Fiesta!

What a fantastic night it was for Philippino home cooking! Chico et al decided invited some of us round to theirs for some homestyle philippino nosh. Ever since I read Umami's post on pork menudo, I've been pestering Mingko about it. And it made its appearance! I also made a special request for kinilaw, but that didn't quite make it, but one out of two ain't bad at all.

There was quite alot of good food... chicken adobo, brinjal omelette, mussels baked in cheese and garlic and the sinigang, OMG.. is absolutely divine. I will have to make a trip to Lucky Plaza soon to get my own sinigang mix. I'm kinda ambiguous about kare kare (oxtail stew with bagoong).. it's nice and all, but I think it brought back lots of memories of me using my fingers and squishing the biggest, baddest, bagoong (hey! alliteration!) I could find with some old tough pandasals to make bait for fish traps back in May. Like this:-



Dessert were classic philippino sweets, leche flan and my fave, halo halo! Even though the ice didn't quite work, it was still good! Arvin even hand carried back a tub of ube jam all the way from Manila for this! The ube jam is really nice. It has the consistency of kaya, and very subtly flavoured. Not like or nee at all. By this time, I had given up cos I was about to burst from ingesting all that food and settled for stealing bites off people's desserts :P.


The ube jam that set Zee raving. Look at that happy camper!

Most of the food photos came out shite though....all blurry and NOT. VERY. GOOD. How ah? How does umami always take such good pictures? I have to watch her in action when I see her in November.

Thanks to Chico, Mingko, JC and Arvin for the lovely dinner! Sorry I couldn't stay for more. Next time it will be at my place!

Fly away on my zephyr
I feel it more than ever
And in this perfect weather
We'll find a place together

In the water where I center my emotion
All the world can pass me by
Fly away on my zephyr
We'll find a place together...

The Zephyr Song ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers

Just tired from an afternoon practical, plus loads to do before I go: -

1) Sort out scripts for assignment 2, grade them and input marks
2) Sort out scripts (308!) for assignment 3, grade them and input marks
3) Mark essays
4) Sort out travel insurance
5) Finalize and send out mansucript
6) Spend time with family
7) Recce Sungei Buloh and work out lesson plan

Can I just fly away on your zephyr now?

More Kit Kats!

Seiji et al stopped by in Singapore again on their way to Manado, and its always good to see them, especially when I get more Kit Kats! This time round, he brought 2 of everything, plus a whole bag of yoghurt flavoured ones. Yay!


Cafe Latte Kit Kat


Teeny little yoghurty ones


White chocolate with maple syrup... mmmmm

Guess who's back?

Tadaaaah! :D

Stuffing his face with local food as soon as possible... tsk tsk.

The burfday boi

The burfday boi
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

Today marks Alan's 26th year on this planet! So I decided to take him out for tea and cake. Was looking around the labs for some candles and found it, finally in the plant lab, courtesy of Lahiru. So there are some uses for botanists too!

Went down to Spins and who do we see but Zee and applecow! So we all celebrated together. Lucky bastard. :)

Celine swings by

Celine
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

The best reef mapper this side of the Pacific swings by!

I've only been able to spend mornings and evenings with her, but it looks like she's doing well on her own with just a map and instructions to get back to her place.

We are going to Equinox tonight! Come join us?

Weekend in a nutshell

To make up for a pathetic friday night, it was decreed that Saturday should be good. I went to see my *cough* secret date while the other two went to church. Dinner was a yummy korean affair near Raffles hotel. Followed by walking around the city hall area, checking out Insomnia, peering into the window of a naughty shop in Peninsula plaza and wondering... hmmm.. how does this work?!?!



*Begin public announcement*
This is Reuben. He was alot cuter when he was a wee lad, but puberty changed it all. I'm gonna pimp him on my blog anyway. He's a good guy. Anyone interested, pm me! :D

Thank you.
*End public announcement*

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Like the funky photog arrangement at the top? Me too! I learnt it from Cour Marly. She takes great pictures.

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Oh ya. Met Monkey and Fat Kitten at Raffles City. Nice meeting you, FK. If you're reading this, I have just one thing say. Change your handle! Fat Kitten my foot. If you're fat, I need a helicopter evacuation everytime I leave the house :P

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Ninety minutes before I head off to the Airport to pick Celine up. Oooh I'm going to have fun the next few days.

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I'm supposed to be working on pulling out sequences from Genbank now! Dammit!

Friday night party

You know its a sad state of affairs when you actually look forward to staying over in the lab on Friday night cos tomorrow's a Saturday and hey! you can work in the lab late (ploughing through 300 assignments), keel over the couch and wake up past 9 tomorrow, cos no one (sane) will turn up! Sigh

At least I have company. Two other sad people each nursing our own mug of hot Milo for solace.



*******

Since I'm in a depressed mood, I'm gonna start thinking about writing my will if I don't come back from the Chesterfields. If you've been covetting my stuff, now is the time to let it be known! Don't need to be shy.. I won't be needing anything if I'm dead anyway.

