Big Bak Choy

Check out the latest botanical addition to our backyard, our two XL "大白菜"！



It's really big lor!

And it reminds me of this late night advertisement on Channel 8 many years ago by XX seafood restaurant. The jingle goes: XX 活海鲜 龙虾比小女孩大！



I feel like the little girl in the advertisement standing next to the lobster cuz my 大白菜 (including soil and roots) is indeed almost as tall as me!

Hahahaha!

By the way, my XL Big Bak Choy is actually a type of alocasia more commonly known as "Elephant's Ear". It is supposed to do well both in the shade or in the sun and it drinks plenty of water. Exactly what I need for the backyard to ensure that no flooding or soil erosion occurs (especially around the area covered up by stone and pebble) after a heavy downpour.

Soaked in Pitera

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Drip Drip Drip… Drench the bugger and let my face be soaked in Pitera®!

Abracadabra!



Ever since I realized I have not been using the Miracle Water (Facial Treatment Essence) properly, I decided that I was going to set things right.

It has been roughly four weeks since I first started the drenching and what’s my verdict?

Well, let’s just say that I had a few days of intensive filming last week and that translated to stress, long hours under the sun and very little sleep. Even though I didn’t have to face the camera at all, but I still had to look presentable right while I was running about outside right?

And look presentable I did! My skin looked sufficiently supple in the morning despite only sleeping four, five hours during those few days, and the makeup glided on quite nicely and stayed that way till I got home at night.

In my many years of putting on makeup, I can say for sure that that’s definitely a sign of well moisturized skin.

So quite happy. Yay!

Whether or not I can attribute it to the Miracle Water alone, well, I’m not that sure. Cuz during this time, I also used the other samples of products that were recommended to me (for more sebum, remember?).

Basically, I was given the cleanser (not in picture), facial treatment clear lotion (toner), facial treatment essence (miracle water), facial clear solution, facial treatment repair C, skin nourishing cream and skin refining treatment.



I’ve never used the last four products before and I’m quite amazed in particular how the facial clear solution functions as a day moisturizer, because it’s just a liquid! Not a cream or emulsion but just a thick liquid! Yet it managed to keep my skin moisturized the whole day!

But my new favourite item out of these four items has to be this:



Facial Treatment Repair C. A serum that is supposed to reduce the appearance of fine lines and improve skin texture. Apparently, it is able to do this due to its “unique blend of concentrated Pitera® and nature's moisture magnets” which helps “maintain skin renewal to its normal 28-day cycle, leaving skin plumped with moisture and feeling velvety smooth.”

So, while the samples lasted, my skin really got an immense infusion of Pitera® and other goodies!

And I think the results are enough to spur me to keep up with my new found Miracle Water Drench and Pat mission!

Big Brother is Watching You (on Google Map)!

Two days ago, on 1st December 2009, Google launched its Google Map Street View in Singapore.

Last night, Lock was just telling me of all the funny things that people in other countries were caught doing on Google Map Street View – couples making out in car, an armed robbery etc. We had a very good laugh.

Then this morning, the husband's colleague sent him this picture of him captured on the Google Map Street View!



Lucky for him that he wasn't doing anything incriminating!

At that thought, I immediately went to google map my old place to see what is shown.

Ah, all very peaceful (I think the picture was taken very early in the morning).

No sign of him smoking obnoxiously without his shirt on, or me watering the plants in my lao pok pyjamas.

In fact right, judging from the condition of the tree and the state of renovation at my neighbour's place, I'm guessing that this photo must have been taken early this year. (We chopped our tree in mid May this year because it was growing too well and I was scared that somehow we might endanger the lives of innocent passer-by downstairs.)

Actually, this street view thingy came in very useful when I was researching which hotel to stay at in Paris, because you could actually have a 360 degree pictorial view of the entire surrounding rather than just depending on the hotel website's description.

But I guess it just feels slightly different when it is your own backyard that is being exposed to the rest of the world.

I wonder what kind of nonsense that people get up to in public will be exposed, as the street view pictures get scrutinized by the rest of Singapore over the next few weeks.

It will be fun to know.

Though it is also a rather scary thought, that if you happened to be doing the wrong thing (like littering, or peddling illegal stuff etc) at the wrong place at the wrong time, your mistake could be immortalized on the world wide web forever and ever and ever.

Good luck everyone!

Most Enjoyable Time in the Past Decade

"Why did you go back to work huh?!!?"

I got asked this question TWICE today.

In fact, I have lost count of the numerous times I've had to answer this question in the short span of three months that I have returned to full time work.

It was almost exactly the same when I was housewife-ing, except the question was how come I wasn't working.

I must say, it gets really annoying sometimes.

*cue MGM lion roar*



And on some days, when I'm feeling down or uninspired at work, AND THEN I get asked this question (usually said in a "why you so stupid" tone), I really do feel quite dumb to have done what I did.

But I did what I did, because I wanted to do it. NOT because I got bored of being a housewife.

I loved being a housewife!

It was almost like a prolonged uni vacation where you just basically did what you liked to do! (er, most of the time la...)

I enjoyed packing and beautifying the house.

I loved learning to cook (but not the washing up).

