My Life as a Tiny Plasticine Penis

The Quiet Cowboy - Chuckwagon BBQ & Grill

2012-02-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time when the two of us were still relatively flush with disposable income (versus me slaving in the kitchen trying to expand my repetoire of yucky food now), B1 and I went to the Portsdown Road for dinner (it's a no brainer that this is one of our favorite watering holes). Initially I wanted to bring him to Soprano, you know the one I pointed out in my blog that I witnessed Ratatouile darting between the tables, but it seemed that it has croaked (hopefully not due on my account).

It did have a lot of interesting pasta, too bad.

Anyway, B1 and I went to the new restaurant operating at its premises. Eh, it wasn't very promising at the start, when we saw the signboard. Quite a drop I thought from atas Italian to eh.. I have no idea what it was.

Driven by hunger, we decided to try anyway. The interiors has been totally changed to a homely saloon-like feel. I suddenly felt as if I was in the old electronic game, Western Bar, that Vater bought me when I did well in school. Seriously, he did not think of getting me a Barbie Doll. No wonder my resultant state of mind.

The service was pretty excellent, the uncles were all very charming and friendly, perhaps because the place just opened for business when we showed up. Quickly sizing up the menu, we noted that the food was cheap but the alcohol was not.

Someone had to do the driving. Luckily I was easily charmed by the boot-shaped Root Bier into agreeing to remain alkohol-frei.

So B1 "carpe diem"ed by ordering a massive glass of bier. I didn't even know they have such sizes =D.

Like I said, this was when we were flush, so we were easily convinced to try the limited items on the menu. B1 ordered the strip loin and I ordered the sausage, as they had run out of strip loin servings that day. I understood why later, 5 strips in one serving!

ChuckWagon was certainly generous with the portions. We could also order the spiciness that we wanted the buffalo wings to be served. I remember even now the salt and dry texture rather than the spice.

I liked the presentations, which were pretty nice despite the homely surroundings. That and the charming service made up for the somewhat salty food, which is easily understood at a place that earns from its beverages. Great place for chilling out though. I would go there just to drink from the boot mug again <- so easily charmed. =D

Wow, an atas place is so different from any bourgeois shit.

2012-01-28T07:40:00.000-08:00

Didn't blogged recently because sehr beschäftigt sigh. Even some of the posts were scheduled stuff from the weekend, as you can obviously tell.

I was in a rotten mood yesterday because I had to stay back until quite late for Arbeit. So I demanded my favorite gemütlich dish, Korean Ginseng Chicken. At that hour of the night, the nearest place before closing time was Holland Ville so we popped over to Hansang for a quick meal.

We parked at Merah Saga, you know where I had my lovely lunch at Bistro Petit Salut. Then I remembered that little shop on the corner that sells beautiful cookware. They even had the layout I wanted if I could afford a nicer kitchen. *swoon* Ah I could immediately feel my spirits lift at the sight of all the colorful dishes (it's weird what makes me happy nowadays).

It has such a beautiful storefront, nicht wahr?

Thanks to my taking the photo in such a clandestine manner, I wasn't able to capture its true spirit

you know a place is atas when they take the trouble to print the logo on the brown paper

B1 is so sweet!!!

B1 got me the loaf pan I always wanted. You know I had a lot of problems finding this pyrex loaf pan which I need because I am using a microwave oven to bake my bread. I couldn't find a glass one, so I was really happy to hit pay dirt and find so many at this shop! =D

I took the tallest one I could find. My bread can only go upwards now!

TGIF Specials 19: Bier, Heroic Beverage

2012-01-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Floral Arrangement 101?

2012-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

Damn, I just realized they were also selling white roses...

While Tante and I were at Chinatown we discovered a stall that was selling all flowers at S$4 a snall bouquet, and S$10 for three. I wanted to buy all lilies (my favorite -> calla lilies) but Tante said that it is Chinese New Year so she grabbed red carnations. Sigh. Anyway so I bought some yellow flowers (I thought they were daffodils but apparently not), the carnations and my white lilies. Because I forgot to bring my new apartment house keys, I left the flowers with Tante and grabbed them the next day when I visited her for New Year's.

I thought her arrangement was kinda cool? Like an eagle.

So I brought them home. I was thinking that the carnies kind of overwhelmed the lilies, so I swapped them out into two small bouquets. I am not good with this but I tried my best =D.

I think they will be prettier when they bloom

A quiet episode in a somewhat hectic day for Prince Poopy Pants

2012-01-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

Later, restored, meiner Neffe took out my toy Wombat in a scene reminiscent of WWE.

Crispy thin Pizza

2012-01-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Read 你不饿? Nibblezware Munchies.

Firefox

2012-01-21T00:57:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by this painting I saw on etsy. The original is so "i want to squeeze and hug you" kind of cute.

Mine looked preoccupied because I was thinking of something while painting it. Sigh. So I added two dots to "Japan-anime"ize it. Unfortunately now he looks like he is thinking of something sad instead. What the f...

Fire engine red

I am thinking of something...

for once it pays to have bad eyesight.

2012-01-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

[image source: sankakucomplex]

take off your ~~pants~~ (just kidding) spectacles and take a look between the lines. I wanted to censor in case she is not decent but apparently my eyesight is not that bad enough. sigh.

If you still cannot see, enlarge the image.

Frohes Chinesisch Neujahr euch alles

2012-01-20T08:30:00.001-08:00

This took me a while this time, because I boo-booed and forgot to save the stuff I did the other night. Had to redo, in fact some of the links have been changed. Enjoy!!!Happy Chinese New Year... boy am I glad that the bloody Rabbit Year is going to end...

I thought it was funny...

2012-01-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

The recent India Special on Top Gear got a lot of heat because many people were upset at the pretty childish pranks that the three old unwise men pulled. I thought it was funny. It definitely took a lot of effort to pull the banner just right so that the words will appear correctly.

I started shrieking when I saw this... I thought it meant thy hair downstairs. Apparently it also means 鲍鱼 *chey*

Though I must say that for the rest of the programme, their antics weren't funny. The shots of the roads were nice, however I do not have the burning desire to visit India like what I had for visiting Halong Bay after watching it on their previous special to Vietnam.

My belated Christmas present finally came from France!!!

2012-01-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

First of all (and lest I forget) Merci Beaucoup Karirin, for this wonderful present!!!

It took a very long time (even longer than my later present to France which took about 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year) but Kari's Christmas present of the long awaited Vanini Vanina ist hier!!!

Bloody Amazon, I was muttering some evil thoughts about Amazon and the Singapore Post Office, and checking my mail almost everyday. But now that it is here, I could almost kiss that horrible phone operator, who was bloody annoying to me last Saturday (I was almost tempted to tell her where to shove her "you should have asked your friend to use registered mail"). I am really liking 2012.

This will be the first dual language book I have in French and English. I have only those in Mandarin and English (being too super lazy to read Mandarin). Haha.

Something interesting is happening in Gotham Singapore City

2012-01-17T06:58:00.000-08:00

I was trolling on EDMW as usual, when I saw an intriguing post. The TS suggested that one should try googling this...

2 sqrt(-abs(abs(x)-1)*abs(3-abs(x))/((abs(x)-1)*(3-abs(x))))(1+abs(abs(x)-3)/(abs(x)-3))sqrt(1-(x/7)^2)+(5+0.97(abs(x-.5)+abs(x+.5))-3(abs(x-.75)+abs(x+.75)))(1+abs(1-abs(x))/(1-abs(x))),-3sqrt(1-(x/7)^2)sqrt(abs(abs(x)-4)/(abs(x)-4)),abs(x/2)-0.0913722(x^2)-3+sqrt(1-(abs(abs(x)-2)-1)^2),(2.71052+(1.5-.5abs(x))-1.35526sqrt(4-(abs(x)-1)^2))sqrt(abs(abs(x)-1)/(abs(x)-1))+0.9

Natürlich I did, and got this.

Google seriously has a bone to pick with me. Bloody hell. Everytime.

But anyway try it. I was pretty amazed. It was a Big Bang Theory (the show, not the actual) kind of thing.

Updated!!!

Google has its panties in a tight wad. I was trying to show *censored* the graph, and discovered a new error thrown by Google, ""x" (and any subsequent words) was ignored because we limit queries to 32 words."

Oh too bad.

For all of you who were curious what the above formula is about, it is actually the Batman Formula. If you ran the search on the above formula, you would get a Google graph of something like this:

Chinese New Year Flowers @ the Nursery

2012-01-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

I was running ragged yesterday. I dashed home to pick up my Dad's electronic scale (to make my Love Letters and bier brot), then to the library then to two supermarkets and one market.

When I returned to the new apartment, Mutter called to say that the Tante (her gardening friend) was heading to the nursery near the market garden and told me to meet them at 1.30pm. So I drove like a devil to the nursery only to find the Tante hauling chrysanthemums.

I love flowers. Their brilliant colors and variety reinvigorate me the same way that paintings can, though at a less disturbing way. Their vibrant beauty is simple yet comforting. I could stare at them for hours (technically I did because the Tante bought a lot of flowers even after I was done).

Discouraged by the stupid avian neighbors and petty thieves I have at the apartment from buying blooms (they tend to have nest-friendly leaves) and my own laziness when it comes to watering, I stuck to replacing my poor thyme plant and buying a pretty oregano as well. I also found a pretty white white bracket which would allow me to keep the herbs inside the house and out of thieving hands. I was so happy when the uncle pointed it out to me (it was on another shelf) after I said that the only black one he had left was rusty.

They are selling lots of orchids and lime plants. But I cannot upload the photo of the lime plants because Mutter was in the shot and she was wearing an expression just as sour as the limes. Sigh.

More pretty flowers. =D

Mrs HerrmanMeier's friend's doggie

I took this photo because he reminds me of Mrs HerrmanMeier's friend's doggie. But I realized belatedly I had interrupted him in mid-shit. No wonder the tense stance. Haha. Sorry Mr Poochie san.

Aren't the flowers pretty? I think I will buy some after Chinese New Year, when the prices go down. But truth be told, I don't think they will last long in our heat. Actually these plants are all driven down from another nursery in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.

I bought two chilli plants, oregano and thyme and a leafy lime plant. I also bought the pretty bracket, which I discovered could not fit in anywhere except off my bathroom wall. Lame.

I am going to bring my Lemon Basil over from the other house

I was super glad that I bought the bracket because later in the night there was a super bad rain howling outside the window. I had fears that it was going to blow out my netting which I put on my plants to discourage the thieving birds. But B1 refused to let me go out into the bad rain.

This morning we came out to examine the damage. The bloody rain destroyed my poor corn plant which I had been very carefully cultivating for the past few weeks, surrounding it with netting and a box frame. Even the box frame could not protect it from the wrath of the angry torrential rain. I could cry.

Deader than a doornail

I brought my new chili plants out for a little bit of sun tanning

All is right in Nibblezwareland again

2012-01-15T01:31:00.000-08:00

B1 punishes me for my clutter by dumping everything he finds on the floor in the nearest plastic bag he can find whenever he cleans the apartment. So while sorting out the rubbish, I discovered my missing S$50 vouchers. It is like Christmas all over again!!!

You see I was infuriated with myself for losing those vouchers some weeks ago. I had brought them along with me while I was shopping for gifts but I did not use them for others' gifts as it would be very insincere (but trust me, I was kicking myself for not doing so when I couldn't find them)

Being of sado-masochistic by nature, I spent the days thereafter mentally wailing on what I could have spent the vouchers on but now couldn't. Like "aiyah, should have bought such-and-such a thing with those vouchers."

So far I have decided that I could have spent them on:

A Pyrex loaf pan

Lots of can openers (for that dog that B1 won't let me have)

Groceries
Li Lien Fung's A Daughter remembers (since B1 bought the wrong book)
A 18''X36" canvas
Acrylic paints
German books natürlich.

Now that I have gotten them back. It seems that I should have wished that they multiplied in their absence (did I mention I am also greedy?). However I do have Bär's present to spend with my 10% membership card. *Keke*

Shoes are very unhealthy for the wallet

2012-01-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

I am Madame Big Foot. I needed some new court shoes after wearing out my last pair (I also note that someone stole my pretty ones with the big red flowers. Good luck to him/ her...), and given how cheap my shoes are usually, there is no point in re-heeling them. I dropped about S$100 for 4 pairs, and now that they are stacked together, I realized I might have overdone the black color. Still they should be quite serviceable and last me hopefully a long time.

It was a very stressful day and after buying my 3rd pair, I felt infinitesimally and instantly better.

A dream I had

2012-01-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

Just before I woke up, I dreamed (note: this blog is following Amerikaner Englisch) that I woke up and discovered I had a lot of emails from all my friends. 1 from NN, 1 from MB, 1 from K, 1 from HM, and the rest from my non-COH friends. I was very happy... and then I woke up. I know one of my new year's resolutions was to have lesser expectations of others' kindness (I tend to expect too much of others so it makes me very disappointed and later angry. I cannot help it because loyalty is #1 to me and I can't forget easily even if I forgive readily. I especially hate people who break promises or fuck with me generally) but I could not help being sad.

Reluctantly I opened my email (out of habit), knowing reality is never the same as dreams, but still hoping.

I discovered that I had emails from HM and Frau HM. Relief then happiness again. They were super sweet during New Year's. I had stopped writing to them, because I was very upset and stressed in the last week of 2011, and I didn't want to spread my emo via the emails, which I am wont to do, though I doubt my German is strong enough to be able to do that well. They actually wrote me. I almost cried.

