Pam's 30th Birthday PART 1

How come it feels like forever to reach 21 years old but its a blink of an eye from then to 30? I can't believe I'm turning 30 in 2 days time! Am I really going into my 30s? How did I get here SO FAST? ....

Anyway.. while I'm pondering that to myself... my aunty Irene decided to organise a Toh family gathering in celebration of my Big 3-0.

And here goes a group shot of very hungry adults and children before we wacked the food! We didn't even wait for the whole group to arrive hahahaha..faster take the photo lah! We want to EAT! EAT! EAT!

and... a drool worthy pic of the Toh Sisters.. Alex and me...I like this one bc we both look so relaxed! And this is minus one sister. Jackie whos in the Philippines with Mom... *ahem.. not bad eh. ((cough cough))*

And of course.. take one with my D!... He looks really tired but I think he's just a little tipsy.. he was chugging red wine each time I turned to look at him. I think he can't believe his daughter is 30 either... hahaha we're all in denial.

Because.. If I'm 30!... bwuhahaa.. that makes him 52 years young... hhahaha...

So whats a gathering/party WITHOUT FOOD!! .... yumm...

The only thing u won't see in the upcoming pics is that little splotch of brown muck in the top right hand corner.. thats really REALLY good Rendang.. heh heh...

So whats on the spread? Fried fish, Otak, Satay Sauce and Pork...

Satay, onions, cucumber and ketupat!

And since we already have peanut sauce, might as well make Gado Gado!... I wacked the tin of keropok! And homemade chicken curry with potatoes, mixed veggies and prata!!

After eating... was a little playtime n fooling around with the decorations.. My aunt made little signs for me so she made everyone wear them with me with the "poster" that my little cousin, Steffie coloured for me earlier in the day... *grin*

And I REALLY like this picture for many reasons... 1st.. my dad is smiling. He rarely smiles. 2nd.. he's really sporting to wear this bc he would NEVER look so "uncool" and wear something like that on a normal day and 3rd.. I don't get alot of pictures with him..

And Alex and me...AGAIN.....

And my Aunt Adeline... who is the PR director of Four Seasons Hotel btw.. bwuahahah... she's too elegant to put on the cardboard sign so normal picture it is...

From the left to right: My Aunty Irene who lovingly organised this gathering, my Uncle David who wanted to burst out laughing and who is a DAMN BLARDY FILTHY rich retired guy who looks strangely like a young photocopy of my dad whos sports cars make people DROOOL pails of saliva each time he drives past. Notice I wrote carS. Not just. Car. Insane lah. Insane!

And finally my Grandmama... she's so sweet!! She also can't believe her eldest grandchild is 30!!

And my Uncle David's Youngest Daughter aka my youngest cousin, Mikayla! So cute lah!

My Twin cousins, my uncle Davids other daughters... Samantha and Vanessa.. and the one in the middle... my Aunty Irenes eldest daughter, Nicolette. I know I'm old when I see these 3 get bigger and more into women rather than little girls each time I see them..

And I had cakes! Not one but two!! From Jane's Cake Station. Chocolate Fudge cake and Durian Cake!! Very very sinful and good.

And of course, a family photo with my lao gong, CJ and my girls.

And time to blow the candles... made 2 wishes since I had 2 cakes and I hope they come true!! Here's Eirian worried that I might light my hair up on fire so she's holding it up... so sweet lah also she!! :)

So thats it for First Installment of my 30th Birthday.. not sure if I would have something on on my actual day on the 2nd of July... but the next installment to the celebrations will be coming up this Saturday with specially invited family and friends. If you have not yet RSVPed me, PLEASE DO SO NOW.

It would be a first to have my friends and family gathered together for my birthday at one place. Many of you would not have met each other before but you would have heard me talking about each and every one of you some time in my life before.

You have been invited because you are special to me.

And I will try not to cry because I'm really really touched that you all have made time to spend the evening with me *ahem, and also bc I don't want to ruin my makeup hahahhaa*

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone...

You guys know who you are... See you all on Saturday.

Cuteness Gone Bad & Hilarious mIRC moments...

