Made a very simple dish for dinner the other night - lemon butter salmon with creme fraiche. All it took was to wrap the salmon up in a bit of foil, popping in a pat of butter, a few slices of lemon, some herbs/salt/pepper, and a layer of creme fraiche on top. Bake it for about 15 mins and bob's your uncle! DONESKIES. Served with some creamy and buttery mashed potato and you have yourself a very quick and ultra simple-to-make meal.

Where are the veggies?

Ummm... nowhere :P

Place salmon on foil and put a pat of butter and lemon slices on top, with herbs/salt/pepper


Spread a layer of creme fraiche and bake at 180 celcius for 15 mins


Fresh out of the oven


Lemon butter salmon with creme fraiche, served with mashed potatoes



With the rest of the creme fraiche, I made Mushroom pasta with creme fraiche! Basically just tossed whatever we had in the fridge into a pan, and poured it on top of pasta. Fabulous comfort food.

Onion and garlic sizzling in a big pat of butter
(the more butter you use, the more fragrant the sauce is)


Whacked in sliced tomatoes and mushrooms


Finally, stirred in the creme fraiche. It looked like vomit. D'oh.


But it tasted great!!!


And on another night, we made tacos! MUCH missed, we hadn't had tacos since
moving to China... it's one of our favourite meals :)~


Well, the top part is very true!

You Are Chocolate Mousse

Compared to most people, you are blissful and content with your life. You enjoy each moment, and you try your best to live simply. You think people cause their own anguish. You are charming and a bit of a smooth character. You can always get by on your charm. You are confident and sure of yourself. You are comfortable with your own skin and don't try to be someone else.

What Chocolate Dessert Are You?

( The Scarf in Question! )

Thank you for everyone's input - the width was MUCH easier! :) And my mum liked it very much.

Ok took me quite a while to come up with the stylo title above.

I really felt like blogging, even though I had blogged earlier on today. Dunno why, maybe blogging diarrhoea. But then again, I had A LOT of considerations before I blog can.

I was like thinking....

Should I blog about my Science Center trip with Nian (totally inspired by Steph at theimpulsiveact ), or should I blog about my town trip with XY?

And if I DO blog either, should I keep them public, or locked?

I'd love to keep them public because there are people I like (e.g. my boyfriend) who doesn't have a lj account and not planning to have one, reading my blog, but yet I would love to keep them locked because there are really scary people around.

Btw, do you know that I'll actually know if you hotlink my pictures/videos?

I don't know for God-knows-what reasons my pictures are in your blog(s) and locked up, but I personally think it's pretty really psychotic.

And it fucking scares the shit out of me. (Obviously by watermarking my pictures with my URL doesn't keep leechers off FML.) It makes me wonder if you are:

1) wanking to my picture? (Or, gasp, to my boyfriend, with me beside him!?)
2) cursing me while staring at my pictures (you can actually do that without hotlinking me because it kinda sucks up my bandwidth, kthxbye)
3) admiring at how pretty I am (If that's the case, thank you hor.)

With that, I think I shall keep my Science Center entry locked - to protect my babylove... And make the town trip public cuz I'm really not worried about XY. I think her experience of dealing with crazy people easily surpasses mine. LOL.

Ok, so enough of loh soh talks. Met up with XY not long ago for some shopping and coffee. I had wanted to get myself a wallet but I wasn't really into the "scouting-for-a-wallet" mood and the Jimmy Choo wallet I like is too expensive to fit my budget.

How ah. :( So I ended up not buying anything!


Decided to rest our legs at Coffee Club. Since I have been dieting to shed off the festive calories that I might have accumulated, I was fucking hungry.


And urm me, with my messy hair... And Evian water. Coffee Club doesn't serve iced-water, so I die-die have to buy something to quench my thirst from whatever I am going to have later (which potentially MIGHT ruin my diet)... and the best thing that is zero in calories is Evian FML.


HAHAHHAHAA SUPER SCARY OVERSIZED MUD PIE ARRIVESSSS!!!


She's like thinking WTF THIS MONSTER HOW TO FINISH!?


