爱心晚餐

Recently we are hooked on 26 Hours《超省时生活》, a Japanese tv show on time-saving tips for daily chores. There is one segment which features cooking 5-10 courses meal within 20 minutes. From tips on how to wash, clean and cut red peppers in seconds to creating Mentaiko Pasta in minutes. The show got me, Yong and my mum jaw dropped through the one hour program.

My rock bottom confidence in cooking edged a notch up. Enough for us to trooped down to Parkway to get some grocery and cooked a meal together. For the first time.

Yong is not a cooking person. So it has always been me cook he washes partnership. And after several disastrous starts to my cooking career and the equally disastrous aftermath (I meant the washing lah), Yong is uncharacteristically but understandably eager to eat out whenever we are not over at his or my parents' place for dinner. Ha!

Anyway, thanks to 26 Hours recipe and my mum's advices, we are elated to able to cook a 3 course meal successfully without burning down the kitchen. (i am not exaggerating here!)

I definitely need to rope Yong for all future cooking attempts. Very good bonding session. :)

This shoes had me at "hello"

After drooling over photos after photos of the boyish style for girls in The Sartorialist blog liked these...

Source: The Sartorialist

I started an obsessive hunt for the perfect oxfords in Singapore to no avail.

Thought I would try my luck in Tokyo.. and I came back a very happy (and broke) gal.

Presenting.. my lovely oxfords....who had me at *choke* hello...

Had mixed reviews from my bewildered colleagues. Some of them are not used to my tomboyish outfits.

Given my usual more feminine dressing, I am quickly running out of clothes to wear with these babies. To save Yong the agony of hearing me ask him every morning if the shoes match the outfit, I am contemplating a major wardrobe overhaul. *wink*

Found this site while surfing for inspirations.  La Garconne (Translated from French: The Bachelor Girl) a blog dedicated to The lady who is equal parts elegance, sophistication & boyish charm.

Source: La Garconne

Wish I can wear the above to work...*wistful*

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Beat.

Busy with work. Gosh, the job market is HOT! It is so tough to get good candidates to interview!

Busy with life. My cleaning lady is great but she charges by hours (unlike C – we miss you!) so weekend = laundry days now.

Busy with reading new blogs I found! Love to ogle over the photos at Chuzai Living (or Expat Living in Japanese; chio-est Japanese mum traveling around the world with her Caucasian hubby and incredibly PRETTY daughters) and B. Ferry (the kind of food-living-photography blog that I dig a lot)

Busy preparing for the two weeks in March I will be gone. The honeymoon we are FINALLY going! And a biz trip to HK.

Busy trying to catch up on the marathon training. Yong is right on track at 5.5km now while I am still struggling at 4km.

Even with the schedule above, I managed to squeeze some time to be melancholy last week. Ha! After much pondering and talking with God, I decided the best way is to actually take a ‘mental holiday’ as aptly put by my girls. Felt immense relief to declare that decision.

But as the week passed, I realized that it is not such an easy thing to do. I have to literally work HARD not to worry. Ha! It is such an oxymoron!

Guess I found my new year resolution for Year 2011. To not worry and live life in the moment. Not lamenting about the past. Not being anxious about the future. As well put by Oprah in her latest appearance on Piers Morgan show.

And man, that is one tough task to accomplish... (>,<)"

Vday @ Tao's Restaurant

Tao's restaurant holds special places in our hearts as it was where we had our very first date.

We never fail to have great food and services there so whenever we want to pamper ourselves abit we would go for Tao's. And if we want to pamper in a bigger way, we would go for Dozo, the more atas sister restaurant.

So as avid fan of the restaurant chain, we were quick to recognize Dozo's items from the Vday menu. Oh what a treat!

Unfortunately as the night darkened, the lighting went downhill at the al fresco venue so all the pictures looked liked they are sepia-ed. Oh well..

Top: Tasting platter of Foie Gras, scallop and smoke salmon wrap; Bottom: Platter of Alaskan King Crab salad and French Smoke Duck

Top: Sauteed escargots and wild mushroom sauce; Bottom: New style Japanese Foie gras Chawanmushi

Top: Refreshing mocktail of apple juice infused with pink rose bud; Bottom: Mushroom Soup with black truffle

Top: Beef Tenderloin on Hobart Leaf and granite hot stone Japanese Style; Bottom: Baked Atlantic Cod Fillet with Risotto and new style croquette

Top: Japanese style "mo-chi"; Bottom: Raspberry Verrines

Us trying our best "ooiiishiiiii" looks

Book of Pearls

Bought it from a book fair yesterday. Dirt cheap but what a treasure!

I have always been fascinated with photographs of the really young and really old. Oh, the contrasts and similarities!

What's more, the book is peppered with bible verses. What joy! A valentine gift to myself.

Love day

We kept the top Ah Yee wore during our tea ceremony. I thought it would be great if we can make an art piece out from it, in remembrance of her. Yong loved the idea and went on to design and build it.

Made it just in time for her birthday yesterday.

Happy birthday Ah Yee. We missed you so much. So much.

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I have so many photos in the backlog. Attempted to sort them out yesterday and gave up after an hour. But here I am again. Determined to do up at least one post.

Blogging has its advantage. At least I feel motivated to sort out, edit, organize the photos and not let them rot in their folders.

What's more, when I was contemplating if eight degree in Tokyo was cold enough to buy gloves or if it was better to take the bus or train to hotel, I wish I had blog about what I did two years ago when I was there.

So I will, I must, I can do up all those overdue posts in due time.

Some random photos first.

Oh and before I forget..

Run: 3km

Total since 12 Jan 2011: 9.5km

For the Hayao Miyazaki fans out there, YES I FINALLY WENT TO STUDIO GHIBLI!! And introducing KiKi, our new addition to the family!

My bestie's handsome charming son who stole the hearts of all the smitten Aunties