From steamboat to shabu shabu

Nothing much to update except that I am immensely relieved that the marketing campaign for NQLD is pretty much wrapped up after this week and I can spent the next week worrying about the measurements for my lounge rug, virtues of ottomans with storage and sofa beds vs proper bed with storage. I will have to sell my fridge and washing machine too. From one headache to another one. Fun.

Plus I gotta enrol into my school SOON, or else I lose my place at UNSW.

Wouldn't life be boring without things to do? LOL.

Have another laugh on Blinkymummy about her take on Avatar the movie that Ernest and I has watched twice already. Blinkymummy is so funny lor!!

Emi

Ernest, our famous photographer in the family, has taken some very nice photos of Emi on this hot, hot day.


Alamak...mummy...weather is very hot leh...


Maybe I should just have a lie down and cat nap a bit...


Falling a sleep soon....dreamland here i come...


zzzz.....oohhh...dreaming of more dry kitty food and chasing papa and mama's ankles...


huh...SQUIRREL!

LOL....

Calling Singapore Home

It is very interesting to follow the happenings back at home; Singapore, where I am from. I read with fascination the frustration and the tension local Singaporeans have to deal with living alongside the influx of migrants these few years. Interestingly enough, I note a few observations:

- I am a migrant to Singapore myself. I am born in Malaysia and took up citizenship when I am 21 years old. And now I am a migrant to Sydney by the virtue of my PR status and job here.
- Influx of migrants came soon after I left Singapore to work in Sydney, therefore, I did not 'experience' them fully and may or may not understand the 'problems' they 'caused'.
- Sydney, just like Singapore, welcomes migrants on a large scale everyday. I see more foreigners on the streets of Sydney City more than local Aussies. In fact, Sydney is the first stop for almost 70% migrants into Australia because Sydney is such a cosmopolitan city.

And also, on Facebook, I have increasingly encounter more and more of my FB friends commenting wryly or angrily that they are so angry, so frustrated with the 'foreign-not-so-talents' here in Singapore taking up breathing space and driving all Singaporeans up the wall.

I begin to mull, was it because Singaporeans are racist by nature? We are unable to be gracious and patient and allow integration for the migrants to acclimatised into the Singaporean society? I have plenty of Chinese friends here, 99% of them migrated into Sydney either by education or by skills or by any other way not good to know in the light; but the crux is, I never had any problems associating with them.

Yes, maybe the food they eat is a bit different from mine. Asian food are heaps weird to Aussies but I dun see my Hokkien mee or Chicken curry being criticised upon by my Aussie colleagues. Chinese maybe do speak a little louder. Maybe they are dressed a little more fashionably-challenged than what we can tahan.

But Sydney never had any problems with migrants and any social problems they may have. Of course there will be cultural differences and tension from time to time. Dun you think it will be harder for Chinese to migrate to Sydney because of the English we speak here? But why is it easier for all of us migrants to live here and integrate into the society? I dun really get a lot of racism or sarcastic remarks here myself. It is indeed food for thought.

Reading blinkymummy's blog post really got me thinking. How is it that one country's immigration program succeeds more than another country's? Perhaps Singapore's lawmakers should have study tours to Sydney to learn how to cope with immigration and how to settle migrants in. Perhaps there should be a course for all migrants to introduce Singapore to them and what to expect and how to behave socially, so as to be socially acceptable to all.

In the meantime, I urge all my Singaporean friends not to be hasty and judge people; for our grandparents or our ancestors, are migrants from China in the first place. If Singapura then has welcomed our forefathers into this land to work, earn money and live, we should be able accept our new friends to share this country we call home. Peace.

Stress

Good morning on this beautiful Saturday. Sydney is going to be a scorcher today, with temperatures predicting to hit 40 degrees in the west, a little near where we are. I can't wait to finally move to the east to enjoy that sea breeze.

I can't really sleep long hours nowadays. I think it is the stress of the marketing campaign for the North Queensland routes for work and also some personal issues that I am tackling right now. If any of you readers of mine have $50 000 spare cash lying around and if you dun mind non-interest repayments to you monthly, pls do not hesitate to contact me NOW.

Haha, nope, I have not been gambling or sick (Thank God for good health) or running into mafia troubles. I shall reveal what is troubling me soon. All in good time, my friends.

