london's-a-calling.

the coast of eastern UK, dotted with sheep
somewhere between london and edinburgh
may 2008

i'm counting down to the day i leave for london. 14 days. after much research and many changes, finally decided on a side trip to lake district, which apparently has been called england's answer to the swiss alps.

it seems so long ago that i was on my grad trip around western europe. a trip that i've learnt so much and saw so much. i want to do trips like that every year. :)

today i played the guitar again, after many years of not touching it. and my wrist and fingers hurt. heh. :) but good to play and sing to songs.

tomorrow i'm going to attempt to bake successfully the new york cheesecake, after my first attempt of lemon cheesecake.

days like these just don't come anymore.

baking warms the heart.

just one more day. of presenting my poster and FYP to professors and curious people who wonder if zebrafish really have stripes and are amazed that "excited" male and female fish chase one another in the tank, playing the mating game. while i watch nonchalantly for awhile before heading back into the injection room to inject nanodrops of liquid into freshly laid embryos.

well. these days i'm really quite free. so is my sister. hence that contributed to lots of baking.

the first of the lot: first trys french meringue cookies and snickerdoodles (a cookie-like thing covered with granulated sugar and cinammon powder, like churros!). well i managed to save the cookies and they turned out quite well! hence i'm quite proud of myself 'cos meringue stuff are infamously difficult. the snickerdoodles, hmmm, can be improved. hor, justina. (:

the 2nd time, the day after: a sunday afternoon. as if it wasn't warm enough, i was so bored before evening worship service, i decided to bake foolproof-sure-delicious, old-school chocolate chip cookies. true enough, they were just a tad sweet. but still good.

the 3rd time: my 2 sisters and i attempted a bread recipe found in the newspapers. using beer instead of water. beer-battered bread with gruyere cheese, ham and corriander. a very full meal by itself, and not too bad, if you're a fan of cheese.

beer-battered bread with gruyere cheese, ham and corriander

the 4th time: a team of 5 of us. my 2nd zeh, justina, jermaine and hongwee took an afternoon to bake 3 things. quite an achievement i'd say. we baked 2 big loaves of tomato-topped foccacia bread, peanut butter oatmeal bars and chocolate kisses and pecan cookies. they were all good! 'cept for the bread, the other 2 were first-trys too.

zeh's heart-shaped foccacia dough, after a good 15minutes of kneading.

tomato- and mozzerella-topped foccacia bread.

cookies with white-dark chocolate kisses, oatmeal and pecans

forgot to take photo of the peanut butter oatmeal bars. which were really lovely.

well i love baking. (:

speaking of food. on a lazy sunday morning my 2 zehs and i headed to a flea market at dempsey. after buying too many vintage pieces, we headed to jones the grocer for some lunch/tea. in the end, we had breakfast. hur.

smoked salmon with watercress on a toasted bagel.

english breakfast with gourmet sausages, the best scrambled eggs i've ever eaten, grilled tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms and toast.

the best tiramisu i've ever eaten in a long time.

other than that: i'm really glad new episodes of brothers&sisters, lost and grey's anatomy are back, and better than ever. (: the writers' magic pens are back and the episodes are so good. so is american idol. lots of drama, emotional moments, ditzy paula and great talent in the form of david cook!

the screening of the FYPs from NTU's mass comm students was not bad. i honestly expected to be wow-ed. i think so did the people who went with me. and we were kinda wowed by a couple of works. while others fell flat on themselves. hmmm. guess i have high expectations.

well one of them was quite memorable. well not its technicalities of cinematography or production, but its story, which is very heartwarming at its core. coupled with the recent deaths of huiyi and another church member, plus praying for those battling sickness and cancer in church, it was a stark visual reminder of our own morality. and how people need the Lord so much more when faced with difficulties. in the film, i saw how cancer literally ate away a body and its spirit. and how there was this why-me?, followed by a dejected sense of surrendering to fate. and i know a faith in the Lord prepares us for such circumstances. to be strong and to submit to the will of the Lord (the lesson at ypg just yesterday!). and even when faced with death, there is peace, hope, and an eternal life with the Lord in Heaven. (:

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."
- 1 peter 5:6-7

the leap between time and space.

happy 29th feb. (:

today over lunch, joyce and i were just talking about those days. days of faded polka dotted skirts and lugging our heavy bags to tuition at mr. lim's. over prawn mee in ulusville, which took a treacherous hike at the back of biopolis and crossing the train tracks, making sure you look both ways before stepping on the tracks. what a mid-day adventure.

so 8 years ago this day, i was 15. probably had a long day at school. sec 3, can you imagine. and i'm glad to have my crazy bunch of secondary school friends. we have weathered much turmoil and individual epiphanies while growing up and yet still managed to stay friends and meet up often.

