A Lookback at 2011

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Sha

Overall, 2011 has been a 140% better (see what I did there) than 2010 and I’m very thankful for that. In fact, I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Sure, I started the year unsure and almost afraid of what’s to come after a very bad year in 2010. The first few months were a bit of a struggle but as we neared mid-year, things started looking up. For one, I snipped off my pretty long hair and made it a cute bob. I haven’t had short hair in 10 years, so this was a drastic change! And it was a good change, as nervous as I was all throughout the time at the hair dresser’s. And now, 9 months later, I’m still waiting and waiting for my hair to be as long as it was before!

2011 is a year where I put myself first, perhaps as a step to self-recovery from the trauma of previous years. I travelled a lot – all for pleasure and not a single work trip (for once), and perhaps because I get away so often this year, I am truly a happier person. Let’s recall some of my adventures while travelling.

It was a year of picking strawberries fresh off a strawberry garden…

and watching dolphins jump and twirl at sunrise

and meeting people from books:

and island hopping at its best..

and go-karting accidents (in Malacca – some trips I didn’t blog about)

It was also a year of many firsts. I flew all the way to Jakarta to catch a Paramore concert. That was one of the best and worst nights of my year (at the same time), but still an experience I won’t soon forget.

I actually took a budget flight(not complaining, just highlighting a milestone – that goes to you dear hater), which wasn’t that bad after all.

Paramore wasn’t the only musical act I caught live this year. I won tickets to a Lenka showcase early in the year, and in October, I re-lived my fangirl days with BLUE at the ION Orchard fashion show. So awesome, I can DIE.

And speaking of musicals, I caught The Lion King this year (oh so many things unblogged!!!) It was fantastic.

Gadget-wise, who could forget the time I cracked my iphone 4 screen?

or the fact that I replaced both my pink sony vaio and my pink point-and-shoot with sexier replacements?

(oh yeah, this was the final look [sans the lens hood] of Sir Olympus’ makeover. I didn’t blog about him getting a faux leather sticker, but he looks cool doesn’t he?)

I kinda overdid it with spending on gadgets this year (no not really, because I really needed to get them replaced – and them *ahem* enhanced) but it was a good year on the gadget front.

And with a new pancake lens and a spiffy camera, came an influx of nice food photos

On the crafts/hobby front, no sewing was done this year for some reason – but I did attempt to bake. Successfully and not so successfully.

Attempt on red velvet cupcakes: More or less successful (turned out better than expected):

And one out of the box cupcakes (with edible glitter and all) which was a complete disaster! Besides the fact that I was trying to achieve the same effect as a photoshopped cupcake!

And of course our very recent adventure with ice cream making. Yet to make an ice cream at home!

Afterthought

As you can tell, this has been a pretty good year for me. And at some point I guess I started feeling happy about my life – but denied it for the longest time for fear of jinxing it. I’ve come a long way this year. I guess sometimes you just need to take a year just to focus on your own needs and wants, in order to find that spark of happiness again. My life is at such a stable state right now that I could barely even think to imagine in December last year.

This is the year I stopped living vicariously (and secretly envying everybody else’s life) and just focused on myself. It’s hard to just stop something you’ve been doing for a long while, and sometimes there’s minor relapses. But overall I’m okay. There’ll be a time and place for everything and not everybody will experience the same things at the same age.

I’m thankful that I’ve had the chance to travel to new places, meet new people, experience new food, able to afford the best gadgets (at this point). I’m thankful that my relationship with the boyfriend is even more heightened, and we’re closer than ever (how much closer can you get after 8 years? Go figure.) I’m thankful that even though there’s been a lot of changes to home life and family – the ones who matter are still close at heart and vice versa.

Lastly, I’m thankful for my awesome job that enables me to do techy things I enjoy and allow me to finally have a work-life balance. You’ll never know how rare work-life balance is until you’ve found it. And once you find it, you’ll never, ever want to let go

So this is me, signing off for 2011. Excited for 2012, because whatever happens, it’s just gonna be an awesome adventure!

Ice Cream Making Class at Tom’s Palette

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Sha

A group of us went for an ice cream making class two weekends ago at Tom’s Palette.

