beloved bel

Baa… baa….. it's the year of the goat!  People here call it the year of the sheep.  Whichever it is, I hope that it would be a great year for everyone.  We hosted two dinners at home and then poor K fell ill having ate something wrong and has not had much appetite.  He's slowly recovering and getting better each day. What could be more apt to arrive (or rather, be collected from our post office) on the day before CNY. They are….. homemade pineapple tarts! Felt the love all the way from Punggol in Singapore to London.  My aunts and my 90 year old grandma made them over a couple of days and together with my childhood fav kuah balus .  What a pleasant surprise! Time for tea then For my reunion dinner with K, we decided to have the easy option of a hotpot dinner at home since we were both working on that day.  Meanwhile I had received quite a few nice photos of my family reunion-ing at home.  So sweet, and no prizes on who was the centr...

It's time for some CNY baking: cashew nut cookies. Recipe for the (a) 180  grams  butter  140  grams  caster sugar  1  pinch of  salt for the (b) 270  grams  self-raising flour  100  grams  cashew nuts  (baked and ground)  3  egg yolks  raw unsalted cashews Method Cream Ingredients A in Mixer. Add in Ingredients B slowly. Shape dough by using different of sizes or shapes of cutters and place onto baking trays. Egg wash shaped dough and top with half a cashew nut. Bake in preheated Oven at 150ºC, timer 30 minutes Source: nigella.com ~~~~~~~ Saturday morning I felt an impulse to make some fried carrot cake (chye tao kueh) using the readymade steamed carrot cake I found from the Chinese supermarket for breakfast.  I found a recipe online and started preparing. Fried carrot cake (black) ~~~~~~~ And lastly, we tried something new for dinner on Saturday ...

Seems like my last post on office lingo was pretty popular!  I can't believe within 2 weeks later I have another list! Decide for yourself which is your favourite. 7) Kick the tyres What it means: do checks (apparently you kick your tyres to check if they are ok?) "Guys I know you are keen to move to the next stage of the project.  But are you sure stage 1 is ok? You kicked the tyres yet?" 8) Take a bath What it means: ??? This is similar to the "Come to Jesus talk".  I have no idea.  Office lingo is going up another level these days.  We were again in a meeting when one of the MDs said "If we know we are in for the long haul (in the context of doing business with a client), you gotta take a bath first!" What it means to me: Probably hinting the other guy next to him to take a bath.  Nobody likes to sit beside a guy with BO... 9) Steal candy from a baby What it means: literally stealing candy from a baby (what a mean thing to do!) "...

After using the Christmas wreath for almost 2 months, we finally removed it today and put up the red CNY sticker today.  I also bought 5 mandarin oranges to display on our table.  It's funny how my sister in law Denise thought the gold thing in the middle of the tray was a "nian gao".  It's actually my leftover gold glittery candle from Christmas.  We saw some mini lanterns at Chinatown and my immediate idea was to string them up like bunting and hang them at our fireplace.  Works pretty ok? We also spotted some fresh buds on our rose plant this morning.  It does feel like Spring is here.  And K in his all wise tone said "This is why we are celebrating the onset of Spring during Chinese New Year".

We have been enduring winter for a good few months now.  And more often than not I check the weather, hoping that the snow will finally come.  Last year we didn't have any snow.  And this year seems pretty bleak too.  My theory is: if we endure the cold for a prolonged period of time, at least some light dusting from the heavens would somewhat make it more worthwhile isn't it.  However I think they all fell in Stuttgart over Christmas and there is nothing left for London. Each time I see some weather forecast of snow on my iPhone I get all excited, but then each time it was a disappointment.  Not until two weeks ago.  We woke up to a layer of white dusting settling down on the ground.  I was squealing with delight and took two quick pics on my phone before getting ready for work.  By the time we left the home it was proper snowing.  My entire black trench-coat was covered with snow.  I saw people carrying umbrellas but nope...

This is the burning question I keep asking myself. I was on this topic with a girl friend late last year, talking about how tough work is.  And there was a particular incident which angered me so much.  Because of some miscommunication, I appeared like I didn't do the piece of work given by my manager.  Perhaps it was that rush of anger (I literally felt blood rush to my flustered face and turning all red) that it caused me to speak out loud and stand up for myself.  Even I shocked myself because that was my boss I was speaking to.  But I could not take that I was misunderstood.  I did the piece of work he gave me.  "I did what I was told.  You didn't specify clear enough!" I told him angrily. And of course he retorted back saying "a deadline is a deadline!" and I was way, way beyond mad.  I stayed late, gritted my teeth and finished that report he wanted.  In fact it got quite dramatised that I refused to speak to him for more than on...

I'm not sure about you but I come across some funny (or even hilarious) office lingo where I work once in a while.  Some of them have been so popular that it's ingrained in our daily conversations that it's not funny anymore.  My team always jokes about putting a list together (some pretty ludicrous) and so here is my attempt.  I sit in the weekly senior management meeting where bankers come and present deals for approvals and you hear fascinating phrases during this time.  Seriously I try so hard not to laugh and keep a straight face. 1) Low Hanging Fruits What it means: Easy wins in the context of projects. "Guys we need to target the low hanging fruits in this project.  Identify the easy ones and let's go live asap.  Let's leave the difficult ones for phase 2." The funniest one was where a banker used this phrase, attempting to justify lending a client money saying there are "low hanging fruits" for grabs.  And one of the senior MDs shot ...