Hokkien Prawn Noodles
Found a recipe for Hokkien Prawn Noodles in the diary received on Singapore Day which I thought was achievable. Receipe as follow, modified by me (to serve 3) :-

Stock - about 20 prawn heads, some pork (should be pork bones), half ikan bilis cube, 1 dried scallop, 1 tbsp sugar, some light soy sauce (add to taste), 1 bulb garlic (separated and peeled), some white peper and water. Bring this to boil and simmer for an hour and need at least 4 ladles prawn stock.
4 eggs - beaten, fried and cut into small pieces
Pork lard - fried
6 small squids, sliced into rings
12 prawns
Some fish cake (none at home, so didn't put this in)
Bean sprouts
5 sprigs of spring onions, cut into about 5cm pieces
Bee Hoon (1 pack from Tesco)
Yellow noodles (1 pack from Tesco)
Limes (forgot to buy from Tesco!!)

In the wok, heat the oil and fry the garlic. Add the prawn and squids for about 1 minute. Add been hoon and 1 ladle of stock, ensure that the been hoon absorb the stock. Add the yellow noodles and add in 2 ladles of stock. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the lime. Add chili (sambal blachan) if you want. Add the ladles of stock. Add water if you want it abit more watery.

That's it, delicious!!

Singapore Day in London

Had been looking forward to the Singapore Day in London, all the food...... can't wait...

The event was held yesterday at Hampton Court Palace, took us about 1 & a half hours to drive there. The place was easy to find and well signposted.



The weather forecast wasn't too good and there were dark patches of clouds around, but it stays bright throughout the whole event. The entry of the event was the ERP, however no payment required for this event!!



Map of the event but there wasn't a need for the map cos we can see and smell food!! The event opens at 10.30, we reach the place about 12pm and it was packed with lots of people queuing for food!



First stall I queued was the Hokkien Mee, took me forever to get a plate but it was worth it (so good!). All the food are free, with the stall holders flew in from Singapore, authentic hor. Needless to say, we queued for other food too and dapao some (Curry puff).... The Kwak Chap was very nice too (all the way from Toa Payoh!)




Of course, there's a stage for performance and entertainment. But we too busy with food, so only sat down for abit. Mark Lee and Jack Neo was fantastic at making us laugh.



The desert was serve from 2.30pm onwards and we queue for Pulut Hitam, too full afterwards for anything else. Some of the stalls were closed by this time, finished. Overheard that the Old Chang Kee Curry Puff was closed at 1pm, well it was the shortest queue among all the stall and very easy to re-queue, thus we dapao-ed! The event was scheduled to end at 4.30pm but we left early at 3pm to avoid the rush.

So what did we bring home?

The Goodies bag

Which contains :-
- a mat to sit on for the event, very handy!
- a rain cost in case in rains, be prepare!
- a pack of wet tissue (to clean ourselves after eating, how thoughtful)
- a packet of Muruku Dhall cracker, to make you miss tibits in SG
- a paper ball, to make you miss your childhold in SG
- a packet of kuti kuti, to make you miss your childhood in SG
- a puzzle , to pass time if you need to
- an eraser, to??? to make you miss SG as you work?
- a 10% discount coupon from Charles & Keith (valid till 31 Dec 09). What is this any good??
- a booklet on Information on registration of overseas electors (a very good way to distribute info)



Another goodies bag from Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA).
Includes :-
- Singapore tote bag (great for containing our dapao-ed stuffs!)
- A t-shirt (Of course, there's always some mention of SG on the T-shirt and this time, it's a Singapore flag on the back. See below for the 2 front design to choose from)
- a 18-month planner cum recipe book (I think it's too big and bulky for a planner)
- Singapore Swing, 12 familar Singapore songs in this jazz instrumental album. (Had not listen to it yet, but would if I miss home)
- Singapore flag pin (Errr, great for a souvenir).
- Stikfas lion, a toy (I'm too old for this)
- Roar for Singapore, need to punch out the pieces on this postcard to make this cute lion stand proudly on your desk. (Err, doubt I would!)



There's 2 design of T-shirt included in each goodies bag, you can only choose one and the size you want (S, M or L). I got the M and Sam got the L but the size different isn't huge, doubt Sam can fit into the L, guess both T-shirt are mine!!


The left t-shirt says "I want my laksa, teh tarik, nasi lemak, chicken rice, prata. Now."
The right t-shirt says "My heart lies 137km above the equator on a little red dot."

Lastly the items we dapao-ed.
- 17 packet of Yeo's Green Bean Soy Drink. There's free bottled water and Yeo's Green Bean Soy drink at the event and the drinks stalls are more than willing to give you extra. Before we left, the stalls were eager to distribute out the drinks, thus we gladly receive.
- 3 Old Chang Kee curry puff, had them for dinner yesterday night, delicious.
- 5 bottle of Satay Sauce. You need coupons (which is in your goodies bag) to redemn, but again they are more than willing to give out extra, hence we got 5.



According to ChannelNewsAsia, the cost of the event was S$6m!!! About 12,000 people turned up, that's a cost of S500 for each person..........

