Tweets for Today

• 07:01 had a good night's rest - i think the martini and beer helped :)
• 09:04 @sling - yes we'll definitely go to shultzy's
• 12:24 Hanging out at Bakery Nouveau with Linda in West Seattle
• 16:19 home... feeling yukky... too much food all day today
• 19:21 Off to Maneki for dinner with Julie S., Eric and Sasha
• 21:58 had a nice dinner @ maneki... we're out of ice-cream at home :(
• 23:19 in bed playing scrabulous and watching earlier tonight's survivor

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Tweets for Today

• 07:38 just 'unfriended' a dumbass 'friend' on facebook
• 10:09 bored...!
• 10:37 getting ready to go out somewhere... any bloody where!
• 14:31 home after gallivanting around downtown and drinking a large freshly sqeezed oj... yum!
• 14:39 playing scrabulous and feeling sleeeeeeeeepy
• 19:17 Located group - and coincidentally Bruce bumped into an old friend
• 21:21 Had a nice time with Dana. Now on the way to Shultzys
• 22:45 home... happy with my wings tho' i still miss those from purple dot in i.d
• 22:56 bedtime! ok... tv time... then bed - wow it's almost 11pm!

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Tweets for Today

• 06:51 omg almost 7am... better get read for the lunch my friends are coming over for lol
• 08:21 slooow start to the morning...
• 08:29 @frankarr - LOL you deserve it LOL
• 10:20 @frankarr - i meant you deserve being in the doghouse after the help-a-friend-incident lol i TOTALLY relate :D
• 10:46 having a good day... hope we get tix to australia today so i won't have to stress about it anymore...
• 14:08 @frankarr - by hook or by crook we're making it down under; even if i have to swim LOL
• 14:09 our friends just left our house... now waiting to see if julie s. is coming over after work...
• 18:39 up from a nice long nap hee hee
• 19:25 what to have for dinner?
• 22:22 home from dinner at tsukushimbo with julie s.

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Sorry!

Now that we're all settled in the Pacific Northwest, we're happy and everything is going great! However, the one thing I can't seem to have control over is the way my friends and family deal with the time difference... lol! West coast time is just a little more tricky to deal with too! It's funny to me but not so funny to the husband :D Ever since I left home as a teenager, I've been bad about letting people call me at odd hours of the night. Of course, I've never been all that great a sleeper so I would sometimes make calls back to Singapore at wee hours of the morning.

It's now 6:15am and earlier in the morning at about 5:20am, my cellphone went off. It was my sister-in-law back home... she seemed shocked that I was still sleeping but I think it's 'coz she'd calculated central time, so it would have been 8:20am and yes, me sleeping at 8:20am is unheard of. I woke up a little more as the minutes went by and low and behold, the land line rings at 5:50am lol (again, not so funny to the king I'm sure). I kid you not! My girlfriend called from Singapore right before heading to bed so I had to cut the conversation short since I was still on the phone with my sil. These two people always call on the same day, and like today, sometimes the calls are minutes apart from each other. Weird huh!?

Like I said, I really don't mind people calling me at odd hours. I kind of enjoy it really. It's past 6am now so it's time to wake up anyway... just thought I'd apologize to the husband here before he gives me his 'wtf-look' later this morning when he wakes up... or he might forget all about it and I'll conveniently 'forget' to apologize lol!

Tweets for Today

• 07:45 nice to wake up to some serious clouds FINALLY
• 08:41 cleaning and doing laundry... just a slow relaxing morning...
• 10:16 i hate cleaning and i hate american maids - excuse me, cleaning women arrgh
• 11:57 hanging out at home... just had heh bee hiam sandwich for lunch YUM
• 13:03 off gallivanting :)
• 14:46 didn't get very far... home again...
• 19:23 made gruyere in chicken pesto paninis for dinner... now watching tv
• 21:06 had a super funny and nice chat with julie t. (as usual)

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Maid Woes... AGAIN

Yes again! If you're new to this blog, you can read this past entry to catch up on the news regarding cleaning ladies in my life lol!

I'm really beginning to think it's ME! I mean, I move to a new state and they're still flaky! WTF!? Arrgh! So we get one here who comes every week to clean the apartment. With all the surrounding construction, this place gets impossibly dusty! ...so she's ok with cleaning but she's certainly safe since she cleans other condos in this building and her husband is the building manager.

First day, she calls the morning of to say she's sick and to postpone to the next day. No problem. I understand people don't know they're sick until they are sick - none of that dentist/doctor, call within 24 hours to postpone/cancel or pay $50... yeah like people know they're going to be sick ahead of time... so I figured I would see her the next day. Well, I did but she called the next morning saying she had car problems and would come in 2 hours later. Ok... I'm feeling the shifty-cleaning-lady syndrome already but I'm still understanding enough to smile and deal with it. Hey at least someone wants to clean the bloody place for me - sure at a fee but it's still worth it! She does make it, she does an ok job, actually asks me how I like my bed done (which was a good start)... so she wreaks of cigarette smoke but oh well, at least she removes her shoes when she cleans... she's slow tho'... she takes the same time to clean this 1200 sq ft place as long as Tracey (the infamous but the best cleaning lady I've had, Tracey) to clean our 4500 sq ft home lol! But I'm not complaining... even tho' the new one is being paid by the hour. Hmmm...

