shitty business!

I think I must have eaten too much of the wrong food. I'm down with major food poisoning. It's strange how he had diarrhoea for only a few times after dinner on xmas while I been poo-ing non stop for many days. Damn the curry fish head. Yesterday, my stomach must have been further aggravated by the intake of the oily tempura like food served before my meetings and next thing I knew, I got the chills, started shivering uncontrollably and the fact that it rained cats and dogs didn't help at all. I was tempted to pile on another jacket but I didn't wana look like a rice dumpling. To make matters worse, I had no idea how my finger got a deep cut. All I remembered was the blood rushing out and I was screaming in pain when I ran it under the water. I rushed home to get a good sleep and this morning, I was down with severe abdominal pain and everytime I went to the loo, a free flow of stool was dispensed. I felt really shitty and had to get an MC to account for my absence from work today. Wonder how many days of leave / MC I've taken since my hospitalisation took up a hell lot of that.

It's strange how all my illnesses are seasonal. I always get some kinda major illness at the year end and my doc is probably sick of seeing me so often too. But I'm bringing him good business, considering each trip is $50.

Well, xmas was great, had a weekend getaway and my other half gave me a book filled with all his written thoughts and feelings. Best of all, he gave me the strangest but really most amusing gift - a toy robot called robosapien. It's really expensive, never knew that such toys can cost $150. Gee.. it is really cute as it grooves to some cheesy music and does strange caveman-like actions and sounds. He believes in giving such stuff now and then as he believes that there must be an element of fun in our relsp. It was really a great xmas which was marred occasionally by my bad bout of diarrhoea. I certainly hope I get well fast coz tomorrow's dinner with my friends and him and they will kill me if I back out as they have waited for so long just to get us out. In fact, I suspect I will lose their friendship. We are supposed to go to gorkha grill which sells nepalese food but coz it's gonna be spicy, I gotta cancel the plan to go there and get to soup restaurant instead or else I will literally be in deep shit if I eat spicy food. Well, it's not a bad choice anyway, it's got great chinese food though I'll be missing out on the lovely sweet potato leaves and samsui chicken! Dammit! I've gotta settle for porridge for now... At this rate I'm falling sick or getting all sorts of strange illnesses, I'm gonna lose weight faster than exercising at the gym..

Wish me luck in recovering from this nasty food poisoning. I definitely don't wanna ruin my dinner tomorrow and the day after at Jaan... :(

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of ya! It's been a pleasure, not pressure having known you for so many christmases! Orchard Road's so frigging crowded last night after having watched chronicles of narnia which btw is good, I particularly like Aslan :) Anyway, back to orchard again. There were scores of ppl spraying foam and all that stuff at their friends and even strangers! I could see a few ppl take offence to that and of course I hope these party goers did not spray at poor unsuspecting old ladies as they can't take such shock or perhaps may be hurt by the chemicals or stuff in the sprays. I nearly fell when I did not notice a can lying on the pavement. In fact, the pavement was strewn with cans and it's v dangerous for someone like me with a bad back injury. Thank goodness I didn't fall. If more bins were provided, these people may have less reason to litter. I was rather angry, partly because I nearly fell and also, it is v dangerous for older ppl too. I wished there were some officers on duty to stop these ppl from littering. Just because it's the festive period, it doesn't mean that they should just go wild and litter the streets as such behaviour will spell misfortune or tragedy for those who trip and fall. Anyway, I am glad that I spent a great xmas eve, pigging out on great "semi fusion" food at wan hao in marriott. Lovely presentation and innovation creation of food such as sharks fin with egg white, very chawanmushi style except that this is a big serving :) Yes, I just killed more sharks but I don't quite care. They can clone and breed more sharks to save them for all i care. Actually, they should clone the fins. Anyway, I had better not talk more about eating them before some activist blasts me. hehe.

