Assisi Hospice Charity Fun Day!

It was a HOT and HUMID day!

The date : Saturday 2 May 2009
The occassion : The ASSISI HOSPICE CHARITY FUN DAY!
(a.k.a guppy's first time volunteering her time and labour to raise funds!)
The task : to raise funds by selling foods at a booth at this event!

Actually it was the brainchild of one of my colleagues at work, and the rest of us thought it was a great idea and signed up without a 2nd thought hee hee . We had a hard time deciding what to make, cook and sell at the event , each time we had an idea, the organiser told us someone else was already doing it, so we had to come up with something new.

Eventually, we decided to make home made local desserts to sell at this event . we settled on these food stuffs , Steamed sweet potatoes, Green Bean soup, steamed corn, Tau Suan(yellow mung beans) , beancurd and barley , plus Herbal Tea Eggs!

The day began at 730am ( for this guppy, as i cant cook for nuts, the food was to be prepared by the other volunteers in our group hee hee i think they would've woken up like wee hours of the morning to start cooking! ) :

*yea ignore the time stamps on the pics. i borrowed chookies old camera again with the wonky time stamps :P booo*

We arrived earlier to set up the booth
signages were already up on the gates of the venue : sponsored by St Joseph's Institution International , along Thomson road. **Incidentally -- for those not in the know..SJI Institution now stands on what was formally known as Thomson Secondary school...my old secondary school ...hee hee i spent 4 years in this place when i was just a wee kid...eeeks! talk about deja vu! **

there were over 100 booths at this event!

everybody was busy setting up their booths, no time to lose , crowds will start streaming in at 9!

Check out our booth's banner, professional looking huh? all thanks to one of our work partners who sponsored the production of the banner for our booth !

Items for sale at our booth!

Yes , what were we thinking! selling HOT desserts, on a HOT day ... stress!

The happie volunteers!

breakfast first! we need our energy so we can sell more desserts and raise more marnies!

yes everybody working hard...this guppy just taking pics :P

Get your sweet potatoes! steamed sweet potatoes from japan!

Barley and Tofu sweet desserts! only $2 dollars! hurry hurry~

Delicious tea eggs! -- the First to sell out~ we made over 120 tea eggs for sale!!! Pay 50cents more and K will help peel the eggs for u too whahahahah! aww peel egg for little guppy...feel all warm and fuzzy wor! hahahahand ofcourse delicious sweet home made green bean soup and TAU SUAN yellow bean dessert which i forgot to take pics of...aaa!

see this beautiful lady? she is the brainchild of this charity activity idea --everybody salute!

the team hard at work despite the heat!

some even roped in family members, mom, sis, ...we love u!

OUR FIRST CUSTOMER!!!

OK young man - cut all the you tiao ( fried dough sticks) and get them ready for sale..chop chop!

Guest of Honor / Patron of ASSISI HOSPICE - Ho Ching (the PMs wifey) came over to our booth and gave out a certificate of appreciation :D awwww!

yeah! hoooray for Yummy Dessert HOUSE!

OF COURSE it was not all work and no play for this little guppy...i went about exploring the different booths and did my part to contribute in the monetary way too...i bought close to 70 bucks ful of vouchers to spend at the event, there was so much to eat, drink and play at the fair...this is a pic of me giving it a shot at the booze lucky dip booth..5 dollar per dip, u get a chance to win a bottle of expensive spirit.. but alas all i won was --a can of beer...boooo!!!

live bands from SJI International playing some pretty nifty tunes

there was even a live dunking game going on

we were there from 730...all the way ...the crowds started streaming in from 9am onwards and by about close to 4pm we were left with just these few bowls of green bean! and some dough sticks which we wrapped up and sold cheaply off! hoooray!!

Guess who else came to support this event:

Moomoo!!!! Who blew 10 bucks at our little booth heehee .... actually My mom, dad and Yarryl came by in the morning to support the booth too, and leekheng also came to support but by the time she reached the event late in the afternoon , we had completely sold out and i left for home :P THANKS FOR COMING GUYS!!!!

End of the day -- lets count our earnings!!! HOW MUCH DID WE RAISE?

WAH!!! so many coupons!!!