We ordered Quesadilla filled with garlic chicken. YUMMEHHHH. The salsa was SUPER shiok I tell you!! My favourite Mexican food!


Ok back to the chocolate monster. It was as big as XY's face I tell you! But of course something so sinful has to taste nice right? :P


Something Vanilla Mocha. Actually the waiter quite sweet, XY ordered this drink like for super long, but it wasn't served! Until he walked past us again like half an hour later, he actually realized something was missing....

And he knew the counter missed out XY's Mocha, and thus was served promptly. Very thoughtful lor! :))

So while we met up for the almost 4 hours, we actually spent 1.5 hours walking, and the remaining 2.5 hours sitting down with food and what else, gossips. >:)

Bitching is therapeutic, I knowwwww!! :D :D


Now, I cannot wait for NYE to come. Long weekend again! Nian and I are going picnic with his colleagues! <3 <3

No. 7, Lane 210 Taikang Lu (泰康路201弄7号)
Luwan
Shanghai, China
PRICE: 元元元元
RATING:

Tucked away in the myriad of shops and cafes in Taikang Lu is Kommune. I love this place. Not because it's an Aussie joint and I'm biased, but because I love how it transforms from a cosy casual cafe by day... to a laid back pub by night. How very Australian! I'm a big fan of Taikang Lu itself - I like the cobblestone paths, the narrow alleyways, and the crazy maze that you can spend ages pottering around in, poking around at all the little shops and cafes.

Kommune is fairly reasonably priced considering it's Western food, and the staff are friendly and efficient. They always seem to be packed to the brim with people.. though we did spy a foreigner girl that had her Macbook out and was there for HOURS (literally, we passed by 1-2 hours later and she was still there) without ordering a thing, for as long as we were there, and was just there taking up a table and bumming their free wifi. Not very polite, considering there were customers waiting for a table. Yet the staff didn't chase her out, which I thought was very decent of them.

The cafe is small, and crammed with sofas and little rickety wooden benches you perch your food on. Their famous drink is, by far, their large coffee, which comes in a HUMONGOUS cup, basically a large bowl. It's a "triple size" coffee, and I could basically stick my whole head into the empty cup. Fabulous! We had the mocha and it was rich, creamy, and really hit the spot... considering it was sub-zero temperatures outside.

I also thoroughly enjoyed their Big Breakfast, a storm of roast potatoes, beans, tomatos, mushrooms, bacon, sausages, eggs, toast... jammed onto a large rectangular plate. A dieter's nightmare :P Total comfort food and it was delicious. I was impressed that the bacon was real rashers of bacon with minimal fat/rind, and that the scrambled eggs were creamy and rich. Absolutely no complaints about the meal - it was a perfect winter's brunch.

Inside the tiny Kommune


A big ass mocha


BIGGER THAN MY HEAD


It was nommity


Big Breakfast - roast potatoes, beans, tomatos, mushrooms, bacon, sausages, eggs, toast


Old shikumens on Taikang Lu. You can see the light snow falling


On Chris' jacket. I was extraordinarily excited
by the snow - been yonks since I last saw it!


Snuggled up. I'd just bought that fur beanie 5 mins before we took the photo :P


Sense: this makes none.


The snow falling outside our apartment


Love it!

Five gifts for five people.

This offer does have some restrictions so please read:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for YOU & you are allowed to make requests (and I will try to honor them).
- It will be done before December 31st, 2010.
- It might be cookies, a mix CD, a necklace, an original haiku, a scarf, who knows!
- You'll need to PM me your mailing address if you're one of the first 5.

In return, all you need to do is repost this somewhere and offer to make 5 things for 5 other people.

If you are one of the first 5 and PM me, please include a few details about your own interests, etc. so that I can make your gift as personal as possible.

**I was a DJ for many years, so I love making the perfect mix CD--especially if it's music you've never heard before. I also love to draw, especially comic book/video game characters. And I love to bake. :)

I've transfered all the pics from my cam to my laptop. Since there're so many, i'm going to post up the photos in batches. I'm going to post up them chronologically.

