Adventures in Domesticity

28 Sept 07 - Yes, we have finally done it. Hitched the knot, that is.

Together, we now officially form a family nucleus as defined by HDB. From couple to family, all it took was a piece of fancy paper and 5 signatures (count them: me, Her Royal Majesty, my father, her father, and our solemniser).

As a founding member of this freshly minted family nucleus, I am also a proud contributor to the fortunes of the hundreds of individuals gainfully employed by NTUC Fairprice. Whenever I shop there and pass by an auntie busily stocking cans of luncheon meat onto the shelves, I get a warm buzz all over knowing that in some way, I have helped to fund her latest 4D bet. Sometimes, I divert some funds to Giant or even Carrefour, but NTUC will always have a special place in my heart.

Her Royal Majesty, in particular, has taken on an even greater interest in grocery shopping. Which also means that we never fail to enter with empty hands and exit with big bags bulging with the week's food supply, plastic household wares and other miscellaneous knick knacks.

I have nothing against grocery shopping. In fact, I used to enjoy the occasional lazy stroll down the aisles after lunch at the NTUC branch near my office. It certainly beat plonking myself down at the desk and plunging into the never-ending whirl of emails.

However, grocery shopping has now evolved from a simple pasttime to a means of survival. In Jurassic times, whenever cavemen felt hungry, they went out with clubs and returned with carcasses of dead animals. Today, life is pretty much the same, except that we wield a much more lethal weapon --- credit cards. Regardless of whether one seeks dead animals, dead plants, tools, or other living and non-living things, the mighty card conquers all. Welcome to Hunting-and-Gathering 2.0, the next stage in human evolution.

Setting up a family involves much more than just food and shelter. It requires extreme self-control to stop yourself from strangling a snoring spouse, a highly advanced fashion sense to appreciate the intricate beauty of the faded tshirt and worn out shorts combo, and a highly evolved sense of smell to block out your spouse's morning breadth.

I certainly look forward to discovering every single detail of domesticity, and remember to check this space for more updates!

- Melvin

Phebe The Chef

Haha, I know this sounds crazy, but I am aiming to be a great chef. And as I am saying this, I am betting with myself this is gonna be another "3 min" thingy. In Chinese, is what people call "san fen zhong re du", wahahahaha!

Yours truly was on MC on Monday and Tuesday and was stuck at home bored to death. On Tuesday, I accompanied Mdm Yik to Sheng Song supermarket for grocery shopping. Quite beneficial in a way, as I learnt quite a number of things, like how the poor frogs are skinned alive? Anyway, I'm glad I went with Mdm Yik, as she helped me choose a few of the more commonly used sauces. So now, in our kitchen, no, let me correct myself please. In MY kitchen, we (plural is used here as Hb paid for them) now have oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce, hua(1) diao(1) jiu(3), chicken essence powder (forgot the usage...gotta ring Mdm Yik to ask again!), sesamee oil, white corn flour...etc. Haha, so many types of sauces now... lets hope I won't poison anyone when I cook the next time!

Back to what I was saying, we got back home and throughout the evening, I was stuck in the kitchen copying notes as Mdm Yik displayed her culinary skills. She cooked frog meat in oyster sauce with ginger and cong(1), steamed fish in soy sauce, veggies (xiao bai cai) and live prawns with hua(1) diao(1) jiu(3). The amazing thing was, she completed everything within 1.5 hours!!!!!! Manz...

Anyway, during lunch time yesterday, I went to OG AGAIN. I have been shopping there almost every working day since we came back from Japan, lol. This time, I bought 6 placemats, haha, and there was a 20% sale, so it only costed $26 in total! Went to chat with the WMF promoter whom I bought my cookware set from and from her I learnt a few useful cleaning tips of which I am gonna impart to Hb, wahahahaha! When I was making payment, I heard the cashier saying,"$75 and you can apply for OG membership"~! Haha, guess what? Yours truly immediately went to get the Henckels chopper! I had wanted to buy it at CK Tang, cos there is a 3% rebate for Citibank cardmembers, but then, how often do you get to be a member of any department store so easily right?? I'm glad I bought the Henckels chopper at OG though, cos the 20% sale applies to it as well!! So, the chopper that costed $158 originally was sold for $126.40 only!! Yay, so happy, finally got my Henckels chopper! I hope Hb won't get a heart attack when he sees his statement though, haha!

