Birds

 

Simian and I had a quiet day at home - I made avacado with gula melaka to drink. The birds seem to be eating more - I suspect they're getting ready to migrate soon.

Dinner with Suntaneye and her husby

 

Simian and I went to Suntaneye's home last night. Her husby fired up the grill and we had all kinds of veggies that Simian and I brought. Suntaneye and her husby also had tons of food so we were swimming in food by the end of it. We then played Wii tennis :)

Suntaneye made these lovely little birds for me. That's her gigantic sunflower in the backyard.

Hummingbird and Finch at twilight

 

It's cooled down a lot this week, and I'm sure it's my bias, but I think a few of the hummingbirds look like they put on weight. It'll soon be time for them to leave us to migrate down South and I'll miss them. There are a fair number flying around right now - I've spotted at least three over one feeder. They sometimes even sit at the same feeder together. Pretty impressive.

Simian and E came over to build a box for the lab yesterday - it turned out very nice.

Off Chillis and Crisps

 

I spotted a new bird - that's the little bird on the chair. It's an Eastern Peewee - I may well have seen them around, but in the mass of birds, it's rather dull colour and small size may have made me overlook it.

Also included is a shot of two hummingbirds sharing the feeder together. It's been happening more of late :)

I made a triple berry crisp this evening. M's friend JL had given Simian some blackberries that she had picked at a farm. I didn't have quite enough to make anything with just the blackberries alone, so I went to pick up more blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. It turned out pretty nice.

Simian and I bought some chillis at a farmer's market on Saturday. We wanted to give them to Suntaneye's husby but unfortunately some started to grow mouldy so we had to start eating them. I gave Simian the Scotch Bonnet yesterday in his pasta and I've never seen him sweat quite so much after eating a chilli! The bulgarian carrot pepper in contrast was a walk in the park for him. I liked the latter - and wasn't brave enough to try the former.

Will's bachelor party

 

Simian planned a bachelor party for Will - it was a tarp surfing party. Simian had bought the tarp and gotten everything ready. I got there kind of late because I was *ahem* cleaning the house and didn't quite get everything done yet. It looked really fun and D is an excellent surfer AND skateboarder so he taught everyone how to do it.

I did join them for dinner at Austin Grill (after a rather eventful Metro trip down town).

Farmer Simian and the Pesto

 

See Farmer Simian tending to his veggies. Yesterday evening, he collected veggies to make 10X and just because they need to be picked. He filled up a giant bag full of veggies and there were still more. We also ate what we think was a Brandywine Tomato off the vine. We bought a seed pack of heirlooms so we're not sure - whatever it was, it was beautiful though. It was juicy and extremely flavourful. I love tomato season and it's even nicer to eat it directly off the vine.

Simian also plucked so much basil that we decided to make pesto. We still had excess and more swiss chard too (after his 10X) so he took them to work this morning for anyone who wants some.

It's been a busy weekend and we got a lot done. Simian also finished the footpath under the bird house so hopefully we'll have less weeds in that particular sector.

We also managed to find one of the cans of Resurrection! Brewer's Art recently started canning them and Simian wanted to try it to see whether it tasted any different when not in draft form. He said he couldn't actually taste any discernable difference. So we had Pesto Pasta for dinner (which Simian said was the best he had ever had) and Simian had a Rezzie. Good times :)

Z Burger

 

Simian and I had to go to Ikea to pick up some curtains for our tenant. M had said that Ikea has the cheapest curtains, so we made a trip to White Marsh. While there, i noticed that the new Z Burger had opened - I had read about it the other day.

The concept is much like 5 Guys Fries - you get to load your burger or sandwich up with all kinds of toppings. Instead of just fries though, they also do Onion Rings - and you can get 'Frings', a mixture of both. Simian and I had an order and it was so huge, we couldn't finish the Onion Rings. What they also have, which 5 Guys doesn't have are 75 different shakes. We tried a chocolate cherry and it was GOOD. It also was completely filling!

Is it better than 5 Guys? It's a close fight. still, 5 Guys is so much closer to us, I don't see us going to Z Burger all that much unless we're in the vicinity.

