Melaka Eatables

Want to blog about my Malacca trip, but still can't find time to write a nice long post.. so I shall do what I'm best at first - posting pictures, starting from the eatables :P Food I had over the few days were mostly Chinese/Peranakan - I wanted to try Portuguese food too, but the closest we got to Portuguese food were the eggplants and pepper crabs at the Portuguese Settlement seafood restaurant Sea Terrace. The chicken rice balls we tried at Famosa were very disappointing - so they are not featured in my 'food roll' haha. Desserts come first.

Durian Pengat from Nancy's Kitchen (a pretty popular local restaurant about one street down from our hotel on Heeren Street)-- The blue and white glutinous sticky rice is eaten with the durian paste in the background (there are submerged bits of banana in the durian paste too). Recommended by the owner herself. Quite yummy but it's very, very rich.

Two versions of Chendol - the first from Nancy's Kitchen and the flower shaped one from Tan Kim Hock... The TKH version is supposedly famous but I couldn't quite tell what was so good about it haha. Does anyone know what the green green things are? They are always there I've never questioned what on earth they are... till last week when I was eating this.

Cincalok fried egg from Nancy's Kitchen. Hmmm if you don't already know what cincalok is...

They are just fermented tiny shrimps commonly found in Melakan cuisine... And you can get them in bottles at the Tan Kim Hock store. Quite gross hor... I think I prefer dried shrimp anytime.. BTW, I recall that the folks selling beef kway teow on Purvis St also offer cincalok as a complementary dipping sauce... eeks :P

Chap Chye at Amy's Kitchen, a nonya restaurant recommended by hotel staff. Food was ok lah... but not worth the price. No wonder we were the only customers in this nonya restaurant.

Dun be deceived by the dubious appearance - These salted eggplant (think they were baked) were good!

Dry version of pepper crab -- surprisingly yummy 'cos the crabs were fresh and juicy!

It's been rather depressing going to work. There's nothing very much at all to look forward to, no one I like very much in particular; and no issue that deeply interests me. Why am I here... Apparently common feedback from staff opinion survey was lack of work-life balance - but top shot's response (thru hear-say) was that these days, we cannot expect 9 - 5 kinda job. And of late, have been bugged endlessly by some other Ministry's bosses... I wonder how all these abnormal civil servants remain motivated. Aargh, feel so complainy today :(

Historic Malacca

Malacca felt really Chinese to me -- perhaps 'cos I stayed in the heart of Chinatown in the midst of these pretty ancient shophouses... Food was a little disappointing but experience was cool - esp the feeling of being transported back in time when wandering ard the Jonker Street area. It felt like a place steeped in tradition and history; albeit a little commercialised now. Have to go catch up on work emails now -- will blog more later this week! :)

Yummy nonya laksa from Nancy's Kitchen

My ex-shophouse boutique hotel

A very Chinese-looking store in Chinatown. Think it felt even more Chinese 'cos it's CNY period...

Happy Birthday to Me...

Half the day has been spent nuah-ing and the other half wld be spent road-tripping to Malacca ;) It's been a while since I last travelled -- have been staying home since the unfortunate sprain in India. Hopefully the little weekend trip can recharge me for the busy month ahead.

Cute bursts of 'Ammi Majus' among the roses

A colourless CNY

Despite a long nice break, the past few days have been quite xiong. And probably next week too. :( And the gloom has contaminated my pictures....

The Singapore Flyer in "Spring"! I like its new year look a lot better than the Christmas one, but the colorful neon dancing lights lining the wheel/capsules at night just cannot make it.

Ah - the IR is almost done!

Lines and lights at the underground expressway (KPE)

初二 outing to the superoverhead bridges

I've never been to the Alexander Arch/ Henderson Waves since their opening in mid 2008. It's kinda hard to go on a normal weekend; cos getting up early on a Sat morning is virtually impossible; and Sunday... Sunday just feels like day for nuah-ing. Finally found no excuse with the long CNY weekend, and dragged myself out of bed at 730 am, so that I can walk away the calories put on over the past few days. And take pics at the same time! :P We started the walk from Hort Park - it turned out to be a very pleasant one; only that it got really warm towards mid-day as we did a round trip...

Tried an arty shot of the road below us...

A fallen pod caught in the grooves of the bridge.
'C' for cool...

I also want to stay at the black/white bungalows here...

SERS replacement flats @ Depot Road!

New year flowers at Hort Park

A weird-looking potted plant sprouting "toes" spotted at Hort Park. They look genetically modified...

