Shoes Craze

Sometime last week, just as I was getting out of the house on MONDAY morning, I realized my ONLY pair of black working slip on heels was missing. STOLEN!

Crap!

Monday morning, rushing and cannot find my heels!

On the way I was fuming and cursing at whoever it was who took my heels. And I really wanted to wear that pair today as Hub and I will be on half day and we'll be going to town to do some Christmas shopping and that pair is slip on, so it's easy for me to try on shoes and clothes!

To cut the whole story short, I got into the Mary Jane lookalike from Clarks

and off we went to work, still upset at my loss.

I "announced" it to the whole world via msn when I reached office and my lunchtime kaki was the first to respond. Thank Goodness, she has her URS card with her and I borrowed it from her for the day.

To make up for the loss of my heels, I need to get a slip on replacement. Best would be if I can find back the same pair. I am particular about my heels... Coz I am flat feet. Most shoes arches are too high and narrow for me. So far, only those from URS fits my feet.

I have no idea but I ended up with 3 pairs instead of just 1. =PLeftmost pair was the exact same pair that I lost.
Middle pair, I like the soft satin ribbon on it.
Rightmost pair, I like the purple against black and it was very low.
So. I bought 3 pairs to replace 1 lost pair. =/

Hub also bought 2 pairs of shoes. One pair while we went shopping, the other pair over the weekend that past. Rounded and slightly pointy.

And a few days ago, it was told to us that during the Open House next year, all staff will be wearing a Black Polo Tee. As usual, for ladies, we cannot wear jeans nor capris. And my role will be in charge of student guides, means I will be moving around. Which therefore also means, I must wear dark colored pants (coz I have no light / white long pants) with the Black Polo Tee. Which will means once again, I have no shoes to wear!!

I cannot possibly be wearing the Clarks the whole 3 days.
1) It will stink by the 2nd day.
2) No doubt it's comfortable, but it's high.
3) I also realized that it tends to be a little slippery when on wet tiles.

I would love to wear my Nike "Ballet" shoes. Only thing it's silverly white, now it's greyish silver as it has aged. But imagine my top and bottom to be black and shoes greyish silver?! Too outstanding shoes.

Hence, I needed something black and low and comfortable. I got myself another pair of shoes on Sunday when we were at Queensway Shopping Centre.

This time, from Rockport. Low and comfortable and formal looking enough. $95 after 20% discount.

I have no idea why I kept buying shoes recently. Hub was commentating why do I keep buying shoes that's only suitable for certain occassions? But not a pair that's suitable for all or most occassions? Honestly, besides being vain and wanting to look well dressed and being comfortable for the various occassions, I have no answer to that question.

I mean, I cannot be wearing white shoes when my top and bottom are both black! I cannot be wearing heels to run around, chasing my students and leading lost visitors from venue A to venue B, walking up and down the many many flights of stairs and across my campus (rough area size is about 15 football fields) for 3 days! I also cannot be wearing the same pair of covered shoes for 3 solid days and running around in it. SOCKS? I've tried those heel socks. I hate it. The elastic eats into my skin and makes me feel worse!

This shall be my LAST pair of expensive shoes for the next 1 year! I've just spurged on the Clarks and now rockport. NO more!

The next time I buy any more shoes will be when it was WORN out!

ARGH! Feel so fraustrated when I buy so many pairs of shoes!

Edited to add: ah... and I forgot to add that recently, I got myself a pair of Merelle Sandals too

$59.90 from Royal Sporting House at J8. Ya la, slippers. So all in, within 2 months, I've almost replaced ALL my shoes!

Udon

Another dinner that I made from the cookbook.With the leftover frozen mixed veggies and the remaining block of toufu, I decided to just add everything plus some more other ingredients into the Udon noodles for dinner.

As usual, I followed what I understand of the recipe, the rest, I modified and edited.

For the soup base, I just went to NTUC to buy the pre-pack miso soup base. Throw in some chinese mushrooms and scallops (to make the soup sweet) and wait for the pot of water to boil. Add in marinated chicken (pepper, hua diao jiu, salt) and mixed veggies after the pot of soup of mushroom and chicken has boiled.

Continue to simmer on low heat while I go take my shower.

After my shower, add in those white scallops followed by Udon. Wait to boil. Meanwhile cut the block of toufu and put into serving bowls. I did not add the toufu to the soup as the toufu are those super soft and meant to be eaten cold not for boiling soups kind. So I just cut and then pour the whole pot of soup, Udon and the rest to cover the toufu.

Serve. Our dinner of Mixed Veggies Udon in Mushrooms, Chicken & Scallops.

