The Apple's Diary!

mon humeur est vraiment mauvaise aujourd'hui

Dear all readers (assuming that I have readers), I am back from my Phuket Holiday! Yes of course, it was all so fun and all so adventurous. For once, I discovered how treacherous the sea could be, got swept out by the current in a split second, lost my footing and struggling to swim ashore. My encounter with a jellyfish and its sting. That painful stinging feeling will etched in my mind for as long as I could remember. The revenge on the jellyfish by Mother Nature, left them high and dry after a high tide and big waves. The snorkeling trip which saw us with a sunburnt nose. Walking around like a red lobster. The fine sand and clear water. The fishes and the coral. Sea urchins hidden in between the coral, waiting for the unsuspecting to step onto them. A local thai restaurant with the cheapest seafood, freshest seafood and the best Tom Yam in Patong. We went back there daily. The foot massage and the aroma oil body massage, the shopping and the bargaining. All these would be posted in d...

When this picture was taken, I wanted to show the tranquility of "Clementi By the Bay". But today, after a series of events, I re-looked at this photo and felt that my life was blur like this photo. Looking intensively for the opportunity to move out from the box.

I have been looking for the best fish n Chips in town and sadly, I have yet found my ultimate Fish n Chips. Is it really so hard? Is it impossible? These are the places that I have gone for their Fish n Chips. None is satisfactory in my opinion. 1. Fish & Co. 2. Manhattan Fish Mart 3. Fisherman's Wharf (Clarke Quay) 4. PS Cafe @ Dempsey 5. Swenson The only time that I could remember that it was a really good Fish & Chips, was during my study stint in Perth. That's about it. I am on the verge of excluding Fish n Chips from my dine out trip because simply, it's really a waste of money if I don't like the food. I hate the greasy "flour-sy" batter that stick onto the thin slice of fish. My ideal fish n chips got to be 1. really good fish meat, with thinly spreaded batter that is not over-fried. 2. good size potato fries, not the stringly type and not the wedges. 3. yummy tartar sauce to go with it. Tonight, I may just go for one last attempt before I call ...

When weekend comes, it's time for me to step into the kitchen. Since we had so much meat the week before, we decided to have it easy. Hence the fish porridge with healthy carrot. It's a good porridge, tasty and healthy. Then we decided that we would try to cook seafood aglio olio. I thought it was really simple and easy to make. It turned out that it is the ultimate test for chef worthy to work in an Italian restaurant. Okay, I failed. Tasteless. Dry. Nonetheless, I have asked around for tips and have gathered a few pointers. Will continue to strive to make a good Aglio Olio.

We actually stay quite near to Sunset Way. So on our Friday date night and after the piano delivery, my dear treated me to a good dinner. He said that I must be so broke now so he would buy me dinner. We never really explore the sleepy Sunset Way though, we walked past the shops a few times. On this day, we decided on Grill Out! for our dinner. Every main comes with soup of the day and bread as appetizer. We started with Cream of Mushroom and bread. The soup was just lukewarm although I would really preferred warmer soup. Bread was ordinary with butter as spread. The mains came about 15 minutes later. For him, it was homemade black pepper BBQ sauce with a slab of ribs ($33). For mine, it was Surf n Turf. Medium well steak with a grilled prawn ($23). Each main comes with baked potato and boiled vegetables. It was very filling and really meaty. After this meal, we decided that we had to go vegetarian for a while. For desserts, we adjourned to the next door. Besides dessert, Buttercake Cr...

Our house is almost ready. What's lacking is a piano for me. I have long decided if I should buy a new piano again, it will be a KAWAI piano. But I am also aware of the exorbitant price. It was a long wait before I finally made my purchase. But before the piano can come in, the preparation must be done. Getting the right carpet. We searched high and low for the right dimension carpet. It was either too long or too short. If I wanted a custom made carpet size, I needed to wait for 2 months. We got this carpet at City Square mall. It was the best from what we gathered. But the whole shopping experience was not good. It was expensive for a carpet and I didn't even liked the design. Plus the sales lady was pushy for her recommendation. But still, I needed a carpet for my piano..... here the carpet was laid out, vacuumed and ready for the piano. And the black shining beauty that stood on it. By price, it has broken my 2k record on my white baroque table and its 2 chairs. It's n...

Caught my Robo staring into wall while I was cleaning his cage. I wonder what's going on thru his little brain.

Our 1st potted plant.

It's a nice touch to put to an end of a stressful day. Mocha Latte at TCC.

This is a long overdue post on my maiden experience with Manhattan Fish Mart. There were 2 reasons why we went to Manhattan Fish Mart. I had always been a supporter of Fish & Co. (Yes, you have read me correctly. Had as in past time.) I was disappointed with my latest experience at Fish & Co., and decided it's due time to visit Manhattan Fish Mart. It was the same day that I got my Canon camera. Everywhere around Suntec vicinity was crowded. It was amazing that we managed to get a table quickly. We started with Soup of the Day with Cream of Mushroom. And followed by Mussels in butter cream sauce. For mains, I had Fish & Chips while he had the seafood spaghetti in cream sauce. In the end, we didn't finish our food. There's too much cream sauce, making us getting sick of our food very quickly. I don't think we will be returning to Fish & Co. or Manhattan Fish Mart any time in the near future.

Now that we have the thermal cooker, we are more keen to make soup for our meals. This weekend, we attempted chicken herbal soup. To simplify matter, we bought Yang Sheng Le Cordyceps Concentrated Herbal Soup for our soup base. This Yang Sheng Le Cordyceps Concentrated Herbal Soup consists of and 冬虫草 (Cordyceps) , 北沙参 (Bei Sha Shen) , 北芪 (Bei Qi) , 玉竹 (Yu Zhu) and 陈皮 (Chen Pi). Direction to make this herbal soup was simple. Shake well bottle content and add into 1 liter of boiling water. Then add in about 600g of chicken. Simmer for 20 minutes before serving. But this was what I found out. 1. Bottle content was so viscous, that it could not be shaken. I just scoped out the concentrate to the boiling water. 2. The herbal soup concentrate was very salty. I added more than 1 liter of water to dilute out the taste. Plus it had a very strong chicken essence taste which I didn't like at all. 3. You don't have to use 600g of chicken. What I did was with 3 chicken thighs. Removed th...

Recently, the cigarettes' smoke from my neighbours' house flew into our place. It was terrible and I felt that my lungs were going to die. This was when my darling sprang into action. His action of love. He quickly researched and secretly bought me a ionizer to purify the air. It's actually a small plasma ionizer from Samsung. But being small doesn't mean that it is not powerful. Ever since with the ionizer, I am able to sleep very well at night. I take it around with me in the house to purify the air. Aww... thanks to my mighty, ever resourceful darling for the clean air I'm breathing in (^o^)

This is the Season of Berries n Friend. Big, Fat, Juicy Strawberry bought from NTUC Xtra for $2.99 Exotic Blueberry going at $2.15 for a box Not forgetting Berries' friend - Ms Cherry at $3.95

I'm hooked. Meiji's fresh milk is my new love. Fresh, Sweet and Good taste!