If you can't go to the Barbershop

 

My Anniversary Menu

10 Jahre... the nightmare continues?

We spent our tenth year anniversary getting angry with each other. But of course, there is nothing alcohol cannot solve. We went to The Cedar Pit (featured on BusinessTimesWeekend yesterday) @ Joo Chiat, to buy some fun stuff to drink. 

I was pretty excited to see that the shop carries Brothers series of artisan beers. I last drank that at Colbar... hmm must check whether this shop is cheaper or Colbar is?

The guy was quite dumb though. We bought 3 non-chilled beers, and 1 chilled one (for drinking immediately), because it was 4 for $26.  I said to him, this one to go, the other three to wrap. And then he didn't open it, and dumped all of them in the same plastic bag...

B1 had to remind him to take it out and open it.

Of all my years of receiving flowers, I find this color scheme most sophisticated =D

Congratulate me! I finally reclaimed my stupid gmail address

It's all those stupid Chinese hackers' fault. I went to change all my gmail passwords last year after the hacking attack on Google servers. And then of all the passwords, this was the only one I forgot, and it was the most important one, because it was my personal one. 

And then after so many months of guessing wrongly what is my favourite food, and also realizing the futility because the recovery email address had been cancelled, so effectively I am stuck... finally Google decided to change the password recovery process. 

I didn't succeed the first time, but second time I did, and now I logged in realizing that there are so many email spam!!! And also finally found my family friend's email address. My nephew is now 6 months. I was supposed to tell the guy. Damn.

Marina Bay Sands ArtScienceMuseum - Other shots

Whatever I have bitched earlier about the exhibits, I am glad that I have something nice and cultured to associate with Marina Bay Sands, instead of that nasty mental recollection of that horrible transgender "model" wearing barely nothing and contaminating the infinity pool upstairs (don't ask me where I saw the pics, my eyes are still bleeding).

Free tickets!!!

The Marina Bay Sands ArtScienceMuseum

My fav exhibit - camels!!! at the Silk Road Exhibit

Idea behind "Buddha hand"

Top Down, centre of Museum

Bottom up, the centre of the museum

Not sure where B1 took this

The Singapore Flyer (I rather take a bullet to my brain then ride the thing ever again) and the Helix Bridge

While watching the Uighur version of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond

The centre guy does not look like Hammond, nor does the guy on the right look like May, but I kept thinking Top Gear!!!

See original post on Genghis Khan exhibit @ Marina Bay Sands ArtScienceMuseum

B1's witticisms - Poverty our new leitmotif

We were wandering in Sim Lim today checking out which shop was selling our antivirus cheapest  (I won't say which brand). We are poor, we were so cheapo we stood outside the uncle's shop and played free games, until it was time for me to return to work for meeting (they made me change to half day leave so that I would be around for the meeting).

Alluding to the popular blog IeatIshootIpost, B1 was moaning that last time when he visited Sim Lim, it was "I look, I like, I buy".  

Now we are "I look, I gian (crave), I lun (sulk) (hold it in)".

Updated!!!
B1 said lun means "hold it in" not sulk. Now I have no idea what it means.

Genghis Khan @ Marina Bay Sands ArtScienceMuseum

I am extremely picky when it comes to office events. Usually I'd rather finish my work than go blow an hour or two on flying a kite at Marina Barrage or something lame. 

But when I heard that the office was organizing a visit to the ArtScienceMuseum at the Marina Bay Sands Casino (you know, the building shaped like a flower/ buddha hand next to the Singapore River), I really perked up. At S$30 a ticket, it was an opportunity I wasn't going to ignore. In fact I was so determined that I even wrangled a ticket for B1. I even opted to go for a really super hypocritical event that happened before the museum visit, because they said they were giving tickets there. You see the event was nearer to my office, so I thought I would go for the tickets there and return to work. Damn, after I was conned into going, they said the tickets were going to be distributed at the museum directly, and I couldn't get out of going for the event. So I had to attend the event, and then travel back to office from the Casino after getting the tickets.

But it was worth all the pain, even though I was super exhausted the next day from all the walking back and fro Marina (spent my entire Saturday sleeping). I strategized like mad, and got B1 to drive me at 5pm from work (in the end, he was late) so that we could watch the special performances the museum was throwing that night. 

We got there at 630pm, and spent the next 3.5 hours wandering the building and watching the two performances, the Mongolian Throat Singing & Musical Performance by Khan Bogd Ensemble and A Journey Along the Silk Road - Song & Dance of the Uighur. 

Exhibition wise, I can't say it was worth S$30. I was super glad that I got the tickets free. On Friday, there were only three exhibitions, the Genghis Khan, the Silk Road and Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds. Well, yes, the museum got a lot of exhibits from various museums and collections from all over the world, even the super creepy Princess Giant mummified figure. But on hindsight, I think the museum put in a lot of music, drapery and partitions to maze up the entire area  and build the ambience so as to kind of camouflage the fact that the place is too big versus the variety of content they have to show.. The fourth floor was really lame, cos it was just two amphitheater-like areas showcasing the building architecture itself. Eh... 

I did like the performances though, especially the former by the Mongolian ensemble. Too bad for my colleagues who went home early. =P And I also love collecting chops from museums *winks*.

 

 

 

 

 

Saucy Sauces to enliven your palate

Pesto Sauce
300g Basil
100g Parsley
200cc Olive Oil
30g Chopped Garlic
20g Cheese Powder
30g Pine Nuts
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper

Blend everything together and mash into a paste

Orange Sauce
50cc Concentrated Orange Juice
100cc Fresh Cream
30cc Lemon Juice
20g Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

Hollandaise Sauce
2 Egg Yolks
80g Cream
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Satay Sauce
100g Garlic Peanut
10g Curry Powder
20g Hot Soy Bean Paste
50cc Stock
50g Coconut Sugar
50cc Coconut Milk
Salt

Mango Sauce
1 Mango
5g Chopped Coriander
5g Chopped Chili
Lemon Juice
Honey
Chopped Black Pepper

I have been largely Silent

I have been stunned into silence by the devastation wrecked on Japan since last Friday. B1 lost contact with his penpal, who is pregnant with her third child. The American mommy whose blog I read has to abandon her beloved husband and house and flee for the safety of her two boys.

