All about Food

I've been pretty proud of myself recently. The week before school started, I was trying to be a nice wife by cooking up a storm for the hubby. By others' standards, the "storm" was probably nothing to be pompous about, but it's really such a feat to me. Knowing that the impending heaps of school load means Hubby and I will probably have to succumb to very modest dinners for the many nights ahead, I tried to cook some "exotic" food that required some time and effort to make up for the expected simple fares.

Wanton mee dry! It had been my second staple food when I was young, unlike other kids who craved for McDonald's instead. I was so crazy about it that whenever my parents brought me out to dine, I'd definitely have that with lots of chilli. Still one of my favourite food, I decided to try cooking it from scratch, without having to wait for another 4 months before we get back. From scratch it means having to make the wantons and Char Siew myself! Such an achievement right? It was delicious and Hubby said it was his second best homecooked dinner to date. The texture of the noodle was not quite what I had expected it to be though, maybe because it's made in US. Still, it was good enough to satisfy our cravings. Do pardon the broccoli. I know it's not meant to be there but because the nearby supermarket does not sell chinese greens, I had to get a substitution for the Cai Xin (or whatever veg it is supposed to be).

This is one of the more fancy lunchboxes I had prepared for Hubby. Fancy because the Lor Bak falls under my category of "Exotic Food". I've had cooked this twice when we were in Singapore, but it was much successful this time round. Reason was becasue I had the time to let the meat simmer for a good 2.5 hours, for the melts-in-your-mouth texture. Hubby said this is the best lunchbox I'd prepared till date, cause Lor Bak, Tau Pok and egg are all his favourites. I know Hubby's lunch don't look appetizing here, but that's because he was so excited with his yummy food that he did not bother to present the food nicely for the photoshoot. Heh...


I went to the Chinese Supermarket on my way back just now, and saw this!

I love mooncakes! Last year this time, I did not have a chance to sink my teeth into these savory pastries as I was trying to diet to look my best on our wedding day. How time flies. It's been almost a year since we've been married. With no display of lanterns along the streets or in the shops here, I had forgotten the Mid-Autumn Festival is drawing near.

Since I can't have my slice of Da Zhong Kuo this year, I reckon a box of $10 mooncakes is the next best companion one can have during the coming Mid-Autumn Festival. Pretty modest mooncakes, especially since it is a product of USA. The yolk is very fresh, the white lotus smooth and the skin thin, almost perfect. Only if the white lotus paste is slightly sweeter to suit my sweet tooth, it will be heavenly. Anyhow, at $10 for 4 pieces of decent double yolk mooncakes, it's a steal!

I've been longing for Krispy Kreme for the past few days. Whenever we visited the supermarket in the evenings, it's either sold out or only boxes of a dozen of these darlings were left. Since I had the time to squeeze in some grocery shopping this noon, I had to grab a box of half a dozen of the Original Glazed. Yummy! Now I can look forward to waking up early for breakfast tomorrow.


I am attempting to cook Laksa later. I need good food to energize myself to prepare for the race this Friday. Spicy food's for the weary soul. If I succeed, I shall post a picture of it soon!

Intelligence VS Dilligence

While the rest of the guys are having fun with Texas Holdem n beer next door on a Friday night, I am mugging away alone in the apartment. I am trying very hard to catch up, struggling to cramp all that were taught in class in my puny brain.

I've tried real hard making conscientious efforts to be super attentive during lessons, but somehow my brain just wondered around after every few minutes. Is it because I have aged, or is it because my brain is half dead? Maybe the lessons are just too intellectual for me, thus I feel too lost to even be able to concentrate. Sigh...

School Begins

School workload has been crazy. It's only the 2nd day and I was in school for almost half a day, from 8am to 7pm. I've quizzes on the 3rd and 5th day of class, an assignment due on the 4th day and a final exam 10 days later. Intensive classes are held 4 hours per day for this course where I get 2 credits upon completion, compared to 1.5 for the rest of the courses to be completed in half a term. How more crazy can this get? No wonder I am complaining.

The profile of my class is very interesting. Of the 40 students enrolled, only 3 are married. I guess 2 of them are the 2 oldest guys in class; one at 65 yrs, and the other older, but I have no idea how old. The last person is obvious of course. The mean age of the students is 24, while the median is only 23. I guess I must be one of the oldest in class, but luckily most thought I am only 24 or 25. Heh... Another amazing thing is, the average GMAT score of my class is 710, with the average quatitative score at 99.9% percentile! This grades are comparable to the ones from Yale and Sloan's MBA graduates scores, according to this GMAT website. An astonishing piece of information! Makes me feel super stressed out now, coz my scores are pretty far from the average and that makes me a below-average student. A very competitive class, no doubt.

