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Handmade tote from a friend

Got this handmade little tote bag from Erinna.

Just the right size for my wallet, keys and handphone. And could slip in my kindle too.

Great for everyday use.

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas to all readers and friends of this blog.

Would love to wish all of you and pray that the coming year 2012 will be better than this.

May God bless you and your family with love, good health, joy, abundant wealth and a very meaningful year.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

God bless!

Perfect fit

This Christmas gift is a perfect fit for my kindle. Really fits exactly nicely and neatly.

Love it!

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Angry bird VS fearless dog

Sunny has took possession of my angry bird and has battled with him many times.

I fear for Angry bird and hope that it will not be torn to pieces and become a pulp of cotton.

The Sunday before Christmas

It's the week before Christmas and I'm at Ion mall for last lap of shopping.

But before the scavenger for gifts, let's have a cup of tea first at TWG.
I'm having Silver Moon tea, a lightly fragrant tea, great with the scones.

Nice place for people watching and afternoon tea if you wanna splurge.

10 days at Cambodia

Many were dumbfounded when I told them I'm going to Cambodia for 10 days.

What's there to do for such a long time?
Well, apparently we just eat, relax, eat, relax and sleep. Of course we do shop around but the little town has not plenty to offer in terms of shopping. There are many markets and night markets but mostly selling the same things.

Derrick bought a bronze Apsara figure at the old market. We managed to bring the price down from USD140 to USD 95.

For the 10 days, we stayed at three hotels, Raffles De Royal, hotel De La Paix and Le Residence De Angkor. Of these, I like De la Paix most for it's modern clean cut feel. Next I love Raffles for it's colonial English ambiance and third on my list will be Le Residence, which has it's charm with the lush greenery surrounding it's green tiled lap pool.

Very relaxing indeed!

Angkor Wat

 We woke up at about 4 am to get ready to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. The driver was waiting for us at the hotel lobby when we were there at 5 am.

It was a short distance from our hotel to the temple. It was still dark when we reached there. There were already many early risers there all surrounding the pool on the left side of the temple. We guessed it must be the best spot to catch the sunrise.

The sun took it's time to rise, more slowly than I expected. The sight was not spectacular, not as I've imagined it to be, whole sky colored orange.

Nevertheless I'm glad that I made the effort to go see the sunrise. If you made effort to accomplish something, I guess it's rewarding when you finally savour the reward.



Temple Ta Prohm, made famous by the movie Tomb Raider.
The most interesting site of the temples.





Tree roots of Ta Prohm





Monks robed in brght orange hired by
professional photographers for photo shoot.



The blue pumpkin

The blue pumpkin is an ice cream parlour cum cafe. I love the ice cream - tried the passion fruit, Ginger n black sesame n dark chocolate.

Also love the setting, there is bed-like lounge sofa against the walls where you could lie down n relax.

Prefer the outlet at Phnom Penh better, bright and spacious overlooking the Mekong river.

Siem Reap

Having breakfast at Hotel De La Paix courtyard now. We are sitting on this huge suspended platform. The morning breeze is really cooling, it's winter season now and I really love the coolness.

We arrived at Siem Reap yesterday after about 5 hours car ride from Phnom Penh. We were debating of what transport to take, but the camry Toyota which we hired was comfortable enough. We paid USD60 for a one way trip.

Today have to try to arrange for a tour to Angkor Wat tomorrow. Trying to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Raffles

Having breakfast at the balcony of the hotel cafe over looking the colonial courtyard and swimming pool.

I'm glad I have this opportunity to stay at a Raffles hotel. Oh! Love the scones and croissant!

Flying High

At Changi airport waiting for my flight to set off to Cambodia.
I didn't finish my work but just don't really care, I needed a break and will just have to finish up when I'm back.

Hairy crab

It's time of the year to have hairy crab.
Thanks to Derrick, I got another chance to taste it.

It tastes good with the garlic and vinegar sauce. At $38 per crab, it's definitely a luxury item to me.

New toy

We brought Sunny to Erinna's house for her birthday celebration last Saturday. Sunny played with the kids' soft toy and got himself a new toy.

He has been playing with his new toy for the past two days. He seems to love it alot.

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KFC

Needed to use toilet so came to KFC at Bedok central. Wah! The toilet is nicer than my house toilet.

The outlet is newly renovated and everything is new n nice. They even have a new system whereby you just order at the counter and then given a number, then wait for your number to be called at the serving counter.
I like it, no more queue at the counter and wait for the counter staff to prepare the food for serving.

It's great that they make a change for a system they used for so many decades.

