There will always be a first time

Yesterday I did a very brave thing. I walked into Strip and booked myself an appointment to do a bikini wax for this evening. I was too chicken to ask if they had an available appointment right away, and decided to save the pain for a later time (must have more time to mentally prepare myself).

The reason for this feat of bravery is 'cos I am a vainpot and want to look goods in my new bikini. Am going to KL tomorrow and then Langkawi on Fri for a long-awaited beach holiday. Whee.

But right now, I'm very scared leh.

Do the Shuffle!

Can you tell it's a slow day at the office? Robot Johnny has a fun music shuffle game to play with your mp3 player and being the sheep that I am, I decided to follow too. So fun!

1. Saturday’s Alright (for Fighting), Nickelback, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle OST
2. Save Tonight, Eagle Eye Cherry, Save Tonight
3. Piano Concerto #4 in G Minor, II Largo, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Rachmaninov
4. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Barry Adamson, Oedipus Schmoedipus
5. Stellar (Acoustic), Incubus, Drive
6. Lisa Listen, Lisa Loeb, Tails
7. Throw Your Hands Up, Yoko Blaqustone, Back to My Base
8. It’s Business As Usual, Barry Adamson, Oedipus Shmoedipus
9. Murmullo, Buena Vista Social Club, Buena Vista Social Club
10. The Yellow River (Piano Concerto) Prelude, Daniel Epstein, Yin Cheng Zong
11. Sinnerman, Nina Simone, Verve Unmixed 2
12. La Bayamesa, Buena Vista Social Club, Buena Vista Social Club
13. You Are The Universe, The Brand New Heavies, Trunk Funk: The Best of The Brand New Heavies
14. I’m Not Alone, Crystal Kay, Natural
15. Lo Dudo, Pepe & the Bottle Blonds, Latenight Betty

Aww I'm kinda bummed nothing embarrassing came out of this shuffle. Maybe next time, hehe.

My homegirls from the '80s

Man I was such a girly girl...oh wait, I still am.

Spring will spring

I was feeling a little down this morning, what with the sniffy nose, freezing office, and thinking about why I'm not getting any callbacks for job interviews. It's funny how your job ties in so closely with your self-esteem and feeling of worth as a human being. The rational side of me says my job doesn't define me, but then sometimes the heart will whisper that there must be something lacking if I can't even get a new job.

But there's always online shopping to cheer me up; there's nothing that looking at pictures of pretty shoes and bags can't fix. I forgot to bring my camera into the office, so in lieu of a picture of my shoo, I give you a picture of a very pretty 'spring-ey' pair of shoos from the brand Irregular Choice (link provided by the delightful Miss D). And oh, what the hell, here's a pretty picture of a Marc Jacobs baggie as well. Mmm. I feel betters already.

What's cooking?

This is what happens when the buying bug and the cooking bug hits you. These are the titles I want to get the moment Kinokuniya has one of those 20% storewide sales. Dessert, anyone?

Already on my bookshelf:
The Naked Chef, The Return of the Naked Chef, Marie Claire Dining, The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook, The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook Vol 2

ShooStories: White out

#26

The Shoo: Napa White
Circa: mid 2004
Where: On Pedder, Ngee Ann City

The Story: I realise I don't own many pairs of expensive shoos, because I don't take good care of my shoos. I'm not the type to wipe them or clean them after each wear. My idea of care is to toss them onto my shoo shelf to "air" them for a day or two (or three) before I put them back in their box. So really, it's probably just as well I don't spend pots of money on Bruno Maglis or Ferragamos or Kate Spades.

But all the same, my favouritest shoo shop is On Pedder at Ngee Ann City. Such sleek, delicate and beautiful shoos they always have, and it's so fun to try them on for fun and pretend I am tai-tai on her way to tea. But the best times to buy from there are during their big sales. Every so often, they have a clearance sale to get rid of the old season shoos, and that's where I swoop in. This pair was a bargain buy from the store, and I was just happening to be searching for a white pair of shoos. I was so pleased with this pair I wore them the next day to dinner with my father. I remember we went to B.R.O.T.H. at Duxton Hill and I was very gingerly walking on the cobblestones to avoid getting them dirty. Dinner was delicious though.

