May all of you be happy and all the best for 2009.
Happy New Year! Dance Away!
~ Bee will have a quiet night at home with family.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2009 Ahead
Happy today!! And I'm going on a much needed date with hubby this afternoon without the kiddo.
May all of you be happy and all the best for 2009.
Happy New Year! Dance Away!
~ Bee will have a quiet night at home with family.
May all of you be happy and all the best for 2009.
Happy New Year! Dance Away!
~ Bee will have a quiet night at home with family.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Resolutions
Every December, it always dawn on me that time waits for no one. It felt just like yesterday when there're Christmas decorations everywhere.
This makes me think about what I've done this year. Let's see...
~ I'm glad we took a family holiday with my parents and sisters to UK. It's my first ever long-distance travel with them in my adult life. It's been great for the bonding and we had good fun. Oh, and not forgetting my first experience with snow.
~ Raising the kid is bumpy & emotional but rewarding. He's teaching us all about life and parenting. I love him lots.
~ As for personal growth, teaching (lindy hop) has pushed me out of my comfort zone. Really, teaching dance is totally a different ball game from dancing itself. I am proud of my accomplishment. Anyway, I'm still learning to better myself as a teacher. All I need is love for the dance, time, experience and perseverance.
~ Work wise, it's been a mediocre year with a little pay raise, still better than none though.
At a social gathering last weekend, there's been a discussion on the NEW things we're going to do in 2009. Here goes mine:
1. Learn Japanese & Photography
2. Be healthy: Eat healthily and exercise!
3. Cook more, especially for ZX
4. Study and practice Buddhism
5. Be humble and patient
There, you have the "resolutions" list. And I hereby giving you (the readers) permission to knock my head/kick my a** if I procrastinate or not following. Heh!
~ Bee will start NOW
This makes me think about what I've done this year. Let's see...
~ I'm glad we took a family holiday with my parents and sisters to UK. It's my first ever long-distance travel with them in my adult life. It's been great for the bonding and we had good fun. Oh, and not forgetting my first experience with snow.
~ Raising the kid is bumpy & emotional but rewarding. He's teaching us all about life and parenting. I love him lots.
~ As for personal growth, teaching (lindy hop) has pushed me out of my comfort zone. Really, teaching dance is totally a different ball game from dancing itself. I am proud of my accomplishment. Anyway, I'm still learning to better myself as a teacher. All I need is love for the dance, time, experience and perseverance.
~ Work wise, it's been a mediocre year with a little pay raise, still better than none though.
At a social gathering last weekend, there's been a discussion on the NEW things we're going to do in 2009. Here goes mine:
1. Learn Japanese & Photography
2. Be healthy: Eat healthily and exercise!
3. Cook more, especially for ZX
4. Study and practice Buddhism
5. Be humble and patient
There, you have the "resolutions" list. And I hereby giving you (the readers) permission to knock my head/kick my a** if I procrastinate or not following. Heh!
~ Bee will start NOW
Friday, November 14, 2008
Eric the Half a Bee
My "Penguin Eater" friend AL, dedicated this song to me. Just wanna share this cool song with my dear readers. :)
p/s: AL, thanks for the playlist too, lovely swingy music. Whee!
p/s: AL, thanks for the playlist too, lovely swingy music. Whee!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Carpool Confidential
Jessica Benson is funny and she's making me turn the pages of her book.
For all my mommy friends, if you're interested in mom lit. This is one book you can pick up.
~ Bee is older today. She's gotten a lot of wishes but none from her sisters (yet... I hope)
For all my mommy friends, if you're interested in mom lit. This is one book you can pick up.
~ Bee is older today. She's gotten a lot of wishes but none from her sisters (yet... I hope)
Monday, September 15, 2008
11 years of Webscapades
Found the information from my archive and my memory, so might have mixed the years up.
1997 : Yahoo Mail, Hotmail
1998 : Yahoo Messenger
2001 : ICQ
2001/2 : Trillian
2002 Nov : pbase.com. Photos are still there and still got visits, even though not many.
2002/3:
It's all about the swing forums!
~ Chatterbugs - it's under maintenance, or dead. But well, we're all communicating through Facebook nowadays.
~ Yehoodi
2003:
~ Found Adam on smilezone and he's been a friend since. *wave*
~ Kazaa
2004:
Feb : Orkut - checking once in a blue moon
June : Plaxo - used mainly for my address book, sometimes Pulse
Sep :
~ Multiply - I think I only logged in twice, once when I was creating an account and today.
~ Napster
~ Grouper (now it's Crackle.com)
Oct :
~ Couldn't believe I had played this RPG game at Kingdomofloathing.com, because I don't think I'm a true geek. I thought my friends were talking about "Dinner & Dance" when they told me about DnD. Duh! Anyway, I think this account of mine has been deactivated. Got the bad password message.
~ Started this blog of mine, to write, share myself and vent.
~ Hello for photo sharing, it's been shut down.
~ Flickr: I still love it to this day :)
Nov:
~ Pretended to be someone else for a few months in 2nd life and There. I wonder if I'm still alive in those two places.
2005:
Feb : started using Bloglines for my readings.
April : LinkedIn
June : Feedburner
Aug : Plazes and Statcounter
Sep : Yahoo Music Unlimited (now Rhapsody) which I used for 2 years and decided it's not worth my $ anymore.
Oct - Writely, now it's Google Docs
2006:
This is the year I wasn't that adventurous online as I was busy with life - my wedding, big project at work and preparing for my first born. It's only in October that I signed up at ebay and paypal. Hmmm, I guess I needed to buy stuff for the baby then.
2007:
March
~ Facebook! Whee! It's great that I found many of my long lost RL friends here. And I don't mind the new outlook it's gotten lately.
~ Google Reader : swapped Bloglines with this.
April : Picasa, I like the photo editing tools, it's so much simpler than Photoshop :P
June : Google Notebook and Soundpedia.
Oct : meebo
2008:
Jan
~ Globalpandora too bad it's STILL slowly coming back to us the outside of the US peeps.
~ Amazon - used it to buy some cool jazz CDs
April
~ FriendFeed!!! On my, I've been addicted for 5 months now?! :P
~ Last.fm - only listen to its radios
May
~ Songza
~ Seeqpod - it's pretty fast here and I get to listen to the whole song. Good!
~ Google sites
~ Youtube - still haven't come around to upload any of my clips. Boo me!
June : Twitter is for me to blather random stuff to friendfeed
July : Plurk - don't quite like it.
August
~ NoiseRiver for friendfeed
~ Rejaw
~ NoiseRiver for friendfeed
~ Rejaw
~ Bee thinks it'll be cool to look back at this list in a year or two.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Teacherbug
Yesterday was my first ever attempt at teaching, in a class environment. Sorry to say that I actually missed the first class which started last Thursday because I was down with cold.
Lindy Hop is what I'm teaching, a dance I've loved since my very first class as a student, that was in Oct 2001. Thanks to the non-availability of space for followers in the salsa class then. Fate! :D
Was a nervous wreck before the class started, but am lucky to have an experience teacher as my partner in class. So, both the classes have gone well, I relaxed after a while. Anyway still need to work on articulating the important points and moves. Well, I guess it all comes down to experience, both dancing and teaching.
~ Bee will build her teaching experience over time
Lindy Hop is what I'm teaching, a dance I've loved since my very first class as a student, that was in Oct 2001. Thanks to the non-availability of space for followers in the salsa class then. Fate! :D
Was a nervous wreck before the class started, but am lucky to have an experience teacher as my partner in class. So, both the classes have gone well, I relaxed after a while. Anyway still need to work on articulating the important points and moves. Well, I guess it all comes down to experience, both dancing and teaching.
~ Bee will build her teaching experience over time
Monday, July 07, 2008
Little Dragon
I occasionally cook during the weekend, and yesterday was one of it.
This was the first time I bought tarragon herbs. It's for the vegetable broth I meant to cook, but since I forgot to buy other few ingredients for it, the broth was off the menu... :P
The other 2 dishes were both stir-fried stuff - stir-fried spinach and stir-fried chicken strips.
The stir-fried chicken strips surprised me. While I was cooking, I read that tarragon will enhance the taste of chicken, duck etc... well well the few dashes of tarragon really made the dish more fragrant than my normal chicken stir-fry. Yum!
I was too busy eating, so no photos. But here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:
5 strips of chicken meat (about 400g? sorry I'm not sure of the weight)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1~2 dashes of pepper
1~2 dashes of black pepper
2~3 dashes of tarragon (from the herb bottle)
1/2 tablespoon of ghee (or butter, or 1 1/2 tablespoons of cooking oil)
1/4 cup of water
Preparations:
1. Wash and cut the chicken strips into smaller edible pieces.
2. Mix the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, pepper and black pepper into the bowl of chicken meat. Set the chicken aside for 20 minutes to marinate.
3. While waiting, chopped the garlic finely.
Cooking:
1. Heat up the wok, put in the ghee to melt. Add chopped garlic and fry until fragrant.
2. Pour the bowl of marinated chicken in and stir-fry.
3. When the chicken is half cooked, add the 1/4 cup of water (if you think there's not enough gravy)
4. Season with 2 to 3 dashes of tarragon after chicken is cooked, stir-fry for another 20 seconds before dishing up.
Serve with rice.
~ Bee finds recipe writing is not as easy as she thought.
This was the first time I bought tarragon herbs. It's for the vegetable broth I meant to cook, but since I forgot to buy other few ingredients for it, the broth was off the menu... :P
The other 2 dishes were both stir-fried stuff - stir-fried spinach and stir-fried chicken strips.
The stir-fried chicken strips surprised me. While I was cooking, I read that tarragon will enhance the taste of chicken, duck etc... well well the few dashes of tarragon really made the dish more fragrant than my normal chicken stir-fry. Yum!
I was too busy eating, so no photos. But here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:
5 strips of chicken meat (about 400g? sorry I'm not sure of the weight)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1~2 dashes of pepper
1~2 dashes of black pepper
2~3 dashes of tarragon (from the herb bottle)
1/2 tablespoon of ghee (or butter, or 1 1/2 tablespoons of cooking oil)
1/4 cup of water
Preparations:
1. Wash and cut the chicken strips into smaller edible pieces.
2. Mix the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, pepper and black pepper into the bowl of chicken meat. Set the chicken aside for 20 minutes to marinate.
3. While waiting, chopped the garlic finely.
Cooking:
1. Heat up the wok, put in the ghee to melt. Add chopped garlic and fry until fragrant.
2. Pour the bowl of marinated chicken in and stir-fry.
3. When the chicken is half cooked, add the 1/4 cup of water (if you think there's not enough gravy)
4. Season with 2 to 3 dashes of tarragon after chicken is cooked, stir-fry for another 20 seconds before dishing up.
Serve with rice.
~ Bee finds recipe writing is not as easy as she thought.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
French Escapade
Last Monday, H & I went out for dinner to celebrate our special day, and it's somewhat like our annual date night (the last one was July 2007 :P)
I chose André Wine & Dine, a french restaurant. Reasons being I've been craving for french food since reading about a critic's world and a chef's real life stories...well a lot of those involved fine-dining french cuisines. And discovering this particular expensive mushroom.
Also, André's got good reviews from patrons, and the price would not burn a big hole in my pocket. Guess what?! I wasn't disappointed, the dishes we ordered were yummy and worth every penny! :D
For appetisers, H got the really delicious fried prawn, the sauce and green salad went really well with it! I almost wanted to swap that with my escargots, but too bad H couldn't fathom eating snails, too icky for him. Nonetheless he tried one after much persuasion. The escargots were fresh, a tad salty but still good!
Next up - Soups! My mushroom soup was nice - not too thick nor thin, with just the right amount of cream. And best of all, I get to taste the 3 little slices of truffles at last!! But to be honest, I have to say I'm a wee bit disappointed with the taste of the truffles, it tasted ... erm just like any other mushroom, lack of the strong aroma as I've read. H had the tasty french onion soup, I liked the caramelized onion and cheese in it.
Main course, I was delighted with the Confit de canard (duck confit), the tender meat and the crispy skin offered such contrasts and paired well with the balsamic shallot sauce. H ordered the beef tenderloin - well done, but I suggested he tried it medium well... couldn't believe he agreed. The meat came and H was put off by the bloody meat a wee bit. But to be honest, I tried a mouthful - it didn't have the pungent smell of blood and was actually delicious. Did that make me a vampire? Ha! :P
Done with the mains and we wondered if we're able to finish the dessert. But oh boy! my "Live for Chocolate" cake had the warm and gooey chocolate in the middle of the warm choc cake. Ate it with the strawberry and sorbet... Man! I was almost in heavens! The orange souffle was a tad not as flavourful but it's nonetheless light. At least H enjoyed it.
Here's my rating (out of 10):
Food - 8
Ambience - 6.5 (It's pretty cozy but the lighting was a bit too bright, and they should play jazz :P)
Service - 8 (attentive and non-intrusive)
Value - 8.5
I'd recommend you foodies and/or love birds out there to try it out.
29/6 Updates - Food photos are here
~ Bee has difficulty resisting good food.
I chose André Wine & Dine, a french restaurant. Reasons being I've been craving for french food since reading about a critic's world and a chef's real life stories...well a lot of those involved fine-dining french cuisines. And discovering this particular expensive mushroom.
Also, André's got good reviews from patrons, and the price would not burn a big hole in my pocket. Guess what?! I wasn't disappointed, the dishes we ordered were yummy and worth every penny! :D
For appetisers, H got the really delicious fried prawn, the sauce and green salad went really well with it! I almost wanted to swap that with my escargots, but too bad H couldn't fathom eating snails, too icky for him. Nonetheless he tried one after much persuasion. The escargots were fresh, a tad salty but still good!
Next up - Soups! My mushroom soup was nice - not too thick nor thin, with just the right amount of cream. And best of all, I get to taste the 3 little slices of truffles at last!! But to be honest, I have to say I'm a wee bit disappointed with the taste of the truffles, it tasted ... erm just like any other mushroom, lack of the strong aroma as I've read. H had the tasty french onion soup, I liked the caramelized onion and cheese in it.
Main course, I was delighted with the Confit de canard (duck confit), the tender meat and the crispy skin offered such contrasts and paired well with the balsamic shallot sauce. H ordered the beef tenderloin - well done, but I suggested he tried it medium well... couldn't believe he agreed. The meat came and H was put off by the bloody meat a wee bit. But to be honest, I tried a mouthful - it didn't have the pungent smell of blood and was actually delicious. Did that make me a vampire? Ha! :P
Done with the mains and we wondered if we're able to finish the dessert. But oh boy! my "Live for Chocolate" cake had the warm and gooey chocolate in the middle of the warm choc cake. Ate it with the strawberry and sorbet... Man! I was almost in heavens! The orange souffle was a tad not as flavourful but it's nonetheless light. At least H enjoyed it.
Here's my rating (out of 10):
Food - 8
Ambience - 6.5 (It's pretty cozy but the lighting was a bit too bright, and they should play jazz :P)
Service - 8 (attentive and non-intrusive)
Value - 8.5
I'd recommend you foodies and/or love birds out there to try it out.
29/6 Updates - Food photos are here
~ Bee has difficulty resisting good food.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Love is...
When you can keep looking for a long time
at someone while he's asleep
And think he's so cute and sweet
You feel fuzzy and warm
Those are contended moments
filled with happiness...
at someone while he's asleep
And think he's so cute and sweet
You feel fuzzy and warm
Those are contended moments
filled with happiness...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 05, 2008
An Update
The little voice in my head has been nagging me to blog for a very long time, and I keep brushing her off giving her all kinds of excuses...like there's enough updating with facebooking, busy with life & kid, no inspirations, tons of photos to edit, and my writing sucks... blah blah blah... the list goes on.
At last she won me over, so here goes some updates & thoughts (ahem... in point forms :P)
1) Currently, my favorite book of all time (more like love at first read) is Ajahn Brahm's Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung. He's such a great teacher sharing his wisdom in life with his good sense of humour.
Before this, I was a buddhist in forms whereas I called myself a free thinker if someone asked about my religion. Because I really do not think one is a buddhist if he/she only goes to pray in the temple without studying and practicing buddhist teachings.
Now, I can finally call myself a buddhist as I've started to practice its teachings in life, and I want to keep learning about buddhism. Taking one step at a time.
2) My baby is now a 16 months toddler, going on 17. I'm amazed at the pace he learns stuff. He observes and mimics you. The other day, I was calling H with a poke on his side and guess what, my boy went to poke his dad too. Man... I have to constantly be aware of the bad habits I do unknowingly sometimes.
Parenting is the most challenging job, ever! It's hard work, sometimes daunting and can really test your patience. However, the returns you get while you mold your child and see him blossoms into another human being with his own individuality is all worth it. Love, happiness and bliss!!
On that note, for the coming 11th May, to all mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mother, I love you, Mama!
3) While I'm getting fatter & fatter these days, a foodie will always be a foodie. Haven't been to restaurants for a while now (other than at a friend's birthday party & another friend's wedding dinner in April), and still haven't got the opportunity to hunt for the exotic mushroom.
But I've cooked twice this couple of weeks, which is rare because I think it's really not economical (in terms of money and time) cooking for two than buying cooked food from food courts or kopitiams. On the other hand, cooking can be fun and there's satisfaction while gulping down the wholesome food. Yum!
4) After the three points above, lately, I've noticed that the types of books I mostly read are about life, parenting and food-related. Gone were the days of romance, hero and/or heroines, mysteries fictions... I guess my interests and perspectives have changed. :D
~ Bee will now indulge in a strawberry milkshake...
At last she won me over, so here goes some updates & thoughts (ahem... in point forms :P)
1) Currently, my favorite book of all time (more like love at first read) is Ajahn Brahm's Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung. He's such a great teacher sharing his wisdom in life with his good sense of humour.
Before this, I was a buddhist in forms whereas I called myself a free thinker if someone asked about my religion. Because I really do not think one is a buddhist if he/she only goes to pray in the temple without studying and practicing buddhist teachings.
Now, I can finally call myself a buddhist as I've started to practice its teachings in life, and I want to keep learning about buddhism. Taking one step at a time.
2) My baby is now a 16 months toddler, going on 17. I'm amazed at the pace he learns stuff. He observes and mimics you. The other day, I was calling H with a poke on his side and guess what, my boy went to poke his dad too. Man... I have to constantly be aware of the bad habits I do unknowingly sometimes.
Parenting is the most challenging job, ever! It's hard work, sometimes daunting and can really test your patience. However, the returns you get while you mold your child and see him blossoms into another human being with his own individuality is all worth it. Love, happiness and bliss!!
On that note, for the coming 11th May, to all mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mother, I love you, Mama!
3) While I'm getting fatter & fatter these days, a foodie will always be a foodie. Haven't been to restaurants for a while now (other than at a friend's birthday party & another friend's wedding dinner in April), and still haven't got the opportunity to hunt for the exotic mushroom.
But I've cooked twice this couple of weeks, which is rare because I think it's really not economical (in terms of money and time) cooking for two than buying cooked food from food courts or kopitiams. On the other hand, cooking can be fun and there's satisfaction while gulping down the wholesome food. Yum!
4) After the three points above, lately, I've noticed that the types of books I mostly read are about life, parenting and food-related. Gone were the days of romance, hero and/or heroines, mysteries fictions... I guess my interests and perspectives have changed. :D
~ Bee will now indulge in a strawberry milkshake...
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