Whats CNY without FOOD & All Things RED!?

Happy CNY Everyone! Chinese New Year has finally come and its initial days moved on. As usual, the first day is LOADED with visiting, eating, giving Ang Pows, receiving Ang Pows and reconnecting with relatives that you MAY or may not get to see only once a year.

I'd like to start off with gracious thanks to Silk Mineral who has very kindly sponsored a very gorgeous range of sparkly mineral make up eyeshadow. I'm using *starlight copper* here. I have previously used Fine Gold HERE. I like sparkly! *ok.. ooops... ditzy moment... moving on...*

We headed off this year comfortably in comfortable tops and jeans. No polyester woven Chinese New Year outfits that are worn once a year this year. Thank God!

Lauren and Eirian with me in the cab....

The hubster, CJ and me colour coordinated with red tops and blue jeans... whoot! And of course, I took a picture with Serene, my sister in law when I met her later that day. *loves both*

First stop of the day... my auntys' house! Very nicely decorated... hungry and looking forward to 2 main items that you'll see here. Oh and the lucky apples are cool eh! There are chinese words on them!! And they're ON THE apple skins.. not pasted on.

How did they do that! They could make branded apples! Or imagine wedding favours w ur names/pictures GROWN on it. U literally have to grow them apples months ahead before your wedding to ensure you have a crop harvested in time for the wedding but SO COOL CAN!

And this is part one of what I was looking forward to! Deep fried yam nian gaos!! *sslluuurpp!!* these are SOOO good! Hows it done? Sandwich the sliced nian gao in between yams/sweet potato. Dip in batter and deep dry and serve crispy, chewy and hot! *drools*

And an assortment of ingredients for DIY pohpiah and pie tie!! *shiok lah!* ... yam cake too... So good lah!

Pineapple tarts and Kuey Lapis! (Layered cake) and a prominent CNY dish. Pen- Cai! Which is a braised dish of alot of expensive ingredients like abalone, prawns, mushrooms, scallops, mushrooms and alot more on top of braised cabbage chap chye mix served in a giant bubbling claypot.. quite visually impressive...

And this crab ball bamboo shoot soup is only made ONCE A YEAR during CNY and every single person in our family LITERALLY looks forward and waits a whole year just to get this and when it comes out! *Wahh!! Wack it!!* I had at least 12 balls. So there's carrot cake, curry chicken and roasted chicken too... so good..

And of course... CNY is extra nice when my sister, Alex is in around to celebrate it together. *hugs*

A highly amusing thing this year though was that MANY relatives on MY SIDE, couldn't recognise me for a while. They greeted me like a stranger ONLY when we first exchanged greetings only to realise once I sat down to speak to them that it was ME! I thought it was strange but highly complimentary lah! "Oh! Its you Pam! My god! Its you!"...

Me: "Uh huh... -.-""

I didn't change THAT MUCH! Last CNY 2008 post can be found HERE! but I suppose they didn't expect me to be even smaller?! And then it was even more hilarious at CJ's relatives home. Even more didn't recognise me.. some thought a stranger tried to gatecrash!... Can't be that CJ remarried SO FAST RIGHT! *pFFFFFffft!* Wahahaha!!... I wonder how they will react NEXT YEAR! We'll see!

And surprises of surprises.. I asked my grandma to take a photo with me and guess what! This was the first shot and then she asked "like that can take meh?" So I showed her that we were perfectly in frame. And she said. "Take again!"... uh huh... oookay... *looks at her suspiciously* and then we took at least another 8 more shots... "again! again!" she said and then a final shot where she was smiling.

So sporting and fun lah!! *big hugs* I'm the eldest grandchild okay! :) My grandma if only blogging was popular back in her days would be a cool blogger chick okay! Wahahaha!

Minutes later, CJ walked into the kitchen and asked "what are u two doing?!".

Me: "CAMWHORING!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I walked into my uncles' computer area and noticed a frame and squealed. "Ah Gong!!" It was a picture of my grandfather when he was about 22 years old. I miss him so much!! Will visit him at the church one of these days...

After all visiting my family side, we head off to visit 3 more relatives homes from CJ's side and then we all adjourned to Pizza Hut! And stuffed ourselves silly with Lava Crust Pizza *slurps*, Lasagna, Fish Nuggets and icecream! So good lah!!

