Giant Photo for Our Study~!

The guys from Studio Gallery came yesterday and did the installation below for us:





See the canvas frame on the wall? Yep, the image is printed on artist canvas. Looks kinda small from the pic, but it actually measures 118cm by 78cm! Our study wall doesn't look so empty afterall, haha.

Here is a close up pic:



Huilin said its very nice, and I feel happy, cos I also share the same sentiments. But Hb is feeling lagi shioker, cos the artwork was done by him!


- Phebe

Ready for X'mas!

We have finally finished spraying our balcony walls!



We also spent part of our Hari Raya holiday putting up the 3 new photoframes that we bought the other day.

- Phebe

A Starry Christmas

We have re-decorated our X'mas tree and this is the updated look:






We also sprayed our balcony's glass walls with X'mas designs, but unfortunately, didn't manage to complete spraying as the 2 cans of spray emptied very quickly! Haiz, gotta go buy more cans of spray later on after work, then go home and continue spraying, lol. This is what has been done so far with the 2 small cans of spray:



We have also started to fill up each others' X'mas socks!



Mine is the one with the snowman and Hb's one is the one with the Santa~!


- Phebe

A Typical Weekday for Melvin

16 Dec 07 - Her Royal Majesty has decreed that her life is boring. To prove her point, she has gamely laid out the details that make up her day. As a loyal subject, it is my duty to inform Her Royal Majesty that although her life may not be the most action-packed one around, there is always someone out there who is one rung higher (or should that be lower?) on the boredom scale. See below:

6.45am: Alarm clock goes beep-beep-beep. I usually get up by the fifth or sixth beep and stretch out an arm to silence it. Next, I trudge out to the common toilet, grab my towel, head back to the master toilet to take my shower, and spruce myself up sufficiently so that I don't go around scaring anyone who sees me.

7.05am: My eyelids have now gathered enough strength to hold themselves apart. I pop in my vitamin (yes, only one) and start preparing breakfast for both of us. This usually consists of sliced bread and whatever spread catches my fancy. Occasionally, I would stretch my culinary abilities and make a ham and cheese sandwich for Her Royal Majesty.

7.15am: Time to wake Her Royal Majesty. This involves 5 minutes of prodding, poking, shaking and a quick shoulder massage. Then it's back to finish up the half-completed sandwich.

7.30am: I head to the walk-in-wardrobe to slip on my work wear, which really just consists of quickly pulling on my black pants and grabbing the nearest shirt. I also slap on some hair wax (yes, it's the brand with the Japanese actor pulling funny faces in front of the mirror).

7.45am: Out of the house and headed to work!

Yet another exciting day in my world.


- Melvin

A Typical Weekday for Phebe

I realise that life has been pretty mundane lately. So much so that I can even blog about how a typical weekday is like for me. Or perhaps, I'm just too bored. So I decided to entertain myself.

7.05 am: Riiinnngggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*I usually ignore the alarm clock*

7.15 am: This is the time where Hb has finished preparing breakfast and would come into the room to wake me up with some prodding and a few mins of shoulder massage. He then brings in my towel.

*I laze for another 10mins on the bed after Hb goes back into the kitchen*

7.27 am: I finally get out of bed and make my way into the kitchen for a glass of water. Helps to clear toxins you know~ ;)

7.30 am: I set my alarm clock at 7.50 am and proceed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

7.40 am: I get out of the shower and proceed to put on my contact lenses and dress up for work.

7.50 am: Riiiinnnngggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!

*I continue with whatever I am doing and let the alarm go on auto 9 mins snooze*

7.52 am: I proceed to the kitchen and remove the cup of Anlene milk from the microwave. Hb always put the cup inside so as to preserve the heat as I usually come out at least 30 mins after he has prepared the drink.

*I gulp down the cup of milk within 2 mins and dump the cup into the sink*

7.55 am: I go back into the room to apply my moisturiser and sunblock before applying some serum onto my hair.

7.59 am: Riiiiiinnngggggggggg!!!!!

*I let it run on another 9 mins auto snooze while I continue with whatever I am doing*

8.08am: Riiiiiiinnnnngggggggg!!!!!!!!!!