I think passable. The ingredients sounds weird, not Chinese not Japanese. But ultimately, as long as can eat, and Hub say "OK" I think can already la.

Definitely room for improvement but at least I am trying.

A Home Cooked Dinner at long last!

After a very very very long time, I finally decided that I will once again step into the under utilized kitchen and cook a simple dinner for ourselves.

I guess it started because of that 2 simple cookbooks I got in KL. What better way to start with a simple meal and since Hub has no class and I've finished exams for this semester! =)

I decided to make Japanese rice with egg and chicken. So during lunch, the lunch kaki and I went to AMK Hub for lunch where I also went to buy my chicken, frozen veggies, toufu and Yakitori sauce to prepare for dinner.

But I always prefer my meals with veggies... so I modified the given recipe and added in frozen mixed veggies. End up... My chicken becomes very colorful with the mixed veggies =P I think it's still acceptable! I did not really follow the given recipe and instructions exactaly. What I did was stir fry the onions and mixed veggies till almost done. Add in marinated chicken (in Yakitori sauce), water and continue to stir fry. When chicken is almost done, add in 2 beaten eggs, simmer for just 5-10 seconds and off the fire.

By this time, the japanese rice (Short Grain Rice) is done, pour all the chicken into the rice cooker to keep warm and to cook the egg so that the egg will still be watery and soft.

And I love the Japanese Cold toufu! So I decided to make that as well. Only thing is, I added Enoki (not sure how to spell) mushrooms, spring onions and bacon bits. VOILA! A little of "East meets West" but added crunch from the bacon bits and not to mention, it looks so much more colorful too!Hub commented. "WAH! So convenient! Don't even need to cook!" I retorted "Says who! I got to lightly boil the mushrooms lei!"

For the sauce, just mixed the yakitori with some water, soak the cooked enoki mushrooms and pour it over the toufu. Chuck it back into the fridge to keep it chilled till it's ready to be eaten.

Then, we go bathe! hahaha.... so that we can have a nice meal after our shower and I've also heard that showering after dinner is not good and it adds weight! So, as far as possible, we try to shower BEFORE eating. hahahahaha..

Our dinner on 27 Nov. Home cooked Japanese Rice with Egg and Chicken with a twist and Cold Toufu.Pardon the newspaper.... We usually eat in front of the TV at the coffee table and we are just too lazy to even wipe the table after eating, so with the newspapers, just crunch everything up and throw. =P

Hub said it was Good. =D And I'm happy that he likes it.

The Ingredients (serves 4)....
1. Dashi, 250 ml
2. Sugar, 1 Tbsp
3. Mirin, 4 Tbsp
4. Japanese light soya sauce, 4 Tbsp
(no idea what iall the above are, I used Yakitori sauce to replace items 1 to 4!)
5. Large onion, 1, peeled and thinly sliced into rings
6. Chicken fillet, 250 g, cut into small cubes. (I used chicken tigh, cut into bite size)
7. Eggs, 4 large, lightly beaten (I used 2 normal sized eggs)
8. Cooked Japanese Rice, 300 g (Short Grain Rice, 3/4 cup)
9. Shichimi togarashi (No idea what it is, replaced with Yakitori sauce)

Instead of Yakitori, other japanese sauce can be used too!

and the Instructions...
1. Combine items 1 to 4 in a bowl and bring to boil in a pan.
2. Add onions rings and chicken cubes and turn heat to hight. Cook for 2-3 minutes ensuring Chicken is evenly cooked. (I just heat olive oil, lightly fry mixed veggies and onions, then add Yakitori sauce and water to dilute the sauce and lastly chicken marinated in the yakitori.)
3. Pour in eggs covering chicken and onion rings. Cover pan and leave for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and leave to stand for about 1 minute, allowing eggs to cook lightly but remain soft.
4. Divide into portions, pour warm egg mixture over each bowl, sprinkle with nanami togarshi or Japanese seven-spice seasoning to taste. (To keep the food warm, I just pour the whole thing into the rice cooker. No need to add seasoning as the yakitori sauce does it all.)

That's all. Simple isn't it!

Cold Toufu is even easier!
1. Remove the toufu from the plastic container.
2. Rinse it under cold running tap water, place on plate.
3. Mixed yakitori sauce (or other sauce) with water.
4. Pour mixture over toufu. (I felt that it's a little too plain, hence added Enoki mushrooms, spring onions and bacon bits... these, I anyhow add, not even sure how it would taste.... But Thank God. It's not too bad!)
5. Chuck back into fridge and only take it out when it's ready to be serve.

