Simple Pleasures in Life: Being in the Top 3

Mr B: today i was on bus with two female colleagues

Me: yesh yesh

Mr B: one of them told me the other thinks my junior is suai. so i say ok. need my help?

Me: k....

Mr B: then she carries on to say that the other thinks another colleague is 2nd suai
then the other colleague says i'm number 3 !!!
i'm in the top 3!!!
yay!
and there are only 4 male colleagues! :D

***

Strange friends have I.

Musings on Married Life

Intuition and I have officially enjoyed 3 months of married life. That's Mar, Apr and May. I've gotten more used to the idea that I won't be going home to my parents and my brother, and he's gotten used to not having clothes back in his wardrobe on time.

Some fun observations...
You know that you really should do your laundry more often when your laundry-challenged husband starts looking for clothes in the "Clean Laundry Basket" instead of the wardrobe.

Your sleeping habits used to affect no one but yourself, but now, it affects your other half. Sleeping with aircon / without aircon? Blanket / no blanket? The fan is too strong / I can't feel it! And of course, the battle of boundaries... ("You encroached into MY sleeping space last night! I was left with this small strip of space! Mooove!")

You know that it's your own home when you have to clean your own toilet. Floor getting slippery? Can't wait for mum to scrub it, get down to it! Hair choking the drainage? Pick it up yourself, gross or not. Out of toilet paper? Tough luck babe, remember it the next time you go to NTUC.

When we split laundry chores, Intuition doesn't seem to agree with me that if I wash the clothes (ie throw it into the washing machine), it's only fair that he hangs it. Why is it not fair, I fail to see.

My shopping is now accountable to someone else other than myself, and we're both trying to cut down on our usual spending cos there are bills to pay (gasp! being financially responsible! the R word!) and groceries to be bought. The funny thing was I thought we will spend less after we're married as we can save on transport and eating outside (we cook about once a week), but the bills come in too faithfully every month and groceries, while cheaper than eating out, aren't all that cheap either.

Another observation... before getting married, thoughts like "will I be bored of his company within 2 weeks, as it's just me facing him facing me?" crossed our minds and we talked about it with respective friends. That never happened. We're far from being bored in each other's company--simple things like going to the hawker centre for dinner followed by aimless exploration of a new neighbourhood feels better cos it's done with your spouse. Cleaning up the house in clothes that can pass for rags doesn't make the other any less attractive. Married life is good, because it's shared with the right person =)

When you're happily married, have family and friends close by, have a nice roof over your head and have job security, life is so good, it's almost unfair. =)

Swingin' good time

For the upcoming wedding, my unruly tresses have gone through stress and duress to whip them into straight shape. They have been washed, chemically treated, ironed out, blown dry, chemically treated again, washed, blown dry, coloured, etc etc... a whopping 4.5hours in the hairsalon.

As a result, I can now feel my still-short hair actually swinging smoothly when I walk briskly. As opposed to sitting stubbornly on my head, unmoved. :P

Simple Pleasures in Life: Weekend Baking

I love weekends. I love my Saturdays, especially if I have absolutely nothing on. Then I can proceed to fill it up anyway I like! Tomorrow is one such day, and I'm looking forward to doing some baking in the morning.

Baking is something I'm very new to. The first time I did anything like baking was at a friend's place where she attempted to teach Intuition and I how to bake her famous brownie... and somehow, I managed to underbake it by quite a lot. The first time I did a baking project by myself was an attempt at an orange cake... the recipe called for "melted butter" so I went ahead and... melted the butter to liquid form. That's melted butter, right? Right? How come the cake never rose, ever? How come the cake, no matter how long I bake it, is still so soggy inside? Fail.

Last weekend, I tasted success by NOT melting the butter (it's just softened), and the cake rose beautifully, tasted wonderfully orangey and is yummilicious. Yum. I want another one.

This weekend, since it's the Mother's day weekend, I'll probably bake two for the lovely ladies in my family--my grandma, my aunt and my mum. They've fed me well and have pampered me in different ways through the years, so it's payback time ; ) I hope there's enough to go around!