And we caught Gareth, our nephew with a new "thing" where he trembles on command and its so cute lah!! Check that out! :) So how was your CNY?

Damn Funny Filipino Style Jokes

If you are familiar with the filipino language/accent, you might get these jokes and if you do, you'll find that they're just so damn funny!

The filipino language is beautiful... specially when it's in its purest form: Tagalog. But when we start to combine it with the English language, the use of the letters "P" and 'F" are reversed, we drop the letter "V" and replace it with the letter "B", and end up kind of butchering the words with the accent...

My cousin told us this joke last night and I cannot stop laughing! If you can, read/say this in the closest filipino accent you can to get the joke.

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3 maids were at the agency waiting to take a test.
The manager said "I'll give you 3 words, use them and form a sentence. The words are Chicken, Nut & Bread."

The first maid said "Yesterday, I went to the market and I bought Chicken Nut Bread"

The manager said "Pass! Next!"

The second maid said "Last night for dinner, I made Chicken Nut Bread"

The manager said "Pass! Next!"

The third maid said "Last night, I went into my maams room and I saw the pillow over her face, Chicken Nut Bread*!"

The manager: "......"

(*She Cannot Breathe) - Get it?

---------------------
I found more online and I got into a laughing fit. Mommy & Alex! I'm sure u're reading all this.. SO DAMN FUNNY okay!

Use UNO, DOSE, TRES in a sentence.
UNO, DOSE TRES are on fire!!! (oh no, those trees)

Use DEDUCT, DEFENSE, DETAIL, and DEFEAT in a sentence.
DEDUCT jumped over DEFENSE, but DETAIL landed before DEFEAT. (the duck jumped over the fence but the tail landed before the feet)

Use DEPOSIT in a sentence.
Please check the bathroom. I think DEPOSIT is leaking. (the faucet)

Use PAMPERS and PAPERS in one sentence.
At the gasoline station, I asked the attendant, "Do I PAMPERS or do I PAPERS?" (pump first, pay first)

Use MASTURBATION is a sentence....
Third world countries suffer from MASTURBATION (mass starvation).

And another one of my favourites...

What are the three prides of the Philippines? Pride pish. Pride chicken. And pride rice. (fried)

Bwuhahahaahahahahaaahaa!!! *holding stomach...* Enjoy!

CNY Reunion Lunch - OMG So Much Food...

Family Reunion Lunch! I was up early at 630am *my MIL was up by 3am to start on the soup!* to help prepare food but many of the ingredients have already been prepped over the past couple of days.

All these dishes all have their CNY significance and we always have them. I'm missing the image of the small steamed bitter good luck fish and Tang Yuan *glutinous rice balls in sugared water filled with peanut or black sesame filling* bc they didn't come out clear but there was so much other food, I practically left the table looking and feeling 6 months pregnant and guess what!

Guess! I fell asleep after all that eating for the next 3 hours after... wahhhh *snort* Urgh...

Then whats reunion dinner without Yu Shang! Self Made.. very yummy and FILLED with salmon. *I don't like salmon but its good luck...*

And steamed fish, chicken, roasted pork, char siew and my mother in laws' special Ngoh Hiang.. aka meat rolls. The usual rolls have water chestnut so I have a separate pack of rolls specially made without them *I'm allergic to waterchestnut if you don't already know* and I get 3 rolls ALL TO MYSELF every year at each meal.. .Bwuhahahahahaha!!! *slurps*

Day 1 of Chinese New Year tomorrow.. alot of snacking to come.. a Luncheon to hit over at the Toh House *looking forward to the fried yam/nian gao fritters*... then travelling all over Singapore to visit, give Ang Pow, receive Ang Pow and devour people's packet drinks and tidbits... *can feel my bodys' heatiness rise just thinking about it...*

Happy New Year again!! :)

And so CNY Begins..

Uncle Robert.. *as seen in the picture here* invited everyone on my side of the family for a reunion dinner this evening... so now CNY finally begins... we all headed down to Viet Lang Vietnamese Restaurant which is located right next to the Arts House at Old Parliament Lane.

