Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Right, the bills are starting to really annoy me. I have monthly bills, semi-annual bills (the big stuff - life insurance and road tax), and lately,
annual bills - income tax and motor insurance. What a PITA. Shall try to see if I can make them into monthly things that get deducted automatically instead.
Anyway, I did something really bad. I somehow ended up on call for my birthday, so to make up for it in advance, I bought another hedgie yesterday (much to the chagrin of Yx and my mom). It's a male, and I named him Wally to rhyme with Molly. He's not as friendly as Molly though. Not fair!! Yx gets to pick hers up! Wally spikes up at me. =( Oh well .. I'm not too fussed about handling them anyway.
Wenky
11:36 PM
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White asparagus season is here!! Chanced upon a bundle of them at Cold Storage, and MY ... was I ever so tempted. I'm going to try a new recipe this weekend, so if the asparagus are still there, they're MINE. Muahahahaha. Found a lovely grocer's too, online - greengrocer.com.sg
They really do sell some of the nicest cuts which are cheaper than what you'd get normally, but it all still adds up to quite a bit.
Had quite a day yesterday. Received a call in the middle of a meeting - an emergency Caesar was starting and my boss needed assistance, so I got out of the meeting and got changed to go in. As I walked out, my reg and another boss started rushing towards me. Before I knew what was happening, I was whisked into
another OT for a crash caesar instead. So I thought, "Heck, I'll just prep this crash caesar quickly, then pop by the OT next door to assist boss." But as things would have it, I was asked to stay and help till closing-up. By the time I went off to the correct OT, I found no boss, no patient, no baby - boss had finished up with the emergency caesar, all by himself.
SHIIIIT.
Wenky
6:37 AM
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Let's do small talk. Have a stack of letters, appointments, bills etc to sort out, but I'm going to forget about them for now.
Some stuff happened over the weekend - granted, I spent almost 80% of it shopping for groceries and cooking (had to scour a few places for that elusive artichoke), but it was time well-spent. First off, my bed finally collapsed on me. (Actually, it collapsed
under me). Mom promptly got rid of it before my DIY-maniac dad came home to try and fix it, so now I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I ain't complaining though, and neither is Brownie!
Kind of disappointed with Scanteak. The bed's supposed to be made of teak, but sure to hell it isn't. Teak doesn't splinter in this way, nor does it go to pieces when hit using a hammer by a woman.
Had some friends over too! Vincent and I had a fetish for chilli crabs over the last couple of weeks, and decided to do some sort of end-of-posting party at the same time. Of course, Yx did the chilli crabs. And honestly I think it turned out even better than the previous time, if that's possible! Dawn, Rita - when's our turn?!??? Potluck?? =D
Some pics!
Other than the chilli crab - which had the place of honour in that big bowl - we also came up with thin crust pizza, stuffed artichoke and crayfish wraps with mango and mustard sprouts. The wraps were a huge fiasco though. I couldn't find really great crayfish anywhere and had to settle with sub-quality ones, the wraps refused to roll properly without splitting, and I over-marinated the crayfish in wine - which caused it to taste quite medicinal.
Crayfish soaking in white wine and fresh sage - I left it in the fridge for HOURS and forgot all about it!
Reducing the mango in its own sauce. Surprisingly, the marriage of crayfish and mango was
perfect. Next time though, it'll need just a touch of cinnamon.
Preparing the artichokes was quite a pain. It was yummy though, and we had a hollandaise sauce dip to go with it.
Stuffed the artichoke with breadcrumbs, bacon, portabello and cheese.
Drinks, friends and laughter. I really think that's what life is about.
Wenky
6:56 AM
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
SwampedI need to sit down and do work for once. It's like walking straight ahead without really knowing what's happening. Difficult to do it this week, I'm really and truly swamped. Most of today is essentially gone, I'm on call tomorrow. Perhaps, if I can keep my eyes open, I'll go without my post-call sleep and really finish up outstanding tasks. We all need the luxury of time.
Wenky
6:53 AM
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
Thanks to the generosity of a colleague, I was able to take Saturday off this week. Working today though, wish me luck! Went for lessons in the afternoon (during which I was hair-whipped and then elbowed) and headed down to Timbre after to celebrate Andrew & Shi Yun's birthdays.
The branch we went to was at Armenian street. I had lamb rack, while Yx took the seafood pizza (it was HUGE!). Unfortunately, the lamb rack was just barely passable. It was slightly undercooked and flavourless. It came with a slightly-too-thick herb crust, which gave it the feel of being deep-fried rather than seared quickly. Pizza was good though - I liked the really thin crust, and also the presentation (it came on a huge wooden tile instead of a plate). Even though they came with some odd ?herbed butter/tartar sauce instead of blue cheese dip, the Buffalo Wings there are some of the better ones in town I think.
Service was
impeccable. I must have used up to 8 serviettes last night, but they were all discreetly removed by the attentive waiters within minutes of touching the table. They were always available but yet unobtrusive (why do I keep thinking of Dobby at this time?) and offered to fill our glasses with the shared jugs of margaritas. I was impressed.
As an aside, I was however offered lamb (lime) margarita at one point in time. The band is also something to go there for, the one we had that night was called the Goodfellas, and they are available on Thurs and Sat at 9.45pm. Good talent.
