Life, Annotated

"2 a.m...

2010-03-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

... and the rain is falling..."

Well, not really. It has actually stopped raining (finally). But it is 2am, and I am still awake, and this Trademark's song popped into my head.

We went for a childbirth class today -- the last of three sessions. It was quite interesting. To practice our breathing techniques, we were told to hold a cube of ice (okay, just me. SS didn't have to), and try to distract ourselves from the pain due to the cold. (The ice is supposed to simulate pain from the contractions.) In another breathing exercise, SS's job was to help me count the number of breaths. We actually burst out laughing at one point in time coz I didn't trust his counting. Of course he was right -- I mis-counted. A few girly giggles were heard elsewhere with a room, followed by a guy joking "Hey, this is serious stuff okay." I guess everyone was having fun while learning.

Pandan Kaya Cake!

2010-02-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

SS and I have been craving for this cake for the longest time... We finally got down to making one last weekend:

Whipping the egg whites, which went quite successfully, even though the recipe made it sound like a million things could go wrong with it.

Ingredients for the "agar" layer. The green liquid in the bowl was a mixture of green bean powder and pandan juice, resulting in a non-Newtonian fluid. Quite fun to play with.

The smell was heavenly! SS took pains to make sure the cake retained its fluffiness, such as flipping the pan upside down to cool.

Almost done! We both agreed that the agar will look nicer if it was greener.

Final product! Woohoo! It tastes better if left in the fridge overnight. I wish I didn't have to know the amount of coconut milk that goes into this though... anyhow, we will definitely be making this again!

CNY fun!

2010-02-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

The weekend passed quickly with two days of friends, food and fun! Saturday was spent with SS's classmates at the nearby community center. I was really looking forward to learning how to wrap dumplings (jiaozi), and was hoping that there will still be some left for us to wrap by the time we reached (had to go late coz of piano), but they finished wrapping everything by the time we reached! Such quick hands! Anyhow, we got to eat the dumplings. Yum yum...

And here's the yusheng that SS *painstakingly* prepared:

We managed to get most of the ingredients: cucumber, carrot, white radish, pomelo, pink ginger, sashimi (albeit frozen, and from what I heard from those who ate it, tasteless), and my favourite -- the crispy thingy... (got it from Hana Mart -- it was called Tofu Biscuit, but it really tasted like the real thing)

SS can't wait to sink his teeth into the yusheng...

As "lou hei" is not something which is practised in China, SS did a little bit of explaining on the meaning behind each ingredient. Unfortunately there were so many ingredients and we couldn't remember what each one stood for, so we just made stuff up along the way... as long as it sounded "prosperous"...

Notice the single chopsticks each person is holding. We didn't have enough for everyone, so we had to make do. Amazingly, with teamwork, we actually "lou"-ed pretty high! The trick is to get into rhythm... like rowing a boat, I suppose.

And what's CNY without a little gambling? We played Texas Hold'em... many of us being beginners. We were all honest people, so there wasn't much bluffing. But still fun anyway. Lots of laughter... :) Fortunately we were not playing with real money, coz I had to borrow from the bank multiple times.

We shared out yusheng with Kopi as well... I think he likes it.

Sunday's sumptous potluck with the SG people! Such a wonderful spread: Beef, prawns, fish, dumplings, spring rolls, mushrooms... plus the yusheng as well... Thanks everyone for bringing such delicious food!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing a rrroaring year of the Tiger to one and all!

This year, we will be having two potluck dinners with two groups of friends. SS, who is craving for yusheng and durians, (sometimes I wonder how come he is the one having all the cravings) decided that we will try and make our own yusheng for the potluck, and introduce the practice of "lou hei" to his Chinese classmates.

Should be fun! Looking forward to all the good food this weekend. Will post pictures soon!

At last...

2010-01-31T21:19:00.000-08:00

I finally glazed my pots!

Here are two of them. First, my set of lotus bowls:

These are glazed in Jade Green, after much contemplating. (I was deciding between just using a clear glaze or Jade.) I am pretty satisfied with how the colour turned out. Quite relieved that all the bowls fit nicely into one another as well. However, these are still too heavy. I wouldn't want to be washing them -- my arms will ache!

I really hope I have a chance to make this again, coz I wanna try another way of making them to see if I can get lighter bowls, and still be able to cut out the lotus pattern.