The picture above is a delicious chocolate cake that my aunt specializes in. On my birthday last year, my mother was asking if I'd like to buy a cake from Awfully Chocolate or Lana Cakes. I was like "... can I ask Aunt to bake me her chocolate cake? And... can she bake a big one? Not for me to share with the rest, but for me alone? A REALLY BIG ONE? Please?" So shameless, right? And it was good. Not too sweet, great chocolate taste, beautifully crumbly and oh so sinful. That's why I couldn't fit into my pre-Christmas shopping post Christmas. I'm still paying for my sinful ways 5 months later.

Aunty's Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup Van Houten chocolate powder
1 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup self raising flour, sifted
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

- Cream the butter and sugar
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl on top of a pot of hot water. Stir in the milk slowly after the chocolate melted
- Seperate the eggs into yolks n whites
- Add the yolks one by one into the creamed butter and sugar, beating all the time
- Add the chocolate into the butter sugar yolks mix, followed by the vanilla essence
- After adding the chocolate, add the flour into the mix bit by bit til it's well mixed up
- Whisk the whites til it's stiff
- Fold in the whites into the delicious chocolate batter
- Pour mix into a baking tin that's buttered and lined with baking paper
- Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 1 hour, until a stick inserted in will come out clean
- Gorge on it

Simple Pleasures in Life: New Toy =)

The upside to having a smaller apartment is that there is no space in the living room for a desktop (aka ugly workhorse), so the PC got relegated to my brother's room. As a result, I need to get me a laptop (cos room's smaller now u see). And after some deliberation.. *drumrolls* i got me a macbook!

Okay I'm really new to this whole mac world, so for all the long time mac users reading my blog (all two of you, yes), I need you to educate me to the art of mac. So please, find me on iChat and we'll talk about pretty white aesthetics okie?

*beams!*

Simple Pleasures in Life: Reprieve

My squeeky clean jogging shoes. I um, take good care of them.

It rained at 6.05pm today.

I was deliriously happy (although I really shouldn't admit to being happy, nor should I have skipped around the office as much as I did).

Because I've made an appointment with my colleagues to go de-fatting by jogging. And somehow I woke up with lots of aches around my shoulders and neck, so I really wasn't too keen on getting more aches on the lower half of my body. Now, I have the perfect excuse.

"It's raining!"

*does the lil rain dance*

Simple Pleasures in Life: Routines

"Quirkie, wake up or you're going to be late for work! I'm going to leave the house in 1 minute, so you have exactly 1 minute to get ready to go for work! Otherwise I'll go off without you!"
*10 minutes later*
"Quirkie what are you doing? 1 minute is up! I'm going out of the house now har! NOW HAR! See you downstairs."



*in the car*

"Where would you like to go for breakfast? I don't feel like eating anything lah. Ever since I came back, I've been getting fat. You eat lah, I won't eat anything. *fiddles with radio* Don't listen to that brainless stuff *tunes away from whatever local morning show was on* Listen to BBC. The British speaks very good English. Their pronounciation is very good. Ok ok don't talk to me, I want to listen to what's on radio."



*in the coffee shop*

"Eh I ordered fishball noodles. You help me eat some hor?"



*somehow, sometime during the morning*

"When will you buy me a bungalow? I will think that you have made it in life if you can buy me a bungalow."
Har? Property in Singapore very expensive leh. I buy you a bungalow in China can or not?
"No I want a bungalow. Your mum needs a bungalow for her to keep her pets in the garden! Nothing less than a bungalow. Otherwise you are a useless daughter!" *big wide toothy grin*
Dad, cannot lah, I cannot afford a bungalow in Singapore. Mansion in heaven, you want? Jesus offers us a mansion in Heaven =) Very BIG one! Got a lot of rooms =)
"Dowan. My daughter help me get brownie points with God can already right?"
No dad, cannot lah, this kind of thing cannot do for other people one. Must be your ownself want one.
"Hrmph."

Conversations that I've had with my dad that are almost routine by now. Just press play and repeat =)

My Blessed Christmas

I am so blessed this Christmas =)

I managed to spend time with people who mattered to me, and that was really precious.

I managed to catch a nap this afternoon, which refreshed me physically.