You can tell this shoo has had some wear, by all the bumps and lumps made by my fat feet. Oh well. I did say I don't take very good care of my shoos.

-- View the full ShooStories photoset on Flickr.

Blog block...

...is a case of what I have right now. I'm not really in the habit to blog about blogging (that's just toooo much navel-gazing), so I shan't begin now.

But otherwise, this is a poor excuse to say that I have found my camera battery, after much whining and sulking. I discovered it nestled among other cables behind the PC. How did it get here? I crowed with triumph and quickly kept the charger in its proper place. Tonight, there shall be a camera-charging, and tomorrow, ShooStories will resume! Hurrah!

To: Melissa

The Grammy Race
Originally uploaded by JellyGirl.

Hi Melissa,

I found the alert on my email telling me you left a comment on my blog somewhere, but I can't seem to find it, so I decided to post my reply on my main blog.

Thanks for visiting! I'm so glad you like my illustrations, but I have to say I'm not a professional illustrator, so I don't have a website that shows more of my work (the best I can offer is my flickr set). I do the odd illustration here and there, but more for fun as I have a full-time job doing something completely different. The last one I did was for an entertainment magazine in Singapore and it was for a music article they were featuring on the Grammys (shown above). But I do enjoy illustrating and would really appreciate the oppportunity to do more! Let me know how else I can help you, I'm sure we can work something out! My email address is on the sidebar on the right.

Diary of a trifle

Strawberries!
Originally uploaded by JellyGirl.

I managed to take this one picture with my camera before the battery went complete flat. Unfortunately I was not able to take anymore of the trifle, because it turned out really well. Layers of pink at the bottom, orange, red and white for the middle fruit layer, and yellow for the custard, topped up with white pure cream and red strawberries. Yum.

So here's how I did it:

1. Find massive huge bowl that would hold trifle large enough for 20 people. I didn't have a big glass bowl, so I used a corningware bowl.
2. Layer the bottom with sponge lady fingers. I did two layers since it was such a deep dish.
3. Prepare raspberry jelly as instructed on the packet. I added less water to make the jelly thicker and sweeter. Poured jelly mixture over the sponge fingers until they were immersed. It took me 3 jelly packets for that.
(Here's something I forgot to do: drizzle sherry over everything for an extra kick)
4. Let the jelly and sponge fingers set for about half hour in the freezer.
5. Slice up the strawberries, and sprinkle some sugar on them to sweeten.
6. Layer canned mandarin oranges, lychees and sliced peaches and the fresh strawberries above the jelly and sponge fingers. Freeze overnight.
7. Prepared about three servings of custard. Used Bird's custard powder and banana milk, regular milk and some sugar. (The banana milk was a mistake buy but it turned out good)
8. Spread custard above fruit layer and freeze again. (And here I made another mistake of freezing it overnight. Of course the custard turned out rock solid. In future, I'll make the custard just hours before serving and let it chill in the freezer for about an hour)
9. Day of serving, added the cream on top of the custard. I used a mixture of whipping cream (which I hand whipped) and since I was lazy,Pure Cream. Added some sugar to sweeten the cream, and for the piece de resistance, scattered more sliced strawberries on top.
10. Thawed entire trifle for about 4 hours before serving.

All in all, although I made some mistakes, everything turned out well, including the frozen custard. Looks like I'll be making this again, but I think I'll change a couple of things the next time round.

No eye for my shoos

Arrgh I can't find the battery charger to my digital camera, and it's rilly, rilly low on battery now. So I have been unable to take any pictures. Not of my lovely trifle, and not of my shoos. No ShooStories until I find that darn charger. It MUST be somewhere around!

Monsters, Inc

charmed, I'm sure

As if I didn't have enough phone danglies charms already, but these cute monster phone danglies sure make me want to whip out the credit card and do some buying! Limited to only 200 pieces per character!

Update (4.30 pm): OK I went and did it. I bought the little green and blue monster. Can't wait for them to arrive!

-- Link via Shiny Shiny and Little Yellow Different

Old fruit, it's a mere trifle

From Joyofbaking

It's my turn to provide dessert for our weekly bible study group. In the past, I've been buying cakes from Awfully Chocolate and Blood Brothers cafe, or going to Cold Storage and relying on good old Sara Lee, but this time I've decided to do something different.

