12.25pm
have you taken your lunch yet? had a brunch perhaps? they always say, start off your day with a healthy breakfast so that you'll have energy though out the day. i read somewhere that eating bread in the morning could make you bloat. i dont know where that came from. alot of people around the world have bread for breakfast. i love my breads!! i can do bread anytime, anywhere any day.
thats why i've got something to share with you today. i came across this hole in the wall bakery late last year. it was introduced to me by my cousin, who read about it somewhere. so we decided to try it out ourselves and see whats the big hoo haa. teaming up with the spa esprit group and french baker, gontran cherrier, they opened up a little shop called tiong bahru bakery, in you guessed it, tiong bahru neighborhood. my cousin mentioned that it was popular for the croissants.
price wise overall, well its a tad bit expensive. so just be prepared to pay. if i am not mistaken,for a croissant, it would cost you under $3.00 a piece (but dont quote me on this). they have differnt types of breads, pastries, tarts etc. i saw that they even have set lunch which consists of soup and bread which cost under $10.00. there's also a selection of sandwiches and prices are different, depending on what you choose.
the croissants were i think one of the best i've ever tasted anywhere in asia. but dont get me wrong, i kinda like the buttery and flaky croissants, which is normally how it should be. but this particular kind, i must say, is different from the rest. its not buttery at all, you dont see that it looks "oily". it nicely browned on the top, and once you take your first bite, its like nothing you've ever tasted before. the texture is soft and melts in your mouth. you just cant stop eating once you've started. trust me on this! im not kidding.
there you are. it doesnt look overly buttery now does it? i strongly i advise you to eat it fresh at the bakery itself. but if you must have it to go, then i suggest you put it in the fridge and then chuck it in the oven for a couple of minutes and have it with your butter and a cuppa tea or coffee. fantastic way to start your day! i rate this 8/10.
kouign amann (pronounced as kween a-mon) is a breton cake. it is a round crusty cake, made with bread dough containing layers of butter and sugar folded in, similar in fashion to puff pastry albeit with fewer layers. the resulting cake is slowly baked until the butter puffs up the dough (resulting in the layered aspect of it) and the sugar caramelizes. the name derives from the breton words for cake ("kouign") and butter ("amann"). kouign-amann is a speciality of the town douarnenez in finistere, in the west of france, where it originated in around 1860.
this bread or pastry is delicious. its sweetness is just perfect and there's melted caramelized sugar glazed on top of it. reckon you can have it with butter. had mine just as it is. wonderful. im not so sure how much i bought it for, sorry. but again,my advise is to eat have it then and there. my rating for this kouign amann would probably be 8/10.
well, i hope you would go and try and see for yourself. then you tell me. have a good weekend and god bless!
ttfn
1.16pm
4.15pm
hallo hallo people!
sorry for slacking off lately. there hasnt been much to talk about. and i dont want to bore you to death with boring topics. but maybe today's topic would pique your interest perhaps or not..but whatever. im still pushing along.
now, have any of you had a roomate from hell? maybe not from hell hell, but you know what i mean. its not easy trying to live with someone isnt it? unless you are super easy and very forgiving then there shouldnt be a problem. but for others, i guess we all have our moments of frustration, over time.
fortunately for me, i've not come across any roomate or holiday mate from hell. its because im quite an easy person and i give and take alot. once upon a time, i used to live with 7 housemates in a 3 bedroom apartment. prior to this, i;ve never had a roomate before and learning to live with someone else in the same room with me, was definately an experience. luckily both of us, we never got on each others nerves and we lived peacefully and looked out for each other.
and then there's another scenario whereby you have to live with your in laws. what do you think? and how do you feel about it? yes, i know we should try to live away from our inlaws in case of friction or god forbid, cat fights amongst the women in the family. but sometimes life doesnt always go the way you want it to go. and yes i know that living with your in laws isnt always easy. some families are easier to get along with and some quite hard. if any of you reading this is currently living with your in laws and its a big family, then well, good luck to you. i hope you will survive and wish you lots of patience.
