Visitors On My Pie-Ties

This evening, I came back from work to find teeny-weeny ants, crawling all over my baby pie-tie tarts. Apparently, the container is not airtight. Darn and double darn.

I put the whole container in the fridge and froze the little buggers into a stupor. I intend to scrape them off and flush them down the sink! That will show them! How dare they sample my tarts!

Hmmphh!!!

180703

MFG 180703 - This is the date printed on the bottom of the bottle of Nivea body lotion which I found in my stash of toiletries. It is exactly 2020 days old. Or 5 years, 6 months and 9 days old. According to Adelene, body lotions have a shelf life of 3 years. Google confirmed it. This lotion is way past its prime!! But the contents seem alright - no funny smell and the consistency looks fine. What should I do? It does seem such a waste to toss a new bottle into the bin. Maybe I'll try some on my legs first. If I do get a rash, I can always wear my jeans to cover up. If my "kiok mou" starts to die on me, then all the better :o) No shaving or plucking in future!

My New Year resolution - Stop my bad habit of over-buying stuff to avoid things expiring on me! (Refer to posting dated 13 Jan 09)

CNY Decor

This year, my neighbours (the ones on my immediate left) decorated the lift lobby area with some nice Chinese New Year decorations. There was a pair of 3-D cows (2009 being the Year Of The Ox) and one of those banners with Chinese greetings. It was a pleasant surprise when I first saw it after I came back from work one day. It certainly brought a little New Year cheer to the eleventh floor of Block 768!

So, thanks, Neighbours!

Thank you for making this Chinese New Year a little special for me!

More Lucky $$$

I picked up S$50 today!!

I was walking past a durian stall in Bedok Central. Then .. Ka-Ching Ka-Ching!! A $50 note lying on the floor. There was a stall helper standing near the note but he was busy talking to another colleague. I coolly picked up the note and walked away. Note the word coolly - actually my heart was pounding as I walked off .. half expecting someone to call me back! Once I turned the corner, I went PHEW!!

Well, I figured :
- A customer probably dropped the money when she was paying for durian.
- If I asked the man if it was his money, he sure say YES one la! Right? Who in their right mind would deny that the money was theirs? Especially a $50 note? Siao ah??!!

So money found must be spent, right? I bought myself a Nintendo game - Cake Mania for $35 and I still had $15 for food and drinks. I had a feast!

So ladies, eyes peeled when you walk along the streets. And I mean look DOWN, not up, for good looking guys, OK? They rarely exist and besides, they are not going to hand money to you!!

Pineapple Pie-Ties

Aren't these the cutest little pineapple tarts you've ever seen??

I bought this at Kovan Mall for S$18 where Chilli Padi Restaurant had a CNY goodies stall. A little pricey but they looked really cute! Mini kueh pie-ties with pineapple fillings! Just about the size of your thumb? Why didn't anyone think of that before? Chilli Padi is the same shop that sells that fantastic assam laksa in the basement of Tangs departmental store. The tarts are just as yummy and certainly small enough to keep popping and not feel jelak!

Good things come in small packages! AHEM :o)

Lo-Hei 2009

My first reunion dinner of the year!!

I was invited to Li Peng's house for an early reunion dinner. She was leaving for Hong Kong the next day and would miss the first few days of CNY. Li Yung and her family were there. We had a little lo-hei and a simple steamboat dinner. We even had a little birthday sing-a-long for Peng's helper (I forgot her name??) Apparently Peng forgot her birthday which was a week past?? We had two cakes for the night - one was chocolate with strawberries which Peng bought and I brought the other one - New York Cheesecake, all the way from New York, as fresh as you can ever get it after an 19 hour flight!! Li Yung made some bubur cha-cha too and that was as home-made as you can get!

After plenty of food, sweet desserts to top it off, I had one round, Buddha belly! Rub! Rub!

Thanks to Peng, Thian Chye, Lisa and Joel :o)

Singapore Non-Flyer

This is the Singapore Flyer, currently the tallest observation wheel in the world, standing at 165m.

It is also the world's tallest white elephant as it is not "flying" at the moment. A short circuit in one of the motors caused it to breakdown on the 23rd Dec. 173 people were stranded for up to six hours. As usual, the authorities want to make sure that the Flyer is safe before it can start operations again. Aiya, none of the 173 people were in any danger at all. They were just stuck in the pods. Food, water and even "methods of relieving themselves" were provided. I'm assuming a potable potty of sorts? So it couldn't have been all that bad. I think people need to understand and accept that these sort of things do happen. This is not a perfect world.

Singaporeans can stand in line for HOURS, come rain or shine, to buy a Hello Kitty from McDonald's or bak-kwa from that Chinatown shop and not complain, not a whimper. But they will complain and complain when there are no seats on the MRT or when they have to wait too long for the buses. WTF.

OK, back to my flyer story.. although I'm proud of Singapore and its many achievements, including the Flyer.. I think it is one of the plain-est, boring-est wheels ever. From afar, it looks like a caricature of a lady's head with rollers in her hair. The capsules on the London Eye look like little space pods. Ours look like recycled oil drums. The design of our wheel? Blah! A bicycle has better looking spokes. Look at the Southern Star! It is so pretty! Need I say more? I'm posting some pictures of other wheels around the world for comparison. You be the judge.