Lagsana galore

i finally decided to make full use of the baking dish i had gotten from ikea eons ago by making some lagsana today. I mean, anything with pasta sauce is so hard to go wrong, right? unless of course you did what this idiot did many years ago at a christmas party by making spaghetti neopolitan with much sugar and turned the perfect dish into spaghetti neopolitan for desserts instead of main.

Ever since that fateful event, moi has learnt that sugar never ever goes hand in hand woith pasta sauces. Ok, so anyways, I decided to make some lagsana today cos while channel surfing days ago, I happened to chanced upon this lovey dovey couple making this dish and found out that lagsana is kindda an idiot-proof dish to make (once the suger is outta the equation). And so my dear readers, presenting to you all: Gerald's first attempt at the lagsana; and it turned out amazingly delicious!

I added in lotssa garlic (which is my favourite part of the sauce) and mushrooms and minced pork for the sauce. Yummy! And of course, since i love all thngs cheesy, I also added in extra mozeralla inbetween layers of pasta!

I am SO getting old(er)

in the spirit of making the birthday boy(=me) feels pampered and know that his friends actually still cares for him, dearest friends k.s., tina, elise, huiling and adelyn got me my favourite cake (=strawberry shortcake with lotsa whipped cream) when we had lesson yesterday. Ok, so things this year are not as happening as the event last year where the whole of Vienna literally celebrated for me...haha, but still, i had a great time! Oh, its is so darn sweet to have friends that reminds you that you are getting older.


And of course, my bitching buddy Tina decided to unleash all the grudges she has on me by telling miss pastry lady to write happy birthday BITCH on the cake. Nice (and i do really love it!)


The rooms all have smoke detectors so we were trying to light the candles and get a quick shot and then i have to blow off the flames...haha, another cheap thrill moment; atypical of me...haha

just the 2 of us

since mum and i share a birthday only day apart, we decided to hop into town today to treat ourselves a nice lavish dinner (sponsored by daddy dearest, no less) tonight before the actual days on monday and tuesday coming.

I was cracking my head trying to think of a place to go and since my last experience at Min Jiang at Goodwood was good but not purr-fect, I actually though of heading back there tonight to try their steamed fish which looked gorgeous on other diner's table. Of course, I remember Mum always love to have a good nice perfectly steamed fresh fish done Hong Kong style.

Just as I was looking at the WWW for the phone to call, I suddenly remember about this restaurant which my friend told me eon ago: Lei Garden. Ha! I don;t know how many of you heard of this but back when I was a Freshie at SMU, there was an occasion where I dropped my cell oin the cab cos the pockets of my berms were too shallow and when I called back the number, a japanese lady was in the cab (thanbk goodness it's not some evil asshole trying to steal my cell). Ok, so what has this got to do with Lei Garden? Patience my dears...Well, turns out that japanese lady was actually heading to Lei Gardens! Haha...and I had to pick up my phone from the restaurant in Orchard that time.

Ok, back to Lei Garden proper. Well, There are 3 branches here and I tried to pick up a reservation for moi and mi madre at the Chijmes branch opposite my campus but apparently, the lady said "Well, you can come at 6, but you HAVE to finish you food and leave by 7, or you van come after 7.45pm" Now, if it's me i don;t mind 7.45 but since Mum (=old folk) hates late dinner (anything after 7 is late) i decided that 1 hour is definitely not gonna help us place any memory of the dishes meant to celebrate our birthdays at dinner.

So, I called up another branch in Orchard (there's 2 there, and I chose another one nearer to Somerset MRT) and thank god! I manage to get a reservation and we actually decided to head to town earlier so that Mum can do some shopping (no LV this time dah-lings, she got a pair of cheapo flats from Taka instead) before we head to Lei Gardens for the much anticipated dinner (I mean I've heard great raving reviews of them but somehow, I've also heard that Ming Jiang at Goodwood has oh-so-great food which turned out to be, great, not oh-so-great, u get my drift?)


We had a fish, braised pork served with deep fried buns and Stir fried Geoduck with Asparagus and XO sauce. Then I ordered my favourite dish of glutinous rice with chinese sausages and i had mango pudding for dessert.