Tomato Festival

 

Simian and I went to the Heirloom Tomato Festival today - which is always fun. These are just a few of the tomato varieties we tried and we took one of the chocolate cherry tomatoes home to try and grow.

What's great about the festival is that the Master Gardeners are always there and you can ask them questions. One of the ladies from last year remembered us and asked how our garden was growing. She gave us some tips and also showed us some jimson on the table. Someone had brought two branches in to ask if they could help identify it. The fruits look like spiky lychees and apparently some kids overdose on it because they are a hallucinogenic. I have to wonder who'd look at this and think, I'd like to eat some of that?

Simian cleared out some weeds under the bird feeder and put some paving stones out. We also harvested our first tomato off the vine and ate it - beautiful!

Vegetables

 

I went out to check the garden today. There's a bunny chewing on Simian's veggies on the front - he's quite skinny though. After all the rain we've been getting (including yesterday), the veggies are growing like crazy. Unfortunately so are the weeds. Simian says the sunflowers only started blooming the day I got back.

I made a bake for dinner and these grilled salt and vinegar potatoes. The phone rang when I was grilling the second batch so some got a little charred.

Sleeping in

I was very tired this morning and just couldn't get out of bed - I was pretty sure it was ectopics (because that's usually a symptom for me) and Simian confirmed it after taking my pulse. I ended up in bed till noon by which time I felt much better. I think it may have been due to not drinking enough water yesterday.

In the end, I felt well enough to go and get my hair cut in the afternoon. Then I went down to meet Simian - we had a condo association meeting. The meeting went fairly well and I think the issues were pretty much resolved. We also stopped in to see our ex-neighbours and didn't get home till past 11. Poor Simian hadn't had lunch today either and we had a very late dinner.

Back in Maryland

Arrived safely in the US - for some reason, I didn't sleep very well. I slept but kept waking up every hour or so.

I did watch two good movies - Cold Souls (I love Paul Giamatti) and the absolutely fantastic Der Tunnel. The latter was amazing and even though it was almost three hours long, it was riveting.

The plane landed early and Simian and I got into the car just before it started to pour!

Bye !

Bye family and friends in Singapore and I'll see you sometime in October! Take care of yourselves and I'll miss you.

Sticky Date Pudding

Sticky Date Pudding
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

I made Sticky Date Pudding today. An old University classmate, R, dropped by. He's been in the US for the last 10 years and I last saw him 5 years ago.

It was really good catching up with him again.

International appeal?

The Youth Olympic Games opened today - I don't think most Singaporeans were interested but for the fact that traffic was even more snarled than usual. I really doubt that it's going to be of much interest internationally either nor will it put Singapore on the map.

K put it best. She heard of the YOG because the flame landed in Germany and they were the only European country which the flame was run through. However she had no idea that the YOG was being held in Singapore!

Lunch at Ion

 

Dad took M, WW, Baby E, Planetofsound, Imp, D, S, J and I for lunch at Taste Paradise in the new Ion. This is the third time I've been there and everything on the upper floors is too rich for my blood. Even the air smells more expensive there! As we walked by the Harry Winston store, I realised that they buzz you in one set of doors before opening the next set - presumably so you can't just run out after robbing the store.

The Ion people do have pretty good customer service though - they loan out strollers for free. You just need to leave some form of ID with them and a stroller is yours to borrow for use in the building. Baby E sat quietly in the stroller (and those booties were knitted by Mom!).

Lunch was pretty good - but what was even nicer was spending time with everyone whom I won't see for the next two months. This was also Baby E's first trip out and I think it was a success. She was very well behaved and quiet. The fact we were in a room probably helped too.

Ice cream

 

Mom and I went for facial. Last night the screw fell out of my glasses and I couldn't find it so we went to Bukit Timah Plaza - in the end I got a new pair because the hinge was bending off one side. Of course, this also meant that we had to stop by Wishbone to have their excellent ice cream. You know both the shopping mall and the restaurant are old school when they have no websites!