Camlovin' moment.. *cough cough* why call it camwhore? Sounds so crude.. camlovin' sounds so much more.. erm... pleasant...always good to have some place to display some self egoistical portraits hahahahaa... now tell me u come to my blog to look at fulgy pictures... no right? That being said.. have eyelash? must take picture... *whips out camera*

Strange thing about pictures with your head sideways is that u can't but help cocking ur head to the side to look at it too right? Its hard just to stare at it vertically... no? Anyway *ahems*.... moving on....

My girlfriends entertain me alot and keep me amused with the stuff they find and put on their blogs sometimes... credits here go to them for such amusing finds... I've snapped some snippets off their blogs for your entertainment too and you can link to their blogs to read or see more if you want to.

Shelly found this link to Kawaii Not: Cuteness Gone Bad and u can find some stuff in here that makes u snigger... I have a warped sense of humour... and if you have one too, you'd be sniggering too.. don't say I didn't warn u... enjoy...


And my gal, molemole linked up Krisandro's post on how he used to mess with those horny desperate guys over at mIRC and what he did was totally hilarious.. this guy has a slick sense of humour... he went into the chatrooms as "Kristy" and here's what happened...





and the most hilarious one that made me want to post this up in my blog is below... classic lah.. this one takes the cake Krisandro!.. I can't help laugh each time I read it.. even though I've already read it like.. 5 times.. TUI AH!! TUI ah!! *fisted hand thumping against my chest* ((snigger)) Bwhuhahahahahaaa.....

More can be found from Krisandro's post here and here. Enjoy... I know I did. :)

Amuse yourself with some randomness...

I've been busy so you won't get alot of dedicated posts till I've somewhat settled down on the work front. I was randomly going through some pictures the other day and have selected 12 misc. pictures that either thoroughly amused me, made me smile or smirk or just made me go... ahh.. haven't posted this one before or perhaps I missed it out.. so without further ado, here goes...

Picture #1. As above... that is SUCH an old photograph of me and CJ over at Sentosa more than a DECADE ago... I think perhaps it was 1995? Blardy hell.. I was still a teenager then OKAY! Not alot has changed since then... lol 'cept that we're now older and ... wiser?

Picture#2 - Eirian when she was 1+ caught EATING MILK POWDER again! We would have to put the milk tins high up on the shelf so that she couldn't reach them!

Picture #3 - Since then we have graduated to our favourite brand of fresh milk.. we could drink LITRES and litres of this each week. MEIJI!! Yummy!!

Picture #4 - Random amusing image that CJ sent to me some days back. If you're chinese, you'd understand this. If you're reading this and you're not.. its something like a joke in chinese dialect. Gotta understand it to appreciate it kind.

Picture #5 - I saw this some time last year at a cafe near my working place at Aljunied. As I browsed their menu.. I was amused to note that they had Shrimp DUMPING... err.. gah! isn't dumping... err.. shit?... ok anyway.. and Pork RID noodles!... ok.. this place has much to be desired.. but u know what.. despite the "amusing menu". The food is DAMN GOOD LOR!

Picture #6 - My twin and I.... NOT..... I already have sisters... and thus we move on to...

Picture #7 - Taken at Christmas Day Dinner 2007. Me and my REAL younger sister, Alexandra.

Picture #8 - Alex with her best friends, Lynette and John. She ALWAYS tells me that John and her are JUST friends but I ALWAYS say.. UH HUH... riiiighhht... they look like they'd make a pretty couple but NOOOO... he's a friend. Full Stop. Period. (Alex smacking me on the arm again and again "Shaddup shaddup!! Shhhh!! Stop it! A friend damn it! Friend!!"... )

Yeah... right.. *nudge nudge* I know u're reading this Lex... bwuahahhahaaha....I think someone is in denial.

Picture #9 - This was Christmas eve 2007 Dinner over at my place where my family had Molemole and her family come over for a joint celebration.. food was GREAT... and the presents were.. INSANE. It was literally a MOUNTAIN.

