Week at a glance: 18-22 Nov

We accomplished quite a bit this week! According to the original plan, we would have already handed back the house to the landlord on 23 November. But we postponed the date due to an earlier twist of events, so here we are, still staying in this awesome house that we called home for the past two years. 

Just much more a tad messy with the packing. Heh. 

18 November 

The dining table was the first to go! Sobs. It held so many of my anyhow-styled kitchen creations. Now the space is transformed into a packing 'warehouse'. 

19 November

Bye bye to... the bed frame. Thank God we still have our mattress to sleep on. Panda's colleague E is buying over our mattress and she's cool with us using it till the last day. It's actually kind of cosy sleeping on the floor. Hmmm... Why did we buy the bed frame in the first place? 

Housewives' lunch at Flora's! We have been spoilt rotten by home-cooked food these past two years. I hope I will continue with this habit of cooking meals when I return. Yes to steamed, stir-fried, oven baked goodness. No to oily, MSG-laden hawker food. 

Oh yes, throw out the canned food too.

20 November

Received news that Grandpa is in the hospital. The doctors found a 8cm x 6cm tumor in his abdomen. Cried buckets because I was suddenly afraid that he might just go. Please be strong and healthy like you've always been, yeye. I am coming back soon!

21 November

A cold, rainy November day. Perfect for staying indoors and continuing the party with boxes, bubble wraps and masking tape. Halfway through I got worried about my new bicycle, stranded on the patio in the heavy downpour. Made a feeble attempt to cover it with my poncho. It wasn't easy trying to secure the make-shift cover while juggling the umbrella between my cheek and shoulder.

I just hope the humidity doesn't get to the chains too much.

Just a while more, bicycle! You will have a shelter in our new old place.

22 November

French Club farewell party organised by sweet Kia! We had food, forgot about the wine which I put i the fridge (oops!) and played Taboo in French (after wrestling the cards from baby V who was chewing on them). We also raided Kia's lemon plant before leaving. Such a fun afternoon with the ladies.

Merci beaucoup, tout le monde. Restons en contact, d'accord?





Night out in SF city with the gang. Crystal Jade Jiang Nan just opened in the Embarcadero Centre and we paid a visit to support this Singaporean chain. The food is great, but I'm so not a foodie, as one can tell from my disinterested description of food ('great', 'awesome', 'good', 'yum') I was really there for the company, and that rock!

Singaporeans United in SF!

Summer's here!

Just a post to say that SUMMER'S HERE!

 

The weather has been too hot recently. Yesterday, we couldn't stand it any longer. We had dinner at the balcony because it was just too warm inside the house. It was one of those rare occasions where we can wear tanks and shorts and still perspire like mad. On normal days, we would be blown away just by standing outside.

 

We saw another Asian family across the car park having dinner at the balcony, too. Our neighbours must be thinking, what's with all these Asians?

 

 

 

 

In a few months or so, we would likely be packing our bags to return home. Such a strange feeling to be saying goodbye to a place we called home for the past two years, and to the awesome friends we have made here.

Oh well, we shall enjoy our remaining time and this fabulous weather while it lasts!

Yeehar! Ushering in the Year of the Horse!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyBARDY!

Today is 初五 and I still can't believe we are celebrating our second lunar new year here. Take a look at us last year. Vic and Jo had just arrived and it was the first time I invited anyone home for dinner, due to my limited culinary skills. Now, hosting dinners is a regular thing among the FC housewives!

This year, Panda invited his new colleague to have reunion dinner with us. We had planned on having a small dinner between us two, but I couldn't bear the thought of someone eating alone on the eve of Chinese New Year! I was also glad that we did, because I could cook more and it was pure joy watching the food being gobbled up!

And meeting new friends is always exciting. Now I know there's another place to visit before I die: Yellowknife in Canada. I want to see the Northern Lights, and Yellowknife seems to be less of a hassle than Norway!

Baked salmon filet, sambal chicken wings, mama's pork chop, black pepper prawns, curried vegetables and chicken soup. 

Homemade 黑芝麻雷沙汤圆

On the first day of CNY, the Lows also invited us over for steamboat dinner. I can't say this enough - I love, love, love steamboat! I love eating it at home too because if the food is not cooked well enough, you can always run to the toilet and let it all out. Ok, just kidding.

The dinner's highlight had to be the homemade fruits yu sheng by Wendy! Lo hei is a CNY tradition in Singapore and while I'm not a die-hard fan, I've grown to love it because it's fun. Each ingredient has its meaning, and you got to say all sorts of wishes for the new year while you lo them as high as you can, often resulting in a big happy mess after that.  

