10 things tt made me happie
1) Visiting the Zoo with Babe
decided to pay my ex-favourite haunt a visit with Babe at the privilege of the friends of the zoo card which actually belongs to my mum. Free entry to the zoo! who cld deny tt. considering tt the tickets have risen to a steep price of 
as usual i totally adored the zebras. Monochrome.. how lovely is tt? 
then there are the lovely orang utans. In a certain manner, they scare me coz of their human-likeness. It felt lyke they were watching us instead of us watching them. Kinda hilarious in a way, but they reallie do display certain human-like actions and movements. Lurve the above photo too coz its lyke some huge family gathering with each and every monkey displaying a different character. How quaint!
last of all, the crocodile!!! RAWR! love those intimidating jaws of death. One moment it may be smiling at u with its upturned jaws and the next moment, u're its next dinner. *yikes*
attended the long awaited cookie decorating class taught by the lovely Jocelyn Shu. finally got my hands on the techniques used in making such lovely cookies. And they wld make such incredibly gorgeous gifts with just a little packaging details. I would have to agree tt lots of time has to be invested into these little treasures. Labor intensive to the max, but it wldn't be considered much if its a labor of love right? haha.
Went to the class alone intially and ended up making frens with this lovely lady sitting next to me. We broke the ice after i found out that she was a air traffic controller working for the airforce. and guess wat? she was in the same batch as Mdm Michelle! haha. Now tt is reallie freakingly coincidental! haha. But oh while, she was a reallie nice lady and we did have loads of fun chatting. small world ain't it; i'm sure many of u guys shld alr knoe tt.
we learnt a to make a lucious lemon cookie dough as well as a fragrant gingerbread dough as the base of the cookie decorations. Those made perfectly gorgeous and yummy recipes on their own. And the decorations made them even more.. wait.. lets change tt too unbearably sweet too eat! (literally and aesthetically of course. haha)
bought these at magic pantry! my lovely new silcon baking pan. Gosh.. stunning. and my shiny new tart tray. WAHA. check out the shines on my new babies (didn't manage to catch a pic of the tart tray though.)
kk, back to the point, i hope it goes down well with everyone! *cheers*
~to be continued in the next post..so pls stay tuned!~
lyrics
IA
Dear Lee Sihan,
We are pleased to inform that you have been shortlisted as a candidate for the IA progamme commencing in Jan next year.
However, we would like to provide some brief notes to you before hand so that you will know exactly what to expect as well as if you are still interested:.
1. Working location will be at Menlo Warehouse located at 60 Alps, Changi.
2. Scope of work : Logistics & warehouse distribution
3. Project: Integration processes, work with 3PL and any other assigned work
Let me know your interest soonest. Alternatively, you may want to share with me your attachement whilst at ST Aerospace so that we can allocate you similiar job scope, etc. Look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Mae Leong
Manager, Human Resource
Embraer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
News has arrived!!! after a long wait, i've gotten the news. Apparently i got my first choice of an interviewing company without an interview. But strangely, they are still doing interviews... according to Zhao ling. therefore i have reached the conclusion tt my job scope was never written on the list of choices. somehow it just appeared outta nowhere. Oh maybe it was created just for me!! (wishful thinking Sihan... *slaps herself back to reality*) I first had the impression that the head office of Embraer being in Orchard meant that the job was more of an office kind of job. But upon clarification with the human resource manager, it appears tt most students would assume tt work location is at orchard office. BUT NOOO! haha. (lesson learnt: as mummy often says, NEVER ASSUME!!!) Oh well, its still my first choice after all. So HELL YEH!.. Brazilian company, tt markets executive and private jets? no dealing with component repair? Sounds good enough for me.
on the downside, its miles away!!! Changi?!?! my gosh.. i'm gonna have to wake up reallie early again for the coming few months. Sad.. haha. i need ample rest and loads of shut-eye. Dun knoe how am i gonna adjust to tt. *bleah*.. but then again its a good learning opportunity. So Slp would have to be compromised. *sobz*
Spent time today with babe. we made a short visit to the zoo before its closing time. Sorrie babe for being late. Next time just get mad at me k.. its okie de... Photos will be uploaded tmr. now its time to catch some shut eye. Just hope mummy will come home soon, its getting late....
quirky cupcake: Cloves
Blame it on my procastination and lousy ethics tt i took until the date of the deadline to submit my post for this month's quirky cupcake entry with Cloves as the theme.