She came a third time while we were out and a few days before the fourth time, I get an email saying she's had back spasms and has to go for an MRI... but she insists that she enjoys cleaning for us and would like to keep the job. Ok... fine... a week later I get another email to say her doc says to take another week off. Ok... so it's been two weeks and this Thursday will make the third and I have not heard from her yet if she's coming...

I just cleaned the house and I'm not a happy camper. I hate cleaning and seeing all the dust fly around me!! I hate cleaning(!) but I want our home to be spotless (something we Singaporean women all laughed and agreed with on the night of the Singaporean Party... that's the price we pay for ALL having grown up with maids at home). So I've cleaned, changed the bloody sheets (I hate changing sheets 'coz it makes me sweat... yes I hate to sweat btw), vacuumed (I hate vacuuming more than I hate changing sheets), clean the guest bath (omg I think I hate cleaning bathrooms MOST of all!!!) and then at the same time, dealt with laundry - the easiest task I can imagine and I do enjoy that... in fact, I love doing laundry... no kiddin'!

So I've just shot an email to the current, almost non-existent cleaning lady. Not a mean one... just to say 'hello?! I need to know what's going on...' but not in those words obviously lol! She's got 48 hours to write me back or I'm getting someone new. Of course I've asked the concierge already and he gave me the name of a man... a male cleaning dude?! Hmmm... ok, this is Seattle... I suppose if they had a skinny (but omg super strong) women move our incredibly heavy furniture into the house, then what's the big deal with having a man clean my home right!? ...I'll keep you updated on this on a later date...

Tweets for Today

• 08:31 annoyed with slow scrabulous players
• 08:32 @sling - you're gonna' love it and get a sore arm quickly
• 09:28 off to start my day... it's freezing in here!
• 11:47 off to see some open houses
• 16:13 saw some nice houses and now i want the sun to go away
• 17:28 At movies watching Vantage Point
• 19:33 The movie wasn't as bad as Bruce says but it wasn't good either - at Serious Pie having light dinner
• 20:40 home hanging out in bed with the laptop
• 21:09 ok tv then bedtime...

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Tweets for Today

• 07:18 doesn't feel like a sat. today... it is saturday right?!
• 08:12 chatting with julie t(seattle), gen(nyc) and peggy(shanghai) on msn
• 09:00 i'm amazed how bruce can sleep so much!
• 10:08 checking out open houses online this weekend - not much :(
• 18:30 back from shopping... the bags that i wanted from nordstrom (on sale)... gone! arrgh!
• 20:54 At Wild Ginger having dinner
• 21:17 Wow Bruce is like a celebrity coming back to Wild Ginger after all these years

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Just A Few Questions...

How do the garbage trucks here not stink while the ones in Singapore you can smell from a mile away!?
Why do some Singaporeans pronounce certain words so funnily? Like... kentucky as tun-tah-kee, vomit as womit, 'how may I help you' as 'how may I help-choo'... the list goes on and on and on... :)
Why do so many Americans have such horrible handwriting while the Japanese mostly have similar penmanship?
How is it possible for me to dislike someone from just looking at the person - I don't know why honestly lol!
Why are young people (below thirty) always in a hurry to get married?
How can some people not love food?
How in the world did I get so lucky?

Yeah... these are just a few of the questions in my head right now :)

Tweets for Today

• 11:23 had mee siam for breakfast this morning, came back to bed and staying in bed - what luxury :D
• 14:42 Just watched the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated and still lazing in bed
• 15:22 i miss the rain!!!
• 17:24 good the sun has set - i feel calmer
• 20:10 At Steelhead Diner having dinner then who knows what downtown has to offer

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A Close To CNY Celebrations

Yesterday was the last day of our lunar new year celebrations and also our first official get-together for the Singaporeans in Seattle group that I started a few weeks ago.










Thirteen people; eight of them Singaporeans (some with their partners) turned up at our home with food and/or drinks and made the mee siam/laksa get-together quite the party! I think I can safely say it was a success. There was plenty of food and lots of laughter and people have already asked me when our next meet up would be. Since our travel plans are not concrete yet, I'll just have to wait a little before I make the decision on dates... but I think there should be on in March.

I was a little disappointed (ok, I was annoyed) that someone who had rsvp'd 'yes' for two spots didn't turn up despite my emails a few days before the event to remind anyone who might have to change their minds due to work/family commitments. I have had to turn people away from this get-together since our home here is umm, 'cozy'; even for the thirteen people who had made it. For the second time, the same person who also failed to turn up to the first Malaysian-Singaporean party held at Connie and Daniel's was nowhere to be seen. Hmmm... that's two strikes... no word via email from him nor his partner today... bloody irritating!



















Still, the party went on and we knew not to wait once people started arriving with food and drinks. We had enough food to feed an army. Yes, truly! Of course I had made enough food for at least 30 people... but it's not everyday one would make mee siam and/or laksa and it's one of those dishes that you just can't make a small batch! I think people had a favorite between the two local dishes so I can't complain. On top of that, we had roast duck, bbq pork and roast pork, Asian style chicken pies, chicken curry and grilled chicken wings! Fortunately, Dorothy who has three growing kids at home was willing to bring some food home. The rest, well, I got up this morning and had mee siam for breakfast and the rest is in the freezer :) The husband says now when he asks me what I want for breakfast and I say 'mee siam', he'll have a way out... of course, knowing me, with mee siam in the freezer, I'll ask for nasi lemak LOL!

