Any Brides whose HTB is 'Ang Mo'?

[cuclainne]

de_luxe: thanks - yah, the kids were confused because their little bodies were still telling them to be up when they should be asleep. only managed to calm the eldest down at around 2.30am and then we had to force ourselves to sleep as well. have a major headache right now but it should be better after lunch. can't wait to sleeeep tonight .. hahahah ..

glympse: my husband's the same as your HTB when it comes to bread, cheese and milk. he always complains about the standard of bread here - if your HTB likes the dark, dense type of bread, there is a bakery near pasir panjang that does this kind of bread but they close pretty early. as for cheese, the husband loves the brown norwegian goat's cheese which we can only find at the norwegian seamen's mission here.

as always when we are back in stockholm, the first thing we do after dropping off the bags is to head to the supermarket and buy at least 5 types of bread/ crispbread, various cheeses, milk and yoghurt. and each time the in-laws come to visit, they will bring bags of bread and cheese for the husband .. this time around, we even brought back two bags of muesli for him. hahahah ..

but that's about all the food that the husband misses from back home - even before we arrived in sweden, he was already talking about missing the local food here ..

 

[cuclainne]

de_luxe: so you're going to have shift twice? better not unpack everything then .. i sure hate the packing/ unpacking bit .. are your belongings in storage?

 

[maplehue]

hi ladies,

Cuclainne, speaking of being jetlagged. I am still not over it. Jeff and I are still wide awake at night sometimes till 2-3am and if we managed to sleep earlier, we'll wake up at 2-3am and can't sleep till the next morning. Luckily I brought my tiger balm with me cos headache non stop.I was just telling the hubby, by the time, we got used to the time zone here, it's time to go back to Asia. Haizz. Anyway, how are the girls now and how are you and Elias? Hope you guys can sleep normally soon and as for the laundry, just wash what you need to wear first.

I'll be back in Sg on July 12. I have Deluxe's number and I've bought a prepaid phone card. How do I contact you? I'll pm you my number. I assume meeting after office hour works ok with you? Or are you still on leave?

Now i must add fish noodles and porridge with century egg on my 'what to eat' list! I totally forgot about century egg. Scrum! I'm sure chinese rojak is scrummy but i can't eat it cos of my nut allergy. I love the cha kuwey!

Hi Deluxe...YES. That was the first thing I had when we arrived in Canada. Hehe. Straight from the airport, Jeff's parents drove us to a restaurant that sells fries with poutine and I 'whack' the whole thing by myself, So unlady-like! With the hot gravy and cheese on top of the fries...it was very yummy. And thank you for mentioning red bean bun, that is now on the list too!

Canada is beautiful and peaceful. I love Jeff's parents house. We've been bbq-ing a lot in the backyard but since I was recently diagnosed with a sun allergy, i can't do much in the sun! It is slowly sinking in and I do feel a little down every now and then.

Sometimes dealing with NTU can be so infuriating and I feel your frustration. Maybe for now, instead of going somewhere further, why not just go to Jurong Point instead? I thought they have sushi there too? So if they called, you can just hop on the feeder bus. Don't settle for a smaller apt Deluxe. Fight for it cos once you take what they give, they won't really entertain you when you want to change. I hope you guys get the 3 bedroom one near the swimming pool. The layout is quite nice and you'll have a huge balcony.

Fingers crossed yeah.

I'll msg or call you on the 12th when I'm back ok. I'm thinking maybe we can meet on Orchard rd cos it is in the central. Or maybe Holland V? We'll discuss more via sms/ph with Cuclainne when i get back k.

Cuclainne and Glympse, if your hubbies want good bread, Simply Bread on Sixth Avenue and Bukit Timah is the place to go but you need to get there early cos they get snapped up fast! They have different kinds of bread and so many ang mohs go there to get their "special" bread. My hubby doesn't like the normal bread either so we always make a special trip there when we are in Sg.

You girls should also try the sticky buns!

and yes deluxe, i agree w cuclainne, better not unpack everything first...

Its 11:45pm here, 3:45pm in Sg...and I am still wide awake.

Talk soon ladies.
x

 

[glympse]

Wow! So much action over the past half day or so. Love the activity! Looks like I'm in the right place

cuclainne, my LDR was about 1.5 years too, before my HTB relocated to SG in end April this year

Emil (my HTB) is from Malmo actually, so southernmost part of Sweden

Did you have your wedding in both Singapore and Sweden? Emil and I are planning for the church ceremony and banquet to be in Singapore, while having another celebration in Sweden. It's looking like it's going to be an interesting logistical challenge

And yea, Emil misses more of the dairy in Sweden (he still finds the bread here ok). He gets his kaviar fix from Ikea, so it's not too bad. But haha yea, he's like your HB. When he was in Sweden, he missed his mee hoon kueh ... esp during wintertime

Chrisl, I think I've just enabled my PM

Let me know if it works? Thanks in advance for sharing

And hey, you can tell your HB that the perks of Singlish is that you build rapport with the hawkers, and hence get better service! (or as much service as one can expect from a hawker stall ). My friends also find just listening to my HTB and his Singlish fascinating

Mrs N, thanks for the warm welcome! Haha nah, am so glad to have found this thread

oh so you're living in the UK? Nice! How long have you been staying there? Do you miss Singapore?

maplehue, thanks for the warm welcome as well

Wow looks like you and your hubby are quite the jetsetters

Though I can imagine that you're probably looking fwd to settling down in Hong Kong

Are you considering staying there long term, or would you move back to Singapore? Yeah, planning for the 2 celebrations in Singapore and Sweden is proving to be quite a challenge, especially since we stil wanna keep within the average Singaporean wedding budget. With fuel prices on the increase, think our biggest concern is the airfare. And Emil comes from a rather big family, so may be a financial challenge to fly them all over (we definitely want them around though, no matter what the cost). But yea, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, meanwhile just saving saving saving! Thanks for the tip about Simply Bread too - will go check it out if we have the chance. There's another decent place called Werner's Oven in Siglap, pretty good German pastries. When I was having withdrawal symptoms after coming back from Sweden (I love European bread!!), I bought bread from Werner's almost every week

de_luxe, thanks for all the great tips. Yeah, I've heard of the Wedding Present. One more place to keep an eye out for

Also have been warned about the photos thing ... my friend spent $4,000 solely on additional photos that she and her HB couldn't resist having. My HTB, Emil, has warned me though, that he's going be firm on not getting any extra photos Guess it also helps that my elder brother, who does photography on the side, will be helping to take photos for Emil and I when we're in Sweden for the Swedish celebration. So it'll be a nice mix of photo-shots and locations

And nope, don't think Emil has tried those milk brands. Shall attempt to try to convince him to give Singapore milk a second chance He is quite fascinated with the range of cheeses at Cold Storage though. I foresee that after we're married, our fridge will be full of salad, cheese, butter, bread, yoghurt ... cos I'm also quite a Western foodie (love salads and breads ). Haha yea, I think Emil was able to pick up Singlish quite well, because while he was in Sweden, he spoke mainly Swedish with his friends, and the only time he spoke English was with me on the phone or via webcam. So, I'm to blame for his Singlish My friends say he talks almost exactly like me... haha...