Was a good and simple meal.

Bday Celebration

Nothing much but just a nice dinner at Ichiban Sushi in AMK Hub.

My order of Don Don Set.. which was way too much and I can't finished... coz I had no idea it was such a BIG set! I was attracted to the sashimi, unagi and soft shell crab.

Hub's order of some curry rice cannot remember if it's chicken or pork... and since he ordered so little and I can't finished my meal... needless to say, he finished everything else that I can't stomach.

Don't know if it's my bday or his bday hor.. I seem to eat better than him! =P

And, Lastly, here's the Bday man, himself. All decked out in his new shirt and tie that I got him for his bday, taken on the morning of his hatch day before we left the house.

And yes, that picture behind him is a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle that he completed all by himself within a month.

This, I really salute him.

Happy Birthday, my man. =D

Hub's Special Day..

It's my darling's special day today...

Happy Birthday Darling!

May God shower his blessings and bless you always.

Love you!

You look good in that shirt... enjoy your special day and then let's pig out tonight... hee.

3rd Wedding Anniversary

Time really flies by so quickly! In a blink of an eye, we've been married for 3 years. We don't really plan what to do nor how to celebrate. But we do make sure that we'll spend the day together or at least a meal to commemorate this day, where 3 years ago, we pledge to love, honor and to be with each other till death do us part. This year, very luckily for us, our wedding anniversary falls on a public holiday, Hari Raya Puasa and hence, we don't even have to take leave to spend the day with each other.

I got a voucher for trail massage at Wellness Village Spa for $30 as a cardmember and companion will just need to pay $38 for it. Hubby agreed to go for it and I made a booking for it long ago as I was afraid that they may not accept promotions since its on a PH and we wanted to do it in a couple room.

Luckily for us, the branch at Pan Pacific Hotel was cool with it. Hence, no issue, only condition was that payment got to be made thru the OCBC credit card, hardly an issue at all!

With joy, we made our booking and went on our way! =)

Appointment was at 3pm and we were on time, in fact a few minutes early so we went to the washroom where I took the chance to camwhore. Amelia says the only way to take good self portraits is to practice. Hence, I’m taking her advise! Hahaha…

While waiting for the earlier couple to be ready, we have to fill up the personal particular form and I was done faster than Hubby so, took the chance to snap more photos.Bored hubby and bored me. Nothing much to do while waiting ma. Finally, it’s our turn for the massage!

Inside we have to stripe. So no photos. But the massage ladies are quite good. I really feel quite comfortable, also a little shy at having to bare it all…

After the 1 hour massage, we both felt VERY hungry and we went for a bite…

Yuan Yang, Kopi-C, Raddish Cake and Siew Mai!

We were due for a buffet dinner in another hours' time, so that's all we ordered. Drinks ok. Normal. Raddish Cake not bad. Siew Mai. Don't bother.



Took a slow walk and we crossed over to Suntec for our buffet dinner at Shillawon, which is 2 or 3 doors away from Kuishin Bo.

Food was not bad, but only good if go on weekend or PH as the menu will have more choices.

Pork, Chicken, Beef. All you can eat. They also have small mains like the bim bim bang, noodles, pancakes, soups and other things like salad and other small snacks while waiting for the food to cook.

Oh.. best of all, since there was not much crowd, the waitress could even BBQ and cook the food for us! We just need to write down what we want, they'll serve it onto the table and she cook for us where necessary! All we need to do is write, eat, chat and enjoy! My kind of BBQ! heheheheHere, I wanna rave about the boiled pork belly!!! It's soooo good!!! Yes. Yes. I know. VERY sinful. But the boiled pork belly is really really so good! It simply MELTS in your mouth!

Wrapped it in crunchy greens covered with sauce and kimchi, pop the whole thing into your mouth and just simply let the taste slowly spread all over. WOW!

It's simply delicious lor!

My favourite dish for the night!

Stunned Hubby (before we made a mess of the food).

At the end of the meal, both of us were so full that we had to just sit and wait for the food to be digested.

Got the waitress to help take a shot. Happy Anniversary, Darling. My wish is the same as yours, may we have many many more of such anniversaries!

Love you!

How do you know the person you married/marrying is the one.

As per the title, I paused for a moment before coming out with an answer.
A quote from someone somewhere:

"You should not marry someone who you can live with, but someone you cannot live without."

And after analyzing this statment, I concluded that I cannot live without my wife and I wish it will continue to stay this way :)

of food....

