Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tis Hard to Leave


Hola from Seattle! It has been a long week, from when I arrived in San Francisco 9 days ago up till now. I really needed a holiday, and I'm so glad I got one in the form of this West Coast roadtrip of sorts. Spent a couple of days in SFO, which is and always will be one of my favourite cities. Went for opening weekend at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, and I'm so glad we went! My crazy friend Nicky T, Vicky T, Tiffy L & Anty P drove all the way down from Seattle in a mad 14 hour drive, and the next day we headed out to Six Flags for some good ol rollercoaster fun. The rides were amaziiiingg, and the best part was that they had penguins and walruses and DOLPHINS. So adorable! The next day was touristy things like visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, Castro, Fishermen's Wharf and Haight-Ashbury. We also queued for an hour (like the real singaporeans we are) for brunch at Dottie's True Blue Cafe, which tbh wasn't as amazing as I expected, but still good, just not worth the wait. And of course took a drive through Sausalito! We also hired a pedal boat for an hour and floated (ok tiffy and vic pedaled) around this quaint lake in the Golden Gate Park. Shopped for random stuff at the amazing Wasteland on Haight, where I saw amazzziiing A.Wang boots for $200, too bad they weren't my size. I've always loved San Francisco, the hilly terrain, the beautiful bridges and parks, the bay and its sea lions, and as Rudyard Kipling wisely said, San Francisco has only one drawback-- Tis hard to leave.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Celebrations

Some photos from recent happy times! It is a rare thing indeed for me to bring out my camera nowadays, just cos the size isn't as convenient as a compact point and shoot, but when I do I always bring it out for special events. What else is better to capture in a still than an occasion worth celebrating? Snapshots below from Min's very belated birthday dinner at Open Door Policy, Nuffnang's 5th birthday bash in Singapore and the most recent, Tze's 24th birthday dinner at Salut. Sometimes life is really all about the celebrations. 


xx


Monday, March 12, 2012

Honey Honey


So... I've been nursing a mild addiction to the new Wild Honey branch at Scott's Square. Besides having both an Hermes shop and an amazeballs-hugeass-wellstocked On Pedder, Scott's Square is in a much quieter (everything is relative) area of Orchard Road. I have never been to the Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery, but why should I when the one at Scott's Square is tres gorgeous, plus much better located, being out of the CBD zone and everything. A couple of weeks ago I headed there for tea with Yingjing, and I fell in love mostly with the furniture. Everything is beautifully upholstered, plus the natural lighting from the floor to ceiling windows at the end of the restaurant is so inviting. Just yesterday I had tea here with Jamie (finally!), and the time flew by so quickly we didn't even realize. We shared the Persian All Day Breakfast, which despite looking absolutely appetizing was mediocre in our opinion, but good ambience and amazing company more than made up for it. I only wish the food were more delicious and appealing to me, so I have a legit reason to hang out here more! After sitting in their outdoor terrace for a couple of hours we decided to spontaneously have a haircut together! Headed down to Next at Ion and now we both have fresh looks heheh. Also, I am now rocking some rad nail wraps. Tricky to apply (I'll get better, I swear), but am totally in love with the sheen of these molten gold babies. 

Saturday, March 10, 2012

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Sorbet

Last week was a pretty stressful week for me, to be honest. Worried about life, work, and even about the upcoming vacation, weirdly. I didn't really plan much on the weekend, so I was left to mope about the house. Imagine how thankful I was when Yvr texted me "Wanna make icecream today?!" (or something like that), and I spent my sunday afternoon at her home getting bitten alive by mozzies while attempting to make icecream. Our first attempt at using her sister's icecream machine was on Valentine's, when I cooked dinner. She lugged it over to my place, and we spent a total of two tedious hours making the custard and hoping for the best outcome of Vanilla Icecream, even though she bought pure cream instead of the required heavy cream. My friend, the domestic goddess. It ended up being a gooey lunk of grossness, and after a mouthful, tossed it straight into the bin.


This time around, we settled for something much less complicated-- Lemon Sorbet!! I googled for lemon sorbet, and decided upon this recipe, which only calls for sugar, carbonated water, water, and lemons. Lots of others ask for egg white as well, as an emulsifier, but I turn queasy at the thought of putting a raw egg white into something I wasn't going to heat up. The steps were super simple, and after popping it into the icecream machine, we sat around for about an hour, playing draw something with each other (me on my ipad and she on her galaxy), and worriedly checked on the churning mass of ice every 10 minutes. When it came out it was kinda like an icy, or a slurpee, and we panicked and ate half of it because we thought it would melt into a lemon syrup. Then yvr's sister comes along and says in a deadpan voice "you are supposed to freeze it after you take it out of the machine..." OH. We totally knew that. Reading the icecream machine instructions the next time.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Rachael Yamagata At The Esplanade

I've been waiting for videos that I was sure other people took of the concert, just cos I was a cheapo and bought the seats that were higher up hehe (and therefore could see all the diehard fans who splurged on expensive tickets to sit in the good seats and spent the whole concert recording all her songs). Finally found a great quality video (kudos to you, vivthegreat!) It was a truly beautiful recital, and I am fresh from catching Death Cab for Cutie yesterday at Fort Canning, and therefore can safely say that Rachael is a great performer. This video is great cos her voice cracks (she was apparently down with a cough) but she shrugged it off with such finesse and grace no one could hold it against her. Then she asked her bassist to sing the high notes for her while she harmonized. Amazing, amazing, amazing. That night I became my 15 year old self, singing her songs with all the lovelorn angst only a 15 year old can have. 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Roadtrip Dreaming

In less than two weeks I'm off to the USA for a much needed holiday, and I couldn't be more excited. Gonna head to San Francisco, LA and then back to Seattle where I spent a lovely 6 months on exchange. It'll be good to hang out with my Singaporean kids who are now sophomores and juniors, and also my housemates, eat all the food I miss like gyros and my cupcakes and cheesecakes hehehe! I'm even more excited cos when I am there Nicky T. and Colin K. have cars and can drive us everywhere. We used to get around by bus and on foot, and it limited us so much. Now we'll be able to drive around and truly explore! I'm totally inspired by this guy's amazing photography and quotes, and it's making me super excitedddd! Yay! Can't wait to get out of this city. I love you Singapore, and I will forever, but after awhile you always bring me down.