.: asylum for the sane :.

Time really flies.Tomorrow we start the month of Ramadhan in the Hijrah year 1431. A whole month of fasting, goodwill and good thoughts.

Last year, I barely fasted the entire month. I had the worst stomach flu for 2 weeks, which ended with a trip to the A & E. And I had my period during the first and last week of the month.

So, yes. I barely fasted last year.

It was also a full month of firsts. I sahur-ed alone, and broke fast alone at the beginning of the month. I even fasted while on a work trip in Jakarta, where I experienced an earthquake and having my sahur in the wee hours of the morning at the hotel.

And not to mention, the terrible incident that happened towards the end of the fasting month which led to a serious domino effect – which I don’t want to get into right now.

My point is, I hope for a smoother Ramadhan this year – with not much obstacles and with a peace of mind. And that’s my wish for all my Muslim friends out there.

Happy fasting everyone!

Today we celebrate Singapore’s 45th National Day. We may bitch, whine and complain all the time about Singapore, but at the deepest level, we know that we are in one of the safest and systematic countries in the world. And although we seldom show our patriotism (well, we would if we can qualify for the World Cup!), it is often shown with pride and felt greatly on National Day.

I’ve only gone to a National Day Parade twice. Once was a rehearsal three years ago, and the other was the actual Parade – more than 10 years back. The atmosphere at the National Stadium was indescribable and just bloody awesome. It’s emotional and the feeling of togetherness made all of us forget any differences and unhappiness.

Don’t get me started when everybody says the pledge together. In the event of National Day, it will always be One People, One Nation, One Singapore.

One of my favourite National Day Songs is Home, originally sung by Kit Chan. We have all yearned at one point about getting out of Singapore and living abroad. But deep in our hearts, we know that Singapore will always be Home.

Don’t believe me? Then just take a short trip anywhere. The feeling when you land and walk through Changi Airport is, “I’m home” – and because Singapore Changi Airport is the best in the world, you’d also feel a sense of pride.

Even when you are returning from Malaysia, you will feel the atmosphere is just different after you’ve gotten thru the checkpoints.

Still don’t believe me, then try living in another country for awhile. Even if you don’t miss the ERP Systems or hikes in bus fare or the crazy heat, you will still miss the FOOD.

So come on, admit it. Singapore will always be Home. Am I right, or am I right?

Yesterday I turned 26. This was how I spent my day

I took leave for yesterday, just as I do every year on my birthday. As much as I have been accused (gasp!) of being a workaholic, I simply wouldn’t do it on my special day. This has been my practice since I started my work life, after graduation.

So anyway let’s continue with our story.

FP presented me with this box (okay previously it was in a longish paper holder thingy), and inside it was this:

A lovely charm bracelet from Thomas Sabo! He has chosen three charms for me: a pink flower, a shooting star and a witch.

Why a witch? Because I like Harry Potter, apparently.

Why a shooting star and a pink flower? Because they just look nice

Fair enough, hehe.

Then we went to Ion Orchard for Swenson’s ice cream buffet! Kawan L, Kawan E & Kawan C were initially supposed to join us. But they didn’t

So anyway it was just FP and myself, having access to all the ice cream one could have!

So for my first combination, I took – banana split, frosted chocolate malt and strawberry flavoured ice cream, with strawberries and marshmallow for topping! I really do love fresh strawberries and marshmallows. In fact, I am a marshmallow – just ask FP.

His first bowl of ice cream, on the other hand, looks like this:

It consisted of sticky chewy chocolate, cookies and cream and butterscotch flavoured ice cream with chocolate malt balls, marshmallow (copy!), lychees and chocolate sticks as toppings. yum yum

For my second round, I chose very fruity selections. Actually, I’ve always preferred fruity ice cream flavours as compared to rich and creamy ones – so this was pure heaven to me.

This concoction comprises: mango-peach, rock melon and calamansi flavoured ice cream, topped with strawberries (again), lychees and longans. A very refreshing concoction – just as how I intended it The mango-peach flavoured scoop was extremely delightful and exceptionally refreshing, whereas the rock melon one was simply divine. I love!

FP’s next bowl:

Such a vast difference in how the ice cream and toppings are presented, lol. My bowls look way, way better I can be a food arranger on top of a food photographer next time, lol.

This bowl holds a scoop of black sesame, chocolate and strawberry flavoured ice cream each apart from the atap seeds, he also poured marshmallow sauce over the three flavours.

By this time we were both so bloated and pretty sick of ice cream. Actually in between bites of ice creams, we ordered fries and deep-fried mushroom, so that we won’t feel so overwhelmed with ice cream. It kinda worked.

I didn’t know this photo was taken until I was going through my camera just now. Looks like FP too can be a food photographer. /run

Then of course there was the episode of many many children singing Happy Birthday to me. I will not go too much into that, but of course he did plan for it. We’ll keep it at that

But it was very sweet, thank you FP

And finally, the birthday cake:

This was my chocolate truffle cake from The Royals

Small and sweet, just like me. hahahaha!