***

Here's number two:

Front

Back

Glazed in Deep Sea Green and Crayon Blue. This is one of my very few handmade bowls, since I am more comfortable throwing on the wheel. Despite its size, this bowl is light. I realize one of the advantages of handbuilding is that it is easier to make really thin-walled pots. I am happy to have finally made something big and light! :)

Clapotis Completed!

2010-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

Ta-dah! It's finally done!

Knitting with Rowan Tapestry has been very pleasant, because of the soft and smooshy texture. But the dropping of the stitches did require extra effort, since the yarn splits quite easily. I will definitely want to knit with this yarn again (maybe for the entrelac scarf which has been in my Ravelry queue for the longest time!) And maybe for a smaller project. This shawl turned out to be really huge! In retrospect, I should have decreased the number of repeats to make a shorter one.

Have yet to block this yet, so some of the dropped stitches still look a little warped. But first I have to find a surface large enough to accommodate the whole shawl...

Thanks to Colleen who kindly sent me her leftover yarn so that I can complete the project! :)

On the receiving end of a random act of kindness

2010-01-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

I am almost done with my clapotis! Only one small corner to go!

But, there is a slight problem... I ran out of yarn! :(

Thankfully, I found someone on ravelry who has half a skein of this yarn left. And the kind soul has offered to send me the yarn for free, including shipping! I am so touched by her kind gesture! :)

Yay! Now I can't wait for the yarn to arrive for finish up the project (finally)!

A Quiet Christmas Day

2009-12-31T09:03:00.000-08:00

T'was a wet and cold Christmas Day, and all the shops were closed. So we just stayed in and did a little baking for some friends which we are gathering with on Sunday.

These are Peanut Cookies from Lily's blog. SS selected this recipe because it is one of his faves, and also because it was relatively easy to get the ingredients. Very easy to make! In fact, I rate it as almost impossible to go wrong.

SS carefully placing the cookies into the containers. We preferred a crumbly texture, which was achieved by adding more peanut oil. Any rejects or crumbled cookies were delivered right into our tummies.

The cookies look much nicer when SS does the eggwash.

Under the Christmas tree: We bought some goodies for kids who may pop by our house. We got all these from our Chicago shopping trip at a Jap supermarket called Mitsuwa. I found my takopachi there as well! Yay!!!

Our Christmas tree this year... we decided to use the bronze baubles this year, but we didn't have enough. So we just pushed the tree against the wall and decorated the front. No one is really going to look at the back anyway.

We usually buy our Christmas ornaments after Christmas, so Winnie and Piglet have been in storage since last year. Press the button at the bottom and the two will have a conversation about the shooting star.

Kopi feeling really sleepy after busying himself the whole day with eating and eating.

Christmastime in Chicago

2009-12-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

We took a short trip to Chicago last week and spent three days there. I really wanted to soak in the Christmas spirit just by walking down the streets. It felt nice strolling along Michigan Avenue in the light snow. The Christmas lights were a little more low key than those in SG, and they don't dress up their buildings as much. But we still enjoyed the lights and the atmosphere.

This is a real, living Christmas tree at the John Hancock Tower! The biggest living Christmas tree I have seen so far. Wonder if I will ever see the one at Rockefeller, which I bet is much bigger.

SS was thrilled to see the toy trains chugging along the winding tracks. Hopefully one day we will be able to set up our own! I thought it was fun to see so many trains moving all over the place without hitting one another. This kept us entertained for one hour while we waited to eat at the Cheesecake Factory.

Day 2: We spent the day at the Museum of Science and Industry. It is something like our Science Center, with the Omnimax theatre, but with additional cool stuff like a real U-505 submarine which was used by the Germans in WWII and captured by the Americans.

We went for the tour inside the submarine, where the guide gave us a peek into how it was like to live inside the submarine, and an exciting account of how the capture took place. The thing I remembered most was that there were only two toilets in the whole submarine, one of which had to be used for food storage at the beginning of the voyage. So the crew literally had to eat their way through in order to access the second toilet.

I was really impressed with these Chicago buildings made from Lego bricks. They look exactly like the real ones! The left-most one is the Chicago Spire, which is still not built yet, but when it is completed, I will love to come back and see it.

From left: Chicago Spire and Marina City, John Hancock Tower and the Trump Tower.

