Monday, December 29, 2008

about 郑嘉颖

Ahmad unveiled an unbelieveable truth yesterday. babu, maria and siti san dropped our jaws in shock. We were chatting about 郑嘉颖 and talking about how boyish he looked. And ahmad told us he is almost 40 years old! omg. 40 years old. how can that be?!

Thanks to the advanced technology..we quickly googled using maria's blackberry..and yes, he's born on 15 Aug 1969. He's 39. Wth.. life's unfair. We just have to live it.



~ Looks so good even in exasperation..check out his hot bod!! okay..arms here. but he has a hot bod!~

~looks so good even when panicking~

~ looks good when in a drunken stupor..~


~looks good even when staring into the sky in a pensive mood~

~faintz~

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Potluck Potato Casserole

made this potato casserole for potluck at pam's place. improvised abit by adding ES's fave chicken sausage into the high carbo dish. I didn't keep strictly to the recipe as it might result in wastage if I can't finish the ingredients. So I adjusted the proportion of ingredients. The harshbrowns were tasty in itself so it makes things easier.

It was so super easy to make, filling, cheesy and yummy. Great for potlucks! We were so hungry that I missed the most important part of the potluck... taking pics of the food!! sigh. so here goes the recipe.........without a pic. SIGH. really hate it.


Potluck Potato Casserole - improvised from cooking light

1 1/2 cups fat-free sour cream
140g shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh onion
5 teaspoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
850g frozen hash browns, thawed (about 12 pieces)
300g cream of chicken soup (make the soup as per campbell's instructions)
1 pack of chicken franks or sausage (other suggestions: bacon, ham etc)
1 cup coarsely crushed cornflakes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Combine first 10 ingredients in a large bowl; spread evenly into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle cornflakes over potato mixture.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until bubbly. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Yield: 10 servings

Thursday, December 25, 2008

merry クリスマス!

had my office xmas party yesterday. found a team of photography enthusiasts among my colleagues! haha. cool.


~chk out who's behind the door!~

~me and santa~




~department pic~

~free modelling service.. faisal showing off the powers of his new D90..~

~chk out my camera...better than yours k....$2K DSLR with HD video recording..first in SLR history..~

~ho ho ho..merry xmas!~


Sunday, December 21, 2008

与敌同行 last man standing


spent a relatively slack but fruitful day today. Had my share of exercise, completed my most hated chore - ironing, spent 6 hrs and completed 与敌同行.. it's a super good show man.. got me and my okasan clenching our fists, can't wait to hum tum the bad guy 郭晋安(阿言).
On the other hand, super handsome and hoh man 郑嘉颖 (阿希hei)'s superb acting caught me by surprise this time. I never really thought much of him except as an actor who is just a pretty boy. He made me want to clench my fist in the urge to uphold justice and the bad guys who kept foiling up his plans to uncover the truth made my heart go all out for him.
great show. and judging from the way it ended, with 阿言sinisterly implying revenge while lying on his prison bed, I can foresee a part 2 coming up. yum.


Ah hei is so so so cute.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

back to school and exercise

Was recommended to take up a graduate diploma course on psychology!! With matt san.. Yeah..fully paid by my company. I like free stuff especially courses for self development. Heh. but depending on when it starts, will be super busy next year. Hopefully it starts later half of the year though.

Been always interested in psychology but thanks to the balloting system in NUS and my lousy luck, I missed the chance of taking social psychology. Nothing’s confirmed yet but am definitely looking forward to it.

