Dough

Kneaded. Prodded. Moulded. Pounded. Accupressured. Poked. Tapped. Pressed. Knuckled. Palmed. Thumbed. Slapped. Pinched. Stroked. Touched.

Mmmmmmmm...Massaged.

Food Trail

Fusion food woh...For a $5 voucher, S and C drove all the way out from JB to try this place out. This one, ok lah...bit overdone for "medium".
Part of the new year's lunch at The Cathay restaurant this week - steamed noodles with scallops in egg white. Pretty good! :)
Dessert was even better! Black glutinous rice with a dollop of coconut ice-cream. Not too sweet. Yummy!
This one, "ma ma tei" only. Only managed to take this picture before I was sternly warned not to take any pictures of the food there. Oh-kay lor...Food wasn't that great anyway, so no loss...:P

Proximity

Raised voices, late in the night, rising to shouts. Verbal missiles in a foreign dialect, launched through the quiet of the night.

"Stop taking it out on me!", shrieks Woman.

"...what taking out on you...", shouts Man.

The volume on the TV set is raised and obscures the privacy of others' lives, intruding into mine.

Spring

Spring bursting forth in MacRitchie.

In the Midnight Hour

Did you know, they have 24-hour car wash service here on this little red dot? I haven't washed the car since I moved out (the perks one loses once one doesn't have a maid anymore...). There was a thick layer of dust, caked onto the surface of the car. It was getting embarassing. Someone might just write some graffitti on my car...Hey, I have a LIFE, you know! I was B-U-S-Y...So, 1 am on a Saturday morning, I queued up (yes, there was actually a queue at that hour!) for my turn at the car wash. And now, I can see clearly through my windscreen again. :D
I hope this chap can too. Because the reflection from the many go ld ingots (满地黄金) must be quite distracting!

Valentine's

To my dear friends,

Happy Valentine's Day! :)

Toong Toong Cheng!

Lions dancing around the office, to chase away the back luck from the old year, and bring in good luck for the Year of the Rat! Toong Toong Cheng!!

Lo Hei line-up in the office! More good luck, fortune, prosperity, good health, happiness, blah blah....

Getting ready to go for the cabbage...

Got it!

Ren Ri

Thought I'd be clever and avoid the jam leading to the expressway. Instead, ran right smack into a jam on the alternative route! Stationary traffic on the flyover...

7th Day of the Lunar New Year - everybody's birthday! Lo hei, lo hei!

Lo Hei, Lo Hei!!

First Lo Hei of the year!

"BMW!" "Bonus!" "Promotion!" "500 ft yacht" (this one's from G) "Happiness!" "Good health!"

Digging in...

Top of the Hill!

Isn't there something about climbing to the top of a hill during the new year? Or is that for another festival? Haha. At any rate, Mr. Yellow Bicycle's a bit tired of the cycling around, so I took Ms. "Just Do It" out for a hike up the hill. Lots of people had the same thought. Probably trying to burn off the bak kwa and other CNY goodies' calories...
Ms. "Just Do It" taking a breather at the top.
Other more fit hikers this morning were busy Tai Chi-ing off more calories.

Roast Pork!

Step one : It'd be a good idea to remove the packaging...
Step 2 : Prepping the meat with salt and pepper and leaving to marinate for a bit.
Step 3 : Roast in oven for about an hour, et voila! *Note to self : LESS SALT NEXT TIME!*

Exercise

Long weekend...a chance for some exercise! :D

Some dry swimming...

Even the prawnies were frisky...

Spring's in full bloom...it's not called 新春 for nothing!

Mr. Yellow Bicycle found some friends...

Mini-me!

Even the "Man from Atlantis" crawled out for some action...

The Adventures of Mr. Yellow Bicycle and I

*Brreeeng breeennng* Cabin fever got to us, so we went for a ride this morning.
"Waaah, vely lo-mance woh!"
Taking a breather on a slope, overlooking the reservoir. Everytime the wind blew, a shower of leaves cascaded over us. Sitting amidst the swirling leaves, it was a peaceful place to contemplate the meaning of life, if not for the fact that giant red ants were threatening to take over the wooden bench we occupied...

