To Live, To Eat, To Work

I am waking up at 5plus am on this Saturday morning (as in now), fully stressed and cannot get back to sleep. Had to log in to office email to clear whatever mails that came in between the time I knocked off yesterday till now. And sent some mails which I didn't have time to do so while in the office. There are still tons of things left undone and overdue (to the extent of getting rotten). Why, why, why? I am at very high risk of being slaughtered by different groups and individuals every day. I owe many people many things which I really have not enough hands and brains to SUPER MULTITASKS.

Well, so now here I am, wondering what am I doing with my life. Sitting in front of my computer at home, thinking about work in the office when I am supposed to rest and relax in bed. My mind is generating rubbish again. Wondering why we are trying so hard to survive in an unhappy environment.

To Live:
We are born to this world and we are expected to live till we are 'asked to leave', which we really do not know when. In order to live, we need to breath, we need to eat, we need to be healthy. These are the basic needs for basic living. In order to live better, we still need to breathe, we can eat better, we can even be healthier (with lots of tonics, supplements, with best doctors) but of course this may not be fully true, we can have better house, we can have lots of material goods, we can participate in more entertainment, we can be involved in more meaningful activities, etc, etc...Be it a basic living or a far more better living, we need the means to support -> MONEY

To Eat:
No one lives without eating (at least I haven't heard of one). To live, we need to eat. In order to eat, we need the means -> MONEY. No one feeds you for free, at least in the society I live in. If we want to eat better, we need more means -> MONEY. Where do we get MONEY? No one gives you MONEY for free, so we need the means also -> WORK FOR IT!

To Work:
Is money the only objective of us working? It may be, it may not be. Let me put the question another way. Is money the only objective of us putting up and suffering in a place where we really do not want to be in and dying to get if given a choice? YES! Why work is such a pain?

So really, do we eat to live, live to eat, live to work, work to live, eat to work, work to eat, or what?? Can we select what formula we want? So what if we don't want to work or don't want to eat or don't want to live? Can we still live and eat without work?

Work is a non-living thing, so the harm is not with work per se. Just like an organisation itself is not the problem of our work problems. The only reason why work or workplace is a pain is because of the humans involved. Whatever humans touch, whatever rots.

Conclusion:
In order to live, we need to eat. In order to eat, we need to learn to be an ass in order to deal with other asses (pardon my language). Otherwise, we need to thicken our skin so that we can withstand hacking from other asses.

Ok, I owe myself a good weekend. So I am going to claim it back. To hell with work and the asses.

31 Jan 2009 (7.37am)

My Dinner with Pal

Finally another dinner with buddy Irene last night after a couple of months. This time round, it's Dome at Bishan. Of course got to order my favourite Ice Chocolate with Gelato lah. Er...as for the rest of our food, I really can't remember what they are called, except for that GARDEN salad which this tigress always order. Wonder why tigers have become vegetarian...mmmm...

Notice all the pictures of the food don't seem to be completed? That was because I kept saying wanting to take pic of the food but ended up starting to eat before I took pic. Luckily my pal reminded me again and again because I gobbled up the food.

It is always enjoyable to have makan session with this old time buddy cos we are very free with our words. We can talk rubbish, gossip like there's no tomorrow and talk about taboo stuff which others will probably hang us for.

Thank goodness I have this pal where I can grumble and rattle about anything, else I will probably become a gigantic hot air balloon waiting to burst anytime. Each time we meet, I will be like offloading a huge dose of 'air' in me, hahahahah...

Thanks pal! One day if I should drop dead, I guess you will be the person who has the most stories to share (the good and the bad, of course the bad things more cos we curse and swear more than we praise, right?).

30 Jan 2009 (9.57pm)

What a Horoscope this year!

Cow people should have a nice Rat year in 2008. Many things end up with their expectation. However, it won't be the same in the year of Cow. Many Unlucky Stars are coming to Cow people and there is no strong Lucky Stars coming to help them. Therefore, the fortune of 2009 is unstable and unpredictable. Troubles and obstacles will appear soon or later and wait for the challenge. Cow people need to pay attention on everything during the entire year of the Cow.

According to Chinese Zodiac, if the zodiac sign of birth year is same to the zodiac sign of yearly cycle, then that's an unlucky year to the person. Many troubles will come to bother the person. The person needs to manage events with caution at work, at home or traveling to avoid argument, lawsuit, accident, libel, blooding and money loss.

