Birthday Gift #1

Thanks Siew Boon, Adeline and Gean for getting this pair of very comfortable Dr Marten sandals for me.

Birthday Celebration

My aunt said, "For children, it's add one year to their age on their birthday, for senior citizens, it's minus one year to our age. "

I do agree and yesterday, time took yet another year away from me. But I'm not viewing it so pessimistically, it just means that since our time is so limited, better spend our precious day wisely and eventfully.

Thanks my friends, for spending your precious time with me.

Bun Making

I attended a bread baking course by Valerie Ong last week and this morning, I want to put to practice what I have learnt.

The bread turned out looking very nice and taste wonderful too. The recipe uses the Yakone method which made the dough really soft.

I'm so happy that for my first try on my own, the buns turned out well.

Round vase

This is one of my end products from my 10 sessions coiling course at Sam Mui Kwang.

The round body is imperfect, you could see that it is not perfectly round. Like the crackle white glaze I had chosen. Like the Zen-ness.

Pizza

My first time making pizza from scratch.

I even made my own dough. It was quite easy to make but needs about 3 hours cos the dough need to expand for 2 hours.

It was quite successful and the taste was not bad, though I couldn't taste the ham.

Next time I'll make Hawaiian pizza with pineapple toppings. Kat even suggested hae bee hiam pizza.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

After 4 tries, this batch of muffins is the best so far.

They have a nice dome shape and I could taste both the chocolate and banana amidst the soft texture.

I'll try my hand on orange cake next, but let me finish my CNY goodies first.

He left

He just disappeared!

Finally, I was expecting this but when it finally happened today, it still took me by surprised.

I know that he won't be visiting anytime soon. It will be a many more months before he will visit again.

In his absence, Mr. Windchime is unusually quiet. I believe the plants will be happy as well as they are safe now from his deadly forces that just dehydrate them to their death.

As I'm typing this, he did make his brief appearance again, perhaps to bid farewell.

I just wanna tell him, thanks so much for providing the cooling days and nights. I'll miss you greatly.

See you at year end, Wind. 

Morning exercise

This morning, I went to Bukit Timah Hill, singapore tallest hill, for my morning exercise. Just wanna try something new. The first one third of the climb was really steep and it took quite an effort to complete it. Once it was cleared, the rest of the journey was rather easy.

I totally enjoyed this morning's climb. The weather was really cooling and I honestly didn't feel that I was in Singapore, more like Genting. Hope I'll get to do this more often.

Baking muffins

Kat gave me a recipe for muffin. I tried it and I love the taste. The muffins were rich in banana and just nice for sweetness. I quite happy with them till Derrick said they were too hard. So in order to have a source of comparison, I google for the best muffins in Singapore and "Chocolat N Spice" was featured in the net.

In order to benchmarked with the best, I went down to Tanjong Pagar Plaza and bought seven of their most popular muffins.

In comparison, my muffins were like lilliputians. So much smaller. Chocolat N Spice muffins rose very high. Their muffins also were very soft and fluffy, very nice texture. The only thing I dislike was the taste. Their muffins were all to sweet. Really really sweet.

Thus I just have to work on my technique to make my muffins soft and fluffy as the taste was good.

Will definitely experiment till I get it right!

Banana muffins

I didn't know that muffins are so easy and fast to make. You don't even need a mixer.

My first attempt on banana muffins without a electronic scale.

Taste wise it's not bad but I think I need to improve on the texture.

2014

2014!

It just come as scheduled.

And in no time, it will leave as scheduled too.

This keep happening, year after year, relentlessly. Not waiting for you.

2014!

It has to be purposeful responsible living.

Feed the mind, the soul, the body and the relationships. Be responsible for the work and finances. These will be my focus for 2014. Not really resolutions but something to keep me in focus so that I'll lead a life worth living.