My Friend's ROM dinner at Oriole Coffee Bar

First of all, congratulations!!! If similarity in looks are a measure of compatibility, you are a true match in love. I already mentally applaud his wife for agreeing to live with his family. Amazing, in this day and age. Who says all Singaporean girls are GCP? Just me I guess *haha*.

 

I wasn't quite sure what the arrangement was like, when I received the e-invite. Were we also invited to the ROM? I knew at least that it wasn't going to be held at the cafe bar. Hmm. So I rushed B1 to the place, and then I was flabbergasted that the restaurant gave us seats outside, right next to the door. WTF. It was going to be one hot meal. Only a small family of three were there. We excused ourselves and ran off to the Knightsbridge TOPMAN. They didn't have the size we wanted, so we ran back and discovered that everyone had arrived together. How did they do that?

In the end, we lost our more favorable seats and ended up sitting right next to the door. Night fell and we ended up reading our menus by candlelight, which I hated. It was so stuffy. I initiallly wanted to order the ribs, but didn't because I was ravenous and didn't want to end up wearing the ribs on my dress (I tend to drop food on myself). I could see that our friend was exhausted. His sister who I also know, showed us the clip from the afternoon of the ROM ceremony. Oh. 

Before I went to the ceremony, I was talking to the guys as I was packing up, and wondered aloud if we would end up eating with strangers. Ye, we did. It was awkward. We took turns talking to our friend. I kept pumping in cold water and ended up ordering a panna cotta dessert and a milkshake, in the vain hope that they would cool me down. Nope. I ran off to the shopping mall to go to the washroom, and did a little window shopping while trying to cool down. 

We ordered some steak. The doneness was not bad, but the fries were crap. Now that I look at the photo (I couldn't see a thing that night, if a fly had landed on the plate and not moved, I can guarantee you that I would be wolfing it down in seconds), I realize they were drinking oil (and were burnt at the other end, no wonder they tasted burnt).

I whispered to B1 that we were sweating like pigs and staring into the air-conditioned cafe like the Little Match Girl staring into the rich people's houses. It was stupid of the restaurant to stick us outside where we couldn't see a thing, and tuck us into one tiny corner with a row of tables, that they had problems delivering food to the right people, and ended up yelling like fishmongers at a market. I could see my friend alternating between exhaustion and being incredibly PISSED.

You would think that with the money he was paying, they would accommodate us with some decent seating in the restaurant.

I think I need to clean up my room

Guess what I found when I was rummaging through my room, looking for the replacement string for my backpack?

A banana-shaped candle. 

I bought it in Sydney, Australia back in 2004. Cool right?

It wasn't cheap either... about 20+AUD. For some reason, I couldn't live without getting this candle, and then when I returned from Australia, I just stuffed it in the cupboard and forgot about it. Think B1 screamed inwardly when I suggested displaying this candle at our new place *haha*.

And you know how I have been deliberating for weeks whether I ought to buy the cutlery from WMF? Even today, when I was out at Takashimaya, I was still lingering at the houseware section, deciding. Guess what? When I came home and pulled out my backpack from the storeroom, I discovered this.

Back in the day, I used to work for this scheme, which was one of the best stuff that our government ever did. Free gift for exercising. Like meist free and good things in our beautiful country were, it was discontinued. Sadly. I had totally forgotten about this because to me, it wasn't the most memorable souvenir. The items I really liked was the tent, and the backpacking cutlery (like a Swiss Army Knife set, but it had actual fork, spoon and knife compartments)

This totally resolved my problem. But didn't assuage my desire for WMF cutlery.

龙的传人 Powerful Mooncakes?

Our family friend flew in from Indonesia over the Hari Raya Puasa week. Since their three maids are on leave over this period, he and his wife are totally GG by their little Prince and Princess.

He brought along this gift, the mooncakes with the funniest name on earth. 龙的传人. Heir of the Dragon. I kid you not.

