american grill. these guys took over sizzler in indonesia. they have WARM APPLE CRUMBLE! and the same softserve ice cream. the salad bar isn't so great but hey, they have mushrooms. :) sorry the mains disappeared. it was a 9pm dinner.

and what do you know? they have thai express there too. or did you already know? a bowl of tom yum glass noodles are only 4 dollars sgd. or less. and it tastes just as good. with an appetizer of fried calamari and red bean milkshake.

keropok sayuran: veggie spice cracker appetizer. fried special chilli gurame: juicy meat but the sides were fried to a crunchy crisp. ayam panggang: it looked sadly thin and gaunt. but the marinate was an explosion of flavours with a lovely sweet sauce. finger licking good it was :) and my favourite soup ikan gurame. we've talked about this one already. yum.

the 4 stars jayakarta hotel bandung. the spacious room in the new wing of the hotel and the nice bathroom with folding windows to watch tv while taking a soak in the bathtub. breakfast the morning after. the food was pretty decent. and hot. at least. :)

late dinner at 9pm. after we reached the city area in bandung and had to mercilessly tear ourselves away from the rows of factory outlets. clockwise from top left: sambal for the fish soup, chicken satay (sorry, i dont eat mutton :p), an excellent plate of flavourful nasi goreng- the best ever on this trip, and my lovely gurame soup.

chronology is a problem with me. where my thoughts go. the photos follow. so this was lunch in bandung. from top left clockwise: sambal ayam, hotplate kangkong, sambal (ordered separately as an item on the menu), avocado with milk and coconut sugar and indonesian chicken satay with black sweet sauce mixed with peanut sauce. mmm.

breakfast. a couple of weeks back. it's time for a backlog of blog posts. it's been a while :) banana pancakes with scrambled eggs and mozzarella cheese with honey mangoes fresh from bangkok.

sop ikan gurame. i have not tasted soup made with gurame like this before. it was a simple lovely soup stock rich and chalky. no hint of fishyness and all that muddy taste that usually comes from any other cooking method with freshwater fishes save for deep frying. if you're going up to bandung and would like the address let me know. :)

indonesia was a good break. it wasn't one i looked forward to. to be honest. but it was one that i had a good time with mum and aunt. :) i mean. with ice cream and choc chip teddies? anything's possible. :)

sewingg

it's out of the kitchen and into the sewing room. :) my latest project sewing projects.

breakfast with heart. up in the mountains in chiangmai. after a mad rush trying to get transit tickets at the new survanabhumi airport in thailand. how can you not smile when you get eggs served up to you like that. if it's anything. the thai ppl are indeed service people. :) more to come! it's been a longgg while

tokyo love

it's my fourth day and tokyo. and it's been brilliant fun so far! so much to see/do/eat/buy. yeah i have no idea how long my money is gonna last. but i dont care. i`m having fun. :) the past two days have been like 6h cross country walks. but then it's really just walking around ONE area. ahahha. at most it spans like 2 train stations. there are so many train lines here that its hard to estimate. so i'm talking in rough terms. every day is like a new adventure. :) ikebukuro shopping heaven (but i aint seen nothing yet), ueno`s hk style shops and lovely parks and today's lazy 3.5h day in hibarigaoka. it's just two small dept stores and a quaint walk down streets with all sorts of eating food stores and diff shops. i bought edamame peas from the farmer on the way home. these veggies are harvested fresh every day. sigh. i cant imagine not eating my nice lovely veggies and buying FRESH veggies. the veggie farm is just across the road. it's like totally plucking the veggies yourself :) train rides on the rapid/ semi express and express trains. yeah even taking trains theres so much to look out for. i pretend as if i know what i am doing, where i'm going but then i really dont. hahahah. i can get home safe tho. and that's pretty much the important part :) snacking on corn, beans, peas and tomatoes are the life. ahhh.

it's been a while since i took over the kitchen to cook up a storm. :) work was getting to me. flat out dog tired is as good as a description as i can get. and i really missed the kitchen. i didn't do no stir fry today. the headache was too much to handle but there's what i came up with. a chicken stew, baby bok choy and golden mushrooms and fishball/ cake vermicelli soup. daddy's dinner orders. and he liked it. :) it must be nice to have home cooked food after days of travelling. i wish i could do more. i always have grandplans and i usually carry them out (for the first few days when i was REALLY free). i just need to get back into the flow of things. hopefully have a blast at next weekend's dinner. i'm thinking wok stir fry next week. oh. i also have a camp next week. sigh. we'll see how things work out. for now, tuck in! bless,

what women want. is what they get. haha. coming from me? that's about as bimbo as i get. for someone who's make up interest extend no further than a blusher. i have only the slightest idea about how to go about using such stuff. but they're really pretty aren't they? mummy likes happy things like these too. her skin's too delicate. so she does get certain allergies. i hope these are gentle enough for her :) stila sweet.

