Cat's Bday Dinner @ Japanese Dining SUN

Met up with Ash, Cat, Mic and Minch last wednesday to celebrate Cat's Bday. Cat zhong yu chang da le!!! (... actually I not too sure about the chang da part, i mean look at her toy cupboard!! hahaha)

Anyways we had dinner at Japanese Dining SUN, where the food was ok but pricey but the ambience was cosy so that justifies the price, and you dont feel that you will reek of any food smell til you leave the place and realise that you do!!

Some images of food to tantalise those that didn't turn up (or erm those who not in that clique)!!! ;p








And a twinkle twinkle little star NOT!!! It a xmas snow flake from Ashie which I'm still wondering where to hang... Isn't it so pretty and xmassy?!

Small gatherings Big fun

Just a small rant on how great meeting up with your friends is!

There's something about meeting up with your friends to chit-chat, gossip and bitch. It's almost always results in loads of fun and laughter.

Although there so many ways nowadays to communicate without actually meeting up such as thru telephone calls, sms, instant messaging and blogging. But I've come to realise that nothing can beat meeting up with your friends and sharing the latest news and laughing your heads off!

It's just so enjoyable that sometimes i even feel that time passes too fast and i've not yet had my fill of fun...

Damn it's great to have wonderful funny crazy fun-loving friends! ; )

(A bit off topic but, hmm i've just found another reason not to immigrate)

And on a side note, a crap thing is to get "rudely" awaken by an sms early on a nice rainy cool morning after you've gone home late (or really early) after a gathering and now have a bloody pounding headache, tired eyes, a stiff neck and slight sniffles.... !@#$%^&*()

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

It's the usual Harry Potter movie . I think the best scene was the Quidditch World Cup scene. It was so cool, really looked like a scene from the Soccer World Cup.

But mainly I have preeves

- Why are Cho Chang and Fleur Delacour not babes?? The impression that I got from the books are that they were really good looking or at least Fleur supposed to be very good looking. Is it because they're not supposed to be prettier than Hermione?

- I dislike the way the current Dumbledore is protrayed! The way he acts is not awe inspiring and strong the way a leader should be. I mean he's supposed to be a really powerful wizard but he backed off from the flames of the Men of Durmstrang's performance. It made him look bad if u ask me!

- What's up with the entrance of the ladies of Beauxbatons? Walk in, pose and sigh?? What's up with that sigh???

- Why did the mer-people not allow Harry to rescue Hermione but yet allow him to rescue Fleur's little sister?

I'm wondering whether all these sucky stuffs have anything to do with the fact that they've changed the director...

DOOM: The movie

Watch Doom with CC, my 1st day spent with him after coming back from my trip as he was busy with project. The phrase 'Absense makes the heart grow fonder', can be quite true ; )

Quite an action-packed movie. It isn't the usual scary movie where creepy things pop-up and you hear people screaming away. But there is suspense and lots of blood and gore and quite gross stuff too.

According to CC, most fan-boys will be able to recognise characters like Sarge and Pinky. They've also changed the story a bit so it has more scientific reasoning to avoid being bashed by religious groups.

The whole background of the film is very high tech, from the way that they are ported to different locations to the nano wall and Pinky's wheelchair.

The part leading to the ending is a bit odd, but it does show the first person shooter view, just like the game!

Overall, I would say this is not a must watch, but if you're looking for some entertainment then watch this movie.

Trip to Taiwan & HK

I'm back from my trip!!

High Lights

The room in Taipei was nice and big, although it was far from the city.

The hot spring was sooooo relaxing and comfortable.

For one of the meals they had baby pig trotters, sinfully delicious!

I shopped like a mad woman, stuffs are cheap if you know where to look for them, don't go into the main stores but those small corner shops.

The roast goose in HK is shiok, a definate must try!

I got to go to Disneyland HK!!! Ok so it's the smallest Disneyland and the queues are atrocious but it's Disneyland!!! Loved the 3D movie, you could actually smell the pie that was shown and feel wind and water! I think the most thrilling ride there was probably Space Mountain. And of cos don't miss out the fireworks show.

Low Lights

We were placed at this ulu place on the first night, Tau Yuan Chun.

The vegetable served at every meal was cabbage, not exactly my favourite vegetable...

In Taiwan, I think I spend more time in the bus then touring.

Interesting Lights

The rice served in Taiwan is a bit like Japanese rice, short and sticky.

Learnt about Pixiu.

Wierd Lights

The hotel at Sun Moon Lake that we stayed at was opposite a big temple. The 1st 3 floors were below ground floor. We were located at the 3rd floor.

There was a giant centipede in the room and a grasshopper in the toilet!! Luckily we managed to get another room.

On the last day of the tour, we found out that it wasn't only our room that had centipede. And according to this lady who found the centipede on her bed (!!!!), it means there are dirty things around.

She also said that when she opened the window she saw a light in a distance and she's a bit short sighted so she stared to see what it was. Then she saw something white and decided that something was not right and quickly closed the window and curtains.

According to her, there was a couple in our group who saw an old woman/man a distance away outside. But the time we arrived at the hotel was 23:30-00:00, and logically there shouldn't be old people hanging around at that time....

I think the most ironic thing was that the temple opposite the hotel was a really big temple...

