but i got a double whammy yesterday when i visited the cafe… ZOMG the prices are like crazily expensive!! i mean when i first started goin to the cafe… their pastas were an affordable 15-20bucks… now… its well over 20 dollars!! gees… quality still the same lah… but… wah i’m wondering how much are the prices of raw food nowadays…

i shall miss the times when i would just pop by, have a cake and sip on their regular coffee (which is the bestest…) =(

its a rainy day today… i’m sitting in the middle of the office (literally) trying not to freeze my butt off… in front of me is a cup of green tea that i’m occasionally cupping with my hands in the hope of warming at least one part of my body…

which reminded me of the lunch i had on sunday to celebrate mothers’ day… my family went out to this restaurant along neil road which serves xiao long bao, dumplings and the like… and i discovered the BESTEST (to date) spicy and sour soup… it was not very spicy but super duper sour which i totally adore… i had one small bowl to myself and a little bit more… ehehhehe

other than that the rest of the dishes were pretty nice.. esp the fried dumplings which were pretty special as they were not fully wrapped but had both ends open… and the red bean pancake was nice and crispy on the outside wif the filling sandwiched in between… it wasn’t too sweet so i kinda like it… making my mouth water as i’m typing this out!

happy new year to you!! its 2007 and i’m juz thinking ‘what in the world happened in 2006?’

in any case… my NYE was spent buying stuff, cooking and entertaining my friends at a mini dinner party… man… and all because i wanted to make this shepherd’s pie and brownie frm nigella lawson’s christmas bites tv special… didn’t realise how much work the shepherd’s pie is… took more than 2 hours to prepare and make the meat portion and the mashed potato portion… -_-” thank goodness i had some help frm babe… =P hee…

*tip for really really smooth mashed potatoes: use a cheese grater (the kind that has a barrel and you gotta turn it to grate the cheese…) which ‘grates’ the potatoes into fine bits that resembles rice… when you stir it with a spoon, it all joins together to become mashed potatoes! of course pls rem to add milk and butter.. ahhahaha

the food turned out pretty good… babe made pork soulvakia (a greek dish) which was quite yummy and we had the brownie wif vanilla ice-cream… hehehe will post more photos of the gathering when i get them frm my friend… by the time everyone left and we tidied the house to an acceptable condition, the time was 2am!! tiring but satisfying.. =D
hope this coming year will be fruitful and happy for you too!

1. instant-real meat-noodles!, 2. inside the cookbook 02, 3. its winter!, 4. kolo mee, 5. black ravioli wif saffron cream sauce, 6. mandarin hotel chicken rice sample

hahaha this is a fantastic tool to use wif flickr… i’ve actually placed a link on the link-list but here it is – fd’s Flickr Toys… it requires u to upload the mosiac file into your flickr photos… so could be a bit troublesome… but i’m not complaining.. hehehehe

okies… let’s go in order now… my colleague helped me get this realllllllllly delicious instant noodles that has real meat in there… hehehe its in my drawer now… i can’t bear to eat them… also did up a cookbook for my school assignment… had loads of fun tho it was super last minute.. ahhahaha… its winter-time in animal crossing and i made my first ’snowman’!!

and of course there’s the food… vivocity kolo mee, black ravioli from menotti’s (yumz!!) and mandarin hotel chicken rice (the one from chatterbox) that i had at a wedding dinner… man i’m getting hungry!!

i am saving the best for the last!!! my xmas came slightly earlier this year… heee… check out wat i got frm him!! >_<

1. dangling keychain!, 2. keys on the coach!, 3. xmas pressie, 4. coach packaging

yes!! a pink flip flop keychain from coach in replacement of my havaianas keychain (the ’slipper’ bit broke, leaving me with the sole…) hahahaha the most appropriate present for me right now… i hvn’t thrown away the old one… juz kept it with the key to my (ex)aussie home… thanks babe!! =D

did these two dishes yesterday for my project (i’m doin a mini-cookbook) and they turned out pretty okay considering it was my first attempt at the dishees… hahaha… =P

last week was an interesting week ending off with a rather sedate weekend… parents went off to china for a week-long holiday (cheers!) so i could stay out a bit later than usual wifout the nagging… =P

