Posts

Posted on

Bonjour Paris! (13th April – 16 April)

In 2004, my family joined a Europe tour and visited Paris.
At that time, BH and I only dated for 2 years. I remembered that in the tour group there was this newly wedded couple and the husband bought the wife a Gucci bag! haha.. I was quite envious.. I don’t even own any branded bag!I told myself tt if I ever get married, I not only wanna go to Europe for honeymoon BUT I want my husband to buy branded bags for me! heh.. what childish thoughts! besides buying branded bags, I’m just glad that BH did more things for me 🙂

Who would have known that after 8 years, I re-visited Paris with my husband and had a totally different experience!! I feel so blessed and I thank God wholeheartedly for all these things I don’t deserve

From BCN, we flew to Paris via Easyjet We choose Easyjet instead of Ryanair because we feel that Ryanair is kind of shady? haha… that’s our opinions.. anyway, Easyjet’s price is about the same as Ryanair, so we booked it.

We were pleasantly surprised by how NEW Easyjet was.. the aircraft was WAY NEWER than the rubbish AA flight we took.. It was so much more comfy than our long haul flight. The air steward is sooooo good looking!! OMG! I wanna take a pic of him BUT didn’t get a chance to! wasted.. We later discovered that Easyjet was only 4 years old! heh.. so…. take Easyjet!!

At Paris, we choose to stay at an Airbnb apartment It was relatively cheap at US$97 at a good location! I was really glad that we stayed in an apartment because we saved $ on breakfast and water since we have a mini kitchen. There were also supermarket nearby to buy food should you be sick of eating hard and often cold baugette :/ I have no idea why Parisians enjoyed it

First, we went to –

Sorry for the bad reflection on the pictures. This is a pest control shop which was mentioned in the Pixar movie, Ratatouille. I wondered if those rats were ONCE REAL because they are seriously HUGE!

We purchased a 2 days Museum pass $39 euros/pax which allows us to enter MOST of the museums and we could bypass the LONG lines for buying tickets! How cool!

Of course… we went to…

Most of descriptions/explanations of the exhibits are in french. Yes, there are some boards with English translations BUT you got to wait to get your hands on the board. We didn’t rent the audio guide, so most of the time we were quite lost. I mean.. we are not exactly artsy people .. so we just zoom to the more popular exhibits like the Mona lisa ( which is ALWAYS crowded , bottom left pic)

IF Spain loves Antoni Gaudi.. I think France’s fave is Leonardo Da Vinci …EVERYTHING Leonardo is ‘wah’!! haha.. u get the picture. Yes, I agree that you can spend days in the museum BUT you need to
1) read/understand french OR
2) rent the audio guide OR
3) do your homework/research beforehand
…..to fully enjoy the museum.

Unfortunately, we didn’t do any of the above… BUT we have Rick Steves’ guide!!! OMG!!! Our host from Airbnb actually have a Rick Steves!!! I tell u that book saved our life!!! We followed his guide – we not only saw the IMPORTANT exhibits BUT we also understood the history/story behind it! 😀 Phew… A must buy – Rick Steves’ guide for your Europe holiday!!

With the museum pass, we also went to

Pictures are not allowed here BUT I was really lucky to take this clear picture ( without anyone inside !!) before I realised it! 😀 Ok.. this museum is less crowded than the Lourve.. Good to go IF you have the museum pass!

what about the food??

If you are thinking of saving money on food in Paris… DON’T!! I mean.. the food is really expensive.. McDonald is also expensive… so.. I suggest just eat at any cafe. It’s a lose lose situation because no matter how, no matter what THERE ARE TOO MANY TOURIST in Paris… so you will be served the tourist menu ( usually set meals) – It’s better than eating bread/pastries all day long… believe it or not BUT the ice-cream was the softest thing I ate in Paris.. haha… before i forget.. Do try Nutella Crepes..

It’s sold in stores like this and it’s quite tasty!

