🥕🥕

Grocery shopping is such a chore. I rarely need large quantities, but supermarkets force you to buy in bulk. Honestly, I'd rather pay a bit more for loose items than watch a whole bag of onions or potatoes/garlic sprout and go to waste.

And this also explains why my spice rack looks the way it does. (Click HERE for post) Instead of fresh herbs, I rely entirely on pantry staples like onion powder, garlic powder, and parsley flakes to get the job done.

I've been desperately trying to extend the shelf life of my fresh produce. I've tried everything from specialized herb containers for coriander, parsley, and spring onions, to wrapping them in paper towels—and honestly, I can't even remember what else!

Ideally, I would use a proper vacuum sealer, but mine is boxed up in the bomb shelter. It’s just too much hassle to dig it out and pack it away just for one or two items. Instead, I resort to the Zwilling Fresh & Save system. The only issue is that the containers and bags occasionally leak air. I suppose I shouldn't expect them to last forever! I try to check and re-vacuum them every now and then, but on busy days, things slip through the cracks and ingredients still spoil.

I've also considered getting a dehydrator, but I'm worried it might compromise the taste of the food.

5th Aug @ 10.14am - they looked shriveled because condensation formed inside the vacuum-sealed bag, likely inflated by released CO2. Checking and resealing bags takes real effort. Who has the energy to check every single item in the fridge? Worse yet, family members push things around, hiding my ingredients at the back where I forget them.

I wiped the carrots dry and left them outside for three days because I was too busy. They still sweated after sitting at room temperature for a day. If I had known, I should have done this the moment I brought the carrots home.

Scrapped off the outside skin. Sliced and cut them. Need bigger cut carrots to make my Japanese curry and chicken stew, slices for stir fry vegetables. Maybe I should see if supermarkets sells frozen carrots. 

2mins blanch, 2mins cold water dip

Drying them

Chucked into freezer. Heading out for appt so will vacumn seal it when I’m back or maybe do it the next day. 

The next day … 

Look at the amount of bags I can pack with those 2.5 carrots. The girls don’t eat veggies and for some reason hubby don’t seem to enjoy carrots as much as I do, thus I can’t throw in a lot of carrots in our stir fry vegetables

Should I do the same with the potatoes? 

Another list to update on the fridge just coz my memory is not that good. List is not fully updated as I haven’t updated the minced meats and other rubbish in the freezer. 

松了一口气 phew!

Poor girls had to sleep without the aircon for so many nights. It was blasting out hot air! With the fan on and the window open, listening to people walking past our unit or hearing cars parking in the carpark is no joke. They’re not having good sleep I guess. And maybe when they hear the lizzie/s socialising, finding ❤️ my girls were freaking out but they can’t run to our sleep to seek refuge. There’s simply no space for them to sleep anywhere in our room.

Got a system 3 from Harvey Norman on 20th (Mon), arranged for installation a week later. 

We first changed 2 aircons in 2025, the other compressor was also making noise but we have to stretch our dollar longer. It’s about the same time all almost going kaput. 10/11 years already, some people say it’s amazing our aircon can last that long. Once installation done. Then it’s time for me to buy the brown paint and start painting back the exposed parts, I hope the paint company sells small bottle 🤣. I only need that little! Or maybe I should just ignore the eye-sore, DON’T look ⬆️ 🆙 . 

27th : arrived pretty early at 9+. Hubby and I sat in the living room while they did their work. 

I know the aircon people know what they're doing but ..... a flame. I guess is to solder something for the installation. I asked ah-lao no need to turn off anything? In my heart | can't help but think about gas. 💣💥 越想越怕 I can't help thinking about it. Pushed the leg couch away, unlock n slide the balcony grille gate. Get ready to run out with ah-lao if anything happens. Muahaha! Too paranoid or too safety conscious? Or too drama?🤣

The girls came back to a new aircon. “Yay! Finally I can turn on aircon!” Che-che is super relieved coz she’s been tolerating the 闷热 when her eczema flared up again recently. 

Bed vacumn

Been wanting to change out my bed vacuum. Saw a few from Taobao but eventually I chose a Japanese brand. 

