Prawn Penne Pleasure

Im inspired to eat in tonight.

Was at moo's last night to pass her something and was treated to another one of her sumptuos home cooked pasta dinners. Inspired ( and I must admit, just a little sick of eating the food outside ) I scratched my home cooked dinner itch by whippin up a simple pasta dinner !

Ofcourse cooking is more fun if i take lotsa pics along the way hee hee..

Prawn Penne Pleasure

First we assemble the fresh ingredients!

1 small head of brocolli , 1 red bell pepper , cloves of fresh peeled garlic ( guppies love garlic )

chopped , sliced and diced...

fresh button mushrooms, 1 can el cheapo pasta sauce, 1 cup penne pasta

Fresh prawns, peeled, deveined and seasoned with cracled black peper, sea salt .

discovered i ran out of olive oil..so used olive spread instead :P

ah found a half drunk bottle of el cheapo red in the fridge, shall use this to cook the sauce and pair it with the pasta later

And now we begin cookin! throw in the penne pasta into a pot of boiling salted water..
after its cooked, drain the water and set aside... in another heated fry pan, fry the chopped garlic and brocoli, release the aroma of the delish garlic hee heethen the red capsicum/ bell pepper ...stir stir stirthen the sliced mushrooms

When i threw in the peeled prawns...it was starting to look like a possible delicious chinese stir fry HAHAHAHAH....

yes i toyed with the idea to toss in some oyster sauce and sesame oil...then dropped the idea and picked up the pasta sauce instead :P

toss in the el cheapo canned pasta sauce...a splash of shiraz to taste ...mmmmmm

Toss in the cooked penne...stir it a few more times...Dress with a slice of garlic bread...and TADA! THE PASTA IS READY TO BE EATEN!!!

Light a candle. set up a dinner date .. VOILA!! a yummy delicious home cooked pasta din din!

teddy sez : yum!

Yep yep yep...nuthin like chillin at home with a home cooked pasta meal washed down with some left over shiraz.. while i enjoy viewing my happie babies swimmin about as I muse over the little happenings in my life this month....blisss!

So how did you spend your weekend my happie gupsters?

Mad Cow Runs Are Unavoidable

Yes Ive avoided the mad cow run one too many times

on tuesday, i ran out of excuses and tall stories...hahahah unlike the usual MCR gatherings, there wasnt much feasting, we decided to eat out instead.. at first we thought we only had 30 bucks between the 4 of us for dinner ..so we picked a little known cafe along east coast - some place called white town cafe .....little did we know that moomoo had squirrelled away a stash of cash!

moomoo posing with her private stash of cash...hmmm wats good to eat here? so we got money ? why dont we go next door to sushi tei ? can order california maki , bla bla bla ..food here boring la


Ray cam whoring with bottle --it aint a pic of Ray without his..erm bottle... Poor mags..the noodles were blyyeeahhhh ..

On the work front, theres abit of mess to clean up....much like the desktop of my notebook for work..time to do some housekeeping.

i need a break...

:) Still here?

Happie Birthday Porkchop!

guppy : "when are u leavin for Melbourne?"
porkchop : "dunno i think next monday, erm mabbe"
guppy : "but thats wat u said last week, and the week before...u still here"

porkchop : "yup still here ...heeeeeee"

guppy : " heeeeeeeee.. awww happie birthday porkchop! "

Birthday piggies love Japanese yum yums! yes porkchop is stillll here :P moo moo and auntie irene! - bankrolling our waraku gastronomic adventures! whahhaha!moomoo: " nope, we didnt order alot..no no no...just nice "beautiful gerberas for porkchop!

Thank you auntie irene and mooomoo!

Nope I have not forgotten . Happie Birthday to you too.

Singapore Flyer Day

Guppies wanna fly too!

Went on an adventure at the Singapore Flyer today! heheheh didnt go up the damn wheel , at $25 a pop, i'd rather sit this ride out...content to just trapes around the vacinity of one more giant white elephant our beloved tourism board has been touting for our little island...sigh.


just thought id go check out the "infamous" new american import " Popeye Chicken" that moomoo was raving about a week ago.

we arrived at the Singapore Flyer at 1030am. Flanked by clear blue sunny skies, the Singapore Flyer was indeed a beautiful magnificent sight! happie little guppies are actually quite quite afraid of heights :P so we're cool just posing with the flyer behind

Guppies can fly! YES! New discovery - Jet aircraft flight simulator - but i almost fainted when i saw the price tag...whoah $155 for 30 mins of flight : S"T"IMULATION ahahahahha

Popeye's chicken was a delicious highlight for our day, I love the biscuits ( they are scones la biscuits my ass!) The mash potatoes with cajun gravy was to die for! but the fried chicken was nothing to shout about. I would recommend you give this a try if u can, and dont forget to order the brownies... yum yum yum yum yum!