 

[cuclainne]

maplehue: it was not so bad when we went to stockholm (me and elias forced ourselves to stay awake the entire day since we arrived early in the morning) .. my mom and the kids caved in and had difficulty adjusting the first few days. last night was quite horrible because the girls were falling asleep way too early and kept waking up when elias and i were finally going to go to bed. finally managed to put sofi to bed at around 2.30am .. this morning, she and elin were still fast asleep when we were getting ready for work.

girls are with my mom right now (she went to bed at 4am this morning!! - 10pm swedish time) .. tonight i'm going to do several rounds of laundry (oh joy!) .. last night we only washed the necessary items, even then we were only done at around midnight ..

i'm ok with meeting after office-hours - have to informed elias in advance so that he can come and pick up the kids from the care centre though ..

i'll pm you my mobile number.

simply bread - don't they have another branch at robertson quay? we went there once and elias didn't like any of the bread that they have there - to him, the bread must not be soft and should be maltish like russian or finish rye breads. picky man he is .. hahaha ..

glympse: yes, we passed through malmo on the way to copenhagen last year. my father-in-law is originally from skåne .. he's been trying to persuade us to go there but the furthest south of the country we've been together is göteborg and the husband is not really keen on driving that far by himself (i don't have a driver's license).

nope, we only had our wedding here - though we held our ROMM and wedding lunch on separate days. my mother-in-law and her husband came for our ROMM and my father-in-law, family and my brother-in-law came for our wedding lunch two months later. i come from a big family (my mom has 14 brothers and sisters) so it made more sense for his family to come here instead. a couple of his friends came down as well so it was nice to share the special occasion with them.

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, I see I see. Well, if you ever decide to drop by Skane to visit your father-in-law, do let me know. Emil and I may be in the area (we're trying to go back to visit once every year). Haha your wedding sounds nice and simple ... if Emil and I had our way, we'd wanna do the same... simple ceremony, and lunch/dinner with those close to us. But for the sake of dad and his gazillion business associates, gotta go the Chinese banquet route. Already shuddering at the thought of yam-seng-ing at all the tables, and not knowing close to 50% of them but well, whatever makes my parents happy, least we could do after bringing me up all these years. Couples always tell me to remember that the banquet is ultimately for the parents, not so much for the couple. Guess that's useful to keep in mind when my parents request for certain things

 

[cuclainne]

yes, there were over 1500 people at our wedding lunch and i also didn't know the majority of the guests. we just sat there on the dais, and smiled for everyone .. hahahah .. we went through it because my parents insisted that they were going to foot the bill for the wedding lunch so we just left it to them. also need to keep the parents happy .. make them feel that their input was also considered.

for the wedding dinner held the night before, it was only for family and the husband's friends who came down so in total, we had only 15 people there inclusive of our wedding photographer so we were able to mingle and talk to everyone.

when is your wedding taking place? i just attended a colleague's wedding dinner at intercontinental - she only had about 10 tables. it was a nice, cosy atmosphere at the bugis vault.

 

[christie79]

wooohooo so many replies!

Glympse PMed you already! Yup most of us here had 2 celebrations. Same with me, i had a luncheon/tea ceremony and dinner for SG relatives and then for the norwegian one (for the relatives in norway who didn't come for the SG one) we had a barnyard wedding which lasted thru the night till 4am! haha can't believe it was 1 year ago! hehe so excited for you!

Wonder how's margie with her preps?

Wahh Maple i love cherries! Must be really sweet now that it's in season

last year here, my MIL had cherries grown in her garden but then the birds ate the fruits, she was furious!! And so this year, she is placing a net over the tree to be sure no one touches it!

Deluxe Hope you'll find a nice big apartment so there's no problem even when your hb's kakis come for a tiger or 2 hehe!

My hb miss a little tiger beer and thinks that the classic tiger beer should be sold in normal stores as well and not only in DFS changi airport..

Cuclainne hmm brown cheese is a little strong..have you tried yourself? Like it? wahh..jet lag! I don't like it either! I always have the feeling of like 'floating around' for the days after long plane trips

Good idea Mrs N to work half day. Get more rest!

 

[cuclainne]

i don't really fancy it - elias thinks it's very delicious though. his father bought him a huge slab of it for his birthday .. hahaha .. i prefer the cheese with vodka in it - yummy!

he had me try this product called messmor (http://www.fjallbrynt.nu/frameset.htm) - it's whey butter .. it tastes like the brown cheese but soft butter-like consistency. i didn't like it much either but apparently it's good for babies with constipation - just mix a tsp of it into their milk. sofi loves it! she turned into a 'berry' monster while we were there - since strawberries were in season, we kept buying box after box because she can easily eat about 6 pieces by herself at one sitting!! we bought blackberries, cherries - so cheap and sweet!!

you can't get tiger beer easily where you are?

 

[mrs_n]

Maple I just sneak in and out of SWA don't really have the time to post on there much these days.

That's nice of Cuddlefish to be looking out for you. So looks like you won't be lacking for S'porean company in HK as you were in Seoul. Anyway do enjoy your holiday in Canada.

Cuclainne difficult to sleep now lah! It's so bright early in the morning and then the birds start their choir practice.

Also very hard to sleep properly when tummy too big! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Hee! Hee! So Elias brought back some swedish supplies. If you're thinking of going back to sweden why not go in mid November or early December and you can be back in time for Christmas with the kids.

Eh you sure you didn't come back with No. 3 this time?

Good thing it's almost the weekend you can catch up on sleep then.

deluxe you still have to move again? Wow you'll break some record for the most number of moves in 6 months.