*I turn off the alarm from my hp, dump it into my bag and continue to dilly dally for a few mins*

8.13am: I finally get out of the house!!!

8.19 am: I pass by the Baba-Chinese auntie from the opposite block. She is usually feeding a couple of her 14 cats. I chirp out "Good morning!" and "Bye bye!" and continue to brisk walk to the interchange.

8.29 am: I board the Mrt and IF I manage to get a seat, I'll close my eyes and catch some much needed beauty sleep.

8.59 am: The train reached Outram Park Mrt Station and I make my way to the North East Line bound for Chinatown.

9.03 am: I dash out of the train at Chinatown Station and climb up the 3 escalators so that I can reach the office at 9.06am.

9.06 am: I plop down onto my chair in the office and kick at the power button on the CPU.

9.10 am: I fill up my water bottle and proceed back to my seat to eat the sandwich that Hb has prepared and packed nicely for me.

9.15 am: I "start work".

*Can't put it too explicitly here, but those who chat with me on msn will know what I mean*

1.00 pm: Lunch time!!! It is equivalent to shopping time, haha!

2.00 pm: I tabao my lunch and go back to the office to eat.

*I get back to work after lunch*

6.00 pm: Knock off time!!!! I start packing up.

6.05 pm: I make my way to the following places on different days -

Monday - Pure Yoga at Chevron House
Tuesday - Outram Pack Mrt to meet Hb and he accompanies me to JWSC for my yogalate lesson
Wednesday - Outram Park Mrt to meet Hb and we head to church for bible class.
Thursday - Outram Park Mrt to meet Hb and its either we go out or home.
Friday - Outram Park Mrt to meet Hb and its either we go out or home.

*One of my 2 remaining weekdays will soon be taken up by aerobics lesson which I am going to sign up in Jan 08, haha~! *

10.00 pm: This is the time I usually get home.

*I proceed to shower and watch my dvds*

1.00 am: Bed time. Finally.


- Phebe

A Ribbony Christmas

Our X'mas tree looked like this a few days ago:

Kinda empty, so we went out to buy somemore ornaments. Now, I think we have too many!!! And we replaced the ribbon with a glittery star. It keeps falling off cos its kinda heavy. If we don't manage to fix it on nicely, we'll put the ribbon back. Haiz, luckily the stupid star costed only $8.90 and not $89!!

We also finally got around to using the aromatherapy thingy that Tai Tai bought for us. Kinda surprised that the orangey glow illuminates through the opaque ceramic holder. It looks lovely.

- Phebe

X'mas is coming soon!

Hb and I finally bought our very own X'mas tree! Went to search for the party shop Evelyn told me about and we found 2 of them! Decided that the tree at Jurong Point is nicer, so we went back to buy our 5 ft X'mas tree. We bought quite a lot of other X'mas stuff at Bugis though. Liew, as expected, they added up to quite a lump sum, though we haven't shopped for the decorations yet, lol. We decided to fix up the lights today. The reason why you don't see it lighted up is cos I am watching my Dvd at this moment, so I took the plug out, wahahahhahaha!

- Phebe

2.5 Months after Moving in

We changed our sofa covers! Gonna send our 1st set for dry cleaning~



The new covers matches the curtains, haha


Live-in condition after 2.5 months, lol


- Phebe

Table Talk

Deipnosophist \dyp-NOS-uh-fist\, noun:
Someone who is skilled in table talk.

A deipnosophist I am not. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t think I qualify as a sophist of any sort.

I always knew that making small talk was an art perfected through years spent feigning interest in the private idiosyncrasies of strangers. But I never knew that one could be awarded a specialist label for excelling in this area.

For those of you whose jobs require you to meet, greet and smile sweetly at perfect strangers, you would probably have honed a whole arsenal of deipnosophistic skills that you can fire away with ease.

For me, I make my visitors feel welcome by putting on my best non-fakey smile, which effectively utilises only the facial muscles on the right side of my face, and issuing mono-syllabic grunts when I’m greeted with chirps of “how are you?”.

The term, social Neanderthal, comes to mind.