I fell in love with gardening and am now able to identify almost all the common plants we see planted around us, and recite their botanical properties.

My favourite past time was watching the afternoon sun bake my clothes dry in the (old place's) backyard.

I didn't particularly enjoy cleaning the house, but it was something I managed to get my lazy hands and feet to do a few times a week.

And... the best part of my housewife-ing days?

My french class. No doubt about it. The five months I spent learning french and hanging out with my french class friends everyday were absolutely the most fantastic days of my life in the past decade.


Intermediate Class. My presentation on Milo Dinosaur.


Especially on hindsight, I cannot remember another time in the past twelve years where I felt so fulfilled and had so much fun everyday!


Beginner class. Not too hectic and I still had the car...


...so we went out to play after school very often!


We bring the foreigners out to Tiong Bahru to eat Bak Kut Teh and local dessert


De-stressing over Peranakan food after our last Beginner's Course end of month exam.


It's almost, just almost, as good as my wonderful JC days.

So its a bit sad as I see almost all my classmates leave Singapore one by one.


A very enjoyable dinner party at my place in June. One of our last few big gatherings.

Mes enfants Bernice and Joshua left for Scotland and Switzerland for their uni studies in Aug/Sept. Alverina has left for Paris and Ana-Lu for the UK. Aline left for Fontainbleu (her husband's finishing up his Insead course there) and will be returning to Brazil end Dec.

And tonight, Agnes will be returning to Hungary.



She's just across the road from my new place so I ran over to see her in the evening before she flies off.

Sob sob. The only ones left in Singapore are Eunice, Grace and me.

Our classes had a great mix of students and the chemistry was always almost perfect.

Even though every month as we progressed through the course, there would be new students joining us and weirdos dropping out, but the core group of us went on strong and welcomed new classmates on board readily.

Now that we are all scattered in different part of the world, I really wonder if we will be able to get together at the same place and gossip like the good old days, ever again.

Probably never.

Which makes the five months of french classes in 2009 an even more precious memory for me!

Backyard Transformation

This weekend, all our energy was spent on transforming the backyard.

Despite being afternoon sun facing, our mosquito infested backyard hardly gets any afternoon sun because of all the thousand year old trees growing in my neighbours' backyards.

So no point trying to do any gardening here when most sun-loving plants that I like to plant are fated to die anyway.



So the backyard will be transformed into his smoking haunt and our occasional BBQ party spot.

And now, the hard work begins!



He toils and tills the land while I clear the grass and mud (with my bare hands!!! the shovel is completely useless for this) into rubbish bags.



Then we lay the lawn sand.



Next, we lay the piece of cloth that is supposed to prevent the sand from overflowing when it pours.




And then we carry the concrete slabs (super heavy!!!) and bags of pebbles (heavy and smelly!) and put them in place.

Of course, reading and writing about it makes it sound very simple but things didn't really go so smooth.

On Saturday afternoon, right after we removed all the grass, it started to pour and there were puddles everywhere we had no choice but to stop for the day.

When we continued on Sunday, after laying all our stone slabs and pebbles, we realized to our horror that we were painfully short of them.

So, we had to return to the nursery not once, but TWICE after our initial purchase to top up the slabs and pebbles. It's crazy! (Not to mention, super duper heavy too. Two of us had to carry one slab at a time, and go through numerous times of removing and putting on shoes. Urgh!)

And all this hard labour was carried out in my choice backyard attire.

This:



All in the name of mosquito prevention.

Luckily, no matter how hot the day was on Sunday, the backyard only got filtered sun so although it very uncomfortable, it was still tolerable.

And most importantly, it worked. I only got two mosquite bites in total.



Ta-dahh!!!

Backyard 90% complete.

Still need more pebbles(!!!), and loads of shade-loving and thirsty plant around the perimeter to absorb all the water in the soil when it pours.

I love to do home improvement D-I-Y!

Red Hot Chilli Pesticide!

The fourth and last installment of my home gardening series is out in the latest issue of i周刊 and the topic this time round is none other than homemade pesticide!



Growing your own chilli is the best way to ensure that you have an endless and convenient supply of organic chilli, especially important since chilli is one of those condiments that you eat raw.

And it's very useful also, when you need to wipe out those bloody pests organically.

An Atas Reception

Maybe it's I suaku or what la, but this must be the most extravagant breakfast spread I've ever seen at an outdoor event.

Some more, it was catered for tens of smelly sweaty (albeit very important) people that have just completed either a 4km or 10km charity run.

That's what you get when the sponsor of your event is a 5-star hotel!



Very atas!

Don't get me wrong ok, I mean it in a completely good way!



Cuz personally, I enjoyed the fact that I had a great selection of fine tea to choose from, and hot steaming water from a expensive looking hot water dispenser to make myself a fresh cup of hot tea.



It's exactly what I need considering how I had to get up at 6.30am on a Sunday morning to get to the event on time for my filming.

And thank goodness we had the rare great weather that day so the event went on without a hitch.



Though privately, I had to resist the lamenting thought of a missed opportunity to dry my laundry, seeing how I am at work, rather than at home on this gorgeous Sunday morning.