change of dynamics

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Urgh I just finished a cup of cold Lady Grey tea cuz I was reading Twitter and forgot about it. Urgh.

So hellooooo.

I haven't been doing much. Still bumming around. Still playing more Bejeweled Blitz than I care for. But less than the very first week already so yay improvement. Empress is so not happy that I'll be staying home this break again instead of going out to do things that bring in some money but I have zero cares for. I also haven't been doing what I DO care for - research. Oopsy.

There was this exhibition along the walkway to Esplanade on mixtapes. It was snippet after snippet of songs played from casettes. I'm sure the younger generation does not even know what a casette is anymore. And I just sounded like a 60-year-old woman. Hi there, I'm trapped in a 20-something body. Nice to meetchoo.

One of the songs played was this:

I was so excited when I heard it. It's one of my fave songs!! Somebardeh was quite shocked. HAHA. This is how I keep myself entertained and the other party shocked/surprised/whateverhappenstobethechoiceofemotion - by not being an open book. *smug*

Am listening to it as I'm writing this. Hahaha.

Some other pictures of my recent explorations.

I don't know why but I'm lazy to upload food pictures already. I do still take them, just lazy to upload.

White Rabbit and its surrounding areas -

Heart of ixora! So prettyyyyy.
Nah rare picture of me:

Teehee. You shoulda known.

Labels: Laadeedums, Pretty in Pictures, Tres Amusing, Videos

my pretty little red butterfly.
4:04 PM

Monday, May 28, 2012

yes

Tintin: How's your thirst for adventure?
Captain Haddock: Unquenchable.

Replace 'Tintin' with anyone, 'adventure' with 'knowledge', 'Captain Haddock' with 'CHOOAHQI'.

Yes la. Finally.

And D, I'm reaaaaaaaaallllllllllyyyyyyyyy vairrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr happy wrt your Thesis grade!!!!!!!!! :DDDDD

Labels: Laadeedums, School, Tres Amusing

my pretty little red butterfly.
1:08 PM

Sunday, May 27, 2012

girlfriends ♥ and coffee

It's amazing how a good dose of GIRLFRIENDS can make one light and fluffy again.

Thank you vairrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr much, D and S.

Pictures up tmr. I'm suffering from too much a dose of caffeine (two cups separated by two hours) which makes me a bit high yet I'm yawning like mad and feeling sleepy. I have no idea what's going on. Lesson learnt. I am not about to attempt such a stunt again.

Updated:

SOS Rochester Park Starbucks date. SOS called by me. Thank you, vair much.

The wind was blowing, the camera couldn't focus.

Pretty mug of mocha.

Chicken ciabatta. Being the loser that I am, I got it cuz I saw it was served with the chips. I really just wanted the corn chips. Hur.

Girlfriends and coffee. This song:

金海心 & 蔡淳佳 - 女人們的咖啡

一壶正好是两人份的咖啡啊
一屋子芬芳气息
两个女人见到话题永远不停

关于男人关于女人和自己
整个世界都要整理
有时候只有跟你说才有头绪

男人总不懂女人眼泪真实的意义
女人猜不透男人忽然沉默的背景
有时候爱情不如和你喝咖啡有趣

过去的事情想早点忘记却爱回忆
下一段恋曲却又怕再伤心
我们总轮流互相的安慰
彼此打气

信用卡可以买到一季的流行
却买不到真实自己
只有听你说的分析深入我心

就算是小小的竞争或是在斗气
这一切都不是问题
用一杯咖啡的时间都能搞定

男人总不懂女人眼泪真实的意义
女人猜不透男人忽然沉默的背景
有时候爱情不如和你喝咖啡有趣

过去的事情想早点忘记却爱回忆
下一段恋曲却又怕再伤心
我们总轮流互相的安慰
彼此打气

下次见面那杯咖啡时间地点先定
下次见面哪些事情没话说我挺你

Labels: Foodie Diaries, Laadeedums, Pretty in Pictures, Thoughts, Tres Amusing, Videos

my pretty little red butterfly.
12:21 PM

Friday, May 25, 2012

prophet

chooahqi, just shut your mouth. Because everything you say is prophetic. Not necessarily in a good way sometimes. So, just shut it.

Wrote a post. I thought it was not bad. Too bad, it's going to stay in my drafts. Until I can find a more politically correct way to put things delicately.

OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
[...]

- Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West

I wanted to find this quote for the 'never the twain shall meet'. And OH. It speaks of God.

How.

Apt.

Labels: Thoughts

my pretty little red butterfly.
2:58 PM

defending myself

I dislike being maligned. Or misjudged. Or being blamed for something I didn't do. INTENSELY DISLIKE.

