Recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie on Lemon Cookie Crust

CRUST:

1/2 cup butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 1/4 cups flour

FILLING:

2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup lemon juice

For crust: In large bowl of electric mixer, beat together first 5 ingredients until mixture is blended. Beat the flour in until blended. Place dough in floured wax paper, wrap securely, and refrigerate for several hours. Roll dough out to measure a 12" circle. Place dough in a 12" pie pan and pierce bottom with tines of a fork. Bake in a 350ºF oven for about 30 minutes or until crust is beginning to brown. Allow to cool in pan.

For filling: in saucepan off the heat, stir together the hot water, peel, butter, salt and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the yolks, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice until thoroughly blended. Pour egg yolk mixture into hot water mixture and stir until blended. Place saucepan on low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture has thickened. Do not boil or filling will curdle.

For meringue, beat 5 egg whites until foamy. Continue beating, and add a pinch of salt, a pinch of cream of tartar, 2/3 cup sugar (1 tbl. at a time), and 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat until meringue is stiff.

Fill crust with hot lemon filling. Swirl meringue decoratively on top of hot lemon filling and cover every bit of crust.

Bake in a 350ºF oven for 12-15 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Cool for 3 hours before serving. For easy cutting, use a wet knife.

Serves 10.

Lemon Meringue Pie

I made that for the Christmas party at Marcus' on 27th. Prepared the dough for the pie crust the night before and had it refridgerated. Then woke up at 1030am the next morning to roll out the dough and shape it into the pie crust pan and baked it.

Then I went on to make the filling after the pie crust was beautifully baked. I decided to taste the filling before pouring it into the pie crust. Luckily I tasted it, for the filling was extremely salty!! I then tasted the pie crust. It was salty too! That was when I realised that the 'sugar' in the container was salt!!! Till now, I am still amazed at how the sugar ended up as salt!!!

In the end had to re-make the whole pie and had to rush to the supermarket downstair to buy lemons. Luckily they had lemons and I still had the other ingredients at home.

Initially thought the crust would be a disaster because I only had time to keep it in the fridge for 1 hour. But I had no choice (partly due to my own stubborness too!) but to 硬着头皮做下去！！ If not what to bring to Marcus'?

Fortunately everything turned out well. :D However, next time must use springfoam instead of pan because we had a hard time trying to get the pie out!!

The Doctor's computer screen....

..screams facebook right in my face!! Goodness, how come he did not have any sense to cover it up with another window or at least minimise the window....But the doctor managed to redeem himself la. Haha...he spent 5 mins to give pep talk when I asked him about weight loss. He just went on and on and said that he is also trying to loose weight...:D

And I wonder why private clinics need to close at 430pm/5pm and re-open again at 630pm/7pm. Goodness. I rushed to my regular clinic at Toa Payoh Lorong 8 after gym to get my iron pills. However, I was 5 mins late and the doctor had left.

I decided to return to Central to search for just any clinic as I had no wish to wait until 7pm for the clinic to re-open.

I walked the whole of central and none of the clinics was opened. Managed to find one that would re-open at 630pm. So I spent 1 full hour shopping at NTUC >.<'''.

Bought red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil etc etc. Expensive siah!! No choice because I want to cook healthy spaghetti!!

Nails...

This year's Christmas nails..fading off after a week.

Had this done impromtu at a shop at Toa Payoh Central. It was a small shop and the manicurist wasn't exactly that great. I wanted a snowman but she failed after 1 attempt, attributing it to my short nails (ya right....) so I changed to the sticker snow flakes. I wanted her to draw the snow flakes but she insisted that the stickers would look nicer and 'more balanced'. I wanted Christmas bells but she said she did not know how to draw that, so she suggested Christmas wreath, which had pink instead of red in them >.<'''. She said my base colour was too dark and hence the red would not stand out, then why in the first place she did not make a recommendation when she suggested the Christmas wreath? Don't understand. Anyway had wanted to do nail art on my toes too but decided not to in the end, waste money since her skills were not great. Luckily she was friendly and that stopped me from being nasty to her. Hahaha...

There was another shop that wanted to charge a surcharge because it was the festive season and because 'the shop is located at a central place', it said on the memo pasted on the door. Ya...Toa Payoh CENTRAL, but far far from the MRT and bus interchange.....what more is there to say?...

Recipe for Buche de Noel

Yule Log:

3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Frosting:

1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons hot water

1. Heat oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Line a jelly roll pan, 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1-inch, with aluminum foil or waxed paper and grease.

2. In a large bowl, beat eggs with electric mixer on high speed about 5 minutes or until very thick and lemon colored. Beat in 1 cup sugar; water and 1 teaspoon vanilla on low speed.

3. Add flour, baking powder and salt, beating just until batter is smooth. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

5. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan and turn upside down onto towel generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully remove foil. Trim off stiff edges of cake if neccessary. While hot, carefully roll cake and towel from narrow end. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes.

6. Beat whipping cream, 2 tablespoons sugar and vanilla until stiff.

7. Unroll cake and remove towel. Spread whipped cream mixture over cake. Roll up cake.

8. For Frosting: Mix cocoa and butter thoroughly in medium bowl. Beat in sugar with electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and hot water. Beat until frosting is smooth and spreadable.

9. To create a tree stump, cut off a 2-inch diagonal slice from one end of cake roll. Attach stump to one side using 1 tablespoon frosting.

10. Frost log making strokes in frosting to resemble bark, using tines of fork.

11. Store in refrigerater.

Makes 10 servings.

Videos for reference:
http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/buche_de_noel_yule_log_part_1_of_2
http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/buche_de_noel_part_2_of_2

Pictures of Buche de Noel!

Guinea pig...

Hee...I think Marcus has officially become my guinea pig. He came to try the log cake earlier.

Luckily despite the hiccup it turned out well. Yeah! :D

Oops I broke the law....

Haha..was running late for gym class so I crossed the road when the red man was still on. Well there were no cars so I decided to run all the way from South Bridge Road junction across the road and to the lift..

Luckily made it just in time for class :D

Calvin had 3 classes in a row this morning - pump, combat and balance. Initially wanted to stay for balance too but decided against it as I would make a fool of myself trying to do the balancing stuff..haha..

Yes yes, classes were good today. Quote 'we've got to burn off those cheese tarts'..hahaha

The Buche de Noel

Buche de Noel = logcake.

I am still baking the logcake since 2am. I am so going to die tomorrow later as I want to wake up early to attend Cal's class at 11am.

Anyway met with a hipcup when baking the cake. The jelly roll pan that I bought could not fit into the oven. I had to use my original one with the strips. So my logcake is going have strips on the inside...nevermind nobody would be able to see!

Waiting for the cake to cool before spreading the cream inside and then the frosting on the outside...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Would make another Christmas dessert on Saturday morning for the party at Marcus'. Shhhh.....cannot tell what dessert first.....:D

Bummer? Maybe abit...

In the very end did not go to the gym today. Was nuah-ing the whole day at home. Had really wanted to go swim but alas the rainy weather...Did not really feel like running on the treadmill as I had been running like so many times and there were no nice classes in the later afternoon, so that explained the lack of motivation.

Anyway I DID made the effort to go. Finally got my butt out of the house at 6pm when I decided that the rain was not going to stop and I would have to do running nonetheless. However, as I was waiting for the darn bus which took so long to arrive, I reckoned that it would not do any good to rush to the gym as gym closed at 8pm today. Further, I would not want to get myself stuck at the massive jam that would most likely had built up on the roads in town.

So I took a bus to parkway instead to buy my baking stuff! The good thing was, I bought everything that I needed to make the Buche de Noel and Saturday's dessert! :D

This Christmas....

Wonder if everyone is baking this Christmas...

Cannot find cinnamon powder, granulated sugar and 9 inch foil pan in the supermarkets!! Can die...

I only started to bake this year, wonder if it's the same situation every year......

2 e-mails that spoilt my night...

Made a wrong decision to logon to office e-mail earlier. 2 e-mails spoilt my night...

E-mail 1:

Hi Mei Ling,

Noticed you planned your leave for 26 - 30 Jan (26 - 27 - CNY); 26 - 27 Feb and 13 - 14 Mar.

I'm wondering if you could re-arrange your leave such that the leave would not be separated with 1 - 2 wks of work as it makes it very difficult for me to allocate referrals.
Alternatively, if you can't re-arrange it, I seek your understanding if I need to allocate cases even though you might be on leave in between. Of course, I'll try not to do so unless i have no other options.

Wa.....she was the one who told me I had to clear my leave quarterly leh! I had not intended to take leave after the 1st 2 days of CNY seriously, but since she said had to clear leave so I forcasted to take lor!

Feb I am going to Penang so that I am surely going to take the 2 days and then the weekend.

Mar is my birthday, I had wanted to take from 14th onwards but since that was the school holidays, many people had already taken or forcasted their leaves. She was also the one who laid down the rule of not more than 2 team members are allowed to go on leave for 4 days or more at any one time! And she was also the one who said must spare a thought for those who have children and family!