Will edit this post later to add in some photos

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

I have 3 words to say about this movie, GO WATCH IT! I went to watch the movie thinking that it would not be that good because it was a sequel, but i was wrong.

One thing about this movie is that there's really loads of crude jokes (only adults can go watch). I was thinking of listing out all the hilarious parts that i liked, but the list would be sooooo long, and i'm sooo lazy, so just GO WATCH IT!

Weekend Makan

This weekend I went out for lunch on both Saturday and Sunday.

KFC
On Saturday, i had good old KFC for lunch at the AMK branch. It was the first time that i've been to that branch since it was renovated. I love the fact the the ventilation was so much better than before, when there was always this stale smell of oil.

However, they've partition the whole area such that half is pizza hut and half is KFC, and that sucks! Their sitting arrangement is to make use of all the space available and squeeze in as many seats as possible. I know that's sound business logic, but it makes the whole place feel so crammed up.

Feel that there are other things they could have done to use the space more wisely, like shared kitchen space and shared bathroom space.

The Orange Lantern
On Sunday, dad brought the whole family out to lunch at The Orange Lantern. As usual, he read up about it in some makan review and wanted to check it out. I love the ambience of the place, it was so relaxing and chill-out. Seating in the resturant would make you feel like you're in some ulu part of Singapore although you're actually in town!

The service was pretty good too, dad asked about corkage and for warm bo bo cha cha (they usually served it cold) and they obliged (without any black faces!!). Sad to say, i had to wonder whether it had to do with the fact that the waitresses were foreigners (less attitude compared to Singaporeans??).

The food was pretty nice too. As usual when i eat vietnamese I'll go for the mixture beef pho. The soup was quite light, i didn't really taste the beef stock (I prefer heavier tasting soup!), but at least there wasn't any MSG. And they were pretty generous with the helpings of basil and bean sprouts (compared to this other viet resturant i'd been too).

deborah had the chili version of my noodles, which if you asked me wasn't that great cos they used chili oil to spice it up. dad and russell had dry noodles, it was pretty good, the texture of the noodles was interesting. russell also had an avocado shake, and i'd definately recommend that!

Why Me??!

I spent 1 whole day pulling my hair, trying to figure out what was wrong with my IIS. I couldn't create ASP.NET project and http://localhost "ENTER" would not work!

I installed and uninstalled IIS countless times. I reinstalled framework & VS2003 twice!!

Finally just awhile ago I finally found out that my COM+ was corrupted and had to be re-installed... and PROBLEM SOLVED!!

Was so totally relieved but I can't help but question.... why couldn't I just have had a simple aspnet_regiis registering problem like everyone else... hiaz

Dinner @ Changing Appetities

Had dinner at Changing Appetities (recommended by Cat's friend) to celebrate Ash & Char's birthday. The food there is quite nice, although somehow the whole settings just reminds me so much of Cafe Cartel.

And of course we chatted about all sorts of things, and after listening to a few stories, concluded that one should never mess with an attached guy (married or with GF), because you never know how vindictive a woman can be! I mean you may think I've been watching too many drama serials but in real life can mirror reel life!

What women can do or can accept for love is really unthinkable...

Driving Lesson #12

Just learnt how to do this thing called directional change. Basically what it means is that i have to drive into a dead-end and then use a space behind me on the right side to reverse out. IT IS DIFFICULT!!! ZZ Seems like the hard part of driving is starting, especially now that i'm doing directional change and right-turns.

Corpse Bride

Poor CC! I forced him to bring me to the movies (hehe but don't worry i know he enjoys watching movies with me).

The Corpse Bride

I think it's an OK movie. I was really expecting more, especially after watching some of Tim Burton's other movies before (such as the very recent Charlie & The Chocolate Factory).

But what I really really liked was one the main tunes, I'm not too sure which one it is but i think it's the one that the main character Victor Van Dort plays (Victor's Piano Solo).

And another thing about the movie was the really good animation. The textures were so detailed, that on the character's clothing you could really see cloth texture!

*Spoiler*

Funny Scenes
- I thought the Pastor was gonna help Victoria find Victor but he actually brought her back to her house.

- When the ghouls come up for the Wedding, it looked as if they were gonna attack the humans but it was really funny when they suddenly recognised each other (grandpa-grandson, husband-wife)

- The way the ghouls brushed past the Pastor for the Wedding

Peeve
- It was so totally obvious who the bad guy was from his silhouette

Salt is stressed

Deborah and i brought Salt to visit a vet at Jalan Kayu. Salt's been getting patches of bald, and I've been giving her Velcote but the hair's not growing back and Deborah felt something was wrong. I didn't think much of it cos Pepper's ok and if it's anything serious Pepper would be bald too!

Anyway we went to the vet, and she checked for fungus using the ultra-violet light. But there was nothing, so she scrapped the skin to test for mites. She didn't find any mites, but there was 1 louse.

Her conclusion is that Salt is stressed, based on the fact that the hair patches are like chopped off hair and there was only 1 louse.

So I've been told to give her vitamin supplements and treat her with lice powder. Silly Salt, giving herself haircuts...