Dragon Year at the Library

2012-01-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

I saw that the library was giving out free angbow packets again this year, so I shamelessly dragged my long-suffering *censored* there with me. He stalked the place like a lost wraith while I perused baking books (my obsession with bread will never end, given the therapeutic pleasure I derive from pounding the dough). I think I have last year's bunny rabbit design somewhere. Must go and dig out. I realize that if the library keeps printing, one day I will have the full zodiac set.

Sehr Goldig, nicht wahr?

In another story, I was hunting for my Essential German Grammar, because I wanted to check on the nominative, akkusative and dative (I used to complain about the gender of the German nouns but I now know that the prepositions are way NASTIER)... after checking the whole house, I went to search my library records, only to realize dummkopf me has returned the book by mistake yesterday. &%#@

The Thing about Romance Novels

2012-01-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am reading more nowadays, since CoH is a bloody dead town (I don't think I can ever stop grumbling about this). It's either German books or Kinder Buch or Romance Novels or non-fiction. So you know what I will end up reading after a day of frustration.

Sometimes romance novels are such a pain, they have such explicit covers, and god knows what that uncle is thinking about when he smirks across the bus at you as you hold up the book, reading. Case in point, this book I am reading:

Seriously do we need a bare chest to know you are going to talk dirty between the covers *haha*? I had to hide at the backseat on the bus. Which is an irony, considering the stuff I post here... I had a rattling headache by the time I reached home, and the book still unfinished, which was a mean feat (considering I am a speed reader). This is why I prefer the older romances, which hide the dirty picture immediately behind the cover.

Review for this book is on Romance Novel Reviews.

Going to Suzuki book 4

2012-01-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

Teacher (yes the guy who I trashed in this blog for "sabotaging" me at the violin exam last year) looked at me and said "Book 4. There is a vast jump from Book 3 to 4."

"Yes", I muttered (I was in my very tired, emo elmo self last week)."I can tell because the 豆芽 (bean sprouts, meaning the notes) seem to be a lot more and closer now."

I am not very excited about going to book 4 because I haven't passed Grade 3 (which I still intend to take but not this year) and my violin still sounds like five fat angry cats dragging their claws across a chalkboard. At least I can take comfort that now I can at least play Elgar's Salut D Amour, my favorite piece.

Mutter was sitting outside my room just now and she remarked that my violin seems to have improved. Yes, it is like my German. Nobody helps to correct me so I end up hitting the wall like a blind mouse. Now and then it sounds correct but you know I will never become fluent. Sometimes I want to fucking kick myself for not taking up a third language when my PSLE results allowed me to do so. Now I end up struggling to catch up on something that would have been easily learnt and available to myself so many years ago.

I forgot to mention the other reason why I was so angry and tired at last week's lesson was because I apparently did not place my bow well in the box, and this idiot at my *censored* went to hit my case (for fuck sake use words, don't just hit my bloody violin case) while asking me what was inside. For this breed of morons, I usually will reply it is a bomb, but given the nature of my *censored*, it is not a joke to be easily uttered without repercussions. Still, fuck that moron. I went to class and discovered I broke 4 FUCKING STRINGS in my bow. *heart pain*

Tales of the Migratory human

2012-01-09T03:47:00.000-08:00

I was rushing two books over the weekend (I am consumed by too many activities outside of work and having two homes make me displace books at a greater frequency), "Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools - Tuck into a slice of Andalusian life" and "A Table in the Tarn".

"Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools - Tuck into a slice of Andalusian life" is an drolly-written adorable account by Victoria Twead on her Five-Year planned life with her retired military husband in a remote village, tucked away in Alpujarra mountains, Spain.

The book is full of fleshed out characters, even the chickens she ended up rearing for the benefit of the village (everyone appreciates fresh eggs straight from the chicken's ass) had decided personalities like ahem Cocky the bantam cock which reared his harem like a dictator and made love to them like Pepe Le Pew. My favorite part has to be about the Equators (read the book to see who she means). "As for me, I had the added bonus of watching Eduardo who posssessed buttockes like two golf balls in a sock. Joe cottoned on to what I was transfixed by and got very huffy wtih me, desptie my inistence that I was just watching the work in progress.Soon after catching me gazing at Eduardo, I noticed Joe was suddenly keen to show his strength... Joe ran to help them and shouldered the beams, ignoring the fact that the Equators were half his age and possessed double his strength. The result? Joe's back seized and he was forced to rest in bed for several days. I consoled myself by watching Eduardo from behind, uninterrupted."

Despite being a very thin book, Chickens, Mules and two old Fools was entertaining from cover to cover. Not an easy task to accomplish as I am a fussy reader.Googling for the book cover made me discover that the author actually had some archived articles about her life in Spain, something like Michael Wright and c'est la folie.

A Table in the Tarn is more of a cookbook rather than a jolly recount of French rural life, though Orlando and his partner, Peter, bought the building from a farming family and converted it into a elegant B&B or Maison d'Hôte, Manoir De Raynaudes.

The book is très elegant and sophisticated, totally different from the other book. Orlando described briefly the work he and Peter put into acquiring the Manoir and touched on a typical day at the maison and its kitchen, focusing the work they put into giving every customer a unique and wonderful experience. On hindsight I would say that this book is more like a narrative advertisement for the B&B. Lets face it, the book, with its beautifully taken photos, is an excellent souvenir for the obviously affluent guests to buy at the Manoir's gift shop as a memento of their visit.

I would say read the first book for amusement and the second book for envy of a better life.

Cinnamon Buns

2012-01-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Read full post @ 你不饿?

Geek Love - B1 and the harsh reality

2012-01-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

Should have known I couldn't enjoy Geek Love with B1. Despite my misgivings (I thought that the same jokers who came up with that horribly addicting "Jersey Shore" *though I seem to be free from their clutches since that disastrous Season 4 which sent me to zzz* would be exploiting the geeks. We are not marginalized, just that our hobbies are much more interesting than picking up lame shallow people at bars in a bid for free sex), the first two episodes were sweet and funny.

So I rewatched it with B1, in between making my Cinnamon buns *love*. First he pointed out that episode 1 and 2 were actually filmed at the same event, which I did not notice. So he was BSing me all this while on his "not being very observant"...

Then he asked "do geeks really like dating other geeks?"

What an offensive question, seeing that he is one and I am another. He said I wasn't geeky enough (well if he got me my elusive Linux Penguin). Just tomboy. Whatever...

"Geeks are like other men, they all like hot girls, but since hot girls don't like them unless they have a lot of $$$, so they would have better chances with gleichgesinnte girls, because they would understand their needs and hobbies." I replied dourly, glaring at him as he hogged the soup bowl (we were having dinner at the time).

He evil-stared me when I said I thought the geek in the Tardis shirt (he reminded me of young Stalin, but I would love to lawnmow his ugly beard) was very cute <-my type~! and couldn't understand why Kelly preferred the kindisch Ironman Sal. I mean yeah, he was at the Harry Potter event too, but Junge Stalin is so much more handsome and if you remove the Ironman outfit, Sal just looks like a teenager. I was very annoyed when Sal chose Mary over Kelly (I could relate to Kelly *she read while waiting for her date* and also to the poor Wookie guy).

B1 pointed out that while Mary was fleshy, she was slimmer than Kelly and knew how to dress, which proved my earlier statement. He liked her punky hair style and red lipstick too. Maybe it was the Ironman panties she wore...

I totally dig Ironman Sal's date with Mary, I thought that it was my kind of date. Arcade and yum yum and maybe a movie. If only he went and caught her a Rilakkuma at a UFO machine, it would be the ultimate date.

Just to prove what a realist B1 is sometimes, he didn't even finish watching episode two but started cleaning up the dishes when he found out who were the eventual "Perfect Match" couples. Why? Because the women were not hot enough to hold his attention. *Annoyed*

Calling all starving developers

2012-01-05T23:11:00.000-08:00

If you are free this weekend (Friday evening to Sunday night) and still hungry, take part in Codesprint by Interviewstreet (a programmer database startup)

Participants will receive a set of engineering challenging and basic coding questions on Friday night and the participating tech companies, such as Skype, Apple, Zynga, etc, will recruit from the leaderboards. Remember fastest, most efficient code wins.

It is starting in 20hours time. Good luck!!!

Sample Question (from Interviewstreet):
Card Shuffling (30 Points)
Here is an algorithm for shuffling N cards:

1) The cards are divided into K equal piles.
2) The bottom N / K cards belong to pile 1 in the same order (so the bottom card of the initial pile is the bottom card of pile 1).
3) The next N / K cards from the bottom belong to pile 2, and so on.
4) Now the top card of the shuffled pile is the top card of pile 1. The next card is the top card of pile 2,..., the Kth card of the shuffled pile is the top card of pile K. Then (K + 1)th card is the card which is now at the top of pile 1, the (K + 2)nd is the card which is now at the top of pile 2 and so on.
For example, if N = 6 and K = 3, the order of a deck of cards "ABCDEF" (top to bottom) when shuffled once would change to "ECAFDB".

Given N and K, what is the least number of shuffles needed after which the pile is restored to its original order?

Input:
The first line contains the number of test cases T. The next T lines contain two integers each N and K.

Output:
Output T lines, one for each test case containing the minimum number of shuffles needed. If the deck never comes back to its original order, output -1.

Constraints:
K will be a factor of N.
T <= 10000
2 <= K <= N <= 10^9

Sample Input:
3
6 3
4 2
5 5

Sample Output:
6
4
2

Art speaks to me

2012-01-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

This piece totally screamed at me. I felt like one of the tiny little bodies that make up that mountain of salarymen.

Porn Star Sex anyone?

2012-01-02T01:32:00.000-08:00

I unearthed this when I was packing up my books. I think I bought this during one of the MPH sales (or was it the Borders sale?). The book was shrink-wrapped to every inch of its tiny life and it was only S$5, so I thought why not?

After taking this photo, I read a bit while waiting for my turn to play (*psst* don't tell the rest of the guys in CoH). My god, it was boring like hell. I was expecting some naughty pics at least, but it was boring line after boring line. The only thing they said, I already know from watching the documentary "joys of teen sex" zzz. If you ever see this book, don't buy it.

Learning German the Mandarin Way Hilarious

2012-01-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

I bought this book when I was at the Chinese section of Kinokuniya, buying Kari his Chinese-French dictionary. I laughed when I saw the title "Don't be a nuisance, I am a German Learner book!" If you think this cover is hilarious, wait till you see the French one. Same title but has a piggie on it. =D

Check out Elijah peeping around the monitor. Sehr Goldig!!!

My Last Nom Nom Nom of 2011 - Samsui Ginger Chicken

2011-12-31T19:18:00.000-08:00

Samsui women refer to the hardworking women who emigrated from China (mostly from the Canton region) between 1920s to 1949, to Singapore to earn a living working backbreaking jobs in hard labor industries such as construction or as domestic workers. They usually never marry and often live in cliques, looking after each other. At one point there used to be about 200,000 them in Singapore, contributing to the development and prosperity we enjoy today. Now there remains about 100-200 of them in their 80s and 90s.

From the Liu Kang Exhibition

I saw it fitting to finish out the last meal of 2011 with a dish dedicated to these hardworking women, who were easily identified by their red hats as they toiled under the blazing sun. This dish, samsui ginger chicken, is a very popular dish at Soup Restaurant which extols it as a " traditional Samsui dish consumed by the Samsui women in Chinatown. Due to their low income, the Samsui Ginger Chicken was only consumed once a year, during the Chinese New Year" on their website.

Samsui Ginger chicken is eaten with minced ginger and lettuce.

Read full entry at 你不饿?

Frohes Neues Jahr 2012~!

2011-12-31T09:07:00.000-08:00

*Faint* Why is it that I always sound like a boy? WTF. Schnappi says it's because I am drunk.*haha*

A drunken me wünsche euch alles, Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!!!!

Arteastiq - This place looks like my kind of Heaven

2011-12-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

I walked past this place yesterday. It is so my kind of place... the sight of the words "unlimited supply of acrylic paint" almost made me wet (to quote my favorite character, Death Records President, from Detroit Metal City).

Wow this guy is quite amazing

Mentally added this place to the list of restaurants I want to visit. Poverty be damned!!!!

Singirl - My Big Fat Singaporean Butt

2011-12-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

Everytime I think that I komme aus eine langweilige Nation, I come across something that makes me go "WTF?"

First of all, the display at the Singapore Art Museum is getting increasingly creepy and scary. Yesterday they were doing installations at the first and second floor (remember I missed out on one of the showings, because we were trapped at Orchard Road, two Fridays ago?) but 8Q was having the Amanda Heng showing. Oh Amanda Heng you are a very intriguing woman, but I cannot understand your art, sorry...but I found something that Bär will totally get. Hahaa.

B1 reached earlier than me, because the bloody bus driver did not tell me where to get off and I missed the stop even though I had pressed the bell and had to walk back all the way from bloody Capitol (the poor building that is now going to be destroyed. My government has no appreciation for architecture). He pulled me to this display and said there was a sign that is asking only Singaporean women above age 18 to participate. He asked "take part, take part" eagerly.

Being a naturally paranoid person, I walked around the side, and discovered the reason for the quest...

Is this considered as distributing porn on my blog? But then again I have put worse stuff here.

They call this the Singirl project.