Week 1 of fasting. I have succumbed to temptation once but at least I was watching som Pol Pot docu on Cambodia, not my favs such as CSI, Lie to Me, etc. I will endeavor to be more focused and draw myself away from temptation. Maybe I should unplug the TV.

Emi likes to manja me every morning. I feel she likes to be carried, cuddled and sayang to the most in the morning. Look, she is meowing like a little lost kitten now cos Ernest has escaped into the cool interior of our air-conditioned room. Probably I should join him. I can feel the heat coming up on me.

Bai. XOXO

sorry mate!

Absolutely swamped by the launch of our Northern Queenland routes at the moment. 7 ports! No time to blog, but you will be pleased to know I have 2 zero-TV days already since Daniel Fast. I am beginning to have withdrawal symptoms and hallucinating about watching TV in the loo with snort running down my cheeks.

BRB.

Bye bye Honda

Today we sold our Honda. It has been our plan since last year actually. We wanted to sell one car and maybe trade in the 2nd one for a brand new GTI Mk 6. Step 1 of 2 completed. But after the buyer handed us the cash, I waved Honda off with a crestfallen heart.

Why do I feel like this, I asked Ernest. Why do I feel like I am the one who made the wrong decision to sell the car? I dun particularly love the car, although I have been driving it for the past 3 years and we have been through a lot; but I just feel a piece of me is missing.

Putting on Carrie's cap, I shall ask the rhetorical question of the day; 'Do sellers feel post-selling dissonance right after a sale has concluded?'

Letting my fingers do a brief walk around the internet tonight yielded heaps of articles, blogs, wiki-pages about post purchase dissonance, where a buyer, after buying an item, feels regretful, or some kind of guilt. This cognitive behaviour is most commonly known as post-purchase dissonance; where the buyer might feel that the decision made is not the best one and feel a little uncomfortable about it.

Nothing I can really find useful about my dilemma. I guess it is mostly buyers who will feel that their decision to buy might not be the best one. Why would a seller, after pocketing the money, will feel like that? Hmmm.....food for thought. Maybe it is sub-consciously missing the sold car, or maybe it is just the adrenaline fall after the excitement of the sale. Whatever it is, I will be mourning for Honda for the next few days perhaps.

Here's ode to my Honda:

Yesterday Once More - The Carpenters


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As promised, I have found a children's bible story about Daniel. More specifically, it is about Daniel and his miracle with the lions. Take special heed to 0:57 where the story teller says Daniel eats only veg and water. This is the diet we are trying to follow for the next 3 weeks. Very hard, but we will try. Enjoy the youtube! I thought it was quite entertaining.

2 weeks of 2010

2 weeks after 2010 starts brings a lot of bad new indeed. The devasting earthquake at Haiti was the first bad news of the year. But I am afraid I have lost my empathy for the sad news. While the news were reporting live on location at Port Au Prince, the mike was live to some Haitian natives who informed us that there was no food, no water, no electricity anywhere and there I was sitting in the comfort of my own home and giggling in my head that his Haitian accent was absolutely exotic and cute. A little bit like Wyclef Jean who is a Haitian himself crooning about being President. I think I am becoming a heartless bitch unconsciously.



All self-bashing aside, let's be a good global citizen and help our Haitian brothers and sisters half way round the world the only way we can at the moment. Donate to Red Cross. Remember to choose the Haitian Relief as your donation of choice when you click on the link.

And talking about even more depressing news, I have a sad dream last night. I dreamt that my father was killed. In my dream, my father and I were some fantastic spies that work for the government. One mission went bad and my dad was killed, but I was spared my life. I know the story of my dream is so outrageous and fantastical that I shouldn't be worried that it would happen in real life, but the sorrow I felt, the deep soul-wrenching sadness I felt in my heart for my 'dead' dad was so real and and unbearable that I woke up, sweating, teeth-nashing and heart pounding.

Yesterday at Max Brenner, Ernest shared to Ewen, Elaine and I that he dreams of flying just like how Peter Petrelli does in Heroes from time to time and it always scares him half to death cos the height and the speed is not human. Elaine shared she frequently dreams of tidal waves which will overcome her, but had never scared her. I was doing a bit of self-reflection and thinking hard what is it I always dream?