Her Royal Majesty, on the other hand, has no problems meeting and greeting her loyal subjects. Perhaps, years of dispensing royal diplomacy have honed her social abilities, and it also helps that she has a natural sunny and cheery disposition. As a result, Her Royal Majesty often ends up being the one putting visitors at ease, and assuring them that I do not harbour criminal tendencies towards any of them.

I’m just glad that I don’t have to strain my facial muscles more often than I do now. Otherwise, I might just end up with the right end of my lips in a permanent upwards crook. You do know what they say to kids who like to make funny faces right?

- Melvin

The Cat & The Rat's Housewarming~!

10th Nov 2007 - We held our housewarming last Saturday, 10th Nov 2007. We ordered the high tea menu from Neogarden and guess what? They brought red table cloth instead of ivory ones which I requested for! Haiz, ok nevermind, small matter.

There was a lot of food and Mdm Yik cooked 2 big pots of curry chicken. I spent some time in the morning trying to figure out how to cook the crab balls while Hb woke up at 8am to clean the house and to wash the toilets. Believe it or not, we spent a hell lot of time the night before doing up the fruit satays! This is the first time in my whole like I cut a watermelon and honeydew, wahahahahahha. I really feel like a fruit seller!

There were quite a number of people who last minute sms me to say they can't make it. And mind you, most are those who have already confirmed their attendance, so as you can imagine, there was a hell lot of leftover food! I'm so glad my bunch of sec school guy pals were there. They helped me tabao-ed 3/4 of the leftover food home, so nice of them! It was quite fun overall and we receive pressies and ang paos, haha. In the afternoon, I got a surprise when a delivery man appeared at our doorstep with a large bouquet of flowers. It was an early anniversary surprise from Hb! :D The sunflowers are really pretty, and of course, cheery!

We only spent about 1 hour clearing up the mess and we decided to bring a pot of curry chicken over to our immediate neighbour. I packed some of the other snacks in a tupperware as well, haha. They later came over to return the pot and came in to view our place. Then being the kpo us, we also went over to view theirs, wahahahhaa! Very nice couple and I think its good to build a good relationship with the neighbours, so that in case anything happen (not that I hope there will be any), we can look out for each other!

Richard also came over to help us tabao a lot of food back, haha! So happy, and guess what we had for dinner?? Yes, you probably guessed it right - leftover mi fen, curry chicken, sotong you tiao and orange juice!

Oh and for the first time, we decorated our dining table with a vase of fresh flowers! It really brightened up the table!

- Phebe

LoSe sOMe tO gAin mOre

I broke my favourite water pitcher...... the very pitcher Hb and I hunted for high and low and finally found at Chinatown OG... :'(

So sad..... but until now I also have no idea how the glass jug managed to fall onto the floor, giving me a scare with the loud "piang!!!!!!!" Haiz....

Being the ever faithful me, I decided that I must buy back the very same sea shell shaped water pitcher. It was cheap and good, only $12, and so pretty too. Thus, I made Hb accompany me all the way to OG Chinatown just to look for the same jug. Alas, guess what? NO MORE LIAO!!!!! MAnz!!!! We ended up buying another design that looked ALMOST the same but slightly bigger, and more expensive too... $22.90 for a PLASTIC water pitcher! The good thing though about this water pitcher is the center portion. The ice tube can be filled with water and stored into the freezer, afterwhich when ready it can be screwed onto the lid of the pitcher to chill water or other beverages! No wonder its so freaking expensive... haiz. Anyway, its made of PLASTIC... no more breakage... I hope.

As the saying goes, no pain no gain. As mentioned in my previous posts, OG has become one of my favourite places to shop. I found THE CLAY POT there!!! Just nice to put frog meat, wahahahaha! Really cheap and nicer looking than those with traditional floral-like prints! Only $8.90! Yay finally found a clay pot that I like! :D

In the process, we bought 2 rice bowls too, having realised that of all the tableware we have, we have no white porcelain bowls! At first we didn't buy any as both of us use plates instead of bowls, but then we realised that some of our guests may use bowls...so... we bought two just in case, lol.

We finally received the cute door stopper I ordered online!

Hb was so hardworking today! He cleaned most of the WIW, the water pipes, stained pebblewash and the kitchen's solid surface top! I am most pleased with the solid surface, it is now sparkling clean and shiny after Hb used lemon pledge to clean it!

