Wise Man Say

"It is cruelly and evidently shown you do not need to be competent to excel in ur career..."

"在这弱肉强食的社会里, 很残酷地显示着人不必是能者就可以闯出一番事业..."

Quotes from SGN.

More rejection

Not job application rejection… this time is from someone very close and I sometimes refer him as husband.

Husband came back pass 2am this morning. He wanted to have noodles instead of rice to go with the dishes. So I cooked him dried instant noodles. When he was about to finish the noodles, he smiled looking satisfied and said to me…

Husband: “The instant noodle is good.”
Annoyed Wife: “Only the instant noodle is good?”
Husband: “The instant noodle is the best among all the dishes.”
Very Annoyed Wife: -_-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Couple of days ago, he took a muffin (instead of peanut butter cookie) I baked to eat.

Proud Baker: “You dun like the peanut butter cookie?”
Husband: “…er, I dun really like the butter...”
Proud Baker: “So you like the muffins?”
Husband: “… er…” (Shake his head)
Annoyed Baker: “Than you like the banana walnut bread?”
Husband: (reluctantly shake his head)
Annoyed Wife: “Than what you like???”
Husband: (act innocent)
Annoyed Wife: “I shall bake more so that I know which one you like…”
Husband: -_-

Rejected

Called the HR in one of my ex company on the interview outcome.

Me: “Hi, … checking on the outcome of my interview for XYZ position 2 weeks ago…“

HR: “Oh sorry, urmm actually at the moment we find you not suitable for the position but we will keep your record and review ….”

I suspected it. The interviewers looked concerned when I told them that I do not have in-depth domain knowledge.

My job search continues…

Dinner

Stir fry green beans with black pepper, pepper & light soya sauce marinated minced meat.

Pan fried fish and curry leaves.

Sauce to top over fish. Pan fry following:
- chopped onions
- chopped chilli
- tomato
- curry leaves
- coriander leaf
- tomato sauce
- chilli sauce
- water

Lunch

Meeting SGN for lunch and I sugguested 5 Star Western Food at the eating house beside Hougang Plaza. I had the $4.50 pork chop and SGN ordered fish & chip.

Where is justice?

It's proven that the world adore 'Fake people'. I received news yesterday that one of the fakest people I know got promoted.

‘800 cutovers’ as he was widely known by colleagues who have been afflicted by him in some form or the other; is close to being a scumbag. He ain’t qualified to be given the title of a scumbag yet.

Speaking from my personal experience with him, he is actually quite a nice guy… likes to show concern, find out more about your job so that he can sympathize and than offer to talk to the bosses on how he can contribute, lighten and eventually take over it.

What saddens me more is the fact that bosses like such proactive, aggressive, kill-if-you-have-to, can talk big but never mind if can’t work attitude in staff. I guess from the bosses’ point of view, these are the attributes required of staff to ensure growth to their portfolio/Company.

In my opinion, bosses are indeed smart people who study the cycle of life – the food chain. They lure the ‘fake people’ with fame and status so that in turn they will help them achieve their goal in the corporate ladder. This relationship stays true as long as the ‘fake people’ do not one day overrule the bosses.

Down the chain are the hardworking souls who are simple minded enough to think that one day the bosses will acknowledge their contribution, patiently waiting for their turn to come one day... the bosses need time. It is this mentality that gives ‘fake people’ the opportunity to strike, do what they do best i.e. to play friend with the hardworking souls and at the same time suck up to the bosses.

‘Fake people’ are such despicable creature on earth… worst off than cockroach, rodent, etc.

Dinner

Stir fry veg.


Roasted chicken drumstick.

Mixed veg soup.

Ice Packs Reusable Gel Freeze

This colored ice ball packs are used to keep our drinks cool. Mei jie, found them at PS Carrefour. I thought the tag above is the price until I saw CF Ice Tray on it. Anyhow, it should be within that price range.

Korean Movie

Extremely hilarious Korean comedy movies:
- The Art of Seduction
- Dasepo Girls

More serious but nice movies:
- Bystanders
- Time
- II Mare

Ironing, Life...

It has been a while I last ironed a piece of garment since almost all of my cloths are of materials that require no ironing. Ironing is one chore that really makes no sense. After all, the neatly pressed clothing will be crumbled once you put it on and does it really make you look smarter? Girls can easily get away since our fashion has so much variety but for the guys sadly, there is no escape for them.

James have been doing his own ironing (sometimes but rarely will he see a piece of blouse among the shirts) since no one else is going to do it. But my perfect record of absolute no ironing was broken yesterday… I ironed 6 shirts + 2 pants. Why?

Because…
Poor husband has been or rather have always been busy with work. Workaholic. He seems to be enjoying it although he likes to say he has no choice. Working till the wee hours of the morning and sometimes over the weekends… how normal is this lifestyle?

