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Friday, May 22, 2009

Pasta and Other Yummy Things

Some time ago I cooked Seafood Marina Pasta for dinner.

It's kind of similar to the previous Aglio Olio post - used the same seafood of mussells, fish and prawns.

Oh and don’t think I’m using one of those bottled Prego sauces... I can actually hand-make sauces from scratch now =)

For the Marinara, I threw in tons of diced tomatoes, stired it up with onions, garlic, and a bunch of herbs like basil and parsley.

Put in a bit too much chilli flakes, but I guess if you like things spicy it'd be okay.



Next up... Chicken Teriyaki Pasta!

Well that's what it was supposed to be anyway.

The chicken was marinated through with the teriyaki sauce, but there was too little sauce left for the pasta.

So I just cooked it with Olive oil and garlic, mushrooms, and some capsicums.

And there you have it, Chicken Teriyaki... plus pasta!



Finally, some thing which I absolutely love - Cheese baked Mussells!

I buy the frozen ones from New Zealand, they usually cost about 12 bucks for a box of about 50.

Dump a little tomato pasta sauce on it, coat with grated chedder cheese, and bake.



I usually baked it till the cheese gets crusty cos that's how I like it, but recently I tried baking it for a shorter period of time, and I find the results even better.
The cheese is chewwier and the mussells aren't as tough. Delicious!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Tribute to Rexy Boy

It was after the Easter Vigil in 2008 and I was meeting Ewan for supper.

I had to get a friend's cake from him so I went to his place for the first time.

And there I saw the fluffiest furball with the handsome-mest smile on his face... Rex!




I just loved how his fur felt and it was so adorable, how he loved to rub his furry head all over the couch and bed.

Rex is such a smart guy too.

He knows how to shake his paw, his 'other paw', lie down, and roll over.

He does it especially well when you've got bacon treats, cheesy bits, milk jelly, or doggie brownies in your hand.

Once, I was sitting down on the couch and he came up to me and wrapped his paw around my leg.

I thought he was being so cute, but later Ewan told me he was trying to hump my leg. Alamak.




I absolutely loved going for walks with you and Ewan.

You're such a joy to walk, never forcing your way into things and trying to run away (unlike Cleo).




I'm sorry you had to leave us but I'm sure you're happy where you are with Jesus now, in the land of abundant bacon, cheese, jelly and chocs.

And lots of other doggie friends, and even some friendly kitties to play with.

So this goes out to you dear Rexy-boy.

Even though I only got to know you for a year, you're one of the best dogs I've ever met.



Wednesday, May 13, 2009

An Awesome time in Bali

Some time last September, we made a trip to Bali.

Ewan was there to cover a tennis tournament, and I joined him some days later to have a short holiday.

I managed to catch some of the matches, and it was pretty cool, since I had never watched pros play live before.


The entire audience has to be quiet - you can't even get out of the seating area - till the point is won.
But there were these bunch of jokers who kept making so much noise cheering for 17-year old Tamira Paszek that they got warned by the umpire a couple of times.
We stayed at a hotel along Nusa Dua, as that was where the tournament was being held. The hotel was pretty nice, and it had Giant Chess!




I was going to make my "winning" move, when I banged my head on some hanging lights. =(

It even started bleeding but I tried to be 'hero' and wanted to continue playing, then I suddenly felt faint and almost passed out.

But quite funny, now that I'm recalling it =p

Anyway I really liked the beaches at Nusa Dua, which was really quiet - almost private even - given that the Nusa Dua was home to many big hotel chains like the Grand Hyatt and the Westin.

Nothing like the crowds and touting you'd get in Phuket - which I heard was rather like Kuta Beach which we didn't have time to visit.




After the tournament was over, we checked into one of the most beautiful places I've ever stayed in, Uma Sapna at Seminyak.

We had a one bedroom Villa with a private pool!




The pool was gorgeous, the room was great, and it was so much fun ordering breakfast.
You had to tick what you wanted according to menu, and let them know what time you wanted it brought in to you.
Then in the morning they'd serve it at the veranda next to the pool.



We also had dinner at KuDeTa, which was highly recommended by many people.

I thought the food was ok for the price - it was quite expensive, even by Bali's standard.

But the best part was taking a walk out to see the beach after that.

They had these incredible lights shone on the water, and together with the loud crashing of the waves, it made for a truly amazing experience.





So it was a great trip, albeit a little too short.

There's so much more of Bali we haven't seen so we're definitely going to go back one day!


Monday, May 11, 2009

Blast from the Past!

I started a Facebook group some time ago to get my old primary school mates in one place.

And look what some of them uploaded!

Primary One...


Primary Two...



Primary Four...



We looked like such dweebs!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Aglio Olio Seafood Pasta!

I absolutely love it when my boyfriend tries something I cook and says, "Mmm I could eat this everyday!"

That's what he said when I cooked this pasta dish some time ago.

The recipe's a combination of several I found online.

Here are some pics!









What you see is actually the remnants of the dinner.

I actually forgot to take photos, till Ewan reminded me, and we quickly tried to arrange whatever was left so it wouldn't look too measly.

I'm not that much of a cook, so this was really easy to whip up.


  • First heat some olive oil and garlic with chopped parsley.
  • Add some pepper and salt and chilli flakes.
  • I also threw in some sliced shitake mushrooms.
  • Then dump the seafood in - I used fish fillets, prawns and mussels. Would've used squid if I had some!
  • Squeeze about half a lemon into whatever's in the pot.
  • Then add the pasta - which should've been cooked earlier. Fettucine or Linguine's great!
  • Mix it all up and serve!