Glympse I've been in the UK almost 7 years. Yeah I do miss Singapore especially my family and the convenience of shops nearby (I'm living in a village not in a city).

But I don't really miss the stressful working environment.

Yeah I know what you mean. We would have been happy to have just one wedding but to keep peace with everyone we had two. We had our church wedding and a reception in the village hall in England. In S'pore we had a 'renewal of vows' in church and the usual dinner. None of my hubby's family could make it to the singapore wedding and only a handful of mine made it to the English one. Hubby's family were happy that they managed to attend the real thing and my family were happy to organise the S'pore wedding as it made them feel they were part of the celebration and didn't miss out on anything. Ha! Ha! No we didn't have a say in the S'pore wedding and just did as we were told!

Is your fiance's family organising the swedish wedding then?

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, wow, 1,500 is ALOT of people! I sure hope you didn't have to take pictures with ALL of them!!

But yea, it's really nice of ur parents to pay for the wedding lunch too, though I agree with you - the cosy dinner sounded a lot better

Now i'm so tempted to have something similar too, and just scrap the whole wedding banquet (my HTB and I had actually toyed with the idea of just giving all the dinner guest dinner vouchers or sth, then we just go off and do our own stuff haha. Of cos, it was never meant to translate into reality )

We're likely to hold our wedding banquet at Marriott (est 40 tables). Ideally I would have preferred just 15-20 tables, but yea. Dad's business associates

Chrisl, yea got ur PM, will reply tt separately later

Many thanks

Wow the banyard wedding sounded really nice! Haha I think the weddings in Europe are super fun ... and they last for a really long time. Attended 3 weddings in Sweden, similar to urs ... started early, ended really late, but it was heaps of fun the entire time, with no one taking themselves too seriously

Mrs N, haha sounds like you managed to please both sides! Well done! Not an easy feat

Yea, my HTB and I, with my family, are planning for the SG wedding (which I think has a lot more planning required logistically due to the scale), while HTB's family and friends will be helping with the Swedish celebration (we're looking at about 150-200 ppl for the Swedish one, with a more casual feel. HTB says his aunties would probably do all the cooking haha). Likely that HTB's immediate family and close friends will fly to Singapore, and vice versa for mine. Hoping to give both sides an authentic Singaporean/Swedish experience hehe

 

[cuclainne]

Mrs N: understood - somehow none of the positions feel right, you could be tossing and turning all night yah .. at one point of time, i was sleeping in an almost sitting position .. hahahah .. how's your name list coming along?

heheheh .. i can never get used to that - the sky being bright when it should be dark. spring is not as bad as the summer - when we were there, it only began to get dark at about 11.30pm and by 12.30am, it seems that the sun was going to rise again .. argh! by the time we get to bed and turn off the lights, the sky is light again outside the window .. and yes, i understand about the bird choir bit - first time in stockholm, i woke up at 3am thinking it was already 9am cos the birds were chirping!!!!

yes, he even brought back 2 bags of muesli just because my mom told him that she still has some space in her bag! hahahah ..

elias was thinking of spending the christmas period with his family and friends there, without the kids but on the other hand, we've always celebrated christmas with family here and since it'll be elin's first christmas, we're kind of hesitating on confirming. christmas is always a stressful period for me because have to prepare a few traditional swedish dishes on my own and we thought of taking a break and letting others do it for us this time .. hahahah ..

no no no .. we're certain that there is no no. 3 yet .. we want to take it easy until the girls are older before we can consider that task .. hahahah ..

glympse: we smiled until we cannot smile anymore .. but anyways we just went through it for the parents' sake .. it's just a few hours of 'suffering' .. hahaha ..

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, saw ur note to Mrs N re where to spend Christmas this year. Just thought you might like to know that Emil and I will be going back to Sweden this Dec to celebrate Christmas with his family (cos for the past 2 years, when he was courting me, he spent Christmas with me in New York when I was working there, and then in Singapore last year, so I felt it's time I 'give' him back to his family, esp since Christmas is such a big thing in Sweden

). We'll prob be there 21 Dec to 1 Jan. So if u and Elias decide to go back to Sweden to celebrate, and happen to be in the Skane area, do let me know

 

[cuclainne]

thanks glympse, will be sure to give you a tinkle if we happen to pass by.

the husband and a group of friends usually organise a get-together for midsummer and christmas but the locale is usually in the north.

for midsummer we drove 3.5 hours (the girls were not very happy about that) to a small town called smedjebacken in dalarna. as it is, we had only arrived two days before and my mom and the girls were still jet-lagged and called it quits by 10pm so we had to drive them back to the hotel (thank goodness it's only 8km away) before coming back to the party. by 12.30am i was ready to call it a night and THEN they started to bring out dessert - the first of three!!! the husband wanted to stay for the apple pie but his friend has only just begun peeling the apples and told me that it'll take another hour before it's ready .. *gulp*

soon it'll be august and time for crayfish party!!! do you like it?

 

[cuclainne]

ej: you never got back to me on the handsoap thingy .. i got two so i'm giving you the choice of either the strawberry or the blueberry scent. keeping the other for myself .. hehehe .. elias reckoned that i should have gotten the one with original scent even though he said it smells kind of clinical .. hahahah ..

 

[de_luxe]

cuclainne hope u managed to get some sleep.. i usually have to suffer a week of jet lag after a europe trip. Tired during the day but can't sleep at night, until can't tahan.

Yes I've to shift again. They said we can view the larger apt next week but not move in yet cuz it needs to be renovated. Dunno how long the reno will take. Most of our stuff are in the container on the way to SG now. We'll be living out of suitcases till the next move. I didn't anticipate getting an apt so soon so had to borrow bedsheets, pillows, etc from my parents. Good thing they helped with the moving and cleaning yesterday, else I sure to peng san, doing it alone.

This block is also currently under reno. So dusty n noisy. They started at 7 plus this morning, using trucks and machinery to move stuff ard in the car park and from 8 plus to evening, it's non-stop drilling, knocking and hammering... can go crazy!

maple oh dear, I never knew that there's such a thing as a sun allergy. What happens if you're in the sun for too long?

Oh i love cherries too! I can eat them non stop when they are in season!