Nice cosy place. The food presentation was lovely. The people.. well were... errr... family as usual. Pictures were taken.. kids were playing.. general topics were discussed.. nothing really out of the ordinary....

And yeah.. if our Uncle Robert looks familiar.. you might know him from AIA. Where he runs the Robert Young Agency... wahhaa... ah hah! I imagine some of u now going.. I know that dude! Anywayy..... my top today is compliments of my sweets, Shelly who sent that to me as a suprise christmas pressie! :) Swee bohh... lol!

And how do we go to a family dinner without taking a picture WITH THE DADDY!! wAHAHA.. Yep, thats our dad and my youngest sis, Alex and... so it begins.. Reunion Lunch tomorrow! And Day 1 & 2 to come... *cough - must BAO ang bao liao! Runs off...*

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

No, We didn't get into the Finals.

Continuation to THIS post... ... we went to the Mother/Daughter Cheongsam Pageant that was held by Singapore Expo on Friday for the Qualification round. Around 35 or so, pairs signed in.

No, we didn't get in to the final 16 but it was an experience nevertheless. Not exactly a good one but.. whatever. We went there at 1pm but spent the rest of the time lobo-ing around while we waited for the other contestants to stream in.

Luckily there was the JL sale going on and other super duper cheapo sales *$3 for shirts!, $2 for halters?! I should have bought more...* going on so it "entertained" us for a while.

We were registered as M4 and D4. Just before we went up on stage for our bit, Eirian started to FREAK OUT. So I calmed her just before we went up the ramp but obviously it was not enough.

She clammed up and HID BEHIND ME during the whole thing. Which was surprising to me as I threw her on stage before and she sang a song infront of a crowd beautifully and not shy at all! See that HERE.

And the emcee had to ask the URGH!est questions to her which she doesn't know, even I didn't know how to answer. Ie "wow! your name is very unique? What does it mean and where did you get it from?!"

And that was not something I had discussed with Eirian before and she really couldn't be bothered knowing so both of us just went.."huh?" -.-''. *SILENCE... (cricket chirping)

Then we had to CATWALK and bc she was already ATTACHED TO MY BACKSIDE, it was literally a case of DRAGGING HER ALONG the stage floor while I attempted to stride & pose. Very hard to do so when u have a 26kg lump o child attached to ur ass.

Then I had to take a qn out of the fishbowl and my qn was "Name a strength and a weakness that you have and tell us why" so.. I'll leave it up to you to guess how I answered that but I did pretty well if I might say so myself. I attribute my emceeing experience and somewhat public speaking at my events/workshops training enough to know how to talk through a smile.

Then we said thank you and walked off the stage. Pfft... it all ended around 6pm when the rest of the contestants finished the rounds.. announced the winner then we just left. So thats it. No Cheongsam contest prize.. that red cheongsam can just stay in its little cloth bag to see better days someday. Pfft... till the next contest perhaps...

Red Cheongsam for Mother/Daughter Pageant

Yep, thats the Red Cheongsam I have for the Mother/Daughter Pageant that Eirian and I will be attempting to participate in this Saturday that many have "heard" about over Facebook.

Qualifying round will be tomorrow at Expo so if we get in, then we get in. If not, this quasi detox/light eating yesterday & today is driving me mad. I was 70kg on Monday *yeah, I know.. I've gained weight over the festive season from the last weigh in of 67.5kg when I fell sick in November* and since we found that we were shortlisted and I got the dress on Tuesday morning. I've been working out and eating ligher so that I can BREATHE in this dress.

I'm 69kg as of yesterday and at this rate, perhaps with a jog this evening, I will reach 68kg by Saturday and prefereably not so bloated and will be able to stand up on stage IN this dress without turning purple from the lack of oxygen and falling off the stage. *wah unglam...*

Toni - Friend & gym instructor at California Fitness lent me this lovely long dress *size 10! Argh!* and I'll be damned if I rip through this one. LOL!

In the meantime.. wish Eirian and me luck to pass through the rounds... apparently there's overwhelming response to this pageant so lets see how it goes. Qualifying round is for 20 pairs of mother/daughters. Might be interesting. :)

Brazillian BBQ & Azzucar Paella Girls Night!

