Crazy people in this crazy place

The time now is 2.20am but there are a large crowd of people walking around the streets, making a lot of noise. It's actually quite common to see young people in groups of threes or fours wandering around the streets at night around midnight in this place. Right now, there seems to be some kind of brawling happening near my house playground as there are a lot of people shouting about although I don't know what they are saying. Sounds like a riot is happening and the time is 2am in the morning!! The young people here don't have anywhere to go during the shabbatt so they like to hang around with friends wandering the streets at night and caused troubles. It's very common sight here and it happened every week which those crazy people who don't sleep at night will come out and create a din and make other people unable to sleep also. Often the noise will continue into 4am. Think those crazy people outside are drunk and have nowhere to go, so they like to gather at public places, like playground etc and do their drunk shouting or singing through the night. OMG, I really hate this place....

iPad pouch

Haven been blogging for a while coz been lazing around feeling too depressed to do anything. Good news is the summer heat is slowly subsiding and the sun had been setting faster than before. Previously, its still light around 8pm but now it completely dark by 8pm, which means summer is going to be over soon....I hope.
Made a zipped casing for my ipad yesterday. I used more manly type of fabric for it coz it will belongs to Hubby. I will be making another pouch for my new ipad 3 which will only come next year.

 The front and back of the casing are the same, using this bicycle print fabric from Micheal Miller. Its the first time I am using this fabric since I bought it from a US etsy seller a few months ago.

 It fits the ipad just nicely (thank goodness....) and is made from thick cotton batting which gives it a padded feel.

 The interior of the casing is made using this grey and white stripes fabric with a interior pocket.

Will be bringing it to the States in Oct, so will be more handy if it has a pouch for extra protection. Total time it took for me to complete this is about 4 hrs, coz its 100% handmade.

Did another project last week also, a lavender sunglasses pouch! Very girlish and sweet...hehee...

 

 It is made from 3 different types of fabric patchworked together. The top piece is a lavender poka dots fabric, a lavender plaids fabric for the bottom piece and a purple flowers piece for the middle, all Japanese fabrics. Also added a piece of cotton lace at the bottom for decoration. 

 Back of the sunglass pouch was made using purple poka dots fabric with a pink rabbit applique. 

Interior of the pouch was lined with pink plaids fabric. Overall, I like the pink and lavender colour combinations of this pouch as they add a touch of sweet and romantic feel to it. (although the rabbit applique seems to spoil the romantic feel to it.... *_*)

More cute pics of Poochi.....

"See, I like to ride on Daddy's leg~"

Doesnt he looked like he's from the big head dog collection?

"whaya staring at"

Alien face pug....

"I hypnotize you to give me food"

Poochi the bib wearing dog with his good fren, Zebra.

What that thing on the dinning table?!

Talking about Poochi, he is currently on antibiotics treatment....AGAIN.....The lab test showed he had a very stubborn strain of bacteria. So, he will be taking this antibiotics for the next 3 weeks before taking him to the vet again. Somehow I dont have v high hopes.....

Japanese homecooked food

 My first attempt at cooking omurice. Its Japanese fried rice in ketchup sauce wrapped in an egg. Unfortunately, the omelette keeps breaking so I can't get a nice looking omurice. Think it had something to do with my frying pan coz it had a lot of scratches at the bottom and the egg kept sticking to the bottom and refused to slide off like it should. Sighz....anyway hubby said the ketchup rice is v nice and he enjoyed it very much.

Dinner today was soba noodles in dashi soup with ebi tempura, seaweed, crabsticks, shitake mushroom and the japanese 'golden' egg. The eggs were the type that are always found in ramen. It is my fave kind of egg. The insides of the yolk is runny and the whole egg had a nice soya sauce flavour. (coz its been marinated overnight in soya sauce, sugar and mirin) The best 'golden' egg I ever eaten in SG was the one in Marutama (a Japanese ramen shop in Central)

Sadly, the yoke looked yellow instead of the usual orange colour coz its due to the type of eggs used. It was a nice orangey colour the first time I made these coz the eggs I used had a orange yoke. However, I can't seem to find that kind of egg anywhere now, and the only eggs available are those with a very yellow yoke. Its very hard to find the right kind of ingredients in this country, and I am still looking for my white radish!

Below is my latest sewing project. Its a Poochi applique patchwork pouch, made using my fave Japanese fabrics. Will be bringing this with me to the States in Oct. Think its just nice to put my passports (since I need to bring two)

 The back of the pouch was made using the yellow sakura print fabric and the cookie print fabric, both from Japan. The brown criss-crossed bottom piece was from Timeless Treasures collection, which I bought from a US seller.

Interior of the pouch was made using my fave matcha green sakura print fabric :)

 Poochi happily lazing on hubby's leg. He dont even wana get off and hubby had to peel him off his legs. He loves to cozy up to people and lay at my feet. Realized that I had been underfeeding him all the time (coz I need to give him the new dog food which the vet recommend) and according to feeding amount listed on the package, I am actually feeding him half the recommended amount all along but yet he is still SO fat! Strange~!

