Friendship and love

I have also received gifts from S, sis (lovely ring and necklace she made) and friends, as well as souvenirs (cute lunch bag and cat calendar) from 2 friends from their recent Japan holiday and 2 cards. What is important to me is the friendship and love from these people as well as those friends who have been supportive with their words of concern and encouragement. thanks :)

Gifts, stickers and tapes

Besides the gifts from SP and FR, I also saved the stickers and tapes from their gift wrapper and pasted them onto my schedule cum diary. Pretty!

Gathering, kimchi and pizza

I decorated 6 of my cupcakes before joining the girls at SP's home yesterday afternoon. We wanted to swim initially but it started to drizzle and we had to run back to the house. After the exchange of gifts, and a board game, we made pizza and gingerbread cookies. FR also brought her yummy homemade kimchi. Great food and company!

Cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Today I tried 2 techniques in making and decorating cupcakes - using a recipe called 1234 cake (which uses 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs, etc) and making chocolate ganache to cover the top of the cupcakes. Cinnamon was curious as usual and watched me whisking the egg whites for a while. The cupcakes ended up looking quite decent and I had fun decorating a few for my family and S. Sis said it is possibly the yummiest thing I have ever made. I guess it's a compliment :)

Bob is super cute

whether he is sleeping or awake. Doesn't he look adorable as a pole dancer? Hee.

Christmas eve lunch at Kombi Rocks

After work yesterday, I brought Fion to Kombi Rocks for lunch and we drank honey green tea and lime juice while waiting for Chef S to cook for the other customers there before us. We chatted and admired the vintage items around the restaurant. The battered fish and chips and the seafood tomato spaghetti were enough to feed us. I like the fish done British style. Before we left, we asked S to help us take photos of us sitting in the vintage barber chairs :)

Early Christmas dinner with family

Sis and I combined forces on Sunday to cook dinner. Sis wanted to make fluffy omelette which ended up looking quite different. My dish was supposed to be angel hair pasta in my any-oh-how milk gravy with baked potato and lean bacon. The pasta soaked up all the gravy. Haha. Luckily the food was still edible and we finished everything :)

Baking cookies at night

Lately I have been browsing online recipes and a number have been bookmarked. One of them is these chocolate chunk cookies using bread flour and they are super chocolatey because of cocoa powder and 2 bars of chocolate. Last night, I decided to bake the cookies which turned out quite nice - they are soft rather than crispy and the chopped walnuts help to add some crunch.

Making spelt flour pancakes for breakfast

I was looking at online recipes using spelt flour in cakes, etc last night and saw a number for pancakes. I thought why not make some for my breakfast. This morning, after cleaning Angel's litter tray and replenishing the cats' food and water, I made a few pancakes and ate them with strawberry jam, maple syrup and some greens. Not bad for my first attempt but I think it will be too healthy for mom and sis, so I didn't let them try. I will try making pancakes again when I crave for them :)

The Hobbit and laksa dinner

Sis and I watched The Hobbit in 3D. I was very glad that I didn't feel nauseous like how I would in the Omnimax Theatre. The movie was enjoyable but we think the 3D makes some of the scenes look a bit fake. After the 3 hour long movie, we had dinner at Laksania at NEX. The food (Singapore laksa, laksa goreng), drinks (hot chocolate, lemongrass tea) and service were pretty good. I overdosed on prawns, as Sis only wanted to eat a few.

Lady grey and soba salad

Sis offered me some Lady Grey tea yesterday and I used a few tablespoons of it with the Japanese fish stock (dashi) for my soba salad. I couldn't detect the tea though, but my lunch was quite yummy.

Our "new" sewing machine

We sent our faulty machine for servicing a week ago and this afternoon we picked it up. I was happily mending the gaping holes of my pyjamas shorts when I reached home. We were told that we need to use our sewing machine every 2 weeks to keep it in working condition. I shall think of little projects or stuff to mend then :)

Prawn salad

I bought some veggies from the market which the seller said they are good for eyes and can be eaten raw. They taste like arugula/ rocket leaves. I stir fried some small prawns to go with the greens for lunch.

Cooking prata and baking brownies

I pan fried some frozen roti prata and added canned tuna and cherry tomatoes as fillings for today's lunch. Mom and I felt stuffed all the way till dinner. I spent part of the afternoon baking brownies which turned out quite nice but a bit too sweet. Sis had it with chocolate ice cream. decadent!

Everyday chocolate cake

I found a recipe on an eggless chocolate cake from a blog and tried making it today, since it's the last day of my 4-day leave and I must bake! :) surprisingly it is quite chocolatey with the cocoa powder and the chocolate chunks I added. I was a bit worried about the baking time as I can only never rely on the recipe baking time. Maybe it's the difference in humidity and climate. I baked this cake for 50 mins instead of the 30-35 mins. I think the next time I can go for 45 mins. Happy that sis said the cake is pretty good :)

Visit by Cousin N

This afternoon, Cousin N visited us to help us troubleshoot our PC which kept restarting. I thought it would be nice to cook soba soup lunch for him, sis and myself. The soba ended up a bit overcooked and there wasn't enough soup and N found his share include a small egg shell and a fish bone :P Luckily it was edible with all these boo-boos. Hee.

He met Bob who was shy and went hiding into my bedroom. Later, when Bob was back in the room, Cinnamon and Angel were wary but curious. Cinnamon didn't run and hide after a while. It was good catching up with N, who used to spend a lot of time with us in his primary school days.

Bob and S

For my past few short work trips, I have been troubling S to take care of Bob. He had to fence up his window, close his bedroom door to keep Bob in and bear with the mess whenever Bob peed and pooped. His cat and pug also couldn't sleep with him at night with Bob around. Even when sis was quite sick the past week, S agreed at the last minute to take Bob in. I brought Bob home on Thurs night when sis had recovered. I miss Bob's funny sit up position and hugging him. I am also glad to see that Bob and S like each other too :)

Lunch at Kombi Rocks

I was supposed to bring 2 good friends to have lunch at S' workplace, Kombi Rocks Diner, but fell sick. Today, I managed to go there with another good friend, R. So sweet of R to drive all the way from Choa Chu Kang and pick me up to go to Yio Chu Kang. We ordered the aglio olio with prawns and cheese steak, cooked by Chef S. Both were yummy! I asked for more veggies instead of potato wedges for the cheese steak, since my throat hasn't fully recovered from cough. Before we left the place, we asked S to take a photo of me and R sitting on the vintage barber chairs :)

Ice cream treat

Dad treated us to ice cream after our short walk. Greedy mom and I chose the big waffle cones for our ice cream :)

Playing with my Olympus camera at Punggol Promenade

It was quite hot when we reached Punggol Promenade before 11am this morning, but that didn't stop me and sis from snapping away with our cameras while mom and dad were armed with umbrellas :) The photos were taken with my Olympus E-PL1 with the normal 14-42mm lens as well as another Olympus OM macro (50mm, f3.5) lens and adapter.