The Modern Mom

Things have been getting hectic in the office. I'm now in the process of getting speakers for my conference and it's quite hard considering that they are not getting paid and would have to fly into the conference. The boss is getting more demanding as time goes, which according to my officemates, is just going to get worst. Haha. Hopefully, I'll be able to handle the pressure. I've been wanting to post entries last week but I just wanted to climb to bed whenever I get home. Hehe. This was what Ayn and I ate last Sunday at Giant. We did the week's grocery shopping there and finished around 9PM. We were starving, so we decided to just have dinner there. After I did my rounds at the food court, I finally settled on this Char Siew Wonton Noodles, which costs around S$3.50. It was very good! Maybe it was because I was so hungry. Hehe. It came with a free bowl of soup, which was good for the empty stomach. The noodles were firm with a bite, the char siew was good but a bi...

My day started at 7:00AM when my alarm rang! Haha Even though I slept at 11:30PM, I was still so sleepy. After showering, I hurried up and made a chicken sandwich and since I was running late, I wasn't able to put make-up anymore. I reached the office at 8:59AM! Talk about beating the clock. Haha. Anyway, had a busy day. I went through intensive training today and started research on a new topic assigned to me. According to another Filipina Conference Producer there, the work is really stressful! It's kind of scary but hopefully I'll be able to do it right! Will post some pictures of my office when I get the chance. :) I went to Bugis last Saturday with Ayn and Les because Les' sister is here with her friend. We ate at the hawker center at Bugis Street. We had Chilli Crab with Mantou (fried bread). So there, I'm super tired already! Will be going to bed soon. Goodnight!

Fifth day of my diet, meat and veggies day! Haha. I've been wanting to use my crock pot for quite some time now and I thought this was the best opportunity to make some Braised Pork. I marinated 200 grams of Pork Shoulder Butt (teehee..) with some garlic, dark soy sauce, sugar, a little ketchup, and Mama Sita's BBQ Marinade. I soak the meat for about 30 minutes. I put the pot on the stove and heated it with some oil. I seared the meat on both sides put all the marinade inside. I added a cup of boiling water. Since mine didn't not have a heat option, I constantly had to check the meat for doneness. I turned it on at 8PM looking like this: I forgot to take a photo when I sliced it up! Boo! But this is how it looked like when I reheated it for lunch. Since I didn't have cornstarch, I used flour to thicken the sauce. I took the meat out, sprinkled half a tablespoon of flour and stirred like crazy with a fork. I miss my big whisk at home! Since I can't have rice, I made ...

It's been raining here for half an hour already and it doesn't seem to be letting up. Fat chance of me being able to go to the grocery to buy some bananas for my 4th day diet. Usually, it just rains here very hard for five minutes then it's gone. However, nowadays, the weather seems to be getting worse. I'm now stuck at home until the rain stops. I've been having bad dreams lately. I think it's subconscious anxiety for my first day. Hehe. I usually have these dreams when I was younger and school was about to start. I dreamt that I left all my things at home so I was panicking! Same with last night, I dreamt that Ayn and I went to a 5-star hotel to return something but it turned out that the hotel was still in construction. Ayn left me for a meeting and took the car keys with her. As soon as she has left, I remembered that my bag was in the car with my phone and money so I couldn't go home! I was panicking again because I didn't know where Ayn was! Haha. ...

Or rather, cheaters only win when they don't get caught! Haha. Third day on the 7-day diet and it seems that I am having a harder time sticking to it. My boss unexpectedly called me around 12NN today, asking if I could report to the office ASAP. He was still sick and only went to the office to finish submitting my papers. How cool is he? ;P I reached there around 1:30PM, signed some documents and went straight to PSA Tanjong Pagar. That's where 'S' Passes are processed. According to my boss, it is quite a walk from the MRT station so I thought it would be best if I took a cab instead. It only costed me S$5.20 from our building at Raffles Place. The processing was fast! All I had to do was get a number and wait for the counter to call me. The lady that handled my papers was nice, thorough and quick. After categorizing everything, she told me to go to the thumbprint area to have mine scanned then that's it! I CAN NOW OFFICIALLY WORK IN SINGAPORE!! Yahoo! :) ANYWAY, b...

As part of my Day 2, I made broccoli with oyster sauce! I have always loved cooking with oyster sauce so it's a staple at the kitchen. Anyway, here's a step by step guide on how to cook this very simple dish! I edited the photos a bit because I was using my E71 camera so they were a bit dark. Get a whole head of garlic and mince it. I used to peel the garlic without crushing them but since I'm going to mince them anyway, I crushed away! Haha Use a whole broccoli for this. Chop the stems thinly as well. Wash the broccoli flowers with salt to get rid of unwanted insects that might be inside. Very useful advice from my mom! On high heat, put approx. 1 tbsp. of oil. Add the garlic and brown them. Add the stems first because they take longer to cook. After around 40 seconds, add the broccoli flowers. Toss them a bit, making sure that the garlic is all over them. Add some boiling water, around 1/4 cup. Make sure it's boiling water because if you put lukewarm water, it will co...

The art of doing nothing is ridiculously hard! I know, I know, I should get out there and exercise or clean but I'm so sleepy (Excuses, excuses! Haha). Anyway, Mondays are comedy nights at Star World and since Ayn and I usually eat dinner that time, I catch the replays the next morning; so I've been watching tv since 11AM! More on my diet, we made buttered mixed vegetables last night so Ayn could bring some for lunch today. It wasn't as good as I remembered them to be. There must be something wrong with the frozen mix I bought yesterday. Now, I'm smelling what Ate Kleng is having for lunch, which is making me very hungry! Smells like BBQ Chicken, yum! I spoke with Atsi yesterday and she told me that she now has a cast on her leg because she sprained her ankle by missing a step on a sidewalk in Paris. We were all worried but it didn't help us from sharing a laugh or two because of her clumsiness! She's now much better, she just has to wear the cast for 15 days. :...

I went to Aljunied to get the results of my blood test and chest x-ray for the completion of the application of my work pass and when I reached the office to submit them, my boss was not in! According to the receptionist, he won't be back for a couple of days. Boohoo! I was really looking forward to starting this week. I tried calling him but couldn't get an answer, so I sent him an SMS instead. I did not get a reply but hopefully he'll give me one tomorrow. I've been in Singapore for a little more than a month now and I still have not started to move and exercise. It's not that I had no opportunities to do so because there's an oval track below our building and I had plenty of time while looking for work. It's just plain old laziness! Haha. Ayn and I have been saying that we'd start dieting but it's only today that we really did start. We're going on the 7-day diet, guaranteed to make one lose 8-9 lbs. in a week. Basically, this is how the 7-day...

I've been wanting to start a blog on my new journey as a Singapore Expat ever since I decided to try finding work here; but a lot of things had happened and so it is only now that I've found time to do this. Moving to another country has really been an emotional roller coaster ride. I had never joined any study tours before so the feeling of independence was scary. I began toying with the idea of coming here last June when I felt that I needed a change in my environment. I was working for my family then and I could not help but feel that I wanted to find something more. Among my group of friends in college, two have already braved going cross-country to find employment. Joyce is now based in LA, while Ayn is based in Singapore. My other friend, Tin, had decided to pursue her MBA degree, while Nina and Lo are SAP consultants, therefore guaranteeing their future careers in that field. Cla, my older sister, has finished her MBA and is now in Paris as an exchange student. Everyone ...