Anyway after that i went to this shop (that we walked pass earlier) to buy some otah. When i ask the uncle how much, he said San Shi Yi Qwai. I was like HUH? 31 dollars for 1 dozen otah??! Wah what kind of special otah is this. And he was like then Ni Yao Two Shao. It turned out that he said San Zi Yi Qwai! 3-for-$1

Stupid Uncle! i thought my mandarin sucks but i think his super cannot make it! Then after a long time he finally start packing my otah, and you know what's the best part? While he was filling my plastic bag with otah, he dropped one on the floor, and after filling my bag, he put it back into the box!!!! EEEKS!!!! It's just one of those things you wished you didnt see....

Driving Lesson #7

I've completed stage 1!! Now there's only 3 more stages to go, once those are done and my final theory is completed then it's driving test time!!!

Things seems to be proceed quite fast, but i think it's the ease of driving an auto car. No stalling, no rolling down the slope, no worries about constant gear changes & no third pedal to step on!

Cloud 9

*warning*
This is gonna be 1 of those self-praise posts so if you cannot tahan me being buay huai bai, then better not read on! ;p
*end warning*

Recently i went out for dinner with some ex-colleagues and was told by 1 of them that an associate of the ex-coy thought i was a good worker! Man, that made my night!

And even more recently, I've been head-hunted (in a manner of speaking lah)!! Makes me feel... i can't find the word for it, the closest i can come too is appreciated.

Now and then i've had some self-doubts, but now i'm feeling pretty confident.

*FLOATING*

MC Corn Muffins

I woke up super early this morning to bake some corn muffins for breakfast. I practically had to crawl out of bed at 7:30 (and the alarm was actually set for 7:00!!). Maybe it's not early to some of you, but hey it's Sunday Morning and people usually do not wake up that early on Sundays!!

I'm still on my quest to find instant mixes that taste close to the Kenny Roger's style of corn muffins. This time i used Marie Callender's corn bread mix.



The result... it's definately more moist and buttery tasting then the Jiffy Mix that I tried, but it's still not what I'm looking for. Dad found them salty... (wierd, no one else did! But I think it may be the buttery taste), and Russell complain that they were not sweet enough for muffins. Well Russell, you DON'T have to eat them!!! ;p

Hehe i'm sensitive to people criticising my cooking, I don't mind criticising my own cooking, but when people don't cook and only criticise it makes fire come out from my ears, especially when I never hear anything good from him! @#$%^&*() Fussy Fellow!!!!

And it takes forever to bake!! The instructions said 15-20 mins but it was more like 20-25 mins. I got lazy and fed up with the waiting and checking so the 2nd-3rd batch so are a bit chao tao (I think you can see it from the picture hehe).

Driving Lesson #5

Time for some updates on my driving lessons! Okie I managed to get pass lesson 4 hehe. It's like different instructors kinda tell you different things on turning some say follow the line, some say enter the turn then turn your wheel, others say turn the wheel X times.
But what works best for me so far is aga aga hehe.

And yesterday I got to go out and drive around!!! Hehe bet all the drivers around were cursing at the slow learning car and murmuring "Female Driver...".

I've got my 1st project!!

I'm currently doing this virtual assistant thingy (yes, i know the web design sucks but i suck at design), and when my ex-colleague, W asked if I wanted to do a software project , I jumped at the chance. So this is alt.office's 1st project!!

Somehow I wasn't too worried that I'd very rusty and unable to code out the software. I've been hard at work since Tue night. Progress is not that fast because I'm rusty, it's like I know what I want to do but I can't remember the exact statements, so quite some time was spent searching for code statements at the start.

It's was all very rushed because the basic system had to be out by today for W's show & tell meeting. The thing that has been bogging the project down is changes. W doesn't know exactly what he wants, but that because he doesn't have all the information either. It seems like no one knows what the system really needs to keep track of, but hopefully this will change soon.

Anyway the most shocking thing is.... I've not played any DotA game since Tue afternoon!! Before that it was like I played for hours and hours everyday and now not a single game!! Most amazing of all (to me), is that I've not had any withdrawal symptoms!

Now I lack sleep not because of gaming but because I have to rush the project. It suddenly strikes me that I'm older as I remember how I can go without much sleep last time and rush projects without falling sick.... but I shall not think too much about that, self denial is always good hahaha

Driving Lesson #1

Just got back from my 1st driving lesson. OMG!!! I was super super nervous. The instructor showed me how to get in the car and adjust stuffs. Then I got to drive the car back & front, which was not too difficult. Then I had to go round the circuit, and that was TOUGH!

There's so many things to do at the same time. Look at the road infront, glance left and right to make sure you're centralised. Continually adjust the car, dont turn too much at a time. Argh, I just couldn't seem to get my turns right, and I kept on being distracted by the other cars. Think I was kinda afraid that they will boing into me. HIaz... Looks like I'm gonna be stuck at section 4 for quite some time zzz.

Playing DotA

I've been so crazily addicted to DotA recently that I've not been doing much except for playing games! I'm not that great at the game but it's the thrill of winning that keeps me addicted i guess.

There are tons of characters but so far I'm stuck to playing Razor, the Lightning Reverent, basically because it's the easiest character to use. ; )

For awhile I was a tad bit worried that I would become like that Korean Guy who played games for over 50hrs and KO-ed, but I think I'm not that bad still.... I hope ; )

Anyways since I haven't blogged much recently, so this is gonna be a super long post.