One of the main reasons for our visit: The "Christmas Around the World and Holiday of Lights" in the museum features this huge tree, plus 50 other trees each decorated by different ethnic communities! We saw the Chinese one (lots of "double happiness" character cut-outs and erm, CNY lanterns made from ang paos) and the Japanese one (origami!). The European ones had a lot of intricate ornaments, some of which looked handmade. I wished we had more time to go through them one by one.

Another train track! This one is humongous! What you see here is only half of the display. Some of the toy trains which were running were as long as two meters! The programming was done with a lot of detail, coz some of the trains will give way to others when they have to utilize the same track.

A very realistic model of Chicago's architecture and the trains running through them. You can see how 333 West Wacker Drive (my fave building) looks just like the real thing in a photo in my previous post.

After the museum visit, we went to catch James Cameron's Avatar in 3D in the IMAX at Navy Pier. The theater was packed! If there is one movie you want to catch in 3D, this is it!

Our first durian

2009-12-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

SS and I were both pretty stressed out last weekend due to exams. So we finally succumbed to temptation (after 2.5 years here) and bought a durian from the Chinese Mart.

We were always suspicious of that lonely-looking frozen durian sitting in the corner of the freezer. Surely it is not fresh or tasty? And where's the supposed aroma that comes with every good durian? We never took the leap of faith until last week.

Last week was a little different. The durians (four of them) were sitting in a carton outside the freezer. Somehow, because they were sitting among the fresh fruits, it made them seem a bit "fresher". SS kept asking me if I wanted to eat durian. I have long learnt that if your hubby asks you whether you want to eat durian, the correct answer is "yes", regardless of whether you really want to eat the durian or not. Coz he doesn't really care whether you want to eat durian or not. He is just asking for justification to buy the huge fruit which he really wants to eat.

So here is that glorious fruit which flew all the way from Thailand:

Lesson learnt: Never try to cut a durian when it is frozen. It took us about 15 minutes of hacking to finally get a slit big enough for us to get our thumbs in and pry the fruit open. Those durian sellers make it look soooo easy...

The end result: a whole tupperware of yummy durian! It actually tasted very good! I guess we got lucky!

Countdown...

2009-12-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

Ten more days to end of exam... Almost there!!!

Anyway, there is something else we are looking forward to before that. This weekend, we will be driving to Chicago for a concert -- "Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy", and Nobuo Uematsu will be there! I have never really gotten into playing any FF games, but those around me have, so I am pretty familiar with the music. It has been a while since I have been to a concert, so I am really psyched!

Still dreaming of when I can go watch a Joe Hisaishi concert though...

New blog!

2009-11-29T20:14:00.000-08:00

We just set up a new blog, so please pop by! :)

(Link by the side as well)

Chicago Line's Architectural River Cruise

2009-11-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

I have been to the Windy City umpteenth times now, but I still love it every time I am there. Yes, the dim sum there is a major factor (W proudly announced that we have accomplished 80% of our "mission" after we finished our brunch at Phoenix), but the architecture is really not-to-be-missed.

So we took the river cruise down the Chicago River (which, incidentally, has its flow reversed so that pollution will not enter Lake Michigan - Chicago's water source), and tried to take some photos. Some of these photos really don't do justice to the buildings!

It was a particularly cold day. Even our car was freezing.

Quirky waterfront house

333 West Wacker Drive - one of my favourites! I feel that the curved green glass makes it a really interesting canvas for the river, the sky and the other buildings.

The balconies poking out of this building makes it look like a gigantic punch-card.

The top of the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). See the boxes poking out? These are not for the faint-hearted! Known as The Ledge, they are completely made of glass which are half-inch thick.

Here's my grouper!

2009-11-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

It was pretty easy to prepare, once I got used to the sliminess of handling the fish. The texture of the fish was really good, but not the taste! I think I may have been a little too stingy on the soya sauce. Mum also suggested that I discard the juice after steaming before adding in the soya sauce next time...

IF... there is a next time...

Anyway, I better stick to smaller fish next time. My wok is too small for this fish... I had to cut off its tail in order to barely squeeze it into the wok...

Cancer

2009-11-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing that I remember from my epidemiology class tonight, it is this song by Joe Jackson.

Never thought someone could write a song about cancer!

Shopping for fish

2009-11-01T20:12:00.001-08:00

We went to Chinatown in Chicago today! Our tummies are very satisfied now. Our fridge is stocked up with char siew paos.

And I have a $25 grouper in my fridge.

