Goody two shus

Met up with the Chai Chee clan about a fortnight ago. Another excuse to walk-walk, eat and shop. Mum finally agreed that Crocs are worth the money. Actually her soles were hurting from all those heels she's been wearing.

So we decided to go to the Marina outlet. And.. mum... chose... the... wedgies... I don't get it. Another pair of heels? I get enough workout on my toes walking in heels from Monday to Thursday in the office. (Truth be told, I cheat a little. I got a spare set of flip-flops in the office. Swear by my Havaianas.) Looking around the shop while my mum was deciding on colours... I saw a pair... THE pair... Celeste Suede.

Berry nice! Berry comfy! Berry worth the price! Looks a little grubby even tho I've worn it only twice. Personally, I call it well-seasoned. Hubs really liked a pair he saw, but damn of all damns... it had pig lining. Too bad!

See!!!!! I manages to upload pictures!!!!! After searching the whole room and cussing, I finally found the USB cable. In the study table drawer. How dense. Yaaaaayyyyy!!!

So there... my wishlist is slowly being realised... can't wait to get my hands on a pair of Campers, tho'. That one... will have to wait for a little while... Even then, I dare not stop by the outlet at Beeboh CT, or else the staff will have to mop up my drool.

Life s one damned thing after another. - Elbert Hubbard

Things that go bump

It has been an eventful Feb. Caught a few movies, lost a few kilos, experienced some hibby-jibbies, got myself a few things I wanted... haiiiizzzz could it get any better? February has been a good month. March... has never been a good month for me. Well, apart from my dad's and son's birthdays, nothing interesting happens. Ok, let's not plunge into March first. There are still a few things in February that I gotta let youz people know.

Just last week I had a very freakin' impossible deadline to work on. My fingers were practically like sotong tentacles all over the keyboard. Even then, I only managed to finish like only 2/3 of it by Thursday night. I was in the office until about 9-ish when I realised what the time was. Then it struck me, malam jumaat. Apa lagi, blah lah. As I was making my way home, I told myself that I had to come in a little earlier tomorrow to make sure everything was in order for my boss by 8+.

By 6.50am the next day, I was already seated at my cubby hole ready to pound the keys again. Oh God! Has my life been reduced to just work, work, work? Just as I was about to work on the first slide, I heard some rustling sounds diagonally opposite me. Can't be. I was the only one in the office. Looked up, there was no one there. So I plugged the earphones in my ear and switched on the radio. CSK! CSK! CSK! There it was again. It sounded like someone was rearranging messy papers on the table. "Dammit, I need to work here!" I "talked" to it(?) silently. It went quiet.

CSK! CSK! CSK! This time it sounded more like someone crumpling a plastic bag. Don't know where I got the nerve to stay on and continue working. But I pulled out the earphones and set my radio to loudspeaker. I glanced at the clock on the wall. Damn! Only 7.00am. Please remember, I only switched on the light above my cubby hole. The rest of the office was still dark. Then out of the corner of my left eye, I thought I saw someone walking past my cubby hole. Erh, can't be. Moved too fast. Where the heck did I have the guts to stay on and continue working? I have no freakin' idea. Again, the shadow passed a few times just out of my direct view. Irritating, right?

Then I thought I saw a long haired person walk by a particular area. I thought, hey, someone else is here to keep me company. Then I realised. Heeeeeyyyyyy...... the only person with access to that particular area usually comes just in time at 8.00am sharp. And it's a guy.

SO WHO WAS THAT?????

Your guess is as good as mine.

The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave.
James A. Lafond-Lewis

Movie, movie, movie

After like... ages of not going to a cinema... I caught 3 movies in a fortnight. Overdose. Yah. But they were good movies. Ok lah. Watchable.

CNY eve, for want of an activity to kill boredom, caught “Atonement” with 2 of my galpals at Shaw cinema. Kiera Knightley was in it. Had a good storyline, but I think too much time was spent on the war scenes (not relevant, I felt). That woman got no boobs, man! Not even lime-sized! Washboard flat! Thank gosh she had prominent nipples, or else she could be passed off for a guy. I mean check out her jawbone structure! I mean, yahlah, I was that bored in some parts of the movie to make my mind wander. One of my galpals actually fell asleep n SNORED a little. I had to elbow her a few times throughout the movie. Gotcha, Lin!

