Jogging with a dog

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Hong Kong Part II

More pics from Hong Kong....Us doing the touristy stuff...

View of the Victoria Harbour from the hotel room

The night view

Bro @ the Avenue of Stars

Along Avenue of Stars

We took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour

Me on the open-top double decker bus for tourists

Taking the Tram to The Peak

Both of us @ The Peak

Jeffrey & I @ the steamboat dinner

Check out the orange pig's intestines

Us @ a typical HK tim-sum restaurant

Us @ Stanley Market

Bro munching on some street food he got

Bro @ roadside store. Check out the shopping on his arms

Bro eating stinky bean curd! Yucks!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

I was in Hong Kong recently for work. My bro was in Shenzhen @ the same time and we hung out together in Hong Kong for 2 days after our work. It was great fun!

We ate and ate and we shopped and shopped. We also did the touristy stuff like going to the Mid Levels escalators, taking the tram up to the Peak, walking around Stanley Market and checking out the night street markets.

We took tons of pics - so am gonna split the posts. Let's start with the yummy food first! :P

Steamboat HK style. We met up with Jeffrey & he brought us to one of those small local shops.

Dumplings with all sorts of fillings

Squid balls, prawn balls & beef balls - they were fantastic! All meat with very little flour

Pig's neck - I didnt touch this at all!

Beef - I am still thinking of this beef now

Some kind of beancurd ball

HK style egg pudding

Chicken feet wrapped in beancurd skin. It was interesting coz there was shrimp & yam in the claw of the feet; so one gets the feeling that the claw was "holding" onto the stuff

Chee Cheong Fun stuffed with pork

Egg white tart

Soya bean with black seasame drink

Pig's stomach from roadside stall

Cuttlefish from roadside stall

Pig's intestines from roadside stall

Mango ice cream with mango puree

Bird nest with sago in coconut

HK style ramen

HK style waffle

Century egg inside HK pastry

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Lust, Caution

Caught the full version of this movie recently (yeah, including the sexual scenes). The shooting of the movie is quite typical of all Ang Lee's movies. Quite thought-provoking: what & how much are you willing to do & sacrifice for love?

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Look what we found!

Remember how we used to play "Old Maid" and "Snap" as kids? I know there was another game called "Happy Family" too. These games gave me endless hours of entertainment when I was a young kid, when there was no computer games and no broadband. Times have changed; kids these days grow up with such different things. I bet most kids today have not heard of these two games.

I found these cards at my in-laws' place. They must be at least 20 years old! A gem to keep for my children (IF I ever have any!).

Sunday, November 04, 2007

My bro is back...

Chia Yew Hai is back in Singapore after having the time of his life for the last three months in Boston, Massachuetts. It was supposedly a working trip but he managed to squeeze in a long weekend trip to Las Vegas and a couple of trips to New York City. Some people just have all the luck!

I wrote about his home-coming after spending 5 months in Manchester and the big hoo-haa that was created in an earlier post. This time round, he is keeping the tradition of making his home-coming a big affair again :) Here goes:

Phone conversation between Chia Yew Hai and Mummy:
Mummy: So when are you coming back to Singapore?
Him: 18th of the month

MSN conversation between Chia Yew Hai and Me:
Me: So when are you coming back to Singapore?
Him: 20th of the month

Face-to-face conversation between Mummy and Me:
Me: Has Chia Yew Hai told you when is he coming back?
Mummy: He said 18th
Me: He told me it was the 20th

So that was the first big confusion. The family had two different dates and we did not know which is the correct one. It turned out that both were correct: 18th was the date he was flying off from the US and 20th is the date that he would touch down in Singapore. Never mind. Next:

Day of arrival
530am: My mobile phone rang.
Him: I have touched down at Changi Airport. I do not have the key to the house.
Me: OK. I will go over to parent's place to open the door for you (My parents had to work that day and Coffee will not be able to open the door for him).

550am: My mobile phone rang again.
Him: The DFS is only opening at 600am. I will hang around for a while to get alcohol for Papa.
Me: OK.

645am: My mobile phone rang again.
Him: Hey, do you have money with you?
Me: No. Its so early in the morning and I walked over to parents' place without my wallet.
Him: I dont have cash for the taxi fare and the taxi that I took does not accept credit card payment.
Me: OK OK. Lemme call Mummy and see if she has any cash stashed in some biscuit tin under the bed.

