[A son hated his mother...to him, she was such an embarrassment. When he was in elementary school, his mother went to say hello to him in school. He was so embarrassed that he ignored her and threw her a hateful look and ran away. The next day, one of his classmates said, "EEEE, your mom only has one eye!". He confronted her that day and said, "If you're only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don't you just die?!!!"

His mom did not respond. He didn't even stop to think for a second about what he had said, because he was full of anger. He was oblivious to her feelings. He wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her. So he studied real hard, got a chance to go to Singapore to study. Then, he got married, bought a house and had kids. He was happy with his life, his kids and the comforts.

Then one day, his mother came to visit him. She hadn't seen him in years and she didn't even meet her grandchildren. When she stood by the door, his children laughed at her, and he yelled at her for coming over uninvited. He screamed at her, "How dare you come to my house and scare my children! Get out of here now!!!" And to this, his mother quietly answered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared out of sight.

One day, he receivied a letter regarding a school reunion. He decided to attend the reunion back at his home town. After the reunion, he went to the old shack where he was raised, just out of curiosity. His neighbours told him she died. He did not shed a single tear. They handed him a letter which she had left for him. This is what she wrote:

"My dearest son,
I think of you all the time. I'm sorry that I came to Singapore and scared your children. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you.

With my love to you,
Your mother." ]

Back in cave-men-time, men are hunters outside of the caves and woman are the carers back inside the cave. Simple, clear cut way of living.
In our modern day, men are still out there making money but women have stepped up in society and are also out there making money, sometimes succeeding over men! But we are still expected to be the carers – doing all the cooking & cleaning, taking care of the kids and being the perfect partner for our boyfriends/husbands. Not to mention looking sexy & hot while we are doing all of those. However, these expectations are rarely spoken of. Men may say “I don’t need my partner to be domesticated and I don’t mind that she earns as much or more money than I do”, but that’s not true – ever! Men will feel intimidated if his partner were more successful & they subconsciously expect us to be their superwoman!

Given a woman who is financially stable, can cook & clean and look hot compare that to a woman who is financially stable, eats out all the time (because she doesn’t even know how to fry an egg for a lazy Sunday morning) … which of the two do you think men would prefer?!?! I can confidently to say the first type.
I believe men will secretly have a moment of ego boosting if their partner is in the superwoman category. For men who’s partners are not in that category, they will train them up to be soon enough!

Here’s how I imagine the conversion would go:
Man1: “What did you have for dinner last night mate?”
Man2: “Oh my wife cooked as usual, we had lamb racks, pasta bake and tiramisu for dessert, nothing out of the ordinary”
Man1: “Are you serious my girlfriend doesn’t even know how to fry an egg!”
Man2: “Nah, it’s nothing special, when she doesn’t have to work, for example during the weekends, she does all the house-work and cooks even more”
Man1: [gawks at Man2 with envy] “My girlfriend works too but she always says she is too tired to cook anything after work! You’re one lucky man”
Man2: [feeling pretty damn good about himself because he's scored himself a superwoman]

Women are definitely pushed to the limit. We go to work just like men do but when we get home, the guys get to kick off their shoes and sit back on the couch watching tv,  awaiting dinner to be served. We, on the other hand –  kick off our heels, put on an apron and get cooking! The superwoman doesn’t just stop there – after dinner, there are the dishes whilst the men continue to do their own thing. Then before going to sleep there’s the massage and all the other pleasures so the guy can unwind and have a good night’s sleep.

So what about the woman? Oh she is super, runs on live-batteries which never drains, she doesn’t need all that jazz! She’s superwoman! Right?

The modern day woman is SUPER

The 8 course - Bites of Love - Lunch Menu made with lots of love by Roxy

@ Jones Bay Wharf before dinner

King Fish Entree - the little cones are super thin slices of white peach

Look at the Dessert Tasting Plate - are you drooling yet?

At our table inside Flying Fish with the beautiful lights like stars

14.o2.10
Valentine’s Day & Chinese New year on the same day of the year apparently won’t come around again for another 56 years or so! WOW! [Not!]

I vouch Valentine’s Day should never be lumped with any other occasions of the year! Too much to do in one day and too little time -_-”
I shouldn’t complain though as I got flowers & red pocket all on the same day!

My favourite: orange & bright pink roses from Stan <3

Roxy's handmade Chocolate for Stan

Check out all our red pockets!!!