COUNTING...counting...counting.... TOTAL HAUL -- $438 bucks! and we sold out! GREAT JOB EVERYONE!~

heh check out our own shopping,,,,yes ofcourse we need to patronise every other stall there! duh!

By the time i got home, i was exhausted, hot, sweat and totally sun burnt like a piggy but i still had time to take pics of my cool shopping haul

$15 --brand new seal stuffed toy ..bought for chookie...

ASSISI Hospice teddy bear which moomoo bought for me -$20 cash donation plus monthly pledge of $10 per month for 12 months -- we LOVE MOOOMOO! 2nd hand novels at $1 each and pretty hand made earrings at $5 -$8 each!

In all it was a HOT HUMID but fun day! Im glad i hopped on the bandwagon and volunteered to help man the booth. it was a great experience. Im glad we managed to raise funds for a worthy cause. But I cant help wondering -- wouldnt it be easier for me to just write a check for $500 bucks ? wouldnt it be easier ( but less fun) than manning a booth for one entire day ?

ponder ponder ponder...

Green Curry Explosion

Weekend of Doom!

yep the weekend was a disaster :P and this picture of my doomed green chicken curry that exploded all over my kitchen stove just about sums it up . How did it get to this stage? did it get worse? read on ...

Last week was pretty sucky at work.

Many senior level executives representing our business interests in AP were in town for a big event , sales team was feeling the pressure to show management the money and no surprises, I get to face the brunt of their frustrations in full force. To top it all off, last week came crashing and burning to a glorious end when i recieved seperate notifications on Friday itself that my couterparts in Japan and the US had been retrenched/ made redundant (whatever management wants to call it) -- the guys are *poof* gone! it was especially disturbing and extremely painful, when i look back at the hours of late night phone calls that i had spent working with these individuals, discussing over projects with them. Hmmm not looking forward to having to do everything all over again! hmmm mabbe i should be grateful i still have all of this work to re-do all over again.

It was a Weekend of Doom at Home too
So there i was relived the work week was finally over, I was excitedly planning a nice quiet weekend , catching up with the people I love... little did i know it was to turn into the weekend of DOOM!

What are Buah Keluah Nuts?
It got into my head I will invite the folks and sibs over for a nice home cooked dinner. I was goin to experiment with making an entirely Peranakan inspired comfort food dinner.
The ambitious menu (google if you dont know what they are) :

• Ayam Buah Keluah
• Garlic Clams in XO sauce
• Sitrfried Petai with Prawns
• Sayur Lodeh
• Chinchalok Omlette

Everything that could go wrong -- went wrong!
1. I could not find Buah Keluah Nuts anywhere, I went to Shengsiong, I went to fairprice, I went to old wetmarkets in Yishun , I went to upmarket supermarkets in town, NO BUAH KELUAH NUTS!

2. without Buah Keluah nuts, naturally i could not make Ayam Buah Keluah , so i had to change the menu alittle, a change in menu meant i had to buy new ingredients . it was a mad dash back to the supermarket again to buy ingredients for Thai Green Curry Chicken instead.

3. the grand finale -- i finally settled down to cooking the thai green curry chicken i thought i was using stove proof pot - from corelle. after throwing in the ladies fingers, chicken pieces, eggplant, green curry spices and tamarind leaves, everything was brought to a boil...then suddenly there was a loud "cRRAAAAACCCCKKK" and there was broken porcelain pieces and green curry all over the stove top .

4. try wiping piping hot green curry off the stove, and scooping pices of broken porceilain off a hot stove. icky, yucky and MESSY!

5. my stove does not work now. -- Brilliant.

Ultimately I brought the entire family to Ivins Peranakan restaurant along sembawang road for ironically a delicious spread of Peranakan food ( very much an exact replica- sans clams -like what i had intended to cook above) the meal for 6 cost me under 60 bucks . whoopee . and it tasted good too.

And that was Saturday.
Sunday was another itchy backside fiasco
Guppys should not be left to fiddle with the fish tank on her own.

It got into my head that the fish were pooping more than ever, and that the tank had really high nitrate levels. Not to mention something was up with the main water pumps because it was getting a tad too noisy with the pump motors. Did i measure the nitrate level ? actually no... was the water pump working ? actually yes...