Here are Mom and I enjoying the lovely ice cream that we had! I've never understood why their delicious ice creams are not more popular. We had the Black Glory (Gula Melaka with a scoop of ice cream on it) and the Chendol Surprise. Both were excellent as always.

I've come to Wishbone since I was very young - and Simian, P and I went there on the day we graduated instead of going for the ceremony. It was MUCh more fun :)

My nose was runny today - something seemed to have set it off. I took a nap but decided it might be best to stay in so I missed PlanetofSound's performance unfortunately.

Off to bed to make sure I'm 100% tomorrow!

1960s

 

We also stopped by to see this 1960s exhibition before heading back to M's. Baby E was in a very good mood and was very talky when I saw her earlier in the day. She was alseep by the time we got home though.

Head On

 

M and I went to the National Museum to see Head On - the Cai Guo-Qiang installation piece. It turned out that it's in the basement and admission is complimentary so M and I coughed up money which we hadn't needed to do!

Still the piece is magnificant - it was definitely worth the admission cost to the museum to see it.

Lunch with Min Jiang

 

I had conveyor belt sushi with Mom on Tuesday and drinks with J last night.

I also had lunch with M today at Min Jiang - as usual, the food was excellent (if pricey). We also had soups and I had the only kind of sweet red bean I'll eat - red bean pancake. The mock peking duck was fantastic as always.

Hummingbird rescue

 

Simian saved a hummingbird yesterday in the garage. It was stuck in the rafters and he had to pick it up with his bare hands - you can see it's covered in spiderwebs. If you wonder why there's a nail in there, Simian just grabbed the nearest container he could fnd.

It flew around him after he released it and thanked him. Or so I say anyway :))

Photos care of Simian.

Belle and Sebastian

 

Thanks to Planetofsound and Imp, I got tickets to the Belle and Sebastian gig at the Esplanade this evening. Not only were the seats fantastic (we were in the 5th row), they refused to take money for the tickets. Imp even went to get a t-shirt for me. Thanks guys!

The concert was really fun and it a lovely time was had by all. B&S performed most of my favourite songs (including Get Me away, I'm dying, Judy and the dream of Horses and If you're Feeling Sinister). The only minor hiccup - the Photo Nazi ushers who kept telling everyone that we couldn't take photos even before the concert started. They even stopped people from taking photos of the concert hall! The band clearly had no issue with people taking photos and some of them even posed for shots. However Photo Nazis randomly popped up to warn people not to shoot anything. Planetofsound finally told one of them off. Good luck enforcing the no Photo rule anyway - the minute the concert started, everyone's cell phones and cameras came up.

Dinner with the girls

 

I had dinner with M, D and J to celebrate J's birthday. J treated us all to dinner at Barrack's cafe and it was a nice meal. The food was pretty good, and M says the desserts are usually pretty good too, but we may have picked some not so good choices today - M described the pineapple tart tartin as grilled canned pineapple on a piece of puff pastry and she wasn't wrong.

I got J some vinegars and oils from Vom Foss - they even had mead which I couldn't resist getting for myself.

I got to pop in and say hi quickly to Baby E. She was having some bonding time with her Dad so M could have dinner with us!

Dinner

 

Dad, Mom and I had dinner with our family friends who are in from California. We went to Jiang Nan Chun - the food was pretty good. I only snapped photos of my own dishes :)

It was great catching up with old friends - I last saw them last year when they came to visit in Maryland.

Arcade and lunch

 

Had a delicious lunch at Seven Sensations with Mom.

Some family friends are visiting from the US and I took J out this afternoon after lunch. We went to Junction 8, ended up shopping for silly things and went to the Arcade. J set a new record on the basketball game but for some reason, this arcade did not dispense with tickets. What joy can there be if we don't get a 'free' eraser after spending $10??

Lunch out

 

I had lunch with M, P and K today. M and I haven't seen P and K for a year and it was great catching up with them. It's also the first time M has been out to have lunch since Baby E was born.

We went to Living Green (which was pretty good) and then to a little Swedish cafe called Fika - though we did comment that if we had gone to Ikea, we could have bought the drinks a LOT cheaper :)