Of life.

I think I have changed a lot from 6 years ago. Character wise not as much, more in my thinking.
I've lost interest in almost everything. It's really hard to get me interested in stuff right now. I find everything boring and would rather stay at home most of the time. Not sure what caused the change but I really don't like myself right now. It's really scary to not have a goal in life.

Having thought through many nights, I have decided that this is not going to go on like that. I need a change. To change, I need to change the way I think, the way I feel and also my attitude of life and the things around. I also need to be less harsh on people.

1. I need to be more positive.
2. I need to go ahead and do stuff that I want to do instead of just thinking of doing it.
3. I need to appreciate people around me and the things that they have been doing for me.
4. I need to reconnect with people.
5. I need to find a goal in life.

To be able to work on the above 5 points first will be a good start. I decided to pen this down because I want to constantly remind myself of what I have to do.

For a start, I have finally gotten down to register for the language class that I have been wanting to take since forever and never got to doing it. I have wasted a lot of time procrastinating but it's never too late to start right :)

Here's to a better me!

Braces update! (11 Weeks)

Here's another update of the progress of my braces at 11 weeks! 

The lower braces is FINALLY on!

My teeth is getting there! OMG. 

Happyyyyy!

Braces is truly amazing. Though it hurts, being able to see progress a few hours after changing the wires always amaze me and the pain is all worth it. My only regret is not getting it earlier.

We got married (Global version)

Recently I've started watching we got married global version. The 2 couples ' Gui Gui and Taecyeon' and 'Fuji mina and Hongki'. I LOVE the Fuji x Hongki couple.

Fuji Mina is SO PRETTY. Her eyes are perfect. She is perfect! Hongki is so adorable too! Being so different character wise and also even though she is older than him by 2 years, they do click quite well. Hongki is playful/cheerful but at the same time really thoughtful. The proposal was really sweet and he's a really good singer! I admire his character when he said 'I'm always happy/cheerful.' Some couples in this show make you feel so loved. This is one of the couples :D

' Gui Gui x Taecyeon ' is cute but they really feel more like a brother sister couple or good friends. I think language is a major problem for them cause Gui Gui could not communicate her feelings well enough to him.

The global series is shorter than the normal ones so everything is progressing very quickly. Only a short 15 episodes for both couples. Would be nice if it was longer :)

Insanity work out

UuAfter the first session of insanity, I had a 2 months break. I should not have stopped. Initially, at the end of the first session, my stamina was really good! Much better than it has ever been. I stopped when I had my wisdom tooth removed. Then I became lazy.

I lost 5kg from the first session of insanity. My abs were showing slightly. I really regret the break!

Now i'm starting the second session. The first session after the break was HORRIBLE. I was alright but really not as good as I was. Hopefully I will improve and be able to keep up soonish. I'll try to eat healthy but probably won't be as strict as I was.

To those who are not familiar about the insanity workout, here are the different workouts that they have:

In the first month, we will rotate from 1 to 5. Second month from 6 to 10. There is also a fit test every 2 weeks. The 2nd month's exercise is hell but it is all worth it. The muscle ache is addictive.

You can find out more about the exercise here: http://www.beachbody.com

Wish me luck! Like what Shaun T always say: DIG DEEPER! COME ON Y'ALL!

HATer Snapback

Recently, I've become slightly obsessed with snapbacks after getting my first Hater Snapback.
I got my Hater Snapback from Japan which is slightly more expensive than it is in Singapore.

Picture of the Hater Snapback that I got:  (picture credits to the website that i got it from)

Oriental Flowers

Loving the details

It's so easy to just put on the cap on a bad hair day. Now that the caps are so pretty, it's a really good fashion accessory!

ThyPaperCrane also recently had a Haters Snapback Giveaway! The floral prints are to die for! Congratulations to the lucky winner who brought it home :D

There are still so many pretty designs that I want :X
You can check out their facebook page for more of their designs!

I am also looking for this Iron Man Snapback! It's the one that HAHA wore in running man!

Minions!

I bet most people have already caught the movie ' Despicable Me 2'. I caught the movie awhile ago and I LOVE the minions. The story line was so-so only but the minions made it so much better!

I ordered these minions from USA and got them shipped back as they cost a bomb in Singapore! S$120 in singapore VS USD34. Shipping was not cheap but buying 3 from USA and shipping it back costs much lesser than buying 3 here. Took about 2 weeks to get here. Tim's my brother's birthday present, Stuart is CW's birthday present while Dave is mine!

So I have Dave, Tim and Stuart! Here's a short video of them. Pardon the bad quality and hardly audible sound cause it's my first attempt doing this.

