Saturday, June 21, 2008

Out from hiding

Hello everyone, sorry to have gone missing for so long. But I've only been on the mend recently. It's actually a week and a half since my return and my voice is slowly coming back. It's not completely healed but I can't be in hiding forever. So just this week, I have actually met up with a mum from school, and we've gone back to swimming and ballet classes. It was tough at first as I was utterly miserable last week, not having the energy, both fighting the very strong virus as well as the time difference. Princess was sleeping till 10-11am, and one day she woke up at 1.30pm! That is virtually unheard of and if anyone knows her well, she's one child who hates to sleep and will put off sleeping till her eyes are closing and she's still resistant to it. Hehe. I was a bit sceptical about her going back to school this week but decided that I had to be cruel and wake her up at the appointed time and I guess by doing that, she'd revert to her original body clock quicker. And she did, no problem at all.

While I was ill last week, there was one person I absolutely needed to meet as she was due to go home to Perth today and we had made plans before we both went on our holidays. Her schedule was chock-a-block full when she was here so it wouldn't have been nice to change plans else we might not have had the chance to meet. She's none other than the very lovely Daphne. Unfortunately I wasn't able to speak much to her during our meeting. My little ambassador did most of the talking and the entertaining and she even wrote some love letters to Auntie Daphne. Sometimes I wonder, they seem more like her friends than they are mine. Hahaha. Same went for sohcool when they met in Paris. I would have very much liked to catch up with Daphne this time but maybe on her next visit home, we might get the chance.

I didn't start cooking till this week, and here's some stuff I prepared.

Above - Seaweed chicken, steamed chicken lap cheong (Chinese sausage), tomatoes, fuzhou fishball and seaweed soup, plus a serving of golden kiwi.

While I was nursing my very sore throat, I was only up for soupy stuff so for lunch I made bee tai mak yong tau fu soup. We also had raspberries, blueberries and golden kiwi for our dessert. The raspberries were very expensive at $10.50 per punnet but princess insisted on having them. Blueberries are now in season and cost approx $3.50 a punnet. Guess it's time to bake some blueberry muffins. :) But problem is that wheat prices are climbing and goodness, have you seen the price of a block of butter in the past few months??? Exhorbitant! I think these days we really need an occasion to do some baking.

The day after our return, we had to take princess to have her sushi fix. In Dublin, we came across a sushi place and the cheapest plate which we pay $1.99 here, was 2.95euros. That works out to be over $6 in our currency. It was madness! We refused to pay that price, so despite the crying and protests, we had to steer away from there and promised a visit to a sushi restaurant upon our return. While in Plaza Singapura, naturally I had to pay a short visit to my favourite store - Daiso! ;) This is what I came home with.

For dinner last evening, I made some sushi for princess. Of course she couldn't finish everything.

The tamagoyaki which I bought from Cold Storage was horrendous and I had to throw the packet away. It just tasted awful, full of moisture. I believe they weren't very fresh. Macarons were from Bakerzin when we had lunch at Vivo on Thursday. Having fallen in love with macarons on her visit to Paris, she now has a soft spot for them. Haha. Her all-time favourite flavour is berries, be it blueberries, strawberries or mixed berries. On that particular day they didn't make blueberries and she was greatly disappointed. She made do with a chocolate hazelnut and some flavour which tasted like rose although the staff had told her it was strawberry. Hmmm....


Thank you all for your well-wishes while I was ill. I won't reply individually, but you know who you are. Thanks for your thoughts. :)

13 comments:

Dutchess said...

Hi D!

I'm glad you're better now! Tell me about the prices for Japanese food in Europe. It's crazy!

SIG said...

Hey J, lovely of you to stop by. Haven't seen you in ages. :) Everything is expensive in Europe!

Big Boys Oven said...

hiya, read all your back dated post as I have not been dropping by recently, great to know of your wonderful trip and great t have you back!

Maya Yunos said...

Good to see u back! I missed Daiso as much as I had missed u :D btw, wats are those things that you purchased from Daiso? I can't really tell, apart from E sushi mould. Wats E red box? *very kepo* :p

SIG said...

bbo - Hey, thanks for taking the time. I'm glad to be home too. :)

maya - The red box as well as the pink strawberry one are bento boxes.

sohcool said...

Hello,
I really hope that you feel better soon. It's never fun not being able to communicate vocally. Ha ha, like the way you write about your ambassador. It's cool that she can be friends with your friends. ;)

Have a good week ahead.

Peony said...

glad u r much better now.

find that some products r only found in certain Daiso.

love your strawberry bento and bag.
aiya, hope I can resist collecting strawberry items, heehee.

Little Corner of Mine said...

Glad you are feeling better and started blogging! Seeing your find at Daiso really makes me envy! I can't believe I miss out a trip to Daiso and tasting the macarons at Vivo!! Everything just not according to plan sometimes. Like missed out chatting with you because my hubby keyed in the wrong number in his cell. Go figure! Hopefully I will have better luck next time.

SIG said...

sohcool - Yup, my voice is back. Still a little more to go before it's back to normal. ;) Oh ya, haha, my little kapo.

peony - Really? Ok, the strawberry bento & bag I got in PS. I also got a strap for keeping the box together and it is part of the strawberry range but I saw that at only at Vivo. Otherwise, everything else was from PS. I want to go IMM. But it's so far for you, you know lah.

little corner of mine - Well, we can't tell what tomorrow brings. It was a real pity, ya, and I can't believe we never even got to speak on the phone. :( But as you say, hopefully next time will be better. There'll be other chances I'm sure. :) So, look on the bright side.

Maya Yunos said...

Thot those are bento boxes too. But I thot $2 was too cheap!Guess I'll keep a lookout for those boxes on my next visit. Thanks yah :)

Dutchess said...

Please know that if I disappear, it's not because I don't want to visit but I can't simply because I'm at the fickle minds of the Chinese censorship board. Some months I can access blogs, some months I'm blocked out.

daphne said...

hey d!
I wrote a long reply on Monday but there was an error msg!

Glad to know u r feeling better now! Also want to thank you for being such a trooper and arranging a meet up despite not feeling well. Princess was wonderfully behaved and such a sweetie! I still have her love letters in my wallet! The macarons were beautiful and I polished them off as I shopped that morning! My favourite were coffee and chocolate.

Can't wait till we meet up again. =)

SIG said...

maya - Yes, I guess I hit jackpot that day! ;) You're most welcome.

dutchess - Hey J, I totally understand. Just happy to see you after so long. :) And I know all about your situation. Looks like you are having a good spell at the moment. ;)

daphne - Oh dear, error? I know blogger was unavailable yesterday maybe they were making some changes or updates. I tried to post something but couldn't get in. Oh yes, voice is so so much better even from Saturday when I spoke to you. I couldn't miss out on a chance to meet you, could I? ;) Hahaha, you polished all off hehehe. Yes, those flavours were lovely. Glad you enjoyed them. Ooo... yes, we'll be waiting patiently till your return. :D