The meal was spectacular! The fish was fresh and steamed to pure perfection (we hate over steamed fish to death!), and the braised pork was a nice chunky 5" by 5" square piece of meat (not the individual small 1"X1" square at Ming Jiang) simmered and stewed to a moist tender perfection (ok, i am so running out of other words to use other than perfection, there goes my food critic career)







Oh, don't get me started on the Geoduck! The geoduck was extremely tender and the XO sauce tasted way better than the other chinese restaurant. Glutinous rice was not as good as I had expected it to be but nonetheless not bad (though at 18 bucks for a portion, it is kindda ex).
I thought i was too full to get a dessert but somehow, I just blurted out to the waiter that I wanted a mango pudding. The mango pudding turned out to be extremely well worth the extra space in my tummy! You have to taste it to gauge for yourself!




I love every bite of my dinner and mum had nothing but praises too. In fact we are so hyped, we are going to go back next week to try their Dim Sum! Hopefully, we are ably=e to stay this enthusiastic about that (the Dim Sum)!


Lastly, even though you will never get to see this cos you totally do not know how to use the computer, mush less the internet and, coupled with the fact that you don't read English, Happy Birthday Mum, and thank you for giving birth to this spoilt brat of yours whom share so many wonderful moments in the apartment that never fails to be filled with words of anger and laughter of joy. People often say that the child brings the greatest joy to a parent, but I think you bring me even more joy to be your child.

update 2.00

well, another week just passed (or rather, is gonna pass) by; week has been rethaer boring and the only bitchy person i had met this week was my career counselor whom I went to seek advice on how to jazz up my resum on Thursday.

"Your resume cannot make it"

(thinkin) "Then tell me how to re phrase it so that it 'can makt it', and not stop at that sentence, you goon, to trust that you are my career counselor"

(but rather, i said) "Oh, that's sad, so how do you think i should re do it?"

yada yada...

And my flu is still here, so, I finally went to another doctor yesterday in my neighbourhood to get more flu tablets and some pills to clear my phlegm.

I also went for my IPPT (mandatory fitness test by the singapore military for all fot young men) test yesterday before my birthday next week (more on that later) so that I will not get charged by the ever so efficient singapore government for failing to oblige my mandatopry singapore citizenship duties. Well, as usual, i failed. haha...lets not even go there, so yes, my gym routine ain;t working it honey.

Yes, it's gonna be my birthday next Tuesday! Yeah! Another age added on top! Boo!

Well, so happens that this year, my birthday falls on Mooncake Festival too, so well, at least i can look forward to a night with the brightest and round-est moon in the year! Since Mum's b-day is one day before mine, I think we will probably go for a nice dinner in some Chinese restaurant on Sunday. It always feels weird celebrating a birthday, somehow, you wonder even why there's a need to do it, I mean, after the tender age of 16, 18, and 21, all the rest are just painful reminder of how long one has been rotting on earth. Oh my, such a pessimist!

My choice gift this year? Hmm, Lasik, Vaio, and wisdom tooth extraction. haha, ok, ok, maybe a job overseas in Hong Kong or London or New York. Or even an acceptance into NYU Masters in PR program! Life, oh life...

so getting ole'

after a pathetic thursday last week at zouk, elise and i headed down last night (friday) to zouk again, and man this time round, it is very crowded, in fact, phuture was sp farking crowded that i don't think there's much space to dance cos it is just so freaking packed. Love the music, hate the (too young) crowd. In the end, the night was spent (trying to) dance in phuture, drinking at Zouk and Winebar.


Yes, its Elise, Vanessa and Huiling who i went to Zouk last night.







Yes yes yes, i drank lots again but what is new? haha..but highlight of the night was meeting Vanessa'a friend (think she's called Stacey) . Stacey byt the way, was so sloshed by the time she met Vanessa at the club and we kindda suspected it cos her text message to Van went somthing like this: I am new ouebc zouk, whte u? Oh, and my favourite thing bout this really crazy drunk is that she actually got drunk at 7-eleven (WTF?) oh man, who knows 7-1 can get you like that.
Stacey kept insisting I am gay, then went on to brush my hair (do i look like a puppy?), then when Elise said that I am not gay, she went on to brush Elise's hair! haha... She was such a noisy drunk anthat I just gotta grab a photo of her to show you all (she's the one on the left):


Vanessa and Nicholas (Elise's long time friend who went to Europe for a tour last year before she started school in Prague)


Somehow, I have a feeling this photo was taken after my hair was messed up


Elise and Nic


Elise and me

VIP event

This media whore finally became a VIP at a (not ultra but still glam) event today! Haha, well, Ling's boyfriend had to fly to Paris for a meeting for L'Oreal executives so he passed 2 VIP tickets for the Kiehl's J J Lin Showcase (J J Lin is a Singaporean singer who is apparently, tremendously popular in Taiwan and China and basically according to his PR folks, all across Asia) at St. James Powerhouse' Dragonfly bar.