At this point… I was so stuffed with bread… and really wanted American or Asian or best still… a REAL kitchen so I can cook!!! OMG!

This attraction is covered in the museum pass too BUT the line to go up to the top is awfully LONG! I will strongly recommend that you wait in line ( we waited for 1 h) because you will NOT be disappointed!

It is a long climb up BUT worth every single step or breathe! It’s better than the top of Eiffel. I think we spent a pretty long time there.. and loved it! I feel that Notre dame is the Best attraction on the Museum pass (better than Lourve Museum)

NOW… the icon of Paris …

We didn’t go up the tower because we felt that it’s pointless. When we are on Eiffel Tower, we can’t see it anymore.. what’s the point?? right? [That’s y we feel that it’s better to go up to Top of The Rock in NYC than Empire state Building] Anyhow, BH really wanted to stay until the lights were up (8pm) It was extremely cold and chilly at night and I was kinda under-dressed. I caught a cold the next day! booo!

On the same chilly night.. we also went to .. Triumphal Arch

The background picture was taken on top of the Arch.. the view was great! You got to climb more stairs to reach it ( about 200 steps one way) I think we climbed alot of stairs in our trip.. luckily we went to Paris YOUNG!

AND…It was super cold (as usual) BUT Bh really wanted to capture more pictures… so… I not only caught a cold the next day BUT a very BAD cold.. BOO BOO!!

The next day… we went to the Pharmacy to get cold medicine ( sigh.. i have no idea how I forgot to pack my medicine pouch in my bag!!) Anyway, there’s tonnes of Pharmacy around. One more thing… DO NOT GO TO PARIS ON SUNDAY! everything is closed (think shopping mall) except for museums..

We planned for Versailles Day trip ( Train cost $6.50 euros/pax RT)

Ok.. it was super crowded… we read all about it on Steves’ guide… so we kinda know the more popular things to look at.

We didn’t go inside the palace’s garden as we need to pay ( not covered in museum pass)+it was drizzling+I was down with cold+we had no umbrella. In fact, the Versailles trip only took 1/2 a day! I feel that the outside was really stunning… its interior was just as stunning… a pity that it was just too crowded :/

We spent the other 1/2 of the day going into random museum covered in the pass and called it a day early

The last day in Paris, we went to the biggest shopping complex (I won’t even call in a mall) – This place was bursting with tourist from China. I was even approached by a Chinese national to help her to buy Chanel bag because her passport had been maxed out ( there is a limit on the no. of bags one can buy)

Anyhow.. I was super disapted that I didn’t find the bag I had been yearning for… so I just splurge on a MiuMiu wallet (bad idea.. because MiuMiu is cheaper in Italy) I felt happier after spending money though

We discovered that there’s a GOOD viewpoint of the Eiffel Tower on the top level of Lafayette. Admission is free!!! There’s also a food court in Lafayette which you can eat for slightly cheaper and enjoy the view of the Effiel Tower!

Last but not least… a picture just to remind BH (if he ever reads this blog) that he owe me something… wahahah..

Overall, Paris is just a ok place for us. I mean.. there’s just too many people + tourists. It reminds me of NYC! The place is not exactly clean and people smoke a lot.. and they smoke as they walk!!! I feel that it’s quite inconsiderate!! If I live in Paris, I think I’ll die a passive smoker. eeks! If and only if I ever go to Paris again, I am going to bring a lock and put it on the Alexandre III Bridge…haha.. “Lock u up!” I told BH

Next stop… Venice~~~

Posted on

Hola Barca! (10th April – 13 April)

Finally down to blogging about our trip 🙂

Our 1st destination was Barcelona.. I ALWAYS wanted to go to Barcelona.. I saw many amazing pictures of this place and I wanted to put these pictures in my head into reality

well, our flight was at 7am so we need to reach the airport at about 5am. That’s very early BUT we are extremely thankful to Julius who sent us to the airport on a MONDAY w/o complains!! Thank you!!

