Thursday, March 30, 2006

little drive for dinner ingredients

decided to cook my own dinner today. sick of all the chinese restaurants and prices i have to pay for average food.

So i drove out to the supermarket. First of all, i have only a vague idea of where the place is, and secondly, I havent driven proper on my own for 3 years i think. So i was well kinda u know, NERVOUS. Plus i dun really know the road but what the heck, what could possibly happen apart from wreaking the car and not get my dinner? heh.

Driving was alrite since it was non peak and not much cars on the lane. There are so much curves on the road that it was kinda like roller coaster on the flat ground. Still, my good little car got me to my destination. My greatest challenge. I forgot howto reverse park. That is i forgot how to judge the distance. Oh fuck.

Luckily for me, the lots are huge and there were quite a few empty ones. I pick one only to realise i was too near the car parked infront. I Forgot the divider in between is not as far as in singapore. damn. So imagine how many times i had to reverse in and out, like 5 times before i finally got it in pefectly. Just when i was feeling somewhat please with my adverture, a car opposite me got out of the lot and drove past me. I was mortified. Oh my god. How embarrassing! He must have seen me trying to get my SMALL car into a HUGE lot. Oh my god oh my god. I must have turned beet root red! Let me assure u that this is definitely NOT my driving skills when i first passed. I use to be able to just reverse park in ONE attempt, granted parallel parking is not my cup of tea.

I feel so defeated for that split second. Only to realise how nice the guy was to wait for me to finish parking without honking me. And he didnt even glare at me or anything as i might expect from a fellow singaporean. Good grief.

The supermarket didnt have what i want. can u believe it? a whole supermarket without
1) local carrorts
2) spinach
3) prawns
4) squid
5) cabbage (except organic)

Oh bloody hell. All the drive for pieces of ribs. damn it. And in the midst of all the flurry abt my first drive, I had to lose my optopus card. Great. So brillant of me. I dunno how i did it or how I could have even possibly done it. I thot i zap the card and threw it back in the car but Nope, it just wasnt there. Ghees. I have to trash the car again later after dinner. I checked with the security guard and no one has reported any card found. oh well. Prob someone picked it and use it. Arrrggghhh!

So now that i have gotten my splendid car adventure out of the way, its time to get back to cooking. I havent got much to work with but what the hell. I'm starving already.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

In love with "Great Food Hall" at Pacific Place

Went out today to admiralty to do something impt. Afterwhich headed down to the great food hall at the basement of pacific place and it was Oh my god. Finally a decent comprehensive foreign produce stocked but expensive supermarket!

I was in glee and i didnt know i was sooo transparent till the serving lady behind the ham section smiled at me and said "i looked so excited like a kid in wonderland!"


I laughed and asked her if i was sooo transparent and she laughed and nodded yes! While she was thin slicing my ham, i looked and saw all my fav thai chilli and other sauces there, This place is heaven! When i was picking up my ham, the lady over the counter commented she has never seen anyone so happy in a supermarket! i laughed even harder:) However, few in HK can understand the mortal delight of being "reunited" with my chilli and spices!

After a good half hour poking ard the huge place, it was time to go home!! I have my ribs, my sauces, my jap snacks and noodles. Glorious day.

I think today has been relatively a good day. Had a quick chat with yeetze, anna and manwin. Looks like i have run out of time to pack my bags for my london trip tmw. Oh well, tmw it has to be then :)

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Milk bread and fresh herbal Jelly

canx believe i stayed up till 3.30am to chat with yee tze:) i didnt get to sleep till abt 5.30am. Got awoken earlier than expected (okie 12pm is not early but at least its anot 2.30pm) but i guess it was okie since had wanted to run out to buy myself some new stuff and get those gorgeous Japan Milk bread from Times SQuare.

Did i happen to mention hoooow I am so addicted to those glorious bread. This is heavenly sent bread i tell u..) Nothing in Singapore can Match it. NOTHING.

Anycase, i didnt get to leave the house till 4pm. Finally step outin the first sunshine i have seen for days.

Its amazing how times fly when u are so not working? Or maybe coz i was just so busy talking to different people. Everytime i look at the clock, 2-3 hrs passes by so quickly.

