The Weekend Brigade

Weekend Woohoos:
Self-declared abstinence from anything excel related.
Finally got my Melissas in a proper pair and in the right size.
Dim Sum with the loved ones at Crystal Jade Golden Palace.
Caught Legion with the cousins.
Pre-CNY traditions:
Rolling cookiedough in cornflakes after dinner.


And so, I ended January with joy, food and love.
(Hopefully enough to fuel me through the predicted rough February)

Breathe. And all will be well.

Instant Gratification.

After dinner dessert on a stick.
Instant Gratification.

解药 [Antidote]

Selective escapism.
Solo driving around.
Brunch with S at Dempsey.
Greasy Bacon Strips with Fluffy Omelet.
Coffee at Palheta.
Chocolate Pancakes with the Sis.
Excel Reports.
Joy.

B.

I've been pretty tied up with my new found job (yes, my fairy jobmother finally paid a visit), and trying to make best friends with microsoft excel pivoting and whatnots. For a girl who has been using microsoft word all her life, this is a super duper uber steep learning curve and I'm proud to say that I can pivot like a pro now! woot!

So, with work being the new boyfriend, I have barely enough time to breathe. But still, we all need to eat. And one can really only take away excel woes with copious amounts of sugar, or in Saturday's case, treacle.

S took me to her latest find and we finally got both our brie fix. But what really caught my eye were the glazing sticky buns sitting right beside the cakes screaming 'Eat me now!'. And you can't say no to that, can you?

Oh and who can resist a smile when you chance upon sunshine cookies?

























B Bakery
15 Bussorah Street S(199436), Arab Street

of christmas and giving

A friend once told me that philanthropy was merely men's way of making themselves feel good about themselves. I guess different people have different feelings about volunteer work/philanthropy. Some associate it as a purely monetary contribution, while others pursue it as a lifelong commitment.

I've always had very conflicting views over these community involvement projects (CIP). Instead of donating (whatever coins I have in my pocket) weekly to the hoards of teenagers trying to fulfill their quota of CIP along our famous shopping street, I'd rather donate food, something more practical.

So, I spent the greater part of yesterday baking the light fruit cake + chocolate cookies (in gingerbread men cut outs) and driving me and Y down to our nearest hypermarket to stock up on Milo/Coffee/Soda Crackers for the old folks home. Yes, I drove on my own. But I made sure that the carpark was an open-aired one- just so I won't have to deal with the humiliation of cars honking at me while I make my 12948th attempt at reverse park.

Y has been involved with a project on community music, working with dementia patients for the past year. She kindly invited me to join her and professors yesterday as they carried out their 'Christmas Special'. Watching them conduct carolling, simple jigsaw puzzle playing - I doubt there was any other way I could have spent a better afternoon.

Oh and by the way- I gained a whole lot of encouraging fans! 'Ying ah, you should open a shop!' I'm just glad that we were able to make their day- my best Christmas present ever!

Can you smell the brandy?

Because I was terribly bored at home, and with the newly tightened braces really getting on my nerves, I decided to bake. A lot of people find me weird because seriously, who needs a precision, full on concentration hobby when you're simply just frustrated with your teeth (and yourself for wanting to have nice teeth. The price of vanity.) But yes, I bake to distract myself from pain and it has served me well.

Yea, my fruit cake doesn't have quite the dark glamour of the traditional ones, but I never really like cakes that colour. Christmas on our little island is far from the gloomy, cold, miserable dark at fourp.m. christmas-es experienced on the other side of the globe- so why bake the traditional heavy dense cakes that are usually doused so heavily with alcohol, you can't taste nothing.

Thank goodness we learnt how to bake the light fruitcake at school :). Although Chef C went a little crazy in administering Rum to the finish product, I kept my dousing well under control. And instead of Rum, I used Brandy instead- simply because Brandy has such a christmassy smell, non?

Still, you'd be surprise at how the brandy permeates the entire cake when it has been given its 48 hours of rest. Add a splosh of brandied butter and you've got yourself Christmas on a plate!

So I lived to see the Greek Sunset

The Greek trip I took this year was one helluva trip. From crashing ATVs to seeing riots+shouting+chaos unfold before my eyes - I think I left Greece shell-shocked and never really recovered from all that. Yes, the people were friendly, the islands were spectacular and the food was great. But, it has taken me 8 months worth of hindsight to see this.

























But I'm incredibly thankful that I lived to catch the gorgeous Greek Sunset at Oia and that the huge bruises peppering my limbs didn't require much medical attention save for an xray (that mysteriously disappeared).

I guess the best part of the trip was properly enjoying Greek cuisine. After all, it was here that I fell in love with Feta and Moussaka. It was also here in Greece that we got to climb the beautiful cobbled pathways in the freezing midnight spring wind (resolutely to the pub in the middle of the labyrinth). It was here that I finally got to see the sugarcube houses and blue-domed churches of Santorini. And it was here that I made one of the best decisions.

You've never really lived, till you have lived. Oui?