We checked in and the lady at the counter was like ” You guys are going to Barcelona! ” haha.. I don’t know why BUT I felt like I was in a dream!! OMG!!! Are we really really going to Barcelona??!! I mean.. the name itself sounds so exotic already!! I know I know.. alot of people had been to Barcelona… BUT it’s finally me turn!!! I was ecstatic!! I tried not to think about the million things which will mk me upset… I’m just gonna be really happy.. and very happy!! I looked over to BH and smiled.. I am not going on this adventure alone.. I am going with my fave person! A sudden joy and bliss filled me/us – we are gonna enjoy these beautiful sights together!

The flight (American Airlines) was really really uncomfortable. The food was really bad. The whole time.. I can’t wait to just land at BCN and enjoy our trip! I was also thankful that we didn’t pay full fare for the air tix, in fact (and I am very proud of it) WE ONLY PAID US$50/pax! 😀 It’s really cheap for a long haul flight!

When we land, the first thing we saw was FCBarcelona store… haha.. then we left the airport via Aerobus

We stayed at a hotel Hesperia Carlit – You can read my review on tripadvisor here

The first place we went –

Admission fee: FREE!!!! (If you want to visit museums inside the park, you need to pay)

This is one of the BEST attraction ever because the view is stunning and it is FREE ADMISSION! We went there 2X during our stay 🙂 love it so much! IF you don’t wanna take a ‘group picture’ with a whole bunch of strangers, GO EARLY!! We stood at a good ‘spot’ and took a zillion pics to get the above pic of us with the lizard.. haha.. this lizard is super popular!

And yes… I feel that Barcelona is ALL ABOUT GAUDI! If you see something nice… It gotta be Gaudi! No doubt about it!!! hehe

Next –

Admission fee: $15 euros/pax ( able to get discount if you buy the tourist pass, which we didn’t)

We didn’t plan to go into La Pedrera.. Just that we had nothing better to do..haha.. so we decided that since we are here, might as well go up. You know what??In my humble opinion, THIS IS THE BEST PAID ATTRACTION! Once you enter the rooftop, it’s like you are in another world, Gaudi’s world… and the rooftop is something which you can’t see on the street level. No wonder it’s part of UNESCO World Hertiage Site. The weather was super nice too… it’s such a perfect day.. The pictures really don’t do justice to this place.. It’s really cool!!! well, there’s other exhibits below this rooftop and it’s pretty interesting!

Example:

Don’t think that this is just a’twin’ chair BUT much thought had been put into the design. It’s meant to mk conversations easier w/o turning the head much! How cool!!! I want this chair can! No surprise who designed it right? hahaha…

Like all other attractions, GO EARLY! We are glad we did because after we left, there’s a LONG line to buy tickets… and the pretty place was flooded with people! *gasps*

A MUST-SEE in Barcelona –

Admission fee: $16 euros/pax (includes the climb up to tower – lots of stairs!!)

This place is a BIG WOW! I mean… It’s sooo HUGE… the designs are so intricate and precious! As usual, it’s VERY CROWDED. We reached at 9am BUT lined up for about 1/2 hr to get tickets

A dinner treat at Restaurant 7 Portes–

This is a posh restaurant. Let’s just say super posh! Do dress up! we went there because of August’s recommendation. Prior to that, we saw the menu and the prices were affordable + great reviews on tripadvsior! why not!

The thing about me is.. I always want to save $ so BH got quite upset with me as he felt that we should just enjoy ourselves when we are on a holiday ‘Money is not an issue’ in his words. Ok, at first I ordered only 1 entree (Paella w seafood) BUT after the server gave us a weird look, we ordered another entree (Cod fish) Right.. we also ordered 2 glasses of muscat.