Stop judging me by things I say, or more likely, DON'T say. Me not saying anything does not equate to me not doing anything.

So being a Choo means being secretive? I take that as a compliment, seriously. How many people can keep secrets like us then?! Are we not the most trustworthy people around then?! AND ALSO THE ONES YOU HAVE TO BE MOST WARY ABOUT THEN?!

So please, stop assuming. For goodness' sakes.

And stop judging before you know the whole entire story. And you won't ever know the whole entire story, so just sod it and keep it inside you.

If I ever listened to all the sceptical judgemental comments by others in every step of my way, I think I woulda been suicidal by now. The domineering bitch of a personality then helped to shoulder all that negativity; now, it's just me and my calm (riiiiight, so says the first five paragraphs of this post) zen-ness. *ohmmmmm*

Labels: Anger (mis)Management, Laadeedums

my pretty little red butterfly.
2:17 PM

3am

3am calls are never good.

Some up-to-3am calls are not good too.

Because there is the fear of hanging up - once the call ends, life changes forever.

So you hang on. BOY do you hang on.

Labels: Thoughts

my pretty little red butterfly.
2:00 PM

Thursday, May 24, 2012

情人知己

Score.

Labels: Laadeedums, Videos

my pretty little red butterfly.
5:00 PM

quick words

on the by-election.

I feel that this time round, there are many more personal attacks being made. Why ah. Shouldn't the focus be on the policies? Hmmm.

Labels: Laadeedums, Newsworthy

my pretty little red butterfly.
2:49 PM

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

stars and hearts

Wah seh. Yesterday's baking really damnnnnn ache-inducing. Woke up this morning, turned over and OOH NECK ACHE. OOH ARM ACHE. OOH BACK ACHE. OOH.

If I everyday knead flour butter sugar eggs into dough and then churn icing sugar and water into icing everyday, say alohaaaaa to super muscular mua who can really cccccrush people like cccccockroach.

So. T needed help baking for her kids at her childcare centre. Of course I won't pass up the chance to do what I like to do.

I let her get her hands dirty and knead the flour butter sugar eggs into dough. She super gentle and demure. Girl ah, you need to be rougher a bit. Be as chor lor as me. Hahaha.

Recipe from the usual place: Basic Butter Cookie Dough and Cut-Out Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour

I didn't spoon and level. I told T to just pour until it reaches the 3-cup mark on the measuring cup. And told her to sift it.

1 cup confectioners' sugar

I JUST only realised, 24/5 as I'm editing yesterday's post, that I used the wrong sugar haaaaa. I used fine granulated sugar. It's supposed to be icing sugar (same thing, different names). No wonder I could still see the sugar crystals on the cookies. But luckily no harm done to them. And anyway I used less than 1 cup. Because I will always always always use less sugar than stipulated.

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

This is my version of "cut in pieces" hahahaaa. This is just one whole slab of a 227g SCS unsalted butter. (Auntie alert: yay it was still going at the same slightly cheaper price as last week *YES LAAAAA*) This bowl was going into the fridge for a while so that it will be "cold".

1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Egg wash, (optional): 1 large egg white, beaten with 2 teaspoons water - I didn't use
Decorating sugar and sprinkles, (optional) - did not intend to use, did in the end

Directions:

Place flour, sugar, butter, and salt in the bowl of a food processor; process until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. - no food processor, used bare hands, specifically, T's

Knead.

Knead.

In a small bowl, lightly beat egg yolks and vanilla; with motor running, add to food processor. Process just until a dough forms.

Added the eggs. Knead some more.

Does this not look like a piece of chicken going into a cornflake/breadcrumb batter to be marinated? Hahahahaha.
No pictures henceforth cuz my hands were full of dough. (If only it were the other kind. Ha.)

Divide dough in half; form into two 1/2-inch-thick disks. Wrap in plastic; chill until firm, at least 1 hour. - we got 3 disks instead because my estimation of half and half fail. As usual. Ha. But we really used up every single bit of dough. Aiya I just realised I forgot to take pictures of the two dices (sp?) that T rolled the last clump into.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a piece of floured waxed paper, roll one disk to a thickness of 3/16 inch; chill. Repeat with remaining dough.

Flouring cutters as you go (to prevent sticking), cut dough into desired shapes; carefully transfer to baking sheets. Re-chill rolled-out dough if difficult to work with.

Heart cookie cutter.

If decorating, brush with egg wash, then sprinkle with sugar or sprinkles. Bake until edges are firm (not brown), 15 to 20 minutes for 3-inch cookies. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheets; cool completely on a wire rack. - I made icing, then stuck the sprinkles on top of the icing.