Colonoscopy

I went to have my colonoscopy at Changi General Hospital today. I reported at 9.45am for my 10 am appointment.

I was showed to the ward where one other guy was already waiting for his scope. While waiting, three other guys came in too for their scope.

I changed into the garment I was given and lay on the hospital bed to wait to be called for the scope. Initially I was calm, but as one by one the others were wheeled for their scope, eventhough I was there first before three of them, I got agitated. And anxiety increased.

By the time I was wheeled in, it was 1.10 pm.

This time round, the LA that they administered to me did not knock me out. I was just in a daze and could see my intestines on the monitor. I could feel pain at a certain point of the procedure.
The whole experience made me feel like I'm in a production line, waiting for my turn to be wheeled in to the assembly line, just that this assembly line did not practice first in first out method.

I'm still waiting for them to discharge me which must be 2 hours after the procedure so that the LA would wear off.

For a simple procedure, I actually wasted 3 hours waiting and from the window I'm looking out now, a storm is approaching. Luck has never been on my side.

Birthday gift

I love plants and in the mood to pot some plants.

I made another pot for a friend whose birthday is coming.

I hope she'll like it.

Tower terrarium

Finally found a nice glassware to make my terrarium.

This is my first time using such kind of container, so hopefully the plants will survive well in it's Eco environment.

Greenies in red

A friend requested me to pot some greenies in a red pot for him.

So this afternoon I drove down to the nursery at Bedok and got this red pot. I was stuck in a storm for a while, and so took some time to appreciate a cup of hot teh halia ( Ginger tea ) at Simpan Bedok.

Coffee

This is a coffee plant.

On it, you can find the coffee flower and coffee seed.

The tour guide offered some ripe coffee seeds for me to taste. The coffee seed actually was tasteless. Nothing like the aromatic roasted coffee bean.

Through fire, it brings out the best of the coffee.

Grasshopper

I'm in Vietnam now and learnt how to make a grasshopper out of a leaf.

It took a while to learn how to fold the pleats.

Once the critical step was mastered, it was rather easy to make the grasshopper.

Ho Ho Ho plant a money plant!

I re-potted this few leaves of money plant in this little rectangular pot.

Oh! Guess who's here?
Ho Ho Ho, it's Santa!

Christmas terrarium

Also made this terrarium with a little Santa Claus ornament in it.

Very simple to make and cost slightly above S$10 only.

Christmas garden

It is a public holiday today.

I drove down to the nursery and bought some plants and materials for potting.

Potted this little garden and placed Christmas ornaments on it to welcome Christmas.

原锅鸡肉菜饭

The page below is an excerpt from the website Www.xinshipu.com

原锅鸡肉菜饭

原锅鸡肉菜饭
简介:
米饭原是能量的最佳来源，添加鸡肉和各式蔬菜，营养更充足。这道菜烹调简便，是忙碌朋友的极佳营养方便餐。
材料:
干香菇3朵，去皮鸡腿肉225克，胡萝卜50克，鲜笋150克，高丽菜100克，米360克，酱油1汤匙，盐1/2茶匙，糖1/2茶匙，酒1茶匙，麻油1茶匙，橄榄油1汤匙，高汤360毫升
做法:
1.干香菇洗净，用120毫升热水泡软后切丁，浸香菇的水保留。
2.鸡腿肉、胡萝卜和鲜笋切丁，高丽菜切丝，备用。
3.米洗净沥干水分，放入电锅中，加入切好的鸡肉、香菇、胡萝卜、笋、高丽菜等，并入酱油、盐、糖、酒、麻油、橄榄油、浸香菇的水及高汤拌匀，煮成饭后趁热拌松，即可食用。

http://www.xinshipu.com/

While searching for recipe to cook steam veggie rice using rice cooker, I discover this fabulous website:

http://www.xinshipu.com/

Recipe for steam veggie rice

Below are two steam veggie rice ( 蒸菜饭) recipe I found from the net http://wenwen.soso.com:

电饭煲巧做什锦饭

原料(3人份)：
东北大米300克、猪瘦肉500克、广式香肠300克、香菇100克、胡萝卜100克、玉米100克、黄瓜200克

做法
1．将大米洗净泡10分钟。
2．肉切片依个人口味加调料，入味30分钟。
3．香肠切片。
4．香菇、玉米、胡萝卜、黄瓜切块，入水煮熟。
5．将泡好的米放入电饭煲，按说明加适量水；按加热键开始煮饭。
6．米饭就做好后，打开锅盖，加入猪瘦肉和香肠，再盖上锅盖，继续加热。
7．5-8分钟后，打开锅盖，把香菇、玉米、黄瓜倒入锅中，充分搅拌后即可食用。