Candle was blown and wishes were made (though not entirely because I was being egged on to blow the candle) and that’s the end of my day.

It was a special day with sweet surprises. I love it, and thank you FP for the wonderful day.

And thank you all of you who wished me in Facebook (flooded my wall), twitter, via SMS (these had the nicest bday msges I’ve received), by phone (love ya Kavz!) and in person (xoxo FP).

It was really nice being remembered and loved on a special day like your birthday, so thank you.

Here’s to number twenty six, and let’s live it to the fullest. And then feel emo again when number twenty seven comes along.

image taken from here

In less than two hours time, I will be saying goodbye to being 25 and say hello to becoming a 26 year old girl. woman. person.

I’m not sure why I am always so pensive on the eve of my birthday. A very good friend of mine once told me that birthdays are not for celebrating. She told me that a birthday is actually the most sacred of days. As your birthday draws closer, your soul becomes too vulnerable and in this time period, anything can happen.

At some point of time, your soul will become so vulnerable that there is a thin line between life and death.

Such is the seriousness of having birthdays, which makes me wonder in what way birthdays are supposed to be happy and joyous occassions?

And turning 26 has gotten me quite frenzied for a number of silly reasons.

1) it is a little over a quarter, making me 1/4 ancient
2) I don’t like even numbers. This is highly ironic because it’s normally when my age is an even number that my life seems better. Hmm.
3) I’m just emo and reflective for no reason at all

This doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to my birthday and all the hush hush plans

There is a reason why I take leave from work on my birthday every year. It may seem egotistical but hey, if I don’t love myself enough to do that, nobody will. To me, my birthday is always special because it is MY day and the begininning of my wonderful existence.

(yes my fans, I am indeed my biggest fan )

So to carry on with my explanation. So in my head since I was young (younger, I mean), my birthday has always been a sort of a personal holiday for me. I would look forward to it from the beginning of the year. A

And then start counting down to it a month before the actual date. It’s crazy, but true.

And don’t let me get started on birthday week and birthday month. I have it written somewhere, in an invisible clause that things should always go my way during my birthday month, and especially my birhday week.

If I could, I would have wanted a birthday year, but that would just be silly, won’t it?

But as I grew older (an wiser, hopefully), I have shortlisted it down to birthday week. Thank God I have a bf who indulges in my every whim and fancy – not that I abuse it

So as the clock strikes 12 later (though I was technically born at 11 am sharp!), I will look back to my year as a 25 year old and be happy with how much I’ve grown and to appreciate everything I have. And once I’ve done that, I can look forward to an even-year of 26.

The little girl who wanted to be a princess is always a princess. Bring it on

Today is FP’s birthday

And this was his birthday cake:

Would you believe it, if I told you I baked it from scratch (with hardly any help)? FP certainly didn’t believe me. He thought I used one of those ready made cake mixes. But I most certainly didn’t!

I didn’t plan to bake anything at all (especially since I have no experience baking cakes). My first instinct was to get customized Photography themed cupcakes from.. (should I even mention them here?) an online site which featured many interesting and pretty cupcakes. But alas, they didn’t respond to my enquiry and I was quite ticked off by that because I really wanted those Photography themed cupcakes for FP.

My yummy looking cake batter.

First of all, I hate relying on others. Secondly, I will always end up doing things on my own when relying on others doesn’t work out.

So, I decided to go against all sense of logic and bake him a cake. I’ve never baked a cake before, the only time I had experience baking was when I helped out making cookies. Cookies, not cakes. So, I basically jumped off a cliff, not knowing what I’d land on.

Did some research. Found a plain chocolate cake recipe and decided to make it my own. I added strawberries and chocolate chips inside the cake, covered it with chocolate fudge and filled the top surface with soft, yummy marshmallows!

A slice of the cake

Afterthoughts:
Like every other project, there were lessons to be learned. The recipe didn’t have things like fresh strawberries and chocolate chips, so obviously the temperature and time for baking was not suited for my improvised yet fantastically creative version.

I didn’t factor in the possibility that the strawberries will cause moisture within the cake, thereby making it much longer for the cake to “dry up” and become perfectly baked. So there I was panicking, as to why the cake was still moist after the hour was up. And even way beyond that. I was worried that the cake might be burned. Or the cake might sink to the bottom.

Did a little more research and discovered that most recipes with fresh strawberries were baked at a higher temperature. So, I did just that and sure enough – it dried up soon after.

And for a complete newbie to baking cakes, I think i did fairly well! This has given me the motivation to explore baking at a greater extent, hehe. Truth be told, I actually concocted some muffins (using the same base recipe with slight changes) right after I finished making my first masterpiece, but that’s for another post.

I’m just glad everything turned out so perfectly well, yummy and pretty. Most of all, I’m so happy that my darling Frog Prince got his cake and ate it too! Happy birthday again, FP!! Much, much love

p/s: who needs silly cupcakes when we can all have a proper cake?