Enomatic

Since it's Vesak Day today, and we're all off work, Suspension Girl, RT and I met up for some wine sampling at "Enomatic" last evening. Actually, the place is called "Corner Stone", and enomatic (I think) is an adjective for the wine sampling process. Something like a degustation menu for food. However, because Suspension Girl told us the place was called "Enomatic", we walked the stretch of Robertson Walk at least 3 times before we eventually found it.

The sampling system's pretty cool. You purchase a stored value card, and then you proceed to the chillers to select the type of wine you wanna try. You can opt for a 25ml sampling capacity, 50ml or 100ml. Above the wine bottles, there's an indication of the cost of each glass and the capacity you select. You press it, and the selected wine is dispensed.

Thanks to Suspension Girl, who had some voucher from a play she had attended, we got a stored value card with $100 credit for just $60. So amdist our chatter and laughter, the 3 of us sampled about $60 worth of wine, accompanied with a cheese platter.

Think we will do this again when Shades of Pink and BFC are in town. And of course, Ah Guan who flew us aeroplane today.

And Suspension Girl, you have to find a way to reduce the cost of the Brazil trip. Ten grand is way too much la!

My Best Friend's Wedding

The bestie got married yesterday!

I've always wondered why brides have no time to rest amidst the shuffling between the homes and the hotel. I got my answer yesterday. As the maid of honour, I was up at 6 in the morning, was kept extremely busy all the way till midnight, and got my beauty sleep only at 1am! It's amazing how time flew. The whole day was just a mad rush from one place to another.

Nevertheless, being the maid of honour was fun, albeit a little tiring and stressful.

To my bestie, I wish you and your man a wonderful and blissful life together. For now, enjoy Koh Samui! :)

Sick Office Air

It's been exactly a month, and I'm back on these. Again. The exact same meds, except that now, I have the additional cough mixture and painkillers.

The cause of my ailments?

Before I saw the doctor, I had put it down to the flu bug that's been going around. After consultation with the doctor, I couldn't agree more with her that it had to do with the office. :)

Doc: So what's wrong with you today?

Purples: Think I'm coming down with the flu. Whole body's aching and any movement of the head causes dizziness.

Doc: Ah. Ok, let's see, open your mouth and say "Ah".

I did as I was told.

Doc: Yes, the flu's starting. Mid week now. By the end of the week, you'll have it full blown.

Purples: It's been exactly a month huh?

Doc: Yes, it has. Well, it's what we call "sick office air"...

SICK OFFICE AIR! Hmmmm. Sounds pretty logical. Each morning, the minute I set foot in the office, I feel sick. Or I see certain people, I feel sick.

Doc: .... the air-conditioning, poor ventilation of recycled air, the fact that the vents are not cleaned often enough.

Huh? That's it? Ventilation problem? Cannot be la! I'm usually not in the office you know. I strongly believe it has to do with the people or the air in the office.

Cooking Girl, Ms Troublesome, Digital Curls: BEWARE! Especially Digital Curls, you very near one of the sick air parts of the office you know. hahahaha

My Funny Cousin

Slightly more than a month ago while eating steamboat in Vietnam, Kayestercan and Dr RMM commented that the steamboat at Tiong Bahru was just as good.

So this evening, the four of us headed there for dinner. Not too bad but the soup not that spicy leh. So here's how the order went:

RT: 2 plates of beef, wanton, tang orh, puay leng, fish glue

Kayestercan: cuttlefish, liver, sausage

RT: What else ah?

Kayestercan: Luncheon meat.

Luncheon meat? Who orders luncheon meat for steamboat??? Turns out the luncheon meat was quite nice la.

After dinner, while having dessert at Zion Road, I asked her if she could move her ears. She said she could but I could only see eyebrows moving you know. So funny!

Then I asked her of she could invert her eyelids into that cockle looking thing. She's never seen it before, but DR RMM commented that in his profession, sometimes, he has to do that to patients to check for foreign bodies.

Kayestercan: Ee. Can you imagine you flip your eyelid, then your whole body is inside?

Purples: Huh? What you mean? What whole body inside?

Kayestercan: He said must check for foreign bodies what!

Purples: ??!!??

Keeping Each Other Grounded

Met the girls last Friday, and we headed to the club for dinner. There were us 3 and then there was RT, who joined us for a SECOND round of dinner! Tsk, tsk, very greedy... but the bahu (pork floss) pizza was yummy!