Tweets for Today

• 05:12 awake... but going back to sleep - i'm beat!
• 06:36 ok maybe i'm not going back to sleep... doing laundry and about to start my day in the kitchen
• 14:36 home semi relaxing... waiting for the prawns to defrost lol - forgot all about those damned prawns!
• 16:53 90% ready for the singaporeans to arrive...

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Success!

I have been away this round for eight years now... eight years straight with no real home cooked food - my cooking just doesn't cut it... but more than a home cooked meal, it's home made snacks I grew up eating... and right now, can't think of any that comes to mind - hey, it's 6:21am, gimme a break! :)

The one thing I miss and it's something nobody else can replicate, is mom's heh bee hiam or loosely translated, chillied dried shrimp. It sounds grotesque to some of you I'm sure but omg, it's the best thing wrapped in soft white bread with a cup of Milo in condensed milk. Truly!!!

So last week, I decided to pluck up some courage and called mom to ask what's in this dish. Stupidly this time, I didn't ask her how to make it. I mean, it sounded too easy... shallots, dried chilli and dried shrimp. Even a monkey can figure that out! LOL! Ok, I might have slightly misjudged... ok grossly misjudged. I don't usually ask for measurements since well, mom doesn't cook with cups or spoons in hand. It's home cooking! Everything is an estimate. I could have asked how much shallots in relation the chilli and or dried shrimp but I figured I'd wing it, as usual.

So it took a day to boil and de-seed two packs of dried chilli... well not the entire day but by the time I did that, the last thing I wanted to do was any more prep work for anything else; even for my beloved heh bee hiam. The next day, I soaked my giant dried shrimp and then finally, yesterday, I got around to grinding everything that was needed (I poured the stinky dried shrimp water into the laksa I'm making - YUM!).

Here is the end result: me having my heh bee hiam for brunch since it took more than the thirty minutes mom said it would take to cook it. It took me more than an hour standing in front of the stove stirring the bloody thing - but oh my, how worth it!! Just like mom used to make :D Of course I was so excited with my sandwich (even day old baguette works... but soft white bread is still better!) I couldn't wait for water to boil to make my Milo lol! It was sooooo good! Soooooo worth all the effort :)

Tweets for Today

• 06:00 awake but not motivated to start my morning yet
• 11:50 just had a nice leg massage on the isqueeze
• 13:30 why am i drowsy?! i'm supposed to be running my errands... arrgh!
• 15:29 had another so so falafel... tired of trying not-so-great falafels in this city
• 20:07 had good dinner at tsukushimbo... i love saba!
• 20:40 i have a funny feeling some people who rsvp'd yes for the meetup aren't gonna' turn up!
• 20:50 off to bed to catch up on dvr recordings - i'm bloody sleepy...

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Tweets for Today

• 05:11 awake... but not really...
• 07:10 starting prep work for mee siam...
• 10:56 about to go run my errands to get stuff for laksa...
• 12:06 At Ranch 99 north waiting for Shirley
• 17:28 heading to the ID to meet julie t. for dinner

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Handouts

Last night, we went to no-frills Pho Hoa in the International District for dinner. ...and as usual, the same old, dirty looking bearded disheveled white man was standing at the door - just like he has the last half a dozen times we've been there - asking for change. Sometimes I just want to scream at people like him,"go get a job!!". I hate the sight of these bums and hate it more when they beg and I have to encounter them!!

While we were having dinner - just as I was commenting to the king about this aforementioned man - not a minute went by and a 30'is white couple walked past us, out the door and gave this man some money (after he asked and followed them a few steps later) - I don't know how much they gave him but it doesn't even matter. If it's a quarter or a dollar, it's a quarter and dollar they could have saved for themselves. I just don't think people should encourage them by giving them anything! If you want to give them anything, give them food that you can buy on their behalf. Not money, cigarettes, and certainly not alcohol; and I don't have to mention anything illegal! ...upon receiving some money, the guy disappeared immediately. We finished up our food and managed to walk out before his return - the only good thing that happened to the couple giving him money - me avoiding the sight, sound and smell of the guy...

Why is there even a homeless problem or people begging in this country? I just don't get it! If you're mentally ill, your family and/or country needs to take care of you... if you're a veteran, there are places and people to help you... if you're homeless, I know there are places in the city that helps the homesless! These people bug and scare me!

I love living downtown but the sight of them everywhere I walk just annoys the heck out of me. They make the International District un-explorable! They treat the city like their own backyard and I don't know why the local government can't do a 'clean-up'!?! I know it's not as simple as I think it is but you've gotta' start somewhere because when you see teenagers begging for change in the university district, you know this country is heading somewhere and it isn't anywhere good!

Tweets for Today

• 08:56 @seraphim1970 - you should add the twitter application to facebook
• 10:00 getting ready to go meet gigi in renton
• 10:58 In the parking lot waiting for gigi
• 15:14 home from having a nice time with gigi
• 15:37 where is the rain?!?! i've had enough of sun!
• 16:27 WAH juicy gossip LOL i swear, it just cracked me up!!
• 18:54 wondering what to get for dinner

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It's Over!

From the time we met to till now, the king and I have always been big fans of reality shows. We do watch a lot of tv together and ok, if I must, I'll admit - we're reality-tv junkies! The good ones, the bad ones, the one that are canceled half-way through, we watch them all! We have, at times, caught the ones that have been canceled here, playing in Japan (lol) and manage to catch the endings of these shows that never made it here lol...