Everywhere people are suffering.  I logged into Facebook (using my friend's acc) looking at my colleague's recent Japan trip photos. Every photo seemed to reflect a forgotten past, a slice of an idyllic life no more.

I read the news with dreaded fascination, it's like a terrible accident that you cannot help staring at it incomprehensibly. I take heart at the miracles, and admire the patience of the civilians still queuing patiently for their rapidly depleting resources, quietly salvaging the remains of their homes instead of looting and causing more harm as we have seen in many of such situations before. I am especially  in awe of the Fukushima Fifty, the group of 180 Fukushima plant employees who returned to the scene even despite being evacuated this morning for their safety, to continue battling the fires, explosions and radiation leaks and pump water to cool down the reactors in rotating shifts of 50. Samurais, every last one of them, sacrificing themselves so that others can live.

I would like to say something though. Shut up Eric Besson, you b***dy ***. Instead of rendering help, you bitch about how the Japanese "lost control about the situation". Well, frankly no one expected this amount of damage, or this unholy scene in the first place. At least they are doing whatever they can, which is more than I can say about you.

Sucking Eggs

[image source: gregheinimann.com]

First of all, I like the play on the words "sucking eggs". The exact turn of phrase is "teaching your grandma to suck eggs", meaning teaching an expert advice that they already know, or as we say in Mandarin, 班门弄斧.

I think this book by Patricia Nicol is really excellent. Well, not exactly because of the cost saving and recycling techniques she advocates that we learn from our grandparents, but rather how admirable the English were during WWII, saving, and scraping for their country. Their patriotism was really amazing,  e.g. billeting the children in Wales and the countryside to save them from the relentless Blitzkreig, Land girls, collecting scrap metal (if I am not wrong, the Germans did this too). but what was even more amazing was the level of care and consideration Churchill government (more specifically the Ministry of Food) put into caring for the dietary needs of its people, tearing up the Kensington Gardens to grow vegetables, having pig clubs, wartime celebrity chefs, Mrs Sew and Sew, Dr Carrot and Potato Pete. They even came out with war cookery leaflets.

I guess the indomitable spirit was what impressed me the most, and the gentle brilliancy of the  wartime government, which is something we don't see much nowadays.

没鱼吃虾的未来 - Morbid Description of Settling for anything and Marriage

I dedicate these to everyone who marry in haste and repent at leisure.

I encountered this video clip while watching "How TV ruined your life"



I'm ready girl
Hey baby, we've been together for a while now
And there's something I want to say to you
Girl you're not quite everything,
that I had hoped you'd be (you're not that good looking)
And I'm not really impressed by your personality (You're pretty dumb)
But I've been searching so long, so it's time I said to you (cos' I don't want to be alone)
At the risk of not finding better, girl you'll do
At the risk of not finding better, girl you'll do (You're pretty dumb baby)
You are so dull
Let her know man
You're not the best, but you'll do for now
You'll do you'll do you'll do
Oh baby
We're here to say to you, as far girl, you'll do
You'll do

Having a bloody cow at Mignon Steak and Grill

Well, looks like the "I am tight, I am poor" is becoming a leitmotif on my blog.

So still feeling broke, B1 and I went to eat at Mignon Steak and Grill last Saturday (I think), which is one of the small restaurant outlets at Takahshimaya's basement food section. Auf wiedersehen, Prime Society. Goodbye S$68 300gm ribeye, for which I got ripped off...and didn't get a pic, because of my stupid work. Just like Lei Garden all over again. Ah Lei Garden! Your magnificent foie gras fried with beef... manna between my teeth.

I could go on forever on the food I can no longer afford to eat. But I digress. So being cheapo now, the two of us wandered around the basement food section, instead of the 4th and 5th floor restaurants as we usually do. B1 was conned into eating some US of A cow meat while I decided to stick to mixed grill as a form of penance for my recent sinning. I love mixed grill, it always come with sausages, my fave, and an egg on top. The fish I can live without. This mixed grill however, has a egg so cooked, it hardened just coming to me, like a horny man (oh I flatter myself). The fish was the usual cheap, stinky dory =d. But I did like the sauce even if I hate capsicums. 

B1 on the other hand, had some really bloody cow. If that is medium, rare must come with the actual cow. The paradox was that, staring at the blood leaking from the meat you would think it was super tender. Well, it was like chewing on old leather.

Identity crisis - Flirtation with an Onkel

I haven't been blogging for a while. 

My thoughts had been preoccupied by $, $ and more $. I was having a pretty bad week.

But yesterday something funny happened.

I went to the hawker centre for lunch. The hawker (who looked like he could be my father) from whom I ordered from tried to flirt with me. I found it quite funny, entertaining and very innocent. Ah how my standards have fallen. But still, it did lift my mood. Haha.

Conversation in Mandarin:
Onkel: Are you local? [why do they always ask this?]
Me: Why?
Onkel: Because your smile is so sweet that uncle cannot move for a while *ohmigod!!!*
Me: *laughing* Uncle, you are so sweet-tongued.
Onkel: if you are not married, Uncle will woo you.

Too bad he didn't give discount. Wtf.

I can never understand why I always get the "are you local?". Where the hell do they think I come from?

The Sunflower [completed]

Now I just need to wait for it to dry for a few weeks before I apply the varnish.