Loopie - Joop

this whole week has been premiere after premiere... season premiere of TV shows, i mean. My schedule is packed!! Monday - Dancing with the Stars at 9pm on ABC, Heroes at 10pm and Journeyman at 11pm on NBC. Wednesday - Private Practice at 10pm followed by Dirty Sexy Money at 11pm on ABC. Thursday - Ugly Betty at 9pm, Grey's Anatomy at 10pm and Big Shots at 11pm on ABC. coming Sunday - Desperate Housewives at 10pm and Brothers and Sisters at 11pm on ABC. Next week there's Pushing Daisies on Wednesday at 9pm as well! haha... looks like i'm only free on tuesday nights...

it's been a long time since i've written anything of a serious nature. i try to keep this blog lighthearted but some things have been bugging me lately and i need to ventilate and detox myself. so please bear with me as i spurt and sputter some bad blood. one, because of man A's negligence, my start date has been delayed till further notice. was rather upset about it, not because i was looking forward to what i thought i was about to do, but because once again, my plans have been thwarted by things and people beyond my control. i should have been able to start in july had hao-e's permanent work permit been granted right after his first temporary work permit lapsed. BUT, it didn't happen that way cos hao-e had to settle for a second temporary work permit as they tried to sort out his permanent one. now, with this delay, i'm not sure when i can begin contributing to the "save stella" fund. [C was really cute today as i told her the amount that i ...

Asparagus and prawns with Dried Shrimp Paste Chicken and White Mushrooms with Hoisin Sauce What can i say? I'm a genius!! hahaha...

Took a 20-min drive west to Dockyards yesterday morning just to have a walk about. surprisingly, there was a bike race about to begin so we hung around and watched the race from a pavilion. we were enjoying a hamburger whilst discussing the following: why are bikers so skinny? - ANS: because they need to balance on super skinny lightweight bikes. why do bikers walk funny? - ANS: because they have this contraption that "locks" their shoes to the pedals. (ps: some of them waddle worse than football players with spikes) why do bikers ride in a pack? - ANS: because riding behind someone reduces the air friction so they use up less energy than the rider leading the pack and they can easily overtake later in the race (especially when the leader is tired). why does cosmo advise against over peddling for females? - ANS: because studies have shown that too much riding can reduce your libido. the above are some of our very unprofessional personal opinions. not to be taken too serio...

Tonight we went back to Sushi Tei with the gang for dinner. This is Paul the sushi chef. He hails from M'sia. I couldn't resist ordering the salmon roe, but i didn't want rice with it. So Paul carved up some cucumber. Don't they look pretty? So we had juicy salmon roe and salmon sashimi. omg, i'm salivating AGAIN !! today's one of those days i feel that moving thousands of miles away from the familiarity of home ain't so bad after all.

This is the oyako don i made on tuesday. (blame hao-e's cheapo camera for the not so good looking photos.) it's a darn easy dish to make. just boil some rice, dice some chicken thighs and onions, beat some eggs and dump them all into a wok with soy sauce, mirin and sugar!! hao-e loves it.

This version of hana kimi - I LIKE! Definitely a more believable cast and eye-candy galore!! for those who've never seen this show, can you spot the girl in the above photo? stare hard at the one right below the one with blonde hair. somehow, a storyline like hana kimi can only happen in japan where the guys look so pretty!! and the acting is so so much better than the taiwanese cast. (Sorry Ms Ng)

"I am all geared up to face the world!! Look at my blue helmet and harness!!" "BUT, what a fashion faux pas, blue and maroon just don't get along do they? What will i do?? headache...." keke

i have one grouse to make - there's this girl who comes knocking on my door every sunday (today included) to talk to me about God. She's a Jehovah's witness. Can someone please tell me how to reject her nicely?

last night we had a most scrumptious bbq dinner at the original swizzle inn . much much much better than the dinner we had some days back with O and K at the branch in warwick. woo.... i had the char-grilled prime rib and the much famed rum swizzle, while hao-e had the margarita shrimp and strawberry daiquiri. blogging about it brings back nice memories. heh. Oh! C and i found some fresh watercress at the marketplace yesterday. so today's lunch we had watercress soup. i've been yearning for some light clear vegetable soup for some time... especially after a discussion with HL about the lack of vege variety here, and how she spotted kailan on the island! KAILAN !!! how did they manage to get their hands on kailan ?! i was joking with HL that one of the chefs must have secretly brought over some seeds and planted some in his back garden. or else why doesn't kailan appear in the vege aisle of the marketplace as well?! oh, and i bought some canned longan, jackfrui...

drum roll please.... SUCCESS! soft, spongy, not too sweet, just enough cheese... ooh... envious yet?

