It was an impromptu lunch gathering with our folks. As we were preparing to cook lunch for my parents, Calvin suggested getting his parents & sister over as well. Which is a great idea! His dad has been asking us to organise a get-together with my parents ever since CNY. So we got them over and I got a bit stressed!

It's the first time I cook for my parents and his parents! I know my parents would eat whatever I cook and however it tastes. But I can't cook crap for his parents!! OMG! Thank God the dishes I planned to cook were the simple ones that I've cooked before. So it can't go that wrong... haha..

It turned out to be a seafood themed lunch. We had prawns, fish and scallops. It was a late lunch and since everyone was famished, I didn't manage to take any photos... Here's the simple mini menu:

Steamed Salmon | Spicy Shrimps | Stirfried Kailan with Scallops | Chai Poh Omelette

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After Calvin's parents left, I brought out my handsome new gadget to show my dad. And I realised he owns a Nikon DSLR (can't remember which model)! hmmm... I should have gotten a Nikon huh.. we would have been able to share lenses! But then again, think I might still have preferred a Canon, because I used to work on this account... it's called brand loyalty. ha!

Calvin just completed his 3rd week at the PTI course (9 more weeks to go!). Last week, he started working out on exercise balls and realised how useful they are. So today, we went to Sports Link in AMK to get ourselves a ball each.

Calvin: The balls have indeed been able to isolate the targeted muscle groups for toning & strengthening, without straining the back if done correctly. We haven't got much time to play with them though, but getting them is definitely a start to something bigger that we are planning for. The balls are only an initial installation for my free weights "gym" & we are planning to transform our smallest room into our playroom..watch this space "Akan Datang"...

There will be lots of mirrors for vanity sake...more to watch out for right posturing lah.... we are going to house Min's new found interest => photography paraphernalia in the playroom too... we will brighten it with colourful wall decals in anticipation of our kid(s) in due time...but all these will most likely start after my "Pay To Idle" course...5 hours of sleep daily...that's how much of idling I get each day,the rest are paid with sweat & brain juice...so much from me, ENDURE & EXCEL...9 more weeks & counting...

Oh yes, we bought a camera last weekend! Canon EOS 400D... Have been thinking for a long time if I should get a DSLR or just a point-and-shoot. Inspired by the many talented photographer friends around me (Jasmine, Nicole, William, Vernon, Ying, Jooel, Vincent, etc etc) and with Calvin's encouragement... we finally decided on a DSLR. Thank you baby, for indulging me... :) Now it's time to get started on the basics. Still trying to get to know my camera better... (^__*)

WOW.. the titles of these magazines can form a blog title! haha... not that it make much sense though...

These are my current favs. The little perks of my stressful job are all the free magazines that I receive month after month. It's been crazy at work these few weeks and the magazines were piling up. So I decided to take some time to clear that mountain from my side table before they start crumbling down. These are 3 magazines that I'd never fail to bring home and read.

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Smitten
This magazine is all about shopping; from atas desires to budget finds. I love the colours and illustrations in this mag.

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Appetite
Food.Wine.Luxury. My favourite section in the mag: "youareinvited". A home party is featured in every issue with recipes included. Not that I've tried any of them, but one day I will! :p

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Vanilla
Extraordinary women with extraordinary lives. The senior editor, Theresa Tan is an extraordinary woman herself. This mag is one of its kind. It's totally unlike the other female mags. It has substance and it's inspiring.

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Thank You Jesus! You thought of me when you took the fall. You thought of me when You willingly walk down Calvary. You thought of me when You laid down Your life. You thought of me when You put on the crown of thorns. You thought of me when You bore those stripes. You thought of me when You let them pierce Your hands. You thought of me when You called out "It is finished"! And You thought of me, above all!

I read on Yee Tong's blog lately that her eldest sis, Joyce (who's also my ex-colleague) has recently decided to chase her dreams and follow her passion. Together with 2 friends, Joyce created their very own jewellery brand - MOOD.

