Ugh!

** Warning. This entry is rated as R21. It contains explicit and violent languages

I know i mentioned that i will not be blogging in the next few days unless something significant happens. Well, it did.

For the whole of my driving life, i have never showed my middle finger to any road users, never. I am not an aggressive person by nature so, naturally, i am not a road bully. But of course there are exceptions when there are needs to honk, flash and turn my head to stare at the person. However, i can assure you, it is not often.

Also, even though i am a lady driver, i can also assure you that i do not drive like a typical lady driver. Haha.. ok, go on and shoot me. But seriously, i do not road hog, i have no problems with parking, be it parallel parking or reverse parking and i always signal and double check rear mirror, side mirror and even turn my head to check blind spots when i overtake. So yeah, in another word, i don't think i am a threat to other road users.

Today, for the first time, very very first time, i showed my middle finger and at the same time, #$%^~* as well. I was too pissed. We were on our way back from Suntec, crusing along Bukit Timah Road towards Upper Bukit Timah Road direction when this blue Honda started to tailgate me even though i was not road hogging. Yeah, i was on the 1st lane, the fastest lane.

I mean, come on.. the car in front was just there, so what am i supposed to do? So, she continued to tailgate me. Yes, it's a SHE-driver. By the way, the speed was already close to 90km/h which i consider pretty fast for Bukit Timah Rd. So fine, i changed to the middle and guess what? She bloody followed me!

And what was worst is, the 1st lane was clear and she followed! Bitch. Then, she continued to tailgate me!! ARRGHHH. And it was so damn close. If i were to hit the break at that time, she'll hit me no doubt and boy, was i tempted to do just that or what! I have got 2 kids in the car, 4 lives at stake including mine and she was alone. I seriously do not know what was wrong with her brain. What was she thinking?!?!

Then when she got closer and closer, really too close for my comfort, i couldn't 'tahan' anymore but to show her my middle finger while swearing. I was f* pissed! Bloody bitch. I'm sure she saw it. I checked my rear mirror for her expression and right after she saw the sign, she changed to 1st lane.

As she passed me, i turned and stared but she dare not look back. If she did, i would really, really show her another round of 'international' sign language.

Thankfully, no one in the car was aware of what happened. But my maid overheard me and she actually asked what did i say, farken [fucker]? I just shook my head.

I seriously have not been so outraged before while driving and i certainly hope this would be the last time i will ever encounter such drivers. What a day. What a bitch.

Dear friends,

I don't think i will be blogging for the next few days unless something significant happens eg: I strike 4D..

Will only start blogging again when i'm better.

Sorry.

On a happier note..

I finally get to perform after all these years. I think my last dancing performance was back in 97 (!).

Last night, some girls and i did this really cutesy dance at Singapore Soka Community. It's a place where people pray so i guess we can call it a temple? But it isn't like the normal temples we see though.

The song we used was 'Bu Pa' by Jocie Kok. Yeah, the cockroach song. Grin. I only had 1 rehearsal before last night which was on Wednesday night. The rest of the girls, they'd performed the same dance before sometime last month or something. So yeah, only 1 practise for me! Stressed..

Thankfully, all went well and of course, a bit of mistakes here and there but nothing too noticable i hope. Blush. And most importantly, i had fun :D

I love dancing!

Wish i could learn Salsa. Sigh.

Mom and food

Whenever i go back to mom's place, i'm sure to gain weight.

She's a fabulous cook who puts in effort when it comes to food presentation unlike me who think nothing about it since the kids will be the ones eating (:P) plus i love the comfort of being taken care of instead of me taking care of others. I miss being pampered and loved.

Also, brainstorming over what to cook daily 3 times a day are NO JOKE.

Anyway, as i was saying, mom's great cook and most times if not all, i couldn't resist but to tuck in whole heartedly. Hee.. I love my mom. Muaks!

One of the nice yummy dishes from my mommy :

Yep, this is why i cannot resist my mom's food. Too good to do so :P

I miss my mom and family. Sobs. I wanna go home :(

Cant wait till next week! Yay!