Let me show you the restaurant’s super cool toilet! Wave your hand to bring the toilet seat out!

haha.. I later realised that this is a handicap’s toilet.. :X

Back to where I stopped ~~~

While we happily wait for the food… the server brought us a bottle of wine. We were like ‘did we order this?’ BUT we kept quiet because BH did ask the server about wine, so we thought he misunderstood us

Anyhow, we finish the food… BUT the bottle of wine was VERY HARD to stomach.. I mean.. at home, we need to finish a bottle in 2 occasions. To finish 1 bottle of wine for dinner by the 2 of us… was near impossible. We took our time.. and finally finished it… The bill came and……

They did not charge the wine! The server managed the orders wrongly! If I knew, I won’t have finish the wine!! grrr.. BH still paid for the wine by giving the cost of it as tips. Luckily, the wine only cost $10 euros! ( We felt that it’s cheap for a bottle of wine in a restaurant! It would have cost more in the states)

If you are wondering… because of the wine.. (I didn’t get drunk) I got a BAD hangover.. OMG.. the next day, we were flying to Paris early and I have a bad headache + I felt like vomiting!!! sigh..and we forgot to bring the medicine pouch which I packed!!! gosh… after a long while….I finally vomited at Barcelona airport before boarding the plane (thank God!) and felt better after… phew…

—-
Overall, Barcelona is a GREAT place.. Public transport is VERY convenient! The trains are like the MRT in Singapore. No.. THEY ARE THE MRTs in Singapore.. the kind you take in NE lines… clean and new! OMG!! So who followed who?? haha… At the end of 3 days, I was tired of not understanding spanish and eating pastries ( I love pastries… but it’s too much!!)… I was really craving American food!!! hahaha….

The next post… PARIS~~~

Posted on

How to buy Happycall pans on Gmarket Korea? (Part 2)

THE PANS ARE HERE!! 😀

Date ordered: 2 May 2012
Date received: 8 May 2012

It reached Singapore slightly less than a week! Amazing! Pictures courtesy of my sister 🙂

Pic 1: The HUGE box delivered by the postman. Just to let u know, once Gmarket ship out your package, you will receive tracking information which could be seen when u log into your a/c. It will look something like this –

IF you are staying in Singapore, you can check the status of your parcel using the tracking no. on Speedpost Usually, delivery by EMS is very fast and reliable. However, if you miss the delivery, you can contact Speedpost directly for redelivery or for transfer to post office for pick up

Pic 2: This is how individual box packing looks like! Neat and nice! Fit snugly in the bigger box

Pic 3: The pan inside each smaller box and extra silicon seals (which i added) for my order

Pic 4: Interior of the pan – comes with a Korean Manual. However, the English and Chinese manual can be found here and here respectively

FAQ

1) How much did you pay for shipping?

The shipping cost seen above is for 3 pans (about 8kg!) The excess amount paid for shipping will be deposited into your Gcash [Read How to use your Gcash here]

2) How much does each pan cost when I buy direct from Gmarket Korea?

I paid SG$175.69 ( EMS shipping+ 3 ocher deep pans+ 3 sealers) Each set only cost SG$58.56!! Personally, I think it is cheaper than joining sprees or buying from department stores 😀

3) Have you tried cooking with the pans?

Not yet 🙁 I’ll blog about it when I did!

4) How to buy HCP on Gmarket?

Read here

Enjoy!! Happy shopping! 😀

Posted on

How to buy Happycall pans on Gmarket Korea? (Part 1)

*These are solely my opinions. Do give me credit if my guide helped you OR share your thoughts in my comment box. Tanks everybody Tanks!! 😀 *

Who should read this?
1) Asian living in USA who wants to get a Happycall pan
2) Singaporeans who want to buy a Happycall pan
3) Anyone who want to buy a Happycall pan

Ok, fine. Basically… everyone!

Have you caught the Happycall pans (HCP) craze yet? I know.. it is so popular now and I see a lot of people talking about it on Facebook and on various cooking blogs!