I had no idea that a fish can be sooooo expensive here! We were at the Asian supermarket, where they sell all sorts of fresh meats: live fish in tanks, fresh meat displayed on ice, much like a wet market. They even sell tortoise there, both alive and dead. Quite a sad sight.

It is really hard to find fresh fish where we live, so we thought we should buy some back. I read through the list of fish (in Chinese) on the poster, conveniently disregarding the ones that I don't know how to read. And then, I found a familiar name: Shi2 ban1. So I thought, well, let's get that.

The uncle behind the counter went to grab a net (and that was when I realised we were actually going to buy a live fish), and dipped it into the fish tank to grab the unlucky fellow who failed to escape from the deadly net. He was pretty quick. The poor fish struggled around for a few seconds. The uncle slammed it with a hammer (ya, there is a hammer for the purpose of slamming fish), once, and then it was motionless.

I felt a strange sense of guilt, but not for too long. I will not like to see my food being killed in front of me ever again though.

We shall cook the grouper tomorrow. Hopefully it will be decently delicious, so that the $25 is worth it, and the poor fish wouldn't have died for nothing.

Sorry fish.

Halloween...

2009-10-31T23:19:00.000-07:00

For us, it was a non-event. But we found out that parents really put in a lot of effort to make their children happy on this ghostly holiday. Picking out costumes for their kids... Bringing them around to collect candy in the cold... Quite a sacrifice, if you ask me.

Come to think of it, I cannot think of any other "Western holiday" that our neighbourhood participates in more fervently than Halloween. It goes to show that the combination of kids, candy and costumes is a powerful force which parents cannot say no to.

Apparently all my piano kiddos have costumes - robots, princesses, squirrel, pumpkin. The twins were so proud of their candy collection that they brought their buckets to show me. They were really generous, giving me a Kit-Kat and a Reese. In return, I gave them some Hershey Kisses. And then when their dad asks them if they will like to offer me one more piece of candy, they immediately said no. It is so funny to see how important candy is to a kid.

Deprived...

2009-10-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

So we were at a three-storey food court, walking around and thinking of what to order. It was so crowded! There was roast duck and char siew rice, takopachi, chicken rice, omu rice, ngoh hiang....

I finally decided to order the chee cheong fun with char siew and prawns. I stepped into the queue and waited for my turn. And when my turn finally came...

...the alarm clock started ringing...

Sigh. Back to reality.

***

My consolation is that there is the Singapore food fest tomorrow! Plus, dim sum is only a 2.5h drive away in Chicago. I made SS promise that we will go there soon. Sigh, the things we have to do to satisfy our cravings around here...

Horror stories

2009-10-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I survived the week!

After finishing up my take home exam this morning, I thought I will kick back, relax, and read the (online) newspaper.

Okay, so Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize... Well, that was fast! But I can live with that...

Then I went through my favourite forum section for my dose of humour, and kept a lookup for any Ris Low related news...

But, the bombshell for today is from the local newspaper here, which announced that there is lead in our water!

*faint*

Well, more accurately, there is lead in the water of one of the buildings in PV. Not sure which one. But it could be us.

This past week has really been a bad week for our apartment. Temperatures have plunged below 10C, and the heating in our block chose to stop working at the same auspicious time. The result is having to wrap up from head to toe at home.

And now, they tell us that we have been drinking water containing lead. To make things worst, they found out a month ago, and felt that the levels were not high enough to warrant an announcement to the public. I am not sure how high constitutes high, but I will sure appreciate being in the know instead of being kept in the dark.

Suddenly, it feels quite dangerous to be living here. I am not sure if it is increased awareness,paranoia or if we are indeed facing a real threat. But grocery shopping here means having to look out for (and avoid) meat being injected with hormones or antibiotics, and buying milk from un-drugged cows. It doesn't help when people share horror stories with you about trace amounts of pharmaceuticals being found in drinking water, because waste water is recycled into drinking water. I wonder is this has anything to do with that little girl I saw being interviewed on Good Morning America today, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of ten. Scary.

And this is what it says on my moon cake box...

2009-10-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

I definitely did not see any pasta inside...

MAF

2009-10-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

With October break just around the corner, all the deadlines have conveniently converged next week. Gonna be real busy this weekend! I must say that I am getting my momentum back in writing essays. I am actually enjoying it! But I will probably enjoy it more if I can afford to take things just a little bit slower. (i.e. more TV time...) I have been religiously following "So You Think You Can Dance", "Project Runway" and (gasp!) "The Amazing Race"! Yup. You can officially call me a reality TV couch potato.