I have to note the 3rd of January 2009 as one of the most truely enjoyable Saturdays I've had in a long while and it was such a fabulous start for the new year too!

Above is my girlfriend and rumba dance mate, brazillian lady named Cristiane Oliveira. She invited me to her Brazillian BBQ cum Farewell Party as she and her husband were moving back to Brazil due to work.

I'm going to miss her and its such a pity that we've only gotten to know each other recently but a friend made is always better than none at all. She taught me some portuguese too! She's the first brazillian I know personally and she gave me a lovely Christmas present too! It was a brazillian throw that had the design of Rio De Janeiro. Love it.

So the girls and I packed up and made our way down to her condominium at Woodlands *faints.. so far...* and were the first to arrive by the poolside BBQ pit. The crowd came much later and I've never seen so much MEAT in my life.

Now THATS A BBQ!!~ No measly satay sticks & chicken wings. Hell no! There were SLABS and SLABS of beef sizzling heavenly on the grill. Its like someone killed a cow or something by the side and just wacked it up and threw it on to the grill.

And everything was simply seasoned. Everything with organic coarse sea salt. There were whole yellow Onions... Garlic Bread...Sausages... Chicken pieces and wings too.... More Beef.. Beef again... and yes, you've guessed it.. MORE beef.. Everything was big and in large quantities...

Can there be such thing as Beef overload? What you see here.. was one slab of a possible 30-40 available SLABS brought & cooking that day. So not kidding. -.-''

Just when I thought that was about it... the fish & prawns came out from the food containers... seasoned the same way with coarse sea salt and thrown on the grill.

And of course there were chips.. chips and MORE chips.. *faints... I can't get over it. Hahha!* Plus Doritos & Nachos Galooore!!!...*Eirian went a little chippy mad here*

And then drinks.. they had 4 Jumbo cooler cases filled to the brim with cans of Anchor Beer.. I don't drink Beer so they opened another cooler and it was filled with soft drinks.. Whooot! They really prepared alot of drinks!

If anyone was looking for eyecandy... some of the men AND women at that BBQ were jawdroppingly STUNNING. No kidding. The only thing was that EVERYONE SPOKE PORTUGUESE with a smattering of english which they graciously from time to time used to lure me into their animated conversations. I picked up certain phrases & words as it was somewhat similar to spanish but for the other parts of the time, everything was totally foreign.

They also made Caphirinia which is one of their favourite drinks from their country.. and they made some that I tried a little.. *hands up* Yep! First Time - tastes pretty alright!

Caphirinia is made from fresh lime, sugar and cacacha. They made two versions.. one original with Lime and another one with Fresh Strawberries...

Talking about strawberries.. there were punnets and punnets of strawberries.. I can never get enough of Strawberries!! And Bunches of Bananas??! Oookkay..

There were trays of rice - brazillian long grained rice.. potato salad, a pot of tomato salsa, a dish that was literally turkey stuffing aka crispy breadcrumbs mixture which was scooped over the rice.. I like! Lauren loved this too.. I had at least 3 rounds of this... plus all the meat that was constantly grilled and passed about.

Soon after the first burst of eating, with Brazillian music blasting. It got a little more entertaining.. the men whipped out a microphone... Eh? Microphone? Both Eirian and Lauren immediately sat down amused to watch their funny singing.

Strangely, they all knew the words to the songs so they were belting it out song after song.. sounds alien and brand new to me but obviously must be some popular song back in Brazil. It was amusing to listen and watch at how truely passionate and relaxed they were as compared to locals. Then there was a little dancing!

AHA!! My kinda action and a small group formed before I knew it and they were all trying to teach me to samba! Whoot! Loved that. We all tried a little of this & that of salsa, a little merengue and then back to samba again... and again, I must say.. Brazillians really have it in their blood to do a mean samba.

On some tables, boardgames, dominoes and card games broke out and everyone had a little something to do... interesting!

In the meantime, I lent my girls the camera and later I found some of their shots which was pretty funny too! Eirian taking her sister with some strange poses.. -.-''

And Lauren's turn with the camera.. TOO CLOSE!! wAHH! and whats this? Eirians' BUTT? *COUGH* moving on... so this is what you get when you give a 6 year old and an 8 year old a camera for a while...

