What's 'In' Nowadays

According to Me, the 3 things that are currently 'hot' or on it's way to becoming one are:

1. Frozen Yogurt.

- I like eating yogurts, the one they sell in groceries (because I don't feel guilty eating it). But not to the extent where I've become addicted to it.

One time, during my lunchbreak, a colleague suggested we get some dessert. I just followed, and they brought me to a stall selling yogurt dessert- Yammy Yogurt. It was okay, but not really remarkable. Over the next months, I discovered a stall in Raffles City selling frozen yogurt, the soft-serve type. I think the name is Yoguru or something. One cup is about SGD3.40 for the original flavour, and a few cents more if it's flavoured. I love love love it! So there was one point when I actually became so addicted to it that I really couldn't resist gobbling a cup down.

Then, my friend told me about Red Mango, a popular yogurt brand in the States, which has a stall in Suntec City. I went there and tried it. It was also very good, but at this point, I'm not sure which brand I like best.

Ofcourse there are other yogurt stalls around, and another way they serve it is they scoop it out and put it in a plastic cup. It's not super appealing though because the yogurt looks mushy.

2. Bag hanger

- I bought a bag hanger for my Longchamp bag, which can't seem to support its own weight. When you put the bag on a chair, it slumps down like a person with very bad posture.

So I started using it in the office. One by one, my female colleagues will say 'how cute leh.' very nice leh' (or something like that). I know another girl in our department also has one, but hers was obviously expensive because my friend said it was bejewelled.

Anyway, one day, another female colleague came by my table regarding a client's instruction. Then she said "you have a bag hanger too. I think it's the 'in' thing now"

Now I'm not saying that bag hangers are 'in' just because I have one, but because more and more stores are selling them. And they're selling newer and cooler versions too, like the collapsible type.

3. Phiten bracelets (joint pain/muscle pain and stress buster)

- My friend gave me one (I know, I'm lucky) and I started wearing it. Hoping that it will help ease my daily stress. To my surprise, it actually worked!(and still working). Well atleast for me. It's either that, or it's the 'power of the mind' thing working.

Thank Goodness It's Saturday

It's 1:21AM, Saturday.

I just finished taking a quick body shower, like what I do every night. It's a long ritual actually. I go in, wash my face, floss, brush my teeth, wash my undies, enjoy a foot soak, read some and then shower quickly.

Anyway, I've also finished one of my weekend chores- ironing my office clothes!

I like doing it on Friday nights, because then I'll be free from it for the rest of the weekend.

On Saturdays, I usually just clean my room and toilet. Then in the afternoon, I roam- whether I'm alone or with friends.

I love Saturdays because:

1.) It used to be my 'Date' day with my boyfriend, when I was still in Manila.
2.) I can wake up real late (except when I have my bi-monthly morning duty in the Bank)
3.) I can stay up real late because I can wake up even later on the following day, Sunday
4.) I don't have to think about work yet, because there's still Sunday

Lo Hei

I think Lo Hei means New Year Feast. (I think)

So tonight (29Jan09), our team finally had ours at the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, near Indoor Stadium, Kallang.

The Lo Hei started off when the server brought in a big platter of shredded vegetables (I saw carrots, and I think the green things might have been cucumber). They call it Salmon Yusheng.

She then ceremoniously squeezed the lime onto the salmon slices. After doing so, it was tossed into the vegetable platter. Pepper and seasoning went into it next (I was beside the server, so when she 'pepperised' the food, some of the powder lifted into air and went straight to my nose, which caused me to sneeze). Then, she put a few bags of fried wanton wrapper and some syrup to make the mixture sticky.

My boss then gave a short speech. After the speech, we all stood up with our hand armed with black plastic chopsticks. I think they shouted something, and then we all dug in our chopsticks and tossed the food around, as high as we could! Because they said that the higher it goes, the better it is.

So it became crazy! My colleague, who was across me from the big round table, lost his chopsticks, and one of the sticks came flying to my direction!

After a few minutes, it was all over and quite a mess was created. The server hurriedly came forth to clean our table, and whatever food that fell safely back to the platter soon found its way to our stomachs. I, ofcourse, didn't eat the fish because I don't eat raw fish. (Or whatever raw.)

After that interesting segment, we had our normal dinner - steamed prawns, scallop with broccoli, noodles, fried duck, steamed sea bass, Singapore chili crab with mantou bread and steamed taro cream dessert.

Wah, so full! Well I should be because I took second helpings for all the dishes, except dessert , that is. I could have eaten another bowl thought, but I suddenly became shy.

Now 3 hours after, I am hungry again. I guess I better just sleep it off.

Back to Reality

My two-week Manila vacation is over and I am back in Singapore today.

I will resume work on Tuesday. Oh dear.

Makan III

Makan II

Makan (Food)

Udders Ice Cream

This is my New Year discovery.

Udders Ice Cream. I was walking towards United Square (it's a mall), along Novena, when I turned my head to the right and saw this cute shop with a cows 'Udder' as a logo. I got excited and promised myself that after dinner, I will go back and buy me some ice cream.

So, I looked around the United Square Mall (It was my first time there). Nothing much to see, so I just had a cup of corn (because I saw a kid eating it and I literally salivated), then I ate fish soup with rice.