9th May : Was walking around in Orchard while waiting for lil’ one to finish her therapy and passed by Tokyu Hands. Finally bought it after comparing the prices in various places, slightly cheaper in Tokyu Hands. 

16th May - one last vacumning our beds then it’s sayonara. Thank you for the last 9 years of service

On This Day - (10th May) #Reminders from FB#

10th May 2025

* with two girls 

I thought Tuesday was going to be my last trip to Flower Dome, but here l am again today. 我的心痒痒when che-che said she's meeting her friend to see tulips but I had things to do at home. Then .....the more I look at my flowers at home the more I wanted to go down again. Few hours after she left home i went.

It's really the last one unless I gila and decide to go down on Monday, their last day. 🤣

* attached a video collage 

10th May 2025

The bud yesterday. Stop! Stop! Stop! Slow down.

10th May 2023

I thought l am a cat #twolivestakenfromme# 😂

I went from being Empress Dowager to Cleopatra - laying down low on floor to grout. When I lay down low my back aches so I sit up, then dizzy. This went on and on so many times.

That's why it's taking me so long to grout just 3 places. I only do the grout lines where I couldn't reach last time for the toilets. As at this time (8.03pm), I'm still waiting for the master toilet grout to dry before cleaning off the excess. Then I can shower!!!! time to rest then next day to work like horse again.

Ps: when I was doing the master toilet. Hubby came into the toilet with a small fan for me. Wah.....I super touched leh! He must have seen how dirty I looked.

But hor .....coz he wanted to turn on the room aircon.

Chey! Make me happy for nothing!

After the electrician left, I went to regrout the kitchen.

Suppose to just clean off the part I didn't clean off last time (that was not easy to clean given the angle) n do section under the fridge, I ended up doing the whole kitchen 🤦🏻‍♀️

And grout the wall grout lines where the fridge is. I couldn't reach in the other time #missshortie# #shortarm#

10th May 2021

🤦🏻‍♀️ when I forgot to check out. I only realised this when I was going to Check-In into my class.

Happened to me a lot of times, coz most times I go into 🚗 and then do my FOC Grab driver job. Once back home also totally forgot abt it.

No worries. Before my tutors all start panicking n requests to do online lessons, I was there only from 1.20pm to 2.15pm to pack my lunch at SoPho n a grocery 🏃‍♀️. Was in 3rd level the whole time. (I didn't sleep in Parkway 🤣. Anyway the person was there in the evening.

#besafeeveryone# #rmbrtocheckinandout# #iamok# #irregardlessiwillstillmonitormyself#

10th May 2020

Truly appreciate your sweet gesture, Youli Song

10th May 2017

731 sleeps and 6 aliens (4 papa aliens and 2 babies) have tried invading my territory. Commander Teo's instruction is KILL ON SIGHT.

10th May 2016

Did my grocery run after dropping che-che in school.

It's so nice to go into a supermarket without the crowd. For the first time, I did my grocery slow coz no queue; no crowd. Well, actually the main reason is : in my blunder I deleted my grocery shopping list (c so I was literally walking aisle by aisle.

Better still, as I just learnt, it's 24hrs too!

Okay..but that doesn't mean I'll run out of the house in the wee hours

10th May 2016

365 sleeps since ...and guess what? I've not stepped into the gym

yet!

10th May 2015

They say kids are tech savvy, I certainly agree. Dunno how that girl figured out she could mirror her phone to the TV and start playing videos there. And here I am still keying "how to ..." into the search engine.

10th May 2015

Guess who chose this plant?

10th May 2014

😀她的造句真好笑😀

10th May 2014

My girl wants to see this school too.... I asked her why should we go? It's too far, out of her league, n it's not our targetted school.

Okay, real reason is .. I'm too lazy. So blardy hot!! I'd rather hide in the aircon room at home and nuah

PLMGS open house

10th May 2011

My whiteboard now - all cleaned.

Study table - partially tidied up. Haven't sort out the Top school exam papers. Need to tabulate the scores in my reward chart.