i've gone on holidays with my girlfriends and somehow we just gel. we accomodate each other. free and easy. thats what i like. i have heard stories about my girlfriends who went on trips with other girlfriends, have come back and said that it was very hard. one wanted to do this, other wanted to do that, one is tired, one isnt....etc. you know what i mean. and after that holiday, i dont think they would be travelling with each other ever again. i guess its all about having lots of patience and understanding. you have to discuss first and foremost before any trip with your girlfriend/s on the ground rules, likes dislikes etc. unless you trust your friend explicitly and do not want to discuss and just go on a trip, then, dont complain if things dont go your way.
what about living with your other half before marriage? things can look pretty lovey dovey at the beginning stage and after months or say a year has gone by, im very certain, you will start to see the cracks in the wall. no, i dont mean literally. (unless you have been quarrelling and throwing stuff at each other and cracking the wall with it). im not saying we are all perfect human beings. we all have our flaws. thats why to me, i think its better to live with your partner before marriage and see if you both can stand one another in the same house or room. oh my goodness, you will definately start to see each other's bad habits. and if you can live with his/her flaws, then i wish you all the best of luck for your upcoming marriage.
well thats that then. something to think about, hey?
ttfn
4.47pm
10.40am
greetings and salutations dear friends.
i have been a little busy these past few days since i got back from my holiday back in my hometown. there was my cousins wedding and i was partly involved in the whole set up. so anyways it was yesterday and now we are all just trying to catch our breath.
anywho, time just seem to fly by. families came from different parts of the world to attend this happy occasion. and there was so much catching up to do and my god, the jokes and laughter around was just amazing. it does feel good to laugh doesnt it? as in a genuine laugh i mean. not those fake ones and you KNOW its fake.
have you ever came across people who just dont get your joke? i have. or there's just this blank expression on their faces and their eyes just glaze over? yes, i know people who are like that. and sometimes you just want to strangle them and give them 2 slaps to jolt them out of their reverie. its as if they are in some kinda mild trance. seriously speaking, thats one of my pet peeves and i have more pet peeves which are listed below in random order -
1) picking of nose and flicking whatever out(be it at home or in public)
2) urine stain around the toilet bowl
3) a wet toilet/bathroom (be it at home or public)
4) farting
5) spitting in public
6) people who cant pay attention to you when you are talking(but expect you to pay attention to them when they talk) and their eyes tend to be darting anywhere else instead of focussing on you.
now, those are just the few things that i really cant stand coming from people, be it my family members, friends or the general public. so what's yours? what are your ideas on my pet peeves? do you agree with me or disagree?
people just dont realize that there's others staring at them when they are doing those disgusting things(especially the first 5 on my list). it could be a habit, i dont know but whatever it is, it just reflects on their upbringing and also their own character. for some, they may do it only at home and not in public, others may do it both in their own home and when they are out too. these people can be wearing the best brand of clothes or drive the flashiest of cars and live in a penthouse but once they do these disgusting things, all those things(your wealth) dont matter at all. goes to show how unhygenic you are. your material posessions are just for show only. i say - you have no finesse whatsoever, you think you do with your money and all but in actual fact you dont.
oh i also cant stand when im doing the talking, the person im chatting with, doesnt pay any attention to me at all. off and on i'd get the occasional nod. otherwise, they just "switch off" and i can tell from body language that they just aint following me. so i quickly end my chatter and turn the subject back to the person whom im talking to. and when that happens, you can see the "light" being litted up inside their head. "oh yay, my time to talk" and then they would start rumbling off. and they EXPECT me to sit there and listen to them. sometimes one must know what to talk about and what not to talk about. sometimes i ask myself, do i really care what you are telling me?
anyways, friends, i will leave it as that. i would love to continue to discuss about folks who always love to talk about themselves but i shall do that some other time. you all take care and have a great weekend!!
ttfn
11.10am
12.29pm
sorry for not writing sooner. was feeling lazy. theres not much to write about really. only thing that is probably exciting enough to write probably is that within a span of 5 days, our neighborhood was visited by a phyton and a musang.(defination of musang - a small animal of Java (Paradoxirus fasciatus), allied to the civets. It swallows, but does not digest, large quantities of ripe coffee berries, thus serving to disseminate the coffee plant; hence it is called also coffee rat).