Here are some of the photos taken during my trip on Day 1 -- 19th Dec 2009, Saturday. Yep, that eventful day when an earthquake occurred & we were right smack in the action! We landed at Taoyuan International Airport & all was fine. It was rather cold...around 10 deg celcius & i was glad i dressed warmly!


Waiting to check in...


Sunrise from my window seat


With the little sis

Changing of guards ceremony




Next stop -- National Palace Museum



Traditional village...

Like some movie set...


So must take photo!




Carton King -- all made of paper!!!

Taking the train to Hualien


Waiting for our train


It was freezing cold!!!



Dinner time -- shabu-shabu buffet!


Self-service...most of the food are laid out buffet-style.
The meat & seafood are placed on a conveyor belt & you just take the plate if you want a certain item. :)


Mine, all mine!

*shake shake* Oh no! Cannot balance!!!
EARTHQUAKE -- 7.0 Richter Scale!

Aftermath of quake...along the streets...


A bit scared but don't care. Continue shopping. :p


White bittergourd!


Back to the hotel...
Our beds (queen sized) moved by this much during the quake!


I experienced an earthquake for the 1st time in my life. It was rather scary yet exciting. I couldn't balance because the ground was seriously dancing! I felt as if i was walking on jelly, not concrete. My dad grabbed my sis & i and steered us away from the buildings in case things start falling. He left my mom to fend for herself. :p Haha...luckily the earthquake was over in 2.9 seconds, else the damage could have been disasterous.

*phew*

today, 2 people made me upset.

because they say i am sucha a slacker. that i didn't put in effort to make myself look good. and that i didn't train/tone myself to make myself look gorgeous when i should. and that i am too relaxed. and that i shouldn't be like that.

but.. but.. aint i gorgeous enough?! (LOL)

anyways, i am still VERY affected because they make me feel so small. and fat. and flabby. and ugly. and the 2 of them (shall call them the a-kohs) kept on going on and on about it.

hey.. the 2 of them 夫唱妇随 lor! [this is my secret revenge]

and because of them, i wanted to go jogging tonight. and tomorrow. and maybe the day after tomorrow. i must be hardworking and start toning my flab before i can show them off next time.

27 days countdown starts now.

Who is the gift for? My sister, late 20's
What is the occasion? Her birthday
List at least three of their interests: This is where it gets tough because she's a boring person. :P Sorry to say, but it's true. She watches TV a lot. She's a nanny for a living, but doesn't particularly seem to like kids except for very short periods of time. She scrapbooks a lot, but already has every scrapbooking tool known to man. She's in school on her way to becoming a social worker - again, strange because she doesn't really like kids. She does like my son a lot, but only because she can give him back when she's bored with him, heh.
Any stipulations or things to avoid (i.e., has to be something small, or they already have enough scarves, etc.): Something small-ish as it needs to be mailed.
What kind of crafting do you do? Umm, pretty much anything. Sewing, papercrafts, knitting, crocheting are my best crafts.
Name some other crafts that you would be willing to try: Anything really. I dabble in jewelry-making and Sculpey, but I'm not very good at it.
Do you have a price range for materials? About $20, but I also have a LOT of stuff already.
Do you have a time limit to make this present? About a week and a half.
Any other information you'd like to include: I've already made her a scrapbooking "kit" one year, so that idea is sort of out unless I want to repeat. :/ I always struggle to find something to get her and usually just end up buying her something she tells me to. I hate doing that, so this time I'd like to try to give her something meaningful. We're not very close. :/

THIS IS MY MOST FAVOURITE SONG OF THE MOMENT!!!

Ohmyfuckingod I LOVE Katy Perry's dresses in this MTV!


She's so pretty she makes me wanna cry.

AND I NEED TO GET THAT DRESS FML.

Christmas Eve was a pretty chill one with a bunch of friends. We all met up at Lange Bar & Restaurant which were having a fabulous 200元 all-you-can-eat-and-drink special. I loved the turkey they served up, complete with choice of 3 sauces, and all the home-style trimmings like roast pumpkin and potatoes, pasta salads, etc. Satisfying, and we could eat as much as we want. What could be better?

