lin's blog
medical student
having the time of my life!
Thursday, May 25, 2006
byebye!
I'm off to France, the land of buttery croissants, branded macaroons, purple lavender fields, stony chateaus, sunshine, love, arrogant people, ugly monstrosities, and expensive euros now!
~ with all my love, lin
lin~*
6:25 pm
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
new glasses =)
today was baking day again. a super rushed baking session to bake a choc cake for cel to give her parents and loner, and then to make my mum's favourite honeycomb cake, which turned out quite okay despite uneven mixing of the bicarb soda and me worrying tonnes about the caramel not turning the cake brown enough. phew.
and photowhoring with my darling on the cool new functions of his dad's macbook pro! =)
lin~*
10:48 pm
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
yummmylicious!
banana vacherin. contains meringue discs with banana and cream sandwiched in between and on top. yummy! and pretty successful for a first try i must say. despite ants ravaging the entire kitchen top, and cream that somehow kept curdling with icing sugar, and us hand-whisking the meringue mixture instead of using the machine because marcus said that it would impart more character to the cake. so the 3 of us took turns whisking the mixture of eggwhites and sugar till it was stiff and peaky, imparting each of our 3 characters into it. zhenzhen's verdict? the cake's nice, but our characters clash.
a closer look at our cake =) we ate the whole thing can u believe it. 3 slices each plus 2 slices for my parents. im getting fat.
and the 3 proud bakers who made our own supper again =)
lin~*
1:03 am
Thursday, May 18, 2006
20 is a really sexy age to be =)
yay im 20! as wenbo said, my age no longer starts with a "1"! how scary is that =S
but thanks to my wonderful wonderful friends and parents, i had such a wonderful day! gosh. im still reeling from the excitement and its erm 1.45am now, and i just got home. which is amazing considering how my parents usu are qt strict abt such things.
today was supposed to be PINK day, hahaha, and lots of ppl wore pink! cos it was my bday =) yay! hehe. of course, there were the staunch but oh-so-sweet guys who didnt have pink and wore red or whatever else instead. whatever it was, it still made me very happy =) thanks =)
pink people preparing my cake surprise (xuan took this pic)
with some of my ogppl, and some of the 3stanis =) thanks for everything guys =)
and after class at 5, lawrence surprised me outside the library with a huge bouquet of flowers. very pretty, and my fave type too. but gosh darling, u didnt have to get such a huge bunch... it was SO attention grabbing! =S cldnt go anywhere in sch without feeling damn shy. haha, but well it was very sweet of you, thankyou.
mum picked lawrence n me up from school, and we headed to paragon to collect my bday cake from bakerzin. and along the way i ate a delicious chocolate macaroon! so happifying =)
dinner at the fish market restaurant at greenwood ave. the food was tremendously good, the company was wonderful, and the service was great. i really couldnt ask for more. had such a good time here.
oysters night! $1 per oyster only =) we had half a dozen of these slurpy jewels EACH!
soft shell crab spaghetti
warm seafood platter. the lobster on it was really really delicious =)
and then we did the whole birthday cake ritual at the restaurant. =) lawrence was trying so sing louder and louder and my dad and i kept telling him to whisper. but by e end, even some of e other customers joined in! hahaha. =P
i had a really memorable day =) felt so special and loved. thanks everyone. when i got home and after i helped my dad do some stuff, i was gg to call wenkien to tell them i cldnt make it for eastie supper, when chiara answered and said that they were like outside my house! gosh. i scrambled outside, whereby wenkien, enming, chiara, andrew leong n fang, and evelynpeng were outside and they sang me e bday song again, at like 1130! haha... then eloquent wenkien somehow persuaded my mum to let me go for supper with them, he said sthg like "auntie, can we kidnap ur daughter??...." ... hilarious. and i shall post pics soon because i was too tired to take pics, whilst wenkien was snapping away. so... =P
all in all, today was really wonderful. what an exciting bday.
lin~*
1:46 am
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
dinner at bigO with the og (pictured here are me, cel and bean). Where they celebrated my bday and i shared a slice of their Gspot cake with cel (which was seriously good btw)! Was super amused because marcus drove me to town in his fabulous SLK, and took me on a wild goose chase to paragon to look for a place to eat. he was very convincing, i really believed him that celene was stuck in traffic somewhere and the rest hadnt arrived in town yet. all this time, the rest were at borders frantically choosing a bday gift for me. so immensely sweet. im really very touched guys.
anw, they passed me this super heavy package wrapped in pretty pink butterfly paper, and somehow led me to believe that they got me m2 textbooks for my bday. haha. and joshua and marcus were so adamant that i had to mug these books really hard and like get into Dean's list next yr (yeah right guys...)