We have been avid fans of Survivor and... as much as I hate to say this, Big Brother. When I lived in Tucson and the husband lived here, we would fly to one another to watch these two reality shows. I kid you not! I told you, we're big fans and we watch a lot of tv TOGETHER! But the time has come to say bye bye, zai jian, adios, au revoir, guten abend for this season - the horrible horrible 9th season of Big Brother! It's sad but I just cannot find justice in watching tv, having my blood boil not two sentences into the show and calling everyone on that show terrible names - even with my low standards! Absolutely NOBODY on this season is likeable; not only that, they are stupid (no really!!) and they all either have mental issues or think they aren't as dumb as they are; worst, they actually believe they're smart LOL. If it's one thing I cannot stand, it's stupidity and ignorance and they ALL come fully equipped with such lovely qualities. So after two episodes (actually, one and a quarter - we couldn't tahan (tolerate) to sit through the entire second episode) we had to call it quits with this show that we have come so far with... thank goodness the writers are back!!

However, we stay faithful to Survivor, The Apprentice - the list is just too long to name every one of the shows we watch - but note that I still HATE... (I know, my father always said never to use the word 'hate' but in this case I'm sorry) I still hate that no-way-in-hell-a-celebrity sorry ass bitch of an excuse for a woman, OMAROSA! Sure the producers put her on for ratings but with the way she's going on (yes she belongs with the current cast of Big Brother), people like us will stop watching the show 'coz of her! Good thing after the last episode of Celebrity Apprentice, I believe Piers has called her every name I want to. So... "thank you Piers! You rock!" LOL

Tweets for Today

• 01:31 home from sake tasting at eric's and a little tipsy after trying more than 8 different sakes :)
• 08:35 no hangover - phew! ...catching up on emails...
• 10:13 getting ready to go meet the arrigo family for dim sum in the i.d
• 10:26 taking a nice walk to chinatown
• 11:13 Standing outside the very crowded Jade Garden killing time
• 13:24 Had very nice time at lunch with @frankarr & family - now on bus going home after quick uwajimaya run
• 13:47 home... relaxin' in front of the computer while hearing @brucery panting while he plays tennis ...on the wii lol
• 18:24 up from nice looooong nap... still full from dim sum lunch :)
• 20:30 Sitting at Shultzy's waiting for dinner - just ordered a mushroom and swiss with raw onions - yum!
• 21:42 can't believe how many people are looking forward to the 'new' knight rider lol

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Tweets for Today

• 07:15 omg i forgot to go to my yelp party yesterday!!!
• 08:33 playing scrabulous and beating everyone... well, almost everyone :)
• 09:18 slow quiet morning here in seattle...
• 14:34 Went to Eric's for breakfast and just had Shanghainese lunch in ID - now waiting for bus to go home
• 15:08 home... lazing in bed and walking around all day
• 15:37 sooo need a nap :)
• 21:03 on the phone with my pal janice in singapore... she's cracking me up big time!

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Tweets for Today

• 07:47 playing dr phil to a girlfriend in need :) SOME men are such dicks!
• 08:56 getting ready to run errands EARLY for a change... maybe lol
• 10:26 so much for starting my morning early... still at home in pj's - showering NOW :)
• 11:21 finally off to cosco - lucky me NOT lol
• 12:18 At Ranch 99 shopping for asian grocery
• 13:02 Wow what's going on here Costo is packed!
• 13:58 it's a beautiful cloudy day today and i'm glad i got most of what i wanted to do today done
• 15:03 in bed watching my cantonese drama...
• 17:27 hanging out online waiting for bruce to call... i hope he had something to eat for lunch...
• 20:35 ate too much leftovers for dinner arrgh

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Yesterday...

So it was Valentine's Day (vd) yesterday and of course, we didn't have any special plans. For us, everyday can be vd 'coz we have no kids. So going out to a nice dinner and buying each other (or just buying ME) something isn't too out of the ordinary :) Ok, everyday is valentine's for ME lol!

It was a pretty ordinary day to start with. The husband went to Shultzy's and I stayed in with plans to go to Costco. Two hours after he left, I was back in bed watching my rented Cantonese Hong Kong series lol! It's terrible that I've been trying to get myself to Costco to get some necessities for the past few days and I have yet to get my butt over there. ...by the time I got myself out of the house, it was past noon and realized the husband hadn't locked the door when he left (four hours earlier) and didn't even bring his keys with him! I sent him a text message asking if he'd realized it. His answer, "no I didn't lock it and no, I don't have my keys - but I did take out the recycling so I'm not a total loser - what do you have in mind for lunch?" After a couple of texts to and fro, instead of driving to the warehouse store, I was speeding my way to the University district to pick my man up wondering what I'd like for lunch.