Well, like mentioned earlier, Ling's boy was away so she (knowing that I love Kiehl's products) asked me to go with her and to get the free goodie bag. So there we were, 2 ultra happy souls being first time VIPs and man let me tell you, you ever see those events sponsored by a certain brand and they have a huge (in this case, not that huge) board plastered with the sponsor's name all across the board at the main entrance? Well, this slut and his pal were photographed at that board at the entrance. And. Since we are VIPs, we did not had to queue up with the rest of the commoners who had to fork out $88 to buy the JJ Lin package from Kiehl's and queue up early to get into the bar to see him. And those commoners were also barricaded from us VIPs. haha...

I so need to get a power girlfriend cos I just love this kind of lifestyle haha...



Anyway, once (ling signed me) in, we both were kindda disgusted that there was no goddie bag in place! Nothing. Kaput. Nicht. Zero. Period. Followed by SAD and DISGUSTED! WTF, we came all the way to Dragonfly not for that blardy singer (there's always the MTV channel my dears) but we want goodie bags! Ling was so pissed that she sent her boy a sms immediately (despite him in Paris) to complain. Ha.

But here's the good part, ok, although the showcase was at 6pm, diva boy only cam on stage at like erm, 7? What did we do in the meantime? haha, apparently, VIPs have a wrist tags and we get unlimited drinks at the bar! Yes! Drinks. With Alcohol! This is the pass that gets you everywhere:


Ok, note the words at the bottom, haha


Both of us downed at least 5 Vodka Ribenas each I am sure cos darling, by the time JJ started singing, we were downing. Of course we saw some (semi famous) celebs. Eunice Olsen, a ex Miss Singapore-turned Wheel of Fortune Vanna White a-la Singapore version - turned member of Parliament was sitting right in front of us in a ultra bare back plunging top. Oh her way to the ladies, Ling saw Sarah, the Channel V VJ (who looked way better than Eunice) By the way, I though Sarah don't understand Chinese. Anyway, JJ sang quite a number of songs and he was so trying to think if he should speak to the audience in Mandarin or English, But for most part he spoke English cos I reckoned the maybe Kiehl's is american so maybe that will be better? haha


Yes, I took a really short video while Ling was at the Ladies to kill time:


And just as we were about to down more drinks, the photographer came to me and Ling again to take another (!) photo. Gosh. It is so tiring to be a VIP. Well, I better grab this chance since I foresee I won;t get such chances in the near future so just, please allow me to be bitchy, ok?

After the event at 8pm, we two were desperately trying to walk through VivoCity in a non-drunken manner (and vivo is apparently the largest mall here, so we were indeed struggling) I mean, drunk at 8 is not a very good glamourous moment!

We dined at Spizza which i think serves the best wood oven baked pizza in Singapore and after that, desserts at Bakerzin. I can get so used to this. Ok, but the drinking part, it should come after the meals.

Oh, and since Ling just flew to NYC (which happens to be the birthplace of Kiehl's) she can't manage to find me the Jack Spade bag I want and got these from Frankfurt instead.

thursday is not the new friday

well, apparently over at zouk, it is not! we (meaning, elise, huiling and kenneth) went down to zouk yesterday thinking that it'll be open so that we can get to shake our booty were greeted by *gasp* silence cos apparently, main zouk and phuture are closed on thurs! asshole!

so we had to go to the adjoining winebar for some pre drinks and thereafter we headed to the other adjoining bar Velvet (thinking that there might be at least a few souls) sigh...at least we drank...haha...ohhh and as it was Deutsche Bank's career talk yesterday in school before we all left for zouk, there were many many free wines during the networking session! haha...needless to say, we all piled up on these drinks first!

881

881 is the title of the local movie that is making wavs across Singapore; apparently, it is tipped to overtake another local production by the incumbent Jack Neo (a comedien turned director well known for churning out movies with touch of lacal-ness) this year.

881 is also the movie moi went to the theatre with mi madre yesterday to watch. Luckily this is the school break for the primary and secondary kids, if not, Lauren (who watched the movie with her family weeks ago) warned me that I am highly possible to be the youngest person in the theatre.