After dinner, I walked back to Udders and was greeted by the ice cream lady. Their standard line "Is this your first time in Udders?" If your answer is yes, they will say "Let me guide you with our products. Over to your right, we have the ice cream with Liquer..." .. and I couldn't remember the rest because I was busy scanning the ice cream. They have the usual Rum and raisin, strawberry, durian, mazilla (vanilla with marzipan).

I tried some and decided to have Kick s cream or something like that. It's caramel ice cream with sea salt. It's interesting enough and not too sweet. For the other flavour, I chose Strawberry fields. It was nice, because it tasted fresh and the seeds are there, so you can actually bite into it.

They have this blackboard where customers can write their flavour suggestions (and they tally the customer's votes). Some were interesting, but some suggestions were irritating, because whoever wrote it obviously was trying to be 'cool' (jerk). One 'super cool' suggestion was: Balsalmic vinegar. Jerk.

And they also have another board where you can write anything. I wrote my name! =)

Novena Church

This shot was taken outside Novena Church tonight.

The tower, with the pale blue sky as a backdrop, and the moon accentuating the shot. Lovely.

I'm finally going home! Woo-hoo!

The day has finally come for me to pack my things.

I've been buying stuff for 'pasalubong' since November, and boy, the things did pile up.

After ironing my clothes, eating and sweeping the floor, I excitedly started packing. What a challenging task, because the things I bought were bulky. Not to mention, some were heavy.

I was very conscious of the 20-Kilo weight limit imposed by PAL. I do not not want to exceed and pay for excess baggage because it's not worth it.

After 90 minutes, I was finally done. I took the weighing scale and plopped my luggage onto it. Woo-hoo! Just 42 lbs! I still have 2 lbs to spare. And some 2 more lbs for the hand carry bag.

I am so excited to go home. Two more nights and I will be in Manila!

Hop Like a Frog

Last night while I was walking towards the back gate of the condo, I kept looking at the paved floor. I was checking out if there were frogs around.

Towards the middle, I saw a small thing on the sewage grill. Oh dear, it's the dreaded frog.

I kept walking, hoping it would hop away. But its back was towards me, and it probably didn't hear me coming. I stopped for 3 seconds, but I knew someone was behind me a few steps back.

I didn't want to look too cowardly, so I did the best thing that I could manage. I hopped beside the frog!

I became the frog, while the frog stood its ground.

Wah law. (it's a Singaporean expression)

Singapore Chilly Crab

I'm not referring to the crab you eat at No Signboard or Jumbo Restaurant.

I'm talking about the crab I found on top of the aircon outside our condo!!!

It was December 25 then, no work, so I decided to clean the house and do some laundry.

When I got out of my room, there's this stench - fishy and gross-smelling.

So I sniffed around (like a dog), first I went to the kitchen, and then to my toilet but I just couldn't locate where the smell was coming from.

Okay, never mind the smell. I was going to do my laundry so I pulled the dry floor mats off

the laundry hanger. Waaaaaah! I was so shocked when I pulled one down and saw a crab on top of the aircon. There are two aircons outside our condo by the laundry area- ours and our neighbour's. The crab was on our neighbours.

Weird, a crab on top of the aircon. I was thinking maybe they wanted to dry out the crab before they cook it or something...(but eeeew it was really smelly)

------ The days passed--------

Everyday I would go out and see if the crab was still there. And it always was. The bad thing was, the smell kept getting worse.

I didn't want to touch it though, so I would just cover my nose every time the wind blew and the smell intensified.

On the morning of December 30, it rained really hard. When I opened my room, I was greeted by a gagging smell so overpowering that I almost doubled over. The rainwater has drenched the insides of the crab (which was already rotten to begin with) and it created this deadly fume.

I had no choice but to let it pass because I was already late for work. I planned to take care of it when I go home that night.

-----Night came and it was time to face the crab --------

I had dinner with my friend and mom and sister who were visiting from Manila. Guess what we

had for dinner? No Signboard Chili Crab! It was yummy, but I guess I didn't enjoy it fully because the smell of the crab kept coming back to me.

With resignation, I went home and decided to throw out the damn crab and get it over with once and for all. The smell was overpowering, covering the whole house.

I pondered on how to go about it. I didn't want to touch it with my hands, so I used 2 dustpans and tried to move it. Since the aircon was higher, I pushed the crab until it dropped on to our aircon (which is on a lower level). Eeeeeew! The shell was already soft. Sob! Why oh why do I have the good fortune to be doing this all alone? Just when my flatmates have gone back to Manila for their vacation.

I pushed the crab to one dustpan and directly threw it out the metal trash compartment (the trash goes straight to the condo trash bin). Bleeech! The black juice from the crab has dripped onto our aircon.

I poured some water with alcohol on the aircon. There's no way that I'm going to scrub it.

That done, I decided to relax a bit in my room. A few minutes after, I went out again and was upset that it was still so stinky. The juice (and smell) has stuck to the aircon.

I poured water over and over until the juice washed away from it.

Man, it took a few hours before the smell finally disappeared.

When I woke up the next day, I was so happy that the stench was gone.

A couple of days have passed, but sometimes I can still smell the crab. Eeeew! I don't think I'll ever look at crabs the same way again.