Shirley's Birthday & Wet Market Shopping

Today is Shirley's birthday, but Helena and I surprised her yesterday evening. I had asked Shirley out for dinner but didn't tell her that I also told Helena we were meeting. And since Helena was planning to surprise her later that night anyway, we decided to "join forces".

It was pretty funny watching Shirley's reaction when Helena appeared with the cake at McDonald's. 

At first, Shirley was staring in the opposite direction, wondering aloud if the people at the other table were talking about insurance. While she was being distracted, Helena came in from the back and when Shirley turned around, there she was! :D Success.

We spent the rest of the evening strolling around Ang Mo Kio central and finally ended up in the Zone-X upstairs. There's Shirley, the two-time Wangan Midnight champion, playing her last boring game with just one hand on the wheel. We ended the night with some PIU (Korean DDR) then split to go home. 

Today's Friday, which means that my mother-in-law will most likely not be using the kitchen. That gives me a chance to whip up a small dinner later. Jerry said fried rice and chicken potato soup sounds good, so I quickly went down to the wet market to buy some ingredients before the stalls close.

I bought: 

One large potato ($0.90), two ears of corn ($1.50), a handful of char siew or barbecued pork ($2), two medium carrots and four string beans ($0.70) and two whole chicken wings ($1.50).

For some reason, I always feel like wet market people are out to cheat my money... Maybe it's the absence of price tags which makes me nervous. Or my early childhood memories of my grandma haggling in the market. Either way, I never ever feel like I got a good deal at the market other than the food being fresh.

What do you think, was I overcharged or not?

:/

Update: 

Chicken soup

And fried rice for dinner ;) 

These Few Nights

If you go to Kinokuniya and see this person, be sure to mess up all the books she's packing on the shelf! 

;)

Just kidding.... 

Visiting friends at work is fun, especially when you get to prank them on the job!

On Tuesday I cooked a very imperfect pot of борщ to last me the whole week. 

Many things went wrong with it. I forgot to buy beets or beetroot as they call it here, which is a main ingredient. Fortunately the missing beets didn't alter the taste of the soup much. Also, I was lazy and sliced the carrots into rounds instead of grating it. I've found that grating carrots instead of slicing them improves the taste by A LOT so that's inexcusable. Lastly, I didn't put enough cabbage in there and the soup came out more sour than usual due to the extra tomatoes. 

Not my favourite pot of борщ ever, but still passable. 

The good thing is, борщ gets better with age up to a week, so I'm really looking forward to tonight's helping. It will be the third night it's been out on the stove. 

I miss cooking daily, but in our small kitchen at home, only one person can cook there comfortably, so I try not to step on my mom's toes too often. However this week, I really have to stay home and study every night. Every hour is precious, so eating out is not really a viable option. Thus the pot of soup to last a week. 

Last night I finished three chapters and didn't hit the lights till 04:30 in the morning. 

The worst part was, even after lying in bed and closing my eyes, I couldn't really fall asleep because my brain was being overly active. It's such a terrible feeling- to feel so physically exhausted yet being unable to shut my brain up. 

That's life for now, and I know it will be my life for the next few months, but that's alright. 

I kind of missed studying anyway.