We saw an interesting concept of a bottle garden at Garden Tech @ Hort Park some weeks ago and decided to try our hands on one.

The bottle gardens were housed in beautiful glass canister and most were priced 68 dollars and above. You may browse the designs here.

I have also found this video which teaches you how to make your own terrarium.

The materials we need:

We chose plants with variegated leaves for better presentation. You need slow-growing plants for purpose of the terrarium.

Croaky in surgical gloves – separating the soil from the roots. These are very handy gloves, especially when you don’t want to get your hands dirty and your nails trapped in soil.

The finished terrarium on my kitchen top.

It’s not difficult to find a goldfish bowl, but it’s difficult to find a matching lid. I tried to look around different places for suitable cookie canister (those you see in cafes holding muffins) but I just couldn’t find one that was big enough to house my plants. I’m just short of stepping into a TCM shop asking the sinseh where he got his glass to house his ginseng and linzhi. Geez.

Out of desperation, I use an acrylic cutter to cut the leftover remnants of acrylic from my aquarium lid to form a circle. And I stuck a glass marble in the center with epoxy glue. As the cutting wasn’t perfect, the lid has scratches around the corner and I have to frame it up with black acrylic paint and varnish.

Sidenote: I spent $11 on the acrylic cutter and more money on the acrylic panel – but those were for a different purpose of creating a acrylic lid for my aquarium. I would think it will be more cost-friendly if you just walk into a specialist shop and ask them to custom-cut a small piece of acrylic/glass for you.

The final display. Now sitting on my coffee table.

Notice there are two sides to the display – one side with the dwarf with the watering can, and the other with the frog prince. You are supposed to turn the terrarium around so that each side is able to get adequate sunlight. And for this, I have placed a turn-tray beneath the terrarium. The condensation formed on the glass will be recycled to water the plants. It’s supposed to be a self-contained environment and minimal care is required. Good for me – as I tend to forget watering my plants!

We have been so preoccupied with our work lately that we have not been using our fishing rods for quite a while. After lunch on Saturday, Croaky suggested we revisit our prawning spot at Ponggol to “try our luck again”.

To be honest, my memory of our first prawning experience was not a happy one. The lady assistant returned a mock expression when we reported that we had not caught a single prawn after the one hour session. And it was really just us! The experienced young boys opposite us at the pool were catching huge (and juicy) mantis prawns every 3 – 5 minutes. And there we were, drooling at the sight of the bucket of prawns they had.

And so we went with an open mind. Nevermind if we did not catch anything. It was fun watching other people count their catch.

This was the view taken from my seat at a corner of the pond. The area was relatively small compared to the fishing ponds at Pasir Ris. Small but concentrated, if you’d say. Just imagine every inch of the pond was a mantis prawn lay in waiting to bite your bait!

And Mr Croaky sitting patiently for the prawns to bite. The rods, hooks and the bait (a small saucer with chicken liver) were provided for upon payment.

Our very first prawn caught. I could feel it wriggling in my hands while Croaky attempted to remove the hook from its mouth. But in the end, I was the one who had to remove the hook as Croaky freaked out at the struggling prawn.

Our two catches for the one hour session. The bigger prawn came shortly after our very first catch and took us by surprise. Croaky was flunging the fishing rod in mid-air and I could hear a man sitting nearby screaming as he tried to dodge the flying prawn.

The two crustaceans had a rather tragic end. They were suffocated to death in our car while we were having dinner to celebrate our first prawning success at Ajisen Ramen. Croaky was telling me not to cook the dead prawns as he was worried about food poisoning and such.

But they appeared delicious after being baked at 200 degrees celsius in the oven for a whole ten minutes. In fact, the meat was rather springy and tasty! Just like lobster meat.

We’d go prawning again soon!

We finally decided to decorate our home for Xmas after 4 years of abstaining from putting up Xmas-related decorations.
To be honest, I used to think putting up decorations is a pure waste of time, money and freakingly tiring. And someone next door actually left their CNY decorations for a few years to date! I thought we could go down that similar path of leaving things stuck on the walls for a few Xmas-es.

To brighten up the gloom which the bad economy holds, I finally relent to all those temptations of Xmas decorations you see hanging on all those shopping malls.
Spending a bit of money to remind ourselves that Xmas is near can’t be that bad a thing to do, can it?

My 15 cm tall Xmas tree from Daiso – mini decorations, lights and all. Plus my Santa Claus plush toy from Memory Lane!

Croaky called this “green fur” and he dutifully hung it on top of our TV console, at my instructions (no doubt!). I am thinking of buying this gold lettered “Merry Christmas” to hang it beneath.

Then my little angel hanging from my ceiling lamp – all done by Croaky dear.

My plastic snow-flake which I got for $0.98 per piece. How lovely if it starts snowing now ~ dreams. Heat is unbearable in this tropics these days.

Xmas reindeers, Santas and Snow-men, all courtesy of Daiso (my favourite store!)

Minature Xmas tree, made from soft clay – found from one of the shelves in my storeroom!

And my favourite creation – my snow sprayed glass kitchen door. The can of snow spray costs $6.90 from Artfriend (before membership discount).

My home is now ready for Xmas!

