Life away from Home

Chinese New Year Eve Celebrations!

2009-01-27T10:46:00.008+08:00

It was the first time that we celebrated our Chinese new year outside of Singapore without our family. The feeling is different but it's not bad. One of the saving graces in celebrating Chinese New Year here in Chengdu was that we got to set off fireworks! (Which we are not able to do so in Singapore.)

Let me tell you, the feeling of having the fireworks set off right in front of you, in close proximity, is phenomenal! You have the cinders falling all over you, the explosion sounds are deafening and the effects are just BEAUTIFUL.

Usually the tradition is to set off the firecrackers and fireworks at the stroke of midnight on CNY eve, to welcome the new year. However, even before that, there were people setting off fireworks and firecrackers on Saturday already. So we decided to try a few of ours on CNY eve itself. We went down to the river bank just right across our compound, at about 1am on Sunday morning.

This is me, setting off the rocket....

And here are our trial fireworks at 1am on Sunday morning, when it's freezing cold outside....

The fireworks display was awesome, mainly because we set it off and also because the display was so close, the sounds of the explosions were just crazy and cinders were falling all over us. It really sent our hearts pumping with adrenaline! It took us a while to fall asleep after we got back home.

On Chinese New year Eve, we were invited to dinner at a fellow Singaporean's house here in Chengdu. So I made Lavender cookies as a gift for the hosts.

And I also made:

broccoli quiche

and mini chocolate cakes topped with raspberry cream and fresh strawberries.

Here's our lovely hosts who prepared such a great dinner for us.

We had a great salad with Japanese seasoning mixed with sashimi marinated with soy sauce and wasabi and cream of mushroom soup for appetizers. Main course was lamp chops with mint sauce and spaghetti.

And we also had Bubur Pulut Hitam which reminded us of Singapore...

After dinner, we went to set some more fireworks at a courtyard nearby.

The beautiful projectile of our rocket..

By the time we got back to their apartment, it was about half an hour to midnight. But the fireworks and firecrackers were intensifying outside. Just the sounds alone could scare the pants off anyone. We really felt like we were in the middle of a warzone area.

And just a minute shy of midnight, we ran outside to catch magnificent displays of fireworks. It was a mad cacophony of explosions. When one side ended, another side started and it went on continuously for about 30 to 40 minutes! And some of the firework displays were just above us and cinders were falling all over us.

It's definitely an experience to be treasured! For more pictures, please click here.

A crazy Sunday!!

2009-01-21T11:06:00.005+08:00

It was a Sunday long awaited for. Floraland (国色天香) is an amusement park with crazy rides and food and games galore! We had talked so much about visiting it in the summer when we arrived, and all through Autumn when we met people who had been there and they were raving about it. Finally, we made a date with 2 pretty gals, who are from Cat's dealership company here in Chengdu, to go Floraland.

The weather was foggy, as it had been for the last few days, but nothing could dampen our enthusiasm. We arrived at about 10.15am and we were surprised to find it not as crowded as we expected it to be. Usually on weekends it will be packed and you have to queue for ages to get on a particular ride. We found out that day was the opening day of a new amusement park so we were very lucky.

Entrance to the amusement park.

Posing with 2 pretty gals - 杨莹 on my right and 姗姗 on my left

Here i am, feeding the fishes with a milk bottle. You have to really hold on to the bottle because the fishes' mouths have such great suction power that if you don't hold tight enough, you may just lose the bottle.

Playing afool with some of the displays..

And having a crazy time on the rides.

For more pictures, click here.

Gary actually expected us to spend no more than 3 hours in the amusement park but we ended up spending almost the whole day there. We ate and we went for some rides, then we ate some more, and play some more. It was really fun, especially when you have such great company. But I was really dizzy and a little nauseous by the time we left.

We headed back towards the city at about 5.00pm where we met another friend for dinner at a hotpot restaurant. The 麻辣 soupbase is really nice but I killed myself by eating it. I was actually down with a cold and sore throat on Saturday and had not fully recovered yet, and my throat was hoarse from screaming throughout the day. So the hotpot made it worse as it agitated my sore throat.

And it didn't help when we went for a singing session at a KTV (clean one - no hanky panky allowed). We sang till I lost my voice at the end of it. But it was really fun and we had a crazy time hanging out with these people.

Unfortunately I suffered from indigestion that night - I couldn't sleep and I suffered from stomach pains, and I puked and I had diarrhea. It was terrible and I avoided hotpot for the next few days..

All that said and done, it was still the craziest day so far in our 6 months here in Chengdu.

Singapore updates

2009-01-20T09:53:00.001+08:00

After such a long break in Singapore, it took me quite a while to come back to my blog. But here I am with some updates on what we did back home.

We took a short break in Koh Samui and it was good.. The resort was beautiful and the service was excellent.

The main lobby is beautiful with a high ceiling and it has a very rustic feeling to the whole decor.

Lazing by the pool

Gary spotted his grilled chicken and he was sooo happy...

And we spotted our pineapple lady, which we promptly got 2 fresh and cold, PEELED pineapples. For more pictures, click here.

After we came back from our trip, we celebrated my niece's birthday. She turned 2 yrs old. She is such an adorable child.

Here she is, eating her satay.

and posing with my cousins..

When the party's over, she got to open her gifts!! Barney!!!

Look at her wide happy smile...

For more photos, click here.

Night out

2008-11-05T21:39:00.000+08:00

This is a pretty famous store here in Chengdu where huge numbers of people will flock here for dinner at about 7pm. It's called 玉林串串香。

Skewers of meat or vegetables are thrown into a hot pot of either spicy base (麻辣) or non-spicy base. Most people there chose the full spicy pot but we do not want to kill ourselves with their powerful spices so we opted for a mixed (鸳鸯)base.

Our pickings from the kitchen (The skewers were divided into 1RMB per big stick and 0.12RMB for a small one.)

Waiting for the base to boil, look how hungry Gary is.. Poor thing.

Usually for hotpot, they will give us each a dish of either bean paste mix or sesame oil mix for the hotpot items. Once your food is cooked, you take them out of the hotpot and dip the food into this special mix of oil/bean. For this particular hotpot, we were given sesame oil with mashed garlic inside. Talk about artery-clogging...

Anyway the total bill came up to about 70+RMB for 3 of us and we were stuffed. But apparently, according to our driver, each person (for the locals) can eat up to 100RMB at this place! We were totally amazed.

After such an artery-clogging meal, we decided to cleanse our stomachs with something less exciting, but yummy nonetheless. We walked a few stores down the road to a Hong-Kong cafe. (And these stores are just across Gary's office, how lucky is he!)

William ordered a Honeydew shake and it looked really good...

And I had my mango intake for the day with my mango sago without the coconut cream, but replaced with mango juice!!

But poor Gary has to wait donkey years for his. By the time his order arrived, we had already finished our desserts. And we tried to eat as slowly as we could, but....

Apparently they finished their yogurt and they had to make a fresh batch for Gary's strawberry milk shake or something. But it was worth waiting for it. The place was real cozy with nice sofas and ambience lighting. We will definitely visit again.

Swensens

2008-11-04T13:52:00.004+08:00

Being in a foreign place, I tend to be drawn towards familiar brand names like ESPRIT, Isetan, Parksons, IKEA, etc... But I am not sure why I wasn't interested in visiting Swensens here even though I had heard of it. Anyway, several of our Singaporean friends who had been here longer had sang high praises of it so we decided to give it a try.

Swensens is located in a very hidden but quaint street on Chunxi Road (which is like the Orchard road of Singapore).

Interior of Swensens, right at the entrance.

Familiar settings.