And unlike many (actually, all) other all-you-can-eat/drink places, they didn't skimp on the food, nor the alcohol. OH NO - in fact, they were repeatedly asking us "More wine? More cocktails? Come on!!" the whole night. And let's just say their cocktails were S-T-R-O-N-G, hooboy! On regular nights, the cocktails are only 40元 too, the cheapest we've found in Shanghai (and even more so, considering they're not watered down).

Appetizers


Turkey, pasta salads, pumpkin, potato, etc. Loved this!


Apple pie and pannacotta dessert


Merry Christmas



We spent most of the actual Christmas Day in bed, because we were so tired from the night before! We slept in til almost noon, then headed off to Bistro Latitude, a French restaurant, then headed back home afterwards to sleep some more, haha.

Bistro Latitude is special to us, because it was our last non-married date place. We went a few days before getting married and it was a really special date for us.. because we knew that shortly afterwards, we'd be married. So we thought it would be nice to go back there for Christmas lunch.

We had the Swiss cheese fondue, which was absolutely delicious. Sort of on the unhealthy side (okay, very much so!) but it was FABULOUS and really sated my hankering for cheese, cheese and more cheeeessssseeee :)~

Swiss cheese fondue...... mmmm....


A cold cut platter to go with the fondue



After lunch, it was... errrr... sleeping some more! When we finally woke up (and the cheese fondue had settled in our bellies), we cooked up Christmas dinner. We got a rack of lamb and made lamb chops - Chris' speciality :) And some rosemary and garlic potatoes, baked straight out of the oven.

A mega satisfying dinner, with our own mini family now :) Fur-kids included, of course!

Marinated lamb chops


Cooking on the bbq grill


Rosemary and garlic potatoes


Our homecooked Christmas dinner :)


The fuzzies have their own Christmas dinner, bits of lamb

Five gifts for five people.

This offer does have some restrictions so please read:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for YOU & you are allowed to make requests (and I will try to honor them).
- It will be done before December 31th, 2010. (probably sooner rather then later though. I like to get things done. (: )
- It might be cookies, a mix cd, a necklace, an original haiku, a scarf, who knows!
- You'll need to PM me your mailing address if you're one of the first 5.

In return, all you need to do is repost this somewhere and offer to make 5 things for 5 other people.

If you are one of the first 5 and pm me, please include a few details about your own interests, etc. so that I can make your gift as personal as possible.

WARNING: My favorite crafting is sewing and cross-stitching, so be prepaired for that to be what you get, do not respond if you do like getting things like that.

:)

ho ho ho! i had the last christmas party yesterday at andy's place. it was potluck, so bright and early in the morning, the boy and me trooped over to the market to buy our breakfast, and the fresh ingredients required for the potluck.

the plan was to bring along curry chicken. we bought 2 fat chicken (my mum kept 1 for her own use) and onions. my mum have already helped me buy potatoes so that was out. errm, i must admit that i didn't cook. my mum did, and her curry chicken was fantastic in my opinion, so that was the best food that i thought i could bring over for the folks.

the rest of the food included sushi, a loaf of bread (to compliment the curry chicken), KFC, a lychee martini cake from pine garden, iced cold longans and lychees for desserts and kit kat ice cream cones and yoghurt sticks for everyone to share.

i am the official game master - i brought along my pictionary and taboo!

i also met shaun's 暧昧 for the first time, and also andy's girlfriend! too bad we didn't manage to take any pictures of them! one of them left early and the other came when we were leaving.... argh! someone, please remind me next time!

der and me brought along a shot glass tic-tac-toe set and a game set as gifts for exchange. and here's us with all our exchanged presents!



shaun got our tic-tac-toe set while allan have gotten the game set (which i think was real apt for him!).

the games were fun, because it was so funny - the things that we drew (some totally cannot make it) and people guessing all sorts of rubbish. taboo was a little tricky because it was a singaporean version and it had phua chu kang and zoe tay as the guess words.

we ended the night with the desserts, 2 sleeping babies and many tired souls from laughing too much. it was fun and i wished i had my own house to host parties like that. for now, i can only dream and wait for 5 years because it could become a reality.

