Melona

This may sound weird from someone who eats a lot...  I only got to try Melona about 3 weeks ago..*shocked face*

A lot of people looooove Melona, and I've heard so many good things about it, but I didn't really like it. I mean it's okay, but it's not something I would crave for. It's too sweet!

What I miss most is the  melon popsicle by Magnolia from way way back. They don't sell those anymore though. *sad face*

My Fattening Creations

Such fun to have a pantry filled with baking ingredients, and a kitchen with complete baking equipments (ie, food processor, blender, stand mixer, hand mixer, oven).

 

I love cooking. In fact, it used to be my stress releaser back when I was still in Singapore. I just couldn't go all out in experimenting then because of time constraint, and lack of cooking/baking equipments.

 

Now, everything is there and calling out to me. 'Use me, use me!' they say.  Used them I did, I experimented and came up with these treats:

                           Egg Tart (actually, just the custard, because the crust is prepared by the baker).

 Soft pretzels and pretzel dogs. Dough made from scratch.

 Smooth soybean pudding. A bit tricky to make. One wrong step, and the whole thing is ruined.

Super fat chocolate chip cookies. About 3 people told me it's too big. How can anyone complain  about big chocolate chip cookies!?

 Bread pudding with vanilla sauce. I used a day old bread from Italiannis. You see, they gave us a complimentary crusty loaf for letting us wait soooo long for a seafood risotto. When it eventually came out, the prawns were still gray and raw so it had to be taken back to the kitchen (for another 10 minutes).  Duh! It only takes a few seconds to cook shrimps.

 Kikiam using beancurd skin. Cooked using the Philips air fryer.

Moist choco cuppycakes. Probably gained a pound during the R&D stage (the tasting part. I couldn't just pinch and taste the cupcake because that wouldn't satisfy me. I needed to eat the whole cupcake to determine the moistness.).

Hey, B&*ch!

 It was difficult capturing my footprints. I had to be quick in imprinting my feet on the sand, and even quicker in running back up to take photos before the waves wash it off.

 I love the feeling of sand between my toes. It tickles!

                                                    Going to Paradise... Paradise Beach

Big coconut to quench my thirst.

 

*********************************

Yey, the beach! And it's only 30 minutes away from the city.

Basically, we drove and parked our car at the pump boat station, about 15 minutes travel time. Then, we took a pump boat/raft to the island, another 15 minutes.

It was the company's outing, so we went there to watch them play games and to eat. I didn't bother to swim because I didn't feel like bringing extra clothes and going through the hassle of showering after swimming. That certainly saved some time, and so after 2 hours, we were already back at home.

While the sand is not the finest, and the water is not oh-so-clear, it still feels good to be in the beach. Just digging the sand with my toes.

Life of a Temporary Bum

My goodness! It's already November. Meaning, I've been a bum for 4 months. Gak!
While I've earned the right to be so (c'mon, I worked my butt off in Singapore), I don't feel so good about it. Yeah it's nice not having Monday blues, but it also feels sad not being productive.

I do help out with the baking, but the sort of help I give (ie frosting, forming the dough, preparing the filling) is not so significant. Meaning, even if I don't do it, it's no biggie since it would still get done by someone else. Haiz. The feeling of being unimportant.

I miss being significant. Like when everything would slow down because I'm not in the office. Or when I'm contacted while I'm on leave because they had to get my answer about something. I also miss the pay. The financial freedom and the thought that I can buy what I wanted. Sounds so superficial, but I'm just being honest.

I mean, I can still buy stuff now, but the decision-making process takes longer now.

Anyway, my goal is to start working on 2013. Why not now, you ask?  Well becauuuse, employers are not hiring. Being almost December and bonus-paying month.

It's October!

Wow, haven't been  blogging for sooooo long!

I've been in Davao for 2 months already and have finally developed some kind of a routine which is as follows:

1. Wake up at 7:30-8am
2. Have breakfast
3. Try to help out with the baking of pastries for our coffee shop (ie, decorating the cookies, glazing the cinnamon, icing the banoffee, topping the cheesecake with glaze).
4. Rest before lunch
5. Lunch
6. Surf the net (ie trying to trade stocks)
7. Look for jobs online
8. Nap (not an everyday thing)
9 Exercise
10. Experiment on recipes found in the net (not an everyday thing)
11. Help out with evening baking (usually at night, it would be to make foccacia bread and cheesecake)
12. Dinner
13. Watch TV while surfing the net
14. Sleep

Sounds like I'm living the life right? Well I am, I suppose... but it does got boring, and I feel myself becoming smaller and smaller each day.

I guess that's what happens if you're used to being independent, working hard and then spending hard.

Now I can't spend hard because I'm not earning anything. Profit from stock trading doesn't come everyday. Sigh. It's a bit depressing sometimes.

I feel like I'm letting down a lot of people, and most importantly, myself.

Anyway, I've started an online business with my friend. It's an online clothing store.
My friend does the sourcing, and I do the write-up. Currently we're still on the initial promoting stage and so far, we've only got 17 likes (and I'm one of them!)

I personally believe the clothes are nice, and it's different from what I see on other online clothing sites. This is a Singapore-based online store, but we can send out to other countries, as long buyer is okay to bear all the shipping costs.

It's called Rainie & Cat and can be found in Facebook =)

Happy National Day!

I miss Singapore! As in, super! I miss my wings, I miss the safety and convenience, I also miss the money.

-Picture taken inside one of the conservatories in Gardens by the Bay-
Yep, I made it a point to go there before leaving Singapore last July.

Back to Blogging

Wow, this feels a bit alien to me already.. I haven't blogged since June and now, I'm not even sure where to begin.

I can just go and post only the recent happenings and events, but then that would be a waste of my photo-taking efforts..

To summarize, below are the more important events that happened from June 18 to today - Aug 7,2012:

1. I resigned from my job as an Assistant Account Manager of Deutsche Bank effective June 29,2012 (sniff. goodbye *confidence-boosting job!)
2. I stayed in Singapore a few days more before I left the country for good. In those short days, I was a tourist once again and did what tourists would do.
3. I got back to Manila and crammed on my wedding preps. Up till this day, I still can't figure out how I was able to complete the wedding plans. Surprisingly, the wedding went well too!
4. I got married on July 22nd. It was a 3pm wedding. A super rainy one too. They say rain on your wedding day is lucky, so we tried not to complain...but oh, it drove my guests away.
5. We stayed in Manila for 3 full days after the wedding, because there's such a thing as bride-going-back-home-on-the-third-day-ritual.  I didn't go back on the third day though. Instead, we had a family dinner on Tuesday, my 31st birthday.
6. On Thursday, July 26, we flew to Davao. My new hometown.

7 onwards.. I just ate, followed my husband to the office, stayed home, ate, ate, ate.

Oh! I wake up pretty early nowadays too. Around 7:15-7:45, even without alarm. 
(Today, I woke up at 1am, and I honestly thought it was already morning.)

And Oh! I also eat durians. The fresh ones. Seeds after seeds of durian. Mmm.


* It's a confidence-boosting job when facing other people (ie friends, family, ex-colleagues) , but it can also be a self-esteem 'destroyer' because for me, there were times (lots of em) when I felt like I didn't know anything. I didn't understand the complexity of some investment products, and therefore I felt like I'm such a fraud. Being in a bank and knowing just the basics.