My bday part II

Okay, I know I should stop blabbering about my bday, but I have new pics to post, so I shall just go ahead and post them anyways. Hehe.

My lab has a bday cake and card when I came to happy hour. Woohoo! I was caught off guard. Heehee. Deron went to one of my fav bakeries to get the strawberry shortcake. Hehe.

My cake!

Me looking very happy at my cake. Hehe.

My lovely friend Alice with me posing for the cam!

Some of the presents. Most from the dinner from the last blog. There are some that came later, and I don't have pics, but I will remember them! :P

Went to Johnny V's with some of my friends from lab to "celebrate my bday" Washington apple shot with Lara, who's leaving for Boston this week! :(

Us drinking the shot.

Happy!

Yun and Tevy! Cutest couple.
Me and Vicky! I don't see her enuf!


Came home to find this big box of flowers from my little sister! Sooooooooooooooooooo happy and touched! They're my fav flowers, and they're Vera Wang! Hehe. Love!

Drove up to Las Vegas for my bday weekend!

Deron driving, slightly irritated that I'm taking pics of him while he's driving and stuffing food in his mouth. Hehe!

Me!

Went to Golden Gate Casino for their famous shrimp cocktail!

Went to watch Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. We got ballin' seats, a surprise from Deron. Hehe.

Me again, waiting for the show to start.

I'll have to blog about the awesome 3 michelin star meal I had on my bday on another blog. Hehe!

Hawaii and my bday!

Man, work has been so crazy these two months, I hardly have time to breathe, let alone write my blog. I promise to blog about Hawaii soon. It's waaaay due. Wanted to blog about my bday thus far, so I wun forget about it before long.

Just celebrated it with a few of my very close friends here at this decent seafood restaurant. Had a cake filled with bavarian cream and fresh strawberries, and whipped buttercream on the outside with hazelnut truffle drizzled on it. It was awesome.

Not as awesome as good company tho, and I'm really grateful for such good friends... even when the going gets tough, it's good to have friends like that...

Just random pictures of the dinner...








It was really good food, with a 4 pound lobster, scallops, shrimp and peking duck! :)

Gonna have a sorta party night with my lab peeps tmr night, so I'm excited... and on my bday (the day after), I'm headed to Vegas. Woot! :)

Gonna try my first three michelin star restaurant. Woot! :)

I think I have a really good life. I really do. When work is going tough, I really have to remember this more......

Xmas!

I had a really nice heartwarming xmas this year. Nope, I didn't go back to Singapore, stayed here in California and spent Xmas with Deron and his family. It's just nice, with the giant xmas tree they have, and the chrissy food, and the company. His family is soooo warm, and they actually asked him for hints about what I wanted for Xmas, and I got two presents from his parents, one of which was signed off by "Santa". How sweet. :)

Deron got me a Wii playstation. Apparently I've been talking about it and how awesome it is, although I really had no idea I was doing that. But it's nice, since now we spend hours playing super mario bros on the couch. :)
Wii cheer squad. Possibly the lamest game ever.

And! He got me a present that I WAS hinting about, and it was a surprise present after the Wii (I apparently looked quite disappointed when I got the Wii, so he gave me the surprise gift earlier than he planned. Hehe.)

It's this brass and crystal necklace I fell in love with on the Nordstrom catalog, and was too cheap to buy. Plus, I think it's more meaningful to wear something given, not bought.

Tadaaa! Love!

And apparently all Deron said to his family was that Keira would like anything that 1) smells good 2) sparkles 3) or a mercedes keychain (cuz I broke mine a while ago, can't believe he remembered that). And they got me all that!

Santa gave me a mercedes keychain and a sparkly mercedes top to boot!

Yay! I love love it.

And his brother Nick gave me the prettiest scarve from Nordstrom.

And his other brother Jeff and his wife Annie gave me a philosophy bath set that smells gooood!

And his parents gave me a reed diffuser set...sweet tea flavored! I love love reed diffusers. :P For some reason, a lot of people spell my name wrongly. But I forgive them this time! :P

And Cindy (his sister) and Steve sent us a card, with pictures of adorable Oscar!! And a candy cane he made which was hiliarious. Have to post up pics soon.

And Lisa (Deron's bff) gave me the ring both of us were oogling in Nordstrom one day! Will post pics soon too! :)

Our bag of presents for his family. Joint effort in the wrapping! :)


This is her adorable daughter Adeline, the happiest toddler ever! :P

Found the best mani/pedicurist in town! She's Japanese (of course), learnt nail art in Japan for 2 years, and she's tres good. But a little takai.

