Keep them apart!

Awww... Ain't it cute?

Hamsters are very popular pets in space-constrained Singapore. I have many friends who have/had hamsters. I used to own some hamsters too a few years back:

Photo of a photo taken with my favourite hamster, Xiaobai. Please do not mock my too thin brows. :x

Boy were we in for a shock! I wish I had seen this earlier:

Creative ad eh?

Yes! Hamsters are breeding machines! And many people simply do not separate the males from the females. As if that is not enough, hamsters sometimes cannot get along with one another and you have to further separate them. Infact mortality rate can be quite high. I think many of us have heard of how female hamsters might eat her young. My friend described it as "like chewing the head off a gummy bear". Probably because newborns are red.

Somemore when the babies are just borned, you should not go near the hamsters because the mother might be aggressive towards you or might protect her young by eating them (don't ask me... hamster logic). So we made the mistake of not dividing the hamsters according to their sexes and we paid the dear price of having to feed 22 of them at a time. Furthermore, hamsters are nocturnal and it might not be a good idea to place them in your room if you want a restful sleep.

Other commitments would include changing their bedding at least once a week, ensuring fresh water supply and a balanced diet. Bathing is not a must but some people cannot stand the smell of hamsters. I used to have one who loved to roll in his own pee. You can guess why we need to get hamster shampoo. You can also use this powder-sand for dry bath which doesn't come cheap however. Wah! This post starting to sound like a documentary. I just want everyone to know the responsibilities that come with having hamsters! Like what the ad says:

Sterilization cost $100+ per hamster and the chances of success are very low because they are tiny creatures. So the simplest way is to keep one hamster and shower it with all your TLC! :D

Roll roll roll your balls

Why do local television channels persist in showing bland dramas that are almost always about
a) Family (Themes: Betrayal and unfaithfulness)
b) Illnesses (Themes: You ill, I ill, everybody ill)
c) Ambitions (Theme: I got goal! I want to reach goal! Watch me dance!)

There are so many interesting things happening in Singapore. I think the local stations can help to perserve national heritage by having documentaries about local culture. Don't you feel that Chinese New Year is so much more a festival for the elders in your family? I don't think we can see that many people crawling at Chinatown in new year as compared to Orchard during Xmas. Do you see midnight shopping for Chinese New Year? Hmm... Maybe the retailers will chance upon my blog and start that for the new year. We all need new year clothes you know! :D

Yesterday was the festival where you roll 汤圆 (tang yuan). Despite experiencing MOS till the wee hours of the morning, I dragged myself out of bed to roll those balls. I don't think many people still do the traditional 汤圆 nowadays. Walk into any NTUC and you will find lots of ready-made 汤圆. Got peanuts, seasme, red bean and can roll them in the chopped up peanuts somemore! Apparently, there's a very famous stall at the Army market selling 汤圆 in peanut soup. Did you see these in your kitchen yesterday?

Giant 汤圆 on traditional chinese tray!

Are these the real deal, are they really 汤圆?
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Rubbish you! It's just the dough made from glutinous flour and water! Very hard to roll. Especially if you've got long fingernails like mine. I hope I haven't been poking them in places where they shouldn't be.

Anyway, after much rolling, you get these:

Very pretty right? Guess the no. of balls!

Actually, they are supposed to be red and white, very patriotic colours. But I think Mum held back on the coloring so they turned out pink and white. Very nice nevertheless.

These balls will face the pot of boiling water next. You know they are cooked when they float to the surface of the water. After that, you put them into the pot of syrup water made from pandan leaves, water and orange(?) sugar. Then you get:

*in kawaii Taiwanese voice* 哇! 看起来好好吃, 好可爱. 吃起来好嫰, 好Q喔!

Sadly, my cousins did not appreciate my culinary skills. After taking a bite, they went straight for the rubbish bin. Tut tut. Buy some glutinous flour and try some rolling yourself eh!

I love style.com (BIMBO BLOG ALERT!)

Last time, when I was first exposed to the wild wild web, I hung out at my friend's house while we thought of domain names to type into the address bar. girl.com and boy.com churned out pornographic websites which I am sure friend's teacher mum will be non too pleased to find in the history folder.

Forward to 7 years later when I decided to ditch the oh so wonderful google and replayed the "enterwhateverdomainname".com game. Woo! I found style.com. Even though I may never be able to afford the smallest thing featured in there, it is nevertheless interesting to see the absurd and sometimes very beautiful tailoring designers have to offer. Here's some of the interesting things I found:

Marc Jacob as a pig (with Anna Sui)

The very entertaining collection from John Galliano

Aiyah... Just one of those rubbish blogs! I want to write about this and so I write! Muahahahahahaha...