Anycase, tried the Shanghai crystal jade at Times Square today. Errrr... something abt the flavour just made it different from home. Its not bad, its just slightly different. Maybe they have less meat and more chilli oil? I dunno. Still it was an alrite meal, nothing to rave nor complain abt.

On way home, i finally found the Herbal Jelly store that Lanny's counsin told me abt from last dinner. Its call 海天堂. Not sure if its the one they referred to but its bloody good anyway. Though abit steep for HK$50 to go. The lady was very nice, she keep reminding me it wont keep for more than 3 days and she looked so worried that i might forget. Think she's the most decent store person i have ever met since i was here.

So here i am, gobbling down the most delicious herbal jelly that i canx get back home, and having the Hokkaido Milk bread as snack. Its not like some dream combination for most granted but its mine for the day! Heh

Monday, March 27, 2006

Oranges and Spam calls

Feelin really tired today. Been meaning to get more groceries but really, canx be bothered except getting oranges! The darn oranges here are super sweet! Now, they are a staple diet of my watever breakfast or rather first meal at whatever time, and dinner time or before i go to sleep.

I tell u my poor deprived Singaporean comrades, Fruits (minus water melon) are sweet EVERYWHERE except damn Singapore! Christ, i have never tasted any sweet ornages in my life in singapore! Okie, maybe i am deprived or people say i'm just unlucky. Here, any random pick assured me of good watery fruits... argghh fruit heavens!

This heater is heating up the room and its too warm to stick around. Clothes simply will NOT dry here on its own so I had to turn on the winter heater to warm up the room to force dry all the clothes. Oh i hate to see the bill.

Btw, did i complain that auto SPAM telemarketing are allowed here in HK?! Its bloody wasting my money and airtime! They have this prerecorded message and they ring and ring. Bastards.


Its unthinkable HK legislation allowed this sort of unsolicited and non social minded business behaviour here. Anything for a $$ i supposed...Its crazy. They really WOULD do anything for money but who wouldnt? Competition is stiff here and anyone would think of money making ways to earn another quick buck..

I think the more i stay here... the more flaws i see here and the more i appreciate Singapore (despite its own flaws). Okie, i may sound like those ingrate China people working and bitching abt singapore, but really, HK would be a better place if more attention is paid to governance and social ethics! Then again, will singapore thrive the way it did if we are as large as HK and will we be able to eradicate all the bigger social problems here if we cannot even stem out ours in the small isl? Hmmm. Food for thought...

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Sunday brunch

Met up with Songyi again after her mass at Time Square. Decide to go for Jap even though she wasnt big on it since she didnt know what else to eat there.

Massage didnt materialise coz we couldnt get a slot and plus she didnt feel too well. So we cancelled shopping and i ended up getting my Long awaited authentic Jap green tea at Citi Super. I know the locals laughed alot at the expats who buy things there coz they call us silly fools. But i rather be labelled a dumb arse buying authentic foreign products here than to eat poetntially unsafe stuff manufactured from some hinterland. Plus "Park and Shop Supermarket" doesnt carry jap tea from japan, its from Guangzhou! Thanks but no THANKS! I will take jap stuff anytime!!! At least quality is assured!

I finally got my Kiehl at HK too! I finally realise that the mango store 许留山 is a franchise!! I dunno who started what. Did the singapore started first or HK. I think its HK coz i see so many of them everywhere! I love their mango aloe jelly drink....soooo nice! HK$25, so be it!


Btw, I think the gals who can speak English with accent in HK are snobs. They think just becoz they speak with some American English they are so damn good. Piss off!

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Catching up with a new fren

Songyi decided to postpone her trip back to Korea and so she rang me up for dinner on Sat. Since i wasnt too worldly abt eating places in HK yet being new in town, she chosed the spot at Soho.

We met at Central and poor gal was still working at 6.30pm (on sat). I was surprised coz there are more workaholics in HK than me! :) Anycase, she booked a French restaurant and we walked to Soho since the ghastly rain cleared up. I think i had too much warm gear on coz it was somewat warmer at central.

We chatted along and considering it was the first time i had ever seen her and converse with her, though started off slightly reserved but as the dinner and nite wore on, we were more forth coming. We joked abt Stan being such a clean and decent guy that we really didnt have anything to gossip abt him!!! Darn u stan! Such a conversation topic u are! :)


The dinner was alrite. We had 2 starters, and i had my lobster bisque and we shared our main. Songyi insisted i ate little but i guess i wasnt that hungry considering my late steak foccacia lunch...