And surely, my absence of 1 to 2 days although with 2 weeks break in between is not such a big deal isn't it? It is not new that she would still give referrals anyway what...no matter how hard she said she tried not to...I am not trying to be cynical but it's true....I am on leave from 19th Dec onwards till 2nd Jan, and the few days before 19th I got a new referral, so that I die die had to squeeze in an interview on the few days before I went on leave. Not to mention that from Oct to Nov when I went off for 3 trips, the referrals came in nonetheless? Did I plan my Oct to Nov leave at the last minute? The answer is NO I DID NOT, yet everything still screwed up. So plan for what ar? And what is so new that she would continue to give referrals even when we are on leave? So why she even bothered to send out this mail to declare that she would still give referrals if she had no choice blah blah blah...???

No doubt we need to spare a thought for our colleagues, but we cannot just be taking leave just because we need to exhaust our leave!! I guess she wants me to clear my leave ONCE every quarter, which means 5 days every quarter. But if I am not going anywhere and there is no purpose in me taking leave, then I am not going to do so. Period.

And I am not going to reply her until I get back from leave on 2 Jan. Period.

E-mail 2:

Dear OA,

Thanks for planning your leave. I'm pleased to inform you that the leave plan is agreeable with me, so please proceed to take your leave accordingly, with me in cc. when you apply in pm2s. (for those who I sent a personal email, pls reply to that email)
I've locked the document. If you intend to make changes to the plan, pop by to talk.

I noticed that quite a number of you have not planned your leave for this quarter. Pls don't wait to Dec to take your leave as I might have to make the hard decision of not approving it if there are insufficient officers for our work to carry on withot disruptions.

I cannot believe that she even wants to dictate the way we take our leaves. Is this management? And when it had already proven that this method does not work?!

Lucky 2009?

Or not...?

So lucky got lucky draw at year end party...

but got quite a few arrows as well for next year - ISO, 100-day project and Eureka Day....zzz

Drink drank drunk?!

Drinking session at Marcus' last night with Skye, Jac, Cherlyn and Andre. Well, nobody got drunk, just that Jac got very red..haha..:D We nearly emptied 5 bottles of red and white wine among us!

We ended up sleeping at 3am and we pulled the mattresses from the guest rooms to the living room so that all of us could sleep together.

I ended up sleeping on the couch later as I could not get to sleep on Andre's inflatable bed..haha....and Marcus as usual sneaked back into his room...!

Cherlyn left the next morning as she had to do a home visit. The rest of us ordered Mac breakfast, watched Home Alone 2 and chatted till nearly 2pm....

Then I went home to cook. Cooked 炖鸡汤， steam fish fillet with fish sauce and stir-fry long beans with prawns. Don't know why the long beans still had a raw smell when cooked, so I ended up cooking steam egg as well in case the long beans is really so inedible...but still happy because I did the dishes without recipes :D

Don't know why the long beans got raw smell leh....

:) and :( again

:(
1. B got sentence this morning.
2. Still could not find my 12 mould muffin pan. Can anyone buy that for me as christmas present?!

:)
1. KS passed and did well enough to be promoted to Sec 5 to do his 'O' levels! He only failed science!
2. Fab also did well!! He was so shocked and elated that he passed his math!
3. Ben scored 4 As! He said this is the first time he scored so many As! Could hear his voice breaking up with emotions when he called! :))
4. Even ZX and AO who missed school most of the time for some reasons managed to passed at least 3 subjects and qualify for courses in the ITE.
5. I finally managed to get my casserole pot at Bishan NTUC, after a fruitless hunt at Toa Payoh Courts.

:( and :)

;( because:
- No classes at Paragon on 24/12 because the gym is closing early as they are moving to another floor
- No classes at Paragon on 31/12 because the new gym is still not ready
- Only 2 more classes to enjoy on 19/12 before the year ends

;) because:
- There are no changes to my favourite classes from Jan to Mar 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Child talks like adult!

Was chatting with my little niece on saturday. She is primary 2 going on to primary 3 next year; ie: 8 going on to 9 years old.

I cannot believe how mature she is. She was talking about how time flies, how days, weeks and months fly past and before one knows it, it would be a year gone.

I do not remember children of my era talking like that lor! Not me at least. When I was her age, I would be looking out for my father to come and fetch me home after the school lowering flag ceremony. When I grew older, I stayed back in school awhile to play five-stones and zero-points with my friends.

Though I was the only child, I was never a pampered one. I was well-protected, not pampered. My father never allowed me to boil anything or use the iron until I was in Sec 2. BBQs etc were out of the question until Sec 3 or 4. However, I could hang out with friends after school at Parkway, near school etc till evening. Of course I had more and more freedom when I grew older.

Till now, I still think I had alot of pocket money in the past, $8 a day in Secondary School, $10 a day in JC and $15 to $20 a day in the uni. However, I remembered myself being a sensible child. In primary school, I would use my pocket money to rent story books, buy nice stationery that I cannot bear to use, buy my own piggy bank/safe box etc. I never asked for extra money to buy things. If I did not have enough, I would save for it.

Later, I bought my first Aiwa walkman with my pocket money too and my first guess watch which is still in working condition when I got my first pay-check after my 'O' levels exams. I also gave tution when I was in JC and uni and paid for my own pager and mobile phone bills.

Maybe I was mature in a way too, but I never talked like an adult. Or maybe I did not have anyone to talk to and with friends we did not talk about mature stuff. Even if we did, we started in secondary school, definately not in primary school!

Of course the past cannot be used as benchmarks. However, nowadays children are very different. Some different for the better but some different for the worse.

Cheesy cheesy!

Had wanted to blog about this last night but was too concussed. Concussed because had to finish up the barrel of asahi beer that relatives could not finish, on empty stomache because just don't feel like eating anything after they left. >.<'''

Anyways, I made cheese tarts yesterday morning; and it was yummy! Made a mad dash to the supermarket and Courts on late Saturday night to buy the ingredients, cake mixer and weighing scale! Was not able to get the muffin mould. Luckily Marcus had it so went over to borrow from him! To repay him for his kindness and because he is my neighbour, he was the first to eat my cheese tarts! Well, he said it's nice la...I will take that as true! :D My cousin and hubby's friend also said nice ma! Wahaha...

It was quite tedious making the tarts. Had to make sure that I followed the recipe very very closely, not a gram more or less! Also had to press the base with my finger so that they would be firm, finger pain siah! Later I read the recipe closely and realised that it said to press with a spoon, so I had to re-press everything again with a small spoon. 22 tarts, press 44 times! I was cursing why I did not make a cake instead because the cake only has 1 base and can use a big spoon to press. :D

I want to cook a whole chicken dish next, already have something in mind. But before that, I have to buy a flameproof casserole pot first!

HELP.....

I really want to blog, but I am too giddy/drunk to blog...

All I can say is: '3 mugs of beer on empty stomache = giddiness'.

I am going to sleep.

Gathering at Siew Ling's

Just came back from Siew Ling's place with a tummy loaded with food! Brought back some of the curry since hubby said his friends finished those that I left at home.

2 of them are still here watching DVD...and there are so much food here - cake, brownie, tidbits, drinks, curry chicken... >.<'''

Relieve!

Was late for gym last Friday. Later realised that Calvin was not teaching both classes of pump and combat that day.

Was checking the online timetable constantly for the past few days and they had cancelled out Calvin's name against the classes even. Walao....felt so demoralished lor...usually if the change was for only a class / a day, they would make the change of instructor's name back immediately. Cannot imagine only attending Calvin's class once a week on Wednesdays if he would not be teaching on Fridays..that's not enough!!

Just checked the timetable again and they have changed it back to his name for the classes!! Yuppieeeeee....! So I'll have his classes to attend on Wednesdays and Fridays as per normal! No changes!!

Bangkok 06/11/08 to 10/11/08

Ok it's time to blog about the trip!

Airport transfer at the airport:
I am really impressed with their system now. They actually have a very systematic taxi system. Now tourist no longer have to haggle price with unethical taxi drivers who are out to cheat tourist.

Hotel - Baiyoke Boutique Hotel:
We booked the hotel through Alvin's friend Jeffery. We had initially wanted to book Indra Regent because of it's good location and cheap rates, but Jeffery recommended Baiyoke Boutique as it was even cheaper and at around the same location. Moreover Jeffery said it was newly renovated, so we thought why not?

We booked the superior standard rooms and our rooms were at the 4th level. The lobby looked clean, new and renovated. However, we were all shocked and disgusted at the rooms. It was motel/backpackers motel standard lor, just that it had attached bathrooms instead of common bathrooms that's all. So we decided to upgrade to the deluxe rooms. We each had to pay 1000 baht for 4 nights. It was a good choice because the deluxe room were much better! In the end, we realised that the hotel was still in the midst of renovation and the 4th level was not renovated yet.

