l y r i c s

"Close your eyes; I wanna ride the skies in your sweet dreams..."

Was at Giant at Vivo City just now and they were playing this song as piped-in music.. Erm, it doesn't seem to make much sense to me, I don't see the logic in how closing eyes can help with riding skies hmm... Am I missing out something here?

b o t a n i c

Went to the botanical gardens with D for a walkabout-chat thingy before the hols ended.. Can't believe I forgot to bring my camera! Doesn't mean that it prevented me from taking shots of purple flowers that caught my eye on the way, with my phone's camera haha... Took this at the Swan Lake (ok it was more like a pond).. Too bad no swans swam past then..

m o o n c a k e s

Made mooncakes with my aunt last Tuesday.. That's the 'innards' of a traditional mooncake! haha.. You won't believe how oily all the ingredients of a mooncake are!! I was actually a little put off by the amount of oil oozing about, don't think I'd have been able to imagine eating one right after making it.. =P

Anyway, we had to leave it at her place to stand (upside-down) for 3 days before consumption.. Was back there on Sat for an extended family dinner and finally got to taste our creation.. Woah!! It's totally hotel-standard! Or even better, according to my uncle haha... (Silly me forgot to take a photo of it before eating on Sat =P )


Other than the traditional kind, we made cheese mooncakes.. The crust's a light pastry with parmesan mixed in.. We had light lotus paste and green-tea flavoured paste for the insides this time... Looks like play-dough eh? ;) We didn't have to stand these before eating, so brought home 2 for my family... Really nice too!! So happy haha... =)

w i s d o m t e e t h

Pardon me for the gruesome photograph... Those are my wisdom teeth (or rather, were)... Just extracted them on Monday, let me do a 'lil orbituary for them before I decide how to dispose of them... The whole-looking one on the left of the photo was the one at the top right side of my jaw. The only one that emerged. But all that did was to wreck havoc in the form of ulcers that never left me for more than a day or two. S extracted that one himself...

The bits on the right of the photo form the one that used to be at the bottom right side of my jaw. It never emerged cos it's impacted (i.e. it's growing sideways instead of upwards). Same with the bottom left one, but will extract it maybe in about a month's time, so at least I can still chew with my left side. =P It was an operation by a specialist -- plenty of local anesthesia applied and injected (you don't wanna imagine that gigantic crude-looking syringe is going all the way through your gums), totally covered leaving only nose and mouth exposed (supposedly to protect the patient from falling sharp instruments). Thankfully quite painless (thanks to the LA), other than the scary vibrations from the drilling (that's how the tooth got cut up) and the wrenching out of tooth bits..

Totally numb for quite some time, pain only started kicking in in the evening, when I ventured to remove the bloody gauze and started popping the antibiotics and painkillers prescribed at the pharmacy.. Pain wore off after a while, but my right cheek started swelling the next day... It was swelling for days, and finally it's gone down quite a bit today.. Feel so handicapped by it sigh.. Food's a headache, kinda barred from going out since the swelling started (esp when it worsened)... At least it's getting better, still praying that I don't get infection (been faithfully using the prescribed mouthwash despite it killing my tastebuds)..

Guess what? S extracted 2 of his wisdom teeth today too!

c o o k i n g

Been cooking quite a fair bit this hols.. Sometimes being stuck at home and lazy to go down to the coffee shops/food centre to buy my meals or simply just sick of the usual fare.. =P First discovered how easy it is to make shepherd's pie after I found the recipe online and Fiji was experimenting with it haha.. Don't have the photo with me though, sadly... It was wonderful, to say the least... =) Next made it again at ML's place, that the photo of it above.. Didn't have a real oven though, so we used her microwave oven set on 'Bake' haha.. Still turned out not bad, phew...

And that's ML with her lagsane!! Admiring her creation... Heez... It was totally sinful, all that cheese, beef, tomato puree... =P

Erm and that's me n D trying to evade the camera -- evidence of our gluttony in action haha... Wah it was really quite a lot of food, especially since it was all so rich.. But we shared it with all our families of course... Was full to the brim after that, but oh so satisfied...

c a r m i n a b u r a n a

Wooohooooo!!!! pardon me, i'm getting delirious haha... I've been haunted by this piece that I simply love whenever I hear it being used on TV or something, but everytime I ask others what it is, nobody knows.. For YEARS!! And guess how I finally found it? M was showing me some youtube videos of amazingly graceful iceskaters, and one of them had that song as the background music, when I asked my sis, she didn't know either, but pointed out the title of that video clip haha.. Silly me.. =P yupz, so.. *drumroll*

It's 'Carmina Burana - O Fortuna' by Carl Orff...
Feel the immense power... Oh man oh man.. If only I could be singing this in some choir!! Some kind of dream huh... =P Even listening to it sends shots of euphoria through...

This one even has a score that runs with the piece, amazing right.. So now you can know what they're singing haha... Enjoy!


Let me indulge in another one.. So peepz who can't read notes can enjoy the scenery that accompanies the lyrics rather than those beansprouts.. ;)

2 1 s t b i r t h d a y

Ok this is loooonng overdue haha.. Was waiting for the photos from my sis' camera (had to wait for her to return to Holland, download the photos, find time when my niece isn't clamouring all over her, before emailing them to me heez).. Thanks, jie! =)

Having helped a number of friends organise birthday celebrations and surprises, I dreaded the hassle of organising my own 21st birthday's haha... Fortunately, my darling dear actually organised the whole thing for me -- booking, inviting, guest book, bills, everything!! =D Here's a HUMONGOUS THANKS again, dear!! Yupz, so that's how I got to celebrate it despite my numerous hesitations haha... =P

Was thinking of Wiener's Oven, but because of their many limitations with reservations, we decided on Paulaner's German Restaurant at Millenia Walk in the end... Woot! It was seriously quite impressive with the old German photos lining the walls, traditional looking road signs and a May pole in the middle that went all the way up to the dome (just stand in Millenia Walk and look up, and you'll understand what dome I'm talking about)! Finally get to dine there, heez.. ;)

I'm soooo soooo glad that most of my friends could make it for my birthday lunch! And it must've been God's plan that my bro-in-law had to do a project for his company in Indonesia for a few weeks then, so my sis stayed on in Singapore and he flew back the day before the birthday lunch! So they managed to come too, heez..

My best friends all the way from RVHS!! Women, woah, it's been one long road we've been on together eh? ;)

HC String Ensemble! It's really amazing that we've been keeping in contact despite us being in all different faculties, universities and quite a number overseas even... =) Will always remember the music and laughter we've shared and more to come too!!

MM & CSS peepz! You've coloured my uni life and I really cherish your fellowship and support!! You rockz!! =)

Deutsche Freunde und Freundinnen!! A number of them are in Germany though, schade.. Viel Glück zum Geburtstag zu mir! haha... Und nein, ich bin NICHT böse... =P

And the theme was PURPLE haha... So prepared purple ribbons for those who didn't wear anything purple.. =P Woah despite purple being my favourite colour for ages, this is the first time I've got so many purple presents! Heez...

Too bad I wasn't in time to catch Hübschen Zwerg with his purple-ribbon-necktie haha... =P

More photos at my facebook album: http://nus.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35280&id=748060021 It was such fun!! =)