On This Day - (15th Aug) #Reminders from FB#

15th Aug 2023

Che-che can always read my mind; we have the same sense of humour.

I didn't know lil' one knew about the macaques in the compound (hubby told her when he sent her to school), so when I went over to pick her up I told her she has to hurry later when we get off from the car.

Coz she's always the last! I park car grab my things, che-che n I always have to wait for that lil' grandma to take her things and open her car door etc...

When I mentioned that, che-che cont'd we will need to run back home. All the while I didn't mention to che-che we should tease lil' one and she blended in so perfectly.

#motherndaughterareevil#

Even funnier when che-che said she will push her sister to the monkeys as a bait so we both can run back home

. I think we have harmed lil' one

psychologically #nomacaqueswereharmed#

#whoaskedhertobetheyoungest#

#subjectedtoalltheteasingfromfamily#

15th Aug 2021

It's really no joke... just cause the lil' "worse-than-pregnant-lady" girl craves for this and that. She says it and then presto it appears. #wermagicians#

2 consecutive days to the area

• Lucky she's not in

Sentosa, I won't make the trip there, and she can jolly well order Grab food herself.

#ahgirlahstoptellingmewhatyoucravefor#

#tellmewhenyourebacknotnow#

She craved for soba. Even this simple meal can make her happy.

Chilled and packed with ice-packs enroute to hotel.

For her dinner today

I'm definitely not going back there on a weekend!

Where else? Uncle wanton.

Just coz daddy says pack for her, today she had 3 ppl to make the trip down to do a food drop. So 大牌!

For today's lunch

15th Aug 2019

After the last post on the demise of my ice-cream attachment, I contemplated if I should get the attachment again. I made my choice and let's see when I will start making ice-cream.

#unboxingnewtoy#

Anyone with Kitchenaid ice-cream maker and needs a spare dasher and ring adapter? Do pm me if you want it, if not l'll junk it at the end of this month. TQ!

15th Aug 2016

And lil' one said there was some "noise" outside school area "that maybe it's JSchooling" so everyone in her class ran to the window to see. I told her he stays somewhere in Marine Parade.

Then she continued "Wah...so nice if we can see him in Parkway Parade hor?" 😄

15th Aug 2015

Grew only 9cm in coming 2yrs??

And yes, I managed to bring the height sticker chart from old home to new home.

15th Aug 2015

Thai basil minced chicken.

(ok..my portion is really small coz I'm waiting for lil' one's leftover)

Really taste different when I used thai basil instead of the sweet basil. Yay! My plant better survive long long!

15th Aug 2014

Happy Leftie to myself and Wilma Cheng!!

15th Aug 2014

Che-che was craving for Popeyes. Luckily they opened a new outlet in Kallang Wave, I didn't hv to make the trip down to Bedok Point.

Alas! Raining, so photos are dark.

Lunch then back to a crazy Friday schedule

15th Aug 2014

Interesting

15th Aug 2012  

Hahaha! Ask her to memorize Shichida poem. She did a little n then start scribbling this. 

Oh no!! Signs of my girl being a doddler

15th Aug 2012

Decorating cuppies. Relax first ......... then ready to battle tomorrow

Comment in 2018 : Simi battle? SA2? She was P4 then. Pic taken in I12. And so much has changed in there, so many shops open and close. Used to be my hangout place with lil' one, routines changed as the kids grew older. Soon, I'll be so free to paint the town red.  

Comment in 2024 : I had the earlier comment in 2018 coz initially I did the “On This Day” in 2018 too. Obviously with lesser posts and I didn’t know what would happen in 2019,2020 and so on. Isn’t it great to read back what I wrote 6 years ago. 

yah so I thought life would be more relax when the girls are older. As at this year, they are both 18 and 22. And nope! I’m not able to paint the town red. 小的时候忙、大的时候也忙着她们。

15th August 2012 

Don't think you'll ever patronize lil' girl's shop if she opens an eatery next time. Cut sausage on the table; put one on pizza; put the other one in her mouth; drop one on floor; picks up n put on her own pizza. Yeeks!

15th Aug 2012

My girl hates me, everytime she asks me "mummy, how to spell xxxx?" | asks her back and then she starts spelling and writing out for me. Then grumbles

"u nvr tell me answer one..." pouts her lips n then continue doing her work.

