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Monday, January 03, 2005
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THE LONGEST BLOG EVER :
Today is the last day of my 2 week long mock civilian life.
Back to camp tonight. Not too bad, i actually miss some of the guys there. Tou people know how my camp is. Besides, in just another 1 and a half months, i'll be clearing leave again and its back to mock civilian life. And then ORD. And then sweden. And then Shanghai. *a deep pleasurable moan*
Well well. I think a few of my friends are awaiting updates. *grin* Well, naturally. *big grin*
I had a great birthday.
(i think i'll leave you guys bewildered if i ended my blog entry just like that.)
Well the birthday dinner on NY Eve i had planned for bout 3 weeks or so materialised. Despite the gastric problems i was having for the few days.
- The Preparation -
The preparation started prob bout 3 or 4 days back. I started downloading recipes for salmon and desserts (which weren't necessary at e end of e day). And i had to compile a grocery list, do some shopping at the Swiss Butchery and Cold Storage(KAP) and den cook on e actual day.
On e actual day, i started food preparation at bout 3:15pm. I needed desperately to sleep before that because i was running a slight temperature. And when i woke up, i was groaning and whining to my mom. And she kept insisting she'll cook instead. But i was not going to allow that. I really welcome help but not taking over the entire prep. That would be meaningless. So i had to pull myself out of bed when she said she would go chop onions. And then it all started.
If i remember correctly:
The order of events:
1) Weigh butter for salmon
2) Chop herbs for salmon
3) Wash prawns
4) Boil water to cook prawns
5) De-stem mushrooms
6) Chop onions
7) Chop mushroom stems
8) Mix garlic , breadcrumbs with onions n stems
9) Stuff mushrooms and put aside
-Christine calls-
-Directs christine to bus-
-Christine calls on the bus-
-Directs christine which bus stop to alight-
(in e meantime, mom peels prawns, cuts mangoes)
-Christine arrives at bus stop-
-I put on "ah peh" (quote chris) jacket n umbrella myself to bus stop-
-catches christine and anata in front running across e road away from me, huddling under a tiny umbrella, lost in their own world with two 'sacks' of bo1 tong1 ingredients.
-Den they decide to run back across e road again, now behind me. (ahhh. having 'dat' kind of fun i see.) And totally ignoring my presence. I chase them from behind.-
10) Sets dining table for chris and anata to do their carrot/potato shaving, onion/potato/carrot cutting.-
There's this minor chaos as christine sticks her head in kitchen from time to time, asking where to get utensils la, pots la, bowls la-
And we suddenly my mom whispers to me,
"Your this friend cutting how many potatos?"
I scamper out and take a look and come back with an answer,
" She bought bout 12 potatoes. "
Mom gives a wide-eyed expression,
" My pot can put probably 5. "
I start screaming to christine that there's too much soup and there's this exchange of laughs and insults.
-Wesley leaves-
(in e meantime, mom cuts mango, prepares her own egg-onion-caviar dish, mom peels apple. cuts apple)
11) I start washing and drying the lettuce
-Meiling arrives-
-There's this squealing and girlish exchange between the two asst. chefs-
-Meiling starts shaving carrots in this powerful posture in her spag. strap : glam-
-I call zhao-
-Zhao says he'll be late-
12) I start mixing the salad, throwing in the prawns, mango and apples.
-lauren calls and ask for address-
-huili calls and asks for directions-
(Mom starts panfrying apples. I take over after a while)
(Mom marinates secret foie gras for ml and chris and hides it in fridge)
13) Help christine boil water , pour away water to boil pork ribs and fogging up my glasses - grumble grumble. (and cos i can't see, she was going, " MORE MORE. No no , pork ribs gonna drop out!" ) while Meiling cuts potato wedges for MR. JERRICK HONG.
14) Meiling and christine do MATHS with the soup. Trying to get an equal ratio of carrots, potatoes, onions and ribs in both pots (we added a pot cos we had TOO MUCH ingredients).
-Lihui calls-
-I miss her call-
-Lihui smses-
-I din read her sms-
-I call lihui-
-She missed bus 700A and whines ALOT-
15) Meiling and christine help to marinate the salmon and dredge it through flour. Meiling mixes herbal butter. Christine happily prances around asking to look like she does work in front of the digicam.
(in e meantime, mom has buttered the sausages-
16) I finish the salad! (HURRAY 1st PRODUCT)
17) wrap the salmon up in foil.
18) Meiling and Christine help to cut the bread into cubes for the fondue.
Meiling goes : " HAR. How to cut! "
My dad comes along : " Just cut into cubes. "
Christine : "How big are the cubes? "
Dad : " 4.2 x 1.8 inches "
*sniggers*
Meiling does the first loaf after mom demonstrates.
Christine's turn. Meiling SQUEALS.
Christine has folded the loaf into half. Dad and Mom look very amused.
19) Meiling and christine help to make the batter for the crepes.
