Evidence of Gluttony

Thanks to my generous friends, I have been blessed with belated birthday treats for the past week. There seems to be more in the pipeline for the next week. Coupled with the fact that a few of my favorite people are having their birthdays in the early August, I predict a significant gain in weight in the very near future. Further, my infliction of flu and cough has affected my weekly running schedule. Very grim news indeed, says my health.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to say NO to good food, especially on a lazy Sunday like this. My university pal, Wai Kiat, picked me up from home to have lunch with Michelle and her beau at The Turquoise Room, another one of those ulu ulu places in Singapore. This time, the bistro is located at the rather resort-like Gilman Village off Alexandra Road. More people will probably be familiar with Villa Bali which is situated within the premises as well.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover we were the only customers at the quaint little shophouse at about 1230pm on a drizzly afternoon. "Have your pick of the tables, please," welcomed the waitress. Yet, we chose such an auspicious number.


The place has a resort feel to it and paints a pretty sight with white furnishing and lovely swirls of turquoise on the walls.


We started our meal with appetizers of bread with dip and calamari fritti.




I rather enjoyed my bread with dips of tomato pesto and olive oil. It was quite value-for-money, too, costing about SGD6, with portions sufficient for 4 of us.

Michelle and I both had Prawn & Argula Linguine, which I rather enjoy. Wai Kiat has some Chicken Tomato Pesto and Ben ordered a Baked Chicken Leg.


For more pictures of the food at The Turquoise Room, please refer here. The prices are quite affordable, averaging about 25 buckeroos each person for starters, mains and drinks. They do serve Sunday brunches too, but the menu spelt nothing but omelettes. Mmm. So, do pay 7 Lock Road a visit.

Right.

The gluttony on Friday included a lunch treat from my senior at the university. We went to Hog's Breath Cafe at Holland Village which was quite forgettable (so I shan't waste much space writing about the food.) Dinner was at Ichiban Boshi, generously treated by Alan. I had my usual sushi fare, while Sandy had some paper claypot salmon thingy.

We adjourned to check out Qbar with Samantha, Lloyd and his friends. The exterior of Qbar is much more suitable for chilling out, as compared to the interior upstairs which was adorned with dizzying lights and unappetizing music. I asked the waiter for a menu of cocktails and was informed "Sorry, mam, someone is holding on to the menu of cocktails. Would you hold on a second?"

Just how many menus are you equipped with? One? That is not very impressive.

Anyway, after a bottle of Hoegarden, we got bored with watching a couple make out openly and decided to head somewhere else. We finally settled for Wine Bos, a rather familiar place by now, where we had a bottle of wine, cheese mussels and crackers with pate de fois.


I like that place. It has comfortable seating, nice background music that does not overshadow your conversations, nice and affordable finger food and no crowds! Woohoo. Here is Sandy, looking as though she was morphing as part of the upholstery.


Anyway, we had rounds of games that made us guffawed till I literally teared. We learnt that Samantha is no good with numbers and Sandy is just a very logical person.




On Saturday, I met my brother after drums at TCC, where I could not resist ordering fried chicken wings to drown my sorrows. After devoring the fried delicacies, I proceeded to walk to Rochor Tau Hway Store with Lloyd for more sins of gluttony.

Wait. That is not all!

Saturday night spelt a night of celebration for the August babies in my maternal extended family. Thus, my house hosted a party of some sort with loads of food and wine.


The amount of food was frightening. I foresee myself having leftovers for the next few days. Sigh. At one point of time, the young ladies were just sitting at the table, conveniently picking at the food although we were not hungry, lamenting at the prospective and possible gain in weight.


Ooo. I love the Chocolate Cake from Emi Cakes, I think.


Here are some pictures of the birthday babies.






Thank God for friends and family. They made me forget my woes for quite a while. :)

:'(

Looks like all that is in my Inbox thesedays are nothing but bad news.

I am extremely demoralized. Discouraged.

Darn, life sucks.

PS Cafe

I was rather depressed after receiving some bad news at work but ah well, life goes on. The world doesn't stop for you to recover and there is no point burdening friends when they are already pooped by the melancholic world out there. After dishing out my complaints to various unfortunate people, I tried to cheer myself up with the thought of a belated birthday treat at PS Cafe, courtesy of CS.

