Kickin' off the Weekend

Yay, it's Friday! Tested out the new-ish highway and made our way to the little food enclave in Hougang to search for something worthy to kick off our weekend with. Found it in a dingy kopitiam. "Never say no to pork satay!", says Our Friend.

Fried hokkien prawn mee, and a side of ngo hiang. Our Friend promptly declared that he would be starting on his "ngo hiang" phase with immediate effect...:)

Saturday afternoon was spent at the matinee performance of "Men in Tutus". It was a slapstick sort of performance. Enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't go back to see it again. Don't see how it could be fresh and funny again after the first time. Some of the men looked scary in their makeup and tutus... Rounded off the night with Thai-style BBQ and steamboat in Little Thailand. It was thoroughly enjoyed all round, though Our Friend and I both paid the price for it via "detoxification exercises" in the loo for the next two days...:P

Organized

The frenzy continues.

First, a stop at the Toyogo warehouse to stock up our arsenal of organizing tools - a popular stop for many people (you can tell this from how far we had to park from the storefront, and fight through the people inside). We bought plastic tubs aplenty, and headed home to continue what I had started two night ago.

First to be tackled was the pantry, a.k.a. snacks cupboard. This had gone a bit out of control, what with the purchases of new supplies of snacks (I blame Our Friend), soup material (I own up for this part of the mess), and abandoned baking materials. Armed with plastic tupperware to sort them into organized clusters, which are also now in more space-saving squarish shapes which group better and are stackable, I have managed to finally get them all squeezed into the original shelves with space to spare. Teabags, instant mix drinks, sugar and others have been sorted and organized into more tupperware. In the process, the space has also been more efficiently organized.

Next, the knick knacks, jewellery, and luggage storage space. I've long planned this but procrastinated from inertia. Finally, I got the necessary ginormous plastic tub, burned through countless ziploc bags, sorted all the contents which were previously stashed in the luggage bags into said ginormous plastic tub, stowed tub away, and found new space for our luggage to reside (in the kitchen cabinet, no doubt. But this is what one has to live with, when one does not have a store room).

Next, under the bathroom counter. I've done a re-org of this space before, but found it exceedingly inconvenient to access stuff, which meant great reluctance on my part to stow things away under, instead of on top of, the counter. I am beginning to recognize the power of drawers, and hence, have finally succumbed to plastic drawers for this space (yes, I am most likely turning into my mother. Horrors). Finally, bathroom and beauty supplies have been stowed in easily accessible drawers, cleaning equipment organized into a plastic tub I can easily access without having to get down on my hands and knees and shoving the pail out of the way first. Oh happy day!

And now, it's time for a break. Intermission : dinner with visitors from Jakarta. We decided frog porridge and chilli crab is definitely called for, so reservations were made at G7. Truthfully, I don't remember having the chilli crab here before, but tonight, they seemed to have outdone themselves. The crabs were EXCELLENT. Thick, spicy and full of body, the gravy coated the meaty crab and got everyone hunkering down to the job of polishing off every single piece of this dish. *burp* The only regret tonight was not being able to fit in a dessert of ice cream at The Island Creamery (due to a curfew restrictions on our visitors. Whoever's heard of CURFEW at a guest house??). Back home to my mochi ice cream...

Tomorrow, the wardrobe.

Time to Say Goodbye

It's been a long time coming. In the frenzy of de-cluttering and re-organizing our space, Our Friend finally agreed to let go of Mr Yellow Bicycle.

In the space of a short 2 hours, Mr Yellow Bicycle has been adopted.

Good-bye Mr Yellow Bicycle! We've had good rides together, through good and bad times. A new journey's begun, and it's time to move on. I hope you've found a great new owner and home, who'll take you on great journeys together! Au revoir!

Re-Org

You can't see it clearly here (because I couldn't get the lighting bright enough), but that cupboard has taken two night's hard graft to achieve this level of neatness!

By default, due to it's size and convenience, I had started out assigning the bedlinens to this space right when I had first moved in. And so it has stayed through these two years. Cohabiting cosily with the bedlinens was a whole range of stuff, including the multitude of electric cables and wires which one accumulates over the years together with the acquisition of all manners of electric gadgets, and anything else which would not fit into a smaller cupboard space elsewhere. This space was so full, the doors couldn't be closed properly!

I had originally planned to do some culling and re-organizing of possessions over the long break between Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately, I hadn't foreseen the number of parties and dinners I'd be busy with, and hence didn't manage to get down to any part of the original plan, apart from managing to finally clear the mountain of paperwork I'd accumulated over the year (does "filing" those papers into the bin count??). With CNY 2010 looming, I decided it was time to light a fire under my ass.

Armed with plastic freezer bags of 2 sizes (big and small), plastic tubs of different sizes, I started pulling out things, assessing them, sorting them into bags either for binning, donation, or passing off to friends who might appreciate them more. The remainder got bagged, tagged, clustered, boxed, and re-arranged back into the same space. Et voila! SPACE - miraculously created! I even managed to organize and slot in more boxes of electrical cables which had been residing in 3 other plastic tubs and shoved into another cupboard space.

Nothing like success to drive one's fervour! Next up, wardrobe and kitchen.

Weekend Away

It was a little indulgent, but seeing as we're mostly peopled by expatriates at work (foreign talent?), the weddings of our colleagues have always been on foreign soil.

This time, it took us to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Arriving at the airport, we immediately sought out food and our daily caffeine fix. Teh tarik, satu! Kopi-c kosong, dua!

Next - Penang Hae Mee!

Satisfied, we made our way at a leisurely pace to our hotel, checked in, relieved ourselves of our meagre luggage contents, and headed straight down to the hotel cafe for more food.
After a brief nap, and a flurry of brushes slapping on our war paint, we were ready to rock and roll! There was no sharksfin soup, no wedding ceremony against the backdrop of a sunset on the beach, not even fireworks. But we all had a blooming good time, and nobody was complaining about scuffing their stilettoes on the gaps in the boardwalk, sun in their eyes, wind whipping hair out of shape, makeup melting in the late afternoon sun, suffocating in the marquee waiting for dinner to end...We all had a good time celebrating the union of the newly-weds, and that was the most important thing afterall!

Old Neighbourhood

Had occasion to be back in the old neigbourhood recently. Apparently, there's a magic armour out there that protects your reputation... and it can be had for a mere six bucks!

Finally, I had the chance to try out the famous porridge place near my old home. This was the place that had long queues, and where you'd have to wait over half an hour for your order to appear, munching on a prata meanwhile. It's got a whole spanking new look now, and there was actually no queue! Aaah, Ah Chiang's Charcoal Fire-Cooked Porridge. Thick, smooth, Cantonese-style porridge. Tasty! Risked a parking ticket for this...