Ahhh! I loved this one.. it looked like Eirian was trying to promote the fountain! Hahaha! "And here you see one of the lovely features of this condominium ladies & gentlemen.. The Fountain! Tadaaahhh!!!"

Once in a while, Cris managed to grab Eirian and we took a picture before she ran off again exploring the surrounding area.

A picture with some of the brazillian ladies that day... stuffed with ALOT of food.. everyone was in a little over-fed state of being... I'm going to miss you Cris! I'll visit Brazil one day and come stay at your place yea?! I love Brazillian BBQs... next BBQ I'm having.. I'm also slabbing beef like that! *slurps*

That was for the afternoon, the girls and I head home towards evening and we hit home and I got dressed for another round! Whooot! Happening lahhh....

Katia - Friend and also Zumba instructor in training at the gym invited me to her house for Paella *spanish seafood rice* Girls Night. Allow me to state that I've never been invited to a dinner party before. *Okay.. so laugh but its true.. and I was so excited about it! Over 30 and never had a dinner party!?*

When I say dinner party, I don't mean anyhow go to someone's house and just eat.. but seriously the WHOLE works... ambience setting... candles... appetisers set out in the living room with dips & cheese/crackers/fruits/toasted baguette.... glasses and glasses of red & white wine on the flow.... a fully setup dining table with the best china & silver cutlery...table runners... flowers... and where you go completely dressed up in a smashing outfit/dress like as if you're heading to a really posh restaurant. THAT kind of dinner... She was such an excellent host!

It was a group of Katia, me, Toni - another CF instructor and 4 other ladies and it was absolutely rambunctious! The conversation easy & delightful.. we covered topics all like water moving from one to another with wine glass on hand & a constant stream of food....

When I first arrived, I met Katia's husband & sister making the paella and it was so interesting how it was done and it smelt SO GOOD. After it was cooked, her husband went out and left us girls to our own devices... what delighted me when I first entered too was how her little son greeted me! He didn't just greet & run like other kids, he so very politely stood at my feet, looked up and said hello and promptly threw himself onto me and gave me a big hug!

I was caught totally by surprise! What a lovely welcome! Then he broke out into a little smattering of french & spanish.. adorable!! I was given a tour of the house and it was such a lovely place and the boys *she has 2 boys* were enthusiastically showing me their bedroom & toys.. I loved it!

So here it is.. PAELLA!! A truely first class HUUGE pan of spanish rice.. and it was phenomenal. So good!!! I would have had more if not for the large lumps of meat I had earlier ingested during the earlier BBQ.

Dinner had a side of fresh salad with balsamic vinegar & cherry tomatoes... very nice too.. and dessert was a very lovely icecream medley of Movenpick Mocha with a splash of Baileys, raspberries and chocolate biscuit rolls. *No pictures of anything else.. wasn't very appropriate to be wielding my camera during that situation* Very decadently good.

After dinner, we adjourned to the living room where our conversations continued and then joy of joys... we got onto the topic of zumba and yes, you guessed it.. Katia and I zumba-ed a couple of tracks together right in her living room. And I was really enjoying myself alot.

Shortly after my girlfriend, Alegria called and updated us that the music over at Azzucar was pretty good that evening, we decided to head down to Clarke Quay and hit the latin dance club after checking out Cuba Libres' *a smaller latin dance pub* music. It wasn't too hot that evening and we walked out after 5 minutes and watching a round of bachata.

And yet ANOTHER FIRST... ever since I've heard about Azzucar from Shelly - who told me that she went past and thought I'd really love that place - I REALLY DO. Okay.. so ever since then, I've wanted to check it out so it was my first time there and no prizes for guessing.

It. was. Fabulous! I found a dance club that I really REALLY really LIKED. The music was insanely GOOD that evening. Latin/Regaetton/Salsa with a live band. The crowd was older too which made me feel a little more comfortable too and everyone wasn't some professional dancer trying to show off.. everyone danced bc they wanted to and latin music was their cup of tea... it was friends amongst friends...

I heard from the girls that the drinks were watered down and not up to standard.. it didn't matter to me as I didn't drink further after dinner at Katia's place. I was very pleased that the girls too were mature & gracious enough to take me seriously when I said "I'm not drinking anymore" before we hit Clarke Quay and didn't try to pressure me to drink "for the occassion"... as such, I ordered mineral water.

