Winter Hibernation - Day 3

Kwakakakaka~

I've been looking forward to some R&R for the longest time so since it's just started snowing 3 days ago (for the first time this winter), I decided to stay at home to hibernate! Ahhh....much deserved couch-potato-ing!!

I had Jeejeejen come over to bake on Wednesday, did absolutely NOTHING yesterday and doing nothing again today!!! Ahhhhh.......the life! Too bad work starts again on Monday.... poo~!

Well, I lied, I actually did something last night. I scrubbed the stove top and made it sparkling clean! Vim'd the sink too. How I love a clean kitchen!

How I love relaxing!
*now if only I could have a glass of wine...

Mmmm...Chocolate!!

OMG, OMG, OMG!! Normally I'm not a candle burner at all, but as soon as I saw this dark chocolate and mint one at Bath & Body Works I knew I had to buy it!! Even before I lit it up it smelled sooooooo good! Soooo reminds me of chocolate somethings baking in the oven!! The mint is so subtle it's just perfect! I just wanna eat it! haha~~

Just love it!!

Christmas Season = Eating Season

aka Eating Marathon!

Wow, all I've done lately is eat and eat and eat!! It certainly doesn't stop right here! Last Thursday was hotpot dinner with the Broadon gang, Friday was our company Christmas luncheon; last night was hotpot with Meishan, today is GP's version of the Christmas Luncheon (sooooo full despite not being able to have my prosciutto, boccaccini, shrimp, TIRAMISU!!); tonight is 冬至 dinner with 文太's mom; tomorrow is Christmas cheer at the office, 冬至 dinner with 公公婆婆; Sunday is Christmas hotpot dinner at 公公's again. Oh my! Not to mention the oyster party 10 days ago, the upcoming new years celebrations and the 7 panettones, 5 limoncello cakes, 7 bars of torrone and 2kg of cocoa that I just took home!

No wonder I'm gaining so much weight!!

On a Roll!

Yes! Finished another page! Even had the effort to blog it too! Kwakakkakaka~

Day 2 of October 2011 Hong Kong trip done!

How's that for being on a roll? やった~!

Fallen Off the Planet?

More laziness sees me still behind on blogging my recent HK trip, still lacking interest in scrapping and other miscellaneous things that I have to do BUT today! Today, I told myself I SHALL scrap a pic of Ronna that I took of her at the 11th Annual Oyster/Sushi Party (more on that later, yes, more procrastinating).

At least I got the page done in less than 2 hours...

haha~! *BEEF*

Lazy and Uneventful

I've been pretty lazy lately and haven't done anything about blogging my HK trip in October (well, one post...). Between daddy's passing and keeping life under control, I haven't really felt like doing anything productive at all. Haven't scrapped either! Eek! At least the oyster/sushi party is still on! Then again, even for that, I haven't done much planning...aiya~~

Gotta get myself off my lazy arse!! I wanna bake again...

Anxiously Waiting ...

for some ...

Ice Cream Sandwich

YUM!

Apple Pie Muffins

I love eating apples but only when they're crisp. Once they start getting soft, you won't see me touch them with a 10 foot pole. But growing up in a "don't you dare waste food" family taught me to use up the soft apples and not let them go to waste! (that or feed them to 文生, lol!) Lately, despite being apple season, apples have been really expensive! When I finally got a hold of some golden crisps at $0.77/lb, I grabbed a few of them since they looked sooo good. Of course, looks can be deceiving! They were SOFT and tart. Meaning even 文生 wouldn't touch them. WHAT TO DO?!?!

I recall I learned how to make these wonderful apple pie muffins in junior high school. They were too sweet for my liking but I remember if I cheated on the sugar, I'd get really good results. So after an afternoon of running around with mom restocking on food yesterday (another 橫掃四大超市 kinda day), I decided to use some of the apples, well one of them, to make my muffins!

They were done at 1am, filling my apartment with a nice cinnamon apple-ly aroma. YUM YUM!

so good and chunky~!

Would You Want to Know?

Everyone has a different lifestyle but virtually lives life the same way: birth, school, work, retire, die (more or less). You pretty much have an idea of where everything fits in with the exception of dying. So the big question is, would you want to know?

Between disease and natural causes, everyone is destined to "pass on". In my mind, those who die naturally are blessed with not knowing, so as long as you're living your life to the fullest and is happy for who you are, you've lived a fulfilling life. On the other hand, those who are not as fortunate, who have been diagnosed with illnesses (terminal or not) are counting down an undetermined number of days/months/years. Some people will use this time to try and do as much as they can before the day comes and others, well, will sit around and sulk.

I don't know if I really want to know what the future has in store for me. Brings me back to a conversation I had with the book store cashier at the HK airport: "要不要買本來年運程書看看?"

"Nope. Thanks."

Still Hungry?

Oct. 5 - 4:17a home
Yup, it's 4am! Of course I'm still up blogging, lol.

Woke up at 6:30a this morning and couldn't fall back asleep so I laid in bed for a bit before getting up to get ready to leave with 阿叔 at 9:00a -ish for Jordan. Had a quick breakfast with 阿嬸 at a 茶餐廳 before meeting with Tinlop and Meishan in TST.

