Ris Low: Miss World Singapore 2009 Winner At Her Best

I've watched this video at least 3 times now and still can't help laughing at our dear Ms. Low with each repeat telecast. She can't even express herself in simple words... what is 'booms'?!!! Does she mean to make an impact? Worst, she can't even get the word daring right, instead she got it as rrr-ring. What is happening here??

RMIT Convocation 2009

August 28, 2009 marks another milestone in my life. 我终于毕业了!

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.

"Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you'll make a difference." ~ Arie Pencovici

Benefit Colour Correcting Eyelid Primer

Enough of all this saying about beauty is in the eye of the beholder or about beauty being only skin-deep. I'm a self-confessed beauty junkie and because I've ultra sensitive skin I reckon any product that works for me works for most people. Nope, not going to run through my procurement lists, instead I'll make note of good buys or in other words, worthy "investments" for the benefit of all beings. Stay tuned for more to come.

This compact size colour correcting eyelid primer works for me and a little goes a long way. I have oily T-zone and even my eyelids are not spared. Usually by mid-day my eye colour is as good as none but no longer is the case. Now the colour holds longer - right through to the evening - and no more creases that really bothers me big time, I mean used to : )

Rating : 4 / 5

Wine & Dine - A Thai Affair

Attended a Thai cooking workshop held jointly by Wine & Dine magazine and Royal Plaza on Scotts. It's better than the last one as the menu was easier to prepare and most importantly, we had our fill before calling it a day. Haha...

Goodie bag. Aren't they generous?

Chef Abraham Tan from Carousel Restaurant displaying his culinary skills

Starter - Lab Phad (Thai Spicy Duck Salad)

Main course - Kaeng Keok-Wan Gai (Thai Green Curry Chicken)

Dessert - Khaw Neow Ma-Moung (Steamed Glutinous Rice with Mango). This is easy to prepare and I'll be sure to serve this at the next Thai Affair @ Punggol.

I was hoping the chef will show us how to prepare the curry paste from scratch but instead he recommended that we use either one of the pre-made pastes as it's convenient and still taste as good. I've tried the green tub and would recommend it too.

Snacks were served after the workshop. I'm not a fan of most Thai desserts but their pumpkin kueh won me over.

Hubby won 2 Sakura 'Gais' (Chicken). Prize to be delivered hence the namecard. How LUCKY! The boss explained that he will personally deliver the chickens, frozen and packed in a box. Well, I can put what I've learned to use - Thai Green Curry 'Gai'.

I wasn't as lucky though, because my prize consisted of a pair of Schott glasses and one-year free subscription of Wine & Dine magazines *wink*

Weekend Eats

To sum it all up, my long weekend was food and more food, and of course I did catch up on my snooze.

On Friday we had a good dinner to start the long weekend. Hubby and I found this great chicken rice place at Siglap which I'm sure many foodies are familiar with, Chuen Chuen HK Style Cafe at Siglap. They were fomerly from the old Bugis hawker centre which you will also recognize from the 'Lost and Found' poster, a programme hosted by Channel 5. I vaguely remember eating their chicken rice during those days and if I'm right they still taste as good. The rice was fragrant and didn't leave a trace of oily aftertaste. We ordered a set meal to share so that leaves some space for some food sampling. Their homemade tofu on a bed of baby kailan and japanese mushrooms was worth a try and the marmite ribs though tasty was lacking in its main ingredient, yes, marmite. So, it was good but not great. Overall, the food was decent and affordably priced and I plan to go back to sample their breakfast menu - this time I'll make sure to bring along my camera for decent-looking photos.

Dinner on Saturday evening with Bro and Candice. I was out the whole day so didn't manage the whip up a decent homecooked mealm instead we ordered in a Proscuitto Ham and Funghi pizza and Beef Lagsane from Pizzadorne. But what I did manage to prepare was NZ mussels the chilli crab style.l; Unfortunately it was too starchy this time round. What is a meal without wine, right? We started with a bottle of Gewϋrtztraminer and later a bottle of red made up of 6 different varietal of grapes that bro had brought along. To me, it was peppery on the nose with a slight hint of vanilla and clean on the taste but definitely not for early drinkers as they may not find it easy to drink.

Sunday! Happy National Day!!! Didn't start day bright and early but surely I had a great meal to start the day with my family. This time the venue was The Imperial Treasure Nanbei restaurant at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Airport Terminal 3. I was all excited about eating Peking Duck but the taste was masked by the thick and not-so-refined looking pancake. Kinda disappointing as I've had better ones. However, the soup was divine, even Mom and Dad gave their thumbs up.

Nothing exciting about Monday (hence the colour) as it spells the end of the long weekend. Looking forward to the next one - Hari Raya Puasa - 41 days and counting...

Joined Carol, Madi and the kids at their first picnic outing, I think, at Pasir Ris Park last Saturday. The weather was beautiful and there wasn't much crowd compared to East Coast or Changi Beach. Food was a simple fare of cream chicken and corn soup, summer salad, mashed potatoes and a bottle of sparklies. The kids had fun especially Isabel as she was the more adventurous one compared to Evan - the poor boy was close to tears when they tried to make him run bare-footed on the grass. Let's give him some time to acclimatize to what nature has to offer, he'll get there I'm sure.

Glad we've discovered another picnic spot near home. Will plan a mini bbq there one of the weekends.

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I was out sick yesterday and Hubby who was recovering from flu picked up the bug again, except this time his condition was worse than before. His current temperature measures at 38.5 degrees, so he will have an early start to the National weekend cos he's on 3 days medical leave! Poor Vicki was also ill. Sent her to the vet on Sunday only to find out she was running a temperature of 39.1 degrees. I decided she might as well get her pearlies cleaned up so took this opportunity to also get her health screening done to check for diabetes, liver, kidney and heart function. I was there to witness the Vet drawing her blood and it was a heart-wrenching sight to say the least. She struggled a bit at the first attempt and the flow was slow but it got better at the second attempt; perhaps she turned around and saw me that kinda gave her some reassurance?? Thank goodness the results came back looking good. Phew!

A Lesson From The Chinese Bamboo Tree

I've come to realize long time ago that life is never a bed of roses and I continue to believe so. Sometimes, hard as you might try things don't happen the way you want it to be, rather, the tide is against you and the harder you peddle the stronger the undercurrent... very disheartening indeed. From each of life's lesson I just hope to emerge as a stronger and hopefully wiser person after the chapter is closed. And as the poem suggests, do not be discouraged...

You take a little seed, plant it, water it, and fertilise it for a whole year, and nothing happens

The second year you water it and fertilise it, and nothing happens

The third year you water it and fertilise it, and nothing happens. How discouraging this becomes!

The fourth year you water it and fertilise it, and nothing happens. This is very frustating

The fifth year you continue to water and fertilise the seed and then...take note. Sometime during the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree spouts and grows NINETY FEET IN SIX WEEK! Life is much akin to the growing process of the Chinese bamboo tree. It is often discouraging

We seemingly do things right, and nothing happens

But for those who do things right and are not discouraged and are persistent, things will happen

Finally we begin to receive the rewards