Jurong Point is far for those not in the Boon Lay/Jurong area.. I was meeting my cousins and sister for lunch and they work in the Tg Pagar area, hence met them there. There is now a Sakae Sushi on campus so I wouldn't even need to go to Jurong Point, they renovated Canteen A completely and converted into a 2 level eating area. Food court above, and independant shops e.g. Macs, Subway, Old Chang Kee, Sakae Sushi below. Quite impressive actually.

Cuclainne and Glympse the bread from SwissBake and Cedele Depot is pretty good too. That's where we usually get our bread as we both dun fancy normal sliced bread. The orange bread from Cedele is yummy when made into french toast!

glympse yes, the cheeses at Cold Storage are generally pretty good. If your HTB doesn't mind processed cheese, Boursin is a good brand. I love both the black pepper and herb flavours. There's also a specialty cheese section at Jones The Grocer in Dempsey Hill. Have you been?

I like Western food too, although recently have been prefering Asian food, esp soupy stuff. Growing up, my mom used to make us salads, roast chicken and bread. I guess that's where it comes from

We had only 1 wedding in SG for less than 150pax. It wasn't even a 8/9-course Chinese banquet as I find that too boring, most pple just eat and go. We had a fusion 3-course set menu ending with a dessert buffet.

I didn't want a large banquet so put my foot down and told my mom to invite only immediate aunts and uncles. No great-great-great-grand cousin... that sort of stuff unless she wants to pay their share. For my HB, just his parents, brother, younger niece, 2 cousins and a friend came from Germany. And we went to Budapest for our honeymoon, returning to Germany to see his other frens before coming back.

We decided not to do one in Germany cuz it would have been quite expensive and he didn't have a clue about how to organise a wedding in Germany. But we did our engagement party (a bbq in his parents' garden) a year earlier in Germany, with his relatives and frens so I guess it evens out... haha

Mrs N yah lor i never tot I have to move so often... worse than when i was studying in france, had to move every 6 months. Tot will be more settled after getting married, who knows i end up moving more often.

 

[cuclainne]

de_luxe: yes, elias still couldn't sleep at night so he continued doing laundry until 2am this morning .. hahaha .. me, i was out by 12am - fell asleep while reading a book on the couch.

oh dear - really hate it when construction/ reno on-going nearby .. the dust, the noise .. when we were staying downtown and they were tearing down the condo next door, our apartment building would vibrate occasionally (my block is closest) and since our building is also quite old, it's quite scary esp. when there are young kids in the flat.

thanks for the advice re: the french toast .. maybe i can try it out this weekend

Mrs N: i finally managed to download the latest episodes of eastenders on piratebay.org - hehehe .. so happy to be able to watch it again after two years .. downloaded it to my iPod and watched it on the flight back .. hehehe ..

 

[georginat]

nisa, you did have a great holiday especially the shopping part !! if i go to spain, i will choose jan or july too, when they are having sale ! oh ya, see when we are free, can have a gathering at your place or somewhere?? havent seen you second girl yet...mu hubby also very fussy about the quality of bread, he said the breads in sg are not real breads ..cant stand him

deluxe, welcome back to sg !! we are comtemplating to return to sg in 2 or 3 years time too..baby luke does wake up during midnite, will have to feed him milk every 2 or 3 hours...can be so tired, no joke !!

chrisl..lotsof babydusts to you !!!hope to hear good news from you after x'mas ;-)

welome here, glympse!!

mrs. N...are you well prepared now??hee hee..notti me , trying to make you nervous

 

[cuclainne]

paiseh leh gina, i haven't come to visit you and your boy yet .. sorry sorry .. yah, can meet up - after all, de_luxe is already here and maplehue coming by .. maybe glympse might also want to join us?

hahahahah .. i think we can say that the europeans are quite passionate about their choice of breads .. hahahha ..

don't worry, gina - it will get better. during sofi's time, to stop her from requiring night feeding when she was a few months old, we will actualy rouse her from her sleep at the time we are preparing to go to bed and give her the last milk feed at that time. we put a little cereal in it to make her feel a little fuller, to last through the night. with elin, we didn't have to do it cos she auto stop requiring night feeding at 2 months old. but i am concerned because when she see us eat, she also make a face like she wants to eat but when we give her baby food, she doesn't really want .. sofi started eating baby food at less than 4 months old - i guess every baby is really different la.

yah i was shopping almost every single day that we don't have plans .. now that i know that the stores there accept my atm cum debit card, i am very happy indeed because the bill is paid almost immediately ..

have any of you ladies stayed in dubai? elias reckoned that we should try to plan a stop-over there on our next trip so i told him that can only go either in january or july because then i can shop in both countries - S A L E S!!!! hahahah ..

 

[de_luxe]

gina are u still in SG or back in Canberra?

i think ur HB referring to the Sunshine and Gardinia breads? they cannot make it as "real" bread for the Europeans lah... I only eat them if I feel nostalgic for soft white bread or if i buy kaya toast at coffee shops.

yah cuclainne the noise is driving me nuts! I din plan to go out yesterday afternoon but had to escape from the constant drilling and knocking. And couldn't sleep in this morning either!! They started drilling at 8.30am sharp! I tot they wouldn't work on Saturdays!!

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, haha yeah I realise that people REALLY take it easier in Sweden ... in Singapore parties are quite 'chop chop', but in Sweden, it can last an entire day and beyond

Haha I think I've never gone to a crayfish party in Sweden actually. Maybe cos I thought I can eat seafood anytime in Singapore But yea, the apple pies in Sweden are a killer ... nothing beats fresh apples and great dairy for the pie crust

And yea, if you girls are meeting up, do keep me posted. Always nice to swap stories in person too

de_luxe, yea I like Cedele too, though I find some of the bread a bit too dense, at least it sells rather authentic sourdough bread. I'm actually quite hooked on Breadtalk's sunflower seed bun too, love the nuts

At the moment Emil and I don't really buy fresh loaves of bread, but may start doing so when we're married and staying in the same apartment, then we'd be able to finish the loaf before it goes rancid

No, haven't been to Jones The Grocer, but if I ever pass by Dempsey I'll look out for it

Admire you for putting your foot down re the wedding. Cos I'm the first kid in my family to get married, think I gotta go the traditional route. Perhaps my brothers can then get to enjoy their own kind of wedding

Georgina, hi! haha perhaps could u share a bit abt urself? I'm a July 2009 BTB, to be wedded to a Swede called Emil

Chrisl, yes, babydust to you! Wanna see more baby pics posted here soon lah! hehe

 

[cuclainne]

de_luxe: that's what i thought too but apparently now they do - work on Saturdays, that is. argh .. so where did you go to yesterday?

glympse: oh .. you should try rhubarb pie or nettle soup when you are there .. my MIL is an excellent cook and always spoils us when we are there. if you need swedish recipes for a dish that your HTB is missing from back home, you can ask - i've just bought another swedish cookbook ..

have you been to one here then? argh .. i got sick from eating too much crayfish .. lucky that i didn't throw up in the cab

hahahah ..

