Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Turning Eleven


My niece Dione from Vermont (Indonesia) turned eleven yesterday. It was centuries ago when I turned eleven, back when internet and handphones were not even around. She picked chocolate cake for birthday cake. We had yellow rice for brunch and fried noodles for dinner. I hope she had an 11th birthday that she would remember for a long time to come. I had so much food yesterday, maybe I should eat a super mini size of everything today......

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This Reminds Me....



I like orange juice, provided that they are quite sweet. I like oranges even better, again, they have to be quite sweet. I do not take sourish oranges, I just can't handle them. A couple days ago, I stocked up our fridge with a bottle of orange juice, the one that claims "High In Vitamin C" and yesterday, I found myself some big Sunkist, the ones that I know nearly for sure, that they are sweet.

I have a habit of peeling the orange and leave them in bite-able pieces in the fridge. Then there's used to be someone at home that conveniently ate some or most of them. Occasionally drove me crazy.... But now, my oranges are pretty much left alone as the culprit is thousand miles away from home. Memory!

Monday, September 28, 2009

In The Terrace ...



We went to the site to check out the place after church yesterday. It was hot, naturally, as it was half past noon. The kids in the picture were checking out the terrace by the dining area. It is an open space and basically was hot, hot, hot!

The picture was taken from another terrace by the living area, which was equally hot!

Big Breakfast Selection...



It has been a crazy weekend. It was over before even I seemed to get to enjoy a bit of it. It was a weekend packed with tons of actions, but tons of things were accomplished, that's the best part of it. As for me physically, I was so worn oout.



We are having two little guests at home, and one adult. I am having a fun cooking time, they open to lots of things that my own family sometimes get a little bit tired of.



I obliged to DH's request to make some banana maple muffins, which are also favorite of one daughter. I also made more cinnamon rolls and little buns. We ended up having quite a bit to choose from for our breakfast.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Got The First Ones...



We finally got our mooncakes this year, some mini ones, packed in a very cute adorable box. These were given to us by someone.



Instead of its traditional filling of lotus paste and the likes. This box has different types of fillings including strawberry, kumquat, green tea and purple potatoes. Unfortunately, we do not find the taste to be likable... we are unable to taste the classic taste of mooncake. Too bad...

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Art Is There...



This sign was seen outside the colorful building on Hill street, which after doing a little research, turned out to be Old Hill Street Police Station. Forgive me for not knowing that, I am so ashamed that I have lived in this country for more than 11 years and fail to know that. I was always interested in it. It was pretty and colorful. Too bad I was not able to captured the whole building as I was inside the car, just passing by.

Today, reportedly, the building is used by the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts. More about the building here and here.

Friday, September 25, 2009

I Don't Hear Them Calling Me...



It was a nice sunny day. The sky was clear and the weather was the usual hot. We had a few hours that I had to spend on a potential curtain vendor for the new house.



It was not something that I was fond of doing but a job must be done. This is the second supplier that we spoke too. They have a large collection, but unfortunately they do not have the quality that we feel comfortable with and many designs that we fell in love with easily.



To begin with, we have so many rooms to furnish, living room, dining room, entrance and kitchen. Those are downstairs. For upstairs, we have four bedrooms and a family/study room. So many factors that we need to consider too. Every room has different needs.



It was very time consuming to pick for many different rooms that we have, but after more than two hours to nearly three hours, we were done. Just felt relieved that it was DONE. We thought that we like the first one that we spoke to even though they quoted such high price. Now... waiting for their quotation.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Bake Sale Brownies



Music does great things for life. When I am happy, I am down, when I am sad or when I am angry, ... pick an inspirational song or two and play them. Enjoy the tune, feel the words and find peace and serenity in there..... Find the silver lining, life is still good, life that I have is better and I can't help but praise the Creator above.



It's bake sale, it's brownies for bake sale to raise funds for recent typhoon victims in Taiwan. Despite an extremely busy day yesterday, one had to be baked for that. Of course, we wanted some too. Another one was bake, this time, with more chips and mini marshmallows.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Moon Cake Time Again...