10:00a rolls along and we all met up at the currency exchange to get some moola. The CAD exchange rate was pretty sad so I ended up using my USD instead. Good thing I brought along both currencies! Tinlop's 二嬸 took us to a few travel agencies to see if we could fit a short trip in to Korea or Singapore but nothing was in our budget or time restraints. Meishan called up her aunt the night before to meet for dimsum at 11:30a so we headed over to Cheung Sha Wan for some really crappy dimsum. No really, it was really crappy. Did I mention it was crappy? We quickly ate the bare minimum and left for MK to have street food and noodles instead. Of course, I had to have my share of 炸大腸 so Meishan and I devoured one skewer each. I didn't want to spoil lunch, so I opted to stop there while Meishan happily chowed down some stinky tofu. LOL~ Since having the 傷心酸辣粉 back in January, I knew I had to go back for some more so that's where we ended up for "lunch".

After lunch, which was already our fourth meal so far, we shopped around in MK for a bit and bought shirts for Mr. Man. Meishan even picked out a new pair of glasses. We needed a pee break so we stopped over at a McD's and there I was hoping to get my red bean pie again only to find out it was seasonal!! I opted to try the sweet potato pie, which was yum too but not as good as the red bean lor! If I didn't lose count, that would have been "meal" number 5 (and it was only 3:00p).

We proceeded up to Fa Yuen Street to buy some more stuffs and that's when Tinlop had some fresh egg tarts. I called up Emmi to see if she had time to meet up before dinner but she didn't want to come over to the Kowloon side so at around 7:00p Meishan, Tinlop and I hung out at Fairwood in TST to rest up and wait for our 8:30p dinner seating at 鴻星 to have 大閘蟹 with 妙珠姨, 旭珠姨 and 達文叔. OMG, dinner was from 8:30p to 11:30p! Freakin hell. Service was extremely lacking and food wasn't even cooked right. It was pathetic. Sigh...

After dinner, Tinlop was tired so he went home while Meishan and I walked down to the pier to check out the Avenue of Stars. I was hoping the lights would be still on but much to my dismay, they were turned off as soon as we got to the pier. We trekked all the way to TST East and noticed a live band was playing at one of the bars so we decided to sit in and watched a bunch of 中/老坑's dance until 2:00a. I must say, they were good!

By this time, buses and MTR were non-existent so we walked back up to Jordan to take a roller coaster of a mini bus back home to 深井 which only of course took about 20 minutes. I just showered and Meishan wouldn 't sleep until I do. So now I do. Tired. (4:30a)

Surprise!

Oct. 2 - 11:03a during flight
Wow, what a take off. Guess we're going to Hong Kong afterall. This morning Tinlop sms'd to let us know that we're flying direct which is great since travelling via Vancouver would be more expensive and much longer. I thought things were looking good! So I got up just after 7:00a to get ready for the airport by 8:30a as requested by Tinlop. 文生 decided to wait with me, awwwwww, and walk me to the gates this time (he never did this before), so we sat by the Starbucks waiting for Tinlop and Meishan to arrive.

Tinlop had this mischievous look when he arrived and told us that the flight was completely full! Wow! The flights going to Vancouver were completely oversold so he decided we'd see if we'd get lucky to get on the direct flight, despite the lack of seats. Lo and behold, we got on! Like Mario always says: "you guys always get on!" Lol!

We took off at about 10:15a and shortly after, we encountered a bit of stomach upsetting turbulence. Wow, it was quite bumpy to say the least! I hope I can manage since I'm not taking any Gravol whatsoever. After sipping some apple juice and saving the all-too-familiar pretzels for later, I took out the touchpad and started typing. Not bad...the keyboard is nicely laid out and the screen is very accurate and responsive. Now, to watch TVB or just listen to the Hacken concert and fall asleep? (11:16a)

Oct. 2 - 11:56a during flight
Being seated at the very very back of the plane, it's normal that we get served last. Usually by the time food gets to us the good choices are gone (like the congee from last time). Knowing that the pork noodles are extremely salty and soggy, I attempted to ask for chicken with rice and got it just as they ran out! Ooo, lucky! So I chowed down the corn and edamame appetizer and ate the ooh so salty, but at least tender chicken with nasty parboiled rice. It was drenched in a mustard mayo sauce that was just plain salty but at least it was semi palatable. Of course the brownie was toooooo sweet so I left it after taking just one bite. I think I'm going to watch a bit more 九江十二坊 before I attempt to sleep. Should really digest a bit before I gain more weight.....haha! (12:04p)

Oct. 2 - 6:15p during flight
Wow, what a bumpy ride! We've had several bouts of air turbulence on this flight which caused more than just our drinks to shake, lol. Must be the weather... I just finished up the all too familiar "snack" of cup noodles, after drifting off to sleep during an episode of 秀才愛上兵. Starting to get a headache though...not good. I think I'll just chill for a bit before attempting to nap again. (6:20p)

Oct. 2 - 9:46p during flight
Omg, I'm so hungry...but an hour to go before we get our congee/omelette choice. Mind you by the time it gets here, it'll be "would you like omelette or omelette?" Sigh...