Initially before I got them, I thought Dave would be the best choice but I was wrong! I LOVE TIM! He is the singing Minion, Dave is the Talking Minion and Stuart is the Laughing Minion. Tim can sing 3 songs, Dave farts and eats bananas. Stuart does the Beedo Beedo Beedo. They are so much fun! Material is soft so it should be suitable for young children. Box states ages 4 and above.

Anyone owns them too? Are there any special tricks that's not written on the box?

Nutella cheesecake (No Bake)- Cooking 101

This is a really easy recipe. As I do not have an oven at home, I always look for no bake recipes. This recipe was taken off Nigella. The original recipe has chopped toasted hazelnut but I couldn't find it in the shops near me so I decided to do without it.

All the ingredients used minus the hazelnuts

Ingredients 

- 250g of digestive biscuits

- 500g of cream cheese

- 60g icing sugar

- 75g unsalted butter

- 400g Nutella 

Method

- Break the digestive biscuits into a bowl. (small crumbs. I used my hands to do this and it took very long and I ended up with sore fingers. You can use a food processor) 

- Add butter and 15ml of nutella and mix until it becomes a damp, sandy mixture. (smells really good)

- Tip into a 23cm/9inch round springform and press into the base either using your hands or the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to chill. (I left it for 1 hour)
- Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth and then add the remaining Nutella to the cream cheese mixture, and continue beating until combined
- Take the springform out of the fridge and carefully smooth the Nutella mixture over the base.
-  place the tin in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight. Serve straight from the fridge for best results.

Before going into the fridge

Not evenly spread out

The cake layer seems alittle thin

Not evenly spread

 I think this recipe is too sweet for me. It tastes great, just too sweet. I will probably cut the amount of nutella by half! Another success! I probably will get laughed at by seasoned bakers with my horrible baking skills and cake appearance. Don't mind getting feedback to improve myself :D

Pacific Rim

CW wanted to catch Pacific Rim badly so we headed down to Downtown east on Friday for the show.
I didn't know what the show was about before I went in, just knew that there are robots in it.

So the show is mainly about a breach in earth's sea bed that led to monsters (Kaiju) coming to earth every now and then that will cause a lot of destruction to cities. They then started the programme 'Jaeger' to combat the Kaijus. The Jaegers are out to fight the Kaijus to protect the world. There are a lot of fighting scenes that are not too bad. Not too messy that I can't figure out what's happening. The graphics are amazing. Overall, the movie is not too bad. The only complain I have is that the robots are SO CLUMSY. They are not fast enough, not flexible. It feels as though their joints need to be oiled. Their movements are also slow and their weapons are hmmm... not quite up to date and are slow to activate. In my opinion, I think their best weapon is the sword. The rest of the weapons are pretty useless :x

I love the black suits that the pilots wear <3 They look so smart in it!

Baileys Irish Cream Tiramisu (without raw eggs) - Cooking 101

After having Tiramisu at Poulèt, I was inspired to make my own.

Initially I randomly googled for Tiramisu and I found one with really good rating and reviews. I bought most of the ingredients and then realised that I'm not too comfortable with the idea of raw eggs. So I found another recipe that does not use eggs. The ingredients also requires alcohol like Kahlau, Rum or Tia Maria which I don't have at home and it's quite a waste to buy the whole bottle just for a few table spoons of it. I made do and used Baileys that were available in small bottles.

It was really easy to make! I even went to Ikea to buy a few nice glass bottles like how they do it outside.

All the ingredients used 

Recipe from noobcook:

Ingredients for the cheese layer

- 250g Mascarpone Cheese

- 1tbsp pure vanilla extract

- 2 tbsp caster sugar

- 1 tbsp Kahlau (I used Baileys instead of Kahlau)

- 2 tbsp thickened cream (I used Millac Dairy Whipping Cream with 38% fat dairy cream)

- Cocoa powder

*in the end, I used double the amount for all of the above because i realised that halfway through, I ran out of cheese. I also used half the amount of lady's finger*

Ingredients for Lady's Finger with coffee dip

- 4 tbsp espresso coffee (I randomly bought canned coffee from 7-11 that is not espresso)

- 2 tbsp Kahlau (I used Baileys)

- 200g lady's finger (Savoiardi)

*as for the coffee + Bailey's mixture, you can prepare more when you run out in the process and I only used 100g of lady's finger*

Method

1. Mix mascarpone cheese, pure vanilla extract, caster sugar and Kahlau into a mixing bowl and mix well. 

2. After step 1 has been thoroughly mixed, add the thickened cream and fold the cream into the mixture until a consistent creamy texture. 

