Poolside at Park Hotel Clarke Quay.

Lesley getting busy with Cherrie with the decoration.

Homemade dark chocolate orange custard ;)

Archie, the master of stirring.

Together, we make deliciously wonderful chocolate custard.

Thank you. It is my birthday and you girls worked the floor with me. ;)

UPDATE: Those who have visited the Butter Factory on 17 June, please monitor your health. and seek medical attention if unwell. One cluster of locally-infected cases has been identified from Butter.

For mankind's sake, this year I've been slightly less concerned over nitty-gritties concerning my Christmas home party.

Experience tells me, for every 10 RSVP-ed homo sapiens, three will be no-show. Anything goes, ranging from menses to headaches, change of schedules to change of diapers, there will a reason to not show up. Name me one reason I haven't heard. And so, I rather fuss over which Ella Fitzgerald songs to play or whether my cocktail dress goes well with the shade of cranberry jam for the turkey than to bang my head on the kitchen top when another tells me she couldn't come to my party because she just broke the nail on her pinkie nail. You get the drift.

I'm just glad Karen, Joshua and Wanjun came this year. I've longed loved to have them at my parties. Since it's so difficult to get Wanjun 'The Superwoman' around, I think I must have struck the jackpot.

The usual suspect at the spread would be The Mother's fresh mango prawn salad. The girls couldn't stop raving about it and the boys couldn't keep their forks off the large prawns sat nicely atop the sliced mangoes. But really, nothing secret about the recipe. Just fresh ingredients and lotsa love. =)

It's been a long time coming since I bought my first bottle of Moët & Chandon; just waiting for a significant day to pop its cork. Unfortunately for The Crazy BF, the honour of popping the first bottle of champange (which incidentally has too much gas) saw him spilling the overflowing foam on the floor.




For the past donkey years, Christmas Eve always bring awfully heavy rain with it. Last year's outdoor dinner plan was thwarted by strong wind and sick wet rain. Since the break of dawn, I started my 'communication' with God. It was more like a plead to have Him stop the rain and not flood my corridor with splashes of acid rain. Bless Him! 'Pee' from heaven's arse-hole took a break and the night air was cool and breezy. Perfect for getting the peeps to sit out there and enjoy their dinner 'under the stars'. Harmless lizards on ceiling included.


The strategically-placed speaker pumped up the atmosphere with my favourite club music while I left the peeps for an hour to 'say hi' to The Crazy BF's family. And when I returned, it was time to play Taboo and get high on the bubblies.

The Crazy BF's home-made ice cream had its public debut. All in the merry Christmas spirit he made creamy eggnog ice cream and of course my all-time favourite - mint ice cream with rum raisin chocolate bits. Should have taken a picture of the yummies and started promoting his home-made ice cream for sale.


The party flowed on with the second bottle of Rose Moët & Chandon popped. If only I have a third bottle... I always feel bad for the boys who need to drive. There they are, watching us girls downing the champagne like tap water, but they could only swallow their saliva *gulp* and get high on green tea.

I certainly don't have a $250 Christmas tree to boast of (nor the bucks to burn for). But I do have a 10-dollar 42-inches tall fake Christmas tree in gold to be surrounded by pressies from everyone for everyone (with love). Anyway gift exchanges are always unfair, unjust and unethical. LOL. At least the ones at my parties seem so. I guess I don't have to explain why the boys always have to give up their gifts to the girls next to them and end up with nothing except for chocolates in their pockets.

Last year we had a photo-frenzy trigger-happy session. So preoccupied with Taboo this year, I even forgot about a photo op with The Best Friend. But whatever, we had fun. That matters. And I had lots of bubblies. That matters even more.

I refuse to believe that the Christmas Eve party was over. Two bottles of Moet&Chandon were obviously insufficient to give me the ultimate high I need.

After straining my calves in the kitchen and worrying about the insistent rain for the whole damn day, everything was over seven hours later.

Excusez moi, while I go drown myself in the eggnog ice cream. Christmas lasts for 12 days you know.

Album here.

on my birthday.

The Best Friend called me just 30 minutes before the dinner, and asked if there's any where else I want to have dinner at, besides Wild Rocket @ Mt. Emily. After probing, she explained that the server had forgotten to write down her dinner reservation for six (*snigger* I don't know how). And now we have no table unless we don't mind having our dinner at 9.30pm. Absurd. So almost immediately, I replied dryly, "No. Gimme the number."

Man, I couldn't believe I had to bring out that 'bitch' out of me on my birthday. Not an unreasonable one though. After more than 8 minutes on the phone with Sam, the manager, he got me a table. I listed a few things to make my point:

1. I am a 'regular patron' who wants to celebrate my birthday in my favourite restaurant.
2. I shouldn't pay for the server's mistake of not writing down the reservation.
3. I shouldn't pay for another server's mistake when he didn't call back when The Best Friend called again to book a table the second time.
4. It's my birthday.
5. It's my birthday.
6. It's my birthday.
7. It's my birthday.

I think he pretty much got the idea when I got to Point 10.

So the restaurant specially set up a table for six outdoors. LOL. We thought it was quite romantic. While the other patrons dine within the small A/C-ed dining space, we'd say our cheers under the stars, next to the little pond with croaking frogs and swimming guppies. Like we own the world.

But soon after we settled on our arses, Sam came up and said there's a table for us indoors. *shrugs shoulders*
I don't mind either.

Liming had the honour of tasting the 'most expensive' congee she's ever had. Did I mention 'smallest serving' too?

