Given Up On Baking

Today, 24^th April 2010, I have decided to give up on baking.

Usually, I found extreme pleasure in baking. Whenever I feel stressed, I would bake something.

However, baking has given me numerous disappointments as well.

Most of the time, I bake something, the comments aren’t great. Someone close to my heart once commented that I was a perfectionist.

I don’t really agree with that statement. However, I found it quite true whenever I bake something.

Whenever I try a new recipe, as ridiculous as it sounds, I will always expect it coming out from the oven looking the same as the magazine photograph.

Yes, I know that it takes years and many numerous baking lessons to perfect this skill.

But… Gaahhhh. Every single time a baking failure occurs, I have to gobble up the imperfect cookies/muffins/cupcakes. This sugar intake is really not good for me.

In addition, the amount of money I’ve spent on baking materials has also taken a toll on my savings. For quite some time, I’ve been trying to find a new oven. However, it will cost thousands to get a good oven.

Hence, I’ve decided to give up on it totally.

Goodbye my passion!

Hopefully, I will hang on to this promise that I will stop baking!

Cheezelmomeezel,

Cereal

Xiamen Trip Day 4

Once again, we checked out of the hotel and Uncle Eric said that it was going to be one of the coldest day everrrr. We braced ourselves for temperatures ranging from 20 degrees to 12 degrees. Brrrr...

Checking out of Fuzhou Hotel

We travelled back to Xiamen and had lunch. We made our way to Xin Xing Packaging which is a chinese manufacturing company. Our group was the one who hosted this company, which was pretty cool.

eating our delicious lunch

after our meal

We were all anticipatingg the night river cruise at the Lujiang River! Because it was going to be bone-chilling cold and we could stay at the top deck feeling the cool breeze!

eating our dinner before going to the cruise

We took a stroll to the cruise station and boarded the cruise! WOOO!! All the students immediately ran up to the top deck. It was excruciatingly cold? After we took our photos, I had to run down because I really could not stand the wind! Also, because I'm kind of claustrophobic, I don't really like being around a lot of people, so I decided to go down to the sheltered area.

I watched the puppet show and after a while, all the students came down from the top deck to enjoy the show.

Limin and I decided to go back up to the top deck to enjoy the breeze since it was all quiet already. We talked a lot about relationships, guys and most importantly, God.

She was one of the friends that I brought to church and our friendship has went a long way. Initially, I couldn't see eye to eye with her views and sometimes, I got impatient and irritated with her.

But gradually, we got closer. It felt really good to encourage her along the way whenever she was down and to motivate her whenever she was thinking negatively. Limin has become my poly bestie (: Although on this trip, I got annoyed with her at times, but I don't think I could find another partner that is as good as her.

I don't suppose she will read this, because not many of my friends know about this blog. But I really thank God that He has brought us together! [:

Tee hee. A funny shot taken by Limin! I was soooo cold that I had to wrap the scarf around my face!!! I looked like an Afghan?

Day 4 came to an end but before we went to bed, we................ CAM-WHORED!

When my mom browsed through these photos, she got a shock of her life. She was like "what in the world???"

HAHA! I love my pals.

cam-whoring all the way in our BATHROBES

Cheezelmomeezel,

Cereal

SCGS Carnival and Sunday Movie Outings

This year's carnival was pretty boring compared to two years back. But all of us, SC girls, had fun catching up with one another again (:

SC Carnival

the vintage SC sign

the mannequin!

our cupcakes [:

knacky photographs :D

During this holidays, every single sunday, without fail, a group of us, Amelia, Joanna, Chuan Fa, Edwin, Brandon and Daryl would meet up to watch movies.

Yesterday, we managed to catch Date Night and it was the funniest movie I've ever since this year! If you have the time, this is one movie you have got to watch!

Cheezelmomeezel,

Cereal

My Date with Mumsy and Bangala

After I heard many rave reviews regarding the When In Rome movie, I made a date with my mumsy to watch it together. We booked the tickets at Lido.

When In Rome

While waiting for my mumsy to come out from the toilet, look at what I've found! Classic movie posters :D

Ten Commandments Movie Poster

Samson and Delilah!

Mumsy Posing For The Camera

Gelatissimo :D

Eating Our Delicious Ice Cream :D

The movie wasn't as great as I thought it would be. However, mumsy really liked it. I thought Kristen Bell was gorgeous!

