Mr Pussy Cat

Last week, still inspired to sew stuff for my etsy shop, I sewed this pussy cat. Actually I did another one, but with a sad expression and no head, as well as a little doll version of the little girls I like to draw so much. She is still naked so NSFW *haha*.  I like yellow as a contrast against grey. I think I like yellow a lot, even though when I paint, I use a lot of blue backgrounds for my floral paintings. I use yellow and orange for my teddy bear series, probably also because I bought too much shades of yellow while painting the sunflower.

Eh ja, I know it is a misnomer to call him a Mr when he looks like this

Buy him @ Kleine Bastel Hütte now!

Why can't the Princess do the saving for once?

I have a massive backlog of pics for the blog, especially for the restaurants which I have been visiting, the recent art offerings and the German trip.

I came across this whimsical picture while cutting across the underpass near Esplanade. The Art Festival 2012 was running market stalls, which they themed "Festival Village". I liked the idea. Why can't the princess save the prince instead?

Mr Bär works hard for a living

Not sure why this weekend I have been suddenly more arty farty, but perhaps because of yet another death in the (extended) family (3rd one already this year?! This is a strange year, literally "four weddings and a funeral", lots of marriages because it is Dragon Year and yet many deaths than usual).

As I mentioned in my blog, I have been sewing felt toys, and on Saturday, I painted a Mr Working Bear.

He's going  right on the wall, under my other Bear, so I painted him with a similar background color (though with more yellow. I painted cadium yellow deep then pressed against the canvas with bright yellow).

Now as I stand in front of the two pictures, I comment drily to B1, "this bear picture makes me feel like I should 上香 to him. He kind of looks like a picture in a columbarium niche."

B1 replies, "yeah, he was a hardworking bear. He worked himself to the paw to bring you these fine goods."

Somebody obviously has been playing too much Diablo3.

Getting Crafty - My very own Etsy Shop!!!

I have created my own little etsy shop, Nibblezware Kleine Bastle Hütte. Since I am into sewing again, I was thinking why not turn it into a little enterprise to earn some $$, so that I can buy new materials online? Especially felt. I love sewing little creatures out of felt material.

Anyway you can click on the little house on the left side of the blog to visit the shop. :D

This is the little bunny I made over the week. I am now working on a kitty cat head for a xmas ornament.

Shitty Relic CoH connection

I don't know if anyone else has been experiencing this but this whole weekend, I have been experiencing some really shit connection in Company of Heroes. I have been kicked a total of 4 times on Saturday itself, and it really made me mad especially for one of the games, because I had wasted 2 hours on it, and was already going to win when it happened. Totally denied me the chance to pulverize the enemy base. Pissed.

And that is how, I got 4 wins without major contribution. Damnit. You might think it is good, but I think my CoH friends will probably ban me :D for being such a leech, unintentional or not.

Blogging and Camwhoring

I love to read blogs because it allows me to live my meaningless life as a plasticine penis through others' more exciting lives. I really don't have a life. I work, I don't sleep much, I play Company of Heroes, and sometimes I play the violin, paint, write and now sew.

I esp like reading younger girls' blogs not because they are filled with "deep" thoughts and observations of life (trust me, they are not) or that I am a stalker but rather because they are filled with delightful photos of them camwhoring with their friends. I am especially morbidly fascinated by those with the girl taking a photo from a particular angle, because it makes me very determined to find a picture where the girl is *oh horrors* facing a different direction. But these girls are usually very determined to take from the same angle with the same smile, so I have yet to succeed. Each photo looks very surreal while very beautiful. (You can go ahead and ponder the irony that I don't post any photo of myself, yet I love to look at photos).

I remember once reading this lady's blog (she has stopped blogging), where she has a super pretty friend who always faces the camera from her left and with her head tilted. Imagine my shock, when I was walking past Cuppage Plaza on my way to Z's wedding (at Four Seasons), I saw that girl. Freaking hell, she was like 10X prettier, sexier and she was average height (but wearing super high kitten heels)! I had always assumed that she was short because her friends were taller than her.

She was smoking though, ewww, and standing next to the dustbin while holding the cigarette expertly between two manicured fingers. I was like visibly gaping, as if I saw a celebrity. She did give me a very nasty WTF face. But nonetheless, very beautiful.

Clearing up the Friends' Closet

In the light of the new CoH coming out in a few months' time, and with the recent frustration I had online, I have decided it is time to clean up my friends' list. Like I was telling the guys, I have like 100+ CoH friends, but now with the game being so old, I have like only 7-11 guys online sometimes (I even have cases where I am the only one online, due to the timezone difference). 