 

[christie79]

Cuclainne~no lah can't get..but nvm lah im not too keen to have beer anyways as i prefer water to alcoholic drinks and also i told hb that he has got to control his beer tummy else...hehehe...

Glympse~thanks&happy planning on your wedding again!

Gina~Geez thanks *blush*

Deluxe~Now you've mentioned it, i feel like eating the kopitam white bread..but there's non here

it's a bit bored to eat the bread here...you kinda have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner again on somedays hehee

 

[cuclainne]

chrisl: pity - tiger is quite easy to get in sweden. most of the pubs/ restaurants carry it just like the systembolaget there. i was at the garlic restaurant and they had tiger beer written on the blackboard but of course since we were at the garlic restaurant, i had garlic alcohol-free beer instead. basically they added minced garlic to the beverage - quite tasty .. you should try vanilla ice-cream with garlic, oi so delicious!

 

[de_luxe]

cuclainne I went to Jurong Point then to Vivocity and Holland V. Didn't buy anything, just a relief to escape from the incessant noise.

garlic in ice cream and beer??! Well i never imagined that would be a nice combi!

glympse i'm the first to get married in my family too tho i'm the youngest

have an older sis 4 yrs my senior. She has less say in her wedding i think, cuz her ILs are fairly traditional Teochews, whereas I didn't have to content with such.

Haha.. rancid bread is disgusting... even with 2 of us, we sometimes dun manage to finish a loaf of bread before it goes mouldy. My best bet is frozen rolls from Swissbake.

chrisl is it not possible to get normal white sliced bread in the supermarkets? Germany has them, tho not very popular i think.

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, yeah I might actually take you up on your offer re Swedish recipes. Between Emil and I, he's the better cook. For one, he makes a mean greek salad! Guess it's time for me to start brushing up on my cooking skills and surprise him with some homemade meatballs or something

Crayfish party in Singapore? Do we have those here? hehe ... I'm really out of touch. The only seafood I know is from No Signboard...

de_luxe, haha I see I see. Good you managed to 'escape'

I'm the only daughter in my family though (sandwiched between 2 brothers), so am my Dad's "princess" kinda. Think he wants to 'show me off' to his business associates or something haha. Whatever makes him happy.

BTW, Emil tried Masters milk today, and he actually found it acceptable! haha ... thanks for the recommendation He's actually been losing a fair bit of weight since coming to Singapore because he's been consuming less/no dairy (he used to drink 1 litre of full cream milk a day in Sweden :S). So hopefully with Masters, the weight loss wil stop ... don't want my HTB to look skinnier than me on AD! :S

 

[christie79]

Cuclainne~heh..garlic and vanilla ice cream? Think i'll pass ;P

Deluxe~As for white sliced bread, there's here too but im refering to the traditional SG bread (baked traditionally in some old bakery still...think the last time i remember my mum bought them at whampoh..they have added a tiny bit sugar so it taste so super soft and sweet.. wah just thinking of that makes me drool...

It's raining here today, temperature dropped to 12degC from yesterday's 30degC! I've made some good old ABCsoup and will finish with fresh yellow mangoes from my shopping trip to the asian store(yesterday)later to cheer myself up a bit

Hope everybody else had a great weekend & start with a great week ahead!

 

[cuclainne]

de_luxe: wow - you've really kept yourself occupied for the entire day huh ..

yah, actually i didn't know how good the combination might be but elias kept saying that it's good so i just had to try it. he likes garlic a lot, you see. hahaha ..

glympse: no problem - yesterday i ordered 4 more cookbooks online .. ahhahah .. margiel and chrisl can tell you how extensive my cook book collection is .. i'm running out of shelves!

yes, there are crayfish parties here - one usually held by the embassy (if your HTB is on their mailing list, he'll get emails re: events) and the other by this organisation called YP (Young Professionals). they have a get-together once a month at a pub and they also organise events like midsummer, crayfish, christmas parties. you can sign up as a member - mostly swedes though you do get the other scandinavians joining and singaporeans who had either studied in sweden or married to swedes. i haven't been to a gathering after having the girls and i think the people i knew in the committee have since left Sg.

what is Emil working in?

chrisl: hahahah .. yes, it's definitely not for those who don't like garlic. as much as i'm ok with the taste in some dishes, i still turned down eating roasted garlic as it is .. don't know why but i find the taste really strong though people tell me it's sweet.

have to start eating the reindeer and elk 'salami' that i brought back .. don't know how i'm going to finish it since i'm the only one at home that eats meat. maybe i can bring some slices to the office tomorrow .. hmm ..

isn't the temperature like totally insane? elias mentioned that he's so upset with the swedish weather because it fools him into thinking that it's warm (when he's standing under the sun) and then when a cloud passes over or we walk under the shade, it's super cold. there was also a day when it rained badly - like it does in singapore and according to my MIL, her area was affected quite badly (basements flooded and even hail).

 

[christie79]

Cuclainne~im actually ok with garlic in fact i love the fragrant smell and taste when it's fried and even on toasted bread with herbs and cos when i cook chinese dishes like fried rice, noodles, porridge i'm sure to add them but hehehe not too adventurous with ice cream though ;P oh yeah..previously there used to be a stall selling wasabi ice cream at bugis, i dun even dared to try that heheh..anyone adventurous enough and tried them btw?? Is the stall still there?

oh!! that reindeer and elk 'pølse' is one of my husband's favourite. He usually have that on his bread for breakfast or lunch ..as for me i find them a little too strong..dunno maybe i'll like them when i get preggy hehehe

yah haha i second elias! cos on somedays when it's really cloudy, i thought it's going to be like that cloudy the whole day so i wore my clothes according to the weather..the moment i stepped out of the hse, it turned very sunny..which made me look stupid cos i having windbreaker, scarf and all hahha..

and it rained the whole day today! Im hoping that tomorrow will be better cos i dun want to walk in the rain (with raincoat and such) to work..wah when the wind comes...no joke man! really cold!! can feel in your bones i think..over here, not too bad with flooding cos we're on the higher ground, only the houses near the river has to be careful..my hb told me there was one year they had rained so much that the water level went over the house near the river completely! gosh! here they have to get hse insurance!!

