Summary of 2011

Since last year, I decided that I will write a summary of my year each December on my blog.

It's now time for a summary of my year again.

How time flies.

I started 2011 with a trip to London. That was my first business trip since I started working with the bank in April 2010. It was good to finally meet people I've been working with face-to-face. With the pound at an all time low, I also did a lot of shopping in London and had a really heavy luggage to drag back home. It didn't helped that I hurt my ankle just before leaving London, and pretty much limped my way onto the plane and back home to Singapore.

In March a terrible earthquake shook Japan, causing huge tsunamis to hit the Sendai region and North-eastern part of Japan really badly. The Husband and I visited Sendai and the Tohuku region around March/ April 2010, exactly one year before the earthquake and tsunami. We couldn't help thinking how fortunate we were - to have missed the terrible incident and visit those lovely places before the disaster.

We also made a big purchase decision in March that will move us to a faraway place (by Singapore standards, far away from where we currently stay) in 2014. Since then, I have been trying to read magazines and books on renovation and home decoration with the hope that I can be more discerning when it comes to home decoration in the future.

We also managed to visit Malacca over a long weekend for the first time in April. It's not common for Singaporeans to not have visited Malacca, so I was glad to have finally checked that box. We had the the most amazing tandoori chicken and naan in Malacca, so I supposed we'd definitely be visiting Malacca again sometime in the near future.

In May, I went for another business trip to London and New York. This was another good trip. I even managed to visit Oxford with a few colleagues over a weekend. After this business trip, there were some changes at work that resulted in me looking after a bigger team.. Suddenly, I got really busy and stressed out at work.

Around this time, The Husband decided to take a break from his hectic work life. He went home to Hong Kong for a few weeks to spend time with his family and also brought over a box of Alphonso Mangoes from Mustafa for them, which everyone loved. (These mangoes are delicious. I'd always be watching out for them around this time every year from now on.)

I took my block leave around the end of June to join him in Hong Kong. After we returned, The Husband started cooking and baking a lot of desserts in his spare time. I especially loved the many souffles he made, even though he declared most trials failures and the one that really did succeed according to him, I didn't get to eat.

Also around this time was the Singapore 2011 General Elections. I am never one to bother much about politics, but I went to one of the rallies near my place and I must say it was really rather exciting. The incumbent party in Singapore really need to work that much harder to win the hearts of younger Singaporeans!

In September, we took a short break to Bangkok. It rained almost everyday when we were there. After that, there were severe floods in Bangkok, so again, we were lucky to have had our holidays very much unspoiled.

After we came back, there was a piece of very bad news in the family - Someone had to cancel his wedding plans and got into quite a lot of personal debt as a result of prior commitments for the upcoming wedding. This incident affected me very much and I tried to help what I can.. though I also realised in retrospect that this incident is both a blessing in disguise and also an expensive lesson for that Someone. I still do hope and pray that he will recover from this incident and come out stronger.

The Husband took me on a relaxing break to a small and private resort in Batam to getaway from all the frustrations at home and stress at work, and we had a few quiet, relaxing days to ourselves.

My little niece also joined the family around this time. In the midst of all the frustrations, she really brought a lot of laughter and joy to the family.

November and December were busy months at work. I also moved to a new office location. Work got busier and busier and my hours got longer and longer. I had some good news at work in December and I guess that was a nice way to end a busy 2011 for me.

2012 will be another busy year, but there are lots of things for me to look forward to as well. I have learnt that as long as one is surrounded by love (people who love you and people you love), life will always have things for you to look forward to.

Happy New Year everyone!

Dorayaki

The Nex mall is the biggest mall near our home, and we often go there for a movie. But I don't fancy the restaurants in Nex, so we seldom have our meals there.

There is something I really like to eat from Nex though, and that's the Dorayaki from Fiesta, located at B1 (Shokutsu 10).

Dorayaki (銅鑼焼き) is a kind of Japanese confectionery. It's the favourite snack of Doraemon, the robot cat from the future.

Dorayaki is made up of 2 sweet pancakes with a generous dollop of filling. The traditional filling is red bean paste, although you can find easily find other fillings like cheese and chocolate in dorayaki today.

At the Fiesta stall at Nex, they make the dorayaki on the spot, after you order. First, the pancakes are cooked on one side. Then, they are flipped over and then stamped with the Fiesta logo. Lastly, the filling was added to the centre of one of the pancakes and the the 2 slices of pancakes were sandwiched together.

The freshly made dorayaki is delicious - fragrant and hot on the outside, with cold filling. I like the red bean paste filling and green tea cream filling.

It's nice to stand there, watching the dorayaki being made

Christmas Dinner

The star of the dinner

The beef was perfectly cooked

We had a wonderful dinner last night at D's house.

She made a great roast beef - 3 kg of beef, marinated with lots of herbs, roasted perfectly until pink in the centre. The roasted carrots and baby potatoes tasted so good I forgot all about my low-carb diet. To make the dish a little more festive, she made an apple relish to accompany the meat.

G brought her signature salad to dinner - thick slices of salmon sashimi with cold lettuce and a tangy Japanese sesame dressing.

We ended the meal with 2 desserts - The Husband's Mango Delight and Ugly Chocolate cake.

One of my favourite salad - sashimi with lettuce and sesame dressing

We got to have a really wonderful and peaceful meal at D's place, without the hussle and bustle of the Christmas crowd.

I think from now on, I'd always have Christmas dinner at home, either my own or a friend's home.