my spot of sunshine. directly translated those are boxes of 'tai yang bing' = sun biscuits. aunt and little cousin were back from taiwan a while back and these were handcarried home for me! yum. they aren't very impressive looking biscuits. but they taste wonderful. it's basically malt candy in flaky pastry. and if you toast them just a tad before eating... :) the family's been jetsetting for a bit. i hope i get to hop on to the bandwagon soon. my haphazard planning skills. sigh. the Y's my second home right now. i love going in for a few hours a time to just help clear stuff. who's tired when they are doing some good with their lives? i can't wait to see my friends at camp in the coming weekkk! :)

there! and 've only covered 3% of the world. my wanderlust grows in strength. hahah.

This, i ate lots of. and hey, so did my brothers. thick. juicy pieces of sashimi. who could resist. okay for those who don't know better. and that's my parents. boring people who eat cooked food. hhahahh. genting highlands for a day was enough for me (sort of) save for the lousy movie timings. the brothers managed to catch x3 there. while the parents and i went to the casino. different ones we were at. i managed to lost 30 ringgit in 45 minutes and that's the end of my stint with the casino for the day. you could dine at certain restaurants with points that you earn from the casino. which of course since i play low, i get none. ahhaha. but daddy had some. and we had dinner buffet for free. at the coffee terrace. it's like buffet spread at The Line. for once, they had variety and taste. i was impressed. wok fried vegetables had 'wok hei' which a lot of other places lack. even seafood pasta wasn't overwhelmed by pasta but by sweet seafood instead. yum. and sashimi. that satisfied my long time cravings for a bit. yum. :) ok if you really wanna ask about my kl trip it's really all about food. more and more food. hahahha. i had the breakfast buffet every morning and it was yummy. more so the extra cheese omelette than anything else. hahaha. then there were the sides of baked beans and hashbrown. i wish i took photos. but then that's just embarrassing myself. :) you'll just have to believe my tummy. haha. i had a good trip. it was fun. mostly.

brenda
adj. more cute than usual.
"Big sis, you are way more brenda than Mom."

I wish

perfect princess jamie must be a happy girl :) too bad i'm not jamie. but i'm not missing out either. the favourite boy makes time for me. where do you find carl's jr portabello mushroom burger on demand! so the cameras have taken off hence my hiatus. dad's in bangkok, mum and brother's in batu pahat with the aunt and cousin. josh's away on his ncc camp. that leaves. well. me. it feels horrid to be family-less. (technically speaking anyway) 've got grandparents and my aunt and cousins. but still. it was a sleepless night last night. it's possibly subconcious. and i haven't done 3 hour-ish phone conversations in a long while. i heart you many. :)

Perfect Princess Jamie lives in a kingdom far far away,
Where she rules with much wisdom every single day.

It has been said that Princess Jamie has a magic pearl,
Which she loves more than anything in this world.

This magic pearl gives her everything and fulfils her every need,
So you see my friends, it truly is a very special pearl indeed.

The princess took the pearl with her no matter where she went,
People tried to ask her to put it down but she would not relent.

She was afraid she would lose it if it ever went out of her sight.
So she clung onto it so tightly every day and every night.

One day, she heard a voice that spoke so clearly from above,
He said, “You have to learn to let go of the pearl, my love”

Princess Jamie thought long and hard, she paced up and down,
And as she thought she began to pout and soon she started to frown

Would the princess be able to let go of the pearl she held so dear?
Could she find it within herself to overcome her greatest fear?

She wrestled with the thoughts that were racing through her mind,
And she heard God tell her, “My dear child, everything will be fine”

An unmistakable sense of calm overwhelmed her from head to toe,
All of a sudden, knowing He was there was all she needed to know.

So she placed the magic pearl in her room and went out for the day,
Somehow knowing in her heart that the pearl would surely stay.

When the princess had done all that she needed to do,
She returned to her room and found out it was true.

God had promised her that things would turn out for the best,
And she learned that day that in so many ways she was blessed.


She had Him who loved her more than anything else in the world,
And she broke into a glorious smile when she saw the magic pearl.

The pearl had remained exactly where she had left it,
It had not moved from its position, not even a tiny bit!

So today Princess Jamie is the happiest princess there will ever be,
For she knows some things remain forever—they are there eternally.