Busy times for me, how is everyone?

I know the picture’s a little small to see the details so do click on it to see the larger version!

I’m still a tad high from the spontaneous energy a bunch of us had while working on this mini collaboration. It spanned two days? We tweeted, we decided, we did it. Basically four of us, Chups, Sel, Ser and myself (we were schoolmates back in design school) got wind of Crafty 2010 happening in October. We want to go but whined about the ticket prices for a bit. The super people behind the conference held a short “game day” to obtain discount codes so we thought, “let’s take advantage of that”! The task was to do whatever using the words ‘crafty’.

So yeah, each of us took an alphabet (some of us two) and put our own spin on it. No discussions of the direction we were each going for and I don’t know, somehow, I guess we all think differently no matter how similar we might be? WHICH IS AWESOME!

I could ramble on forever, it was just so fun altho a little frantic because I do things so slowly! Anyway do check out the Crafty 2010 website, you like-minded folks. I’m personally very stoked that something like this is gonna happen.

{Chups made C, Ser made R, Sel made A & F, I made T & Y}

Thank you for all your birthday wishes! I had a great party last night, I had great help when I was about to lose it in the kitchen, made great memories during an exhausting round of Charades and realized I, kinda, love my friends?

I put together the presents I received and guess what, they all relate to cooking/food! And yes, the words on the green apron reads BHO’S BITCH! (Bho’s the shortform of what my friends call Ben.) I love that haha, my friends. Party pictures to come!

So I turn 25 today! Meet my inflatable buddy, my newly ‘chewed off’ fringe that my hairstylist gave me that I really love and a 25-year-old Melly! I’m throwing a party this Saturday and a friend mocked me for ordering my own cake, haha. Toot toot!

So from tattoos to food, here we go with food on film #2.

pan-fried salmon, kenyan green beans, zucchini & tomato & avocado salad

penne with pork sausage (minced up) & kenyan green beans, in a chicken broth sauce (I followed a recipe for the sauce but switched up the greens). It’s nice change from the usual tomato/cream base and Ben was very quick to say he liked it (yay for me)! If you’d like the recipe, I’d be happy to scan a copy.

breakfast of zucchini and avocado on wholemeal toast

clear-the-fridge-and-throw-it-all-in fried rice for lunch

I rarely snack on chocolate but the new packaging gave me a reason to put it in the basket. It’s boxy and nice to hold now.

How’s everyone’s weekend going? I’m desk-bound and working on more twigs, watching the new season of Project Runway and hopefully, eat some ice cream tomorrow.

Cupcakes from yokebakery

Starving wagging tongues were first fed a cream-based seafood pizza

Followed by this! Prosciutto or parma ham, I forget but oohahh together with spinach and all that cheese.

I’m torturing myself, I’m hungry sleepy but surprisingly, not grumpy. Anyway the pizza lady is waltzing around Melbourne right now and for many more days! Come home soon!

I made bolognese sauce last week - a lot of it - because I’ve become a freezer meal person. I took the recipe and freezer meal idea from Real simple, I’ve uploaded a copy of it here. Remember to write the date down! (Same with all the ant & cockroach baits! Which I never do. And sorry for mentioning cockroaches when talking about food.)

Anyway if cooking isn’t your thing, here’s some worthy links to check out:
• New on The Selby; Rockaway Taco - I want to be a customer there or better yet, their homie!
• Street art at Pioneer Square in Seattle, the one of the hand… j.a.w.d.r.o.p.p.i.n.g
• Scroll down half the page to see some seriously good camera porn

I’m running late, I have to get ready and buy some shizz from the supermarket before heading to my folks’ for dinner and catch the National Day Parade on telly. It’s Singapore’s 45th birthday today!! Why I’m excited I don’t know!!!

In the hotel room

How cute is this token to ride the train!

Hualumphong central railway station

Chinatown (always chaotic, everywhere in the world)

I really like the face of Gillette

Walking from Chinatown to Chao Praya river

What did you do today, or what are you gonna be doing today? Well it’s 11:17PM here so I can summarize my day in a few words: made.a.giant.pot.of.spaghetti.bolognese.sauce.

Also, my twigs were on some of these cool blogs (many months ago!) - For Me, For You, Color Collective, dee9:14. Thank you ladies, I was quietly very thrilled!

With my greedy face on

Butter tastes weird in Bangkok, something I noticed when eating my rolls

I had this dish called Complicated Noodles, basically I had to put my meal together

A very powerful and spicy, erm, sauce. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what was in it - parsley, garlic, lime?

This is the meat sauce which was urghhh-sooo-good

So this was how I ate it at first but really, I ended up using all ten fingers towards the end of the meal.

I don’t have photos of the other stuff we stuffed our faces with but I’ll list them down here if anyone wants to know. Chicken wings, clam and mussel soup, miso salmon, chinese plum float and the carbonara’s supposedly good too but we didn’t try that. And, Greyhound Cafe is on the first floor of Siam Centre.

On the last day, we killed some time by visiting the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. It’s right in the shopping district so it’s a nice respite if you’ve had enough of malls.

I’m beginning to realise the documentation is a bit fragmented because some photos are shot on digital and some on film. So I’m opting to share them separately instead of mixing them up. I haven’t decided which works better.

{Photos taken with a Nikon D40 using 35mm F1.8 lens}

Yayyy! New phone means no more dealing with my unresponsive iPhone3G!

I am dead pooped, off to shower and plop into bed. Be back tomorrow my friends!

In the last two photos, we were at a bar where the live band played serious heavy metal. Lamb of God, Iron Maiden. I’ve never seen a grown man shout so much and so loud before, it was something to remember.

{Photos taken with a Nikon D40 + 35mm F1.8 lens}

I know it can be kinda gross when humans love their pets too much. But this cat of mine has been my companion through some of the toughest times.

Those are giant sucker fishes by the way!

G’weekend guys!!

{Photos by Ben}

It’s my boyfriend, Ben’s birthday today! He turns old, 29, haha [I LOVE YOU, H!]. We took this picture in Bangkok, Thailand, back in 2007 when we went there during my birthday week. So we’re off to Bangkok today for his birthday week!