Australia Mini Trip I

Woohoo! A while ago I was saying I would blog about my mini trip around Queensland, Australia with my parents. We did not do all the tourist-liked things; instead dad rented a car and with the help of my "old bird" friend, we went cruising along the highway!

Most of the times, we go to the beaches. I think beaches look the same after a while:

Quiz time! How above pictures were taken from how many different areas in Queensland?

The trip was simple but very fun! I love to be with my parents because of a number of reasons:

a) Dad always tells me want what then buy lor! (Of course I will paiseh and not really buy things. My one article was like one-fifth of my brother's but then again, bro was spending his own money. Hmmm...)

b) Mum is a fantastic cook and she's way cool with having conversations with my friends and I. (Of course I not so cek ark ask mum to cook on her holiday! I made part of the below meal):

Basically I just opened the mushroom soup and added the cut mushrooms in. But hey! There are people out there who cannot handle a can opener! Bro made the delicious omelette by the way. :P

c) I get to show mum and dad the places I usually hang out at and explore new places with them!

d) I think there is the tourist mentality of eating better food when you are overseas so we get to enjoy fantastic cuisine like this seafood platter:

Got clams, salmon, scallops, crabs, oysters, prawns and mussels! All with their own sauces so you don't get sick of the same taste!

e) I like to see my family happy and on trips we mostly are! :D

We went a number of areas and visited some interesting places such as the:

place where gingerbreadman lives,

places where macadamia nuts are nutted ,

cafe with the freshly roasted coffee (OMG!),

and the funnest of all, the family-owned farm cottages - Murojum Farm!

I think this post is one of those meaningful-if-you-get-what-I-mean-or-if-you-were-there-or-if-you-interested kind of post. So if you are interested, just let me know and then I will rant on about Murojum Farm among other things ok?! It's beddy time so I will be ready for a very special day later! (__/__)" "(__\__)

I love my babes!

In 2006, I will be celebrating a special year with some of the most important people in my life!

SJ, JT, Me!

A horrible trip back in time! Yikes! We looked so tut then! Peace sign indeed! My two bestest buddies from secondary school! It is going to be a commemoration of our decade-long friendship! Aye... Time had flew... JT even said that soon we will be 50. I am so NOT looking forward to that.

For the first time since SJ and I returned from Australia (she's in Perth, I'm in Brisbane), we went clubbing tonight. Technically, it was not meant to be a clubbing trip; more like a walk-around-Clarke-Quay-see-what-we-wanted-to-do thing. So this thing started at Momo in Magazine Road. In true uniquely ours spirit, we got there 1 hour after our appointed time. And by the time we got in, it was 5 mins after the free entry period. So NO! WE WERE NOT GOING TO PAY TO GET INTO MOMO FOR 15 MINS!

It felt really strange to see younger people who looked very proud to be clubbing. I was very happy when the entry person (What are they called anyway? Door bitch sounds so rude when they are not that bitchy; they are also not bouncer. Usher?) asked to see our ICs. Yay~ I really didn't mind digging for it! :D

Anyway, Momo was a gone case; so it was down to don't know where. We walked towards Clarke Quay's direction and was approached by this girl who told us there was free entry and free flow at this newly-opened (1 month old) club there. Free = good, so in we went. The door person was so nice! She showed us around the club and even told us where we could sit. The club is called "The Red Club" and is located beside the former "China Bar". Their housepours were served in wine glasses neh! Classy sia... But when I wanted to order this shooter called "Cowboy" (MUST TRY OK!), it cost $12! Wah lao! I is poor student! zzzz...

Yah... The club really red. I should have ordered a red drink too. Damn! Eh, some clubs in Singapore cannot take pics hor? I don't understand why leh. What's wrong? Scared people steal the design? Relax lah!

There we also met this Canadian guy who bought drinks for us. Some shooter thingy that tasted like medicine. +_+ That place reminded me of the former Samsara. Die lah! I really like old woman, thinking about all the old places that are not longer around now... How?!

Being the restless creatures we were, we left after some drinks to explore Clarke Quay further. Then walked up and down the whole stretch and was surprised to find the reverse bungee thing still around. Come to think of it, I had almost never seen locals get on it. Most of those taking the "ride" are like tourists. My Malaysian housemate said she would love to get on it. Not much kick for me leh. But whatever rocks your boat ah...

