How ML and I spent our weekend

Stuffing ourselves with food, shopping and dodging the rain the Bangkok. I shall not be lazy like my Sydney trip and write in details about our Bangkok trip so that years from now, we can look back and appreciate the good ol' days. But now, my head is hurting so snuggling in bed comes first.

Weekend pancakes

Every other weekend (or public holiday, like it is today), I make pancakes for breakfast. Or lunch, if I wake up too late. Since the beginning of the year, I've made so many variety of pancakes like smashing bananas into pancakes (ok not too bad), chocolate chips pancakes (yums), slathered insane amount of peanut butter on wheatgerm pancakes (thus nullifying any nutritious quality if it had any in the first place) and the usual ones with bacon and egg, etc.

This morning, I made oat pancakes with almost expiring blueberry/cranberry jam and scrambled eggs and cherries on the side. Even added some flaxseeds to the batter for texture which I bluffed Melissa was "special flour" (she asked why there was a weird crunch) or she will probably refuse to eat it because she generally rejects everything that is relatively good for the body. The jam made everything beyond sweet and I wonder if I'm overloading my body with sugar, but never mind. It's National Day!

It makes last week's oat pancakes with smashed avocado look pretty bleak. :( Btw, I think my overusing of avocados over the past 6 months in salad lunch is making me sick of it. I want to gag whenever I taste it. Is that even possible? Is there an alternative? Meh.

Ok break's over, now back to finishing this article before I pack extremely lightly for BKK. 

Again, I need an iPhone

When your extremely lousy phone produces pictures like these, no amount of photoshop and/or colour editing will save it so I won't even try. An iPhone is definitely high on my save-$-to-buy list so I can finally legitimately document an obscene number of pictures of the all exciting/mundane things in my life.

1. I truly believe I need this amazing grey with white polka dot tea set in my life that I found in the Franc Franc shop in Vivo. It is grey. With white polka dots. Grey and polka dots. Possibly the two main colour/design I want in my future home. Actually, I believe owning any one thing from that shop will greatly improve the aesthetic of my life. (Again, Blackberry camera just makes everything look less attractive than it should be)

2. So today, after an unusually early morning at work toiling over this article which I cannot reveal here because it's unpublished yet, I went to Mad Nest for a media tasting. It's a mix of art gallery supporting local talents and cafe which serves Japanese, Italian, North Indian (omg masala and naan) and all-day brunch food. Ok sounds pretty weird when I type it out here but it's really good, I especially like the Japanese menu. But that's not the point. It's at East Coast Road and after the tasting which left me really full and sleepy, I grudgingly hailed a cab to go home although I dreaded the bound-to-be $30 cab fare. While half suffering from motion sickness because of the uncle's excessive braking, I looked into the press kit and guess what! $25 cab vouchers! Hallelujah God is good. Honestly, I never they existed but they came at the right time so I ended up paying only a few dollars. I'm always extremely grateful when PR company/the shop owner genuinely takes care of you instead of seeing you as just another "medium" to "get your name out there". 

3. Nothing much except my geek brother has found a way to connect his TV and his laptop together and is using both simultaneously to watch shows and play games. I have no words. But he is a genius.

4. My new luggage tag from Rockstar! And now I'm afraid people will steal it off my luggage alamak. But anyway, I'm  looking forward to Bangkok with ML this coming Friday! Going there to eat Phad Thai and mango sticky rice and whatnots like a king and shop at Chatuchak like a queen. Be back with lots of pictures!

It's almost 12mn now so happy 47th birthday, Singapore! Although I have a love-hate relationship with this country (just look at the weather and peak-hour public transport man lol), Singapore will always be home no matter where I am physically.

Advices I would give myself if I were unabashedly honest

It's a cold rainy Friday night and here's what I would like to keep in mind for future references.

Don't hang out with people who make you feel terrible about yourself. Don't allow yourself to feel terrible about yourself. Don't judge. Remember this, "Care more about your character than your reputation; character is who you really are, reputation is how people think of you". Envy will suck the life out of you. Sort out your real friends from your part-time friends. Keep the real ones very close. Don't give up on people. Quit worrying about growing up. Quit worrying about school. Quit worrying about the future. Just quit worrying. See the brighter side of life. Always be thankful. Give thanks as frequently as you can for even the smallest, slightest, most insignificant matter because at the very least, you have something to be thankful for. Appreciate your boyfriend. Appreciate your family. Learn to love and be loved. Stop this "You only accept the love you think you deserve" kind of mindset because if that's true, no one should be accepting any love from any one at all and that would be sad. Love endlessly. Love unconditionally. Don't doubt yourself so much; you're always your worst enemy. Start believing in yourself. Lastly (for now), be humble, but don't be a pushover.

Reminder to self

Happy August everyone! 

Making a list (again)

Picture from tumblr.

• Pretty stoked that I'm going on a week-long press trip to China almost straight after my BKK getaway with ML! 
• Prepared red cabbage salad (+carrots, chickpeas and stuff, not just red cabbage of course) for the first time for tomorrow's lunch and salad dressing of my own concoction. Gotta love my mom for being so supportive of me eating salad lunches.
• That said, breakfast nowadays have been plain yogurt + cereal + whatever fruits that's available. And I've found that the multigrain loaf from NTUC (or rather, the NTUC bakery?) is pretty darn awesome when lightly toasted and with a little margarine spread on it. And it's only $3! Forget about bakery breads!
• Also got me wondering if I should extend this healthy eating thing to dinner but nah. I'll save that for later, I'm only barely 21! Plus my moleskine is lined with too many meetups revolving around unhealthy dinners... Let's not deprive myself yet. I'll start with breakfast and lunch.
• Visited Littered with Books over the weekend and bought two new books to read! I've just finished Room by Emma Donoghue which left me in tears. It's been so long since I felt that sinking feeling after you're done with a good book.
• Went to Jotham's cell group for the first time ever. Made me realised how long I've yet to attend cell group and how important it is to have one. ):
• Ro's engaged. My cousin, who got proposed to on her 21st birthday this month, is also engaged. Happy for them but can't help thinking it's a teeny weeny bit too early for marriage. At least for me.
• Second issue of EX is out and I cannot be more pleased with it. It's one thing to write for a magazine and it's another to be able to plan and write original content (we basically don't accept any press releases for this mag) from scratch. Tough, but so rewarding. Third issue, here we go!
• I honestly need to put some thought into my dressing as it has watered down to basically jeans + whatever top that matches my bra or suits the weather (which means white loose shirts which I have plenty) + my trusty, sometimes boring, Superga sneakers. I don't need to look damn stylish or what, but this is just... blah. That's what BKK is for I guess.
• Super long list, going to stop here. Last reminder to self: Never buy blueberries from the US regardless of how big and plump and juicy it looks. It's not.

Everyday lunch

Ugly plastic container that I call my lunchbox holding my salad lunch for tomorrow. Because my workplace is so ulu, there's basically nowhere to get food and generally everyone just bring their own and eat in the office, so I've been making my lunches since... probably the 3rd day of work. 

Before I started work in Feb (6 months already?!?!), I had lots of time to make my own food (which explains this, this and this)  but now, salad is the fastest to prepare under 10 minutes. Just wanted to make a note here so in future, I'll look back and pat myself on the back for eating heathily (at least for lunch) which hopefully will contribute to my overall wellbeing and general health and encourage myself to not become a fat auntie.

Which reminds me... A note to future me: salad lunches are best with sweet corns cut out straight from the cobbs in Mommy's soup.