Anna, who just came here from Germany, had the (mis)fortune of having to eat durian-flavoured birthday cake! Surprisingly, she actually liked it.
Shall end here with some pics of Molly =)
Wenky
6:42 AM
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Friday, April 11, 2008
Reality checkReceived a couple of stuff through email and regular mail yesterday - emails from my next department with a load of information on department selection, leave forecast, traineeships etc, and a loan repayment statement from CPF. Scary. Unbelievable, but things are going to get yet again more complicated from here on.
Wenky
6:28 AM
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Skin DeepI wonder how much of ourselves people actually see. Or even, how much
we ourselves can see. Don't quite know why I'm so consumed with this tonight. Maybe it's the ease at which I sometimes say to myself that certain people are just too boring or stereotypical, up to the point where it just isn't worth knowing more about them (because there simply
isn't any more to learn about.) And yet there are those that hold so much intrigue that you yearn to collect as many snippets of information about them as possible. Perhaps it's how much you actually let known?
***
Brainstorming on some stuff to cook up soon. Chilli crab is one that's confirmed, but for the rest of it I only have a list of ingredients. Let's see:
Slipper lobsters ("crayfish", we call them locally) - I'd love to get some yabbies or maine lobsters, but the former is impossible to get locally and latter's way too extravagant.
Zucchini flowers - I don't see how on earth I can get my hands on some, short of growing zucchini myself.
Maybe a trip to the fish wholesale market is in order.
***
MeadHave a fresh batch of leatherwood honey mead fermenting right now. Made it extra-concentrated - 1 litre of honey in 1 gallon of water, aiming for a late-harvest wine sweetness and thickness this time. OK, I actually cheated a little. Had to add some wildflower honey so that it reaches a decent S.G. Doubt it'll be ready in time for any of the feasts, but at least it's working out. Used Red Star's Pasteur Champagne yeast this time, maybe it'll make a difference! The new yeast is super-aggressive, it's been bubbling like mad for the past week. Now, I still have my 30 litre fermenter sitting around (soaked in bleach right now - for the past week, actually). Giant batch of mead? I'll probably wait for the leatherwood to be half-done, steal a sip, and see if the new recipe works first. And I do need to look for cheaper sources of exotic honeys in bulk.
***
Other Side of the WorldSome belated photographs of our weekend stay at Merchant Court.
Was on call last Saturday, and decided to go up to the level 9 lounge for a rest. A huge window (full length from ceiling to floor) opens out to a fantastic view over Chinatown, and all of a sudden I realised that just 1 week ago, I had that same view - over from Merchant Court. Not a nice feeling, looking out from the other side of the world.
Nice view of Clarke Quay
Breakfast the next day. "Why the hell is there frog in that porridge?"
OK, I made that up.
Molly sleeping like a pig. No wonder my mom keeps calling her "the pig".
Wenky
11:58 PM
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Monday, April 07, 2008
Of Big Cats and Air
Finally had the chance to test out the new Macbook Air, at the expense of my post-call sleep, of course. It is GOOD. Really ultra-thin, and very light - there are lighter computers out there for sure, but they're usually shrunken-down midgets with 7" screens and tiny keyboards. We're talking about a full-sized laptop here. Just a couple of downsides - there is only 1 USB port, and it isn't as fast as Macs go. Granted, with the improved touchpad that lets you do stuff like resizing and rotating and zooming in, a mouse is pretty obsolete, but it would have been sweet if it had 2 USBs. The speed is actually alright if you're using it strictly as what it was designed for - portability - but it'll be a tad difficult to run Photoshop + iPhoto with thousands of photo files at the same time, I'm guessing.
If I had to have just the one portable machine, that'd be it. Unfortunately I'm using my laptop as a desktop most of the time. Still enthralled by the iMac, and thinking of saving up for one. And the new OS is so sweet! I like the Spaces thing and Coverflow best of all. Argh ... this is s bad for the soul.
Anyway, I had one hell of a bad call. Anyone came across abruptio placentae in labour during their posting before? It was so sick. Foetal bradycardia and distress, and thankfully the os was full. Baby was blue when it came out though, and by some strange smattering of luck the neonatology consultant happened to be in hospital at 3am.
Wenky
6:38 AM
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Saturday, April 05, 2008
Another one of those days. Trying not to feel too bad about it, plus I'm bringing my turtle soft toy - the call room is just way too bland and foreign-feeling. Wish me bedsores and acute retention of urine!
Handphone's acting up these days, shall have to send it in to check.
List of yucky stuff to be done:
1) File tax return - I was worried that I need to wait for a password to e-file, then I realised that I already have a SingPass. Neat. BTW, any idea if we get tax relief for tuition in 2007?
2) Send in phone for checkup
3) Settle some insurance matters. Can't remember exactly what.
Nice stuff to be done:
1) Repot plants
2) Re-install batteries for auto irrigator
3) Come up with menu for parties - I have 2 coming up!! =)
4) Subscribe to a couple of new magazines. I so love having magazines delivered via post.
Right, this is keeping me slightly cheered up. Oooh, and I stumbled across this website -
Cozycot - it's a girl forum, but it's so entertaining. Amusing to see how girls can actually bitch this much.
Wenky
6:07 AM
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