a little bit of this…a little bit of that..

in case you were wondering, the title refers to my cooking experiences – a bit of salt here, maybe some cracked pepper there…that’s it! 😛 being absolutely bored and rolling with a recently acquired momentum to blog, here are the dishes we had for dinner tonight!

from left: steamed prawns with egg white and Chinese wine, lotus root with pork ribs, scallops and dates soup, stirfried long beans and asparagus with dried radish, chilli and garlic.

topped off with…

a 2001 Grand Vin de Bordeux..err…it’s a cabsav. 🙂

I’ve made aglio olio, mussels with white wine, pork chops with apple sauce, even brown rice, couscous, etc…but tonight’s dinner was declared as one of the best by the missus…so there! *smirks*

the garden gnome furnishes his house

we got new garden furniture today! well, although we don’t have a real outdoor garden lah – just a small balcony. but the addition of a table and chairs, plus our existing struggling plants (i don’t have green fingers) makes an altogether not too shabby ”outdoor” area for our house…good enough for breakfast in the mornings, tea in the noons and of course, wine in the late nights…

oh and there’s a photo of our messy dining table and our mahjong room. 🙂

photos

ok sometimes photos tell more than words…so my life in the past few months can be glimpsed through these photos – in a few words, travel, bangkok, taipei, nights, days, house, home, food.

TADAH!

OOps.

right, realised it has been months since i posted. we have been busy with the house, our work and i guess distracted with our new life together…

my work has been fulfiling and busy…i’m enjoying it so much, i worry if i’m deluding myself! 🙂 work has taken me to taipei, bangkok and i’m heading to beijing next – it’s really nice to see new cities on someone’s else bankroll. hahaha…anyway, i had dinner with jiahui the other evening and realised she actually visits our blog – so she complained that she has seen nothing new so far, etc etc etc..haha…well, i guess as we move along with our lives, some things have to go – and we kinda neglected this little blog.

so there, i’ll start posting pictures of our house and my travels – been lazy to organise them but well, small step forward!

a bit on the house – we’ve settled in quite nicely…the tv room is done up, the balcony finally has plans, the dining table is cosy and needless to say, the mahjong room is fully functional (w bar fridge!)

relatives have been coming over for gatherings – somehow my granduncle always wins when he plays mahjong here, so he loves coming over -_- and some have struck the lottery the day after they come by (oh but why not me!!!)

I realised the dining table is an excellent platform for gossip, wine and bonding – had collegues over last evening and it was 3am before we knew it!! haha..wine and good conversation are precious things, so i take whatever i can get.

it’s been a month or so since we updated. been busy choosing tiles for the house, and colour schemes and stuff. she’s a libra and i’m naturally incapable of making firm decisions (this does not apply to work by the way), it took longer than well, than most other people i guess. right now the house is still concrete floors (screed already lah!) – we’ll be starting work very soon!

work has been busy busy busy – i sure hope to have a quiet december to wind down the year. went to hua hin last week for a co retreat, so that was rather fun. my “oldest” friend (20 years, since kindergarten!) surprised me by meeting up for a long chat into the night – it’s been eons since we spoke at length, and it’s always nice to meet up with people you feel totally comfortable with.

christmas is coming, and we hope to move in by then – we’ll have a nice, peaceful xmas eve at our balcony, sipping pinot noir….i hope. (the pinot noir – can, the balcony – depends on whether we find time to buy our little breakfast table!)

Photos, photos

Short post here… for peeps who have yet to see the pics from our ROM, here’s the link to view them: http://www.fotki.com/jeffandjanis 

 Enjoy!

left hand, right finger

after 6 years, we finally took the leap together, and after 6 months post-proposal, the deed was done. We’re glad the event went smoothly; our guests loved the food, the wine, the venue (well, no one has told us any of it sucked) – all in all, we think everybody had a good time.

Posting some pictures for the benefit of those who couldn’t turn up (you know who you are)…

I’m leaving out the actual solemnisation photos – for friends who want to see them, drop me a note or call me lah.

So thanks to the following peeps:

Keith – for being my best mate, chauffeur, and overall “pao ka liao”;

Khoon – for being an eloquent host, and for almost stealing the show with his looks, sharp dressing and overall attitude….