Anyway since I’m the less busy one, I decided to be wifely and ironed his cloths which are accumulating on the rack. Actually, I can see that he got worried about the pile up and resorted to wearing the least wrinkled one instead of picking an already ironed piece from the wardrobe. How smart.

I'm fully competent of the ironing job but I simply hated it. It's a mental resistance thanks to my traumatic childhood. I remembered clearly the days that I spent ironing my dad’s shirt, my school uniform and my elder sister’s RV school uniform. RV! The material is as thick as elephant’s skin! That was the killer. I hope the quality of material have tremendous improvement else the poor maids must be cursing and swearing. I can fully sympathize.

Oh well, thank goodness for easy iron & wrinkle resistance technology which makes ironing much easier now but still… I HATE ironing!

Dinner

Oatmeal prawn.












Recipe (forgot where I got it):
- Deep fry prawns till golden brown (abt 1 min) & put aside
- Fry 3 tablespoon butter & 3 egg yolk till fragrant
- Add 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, curry leaves, chopped chilli, salt, pepper and continue to stir fry
- Add prawns and fry till aromatic
- Add 5 tablespoon oatmeal & fry till dry


Chicken soup with button mushroom and veg.

Raisin walnut muffin.

Dinner

Didn't have time to cook oatmeal prawn cos its almost 8pm when I came back from a day's rendezvous with Huimin.

Stir fry bean sprout with mushroom. Cut chilli and shallots to garnish.



Steam fish.

Egg soup.


Papaya for dessert.


Very nice curry puff, $1.20 bought at Sunshine Plaza.









Successfully cooked steam rice without using the traditional method of putting rice directly into the rice cooker. I've been wasting rice cos the rice will stick on the supposedly non-stick pot.

But stupid me put the plate holding the fish to be steamed together with the rice; on top of the container and they are stuck! I waited for James to come back which was already after 10.30pm to separate them. Luckily, I got the curry puff.

Girl's Day Out

Dun recall the last time we hang out together for more than 8 hours. You dun really have time or rather can make time for your friends after getting married unless your other half happen to be busy at work or he can’t wait for you to leave his sight… which better not be the case.

Huimin came over last Saturday to waste time that will otherwise be painful if she had stayed home. For that couple of hours we chitchatted, snack a bit, laughed about someone’s past and also our past… remembering we would patronize Texas Chicken at Marina Square almost every weekend during school days.

Monday morning her dream came true… literally. She took urgent leave.

We met up at Hougang Mall Ya Kun before heading to Sunshine Plaza to show her this shop that sells food label prints bag… one of her current craze. But before that, we stopped by Daiso - unanimously our favorite store.

To the food label prints bag shop. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find the ideal piece to add on to her collection. Wanted to let her try Victor’s Kitchen dim sum but they are not open on Monday! We had Parklane zha wanton noodle instead. I realized later that we would have gone to have the wanton noodles at Lavender food court or the one at Rowell road. Anyway, we went to the coffee shop at Rowell road for a drink while on our way to Mustafa. I got my curry leaves and she bought henna hair dye.

Blink of an eye and her day’s leave has ended. We quickly went to take the train back avoiding having to clash with the after office crowd. We went to Hougang Mall cos she wanted to get the smiley face Figurine that will rock its head and leg under solar lighting at the comic shop. The ones sold at Action City, PS were much more expensive. We saw one that has 3 frogs moving their mouths… think that one will induce more stress than to release stress.

We had horribly sweet (thanks to that aunty) desserts at the new food court before parting.

We have known each other for 22 years and we have never lost that connection. Friend, hang in there. We know that the superior being above will not be kind to us, but we have learnt to accept and joke about ‘its’ blessing. Whether we like it or not, that’s Life… our life.

Dumpling King @ Alexandra Road

Not Din Tai Feng's standard but I like this Dumpling King's Zha Jiang Mian. Fried rice is nice but could be better if they are straight from the wok... no 'wok hei'.

The xiao long bao skin is too thick and not enough juice. Likely its frozen since they sell frozen dumplings to bring home. The kitchen is rather small and too clean... dun see flour misting air.

The boss was trying to be nice when he saw me photographing the food.

Boss: "you zhe me how kan mah?"
Me: "You!"
Boss:"e de shi hou, ke yi wang mei..."
Me: "wang mei zi ke!"
Boss & Me: "hahahaha...."


Previous site of Crispy Roti Prata.


8 Treasures (Ba Bao Herbal) Tea @ $3.

Beijing Zha Jiang Mian @ $4.


Xiao Long Bao @ $4.

Tao Yuan Fried Rice @ $5.

