Finally my books arrived!

We always have this bad habit of ordering things from Japan after a trip, it’s like we cannot put an abrupt stop to surround ourselves with japanese stuffs 🤣. 

Sometime few days after back home, che-che said she has to order her CDs coz she was too early to buy it in Japan. I timed the ordering to coincide with hers till early Feb and tagged my books in her cart. She separated her shipment and mine to spread out the cost (my books weigh 2kg 😱 有这么重?). My books came by surface mail and hers express. Anyway I was in no hurry for the books but just yesterday I asked her if she can track the Rakuten shipment. She told me they probably consolidated all shipments in March (altho I placed order for my books in Feb so will need a month to receive it. 

Little did I know Mr Postman came by with my books today. She commented “see I told you, they said will take 40-60 days, you don’t have to worry.” 

I managed to find this book in Amazon.jp

After flipping through the onigiri 365 book I bought in Japan. Click HERE to read. I decided to get these 3 books as well. 

So interesting right? 

Silly gal

Was doing our last holiday iMovie and these steps reminds me of our silly lil' one.

We were all standing outside the shop in NGO waiting for che-che and dunno how this silly girl can suddenly trip and fall. She picked herself up quickly and was laughing away. The adults didn't have time to react but was like "huh? What happened" and then laughed at her. My girl fell macam in a praying position, I dunno she 拜拜 to the road for what?

Kindda reminded me that donkey years ago we were supposed to take care of lil’ one incase she vomitted on the bumpy boat ride BUT the two of us fell asleep. 🤣

#asusualthebochapparentsnvrtakecareofher#

Japanese songs and rubbish talk

I was watching Reply 1988 when I heard a tune, only about 3 bars it has an almost similar tune to something I’ve heard before. 

For the life of me, I kept thinking “OMG! This tune is so so familiar” and I could continue humming to another 5 bars of the song. Thankfully Google mic could pick up my humming and immediately showed me the title of the song - 二人でお酒を (Futari de osake o). I remember it was a male voice when it was played donkey years back. Freaking 34years ago!! I can’t believe I can still vaguely remember this when most times I forgot what I ate the day before. 

It was played in my Japanese language class! 

I can’t really remember the lyrics but as I listened to the song by 杉 良太朗 （Sugi Ryotaro) and looked at the lyrics. Dang! My せんせい must have been one drinker 🤣. 

Then I slowly recall another song - Yubikiri by Koji Tamaki. It’s difficult to find the song by Google so I typed in the first 6 lines to look for it. I knew that song’s lyrics much much better. 

If you read then you’ll know why 😝

Lyrics :

青い空
白い雲
丸い帽子
飛んでゆく
飛んでゆく
追いかけても
黒い髪
赤い服
小さな靴
駈けてゆく
駈けてゆく
息をきらし
さよなら
さよなら
言わないで

遠い鐘

長い影

やさしい声

あと少し

もう少し

ここにいたい

金の星

銀の月

静かな風

ゆびきりはこれきりで我慢しよう

さよなら

さよなら

また逢える

さよなら

さよなら

また逢える

Definitely can remember this lyrics better. 

I wonder if I had gone to learn Japanese and be a Japanese speaking crew in SQ, would the lessons be as interesting as this? Can sing 🎤 or the really serious studying kind? 

Then when I was learning Japanese, Chage and Aska was quite popular. I picked up more words, especially kanji which is difficult. There was no such thing as internet to look for Romanized lyrics, I had to copy the lyrics on the cassette cover sleeve into a notebook, listened and kept stopping and playback many many times to get the words. Flip the dictionary, yes the Japanese to English dictionary coz no such thing as Safari or Google in 1991! Then find the meaning of the words. I listened to only 3 songs to get the lyrics and I was exhausted 😂, I never bothered to listen to their other songs. 

To the girls

When came to the girls, I exposed them Japanese, German, French nursery songs (coz kids learn fast) when they were growing up. No progression with French or German coz I wasn’t sure of the language myself. I concentrated on Japanese more. At that time too, lil’ one was in Shichida so was able to expose more Japanese songs to her. But alas! That gila playful girl listened but that’s it. 

Che-che

Not sure if that sparked the interest in che-che when she was much much older. She was crazy over the boy bands and …. her Japanese is better than mine for sure. 

When she mentioned she can take foreign language in her units, I told her to learn another language which is more useful. Japanese can only be used in Japan. But she has another idea “why learn another language when I already know one and can ace it?” True enough, she did well for those units 😂 bringing up her GPA. Uni didn’t offer her Masters for Japanese 🤣 but two others specialities. (She deserves the curtain string lor!) Aiyah! If she wanted to master Japanese, immersing herself into the country would be the best way. 

