Miss Atomic Bomb

Taking a moment to appreciate the musical genius that is Brandon Flowers and The Killers with Miss Atomic Bomb. They need to make a music video for this. 

Asian-style cooking

After a few months of sandwiches and wraps and salads, I finally realised that while our home pantry may not have lots of Western herbs/seasoning like thyme, basil, oregano, tarragon (I have all of them in bottles but still trying to figure out what goes with what sort of ingredients, it's truly a nightmare resulting in dubious food sometimes) but my mom has an impressive stock of Asian seasoning like fish sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce in all variations, abalone sauce, rice wine vinegar, etc, so I experimented.

I adapted a recipe from the BBC Good Food Asia magazine for the bowl above, a mixture of soba (they asked for rice noodles but I don't have and don't like it), leftover baby spinach, mixed vegetables, firm tofu and last minute bacon addition or else the picky little sister wouldn't eat it. While I failed at cooking tofu (looks nice but lacking in taste, damnit), the noodles were amazing because of the soy sauce and sesame oil!!! Didn't know the sauces would make such a great different but... omg totally in love with sesame oil.

Ok here's a Korean side dish of soya bean sprouts (finally found the right kind of bean sprouts in NTUC, everywhere else including the wet market my mom goes to only sell the regular bean sprouts, meh) with sesame seeds. Don't know why my mom has roasted sesame seeds in the fridge but she does, and totally made this a success. Again, soy sauce and sesame oil!!! So I snacked on this while watching tv shows yum. That's all for the gluton side of my life, bye.

Give thanks

Time is flying by too quickly, I cannot catch up. But in any case, here's another quick update of what has been happening in my life and things that I'm thankful for (and to rant a little bit, just a teeny bit):

Last week was pretty uneventful. Did the usual of sleeping in, staying up late and sleepover with Jotham. The best part of weekends is just lying in bed with this boy and talk about absolutely everything and anything. A close second is him carefully digging/cleaning my ear for me LOL gross but he doesn't mind so ok. Had flu the entire week so basically concussed in bed. Oh and have been obsessed with Masterchef, I now understand why people love the show because I do too. And result: I have five food magazines on my table now. I am ready to whip up a feast once I get my hands on a reasonably-priced food processor this week.

Last last week was, on the contrary, very eventful. I hung out with my "new" cell group mates (Meh, I don't know what to classify them under) in Sentosa but mostly trying my best to stay out of the sun and playing a little bit of volleyball. Em's 21st bbq at her house was, as usual, great because I met friends that I haven't seen in a year (literally) and sort of patched a broken friendship. Not too sure how that is yet, but I think we're off to a good (re)start. Met Amiril for some Mediterranean food at Olive & Fig and restored both our sanity for the week. Sometimes, we just need yummy food and friends, don't we? Sunday was Gideon's birthday and wedding. So, after a long absence, I went back to church for his solemnisation and the moment his bride stepped into the hall, I was on the verge of (happy) tears. I am so, so, so happy for him, it's ridiculous. This man, even though we hardly speak anymore, had a big role in shaping who I am today. I may have become a smoker + drinker/clubber + doomed to hell if not for him. Meh. Anyway, also discovered a new Bar Bar Black Sheep (way nicer than the one at Bukit Timah Road) at Cluny Court so I'm putting that into my to-visit list.

Ok, I'm hungry now. Shall pop some wholemeal bread into the toaster and have it with peanut butter (my fav!!!) while I watch Masterchef till bedtime. (And hopefully one day my toast will go beyond peanut butter.)

Light to the blind

Rainy day. Shit happens. Not a pleasant start to my Friday (I need sleep) but I'll get over it. Back to cleansing out my iTunes. I'm starting afresh.

"You see, one loves the sunset when one is so sad."

Picture from Tumblr

I have started practising Krav Maga. Mostly because I am bored with my boring routine lifestyle and partially because it sounded fun and I needed to try something new. And to learn some self-defense so I can protect myself when I'm in Sydney. I'm not sure why, but recently I've been having this insane urge to do something different. It's not like I have anything I want to do in particular, I just felt like I needed to do... something. Anything. Maybe because it's nearing the end of the year, and maybe because I'm turning 21 soon. This newfound fear of turning 21, becoming an adult, and looking back to realise that I've not accomplished anything this year is gaining its grip on me. Once in a while, I step back and have this amazing out of body experience and I see that I'm just being super silly because you don't judge your life like that. The process is as precious as the destination, if not more. But anyway, this 21st bday celebration is another headache. I want it to be memorable but I have yet to planned it because 1) I am lazy and 2) I like surprises and I'm hoping it will be one and 3) I have no idea what I want.