Well anyway, after dinner, RT headed off to the TV area to watch Mars & Venus (tsk. tsk, very aunty), while the 3 of us headed to Eve's Corner. Eve's corner's quite cool. It's filled with sofas and massage chairs - a room purely for relaxing and sleeping. BFC took the non-massage-but-can-incline-to sleeping-position chair (sorry but I really dunno what the chair's called); Shades of Pink tried out the massage chair; and I sat on the very normal but comfy sofa. And then we started our usual catch-up session. It was good cos we had the whole room to ourselves. It's amazing how we've stuck together for a good eleven years (already!) despite our differences and all, but like what Shades of Pink said, "We keep each other grounded".

Very well said. The three of us. We all have our differences, our idiosyncrasies, our strengths and weaknesses which are displayed and brought out in different phases of life. We've seen them all (or most of them) from college days to university days to the present, where each of us are kept busy juggling career, relationships, families and what have you. Yet we still try to make time to meet up and make sure we know what's happening in each others' lives. We share our joys, trials and tribulations, and offer opinions, solutions and support where possible. In a world where problems never cease to exist, we keep each other sane.

Hey, the both of you, thanks for being such great pals whom I know I can count on anytime!

To The Vet in UK, Happy 29th!

Goulash!

Doesn't that sound like a swear word or something you exclaim when you get a shock? Like "Oh my gosh!" or "Goodness gracious!".

It's actually a dish Birdkeeper whipped up this evening for RT and I. Beef Goulash. Pasta with marinated beef cubes, carrots, bell pepper, corn, onions and served with a dollop of sour cream. Delicious.

Now I'm back home catching the FA cup final between Chelsea and Man U. Goulash! No score so far!!!! Can Chelsea please change that?

English 101

Because I cannot stand it anymore and it's really an ear sore!

1) I will _____ with her and get back to you.
a) discuss b) discussed c) discussing


2) Please grab a _____ so that you can sit and chat with me.
a) stool b) stood c) spoon


3) The dress is too long. I need to _____ it.
a) alter b) alternate c) amend


4) We need to have more _______ for this event.
a) enthusiasm b) enthuasm c) elephants


5) An octagon is an ______ - sided figure.
a) eight b) egg c) elbow


The answers are simple right? The (a)s are the correct answers.

Somehow, there are people (it could just as well be just one person la) who choose option (b)s, be it spoken or written. How that happens is beyond me.

Perhaps more interaction with this person(s) will help me assimilate and move into that mode. Afterall, I spend almost half my waking time with these people. Maybe then I can explain it to you the english how come liddat. hahahahha

Mothers' Day

Food overdose.

That very aptly sums up my weekend.

After a week of planning via email, the cousins held a potluck dinner at Kayestercan's house to celebrate Mothers' Day. As with most of our pot luck parties, it was a fusion of east and west. On the eastern side, there was char siew, duck meat, ngor hiang, hokkien mee and char kway teow. Then there was the very western quiche, chicken casserole and potato salad. There was also the very peranakan buah keluak and chap chye. It was really too much food. And then of course, there was the home made Mothers' Day cake, compliments of Geri.


Sunday's dinner with RT's family was another session of food overdose. After the big portion of pho we had for lunch, and the vietnamese rice paper roll (which I ate most of cos RT hates the mint leaves inside), I was really too stuffed to eat anymore. But I did, cos the buffet spread was just irresistable. Japanese, Koerean, Chinese, Thai.

Now I need to run.

To all the mothers out there, "Happy Mothers' Day!" and a big "Thank You" for all you've done and all the sacrifices you've made. :)

The Dogcat

Here are some of the comments I get about my dog:

- So cute. Like panda you know!

- So round and so fat. Shih Tzu meh?

- Look like the lion from the lion dance. Mini one.

- Your dog looks like a gremlin.

- So cute! Like a Furby

- Floor Rug! Come Floor Rug!

- RT calls him The Rambutan and occassionally The Crysanthemum Head.



Judging from his new obsession in the pictures above, I think he might just be a cat. :)

Unplugged

Purple's phone rings.

Ms Irrinoying: Eh, Purples, can you give me ALL the advertisers for ALL the sites for this particular period?

Purples: You need to have an idea what kind of site you want. I have a lot of spaces available.

Ms Irrinoying: You give me all can? Cos client asked for it.

Client ask you to eat shit, you eat or not?? Unreasonable. Stupid.

Purples: Clients' buys are confidential. I can't reveal their campaign details, but I can tell you what's available.

Ms Irrinoying: Ok, can. can give me all that's available so I can give options to the client. Can send within the next hour?

All?? We servicing you alone only issit?? Don't send now you will die issit?



Purple's phone rings

Ms Irrinoying: Purps ah, I just sent you an email. You received or not?

Purples: Nope. Not yet.

Ms Irrinoying: Hmmm....I sent about 10 mins ago leh. I send again.

Purples: ok.

2 minutes later....

Ms Irrinoying: Eh Purps, have you received the email?

Purples: Nope.

Ms Irrinoying: Funny. Is there something wrong with your email?