I note that most of them are young butts because they have tans from wearing bikini bottoms. This is kind of weird and disturbing. The only difference between this and an uncle who loves to take secret up-skirt photos is that this project gets willing participants. I wonder what happens if a panty-loving uncle asks for participants who want to take part in an upskirt project. Hmmm. In the love of "art" natürlich.

If you are looking for my butt on the website, don't bother. =]

Fireworks at the beach

2011-12-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

Von Kari. A photo on the beach. Somewhere in France.

Emperor Elijah, master of irony

2011-12-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

A penguin who hates the cold. Wtf. Isn't he ADORABLE?

Btw I would like to point out that I am finally LEVEL 16. Yes, finally.

This is the shitty i7 I have, which crashes CoH now and then with a German message. Until I am ready to move, I am solely dependent on an old monitor with dead pixels and HELLO KITTY speakers (which are actually quite good, I am quite impressed). It can scream German rap songs and bombing sounds like the best of them.

该大的大，该小的小

2011-12-27T17:50:00.001-08:00

I was walking towards the bus stop yesterday when I saw a very sexy lady sitting, back facing me, on a road safety obstacle. Her hair was dyed brown with streaks of golden honey, but it was one of those classy jobs and not a DIY hack job. And her body, even from where I was standing, was pretty magnificient. She was wearing a tight-fitting black dress that hugged her like a glove. As we would say in Mandarin she was "该大的大，该小的小" (what should be big is big, what should be small is small), tiny waist, perky boobs, tight butt and long legs. I was drooling *it appears I am in my lesbian phase again* and stole stares at her in between rifling through my bag for my wallet.

She suddenly got up and stalked towards me.

That was when I realized, the human skin is the most unforgiving organ in the body. Even though she looks like a twenty year old, ripe-for-the-plucking from the shoulder down, there was no way to ignore the ravages of time on her face. It was blotchy, and scary, you know when women wear makeup heavily and daily, their faces harden to a pretty scary expression...

I was shocked enough to return to wallet hunting immediately.

Later I looked towards the direction of the bus and saw a middle aged uncle paddling towards us on his bicycle. He was also ogling at the lady, whose back was towards him (again?!). Just then she turned and I could see the uncle flinch visibly, and his bicycle was a bit wobbly. He hurriedly cycled past her without another look.

I guess the disappointment is always all the greater when people have developed some preconceived ideals about someone's looks.

I smsed Bär about it. He replied with three words.

"God is fair."

Created a new blog - The Yum Yum Enabler

2011-12-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

I wanted to create a new blog to showcase all the funky food I am cooking at the new house. Besides it's time. Even though nibblezware was created with the intention to write about food and technology, I have been focusing too much on the food side, and it is becoming a very personal blog.

The entries on recipes and food that I make will be moved to the new blog, but restaurant reviews will remain here. However I will post some of the interesting entries over here as well.

Brot - In search of a crusty French loaf

2011-12-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make a crusty french bread ala those books I read , so I used this recipe.

Here are the photos I took at the different stages. I skipped out on the first step, because I wasn't sure it would be successful, but it turned out not too bad, though it was more crumbly than crusty. For crusty I had to toast them in my frying pan (I had forgotten the microwave oven again)

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; return to bowl. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a loaf 16 in. long x 2-1/2 in. wide with tapered ends. Sprinkle a greased baking sheet with cornmeal; place loaf on baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 25 minutes.

Beat egg white and cold water; brush over dough. With a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes 2 in. apart across top of loaf. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

Merry Christmas to all from Nibblezware

2011-12-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

Nibblezware wunscht Fröhliches Weihnachtsfest und Frohe Neu Jahr euch alles!!!!

ich weiss dass meinen christbaum sehr kindisch sieht. Aber es ist noch goldig, nicht wahr? =D

Pipping Hot Remedy for a Cold Dezember Afternoon

2011-12-24T01:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make chicken pot pie. I reminded B1 to remind me to take the readymade puff pastry from Phoon Huat's cold food section when it was time to leave. I remembered that the pastry thawed very quickly and it would be a nasty problem trying to separate the sheets.

In the end both of us forgot, until we were at the Night Market and already too far from the supermarket (I did a lot of shopping yesterday for presents, including Kari's *winks*). So I went back today and got it myself together with cornmeal which I needed to bake my crusty french bread.

Hmm I did not know what was the temperature I should set for the oven. I almost forgot that this was my new microwave and not the temperamental bitch of an electric oven we have at home. So in the end I set the oven too high and too long. oopz. We do have a microwave at home but for some reason the electric one gives a better crust so I often have to suffer its idiosyncrasies.

Luckily for some reason I decided to check the baking process and thankfully I did, as you can see, it was slightly burnt on the top. Sigh. Reminder to self: 10 min is fine.

西洋菜汤

2011-12-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

Yet another "it's Sunday, we must finish whatever is in the fridge day". I realize a complication in my "no repeat receipe" motto. Now when will I ever get to drink lotus root soup again...zzz. Obviously didn't think this one through.

Deep-fried the stinky Norwegian salmon in a cornflour-salt-pepper mixture, and tried to disguise the stench (well it was thawed and not exactly freshly dead) with the Peppercorn sauce I bought from Ikea. Interesting taste, but the bloody fish stank up my beloved, pristine white kitchen. I am also seriously rethinking my position on having a white house. I wanted it mostly white so that my art and food can be showcased more visibly, but damn the house is a bitch to maintain.

The two lazy creatures finally tore themselves from their BF3 and artwork to go downstairs to buy the dried Chinese herbs. So that's why there are some dates and wolfberries floating in the soup, unlike last week's 莲藕汤. I also bought some green beans and mung beans, so we can look forward to some Chinese desserts during the cold December. B1 also bought chrysanthemum which I detest because the bloody petals will be clinging to the teapot and be very hard to clean off. But he won me over with the reminder that he does the washing. =D

Mein Christbaumschmuck

2011-12-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

Ich habe dieser Christbaumschmuck mit Filz gemacht. Sind sie nicht goldig? =D

Ich habe diesen Christbaumschmuck aus Filz gemacht. Ich liebe das Rentier und B1 liebt den Schneemann. Er sagte, der Gesichtsausdruck des Schneemanns sagt: was zum teufel mache ich an einem Christbaum?

Die Calla

2011-12-21T01:30:00.000-08:00

The Calla Lily. Completed 18th December 2011.

I think I have improved since the Sunflower. However I didn't do many textures for this, having overdone it for the sunflower. I think I would like to have a palette knife for Christmas.

I will probably do another version of the Calla Lily. It is my favorite flower after all.

From a certain little boy's window

2011-12-20T07:27:00.000-08:00

Ein Wort. Schnee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Schnee von Munich, Germany =D

Now that I think about it, should ask him to go downstairs and make me a snow angel =D. Schnee Engel?

Itty Bitty Pancakes masquerading as Cupcakes

2011-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

I bought this at the John Little sale next door while we were at Expo for the electronics sale. Like I said before, I had gotten the sushi maker set from the same Megahouse series two years ago.

I was incredulous that the box promises so many components. Will there be that many things inside the small box, as shown? A mixer, a cupcake stand, cupcake holders, pipping bags? Actually I have been looking for a cupcake stand, but they are very expensive. Psst, I bought this because I love the cupcake stand. Keke.

Oh yes it does...just that everything is itty bitty. It even comes with tiny teacups and saucers *love~!*

Ingredients + setup

Realized 3 5 (thanks MB for pointing out) things:

1) Turned out B1's Japanese is even worse than my German. He protested that he hadn't practised for a while (major sin in my eyes, maybe I should yank out the wire when he plays BF3). What he could tell me was that the toy expects you to use a cake mix. WTF.

2) I have no weighing machine. My Winnie the Pooh Japanese tea cup leapt to the rescue again. So far it helps me measure rice and now flour. Hasn't held actual tea yet...

3) I got a recipe for basic cupcakes, because I didn't have my usual more advanced recipes with me. I realized later that I was pouring what essentially was a pancake batter into cupcake holders.

4) This bloody toy is built for Japanese market (full stop). ZERO English instructions. It wasn't that bad for the sushi maker but became a huge problem when I wanted to bake the cakes. I had already preheated the oven at the lowest temperature available, 150 degree Celsius. But common sense and staring very hard at the Japanese instructions in pink (for fuck) told me that those itty bitty cups wouldn't last in that heat. They can only withhold 90 degrees Celsius, AND I am only supposed to use the Microwave function AND that the cups are only supposed to go in for 2min and 40 secs tops.

5) I used a colander as a sift for the flour..

I was blasting 92.4FM (classical music station) as usual. I cook while listening to that channel because it doesn't report news (while I am cooking. The news make my blood boil) and it puts me in a lovely frame of mind while looking in the fridge. In between contemplating my evil stare (it read "I am going to yank out the PS3 if you don't tell me something more useful than my Japanese isn't very good"), B1 commented that I was "very cultured leh, baking while listening to classical music". Eigentlich I was a bit mad because 92.4FM played "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" only after I finished baking. I almost shrieked like a banshee moments later in the kitchen, because I realize I was living out the fantasy of 我们这一家的橘子.

I had some leftover cream from my Sojabohnen Eis experiment. So with that, flour, butter, sugar and milk, I essentially made a simple pancake batter. The toy was cute, but spinning that bloody thing was ineffectual. I took out my trusty S$2 Daiso whisk, and beat that batter senseless.

I gingerly placed one cup in as a sacrificial tester, and was relieved to see the mixture bubble and rise in the microwave in 2 miraculous minutes. Cute. No other mishaps other than one of the blueberries I chucked in was blown up into the sky (i.e. oven ceiling).

High tea mit Milch *haha*

I was too eager to take photos, so I dumped my whipped cream onto the cakes which promptly melted it. Haha. Thankfully I only made 8 because B1 refused to eat more than 3, even though I threatened him no dinner unless he ate the last one.

So adore the bunny pokers. 絶対かわいい!!!!

I didn't think it was possible

2011-12-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

But I am in love with my microwave oven. It was love at first sight when I saw him at Best Denki. He is like the electronic version of my dream guy. He can BAKE, grill and reheat food on command *haha*.

And he doesn't need to spin around like the other microwave ovens need to. I was oohing and aahing all over him when B1 and I lifted him out of the box yesterday, like a caveman who is gazing on the first wheel he ever carved out of rock.

Shiny Shiny, 煌々煌々. Touch Touch Feel Feel.

We are going to have so much fun together.

Actually I love National Microwave ovens, having grown up with Dimension 3 and 4 (we are a gourmand family). But I was not able to find National, but I think I am very happy with this substitute. One thing I don't like about him is that instead of being able to press buttons for the timing, I practically have to return to the first rock wheel of turning a lame-ass knob. At least this knob can be pressed in when not needed. So I guess I am ok with it.

Still he comes with an equally sexy Pyrex dish and some other stuff. Look at me, getting high over electronics. But with Mr Microwave Oven, my kitchen is finally complete. The refrigerator made it feel like home, but Mr Oven makes it feel like my kitchen.

Once you go...

2011-12-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

I was watching Rules of Engagement, when Timmy tells Audrey confidentally "Once you go brown, you'll keep coming around" (alluding to his boss' wife, Liz's desire for him).

That was funny, and reminded me of Sex and the City's "Once you go black, you'll never come back".

Then what about white and yellow? I searched online but I haven't seen anything nice. So I came out with some outrageous stuff...

Once you go black, you'll never come back.

Once you go brown, you'll keep coming around.

Once you go white, you'll be filled with delight.

Once you go yellow, you'll fuck like there's no tomorrow.

*haha*

We H8 Pumpkin.... as much as Beetroot

2011-12-17T03:01:00.001-08:00

Two root vegetables that we hate very much are the pumpkin and beetroot. I hate beetroot on principle because like I mentioned before, meine Eltern use it in juices which I hate. But I had a more favorable impression after trying the butter poached version at Bistro Petit Salut.

I just hate pumpkin too. I guess I hate all vegetables that are too sweet, i.e. sweeter than a carrot. However these two bloody things are cheap, especially as they are in season now. So we must be punished for the sake of the wallet.

I don't have a wok, let alone a steamer, so I sat Mr Pumpkin on an inverted bowl in my stockpot. I was pleased with myself, thinking Mr Pumpkin will go nice and rotty and we can just dig the meat inwards from the side. Obviously I had forgotten the same principle applies to his bottom. So I encountered difficulties when I tried to lift him out of the pot later, because he had become stuck to the bowl. And... all my delicious chicken stock was leaking from his bottom. I was suddenly reminded of my Neffe.

So poor Mr Pumpkin became a stew instead of a soup because I had to make a sauce out of the leaked soup, which had become very diluted with the boiling water. I also got to try out with my new microwave oven, which I so love very very much. I baked my frozen mackerel (from Norway again. Fuck why is everything from Norway suddenly, especially when I am very annoyed with some of the people there now).

We are grateful Mr Pumpkin had that salty gravy, because his meat was still too sweet. I was trying not to gag inwardly, while B1 steadfastly refused another bite. Seriously it is like having a child sometimes, when I had to implore him to take in more of the gooey yellowness. Ewww. At 50cents, Mr Pumpkin became a culinary punishment.