The next day, I met angela for lunch at Holland Village. While waiting for her, I walked around the entire place and found several other eateries that the magazines reviewed about. These included one of the places I've always wanted to try, which is 2am Desert Bar!

Angela arrived and we ate at Everything With Fries. The waiter really amused us. He kept accidentally banging the baby chairs whenever he walked past our table and his comical actions really entertained us.

Everything With Fries

Angela ordered Chicken Sandwich with Salt and Vinegar Fries while I order the Breaded NZ King Salmon with Garlic and Herbs Fries. The fries weren't much, although the Salmon had a really delicious crispy bread top, the main attraction was ironically, the Caesar Salad.

Delicious Food and Happy People

Gotta Go. Ciao!

Xiamen Trip Day 3

On our third day in Xiamen, we checked out of our hotel. Being typical girls, we cam whore at the hotel walkway! Hee hee (:

the pretending air stewardess haha!

Hee hee!

While we were on our way to the company Hai Yi Food Pte Ltd, ha, you will never guess who this is!

Carina is getting married!!

It's Carina, I loan her my scarf because she wanted to shelter herself from the UV RAYS!! Ha, Limin, Liling and I were getting a kick laughing at her! She looks half like a bride thats entering a chapel and a white riding hood! :D

Anyway, regarding the company visit, we were made to wear these things that looked like shower caps on our shoes. Ha! Looks pretty goofy, doesn't it?

Shower Cap Shoes

Liling and Xinying's Ai Mei Photo

Miss Tan and The Gang

The company gave us free samples of their food, it tasted really delish. However, I still preferred the fish balls that my dad cooked for the family.

Hai Yi Brochure and Food Sample

After our visit to the company, we made our way to Metro Jin Jiang Cash and Carry. It is a hypermart that practically sells everything! If it could have a Singapore name for it, it would be called the China Mustafa.

Metro The Hypermart

Hershey's Chocolates

Xinying, my toilet khaki! :D

Limin! My poly bestie [:

After Our Day Of Shopping @ Hypermart

I really loved the beautiful container of this Hershey's Chocolates! But they were too expensive, SGD 10!

Anyways, we went back to our hotels and shopped around Fuzhou City, which did not have anything at all, besides electronic stuff.

However, we managed to find this amazing Japanese bakery shop called Ganso. We managed to trick Carina into thinking that we didn't buy her birthday cake and we were terribly disappointed with their food. She believed us! :D

The shopper sisters, Xinying, Carina and myself took a cab to NanJie. It was really scary!!! It was my first time taking a cab to this shopping street that we absolutely had no knowledge of.

Being in a cab where there were bars separating the driver and the passengers was pretty new to me., I was praying really really hard in the cab because I was trembling with FEAR.

After being in a cab for 10 minutes, we finally reached our destination. Goodness, those 10 minutes felt like an HOUR. Ha! The only shop that manage to impress us was this shoe shop where all of us bought 2 pair of shoes each. But unfortunately, when I went back to Singapore, my feet amazingly expanded and I couldn't fit into those shoes anymore. SIGH.

Xinying had sore throat and we went to this cafe that sold really delicious Gui Ling Gao. Normally, those sold in Singapore will be bitter. However, the one I ate in Fuzhou was sweetened by Pi Pa Gao. Mmmm... It tasted really comforting to my throat.

Xinying, Carina and I eating Gui Ling Gao

Xinying and I wanted to go back to the hotel to celebrate Carina's birthday but she wanted to continue shopping!!! We were like what...? It was 9.45pm, and we managed to convince her to return back to the hotel. Waha! :D

We had the celebration in the hotel room and we surprised Carina by switching off the light and presenting her with a beautiful cream strawberry cake!

Check Out Carina's Beautiful Cake!

The Husband and Wife look very loving. HAHAH

Celebrating Carina's Birthday!

We were all really zonked out by the time we returned back to the hotel. But we still had to prepare several questions to ask the companies the next day. Liling made this question for Xin Xing Packaging. The question was, "Why do you want to choose to pluck stars?"

That question cracked us up for a really long time. Before we headed off to our beds, we took more photos!

HAHA! Liling looks so funny!

WOOO! Day 3 has come to an end!

Cheezelmomeezel,

Cereal

Fun With Photographs

Today, I felt that I had quite a lot of time on my hands, hence, I decided to do something not that constructive but mind-blowing (at least to me) Ha!