I don't really like to play with people I don't know anymore, and friends wise, I now only accept people who have more than 1000 wins over losses (this is to sift out those bozos who create multiple accounts. It is already frustrating for me to have friends with multiple accounts) or are very funny people to talk to.

My boyfriends "Arse"nal, Man"chest"er

Yesterday while taking the lift back to the apartment (the damn thing takes about 1 min without stops, everyday I regret living on such a high floor. Shitty cellular signal, I once had to stick out my neck outside the window with the handphone to yell at my supplier, birds living on the rooftop stealing the leaves off my plants, idiots stealing my plants and shoes, I could go on and on), I was smsing my cousin.

"Who are you messaging, huh?" Combative, B1 rumbled as I continued pressing at the keys, while studiously ignoring him.

"Chelsea."

He stood there for a while, blinking.

"My cousin, remember?"

"Oh. I thought you meant the football club." Rich, considering this boy does not watch football. I am ironically the one who watches the football in the house, though my interest is limited to the German national team full stop.

"Ya," I said, putting away the phone,"that reminds me, I should sms my lover with the great ass later, his moniker is Arsenal."

"Or should I sms Liverpull, my lover with the long dick?"

He replied, "how about your boyfriend who can benchpress to no end. Manchester?"

Dosukoi Sakaba - Little Izakaya at Cuppage Plaza Basement

Cuppage Plaza, with its clean yet seedy at night, with all those foreign talent standing along the railings giving "free shows" with their "ahem" on weekdays when business is drier, offers a unique slice of expatriate life in Singapore. With its drab exterior, it is uncompromisingly Japanese in flavor on the inside, with lots of little karaoke bars, izakayas and restaurants. One time as teenagers, we were walking along the corridors, one of my friends ducked his head into one bar on a dare, to see a row of sexy ladies in very short office wear (it was "OL" night). The guys solemnly promised to go there when we grew up, but till date, no one has ever done it, though we had our fill of ogling the bored looking women as they chatted idly or looked into their iphones outside the bars.

They had sumo wrestler chopstick rests!

Then another time, a Japanese salaryman at the next table taught the two of us how to get rid of a soy sauce stain on his tie at Kushigin. He demonstrated to us, by asking for a bit of rice from the waitress, then pressing one rice grain gingerly on the spot onto his tie. Banzai!

It being still B1's birthday, we were trying to figure out what to eat in the evening, and had somehow ended up walking the connection between Bugis Junction and Illuma for like 5 times back and fro. At first we thought we would stay at the Bugis area because B1 was unlucky enough to get "summoned" (fined for parking beyond the stipulated time on the coupons). But we seriously could not think of what to eat. Then B1 said why not the Izakaya Nijumaru which we always go? 

We ate there often enough that the aunties recognize us and we order without looking at the menu. Always niku jaga for me and ika natto for him as sides! I thought about it... how about the izakaya at the basement? A few weeks ago, I wanted to bring him to the izakaya at the corner of the basement which A and I went once. We sat at the counter even though we had the option of sitting at the room on the side. Wanted to experience the Japanese salaryman counter experience, even though she and I know not a single word of Japanese between us. 

It was pretty nice, and the mama-san wore a humongous diamond on her wedding finger, as she waxed lyrically with the cluster of Japanese salarymen around the counter who turned out to be strangers who became friends with each other. 

But that time when we walked in, there was no seat left in the izakaya, not even at the counter and the mama-san was replaced by a younger, friendly guy. So I thought, why not go there and try our luck today? So while B1 was parking the car, I went into the gastropub and was asked to wait 5 minutes while an earlier party departed.

Seated where I was (at the corner of the bar), I couldn't really see what were the dishes on the counter. Usually this izakaya will have a few dishes on the countertop for you to choose from, and then they will reheat them for consumption. Or you could order from the menu. That day they had hijiki, tofu and some seafood dish (I forgot what it was), according to the pretty Japanese waitress.

tofu

So we ordered the tofu, ika natto, katsu curry and tonkatsu bento. They reheated the tofu, and I had to admit it was a bit like Atashi ni chi Mama of me to try to guess what its flavor reminded me of (there was one episode where she was invited to an upscale french restaurant and proclaimed that truffle reminded her of natto to her snobbish friend's mollification). Anyway the tofu tasted like canned fried bamboo shoots.

The tonkatsu was awfully tiny and dry, complained B1, who frankly tells me he thought the food sucked. I was ok with the curry since it is the kind that comes from the packet, so it couldn't go wrong, but I really liked the ika natto (and B1's potato salad). It was the first time where we ever had an ika natto dish where the ika quantity was more than the natto (haha).

