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It’s more blessed to give than to receive

and yet, I am the receiver. I’m blessed. Thank you!

I believe I have been kinda out of touch with some of my friends in SG – I tried to keep in touch but since we don’t meet up often.. we drift apart. ah… it’s sad.. and inevitable.

I’m glad that I still have a couple of friends.. who always rem… it’s not the gift, it’s the thoughts and the intentions that touched me deeply. It may not mean anything to you but at that instant, I knew that I was in your thoughts 🙂 What an honor!

Evelyn sent me a Bra Bag – which I had been looking to buy for a long time! I felt that it is super useful for traveling. I LOVE IT TO BITS! She also got it in my fave colour 🙂 I’m so glad…. Just when I thought she was so sweet… she made her gift even sweeter by giving me a pair of really retro cool earrings!! Double happiness.. I literally flew up to the sky!




Caryn, knowing that I had been sick sent me VitC.. OMG!!! I was so touched that I could cry… She is so sweet.. she always rems… thank you!!! You shld have seen BH when he saw the Bak Kwa.. haha… he was like “I could eat all in 1 go!”


Thank you…. and Thank you again 🙂 I may be poor… BUT for 1 thing I know.. I am rich when I have friends like you! 🙂

Found this online and I just wanna remind myself and put it here..

Do It Anyway By Mother Theresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
And self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
Of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
False friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank;
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway.

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New Layout!!

Like finally! 😀

BH managed to help us out with this.. with me providing the idea.. It’s a simple design but I like it!hehehe

Hope the green background makes reading more pleasing to the eyes? Enjoy!!

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1st *real* physical exam

[READ WITH AN OPEN MIND]

I told myself that no matter how busy I am, I need to blog about this.

AFTER my many visits to the doctor this year ( 5 times in 2 mths) , my friend advice me to go for a physical exam.. just for in case. ok, my first reaction to this is ‘eek… so paiseh…’ then again.. as the quote goes ‘prevention is better than cure’

I scheduled for this checkup 2 weeks ago and went for the exam on this fateful morning. (Note: To schedule after period) Lucky thing, I had seen Dr Le like for so many times.. I feel so comfy with her. haha… even the nurse/assistant and the receptionist know me.

The nurse took my weight, height and pressure then instructed me to undress completely and put on the gown. Then Dr Le came in and explain to me what she’s going to do. Amazingly, I don’t feel awkward with her. So we were chit-chatting ( likes friends) then she checked the ears, eyes, hair, scalp.

Then she did a breast exam – geee… it’s the first time since adulthood that I have a another person other than my husband touch me there! hehehe… I tried not to think about it and the process was … erm fast

Next, PAP smear. The way Dr Le describe it is “it’s abit like having intercourse” In my head, I giggled abit and wondered if I’ll have an orgasm.. wahaha… I know.. I just wanna blog about this because ALOT OF PEOPLE think that having PAP smear is ‘weird’ BUT it’s really like having intercourse. She lubricated this plastic long tool ( which we both laughed and agree that it looks like a penis) into my vagina then used another smaller tool to scrape the walls of the cervix. The moment lasted less than 5 mins? I thought it was fast and felt quite good? hahaha.. Just when I thought it was over, she needed to put her finger inside the vagina then press my abdomen to check my uterus.. a little weird to be fingered by another woman.. but … ok *swallow saliva*

After which, the nurse came in and gave me a Tetanus jab ( need to take this vaccine every 10 years)

I walked out of the procedure room feeling like… I just had sex with my doctor :X

ohh… then I went to the lab to draw blood for cholesterol test .. and that’s about it!

The whole checkup took 45 mins and insurance covered it all!

Now, I hope the results are good….

and I think I had an interesting trip to the doctor once again! wahaha

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Morning chat

It’s Dec already! so fast!! I wish time would stop for me 🙁

I have been here for 3 years and it had been a wonderful 3 years… I love almost every moment I spent here (except the times I go to the doctor) Yes, I do complain at times… BUT i still like my life now

I think I have reached a certain point in my life that I want to settle down ( not have kids) – I just want to belong in 1 place and know that things won’t change. I used to like moving so as to have ‘change in environment/feng shui’. However, for now… I just want things to remain stagnant and unchanged. Maybe SG is small… everyone goes thru’ a natural progression of things: Go to school, date, get HDB, get married, give birth. Over here, we have more options. People don’t say “You need to have kids early, you are getting old” .. haha… it’s common to take birth control pills though