When i first recieved the theme ingredient for this round, i was delighted. Cloves = spices and oh! how i adore spices. However this delight to slight dumbfoundness when i purchased a packet of cloves from the chinese spice section of my the local supermart. It was pungent and reeked of a certain familiarity. OH YESH! the lovely pineapple tarts baked by my aunt during the chinese new year periods; everything was good about tt EXCEPT for the little clove tt pierced the flaky pastry off the top. Often i wld find myself digging out this little hideous piece of treasure only to find tt that one little monster had managed to infuse its overwhelming flavor into the surrounding pastry. Wasn't too good in my impression.
I pondered hard over how i cld use this ingredient in a cupcake and yet not allow the flavor to overwhelm or intimidate the taster. Hence I stumbled upon the idea of steeping fresh pears in a mixture of sugar syrup, a tinge of rum, cloves and cinammon. Inspired by the making of peach snapps, i was determined tt this wld work. Spiced pear was the way to go.
Hence about 2 weeks back, i gathered my ingredients, cut up fresh bartley pears, cooked up a nice sugar syrup, and prepare my lovely mixture of raw cloves and cinammon sticks. Putting it into a heatproof glass jar, i mixed the sugar syrup, rum, cloves, cinammon and pears together, tightened the lid and gave it a good shake. After which i put it in a simmering water bath for 40mins to allow the flavor to seep into the pears. tt seemed to go down pretty well, the pears sooned turned light brown as it soaked in the goodness of all tt flavor. After cooling, i capped the jars and retire it to a cool part of the kitchen to lay until i was ready to make my cupcakes.
The recipe i used was a rather simple one adapted from 500 Cupcakes. In this recipe, no butter is needed. Sour cream is used to maintain the moisture within the finished cupcake. and tt indeed worked out beautifully. After the taste test, my tongue was tingly and a litle numb from all the spices used. But tts what it counts for doesn't it?Recipe for Spiced Sour Cream Poached Pear Cupcakes
95g Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
85g Brown Sugar
90ml Sour Cream
1 Egg
A dash of cinnammon
3 tblspoon poached pear syrup
pear chunks (both attained from the poached pear syrup attained beforehand)
- Sift all the dry ingredient in one bowl
- Beat the Egg and Sour Cream together with an electric whisk
- Add the Brown Sugar and beat till incorporated
- Add the Pear Syrup
- Add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and stir
- Pour in the pear chunks and stir in.
- Line the muffin Trays and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees celsius for 20mins
- Serve it with a poached pear, some pear syrup drizzled over the top and perhaps a dallop of cinammon ice-cream wld be good garnished with a mint leaf. DIG IN!
Recipe makes 8 Cupcakes
so small
knoe i shldn't be blogging now but i just cldn't resist the nagging urge and the splendid conditions given the light chilly rain outside and the sombre atmosphere. Peace admist the turmoil and trouble lurking.
Pertaining to the recent comments on my tagboard regarding the unhappiness and existant void. I have stated my stand.. somewhat of a negative one coz tts who i reallie am. After all the moulding and weathering all these time, its inevitable and seemingly natural process. Shouldn't be but has been this way...
Just thought it wld be a lovely deed to share a song from one my favourite artiste. Carrie Underwood singing 'so small'. I gurantee u tt after hearing this song, ur spirits shld be enlightened at least a teenie weenie bit and the lyrics will then make perfect sense to u.. a beautiful number by my standards. Perfect for a rainy night. Enjoy...
You wanna shut the world out and just be left alone
And when you figure out love is all that matters after all
So small
It's like a river that's so wide it swallows you whole
And worrying about all the wrong things
reflections
Guess i've been doing a million things wrong nowadays. my conscience nags at me, and even my little angels are driven round the bend trying to keep up with the mad action and chaos existant in my mind and soul. Its a circus in there. Yet, i can't resolve these issues... Meanwhile, exams are round the corner as well. I've come to terms with my lack of motivation and will to press on with mugging therefore i'm gonna have to take it one step at a time this round. No pressure, no stress, just go have fun (or wat not). Also, a shoutout going to my 2 'O' level students Cecilia and Yamunah. All the best gurls... I'm sure gurls are more than well prepared le. Yep. Gosh.. i just can't wait for holidays to arrive... Spain and Portugal + freezing temps.. here i come!
fyi, above is a strawberry cheesecake a.k.a sweet fantasy meant for order. Freshly pureed strawberries swirled through the best cheesecake batter topped with fresh strawberries and more puree. specially for those who adore strawberries. Relish urself in strawberry haven.