The food was not too bad, we enjoyed it. Prices are considered a little above average for the population here, but overall, it's good. We will definitely return for the ice-cream next time.

Ramblings...

2008-11-03T12:42:00.000+08:00

It's been some 4 months since we arrived here and my hubby liked the spicy food/dishes here that he kept bugging me to learn and try cooking some of the dishes. And I finally did..

This is a dish that we tried at one of the luncheons at the house church that we attend. And I manage to obtain the recipe from the chef...

粉丝cooked with豆拌酱

Apparently this dish can be prepared hot or cold, but I've only tried preparing it hot and I kind of prefer it that way.

Next dish is just a normal stirfry vegetables with mushroom but I used their spicy chilli sauce to cook it, and it's so yummy!!! Spicy and temperature hot!

And what more to finish such a spice-laden meal than a nice bowl of cold mixed fresh fruits with yogurt..

And I finally tried the blueberry cheesecake recipe that I got from Auntie Jess. (Missed those times when Auntie Jess brought her DELICIOUS blueberry cheesecake to church and we got to enjoy the yummy dessert.)

Well, this is my first time trying to make a baked cheesecake, and it turned out pretty well, I think.

Looks and tastes good too!!!

And here are some of the common sights on the roads now that the weather had turned cold. Carts selling all sorts of food from roasted sweet potatoes, baked bread (sorta like pita), grilled skewers like mini potatoes, toufu, meat, etc....

Look at the carts! I like the traditional huge urns as 'oven' to bake sweet potatoes.

And further behind is a guy selling pineapples on a stick. Reminds me of Krabi where we enjoyed fresh pineapples (cut and cored) on the sunny beach.

The mouth-watering aroma drifting from this cart with a big variety of grilled food..

And this is a common sight any time of the year...Street peddlers selling their wares ranging from necklaces to handphone covers...

2008-10-27T19:34:00.003+08:00

It has been raining non-stop since yesterday evening, and the cold dreary weather (as you can see in the picture below) has caused an almost insane desire to eat hot soupy stuff.

A few days after I arrived back here in Chengdu, I cooked chicken curry for my hubby who enthusiastically finished all the food I've prepared, which includes steamed egg and vegetables soup.

Then, we had steaming fishhead hotpot at a renowned hotpot restaurant (潭鱼头) in town the next night (Saturday) with a Singaporean lady I met here, and her family. It felt good to eat that on such a cold day. The temperature that night was about 16 degrees celsius I think.

And today, my hubby has a craving for fish so off I went to the supermarket to get some fish. And you know how it goes, when you go to a supermarket, you will somehow end up with more stuff than you actually intended to get. So besides the fish (which comes neatly packaged with accompanying ingredients for a mere 5.90RMB), I got a claypot, which currently had a buy-1-get-1-free promotion, and that meant I get 2 claypots for the price of 1 (29.90RMB).

So my hubby is very happy with his fish, which is quite simple to prepare. But not me....

Being the snack-a-roo that I am, I saw something familiar at the supermarket - Malay Kueh cake (马来糕) and thought I struck gold, that I found something familiar. Those at home taste really yummy with the gula melaka taste and the spongy cake, the combination is just heavenly. So I got that.

Boy was I disappointed when I opened it for my tea-time snack. It was dry and thicker. And it was tasteless. I threw it away after having a quarter of it. That ought to teach me to learn better next time.

Holiday in Spore

2008-10-21T12:35:00.007+08:00

3 weeks came and went just like that, as did my holiday back home in Singapore. But it was great to be back in familiar territory, looking, smelling and feeling all things familiar.

So many things happened.....

The 1st sabbath we got back, I bumped into Lisa who just had a baby boy and it was so good to see her. She's staying in KL with her hubby and it's a rare treat to have them in Jurong. (^^)

And we got to witness their baby boy, Ethan's dedication to the Lord.

Pastor Simon Siew with his wife, and Cassidy, Lisa and Ethan

And it was so nice to see all the babies in church...

And the beautiful ladies in church...

And we were just in time to join in the birthday celebration for October babies....

in church...

and outside...

Hanging out with our families...

... and friends

Girls night out Shopping!!

Jimmy's birthday bbq @ The Seaview

More pics here.

And catching up on local food like durians @ Geylang... Yummy...

and social night in church..

More pictures are available here.

And my darling hubby was so sweet to prepare the house for my return, despite having to work. The house was spick and span and he bought flowers to await for my return:

and he prepared a really yummy dinner!!

Guests!!

2008-09-16T11:04:00.005+08:00

Last Friday (12th Sept), we were invited to a church member's house for pizza but we ended up having Gary's dealers over for dinner. So guess what? I had to step up to the challenge of planning the menu and preparing food for 8 people.

It's not a lot of people, but it's the first time I had to prepare everything by myself with no additional help - from marketing to prepping and cooking. Stress stress!!!

Here's the menu for the night:

1. Hainanese Chicken Rice (Primataste pack - courtesy of Renee)

2. Fried Bee Hoon

3. Braised eggs and tau kwa

4. Vegetables curry with french loaf

5. Bak ku teh soup (Vegetarian)

6. Dessert - Vanilla Pound Choco-chip Cupcake

I had a terrible start in the morning when I was preparing the braised eggs. My hard boiled eggs were not peeling prettily. Arrghh.. Out of 24 eggs, only 10 came out almost perfect. If the eggs do not have a smooth surface, not only will they look ugly in the dark sauce, they won't absorb the sauce as readily. That's the beginning of my stressful day.

Once I reached back home after marketing, which is about 12.45pm, I had my lunch which I bought from the supermarket. It's something like 菜饭 - rice and 3 dishes, all for 6RMB. I could barely finish half of it - the portions are huge.

Anyway, after that I started baking my dessert, which turned out great. In the midst of preparing the batter, I was boiling some more eggs and peeling them. This time it was better - 13 out of 15 eggs turned out ok. And I managed to find Tau pok and tau kwa in the supermarket, so I threw them into the braised eggs pot.

Here's the completed dish:

I got rave reviews for this dish! Thanks Mom for the recipe!

I was multi-tasking a lot - while I was preparing the braised eggs, I was also boiling the chicken for the chicken rice. While the 2 dishes were boiling or simmering, I was cutting vegetables for the curry. Busy as a bee...

I have to say though, that it was relatively easy to prepare the chicken rice as everything was provided in the pack, I just had to get the chicken and rice. The box asked for 1.5kg chicken, so I got about 1.2kg worth of chicken breast and some drumsticks because I don't know how to chop up a chicken. However, I neglected to minus off the weight of the bones, so we had a lot of excess chicken meat left. They finished the rice though, which was really yummy.

Next was cooking the vegetable curry. This was a first. I have not cooked vegetable curry before so I had to call home for help. Thank God, for my mom, who guided me through the steps on how to cook veggie curry.

After cooking it in a wok, I transferred to my slow cooker to simmer and soften for a while more.

Bee Hoon was next - lots of chopping also. Luckily I managed to fined shredded carrot so that saved me some time and effort. Once again, I had to ask my mom for help. My arm nearly broke cooking this dish, as I had to constantly stir the bee hoon and veggies to make sure it doesn't burn at the bottom. But I forgot 1 important ingredient while I was cooking this dish. That explains why it was a little on the 'healthy' side - not very salty.

But it also got quite good response because it's very hard to find 米粉 here. You can find 粉丝 (which is 'Tang hoon') readily though.