Gel-based nails with 3-D flower design. Love! :)

In Hawaii (Oahu) now for the next 7 days or so! Happy! :) Will update soon. :)

I'm in a very happy place right now, despite my sucky work. ^__^ Not even because of my upcoming trip to Hawaii, it's just the little things in life that make me happy. When you offered to pay the electricity bill cuz I was too cheap to turn on the heater. When you offered to go to the store to get the full version of the game when I feel bummed that my trial for my new game expired. I'm just happy.

Who knows how long this will last?

I hope it'll last forever. :)

New post! Portland and blahh

I realize I haven't been blogging for months. Shame on me! :P It's just hard to find a time when I'm not feeling overly happy or overly depressed, cuz that's when I wanna blog the most. :P A lot of stuff has happened in the last 3 months, and now I'm just trying to find inner peace with my lab work in the midst of holiday festivities.

Went to Portland! We stayed with Deron's sister's family, and it was cold damp but very cosy! The food culture there is awesome. :)

Went to this best restaurant 2009 in Portland called "Beaker and Flask". Portland has a yearly issue of best restaurants, and people talked so much abt food and produce, it feels like Singapore. :)

The chanterella mushroom and bone marrow had such a delicate flavor, as the soft oily texture of the charred bone marrow complemented the rustic mushrooms to perfection, with a hint of lemon rind. Yum!

The risotto was great, with creme fraiche, and the roasted tomato was the best tomato every! It was sweet, and toasty on the outside, soft on the inside. Mannnn.

Even the deviled eggs were awesome.

The decor of the place, with barrels as seats. :)

The pork belly, with swiss chard (so fresh! in a cream sauce) and toasted kabocha pumpkin on top. Heavenly! I always enjoy a well cooked pork belly, the meat was tender and the fat was melt in yr mouth without being too oily.


My fav part of the trip, Deron's nephew Oscar! He wanted to be a xmas tree for halloween. Teehee! :)

Went to a farmer's market, where they sell the freshest produce ever. I bought the cherry tomatoes for 2 bucks, and Oscar and I finished it in 5 min. Sweetest tomatoes ever!

Had the home-made chicken and potato curry. It was very flavorful, and not too oily. Very homestyle. :)

They had a live band playing too. So cool. :)

Went to Deron's broter in law's cheese shop. Such a cool logo for the shop!



Went on a hike to a waterfall in the middle of a forest. It was breathtaking, the air was moist and crisp, and it was soo peaceful.

Walking...
Chui Kueh taking a break. :P

walking...


There! :P

Went to another waterfall too. Deron looking very "rustic" in his plaid shirt. :P


Went to this purely local produce restaurant called Ned Rudd, where EVERYTHING is cooked in this giant charcoal oven. So cool.

Had the best pork pie EVER. The crust was sticky and flaky, and the pork was soooo tender and bursting with flavors!

Roasted turnips and carrots. Yum!

Went to this other breakfast place that was great too, but a little lazy now... heh!


Like Oscar. He wanted me to take a pic of him while he pretended to yawn. Hee!

Blah.

Sorry that I haven't been blogging of late, I think my life has become very domesticated and monotonous. Ha. Not that I'm complaining. It's kinda nice, taking a backseat, and letting my friends go on about their own drama. :) I like my life now, even though my project might choke and die any day now, and my stomach's still kinda acting up. Cuz I'm surrounded by my friends, by Deron, and people who loves me. And I'm healthy, not handicapped in any way, and don't have to worry much about financial matters.

Anw, the only highlight so far was a dinner at Pamplemousse Grille in Del Mar on Sunday night with Jenn. Jenn's boss wanted to give her and her "significant other" a treat, so she decided to take me along. Heh.

Between the two of us, we ordered so much food, the waiter tried to ask us to order less. The bill came up to 300 bucks. Whoops!

We both had the seared foie gras. We ordered two orders cuz we didn't want to share. It was served on top of a house-made brioche, with boysenberry jam in the middle, and accompanied by a fried encased quail egg, with wine jelly. It was heavenly. Seriously,

Then we had the 40 bucks grilled cheese sandwich, which was essentially truffled cheese, chock full of lobster meat, in between perfectly buttered and toasted bread. To die for.

We had the lobster pot pie, and jumbo sea scallops on the grill, served with a delicate goat cheese pumpkin ravioli, and some persimmon salad. They were a-okay. We decided to shy away from the usual entree we get, which is the chilean sea bass, served in a basil tomato torched sauce, with fingerling potatoes. That I love.

For desserts, I got the blackberry brown butter tart, served warm with berries. And Jenn got the peanut butter bombe, which is a choc peanut butter cake. All desserts are made from scratch in-house, so they tasted pretty good.

Yes, that is all I have to update. Plus I just put in a link to my earrings blog, which will showcase all the earrings I've made so far. :)

Oh, and I'm headed to Portland, Oregon this weekend. Apparently they have a strong food culture there. Love!