3. Prepare the coffee dip by pouring the coffee and Kahlau onto a plate (mix well) and dip the lady's finger into the coffee dip. (do not soak the lady's finger into the dip for too long as it will become too soggy)

4. Put a layer of soaked lady's finger into the container that you are using.

5. Spread a layer of cream mixture prepared in step 2.

6. Repeat steps 4-5. 

7. Dust a layer of cocoa powder using a fine sieve.

8. Leave to chill in the fridge for a few hours. (I left it overnight)

Step 2

End product

Bottles from Ikea

The amount that I made with 500g of mascarpone and 100g of lady's finger

Taste wise I must say it's pretty good! (For my mum to say it's not bad must mean that it's really pretty good :P)The lady's fingers are alittle too soggy because I soaked them in the coffee dip for too long. Will remember to work on that next time round. Haha so proud of myself! The next time I make this, i'll try it with the other alcohols to see how different the taste will be.

Fried Radish/ Carrot Cake (Cooking 101) 菜头糕

When it comes to cooking/ baking, I have to admit that I am totally at a loss when I want to cook. My family hardly cooks at home because we are always not at home. Once in awhile, I will have the urge to cook something really random. As we hardly cook, there's not much seasoning at home. I have to really buy EVERYTHING (including soy sauce/ oil/ pepper) if I want to cook.

I call this Cooking 101 because it's like cooking for those who really don't know how to cook. I know nothing about cooking so I really follow the recipes that I find. After cooking, learn from the session and figure out what needs to be changed.

Fried Radish/Carrot Cake 菜头糕 came to mind when I was watching the television programme and they were eating that dish. I immediately went to google for a recipe and got all the ingredients.
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for the cake
- Radish (around 700g)
- 50ml water
- 200g rice flour (white rice)
- 250ml water
- 1/4 tsp salt

Method
1. Grate the radish. Initially I could not find the grater at home so I painstakingly cut the radish with a really small/ pathetic knife.
2. To a stainless steel container, add the grated radish and 50ml of water.
3. Leave to steam at medium heat for 30 minutes until the radish turns translucent. Leave to cool.
4. Premix 200g rice flour,  250ml water and 1/4tsp salt. Mix well.
5. Add the rice flour mixture from step 4 into the stainless steel container containing the grated radish and mix well.
6. Steam mixture on high heat for 40 minutes.
7. After 40 minutes, leave mixture to cool.
8. Cool overnight in fridge.

Remember I said that I had to cut the radish with a knife initially? The batch which was made with that did not turn out as well as the one that I used a grater. The one with the knife had really obvious radish slices and after steaming, the top layer was really watery. Yes please do not use a knife like me. I almost died using the knife.

Obvious radish slices as a result of using a knife

This is what it is supposed to look like after 40 minutes of steaming

I left the cake overnight in the fridge and I loved the smell of radish in my fridge after that! (smell didn't last for very long)

Ingredients for frying the cake

- 1-2 tsp of Chai Poh

- 2-3 eggs (I used more as I really like to eat eggs)

- 3 cloves of minced garlic

- 2 tsp of fish sauce

- 3 tsp vegetable oil

- white pepper

- thick sweet sauce (if you want the black version)

Method

- Cut up the radish cake into small chunks

- Heat oil and fry the small chunks of radish cake until lightly browned and slightly crisp.

- Add minced garlic and chai poh. Fry until aromatic. Add more oil if it's too dry.

- Add fish sauce. Fry to coat evenly.

- Pour eggs over radish cake. All eggs to settle slightly before flipping.

- Add white pepper (up to your own preference)

- Add Chilli (own preference)

Finished product

It doesn't taste like those you have at hawker centres but the cake was pretty good. The amount of cake made from this was enough for 4 people. Just need to work on tweaking some of the ingredients to make it taste better. Mine was a little too salty as I added a lot more fish sauce. Overload of radish cake that day.

First attempt success! 

Poulèt

CW's company's film was nominated for 'Best cinematography (open category) for Cine65 event. Even though they did not win the award in the end, the nomination was a recognition of their work!  Great job guys. The award ceremony was held today at Golden Village at Great World City. Congratulations to all winners! It was inspiring to see so many films on what singapore means to people. 

Entrance 'ticket'

In the theatre

As the event was held at great world city, we headed to Poulèt for dinner after the event. I've walked pass Poulèt (other branches) a few times and have been wanting to try it. Finally got to try it today! 

