happy tues

last night, i saw three very sorry looking overripe bananas destined for the trash bin. decided to bake banana muffins early this morning in time for breakfast. threw in some pumpkins seeds for the extra crunch. the aroma of baked bananas at six thirty am is ah, so wholesome.

there were 7 left so i took them to the cancer soc.  fed those in the welfare dept.

 happy faces=happy su.

this morning, i was tasked with calling patients who had received welfare aid for chemo treatment. depending on their financial situation, these patients were given either 50% or 75% subsidy. 

my job was to call, ask after them and fill up the comments column in the computer. 

however, there was also the RIP column.

made 14 successful calls in two hours. 7 fell under the RIP column while the other 7 were either in remission or had stopped treatment midway on doc's advice.

i am glad i was able to offer a listening ear to some. 

*-)

after a beautiful morning, the rain came down in sheets at lunch time. fortunately, by then oz and i had found our way to satsuma shochu dining bar at gallery hotel.

i like tuesdays. since the cancer soc is in the CBD, oz and i will try to meet for lunch as much as possible. we trawl the nearby areas for new places to try.

we have been to satsuma for dinner before. it's well-known for its shochu and sake and accompanying drinking food. we found out that they serve set lunch too so here we are.

i ordered the beef and kimchee in hot pot and rice. perfect for a rainy day. tasted more korean than japanese. 

i like.

oz tried the belly pork in plum stew on rice. came with miso soup. earthy and satisfying.

side dish of oden to share. that's basically various types of japanese fish cake in dashi stock.

the dessert may not look like much but the sesame seed ice cream was full of whole roasted sesame seeds, giving it a very nutty taste. very jap.

garden delights

after a horrid wet day yesterday (must be from all that pent-up rain the bomoh kept away for the F1), the morning was beautiful - sunny and cheerful. made me smile while eating my muffins in the patio.

so lovely was the view that i decided to take pictures of the garden. with my phone camera.

this sun catcher was bought on my latest trip to sausalito. it now hangs on a chain in a corner of the extended roof and lights up really prettily when it catches the morning sun.

that's oz wearing his shoes, about to leave for work :-)

the staghorn fern on the top left is much happier in this spot as opposed to the tree out on the deck. too much sun there so it slowly died on us. we revived it with new spagnum moss and bark and fertilisers and six months later, it's really healthy.

the trunk of this livistonia palm is host to many families of boston fern. initially, nora just tied some orchids to the trunk but as the spores of the boston fern landed and grew, it became an organised mess. visitors have asked me to teach them how to achieve the effect. i told them i have no idea. they just grew. 

well, there MUST be garden angels cos the garden's looking really good. bought this sign at spotlight.

took a baby plant off father when i went home last oct. almost a year on and these variegated leaves look so pink and dramatic.

one of a few chikus growing realllly slowly. takes months to ripen but they are real sweet.

there are lots of these crab claws in the garden but this resilient one just persisted, fighting for space with the jambu tree on its left and the shed on the right. i simply love its bright colours.

not a good picture, i know :-)

the bitter gourds we have harvested so far are no longer than our lengths of our palms but they taste extra good.

hah, am hopeful over this.

it's actually the second flower the pumpkin plant has produced. the first one fell off yesterday. so nora and i are keeping our fingers crossed. 

when father visited in july, he laughed when he saw the seedlings in a pot. he said pumpkins need to be grown in the ground. but we can hardly afford the space.

hope springs eternal in my heart.....

another of my fave from the heliconia family. called the sexy pink, it's dramatic and hangs down over two feet sometimes.

^0^

my first F1

and with  this ticket and a pair of ear plugs each, we were among the 100,000 who made history as we attended the world's first formula 1 night race.

and what a night! 

the papers were filled with the do's and don'ts leading up to the race and that scared me. fear of the human crush, rain (weather forecast was 50-50), heat.... but too late to back out. glad i didn't, though.

the weather was good. and the choice of the marina area for the singapore grand prix was excellent.

honestly, i think i have been staying home too much. i have not stepped out to the marina area for yonks. yes, have been to the esplanade for shows and plays but have not really ventured out beyond that area. as in take a stroll.

we reached there at around six, having parked the car at oz's office at raffles place and then did a walkabout of the circuit.

and it was really, really spectacular. the circuit snaked around marina bay and into city hall area. as daylight faded and the night came alive, we were all spellbound. 

i never knew my country is so beautiful. *heart-thumpingly proud*

and all this was showcased to the rest of the world. and if i ever meet a foreigner who thought singaporeans live in trees, i'd box his ears AND eyes.

that's city hall in the background. you can see the back of the grandstand where our seats were.

buying the F1 programme. of course, all F1 merchandise were horribly expensive, esp ferrari tees. but looking at the hordes of people at the booths, you would have thought they were free! wei took a peek at one ferrari tee and quickly recoiled when she saw it was $150! we settled for two F1 tees at $35 each. got one for xru who was mugging at home cos she is in the midst of her final year exams.

hah, i had to take this picture. can't see this happening in the monaco GP for instance. 

food and crowds! so singaporean. stalls selling local food like chicken rice, hokkien mee, and satay did a roaring business. 