It's been intriguing making friends with people who come from all over the world; China, Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, Thailand and of coz different parts of the States. However, I am alarmed and saddened to know that I am one of the very few who speak less than perfect English in class. Many of my peers from the asian countries who did not have English as their first language in school, speaks much better english than I do, with perfect pronunciation. I feel so ashamed of myself. Speaking in perfect Mandarin has never been my forte too, so that leaves me at the bottom of the list when it comes to conversing with my coursemates. Sigh...

Thus, I am feeling very stressed and demoralized now. I do hope mingling wih them often can help to brush up my communication skills by leaps and bounds, and I wish I do have the intelligence and motivation to study hard enough to pull myself up from the ranks.

Six Flags

Saturday was the day we had the most fun on a single day ever since our arrival. Our outing to Six Flags was AWESOME! I can't really remember when was the last time I was on a roller coaster; it's probably donkey years back, and it's really exhilarating to go on those pulse-pounding coasters when my heart is now older and weaker. My heart and I had our fair share of thrills and frights throughout the 6 coaster rides. Some of the coasters and tracks were completely made of wood, one was a former Guiness World Record holder and the other goes up a 90 degree track vertically, just to name a few of the very interesting coasters they have in Six Flags.

Queuing to go up Mr. Freezer. I saw some happy and scared faces. Haha... The wait to go up the coaster itself was terrifying enough actually.
Mr. Freeze, the coaster that goes right up the spine-chilling veritcal track at lightning speed, using the new linear induction technology, so claimed the website. It then comes down and goes round the entire track a second time in a reversed direction. The scariest coaster ever. I almost backed out while in the queue. I'm glad the ride did not last more than 45 seconds.
Batman The Ride - I was panic-stricken by these ski-lift-style chairs.
Another very steep drop, the Ninja.
The Boss, the 5,051 ft. wooden coaster behind me.
See how steep is the wooden coaster's track?
That's Shaun Soh and Say Kwee in the 1st car, on Screamin' Eagle, a one-time Guiness World Record holder. It races through drops of 9 and 8.5 stories, at speed up to 62mph. An absolute scream, that I agree.
Making funny faces to entertain ourselves during the long queues.
Say Kwee, Shaun Soh and me, and our $7 coke bottle. At least we get free refills the entire day for the exorbitant price.
A group photo, just before we leave the amusement park. Zhiwei looked like he's holding Hubby's wrist. Wahaha...








See more pictures at my Picasa album.

An Imminent Enthrallment

It's the weekends again! Having no plans for the coming weekend, I suggested going Six Flags tomorrow. All 10 of us will be packing our bags and getting ready for tons of screams on a few of the record breaking roller-coasters. I'm half excited and half terrified. It's been ages since my last ride on one of these thrillers, and am not sure if my heart can take such excitments anymore.

What I can promised though, will be tons of pictures! Stay tuned!

Counting Down

In no time, my classes will be starting. I sort of dread going back to school now. Gone will be the days when I get to wake up at 10, msn the entire morning away, surf net till the hubby comes home, go out for walks, teas, etc. I am going to miss the carefree life I've been leading for the past 6 weeks. Sigh... I am so in my comfort zone now and it is always hard to break out of one's solace.

It does not help when my class schedule sucks. Though there will be no lessons on Fridays, my last classes end at 5.30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. Which means I will be home much later than hubby who normally reaches home by 4pm, and will still need to prepare dinner thereafter. The worst is, I will be having evening lessons on Tuesdays that end at a bizarre 9pm! Prior to that, I have a loooonng break from 11.30am to 6pm. I probably will have to come home to prepare dinner during this time and take another 20mins drive to school again. How more ridiculous can this be? In addition, it is pretty intimidating to drive myself home alone at night, when there are practically no street lamps along most roads. Double sigh...

The only thing that I am looking forward to now is meeting up with my course mates. They seem like an interesting bunch of people, having organized an evening out at the pub last night. I was invited to but did not attend the party as it was a celebration to the end of their first module, one which I was exempted from. Plus, the pub was near college and I was feeling sluggish to drive down all the way to meet the people I have not been introduced to yet. Actually the real reason was, I do not want to feel alienated in that kind of an atmosphere among a group of friends. Anyway I will have ample time to know them well, so I reckon it is fine to still remain as a mystery to them now. Tsk tsk.

Rantings

I received an email from the course director yesterday, saying that it is necessary to buy the required course materials. One check with the online college bookstore and I was greeted by a rude shock. The entire check for 6 books and 2 sets of assignments came up to a mind-blowing US$950!