The bouncer from "The One Night Stand" invited us into the club and so in we went. I missed getting the UV "chops" here. In Australia, you sometimes feel like pigs when you get the inked stamps. +_+ Somemore, it smudges onto your clothes or until it's just one giant mole. Tak chio, mate! I don't know why some girls we still queuing up leh... We were wondering...

Inside very crowded leh! And I think it would be SPG heaven:

Actually cannot really tell we were at another club hor? Haha...

It seemed like a pretty good place because the girls do not 打量 you! Don't you just hate it when a girl looks at you from top to toe and gives you a smirk? Sometimes you just blur blur staring in her direction, daydreaming away, she acts like you want to steal her boyfriend. Haha... Maybe we are all guilty of that? I also don't know. Not nice to be at the receiving end though. Smile babes, smile! :D

We moved our restless feet along Clarke Quay again because we wanted to see how it has changed and in true auntie spirit, we wanted to reminisce about the times that had passed. How most of the clubs had disappeared except Hooters. I suspect it is because Hooters has certain drawl... Right guys?!

We stopped outside this bar because we finally spotted a queue and wanted to see its name. Very weird leh... Where got club called "ATC TIA"? Then the bouncers jioed us in because it was free entry, free flow and no need to queue so in we went (We also didn't know why people were queuing up). Oooo! It was "Attica"! Haha... Damn suaku sia... We went inside and stood at a corner because the music was House/Trance? Tiu tiu tiu music very hard to dance to lah. Then something very weird happened. This guy walked past us, holding a girl's hand. He balatantly looked at our direction. I thought one of us had booger on our faces or something but realized it was too dark to spot any. Maybe he thought we were interesting 3D wallflowers. Sian... Now I realized we forgot to take pictures there. How to show people our tour? It also drawn upon me that at One Night Stand and Attica, the bouncers didn't want to see our ICs. I is saddened again. :(

We wanted to explore somemore so it was off to somewhere else again. Nothing much happening in Clarke Quay hor. Boat Quay used to be quite happening in our times. Good place to reminisce again. Then walked and walked, talked and talked. SJ's mum once asked her: you all meet so often (about 5 years into our friendship?), still have things to say meh? I also don't know. Hey girls, what do we talk about ah?

Boat Quay bo lang wan! So quiet! Last time above Coffee Bean, there's a live band playing. Now I think you can hear the sounds from the river. Coffee Bean is one of our favourite hangouts with the "$4.60 drink". Last time want to drink must think here think there lor! Now I see so many students hanging around cafes.. Rich kids... Alamak! Walked down the stairs I broke my heels lor! TAMADE! First time wearing and bought for less than a week lor! Stupid shit. Tomorrow if I cannot get some kind of compensation, I will complain here again! Shit you, you stupid shit. My girls tried to placate me ah...

I is a lucky girl! *-*

Later, Coffee Bean also chased us out. We were left with sitting on the opposite side of the river, chatting again. Don't know why we have so many things to say to one another. But if you have someone you can have a conversation with, I think you would know what we felt. The dynamics just make it the most enjoyable activity: just sit around and yak away. Talked and talked hor, then we heard splashing sounds leh! Wah! Got a man swimming in Singapore River! So li hai. He managed to make it safely to our side. Sadly, the police came. I cannot imagine swimming in that river lor. I think in the day when he sees its state, he will wonder why he did it too.

I dedicate this post to my girls, SJ and JT! Hope we get to go on a trip to celebrate our friendship! :D

I'm back!

Haven't been blogging for some time! I'm finally back home where all the good food are! I love chili! I am just amazed by how we have different kinds of chili for different food here! I love all kinds! Yummy!

Previously, I said goodbye because my parents and elder brother came to visit me in Brisbane and we did some travelling in the area. Nothing fanciful nor touristy like going to Movieworld, Dreamworld, Seaworld. All we had was some good old-fashioned travelling around, driving on the motorway godzillion times. But it was good to be with family and with my friend who kindly showed us the way (Be fair to me ok! I had only been there for one semester and she was marking her 600th day there.).

I had a really good time and so did mama and bro! Poor daddy had a bad flu and was too drowsy from the medication to properly enjoy the trip. I shall blog about my mini-trip and my days back home soon!

Now, tell me how much you've missed me! :D

I tried this on my trip. Want to guess what it is?