Just this past Wednesday I thought of taking time off to myself and watch “Jumper” at Jpt. Actually, I was on lazy leave from the office. Woke up at 7.40, work starts at 8.00. So whaddaya think? But hubs saw me on the website page n decided to book tix online. 9.15 show. Yah. In the pm. Yah. At vivocity. Yah. I thought… omg, I gotta get up early tmr to work, know….

So ok lah. He click, click, click and did the necessary. Then said he wanted to go to the AXS machine to get the tix. I said ok lah fine. Go get it. Spent the afternoon surfing the ‘net for nonsense thingies lah. Brain wasn’t really functioning. 7+, went to vivocity in a cab. Tried again at the AXS machine ar Citibank to get tix. Still cant. So went straight up to GV to get them. When he was at the counter, the staff said, “sir, u booked at GV Grand, not here.” SO… a bit whacked in the face coz overlooked a minor detail… nothing much, practically ran to cab stand ot get cab. Damned! Long q. suggested standing opposite St James. Yep, got cab. Pronto.

Managed to reach GV Grand before cut-off time. Apparently, he booked the gold class category. No wonder it costs $51 in total. And here we were in jeans, flip-flops and suburban scruffy tshirts. Was in my nerd specs and hair off my face with a hair band. No wonder the staff looked at us one kind.

The seats were comfy, blankets were provided, and food and drinks brought to us in the theatre (I think it was a twelve seater theatre). Bloody paying for exclusivity, I think. We didn’t q up at the candy bar to get our stuffs. We went to the lounge where we sat on comfy sofas and minders took our orders. But it was nice lah. Mcm orang suaku sikit!

The movie was nice. Hayden Christiansen nice eye candy, in a way. Samuel L Jackson never disappoints. But this time he played the baddie. No beshhh. Movie kept me awake, the aircon also. Cos even after swaddling myself in my shawl and their blanket, I was still shivering, but teeth not quite chattering yet.

I suggest you watch the movie. Worth the time and money. If you like x-men, you’ll like jumper. Same genre.

Yesterday met up with another of my gerfren. Decided to catch a movie at Cathay Cineleisure. We both had not been to that place in yonks… to the extent we got lost trying to find the ticket counter. Yah lah, blurchicks lah both of us. Actually we planned to watch “PS I Love You”, but after reading reviews, think that “Juno” was a better watch. Actually, hilarious in a serious, weepy kind of way.

You gotta watch it if you can. After the movie, we just need to say the words “division sign, plus sign”, “SunnyD”, orange tictacs”, or the best yet “golden shorts”. We’ll both be laughing our heads off. Well, actually, we were either crying or laughing or both, throughout the whole movie. You watch the movie, you’ll know why.

It’s M18, so if you’re underaged, too bad. Geek guys, don’t miss it. There’s Jennifer Garner. She’s good in my books. And also Jason Bateman. Not that I am a fan. Still looks the same all these years, only a little pudgier.

After movie we went to coffee club @ taka to eat. Hungry mah! This time had no minders to bring food to us, lah, ok. Didn’t eat much, cos there was so much to talk about. Yah, it happens when girls meet. We gossip. Nah. We bitch. About anything and everything. And I think we both still look ok after having 2 kids each, cos I think the wait staff were flirting a little. Wakakakakaka!! Erh, one was when he was taking our orders… toffee-coffee and cheesecake and raspberry coulis for me… delish! Stayed there till about 11, I think, then we drove around a bit, coz we still had loads to upload, decided to hang at starbucks, coz they close at 2am. Talked and talked and talked and talked. Until closing time. Actually we still had loads to talk about, so we are definitely meeting up again soon.

Yeah, Gladys, I make sure we meet up again soon. This time we find a cinema closer to our area. Hubs… stay home and mind the kids for me, thanks.

Btw, got my running shoes. New Balance. In maroon and grey/silver. Sounds icky, but looks nice. And definitely feels good on my feet. Thanks hubs.

You did say you’ll pay for my 24 month gym contract, right? I’ll hold your word to it!

PS : Yayyyy!!!!! Blurchick know how to upload pix oredy!!!!

Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends.
Mary Catherwood

Up and Down, Needs and Wants

Last week was another good reason to fill up the tank. I mean, in Singapore, what else is there to do apart from working and sleeping?

CNY eve, eat big with frens. CNY Day 1, eat big with siblings. CNY Day 2, eat in with family. CNY Day 3, eat out with family. CNY Day 4, eat many many many at Chai Chee. How could I ever say no to mum’s chicken curry and kremp’s cupcakes? Simply divinely heaven on earth. How to lose weight, then?

