Korean Beef Bulgogi

Always when i crave for something sweet and savoury, the korean dish that is hot, covered with dark soy sauce and bbq-ed come to my mind, the beef bulgogi. Tonight i tried cooking the dish after shopping for some fresh beef flank and lean meat at FairPrice Finest, the "fresh and higher-quality" version of the NTUC Fairprice supermarket, after my driving lesson at kovan.

This is the recipe i used. And instead of sesame seed and sesame oil (which I ran out) I used LaYu chili oil that has strong sesame taste.

Marketing stuff

As we are closing the year, you start to receive interesting marketing mails for organization. One of it that I like is SPG Year In Review, that I think is pretty cool. It gave a piechart snapshot on my Starwood activities.

It recognizes, that I stayed the most in the Westin brand of this membership. Talk about its crossover promo with Delta airlines (I earned merely 1,800 miles) while the top earner was 120k points... It recommend some hotels around the region I'm in, and encourage me to explore more of the Westin hotels in advance.

Very innovative cross-sell and upsell campaign. Well done SPG. SPG is the award program name for the Starwood group of hotels.

Movies under the Star

This morning while jogging with Clarissa my little nice from Medan, I noticed the sign for DBS Movies by the Bay. www.dbsmoviesbythebay.com for details. Tonight's show is Thor!

I am quite excited for spend this Saturday night with this movie event!

as I'm watching my 2013 To-Do list

I feel a little bit depressed, melancholy. It's now December. The year coming to an end. It feels so fast, time flies. I have not done much useful things in my free time. On my weekend. Time just past.

The year 2013.
The year of Snake.
My lucky year.
What have I accomplished this year.

A sad year. A very touching year. A year of transformation. Waiting. Falling in love. Almost. Falling out. Heart broken. Carrying this sadness inside.

TV Series I am hooked on: The Americans

Normally I had a pretty good feeling on to-be hit TV series even from first seasons. I loved Heroes, Smallville, the Grey Anatomy. I also loved the Big Bang Theory, the Modern Family, and How I Met Your Mother. Unfortunately the former groups, the subsequent seasons turned to be less and less appealing that I dropped my attention after season 3 or 4. (Oh I also love the Fringe).

So now I am super HOOK-ed by the Americans. I found it watching on my Delta flight to Seattle back in August. It has 2 episodes, and so every month when I fly I always checked if the airlines have new update. Unfortunately SQ (Singapore Airlines) this month stopped at Ep 6. So watching online, I finished the rest of episodes, culminating with the finale tonight.

According to latest news, the Season 2 will return and shall premiere on Feb 2014. I can't wait. The Americans are TV series premiered in 2013 about a couple of KGB agents who operated in the US suburb of Washington DC, Virginia. They are master of disguises and were matched by the Centre to live in USA as a married couple named Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell). Throughout their 16 years live together, they have 2 American children born and raised in the United States, Paige and Henry.

The series are tense, interesting, smart, and full of complex plot of spy agents and double-crossing. But what makes me glued on is the marriage love story at the core of the series. Whether that's between Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings especially but also the subsequent implications with Martha, Stan and Sandra, as well as the gorgeous Nina. The plots and consequences of actions are absorbing. Some of the scenes are eyebrow-raising I admit, but never seem far-fetch. In the bizzare hidden lives in Cold War and the brutal intelligence agencies and War, nothing is out of questions. That is what's so wonderful and engrossing about this series. Highly recommended!

Amazing things I saw this week

The beautiful 6am sunset at the Auckland Harbour on Dec 3, morning. The melancholic sunrise, shining thru layers of light clouds formation.

This Volvo ad video.

Back from NZ this morning, overnight flight from stormy Auckland last night. I'm lucky to have two empty seats in an-almost-full flight Auckland-Singapore. Thank you Singapore Airlines.

