Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong xi fa cai!

My mom's siblings' families came down to my place for lunch.. Later going to my granduncle's place for dinner with the extended family.. Yea, my family is really big. :)

More food..

Had some steamboat thing at Wakaru Japanese Restaurant, at Katong Village. Plus a ton of ala carte stuff. Not bad.. Though a little bit salty.

Went to the pub across the carpark after dinner.. Called 57 Chevy. Yes.. With my parents. Don't look at me like that. It's quite a nice place.. Even though the crowd is definately not my generation. > <; The band is very good, and while the music is certainly not contemporary, they played quite a wide variety of nice songs. There were even people dancing on the dancefloor! Quite happening..

Met up for prata in Simpang Bedok with Adrian, Nick and Hoon, who's back from China on CNY vacation. The service there is absolutely horrigible. Nick's bee hoon goreng became mee goreng. My egg prata was completely forgotten. We reordered one again, along with a plaster prata for Nick. Came one plaster one kosong. Doh! And they only gave one plate. So we asked for another. He gave us another plate, but no cutlery. So we asked for cutlery. He gave me two spoons. Good game. Best part is that he didn't even give curry! Had to ask for that too.. Shouldn't have bothered, the curry tasted terrible. Conclusion: Never going back there again.

Reunion dinner

Had dinner at Seafood Station Restaurant @ Siglap.. Yummy! Loved everything 'cept the yucky aparagus (I hate asparagus) and the shark's fin soup, which I'm morally adverse to. We had lobster salad, chicken, steamed fish, and very deliciously fresh prawns! The noodles was so good that I had two bowls.. :P The chilli crab is their speciality, so I doubt I need to mention. Ate a total of five man tou (deep fried bun)! Small ones lah..

Fearless

What can I say? I'd be biased.. Jet Li.. <3 <3 <3

Dong dong dong.. One two three..

Had dinner at Kuishin Bo with a whole bunch of other WoWers.. :D The original plan was to go for the sushi buffet at Sakae, but then last minute a few of them couldn't make it. So changed to dinner! I think it was a blessing in disguise.. ;) Stuffed myself until sooo full on gloriously delicious food! My tummy is so round now..

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Finally finished reading this three-part series that I got for my birthday. It's definately not something I would have picked up on my own. My first impression of it while I was reading the first few pages was that it was tediously stiff and boring. Thankfully, my inclination to read anything and everything urged me to press on. Soon I was immersed in the mesmerising story, narrated in a charmingly old-fashioned manner, complete with little footnotes and occasional period spellings.

Set in the early 19th century, Susanna Clarke's ingenious debut novel is the story of two extraodinary English magicians who attempt to revive practical magic in the entirely theoratical world of magic of their time.

Edit: Public apologies to Mark! Initially misremembered that it was Tangy and co. who gave this to me. Thanks Mark.. I loved the book! Don't angry with me bah.. :(

Blood and Bones

Wasn't very much of a choice of movies to choose from.. So it was between this and In Her Shoes. :P I was dubious at first when my boyfriend suggested it, but I think we made the right choice. It's one of those "artsy" films that I've taken a liking to recently.

Blood and Bones is based on the novel by Yan Sogiru, titled "Chi to Hone". Set during the World War II and the post-war years, the film is about the 1st generation of Koreans living in Japan, focusing on the true life story of the author's father, Shunpei Kim (Kitano Takeshi). A violent, tyrannical brute, Shunpei pummelled his family, employees and neighbours into submission..

Teochew Restaurant

Had an early reunion dinner with my boyfriend's family at the Teochew Restaurant Huat Kee on Amoy Street. It's supposed to be a pretty good restaurant but I guess that they were just really packed this weekend. The dishes came very fast one after the other, as though they were rushing for time. The standard of the food also wasn't all that fantastic.

The menu:

Lo Hei Yu Sheng - Ok, but wasn't mixed properly, so I got a very sour portion with alot of lime juice..

Shark's Fin Soup - There will not be Shark's Fin Soup at my wedding or any other event that I may ever organise.. When the buying stops, the killing can too. But since they order, I give face and eat lah. :(

Scallop Braised with Vegetables - The veggies were abit tasteless but I liked the scallop.

Phoenix Chicken - Chicken skin with fish paste, for the clueless ones. :P Not bad, but the sauce for it only came after everyone finished with the dish.

Steamed Pomfret - Quite good. Fishy though, as all pomfrets go.

Prawns and beancurd skin in some weird yellow sauce - Never encountered this dish before, so I have absolutely no idea what it is called. Someone said that the yellow sauce is egg yolk or something, but it had this gritty texture that I didn't like.

Kuay Teow - Or something. I don't like kuay teow. ;)

Yam Paste - Aka or ni.. Served with dessert tea. I'm not a fan of yam in the first place, but I suppose it wasn't too bad. :P

Time flies..

Sigh.. Next week Chinese New Year.. Then the week after that, back to Sydney! Boohoohoo.. :( And I still haven't bought any CNY clothes hmmm.. *panic*

CHC

WoW comics..