At 6.30pm, I panicked because I was running late on my preparation. I should have finished then because that was the time set for the dinner but at that time, my bak ku teh wasn't cooked yet and I haven't prepared the frosting for the cupcake. And Gary wasn't home at 5.45pm like he said, to help clean up the house and set up the table and stuff. He arrived about 6.30pm coz of a meeting that ended late and also because of the heavy evening traffic.

Thankfully in the end, the guests arrived at about 7.30pm, which bought us enough time to finish preparing and setting up. But I still didn't manage to prepare the frosting. *Sigh*

Anyway, once he got back, he started to tidy up and clear the living room, prepare the table, while William took evidence of my hard work and mess in the kitchen.

Look at the whole dish of chicken meat next to the green Prima taste box. By the way, the hainanese chicken rice mix pack is selling for 65RMB here. Pricey I say.

We borrowed a portable table from a friend so that we could seat 8 people, and chairs from William's apartment. Luckily he stays next door, so it's easy to borrow chairs and utensils from his apartment.

All in all, the dinner is a success. Except, I got a bad back-ache standing at the stove from 1.30pm till 7pm and I haven't had a drop of water during the entire time. I couldn't eat very much at the dinner but I'm glad it's over. And I get to sit down and drink some water to soothe my patched throat.

Needless to say, Gary volunteered to do the washing up, so I could rest. And William helped to clear up too.

My man in action... He also vacuumed and mopped the floor. He's the man!

1st Pizza Delivery in Chengdu

2008-09-09T22:39:00.001+08:00

After such a busy morning, I didn't feel like cooking dinner and anyway Gary's gonna be home tonight at about 8.30pm so we decided to order our 1st pizza delivery.

It was such a funny experience that we agreed that we should blog it, so here it is.

I called and the person who picked up the phone spoke in English, and I thought to myself, 'Oh good, I can converse in English and not crack my head over how to say certain things in chinese'.

So I said 'I will like a chicken pizza' and he said 'ok.'

And when I said 'I will like another vegetable pizza', he paused and answered 'huh?'

For a moment, I thought they don't do Veggie pizzas. Then I repeated again my order but he still can't get it.

So I said ‘蔬菜’. And he went 'Oh 蔬菜 pizza, ok'.

Then I said 'I want Fish and Chips.' He didn't get it though I repeated it twice. I was trying to translate it to chinese so I tried '鱼片和薯条.' And he went '薯条? Ok!'

I nearly fainted.

I said 'No, not fries, I want fish and chips.' I think he really couldn't get what I wanted so he asked me to wait while he asked his co-worker if they have that item. And when another person picks up the phone, I had to repeat my order all over again. But at least he got my order for fish & chips down.

Phew, finally, with my order taken and address noted, I asked if there's any delivery charges, and he said 'No delivery charges, you just pay for our taxi fare to deliver your food.'

I paused for a while and confirmed what he said and also find out how much the taxi fare will cost. (If not, they ke-tok me, I also don't know.)

So he calculated the cost of the food and told me my order came up to 170RMB, so I can round up the figure to 200RMB to cover the taxi fare. Now, I think you can only find this in China, where prices are not really fixed and you never know when you are being fleeced.

When the food arrived about 45 minutes later, the guy showed me the receipt for the food only and asked me for 200RMB. So I asked him for the taxi receipt and he said he forgot to ask from the taxi driver.

So I asked how much was your taxi and he said 13RMB. Firstly, how can I verify that he is speaking the truth? The taxi fare could be under 10RMB but he could quote a higher price without me knowing. Secondly 170 + 13 = 183RMB. I told him he should give me 17RMB change back. He looked so blank when I said that.

I was so assertive that I even calculated for him and insisted to have my change of 17RMB back (not that I need the money, but I refused to be fleeced). I was so insistent that he took out whatever notes he had in his pocket (which was not enough to make 17RMB, by the way) and asked if I have small change, which i didn't. By that time, I was on a roll, and I couldn't back down and say forget it, keep the change. Until he said '170 + 13 + another 13 for return fare = 196RMB, I should give you only 4RMB change.'

'Oh.' I said. I forgot about the return trip. In my own little mind, I was thinking about the food and the taxi he took and that was it. I felt so bad at putting him at a spot and wasting his time, so I apologized and told him to keep the change. And he left.

Now, at this point, who's to verify if his taxi fare is really 13RMB in the first place and that he will be taking a taxi back? So I comforted myself by the thought that it's not a huge amount - just take the 30RMB as delivery charges. Now if they had set that as a standard, wouldn't that be much easier? *Sigh*

Anyways, here's our dinner:

Check out the really small portion of fish from the fish and chips order on the left side.

Outing with CIWC

2008-09-09T17:50:00.000+08:00

Today has been really interesting. The CIWC organised a trip to the local wholesale wet market called 青石桥. And I went. I have to learn at some point to buy salmon for Gary, so here's my chance.

My oh my, what an experience..... The market is big and has 2 storeys. On the 1st floor is where you find your seafood and meat (the meat is located in another wing of the main market) and there are lots of stuff that were squirming around on trays and buckets, etc.. I saw the meat market from afar, and I swore to myself that I will NEVER go anywhere near it. Different parts of the animals are hanging on rusty skewers and hooks.... a glance is enough to give me nightmares and the seafood area is enough to make me nauseous.

I usually don't mind going to the wet market back in Singapore, after all, I made those trips with my mom frequent enough. But the wet market here has an awful stench. I cannot put a finger to it but it definitely wasn't nice for me. I saw lots of turtles, I think they are widely consumed here. Lots of crustaceans like crabs, lobsters - different sizes and also prawns. Fish of course can be found here, though not all are fresh - some are frozen. And I don't know what are those stuff that were in the buckets and trays, squirming around.

The 2nd storey is where I feel much more at ease. It's the fresh vegetables market and canned food section. There're lots of fresh vegetables and it's a place I will visit again for its variety. And I also found canned mushrooms! They are hard to come by here but who actually eats canned mushrooms when they have so many varieties of fresh mushroom. I must be crazy, you think. But I guess somehow, the canned mushroom brought comfort to me coz it's something familiar and a common thing that I eat back home in Singapore.

The canned food section is also not too bad, we can find a lot of western stuff, huge cans of tomato sauces, mayonnaise, ketchup, canned fruits, fruit sauces, etc.

I will take some pictures next time when I go with Gary coz I was so overwhelmed with the smell on the 1st floor and the exploration on the 2nd floor that I didn't take out the camera.

After that, we were brought to another place where we can find food stuff that are sold to hotels and restaurants. So I guess it should be cheaper or provided more variety.

We were brought into a low-rise condo area where their storage rooms were. There were lots of stuff and we went into a room full of chocolate! Once you cross over the entrance-way, the aroma of chocolates just wafts to your nose. It was like heaven.

I had to restrain myself from buying tons of it. Good thing for me was, the chocolate there were in blocks or button drops. I don't need them coz I still have those that Auntie Jess supplied. And the only dark chocolate chips they had was way too expensive...600RMB for 5 kg. It must be some good quality chocolate. So I just got my brown sugar and left.

Lunch was at a much-heard Indian restaurant called Tandoor.

I had been craving for Indian food since I watched a show on Discovery Travel & Living introducing various Indian spices and the food they cook with the spices. And my craving was satiated for the time being. The food here was really good and I have to remind myself to bring Gary there!

Fireworks!

2008-09-07T23:33:00.000+08:00

For the past week, I have been hearing some sounds which seems to be coming from outside that sounded like heavy machine sounds from the construction site nearby but it also sounded vaguely like fireworks. As I will usually hear them when I am preparing for bed (about 10pm), I don't bother checking them out. Rather I'm too scaredy-cat to draw open the curtains to see what they are, for fear of some morbid monster I may find hovering around my windows (I blame it on Gary coz he's gone off and left me alone in the creaky house).