during one of the weekend last month, the boy and me trooped over to max pavilion and caught 张韶涵 in action.

seeing her in real life and rather up-close (i was in the VIP seating area), i must say she is really, really petite! and she doned 5" platform heels throughout her entire performance. with that, she was just only slightly taller than the host - 周崇庆. half the time, i was trying to see if i could make out the brand of the shoe (haha!).

i was very tired during the performance and kept yawning. no offence to her singing. it was quite good, just that my body is not up to it, especially in a dimly lit environment.





we ended the night with supper and promptly back into bed.

i am a really bad friend.. because in order to have dinner with me. the 2 of them waited for 4 freaking hours. only to have dinner with me for an hour. it's not really my fault because something went really wrong with my ad at the last minute (what's new, really?), so instead of the scheduled 7.30pm, i was only available at 11pm.

now, that's what friends are for right?!



while making our way down to the lobby (where the boy is also waiting - i feel like a sinner), we went to aston for dinner! wanted to stay longer with the folks but the restaurant was closing. =/

ended the night after an hr of dinner and i felt really bad. really hate my job sometimes.

didn't manage to take any pictures of the food because i stepped out of the car with only my mobile phone and nothing else. much of the dinner was also spent 'milking the cow' and all of us taking turns to beat the high score. i had the high score of the night with 10 tins of milk.

my night didn't end there. der and me went to meet agnes, kevin and huimin and did a trip into JB for lok lok!! we also took the opportunity to wash the car, refuel the car and had 50 sticks of lok lok. super shiok! the main objective was to enjoy the lok lok, but somehow, i think agnes was more satisfied than i was!





sigh. my posts are so out-dated.

These are some "behind the scenes" photos :P About 2 days before the wedding.. when it was the MAD DASH for the final dress fitting (usually this takes place over the course of around 6 months, but because we don't live there, I didn't have that luxury). And so I was warned over and over again not to gain weight. Did I succeed? Well, let's just say I was the fattest I have ever been in my life on my wedding day. Yeah, in 27 years, I was my heaviest weight ever, right SMACK on my wedding day. I was actually quite upset and self-conscious about it, because I was sad that I wouldn't be that ultra-thin bride that every girl is on her wedding day :(

FAIL!

But, I'm not too stressed about it now, since after all, I still walked down the aisle and Chris still married me :P Besides, now that I've seen the pics, I reckon both my dresses looked better with curves. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!! :P

So this is what both my dresses looked like, "in the works". You'll see pins here and there whilst they nipped and tucked it in so it fit me like a glove. It was a really nice (and surreal) feeling designing my wedding gown and trying it on. It felt... amazing.. when I first put it on. That moment of sheer wonder when you look at yourself in the mirror and see your body swathed in the divine fabric.

And most of all, the utter DELIGHT of what was going to take place in just a few days time :)

Hair trial (didn't like this one)


Me and Mum


Chris and his parents. LOL at his dad!


Wedding gown fitting (without the Swarvoski crystals yet)


Back view


The bride to be :)


Yeah those are pins all over the bustline. The swarovski crystals weren't sewn on yet..


And this is later on, when the Swarovski crystals were on


Dad looking v cute :P


Red gown fitting

The plane landed at back at Changi Airport at 12.40am on Boxing Day. That means i spent most of Christmas in Taipei & the rest of it across the ocean. By the time i went to bed, it was 2.30am. EXTREMELY tired!

Highlights of Boxing Day??
1. Seeing, hugging, kissing & smelling Hubby & Preston!
2. Playing Santa(rina)
3. Christmas party at Auntie Penny's
4. Hubby's surprise gift & handmade card. Awww...
5. My new Louis Vuitton bag & small wallet. (Yep, i added 2 more items to my collection.)


I have finally done all my holiday laundry, unpacked my suitcase & i'll upload my Taiwan photos soon!

Amidst all the work flurry, festivities and activities, it's been a while since I sat down with the boy to have a proper meal. Ha.. If being the last customer and stepping into the restaurant when they are taking their last order is considered proper at all...

Posted via LiveJournal.app.