Moon Tarts

Moon Tarts
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

Ex hons student of the lab, Ann, popped by today and gave us some lovely walnut moon tarts.

Hmm.. most of the labbies have gone away for field trips. 24 tarts sitting delectably on the coffee table. I can't possibley let them go to waste, can I? They are all begging to be eaten. It's a tough life.

Reg visits!

Originally uploaded by island_girl.

One of my oldest friends, Reg, visited me at the uni today!

Gosh... I've known her since we were in Primary 1, so that makes it 21 years... we were in school for 10 years after which she went on to AC and me to TJ. All my friends from school went on to AC, so I guess I got ex-communicated. And it didn't help that I was busy and changed my phone number 3 times in 2 years, without letting any of them know. It was only through chance meetings on the streets that gave me an opportunity to exchange numbers with them. I missed Founder's Day dinner while the rest of them turned up, cos I was "nowhere to be found", but Caryn did get hold of me in time to attend her wedding. Ditto for Cheryl.

It was nice catching up over soggy noodles at Arts. And to be honest, she hasn't changed. AT ALL! Apparently, me neither. Which is nice cos we're like... not exactly young anymore. hahaha. Maybe its the hardened look in our eyes that gives it all away now.

More cam-whoring

Sorry lah... jsut got new camera mah... so bear with me. Normal programming shall resume shortly....


Arvin squashed in between


Blokey girls unite!!!


Me, Applecow, and the Blue Tempeh

Ubin dogs part 2

This is Blackie, taken 3rd September when I was back in Ubin for a Club Rainbow Pedal Ubin! ride. He's grown alot over the last month or so, just look at him last month. Soon, I won't be able to cuddle him anymore. Then, I'll just have to contend with molesting stuffed dogs. Like below.



Pictures courtesy of Monkey. Thanks hor, Charbor.

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Oh yes.. got this link from Wolfie just now. Funny signs! :D

Hellooooo!

Hellooooo!
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

Hello world, meet my nephew Asher. Asher, meet WORLD!!!!

He's looking bright and chirpy for a new born.

Teeny weeny little eyes, and a round face.

Altogether now.... Awwwwww


*dabs tear from eye*

These are pictures taken with my new camera, the RED Panasonic Lumix FX9. I had actually wanted to get the FX8 as it was SGD150 cheaper (at least that was what the ah beng told me on Friday) but going back today, the offer was no go. They had received complaints from other retailers about the undercutting. The difference between the FX8 and FX9 was only 100SGD, so I plumped for the FX9 instead. In red! Woohoo! So I guess I got what I wanted. My brother thinks the colour aint too hot though. Its red and gu niang. But I bought it, so I get to choose. Mwuahahaa!



Testing the self potrait settings with Monkey at NYDC


A picture taken with a stuffed malamut at NYDC. The colours look a l'll off, if you ask me. Time to read the manual! The reason why I took the picture with the doggie was cos I went back to Ubin yesterday. And made Monkey take pictures of me with Blackie! Will post that up soon. He's grown bigger over the month. Naughtier too.


Thanks to Teuteberg, Lham and Monkey for trooping down to Comex and braving the crowd with me! Was fun hanging out with you guys today!

What a bad aunt I am. Instead of going to see my sister's sproglet, I went down to Comex with Lham and Tore.

Read Lham's account. I'm lazy to type it out, except I'd like to pass along a message to the guy who served me at the Panasonic Booth.

***bitch mode ON***

chao ah beng!!!! You think I'm trying to chat you up issit???!?! Take a look at yourself lah! Ptui!

Ok. Rant over.

***bitch mode OFF***

In other news, I went to see my little nephew today! He's gorgeous. No pictures though, cos he was sleeping contentedly when I visited. Take my word for it. He's going to be a real heart breaker next time. He's also a big baby. 55cm!!! With an apgar score of 9 and 10!! I'm so proud of him.

I want one too. :P

It's official

Congratulate me, I'm officially an auntie now!!! My sister's boy Asher ( I know.. its a daft name.. but hey.. if its good enough for them, its good enough for me) came bawling into this big bad world round about 4pm. I was going to see him today, but a phone call to me sister put that off. She was tired. I guess anyone would be after all this drama.

I have nothing for my sister and brother-in-law at the moment, except for these lines from Khalil Gibran. I only came to know about him late in my life, but its better late then never. More then any religious teachings, his words of wisdom has made much more sense to me then the 10 commandments or anything my mission school education has taught me.

On Children

"And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children." And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."


From "The Prophet" Khalil Gibran, 1923

Darwin...

Should I? Or shouldn't I?

And knowing my luck... my crab will disappear from the face of Darwin once word of my impending visit gets out... just like Taiwan 2003.

The difference between me and you is that I'm on fire

Everyone loves good company, jokes and smiley faces.

So do I.

Yet life isn't all about roses and daisies and little smiling babies.

I reserve the right to be negative too. And you of all people should know why.

Or maybe you'd rather not know

I should have kept my mouth shut.

There. Not a word from me next time.

*****

Snow patrol says it.