The rice bowl is bigger than the meat!!!!

We had more fun with the drinks. My green tea came in a very artifically bright green, while B1 drank sake. However we later got the Hoppy Bier (we were intrigued by the name). Hoppy gets its hops from Germany (proclaimed its bottle) but was alcohol-frei, which made B1 cringe. The guy explained that they serve it with two fingers of sochu, which makes it about 4.5% in alcholic content.  When you finish the glass, he says, we can top up the sochu again (S$4) for the remaining bier.

Forget it. We drank the remainder sochu-less.

The bill came to about S$90plus with the drinks. I guess we were paying for the experience to sit at the counter, though we two perverts had our fun staring at the pretty waitress out of the corner of our eyes.

My little Company of Heroes Moniker

Only my CoH friends will be able to understand why I couldn't resist buying this handphone strap when I encountered it at the cashier's while waiting to pay for B1's birthday sake at Nipponya.

Initially I wanted to get this for C but after consulting Bär and Z, they have convinced me that any guy carrying this will be deemed very gay. Besides I like it a lot so much that I decided to keep it for myself.

How appropriate for its strap to be my favorite pink with pink sakura flowers *hehe*.

How I ended up eating > 5 eggs in 1 day

I have to admit I can be a real tight pussy over spending $, whereas B1 is no-holds-barred on his wallet when it comes to buying electronic gadgets for himself. Too bad that generosity is not spilled over to me. The man is pretty calculating when it comes to mutual expenditure nowadays. He is so alike my father in so many ways, and yet this is one bloody quality he does not share with Vater.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to get for his birthday. So I hypocritically bought him some dry Sake from Nipponya (a Japanese speciality store in ION). I say hypocritically because I am always on him about his alcohol consumption. But it is a special occasion so hmm...

The deal about the eggs was that we had fried eggs for breakfast that morning. 2 apiece, then I had yong tau foo in the afternoon, I thought, hey, nothing wrong with 1 more egg, so dumped one into my bowl... then at night, when I popped home to grab B1's birthday presents (I also got him a jacket, and a "I am a real boy" Pinochino tee which he absolutely hates *delighted*), Vater asked "you ate already?"

He continued, that Mutter had called earlier to tell him she was going to be late back coming home from Bruder's. So he only had the curry which he had already started making hours ago. He told me to sit down while he dished me up a plate. I thought why not, I was intending to get dinner at Orchard road. Since he hadn't cooked the rest of the dishes yet, Vater fell back on our favorite side dish.

I was like shit... when I saw the curry came topped with 2 fried eggs. In my household, where all 4 of us can cook, the biggest insult you could deal to the cook of the day would be to open a can (always sardines, not sure why) as a side dish. That's  how I developed a hatred for sardines, since I get "sardined" the most often in the family. On the other hand, I like to "sardine" my parents by frying two eggs. I am the biggest egg consumer in the family.

But I would have been very happy to eat sardines that day.

I wonder how many eggs went into this cake?!

Gulping down the eggs, I gathered B1's present then headed home to wipe down the fridge where I had unwittingly spilt 1 litre of milk (so wasteful and expensive!!!) in the fridge because I had not capped the milk back properly in the morning. It was a bitch to clean, because I had placed the milk sideways on the top shelf, and it spilt all the way down to the last shelf, which was the meat chiller *heart also chilled when I opened the fridge*.

Then finally exhausted I hauled myself to Orchard road, where I headed straight to Takashimaya's Rive Gauche. I wanted to buy a strawberry shortcake... but when I got there, all they had were Mont blanc and the usual generic cakes with fruits on top which you can get from any bakery. Yes, I know strawberry shortcake is also a cake with fruit on top. But their strawberry shortcake is of a much better standard, which is also evidenced by their crazy prices.

So I bought Mont Blanc. Rive Gauche's Mont blanc is actually yam cream (that's the brownish gray streaks you see), and they also mix boiled chestnuts inside the vanilla cream that sits between the sponge cake layers. As usual, Japanese patisseries are not overly sweet, just a light sweetness and the natural taste of the fruits shines through. yummy :D

Check out the little boiled chestnut buried between the cream and sponge layers

Best irony, B1 couldn't even figure out that the cake was topped with yam cream. Sigh, the man eats to live. The joke was also on me, because I went to chew on the brown cardboard (that you see on the right corner of the cake), thinking it was sheet chocolate. Rive Gauche used to use sheet chocolate for their company logo so I just automatically forked the thing into my mouth with the cake. Shit. 