Gain power with these mooncakes!!!

As a side story to those of you who are new to Chinese culture, mooncakes are cakes usually baked with a  lotus paste filling and consumed during the Mid-Autumn Festival (this year, I will be celebrating it mid-flight, flying home from Hanoi, Vietnam), which is a festival associated with the Goddess on the moon, Chang -e. They were also historically used by the Han Chinese as a means of passing encoded messages on a planned revolt on 15th August (Lunar)  against the ruling Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty.

Mad about Garlic - I have a date with Edward (the Twilight vampire)!!!

I wish.

He wishes not, I bet. Because we ordered VIEL VIEL garlic. Haha.

Garlic Snow Pizza - It had prawns! So tiny, as compared to the garlic slices... I gave mine to Teletubby

As usual, we OTed till late, and Mr Fancy Pants was very annoyed because he had to wait for us for 1.5 hours. In the end, by the time we reached Suntec, we realized to our horror, that we still had to queue for a table. Oh horrors. I think we finally got a table at 8.30pm? Or was it 9pm?

What a happy coincidence, he hates to take photos and I want to take a pic of everything and the menu.

My camera quality sux. Canon, I am not being delighted as always

Wineade? WTF?

So anyway Standard Chartered credit card holders could use this option of ordering a dessert and 2 "ades" to accompany their meal. Since we ordered a lot of main courses (6) and 2 pizzas, we decided to use this option twice, thus getting 4 drinks and 2 desserts, and then order another drink. 

The dudes all ordered this yujaade, which is basically 柚子, while I ordered a wineade, which is red wine flavoring *haha*. We ordered two pizzas, the ever popular Garlic Snowing Pizza and Meat Dipping Pizza because I wouldn't eat shrimp and Fancy Pants, beef. I was very surprised why the Meat Dipping Pizza came vegetarian-looking with a separate dish for the beef, despite the name, until I saw how Teletubby spread out the meat on the pizza.

Turned out the prawns were so tiny, so I just scrapped my one off and gave it to Teletubby

Looked more like a vegetarian pizza with meat as an afterthought

Eeee. It reminds me of something. Luckily he did this after I finished eating

Boob Bro's seafood risotto

 

The dining table - I make no apologies for my love for colors

The Onkel left behind 2 dining tables, one a pretty metalic and glass table (in the dining area), another a ugly, dusty black, chipped table with dark glass (in the kitchen). Oh surprise, we discovered to our horror that the one in the dining room was actually spoilt. You could not put anything on it without it shaking like it is on a earthquake zone.

We had to prop it against the wall and fridge to stop it from shaking

Damn. Useless table. I couldn't even salvage the glass. So we had to swap it with the ugly one, and moved it to the kitchen, to await the Salvation Army people, in case they had some tools that could stop it from shaking and sell it. Turns out... no. We ended up calling the Town Council to help us chuck the stuff. Which ended up as another story, because the Town Council turned up earlier than expected and carried away the wrong stuff *sigh*.

Sorry about the mess, we were sorting out what to keep (before renovation)

B1 opined that the black table went better with our hideous chairs (which everyone else thinks look expensive). But I hated black (after going through my black and white phase), especially in a room that already looks gloomy in the afternoon. Not only that, the wood was splintering at the feet.

I toyed with the idea of painting the table blue to match my Tiffany-colored light, but the problem was that I had blue patterned kitchen tiles and I wasn't that fond of blue. So I mixed my yellow and blue paint and made a lurid green paint.

Before sandpapering nightmare

But first I had to sandpaper down the table. I understand what Bryan Wong from Renaissance felt. I hate sandpapering too, and I didn't even do a clean job like he did. Mine looked like a wooden table had an accident with a road tarring vehicle.

eeeeee

We painted the undercoat

I was reading younghouselove.com and they recommended doing two undercoats. Well, bad idea. Turned out it was too thick? Maybe because I was being a tight pussy, and reused the undercoat paint that my Vater had bought for the light *keke*.