It is actually surprisingly easy to make ice cream by hand – without any ice cream maker thingamajigs. All the tools/materials/ingredients we used, you’d probably have some form of it in the comfort of your own kitchen.

(and if I can do this and come out of it without any disasters, you can too!)

So we were given this ice cream making guide booklet, which also has several recipes that we can try at home. But for our session, the instructor chose horlicks flavour and the ever popular chocolate flavour!

We started off with horlicks.

First we mixed an egg yolk with some sugar.

Then we heat up the milk, afterwhich we added horlicks powder to it.

At some point we added in the sugar + egg yolk mixture to the horlicks + milk mixture. And then we cooked the custard till its nice and thick..

Once the custard is cooked, pour it into a bowl and give it one last whisk. Then it’s freezer time!

Moving on to chocolate!

The chocolate one started similarly to the horlicks one sans sugar so let’s skip a few steps and get on with the action!

The reason why we didn’t have to used sugar was because these cooking chocolate is already sweetened. So what we do next is to melt the chocolates into the milk.

And then we added cream to the very pretty chocolate milk mixture:

And then the mixture is strained..

…before giving it a final whisk and putting it in the freezer.

So while waiting for all our handmade ice creams to be fully frozen, we were given an all access pass to all the ice cream flavours that Tom’s Palette offers. Free flow of ice cream, fancy that!

I tried the ever popular salted egg ice cream paired with lavender. The salted egg one is absolutely delicious and a must-try for everybody! The lavender one left both genders with no consensus – all the girls liked it and all the guys said it tasted like shower gel.

So after a long, long wait – our ice cream is finally (almost ready).

We had to whisk the semi frozen mixture before putting it back in the freezer.

[and then we took a lunch break, because both flavours needed time to freeze completely]

So here are our handmade chocolate and horlicks flavoured ice cream!

It was a really fun experience, great date idea for couples!

It’s $60 per person (with free flow of ice cream!). You’d need to book in advance for it.

Contact details for Tom’s Palette if you are interested in the class:

100 Beach Road
#01-25
Shaw Leisure Gallery

A Day at Central Festival Phuket

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Sha

My birthday this year coincided with our last day in Phuket. Since our flight was only at 10 pm that night), we decided to spend the day at the biggest mall in Phuket – Central Festival Phuket. Yes, I spent my 28th birthday hanging around a mall like an 18 year old. But hey at least it’s a world class mall!

One of the first things we came across as we started to explore the mall was these sushi doughnuts!

How could we resist. Of course we got them, and they were delicious.

And then we decided to have KFC for brunch! The KFC menu in Thailand is really interesting and the food didn’t taste like fast food (well except for the spicy drumlets).

This was my spicy roasted chicken rice:

We also tried the green curry chicken:

Everything was so yummy!

We decided to watch a movie at the SFX Cinema – a Thai movie at a Thai cinema, fancy that!

We got sofa seats at the price of a normal 3D ticket here in Singapore. Replica of our seat below, price excludes popcorn and drinks but still so reasonable!

We decided to watch this Thai movie called Summer Love. We’ve always loved Thai movies for its humour and because the poster looks promising, we had high expectations. But of course, we were disappointed. It was a plotless waste of time, but the sofa seats were really comfy. So I guess that balances everything out.

By the way, it was quite an experience watching a movie in Thailand. Somewhere in between trailers (and towards the start of the movie), everybody else in the theater suddenly stood up. We only knew that they stood up because our seats were right at the back. So we also stood not knowing what to expect. Shown on the screen was a video montage of the life of the Thai king. Very interesting experience, but I guess that how it is under a monarchy rule.

What’s a trip to the mall without a little bit of Starbucks? We had some cake and drinks in between window shopping and waiting for the movie to start (we got the tickets one and a half hour before the actual movie timing).

So I had some hot chocolate (not much else I can have at Starbucks since coffee is out of the question) and a strawberry shortcake (or was it cheesecake?) This cake was supposedly my birthday cake, lol.

Remember I mentioned that Steve Jobs died on the day we left for Phuket? Well this was what we saw at the Apple Store (can’t recall now if it’s an actual Apple Store or a reseller: tributes upon tributes upon tributes to the legend of a man.

Even little kids were writing tributes:

So I also took the chance to write one too.