Anyway, dad just sent some pictures of the cucumbers. Somehow, they have been dying off after growing to this size. Not sure why. But this is definitely an improvement from a few weeks ago, when the flowers just bloom and die without even a hint of a cucumber.

On the other hand, the tomato plants are not as productive. No flowers or fruits yet. But at least they are still alive.

***

This weekend we will be going down to Indy to have an SG mooncake/mid-autumn/lantern festival with our fellow SGeans! I don't think we can find any lanterns here, but we have already finished a box of mooncakes! *guilty look* Looking forward to Saturday!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!

My brain has reached saturation point...

2009-09-02T20:39:00.001-07:00

School has started! I naively thought that my timetable (a three-day week) is a semi-holiday-honeymooning kind of timetable, but I am soooo wrong! Been struggling to catch up with my readings. Sometimes I think I am just staring at the words, but nothing goes in.

Fact:

You know you are not really reading anymore when:

You think you read a paper and understood what it said. And then you go to class and realize that the pages are actually stapled in the wrong order.

***

Been snacking a lot lately too. As most of my classes are at night (6 - 9pm), we have decided to have a 5pm dinner. The result is a grouchy, sleepy, hungry me at about 9.30pm. Not a good combination. Right now I am accompanied by Mr Pringles, Pepperidge Farm and a whole bag of nuts. *munch munch*

***

The coming weekend is Labor Day weekend! Will be driving down south to Kentucky and Tennessee for a short trip. Weather has been great these few weeks, so it is a really good time to travel! Now, I just need to survive one more day of lessons...

Teriyaki Rice Burger

2009-08-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Went to eat Mos Burger with SS's mum just before I returned to the US. Coincidentally, we both love the Ebi Rice Burger, and ordered the same thing. She was the one who suggested that I can try making this in the US, so I bought a round mold (those that are used to make sunny-side-up eggs) to make the rice patty.

I prepared the rice-patty a few days before hand, by shaping it and searing it on the pan with a bit of oil. On the day itself, I steamed it. The result was a very crumbly rice patty. Maybe we should have just microwaved it? SS says that the Mos Burger rice is tastier. Next time we may try and add a bit of seasoning (anyone has any idea what the secret ingredient is?) to the rice.

The teriyaki chicken was done using the recipe from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking, using home-made teriyaki sauce, which is soooo much tastier than store bought teriyaki! And it is so easy to make! Just soy sauce, mirin and sugar. I will never buy teriyaki sauce again!

Next time, we shall try to make the Ebi! Until then, I am still praying for a Mos Burger outlet to magically appear somewhere near our place.

I am torn...

2009-08-18T20:08:00.001-07:00

I took up all these activities to keep myself occupied for the past two years, and now that school is starting, I am having difficulty putting them down...

Still have plenty of unglazed pots, which are taking up an entire shelf in the pottery studio. I fear that if I don't take up pottery class this semester, I will lose momentum and end up throwing away all those pots. (Insert glass-breaking sound to simulate my heart breaking...)

Am taking up more piano kiddos, even though I told myself I am not going to. But the kids are so cute! Twin Chinese boys! To tell them apart, I was told, look for a small tuft of golden hair on the older brother's head... Erm, okay. I will try... Not sure whether to laugh or cry when they called me Huang lao3 shi1...

***

Dawn gave my Dad some tomato and cucumber seedlings about a month back. And just a few days ago, I received an email from Dad with a really close-up photo of a yellow flower. The tomato plant has flowered! Mum and Dad are both pretty excited, and asked me if this is a male or female flower, and how to pollinate them. I had to refer to an expert (i.e. Dawn) for the answers. Basically, the tomato flower has both male and female parts, so the pollen does not have to travel very far to reach the stamen. Hence a little flick should do the trick.

I have just been updated that another flower has withered and died. I expect to get such daily updates about the plants now.

Catching shooting stars

2009-08-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Last night, we were told that there was going to be a meteor shower, called the Perseids. I was quite skeptical about it, coz in such a quiet town as this, if there is going to be something so exciting as a meteor shower, there will be a lot of hooha. SS labelled me as a wet blanket, and went on to research on information on how to best view the shooting starts. I stuck to my wet-blanket-role and stated matter-of-factly that 60 to 100 shooting stars an hour means that we will only catch like one to two stars a minute... not exactly a spectacle.