yup thats right. first came the brown phyton in our back lane, inside the drain. it was a hot sunny afternoon, when 2 indonesian workers who were repairing the drainage area of our neighborhood, spotted the brown phyton slowly slithering away along the drain.they noticed that it had just eaten something because one part of its stomach looked kinda bloated up. if it hadnt eaten, it would have moved away fairly quickly. so now long story short, one of my neighbors came out to have a look because one of the workers gave a shout. the workers told him about the snake. so he quickly rang up the fire department. and golly gosh gosh, they took their own sweet time to come.(not surprising there). in the end, it wasnt the fire department who came but some uniformed folks from the civil defense. hahahaha... well whatever, we dont care, as long as somebody gets rid of the phyton!!
by then a small crowd had already gathered in the back lane of my neighborhood. the authorities measured the phyton and it was more than 5 feet in length. they bagged the snake and took off in their van. makes you wonder where these creatures came from doesnt it? im guessing that because there's alot of new developments being built and lots of trees being torn down, these animals and creatures have no where else to go to, thats why they are ending up in peoples homes or in sewers or even drainage areas. so sad. folks are just plain greedy. they dont bother what they are doing to these plants, trees and animals who probably lived there for a long time. no guilt whatsoever. and all for the sake of making lots of money.
another story that involved an animal in my neighborhood was the musang. one night around 10.30pm, wasn't that late at night, my next door neighbor came out and stood outside. my dad was in the living room watching telly, i was in my bedroom and mom was in her bedroom. then we all heard like sirens and motorbikes going up and down, from the front of my road to the back lane. and some had stopped outside of our gate. so my dad, being a nosey parker, he went out to see what was going on.
now apparently, my neighbor, said she had heard loud sounds up on the roof. her folks were asleep in the front room. and they couldnt hear a thing. so upon hearing these so called loud sounds, she felt afraid and therefore rang the police up. when they arrived at the scene, they went around shinning their torchlights up on the roofs of our houses, from the front and they went to the back too. couldnt find a thing. no robbers.
after like about 15 minutes or so, one of the officers spotted the musang up on one of the roofs. they reckon that that was probably what was making the noise and scaring my neighbor. they asked my dad if he heard anything, and he told them no. i mean i didnt hear anything on my roof. they ended up having a laugh and sped off. after all that commotion, my neighbor's parents both woke up and came out to see what was all the ruckus. imagine that. i reckon they could sleep thru a hurricane! alas the police couldnt do anything about this musang as it has disappeared somewhere, probably living up on somebody's roof, who knows.
was bit of a drama if you asked me. but i think that the phyton and the musang really had nowhere else to run to. their homes were probably destroyed. therefore they are ending up in our neighborhood. who knows what other creatures or animals who are left homeless? i ask you, would you like it if somebody came and tore down your home that you've been living in for ages? no warning given at all. think about it, dear friends.
ttfn
1.08pm
11.13pm
hello 2013. happy new year one and all. hope you had a good end to 2012 and now we're on to 2013. how was your new year? what did you do? looking back thruout 2012, how was it for you, overall? well whatever, it is, its a new year and a brand new beginning. perhaps something good is installed for us this year. who knows. well, im definately hoping for good things. 2012 was well, wasnt great for me. i lost my grandmother sometime in august. so i hope there will be no more tragedies or deaths in my family. i think i've had enough.
anyways, im not going to dwell in this for too long. i know that time will heal all wounds and that my grandma is looking upon us and taking care of us from up above. she was such a sweetheart. bless her.
well, christmas was pretty quiet i must say. had some relatives over for dinner. for some reason, there wasnt any ooomph unlike previous years. and new years eve too was just as quiet. i ushered in 2013 with my family, thats about it. no party. nice quiet dinner at home, watched telly and waited for the countdown. i guess none of us were in the partying mood. afterall, we've all been there and done that. pointless to get into the traffic jam in town and loads of people around. i dont really like crowds these days, dont ask me why.
you know alot of people thought that the world would end on 21/12/12 but there you go, nothing happened. all that hype about the mayan predictions. i think they probably ran out of "paper" to write on, thats why their predictions ended on 21/12/12. hahaha .. just saying. but i do belive that one day the world would come to an end. just hope, im not around when that happens.
im glad to say that this trip back home, i've spent quality time with my family especially with the folks coz i can see that they are getting older and i do not know how long they will be around. in a way, i am afraid of losing them. i know alot of us feel like that too. its a scary feeling. what do you do when you've lost a parent/s? as it is, it was hard losing my grandmother what more my parents. thats why im trying to spend as much time as i can with them.
