Happy December!

Wow.. I can't believe that it's already December.. which means it almost marks 1 year anniversary after leaving the Bay Area! Anyway I just want to share some pictures that were taken last week on our friend's wedding in Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali. The wedding was very pretty with breathtaking ocean views with attention of details in everything including the wedding favor book that was written by both bride and groom. *speechless in awe* It was indeed a good reunion with our San Jose friends and it makes me miss Bay Area badly. The bride and groom also graciously provided 2 nights accommodation in the Villa, and I can't describe how amazing was the room & the service. There was a private swimming pool in each room, and with Bali's hot and humid weather, I would just plunge into the pool every time before taking shower. Favorite part was riding on the buggy from our room into the lobby as it was quite a distant walk. Ok, enough talking, please find our photos below taken by our friend and talented photographer, Sam.

Making of Macaron

Hello! Work has been crazy the past 3 weeks or so. Today (Saturday) I was in the office 'til 11pm. I know I know for some of you & my hubby, this long work hours is nothing as compared to theirs hehe.

I have always been fond of macarons ever since they exist - their cute, elegant and colorful look, and have always wanted to make them. On a flip side, I always hear people say on how hard it is to make them, in which luck also play a role & how expensive is the almond flour, an ingredient in macaron. Anyway, last week, I was in the mood of making macarons - for the first time I finally did it. I asked my friends & colleague around on how to make them as well as reading blogs and watching youtube tutorials. My first thought - hmm it looks easy. For the shell, you only need 4 main ingredients which is almond flour, powdered sugar, egg whites and caster sugar. Thats all! Well of course I was wrong! Making macarons is all about technique (they call it macaronage?) and set them at the right temperature and humidity. I tried it once, and it FAILED!! sobs sobs.... Somehow the shell could not dry! Ok, basically after whipping the egg and mixing the dry ingredients and piping out the batter in a baking sheet, I am supposed to let the macarons sit for about 1 hour so their top shell will dry (so it can have feet). But dunno why, they won't dry up after 3 hours, even I placed it inside my A/C room. For sure humidity plays a factor, so in humid weather like Singapore, placing the macarons-to-be in A/C room is a must.

I didn't give up! The next few days, I tried in again, halved the recipe, mixing it well with care. I also placed the baking sheet directly to the A/C cooling fan to ensure it will dry hopefully.  And... here it is:

After piping out, it looks like this. I know it ain't perfect. Got some peaks.. need to practice more with piping

Finally after waiting 1 hour, the shell is dry to touch.. ready for oven

I smiled as I see those feet forming

Ta da... 

So my second time of making macaron - is a success, but need a lot of perfecting to do. I didn't bother making the filing because I wanted to ensure that macaron shells are good to go. But before knowing, the shell itself is soo good, sweet, crunchy on outside and chewy on inside. yum yum... I am waiting for time to do some macaron saga.. in search of a perfect macaron! Cheers!

Gardens by the Bay

Hello! It's a long weekend here in Singapore.

The hubby decided to check out the two conservatories in Gardens by the Bay, which just recently opened few months ago in Singapore. The domes look cool from the outside and those 2 domes housed many different types of flowers, plants, trees, cactus, and many more species from all over the world. Honestly I am not really a nature enthusiast or the type of person who would appreciate these kind of things.. hehe... but since the hubby insisted,  so there we went on Friday afternoon :)

Since we are residents of Singapore (i.e. have employment pass in Singapore) so we paid resident rate which is $20/person for 2 conservatories entrances, otherwise it's $12/conservatory. My thoughts on this visit? Well, i love the waterfall in the Cloud Forest, admire the unique plants that I've never seen before, the flowers are pretty, love love the cactus (they have so many different kinds of cactus), and since this is a halloween festive, so inside the Flower Dome, they have a special Autumn Harvest display which includes harvest crops of pumpkins, corn, cabbages..Oh how I wish I go to a pumpkin patch while still in the US :( But, with all these thoughts, I would say for me, one visit would be enough for the experience hehe... I would still go there once in a while for the outdoor like the Supertrees becos it's free :)

 Inside the Cloud Forest you'll notice first is the waterfall as you walk in.. 

Beautiful flowers & collections of plants found inside the Cloud Forest

inside Flower Dome

Prince William and Kate Middleton also visited Garden by the Bay last month when they came over here. One of the flower species was named after them, even though I didn't found it inside the dome.

I'll see you next time! Thank you for reading.

5 Loaves and 2 Fishes

Hi everyone!

