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Sunday, December 18, 2005

Indulgence...is Bad!
It's been pretty long since I last updated my blog, considering that it's the holidays and that I have so much time to blog. These last 5 days have been spent on feasting and indulging myself.

14th: CO chalet & BBQ


It was a great bonding session for all CO members and teachers alike. The chalet we had was Changi Aloha Chalet B, which had an open veranda, loads of space to run around and was only 400m away from the sea. Set in an idyllic location, everything was almost perfect with the exception that the chalet was a mosquito-infested region! No kidding here. The minute one remains still, the bloodsuckers will land on one's skin. As a result, we armed ourselves with mosquito coils and repellant. We wiped the repellant shelves clean of repellant. I can almost see the shopkeeper grinning from ear to ear after our purchase. Anyway, the climax was when a rat ran into the chalet at around 3 am in the morning. As I was trying to sleep on a bed, I was shocked to hear screams of "Rat, rat" from the living room outside. I was pretty curious and wanted to take a peek but decided against it as I was afraid that the rat would dart into my room instead.

15th: 2E7 BBQ at Pasir Ris Park


I would definitely say that the 2E7 was a definite success. You must be wondering how I was going to eat any BBQ chicken wings the next day immediately after a BBQ. Well, I didn't know myself. However, I must admit that the BBQ was extremely well-planned, thanks to F and S. The chicken wings the students bought from NTUC were extremely well-marinated abet a bit on the saltish side. As I even told some of the angels that I could chew the wings right to the bone. Yup, it was that delicious! I am really grateful that the angels took care of the BBQ entirely, buying the ingredients, co-ordinating the BBQ, booking the pit, starting the fire, cooking the food... I was greatly impressed that everyone chipped in to help, be it to start the fire, toasting marshmallows on a tiny pit or even to keep the fire going. I must say these angels have grown so much within this one year in terms of maturity and taking on responsiblities. In my heart, I was deeply touched. Sadly, the only things lacking were the other members who could not make it to the BBQ.


16th: Steamboat Dinner with family in celebration of Dad and Mum's birthdays

Having missed Dad(8th) and Mum's (10th) birthday celebrations, we(the family) decided to come together for a family dinner that Friday night. Being the only child that is working, I was the one to give the treat (not that I mind, of course!) We shelved our original plans to go Tung Lok for a simpler, cosier restaurant near East Coast Road. We invited Mama Poh and C along to share the joy. Surprisely, the dinner turned out to be pretty affordable. It merely cost $100+ for 7 of us when I had intended to fork out $400+. I guess Dad saved me some money. Thanks Dad!

18th: X'mas gathering at Auntie Mary's place


Wow! Auntie Mary(a church friend) seems to surpass herself each time I visit her for Christmas. I was rather taken aback at the amount of food as I stepped into her front porch. It was pretty amazing(and still is) what she and her maid could manage to cook up in a day for 30 people. It was culinary heaven and the sight and smells of the food held me spellbound. We had steamed assorted vegetables, chicken pie, seafood pasta with generous portions of prawns and mussels, turkey with cranberry sauce, potato gratin with cheese and bacon and stolen.

Mama Poh brought along her signature honey-baked ham, a whooping 8.9 kg's worth. It was a sight to behold, the ham i mean. I have never in my life seen such a huge ham before. A 4-kg ham can last my family for 3 months but two-thirds of the ham were devoured in no time at all by the hungry adults. I bet it took a lot of effort and strength to whip the ham into shape. I heard that Mama Poh didn't even have the strength to lift the ham from the pot. It must have been a work of love, I believe.

I felt that I was abusing my already stretched tummy when Auntie Mary handed me some tiramisu that was almost impossible to resist. Earlier, I helped to decorate the tiramisu with strawberries so I guess that was my reward for my hard work. Even before I finished the tiramisu, Auntie Joyce handed me a slice of decadent, extremely sinful triple chocolate fudge cake. By then, my stomach was so bloated but I managed to make space for this i-wonder-how-many-calories slice of fudge cake. I saw some apple crumble and ice-cream but my poor stomach was too abused to take any of it.

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