Loopie - Joop

We're spending new year in Bermuda this time, our first here. [Last year, we went back to Singapore during chinese new year.] Obviously, there aren't very many others celebrating it, my only chinese co-worker who married a Bermudian of Portuguese descent will definitely not be celebrating it, he told me so last week. So other than the crumpled yellow dragon flag hung outside chopsticks restaurant, you wouldn't be able to tell it's the all-important chinese festival of the year... we've tried to introduce a little CNY flavour into our home - despite the lack of apparatus. behind the wii motion sensor, i've placed two clementines (no mandarin oranges here) along with a red packet (from accenture no less!) on the TV, just like how it's done in my in-laws place every year. i've tried to do some sort of "spring-cleaning" this weekend, so the house looks a little more presentable, although for sure no one's going to turn up at our house for ma...

HURRICANE BERTHA - Advisory #33 Issued: 6 am Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Note: Forecast track may be liable to large error - please monitor for further updates HURRICANE BERTHA is a potential threat to Bermuda. Current Position: 28.0N 61.7W approx. 306 nm SSE of Bermuda Recent Movement: NW or 315 degrees at 6 kt Central Pressure: 980 mb / 28.93 in Max Sustained Winds: 75kt gusts 90kt Closest point of approach to Bermuda within 72 hrs: Date: 1 am Sun, Jul 13, 2008 Distance: 153 nm to the ESE

I didn't bring my camera, these photos are courtesy of our friend Jo (of the technicolour dreamcoat kind). We went out on a boat last Saturday with Hao-e's co-workers. Great food, great company, not so nice weather. I didn't dare go into the water for fear of hypothermia. yes, i'm a ninny. this is the boat that's hao-e kayaking Enjoying my rum swizzle as we approach Albuoy's Point

Have been trying to upload these pix for weeks! Gosh! We went to the XL Tennis Open last month (it's been a month!). It was the semi-finals we watched. Here are some pictures from that day, which was breezy yet sunny (hao-e got burnt!). Loads of fun, but we didn't stay long. eyes and neck were sore after the first set. ha.

I absolutely adore Prima Taste. Lifesavers!

Got chided by sis that my blog wasn't interesting.... darn... so here are some pictures of my dinner last evening... curry chicken with broccoli and sliced carrots. the recipe includes mcCormick's curry spice powder, a splash of mirin and soy sauce and some low-fat milk. my alternative to the 南 南 Curry at Bedok interchange.

These photos were taken at the aquarium some weeks back. i'd clean forgotten about them until tonight... the place was that interesting. somehow, i'd never really taken to the scaly beings with gills, tentacles, etc. much prefer the mammals e.g. dolphins and seals. ugly and prickly big blue mouth thorny cute!

Forty-five boats participated this year... here are some for your viewing pleasure. No.20 - "Peace" No. 21 - "Sylvester and Tweety" Santa and some palms More Santas (they're coming by the hoards) Colourful Christmas Tree The Pirates! Unicorn Another Palm Bacardi's entry Huge Tweety Goofing around waiting for the fireworks to begin. The night sky was filled with bright beautiful sparks for a full 10 mins. Woohoo!

We have been going on siew mai shopping sprees for the past few weeks. hao-e has been consuming the shrimp-filled siew mais from amoy at an alarming rate - 1 packet or 12 siew mais every other day. i have to admit, they are really quite delicious. there are about 6 packets left in the freezer so he'd better ration. haha.

Christmas is a big deal to the island. Headed to the eastern end of the island (technically a separate island linked to the main island by a causeway and swing bridge) last evening for the walkabout organised by the national trust. the town was prettily lit with choirs and kids dancing on a really tiny stage. a bunch of us went around hunting for drinks and food (cos it was dinnertime) which meant we had to walk into some of the really old houses that have been restored and open for public viewing specially for this evening. i was initially worried about parking but was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as crowded as anticipated (i'd over-estimated the island's population and the popularity of the event, yet again) and parking "appeared" relatively quickly. after walking around and exhausting the sherry and mulled wine supplies near the town hall, we went to a house party and had some of the best chilli (not the spicy kind we have back home, the minced bee...