I had a lot of fun playing with my photographs! Tee Hee! (:

if only...

my dearest mumsy

my girl best friend, bangala [:

painting of jazreel, meiping and myself (:

photograph of yvonne, zhiying and myself

the bangkok guys ha!

collage of my poly best pals

food fantasy

Ha! These photos really cracked me up.

Love them lots!

Love and Marriage? I believe in neither.

As I was watching Friends Season 2, where Monica broke off with Richard because of incompatible future viewpoints, Monica could not eat, sleep or practically do anything without thinking of Richard.

Only when her father came to her house and told her that he saw Richard on his way to Monica's house and said that Richard was feeling terrible as well, Monica was then able to get her well-deserved rest.

I was wondering to myself, is this love? To see someone that you love hurt as much as you or even more?

How is that love? Isn’t love about putting that person’s needs in front of yours? Giving sacrificially even though you know that s/he may not reciprocate?

One of the most self-sacrificing love I’ve ever seen is my mom’s to my dad. I mean, she could be giving out her everything to make sure that his wounds are all right, caring about him, and the next thing that happens, BAM, he hurts her again.

Seeing such things happen in my parents’ marriage cause me to never believe in love, let alone marriage.

Come on, the thought of getting married to someone and being forced into taking care of him simply because you have made a pledge at the altar scares the heck out of me.

I don’t want to be a sacrificial lamb. I don’t want my guy to believe that he is stuck with me for his lifetime. I don’t want to feel as though I’m being forced to do things for him.

Sometimes, I wonder… does love equate to marriage?

I simply don’t believe in both.

I believe in the love God has for me, I believe in kinship love, I believe in friendship love. But… love between a guy and a girl? It will never last.

Or does it?

Dempsey & Great World

One fine day, Meiping, Jazreel and I had this strong urge to walk around Dempsey area. Ha, ever since a few years back, I've heard a lot a lot about Dempsey Hill. Why not just give it a shot?

Jazreel gave Meiping and I a ride to Dempsey Hill. It really looked like a forest on the outside. But once we were driven inside, we were presented with many different eateries.

We walked around the whole area before deciding to settle down for lunch at Jones The Grocer.

different groceries sold at Jones the Grocer

There is another outlet at Mandarin Gallery. We ordered Salmon Sandwich, Chicken Sandwich and Baked Salted Cod.

my favourite Salmon sandwich

baked salted cod

The waiter and I spent quite a lot of time discussing on how the sandwiches were to be cut. Since the dishes were meant to be shared among the 3 of us, I told him, "could we have the sandwiches sliced to 3 pieces?" and he was like, "Salmon sliced to 3 pieces? Okay." We laughed and tried to explain slowly what we wanted. But overall, the waiter provided us with a good service.

Jazreel, the happy camper

meiping and I, we're in love with the salmon sandwich

After we finished our meals at Jones the Grocer, we went over to PS Cafe @ Dempsey to have some deserts. But unfortunately, one of the waitress really made us disappointed with the service. Initially, we wanted to order a Banana Mango Crumble and Hot chocolate. However, we were informed that the minimum order was one dish per person. We were appalled by this but we were fine with it. We decided to continue looking at our menu, and out of the blue, the same waitress grabbed my menu away while I was still looking at it. We told the waitress that we were still looking at our menus. She grunted and walked away. Disgusted by her attitude, we decided to have our deserts somewhere else.

We wanted to try La Fondue but it was closed for the day. We took a bus to Tanglin Mall and went to Oomphatico's. We ordered Banana Mango Crumble and Molten Lava Chocolate Cake. The banana mango crumble lacked substance though it looked really appetizing. Meiping and I loved the crispy crumble crust, however, once the bottom had too much liquid and I felt as though I was drinking banana mango soup that was a tad too sweet for my liking.

The molten lava chocolate cake was not up to my expectations either, however, on the side of the plate, there was this crispy wafer coated with chocolate. Now that was amazing. (:

we're waiting for the dishes to be served~

molten lava chocolate cake

banana mango crumble

hee hee (:

meiping sitting on the grand silver chair (:

the beautiful decoration

after our satisfying desert meal

I really expected a lot more from Dempsey as I have heard a lot of rave reviews about it. Oh wells. I guess my next food find destination will be at Clarke Quay or Holland Village.

Ciao!

Cheezelmomeezel,

Cereal