I thought it was just a so-so pan BUT J (my Singaporean bachelor friend living in Seattle) is talking about it! haha.. he was boosting about how he cooked delicious medium rare steak.. the kind of steak which is cooked to perfection and not ‘hard like rock’ heh.. I giggled in disbelief… Still, I wanted to try out the pan for myself. I was also hoping that BH will cook more (for me, or when I’m not around) if we get the pan

Living in a US apartment, most of our stove is ‘electrical coil’ (electrical coil is NOT induction) I was worried that even if I buy the pan, it may not work. However, since Julius could cook steak in his HCP on the electrical coil stove, the pan should work! I also emailed a food blogger, H L, just to confirm and she assured me that it works! Yay! So now.. where should I buy?

Amazon and Ebay are selling these pans BUT they are quite expensive compared to my favorite and trusty website, Gmarket! I know there are many versions of Gmarket now BUT I am talking about Gmarket Korea (English site)

Personally, I feel that the prices of HCP on Gmarket Singapore are not as cheap as I could get it from Gmarket Korea directly. The last time I checked , merchants on Gmarket Singapore are giving freebies with the pan (for slightly higher price) – I didn’t go for those as freebies are not important to me. I just want to buy the pan cheap! In the end, I choose Gmarket Korea (English site) Nothing beats buying HCP direct from Korea

I do not read/speak the Korean language. I depend on Google translate to help me with my shopping on Gmarket Korea. On Gmarket Korea , though it is a English site, most of the words are still in Korean language. IF you can’t read Korean, Google translate is your best friend.

Another thing, DO NOT use your mobile phone to load/shop Gmarket. Gmarket is picture intensive. Sometimes pictures may not load or takes too long to load. To have a better shopping experience, use a computer preferably with IE browser – Firefox works fine too!

I apologise for my bad sizing of images. Please click on image to see clearly 🙂

Step-by-step guide
1) Go ahead and open a new window for our best friend Google translate

2) In another new window, go to http://english.gmarket.co.kr/ To search for the pans, type ‘Happycall’ in the search box

3) There you go! The results! Choose the merchants which offers ‘worldwide shipping’ + good rating. Usually, I buy from the ‘Power’ seller

4) Click on the link and it will bring you to the store. The price indicated on the store is the base price
Different type of pans will have different top-up/option price. Another thing to note is the picture may only show 1 type of pan but do scroll down, the store have other pans to offer

5) Look at the images below to be familiar with the store details

6) Ready? The pans! Option 1 shows the different pans (scroll down to see pictures of the pans). For your convenience, I listed down the pans with its Korean name below (Warning: Please DO NOT fault me IF I indicated the pan images and names wrongly. Double check on your part and let me know if I made a mistake)


Items are listed from 1st item on the drop box to the last

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(v)

(vi)

7) Option 2 – To select if you want the pan to be individually wrapped(Top up of 900 won). I choose to have the pans wrapped individually as I ordered 3

8 ) Select add on (optional)

9) Click add to cart and check out!

10) Before paying, click on ‘Coupon Box’ to make sure that the best discount coupon had been applied. Discounts are allocated by member’s level OR if you won lucky draw for coupons. Double check that the items purchased is correct.

I actually ship my items to Singapore since the pans are meant for my mum, my mother in law and me. Since there was a promotion for shipping fee to Asia, the shipping cost to Singapore is much cheaper than shipping to US. I can only collect my HCP when I’m back

11) I checked out and select ‘Foreign Credit card’. Enter your credit card details and you are set!

12) To view order, go to ‘My Gmarket and click on ‘Overseas order’ > ‘View all’. Your order no. and details should be there! Confirmation email may take up to 15mins to reach your inbox

Warning: Since I am residing in the US and shipping to Singapore, my credit cards were declined. Sigh! I guess it’s our US credit card’s way of detecting faud – cancelling the transaction. Anyhow, I tried 2X with different cards and orders didn’t go through. In the end, I got my sister to pay with her Singapore credit card and it went through flawlessly

Tip: For Singapore Credit cards, you just need to enter the OTP sent to your phone and the order will go through. For US credit cards, do call and inform the credit card company BEFORE you make a purchase from Gmarket, so that the order will go through.