Now I know. Seems that I have quite frequently dream of death to my loved ones. I have dreamt of Ernest dying (for the life of me, I can't find the blog post I did on this dream, but I know I have blogged about it before), myself dying, my mother dying, etc. A bit melodramatic, but everytime after this kind of dream, I always wake up choking with sadness and will just be very thankful with whatever I have at the moment.

Daniel fast is starting today for our church. Challenging myself to abstain from my addict for 3 weeks is by no means an easy feat. I hope I will be faithful and keep myself away from TV for 3 weeks will be good for me. More time with God and Ernest. Keep your eyes peeled for this blog for the next 3 weeks then, because I will be gracing all my time spent on TV to trawl the internet for interesting God-related stuff for blogging purposes.

Thanks for dropping by and have a good Sunday. Emi says meow.

Happy New Year!

While I sit in my sofa watching the TV, stroking Emi into one of her many cat naps, I bide everyone good bye to the naughties and welcome 2010, which contains the same amount of naughts anyway.

May the new year be a blessed one for you!


明けましておめでとうございます!!

Boxing Day

I love opening all my presents on Boxing Day.


It seems like Emi likes them too. hehe.

Another Christmas pressie!

Thanks Monkeycrab for her very thoughtful Christmas present to me!
I was getting quite tired of my current lip gloss colours and now I got 2 to play with for the new year.

And I am loving the fire-flower Toad-inspired cosmectic pouch that came with my lippies....

Looks like the pouch hor? Haha, kawaii neh...

Thank you Santa!

Obviously moi has been very good this year, because my not-so-secret Santa for this year's office Christmas lunch has given me the best present anyone could get for an office Secret Santa gift exchange: Stieg Larsson's sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: The Girl who Played with Fire.

Merry Christmas everyone!



Oh, and guess which catering Rex got for their Christmas lunch this year because it is planned by me??

Clem's famous fried chicken of course!!!

It was a restounding success. I am comtemplating to ask them to cater for the next Rex Investor's Briefing inhouse....comtemplating...drools....fried chicken....yums....

Nobaady buchoo

Hello, is anyone still out there?

*brushing the cobwebs away from the corners of my blogspot.

If you are reading this, me small girl humbly thank you for sticking with me all the way through my silences while I fritter frivolously everywhere from Sydney to Singapore to Tokyo and now back to Sydney again, with a very irritating, in-your-head, cannot-get-rid-of-it Korean song in my mind, repeating itself 24 hours day. Oh wait, it is now my iPhone ringtone, that's why.



And while I was away from my blog for this extended period of time, I managed to swoon over the New Moon movie with MonkeyCrab & my hubby, read Stephanie Meyer's adult novel Host and became Stieg Larsson's newest fan.

Oh yes, Ernest and I bought an apartment in yuppie Kensington (gosh, no, we could not afford the REAL Kensington in UK, hehehe, you think us too high...) near UNSW and will be totally indulging our Christmas period poring over interior design ideas, furnitures, timber floor choices and pantone wall colours. I am excited about our plans for this apartment but shhh....mum's the word. You got to come to our housewarming to see what Ernest and I have cooked up.

Bye for now, Ciao!

Stinky-hot-apore

Singapore would be perfect for a city girl like me if it comes without the heat and humidity as well as size 0 clothes and size 6 shoes.

Day 1:


Day 2:


If you are either Ernest or my friend on FB, you can view the pictures in his albums here.

Wednesday is not Blue

When I stepped into office today in the morning, I was greeted by a huge stalk of pink Rhododendron sitting in a drinking glass on my table. It was home grown, from the garden of Liz, my colleague. Lovely flowers cheered up my day immediately.



Tea time, Liz surprised us with her Oblatne, a kind of Croatian dessert wafers chock full of chilled chocolate mousse goodness. While we enjoyed a break sampling her culinary skills and discussing about her Croatian roots, Ryan made us tea and we had a cosy colleague-bonding session.

Nice.

Morning Run

It has been a long while since I wake up at break of dawn to wog. That's right. I wog, walk-jog. I have shared to a few people, that I have this irrational procrastination in me that keeps me from faithfully following a diet plan or a routine exercise. Some people called it laziness; I call it my weakness. And I keep complaining I am fat. Sheesh.

