Must've been a 24 hour bug

Yesterday was a very strange day. I woke up feeling rather unwell, felt so tired and just wanted to sleep. I felt like I was coming down with the flu. Since I was in no shape to take care of an active toddler, I sent her off to the in laws for the day. As for me, the rest of the day was spent in bed trying to sleep, except that I couldn't get into a deep sleep. Evening came and Caelyn and Edmund had come home, by that time I was feeling ok again.

Today I'm feeling back to my normal self again with still a tinge of tiredness. It's really strange, like I had a 24 hour bug or something. Thought I was also getting a cough, but that came and went within the 24 hours too. How bizarre.....

Baby Making Incentives by the Government

Now that the goverment is saying maternity leave will be 16 weeks up from 12 weeks, I think there's a lot of debate going on. Will this mean women jobseekers will be more discriminated against because it'll cost more, particurlalry for SME (Small-Medium Enterprises)? Somebody also wrote about this to the newspaper. Another woman wrote in to the paper and pointed out thta maybe the extra 4 weeks should've gone towards father's taking leave when their babies are born. I kinda agree with this one because I think it would be great for father's to be able to take leave and bond with their newborn and the new Mummy. The extra help would definitely be appreciated by those who have no one else to rely on for help except their husbands.

In the past I had been to interviews where they asked me if I was married and when I was planning to have children. Is it right for potential employers to ask this question, would you ask this question if u were the employer (even if it's not out loud)? I know it's not ethical, but I'm sure this is what's on their mind at interviews. Unless of course you have an exceptional skill or talent the employer needs, there's no reason the employer wouldn't just hire a man instead of a woman to do the same job (unless it specifically needs a woman to do). So I wonder if the government's efforts to increase birthrates will instead create more problems for working women than they know it.

What do you think?

My first Nigella Lawson cookbook

My first Nigella cooking book, Nigella Express, has finally arrived today. I ordered it from a website called Betterworld.com .Believe it or not I found out about this site through an ad on the side panel of my facebook site. I was intrigued at their low international shipping cost of US$2.97 (now is US$3.97) to anywhere in the world and free shipping in the US. Nigella Express book at Kinokuniya book store is priced at over SG$65, but on here including shipping fee I think it only came out to about SG$38. I'm also very happy with their service. I like how they sent me an email when the book had been shipped out and they let me know if I hadn't received it by a certain date to let them know because it would be deemed lost by then. This site is much cheaper than shopping from Amazon.com (if you don't live in the US that is) since shipping charges are way cheap. But it did take about 3 weeks for the book to reach me, so don't order any books that you want to read in a hurry.

Anyway, I love Nigella and watch her show on the Discovery Travel & Living channel all the time. Tho her cooking might not be conventional and her ingredients might not be as easy to find in Singapore, I am happy to add her to my collection. And I think it's the fact that she's not professionally trained in cooking, yet can whip up yummy easy dishes with ease, that makes her appealing to homecooks like me.

About Betterworld.com: "Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders."

Thai Sing Chilli Crab Sauce

We bought some crabs from the supermarket the other day and cooked it ourselves using this Thai Sing Chilli Crab Sauce ($3 for a jar from Prime supermarket). It is really delicous and tastes just like the chilli crab you buy at the restaurant. I suppose I could've concocted my own sauce mixture but I was too lazy. I also don't deep fry my crabs cos I can't be bothered, and pan frying it tastes good enough for us. The sauce is especially great to mop up with some crusty bread. Be warned tho, this sauce is SUPER spicy, I had to add extra water than the recommended and even add extra sugar to it. Finger lickin good This is so much cheaper than buying from a restaurant that we realised we should just cook it ourselves next time we want chilli crab. It's not hard to do either.

The crabs kinda freaked me out before we killled them. We left them in our sink and one of them climbed over to the other sink!! And they were pretty fierce, kept their fierce eyes on me every time I went to the sink and they tried to lift up their bodies. Lucky hubby's not afraid to kill them. Caelyn enjoyed looking at the crabs and she also enjoyed eating them....hehehe.

The yummiest Durian Cake/Swiss Roll I ever had

This was the yummiest Durian Swiss Roll or cake I've ever had. We saw this shop being introduced on local tv show 'Makan King' and thought we'd give it a try since they claim they only use D24 pure durian paste in their swiss rolls. To be honest I'm not that crazy about durians, I will eat probably one or two when someone buys it, unlike my parents who are totally crazy about it. My in laws also like durian, so we bought the cake to share with them. Each box costs $13 and there's 2 long skinny rolls inside, you can also mix and match different flavours in a box. They have an assortment of flavours including Kaya, Mango, Blueberry, etc. Next time will try other flavours, but their Durian is their signature flavour and is also the one that gets sold out quickly. So if you want to buy, go early in the day.

The shop is called Rich & Good Cake Shop and it's at Kandahar St in Little Arab. Sorry can't remember the shop number, but it's a blue shophouse, you can't miss it. While you're there check out some of the Malay Indonesian food there, it's pretty yummy.