I managed to get 4 of the 6 books from Amazon and saved some US$100. However the US$300+ spent on 4 books is still very overwhelming. I remembered during my entire 3 years in NUS, I did not spend beyond this amount for the numerous books I had.
The other 2 books which happen to be the most expensive books at US$200 each aren't available at Amazon. Thus I had to grit my teeth and ordered them from the college bookstore. In the end, I spent a massive US$820 on books! Imagine the amount of clothes I could get myself here with this check. Ggrr...


Just last weekend, I was talking to Mum and Granny on the webcam for the first time since my arrival. They both mentioned that I looked like I've put on some weight 'coz my face looks rounder now. So sad.
Yesterday on MSN, Rachel mentioned the exact same thing when she saw the pictures taken during Sat's BBQ. Even more sad.
My face really got so round now meh??!! I normally have very light brunch only leh. It's always a combination of banana, muesli bars, milk, corn, etc. Weekday dinners are always healthy and not too heavy too, ever since I started cooking proper meals for the last week. I think I put on 1kg only lor. Ok lah, I will go gym and hit the pool more often, to rid the calories piled up during the weekend meals. I will try to come up with a jogging regime too, and promised I will attempt to shed 2kg and post nicer pictures!


Recent mornings, I been sleeping with a constant fear. I have been awaken by the slightest noise and struggled to get up by 9am. The reason? It's because I never know when the maintenance guys will spring a surprise check on our apartment. What makes it worse is, they have a set of master keys to access everyone's homes! I've been caught in my PJs twice when they visited to do a repair work and an alarm check respectively. I was just short of being caught in the bed as I sprang out of it fast enough to swipe my messy hair through. I really abhor the idea of them having the keys to access our apartments anytime they want to. Why can't they call before they visit? Is making a prior appointment that difficult? A home is a home; a personal sanctuary! Where is our deserved privacy?!

Busy Week

I apologise for the absence prior to the last post. I was busy with...

unpacking...
and more unpacking. Our shipment finally arrived last Tuesday, and it took me a couple of days to unpack all the contents in our 21 boxes. There are still 4 opened boxes lying around the dining and study rooms now. So till I feel more recharged, I'll clear them all away.
Da-dah! The first thing I did was to stock up our kitchen with all our instant food,
and condiments. That's my Chinese corner in compartment A and the Japanese in B. I can finally cook some decent meals!








The next thing I did was...
to dig out the photo frames and hang them up in the walkway to our rooms. I hope the homesick-ness will not kick in as frequently once I put pictures of my family and besties up.





Hubby and colleagues did not have to work last Friday as they were ahead of their training schedule (So shiok rite? In SIN that will nvr happen. Even if we were much ahead of our schedule, we are still be expected to be present to waste our time in e ofc). So we gathered the khakis to our apartment for a game of Mahjong on Thursday night!
I'm glad we shipped our MJ set and table here. With Kinyoong and Peixuan moving into the apartment next to us soon, we can start operating a gambling den! One table in their apt since they shipped in theirs too, and one table in ours. Heh... I've got it all well-planned.
While some of us busied ourselves with MJ, the rest of the guys were trying to manoeuvre a car while being entertained by the adorable 6 year-old Crystal. Hubby shipped his Xbox and steering wheel set here, thus I forsee myself turning into a Xbox-widow soon. Sigh...

I am suppose to join Hubby and his 2 colleagues for golf on Friday morning, but the previous night's MJ ended late at 330am the same day. Thus I could barely open my eyes when the alarm rang at 10am, not to mention conquering the 18 holes on the golf course. I chose to sleep in in the end and they proceeded with the quest without me.
Hubby and his swing.
Shawn Tan and Shuan Soh.
Since I had the entire Friday noon to myself, I decided to "prettify" my nails! That kept me busy for a good 3 hours.








On the same night the usual gang was on our usual pursuit to find the most happening club again. We were far from being contented with the clubs we've been to for the past few weeks, so the hunt continued...
We were back to Ameristar, but this time round our main mission was to check out the Home Nightclub. Except Zhiwei (2nd from left), whose main purpose was to be present at the casino all weekends, to do what he is best at. =P
Snapping a grp pic with me as the photographer inside the club.
It's indeed the most happening club we've visited in STL, but Hip Hop is sooooooo not in my blood. The way the crowd danced was pretty different from what we saw in our SIN clubs. The slower sways to the equally slow beats, did nothing to ignite any interest in me. I guess we should just be contended to find a good chill-out place that plays nice soothing music in the background. Yummy spicy buffalo wings will add an oomph to all that zest!

