Craving

for Korean food haha. 

Korean ban chan or side dishes. I love these

Korean BBQ pork lettuce wrap

River Sights

I attended a thought-provoking talk in the evening at The Head Foundation. It was also a delight to meet  former NIE colleagues at the talk. After the talk, we had dinner together and caught up with one another. 

Juicy grilled chicken at Ricciotti

I also took the opportunity to walk around Boat Quay after a sumptuous meal to enjoy the beautiful night scenery by the river.

Tenacious

I accidentally found them growing at a place where you would not have expected to see them - inside a shopping mall! They just show me sometimes we have to be as tenacious too. Maybe it is a sign for me.

Sweetness

Ice cream sandwich given out as dessert during our work place CNY lunch. Yes, sweetness! :)

Surprise at Work

This is what make me enjoy coming to work - good colleagues/ friends! :) They help to make work bearable especially when dealing with unreasonable people.

CNY Snack

Our favourite snack during CNY is the CNY nian gao. My mother will make different variations of the nian gao snack by coating it with egg batter and fry - a slice of nian gao sandwiched between a slice of sweet potato and a slice of yam, or nian gao with sweet potato, or just nian gao on its own.
I prefer the nian gao on its own because it is sweet. :)

Happiness is...

Rainbow Cake!

2nd Day of CNY 2015

We always have friends visiting us on the 2nd day of CNY for our signature dishes - Hockchew red wine chicken soup with mee sua and my mother's Taiwanese-style braised pork with buns (扣肉包) which were served throughout the day. :) This year, my mother also cooked her glutinous rice (糯米饭) and a new salad dish consisting of thinly sliced capsicums (raw) and pear mixed with apple cider vinegar. :)

Looks like our waist lines will expand lol.

Happy Chinese New Year 2015!

Here is wishing all my friends, my colleagues, my ex-colleagues, my students, my ex-students, my family and my extended family (both overseas and in Singapore) a Happy Lunar New Year!
May the Year of the Sheep bring you and your family Great Health, Great Fortune, Great Success and Great Happiness!
祝大家新年快乐，四季平安，五福临门，事事如意！

Happy Lunar New Year 2015, Everyone!

The four beauties in the family :P

Chinese New Year's Eve 2015

My mother was busy since morning, preparing a number of dishes for offerings to our ancestors and also for our consumption on the 1st day of CNY as we have vegetarian food on the 1st day of the month. She didn't have to prepare much for the reunion dinner because we are having steamboat. She only had to prepare the broth for the steamboat, and prep the seafood, e.g. fish and squid. Something new for this year, she smoked the chicken instead of steaming it for our reunion dinner. It was delicious! :)

Sitting on Top of the World by Delta Goodrem

Sitting on Top of the World (uploaded by DeltaGoodremVEVO)

Tired of Working?

I saw this poster on the door of my PGDE professor when I went to deliver my CNY card to her. She was at a meeting but that gave me time to read the poster carefully. It made me laugh. :) Somehow I don't feel so tired anymore. :)

Here is the text in full (as it might be too small to read from the image)

Tired of Working? 
The year is made up of 365 days each having 
24 hours, 12 of which are night time hours
which add up to a total of 182 days.

This leaves you with 183 days to work minus
52 Sundays which leaves you 131 days to work
minus another 52 Saturdays which leaves you
79 days to work.

3 hours each day are set aside for eating and 
1 hour for bathing, going to toilet which adds
up to 60 days, which leaves you only 19 days
for working.

You are entitled to 14 days for your vacation 
which meansyou have 5 days left for your work
minus 4 days you usually take off due to illness 
or other emergencies, which leaves you 
only ONE day to work, which happens to be
Labour Day which is a holiday.

SO, WHY ARE YOU TIRED?

Spring Cleaning

My mother did a little spring cleaning of the Ang Pow that she has collected over the years, for the past 15-20 years at least. She had to throw out some of the old ones as the self-adhesive part was really yucky. She found the Year of the Goat/ Ram red packets from 12 years ago! Hmm, can recycle and use for this year haha. :P

She threw out a huge plastic bag of old red packets and kept a packet each of the really beautiful, interesting and unique designs.

Happy Valentine's Day 2015

A little rose petal candle made by Marieann. Thank you!

Happy Valentine's Day 2015!!

Roundtable

I attended my first Journals Editorial Roundtable 2015 organised by Taylor & Francis since becoming a Review Editor last March. It was an eye opener for me to hear of some of the antics desperate authors do! I certainly have benefited from the session! :) 
Lunch was provided and it was an eye opener for me too! Never expected such a sumptuous meal! But then it is at Goodwood Park Hotel so it has its standards! :P The soup, Veloute of Wild Forest Mushroom was delicious. In between food, I was chatting to my colleague from my organisation. We hardly see each other on campus so it was a good chance to catch up. :)

My choice of main: Pan Fried Sea bass with Lemon Dill Sabayon. Yum!

Dessert: Pistachio Parfait with Sesame Tuile. Heaven!!

Work. Issue!

There is some work issue...
I will be hoping for the best...

Dual Roles

I think for the first time, the teachers in my counselling school were a little confused over my role haha. 
I did my counselling with the students in the morning. Once my counselling ended, I joined my NIE colleague who was facilitating a focus group discussion with teachers. 
It was funny to see the look on the teachers' faces when I appeared at the discussion venue. They were probably thinking, "What is the counsellor doing here?". I had to explain that I am also a researcher from NIE, besides being a counsellor in their school. :)
A lot of the staff, other than the school leaders and middle managers, don't realise that I have dual roles because I am passionate about both work and I couldn't let go of one or the other. 
I am both a counsellor as well as a researcher. :) 

Rescue Mission

My friends/ colleagues launched a rescue mission late yesterday afternoon. After a meeting which ran over time grossly, they headed to the canteen to get a very late lunch, already past 4pm. On their way back to the office, they heard and saw a cat meowing pitifully at them from the roof. Somehow the ginger cat had gotten itself stuck on the roof in between the first floor and basement one. 
Being cat lovers and compassionate people, they decided to help the cat. Azlina and Filzah actually climbed down onto the roof, despite certain dangers to themselves! In the end, Filzah (being a cat owner) managed to lure the cat out of its hiding place on the roof with food, grabbed it by the scruff, passed it on to Azlina who was at the stairs and released the cat safely on the first floor. The cat ran away so fast and hid in the drain. We followed it and continued to feed it though the drain cover until we ran out of food. It seemed very hungry. :( We couldn't do much more for the cat as it was past 6pm and we all had to get home.
I hope the cat will be alright. I wonder how it wandered into our campus.

Rescue in action: Filzah luring the cat out with food

Have A Great Week! :)

I came back to office after my focus group interview in the morning in school to find the below at my work station. :) A little care pack from my friend and colleague. Thanks! The steamcake/ spongecake was absolutely delicious! I am really grateful for my friends/ colleagues. :)

It is certainly going to be a great week (and many more) working with such caring and supportive friends/ colleagues! :)

CNY Coming Soon

Just realised that CNY is coming soon. Only another 10 days to go...