Well, enjoy your christmas! I'm looking forward to my day with him as it's exactly 3 years since we got together on that fateful christmas day :) yay... To all of ya, have a loving, passionate and sassy Christmas! :D

The nutcracker suite at the esplanade

i went for the nutcracker yesterday at the esplanade. It was magical but first, I gotta gush about the fantastic dinner though a bit rushed of the performance. The food at my humble house is more than humble. It's exquisite and bursting with flavour. The menu itself was very puzzling. It had very poetic phrases which I can't remember now. We were very tempted to get the set dinner as there were more dishes but we were in a hurry. Dammit. We had a strange looking appetizer which came in a small cup with strange tasting liquid and something that looked like noodles. It was great! Next, we had some steamed chicken with ham etc and it was so well done and flavourful! Then, we had the fried beancurd with scallop floss which was good beyond words. As I couldn't eat seafood yet due to my poor lip, I had to ask them to replace the crab meat with pork in the fried rice. Dammit again... Then came our yummy Wagyu beef in black pepper. It was so soft that it melted in our mouths. We were high on the food which was served promptly after we told them we're rushing for the 8 pm performance. Our bill came up to 70 plus per person. Good service and the cooking's really fast! It's a pity the rest opened at 6.30 pm. Oh yes, the decor was beautiful, with chairs which resembled the wizards' hats in harry potter. The top of the back support of the chair curled back like a hat. There were seats of various shapes and sizes. Too bad we didn't make reservations so we got to sit on a normal chair. Anyway, the service was good, with the waiters politely asking us individually if we wanted our very fragrant tea to be refilled instead of asking all of us at one go if we wanted more tea. Kinda pitied the waiter as he had to repeat the same question to each of us though we were all within hearing distance. I had earlier read a notice outside stating the dress code, no shorts, just smart casual. Then, my colleague pointed out a couple dressed rather sloppily with the girl dressed in shorts sauntering in. I was disgusted as the couple were strutting like proud peacocks into this restaurant which required proper dressing. Was wondering why this young couple dared to dress so awfully to such a nice place. Am puzzled why they were allowed to even come in in the first place. If I were to be dressed like this in such a restaurant, I'll wish that I can turn into an ostrich. Anyway, we decided that we will come back again and sit down for a longer meal, ie take the set meal. Yay!

Moving on, let me talk about the performance. It was great except that it was marred by two combined schools' choir which was hidden in the orchestra pit. I shall not mention the two schools but I know of a choir which's ten times better than it. The choir members had too much air coming out when they were singing, they failed to sustain the notes, not enough lung power and they couldn't even keep up with the SSO's tempo. It was just so wrong and awful. The first reaction my colleagues and I had when we heard the choir sing was, Yucks! My colleague then pointed out that the organizers had no choice but to choose a lousier choir as no good choir would want to sing for only that pathetic few minutes in the orchestra pit. It just doesn't make sense. Even the sg youth choir won't do that. We were just so appalled by how badly the choir sang, given the very few notes they were supposed to sing! In fact, during intermission, we could still remember what notes they sang and we started singing hehe. Then, we continued our bitching about how bad the singing was. On the whole, I enjoyed the dance. I liked the part when the tin soldier danced with the doll at the beginning, the soldiers fighting with the rats which behaved like cats, the angels dancing etc. The clever use of multimedia played an impt role in the changing of the background / set. I can imagine how many backstage hands there must be, given the scale of the production. I liked the interpretation of the various movements in the suite as the choreographer indeed assigned the appropriate countries to the various movements. I like the China one in particular, with china looking ppl coming onstage in bicycles. The Arabia dance was so sensual too! Meanwhile, I saw my piano teacher leaving his keyboard several times during the performance so I asked him today during lesson why didn't he just sit still at his keyboard thruout the performance and he simply said he wanted to view the performance. Gee... Anyway, he told me this's a very costly production and I won't announce the cost here. U can ask me personally though... The nutcracker performance ended so beautifully with blue lights shining on the snow flakes hanging from the top and smaller pieces of flakes floating to the floor. My teacher told me that a certain size had to be cut for all the small flakes to float down in a certain manner and they had to keep testing till they got the right size. Amazing huh...