Career: The Unlucky Year Star and Fighting Stars move to your career area in year 2009. People relationship in your business or job circle will be poor. Business development has the difficulty to expand. You will face strong competition with coworkers in the company. Unfortunately, you are the underdog in the competition. You might keep losing your spirit, cannot focus on your task and then impact your job performance. The good news is that a Knowledge Star appears this year. If your job is related to art, writing, publishing, entertainment, creativity, acting or speech, then you have the chance to show your talent to people and open the door for your better job opportunity.

Money: Cow people's money luck is connected with the career luck in 2009. Since your career performance won't get any good anticipation, therefore to increase a good income becomes remote possible. Plus, an Unlucky Broken Star shows in the money area. That means it's hard for you to pile up wealth into your savings. In short, money comes, then money goes this year. Therefore, you shouldn't do any short term risky investment. Anything related to money, you need to think twice before you leap. If you don't have any financial plan, then it's hard for you to balance your expense and income.

Love: Because the Knowledge Star comes into your life, it implies the wisdom, talent and loneliness. If you are married, then you might have more argument with your spouse or children. If you are in love, then you will have less times to meet your lover and the love relationship becomes distant. If you are a senior, then you have to pay attention on the health of your spouse to avoid visiting hospital. If you are single, it's not a good time to pursuit the impossible dream.

Health: The Unlucky Year Star comes strongly to you in 2009. Many things will disturb Cow people. Worry and anxiety will bring you lots of mental and physical pressure. Therefore, you need fully pay attention on your health. You have to stay alert for any changes of your body. Because you might lose your focus, you need to pay attention on the safety while your are walking and driving on the street to avoid the traffic accident.

Fortune: Cow people always have unsatisfied events in every Cow year. The fortune in career, wealth. health, love and family will below expectation in 2009. But you don't have to despair or give up. In your career, you just have to hold on your job position, keep your profile low, work harder for your daily job. You need to follow your financial plan and do not waste unnecessary expense. You need to remember to show the care and love to your family members, spouse or lover. You also have to watch your own health. In this case, you will have a peaceful the year of the Cow.

(That means I can't change job, will argue more, stress more, worry more, cry more, see doctor more, tummy upset more - Crap, all these had started to happen before the silly Ox came along! Mmmm, so am I suppose to make big bets on Toto next week? Perhaps I should just be a hermit this year.)

29 Jan 2009 (10.38pm)

Spare me, horoscope!

I hate it when I see this cos I don't know which one to choose!!!

Ox Tiger
1901 1902
1913 1914
1925 1926
1937 1938
1949 1950
1961 1962
1973 1974
1985 1986
1997 1998
2009

I am Ox but my year's 1974. So which is my rightful selection!! Irritating!

29 Jan 2009 (10.17pm)

My Lunar Year Day 2

Day 2 is a day of entertainment at dad's place. In the earlier years, we had steamboat when my aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews all came a-visiting. Then gradually we had pizza hut/KFC delivery. This year, we decided to cater for buffet which will provide everyone with a decent meal, and of course, hopefully, a sumptuous meal too.

Bessie with Yvonne's wa-wa, Hillary.

Finally had a more 'decent' picture after the third or fourth try. Not too bad.

Here's the spread. Will give the contact details later if you wish to order from this caterer. The food's not bad. And one good thing is: NO GST!

The individual items are below for your eyes:

白果芋泥

蜜汁排骨/ 兰花带仔

蟹肉豆腐/ 亚三鱼片

黄梨炒饭

特制虾丸

炸沙律虾

柠檬酥鸡

Amanda with little Kayven. He's so adorable and opens up very warmly to everyone.

Little Hillary enjoying her broccoli.

Thanks folks for coming and thanks Bessie for helping take the individual dishes. I always forget to take pics of my buffet!

So, that's Day 2. And where I am concerned, the Chinese New Year (CNY) is basically over after today. Though there are 15 days to celebrate CNY, who will still have the mood after all of us start work and start school! Anyway, I am on leave tomorrow, so I still have a day all to myself.

Thank goodness, the buffet for today is not that bad after all. So if you are interested, here's the contact:

Yew Yuan Goh Kee Fish Head Steamboat (友缘伍记鱼头炉）

Contact Mr Lee at 9635 6937

(He will have his staff fax the menu for you after you call. And once you have decided to order, just call him again to make your order.)

If you wanna patronise his outlets:

Blk 108 St 11 #01-74 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 Singapore 560108 (6455 5081)

Blk 5023 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2 #01-07 (6392 2909)

27 Jan 2009 (11.04pm)

My Potato Salad

My first time making potato salad today. Following colleague Yanfeng's instruction as close as possible. Hehehehe....Here it goes, for my memory, and for you if you need it.

