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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Regina's 24th - 15th Jan

Regina's 24th was celebrated at Timbre @ The Arts House.

The four of us had to cram around a small table meant for 2 because we're late!!




The 3 of us had our backs facing Stamford Raffles statue and the CBD!
What a beautiful backdrop




More photos of foursome.




Birthday girl whose actual birthday is on 17th Jan.




Taken with self timerrrrr..




Cheese!




Christmas 2009 gift exchange came a bit late, so it was brought over to 2010!

Regina got us a whole load of chocs and nougats from Australia.. (but everything's sold in Sg! lol)
She also got us a cute mini fountain pen each!
Felt like as if we're back in pre/pri school days where the birthday girl gives out nicely wrapped goodies.




DIY Clean-Up Boxes and Phuket Elephant magnets from me!
Hats from Candice!

Amanda gave out hers during our Christmas Gathering already.


P.S.




As requested by Regina to post this up, this is how her Clean-up Box looked like on her office desk!

Ni Tamago - 27th Jan



Made 4 hard-boiled eggs with a gooey yolk center in total.
And I ate my first one after being immersed in the marinade fer 1 day.

Had it together with Korean Kimchi Noodles and DongWon Tuna!
Oishi!

Here's the recipe:
Step 1 - Marinade
1 cup soy sauce (I used kikoman)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (or brown sugar)
Some dried chilli (I don't have so I used 10 ginger slices)
Leek


Step 2 - Cooking
Pierce egg with a needle at the tip
Boil for 6.5mins (can add vinegar to water to soften egg shell but I didn't. for small egg - 6mins)
soak in ice water for 3mins and peel carefully with egg still in iced water.


Step 3
Immerse egg in marinade for 1-2 days in the fridge.
Eat at room temperature.


The article said to marinade for 1-2 days.

However, the egg became mega salty on the 2nd! (Jasmine ate it)
Bleargh. I'd try to lessen the soy sauce in future!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Chef Emily's Tteok Bok Kki

Ladies and Gentlemen,


Welcome to the Opening of Emily's Korean Eatery, online.


Introducing her signature dish.

The 'Tteok Bok Kkiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'!!
(Yes, at her eatery, you emphasize the iiiiis)





It's so delicious, 아주 맛있어요(!) that it's on par with those that Chef Emily ate in Korea.
No kidding.
Chef Emily had also tweaked the recipe a little cause the initial was a lil' watery.

Fer this photo, she hasn't got the time to garnish, sprinkling of black sesame seeds.
But it's alright to overlook it, cause she's such a good chef, you're not. HURHUR.


Hallelujuah.
I shall blog more about it.
Till then.




Yours truly,
Chef Emily

23rd Dec (cooking time 9.00pm-9.15pm)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Indeed, Lamentations

Felt a sharp pain on my abdomen when I was about to bathe.
I thought it's the return of the laosai.
It wasn't.

10mins later, it returned again.
This time the pain was so intense, beads of perspiration started to form.
I silently screamed for Mummy in my head (o, because I need the Bo Chit Yun pills).
And of course, Christ Jesus! Bless me!

I had planned to start on my work after I bathed.. but was too weak to do so.
The pain seemed to have sucked my energy and I need to rest a little.
That was when I came online and found someone blog-hopped from Alvin's to mine.
Clicked on it and to my surprise, the link that I opened was on March 2005. I saw this!:


The Rabbit & The Worm - Lamentations

Oh xxx, xxx,
how foolish you are.
You nibble on carrots,
from fields afar.


My biggest worry of all is this,
you might become so engrossed in feeding,
that you give the toilet a miss.


You might soil yourself,
spraying s**t all over the place,
and turn into a smelly, brown-spotted bunny,
donning specks of s**t on your cute little face.


Take heed little xxx,
do listen to what I have to say:
An unfortunate fit of diarrhoea,
is all it takes to ruin your day.


But whatever happens, don't worry,
things will turn out just fine.
For you, my dear little xxx,
you will always be on my mind!


penned by Alvin DarLIN on SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2005.

This is actually Part II of the nongsense poem he made up.
Part I can be found here.
and Part III, here.