1) Fried pseudo Bee Hoon on saturday evening... pseudo because it looks like bee hoon but it doesn't quite taste like it. no matter, cos i made it yummy of course! 2) Apple Walnut Cobbler for Sunday afternoon tea... 2nd attempt. this time i think i got the apple proportion right. 3 apples are just nice to complement the batter... 3) Fried Rice for Sunday dinner - well, simple one dish wonder!! see? we eat pretty good here k?

Amidst pleads that there aren't enough photos on my blog, i've over-compensated with an avalanche of photos of this past weekend. TAKE THAT!! hao-e and i went off shopping on saturday morning, trying to walk off the extra calories gained from the dinner at Silk . Was contemplating on getting myself a bag (yes, i hear cries of "don't you already have like a thousand bags?" the answer which i believe all females reading would totally agree with is, "no. never. nuh-ah." ) So whilst being waylaid by bodyshop and the other fashion shops, i did bring hao-e to M&E to have a look at the bag i was eyeing. well, conclusion was, it didn't look as good as i thought it did last wednesday, so thankfully i didn't succumb to my impulses last week or i would have regretted it. Levi's and Dockers were upstairs of M&E (Lusso which retails upmarket brands like Fendi, Salvatore and Prada is downstairs of M&E, i mean REALLY ), so we trooped upstai...

A certain birthday boy was pretty happy tonight. I got us dinner reservations at Silk, the only Thai restaurant on the island. Our table was on the balcony overlooking Front Street and the harbour. The menu consisted of the usual thai favourites - tom yam kung, pad thai, curries, etc. A pity there wasn't yam woon sen, my favourite glass noodle salad... While waiting for our food to arrive, we sipped at our ultra expensive (USD7.50) bottle of still water, trying to make it last the entire evening and enjoyed the evening breeze... The appetizer came along - fried crackers with thai sweet chilli sauce. seriously, it was more sweet than spicy, but it was a good start.. Then came the soup - tom yam kung. yummy! Then came the satay platter - chicken, beef and prawn satay! the beef was excellent!! chicken was good. but the prawns, well, i think they should have used it in the tom yam kung instead... Birthday boy said " HAPPY!! haven't had satay in a long while..." ...

100% confirmation... i've been diagnosed with some serious illnesses... people who know me and have kept up to date with what i've been doing over here probably know i'm afflicted with 2 of the most self-debilitating illnesses which restrict my behaviour and causes me to stay home all day.... 1) tele-addiction (i watch tele serials for almost 10 days a day) 2) net-addiction (i'm online like 16 hours a day) and the newest addition or rather, my newest ADDICTION is .... drum roll please ... foodblog-addiction . (i've been seeking out some great foodblogs... and have been living vicariously through their food descriptions and eating antics... most of their recipes posted are tried and tested and turn out pretty good) growing up in a nation full of great eat-out places and in a family with a mother that enjoys good food and a sister that is fully in-tune with the latest, most 'in' restaurants, how can i not be obsessed with food as well right? and not surpri...

This is the cheesecake i baked yesterday... it didn't turn out as soft as expected but it looked ok... happy birthday to hao-e and steph!

Fresh out of the oven!!! Just made these mini cakes using steph's recipe. batter turned out a bit lumpy but the overall taste is good. SIS: i substituted all-purpose flour for cake flour... is that why it turned out pock-marky?

This is the latest TV serial i've caught on tudou.com. i have no idea what's the 4th word in the title of the series. nevertheless, the storyline's touching, the characters have depth, the acting is great and i absolutely love the humour injected through witty cantonese dialogue. as usual, ouyang zhen hua and wang xi manage to capture the essence of their roles and i must say, i've always enjoyed watching their shows, despite their lack of good looks. they are believably normal looking but they portray their characters so realistically and so full of charm!! i've just completed all 25 episodes... if you haven't started on it, and are looking for some entertainment, this series is recommended. MUM: IF YOU ARE READING THIS, GO TO THE RENTAL STORE AND GET THIS SERIES. SUPER NICE, I GUARANTEE.

K very kindly hosted his monthly poker night last evening... sigh, hao-e and i had to do 50 push-ups each in the end. arms were jelly after... looks like my poker skills need to be improved...

in 7 days, we'll be celebrating a very important day. Sep 7 is a rather special day: 1. Sister's birthday 2. Hao-e's birthday 3. ROM anniversary So in 7 days, we would be having (most probably) thai cuisine for dinner, celebrating hao-e's 28th birthday and our 2nd ROM anniversary. Sorry sis, i can't be around for your birthday this year. Hope you have a great 3-0 birthday!! No presents requested from both sis and hao-e this year. so am not rushing around town buying stuff, cos there's nothing much to buy here anyways.