How time flies that now it's already the final quarter of 2012!

Just want to share a song by Corrine May that was shown during one of the Sunday service at my church when the Pastor preached the expository reading on Mark 6:30-55 about the feeding on 5,000.

It's about the 5 loaves and 2 fishes, one of the miracles of Jesus Christ. I've listened to many sermons whereby the main emphasis is on the miracle work of Jesus that He used only 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed 5,000 men in addition to women and children, and still there are plenty of leftovers left. Yes, it was indeed miracolous and amazing. And many often, we forget about the little boy who 'surrendered' his food, he didn't know what they would do with it, and yet through the little boy's meal, the miracle happened. In this song, the focus is about the little boy who willingly gave his meal (the 5 loaves and 2 fishes) to be used by God to do wonders for people! I learnt to surrender of what little we have for His glory & His will. May this song can be a blessing as it has blessed me ;)

On a side note, I want to share my pastor's sermon that was posted on youtube weekly. Follow it as now we are learning the Gospel of Mark, which I must say I have learnt a lot, biblically and practically. 

Here's the link: REC Singapore

The Lord's Prayer

My pastor at church told us if we were to remember bible verses, we should memorize the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6) and Psalm 23, and of course we should memorize a lot of others if possible. But of course I don't really memorize verses, so hopefully these 2 verses could kick start my habit in memorizing or at least reading bible verses.

This post will be the Lord's prayer.

Image is taken from Lyann Yap's blog

Formula One Singapore Grand Prix

I had no interest and didn't follow any racing cars or whatsoever. Singapore held an annual Formula 1 Grand Prix ever since its first contract in 2008 in Marina Bay. This event is a big deal in Singapore as it boosts tourism revenue, and everyone talks about it. The cheapest ticket price is around $200+ and it could go up to a few thousands depending on the seats and/or suite. Anyway, being held in Marina Bay, which is the central business district area, bus schedule gets affected, bus gets detoured/skipped bus stops as they prepare for the F1 tracks. and I am one of the victims of this road closure and diversion :( I hate taking MRT right after work because it is so jam-packed like sardines. Haiz. and I have to take bus some more. ok enough about complaining, now lets get to the F1 itself.

We were fortunate that we had free tickets to this race, courtesy of my dad's private bank, DBS. And our tickets were inside the DBS suite! How nice, so we had the option to go outside and get an up close look on the car race, or seated nice and comfy on a sofa inside the suite & munch on snacks hehe.

Sky Suite ticket

We were invited to view DBS new office before the race, where we played simulator & got some afternoon snacks :P Then we took the duck-hippo ferry to proceed to our suite. 

Upon arrival.. The suite was inside the 4-storey building there. From outside it looks like a motel 

Once we were inside, we ordered some juice and took some snacks. 

and we were given a gift

Outside the suite, our view was the starting line.. & across it was where the drivers/cars were parked

Complimentary ride: Singapore Flyer! Yay! the normal ticket price is $33/person

Back to our suite, in time for dinner & watched the race.. Below was where the team/drivers were preparing etc

Below is some videos of the race:

After watching the race in real time probably a good 4-5 laps or so (and hearing the sound vroom vrooom so LOUD), I went back inside and headed downstairs for a free 10 min massage. After that, I just got some food & drinks and took photo of the suite. They provided afternoon snacks, dinner & supper. Impressive! 

The race lasted about 2 hours and fireworks were displayed across the Singapore skies as soon as the race ended. It was pretty. I was excited for the Katy Perry concert. We got the special wristband, which was the fanzone band which basically we got to see Katy Perry in a very close distance. But the walk to the concert area was very far as our suite and the concert place were on the extreme opposite of each other. We walked for a good 40-45 mins. By the time we reached there, we were exhausted and surprisingly the fan zone area was quite full as we were late by 30 mins. So we didn't get to see Katy Perry real close. And apparently there wasn't any seat, it was a standing area. But we still had fun though! We didn't finish the whole concert because we were certain that the transportation by then would be a disaster. hehe

On the way to the concert

Katy Perry!

Will i go and see F1 next year? Probably not. I felt it's good for the one time experience. But I would love to watch the concert :)

I am a Quarter!

Yesterday, I turned a quarter of a century! I am old!
Thank you for dear friends, family & colleagues who have wished me well, surprised me with cake & dinner & treated me a bday lunch & my mom who specially made the trip all the way from Jakarta for my bday :) I am blessed indeed.