I just got up and went to the back with Meishan and Tinlop to chat for about an hour or so. Felt so good not to be cramped up in the middle seat with nothing to do. At least we got some chatting in and I got to stretch. Poor Tinlop's entertainment system didn't work so I switched seats with him and now I'm at the absolute back row. Only about 3 more hours before we land! Omg, I cant wait to get off the plane, lol! (9:52p)

Oct. 3 - 12:21p (HK time) during flight
Final hour before landing! Finally! As usual, lunch was served 2 hours prior to landing and as expected, they ran out of congee as soon as they got to me. Poo. Good thing Tinlop was willing to trade so I saved my stomach by eating some easily digestible food. My headache is getting worse so I hope I can bear the landing without barfing...ewww... Countdown time! (12:24p)

Oct. 4 - 12:28a home
Yay me! I didnt throw up! Hoot! We landed shortly before 1:30p and proceeded to swim through the loads and loads of freewalkers and managed to get out of the airport in record time. Between getting Octopus cards topped up and phone activation, we were at the bus terminal by 2:20p. Surprisingly, it's quite cool in HK! Unlike last time we were here in October, it was only around 25C with showers. Since it was nice and early still, we thought we'd go back to Tinlop's 二嬸's place, then trek over to Hung Hom to drop off my luggage with 阿叔 and then meet up with Sandra and surprise her. However, the bus ride from the airport took almost 2 hours! Sandra was already heading home so I had dinner at 二嬸's and then the very sleepy trio went over to Sandra's to surprise her. Keke, she was surprised all right! I love surprises!

Sandra's son Harold is soooooo cute! Too bad he was sleeping so we couldn't play with him. We snuck out for a bit of Cafe de Coral (Sandra didn't eat yet so she ate dinner while Meishan, Tinlop and I just had drinks) and I bused all the way back to 深井 in about an hour. I’m so exhausted right now...omg....I need to crash... Except I'm hungry...poo. (12:45a)

Now Why Can't I Sleep?

Last night 眼光光, 到天光...

and this is not the first time either! Sigh... why can't I sleep? Too bad, a nice and sunny day out today and it's been written off since I'm so exhausted.

Poo.

TP'd!

It's finally here! After a whole month of searching, lining up, searching some more, waiting, and more waiting, it finally arrived! I loooooove unboxing new toys! :P Can't wait to OC this thing and definitely cannot wait for Android to be officially ported over. Still on the lookout for a 16GB for mom. It's currently charging and as soon as it's done, let the OC-ing begin!

It's about time!

Piggy

Last night 文生 and I ended up having dinner at 돼지야~돼지야~ (Piggy Piggy or Piggy's Restaurant) in Thornhill. Despite being miserable out, I opted for the icy cold noodles that 文生's friend highly raved about. The beef broth was in the consistency of Slurpee or 冰沙 and was really light tasting. Very yummy indeed! I loved all the side dishes they brought out to accompany our meal too. Definitely scheduling a return trip in the near future for their table top bbq or another item on their regular menu. Despite many people having bbq, we didn't smell like it when we walked out! Bonus!

Gloomy Day!

A day like today calls for some snuggle time under covers and no work. Unfortunately, I am at work of course! Cloudy, spitty days mostly makes me miserable and want to sleep, and the chilly part of it makes me want to hot pot!

I truly detest this weather! Okay, rant over... :D

TGIF!

After a loooooong short week (I know, ironic), I'm glad it's finally Friday. Haven't slept well for 2 full weeks now and between 文生 talking and kung fu-ing in his sleep, I'm looking forward to a few nights of decent snooze time.

Work has been pretty uneventful for the last few weeks and since 3 weeks ago, I've been on the lookout to buy one of them discontinued Touchpads (without luck, of course). Other than that, daily life's kinda dry.

One thing I've noticed recently though is that everyone that had a baby/is expecting for the past 6 months ALL had (or are having) BOYS!!! Wow! Not a single little girl! Just found out a co-worker is expecting a boy at the end of the year. I wonder what's in the water??

凍!

Labour Day weekend comes... and goes. Which means it's officially the end of summer. End of my favourite season, start of my most disliked one: winter (yes, here we don't have autumn, LOL). If the fact September rolled around quietly wasn't bad enough, we get attacked by a gust of cold(er) weather. In my books, 16C is cold and being under 12C yesterday sent shivers down my spine! I'm so not ready to take out my jackets...

brrrr.....凍!!

I Want 燒乳豬!!

Once in a while, I still think about the 乳豬 that I could have had in 屯門籃地 while Tinlop and I were in Hong Kong this year. Just the crisp sound of the skin being cut into was enough to make my mouth water. As much as I want to head out a restaurant and try the 片皮豬 I just don't think the crispiness will come remotely close to matching the one in HK. Now, no thanks to episode 100 of 誰家灶頭無煙火 (where they mentioned picking up a 燒乳豬 in 屯門 to celebrate 羅樂林's birthday), I have this massive craving for some!!! How where the hell am I going to get something to satisfy this craving?!?

Excruciating Pain!

In all the years I've known that I have scoliosis, I don't believe my back has hurt this much. Hurts like a MOFO!! I can hardly bend over, drive or sit up straight! I was kept up all last night because of the pain. Soooo tired! Just wanna go home and lie down!

Weekend Road Trip

Last weekend saw 文生 and I on a last minute road trip to Montreal. It was really fun and relaxing as we only walked around town, stopped at whatever or wherever to eat and just didn't make plans. We had our caricatures drawn by a street vendor and it looks really cool! I haven't had one done in AGES and apparently it's 文生's first time. I think the last one I had done (and my first) was 2001 or something in Quebec City.

We had smoked meat at Schwartz's (of course) and also at Dunn's. Man, no comparison!! I still didn't get to try Au Pied de Cochon because well, we didn't have reservations. =( poo! Second time I got turned away....sigh... I have absolutely no luck with that place!