His skin condition had improved and had been shedding lesser hairs. Will be bringing him back to the vet for a follow up this weekend, and hopefully the test results can tell me something about his condition.....sighz......  *_*

Poochi at the vet

Yesterday, we brought Poochi to the vet who specialized in skin problems for dogs. He's like a canine skin specialist. Been postphoning the trip till now coz Poochi's skin condition suddenly worsened for no apparent reason. His condition is like a very unpredictable cycle, sometimes good sometimes bad. As usual, its a torture trying to find the place, but somehow better than the first time we try to find the other vet. Only spent about 10-15 mins getting lost, compared to the first time, which is about 30-45mins getting totally lost until we almost gave up and went home. Thats the problem when we dont understand the language here, even if the signboard is staring at me right in the face, I wouldnt even know what it means.
The specialist clinic was spacious, clean and modern looking and had a balance machine to weigh the dog unlike the previous vet clinic we brought Poochi to, was really quite dirty, run down and primitive (and had no balance to weigh the dog!) Anyway, the silly little pooch was very happy to be out of the house and was trotting about happily in front of me until I opened the clinic door and the familiar smell of the animal clinic immediately made him back stepped and want to run away. But I pushed him back inside and while talking to the receptionist, he peed on the floor. HE ALWAYS DO THAT! He always pee the moment he stepped into a clinic if I took my eye off him even for 1 sec. However, I was prepared and always carry tissue and poop bag whenever I took him out. I was busy cleaning up his pee pee when the receptionist weighed him at the machine and she said to Poochi "you are so beautiful..." I was like, *puke*...beautiful is such a wrong word for him, he is more 'ugly cute'
The specialist name was called Dr Ilan. He led us to this room where we sat down and he asked us alot of qns about Poochi, some of which I wasnt very sure about and how I wish Poochi can talk and he can tell the Doc himself what exactly is wrong with him....sighz....but sadly he cant and he can only sit down near my chair and looked bored while we talked about his skin problem. The biopsy that was previously done on Poochi was a screw up, so poor poochi got three pieces of his skin cut out for NOTHING!
Later, Dr Ilan showed us into another room where he examined Poochi and took some off his pus for lab analysis. The total cost of the visit, including consultation, new dog food to try, some ear lotion and some antibiotics came up to about 1000 shekels....if he also cant find out whats wrong with the dog, then I really give up.

Start of summer break....

It's the start of the 2 weeks summer vacation for hubby due to factory shutdown. He is so happy when he came back from work yesterday and bought many food to last his 2 weeks of munching and couch potato days. He even wore his fave 'Mr Lazy' tee shirt to mark the start of his "shabbatt" We decided not to go anywhere but stayed at home in the refuge of our air con house. All the guys have gone back to SG, so good~~wish I can also go back (miss SG local food like crazy) but we can't leave Poochi here alone to roast in Uncle Mosche's farm. He is very heat intolerant and will surely die from heat stroke if he stays at the farm which is non air con.
Anyway, hubby's weight still remains the same even after staying here for close to a year. He eats so much but never gains a single pound of fat at all, life is so unfair coz if I eat the way he does, I will surely turned into a fat pig in 2 weeks, which is what might happened....coz usually I just eat 1 meal a day(which is dinner) plus snacks, but today I actually eat 3 full meals! No choice coz hubby has to eat at least 3 meals a day and since he is not working, he makes breakfast and lunch and also prepare my share. Then for dinner, I made Jap curry, enough to last him for his lunch tomorrow. Oh dear, I feel so full now, hope I don't turn into a fat pig after 2 weeks..... *_*

Happy birthday Singapore!

Today I watched the national day celebration live from the internet. This is the first time I watched the whole show from beginning to the end and I feel very patriotic coz I usually just watched a bit of the marching in and the fireworks in the end. The feeling is strange, watching this from a foreign land although this is not the first time I am doing so. Somehow I feel more and more alienated from my own country. It's like I can only see it but I can't touch it, like a mirage. Living here in this foreign land had definitely make me appreciates Sinagpore even more even though it's a stressful pressure cooker of a country, at least it's my own country, my home.

I finished my Poochi applique!

Ta-da~! This is my completed Poochi applique. The tail is 3D, so it is sticking out and curling. So cute~ haha :D
Haven thought of what to do with it yet, maybe make a pouch to bring with me to the States in Oct, so I can bring him along with me in a way. I love my Poochi!