My dear Richard asked me what I want for my bday, and I told him I want a handmade card. During our dating years, he used to make me his handmade cards, which I didn't get any this year. This bday wish is undoubtedly considered demanding & time consuming because he needed to think of an idea & execute it LOL. Despite his extremely busy schedule, I am so touched that he was able to pull this through.. and the card (the story) portrays our current everyday life very well. Definitely a well-thought, creative idea with cute drawings on it.. I am so HAPPY! best bday gift thus far :)

I am proud to show it to the world, here it is:

And here is my very unique bday cake from antoinette. Arigato!

Pink Ribbon Fondant Cake

This is considered my first fondant cake ever, solo, no help from whoever.. and I dare to make a ribbon some more >.< Well I did make a fondant cake before with a friend in the US, but that doesn't count because she helped me a lot with it.. But anyway, I wanted to make something special for my sister bday, and it's been long since I last baked. The result (i.e the sponge cake texture & the fondant) could definitely be better, and dunno why my fondant sweats every time I took it out from the fridge! sigh.. maybe because of spore humid weather??? I still need to do a lot of practice with fondant and baking.. Practice makes perfect, but usually I get bored easily so we'll see when is the next baking & fondant session :) I always admired people who can decorate with fondants so nicely, neatly and so cute & creative with those little figurines hehe.. I wonder how they can do it.. 

Lessons to be learnt in the future:  turn on AC when doing fondant thingy and make the fondant layer thicker. But anyway, I am proud that at least the cake overall is edible.. I edited the cake a little bit so it does not look that shiny & wet hehehe :P 

without fondant

the cake

Pigging out in Hong Kong

Just got back from HK few hours ago. (actually when I post this, it was already close to 1 month) The trip was very short, arrived Thursday late at night, and departed Sunday morning. So in total, I only had 2 full days, including the half day Friday in which I roamed the busy street of HK & shopping & eating all by myself (because Richard was still at work). I went to 4 different malls in 1 day, scattered all around kowloon and hong kong islands. I really had a high expectation of the food and shopping there. But honestly I am a little disappointed. I feel the food is equally good in Singapore, and the shopping is so-so and rather expensive there. But hey, it was the memories that last a lifetime :P

All in all, I find the HK breakfast is quite funny that they have macaroni soup and ham for breakfast, like the below pic from the famous Australia Dairy Company. There was a long queue but the line moved pretty fast because they sit you whenever there was a vacant seat (you'll most likely sit with a stranger).

I also tried the steamed egg pudding (below) because the online reviews mentioned that it was delicious. I just thought it was okay. I found that the portion is too much for 1 person, but I finished it anyway because I didn't want to waste food. 

Probably one of the best meal I had was this dim sum place called Tim Ho Wan. Apparently it has one michelin star, and maybe the cheapest michelin star restaurant. My favorite was their bbq pork bun. I even bought those yummy buns on my last day on my way to the airport because they are conveniently located inside IFC mall where airport express station stops in this location and I brought it all the way to spore for my sister to try. It looks something like this:

We did try an interesting Japanese restaurant at Rakuen whereby we tried the first time in our life - seaweed grape & squid ink fried rice! Both of them were really good! 

Okay, not forgetting my first meal in HK, which was milk tea and crisp bun served with sweet condensed milk..Drooool...

Enough with the food pictures, I am going to close this post with a photo of us atop of the Peak! behind is the HK view, even though the sky was quite gloomy that morning. 

4 Years Ago

...I ended my job at Sandisk..my very first job.. which I loved being an employee there..
..I then decided to improve my Mandarin and went to Beijing for 3 months..
while waiting for my graduate MST application from SJSU.. and..
it was our first long distance relationship then.. after we got engaged..

So much things and happenings within those 4 years..
4 years seems to be just in a blink of an eye..
I remember 4 years ago in 2008, I watched 2008 Beijing Olympics, very first few games, over at my sister's house in the US [the Meadows] before I left for Jakarta & Beijing for a couple of months. And now it's already 2012, London Olympics has just begun a few days ago!

And those 4 years between 2008 - 2012, I've accomplished so many milestones in life: graduation [Master's degree], wedding, got a job at Deloitte, left Deloitte, and made a bold move to Singapore last year! even Richard also has many milestones in his life including changing majors and switching career move.

I must say... some of the decisions we've made weren't easy, and yet looking back, we knew how much blessings God has poured out to us throughout our journey. Looking forward to another 4 years ahead! 2016 Brazil Olympics & more life experiences & blessings :)