Book Binge

We were on our way to Labrador Park this morning when the sky started looking ominous. So we made a u-turn and decided to check out the Books Warehouse Sale at AMK Ave 10 instead.


I ended up browsing for over an hour and at the end, my haul was 41 items! Ok, 3 belonged to Arlyn so...38 items for $172. I bought a tonne of cookbooks, not sure when I'll actually get down to using their recipes but am a sucker for pretty covers and nice photos. A couple of books I already had but bought extra copies to give away and some books were not in mint condition but at $8 I could not complain. Check out my stash - and yes, I still read trashy romance novels!

Ben, Wendy and Mildred happened to swing by to visit the furniture warehouse next door so we decided to have lunch together at a place called Jai Thai at Clover Way, off Jalan Pemimpin.

The modest restaurant serves authentic Thai at very reasonable prices, a set for 4 with prawn cakes, rice, tom yam soup, fried veggie, cashew chicken, and a whole deep fried fish was $39. An individual set comprising pineapple fried rice, pandan chicken, chilli fish, green curry and a spring roll was only $7.50! Everything was yums and their tapioca dessert was lovely. Am sure will be back there soon enough!





Came home to snooze in the afternoon, and once Nat had eaten dinner, we were off again, this time to Millenia. I think it's my third time there in a week, Nick loves the fact that there are plenty of carpark lots and he doesn't have to fight with the crowds at Marina or Suntec.

It was just me, him and Nat and we had dinner at Bakerzin Suntec. They are having a set meal promotion - $13.80++ for a soup, main and drink. The soup is a tiny portion though, less than a tea cup's worth but you still end up pretty full after everything.

Walked around Suntec for a bit, Nick bought a suit from G2000 and I bought Nat a blank velcro book that we can buy felt alphabets and numbers to stick on. They have all sorts of felt items like animal shapes, fruits, veggies, insects, transport etc, quite cool.

Another one bites the dust

Another boss got terminated. This morning I started with 4, am now left with 2. But the thing is, am not going to be supporting them for much longer - just received news I got the other role I was talking about. It's back to marketing and events for me!

Heads are rolling

A few people thought I was preggy when my Facebook status yesterday said I was holding my breath and will only know about something in a few days. Well, as far I know, I am not pregnant - at least I don't think so - but my comments were work-related.

Today is the last day of the financial year and APAC did crappily. That means something or some people here have got to go. The head office have been monitoring things here closely in the last couple of months, sending senior management to 'spy' and fix things. Two heads have already rolled in the past month, and today there were more.

One of sales directors I support was asked to leave today and another veteran admin person was retrenched. The former is naturally upset and bitter, but the latter is happy because she saw it coming and was looking forward to the severance package. Of all the admins, I didn't expect her to leave having been here 12 years so I was completely taken by surprise.

I don't agree with how they are running things here of late but I am thankful to have a job still and am comforted that some people have my interests at heart, like my new boss and folks within HR. But the day is not over yet, so will see how it goes.

Having received hints that my position is precarious (have been told I am a high cost, ha ha), I was persuaded to apply internally for another role yesterday morning, and by afternoon I had already gone through 2 interviews. That's what I am holding my breath for. It would mean a lot more work for the same pay but some regional travelling involved. Will know in a week or two, wish me luck.

Stuffed

I bet, in the last 3 days, I put back on all the weight I lost in the past couple of months. Been eating non-stop, thanks to 2 weddings and a buffet!

Friday evening saw us attending the wedding dinner of Selene and Joseph at Marriott, they are such a cute couple. Selene used to work with Nick at Insight and I have been following her wedding blog, so it was nice to see all the details she blogged about in person. Like her gown (which was a gorgeous pouffy thing) and her mum's tailored cheongsam. She even changed her venue at the last minute to accommodate the growing guest list.






The food came fast and furious, pretty standard banquet items but after having 'orh nee' for the past few weddings, it was a pleasant change to have mango pudding...mmmm. By the end of the night, I was bursting from my little black Bebe dress!

On Saturday morning, I met JGR for an a la carte dim sum buffet at Fullerton's Jade restaurant. We had waited nearly two months for the reservation and it was well worth it! The food quality was very high, there was a large assortment of dim sum dishes, including a variety of doubleboiled soups, appetisers and rice/noodles. They were generous with their scallops and prawns in the dumplings...I wished I had a second stomach!






I brought Nat with me as Nick had something on, and thankfully she napped throughout most of the meal hence I could eat in peace, ha ha! Germaine filled us in on her latest escapades but we didn't get a chance to discuss Perth, next gathering lah. The girls were so impressed with the buffet that they all made reservations for their respective families...but get this - the waiting list is now 4 months!



In the evening, we brought the munchkin to Millenia and ended up having dinner at New York New York at Suntec. Again another overeating session, I had a soup, some of Nick's ribs, a vegetarian lasagne, a root beer float and an orange crepe!


And yesterday for lunch, we were back in the vicinity, this time Thai Express at Marina Square. Tried the chicken tang hoon ball soup for the first time, it was quite nice.

Last night I accompanied Joanne to her poly friend Iskandar's wedding at Holiday Inn Park View. She had dreaded going alone as Tarek could not join her and RSVPed for two, with me as her date. The people at our table must have thought we were a couple of cam-whores, for we kept snapping away with our respective Canons, from the centrepieces, stage, menus and each other so we could blog about the evening later!




There was a glamorous black and white theme to the wedding, from the invitation cards to the bride's evening gown, jazz band and table menus. Dinner turned out to be a 5-course Western affair but we were full after the mango sorbet served midway to freshen our palates!