Actually on the eve of CNY eve, I was at the gym. Blasted an hour or so on the cardio machines, and little more on resistance training. But all gone to waste with all the eating I did on the following days.

To pacify myself (in self-defence mode), I declared it a ”let loose, what-the-heck” long weekend. Before heading to my mum’s place yesterday, I did a session at the gym in the morning. Managed to burn up about 450 calories (kept track this time), banged up my knee pretty bad (old injury), got a slight migraine (straining with weights and breathlessness – propranolol a great big help), and just plain knocked out. It was a case of mind over matter to get my body from jpt all the way to st91.

But actually, it wasn’t all that bad… I managed to shave off 2kgs. Yayyyyy!!!! Then it got me thinking… if only… IF ONLY… I didn’t plough my way through the weekend with food, I could have lost more. On one hand, I feel like jumping and dancing like Grandpa Bucket, on the other hand, I feel like giving myself a big kick in the behind for not having the cow-sense to control my eating. Quick, someone pass me a Meiji Dark Chocolate bar. What? No hep? Nebermine. I’ll get one tomolo at 7-11 on the way to work.

Needs : glucosamine tablets (my knees goes click-click everytime I walk) abt $45, elastic knee binder (size M) : abt $30, wardrobe overhaul (pangkat sudah up lah beb!) : many many $$$, pay 24mth gym contract (expiry next mth) : abt $1900, subscription to Shape magazine (better than Her World) : $60, new pair of sports shoes – pref mizuno, asics, nb or saucony : abt $230, (nike and adidas sux, only good for streetwear, I think).

Wants : crème de la mer anti-wrinkle/eye bag cream (used up the sampler) : omg, so ex!!, a pair of 3lbs foam covered dumbbells (to workout at home) : abt $43, nike yoga mat and carrier (becoz I like the texture and colors) : abt $65, a pair of heels from Guess? (just becoz) : abt $120, a pair of Crocs (old one in the archives already) : abt $90, a pair of Campers sneakers (wore old one to extinction) : abt $320.

Valentine’s Day coming up. Forget fancy flower bouquets, forget little blue packages with white ribbons. Not much of a bling-bling kind of girl. Just give me earth-shattering, lip-smacking chocolates (try to get it from Candy Empire – or just the banana split from nyny @ citylink mall) and pick from one of the above. See which one fits into your budget.


Hubs… HINT! HINT! HINT! Be generous. Please.

Who said Val Day only for lovers? Friend-ly love, sister-ly love (hint, hint!), daughter-ly love, sister-inlaw-ly love, cousin-ly love, colleague-ly love, ex-schoolmate-y love, neighbour-ly love… the more the merrier. Have I missed out anyone? So see which category you fit into, and do the necessary. Do I have to spell it out for you?

How much do I love thee… depends on which of the above you get me. Shameless, this chick!

Wakakakakakakakakakakaka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dream on, blubber! PS : I am usually not so thick-skinned. Must be the overworked liver flushing out the toxins.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
Mark Twain

The Blob

Yah. I’m still fat. Since x’mas I have been controlling my food intake. Serious. I have been having only salads for lunch. Sometimes with a little canned tuna, boiled ‘taters, grilled chooks or just plain greens. So far I am still standing up n breathing ok. Kinda made me discover that I can live without rice. But I can’t go for more than a day without bread. I still need that little bit of starch/carbo thing to get my day going. So I indulge a little bit.

Breakfast… nutella and peanut butter between 2 slices of bread. Huh? What kind of a diet is that? But I find that if I just slather butter n sugar or plain pbj… it doesn’t work for me. I’ll be damn peckish by 10.30am. So by trial n error, nutella n peanut butter is just nice. I’ll be felling slightly peckish by 11.45am or so… I’ll stave it off by drinking about a 300-400ml of plain water. Then just nice, I’ll have my lunch at 12.15pm. All thanks to bibik, I don’t have to wake up any earlier to pack the lunch. Bless her soul! Dinner, depends. Sometimes I’ll be working late in the office, so I don’t have the energy to eat when I get home.

Usually dinner is just a full cup of low-fat milk. Either HL or Meiji. Other than those two, the other brands taste a little flat. But I can’t stomach HL chocolate, banana or strawberry flavours. But I got to make it known, oat milk tastes great. At the moment I just cant remember the brand. Was it marigold… or magnolia… I only recall that it starts from letter M…mmmmmm nice! If I feel really hungry when I get home, I’ll just take whatever is for dinner in a small bowl just to keep my stomach filled. And yeah, no rice. Serious!

