KEEP CALM AND READ ON

January 24, 2011

Unboxing Xbox+Kinect

I have this habit of taking pictures of us unboxing our goodies… so here goes….

BH had been looking high and low for a good deal on xbox + Kinect. After missing many deals on various websites and craigslist, we finally made a deal! 😀 BH was ultra happy and glad .. right after our pineapple tarts session, we drove abt 45 mins to meet the seller… phew… luckily, she didn’t play us out!

BH was like an excited boy unboxing his X’mas gift! oh well… I guess… the excitement is just like me falling in love with a new bag and buying it? haha

P1130763 — WE start our new ADVENTURE together 🙂

January 24, 2011

My better half…

It’s amazing how BH is just the opposite of me.. and because of that we complement each other 🙂 This is when I feel that marrying your BEST male friend is the BEST thing which had happened to me! haha..

Last saturday, we decided to bake pineapple tarts. Nope.. it’s not the first time we r baking them .. we baked them last yr too.. maybe coz I only bake them once a year.. I got quite rusty 🙁 The day before, I’ll mk the pineapple paste. However, the paste didn’t turn out well 🙁 I was very upset but I pluck up all my courage and redid it from scratch again. Yes! It turned out very well the 2nd time 🙂 Happy but tired!

The following day, I attempted to mk the pastry (dough). Somehow, the dough didn’t turned out well though I did everything the same way!!! 🙁 I was soo disapted and wanted to throw the dough away… I attribute all these ‘failures’ to omens that it is gonna be a bad year. Just when I was so upset and frustrated.. BH came to my rescue! He was like ( not like he’s an expert! I mean.. usually, I do all the preparation and he’ll just do the assembling part) ” just add more water.. it’s too dry ” I was in absolute sadness and convinced that everything is gonna go downhill… so I just let BH play with the dough… BH did a fast search online and did his magic ( put water in dough) and….. lo and behold….. he made the crumbs stick!! I’m just so glad that he was around.. I would have gave up and threw everything away!!! 🙂 The point is…. PINEAPPLE TARTS were sucessfully made and it taste better than the past year’s! As a result, I rewrote the recipe so that in future… I’ll refer to my own PINEAPPLE TARTS recipe! 😀

Thank you BH for your support and encouragement! What can I do without you??? I don’t know!! That’s why 🙁 and I hope the feeling is mutual!

January 20, 2011

Lust: Le Creuset french oven

Ever since I made my own stew I had been looking for a good time to buy Le Creuset French Oven! For the past 2 years in US, I had been wondering, why would anyone wanna spend US$200 for a pot which is as heavy as a HUGE rock! I think my wrist will break from holding it! However, I guess.. my shallowness just wears off after I ‘level up’ ( hahaha…. don’t play play) in the kitchen! 😀

Which colour is nice?? hehe..

I spent time reading up on these very expensive cast iron pots and realised that they are actually way better than what I’m using now ( erm… a simple non-stick pot) These dutch ovens cooks evenly and keep the flavours in! Oh yes… I certainly need better pots to cook since I’m cooking like MOST of the time.. I mean.. it mks sense to invest in good cookware!

Right now.. I’m still looking around for deals… oh yes.. it’s gonna be like a hunt for the Kitchenaid Mixer again 🙂

Note to BH: Pls do not get me a pot as gift… sooooooooooooo unromantic!!!

[Sidetrack] Was trying to update my cooking blog BUT realised that we didn’t tk pictures ( we made Tacos + Soya bean milk + Mee siam + Oven roasted chicken) 🙁 Food album on my FB had miraculously disappeared too.. ok… shall mk a more concious effort to take more pics!!

January 19, 2011

Don’t be sneaky…

Say “HI!!” if you are reading my blog

I guess every blogger have their site tracked. So do I ! Sometimes, I’ll look at my blog stats and realised that MOST of the pple came to my blog because of Gmarket! Others were directed here via our link on facebook .

Well, I’m perfectly fine with you reading what I have typed (That’s the whole pt of the blog!) BUT do acknowledge yourself since you spent at least 2hrs+ reading from the 1st entry to the last!! wow!! I salute you! haha.. now my blog feels so ‘raped’!!

If you are keeping quiet, I totally respect your privacy but it’s nice to know who my silent readers are… I’m just plain curious and I always wonder who is actually interested with my boring life!

Anyway… a HUGE HELLO to all who reads my humble blog!

