Origami

My childhood pastime. I remember learning and sharing new designs with my friends in between classes. The very first version I learnt was the ball (see picture above) where you have to blow into it to inflate the structure. The last design I learnt before I finished school was how to fold cranes (see picture below).


I still can't resist buying beautifully made craft paper when I find them. More recently, I bought an origami book to teach myself some new tricks. Complete Origami by David Mitchell, PageOne publishing.


Cormorant on a rock (picture above). I saw the pantry ladies in my office doing this =P


Clingons (picture above). Strictly for the star trek fans. You hook these onto each other to form a chain, no staplers or glue required. It's supposed to look like "robotic aliens descending from a starship".

For the beginners, there is Egypt. Only 3 folds required.


The Kabuto or samurai's hat (see picture above). Great for dressing up your hard boiled egg.


The Love Knot (see picture above). Love letters are folded up into this knot so they cannot be easily undone and read by others.

Chicky Cupcake

The most highly packaged cupcake I have ever bought. I was swept away by the stuff on top of it. Lilac vanilla frosting, rainbow sprinkles topped with a marzipan jelly chick, wrapped in a gold aluminium holder. It tasted just average, similar to what you can get from your neighbourhood bakery. The cupcakes at Da Paolo Gastronomia taste much better.

Singaporean Seafood

One of my favourite activities when I am with my family is eating crabs. We have the typical Singapore seafood feast at our favourite restaurant Jumbo on all special occasions like birthdays. It's the 2-3kg Sri Lanka crabs, fresh river prawns and crispy squid fritters that we cannot do without every couple of months. Whether soaked in XO milk soup with beehoon or deep fried in oats, we have to get our hands dirty and tuck into these cholesterol laden foods every now and then.


So the classic dish is dough fritters stuffed with cuttlefish paste. Some places do it with seafood paste. Served with chili and peanut sweet sauces, sometimes it's served with mayonnaise and sambal belachan.

Beggar's bowl. In Singapore, this means claypot tofu. Since you are in a seafood restaurant, this gets served with sea cucumbers, prawns, scallops, squid, snow peas, button mushrooms and cauliflower as well.

The noodles are fried over a hot industrial fire to get that "wok hei" taste. Enhances the yumminess.

Wash it all down with iced Chinese tea. Chinese tea is known for aiding digestion. Good after a fatty oily meal.

Malay Wedding

Malay weddings are huge community affairs. To accommodate the sheer number of people that attend the wedding, it's not uncommon to hold the lunch, dinner at the void deck. People come and go all day.

The void deck is transformed by bales of cloth, tulle, chandeliers and bouquets of flowers. A stage is even setup for the wedding couple to go through the religious rites.

The caterers setup stove under an adjacent tent and start their preparations for the wedding feast a day in advance. Peeling potatoes, marinating and mixing the spices. A variety of Nasi Briyani is served (fish, chicken, mutton or beef). For the unacquainted, it's saffron rice with achar (cold & spicy pickled vegetables) and rendang (meat in a thick curry). My favourite part of the wedding is usually the food as it is usually good.

On the actual wedding day, the family and friends start pouring in before lunch starts. My neighbours even chartered a bus to bring guests into the estate.

Great Singapore Sale 2009

The queues, free gifts and discounts are what make up this annual event. The only time of the year you will see several generations jointly participating in the national pastime of shopping.

The same lucky draw held every year organized by SPH (the national newspaper people): http://www.greatsingaporesale.com.sg/2009/eng-tourist/promo/sphshopnwin.html. It's popular because you can win a car.

My favourite giveaway this season is the Goldheart diamond studded Canon Ixus 100 IS camera. They published the price of this thing (SGD 8,988) but I don't think it's for sale.

Best sales are as usual the end of season sales at the luxury brands Gucci and Prada where queues snake around the storefront. Singaporeans and our tourists love these 2 brands in particular. I don't really understand this phenomenon. Are they giving away free stuff? Do we have an insatiable need for luxury clothes and accessories? Having said that, I am guilty of joining these queues as well. Hey, if people are willing to queue there must be something worth looking at.

My best buy is Lothantique hand cream and soap that I gave away as a housewarming present to my colleague.

Oscar de la Renta Giveaway

A once in a lifetime experience is now going away for free! Starts on 1st June and runs for 30 days. So plenty of time to sign up: www.ideeli.com/invite/raspberry2008.

Details:

One winner will receive a one-of-a-kind Oscar de la Renta bubble-hemmed cocktail style dress in floral silk faille. This classic dress has never before been made using this iconic fabric from the Oscar de la Renta fabric archive.

In addition, winner will receive the signed original sketch of the dress pictured in the giveaway for framing.

Winner will provide de la Renta team with various measurements at which point a dress will be made to fit you.

Floral Arrangement - Window