My TCM experience

The most in-thing in my family lately (hubby’s side) is Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM for short).

My mum-in-law swears by it. My dad-in-law listens to no other doc but this one. The other-in-laws are amazed by his diagnosis.

Well, so my mum-in-law (who started it all) ‘evangelized’ the ‘good' news to me and brought me with her to the sinseh @ Sin Nam Medical Hall which is located all the way at Yishun (yes Yishun) St 71.

My MIL says the sinseh, who has a stylo name- Jeremiah, will not see anyone who does not make a prior appointment. Whoa.

When I reached the place, there were chairs outside the clinic. We had to take a queue number too. Ok…Pretty impressive.

Jeremiah also does not allow the ‘patient’ to attend his consultation accompanied. His logic? So that he can focus on the ‘patient’… or is it because the ‘patient’ would not be distracted…? Something along that line…

Anyway, it was my turn to see him. My greeting was returned with a ‘Hmm'. Ok, no nonsense here. WITHOUT A WORD, Jeremiah felt my pulse on both wrists, one at a time and he also took a hard look at both my palms. Strangely, he finally lightly scratched at my wrists and watched the effects. Maybe the faster the scratch marks faint away, the healthier I am? Hmmm….. Meanwhile, Jeremiah scribbled away while he looked at my hands.

Well, I know that TCM practitioners claim they can check the state of one’s health and internal organs by looking at the palm.

Finally the words were spoken. A couple of stuffs he said was really accurate. Some stuffs I do not know cos I can’t see! The rest, he ‘prophesized’ will happen (yikes!).

He also banned some foods on my food list, eg: No cold and fruit drinks (Gosh!), no cabbage (huh?), eat tomatoes and carrots cooked, no pancakes etc etc.

Therefore, my first consultation ended with a rather substantial bill for one week’s worth of medicine, yukky medicine that I had to take 3 times a week,

and a whole list of banned food….

So do I believe and persist in TCM? We shall see….

Jerb

Healthy eating

I feel really blessed this week. My mum-in-law has been preparing my meals and delivering them to my house (thank God she lives across the street) for the last few days.

Boy, I’ve never eaten so healthily for such a long stretch of time before! Because I was unwell, I had nothing fried, no snacks, no chilli (my MIL thinks it’s bad for my health… but that’s because I eat ALOT), no cold drinks…

Almost everyday, I eat porridge or soup with rice. My MIL even cooks brown rice porridge for me a couple of times. Everything is boiled and steamed. I think I am starting to radiate with good health! Keke… I hope so.

Tonight, my MIL was unable to cook for me. But she so nicely bought the raw food and asked me to cook them myself! HAHA! I haven’t cooked for such a long time!

Here’s my very healthy dinner….

Dish #1 Steamed rice

Dish #2 Pomfret+chinese mushrooms+ginger+garlic+sesame oil+soya sauce

---> steam

Dish #3 Vege

Tomatoes+broccoli+carrots+salt+mushroom oyster sauce+garlic

I was thinking whether to pan-fry this dish… But since I was already so healthy, I might as well be healthy all the way!

So….

I steamed the dish as well!

And ta-da… presenting my home-cooked dinner (you are right, Jared had none of this)…

Verdict: The fish was nice… I love pomfret.

But the vege was … it was… kinda raw…

Lesson learnt: It’s better to pan-fry my vege. And I should leave the cooking to my MIL.

Well, I do hope I keep up with healthy eating anyway…!

Hong Kong – Shopping Paradise :)

Not for Jared… but for me!

Day 1… Just by walking around TST area near our hotel, I picked up some stuffs…

I bought the clothes at a shop called Maple, located at Tsim Sha Tsui, Hankow Road. They have a few branches in HK. The best thing about this shop- They open till MIDNIGHT!!! Dream shop!

We also bought stuffs for Jared’s nephew and niece @ H&M

The kids’ selection at the TST branch at I think Salisbury Road, is amazing! They have 7 cuts of jeans for the little boys and girls!

After visiting 2 H&M branches in HK, we now conclude that H&M is much cheaper in America and Europe. So we got nothing from H&M HK.

Loot from Day 2…

We went to Arglye Centre (Wang Jiao Zhong Xin) @ Mongkok. It’s like the Far East Plaza of HK.

Even though the shops are starting to sell thicker clothings for winter, I could still get many great stuffs for sunny SG. :)

I bought 4 leggings/jeggings this trips! For now, I am preferring to wear the oh-so-comfy leggings than jeans.