What's the latest in my live for sept-oct

After a terrible closing quarter, I had to take leave. So with strong determination, I summoned last remaining spirit to go and attend a weeklong team offsite in Seattle. Normally I lke this type of meetings of exchange of minds and views, but.. the Seattle team meeting is the worst type. After travelling 21 hours on coach / economy class each way (so 42 hours of life wasted on return trip), attending series of meetings while in horrible jetlag, and getting nothing much new information for work related stuff, amidst team members who are very political- this sounds like fun.

Normally I travel straight and back with min time possible. But this time is different since I am taking 2 weeks off after. The best is I found out bro is going to be in San Fransisco on almost the same week. Hurray! God must have taken pity on me. Plus for one strange bright idea I decided to check the cost of miles upgrade to business class. To my delight (bless the ladies at Amex corporate travel, they are the best!!! angels) it cost very little. It cost 25,000 miles each way, but hey, I have close to 200,000 miles on my delta account that I rarely used.

I am really lucky - to get such a good deal there. So after the strings of luck, I finally locked on my destination - Vancouver 2 days with Amtrak train thru Cascade. Beautiful. Scenic. And Las Vegas for 3 nights 2 days aaaand Grand Canyon, Arizona.

The wonderful thing is, the first newspaper article I read when I arrived in US, announced the impeding Government shutdown. Shutdown! And it's still going on right now when I am writing this on 14th Oct. They shutdown all "non-essential" Federal Government services, including the National Parks - yes Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and etc. Luckily Amtrak is not impacted, neither is the Border Services, nor Hoover Dam (which we visited) that is funded solely thru the sales of their power generated by the Dam.

Sigh, what an adventure. I'll tell all about it. now it's 7pm Singapore, and I'm going to bed still sleepy from the jetlag, but wow I really enjoyed the break. And I'm going to Beijing this weekend, after coming back from USA.

i'm starting to build my to-do now: driving class, cycling class, mani/pedi, gym. only hair is done. During the journey on the bus back, I realized something... about "Trust", "Risk Aversion" and the fact that I am starting to learn about myself about how I never really trusted anyone. No one, I'm the worst. And no relationship can start between two people who do not trust anyone else.

When I start to see things in this new light, I have relevations. Maybe I have to trust. I know I want to. badly, but it's hard. to trust. Really trusting.

Heading home

After 3 days in Auckland, I am sitting in the hotel lounge waiting for the cab to arrive. I can't wait to be back home. NZ has been a wonderful and beautiful country. Lots of shopping - my 1 luggage and 1 carry-on has morphed to luggage, extra bag, plus shoes bag, plus my Burberry coat and carry on with my purse....oops.

Such an amazing energy around the city, because of a big rugby match between the NZ team "All Blacks" vs South African team "the Boks" at Eden Park's stadium. As I was taking a train from Newmarket to Britomart the city transfort, thongs of people in blacks jacket were descending the transport system heading to the Eden park's direction.

what a masculine and rough sports. The images evoke primitive but also original spirit of sport.

in Auckland

Hello I'm in New Zealand! It's rare that I get to a new country these days, so I'm totally excited to be here. I'm staying at Hilton Princes Wharf, what a wonderful property that is located just ahead of a Quay. Already checked out the touristy Queens Street, with dinner at Fort Lane a steak house recommended by the hotel concierge.

what's lacking on the Internet is the list of "What's good to Shop in NZ":
> Manuka Honey - only produced in NZ from Manuka flowers
> Icebreaker - Merino wool product? maybe coz this week there is super special 30% discount off.
> Lush product - found them cheaper than in USA and Australia
> What else?

It's a 4-day weekend

After lazying around, and being worried by erratic escalations from India - oh gosh that's so stressful, they have no respect nor appreciation of other's effort - I am now on the Sunday.

Had a phone conversation earlier today with my bro for a joint property investment. I then read an article on Times magazine about the horror of men or women grieving about relatives becoming victims of the violence in Egypt. I felt sad and urge to do something. It's ironic and somewhat made me guilty that my ideals are wasted on weekend, and I do something not nothing about the better of the world, helping the helpless, poor, and oppressed. they seemed like a world a way, different times and places - from the save contented Singapore...

