Category: Marriage

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a passing cloud

Today.. I went crazy with my thoughts

I always thought I was decisive.. but my thoughts were in a mess today 🙁 I am so scared, worried and I didn’t know what to do

At that precise moment, BH came home.. maybe because BH is calm and quiet most of the time… He have that natural ability to make me feel better. I seriously can’t imagine days/weeks/months/years without him – hope he feels the same about me too

P/S: Skype beta app is out!! Installed it on my windows phone! I am just one phone call away from home (and Bambi)

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Chicken Katsu Don

BH and I plan to eat out on Vday.. I told BH to make reservations like 1 week before BUT the place we wanted to go had been fully booked!!! Boooo…. it’s been 2 or is it 3 years in a row that we didn’t managed to eat out on Vday because we can’t mk reservations :/

Fret not, I decided to try out another Japanese dish 🙂 and BH volunteered to get desserts! yum!

Chicken Katsu Don Recipe
(from Justonecookbook)

Ingredients:


(Ignore the kamaboko – Initially, I wanted to use it as a decoration on the dish but decided not to in the end)

200g (7oz or 4) chicken tenders [ I used 2 chicken breast – sliced into 1/2 sideways to mk it thinner for easy cooking]
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1 cup Panko
Oil for deep frying

1/2 onion
2 eggs
2 serving rice
Mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley)[I used normal parsley]
Ichimi togarashi (Japanese chili powder) [I omit]

Seasonings
2/3 cup dashi stock
1 ½ Tbsp. sake
1 ½ Tbsp. mirin
1 ½ Tbsp. soy sauce
1 ½ tsp. sugar

Instructions:

Dust salt and pepper on chicken tenders and dredge flour, eggs and panko.

Heat ½ inch of oil in a frying pan and deep fry at 350F (180C) until golden brown. Take out the chicken and drain extra oil on paper towel.

Slice onion and make dashi stock.

In a frying pan, bring Seasonings and onion to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and cook onion until wilted.

Put chicken katsu in it and turn the heat up to medium high heat. Pour and distribute egg evenly.

When egg is half cooked, add mitsuba and turn off the heat. Serve rice in a Donburi bowl and put Chicken and egg mixture on top. Serve with Ichimi togarashi (chili pepper) on the side.

Of course, the food is as good as it looks!! hehe.. I’m so proud of myself!

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BH came home earlier than usual on Vday BUT I was kinda disapted that he didn’t managed to get my fave pastry from Fuji Bakery Even before I get the opportunity to sulk, he presented a nice bouquet of flowers in front of me! 🙂

BH was really proud of the colour combination of the bouquet ” Very nice colour combination right??!! I choose one leh!”

haha… I was happy again…but wondered y aren’t the roses RED? geez.. who on earth will give their Valentine GREEN flowers??!!! erm… according to BH, GREEN roses were the only ones left.. so I was like ” what does green rose mean? is it for break ups??” we googled it “The most significant and popular meaning of the green rose is fertility. The green color symbolizes richness, abundance and bounty. Green roses are a sign of plenty and copiousness.” (quote Flowermeaning) Erm… ok… I hope this means I’ll have plenty of money and Chanel bags.. wahaha

As I admired the flowers… Bh took a look at his receipt and realised that…. the cashier didn’t even charge him for the roses which cost $19.99!! hahaha… lucky BH ( and me) , we got free roses on Vday! 😀 HAPPY Valentine’s Day indeed!

Everyday is Valentine’s Day… just that 14 Feb is MORE Valentine’s Day than others! I’m just so glad that BH and I are physically together – who know what will happen next yr? 🙁

Hope u all had a great Valentine’s Day!

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2012 .. IT’S HERE!

life is really and indeed not a bed of roses

2011 had been a year filled with ups and downs ( once again) You know.. . When all is well, something may just pop up.. I guess that’s when we learn.. and how we grow stronger.

