Sunday, May 24, 2009

Amazing grace

For my family, the word "food" is never far from our minds. We enjoy eating! I woke up early this morning and baked two cinnamon fruit teacakes. I intend to bring a whole cake to the office tomorrow as a little "thank you" to my wonderful team at work who have toiled with me on a big project (which we started in 2005 and which finally ended on 22 May 2009). To my wonderful gang - you have worked very hard on this project and I just want to let you know how grateful I am to you for your teamwork and dedication.

As for the other cake, I sliced it and packed some in containers for my family.

Giving in to temptation, I made a spur of the moment decision to bake some chocolate chip cupcakes as well. This time, I added some cocoa powder so that the cupcake itself is chocolatey as well.

I was on a roll and I managed to squeeze in some time to open my recently purchased box of cornmeal and I baked a corn cake. This is the first time that I have baked anything using cornmeal and I was pleased with the results. The cake was soft and delicious. Yummy!

Oops! Look at the time! Da and I would not be able to make it for the 2.30 pm church service in time! Sigh.... my fault, I know!

I contacted my mother and arranged to meet her, my brother (LG) and LG's girlfriend (ZT) at our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong for a very leisurely lunch. I say "very leisurely" because the next church service was at 5 pm, so we had plenty of time to eat, digest our food and chat!

Before we left the house, I packed two containers of home-made goodies for the three handsome boys who live opposite Da and I on our floor. Little Hng Hng was at the door and he smiled bashfully as he accepted the gift from me.

As LG had already eaten his lunch, he ordered a glass of iced coffee while watching the rest of us enjoy our lunch. Unfortunately, the stall had run out of rice. As such, all of us ordered noodles. Kudos to the chef who accommodated (again!) our requests for dishes that were not in the menu.

After lunch, Da and I proceeded to church. Through Jesus, we have received the gift of grace and righteousness and because of this, we can reign in life! Let us put the "amazing" back into grace! When we are under grace, we are more than conquerors. Whatever lemons that the devil throws against us, the Lord will turn into lemonade. When we are under grace, we find that life is meant to be enjoyed. We enjoy the company of family and loved ones. Every day becomes a celebration of life and blessings. Things just fall into place. We find ourselves at the right place at the right time.

If you are thinking to yourself at this point in time, "I know what is next in this post... dinner at Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant at Eastwood Centre", you are absolutely correct! Well, I did suggest to my mother that we have our dinner at Crystal Cafe at Orchard Grand Court Hotel but she preferred Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant as there is more variety of dishes and it is more value for money. My other brother (LB) and his wife (MF) could not join us for dinner because poor MF was stuck in her office and LB was with her to stand guard over her (of course, right? That's what the guys are for). As such, it was a 5 pax dinner today.

Guess what? While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we were eyeing a yam basket that the diners at another table had ordered and we agreed to order this dish the next time that we ate at this restaurant. Suddenly, a waitress approached us and told us that one of the dishes that we had ordered was sold out. As such, we changed our order to yam basket. As LG said, we were meant to order the yam basket this round!

After dinner? You guessed it correctly. We went next door to Cold Storage Supermarket and bought some groceries. LG and ZT also bought a box of Sara Lee mixed berries cheesecake. When we left the supermarket and tried to take the lift (elevator) to the carpark in the basement, we realised that the lift was not working. Someone had switched off the control panels in the lift. No worries - LG to the rescue! He is familiar with such control panels and he managed to get the lift going again. Phew! I was not looking forward to walking down the ramp to the basement carpark while carrying groceries.

When we arrived at my mother's home, we saw LB and MF at the gate. They had brought some vegetarian dumplings made by MF's mother. Hi MF, do thank your mother for us. We like eating her vegetarian dumplings. Delicious!

LB and MF declined to stay for dessert. As such, the rest of us shared an entire mixed berries cheesecake. I choked back a giggle when I saw the proportions on each person's plate. Da and I were given 3 slices to share. LG and ZT put the same number of slices on their plate. And my mother? She was given 2 slices! hehe... no worries - my mother is retiring soon and she will have plenty of time to take Boy-Boy on walks.


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