I need to fire up my fires more. helping in ways I could help best, not foolish stupid ideals but just thinking without action. I am normally good at putting myself in situation that I am best. What I need now is a plot or a plan. If I can bring myself to it rather than wasting my life away in games and lazy weekend. Am I bad.

Herbs and Apartment living

I am cleaning house frantically, maybe coz I'm board. Deeply satisfied that the kitchen floor is now sparkling clean. So when I was searching web for some herbs/indoor gardening tips, plus playing Fantasica (http://www.fantasitrading.com) I come across sites of apartment living, that inspired me to clean up my small office area in my apartment. Staring at my clean stack right infront of my office table now :)

Some useful links to start:

• (overseas): best herbs for indoor
• (sf-overseas): ideas of potted herbs - motivation
• (Singapore based forum Green Culture): location of nursery gardens in SG.
• Some nice pictures of herbs: basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley.

Ritz Champagne Brunch

Went for the Ritz Carlton's champagne brunch. After my pocari sweat run 10km run. My timing was horrible, joined the 3rd wave flag-off time at 7:21am, and arrived at 8:54.......

The champagne was very nice though. I must be drinking 5-6 glasses of the Moet 2004, Vintage. Waiting for the photos to be uploaded from my WP8 to Skydrive.

MOET vintage

 

They also have the best seafood section. 1) Baked lobster, and 2) foie gras with gold specks.

Fresh oysters - 5 types:

 

 

Seafood section with unagi maki, fresh sushi, and sashimi belly....

Pocari Sweat Run

My worst timing ever for 10k run.

You'll see that the original 2.7Km wasn't bad - 8min/km.

Then the next 3.2km towards 5.9km split 8:45/km. Pretty good considering, there's marina barrage first slope and 2 water points.

The next 2.7km (where there is no waterpoint and super hot) with marina barrage final slope, and towards Garden's - the timing is 11:33/km. I started having very bad stitch then.

The final 1.4km is 9:20/km is not bad. I started to regain speed after final waterpoint and run quickly towards the finish line.

What Type of Business Executive Are You?

I am a Value Negotiator!

Follow this simple quiz from Insead Business school.

Body Fat Percentage

According to this article, the ideal body fat for healthy/normal women should be 21-24% (athlete), or 24-31% (acceptable). My weight today 59kg. Body Fat 20.9%

According to that: my body fat is 12.33kg with lean body mass of 59 minus 12.33 = 46.67kg. With my goal to achieve ideal weight, I should aim for 18% (let say) = 57kg. I think my weighing machine is broken. There's no way I have body fat of only 21%.

How to measure body fat? A link here has 5 ways to measure.
Adult body fat % = (1.20 × BMI) + (0.23 × Age) − (10.8 × sex) − 5.4
Sex = 0 for man, 1 for female
BMI = body weight (kg) divide into height (in m) square. So 59kg / 1.62m = 36.4 / 1.62m = equals 22.48

Making BakChang and weekend

Today I woke up before 7am *yay* after a long while. During a short run towards marina bay, I could see very dark ominous clouds forming above Asia Square blowing towards the MBS. I tried to run, run to beat the clouds and wind, but i could feel the tiny drizzle catching up. Finally, towards the end of MBS, I made detour to the mall.... so there goes my morning run.

After 15 run in the tiny gentle drizzle, I reached home. I didn't want to wait and waste time, so I ran in the rain (felt so nice) and reached home by 8:18. After shower, I felt great as I haven't been for so long. After breakfast of mom's meat porridge (with little jewels which are the salted yolk, very fresh and nice) I helped mom to prepare the ingredients for her making of bak-chang (literal translation from Hokkien dialect, Bak = meat, chang = dumpling) by preparing the yolks and cleaning the dried bamboo leaves. I also marinated pork meat as pork chop for lunch with my collection of herbs.