but when i got home, i realised that my sweet friends had gotten me 2 humongous recipebooks! yay! thanks guys =) i really had alot of fun reading it, and i'll def be trying recipes from here!
they neednt have worried, because marcus and zhenzhen appeared at my house at about 10pm later that night, wanting to bake. so we chose a recipe from the new cookbooks, and improvised somewhat, because i didnt have cream at home. We made chocolate swiss rolls with strawberry jam/marmalade. The cake turned out really nicely, and we had a wonderful supper eating about half of the entire log! guys u must must come over again to bake, and we must try some of the level3 recipes this time!
here's a closer shot of our swiss roll =)
and me and my darling at lunch today, where he treated me to dimsum =) whee!
and seriously interesting chopstick holders on the tables.
lin~*
10:01 pm
Sunday, May 14, 2006
whee liverpool! whee steven gerard who saved the day! =)
Terribly uncharacteristic of me i know... but even yours truly got caught up in the FA cup finals last night, despite not having watched a single match of the season. My bf, his cousins, and their respective bfs/gfs (including me!) went along to gailee and friends at cine to catch the action. well, i just wanted a little pre-World cup appetiser, reminiscent of the fun my friends and i had supporting korea (the underdogs) throughout the entire world cup season in sec4. So i agreed to go along too. thankfully, i wasnt disappointed. it was a good match, with westham apparently faring better in the first half with their speed and pace, but liverpool shining through later on with their superior technique and skill. quite exciting too, if only i didnt have to crane my neck the entire 2hrs to watch. It was doubly interesting to catch the action with a bf who knows much more tricks and terms too. I got a much better perspective of the game, unlike last time's "ooh he kicked the ball there. ooh he headed the ball in", as lawrence taught me about the various rules and tactics they do. Not that i remember much of what he said, of course, but it still made for a more interesting game. =)
lin~*
12:33 pm
Saturday, May 13, 2006
exciting days =)
lunch with the sec2 clique on wed - fiona, ruth, grace (and me of course!) at menotti! haha... had their paninis again, and we ordered different kinds, and shared sandwiches all around. and we all ordered different gelato flavours too! my favourite is still the vanilla one. i seriously think that they use orange blossom water in it. the fragrance is so exceptional. gosh. their other gelato flavours were jampacked with flavour. my pistachio was like "WOAH pistachio" i even got that salty grainy taste in my mouth which i get when i eat pistachios from the packet at CNY. and so were all the others we tried - red berry yoghurt, passionfruit (which made me feel like i was bathing because currently im using the body shop's passionfruit showergel), chocmint etc. =)
on a non-fooding note, it was wonderful to meet up with them again! =) spent like 4hrs just chitchatting about everything, and as always, ruth tells us about her exploits overseas whilst training or competing (she's a national fencer, an almost-professional athlete!) - most recently, to kuwait, where even the poor live in bungalows sponsored by govt handouts. amazing stuff.
then i went on a jaunt to sentosa with these people! joshua, sheryl, (me), zhenzhen and marcus! we got free entry into sentosa because marcus is a member of the still-presently-nonexistent-sentosa countryclub! haha. why his parents would buy a membership of a club that is still unbuilt eludes me. but wells, i shant say more.
we went on the new sentosa luge! im trying to figure out how the helmet fits. somehow it couldnt really fit my head. maybe it was too small. HEHE MORE BRAINS! yeah right.
for 8bucks, you get a single ride up the chairlift, and then a luge ride down the hill. i was on the same chairlift as joshua and sheryl. zhenzhen and marcus were in front! sheryl and i kept taking pics on the chairlift, but its so open, we were deathly afraid of dropping our precious cameras. scary stuff here. im a little afraid of heights, and there's only a little barrier separating me from the jungle bush below. gahhh. zz and i were damn afraid we'd drop our slippers too. altogether it was a fun experience. hehe.
zhenzhen and the "luges". honestly i dont know what these vehicles are called but they are powered by gravity and controlled by bicyclehandle-like-brakes. we all get on-the-spot lessons on how to operate these things.
and once they ascertain that you can operate the thing, they give you a "very good" or "well done" stamp on your hand! hilarious please, and so extremely primary school!