I've always been a bit ga-ga over the concept of English tea- scones and piping hot tea, crumpets, cucumber sandwiches, blancmange, jelly pudding and the like. When I was a kid, my favourite pastime was to imagine myself in Enid Blyton books. I really envied those goody-goody kids from The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair having fantastic adventures and then going home for tea, (When you're Engligh, you never miss tea-time) or if it wasn't possible to be home for tea, then to pack a picnic basket (along with the checked tablecloth) filled with goodies. Yum.

So my dessert of choice? Trifle. Layers of sponge fingers, jelly, a dash of sherry, lots of fruit, and fresh cream. What's not to like? My aunt recently reawakened my liking of trifle when she made it as dessert during one of our family dinners. And it's so easy to make. I can't wait to start tonight. The recipe I found here sounds yummy, and I love the idea of making the trifle in little glasses, but I've decided to make my own version, with strawberries, mandarin oranges, lychees and peaches in a big bowl. Hope it turns out good.

Remember the time

I can't get down to work just yet, so I shall do this fun little meme, which came from Li-er:

How old were you when you...

1) Took your very first baby step? Err you'll have to ask my mammy that question. I have absolutely no idea.

2) Had your bicycle license? You mean you need a license to ride a bicycle? Anyway, as some of you might know from previous memes, I can't ride a bicycle. *hangs head down in shame*

3) Were told you needed spectacles? Oh gosh I was one of those sad ones who wore glasses when I was really young. That's what sitting close to the TV will do to ya. There's a kindy picture of me in giant specs...so that would peg me at about 4?

4) Had chicken pox? Not had it..yet! And I hope never to have it. I'm actually hoping I'm one of those lucky few immune to it, as my sister got chicken pox but I never caught it from her

5) Had your first part-time job? When I was 16 and waiting to go into poly, I had 3 spare months, so my uncle got me a job in his office helping out with the company's card club. I had originally wanted to scoop ice-cream at Haagen-Daz, but my mother thwarted those grand plans of ice-cream domination. Hmmph. I'm still sore about that.

6) Fell in love for the first time? I've had crushes, but true love like in The Princess Bride? I'm still waiting.

7) Got your first full-time job? When I came back from Oz in Nov 2001. I'm still at that job.

8) Had your driving license? Got my license in Oz in 1999 at 20 because I heard it was easier to pass there. It still took me 4 tries to get my license. Once again, I *hang my head in shame*, but I drive real good now!

9) Had your funky pager? Final year in poly when I was 18 when I needed a device so interviewees could get a hold of me while I was in class. My dark blue Motorola pager, oh how I remembered all those clever codes my friends and I came up with to show that we were calling each other.

10) Had your cool mobile phone? I shared my first mobile phone with my housemate in 1998 when I was 18, because we needed a device so interviewees could get a hold of us and pagers just weren't done in Oz. It was a cool black Hagenuk which was constantly mistaken for the TV remote. I've since gone through two Nokias and now have the silver Motorola Razr. Ooh sexy.

11) Finish your tertiary studies? At 22, le sigh. I miss my student days.

Musing aloud

Dating really is a game of push and pull, isn't it? And I have realised I am completely hopeless at the game of sms. Since when was sms such an important part of flirting? I've been out of it for too long...

More Spring 2006

Fashun I dig from Spring 2006

Please to visit Style.com for more the full collections.

ShooStories: Golden steps

#25 *Fresh!*

The Shoo: Golden Step
Circa: Sept 2005
Where: Yue Hwa department store

The Story: You've got to love Chinatown. It's a mix of old and new, and even though a lot of its original charm has all but disappeared, what with the new malls, the refurbished shophouses and the spanking new MRT station, I still like walking around there and discovering the little shops. There are still the little old mom-and-pop shops if you look carefully, and the things to buy are different from what you get in town. Like these carpet-like slippers I found at Yue Hwa. I know they look like something I already have, but I couldn't resist those pretty flowers at $11. When I wore them to dinner last Thurs, my friend looked them and said, "Hmm they look like the slippers my grandma used to wear." She probably did, but it's perfect for the boho chick in me. And lastly, look at the label name - Golden Step, you can't go more Chinese than that.