Hope this helps! Happy Gmarketing!

Read Part 2 – Pans reached Singapore! 😀

Posted on

Back!

I’m back from our Europe trip! 😀 It had been a wonderful adventure and we are thinking of the NEXT trip!

It’s nice when strangers think that we are on our Honeymoon.. I kinda like that misunderstanding.. hahaha… we must be doing something ‘right’! Then again, my wedding band became loose and it slipped out of my finger on the 1st day! *gasps* It rolled and rolled BUT i stopped it in time… so scary!!!

Anyhow, just got to blog about this really small gesture which touched me 🙂 BH bought some chocolates for his colleagues ( we didn’t buy any for ourselves). I filled it up in a container and he brought it to work. Bh brought the container home last night with just a few chocolates left… OMG! He actually kept aside some for me to try before it all finished!!! I was soooo happy and touched ( I didn’t even remind him can!) I mean… it’s something small but I’m just so glad he did it… haha.. it made me happy that I was remembered… I dunno y.. it’s just chocolates but it made me feel so loved!

I was like “wah… you is love me one lor… you brought back some chocolates for me to try…” BH replied (while playing with his damn phone) ” I really love you one lor… ”

yeah right!!! but i’m happy 🙂

Shall blog about my trip once I settled the pics!

Posted on

Birthday Surprise! Lots of it!!

BH and I celebrated our birthdays on 23 and 26 March respectively. You know how most people include their birthdays on facebook? I decided to remove it.. I am not sure if it’s a windowsphone thing BUT I had been receiving alerts of birthdays on my phone ( my phone’s calendar is somehow synced with the dates on facebook!) It just felt weird to know that my birthday will pop up on ‘Hi-bye’ friends’ calender – so I removed it. I was really glad that a handful of friends remembered w/o facebook reminding them. haha.. it felt good to be remembered for 1 day. I feel special and that’s priceless!

Anyway, the only thing I really like about birthdays is the CAKE!! I cannot tell you how much I enjoy a good cake! Alina told me about Regent Bakery recently and I told BH to get me my birthday cake from there 😀 He did!!

He came home early and we ate the cake first. The strawberry cake was sooooo nice…it’s so soft.. and the cream was really light! I mean… we finished almost 1/2 a 8-inch cake before dinner!! (If u think that I put on weight, it’s the cake and all the good food!!!)

More pics of us!

1 thing to note about bakeries in US is they don’t provide candles for bday cakes :/ Those in SG, don’t take the candles for granted!

After which, we headed to I love Sushi by Lake Bellevue for dinner. Authentic Jap food by a small lake surrounded by town houses. The view was pretty. I thought the food was quite ex BUT that’s the only place I know in WA that had Lychee Martini!!! Yumm!!

We had a filling dinner! haha.. and I seriously enjoyed my cake!!! Nothing special happened on my bday.. I was just delighted that BH and I spent it together – That’s the best gift!

==========

As BH’s birthday falls on a Monday, I treated BH to dinner at Bai Tong Thai on Sunday. We really like the food there! Affordable and delicious! The greeters were all v pretty!

Anyhow, we reached there at 5.15pm and it was still Happy Hour (ends at 6pm) We ordered a whole lot of food + I ordered their special alcohol for the day ( some vodka w longan), super nice! Good alternative for Lychee martini. Bh ordered Thai Milk tea


Look at the pic above – Don’t BH look like a mosquito drinking muddy water? haha

Here’s dinner!