Being a mixologist for paint. 2 tablespoons of blue and 2 tablespoons of yellow

I am quite a messy painter, I traipsed through the house with green, yellow and blue paint under my foot

The final product

I thought the table looks pretty =D. Now I need to sort out what I intend to do about the chairs. Hmm.

I am nuts about Erdbeeren

Courtesy of my CoH freund, Schlinge.

I am not having much luck especially with the insect world

Heads up, this is NSFW and TMI as well. Read on at your own risk. Anyway this week feels ENDLESS!!!

I have been very stressed because of (censored). So yesterday while bathing, I was supposed to brush my teeth. Still deep in thought about how to fix (censored), I pushed some toothpaste onto the toothbrush then started brushing. Strange... it felt too soft.

Holy shit. I have been brushing my teeth with an old toothbrush that I have been cleaning the acrylic paint off my PAINTBRUSHES. Yes, wtf. So that was #1 sign my spat of bad luck is continuing.

Then this evening, thankfully (censored) was resolved, I was standing outside work waiting for B1 to fetch me for dinner. I started reading my German book (yes, I decided immersion is the best way to improve my German. I have forbidden myself from reading English fiction. It's killing me a bit.) So I stood there reading, with my box of canvases at my feet, when I felt something bite me. At first I ignored it, then the bite became more painful, then I jumped up, and realized... that I had been standing on some leftover food (didn't closely examine what it was) and ants were swarming all over it. I hurriedly removed my shoe (yes, it was disgusting behavior in public, but I am allergic to ant bites, if you have read my earlier blog entry, so I was in a blind panic) and guess what, there were three ants. I am still itching now.

And then, what happens after my bath today. I was still deep in thought about what I need to do at work tomorrow, didn't look as I was wearing my clothes. Then I felt something very PAINFUL on my butt. Seriously. Again? I grabbed at my butt, and felt something very hard. Don't start thinking dirty thoughts, ok?

I dug into my (censored) and flung whatever it was against the wall. Eww, it was a freaking chafer beetle, that was biting me. Jesus Christ.

Still it could be worse, the beetle could have been further down the ravine. Now that would really have been GG.

My Tiffany Chandelier

I don't know if it is bloody inflation or something, aber lights are TEUER in Singapur. So as you know, the Onkel left us some furniture, half of which has removed by B1 who accuses me of being a hoarder or Karang guni (2nd hand shop seller) in any breath, another quarter that have been destroyed or stolen by our shitty gay shit Contractor, also known as Donny the Cunt. 

I could go on about the Cunt for days. 

But anyway, so I am left with one quarter of the furniture, thankfully most of which I wanted in the first place. Many battles had been forged with B1 over the them, as the Onkel's furniture are of inconsistent colors, varying from maroon, dark brown, to black, and of varying conditions. All dark, some broken somewhere. Initially I wanted to go all black and white, but somehow I couldn't do it. In the end, my color themes are RGBY. He still wants to chuck them out, and now adds on a new insult. He says I am trying to paint a kindergarten, because I went overboard with the colors. *pui*

It's not my fault,

He has forgotten how poor we are. The real estate agents are being sarcastic/annoying, they keep planting brochures outside our apartment, psyching us to sell the unit. I picked one up, oh congrats, we are the idiots who paid the highest price for such a unit in the area. Someone pity us the fools.

Whatever. So among the stuff left behind, there was a really rusty chandelier. A really ugly one with brown and transparent nobs. I thought of throwing it out, thinking of the amount of effort to clean it. But a real (and nice looking chandelier) can cost minimally some hundreds of dollars, so I had to suck it up.

I am not sure whether it is rust but there was this strange green powder on it... I thought rust is brown?

How the chandelier looked like

Anyway it was a pain to get rid off. In the end, Vater broke the light down into the individual stems so that it would be easier for me to clean them. He said he would put it together for me again, when done.

