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.

Sick

Sorry all, have been quite sick for the past few days.

Last count, I have been down with cold & flu & cough 3 times already this winter. I hate being sick, because I feel really weak and would need to sleep alot. And I am not kidding when I say I need to sleep a lot. The entire Sat that had just past was a complete write off, because I slept the entire day and night away. I slept so much, that I develop very painful bed sores on my back.

Because I felt so lousy, I OD-ed myself with self-prescribed flu pills, Lemsip drinks, Chinese herbal pills and coconut-cough syrup. Only until Sunday evening could I manage some dinner and sit up right to talk to my dear little nurse Ernest.

Just today, I went to pay a visit to Chloe, our pharmacy friend, who immediately pescribed me proper flu medication, loads of Echinacea, zinc, garlic multivitamins & Vit C chewables. I was told that the flu vaccine will be pretty useless to me now but I can still build up my immune system by scoffing down all the pills she pescribed.

On a more happy note, Ernest and I bagged ourselves another SQ special and booked our flights back to Singapore in Oct! I am sure everyone now knows the price war between airlines to boost their business and me being in the airline industry should be able to bag some specials which is not available to every Tom, Dick or Harry. This time round, we will do a special SYD/SIN/Tokyo/SIN/SYD and visit the Land of the Rising Sun!

All my closest friends know that I am a Japan-fan and where the Korean wind blows in South-east Asia, particularly Singapore where all the girls quite name all the Korean superstars in the same breath as ordering food from the char kway teow store, I could not even be bothered to wait (in bated breath or otherwise) for the next episode of Dae Jung Keum.

But tell me about Chage & Aska, or Takuya Kimura or Utada Hikaru or (wink!) Akira Fubuki, you will have me breatheless in excitement in no time. This Japan trip will be like a dream come true.

I went to Tokyo back in 2002 for 3 days. That was when I won myself a trip to Summer Sonic concert to see Blur live. I was with EMI and I only had 2 days to myself. I went to Harajuku and Ueno myself, alone, ひとりで. And one thing I hate most, is to spend time with myself. I saw the electric culture of the Japanese youth and was mesmerised by the ancient beauty of the temples in Ueno, all by myself. I swore there and then, that I have to come back with my love one.

Well, this new trip is still a bit sketchy, but we will definitely do Hakone, Disneyland, Odaiba & Tsukiji Fish Market. If any of you readers have any suggestions at all on what to do, see, eat & feel, pls feel free to let me know. I can't wait.

Fwah, I already feel much better after this posting. So it is true that if you focus on positive things, whatever negative things you may be encountering may be neutralised easily.

Gotta go chew some Vit C. Good night!

Transformers

Ernest and I went to watch Transformers tonight because it's Cheap Tuesday. $10 each for a 3hr movie. Not too bad value, I reckon. And also, because I still believe in fairy tales and childish stuff, I thought this Transformers really rock, cos the Decepticons were beaten to a pulp by Autobots and Optimus Prime saved the day. But of course the ultra cool special effects and director Michael Bay helped alot to make the movie nice. If the next Transformer is not directed by Mr Bay himself, I will be quite disappointed. But I do agree with O that Meagan Fox (although she is really hot and exposes her bosom frequently) is pretty much useless in the film.

Ernest, bless my little boy at heart, really dressed the part. Did you see he was in his Transformer T-shirt (he reminded me the logo is of Autobot, the good guys) and he had on a Transformer jacket.


Ernest posing with the movie tickets in front of the promo board.

Pls excuse my 1st blurry pic. My hands were probably shaking. But check out my 2nd detailed photo of Ernest jacket. Both photos were taken from my newest early birthday present from Ernest: my sleek white 32GB iPhone 3G S

Thanks darling!

The Day We Spent Alot on Food

It so happened that we dared each other to go all out to spend as much as we can on a meal which consists of all the food we like to eat. And we did, at Yummy's. Dot will remember that we brought her to this Chinese restaurant where they served a really delicious supper set and we went there with Noni & Derek one night for supper just to eat whatever we like with our hard-earned money (the feeling was indescribably liberating) . You would remember we couple-dated before in this post.

Look at what we had!


The live lobster that the waiter maestro showed us was still flapping about on its tail.
All that was going through my mind at that point was,'How expensive that is going to cost all of us?!'

Look how Ernest is enjoying the succulent lobster meat.

Hmmm....yummy lobster on a bed of egg noodles.

Obligatory couple shot

This bowl of huge wantons, only $8.50. Cheap & good

Derek & Noni enjoying their soup

Pipis in XO sauce. A must-have for us

Yeah, yeah, we are enjoying life. Jealous?

Beans. This was stir-fried in a very unique way with goose liver & bits of salmon. It is yummy, but you do need to warm up to it. I dun think we will be ordering this again.

You do not want to know how much we spent that night on supper but I can tell you I thoroughly enjoyed the meal & also the wonderful company.

On course

I had such an interesting lesson yesterday. The engineering training department has conducted an introductory Saab training course for the Ops department and because there were a few spaces, I was one of the honoured few who were signed up to crash into the course.

The instructor was full of experience and entertained us with stories of his hey-days while training/working in Scotland. The powerpoint presentation were full of interesting, easy to understand facts about Saab and it was dotted with little you-tube clips of what can go wrong during flight or during maintenance and some of the accidents were pretty humorous.

Basically we were taken through in this intensely condensed course from top to bottom what was on a Saab, how the engine work, how it could take off, the lights, the fittings, safety issues, etc. I didn't realise there was so much work involve getting this little turboprop flying in the air!

