Almond cookies

I've started baking again.. Last time, I only did a bit and stopped. Now, I started with ready-mix chocolate chip cookies. Then ready mix brownies...

On sunday, I started almond cookies from scratch. It worked!!! Maybe can add more almond bits and almond essence to increase the almond flavour.. But it's still nice... got a few compliments....

To my next recipe! dunno wat yet though.. maybe cashew nut cookie, cinnamon cookie or cheesecake...

NDP 41....

Went for the NDP Preview... Singapore's 41st bday!!!

Was very lucky to get tickets this year. Went with family and friends... Been quite a few years since I last went for a preview...

Sat in the sun for 1-2 hours. Busy eating watermelons to cool myself down. Watermelons are really good for hot days. Also busy cooling myself down with the electric fan given, then putting batteries into the light given, blowing up my clapper sticks....

Overall, very nice... It's fun to be in the real life atmosphere. Shall wait for the next chance!

singapore flag....

night view with beautiful lights 

swaps farewell?

read 2 blogs writing abt swaps farewell party.... thot maybe i shld write a long blog too, but then again....

wat farewell? wat ending?

it doesn't end here...

Triple 3

Went to Triple 3 at Mandarin Hotel for lunch buffet today. Original price is 45+++, but there's promotion with hsbc credit card. 3rd person gets to eat for free.

Anyway, it's good!!!!

Starting with appetizers: I ate stuff like oysters, sashimi, chatterbox chicken rice in the form of japanese rolled sushi, prawns, smoked salmon for appetizer. All I can say is... oyster good, chicken rice chilli good, prawns fresh, smoked salmon goodd.... hahaha

Soup: lobster bisque.. muahahaha...

Main course:
- Freshly cut honey baked ham with pineapple sauce. Yummy... Especially the skin with the layer of fat underneath. I only took a very small piece of fat, but wah... irresistible sia. The fat literally melts in ur mouth!! It melts!!! damn it..
- Freshly cut roast beef. Nice... Still pink inside...
- Some lamb dish. Ok.... I didn't try the freshly cut lamb though.. wat a pity
- Mussels in spicy sauce.. Ok, not as spicy as I would like it
- Other dishes like baked snail with some veg thing, calamari, etc.. Actually I didn't manage to eat all the main courses. Colleague said that the snow fish was very good without any sauce.. darn...

Dessert:
- Firstly, most of the desserts are in small plates (smaller than palm size) or cups.
- I tried all the desserts available from cakes to cream thingys to eclair to meringue, etc etc... I liked a handful of them.. =)
- Chocolate fondue with fresh fruits. 1st, the chocolate is of good quality. Definitely better than pariss and another hotel I've tried. 2nd, the bucket of strawberries look so good!! Super sad that I didn't have space to stuff my face with strawberries....
- What's the difference between a normal cheap buffet and an expensive good buffet? Can tell from the ice cream. Guess what I had... Ben & Jerry's ice cream!!! Vanilla, strawberry and chunky monkey. My goodness... Usually I see brandless ice cream. But this is ben & jerry's! YUMMY!!
- Ok, no space to attack the normal fruits. Too bad...

Didn't write the entire spread although I think I should have tried 70% of the food available?

I think it's worth to have 1 good buffet, rather than 2 cheap and not so nice buffets...

Shall go for dinner now. Just soup and fruits... What to do? Had too good a lunch.... Maybe salad for tml.... hee...

Toast!

Not french toast... I went to my first toastmaster's meeting yesterday. Got invited by my friend to the club at Cheng San CC.

Not bad an experience although I was quite blur at times. I wasn't sure what's going on and what they are doing. For example, what is projects? Or table topic discussion? Didn't know until a while later...

Projects are assignments to improve oneself. But I like table topics better. You randomly pick a topic from a set and talk for 2 mins. Think it's more challenging cause you need to think on your feet. Anyway, I was too shy to talk.. hahahahaha....

Was impressed after that. There was a guest who evaluated about the language, pointing out words that were wrongly pronounced, phrases that could be improved. And then another guy who counted the number of 'ah', 'er', 'right', etc etc that people said during the night. It's scary.....

Don't think I'll join yet. The CC is too far from my house. Maybe one day I'll go look at the one at my company.. Dunno how different it'll be though

soccer mania

This is the very first time I woke up in the middle of the night to watch soccer. World Cup Finals: Italy vs France.

Well well, I woke up at 2am, watched 90 mins to see 1-1. Was getting tired so I decided not to continue or else I'd regret when I go to office. Luckily I didn't cause I'd have to last for pretty long thru extra time and penalty kicks...

There aren't many times where I'd bother to wake up for soccer again...

Shopping

Like my msn nick says... Shopping - A love-hate relationship

Woohoo! Took half day off to walk around bugis with mom. Tried clothes in bugis junction but didn't spot anything nice. At the end, we went to bugis village and I ended up buying a top, a skirt and a dress!!!

Money came in, money went out.. At least I'm glad they didn't cost much. The most expensive was the dress at $25.

Total amt spent: $71

Woohoo!!

I got a dress!! after my last dress in sec 4, I finally bought a dress again!!! And it costs less than $100.. WOOHOO!!!

Took me a few weeks of shopping and trying on definitely more than 30 dresses. Finally got it at phuture london. Pink dress. Spaghetti strap. Slightly longer than knee length. Guess I can use it for either day or night of wen's wedding. Depends on whether there's colour code in the morning and wat colour.. So wen ah, have u decided yet?

Random..

Since I would like my hair to be drier before I go to bed, I shall blog what I wanna blog.

Fri night, went to orchard for dinner and shopping. About 10pm, I went to far east busstop to wait for bus. Wanted to reach home about 11 to watch the match between germany and argentina. But, I waited till close to 1040pm. Missed 5 buses cause they were totally packed!!!! Finally, the 6th one came and it was only half full. Almost wanted to just grab some pple at the busstop waiting for the same bus and ask if they wanna share a cab. So pissed.. But ah well, no empty cabs in sight too. Would have to go to a taxi stand or call cab.

Oh, that's not it. Traffic was slow when we hit the expressway. Road works and road accident involving 3 cars. Luckily it was a short stretch for me.. So, I started watching at abt 30th min. So glad that the goals only came in during 2nd half... hee

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Today, danced with 3 more guys that I don't know. maybe shld thank the fact that only me and another gal went to xen bar. No guy friends that I'd stick close to and dance with only. Hee.. anyway it's good practice to build my confidence. Know that I'm not very good but at least with confidence, I won't be stiff and blockheaded at dancing with stranger...

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Saw nice dresses here and there. Saw one that really looks like bridesmaid dress. Tube dress. really nice, but $300+ too. Anyway, mainly suited for wedding. Will be hard to wear it on other days..