After the performance, we headed for drinks at Cityspace which my friends just fell in love with after I brought them there. Thank goodness we managed to get a good seat. Well, something really embarrassing happened. I was reaching out for my fren's virgin mary when I spilt my cinderella drink. 3/4 of it was gone and the ang mohs at the next table generously offered me their serviettes. The waitress helped to clean up and she even refilled the drink for me at no extra charge! It was so sweeet of her! Now, that's what I call good service hehe.. It was kinda strange that as time passed, the windows got foggier. Strange phenomenon and my colleague seemed anxious about it. I asked her if she was afraid that the water molecules were fogging up the windows and force their way in to attack her. We had a really great time last nite and we are of course looking forward to dining at Jaan next Fri. Yay!

Today, I was at suntec at 7 plus, headed to royce and oh god, the queue was just crazy. I decided to get my dinner with my friend and later try my luck there. Had a simple meal at country manna, exchanged xmas gift with her. I gave her an australian wine, ruby port, with 17% alcohol and she nearly flipped when she saw the percentage. On the bottle was a personalised message for her. Glad she liked it. She gave me a set of kenzo perfume. Can't figure out what kinda smell it's supposed to be but it's nice and came in nice small bottles. I love it man.. After dinner, I headed back to royce and got an even bigger shock. Ppl were queuing up to get into the shop! I had no choice but to queue. It was hellish. There weren't the slabs that I wanted so I just anyhow grabbed a truffle kirsch for my silly cousin. Waited in the bloody queue for such a long time and a woman behind me started complaining to the security guard that there should be more than 1 cashier. I was already irritated so I turned back and shot her my infamous dirty look. Wanted to tell her off that this's a specialty shop, even godiva has only one cashier. She should just go to cold storage and get her chocs since there are more cashiers there. Anyway, I am glad I got my chocs though they had run outta ice packs so I had to race home to preserve them in good condition.

It pays to be nice as you'll get nice gifts and you get to dine with frens at great places. Oh my, I am gonna drive my trainer crazy at the rate I'm going for sinful food. I can see my money flying away at an incredible speed and my credit card bills mounting... sighh... But I am still excited about all the dinners lined up for the rest of this year and of course, my anniversary on xmas! :D

Xmas Shopping! :)

I went down to taka today to get all the xmas presents which came up to a hefty sum. It really irked me when I saw huge crowds there although it was only about 3 pm. The queues were snaking and I thought that for once, it's a sat or sun. I decided to go into the specialty shops like Armani and Hugo Boss to get the anniversary present for him this Sunday. Am looking forward to xmas cum anniversary but not looking forward to the week after that which's filled with meetings in preparation for the crazy year ahead. Anyway, I was tempted to step into LV to check out if the white glossy bag that i am in love with is still around but decided not to as I need $$!!! Then I headed over to Armani and was just so upset that the shirt which I thought looked really good online wasn't very striking or impressive up close and personal so it wasn't worth that 200 bucks. I went over to CK which had better shirts and more colours so I settled for one grey shirt. After I bought the shirt, I wandered about rather aimlessly in taka before I came face to face with Hugo Boss again. Not knowing why, I just went in to check out the shirts' designs. I nearly kicked myself when I saw that the shirts weren't as exp as I thought. I should have bought them instead of the CK one. Afterall, there isn't much price difference. Damn. I'll buy from hugo boss next time. Feeling cheated, I indulged myself in a crazy shopping spree, buying swarovski crystals for my aunts and birds nest for my grandma from paragon, and some nice decor stuff for my maid and my aunt's maid too. So you can imagine the amount of load I was shouldering and my feet were screaming for a good rest. Of course, I could sniff the burning smell in my pocket as I had effectively burnt a hole in it. And Bonus was Pathetic! Now, I gotta beg $$ from others so that I can afford the expensive dinners that are to come this week. Thank goodness the french and jap restaurants dont open early as my colleagues and I had intended to eat at Jaan or Equinox rest or Inagiku before the performance at the esplanade. But it's not much of a consolation since they made me think of another nice place to eat at, which I cleverly suggested my humble house, knowing that my pocket would really be made very humble after the dinner.