So, I am real pleased with myself waking up early, putting on my runners and wog my way through the neighbourhood. The lovely crisp morning was perfect for my exercise. I jogged to a park and surprised myself because I did not know such a lovely park exists in Croydon. I saw a few people jogging and also packs of dog owners with their pets playing games and throwing sticks. Very nice.

I wog one round the park and played at the kids' playground, climbing up the mini ladder, shoot down the mini slide, did the mini monkeybar and reminiscing about my childhood. Double nice.

Shoot, got to go back now, or else I will be late for work.

I hope to repeat this tomorrow morning. You hear that, Eliss?

Phunky Virgin

If you guys heard about Black Eye Peas on a chartered Virgin flight from Melbourne to Perth on 9 Oct for their Aussie concert tour, here's an exclusive peek into some of the photos we got from a fellow ex colleague. That's so 3008, dun be 2000-and-late. Party everyday..par-par-party everyday. Woo-hoo...

The old ginger is more spicy

You should all know Paul Anka.
Nobody (except maybe Michael Buble) sings as soulfully as he did anymore now.
If he asked me, I will definitely put my head on his shoulders anyday.

Hearts!!!

Lusting...

Quick someone just buy me this bedside shelf NOW.



Perfect for the geeky me when I decide to indugle myself in some before-bedtime read...seen from my daily read FashionNation.

Everything that God touched in Sydney today

turned into a lovely shade of rusty orange.

One of our more freed up counterpart from another airline emailed us this to entertained us during the numerous delays and cancelled flights today:


Today, even my snort is runny orange. Bless.

I give up

In between working, sleeping, eating and all other activities that Ernest has been earnestly twittering every 10 seconds, I have decided to join the bandwagon and do the twitter as well.

From now on, everyone will get to know every single thing about me. If you want to stalk me, pls do not hesitate to do so at http://twitter.com/ElissK

Busiest day of the week so far

I need a feet massage. Seriously.

Jalan jalan

I have taken to walking nowadays. I know for a fact that I will procrastinate terribly if I tell myself to run everyday to slim down/lose weight/keep myself fit. I had started a week running near my apartment in the morning before washing up for work and that lasted a week before I shamefully tell Ernest who was trying to wake me up for the run in the midst of the blaring alarm clock at 6am that I am too tired to continue anymore.

My colleague had recommended I walk and invited me to walk along the Brighton beach with her at about 5pm last Thursday. I had a lovely time power walking along the beach although I nearly died with exhaustion from walking, yes walking, because my colleague was dead serious in completing the 4km walk in one hour. My thighs burnt for 2 days afterwards but it didn't deter me from walking at all.

Sadly this week, that colleague is on annual leave for 2 weeks and will not be walking with me, but I have started on small conquests myself started this Monday.
Ernest bought me a pair of power Nike which was really comfortable as a way to encourage me in this new exercise and so I power walked around my office.

First Day:

I power walked up Botany from Baxter, round to King and back to Baxter again. Traffic pollution is really up there to put soot in my nostrils but it was satisfying to finish the walk in 15mins.

Day 2
Encouraged by the walk the day before (happy to report no burning thighs), I walked a bit further today.

From Baxter to Botany, round to Coward and back again. It took me 45 mins this time and my thighs were burning!

I am repeating this again today (and hopefully everyday during the week) and let's see how much faster I can walk today on the same route.

**Real pleased with myself.

Abhisit Vejjajiva

I am a fan of his at the moment.

อภิสิทธิ์ เวชชาชีวะ is the 27th and the current Prime Minister of Thailand at the moment.

And he is only 45 years old! And looking hawt!

Melbourne in 3 days

It is very nice to have a long weekend in Melbourne last week.
My sis & her bf Mel had been great hosts and I enjoyed myself thoroughly this birthday weekend. I shudder at the thought of next year, where I can no longer say I am in my twenties anymore. The horror!

Anyways, here are the photos. Enjoy.


Perks of working for an airline; we paid taxes only for our flights to Melbourne. But subject to uncessary scares of being off-loaded if the flight is full. Melbourne is a very popular destination cos our hearts skipped beats twice for this trip, to and fro.




