol and All-Stars Amazing Race. Both of which will be ending soon. Sobsob.

I like reality shows because it tells me what people are like but of course, I take it with a pinch of salt since reality shows like these are 'staged' in some sense. I have a love for learning about human psychology and why people behave/act the way they do. If I ever had a chance, I wish I can study psychology...and going into the minds of people.

I guess, this love helps me in my teaching as I totally understand what most students think and so, I tune my lessons according to what they like and yet, still helping them to learn. Guess that is why most students appreciate me better even the normal technical students.

This coming week will be the finale of the Amazing Race and I am pretty excited who will win. I like that show for its challenges and the places they visit. I am also a person who strongly believes in the wonders of travelling...and how it opens your eyes to many things and thus, increasing my knowledge and wisdom.

2 days ago, American Idols sang songs of Bon Jovi and boy, I loved it as I have always listened to Bon Jovi since I was a teenager and I totally 'dug' their performance when they sang it. I absolutely loved Blake's performance that night...as it was the most entertaining and most original style of a Bon Jovi song.Do check it out! (if you know Bon Jovi's songs)

Another cook out

Usually during the weekdays, CT and I would have home cooked chinese meal which consists of 3 dishes, soup and rice. So, when it comes to weekends, I tend to eat Western or other cuisines that is not Chinese. Anything ranging from Thai food, Jap food to even Turkish food.

So this weekend, I decided to cook Coney dogs, since I had sausages in my fridge. Yep, it was another filling night where I just cant move after eating. Haha..We both had 2 coney dogs each and the pork bratwurst sausages were thick and fat.

You think it is not much...well, that was the same respond CT had when I told him we would be eating coney dogs for dinner and he replied," Only? Enough or not?" But who knows, that came with lots of other stuff too...

I made a light olive oil garden salad with lemon juice, cream of chicken mushroom soup and a light fluffy pastry to go with the soup (roti prata).

So, we ended up stuffed!

Cant imagine those hot dog eating competitions where the person eats 40-50 of them. Amazing.