date with mummy
let me in on a naughty little fact. i lurve shopping with mum!!! gosh.. i mean who wld resent the company of a perpetual walking, talking and breathing atm machine when the shopping cravings hit full force (and it rarely does for me.) *tee hee*.. so after a half day of tuitions, mummy and I went down to Sim Lim with the sole purpose of getting a new camera for mummy. Finally! after using the old folkie for 5 yrs. its time to retire yar. So we got a brand new one at a reallie good price (i think..figured out tt its functions were worth its price especially for a new cam; think the new advert with the pple submerged head first in water kinda lyke ducks with clicking away on their silly cameras, gosh...thought tt was silly at first, now i'm even contemplating giving tt brilliant function a test!.. so watch out for the next 'cakes overboard!' photo spread.. haha)
our sleek new camera... Oops.. i mean Mummy's sleek new camera.. *bleah*
somehow, we landed up at Taka where we had an early dinner( breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one meal for me.. Bah). a rather decent meal.. then again, anything is delicious when u're hungry. then we landed up browsing at shoes just to use the remaining 100 dollar vouchers from isetan. Got 2 pairs for myself, both flats of course.. find them to be more practical ard school. think about it, running wldn't be such a hazard when u're on flats, plus it makes kicking an enemy a much easier task. so cheers to practical flats! then the damage continued as we went along to purchase some clothes, 2 more pairs of shoes (for mummy of course!) and 2 bags! gosh.. tts crazy.. bumped into Cheryl at the show shop. Wat a small world ain't it. Glad to see her again... still awaiting out B&J's date...
Finally after all the chaos and maniac, we settled down to a nice cup of coffee at coffee bean. Give our poor tortured feet a break as well. Hey, dun look at me, lugging all those bags ard w/o the help of mummy ain't no easy task ok? yep. had a pretty nice chat with mummy dear. its been ages since we had out dates lyke this. our conversations mostly touched on family and the future. Somehow, mummy just can't grasp the fact tt i'm still under 21. And she wld go on and on about marriage and houses and children and career. I mean!!! HELLO!!! *waving*.. gosh..i haven't even gotten down to planning my 21st bdae yet and u're toking about my wedding?!?!! mayday mayday! we've got a situation here... Oops, which reminds i have to do so quickly... BAh.. wat a bother.
oh yesh, collected my linkin park tickets too! WOO HOO! we're gonna watch LINKIN PARK LIVE IN CONCERT!!! eat tt... MUAHAHA.
participated in this month's blog event hosted by Jennifer at BakeorBreak! Does My Blog Look Good in This? PLs check out the entries here. Totally love the photography featured.. makes me drool. haha. enjoy peeps... now tts screen-lick worthy food for u guys. haha. kk.. back to baking orders. *=)*
on the sidenote, i love my teddy... very much.
silly boi
Secondly, and most importantly, i've learnt thru the hard way tt whats urs is meant to be yours and whats not meant to be yours will never be yours. No matter how hard u try. Its no point trying to keep a heart tt doesn't have u in it close by, becoz despite the physical proximity, deep inside of u, there is still there lingering distance. And however hard u try to escape the issue, somehow, some logical part of you will reason its non-sensical nature to you. The distance, like a gap so huge and empty tt can only be filled with genuine love, faith and trust. If that doesn't exist then wat good is a 'love'?
Butterfly...
thus paying patronage to my reminder of life's facts, engraved on my neck...
runny nose
Woke up to a stiffling runny nose this morning. Thank goodness for the lovely stash of songs tt i found while browsing online, spared me from certain mood swing tragedy. Looks lyke chocolate only does short favors for the lifting of ones soul, though i must say tt the chocolate fondue last night at max brenners was divine! (they changed the tray of dips from chocolate chip bread to some sorta banana cake i think, but tt was good as well! i mean hell yeh, anything goes with a warm luscious coat of chocolate! no denying tt... *slurps*.so getting down to the point, the featured artists for this week are Dewi the very lovely singer and Anthony the amazing guitarist on the song Private Party by India Arie. a amazingly bubbly and lively song tt will be sure to wake u up from the deep slumbers of slp. Give it a listen yar?
also, i'm a crazy fanatic about the original cover of onerepublic's song apologise (not the timberland one tt they feature on the advert of some tv commercial showing now, can't quite recall. my short term memory is reallie getting to me. Rats...) a reallie haunting song, though i wldn't advice watching the video cause it induces giddiness especially after watching the numerous objects spinning round and round the room. but nonetheless its a fantabulous track tt i've gotta share! i'll feature the timbaland version her coz its easier on the eyes. But check out the original version here.
Oh yesh, btw, Lisa Lavie, whom i've featured last week has made guest appearance on et (entertainment tonight) and has been touted as the new Mariah Carey! yay! congrats going to out to her. tt gurl has some real talent!
Orite, tts about all for now peeps, gotta swim thru my pile of books soon... or maybe i cld spare a little for baking. WAHAHA...
happie 25th anniversary to the old couple
thanks babe for the fantabulous company! we're the only ones tt are alone in this babylon...