PS Cafe at Harding Road is situated at an isolated, forgotten part of Singapore, away from the bustling crowd. My brother, an architect, once told me that there exists a syndrome in human behavior whereby people have the tendency to prefer quieter, far less accessible and more exclusive places when they can eventually afford to. Perhaps that explicates why places like Rochester Park and PS Cafe are frequent by well-heeled and chi-chi audience.

Since the indoor dining was fully booked (on a Thursday evening, mind you), we settled for al fresco dining. My main grouse is that the menu for the starters and desserts are written on the chalkboard, a facility that is testing my short-sightedness disability.

We started out with Baked Scallop and Crab Salad, which was extremely delectable. Due to poor lighting conditions, I didn't manage to get any pictures that do the dishes justice.

I didn't quite enjoy my Beef, Mushroom and Bacon Ragout but CS's Moussaka was a lovely baked concoction of cheese, veal and whatsnot.

Funnily, the servers there speak with an accent. I wonder why.

Our server was attentive to every detail, so much that he actually sat down to explained the menu like a friend would. He did so patiently for our starters, and again for our desserts.

Finally, for desserts, I tried this pudding which epitomized what chocolate heaven would be like. Slicing the chocolate exterior, you get thick chocolate sauce oozing out. The pudding itself, sits on a pool of chocolate with chocolate-covered cherries. When I had a first bite of it, it was simply orgasmic. Subsequent bites, however, began to cause a little nausea. Too much of a good thing, really.

CS's Mango Banana Pie was recommended by our server to be a popular dessert of their patrons. It was a much lighter dessert, compared to mine, served simply with a cup of vanilla ice cream on the side.

It was a delectable dinner, in all.

Now, I am awaiting noon so I can have my lunch treat from my senior. :P

A Year Older

Extremely self-involved people are heightened to aspects of the environment that are relevant only to themselves. Despite the rest of the world being oblivious, self-involved individuals are often sentisized to those factors just because they themselves are. The world basically exists just for themselves.

That is some psychological titbit for today, dear readers. :)

I had quite a bit of fun on Saturday night with my pals. We started out at Winebar with quite a few drinks, from bottled beers, glasses of cosmopolitan to daiquiris.





Sandy mentioned she felt a little light-headed but gamely continued to Velvet.(She hasn't much choice, has she?)



The drinking continued with several jugs of mixers. As the clock approached midnight, I returned from the washroom after a crazy bout of coughing, to find two lamborghinis waiting to be flamed, much to my dismay.

Despite my protests that I am ill and still madly coughing my guts out (Shuling can vouch for it), they insisted I finished not one, but two of them. Someone mentioned the heat is probably good for warming my throat. Yeah, right.


Yeap, that is me with the "Are you kidding me?" look on my face.


The waiter had this really sympathetic look on his face, looking as though he was sorry he had to be the one who do the flames.



After the first one was finished, I stopped slightly after sipping half of the second lamborghini, only to hear much protests once more. Sigh. I perservered. It actually tasted quite good. Warm and chocolatey, with all the Kahlua. Mmm. But you know, one has to grimace abit to show she are under duress and torture. Otherwise, evil people will make you drink more. Ha ha.


There I was, assuring the rest I was still quite fine after devouring the drinks.



We ordered another round of shooters to cheer to the uncheerable fact of turning a year older before proceeding to Phuture. The waiter who took my order for the shooters was the same guy who did the flames. 'Woah, you two flaming lamborghinis not enough ah?' he inquired. We had more bottled beers admist plenty of silly games.


So, one of the silly games we played is the one above. It is called "青蛙,青蛙,跳!" All I knew then was that Shuling kept being forfeited to drink.


Hilarious.

Sometime in the wee hours of the night, I went to the washroom with Shuling. She was looking all fine and dainty, chatting on the phone with a friend when suddenly she turned sick. Seeing her puke sobered me up and I subsequently helped her out for some rest.

Shortly, we got into the cab and I must say I was quite embarrassed to ring Shuling's doorbell and wake her mum up at 5 am in the morning.

Me: Sorry, Auntie, to wake you up.
Auntie: Aiyor! Why like that?
Me: ...
Auntie: Eh, Happy Birthday.

Isn't Auntie the sweetest? Being awokened at dawn with toussled hair and stale breath, but still remembering to wish me. What a gem. I would have bitten my own head off. Ha ha.