Anyway, I was waiting for Gary to call on this particular night, which was way past my bedtime, when I heard the sounds again. The curtains in the study room was drawn open so I just stood up a little to see what is going on, when I got my answer to the mysterious sounds.....

Fireworks!

... by the river (I like to call it a 'long kang' though)

It was beautiful and of course, I ran to get the camera and took some shots. Apparently fireworks here occur quite frequently and this one lasted for about 3 to 5 minutes.

Dinner with the BIG Boss

2008-09-07T14:20:00.003+08:00

There was an official dinner organized with Gary's CAT office's colleagues and bosses, to welcome the team to Chengdu as well as to appreciate the efforts of those who have worked tirelessly to set up the office here. The original plan was to exclude all spouses and children so that the men can do what they want, but eventually we get to go too!! Lol

Here's the view from the room where we are having the dinner - HUGE garden with a big pond to boot.. and the glass houses look very cozy.

The View

The Room

Since we were the first ones to arrive, we chilled at the really plush and comfy sofa in the room.

Great colour combi rite?

1st Coffee Morning by CIWC

2008-09-02T13:03:00.003+08:00

In case you are wondering, CIWC stands for Chengdu International Women's Club and you can find out more about them through their website www.chengduiwc.com.

They hold monthly events that all female expatriates here in Chengdu can attend. And today was the 1st coffee morning for me. Today's event was held at The Bookworm. And boy was it overwhelming! For the 1st time in 2 months, I saw lots of foreigners, including fellow Singaporeans and women of all nationalities. It was just great!

Coffee was on CIWC, but too bad I don't drink coffee. Maybe i should.. (just kidding)

There were over 60 of us and I got to meet new people. 1 of which is a Singaporean who has been here for 5 months and stays at The Waterfront too. I also made friends with 2 korean students, just slightly younger than me. And a very friendly HongKonger who was staying in Melbourne before moving to Chengdu. I also met a few foreigners who stay at The WaterFront too.

There are quite a lot of people whom I have yet to meet but I guess there is plenty of time for me to get acquainted with them. Till then...

Shopping Day Sunday

2008-08-31T21:45:00.001+08:00

Unofficially, Sunday has become our shopping day as it's the only day we get to spend with each other, doing things together.

So today we decided to explore the local wholesale market, 荷花池 which is sort of similar to Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, except that this place has no map, whatsoever and it's much bigger. It actually reminded me more of the wholesale building that I went to in Hong Kong because this 荷花池 was not an open market that I expected, instead, it was a huge building of about 5 levels, even the surrounding streets are also part of the wholesale market. We barely finished exploring the lower levels of the building in the 2 hours that we were there. And we haven't even hit the streets yet.

Anyway, here's our 'loot' from 荷花池:

Things here are much cheaper than if you were to get it from shopping malls and such, usually when you buy 10 pcs and above, they will quote you their 批发价. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can spot some good buys without having to buy such big quantities, like this hair-clip that I spotted, going at 5RMB.

And I also spotted this hair accessory selling for 5RMB each:

But there are so many colors that I cannot make a decision which one to choose, I eventually bought 10 @ 3RMB each:

Hehe....

After that we headed to the Panda house @ 宽窄巷 to get some souvenirs which will be characteristic of Chengdu for our nieces:

The top 3 are for our nieces and the bottom one was actually a gift from Gary after he returned from his last trip in August.

Aren't they adorable?!?! I loved it so much that we both agreed to get them for the gals.

After Panda house, we headed down to Metro to get some grocery shopping done, and also to get some stuff back home like the local spices as well as chewing gum.. lol

We liked Metro because it was so hard to get in! Actually not really, but let me share the huge amount of trouble we went just to get in. This is the only hypermart we know of, that requires you to be a member in order to get in. And to be a member, you need:

WHAT kind of documents are necessary to get a card?
Copy of your business license / organization code certificate (original)
ID of legal representative (original)
ID of card holder (original)

Introduction letter (original)

The 1st time that I went there alone, they refused entry because I did not have a card to swipe at the entrance, even though I explained that I'm a foreigner and I want to check out the place. Their attitudes are not entirely the most pleasant - they stare at me blankly and mumbled in their local dialect why I can't go in, which of course I couldn't catch half of what she's saying, and turned away.

So the next time I went, I got Gary to go with me and we spoke in English that we will like to apply for the member card. Now, we realized that when things are in English, things get done differently. They immediately processed our applications after looking at the company letter which was also all in English (even though we didn't have the other documents required - we only have our passports and the letter). So we got our cards!

Anyway, we like Metro for its wide selection of imported goods as well as low prices. This is where I can get my regular supply of soymilk, not as healthy as Sanitarium So Good but I have to make do with what I have. Besides my Magic Bullet is not as powerful as Pik Yee's Vitamix to make fresh Soya milk everyday. And it's also where Gary is 'spoilt for choice' in his selection of his skimmed milk.

So here's what we bought in Metro:

Wholesale markets,Supermarts, Hypermarts - I love them all!

Baking Frenzy

2008-08-30T21:23:00.003+08:00

Maybe I had not been baking very much recently, so when my hands were starting to itch to bake from the start of the week, I knew I had to bake something this week.

And so yesterday I baked a banana walnut cake using a recipe that I found online. Here is the finished product. The cake was moist and not too sweet, which was how I liked it.

Here is the recipe taken from Delia Online:

Serves 8

Ingredients

4 medium bananas (approximately 12 oz/350 g)6 oz (175 g) walnut pieces pinch of salt1 rounded teaspoon baking powder1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon 4 oz (110 g) plain flour 4 oz (110 g) wholewheat flour grated zest 1 orange grated zest 1 lemon 4 oz (110 g) butter at room temperature 6 oz (175 g) soft dark brown sugar 2 large eggs at room temperature

For the topping:

1 level tablespoon demerara sugar

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).You will also need a 2 lb (900 g) loaf tin, lightly buttered.

Begin, as soon as the oven has pre-heated, by spreading the nuts out on a baking sheet and toasting them lightly in the oven for 7-8 minutes – use a timer so that you don't forget them. After that, remove them from the oven to a chopping board, let them cool briefly, then chop them fairly roughly.

Now, in a bowl, peel and mash 3 of the bananas to a purée with a fork, and peel and chop the other one into ½ inch (1 cm) chunks.

Next take a large mixing bowl and sift the salt, baking powder, cinnamon and both the flours into it, holding the sieve up high to give it a good airing, then adding the bran that's left in the sieve.

Now add all the remaining ingredients (except the chopped banana and nuts) and, using an electric hand whisk, begin to beat the mixture, first on a slow speed for about half a minute, then increasing the speed to mix everything thoroughly and smoothly.

Then lightly fold in the chopped banana and walnuts. You may need to add a drop of milk to give a mixture that drops easily off a spoon when you give it a sharp tap on the side of the bowl.

Next pile the mixture into the tin, level the top with the back of a spoon and sprinkle on the demerara sugar.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 1¼-1½ hours, until the cake feels springy in the centre.

After that, remove it from the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes before turning it out on to a wire tray. Then let it get completely cold before serving or transferring it to a cake tin.

