It's Official

As much as I dreaded this day to come, time still flies no matter what and here we are.

When the plane finally touched down in Singapore, I can hear myself loudly (inside my heart) shouted "my baby didn't make a fuss in flying, hurray!" But the joy is short-lived, for a very understandable reason.

Shortly after we settled down in our home, I will have to face all of these myself. The feeding, the cleaning, the fuss, the shouting, the sick, the temperament etc. All by myself. Help will only come when The Man comes back from work. (The "fear" actually doubled because the day before we flew back, baby had his vaccination and he got fever. The night after the vaccination, he cried for two hours non stop. Everybody in the house felt like shit.)

Once we reached home, I let The Man took care of baby for a short while I make a run to the nearest supermarket to get the simplest no brain groceries to last me for one day. And that's when I realized myself, this is where the stay-home-mother part of my life starts. Yes, I'm a temporary stay home mother now.

Yes, NOW!

Once I reached home with milk, bread, cheese, yogurt, a can of tuna, The Man got ready to go to work. The baby looked at me, as if he's saying, so it's you and me now.

Adorable expression

The things that I fear most for coming back, is bathing the baby! Baby kicks a lot in his bathing tub and it's scary if I don't hold him tight. But I can't let the baby go on without bathing can I? I had a brief training a week before I flew back. And lucky for me, I bought a safety net for baby bath when I was pregnant. I've done it twice so far, and baby enjoys it! To my surprise!

My mommy bathed me by herself for the first time, and she nailed it!

One Fear DOWN!

It's been 24 hours since we got home. I managed to eat my dinner, breakfast and lunch with my no-brainer groceries. And I've also tried my best to keep baby entertained in this very quiet house. Both of us had got used to the home with laughters and fun. Hope he can get used to this quiet one too.

A can of tuna from yesterday's groceries, I had tuna pasta and tuna sandwich for three meals! Time for groceries shopping again tonight.

Keeping baby entertained with rocker, music, play time and Facetime too! :)

Cats

I'm never a cat person. I'm the dog person.

But as everything is in life, it's unfair. The market is mostly flooded with cute products of cat prints, not so much of dog prints. And Singapore allow stray cats under the HDB flats, but not the dogs. Cats are simply taking a bigger space in my life. Even though, I'm still a dog person.

I used to hate cats, but not anymore. I don't love them still, but not hating them anymore.

I'm in love with the new kitchen cloth I got from Daiso. Couldn't resist to take a picture of it :)

I know, sounded stupid again.

Part of My Life

Being a normal not-highly-paid-but-enough-to-live person, in this busy city country, a big part of my life is spent in public transport, the MRT and the buses.  Cars are just too expensive to own.

It's weekend. Part of my weekend life is to go out to town to meet the Man after his half day work, and have lunch in the town. But today's weather was just simply killing both of us, we decided to head back home!

The scene of empty feeder bus 941 can only be seen on weekends afternoon. On weekdays, it's packed like a can of sardine!

I brought along my new toy, so, snap :)

我的乌龙越摆越厉害

我乌龙，是众所周知的事情。这一次，我的乌龙竟摆在厨房里。

我为了上一回，那个做了像巧克力蛋糕而不象brownies的brownies耿耿于怀。于是，趁今天在家做宅女，我利用下午的时间再做多一次。

食材都准备好了，把所有食材弄托，丢尽烘炉里。开始有种不祥的预感。我究竟用对了吗？

是这样的，厨房里有两种flour。一种是做披萨的时候用的bread flour，另一种是做蛋糕的时候用的all purpose flour。两者样貌一模一样，我一直也没有标明。三番四次从来没有出错，今天终于承受这后果！

别说brownies，就连蛋糕都不是！

虽然出了错，厨房还是很香。男人回来，我要他看。说看了以后我要丢了。他觉得挺浪费，就吃了一口，竟说好吃！我说可这个不能收，它不是蛋糕（还是很执着！）！！男人说，可以啦，配雪糕应该好吃。