So that’s our day at Central Festival Phuket. We couldn’t stay longer as our driver was coming to pick us up for the airport soon after the movie. I did enjoy my long birthday weekend in Phuket, I should travel out for my birthday every year!

One last photo before we were picked up. Check out the dark clouds looming again:

Beachy Adventures in Phuket

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Sha

This is more like a quick photo post.

Apart from the beaches we encountered while island hopping, we also indulged in a few beaches (in the Kata area) during the 4 days we were in Phuket. So here are some photos to depict the relaxed mood of our vacation!

On our second day there, we took a very, very long walk after breakfast just to explore the place. And we discovered this beach. It was well-hidden and we had to go down this very steep flight of stairs to get to it.

But once we got to the end of the steps and jumped off the final step to the sand (I promise we were not trespassing though it sure sounds like it!), we found a small but nice beach with big waves.

Here you go:

Shoes came off and we went barefooted and just soaked up the view, the wind and the sand.

Because it was a really small beach, we didn’t spend too much time there. But before we left, I had this photo of myself taken:

It was the hardest thing ever for me to climb up the rocks. Almost gave up, but pushed on anyway. By the time I got off the rocks, I was wet from waves. I kinda like this photo – I look young and happy. While I know I typically look younger than I am, this one beats all odds. I look like I’m 16! And I look like.. genuinely happy and relaxed. That’s a rare combination, considering I’m such a grouch.

So the rest of the photos below are random snippets of beaches we chanced upon on day 1. Not really too sure of the names because we tend to just enter the beach instead of looking for a sign of the beach name.

Footprints on the beach:

The photo below was taken just before all the sand on my feet were shaken off.

This was taken late afternoon before we headed for dinner that first evening. Recliner chairs, abandoned for the day having done their job.

And finally, our very first sunset in Phuket:

Phuket = beautiful beaches!

Island Hopping in Phuket

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Sha

We went on tour of Phi Phi Islands on our third day in Phuket. Even though it was sort of a rainy reason in October, it didn’t rain much for the first two days. But of course Mother Nature decided to wait till we’re out in the open sea to shower us with the rains of rains. To make things more interesting FP and I were at the front of the boat with no shelter and hardly a poncho during the entire bumpy boat ride.

So the bus fetched us from our hotel at 9 in the morning and we proceeded picking up other couples/families from other hotels. When the headcount was complete, we were taken to the port where we were briefed. Our guide for the day is Nina, and she made all of us take a tablet each to curb seasickness at bay.

And then we’re off! Our first stop was Maya Bay, a beautiful island that was used in Leonardo DiCarprio’s movie The Beach. It took us an hour to get to the island and most of that hour was accompanied by crazy heavy rain. The beach towels we brought along didn’t help much.

Check out the beautiful clear blue waters!

And this is me looking like what the cat drag in, after an hour out in the open storm. Rainbow dress looks pretty on beach, no?

We passed by Viking Cave, where birds nests thrive and are collected.

While we were supposed to stop by Monkey Beach on the itinerary, we simply passed it by due to “weather conditions”. Soon it’s time for lunch. We were absolutely starving by then!

Lunch was at another small island, can’t really recall the name right now, but the buffet food was just alright.

Anything would have seen alright to a freezing and stubborn person at that point.

Our view during lunch:

We all rested up after lunch before we head off to our next destination – a snorkeling area! I didn’t snorkel because I didnt have any swimsuit with me, but I really wish that I did! Next time! Anyway, here’s one of our tour mates snorkeling away so happily.

Then finally, it’s time to be off to our final island – Khai Island, where it’s just a rest and relax session. There was a small part of the beach where you can actually snorkel and/or feed fish with bread – we were looking forward to feeding fish, but bread was sold out on the entire island!

So we chilled instead.

Love the rainbow umbrellas sprawled across the beach!

We found grilled corn! I’m sure you know by now that if there’s a food I absolutely can’t resist, it’s corn – grilled, sweetened – it really doesn’t matter. It’s the absolute perfect snack for the beach!

(ignore the big, hairy russian guy in the photo below!)

The bliss didn’t last long, about an hour and a half later, dark clouds start to loom overhead and it was time to go. Check it out:

It was a really wet, exhausting day filled with pretty sights and clear water – despite all that rain. Thanks to our awesome guide, it wasn’t so bad after all!