The location of the hotel for me was alright. Had to walk through a stretch of the Baiyoke market and short stretch of carpark to the hotel. Well, even for the much better Baiyoke Suite Hotel, we also had to walk through the stretch of Baiyoke market. I guess if you really want to minimise walking, then Grand Diamond Hotel, Amari Watergate, Prathunam Princess would be good choices. But PAY LOR....haha

Shopping:
We went to the usual places - Chatuchak, Patpong (my fastest trip to Patpong ever! We were out of there within 30 minutes! Haha..), World Trade Centre mainly to buy lingerie, Platinum Mall, Suan Lum Night Bazaar, 'a buy then go' trip to Big C Supermarket, MBK, MBK extension, Siam Square and 'merry-go-round' around Baiyoke market and wholesale centre City Complex. Merry go round because we basically just went to have a look. The gals seemed to prefer shopping at shopping malls than wholesale centre. I guess that was better too because it would definately be safer and more organised. Further, the shops at the wholesale centres were not fully opened when we went there, not to mention that it was rowdy and less organised. Same for Baiyoke market. However, I noticed that there were many new shops at the alleys of Baiyoke market. Would patronise them next time! Haha...*still broke from my Guangzhou trip then*

Sightseeing?!:
We went to the revolving tower at the Baiyoke Suite Hotel. Nothing fantastic and comparable to the Taipei 101, but still worth a go la! Could see the BKK skyline from up there. Then we went to a lounge for the free drink which came with the ticket to the revolving tower. Erm, the singing was terrible but the drinks were good!

How can I forget the porter-bu?!:
Jinny was the porter-bu of the trip. Huh what's porter-bu?! Haha...bag carrier lor! She had this very big espirit shopping bag, even I also surrender. So big the bag! She carried most of Candy's stuff as she did not want Candy to carry. So sweettttttt!

Overall it was a relaxing BKK trip. Was not too tired out from the shopping. Haha...I said relaxing because this trip was nothing compared to the ones I went with my hubby! :D

Aftermath:
We had to book a big taxi to the airport because we had too many pieces of luggage. We were even warned by tigerairways because our checkin luggages were about 7kg?! (if I did not remember wrongly) overweight between the 4 of us!

Forgot to mention that we were all broke too and had to depend on the tax refund money for dinner at the airport..wahhaha...

Yeah!

Going to Siew Ling's place for mini gathering later. Am supposed to cook curry chicken. Mission accomplished at 2pm! The curry chicken looks better this time round, and does not require Marcus to the rescue. Hope it taste good too!! Hee....

Still awake!

Just came back from Myanmar :D

And I am still awake at this hour because it's only 130am in Myanmar! Need to do some adjustment to the bio-clock, since the last few days the ealiest time we went to bed was around 4 to 5am Singapore time :D

People

It is rude to raise voice/scream at colleagues, especially to colleagues who have been around the office much longer. Basic manners. Don't think it is even justified for bosses to do that to subordinates.

Colleagues are not charges, not people who are unable to think and assess situations. There are other ways to bring across a message other than raising voice/scream.

Frustration

I am not a racist. But I simply cannot tolerate people of certain race. Cannot understand how they can take certain very important matters so unseriously. And when you remind them stating that you have already explained to them the conditions many times, they would say 'oh BUT I THOUGHT'.......these came from adults.. how to expect the child to behave appropriately when adults behave like that?!

To add on something unrelated to the above paragraph, I forsee taking leave next year would be an uphill task.

Really don't know what to do. Can someone enlighten me?
In 2007 I was taking leave every quarter as I went overseas very often. During performance review in end 2007, I was told that I should not be taking leave so often as it was very difficult for them to allocate work to me.

In 2008, I took leave only in Jan 08 and a few days here and there. I intended to clear my leave mainly in December, which I forcasted. I was again told, by the SAME PERSON, that I should not wait till the end of the year then clear my leave. She told me I must clear leave every quarter of the year!!!! Look who is talking?!

Then she die die want me to clear my leave in Nov and Dec 08, instead of my forcasted one.

Can somebody relieve me of my frustration? I need an avenue to relieve my frustration......so sick...

Guangzhou Trip 22/10 to 26/10

Remembered that I was not exactly that excited about heading to Guangzhou. I thought that it would be boring there as there would not be many places to shop. Even if it's sight-seeing, it would not take 5 days to sight-see Guangzhou isn't it? Nonetheless Guangzhou is better than staying in Singapore. The last time I sat areoplane was in Jan 08 for Hong Kong and Macau. Anything and anywhere, as long as I get my butt away from Singapore and work.

Nothing to shop?! Boy, I was damn wrong. Those 5 days...we shopped and walked..and that was the first time I really felt that I would DIE FROM SHOPPING AND WALKING (in short - exhaustion) too much. I do not remember I was that tired during the many times that I went to Bangkok. I concluded that I must have grown old or we really shopped and walked too much. I think it was the latter. Reason? Watch out for the entry about my trip to Bangkok later. :D

I was not kidding when I said I was exhausted to the point that I thought I would die...I think I was really close to that..I was too tired even to eat. No kidding. Haha...

People would think, why would I want to torture myself? Haha...I really did not torture myself, we had enough rest at night as we would return to the hotel relatively early (compared to Hong Kong, Macau and Bangkok) as Guangzhou is not a night place. We did stop to eat and drink when we were tired, just that I was simply to exhausted to lift my fingers to feed myself!

I think it had to do alot with the shopping streets. The shopping streets are lllloooonnnnnggggg, both sides were lined with many (read: MANY) shops and they are architectured (is there such a word?!) is such a way that there were also alleys or another shopping centre (those that are 2 to 3 storeys high) in between the shops!!! We visited 3 main shopping streets and for 2 of the streets we took almost an entire day to shop! Refer to section 'shopping' for more information.

Weather:
Very close to Singapore's in the day, but the sun was not scorching hot. At night it was cooler than in Singapore. We thought it would be cold throughout, but I think the winter came abit late for Guangzhou this year.

People:
The sales people were relatively more friendly and courteous than those we met on the streets. Of course there were some unfriendly sales assistant who preferred to talk on their phone, check their hair, face and makeup in the mirror rather than to serve you. For those, I'll just walk away. Even saw one sales assistant scolding and shouting after one of their locals as she was not happy with the bargain price.

The people on the streets were more brusque. I was really irritated with them the first day I was there. I think they either walk with their eyes closed, had very very low situation awareness such that they did not know what was happening around them or very self-centred. They could bump right into half of you no matter they were coming towards you from your front or back. Even when they were walking by your side, they could also suddenly bump into your side. If you were standing behind or beside them, there would be so oblivious of your presence that they could simply swing their elbows into you, swing their hair right across your face or turn straight into your face such that you could almost kiss them! And the best is, they remained unfazed throughout it all!! Not even a word of apology!

Not to mention that Guangzhou is still a 'spitting kingdom'. When you hear people clearing their throats, you better run a mile away.

Argh, ok enough of the people.

Shopping: these were the places I went to. Of course there would be alot more other places to shop at.
(1) Beijing Lu Pedestrian Street (北京路步行街)- a must go place!
(2) Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street (上下九商业步行街) - it is made up of 上九商业步行街 and 下九商业步行街 and also Dishipu Lu (第十甫路) - a must go place!
(3) Zhuangyuan Fang (状元坊) - a must go place!
(4)Zhengjia Plaza (Grandview Mall) (正佳广场) - shopping centre. Not much difference from Singapore. I don't like to shop at shopping centres overseas, unless they have something different to offer.
(5) Tee Mall (天河城) - there really is nothing much here.
(6) Zhong Tian Shopping Plaza (中天购物城) - another shopping centre.
(7) Friendship Store (广州友谊商店) - apparantly is this one of the oldest department stores. Can be found at shopping centres like Grandview Mall.

Bargaining is accepted in most places, except for shopping malls and eateries and restuarants of course!

Remember, there are alleys and shopping centres in between the shops at (1), (2) and (3). You would not want to miss them out!! There clothes there were really cheap! The downside is that you cannot try them. So that would be the risk that you had to take!

For myself (read: MYSELF), I bought 11 pieces of clothes, 1 auto umbrella, 1 belt, 3 pairs of shoes and 1 backpacker bag. I think that was about all, in 3 days of shopping - strictly was 3 days because we went sight-seeing for 1 day and our flight was in the early morning on the last day. :D

Food:
The things I tasted there were quite edible, except I think that their food were more on the salty side. There were many eateries along the shopping streets but like I mentioned before, mostly my hubby was the one eating.

Must try - bubble tea! Buy from those stalls which looked clean and reputable, ie: many young people queueing up to buy! I tried the bubble tea from one stall at Beijing Lu Pedestrain Street and it was really nice! It had real fruits and I think some cononut juice inside! The food they served were nice too..I had beef steak! :D Unfortunately I did not take down the name, but I'll remember it if I was there again!

There was another restuarant that served very very nice tea. It's like english tea with green tea. Really very nice! They served main course too and according to hubby the food tasted good! Again I did not take down the name of the restuarant. But I think this restuarant should be quite famous as I saw at least 2 shops each at Beijing Lu and Shangxiajiu Lu Pedestrian Streets and also at some other places.