We had bible classes yesterday night and then I suddenly had this inspiration to try out the steam egg recipe which Mdm Yik taught me the other day! As such, after church service, Hb and I rushed to NTUC and bought the necessary ingredients, then went home to cook up a storm. Well, as expected, it was not as smooth-looking as Mdm Yik's, but it tasted just as nice! It looked and tasted much better than Hb's version anyway, since for his version, the yolk spilled out from the middle as he didn't add water and somewhere somehow, something went wrong, wahahahahahaa!

Hb's steamed egg:





Phebe's steamed egg:

- Phebe

Our First Home Cooked Meal

As everyone knows, I cook to kill. Lol, don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy cooking, but truth be told, I know nuts about it. Anyway, Hb and I decided to try out the Japanese curry we brought back from Tokyo, and thus, yours truly cooked lunch on Saturday.

The night before, Hb and I went grocery shopping for the ingredients, and we bought chicken, potatoes, fish balls, chye sim, minced pork, and sauces such as oyster sauce, oh, and salt, sugar, luncheon meat… etc. And I nearly died laughing when the stupid Cat held up the ginger we took and said it was GARLIC!!!!! Wahahahaahahhahaha! You would have thought that a 29 year old grown man would probably be more knowledgeable about such things, but well, apparently not! Hopeless manz…

Ok, so I started preparing the food at 11am. My guinea pigs, namely Evelyn and Rie Rie, were to come over at 1pm. Arsie would probably be happy to know that I made full use of the wok, as well as the microwave (cos they were late and we reheat the food, lol). It ain’t easy working around a tiny kitchen you know, cos there wasn’t much space to put all the stuff! Anyway, my human dish washer was there to help me. We used a hell lot of plates, bowls and pots in the process, haha. And I love my Henckels knives. Freaking sharp. One slice and the meat slit apart. Gonna buy the chopper too when we next go to town. Really worth buying! Sorry, and to side track a bit, let me say that the Philips Iron GC 4430 is really fantastic! The best iron I have ever used, one swipe and the shirt became crease free! Really amazing! For those who are interested, you can find it at Courts, which is selling for $151, but then again, haha, do check out your neighborhood electrical stores. Kong Tai sells it for only $135! You won’t regret buying this model!

Ok, back to where I left off. My human dishwasher, aka my Hb, was washing away as I was cooking, cos I needed the pots for the next dish! My first dish, chye sim with fish balls, was a success. I forgot to throw in the can of button mushrooms we bought though, haha. The second dish was the curry chicken (Japanese curry is sweet, lol). I boiled the chicken before stir frying it. Ok, lah, turned out ok except for the fact that we should have bought more sauce! The last dish was a failure. What was intended to be minced pork omelette turned out to be just pork with scrambled eggs? Haiz, must get Mdm Yik to show me one of these days how to cook this dish. In fact, I think I am gonna prepare a list of my favourite foods and get her to show me how to prepare them!

Surprisingly, the rice turned out ok! One good thing about Hb is that he is good at reading instruction manuals, which is something I never bother myself with, lol. Anyway, the rice was a success, not soggy like the last time I tried cooking in Mdm Yik’s kitchen with her Kenwood rice cooker!