New baby

Ahem.

Seems like i have been having quite a lot of new stuff lately. Grin.

Bought this bicycle on Monday thinking that now, instead of driving Sz to his ballet class, yes, my boy goes for ballet lesson, i can cycle there with him. At the same time, exercise too! Yippee.. Lol.

Time to shed off the unwanted love handles. Yeah, wishful thinking again :P

New bag on the block!

Latest addition from Carlo Rino :D

Didn't buy it myself. It was mil's but it's brand new. Hee.. She got it like 2 weeks back with me and she knows i love it too.

Then a week later when we went shopping again, she got herself another bag from Kipling and decided to give this to me cos she said she doesn't quite like white colour. Asked if i want?

Obviously i'd say OK! Pass it on, mom.. anytime! Grin. So here i am, with another new chic looking bag. Love it!

More cookbooks

I really don't own a lot of cookbooks (compare to other foodies). Really. Pinky promise.

Just last week, i bought 5 of them. Unbelievable! Usually, i'm the kind who will stop, browse, go when it comes to cookbooks because most times, they are too pricey.

Somehow, last week i couldn't control myself at all and went on to purchase all 5 but not at one go though. The offer was too good to resist i must say and i need variety, right? Right? No? Right? :P

So yeah, you will be expecting more food photos from me, starting from today. Lol.

Birthday wishlist

This entry is for the clueless kayu who failed to get what i want every year.

Birthday wishlist :

• dressing table from Barang Barang (i need a proper dressing table ok. Don't wanna stand in the loo to do my thang anymore)
  
• a pair of diamond earrings (my 3rd year requesting for this y'know! :P)
• scuba diving license
• rough-it-getaway eg: mountain climbing
• cookbooks! Haha.. but i've got specific ones ok. Not just any cookbooks. Bleah!
• a new pocket-sized digital camera
• sexy lingerie!
  

Cookbooks which i wanted -









I've gone cookbooks crazy! But you know what? I really do get very thrilled upon receiving them. Haha.

Fish curry

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We had this for dinner last night. Yums!

Didn't know what else to do with the fishes (so much of them!) in the fridge, so decided to cook something new instead.

Got really tired of eating steamed fish ,fried fish, fried fish with gravy etc.

Any good recipe anyone? ;)

Pumpkin cake

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Baked this for mil's birthday last Saturday.

Ever since i got to know hb 7 years ago, mil has been telling me about the pumpkin cake she had quite some time ago during a X'mas dinner baked by a caucasian who was working together with fil. I guess it left her a very memorable impression to this day because whenever we talk about cakes, she would mention it.

To make her happy, i told her i will bake her one too! Had my first experiment on Tuesday and since then, made a few changes to the recipe which i had from a friend donkey years back eg: omit the vanilla essence and less pumpkin puree (i'm one greedy lady! I stirred in more than half of the original recipe).

The whole family love it! Sil even 'ta pao' back to her house, shockingly.. because she is one of those people who refused to eat cakes (for the record, she didn't eat Sz's birthday cake. Haha).

This pumpkin cake recipe is definitely a keeper. Funny thing is, i hardly come across any pumpkin cakes before and i've not seen any pumpkin cake recipes in cook books too until i bought this huge baking book last week. I wonder why.

Dad's 64th birthday

Just in time for dad's birthday celebration when i was in KL last week. Still owe daddy a cake though :P

Went to San Francisco's Steak House at MidV but it wasn't that fantastic. The steak was tough despite having it done at medium and it was sirloin! Hmmpphhh..

Overall, it was ok but i don't think i'll go back there again. The restaurant presented us with a slice of complimentary cake and got some staff to sing Happy Birthday to dad after i told them it was my dad's birthday. Well, at least they are pretty nice yeah?

Luncheon with my beloved family but not a complete one though. A few were absent.

See what i meant by left side being blurred? And it was me on the left! Urgh!

Back!

I'm home finally after a very hectic 3days 2nights at KL.