It went ok… for a while.

Then my weight reached a plateau. Didn’t move. I got so stressed! No matter how much I sweated at the gym, it just won’t melt off. Do you know how depressing it was? Still is! So now if I knock off early, I will walk the whole of jpt. No spending (ok, mb just a little bit). Then I’ll take the bus home, drop a bus stop further from my place AND continue walking. If I am at the gym, I’ll stick the cross trainer like glue, until my knees feel like jelly and still it will hover at that dreaded weight. I wonder if cutting my hair shorter will make me weigh less. Hahaha! What a stupid thought!

But I make exceptions for… sushi!

This is a daily battle for me. And it makes it harder when people keep saying that I am fat, I never seem to stop eating, and all those negative comments. God! You think I like being fat? But I wont go to the extent of dieting and surviving on coffee and crackers. Everyday. My ex-schoolmate was a regular in NUH. Forever on a drip. It messed up her internals so much she couldn’t conceive and went through, I think, two miscarriages. That count was when I last met her 4 years ago. Tu keje bodoh. She was so conscious of looking good that she sometimes wouldn’t let anything pass her lips. Even though it was clear to all that she was in a cold sweat and about to pass out. Stupid!

I’d rather be a little filled-out and healthy, rather than stick-thin and miserable. I mean, how can any stick insect live in Singapore when there are so many foods to try out? But losing a few inches would be nice. It sounds nicer to ask for a medium size than a large size. I realised that it’s more satisfying to see my weight drop in terms of clothes sizes than by weight. Wish me luck!

It's OK to be fat. So you're fat. Just be fat and shut up about it.
Roseanne Arnold

Gorge Fest

Last Sunday, the family and I plus Hasnul’s 3 nephews went to Sakae Sushi for dinner… Ooooh… it was best. Not the bestest, but "happening" enough for us to share a few laughs, try out a few new dishes, n basically stuff ourselves silly.

I am a regular at the outlet @ The Frontier, yep, to the extent that a handful of the staff and 2 of the managers recognize me by face. My name? Too complicated I guess for their tongues to grasp. But no matter. Place is great. Food is great.

Back to our gorge-fest (you’ll find out why later).

After spending the whole day lazing around watching the telly and playing computer games till we were cross-eyed, hubs and I decided to make good the promise of bringing the 3 taman jurong boys out for sushi. Yep, I promised one of them this meal after he recovered. So after a nap (me) I decided to get things moving. It was a flurry of activities to get the two kids dressed (Hadyr was running around in just diapers, Hiqma can’t decide what to wear), getting me bum off the bed, getting hubs away from his 2nd wife - the laptop, we were dressed and good to go by about 5pm.Who cares if it was drizzling, nothing could get in the way of me and my sushi. And also Hiqma has been bugging me about "when are we going sakae, mama?" since she got wind of my promise. It was gonna be her 2nd visit there.

So we called the boys to meet us at the entrance of Sakae Sushi @ The Frontier. Cutting a long story short, yeah, we met the boys, got ushered to our seats and proceeded to place our order. Ok, so there were plates with the regular sushis and sashimis on the conveyor belt. Hiqma promptly took down a few plates. While the boys were deciding what to order from the menu, she worked through her plates. I took a plate down and Hadyr knocked back two pieces with no trouble. Good thing I was sitting between him and the conveyor belt, or else he would have taken every plate that came our way. Not that he didn’t try. I think the back of my t-shirt has a few shoe prints to prove it. (read : he climbed all over me to get to it).

So the guys being adventurous but a little cautious, ordered the salmon pasta, nabe ramen and I think one of them ordered a soba dish. Hubs ordered the tenzaru soba. Good choice. The boys had a kick repeating the word "nabe" to the wait staff. All I could do was to hide my face in my hands. The wait staff just looked at them. Wondered what she was thinking.