My guinea pigs came and my dear Eve helped me to finish up most of the chicken (we bought too much), wahahahahaha! Thanks gal! And the 2 sweet old things even helped us to do the washing up, which Hb and I gave up after seeing the gross mess on the base of the wok, haha. Thanks to them, our kitchen went back to its spic and span state again! Prepared a quick dessert of iced longan and peaches. By the way, I know this is silly, but it’s the very first time I used a can opener successfully!!!!!! So proud of myself for that!!!!! I remember the last time I used a can opener, I ended up using a hammer to hammer it without success and in the end had to call Huilin to come over to help me with it, wahahahahahhaa!

Anyway, I doubt anyone would get diarrhea this time, since I don’t have that many types of sauces to anyhow pour into the wok when cooking, as compared to when I tried cooking in Mdm Yik’s super well equipped kitchen, wahahahahaha!

Here are some pics of my creation:

- Phebe

The Shopping Continues...

You would have thought that most of the essentials have been more or less settled, but no, as mentioned in my previous post, we have been shopping every single day since the day we returned from Japan. Adding to the list is a Iona tower fan which we got from Best Denki, as well as other stuff such as a tool box, a set of J.A. Henckels knives, a 3-piece WMF cookware set, plus other stuff like large storage containers, a small ladder, kitchen stuff such as ladles, fruit peeler, can opener, and the list goes on and on.

And I am kinda pissed with the staff at Sim Siang Choon (IMM branch). To begin, let me say that the service was less than enthusiastic. The girl did not even sound keen to serve. Ok, so what if I am only buying a dustbin? How many people would buy such expensive dustbins when they can get one for $2 at Daiso?? Anyway, if not for the fact I like the shiny white metal bin, I would have long gone over to Hoe Kee (which was just next door) to get the usual silver colour ones!

Ok, back to what I was saying. There was only 1 piece left, and there were stains on it, so we rejected it, asking when the next batch would come. Miss Smarty Pants said “tomorrow”. Fine, so we came back 2 days later, only to have the store manager tell us that the new stock was at their Changi branch and not at IMM, but if we wanted, he could get the staff to bring it over the next time. Manz, I was so pissed I gave him a good dressing down about his staff. YOU THINK WE ARE SO FREE IS IT? EVERYDAY COME DOWN JUST TO BUY A DUSTBIN (of course we got other things to buy lah but he doesn’t have to know that)???? IF YOUR STAFF IS NOT SURE THEN DON’T COME AND TELL US THE STOCK WILL BE HERE THE NEXT DAY, MAKE US COME DOWN ALL THE WAY FOR NOTHING!! And guess what? That girl was smart. She hid at the back of the room the moment she heard the commotion, probably hoping she wouldn’t be dragged into it. So freaking pissed with the service!


- Phebe

Latest buys~!

It's been some time since our last entry cos we've been quite busy with our ROM and short ROM getaway. Still trying to get used to being married, lol, especially when the custom officer at Changi Airport asked, "You 2 are friends?" and I was about to say "Yes" until Hb said "no, we're husband and wife", lol. Anyway, we are finally back in good old Singapore and here I am, blogging away once again~!

Just the day before our ROM, that was on... let me see, yes, 8th Sep, Joyce Mok from Window View came and we ordered our curtains from her. Very fast manz, our curtains were installed the very day after we come back from Japan - only 1 week!

Living room - Day & night curtains :))




Guest room - Roman blind. Love the dark grey colour!




MBR -The shimmering look. Love it!!


Red colour for the study~!

Received a Philips rice cooker from Tai Tai and Amelia as a gift. See when I'm free I'll go and figure out how to use it. Looks easy, but well, for people like me who can't cook to survive, it will definitely be a good idea to really read through the whole instruction manual thoroughly!

Believe it or not, Hb and I actually went to Japan and bought quite a lot of household items apart from my clothes, shoes and bags, lol, including lugging back a 4 tier metal rack for our service balcony, wahhahahaa! Didn't manage to find the correct size of such racks in Singapore. Either too big or too small, or too plastic-ky. Not cheap too, 3800 yen. That's about SGD $49. Bought a lot of miscellaneous stuff at Daiso too, haha. Compared to Sg's Daiso which sells each item for SGD$2, the Daiso in Japan is selling per item for only SGD$1.35! Had a great time shopping there! :D

Continued our shopping spree even after we returned to our humble country. Bought a couple of electrical appliances within a span of 2 days, so happy, haha!