- Phebe

Lovely set of Cushion covers!!

25th Oct 2007 - We finally found THE COVERS!!!

Been hunting for nice cushion covers for weeks and even Barang Barang's ones failed to catch my eye, and today, we finally found THE COVERS at OG!!!!!! OG has been one of my favourite shopping place recently and I realise it is really different from the past. OG has modernised, repositioned its brand and its now my fave shopping place!


I love the design! Matches so well!

- Phebe

Thoughts on Marriage

24 Oct 07 - Marriage is a topic that is often discussed by "experts" in magazine columns, co-workers around the water cooler, and idle housewives at the market. Most hold strong views about the subject, and are usually quick to offer their opinions to others.

But like the proverbial blind men having their first feel of an elephant, most would only be able to contribute accurate descriptions of certain aspects. Without a clear overview of the subject, you will not be able to link up all components to form a thorough observation. And since marriage is an intensely personal topic that varies from couple to couple, you would unlikely be able to find universal truths that apply to everyone.

Marriage is more than 2 people coming together to live under the same shelter. Marriage is also more than just 2 people signing their names on the marriage certificate. Marriage is a melding of hearts.

As one half of a newly wed couple, I am hardly qualified to expound on this topic. But precisely because I'm fresh from the altar, I have a clear idea of the differences between single and married life.

When you get married, you make a conscious decision to live together with your spouse for the rest of your lives. You are no longer a lone island, but rather, a newly established kingdom. With the establishment of this kingdom, you need to communicate with your subjects in order to ensure its success. Communication is essential to ensure that there is a meeting of minds, and that even if you need to disagree with each other, you do so in a logical and cordial manner. Melding of hearts, remember?

Marriage is also about taking ownership of every single detail of your lives, from the type of mop used in the kitchen, to the boiling of water for drinking. You will have to understand not just how to take care of yourself, but also of your spouse and accompanying kids, if any.

In a nutshell, both parties must be willing to place extra effort to understand each other, and more importantly, take the time out just to enjoy each other's company.

- Melvin

Goodbye Darkie

Hb and I stayed at home on Sat while the laminate guy worked on changing all the skirtings for us. Apparently, the original ones were not well done, so I finally decided to do something about it and called up the company. Made them agree to changing all the skirtings, wahahahahhaa! Actually, I prefer the original dark brown colour, but there was no stock for that anymore, so we settled for a different brand at a light shade of brown. Turned out it looked the same shade of brown as the laminate flooring, lol.

Bueh tahan my Rinnai burner anymore. By right it was supposed to look all nice and shiny on the cooker hob, but after cooking a few times, the colour started to turn blue and purple! It is so freaking ugly that I decided to get Rinnai to replace new ones for me. Opted for ceramic black this time, hehe.

Before:



After:



- Phebe

Our Last Buy

We are more or less done with all the shopping and we have bought the very last item which is something we had decided not to buy - a home theater system. For someone who hardly watches TV, I see no point in getting one other than having it sit on the console collecting dust and more dust, lol. Anyway, my mini hi-fi died on me on Saturday, and we suspect it got something to do with the socket. Anyway, since it wasn't a very expensive hi-fi to begin with and though I used it no more than 10 times within the past 2 years, I can't be bothered to check if it can be revived. Hb and I went to Courts on Sat evening to check on my laptop's extended warranty, and got won over by the promoter's glib tongue on one of the Philips home theater system. We had wanted to buy one with those cool tall standing speakers, but realised that it would mean more wires being exposed no thanks to the design of our Tv console. As such, we decided to get those small cube-like ones instead. Not much difference from most of the tall boys except that it ain't standing. RMS is also about the same apart from one of the Panasonic tall boys, which has got 1000RMS. Anyway, to cut the long story short, yeah, we finally bought our home theater system, kissing goodbye to another few hundred bucks. I think this is the least he can do for me, since he will be on a 2 week reservist training (more like holiday to me), leaving me with no one to torture at home and thus having to be contented by watching Dvds (bought a new series, very funny!) and surfing the net. At least he was kind enough to set it up for me yesterday. I will show my gratitude by making full use of it during his absence. Dvds receive your queen!!

