My first attempt at nabeyaki udon..

Quite a healthy dish.. added mainly mushrooms (3 diff types), veggies (spinach + cabbage), fishcake, beancurd.. etc.

secret ingredients in making dashi: konbu + bonito flakes! duh, its not really a secret anymore is it.

got most of the stuffs from meidi-ya, the importer of INFLATION from japan, at exorbitant prices..



the end result:

Farewell dinner~

Parting is always bittersweet... but at least, with Sai gone we'll be able to cut back down on expenses and channel them into...... clothes and cosmetics. (and yes, we told her that!) haha. kwok and i swear we're so darn bad for each other!

I really hope we get to dine here again when we visit bangkok! the ambience was just fantasssstic! but of course, you DO pay quite a bit for it tho.

After much postponing and procrastinating, we finally got round to watching ratatouille today. it's a brilliant show, primarily because remy the rat was so darn cute! i lurrrrved his pinkish jelly-like droppy little nose that wobbles, i wished my mouse had a nose like that too!

actually, the movie kinda portrayed paris to be a lot more beautiful than what it really is. in reality, the streets of paris are a lot stinkier, a lot dirtier, and a lot dimmer... will not dispute however, that the city has GOOD food.

i've come to realise that in life, there are 3 things which can have an uplifting effect on a person's mood:

1) FOOD
2) MUSIC
(and when all else fails.. though generally NOT recommended)
3) ALCOHOL

however, the list for most females would usually include one more item:

4) SHOPPING

looking forward to december.. japan trip followed by bangkok getaway.. intensive shopping + eating! SSSHHIIIOOOKK! just exactly what i need b4 joining e corporate ratrace..

wah, didnt plan for this double entry for today. just happened to read a pretty interesting blog post else where, and here's my 2 cts worth on it:

first and foremost, within a circle of friends, there is no one person who is more impt than the rest.

all are equal, obviously, and if one shld desire to meet up with the rest (because that person can now afford the time to), then the person shld initiate an outing, or at least indicate his/her interest of having one.

the person also shldnt work on the assumption that the other friends have full knowledge of his/her own (busy) schedule unless he/she makes it known to others.

further, that same person shld never expect to sit around, hoping that an invitation will fall from the sky - afterall, why must others always be the one doing the co-ordinating? (planning for an outing is not only time-wasting but annoying as well, having to check with all other members of the group just to confirm an outing.)

there must also be some common understanding that the other friends may be busy with their own lives too, because some of them are either working, or seeking job applications - which therefore means they wont have time to continually check if someone else's schedule is less hectic.

failing the above, that person shld NOT conclude that he/she has been outcast by the group and that the group has been uncompromising. social disengagement as we know, is a two way process. unless the person decides to outcast his/herself, he/she can still be involved in a social group.

the final point i'd like to make is - everyone has to adopt a proactive role to keep a friendship going. so perhaps the question to ask urself is, have you done so?

We camwhored so much, i dun even know how to organize these pics..

Our new samsung LCD TV is tuned in to the asian food channel some 15 hrs a day.

It's not such a bad thing though. At the very least, it liberated my dad from his "chinese are the smartest, chinese are the best, chinese are the thriftiest, and chinese have the best cuisine" obstinate way of thinking. after a month of daily 'hokkaido journey' viewing, he is now thoroughly convinced that hokkaido is the best place to visit for tasty seafood treats. and if all goes well, we may be headed there for a ramen cum hotpot cum sashimi cum retreat next summer. ahh so looking forward.

the other programme that seemed particularly fascinating was 'escape to river cottage' or something to that effect. in the show, the cook whops up a dish using whatever he has hunted during the day.

in one of the episodes, he actually made bunny burgers. needless to say, the burger patties were made from the rabbits he hunted. *sobz* rabbits are so cute can!

also in that same episode, he brought home a GIANT mushroom (i think it was puffball) that weighed some 6.5 pounds. the mushroom was so huge you'd think that they existed only in alice in the wonderland. seriously! they dugged up the flesh so that the mushroom became a 'pot' for them to dump in other stuffs like pigeons and fungi and veggies blah blah. and they baked the entire 'mushroom pot'. it was amazing...

watching too much of these food programmes really brings out the 'chef' in you and makes you wanna cook up a storm as well.. too bad dok's cancelling on us this sunday and we cant seem to find a replacement day.. so... what a bummer! ok, gotta watch ratatouille soon... like seriously. 've got damn cravings to eat now.

Just an add on: Dok actually went thru a fair bit of research on how to make a conical bra.. afterall, conicals dun just fall from the sky, do they. see how proudly she displays her stuffs? *SALUTE* i'm starting to suspect that we will still laugh abt this say 10 yrs down the road...

A prelude!!

The one biggest gripe I have about Noose is the fact that we’re constantly exposed to the elements of weather as we traverse between the different faculties. And Singapore as we know, frequently oscillates between the two weather extremes – blazing hot sun and merciless heavy downpours. Experience further tells us that the two extremes are not mutually exclusive too. I ought to get this into my head, that a bright and sunny morning certainly doesn’t exempt one from bringing her umbrella to sch. (not that having one will help either if the rains seem almost semi-torrential). Aside to the Smuggers: you OUGHT to appreciate that freaking concourse we have in sch! I cant decide if this post is meant to bitch abt the weather or the sch. Maybe a bit of both. My mind is in a constant state of flux and I can hardly put together a single coherent trend of thought. The only consolation to me now is that the wkend is already in sight. I can already feel and breathe it. Tonight’s poker session had better be good. I don’t need to win, I just need the fun, the solid humor with a little dash of lame jokes. Hell yea!

Priorities.

Weird little things that change over extended periods of time. Hope i havent gotten them all wrong.

Be forewarned -- lotsa cam whoring coming yer way!

And to end off, finally a decent pic of us!