I had slightly better luck with Mr Beetroot, though he refused to become soft (this is starting to sound very wrong) when I fried him in butter. So I drowned him in chicken stock, which became a plus point because I could use the literally bloody (looking) liquid as my sauce, traumatizing B1 further. Mr Oven came to the rescue and helped me kill the cow again to a merciful medium well done at 5 minutes on grill function. Btw I didn't cook the Manhattan clam chowder soup, Mr Campbell did. I just reheated it. B1 did not comment on the soup, which means he didn't recognize his favorite meat lurking among the carrots. Tsk tsk, why do I bother sometimes...

Calla Lily - 2nd Layer

2011-12-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

It is Hentai Time~! The Bikini Song

2011-12-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

Kanememo is a horrific anime with the most lesbian overtones I have ever seen. Is that why in anime there is almost always a prerequisite loser boy whom for some inexplicable reason, all the gorgeous AND cute AND little girls in the vicinity will fall desperately in love with? Because if not, the anime will just degenerate (didn't think it was possible) into a major LESBIAN lovefest.

At least this song is cute. The rest of the episode is horrific though, full of the most crappy music ever played in Japanese animation. What? A working girl song...wtf.

A different kind of Picnic

2011-12-16T07:19:00.000-08:00

Since I "live so near Orchard" (I already did, it's just that it is even more accessible now), it has become sort of my favorite playground. Yes Borders is gone forever (which is a bitch because now I want to find American books), and so is my beloved Orchard library. But there is still Kinokuniya, where I bitchily read all the gossip magazines for free, dodging the dedicated and equally detemined store guy as he deliberately arranges the display near me whenever he thinks I have read enough, before buying books from other sections *keke*. And I always pay in full sight from his counter, which can't make me his favorite person.

As I wander through Takashimaya, I notice that there is a new eatery, Pique Nique, that replaced McDingdongs. It looks pretty atas and has a very nice layout and ambience, which I like. So when Bär und ich waren Weihnachtschenken shopping, I suggested having lunch there. Of course I had researched the place before I had gone, and learnt that their service isn't very good and neither was their mac and cheese.

So of course I must try it. Borrowing heavily on the French aesthetic, Pique Nique has a useless but unique tree like pillar in the middle, obviously an intriguing play on the idea of picnicking under a tree. The botak waiter has a bo-chup face, the bland expression he used a lot when taking orders (which left us wondering if he got whatever we were asking for), but service was prompt, which I love especially for time-strapped lunch. Th cute tall waiter brought the Bär his burger earlier because I had already started munching down mine, even though he was missing his fries. Mr Botak Waiter quickly followed up with a whole plate of fries. Nice.

My Shinjuku Incident burger was not bad, despite my wondering how Shinjuku is this? Quite juicy, even though the patty was torn. Hello, I will check, even if you camouflage it with a runny egg *like*. I love the thick slices of tomato. Actually, I think I can probably match/beat this in quality with my own homemade burgers, but it's really not bad.

The Bär came up with a theory with why the cocoa was not sweet. It is so that the marshmallow cloud (yes, it was literally shaped like one *so very love*) would melt and gooey-sweetify the drink. Yum yumz. Obwohl I would much rather chew on the cloud.

I bought some of the cookies to give to Miss Lovely. She is the sweetest nicest person I have ever met which means that she is always being taken advantage of. Her goodness shines through, literally. If I were a lesbian/man (whichever miracle that happens first), she would so be the woman I want to marry. I wish I could have half her patience and sweetness, but my inner kitty still goes nuts and scratches me now and then to remind me how catty I am.

Hehe. This is the kind of pique nique I am more familiar with...

Pique Nique
391A Orchard Road
#B1-01/02 Takashimaya Shopping Centre
Ngee Ann City Tower A, Singapore
Tel: +65 6238 6705
Daily: 10am – 9.30pm

Associating music with people

2011-12-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

Not sure if it is just me, but do you tend to associate music with people? Say for example, some years ago, I heard a song I liked very much in a person's mp3 collection, and asked for it, then when I was very angry with the person, I stopped listening to the song. I didn't delete it, I just stopped listening to it.

Same thing happened again. I started listening to "Super Bass" around the same time I started chatting with a CoH friend (technically not really, I don't consider playing two games with someone == him being a friend. I added him because he was funny and my friend's brother). But then conversations are always either hot or arctic, so it became quite annoying, indirectly affected my relationship with the CoH friend and kind of defeats my purpose of chatting in the first place (I wanted to forget how frustrating life is).

And now I find that I cannot listen to "Super Bass" without thinking of that person *pissed* I am not installing any IM in my new computer, and I am considering uninstalling all in the old one. IMs are not worth the trouble.

Calla Lily - 1st Layer

2011-12-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

The idiot I am, I bought too many shades of yellow, so I was thinking of painting another sunflower. But I think it's overkill, so I decided to paint my favorite flower. The Calla Lily.

The part where the white meets the yellow was a boo-boo, which I hurriedly rubbed away. =P

Randall Santa's red-assed Reindeer helps him with reversing

2011-12-14T15:47:00.000-08:00

[img source: sojusoldier.com]

WTF?

And here I thought the man just travels forward. I guess the reindeer is there for the situations when Santa forgets a present. Er ist schleißlich alt...

I suddenly feel like shopping @ Abercrombie & Fitch

2011-12-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

Forgive the naughty nibblezware. It is not everyday she gets to ogle at good-looking men =D. Like a freaking oasis after years of drought. My god...人不可以自私，好的东西大家要分享。

Source: EDMW. I don't know and I don't care where is the original source. I am still drooling....How is it that when we were driving past Orchard yesterday, I didn't see them??? Damnit, I cannot see all of them. zzz

So turns out they show up at 1pm everyday until the boutique's official opening. Hmmmmmmmmm. Temptation in the form of washboard abs. Should I go to the new house and kick the bloody computer or should I go down to Orchard road and join my fellow oglers? My favorite guy has to be the cute blond who is from the the NYC branch and was interviewed for the Chinese news.

Hmm on that note, I should start posting more pics of hot men. It seems that I am continuously mistaken to be either as a lesbian (at best) or a dick who is masquerading as a chick, both in CoH and here. I guess the blog title really does not help matters. haha

Boys and Girls

Updated Thank you EDMW *grins*. Hmm everytime I say I like blondies, in the end the ones I like the most are the dark haired ones. kekekeke.

This guy looks like Andrew Garfield. #1~!!!


You all can see the girls, I will see the boys =D

I like~

Eh, I post him for everyone to see, but 不是我的菜

The Female of Your Dreams

2011-12-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

SINGLE BLACK FEMALE: SBF seeks male companionship. Ethnicity unimportant.

I'm a svelte good-looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods. Riding in your pickup truck. Hunting. Camping. Fishing trips. Cozy winters nights spent lying by the fire.

Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. Rub me the right way and watch me respond! I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me! Kiss me and I'm yours!

Call 555-1234 and ask for Daisy.

Over 15,000 men found themselves talking to the local Humane Society about a eight-weeks-old Labrador Retriever. More good stuff from The Revenge of the Anguished English. ^^

I think I can probably write a book on how I torment in German. *haha* Yesterday I was at the German section in Kinokuniya (yes, I persist in dreaming of to be able to read aloud any goddamn book I pull from the shelf some day. And I mean War and Peace's kind of thickness). A Mainlander couple walked up near me, and the boyfriend read aloud a book cover in a near perfect German accent (ob Sie gespannt sind, er las "Augen zu, Kleiner Tiger" *keke*), then he immediately switched to Mandarin in a very obvious Beijing accent.

I was consumed in a maelstrom of rage and jealousy and envy.

Spent the rest of the day punishing everyone around me by playing Passacaglia, Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No 1, Op 11 in D Major (2nd Andante Cantabile) [my current fav classical songs] and a mixture of German Lied. Also devoted myself more to study. A little competition is a great driver.

Emptying the Fridge day

2011-12-13T05:45:00.000-08:00

These meals were seriously "get rid of whatever is sitting inside the fridge".

B1 is a serious lala addict, so we bought two plates full at Cold Storage on Friday night.

Saturday Lunch

I despaired on how to get rid of the spinach, since it was bought last week. Amazingly 95% of the leaves were still edible. I got rid of some for Saturday lunch with century egg (not sure if I did this dish at the new apartment before. I think I have forgotten to mention that I am aiming for a "no repeat recipe", in a bid to increase my repertoire of dishes). I have finally bought a microwave oven (a different one from the one I previously eyeballed, because that one cannot do baking. This one is the more advanced brother =D. My wallet is hemorrhaging), so at least I can do grilling and baking now. Gott sei dank. There are only so many dishes one can cook with boiling, steaming and frying before cheating by deep-frying in desperation. I almost wanted to steam me a cake, which is actually possible. Anyway that S$20 toy cupcake set now sitting in my cupboard is calling out to me. To think I paid S$40 for the sushi maker when the series came out one year ago.

A long time ago, when we could still afford expensive meals (sigh), we ate at Nanjing Steamed Bun Restaurant (the name sounds cheap, but the menu is not, I assure you), and they served a dish that went straight to B1's heart. Steamed lala chawanmushi, where the delicate meat rose like *ahem* against the fluffy egg mixture. I tried to do the same, except I used lightly boiled lala (so they were still in their shells, I wanted to boil the shells to make sure we didn't poison ourselves later), so the bloody things exploded just before I was going to take the dish out of the pan. If I had reached for them earlier, I would definitely had been scalded. So my poor dish looked horrific. Of course it didn't help that I was lazy and just made a z pattern with the oyster sauce instead of topping the dish with a sauce. Psst, it tastes better than it looks. Shouldn't have put oyster sauce in the first place, defeats the purpose of chawanmushi.

Anyway we are nuts. We ate like 40+ clams and still fought over the remaining ones. Not bad, only 3 of them did not open at all.

B1 later had the cheek to complain he was hungry and I cooked too little rice. Wtf. The man has a bird-like appetite and it took me like almost 10 meals before I figured how to portion the rice exactly for two bowls *thumbs up*. Now he tells me the rice is not enough when I know he always has difficulty finishing. zzz. He retorted that usually I overcook the main dishes so the rice is not really needed as a filler.

I had to admit though I was hungry later, but we were totally stuffed later when we had our french dinner.

Sunday Dinner

Before I go on, I must congratulate myself for braving the odors at the wet market and buying vegetables and eggs there (I was not brave enough to buy raw meat there, I am not the kind to poke the meat without running to the washroom to disinfect).

Let me see, I had a marrow, a giant lotus root ( I love this, I can eat it boiled, fried, deep-fried, stewed. I have only never baked the thing... Hmmm. Anyway I did not know that the bloody was so expensive. S$3.80. wtf), leftover chicken (which I was supposed to cook the previous Sunday but did not because I was tired from hauling my shit ass lousy new pc), and that annoying spinach.

I refuse to murder the rest of the spinach french-style, so I just lightly boiled them in water, and then topped some deep-fried chicken on them. Keke, the chicken wasn't fresh either, so I had to deep fry them. I see deep frying as cheating (though it is a painful cheat, considering how much cleaning I have to do to the kitchen afterwards).

I started boiling down the lotus root in the morning all the way till night. B1 complained the soup wasn't full bodied enough. I give him full-bodied, bloody hell, who was the one who drove wrongly last Sunday and I ended up not being able to buy my dry goods?

I forgot about Mr Marrow. I cooked him with bacon. A delicious ending.

I think it may be the way I am brought up. After having the privilege of living in a well-stocked kitchen, it is sometimes a shocker to open the fridge in the new house. It is like freaking bare, except for a few bottles of alkohol and a whole shelf dedicated to three kinds of bier. We are like a fucking frat house. The usually unobservant B1 commented dourly that anyone who comes to our house will think we are alcoholics. He who loves buying beer, and me cheap plonk.

Do you think like a Rapist?

2011-12-13T01:46:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from Jezebel.com and University of Surrey:

"Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that when presented with descriptions of women taken from lads’ mags, and comments about women made by convicted rapists, most people who took part in the study could not distinguish the source of the quotes.

Psychologists presented men between the ages of 18 and 46 with a range of statements taken from magazines and from convicted rapists in the study, and gave the men different information about the source of the quotes. Men identified more with the comments made by rapists more than the quotes made in lads’ mags, but men identified more with quotes said to have been drawn from lads’ mags more than those said to have been comments by convicted rapists.

The researchers also asked a separate group of women and men aged between 19 and 30 to rank the quotes on how derogatory they were, and to try to identify the source of the quotes. Men and women rated the quotes from lads’ mags as somewhat more derogatory, and could categorize the quotes by source little better than chance.

Dr Miranda Horvath and Dr Peter Hegarty argue that the findings are consistent with the possibility that lads’ mags normalise hostile sexism, by making it seem more acceptable when its source is a popular magazine.

Dr Horvath, lead researcher from Middlesex University, said: "We were surprised that participants identified more with the rapists’ quotes, and we are concerned that the legitimisation strategies that rapists deploy when they talk about women are more familiar to these young men than we had anticipated.""

Middlesex University provided Jezebel a list of quotes used by the researchers. I found Quote 16 hilariously coincidental, but I must disclaim that it has nothing to do with Nibblezware blog or its author (or even what its author thinks). Btw try them as well to see if you think like a rapist... I was able to decipher most of them accurately. The answers are in white, so highlight the bottom to see the answers....

1. There's a certain way you can tell that a girl wants to have sex . . . The way they dress, they flaunt themselves.

2. Some girls walk around in short-shorts . . . showing their body off . . . It just starts a man thinking that if he gets something like that, what can he do with it?