15th Aug 2010

Watched the Opening Ceremony, kids irritated me with the "I've seen this flag; I know this is so-and-so country flag" etc... SIN flag came out last (host country), our eyes were on TV. A few seconds later I turned to look @ Aricia, who was singing her "Mari kita..." and waving her flag, copying the lady. LOL

** in the post’s comments 

GBB Monet -

Three things I love - paintings (coz trying to act cultured) aka museum trips, classical music and flowers all in one place. 

Wah… I know I said I dowan to be the target of pickpockets, I dowan to put on a RBF, but who can resist eclairs and macarons and french onion soup? So I submitted the photo below in Instagram. 

This is what I wrote in my Instagram :

Maison et Jardins de Claude Monet :

Flowers in varied colours adorn in his garden. These sunflowers were so outstanding in my eyes as they evoke a sense of faith and hope.

#gardensbythebay #ImpressionsOfMonetGBB

#MonetTheGarden #TurkishAirlines

PLEASE LET ME WIN ! 

If only I have that many flowers in my balcony. But it means I need to do lots of gardening. 

#iamsimplylazy# #ineedamagicwand# 

I want to buy flowers now .....

The water lilies are so cute.

For some reason I have no idea why I like these colours.

Maybe it's the contrast between dark and light?

I've never heard of Camille Pissarro but apparently the street pic is painted by him 😅.

Something that came to my mind, I may be wrong, so if any experts can enlighten me. Coz this painting somehow reminds me of Starry Night so was Vincent Van Gogh inspired by Camille Pissarro? Van Gogh's paintings were dull colours before. Wait! Who drew what first? Or maybe it's just a coincidence of blue and yellow.

** This is a video I put of various clips together. 

Pardon me for humming to the tune

Music by Tchaikovsky, Debussy (I think coz .... I always can't rmor the classical pieces but got Debussy style lah!), Ravel and etc... Don't ask me titles except for the Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake piece (coz I kena forced to watch ballet performance by lil' one)

Some Monet paintings seen in MET recently. I saw some of his paintings in other museums, maybe in London or in Paris or in Amsterdam or in LA? I really can't remember.

Renoir - name sounds familiar. I may or may not have seen his paintings before.

Paul Cezanne - I definitely saw his works somewhere but just can't rmbr where. 

I was so impressed with this that at night I wrote in a feedback to GBB. First time ever! 😂

I have been a FOG member for many years and this Impressions of Monet brings the way of floral display to a refreshing high level. Although I love tulips, cherry blossoms, sunflowers, roses and the list goes on. This display has no floral theme which is a change. For a flower, classical music and painting lover like me, I got a lot out of this display. The only thing which I would appreciate is no loud kids or adults dragging their slippers loudly in the multi-sensory exhibition (Haha! Nobody can control them.) so that we can immerse ourselves in the exhibition. Thank you once again for the wonderful experience.

Their reply. Yes, pls kick those cheena out. Kids shouting, walking all the way to the screen. If only the bloody cheena people can shut their loud voice, or the uncles who drag their feet when they walk can be brought out of the place

NHK

Went to TP and che-che was bored so turned on the TV to NHK. I totally forgot we switched out of StarHub to Netflix and asked her how is it we do not have NHK at home. So dumb! 🤣

There was a story about 7/7 and I mentioned that’s たなばた and the same story as our cowherd and maiden Milky Way blah blah story. Girl was saying they’re not speaking according to the subtitles, seems like it’s a dialect. I listened and told her it’s Okinawan dialect because I can recognise it coz daddy n I went. She was pretty upset and commented I was showing off. Haha! So nice to tease her. Confirmed I was right about it. 

Then came the news about today’s earthquake and tsunami warning. She was trying to listen and trying hard to understand what’s being said. Repeated so many times until she got so tired of the news and turned off the TV. 

Dehumidifier experiments

I’ve never made so many changes to a thing once I made my purchase but this has proven me wrong with the dehumidifier beads. 

To link back —> in March (only 4months of use) I started using the umbrella hanging thing. Blog entry HERE. So this is another follow up from all the follow ups. 

As I read back that blog entry, I expressed my fear of the white thing dropping out and IT DID! The insides of my red Longchamp bag organizer was jelly wet and I didn’t know where it came from. Until the day when I needed to change out the water did I realise the white thing is missing and it was the item that I picked up just days ago in the walk-in floor (I had no idea what it was then and kept it aside). Uncertain of the days and months and maybe years that follow, my chorloh-ness will make me regret it many more times. 