"An unfortunate fit of diarrhoea, is all it takes to ruin your day."


Hurhur. So coincidental, so comforting.
I don't have diarrhoea, but I feel that I'd soon have one judging from the pangs of pain.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH. As I type, it's back . *pauses here*


*back* Indeed, it's diarrhoea.
Highly suspect it was this morning's breakfast where I was served with dirty plates (egg yolk stain!) at Dover HDB foodcourt.
KNN, SMS.
I pray it ends now, there and then.
The end.


But whatever happens, don't worry,
things will turn out just fine.
For you, my dear little EMILY,
you will always be on my mind!

That's why I love my darling's blog. Let me fill in the blanks, 5 years later..  =D

Sunday, January 3, 2010

DarLIN's 25th - 3rd Jan

Couldn't believe Alvin has already hit the quarter century mark.
For his 25th, I brought the Mister to Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery.

He had a list to choose from,
from dinner in a romantic setting where you can get to witness sunset at Sentosa;
to the semi-outdoors where you can see horses in a distance;
to the international ones..

and he chose this>>


A Global All Day Breakfast menu.
Breakfast for breakfast, breakfast for lunch, breakfast for dinner.. you geddit..

It's rather interesting (and pricy) too.
You get to pick a breakfast set ranging from Japanese, Yemen, Tunisian, Swiss, Scandinavia.. 16 different countries.


We went fer the most challenging one, breakfast for breakfast.
Woke up early fer it kayyyy.


DarLIN had MEXICAN breakfast set.
Burrito, scrambled eggs, potatoes, beans, salsa and guacamole topped with sour cream.

Fer me, it was a really heavy English breakfast set.
Scrambled eggs, a huge sausage, half a tomato, baked beans (not your usual Heinz), bacon (ooo..) and the very delicious mushrooms..

Should have picked Scandinavian (salmon!) or Belgium (waffles!) breakfast set.
(Why I chose English huh, cause all my favourites were in it except tomato)


Darling also ordered Cous cous salad with grilled salmon skewers.
I think the salmon skewers stank, couldn't stand the smoky smell.

To down our breakfast fit for a king (and queen), we also ordered 2 special types of drink concoctions with weird names I can't recall. (Mine's called Princess something something?)
In total it was S$40+ per pax fer breakfaaaaaaaaaaaaast.

I couldn't finish much (just recovered from my bout of diarrhea due to an allergic reaction to some medication)..

Was so paiseh when I was about to leave.
The owner, an Angmoh Guy, (ok, his name is literally Guy) came up to me, "O, you couldn't finish?" with sad tone. It's like as if his food sucked.
Fer the record, it didn't la..



My only pet peeve here>>
Couldn't take any photos in there cause the Angmoh owner's a lil' p(r)etty sensitive over pictures taken at his restaurant.




After church service that day we had a mini Häagen-Dazs ice-cream cake fer DarLIN!

And his present was an exercise bench (also included as present for Christmas and Anniversary of last year's cause I didn't get any fer him except cards.. so bad right.. hahaha) from me.

Friday, January 1, 2010

100 things about Me

Wow.

I had this written quite some time back to make my 150th post special.
Never did I expect my 150th post coincides with the first post for 2010 too!

Well it's gonna be a pretty looong read.
Here it goes!

*Drum rolls*.......
.
.
.