there's this new vehicle there, i cant remember what it;s called now, but its like a skate board kinda thing and you move it by swinging the handles from left to right, and u gotta kick off to give urself momentum. looks so fun we all wanted to try it, but its super hard to manuvere! thank goodness we didnt rent it. went on blades in the end, but gosh sentosa is so difficult to blade in. marcus, zz and joshua were relatively experienced and din have so many problems, but i only just learnt how to blade! super hard, i kept falling down whenever the road became bumpy cos of those ornamental stones, and lots of twigs and branches around. in the end, i had to roll from treetrunk to treetrunk, pillar to lamppost, and whenever there were none, the rest would help pull me along. so difficult please. thank goodness sheryl rented a bike, else it would have been so hard for her to learn how to blade there.
ben&jerry's! haha... i love the strawberry cheesecake flavour i chose =)
we all got tired of blading towards the end of it, so we got sheryl to drag all of us! super funny! we were going around siloso beach shrieking and laughing as poor sheryl dragged all of us along hehe... the bicycle shop uncle even wanted to get a camera to take pictures of us. =)
and us girls played water at the fountain after to cool off =) fun =)
on thurs, the soma people came over to do first aid demonstration photos, so fun trying to create bruises, burns and cuts! hehe. and we had to pose for pictures, so difficult to get the emotion right. gosh how to act like you're in pain when the guys behind the photographer (joshua) are making comments that make you laugh??? i had to act like i was choking, and huising had a fracture, terence had a burn, weiming had a bad cut, and joshua had leg cramps. the transportation pictures were the worst, because we had to carry huising whilst joshua took his time taking photos because he is so perfectionistic sighs.
us after a long night of hard work =)
choir pract on friday afternoon, which was very fun! =) cant wait for the next one. too bad i sold my piano off recently, else i can practise the song on my own. our first song - peace i leave with you, for the ttsh thing zhenjin's organising. and im an alto! =P exciting. mirriam and candice are sooo good! they are sopranos and their voices are so rich and whole. gosh. the guys were super cute too! going "peace" all over the place in their deep baritones. hehe...
ah and i had macaroons for breakfast this morning. how much happier can i get?? hehe. didnt bring my camera, but we went to this la placie french bakery place at bkt timah next to coronation. nice place, wonderful crossiants! a perfect prelude to france in 2wks time! exciting =)
ooh happiness. this week was so exciting and i've been so tired ive been sleeping an average of 12hrs a day =P haha.
lin~*
5:26 pm
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
there's this scene in the Titanic that I remember now and then.
Everybody's rushing onto the deck, desperate to get a place on a lifeboat, and thence their ticket to survival. It's chaotic, people screaming, the ship lurching, waves splashing threateningly. Admist that spread of utter panic, the screen flicks to a scene, where an elderly couple, resigned to their fate of a watery grave, gets into bed and waits for the end in each other's arms.
Somehow when i remember Titanic, I dont remember the cliched "Jack! I'm flying!", but this is the image that always comes to mind. That eldery couple. It's just the incredibly romantic, if not slightly morbid, idea.
Lying in his arms/Holding her tightly in your arms, whispering " I love yous" to each other until the end.
this image from a French cemetery reminded me of this.
lin~*
7:47 pm
Sunday, May 07, 2006
feeling exceedingly happy now that my Honeycomb cake turned out pretty good for a first try.
I first tried them at Ruth's house, which was so superdelicious that i've been begging for 6 years for the recipe from her mum, but to no avail =P haha. Its my mother's favourite cake too, with the aroma and taste of caramel, and a chewy springy texture. managed to find a recipe online some time ago, and tried to make it today. Had alot of problem making the caramel, esp getting the sugar to melt and burn to just the right colour. For awhile i kept getting back dry white stuff which was probably just hydrated sugar crystals left behind after the water boiled dry. Frustrating, and i ended up pouring off the first lot. Then my mum came along and cooked a pot of nice brown caramel, though just slightly burnt =S haha. but still better than nothing. so happy that the cake turned out with the little tunnels and holes as you can see there, which gives it its name. Shall have to perfect the caramel making skills so that it'll be more tasty and fragrant.
lin~*
2:50 pm
Saturday, May 06, 2006
the past 2 weeks or so...
hello. ive been tremendously lazy to blog for the past 2weeks or so. the mass last sat went really well, thankyou everyone who came down =) relatives came, and the rest of the time till abt 4am fri night/sat morning ive been absorbed in da chang jin. i could rave about the show forever here, about how suave min zheng hao da ren is (and he is REALLY suave, like the dreamboat bf or sthg *GUSH*), how pretty and brave chang jin is, how cute the auntie and uncle are, how i cry during the tenderest scenes (which involve nothing more than the usual period drama kind of placing of the girl's head demurely on the guy's chest -- sadly HAHA)... etcetcetc...woah. but i think i shan't, although i prob already have. in between the times i've been curled up in bed absorbed in the kitchen antics, perils and romance of THAT show on my laptop, i actually found time and had the consciousness to go out. Which, i believe, is truly amazing. Although i truly doubt my clarity of mind for these past few days. But its over. i've survived through nearly 70hrs of korean palace rivalry, getting really hungry for korean food in the meantime. i'm still reeling in the aftermath of the drama, the happiness of the ending, im even considering rewatching the blissful last episode. thank goodness there's no more for now. phew.