Anyway, i had nothing to do, So my creative mind hatched project "water change" and project " sound proofing" . spent a bomb at the fish shop buying marine salt, anti-cholrine, filter wool etc etc.. and went about project "sound proofing" first .

I dont know how i screwed it up but , along the way of moving pumps and pipes around in the sump tank , i managed to "crack" the silicone gel securing the main pipes that led to the main water pump. and now it leaks. -->Brilliant! and i havent even started project "waterchange" yet . worried that i might have a mini flood in my home, i quickly sent S.O.S messages to Buoy, who promptly came over within a few minutes *my hero* ...BUT Alas..it was an itchy backside damage that even the fishtank guru could not fix on the spot *cry* .

long story short I now have to live with the same rumbling noise from the pump, a newly leaky pump pipe, and i have to find silicone gel to fix the pipe...IF... it is fixable in the first place.

Boooooooo

The weekend sucked for this guppy. I hope yours wasn't a washout like mine .

Monday and the new work week...please be kind to little traumatised guppies

Skinny Pizza's are Yum!

And the fries with Truffle Oil aint bad either!

Been wanting to try out a couple of restaurants that i heard so much about but never had the time nor the right kakis to go with. One of this list of restaurants is - Skinny Pizza @ Suntec. I must say i wasnt dissapointed at all .

We ordered the $38++ Pizza set meal which included 2 drinks, 2 soups, 1 truffle fries

The thin crispy freshly grilled crust topped with generous amounts of sun dried tomatoes, peperoni, goats cheese, pine nuts, rockets, vegetables...the entire combination was just obscenely delicious! - and deceptively filling!

Truffle oiled fries!

thin crust pizza with generous amounts of delicious fresh toppings!

Guppies LOVE messy delicious eat with your hands and your friends food fare.

2 Down:

Porta Porta

Skinny Pizza

4 more to go :

Oso

The White Rabbit

Flutes at the Fort

Graze

Sigh...somebody take me out to dinner and soon

Lost My Virginity - Twice!

Opening Dive for 2009

Smiling Butanding! (Whaleshark)

Hello happiegupsters! Oh my i havent been blogging for over a month! YES , Dive season is open again and this little guppy simply couldnt resist the call of the ocean! Eve was going on a trip to Donsol , Philippines with Scuba Addictions/ James) so I thought, oh well.. might as well just join the group Eve was going with. A quick google of Donsol highlighted the super tempting promise of possible Whaleshark , manta and shark sightings! I'd never seen a whaleshark nor manta ray ever, so this time round i decided to splurge a little and booked myself on this trip to the Philippines!

later i learnt that besides Eve, Glenn, whom I'd not met for over a year was also on this trip, so it would not be a trip full of strangers after all!

Dive Trip Report

Date : 8-12 April

Location: Donsol Philippines

Happy Dive Kakis : Eve, Glenn, James, Kym, Angel, Cynthia, Pwa, Felix, Nat and Guppy!

Dive sites Day 1 : San Miguel - " 3 Caves" , "Rebecca's Garden" , " Lawrence's Reef "
Dive sites Day 2 : Manta Bowl

No of Orgasms 2 : WHALESHARKS !!! + 1 Giant Manta ray! 2m wingspan!

I really needed this dive trip to recharge and rejuvenate .

Hah and this trip certainly provided enough little highlights and a couple of low lights to really recharge my spirits. Over all very eventful and I had a great time ( Thanks to James for organising this trip) If i wrote out all the details I might never get around to finishing this blog entry so Im just gonna post up the pics and a quick summary of happenings:

Lowlights :

• My new dive knife got confiscated at Singapore customs - note to self :CHECK-in the dive knife whenever you fly! aaargh! $100 plus burnt before i even got to use the knife
• "You mean the hotel is still under-constructions? "- we arrived to find our hotel still underconstruction.
• watersupply is sucky in my room... its just a trickle.
• Ard 1 hour wait for all meals.
• budget airline sucks
• guppies are the first to Low-On-Air - aaargh! lost touch! damn it.
• urchins! Urchins ! Everywhere...
• got stung by jellyfish on 2nd dive as I surfaced
• Non diver tourists in orange live vests thrashing about in the water chasing/ scaring the whalesharks and this little guppy ( i think they are more dangerous than anything)
• loud australian diver - who sat beside me on the last evening over dinner and spent a good hour bitching about work conditions in Singapore . PUI! cant compete? then go home to aussieland ..sheesh..whinge n whinge n whinge.
• poor angel got food poisoning
• Sun burnt despite aggressively hiding from the sun!