3. A girl may like anal sex because it makes her feel incredibly naughty and she likes feeling like a dirty slut. If this is the case, you can try all sorts of humiliating acts to help live out her filthy fantasy.

4. Mascara running down the cheeks means they've just been crying, and it was probably your fault . . . but you can cheer up the miserable beauty with a bit of the old in and out.

5. What burns me up sometimes about girls is dick-teasers. They lead a man on and then shut him off right there.

6. Filthy talk can be such a turn on for a girl . . . no one wants to be shagged by a mouse . . . A few compliments won't do any harm either . . . ‘I bet you want it from behind you dirty whore' . . .

7. You know girls in general are all right. But some of them are bitches . . . The bitches are the type that . . . need to have it stuffed to them hard and heavy.

8. Escorts . . . they know exactly how to turn a man on. I've given up on girlfriends. They don't know how to satisfy me, but escorts do.

9. You'll find most girls will be reluctant about going to bed with somebody or crawling in the back seat of a car . . . But you can usually seduce them, and they'll do it willingly.

10. There's nothing quite like a woman standing in the dock accused of murder in a sex game gone wrong . . . The possibility of murder does bring a certain frisson to the bedroom.

11. Girls ask for it by wearing these mini-skirts and hotpants . . . they're just displaying their body . . . Whether they realise it or not they're saying, ‘Hey, I've got a beautiful body, and it's yours if you want it.'

12. You do not want to be caught red-handed . . . go and smash her on a park bench. That used to be my trick.

13. Some women are domineering, but I think it's more or less the man who should put his foot down. The man is supposed to be the man. If he acts the man, the woman won't be domineering.

14. I think if a law is passed, there should be a dress code . . . When girls dress in those short skirts and things like that, they're just asking for it.

15. Girls love being tied up . . . it gives them the chance to be the helpless victim.

16. I think girls are like plasticine, if you warm them up you can do anything you want with them.

Answers: (highlight to see)

1. Rapist, 2. Rapist, 3. Lad mag, 4. Lad mag, 5. Rapist, 6. Lad mag, 7. Rapist, 8. Lad mag, 9. Rapist, 10. Lad mag, 11. Rapist, 12. Lad mag, 13. Rapist, 14. Rapist, 15. Lad mag, 16. Lad mag

Homemade French Dinner

2011-12-11T01:37:00.001-08:00

Cooking is all about working with what you got. I couldn't find a bouquet garni at Cold Storage on Friday night so I just used thyme. No pinot noir? Use cabernet sauvignon. No lemon jus? Use apple vinegar. Hahha.

Speaking about Friday, I was supposed to go to the Singapore Art Museum but we were trapped in a horrific traffic jam along Orchard road for almost one hour until we gave up and went to Cuppage Plaza for ramen and gyoza. B1 was enviably sandwiched between two hot girls, but he complained that one of them was a horrible ah lian. Some people can be such snobs. And to think all through dinner I was thinking that I was leading a very tame and lame life. Just play CoH, learn my violin, blog, read books and study German. And these girls of late teens or early twenties were talking about clubbing, dancing and Ladies nights. Interesting how we are thinking different things about the same person.

Homemade Hollandaise sauce

But I digress. I discovered some petrified asparagus in the freezer so I made some hollandaise sauce. I also realized that I had been conned by the name "buttercup" when I bought the 3 blocks of "butter" on a sharp discount. They were actually blocks of solidified palm oil. Gross. I knew it the minute I melted the "butter" because there was no way in hell real butter would give off that sickening sweet smell. I immediately seized the block and took a closer stare... shit.

My version of beef bourguignon

Anyway I also referred to the book on French cooking that I borrowed to make my beef bourguignon. It called for a bouquet garni, damn, a pinot noir, oops, pearl onions, WTF? I stopped reading. =D I could not find frozen brisket in the supermarket so I stripped the striploin and boiled them in my crockpot with onions and carrots and mushrooms (which I added half and hour before dinner). I also had to make my own tomato puree after I forgot to buy a canned one... Nothing four overripe tomatoes and water couldn't do. *winks*

I also prepared a simple Provençal salad with boiled potatoes, japanese cucumber and tuna. Well I was supposed to use anchovy vinagrette, but I was starving so I just used mayo (well it is French) and a slap of wasabi for a kick.

We had everything with a baguette I bought from Delifrance. After lunch at Bistro Petit Salut, I realized how delicious bread is when lightly toasted, so I cut the entire stick into slices and toasted them over my non-stick frying pan. The cheap plonk today is Golden Gate cabernet sauvignon which I used in the stew. It is too spicy for me. I think vina maipo might be more to my taste. hmm. I should go and buy more bottles of that cheap plonk now that it is on sale.

Sunday Munchies - Agio Olio mit poached egg

2011-12-11T01:17:00.001-08:00

I stayed over at the new house by myself. Some sort of rehabilitation. Trying to get used to the house before moving. I ended up sleeping with my sloppy doggie for comfort.

B1 already had lunch so I made myself a late lunch during Japan Hour's commercial breaks. I used up the remaining fusilli in the cupboard in a simple agio olio and poached myself an egg using milk. I don't understand why restaurants use vinegar for poaching egg. I also read that in the french cooking book I borrowed from the library yesterday when I tried to check how to make beef bourguignon. I left the egg yolk runny so that it will cover the pasta with gooey goodness when burst. Hmm.

I also made the droll realization that the three syllables in my coder nick can be read phonetically in Mandarin "你不饿" (You are not hungry). How apt.

Happy together until the end

2011-12-10T19:27:00.001-08:00

I was flipping channels when I came across this on KBS World. Initially it caught my attention because it was talking about a young woman getting married in South Korea. Since I am very curious about South Korean marriage customs, I decided to remain on the channel. Only later then I realized that it was not about the granddaughter but about the old couple sitting behind them who were the feature.

She asked the cameramen to capture this beautiful day

The husband is 94 years old and the wife, 87 years old, very old but still sprightly. They are married for 73 years and so droll together, sometimes wearing traditional clothes of matching color. They live in a little house in rural Gwangdo province, and accompany each other when they go about their chores. I was a bit sad when I saw the old lady wipe down her now empty kimchi jars, because she was too old to make kimchi. She wiped one of them with especial love because the jar was previously owned by her maternal grandmother then her own mother. She said that even thought the jar did not have a handle when her mother received it on her wedding day, she kept it all the while and passed it down to her. I was thinking, why is her jar still with her and not with her daughters? I am guessing that nowadays, most Koreans won't bother to make Kimchi in traditional jars. I mean how to keep them in modern apartments (I keep mine in a glass jar, which I store in the fridge. Unfortunately B1 only eats Napa Cabbage kimchi and not the daikon and lotus root kind which I know how to make, so I seldom make them). It's sad really.

I thought it was so sweet that the husband help his wife in the fields. The wife dressing her husband warmly to prevent him from a bad cold like he did a year ago. Then the two of them hunch over the daikon radishes in the fields, cutting off the leaves off and tying that in neat rows for winter eating. The husband huffed and puffed as he was digging a hole as requested by his wife, to bury the daikon to prevent them from freezing. He later carried her tub to the stream for her and helped her down the slippery rocks so that she could wash her clothes over one. So typical of the selfless old, that they want to save the electricity bill their youngest son pay and endanger their old bodies, just to save the water and electricity from using a washing machine.

Despite it being a cold Autumn day, he sat nearby her as she beat the clothes with a stick, and commented that he was there to catch her in case she fell into the water. They still play together like young lovers. The old husband cheekily threw a pebble into the water near his wife, so that the water would hit her face. He later helped her hang up the clothes and even blew on her hands after asking them whether they were cold. It was so sweet, that when she complained that her fingers felt the cold the most, he remarked drolly that they wouldn't anymore because he was blowing on them. He commented that her hands were smooth, wrinkled but smooth (she tickled him when he said that).

When asked about the success of their 73 year marriage, he said it was a man's duty to make sure that the wife does not run away. He said if there are problems, just talk to her once, and if not just talk twice (I am thinking he is trying to suggest that you should nag someone into submission like someone does). If by the third time she doesn't listen, do away with her. His wife laughed at that. He also said that a man should have enough pride to earn enough to support his woman, if he doesn't have, then he should not even marry in the first place. She said simply that she was incredibly shy and ran away from him everytime before marriage and that she knew that she was married to him only after the wedding. She said she was happy that he said she was pretty.

It was morbid but touching to see how they mulled over the fact that they have reached the end of their lives together. The missus commented that when she was reborn she wanted to be married to her husband again because he was so good to her and made her happy. He said that he was happy they shared this life together. That's when I started crying.

They are staring at their future burial plots. Wtf.

Bistro Petit Salut - A Semi-leisurely Luncheon

2011-12-10T17:35:00.001-08:00

I was pretty emo last week, so Bär treated me at Brotzeit where I got to restore my Pinkerton Bar and drink Alkoholfrei bier (I had to work after lunch, after all). I did not want him to treat me so I was embarrassed when he paid (I knew that the lunch would be quite expensive, even though we had chosen the lunch sets)

So this week I trawled through the usual local food blogs I read to find something that could match the price range, preferably western, near the office and is quite atas (I am only willing to pay well for good food and ambience). Since it is still French week (for me), I found Bistro Petit Salut. I would have preferred Au Petit Salut, which is located at my old favorite hunting ground and I have never tried that before. But that lunch menu is a bit too eye-watering for my property-virgin self.

We walked up from Holland Ville because I had forgotten the road name. Along the way Bär commented that the area was blissfully idyllic, not like the usual Singapore. I agree, it seemed to be more laid-back.

There was a table of expat wives having a delightful lunch together *envious*. I want that kind of life, to be able to sit down with a few like-minded women who enjoy a good lunch together and share beautiful memories together. Aber finde ich noch nicht.

I was quite bad, asking Bär to order from the pretty extensive lunch menu (usually when you go to such places, they don't give you so many options, especially the entrees. I was very pleasantly surprised to note that Bistro Petit Salut offers five options per course. How lovely! I had expected a Prix Fixe menu), instead of ala carte.

The waiter brought us some nicely toasted baguette slices, which we enjoyed with butter (I later mistook the butter as sauce for my main course as hollandaise sauce because it had melted, and I thought the waiter had cleared the bread basket *haha*).

I ordered the duo of sausage with rillete because I love mesclun salad!!! I hate lettuce though, unless for Korean BBQ, while Bär ordered the Salade Lyonnais, which came with a poached egg. Both tasted great, a nice opening for the meal.

But Bär asked me, why are the main courses taking so long. I was like, eh, it's like that, they usually pace the meal so that you can enjoy your company and wine between courses. I have to admit that I was quite rude later, trying to get the wait staff to serve our final courses faster *bad girl*, because it was getting late and we had to rush back to the office.

I call my catch of the day the french portion. Still, it was slightly friendlier than the salmon I had at Le Petit Cuisine, and I discovered that I love butter poached beetroots (versus the usual beetroot jus my parents force on me) after being initially horrified to see them hiding under the fish...Bär had suggested that I choose the beef, but after noting the word "minute", I didn't want to take the risk, in case it was french portioned (I was imagining a cup size). Bär commented that his chicken was rather tasteless. I tried, and thought the flavor was mostly on the skin, and that the chicken was moist, and that the chicken was dull to be a perfect foil for the bacon bits (which tasted like Chinese bakwa).

We spent the most effort choosing our desserts. I prefer the Japanese version of cheesecake over the American kind, but I wondered how the French kind would be like. I was envisioning something similar to the Japanese kind because the Japanese totally imitate the French patisserie when it comes to their baking.

Bär's crumble was a bit burnt on the top, but he enjoyed the slices of baked pineapple. I was suddenly reminded of last Christmas celebration at House. My cheesecake came out looking Amerikaner, but was thankfully light and fluffy.

The wait staff were quite attentive, even though the restaurant was very busy even on a Friday afternoon. They noted that the table was shaky while we were ordering lunch, and came back to fit a cardboard disc under the table. I apologize for being in such a hurry =D. Next to us, one of the expat wives brought out a basket of muffins which Bär later commented that she must have stolen the idea from the cooking school we passed by. I was thinking they were probably students of a cooking school, or their children must go to the same school, because they seem to be of all nationalities (mostly dark-skinned, thus proving a stereotype *hehe*). Anyway I thought they were all very cute, and my eyes nearly popped out when I turned and saw one African mommy with very low hanging fruit. Bär made the comment she was very comfortable in her own skin. I thought she wore her slip out.

I will definitely come back again but when I have more time to spare. =]

Christmas Tree Obsession

2011-12-10T01:52:00.001-08:00

I used to have a christmas tree as a child, and that tree represented something precious to me. However when I was a teenager, Mutter gave the tree away to my aunt (On hindsight, I felt it was a punishment to me for not putting up the tree, when told to do so).

I wanted that tree back, but I think that ship has sailed. Recently B1 decided to get us a Christmas tree as well (though I think in his case, it was the first time property owner sentimentality that overcame him). We checked out the real ones before he was alerted to a groupon deal for a fake one. We could tell the tree was unsold stock from yesteryear because the box had so much dust on it. But it is ok.

Swept up in enthusiasm after putting up the tree, I decided to hand make some Christmas ornaments to go with the tree and the little toys and handphone accessories that I have already put up among the branches (handphone accessories go so well as christmas tree ornaments too *haha*). I even rushed out of work to buy some materials to cover the ugly metal legs, that is how obsessed I am.