Next up: Ribeye with Black Truffle. Without a doubt, The Best Friend and I both wanted this. And I think Chris (if she were present) would love this piece of art to death. Just slightly raw in the middle section, the outer layer of meat was still soft and succulent. The 'umms' and 'ahhs' never stopped even until the last cube of meat. 'Awesome' is what we thought of it. Someone at the table commented it's the 'best-tasting steak she's ever had'. Oh I think it was me. =) And I mean it.


Jessie's pasta was a no-brainer. Or so I thought. I love the fresh prawns and the non-oily pasta strands, unlike the conventional Aglio-Olio. At least the non-oiliness of the pasta didn't make her sick after a few mouthfuls.

The ladies were hungry and the slightly small serving of main courses just wasn't suffice. We back tracked to the starters and got ourselves softshell crabs with black pepper sauce and baked cod fish with sweet spicy sauce. Man, my tummy couldn't forget the yummy chewy taste of the crab dipped in rich black pepper sauce. Makes me smile every time I think of it.

Because of the absurdity of the floating/walking helium cow balloon, we couldn't help but become the centre of attraction in the restaurant. I don't know why I chose a cow balloon; I'm not even born in the year of the ox! But I guess it's so much more adorable than that pig or TRex walking balloon... We were teased mainly by Sam and his servers.

"Sorry Mdm, no pets allowed," "I'll let you just this once since it's not making any noise,"

"Do we need to feed it?"

Sam cracked up after I replied the cow lives the ribeye.


I momentarily forgot about the ice cream cake which Mr. X had made for me. (Meant to be a surprise but I picha his lobang a few days ago) I made an order of dark chocolate lava gateau with caramelised banana. Then, the HUGE ice cream cake came...


Half of it is still in my freezer and because it's so rich and potent, I'm having one table spoonful per day, lest I develop another tonsillitis. But everyone at the table loved it. Me too. So proud of you. =)

The Chilean white wine was deliciously fruity but I had to save room for some champange. We drove south to Keppal Bay's Prive. My craving for champagne was finally satisfied with Champange Supernova and Bellini.

The rest of the night is spent uprooting my usual poise image with embarrassing stories from JC days.

Thanks babes. I can't run but do you really have to laugh at me? At least I'm way better at planning and logistics.

The highlight of the evening should be Liming's annoucement of her wedding next December! Yeah! Not only we've been highly anticipating the ringing of her 'sooner or later' wedding bells, it falls on my birthday month! The four girls started clattering about all the wedding preparations she (or rather WE) has to embark on. Without further ado, we told Liming to cancel her wedding package and we called our friend Jimmy up. He owns La Belle which is one of Singapore most well known bribal studios. How cool is that! I couldn't contain my joy and had to clap continuously to congratualate her. If I could, I would ask to open two bottles of Moet & Chandon to up the happy pill. Pity that James wasn't present, otherwise we could tease the both of them to death. Hah!

Jessie wrote her take on this...

Last night, I met up with my girlfriends. One of them announced that she is getting married next December. She mentioned that her boyfriend proposed to her not in a romantic way. He asked, “Do you really want to marry me?” And she answered, “ Do I have a choice?”

If he proposes to me, I’d like to say. “I have no choice”.

I want to have no choice, but to marry my soulmate. Everybody have a choice. But when you meet with someone that you so wanted to live your life with, it is not a choice anymore. Because marrying your soulmate seems to be the right thing to do.

In 2008, I have learned that loving someone and being with someone are two different things. Love is not selfish and it is certainly not possessive.

Congratulations, lucky woman, you have found your soulmate. I want to be the bridesmaid!

Just so you know.

I named the gift. I chose the balloon. I picked the restaurant. And I knew about the surprise.

Still, everything was perfect. It doesn't matter that Wild Rocket screwed up the dinner reservation. It doesn't matter who didn't turn up. Because eventually, it was the best night out on my birthday.

And Liming's getting married! Alright, I didn't see it as a surprise. But the way the question was popped to her - classic. Didn't see it coming. =P

Me with a bunch of red Geberas and a cow in tow. Priceless.

Big hug to all to wished me well. Truely. Not just because you 'have to', or mistakenly think that it'll earn you more karma points. But really, wanted to.

The girls celebrated the birthday of Jessie 'Hohoho' aka Lil' Miss Bitchy at Wine Network, Dempsey Road.

Some great food, insane laughter and two glasses of bad South African red wine later, I chivvied everyone to Ben&Jerry's. (I wasn't going to leave until I get my ice cream!) Not before we play a lil harmless trick on Jeremy. Since this dude insisted in singing Jessie, the birthday girl a birthday song, we thought his sincere wishes should be fulfilled. Unknowingly, in our great presence. Hah!

We didn't think the few orders we made were going to be enough. But I'm glad we also didn't count ourselves as huge eaters because very soon, everyone laid back on their chairs and patted their stomachs, "Full,"


I had trouble taking a proper look at my food because the outdoor section at Wine Network had virtually no lights, save for the moonlight which is billions of miles away. I ate my food like a blind mice. Which is really a pity because I always think that great food isn't just enjoyed with the tastebuds but with other senses - smell & visual.

Anyway, the server recommended a South African red wine which tasted so bad that I struggled hard to finish my second glass. Then I sopped up more water to wash the yucky tannin taste away.


The rest of the night, we were entertained by Elusion, the live band playing at Ben&Jerry's every Friday night.

Band: Isn't it strange that nobody's celebrating their birthday today?

All fingers at Jessie.

We subjected Jessie to a pleasant sabotage which was duly recorded for blackmail purposes in the future. Hah!