Foodwise, I made creamy mushroom pasta, potato salad, garlic baguette, grilled vegetables. My in laws prepared the turkey, hams and sausages and molemole brought over herbal tiger

prawns. We had so much food, alot to drink ie sparkling grape juice... and chocolate fondue! *burp* TOO GOOD.

Picture #10 - Strawberry Milk Ice that CJ and I have after our session at the gym at the Bugis Foodcourt. So good and so refreshing and soooo sweet. Love it! Shaved ice, with fresh strawberries, strawberry syrup, strawberry jam, evaporated milk and condensed milk... Fwoah! Nice lah!

Picture #11 - This is how I found my girls one morning when I came in to check on them. Snuggled together under their comforter, hugging and snoring. Now say this with me... AWWWWW....

Picture #12 - And the final AWWWW!! So cute this kitten!! I want! I want!! I want!!!!

Have you eaten Filipino Food before?

Whats eating Filipino food without rice? Nothing. You HAVE to have rice to get the whole experience. Its such a staple from being a country that actually has rice paddy fields and produces rice to locals who eat MAINLY rice and very little side dishes. You can literally eat a mountain of rice in just one meal with just ONE meat/vegetable dish shared amongst many. -.-''

In my younger days, our meals were completely carb filled. Rice, Rice, ALOT of Rice and maybe.. the occasional.. pasta... so when I brought the lao gong one afternoon down to Lucky Plaza.. we headed to one of the Filipino restaurants there for a little ambience *it really feel like we're in the Philippines in there* and ordered lunch.

I know there are some of you who I know have no idea what Filipino food is all about or have never even tried. Must try lah!! Come come.. I bring u hahhaa but it would be YOUR TREAT... bwuwhahahah... I order, you pay, we eat. Hur hur hur... But I can safely say that you should be expecting very strong tastes of sourness from alot of dishes having vinegar. Salty bc some dishes really can be salty. Quite alot of beans, ie long beans, peas, tomatoes and ALOT of meat. And the desserts can literally make u a diabetic. Its THAT sweet and sinful.

I was so excited to stuff my face that I nearly forgot to take photos of our lunch... *you see what a blog does to u! You take photos of almost EVERY MEAL LAH!!* And CJ was the one who actually reminded me.. "EH, u dun want to take photos meeeehhh...".

*smacks own head* Oh yah!! rummage through my handbag and viola!! Pictures before the destruction.. heh heh... ok ok.. snap snap snap... ok done.. EAT LIAO!!! *stuff stuff stuff my face*

So rice it was... I couldn't bring myself to eat the whole plate so after shoving the grains left and right, CJ stared at me and went "AAARRRGHHH!! Give me ur plate lah!!!" and I gleefully exchanged styrofoam platters for an empty one.. heh heh... Okay, I know some of you will be saying.. "Show me a picture of rice for what! I know how rice looks like".. but hey... relax lah ok?.. just read on....and I like staring at rice can? Better to stare at a pic than eat it hahaha... After all. Rice is damn blardy expensive now.. so, would that give anyone a good reason now to go carb free? Hhahahaha...

Filipino food here in Singapore if you order by the dishes can really be quite expensive.. by my standards at least. Anything that costs $40 for 2 people makes my heart bleed.. hahahha... and this whole meal left us with $42 less in my wallet for not alot of dishes. BUT I nearly wanted to give birth when we were done. We were SO DAMN FULL!! I rolled out of the place very satisfied and looking 5 months pregnant.

So this is what you'd call CRISPY PATA. Which is the Filipino version of our roast pork pig trotter. Soft flavourful pork flesh and Crispy crispy outsides with crispy skin and puffy deep fried fat. Its SOOOOO sinful but SOOOOOOO good. How this is made can be found HERE.

I knew I was going to order this for CJ and was dead set against getting it in my mind before I stepped into the restaurant until I saw the price and I wavered for a while. $20 for a Crispy Pata platter... err... errr *ponder ponder contemplate.. scratch head... peek into wallet...* OK LAH! What the heck! ... "Eh! Uncle! ONE CRISPY PATAAA!!!" heh heh heh.. ((snigger)) and feeling smug.