がんばって！

10th May 2011

Finally downpour. Yee ha! 

Doing the bor liao thing

The work around the house is not just confined to housework. There are days when I remove things from cabinets and clean the cabinets interior, days when I become Cinderella and go down on my knees to clean the grouts *giddy*, checking medicine expiry dates, organize things from left to right then from right to left on another day etc.. 

There are days when I have to do this kind of bor-liao organizing things -

😒 then it's time to reshuffle my spice rack. It's usually in alphabetical order, then I realised I needed more of one or two items than the other. Luckily I gave up the idea of re-bottling my Japanese and German curry powder long time ago if not I'd be playing strategic games with this rack.

Now "fixing this puzzle" again coz I had to add one item in. Sigh....getting myself a little busy doing stupid things.

#borliao# #inmysmallkitchenfindingspace#

So many stickers. Different kinds of curry, salt. Very interesting. Some herbs/spice mix are unheard 😂 of

Had to buy this low sodium salt in China just coz I ran out of my seasalt I packed for lil' one. She has tonsillitis which comes every 2-3 weeks for the past 2 years. I decided to let her try gargling at least twice a day, trying to keep it away. No joke lah! Keep taking amoxicillin is not good for her. So many MCs in school last time 🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyway, che-che refused to help me bring over some from home when she was due to join us so I have no choice but to buy. Cannot find seasalt in the supermarket. Low-sodium which according to lil' one extremely salty. I won't use this for cooking at all, infact I hardly use salt for my cooking (that's why my food tastes horrible). This is for her to gargle, make it easier for her to prepare the salt water. And also to use it to kill snails in my PES, I used to use my seasalt to kill them

🤣, atas death.

Did a quick check on expiry. So far so good, some just expired not long ago. Check back in 6months time 吧！

Took me a long time

Sometimes doing some random stuffs/jobs in the house (not housework related) takes days for me to complete. Lots of tidying and tidying, I don’t even know why I have to keep tidying all the time when it’s tidied? Yah, it does get messy sometimes when the family members just throw things in without tidying. Then I have no idea what’s inside the cabinet and have to start putting them in the correct place. Sigh…..am really the only person in the house organizing and keeping things.

For this job - it took me months 🤭. I’m lucky if I do small little jobs with minimal time, for eg. every 6mths or so I’ll check the medicine drawers, teabags drawers n throw out expired stuffs. Every few months I’ll check and declutter my walk-in until I really have nothing to declutter coz those are things that I’ve been using very often.

Project mini-Kiehl’s shop over the years 

Things in my house are organized in boxes including my Kiehl’s products. I started with only 2 boxes then became 4 boxes and now 5 boxes. At one time, my things were all mixed together. Then I segregate them. Over time this face of mine 来不及用 and there were always so many promotions for Kiehl’s members so I buy coz I’m greedy to stock up. Then the boxes got messy again. 🤣. The last time before the 26th Oct 2025 project I did segregate them but didn’t have time to label coz I had to cook dinner. Not that I have good memory, months later I soon forgot which item is in which box. I had to open up the boxes when I needed to get a new facial cleanser. All my projects may not be done on consecutive days coz I only have two hands and many tasks. Have just so many things to do around the house that I can totally forgot I have a project 60% completed. 

26th Oct. 

I had to put Che-che’s new facial wash but I can’t remember which box contained the facial cleansers 😁

a) took all 5 boxes out from two toilets. Ideally is to put in same spot but there’s not enough space where the stupid sink pipe in the way, so need to play ‘fit the space’ puzzle.

b) took everything out again from each box coz decided to list down the items and count them. Then did a temp label ‘BOX A - E’ with a scotch tape  as it’ll take extra time for me / leychey to use my Nimbot label printer. Next time when I’m using the label printer then I will print them out. That is IF I REMEMBER.

Put the boxes back coz I have to cook. 

Intermission : Between 27th Oct to 18th Nov

And then I forgot I had the scribbled list I put in between my iPad coz that’s where I’m going to do a stock / inventory list. Out of sight out of mind 🤣.