I have been exercising fervently these 2 weeks, hitting the gym twice a week plus kickboxing and badminton during weekends. feeling more hungry lately also. The benefits from exercise, duly negated by my insatiable appetite.

just back from zumba fitness class in california. very fun! it's mix of latino, hip hop and bits of salsa...fun dance!! didn't really follow the steps and just grooved to the music..super cool! Went to the Novena branch today and liked it much better than the orchard one. It's less crowded and not full of people showing off their bods and cool dance steps. It's more relaxed and people there are not all out to show they can execute a certain move perfectly.

nearly hyperventilated in the steam room. aisah couldn't tahan and left in 20 sec while me and ann tahan 1 min more before we evacuated. I think the steam machine must be spoilt, spouting excessive scorching hot steam. we were lucky to escape unscathed.

it's thurs tomorrow. Sat's badminton and sunday's kickboxing! hooHaa!
Secretly hoping that I can keep to this regime for the next 20 years of my life. dreams are free.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

badminton weekend

spent saturday meeting up with supei, zhen and becca san. zhen homemade some yummy pancakes and waffles with bacon complete with healthy mixed fruit salad. becca's tummy with bb growing nice and healthy. supei looks the same and we did some catching up. haven't seen her for 3 years since she went UK to pursue her fashion design studies and career.

christmas is the perfect season for gatherings isn't it? it gives people a reason to come together, bond and update each other on recent happenings. It's really nice.

met up with shan for yummy ikea chicken wings and swedish meatballs! yummy. oops. that wasn't really our real intention for going ikea though. We ended up not buying anything but spent our bucks in the cafe. haha.

completed our retail therapy at bishan. Junction 8 is really like a mini orchard minus the crowd. There're so many food places and cool retail shops which we usually frequent in town. love that place. Manhatten fish market is opening soon at J8. another reason to nua and pig out there.
We got a real 1-for-1 DBS premium plate deal at sakae sushi! so cool..so we had the premium sushis and lobster salads.. it's so totally worth it. but sorry, the offer ends.....today.

today was a sporty day with sharon san. after our kickboxing, we did an hour of badminton. sherri joined us for badminton and it turned out so fun. badminton is like such old skool game. it's like so cool if you tell people you play badminton or have it as your CCA in pri or sec school and who doesn't know badminton is really mountain tortoise lor.

brought my cam to play around with the modes... not good shots but I'm sure I'll get better with more practice!




~ make public transport a choice mode.....!! ~

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

DSLR - Canon E450D

bought my new toy..canon E450D. my very first digital SLR! reason being I finally got to signing a photography course to get my hobby going. jio eric to join the course with me and hopefully can ignit my enthusiasm for photography. Of coz, there comes the investment to be made along with this learning. SLR.

Anyhows, from a couple of my friend's recommendations (Em!! same cam as u! ) and the shopowner's persuasive marketing of this model, I bought it. Mainly because this is one of the cheaper and newer DSLR with the not bad specifications, suitable for amateurs perhaps. Came with free 8GB SD card, camera bag and extra battery and I paid $1180 for it. Within my budget but still a hefty amount to swipe on my card.

Quite happy with the shots i tested just now around my house.. need to play around with the functions more to familarise myself. Ahmad has gladly volunteered to be my model, without me broaching the subject. You'll probably find me with the cam these days having fun with it. Well, pls put up with me as my enthusiasm might not last. haha.

~some TV mode I used.. got nice effect eh?~

~locked up in my home sweet home~

~ the date I got my camera!~

~my fave sports shoes so far. the design, color and alls..just how I like it.~

~night view..must rest on railings la..if not not so sharp..~



~ love this brand of milk!~

~ mochi san on her way to top notch photographer..Yay...wait long long..~

~my new toy!~

Sunday, December 07, 2008

botanic gardens and my sunday

my dearest okasan cooked crabs today! probably knew that naz was here and of coz, he was as happy was a lark when he saw the chilli crabs out of the wok. yummy. eased abit of my guilt at the thought that I went for kickboxing this morning.

Speaking of which, the replacement instructor was hilarious. she was so dupa energetic, screaming and doing constant war cries.

"Come on, hood ah! (meaning whack or punch) hood ah!! you all never eat rice ah! harder! whack liao la!"

"punch punch punch...then siam siam siam..ya la! can do more stylo not?? punch liao must siam! siam also must stylo understand!! "

Really brightened up the sunday abit. haha. and the cool down push ups and crunches really got our abs working hard.

