Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Another stationery store

Another shop discovery from my recent foray at Tampines1, the new mall. From a distance, it already looked like trouble. It's not a scrapbooking store exactly, but it's the closest thing to it in the east. Not luxe, but functional. It won't make you giddy and fork out twice what you intended to spend, more likely you'll make a calm, rational, value-for-money purchase and leave feeling pleased anyway.

To answer the obvious question: I bought 1 set of stickers. Very cute asymetrical heart stickers that will bring cheer to several people. $2.25 after discount (it's an offshoot of Popular!). Yes, a prudent purchase. Though in my mind I hear my mother scoffing. And rolling her eyes :) And for a moment I think, gosh, am I still that 7 year old spending her pocket money on stationery?!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Perspectives on Pocky

Things I do on the train to work: peruse my photos and ponder their
prettiness. LOL.

I compiled this using a photoshop-like iPhone app called montage lite. It works really well and is good for stringing a couple of photos together. It's got other features like editing the colour and transparency of individual photos. Really easy to use and it's free;)

So- the story on the pocky is this: firstly, I am a (moderate, not rabid) pocky fan, junk food though it may be. I'm thrilled whenever I find new flavours - like a certain strawberry marble one from a shop I just found at Tampines1 last Saturday. It's a quirky japanese snack
emporium :)

This one, though, was left on my table one ordinary work day by Bee, one of my good friends from work. It's dipped in CHOCOLATE and laced with OREO crumbs. Cheer for a chocoholic!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

How to make Konnyaku Jelly















For Steph - sorry! tech issues!

You will need (shown in the photo):
Konnyaku powder - 1 pack (10gms), makes 24 jellies
Citric Acid - 1/8 teaspoon
Food colouring - 1 drop
Flavouring, e.g. Lychee - 1/4 teaspoon
And just for fun, some dried kiwi seeds

(not shown)
Caster Sugar - 210 gms
Water - 950 ml
Canned fruit - my mum used canned lychees


The name to remember is Red Man. Yes, Red Man. Proudly made in S'pore. Everything shown above is from Red Man, except the food colouring. You can get the ingredients from NTUC or directly from Phoon Huat. The most amusing discovery I've just made is that - after repeated attempts to save my photo of the ingredients - it's all on the Phoon Huat website! Just buy the Konnyaku Jelly powder and you'll find the recipe on the back of the packet :)

So anyway, what you do is mix the Konnyaku powder and caster sugar. Boil the water, then stir this mixture in. Keep stirring, add the citric acid, colouring and flavour.

Pour the Konnyaku solution into plastic moulds where you've already placed the fruit. Chill in the fridge.

Easy to do, and they just look so pro :)

Ta-da :)

Today's Lunch

Just a snapshot of a relatively frugal lunch from the staff canteen.
And a pretty satisfying one, at that. I used to eat like this most
lunches but these days my food expenditure has increased...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Birthday Blooms

It's kind of nice to have flowers on the table at breakfast. This is my birthday bouquet from my aunt, in which she also artfully shoved in a mascara and eye liner :) love my family...

I can never quite decide but if I had to pick 2 favourite colours, I think it would be yellow and white (technically a non-colour).

Saturday, July 11, 2009

One Hand Waving

OOH. I am thrilled to add this blog to my list of blogs-to-check-frequently.
http://thesoundofonehandwaving.blogspot.com/

Janice Tay, ST correspondent, has been studying/working in Japan for some time and I've always enjoyed her articles. Unfortunately, the blog doesn't allow for linking to individual posts at the moment so one of the articles she wrote on 22 Sep 08 has to be searched for by entering 'vending' as a key word. It's about a seemingly inane Japanese blog about a vending machine. Totally Sassy-Girl like. I could see it playing out as a movie!

I love reading blogs! (to quote Steph :)
I like going through them the hard way. None of that Google reader stuff for me, it's just not the same experience :p
Another reason I'm happy to add this blog is that most of my blogs are American-based, with 1 Australian one. Lots of mummy blogs and people-who-love-fashion/design blogs, and people-who-love-scrapbooking blogs. Whimsical Asian blogs : none, till now! Whee.

Monday, July 6, 2009

30 was good

So I was just chatting with an old classmate who shares the same birthday. And when I say old, I don't mean literally...for this birthday anyway :P

It was so funny, I was on facebook and she just popped up in my chat box. We haven't talked for what... 15 years maybe? No need for preambles to conversation, just cordial exchanges of bday wishes and exchanging thoughts about hitting the 30s and whatnot. Last year this time round, I was blue about moving up the age bracket. This year, I am much calmer. In fact, I am feeling very relaxed about many things at this point in my life. I am satisfied :)

Friday, July 3, 2009

Photo blues

I am having problems posting photos :(

Meanwhile, check out this gallery by Matt Lauder, a professional photographer - he takes astoundingly amazing, breathtaking photos of the Australian landscape.

Nitey Nite! Woohoo, the weekend's here!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Park

Played hooky today, just for awhile...