bento partAy!!
as mentioned, last saturday was the bento party. dragged mon and san along, even tho' they're not bloggers. hehehe...
well, the 3 of us were late. the registration was to be at 11.45am, but due to some delays - mon came home at 10.45am and ABSOLUTELY HAD to take a shower, and then i need to check my car lubricant oil after being reminded for the umpteenth time by the dad - we got there at 12.00noon. aiya... raining mar! hehe...
anyway, after registration, we were delighted to receive a BIG and BULKY goodie bag each! so happy... we grabbed a seat each and proceeded to rummage thru the goodie bag excitedly, like kids under the christmas tree on christmas morning, until it suddenly dawned on me that yikes! how we'd look in front of all the other participants?! i made a pass to the gals... ok, it went more like: "eh pls lar. dun act so sua-ku ok? behave...", at which all 3 of us quickly stuffed back everything into the bag, settled down demurely (or at least tried to!) at the table and proceeded to check out the rest of the participants.
actually i was quite relieved at the crowd that day... initially, i was worried the gals would blame me for bringing them to an 'aunty meet' and boring the daylights out of them! luckily the list consisted of a mix of gals and young mommies. oh, and 1 or 2 aunties lah! :P
auntyjo of Emily's Busy World! opened the party with an intro on how she started her bento frenzy... then she passed the floor to Pat of Bento Pet for a short presentation on bento and all the works related to bento. after that, each participant did a self-intro. in Pat's pre-party e-mail to us, we were supposed to introduce ourselves and our blogs in not more than 10 words... but on that day, all these were thrown out the window and we just went on and on talking about ourselves! ok, not really... but it was definitely more than 10 words! haha...
short presentation by Pat, with auntyjo looking on...
listening so attentively...
after all the talking, it's food time! but before we can eat, we need to arrange our bento boxes (that came in our goodie bags) with the food for a little competition. what??? cannot eat yet??? gosh, i was so hungry by then that i had a mind of foregoing the whole competition and gobble up my food while standing at the buffet line waiting for the person in front to get going! mon and san, u were THAT person in front of me... now u know how slow u 2 are lar har! choosing and changing ur minds abt the kawaii cupcakes for like 100 times! :P but luckily i remembered our vows to try not be so sampat and sua-ku at this party, so i swallowed down my hunger and went to arrange my bento box.
well, i'd say the bento box arrangement was quite fun lar. esp when u're sitting next to first-time bento-er san and the kelakar mon! i even found san telling a piece of her chicken kara age, which was too big to be stuffed into her box: "it's ok, dun worry har". wakakaka...
when we're done, each of our bento box got a 2 seconds of fame in the limelight... or rather, in the flashlight, on a nice japanese lacquer tray, having its picture taken by Pat's #1. after that, i quickly went back to my seat and what else? makan lar! but mon and san were too excited to eat their bento. they continued taking pictures after getting back to their seats, arranging and rearranging their bento, this angle and that lighting... *sigh... tak kuasa aku! but i still made mon take a pic of my cute cupcake lar... hehe...
mon's bento...
sue's ben... opps! already on the way into the stomach! hehehe...
after that, we went to attack onsen's private room, which has been converted into a mini 100 yen shop! no kidding! there were a great many bento gears for sale, which we dun normally see in the 100 yen shops. what else? the shopaholic in us went to work lar!
towers upon towers of bento gears!
other than 100 yen, there were other bento accessories available for sale, sourced by Pat. needless to say everyone went away with a headache of how to store their additional bento containers, or maybe for some, how best to explain the absolutely-need-to-buy bento box to the hubby, even tho' there's already one (or a few) exactly the same at home, only in a different colour! :P
well, the 3 of us were late. the registration was to be at 11.45am, but due to some delays - mon came home at 10.45am and ABSOLUTELY HAD to take a shower, and then i need to check my car lubricant oil after being reminded for the umpteenth time by the dad - we got there at 12.00noon. aiya... raining mar! hehe...