Since it’s BH’s bday, I didn’t interfere when he ordered the food. I almost fainted when he ordered the omelet. I mean.. it’s such a small omelet and it cost almost $9!!! erm.. It taste ordinary.. i didn’t taste anything special. I am just hoping that they used organic eggs man! Besides that, he also ordered Bai Tong Special rice. To me, it taste too ‘Thai’ , so ‘Thai’ that it has a weird plastic taste (not to our liking) Pls don’t get me wrong, I really like Bai Tong BUT BH just ordered weird things :/ oh well… birthday boy/girls are always right. hahaha

AND… as though we haven’t had enough of Regent’s cake.. I bought a Bday cake for BH too! hehe…

The next morning…

This time, it’s a Black Forest cake. It’s supposed to be their specialty BUT I like the strawberry cake better. hehe

okok… if u think our bday celebration ended here… u r so wrong!!! hahaha… at 8.30pm there a knock on our door.. I mean.. before that BH and I had a ‘loud discussion’ about DBS ibanking. I thought the knock was from our neighbours complaining about the noise level…. BUT…….

OUR FRIENDS CAME OVER WITH A CAKE!!!!! OMG!!!! (Justin, Alina, Dave and Jo) we were shocker than shocked! hahaha.. it was a HUGE surprise!!! Our aptment is secured, means there’s no way they can get in of they don’t have a fob! It turns out that they used the callbox to ask our neighbour for help to open the door!!! hahaha

No pictures! Silly us! we forgot to take picture! the priceless video is with Alina though! Very happy and very surprised… and there we have the 3rd cake from Regent bakery! It’s a Mocha cake this time!! hahahaha… ok.. this is the birthday that we have 3 8 inch cakes from the same bakery! hahaha.. btw…we finished it in no time… So did we have cake overload??? NO!!!! I was still thinking of asking BH to get a cake from Regent for our 10 year anniversary!!! hahaha…

Okok…. so…. did the surprise just end there???? NO!!! Our friends have ALOT of ideas up their sleeves!!! SERIOUSLY!!!

On wed, I met Jo and Alina for lunch ( Sam was suppose to come along but she’s not feeling well.. hope she’s better now) … and they surprised me with a gift!!! 😀 Rem how I was saying I need a real Madeline pan??!! They bought 1 for me!! I was elated!!!Jo also got me a flour spoon !! so happy!! I mean.. I wasn’t expecting anything… and I didn’t even want them to know that it’s my birthday!!! 😀 Thank you so v much!! U gals made me soooooo happy!!!

Of course, last but not least…Caryn and Zhihui sent me a grill via amazon way before my birthday(end of Jan)!! At first, I thought it was delivered to the wrong address ( since we didn’t buy anything ) It was a huge surprise that it’s from them!!! How thoughtful!!!

My friends are so into surprises!!! 😀 Thank you Thank you X1000000000!! *touched*

Oh.. the pretty daffodils are fresh from Alina’s garden! They smell so good… every morning we wake up to the nice scent of flowers.. and Alina came to our minds. hahaha so sweet~~~

See the pillow at the bottom left? haha.. That’s my gift to BH.. heh.. Personalized it on Inkgarden and it turned out very well… Why Pingu?? hahaha.. that’s our private joke 🙂

Such a long entry today! Hope to blog soon before our BIG trip in… 10 days time! *gasps*

Posted on

Birthday analysis!

well.. it’s the first time i heard my birthday analysis over the radio! I am so surprised to know that one of my good traits is 多才多艺 ( talented/gifted/versatile)

WOW! Really??? What talent do I have? I can’t seem to find something that I’m really good in :/

Posted on

‘Humpless’ Madeleine

I am actually very laggy with my blog posts :/

This is gonna be the MOST up to date post on my cooking/baking escapades

Recently, I bought a Madeleine pan from Amazon using my swagbacks. I always wanted to bake Madeleine but procrastinated because I wanted to find a good opportunity to get the pan.Finally, there’s a price drop on the Madeleine pan… Mini Madeleine pan though… so I thought… HOW CUTE!!! and I bought it after the 3rd thought ( not even 2nd thought) hahaha… I actually c0-baked the original version of Lemon Madeleine at Jo’s place BUT i didn’t have the pictures :/ decided to try baking them with a variation – adding Chocolate! what can go wrong with chocolate right?? 😀