-Lihui reaches bp interchange-
-Lihui gets all grumpy with my instructions-
-I get grumpier-
-Jiabin calls and says he'll be late-
-Junjie called-
-I miss his call and sms-
-And all this while, christine opens the lids of both pots of soup 20 times per minute to check , the conversation goes :
Chris prances over excitedly : I'll go check my bo tong!
Me : DON'T LA. U'RE LETTING OUT THE STEAM, IT HELPS TO COOK!
Chris : it does?
Me : Don't u learn pressure cooking in physics?
Chris : There was?
Me : .....
20) Baking starts. First the sausages then the salmon then the mushrooms.
21) I start panfrying the foie gras for the two ADORABLE assistants , think they loved it. =) FOR THEIR HARD WORK. *Look of contempt at the others*
22) They start setting the table. (wah really good assistants ne.)
- Lihui arrives -
- I go shower -
23) The 3 girls start frying crepes.
- Lauren arrives and joins the crepe team -
This is a classic. My dad and mom were teasing :
" Crepes also need four people to make. "
Mom :
" The funniest one was the girl who got a chair to sit and hold the bowl of batter. "
Who else but lihui the TRUE CHEF'S ASSISTANT.
I give up helping the girls cos they kept insulting the shape of my crepe.
- Zhao arrives -
- Huili calls and is stuck in the rain -
- Zhao is sent off to escort her in from the bus stop outside -
- Junjie arrives , with Meiling happily shouting at the top of her voice : " JERRICK!!!" Help. Eeks. -
24) Receive last minute instructions from Mom. Busy myself with providing the people clothes to change out into. From glam fine dining to lok pok hcjc shorts and tshirt. ALL OF THEM were in MY clothes.
25) Table set. Food warming up. Just trying to get the OIL for the stupid wedges to boil. Christine still happily checks her bo tong from time to time.
-Zhao and Huili arrives-
- Jiabin arrives LATEST-
All the guest have arrived. Dad, mom and bro leave for the countdown dinner at my uncle's place. Everything ready and I take a seat. With glasses of red wine, (not forgetting huili's plain water she insisted she wanted to a wine glass to contain) we made our cheers for the new year and my birthday. Salad and stuffed mushroom served.
I didn't sit for more than 20 minutes for the entire dinner and ate very little.
WHY?
MR. FANG JUNJIE'S OIL for the wedges REFUSED TO BOIL ON the BIG FIRE for like 30 min. Then i realised the oil probably doesn't boil. Hmm. Don't know whose fault.
-The Dinner-
I remember them calling me more than 20 times to go sit down and eat with them and stop running around.
I remember serving sausages.
I remember trying to find the sweet sauce for the salmon as niang niang requested, trying to find mayonnaise for lihui, pouring gin w bitter lemon, absolut kurant w tonic for jiabin n lauren , boiling water for huili's instant mee, shaking salt for jj's wedges, getting zhao a salmon and seeing christine drunk.
I remember how red christine and jiabin's face were. One drunk. One not. I also remember christine trying to pour her portion of red wine which jiabin took from her cos she was drunk after a sip. I remember how drunk she looked. And how silly she was. She still wanted vodka tonic. I remember christine saying tipsily, " I have to put salt in my bo1 tong1 now.... salt.." Silly girl.
I remember everyone loving the salad. And lauren loving the stuffed mushrooms and the drink.
I remember myself saying , " It's alright, i like running about and serving. Doesn't matter if i sit down or not. " And I also remember meiling saying, " It matters to us."
I remember the girls concluding that they love such a dinner where friends could sit down and eat and talk.
I remember running to and fro alot. For the wedges. And chilli sauce.
I remember thinking happily , " Wah lau this demanding pigs. " When everyone started wanting me to bake the bread meant for fondue (which wasn't all too popular *grin*) with butter cos they like the bread alot.
I remember everyone going to the kitchen from time to time. Either checking the bo1 tong1 out, helping me salt shake the wedges (AND FIGHTING OVER THEM), getting ice, getting drinks.
I remember the few times i actually sat down : I remember looking at everybody's face. I remember thinking, "This rocks."
I remember asking junjie ,for each and every dish, if he was okay eating them.
I remember zhaowei being really quiet.
I remember lauren trying to make christine drink and meiling trying to stop christine from grabbing the glasses.
I remember jiabin hollering most of the time.
I remember huili and junjie discussing about their common liking for common food.
I remember lihui happily asking for wedges too.
I should have spent more time at the table. But i remember alot.
- The Cleaning Up -
Cleaning up was announced when i realised it was pretty late and i had to go over to my uncle's place. The GUYS (the slacky, late guests) were supposed to wash up. Excluding me of course. BUT IN THE END. Haha. No la , i couldn't stand how jiabin and junjie were happily arguing with lauren and lihui and dancing with the brushes and drying clothes while zhao was taking a gazillion years to wash like a few utensils and plates. All these qian1 jing1 and shao4 ye2's. *shakes head*
I had to barge in and snatch the sponge. Then there was this power struggle when they were all fighting to be the cloth-dryers cos whoever wasn't working would be caught by the digicam as obviously slacking. In the end, boon and zhao were wipers and junjie was SUPPOSED to memorise where all the utensils, plates and tools were kept. In the end, i was soaping the dishes, and screaming out where each dish was kept like : " TOP DRAWER LEFT SIDE! " And junjie would be happily dancing here and there with jiabin swinging his cloth around. Gee.
