Micellaneous

I know I promised pictures from Jiu Zhai Gou trip. Its amazing how we manage to take more than 600 pictures, mostly thanks to RH who took really meaningless pictures! We are happey that there are some really nice pictures in there because we need some posters to decorate our house and those scenery pictures will be perfect.

Anyways, here they are!

What have I been busy with? Getting back to the usual rhythm of life in Singapore, sorting out pictures and sorting out my recipe book. Yep, after years of collecting recipes, I decided to compile them into a nice looking Recipe book or rather file. I am using the DVD File and putting my recipes in those plastic DVD cover thingies. This way, my recipes are protected from liquids and also I can take themn out and put them back in easily, since it is small, it saves paper, saves space and is easy to bring around.

Also, I completed my DIY Calendar. It does not look as spectacular as I expected but I know what is wrong with it so I will do better next year.

I can't believe Chinese New Year is coming once again. I am spending Chinese New Year with RH alone this year. It is going to be the loneliest CNY ever for me. All thanks to RH who is being sent to Sydney for work. He is going to be gone for at most 3 months (he says) but I expect it will be at LEAST 3 months. Can you imagine your other half being separated from you for so long. I can't imagine those people who has to be away for 6 months and all.

Anyways, this means that I have to prepare the reunion dinner myself. Have to make smaller portions of everything. I wonder if it is possible. I am in the midst of preparing the menu though. Also, I suddenly have a craving to bake Pineapple Tarts. Bought the ingredients already. Gonna start tonight!

Cute Doggie Cookies

It was a baking fiesta on Saturday! Made 3 types of cookies: Doggie Malted Cookies, Cornflake Cookies and Koko Crunch Cookies. All cookies were created with recipes found online. The doggie cookie was more "look" than taste. It looked so adorable but tasted horrible of course. The reason though might be because I do not have Horlicks Powder so I used regular milk powder.

Notice that eyes are not all in same direction.

Experimented with bunnies too. Hahaha!

No pictures for the cornflake and koko crunch cookies, had to leave them baking in the oven while I pick up RH. Yes, RH is here for a week. Dat sentence actually sounds kinda weird describing someone who lives here. Well, RH was sent to Sydney, Australia for 2 1/2 weeks assignment which turned out to be 3 months so we both really cherish the time that he is back in Singapore. Pictures of Sydney below!!!

{Harbour Bridge}

{Hunter Valley}

{Darling Harbour}

{Sydney Opera House}

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Finally completed the scrapbook LO that I have been working on for ages. Must be influenced by my friend, JT. She is so into scrapbooking all of a sudden that its scary. I think she spend like a hundred dollars a month on her new hobby! Conversations with her now almost always includes scrapbooking and it really motivates me to start making my own LO.

Took stock of all my SB stuff and discovered that I really purchase tons of stuff from US. Well, SB stuff are much cheaper in US so I am using dat excuse as consolation. Hee hee!

Work Again!

Back from Korea! It was one whole week of bliss......no work and all I had to do everyday was have fun. Yep, we took Chan Brothers tour. It was pretty comprehensive in my opinion. We went to Yongjin, Jeju, Daegu, Jeonju, Cheonju and of course Seoul. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the Maple leaves (which we were really looking forward to). It was a dry Autumn this year and the Maple leaves withered before even turning red. How sad is that! Pictures below.

Day 1

{Yongjin Everland Amusement Park}

Day 2:

{Dragon Head Rock}

{Mount Maison}

{Korean Folk Village}

{Green Tea Museum}

{Mysterious Spot}

Day 3:

{Healing Buddhah}

{Korean Street Snacks}

Day 4:

{Parking for disabled and babies}

{Mount Maersan}

{Wine Museum}

{Korean Handicraft Village}

{Dun remember the name!}

Day 5:

{Herboo Land: Flower Bimbimbap}

{Nami Island}

{Changduk Palace}

{Lotte World}

Potluck

We are having potluck tomorrow and the theme is Thai Food. Yooo Hooo....

However, we are having the potluck at my under furnished apartment......dang! Anyways, I have not decided what to cook but this is what I shortlisted so far: 1. Pad thai 2. Thai Eggplant 3. Grilled Fish 4. Beef Salad 5. Fish Cake Well, I think I am required to cook two dishes so its kinda hard choosing from this list. You will know when you see pictures.

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My washing machine broke down.....lousy machine.....I only used it 4 times but really after the repairman cam down this morning, its really our fault.

When the Best Denki guy came to install the washing machine, he did say that the drain was too high and that we should saw the drain. However, after 3 weeks of travelling, naturally, I forgot all about it especially since, the machine did fine on its first run.

Bad news, the water in the machine was not able to drain fully and thus obstructed the spinning process and I think that the machine kinda overheated and caused a sort of burnt smell comign out of my washer. Hee hee....

You can totally tell that I am a first time home owner, right? Well, we gotta fail to learn, right?

Tried the much raved (Singapore Brides forum) about Magiclean..the first time I used it, kinda not effective. Maybe cos my place has just accumulated too much dust for it. It did not pick up all my hair like I expected it to.

Anyways, I decided to give it a second try after sweeping my whole house. Its great! the head of the magiclean is so flexible that it can really sweep into tiny crevices. Really have to study how they designed it. This time, it picked up the hair although I had to move over the same a few times but at least the dust does not fly as soon as I sweep. the house felt quite clean. Can't wait to try the new wet wipes....

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To continue for my USA trip

{Times Square}

{Broadway....}

{Empire State Building}

{Night view from ESB}

{What is a trip to NY without visiting the Statue of Liberty}

Update on USA Trip

As you know, I went to USA for 3 weeks. Thank goodness I went there in July. Imagine if I had to go now, it would totally be horrible because of the extra security measures. A 24 hour trip might end up being 30 hour trip.........

2 hours of security checks for each transit..... (scary thought).

Anyways, the first two weeks were quite boring. Training in a small town, Three Rivers, Michigan. All the trainees were stuck either at the hotel or at the training grounds. The schedule was really really packed. 6:30 breakfast, 7:15 leave hotel, 5pm come back hotel, 6pm eat dinner.

My hotel room. They gave me a smoking room which smelled but they compensated with the sleep number bed. That remote control on the bed adjusts the firmness of the bed. Hahaha!

{Factory and campus for my training.}

This is the interior of the factory. I guess the owner has a sense of humour. Imagine working in such a place evryday. Cool.
{They even had a chapel and full time pastor in their plant.}

{They served us mini bagels and muffins. That is a tennis ball size ball beside it. I am a sucker for cute mini stuff. :0}

{We had dinner at one of the employees home.....he lives by the lake, how lucky is that?}

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One training weekend, we decided to visit Southhaven (a city in Michigan that overlooks the Michigan Lake). When you are in Michigan, you have to visit Lake Michigan, right?

Well, my sisters drove up to Kalamazoo (where our hotel is) and we drove down to Southhaven (1.5 hours drive). It was really cool to find a beach in central USA.

{Nope, I checked, no naked people.}

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Finally the exciting part comes.....3 days in New York City........

At the airport....what is visiting New York without some I LOVE NY merchandise. We did not end up buying it lah.

{Lexus Cab?}

{NY subway......}

{Metropolitan Arts Museum}

{Rockerfella Centre}

{DC, in front of some Versace shop, I presume....}

Eating roadside hotdog and and posing in front of a mini SOL. The hotdog cost a freaking 2 USD.

{Grand Central Terminal}

I know the picture is kinda small. Started with small and thought it was too small but lazy to reload, switched to medium size, and it was taking so long to load and now I am just really tired so I have to continue loading next time. Tata.