Isn’t it depressing that you don’t see beautifully decorated shopping malls along Orchard Road for the past few years? The younger kids these days really missed out all those fun which we used to have. The Xmas carols always have a hypnotic effect on me…

This year, Xmas will be special

The MPH book fair over the weekend was awesome! Croaky and myself managed to squeeze our ways into the crowded exhibition hall at Expo to pore over the numerous good books with great discounts. We (actually is me only) got a total of 9 books – most of them priced at 8 bucks each. Most of the books are in good condition, in fact, brand new. It was puzzling why they were on sale, when they could have fetched much higher prices than those at Borders.

I love books. Not any kind of books. And there are only a few kinds of books which I like – craft books, cookery books, self and home improvement, relationships etc. Every single acquisition is a prize to me! And I have this dream that I will finally be able to savour every single line or picture in my book in the weekday afternoon sun, with a coffee in my hand. I will think of where to acquire my next book to further expand my library, or how to catalogue my books so that I will be able to sort them in an orderly sequence, or going to Ikea to buy more bookshelves!

Reality bites. Croaky said he forbid me to buy any more books.
He put it rather plainly; ” I don’t think you would be able to finish reading all your books even when you are dead. You just keep buying and buying. You have not even finish reading the last lot you have bought! There is no more space for your books!”

I am making my way to the Popular BookFest next weekend.
There’s nothing as ecstatic as finding a book with a title which strikes your cord and completes your soul.

Besides, I am sure I will be able to finish reading them someday. I swear!

We finally caught our second fish this time, and it was a baby stingray which sank its teeth onto the prawn meat we bought.

The first fish, as I have already mentioned in my earlier post, was an inedible boxer/puffer/poisonous looking fish which uncle next door tells us to throw it back immediately.

And if you count the earlier mini-octopus as a catch, then this is our third real catch. I know it sounds like a miniscule catch compared to the real fishes caught in the open seas. Hopefully, someday, we would catch our real garoupa with our cheap little bait.

These funny fishes look quite different from the ones you see at the supermarkets…

Croaky has the good fortune of enjoying the home-made goodness of a luxury facial over the weekend.

Together, we bought one packet of yoghurt drink ($0.90), a papaya ($0.85) and a lemon ($0.60).
Total cost = $2.35

Why these 3 ingredients?
Yoghurt – for its lactobacillus
Papaya – for its enzyme papain (used as meat tenderizer)
Lemon – for its vitamin C

Well, if you ask me. I chose these 3 out of randomness, and largely because they were cheap and easily available in supermarkets.

Then I mashed up the papaya, squeezed the lemon into this bowl of yoghurt. Tada!
Looks yucky but its rich of youthful ingredients for the skin – and stomach (if you are hungry).

“Yoghurt contains milk?” He raised his eyebrow as I placed the tissue face mask on his face.

But you shall not see his masked face as he refused to have his photo taken.

You can hear him mumbling “melamine… melamine” in his sleep as he feared for his life with the recent Chinese milk scandal -> Now he only takes soya bean…

I’d say he should fear for ants instead.

Recently, Croaky spotted some dark specks in our display cabinet.
“Yikes, what is this?”

I took a closer look. It’s dried pollen from our withered bouquet.
I took out the bouquet and shoved it right under Croaky’s nose, “Don’t you remember this?”

“What is THIS? I did not BUY this” – referring to the bunch of brown flowers.

“Yes you did. It was our bouquet for the ROM and I am going to throw it away because it is shedding pollen everywhere”

“Are you not going to take a picture of it before you throw it into a bin? Such a waste! I KEEP everything (referring to his Garang Guni pad next to his bed).”

We can’t keep everything in life, can we? Some things must go. But they stay in our hearts…

Not too long ago, Woolly and Croak got themselves hooked on fishing. As a start to their new-found hobby, they invested fervently in an extensive range of fishing equipment. To date, their collection includes 3 heavy duty fishing rods (including a 3 meter rod!), a pretty looking toolbox, two foldable stools, a cooler box (to contain the catch), night lamps and fishing hooks, weights, lures and bells in a myriad of shapes, sizes and colours. There was even a box of latex gloves to keep Woolly’s hands clean as she disengaged the worms from their “cocoons”. They did their homework by surfing fishing forums, reading books on fishing-related techniques, speaking to acquaintances with vast fishing experience. However, those efforts were simply not enough. Woolly and Croak have no luck catching fishes. Their only prize, so far, has been an unfortunate boxer fish which they stumble upon on their 3rd fishing trip.

Croaky getting his spool ready for his long cast.

And he looked every inch of a professional fisherman at work.

They spent their weekends munching their curry puffs and watching the planes land along Changi coast. To Croaky, time was well spent lazing around and stringing his $1 “sotong” bought from Sheng Siong. He described himself as a “fish-feeder”, doing charity to the poor sea creatures who are in dire food shortage. The recipients, on the other hand, were insatiable.

I think it’s time they consider purchasing a waterproof video camera to catch these underwater thieves.

Froggy is away on reservist this week. And therefore I am cooking my own dinner.

1) Stir Fry Chye Sim and Shitake mushrooms ($0.45 + $1.60/4 = $0.85)

2) Prawn omelette ($0.76/2 + $1.90/10 = $0.57)

3) Two chicken franks ($1.30/5 = $0.26)

4) Premium brand rice (compliments from my mother-in-law)

Total cost = $1.68

Cheap meal har?