Got the above 2 items from Kong Tai. Total damage: $185


Got this handheld cordless vacuum cleaner from Best Denki. Damage: $76


Our air cooler from CK Tang. You can actually put water and ice inside the base, lol. Damage: $159

We also bought a hell lot of storage containers from Daiso (IMM) - 11 pces, wahahahhaa! Oh, and 2 big ones from Giant. And we went grocery shopping to fill up our fridge! Kinda fun, especially since someone is there to carry the stuff, wahahahahaha!

The result of grocery shopping:


This is definitely not all~ *grinz*

My first breakfast after moving into our new place - ham sandwich and fruit mix consisting of pineapples, honeydew and oranges. Nicely prepared and packed by Hb in the morning on our 1st day back to work (18 Sep). He took over Mdm Yik's duty of preparing my daily breakfast. The one good thing of breakfast being prepared by Hb is that I can specify what I want to eat the day before, which is something Mdm Yik would not entertain me, haha! Breakfast for today is butter and kaya sandwich, with a pack of grapes with the stalks removed, hehe. Now I am wondering what type of sandwich and fruit mix I want for breakfast tmr... feel like having ham and cheese sandwich....

Gonna shop for a tower fan over the weekend, can't wait! Will be going to OM to order another set of sofa covers too, and to Sim Siang Choon to buy another of the shiny white metal waste bin, lol.

Ok, that's all for the moment~! Tata~

- Phebe

Bravia Power with Precision

Over the weekend, Hb and I shifted up some of our stuff over. Stuff like books, clothes, Cds, and for me, my accessories and other small items. Kinda fun in a way to see the cabinets slowly being filled up, haha. I am kinda hoping that I can leave out all my textbooks, but Mdm Yik wants me to clear them. I told her I'll do it when we are back from our Japan trip, haha. In actual fact, I hope to delay that part as long as possible, lol. As we don't have those carton boxes to pack our stuff, we bring them over bit by bit. For me its still not so bad, since I live very near, and there is this wonderful plastic bag from Ikea that can put a hell lot of things! In fact, I managed to squeeze in 70% of my clothes into it last night, and then I found another smaller version of the Ikea bag and dumped in a lot more stuff! Packed all the 3 bags full to the brim then brought them over to our new place. Thankfully The EL was at home, so I karpo his car, no need to walk, haha!

Latest gain:

I love this model GC 4430! Its supposedly very good, and as usual, Courts is selling it for $152 while Kong Tai only sells it for $135! Wahahahhaa, what a big difference! Got our ironing board as well, haha.

We bought our MBR Tv last Thursday at Comex! It's a 32" Sony LCD Tv Bravia series. Hb was saying it might be too big for the MBR but I told him its just nice. As expected, when the guys came to install the TV on Saturday, it looked perfectly fine, lol. Liew, the guys from Gain City brought the wrong bracket and said we can make another appointment for them to come again. Liew, I told them they better install the Tv for us by hook or by crook cos the reason why we bought it on Thursday was that we wanted them to install it Asap and now we gotta wait again?? Told them we don't have so much time to play around lor and I was like,"I am sure the whole Gain City team doesn't consist of only 2 technicians right? There must be someone else who can bring the correct bracket over and that someone better come by today". Lol, thankfully the guy called his supervisor and the supervisor came down at 8.30pm with the correct bracket and completed the installation, phew. The sweh thing is, Ah Hua had thought we wanted our MBR Tv to stand, so the stupid sockets were visible! Liew. Now we gotta think of a way to hide the stupid wires as best as we can. Haiz.

- Phebe