I loved how our hotel delivered our breakfast every morning in a basket to our room. It was great! Breaky in bed, TVB on the flat screen TV (yep, I brought along my hdmi cable). Had a splendid time!

Simple Woman, Simple Life

I was doing my normal blog-reading routine and stumbled across The Simple Woman's Daybook and decided to play along. Since I haven't scrapped a single photo in ages, I thought I'd do a page too! I'm not totally crazy about how this page turned out, but I guess it'll do for now~

click to enlarge and read text

New Toy

I warmly welcome my new toy (finally! After over a year of waiting) thanks to the greatest boss in the world! 8MP camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording, 4.3" super AMOLED Plus display, Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, dual-core 1.2GHz processor and other goodies! I'm so excited to get this up and running! Hwaaakakakakaka~!

Partays 2011 - Part 1

Due to lack of energy recently, I haven't really done much on this blog. Since it's that time of the year again, I thought I'd add a couple of photos just to remind myself of what happened recently when I need to remember it this time next year.

I guess the partays started last Friday with Faye's (not counting Cindy's red velvet cupcake birthday bake date 3 weeks ago). We went to a Thai restaurant downtown and I really liked the tom yum goong soup! Over dinner, the men (Danny and 文生) yapped about cars as Meishan, Faye and I talked about plans for Faye's big day next year.

Then Sunday was 可可's baby shower/birthday lunch at Oliver Bonacini Cafe followed by 波波茶 at Green Grotto. Had smoked meat sandwiches and fries with 文生 while Gootoe, 細V, 可可 (and 林B I suppose) and Ka had the Summerlicious menu.

Last night, Tinlop and Cindy took me out for dinner and I decided to try out the vegetarian sushi place that 可可 recently raved about on her blog. Not bad for vegetarian! Now I know what to make when I'm out of ideas while making my maki's at home. Presentation and service was definitely worth mentioning albeit a little on the pricey side.

Credit Card Rewards

I'm melting in this 37C plus humidex 47C heat!! I found myself short of breath just walking from the No Frills parking lot into the store! Eek!

People who know me well know I'm very 師奶 when it comes to grocery shopping. The greatest thing (next to sliced bread) is the MBNA Smart Cash credit card that 細V discovered, giving me a whopping 3% (non-tiered!!) cash back on groceries and gas. I've been loving that card for the last two years and use it every chance I get. So today, I was at No Frills, lined up and ready to pay for my $5.31 package of extra lean ground beef, and thought: "hmm, it's kind of embarrassing to 碌卡 for five bucks." Mind you, I've done it this week for under $5. Then the guy in front of me proceeded to pay for his purchase with his credit card:

$2.94

I LOL'd.

Foodie Weekend

The weather's been great the last few weeks. I'm really enjoying the sunshine and the feeling of summer! EXCEPT, I haven't been able to stay in the heat for any longer than a few minutes before feeling like I need to pass out! Aiya~~!!

Since June, there's been something going on every single weekend in the GTA and will last until Labour Day: Ribfests, night markets, street festivals, Taste of the , Pride Parade, CNE, etc etc. On Friday, 文生 and I went to check out the larger-than-ever Night It Up 夜市 that conveniently moved from Metro Square to Markham Civic Centre. Wah, the amount of people! Unfortunately, we arrived at about 8pm and the event was completely packed to the extent that you'd be lucky if you could order something within an hour. While things looked authentically Taiwanese, they sure didn't taste right! Sigh... We saw a booth for some HK style stinky tofu and decided to have some before we tackle the Taiwanese style ones but what a mistake! I was so disappointed! Later, the lines got even longer and you couldn't even move in the isles so we just decided to leave. So, after some fried tofu, 四川涼粉, bbq squid legs, Malay pancake and 雪花冰, a disappointed and grouchy me left for dinner at 半畝園.

Nasty HK style stinky tofu! Nothing more than just plain FRIED!

Looks authentic enough, but looks can be deceiving! (and proved to be!)

Now this, doesn't even LOOK good :(

Saturday rolls along and 文生 knew I wanted my stinky tofu fix, so he took me back to First Markham to have 美濃刀切牛肉麵's version of Taiwanese 臭豆腐. Now that hit the spot! Not to mention, their noodles are pretty good too!

台式臭豆腐 @ 美濃刀切牛肉麵

Sunday saw us having a spur-of-the-moment dimsum date with 可可, her 蜜糖兔仔, 林B, 細V and Gootoe. Since I wasn't close to being full after lunch, we trekked over to 許留山 for dessert. OMG, FMP 3 days in a row... nasty.

Neglected?

It's been almost 2 weeks without a blog post and I just thought to myself, is blogging over? I mean, is the life of blogging in general done for? I've noticed that there are several blogs that I've been following that are in some serious need of updating. *hint hint* cough Sai V cough~ Without a doubt, Facebook, Twitter and Weibo (even Instagram!!) seem to be the go-to medium for many people nowadays since you can update so easily over your mobile device. No longer do you need to log on to your blog, think of a witty (or less-than-attractive) title, write out a blurb of random nothings and perhaps post a photo that you have to manually upload from a memory card. God forbid, that takes waaaaay too long!! Not to mention, some spur-of-the-moment thoughts do indeed get lost in the sea of constant stimulation in our busy lives. How easy is it to snap a photo on our phone, hit Share and boom, it's already updated on all 6 of your favourite social media sites (and you don't even need to sign in!). Sigh...

