Wedding jitters - No Hokkiado Honeymoon

No, we are sooo.... not going to Hokkaido for our honeymoon...

Why?

Not enuf pax to make up the tour slated to leave on 07/06.

Had to contend with Tokyo tour, going to visit disneyland, osaka universal studios and all...


Not exactly what we planned in the first place,

But

I guess it's alrite coz it's still going to be FUN :)

Just afraid I m going to spend more in tokyo coz its a shopping haven...

Run? No, cook...

ok, i did not run yesterday.

However, I attempted to cook claypot rice for mr FAT, using my $60 made-using-volcanic-ash claypot.

I bought it eons ago with my dad's robinson voucher, tinking that it would be a great asset to mr FAT and mr LPXX if they thought of setting up a claypot business together...

I printed a receipe from the web and happily trotted to taka's cold storage after work.

My shopping list: pork ribs, lee kum kee pork ribs sauce, prawns (?), egg tofu (?).

The items denoted by (?) are bought after i bought the instant seafood sweet & sauce sauce.

I m appalled (tsk, tsk..) and SURPRISE;D by the many instant mixes available in the supermarket now! Hmm...maybe i shall cook the lamb stew next time...yes, there is even a lamb stew instant mix...

On my way back to 'orange' hse, I began tinking....'how to start cooking and which ingredient to prepare first....etc.'

By the time i reached home after a long, tiring ride on buses and train, I stood in the kitchen, not knowing what to do first.

I thought i did alright in the beginning, slow but steady.

Then.....

I started to find that I have no space to place my cooking stuff... Ahh!...time is also running out, how come i cannot find the sugar? where are the mushrooms? Did I wash this plate before use? What did I put in this bowl just now? Oh no! the rice is cooked and the sauce for marinating the ribs are not done...Why am I peeling the prawns now? WAH!!!!!!

I panicked.

I panicked even more when mr FAT reached home.

My egg tofu were smashed and cut irregularly by yours truly...they look like mapo tofu...I kept dropping the food into the sink, on the stove, on the table. And I had to wash them under water everytime.

I started throwing the ingredients into the pot...into the already cooked rice...

Then there was this burnt smell.....

HELP!

mr FAT came to my rescue...he saved the day and our dinner.

The claypot rice became edible under his magic touch...

But it still tasted bad!

"Why you try to cook something that I ve not even tried before?"

Mr FAT asked.

"No! I thought you would love to eat claypot rice...its not that i purposely want to do something you never done before..I never tot of showing off to you!"

I cried out like I have been accused of doing something that I did not do...

Of coz, mr FAT dun mean that! I was too defensive....Afterall, he saved the dinner and cleaned up the messed-up kitchen.

The kitchen is really not the place for me....sigh!

oh, I totally forgotten about the recipe I printed out...in the end, I just threw watever i can find into the claypot. What about the amount of each ingredients needed? I used 'agar-ration' method ;p

Random Rants - Stoopiak Meeting...

Attended the super long combined meeting last nite.

Glad to hear that they will no longer combine the meetings from July onwards.

Meetings like those are becoming more of a drag.

Reporting for the sake of reporting, meeting for the sake of meeting.

Not a bit constructive nor interesting.

Its my turn to write the minutes...I tink I will do it during this weekend.

Got couple of errands to run this weekend. What else? Wedding jitteries, of coz...

My legs are itching for a long long run....

Maybe I will run this evening...

Wedding jitters - Guo Da Li

In Chinese culture, an auspicious date is selected to 'Ti Qin' (literally meaning 'propose marriage'), where both families will meet to discuss the amount of the bride price demanded, among other things.

A couple of weeks before the actual wedding, the ritual of 'Guo Da Li' (literally meaning 'performing the rites') takes place (on an auspicious date of course). The groom and a matchmaker will visit the bride's family bearing gifts like wedding cakes, sweetmeats and jewelry as well as the bride price.

On the actual wedding day, the bride's family will return a portion of the bride price (sometimes in the form of dowry) as a goodwill gesture.

My GDL was on Mothers' Day, 14 May 06.

mr FAT and his 5th Aunt (aka the matchmaker) came to my house at 9.30am.