I GOT FINED $100!!!

Can you believe it??! I GOT FINED!!! There I was innocently sitting at home playing games and this guy comes to check for mosquitos and he actually found some larvae. Since I was so "lucky" to be at home, he fined me $100. Was super sian, had I known, I would have hidden somewhere and pretended to not be at home!!

Anyway it was really funny because he kept on saying that he was so sure that it was aedes mosquito larvae. BUT, honestly he was just trying to scare me because I got bitten by mosquitos over the last few days but I certainly did not have the deague fever. Silly man!! I was so tempted to tell him but kept my mouth shut in case he decided to increase the fine!

Hiaz, there goes my perfect record and my chance at ever running for S'pore President ; )

Sewing A Button

There are 2 ways to sew a button, 1 takes less then 15 mins and the other takes 1.5hrs.

Way 1:
Use a needle and thread and sew the button back onto the T-shirt, and voila!

Way 2:
Decide to use you MUST use the sewing machine because it has button sewing capabilities
Lug the sewing machine downstairs
Realise that you can't find the power cable and the foot and have to look for it
Spend time finding out how to get thread onto the bobbin
Try sewing on the button and discover that the bobbin is loaded wrongly
Break the button by sewing onto it accidently
Consider removing the top button to replace the 2nd button
Remember that some clothes come with spare buttons in time (Thank God!!)
Then discover that the machine is threaded wrongly
Realise that you're using the wrong foot and change it
Realise that the cloth and button is too thick to fit under the new foot
Remove the bottom button sewing thingy for button and cloth to fit under the foot
AND finally complete the job.

The trouble I go through just to make my money's worth....

The Island

Went to watch The Island with CC in Bishan. Think CC want to watch becos got his favourite actor ; )

Was supposed to cook spaghetti after that but unfortunately I was feeling to woozy cos of my runny nose so I KO-ed and let Anna cook the spaghetti.

The movie was ok, simple and entertaining. Not much plot twists or cheem details, good for woozy pp with sniffy noses (like me!) to follow. One thing about this movie though, there was a really hugh amount of ad placement.

*Spoiler*

I thought the way that the bad guys "changed" into policemen was really funny. Also, it was really odd how people can shoot with those funny guns with strings and pull u with it, it's just one skinny string and hook, i'm surprised that it can't be ripped out of your body and it can even support the weight of your body!!

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Went out to catch a movie with Ash, Cat & Mic. Before that I had a quick bite at BK, to try their new cheese burger with jalapeno chillies. Never expect it to be green chilli!! Overall, it was ok nothing great, but it had an interesting taste, because burgers aren't something one normally eats with green chillies!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

*Possible Spoiler*

I wished i had a chance to re-read the book before watching the movie, but sadly i didn't.
I felt the movie was OK, nothing really exciting happened because the plot mostly followed the book, although they added a part in about Willy Wonka's father. It was interesting to know "how" Willy Wonka came about, but it seems like every movie nowadays is explaining about the character's background (spiderman, batman). I liked the scenes as they were all very storytale like, colourful and creative.

3 things that got stuck in my brain

1. The Oompah Loompah were Copied and Pasted in every scene! Think the director was try to save money or something hehe.

2. I lurved the attention to detail, even Willy Wonka's shoe base had the Willy Wonka logo on it! I thought it was really cute that Willy Wonka and his Dad both wore squeeky rubber gloves.

3. The giant sugar/salt shakers that shook "snow" onto Charlie's house at the last scene.

National Library

I went to the new National Library at Bugis today (Or at least i think it's the new National Library, very confusing 'cos they also call it Lee Kong Chian Reference Library). The building is really nice and the design is quite stylo. Me, being super blur went up 2 stories on the escalator before realising that the Library is in the basement! The upper stories seem to be theatres. Do we really need that many floors of theatres?? Me, I'd vote for floors and floors of books!!!

Anyway no choice, had to go back down, but I decided to go to the loo before I went back down. I had this theory that the toilets upstairs should be used by less people and therefore be cleaner. I like clean toilets ; ) Anyway the toilets are quite clean, but somehow a tad bit shoddy looking for new toilets, and the artsy mosiac design didnt really seem to match the space-age design of the building. Further more, the cubicle wall had yellow tiles and there's this piece of marble where u can put your bag, and it was black with slight white swirls. It totally didn't match!!

And I was off to the library! Oddly enough the shelves seem really empty compared to that of the Community Libraries and the old National Library. But I was really happy because I managed to find 3 books by Diana Gabaldon.

Warning!!The new library is really very cold!! I spent 45 mins there and I had the blue veins in my hands popping out, and after I walked out, my feet began to de-frost and hurt! So anyone else who's planning to go to the library to visit, be prepared!!

Russell's Birthday 2005

I made a marble cake for Russell...



A few things went wrong... the box showed the cake with frosting so i assumed that it came with frosting but it didnt but anyway since it's marble cake the top is the chocolate part so it's still ok. Then the icing was super super hard to squeeze out... in case anyone is wondering, it say Happy B'day, stick figure drawing (inspired by KOL), Lvl 15.