Fossil watch
Finally bought this watch which I love since 2004 from Ebay, cost me £35, about the half price of RRP. The condition of the watch was still in excellent condition, hardly worn by the seller.

My first Radley bag
Always love a Radley bag, with that little cute Scottish dog tag and the inside of the bag being lined with pretty fabric...... irresistible......

Sam was in the mood to drive our newly purchased car, eager to take it out for a spin and test all it's power and features. We decided to drive to Bicester Village.

As my birthday is approaching and Sam being clueless as to what to buy for me, I picked my own gift from Radley and Sam gladly pays. I was very indecisive as to which design, size, colour I want. After nearly making Sam bleed from his ears with my endless questions (I think this looks good but the colour doesn't match my work clothes, oh what about this... Oh no, this is too small for me, isn't it.... How about this, it's too cutie for me hor.....think this one too old...), I finally decided on the large shoulder bag (see picture but in brown).

RRP £185
Purchase price £91.20

Buying Car
Been looking to buy a car to replace our old one (Nissan Primera) since last year. The old car is still working but it no longer got much power to go up hill, and there's always some knocking noise here and there. MOT is due in May and we doubt it will pass without some huge repair bills. The car has served us well as we bought it when it was 7 years old with 82k mileage. Now, it's 12 years old with 130k mileage on the clock. Great car...... will miss it.....

I want a small car, Sam wants a big car, so we decided to compromise and buy a medium size car.

It's a Ford Focus, 2L engine, 5 and a half years old with 39k mileage on the clock and cost us £3,500 after part exchanging our old car. Will pick up the new car next Sat.....meanwhile we got to sort out the insurance.

Make up artist
Was recommended Qiqi by Naomi. The price for wedding make up in the morning and evening was steep @ $688 (without any trial). However I still go ahead as Naomi said that her make up was very naturally (which I want as I didn't want to look wayang) and also I thought it's better if the MUA was recommended.

I met up with Qiqi a few days before the wedding and select the hairstyle for morning and evening from her photo album. Qiqi is very patient and will provide you with recommendations but the ultimate decision lies with you. She also provide me with some advice on hair cut and colour as I wanted to have a hair cut and colour before the wedding.

I decide to have my hair up in the morning as according to Qiqi, the look will suit the kua. As for the evening hairstyle, I decide on having half my hair down for a more evening look. Qiqi recommended me to buy the hydrangeas flower as it will match my evening gown and boy was she right!!

I do feel that the make-up was heavy on the wedding day (guess that's because I seldom wear make up). Upon viewing the wedding photos, I realised that the look was very natural and I was well pleased with the hairstyle for the evening.

No regrets, Qiqi is worth every penny!!

Hotel stay
With the wedding dinner at Min Jiang Restaurant (within Goodwood Park Hotel), we naturally want a room in the hotel for the evening. As per previous post, we booked the Parklane suite thinking that it's within the main hotel.

Upon check-in, the lady brought us to a building outside the main hotel, across the carpark. At the ground floor of the building, before we even viewed the Parklane Suite, I kindly ask the lady if we can change the room as I'm not willing to walk all the way across the carpark to the restaurant in my wedding dress and to change to my evening gown later.

The lady made a call to the receptionist and an upgrade to Junior Suite was arranged (without additional charges). PS : We did arrive at the Hotel in Kua and Tang jacket, not sure it this helps in securing the upgrade.

The Junior Suite we were allocated was on the second floor overlooking the private pool. For security and to control noise level, you need to swipe your room card at the main door to get past before you get to the room door. That's means not everyone can knock on your room door. Rather inconvenient for us as friends and families need to call, instead of knocking on the door to get in!

Kua
The one thing I was most worried about is whether I can fit into the Kua I ordered. Was overjoyed that it fit perfectly when I tried it on a few days before the wedding!!

We rented the kua from The Red Redding which comes with a free rental of Tang Jacket. Surprisingly, Sam was willing to wear the Tang jacket, although he was abit embarrassed to be seen walking about in that at Goodwood Park Hotel for the wedding pictures.

Janet who runs The Red Wedding is very helpful, response from her via email was quick and she even have another kua for me to try on on the day we visit. Highly recommended.

Wine

Sam and I prefer white wine to red but it seems that red wine is the preferred wine for wedding dinner, thus red wine it is then. However both Sam & I have no clue which red wine to buy, bought a few to test and we decided on Carlo Rossi Red based on Serene and Sam's dad recommendation (thanks). Bought a total of 15 bottles from Giant Parkway Parade. Was worried about wine not being enough for 7 tables, but decided to stick to 15 bottles eventually.

On the wedding day, we were also given 3 bottle of white wine and 3 bottles of sparkling white. Great as we didn't even buy any white wine!! After the wedding, we still have left 1 red and 1 sparkling to bring home.

Wedding Favours

We ordered the wedding favours and guest book from www.weddingfavours.com.sg. Each favour was to be filled with chocolate eggs but we paid extra and changed it to Hershey's kisses. The wedding favours were individually packed and delivered on time.

PS : Was too busy on the wedding day, forgot to take our own wedding favours or eat any of the Hershey's kisses. Gutted!!