Oh yes, I must gush about the fantastic crayfish horfun that's sold at the empire cafe at raffles hotel. Oh my god, it's not just delicious, it's really fantastic and it's worth that $15 + and it's a huge serving. As I couldn't eat seafood thanks to my lip which still looks ugly, I took small chunks and was so upset that I couldn't eat more! I was forced to eat some huge bowl of fish slice noodles which aren't too bad either but still can't be compared to the horfun! I was whining to my aunt and she deliberately told me she's bringing my cousin to eat there again this Thurs so I insisted that I will come along again. Hope they try the crab fried rice which looked really delicious on other ppl's table so that I can take a small bite without offending my delicate lip :P

Well, so much for my lose weight plan. I wonder if I'm just throwing my money down the drain for paying for the personal training coz discipline's needed too when it comes to losing weight.. Sighh...

Cooking up a storm

Despite my doc's warning against going out of my house, I went to another colleague's house with some of my colleagues to help out in whipping up a storm. No hurricanes were stirred though. When we reached there, the host proudly showed us her binoculars which came free with the purchase of a cam. I thought it would be some lousy junk coz free things are not always good. Surprisingly, it was so powerful that I could see the highway which was frigging far away! Now I know why the host said that she and her husband could even see clearly couples making out in the night in some open space. She has also seen youths taking drugs under the expressway.

I have digressed and I shall get to the point. The reason why we decided to cook together was to bond with one another in the process and also, they were very concerned about my lack of involvement in the kitchen at home. I was always very fearful of getting burnt or hurt in the kitchen especially when standing near a pot of boiling water or frying things. Well, they started me off with simple stuff like stirring sauces, washing utensils and slowly got me to stir the boiling soup and vegetables which was quite an experience as I felt as if I was attending my Home Ec lesson all over again. Meanwhile, I mused over my colleague's enthusiasm in cutting vege, garlic and all that stuff. I've always been very fearful of using the knife. Our professional cutter started telling us that there's a saying about how one should never say that the knife is blunt before using it as one will get cut by it. Interesting eh?

Surprisingly, everything went well, from cutting to boiling and frying. Thought that we girls would turn the place upside down - the assumption held by the host's husband who decided to absent himself from our madness. I think we possessed such good team work that we finished cooking the assorted mushrooms in oyster sauce, cruciferous vege in oyster sauce (by then, it kinda freaked me out as I was afraid of ending up with a really swollen lip due to the oyster sauce), prawns in delicious chilli sauce, grilled 24 chicken wings, making campbell soup and making the jelly with peach which was really tedious as a lot of arm power is needed to stir it continuously, within a few hours. Considering the amount of nonsense we talked in the kitchen, from pole dancing to gossiping about work, we managed to whip up the dishes quickly. Most ppl would not have the appetite to eat after they cook but we were just so happy to eat what we cooked. Probably it's because it's the first time we cooked together and really enjoyed ourselves, we really enjoyed the sweet success of our hard work. Of course, clearing up was a different thing. We hated it but still worked efficiently at it so that we could rest in the living room and generate more noise.

After the cleaning up, we proceeded to get our jelly. As we picked up the jellies, we gotta shock as we saw ants frozen inside. It looked kinda exotic, as if you are an archeologist discovering the fossil remains of an unidentified creature in a piece of rock. Of course, I didn't eat the ants. I pinched off the parts where there were ants. Almost every cube of jelly had an ant. They must have cunningly made their way into the powder earlier or the acid or the flavouring.

As we slouched big time at the couch, we talked about the programmes we loved and to my surprise, 99% of us watched exactly the same stuff - survivor, amazing race, america's top models, project runway and the apprentice. We were big time reality tv freaks. Of course, we started bitching about who's good and who's total crap. We talked so long and so loudly thru the nite till 11 pm. Well, I really enjoyed myself last nite and I hope that will not be the 1st and last cooking session for us.