Call me a dinosaur! I've just been lazy, so a lazy dinosaur at that! My phone has a crappy 2MP camera without a flash, and I need a WiFi network to post pics from my crappier iPod camera so guess what? Back to basics. Which is fine when I don't feel like sleeping 24/7. Lately, all I've been wanting to do is sleep. I'm feeling so out of shape it's not even funny, well not funny anymore at least, LOL! By 11pm, I need to hit the sack, like I mean, I NEED to. Only to wake up the next day feeling somewhat rested until about ... now (almost 3pm) ... when I feel like I need to sleep again :P

So I came into work today and people asked me what I did for the long weekend. I racked my brain and answered, "Sleep." Yep, Friday I got up kinda late, went out and ate a late lunch, walked around with 文生 looking for a hair salon (didn't find one that wasn't busy), got extremely tired, fell asleep at a food court while waiting to go to dinner, had dinner, hung out a Meishan's for a bit then went home and slept. Saturday had a late lunch with Gootoe, went to Ribfest to pick up some pulled pork, went home and by 7pm I was so exhausted that I fell asleep right away. Sunday went out early with Mar Mar for dimsum, got a nasty nosebleed while lining up at a supermarket to pay (how embarrassing) and almost passed out by the time I got home at 2:30pm. If Mar wasn't around all afternoon to help me cook and I wanted to keep her company, I would have slept too. I'm such a pig!

Exhausted!

Sigh, we didn't leave the office until 1:15am last night so by the time I got home it was almost 2:00am. Factor in doing dishes, folding laundry that's been sitting in the dryer for 3 days, making lunch, cleaning out my fridge, and that took me till after 3:00am. By the time I got into bed, it was after 4am and I couldn't fall asleep. I'm so exhausted! The night before last we left at midnight and tonight will be another one of them long ones (I'm hoping for midnight). Day 17 and counting...

有個秘密秘密於心窩

Many of my close friends normally don't tell me their "secrets" unless they want me to broadcast it, as I've been NOTORIOUS for not being able to keep them. Over the years, I'd like to believe that I've gotten better at keeping secrets since I've been struggling to keep in contact with people!! Can't tell people things when you don't talk to them! Lately, I've been told a "secret" that so far I've been able to keep. 文生 said he'll give me 3-4 months before I spill the beans. LOL~! He has so much faith in me! Just for that, I'm going to keep my mouth zipped for as long as I can. Then again, I tend not to care much about things that are really none of my business. So I guess it shouldn't be too hard?

Good thing work's been keeping me really occupied. I've been exhausted every night after work so I get home and jump right into bed. Day 15 of my work marathon and counting.....well I did have Friday off, but was still required to do work at home.

I'M SOOOOOO TIRED!!!

Day 9 of Work Marathon

Day 9 of the work marathon today and I'm pretty exhausted! This project has been a little better than the last as we sold half of all the suites in 5 days and another 16% of them are on hold. At least we're busy!!

On another note, I haven't made a home-cooked meal in over a week and it's really starting to bother me now. The new T&T downstairs just opened up and I haven't even had a chance to check it out yet! Unheard of! I miss bringing my lunch and eating healthy. Poo!

備戰中

In the middle of preparing for an opening.
Busy. Busy. Busy.
Starting to get sick.
Can't get sick.
Too busy to be sick.
Long weeks ahead of me.
がんばってよ!!!

Multiples of Three

自中學時代, 小芬最喜歡的中文字就是個 「鬱」 字. 最鍾意之處當然是因為它筆畫多啦! 還記得有一次上中文堂, 小芬呢個竹升妹公然 challenge 寫錯個 「鬱」 字的 Missy, 弄得她狼狽非常. 回想時還感幾分得意. 只因她是應得的! 中文未夠班就不應誤人子弟! 成日教錯字!

到了今天, 小芬還是努力不懈學好我的祖國語言但很可惜, 科技先進令到現在的中國人(包括小芬在內) 難免有執筆忘字的煩惱. 不過, 小芬還是要努力擴闊自己的詞彙因為我識得的字實在太少啦!! 所以近幾年小芬比較喜歡的網址就是香港中文大學的 《粵語審音配詞字庫》. 是小芬學中文的天書也!

有一次無意中找到中國字最多筆畫的 「龘」 字, 一共48畫. 比起只得29畫的 「鬱」 字簡直冇得比! 不過三個 「龍」 字寫在一起又真係冇乜難道呢. 所以小芬還是鍾意個 「鬱」 字. 想起 《最緊要「正」字》 曾經有個博士說過將 「五行」 那幾個字 x3 都是字呢. 最常用的當然是 「木」 和 「火」 不過小芬成日都忘記三個 「金」 的讀法!

金 x3 = 鑫 (音: jam1 音)
木 x3 = 森 (we all know this one)
水 x3 = 淼 (音: miu5 秒)
火 x3 = 焱 (and this one)
土 x3 = 垚 (音: jiu4 搖)

接著看 《正識第一》 時, 得知三個 「魚」丶「牛」丶「羊」 字亦可以搭起來成字. 看 《掌上明珠》 時, 我已經學了個 「驫」 字所以小芬又一次證明看 TVB 是對我有益的!!

The Sun!

OMG OMG OMG, do I see the sun out?!?! After an eternity of rain?!? Okay fine... 10 days straight seem like eternity, k? I sure hope the sun keeps shining!

Epic!