January 18, 2011

looking for everlasting rainbow

not looking forward to move 🙁 This time we are getting movers… yes.. decided not to torture ourselves anymore. So, the new place is bigger. However, I just feel that there might not be enough place to put all our things .. ok.. fine.. I like things to be neat and tidy.. I don’t like clutters .. I want everything to look good in its place.. I’m such a weirdo right!! 🙁 I want everything to be prefect… We actually went down to the new apartment to take measurements and try to visualise where everything shld be… sigh… not as ‘prefect’ as we I thought

down to packing… I only packed like 5 boxes yesterday 🙁 packing is such a pain… and I still have alot more to go

I’m not only a ‘perfectionist’ , I’m also an idealist. I was reading some of my older blog entries and I realised that I have unknowingly typed “I always thought…” This shows that I have expectations of myself which give me unnecessary stress 🙁 We(how i wish!) BH’s sister will be collecting our HDB keys for us in a few days time… I always thought we will be doing it ourselves 🙁 I feel sad that we have to miss out on the experience. The very pt that i’m going back earlier is to do some minor reno of ‘our home’. I’m disapted that BH will not be ard during this process.. because.. I always thought we’ll do this together

I like doing things together so much that I always wanna be a lower primary teacher BUT i just didn’t have the chance 🙁 oh well, that’s besides the pt… then BH was like saying that this flat is a small thing and it doesn’t matter… which mks me even more hurt. I waited so long for this and now when it’s here… I can’t mk it as perfect as I want it to be 🙁 Because of the situation we are in, our pespective is different now

Now I wish I’m always having PMS – at least I can ‘blame’ my strange mood on it

AG: Tell me.. when is everything’s gonna be perfect?
BH: Give me a few more years.. be patient.. it’s gonna be prefect!

How I wish.. I have that few more years 🙁 and for now.. I have to live in the shadow of the mistake which happened about 10 years ago

January 13, 2011

“I don’t deserve to be happy”

When I feel happy and at peace, I’ll think of every other friends/pple around me who are ‘suffering’ or ‘slogging’ hard at work (these pple don’t include BH as since he has me.. he’s the luckiest man in the whole wide world.. haha) Then I’ll ask myself “what have I done to deserve this happiness I have now” It just mks me feel like inflicting pain to myself and ‘suffer’ so as to join the crowd of unhappy pple…

Let you into a little secret… friends who know me for a long time might have noticed that I have a bleeding or swollen thumb , which I used a plaster on (at times) when it gets very bad. Well, for years, I’ll just peel the skin of my thumb and mk myself feel the pain because I’m just so stressed and unhappy with life. Looking at my thumb now, it looks normal – I just don’t do that anymore!

haha… do i sound nuts? I used to find it hard to tell pple that I’m happy… now I can say that I AM HAPPY and feel HAPPY at the same time… oh yes… my brain is in-sync with my heart.

and then u may think… “duh!! If i’m like u… I’ll be happy everyday too!!” The problem is you are not me, I do have many issues that ‘threatens’ me being happy

These issues mks me think that why should be happy? I have been happy for 2 years.. it needs to stop. Ok…I should let all these issues overcome me and be unhappy! I shall be unhappy… just because I haven’t done anything in the past few years to be happy… I don’t deserve to be happy

Now’s the question: To be (happy) or not to be?

January 11, 2011

Favourite surprise!

Do you have a favourite surprise? 🙂 I have several!

1) My MOST favourite surprise is when BH comes home early from work! I’m not sure if such surprise will happen when we move to Redmond 🙁 anyhow, BH came home 1 ‘ my favourite surprise’ day and causally mentioned ” Hey ( sadly, he calls me ‘hey’ > another story ), i think the last week of this month, you don’t need to cook. I’ll drive to work, drop u at our new place. Pick you up for lunch. Go to work and pick u up in the evening, have dinner outside then go home!” keke… sounds cool!!

2) No need to cook?! That’s my fave surprise too!! No no… pls don’t get me wrong, I love to cook… BUT excessive cooking mks me v brain-dead, esp. thinking about ‘what to cook’ Basically, I still like cooking…

3) Learning that I can cook! You know… the most surprising POSITIVE thing i learnt about myself for the past 2 yrs since I’m here is definitely ” I am quite a good cook! ” Not being thickskin here… BUT I love reading recipes then trying them out! It’s v exciting to me! and yes… Besides the post office, I spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen! Just that I haven’t been updating my food/cooking blog 🙁

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This is so random..you are reading a very random entry….. *stop here if u r bored*

At times, when u r so absorbed and focused on other things, you tend to forget what really matters. Unfortunately, it happens to me all the time.

It was last sunday, BH and I decided to pamper ourselves, so we went out to our fave Japanese resturant – Maneki for dinner! I had no idea why we were both craving for sashimi… actually, the best place for sashimi is nearby Vancouver, but driving 3hrs just for food.. sounds toooo ridiculous!

After a very happy and satisfying dinner, BH and I were on our way home. It felt like a date! I have no idea why! Then again… everyday with BH is a date! what more can I say! I found another surprise! I am on a date everyday! hahaha…

– when we are at home, BH does his stuff, I do my stuff ( HOUSE DATE)
– shopping for ‘deals’/groceries ( SHOPPING DATE.. duh!??! aka OTOT = Own Time Own Target. Coincidentally, we shop at the store TARGET. haha..)
– watch movie together ( MOVIE DATE)

and the list goes on….. I wish… we’ll nv run out of dates!!! ( That’s coz we are just stuck with each other doing all these silly things… like it or not!!! :D)

ok… 1 last picture of our date with BULLY! keke… This is called AMAZING DATE

(I hope BH won’t kill his ‘date’ as I put up such a silly picture of him with Bully!! hahaha)

January 5, 2011

Las Vegas 20-22 Dec 2010

Ever since I step foot in the US, I have been going to Vegas once every yr.. :X

1st time in 2008 > coincidentally, same date as the above
2nd time in 2009 > super duper warm… went with my family
3rd time in 2010 > which is what I’m blogging about now!