The wedding was a blast! My gf, Lee Li was a gorgeous lady to begin with in the first place, so can you imagine her as a bride? She managed to take my breath away i must say. She totally rocks!

Lee Li's wedding was different than the ones i have attended in S'pore (applicable to the wedding dinner only). Hmm.. i guess it has got a lot to do with her marrying a Portugese. Throughout the whole time during the dinner, we were entertained by live band (2 very talented Portugese), a loud one too!

Then, the bride and groom got the ball rolling by having their slow dance on the dance floor. After that, it was history. The guests rolled in and danced the night away till morning! I did, so did my gfs but we stopped at 12 plus. The rest stayed on and danced till god knows what time :P And oh, there was singing as well, by the groom's immediate family and friends. Gosh, they sounded as though they spent their whole life doing nothing but singing. They were that good ;)

Ahem. We did our part too, in contributing to the wedding. We were the usherers. Hahahaha :Pp

All in all, this wedding was by far the best one i'd attended. I'm so looking forward to another gf's wedding 2 weeks away and i'm one of the bridesmaid! Hee..

While waiting for the bride to arrive, as usual, no seconds ticks by without us posing for the camera. Bleah. Camera girl : Yuen Yee

After the church ceremony and light refreshment, camera time again!

Hot babes

At the wedding dinner. Ok, this is the only photo i got which isn't blurred. Stupid camera screwed up. There are finger prints at the lense which refused to come off despite lotsa cleaning, resulting in blurry images on the left side. Argh!

Latest addition..

to my perfume collection. Er, actually i only own 3 bottles.. so does it count as a collection?

My bestie bought this [Shiseido Vocalise] for me from her trip to Hong Kong last week together with some other stuff for my boys. So thoughtful of her. Thank you sweetie. Muaks.

I find the smell is more on the sexy side. Love it! Definitely for my night use ;)

Minced Beef Filo

Made this for dinner last night. Was really a last minute thingie because i refused to give in to hb's request, to cook pork congee again.

My very first attempt of making a filo pie :D



Didn't know feta cheese could be so salty. Thankfully, i didn't add much salt to the minced beef.

However, next time round, i will cut the fetta cheese into a smaller cubes and of course, use only half the portion of what i had used this time ;)

Banana Walnut Cake

Yummy!


I made some changes when i baked this last week.. to a better cake.

Toasting the walnuts before adding them into the cake batter is really a good idea. It wasn't planned at all. I needed to toast them because they looked pretty nasty in the first place. So, you could say it's by accident :P

As a result, we had the almost fresh and crunchy walnuts when biting into the cake. Nice.

Over eat

Been eating so much lately and i was supposed to be on diet. Sigh..

First was lunch with Mindy at an Italian Restaurant, Railway Mall on Tuesday which was fab and affordable (will go back there again definitely) :P

Then, it was lunch at Sun with Moon Japanese Restaurant with mil and sil on Thursday.

After that, it was buffet lunch at Merchant Court Hotel yesterday with mil and relatives and last but not least, dinner at Waraku, East Coast with hb.

And i've got my only fitting for my dress on Monday. Dang. I'm sure i wont be able to fit into it anymore. Sniff sniff.

Nevertheless, i have finally tasted Ayam Buah Keluak at Merchant Court Hotel yesterday. Been reading so much about it. I must say, it was OK. For the rest of the food, i'll give 3.5 stars out of 5 and pricing wise, it's definitely 4.5 out of 5 stars. Very affordable :D

Happy girl!

I'm super duper pleased today. I got..

1- Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair eye gel $80
2- Coat's brown halfway pleated skirt with ribbon $55
3- 2 pcs SKII whitening intensive facial masks $43

Plus, lunching at Sun and Moon Japanese Restaurant at Wheelock for the first time today. Delicious! Love the ambience, the food, the food's presentation.. everything basically :P

All foc, compliments from my mil :D

How to not be happy aye? Hehe.

psst. She wanted to get me a very chic looking Carlo Rino white shoulder bag too but i declined. Paiseh ah!