对哦，怎么没想到。这个不知名的食物，配上香草雪糕，原来还是不错的！

真的是错有错着⋯⋯

炒上瘾

最近已经好久没有煮意大利面了。不知道为什么，最近我煮的都是中餐，或是两菜一汤、或是一菜一汤、或是炒饭⋯⋯好久都没有吃意大利面。

下班回来，又饿又累，随随便便弄个蛋炒饭，也很满足。还有一锅老黄瓜汤，刚刚熬完，等男人回来一起喝吧。

把苏州带回家

在猫的天空之城喝咖啡，买一杯卡布，加5元便可以把苏州带回家。我对杯子有种不可理喻的情意，加5元，当然忍不住加了。

现在，这个杯子便是我平日在家里和咖啡的杯子了。

咖啡杯上的北寺塔


猫猫相遇


这些照片都是用毓豪的60mm拍的，我真的很想把他的镜头抢来！

文字未亡

无意间翻箱倒柜，把我这几年来的日记都翻了出来。完整写完的有四本，还有一本还在“使用中”。

五本里，有两本是旅游日记。就是我飞行的时候都会带上的。一本已在2010年上海宁波游时用完。另一本，还在使用中的状态。

还有一本，是我2005年，在北京学生交换计划半年的日记。

还有两本，是我大学时期直至第一年当上班族的芝麻绿豆的日记。

2007年以后，除了旅游，我没有再写日记。我不仅在反省？是我的生活太闷了，以致不值得一提？还是，已经长大，很多事情已经不想写下来？

亲密日记（四）

圣诞节前夕，新加坡植物园Halia Restaurant吃brunch。我试用毓豪的60mm镜头。


过去的四年，我从来没有在新加坡陪毓豪。年底是公司强迫性假期，我从来都不肯乖乖留在原地。去年恰巧机票买迟了，所以圣诞节还在新加坡，过了圣诞我还是飞了。

难得的假期，我们出游了。

丹桂飘香

我很喜欢有朋友到北京。

我是想念北京的。一直想找机会再回到北京，可是心里总是忐忑。越是想念的地方，越是不可以再回去。万一一切已经不复当年，万一我对她的印象完全毁灭，万一⋯⋯万一⋯⋯所以，过了五年，对于北京，我还是止于想念。

慧芳之前到北京旅游，问我要给我带些什么。我很想说，回忆。可是，我说了老舍茶馆的花茶。慧芳二话不说的买了四颗。 我因为没有透明的茶壶，一直不肯泡。昨天终于被我买到了！贵是贵了一点，泡了一壶丹桂飘香，还是很开心。

谢谢慧芳 :)

Christmas Came Early

It's never easy to set a perfect date for party, especially in December. When it gets even tougher like this year, we had our Xmas party 2 weeks before Xmas :)

To be honest, the reason we had a party was so that we have a reason to get our favourite log cake from Marriott Hotel. We could never finish a 1kg log cake on our own, and it's sinful anyway! So we got more victims friends to share the sins delicious food.

It wasn't a proper Xmas party. We had Japanese Shabu Shabu so it was easier to prepare. Other than shabu shabu, we had log cake (of course!), beer, cocktails and chips with dips. And while preparing cocktails for our guest, we fell in love with them ourselves. Think we will just get addicted to it!

We didn't take any photo, except for the log cake. We were too busy eating!

Chocoloate Fudge Log Cake from Marriott Hotel


The cute deco


Sock Hoai's log cake, creation by Ai Mei

The best part of the party was, moon gazing. Yes, we only got to know it's lunar eclipse at 10.30pm. All of us, rushed out of the house to witness the lunar eclipse. Sounded silly, we sat at the park for more than one and a half hour looking at the moon.

It was in fact the most romantic Xmas party I have ever had!

Thanks to all my friends!
(Yee Hau, Sock Hoai, Ai Mei, Hock Chuan, Yi Thying, YiZheng & June)


I'm thinking very hard for another reason to party.

My Own Food Therapy

I wasn't having my best week.

The only feeling I had this morning, was "Thank goodness it's Friday!".

I don't normally feel this because I had a tough week. I normally ONLY have the TGIF feeling because I had something interesting and exciting in the weekends.

I don't normally have XXX-day Blues because of what I have to face, but only the crowd I have to face in the trains and buses.

But this week, I had it all.

I don't normally cry because what I had in work. But after taken all the craps for a week, I decided to let go of myself. I found it silly. This was only the second time I broke down over four and a half years. The first time, I was a witness of an lab accident.

I don't like this.

The only thing I wanted after work, was to come back and cook myself a dinner. Created a pasta for myself, with anything I can find in my fridge. It turned out good, but needed improvement in seasoning, maybe I'll share next time.