Sprinkles. Last minute decision to use them. The camera dowan to focus properly.

Mandatory oven picture. This batch got too brown. So no other pictures of it. I brought them home, Empress is happily eating them. Haha. Our cookies were all of different thickness cuz I kinda wasn't too accurate in my rolling of all the cookies oops. In total, we made about 30+ big hearts, 10+ small hearts and maybe 10 apples?

Spot the strategically positioned pseudo four-leaf clover.

Smaller hearts and apples, some of which do not have the stem because the dough preferred to stay in the cookie cutter.

★s on ♥s. First time decorating cookies.

My favourite picture of the lot. A bit tumblr-worthy right. *chey ownself say ownself*

I let her use all my pretty packets. Until I had no more and I had to use plain boring ones for D and S when I met them after baking (next post!).

All the baked goodies.
Icing does not need any fixed recipe - just pour any amount you want into the mixer and add enough water and mix until it's sufficiently thick and gooey but still quite liquid and can be squeezed out of a bag easily. Sorry no pictures!

I finally know why cupcake places charge so much for a measly cupcake. THE FROSTING (for cupcakes)/ICING (what I did for the cookies) IS DAMN HARD TO DO!!!! My GAWD it was the most perspiration-inducing thing everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Lucky I had decided to go home to shower before heading out again. And as a result of all that strenuous activity, I decided to stay home take a short nap first instead of my original plan of popping home for a quick shower and charging out immediately. PHEW.

But yay prettiest things I've done in a while. But also means more calories. Hur. Hence I like to leave mine as plain as possible. There's enough butter and sugar in those things, I don't want to add anymore purely sugar icing/frosting to them! Basic > Beauty. Life motto of chooahqi. (I just came up with it. I rock.)

Labels: Baking/Cooking/Steaming, Laadeedums, Pretty in Pictures, Tres Amusing

my pretty little red butterfly.
2:25 PM

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

of entity and approval

[Post done on 24 May 2012]

Two nights ago was one heck of a night.

Topics included couples being "one entity", seeking "approval" from various parties with regards to other halves, naming your child when you are angry, and poseur spellings of proper names like Shaughn or Quatharyn. The former has quite a funny story - I saw this name when the Straits Times had their spelling bee competition. IRONY OMG SO FUNNY I cannot get over it.

Went to Fika Cafe along Arab St (I think). It serves halal Swedish food.

S told us some good news but me and D were expecting good AND JUICY news so oops sorry S that we couldn't hide our disappointment HAHAHAHA. BUT YESSSSSS I'M (I'm sure D is too) HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY FORRRRRR YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :DDDDDD

S' meatballs.

D's panbiff i.e. beef patties.

I don't eat beef so I had the cheeeken. It was yummmmmmm.
Then we adjourned to Ministry of Food and had desserts.

And all the major gossip of the night - awkwardness, "LOVE" as S herself tweeted and D said she summed it up nicely HAHA nice one D ;) and the past. Ha. Vague enough that nobody knows what I'm talking about. My style~

D's kuri mitsu. I have a feeling it is the Japanese way of phoneticising "cream". That's ice cream there anyway, with fruits and jelly.

My matcha float. EVERYBARDY, THE MATCHA IS A DAMN AWESOME EQUIVALENT OF THE ONE I HAD IN JAPAN LAST YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JAPANESE-STANDARD MATCHA IN SINGAPORE, FOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not the ice cream though. It was meh~ in comparison to Japan's. But I was soooooooooooooo pleasantly surprised when I sipped the drink and IT WAS BITTER MATCHA YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

S had matcha kakigori. She was in love with the matcha drink too hee.
Theme for the day was to wear our bright CNY dresses. Ta-dah: (D has the same picture, but with me looking so happy I likeeeee :D)

S couldn't wear something bright cuz she had internship earlier. But she matchy matchy with our colours! :D

After seeing the picture I took - I was satisfied with my self-shot too heh,

S: Wah not bad ah, learning from the pro. (Because S is really good with self shots.)
M: Wah not shy, this one.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAA.

To more girls' nights outs like these! :D

Labels: Happy Occasions, Laadeedums, Pretty in Pictures, Tres Amusing

my pretty little red butterfly.
11:59 PM

everywhere ache ache

Old McDonald had a farm. E I E I OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Today's two happenings deserve their own posts. Tmr la okeh. Saya's arms are aching. And wrists. And legs. (Yes apparently also need legs to blog.) And saya also scalded myself. Genius.

Update next day 1am: Oh neck also ache.

Labels: Laadeedums, Tres Amusing

my pretty little red butterfly.
11:55 PM