I've been having a sudden craving for Ikea's Meatballs and Chicken Wings. There's something special about the meatballs and wings that I just can't seem to get enough off! (And I noticed, this craving for Ikea's meatballs and wings, come especially acute after I've done with a project or exams! ha! Talk about comfort food....)

So, on Friday, after work, Hubby and I made our way there to feast and to satisfy my cravings.

Bliss and shiokness after 10 meatballs, 4 wings and a slice of Diam cake shared between the two of us. =)

Then earlier, Hubby and I went for a sedapness meal of crab dinner! I've also been craving for crabs for the longest time, but we never have found a chance to go la. Till earlier.

Total BLISS I tell you. We ordered 2 crabs ans we were filled to the brim. Can't finished all the food though. But we sure finished all the crabs. Actually only 2 la. And needless to say, we made a total mess of the table after we were done! But HEY! What's eating crabs if we don't get our fingers dirty and licking up the sauce all up after that?!

It was soooo satisfying that we'll both definitely come back but just maybe, not so soon, we're probably quite turn off by the crab for the time being. Or maybe, we over ordered?

But then again, if just order 1, it's not enough. Order 2 then eat till a little jia liat lor.. hahahaha... But it was blissfully and totally wonderfully and deliciously jia liat. hahahaha...

Total damage... $68.20, not inclusive of drinks. So still quite reasonable I think. =)

Super Duper Good Answer!

Husbands, please learn!

A husband wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table.

He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. He looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotless, clean. So is the rest of the house.

He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table.

'Honey, breakfast is on the table, I left early to go grocery shopping. Love You!'

Totally shocked with the note , he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating.

He asks, 'Son, what happened last night?' His son says, 'Well, you came home around 3 AM, drunk and delirious. Broke some crockery, puked in the hall, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door'.

Confused, the man asks, 'So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me? I should expect a big quarrel with her!'

His son replies, 'Oh, that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your clothes n shoes off, you said,

'LADY LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M MARRIED!'

Moral: Self-induced hangover - $400.00
Broken crockery - $800.00
Breakfast - $10.00
Saying the Right Thing While Drunk? 'PRICELESS!!'

There are truly some things that both money and Mastercard can't buy.

The Best of Times

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way

- Charles Dicken's A Tales of Two Cities -

Although this is written over 100 years ago, it is still describing what is happening today.
How true of what he has written.

Different Faces of Princess Clara

I went to chop off my messy hair last Friday in Hub and then had dinner + coffee with Clement and his family in J8.

I was naturally happy to meet them coz it will only mean, Princess Clara will be there too! =)

Hungry Sweetheart Princess. COACHie Princess. She loves that strap! Played with it for ages! Princess with intense lookBig Head ClaraSee Daddy! Evidence that Clara "destroyed" my HP Casing!Blurred....Cheeky Princess standing and sitting, standing and sitting, standing and sitting..... Not tired ar? Distracted Princess...with the Dome Menu I think.

Shy Clara... or maybe Demure??

Happy Princess!Pink Jedi-nite PrincessGodpa not a comfy carrier la.... Princess cranky the moment Godpa carry! Lousy Godpa! =( The many faces of Princess.... have some videos that I look too... Let me find a way to upload first. =)

The little cutie has grown so much! So cute too!

Weekend

Went to catch Hancock in town after Hubby got off from work. If not for the fact that I have movie vouchers from Shaw Theatres, I will never watched movie on a weekend nor in Shaw!

I dislike the Shaw theatres! These theatres are in town and my gosh the seats and the theatre is so run down. =/ Sigh... and it must be just our luck. Everytime, we go to watch movies in Shaw, the people sitting beside us are the kind that keeps talking! Once in Shaw Bugis and this time in Shaw Orchard!

My goodness. So irriating can! Come here to watch movie or to talk?!

And the ticket sales ppl in Bugis are the worse lot! I queue to buy tickets like any others and there was 1 counter which was empty though it was stated "telephone / online booking" but there was NO one in the queue at all. I'm too used to the GV system, hence I went to the counter, that man at the counter, pointed to the tag and turned away from me!!! Damn! What kind of service is this?!

I understand it's online / telephone booking, but NO one in the queue and the normal queue was long, hence he shd open his counter ma.

Argh!

Anyway minus the staff and seats and irriating talking people in the movie theatre, Hancock is a nice show. Go catch it if you've not watched it yet.

Went for the sunset mass in St Peter and Paul then we walked down to Clarke Quay for dinner.

Hubby suddenly have the inspiration to have dinner at Fisherman's Wharf, hence, we slowly made our way there from Bugis. It's quite near actually and the evening was breezy and cooling, hence of course, we took a slow stroll there.