Tao Tao Ju (陶陶居) at Dishipu Lu - recommended by Yimei. Also read about it on the internet. It was located all the way at the end of Shangxiajiu Pedestrain Street! We went there to have dinner. That was by far the most difficult dinner to get because it was really really far! We ate fried rice. It was not that fantastic, and I think because we were both really tired too. Nonetheless, the place would be a good place for those who likes to drink chinese tea and chat with friends. :D

Tao Tao Ju also had it's own bakery. Bought some pastries back for friends. Marcus and Jac said it tasted weired. Hmm...thought it was supposed to be famous?! Hai, make me carry back so many packets! The rest did not feedback to me, maybe they were too polite to do so! :D

Sightseeing:
(1) Pearl River Cruise (珠江夜游). I thought the tickets were really expensive, cannot remember how much though. They were priced differently for different category. We bought the cheapest one which just offered free tea and seat on the lowest deck. There was another more expensive category on the 2nd deck with free fruits. However we took the cheapest one because we dare not eat the fruits anyway and the highest deck is free for all to go! Meaning no matter which category, you can go up to the highest deck to view the scenary. While I think it's too steeply priced, I still think this is a must go because you get to go on a one and half hour cruise on the river. It is a great way to see the Guangzhou skyline along the Pearl River and enjoy the breeze. It's beautiful, especially at night!

On the second last day, we really got tired of shopping. Hence we decided to book a 1-day local tour for sight-seeing! The package consisted of the following places:
(2) The Baiyun Shan (White Cloud Mountain) (白云山) - took a park tram up and cable car down.
(3) Yuexiu Park (越秀公园)
(4) Zhenhai Tower (镇海楼)- inside Yuexiu Park
(5) Guangzhou City Museum - inside Yuexiu Park
(6) Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (中山纪念堂)- inside Yuexiu Park
(7) Stone Statue of the Five Rams (五羊石像)- inside Yuexiu Park
(8) Huangpu Military Academy (黄埔军校旧址)
(9) Xinghai Music Hall
(10) Tian He Waving Waterfall - apparantly the biggest man-made waterfall in Asia

I think there were a few other places but I cannot remember all. Felt that the sight-seeing were abit boring. We decided to take part in the tour because we wanted to go to Baiyun Shan and Yuexiu Park. We thought it would be more convenient and cost effective as it would not be easy for tourists to go to theses scenic places on our own.

Transport:
Taxi was cheap and convenient. Talking about taxi..forgot which day and where we were heading to though...our taxi got into an accident just as we boarded it near our hotel. The driver simply just ignored us and went out to settle matters with the other driver. He just left us sitting inside lor, never even tell us to stay or ask us to take another taxi. We decided to get another taxi after 3 mintues of waiting. Even after we get out of the taxi, the driver did not even glance a shot at us lor! Funny driver.

The metro subway is also very convenient. Exactly like our MRT.

Hotel:
We stayed at The Venice Hotel. It is a small hotel but clean in both aspects! Muahahah.... I super like one of the lady staff there. Not sure what was her designation. She was very very friendly and helpful. So sad did not get to see her on the last day.

The most irritating thing was that our trip clashed with the Guangzhou annual Canton Fair. Not only were hotels SUPER expensive (up to 3 times more!!), most were fully booked!! Luckily we managed to source for this hotel with the assistance of my hubby's colleague whose hometown is Guangzhou!

Language:
Mandarin
Cantonese

Miscellaneous:
1. Motorcycles were barred from expressways and city areas.
2. Only women and children were allowed sit in the front seat in taxis. However the driver did not stop my hubby when we were on our way to the hotel on the first day. The boot could not accomodate 2 of our luggages so 1 luggage got to be with me at the back. Did not get around to asking the drivers what was the rational of this rule though.
3. Hahah...got a few people - one lady on the MRT and a few sale assistance commented that I was pre**y (haha..too shy to spell out the word *blush*). I think maybe I looked very different from them..thats why.
4. Thought I had somemore things to write..but cannot remember now...

Forgetful me

Forgot to cancel my auto roam when I returned from Bangkok on 10/11. Suddenly remembered when I was thinking about my up-coming Myanmar trip.

Hai let M1 earn $$ for nothing...haha...Lucky not much...about $2.50.

My Love...

...for gym-ing of course :O

Had a great time at gym on friday night..maybe because Alvin came for combat class and I had company and extra stuff to laugh at...haha..:D

Calvin also seemed to be in a very good mood...high as usual...but he was smiling alot throughout the classes too :D

Can't wait for wednesday and friday's classes..

Lost and found!!

Suddenly found my whole chunk of naval rings in another drawer this morning! Haha...was wondering where I kept them as I remembered having quite alot!

Shiok!

Tonight's pump and combat classes are by far the most siong!! By the time we were supposed to do the last exercise during pump class - overhead shoulder presses, I really could not feel my arms anymore lor!

But it was also by far the highest and happening classes! Everyone was so high lor! Of course Calvin was the highest person la! Today he eat wrong medicine again. Muahahahaha....

Shane's birthday!

Celebrated Shane's birthday at Wine Hut! Would have gone on to Butter Factory if most of us did not have to work this morning!!! Darn......

Cannot decide....

..whether I should go for the 10km real run on Sunday (erm..looking at the time now it should be tomorrow) anot...

Don't know why I made the insane decision to sign up for it lor...

Have not even try 5km before I signed up for 10km...I digged my own grave lor....

Almost!!

Almost could not make it for Cal's class after the rehersal at suntec! Had to go in and chope a place before I rushed off to change. Luckily got some nice people made space for me and ensure that nobody took my chope-d place.

I would be most sad if I had missed it. Because of the Guangzhou trip and having to stay back at work on another night after the trip, I would not be able to attend his class until 31/10!! After that still got BKK trip!!

GASP!! I'll miss his classes so much lor!

人，也可能变成习惯。。。

伟恒回家了。星期天送他们到机场，直到他们进甲门后，突然间才感觉到一些空档。

心里想，以后没有伟恒打电话来问‘阿姨你要回来了没有，等一下带我去MacDonald ok？’。 搭巴士时不会问‘阿姨还有几个站才到？’逛街时不会有人吵要喝strawberry pearl
milk tea。也没有人进来我房间问一万个问题。。。。

人的存在，真的是可能会变成习惯。。。。。


















重点是后面的那位卖泡泡茶的帅哥！！！

A nice man

Was standing on bus 36 earlier and I decided to just close and rest my eyes for awhile. Suddenly I felt a light tap on my hand. Opened my eyes to find this man sitting nearby wanting to offer his seat to me. I was pretty shocked by his gesture and I hoped I had declined him politely enough. Haha......

Next time I shall try this when there is a handsome guy nearby....

No time!!

No time for gym in Oct and Nov!!!

Oct - Because relatives came over from Malaysia and Guangzhou trip
Nov - Because of BKK and Myanmar trip

Upsetting >'-'<

Bird's Nest Cafe at Orchard Point. Anyone tried before? Sounds interesting. Anyone game to try this out 吗？:)

http://www.ascentis.com.sg/starcap/birdsnest/about.html

水蜜桃姐姐 / 小蜜桃姐姐

Cannot stand this person.

1. How come she can be a singer?
2. How come got producer want to produce albums for her?
3. How come she can speak / laugh in that kind of voice all the time? Maybe her vocal cords 声带 spoil liao.
4. How come she does not get tired acting cute?

MSN

Is there anything wrong with msn? How come I cannot login? This problem has been going on for many days. Maybe I should re-download the whole thing again....

I almost got killed

At the pedestrian crossing opposite OGS.

No I did not jaywalk. I only jaywalk at Punggol...

While waiting for the greenman, this Korean lady asked me where she can flag a cab. She was frantically trying to get a cab at the junction (of course cannot get lor).

Then I told her to follow me to cross the road where there is a taxi stand. When the greenman flicked, my instint was to cross the road. This STUPID IDIOTIC MORON yellow cab beat the red light and zoomed past!! Luckily the korean lady pulled me back abit. She really pulled my top lor. I think if not for her I might have been killed liao. I think it really scared her quite abit because I had to drag her across the road and assured her that everything was alright. Haha....

Shucks! I forgot to take down the cab number!!!!

2 weeks

Calvin will be away in Hong Kong and Taiwan for 2 weeks. How sad can that be....

哇..Taiwan typhoon how to go ar?

Stupidity

I forgot that the gym at OGS closed at 7pm on Saturday. I went there after work and reached there at 630pm. It was not until I saw one of the staff outside the lift that I remembered that it closed at 7pm!! How much more stupid can I be?

Shoe madness

Waha...went to Nine West warehouse sale at Tannery Road during lunch yesterday with Elaine and Liling. We bought a dozen pairs of shoes between us. Ok Elaine will insist that it was 11 because she bought 1 pair for her mother.

The shoes were cheap! Of course they were not in tip-top condition but still acceptable. What to complain when it was $29 for evening shoes and working heels, and $45 for boots?! The brand is NINE WEST!

I really liked a pair of black evening heels but it did not have my size! Darn!

Interested? Go to:
Tannery Road (near Genting Link, MacPherson area)
- turn left at end of Tannery Road and you'll see a big yellow banner
- sale ends this Sunday, opens from 11am to 7pm

好天气

..to 睡大觉。But got to wake up early to do reports again. Sian.

!!!! Argh!!!

Woke up early to do report but ended up I realised that I did not save it home!