I didn't have any brown sugar so I used caster sugar instead, which may explain why the taste of the banana walnut cake was not as intense as I had expected. And I halved the grated zest of both lemon and orange as I did not want my banana walnut cake to taste like a fruit cake. Luckily I did that, because even with the halved portion of zest, the taste of the bananas was somewhat masked by the aroma of the lemon and orange. However, all in all, it was good, and Gary liked it. (^^)

Then yesterday I baked Sweet corn muffins in preparation for church's potluck lunch on saturday. Usually, several ladies will cook after lesson has ended which is about 12.30pm, and everyone will contribute something, be it buying the vegetables or rice, etc. Since everything is already accounted for, and I can't cook local Sichuanese food yet, I will bring something that I can make easily at home, which is baked stuff. So far, I've brought oreos cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes and oatmeal and raisin cookies. And it has been pretty well accepted by the group, so I continue to bake for them.

I had a craving for Kenny Rogers sweet corn muffins, so i decided to bake something like that to satisfy my craving. Here it is:

I can't remember which website I got the recipe from, but the recipe is as follows:

Sweet Corn muffins (Makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cup All purpose flour

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
Cream the softened butter and the sugar together in a bowl.
Beat in the honey, eggs and salt into the creamed butter mixture until smooth.
Mix in the flour , cornmeal and baking powder in the smooth mixture, until just mixed.
Stir in milk into mixture, until batter is smooth.
Fold in the corn kernels.
Spoon into prepared muffin cups, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops of muffins are lightly browned.

I added a tsp of vanilla essence for the flavor even though the recipe didn't call for it.

The result? It was yummy-licous! The muffins were moist and full of flavor. It's definitely a keeper.

However, I didn't manage to bring the muffins to church coz Gary fell sick and he was heavily medicated on Friday night. So we stayed home so he could sleep off the medication. In the end, I gave the muffins to June's family (both Kai and Wen love muffins) and William, our next door neighbour.

And look what I cooked for Gary for lunch (the medication was so powerful that Gary slept till 1pm) using the slow cooker than Neil and Anna bought for us before they left for Melbourne -

Porridge with mushrooms and vegetables

The cooking process

The finished product

I got the recipe from Kelly's Jook. It was my second try at cooking 'chok' and I loved it! It's easy and convenient. Just have to try different variations - Carrot porridge anyone? (It was my favourite.)

Cooking up a storm

2008-08-26T11:55:00.003+08:00

I made another new friend recently and he's a Singaporean. He's none other than Gary's colleague, William who will be here for a 3 months training. He's my age and we attended the same JC (St. Andrews). It was such a coincidence. Anyway we hit it off quite well, maybe bcoz of our age or the fact that we attended the same JC.

Gary and I thought it will be nice to have him over for dinner, so we invited him over for dinner last night.

I had to do some planning on what to cook, considering that I have to feed 2 men, one growing and one not so growing... Lol.. Vegetarian was out of the question.

The menu for the night was:

1. Chicken curry with potatoes (Tean's Gourmet Curry Chicken paste)

2. Stir-fry vegetables with garlic

3. Braised eggs (my family's special recipe)

4. Tomato and Egg soup (a classic soup here)

It was a challenge that I accepted with much anticipation. I've never cooked curry chicken before, but having the curry paste made things easier.

So I did my marketing in the morning and prepared the chicken curry and braised eggs before my class at 2.30pm.

Class ended at 5pm but I left early to pick Gary and William up from their office. I heated up the chicken curry and simmered the braised eggs, as well as cook the remaining dishes when we arrived home.

It was a really good experience for me:

1. to cook curry chicken for the first time

2. to learn the different kinds of vegetables here (I confused spinach with sweet potato leaves coz they looked the same, silly me).

And they finished most of the food!

You can tell how filling and satisfying the food was, by their expressions!

Meeting new friends

2008-08-17T11:39:00.001+08:00

Though the experience on National Day was disastrous, we had a wonderful time the weekend after. We attended a dinner organized by a Singaporean, who also stays in WaterFront like us @ a restaurant called 8trees set up by a Singaporean.

There were 8 of us in total, all Singaporeans. 9, if you count the manager of 8trees. It was a wonderful dinner - Gary enjoyed his beef steak. (^^) I had a specially prepared vegetarian set menu. But the food wasn't the focus. It was the company that we had.

Though we are the youngest there, it didn't stop us from identifying with the whole Singaporean atmosphere. We talked about all things Singaporean especially food....being in a restaurant and all. The restaurant does offer some Singaporean food like Chicken Rice, Laksa, Nonya Curry chicken rice and Bak Ku teh. But there are limited portions each day. Unanimously, we all asked if there are any chicken rice left for the day as we ALL had a craving for the Singaporean dish.

Well, Ask and it shall be given! The chef prepared the chicken rice and the garlic chilli sauce and it was GOOD.... 95% authenticity - rated by Gary Tang. This will be our favourite dining place from now on.

Good Singaporean food + good steak = Good for Gary Tang

All in all, this dinner more than made up for the national day episode.

Adapting

2008-08-11T11:10:00.000+08:00

This is a picture of a local favourite food, especially for lunch. They have lots of shops around Chengdu that sells just this - 面线 which are also called noodles. They are absolutely yummy!!! See the chillies on top. Shiok ah!

And it costs just RMB7. You can also order 1 extra portion of noodles at no extra charge. Talk about affordable!

Remember I mentioned about having special classes for some very special people? Here they are. These are students from the disaster areas, think they are from Mianyang. They are absolutely charming but there is a certain quality about them that sets them apart from the local kids that we meet. Maybe it's the near-death experience that they had gone through or the loss of loved ones. But all in all, I think they enjoyed themselves thoroughly during their 3 nights here.

Dancing to 'Yo, My name is Joe' song

Introduction

Puppet Show

Our National Day

2008-08-09T23:31:00.002+08:00

August 9th, 2008 - that's Singapore's 43rd Birthday (*Cheer*)! And we celebrated it for the first time, outside of our home country, Singapore. The Sichuan Singapore Club (SSC) here in Chengdu has organized a Singapore National Day dinner! We were so excited when we first heard that. We thought we might get to meet some fellow Singaporeans and make some new friends, etc... It doesn't matter that we have to pay 280RMB (approx S$56)per person for the dinner, because it'll be at Sheraton Hotel, and we get to meet people.

So we dressed according to the invitation - Sportswear or jeans & T-shirt, and went happily to the hotel. The hotel was nice - it's Sheraton! But the dinner was not what we hoped it will be. It's like attending a wedding dinner of someone whom you don't really know, so your only companion is the person you came to the wedding dinner with..

Anyway, firstly, we noticed that the dress code was not that firmly adhered to. Who will consider dresses as sportswear?! Anyway,we arrived and saw that there are 2 tables for registration. One for walk-ins and the other for those who already had tickets. So we went to the table with a table stand that says 'Singaporean registration'. And the guy recognised Gary immediately from Caterpillar as he had called him to get the tickets. But what shocked me was that when we asked for our table number, he hesitated and erred, and arrhh.. and said that the tables are mostly bought by companies, which goes by the table so we can just find any empty seats and settle down.. blah blah blah... I mean come on! We paid for our seats and now had to settle for seats that are already paid for!?!?! That is ridiculous. (TIC)

Anyhow, the lady-in-charge, whom is a Singaporean came and she said she will show us to a table. Halfway to the ballroom, she got waylaid and distracted by some guests (whom I believed are big shots as they looked older), until eventually she got carried away and left us standing at the entrance of the ballroom. I was irritated at the change of events, but I tried to calm myself down, finding excuses that she was busy and she need to entertain the big shots. After waiting about 5 to 10 mins for her to notice us again, which she didn't, I was downright pissed!

So Gary suggested that we take a look at the layout plan outside to see if there're any tables in the ballroom that are not bought by any company. But all tables are taken! We decided to go back to the registration table where I (ahem, yours truly) assertively explained that we 'lost' the lady-in-charge and all tables are taken by companies so where are we supposed to sit? I think the guy was quite taken aback by my assertiveness and scrambled to find seats for us. Anyhow, we got our seats at a UOB table, hurray! (Right...)