the dinner crowd spilled onto the padang, lending a very festive air to the whole place. in fact, many had already 'choped' places in front of the big screen in the padang. 

the human crush i feared turned out to be non existent. because the circuit covered such a wide area, the crowd was well scattered. still, we were glad that we had taken an early dinner at raffles place before making our way to the race. 

the merlion is doing its thing behind us in this photo. 

got to the stands by 7.20pm. 

the skyline behind us was magnificient as night fell.

we were lucky the screen was just in front of us. since we were in the straight, the only action was that of our eyeballs zipping from right to left as the cars zoomed past. so we watched the screen most of the time.

tho' i had been told it would be loud, i didn't know it was THAT loud. so loud it hurt. we all scrambled for our ear plugs, giggling away. to see thousands of people doing that at the same time WAS funny.

the first few laps, i sat up straight, my eyes trained to the right as i heard the approaching roar and when all had zipped past, i would look at the screen and wait for the next roar in about one and a half mins time.

but multiply that by 61 and you get into what wei called ' screensaver mode'. you don't shut down but you aren't exactly alert either after a while. only when there's action do i jump up and take note. plus, it's near impossible to hold a conversation. however, the crowd's reaction pretty much electrifies the atmosphere. many of them were not F1 virgins like me. i saw them punching their fists in the air, waving flags and clapping periodically. 

me? i probably only understood half of what was happening but it didn't matter.  :-)

when it was all over and we had gotten mom and wei onto the train, we changed at oz's office and made our way to meet the rest at nikolas at keong saik street.

e.t. knew the owner who stayed open for us.  we had a four course dinner with great red wine.

so relaxed were we that we chatted and chatted. until we realised that the staff had changed out of their uniforms and were politely milling around the door. by then, it was almost 1 am.

 

later, as i drove past the ecp and saw the bright lights under the benjamin sheares bridge where half the crowd was still partying, i knew i wouldn't mind attending the next singapore grand prix. 

of leftovers and comfort food

oz brought home a whole rack of lamb  after a bbq dinner many weeks ago. i forgot all about it until friday when i was checking on some frozen mixed vegetables.

googled "what to cook with leftover lamb" and came up with a simple stew.

when mom came over last night and said something smells good, i told her she was my guinea pig.

i baked some baguette to go with the stew.

and made a simple salad.

hami melon with prawns and cashew nuts, tossed with chopped fresh parsley in a homemade dressing.

and this was the lamb stew. 

and lunch today was comfort food.

what i cook for sunday lunch is dependant on my mood and how my tummy feels in the morning.

this morning, i decided on a simple vegetable soup. something light and healthy.

it had an onion, carrots, potatoes, celery, mushrooms, macaroni elbows, corn and lots of chopped tomatoes. seasoned with bay leaf and mixed herbs.

baked a fresh batch of baguette too.

after a tumultuous two days, my belly is happy again  :-)

project runway

i still do a double-take everytime i walk into xru's room.

there's this sculptured well-endowed male mannequin standing over the end of her bed, wearing little else but a sexy pair of pink juicy couture panties.

no, it's not what you think. no, no, it's not a fetish.

it's her prop for her 'o' levels drama piece which hopefully will go some way to help secure an A. 

but as to why she has to position him there is what any well-meaning mom wants to know but doesn't ask.

anyway, she got sick ( i think) of him in pink so she gave him a makeover.

in her school uniform. except its so tight his manboobs don't need no support.

then wei decides to put him in her uniform, or at least in the skirt.

and her dance sweatshirt.

and her schoolbag.

new blog

flowers on my birthday without fail.

i feel so blessed.

and a birthday is a good excuse to start another blog. 

why 'another'? why not continue with the other one?

well, i want to take a different approach with this one.

truth be told, i missed blogging the moment i stopped a few months ago. there were times when i came across incidences which were good blogging material and i rued the day i stopped posting. 

yet, i do not want to wear my heart on my sleeve :)

we'll see.

anyway, back to my birthday...

made my own 'birthday cake'. actually carrot cakes baked in paper cups and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting. the cake stand was actually a present from lynne for my birthday. 

all dressed up to go for dinner at st pierre, central mall.

this beautiful dish was my mains. it was lobster something (so much for wanting to do a food blog. don't even know the full name of this dish. note to self: be more attentive to details!) 

what was wonderful was that the strikingly handsome owner, chef emmanuel stroobant actually did the finishing touches to this dish at my table. (another note to self: polish up photo shooting skills. all shots i took ended up in the trash bin. either too dark, blur or shakey)

he set up a contraption which looked like a cross between a slimmer ice shaver for traditional ice kacang and a medieval torture tool.

he then proceeded to put the huge lobster head into it and down came the lever to basically press out whatever juices the cerebrum could render. and we do know crustaceans aren't exactly cerebral creatures.

so the gravy you see adorning the laurel wreath-like of a dish is gunk juice, guaranteed to clog arteries but what do i care? it's my birthday and it was yummy!!

dessert was far prettier than it was tasty. i chose it because it had yuzu as the main ingredient. but a tad too much, i am afraid. so it was very tart. the raspberry sorbet on the right didn't help; if anything, it accentuated the tartness and took away whatever sweetness that was present.

good food and plentiful love = a great birthday.