Luckily got other things to do as well.....argh!

星期三，我又醉了！

这次不是跑10km。

这次我不知道哪根颈不对，既然signup for 10km realrun！！

我真的不是醉了，就是疯了！

星期一，我醉了！

就像醉了一样。。。。

After my second attempt at jogging 10km on the treadmill.

再跑的过程与过后都很high，根本都不觉得累。

直到回到家，洗完澡过后才觉得累。

就像喝醉了一样。先high到不觉得累，过后就不省人事了！

Today's straitstimes Part 2

Aiyo....

Even 大白兔奶糖is contaminated with Melamine. How sad...

Today's straitstimes

'Police catch more jaywalkers'....

Aiyo...

I better stop jaywalking at Punggol. But there is so little traffic in Punggol!! It makes no sense to wait for the green man when there is not even ONE vehicle. NO?

Gathering!

My uni friends came over for steamboat lunch today! Jun'an, Siew, Ah Wah and Shuren. Unfortunately Elaine (Ng) had to work and cannot join us and Yvonne MIA-ed.

Jumped up from bed at 10am! Luckily Elaine (Low) was here to help with the marketing and preparation! If not I think the soup would not be so tasty and I would take twice the preparation time! Hahahaha...

Anyway had a nice get-together but had alot of left overs! In the end Marcus came over to help to eat some and he said the amount we prepared was enough for 10 persons! Hahaha...anyway, it's better to have more food than not enough food la!

Late for gym!

I was late for gym yesterday because I misplaced my pass in office and had to search for it!

Ended up not going for pump class. So run on the treadmill instead. I think I might be beginning to like running. Haha...but run until my feet got blister liao...think it's time to buy a new pair of shoes.

Then met the gals - Wendy, Chin Choo, Yimei, Diana and Candy at Wine Hut. A nice and cosy place; a good place to chit chat. The 2 men, Marcus and Alvin flew us aeroplane, but nevermind because we gals enjoyed ourselves. Hahaha.....

Wine Hut
60 Robertson Quay
The Quayside
For reservation call: 6836 6445

Then Elaine came over to spend the night after her cell group. At 245am, she said she suddenly could not fall alseep. So we texted Marcus intending to ask him to go for supper. However, he was in la-la land already. Hee...

Amazing!

I completed my first measured (so definately accurate!) 10km run at the gym!!

Took me a total of 1.5 hours, yah the timing is not that great but amazing for a hate-the-treadmill-and-running person like me!

Did warm up for 5 minutes, run for 35 minutes, walked for 5 minutes then run again for another 45 minutes. I also don't know what got into me man!! Wahahahah...

Hope I can walk properly tomorrow because I still want to attend Calvin's class!!

Body salt?!

Was resting at the sofa after my run at the gym when I suddenly felt that my legs were coated with fine powdery-like substance. Initially I thought my legs had gotten very dry and the skin were peeling off. However, upon closer inspection, I found out that it could not be dead skin.

I decided to taste...ya TASTE the powdery-like substance and to my horror, it tasted salty!!! That was when I realised that the sweat had crystalised into salt! Oh man, so amazing! Wahahaha...

Research

Research shows that it is unhealthy to sleep late. The best time for the body to recover is from 10pm to 2am.

So, I must make it a resolution to sleep latest by 1230am from today onwards. Sigh, but I am not ready to give up my Korean serial marathon on weekends at Punggol! HOW?!

Separation anxiety

My intern has finished her internship. Sigh..I've lost a dependable 'assistant'.

Spaga-madness!

Aiyo...Had spaghetti for 3 meals for the past 1.5 days.

Sat morning: only western food shop opened in office canteen so ate aglio olio
Sat night: Marcus came over to cook
Sun afternoon: had left over spaghetti from the night before and I also wanted to try to cook carbonara spaghetti. Of course it was a success lor, I even added garlic and sliced ham for more flavour. Clever me wahahhaha....

Aiyo..no more spaghetti for the coming week at least. Somemore did not have much time for gym last week. Must do more gym this week!! And yes CHEN YANNI you are coming with me! I am nagging you in person, using sms, in my blog and in your dreams!!!

No problem!

Bak kut teh and steam egg were a success! But both are not salty enough because I didn't dare to add too much soya sauce. Would improve the next time!

I still have half a packet of bak kut and mince meat left. Hmm..wonder what I should do with them.

Maybe use the bak kut to cook stock for the steamboat soup? Don't know can anot will have to consult some experts. Haha.

For the mince meat, I'll fry it with some beans next week ba....

Sigh...

How come the gym and clinics close so early on saturdays?!

Had wanted to go to the clinic to collect my iron tablets when I realised I cannot make it for gym since it closed at 7pm. Then to my horror, the clinic was worse lor! It only operates half a day!

Saturday leh, a good time for people to go gym and see doctor!!

Am I too behind time or am I strange to expect the gym and clinics to operate normally on saturdays?!

:)

Elaine and Marcus came over impromtu to Punggol last night, after Marcus suggested watching DVD and drinking. Well, I thought it was just nice since the gym closed at 7pm and I cannot make it to gym.

Initially I wanted to try out my steamer and slow cooker so had intended to cook steam egg and bak kut teh after work.

But since Marcus and Elaine came, plans had to change; and since it was like 830pm after we finished shopping and Ang Mo Supermarket, I managed to convince Marcus that he should do the cooking! Haha...if I were to cook, we'd most probably end up eating at 10pm or ta pao food from coffeeshop!

So by the time Elaine came, dinner was almost ready. Marcus also concocted some drink...don't know what though.

After a very filling dinner, we watched Ocean 13. Hmm, not a very easy to understand show, because I forgot the story for Ocean 11 and did not watch Ocean 12. AND especially after a filling dinner, I wanted to burb throughout but the air just refused to come out!

We should have more of such 'gatherings', but someone else do the cooking please! >.<'''. Unless I got ample time to experiment with the cooking. Hahahahha....

New watch!

Was on the bus last week when I saw a lady wearing this watch. So I went in search for it! It comes in a cool Beijing Olympics tin box!

2 close shaves

1. Accidentally uninstalled one of the system utilities in my laptop. Luckily I was able to recover it and install it back!

2. Nearly lost 1 side of my diamond earring at Carrefour because I took it out to play with it. Think when I put it back it did not get lodged onto my ear hole and I did not know. Luckily managed to find it after retracing my steps!

Success!

Baked brownie today! It's a success! So yummy-licious wor!

Next time will eat it piping hot with ice-cream...yumzzzzzzzzzz!

Cosy home!

Everytime I stay over at Punggol, I simply don't feel like getting out of the house.

This morning, I 'pongtang' work because I just don't feel like leaving the house for office. Ended up watching my korean dvd marathon! :))

Too bad had appointments in the afternoon so cannot don't go back office.

4 letters - which cost $1298!

A-C-E-R

Yeah, bought a new laptop at Comex. Haha...using it now to type this entry!

This thingy is so happening! Well anything better than the office laptop is considered happening lor! It has got a bluetooth function. So, in future I can transfer photos from my phone to the laptop with only 2 clicks of the button - on the bluetooth function of my phone and laptop!

Not to mention I got quite a good deal...overall still happy la. Will shop and eat less to compensate the financial loss!

Shoes

I want to buy a new pair of track shoes.

But I'll only consider these:

1. Black with bright pink shoe laces
2. Black and gold with black or gold shoe laces

Please tell me if anyone knows where to get them or knows if any brands carry such stuff.

I want..I don't want

I want:
1. Eat
2. Relax
3. Go gym
4. Go Punggol Park and eat cow
5. Sleep in late everyday
6. Watch Korean movie marathon
7. Eat haato ice cream
8. Eat oishi ice cream
9. Eat yami yogurt
10. Go travelling

I don't want:
1. Monday to come
2. Sunday to end
3. Work

Also my idol!

China
Table Tennis

Birthdate: February 19, 1980
Age : 28 years
Weight : 163 lbs (74 kg)
Height : 5’9” (1.76 m)
Gender : Male




I would love to watch all his matches all over again if I had the chance!

Philips Sale!

I bought everything I wanted today! Rice cooker, blender and iron. Total cost:$165. Will test them out tomorrow! (hmm..should be later in the day). Might also return tomorrow (hmm..should be later in the day) to get the epilator if I have time to spare and is not too lazy.

Haha..really has Candy to thank. Otherwise, I would not have dared to go there alone. So many people can!

Where to find a genius like me?!

Succeeded on my first attempt at baking chocolate cake!

The gym episode; the episode with my idol :)

Got into a little bit of panic after pump class today because my water bottle suddenly disappeared!! Ya, just disappeared into thin air, after I returned the equipment and went back to collect my stuff. Searched for it high and low but could not find it. I thought somebody must have stolen it and I even went out to search for the 'culprit'. Panicked because (1) the water bottle is a gift from Choo; (2) afraid cannot survive combat class with no water!

Decided to return to the studio to look for it again. So I '排山倒海', went on all fours in search of it. Ms Choo ah, 感动吗？！ 赶快掉几滴泪!!