When we had enuff of the tiny small place, we headed off to LKF for drinks. Both of us lamented that it was such a change in scene coz the streets were quiet and the pubs were empty with lotsa walking space. what ever happen here? It was abt 10pm when we got there and strangely quiet.

We decided to crash in on Fong's since it had some decent seats and when the drinks relaxed our poor minds, we finally got chatting more intimately abt life, guys and nasty bits abt HK we didnt like. I didnt know what was in a better position. She didnt understand cantonese and mandarin of coz which i did, but that means she didnt have to put up with stupid loud converstions by the locals. Halfway thru, her colleagues and their frens decided to join us and yeah, another 2 korean chaps.

They were alrite and honestly, I was secretly laughing to myself abt his ostentatious gold chain while songyi was put off by the showing of his singlet under his shirt. For a senior VP of an investment house, you would certainly expect him to dress better, but neh... ;p

I think I must have over compensated on my need for a drink over the past few weeks and I dun think I stopped much, except for the horrid white wine that the staff recommended. Never Never trust a HKie waiter who doesnt know his wine and recommend something too quickly before hearing you out.

Dunno why but the guys decide to swop venue and so we pub crawl. It was getting crowded and well more expats of coz. I canx rem where but we ended in one japanese restaurant and pub on the 2nd or 3rd level of a building and it was nice decor. Maybe coz its zen white with blue lights. We manage to get a really nice table near the balcony and i had my oreo cocktail. I cannot believe Bryan sipped off my drink!! Its like, isnt it a gal's drink??? So i let him pay for it. Songyi was more upfront maybe being a korean too and asked him"isnt that a gal's drink? why are u drinking that?" Bryan was like nonchalent abt it and ordered another Mint oreo choc cocktail. Me and Songyi looked at each other and laughed to ourselves. Hopeless.

By 12.30am, we were all pretty much done and so we grabbed a cab home.
Canx believe it was 1am++ by the time i finish my shower and all. Dead tired and a dead slumber soon overcame me.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Arriving in HK

Reached HK safe and sound.

Reached home, put the bags down and logon to the net.

I spend the next 2 hours chatting online with the gals. I didnt even have time to unpack.:)

After dinner, came home and chatted with Anna on skype for over an hour. It was funny coz she was fiddling ard with it and didnt know why i was sooo soft. finally it hit her that she forgot to turn on the volume for the speaker! I laughed and laughed!

I missed everyone.... sigh. still, when nite falls, its time to sleep. Will head to Pacific Place for lunch tomorrow. Hk is so polluted. PSI at 90. Sigh. at least the air is cooling:)

Departure

Thurs. Departure.

My bags were overweight! It was 37kg and thank god the very nice lady decide to waive off the excess bag charge. Imagine having to pay for the 10kg difference in cash! Ouch! Now i know why cathay pacific is best airline again for 2006 even though their in flight entertainment sucks. There was nothing to watch.... so i slept.

Jasmine came to send me off. She thot i was joking when i said i was alone. Mum's on cruise and everyone else has to work. Plus its no big deal. Am use to travelling by myself. SO we sat at jolly bean and chat and look at the schools of jap kids checking in. Long long Q! By 11am, i had to leave and we hug our goodbye. A hug from anna and a hug from her. A lingering sensation. Feel so surreal to be leaving. Connie and grace called to say goodbye and manwin called too. I didnt have time to change currency in the end and rush off to board the plane.

Any thots, none. I just wanna sleep.

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

2 days to departure

Was suppose to have lunch with Kein on Monday. I was truly sick of Jap. But i cancelled it coz i had scores to settle with IRAS. I didnt understand why they are soooo inefficient and after calling them to resend my e-pin to my current address, i have yet to see my e-pin after 2 weeks!!! Looks like i cannot get it settle before i fly off. Damn public service. I had already told them i'm flying off and yet calling is as good as not calling. There is no urgency or whatsoever!

I was in holland village to get bead necklace for bunny gal coz i know she was looking for one. They had such a huge selection that i spend 1.5hours there just choosing. I didnt know what sort she was trying and so i excluded everything i didnt think i like or that didnt suit her frame.