Highlights

• Lost my virginity 1 : finally saw WHALESHARKS WHALESHARKS WHALESHARKS
• Lost my virginity 2: finally saw with my own eyes 2+ m wide huge MANTA RAY!
• Guppy's first firefly tour - *twinkle twinkle twinkle*
• dolphin pod swimming past the whaleshark tour boat!
• other marine life : porcupine fish, clownfish, lotsa nudibranchs, urchins , pipefish, lionfish
• Fatty porky meal
• "Uncle!"
• Super delicious seafood dinner!
• knife in mango seed.
• mini breads
• Pilli nuts!
• San Miguel Light

Dive trip Snapshots (Courtesy of Eve, Cynthia and Felix) :
My cam died on me, so most of these shots are from Eve , Cynthia and Felix's cam ..all pics are jumbled and in no particular order:

Camwhoring at Manila Airport (awaiting our domestic flight into Legaspi) check out our dive bags -- "UNCLE!" Surface interval views ...sigh...we'll make do i guess Overview of our journey :

Flight Singapore to Manila : 3.5 hrs --> Flight Manila to Legaspi city -->1 hr , Lagaspi city to -->Donsol Village by minivan : 1.5 hrs * blyeah*

Touch down ulu legaspi airport! careful not to fall off the stairs! a short walk from the tarmac to legaspi airport ermm terminal exiting the airport we were met with our host Conz..and his mini van views of legaspi city from the van it was a hot day. we stopped by a provision store , Glenn waiting for everyone to return to the van Eve and her Froggy friend waits in the van too we arrived at our hotel -and to our horror it was still underconstruction HAHAHAH! in this pic we are actually walking over where the Swimming pool is supposed to be...

where is the door to the bedroom? aaaa!!!

First meal in Donsol - LUNCH!

Wheres the van? we wanna go see whalesharks! Whaleshark interaction rego form Whaleshark interaction guidelines MY DREAM COME TRUE! BUTANDINGS SIGHTED!!!!! Group shot! San Miguel - 3 caves dive site

random dive pics : urchins urchins everywhere Porcupine fishy! PERCULAS Starfish Bladdy jellyfish...i got stung while surfacing on the 2nd dive.. pipefish! our sturdy vessel more group shots dinner time!

Butanding Spotter!

Fins mask and snorkel on! we are ready to jump once the Butanding is spotted! Whaleshark hunt group shotsthis shot was taken on day 1 dive when we returned to our hotel room, the door wouldnt open the lock was spoilt and all 4 of us had to wait in the makeshift pub area of the hotel , wet , cold ..waiting for the super slow hotel staff to fix the door to our room . we tried to order food and hot tea but everything was not forthcoming, (painfully slow) lucky for us cynthia had delicious crackers with her and milo powder, so we were wet but at least we were not starving. Guppies love cheap corn ice-cream! setting off on our evening firefly tour! it was amazing Id never seen fireflies until this trip...twinkle twinkle twinkle...so beautiful

Parting shot outside our hotel Giddy's place.

All in all, this Donsol dive trip was exceptionally fruitful for this little guppy. I got to see for the first time in my entire dive career, BIG BOYS of the deep, Whalesharks, Mantas and also got to see rare sights like fireflies! Lucky for me , the company was good

I always thought i would love to do rustic bare basic tours to the backwater towns and villages that have not become too commercialised yet. This trip as proven one thing -- Guppies are not suited to roughing it out in non commericalised tourist spots...hah think im just too spoilt and getting too old to rough it out no more.

Would it do it again ? for the Butandings and Mantas?

HELL YES! ( ahem ok ok mabbe in 1-2 more years time when Donsol gets more commercialised. )