Our first time to Fisherman's Wharf. We've passed by a few times and each time, we thought that the place will be expensive hence, we always give it a miss... but wow... we are surprised by the costs!

We had a dory something something with drinks each and well.... it's nothing to be crazy over with.... tastes very normal.... I think Botak Jones Fish & Chips are better as compared.

But the tables and chairs caught my eyes.... All wooden and it's not the usual restaurant where they air-con the whole place. It's fan and well, pray for windy nights too. I think the upper level is some MLM thing as there are ppl who comes and go into the place and up they went.

Another thing that caught my eye was the murals on the wall. HUGE!

Whole wall was plastered with some sea scene la, cannot capture as there were ppl sitting at the table in the middle of the mural.

But, I personally dislike the service there. Granted, this place is not the high class kind of eatery hence, not to expect very good service. But hey! This IS an eatery right? Then how come, every and I really mean EVERY 4 seater has a "reserved" tag on it the moment the table is cleared of leftovers and general mess?!

Then, the staff will be standing around at the counter chit chatting and looking glum. =/ Sigh..... They want business or not wan?!

Only the small tables, 2 seaters were open and the table is small lor, so with just a main each (which is served in a woven basket) and drinks, there's no space for share any sides or anything at all la.

Anyway, I guess, it's either you like it or you dislike it, as Hubby's colleague loves this place and we were... well.... don't share that feeling. I guess, the only only good thing that came out was, we got a few glimse of the NDP firworks thru reflections on the glass panels of The Central.

Fisherman's Wharf is located at 27/29 New Bridge Road, can't miss it, it's opp The Cental. But honestly, I'll recommend Botak Jones anytime!

Half day at the beach

I made a suggestion to Hubby some time back and asked him to take half day off today to spend time together.

He agreed.

Hence, we took half day off and after having lunch in Cafe Cartel in PS, where we had LOUSY service, we made our way to East Coast Park.

Thank God it was not very hot, there was a gentle breeze blowing and the park can be considered as crowded on a Monday afternoon. But we still manage to find a shady seat and just enjoy each other's company.

I thought I will feel sad today... after all, we were supposed to be expecting our bundle of joy today. 30 June.... but surprisingly, I was not as badly affected as I thought I will be. I wanted Hubby's company so that I won't feel too bad and keep dwelling on it. But, thank God, I think I'm coping well.

We merely just sat there, looking at the sky, the water, enjoying the breeze and each other. Simple, yes. But it was a good time away and time off from the hustle and bustle of town, to keep my mind off Lima Bean and all. We sat there for hours. Occasionally chatting, otherwise, sitting down and just staring and daydreaming with our fingers entwined or leaning against each other.

I like it when we do that. We do not have to say something to each other all the time, yet, I feel so contended and peaceful and walk away as though, we've said lots to each other.

We took a long bus ride back to J8 after that and had dinner at the Hong Kong Cafe theme eatery.

Reached home at about 8pm and got a call from family in laws. First Uncle's wife had pass away, hence, tml, we'll have to go for the wake.

It's been many months since I went thru the D&C. At times, I still think of it. Not that I particularly go on thinking about it, it just comes up once a while. I guess, it's something that I will never be able to forget fully but just learn to live with it and move on.

God bless your soul, Lima Bean.

I can say I'm all right. Just being a woman, sometimes my emotions gets the better of me and makes me think of it all over again. I will only get better and stronger with the healing touches of God and with the love and support from Hubby and family members. =)

Thoughts

Was having dinner at my parents' place earlier and was just chatting with my mom over nothing of significant importance.

Was sharing with her that I have a lousy manager and that he hates me. Though my chicky pox was so long ago, now, he'll still bring it up to remind me whenever I'm on MC...

I was also then telling my mom, if he mentions about my long hospitalization leave last year, I'll bring it up to the big boss and complain about him.

And at this point in time, my mom became very excited. She began to tell me that I should being to take more nutritious food to build up my body so that we can be prepared for a BB. =/ And that her friends are telling her what I should be eating and all etc etc. My mom said she's afraid to cook / prepare all these tonics for me since we're still studying and if I really get pregnant then there's lots more other issues to think and to solve. The conclusion? Wait till we finished our course next year then she'll do all these.

I know the parents (seems to be mine, especially) are very excited for us to get pregnant and to produce them some little ones... But, we are the ones who have to pay and educate and go thru the whole process, are we ready?

I also know that one can never be too ready or too prepared... I mean, no matter how prepared one is, there can always be other things that are unexpected and not turn out the way we want or wished it to be.

