Jerry's Urn

It's been more than three months since Jerry Cat's passing, but this ceramic urn containing his cremated remains remind us every day of what a darling he used to be =(O.O)=

Home Cooking on a Saturday

5(From top): Curry chicken, niang dou fu soup and fried beansprouts with salted fish. Not Michelin-ratable, but palatable :-)

Mega Deals @ Megastore

Blame it on my own suakuism, for I'd never been to either Courts Megastore @ Tampines or IKEA right beside it (or even Giant opposite them). Didn't realize a plot of land this ginormous existed on the 'eastern seaboard' of Singapore!

Digressions aside, I bought a TV console for $718 (inclusive of installation).

New Investment?

Paid a $50 deposit this 'hofter-noon' (hot afternoon) at Courts (Upper) Bukit Timah for a 46" Samsung Full HD LED TV at Sebastian Teo's recom-mendation. Mom will hafta decide tomorrow whether we wanna go ahead and get it.

Year Cake?

Took me some time to hunt down this slab of nian gao (top left), more so since CNY's over and all, but 'twas deemed worth it. After slicing and dipping the thing in prepared batter, and then deep frying it to crispy brown, a sweet tasty snack's (top right) done!

'Charboiled' Water

What electric kettle? Without these handy kitchen appliances plus their own heating element, the best - and probably only - way to boil a pot of water is over burning charcoal, no? Do we modern city slickers even know how to start a coal fire the old-fashioned way?

Gone Wireless

As much as I've got loads to gripe about SingNet for messing up my Internet connection (and 'murdering my stingray'), I owe their Duty Manager Mr. Loges a BIG favor for patiently guiding me through the hassle-free 2Wire setup process. Have mio Box, can surf (wirelessly)!

KIV

'Freebies' from SingTel as a result of upgrading my SingNet home broadband plan (to 6 Mbps unlimited) at hello! ComCentre. However, with the 'dark cloud' still hovering over, I shall keep this in view first.

Good for Soup

Supplementary ingredients for home-brewed 肉 骨 西 洋 菜 汤: dried squid, preserved kohlrabi (German turnip), dried scallops and red dates. Of course, there are also the 'main stars' - pork ribs and watercress. Time needed: 3-4 hours, from high to low heat. (Add salt if necessary.) How do I know? I don't. Hehe. Won't take undue credit ;-)

No Mercy

Yours kindly has a soft spot for animals, so I've never intentionally harmed any before. But when it comes to insects, it's a different story. I vacuum spiders (even though they're arachnids and supposedly the 'good guys'), wipe a line of ants away with wet serviette and literally spray the shit out of those feelered kachuas. It's ruthless aggression, CeNation!

Not Ours (So Whose?)

How and when did this can of Carlsberg end up on the top deck of our fridge, amongst the other sodas? Neither Mom nor I are beer drinkers (just like my Chief Publisher, who doesn't take "a single drop" of it), and I'm quite affirmative that JHM are quaint but not that queer. Ah, I know! It must've been from Uncle Patrick. Mystery solved! :-D

The Hood

Because we didn't install a kitchen hood/smoke extractor at home, we can't use our cooking stove, either. Sigh.

'New' Kettle

It's back to the 'Stone Age' for now as our Mistral hot water pot died on us and had to be replaced by an older fashioned Aerogaz electric kettle with a heating coil/element inside. As long as Mom can make her morning coffee and Hogan can lean his head against...

Slow Cooker

So, exactly how long does a Slo-Cooker take to warm up (let alone heat up)? I'm sorry I didn't wait long enough to find out; my patience dissipated before the curry chicken stew could be dumped in :-S

Ask Xiyun

Dang, I have no ID what you call this appliance. Is it a 'dough maker'? Or is it an 'egg beater'? I know I'm not getting my bearings right. (But, hey, it didn't get 'tecno' spelled correctly, either.) Let's just phone up Ms. Heng and ask her, already.

Scotch-Brite™

To make my nightly housekeeping breezier, I should strongly suggest to mom to buy the patented Scotch-Brite™ non-scratch scrub sponge that can be attached to my mop (I think). That, or we could hire this cute little cleaning chick to do the chore for us ;-)

More Dynamic

With anti-bacterial Poweractiv, the new Dynamo is a dynamic improvement over the old!

P/S: During these bad times, this blogspotter's doing sideline sales as a liquid gel promoter :-P

Pot or Pan?

As the base of our old cooking pot was scratched and eroded from frequent use, I assigned troubled mom to buy a new one from the sundry shop nearby. But see what she bought - a pan! Argh! My Myojo chicken abalone noodles look so weird spread out on a shallow surface like that. And what happens when I want to do deep frying??

Impromptu Chores

It suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't cleaned my Philips propeller for months (the thing was blowing warm air along with dust and cat fur), so I did myself a favor by dismantling the parts and sending them to the water jet. Minutes later, we've got a spankin' new fan to last the family for the next few seasons!

Who Wants to Play with Me?

I flat-outly flop at Xiangqi ( 象 棋 ). An amateur player could plainly beat my entire army with a solitary soldier – and that's embarrassing. What do you expect? I'm not Chong 'GESS >> HCJC' Kian Beng, who at one time was ranked 4th (or 6th?) in Singapore. At least I know the movements of each individual piece, 'kay!