I am looking forward to having dinner with this bunch of crazy colleagues this Wed before heading for the nutcracker performance at the esplanade.

Have I mentioned that as of this morning, my lip has not become more swollen or less swollen so the oyster extract used in oyster sauce isn't the real stuff :) Of course, I shall continue to pray v hard for my poor lip. I can't go around looking like I've got some STD... :(

Villa Bali

Oh yes, I forgot to blog about this fantastic dining place. It's at Gillman village and it's called Villa Bali. It's such a romantic place at night as you are surrounded by lush greenery and lights. It's a really cool place to chill out and have great food esp the north indian food. Unfortunately I was too sick so didn't get to try much but the chicken tandoori, vegetable korma and some grilled chicken stuff were irresistible. Even the spinach puree which looked gross went well with the cheese naan. Unfortunately I didn't get to sit at the pavilion where there are many cushions for lazybones like me :P Anyway, I think it's the perfect place for a date or a proposal. And don't worry about getting bitten by mozzies coz I didn't get bitten. There's also the aircon dining area for those who are afraid of heat. The prices are reasonable, ambience is fantastic as the setting really has a balinese feel to it and of course, the food is sedap! :D

virus attack!

I never expected the cold virus to be so vicious! After giving me a wk of agony in cold and suffering, it proceeded to unleash its lethal weapon on my lips! the most fragile part of my face! It started by a little swelling on the middle part of my upper lip and although i took my medication for it last nite, it ballooned this morning! I freaked out when I saw myself as I looked like donald duck! EEEKKSSS!!!! I was devastated and now, I'm gonna head to the clinic to find out what's going on. My immunity system is really at an all time low :( This year is really a bad yr for me in terms of my health. I am still suffering from occasional stabs of pain in my back. My lower back has become so stiff that I think I need some chiropractic sessions. Well, have to see if my budget permits :(

Anyway, I went for an SSO christmas concert at VCH. I absolutely loved it, with its effective depiction of the various dances in the snow maiden suite. My silly cousin fell asleep for a few minutes in the first half as he found it a little slow. I'm gonna tell on him to my piano teacher who was performing that nite as my teacher's already v astounded that my cousin has not fully learnt to appreciate music despite possessing an honours in music in uk. Think I deserve the scholarship more than him, hehe :P Anyway, the second half was really fantastic as the mood geared towards the christmas cheer. After the intermission, almost 90% of the orchestra members turned up with goofy santa hats or strange looking headwear to give an infectious xmas mood. Before the orchestra started on tchaikovsky's nutcracker suite, Lim Yau the conductor, told the audience that they have made a jazz interpretation of the suite so we could clap in between the movements and during the movements. And yes, it was done so tastefully, the interpretation was so good though it's played using jazz rhythms and even getting individual players to stand up just like in any jazz performances, to showcase their individual parts. I loved particularly the way they changed the quick tempo of the dance of the sugar plum fairy to that of a slow but sexy tempo. It was just so amazing and it really gave me a whole new perspective of this suite.

Then, there were the other xmas pieces that they performed and finally, they made the audience sing to the tunes of jingle bell rock, have yourself a merry little christmas and hark the herald angels sing. Of course, we had the lyrics in the programme so that we could sing along and it's amazing how lovely it sounded when everyone sang. Meanwhile, santa women handed out candies to everyone to spread the xmas cheer. At the end of the entire performance, blue and silver balloons were released from the top and we kicked the balloons about and it was sheer fun! :) Of course, one joker burst a few balloons at the same time to help the evening end with a loud bang. Indeed, I was so glad I attended this performance as it did de-stress me. :)

Let's talk about...

i met up with my pri sch friend yesterday though i was down with a bad bout of flu :( Am still nursing my cold at home... anyway, she's getting married next yr too except that hers is the chinese wedding dinner, not the rom as she's done with it. she was giving me all sorts of advice and tips on wedding preparations. it sounded so overwhelming that I decided to slack this hols and adopt a wait and see attitude. perhaps my other half will do the prep instead of me hehe.. :P she told me that a great site to visit is singaporebrides.com where ppl bitch abt their bad experiences with various bridal companies, how some are irresponsible enough to forget to bring impt equipment on the wedding night blah blah. I've yet to check it out but I believe the site will have authentic accounts of wedding nightmares. I need to find cheap n good packages, most of which seem to come from JB.. gee..