My birthday loot is quite amazing. It comprises of:
1) a set of rose shaped earrings and necklace
2) a pair of Asics running shoes
3) a Borders Gift Card
4) tennis apparel
5) a Zara top
6) a Swatch ring
7) a set of Bobbi Brown Lip glosses
8) a number of ang pows

Okay, if only now the credit card companies will be nice to me and waive all my bills. Dream on, me.

More photos over here.

Thank you

Hey, thanks to all my friends and nice people who bestowed me with many birthday wishes, birthday treats and birthday presents.

I am truly a very blessed girl with loving friends and family.

:)

Jimmy, My New Drummer Xiaodi

My drums class comprises of people from a variety of ages, with the youngest being two boys of age 14 years and the eldest being a Spanish woman in her late thirties.

The two boys play the drums really well and they are often seen giving each other mischievous glints of the eyes and cheeky smiles. Boys, what do you expect?

Today, however, one of the boys was home sick, leaving the other, Jimmy, to fend for himself. As he opened the door to let us (older) ladies into the studio, one of us ladies chirped "Oh, you know the rule - ladies, first."

Jimmy gave a cheeky grin and replied,"Of course. I'm a man!"

As I made my way to an available drum set, Jimmy waved me in and settled beside me. During the lesson, he would occasionally glance over and made bored faces at me. 'What's your name ah?' he questioned and I answered dutifully.

After the lesson ended, Jimmy whipped up his handphone and showed me what he has typed. "Eileen Jiejie" the screen read.

Me: Eh, spell wrongly lah.
He: Is it?
Me: Yah, mine not Christian name.
He: Oh, you correct it lah. Then you type your handphone number in as well.
Me: Wah lao. You 14 year old you wanna pick older girls up, you must use less lame excuse what.
He: What. Where got?

So I keyed in my number, he expertly snatched my phone and called to ensure I provided the correct number. Woah, experienced player, eh.

He: So where you going now?
Me: I going shopping.
He: Can follow you a not?
Me: Wah, your friend not here, you very bored is it.
He: Yah.
Me: No Girlfriend meh?
He: Got lah.
Me: Then?
He: I see until sian.
Me: HAHAHAHA.
He: You leh. Got Boyfriend a not?
Me: Don't have leh.
He: Why? Why no boyfriend???

So the interrogation went on and I decided to just leave him alone to try on some clothes. 'Eh like that I go off first lor," he uttered rather despondently. However, after a while, my handphone sounded with a SMS.

'U my jiejie. byebye. take care. have fun shopping k muackssss.'

Aiyoh. What a sweet little boy. I sms-ed him to come back so I can treat him to a meal.

Over a Mos Burger meal, I had a good time laughing at his stories. It got particularly amusing when I was to get up to take an extra spoon.

He: Let me do it. I AM A MAN. You sit.

I almost died guffawing.

What made it even more amusing was the fact that he was dishing out brotherly advice.

He: Eh, tell you. Next time play drums don't wear skirt.
Me: Huh, I am not wearing skirt today what.
He: You wear skirt, open legs step snare drums and cymbals, everything can see.
Me: I am not wearing skirt today!
He: Yah, I know. That time lah.

I think the last time I wore a skirt to drums was one month ago.

Me: Wah eh, you perverted! You looking up my skirt right!
He: No lah. Where got? Nothing to see also.

What is the world becoming to! 14 year olds... Woah.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my newly minted xiaodi.





As I made my way home on the bus, he plied me with many sms-es. He even called to check where I was.

Amazing. He will grow up to break all girls' hearts man.

*Sniff*

Ugh. I woke up today with a heavy head, stuffed nose and lots of phlegm in my throat. Darn, just when I thought I was getting better. :(

It sucks to go out with friends, see an array of fabulous food and not feel the slightest inclination to gobble them up. As my friends should know, food is one form of life's pleasure I would not live without. Thus, looking at gastronomical delights without feeling hungry is very disturbing for me indeed.

The lack of appetite materialized a few days ago, when my throat was inflamed. All I had were a combination of depressing food like eeky porridge.

Even at the movies, I had no cravings for the range of snacks available. 2 days ago, Lloyd purchased cheap movie tickets for us from his JP Morgan company and we got to catch Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest for a mere SGD4 each. Sandy and I were supposed to share a ham and cheese sandwich but I happily surrendered my share. I just had no appetite.

