Catching up during the New Year

Hey folks, just came home from a bit of catching up with my ex-band mates. It was a pretty nice meeting for everyone (I think everybody enjoyed themselves, at least I did), caught up with a lot of people whom I have not met in a long time like Weijian, Chermin, Rushan, Kimberly, Sijie (she's married and has a kid already, and the kid is already 2 months old), Imis, Arthur and Melvin. It was really great to just chat with them and just to get to know how everyone is doing now. Its a very different kind of feeling chatting with people you meet every now and then, and friends whom you've not seen in a long while. And surprisingly, I still feel quite close to a lot of them, especially Weijian (no wonder he is my best friend in school). Its like sometimes when you meet each other so often, when you see them, there's just nothing much to say. But today we were like chatting and chatting and chatting, and the conversation just doesn't stop. We had so much to share with each other, even just listening to what he's working as now to his family and his relationship, it just doesn't seem to end. Well, its great to know that everyone is doing pretty well now, some of us are still studying now, some have already graduated and are working now. And some are married (even with kids), others are in pretty strong relationships that seem to be going in the getting-married-soon category. I never thought I'll think this way, but looking at all my friends getting hitched, sometimes I do feel that maybe it is time I try to find a mate for myself. At least I should try to pluck up some courage and maybe get a partner. I always thought that there's no big deal about getting a partner or not (I mean at most I'll just remain single all my life), but really when you start seeing that everyone is working towards a married life, the reality does set in that I'm going to be only one who is lonely (and it doesn't help that I'm still into those stuff). So I guess my new year resolution this year would be to try and get a girlfriend, haha. Well V-day is less than a week away, and I guess I'm gonna be spending it alone again this year, haiz.

After the catching up session with my band-mates, I drove over to Huan's place, they were playing poker there (Huan and Cy bought a set of chips just to play poker, and it cost something like $150). I wasn't too keen on poker (never seem to have luck in card games), so I just sat there to watch the game and try my hands that doing the poker chip tricks. Trying the chip tricks was actually quite interesting, but of couse got a little tired so I left before thery ended. There are another 10 more days before CNY 'officially' ends, so I guess I'll just keep enjoying myself and see what my life has installed for me... haha. Huat Ah!!!

On the second day of new year, my true love gave to me...

This new year has been pretty quiet so far. Generally my AB Index (Ang Bao Index) is in recession, haven't counted the amount, but can sense that its much lesser than before. I'm expecting it of be less than 1/2 of what I on a good year. So far haven't visited any of my friends yet, but in any case I seldom visit my friends during new year. Have been at home of the last 2 days, didn't really go anywhere except the usual places that I go to during CNY.

Well now planning the annual trip to mess up Pauline's house but we are sort of in a bit of a fix. Initially I thought that only Dennis will have some problem about making it on Sunday evening so we tried our best and arranged it in the afternoon, then Ah Hwa had to drop the bomb that he's occupied from 10.30 in the morning till about 4 in the afternoon. So that basically seals the entire day. Now I'm just hoping that Pauline did not free the day just for us (because initially she told me that she could not make it on Sunday afternoon, after that she messaged me to tell me that her appointment is canceled). It would be so bad of us to make things so difficult for her. I mean if I am her, I would be pretty pissed off, I'm opening my house to all of you and even rearranging my time for you guys and you play me out at the last minute. So I just hope that she did not make any special arrangements for us, or I would feel so bad. Think I'll message her to say thank you to her after the date is settled.

Once again, Happy New Year, hopefully this year will be a much better year for me and my family! Huat Ah!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year Everybody!!!! Huat Ah!!!! You huat, I huat, everybody huat ah!!!! Wahahaha. Yup, here's the first blog of the new year, nothing much to do now, just had a very hearty and super filling reunion dinner. As usual we didn't managed to finish even 1/2 of the food, also had the usual Lo Hei. Well now watching some new year variety show by channel 8. So practicing the usual Shou Sui ritual, its supposed to be something that every child does, legend has it that the later you sleep during the first day of new year, the longer will be the life of your parents. So I'm doing this not only of my parents, but also my grandma and all my aunts and uncles. Here's wishing them all the best for the new year, stay healthy and wealthy for ever and ever....

Everybody Huat Ah!

Tis the season to be jolly...

Its CNy eve today, and I'm stuck at home preparing for the reunion dinner. More or less settled most of the cutting, the soup is ready, so we just waiting for my mum to come back and finish up the rest. In the mean time I was looking through the career pamphlets that I took from the career fair last week, and its giving me quite a headache. I really have no idea what I should apply to. My brother and mum told me to just apply to every company (which was what I was thinking of doing initially), because not all of them will reply and also it'll increase my chances of getting somewhere after graduation. I thought of doing things like that too. But the problem is, some of the job scopes really don't suit me well. I don't really want to do a very engineering job, nothing too technical (maybe just a little bit), but the investments and bank jobs are not hot property. Everyone, including business and engine students are vying for jobs there, so that means that there's a larger number of competitors. Not only that, the financial world is not really all that familiar to me, so I not sure if I'll be able to make it there. But one thing for sure I'm confident I'll be able to pick up whatever is thrown to me. But that'll take some time, don't know is the companies have the patience to wait for me. Well, I haven't decided on my employment strategy yet, now gotta get my cover letter written as soon as possible, and hopefully everything will become clearer soon.