Just re-read what I wrote above and urgh, I am so freaking self-centred. There are wars and poverty going on and people, like this journalist, making a difference in this world and here I am whining about stupid things. I am ashamed. Ok goodbye.

Fighting your demons

Right now, I have lentil stew cooking in the crockpot and I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be nice! Even though I made like a zillion tweaks to the original recipe. 

Went through a teensy bout of self-pity and bleakness last week and Jotham was so scared I was falling into depression. But I snapped out of it. I've been avoiding some of my issues, hiding them deep inside and hoping that if I don't speak about them, it'll just go away. Guess it just surfaced again last week in full force to haunt me again. But this time, I'm going to face it and fight it and make it right. Thank God that J is so annoyingly logical and that he anchors me to the ground when I'm overwhelmed and overly-dramatic. I like that we're not too whimsy or romantic (I've come to realised that it's only nice for a short while) because it's the steadfast and quiet confidence we both have towards each other that is deeply reassuring.

In other news, I have shoulder-length hair now. I love it, I may cut it even shorter the next time.

To China and back

A bit more to mid September. This marks the eighth month I've been full-time working, and already so jaded. So old. Working on some changes in lifestyle. But anyway, that's for another post, this is about my 8 days to Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou - 2 days in each city and it's as tiring as it sounds. 

Obviously we went to the Forbidden City because that's the must-see in Beijing. As I walked around with our tour guide babbling on about the history of the Forbidden City, all I could think of is how this is like seeing Huan Zhu Ge Ge (fav primary school show, don't judge) come alive right before my eyes.

And then proceed to feast on xiao long baos and roast duck at various restaurants that I will never be able to afford if I were travelling China on my own. This was at Ding Tai Feng and we had crab roe xlbs. Also had truffle xlbs! Whuuut ikr but they have so many flavours we just kept ordering.

Some leftover Cultural Revolution building in Hangzhou in the middle of the West Lake (I think). 

The Hangzhou weather was quite bad and all my pictures of the lake/greenery turned out ultra foggy ): so here's a picture of a random lamp post in the park.

And alas, I FELL SICK THE FIRST DAY IN SHANGHAI. 3am on the day we were supposed to take the train from Hangzhou to Shanghai, I woke up suddenly and threw up. And continued throwing up even all the way to the train station and at the train station. Needless to say, that wasn't a very pleasant train ride. Once we got to the hotel, I plastered myself to the sofa for three hours without even taking off my shoes before forcefully peeling myself off and concussed on the bed for 20 hours. .___. Being sick alone in a foreign place is the worst feeling ever!! But somehow, my body managed to repair itself and the next morning, I was alive and kicking and visiting the French Concession and drinking tea lol. Regardless of how I old-ish feel, I am (thankfully) still young. Thank God.

A tiny shopping street in Shanghai that's really, really cool. And then it poured for a couple of hours and we just sat and drink tea and went into a funny discussion about the gay culture in China and Singapore. Ok I also must add here that I've made some friends on this trip and they all made my trip more enjoyable whether is it I was laughing with them or at them (sometimes only).

Dimsum is aplenty in Guangzhou (Cantonese place) and I had my favourite chicken feet!!!! Nom nom, this particular one from a traditional Guangzhou restaurant is so so so good. I polished off the entire plate. Also had an ok-ish custard bun, though I would prefer Swee Choon's.

The cutest cat in Guangzhou. I was stroking its paws and shaking it and touching its neck fat and it didn't even stir. It just sunk lower into its neck fat and continued sleeping omg so cute, second only to the kitty Jotham and I "adopted".

Random shopping area in Guangzhou. Most impressive thing about this area is the aaaaamazing rooftop garden on the top of these short buildings. I can totally imagine people chilling out on the rooftop bbq-ing and drinking beer. That would be the life. Except the weather there is as sucky as Singapore's.

Anyway, that's about it. Everything else I've to save it to write for my travel story. Also, the third issue of EX is coming out and I am so excited because I've got a 10-pager for one of my story! And the cover is pretty rad as well :)