How to really sabotage your love rival?

Say there is a girl you want to nail, and she has a guy friend who keeps hanging around and cock blocking (I learn such fun words on the internet) you, don't be nasty and tell him to fuck off. Let him continue his cockblocker ways, but on the side, casually tell the girl, the other guy is a nice guy. That will establish you as the dominant male and he, the sad loser, she will keep around on her backburner for life. She will get rid of him so that she can get boned by you, and when you dump her, she will find him back. Everyone "wins", or at least you will.

I did bring home a German-born Blond Male

My achilles heel is tall blond guys with blue or green eyes.

Call Me "Steiffmeister". B1 wanted to call him Monsieur B, but that's Mr B's name (on this blog)

While we were visiting the Steiff museum (more on that later), I asked B1, may I have a teddy bear as my birthday present? Talk about letting him off easy (I had originally intended to get German book as my present). But after staring at all those teddies in the museum and shop, I really wanted one. HM said that that the lady who was demonstrating how teddies were made, told him that only those teddies that wear the "Made in Germany" stub on their left ear, are really made in Germany. The rest are made in other parts of Europe and QCed in Germany.

So searching all over the shop for a teddy which wasn't mindblowingly expensive, I found this guy. Huggable and adorable. :D

On the way back from Germany, B1 turned to me and remarked drolly "hey, you did bring home a gin mo (blond-headed) male back from Germany."

I had threatened to "scheidung" him a few times when he made me mad there, and come back to Singapore with a blond man. I came across the word on a gossip magazine headlining Heidi Klum's ongoing separation, and we had been using it on each other ever since. It is our favorite German word.

I replied, "he doesn't have blue or green eyes. Fail. Looks like I am stuck with you."

Mr B smirks while riding the Deutscher Bahn

Most of my trip planning was plagued by the DBbahn.de. Yes it is comprehensive (too comprehensive, which website can tell you what time to take the bus from a remote bus stop where you don't know where it is, and then take the train then find another bus from another unknown bus stop) with lots of languages. I wished it showed the layouts of the routes, or train stations for choosing by people who have never been to Germany, really shitty grasp of direction or language, instead of assuming that we knew what bus stop or train station we were going to be staying nearby. You can book train tickets for others, and state that their credit card will be the means of verifying their identity. B1 as usual, left it to me to do the planning. This year the excuse was, to quote him, "Germany is you want to go one, not me. I'd be perfectly satisfied with Taiwan or Japan (his two favorite sources for ogling pretty Asian girls)." So I tagged his credit card, since I have always resolutely never gotten a credit card, even after working.

Then there were the options, first class, second class, with discount (then which discount), cabin or open salon, special discounts (SchönesWochenende anyone?), seat reservation, bringing pets or bicycles? Oh ja, we ended up using the group travel ticket (~29euros) very often. It was really worth it,  you can bring a family of four and the dog (party of 2-5) along.

One thing I did regret was not confirming the ICE tickets early. Massive price jump the nearer you are to the date. The other stupid thing was after listening to my colleague's recent travel experience in Europe (about how he was robbed 4 times, once on the train), I chose mostly open salon seating, instead of carriage. Massive mistake man, because the seats were awfully cramped. However we were totally left alone on the train and people were actually friendly to us when we talk to them or they want to help. 

Carriage is cool. you can stretch out and do funny stuff inside, like pose your forever smirking bear near the window. =D

I am cow hear me moo

HM passed by a lot of fields while we were driving towards Füssen. Like the city cat released into the countryside for the first time, I happily checked out what was growing on the fields (when I was not sleeping, I am someone who can't handle jet lag well). 

Sun bathing sunflowers

We can't look at you. We are sun worshippers!

Rye, sunflowers (so adorable as they pointed their faces towards the sun), grapes, corn... corn?

In fact I saw as many fields for corn as rye. 

"Do you guys eat corn, HM?"

"No, it's for fuel, and cows. We feed corn to the cows."

Moo?  I gaped a little because I am super fond of corn, even though the supposed blood type diet says corn is poisonous to me. Tortilla chips, tacos, corn, corn, corn!

So a few days later, as we walked past the fields in Erding, I ventured again. "Schnappi, do you eat corn?"

"No, only cows eat corn." Came the emphatic answer.

There you go, folks, I am officially a cow.

Moo. [img source : blindgossip.com]

I do note however that at Sinn Flut festival where Schnappi brought us, I did see a kiddie eating BBQ corn.  So phew.