It has become a familiar scene again as as mid autumn festival is approaching, every place we go to, seems to sell many varieties of mooncake. The picture above was taken at Plaza Singapura. We'll have some mooncake soon.....

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Feeling Does Change...



Like an evolution... I was not even aware when my kids' love towards tomatoes started to grow. I know for sure at some point, they didn't want any tomatoes to be visible in their food. They did not mind ketchup, but they mostly refused chunky, sliced tomatoes.



I did not even know when it started. I vaguely remember when they started to enjoy bruschetta more when we dined in the restaurants and started looking for tomatoes in their pizza too. Our latest favorite is tomato pizza on wholemeal thin crust, merely tomato slices with basil, black pepper and grated mozzarella or provolone and some cheddar. In our house, this type of pizza sells really well nowadays!

Monday, September 21, 2009

While Looking For Lights....



Balestier road was the place we headed to last Saturday. Our mission was to search some lights for our new place. We still needed some garden lights and lights for the terraces and a couple of others here and there. This really was not something that I was prepared to do. I was so hoping that I could just move in and everything that I need and I like are there. Surely, that was a fat hope. We got ourselves a brand new house and these are a few things that we need to deal with. No fun.



We could not really find any lights that we like. Even the famous chicken rice restaurant rejected our business deals, the lazy shopkeeper simply pointed the board to us. It said that they stopped serving at 4:45 PM, Monday to Saturdays. .... The lazy man did not seem to care that it was still 4:44PM. What a poor service! It's a very well known chicken rice place that I didn't even know and won't even bother to go to ever again. I simply tried to buy some because we were in the area.

I still can find the silver lining of the whole tiring afternoon, I found many nice looking double-storey shop houses along the road. They look very pretty.... [We were exhausted!]

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Better Pictures To Look At



I am having a crappy weekend. Plain and simple. But I still remember the goodness of lamb chop that I had at Mezza9 last week and wish that I tried K's gnocchi with sage. Hers looked so delicious too.



I hope the next few hours will be better, I know I am the one that can turn it around. Be happy if I want to be happy, let me stick that in my head. Life.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Door: Before And After




We had the main door and in fact all other doors painted, from inside. As it is not allowed to change the outside color of it. It was pale, creamish, natural color and now is deep dark brown. Cool huh?




Make It Work ...



The current state of my future room .... it is fully utilized as working place. Hurry up boys! In a tick-tock it'll be October!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Want One Too...


Source: http://www.jasonheiglfoundation.org./news.html

I want one.... Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley released their adopted daughter from Korea. I am packing my bags and flying there to get one for myself too. Cute overload. Such a pretty baby!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Spice Dutch Cake



Mom would have been 82 years old today, she died seven years ago after battling Parkinson's disease for more than 20 years. She is resting in peace now, I imagine, smiling and happy. No more pains, no more sufferings. So we should be happy too...

Growing up with her, I remember the two kinds of cake that she baked. One was the always classic marble cake and the other was Ontbitjkoek. That was it, I don't remember any other types in particular. But once her daughters started to grow and could bake on their own, we started having more varieties. I myself, remember baking some coconut cakes, chocolate sprinkle cakes, fruit cakes, and all sort of others.



Ontbitjkoek is a Dutch Spice Cake or in many cases, they are bread. There are many different ways making them. Some people make them with eggs, some with milk, some with butter, some without any butter. But one distinct characteristic is that it has is spices, i.e. cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Some eat them for breakfast, some have them for tea. I had not baked Ontbitjkoek for many long years and today, in honor of her birthday, I baked this cake. A different recipe, a different result, yet it is still Spice Dutch Cake. Cheers!

Work In Progress... Slowly


(click on the picture to see a better view!)

As the moving date gets closer, things should get crazier. One would would expect that in the new place, people are gearing up with works, trying to get as much done as possible since from corner to corner, nothing was ready at all. While in the old place, packing should have begun and boxes should be seen around the house.