We ended up at our friend Taichi's restaurant, Chiso, in Fremont. We haven't seen our friend Yoshi (who works there) since we moved here and we'd been meaning to do so. It was sooo nice to see him! He even sent over a nice big plate of sashimi - sah-sheeeeee-meeeee mmmmm! Boy we had quite the feast! I had to doggy bag my chirashi lunch to go (which, I am actually having as my breakfast right now as I type; yes, cold and sooooo YUMMY!). Of course after the heavy meal, the last thing on our minds was going to Costco... so we came home, hung out a little and yup, nap time!! Talk about being little piggies enjoying the day eh?! No, no Valentine's Day hot and sweaty sex... not with a stomach full of raw fish, rice and fried oysters in our stomachs lol! I know I know... tmi... totally too much information :D

I was awoken by a call from my girlfriend in distressed (again) and needed me to play her Dr Phil. She's been down for a good 24 hours now. The guy she'd been dating has totally dissed her and hasn't called since Sunday... not even a text message on vd! Yes, I did tell her to kick him to the curb (more than once) but women love to super analyze everything the man has said to them and/or done to/with them... so I was on the phone for awhile. I now know why Dr Phil is balding - probably frustrated enough to tear his own hair out lol! But I like my girlfriend and she hasn't had the best of luck the last few years with the men she's met... she's in her early 30s, speaks English, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese and French (all fluently), a Wellesley alumni... beautiful... I would totally date her if I were a confident and single man - right!? Too bad for her she's met another nice but not nice enough guy... and of course living in L.A doesn't help her situation either... I had to have another phone conversation with her this morning 10 mins before 7am :D The poor girl... I'm so glad I'm old and married lol!

...but back to us... dinner time rolled around for us and neither of us were hungry... so we walked down to the local AMC and went to see 'Juno'. I liked the movie and I think the dialogue was quite clever! Ellen Page is such a talented actress! Unfortunately, I honestly doubt teenagers who are pregnant at sixteen are really that clever (like she is in the movie) or can hold mature and funny conversations like she did. I just don't believe it :) ...and the sweet sweet father (who played head of an Aryan nation gang in the HBO series, 'Oz' LOL)... If I went home pregnant before I was married - even at age 38 - my dad would so beat me to death LOL!

...so where did we end up having dinner past 10pm in Seattle? We thought we were going to the most unromantic place in Seattle but it turned out, not only were we greeted with an eager and cheerful "happy valentine's day!!" upon walking into Hing Loon, tasty heart-shaped chocolates accompanied our fortune cookies and sesame ball at the end of the dinner! Not bad for a hole in the wall restaurant in the International District at all! So we dodged the line, the waiting and had very good Chinese food with good service (I kid you not!). How's that for an unplanned valentine's day celebration :)

Tweets for Today

• 21:38 was on the phone with winnie... now bruce is being dr phil to her questions :)
• 21:53 off to bed
• 06:10 awake and about to do laundry...
• 09:02 i wish you'd just use your bloody brain!! to the 'somebody' i'm frustrated with - NOT the husband LOL
• 09:46 trying to find a bday present for my two little nieces...
• 10:49 watching hong kong series - i really should get my butt to cosco... but i'm feeling lazy...
• 13:13 At Chiso having lunch - bumped into Taichi and Yoshi outside
• 15:11 home lazing in bed with my sweetie pie and still pigging out on cny goodies YUM
• 19:00 At the movies - watching Juno - it's soooo hot in here!

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Tweets for Today

• 06:49 playing scrabulous on facebook
• 08:13 gotta' get myself to target and costco today... someway, somehow :) just need to stop playing bloody scrabble
• 14:49 went to target, had lunch with connie and daniel and now back home and about to put groceries away...
• 17:54 back to playing scrabulous on facebook
• 21:38 was on the phone with winnie... now bruce is being dr phil to her questions :)
• 21:53 off to bed

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Tweets for Today

• 05:02 awake... arrgh #
• 06:32 house hunting online... #
• 10:30 figuring out where i should go... pioneer sq? northgate? kirkland? hmmm... #
• 11:13 home sellers in seattle and east side are all on crack!!! #
• 14:44 Done shopping now at barnes and noble about to go home #
• 14:45 Looking for Harumi's cookbook #
• 15:37 home with tired feet and a little hungry but happy i had some REAL freshly squeezed oj #
• 19:04 heading out to dinner #
• 20:44 home from dinner and a happy camper :) #

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How's That For A "Kumquat" Tree LOL

As usual, my parents go overboard on the cny celebrations and get the kumquat/meiqi orange... in this case, looks like real 'sunkist orange tree to me hahahaha, that is the biggest, most beautiful, most luscious, most... well you judge for yourself :)

My three young cousins (whose diapers I have changed many many times lol) posing while they did their annual cny visiting at our family home.

Tweets for Today

• 06:07 done with cleaning the kitchen and tired all over again lol #
• 07:07 heading back to bed... #
• 12:29 awake from a short nap... heading back to bed to just hang out :) #
• 14:22 officially out of bed... no more tired or sleepy... dirty however :) #
• 17:55 back from shopping at pacific place - got some semi fresh air #
• 19:40 Just finished dinner at Todai - must have been feeling greedy for bulk and not so good done lol - and heading outta here #
• 20:14 home with some yummy cold stone, my own concoction :) #

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CNY Party Part Two

It's been about six or seven years since I started cooking 'seriously' - not seriously like a chef but seriously like the food I cook have legit names and none of that mambo jambo bowls of noodle dishes I make up with whatever leftovers / sauces I have in the kitchen lol... dishes that I have eaten at home growing up and it actually tastes the same :) In the six years of cooking, I have always cooked for ang mohs ie, white people. Having lived in Memphis, I never had the chance to have my Asian counterparts try my food or rate it. My dad has tried my cooking before when he came to visit; and actually complimented me on my skills (and for cooking his few favorite dishes) - but that was only one meal and one small meal just doesn't cut it.