SO GOOD LAH!! Must go back for more...

And All Purpose Sauce is really for all purposes lor! Its brown sauce, I suppose with a chicken stock base that is used as dipping sauce for really.. anything lah!

Deep Fried Milk Fish, aka Bangus. Pronounced as "Bahng-oos". How to make it can be found HERE. Because they used vinegar to marinate this fish, it was a little soury.. but bc it was crispy too.. I liked it alot.. reminded me so much of back when my mom and my grandmother aka Lola cooked our meals... it was highly comforting...

The skin was really thick and tough though but CJ had a ball of a time working his jaws into chewing them soft enough so he could swallow them. I know I can alway count in him not to waste food.

And this is Pork Afritada. Pronounced as "Afreee-tah-dah". Recipe for this can be found HERE. Pork dish which we used the oily sauce to drizzle over rice.. quite alright.

And another classic comfort food. Deep Fried Eggplant with Egg aka Tortang Talong. Pronounced as "Tor-tang Tah-long". Recipe for this can be found HERE. I LOOOVE deep fried eggplant like this... My grandmother aka LOLA *maternal side* used to make this all the time and it was hot, greasy, extremely tasty and just ohhh soo goood. She used to put minced meat on it too! So good!!! This was certainly not the best one in lucky plaza bc it was a little dry..

I remarked as I stuffed my face with it nonetheless.. "next time we get the one downstairs at the cafe". Now that one is GOOD! Highly oily.. and has very soft and tasty eggplant... hhhmmmm..

So a meal had to come with drinks and what more than typical mealtime drinks that all Filipinos love! Pineapple and Mango juice!! Fwooahhh lao... I love these two... *happily slurping away*

And whats that red bottle of sauce? Its Ketchup... Banana Ketchup! Who says Ketchup must be from tomatoes? This one is from Bananas! And no, it doesn't taste LIKE A BANANA.. but it does have a sweetness and a different smell from your usual tomato ketchup.. not bad as a different dipping sauce. Interesting right?

I brought the bottle to the table and CJ burst out in a grin and went "uh oh.. Banana Ketchup again... remember that time?" and I burst out laughing.. What he referred to THAT TIME was that we flew to the Philippines for a 2 week holiday some years back.

We were so amused by the banana ketchup thing that we brought home a 5 litre. YES, you read it right, 5 litre! Industrial case of banana ketchup. Literally lugged the damn thing past customs and happily plonked it on our kitchen shelf.

It stood there by its lonesome self till some many months later when we were moving house that we realised we haven't even touched it and... it had already expired hahahahaha... wah lau!!! *bish*

And so we ended the meal with Halo Halo.. pronounced as "Hah-lo hah-lo" not "Haylo haylo".

Translated as "mix mix" which is the Filipino version of our Ice Kachang BUT MUCH BETTER!!

I leaned over and nudged CJ and asked "ice kachang or halo halo nicer?" and I was met with a very enthusiastic mouth full of ice/preserved banana mumbling, head nodding and frantic pointing to his cup answer... so.. this too is a must try.

Halo Halo is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served cold in a tall glass or bowl. It doesn't have those rainbow syrup like our iced desserts but the contents make up for all the over sweetness of the ingredients this dessert has.

Whats on top are slivers of cream caramel pudding, aka leche flan aka creme brulee. SO GOOD!! **sooo fattening...but... hahah who cares!! mental note to RUN RUN RUN!!! counting how many Zumba classes it would take to burn off this sinful cup---- not enough!!!**

There is no specific recipe for this dessert, and a wide variety of ingredients are used. The order in which the ingredients are added varies widely. Primary ingredients generally include boiled red beans, kidney beans, sugared palm fruit aka attap chee, preserved sweet coconut slices, sugared jackfruit, tapioca, sweet potato, sago, purple yam, nata de coco, cream corn, agar agar, sugared bananas and some mixed fruit cocktail. Some preparations also include ice cream on top of the halo-halo.

Generally, condensed milk or evaporated milk is used instead of fresh milk, due to the tropical climate of the Philippines.