Dad's still not back from Houston, so we had KFC for dinner. When he comes back we'll celebrate properly. Lucky Russell, 2 birthday celebrations ; )

Cooking Accidents

2 things i learnt recently

1. When the instructions say 2 teaspoons of water (20-25ml) of water, it means max. 25ml. My stupid raisins & oatmeat cookie mix ended too watery !@#$%^&*()

2. Never never try to bake smarties... they'll just explode their brains out and become burnt!

Dad's off to Houston on a business trip and guess who's in-charge! Me!! This morn the whole family went out to breakfast. Being in a state of semi-consciousness (long time never wake up at 6:10am liao), i made the bad choice of having chwee kueh from a "new" stall. Super regrets!!! The chai poh all soft soft and the chwee kueh soft soft and blend!! bleh!!!

Then had to follow my Dad marketing, in case food runs out and I have to go buy stuff from his "favourite stores". It was quite interesting, long time never follow anyone marketing liao. The pork seller was super fast!! Cut the meat super fast, count money super fast... I was quite intimidated... And i also didn't know that there are stalls in the wet market selling frozen chicken wings, thought only can get from super market.

As we were walking to the car, Dad takes a look at my slippers and says wear so nice for what. I was like HUH??! It's just normal slippers loh. He claims that i should get marketing slippers, and shows off his "marketing slipper". Is there a difference??! Slippers are slippers loh!!

Yesterday i intro-ed Cat to a game cos i got stuck at level 2, thinking she could help me solve it. Scully I ended up solving the game myself and helping Cat thru level 2... ehhe left her stuck at level 3 after i finished the game and went to take a nap heheh ; p

Wonder if she still need spoilers ; )

Betty Crocker Walnut Supreme Brownie Mix

Yes, I know it looks like a tray full of brown muck, but YES it's brownies!! Decided to make some brownies, so i went to the supermarket w CC and Rus.

Was gonna make brownies from scratch, then i saw the Betty Crocker Walnut Supreme Brownie Mix. Had to decide between buying lotsa packets of different ingredients and measuring out everything and 1 box of instant mix... and well guess which one won hehe.

Definately did not regret my decision, the brownies were so easy to make, it didn't take me more than 1 hr.
Just mix up the stuff, throw it in the oven and voila! *

They were a bit too sweet but overall they tasted pretty good. But if you only knew what when into it and how sinful it is!


*This information is especially for those who are planning to impress their boyfriends w their great cooking skills ; p

My Maths really Fail

Today i was feeling kaypoh so i went to NKF site and look look see at their financial summary.

Then see their accounts and was wondering how come all the figures seem so low...
In 2004, take the total employee cost and divide it by the no. of employees
27,125/996 = 27.23 (round up 2 figs)

Each employee make $27.23 a mth??! $27,125? Then how the CEO make $600k??

Actually need to add some zeros... damn maths fail ; )

Need for transparency in charitable organisations!

This is supposed to be a blog for crafts stuff and such but I'm truly disturbed by NKF's CEO!

I can understand if a CEO is paid $25k but a 10-12mth bonus? That's really ridiculous considering the fact that NKF is supposed to be a charitable organisation.

The NKF should justify to the public as to why TT Durai deserves such a big bonus! It's not as if he helped NKF to make lots of money, unless you consider getting people to donate "earning money". If that's the case, it's even more reason why he should not get the bonus cos people are donating to the charity and not for him to have a 10-12mth bonus!!!

I can't understand why NKF pays road tax for his merc when it's being driven by his wife! I think it's sufficient if they were to reimburse him per trip or for any parking charges. Although the board authorised him to travel business class, he travelled 1st class on other airlines. Although he didn't exceed the budget but the main issue here is he was only entitled to travel business class!

It feels like they're trying to hide information from us. NKF claim that the donations will not last more than 3 yrs, but this is only if they subsidise the full costs, but they don't, so calculations should have been made with considerations to the fact of partial subsidies!

And as for Mrs GCT, who considers TT Durai's salary and bonus to be peanuts, if this is the pay of a CEO from some MNC i got nothing to say but this money comes from the public!! Unless she donates this kind of money every year I'm shocked that she can actually say such a thing! I'd give Mr GCT respect, but her, for saying such a thing no way man!!

A big thanks to ST who chose to fight this lawsuit and to their lawyer for digging out all these "private" information. Sadly it came a little too late for all those people who regret donating as all the NKF shows are over.

The only way to prevent such issues from happening again is to have some sort of a check in place and to have more transparency, so that public's trust won't be misplaced!

War of the Worlds

Quite a realistic movie, it's a bit scary because it's so possible that something like that can actually happen. Was thinking about what i'd do if something like that really happens, but Singapore quite small so no where to really run and hide also hehe.

Shall go to the library and borrow the book soon. Anyway, i think that Steven Spielberg has something for aliens and little girls after all E.T. was directed by him too. I think he also directed close encounters of the third kind but i can't really remember if there was a little girl in that though.

Jiffy Corn Muffins

I made muffins! It was really easy using instant mix ; ) All i had to do was throw in an egg and some milk and mix. Anyway came to the conclusion that the taste of the corn muffins wasn't very strong so i ended up adding banana flavouring to the 2nd batch.