Last night, I cooked for 10 guests and eight of them Asians. One Singaporean, and a Japanese girl who's lived in Singapore and quite the foodie - actually, everyone who came were somewhat serious about food and/or in the food industry. Guess what!? They enjoyed the food!! Even our sushi chef (yes, what do you know, a sushi chef who is actually Japanese lol - yes they have those in Seattle lol) and his wife, I could tell, truly enjoyed the food. His wife who is an engineer asked if I was a chef LOL! What a compliment eh lol! Of course, she might just think I'm a colleague or something... but still, I'm taking the compliment and running with it.

Part two of our Chinese new year celebration at home was a little more different from the first one a couple of nights before. For one, the first night was just ang mohs. They said they enjoyed the food but hardly made a dent with the amount of food I made - well other than the large pea sprouts (dou miao) and abalone lol! ...the difference with last night; no forks were used (lol I suppose it's not that surprising but I, personally, prefer using a fork when I'm eating out of a plate), I almost ran our of rice... the crab and shrimp bean thread noodle was a big hit (you know us Asians love our noodles lol); people eagerly asked to tah-bao (doggy bag) food for family members at home and for today's breakfast/lunch...

My cooking confidence' level has certainly gotten a huge boost! Yes, of course the husband's told me a gazillion times that I'm a good cook... but everyone's husbands' is suppose to say that right? I mean sure the king has good taste and I trust his judgment when it comes to many things , certainly including food (except gamey-tasting meat lol)... but he's the husband :)

But back to the celebration - it was a big success. We all had a good time! Everyone I invited came - oh actually, no... my college pal didn't make it 'coz her husband hadn't gotten back from his weekend trip on time... I got oranges from the Singaporean friend in tradition for wealth, health and happiness and a couple of beautiful plants (an orchid and hydrangea) for our home that absolutely needs it. I'm hoping by next cny, we'll be celebrating it in our our home with much more space...

Until the 21st of this month, the only cooking that will be done is only going to be some regular home cooking for the king and I :)

Tweets for Today

• 05:51 awake... but not really... arrgh! #
• 06:03 gonna' start doing some prep work for tonight, clean and of course, my favorite past time, laundry :D #
• 11:04 In bed lazing around wasting time hee hee #
• 13:13 starting to cook... again #
• 15:37 done with cooking till the guests arrive... time to relax for a little... #
• 16:47 @frankarr - pizza pizza pizza LOL #
• 22:57 wow... the party was a big success and i'm SO ready to go to bed - i'm gonna' have a big lie in tomorrow and stay in all day :) #

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Surely You Know Ah Meng!

Wow Singapore's beloved and most famous orang utan, Ah Meng has called it quits and passed away. Below, the article from the New Paper

The news was taken sadly but calmly by the man dubbed the 'Father of Ah Meng' by his own family, for the tireless care he showered on his ward. Former zoo keeper Revi Nair, 46, took care of Ah Meng between 1981 and 2005, and he had been a fixture at almost all of her public appearances. He found out about Ah Meng's death from his wife, who called him with the news. He told The New Paper: 'It's sad news, but I was expecting it. She was very old.'

What he remembers most about his former charge, he said, is that she was a good mother. Mr Nair recalled: 'About 15 years ago, there was a baby orang utan, Binte, who had been rejected by her own mother. 'We took the baby to Ah Meng a few times. Initially, she wasn't interested in letting the baby suckle because it wasn't her own - "but eventually, she did - and she became the baby's surrogate mother."

Ah Meng also leaves behind children of her own - she has two sons, Hsing Hsing and Satria; and two daughters, Medan and Sayang. She also has six grandchildren.

Mr Nair used to accompany Ah Meng on nearly all of her celebrity meetings, which included meet-and-greet sessions with Prince Philip, magician David Copperfield, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor among other stars. He said: 'When Michael Jackson came to Singapore, I went with Ah Meng to Raffles Hotel to meet him. 'Michael... was happy to meet her. It's hard not to like Ah Meng - she's a neat orang utan, well-groomed, and she has good manners.'Mr Nair added that over the years, Ah Meng had developed a keen understanding of English commands, and had learned human behaviour. He said: 'Ah Meng learnt the proper way of holding a teacup and stirring her tea, just by watching people do it.' She was highly intelligent and could learn nearly anything just by observing it.' Mr Nair, who began his career as a zookeeper at the quarantine section of the zoo, started working with orang utans after two years there.

Ah Meng's late daughter, Hongbao, which was born on Chinese New Year in 1984, was in his care until she died in 2004. Zoo curator Alagappasamy Chellaiyah, 57, who has cared for Ah Meng since 1971, said he was 'devastated' by Ah Meng's death. He said: 'Ah Meng wasn't just any other animal - she was the icon of the Singapore zoo.' Mr Chellaiyah said he had gone to Ah Meng's enclosure yesterday morning as usual. 'She looked very weak. We fed her as usual, but she threw up the food we gave her. We were worried and called the vet,' he said. But she had already died by the time the vet arrived. He said: 'I'm just glad she wasn't in any pain when she died - her head dipped downwards and she was gone.' He recalled that whenever he took Ah Meng out for a walk in the mornings, she would place both her hands on his shoulders 'like a hug'. He said: 'She would greet me with a smile, and poke her finger out to touch me.' It's rare that anybody could grow so close to an animal.

'But she has lived a good life.