Finally found it under the stack of step boards! Walao, don't know who is so 黑心 kick people's bottle inside still don't help to take it out or at least have the courtesy to inform. TSK!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today during combat class, stupid Calvin made me darn paiseh la. He was saying that he would not be giving us break for the next 3 tracks and I was causually standing with my hand on my chest (I suppose I was trying to wipe off some sweat, and was too engrossed in listening to him so I just 'left' my hand there). He suddenly said: 'Are you ok? Are you going to faint?' Walao, I look so 弱不经风meh?! Everybody just turned and looked at me. Really wanted to slap him leh. Anyway, I forgave him because he is my idol. Haha....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Decided not to bathe after combat class because I wanted to rush home to catch the korean show on Channel U (in the end only watched the last 5 minutes because there was a traffic jam! Angry!).

Anyway, not bathing was a correct decision because I met Calvin at the lift! He blabbered about him being very high today and that he was panting real hard in class just now. Hmm...maybe he wanted to 'make amends' for making me paiseh earlier. Haha...he continued to blabber about how he should not be so high in classes next time and that it is not good for an old man like him. Then I retorted him 'you always so high one ma, not the first time today'. Then he gave me one kind of look and said: 'it is?!' Anway, since he is my idol and to make him happy, I told him that he does not look like he is 35. :D

Haiz, how come the gym is only at 5th floor leh? Who is the architect for Paragon, 给我站出来！Should have built 100 floors for Paragon and have the gym on the 100th floor ma! TSK!

Bored

Tonight's telecast for Olympics is so boring - wrestling and boxing. Not my cup of tea.

At least tomorrow night's better, got soccer.

Really want to watch the men and women's table tennis singles matches and synchronise swimming, but all the telecasts are in the afternoon. So sad.

Terrible

Cannot understand why mediacorp got Jade Seah to commentate the Olympics highlights alongside Mark Richmond. Aidoi...she is like an Ah Huay lor...she talks like people owe her lots of money....

It's such a pain hearing her speak, yet it's just not possible to miss the highlights. Tsk.

Really hor...

All thanks to LM people or people who cannot plan their time properly, I am still awake at this hour doing work.

Walao, if you know you are not going to be in office on Monday then say la....if you know you are going to be out of office in Court for almost whole of Tuesday, say la!!!!

Walao cannot manage your time properly is it?

So very pek chek now.

We deserved the Silver!

Skills wise, we are definately not up to par with the China players. Nonetheless, our players have already made our Country very proud! :) An Olympics medal in almost half a century! No matter what's the colour of the medal, it's definately worth celebrating!

I really want to watch the Men's team table tennis match for the Bronze medal leh.... 2.30pm on Channel 5. Sigh....got to work leh...how?

Luckily the match for the Gold medal is at night!

Wa! 好劲爆!! (Part 3)

I know that Belgium ultimately won the game 3 goals to 2. But I heard there was another player who was sent off? Can someone feed me in?! Anyone anyone anyone??!!....

Wa!! 好劲爆!! (Part 2)

Just as I finished typing the previous entry, Belgium scored!!!!!! Wow!!!

The Italian player had seemingly cleared the ball but apparantly the ball had crossed the goal line!! Referee awarded the goal seconds later.....23rd minutes into the game and Belgium equalised; with 10 men!

劲爆啊！不想去gym了！

好劲爆!!!

Barely 18 minutes into the soccer game between Belgium and Italy and one of Belgium's player got a red card!! And Italy scored the penalty to get a goal up thereafter!

Wa....don't know how the Belgium team can survive 70 minutes of the game with 10 players! I think it's another Olympic record - fastest player being sent off?!

:(

Aiya..Japan team did not make it to the finals. But nonetheless they had put up a good fight against the Germans!!

Heart in mouth!!

Watching the Table Tennis Semi-finals, Men's team game between Germany and Japan. It's so exciting!! The Japanese Yeo Kan is really resilient! Not giving up even in the face of Germany's many game and match points! Wohoo! I hope his team mates play as well and don't let his hard work go down the drain. Hope the Japan team wins and the game ends on time for me to have enough time to go gym!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some people are just "£$%^

Some people are just irritating, inconsiderate or simply 傻傻分不清楚！！

I was the one who reminded you way 2 days ago that my boy is coming today at 9am for his tagging. And if he failed to turn up this morning, is there a need for you to call me, wake me up from my sleep at 930am and SHOUT at me?! Should you not call the boy and shout at HIM instead?!

Don't like the combat class tonight

1. 不够fierce
2. 不够爽
3. 不够刺激
4. 不够劲爆
5. 不够喘
6. 流不够汗
7. 不明白Calvin在自high什么
8. Music太大声 （自high的那位先生应该是自high到不省人事，走火入魔才不懂music太大声了！）

希望他以后就不要再用这个choreography了!

Lagging behind time

Blogging and watching the re-telecast or delayed telecast (not sure whether got live telecast earlier anot) of the soccer match between China and Brazil.

This was not intended because I didn't know they have telecast now. Later still need to wake up earlier to finish some work. But heck la! I haven't even watch a single Olympic game till now......

Ahhh...watching this game revived my 'passion' for watching soccer...'offsides, foul, yellow cards, throw-ins, penalties, free-kicks' etc now returned to my mind.... :D

Wonder who won hor? It's 33 minutes into the game now and Brazil leads China by 1 goal.......

A change in appetite

Recently, I have grown to like to eat rice (as in 菜饭), 大包 and pork floss bun. Die la...all carbo and fattening stuff.

It is strange because I never used to like to eat 菜饭 because I prefer to eat noodles. Last time I used to find 大包 just simply not nice to eat and I didn't like to eat pork floss too.

Strange...

But I think the 菜饭 came about because I have been lunching in frequently recently and there is not much variety in that teeny weeny cafe.

Take turns?

Ms Grumpy malu-ed herself yesterday (Ms Grumpy want to tell what happened ma?!). I malu-ed myself today. An ang mo gentlemanly held the door to the gym for me and I hurried in because I didn't want to hold him up for too long. In my hurry I nearly slipped lor. Aiyo don't know why the floor so slippery....

Ms Grumpy got scolded in gym last week (Ms Grumpy want to tell what happened ma?!) and today was my turn. Got scolded for using handphone during class. >.<

Hmm...coming to think of it now, it was actually before class lor...hmmph..

Should I kill myself further?!

Got an offer from a friend to teach english to korean students at his tution centre. Salary: $30/hour, time: whenever I am free.

Quite a good offer hor? Should I take it up leh?!

同人不同命！！

Made some checks on my boys earlier. Some of them were already in lala land lor!!! So 幸福！！

All time low mood...

1. Lots of work to catch up.
2. Lots of work to do.
3. Endless new things at work and I seem to see myself being involved quite frequently. Most recent being procurement and auditors training. What the hell is that?!
4. Working with people who do not seem to remember that you will be out of office doing field work/attending Court etc or your off days (not matter how many times you told them) but only remember theirs. Then they send e-mail to the bigger bosses telling everyone what you needed to do and had not done. Not in office how to do?!!!! Fed up!
5. Strain and pain in the eyes at times.
6. Muscle ache.
7. Lack of undisturbed sleep - those that no need to wake up at 5/6am to do work kind of sleep.
8. One of my favourite boy in hostel got some 'problems'. He has been seeing/hearing 'things' lately and has gone to IMH to see doctor. Currently under medication. Hope nothing will happen to him.
9. Mental exhaustion to such an extent- went to withdraw money this afternoon but realised later that I forgot to take the cash from the machine. Called DBS and they have to investigate and can only get back to me 2 days later on whether other people took the cash or the machine retracted the cash. $100 leh....
10. No time to watch olympics. I missed the grand opening somemore. Which I regretted because many people said it was very impressive.
11. No time for lunch outside of office.
12. No time to go for massage.
13. Have many scars on my face because I kept squeezing my black/white heads.

On hindsight I am quite glad that Marcus proposed to postpone the Myanmmar trip to end November. Don't think I am quite ready to enjoy a holiday in another 3 weeks time with so many things going on.

Addiction

I think I am addicted to teh-C >.<'''

It's so breezy and comfortable!

Hehe..I still managed to go to the gym today at OGS. I went out to the poolside for a short rest after my exercise and guess what?! I actually fell asleep on the poolside chair! Slept for 30 mins. So breezy and comfortable!!!

It's amazing!

Did amazing race with Elaine, Liza, Nas and Liling, and we came in 6th! Not really sure how many teams participated in total but to come in 6th was really an amazing feat for us! We won for ourselves $50 Taka voucher! Not anything fantastic but fantastic enough considering it's from the miserly ministry!

The race was quite fun but it was darn tiring after the race! And my legs ache. By afternoon my legs felt detached from my body. Think it was because I did not do proper warm up before the race. :(

I prefer the new release

We have had the new launch for pump and combat for the required 3 weeks after every new launch. So from this week onwards the instructors can mix and match the tracks from the new and previous launches.

Thought I much prefer the new and unmixed launch for both pump and combat although they were much tougher.

Anyway really could hardly walk straight now. Must be the potent combination of the amazing race and gym. Actually thought I should go OGS for some cardio workout since I would be nearby later after work. However looked like it would not happen because my legs are so weak!! Not going to be surprised if I cannot walk later!