Soup, minced ginger with vinegar and chilli paste.


Wall feature.

Teochew Kueh

Bought soon kueh and png (rice) kueh from Ah Ma Teochew Kueh again.

5 soon kueh for $6.50
5 png kueh for $3.50

Getting sick of eating 'soon' after the Taiwan trip.

Hunt for chinese spatula

Where is that perfect chinese spatula - friendly on non-stick pan and durable enough to last longer than a month. Already 3 disappointments, they were unable to bear with my torture almost on every weekday for the past 2 months.

All claim to be able to withstand maximum 220 degrees... but still...

Switching to wooden ones but it's not easy finding the ideal one. The edges of the blade must be flat enough to enable ease when shoving the food and the angle of the handle must be curved enough for a comfortable grib. The search is still on.





Meanwhile, bought this set at Ikea for $0.90. Even if they dun last, they are cheap.

What's there to prove?

Too often we spend our lives proving to others our worth, our existence and among other things... our ignorance.

We painstakingly beautify the facade to create that perfect picture… the ideal lifestyle, the wonderful world of make believe.

We ask what the purpose of such act is. In fact it’s an innocent act to satisfy our ego, to ‘prove’ that we are the superior beings and obviously for others to be jealous and envy of.

We feel inferior by the status, success, possessions or looks of others and our self-esteem suffers. We than become blind to the blessings in our lives.

“Fake people”. I try to keep my distance afraid to be contaminated or worst, victimized. Backstabbing is one of their favorite games.

I have my fair share of ‘fake’ people in my life. Their personality never fails to amaze me but I hate to admit that life will be plain and simple without them.

Peanut Butter Cookie

Baked peanut butter cookie yesterday. Turned out pretty good... not too sweet.

Dinner

Funny dish that I invented...


Egg soup.


Fried fish.

Dinner

Marinate spare ribs with dark soya sauce and sugar, pan fry. Normally will use pork belly.


Steam fish with salted beans and spring onion.



Vegetable & spare ribs soup.

Fried vegetable with chilli and garlic.

Dinner

Kai-lan with pork.





Fried fish. Served with lime.



Fried prawns coated with flour. Served with mixture of mayonnaise and wasabi.

Saturday Supper

Stopped by the Ponggol Nasi Lemak centre along Serangoon Road to tapao some snacks. Bought chee chong fun at this Hong Kong Style Chee Chong Fun stall and this big piece of fried tofu at the dim sum stall next door.

The $3.30 fried tofu taste pretty good with the very saltish sauce but not worth the $... after all it's just tofu.

Achar

My mother's Achar recipe:

Pound 'blue' & 'yellow' ginger and lemongrass. Pan fry paste with oil till fragrant.

Slice cucumber, carrot, bang kuang, mango, etc. Season the ingredients with salt till soft, wash, drain and pat dry.

Add vinegar, sugar, peanuts, finely chopped chilli and paste with the ingredients.

天冷就回来

The play is about a group of Singaporean in New York working towards fulfilling their dream. Ah Le went to New York after the demise of his girlfriend. He works in a Singaporean owned restaurant and befriended Ah Qiang and Rose. Ah Le eventually got over his emotion and excepted Rose. They all return once again to the place where they grew up.

The lead actor George Chan was actually one of the judge on the Channel 5’s The Dance Floor. Very surprised that he could speak and sing so perfectly in Mandarin.

Liang Wern Fook was there, busy signing autographs. This musical gathers his songs written during different times.

We were late because of the heavy traffic and missed the 1st segment of the play. We had to watch the play from a LCD screen outside the theatre before they allow admission in between scenes. Our seats were 3 rows from the stage and we could see the actor's expressions clearly.

Banana Bread for nephews

I made banana bread again... I'm not obsessed with it, it's because I have a bunch of bananas left over and I need to get rid of them fast.

Anyway, it's Saturday and we will be going to my parent's place and my nephews will be there. Wonder if the 3 little picky monkeys will like it. I've added walnuts to it this time. Before going to feed the monkeys, we will be at the Drama Centre Theatre watching《天冷就回来》IF THERE'RE SEASONS..., a local Chinese Musical production.

The tickets, courtesy of my brother-in-law. He is a big supporter of local talent but they couldn't make it to the play and let us have it. My parents went to watch the musical play about Li Dasha, the story teller 2 weekends ago and the tickets, courtesy of my brother-in-law... who else.
Synopsis: Inspired by the popular hits of songwriting sensation Liang Wern Fook and written by award-winning Hong Kong playwright Raymond To, who penned the 2005 hit movie Perhaps Love starring Jacky Cheung.. If There're Seasons... is a breathtaking musical about love beyond death, friendships that go the distance, and dreams that find their way home. (Excerpted from Sistic website).