Then, I made myself a coffee, to go with my chocolate bites.


And go with Modern Family, and teared to the touching scenes.


My therapy.

First Baked Pasta

自从搬来这新家以后，有个烘炉，我们总对好多食物跃跃欲试。一开始毓豪就想要吃baked pasta。但我一口推说：“我不会！”，到现在都一直没做过。

可是可是，你看我连pizza都做出来了，想想pasta怎么可能难得了我呢？而且，人怎么可能就这样一辈子说不会，就不做？我是妈妈的女儿，怎么可以这样没用？就像朋友骂的那样，有什么事情是生下来就会？

就这样，做了！





我用的培根稍微咸了一点，再加上芝士，是有点点咸。还好放了好多豆，味道比较平衡一些些。

虽然没象我的pizza那样好吃，以第一次来说，还是可以过关的。且做法简单，又是一个容易美味的晚餐。

做法如下

Ingredients:

1. Pasta of your choice (penne, farfalle, macaroni etc)
2. Green peas
   
3. Bacon (You can have any ingredients of your choice, seriously. Mushrooms, tomato, minced meat, sausages, asparagus etc.)
   
4. Mixture of cheese (mozarella and parmesan)
5. Cream
6. Butter
   
7. Herbs

Methods:

1. Cook the pasta for 10 mins.
2. Preheat the oven to about 180 degree Celsius.
   
3. At the same time, cut the bacon and fry them with a little of butter.
   
4. At the last minute of cooking the pasta, throw in the green peas for about 1 minutes to boil.
5. Drain the water out of pasta and green peas.
6. Mix the cooked pasta, peas, bacon into a pot.
7. Stir in some butter, cream and herbs & mix them well.
8. Pour this mixture into a casserole (or in my case, aluminum foil in an oven friendly pan).
9. Lay a generous portion of cheese (both mozzarella and parmesan) on the pasta.
   
10. Bake them for good 20-25 minutes or until the cheese turn golden brown.
11. Dress the baked pasta with herbs.
    
12. Serve!

Yummylicious! I'm going to cook this more often :)

毓豪又有口福了 （自己赞自己！）

Therapy

Mood has been a little up and down, blame the work, blame the hormone.

I have some therapy of my own. Retail therapy is too expensive, I try not to go down to this path. Physical activities, cooking, and food seem to be my next best options.

I had a jog after reaching home. I know it was a bit too late to start a jog, but I didn't care, I knew I need it. After some jogs and walks, I came home wanting to eat half boiled egg. It's not the best meal one could have late at night, but that's what I had. Eggs, milk, cookies and chips.

I insisted to cook myself a carbonara dinner tonight even though it's late. Results, I'm still full the minute I'm writing this post.

But effectiveness of the therapy? Pass.

亲密日记（二）

Sometimes, you'll just have to learn to let the man handle the kitchen.

Sit back & relax.

That feels good :P

(All the men out there, it's really important to learn cooking!)

亲密日记（一）

男左女右

My First Pizza... A Success!

I've been thinking about making a pizza for some time.

So, I couldn't wait anymore and dragged Yee Hau to get pizza ingredients yesterday to prepare for today's pizza day!

So, making a pizza for the first time is kind of stressful for me. I want a thin crust crispy pizza! I visited multiple websites and blogs for references, and called up my mom for more personalized instructions. (Kia Hooi told me she did in fact remember my mom's homemade frozen pizza, back then when we were in secondary school)

After multiple googles, I down selected to one on simplerecipes.com and Jamie Oliver. Do refer to these sites for making a good pizza dough.

My pizza journey started last night, when I was making some pizza notes! Since most of the websites recipes are calling for 2 or more pizzas, I have to recalculate the amount of my pizza.


Ingredients for dough (for two persons):

1. 3/4 cups of warm water
2. 2 1/8 teaspoon of dry yeast
3. 1 3/4 cup of bread flour
4. 1 tbsp of olive oil
5. 1 tsp of salt
6. 1/2 tsp of sugar

Steps:

1. Sieve the flour on a clean working surface
2. Mix the dry yeast, sugar, salt, olive oil into water and leave for a few minutes.
3. Create a well in the flour.
4. Pour the mixture into the well.
5. Use a fork to bring the flour in gradually.
6. When all flour comes together, knead the dough until the dough feels springy.
7. Place the dough into a large bowl and cover it with damp cloth.
8. Wait for 1-2hour, for the dough to double its size.