i shall blog photos from the past 2wks. however, i'm really wondering why when i go out with people, i end up taking pictures of the food, instead of the company. maybe i really wasnt really clear in my head then.
met up for the afternoon with pretty pretty shiyun! FINALLY! her exams ended and we finally found time to meet up. dear male friends who have designs on her, she is happily attached, so hands off please.
my melting centre chocolate cake! =) i finally bought little single portion sized ramekins - glassware for souffles/cakes/other stuff that can withstand oven temperatures. so i finally made 8 little choc cakes with oozy melted orange flavoured chocolate in the centre!
my cousin jingxian, who's studying medicine in msia, and came on holiday with my paternal aunts. we went kboxing together! we've been close since we were little girls, together with her younger brother. the 3 of us would play like mad whenever i went back to msia, and i still fondly remember our antics with the masakmasak, wrapping each other up in the blankets with various other (plastic toy) ingredients to make human popiahs, playing burglar whereby her little bro always has to be the burglar and we get to thrash him up (HAHA). and when we were older, just chit chatting about life and love. gosh i really love her and her bro =)
my dad's 4 sisters who came to sg for a sisters' outing (minus the grandchildren THANKGOODNESS). any resemblance there?
i baked this m&m cookie on a whim and a bored labour day morning. tasted nice, but i thought it was too cakey. perhaps i made them too thick, therefore they were less crunchy. tastes fantastic heated up with chocolate icecream though =)
went for lunch at the caffebar at parkway with zhenzhen =) and i had this delicious chocolate macaroon! woohoo! a prelude to my trip to France where i shall seek out the famed macaroons from the houses of Laduree, Pierre Hermes, Mariage Freres, Jean-Paul Hevin and more!
REALLY DAMN FREAKING DELICIOUS PANINI from Menotti! gosh. paninis are italian grilled sandwiches. i usually love the caprese salad (consisting of alternating layers of sliced vine tomatoes and beef mozarella cheese, with basil leaves) but i felt like having something warm and savoury. therefore i ordered the panini capri, which was SO GOOD I STILL DREAM ABOUT IT. the bread was so fragrant, and the basil pesto in it (the green parts) flavoured the whole thing perfectly. i am going back for more.
the oozy cheese from the DREAMBOAT PANINI. i want another one right now =(
lawrence's cannelloni, also from menotti, which we also agreed was very good. however, it was generally agreed that we both liked the panini more! haha. okay we were here for dinner before ballroom lessons, and we had alot of time to spare, so we decided to have a good meal, esp with his $30 menotti voucher HAHA. we spent about $35 in all, which wasnt very expensive still considering the quality of food we had.
lawrence with his cannelloni! ohoh and there's a glass of my favourite st pellagrino gassy water in the picture too! haha... to me, that's the perfect water with a meal. its gassy such that it's refreshing, but not too gassy that it makes me bloat up. so wonderful =)
ok and now i have to gush about our dessert. i cant remember the name of this dessert, but it was damn good. better than the panini good. these are choux pastry (the same kind as cream puffs but without the custard/cream) with vanilla gelato inside, topped with a generous helping of cocoa powder, chopped chocolate bits, and chopped nuts. the vanilla gelato wasnt melty but it was melt-in-your-mouth, wonderful texture. it had a wonderful flavour too, detected a hint of orange in it, so perfect. so wonderful. im so glad im dragging fiona, yun, ruth and grace there again on tues. haha whee!
other than all these, we also had a bbq for my dad's friends on sun night, which went really well. i seasoned all the food and they were delicious! (DUH right) haha his friend also brought over a choc fountain which we had lots of fun dipping fruits, biscuits and icecream into! =) oh and there was that girly outing on tues night to timbre with cel, chiara, xuan, and cel's friends vanessa and alison too =)
ohoh and i PASSED M1! whee! i can be M2! i survived 1 yr of guyton, snell, berne&levy, MMS, jack's essays, junquiera and more!
life is good now. i think i shall move on to rewatching that "tian zi zi" last episode of da chang jin now. =)
lin~*
10:57 pm