She was shopping with me for her wedding favour which's meant for the dinner guests. I came up with really great suggestions but it'll be costly. Thought of chopsticks which are meaningful but she was skeptical as she felt that ppl would find it useless. I told her that the chopsticks symbolise a pair and ppl will use it, whether it's for their meals or for digging their nose hehe..

Then, I thought about the nightmare of having to wear contact lens for my wedding. I so bloody hate those lens as my eyes seem to reject them when they turn red easily.

Anyway, we started talking about the movie, pride and prejudice. Great movie, beautiful cast esp Elizabeth and Darcy. I was drooling over them during the entire show and of course, was reduced to a few tears at the end of the show as it was so touching when Liz told her father about her love for Darcy. Aww! I had to make it very blatant to my other half that he should be as romantic and sweet as Darcy. He simply gave that plastic and cryptic smile and a thumbs up sign which left me clueless. Guys...

Last night, I watched tab tv which focused on teen sex. Thought that episode would gimme some ideas on how to approach this to the kids who traumatise me everyday. Unfortunately, the episode simply gave recounts of various ppl and the infamous Sarong party girl whose website's a hit with horny men. There was a short but disappointing discussion on teen sex. It was the first time I saw the sPG's face. Thought she took away the pic from her website at one time as she didn't wana shame her family so why did she appear so boldly on tv? that's not the point anyway. The point is, she was quite bold and proud about her sexual encounters. Very nauseating especially when she wore a smug look along with her short short dress which exposed nearly everything. She was defending her behaviour and seemed to endorse her acts. The show host, evelyn, seemed to make rather judgemental statements such as her behaviour being too promiscuous. Though judgmental, I agreed with evelyn. even the flying dutchman came from a moralistic perspective and tried to reinforce the importance of proper sexual behaviour. Daphne Khoo, the sg idol contestant, also gave the ten years series answer on teen sex. I can't believe that evelyn asked daphne if she's still a V. What kinda question is that on tv? gee! Anyway, it seemed that the strongest dissent came from the spg but it was still suppressed by all the others. My sister then commented that it is sad that there is not much room for another perspective, for dissent. I told her that this's shown on national tv and this is a rather crucial issue that needs to be addressed, thus it has to carry a moral message. I also feel that many teens these days tend to be more liberal, that's why education on such stuff is really impt. I seriously hope that the teens don't do silly things like getting impregnated at such a young age. I hope that some don't aspire to be the next annabelle chong just coz she was mentioned in the papers recently.

Oh well, I'll definitely govern my own children next time, draconian style hehe.. It's for their own good... :P

Burn fats!

i hate doing lunges with weights. My legs and thighs were aching so badly that i had difficulty shopping with my frens and my legs felt so hot, as if they were going into an over-drive. to make matters worse, my back wasn't cooperating with me as it hurt quite a bit and hurt even more when i moved my back a little.

I was so horrified that my fat percentage went up despite the training. My trainer was exasperated with the rich food I've been taking. Can't blame me coz Sg has such great cuisine, especially with food like duck comfit and foie gras. I have been put on a strict diet, made to write a food log of what I eat daily and submit it to my trainer for further scrutiny and torture during my training. Well, I really have to lose weight if I want to look good during my rom.

I used to scoff at my friends who had to scrimp and save for their wedding. Now i know how it feels too. I'm going on a tight budget these days but it's great that I have cooperative friends who are willing to spend less on meals.

Meanwhile, I've gotta lose more weight and look great. Yea... :D