Staying at Metadee Resorts, Phuket

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Sha

We stayed at Metadee Resorts and Villas for the duration of our Phuket trip. And I must say it was a really lovely resort, with a gorgeous room boasting a princess bed (which I couldn’t and still can’t stop gushing over) and an open concept bathroom. The staff offered bright sincere smiles and the service is top-notch, but I will get to that later.

Let’s re-visit the room again!

Presenting the beautiful princess bed:

Absolutely love the ruffles.

Orchids on the bed, so sweet

A peek into the bathroom!

Moving on to the bathroom. I love the open concept of the it all, being the claustrophobic that I am.

A short while after we checked in, the staff sent us a platter of fruits!

There are beach towels in a tote bag all ready for us. These came particularly useful (in keeping me both dry and warm) during our island hopping experience – which was also accompanied by very heavy rain.

One of the perks of staying at Metadee was the buggy service. There’s a buggy station about 50 meters from the hotel entrance where you can request for someone to fetch you if you are lazy to walk all the way in or are carrying too many things.

We called for a buggy one too many times, but there was this once after an afternoon of shopping and we asked to be picked up – not only did they pick us up, but upon seeing our many carriers offered to send us directly to our room. Really a +1 moment.

What’s not to like about cute buggy drivers?

The staff really impressed us on our last day there. It was my birthday, and we checked out of the hotel late morning. We were planning to spend the day at Central Festival Mall as our flight back home was only at night. The only we worry we had was to have to lug my macbook air around. Yes it’s super thin, but it can still be a hassle when we are sight seeing.

First we asked if we can leave our luggage with them for the day, to be picked up later that evening. They accommodated to the request, naturally. Then we had second thoughts about leaving my macbook air with them. They reassured us with the widest of smiles that it will be perfectly safe with them. So we decided that it’ll be more convenient for us anyway. Still a natural and almost expected reaction on their part.

Wait for it -

As we were getting into the cab that will take us to the mall, the staff members on-upped their service by telling us that we don’t have to come back to the hotel in the evening. Instead, the driver will collect our luggage + macbook air for us, and fetch us from the mall, and from there take us to the airport.

How excellent is that service standard? Seriously! We were so awed.

So we gave last minute instructions (to re-confirm everything) to the driver to not forget the macbook and that it must be placed in the passenger seat, instead of being dumped with the rest of the luggage in the boot.

(LOL, we’re treating our macbook like it’s our kid!)

And so we spent a full day at the mall, and it was an awesome birthday (will blog about this). And the driver, came right on time, with farty my darling macbook air waiting for us at the passenger seat.

Awesome to the max.

So here are the details for Metadee Resort:

60 Kata Road Kata Beach, 83100, Thailand
076-337888

Flying with Jetstar Airlines

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Sha

It was a trip of many firsts. It was my first trip to Thailand, also my first time to travel out for my birthday and most importantly – it was the first time I’ve ever taken a budget flight. It is a big deal because I never thought I’d actually have to ever take a budget flight.

You see, I’m a self-proclaimed flight snob. I’ve never liked budget airlines because I simply do not trust budget airlines, but mainly because I believe flying should be a comfortable experience.

I love everything about flying. I even love airplane food, as crazy as that may sound to you. So I always try my hardest to get myself on a non-budget flight when I travel. I’m always game to try an airline I’ve not been on before, as long as it’s not budget. And I’ve always succeeded in finding a proper airline for my travels until… Phuket. We didn’t really have a choice, because of the mad prices of normal airlines – so reluctantly we booked our flights.

I felt really sad as I boarded the plane because after this trip, I’ll never get to say that I’ve never taken a budget flight ever again. It’s nostalgic to me OK? That being said, that was the very first time I’ve felt nervous about a flight.

(I was also sad because just before we boarded the plane, it was announced that Steve Jobs has died)

So here are some sights in the plane:

It was a really small plane. We were seated right at the back. This was how small the plane was:

We both had a 3-seat row to ourselves and the empty seat is all taped up! It’s really a sad looking chair isn’t it?

Because there’s no screen to show us how far along we were in our travels and for us to watch movies, we decided to make up a screen just to entertain ourselves.