Some interesting little nuggets I caught during the lesson:
-one Saab aircraft weighs approx. 8000kg when emptied of fuel, 130 000kg when it is full
-one Saab can travel up to 4000km on a full tank
-if the Saab's fuel is running on empty, it can still fly for another 75mins before the engines cut themsleves off
-if the ramp staff asks for a honey-cart, he is actually asking for the toilet cart to clear the waste off the aircraft

Fellowship

Nope, I didn't disappear. Just very busy with activities and the cold. When all my toes and fingers dropped off, I won't be able to update my blog anymore.

In the meantime, the small cell group outing last Sat hasn't dampen our moods. Those who didn't turn up, too bad! We had a wonderful time ice-creaming at French Riveria, checking out cheesy Asian poses and buying Converse Chuck Taylors at DFO.

Goodbye Ricky

Alas, it's time for all of us to say good bye to Ricky. Fantastic guy, good at drumming, but really hard to communicate to because of his limited grasp of English.
His holiday working visa is now finished and he is returning to Korea for good. He said he might be back, but need to look for money first, or so I understood from frantic hand gestures and lotsa 'ah's in the process of a conversation.

Farewell dinner was at a Korean restaurant (where else?) and Ernest and I were the only non-Korean at the table.


Group shot!

Joanna & Francesca mama

Aussie, aussie, oy, oy, oy!

I hope he like this t-shirt

Me with Ricky & the farewell gifts.

Now the food! This restaurant specialises in a type of Korean miso tofu soup and I absolutely love it. My fav is the hamuel soong doong bu chee gae (which means seafood tofu soup). The Koreans at our table said this restaurant is very authentic and some may agree that the food served here is even better tasting than the ones in Korea. And I concur.


The panchans. They have ke jiang, which is marinated raw crab. My fav btw. I last had some when I first arrived in Sydney 3 years ago. To eat them again brings back lotsa memories.

Soong doon bu chee gae. I dun think mine was the hemuel one cos I didn't see any seafood at all and it has too much mushroom in the soup.

Ernest with his set. From left, the soong doong bu chee gae, stone bowl, special rice, hot plate squid ala Korean style.

Seafood pancake. I like how the crisp side compliments the dark sauce and in no time at all, we finished the pancake.

Special rice. Joanna told me the rice is cooked with 7 types of nuts and it has a natural sweetness from the ginko nuts, glutinous rice, etc. I like it alot.

If you would like to taste the best soong doong bu chee gae in the whole of Sydney, some say Australia & Korea, do pay this restaurant a visit. Do not be alarmed if you cannot read the words on the signboard, it is entirely in Korean. I renamed it in English, but the address is definitely correct.

Soong Doong Bu Restaurant
(Next to Korean convienient store, opp Coles)
Shop 10, 74-76 Rawson Street
Epping

Oh wise teacher, what does this mean?

I like Australia most of the time, especially their weird slangs.

Today I learnt a new slang.

fair shake of the sauce bottle

It means:
1. Tried very hard to get you. OR
2. Done their best. OR
3. To be given a fair chance.

Come on you all, dun give me fair shake of the sauce bottle! I have done fair shake of the sauce bottle and you have got to give me the fair shake of the bottle here.

I hope this is how this slang used. -_-

Overheard and seen

Rex is on the news! Click away here.

And overheard and seen on David Letterman's show, Julia Roberts was asking David about his recent marriage to his wife Regina.

JR: Congratulations David! Did she take your name?

DL: Thank you. Oh yes, she did.

JR: So do we call her Mrs Letterman now?

DL: No, you call her Dave.

Buahahahaha!

Looong weekend

Thanks to the Queen, Australians get to enjoy a long weekend this past week. Ernest and I had a relaxing long weekend cleaning up our apartment. Haha, you heard right.

Spurred by this sudden urge to do something about our overflowing apartment storeroom. I now realised that storage in Sydney apartments are known to be rare and if you have got a big storeroom like mine does, I should thank God & my ancestors for such good luck. And to see that the storeroom is actually overflowing had really made me want to neaten things up once and for all.

Ernest and I had a lovely couple-time looking through stuff and ended up throwing away 8 big bags of trash. You will never expect we were such good little hoarders.

Last count, we have more than 10 recycle shopping bags, 4 hand luggages, 2 big check-in luggages, heaps of boxes for the inevitable move which might be happening this year and we are still clearing.

Ernest also dug up some spare batteries we bought on a spur at a dollar shop and changed my watch batteries. We laughed at some of the newspaper articles we kept and threw away a huge pile of them.

Actually it was a fun time all in all, although cleaning up is not exactly on our fun-things-to-do list.

Nimble little fingers

I never knew my colleagues were such master chefs. They made so many goodies that we were never hungry in around our work stations.

Check out Justin's little chai-inspired shortbread cookies done on Thursday. There wasn't a much of the 'chai' in the cookies, but the cinnamon made the usual shortbread recipe taste very rich. I downed 10 of these little buggers and declared 'Enough is enough!'



Then today Ryan brought in his homemade banana bread. Good effort, although the crust is a little too burnt for my liking. The middle part though, very fluffy and very banana.



We are having a long weekend here in Sydney this week because of Queen's birthday. No idea the exact date but God bless the Queen for giving us a holiday. Have you Sydneysiders have any plans yet?

Totally random

One of my colleague Hayley's home baked cupcake. So good!


And this is for you, Dot: