Had such a good time at last night’s bbq get-together at Justice’s place. With her cute kids afoot and some deelish bbq on the instant grill, it was a fun Filipino food feast with H, Justice and her husband A (who had to leave for work on a Sunday!), Tin and her hubby R, and Leah’s representative, her husband Eder. We had pork bbq, chicken bbq, rice, soda, plus a tub of FIC’s Dulce Leche ice cream, which H and I brought, naturally.

I’ve been missing pinoy pork bbq for quite some time now (love that stuff), so it really hit the spot. Great food, fun company, great way to spend a Sunday night. We’ve got to do it again!

Yesterday, H and I went for a bit of fun: we went to The Art of Star Wars exhibit at the Science Centre.

It is a Star Wars fanatic dream come true. H and I entered the annexe while he was humming the Imperial March, as he prepared to meet his idol, Darth Vader. We paid S$18 each, which gave us entry to the exhibition plus a specially minted nickel coin with the image of Darth Vader in front, plus some Chinese characters saying something about the Year of the Dog at the back. We are in Singapore, after all.

Imagine over 3000 square meters filled with Star Wars memorabilia, from paintings, posters, maques, models, props, video, costumes, etc. There were models of tie fighters, the Millenium Falcon, Darth Vader’s personal ride, the big prop of Anakin’s speeder…C3P0 and R2D2 were there….there was a lifesize model of Jabba the Hutt (complete with cushions!)…We saw costumes of characters I don’t even know, Storm Troopers, Bail Organa’s, Padme Amidala, Palpatine, Anakin Skywalker, and of course…Darth Vader. Darth Vader’s surgical table (the one where he was made) was there, as well as Padme Amidala’s birthing table. We watched a LOT of videos at the Auditorium, which shows you a lot about the pre-production aspects of Star Wars like rehearsals, creating the miniatures, animation, how the costumes are made, blah blah blah.

Of course, we had to try the Darth Vader voice changing machine. It was a small booth with a Darth Vader Mask on a window. Once you go in, you press a green button, then speak into the microphone. Whatever you say will come out of the speakers sounding like James Earl Jones, er, Darth Vader..or at least as close to it as possible anyway. We went to the Jedi gym, where you could find out how strong your grip is (Force Grip?), how well you can balance yourself, test your Jedi reflex, control the PC using only your hands from afar…and possibly one of the weirdest games I’ve ever had to play: Mindball.

In Mindball, you and your partner wear these headbands that can supposedly measure your brain waves. Then you’re supposed to relax, while a small ball (imagine the ball inside your mouse) is placed at the middle. The more relaxed you are, the more the ball will roll away from you. You score a point when the ball goes into your partner’s box. I lost.

We stayed till the exhibit closed at 6, and I went home with a happy husband, who definitely got his Star Wars fix, and maybe a bit more!

Hey, another bout of cooking! Or this time, baking. I was going through old mail the other day, when I saw this recipe of apple crumble that I got from a college friend, when she used it for our performance class. But we didn’t have apples yesterday, and I remembered that my MIL said that we need to finish off the strawberries that we bought last week. So presto, strawberry crumble!

I was a bit nervous as to how it would turn out, since I’ve only tried that recipe with apples, but thankfully, it turned out pretty yummy, if I do say so myself. They thought so too, so yay!

If you want to try it at home, here’s the recipe:

Strawberry/Apple Crumble

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown sugar dissolved in 1 1/2 cup water
5-6 large strawberries OR 3 apples peeled and sliced thinly (the strawberries don’t need to be peeled)
1/2 bar of butter
1 cup brown sugar + 1/2 cup white sugar
3 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 200C
2. Arrange fruit slices in a baking pan.
3. Boil sugar and water mixture.
4. Pour sugar mixture over fruits.
5. Combine flour, butter and remaining sugar until you get a crumbly mixture. Spread this over the apples/strawberries & syrup, making sure you everything gets covered.
6. Bake at 200C for 45 minutes to an hour, until the top becomes golden brown. Let cool for a bit, then serve.

Hope you enjoy it!

Going to the gym early this morning has made me realize how out of shape I’ve gotten. I am ashamed to say that I feel like I’ve lost most of the muscle strength I managed to build up last year, when I used to go to the gym regularly, back when I was still in Manila.

So I set my alarm to wake me up at 7:30 am, so I can be at the gym by 8. Since we don’t have time to go to our regular gym in Suntec, I decided to just take advantage of our condo’s mini-gym. I had decided since last week that today would be the day I would renew going to the gym regularly. Even if H and I have memberships at Planet Fitness, we really haven’t been able to go as much as we should because of stuff that we have to do. Boo.

Anyhoo, when I went to the gym, I already had a workout routine set: number of reps, number of sets, blah blah blah. Unfortunately, ideal routine met reality routine. I had thought I still had enough strength to do the weights I wanted to do, but on the fourth set, using a set of weights I used to be able to use before, I just couldn’t do it.

My trainer would be so displeased. All my hard work before, down the drain. I’m not discouraged though: this just means I need to work out more. Message to muscles: time to go back to work, guys. Party’s over.

Last night’s concert was AWESOME. Jason Mraz. Mr. A-Z himself. He was just really great! It was a stripped down, acoustic set; only Jason (yeah, we’re tight) and his percussionist, Toca. He wasn’t just a great singer; he had a fabulous sense of humor (complemented by Toca) and of course, creative wordplay, as any fan of his knows.

In 2003, the acoustic version of The Remedy was on repeat mode for most of the year, so that should tell you how much I like it. In fact, it’s playing now as I’m typing, heh. In all honesty, it really helped me through that troubled period of my life; I just kept hearing Mraz singing, “…don’t worry your life away..”

Watching him last night was a lot, a lot more than I was expecting. He had the audience eating out of the palm of his hands, and the way he twisted the lyrics of his own songs around to fit the concert was just so much fun. He made fun of hand gestures performers make on stage (moving the fingers around, clutching it in a fist on his chest, making wide, sweeping gestures..), he extended songs, oh my, can you tell how much I enjoyed the concert?

I went to the concert a fan, I went out an even bigger one. Jason Mraz rocks.

Oh boy, today was definitely one sweet day.

I spent the morning baking coconut nests, which is basically chocolatey macaroons. It was pretty nice, although the texture didn’t quite turn out as I expected. But it tasted pretty good anyway.

Then this afternoon, it was ice cream galore, as we tried out different sundaes and shakes. It was a sweet tooth’s paradise. Thankfully, my mother in law had the foresight of inviting her friend, who brought along her niece, for the tasting. It gave us more opinions, and more tummies to fill.

And no, I didn’t eat a lot (practically a miracle). At most, I had a few sips, and a few teaspoons of ice cream, and that was it. I decided what we’d make, while H was the one who scooped out the ice cream and operated the blender. The rest were there to taste. Teamwork is good.

I think it’ll be a long time before we’ll have ice cream again.

Deaf Husband Syndrome

Before we got married, there would be times when I’d say stuff to H which he would forget when prompted some other time. His excuse: he’s got the Deaf Husband Syndrome, wherein husbands forget/don’t hear what their wives tell them. Convenient excuse, eh?

Yesterday, his DHS kicked in again. We were at Coffe Club Xpress, and I was choosing between ordering a carrot cake and a chocolate muffin. After silently eenie meenie miney moe-ing, I told him I’ll get a carrot cake.

Right before he could order, I told him I wanted the muffin instead. He asked me what flavor I wanted, I said chocolate.

So of course, when he placed our order with the auntie at the counter:

H: One carrot cake, one cheezy mushroom, one Snapple Apple, and one Mocha Freeze please.
Auntie: Carrot cake?
H: Yes.

Yep, he’s definitely got it.

Some highlights from the past couple of days:

- H and I got a foot reflexology massage at Footworks last Wednesday. It was relaxing, a bit painful in some spots, and ticklish in others. I got a talkative reflexologist who kept pointing out that the painful spots on my foot correspond to sensitive spots on my body. Great way to spend an hour, but it sure made my feet slippery afterwards, what with all the lotion that was used! Definitely made walking from International Plaza back to Wisma a bit harder!

- Got a new pair of shades on Thursday! I didn’t get to bring shades from Manila, so I’ve been using H’s spare pair instead. Got a really nice pair that’s definitely for a girl, hooray!

- Been attending meetings for the biz. There’s this company that seems quite interested in developing something with us…start out small then see how it goes. Am so excited, and am praying that this really works out…Meanwhile, am also working on a new design for the biz site as well and am hoping it ends up being a lot better than the current one.

- Tried to drive a right hand drive car for the first time last night! After our gasoline run last night, H let me try to drive the car around the basement. It was one straaaange way to drive, I tell ya. I’ve been driving a left hand drive car since ‘98, and last night’s trial drive just felt so weird, like the world was upside down. I couldn’t gauge the distance on the left side of the car too well (H: Don’t get too close to the parked cars!), I felt so disoriented in the parking lot. I’ll definitely have to practice more if I ever want to drive here.

Meanwhile, ran across the two strange girls that I saw here in our condo a couple of months ago. Last night, they were biking around the basement. When they saw me driving the car, they followed the car around, which they could do even while biking because I was driving so slowly! Anyhoo, just as I was getting ready to park the car, the talkative one motioned to me to open the window. When I waved my hands to say no, she opened the car door, which duh, wasn’t locked. She was like, “Give me your license!” When I shook my head, she was like, “Okay, I’ll let you go this time!” The last time I saw her, she asked me what book I was reading, then proceeded to tell me that she and her sister are the daughters of Steven Spielberg. Very strange indeed.

New layout, yay.

Got inspired by a website I saw the other day, and I’ve also been getting a bit tired of seeing the old one, so voila. Picture was taken last year, while eating at Kopitiam in Raffles City.

It’s the start of another week, have a great week ahead, everyone!

I don’t shop a lot. In Singapore, I shop even less for two reasons: one, I don’t have a shopping buddy, ergo two, my husband is usually the one who gets to tag along when I do need to shop. My husband also does not like shopping, true to form.

This then leads to my not-so-abundant wardrobe, particularly compared to my sister-in-law, who does shop a lot, and has a top matched to every bottom, and shoes and bags to go along with it. She looks fabulous, always, period.

I get by..mixing and matching my stuff so that what I do have can go a long way. So far, I’ve been doing ok. I’ve bought some new tops here and there, and a couple of shoes along the way too.

Somehow, I think my mother-in-law has noticed it. She’s been giving me few tops and a few bags here and there. And everytime they go abroad, they always have something for me as well. And tonight..well, I got a bit more than usual. Quite a number of skirts and tops have now been added to my closet, all without having to go to the mall. And they fit well and look nice, too!

My mom was like that when I was back home too. She would go somewhere and shop, and tada, I’d have new clothes! I never thought that would happen here in Singapore too, but I guess there’s just something about me (aka lack of shopping skills) that lets people know giving clothes to me is a blessing.

Whoopee!

p.s. I know I can’t and shouldn’t rely on windfalls like this forever. I’m going to have to shop for myself too. Never mind, H is here anyway. And sweetly enough, even if he really doesn’t like shopping all that much, he’s patient with waiting around and viewing me when I fit my clothes anyway. Besides, that makes it easier for me to shop. He’s the person that I most want to look good for anyway, and if the clothes I fit have his stamp of approval already, then I’m all set! Also, he’s the one who now has to pay for them anyway. *grins*