Yummy! My parents said it was good too! =)

Going to cook some Seafood Marinara tonight, so I'll blog about that soon.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Jakarta

I just got back from an overseas assignment in Jakarta.


It was a really rushed trip - flew in on Monday evening, the next day was packed with conferences and media launches, and back to Singapore on Tuesday evening.


The assignment was on Paediatric Pallative Care - or caring for a terminally ill child.


I met with many medical professionals on the trip, some of whom are extremely established in their career. Others had incredible experiences providing medical expertise in war-torn countries like Bosnia and Sri Lanka.


But the one person that left the deepest impact on me was a nurse who works in a hospice in Singapore.


She was anxious, yet brimming with excitement at her first overseas trip without her husband and four children.


I talked to her about the work she does at the hospice.


When a person is dying, it's not merely about giving lots of medication to ease the pain, she said.


Rather, it's about providing the dying person with the best quality of life he or she could hope for in their remaining days.


While other practitioners talked about infrastructures and medical training that was required, this nurse told me of:

  • a patient whose only request was to have a taste of this traditional malay dish that one could hardly find in Singapore anymore; the nurse went back home, got the recipe from her mother, went out, bought the ingrediants and cooked the dish. The patient took a few spoons of it and thanked her. A few hours later she passed on peacefully.

  • a patient who would die in a few hours, but was longing to see her son who was working overseas; the nurse rushed to set up a video call for them so that she could see and talk to her son for the last time.

  • a patient whose only wish was to be at her daughter's 21st birthday celebration, despite the fact that she barely had a few weeks to live, and that her daughter was now just nine years old. The nurse bought 12 birthday cards, one for each year the daughter had to go before she turned 21. She gave them to the mother and told that to write a letter for the daughter in every card, and the nurse promised to give one card to the daughter every year on her birthday, till she turned 21.
It's people like this nurse who really make me feel in awe at one human's capacity to give to another.


It's not about the advances in technology, nor the complexity of medicine.


But it's about the human touch that a person can bring to another's life.


If all our nurses were like her, I'd say that our health sector is truly world class.


I noticed something at the local hospital.


It was pouring heavily when we were about to leave.


There was a bunch of about 6 or 7 kids at the entrance of the hospital, carrying umbrellas, bare feet, and drenched from head to toe.


They looked about 11 or 12 years old, max.





They were sheltering people from the hospital to their cars, and they held the umbrellas for these people while they themselves got completely soaked in the rain.


All they asked in return was 1,000 Rupiah.


1,000 Rupiah = S$0.14


Makes me feel sad just thinking about it



So even though the trip was short, it was a good experience.


I'm thankful for the people I got to know and for the great company of the host organisation and the other journalist I met.


Here we are! =)







Saturday, April 18, 2009

Jogging Seems Easier Now


I've been jogging these past few weeks.






Typically I'd start around 8 or so in the evening, when the weather's nice and cool, jog for about half an hour, then head back to cook a yummy dinner.



I remember how I hated doing my 2.4km runs in Secondary school and JC. It was always THE item in the NAPFA tests that I dreaded the most.



2.4 km = 6 rounds around the track, which never seemed to end.



So much to my surprise, I found out that my current favourite jogging route is just about that same distance!



This pretty cool tool on google helps map out distances - which is particularly useful for joggers.






Such a great motivation to go jogging!



Only thing is, I made a slight detour tonight, which led me past Chomps... ahh the wonderful wafts of oh lua and fried hokkien mee! =)









Friday, April 17, 2009

My first post is about the Night Safari!

I'd been wanting to go to the Night Safari for the longest time and so we finally did!






It wasn't the best weather, bit humid, but it was an awesome night.

We had dinner at the Bongo Burger place, which was pretty reasonable for the food, but drinks cost 4 bucks for a can of soft drinks - a definite no-no for me.

The beef burgers were good, according to Ewan, but I was hungry and needed the carbs so I had the Chicken Sausage Pasta.

Not bad.


















Definitely made me plan to cook this soon - quality sausages with tomato-based Fusilli, don't think I can go wrong with that!

One of the highlights of the night was definitely the enclosures with the flying squirrels and the bats.

One GIGANTIC flying squirrel flew so close to my boyfriend's head, my heart almost stopped.

And the bat enclosure - gosh, I know they have these super powered sonars, so I think they come close to us 'cos they know we'd cringe.

Was so much fun to almost faint and then laugh at ourselves.

I also really liked the tram ride.

Passing the Giraffes made me wonder what God was thinking when he made them.

They look so magestic, yet gawky, God must really have a sense of humour!

And I rode a zebra!
























One made out of fibre glass that is.

It was so funny, I thought it'd be so cool to ride on it, I didn't notice this little boy running towards it at the same time.

So of course taller me got to it first, much to his dismay, and I didn't see, but Ewan said that he made a bratty face at me.

Hah.

Kids have to learn patience!

We also took photos with a sisterly pair of Boa Constrictors.




We found out that they get fed a rat only once a week - cos they take a few days to digest it.

And for some reason, the snakes felt incredibly clean even though the trainer said they don't get cleaned.

It's always fun to be a tourist in your own country.


Thanks dear for spending such a wonderful evening with me! =)