Time has passed but the hurt remains

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

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

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.

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Jajangmyeon

Why Swimming is good for Women

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

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

[original source]

Ghost's "Unchained Melody" Violin Score

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]

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ihWj+XiY=JkHmX

Decode this, and you will learn something useful =D

BattleField 3 - B1 style

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

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

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

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.

Literally from the Kamasutra - Ancient Indian Blow Job (Updated!!!)

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.

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

OHMIGOD I M SO ANGRY

You know how I love to cyber stalk using Google right? So I ran my name again to see if I could find anything interesting (and remove it if possible).

Some time ago, I mentioned that there was a Chinese Mainlander lady with the same Chinese name as me and that she is now doing research at my ala mater? As for my English name, I have long since given up because it is such a lame ass bourgeois name. Though Google + yielded some chick whom Schnappi thinks is hot. I asked him to go to a nearby mirror and check out whether he has developed a belly and lost a lot of hair (I am referring to the stereotypical Caucasian male who loves Asian p***y).

Alas today, I found out that I had won something from the library. This would have been my third win, since I won two dictionaries, one pair of tickets to the Dains Festival some years back. And now I apparently won a gift pack but because I was locked out of two of my email addresses, I did not receive notification about my win and it has been forfeited.

Ohmigod I am such a fucking moron sometimes.

Updated!!!
Yes there was another triple Face2palm again. I was playing CoH and told my teammate where I was going to drop the v1 and then I ended up blowing up two of his panthers and not a single enemy tank. Oopz. Luckily we have played together all the time so he is very indulgent of any stupidity on my part.

3rd CoH-less day

The pent-up frustration I have all day has no means of dispersing. I think I may slowly but surely go mad. The so called advantages I had anticipated had not come to fruition as I am still staying up late till 1am, talking to Schnappi, playing my Time Management game (seems like I only like to play those), packing my stuff, trying to find my artwork.So I am still neglecting my art and German and violin praxis.

I just go to bed angry that's all. I need to go to the game arcade and shoot something in the face. Perhaps after violin class today.

Who the fuck is Joel?

Today I was busy hunting for something when someone called. Actually I have been ignoring this number pattern, because I figured it was probably either an irritating telesales person offering me a loan or an insurance agent who got my number from god knows where. Trust me, there is nothing that will get my blood flowing than when I am busy at a meeting or discussion and someone calls me to waste my time.

However yesterday my vendor called with the similar first three numbers, during my meeting, so I totally ignored it. He later smsed me saying he just called, so I called him back after my meeting. Therefore today, I was irked to see a strange number, but since it had the same pattern as my vendor's, I picked it up.

"Hello, (almost typed my real name here *haha*)." Cheerful.

"Hi. Who's this?"

"It's me, Joel." In a tone that is surprised that I don't know her. 

"In what capacity do I know you?"

"Oh hi, (my real name). I am Joel from (idiotic Insurance Agency), I would like to offer you (blah blah, I had stopped listening)..."

I interjected, "I am not interested. Thanks for your time." Poot.

Of course this is not the most irritating. The most annoying situation happened on the day of the Sojabohnen Eis fiasco, when B1 was trying to comfort a very upset me with Mr Bean ice-cream. We were walking towards the shop when some chick popped up next to me.

"Hi Miss, do you know where is (some bank)?" Cheerful (this should be a sign).

I pointed it out to her, wondering why did she want to go there, since it was already evening and the bank has closed. 

"Congratulations, Miss! Because you have guessed the bank's location correctly, I would like to reward you with some vouchers, which you can get if you buy (some bloody Insurance. I also stopped listening, because I was *pissed*)."

B1 hurriedly dragged me away after waving the girl off with an abrupt "not interested." Guess he was interested in not letting me go to jail for EXTREMELY AGGRAVATED assault.