Foccacia with rosemary

My recipe from here :

My no.1 cook cook

Piping hot from oven

Ready to eat

Total hours spent : 5 hours.

Verdict : Sadly, not as good as i have anticipated since it didn't rise too well (compare to the book's pic) but it's still pretty good nevertheless. Its texture would be comparable to french baquette instead of normal soft bread. Er, actually, i've never eaten Foccacia before. Lol.

We had it warm, with a few slabs of garlic butter in between. Not too bad i would say since i love European tough breads :P

But of course, i didn't spend 5 hours on kneading only. It's just that i needed to wait and wait for the bread to rest, rise, rest and rise.

Will try baking this again soon till i get right. Bleah.

Silly me!

I just found out what went wrong with my moist chocolate cake. All because of my own carelessness.

I copied the recipe wrongly! Unbelievable. Ugh. Instead of 1 cup of oil, i copied 2 cups of oil! That explains the extra 1 hour of baking time doesn't it?

Sigh. And we ate in an extra cup of oil unnecessarily. Silly ol' me!

Moist chocolate cake

The first chocolate cake i've ever tried baking was Sachertorte and i failed pretty badly eventhough hb tried to cheer me up by saying, 'not so bad afterall'. Well, let's just say that i do know when i fail and when i don't :P

That was almost 2 years ago. Yesterday, i tried again (my first attempt of baking chocolate cake after my Sachertorte). Baked this..

A recipe from my bestie, Carol *muaks*..

Moist and very chocolatey inside. Heaven.

At first, i thought i failed miserably, again. Carol told me it needed to be baked for only 40mins at 180 but it didn't. I reduced the temperature to 150 and covered with foil losely. After an hour, the skewer came out dirty. After 1 1/2 hour, it still came out dirty. I almost gave up.

Finally after 1 hour 40 mins, it was done. The top got real ugly. Cracked and slightly burnt. After the cooling process, i decided to cut the top off (we finished the unwanted top under 10 mins!), about 1.5 inch so it would look more presentable when i do the decoration which was val rhona chocolate ganache and some cutesy strawberries sugar paste ($4!) which i bought last week from BIY plus 'snow' effect.

I waited till hb came back before i cut the cake. Wanted to impress him. Haha. Anyway, we had the unwanted portion so no hurry.

Hb's face expression went from normal to yucky-what-is-that look when he took his first bite. I almost wanted to scream at him! Before i did, he said this, 'This is...[paused] better than Lana Cake' with a dead tone. Ugh. Kabish. Piak. Kick. Seriously, this guy should be whacked! Cheeky right?

Somehow i managed to grin from ear to ear upon hearing that instead of whacking him for his cheekiness. Half way while eating the cake, he looked up and fixed me with that boyish grin of his, not to mention the twinkle he had in his eyes.. for almost 15secs before i retorted 'WHAT!'. Hhmm.. :D

Cake again

Hope you girls are not getting bored with my constant posting on cakes and food :P

Did this on Sat, Cheese Sponge cake from Seadragon's blog :D




It tastes almost like Ichiban Boshi's Japanese cheese cake except this is more spongey. Love it!

And i love the fact that it doesn't require oil/ butter more. Lol.

But i'll be doing the fluffy, melt in your mouth Japanese cheese cake soon, just to check it out.

Miss Singapore Universe 2006

Kpo column

I really thought Jade Seah was gonna win. But the tittle went to Carol instead. Was kinda shock when they announced the winner last night.

Nope, i am not someone who watch stuff like this but yesterday an exception. I was free. Hehe.

Nevertheless, if i were the judge, i wouldn't pick her as well. Too snobbish for my liking and her confidence practically oozes out from every inch of her. Not too good aye? Slightly more humble would be good ;)

What defines you?

I've just finished reading 'The Undomestic Goddess' by Sophie Kinsella few moments ago.

Somehow it got me thinking. Would i give up a successful career over love if i'm not married? What do i really want? Do i have a goal? What defines me? Have you asked yourself these questions before? I had and i'm doing it again. Funny though, because my answers became different.