Everyday, I toyed with the thought of going back to SG with BH. My reasons:
1) When I’m sick, I know where to seek help
2) When I’m lost, I know who to get advice from
3) when I’m hungry, I know where to find good food
4) We have our home there

BH disagreed with me. He countered most of my reasons with his reasons:
1) You NEED to pay to seek help from a doctor
2) You can call home. We have friends here – game to meet up anytime even if it’s a weekday!
3) Ok, food-wise, there’s nothing I can say
4) So what if it’s a HDB. The best we can go is a Condo. When our family gets bigger, we can get a BIG house here

In BH’s opinion, he thinks that ‘money is not an issue’ and that the quality of life is better here. What I always wanted is a home, a real home… how everything is nice and perfect – that’s what I have been saving up for. Now the money is reserved to repay the bond. In SG, I can get everything I want NOW (which will make BH and I unhappy people because we will work like crazy)

Finally, BH said something new which I have never heard before. “Amanda, you are very short-sighted and you keep making all these mistakes. Money is not a problem. I need to GUIDE you to see how this is going to help us in long-term”

I shut up… thought about all my mistakes and decided to let BH ‘guide’ me. We will get there some time… not soon… but some time.

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Flightless bird

I think I just had the BEST Thanksgiving week ever 🙂

We watched Breaking Dawn, which I had been waiting for A THOUSAND YEARS. hahaha… nah… just to get this clear. I like Twilight series not because of the actors/actresses BUT I like the story, esp Edward’s personality. Well, I enjoyed the movie BUT BH obviously didn’t. hahaha… I love the soundtrack too… found so many good songs for wedding… OMG!! So romantic! I wanna get married again!! I rem how BH and I can’t think of any good songs during 6eptember .. now my whole head is filled with ideas… sigh…. I only blame myself for NOT putting my wedding as priority then. Then again, it’s not the wedding day that counts.. it’s what’s after 🙂

BH also had his 1 week break so we made plans for a small road trip. This time, we have Justin and Alina to join us. It was fun to travel together. haha… like double dating.. heh… The last time we travelled with another couple was like at least 8 years ago ( with Ben and Adeline) well.. glad we had ‘fresh meat’ to join us! The bad part of he trip was it was raining heavily the whole time – The good AWESOME and AMAZING company made up for it! 😀 Thank you!

We went to Kennedy School for dinner on 1st night. It’s something like Old School in Singapore ( which I haven’t gone) It was quite an experience for us.. and kinda creepy too! hehe





The next day, we went to Tilamook cheese factory and visited the Haystack on Cannon Beach





It was a nerve-wrecking trip along the Oregon coast as WE WERE RUNNING OUT OF PETROL. There’s no petrol kiosk nearby!!! OMG… the needle on the petrol guage was below the empty line and the ‘warning lights’ were on ( Petrol Kisok was 10 miles away) !!! Just as the GPS shuts down…. we found the petrol kiosk . Phew!!! Reminder: Top-up petrol b4 driving along the coast esp on a rainy day!

Just as we thought that was gonna be the ‘highlight’ of the trip…. our GPS directed us up a ferry as we made our way back to Portland!





It was quite an adventure as none of us had seen such a small ferry over a lake! haha… it was like a floating platform which could take about 4-6 cars! How interesting!

We had a fruitful trip , not much pictures as it was raining the whole time!!! :/
We would love to go for another trip together soon!!!

—————
The next day was Thanksgiving Party at Dave and Jo’s home. haha.. it was nice to meet everyone again… we played Mafia, which is a super fun party game and I am such a bad mafia.. always get caught :/

I had a great week that it was so weird to have BH and I having dinner at home.. haha.. too quiet… It had been too noisy the past week.. hehe

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I just wanna be ok today

I figured out that I better blog an entry here to update what’s happening so far.

Social

WE have been very social this year that we missed having time with ourselves.. haha.. no.. don’t get me wrong.. we or rather I like to be with people… just that BH feels that he would like to spend more time doing his own things like work?

Oh well.. BH and I went for 2 Halloween parties this year..it was an amazing experience.. considering that it’s like the FIRST Halloween that we participated! We were very low cost on our costumes. I was a Red Indian while BH was a Pirate. erm… we were very underdressed.

First Party: Bh’s company party – Wah… it’s always good to go to a generous party. The music… the drinks… the food… Fantastic! Together with valet parking.. Nothing compared to my ‘stingy’ company

Second party: Halloween at Denny+Sam’s place. It was the BEST party so far!!! Enjoyed ourselves very much. The party only ended at 4am!!! OMG!

