The Early Bird Gets The Worm...

I woke up to a dark morning at 6.45am. Climbed out of bed at 7am.
So tempted to go back to sleep... negotiating with myself for a later time to get up.

In the end, I pulled Chris out of bed and we left home at 7.40am, heading to the Flower Wholesaler.

Surprisingly it wasn't crowded and it was pleasant to still see flowers on the shelves outside. I think I reached about 10min past 8am. I fell in love with the pink ranunculus and grabbed them before anyone took it.

My trolley was full of flowers by 8.45am. Roses, sweet williams, ranunculus, eustomas, ruscus, tea leaves. Looking at my purchase gives me a natural high. Especially when I was cleaning the flowers to prepare them for hydration. Simply loved them... especially the precious ranunculus.

I love buying flowers.... for work. :)

Lipstick Jungle is really a good series.

Today's episode of Lipstick Jungle really taught me something.

This show seems to be very sex and the city but it does have a heartwarming genuine lesson, much richer than sex and the city.

One of the 3 main characters, Nico found out that she had lost her husband even before he died. She found out, despite her own affair with a younger man, that her husband had been having an affair with a 22 year old student of his, now pregnant with his child, for years. She only found out about it just before his sudden death.

The student was quite a b*** thinking she had every right to claim from his estate after his death, because of the baby, demanding for her share of the money. I felt for Nico. I felt angry for her. Nico wasn't about to give that woman a cent and even wanted a restraining order against her.

But at the end of the episode Nico realised how her husband had robbed her of her youth and of her time with what he did to her. She was his student back then when they fell in love. She came to realise how much she had lost.

And she offered the student money, lots of it, for her medical and even a trust fund set up for her baby. The student asked her why. She simply told her that she was very young and they were more alike than they thought.

At first I thought Nico was foolish to give in to her. Then I saw grace and I realised how magnanimous Nico was to do what she did. It was really grace at work.

It's so hard to connect the meaning of that word when you read the Bible. You read and know the word so many times, but it always seems to distant, disconnected... somehow you just dont really get it, even though you do.

And after watching that, I really learned an important lesson. You don't always need to pay someone back what you think he deserved. Sometimes, showing grace and mercy becomes even more important than trying to determine what you think is right in difficult situations. Most of the time, when God teaches us to love, show grace and mercy, He really is giving us an important lesson in Life.

Shiki V-Day Mayhem

Have you ever stood for over 13 hours? I have.

Have you ever stood for 13-14 hours in 2 consecutive days? I have.

The V-day mayhem at Shi-ki started on 12 Feb when we spent the day clearing roses, baby's breath, etc. The whole place was filled with flowers. If memory serves me right, my boss ordered 100 packets of roses, excluding other types of flowers like tulips, hydrangeas, statices, leaves and the exotic ones like my fave ranunculus. 100 packets of roses is equivalent to 2000 stalks of roses!

The madness began on 13 February and carried on to 14 February. Men, boys, girls, women, all types of people came to buy bouquets of flowers. Most of them were men of course; some with larger budgets (24 stalks of roses), some with cheapo budgets (1 stalk of rose).

I concluded from my observation that people are influenced into purchases. Customers came in groups. When there is a customer, more will follow. We were kept busy in sporadic intervals. Apparently the sales dipped in comparison to last year. A short queue of about 4-5 formed during busy intervals.

It was a good experience. I did few bouquets and mostly handled the sales aspect on 13th and assisted the flower arrangers more on 14th. Some men gave us the black face from waiting. But they really don't understand that we don't just put flowers together. We make the flowers look good together.

A bouquet is not simply put together into a bundle. A bouquet is painstakenly placed together strategically so the entire arranged bundle looks aesthetically pleasing. But not many people understand this, especially the caucasians. I have encountered a couple of french men who are really nasty, rude and simply do not understand the concept of a bouquet.

Sure, in their countries, the florists literally bundle the flowers into a bouquet and sell them. But here in Asia, we do not do that! A bouquet is put together artistically to enhance the beauty of the flowers complete with wrapping. It is not hastily put together for the sake of a sale, much like those street florists I see in western countries. It is different. So please be patient, or don't buy at all!

Left: Me and my colleagues, post-Valentine's mayhem at 10pm.
Right: Busy with the flowers on 13 Feb, after 10.30pm!
They worked through the night till 530am.


My boss, in the midst of doing a bouquet of blue roses which I absolutely detest.
Why do Singaporeans like falsely-dyed blue roses??
It's just plain awful and stains your clothes and hands!
Besides, it's very passe, popular back in 1996!

Making Bread & Dinner

I haven't had the time to update my blog but now I've got some time on my hands after the Valentine's mayhem at Florist Shi-ki.

We bought a bread machine about a month ago and have made 3 breads since. Here is a picture of our first bread - Italian herb bread. We realised the importance of slicing them thin!

And of course I found a place where herbs cost way cheaper than the ones in bottles sold at supermarkets. You get more too! I got Sage, Majoram and Basil herbs from this baking shop near City Hall/Raffles Hotel area. I can't recall the street but it's on the same street as the shop Actually...

So I made pan-fried herb chicken in lemon butter. I used too much lemon juice resulting in overwhelming citrus flavour but the chicken was tender and juicy, way better than baking it! I pan-fried it with this recipe.

It was not too bad except for the excessive lemon juice. The rosemary potatoes were not successful yet again. I wonder when will I ever succeed in making those rosemary potatoes!