'With my upcoming retirement, I used to wonder who would leave the zoo first, her or me? It's unfortunate that she has gone first.' Others who have worked with Ah Meng remember her as the superstar of the Singapore Zoo. Former zoo chief Bernard Harrison said: 'She carried herself like a diva because she was a star and she knew that. She loved taking pictures.' He recalled an incident 26 years ago when Ah Meng escaped from a film set at MacRitchie Reservoir. 'She simply decided to climb up a 50m-tall tree and stayed up there for three days. 'Everybody there kept calling for her to come down, but she simply wouldn't,' he said.

Mr Harrison said Ah Meng eventually fell off the tree due to dehydration and hunger, and ended up breaking an arm. He said: 'We had to rush her to Mount Elizabeth Hospital to get her arm fixed.'Undoubtedly saddened by the news of Ah Meng's death, Mr Harrison added: 'I worked with her for 29 years. It's almost like losing an old colleague.' Ah Meng was born in Sumatra, Indonesia in 1960. She arrived at Singapore's zoo in 1971, after she was confiscated from a family who kept her as an illegal pet. In 1982, the zoo began the 'Breakfast with an orang utan' programme with Ah Meng as the star. By 1986, she had been featured in almost 30 travel films and appeared in more than 270 newspaper and magazine articles. Ms Fanny Lai, group chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves Singapore told The New Paper that special arrangements are sometimes made for zookeepers who have grown attached to animals that have recently died.

She said: 'We understand that keepers work closely with animals over a period of time and need space and time to grieve. 'We make provisions by giving them time off from work, and we have occasionally arranged for the animals to be buried near the keepers' rest area.' Ms Lai said about two small animals have been buried in the zoo this way.

She said: 'In Ah Meng's case, we will be burying her at one of the zoo's most scenic spots - the Garden With a View.' As a tribute, the zoo also plans to name its next newborn orang utan Ah Meng Junior. There will be a special memorial service held at the zoo for Ah Meng tomorrow from 9am to 11am.

More CNY Celebrations

For the first time since the king and I have been celebrating Chinese New Year (cny)as a family, we were invited to cny celebrations yesterday. It sure makes a difference living in Seattle where not only are the Americans aware of the Lunar New Year (our nice neighbors have even - without being prompted - wished us 'happy new year'!); there is a big enough population of Singaporeans and Malaysians here that we form groups and subgroups of each nationality and have get-togethers and parties.










Yesterday, we had a combined effort from hosts Connie and Daniel from the 'Singaporean or Malaysian Expat' meetup group. The couple, Connie who is ang moh, but born and bred in Singapore (yes yes, she has a red passport just like us lol), and Daniel who is Malaysian Chinese who lived in Singapore. Oddly enough, they met in India LOL! How's that for a story eh :D They're such an interesting couple having lived in more continents then I've traveled! Yes, seriously! They even lived in Africa for ten years!

It was pretty neat to meet a whole bunch of Singaporeans who have lived in the US for as long as 20+ years - and they're still bloody young! I guess that's why the Singapore government is getting nervous and had to put in some effort in luring us back on Singapore Day in NYC last year. ...and this is only a fraction of Singaporeans in the Seattle area who are in (and aware of) the local meetup groups. I understand there are tons more at local mnc's!










Both Daniel and Connie cooked up a storm. Enough for an army! Above are a couple pics of my favorite dishes of the day :) Connie even made some serious pineapple tarts! Unfortunately, by the time I got around to taking some pictures, some of the food was gone (a lot of it in my stomach lol); including Connie's beef rendang! Another time.... I'm sure we'll be doing more of these gatherings now that the first meeting was quite the success.

Here's thanking Connie and Daniel (and the entire family) for welcoming a bunch of strangers into their home to celebrate cny with them and letting us take over the household for awhile :)

Tweets for Today

• 07:37 wow, just woke up - i was BEAT last night :D #
• 09:57 made another batch of sago gula melaka.... #
• 17:40 home from cny party @ connie's and daniel's in tacoma and met a whole bunch of new singaporeans :) #
• 23:33 after a big nap, we went out to get some pizza from serious pie.... YUM!!!! #

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CNY 2008 Dinner Part One

Well, last night's dinner with our friends from Shultzy's was a blast as expected. Food was plentiful, everyone seemed to enjoy it and my first-time attempt of one of my favorite desserts, sago gula melaka, was a success. Pictures will follow after part two tomorrow evening. I was in such a rush to get everything sorted out I overlooked the photo part.

Whitney and Tim brought over the gambling box and what's a Chinese New Year celebration with no gambling session?! It was a blast even tho' Whitney happily left with all our money. Next year Whitney - rematch lol. Of course, the gambling box comes really handy at every party... so I'm sure we don't have to wait till cny 2009 to get some of our money back :)



The party was later lead by the very addictive Nintendo Wii - it's actually a good distraction considering everyone had a go at it. I don't think Emily did but I think Emily was quite happy with the food so I wasn't too worried :) I had a good laugh watching everyone play it like their lives depended on it lol. Fun fun fun.

I'm looking forward to CNY part two on Sunday evening when both pairs of Julies and Erics will be turning up :) Should be interesting and then I"m not cooking for awhile. It's bloody tiring with no help even though I do enjoy it...

Tweets for Today

• 05:45 up and prepping food to cook for CNY dinner tonight #
• 07:20 contemplating if i should make the grocery store run now or wait for the husband to do it this afternoon,,, #
• 08:31 heading over to uwajimaya then u village #
• 10:59 back from errands... gonna' continue prepping and cooking... gotta' make myself some lunch i'm starving! #
• 14:39 on to noodles... omg i SO need a foot massage... a real one dammit LOL #
• 15:29 eww, i smell like i've been working in a chinese kitchen all my life :s #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:54 getting ready to go meet shirley #
• 18:02 somewhat re-energized after a short nap #

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Happy Lunar New Year!!