Che che prep trip

Going China with uni friends. Something that was in the pipeline since a year as they await for friends to graduate. 

It must be really fun to be on a trip, a group of kiddies in their 20s, a memory engraved in them. I wish I was daring to go on trips with my friends when I was her age. In actual fact at her age, I preferred to travel solo.

Che-che although can be like me when we come to travelling, but when it comes to packing it’s different. I would have brought things out to pack at least a week before OR maybe coz I was packing for 3 people I needed to make sure I don’t miss anything out so bringing them out and putting them aside will help me. 

4th Apr (Fri)

She took down luggage from the BS 4 days before the trip then saw the wheel’s rubber came off. Asked me what to do? Haha! As if I’m a magician, I don’t even have any spare new wheels at home. She asked dua-kim if can borrow her luggage. Then she suddenly remembered she was going to meet C, no way I was going to help her collect the luggage. 自己要的东西给她自己做。

Don’t know why but it didn’t cross my mind. 🤣 In the night I was thinking maybe if I can switch the wheels from her luggage to lil’ one’s then she didn’t have to borrow. I was worried if China or SIN luggage handlers will spoil SIL’s luggage or worst a lost luggage. 很难跟她交代。

5th Apr (Sat) 

At 2.46am  (yah slept late) I ordered wheels then thought I could change her wheels today

Brought down her luggage and changed the two wheels. The wheels will arrive on the day of her departure, by the time she gets back I can fix two new wheels on lil’ one’s luggage. 

At night she asked for her camera. Haven’t operated her camera for a very long time so can’t remember how to put the batteries and SD card in. Haha!

So cute lor! Why digital camera? iPhone has better resolution now. But I didn’t want to ask her, maybe she’s the designated photographer? 

While charging the batteries, I took the lanyard out to wash. 

6th Apr (Sun)

Reminded her that she has Go Pro. Dunno why she doesn’t want to bring that instead. Oh well! She’s not as crazy as her mom who needs to carry camera and video camera 🤣, only short of a lighting lamp, on our holidays last time. 

2 batteries charged. Asked if she needed the multiple USB 🔌 as I was taking out the plug for the battery charger. 

Was testing this 

Then saw this in the card dated April 2012, 13 years ago. Must be the time when I bought this camera for her that we tested it in the shop before making payment. 

The wheels

The wheels arrived on the 7th! But she has already packed her stuffs in. Aiyah! I will do it when she’s back. Who knows if by then the wheels would have been slightly damaged and I might end up changing all the wheels for both luggages. 

8th Apr - her flight early in the morning. Goodbye and enjoy yourself girl! All excited to travel with her this group of friends. 

Miss the pork chops

I don’t know why but I’m suddenly thinking of pork chop, I think two weeks of going vegetarian made me berserk. Then I thought of this pork chop. He makes the most unique pork chop marinade. It’s clean for sure! 

The girls like his pasta. 

Found a post in my FB 

This was the time I was on keto, so I’d usually order 2 plates but told them no fries no mushroom sauce. Somehow they didn’t know how to charge me 😂. 

Really addictive. If only I’m a good cook and can tell from taste what spices he put. 

“ I can do it k….” - Week 02

31st Mar (Mon)

Dropped by OTH otw to mom’s and packed her lunch for her. I wanted to pack vegetarian but …they had to close today 🫤. Really no choice of food for me until I saw this popiah rojak stall. Actually hor…. I could have walked over to the Malay stalls and see if any is opened, can eat lontong, but I didn’t think about it coz I had a girl who keeps yakking on what food she should order/ very long queue / also craving for xxx until I was so giddy. 

The sign here is so weird - vegetarian rojak. Isn’t all the ingredients in rojak non-meat? So what’s the difference? I asked the lady if the vegetarian rojak meant the same sauce or a different vegetarian sauce. She was damn pissed with me, I guess that must have set that trigger in her and she lashed at me later. 

I had two rolls of rojak. I forgot to take a picture of the squashed almost flat popiah (all thanks to lil’ one, I have no idea how she helped me hold the popiah bag 😂). 

Anyway….. while placing my order the stall lady walked away when I told her I didn’t want garlic and chilli so wasn’t sure if she heard me. So when she was preparing the popiah she put garlic and I told her I didn’t want garlic. She looked up at me with a stern face and said “小姐不是你一个人的”. Wah! So rude! Yes, it’s probably wrong of me to assume that was mine but how was I supposed to know someone else also placed an order for popiah? If she had said “这不是你的薄饼。你 (point to it) 的是这个。” it definitely sounds more pleasant. Boycott that stall, not going to buy anything from her anymore. Doesn’t taste that nice, Qiji’s popiah is 10x better than hers. 