电饭煲腊味饭

省去制作砂锅煲仔饭的漫长时间，却并没有损失口感，香糯美味，操作简便，不能不说是一个创造。


用料:

广式腊肠               1根（约100g）
腊肉                   1小块（约100g）
四川麻辣肠             1根（约100g）
大米                   200g
油                     2汤匙（30ml）
盐                     1茶匙（5g）
生抽                   1汤匙（15ml）
香葱（或大葱的绿色段） 适量


做法:

1.洗净的大米放在电饭煲里，调入油（1汤匙，15ml）、盐拌匀，加入1:1的水。
将广式腊肠、腊肉和四川麻辣肠分别切薄片，整齐地码放在锅里大米的表面，连接电源开始蒸饭。

2.中火加热小煎锅中的油（1汤匙，15ml），至油冒烟沸滚，关火，放香葱段（或大葱的绿色段），拨炒几下出香味，调入生抽。即成调味汁。
饭和肉蒸熟后，将调味汁均匀地淋上，再于表面撒新鲜香葱花即可。
个人认为，你还是试试刚才说的那个，如果又不清楚的还可以问我。荤素自己可以选，不知道何不和你的口味啦，

本尊__琪.︵回答采纳率:17.4%2010-11-23 20:26

Greenies

Bought this candle holder from pickle n rack warehouse for only S$5. I used it to hold the little plants instead and looks great.

Steam 菜贩 (Veggie Rice)

I remember my dad used to cook steam veggie rice and I really love it.

I tried to cook it the other day.

The rice was not fragrant enough and not tasty enough.

I'm going to learn it and will attempt again.

Croissant

Yesterday, went to Sally place to learn how to bake croissant and banana muffins.

Like SB said, baking is a science, every ingredient must be measured to precision. Every step must be accordance to the instructions, other wise the final products might not be what it should be.

We just watch the demo and took notes, so to learn it, I guess we have to put to practice, other wise, it's just theory that we learnt.

Obese

When to clinic to have a check up.

My BMI below would indicate I'm obese.

Man! It's so difficult to even lose 3 kg.

Gift

Erinna paid a surprise visit to my work place specially to pass me a gift.

I couldn't thank her enough for making the effort. It made the gift priceless.

I was casually mentioning about my sleeplessness and today she gave me this bottle of brown rice tea which supposedly is helpful to induce sleep.

I made myself a cup, hopefully it works.

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Sleep

Bought this pillow yesterday cos I thought my intermittent sleep pattern could be a result of my pillow.

But this new one is worse, not only do I get restless night, I also got a stiff neck.

I think the new pillow is too high and too hard.

Missing - Hokey Pokey

It's strange!

Things in the house got missing.

Two weeks ago, Derrick's D&G jeans and a sweater went missing. We have checked with the two people that had come to the house, a friend who came to puck up her things and the cleaning lady, both said they have not seen them.

Yesterday, I wanted to use a flask which we bought from Japan, but couldn't find it after searching high and low.

What's happening here?

Could it be some one else?

Former tenants or contractor who we had given our house key before? It really puzzle me.

Hamper

A little hamper of my favorite things.

TWG French Earl Gray - very aromatic
Monbana chocolate w orange - hot chocolate with a light taste of orange
Fauchon four berries jam - the taste of berries goodness
Journal - blank pages awaits creations

Kettle bell

I've been thinking of getting a kettle bell for sometime and today finally get to do it.

I drove down to Ruby Industrial Complex at Tannery Road. I spotted their ad in the newspapers and went down to take a look.

I was having a hard time deciding to get the 12 kg or 14kg. The YouTube was recommending 16kg for an average American male. Finally settled with the 14kg.

Came home and watch some tips on kettle bell basic exercises and did a few reps.

Got a feeling my butt is going to ache tomorrow.

Dream

Everybody should have dreams.

I guess dreams keep us filled with hope and get us going.

My dream is to own a cafe that sells great coffee and items designed by me. I'll like people to come into my world to enjoy a cup of coffee, relax, spend time with a friend or in solitude and to enjoy and purchase my creations.

Do you have dreams?

Self Pic

With the invention of apps in iPhone, one can create so many effects on photos and I personally have created many in my picture gallery now.

I was contemplating the idea of compiling all my digitally enhanced self pics into a little moleskin journal.

I'll call this the self glorify vanity project.

Lunch Bento

Another bento from SB.

She's getting very good at this!