 

[christie79]

hahha yeah glympse, cuclainne has a good variety of cookbooks

im sure you gals can swap pointers

you like cooking/baking?

 

[cuclainne]

chrisl: i think there is a similar stall selling the wasabi ice-cream at cineleisure but i only try the matcha green tea and sesame ice-creams.

i think it's ok to have once in a while, not all the time but that's probably because our tastebuds are not used to it.

yah when elias enquires from the banks re: house insurance here, it seems that they cover different things from back home. like he wanted to know that if our home was burgled for etc and will the laptops, etc be covered under the scheme but the staff would usually be a bit blur about that.

i think it's colder where you are than in the city, right - cos i read somewhere that the city generates more heat cos more people, more pipes, vents, etc. everytime we travel just to the surburbs i would have to make sure that i'm prepared.

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, haha you sound like quite the cook. Elias is a very blessed man

Good point re the embassy and YP mailing lists, shall look into that. Think Emil would like that. He doesn't say it, but I know that sometimes he misses the carefree life back in Sweden. Now, the days are so hectic that he doesn't have much time to dwell on things, let alone find something Swedish to do. We want the links back to Sweden though .. ultimately desire our family to be in touch with both the Swedish and Chinese roots. But hey, I'll post here if we'll be attending an event organised by the embassy/YP, maybe we can meet up then!

Emil's a software engineer. He used to be working as a consultant for Sony Ericsson, doing projects on mobile phone applications. It was his dream job (benefits were excellent), so he really gave up a lot to come down to Singapore and start afresh in a place where the culture is a lot less laidback / creative .. but yea, we're open to the idea of moving to another country, whether Sweden or not, if Singapore doesn't work out in the end. We had decided on Singapore as our 'base' because of the support we have here from family and friends; family and friends are more scattered in Sweden (because of the large land area mainly), can't really 'run away' in the small red dot that is Singapore hehe.

Chrisl, haha I haven't really done much cooking/baking (like most typical Singaporean girls I guess ... tend to either eat out or eat food cooked at home by someone else ), but I know I gotta start somewhere soon. Emil and I were just reflecting that it'll be a lot more fun / convenient when we stay in the same apartment after we're married, can cook together. We used to do that when I went to Sweden for 2 months last year (I was in between jobs then and so had ALOT of free time at home. Became his 'maid' heh), though it was still Emil taking the lead on what and how to cook. I prob wanna start fiddling in the kitchen more when we're married, a bit hard to do it now when it's not my own kitchen per se

And green tea ice cream is excellent! (tho it may be an acquired taste for some... Emil really didn't like it ) Wasabi ice cream sounds scary ... :S

 

[christie79]

yup true cuclainne, it's usually colder in the countryside. And when it comes to winter time, it's usually more snow too

glympse, have Emil tried durian? I rememered my hb Gaute tried that for the 1st time and he dropped the fruit like hot cake! cos it's too slimy and soft to hold heheh..he said that it feels like it had decomposed! hahha so i resorted to durian ice cream at parkway to let him try again...he thinks that tastes good! but im not sure is the shop there anymore..

sigh..rain again..for 2 days in a row already

 

[de_luxe]

cuclainne yah i can imagine that one has to love garlic to even think of trying it with ice cream. I've once put roasted garlic into pumpkin soup, the taste was so strong, i nearly threw up! Ended up throwing the soup away!

Have to keep myself occupied lah, else will go mad. Just now, ard 8plus they were still knocking away.

chrisl oh those old fashioned breads... haven't had them in a long time liao.. they are childhood food!

glympse glad Emil found a milk he likes

1 litre a day is quite a lot.. no wonder he lost weight! My hubby lost weight in SG too... I hardly recognised his 1999 photo in 2002, he was so chubby then!

Good that you've made ur peace with ur dad wanting a large wedding... some pple fight with their parents all the way, quite sad...

 

[eminozy]

OMG.... i am getting confused by the posts... i decided to just sporadicly read the posts....

hehehe.

Nissa.... i think i want blueberry! so exciting!

how much do i owe you? thank you so much for the soap. I think i will be in SG in around October/ November if nothing else pops up to hinder it.

What is this i hear about garlic beer and ice-cream.. seems revolting! hehehehahah. I tried the non-alcohol beer in Munich and i nearly puke.. seriously i just cant stand the smell... I cant stand horse meat too.. had that in munich too and i puke again! hehehehahahah.

oh yess.. brot.. the staple diet of any european man. Chris is obsessed with his austrian semmel( a bun like thing), pure butter and wonderful mountain yoghurt. He is in Austria now and happily eating it for every meal. He does not care about the cuisine but bread is religion. I miss it too... Everything just taste different there in those category.

I remember when I worked in Norway, i ate salmon, the brown goats cheese, muesli every single day... I love it so much.... I also ate lotsa fiskeball/ fish cake with fried rice! hehehahahhaheh

Hmmm.. I miss Jurong point.

Yeah wedding are annoying in sense that its all about your parents, I managed to get mine quite balance. the one in Melbourne was 95% our frens, the one in Singapore 10 out of 35 tables were my frens and the one in Malaysia was totally my folks, families. So it was quite oklah, no complaints.

yah, i wonder how Margie is doing... prolly freakin out about her dress!

 

[cuclainne]

glympse: elias says he doesn't miss anything about sweden (except for the usual food suspects) but i know that deep down inside, he does miss his family and friends. here, his only friends are his work colleagues and even then, we only socialise with them at company events.

one of elias' good friends used to work for sony ericsson but then he moved to HK to work with hutchison for a few years before moving back to sweden with his wife. i know a chinese lady who used to work for sony ericsson here (she's married to a swede) but they've moved back to stockholm with their newborn son this month. did he do a transfer to the office here? elias is in the same industry (IT) but what he's doing now is completely different from what he was doing back there. to us, it simply is not practical to move back since it's hard for me to get a job in the city unless i'm exceptionally fluent in the language - i told him that i can always work at HRC .. hahahah .. no need to speak swedish there .. hahahha ..

yah, agree with chrisl - you could get Emil to try the durian ice-cream instead if he's averse to the fruit. Elias loves durians and of course he loves 'tormenting' our overseas guests with a 'of-course-you-must-try-this!' stance when it comes to durians. hahaha .. we've brought his family to the street-side stalls to have durians - not all of them fancy it but surprisingly my FIL and stepMIL loves the taste .. even my younger BIL who was so revolted by the taste initially had two pieces! hahahah .. we're getting there to converting them to durian-lovers .. hahaha ..

chrisl: a friend of elias was telling me that if we decide to come up during winter, we should head up north where it's colder (like -20) .. he said that even though it's so much colder, it's much nicer as it's a 'drier' cold and if i dress warmly, should not be a problem. as it is, i still recall that i had a problem putting my gloves back on at 0 degrees - don't want to think about how much my teeth would chatter at -20. hahahah ..

de_luxe: i tried a potato with roasted garlic soup before - it didn't taste all that fantastic to me so i chucked it away too .. hahahah .. i prefer fresh grated garlic - especially on toasted bread or on a steak .. yummy! hahaha ..

wah 8pm still so hardworking arh?

emilia: ok - blueberry it is then.

aiyah, no need la - it's quite cheap anyways. next time if you ask me to a buy a loadful, then i'll charge .. with transportation costs .. hahahah .. yup yup, just let me know when you'll be here and i can pass it to you ..

you've tried horse meat ah? i seriously wanted to try some when we were in Smedjebacken but most of the supermarkets we went to were closed (because of midsummer hols) and the only one that was open had pork mixed with the horse meat - argh!

margiel must be busy with her wedding preps la .. hehehe .. must upload pictures here ah girl ..

wonder where is Mrs N? and has anyone spoken to Priscilla lately?

 

[georginat]

nisa, cool !! lets plan a gathering by next 2 weeks? coz i will be leaving for Canberra around 20+ July...

deluxe, hubby still working in canberra , baby luke just got his visa so will bring him to oz ..

glympse, my hubby is a spanish and he is working in canberra. Both our hubbies have the same kind of job..

 

[cuclainne]

gina, you staying with your parents now ah? you finish confinement so can go out already huh

.. have you brought luke out yet?

your hubby went back to canberra - thought he was here with you ...

 

[mrs_n]

Hiya girls! Haven't been on the forum for the last few days as have been busy jalan jalan and yakking with Liz.

It was lovely to have the company of Liz and Jeroen even though the weather was a bit on the rainy side.

Gina hee! hee! I'm not sure what I'm suppose to prepare apart from the hospital bag. Still too relaxed about the impending moment. Maybe will be more ganchiong when it's nearer the date.

 

[glympse]

Wah I'm way behind on my replies. Ok time to start crackin'

Chrisl, Emil hates durian! There was once he returned home to his rented apartment (he rents a room and shares a house with 3 others), and thought he smelt something really bad. He started to panic as he thought he may have left some food out that got rotten. He searched the garbage bin and the kitchen, and when he opened the fridge, the smell got overwhelming. And then he realised - the culprit was the DURIAN that one of the Singaporean housemates had kept in the fridge. He really dislikes it lah. But I'm really hoping he'll be converted in due time, cos I love durian (though I don't eat it that often cos it's so heaty). Dunno if I can persuade him to try durian ice cream though ... maybe I'll ask him to try it as a birthday present to me ... haha...

de_luxe, yeah, just hoping to bless my parents without going broke in the process But they've been very understanding, and they've offered to help bear part of the cost, which is something I'm very thankful for. So all the more, gotta let them have their way lah. Though I'm going to put my foot down on the choice of wedding dress and evening gown

cuclainne, Elias is a durian lover??? Wow you blessed girl

Haha I gotta tell Emil this, so that he doesn't think that being Swedish exempts him from giving durian a chance hehe. But yea, Emil's like Elias, says he doesn't miss Sweden that much, but deep inside I know he misses his family and friends like crazy. I told him about this thread though, and he seemed to find it quite fascinating and interesting, and he's game to meet up with you folks if the opportunity arises. That's the good thing about being in Singapore I guess - so much diversity, one is bound to find our own kind

Georgina, nice! I hear Canberra is a really nice place

Are you there with him now? Emil and I have considered moving to Australia actually, as a "neutral third place" that we can start life anew (somehow being in either Singapore or Sweden means that one of us is at the 'losing' end in terms of missing family and friends). But yeah, we decided that while we'll stay put in Singapore for now, Australia will always be an option as well, if Emil feels he can't keep up in Singapore.

 

[cuclainne]

Mrs N: oh yah, forgot that Liz was coming over for a visit - glad to hear that you ladies had a good time. i thought you had 'popped'

glympse: yes but he still doesn't understand how to open the durian .. he will insist on getting the durian au naturale cos it tastes better that way than getting it ready-to-eat in styrofoam boxes (i prefer this for the convenience). once he was goofing around holding the durian and it pricked him so he dropped it and it promptly rolled onto my foot .. argh! isetan supermarket at lido sells this durian jam paste - we got two bottles to bring to sweden on the last trip. we gave a bottle to his friends who said the jam tasted ok initially but they hated the aftertaste .. my FIL hasn't opened his because my SIL mentioned that he has to tell her when he was going to do so, so that she could leave the house .. hahaha ..

yah i understand about the lingering smell .. i bought fresh durian pieces in stockholm before, as a surprise to elias as we were having asian home-cooked dinner and i thought it would be a nice dessert to have afterwards. he was happy about it but oh dear, getting rid of the seeds afterwards .. after cleaning up, elias took the trash to the common rubbish dump and when he came back, he told me that we can't just dump the bag with the seeds in there as it was a friday night and the garbage retrieval guys don't come until monday (the smell would fester in the room over the weekend and other tenants might complain) so i had to dig into the trash bag to retrieve the durian seeds and wrap it up in newspapers and tied two bags around it. he went out again and not long afterwards, he came back to tell me that the smell is lingering in the hallway between his apartment and the courtyard (other tenants on the top floors would smell it on their way out) so he said he was going to find a place to dump it out on the streets .. hahahah .. yes, he went outside and when no one was looking, quickly threw it in the nearest bin .. hahahah ..

 

[liz4jeroen]

The thread is moving so fast! ;P Can't catch up. kekekeke...