Out of the 10 people seated at the UOB table, there're 2 Singaporeans (yours truly), 1 Singapore PR, and 1 Malaysian. The rest are local people. But I wondered how many Singaporeans are there exactly at this event. Everywhere I turned to, the people I see seems to be local. The lady-in-charge did say that as far as possible, they give priority to Singaporeans, but if Singaporean companies in Chengdu bought a table and there're local staff who attends the event, there's nothing they can do.

The national anthem was played when they brought out a cake to celebrate the National Day, but nobody was singing it. (Probably because most of them are not Singaporeans.) Other than that, the items for the night was so-so - there were the usual speeches before we begin the buffet, some entertainment items during the dinner, some new companies' debuts, and finally the lucky draw.

So that explains our lack of enthusiasm to want to take any photos at the event to remind us of our disappointment.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Singapore!

Volunteering

2008-08-03T23:33:00.000+08:00

I had been spending some time at a foreign language school here. It's opened by an Adventist and the current principal is also an Adventist. The teachers and teaching assistants (TAS) here are very friendly, based on the few interactions I had with some of them.

Currently, it's the summer holiday and they have some programs running for the holidays. 1 of them is a 'Jack and the Beanstalk' speech and drama class. I sat in on their rehearsals and the children were so adorable (and exasperating, at times). And hearing comments from the teachers and TAs, they have made huge progress, from zero knowledge of English to being able to act out the entire play in English. Here is a shot I took at one of the rehearsals:

And at the final performance on Sunday, I was helping out in whatever way I can - make-up for the children, videographing, etc. It was kinda fun. And the children, especially the younger ones, are just so cute. When I was doing the make-up, they just stood there quietly and let us do our thing. Of course, some of the boys vehemently objected to having anything more than powder and blush on their faces, but of course, we had our way because we are bigger than them... Lol. And some of the girls would play with the make-up or requested for more eye-shadow or more blush or more lipstick or more glitter on their faces...

But for those little girls who were acting as mice in the drama, it was so sad to see their disappointed faces when they realised that they had to draw black ugly noses and whiskers on their beautifully-drawn faces. Fortunately, they didn't cry or make a fuss.

The final performance with the entire cast.

A special dance item at the end of the performance

It was a tiring day. Even though the entire performance ended at 6pm+, I met up with Bean (a fellow Singaporean who is the Speech and Drama teacher at the school) to discuss about the lessons that had to be planned for some children from Mianyang (one of the disaster areas) who were invited to the school.

Well, she roped me in to help out in leading one of the class activity and to prepare the activities and worksheets. It will be like a trial for me to see if I like teaching and also for them to see if I have any potential in teaching.

But now I'm a little hesitant at the thought of having to work. I think I might be getting used to having lots of free time.

Gym & food....

2008-08-03T12:37:00.000+08:00

Finally, we signed up for gym at a shopping mall nearby. It has taken us weeks to gather information and check out the various gyms and compare before we decided on our choice. The membership is not very expensive and all aerobic, yoga and spinning classes are included. This particular gym also has a squash court and a golf putting green area, but these 2 activities require a booking fee. If you ask Gary about the squash court, he'll have lots to say about it, from a national player perspective.

So after working out (abt 8.30pm), we decided to 'dapao' some dishes back home so I didn't have to spend too much time cooking dinner. Look at how they package the food:

Well, as we soon realised, that is their typical packaging here. Unless you brought your own container or tingkat. (^^)

Gary turns 30!

2008-07-31T23:17:00.001+08:00

It's Gary's birthday and he's turning 30!!!! But 28th July came and went without much of a squeak... because he wasn't even in town. And I was thinking so hard about what to get him as a gift. There's nothing that he needs. And there's nothing much that he wants (the few stuff that he wants are way beyond my means to get it i.e. home theatre system to match our TV here!).

So I did what I can do confidently and I made him some brownies as a surprise when he came back today (31st July).

I made it a little healthier by using olive oil instead of butter (also because it's very hard to find unsalted butter here). It tastes not too bad, if I may say so myself. The texture is chewy and moist, except maybe the olive oil smell is a tad too strong. I should add a little less next time.

Think we'll get 'big' very soon, if I continue to bake sinful desserts like this. Maybe I should try oriental desserts.... they seem less fattening.....

Another Day out

2008-07-25T18:00:00.006+08:00

I am really thankful for such a great husband who really knows how to pamper me.. He knows that he has to leave on Sunday for his business 'China tour', so he spent Friday visiting the Chengdu Panda Research center with me.

A beautiful Panda sculpture

At the Panda Story Cinema, they showed a video on Pandas. And part of it was the reproduction process from mating to giving birth. I was shocked as I watched the video as I was expecting to see a furry creature to pop out of the mother panda but what came out was small and pink and squealing. Here's a similar video I found on YouTube:

If the video doesn't show, you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/v/LCSuVb90PqU&hl=en&fs=1

The below video shows the growth of a panda bear, from the tiny pink creature to the furry panda bear that we know:

If the video doesn't show, you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/v/6hL0x6mWkbg&hl=en&fs=1

Another interesting thing I learned was that because of the low fertility rate, some pandas go through artificial insemination, and when they got pregnant, they don't know what's going on. So when they are ready to give birth, the baby just shoots out from the body and they actually got spooked by the 'thing' that just popped out of their body. It was really education for me.

This is the 1st time that I saw a little red panda. Doesn't it look more like a raccoon than a panda? I was expecting to see an animal that looks like a panda bear but of smaller size... This is what I found on Wikipedia:

The Red Panda, Firefox, or Lesser Panda, or Ailurus fulgens ("shining cat"), is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat........

It's really cute and it was feeding time when we arrived there. So you can see these cute animals feeding and then wandering to a nice warm spot to laze after they had enough. More pictures on Facebook.

We went to the Panda bears enclosure next. It's also feeding time for them.. The pandas were so cute when they were eating, they will lie on their lower back and eat. It looks very lazy... One of them seems more inquisitive and kept looking at us....

They are just so cute. But I think the weather is quite hot for them so they are all indoors with the aircon on. Not one of the pandas that we saw are outside in their playground, they are all enclosed in the aircon rooms. Except for the red pandas earlier.

Believe it a not, we actually spent 2 hours in the panda research center. Amazing! Of course we were quite hungry after that so we headed to our next tourist destination: The broad and narrow streets（宽窄巷子）:

It's newly developed and they are still working on it, but there are some eating places and touristy shops opened. It was really novel to eat in a restaurant where the architecture was conserved from ancient times.... More photos on Facebook.

My new toy

2008-07-23T17:33:00.000+08:00

One of the things that we agree on when we came here to Chengdu was that I will do the housework and Gary will bring back the dough.. We will not engage any helper (阿姨 as they call it here) unless I really need it. Even though it's not very expensive to engage one here - approximately 200RMB a month for a once-a-week cleaning, which makes it 4 times a month and they do general cleaning, including toilet and windows; washing and ironing.

But what will I do if all the housework is done for me already? Besides I enjoy cleaning and I can be guaranteed of the quality of the cleaning (^^).

Now housework is not that bad. It's the ironing that I don't really have a preference for. It's tedious and back breaking work. And the workers didn't pack the big ironing board back home, instead they packed the small one that you can get in Ikea. Don't ask me why.

So Gary being such a sweet hubby, suggests getting a standing steamer iron so that my back won't get hurt or sore, which I usually developed after ironing his shirts with the usual ironing board. You probably have seen it in action in clothes shops.