I had wanted to leave the girls a farewell gift since they had all been treating me and all, and i just wanted to show my appreciation as to how much their thotfulness meant to me. So i decided to get them bracelet from the shop too. Jennifer's birthday coming up and so i got her a necklace as well. Hope she like lime Green as much as i do!

I must have bought too much and the bill came u to $200! Luckily she gave me some discount like for my "bulk" purchase:) haaa haaa. Since connie and gals cancelled, i went to meet manwin and again sushi bar....

Tuesday.

Met bunnie gal for lunch and sushi again... i didnt eat much. I finally get to pass her the card , the necklace thingie and the calendar i bought from australia during xmas for her! I thot the necklace thing would look nice on her:) We went back to her office to checkin my flight and she looked so nice in the present if i may say so myself !!:) ha haa. She had this malay colleague who was sooo funny! She was talking abt her trip to Midlle East to pray or something, and she mentioned about how all the covered up women had flashy top, heels and clothes underneath!!!


I told her the malay colleagues in my office are very serious and solemn and we couldnt really click coz they look like they would be offended at any thing we said so we normally keep our distance in case we unintentionally offend them at our behaviour. But jas's colleague is the most different malay i have encountered and she was good fun. I told her my malay colleagues were really stiff and she said "ask them go fly kite lah" I know i can never say that simply coz i'm chinese and it may get misconstrued but i laughed nonetheless:)

Connie and Elise came to my place after work. We had pizza and KFC delivery and we talked and talked and laugh again. By the time we know or when their hubby start looking for their wives, it was close to midnite! Oh how i missed them!

By wed, I had to start packing. Am pretty sure my bag is overweight! My phone is still feeling hot. I have been answering sms and calls the whole week and i bet the week alone will cost me extra money that can pay for 2 months subscription but i aint complaining. Just that i have never used my phone so much that it felt perpetually hot to touch! :)

It feels funny packing. I suddenly think i will miss everyone and my nephew. The feeling is slowly sinking......darn.


Sunday, March 5, 2006

The week after quitting work

have such an accumulated list of things for the past 2 weeks that there is simply no way i can remember everything to jot it down.

All in all, it was a super hectic week running ard getting my errands done! Not to mention all the farewell lunch and dinner. It was so sweet of everyone and i was truly touch.... I didnt know i had collected such a large garden of good frens over the years at work! I had a really nice hairband from anna and my fav Banana Republic perfume from Jas!

Jas gave me a lovely card and it has been ages since I received much card. I was chuckling away when i saw the part abt me being the most indignant person! haa ahaaa. Anyways, everyone's doing the email thing now which kinda made it impersonal. I will bring it to HK with me and remind me of the good old days and everything nice being said! haaa haa

So on wed, thurs and fri, it was like lunch and dinner all the way with different people and i was stuff. Not to mention i felt like a walking sushi and sashimi coz everyone said i shouldnt take chinese food since i would have tons in HK. So i prob had all assortment and variety of Jap food in my tummy swirling around:)

Then i had to rush off to my spa and manicure before my package get wasted for i may potentially forget them!

By weekend, I was dead beat and i had to spend some time clearing my room. All the junk from office. I didnt know one can collect so much junk after 7 years. Not to mention the tons of soft toys that everyone gave me over the years! Suddenly i could no longer see my wine bottles being concealed by all the furs:)

Sunday was great!

Anna came over to my place and we had a good "soak" in the pool for like 3 hours plus. I was starting to clear my wine in my place too to free up some fridge space for my mum:) So i tried the campus Apple Ice wine. Initially we werent use to it. It wasnt as sweet as inniskillin but after a while, it tasted all rite esp with my mummy's pork rib which we brought to the pool. In fact it was just nice.


Women know no bounds to chatting:) I had her stay for dinner and she wanted to learn the recipe from my mum. She asked me why i wasnt as good a cook as mum when i have a chef at home. Its impossible to learn from mum coz she could never tell u all the ingredients at one shot! I'm too impatient! When anna went up, we both laughed coz my mum told her "Just soy sauce and sugar!" I told anna, "SEE WHAT I MEAN!" Slowly as you probed, the other ingredients surface. It takes like 15mins just to get recipe for a dish! I'm out of the kitchen! :) Anna faithfully copied everything and promised to email me once she got it working:) Good luck gal!