The Toppings

You can use anything for your toppings. I made a big pizza with portobello mushroom, polish sausages, cherry tomato, cheddar & parmesan cheese and a small pizza with just mozzarella cheese.

1. When the dough is ready, knead the dough (Jamie Oliver called it knocking-out-the-air). And they are ready to use.
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celcius.
   
3. Laid the dough thin flat on the flour dusted pizza pan, and poke them with a fork. (My mom said this helps!)
4. Then, spread tomato puree thinly on the surface (my mom said it's important to keep it thinly spread for not wetting the dough too much) and arrange the toppings you've prepared.
5. Bake the pizza at 200 degree celcius for 15-18 minutes.
6. Dress the pizzas with fresh basil leaves or arrowhead.
7. Serve
   

And TADAA!~~



My first pizza! Yummy!










My Margherita Pizza, failed in looks but still delicious. I think I baked this for a little too long.


Well, all in all, I have to say I'm really proud of myself (ah-hem). My first pizza attempt was successful. The man was happy and satisfied with the thin crust crispy pizza! And I rewarded myself with a (few) glass of red wine after meal. Still drinking at this moment while I'm writing this :)

Happy happy!

Froze one in fridge for the man's dinner tomorrow when I'll be out for Butterfly Lover Violin Concerto concert with friends.

Improved Version of Oven Baked Chicken

Well, I did exactly the same steps as my previous oven baked chicken on Wednesday, except, after coating the chicken drumstick with salt, pepper and rosemary, I wrapped the chicken drumstick with bacon. (Reduce the amount of salt because bacon is normally salty)

This was even better!

Oven Baked Chicken with Mixed Vegetables

My itchy hands couldn't resist to cook myself a meal again.

I think oven is one of the most important creation! The preparation time was so short (~15mins), I could have a cup of tea and watched "Two and a Half Men" while waiting for the dinner to cook. Unfortunately for chicken, it takes a little while longer to cook (~45mins).

The mixed vegetables were laid around the chicken drumstick to suck all the yummylicious juice from chicken. Put them into the oven about 15mins after the chicken was baked. And don't forget to flip the chicken around to ensure it's cooked evenly.

Ingredients (You can have more, I am just having lesser for dinner):
1 chicken drumstick
1 potato
1 carrot
1 tomato

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celcius while preparing the ingredients.
   
2. Coat the chicken drumstick evenly with olive oil, garlic salt, ground pepper and rosemary. Put this aside while preparing the vegetables.
3. Wash and dice the vegetables.
   
4. Toss the potato and carrot with olive oil, garlic salt, ground pepper and mixed herbs. Put them aside. Tomato could be left just as it is.
5. Bake the chicken drumstick. Set timer to 15mins.
6. Place the mixed vegetables around the chicken drumstick after 15mins and continue to bake.
7. Flip the chicken drumstick every now and then for another 30mins (Get a glass of wine and enjoy yourself before dinner *wink*)
   
8. Serve :)
   

A meal for lazy people :)

Dinner for Two

It's been some time since I last had minestrone I cooked myself.

I wasn't hungry when I off work today because I had a curry puff from my boss. So, I decided to cook myself a dinner. My stomach could wait.

To enable Yee Hau to eat some after he off work (late), I cooked something soupy.

Home cooked is always nice.

P.S:
I am not used to the fact that I don't have an external flash (I had it when I use Olympus) and I realized how the close up +4 filter distorts the image at the corners of my photos... sigh...

败家⋯⋯败得很开心(^_−)−☆

为我的Olympus E510感到不足已经有好一段时间，但是挨着口袋不是很多钱，总是思前想后⋯⋯想了很久以下，终于狠下心，上周日败了一架Nikon D7000回家。

败家之前，我用了几个星期说服自己。总总理由，比如：可以和毓豪共用镜头、有更好的quality、下一趟旅行快到了。然后，我跟自己说，好了，只要问到一家最便宜的就可以买。就这样，败了！！！

还没有那年底花红，就先花钱。


同样的海龟，不同的相机。



很快他们就有新成员



Focus! 我缺少的。

每晚回来玩相机，呵呵。