Travelling during the December period is HORRIBLE!! Planes are likely to be delayed… it’s crowded at the checkpoint… weather is bad.. oh well.. Anyway, we won’t have gone Vegas BUT BH discovered a great deal on round trip air tix + hotel for only US$11/person!! wah… even cheaper than watching movie every day from 20-22 DEC .. so we decided to just go ahead 🙂

We find ourselves looking forward to this trip, though we’ve been to vegas before.. haha… you know.. just relax.. and enjoy… “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!” It was really nice to revisit Vegas – like we get to try out or go to other casinos which we didn’t get to go the last time.

Welcome to Vegas!

It was a super wet Vegas trip… Raining day and night.. not complaining coz it’s better than snowing?! We bought tix for LOVE – The Beatles inspired Cirque Du Soleil .. The rain seriously dampen my mood… luckily, we stayed at Harrah’s which opposite of The Mirage

Bought drink so that we can get the sourvenir cup!

Picture at Ceasar’s Palace – This lady who helped us with the pic, need photography lesson!

Dinner at Max Brenner’s. We are not chocolate fans… but we just wanted to try something which was not available in Seattle

1 (10) — Me with Alice cup! Yum! Know why it's called 'Alice' ??

1 (11) — The bill came in this box! So cute!

The next day, we explored the new casinos

1) The Cosmopolitian – which have HUGE and beautiful chandeliers

I like this shot… heh.. nice feel.. and I have no idea y!

2) Aria – gives me the SG’s MBS feel

Next stop is Bellagio .. well.. they have similar X’mas deco every yr.. haha

Last but not least… Bellagio at night… It was toooo cold and rainy.. so we took a quick shot and left. The performance was only 5 mins ( 1 song)!! how weird.. I rem it being longer.. at least 3 songs!

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This time round we bought “Buffet of Buffets” day pass – so u pay US$40 and you can eat at 7 different casinos for 1 day! Dinner buffet at Planet Hollywood was the BEST.. BUT we lined up for 2 hrs before we can get a table! Lines at buffets were crazy! I wonder if it’s the holiday season or the promo.. haha.. anyway, I feel so guilty for having buffets for 3 meals!! :X We are so not going to buy the day pass for buffets the next time round – we rather spend the queuing time for other stuff.. hahaha..

That’s all about the Vegas trip.. wonder when’s our next holiday…

January 1, 2011

2010 Review (Binghuan’s edition)

Happy New Year!! Whoa another new year has gone by so fast… looking back I cannot really think about any negative issues that happened in 2010, so it must have been a good year for me! 😀

I have a wonderful wife whom cook the best food a man could eat. She takes good care of us too, I am so thankful to have her around.
Work has been great but the year ended in a mix note, hopefully next year is better for me. Maybe I need a new direction. hmmm
I started writing apps for Windows Phone 7 (Check out FotoChop) late in the year and it made me realize how much I still love to create stuff. Don’t get me wrong, working in MS still allow me to do that, but its not something that I can say “Hey that’s all me!” Really glad that I jumped on the train and started development on my own again.

Next year would be a challenging year ahead for us, with a HDB flat in Singapore and juggling all the needs. I still have faith that we will do well and get to all our end-goals, just another new set of challenge, but hey what is life without challenges? 🙂

Resolution? I hate resolution cause I never remember that far. I will probably want to cook more often and better (edible) food in general next year.

That’s all folks. End of 2010. I will miss my twenties and looking (reluctantly) forward to the thrities…
Godspeed all.

January 1, 2011

It’s 2011!

On the last day of 2010, I saw the most beautiful sunrise ever 🙂

The first few seconds of 2011, I saw pretty fireworks at the Space Needle

I always thought Seattle was beautiful BUT Seattle just got MORE beautiful as the years goes by… next mth, we’ll be moving to Redmond, so we probably won’t have this kinda view anymore… sigh… given a choice, we won’t have moved… BUT we really needed to save the extra bucks 🙁

I always believed in making resolutions every year and fulfilling them… then I guess.. resolutions don’t matter… it’s how I live my life.. I may be poor but at least… I’m happy… and I wanna continue to be happy!

In 2010, is a year of ups and downs… Behind my mostly happy blog entries, I shed many tears of regret, fear and sorrow. BH and I had been saving and working v hard to give me my freedom .. I think I did quite well in the saving money part last yr – I get freebies and participated in giveaways to the best of my abilities… I cook most of the time… BH gets lunchbox to work nearly everyday… we love travelling but cut down to save the $ ..Really hope that the sacrifices we make now will bear fruit in near future…

2011 just started and I could feel the stress financially 🙁 I really hope the financal part of our life will not affect our relationship… wish us luck! Saving money will be my ONLY goal for this year !

not many pple read my blog BUT those who does… I know u all will have a better year than me 🙂 Happy 2011 and best wishes to all!