Guppies are disgusting camwhores!

After such greasy delicious yum yums! what else is there left to do here but pose for happie pics all over the place? HAHAHAH


this piece is called - La Lang Lovin!after the greasy meal, we explored the place and didnt find much else in terms of retail therapy there was a spa that had cute little "fish spa" - where fishies ate the dead skin cells from your feet., there was a flight simulation shop, there were alot more restaurants and a nature trail..other than that there wasnt much up on offer in the area of retail therapy - i.e the shoppin sucked! -- this aint no mall baby..

we ended up at Kokon Tozai where we enjoyed deligious green tea and cakes... while i continued to camwhore at the cosy kokon tozai cafe... Green tea cake and iced matcha...mmmmm blisssssssssssss


picture postcard perfect... complete with pensive melancholic look guppy WAHHAHAHA

YES i had to spend some money..there wasnt much else to buy so i ended up buying this pouch made out of old Obi/kimono cloth - hmmm set me back by 50 bucks...phwoar!!!

how was your sunday my happie gupsters?

Bygones. Good Bye .

Grandma's wake is still ongoing.

Im back at work in the day and in the evenings Im expected to show up at her wake. I went yesterday , the day before , but ended up just sitting around....catching up with the clan (gosh my dad's side of the family's big) nothing left for me to do. The family had made all the buddhist funeral arrangements, called in the police to verify her death , everything on the 12th july saturday night she died.

I think she was almost 90 when she passed, she was one tough and hard woman, but the past 2 years she was bed ridden , so there is no doubt this passing was an end to her continued suffering here.

I havent applied for my compassionate leave online yet - i forgot my employee number :P and it was annoying to learn that my sis had to submit a "death certificate" to her HR department ..I wonder if my company would ask for one ...HOW SINGAPOREAN - a death certificate to prove that you really have a death in the family thats why u need to take time off work? Puhlease!

The void deck where we are holding the buddhist wake is the exact same void deck we held the wake for my late grandfather many years ago . I can still remember the sounds, smells and performances for his funeral then..Heard from the elders that the family is hiring some professional funeral performers to give her a glorious send off on thursday.

Right now, I still do not know if i feel anything for grandma's passing. With all due respect to her as dad's mother , some rather honest thoughts I have of her I guess, are better left unsaid. It does say something about our relationship if all i can remember about her are the vicious canings , how she would whoop me as a kid when i was 5-6 years old, when mom was pregnant with my brother and she was taking care of me and my sis.

yup i could remember the whoopin alright . Bygones.

Good Bye Grandma.

You did have a good life.

There is a big crowd at your wake everynight. we remember you , for the positive things. and Im sure the send off will be abig one on thursday morning

Adventure on MV Whitemanta with 199divecutie!

11-13 July 2008

When 199divecutie suggested enthusiastically to go on a scuba adventure on the MV Whitemanta to Tioman , this little guppy was thrilled to bits :D woohoo!

About a month or two ago, i was introduced to "someone who's just as nutty as you are and also crazy about scubadiving" -To cut a long story short, all conversations i had online or off with this cutie were always fun, open and entertaining. He came across as someone witty, intelligent , open minded , funny and well just generally friendly. He's claimed right from the start when we first met he's "very careful (a.k.a el cheapo)" with money ... I said to myself " eh this one! this one..he sounds just like me! except Im spendy guppy ha ha ha " mabbe we can be good friends!

Ok so off we went on this scuba adventure! in search of fishies, happie marine critters and more fishies! 199divecutie brought along his spanking new underwater video cam (Huge toy with equally obscenely huge price tag) woohoo! we're gonna film some fishies underwater... *foams*

We arrived at Changi Yatch Club right on time, and were greeted by whitemanta staff at the entrance. When we finally settled down, I realise - shucks! I brought my own little dive still camera but forgot to bring along the battery! STOOOPID GUPPY!!!!! *slaps self*

I finally settled down to what i came on this trip to observe and study (besides the beautiful marine life) and get to know better , my 199divecutie. Alas our conversations just didnt go as well as i thought they would.