Relaxing and admiring the greenery at Hort Park

I suddenly feel wiser after attending a writing course by THL (specially tailored for MND officers) at CSC. Because it was much more than a writing course... The class impressed upon me some key attributes of a good officer- the ability to work independently and anticipate what boss wants before boss even asks; being sharp enough to read btwn the lines and tweak his writing to suit his audience; self-motivation and being fully responsible for his training/devt; the ability to clearly convey and show the significance of what he's writing about to ppl totally clueless abt the topic. It made me feel like I was pretty far off from being a good officer -- but oh well, I'm now more aware of possible areas I can improve on ;) Just to also share a quotable quote from THL - "Any good officer should know better than his boss, else he's entirely redundant" A bit harsh, but I think it makes absolute sense. Heh, how to hold myself to such high standards...? Perhaps this is what happens in the pte sector; and that shld be my new motto at work...

The long CNY weekend is finally here and I'm really thankful for the 4-day break. Time to catch up on sleep and nuah3 a bit. Here's wishing everyone good luck and good health in the Tiger year!

From time to time, I let things that ultimately dun really matter to me upset me. Or draw my attention away from things that really matter. Must keep reminding myself - to think and appreciate what I have, and not fret over what I don't have.

For a start, just want to blog about a very cute Christmas present... With a cup like this, I can daydream all day at the dining table ;) Hopefully I'd always remember and continue to learn how to fill my cup with the ping pong balls first, not the sand.

At least I was lucky!

This week was a very tiring and trying one; and felt really harrassed by the neverending pre-cab marathon for one particular issue. Sapping up so much of my time and energy I wonder if I'd just 'break' if the proposals dun get finally endorsed next week. Doesn't help that I'm not particularly quick when it comes to rushing things out. Sigh... Productivity grabbed the headlines this week; perhaps I shld seek help from WDA or something to improve mine.

But amidst the feel-bad atmosphere, it was heartening to receive an email mid-week that I won a buffet lunch for 2 at Carousel (Royal Plaza on Scotts)! 'Cos I filled in a feedback form (one of those greedy ones drawn by the prize) sometime in Dec after attending an Excel workshop... Hee -- my lucky name is on their homepage... for now! Yeah, need some cheap thrill after all that stress and premature death of brain cells.

It's been a busy week and I have been compelled by circumstances to work quite hard.. Next week would be an equally bad week! Highlight of work week was perhaps the relatively entertaining MM dialogue on Wed evening at Suntec. And being able to savour my favourite Wild Rocket strawberry cheesecake... Was just sitting around just now when my sister decided to practice Chinese New Year songs on her recorder -- so that she can teach her kids next week. Was suaning1 her how her new year song sounded very cheerless when I suddenly wondered why all pri sch kids learn how to play the recorder... Seems like quite a useless skill leh -- nobody seems to play recorders out of school. Why not teach kids to play other instruments, like guitar, keyboard or something, as part of the main music curriculum and not like out of classes? Maybe recorders are just affordable musical instruments accessible to all.

p/s: my dear friend in the States, what musical instrument did u learn in sch?? ;)

A banished piece of soap

Most of the FabIndia (it's like a fabric/home furnishing/clothing chain) soaps I got from India were given away as gifts, but also kept a few for myself. Yesterday, I finally decided to use one of them - a Jasmine-scented one. To my mild surprise, the unwrapped version of the soap smelt pretty strong - Jasmine-ish, but perhaps a more "Indian" version of Jasmine bah. Anyways, I thought it was still ok and used it once (only cut one-third of the entire bar for use, since soaps usually get really gross after a while). Unfortunately, the scent emanating from this little piece of soap was so overpowering that sis complained abt faintness when bathing... And 'cos no one was at home when I placed the soap in bathroom, mum and sis were unable to identify the stinky culprit... And mystery was only solved this morning when mum narrated the 'havoc' the innocent piece of soap had created... And so very sadly, this piece of jasmine soap had to go into the rubbish bin. Hmm, I'm wondering what to do with my rose-scented one now :P

The MND community-in-bloom project debuts in 2 weeks' time! Volunteer gardeners like myself have been divided into teams and my team will be growing rosemary and artemisia... Er I also wondering what on earth is artemisia -- according to wikipedia it's some fern-looking herb/shrub... Not terribly exciting from the photo, but I think for a gardening novice like me -- dun die can already lah. I also excitedly proposed that our team be called -- The Constant Gardeners... and erm, hopefully we busy creatures really live up to our name. And hopefully my recreational eca can let me pick up some green-finger skills... such that I can have my own herb garden one day, just like Jamie's...

I miss Mr Good. Sigh, sometimes one must acknowledge that good things have to come to an end and then move on. And that tougher life is also opportunity to learn more things. Somehow assertive individuals regularly trigger the unconfident side of me. I need to learn how to stand firm/confident in the face of adversity!

It's been eons since I went kite-flying. Sis has been wanting to fly her new Doraemon kite for a few weeks, and last weekend, I made it a point to go with her today. The impetus to go kite-flying also came about because we recently discovered a popular kite-flying spot one bus-stop away. Together with the new road leading from Pasir Ris Dr 3 to the Pasir Ris beach area, two plots of land were also cleared to make way for new resi devts (i think). Doesn't seem like there are plans to build up the area in short term; ppl discovered that it was quite perfect for kite-flying.. and ta-dah, it quickly morphed into a kite-flying hotspot. There were easily 50 kites flying high this evening... Prob the only time/place when bats, cobras, sharks, cartoon characters, insects and sotongs can co-exist relatively peacefully together ;)

My family... all out to keep our kite in the air..