Purples: Dunno. But I have no problems receiving other external mails.

This went on for awhile till the email finally came in. I ended up with 4 emails from her. Each 4MB in size. And she wonders why it took so long. Sheesh. And how well do you know me har, to call me by a short form??



Cooking Girl's phone rings.

Ms Irrinoying: Cooking Girl, can you give me the availability of all these places for the whole year?

Cooking Girl: ALL these places for the WHOLE year? Don't you have a brief which has more in-depth details?

Ms Irrinoying: Erm, ya, but I need to provide client with options.

I say again, client ask you to eat shit you eat ah?

Cooking Girl: Mmm. Ok.

Ms Irrinoying: Can send now?

Cooking Girl: You've to give me some time to check since you want ALL the sites for the WHOLE year.

2 minutes later, the phone rings.....

Ms Irrinoying: Cooking girl ah, what is the cost of this ah? And that leh?

Cooking Girl: I thought I've given it to you before? Anyway, it's all in the rate book.

Ms Irrinoying: I know I know. But I'm waiting for your email so that I can send it out to client.

Cooking Girl: Ok. I'm in the midst of the email now.

1 minute later, the phone rings again.

Ms Irrinoying: Eh Cooking Girl, I checked. Cannot find in the rate book leh!

Cooking Girl: Then can you gimme 5 mins to get the email out???

This is the same girl who leaves a missed call on our mobiles. A minute later, we get another missed call from her. And then another and another in the next few minutes until our phones display 10 missed calls in a span of 15 minutes!!! Somebody tell me just what she is thinking??? How come people like this exist?

Well anyway, she really irritated the hell outta Cooking Girl today. After repeated ringing of her phone, I heard the volume of her voice gradually increasing, and then this....

Haha. It was damn funny. But for all her laziness and stupidity and no-use of her brain, Ms Irrinoying deserves all the shit and sarcasm we throw her. I could give you more examples, but I shan't waste my time.

Chicken Rice & Mahjong Sesh

It's been a while since I played mahjong. Half a year, maybe? So I got back into it, and, like a seow char bo, had 3 sessions of it in a span of the week.

Today, we started at 4pm. Alien Head, The Officer, The Officer's Wife and myself. Birdkeeper had very kindly agreed to prepare dinner, so he was busy in the kitchen from 4pm. All this while, from the mahjong table, we could hear the sound of sharpening knives and the clanging of pots and pans until we whiffed the fragance of the food he had whipped up at 7pm.

Here's what the chef made...


Chicken rice. All from scratch, except for the century eggs which he had gotten from the famous Yung Kee in Hong Kong. I don't usually eat the yolks of these eggs, but these were surprisingly odourless!

And then of course, there was one of his signature dessert - Chocolate Torte. Yummers.

I know I'm trying my luck, but I'll ask again anyways..."can give recipe or not?".

Korean BBQ & Rubbish Talk

Dinner today was exceptionally late at 9pm because:

1) BFC had to head back to town (while on her way to meet me) to claim her discount that wasn't given as promised

2) Alien Head was being difficult about being invited to dinner even though he had bumped into BFC in town and she had asked him to join us.

3) I was finishing up a mahjong session

Anyway, it was supposed to be just us three (Shades of Pink, Purples, BFC), but we ended up in the company of RT, Birdkeeper and Alien Head (after he managed to squeeze an invitation outta me) as well. Which was just as well, cos we sure had a lot of fun talking rubbish, laughing, eating eating, eating, eating, eating and eating at "Ju shin Jong Korean Charcoal BBQ".

We really just ate and ate and ate and ate.

Barbecued beef, barbecued pork, barbecued chicken, bibimbap, spicy beef soup, spicy tofu soup and a LOT of appetisers. There was kimchi, pickled salad, pickled sotong, tofu, potato sald, dumpling, fish cake, and kimchi water. All free flow except for the dumpling. Mostly yummy; everyone had something they liked and ordered a lot of, except for the kimchi water, which everyone couldn't stomach, citing that it tasted like longkang water or kimchi sai zui (kimchi shit water). Tsk. It's supposed to be good for digestion, you all know or not? My favourite must be the kimchi - the best kimchi I've tasted here.

Oh, right before dinner, we were served these.

Now, make an intelligent guess. What are they?

BFC, Birdkeeper and Shades of Pink thought they were appetisers. RT, Alien Head and I thought they were solid fuel (which I believe was the more intelligent guess).

All in all, it was good food, good company, good rubbish conversations ... we should do this again peeps.

For those of you who like Korean cuisine, you should check this place out. It's at East Coast, just above Burger King. Next to Waraku. It used to be the bowling centre.

Ok, those little white things above? You gotta add a little water to them...

... and then they become these... hand towels!