Over the next 2 days on this dive trip, when 199divecutie asked me something, and i gave him my opinion, so long as the opinion doesnt match his, I get a lecture about why my opinion is incorrect, or why he is surprised I asked something I already knew the answer to , or how surprised he is at my views or thoughts, or he complains that i never let him finish his sentences bla bla bla

Over the next 2 days on this dive trip,I kept trying -- Whether it was a comment I made about the book he was reading, why he chose to stay in singapore, why not other cities etc etc almost every one of his responses were grating, and just surprisingly curt. sigh why doesnt he like little guppies when he's got her attention all weekend?? sobss.

Everything was so far away from the warm open-ness i felt from our earlier engagements, eventually , I ran away to hide somewhere on the boat and just sleep. hoping both of us can still enjoy the scuba trip if we avoid conversations that annoy each other. ok only breaking for lunch! and meals...coz then i get to observe him talking to other people. :P yep he's nicer to other people. lotsa things to say to them ...

hmmm ok lah we did have happie conversation moments, where he encouraged me to dive when i had my waves of laziness, and was tempted to skip dives, he always made sure he did a buddy check for me. and waited for me to equalise when we were in the water *heehee*

BUT!!!

I did observe 2 very very cool things about 199divecutie!

He is a very experienced good diver! skilled. albiet takes some "calculated" risks and is an air guzzler..I felt safe diving with him . Scuba diving with this cutie is actually fun as we search under rocks, and yes, there was a moment of insanity where he chased after two titan triggerfish to try to catch them on videocam.. this guppy took a deep breath ,one hand on her dive dagger another hand on her guages , she signaled him she was afraid and followed him on his mad crusade. :P

and!

On the night dive , there were two other divers on the boat that wanted to try a night dive but they havent got their advanced certification yet, without hesitation, 199divecutie inspired them to ask the divemasters on board to provide them with torches, gave them a proper briefing and brought them down for their FIRST EVER night dive ...and then brought them back safely onto the boat too! Their faces were so full of joy, it was heartwarming to hear one of them share how they saw a giant turtle, dogfish and their experiences diving in darkness underwater at night!

well done 199divecutie! I was so impressed! ok la we annoy each other but you know what, i give credit where credit is due -You are so damn cool .

All is not lost!

somewhere out there are some cool footages of cutesy GIANT pufferfish! and i mean HUGE! , blue spotted stingrays, cute little yellow box fish, lotsa nemos swimming in anemones, seafans, corals, ...rocks.. we even saw giant bump head parrot fish, trigger fish and more! the diving was good at some sites!

the mood did get better when i remembered that i had a mobile phone with a camera on it! i managed to capture these limited shots :

meet 199divecutie! such an BIG smile! yes adorable only when not giving a lecture :P DIFFERENT OPINIONS CAN CO-EXIST ! and No I dont ask questions i already know the answers to for fun! i asked them to make conversation twit!

hmmm samsung omnia smartphone seems to be doing a smashing job ...

surface interval time, other divers chatting.
relaxing at the bow before the night dive


199divecutie patiently shares some tips on what to note when doing night dives with two eager newbies who are excited to do their first night dive!a briefing on compass use!

no fear 199divecutie take u night diving! yeehar!

Happie newbie night divers!

Will this be the first (and last) scuba adventure 199divecutie does with this happieguppy? sigh mabbe it should be for both our sanitys!

*This one's for u moomoo! hhhehehe see? i didnt do any touching!*

Aiya wat a cute smile right ? he is a likeable person, I am a likeable guppy... sigh just cannot talk to each other without getting on each others nerves! how come?!

Overall this dive trip wasnt that bad for me except for 3 instances :
At Bahara Rock : I had a panic attack on the first dive, dunno why , couldnt feel any air, so i aborted my first dive, but i joined 2 other divers and made a re-entry. we eventually lost our divemaster, but i managed to bring the 2 other divers up safely! and even did a safety stop with them :) *proud of myself*

During one of the surface intervals at Chebeh - Whitemanta picked up a group of "distressed, tired" divers who surfaced too far off from their dive boat. Amongst them was a loser who just inspires every bit of disgust in me. If he was leading the dive, its no wonder they landed in such an embarassing state. but ofcourse i wouldnt know what really happened , actually i dont really care , He was just an eyesore, standing on my holiday boat, nothing but an eyesore. so I just went off about my own relaxing surface interval nap.

I recieved an sms on the 2nd night, that grandma had passed away. But i was out at sea and couldnt respond nor rush back. I lost the mood to dive the next day. I am sad my grandma passed away but she was bed ridden for so long, its just i guess something that everyone was expecting already.

Im going off to attend the funeral in a few hours time. not able to sleep tonight.