The first course was a seafood trio of seared tuna, lobster ceviche and unagi roll, followed by a clear broth with winter melon and enoki mushrooms. Then came the sorbet and the main course of panfried chicken on a bed of lentils. Dessert was a hazelnut crunch cake and cranberry panna cotta. Everything was yums, except I'm not a fan of semi-cooked tuna and only ate the cooked, pepper-coated edges.


Iskandar was dashing in his slim-cut suit, he's Malay/Chinese mixed and his wife Wandy was Chinese but she has converted. Surprisingly, he went through the Chinese-style gatecrashing when he fetched his bride earlier in the morning, the video montage screened during dinner was hilarious and I laughed till I teared. At one point, he even got pulled onto stage to perform 'Ice Baby Baby' as requested by his bride and was mortified!



Sigh, I love weddings. 2 of Nick's cousins are getting hitched in the second half the year...another excuse to dress up!

Peanut sighting

Was on half day leave yesterday and accompanied Joanne to my obstetrician at KK. She had wanted to get a local check to make sure everything was in order and it was.

She liked the detailedness of the doctor and even thought he was cute! Something her grandma agreed with for she was there too, along with Joanne's dad and we all got to see the ultrasound of her little peanut. Coolness!

Plumbing problems

Damn, my bathrooms are clogged and it takes ages for the water to flow down the sinkhole. A handyman came over just now but even his plunger got stuck and broke apart. Time for the professionals, I called 3 random plumbers and booked the cheapest one. Imagine, one person quoted $250 for some jet machine, but the one I booked was just $80. Hope he manages to fix the problem!

Perhaps next time I should try the company advertised here, spotted them in the neighbourhood last week. Can you read the sign? The business is called "The Bloody Sh** Hub", for a moment there I thought it was a rude van till I read their list of services!

Followed Nick for a medical appointment with an ENT specialist today. He's been sounding nasal and phlegmy for more than a few weeks but steadfastly refused to see a doctor. I panicked when on Sunday afternoon he told me his nose bled and blood also oozed out from his mouth. I made sure I was present today because knowing him, he would play down his symptoms with the doc and say he feels fine. The doctor shoved up a scope through Nickypoo's nostrils...charming. From what he could see, everything looked normal but he did spot mucus and diagnosed it as a sinus problem. I wasn't so convinced and forced Nick to take a chest x-ray since we we there, apparently nothing abnormal turned up so will see if the anti-histamines prescribed work.

Nat has been really into her stars, Mildred bought her some glow in the dark ones to play with and I bought a star-shaped pancake mould for her. She much preferred the starry pancakes to the regular round ones and finished all 3 on her plate.

And the cheeky little girl has been having fun with the laundry baskets...

Meanwhile in the past couple of weeks, Gigi has learnt how to stand in the cot and improved on her crawling. She's still not doing it proper, but at least she moves. She can also clap on demand, so cute!

Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Pasta

Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Pasta

1/2 packet of spaghetti, linguine or angel hair pasta (cooked)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tbsp of butter
1 packet of fresh button mushrooms, sliced
200 gms of bacon, chopped
1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
A pinch of salt, optional
250 ml of fresh cream

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the onions till translucent. Add the bacon, mushrooms and black pepper and stir till the bacon cooks and mushrooms soften. The bacon and mushrooms will release their moisture, leave the juices in.
   
   
2. Add the cream and stir well, before adding in the cooked pasta. Stir the pasta around ensuring it gets coated with the sauce.
   
   
3. Once the pasta is coated, turn off the heat and serve immediately.

Serves 4

Prem's new digs

Another weekend gone in a flash. Sigh.

Went to West Coast Park McDonald's for breakfast yesterday, Nick had to hobble around having sprained his ankle at footie the night before so it was mainly me bringing Nat for a walkabout. I tried to let her bare feet touch sand and grass but she absolutely refused, whimpering and scrunching her feet up in the process, as if levitating.


Nick had better luck, he managed to get her to walk on the grass only after putting a balloon there and using her shoes. See how she manja's with him?


In the afternoon I attended a Canon Powershot seminar that I signed up for earlier in the week, when I spotted the advert in the newspapers. I went alone but ended up sitting next to Robin, Nick's colleague from Insight, and his friends. Small world!

The seminar itself was pretty basic but it helped refresh my memory on some tips and tricks to use. There were 4 panelists, Chinese radio DJ Mary Bukoh, actor Thomas Ong, food blogger Dr Leslie Tay and Jino Lee from Canon and they were quite funny at times.


When I got home, I made a creamy mushroom and bacon pasta having picked up discounted bacon bits from the supermarket. Just because they were chopped up remnants, they were being sold vacuum-packed for half the price of normal bacon. I like...good for cooking!

After an early dinner, we went to Tampines to have a sneak preview of Premila's new place, a maisonette opposite Temasek Poly. She moved in last week and has yet to put the finishing touches, but us cousins just couldn't wait and swooped down on the house for a quick visit.



The house was tastefully done, I can see they were going for the ethnic/arty look. Arron's friends were over to watch Man Utd clinch the title but the chatter from our gang drowned out the TV. There were 4 baby girls in the house, Ananya, Riley, Gigi and Nat plus a couple of aunts.



Riley was such a mak nenek, she calls her mum 'Mommy Jeanette' and was ever ready for the camera. Typical Leo, ha ha.

With the addition of Ananya to the girl cousins, we had to take a group picture but it was so hard to get the kids to stay still!