Tada! This is my new toy:

And look what it can do:

The left side of the shirt is the ironed part and the right side is before ironing. Can you see the difference? The right side is really wrinkled while the left side is straight and ironed!

It's really easy to use and it's pretty efficient once you get the hang of it. Ironing has never been so fun!

Clear clear sky

2008-07-22T15:59:00.001+08:00

2 nights ago we experienced a very bad thunderstorm. It was a continuous heavy downpour since 8pm and we could see the lightning strike from afar. The windows shook everytime thunder struck. It was still raining when we went to bed at about 12am+.

And look at the weather after the storm. Clear blue sky. This was taken yesterday afternoon:

View from Study room

View from Living room (balcony doors)

We had not seen such a clear sky ever since we arrived here in Chengdu. Usually, the landscape will be very foggy and we won't be able to see past the immediate few buildings.

And the weather held today:

Oh what a beautiful day!

Homecooked food

2008-07-20T23:23:00.001+08:00

After 5 weeks or so of eating out and tasting the many different cuisines available here in Chengdu, it felt really good to just prepare our own food, in the comfort of our own home.

I made Bak Ku Teh (vegetarian) yesterday for dinner with the herb sachet that I brought from home. That, combined with a bowl of healthy wholegrain rice, is like heaven. At least our faces didn't have to cringe at the excessive amounts of oil and salt used. (^^)

And tonight we had tomato and egg soup, broccoli with mushrooms and wholegrain rice.

Yummy!!

Tourists in Chengdu

2008-07-20T22:00:00.015+08:00

Finally, amidst all the unpacking and packing, we managed to take some time out to explore Chengdu. After church service yesterday, we visited one of the cultural sites in the city - Dufu's Thatched Cottage （成都杜甫草堂）. This is the former residence of Dufu (712 - 770AD), a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, when he stayed in Chengdu. (For those who are interested in knowing more, you can visit http://www.dftcm.org.)

The weather was hot, even though there was a passing shower in the late morning. Needless to say, I was a little grumpy with the heat, and my full stomach was protesting against the exploration that we are about to embark on (it'll much rather I take a lazy piggy nap) and we were not equipped i.e. we were in jeans and we don't have any wind-creating device except for the little admission ticket issued to us. Nonetheless, we went ahead and here are some photos taken:

Main entrance

A bronze statue of the famous poet, Dufu

You can view more pictures in my facebook account.

And today we went to another tourist attraction - The Wuhou Shrine 成都武侯祠. This is a shrine to the Three Kingdoms, where cultural relics of that era are conserved and protected. I'm not a big Chinese history fan and I barely know about the whole Three Kingdoms story. I only recognise some names like Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮, Liu Bei 刘备, Guan Yu 关羽, Zhang Fei 张飞, etc...

But after exploring the place, my understanding of the history got better. I may not understand 100% of it, but at least it's about 50% understanding now, compared to like 5% in the past. Big improvement, IMO.

Anyways, here are some pictures. The rest are all up in Facebook.

Main entrance

After we finished exploring most of the significant areas, we headed out to the Jinli Street 锦里街, where it's a row of stalls selling food and souvenirs:

Chicken and mushroom glutinous rice in bamboo

My newly acquired skill....

2008-07-18T14:18:00.005+08:00

Finally... I can knit!!!! Thank you Elaine for the book "Stitch 'N Bitch-the knitter's handbook.

It's really easy to follow and the steps are explained very simply. And knitting didn't seem as hard as I used to envisioned. (Have you seen Elaine or Anlin knit before?? They are so fast and their stitches are real neat!)

Though my stitches are not perfect (lots of loose and untidy ones) yet but I'm real proud of myself. My 1st project which I made for Gary (it was our 1st year anniversary on Tuesday, 15th July):

Hmm.. now I have to figure out where to get yarn before I can embark on my next project.. Wish me luck!

Gary's 1st overseas assignment

2008-07-14T19:49:00.003+08:00

It's about 24 hours since Gary's departure at the airport to Kunming, for a short business trip. At a pretty good timing too as Gary couldn't escape his share of helping to clean up the house over the weekend!

Our sea shipment (containing all our things from home - furniture, appliances, documents, etc) finally arrived on Saturday (we had to give church worship a miss), and the furniture were assembled, and most of the boxes unpacked by the movers. They were pretty efficient and fast in their service, even though we discovered chips, dents and scratches on several of the furniture.

Anyway, the 1st wave of cleaning is done, with Gary washing the toilets (very thoroughly, I may add) and cleaning (vacuuming and mopping) the master bedroom. The living room was also cleaned and the kitchen tidied. So in his absence, I have to do the rest of the unpacking (documents in the study room and our clothes) but rest assured that I'll leave a portion for him to continue to do when he gets back. LOL.

Homesick....

2008-07-11T19:10:00.001+08:00

It has been almost 5 weeks since we left home. The 'holiday' feeling had dissipated like smoke and homesickness set in hard as reality reared its ugly head at me, taunting me. Especially when I'm all alone in the hotel room (as Gary had to attend a biz dinner), and Sabbath started.

And all of a sudden, I felt really lost. What am I doing here and what can I do for the next 3 years in a place which is not home, and where you hear plenty of horror stories about - robberies, questionable hospital practices, sanitation issues, water issues, etc.

Gone is the security that I had taken for granted back home; gone is the freedom to return home late as the streets are not safe, even if you are not alone; gone is the feeling of bliss as I return home to familiar faces that I call my family, gone is the familiar fellowship as I stepped into church and I know practically everyone and vice versa, etc... The endless, depressing thoughts just went on and on in my head.

People joked that it's gonna be a tai-tai life, but I hoped not. I want to feel useful and purposeful, not getting your hair and nails done, playing mahjong and having tea/coffee everyday (Of course an occasional pampering treat sounds divine). But what can I really do here? Do I want to get a job here? Do I want to volunteer? What kind of job? Where to volunteer? It must be the book that I'm reading that's filling my head with all these thoughts: "Cure for the Common Life - Living in your Sweet Spot'.

I have to admit though, that the sudden barrage of thoughts is not unwelcome. It helps me to think hard questions. And just to put the record straight, I'm confident of adjusting to life here. It's just ..... harder in the initial stages, especially when Gary's not around (like away on biz trips) and the apartment is not ready yet, and being in a hotel room for way too long, I worry a lot more.

Well, I guess 'loneliness' will become a really close friend of mine....

Cleaning up

2008-07-03T17:05:00.007+08:00

Time to do some real work... I made a trip to our apartment yesterday coz the cleaners were supposed to clean the apartment again, after I made a small complaint about how dirty/dusty the house was after the cleaning.

Disappointingly, the apartment was still dusty and there were streaks of mop stains on the floor even after their 2nd cleaning. So I thought heck! I have lots of time and I can clean (maybe better than them). Lol.

Besides I wasn't sure what kind of cleaning equipment or solutions they used so I figured if I do the cleaning, at least I know what kind of detergent I'm using and that my stuff is clean.

Hence my mission for today was born...

I made a trip to Carrefour to get a broom, gloves, floor cleaner, window cleaner, cloths, etc... Whatever you'll need to clean a house.

Now, usually it's very therapeutic for me to shop in supermarkets coz there's so much stuff to see and you can spend as much time as you want to read and choose your purchases (at least that's my experience so far in Singapore).

Now here, it's different. Yes, I still like to visit supermarkets but it's now less enjoyable along certain aisles. Sometimes along an aisle, there are more staff than customers. And once you show the slightest intention to head to their aisle, you can see them starting to advance upon you like a vulture! It's quite scary actually.