I bought two packs of Brastagi Granola potatoes from NTUC. 1 kg per pack, so I've got 2 kg of potatoes! Threw all in a pot and let it boil. Yanfeng said to use a chopstick and poke. If the chopstick can poke through the potatoes, they are done. I did that. I think it took about 45 minutes for my chopstick to poke through. Even then, I was a littke 'kiasu' and continued to let it boil for a while more.

Once done boiling, pour away the hot water and replace with cold water (I used tap water). I changed twice, then started peeling off the skin. Seemed to be easier that way though. So here's my naked potatoes.

Dice the potatoes into little cubes. Guess if you want them in bigger pieces, that's fine too. So that's up to the individual.

Then add honey baked ham and bacon bits. I would prefer to have the honey baked ham in cubes (ie to get a much thicker slice to dice) but I couldn't get them from NTUC (cos they said their machine were then slicing beef and couldn't do the honey baked them for me). I ended up just buying the normal honey baked ham in thin slices. Buy the 'real' bacon bits (usu in glass bottle) instead of those synthetic ones (usu in plastic bottles).

Then, in goes the mayonnaise. I followed Yanfeng's Best Food Mayonnaise so I know I wouldn't go very wrong in terms of ingredients. :) So, the mixing begins.

Hubby helped me with the mixing while I checked out the photo I took of Yanfeng's potato salad we had during Christmas (can refer to my earlier post) to see if they looked the same. Hehehehehe....

Once satisfied with the mixing, sprinkle some coarse black pepper and then add more of those bacon bits as garnish.

Finally, store the salad in the fridge.

Mission Accomplished!!

For reference purpose: For the 2kg potatoes, I used up one small and half medium bottle of mayonnaise, and the whole bottle of bacon bits. At first I thought the two packs of potatoes might not be sufficient but ended up with quite a decent portion for my new year buffet catered for about 30 pax.

Irene-san: So you can try this for your son's school carnival wor!

27 Jan 2009 (10.33pm)

My Lunar Year Day 1

Started off with the continuing intestinal pain/cramp which came on and off. This had started a week ago. Doctor said it is likely to be stress related, and which causes the large intestine to contract/tense up.

So he gave me medicines to ease the pain as well as to relax.

Still glad that I had made it through the day.

26 Jan 2009 (9.52pm)

Muah Chee's latest development

Finally managed to capture another two slightly decent pics of Muah Chee yesterday. Had to place my hand in the cage with my cam. Was so worried he might decide to give me a bite again. Luckily nothing of that sort. Phew. So here's my fatty muah chee.

26 Jan 2009 (9.43pm)

Xiaohei imitation

Just next to our block, we found two Xiaohei 'lookalike'. They are not her replacement and they can't be her replacement, but I cannot help giving them a second look.

Anyway, there is another cat opposite our block (always near one of the bakeries) that really looks like Xiaohei. I remembered a neighbour once commenting she wasn't sure that kittie is Xiaohei's daughter. In any case, that one is really like Xiaohei, except for the size and tail. I will try to take a pic of it next time.

26 Jan 2009 (9.40pm)

Dad's Deco for CNY

26 Jan 2009 (9.34pm)

Happy Ox Year

Wishing one and all a very happy and prosperous year of the Ox. May your dreams come true...

GONG XI GONG XI

A Reunion Dinner with dad

Had a simple, yet sumptuous reunion dinner with dad and hubby last night (24 Jan 09) at our place.

A little hiccup did a little damage but otherwise, all went well.

25 Jan 2009 (11.17pm)

Happy Birthday to Pal Irene

Today's my pal's birthday. I still owe her a present as we were not able to meet up this week.

Yes, yes, yes, there is a present for you. So next week ah......

Happy Birthday to you and may all your wishes come true and if that happens, make some good wishes for me too.

Is there going to be a birthday cake along with the reunion dinner tonight?

25 Jan 2009 (2.52pm)

Xiaozhuzhu's comfort zone

We kept looking around but just couldn't find her. Then accidentally we spotted her here! That's our Xiaozhuzhu. She was so comfortable that she refused to come out no matter how we tried to. In the end, we left her there. After a few hours, when we returned, she was still there. This time round she came out, presumably hungry. Hahahahaha.....

24 Jan 2009 (2.50pm)

Batam Trip (Another late post)

Had another trip to Batam on 27 and 28 Dec 2008 with hubby, dad, in-laws, and friends, totalling 9 of us.

These are the two soft toys that dad has 'caught' for me. Hehehehe....It was very exciting. Shriek and Meh Meh....Very lucky indeed. Both are on my bed now. :) Thank you, daddy!

25 Jan 2009 (2.45pm)