So while getting frustrated over being unable to patch my Company of Heroes game in the new computer, and even failing to login (seriously, I can login to the other one with no problem, so what is wrong with my username and password *bloody annoyed*), I have been distracting myself with making lots of cute little ornaments like this reindeer one.

I will upload a photo of the full set when I am done.

A Weihnachtsmarkt in Deutschland

2011-12-08T15:24:00.001-08:00

These are photos sent over by my dear friend HerrmannMeier from a Christmas market near Frankfurt, Germany.

Vielen Danke, HerrmanMeier =D. Sorry for the delay, I had to rotate the pictures first.

Company of Heroes is dying

2011-12-07T18:12:00.001-08:00

Everyday there are lesser and lesser people playing. I don't even stay up anymore except on Friday and Saturday nights. What is most annoying is that that stupid game persists in deleting some of the people in my friends list, leading to some awful misunderstandings, where we accuse each other of commiting the deletion.

Whatever is the case, I am glad that I can at least correspond with Herrmann und MB, and maybe email some of the others (though they do not respond *roll eyes*. So many people have Facebook accounts, but I am so lucky to have friends who are as paranoid as me about the privacy on the Internet. zzz).

I am also having a lot of problems installing CoH on my new pc. I have the licence keys but where the f are all the discs, especially the Tales of Valor!!! Maybe I should just install NeverwinterNights and just play that, since I have the entire set on hand... zzz.

Goodbye Franz, Otto and Emil, and hello to Caprice (my Sorceress profile *haha*).

Btw I hate my name. It is so bourgeois, until yesterday, I called someone and asked why haven't you sent me the document. He said "oh I sent to the wrong [my name]." WTF. Even Nonick asked me if I was lying about my name. No unfortunately it is written in my birth certificate (with my very unique Chinese name). Meine Eltern did not put in as much effort into thinking up my name as they did for Bruder.

No wonder I came up with some really wild stuff when my cousin and I were thinking of English names for ourselves (she doesn't have any, so she can do whatever she wants). Initially she called herself Patricia which I thought was super lame and old-sounding, but later she called herself Chelsea, which I totally love and still call her that now.

Primary school -> Luciana

Secondary school -> Kayleigh Amanda Cheyenne (I alternate the C with the romantic version of my horrible name) Vardin. I was very into reading classical novels at the time.

Junior college -> *don't have*

Now -> Natasha (I am not sure why I am so into the letter N now).

Sprechen Sie ganz gut Englisch?

2011-12-07T08:54:00.001-08:00

This book makes fun of the well-meaning, unintentional yet still highly amusing murder of the English Language, and for once, it is ok to laugh. I should send this to 'you know who', who spends more time criticizing my *censored*'s English than getting the job done. Lovely lady, but has obviously misplaced priorities.

Some of the most priceless gems of hilarity are those related to sex (duh!!!), but it could be due to my potty mind. Read and enjoy:

Carol and Bob Lehman will be going to Zimbabwe to spread the good words of the Good Book. We congratulate Carol and Bob for assuming their missionary position. (It almost made me think that the Good Book the line was referring to was the Kama Sutra).

Ardiles strokes the ball like it's part of his own anatomy

- Jimmy Magee

When a boy reaches puberty, he says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.

Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous meets Wednesdays at 7:00 P.M. at St. John's Church. Use rear entrance.

A greeting card message in Japan:

For you, I always think of your thing

Then of course, there is this...

No one wants to say that the sky is falling, but in this instance I am afraid the emperor has no clothes. Despite Herculean efforts by the council and council staff, we are still only dealing with the tip of the iceberg.

- Charles Millard (for the win)

Dungeon Mistress

2011-12-05T05:05:00.001-08:00

This is my favorite outfit at the Victoria's Secret Show 2011. There is just something I love about black polka dotted underwear against that white lace and pink gloves. Check out the rest from The Superficial.

I think this outfit is very cute for a dungeon mistress. Yes, I know that dungeon mistresses usually wear latex and leather. But won't it be cuter when it is soft and pretty, and the victim will be misled into thinking that the mistress is kind? That makes the punishment even more exciting, won't it?

& why do I bring up the topic of a dungeon mistress? This is because Jemand and I are very stressed at work despite it being Christmas soon. So during a discussion break, we came up with a lot of wild ideas on what is our ideal job? Needless to say, anything that is stress-free, no-brainer and enjoyable. Jemand spent most of his time tapping on his culture for pretty hilarious jobs, and initially we agreed that maybe it was best to work at McDonald's.

Then later while typing away on my keyboard, I realized that was a super bad idea because customers can be catty and pushy. So the best job is actually a dungeon mistress. 5 simple reasons:
(1) I can tell the victim what to do (huge plus point).
(2) The victim is always respectful, obeys your every order and still calls you "mistress" *haha*
(3) You get paid for having a wild imagination.
(4) A free outlet for your frustrations. No need to play CoH anymore.
(5) No need for regular office hours. Even OT is fun.

La Petite Cuisine

2011-12-04T10:03:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to prove a point to my friend Kari, aka MB. I think there are some affordable french eateries in Singapore, La Petite Cuisine being one of them (another one is the French Stall, which I still cannot find *haha*). I forgot that I had the photos for them (sometimes I forget whether I blogged stuff, thanks to the sheer volume I write and too many photographic sources).

We went here some Fridays ago for dinner. I had wanted to go to the Tierney Gourmet supermarket at Serene Centre. I did not realize that they closed down already. Other than the eateries, the place is kind of a dead mall. But business at this little cafe was very vibrant. There were people waiting for tables. We chose to sit near the kitchen, where I had an interesting view of the adorable man swiftly and surely run multiple little frying pans on the stove at the same time.

Amazing isn't it? I can't even do two pots properly without either pot boiling over. I am usually also cutting stuff, I should complete my mis en place earlier, but there is always a clove of garlic that is waiting to go in...

The prices are similar to that of Jack's place and other mid-priced eateries. Psst, the portion could be larger though, but the waiters will probably excuse this as French cooking. I prefer French country cooking though. Which reminds me I am going to cook Beef Bourguignon this weekend!

I liked the cream sauce that came with my salmon. Hated the poor murdered spinach though. I am no Popeye. If that is how he eats it, no wonder he has such a tiny waist...I kind of regretted not choosing B1's steak. though it looks kind of thin. Eating steak with mustard is a tad unusual, methinks. I am used to Bearnaise sauce.

The Cat, The Mouse and Me

2011-12-04T08:33:00.001-08:00

I don't understand why I am more tired at the end of a weekend, than the start of it. As I trudged (yes, Sec 4 English teacher, there is such a word, just like there is a word "scuttled". It isn't my fault your vocabulary is limited) back to my apartment's lift landing, I was horrified to see ein Maus dash across the floor. He sniffed at every single lift door. I was about to squeal. Mind you, I was still bathed in the headlights from B1's car, who was wondering wtf (because I told him not to escort me up because it was already midnight *my mind works in mysterious ways*). Then suddenly up pounced the kitty cat which lives downstairs. The mouse mistakenly ran backwards and encountered the cat. And squeaked really loudly (it was quite funny). And he ran off to the mailboxes.

The cat turned and saw me, and stood startled, until I walked past him. I was wondering if I should reward the heroic pussy with some sardines.

Anyway it was quite amusing. I am afraid of Mr Mouse, which is afraid of Miss Pussy, who is afraid of me.

汤圆

2011-12-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

I know it's not the winter solstice yet. But on Wednesday I was mocked by a Chinese Mainlander on Wednesday when I ordered 汤圆 by mistake (I thought I had memorized the menu at the steamboat restaurant near my violin class) when I wanted 云吞.Then I thought, fuck that, I want to eat 汤圆. Especially when it is so cold nowadays =D.

So I cooked some yesterday after dinner. This is macha flavor and it is disgusting! So bitter in a mouthful. Dun likes!!!

Seen in a rich man's garden in Stockholm

2011-12-01T08:49:00.001-08:00

Swedish people are not only good at making furniture. They are also very good at making phallic art. *haha*

Some joker made a comment that the star of David on the right makes it understandable why the lack of foreskin.

Priceless.

Since when Stubble == Sexy? I must have missed the memo

2011-12-01T08:11:00.001-08:00

Stubble is the way to win a woman’s heart, a study has shown. Researchers found that women are more attracted to men with stubbly chins than those with clean-shaven faces or full beards. Women participating in the research rated men with stubble as tough, mature, aggressive, dominant and masculine - and as the best romantic partners, either for a fling or a long-term relationships. - The Telegraph, 29 June 2008 (sorry it is so old, I came across it when reading about the new international sex school *yet one more reason why I should learn german*)

I totally disagree.

I hate stubble. I am sure men can look masculine and sexy without that scratchy carpet on their face. What a turn-off! But then again...

Stalin did look kinda hot during his salad days. This morning I saw a guy who looked like him. Maybe a little less deranged looking...still kind of sexy though. Wouldn't you love to run your hand through that luscious thick thatch of hair...But that stubble? MOW IT. I find it funny that Caucasian men are always screaming that women with *ahem* hair is very disgusting. Yet wearing it on their faces is ok? Double standards!

Updated!!!
Oh the sex school is fake. *ich bin ein Traurig Apfel*

2011-12-01T07:21:00.001-08:00

So I am still packing up my stuff to move to the new place.

Learnt a few things in the meantime.

1. I don't have that many books after all (which is why I am asking for Kinokuniya vouchers again).

2. Don't move your toys ahead unless you can stand the separation.

3. Never show your government some weird ornament that you want to throw away and feel guilty for throwing something he might have given you, and ask him, "eh, can I throw this?"

Only to have him say, "which lover gave you this?"

Oh fuck. >.<"

Time has passed but the hurt remains

2011-11-29T18:32:00.001-08:00

After leaving 10 years of convent school, I was thrown into a co-ed environment with a concept of love totally skewed by the romance books I have been devouring (I blame you, The Teenage Workbook). How badly skewed, you may ask? I envisaged that I was like Sissy Song, falling in love with a cool dude like Daniel Boon. Yes, that bad.

What happened painfully was that I still having this crazy notion that I would marry someone from my brother school, and so had a major crush on someone who did come from that school throughout the two years of junior college. I did not know that the guy was actually dating a girl from my so-called friend's class, until one day (near graduation) I happened to see them walk hand in hand out of school when I had to go home early because I was running a high temperature. It was not a good day.

What was even more amazing was that that girl was very popular, and was crushed by many guys. For a while, I was being "wooed" by a guy from another boy's school (I was such a snob). Truthfully I was not into him because I was still nuts about that guy. The fact that he was a flautist in the school band also turned me off, which now proves what an innocent or stupid brain I have (my god, think about it, he knows how to do controlled blowing. I have failed to appreciate such a talent *hahahahaah*.)

On top of it, my so-called friend, the one who failed to tell me that my crush was dating her classmate was very enthusiastic about telling me that whatever handmade gift the flautist gave me, he had already given her classmate. Wow. Major turn-off. I wasn't going to take any girl's sloppy seconds (again, I was a snob). So I created some really lame reason and just told the guy not to bother me anymore.

However I still wanted to be friends. He didn't talk to me for a while, and after graduation, out of the blue, he invited me out to watch a concert with him. Sparks still did not fly for me, and I found myself eyeballing other guys on the MRT. I think he knew there and then, so again we lost contact. I did feel a little bit guilty for not liking him, but I thought that he was trying his luck, not that he was really interested (because of the double present thingee and because I look vastly different from his crush. She looks like Japanese, and I look like a foreign maid on my good days. And I believe that people will always have types. Like me, I love tall quiet geeks).

We bumped into each other some years later, on my birthday. My beloved Grandmother said she was treating me for dinner because my parents were out of town, so I drove her, my aunt, B1 (we were together already) to Thomson Plaza for dinner at Peach Garden. We were walking around the mall after dinner, and I was holding onto my grandmother and chatting animatedly. B1 was being his usual sulky self and walking some distance behind, looking elsewhere. Suddenly I saw him and this girl (who looks totally different from me, thus proving my point again) walking together. Unlike the time when I was totally devastated when I saw my crush doing that with that girl, I was actually happy to see the flautist happy. He had lost weight due to NS, and he looked very happy. I waved at him, but he pretended not to see me. However I knew he saw me, because after he walked past me, he whispered to the girl and she turned and gave me one long stare. And then they tongued each other while making sure I was looking. I had to because they were in my LOS, and my grandmother was very slow in walking, but in my mind I was like, hahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha. I later emailed him when I reached home and congratulated him and wished him well. But he never replied.

I was thinking about him recently, because I saw someone in the office who looked like the slimmer him. I wondered if he married the girl and was happy. However so coincidentally, I bumped into him when out shopping with B1. This time I was holding hands with the reluctant B1 who was whining I was ruining his chances with other girls, when we encountered him. He looked like his old JC self again, and wore a sour expression when we caught each other's eyes. I wanted to stop and talk, but he just stalked past.

Why?

Being a Single Female in China

2011-11-28T05:56:00.000-08:00

The China's One-child policy started in 1978, and has been wrecking the gender ratio devastatingly since then. By 2020, as many as 24 million Chinese men will be doomed to make love to their hand for life. But the Chinese government doesn't care about those stats...

What they did instead is target the single woman, also known as "剩女" (Leftover woman). I mean yeah, they address both single men and women in their "2010中国人婚恋状况调查报告" report, but they actually have hilarious labels for the single woman from 25 years old and up.