1) As many have already known, I LOVE to eat eggs. My dad used to shove half-boiled eggs down my throat to wake me up and get ready fer class when I was 4 - I haven’t even brush my teeth yet!
2) My favourite past-time is to daydream.
3) I like to ‘catch’ farts – Alvin and my sisters find it annoying.
4) I like painting my nails in m&m colours ever since my collection of nail polishes went above 30.
5) I have nicknames aplenty. The ones I liked best: ‘Every Minute I Love You’ (my dad’s friend) and ‘Ai Mei Li’ (my dad and a few PRCs from Archi). My lower sec school friends called me ‘Horny LIM’ Only God knows why. My JC friends call me ‘Em’. My Korean friends call me ‘deh-mily’ (means dead skin cells!~ in Korean) or ‘emily emily emily’. Some just cannot stop at 1.
6) My mom liked Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ so much; she named me after her sister, Emily Bronte, who wrote ‘Wuthering Heights’.
7) Enid Blyton was my favourite childhood author. I would reread the Magic Faraway Tree series many times and boy was I happy when it appeared on TV as cartoon!
8) I would love to retire at the countryside, live in a cottage, own a farm with brooks and collect eggs every day like what Enid Blyton had described in her books.
9) For now, I’d just be glad to own a country styled kitchen, with onions and garlic hanging from the ceiling and throw garden tea parties whenever I can.
10) I owned close to a 100 Enid Blyton books before. My mum had since given them away to the Salvation Army.
11) My dad is the only one in my family whom I’ve travelled alone with so far. He’s fantastic and he spoils me! I love him so much!
12) I first ate vegetables willingly when I was 13, chicken when I was 17 and beef when I was 18.
13) I’d feel nauseous when I eat too much beef (too much referring to anything more than half a cheese burger)
14) Before JC, I used to order chicken rice without chicken plus egg.
15) Now, my order fer chicken rice would go like this: ‘White chicken breast without skin plus egg’ and add loads of chilli.
16) I would like to have B cup boobs.
17) I’d like my wedding car to be in an orange Lamborghini Gallardo or later series. Never mind if it’s rented.
18) I love playing soccer with my neighbours and cousins when I was in Primary school. Was always the goal keeper cause kicking the ball with slippers was way too painful fer me. Yes, I was a good keeper who didn’t think twice lunging over just to catch the ball. Now, I’m just a gu-niang.
19) I have green fingers. An odd combination cause one of my hands is red. My neighbour and I destroyed the community garden to have a vegetable patch fer ourselves with our bare hands! Mud, earthworms and all, we love it. Now I’d squirm at the sight of the wriggly earthworms. For your info, we grew green and black beans, maize and peanuts.
20) My birthmark is a terribly accurate thermometer which operates through colour indicator. Bright red spells danger, overheated - in need of water. Maroon/Purple indicates I’m feeling chilly.
21) I got my late Maltese name, ‘Janet’, from a baby’s name book. I was only 8.
22) My baby bolster of 8 years had to be thrown away because Janet bit it so badly one morning!
23) Din din was 3 when she trimmed my fringe whilst I was fast asleep. I could only exclaim ‘wa lao!’ and had to go to school with gelled fringe fer a few months.
24) I like receiving hugs. I am hug-deprived because my parents don’t practice hugging.
25) I find holding/linking hands with my gfs extremely awkward.
26) My sisters and I call very minute pimples ‘pop pops’. Pop pops tend to appear on our forehead.
27) My rundown KC shorts are my favourite home-wear shorts!
28) I only wore a bikini once.
29) My undies are categorized under ‘normal’ and ‘special’ occasions.
30) My dad used to stop the car and let us pee by the roadside when we’re toddlers. Going home from my maternal grandparents’ place from Clementi to the east took about 30mins and our small bladders simply could not tahan.
31) I used to dislike class monitors and prefects until I met Regina and of course Din din who is now a prefect councilor too. Self righteous Cheebees. They wrote my name on the board for talking too much when the teachers were not around.
32) I had my cheek cells swabbed in front of the class by my Science teacher for talking too much. She placed them at the microscope for everyone to view. Another CB.
33) The same Science teacher hated my ’feelers’ hairstyle. There was once in class where she asked me to stand up and asked the class if my hairstyle was nice. F. you. My classmate, Valerie, shot back, ‘What’s wrong?! Nice what!’