Broken down

He bought some undercoat paint. Cleaning took 3 days (technically after work, so I had to do it from 8pm to 12midnight every night, with Vater's help as well), before I could paint the undercoat. The undercoat was necessary in this case, because I needed the top coat to stay on.

Initially I wanted to have it black and white, sticking to my original theme. But after I finished the undercoat, B1 volunteered to help, so I asked him to apply the black spray paint to it... To my horrors, the spray paint "ate" the undercoat, making the paint job look cracked. *silent scream* He did it to 3 stems, and the top and bottom bell shaped pieces before I could stop him.

I thought I might die. The days of effort... So in the end, I had to clean off the damage and restart the entire process again, clean and apply undercoat. *pissed*. Then I decided to buy paint instead, and while I was at the shop, I was suddenly inspired by Tiffany. Anyway, it is also because my bloody kitchen tiles are not changed and remain that weird ass blue toned tiles, so I decided to switch to a Tiffany blue.

Anyway after 3 weeks of effort, including painting and repainting, Vater helped me put the light together again. Unfortunately, COG doesn't seem to be accurate. It still looks pretty though right? Two regrets, it is even uglier to pain the brown nobs blue, so I left them brown, and I had to keep stupid flowers petaled glasses because I couldn't buy new shades. They contain a hideous brown pattern, which thankfully cannot be seen when the light is on.

End product

Child's play @ Singapore Art Museum

I think this is so much fun. I wish there was enough time for me to try the disc art as well. Sigh. =D It's part of a series called "Art Garden".

Maybe I should go another day and do my little girls (that sounds wrong, ich muss weiderholen). I mean the little girls I draw like the one you see above?

I liked the little Indian girl's psychedelic socks. Too bad it can't be seen here. Check out the rest of the stuff done by others. Who said we aren't creative~!

Wah...I could hear that they were trying to a Angry Bird.

I thought they were so clever. Turns out they stole this group's idea (took the pic from the wall and blatantly copied)

Check out the Mona Lisa on top.

I only noticed it when I looked through the photos @ home. Shit. Should have paid more attention.

The pictures in planning phases.

 These fruits are made from paper patterns, which you can buy for S$1 (I think?)

An Effective Means of Lighting

Something I saw in the garden @ the Singapore Art Museum.

2/3 Nibblezware team may NOT be in Hanoi, Vietnam

Two thirds of the Nibblezware team, i.e. Mr B (hopefully I will remember to pack him) and myself, MAY not be in town from 6th Sept to 12th Sept.

We will be in Hanoi, North Vietnam, though I can tell you, I am not looking forward to the trip right now and am planning on not going anymore. I am still very angry about something that has happened last week, and I can tell you the Hanoi trip is starting to read to me as ONE FRIGGING GIANT DISASTER of a DESARU TRIP. I mean if I am going to be abandoned again like I was in Desaru, I might as well go with B1 another time. At least the other time, it was just a straight route. Now I don't even know the language.

It's not because I am scared or whatever. I have backpacked by myself several times before. It is that the idea just pisses me off. If I am going to be abandoned, then why go as a group in the first place? Otherwise it is going to end up all over like Desaru.

"Oh you got lost, because you were doing your own thing/procrastinate/slower than us. How is it our fault?" Incredibly selfish. If I go with them, it means I have not learnt my lesson from Desaru. If I do go, I think I will make use my own alternative route and meet them at the end of the day.

I will still finish planning the map because I had promised to do so. I will need it when I actually go.

But I will still share the map to everyone in the WWW for anyone who wants to visit Hanoi.

View Office Trip 2011 - Hanoi in a larger map

Due to safety concerns, the itinerary will only be shared after they return.

Updated!!!
The trip was as horrible as I predicted. I did my own thing in the last two days. Vietnam was lovely. I will go back there again, especially Halong Bay.

Itinerary

Where to shop in Hanoi Old Quarter

Schnappi war eine Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte gebacken