4 years ago i also had a day in school, relief teaching at my alma mater primary school. hmmm that's not very exciting, but thinking about these 2 days made me thinking a lot about time. considering teaching is on my career list for the next 4 years.

time is constant, but am i the only one who thinks that the idea of combining the 0.25 days in a year to one day once every 4 years is a little warped? who decided that such a thing can be done?

but through the years, i've learnt that time is not a fixed construct. i remember someone writing to me about this very subject. that the most joyous of times pass us by as a fleeting moment, never allowing us to savor the minute for a longer time. and the most painful of times seem to drag on, as if time is mocking us.

~

by the way, the idea that it's march already is starting to scare me. where did jan and feb go?

FYP is going into overdrive. results means clearing it with boss, and discussions with boss means he'll suggest more ways to make the results more beautiful and credible and publication-standard. more ways means more experiments, means more work for me, means more things will go into the thesis, means more writing and editing x1000, means everyday i'm swamped at work.

oh shoot. i just left my fishes in the incubator. and its the weekend. by monday they'll be 5 days old. argh.

~

we bid farewell to mingfei, the last of bethanyians to leave for further studies. he's off to sydney, which is a city that i like very much. if only they were less racist i'd like it much more.

mingfei, it's my prayer that you'd discover what God has in store for you and that you'd continue to walk faithfully with Him and keep learning and seek to be a testimony to others around you in sydney. i look forward to you being back! (:

~

the obama campaign is invading my email inbox with dozens of campaign stuff. i was wondering where in the world did they get my email add, then i remembered i signed up at his website when i took the political science class at UW, after my prof cited his campaign as an example of the idea of ownership and personalization in marketing and advertising, which is seen in all kinds, including political marketing.

well the latest slew of emails stated that the campaign has reached its goal of 1 million donors before the march 4th ohio, texas primaries. it's amazing that 1 million people donated to his campaign. i wonder if that includes me, since i'm the proud owner of...

in which proceeds goes to his campaign. (: haha yes. i'm all for change in america.

thank you alvin, for braving the seattle rally of epic proportions to snag me obama stuff. (:

~

had dinner at shoduko (i think that's how you spell it) with my 2nd sis and justina. before that justina and i wandered around kate spade and coach. ahhhh.

then we queued up for like 20 minutes before getting a table. the food's not bad. i love japanese food so all's good for me.

we ate SO much, complete with sake. cheers.

then we still proceeded to canele for dessert and we met yuan li! who works there. i love the desserts.

p.s. i love love love my N95 5mp camera. kudos to good lighting and macro mode. on my phone camera! can you imagine.

black forest - crepes with dark chocolatey ice cream and alcohol-soaked cherries. with vanilla whipped cream, dark chocolate pieces and dusted with white icing.

the winner - rose petal ice cream with strawberry swirls, lychee bits and rose meringue sticks. dusted with white icing.

yummm. good food plus crazy dinner companions = i'm a happy girl.

eat.

i literally spent my weekend eating. starting from thursday.

i met up with teacher aileen, join, sisi and louisa at ikea alexandra for our usual swedish meatballs food outing. it started a year ago with my then-ypg2 discussion group. the missing people are jaymie who had driving, and aldine who is in perth. we had a great time of fellowship over a huge dinner and it was jolin's starting-work-treat. =)

on friday night after class, i had an even HUGER dinner with shannie, louisa and melody at the famous ang mo kio crab bee hoon place. called mellben. the 4 ladies managed to wipe out 1 medium crab in the crab bee hoon claypot thing and 2 small crabs (butter crab and chilli crab), 1 plate of sambal kangkong and fried man tou. the food was SO good. although the price is steep and the queue is horrendously long, it is worth it. those who need the address and telephone no. (to call ahead and reserve) let me know. this is HIGHLY recommended.

on saturday night after ypg3, we had a successful surprise birthday party for mike at his own house. it was a night of good food and great company. i had nice people to make my poh piahs for me, like melody and marianne. thank you my dears.

on sunday night, i had dinner with some of my extended family at this coffee shop zi char place in toa payoh. very very good and affordable food! we had a 10-course meal comprising crabs (again) chicken scallops tofu vegetables sea cucumbers etc.

i'm a happy girl. (:

but the thing that makes me most happy is singing for the Lord. at teens worship on sunday, youth II choir presented the song "before the throne of God above" and it was really well done. from what i hear. it is a very meaningful song and that really helps with memorising and really singing the song from your heart. i'm always happy after an item. it makes me glad.

the week-long break is here. and i just spent the first day of it watching dvds and playing wii till my right hand is a little achy. haha. and i gave up on trying "the legend of zelda" due to the complicated instructions on how to use to wii remote to play it. i shall figure out slowly. soon. this will be my last break before going supposedly full-steam with exam prep. my last exams as an undergrad!! so exciting.

those things aside, i spend my days thinking about lots of things. and when i do that before i fall asleep, i have trouble falling asleep. (duh.) so many things have happened in the past month and i always wonder what lessons can God be trying to teach me through all these painful trials and tribulations. and things have been happening to people around me too. and sometimes it does scare me. and it is always a challenge to always remind myself to ask, "what would Jesus do?"

at the end of the month, i really hope that all these bad things will stop coming towards me now. i need some sanity in my life.