I ate the stuff I wanted to eat =) Yumz. Am happy.

I got lots of birthday wishes from friends, even an overseas call from Gara in NZ =)

I've got some new books to read and admire.

And a new set of batteries to use, yes.

A tonne of chocolates to fatten myself on, and a monster of a birthday chocolate cake from my favourite baker: My Aunt =)

And I sang the one Christmas carol that really hit the spot in my heart: O Holy Night.

O Holy Night

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our friend!

He knows our need, To our weaknesses is no stranger.
Behold your King, before him lowly bend!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

And that made my Christmas, Christmas.

Simple Pleasures in Life: Thanksgiving

In keeping with the American tradition of Thanksgiving, here is a list of thanks that I want to post =)

I think as a people, we too seldom give thanks and take many things for granted. In a society obsessed with keeping up with the Jones's, we forget what God has blessed us with and focus too much on what we do not have. That applies for the tangibles and intangibles, as well as what is within us. So take a pause, look around you and find something to give thanks for; don't say don't have, sure have one ; )

I thank God for...
- Weekends...
... when I can find time to do the things I want to do and spend time with the important people in my life. Nothing beats a Saturday to yourself and good weather to boot.

- My daily bread =)
And I'm not talking about food here. I thank God for being my family's provider, for giving us enough every month to cover the bills and to have some fun. "Divine providence" is not a fictional term ; )

- Good food
Definitely thank God for good food! Good food is really pleasurable. A mouthful of fine, dark chocolate after meals; a cup of strong, fragrant coffee in the mornings, a bowl of hot soup on a cold day; an ice-cream cone on a hot day... mmmm, happiness. *beam*

- Gifts
Specifically, the gifts of writing and drawing. Writing is a form of catharsis for me and I enjoy framing my thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. Drawing is a form of relaxation as well as expression. Some of my friends have mentioned to me that they read my blog and are entertained by it; my sincere thanks to you for your words of encouragement, I truly appreciate and thrive on your compliments =)
a word about gifts: I believe we are all gifted in different ways and are shaped differently, and no one is without a gift / strength, so look out for yours =) and I also believe that these gifts are not for us to boast about, cos they are given mah. Who gives these gifts leh? I only know of one Giver ;)

- Girly Stuff
My many bags, shoes, mp3 player, computer, camera and clothes. Wahahahaha! (More, MORE!! ooops. *cough, ahemz...*) Well, they bring me pleasure, so I give thanks =)

- Folks =)
The wonderful people in my life: people I eat with, shop with, write about, quarrel with, draw for, work with, fight with and gossip chat with. There're always ups and downs in relationships, no? And we embrace them all =)

Your turn. What are some of your thanksgivings?

Simple Pleasures in Life: Speckies!

New spectacles! ^_^

I've been walking around without my glasses for a long time, as I erm, sat on my previous nondescript brown pair.

For the longest time, I've been squinting at my PC screen and at movies, as well as driving dangerously at night when I do get to use the family car. Why didn't I get it done earlier? Well, honestly I couldn't find a pair of frames that I liked that was within my budget. The cost of this new pair still busts my budget, but I like, can anot?

The shop owner actually gave us a good discount as my colleagues are working with his daughter =) In light of the good price he's giving us, I decided to go all the way and got transition lenses as well. I really like the colour and the shape of the frames. What I'm not so crazy about is how the diamente at the sides spell "LULU", and that my colleagues have taken to calling me by the name of my specs. ("Lulu! Wanna go for lunch?" "Hey where is Lulu? Is Lulu wearing purple today to match her specs??")

My latest cheap thrill is walking in the sun to see my lenses turn gray :D Purple and gray makes a very cool pair of specs, though I suspect it's rather daft to bake myself just to see it darken. Maybe it's just a phase I'm transiting through, hur hur hur :P

Simple Pleasures in Life

Right now, I'm feeling really sleepy and sated despite the pile of work on my desk waiting for me to tackle. And why is that so?

It is because I had a really yummy lunch of prawn noodles + a munchy donut after that.