The survivors at 4am!

Health

BH had been quite busy and stressed out with work lately… so I leave him alone most of the time….

On the other hand, I realised that I may have another infection (similar to last time) on my leg 🙁 I made an apptment with the doc and will be seeing her on friday. I have no idea what’s wrong with me

Travel

We plan to drive to Portland for a short getaway during BH’s Thanksgiving break. Really looking forward to it.. Looking forward to enjoying each other’s company 🙂

Kitchen

I am thrilled with myself when I looked back and realised that I cooked so much delicious food 🙂 Sorry, no pictures.. to name a few… I made Fried carrot cake (again), Chicken rice and more! Just yesterday, I made Chocolate Chiffon Cake ( unplanned baking session with myself) and I was very happy with how it turned out!

ahh… I love my life now… I hope what I’m experiencing now is not the LAST of everything 🙁

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Sausage Rolls Recipe

I always think that breadmaking is a good way to relieve stress. I rem how I was really excited about breadmaking during NIE days. haha.. and my bread turns out to be ‘hard like rock’ I believe I blogged about this before ( under the fakedevil domain – I wonder if BH keeps the old entries?) Anyhow, kneading by hand is a good exercise – I perspire buckets in SG .. Thank God of the cold weather here… haha.. I perspired but not in buckets! hehe…

I am truely happy with the results of yesterday’s bakes… I kinda know it will turn out well… the texture, the smell – It was all correct! Near perfection if u ask me. And yes, I won’t do anything if I know I can’t perfect it. haha… That’s y I kinda miss Jo’s company ( she’s feeling under the weather) while baking , she’s a experimental baker.

So because Jo wasn’t with me… I got BH to send me to her place to pass her the bread. I know she will appreciate trying my bakes more than BH.. grrr… oh yes.. I got a earful from BH about the traffic… maybe we shld just buy a house and live near them! haha..

Ok.. here’s the recipe… FYI, bread is still soft & tasty the next morning! and BH commented that ‘It taste like it’s from the bakery!’ 🙂

Sausage Rolls Recipe [modified with my personal baking notes]

Source: Food-4Tots via Rasamalaysia + Picture reference from Dailydelicious

Ingredients:

300g bread flour
5g instant dried yeast ( I used Fleischmann’s Rapidrise highly active yeast)
10g sugar
6 g salt
30g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg plus whole milk, about 220-230g
8 pieces sausages
1 egg white + 2 teaspoons water, for egg wash

Method:
1.Put flour and yeast in a bowl and combine. Add the sugar and salt and mix well.

2.Heat milk to about 130 F.(Use kitchen thermometer to measure)

3.Break egg in bowl then pour milk until it is around 220-230gm.

4. Pour milk+egg mixture into the flour mixture bowl. Use a large spoon (or pastry scraper) to mix everything together.

5.Knead briefly to put everything together. (It will look v messy at this point – Stay calm and carry on)

6. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead. You will feel the dough become elastic after kneading for about 5 minutes.( I took about 10 mins)

7.Add the butter and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until the dough is soft, pliable, smooth and slightly shiny, almost satiny. You can also try stretching part of the dough, if it stretches into a thin sheet without breaking, the dough is ready.( I took 1 hr!!! It was tiring)

8.Put the dough into a lightly buttered bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough rise in a warm place* until its size doubles (1 – 1 ½ hour depending on the room temperature).

9.Take the dough out of the bowl, deflate it by touching lightly.

10.Cut the dough into 8 pieces, roll into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and let them rest for 10 minutes.

11.Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into long cylinders, about 40cm in length (depends on the length of the sausage). Roll to enclose the sausage, with the end of the dough facing down.

12.Place the rolls on a tray lined with parchment paper. Cover the rolls and let it rise until it almost doubles in size. Brush lightly with some egg wash. Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the rolls turn light brown.

Note:
*I place my dough in the oven ( Not on) to proof

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Freeze time

I have been very occupied that’s y I haven’t been blogging 🙂 Occupied in a good way. I was glad that the horrible month of September went by and welcomed October with sinful cupcakes!

Above all, I am very happy that Sam intro Jo to me , whom I learnt alot of baking and cooking techniques/skills from! Well, so we have been cooking, baking, experimenting in the kitchen together for the past weeks. Cooking and sharing food is so fun! I admire her spontaneous attitude, how she is open to mistakes and her determination to perfect a dish. I pity Jo because I don’t think she learn anything from me.. I am just so unadventurous and cautious. haha… anyhow.. the point is I learnt alot from her! I am grateful for that!