I'm really in 2 minds. One on hand, I simply am very comfortable with our current lifestyle and have no wish for it to change. On the other hand, Hubby and the rest of the world wants to have children.

I know that it is the responsibility of married couples to reproduce... Just as God has also said, to multiply. But, can I be a good parent?

Isn't it worse if we bring our children to the world and then simply have no time, no energy, no attention on them? Leave them to the care of others? I know for certain this is not what I want for my children. I grew up with my grandmother as both my parents are working day and night to make ends meet. I hardly see my parents when I was young. Needless to say, I'm not close to them at all. It's only till recently that my mom and I gets along better. I still have not manage to bring myself to speak to my dad. He's a stranger to me. I don't know him and I doubt he knows me. Many can say, then it's up to me to make the first move to get back to him and to mend our relationship bah bah bah.... Honestly, I know I should. But I don't.

It's hard to grow up in a family where your father don't care 2 hoots about you and then to grow up and say... oh ya.... let begones be begones, we start anew and fresh. I wish I can. But I can't. I don't have the courage nor the 'want' to do it.

So many can say, I should make the first move and all. I have. I have over the years, made tiny little moves and all I can say is that it's not getting me anywhere.

I have tried to seek his approval when I first started dating hubby... I have tried to get him involved in my studies in the Poly... I have tried to get him involved in my 21st Birthday celebration... My wedding, the biggest moment of my life.... and all these lead to nothing. The guy, I call father has not made any changes to show me that he welcomes the change, that he wants to be a part of my life.

Hence, I have also shut him out of my life.

So, don't tell me to make the first move. I have and I had. If I were to stand before God now, I do think I can tell God honestly, yes Lord. I feel nothing for him, but I have tried. Maybe it's not enough I don't know. But I've tried my best.

I know very well this is not the kind of family that I want my children to have. But though I have the ideal family in my mind, I'm not so sure if I can make it happen. I've seen lots of my cousins & friends having children and it's tough. It's VERY tough. And having come from such a family, I honestly and seriously doubt if I will not follow their footsteps. I know that I can place my trust in God and that He can guide me along. It's not that I don't trust him neither do I doubt that he can guide me. My fear is also that I'm too stubborn for my own good.... that I refuse Him entry.

Am I able to make sacrifices like these for my children? I don't know. I really don't know. Godma and a close friend both said they think I am not ready to be a parent. And I totally agree with them.

I would rather not have any. But this is impossible in a marriage. Unless we've tried and we can't then that's a different situation. But knowing Hubby and the rest of the parents, if we, or rather I were to say we'll start trying now, all of them would only be too happy!

A close friend has been sharing that she wished to have children asap. I can feel her yearnings to be a mother. Yet, I'm feeling just a little comprehensive apprehensive on this issue. How does one know that they are ready to take on this huge responsibility of being totally responsible for a totally defenseless and hundred percent dependent little human being?

How does one know that the moral, ethics, education, teachings and all the rest is enough for the child? That the child will turn out well?

There's no answer to this and yet, these are the assurances that I deeply seek before I'm ready to move to the parenthood stage.

Changes

With mutual agreement, 3rd person has come to share our house earlier this month.

Now, before you get all excited and start thinking of other things, it's definitely not what you think. Nope. We are not pregnant, though I can say our parents are dying for us to be.

We have decided to rent out a room to earn some extra moolah, for someone to occupy the spare room or what Alex coins it, the "Echo Room".

Our tenant is a lady from Korea and my goodness, she's so young! Only 25 this year and she has already been working here for the last coming to 2 years, in a hotel as a service staff. No idea what is her exact job scope but we have a copy of her details and all it says is "service staff".

She does seems rather nice and we get along rather well.

She got us a cake the other time and it tasted great! It not only tasted great, it looks pretty too! My guess is that it's some fruit cake.... but you know, hotels will have all sorts of fanciful names for their products, I have no idea what it's called but it sure looked pretty! Hubby and I finished the whole thing within 2 days, which is just as well since it cannot be kept for too long.

I'm not sure, but I think it could also be because, we heated up a dumpling (hand made by MIL) for her one day and the next day, she came back with the cake. Either way, I just hope and pray that we will get along and that she is the decent sort, not that kind to steal or create trouble for us kind. That is of course the risk we got to take since we can never be too sure. =/

And on the first night she came in, she got hubby and I a bookmark each too. Quite pretty.It has Mother of Pearl on the top of the bookmark. It sure looks and feel expensive too!