34) I used to hang out with an ah-lian or 2 when I was in upper pri and lower sec. (she was a nice ah-lian! I still kept the lovely piggy bank she gave me on my 12th birthday.) Perhaps that reflected my ‘feelers’ hairstyle. LOL.
35) In a bid to stop me from buying more earrings, my dad bought me a pair of diamond earrings and demanded I put them on all the time. He forgot I have 3 other ear-holes. (3 on the left, 2 on the right.)
36) I drank from the milk bottle (containing Milo) for breakfast till I was 9.
37) I slept in a sarong till I was 6. It broke and I fell together with it. That’s it.
38) I am surrounded with 3 pillows and 2 bolsters every night to feel comfortable.
39) I’d tuck myself in my lovely comforter no matter what the temperature is (max till 30deg Celsius). – I feel more secure.
40) I was the one who gave my younger sister her name, ‘Geraldine’. After which, the name evolved to ‘din din’(me), ‘din!’ (me), ‘apalapadin!’(me), ‘paladin!’(me), ‘jiak-lo-ti’ (my relatives), ‘gerolding’ (my dad), ‘xiao pang zhu’(my dad), ‘pang zhu’ (my dad) and ‘mei mei ar’ (my grandfather)
41) I regretted trying to scare Din din when she was 2 or 3 years old by locking her alone in my room. She puked on my bed.
42) I regurgitated in my classroom when I was K1. My classmates surrounded me in a circle and went ‘eeeeeeeeee.’ TMD.
43) My paternal grandpa was the one who taught me how to tie my laces. He taught me 2 ways, but I could only remember the more complicated method, till now.
44) I was exposed to Biology (mostly about reproductive system) when I was 7 during CNY eve, all thanks to my cousin. She even taught me how to draw sperms. ‘like tadpoles.’
45) When I first menstruated, I was appalled, ‘How did the chocolate ice-cream stain my panties?!’ Wait a minute, did I eat ice-cream that day. Next thing I knew, I shouted for a pad.
46) I tend to hold my bladder when I am extremely busy during submissions and land up with UTI a couple of times! It shall never happen again in Jesus’ name, Amen!
47) I like to keep livebearer fishes. I can spend hours catching and transferring the frys to the nursery tank. It’s therapeutic.
48) Picking seashells by the seashore is also therapeutic for me.
49) The loud clicks which I can make using my strong tongue acts as a door bell to announce to my family ‘I’m outside the gate now, open sesame!’
50) I feel awkward shopping with guys as I feel guilty wasting their time. I am only at ease shopping with 2 guy friends so far, including my dad and Alvin.
51) I have yet to touch uncooked meat (excluding sashimi). Home econs classes were done with the help of my partner, Yu Ling!
52) I hate cockroaches and cats. Am very happy to learn Singapore culls much more cats than dogs. (kittens are fine with me)
53) I once owned 2 quails. They thought too highly of themselves and committed suicide from the 2nd floor.
54) My first purchase at a book-sale in school was ghost story books. I was like "cooool...", went back, got freaked out, and never touch those again. I was 7.
55) I was caned the most amongst the 3 sisters. I would hide the canes or break them when I find them. I used to sword cane fight with my mum or run around the entire house in self-defense.
56) I once ‘stole’ an orange chalk from school. It was about 2cm in length. I knew it was bound fer the bin. But I felt so guilty as its school’s property that I took it back to school after a few weeks. That was primary 1.
57) I once sang fer church at Ansan, S.Korea ,every Sunday. It’s just the 3 or 4 (singers) of us. To me, it’s surreal.
58) I’m not a sporty person. The only sports I am willingly to do are swimming, cycling, playing badminton and bowling. So I am proud to say I own 2 silver sports medals and a gold fer NAPHA before. Gu Niang can do it, so can you.
59) Had my first pair of pink blades when I was 6. Mommy got so angry with papa fer buying, she threw it down the chute before I could even wear it again after trying it at the store.
60) I used to like tanning back in my JC days. Now, I’d like to be as fair as snow white.
61) Every time I sew, I’d prick my fingers without fail. Thimbles are clumsy to use.
62) All my primary school cross-stitch works were done by my mother. I swelled with pride when they were all chosen fer exhibition.
63) I used to pinch Jasmine all the time when she was younger, treating her like a doll.
64) We used to fight a lot and there was once I poked somewhere close to her eye - she bled.
65) Though I was in a convent school, I only knew more about Christ Jesus through my tuition teacher, and accepted Christ when I was 12 - 14th Oct 1998