We ate so much during steamboat that I could barely carry my tummy home. It was a miracle that I could fit into my cheongsam the next day.



Why did I dress up? Because we had visitors!!

It was the first time we had so many people in our house. I thought (and still think) that our house is too small to host anything more than a party of four. But with a little bit of shifting here and there, we managed to squeeze in 8 adults and 2 bouncy kids.

Special thanks to Yiru for bringing her own chairs too. I was grateful because my pink plastic ones from Ranch99 would be too ugly and uncomfortable!



In the mood for CNY snacking and chatting!

We went to four other houses to bai nian over that weekend, going as near as Wendy's place down the road to as far as Mountain View. It's fun because each house has its speciality - bak gwa, nian gao, cookies, coffee... I made lo pak gou and siew mai earlier that week but we finished them before CNY, so I replaced them with cinnamon and chocolate banana muffins instead. Not Asian but still homemade! Heh.

On a separate note, stepping into my cheongsam again made me realised how much I have grown. Metaphorically, and ahem, literally. I first wore it on my wedding day and I bought it purely as a substitute for my kua. (I wasn't able to wear my kua for my Singapore wedding, but that's a story on its own.)

Four years on, I felt more womanly and prouder of my Asian heritage as I wore it. Maybe because I have taken on the full role of a wife the past one year. Maybe because I'm living in a country where people are obviously different, yet they are so receptive and there's no outward barrier to making friends. Whatever the reason, I have grown as a person. 

Panda must have sensed it too, because he kept saying that he will lose the present me once I get back to work in Singapore. He's been enjoying my full attention until now - daily home cooked food, endless chit-chatting, exploring new places together. Life here is almost like a dream for the both of us... we shall enjoy it while it last!



At our wedding dinner at Pan Pacific Hotel

After 4 years of marriage

And now, to work on those butts which almost caused the cheongsam seams to split...

新年快乐！

So I was wrong about not having pineapple tarts this Chinese New Year. Jo and Victor joined the Singaporeans United team at FC by landing here last week and lo and behold, they brought us pineapple tarts!! Yay!!

After much deliberation and loads of support from Panda, I got up my courage to invite them over for reunion dinner. I am extremely scared of cooking for other people because I am not that confident of my culinary skills yet - cooking for self and family seems safer cos they can always cook instant noodles if your food sucks. Haha. Turns out, the evening was really fun, no one died of food poisoning, and we were able to clear most of the dishes (hooray!) My motto now is: when you have guests, stick to the simple dishes and don't try to be ambitious!!

Our 初一 is pretty simple, with me sleeping past noon again and a hungry Panda pulling me out of bed to make breakfast. We had already 拜年 with our families in Hong Kong and Singapore the night before. Mom had brought over our red packets in advance during her visit, so the first thing we did at the breakfast table was to distribute them. I also had a red packet from Panda (hooray x3!) so am going to use that to shop for wardrobe essentials soon!

Chinese New Year used to be my least favorite festival cos I dislike all the dong-dong-dong-chang songs and red lanterns and all. Now that I am away from home, hearing all the cheesy CNY songs at the nearby Asian supermarket actually makes me smile. Talk about seeing/hearing things from a different perspective, man. Hahaha.

Black pepper prawns, scallops, lettuce, chicken, roast potatoes

Our first home cooked dinner guests

Wine makes us (actually me) happy!

My Ang Pao from Panda. Yay! :D

A dash of CNY at home

It's been a while... since we landed!

So... I have been tasked by Kungfu Panda to start a new blog about our life in US. It's been more than a month since we first arrived in US. We have settled in rather smoothly and quickly, thanks to kind friends who provided advice on everything we need to know and took us on many orientation trips (read: shopping and eating). We also managed to get the car and house settled within our first week.

Wouldn't have done all that without the grace of God, who by the way, sent us the biggest, fattest rainbow we have ever seen on our first day. Definitely a morale booster.

Well in this first post I thought it's apt to share what our house looks like. Even though it's supposed to be a short work stint, we thought it's still good to create a decent, cosy living environment. So here goes:



My workstation, the open kitchen!



The perpetually messy dining table.



My mini DIY bookshelve and dressing table.



The living room + IKEA sofa bed for guests.



The only bedroom in the house
(Bonus: a walk-in wardrobe on the unseen left)

When we showed Mom the house via FaceTime the other day, she said it looked strangely similarly to our house back home. I think we subconsciously miss our little French seaside cafe (with fake fireplace and white bricks and poster bed!) This is really... home away from home.