Wii-ing

Suaku me played Wii for the very first time yesterday with Kevin and Elaine after the amazing race at 5th floor club house after lunch. It was FUN!!

Anyone wants to play Wii with me anytime SOON?!

至理名言!

Calvin says: ' We are here to work out, not to play'!

Makes so much of sense lor! Though he was rather mean to have directed it to his fans who 对他宠爱有加！Haha....

Clear skin

Cal's skin is really good lor. No pimples and smooth smooth 的. Haha..

Too bad he works full time for the gym so he cannot do freelance. Alvin had wanted to ask him to do a combat session for our office healthy lifestyle.

Prada!

I'm going to get a prada wallet for my hubby. :) Have not decided if I should just give it to him with no occasion or wait until his birthday in Nov. Expensive leh nearly $400.

Hopefully Alvin's friend is still in Italy and can help me get it. Another big hole in pocket all thanks to Alvin and Jeff!

It's back!

My neverfull is back! Will be meeting Alvin tomorrow night to collect it! *Excited*

My next target, for end of the year or next year - Marc Jacobs!
But it's darn expensive lor! Sigh..must start to save money! Should anyone be giving me gifts for some reasons or other please give me ang paos! That will be the most practical!







Ahhh...isn't it a beauty?!

Happy sms!

Received a happy sms last night!

'Your LV is coming back soon. Now at Rome airport flying to BKK'!!

HAPPY!

Cannot take it!

The new release of body combat is really tough! Now I 手酸脚酸！！ Does not help when it was crazy Junwei's class earlier. Wonder can survive Cal's class tomorrow anot. He's another crazy one.... >.<'''

1 Year Old!

Reading Choo's blog made me realised that I also forgot my blog's 1st birthday on 05/07/08! Haha....so here's a birthday song:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO U
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO U
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO U-HOO
(drum roll) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO U!

Durians!!

I want to eat durian!!! 榴莲！！

Anyone hear me??!!!

Cheap Cheap!

Swee Seng Bakery at Boon Keng hawker centre sells cheap breads! $1 each; and 3 for $2.70!

Where to find this kind of price now?! The bread are quite tasty and they are rather creative with the varieties too!

Enjoying my new house :)

Stayed over at Punggol again last night. So shiok.

Now still here because later my dad will be discharged from hospital hence I see not point in going back to office. So here I am typing my PSR.

Not very enjoying doing work but definately enjoying the stay in my new house :))

Concern? No?

Choo complained how her AM was so 'cool and unconcerned' about her spate of MCs last week.

Well both my AM and M were VERY cool about my urgent leave today yesterday lor. Funny thing was that Choo's AM bothered to ask ME (I need to report to her too because of some work team thingy).

Oh well....not that I needed them to ask lah...even if it is not genuine concern, won't they even ask out of courtesy?

I would.

Anyway, not that it matters. Nevermind.

I feel accomplished today :)

Went to the post office early in the morning to collect my dad's license, then went to hospital to visit him. Set off to gym at Clarke Quay around noon and went to cut my hair at Bishan after gym. Cannot tahan the wild weeds (野草) of hair. So dry can. I think the chlorine in the pool and the soft rebonding made it very dry. I think they did not do a good job the last time I rebonded it.

Anyway went back to the hospital after the hair cut then to new house to pack abit.

Tired.

Phobia returning to work because work is piling up. Sianz.

Runaway

Suddenly jumped out of bed at 430am - the unearthly hour to realise that I fell asleep last night without switching off the lights and TV and packing my stuff for the next day.

Just finished packing and I will look like I am going to runaway from home again ..hahah..- I'll be staying over at Punggol tonight since my dad will not be home.

Ok need to catch some sleep now before waking up again at 730am to start another mad day.

SGH (Part 2)

Read Part 1 here

330pm: the 'misi' came out to call me in saying that the doctor is out and wanted to talk to me. The doctor said the operation went smoothly :) and that my dad would be wheeled out into the ward soon.

430pm - 5pm: the doctor's SOON is really not very SOON lor. I had to wait another 1 hour and I had already logout of the computer since he said SOON. Went to the high dependency ward where he'll stay for a day or two.

5pm to 830pm: became a hotline 'staff' because got to answer all the calls from my dad's friends and entertained myself with the 'snake' and 'mahjong' games on the handphone. The ward's misi-s were really very nice and patient lor. Good!

Also damn amused when I overheard a doctor trying to communicate with another patient in the same ward:

Patient: asked the doctor something about his wound.
Doc: 'uncle I cannot speak mandarin later I ask the misi to come and translate ok?!'

And another feeble attempt to peace the uncle:

Patient: asked another question.
Doc: 'uncle I small doctor only, later you ask the big doctor when he comes ok?!'

hmmm.....tsk tsk...the quality of doctors...really...

830pm: my hubby came.
9pm: went to eat my dinner at the 'kopitiam'.
930pm: bought pao and carrot cake up for my dad in case he got hungry in the middle of the night or the next morning.
10pm: reached home..

I need help!

Anyone knows where to buy those rose patterned black leggings/tights? I tried topshop but they don't sell leh :((

SGH (Part 1)

8am: arrived at Urology Centre. The operation was supposed to be at 8.30am. My silly father drank coffee at 6am in the morning so we had to wait another 6 hours before they could operate on him. He said he was told that he had to fast but can 'drink water ma'. So he took coffee for water lor. At least the counter 'misi' is quite nice and patient.

10am: went to the 'kopitiam' to get some snacks. Wa! Met a rude and impatient auntie manning the kopi/bread/pao stall. Nearly wanted to slap her. So rude can. Also met a bunch of unruly young female doctors. And I really mean UNRULY lor! Cut queue (my queue!), talked loudly, one of them tried to show she could do banana split etc etc. Even with the stethoscope on their shoulders, they did not look like doctors. 真是损坏医生的形像！ No wonder my father said cannot trust young doctors - I do not have any comments about their credibility as doctors （他们的医术）but they only had themselves to blame for 破坏自己的形象 and allowing people to think of them negatively.

1230pm: father was told to go in to prepare for operation. Not sure when they wheeled him into the theater because I could not see from the outside. The operation would take 1 to 2 hours.

130pm: went to 'Cheers' to get some drinks. The counter auntie there was VERY polite! She greeted and thanked every customer. And there were many people lor!

230pm: went to ask the friendly 'misi' if the operation has ended and she said no. So the wait continues. And that was why I said the 'vodafone' is a great invention!

The small thing named 'vodafone'

The vodafone is a wonderful 'machine'. It allows me to surf the internet no matter where I am! And monthly subscription is only $11+, UNLIMITED usage! Best of all, hubby pays, I use. Wahaha..where to find such a good deal?!

1st overnight!

Yeah, slept overnight at Punggol on Thursday since my dad was not in town.

Elaine came over too :) and I am happy that my house is actually quite comfortable to live in...hahaha....

Also travelling to office by public transport - and I mean by LRT then MRT then bus is not that bad la.....about 1 hour plus minus 5 to 10 minutes....

一次blog个够

哇，下雨了。希望雨快点停因为我要去gym啊！

Waiting....

...for 21/07/08! I want to lay hands on my LV bag!!

As of 05/07/08

1. Remove the 'console' meant for the DVD player from the master bedroom. Shorten it and fix it in the kitchen for the oven.
2. Install another nicer looking and longer 'console' in the master bedroom.
3. Fix up the lights for the dinning area.
4. Install shelvings for bomb shelter.
5. Tidy bomb shelter so that we can utilise it.
6. Clear stuff from bedroom 2 when bomb shelter is ready. Bedroom 2 has become our temporary storeroom now!
7. Clean up bedroom 2.
8. Re-wipe the wardrobes in master bedroom and bedroom 2 with antiseptic solution.
9. Clean common bathroom.
10. HDB will fix the new doors (main door, 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets) on saturday.
11. Another round of cleaning for WHOLE house because it will definately be super dirty after they fix the doors.
12. Last round of touch ups - painting, false ceiling. Hopefully won't have to do much cleaning after they touch up!
13. Buy crockery, utensils etc.
14. Rejected bedroom 2 curtains due to defects. Jimmy Textiles only have stock in August so have to wait till August for my new curtains.
15. Jimmy Textiles also need to change one of the blinds for my master bedroom because it came in the wrong color!

A little bit here, a little bit there....

There are still many 琐碎 things to do in the house:

1. Remove the 'console' meant for the DVD player from the master bedroom. Shorten it and fix it in the kitchen for the oven.
2. Install another nicer looking and longer 'console' in the master bedroom.
3. Fix up the lights for the dinning area.
4. Install shelvings for bomb shelter.
5. Tidy bomb shelter so that we can utilise it.
6. Clear stuff from bedroom 2 when bomb shelter is ready. Bedroom 2 has become our temporary storeroom now!
7. Clean up bedroom 2.
8. Re-wipe the wardrobes in master bedroom and bedroom 2 with antiseptic solution.
9. Clean common bathroom.
10. HDB will fix the new doors (main door, 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets) on saturday.
11. Another round of cleaning for WHOLE house because it will definately be super dirty after they fix the doors.
12. Last round of touch ups - painting, false ceiling. Hopefully won't have to do much cleaning after they touch up!
13. Buy crockery, utensils etc.
14. Rejected bedroom 2 curtains due to defects. Jimmy Textiles only have stock in August so have to wait till August for my new curtains.
15. Jimmy Textiles also need to change one of the blinds for my master bedroom because it came in the wrong color!