Me: Mummy, you have money at home? Chia Yew Hai does not have any cash with him for the taxi fare and I did not bring my wallet with me.
Mummy: No. We dont keep cash @ home. Aiyo. Never mind, why dont you borrow from my friend who lives a few floors below?
Me: OK, can you please call her and let her know that I am coming down now to get the cash from her?

700am: My mobile phone rang again.
Him: Hey, have you got the money?
Me: I am waiting outside Mummy's friend's place and the front door is not opened yet. It so early and I dont want to intrude. But Mummy was supposed to have called her.
Him: I am already at the lift lobby. The taxi driver is getting impatient.
Me: I will call Mummy now to check with her.

Me: Mummy, where is your friend?
Mummy: She is stuck in the toilet, doing her daily task!
(@ this point, I really didn't know whether to laugh or to cry)...

So anyways, I took the money (I hope she washed her hands after the daily task!), went down together with Coffee to meet my bro and helped him with his luggage back home. An eventful start to the weekend!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Rendition movie

A good, thought-provoking movie with a twist @ the end.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I've got a Miu Miu!

This is the grey bow satchel from Miu Miu. I had to wait a month for this! And it should not count towards the annual bag quota because it is my birthday pressie to me-self! :P

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Coffee for Today

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Shoes!

Finally! After waiting 3 months for them...My first pair of Bottega Veneta shoes :)

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Quote of the Day

" There is nothing much difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system, and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one. "

- Count Machiavelli, 1513 AD

.......I should get a new job!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

I am NOT a plastic bag

This bag created such a HUGE fuss in the fashion world when it was first launched in the UK. Apparently, it was sold-out within 2 hours in the UK! When the bag was launched in Hong Kong, people got injured because they were fighting each other in the line-up!

In Singapore, the bag was brought in by the Anya Hindmarch store and On Pedder. By the time I called both stores, they have stopped accepting names on the waiting list. Undeterred, I called up the store in Kuala Lumpur and left my name with them.

I missed the call the first few times they called me coz' I was in Hokkaido. But they managed to get me when I was back in Singapore and my good fren from KL - Weiling picked it up for me! Tonny was coming to Singapore on a business trip then and he brought it over for me. And both of them are so sweet to give it to me as a birthday pressie. I should be so lucky.....

Thursday, October 04, 2007

My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday recently. For the past years, my birthday has always been the time when the Foo and Chia families meet. The nine of us would do a nice dinner together in a nice restaurant.

However, there was no combined dinner this year because Mama is still recovering from her relapse and she should not be travelling and tiring herself out in the process. So I had an equally nice dinner with my folks (minus my bro) @ our favourite coffee shop.

The birthday cake from mummy

My folks

Me cutting the cake. Coffee's at the side peeping over the table edge

Birthday pressie from The Hubby. I presume its a Supergirl title given for the fact that I am juggling two jobs, taking care of Coffee and still have time to scrub the home toilet floor myself!

Elle bag from my boss' boss. My boss carried this all the way back from Hong Kong.

Massage pillow from my boss. She said it's good for my migraine

Heart rate monitor from Henry. I have got no excuse not to start jogging regularly again!

Nicholas did this for me. It brought a :) to my face when I saw it.

There are still a couple of pressie that frens mentioned they got for me, but we have yet to meet up :)

A lot of close and good frens remembered my birthday. I feel fortunate to have these frens in my life. I don't believe in having many acquaintances or hi-bye frens. I believe in having small groups of close frens to share life's joys and sorrows with; and to grow old with.

I also feel blessed that I have my folks to celebrate my birthday with me. As I grow older (and as they grow older), I no longer take for granted that they will forever be young and healthy. Often, it is easy to be so caught with being busy with my own life that I fall into the trap of assuming that my folks will always be there for me. I must learn to cherish them more and be more patient with them. To love is to cherish.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Hokkaido - Food

One of the highlights of the Hokkaido trip was the fooooood! So this post is all about fooooood! Just thinking of the food now makes me drool and want to go back there again!! The pictures are in no particular order.