This picture brings me back to the days of growing up and watching the Chingay Parade on tv during the Chinese New Year holidays and being so glad my parents weren't as insane as the other parents who made the kids stand out there in the heat watching the lame event :) I miss the busy, festive feeling of being back home for this holiday but I'm in no position to complain.

Happy New Year everyone!

What The Ph...

OMFG I cannot believe these jerks. Are they running out of sorry topics on their variety show that they have to criticize the way Singaporeans speak English?! Sure, I know people have trouble understanding Singlish immediately and sometimes poke fun at how we speak it... it's common, no problem. But this bunch of Taiwanese who hardly speak English themselves... PUH-LEESE!!! One calls herself an English TEACHER! Who would want an English teacher who makes fun of how an entire nation speaks the language?!?

Oddly enough, they can't even point out the right mistakes! Not that I'm proud of it but some of us do say 'TANKS' instead of 'thanks'... who the hell ever say 'dance' - for your information, Singaporeans pronounce 'dance' as 'dunce'?!? Bloody'ell! If they jolly well made fun of our Mandarin, none of us would have anything to say. We'll surrender, no doubts about that. It's just aggravating to see these irresponsible people do this on their local tv show that Singaporeans watch religiously on cable on a language they don't speak well either!

Hey, at least we have an identity! They're just a bunch of Mainlanders who refuse to admit it.

Old Friends

Yesterday, I took a nice easy 30+ minutes drive out to Bothell, Washington to see an old college pal of mine. It's been 15 years since our days back in college. She was my 'partner in crime'... well, not so much crime if you consider the things we did... we took trips out to Springfield, Ma to have good Chinese food (there was only ONE place but back then, anything other than pancakes for dinner was good food though I will say, we did have good non-Chinese food on campus...), her crazy trip to Singapore one summer where we had WAY too much fun... our late night chats about boys (yeah they would have to be boys back then; we were, after all, very very VERY young!) and complaining about our American room-mates who drove us insane at times lol! She was the very un-Japanese, Japanese friend of mine and I was the rather not-so-Singaporean, Singaporean friend of hers :)

Fifteen years later, not much has changed. Miwako is still the same girl she was back in school; well, a lot more matured now that she's a mother of an adorable little three year old, Mia, and another baby girl on her way in a few months. For more than five hours, we sat there between the delivered bento boxes and her home-made (absolutely delicious!) cheesecake - and I'm not even a cheesecake fan - we tried to catch up with each other's lives. Sure we've seen each other a few times in Seattle within the 15 years but nothing like a sit-down at home and really getting into the dirt of each other's past lol! Everything about yesterday was simply awesome!

Now that I'm living here, we're both looking forward to seeing each other more... yet another reason why I'm glad to be here. Old friends with history are just so much more fun!

Superbowl Sunday 2008

I can't believe the Patriots lost!?! I'm not a fan (of ANY team) but it seems that everyone I hear hates them, I don't know why (plus the king is after all, from Boston) so I figured I would like them just to be difficult lol! But they lost - bloody hell!

We spent our first Superbowl Sunday in Seattle at the Arrigos who were also enjoying their first Superbowl Sunday in America! No more rugby for them... they moved here from Sydney and one of their sons play JV football in school - he's huge! :) Not fat but big like a refrigerator! Definitely a good thing for a football player!










We brought with us some goodies - I made my black bean and corn salsa - the only thing I know how to make that is non-Asian lol and Bruce made his famous chilli - well not so famous considering the last time he made it we weren't even married lol. But it was sooooo good(!) - and he taught us all foreigners to eat Fritos pie - which is a layer of crisp Fritos topped with hot oh-so-good chilli. OMG I died and went to heaven (tho' it doesn't exist LOL)! I thought the Fritos would get soggy since the chilli was hot but WOW... I'm craving for some for breakfast now lol! Fortunately we have no fritos at home :)

Keeping Myself Busy

Just like I have since I was a kid, moving anywhere new hasn't been too hard. Memphis was quite an exception but that's history. Yes, with the numerous moves in my life, mostly inter-continental (lol), this one has been smooth. I have made new friends online, met up with them a few times and what do you know, they're not weirdos (yet!) - of course, I might be the weird one lol. Actually, everyone I have met have been very nice and helpful; and when they say 'let's get together' or 'we'll have you over', they actually mean it and act on it! ...so I've been busy... so much so that I have not gotten around to meeting up with a good friend of mine who went to college with me eons ago in Massachusetts. Of course, maybe it's because she's got a 3 yr old and is five months pregnant (my friend, not her kid hahaha!) so she's not at home twiddling her thumbs either! But I've gone shopping for Mia (the three year old) and I'm heading out to the surburbs tomorrow and seeing my friend Miwako. It's so exciting. It's been ages since our days of taking the bus to Springfield to pig out on Chinese food :)

Besides that, I'm also the organizer to Seattle's brand new Singaporean Meetup group lol! Lord knows what that entails but for now, I have an event posted so we'll see how many people sign up for that. But there is actually a bigger group of us here (we had like four other Singaporeans in Memphis and three weren't so exciting) so it's all new to me being able to hang out with my countrymen again. I have already met one and she's very nice and we've had a couple of very successful meet ups - so I'm optimistic.