But of course there are some things that we have to put up with as well, having additional stuff in the kitchen and having the room door closed at all times, was something that we sort of not used to when it first started. But oh well, just make do with the changes since the extra cash that's coming in does helps to pay off the PUB bills and household maintenance and best of all, with her coming in, we can even engage a part time helper to come in fortnightly to clean up the mess at home.

The PT helper is at it now, as I type. She came in at about 5.30pm earlier and she has not stopped since. Ironing, Vacuuming, wiping all the surface area that's available, washing of both toilets and of course mopping. I can hear her as she gets busy in the kitchen now, wiping all the surface area, washing the toilets etc etc.

It sure feels good to be able to not do any housework at all. Or rather, just the simple vacuuming, mopping and laundry weekly is all right with me. But with the PT helper now, means, I can even be lazier and only do it fortnightly! And when she comes, she'll handle all the rest of the work, I can deal with the light cleaning weekly and leave the heavier ones to her. =)

Worth every single cent of our moolah. Especially when the weekend is so short and we still have to do all these... Bleh! It's even worse when we are having exams, study also no time still got to worry about housework.... Now, we can leave it all in peace. =)

Relaxing Day

After so long, Hubby and I finally decided to utlise the free Shaw Theater Tickets that I have. We decided to go to Bugis for "Narnia".

But before that, he had to go to Plaza Sing to get his hp serviced, something's wrong with his hp. Either he can't hear or the other party can't hear, but most times it's he can't hear others.

Anyway, we got his hp done and then went off in search of food and then took the train down to Bugis for the show. I got the tickets the day before when I made plans with my girlies for dinner, so on that count, we don't have to go to queue for the tickets way in advance.

Our plan was to go for mass after the movie ends. Gosh... who knows the movie was so long and by the time, we were done, it was 5 mins to 6.30pm! Too late to go for mass anywhere. Hence, we changed our minds and just loitered in Bugis and walked around.

Honestly, I did not do any shopping at all, shopping in the sense of clothes, shoes, bags and cosmetics. I do think that I have no lack of it, though of course, I will never say "No" to more. But anyway, nothing caught my eyes. Hence nothing.

However, knowing me, I did come home with somethings. =) A box of Chewy Junior's Cream Puff, flyer has many many different flavors.

With FULL instructions on how to best enjoy the puffs. Needless to say, I got ALL the chocolates that was available, a coffee and peanut butter.... the later 2 are Hubby's personal all time favorite favors of anything, just as Chocolate is to me.

They are having some kind of promotion, buy 6 and get 1 original favor free. Hence, I walked away with 7 puffs.... which before we even left Bugis, the 7th was in our tummies!

I do like the texture of the puffs.... not really chewy but it definitely requires more bite before swallowing it. I love the light chocolate creams inside the puff and the toppings... well, for the toppings, it's not that special. Just more things to get my mouth dirty with and more fats ending up in the stomach.

If you were to get it, I personally prefer the Almond Chocolate and Blueberry. Get it at Chewy Junior. They have a few branches and more seems to be springing up over sunny Singapore too.

Also, I cannot resist buying the entire collection of "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C S Lewis for myself. There's 2 different designs on the cover of the box set. But I prefer this... the other is a picture of the current movie, "Prince Caspian". This is not the first time I'm buying this collection, I've bought another of this series for my sis's birthday a few years back... but I'd still love to have the entire collection for myself... Pity, this is the soft cover, would love to have the hardcover!!I know. I basically can spend on anything and everything. =P

But books to me are worth it. I'm a book lover! I've already finished almost the first 5 books. Going to start on book 6 in a while. And I'm also going to take time to plastic each one. But the only thing is, once I've plastic it, then it probably cannot fit into the box anymore as the books would have gained thickness....

How ar? Any suggestions? I cannot let my books not be plastic coz the edges will spoil very easily and I feel so sad when my books are like that but once I've plastic them, it cannot fit into the box. =(

I just noticed... I seem to be buying books after every semester of my studies!

I have the Harry Potter complete series and now Narnia complete series too. I love these 2 series and I think I've read Harry Potter so many times, I can almost know the next sentence I'm going to read. Strange is, these 2 books are all of magic... think I'm a child at heart, love fairy tales, Good VS evil kind and also... the presence of God in it....

Maybe not so much in Harry but definitely a resounding YES in Narnia. The first page of the first book already seems to be oozing of God's presence!

Smile! You're on Camera. =D

Here, we are, doing our best to practise our smiles in and before we hit the land of smiles.Happy and excited to be there, though it's not the first time we're there. In the airport, in the van on the way to Centara, in Centara, waiting to be shown to our room...