Pic taken from website just for this blog post

For dinner hubby packed some dishes for themselves, I steamed vegetables and chawanmushi together with the rice. 

Didn’t want to make my kitchen greasy, I heated the vegetables seasoning in a metal cup over the stove and poured to the steamed vegetables after it’s done. It’s vegetarian “oyster sauce” + sesame oil. I do have a bottle of this at home coz like how many times have I gone vegetarian 🤭? Ate 2 egg tofu and stuffed myself full with matcha warabimochi. 

1st Apr (Tuesday) 

Dosa n prata lunch. Hubby did make an effort by getting vegetarian dips or what nots but I only wanted the roti prata curry. Weird taste. Yucks! I’ve never ate dosa before. He was surprised I never ate this before. Muahaha! I go for cheaper food k, I don’t care what fermented thing made the dosa slightly more ex than my plain prata, give me prata anytime. I think I have to remind him next time how he managed to bribe me with siew mai while we were dating 🤣. Thank his lucky stars his wife don’t eat expensive food. 

Vegetarian kueh chap

2nd April (Wed)

Fried carrot cake for lunch which I forgot to take a picture

Dinner was mushroom aglio olio. Not that nice but ….. as long as I have something to fill up my tummy 

3rd Apr (Wed)

I’m running out of ideas on what to eat. Just ate some bread and eggs

Dinner

Mushroom 6” sandwich from Subway. Not filling should have ordered double. Wonder how did my friend ever feed her kids with just sandwich as a meal. They must have small stomach, or I must be a glutton. 

Mushroom soup 

I was still hungry so ate x2 popiah, 1 tapioca. 🤣 That means I don’t have anything for snacks tomorrow. 

4th April (Fri)

Lunch is fried bee hoon with just vegetables. 

Dinner is instant noodles. Just didn’t know what to eat anymore 

5th April (Sat)

Lunch is moi’s favourite vegetarian kuey chap

This dinner has got to be my most expensive vegetarian option to date. The girls wanted Sushiro (again) for their meal, I went my separate ways from them. Not much option, food court was packed, many places either had no meat or even if I went for no-meat the broth has meat. 

Mushroom cream pasta with vegan bacon bits. Very yummy. Have to say this coz it’s so bloody expensive. Strangely I was losing my appetite as I’ve been feeling so tired today, but had to finished up the whole plate coz it’s so expensive. 

6th April (Sun)

Horfun with vegetables 

Dinner : cleared the 2 small tofu in the fridge as today’s stated as the expiry date. I think I will be hungry later again but technically just feeling so so tired now. Am I falling sick again? 

Writers note : 

Seriously thinking I really do salute vegetarians. I’m sorry to say this but I miss my wanton noodles, shredded chicken noodles. So how they do it? Of course I know some are born into the family who are vegetarians it’s just second nature to them. Or some coz of their staunch religious belief they don’t miss meat. 

Break for next week ? before I continue another 2 more cycles. Ehh…. 3 cycles. Oops! I just remembered I’m supposed to pay back 2 more days which I may have incidentally ate animals. 

🐟 ⚽️ Fishball 鱼圆

Making fishball with Ms Thermie was the first thing I want to do when I got her 2+ years ago. Goes to show how I love to talk but no action 😜. #queenofprocrastination#

3rd Apr (Thu)

Bought from Sheng Siong - $9.99/kg. I paid $7.89 for this 790g fish. However after the guy had fillet the fish for me, it was only 444g. At least I have a rough idea how much those head and bones weigh. 

After scrapping the fish meat - 328g was the final weight of what came from a 790g fish.

4th Apr (Fri)

Followed this recipe from JC 

After blending it in Ms Thermie. I blended 3x instead of 2 although it’s a small portion. The fish paste was so so smooth, I would have mistaken it for my Kiehl’s facial cream if not for the fishy smell. 

Mixing Himalayan salt in another bowl

Seeing the magic unfolds before my very eyes and touch after salt was added into the blended fish 

Lil’ one helping out. She has to work for her food.

Our fishballs don’t look round at all 😂

After 2.5hrs later I took a few pieces out to cook for lil’ one. Tested and yup it bounces. Bounced but doesn’t roll coz it’s not round at all 🤣.

Taste wise lil’ one says it has no taste “or maybe I’m sick so cannot taste anything” haha! I can’t taste it coz still on vegetarian. If not, I’ll have to use another recipe next time. 

** update on 6th April: gave her again and she says “it has the fish taste.” 🤣🤣 what does she expect? Chicken taste? 

It’s plain so maybe next time I should add aromatics into the fishball