The next time i do this think i'll try to look for corn flavouring (is there such a thing?) and maybe add in some sweet corn bits, or i'll try Kenny Roger's corn muffins recipe!

http://www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com/muffins.html

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal (do we have this in singapore??)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup frozen yellow corn

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt in a large bowl.
3. Add flour, cornmeal and baking powder and blend thoroughly. Add milk while mixing.
4. Add corn to mixture and combine by hand until corn is worked in.
5. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan and fill each cup with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins begin to turn brown on top.

Dim Sum Buffet

Another face stuffing session today with CC's school mates!

Venue: Padang Palace @ SRC

Poison: Dim Sum Buffet

Verdict: Not bad, the prawns quite fresh & service is quite good but no chee cheong fan!

Look what Mic Ng made me! Isn't it so sweet and cute!



Went over to Raffles City after that and the shopping temptation took over. Quite proud of myself managed to control and buy only 1 (really smart looking) skirt from Mango. The damage was $43, but it was more then 50% off! Actual price $90, pretty good justification right ; )

Then i followed CC to Bishan. His precious PS2 broke down so he had to replace it. And whilst he was testing it out i was at the supermarket and i finally managed to find this!! Yes i've been looking for corn muffin mix ever since i read this article in ST and then had visions of Kenny Roger's corn muffins floating in my head. Think it's not the same brand but what the heck!

I am addicted to flash games

Recently i've been playing these few flash games, play until hand pain hehe. They are pretty addictive so careful or u'll end up like me.

http://www.maggiemarket.com/
- Dai Pai Dong
- Kill Time in Office
- HK Cafe

Oh this game pretty interesting too though it gets easier in the later stages http://radio-canada.ca/television/ciaobella_english/vflash/jeu/laBellaRomanza.html.

Then for all those people who played the Crimson Room and enjoyed it, the Viridian Room is out!

Enjoy yourselves and don't get caught playing game in the office ; )

Cream of Sweet Corn Soup

It's been a great lazy past week! Spend most of it lazing around with CC... : ) I managed to do a few "productive" things though, I bought my sewing machine, it's a brother LX5070.

Dad's been bugging me to get my driving license, so I finally went to sign up for driving lessons, though I can only start in Sept but it'll give me some time to get my advanced theory done, so it pretty much works out fine. There's a 2 mth contract job at LH that I'm intending to apply for and it ends in Sept too, so it's all good if you ask me!

Spend some time today updating my resume, seems to me that there were times that i had to work like hell, but after reading my updated resume, somehow it doesn't really look like much, maybe i was being too modest or perhaps i didn't work that hard after all??!

Felt I needed to get a bit of exercise so I've started doing Pilates at a Sports Centre at Yishun Stadium with Winnie & Isabella. If you're like me, a lazy girl who doesn't like to sweat too much and if you're not looking for a cardiovascular type of exercise, than Pilates is your answer! Don't get me wrong, it certainly isn't easy, you gotta concentrate on your breathing and position and you get to feel your muscles trembling away but hey sweatless exercise!!

After my 1st session, I went to the nearby kopi tiam with CC and we pigged out. Hehe not exactly very healthy, but it was definately enjoyable ; )

CC made Rosti with help from me and his Mom, it was pretty fun to sit around and grate potato. I think it's really simple and really yummy! We ate til we were super full and jelat from the sour cream.

Deb and Russell were at home today 'cos it was Youth Day so Rus, Anna & i made some cream of sweet corn soup. I know what you people are thinking and NO! it's not the instant type hehe. The soup was pretty easy to make, not much preparation was needed, I think the main thing was blending the soup. Overall I felt the result was not too bad though it was on the thick side.

So basically this is what we had for dinner.
- Cream of Sweet Corn Soup
- Sandwiches
- Salad (out of a bag, but i added some green pepper, cherry tomatos & egg!)

Time taken for soup & salad: 2hrs

Batman Begins

It was day out with the family at Bugis ;) My bro, CC & I went to Art Friend to pick up some stuffs and then later we met up with deborah & my dad and went to Sakae to eat the sushi buffet.

Then we got tickets for "Batman Begins", but it was a bit early so we split up and did a bit of shopping and I can only conclude that if you're searching for gowns, go to orchard! For anyone who's interested, Giordano's having a sale right now (deborah and i picked up a few items).

And then we met up and watched "Batman Begins"!

*SPOILER ALERT*





"Batman Begins" was not bad! The movie showed how batman actually came about. I kinda missed the colourful villains but i guess if the villains were there they would over-shadow batman.

A few complains and (imo) interesting points

- 1 of the villains had a really difficult to remember name which was... hell, i can't remember what it is now!

- Michael Caine was pretty good as Alfred, but he didn't look the least bit like Alfred! Alfred's supposed to be kinda skinny and have this thin black moustache.

- The i-cant-rem-his name guy said "You burnt my house and left me to die", but Bruce saved his life loh!

- At the last scene when Katie Holmes was talking to Bruce, her smile was kinda lop-sided and she tried to talk thru her smile, totally wierd if you ask me!

- From Batman's toys, you can obviously tell that he's really rich so how come no one can guess that he's Bruce Wayne?

- When Batman rescues Katie, he drives thru this grassy area and into the waterfall. The vehicle must have left tyre prints. Are the policemen are so blur that they can't spot it and track it?

- Dad said that the weapon used by i-cant-rem-his name guy was not really very scary and it's true nothing compared to Mr Freeze and The Riddler's weapons!