Day 3, we went to walk Temple Street. We heard it’s like a giant pasar malam. It’s true! But it was quite fun to walk around and see the interesting stuffs they stock. Cute bedroom slippers, all sorts of toys, pretty nice jewellery (I bought a bunch of bangles here!), fake branded stuffs etc etc.

Felt peace when we walked here because…

Cool!

We also went to HK Industrial Centre @ Lai Chi Kok. It’s like the City Plaza of HK. But too bad I was there on the stock arrival day- Monday… Retailers were there haggling with the wholesalers, and men were unloading HUGE BAGS of …. clothes/bags/shoes!

Many of the shops did not entertain customers like me that day. Either that or they would mark up the price by ALOT more for customers as compared to the price they give retailers. So, in the end, I only managed to buy from 2 shops. :( 

In a sense, that’s good too…. if not, my wallet would have been FURTHER drained.

So if you are interested to visit the shops there, as advised by 1 of the wholesalers, go on a Saturday. Sundays are closed.

Another thing to note about the shops in HK (with the exception of departmental stores) are that they generally do not allow customers to try on the clothes. Most of them sell free-sized clothes though. So you either buy clothes that you are v confident of fitting into or else risk giving away lotsa X’mas presents!

So for me, this was indeed a FRUITFUL but quite a tiring trip! :)))

Hong Kong – Food Paradise?

Honestly, we think HK food is quite bland as compared to SG’s. Alot of noodle soup and porridge here.

One of the nicer wanton noodles we ate was at Good Hope Noodles shop located at Mongkok, opposite Argyle Centre.

The uncle who cooked porridge in the same shop… So Old style right?

But what’s really Delicious is their Dim sum & Dessert. :)

We had our Dim Sum @ the Tao Heung restaurant at Carnavon Road at Tsim Sha Tsui (TST).

My favorite century egg porridge! Jared does eat… without the century egg….

Chee Cheong Fun… this one, the skin was kinda thick.

Har Kow… Must eat while hot.

And the juicy succulent prawn inside looks like this….

Hmmm….

My favorite dish up next…

‘Feng jiao’ or chicken feet!!! I ate the whole plate. It was so delicious, I ordered it the next day, without the pork ribs.

Very good siew mai.

Mango pudding. Nice!

We had 8 dishes for less than SG$20. Cheap!

Jared got tired of soup noodles so we found Jap food- Azura Sabo @ TST near our hotel and ate there for 2 of our meals. It was cheaper than SG’s cos in HK, they do not charge taxes and service charge.

Jared, very satisfied with his fruit crepe.

Finally…. Something spicy for me!!! :)

Now… let’s drool at the dessert. A famous place is Hui Lau Shan or ‘Xu Liu Shan’ in Chinese.

They offer take away too. Very rich dessert with many selections with mangoes! Yum!

We ordered take away 1 day, and sat down to have proper dessert the other day.

My mango and pomelo dessert.

Jared’s fruit platter and mango with glutinous balls dessert.

They were DELICIOUS!

We also visited Charlie Brown cafe. The food was NOT nice and the price is steep. Only good for phototaking.

Cute cartoon characters on the way up to the cafe which is on the 2nd floor.

 

The cafe itself. Even the ceiling is ‘cartoonized’.

The most handsomest man waiting for his b’fast. :)

Hungry!

Cute cappuccino. I like woodstock!

I’m famished!

Take a closer look at my toast…

Looked like snoopy got slapped. :(

Photo-taking time after b’fast!

My favorite table.

But Jared prefers….

This cafe even have a party room just like Mac Donald’s!

So, that’s all for the food in HK!

The Sights of Hong Kong

Although Jared and I slept for only an hour + the night before trying to clear our work and our packing, we were really looking forward to our holiday together in Hong Kong.

Deep down in my heart, I am wondering why Jared would want to go HK cos I know HK is my paradise- a shopping paradise.

Well, anyway, we’ll see. :)

We landed in HK on Sat afternoon. Stayed there for 4 days and nights altogether. In this blog post, I will just put up pictures of the beautiful city of HK.

This is the hotel we stayed in- Park Hotel (it was also our wedding hotel in SG!:)).

Though it was our option B, it was really a blessing in disguise! It is situated right smack in Tsim Sha Tsui district in Kowloon. After walking around for these 4 days, we both agreed that TST is the nicest place to walk around.

We have Queen’s bakery beside the hotel, opposite is Charlie Brown cafe,

there are many shops retailing shoes, perfumes and bags, cafes, restaurants, CD shops… mostly opened till late into the night!

We really enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city life here.