Anyhow.. the signature Madeleine have distinct HUMPS ( like camels) and HUMPS are supposed to be more distinct after refrigerating the batter over night. I followed the recipe and left my batter in the fridge overnight ( about 24 hrs) – think I could have neglected it too much… there were humps BUT not exactly very humpy

BTW, the most difficult part about baking Madeleine are not only ensuring there’s a HUMP BUT it’s kinda time consuming to put the batter into the mould :O That took up alot of my time… and the worst part was… I bought the MINI pan!!! which makes it even more tedious!!! OMG!! I will so buy the normal size Madeleine pan when there’s a sale

Overall, I was disappointed that the Madeleine didn’t look too humpy BUT it was certainly HARMLESS (pun on ‘humpless’) I took comfort that my Madeleine taste good..I will try again ~~

Chocolate & Lemon Madeleines Recipe
(Taken from ThelittleTeochew via Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, written by Dorie Greenspan)

*Makes 30 mini cookies.

– 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (70 g) all-purpose flour
– 3 1/2 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona
– 1/2 tsp double-acting baking powder
– 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp (90 g) sugar
– pinch of salt
– grated zest of 1/4 lemon
– 2 large eggs (at room temperature)
– 6 1/2 tbsp (100 g) unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside. Put the sugar, salt and lemon zest into a bow and rub everything together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic.

2. Using a whisk beat the eggs into the lemon-sugar until the mixture is blended. Squish the butter through your fingers to create what is called a pomade and add it into the bowl. Still working with the whisk, beat in the butter just to get it evenly distributed. Gently whisk in the sifted flour mixture, stirring only until the flour is incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and chill it overnight before baking. The overnight rest helps the cookies develop their characteristic bump on their backs; if you don’t have time for an overnight rest, try to give the batter at least an hour in the refrigerator.

3. When you are ready to bake the cookies, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425F (220C). Butter a 12-mold madeleine pan, than dust the molds with flour, tapping out the excess.
Note: I buttered but did not flour … even though it is highly recommended in the book.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the madeleine molds. Place the pan in the oven, insert wooden spoon in the door to keep it slightly ajar, and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350F (180C). Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, or until they are domed and spring back when pressed lightly. Unmold the cookies onto a work surface – you may have to rap the madeleine pan against the counter to release the cookies – then transfer them to a rack to cool to room temperature.

Posted on

Easy Banana Nut Bread

It had been raining heavily for the past few days. sometimes, the rain will suddenly turn to snow~~ The weather had been quite weird.. I was supposed to go to the gym BUT since it’s raining.. I decided to blog first

A few weeks back, I made this yummy bread 🙂

Easy Banana Nut Bread Recipe
(from BudgetSavingDiva)

Ingredients

1 pack yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pecans (chopped)
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1/4 Cup of Packed Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1)Combine pack of yellow cake mix, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar and eggs in mixing bowl.
2)Add banana to mixture make sure the banana are well mashed.
3)Mix in 3/4th of Pecans.
4)Pour into greased pans – I use loaf pans and cupcake pans.
5)Place the rest of the pecans on top as garnish
6)Bake at 350F till the toothpick, placed in the middle, comes out clean.

It’s nice to have friends here.. baked goods nv goes to waste.. hahaha… and when we see something delicious, we know we can buy it and share it with everyone

A lovely picture of the 2 ladies I’ve been hanging out with 😀

Blog more soon~~~

Posted on

a passing cloud

Today.. I went crazy with my thoughts

I always thought I was decisive.. but my thoughts were in a mess today 🙁 I am so scared, worried and I didn’t know what to do

At that precise moment, BH came home.. maybe because BH is calm and quiet most of the time… He have that natural ability to make me feel better. I seriously can’t imagine days/weeks/months/years without him – hope he feels the same about me too

P/S: Skype beta app is out!! Installed it on my windows phone! I am just one phone call away from home (and Bambi)