That's all I can think of for now.

Wa..come to think of it...it's not 'a little bit here, a little bit there lor'! It should be 'many bits here and many bits there'!

Really?!

Chanced upon this --> http://www.vervestudio.com.sg/home.html

''Our 45 minutes work-out sessions are highly effective and fuss-free. Clients are able to enjoy a session in any attire, be it a business suit or evening gown, just kick off your high heels or dress shoes, hop on the Power Plate® machines and in 45 minutes with our Acceleration Trainers coaching, you will have the equivalent of a two and a half hour intense traditional gym workout minus the sweat. No more gym bags or after work-out showers.''

After subtle senses I have my reservations about all these stuff. 还是 GYM 比较好！

!!!!!

I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THE EURO FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Argh!

Though I have not been following the season, I was intending to watch it after Candy mentioned it at Choo's house.

Walao!!! And I remembered it when I came home!! I set alarm for me to wake up to do report but not watch Euro Cup!!

I can't believe it!! I think I got early and very serious dementia! >_<'''

Housewarming!

First 'feeling' after viewing Choo's house - luckily my house not so big lor, if not clean like siao. As it is I am already cleaning like siao, and no matter clean how thoroughly it is still not clean!!

Had steamboat! As usual food and company was good!

Unfortunately it's back to work today (my off day somemore!!!!). I'd rather clean the whole house again, in replacement for work. Ya, possible only in my dreams.

Finally! Tickets have been booked!!

I tried to book the tickets (READ) but by the time it was at the payment page, the $19 tickets were sold out! Damn pek chek lor, because I had already typed in everyone's details! Decided to do the booking at Choo's house the next day since all of us would be there and it would be easier to discuss and make final conclusions.

We tried for the longest time at Choo's house to get on to tigerairways and jetstar websites. The internet connection was >.<''' lor! We gave up after a looonnnggg time and Candy volunteered to do it at home at night.

Ta da!! We finally succeeded!!! WE ARE GOING TO BANGKOK!!! The next task would be to book hotel and wait wait wait wait for the date to arrive!!! Excited! 5 gals - Kat, Candy, Wendy, Jinny and me!!

I am going to BANGKOK!!!

Yes! Trying to book the tickets online NOW!!

Alvin kena taunted by Calvin! :))

HAHA!

Calvin said to Alvin: ''What's happening here? No noise? Hear, it's so noisy in front!"

Alvin said: ''KIA!!''

HAHA!

Kevin is so cute :)

Few days back I had buttoned my cardigan wrongly. Kevin, me and another person (cannot remember who!) were chatting at Kevin's work station. While we were chatting I suddenly remembered that my cardigan was buttoned wrongly and hence was adjusting it.

Kevin suddenly pulled out his small cushion and covered the side of his face and said: 'Aiyo 玲姐don't do this in front of me leh.'

Haha..this kid is funny la...

Bloody tired!

Been cleaning the house for the past 2 days. Can't seem to make the house clean at all! And the more we clean the more defects we found. Left the house at 12am, went to eat supper at Jalan Kayu and only reached home at about 130am.

It's cleaning day again after Court tomorrow later. Darn took leave but still have to go Court. And I need to wake up at 10am latest for gym.

And why am I up at this hour? To vet my intern's learning agreement. Really want to zonk out liao. Think can only sleep in another hour or so. Argh, why is it so different to vet her learning agreement? It only took me 1 minute to blog this lor.......I am starting to sprout nonsense.

I want to eat cow!!!

I am missing the tenderloin steak at Punggol Park! I want to eat cow cow cow! Hopefully this saturday can go / got time to go eat after cleaning our house.

The normal hawker sirloin steak I had a few days back cannot satisfy me!!

I have become a cow eater since I first tried the tenderloin steak at Punggol Park during Des' farwell party!! And thus far only the cow at Punggol Park can satisfy me!

Peek-a-boo Part 2!!

Ta-da...my new house!!










Read

Pimples pimples...

I must remember not to wipe my sweat off with my dirty hands during gym. Realised there are alot of pimples on my forehead and chin area :((

Hardcore fans

Calvin is back...so are his irritating bunch of fans. I thought they finally got rid of themselves for good, but it lasted only the 2 weeks he was on MC. They are really his hardcore fans lor. He disappear they also disappear, he reappear they also reappear....zzz

I have 2 problems.

The problems occured to me when I was preparing for work and on my way to work this morning.

Problem 1:
I realised I have forgotten the numerous handbags that I have. I just digged out 2 from my wardrobe this morning. I have forgotten that they existed because I have not been carrying any handbags except for my laptop and gym bags. I am sure there are a few more lying around in the wardrobe, waiting to be unearthed.

Solution:
I came into office and tried to squeeze my shoe bag and gym clothes into my laptop bag. Ok everything fitted in nicely - laptop, adaptor, a PSR, my shoe bag and my gym clothes. So next time I shall carry my super bulky laptop cum gym bag (I hope it does not give way on me) and my handbag.

Problem 2:
How am I going to sustain my gym routine after I moved to Punggol? Sigh. Once move to Punggol don't think I would have so much 'freedom' liao. So sian. -.-'''

Solution:
Have not thought of one yet.

Peek-a-boo!

Marcus had a sneak preview of our new house today yesterday :))

Just downloaded some new and interesting songs on my ipod. Hopefully the more 'lively' rythem would motivate me on the treadmill. Otherwise I always feel very bored. :((

It's a new week...

Ya the tittle does not sound very interesting nor makes the writer look very enthusiatic about the new week...

But nevermind I'll try to be optimistic for the following reasons:
1. I am off today!
2. Chemical wash for our new house would be on this wednesday. Which means we can start to do our own cleaning from thursday onwards! Then next monday all the furniture would be coming in!
3. Calvin is back in action!
4. I'll most likely ask Alvin to buy the neverfull LV bag for me since he is going Europe!
5. July's coming and so is the 0.5 month bonus!
6. We're partying this friday!
7. Choo's back! More lunch kakis, free snacks during lunch, housewarming, gym, and ya she's my new 'neighbour' etc etc...haha...

Alamak why did I wake up so early this morning? Ok moi's going back to sleep then head to the gym at noon then to my new house!

My 2nd attempt at Body Step!

Well, it was my 1st attempt alone. Luckily I did not stick out like a sore thumb! :)) Nearly wanted to back out as initially there were only 5 people in the class including me. Thank goodness people started to stream in later.

Overall it was a good workout!

My gym story again!

I think I like Christopher's classes too. He stood in for a few of Calvin's these 2 weeks that Calvin is on MC. However, strangely he only has 2 pump classes and is not scheduled to conduct any combat classes at all. So sad...

Ok I have to start washing my gym clothes, otherwise no more clothes to wear for the coming week!

Is it really so?

A few people had commented that I looked slimmer. Su even said I look much slimmer today.

Hmm..how come I do not feel it leh? I only felt that my stamina is slightly stronger and that I seemed to be abit toner.

But I am still a loser at treadmill and tricep push-ups. Actually treadmill depends on my mood. I usually can do 20 minutes on a good day and 10 minutes when I feel lousy or super tired. Sigh....when will I see more results leh?

But I must continue to control my food intake again, especially the past few days, been snacking abit at office and eating dinner quite late. :(

Then again, with the amount of exercise I am putting myself through, it is 'injustice' that I have not lost much weight; and that it is not that I am binging because I am exercising. I still eat the same. I snacked even more and on more sinful food in the past lor. The equation just does not work out leh. :((

S-I-G-H

再接再厉吧！

Off Gym and Massage; On Shopping

Cancelled my massage and took off from gym to go shopping today! Went far east plaza with Elaine.

Bought a dress, a top, a cardigan, a pair of shoe, a pair of jeans capri and a tee shirt. Total damage about $160.

Tomorrow onwards must 'eat grass' and gym regime to continue. :))

Yeah, Calvin would be back next week!

How to pronounce 'Amelia'?

Guess how the kids pronounce Amelia's name?!

Haha..they call her 'auntie-a-million'.

So Amelia = a-million....how rich Amelia has become!! Haha....

Telok Blangah Hill And East Coast Park on 01/06/08!

The bunch of us - Ame, Heng, Spencer, May, Poh Poh, Shane, Connie and the kids went hiking at Telok Blangah Hill Park! We started at Harbour Front and ended at the Horticulture Park.

Hmm...the walk was not as interesting as the one at Pulau Ubin. Guess it was because we were just walking and walking and walking and it got kind of bored as the route was not as 'challenging' as Ubin. Well, looking forward to out trip back to Ubin again. We want to join the guided tour as we want to go to the Chek Jawa Wetlands during low tide!



















The day ended with BBQ at ECP - yeah Bachelorette Party for Choo!!