Arrival back in Singapore & Dad's birthday celebration

Well, I returned to Singapore first, as it was my dad's birthday on 29 Sep, and I wanted to be around to wish him happy birthday. Marcus could not make the trip with me, as he had to work, and he only flew back to Singapore on 30 Sep.

It was a fantastic time, being back in Singapore hearing Singlish/English/Mandarin/Manglish, everything that I can understand, with vehicles that follow traffic rules and regulations, and seeing my family members!

My aunties and uncles came over to celebrate my dad's birthday too!


As usual, the kids will end up in my room, and on the bed. :D


Birthday 'boy' with the cake surrounded by children, non of them his!


Okie, now his three kids are in the picture too


And his wife is also in the picture now.


And then we sing him a birthday song, wished him happy birthday, he blew out his candles and cut the cake, and we gave him his present


An opposite shot. Why opposite? Cause in this picture, everything that was stationary appears as moving, while the only moving subject (Sherwyn) is still!

There was good food, which I forgot to take pictures of (again!) and it was a good way to return to Singapore. With people that I love most in this world (missing Marcus of cause!)

What's Cooking! (Sep 09)

Made curry chicken again one day.. Because.. I found some gems in the supermarket!


French Bread (jiam tao lou di) and roti prata!


Of cause, the curry chicken also tastes delicious drenching white rice


Steamed a pomfret with lots of ginger, tomatoes, chinese mushrooms and garnishing, and fried an egg with onions to go along


Sambal sotong


Mee Goreng


Grilled pork chop marinated with rosemary and italian herbs on a bed of pasta


Home made tiramisu


Close up of the tiramisu


Chicken meat sauteed in chinese cooking wine


Mix it with chinese sausages and ginger, and place it on top of 3/4 cooked rice and finish the rice-cooking process, and you'll get claypot chicken!


Kailan with minced meat


ABC soup (carrots, tomatoes, minced meatballs and onions) with rice


Steak with mushroom sauce and broccoli and home-made potato wedges


Typical breakfast food - scrambled eggs, french toast and bacon


Breakfast food - scrambled eggs, french toast and ham


Broccoli, enoki mushrooms and sliced pork


Chicken soup with fishballs, minced meatballs with chinese mushrooms and cabbage

What's Cooking! (Aug 09)

Minced meat with potato, oyster sauce chicken and baked beans with luncheon meat and minced meat. This is the problem with cooking for two. Whenever I cook minced meat, I use it in a few dishes, cause no matter how little I marinate, it always seems too much for one dish!


Home-made ngoh hiang


Braised pig trotters


Chicken rice with poached chicken and braised eggs (I used my bento egg-shaper to form the rabbit shaped egg)


Laksa with eggs, taupok and prawns


Stewed pork with rice and a fried egg


Mee Siam with eggs and shredded chicken


Cook curry chicken, and you get different ways of eating!


Curry chicken with mee kia


Curry chicken with rice


Macaroni soup with fishballs, crabsticks, carrots, shreded chicken and garnishing

Weekend at 丹灶鎮仙湖 (29-30 Aug)

Over dinner on Friday, we decided to head to 丹灶 the next day for a relaxing spa session. This was the same place where we went last December during winter.


A picture of our room from the entrance.



The bed and Marcus eating! haha


The washroom


The view from our room


This is actually a man-made beach.


We rented a motor boat and went out to the lagoon beyond. There, a fish actually jumped into our boat! AND our boat was not the sampan kind okie!


Back entrance of the resort.


The entrance/exit of the resort


Playground


The pond where you can 捕鱼 (literally meaning you catch the fish with your hands)


The pond where you can 钓鱼 (meaning you fish with a fishing rod) Both are totally different.


A view of the lagoon

Did not take any pictures while we were on the water, as initially, we were supposed to go canoeing, and I did not want to risk my camera getting wet. However, as they only had one single-seater canoe, and one double-seater canoe, Marcus and Daniel went for the double-canoe (and gave up after 10mins as it was leaking water), and Allan went for the single-seater one. The rest of us were on the motor-boat.

And after dinner, we headed to our favourite activity at 丹灶... SPA..




The jacuzzi in the personal hut (flash on. If not, cannot see anything!)


Arghh! Caught by the flash of the peeping Tom! :D Marcus is all changed into the disposable clothes meant for usage in the jacuzzi pool


The massage bed


Tea and sweet dessert after the whole spa experience is done

This time round, we went for the RMB388 package, 160mins - 泡浴、熏蒸、面部淋巴排毒、身體淋巴排毒. That means there is the jacuzzi soak, the aromatic steam, facial lymphatic drainage and body detoxification. Left actually rather disappointed, as it turned out to be a facial, where they spent majority of time on our face, and the body massage was rather short in comparison!

The cheaper package at RMB298 for 120mins was more relaxing - 泡浴、熏蒸、頭部刮痧按摩、身體精油按摩. Same thing, you have the jacuzzi and aromatic steam, followed by a oil massage for your body, and kuasa on your scalp. That, was truly a relaxing experience. We have not been to a place where they actually do head scraping (kua sa) before, and it was definitely superb.