It felt very weird not have any form of entertainment and (“free”, all inclusive meal) on board. These are the two things I always look forward to on flights. But then again, I’m not paying for overpriced hawker food on such a short flight to Phuket.

We self-entertained for the entire flight and before we know it, we were already in Phuket. Safe and sound but can’t say the same for my luggage! It got a slight but non-permanant dent during the flight.

Overall, the flight was alright I guess. A bit shakey when we took off – I’ve never been so scared at the start of a flight, but it was alright as we journeyed on. Will I ever get on a budget airline again? Perhaps not. I’ll try not to, if I had a choice.

A flight snob will always be a flight snob.

Meet farty.

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Sha

This is farty. Full name: arty farty. (name is all in small caps because he’s kinda pretentious). Slim, sleek and sexy – what’s not to like?

He is a 13″ Macbook Air, with an i7 processor and he is my latest gadget buy – replacing my good old pink Sony Vaio, which was getting older and sicker by the day.

So the day he arrived was also the day after I cracked my iphone screen. So I really wasn’t in the mood for anything that day. Not even unboxing this beautiful piece of genius gadget could lift my spirits. But anyway, things has gotten better since then.

For one thing, he grew a mustache (which is actually a decal). I don’t normally like my men to have any facial hair but you gotta admit that this farty does look good with this mustache. Still pretentious but whatever looks good on you, baby.

Then I discovered Twitter for Mac. I’m a sucker for sleek interfaces and being a heavy user of Twitter, this truly contributes to the farty brownie points award.

Sorry echofon (within firefox), looks like this time round, I won’t be dancing with you.

Next up would be my obsession with photo booth (which has thankfully subsided). I didn’t really take photos with photo booth but what I did was even worse. I could spend a long period of time, just looking at myself through all the weird filters. I am easily amused and I do not have a problem laughing at myself. So this was perfect. The “chipmunk effect” cracked me up the most. As in laugh out loud kind of cracked up.

I am demented, I know. Worse still I too screenshots of these moments. These are just a few. Check it out:

This could keep me entertained for hours. FP gave me dirty looks and asked me, “So you got yourself a mac and this is ALL you do with it?!”

I ignored him.

So these are my two favourite apps on the Macbook Air so far. Twitter for Mac and Photo Booth

Finally, we got him a customized sleeve from Timbuk2. Somehow the order got glitched and what was meant to be a small sleeve became a large sleeve (not anybody’s fault. Besides, the good people at Timbuk2 has given me a 70% off discount code for my next purchase!). But I guess it’s cool. Now I can store my magic mouse and the charger all in one sleeve!

Check out the lovely Timbuk2 sleeve! Why pink? Because REAL MEN WEAR PINK. Plus farty is artistic. He doesn’t mind it one bit!

This is the Timbuk2 logo upclose. You can choose the colour of the logo when customizing your sleeve!

It’s handmade! The only thing you can’t customize would be the red insides. But I guess it’s okay, as red’s pretty universal.

I find it so cute that the Timbuk2 included these cool polaroid kind of photo tags. The sleeve was “born in San Francisco” because it’s customized! Cute!

So this is one last photo of farty, the mustached romeo with his pink sleeve. You gotta admit. this Macbook Air’s got swag.

Fixing a cracked iphone 4 screen

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Sha

It’s been almost 2 weeks since that fateful night when my iphone 4 screen got cracked. It was pure carelessness on my part really. My phone was on my lap throughout a cab ride and I forgot about it as I came out of the cab. My phone hit the road pretty hard, though I didn’t think much of it because I’ve dropped my phone so many times before – and it’s always been fine.

It was only after I’ve showered and settled down for the night that I realized the cracks. It didn’t register to me immediately (because I can be slow at times), and I was wondering why I can’t see the stuff on my phone clearly. I only realized what had happened a moment later and I totally freaked out.

And after freaking out, I started crying. You need to understand I have an abnormal attachment to all my personal belongings, especially my gadgets. I blame my demented childhood as an only child. I used to cry when my favourite doll had to be sewn up because she was badly torn/damaged. It felt like my best friend was going through surgery and is in a lot of pain. Strangely this logic followed me to adulthood as crazy as that may seem.