After lunch, I wanted to make a good use of the heavy cream I bought last time (for $8 1L it's a good price, it's also too good to waste). So I whipped an 100-ml and have it with green tea ice cream Haagen Dazs.

It's lovely bitter green tea macha + sweet whipped cream . Product link

Here's more information about whipped cream:

My bath and body works candles

BBW always stock beautiful candles - and in my latest spree, I used the Comgateway service to do buyforme service - they buy for you on the website that only accepts USA credit cards and charge 5% buyers fee of the total amount.

I bought 4x 3-wick candles under a sale. Normal price is $22 each. Under sale it is US$35.70 incl concierge fee.

Comgateway then shipped it - the candles were huge and heavy. I paid 3.50kg shipment for 4 candles, after sharing it turns out to be US26.80.

Total pricing:- $35.70+$26.80 = $62.5 x 1.3 = SG$81.25 / 4 candles = $20.35 each. vs normal price of US$22 or US$11 during sale.


On average the international shipping cost adds about 30% to the cost - so if you think you can still save after factoring the pricing then you should shop, otherwise get the products locally especially in Singapore which is a global trading hub.
Example 1: my latest bakeware supplies from Amazon shipping is US$27 for 3kg after repack (US$5 fees) for US$102.50 worth of goods - refer to my earlier posting. Also there's often fuel surcharge, and insurance (in case goods are damaged during international shipment, and other miscellaneous fees).

Another one is: Injiji socks at amazon US$7 each x 3 items = US$21+ shared shipping ($4 for 0.5kg) = US24 for 3-pair of socks.

Finally: Coach factory outlet $99 sale item plus fee $9 plus $10.50 local shipping plus $3 repack plus $9 international shipping.

I found Comgateway service is fast, good and reliable although the shipping charges for large boxes are exorbitant. If you encounter that you should write to the customer service, and they can try to trigger a manual repacking order for you (it's going to cost you $3-$5 and they did not ask your permission to do that). Well, often once you bought it and you spend hundreds of dollars and the items are already in the warehouse, you are stuck. and I think those forwarder tried to take advantage of ignorance... but Comgateway service had been good.

Gu Energy gels shipment vs buying locally

Recently I just completed my shipment of the running energy Gu gel from Amazon, tabulation of the total cost are:

Amazon per pack of 24: US$26.95 (Mandarin Orange/Tri-Berry) ordered on March 15.
Delivery charge from Amazon: free
Comgateway: for 2.5kg $29

Total : $83.9 for 2boxes = US$42 = SG$2.3 per packet.
For incremental box - $1.8 per packet.

The gel is sold at $4-6 in either nutrition shop or exhibition near runner's events.

My cooking today

After a depressing but unsurprising news from my massage therapist, I decided to do my home-cooking hobby to ease tension in my body. I am hooked on recipes from this book from Amazon (shipped all the way from US!), I tried:

• A variation of Rochers today - with cashew, almond, and Cointreau.
• Honeycomb candy - honey, corn syrup, lots of sugar, gelatin, and baking soda
• +coated with chocolate
• Also did the dark-chocolate truffles (with some success).

Honeycomb-candy

Coated honey comb in the fridge

For ganache, I used chocolate from Cacao Barry - while I supplemented my chocolate coating with Callebaut. The Cacao Barry turned out to be oily as I managed to skim about half a cup of chocolate oil that bubbled up from my ganache. The box indicated 41.8% Fat.

Ps. I also cooked Carbonara for dinner with mom. :)

Photo of the week - Kamakura

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-south-west of Tokyo. Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the Kamakura Period.

As of June 1, 2012, the modern city has an estimated population of 174,412 and a population density of 4,400 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,000 /sq mi). The total area is 39.60 square kilometres (15.29 sq mi). I visited Kamakura on a short sidetrip late Summer 2011 from Tokyo thru NEX. I took a late flight into Tokyo, stayed in a tiny hotel near Kita-Narita and then took the first NEX at 6am to Kamakura.