And then I gagged once my order came... about $10 for a small bottle of Evian... CAN DIE LARH! Sorry.. but $10 for water is insane lah.. but I had one still. Pffffttt!!!!~ Sorry arh.. Aunty Pam here still thinks that $10 for water is insane.

Then we danced.. bootyshaked till my ass almost fell off.. I REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoyed it. There was no smoke since the smoking ban at clubs so I didn't have to worry about smelling like an ashtray & breathing in 2nd hand smoke... the crowd other than dancing wildly on the dance floor was docile and calm otherwise, Oh! And I know I mentioned the music but I LOOVED the music that night. It was almost like track after track of my favourite tracks.. out of a possible 20 tracks.. maybe I didn't like only 2. It was THAT GOOD.

We danced till we were all DRIPPING in sweat. It really helped too that bc we were all in the same dance class somewhat that we knew how to dance together with moves that we can recognise and replicate. Our hair were literally plastered to our heads & shoulders and serviettes were stuck onto our skin *piak- drrraaag.. wipe*. Our faces flushed from dancing so hard & much..

In between dance sets, we even managed to take some pictures! Me and Alegria... I must say... put her and me together and we both can bootyshake and grind together in fantastic sync! Must chope her as one of my favourite dance club partners.

And of course, a picture with Katia, beautiful host, lovely friend and what a dancer too! Unfortunately, a lady accidentally elbowed her right eye on the dance floor and it swelled horribly to a swollen purple black eye the next day. It was really unfortunate but she was still a gracious host throughout even with the bruised eye. *am touched - hand to heart*

I left early a little after at 215am and left the girls to their bottle of Champagne and next live band set for the evening but left very satisfied and happy. I want to go to Azzucar AGAIN one day... and I want Alegria and Katia to be there too! and.. Sin Yee... and Shelly... and all my bootyshaking latin dancing girlfriends... Azzucar!!

Download the Blogger Calendar 09!

Download the Blogger Calendar 09 HERE! Group picture of the bloggers present at the Calendar Launch.

We went for the Calendar Launch this evening at Ice Cold Bs at SMU. We as in, CJ, the girls and myself. Willy and his team were there taking pictures during the gathering and we had instant photoprints in card size given to us within minutes from taking live shots! Excellent lah! Can keep all these lovely shots in my wallet!

Ooohh, we look like a really long time OLD married couple.. oh wait.. we are! 13 years together and counting yah?

Some shots from the evening.. knock yourselves out. :) Some Calendars available with me in hardcopy crystal cover cases if anyone is keen on purchasing one direct from me. $6 a pop! Other than that, you can download a softcopy online for your own use.

Almost everyone had their personal calendar copies signed by each blogger who attended and had their picture taken during the photoshoot. Everyone was all up for giving their autographs. Fun.... hahaha! *pretending & going into drama mode* "Oh! you want my autograph! Suuure!" *snigger swipes out pen already ready & waiting snigger*

But of course met my best friend, Diana aka Molemole.sg and took the first picture of the day with her.. :) Thank you for the Christmas pressie sweetheart... meet up with you soon. *Love love*

And another shot with Diana & Claudia.. I like this one. :)

And more bloggers! Go check out the online calendar and find out who they are! :) Download it! TaDah! Singapore's First Bloggers Calendar.. Honoured and proud to be in it. :)

Bizarre Chicken Label?

Have you ever seen a clothes label like this? What do you even think it means?

A mom on one of my parenting forums posted this up when she found this on her son's polo shirt and we all found it absolutely hilarious! *Yes, I've asked her for permission to use her photo here* :)

What does this mean on a child's shirt label? Not for Chickens? Not to be worn near Chickens? Not to be roasted with a Chicken? and Where is MADE HERE? Where is HERE?

Wait wait! Maybe its not a chicken! Maybe its a Turkey! So its Made Here but Not Made in Turkey!! Is that it?

Totally Hilarious... Give me your take on this.. What do you think this means? Leave a message on my tagboard, leave a comment in this post or honeymeow@gmail.com