Self-shot while waiting for my chaffeur sis & BF at Melbourne Airport. They have a nice little waiting area outside the airport for pickups. Sydney? Nothing. You pay $7 for just stopping your car at the Sydney airport doors.

Yum Char at I dunno where, but very yummy. Standards very competitive to Sydney's.

Yeah, I know, the spread is absolutely gluttony

From left: moi, me sis & Mel


Off to DFO Essenden to walk off the food for the rest of the afternoon. The DFO in Melbourne is absolutely fabulous. Sales are genuine & much more attractive than Sydney's. I think I am falling in love with Melbourne purely for shopping reasons.

We headed to Crowne Casino's KoKo Japanese Restaurant for my birthday dinner. We decided for this instead of the famous Nobu because too many people have told me Nobu is over-rated and walking past Nobu to get to KoKo, I was kinda glad we are going to KoKo because Nobu was so dark inside that you might be chewing on someone's sock and you won't know any better.

Koko was warm and comfortable with ala carte area separated from the teppanyaki stations by an interior pond. Pond! I know, it's cool.

For letting us wait for 5 mins for our table, we were served complimentary sweet sparkling wine with cherries and wasabi peas.






The start of the alcohol-filled evening. First up: sparkling wine.



Then sake. I have started to talk to my sis very excitedly and gesturing a little too much.

This chawan mushi beats Kabuki Shoroku's hands down.

Interior of KoKo. Smashing right?


Wagyu beef....yum....

Duck breast, prawns and taro in mirin based stock.

Soup (not storm) in a teapot.

Fresh sushi.

We ended the night smashed in the casino where we just sat around and ordered rounds and rounds of cocktails. Poor Mel was the designated driver, so he had lotsa OJ & Ice lemon tea.

No matter, Happy Birthday to me!

Put your head around it

Why would you call Rex and ask for a copy of our inflight magazine to be sent to you and then ask for a copy of Jetstar's in-flight magazine as well?

A matter of should I laugh or not. Perfect 4.30pm tea-break.

Fancy a Jag?

Ernest and I were browsing through the pre-loved car yards on the weekend the other day pondering if we should sell both our current cars and get a Jazz or cars of any other make when we came across what we thought was a steal.

For less that AUD$20 000, I can make everyone at the office wonder if a new director has joined the board of Rex and he or she must be someone great cos that person drove a Jaguar.

Comes in cream coloured leather seats by the way.


Photo taken on my new iPhone 3GS. Nice hor?

I can just picture all my colleagues face if I tell them the car is mine and every single one of them would have this dirty thought: Eliss kena lotto $90 million last week and never say!!

By the way, I did not win the $90 million lotto nor did I get the car. hehe.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince the movie in 15 mins

Yes, in reply to my rant of the HP & HBP movie, Ollie suggested I should see the lighter side of things and boy did I enjoy the read.

To have the HP & HBP movie thoroughly dissected and sarcastically analysed in 15 mins flat, pls click HERE.

Warning: you might burst out in fits of uncontrollable laughter during your lunch break in the middle of a busy office just like me today.

They say 4 years is a long time...

4 years ago on this day, I was nervously waiting in my Vera Wang dress at home for Ernest to come, break through the tight band of bridesmaids and the bridal games and to take me as his wife.

Time flies doesn't it? And to think I used to fear that I will run out of things to say to Ernest one day and he will find me boring. Au Contaire! These 4 years had been exhilarating for the both of us to say the least.

Happy 4th year wedding Anniversary my love.

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince the movie

There are so many things not right with the movie as compared to the book.
I know, I know, you cannot squeeze the entire book into a 2 hr movie, but I just want to point out the obvious errors.
Word of caution: Spoilers ahead!

Things that is not right in the movie:

1) Why do they replace the Ministers' scene with the train station scene. There is no train station scene in the book at all ok?!

2) It was Narcissus who set the Unbreakable Vow with Snape, not Bellatrix.

3) It was Tonks who rescued HP in the train to Hogwarts and repaired his nose, not Luna Lovegood. And what's up with the scene on Malfroy's luggage at the Hogwart's gate? Unnececcasry!

4) The scene where HP ran into the grass to chase after Bellatrix Lestrange. Not in the book.