(Ingrish lesson digression: Did anyone go through this in their Primary school english lesson before? The lesson where you're not supposed to start a sentence with "because"? Because It is because it is bad writing. So when answering comprehension passages questions like "Why did Andy take the apple?" you don't say "Because Andy was blahblahblah" BUT "It is because Andy was blahblahblah." Funny how blogging triggers the strangest memories in the dusty recesses of one's mind.

If one has a mind.)

Oh I could go on about the pleasures of the Katong prawn noodles, of how I love love LOVE the sweet soup, the chilli powder, the guilty pleasure of biting into lard pieces while chomping down on a large sized prawn, the crispy oily salty yummy ngoh hiang that is a must to order...

... but I shan't. Because It is because the work on my desk is giving me a massive guilt trip and lunch took long enough as it is.

A Lazy Dinner (Simple Pleasures in Life)

I didn't plan to cook dinner tonight, I wanted the easy way out: packing in. Unfortunately, I only felt like eating the meehoon kuei at the coffee shop below my flat, but the stall was closed, so I glumly made my way home and decided that I will have to whip up something instead.

I'm in trouble, I thought. I don't feel like anything too rich and creamy, I want something light and somewhat healthy, I don't want to shop for groceries, and I am feeling lazy yet fussy. How to have dinner??

Rummaging through my pantry and fridge, I found some odds and ends of vegetables that I used or that my mum bought: some celery sticks, half an onion, tomatoes. There were several cans of tuna soaked in brine, olive oil or teriyaki. I don't know who bought that teriyaki tuna, it sounds vile and there's no way I'll touch that, so I settled on the tuna in olive oil. (It also said "Lite!" on the can cover, so it's considered low-fat. Healthy!)

So it will have to be tuna-something. I could do a tuna-mayo sandwich, but I'm really not excited about tuna-mayo sandwiches. Tuna cream pasta? Ugh, too creamy and fishy. Not good. The only way I like tuna is when it's paired with tomatoes and vegetables in a tuna-salad, but I don't have the vegetables! Hmmm, let's just go by "feel".

Feeling really lazy, I decided that I'll just soak the spaghetti in hot water in a beer mug rather than go through the hassle of boiling them in salt water and straining them then washing another pot + strainer. I chopped up a bit of celery and a bit of onions and fried them with a bit of oil, followed by half a can of tuna and four tablespoons of cream pasta sauce for just a teeny bit of cream sauce. I threw in the undercooked spaghetti into the tuna-veg mush and let the heat cook the noodles for a bit. Taking the tomato out of the fridge, I sliced it into slim pieces for easy chewing and threw in a quarter of them into the tuna-veg-noodle mess in the pot while keeping the others aside.

When the noodles were cooked (they were al dente! a first!), I dumped the pasta into a bowl and arranged the tomatoes around it. And I dug in.

Tuna is usually tasty for the first few bites but it can get quite sickening after a while, so the celery and onions helped neutralize the fishy taste. The cooked tomatoes added some moisture and tang to the dish while the cold, fresh tomatoes really complemented the tuna pasta in a refreshing way. Mmmm. In that meal, there wasn't a lot of oil or salt; there was a good balance of vegetables, protien and carbs--fairly healthy, wouldn't you say? And it was actually pretty delicious!

The best part was that all I had to wash up after that was one pot and one bowl--perfect for lazy fussy me. Another simple yummy meal, another simple pleasure in life =)

Simple Pleasures in Life: Serendipity

Serendipity: (noun) good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries.

Blessing #1:
Walking around in City Hall last Saturday evening, Intuition and I stumbled across an international food fair right outside Raffles City, selling delectable international cuisine at bargain prices. There were Russian Desserts, Turkish Wraps and other types of foodie-goodies; )

We bought a chicken wrap and it was the best wrap we have tasted--a chewy exterior lightly dusted with flour, filled with fresh vegetables and mouthfuls upon mouthfuls of savoury chicken. The chicken was very tender and well seasoned; a welcome change from the usual dry and measly chicken pieces we get in the wraps around town. At $5, it's a steal :D