Just yesterday, I causally mentioned that I felt like trying out ‘Cai Tao Kuay’ (Fried Radish cake) and Jo was like ‘Let’s do it today! I go buy the ingredients and head to your house now!’ I was delighted with her enthusiasm! heh… In the end, we made more than Fried Radish Cake, we also made Yong Tau Foo and ngioh Hiang. We had a fabulous time ( like always) .. Sam was awefully missed ( I think she’s experimenting with her pretty Kitchenaid.. haha)

A picture to rem one of the great meals we had together





I cherish these moments and I wish it will NEVER end!

And just to add.. we also play boardgames together! Oh man… it’s so addictive and we are meeting up for more tonight! haha..

I rem how I always wished that BH and I will get to know new friends together.. and we finally did… in a foreign land. I love my life now..

Freeze time… ok?

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For Good

That’s the song on my blog for now. Heard this song on Glee then went for Wicked and found this song to be super meaningful. It’s such a powerful song (in BH’s words) .. haha.. I believed that we both teared when we heard this song.. well.. it’s very touching…

Can you rem a time when u felt so alone and needed a friend? Then by chance this friend came along and befriended you? Suddenly, as years gone by… you lost touch with this friend… BUT when you see or hear ‘something’, you will automatically just think of her/him? In my opinion, this song just describes the whole process

————–

ELPHABA
I’m limited
Just look at me, I’m limited and look at you, you can do all I couldn’t do, Glinda
Now it’s up to you
(spoken): for both of us
(sung): now it’s up to you

GLINDA
I’ve heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason Bringing something we must learn and we are led to those
Who help us most to grow if we let them
And we help them in return
Now I don’t know if I believe that’s true
But I know I’m who I am today because I knew
you…

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better
But because I knew you, I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me is what I have learned from you
You’ll be with me, like a handprint on my heart
Now whatever way our stories may end
I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend…

Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better
But because I knew you, I have been changed for
good

GLINDA
Because I knew you…

BOTH
I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness for what you blame me for…

GLINDA
Well I guess there is blame to share…

BOTH
And none of it seems to matter anymore

GLINDA (same time as Elphaba)
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood

ELPHABA (same time as Glinda)
Like a ship blown off its mooring by a wind off the sea
like a seed dropped by a skybird in the wood

BOTH
Who’s to say if I’ve been changed for the better?

GLINDA
Because I knew you

ELPHABA
Because I knew you

BOTH
I have been changed for good

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warranty period

“so which doctor are we seeing today?” Bh asked

damn…so between BH and I, I am the screwed up one… Maybe age is catching up with me.. i have so much health problems recently 🙁

So I went to the oral surgeon’s office and saw the OS’s Ka-kiah (OS not avalable) – told her that it’s been over a week and the extraction site still hurts. Well, she merely dismissed me by giving me an oral wound dressing (which is finishing) and told me that it could be abit of Dry Socket. WTF! Not helping… I only survived 24hrs w/o painkillers… can’t go longer than that. I think I have become a slave for painkillers. I really hope that the situation will improve over time.. haven’t been sleeping well because I am always awaken by the sharp pain 🙁 I know it’s not normal. Sigh..

Went to Dr Le for follow-up of my infection. Guess what??? MY PERIOD HAD TO COME! Gosh! I think she saw the most disgusting parts of me liaoz… pity the doctor… the good thing is… I had recovered! Just that I have a scar there :X It’s amazing how Dr Le mks me feel better.. she was like “oh.. my period is coming soon too!” then I was like.. ” My husband was wondering if we could have sex?” and she was like “OF COURSE YOU CAN! I can speak to him if you want” Just when the MRSA is almost gone.. I realised that I have rashes on my neck… ahhh… kill me… I don’t know what’s going on!!!!! So she gave me some lotion to put on ( which I havent picked up from the pharmacy)

haiz…BH was like comparing me to a car or some electronic… he was like “You reached the 3 yr warranty mark already.. that’s y so much problems. How much does it cost to buy the extended warranty?” ahh… how true… we just had our 3 yr wedding anniversary 🙁

I know BH is very busy at work.. so I feel that I’m adding onto his burden BUT I have no idea why all these nasty things are attacking me all at one go 🙁 The more I wanna get well… the worst it becomes… I haven’t been cooking for sometime now… not that I don’t wnat to.. with my situation like this.. I just don’t have the mood

Can things start to look up now? This must be the WORST month ever since I’m in US. Is it a sign that i shld go home??