have you been spending time with your parents, if they are still around? you should. never neglect them. they were the ones who brought you into this world and brought you up. of course, when i was much younger, before i got married, i always went out partying and never giving a second thought about my parents. now that im older and married, i know and i've seen, how it is to lose a loved one, one who is especially close to you and one that you hold dear to your heart. you may not believe me now, but one day you will know and realize it. i just hope its not too late. no regrets right?(i've said it before i think).
well thats something to think about this new year. we dont last forever. in fact, nothing does. so, enjoy your life, enjoy it with your parents and loved ones. i hope that 2013 will be way better than 2012. may we all be blessed with good health and well, run into some money. hahahaha...thats always a welcome isnt it?
i'll end today's blog by a quote - success isnt the key to happiness but happiness is the key to success.
ttfn
11.33pm
10.57am
ho ho ho merry christmas one and all.
so its post christmas. how was it? got good gifts this year? or not so great gifts? you know sometimes i do wonder,( which im sure you guys do too), if our friends and family put any kind of thought whatsoever, into buying gifts for people.
for me, i would sit and mull over who gets what and try to think about their character, what they have worn or said, fav colors etc, and then try to decide which gifts goes to which person. is that the same for you or do you just buy for the sake of buying? sometimes i would also ask myself (before buying the item/s), would i use this item if i were my friend or family member receiving the gift. and then i have to also see if its for a guy or girl. old or young. theres alot to think about. alas, i think i may have just found a very simple solution, if you reckon you wont use that item/s, then listen to yourself, dont buy it as a gift for people. they probably wouldnt be using it either.
but if you cant decide or unsure, then you have 2 choices. buy it, give it and move on or dont buy and move on and look around for other things. i mentioned before, we all have choices more often then not. once you've decided with your answer, adhere to it and then move on. dont regret. coz what's done is done. unless you can undo it then fine.
so in future, think before you wrap a gift for your family or friends. sometimes its not all about how much the gift cost. its the thought that counts too. you should know what im trying to say.
ttfn
11.12am
11.53am
what is the meaning of christmas to you? is it about gifts? is it about being together with your loved ones? or both? well for whatever reason it may be, i hope you will spare a thought or two for those who cant afford any gifts for their families or to even put food on the table and have a small celebration of some kind. and also for those who dont have their loved ones around them on this special occasion. consider yourself lucky, to be surrounded by your family and friends and having a good meal around the table.
you know, each time when im out and about, i see families walking around the malls or out in the streets or just sitting at a foodcourt eating together. i ask myself -" are they really happy? or is this just a front? a show they have to put on in front of people." . i have some friends who are divorced or lost their spouses, telling me that sometimes when they go out, they see all these so called happy families around, they would feel the lonliness, perhaps bitterness or feeling of envy(or mixed emotions) because they dont have their other half or loved ones beside them. i know they cant help but feel like that. but i tell them, this is what you see on the outside. you do not know what goes on behind closed doors. most of us put on a show when we go out . do you realize that? i guess not because its automatic, second nature that we dont even realize that we are doing what we are doing. from the moment we step out of our house, we are already putting on the greatest performance ever. and most of us do not want to dirty our laundry in public now do we. therefore, we do this "show" for all to see.
now coming back to the spirit of christmas. i know there's alot of folks out there in the world who feels alone, unloved, unwanted, helpless, suffering etc but we just gotta have faith. i mean what can i say. fact is, dont expect a miracle although you can hope for one. life is and can be cruel. and you can keep on asking yourself, why me? why me? unfortunately nobody can answer that. i think that throughout in our lives, we are usually given choices. options. and its what we chose or decided that what lead us here, today, our current situation. generally speaking, we were not forced or coerced into our decision making. therefore whatever route we are walking on now, are based on the outcome of our decisions. dont you agree? try not to regret too much. because honestly, whats done is done. you cant undo time or go back in time to alter things.
so thats why i say, take this time to relfect on what you have done thruout the year and for 2013, well, try to do better and dont make the same mistakes that you've done in 2012. try to improve yourself, to better yourself. dont sweat the small stuff. look at the bigger picture. and take care of your well being, your health, your sanity.
god bless all of you and may 2013 be even better than 2012.
ttfn
12.32pm