Saturday was Singapore's National Day and we held a bbq session to celebrate our nation's big day. See previous post.


That's all the happening events in the past week, if they were any happening to you.

I guess our lives will very soon revert back to doing the old mandane stuffs, as we've seen and visited most of the intriguing places. Most importantly, classes are starting in about a week's time! Oh my, time flies tremendously fast here. I wish I had plenty more time to bask in the current comfort before having to attend the lessons. Sigh. I'm getting complacent, when I should really start preparing to look forward to going back to school. Sigh again.

Celebrating the Singapore Spirit

To commemorate Singapore's 43rd Birthday, we held a BBQ at Say Kwee's place.
Busy satay men.
Sizzling yummy Pork Chops.
High-level Food no. 1 prepared by Yvonne from The Wives' Club (TWC)
High-level Food no. 2 prepared by Josephine from TWC. The wings were superb too, but when I remembered to take a pic of them, they were long gone. That shows how popular the delicious wings were.
High-level Salad prepared by Grace from TWC. My garlic prawns and sambal squids pale in comparison to these food, thus no pics of them. Heh.
Eating in the comfort of the air-conditioned living room.
Enjoying our corns.
Take 1. This is the entire gang in St. Louis, including the 1st batch of seniors who were here a year plus before us, 2 kids and 5 wives.
Take 2. We're soooo patriotic. The flag belongs to Say Kwee, who brought it here all the way from Singapore!
After we stuffed ourselves with the sinful but toothsome bbq food, hubby finally had his go in Texas Holdem.
Shaun Soh scheming to win with his many "patterns". Anyway hubby won at the end of the game and he managed to walk away with $50. Woohoo! Free grocery for this week.

In Agony

I'm still having a headache. Though it's not as bad as last night's, I can't stare at the bright screen for long. I'm grateful for having a friend who's willing to pass me some panadols to ease my extreme throbbing headache at 1.30 in the morning. I'm glad my shipment has arrived and I now have my first aid box within my reach.

The trip to Osage

Another outdated post, but that was because I've been pretty busy lately. Busy with shopping and sorting out our shopping bags. I don't mean to sound bimbo, but its because I kept procrastinating on clearing the bags, I ended up with a heap of laundry to be done. Sigh...

As I'm currently nursing a bad headache, I shall keep this post short.

An early morning 2.5 hours drive from WH to Osage.
A long drive makes me drowsy, especially when there's nothing scenic to keep my shutters busy.
We saw a little cute building while walking to the Polo Ralph Lauren (PRL) factory outlet.
Hubby posing for the camera in Osage, a quaint looking little-town-like place. The sun was blazing hot as usual, thus the squinting eyes.














Round one was at PRL and I'd gotten myself a navy blue knitted sweater, while hubby got himself 2 polo tees, all at only $35 each! After loading our bags in the car, we proceeded to Gap, where everyone went amok.
There were further discounts on Gap jeans, thus the big bags. Hubby got a pair of jeans at $21.50 (that's like only around 18% of the price we paid in SIN?!) and a thermal top for $9. My bag consisted of a hoodie for Melinda, a tank top, a long sleeve tee and a beret, and all cost me barely $38. Thereafter we went Rue21, where I got myself a $10 dress, cheap belt n pants and a pair of lovely pink wedges!

Round 3; where we spent more money in Coach and Calvin Klein. I got a large, full calf leather hobo bag for a mere $199 from Coach! A real steal. Calvin Klein was where we spent the most time browsing around the clearance section. There were plenty of nice and cheap tops, sweaters, belts and pants in the men's department. Actually everything was just dirt cheap. Hubby added a sweater, a knitted wear, a cap and a wallet to his wardrobe while I spent no more than $30 on a knitted top and vest.

We went shopping for shoes in Round 4 and I bought a pair of boots for a freaking $9 and a pair of pretty unique heels from Nine West for $21. Hubby finally bought his Timberland boots and a pair of golf shoes.

These are our cheap frills.

Polo Ralph sweater, CK knitted top and vest.
No-brand $9 knee-high boots, RUE21 wedge and Nine West Heels.











After the 8-hr long shopping spree, we took a 5 mins drive to the prominent Lake Ozark. The guys had a good time gawking at bikini babes.
Lake Ozark is the largest manmade lake in the Midwestern United States and is one of the most popular vacation spots for residents from all parts of the country.
We saw many babes clad in tiny bikinis sun basking in yachtes like this.


A super crowded bar overlooking the scenic lake. Thereafter, it was home sweet home as everyone was dead beat after walking for the entire day.