Bonus!

Silver sequinned flowers

-- View the full ShooStories photoset on Flickr.

Jalan jalan

It was not the best of mornings to go out for a walk, even if it was a casual walk, as my cousin insisted. First, I had stayed out late the previous night and second, what does one wear to a casual walk? One needs good shoes that are suitable for walking, and at the same time, does not make you look like cankle. Also, how short should the shorts be? I ended up wearing a white tank (not too tight to hide my tummy), and knee-length Nike shorts/berms, my Gola shoes and a black bandana (all the better to hold my hair together, dear).

I have to give my cousin credit for all her cunning arranging. As we met at a house beforehand to discuss the projected walk, we decided to head to McRitchie for our walk. As I had to leave earlier, I decided I would drive as well, so I could turn back anytime I liked. My cousin immediately bundled everyone else into the second car, and directed her target (let's call him Mr A) to sit in my car so he could "show me the way". It was all done very quickly and smoothly and before I knew it, we were on our way.

We had pleasant conversation in the car, and I learnt about what he does (no details here, the Internet has a nasty habit of biting back) and that sort of thing. Once we got there, we ended up walking in pairs, since the paths were quite narrow. He walked with me (I'm sure my cousin had some hand in this too) and we talked about movies and music. It was all very pleasant chat and there wasn't any lag in the conversation. We walked all the way to the Lornie Rd SICC golf course and headed back to the carpark, as I had to leave soon. We were a little ahead so we stood around and talked somemore as we waited for my cousin and her friends to catch up. He then casually asked when I got off work, and suggested meeting up sometime soon to hang out, then gave me his number (as his phone was in the car). heh.

And there you go. We have since smsed each other a bit, and a tentative plan has been made to go out again soon, but that's another story for another time.

PS I hope he doesn't read blogs.

I want, I want

Where can I get a pair of shoos like these from Chinese Laundry?

Monster weekend

It's been a long time since I've gone out so much in one week. I've been out non-stop for 4 nights staight, starting from Thurs night, and it's all because my friend from Oz was in town to attend his brother's wedding. Of course I'm super happy to have been able to hang out with him all weekend, but boy am I so pooped today. I'm still really busy this week as well, and it looks like Thurs will be the only night I'm free to stay home to veg and recover. I can't do this go-out-everyday-thing anymore!

Recap:

• Thurs night at Wala, where we pigged out on chicken wings and fries. Another friend who was visting from Shanghai also joined us and we compared horror stories of work. Our conversation sure has changed since uni days. Last time we whinged about projects, now we whinge about work. Ok maybe things haven't changed that much.
• I took a half day to hang with D, so we walked around town and I ran a couple of errands. Went to Balaclava at night to let him listen to the live band (and can I say what a meat market that place is!), but because it was sooo packed, we ended up at Blue Bar at Central Mall where a friend has started singing. We ended up staying until closing time and I got home at about 3.45am after dropping everyone off. It was a night of lots of good music, wine and lychee martinis. Nice. Oh ya, and as a sidenote, Blue Bar is filled with dirty old men!
• First sms the moment I woke up on Sat morning was D. telling me to get up and join him for lunch. We went to Queensway Shopping Centre and Funan where he and his brother and sister looked for phones. I left them to go for church, and met up with D again later in the evening for more drinkies at Wine Network at Dempsey Rd. I really like that place, it's in a quiet location, really chilled out and casual and best of all, lots of affordable wines. We shared two bottles of a nice dessert wine from South Africa, the name of which eludes me. We were joined by more friends, and headed back to Blue Bar again. This time, the place was dead. I stayed for only one drink and headed home at 2.30am.
• Got up early Sunday morning to go for the 'date'-walk planned by my cousin. Perhaps I shall mention it in more detail in another post. :) All I'll say for now is that it turned out really well. I had lunch/tea after that with a couple of girlfriends as a 'strategy' meeting for one of their upcoming weddings, and after that tea, whisked off home to prepare for a wedding dinner. It finished fairly early, but I had one last drink at the Hyatt bar (very seedy) with D and his cousins straight after the wedding before heading home.

And here we are at Monday morning. The week has barely started and I'm already exhausted. Don't even get me started on what I've got on this week...