The first few weeks that they moved in, the door was never closed. And we couldn’t help but wonder if they simply enjoyed the “open concept”. Well afterall they had a parttion sort of false wall that blocked peering eyes into their living room. But to me, the concern is more of lizards, flies and all those creppy crawlies, seriously, why would anyone keep the door open 24-7?! I’m forced to even shut my small window slit at the top because of lizards and here they are keeping the door wide open.

Just when we thought that’s their accustomed lifestyle, suddenly they didn’t even require the door anymore when we saw it entirely removed and out on the corridor haha. Of course my mum had to do her aunty thing and found out that it’s because there were problems with the door so they couldn’t close it and they were finally getting a replacement.

Then just last week, they began decorating their home for CNY. First came the bright red and pink flowers hanging by the gate, with a dragon in the middle that goes tick-tock non-stop, then came more dragons on the window

Actually this is quite normal right? Well they are just getting into the festive mood. Then I realise, they are really very festive people haha

Yep, Vday wall stickers!!!! LOL dunno to cry or to laugh. But then again, it’s their wall after all so they do what they like right? Then came this:

On my wall! Ok technically, it’s OUR wall, but half belongs to me mah haha.

No, I’m not complaining. In fact I’m quite entertained haha. And to be fair, they have been good neighbours so far, no nuisance, no loud noises / parties, generally friendly and totally entertaining, right from Day 1 haha.

I’m already looking forward to the decor they’ll put up at the next festive celebration – which I gather should be Easter, if they do celebrate it. Will I see stickers of colored eggs all over the wall?!

Cute BIG teddy bears!

Dining by the "water-fall"

This would have been even nicer if the water-fall was real, or better still, if there’s the waves crashing in from the sea, with cool sea breeze brushing pass and the sun setting in the background.

Country-style cart stalls

Gift Redemption Counter

Even the redemption counter is ALL pink and the staff in pink uniform with a pair of wings haha. Except she should really be smiling more =p

Don’t know why the CNY festive mood this year don’t seem to be as rousing, maybe cause it’s just too close to Xmas and New Year’s Day so there’s no time for “building up” of the mood. Especially so at this mall, with all these V Day decor. The only thing that reminded anyone of CNY was this small board of 2012 Zodiac Predictions, and if it’s accurate, this year isn’t going to be an exciting one for me haiz

Dog in the Year of the Dragon

Rat in the Year of the Dragon

Ox in the Year of the Dragon

Snake in the Year of the Dragon

Thankfully, those closest to me seem to be enjoying pretty good luck this year, hopefully some of it rubs off me!

Had our staff briefing @ CEC yesterday and saw another of Aunty’s Jul’s creations:

Hand-made recycled Wind Chime

The wind there is so strong you can hear the cling-clang as the ring hits against the glass bottle. And no, she didn’t kill or injured anyone to break the bottle haha

Sugar Inc

Attended a 4-hr cupcake workshop today! $96 per pax, to bake and decorate 6 cupcakes. So like what Yihua said, $3 – 5 per cupcake from OniCakes / Twelve Cupcakes is actually really quite worth it haha.

The baking portion was pretty simple, and it was a group effort, 4 persons to a table, we share the workload of sifting / mixing with a hand-mixer / folding and finally scooping the batter into the cups

50mm cups, ~ 40 gms of batter per cup

One important thing I learnt today was, to always measure your batter. In the past when I bake, it’s always by agar-ration, pure estimation based on feel haha. But Ms Yoko made a good point today, the cakes are going in at the same temp for the same time, so if they are of different amount of content, of course some will rise more than others / less cook than others / more burnt than others. So it’s important to measure them so that they come out with the same consistency as it went in time to invest in a digital weighing scale!

Ta-da! Orange and Chocolate Cupcakes!

Trays of it!

Final product from 4 tables of 4 persons each, 15 ladies and 1 gentleman haha. Love that scent of cakes baking away, especially so many ovens baking at the same time, can you smell it already?!

Then came the exciting part! Decorating! Actually that was mainly what we were paying for. And I thought we were there to learn how to make the fondant/marzipan as some call it. Turned out, those were all ready-to-roll, ready-made icing haha. All we did was really to shape and decorate it. But hey, it’s not an easy job still ok?! The instructor made it sound so easy – “there are just 3 basic shapes, round, teardrop and sausage, then the rest mostly use moulds to cut out“. But really, it takes alot of effort, creativity and dainty, arty-farty-crafty, nimble fingers to do this! haha

Took us hours to do this! But totally satisfying at the end of it

Filling it up with Buttercream

My 精心杰作!

The instructor's sample version

See! Not too bad right?! Quite Very close to the original liao ok!

So happy with the results!

Pastry Chef Daphne and her creations

Counting down 9 days to 初一! and I’ve already had my 1st Lo-Hei! Attended the CNY Lo-Hei lunch hosted by Mandarin Oriental on Tuesday. They had a really good menu this year, in celebration of the Year of the Dragon, most of the dishes were designed to make use of Lobster (龙虾) as a key ingredient. For instance, for the Lo-hei, instead of salmon, the more common choice in recent years, we had Lobster sashimi. Don’t ask me if it’s good, can’t really taste when it’s all mixed up haha didn’t even know if I actually ate any of it in that mess

Pity I couldn’t stay through the entire lunch to savour the good food, had to rush off for another meeting and managed just soup and 2 more dishes

Mini Pen Cai 盆菜- with Prawn, Roasted Pork Belly, Scallop, Roasted Duck, Fa Cai and Baby Abalone

Braised Lobster with egg white pudding

But the best thing was the lovely door gift

Pineapple tarts in pretty cheena basket

Actually I don’t know if it’s really pineapple tarts haha cause I haven’t tasted it, but it just looks like it don’t you think? This mini basket is so cute!

Met up with Suanny yesterday too and had lunch at HY California, a jap-western fusion restaurant at MBS, near the Art Science Museum. Not cheap, but pretty decent food

Tonkatsu Burger Set - $20

Burger close up

 Not too bad. I love the way they use egg mayo as the “dressing” for the burger rather than purely mayo, tartar or whatever sauce. The tonkatsu is great, except the sauce is a bit too salty.

Suanny’s Creamy Salmon burger was excellent too, pity I forgot to take pictures. In fact I liked the salmon one better. and it’s cheaper! by $2 haha

More Lo-Hei-s to come over the next 2 weeks, the previous year’s record was over 10 I think, this year should be less, at least off hand from the upcoming functions, I’m expecting just 5 more. Haven’t been receiving invites hahaha good for the body I suppose.

Filed under: celebrations, 能吃是福 ]]> http://dyhx.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/nom-nom-nom/feed/ 1 dyhx 10012012293 10012012294 Oriental P1050906 P1050907 http://dyhx.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/gardens-by-the-bay/ http://dyhx.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/gardens-by-the-bay/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:10:39 +0000 dyhx http://dyhx.wordpress.com/?p=4348 ]]> One thing I appreciate about my job is the exclusive / private previews of various places, from hotels to venues to the latest attractions in town, free of charge

Just visited the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore’s latest nature attraction – testament of our transformation from a Garden City to City in a Garden.

This is suppose to be the last bit that completes the entire Marina Bay development, finally, after dunno-how-many years man.

Super Tree and that's the Cloud Forest in between

A different view of MBS

Event Hall inside Flower Dome

I’m just praying hard the public learns to appreciate and love it, not destroy it. The plants and flowers are so near within reach I wonder how long they would last before they get plucked/trampled on…