anyway, after registration, we were delighted to receive a BIG and BULKY goodie bag each! so happy... we grabbed a seat each and proceeded to rummage thru the goodie bag excitedly, like kids under the christmas tree on christmas morning, until it suddenly dawned on me that yikes! how we'd look in front of all the other participants?! i made a pass to the gals... ok, it went more like: "eh pls lar. dun act so sua-ku ok? behave...", at which all 3 of us quickly stuffed back everything into the bag, settled down demurely (or at least tried to!) at the table and proceeded to check out the rest of the participants.
actually i was quite relieved at the crowd that day... initially, i was worried the gals would blame me for bringing them to an 'aunty meet' and boring the daylights out of them! luckily the list consisted of a mix of gals and young mommies. oh, and 1 or 2 aunties lah! :P
auntyjo of Emily's Busy World! opened the party with an intro on how she started her bento frenzy... then she passed the floor to Pat of Bento Pet for a short presentation on bento and all the works related to bento. after that, each participant did a self-intro. in Pat's pre-party e-mail to us, we were supposed to introduce ourselves and our blogs in not more than 10 words... but on that day, all these were thrown out the window and we just went on and on talking about ourselves! ok, not really... but it was definitely more than 10 words! haha...
short presentation by Pat, with auntyjo looking on...
listening so attentively...after all the talking, it's food time! but before we can eat, we need to arrange our bento boxes (that came in our goodie bags) with the food for a little competition. what??? cannot eat yet??? gosh, i was so hungry by then that i had a mind of foregoing the whole competition and gobble up my food while standing at the buffet line waiting for the person in front to get going! mon and san, u were THAT person in front of me... now u know how slow u 2 are lar har! choosing and changing ur minds abt the kawaii cupcakes for like 100 times! :P but luckily i remembered our vows to try not be so sampat and sua-ku at this party, so i swallowed down my hunger and went to arrange my bento box.
well, i'd say the bento box arrangement was quite fun lar. esp when u're sitting next to first-time bento-er san and the kelakar mon! i even found san telling a piece of her chicken kara age, which was too big to be stuffed into her box: "it's ok, dun worry har". wakakaka...
when we're done, each of our bento box got a 2 seconds of fame in the limelight... or rather, in the flashlight, on a nice japanese lacquer tray, having its picture taken by Pat's #1. after that, i quickly went back to my seat and what else? makan lar! but mon and san were too excited to eat their bento. they continued taking pictures after getting back to their seats, arranging and rearranging their bento, this angle and that lighting... *sigh... tak kuasa aku! but i still made mon take a pic of my cute cupcake lar... hehe...
mon's bento...
san's bento...
sue's ben... opps! already on the way into the stomach! hehehe...mon: eh, sue! y u so fast eat already? u don't wanna take photos first meh?
me: mai cha wah (hokkien: dun disturb me)! i'm super hungry u know!
me: mai cha wah (hokkien: dun disturb me)! i'm super hungry u know!
towers upon towers of bento gears!other than 100 yen, there were other bento accessories available for sale, sourced by Pat. needless to say everyone went away with a headache of how to store their additional bento containers, or maybe for some, how best to explain the absolutely-need-to-buy bento box to the hubby, even tho' there's already one (or a few) exactly the same at home, only in a different colour! :P
contents of the goodie bag...
stuff i bought from the mini 100 yen shop... a round bento box (the traditional bento box shape), bento box strap (comes in 2s), tiny containers for condiments and such (comes in 3s of different colours) and onigiri shaper
more stuff bought, from Pat: onigiri shaper (comes in 2s - why i need so many shapers ar?), silicone cups (so much cuter than the ones i bought from isetan!) and soy sauce bottles (comes in 6s - been searching for this for so long!)ok, let's have some happy smiley faces to end this long, long post!
san with her first ever bento! good job!
mon seems pretty happy with of her masterpiece too... nice!
and here's me, with my cute cupcake, bento half devoured...
hop on over to bento pet's and auntyjo's for more reports and pics of the bento party, as well as more links to the blogs of the rest of the participants. there's one pic of me introducing myself and one of my bento (my number's 12) somewhere!