Reunion

Reunion Dinners are always tricky affairs, requiring nimble maneuvres through the minefield of family politics once the family's all grown up and married off. Fortunately in ours, it's been made less tricky by events in recent years. This is the first year we had to negotiate it from different households, since we'd all finally moved out into our own little piece of haven from the madding crowd.

It wasn't a difficult decision to make - choosing to hold our reunion dinner in a restaurant, since we are neither great nor enthusiastic cooks. We picked the eve of the eve of the Lunar New Year, which was probably a wise choice too, since we didn't have to fight for a table with the hordes of people out having THEIR reunion dinners.

On the eve itself, I joined an old friend's family reunion dinner at home. For a change, they decided against their usual one-dish meal and her mum cooked up a typical Cantonese style "3 dishes and 1 soup" meal. No mean feat, considering her mum was working in the morning half of the day, and spent the afternoon rushing around trying to find a stall open for her lunch, and then had to fight the crowds headed home on the bus. Earlier in the day, I had foolishly left my errands til noon to run, and ran smack into the crazy mob "looting" the supermarket. Judging by the speed at which goods were emptied from the shelves, you'd have thought we were going to war and needed to stock up on food for the coming months of hardship! Swept away by the low hum of desperation amongst the shoppers, I did some "looting" of my own, panic-strickened that I would be left stranded with no food in the fridge at home and no hawker stalls open over the festive holidays. Dying of starvation in the beginning of the Lunar Year would NOT bode well for a prosperous and fulfilling Year of the Rat to come...

We also chose to cross over into the Year of the Rat, watching a silly movie - Ah Long Pte Ltd. While Fann's acting abilities leave much to be desired, Mark's Malaysian-Chinese accent and acting was hysterical throughout. What better way to start the year than to burst out laughing until tears come to your eyes? 2 thumbs-up (out of 4. But I'm biased towards comedies!).

Meawhile, Day 1 of the Lunar Year is being spent decadently sleeping in, and taking my time over a delicious brunch and a pot of Yorkshire tea. All this while decked up in a green tank top and an olive pair of berms, as I was advised to wear green on the first day. :)

在此恭祝大家在新的一年里，找到自己的幸福！每天都开开心心！无忧无虑！

恭喜发财！

Wishing all 心想事成，万事如意 in the Year of the Rat！
A warm welcome to the Year of the Rat!
Pussy willow's a must, of course! Just a handful in a vase in a corner of the room, to imbue NH with the necessary festive feeling!
The office mustn't be neglected either. A little "kut chai" to keep the rubber ducky company on the PC.
In line with tradition/superstition (depending on your perspective) passed down through the generations, a trim is called for to signify the shedding of all the unhappiness in the old year, and a new 'do to welcome in the new year with new hopes! In truth, the newly acquired bangs make me look younger...:D

Pre-CNY Get-Together

Too bad we still couldn't get our acts together and make it a gathering for the Gang of 4. It has been a long time since we were all in the same country at the same time... Nevertheless, at least 3 of us made it together at one time. This evening, it was LY, Y and Cutie Clare (standing in for A). A pic of the steamed chicken was taken as this appeared to be Clare's favourite dish of the night ("Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!")

After walloping a full meal of steamed chicken, fried rice, steamed home-made tofu, and garlic prawns (to Y's declaration that Clare had really outdone herself this evening), Clare was still going strong...here she is, trying to launch her attack at the chocolate cake while Y was trying hard to protect her pink top.

Satisfaction, at last!

MY treat for the evening - Bailey's Irish Cream souffle! *smacks lips*

Pu Tian Cuisine

Fried bee hoon, Pu Tian-style, with seafood in it. It had a most unusual taste which we couldn't pinpoint. A bit dry, but somehow very "more-ish".

Some strange kind of clams we had which is not of that "bamboo clam" variety, though bearing a remarkable resemblance to the same.