I ordered two aeroplane meals for the kids. Generous pieces grilled chicken with rice cakes (yumyum), two pieces of sushi, two cocktail hotdogs, and some vegs. Its called the aeroplane cos it’s served on an aeroplane shaped plate. Duh! Comes with complimentary yakult. Only for kids below 12 years old. For me, it must be the cha soba. Oooohhhh…. No visit is complete for me until I have the cha soba. Cold green tea noodles soaked in the dipping sauce and then slurped noisily. Forget table manners, this is simply divine. I can have bowls and bowls of this. I must also have my "hana maki". Vinegared rice, wrapped with slices of raw salmon, with a small dollop of japanese mayonnaise and fish roe. Ooo… heaven. Turns out, Hiqma has decided to be adventurous and give it a try. She loves it. Simply cos it has mayonnaise. She also managed to polish off 4 slices of salmon sashimi. Not bad for a kid who spat it out a few months ago. (That time I ordered a home delivery set). So I guess now I got a sashimi eating kaki. Convinced the boys it tastes great. After taking half a slice, they couldn’t take it. Spat it out. What a waste! Note to self : gotta work on them. Hubs… nah… he doesn’t go for the raw stuff. His tenzaru soba set came with tempura and of course the soba was served on a bed of ice. How to eat? Like that lah. Dip the soba in the dipping sauce and then slurp. Have you ever watched japan hour? Where got they eat noodles quietly? You gotta slurp it, baby! Half of the plate went to Hiqma. There was a raw quail egg also. Now, that I usually skip. So they (the boys+hubs) argued what to do with it. In the end, they broke it on the table. Good thing sakae provide wet napkins.

So apart from the ala-carte dishes, we picked up, I think, about 19 coloured plates and 5 premium plates. The coloured plates are the normal maki and sushi versions. The premium plates were Hiqma’s and my doing. Endless hana maki and salmon sashimi. (but I don’t recommend squid sashimi, tastes like sweet rubberbands). Oh, you must also try the sun maki. Cucumber and some other things (cant remember) wrapped in seaweed and vinegared rice, then rolled in fish roe and then topped with slices of avocado and shredded crabsticks. Ooohhh… so sedap! You gotta taste it to believe it. Another one is the sunshine maki. This is different. It’s deep fried prawn (the ones that cost about $7-$9 a kilo at the wet markets, medium sized), wrapped in seaweed, vinegared rice, then wrapped in thinly sliced succulent mangoes. OMG! Sounds icky, but the taste… the crunchiness of the prawn, with the sweetness of the mango, and two pieces of salmon roe on top… mmmm… just goes together. Pure bliss!

After working through plate after plate after plate, we finally… FINALLY… decided we had enough. We called the wait staff to count the damage done and proceeded to pay at the counter. It was cheaper than I expected, even before they factored in my membership discount (of course I already had the discount card). It was only then all of us discovered that we were a little too full. Gluttons! Step by step, we groaned and walked to the toilets nearby to freshen up, sat for a few minutes at the sofas at the lobby of The Frontier, then heaved our asses to Jurong Point (jpt) to walk off the meal. It was total chaos at jpt. All I could see was peopleand the non-stop tong-cheng-tong-cheng music here, there, everywhere! Then I remembered, oh yeah, the last weekend before CNY.

Hubs wanted to go to Courts and Harvey Norman to suss out the laptops. There were a few that caught his liking, so I guess he’ll be getting his hands on one pretty soon. Boring thing for me. One laptop is as good as another. But I guess salivating at new laptops for him is the same as me doing the "ker-chinggg" at Bodyshop or Esprit or Giordano or World of Sports or just making my ATM card work hard. I got a new water bottle for Hadyr, cos he was biting the flexible straw off of the current one. Hiqma, as usual, "what he have, I also want". Even though her nike water bottle is still doing fine. Heck lah, just get it lah. In pink. Of all colours. Urgh!

Then Hiqma saw the Andersens icecream booth. She wants icecream. Sooo jelak. The ice cream's too milky for me. Suggested Scoopz at the basement. She got vanilla-mint (mint flavour is her current fave), I got old fashioned vanilla with hersheys chocolate sauce (cos Hubs only likes vanilla - boring). Cant eat the whole cup, too full. Needed to share. Can’t remember what the boys had, coz they took too long to decide so I just passed them the money to get their own cups while I went to the back of the shop to sit and enjoy my ice cream.

Overall, it was a nice evening. The boys were already thinking about where to "ketok" us for their birthdays. Thank god it’s still far away in June.

But then Sakae is fine with me. So please remember, if any one of you got the craving to eat sushi or sashimi or ramen or soba, just make sure it’s Sakae. Call me, I’m always available. (",)

A gourmet is just a glutton with brains.

Philip W. Haberman, Jr.