With the help of his brother and my brother, they brought 2 bottles of XO Martell, 40 boxes of cakes, 40 cans of pigs' trotters , a bag of huge oranges (the oranges are huge! not the bag! my mum says it's the '$1.50 each' type) , a bag of dried products, 2 pair of huge dragon and phoenix candles, hongbaos (bride price and hongbao for my grandmum) and two gold bangles.

My mum returned some oranges, some dried products, two bottles of concentrated orange juice, 90% of the bride price and the pair of phoenix candles. We wanted to return some of the cakes and pigs' trotters' cans but the matchmaker says its ok...

I love my wedding cakes!!! or wedding pastries coz its actually combi of fruit tarts and mini swiss rolls! I was surprised when i saw the cake boxes...they were so small...but when I opened the box....

So cute, so sweet and tantalizing they looked~!

They are from the Pine Garden's Cakes. This neighbourhood cake shop is pretty well-known for its 'value for money' cakes...A non-cake lover like me, was bowled over by their service and their delicious cakes.....esp. their lychee martini cake....yummy!

My parents and I then set off at about 10.30am to distribute all the cakes and pigs' trotters' cans to our relatives.....

We went from Aljunied, Bedok, Bedok Reservoir, Tampines, Sengkang, Punggol, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio to Toa Payoh and back to Bedok.

We reached home at about 5.30pm....bonked out from the travelling, I slept for an hour and woke up to jostle my whole family including mr FAT out for mothers' day dinner at 5 star chicken rice shop. We had wanted to go to HK street restaurant but it was packed and we do not want to wait.

Got my mum a diamond pendant and the dinner treat was on my bro....

Buzy, tired but happy weekend for me.... ;P

Gold prices increase again!

WAH!

THE PRICE OF GOLD IS NOW $40 PER GRAM!!!!

HURRY! GO SELL YOUR GOLD :O

The $200 plus bracelet given to me by my auntie less than two years ago, now fetches $500 plus..wow!

MAHJONG

I have discovered something.

Something to my delight,

MAHJONG

You know how i hate gambling.

but I love the feeling of winning

MAHJONG

My heart flutters and beats faster when I m about to win

Happiness cascade over me as I saw my tiles unveil a 'five-fold'

MAHJONG

When someone completes his game before me

I have to restrain myself from smashing his face with a couple of tiles already in my hand

MAHJONG

I hate to admit that I m a sore loser

Many think I lack etiquette, but hell!, you would tink like me if you keep losing

MAHJONG

Can really make me a better person or, worse you may think

Its a mind game afterall, a survival game at its best.

MAHJONG

I have learnt this during my 'MJ internship'

Rira bien qui rira le dernier*

Dun tink you are winning just becoz you are winning in the beginning. yah.

* Whoever who laughs last, laughs best - Ms PIG's "Learn a french phrase every day"

Wedding jitters - Jewellery shopping

Was supposed to meet up with Deb and her hubby last nite.

Did not get to do so as mr FAT had arranged with his mum and bro to go jewellery shopping with me.

Jewellery shopping!! :)

We went to old trusty Poh Heng in Bedok, although i can only choose the traditional gold jewellery and my skin colour dun go well with gold , but it was nevertheless an enjoyable shopping experience!

I looked out for classic design with a bit of traditional details in the jewellery pieces.

In the end...

I picked up a pair of gold bangles (small ones as my wrists are pretty small; the slimmest part of my entire body!), a costume gold necklace (which means i can only wear for special occasions as its a bit elaborate to wear in normal days) and a gold ring (this was supposed to be a gift from his grandmum).

I got mr FAT to try on a ring of the same design as my mum is supposed to buy a ring for him as well.

I was glad that the jewellery i picked out were not too expensive when the salesgirl calculated the prices of each piece :D

Din know that the price of gold is now $38 per gram! Any gold u want to sell off now to make a killing?

Gonna to pick up another jewellery piece tonite, this time with my parents ;)

Simply love shopping, especially ones which are sponsored!

bitchy ninja

I tink I'm in love...

I tink i 'm in love....

with....




Janet Seidel's comme ci...comme ca (this way...that way)

I m not a huge fan of jazz....but this midnight jazz lounge music CD is romancing me...

Best thing about this collection of songs - its a collection of french and english songs!

i find french sexy.....

Been carrying this CD around with me to work and home coz i have not figured out how to burn it into my MP3 player....

Seidel's voice is uplifting and sexy....

C'est si Bon!*

*It's so good! - Ms PIG's "Learn a french phrase every day"