Before we go into that...I translated some of the findings:

The report revealed that more than 40% of interviewed women hopes that their other half is a civil servant (this is of course not the same in Singapore), with other preferred choices being managers, policemen/military officers, entrepreneurs and medical professionals, thus showing women prefer stability in a relationship. 38.3% of interviewed men hopes that their other half is a teacher, with their other preferred choices being civil servants, medical professionals, bank professionals. 52.1% of interviewed men had no preference for the woman's career.

The major difference between the single men and women is that when men search for their other half, they focus on the woman's outward appearance, not so much on their capability at work, whereas their female counterpart are interested in the man's earning ability and work capability.

70% of interviewed women feel that the man should have a house, a stable income and a certain level of savings before he can get married. Amongst them, ~65% wish that the man's income is twice that of theirs, whereas 63% of interviewed men do not have high expectations on the woman's income.

Usually the women expect to pay more for expenses before marriage, and even more after marriage, though 53.2% of interviewed women expect the wife to manage the household budget. Sociologist Li Yinghe analyzed that some women's innate "subservient" mindset, and their expectations that the man must own a house conflicts with today's society advocating the independent woman.

Marriage expert Wang Zhiguo pointed out that mating habits are clearly skewed, erronously focusing on "house is more dependable than a man" and "crave big money" views on marriage (why target the women again??).

Nibblezware: Interestingly ageism is still very prevalent in modern China (and Singapore).

According to the report, the woman's mating pressures stem from men's expectations on the woman's age. More than 90% of the men felt that women should marry before 27 years of age, and of these, 32% felt that a woman's optimal marriage age is between 20-24 years old (someone go pull me to ze barn and shoot me between ze eyes). It is pretty obvious that age is cruel to a woman's quest for love.

On the other hand, more than 50% of women felt that the man's optimal marriage age is between 28- 30 years old. Because men of this age range tend to have worked for a while, so would likely have stable careers and a certain purchasing power, therefore said women would be more willing to marry the mature male.

23.8% of single people rely on their parents to find their other halves. The report also showed that singles born after 1980 (i.e. children born after the single child policy) are even more dependent on their parents' opinions and break up with their lovers due to parental dislike. This is because these singles are the result of the one-child policy in China, and usually not financially emancipated, therefore needing parental approval.

Most of the interviewed singles expressed a need for matchmaking aids, and cited reasons for their singlehood are due to small social circles, lacking own intiative, hurt from previous breakups and not knowing how to interact with the opposite gender.

Here comes the best part of the report:

看看你“剩”到了哪一级
This will help you define which category of leftovers you belong to:

25~27岁剩斗士
25 to 27 years old Literal translation: "Leftover fighter" (Phonetic equivalent - Saint)
初级剩女，这些人还有勇气继续为寻找伴侣而奋斗，故称“剩斗士”
Beginner level of the "Leftover Bachelorette", these persons still perserve to find their other half.

28~30岁必剩客
28 to 30 years old Literal translation: "Sure to be leftover" (Phonetic equivalent: Sure Successor)

中级剩女，此时属于她们的机会已经不多，又因为事业而无暇寻觅，别号“必剩客”(必胜客)
Middle stage of the "Leftover Bachelorette", do not have that many chances at love and because of their careers, lack time to pursue love.

31~35岁斗战剩佛
31 to 35 years old Literal translation: "Leftover surivor" (Phonetic equivalent: Battle God)
高级剩女，在残酷的职场斗争中存活下来，依然单身，被尊称为“斗战剩佛”(斗战胜佛)
High level of "Leftover Bachelorette", survivor of the cruel workplace, still single.

35岁往上齐天大剩
35 years and above. Literally "The Monkey God"

那就是特级剩女，当尊之为“齐天大剩”(Phonetic equivalent: The Monkey God)
The ultimate "Leftover Bachelorette", respectfully referred to as the Monkey God.

All of a kind soup

2011-11-28T02:47:00.000-08:00

It was supposed to be oden...it looks kind of gross, nicht wahr? Haha. But it was hot and nice during a cold rainy night.

2011-11-25T07:20:00.001-08:00

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Rg7kN0soGF5B6D4U=JkHmX

Jajangmyeon

2011-11-25T05:52:00.000-08:00

Why Swimming is good for Women

2011-11-24T23:02:00.001-08:00

2 words. Pectoralis major.

Even if you don't want to develop pecs that can jerk up and down like those bodybuilders can, swimming the usual front crawl, backstroke and breaststrokes can keep your boobies from sagging, and ever perky and firm =D. I usually do at least 5 laps of backstrokes when I swim.

I saw it on a South Korean tv programme, and the man had bigger breasts than everyone in the audience *hahaha*.

Emo Elmo Me

2011-11-24T22:31:00.001-08:00

Being stupid as usual, I cut my finger VERY DEEPLY after I was challenged by Vater to de-skin a pile of water chestnuts. And just to prove its my bad luck at work, it was the last chestnut. Now I cannot swim, until the bloody wound closes, so I decided to read some blogs, while praying that it does not rain. Oh come on, how will I get to see all the hotties if it keeps raining!!! Damn you Wetter, give me sunburn then rain on my parade...

The lady @ ThreeLittleBaers was saying that she unearthed her precious teddy bear while rearranging her cupboards. She showed her little boy the bear and told him about the stories she shared with teddy. At first it appeared that her son did not care, which kind of made her sad, but soon she saw her teddy hanging out with the rest of her son's precious toys. And teddy even got her own bed!

Damn, I am still feeling very emo, because I almost shed a tear when I read this. Hormonal imbalance. No wonder I picked a fight with a new friend in Skype (well, he is ignoring me now so no loss cos I HATE PETTY MEN *see it is that stupid emo elmo me at it again*) that day, when I was especially needy and EMO after doing OT despite being very sick.

I think I will love it if one day I decide to have a kiddie and kiddie wants to play with Mommy's toys. Toys are meant to be loved, and I would love it with my kid creates new memories with my toys. Ok, except Gerald. No one touches my Gerald. I once nearly killed a fat kid after he sat on Gerald. Motherfucker had the whole sofa, but he had to sit on my poor skinny bolster. I spent the entire chalet stay (he was my cousin's guest) inflicting psychological damage on him.

On other news, Ductuan got his cookies like 11 days ago (I sent them 17 days ago), while Schnappi, yesterday. I told Schnappi that they arrived just in time to go into the dustbin, but the boy insisted on trying a little bit (well they were all little bits, that's why the German police went to open the damn box, and therefore the delay). Yes, I can see how, they could appear as weed in a xray scanner (no). Well, the poor boy can do what I predicted, line up the cookies like coke and inhale the crumbs...Not sure if B1's Japanese lover got hers =D

"Stand By Me" Violin score

2011-11-24T10:21:00.001-08:00

[original source]

Ghost's "Unchained Melody" Violin Score

2011-11-24T06:49:00.001-08:00

Well, most people will remember it from the movie, Ghost. I on the other hand, remember this song as the background music I used for a narration that I did for Secondary 1 Literature class. I believe the book was The Snow Goose, I remembered it because of Dunkirk (everyone knows I am a WWII nut). And why did I use the song? Because it had the words "God speed (your love to me)" same as the words the girl utters to the man when he sets off for his brave rescue, though the fact that I had instead established a very wrong connotation for the relationship between the book's protagonists did not cross my innocent 13 year old mind *hahaha*.

[original site]

EyCz166b9f3d946ede00376d56333713f4d02e0361c1b66b9f3d946ede00376d56333W3/P/ho/kwB H4G5Gzk759KEO6eiFOze4nXC8oqysXFy8SQQBW1vySe1SPNGfTpKWWFbG9gclJkHmX

2011-11-24T05:27:00.001-08:00

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lMTeaVkIljPwXbClT+pmmG5ocmdo5bgqG7n/tFCmZLdGkfH1IiPT21Vheew8AB9AHPtHoMgWHNkYVssf

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P8oSOgM6fP56i68Xj9RgQgVF7bbuZOEJgAFt4G9gAPiCkendVknVh44Qg097vfeDgvDt3BD96jYidxkE

ihWj+XiY=JkHmX

Decode this, and you will learn something useful =D

BattleField 3 - B1 style

2011-11-24T03:49:00.000-08:00

Most people play with controllers. B1 plays Battlefield 3 with PS3 and an emulator...

The pragmatic side of me would ask why the hell you don't just play pc version? The geek loving side of me is totally digging this =D

I also realize that I suck at FPS. Both of us had motion sickness watching me move across the scene. No wonder I have to stick to RTS. I asked B1 if most girls cannot play FPS, he said no, because in that case most women also cannot play RTS. How can that be, women are such scheming creatures. RTS is up our alley =D.

Pho Gia Truyen 49 Bat Dan Street

2011-11-23T18:09:00.001-08:00

When you go to Hanoi, there are two things you must eat: the traditional ice-cream at Kem Trang Tien and the Pho at 49 Bat Dan street. When I visited Ductuan, he wanted to bring me to both places to try, but wasn't able to due to dietary concerns of my party. The long suffering Mr Manhunt and I went there some days later while I was collecting my cushion covers.

There is a constant flow of customers in and out of the shop, slurping up the hot noodles with enjoyment. I was certainly one of them. The meat was soft and the stock was not overwhelmingly moo but nicely flavored. I like~! One can even order eggs or fried dough fritters to go with their pho.The various types of chili condiments complemented the beef brilliantly. It was a simple but delicious meal.

Urban Warfare

2011-11-23T17:55:00.001-08:00

I am housekeeping my computer and given the amount of crap I have, it's been quite funny to find all these weird photos I have...here is one of them.

My Beloved Mutter

2011-11-23T17:44:00.001-08:00

My greatest cheerleader in life. Thanks Mother, you are always there for me. I took this one Sunday afternoon while we were at the Esplanade for an afternoon concert. She just happened to be gazing out of the library window. I don't know why I like this photo a lot. Probably because Mutter is always a buzzer of activity so it's hard to catch her sitting down and take a breath.

Ancient Indian Blow Job (Updated!!!)

2011-11-22T07:02:00.001-08:00

I saw "The Karma Sutra" among the Penguin Classics, when I was on a bend to write flowery language to piss off my English teacher who was forcing the whole class to write a journal (an irony not lost on me now). Actually I lie, I was very into reading the Brönte sisters, and Jane Austen. No I do not aspire to be like Jane Eyre or Cathy. In fact my favorite book was "the Professor", the first book written by Charlotte (disclaimer: I do not share whatever the prejudices implied inside the book).

But Karma Sutra. At S$3.90, how could I resist? I also bought another Penguin Classic "Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure". I think I need to evaluate my plebeian tastes in reading.

Seriously the book sucked *snicker*. Why would I care about the acquisition of a wife? though the last part, "the Means of Attracting others to yourself" is highly amusing. Listen to this, "If a man, after anointing his lingam with a mixture of the powders of the white thorn apple, the long pepper and the black pepper, and honey, engages in sexual union with a woman, he makes her subject to his will."

I almost died laughing, which is entirely achievable because I am still coughing lots of yucky green phlegm. Don't ask me what is lingam.

But the piece de resistance of the book has to be the part about the Auparishtaka or Mouth Congress. Apparently some eunuchs worked as shampooers. Apparently Soapland Princesses existed back in the day huh?

I quote from the book:

"Under the pretense of shampooing, a eunuch of this kind (the book means the kind who dresses like men and harbor sexual desires) embraces and draws toward himself the thighs of the man whom he is shampooing, and after this, he touches the joints of the thighs and the jaghana or central portions, of the body. Then if he finds the lingam of the man erect, he presses it with his hands, and chaffs him for getting into that state. If after this, and after knowing the eunuch's intention, the man does not tell the eunuch to proceed, then the latter does it of his own accord and begins the congress. If however, he is ordered by the man to do it, then he disputes with him, and consents at last but only with difficulty.

The following eight things are then done by the eunuch one after the other:

The nominal congress

Biting the sides

Pressing outside

Pressing inside

Kissing

Rubbing

Sucking a mango fruit

Swallowing up"

At the end of each of these, the eunuch expresses his wish to stop but when one of them is finished, the man desires him to do another, and after that is done, then the one that follows it, and so on.

(1) When, holding the man's lingam with his hand, and placing it between his lips, the eunuch moves his mouth about, it is called "the nominal congress"

(2) When, covering the end of the lingam with his fingers collected together like the bud of a plant or flower, the eunuch presses the sides of it with his lips, using his teeth also, it is called "biting the sides."

(3) When, being desired to proceed, the eunuch presses the end of the lingam with his lips closed together and kisses it as if he were drawing it out, it is called the "outside pressing."

(4) When, being asked to go on, he puts the lingam further into his mouth and presses it with his lips and then takes it out, it is called "inside pressing."

(5) When, holding the lingam in his hand, the eunuch kisses it as if he were kissing the lower lip, it is called "pressing".

(6) When, after kissing it, he touches it with his tongue everywhere, and passes his tongue over the end of it, it is called "rubbing".

(7) When, in the same way, he puts the half of it into his mouth and forcibly kisses and sucks it, this is called "sucking a mango fruit".

(8) And, lastly, when with the consent of the man, the eunuch puts the whole lingam into his mouth and presses it to the very end, as if he were going to swallow it up, it is called "swallowing up".

Striking, scratching, and other things may also be done during this kind of congress.