When i was younger :

1. i wanted a career, a successful one which enables me to feel empower.
2. with a successful career, comes money automatically. Lots of them.
3. material needs fulfilled.

I would define having a good life with a successful career, my very own designer condo, car and a pet. Men? What's that? :P

After my marriage and my firstborn :

1. i still wanted a career. A successful one too. I thought of achieving that after i'm 30 when the kids have grown up a little.
2. my family.

Recently :

1. my family.

Without my hb and kids, i am empty.

What happened to career? I guess i just don't want them anymore even though i would love to experience working life very much. I realised i will be needed indirectly even after they've gone to primary school and secondary school. I know i've always wanted my mom to be there but she got busy working. Not her choice.

So now that i have a choice, i will stay at home and be there for the kids. Teenage years are the trickiest part. That's when children really change. To the better or worst. And i wanna be there for them. Since i'm already a mother, i might as well be good at it completely. I realised that everything that i do, i'm only 'half bucket of water full'. Drawing, cooking, baking, make up and even shopping [i'm not entirely crazy over shopping, maybe only 70%?]! Never had i filled up completely. So this is it. Something which i want to be done to the fullest.

Money. I don't wanna be filthy rich anymore. Rich spells problems and more problems. Comfortable is good enough. Comfortable enough to send the kids to enrichment classes, have our own home [i'm fine with staying in HDB], car (a Honday Odyssey will do), holiday once or twice a year etc. This, we are still working on it coz we're definitely not in the 'comfortable zone' yet :P

Material needs. Do you know i do not own a single branded item and have not [besides my Gucci sunglasses which was a gift from hb during woo-ing period] owned one before? Shock? Yeah.. for a girl like me, coming to 26 years old and i never had a branded bag nor wallet before. Somehow, i don't feel the need to have them unless i'm driving a Beemer. Most times, my purse contains less than $50 so, it would be really embarrassing if i were to carry a LV wallet with only a couple of dollars inside wouldn't it? *bleah* But of course, this doesn't mean that i dislike branded things ok? If i have the means to own them, bring it on! But they are not a must to have in my life.

Conclusion : I am what i am because of my family. They defined me. Yes, sacrifices have been made but me ain't gonna whine about it, at least.. most times i wont. Lol. You can call me silly, unambitious, 'what has got into you?' ... i don't care anymore because it's worth it.

Looks..

.. can be deceiving.

Just baked yogurt apple cake this morning and it didn't turn out that nice, looks wise that is *phew*.

As for taste, it's yums! Totally. Pinky promise.

If you favour apple pie, apple crumble, apple tart, apple anything basically.. you'll love this. I never thought apple cake would be nice. Again, weird combination i must say. Surprisingly, it was good. Even more so if you have a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream to eat with it.

The texture of the cake turned out to be densed and heavy. Very filling. Absolutely didn't expect this. I must say, it's as heavy as moist carrot / passion cake.

Lesson learnt today :

1. never bake anything when you are under pressure, especially if you are pressing for time.

I sms-ed hb this morning asking if he wants lunch delivery today and he said yes yes yes. So, i thought, instead of sending only lunch, why not maximise the use of the petrol (mind you, it's almost 90km to and fro to hb's workplace) and throw in dessert as well?

It was 10.15am then. I need to be out of house at 11.40am the latest coz lunch time is at 12noon. Can you imagine the rush? I popped the cake into the oven at 10.35am. Yes, only 20 minutes of preparation. Crazy isn't it? All the creaming, mixing, steaming the apples etc.. all done under 20 minutes. Sadly, by the time i left the house at 11.40am, the cake was still not done despite my super duper speed effort. It needed another 10 minutes due to its big size. Sigh.

It was supposed to look like ->



Unfortunately, it didn't. It looked like this instead *sniff sniff* ->

Finally..

my very own chocolate cheese cake :D



It actually consists 2 layers of chocolate sponge cake and the middle layer is the cheese. I know it sounds like a weird combination but i tell ya, it's absolutely delicious! I'd gone to heaven and came back. Lol.