That was to pave the way for my crabalicious meal. slurp.

Oooh. hung out with naz and his gang at the botanic gardens yesterday. sacrificed a frisbee to the lily pond...allelujah. nice place to picnic minus the drizzle.


~ onlookers were just waiting to capture the candid moment of desmond dropping into the pool of lilies. disappointed them coz we managed to retrieve the frisbee. but sacrificed it again while naz challenged himself to throw it across the pond to jeremy... RIP.~

Thursday, December 04, 2008

vision of a moment

learnt a new phrase today. Vision of a moment - moments imprinted in your mind which you cherish and fondly reminisce. These moments need not be glamourous or occasion related. They can be simple yet unforgettable.



It was interesting as I called up dormant memories residing at the back of my head, visions of times I enjoy and cherish.


These were some of the things I wrote as I went through memories I had with important people in my life:
  • Vision of me and my okasan sitting 10 hours each day over 2 days watching Tang Xin Feng Bao. We breaked only for lunch, dinner and toilet. We didn't talk much but shared the tears and laughter as we savoured every moment of the drama.

  • Vision of me and sharon san talking on the phone and msn, web camming when she was studying in sydney. Then the vision of us sobbing at the airport when I left sydney after my visit,

  • Vision of how I started with ES. How I coincidentally became his mentor in OC, then he was assigned the night shift which gave him the chance to email me and asked me out for late movie after work. I had to sneak around to avoid suspicion by my fellow OCians. haha.

  • Vision of my otosan who ferries me to and fo doc when I'm ill and when I had my wisdom tooth surgery.

  • Vision of me and my bro when we laughed hard at the lamest stephen chow movie together.

  • Vision of me, babu, maria, ahmad relaxing and gossiping at the jacuzzi and steamroom.

  • Vision of how my kids hugged me and cried when they knew I was leaving teaching.

  • Vision of what one of the kid's mum told me how his son who is slow in learning, told her that he loved chinese coz of zhou laoshi. Though I've left teaching, i'll never forget how he enthusiastically held my hand so tightly whenever he stands in the queue

The list goes on.

Vision moments like these keeps me going and makes me grateful for what I have.

C'est La Vie!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Putri's Wedding 30 Nov 2008

Putri's wedding was held at Sembawang CC. It was really a birds dun lay eggs place. Was forewarned by babu about the ulu-ness of the place but din hit me till i was a victim. Didn't help that the cabby didn't know the place. It was scary watching the meter escalating as the cabby went round and round searching for the place. spent a good whole additional 10 bucks searching!! ouch.

I was pissed with the cabby until Jesse pointed out the map on the invitation card. #%$&@#! Yep, I didn't notice that and I got pissed with myself after that! haha. anyway, happy occasion.. pics galore!

Congrats Putri! you looked gorgeous!! Chilled out with OC gang after that at our fave TCC.. cheers to the new year buddies!






Monday, December 01, 2008

They have KPIs to meet too

read about the mumbai news.. yup. for once i'm updated with news. that's coz my bro was dictating the incident out aloud from the living room after he read the papers.

"She was loved by everyone". That was how the new paper described the unfortunate lawyer who was one of the victims. It's not difficult to notice that most of the innocent victims of unfortunate events are usually nice, studious, and well liked by all.

Good peeps die young? Nice people finish last. Maybe these phrases exist for a reason.

Was just crapping with OC gang that perhaps terroists are probably stressed like us and have KPIs to meet which would contribute to their yearly performance appraisal and bonus. Egs of their KPIs would be the height of the buildings they bring down, the number of casualties, the range of the nationalities of the victims, the amount of media and news coverage they get ..etc. For those who fail to meet the KPIs, they would be the next in line to be sacrificed in their next operation.

They obviously have too much time on hand. They should take up hobbies like collecting stamps, play online scrabble, or sing ktv.