But ok despite all my complains it was still a pretty interesting movie and Christian Bale does make a good Batman.

na Na na Na na Na na Na Batman.... ;)

Testing out some patchwork

I was intending to create a batik patchwork bag with some denim on top and maybe some at the bottom. I asked russell to take a look at the layout and he said it looked "granny"... !@#$%^&*()
Met up with mic in the evening to take a look at sewing machines. I realise that i can't make decisions for nuts. The more choices i have, the more problems i have. I guess that explains my impulsive nature, or maybe it's just me making excuses for my impulsiveness ;)

I am more productive on weekends

Can't really understand why, but i'm more productive on weekends.

What diana did this weekend...

1) Put the finishing touches on the gypsy skirt. It was supposed to have loose random scattering of sequins... but it kinda ended up looking different...

2) Washed all her batik, ironed them and stored them away.

3) Sewed up deborah's pencil case

This was how deborah's pencil case looked like. (The yucky brown thing is a stuffed toy dog... which i'm pretty sure used to be white or something...)



She wanted some thing a bit smaller, hehe but due to some mis-calculation on my part... it ended up a tad bit smaller ;p



The interior of the pencil case.



4) Made 2 sashes...

5) Did a quick father's day gift and finished up minch's bday gift...

Dad's coaster


Minch's coaster
To be cont... hehe

A coaster i made for Dawn awhile back


Feel a bit bad that i didn't realise it was Father's Day til CC sms-ed me... It was kinda like "oh shit, I didn't buy him anything or plan anything... i'm such a bad daughter!!!" ; (

And the funny thing was Dad didn't know it was Father's Day either! On hindside i remember reading someone's blog on how she was posting a present to her dad and it didn't even hit me that Father's Day is some universal thing, sheesh sometimes i wonder what's going on inside my brain.

Oh well i guess i should not show my family that i love them only on special days but somehow i end only do more special things on those designated days. So how does one go about showing love daily, i guess it's in the everyday things that we do except that it's taken for granted.

Arab Str Recce

Me and CC went walking around the Bugis area today. Had KFC for brunch today, yum yum! Seems like i'm eating a lot of fast food recently so i conclude that i'm becoming a fast food junkie! Don't really mind except for the fact that i seem to be getting a tiny little tire!!! eeks!

Went to Arab St, and OH MY GOD! There were so many fabric shops, it was amazing! I fell in love with the batik fabric there.





Textile centre was a bit disappointing in terms of fabric, but there were at least 2 shops that were full of notions.

After that we went back to Bugis and ta pao some chwee kueh, and man it was really really good! They had minced up cai poh with some sesame seeds over it and it was shiok! Feel that i didn't eat enough of that, must go back and gorge myself ;p

Speaking of chwee kueh, why is it that the chinese characters for that is (fruit) shui guo? Ok, here's the point where people should start posting comments on the correct pronunciation and chinese characters ;)

Gypsy Skirt Preview

Still have to adjust the cutting a bit but i'm almost there ;)

Coming Soon: A new sewing machine

There's a Singer sewing machine at home that we all thought belonged to us, but apparently that's not the case. According to my Dad, my mom actually gave it to one of her younger sisters and the reason that it's in our house is because Deborah borrowed it to do some project.

Therefore i was told that i should go buy a new machine. i had serious doubts as the really good brands are expensive. I was at the Courts at Compass Point and I walked pass a sewing machine display and the SA demo-ed these 2 Brother sewing machines, XL-2120 and XL-5070. The really high-end models had functions that left me drooling away.Must say that I was quite impressed and went home to do some research.

Wasn't able to find any reviews on the model that i'm eyeing (XL-5070) but so far the reviews for the other Brother models are kinda mixed. I'll probably go down sometime next week to test it out again before making the actual purchase.

Migration

The whole family had dinner with Dad's friend's family tonight. They're migrating to Perth, Australia. The uncle asked me whether i would consider migrating to Malaysia and that kinda got me thinking. If i really do proceed on my current career path, it doesn't really matter where i live, i guess it would depend more on CC's career choices.

Why do people consider migration? Sometime last year (I think), there was this whole buzz about "Quitters" and "Stayers". Frankly, I think it's kinda unfair to call people "Quitters". Me, i would not leave Singapore unless i was forced to for economic reasons and i think that's the case with a lot of people too. Sure i wouldn't mind living overseas for a bit but i honestly think that there's no place like home where your friends and your family are (and then of cos there's also the food hehe).

Breakfast

Good breakfast = 1 serving of HotCakes from Macs
Super Duper breakfast = 1 serving of HotCakes, 1/2 a serving of BigBreakfast Meal, 1.5 of hash browns from Macs washed down by some fresh milk! Slurpz!

Hehe but i think should not do this anymore, am getting fatter and i've not been exercising at all (erm... not that i usually exercise haha).

A new look

Da-dum! My bloggie has a new look! Wallpaper courtesy of one Mr Ng Chee Cha!

Spend most of today asleep and working on a new look and layout. Still can't really figure out this XML (or is it CSS?) thingy, ah well i'm almost satisfied with how it looks, but will still do some minor editing later.