We each ordered a main dish. I  also ordered their mushroom soup and desserts (Tiramisu and Banana Bread Pudding). Pictures credit to Poulèt's website as I forget my camera. Their food looks exactly like the pictures on the website (even their dinnerware).

Mushroom Soup

Their mushroom soup was not bad. Very creamy and not too thick. I don't like mushrooms soups that are really thick (like a paste). Those soups make me feel very full after the soup and there's not much space for my main course. This one was more watery but still tastes good.

Half roasted chicken

Ox-Tail

For the mains, we ordered their half roasted chicken, ox-tail and also pork belly. I must say that I'm surprised by their food! Firstly, the ox-tail was really tender. It melts in your mouth. The sauce also goes very well with the ox-tail. Worth trying on your first visit. The roasted chicken was alright. One thing I liked about their chicken was that the meat was not tough and not dry. Hate to eat chicken with tough and dry meat. Their sauce was also pretty tasty. I did not get to try the pork belly so I can't say anything about it.

Tiramisu

Banana Bread Pudding

It was also my first time trying Tiramisu (sad to say). I'm not a coffee lover but this tiramisu was alright for me! The coffee taste was not overwhelming and I like that it is not too sweet. I will definitely try more tiramisus to make up for all the lost years not having it. Banana Bread Pudding was pretty good. You can find small chunks of banana inside. It is also not too sweet.

I had a great dinner there and will definitely dine there again when I have the chance to!
They have 5 branches located at:
- Bugis Plus
- VivoCity
- Chinatown Point
- Great World City
- Jurong Point
You can find out more on their website: http://poulet.com.sg

KKi ケ一キ (Japanese Cake Shop) / The Little Drom Store

On Sunday, CW and I wanted to do something different. However, we are a really boring couple so we couldn't think of anything interesting :x In the end, we just went with the flow.

As CW had to drop by Clarke Quay to get something for his shoot, we wandered around the area and settled for Song Fa Bak Kut Teh for lunch. I have never tried Song Fa before so we were quite excited as we are soup lovers. I prefer the peppery soup base more than the herbal one and Song Fa's one was peppery soup!

We ordered braised pork to go along. 

The braised pork was pretty tasty! I only go for the lean meat and CW goes for the fatty meat. I love the soup. I think I always compare the soup to my grandmother's standard. This one was pretty close to that taste. CW prefers 'Sin Heng Bak Kut Teh' at Joo Chiat. The only thing that I don't like was the small bowl. Small bowl =  less soup and I had to keep refilling the soup. It was a happy lunch!

After lunch, we had another major headache thinking of where to go/ what to do. As I got a free lomography fish eye camera the previous day, I headed down to lomography shop near Ann Siang Street to get films for the camera. On the way there, CW brought me to a cake shop that he visited awhile back.

It was a Japanese Cake shop that also allows artists to hold exhibitions there. In the shop, there is also a small corner that sells vintage toys/ accessories and also polaroid cameras. Love the feel of the shop.

If I could, I would love to open a shop like this one day. 

Kki / The little Drom Store

7 Ann Siang Hill Singapore 069791

+65 62256650

www.kki-sweets.com

hello@kki-sweets.com

http://www.thelittledromstore.com

Mamee!

Shop aside, they serve unique and tasty cakes. They carry whole and slices of cake. For whole cakes, they require advanced notice. Their cakes have unique flavours such as Antoinette (white chocolate mousse with mango centre), Cafe Dumo (Chocolate coffee mousse with praline centre), Emily (Champagne mousse with wild strawberry centre), Gromage Melon (Cheese Mousse with rock melon centre), Kinabaru (Coconut mousse with passionfruit centre), Little Red Riding Hood (Dark chocolate mousse with raspberry centre), Mont Blanc (French chestnut paste with fresh cream center) and more. 

We had Mont Blanc and Royal Milk Tea Cheese Cake.

Left: Mont Blanc, Right: Royal Milk Tea Cheese Cake

Mont Blanc

Royal Milk Tea Cheese Cake

Check out the cute squarish card with their shop's name on the card. 

Alot of effort was put into the shop's concept.

If you are familiar with the bottled milk tea that you can readily find in Japan, the Royal Milk Tea Cheese Cake tastes just like that. The cheese cake has a very soft texture that is closer to mousse. 

CW really like Mont Blanc. The pastry at the bottom tastes just like the Danish butter cookies. The sweetness of the cake was just nice. Each cake costs about S$7-9.

I'll definitely drop by again sometime soon to try out the other cake flavours!

It was my first time at Ann Siang Hill and definitely not my last. The shop houses there are so pretty and is a good photoshoot location.