Francis – for letting us use your precious precious atelier…we took care not to spill drinks on the white carpet! Most importantly, thanks for all the gorgeous dresses (for janis, not me)

Jyue Huey – for her patience, dedication, and superb sense of style and colours!

Everyone else – family, friends, colleagues past and present – for simply being there.

Alrighty then, with our solemnisation, we now have to get busy doing up the house…our customary is not until next year (oct 6 too!), so we’ve got a bit more time to fiddle with that! 🙂

panic

one day more. still haven’t written my vows.

Countdown..

Clock’s ticking.. 1 more day before the official change in status.. marital status that is. And looking through the posts that Jeff has made, I see that preps for our ROM has already been well-covered, complete with pics of the action. Speaking of which, I haven’t done any posting in a long while and when I logged in today to do so, I realised that he has changed the categories for the postings. For those who didn’t notice, it used to be ‘He said’ and ‘She said’, so I was slightly confused when I saw instead ‘The better cook’ and ‘The better half’. Interesting categorization, I thought. So which one should my posts come under? My culinary skills (or lack of) has been a long standing joke/topic of dissent (I refuse to be labelled as ‘cannot cook at all’) between us so intuitively i guessed that ‘The better cook’ category cannot be meant for me. So I have to settle for ‘The better half’ which… ahem… incidentally is quite an accurate label, according to some mutual friends of ours. =)

 Anyway, this aside, I’m glad that he’s settling down nicely in his new job, no doubt it comes with a certain level of stress (new industry, no prior experience, etc) but hey, there’s always tons of things to learn when you land yourself a new job. Can tell that he’s really enthusiastic about his new responsibilities, and then even more so about his new location. If you have been talking to him lately, you are bound to have heard comments like ‘I’ve got Spinelli’s downstairs!’, ‘The banks are really near to my office!’, ‘I’m part of the raffles crowd!’ Heh.. little boys.. =)

Well, time to get some sleep. Tmr’s (or rather today)  slated to be R & R day with a session of mani & pedi packed in before the big event. Yawns. Over and out.

oooh..spinelli’s just downstairs

i’m happy.

spinelli is in the next building, starbucks is a street away, o’brien’s is downstairs, coffeebean, cedele depot, and yes, even McDonald’s – all within walking distance. i needed to go to the bank, and i popped down at 4pm, and was back at 4.30pm. My tailor is three blocks away. my friends are all within a 1km radius.

yes – i have settled into my new office nicely.

ok i’m a ‘sua ku’ can – i spent 2 years working in an industrial estate (ok it wasn’t EXACTLY that, but it sure felt like it), where the only good coffee was possibly 6 bus-stops away (in bugis junction) – ok i concede that some may find the kopi from the food centre better than your ‘atas’ latte and such, but still…it’s the AMBIENCE lah. it felt good to stroll among civilisation (ok lest my boss reads this – i WALK FAST; ‘stroll’ is used here for narrative purposes).

ANYWAY.

it’s my second day and i’m still dipping my feet in the water. i can’t write much – many of the issues i come across are p and c. i’ve been busy writing, framing, spinning and most importantly, learning. though my previous job was also PR-related, my current one takes the cake lah – different league altogether; heck it’s a different GAME altogether even. the companies are larger, the sums are much more substantial (i have trouble recognising a million – try translating huge amounts in mandarin), and the stakes are much higher now.

I feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity – reading the bios of my colleagues, i feel really inexperienced and well, rather lacking frankly. Still, my team has been really nice; everyone is professional and happy to teach. With time, i should catch up and hold my own.

Well, that’s that. ROM is in three days, passing keys to contractor(he’s helping with the defects submission) and i’m going to a island somewhere for my co. retreat in nov! yay! (note: i thank God it isn’t bintan. or batam.) Then again, i’m happy to even get to CROSS CUSTOMS – the furthest i’ve been for my previous co. was jurong island (yes, this joke has been repeated too many times).

And Jiahui, yes i looked cute when i was kid. and yes it’s rather odd i don’t look AS adorable now – THANKS AH. 🙂

I must quote a friend, who told me before i left my prev co., “You really know how to make your life exciting huh? New job, new status, new house – all within a week!”

Yes, i really am making my life exciting huh.