Well, moi actualy thinks that the success of 881 lies in the fact that it is a story that is very close to ever Singaporean. One of the highlights if the lunar 7th month is the staging of a production in our various paerts across Singapore called the Getai - stage show with singers performances. Apparently, getai is a uniquely local act which even our neighbour Malaysia pales in comparison. In fact, a famous or well received performer often has to run from a stage to another in one single nights and what he/she erns in this one month alone can make up to be a staggering amount of mooh-lahs that is equivilent to another person's yearly pay! Of course, to be able to command such a high price, you must be very very popular! Another interesting fact is that singers (agian, referring to those popular ones, dah-lings) can actually be booked up to 1 year in advanced!

Now, of course, people like you and I who are trendy and shop in nice air conditioned sterile enviorments are so not the target audience of the getais. In fact the reason for such performence is to entertain the spirits roaming around earth (cos the gates oh hell are opened for the month on July in the lunar calendar and spirits are free to roam the earth - kind of like, i guess, a 1 month retreat) But nonetheless, older generations uncles and aunties with nothing better to do also love to visit such shows to rid their boredom. Which exmplains why most folks in the cinema are erm...the greying population.

Well, the movie is actually nice you know...The story of the 2 leads who developed a friendship over time only to realise that one is going to die is tear wrenching, and coupled with songs that are oh-so-tear-inducing... I personally still cannot get over some parts which are rather lame (fighting with laser beams as part of their special powers ??) but oveall, i love the songs (i know, i am so auntie and un-posh) the fancy costumes and of course, the heart wrenching ending.

cough cough

oh gosg, i am having another bout of bad cough...it kindda started last friday and it really took a turn for the worse over the weekend...rest assured cos i went to the doctor yesterday and is happily a crackhead downing the cough syrup and a course of anti-biotics.

i really hate coughing, and flu, and fever...they all just messed up your entire life...especially having coughing or a running, or worse, a blocked nose! I am just glad that i am only having a cough cos if not, i'll be unable to sleep with my blocked nose and in t he end, i
'll just get bitchier and bitchier...a bitch that coughs and has a blocked or running nose is sooooo unglam, u lnow what i mean?

Whoa! What A Night @ Butter Factory

Oh my...i am so not sober right now so probably u r seeing lotsa spelling mistakes on this post! anyway. i just reach home from a nioght out at the hip clu called Butter Factory with my bunch of lovely friends and here are the photos:

Guess who i saw there! i saw Claire (who was in my physical science class last semester and actually believe that lauren and jeremy are indeed togethr!)

I met up with Ivy (whom i got to know from the Chile Argentina BSM and since then we have been best nbitching buds)

Well, Ivy was feeling abit desperate for my affection haha....

I also met up with Jillian and boy does she look ravishing or what?!

Ivy and here gal pal, Zhirong

Ivy's friend, Joyce ( I think), Zhirong, Ivy and Jillian


I cannot wait for another night of fun!

I've never walked like this at home before

Today, I brought my buddy Karin to Chinatown (finally after postponing it last week due to bad weather). And we eat lotsa stuff there! Haha, well, when u have a glutton like me as a buddy...Sadly though, the Austrian saussage stand was not open (it only operates from 5pm) and I had to come up with a contingency plan. So, I bought her some famous barbequed pork jerky to try whoich she loved! Then, I brought her to Maxwell Hawker Center to try the famous Tian Tian Chicken Rice (apparently, this is the chicken rice to eat here at home cos Mr Anthony Bourdain only eats there). Oh! I also bought some egg tarts from Tong Heng for her to savour!

In case you think all we did today was eat, then obviously you are so not reading the headline of this post. Yes we did alot alot ALOT if walking...We walked from Outram MRT to Chinatown, then I also brought her to the Hindu Temple, the Buddhist Tooth Relic Center and we even waled to Tanjong Pagar, and Raffles Place. Oh, as if walking across 3 MRT stations was not enought, I even brought her across the Singapore River to Asian Civilisations Museum. Seriously, I never though I will walk like this at home! I mean, for god christ's sake, this is not Rome you know...If not for the food, I'd so never even bother to walk all these!

Well, one interesting we saw was that we chanced upon a school production at the Old Parliement House which is noiw called the Arts House and these group of Thai students were putting on a really weirf play called, The Boy who ate 7 blah blah blah, whetever, I was soooo enjoying the air con and comfort of the seats in the Cabinet that darling, I ain't pay no attention to the play (yes, and I am doing the finger stick out neck swiveling action as this comes out if my mouth)

But one fun thing was the photo I took below:








Apparently I dunno if it's an actual arts installation or some prank but I so agree with the humour! Sir Raffles had the vision, but it was the migrant workers that actually built this city! haha... And they placed the humour piece directly opposit the statue of Raffles! haha...even Karin found it hilarious.