Mr & Mrs Smith

Mic came over today and worked on her clutch bag, she's fast! It's more or less completed and mine's still in it's very early stage (ok, i've only cut the cloth hehe). Mic, must post a pic when you're done!! Been a bit slack recently, must pick up the pace a little.

After she went off, I had dinner and went out to watch Mr & Mrs Smith at Lido. I went over to Chee Cha's place and we took a bus from there to Far East Plaza. It was quite a pleasant ride until i suddenly got hit by a total horrid smell!! At first I thought it someone air-ing his feet (I'm assuming here that girls do not have stinky feet hehe or at least i think so) then Chee Cha pointed out that it was this guy who probably hadn't bathed for ages! We were sitting quite some distance behind him and i could still smell the stinkiness, can't imagine if we were seated close to him... Bleeach! Lucky Chee Cha, he had a blocked nose! I had to put my fingers over my nose to keep from fainting.

When we reached Isetan, the escalator heading up had been stopped!! Argh!! Am a totally lazy bum can't survive without escalators! We concluded that it must have been some kids playing with the emergency stop button or something. Wonder what would happen if an escalator heading downwards with people on it and someone pressed the stop button. Would people be jerked and roll downwards, would the person close to the bottom get squished? *evil thots* ;)

Mr & Mrs Smith was good!! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were hot! (Although personally i think Brad Pitt looked hotter in Ocean 12). Was totally fixated by Angelina's steel knitted bag hehe.

We had supper at BK again with JC. For some unknown reason, BK justs becomes freezing cold after 12am...

Adding another tier

I've pin up my 3rd tier and it's ready to be sewn on. Sewing this skirt is a bit more tedious then i expected, with the edges of every layer needing to be hidden and then gathered and then pin-ed up before i can sew it together...

Day out with Dawn

Today was a really great day, I went to Kinokuniya to browse and found lotsa nice books! I also met up with Dawn!! We had a really really great time catching up, I talked so much that my jaws ached! It's been a really long time since we met up, I think the last time we met up was in Poly Year 2, that means a good 4-5 years have passed.

We met people from PLMGS along the way during these few years and 1 of the girls suggested a gathering, but it'll be so hard considering that we've lost a lot of contacts. Some people both of us have not seen, and we're wondering where they've disappeared to... Even up to now, I haven't been able to contact Kexin... maybe I'll try her email again one day.

Then later Chee Cha gave me a lift home, and we watched "LOST" together (and had yummy peanut butter and nutella sandwiches), it seems like a pretty interesting show.

Anyways these are the books that i got, they've got beautiful pictures but unfortunately i have a sucky cam.

Patchwork World in Tricolor...



One of the bags in the book...



Something something from Quilters Studio...



A bag from the book...



Hand made book...



A really oh-so-cute dinosaur...

Beginning of Tier Skirt

There was a few days of fear after hearing phrases like "I saw a lot of things I like" and "I want to buy a lot of things", i went shopping with Deborah yesterday. Had visions of me clutching my wallet and running away halfway thru the shopping but it wasn't too bad in the end. Total Damage = 1 Skirt, 4 Tops.

I had thoughts of doing a monthly or 2 monthly 'Craft Girls Saturday', meaning we get together every last saturday of every month or every 2 months and do some really small craft project (make cutesy stuff or broaches or wearables or anything else ya like). Think it could be really fun! Those interested, please leave me your comments and let me know your preferences ok?




Managed to find time to work on my skirt a bit. I'm happy that it's beginning to take shape, though i wonder what will happen when i actually start sewing the gathers together. The beauty of of a tier skirt is that i can stop almost any time ; )

Lotsa Halfways

Went on a fabric spree on Saturday. ; )



Managed to get a really good bargain on a champange coloured fabric, and bragged about it just a few hundred times to Chee Cha 'cos I was so proud of it. Poor Chee Cha! But I really couldn't help myself

I seem to be working on too many things at a time I now have 4 uncompleted projects and 1 that I'm been planning. Need to be more focused, but it's never easy! Worked a bit on the pressies and my skirt but I'm having one of my sniffy nose days so I'm gonna stop and take a nap.

Uncompleted Projects
- Clutch Bag
- Cushion Cover
- Skirt
- Birthday Pressies

Planned Project
- Deboarah's Pencil Case

One item more item that I completed earlier... Deborah's wallet

Half way there cushion cover

Something new i'm working on, cushion covers. It's only have done at the moment cos i've only finished the 'deco' on it.

Just some photos

Mysterious Boxes...









A Reversible Bag...







Birthday Dinner @ Suntec, Olio

bag #3

This is moi's third attempt at this particular bag pattern (Madison Handbag by Amy Butler). I am a tad bit frustrated 'cos if I use hard interface, the bag is hell to sew, if use soft interface, it flops... sheesh! Okie I'm more than a bit frustrated hehe and you know what the best part is?After posting the pics... I realise that my lining has been cut wrongly, the hearts should be facing downwards... *bangs head on keyboard* Sighz...

eeks!!!

It’s history in the making!!! I've succumbed to the BLOG craze!!! Well seems like we don’t talk much anymore and we also don’t meet up that often and I’ve begin to see blogging as a way to let my friends know what I’ve been up to and show off my crafts. So ends my 1st Blog! Love ya all!

P.S. As I think you all know, I have loads of time on hands now so please chio me out for kopi k!