It's a no and no. Well, it all seemed calm the last time I checked. The work is still in progress and the visible development is not much. All things were quite neatly set away in the evening when the workers were gone. What's left was a nice view of the city from the terrace.



While on the floor, .... were whatever they used for work. What can't bee seen in these pictures is a designer who designed the last room left according to what he liked rather than what the client asked him to do and has been asked to revised his work. These boys need to speed up!! Seriously!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Climb And Shop...Or Browse


Guess who did indoor rock climbing last Sunday and browsing many shops to find what she needed?



We were hunting for stuff to fill our house. One of the places that we went to last Sunday was Orchard Central, a new mall in Orchard road, of course, to check out some furniture shops there. Apparently, I have been misinformed or mis-communicated. There's only one shop selling furniture there. The suffering that I went through by going round and round and spiraling round and round up to the 7th floor to park the car just did not seem worthy. For me, that is another mall. If there's anything special about it, maybe it's the indoor rock climbing facility that they have. I am neither a shopper nor a rock climber, so a shopping mall with rock climbing facility does not excite me. After all those spiraling up, we still have to spiral down again to go back to the floor level. What a horrible parking space, IMHO.

To answer the question about who went indoor rock climbing, the answer was not me! I was the one window shopping. Boring.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Straight And Roll



Some people just can't be trusted, I found this case to be so true over the past few months. Let me start with this person whose job title is not very clear. She assisted us in a furniture shop where we order a dining table and some chairs. We picked the color of the leather cushion and the design. The deposit was paid and all were settled. After which, we had some discussion among our family that came along of whether we picked the right color. She overhead and kindly offered us a bunch of sample and asked us to get back to her in a week time to confirm the color, otherwise, she would order the color that we had chose.

That was what the four of us understood, on 9 August. A few phone conversations on some potential kitchen cabinets and a visit later on the same matter, one month and three days after, on the phone, still speaking to the same person, I asked when our dining table and the chairs ready. To my shock, she replied that she waited for me to get back to her on the leather color so she can order from Italy....!!!!!! Yes, this person said that and Italy too! Think of the weeks needed for this process! Think, think. She said that I was supposed to let her know what color it would be, that I was also supposed to return the sample. I am not Joe Wilson, but I must say that SHE LIED! I confirmed with my two kids and my husband who were there and they confirmed what I believed in.

What's upsetting is the fact that the interior designer that we engaged has not been a very straight forward person. He miscalculated the space, and was about the leave a cushion as a side table in one of the rooms, without consulting us. I heard no admission of fault here. He let the railings painted in colors of his choice, not ours, without prior consultation with us and built a side table light column along the bed without even consulting us. Does that qualify him as a moron?

moron
:
1. A stupid person; a dolt.
2. Psychology A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

Well, it could have turned out that we engaged a moron as our interior consultant, couldn't have we?? Should we have, I hope we did not become one by hiring one. (Sighh..........) What to do? Just a bad Saturday!



I baked some cinnamon rolls last week for breakfast to finish off the dough that I had left. They were soft, warm, sweet and cinnamonish.... giving me great fuzzy feelings unlike what I experienced last Saturday. Tomorrow is always another day.... and the sun'll come up tomorrow, Annie sings.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Getting The Bug...



I was not and still am not a a big fan of chocolate cookies. I would take one or two occasionally but would not jump into picking one. But when my sister asked me about the recipe for chocolate cookies from back when we were small, I started to think about them again. They were not my favorite either at that time, but I wanted to make some now anyway. Knowing for sure that they won't taste the same because the cocoa powder that we use now is different from then. Just wanted to do it.



I do not have the recipe that we used back then and had to find a recipe that looks reasonable enough to yield good results.



The recipe that I picked, which I followed really closely, however, did not give me a good enough dough that I had to add extra butter as I had used up all the flour and cocoa. Now they are more do-able to be pressed through a cookie presser.



In terms of taste? It is pretty much like chocolate cookies.....