TST is a very happening place! We do not have to worry about shopping and eating late into the night :)

On Day 2, we went to watch the nightly Symphony of Lights at the Avenue of Stars. It was @ the TST district, so we walked over.

Along the way, we sighted the biggest branded bag (Polo Santa Roberta… Is it Polo Ralph Lauren? Santa Barbara? Roberta?!)

When we reached the Avenue of Stars, we saw that the outline of their 44 skyscrapers really beat SG’s.

At 8pm, a couple of the taller buildings started to emit laser lights. And not forgetting, the sound of some cultural music playing in the background.

10 mins into the show, I kept asking Jared “That’s it? This is the Symphony of Lights? Did we miss something?”

Jared’s reply was, “What a waste of electricity…. Every night they do this? Goodness…”

Well, we were both disappointed although maybe not in the same things…!

On Day 3, we ventured up… to Victoria Peak! Here are some pictures taken on our way up.

Trams

We should be going somewhere…. there?

Beautiful architecture…. the buildings @ the ‘Raffles Place’ of Hong Kong.

It was an uphill task to get to the peak tram station… which will bring us further UUUPPP to the peak.

Finally!

The tram…. look at the crowd….

We had to say ‘Bye bye’ to this tram and wait for the next…

it was quite fun going up Victoria peak because it was just amazing to see how the buildings were erected on the slopes! The tram was like moving vertically up the slope and gosh, how scary the buildings look… quite not the right way up!

Finally we reached and had to pay to get to the top viewing gallery for the awesome view and air.

But it was worth it.

Victoria Peak at about 6:30pm on 9 Nov, 2009.

We were also wanting to go and check out Madam Trussarde’s BUT… it was closed at 6pm that day for a private function. SO SAD!!! :(

So we left the peak and went to stroll along Lan Kwai Fong which was nearby. It was like the Holland V of Hong Kong.

The next day, we decided to visit Ocean Park.

Our tickets!

This is a must-take photo… proof that we’ve been here!

The 1st ride we took- Rushing River

After the space shuttle ride, our siew mais were already at our throats…

So we just took pictures of the mine train.

Then we took this ride which allowed us to take the 360 degree overall view of Ocean Park:

So that’s it! Stay tuned for food and shopping! :)

Random Updates

Ok, I know I have ‘backslided’ from blogging!

Had been down with the flu bug for 1.5, almost 2 weeks, busy with my annual audit (and the auditors are coming back again in 1.5 months’ time!), trying to be busy with making jewellery for a flea market (which happened today @ SMU), busy with a growing CG and subzone (Yipee!)…

Well, although busy, I feel really fulfilled and happy with life everyday. :)

Anyway, here are some random photos and updates during these few weeks!

Some of the beautiful gals in my CG. Luv you gals!

The Halloween necklace I custom made for Ming Hui- the witch. HAHA! Thanks for the support Ming Hui! :)

Look at the gorgeous witch with her gorgeous necklace!

(Got this photo from Fiona’s facebook!)

Then in early October, we celebrated Daniel’s birthday. We went to 1 of my favorite restaurants- Bali Thai. Feast your eyes on these good-lookers! ;)

Starters: Green Mango salad

Chilli Kangkong

Seafood tom yum (yummy) soup!

Delicious green curry

Tempura

Stuffed drumstick… Recommended!

Deep fried calamari rings. Sedap!

Cashew nut chicken

We will definitely be back for more!

Anyway, another very random update… I will be going to HK next week with Jared! Yeahhhhh! Can’t wait for this break…..!

Shopping Junkies

Yes, i am a shopping junkie. And so is my good friend Sandra. And so are the many many females out there :)

We don’t just own a couple of earrings, shoes, belts etc etc... We purchase 1 item every other week! We don’t just have clothes enough to settle the 7 days in a week… We own an overflowing wardrobe of clothes! I sometimes even ‘shop’ within my wardrobe… finding pieces that I didn’t quite remember existed in my collection! And I know, the men just like my hubby, would NEVER comprehend our insatiable desire for things BRAND-NEW. :)

And so out of our desire to shop, Sandra and I decided to start our own blogshop – Shopping Junkies @ www.shopping-junkies.com! We mainly would be selling our handmade jewelry. So if you are like us, into accessorizing for every kind of occasion and for every color scheme of dressing OR you are wanting to get a good gift for a girlfriend, do pop by our online store! In fact, we have already launched 3 collections to date. :) The latest one being our Deepavali collection featuring gold jewelry! Check these out…!

So do lend your support and visit us… and BUY from us something u like! :)

THANKS in advance!!!

P.S: Do feel free to tell us what kinds of designs you would like to see. Your feedback is valuable to us!