2011 is the year I lost someone really dear to me, my grandpa. Just the thought of it makes me tear – he passed away on the very day I left SG. I know he is probably enjoying himself in a better place now – still… it upsets me that I’m not there 🙁

2011 is also a year that we finally got our HDB. If there is a reason why I am saving money/working hard.. it’s because of my home. I always thought and wanted my home to be perfect. Nice furniture and renovation. I was quite upset that all these things had to be compromised – for the greater good. I really hope that I will be able to achieve my dream home in the near future

2011 marks the year that we made the MOST friends ever since we first relocated here. haha.. we had been really contented with just the 2 of us that making more friends isn’t part of the plan. Then again, by a stroke of luck, we participated in a SG gathering ( our first in 3 yrs btw) and we met friends who intro us to even more friends. It’s nice to have friends to hang out and to share our food with 🙂

2011 also made me a good cook. I think I really enjoy cooking. I can look for recipes and get really excited to cook something new! I am embarrassed to admit it but cooking is fun! heh.. I do wish that what I like to do is something that would mk me rich in terms of wealth, rather than .. erm.. FATS?

2011 is also the year that I got my first CHANEL BAG! 🙂 I must thank you BH for his generosity! I feel very blessed to have a great hubby who is willing to spend $ on me.. haha..
Chanel WOC

2011 marks the first time I visited a doc here!! It is a bad year for me in terms of health. sigh… I went to the doc countless of times. Health is wealth! I also extracted 2 of my wisdom tooth ( the other 2 will be extracted this year)

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I am looking forward to 2012!! I’m also scared… but….

I can’t wait to be FREE ( out of my bond)!! I was telling BH that on the day I get my FREEDOM, I will….. BAKE A CHEESECAKE! Yes… life is just so plain simple and sweet. Trust me.. it’s not the money! The road to freedom may not be ez… 🙁 I may or may not succeed.

I also wish for GOOD HEALTH… Health is very important!!!

I hope that we could get a dog we both like too – it will be perfect if it’s a rescue 🙂 It’s nice to have something we both love and can come home too ( nah.. not a human baby!!)

Another wish is to travel MORE! I realised that we haven’t been traveling much because we are saving $. I hope 2012 will be a better year for us financially??!! haha… I know it’s weird… we will probably be quite broke..but at least the money we earned is for our enjoyment and not to save up for other purpose!!oh… I also can’t wait for our Europe trip in April!!! OMG!!! Trip of a lifetime!! I also want to go to Disneyworld during Christmas!!!

and.. come April 2012 will also mean that BH and I had been together for *drumroll* 10 years!!! 😀 can’t believe it right!! heh.. I hope we will have many many more years together!

erm.. I think that’s all I can think of for now.. haha … HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!! and… Do take care and be happy! There’s nothing more important than being happy 🙂

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Merry X’mas!

haha.. well.. it’s not really over.. there’s 12 days!

The first thing that came into my head is… X’mas is over-rated with all the snow (fortunately the weather is super good this yr!) and presents. We tend to forget the real meaning of X’mas! Then again, the thing about me is I classify something as ‘over-rated’ just because nothing special happened. hehe…

Anyhow, we watched MI3 at IMAX on X’mas eve. We also walked by our very first home in Seattle – it’s currently occupied by someone else. The weather was beautiful…then we realised how much we miss Seattle. On X’mas, BH and I baked some cookies! It’s always nice to do something together. How can I forget? NBA season started too… grrrr…. After some nagging, we managed to squeeze in some time for a movie at home – we watched ‘ONE DAY’… such a bittersweet movie 🙁

I didn’t get him anything as X’mas present and I didn’t expect him to get me anything….However, BH still got me a small gift – Rachael Ray Lazy Spoon in Orange. He was like ” Just right for a lazy girl like you! ” Really??? Am I lazy? haha..