A few laughs for the WoW players out there.. :)

Trading Skills
Power-leveled
The Rogues
It's All Fun and Games...
...And Relaxation
Meet and Greet
Fashion is Key

Linger

Linger
Cranberries

If you, if you could return
Don’t let it burn, don’t let it fade
I’m sure I’m not being rude
But it’s just your attitude
It’s tearing me apart
It’s ruining everything
And I swore, I swore I would be true
And honey so did you
So why were you holding her hand
Is that the way we stand
Were you lying all the time
Was it just a game to you

But I’m in so deep
You know I’m such a fool for you
You got me wrapped around your finger
Do you have to let it linger
Do you have to, do you have to
Do you have to let it linger

Oh, I thought the world of you
I thought nothing could go wrong
But I was wrong
I was wrong
If you, if you could get by
Trying not to lie
Things wouldn’t be so confused
And I wouldn’t feel so used
But you always really knew
I just wanna be with you

And I’m in so deep
You know I’m such a fool for you
You got me wrapped around your finger
Do you have to let it linger
Do you have to. do you have to
Do you have to let it linger

And I’m in so deep
You know I’m such a fool for you
You got me wrapped around your finger
Do you have to let it linger
Do you have to, do you have to
Do you have to let it linger

You know I’m such a fool for you
You got me wrapped around your finger
Do you have to let it linger
Do you have to, do you have to
Do you have to let it linger

Beauty is only skin deep

I just finished reading some random women's magazine. It was rather depressing. Why? Page after page, adverts for perfumes, skin care products, mascara etc etc.. Is it not possible to look good without the benefit of such cosmetics?

The articles are no better. One article asks guys, "What turns you off?" Answers include "stretch marks", "cellulite" and "hairy legs". WTF? Any remotely normal female human being has some degree of the first two. And besides those who are born with the genetic quirk of being totally hairless, I believe that girls do have hair on their legs.. The same as guys. In fact, some guy's legs can be so hairy as to be rather scary. But do you know any guy who shaves his legs? (Excluding swimmers and sprinters!) On the other hand, girls are EXPECTED to have smooth, hairless legs. What is the deal with that?!

So well, I guess I'm abnormal. I haven't used perfume in years, I don't shave my legs, or pluck my eyebrows, and I don't have a nightly skin cleansing regime. Do I feel like a stinky, hairy, deformed monster? Maybe. Do I care? Not enough to make me start doing those things. At least not yet. ;)

Memoirs of a Geisha

Breathtaking. Definately one of the best shows I've seen this year. Gong Li totally stole the show. Michelle Yeo as Mameha felt abit wrong though. But still.. Three thumbs up.

Friday the 13th..

My true colour..

What's Your True Color?
Vanessa, your true color is Green!

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

Well, I've never particularly liked the colour green, but ok.. :P

The Dream

I had the strangest dream a couple of nights back.. In my dream, I suddenly woke up in bed. Sitting cross-legged behind me was a long-haired figure, with my head in her lap, and my hands in hers. Her hands were cold, and her grip was firm but not hurtful. I could not (did not want to!) see her face in the dark, but somehow I could sense her intense sadness. After the first shock of fear had passed, compassion slowly crept in. I could not move my body, but I stroked the side of her hands with my thumbs in an effort to somehow comfort her.

At that point, I woke up in real life. It was morning, but somehow my whole body felt cold, even with the blanket wrapped tightly around me. I was scared, like how you would feel after waking up from a nightmare, but I also felt very sad.

This chilling dream was so vivid, it stayed with me the whole of the day. Combined with the tea I had at supper, I simply could not fall asleep last night. I finally slept at 7:30am in the morning..

Sam's Birthday!

Well actually it was on Sunday, and the party was on Saturday. But there has been so many problems with my computer lately, that I haven't been posting regularly so.. Late is better than never right! :D

Herby and I couldn't agree on what to buy him.. He wanted something cute, and I wanted something practical. (Weird reversal of roles there. :P) So we bought both! Got a nice blue shirt from U2, and one of those solar powered Tomy Hidamari No Tami thingys.. A dancing one that's really very cute!

The party was at his house.. Wow! Very spacious and beautifully decorated! Very very nice. I suppose the food was good too, but we got lost and arrived late, so it was kinda cold. :P

As usual, there was lots of drinking and the poor birthday boy practically couldn't stand up properly to cut his cake. There were FOUR cakes! Some of the creamy one ended up on his face. :P

Cheese prata!

Had supper at Jln Kayu last night.. Hmm now I'm addicted to cheese prata! Aaron tried the chocolate prata, but that's still just way to weird to me. :P

2006!

Happy New Year everyone! :D

Had dinner with Mark and Aaron at Fisherman's Village.. We ordered a jug of beer, so when it came we asked how much.. And the guy said "$32.. I think." We were quite stunned. So we told him not to think and go and check. Turns out it's really $32. I feel so conned! The most expensive beer I've ever drunk. :P