5) Scene where HP drank the Felix and coax the real memory from Prof Slughorne, timeline is strangely contorted.

6) It was HP who hid the Potions Book in the Room of Requirement, not Ginny.

7) No fight with Death Eaters after Dumbledore's death. Wrong.
No funeral for Dumbledore. Wrong.

8) What's with pointing the wands into the sky? Not in the book at all.

I am a little disappointed in this movie because the director has made it tamer than it actually was. I understand it is necessary to capture the younger target group, but I thought the plot was watered down and a tad confusing for non-HP readers (Tonks & Lupin only appeared in one scene. Who are they? Ernest asked me. How do I explain? Aiyoh.)

But altogether a valiant effort.

Hey, check out the HP fan queuing up to get popcorn for the movie. I didn't think her props are enough. Where is her wand and where's her broomstick? Haha....

Photo-blog to Beer Butt Rosemary Roasted Chicken

Inspired by the Masterchef series, I tried to roast chicken in a creative way. I got the recipe from the internet by the way.

Bak Kut Teh in Sydney

I dun understand how some restaurants in Sydney calls themsleves the authentic Malaysian or Singaporean restaurant, charges an arm and leg for a common dish (it was AUS$99 for a crab dish, I am not sure if the crab was fresh or not in the first place) and still continue to exist in Sydney expecting to make a quick buck.

They advertise themsleves as the authentic Malaysian Bak Kut Teh restaurant.

Presentation-wise, it looked pretty good. A potful of meat simmering away in Malaysian-style bak kut teh served with chicken rice balls and dark, dark soy sauce with chilli & raw garlic.

Soup is very herbal in taste, but somehow, it lacks paunch. I have tasted better bak kut teh in KL, so my expectations were not met.

It was good, but I doubt I will go back there again for $39 bak kut teh set and $17 sambal kangkong.

Chinese Herbal King Seafood Restaurant

Shop 328, 308 Wattle Street Ultimo NSW 2007

Phone (02) 9660 7588

PS: http://www.eatability.com.au/ rated this restaurant 3.9 out of 10, so it pretty much said everything.

The best cleaner in the whole wide world

OK, maybe I have been living under a stone. I have sent clothes, linens, sofa covers for dry cleaning before and it is always, always to the mum and pop shops round the corner or that dry cleaning shop someone recommended in town.

I have never, however, send my clothes half way round the world to Manhattan to a dry cleaner and have them Fedex back to me. Can anyone I know beat that luxury?

Reading vs devouring

I got to catch up on my reading soon to be in time for the latest Harry Potter movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I am almost at the last pages of Harry Potter & the Deadly Hallows. I was pretty shocked at the ending of the HBP, although it is old news by now.

But, reading on to the last book of the Harry Potter series, I couldn't help but feel that Ms Rowling is killing off characters like it is needed. No, Ms Rowling, I am quite happy if you have kept them alive.

He cook, we eat, we shoot, I post

This post is more than 2 weeks late. We had a housewarming party at Tina's and after all the house-viewing Ernest and I have been doing for the past few months, this apartment is refreshingly retro and I love what Tina and Jono has done to their crib.

The apartment comes with wooden parquet flooring, 1960s textured ceiling in pale pastel cream and a feature glass lights that screams 'Retro!'.

Jono inherited a set of very lived-in sofa and arm chair set and he put a pane of glass on a stack car rims for a coffee table. Ingenius. 'Only $3 on e-bay', boasts Jono.

I guess it is weird we have not had any photos of the apartment, granted I have just raved about it, but more on the food we have pot-lucked in:


Strawberry cheesecake from Manley for 'lissard'

Group hug!

Fruit salad

Potato salad, chicken curry that was too hot for Asians (is that such a thing?) and healthy tuna sandwiches. I love the fresh yellow flowers in the jar tied with a maroon ribbon. Very cheerful. They kena-ed a bit of curry sauce when I opened the pot lid. oops.

Enshu & I

Ernest enjoying his Teddy Bear. Look, no eyes.

LOL!

If you tell me you are white and you have mastered Singlish, I would never believe you. But now, I have finally seen with my own eyes an Ang Moh who speaks Singlish. Proper Singlish.

Warning: it is so funny, that you might wanna make sure you dun peed in your pants.