Christmas happens in you heart.. and I was just glad to have such a huge gift with me all the time – BH. haha… how lucky am I to hold on to my present everyday and nearly everywhere I go 🙂 I’m just hoping that it won’t be our last..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (Just for in case, I didn’t drop an entry here in time)

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1st visit to Corgi breeder

Well, BH had been thinking of getting us a puppy for the longest time. I’m not sure what makes him want to do so… maybe because I have been yakking about Bambi each time after I talked to my mum on the phone or maybe because my sis sends us pictures of Bambi or maybe because our friends here have dogs and we want 1 too or maybe he’s just bored that it’s just 2 of us 🙁 ? I really don’t know

While I was still at the stage of ‘toying’ with the thought of having a dog.. BH was searching for puppies/breeders online. He emailed this breeder at Ellensberg, WA – http://www.heartbarx.com/ and we decided to take a 2hr drive down to see the pups on Saturday. That was the highlight of our week… we were excitedly looking forward to our trip to the breeder.

The night before, BH and I were out to do some shopping. Then BH was like “Hey.. I need to find ATM.. get money..” I didn’t find anything amiss.. but BH came back from the ATM and told me he withdrew $100 so that we could put deposit for the pup tml. I was taken aback by how serious he was and thought that he was really sweet. I mean.. he has really bad memory but the thought that he rems to take money for that purpose just shows how serious he was! That night, I was sleepless.. I was excited yet scared.

I had my reservations about having a pup:
1) I don’t know how to take care of a pup!!! I’m so new!!
2) I need to buy pup things to prepare for the home – what to buy? how to prepare? is there space?
3) Our apt is carpeted , pup will confirm dirty the place! how!!
4) I haven’t break my bond yet.. what if i need to go back? ( My sis won’t mind having a 2nd corgi.. haha)
5) We will be traveling next yr, who can help to take care? ( we have friends with dogs.. but not sure if they are willing to care for our pup)

The day came .. we woke up early (even earlier than the alarm) – went out for breakfast and drove to the breeder. It was a beautiful day.. we were admiring the scenery and ‘wowing’ at the beauty of nature… then we wondered how nice is it to have a dog to enjoy the beautiful day with.

We stopped along the freeway to take these pictures…








We finally reached the breeder and was greeted with a row of 4 adult corgis – woofing around as though to welcome us ( or threaten us not to bring the pups away) haha… we saw the pups.. they were so small.. like pieces of charcoal on the floor. We disinfected our hands then asked the breeder some qns and tried to play/socialise with the remaining pups.

For me, it was NOT love at first sight.. the pups just didn’t wanna come to me… I wonder if they could sense my fear… they all love BH ( or rather his shoes.. haha) anyhow, BH was really bought over by Boo…who rested next to him after playing. It was an epic moment! It’s a pity that I didn’t connect with any of the corgis… We left… feeling sad and disapted…

Memories of the pups – Aren’t they adorable?




Boo was taken 1 hr after we left ( breeder emailed us). I pray that the rest of the puppies will go to good homes.. their forever homes..

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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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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!!!

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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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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??

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Losing wisdom…

Hurts… grr..

So i was blogging about how painless the wisdom tooth surgery was… NOW…. the healing process actually hurts. Day 1 was good… Day 2 still bearable.. Day 3 was ‘OucH!!!’The part where the tooth was felt sore and sensitive.. eeks… Think I ‘hao lian’ too soon already.. haha..

Last night,, it hurts so badly that I was tearing to slp… until I decided to take the super power painkiller :/ Still, I didn’t sleep well… and then the alarm rang.. Just when I thought I will just roll around in bed and let BH settle hs own breakfast, I decided tt i shld get up and do it for him like I usually do.. nah.. I’m not implying or booasting that I’m a good wife… I do this because it mks me feel happy that BH is going to work with a full stomach and the thought of being able to see him out of the door is just so precious – I don’t know how much time we have left together… ironically, this was something which I missed doing when we were apart.

When BH is home from work, it’s quite surprising that we or rather I still have so much to talk to him about – though I spent the day nursing my pain at home. Our conversation will go like “ehh… I read Wizard of Oz today” > “How is it?” > “It’s very interesting…. but I felt asleep” > “haha.. you fell asleep and it’s interesting…” > “yes… it’s interesting.. you shld read it!” > “so.. you no (know) sleepy?” ….

If you don’t get what I’m typing, it’s ok.. haha..

sometimes.. it’s just these little things that keeps the r/s alive.. can’t imagine my life w/o these IF I were to go back 🙁 How can you anyone get enough of love?