Brisk business at the kite-van... Got kite-design catalog somemore wor...

The longest kite we saw..

A flying shark!

The pro in action, with his huge bumble bee ;)

The Ipod shall lead to my downfall soon not or later... Feel absolutely wasted now, after spending an entire morning fiddling with my Ipod Touch and checking out apps I can download... Sis got me a 32GB Ipod Touch last Christmas (Christmas 09/Birthday & Christmas 10 combined) out of the blue... and well, it was a really nice gift. Haven't explored it very much since, but well, have found quite a few cool apps over the past week or so!

Dun have many apps for now, but my fav one is SHAZAM. It has to be every music lover's find of the year or something. This amazing app basically listens to songs playing on the radio/wherever, and tells u what song/singer it is! And so far it can match songs 90% of the time, in like 10 seconds!

Another exciting app (recommended by YJ but a less 'instant gratification' sort of app) is STANZA -- which is basically like a e-reader, except that it feels more like a hybrid e-reader cum book. I never had a thing for these e-book readers, but this one seems decent enough. You can flip the pages and customise the background to make it feel more book-like... And it's free! But so far it seems gd only for classics though -- unless I'm willing to buy e-versions of the latest books.

Also downloaded a piano app after watching someone play ColdPlay's 'Clocks' using the Ipod/Iphone piano app... and after practising on and off the past hour or so, I can kinda do it now too hehe... :P

It was a blah day today. Someone walked over and said she could feel the higher concentration of asbestos at my workstation (yeah rite...) another colleague warned me about overexposure to printer toner. great.... now I'm subject to all these health hazards on top of being victim of claustrophobic workstation. Now there's only a sliver of space through which I catch human traffic through the corner of my left eye. I'm walled in front, right and back, with a huge ceiling height cupboard to my left... Though there's narrow strip of walking space to my left (just b4 the cupboard), i can only hear but not see who's approaching from my 7-o-clock until they walk past me into my corner-of-left-eye line of side vision...

I'd be starting off the new year at work in a new workstation. Though "new", it's certainly inferior to my previous cubicle. I have been illegally squatting at Eco-city territory (for a good 7 months); but now I've been kicked out within short notice to the only other empty workstation ard Housing Div territory. So sad, I moved further away from the window, closer to the noisy printers, nearer to my Director's room and human traffic thoroughfare. Sigh. I suspect it's gonna be way more difficult to concentrate on my work at this location. I had better remember to go and chope some secluded workstation soon, so that I can shift house again once the more premium stations are freed up.

Sigh, the long weekend is over :(

Happy 2010!

Think my body was never made for frequent meetups/gatherings... Though we've had two long weekends over the past two weeks, find myself feeling rather tired every weekend, from the sudden spike in meet-ups with friends etc over the holiday season. It was definitely nice to have friends back in sg, but I also realised that I probably need to work harder at "keeping up" with people... It's really not the case of "once close, always close" unless both parties continue to nourish and grow the relationship. And looking back at the year gone by, I've let a few ppl grow more and more distant by inaction/ laziness in initiating outings. On the other hand, find the AS self rather unenthusiastic in making new friends (i mean real friends) at work/church. Hope that I can remember to work on these two areas in the coming year...

Here's wishing my dear friends out there good health and good luck for 2010! :)

Belated Merry Christmas to all!

My family never really celebrates Christmas, but this year, I decided last min on Christmas Eve to buy us a log cake. Unsurprisingly, prices were a little marked up; and the scrooge in me felt a little 'pinched' that I was prob charged way above cost price for my log cake... But it turned out to be quite well spent, 'cos mum and sis liked it quite a bit and we all had a very yummy Christmas breakfast.

Come next week, it's time to start dieting!!! Daily feasting and no exercise makes me a sinful girl :(

The cute sugary santa, frosted all over by icing sugar... :)

Visit to Pinnacle@Duxton

I suppose my job sometimes has its perks... Might be peanuts compared to perks other ppl get at work, but well, better than nothing lah.

And so Hsg Div requested for and was given a tour of the Pinnacle on Tuesday... Unfortunately it started pouring 30 min before the tour commenced, so we had to trudge around in the rain... So instead of a nice sunset at the 50th sty skybridge, we only glimpsed a gloomy/ misty cityscape from afar ;P

Despite the rain, the Pinnacle did not disappoint. It really didn't feel like I was touring a public housing project. For a split second, I felt REALLY proud to be a part of HDB :P


View of Sg's busy port from the 26th sty skybridge

Can you believe this -- "pods" for stargazing at the 50th sty skybridge!

View from a vacant unit...