Like today, I was approaching the cleaning detergents section when I saw their SPECIAL cart with promotional prices. So unable to ignore the urge to check out any good bargains, I headed towards the cart.

Mistake #1: Poor/lack of observation - I didn't check to see if I was the only one at the cart. Having more people around the cart helps to divert the attention of the 'very helpful' staff.

Mistake #2: Still poor/lack of observation - I didn't check to see if any of the staff were around (Sometimes, the aisle can be empty as they disappear for unknown reasons).

So when I reached the cart and picked up a bottle of Walch solution, a very 'friendly' staff immediately came to my side and start introducing a product that was in the same SPECIAL promo cart. (Now their chinese is very heavily-accented so it took me quite a while to kinda understand what she was saying.) I just ignored her (I know it's rude and I felt really bad) and continue reading the description which printed in chinese on the product. But man, she just kept on going.... I just sorta nodded vaguely and walked further along the aisle, hoping she'll just get the hint and 'disappear'.

But no! She followed! I wanted to get a window and floor cleaner and I was looking for a familiar brand when she came up behind me and started talking again. I vaguely answered her about what I was looking for and started looking for what I want, when she shoved a chinese-brand cleaning solution in front of me which was about the same price of the product that I was holding but double the volume. ‘这个比较划算！’ she said. Being the people-pleaser that I am, I already felt very bad ignoring her enthusiastic service, so I took it and put into my cart, hoping she'll leave me to my shopping.

My hopes were dashed when I was at the floor cleaner section (they actually have KIWI brand!) that was further along the aisle. Instantly, she appeared and pointed to another chinese brand floor cleaner that was double the volume and just a few dollars more. Well, I actually hesitated because I always like a good bargain. The product that she recommended looks ok and it is double volume for slightly higher price. So I just took it, put it into my cart, smiled at her and said thank you, before making my way out of that aisle.

As I seek refuge at the next aisle which is kinda empty, I look at the things in my cart and actually tried to think if I should get those products. Price vs need... Price vs trust.... Eventually I decided to take those which I originally wanted to get because they are familiar brands and I am not sure how the chinese brand cleaners will fare. Besides the savings are not huge. So after looking around and making sure that the lady whom recommended the products had gone for lunch, I turned back to the aisle and exchanged the cleaners.

Phew! This was supposed to be fun, but I felt so drained when I left.

Anyway, back to my cleaning mission. I was actually looking forward to it. (The last few days have been far too relaxing - facebooking, blogging, resting in hotel, etc.) Hehe..

As I was cleaning, I begin to question the cleaners' cleaning methods or what their 'cleaning' comprised of. I picked up small leftover debris from the renovation like small granite particles and sand-like particles behind the cupboards and under the couch when I was sweeping the floor. And when I was mopping the floor (traditional style with a cloth on my knees and a pail of water - no kidding, it was back-breaking and knee bruising work), I wiped away some of the stains that were still there after THEIR cleaning. I actually spent 2 and a half hours cleaning. I felt so accomplished! But I think I'll get an 阿姨 (helper) to do such chores in the future.

After all, I'm supposed to be a 'tai-tai' here in Chengdu, aren't I? (^^)

Exploring

2008-07-01T00:09:00.005+08:00

Today's lunch was cholesterol-laden. Ordered room service coz I was too lazy to go out for lunch. (^^) BUT being Youngberg-trained, of course I removed most of the cheese on top!

We HAD to get this T-shirt from Giordano in Shanghai. Guess why??

Wanted to go for gym after Gary got back from work but I was too hungry for a work-out so we walked around the hotel to see what's good to eat. The pics are up in facebook.

Then we finally decided to have our dinner at this quaint cottage house. The name of this cafe/restaurant is High Fly (高非）. Don't ask me why and how they came about this name...

Gary ordered a black pepper beef spaghetti set that includes a vegetable salad (yes, he's eating his veggies), mushroom soup (those that you can get from good old HANS cafes or the canned cream of mushroom soup) and of course the pasta...

And there's also BBQ chicken wings...

Here's Gary's black pepper beef spaghetti (huge portion)....

And my order of flame chicken fried rice (无辣不欢鸡丁饭).

And it's RMB 96 (approximately S$19.50) for the entire meal!

Localizing

2008-06-30T22:52:00.016+08:00

Today I undertook a very challenging task - buying a local SIM card so that I can make calls or sms locally. Oh my gosh... it was so much harder than I thought (their powerful mandarin was another obstacle).*Plegh*

My driver brought me to a local China Mobile shop, something like an M1, Starhub or Singtel shop in Spore.

First, when I entered the shop, there's no one to greet or help you. That's alright, so I went to one of the guys who was selling handphones at one side to ask. He pointed vaguely and spoke superfast in his powerful chinese to go to a kiosk at a corner to pick a number and then proceed to the counter to make the purchase.

Ok, that sounded simple enough, so I went to the kiosk he pointed out,

only to find a couple in front of me choosing a number, I presume. So I waited... and waited .... and waited.. until abt 20 mins later when they finally chose their number and proceeded to the counter. I was thinking to myself why the heck did they take so long... only to find out myself. And it doesn't help that everything was in Chinese!!!!

I took abt 25 minutes just to decide which one to get!! And even then, I wasn't sure if that's what I was looking for.
I was just so fed up with the process that I just got a number for one of the many kinds of SIM card/service they have and proceed to the counter to ask more thoroughly.
And even at this stage I still wasn't sure what it was they were talking about. I was so frustrated that I just took whatever sounds ok. *Sigh*

Well, that was a very challenging 1st task for the day. The next experience was so much more enjoyable, something that I love to do in Spore - visiting IKEA!!! It was huge, I would think it's something like the one at Tampines. Well, that made my day.. *Grin*

Next was a meeting with our agent to try to resolve the issues in our apartment. Here are some pictures that I took today when I went back to the apartment.

The main lobby of our block...

The living room

The dining area (with the off-coloured shelves and cabinet)

The kitchen... (sooo much bigger than the one back in spore AND it has an oven!!! Ariston and on and on and ...)

The study room

The bigger wardrobe in the guestroom (duh....)

The smaller wardrobe in the master bedroom...

And.... our satellite TV!! (with international channels like HBO, CINEMAX, Star Tv, AXN, etc... the one thing that will keep me sane for the next 3 years) (^^,)... It's actually not legal to install this but since everybody does that, so ....

Of course, these are just the pre-move in pictures. It will look better after we moved our stuff in. *Fingers crossed*

Alrite...enough action for the day. Shall try to post more stuff soon. Tata!!

Arrival in Chengdu

2008-06-30T11:12:00.000+08:00

Finally, we arrived in Chengdu yesterday (29th June) after 3 weeks of 'holiday' in Shanghai to settle our paperwork for the relocation.

Went to see our apartment yesterday but didn't take any photos. Will post some when we move our stuff in.. Although the published size of the apartment is bigger than our HDB in Spore, somehow it seems smaller.. (Those who has been to our HDB flat can be the judge when the photos are up.)

Now we have to settle some issues before we move in - there are cracks on one of the kitchen wall and the door to the washing machine area developed some problems which wasn't there before (they attributed those to the earthquake - how scary is that!)

Anyway, another grumbling I have concerns the wardrobes. There's a wardrobe in each of the 3 bedrooms BUT the master bedroom got the smallest!!! I mean, hello... the master bedroom should get the biggest right? After all, it's the only room that's going to be occupied (at least, most of the time).

And some of the furniture in the living/dining room looks to be of inferior quality and the color combination will clash with our own furniture from Spore.

Anyways, will try to upload some pics soon.