And even in the room, where we have our private jacuzzi, we also have to practise!

Food

I must say, we've been eating pretty well for the last few nights that we're in Phuket. Every night, we're bound to have some kind of seafood.

On our first day there, we took some time exploring the surrounding area and shops. We must have walked a few streets, saw tonnes of restaurants and shops, all very empty! Must be because of the off peak season now. Whatever it was, we were spoilt for choices! There were just TOO many restaurants to choose from and we were clueless which to go for since, we've no idea which is good and we also did not want to spend a bomb even though the Thai Baht is low.

Finally, after covering the nearby streets, we settled on 1 restuarant, One Man or something like that. And the only reason, we went for that was because, there were 2 other patrons in it. We din want to go to a totally empty restaurant ma. And the other reason was because, they have local thai food. I din want to eat the "Ang Mo" food ma. Go another country, of course must eat their local food ma, what for eat western right? But apparaently, Hubby disagree with me lor... Look at what he ordered?!Yups. Chicken Chop. =/ Anyway, the food was not bad. I like the Prawns with cashew nuts. Prawns was very fresh and tasty! My Pad Thai also not bad, but I find the noddles a little too hard. But, all in all, the food was cheap and relatively good. Hubby's chicken chop was served with tartar sauce. Weird hor? First time I see chicken chop served with that. But even though it was a novetly, there's nothing special about the chop nor the sauce. Very normal, which we can get locally anywhere. And by the way, I really did not write wrongly, it's chicken "CHOP" even though it looks more like cutlet. Maybe, different ways of naming items in different countries. I don't know.

Edited: The hubby saw the post and he corrected me with "I also want to eat local food. The menu put Fried Chicken ma, that's why I ordered ma"

So the only conclusion I have is, my mistake for remembering it as Chicken Chop and that er... it still looks rather cutlet to me than anything.

Our 2nd night proves to be much easier! Since, we've already covered the streets, we more or less already shortlisted the rest of the restaurants to try. Karon Beach is a small area with not much happening as compared to Patong Beach. But they do have clothings, eatery and pubs aplenty! Since, the fashio don't appeal much to me and we don't go clubbing at all, we mostly spend our moo lah on food.

This time, we chose a more high class looking restaurant, "Da Mario" (which reminds me of my favourite game!). This restaurant is located almost just next door to our hotel. And I think we eat very early coz when we were done, only then the crowd started to come in.

Just look at the spread for 2 of us!We had Pineapple Fried rice, Some mixed veggies, chicken in don't know what veggies again and this time, we had mussles in garlic too! The plate is so full of them lor! My camera almost can't capture all of it into 1 shot! Which, I have to say, really, my camera can't capture the young coconut and Fanta drink that we had along with the meal. This dinner was slightly pricier, it costs us $560 Baht, which approximately is about $24 SGD. But the food was quite good. I enjoyed every single mouthful of it!

And on our last night in Phuket, we went for the dinner that was provided for in our tour package. We were told that we can only go to the "Lotus restaurant" in Centara, but however, the whole restaurant was booked for a private function hence, we were able to go to "Terrace Grill" which in my opinion is even better since there's seafood and steak for us to choose! =PThe photos are dark as it was al fresco dinning and I did not want to turn on the flash as my hands can never hold the camera steady that is necessary for flash shots and the shots will turn out all blury... so I rather it's dark than anything la.

We did not even have to choose from the menu as the lady suggested serving the seafood platter for 2. So we, just went "ok ok" lor. For the platter, there's Crabs, Prawns, Crayfish and Squids. There's 2 of everything, so depending on how you look at it, it's either "JUST 2 of everything" or "2 of everything". At first, I was... chey... "JUST" 2 of everything. Then when we almost complete our meal, we were served with a whole fish. I was... woah. So big and so much food. Can finish ar? Just 2 of us lei! But a bite into the fish and I felt the fish was too small lor! The meat was so fresh and coupled with the sauce provided, it tasted so very good! Hubby and I ate every single morsel of meat available!

Throughout the meal, we were entertained by the live singing on stage. The guy's voice is better as compared to the lady's but it was a good experience and nice ambience. Food wise, we were quite disappointed with the seafood platter. Everything was supposed to be grilled but it seems like the fire was too strong, everything was so dried up. We can hardly taste the natural flavours of the seafood, except for the fish! All the food was complimentary except for our drinks.

After dinner, we sat around for a while longer before going back to our room to enjoy the jacuzzi and to prepare for the return trip home the next day.