Green Tea-ramisu

3 Aug Babies + 1 Sep Baby.

Calls for a celebration and as such I made Green Tea-ramisu for them.

Looks like a small catus plant right? I think it would look more so had I remembered to bring the Mocha powder there and sprinker some on top of the cream/mascarpone cheese.

Happened to see the Alphabet Candles that formed HAPPY BIRTHDAY at Chatuchak weekend market and so decided to buy and use it. To my surprise, they were lightly scented too.

Am very glad that the birthday gals and guys love what I've done and hope the taste is as good too.

My Love Will Get U Home

Such a soothing and lovely song.....




If you wander off too far, my love will get you home.
If you follow the wrong star, my love will get you home.
If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me, my love will get you home,
boy, my love will get you home.

If the bright lights blind your eyes, my love will get you home.
If your troubles break your stride, my love will get you home.
If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me, my love will get you home,
boy, my love will get you home.

If you ever feel ashamed, my love will get you home.
When there's only you to blame, my love will get you home.
If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me, my love will get you home,
boy, my love will get you home.

If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me, my love will get you home,
boy, my love will get you home.
boy, my love will get you home.

This is the 2nd time that I've stayed at Citadines Apart'Hotel Sukhumvit 16 and I'm still in love with this place.

It's furnished with microwave oven, toaster, electric kettle, stove, iron and board, mini fridge with ice-cube tray, LCD TV and DVD player.

It's 5 mins walk away from Asok BTS skytrain station which is the interchange with the Sukhumvit MRT station.

At Central World, whilst shopping, I happened to find this quaint little Thai food restaurant -named Kum Poon - that serves pretty authentic thai dishes.

At first I was hesitant and the wooden cardboard menu is in Thai but was relieved that they do have their menu in English. Love their papaya salad, pad thai and fried rice. Also love their earthen clay brown plates which they serves with a banana leaf.

Not in the pictures but their Tom Yam is yummy and loaded with many ingredients. It's also served in a earthern clay bowl which seats on a candle holder that maintains the temperature of the soup.



Giant Salmon Sushi!
One of the few sculptures of the 'balloon' poodles.

I was lucky to chanced upon this simple yet nice restaurant in Ari area .....this crabmeat fried rice is only 40 baht....same price as a cup of iced coffee I had there. Notice the curled up spring onion.....The thing about Thai iced coffee is that at every nook and corner, be it in a restaurant or push carts or 7-Eleven, it's equally addictively a must have drink!

Next to the Citadines is this pretty clean and new cafe - converted from a 2 storey tall bungalow.

They also have outdoor tables next to their garden.

I had Breakfast combo set B - Waffles, ham, sausage, bacon, fried egg and a cup of coffee - 95 baht.

Re-kindred Passion for BKK-0808

A Mid Summer's Night Cruise

The next day we set sail on board Super Star Virgo from Hong Kong to Xiamen.

The departure was in the evening.....and one of the night's entertainment was a performance by this team of syncronised swimmers from Russia.

Mid Summer's Night Dream - Visit to Tian Tan Buddha

1st time (3) visiting the Tian Tan Buddha in Lantau Island.......the world's largest outdoor bronze Buddha.

Took the HK MTR to Tung Chung station to take the cable car (also first time (4) taking this cable car).

The ride was very scenic and well a little scary at times........it was said that each cable car could hold up to 17 persons......but I just can't imagine that happening and wouldn't ever want to be in that thing with more than 8 people.

Do check with the weather station/conditions as if there's strong winds or typhoon, they will shut down the rides for the day.

Up Up and away.....

At some point, you can see the HKIA Airport.......

The weather was perfect..........not foggy and could see the Buddha clearly.

Slowly we approach the Tian Tan Big Buddha...天坛大佛.

I've always wondered why we don't get to see the Buddha when our plane take off from the HKIAirport....and this trip while the plane took off I caught a glimpse of the Buddha statue again..... from far away.......but as we ascended pretty fast and so I could not take any picture.

My relative say we are quite lucky that day as it wasn't too foggy and can get to see the Buddha statue clearly. Was very happy that day as I've always wanted to come see the Great Buddha.

Think there was like about one hundred over steps to climb up......The scenery was worth every step......

Santa ~ LuCia - Venetian Macau - Gondola Ride

Not me onboard the gondola......but nice singing.....

A Mid Summer's Night Escapade

Just returned from a 1 week break - went to Macau - HK - Cruise to Xiamen and back to HK.

This trip brought back many memories, some pleasant, some not as pleasant. Still it was quite an enjoyable trip with many 1st times for me.

It's the (1) first time I took a flight out of our Changi Airport Terminal 3 (the return flight also landed on T3)

Also my (2) first visit to The Venetian - Macau.

The interior of which is very very beautiful and artistic. Makes one feel rich too.

My favourite photo

Heard that for next 2 months or so, just register a membership (FOC) with the Venetian and you can use the membership card to get a pair of Cotai Strip - ferry tickets to go to Hong Kong.

Of course no visit to Macau is complete without visiting the "Tai San Pa" - aka St Paul's Cathedral ruins.

However, it rained rather heavily the two days I spent at Macau......Did not really gamble - tho I did play the jackpot as I don't like the smoky environment of the casino. Still the casino in Venetian is so huge.....it's almost the size of 2 soccer field.

Bought some Macau tibits back for colleagues........not much shopping there....although there's still a Yaohan there, but I find Macau not not a good place to shop compared to Hongkong and the price in Macau is also more expensive.

At Senado Square in Macua, there was an exhibition of some miniatures of some of the sculptures relating to the Olympics.

林宥嘉 - 伯樂

林宥嘉 - 伯樂

愛你的那一個　傷你的那一個
誰才是你愛情中的伯樂
放棄了這一個　
然後等待著下一個
最後哪一個最讓你捨不得

感謝不能讓別人來說
你給過我的　他們是做不到的
那時候的幸福是真的
雖然過去了　我們也都經歷了

釋懷教育著仇恨　和平勸著天下人
故事發生了便住下了　不管好的壞的
你讓我成長了　就算是痛得值得

愛你的那一個　傷你的那一個
誰才是你愛情中的伯樂
放棄了這一個　然後等待著下一個
一個個過客過得快不快樂

愛你的那一個　傷你的那一個
誰才是你愛情中的伯樂
放棄了這一個　然後等待著下一個
別太多過客
祝你早日快樂

離開時別忘了　看看眼前的人
流淚記住了　還是微笑祝福著

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.