So with all that, I rolled out with a little bit of a stomach cramp from eating so much and happily purchased the various tidbits that can only be found in Lucky Plaza and made mental notes of where we'd try next. These are only a few dishes and there are so many more that we have yet to cover and we will.. food like.. sinigang, pork barbeque kebabs, longanisa, adobo, pancit luglog - recipe here and picture here and so many more... time to go back soon.. so who wants to join us?

And to leave off this post since we're in this Filipino mood.. I return to one of my older posts with the Knorr's Filipino advertisement that has such a catchy tune that my girls love.. feel free to sing along hahahah even if you have no idea what they're saying... Enjoy. :) Check that out HERE.

This Baby can really Stare.

Turn on your speakers and check this out... this baby really can stare. Don't get this little one pissed! Enjoy!

Expandable Shoes NOW IN SINGAPORE!

Go HERE to find out more and get an order form! Order a pair today and spread the word!
CJ also blogged about it. Check it out HERE! Molemole also blogged about it. Check that out HERE!

Send over some suppport leh! Spread the word and buy some shoes! :)

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Lauren, Eirian and myself would like to say.... HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY JOSHUA! Thanks for inviting us to your party!

Aunty Pam here with a big big smile and a *mmmuakks!* ((pat pat)) Good baby boy! Grow up big and strong ok! We hope you like your presents!

Mama Shelly booked a bouncy castle! The girls loved it! Boing! Boing!

Papa Nash then filled the baby pool for some splashing good time!

And a splashing good time they did have!

Joshua peering over the veranda...pondering.."oohh swimming pool! I also want! Aunty Pam? Can you bring me to swim? Pwease?"

Pam shakes head. "sorry baby... maybe later?"

Joshua: "awwwwww!!!" pout.

Joshua: "then will you stop taking so many photos of me?"

Pam smiles and puts her camera away...only for a short while... until she sees! FOOD!! *drools*

Mama Shells ordered from Melrose Bake House. And the food was good!! Perennial Favourites like Siew Mai, Lemon Fish, Fish balls and pork & mushroom! *Yummy!!*She ordered the Queen's Choice Delight that was for SGD$11 per pax with 11 dishes... very worth it lor! I'll be trying this caterer when I need one next!

Tofu with mixed vegetables and Cereal Prawns... both good... *salivating*

And I would assume these 2 dishes were good too but I didn't touch them.. carbs lah... too much refined carbs but since it was almost finished when I went there towards the end.. It must be good lah... Fried Rice and Curry Chicken... Hmmmmm.....

My favourites were the Diced Chicken Yam Ring... I took so much of this.. and yah lah.. Yam is carbs.. but fwoah lao.. so good lah! *going to need to run this week so much for this...* and some mini tarts... this one was actually the last one on the tray.. hahah hot stuff!

And who can resist jelly!! Jeh leeee!!! I looooove Jelly.. so do my girls and Eirian wacked so many of these rainbow coloured ones.. I was afraid she would start changing colour!

And soon it was time for the cake! 2kg Pandan cake from Bengawan Solo. Piglet! So cute lah... I've never seen a green cake before.. but since its pandan flavoured, I guess that makes sense to make it green.

Look how serious Joshua looks at his cake.. Hahha! Cute lah... Mama Shelly lighting the cake, we all sing the song, la la la la.... and Joshua making his little baby birthday wish....

Yum Yum.. Birthday cake... Eirian would have taken more if she wasn't drawn towards the bouncy castle again and again...

So here goes! Mama Shelly and Papa Nash getting ready to blow out the candle... take a deep breathe in... and blooooow!!! PPPffffffftttttttt........ *ok lao hong liao hahaaha*.. and then mommy takes a second to enjoy the moment....

Yummy cake!! .... so after cake it was a little more boing boing bouncy castle and then it was time to go home....

Me, feeling extremely stuffed.... and a little sleepy from all that food... looking forward to my nap... heh heh heh... Thanks for the invite Shelly....

But Lauren and Eirian still reeling from all that bouncy play and sugar intake on the way home... Happy Birthday Joshua baby! ....*many hugs from the Sims*

God Bless.