Birthday Cake for the Jun Babies

I recently baked a cake - Cranberry Almond Cake for my three friends in my group whose birthday falls in Jun.

I know..... looks kinda scary huh... partly cos I was in a rush.....went to Sembawang MRT station for that famous shop that sells all the ingredients and stuffs (like the maroon tray in the pic with a transparent cover) only to realise that that outlet has since closed.

No choice as I still need the cover+tray+candles etc and so I rushed down to Jurong East where I know there's another outlet.

The recipe for the cake is actually the same as the one found here. I just substituted carrots with cranberries known for it's antioxidant properties and I used Almonds instead of walnuts or pecans. Oh and as suggested by a contributor at the recipe website, I used one cup brown sugar + one cup white sugar instead 2 cups of white sugar. Pretty positive response from those who attended the party and ate it......normally a cake this size will have leftovers but this round they totally 'cleaned' it up. Maybe well they were hungry as we had not had our dinner yet when we cut the cake. Hope they were not patronising me. :)

Decorated the cake with 3 gooseberries (one for each birthday)...heehee.

Everyone should have a friend like 'Charlotte'

SATC (spoiler alert) - do not read further if you have not watched SATC and have the intention to do so.

One of the scenes that is etched on my mind is (the expression on her face) that when Charlotte said "NO!" to Mr Big after Carrie smashed her bouquette of white roses at him and he wanted to explain things further with Carrie. Two questions popped up.

One - will Kristin Davis be nominated if not win a best actress award for that?

and

Two - everyone (myself included) needs a friend like Charlotte. I wonder if currently will any of my friends stand up for me and tell whom they see is hurting me a big "NO!"

Anyone?

Double Standard? but who's the one with it?

It was reported that the Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) would not be having shark's fin soup on it's menu but revealed that high rollers at the resort may still get it prepared for them.

A few readers of TODAY have express their displeasure for what appears to be double standards. While they applaud the RWS effort, they also questioned why would they still serve it if requested by high rollers.

Their main concern was that shark's fin are harvested in a cruel way in which the fins are cut off the shark's body before the sharks are thrown back into the sea to die a slow and painful death.

Firstly, there were already reports that such method of harvesting may not be true and even suggested that the video which purportedly showed the harvesting method was alledgedly filmed purposely to discourage the buying of fins. The article further questioned why would the fisherman discard the shark's body just like that after much effort in capturing the shark and they would also stand to profit from the sale of the shark's body as well.

Secondly, how different is the cruelty in killing a shark than the slaughtering of say a cow? If people are really compassionate as they claim to be, shouldn't they then advocate that beef or all sorts of meat be off the menu as well? Let's not also forget that A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home. (This is among the conclusions of a study by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues, which has assessed the effects of beef production on global warming, water acidification and eutrophication, and energy consumption. The team looked at calf production, focusing on animal management and the effects of producing and transporting feed. By combining this information with data from their earlier studies on the impact of beef fattening systems, the researchers were able to calculate the total environmental load of a portion of beef.

Their analysis showed that producing a kilogram of beef leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide. It also releases fertilising compounds equivalent to 340 grams of sulphur dioxide and 59 grams of phosphate, and consumes 169 megajoules of energy (Animal Science Journal, DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-0929.2007.00457.x).)

苏打绿 comming to town!

Initially I didn't quite like their songs....but after listening to them a couple of times more I am beginning to like their music more.....



They'll be coming to Singapore for their concert on 2nd Aug......anyone wanna go?

SATC - Sex and The City Movie

Just back from catching the long awaited SATC - Sex and The City Movie.

Ok if you have watched it too, good for u. If you have not, I won't spoil it for you by telling you that eventually Carrie will.....................just kidding.

I went for the extended version......the 175 mins - 30 mins was more of like "The making of....SATC" rather than a recap of what had happened, then 145 mins for the movie itself. Must alert those going for this 175 mins version that it actually starts with the 30mins - Intro-plus-making-of before the commercials come on. So you should be seated in the theatre on time so you wont' miss it as I think it does starts punctually. When the adverts come on, then you can go to the restroom if you need to cos there' really lotsa lotsa lotsa adverts....till the point I feel like shouting 'Enuff with the adverts already....."

Quite a few emotions hit me whilst watching the movie..........The actresses are great, the scripts pretty well written and I do hear a few sniffles throughout the movie. A friend whom I dragged to watch it (as he originally wanted to watch Narnia) also enjoyed the moive.