Thankfully, one thing during the movies was appetizing.


Ah, Johnny Depp. The only Hollywood actor around that mildly interests me.

After the movie, I was obligated by my mother's instructions to check out her boss's son's new Latin Bar called Fuego. It is located at No. 5 Gemmill Lane, off Club Street. The invitation card looked mighty spiffy so I thought I would bring the lot of my friends down to check the place out. Gerald, the co-owner of the place, was nice enough to welcome us with a free bottle of champagne (which I didn't really drink much of.) Sandy, had quite a few glasses of champagne and began to get rather light-headed.

Overall, it can be quite a quaint place to chill out, with Latin sounds. A nice change from the usual hip-hop, rock, house music they usually play in clubs.





For some reason, Cynthia got into a mood for dancing and cajoled us to head down to Zouk. Zouk! On a Wednesday?! That's for kids lah. How many donkey years ago since we attended Mambo?

Despite our feeble protests, 6 of us squashed into the car and headed for the club, only to witness throngs of people huddling outside. The horrors. No queues please, I requested. We decided to detour and head to Butterfactory instead. It was Ladies' Night. Woo hoo. I really tried hard to soak up the atmosphere but inside my head, a sensible voice is weakly straining the last of its voice for me to go home and head to bed.

Bah.

Late yesterday afternoon, I kept my promise and accompanied WF to JB to buy a pair of new spectacles, although I wasn't recovered fully still. He very generously treated me to a splendid spread of seafood for dinner, of which, again, I haven't much appetite. Very clever hor. Next time you wanna treat people, go JB. Cheaper.

Look at the food we ordered...


Look at the mess he created...


As the bus took us back to Bugis in Singapore, I adjourned to meet Lloyd and Cynthia at Bala's. Another late night. Not very healthy.

I wish my damn nose will unstuck.

*Sniff*

My Faithful Visitor

I have been running a temperature since this morning because of my awful throat inflammation. My throat hurts so much that I declined to eat or drink anything.

As I laid on my bed, semi-comatosed from the drowsiness effects of mum-prescribed medicine, Mister Toto regularly came around the bed to stick his snout at me. If I were asleep and had opened my eyes to look at him, he would give a crazy wag of his tail, with a quizzical look that expresses 'Hey, are you all right?'.

After nuzzling his snout against me, he would obediently settle himself by the edge of the bed and survey anybody that goes near.

Isn't he the sweetest?

Out of Shape

My throat hurts. My feet hurts.

Ah, the fatigue.

So, Sandy and I went to participate in Singapore's first Women-only run at Marina Promenade, organized by Shape Magazine. Sandy sensibly participated in the 5km run, while I stupidly signed up for the 10-km run. I noted that whatever race I am in, I would always be in the minority. During the San Jose Marathon with the Berkeley people, I was one of the rare few that took part in the 5-km run. This time, the 10-km runners were the minority. Sheesh. A display of my jinxedness, eh?




I separated from Sandy to join the 700 10-km runners who have to be flagged off first. I usually run in the cool of the night, so the glare of the merciless 8 am sun was really a pain in the ass. Nevertheless, the first 4km were tolerable.

At the 7km-mark, my stitch worsened and my knees started acting up. Bah, I started striding instead. :(

And as we all know, once you start striding, the momentum is broken and the tendency to stride will prevail more than ever. Ditto.

I am weak. Sigh.

Anyway, my timing was a miserable 1 Hour 10 Minutes. So much for hitting under the hour mark.

After the race


I wonder if the wine-guzzling the night before had anything to do with the poor performance. (Ha, ha, excuses.)

After shopping at Bugis, we trawled the way back to Boat Quay and subsequently ended up at a very nice, quaint wine place. We had 2 bottles of wine, a cheese platter and some nachos, before trying hard to obey the rule to go to bed before midnight for the race on Sunday. (Obviously, we failed. I went to bed at 1 am.)







Oh, oh! I met Catherine briefly at Bugis and I had a nice time catching up, although it was a tad short. I wish you all the best in your career!

Friday night was reserved for Emmie, the birthday babe of the day. She was supposed to curb my shopping but my shopping prowess was too overpowering, she ended up buying a storm as well. Ha ha ha. No girl can resist my persuasive shopping powers, sadly.

We had dinner and an excellent time catching up over some Jazz at Intercontinental.