19th Nov @ night 

Was reaching for something and then I brought my iPad out. The list dropped on the floor. Oops!🙊 Since I had a little time in the night (I didn’t cook today as I was out in PP so packed dinner home for the family) decided to try to get some work done. 

(a) find apps. Tried some and didn’t like it

(b) opened up my Goodnotes folder to see what templates I have in there 

(c) no inventory templates. Spent time looking in Etsy.

(d) purchased and instant download. Wanted to write but my handwriting is so ugly. Tried typing and it took such a long time and difficult n slow to get the alignment  

Then I stopped coz I was tired and lost interest, spent time clearing photos and draft my blog.

25th Feb 2026 (Wed)

Lo and behold I had totally forgotten about this. Told ya my memory is really bad. 

No way was I going to type in Goodnotes again. It’s so messy and difficult. 有点不甘愿 so looked for apps again. Yippee! I found one which is simple and nice - has Nitori colours.  

Nitori logo

I was able to categorize them so neatly, just typing a few out and it looks so organized. It’s important too that I indicated which box the items are. The only hassle is looking for pictures. No choice if I want things to look neat. Next thing is to figure out if I can put them into folders. I do have my (1) Method cleaning products which I bulk-purchased and the (2) house cleaning products + human cleaning products that I need to do my inventory count. Haha! Like so siao, I don’t have a store but I’m operating like my house is a store. Oh well, it’s actually a store 🤣. 

Till then, I don’t know when I will fully complete this project coz I have 5 boxes items to compile. And I need to clear as much iMovie and photos I can from my phone for my upcoming trip in March. Who knows maybe I will complete this Project mini-Kiehl’s in October? 😉

Done!

I was so tempted to procrastinate the cleaning and tidying but if I don’t do so, who will do it? Just so fed up when it seems like I’m the only person living in this house. Girls don’t even know where certain items are placed in the house 🤨. My favourite phrase when I tell friends how my house is kept a little tidier is “I’m a magician. Leave plates on the table, suddenly it disappears. Leave cups in the sink, suddenly it disappears. Dirty clothes become neatly pressed clothes.” 🧙🪄

Decided to throw out all the soil and fertilizers they didn’t seem to be useable. Should have just cleared out the same time we cleared the cabinet. I let out a loud scream when I saw a teeny lizzie. I was smart enough to use the broom to smack the items on the floor and indeed the baby popped its head out, as dramatic as ever I screamed. Che-che who was on the phone at that time in lil’ one’s room closed the window 😬. 

Will I be buying new soil and pellets and fertilisers? Yes, I need to buy new fertilisers especially for my adeniums, my ang ang huey. I’ll probably not buy anymore soil or pellets anymore or small pots coz my sunflowers 🌻 attempts were futile for the last 5x. As much as I’d like to plant the new flower seeds I bought, I honestly feel I don’t have the energy to do that now. I should set my priority to stay indoor now 🤭 and only step out in my PES in the night to water my plants. 

Bought a new scrub in October (so this job in tidying the PES has been an ongoing thoughts) coz I can’t find the handheld scrubber!!!! Anyway, I feel age is catching up with the backaches, that I decided to get one with a longer stick so I didn’t have to squat down, stand up n feel giddy, squat down. It’s no joke! The last time I did this kind of massive scrub, I only did the area near the small gate to the water feature and I was screaming internally for help. Was under the hot sun. 

Is this a good purchase? I can’t get back the clean clean floor as we used to have 10 years ago. It did help in some ways but I found myself with another kind of backache with shoulder pain. I had to hold on to the stick coz the 1500RPM brush was trying to “run away” if you know what I mean. It’s as if I was holding onto my dear life to a scrubber pole in a Signal 8 typhoon. I lessen the energy used to scrub the floor with a hard bristle broom but instead used up my energy to hold onto the stick. 😆 equally tiring and backbreaking. 

Actually I do like it bare there. Or maybe I shouldn’t put the cabinet there anymore? Less thing to worry about 🦎everytime I open the cabinet to get the fertilizer. 

Urgh! The ugly grout lines and dirty tiles