Asked che-che (since she’s so free) today to help me change out all 7 to this. which has a white disk to pour essential oil for the smell. I did pour but it made no difference unless I stick my nose very close to it. I’ll just stick to the cedar balls 

She was trying to compact the beads and was knocking the base on the table when some beads flew out. Not sure if the huge holes on the top is of any concern. Ehh….maybe lizards laying their shit inside? Maybe I should get a mesh netting and paste it over? 

Not sure if the handle thing will be of any concern but shall monitor. Makes me wonder do any of the people I know even do this? Or am I doing all the borliao things? No wonder I make myself so busy. 

It’s a pretty small container, water might accumulate faster than I can breathe. Meaning I’ll have to change out more often. Bring the organ chair whoever I go coz Ms Shortie can’t reach the high hanging rods. At least with the umbrella it was so easy to just hook it and go. Hook it and go sounds just like an advert jingle 😂.

I put this outside where the heater control is and it reads 77%

Sidetrack :

I’m still thinking about doing something to the master room toilet. If only we did like what the Japanese put in their bathroom. Get a dehumidifier machine? Close up all the windows? But I need cross ventilation in the house.

Read this 

博多一双 Hakata Isso

For all our 3 trips Fukuoka, we’ve never tried Hakata Isso at all. We said we wanted to try it on our first trip as we walked past it one day, we left Fukuoka not even had the chance to pass by the second time 🤣. 

Seriously? I feel all tonkotsu ramen look and taste the same to me, except for Kumamoto's. It looks different in che-che’s eyes. I kindda regretted introducing to her Hakata ramen in Singapore. And now she fell in love with Fukuoka more than any other place in Japan. 

According to che-che, we bought this before. This trip she bought lesser boxes of ramen home as we have some fresh ramen in the freezer.

My dinner tonight - with togarashi of course

Baking

Ah nia wanted to bake,but dowan to cook 🤣 

The family can starve, I don’t care.

Just something that I love to do tho I have no idea who is going to eat them. 

#bakingistherapeutic# #nokitchenaid# 

#nothermomix# #justmylefthandrighthand#

Coz I got rid of the 2 huge ikea mixing bowl after the reno (no space inside cabinets), I was trying to use whatever I have at home. And I have to be so careful that I don’t whisk in my WMF pot, so had to think where to put the egg yolks and where to put the egg whites. The bowl for egg whites is small so I had to be very careful nothing spills on the table.

Aiyoh! Why so dark green one?

Then it’s time to whisk the egg whites manually till my hands ache.
Yah. I tell you a lot of times things I do is 自找麻烦的. I like to knead bread manually also.
I’m really crazy…but I did mention that baking is therapeutic. Maybe torturing myself is therapeutic 😅.

As long as I have this music while I bake. I dunno why the cafe music just make me 下多功夫

#soinspiredtowhiskandwhiskthenfoldandfold#

Then I question myself, what the heck are my two machines for ?? 😂 既然我是自找麻烦我不能 complain.

How come so many cuppies? 34. I think I used bigger holders last time.

When was the last time I baked chiffon pandan? All I know is …this should be my 2nd time baking in the 1 yr 1 mth old renovated kitchen 🤣.

Will ask lil’ one to bring some to her workplace tomorrow.

Never assume they don’t speak English

We drove past in Chiran before, wanting to go to a samurai place. It was a ‘point and whimsnfancies’ drive past back to Kagoshima but decided to do some checks whether it’s nice. We had to move out of the main road so happened to come to a carpark area, not knowing that it’s manned we were still reading about the place. I looked up and saw a man sitting inside and google translated if we can stop here for time being first as we’re checking some information. He was nice and allowed us. If one don’t ask nicely; one will not get what he/she wants. Generally Japanese are courteous and they will allow. When we decided not to go, I went up to him again and thanked him for his generosity. Then drove to Lawson, next minute we saw him there again. How did he reach faster than us?!?! Haha! Che-che and myself burst out laughing, so excited to see him and then not knowing that he understood English we also didn’t know what to say, we just smiled and waved “hello”. 

He then spoke to me in little english. What?!?! And to think I so lorsoh typed in google translate and showed him the texts.🤣 He mentioned that he worked in the US before as a chef. I didn’t ask him how long coz it would seem so rude to intrude into his private life, if he wanted to tell me he would. Then I got so excited and spoke so fast “how did you reach here faster than us? Is there a special tunnel?” He didn’t answer me, just smiled. Che-che and I started looking at google map 😂 I still don’t understand how he’s there so fast or maybe he’s the other twin? 