Why are we so old?

It's always nice to meet up with old friends, but when you realises that the friends you are meeting have a friendship spanning 7 years, you know you are so getting old...well, and what do old friends like to do? Well, for sure, this old man likes to infuse himself with various alcoholic stuff.

I met up with the lovely SIA gal Ling, Peiyi, Bunny Brandon, Xinni and Derrick (who had just came back from Shanghai in China on exchange) and we all had a lovely dinner at this seafood restaurent by the Singapore River call Jumbo (whichi happens to be a fairly goof seafood restaurent with various outlets across Singapore). The menu? We had fried venison with spring onions and ginger, fried baby squid (which was amazingly crunchy), fried rice, stewed tofu with various mushroom (amazing dish, by the way), otameal prawns (which were de-shelled so that we can eat with ease) and local favourite, chilli crab with buns. The meal was amazingly satisfying! So what were a bunch of 24 year olds up to after such a gratifying meal? Well, we decided to cross the river and head down to Clark Quay for some drinks.

We tried to get into Pump Room, but the ultra gay door bitch (and I really mean Bitch with a capital B) was like: Sorry, but tables are reserved for diners only and most in your group has to eat. Desserts, light snack, please go to the bar. Anyway, the last order for food will be in 15 minutes; after that, what you guys do in the place, I don';t really care.

Needless to say, this bitch (=me) was not really up in bitchy-vana, so I decided to let that gay be...erm...gay. Pal and i headed to China One but the place was also fulled and after 10 min or so on the very traditional wooden bed, we all decided that, darlings, we are not so hard up for drinks that we gotta be in such a state, do we?

So, we head over HedKandi bar and goddness gracious me, luckily we head there cos we managed to get a nice area and we had like 4 jugs of 1-for1 housepours (=8 jugs) and a bottle of house white. Xinni was so gone thaty she had to attempt the Merlion to erm...de-toxify herself from the jugs of Vodka Cranberry, Whiskey Coke, Vodka 7-up, and Wine. In the end she was so badly merlionish that she had to skip the Rum 7-Up(which sucks by the way).

After the binge drinking, we all head over to Mac's at Liang court for some tender McNuggets and Fries while Ling and her bf, Don decided to head home. Gosh, when it comes to a bunch of 24 year olds, staying till 1 is such a challange. but we all made it! In fact, we all managed to pull through till 2! haha...old pathetic losers!

How does Peiyi still look so awake after a week or "I'm rushing on a project"?


Xinni, Derrick, Ling and Brandon:


"She's so lucky to have gotten brown eye-shadow" Ling and the media-whore


Don with her ultra anorexic looking stewardess gf, Ling, Peiyi and Derrick (who looks like Strawberry Shortcake with his Made-In-China Hairdo)


The Hamster and the Bunny

LA-Z-Boy

Yes! I finally gotten rid of the disgusting ole' sofa sitting in the living room and bought a new gorgeous La Z Boy recliner. Yes, it is for ME, not anyone else in the family (meaning the MUM) but just me. haha...Anyway, this model is too huge for her, so i guess she's just have to be happy with the new fridge she got and the cheapo 20 bucks make shift recliner chair made of elastic straps. Well at leats the MUM has got a better bed than me...Am i the sourpuss or what?

More of Thailand!

Hey guys! Remember the lovely trip I took to Bangkok to look for the lovely 'Tigers' 2 weeks ago? Well, Tina finally managed to pass me her set of photos so that I can whore myself to you readers...

Remember the lovely cafe called Another Hound? Well, I was so excited by my Roast Beef Salad that you can see I really really wanted to attack the dish


Tina ordered a lovely crayfish Tom Yum with Stuffed Ravioli which was delicious!

Vanessa had the traditional Thai dish called Pad Thai whoch according to a famous Singaporean food blogger, Unami, is the best she had in Bangkok; hence I told Van to see if the comment is true...of course it was and Van loved every bite of the dish!

That night, Cha, Mook and Fon drove us to this lovely Thia restaurent and we had a great dinner!

The restaurant sits besides the Chao Praya River and had a magnificent view! Ain't it lovely?

Cha is the driver and man, she has great driving skills!

The Toigers and 2 irritating attention seekers...

After dinner, we went to Khao San Road, the backpackers' heaven for a walk and some drinks...

Now that school has started, I really missed the times in Bangkok with my lovely Thai friends!