Last night marked a big milestone in the life of my PC. For almost a year now, I haven't been able to do any Windows Updates due to stupid error no. 80070424. Damn you, MS! For eleven months I've been looking for a solution without having to reformat. This week, I was this close to wiping the comp clean but last night I thought, I'd give the wonderful interwebs one last chance to land in my lap a solution to my poor PC's misery. Then I found it! God must have been looking over my shoulder, pitied my PC, or something! LOL~!

A small little link on one of the bajillion solution pages out there to teach you how to get rid of the damned 80070424 error (that I have read at least sixteen times in the past year and yes, I remember this number off by heart now) lead me to one comment that basically said: "READ and read it carefully". Uh, duh... can we say... grade school?? So, Windows Installer does not equal Windows Modules Installer and trustedinstaller.reg is NOT trustedinstaller.exe!! Well, of course not! Seems like I had overlooked the word MODULES but since I just noticed that I'm a moron, I tried the solution and yes, now my PC can do updates again. Hoot!!

After 76 updates, I decided to call it a night and resume the updates tonight. Fingers crossed that it doesn't cause any more problems. Booyah!!

Now to file my income taxes... -_-""

FREEZING!!

Okay, it's May already. You know the term: April showers bring May flowers? Well, it's MAY!! Where are my flowers?!?! They're too cold to bloom, duh! Go away, nasty cold, wet, rainy days, and may the warm spring weather embrace us!!!

I demand my share of vitamin D!!!

/rant

LOL~

Super Trio Charity Master 超級慈善獎門人

上個禮拜四同美珊去到超遠嘅 Brampton Powerade Centre 睇 『超級慈善獎門人』. 當晚除咗獎門人曾志偉獎、獎老金剛、江欣燕同Otto之外，還有我的至愛三哥苗僑偉!! 我喳車喳成個鍾去到咁遠都係為咗睇佢!! Well, then again, 仲有戚美珍、黃日華、商天娥、米雪、湯盈盈、騰麗名、梁靖琪、梁烈唯 (唯唯!) and then the bunch I didn't really care to see: 周秀娜、Alin、Hotcha、賈曉晨、徐偉棟 and 食神林澄光.

8:30pm 開 show

超級無敵啜乒乓 - yep, that's me :D 獎門人 looks amused.

Upon getting up on stage, I had made eye contact with 唯唯梁烈唯 so when 曾志偉 asked who I wanted to pair up with, he actually thought I was going to pick him! Oops~ When I told 獎門人 I wanted to pair with 黃日華, he was like: 「佢年紀大你好多喎!!」 Hahaha!! He's my 郭大俠 man!!

So playful~ 嘻嘻!

OMG OMG OMG ~~*Swoon*

Most of the activities involved the various artists singing and yes, EVERYONE sang. Just before 黃日華's turn to sing 『中國人』, they were playing 人肉 Hoolahoop. At first, NO ONE wanted to play. 湯盈盈 even had to drag her brother up on stage. The guys who volunteered thought they could toss 周秀娜 around (*rolls eyes). Well, after a few rounds of female body swinging, 曾志偉 put 黃日華 on the spot and said: 「不如搵番頭先嗰位觀眾來同華哥玩喇!!」 GLADLY!!

Again, 獎門人 looks super amused.

同 Stone Sir 玩人肉 hoolahoops = 爽!

Getting old eh?

Ah Miu!!! *faints*

Sexy 唯唯!

Needless to say, I had tons of fun! So glad Meishan brought her bro's camera as my lens didn't zoom enough despite us being in row 7 from the front. Just a little pissed that they skimped me out on my prizes!!! -_-""

I Know This One!!!

I get so hooked on watching 正識第一 and now that season 2 is in full swing, I still find myself pulling out season 1 and 最緊要正字 to re-watch so the vocabulary will hopefully stick with me. Unfortunately, I don't have the time (or effort) anymore to do what I used to do to study Chinese when I was in high school so I guess 翻煲-ing the shows will help me a bit.

Yesterday's episode had 郭峰 and Mandarin speaking 朱璇 stumped on the following 對聯:

調琴調調調調調調調來調調妙
種花種種種種種種種成種種香

I've studied this before so I know it! Poor 郭峰 and 朱璇 were completely tongue tied though...haha.

Further to my 糴米 post, I learned another word to go with it:

糶
音: tiu3 (跳)

as in 糴糶 which means 米稻的買賣. So in a nutshell, 糴米 = 買 and 糶米 = 賣.

More Creations!

First up, is the tiramisu cake that I made for da boss for his birthday:

It was a yummy tiramisu! I can't stand the recipes where people substitute the savoiardi for sponge cake (?!?!), use whipped cream instead of mascarpone cheese, use powdered instant coffee instead of making real espresso, or omitting the alcohol (can you imagine?!). I got thumbs up from the real Italians so I guess this recipe stays! =D

文生 just loves the salmon natto yukke from Guu and since it's just so easy to make, I recreated it at home:

I can't say I like frying up a storm in my kitchen but I guess small amounts of frying can be tolerated once in a blue moon. The moon has to be VERY blue, LOL~

Completed! 文生 was a happy camper. He'd better be...

What's for Dinner?

I hate grocery shopping on a full stomach but even worse, I despise grocery shopping on an empty. Of course, I just had to go get groceries on Monday after work, when I was super hungry. The funny thing was, I didn't use half of the stuff I bought until last night. Go figure.