@ Saiki where our car broke down. Guy could speak English. His daughter couldn’t tho’. Because didn’t speak much to us coz our conversation was simply on the recharging the car battery, I didn’t know he could speak more than what he spoke to us. Haiyah! Then make me struggle to write to him a lengthy grandmother letter with my horrendous japanese lettering. 

I’m sure elsewhere in some other ulu parts of Japan are some people proficient in English as well. I’m sure too they’ll be happy to see English speaking tourists and start practicing their english whilst we tend to want to speak a little of halting Japanese to show that we love their culture and language. Muahaha! Such is life. 

Review of Luke’s Lobster

Finally tried Luke’s Lobster after they arrived on our shore 4 years ago. 

I wasn’t willing to try then coz felt it’s too expensive for something which will not make me full. 

Decided to try it today and won’t eat it anymore.

My personal review. 

** pls note that prices in US are without tips unless otherwise indicated

And for those who wonder why I am allergic to certain prawns but not to lobster, I really have no idea why. Maybe my body is meant to ingest expensive food😂. haha!

And now after typing this, I want to say I miss Boston!

In Boston che-che ordered lobster with truffle butter (US$24 + US$1 for truffle butter) while I ordered crab (US$17). Lobster is from Canada as what they claimed not that I can tell any difference 😜.

Singapore’s lobster roll is (S$25.50) claimed is from Maine but eh you give me one from M’sia I also dunno. [Truffle butter lobster roll costs S$30.50].

A fair comparison would be US$24 vs S$25.50. But it makes me wonder how is it that it’ll be so expensive after the conversion to eat in Boston when the lobster is swimming somewhere near there (fly from Cape Hood to Boston, both on east side of the continent) vs we need to fly the lobster over many miles across the land masses and ocean?

Bread roll is longer and skinnier here. I assumed the roll is supplied locally as it doesn’t make sense to fly them over. Taste wise coz I did try che-che’s lobster roll (but hate truffle), I would say it’s not bad here. How many chunks of lobster meat in the roll I believe should be the same. Tho she dropped one huge piece on the floor in Boston and my heart was screaming 💸 heartpain.

In Quincy Market, we tried this one a day before, lobster salad roll for USD29 (I think it should be slightly cheaper coz I threw receipt away and only checked back my card, must have added the tips in it)

All the lobster bisque. I love 🦞 bisque.

Well…when you’re in Boston you gotta eat their seafood. I have one girl who don’t eat many seafood, I don’t eat clam, oysters anything except scallops in the mollusk family myself. So really can’t eat the freshest bestest seafood, which turns out well coz when you start calculating the cost of food, it’s so expensive! #shouldbringtravelcooker#

Since I hate clams, I should try lobster bisque. Top left pic of lobster bisque - I had it in a restaurant which I told girl the total cost of our meal came up to few dollars short of $100, by the time I add tips in. Sigh….. told girl it’s the most expensive meal so after that we should eat cheaply. I only tried 2 lobster bisque in Boston, so I must admit that’s the better one. (USD10.50 vs USD6.30. Maybe not a fair comparison coz the quantity is different + one in better setting.

I didn’t like the one from Quincy Market (had this a day before the restaurant meal) and was so thankful I ordered a small cup to try. But there were huge chunks of meat in both soup.

Singapore’s S$12.50. Taste just like the one in Quincy Market but only 2 small bits of meat.

Will I eat at LL again? Most likely no. I’ve tasted better lobster bisque in restaurants here.

有时她讲的话真好笑 😊

The man dropped us in T3 as the girls wanted to eat at Paradise while he drove to park at Jewel. 

And he tends to forget where he parks 🤭, so after our walk in Jewel we went to the car with him leading the way. 

We were so surprised that he stopped at B3 coz he (and myself included) tend to like to park at B5. So he took a long time searching for the car, we used the key fob looking for the car. He drove my car so I had one and he had another, we went in different directions. Still cannot find 😂. He then decided to go down to B5 and found the car. Sigh…… that’s why if he knows he has bad memory like me, he should take a photo of the location. 

[FYI Jewel has this car locator machine where we can find where one park just by keying the car plate number. The one at the level has to be spoilt!] 

Lil’ one passed a funny remark when we all got into the car “I was about to praise him for parking at B3, lucky I haven’t praised him yet.” 🤣 有时她讲的话 is funny but kiam-pak