The current Dvd player was shifted to the MBR, so I'll be able to watch Dvds in the room too, yay!


Oh, and we have finally finish drilling the holes for our wall clock! Can only do drilling on Saturdays as we have fussy neighbours and an irritating kid upstairs who cries whenever he hears drilling sounds. Thus, we can only have fun drilling on Saturday mornings as they can't complain, wahahahahaha! Here it is, something to fill up the wall!


I am beginning to enjoy cooking, haha. It certainly beats eating out everyday! I'm was so grateful to Mdm Yik for imparting me her culinary skills that I happily brought over a pot of ABC soup for The Low Clan on Sat night, haha~! Cooked chicken & mushroom steamed rice for lunch and it turned out quite nice too! Consulting Mdm Yik is the best. It beats having to read recipe books which I can never understand!


A tupperware full of chicken & mushroom steamed rice~


My ABC soup~


- Phebe

Phebe can cook - 2nd Try

I tried cooking for the 2nd time at our new place on Saturday, and it was better than the week before! Here's a summary of what I whipped up:

1) Old cucumber & spare ribs soup (lao huang gua pai gu tang)

Success!!!!!! Hb said it was very very nice!

2) Potatoes & stewed pork (stir fry using oyster sauce)

Success! Would be even better though, if I had added less water for the gravy and slightly more oyster sauce. Will try adding in a teeny bit of corn flour next time!

3) Beijing cabbage & luncheon meat (Stir fry using oyster sauce)

Success~! Would be better if I had fried the luncheon meat a bit before adding it in with the cabbage, cos the luncheon meat was a bit soft?

4) Prawn & pork omeletter (Fry)

Getting there. 2 out of 5 pieces was a success, lol. This is the 3rd time I try this stupid omelette thing and finally I am getting the hang of it. Should wait longer before I flip the stupid thing. Add more oil. Next try will be better!

5) Potato meat balls (Deep fry)

BIG FAILURE!!!! I learnt this recipe 9 years ago during Home Econs class - Potato-tuna ball. I had always wanted to try that out again using pork instead of tuna, and well, finally I have the chance, and made a mess outta it, wahahahahhaa! I ended up pouring more and more oil into the stupid wok so that the potato balls can be deep fried evenly. Anyway, to cut the long story short, the balls became distorted and ended up either bursted or in some kind of weird shape, wahahahahahaa! I decided that we shouldn't kill ourselves by eating it, which is why it is not in the pic below!

- Phebe

Our Internet is up!!!

Our Internet is finally up!!!!! :D

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The guy from Singtel came over on Saturday and set up our MIO thingy - broadband and home telephone. Surprisingly, the reception for MIO voice was very clear~! Best of all, both incoming and outgoing calls are free, haha!

The guys from Barang Barang also delivered our Ikoma easy chair for the study! Stole this pic from the website. Ours is the brown version~ :))



After 2 weeks of refering to our hps whenever we want to check out the time, Hb and I decided that enough is enough - WE NEED CLOCKS IN THE HOUSE!

There is this shop at City Square that sells very nice clocks and we went to JB on Sat evening just to shop for them, and YES, we found THE CLOCKS!! A 4-in-1 poster clock for the living room, a digital clock (can even track the surrounding temp~!) for the bedroom and a flip clock for the study! It ain't expensive at all as such clocks are priced at least 2-3 times higher at Molecule (Marina Square)!

Total damage: RM$262.20, only about SGD$120!!!!! Happy!!!

We borrowed the drill set from The EL yesterday and went back to drill 4 holes on the wall for our poster clock. After the 2nd drilling, I heard the kid upstairs crying and the father complaining, so we decided to stop and wait till this coming weekend to drill the remaining 2 holes!

Oh and guess what? We finally managed to get our shiny white metal dustbin from Sim Siang Choon yesterday! The guy finally called and told us the stock has arrived, lol. Yay, we finally have a dustbin for the study! Saves me from having to walk all the way to the kitchen just to throw some rubbish!

And we went to OM as well to order an extra set of sofa covers! Kissed goodbye to $620 for it. Gotta wait for 6-8 weeks before it will be ready though~!

- Phebe

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