Dinner on Monday wasn't anything to write home about only because I was starving by the time I got home so I just put together a large salad, some natto, reheated 蘿蔔糕 that mom made, and had one of them cassis macarons, that I made the other day, for dessert. Simple.

Last night, on the other hand, was a different story. Not uncommon these days, 文生 had a group meeting so I was left to cook and eat by myself again. I decided to do something different so I made a quick white pizza to satisfy my immediate hunger then made an asparagus-stuffed pork tenderloin with fig and balsamic sauce. It was quite yummy! Much more work than my white pizza that's for sure!

"White" pizza with parmigiano reggiano, spring mix, prosciutto, olive oil, pepper

Asparagus-stuffed pork tenderloin with fig and balsamic sauce - leftovers for lunch!

Cassis macarons aka Pierre Herme's Envie

Next up on my list of things to make: Salmon Natto Yukke!

Hooked on Baking

OMG, all I've been wanting to do lately (besides eat and drink wine, LOL) is bake! I can't believe it! It's as if I need to make up for all those years I've missed out on baking. Bad thing is: I'm not a sweets person so I need to unload my baked goods one way or another. So far, I've been succeeding with dropping all my macarons (yes, that's all I've done lately) to my cousins who are going to start hating me and blaming me if they get fat :P

I want to use those mini cupcake pans that Meishan got me to bake mini cupcakes and make a tiramisu cake for my boss for his birthday next week. FUN FUN FUN!!! Not to mention I'm going to give Italian meringue a try for my next batch of macarons. Good thing a bake buddy suggested buying pure egg whites since I just finished the 11 egg yolks from the last batch of macs. *facepalm Talk about cholesterol overload.

Baking is much more fun in groups though. I honestly need a bake buddy as Meishan once again gave up on making macs! poo~~

The Smell of Spring!

今日天朗氣清、鳥語花香、風和日麗. Does that mean spring is here to stay? I sure hope so! What a great start to my day to hear of the mild temperature and see the hazy sunshine come through my windows. Ah~~

Word of the Day

好欣賞細V的 『每日一Wiki』 concept, except after one entry 就停咗 -_-"

While looking up the pinyin for 石 (shi2) today, I learned something new!! The word 石 (sek6) has another pronunciation! It can be pronounced daam3. As in 一石米. So while I'm on the 米 topic, I'll learn how to write this one:

糴
音: dek6 (笛)

"文生! 去超市糴一石米回來!"

行街.睇戲.食飯 Oh, a Date!!

Despite being a crappy weekend weather-wise, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit! 文生 decided he needed half a weekend off so we took some time to actually go out and enjoy each others' company. For the first time since probably Christmas, we went on a date! OMG! Giddy! It was raining pathetically all day on Saturday so that was grocery day. Hmm, I can't remember how long 文生 hasn't gone grocery shopping with me... That was followed by dinner at Fin Izakaya. This time, when having the blow-torched mackerel, I remembered to ask for the brand of this baby that will soon arrive as an addition to my kitchen. Keke...

Fast forward to Sunday and we actually went to see a MOVIE. The last movie I saw was Angels and Demons and that was wait... May 2009?!?! Equipped with Gravol, barf bag and free movie passes for 2 (along with 2 ginormous drinks and a popcorn), I was all set to see my first 3D movie! OMG, I'm pathetic, LOL. All we had to pay was $6 to "upgrade" the pass for the 3D movie and we chose to see Gnomeo and Juilet. It was pretty cute and thanks to the Gravol, no barfy!! Kwahahaha!

The movie ended at 8pm and since 文生 was still full from lunch, we decided to head home to have a light dinner instead of eating out again. Snuggled up on the couch and finished the last few episodes of 隔離七日情 before calling it a night. Hah.... this is the life! (拍拖 life, that is!)

Real Time Off

What a relaxing day it was yesterday. The sun was out so I had pulled back my blinds in the living room to let in all the wonderful juice of the sun. I got up quite lazily at 11am and made 早餐 A for two, which 文生 and I happily (and peacefully) ate before he went back to his studies.

Me: 今日我為你准備嘅早餐 A...
文生: 即係午餐 A啦...
Me: 又即係常餐 A. 咁你食唔食呀?!
文生: 食.

Brunch was actually 牛油多丶 煎雙蛋丶火雞腸仔通粉 so ya, typical 茶餐廳 fare, but at home. Over a live broadcast one of my favourite RTHK radio shows 有冇攪錯. Relaxing indeed. It's not often we get to spend an actual holiday at home, not running around doing errands or shopping for groceries.

After polishing off the food, I got started on my 3.5-hour cleaning regime. With 輕談淺唱不夜天 blaring in the background, I cleaned both bathrooms, wiped down all the mirrors, scrubbed the kitchen sink, wiped down the cupboards, selectively cleaned the baseboards (yes, only selectively, LOL), vacuumed and Swiffered places where the Roomba couldn't reach, cleaned the Roomba, wiped down all the appliances, and even cleaned my spice rack! All by myself while 文生 studied. So satisfying to see a clean home! Love it!!!

With me being such a good girl, 文生 agreed to go out for an early dinner at Inatei! What a great day it was yesterday!

New Years Day = Time to Go Home :(

Feb.3 – 10:29am Toronto time (con't)
Sigh, here marks the end of another happy HK trip! Once again, I find myself missing HK already. The mini vacation was definitely relaxing as I no longer need to rush around to get things done.