So when I saw my phone in that damaged state , my heart literally ached. It was really painful to see it like that, injured and broken. And to make it worse, it was all my fault. I went straight to bed that night and was totally down and out the whole of the next day. Seriously, it was as if somebody died. Even the arrival of farty, my macbook air (you will soon be introduced to my new knight in shining whatever) that day did not lift my mood.

It was too nasty a damage to be sent to the Apple Centre, and it would certainly cost me a bomb. Even if I were to go back to Singtel with it, I would have to pay a hefty amount too for a brand new phone. Which left me and FP two options: send it to a normal phone shop to repair it (slightly expensive) or 2) get the screen from an online store and fix it ourselves (cheapest option but there’s a risk of things going completely wrong).

FP being a handy dandy man, decided that he is up for the challenge of fixing it himself. So he found the screen online, and it arrived 2 days back. Tonight he fixed it for me. As if it’s not a good enough challenge as it is, he just had to do it when he’s as sick as a puppy. But it’s all good now. Took him more than an hour to dismantle and replace the screen and then put everything back together.

I’m really so proud of him, and in awe that he persisted through the ordeal of fixing it despite the killer flu. He’s a lifesaver, a real life prince. My prince

I mean, just look at the tiny screws that he had to deal with:

He’s really too awesome. His dedication totally swept me off my feet tonight. I could honestly bear with my cracked screen for a few more days really. But he fought through it.

So here’s a photo of the before and after. Cracked screen beside a good as new phone:

And to anyone who needs to fix their cracked phone and adamant to try it for themselves, here is a video that was provided to us when we got the screen. It’s pretty complex but if you think you need a challenge, go for it!

Seaworld Jakarta was a Disappointment

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Sha

Since we were staying in Ancol during our Jakarta trip, one of the places we wanted to visit was Seaworld. Now I understand that the most logical option would be DuFan (Dunia Fantasi) but there are two reasons why we didn’t go on that path:

1) FP isn’t really an amusement park ride person and
2) We’ve been warned that the rides are not very well-maintained and that cock-ups do happen.

While I do welcome the thrill of being on a roller coaster ride, I do not appreciate of the possibility of injury and/or death while having fun.

So we skipped DuFan and headed for Seaworld.

To be honest, we had really high expectations of Seaworld despite warnings from some Indonesian friends of ours that it was just mediocre and that even they have not been there since they were kids. (why are people always warning us?)

We pictured it to be on par with the Underwater World that we have at Sentosa, or at least bigger than that.

But alas, alas. It was nothing short of mediocre.

Outside the venue, there were banners boasting of a “giant octopus” and a “giant python snake”. Want to see the “giant octopus”?

Paul the Octopus would seriously be ashamed of this. Nothing against this creature. But for a “star attraction”. He sure is squeezed up in a mini tank next to two other similar sized tanks. And he is not “gigantic”, come on.

And the “giant python snake”? It’s just a regular sized python. I’ve seen bigger ones at the Singapore Zoo.

I didn’t take a photo of the banners promising these attractions because it will only increase my disappointment. It’s false advertising, you know?

Anyway they also have a travelator tunnel like our Underwater World.

Nothing out of the ordinary, however.

Apparently piranhas used to be stored in the cylinder above. But oh well.

There were several petting/touch pool there that has baby stingrays, sharks and other kinds of fish (I’m really bad with animal names ok?). The baby sharks were slippery at best but felt really smooth, but here’s me with a starfish.

One of the things I loved within Seaworld was this big aquarium filled with colourful small fish. It’s really a pretty sight, if I should say so myself.

An upclose view:

Apologies for the photo quality. It was pretty dark in most parts of Seaworld.

There was a section in Seaworld that was sort of like a museum of fossils. This giant stingray (okay this is honestly giant) was the most interesting exhibit.

Can’t really remember the facts right now but apparently this stingray died on my birthday some years back.

Sad but true.

So I guess that’s it. I guess Seaworld is really more suited for children and family outings. We just had high expectation which was why we were truly disappointed. They didn’t even have jellyfish.

Looking back, we could have gone to DuFan and had more of a thrill there. Even if it meant literally hanging on to our lives.

Oh well.

.: asylum for the sane :.

where rainbows end.