Happy Birthday, Girl, once again. :)

Sometimes, Evils Go Unpunished

Now, read this.

As the world reacts disdainly at Zidane's disgraceful action, I personally think the man that deserves some punishment is going scot-free. I am disgusted that he was one of those who was able to touch the trophy. Of course, I am talking about Materazzi.

He ought to be sent off the field as well. The Italians played well at the first half, the French were reasonable at the second. I have nothing against the teams. Personally, I do not think that Zidane's comment of "If you really want my shirt I'll give it to you afterwards" is provoking enough to render an insult from Materazzi.

Sometimes, evils just go unpunished. Just like Cristiano Ronaldo in the Rooney saga. Let's hope karma somehow claws its way back to them.

I still respect Zidane. It is only human to err, especially where one is supremely exhausted.

Marvellous Monday

With hardly enough sleep from the weekend activities, I dragged myself out from bed to school for a morning seminar. For someone who is as jinxed as me, who is prone to watching buses leave the moment I reached the bus stop, who helpless look at elevator doors close as I near, whose toast always land buttered-side-up, I must say this Monday hinted a slightly different trend.

The first signs emerged when I left the house and caught the elusive bus just in time. The shuttle bus within the campus arrived just as I alighted from the first bus.

The seminar was quite enjoyable and I breezed through it without feeling sleepy at all! Amazing.

When I returned to my laboratory, I checked my phone for missed calls and text messages. Apparently, Candice informed me that she has FREE TICKETS TO COLDPLAY!

OMFG. I stopped breathing for a moment.

If she were in front of me, I would have kissed her!

So, from then on, I was delirious with joy. Never mind the stupid traffic jams that plagued the highways all the way to the venue. Never mind the lack of food the Nokia Premiere offered. Never mind I have an impending stressful early-morning meeting the next day.

We headed for the Nokia Premiere at Oregon Restaurant for some food. I had a glass of wine despite my own reminders to stay away from alcohol. I think I might have overworked my liver during the weekend.





At about 830pm, we decided to look for our seats. The crowd was increasing by the minute.




20 minutes later, the lights went off and the stadium went wild.


COLDPLAY!!!



My favorite part was when Chris Martin started warbling "Yellow". Chris Martin danced uncannily like the lead singer in Maroon 5.


Oh, and the way he plays the piano is sooooo alluring! Very sexy... *Smacks lips*

I had a wonderful, wonderful time. Thanks a million, Candice! :)

Oh, the marvels of this Monday continued as we went for supper at Chomp Chomp. For some reasons unknown, the plate of greasy Hokkien Prawn Noodles and sticks of delectable satay were able to make both of us extremely contented.

Mmm.

I'm happy! Hee Hee Hee.

Rachel

My cousin, Rachel, came to visit last Friday. She is a superfan of Mister Toto and is willing to save up her pocket money to buy doggie treats just for him. Despite her continuous stomping on my bed and never-ending interrogation, she can be the most adorable girl.

Rachel was diagnosed with a mild autistic condition. She used to be terrified of being photographed. For some reason that day, she discovered my camera and it became her new toy instantly.

Smile! I said. And she did.


What shall we do next, I asked.
Mmm, she pondered carefull. Let's stick out our tongues!
And we did.


Now what shall we do next, she inquired, as if it was a game.
How about we act like we are the happiest people in the world, I offered.
Okay! She agreed enthusiastically.


Right. Maybe we needn't act after all. We could be the happiest persons in the world at the moment. :)

Goldilocks?

This morning, I woke up, sleepy-eyed and headed towards the kitchen, straight for the refrigerator for some milk, right smack into a familiar children's tale.



Instructions by Mum read:

Yee Lin (That is me)/ Ah Yong (That is my brother)
Microwave the curry and cover with plate for 20-30 seconds.
(1) Blue bowl for Ah Kong
(2) Small bowl for Y.L.
(3) Big bowl for Ah Yong

Mmm. Interesting. So I scavenged around for curries.



Wala! Small bowl of curry for baby bear (That is me!) Medium bowl of curry for mother bear (Which turns out to be for Ah Kong aka Grandfather). Huge-ass bowl ofcurry for papa bear (But here it is for my brother).

How come my bowl of curry so small! See lah, my mother is biased.

Ah, I feel like Goldilocks.