66) I was at 100% acceptable weight when I was 17, but I looked so plump as most of the fats didn’t go to my boobs!
67) I am a hygiene freak, thanks to my mom.
68) When friends visit my house, the first area I’d spring-clean would be my attached bathroom. It’s the easiest.
69) I laugh in my sleep and scared my maid a couple of times in the early morning. Many a times, I laughed myself awake.
70) I used to collect stamps and ah kong’s relatives even gave me gold plated ones when they knew I was into stamp collection. They’re now all stashed in my locked drawer.
71) I like organizing parties and events, but once in a while, I’d just like to sit back and relax.
72) My mom makes the best wantans ever with generous fillings.
73) Din din lovingly paints my nails every time I asked her to. Of course, she has perks too – my entire stash of nail polishes.
74) I have allergy to certain types of medicine and food (which I do not know of yet) – my eyelids would swell real bad.
75) I hate to walk in the rain/drizzle. Acidic rain will ruin my hair and face.
76) I used to kill every snail I see in the garden by sprinkling salt and watching them sizzle away. (FYI, they are garden pests)
77) Studying architecture changed my life. – I could stay up fer days and am able to take on higher amount of stress.
78) I like drawing cartoons more than buildings.
79) I want to learn Korean, sign language, CPR, pottery, cooking and aerobics but have not find the time to do so.
80) I wish to learn how to cook for my family in future, but then again, who’s going to cut the meat.
81) I devised a method to cheat during ‘默写’ (chinese dictation) in primary school and always scored 100/100. My friends followed me and due to carelessness, one was found out by the teacher. More cheats were uncovered as she began to flip everyone’s spelling books. When it was my turn, I flipped it fer her, I was so nervous that I missed a few pages, and that was how I got away unscathed. God blessed me, for when sin abound, grace abound more!
82) I had a bad fall once while running for a stupid school event at East Coast Park. The shock triggered my hair to fall into bits and pieces ranging from 1-2cm all over me.
83) When I went to make my first specs, I begged the optometrist not to tell my dad about my degrees, which were then 150 or 200. Was terribly afraid my dad would scold me fer the sky rocketing numbers, cause at school, the highest number I saw was 20 (20/20), never a 150. Hurhur.
84) If it weren’t fer my neighbours, I’d not have learn how to cycle.
85) I caught the sunrise a few times. Once at a yatch, when I went deep sea fishing. Others were with Alvin.. Before you say, so romantic, wait a minute, we did it fer a school project. Bleargh
86) My great grandmother smoked opium! She lived to a grand old age and was still alive when I was a baby.
87) I had only learned to count 1-10 at 3 years old, to beat my cousin, Soon Zhen, who kept showing off that he could ramble it fast.
88) I once skipped school because of spelling! I couldn’t remember how to spell ‘chilli’ (English UK). My cousin, Soon Chien, taught me the art of learning how to spell. After which I just had to glance through the spelling list once and am ready fer the test!
89) I know I am extremely blessed by the Lord.

Some things about Alvin and I.
90) Alvin calls me darlin. Which means The Lin.
91) Alvin and I only dated fer a few hours before we got together! Yes, the chemistry was that strong.. Haha
92) We used to talk in puns on MSN all the time. (hello, where’s it now?!)
93) My first Christmas gift for Alvin was a beautiful (it’s true ok) hand knitted scarf to be used in our first trip to Japan! Painstakingly knitted for 5 months and I can’t even do a knot now.
94) Alvin paints my toenails for me! (not all the time la)
95) I fantasize myself having fangs and sink my fangs into Alvin’s upper arms. (no RA- no role play here). Most of the times, Alvin will say ‘na, bite la bite la’, sometimes, it’s just a plain ‘no!’
96) I had Alvin interested into armpit hair plucking. Next shall be lasering!
97) Alvin once came to my house one early morning while I was still in deep slumber, kissed me, and went to school after that.
98) Alvin would tell bedtime stories to me while I was in Korea every night. Now, he’s simply too tired from work.
99) Alvin would not get irritated if I wake him up from his sleep in the wee hours of the night just to say good night, but I would be very mad at him fer disturbing my beauty sleep!
100) Jonathan means gift of God. Alvin Jonathan Lin is literally a gift from God to me.