By 9.30pm Anna had to go home and I had the next round of guest to entertain:) Am meeting yeefei who is driving to my place coz she would be flying off the shanghai by the time i feel. So i opened another riesling i brought back from New Zealand and we went down to the pool as well to chat. By the time i realise, it was close to 1am and we decide to call it aday. She had a morn flight to catch. I was so touched again that she made the effort to drop by. Too bad dinner with alex, bill and rachel didnt materialise.

I was dead beat. After my shower, i slept like a baby, prob too much wine:)

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Another birthday, came and gone

Another Birthday gone by, another year passed.

Do i feel any older at this instant, nope. Was telling the gals, you know you have hit old age when you start caring about eye cream, when you start paying abit more attention to articles that talks abt whitening and anti wrinkles, but most of all, when you kinda stop wearing short skirts (halfway up your thighs sort) and parade down the town and staying up late just to party. Changes just occur naturally.

The other day someone asked me "How old are you?" ,I paused. Not becoz I was trying to hide my age or rubbish like that, but i truly forgot how old i was at that very instant.


My mind was a blank. I had to actually deduct backwards from my year of birth before i could answer him. I realise, I had stop counting for many years now. How old is just a number, and the number although dictates in some way the way one should carry themselves or behave, it doesnt restrict the state of mind. Sometimes when i'm realy tired, i do feel older. Yet most of the time, i still feel like a kid in some ways. Funny isnt it? There will always be a child in us no matter at what age we are. Yet attached to it, is a certain level of sentiments and emotional thots. Its not the same as getting emotional, just a state of feelings that you know that some times have gone and will never come back.

Birthday this year had been fantastic. For I spend it with the closest frens and i was happy thruout. They took leave that day just to hang out. My first birthday that i really didnt have to care about work after 7 long years. Its a relief yet quite contentment. Being with people whom you care and who cares about u is the sort of best thing. Plus the fact i'm leaving town made it all the more special.

That relaxing afternoon at mariott having Hi -Tea with them just sitting and chatting and laughing, its a treasure. Its something that i will always look back with fond memories.

Thanks you gals.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Happy Birthday to me!

Am sitting by the pool with a fren, enjoying a bottle of white wine, Brokenwood 2004, Riesling, Jelka Vineyard.

Its very nice and sweet and so that pig (Manwin) complain "so fast finish!!!!!" There he is...whine whine whine... next time I shant treat you!!!!!!!! I shall ask u to drink pool water. THERE! ONE WHOLE BIG POOL OF WATER.

So here i am, using his laptop blogging and laughing at him while calling him a pig at the same time... I digress..

This is such a good life, esp when i just got a big fat chili crab treat for dinner from him. okie, i very nice one....... must show appreciation so shall only call him pig for tonite:) last nite he was small bun. haaa haaaa

Today is a very nice day.
Happy birthday to myself!!! :)
My bosss met me in town and we had jap lunch at kuriya. My bday treat coz he said i'm his fav emploee. haa haaaaaaaa. more like his PA:)

HP keep ringing whole day non stop, well almost.
very nice... all the warm wishes. I think today alone i have already exceeded all my sms and free HHP mins liao... sigh..... but better busy then no calls. that would be really sad!!!!! I

Called doreen at 3pm ++ today and i guess we really miss each other's company since i quit. she didnt even have her lunch till 2pm++ coz her "baby cow" (me) didnt call her for lunch at 12pm anymore..... use to call her at 11.50am and complain to "mummy cow" (her) that baby cow very hungry and rush and shoo her out of office to go "mum mum"........ now she is all alone....... so sad........:(

It feels wonderful NOT to have to work.

people in office keep asking me where i am going, so i say...
"I'm joining shakeleg.com" haa haaaa. effectively stop all probing and i need not come off seemingly rude not to answer their questions.

Waking up at 10am or later is such a glorious experience, but i certainly miss the gals in office. sigh. when connie teared during breakfast when she realise it was my last day, okie i didnt feeel like crying but still touched.......

(PS: the most embarrassing thing earlier..... was searching HIGH and low for wine glass and guess what, it was like RIGHT in my face in the dining room all these while. so i was still telling manwin cannot find and he look at me and point to the ROW OF GLASSSES in my face and said "are those the glass:..... wa pianz.... feeel like banging my head into the wall..... that pig now "laaaa laaaa" some more and laugh... )