Ja, got back from Mrs N's place. It is a lovely village and so serene. We liked it and enjoyed ourselves. Finally we got to visit Mrs & Nr N after 2 years since the last time we met at our wedding.

Will put up photos on the multiply and update our visit. U get to see Mrs N's belly. Kekeke....

Cucluainne, thks and let me know via email when u r back to work.

Welcome glymse! Just a short intro of myself. Married a Dutch and now lived in Netherlands. This dec will be my 3 years in Netherlands. Language is not so easy. It is compulsory to learn it. Generally people over here speaks English. On the whole, I only cannot get used to the cold weather. Kekeke...

Hello to all ladies.

I got to get back to work. Have to rush orders after the trip. Hmmmm....

 

[de_luxe]

glympse did u read abt the new durian cafe in sunday times last wkend? They sell fresh durian n durian cakes, etc... maybe u can get Emil to bring u there for your birthday

I personally prefer durain puffs and cakes to the fruit itself... waiting for goodwood park to start selling, hope i'll have a fridge by then! My HB can't even stand the smell when I have some durian puffs, tho his ego prompted him to tell someone we met in Melbourne that he'll eat durian if offered... haha... next time the opportunity arises, i'll remind him!

It's gd that ur parents offered to help out financially... that certainly relieves some of the stress..

cuclainne newspapers not enough to hide durian smell... must use cling wrap and lots of it. A durian seller once told me when pple buy to bring overseas, he will wrap it up in many many layers of cling wrap.

The garbage retrieval guys must have had a blue Monday that day!

The contractors must be rushing to finish... they were still working at almost 9pm last night!

Emi Jurong Point has been renovated recently... they are still doing some works btwn the interchange and the mall and the interchange is being completely rebuilt. Shops-wise, pretty much the same tho some new ones. There'll now more food shops ard the MRT area. I'm just glad that there's finally a UOB bank in Jurong West!

 

[cuclainne]

Hi Liz, i've replied to your email.

de_luxe: ooh .. what durian cafe is this? tell tell .. do you like the goodwood park durian puffs, etc? i like it too but lately i think that their standard has dropped ..

have you tried durian pengat?

wah - you never complained ah? my mom used my girls as the basis of her complaints when the upstairs neighbour was doing reno works prior to moving in .. she went upstairs, knocked on their door and told them that her grandchildren cannot sleep while they're hacking, etc so when are they going to stop .. hahaha .. my mother!

 

[glympse]

cuclainne, do you get good durian in Stockholm? The Chinatown area huh? When I was studying in Lund, I went to the Chinatown in Malmo a couple of times, but only durian I found looked really suspicious ... my friend actually went ahead and bought a packet of frozen durian, but when I tried it, it really didn't taste like the durian I was used to in Singapore. I guess the demand for durian isn't that big in Sweden (except in Elias' case, of course ).

I need to draw out the inner durian-loving Singaporean in Emil!

And man ... I wonder how the garbage men were that fateful Monday with the durian seeds stewing in the bins over the weekend....

Elizabeth, thanks! So u're married to an European too

Whereabouts in the Netherlands are you? I dropped by Amsterdam and Rotterdam once, and the big thing I remember doing is walking like 2-3 hours to see a windmill in the countryside, then walking another 2-3 hours back to the hostel Wow so you speak fluent Dutch then? Do you converse with the locals mainly in Dutch or English? Or is it more of a requirement when you do business?

de_luxe, a durian cafe? Sounds interesting ... yeah don't think I can get Emil to step into that place unless I specifically request it for my birthday ... haha looks like that's the way to go - shock and awe tactics! And haha, I like the 'ego' idea too ... so sly, we women

Emil just told me he used to be 63 kg when he was growing up ... and given that he's 1.88m tall ... that gives him a BMI of 17.8!! Shocking .... now he's 83 kg and I find him to be just nice ... I warned him he better not lose that much weight ever again. Or else he's going to feel more fragile than me :S

 

[cuclainne]

glympse: it's not so bad - there are several asian stores scattered around the city and i was standing in the queue to pay for some asian food items, when a swedish family came in and the thai girl mentioned that they have something special for them and it's in the fridge. yup, fresh durian la .. and this family had a look like they've struck gold or something .. hahaha ..

i think it's not so bad la .. elias was just exaggerating - it's a lovely smell, ok .. hahaha ..

 

[liz4jeroen]

Culcuainne, got it. Thks. I have replied too. Will contact them.

glymse, I stay near rotterdam, in the city of Schiedam. Basica Dutch is still managable. Fluent. I won't say so. Usu Dutch is the main language. I have to speak Dutch for my internship placement. O as for business it is online. Sometimes customers happen to call en they usu write to me in dutch.

Talking abt durian. My hubby, Jeroen loves it and he likes spicy food too better than me. Kekekeke....

 

[mrs_n]

glympse did you study at SMU? My cousin did an exchange at Lund too a few years back.

Liz glad you enjoyed your stay here. If you look at our church's website, your photos are already up in the picture gallery.

Fr B was telling everyone at the tea & toast yesterday morning what a nice couple you were and he enjoyed talking to you. Ha! Ha! You are now very famous in Retford parish!!

Cuclainne oh no oh no cannot pop yet! Baby has been given strict instructions not to pop before 24 July. My parents will only be arriving on that day!

Does durian seeds smell that strong? I don't really eat much durian perhaps only durian cake you know the sticky ones that can be bought from Melaka (I think).

 

[cuclainne]

it seems that most do their exchange programme at Lund .. i know a few people who had also been there on an exchange

..

Mrs N: hahahah .. we'll see if she listens to your instructions or not .. some people say that first babies always arrive earlier than expected but sofi arrived late .. when is your EDD again?

all this talk about durian has made me very hungry!

 

[liz4jeroen]

Hahaha... we saw the photos. Jeroen went to search for the website yesterday and he found it. Talking about kanchiong. I've downloaded the photos. Fr B is very humourous. Amazed by that he is also into planes. Indeed, Jeroen has made his trip worthwhile, never expect to meet people who were/are in airforce. hahahaha... he is wondering whether he has to return the tape to Fr B which he gave. He wasn't sure whether it is a gift or a loan. He asked me to ask u about it. It is one of the trip that is very relaxing and it is not tiring as in other trips that we went. Probably you and Paul must be feeling more tired, having to work and to entertian us. We had really a great time! Thank u. Hope u like the CD.