The Australia-Day long weekend was spontaneous & much enjoyed! Stan and I went for a drive up to The Entrance on Monday the 25th instead of the 26th (as I had a feeling that our help will be needed at Moltofino on Australia Day — and I was right!). The weather was perfect, the water was amazing! I had forgotten what it was like up there. There is a pool of water from the beach side to the walkway, no waves and the water only comes up to your knees! There were lotsss of fish in the water as well and I really wanted to catch them and take it home and stick it in the oven…but we didn’t have a net! So I am looking forward to our next day trip there – I will be prepared – net, fishing rod, bait, bucket, swimmer & a hat!

@ DeeWhy Beach

@ The Entrance - beautiful day!

On Australia Day: my first time helping out at Moltofino. Not as difficult as I thought, lots of walking around and lots of hands on! Then winding down with dinner at Sushiya.

Fresh Scampi Sashimi @ Sushiya

Visited two Japanese restaurants this month both had a menu that consisted of several courses.
The first restaurant was at Crows Nest called Waqu with 5 courses and the other one is in Mosman called Mino which also had 5 courses.

Appetizers from Waqu

Entree from Mino

To top off the month it was my bestie Clare bear’s Birthday

Flowers for the B'day princess

Oh…and how can I forget! Stan’s Christmas present for me a new Macbook Pro and for himself a mega 27″ iMac desktop

As Stan said... "Life isn't fair"

Christmas Day we had Stan’s parents over for lunch, played some Wii and watched an Asian movie – it was good for us to spend some time with Stan’s parents as they have been working so hard in the past few months at their cafe Moltofino.
We then all headed to my parent’s house for a huge Christmas feast. Although it wasn’t the first time the parents met each other – it was definitely a moment to remember for me as I’ve never had my parents get along so well with my partner’s parents.

Christmas Lunch: Pasta Pie, Mango & Smoked Salmon Salad and Corn & Pea Fritters with Salsa

Christmas Shortbread Wreath: made with love from me to family

Boxing Day BIG Breakfast: Bacon, Hashbrown, Salad, Pancakes, Mushroom Omelette & Grilled Roma Tomatoes

all our pressies

New Year’s Eve consisted of having a small group of close friends come by our place for dinner. Tom brought 2kgs of cooked prawns – soo yummy! After dinner, we took the train out to Waverton to watch the fireworks. Even though I’m not really a fireworks-person, I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s as this is the first NYE with Stan =)

our little NYE dinner

Stan & I at Waverton watching fireworks

The pictures pretty much sum up our trip!

Our itinerary went like this

Night one: Shinjuku
After the plane had landed, we made our way to Shinjuku which we stayed in the less sophisticated part of the suburb but it wasn’t too bad at all! We spent the night roaming in the nearby streets, eating the BIGGEST bowl of ramen ever and I tried the most expensive stick of strawberries!

the bowl is bigger than my face!

Day two: Harajuku & Odaiba
Whether it was jet lag or we both were too excited to waste time sleeping in – we got up bright and early – packed our bags and moved to the Hotel New Otani which we stayed for the next 5 days (courtesy of Stan’s company). On the way to the hotel we were pretty much lost – then this nice man, whose name is Matsuda came along and walked us to the hotel, he even carried my luggage for me!

Our first stop was Harajuku to shop along the famous Takeshita Street & see the people dressed up in cosplay and costumes along the bridge towards the Meiji Shrine.

at the entrance of Takeshita Street

$5 for a happy snap

Our second stop was Super Autobacs in Shinonome. Needless to say – Stan’s haven!

Our third stop was Odaiba – the man-made island!

Odaiba - highest Ferris Wheel

–That concludes the first weekend–

The following days consisted of Stan going to work and me shopping shopping shopping until he finished work and venturing to restaurants for dinner and then MORE shopping!

Some highlights from the week:

blow fish anyone?

My new pet a Louis Vuitton bag - Birthday present from Stan

at the Sony Centre in Ginza

The second weekend we had absolutely gorgeous weather!

Saturday: First Stop 5am to Tsukiji Fish Market

HUGE frozen Tuna

Second Stop: Asakusa – a traditional street of food stalls and souvenir stores and we did a walk down to another street where it was full of kitchenware (my haven!!!)

at the famous Giant Lantern of Asakusa

Third Stop: Ikebukuro – here we went to Sunshine City, up an observatory building with amazing views of Tokyo, Toyota Mega Web – where we went on an automatic car which drove us around a circuit.

