greetings from monaco

I received a postcard from my dearest Bamboohorse. Check out the postage stamp. Woo... BH sent me his heart along with the postcard... :)

I am reminded of the dear friend we lost to a sailing accident. He was a Formula 1 fanatic and was particularly crazy over Kimi Raikkonen; this earned him his nickname Kimi Vin. BH was introduced to the exciting world of F1 racing by Kimi Vin and we used to discuss about the race results over dinner or supper the next day. This was the start of BH's fascination with the Grand Prix which finally brought him to the race track in Monaco. I'm sure wherever Kimi Vin is currently resting, he must be smiling now.

business is good

Here's my restaurant at level 12 almost 13 now. Look how busy it is! Full house ok! You see my four chefs - Joyce, Hye-Won, Beakee and Tudi - and two waiters Bamboohorse and Keeng working very hard to keep my customers satisfied. Restaurant popularity is at my all time high at 37.3 woohoo!



And here's what's on the menu:



Bon appetite.

IT wasn't me

As part of our (Beh Kee and I) ongoing 'host dinner for all those who haven't been to our place' project, we invited the Tan family over this time. (You can also read about the times we hosted dinner for the Patersons and the Lees



The menu was:
- grilled flat mushrooms (couldn't get portobellas again!) with garlic
- boiled broccoli
- veal tortellinis with bacon in cream sauce
- apple pie



The pasta and mushrooms were cooked by yours truly while the broccoli was boiled by the housemate.



Apple pie made from scratch by the housemate. The food was great and we got several thumbs up from the guests.



And the star of the night was hyper little Ryan. He is an intelligent three year-old with a vocabulary base that will stump you. Upon entering my apartment, the first thing he asked for was to inspect my laundry room. He then proceeded to report to his parents that Auntie Jacqueline and Auntie Rebecca (I subsequently convinced him to call me Jiejie Jacqueline instead phew) have a top loader washing machine and a front loader dryer. He also did an inspection of our balcony in which he heard a 'woo-woo' noise and confirmed that it must have been the ventilator. (?!?!) Here you see Little Ryan in the cutest tee (incidentally IT is his Dad's initials) and moulding his playdoh into a bus - he loves aeroplanes, trains and buses - where he's obssessed with making ventilation holes in his bus.



Having been shown previously by IT Daddy on the joys of rolling down a grass slope, Little Ryan tried to roll on our furry carpet in our living room, much to our amusement and to Mummy's wrath as Little Ryan has a super allergic nose to anything furry.



When we noticed Little Ryan not running around and talking as much, we knew he was exhausted from his adventures in Jiejie Jacqueline's and Auntie Rebecca's wonderland so we shooed the Tans home. We got an email from Mr Tan the next day informing us that Little Ryan liked playing in our humble pad so much that he's been pestering to visit us again. I think we can start a childcare facility here already... I provide the food and toys while Beh Kee does the babysitting.

the colours of coogee

Having cooped myself up at home for a day and a half due to illness, I brought my spinning head and heavy feet to Coogee Beach for some caffeine+sun+oceanbreeze therapy. And it was here, at the below Cafe-Ristorante that I consumed an alcohol-infused coffee - Bailey's Long Latte that confused the hell outta my brain and body. I think they (the brain cells) couldn't decide if they should be sending the 'sleepy' or the 'hyper' signals to the body and as a result, I felt edgy and was in a weird antisocial-leave-me-alone mood the entire evening.



I did, however, enjoy a great but poignant read on the early life of mass murderer Martin Bryant who was involved in the Port Authur Massacre that was featured in the SMH Good Weekend section as well as the beginning chapters of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman while savouring the colours of Coogee amidst the setting sun.





Then it was back to churning the three work reports that were outstanding due to my absence from work on Friday. Two down, one more to go.

restaurant city

Because Beakee and Tudi were going on and on about Restaurant City in Plurk, I logged on to Facebook to have a peep, and now I'm hooked. Here's showing off my newly set up restaurant. When I took this screenshot, I was only at level 4 and as you can see, I have not earned enough money yet to decorate my shop front, so it was just a boring looking shack.



And here's the rather empty interior at level 4.



I explored the street a bit and saw Beakee's awesome restuarant Spuntini and Hanzi's Kopitiam right next to Spuntini! I was really motivated to spruce up my restaurant then.



I hired two chefs Beakee and Hye-Won and Tudi as my waiter for a start. Tudi got overworked and I hired Sunshine23 to take over waiting tables while Tudi got a rest.



I left the restaurant running while I had dinner and when I checked back afterwards, I found all my staff collapsed on the floor with big red exclamation balloons over them screaming at me: "We need food or rest!". It was hilarious. In my panic to revive my staff, I forgot to take a screenshot of it! But as I was taking a walk along Restaurant Street, I saw this in Beakee's restaurant and took a shot to show here. Hehe.



And right now, as I type this entry, I am at level 7 and have named my restaurant Jac's Bistro. Check out my newly renovated bistro! If you are on Facebook too, do join the Restaurant City club and come visit my Bistro!





I realise while running Jac's Bistro how much I miss playing Theme Hospital and Sim City. Perhaps I should go get the games and start playing them all over again... that's if I have the time.