went to simpang bedok on friday (or was it saturday) for dinner… had prata and fried chicken… lookin at the image now is still making me feel hungry… the chicken was crispy and tender on the inside… prata was the usual… ahah… though i must say the carpark was a bit the small…

weekend was spent trying to catch on my housework like washing the laundry etc… also took time out to spend time wif him since i kinda like left him to his own devices on the weekend of the CPL event..=P

anyway… i was also super engrossed in this game called ‘osu! tatakae! ouedan!!’ which is another music rhythm game wif a super difference… you control a trio of male cheerleaders whose sole purpose is to cheer up individual characters on in their quests… and quests can be as mundane as passing the exams… to making it in time for an afterwork party… to being a successful egyptian priestess… -_-” yes… its really silly but its hilariously fun at the same time… i’m super hooked on that game… ahahha

therefore at this moment… games that i’m hooked on are:

• osu! tatakae! ouedan!
• nintendogs (i gotta feed my beagle, rocket)
• rhythm tengoku
• mario kart
• brain age
• cooking mama

hee…

on a side note… had dinner at liang seah st today.. went to try this lai lai noodle place… not very fantastic compared to the roasted beef noodles we had in aussie (instant noodles versions tasted better…) and we rounded up the night by having dessert across the road at ah chew’s dessert… =D both of us had the fresh milk steamed egg which was a bit like egg tart but lighter in egg taste and more like mango pudding in texture…

very full now… need to go more gym… =P haven’t had time this week to go as i had class yesterday.. today was supposed to be project discussion.. but it was cancelled last min…tomorrow proj discussion… thurs and friday classes.. but thank goodness this triple class sessions in a week is ending as of this wekk.. next week is the exam.. which reminds me… i gotta take leave to study… =P

prob sneak in a swim one of these days again.. hee…

haven’t posted for a week… as usual been bz doing stuff besides work and goin out to soak in the visual imagery of the world… plus watching a few world cup matches here and there (resulting in a few sleepy heads in the office.. ahahha)

just on saturday, i had the intention of doing some exercise (after watching Germany vs Argentina on friday) so i dragged persuaded him to go along with me… we went to pasir ris park and instead of my initial plan of cycling… we sat down at a bench near the beach and read/ talked… quite nice and peaceful (but i’m pretty figety so it took a good book to make me sit and read in the calm at the beach…) sat there till it was about to get dark (hence the above image) before proceeding on to changi village to have chicken rice for dinner (not tat we purposely went there to eat the chicken rice.. but it seemed the most appealling food there at that time… ahhaha)

after that we drove to century sq coz i had to buy my big ass bottle of professional shampoo… and it was an interesting ride coz he made a wrong turn so we went the long way round… and we parked at the nearby hdb block to save money (it was a short walk there anyhow…) i bot the stuff i had to buy (shops were about to close) and he drove me back home…

by then it was almost 11pm… and i persuaded invited him to my house to watch the match between england and portugal… which lasted till 2am the next day… hahaha another sleepy sunday!!!

sunday i had a project discussion which lasted for a bit… had to do a press kit for my PR class… den decided to go shopping and got my project-mate to go wif me (apparently she dun go shopping…)

the two of us went to mango at wisma for their sale… din find anything suitable and walked to zara in taka… which to my surprise, their sale was goin on!! hoo~!! so went in… tried a few tops… den tried a few more tops… before deciding that i would get this nice white shirt from their TRF collection… the price tag said 29.90 but ended up bein scanned as 44.90 (mistake in price tag)… gah… so i didn’t buy this other green strappy top (that i chose to go wif the shirt/jacket) since i was too shocked by the price (and the total if i had included the top would be 60bucks!?!?!) and i HAD to get the white shirt… =P

my friend wanted to get this sheer top which was too big for her and we were debating whether it was worth to buy since its 54 bucks! i preferred the other two tops she had chosen (combined to be 60bucks) and so she decided that she would not buy the nice sheer top… we had to like persuade ourselves to step away frm the shop.. ahhahaha

think i’ll go there again… hee…

btw in one of the shopping walks around town… we discovered this really interesting indonesian restaurant located in the upper floors of lucky plaza… they served a nice ’smashed chicken’ ahahah… and i gotta tell the world that my office’s resident cutie plushie has gone for a bath! she’ll be back this week.. haahhaha… ;D

wonder what this week will bring… hee…

hoo! this is the best char siew rice in town… EVAR… and you can find it not at a restaurant but a food court.. yup.. its at marina square’s food court… the one wif the ultra long q… opposite the dim sum store… love the sauce man…

things that i did since the last time i blogged:

• watched a few soccer matches
• bot my first pair of bling jeans
• did another pedicure
• overate at a buffet
• went shopping at orchard
• bot 2 cds frm hmv (coldplay and the pussycat dolls)
• bot a top frm future state
• went to three different mango stores and ended up buying another pair of expensive jeans at the ngee ann city one (less crowded.. less piles of clothes.. easier to find stuff)

the last one was pretty interesting.. coz i went to mango just to take a look at what they have (i’m not one of those who would take leave to go mango sale or something…) and all i saw at the isetan outlets were piles upon piles of clothing.. wasn’t feelin up to digging thru them to look for a miniscule top somewhere…

so i headed for the jeans/dresses/pants section… and it wasn’t that interesting too… so i juz ran my hands and eyes over the garments till i saw this dark, soft denim jeans… and the pocket design was nice wif interesting details here and there… plus it didn’t hurt that i saw a few people lookin for the jeans too… hehehehe… (contemplated very long actually.. even took photos to show mr b what i got and what advice he would give me… =P)

it took me only now (yes yes…) to realise that for jeans.. a good cut/design coupled wif material can make u look good…partially the reason why i forked out ard seventy each for both of my jeans (the victoria beckham one was highly recommended by my colleague and it was 50% off…) *heart pain* but its good… ahhah will wear them more often…

a wonderful sight in sunny singapore… gelatissimo juz opened over the weekend (albeit a pretty wet one…) and i couldn’t resist and had to go down to check it out (you know.. make sure the taste was correct and all.. hahaha)

considering i juz partied till two plus on friday (all i will say is that i don’t like flaming lamboginis, and sex on the beach – the drink okay – long island tea and vodka ribena is nice… and always good to drink sky juice at the end of the night…) pulling myself out of my house was a challenge… ahahah i had a mini-hangover till fourish the next day…

anyway.. met up wif my babe and we went out for a quick lunch at bugis before he had to go meet up wif potential clients (freelance mah) at orchard… initially i din wan to go wif him.. but after hearing that he was meeting them at gelatissimo.. i couldn’t resist… mwwaahahahahahaha… so popped by orchard (packed!!) and went to the store located at shaw tower/centre/lido there…

forgot that you had to pay before buying.. ahahha… but anyway… ordered a scoop of the ferrero rocher icecream.. which was kinda soft… =/ prob too much opening and closin of the doors… nonetheless the taste was still the same… exactly like how i remembered… yumz~

went to mango… found a few tops to try out.. ended up buyin one (wanted to get jeans but they were sixty and over… and i dun hv money now… =P) den met up wif him again for a short while (he went to a gathering.. i went home) and we went back to gelatissimo to order more gelato! for him of coz…

he got two fruit flavours.. and it’s EXACTLY the same.. =D their mango is very good.. superb… and the blood orange is fantastic too… they really have very good fruit gelatos… hee…

so here’s my recommendations for gelato flavours:
gelatissimo (at shaw/lido) – gotta try their mango, blood orange and i heard guava is good too… yumz… some of their non-fruit flavours are good too… ermz.. can’t rem those.. ahahah

bravissimo (at tangs) – d24 durian ice cream… super hands down on that… they use real durian okay… =P~~~ and their bon bon rocher icecream is good too! never tried their fruit ones tho…

yes i only eat gelato frm these two places… (restaurant ones not counted) coz they’re good wif quality and taste, though they cost a bit more… they juz make u feel so much better… hee…

*and i got my xmas pressie frm babe! its the projectshop bag i saw two weeks back!! =D thanks dear.. eheheh… will blog separately abt that*