Sadly we have to pack as we were leaving the next day and we spent all of Sunday eating haha!
It  was the best overseas trip I ever went on – short & sweet =)

Chirashizushi

Ingredients:
(the quantity is entirely up to you!)

• chopped salmon pieces marinated in soya sauce and wasabi
• shredded crab stick
• thin strips of egg omelette
• cucumber julienned
• salmon fish roe
• finely chopped spring onion
• toasted white sesame seeds
• cooked rice – cooled at room temperature

Method:

• place rice into a serving bowl
• arrange on top of rice in this order:
  - egg, cucumber, salmon pieces, crab stick,  fish roe,  spring onion & sesame seeds.
• when you eat it you mix everything together

Soba – Cold & Refreshing

Ingredients:

• soba noodles

• toasted sesame seeds to serve
• spring onion chopped to serve

Combine to make sauce:

• 1/2C dashi stock
• 3Tbs soya sauce
• 3Tbs mirin

Method:

• dried soba noodles cooked according to directions on the packet.
• drain in running cold water, strain
• place in a bowl of icey water to cool then drain
• place in a bowl or a traditional soba bamboo box
• sprinkle sesame seeds and spring onion on top of noodles
• Pour sauce over noodles and serve

Soba noodles & Chirashizushi

Assorted Sushi from the previous night: Vegetarian, California, Crab stick & Cucumber, Salmon & Cucumber…

It was a wonderful night with a circle of the people I now consider to be my closest friends. Friends from both my side and Stan’s side. Dinner was at Sushiya and I am still reminiscing on the scampi sushi – so fresh! There was plenty of food but the best part had to be the cupcake cake! Stan bought the cake from Cupcake on Pitt and had it especially ordered to my liking – Chocolate Tiramisu with little bobbles of whip cream.

the biggest cupcake ever – Tiramisu & Chocolate

The following morning we went down to Moltofino’s for brunch as I wanted to try out their new menu. The food was delicious – we ordered the Egg’s Benedict and Pancakes with Vanilla Compote and berries (I was too busy eating to have taken photos…oops >.<). After the scrumptious brunch, we headed across the road to Dee-Why beach where the sun was just right with a bit of sea breeze. The heat made us very lethargic and so we went home got some popcorn and popped some movies in. I thoroughly enjoyed my quiet and simple Birthday and wouldn’t mind it to be the same next year.
As I become older, I realise I’m over the big parties with lots and lots of people (acquaintances) getting drunk. Speaking of which I have not had one sip of alcohol for my Birthday! I only want the closest people or even person to be with me doing anything as long as I can have their company =)

Preparation:

• half a roasted duck (which you can carve about 20 slices of skin)
• pre-made peking duck pastry- steamed
• Hoisin sauce (1 tsp)
• spring onion – cut into 2-inch logs)
• cucumber – cut into 2-inch sticks)
  * one item of each for each duck skin

Peking Duck arrangement:

• Spread hoisin sauce in the middle of a pastry
• place a piece of duck skin followed by a log of spring onion and cucumber
• fold the bottom edge upwards then fold the sides in
• eat up!

The Duck Fried rice:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice (cooked a day ahead is best)
• 100g of the duck meat shredded
• 2 spring onion chopped (reserve some for serving)
• 1 egg – fried and cut into thin strips
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 1 small clove garlic lightly crushed
• 1 slice ginger
• pinch of salt
• 1tbs soy sauce
• 1tbs sesame oil
• 3Tbs oil

Method:

• Heat the oil in a large pan.
• Add the garlic, ginger and salt until it is aromatic.
• Add the rice and break any lumps and allow for any moisture to be evaporated.
• Add the duck, egg strips, orange zest and spring onion and stir-fry to mix well.
• Pour the beaten over and stir-frying as you pour so that the egg can coat evenly over the rice.
• Add the soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Sprinkle some fresh chopped spring onions and serve.
  (serves 4)

Some inconsiderate idiot who can’t park (or write a note), scrapped my right-front fender and left a nasty scratch & dent. There were no security cameras in the parking area only in the entrance and exits so we weren’t able to trace who the person was who did this. Needless to say – major anti-climax to my day!
When we got home, Stan took off his suit and put on his shorts & T-shirt, got some polish & tools and started fixing my car. I don’t know what he did but 30minutes later – you couldn’t even tell my car has been hit. Somehow he got the scratch marks off and bare-handed-panel-beat the dent back out.

before

after