I was quite winged last night from all the alcohol chopping since I didn’t really have dinner -_-“ so when we were done, I just crashed. Which was a big mistake, because I woke up with such a nasty headache this morning it wasn’t even funny.

I finished my packing and waited for Tinlop to wake up before calling Sandra to meet up and do a quick exchange of items. Well it was supposed to be quick, but wasn’t quite so. 阿叔 and 阿嬸 waited at 潮江春 in 荃灣 while Tinlop and I went all the way to 黃大仙 to get Meishan’s DVD off Sandra. Needless to say they were quite impatient since it took us an hour to get back!

Bye bye 仙杜拉, until next time!

After dimsum, we went to the airport directly and now we’re halfway home! Only one whiny kid on this flight, but whiny nonetheless. Sigh…

Having that headache still, I only ate the mashed potatoes and cucumber daikon salad but skipped the beef for lunch and slept until little missy the isle over decided to wail her little head off. Not able to sleep anymore, I decided to catch up on my blogging! (11:00am)

Why does it look so nasty? Because it tastes just as good as it looks~

(5:04pm) Wow, our ride has been pretty bumpy today! At least the kiddie didn’t cry much more afterward. That or I passed out good! All I did was sleep because I was so tired. Cracked open an eye long enough to have the cup noodle and sandwich snack and was out cold again. Keke, piggy! I just finished breakfast with congee, 3 pieces of fruit (dragonfruit, papaya, watermelon) and half a roll with jam. Only an hour left and we’re home! (5:09pm)

Canadian sunset

CNY's Eve Countdown

Feb.3 – 10:29am Toronto time
I was up around 8am as usual and started to do some packing since Tinlop wasn’t up yet. I didn’t think 梁生 would have made it up in time since he was at work until 4am the previous night, but at 9:30am he called and confirmed our breakfast date. Tinlop didn’t want to come so he left to meet up with his friend that just arrived in HK while I went to have breakfast.

Originally, we were going to go to Fairwood but since it was completely packed, we walked down the block to 椰林閣. Oh boy, the food wasn’t that great (actually it was quite crappy) but I enjoyed the company even though he looked half asleep!

After breakfast, 梁生 had to go home to rest up before his New Year’s Eve gathering at work so I left to go get more money exchanged at TST and attempted to meet up with Tinlop.

View from 阿叔's condo in 深井 in the late morning - purdy!

Little did I know that they were quite mee-moh-ing so I ended up walking up to Mongkok and did some shopping myself. Bored as hell since I was just 遊街-ing, I called up Emmi and agreed to shop with her since she was getting off early. Killing more time, I walked back down to TST after I had a stinky tofu and fried intestines before I took the MTR to CWB. Gotta love my stinky tofu! I was reluctant to try the fried intestines on the street but after seeing this dude wolf down like 5 skewers while I ordered my tofu, I decided to give it a try. OMG, it was soooo good!!!

Shopped a bit with Emmi and sat down to a 涼粉冰 before taking the MTR back to Tsuen Wan to have dinner with 阿叔、阿嬸 and Lynn. We went to a restaurant in Tuen Mun for 乳豬 but OMG they were so busy that the little sucker never made it to our table! I was so disappointed!

This baby could have been our dinner =(

阿叔 agreed to chop alcohol for our countdown at home so we left, went home, waited for Tinlop to come home and chopped alcohol until 1am. We did our countdown over 2 bottles of red wine, very nice (and expensive) chocolate, cheese and tong shui, LOL. Well, and of course, TVB.

La Maison du Chocolat Akosombo Bar 68%

They need a cheese slicer, LOL~

Pamper and Relax Day!

Feb. 2 – 2:49am (con'd)
Today was quite a relaxing day as I didn’t do much. I still got up at 8:00am but took my sweet little time to get out of the house. Tinlop and I initially left at 10:30am to check out the Garden factory store downstairs. After browsing for no more than 5 minutes, we left and went to the souped up Park n Shop (now called International) to nose around before stopping at a nearby 茶餐廳 to have breakfast. We rushed to put in our order and made it just at 10:59:30 before they switched over to the lunch menu. Saved us a few bucks there! The fare was not as good as yesterday’s in Hung Hom but the tea was nice and smooth. Luckily I finished all my food before I drank the tea because I felt a complaining stomach almost immediately after we left the restaurant.

I felt really bad about not getting dinner last night so I bought a bottle of Moet for 阿叔, grabbed a bottle of Jacob’s Creek and brought everything back upstairs before going out again. We took the shuttle bus out to Tsuen Wan and MTR to Admiralty thinking we’d go do lunch with Sandra, but by the time we got there she was already eating at CWB with her co-worker so Tinlop and I just walked over to Wan Chai to look for some MJ sets. Seeing we’d be in the area, we went for a 2 hour sauna and massage retreat at 新瀛閣 before going back to buy a couple of MJ sets.

Later, we met up with 妙珠姨 and 旭珠姨 and Sandra for Vietnamese AYCE in Tsuen Wan. Food was okay, but service was horrible. At least it was cheap and I won the bill fight :D. Since the restaurant was so close to home, Tinlop and I got home really early (before 11pm) so we had some wine, chatted and then when he went to bed, I called Meishan and complained about Maurice for an hour. The wine must have done wonders because I was less upset than when I was telling Sandra on the MTR enroute to dinner.

梁生 SMS'd me while I was talking to Meishan and asked if I wanted to do breakfast. I was quite surprised at the offer! (3:30am)