Hao-e's look for the evening... Tis the season to be jolly and attend D&Ds. (My sis alone has clocked 3 D&Ds so far. Hats off to you!!) Last saturday, we attended the D&D organised by hao-e's company at lido restaurant, not to be confused with the cinema back home. this is the first time in years i'd attended a private sector D&D. many many differences. let's see... no fees - used to have to pay a "token sum" to get a seat at the D&D. i of course being quite anti usually avoided such occasions, but there's always some bugger i know and love in the organising committee, who will persuade/beg/coerce/blackmail me into coughing up the sum. this time, i went as a partner and still didn't have to pay a single cent.. woohoo! fantastic food and free flow of alcohol - take your pick of the starter, soup, main course and dessert. and have i mentioned the alcohol? me have graduated from being the designated driver now that hao-e has h...

Pretty huh! Got the recipe from here and made them this morning cos it's C's birthday on sunday!! cookies are moist, with a rich peanut butter taste and not too sweet, just the way i like them. ooh... i gobbled a few while baking them...

today's monday. again. it used to get on my nerves on sunday afternoon at 4pm... the agonising waking up process... the "i can't believe it's a new WORK week" nonsense running in my head... the horrible trudge to take the train, sealing in my fate with the rest of the working population of "tiny island" for another 5 perilous days... absolute torture. these days, i'm a little luckier cos there's no 8.30am train to catch at tanah merah nor rush for the 9am (oh please! yawn!) meeting. i wake up at 7.30am and catch the morning show (cept now it's not cna but abc) till 8am when it's time to wake the man. just getting hao-e out of bed, which is in itself an abominable task involving many a time, some cajoling and even raised voices and threats. during this short time, i'll be busy making breakfast (currently rotating between waffles, bagels, toast, honey bunches of oats, and quick-cook oats), matching his tops to his bottoms and shoes,...

we're going to poker night tomorrow so i was surfing around for new cookie recipes yesterday. this one is aptly called "fabulous brownie cookies". ooh... just the sound of the name gets me all excited... melting the chocolate and butter together... couldn't resist tasting it, and i assure you, it was H-E-A-V-E-N! me and my trusty USD20 mixer, beating up eggs and sugar... the finished batter with extra choc chips added... look at that... ah... had a hard time stopping my wandering fingers from dipping into it and tasting it... preparing the parchment sheets and spooning batter onto it... into the hot oven... voila! presenting the finished product! the tops cracked like brownies and they were chewy inside. IRRESISTIBLE! i baked like 120 cookies in all, took me the entire morning from 10am - 1pm to finish baking all 10 batches. can't be helped cos i only have one baking sheet for cookies, so it's 12 at a time or i risk them coagulating into one other. you k...

DSCN1586 , originally uploaded by hypnotiq_joop . sorry, i'm unable to phonetically spell out the name of this cake in the romanised form i'd learnt in college. it's only been 3 years but i've long forgotten it. talk about short-term memory. anyway, i'll make a bold attempt to explain the 4 really weird sounding words. if you break them up individually and literally, they are "water", "steam", "egg", and "cake". get it? it's one of my "fun" projects this week, scanning the web for "oriental" recipes on "non-oriental" websites. this dessert is apparently a favourite among the cantonese speakers hence the cantonese name. it's not baked but steamed instead, as with most chinese cakes. didn't know what to expect but the pictures posted on the website were fairly attractive. so i tried it and i wasn't disappointed. the cake turned out really soft and spongy and once i ...

DSCN1584 , originally uploaded by hypnotiq_joop . Pretty eh? I don't know about others, but the cheesecakes i've baked so far tend to crack on the surface. it's just a matter of HOW cracked it turned out. was fretting about these cracks which just refuse to disappear (like wrinkles and fine lines), when i chanced upon this recipe which called for a "mask" on top of the cheesecake. so the cracked become filled and it adopts a fairly smooth surface. the sour-cream made the cheesecake even creamier (ooh.... just talking about it makes me salivate), and just that little bit of lemon juice and zest plumped up the flavour and texture of the cake. total enjoyment.

With Steph's fool-proof recipe.. VOILA!! H-E-A-V-E-N!! Sent most of them off to hao-e's office cos i couldn't afford to let them sit around at home tempting me... still, i stuffed myself with 3 gorgeous slices. i'm so gonna regret this tomorrow...

Ooh-ee.... Have sworn off poultry for a while. surviving on seafood i.e. prawns, scallops and fish now... so we had sambal prawns for dinner on tuesday. yummy!!