Blessing #2:
As a part of the fair, there were 2 very good acoustic guitarists performing near the temporary al fresco dining area. Guitarist A was doing the rythm and most of the singing while Guitarist B does the fancy riffs. A had a husky and masculine voice, so A could imitate songs by U2, Creed and Oasis to great effect. B's voice was tenor-ish and he sounds more like the lead in Cold Play (I swooned when he sang Yellow). Together, they made such beautiful music. Seriously, before I caught sight of them, I thought someone was playing an acoustic CD. *love-struck sigh*

Did I ever mention my soft spot for guys who can play the guitar? ^_^

Intuition and I were so absorbed by their performance that we hung around for the rest of the evening listening to them work their magic on their guitars and bought more food :P We shared the aforementioned kebab, a steak sandwich and a Heneiken. And this was after our dinner (subway + waffles), mind you!

I really regretted not bringing my camera out that evening =) I would have loved to take photos with them ^_^ Intuition and I went up to them after the performance to gush about how good they were (well I gushed anyways :P) and we had to wait our turn to pay them our compliments for by the time they ended, they had a fan-base.

Serendipity, Blessing is thy name ^_^

Simple Pleasures in Life

Simple pleasures in life include good weather (i.e., not too hot and not raining) over a weekend of outdoor activities =) God is good!

Yet another: Free movie tickets to Pirates of the Carribean! The pleasure is in receiving free tickets, not in the movie :P The movie is okaay I guess. Chow Yun Fatt has the ultimate superfluous role... you could edit him out of the movie completely and it would still be okay. Methinks his main role is to announce "Welcome to Singapore!", which makes me wanna go "d'oh!". That was as necessary as the exchange between James Bond and Vespa in the last James Bond installment-->
"Nice watch. Is it a... rolex?"
"No. It's an Omega."
"Oh!" *approving look*
-___-b. . . Placement ads don't get much more blatant than that. The fight scenes in Pirates are also toooo long... Seriously, I don't see why it should be a 3hour long movie when it could easily be much shorter.

Where was I... oh, simple pleasures in life. Yes...

A good night's sleep =) Last night's weather was cooler than usual, which meant that this morning, it was with much difficulty and reluctance that I dragged my comatose self out of the very, very comfortable cacoon.

Also, my mum is going Hong Kong this week, which means that my brother and I get to use the car! She offered to leave some cash behind for our daily expenses, but we're both working liaoz, so we counter-offered.. "Don't need lah... but instead, you can leave a full-tank in the car when you leave!" This set her off on a spiel on how we should drive safely and not speed. "Yes mum, we know; no mum, we won't..."

Here is a video on youtube that I saw some time back, but it always tickles me much ;) Indeed, simple pleasures in life are worth celebrating!

Simple Pleasures in Life

- The sound of brand new strings on my lovely Yamaha APX3. Smooth to the touch, it gives a real smooth sound too!
- A new hair colour at a discounted rate ^-^

Update: 21 March 2007, 6:20pm
- Simple pleasure in life: A new 2GB SD card for my Powershot A710 IS! For $21.70! cheap cheap! Thanks, Mr Bing, for helping me buy this!

I'm a happy girl today!

Simple Pleasures in Life

I first saw this phrase "Simple pleasures in life" in a church-mate's msn nick and it struck me. Ever since then, I've started paying more attention to the simple pleasures in my life--things that I enjoy, that lifts my mood, if only for a while. It helps me get by the sad days better, and brings more joy to the good days. Afterall, we'll always have sad times and happy times in life, so why not find pockets of pleasure to go with both seasons? =)

Here are some of mine in no particular order... Will post more here when it strikes me next time.

1. A good shot by my Canon Powershot A710 IS (I think they should pay me advertisement fees...)
2. My office's 19" LCD monitor that I use for my work. It makes everything look better.
3. Enjoying a morning walk with a loved one with a hearty breakfast at the end of the walk.
4. Wearing new clothes that look good!
5. Clear blue skies, a scattering of white clouds and a cool breeze.
6. Dark chocolate. Enough said.
7. The scent of my favourite perfume (Happy To Be, by Clinique.)
8. Using my favourite pen(s) to doodle / take notes / write in my offline journal.

What are some of yours? =)