Black Pepper Crab

Woke up early on sunday and decided to visit the wet market just opposite from our flat where you get the freshest produce as compared to any supermarket. As usual I went a little crazy. After having bought a loadful of fresh fish, we walked past a spice shop as we were about to leave and they sold freshly made black pepper crab paste. I bought a container thinking I could try it out with different meats apart from crab. on our way out of the wet market, I bumped into the friendly fish monger whom I bought our fish from, and decided to ask if he knew anyone who sold crab in this market. Sure enough he did! He walked us to the stall, and told his friend to give us the better graded crab and even to give us a good discount. How lovely!

And so we headed home with fresh live crab! It was our first time doing this, and we didn't really know how to prepare crab for cooking. We also didn't really want to cut them up while they were still alive. So we fired up you tube and found a great video on a more humane way of putting them to sleep - pop them in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. Boiling a crab live, stresses the crab and it tends to tense up it's muscles making the meat tough after. Hey! Something new we learn everyday!

After much struggling, we managed to clean, prepare, and cut up the crab before making our dish. No pictures since it was too messy and I couldn't get hold of a camera.

Final result was good though. Bon Appetit!

Baby Shower 13 April 2013

"Do you want a baby shower?" - was all it took to put it into action, by my dear cousin and sister. These two gals are one of the best people in my life whom I truly can rely and depend on when all else fails. It was also this duo that helped me a tremendous deal through the organization of our wedding back in 2009, and made it fun for us.

Everything was planned by the both of them. All I was asked to do was to provide them a guest list for this shower. I didn't know how many to invite, so I just went ahead with my own estimation and 13 in total came for this party including me. I later on realised that they were planning for a small size of about 8. Oops!

It all turned out well though. I was happy they did this for me. I got to catch up with so many people and friends that I have not seen or heard from in a while.

 

 So everyone who arrives get a name tag. Mine was obvious.

And everyone got to write my daughter a diaper message. The idea was for her to wear them when she's out. My favourite message - " I like big butts and I cannot lie". We all had some home cooked lunch courtesy of my cousin for 13 people, after which they surprised me with a beautiful cake my sister picked up!

I'm really glad they did this for me. It makes me feel really special. And my daughter's already spoiled silly by all these aunties.

Thank you everyone for making this so memorable for me.

Thank you for supporting me and being with me through every milestone of my life.

I was initially apprehensive about meeting this many people since I have not seen anyone in a while, and I was pretty conscious about the total amount of weight I had put on. So much so Julien calls me his "little whale" now and sometimes "moby dick" just for variation. But who cares really about some bit of fat when they are more concerned about me, and are excited to see my daughter in the near future.


On behalf of my darling girl, thank you aunties. We are very blessed.

Chip & Dale

April so far has been fun, fun, fun!

I can't remember where I saw the advertisement first but it was for an event titled "The Ultimate Ladies' Night Out - Bad Boys Australia". This was accompanied by a marketing picture of a row of men with muscular topless bodies. And I thought, hey why not. Called my sister and my cousin, and we were set for our ultimate ladies' night out. What was absurd about this was, we were going for a 'strip' show with a mother of two on maternity leave (she just gave birth), an almost popping pregnant lady, and one that just got married who thinks she has the best at home. But who cares. We went anyway - we were all eager to get out of our daily routine. And boy did we have the VIP treatment, compliments of the preggers.

We did not have to queue at all even though we arrived a little late. We were also escorted up by a bouncer to the event location, and were given a VIP table just beside the stage without having to pay any of these VIP prices. The only condition I had to fulfill, was that I was not allowed to order any alcohol. These were management orders, I swear. They even allocated a guy on duty beside our table so we could tell him whatever we needed, and he could get our drinks for us, etc. Is this awesome or what?! We were squealing even before the show started.

And even better when the show started. My sister, was the loudest standing just in front of the stage giving occasional wolf whistles to the boys as they lost their layers. haha! Apparently, in other countries apart from here where they perform, they end up only in their Gs. Unfortunately due to "regulations" here, they ended up in tight short boxers. Boo! My cousin, on the other hand, got called up the stage twice where the bad boys danced about her and shook their booty! It was hilarious. I laughed so hard I almost started labour. And as the finale, one of the bad boys did a knee skid on stage towards our table, and gave my sister a kiss on the cheek as the show ended with blinding lights and a big bang of confetti. I seriously could not stop laughing. We were having a ball of a time!

The great service didn't stop right there. We stayed a while longer to club a little, before telling the bouncer that we were off. Again, we were escorted out with us having the right of way. He cleared the crowds so we could go through. Reeling from the adrenaline, we didn't want to go our seperate ways just yet, and decided to have coffee. Who knew we were going to end up staying out chatting till 3am!

My darling husband, had told me earlier that day not to bother coming home early because he was going to be out later than I am. I decided to call him just to tell him I will be a while longer where ever he was, only to realise he was already home. What cracked me up was how he pretended to be at a club, putting the music up and all while in the house. Ah, my darling yeti.

I can't include pictures of the show as it was not allowed but Girls' Night out was fun. I'd do it again soon.

Very satisfied customers indeed!