There's only 1 word to describe it : Addictive.

Will definitely bake this again very soon. Hee hee. It would look prettier and more presentable if i were to cover the cake with chocolate ganache but then, it would be so rich that it'll be bad for my waist :P

You see, i'm actually on diet now. *ahem* Hopefully i can do it ah, for the dress' sake *vainpot me*

My new toy

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Yup yup yup.

This is indeed my new toy : Kenwood Chef Mixer KM001.

Cost : S$700 (cant remember the exact price but roughly around this price)

Okie, it's not exactly new. I've had it close to a month now. Since i'm a procrastinator, it's not surprising to have me posted this out now yeah? :P

Not much mood to blog today.. hence, this 'toy' came in handy for an entry.

This is what i find amazing (extracted from its description) :

amazing versatility with over 20 optional attachments: liquidisers, juicers, food processors, slicer and shredder, mincer, ice-cream maker, pasta maker and many more.

I can actually buy all kinda attachments, attach to the machine on top and voila!

Er, do the attachments sound like parasite to you? Hehe.

Anyway, i am glad i got this finally. Makes my life so much more pleasurable. But i didn't buy it myself. My mother in law got it for me, indirectly. Initially, she told me it was for herself but after i brought her to buy it, she told me to take it home instead. She knows how much i wanted one from the start. And my old mixer? [which was hers as well] It's now at her house for her own use.

Sweet.

Not many daughter in law would say this but i do love my mother in law to bits!

I am very blessed to have such nice in laws, the whole lot of them :D

Note : The door to my heart will be closed temporarily from today onwards until further notice. Please take note.

Orange peel cake

After seeing so many droolicious photo, i couldn't help but to bake one to satisfy my need. Lol.

My very first choice was to bake a moist chocolate cake. Just when i was gonna cream the butter with sugar, my helper informed me that the cocoa powder was spoilt *bah*.

Next up was walnut coffeecake from Cafe of the East blog. Thought i would have all the ingredients but alas, i didn't. Was short of sour cream. So in the end, i chosed to bake something which i have the ingredients of but not something i was craving for. My choice was orange peel cake.

Was supposed to do an apricot glaze on top to make it more attractive but lazy me, skipped it altogether

Leftover from my 10 minutes piggin'out session while watching Pride & Prejudice

I thought it would be similiar to what i baked previously, orange butter cake but i was wrong. The texture for this orange peel cake is very soft, light, moist and spongey, very unlike butter cake which is also moist but more dense and heavy.

Thus, this would fall under 'sponge' cake category? Funnily, it is categorised as butter cake in the cookbook. Hmmm..

Ingredients for both cakes are very similiar but the techniques are not. I supposed it [the difference in texture for both cakes] has a lot to do with whisking the egg white and sugar which normal butter cakes don't call for.

Nevertheless, even though i wasn't craving for it, but after i took my first bite, i couldn't stop but to eat almost half the cake within 10 minutes, as shown in the photo! No joke girls. It was that good. Simply fabuloso. Will definitely bake this again very soon :>

Overwhelmed

After joining a new foodie forum, i'm totally speechless from what i'd seen.

My guess is, from now on.. the new forum will be my new playground, not to mention, more than 5 foodie blogs which i discovered from the forum itself which lead from one to another. Blogs from Malaysia to Australia and of course Singapore. These bloggers are so impressive to the point where my jaw dropped open upon seeing the photos of their 'art'.

Simply beautiful.

And here i am, thinking whether to sell my cakes to earn extra pocket money for my personal shopping *blush*. My skills are nothing, absolutely z-e-r-o if were to be compared to these bloggers. Aihh...

Guess i better brush up my skills before toying with the idea of selling ma homemade cakes again aye? :P

p.s: i'm still lemming for the tube dress from Olive Suite. Because of it, i couldn't sleep for 1 whole night! I'm so torn.. between the dress and spending more money *sniff* Fyi, we're on a tight budget this month. Absolutely tight tight. No joke :(