All 3 MOOD partners come from creative agencies and with their creative juices at work, what you can expect from MOOD are pieces of unique designs to suit your mood of the day! I've reserved a piece for myself already and I can't wait to collect it.. :)

I've decided that I'd try my best to cook at least once a week. I find that cooking is getting quite fun... even though I don't seem to be cooking beyond these simple dishes.. But I will get there ok??

Randy mentioned the other day that my food don't look appetizing on the photos... :( I'd let my handphone take the blame for this... haha.. ever since our Fuji died on us, I've been using little Nokia to take photos... how to look appetizing??!!

Oh these break & chip resistant Corelle plates are from my Jie Jie. She bought one whole set for us when she came back from US. Thank you Jie Jie!

Thank God for technology! Just got off a video call on MSN with Randy and Noi. Tricia has grown!! Her hair too... Now her hair doesn't defy gravity anymore.. haha! Her looks has changed a little too.. is that good news? Looking less like Daddy? haha... no no no.. She still looks a lot like her daddy. Just that from the video, she looks a little like her cousin Valerie.

It's great to hear from them! But I was shocked to hear that Noi was hospitalised last Wed for a gastric problem! God! She has already lost a lot of weight since she became a full-time mom in Manila. Please take great care my dear friend! Thank God you're ok now.

Kids are so amazing. They take up your time and attention. They stress you out but at the same, make you smile and think that everything is worth it and nothing else matters.

While we were chatting, Tricia was crawling all around the living room - underneath the dining table, towards the main door, onto the laptop... and Noi had to keep turning the webcam to follow her. She wasn't bothered that there were 4 adults (Randy, Noi, Randy's mom and me) calling out to her. Her mind was focused on one thing: crawl as much mileage as possible. haha... Then Randy "trapped" her with toys in front of the laptop on the floor. But, it wasn't long before she got bored and wanted to climb over her daddy to get out of the "trap". So cute...

Calvin's at work today. Hate it when he has to be on duty on weekends, but obviously there's nothing either one of us can do about it. Looking at it positively, it gives me time on my own to do my own stuff and be in my own world.

More often than not, when I'm alone at home, I'd end up eating instant noodles or I'd lazily drag my butt out of the house to pack dinner from downstairs. In fact, I pulled myself out to get lunch and my daily dose of kopi siu dai already. So for dinner, I made myself Maggi Wanton Mee with loads of greens. Guess it's a healthier and more nutritious substitute to instant noodles.


Ingredients:
1 pkt of Maggi instant noodles
1 pkt of Xiao Bai Cai
4 pcs of CP Shrimp Wonton (this has become our must-have in the fridge)

Sauce:
Maggi Ketchup
Taho Lemon Chilli Sauce (it was out of NTUC Xtra's stock on CNY eve!! becos it's really good!)
Dark Soy Sauce

Method:
Blanch vegetables and set aside
Cook shrimp wonton in boiling water and set aside
Cook instant noodles and toss cooked noodles in sauce mixture
Place vegetables and wontons on to plate of noodles

Preparation & cooking time: 15min
Gobbling time: 7min

We bought a Fujifilm FinePix F470 in Oct 2006. Now, a short 16 months later, it died on us! While we were waiting in line for the check-in counter to open at Krabi Airport, I took out it out and wanted to take a snap. That was when FinePix decided to produce photos with horizontal lines across the screen... We were hoping that the problem was with the display. But no, the photos appeared with those lines even after we downloaded them to the computer.

Jasmine has kindly offered to send it for a "check-up" with her mom's friend. She thinks it's beyond repair... I think so too. Now, we're thinking of buying a new camera. What should we get? (~__^)

This is Calvin's favourite dish from Crystal Jade. Everytime we ordered this, he'd say "We should try and cook this ourselves". This went on for a year and finally today, as we were having lunch after church, we decided to give it a shot and cook Scallop Congee for dinner. (ya... thinking of dinner even before we finished our lunch...haha)

It's actually pretty easy, but we've gotta spend about 2 hours stirring the porridge on low heat until it becomes smooth. Calvin rated it 7/10 while I think there's still quite a bit of room for improvement. The frozen scallops we bought were actually very fresh but I think there must be some way to bring out the taste better... marinate them? Need some research on this to perfect Calvin's fav comfort food...