2011-11-21T18:59:00.001-08:00

I am crabby, I am bitchy. I am running a temperature. I crave my medicine, but I cannot take them because I need to mentally alert for the meeting in the afternoon. This too, soon shall pass (I remember the words from a blog I used to read and also from my vendor, who used to face tougher shit than me).

Never will I stay awake chatting or playing COH for the whole night again.

Anyway while researching the meaning of "FML" (it seems that I am still not Internet savvy enough to know most of the abbreviations), I came across Singapore version of FML. Now I don't feel so awful anymore...

Beautiful stories in English version of Woman's Weekly

2011-11-20T09:15:00.001-08:00

I don't like to read the very shallow Singapore Woman's Weekly and the equally lame Australia Woman's Weekly. Instead I love the English version, which obviously targets the Tante in me. =D I love their short stories and to a lesser extent, the serialized ones because I can never borrow those magazines in order so I always miss a good portion of the story.

In the issue I was reading, there was an English couple who exchanged 675 love letters during WWII. They shortly married after the war and shared 60 beautiful years together until she passed on after their Diamond Anniversary. I love this kind of sentimental crap, especially the line Joan wrote "I shall think of you, Tony, as I watch the swallows flying home and I watch always for your return".

Short story from Women's Weekly which I thought is very true and well written

one chicken two meals

2011-11-20T08:53:00.001-08:00

I hate handling raw chicken. Especially those that still have the beady-eyed chicken heads dangling morosely from their lifeless bodies...I saw the Cold Storage was selling "fresh" chickens for S$8 (which is quite expensive), so I went past it to the delicatessen counter where the staff cajoled me into buying his BBQed items which were going at half price. He had one last Black Pepper Roast chicken so I bought that. Actually some years ago, I bought a book which taught how to make meals out of leftover roast chicken, but I later stupidly chucked it out, thinking I was above leftovers. I had evidently forgotten about the raw bird.

I made two meals out of that chicken, gingerly cutting the meat off the bones and making soup out of that and other parts that I wouldn't eat (parson's nose being one of them). The dark meat was used for lunch, and since I did not have an oven still, I painstakingly substituted roasting with steaming the dark meat then giving them in a quick turn in the frying pan, so that the skin remained nice and crisp. It was drenched in a homemade cashew nut and black pepper gravy, and accompanied by dry mashed potatoes (we ran out of milk, but we are so lazy to even go downstairs and buy milk or take out the remaining cream from the freezer) and portobello omelet.

The breast meat, I cut into smaller pieces and boiled it quickly with Fusilli and caixin in the stock I made with the inedible chicken parts and soy beans.Quick dinner on a cold night.

Japanese Models so Kawaii

2011-11-17T06:55:00.001-08:00

I wish I was lying on the bed surrounded by those goddesses =D.

Naughty bathing experience @ ジテレビの温泉番組 Let's go to the onsen!!!

2011-11-15T03:44:00.001-08:00

Just when I thought the Argentinians were very unique in showing such ribald content on national television, FujiTV in Japan upped them with ジテレビの温泉番組. This very popular tv programme ostensibly reviews onsens (hot springs), while showing off magnificient bits of the female reporters.

At one point, I could not decide whether they are showcasing the bloody onsen facilities or the woman's butt. Was it really necessary for her to sit at the corner of the bloody bath? Just so that you can do a peekaboo? I think if I post the pictures, my blog may get blocked!!!

Japanese Curry

2011-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

We are big on Japanese curry. Like I said before, frozen carrots are scary, they look damaged, their molecular structures are altered and the texture in the mouth feels weird. I forgot too that brisket is not a good cut of meat to use for fast cooking.

My obsession with the German Language

2011-11-13T04:34:00.001-08:00

Well, I have become somewhat obsessed with learning the German language. I pick up a new obsession to distract myself from whatever else that is not going well for me. Perhaps it is because I am ashamed that I am taking way too long to learn a language, and I am not getting any younger.

I have increased my immersion in the language by watching SesamStrasse (bloody Ernie has gone to speaking Greek to me, this has not happened since I was 7 years old), I also write a German blog and emails to German-speaking friends. However I am not very sure whether whatever I am writing is grammatically correct even though I have also started reading German Grammatik.

So as of today, I have become a English teacher on livemocha.com. The website allows you to teach others your native languages (the irony that English is now my "native" language instead of Mandarin is not lost on me) so that you can earn points to learn new languages. The idea is absolutely brilliant.

My aim is to gain 300 points as a Language teacher so that I can learn the beginner level in ALL languages for free. I have 236 points after 18 contributions.

Ciabatta Sandwich

2011-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Since I am seldom at the house, I have a habit of dumping everything in the freezer, so that they will last just a bit longer...frozen carrots are scary. Unfortunately, this means that it is a bitch to defrost or thaw them especially since I wasn't going to get any old microwave (and therefore still hadn't).

So we went to the supermarket downstairs, while B1 started queueing (because the queues were so long!!!!), I dashed around and bought mushrooms, the makings of a salad, ciabatta and some ham (100g ham == 4 slices, how sad).

I think I need to learn how to better portion the food. B1 doesn't eat much and I cook very generously. Even I had difficulty finishing the sandwich (though I enjoyed the leftover brisket soup). Yumz.

My Big Bang Theory Brisket

2011-11-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

I am a huge fan of the Big Bang Theory. And I always remember Howard going on and on about his mother's brisket. So I decided to buy some brisket too =D when I was at the supermarket. Well, I am not sure what kind of brisket his mother cooks, but this is my version. Soft melt-in-your-mouth kind, especially the tendons (which B1 hates so I got to eat more kekeke *methinks I should cook more brisket*) with fluffy potatoes, some tomatoes, onions and asparagus.

Happy 2nd Birthday Go!!!

2011-11-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

I remember at the time of release I thought that Google was going to replace Android's Java base to Go base, especially with the court case by Oracle. Guess not. I learnt a bit of it but my heart was anchored on the adorable Gordon itself. Man, it was not meant to be. Of all the programming languages in the world, I hate C++ the most.

PS. Yes I do realize this is the old logo for Apple. =P But I like the contrast, so there!

身为华人真差劲

2011-11-07T08:57:00.001-08:00

我目前在分裂我房间里的故事书，以方便后期搬家的过程。英语书堆满得像座山，而德语书虽然被我县太贵却已经变成有10多本了。

反而中文书只有4本，而且是小学程度的。也难怪我的华语理解能力不强，讲的华语也是半桶水。最搞笑的是，老娘以前小学时还是读高级华文的。真是失败。。。

现在领悟到自己的缺点之后，我觉得我应该开始借读多点华文书。以前的我也经常这样说，可是每次都半途而废。希望这次会例外 =D。反正，失败乃成功之母，最重要是不要放弃。

Filet Mignon Dinner

2011-11-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

Someone told me that I was cooking way too much Japanese at the new house (actually I think I was overdoing Korean instead). Well, when you think about it, B1's greatest fantasy was to marry a Japanese SAHM, and I do try to please his palate. Japanese cooking is also cleaner and simpler (I hate wiping the galley when I am done cooking) with delicate flavors.

However like I said last week, I do miss some of the fancy restaurants I used to eat at. So when I saw those mini filet mignon steaks at ThreeSixty I knew I had to get them. Intriguingly those that are marinated with herbs and those that are not come at the same price (they both have a slice of streaky bacon running around the steak). Unfortunately I didn't have time to cook them until the weekend so I froze them (the injustice!!!)

I also had a craving for a baked potato. But I had forgotten I still have no microwave oven (thus limiting my repertoire of dishes, I have been hunting for an excellent microwave oven, but most ovens nowadays seem dumb like bricks and serve merely to reheat. I want be able to bake, broil and grill). Of course I could just boil the potato in their skins but I knew that B1 wouldn't eat them and I don't like that weird chalky taste from the skin. So I just deskinned, chopped and boiled them before dumping cream cheese and bacon bits on them. <= my new favorite feel-good dish.

I took a shortcut and made Campbell's Chicken Mushroom soup using the vegetable water (no nutrient can escape from me~!~)

As for the steak, I searched online for how to cook the steak decently. At home I would just fry the edges at high heat, then dump the lot in the oven. But since I have no oven... I ended up frying then boiling the meat (poured too much water in my haste). I am making wet steaks!!! I wanted them medium, but was too paranoid that I have overcooked them in the gravy that they ended up becoming rare...should have butterflied them. At least the gravy was fairly decent, I made them with the beef water (hehe), onions (I had fried the onions with the steak), thyme from my baby garden and red wine.

While we were eating them, B1 made the comment that the steaks were really 小さい. I replied that they were Japanese-sized, but now looking at the photos, it does look like I have four side dishes on a plate. Hahahah.

Accompanied by some Chilean plonk

I am a tight pussy. I don't like paying for expensive wines (Goodbye most of Bordeaux region *haha Kari*). Since I am no wine connoisseur, buying cheap plonks are the way to go for me. I especially love buying wines on sale (I have never been able to recover from buying the Boone's at S$5. Now buying it at a discounted S$8 still seems too expensive *Haha* But I do love the sparkling juice *at 2% alcoholic content, it is pretending to be a wine!*) This vina Maipo is fairly decent as a table wine. But if it is not on discount, I ain't buying it.

Beautiful Autumn

2011-11-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

HM sent me a photo he took while walking his Poochie. Isn't Germany beautiful in the Autumn? *droolz* Look at the contrast in the leaves' colors!

Putien Lunch with a squealing Baby is scary

2011-11-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I decided to start taking my one day off per week strategy to clear out my yesteryear leave, because we are very busy now so it is not very considerate to take all the leave at one go. Schnappi said it wouldn't be as restful as block leave would, but I think the emo drop after coming back from block leave is very much worse.

Still I did manage to enjoy myself yesterday. I convinced Mutter to smuggle the little darling, i.e. my baby Neffe, out to NEX. I promised her an excellent lunch. I was in need of one myself, after living like a puritan all these months since buying the *&%# apartment. Signs are showing that the disciplined life is killing me. I actually ran to the ThreeSixty supermarket at ION on Thursday. Somehow shopping in an atas supermarket restored my happiness bar, though I still hesitated to buy foie gras. Anyone knows where I can buy cheap but decent foie gras? I want to pan fry foie gras and beef cubes like the Lei Garden does. But I did buy two prepared filet mignon. Hmm. How to cook a decent filet mignon??? Youtube to the rescue!!!

I have never been to Putien so I was agreeable when Mutter suggested that for lunch. Apparently they have a ala carte buffet, my SIL later told me, but I stupidly ordered from the ala carte menu. O.Opz.

I didn't order much, just a Homemade tofu, Chicken in red lees (Love to eat that, still trying to figure out how to make it myself), White Lor Mee, and yam cubes. The yam cubes was interesting, deepfried and then adorned with a piquant (tastes sweet yet has a weird taste of shrimp *eek*) sauce. But totally diminishing rate of returns after a few bites, it was a bit of struggle trying to finish the dish. The chicken was a disappointment, because the portion is kind of pathetic and not very tasty. The tofu was ordinary, I do not believe that they made it themselves, it tastes like the generic supermarket kind fried in lard.

I forgot to take a photo of the unmemorable tofu =D

Food wise it was kind of a blah, despite the unique dishes and my being very hungry, because of all the bloody MSG they put in them. This means an automatic ban for me.

Mutter ordered a special corn drink which cost an eye-watering SGD5.90, and myself a equally scary imported tea (from Taiwan) at SGD4.90. The drinks are not cheap! The lunch came out to be SGD65, plus tips. I had to tip them because of the emotional distress my Neffe caused *Hahaha*.

The little precious cried a bit when we struggled to put him into the baby chair (the irony that he cried later when I lifted him out of the same chair after the lunch was not lost on me). The restaurant gave us a corner table. Bad idea, because the Neffe could not be distracted by the goings-on outside, so he was extremely engrossed in distracting us. He kept squealing, not the cute baby kind but the piggy going to get killed kind, because he wanted us to feed him too even though he already had his lunch. I can see the resemblance between him and I in this case *haha*. Mutter fed him a banana but he wanted to be fed the banana at the same time we were having lunch. He didn't want to feed himself. One thing good about the baby was that he will accept any food =D so we gave him some tofu and Mutter's corn drink as well. He will eat anything but he will grin if he likes what he is tasting.

I apologized to the table next to us. I appreciated that they did not request to change tables despite the Neffe and after watching so much Crayon Shinchan, I figured it was good manners for destroying their dining experience. Besides when I am at a decent restaurant I do get annoyed at little children running around and making a lot of noise. So I can understand how they feel. On one hand, I despair at my baby Neffe squealing non-stop (powerful lungs the kid has), and yet I find him irresistible.

Service was excellent, but the waitresses did not help matters by teasing the baby. He is such a handsome little bugger so I am not surprised. We did draw some curious stares because he has a Caucasian-like complexion and I looked like his bloody Filipina maid who was handling him awkwardly. The waitresses kept walking to the table to play with him.

If I thought he cried excessively when we put him in his chair, it was nothing compared to when one of the waitresses put her head near the spoon, pretending to steal his banana. The baby cried like we were starving him. Tears rolled extravagantly down his cheeks like a waterfall. It must have been some banana, I was thinking. Thereafter he kept eyeballing at the same lady whenever she walked near the table.

Love the boy, but I think he is the best contraceptive a woman can have.

My first Erdbeeren crop

2011-11-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

May it be the first of many. I am happily trying to grow more of them from the 3 runners =D

I read that potassium helps. Hmmm. The damn things are SAUER though.