Kamakura is known for its Buddhist temples (unlike the Shintoism which is followed in majority of Japan) and has a number of "big" Zen temples. The famous sites are Kotoku-in and its Great Buddha, Kencho-ji, and Engaku-ji. The Zen temples and their serenity really touched my heart and soul.

Energizer Trail Run

Saturday morning! I went to get ready for the first Energizer Trail run Singapore! That I am joining. It is organized at one of the NS-men camp, at lorong Asrama, which after searching on the streetdirectory map, is normally off-limit for normal civilians. (later confirmed by the MC of the event too!).

It was a very hot and humid day. The weather was pent-up with the rain that almost drizzle (luckily it didn't for the sake of thousands of runners with kids who were looking forward for the event). I arrived at 230pm after various arguments with Mom, whom I dragged and whom is energetic enough to accompany me to the event. My mom is so adorable.

The Energizer 2013 race route and obstacles

Chocolate fascination

So I went out and borrowed a book about a beautiful potential new hobby, Chocolate and Candies.

Book cover - link to Amazon.com

And managed to fill-up my amazon cart with the following.

which I am still gathering the courage to order...

Some of the tips of melting chocolate, tempering, about how to choose essential equipment, and at-a-glance-simple recipes are so tempting.

Friday night I missed you so much

I feel asleep thinking about your email. a very short email at that... so foolish, girl.

My friday break

I was feeling overwhelmed at work so rather than losing my temper and cool, I decided to take a short 1-day break. I went to anti-stress massage at Bodywellness my usual spa place, and went for a nice stroll among the Duxton Hill. It was very nice to be walking around 130pm, the weather was beautifully blue sky and found a number of places. I was apprehensive about having lunch on my own, but what the heck - I was hungry. I finally settled on a place called Mozarella - in hindsight a beautiful Italian bar and restaurant. I ordered tomato soup, the oh-so-tender Lamb shanks, capped with affogato served with super strong Italian expresso. Beautiful

the scenic duxton hill

affogato with vanilla ice cream. I love this version,

the vanilla was beautiful with a tinge of tangerine

I then hungout at the Loft, where it was very quiet and peaceful. I'll remember to go back to the Group Therapy place next time, but I most probably would feel misplaced with a loner here. In the afternoon, I peeked at my work inbox and was cheered by a lovely message. *loved*

White Wood Oil or Minyak Kayu Putih

Since I am baby I always love the smell and fragrance of jamu Minyak Kayu Putih from Indonesia, or oil of White wood in its literal translation to English language or "Pek Cha Yiu" in Hokkien dialect. Last month, I received my shipment from Amazon for essential oil from US. I only ordered 2 types in tiny quantity as the essential oils cannot be shipped according to IATA (International Transport Authrority) as it is super inflammable. Lavender and Eucalyptus. Upon smelling the Eucalyptus, I was struck by its similarities to MKP.

So today, I am researching the differences between these oil type. According to this article from the Dept of Forestry in Indonesia, MKP comes from a variant of genus that includes Myrtle tree, and its export is governed by the strict law. While Eucalyptus originated from Australia, been used globally. Hmm since both trees are originated from very closeby location (the Austro-Indo group) and have very similar smell, I suspect more connection.

Here's pic of my favourite- the best brand of MKP - is Cap Ayam from Medan, North Sumatra! It's advertised by local online shops at 150ml for 38.000 Indo rupiah or around S$5.

 Memory of childhood: minyak kayu putih cap ayam, bikinan Pt Jamu Sari

More research to come.

About pitbull

Listening to songs, and International Love by Chris Brown ft. Pitbull - made me check on Wikipedia entry on Pitbull. Found this sad story - http://www.sfweekly.com/1997-06-11/news/shouldn-t-we-just-kill-this-dog/.