Random Musings 2

Today, I finished almost all the biddings for Priceline. Got some very good deal like the Marriot Hotel for $50 USD/nite in Denver Colorado instead of the usual $150 USD, but also got some lousy deals like the Ramada Hotel in Florida. That's the problem with Priceline, can get cheap hotels but cant choose what kind of hotels, could end up getting some dirty and haunted hotels for all I know...but luckily so far, I haven encountered that kind of 'dirty' hotel yet. *touch wood*
Also finished watching this movie called 'Source Code' online. I watched a bit yesterday night when the guys came over for dinner and had to stop halfway coz we need to rush for another movie at the mall. Think among all the movies I watched, Source Code is definitely one of the best ones I ever seen.  At first when I watched it, I was still wondering 'what is this show about? seems boring...' but it just gets more and more exciting as the plot unravels until I practically can't take my eyes off it. Very interesting story, a bit sad (cos he had to die so many times, poor guy...) but glad the ending is still good. Makes you wonder what if there is another alternate universe in this world with an alternate you living a different life. Sounds 'chim'....I cannot imagine that...its scary....
Anway, dinner tonite was Mee Hoon Kway again, leftovers from yesterday. Invited the guys over to eat Mee Hoon Kway yesterday coz Ah Teck is craving to eat it. Seems like the guys dont cook this dish themselves even though they got the machine for making the 'kway'. So, to make some variations, I added some tom yum know cube to the soup and also some prawns and calamari, so it becomes tom yum seafood mee hoon kway for dinner today. Yummy~!

Movie marathon and ebay shopping

Went to watch Captain America today at the shopping mall near my house. Been waiting for this show to screen here since donkey years...now I am waiting for the Avengers movie next year. Think it will be a super blockbuster show. A MUST watch show for next year. The movie today was quite nice, the show was in 3D but don't really feel the 3D effect. As usual, I waited till the very end to watch the trailer that link to the avengers movie. Only me, Hubby, the guys and another couple waited while the rest all left. Guess only we know about the trailer thing...?
Among all the marvel super heroes, think my fave is still Spiderman. Cant really explain why but find that he seems more human...more realistic, unlike Captain America who is too nice and perfect, Thor, who is practically a god, batman and Iron man, they both don't really have super powers....
Will be watching the green lantern tomorrow. This is going to be a movie marathon weekend for me. Anyway, there's nothing much else to do here but watch movie. Its simply too hot to go out during the daytime. Been spending alot of time surfing the web and buying stuffs from ebay. I received my first ebay purchase today.

Bought my Za cosmetics from a Taiwanese ebay seller, babysweetie7  The limited edition cosmetic casing and the refill with sponge cost only $30 USD plus shipping, which I find is very reasonable and cheap. The condition of  items were excellent. She shipped very fast and I got it in about 1 week. I have been using Za brand two way foundation for many years coz it is by far the best foundation powder I ever used. I have tried Kose, Shiseido and Bare Escentuals (so highly raved about but totally sucks in my opinion) Sadly it is not available in this place nor have I ever seen it in US. Think it is only available in Asia. I am so glad I found this seller, hehee... :) Have placed two more orders from her today, a Dior cleansing foam and a Dior Totale Essential serum. Dior beauty products are really quite good in my opinion, a bit pricey but very worth the money. Also bought some My Beauty Diary masks (which I hear many good reviews) from another Taiwanese seller and and also got Poochi's medicated shampoo from an Australian ebay seller. Ebay is so wonderful, you can get anything in the world with ebay without stepping out of your house.

 Also got Poochi a new mattress. No, I din get that from ebay, I got it from IKEA here. The one on the right where he is sitting on is his old mattress and the one on his left is his new mattress.

Its the exact same cushion but he slept till it became totally flattened and lumpy. Anyway, think he likes the new mattress coz when I put it down, he immediately lies on it and refused to budge.

Western homecooked food

Yeah~ its August now! Time does flies when you don't think much about it. :)
Have finally started planning for my US trip in Oct. Been slacking alot recently...but at least managed to settle the hotel for the first 3 days. Will be staying at Hampton Inn & Suites at Orlando.  Had never stay at Hampton before but heard the reviews are good and at only $60 USD/nite, think its a good deal. Will be trying my luck again at Priceline tomorrow for the other hotels, hope I can get a good deal.

Been craving for some western style food recently, so decide to cook up some myself.

 Dinner yesterday was fried halibut coated with seasoned breadcrumbs topped with tartar sauce, some onion rings and coleslaws. I marinated the halibut with lemon, garlic, butter, red wine vinegar, paprika powder, salt and pepper overnight, so it no longer have the fishy smell and taste quite flavorful but the meat is bit too tough for my liking. Maybe halibut is not suitable as fish and chips??

 My high-tea today was scone and green tea. Baked some scones yesterday night. Its my fave cranberries and almond scones. I love to eat scones! Actually, these scones are quite easy to make and it taste just the same as the ones I bought at Four Leaves or BreadTalk in SG.

Dinner today was mushroom and bacon risotto with parmesan cheese. Its actually a premix pack I bought from my last US trip but it taste really nice as it is creamy and al dente (if you followed the instructions carefully). I added the mushrooms, bacons and cheese myself to make it taste better. Think I have to stock up more on my next trip...