CNY

CNY is just looming around the corner, its ang bao time again. hahaha. Well just had my reunion dinner with Mum's side yesterday. We went to Jumbo seafood at Tanah Merah Safra for dinner. Dinner was great, super filling with lots of seafood... Had a great day, we started off with bowling, and my uncle wanted to up the stakes said that we should pool in $10 each, so the winner of the round gets everything. Of course he won, damn. I was pretty unlucky, wasted my strike or I would have had a chance of topping the table. In the end I came in second. After bowling was dinner and followed by KTV. As usual, KTV became sort of a personal concert. Don't know why the kids are all so shy to sing, the same goes to most of the adults so I was sort of singing song after song to entertain everyone. It was until the end that the kids were more into it (because my uncle told them that they would get $5 for every song they sing, haiz the sad truth).

Well something more interesting happened the other day, I was asked by jteam if I wanted to help out to be an usher for his new movie, "Ah Long Pte Ltd". Of course I agreed, and it was so fun. Basically we had 2 sessions, one at the press conference, at Inter-continental Hotel and the second movie screening at Vivo-city. At both sessions we had to act as the henchmen of Fann Wong, so when she walks the aisle we had to raise the fake parangs. It was pretty funny, especially at Vivo. People around us were frightened when we took out the parangs and walked around the mall. And the best part was, we even went to celebrate someone's (some passer-by) birthday. The crew was great, very fun-loving. The down side was the grumpy bus driver, we forgot to take our stuff and he kept shouting Joey. He was so rude, come on, its his job to be driving our things around, so just do it lah. Even if we ask you to drive over a thousand times, you'll still have to do it because thats your job. So quit grumbling. Yup after the gig, we were treated to view the preview screening of the movie. Overall, the movie was ok, not that fantastic but about the same standard as all of Jack's other movies. The malaysian accent was very strong and Mark was pretty funny in the movie. But still overall I wouldn't rate this movie very highly, maybe just 2 1/2 - 3 stars. Just watch it when you really don't have any other better things to do.

Cream Puffs

Yoyoyo, Okie to kick start my recipes blog, I will now give everyone a recipe of making cream puffs. I've done them myself and they turned out great, they are very easy to make and these will be making their way to my friends' home this CNY.

Cream Puff Ingredients
1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Butter
4 tbs Sugar
1tbs Salt
1 Cup Flour
3-4 eggs

1 Cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbs Custard Powder
2 tbs Sugar
1 tsp Salt

1. Puff: Preheat the oven at 180 degree celcius. Combine the water, butter, salt and sugar into a large pot. Bring this mixture to a boil on medium heat. After the mixture starts boiling, turn off the heat and add the flour to the mixture. Note that all the flour should be added in one go. Once the flour is added, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it forms a yellowish dough. Continue folding the dough a few more times.

2. Transfer the dough to another bowl and mix the eggs in one at a time. Ensure that the dough mixture returns to a smooth consistency after the addition of every egg. (Note: if the dough feels too wet after the 3rd egg, just skip the 4th egg).

3. Drop the dough mixture on a baking tray, making each puff about 1 inch wide and 1 inch high. Ensure that some space is kept between each puff as the puff will expand a little during the baking process. Bake the puffs in an oven 180 degrees celcius for about 25 mins.

4. Cream: Add milk, sugar and salt into a saucepan and heat the mixture up on low heat. Stir the mixture continuously to prevent the bottom from burning. When the mixture starts to bubble and cuddle, add the custard powder into the milk and stir. Continue stirring until the custard becomes much thicker, add a little more custard powder if required. Once the consistency is attained, put the custard into the fridge to cool.

5. Cut the puffs in half, the inside of the puffs should be hallow. Spoon a portion of the custard into the puff. Put the filled puffs into the fridge to chill. Serve them cold (well I like them cold, but its really up to you to decide), you can also dust some sugar powder onto the top of the puffs to give them a nicer look, a little snowy effect.

Cooking Ma Ma

Hey dudes, my Wii is coming home soon. Going to collect it a little later, finally I can start playing all the fucking games that I want, wahahahaha. And one of the games that I've ordered is cooking ma ma. haha. Which comes to remind me, I do like cooking and baking and stuff like that, so why not I turn my blog into a cooking recipe heaven. So from now on, I will try to update this blog with some recipes of foods that I like, and also include some of the stuff that I made myself. So cool rite. I'm so excited that I think I'll start immediately after this entry.