The story of Fred made me want to hug my puppy: *hugs*

Annual Health Screening package

Parents safely in journey to MBS, tonight I am focusing on research of the best annual health screening package that utilizes my perk accounts from my company. The due date is end of June which is the fiscal here. I've been going to Raffles Medical for my GP so I thought this year I would consider package here instead of the one at the Executive Screening centre.

Step 1: Comparing the Executive General package at S$802.50 and the Elite General $1,588.95.

Step 2: Research what each tests mean and whether they are necessary or not.

Step 3: The Singapore Health Promotion Board has a guidelines about age and tests. After carefully reviewing them corresponding to my age and my family medical history including other risks, I have determine that the executive Ladies package is the best for me (an early 30's lady). Even though I can afford any packages, I avoid excessive waste and false positives. The most important is to live healthily.

Livejournal

Today receive message from livejournal about my super old account (that I had  totally forgotten too).  First post at livejournal @ http://starell3.livejournal.com/

Singapore Household survey 2012

Singapore govt is carrying out the survey for 2013 latest. This is a document from the last one in 2012 - useful and informative for my weekend reading. Local file and website of http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/population.html#household_income_and_expenditure.

My trip to India 2013

I flew to India, Mumbai on Monday morning Apr 22, 2013. Stayed 2 full nights - including conf calls on the first day, concluded with a brief lunch at 2pm where the lobby lounge is with some mimosa and cordon bleu chicken and steak sandwich. Lunch is brief at Celini, the hotel's Italian restaurant.

2nd day we rode the car to the office, I was eager arriving at a little over 8am. The office is located at Windsor tower, with no road sign, other than designation "off CST Road" at Santacruz Area, Mumbai. Finished with a nice local India dinner, at the Grand Hyatt Soma. The tandoori platter, esp the mutton and chicken were excellent. The warm roti with garlic was very nice. The crowd was upmarket and pleasant.

Sakura Season 2013

I love spring.

The cool weather with sky starts to open up to blue-ness and plants everywhere start to groom, and bear new flowers.

This year, the cherry blossom season arrives in Tokyo early. During my last business trip there, I took a path down to Shinjuku Gyoen to checkout the last bloom of the year the week of 8th Apr.

I did it!

I completed my first half-marathon. Timing 3 hours 3 mins - is okay average considering my lack of training. I am so elated and am donning my nice finisher's tee.

Final week to 21KM

I'm in kind of trouble because of my lack of training for my first marathon.

My original plan heading to the week of March 18th is 5KM (Tue) + 7KM (Thurs) + 12KM (weekend). What I did was 2KM (tues night) + 5.5KM (Friday night) + 7KM (Sunday night).

Song Fa Bakut Teh

A nice simple meal with my parents - at Song Fa. They liked the casual environment and the relatively inexpensive price tag. We had a nice table outdoor with cooling sunset air, thanks to my swift action. They now had a novel idea of serving tea with traditional small clay teapot and tiny cups with boiling water self-served from the gas stove next to the wall. We ordered Tien-Lo-Han and the bunch of the half-tea leaves went mysteriously missing in the middle of the dinner.

I had 10km refreshing run thru Garden by the Bay East this morning, then Chinese New Year lunch at Eco Sanctuary showroom @ Chestnut (dissapointing food but fabulous Dragon and Lion dance) and followed by Hi-Tea with choco fudge cake and Long black at the Marmalade Pantry Ion.

Kinabalu

After 2 years of talking, finally due to a sudden incident, I went to Kinabalu, and climbed that mountain. My fully body is now sore beyond belief. Sitting upright and especially standing up, becomes painful. And stairs... oh don't mention it. I cringe at the sight of stairs now.

Archive: 2012 Accomplishments

• Buy a property
• Love myself
• Travel to Taiwan
• Reach Nordkapp
• Try something new (camping)
• R'ship exploration
• Scandinavia travel