Lihui and Lauren were there with all the insults and teasings and laughter. Having a great time looking at guys do housework for once. Oh come on, i do it ALL THE TIME.
I was Captain Dishwasher as I bellowed out instructions, ordering the useless bums jiabin and junjie around. But nothing could stop the slightly high jiabin from singing Ji Mo Bian Jie at the top of his -ahem- AVERAGER THAN AVERAGE voice. *grin*
I was like some Wizard from Enid Blyton's trying to get naughty elves to work.
I don't remember knowing what the other girls were doing. I thought christine was really drunk and was lying down in the room or something.
I remember walking out of the kitchen once and into the room to see if my digicam photos were transferred over (asked meiling to do it) and meiling did the WEIRDEST THING EVER. She started SHRIEKING AND AAAAAAAH-ing in this realllllly loud voice while pushing me from behind as i was walking down the corridor. I was really bewildered but i didn't suspect anything.
Then there was this flying object, the size of a coin which caused greater chaos in the kitchen. Jiabin and Junjie were flying all about the place trying to avoid something the size of their toe. And they were not listening to my instructions. That called for superior intervenenance. I marched in and took a tissue and grabbed the insect and got them back to their working posts with oohs and ahhhs of admiration at my sheer courage and fearlessness. What a bunch of nincompoops.
You should see the way they were dodging and squealing. What a bunch of schoolgirls.
And there was the bo1 tong1 which was ready and Christine was eagerly scooping into bowls for us to drink and at THIS MOMENT, the girls were out there insisting i come out to help. Only then i got slightly suspicious cos knowing the girls,i know they would not ask me to do extra work for my bday dinner. so them asking for help sorta let e cat's tail out of the bag. (not e entire cat). So when i walked out, there it was, a cute little choc cake~
I was quite surprised at how they actually got a cake in without me knowing. I was THAT busy. And lighting it and putting it at the dining room was another feat. No wonder meiling was shrieking.
And after that was pressie presentation and photo-taking. DAMNED LAUREN TEY! All my photos turned out wavy and SUPER blur. Lousy PJ. Lucky i had videos which can't go wrong. She's so lousy! Grumble. And they kept insisting it was mi camera. Which isn't possible cos my camera took very good photos before that! Grumble.
But yea, it was a really nice ending as i opened presents and took photos. Cleaned up, washed up and we set off to my uncle's place for a while to cut my bday cake and check out my cousins and niece which they quite loved. And they all think my family is really cool to have party games and decorations at dinner : there were two teams : "Strawberry Shortcake" and "Barney". The only game we saw was this one where my uncle,aunt,bro n bro's gf were trying to get a potato chip on their forehead to slide down their face into their mouths with no hands or outside assistance. Den we left. And lihui, zhao, jb , jj and i counted down on the bus to town cos our ktv room was given away cos we were late. haha. no matter. Cos i dun bother w countdowns.
-Afterthoughts-
It felt really surreal, I quote jiabin. Did you know, from my council days, my greatest wish was to have all my favourite friends take a photo together but having to be quite sensitive and even political sometimes, it didn't work out. And this, is so much more generous. An entire night and dinner with my 3 major cliques. And in some sense, there isn't a very distinct clique distinction going on , because i am blessed to have the cliques know and even like each other to a certain extent. It all felt really really heartwarming. Its jus friends having a dinner. And not just any dinner, but a dinner where everyone contributed. In no way was this MY dinner. It was everybody's dinner. With a table full of dishes prepared by us, with glasses of red wine, with Lisa Ono in the background and with friends sitted all around.
And there was almost no awkwardness at all. I don't know if this is attributed to the fact that i have friends who are really easygoing (lauren meeting boon for e 2nd time only) or it was all for me. It doesn't really matter. And i was constantly reminded of the fact that these are my friends who are here, for me, and enjoying every single bit of the moment, without any more obligation than me hosting this dinner. I didn't feel like a host. Or a guest. Cos everyone was host and guest at the same time. I felt completely at ease. And very very loved.
It felt perfect. Even though the fondue was barely touched. Even though everyone was too full to have the crepes suzette and strawberry romanoff. Even though i hardly sat down. Even though huili couldn't eat. Even though junjie would much rather have eaten hor fun plus egg. Even though this and that. It was perfect. Because there were all the people i love around me. And i think i am so lucky to have ever experienced this once in my life. I hope i have so much more of it in the future. I am willing to host it. Cook. Wash. Whatever.
What a night.
What friends.
What a life.
P.s.
And such a big thanks to mommy for helping out so much. It would have been IMPOSSIBLE without her. in the first place, i forgot to defrost my sausages, salmon and foie gras in the morning. er.
ah. happy 2005.
HERE IT IS
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