Anyhow, SS found out that, to have the best view of Perseids, we should:

1. Look for a dark (and safe) place, away from as much artificial light as possible
2. Look and the northeast quadrant of the sky.
3. Keep a lookout from midnight to dawn.

Not sure if the saying is really true, but because "the night is darkest before the dawn", we decided to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4.30am to catch the shooting stars. We headed towards a park near our place, and during the 20min walk there we caught one or two shooting stars. SS asked me to make a wish, to which I grouchily replied, I wish I could see more shooting stars. He took that as an equivalent of using a wish to make more wishes, and automatically voided my wish. Upon reaching the park, we realised the lights were too bright for any form of viewing, hence we walked back to our house, and picked the darkest place we could find in our estate, placed our sleeping bags on the grass, laid down, and waited.

And waited.

Maybe SS has bigger eyes or something. He kept saying: Look there's one! And then I will look in the same direction and see nothing. This happened quite a few times, and I concluded either his positive attitude is letting him see more stars than me, or he is hallucinating. I did see a few shooting stars, but they were gone in a split second, and couldn't satisfy my craving.

Finally, we both saw one bright streak across the sky. That was the highlight of the night. We decided to end our viewing session on a high note, packed up, and went back to bed.

Buying frenzy

2009-08-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Been doing quite a bit of online shopping lately. Bought my textbooks. They have all arrived, but one of them has a huge cut across the cover (about 10cm long), as if someone cut something using a penknife on it. (so heartache for the book, which is otherwise brand new). I had to return it to the seller, who is giving me a full refund, thankfully. In the meantime, the price of the same textbook has gone up by about $3, like in a stock market...

My happiest purchase is that I bought a pair of Aldo shoes for $18!! Wooohoo! Thank goodness for clearance sales.

Now, I just have to hope that I am indeed a US size 7.

National day, on the other hand, went by uneventfully. No, we didn't wake up at 6am to catch the NDP parade. But we did watched the National Day Message by our PM, as well as the one by opposition SDP. The latter was quite cringe-worthy. Sometimes I wonder how long the Chee siblings can keep up with this. Perhaps they truly believe that all Singaporeans are government-fearing citizens, and they are the only ones brave enough to step up and say something. Never mind all the lawsuits thrown at them -- all the more they will appear as martyrs in the common man's eyes, or so they hope.

Blueberry Picking!

2009-08-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

By right, the blueberry picking season should have been over by the time I returned to the US. But as luck will have it, the weather this summer has allowed the berries to stay on their bushes longer than expected! Hooray!

Off we went to Prelock Blueberry Farm!

The farm is open as early as 7am, but we were there around 10am. It was getting a little sunny and hot, but still bearable.

We were given a bucket each to collect the berries. We can eat as much as we want in the farm, but anything that is taken out of the farm will be charged at $2.19 per pound.

Our buckets! Still empty...

Mr Huang picked the yellow bucket, true to his name.

Still a lot of berries left on the bushes to pick!

In fact, some of them are still in the ripening stage. The small tiny ones still look a bit like flowers.

SS using his height advantage to reach the berries that the vertically-challenged (i.e. me) will have problems picking.

We are done! After about an hour of picking. And eating.

We brought our buckets to the weighing station (the colourful umbrella) and paid for our pickings.

Our blueberries! SS picked more than me, coz he was really quite serious about picking, while I was munching away all the time, and staring at bugs that I have never seen before.

Golden-green bug feeding on blueberries -- blame the bug for distracting me from my task-at-hand.

Hmmm... to eat or not to eat...

Settling in...

2009-08-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

Been back for about a week now. So glad that the journey back went smoothly. No delays, although there was some turbulence which freaked me out a bit. No problems at the customs either. And I got to experience the transit hotel at Narita Airport. For $17, I got a small room and shower for two hours.

Somehow, the jetlag has turned me from a night owl to a morning person -- I now wake up automatically at 7am every day and go for a 15min jog around the neighbourhood (with the squirrels, birds and rabbits... ). A really nice way to start the day, especially with the weather we are enjoying right now.

The biggest downside about coming back in the US is, without a doubt, having to eat my own cooking again.

Okay, it probably isn't that bad. I just miss eating mummy and SS's mum's cooking. It just tastes different.

Am also getting ready for school to start. Textbooks... insurance... registering for classes... checked. Next up: the tuberculin test. I am so sure that I am going to test positive, coz that was what happened the last time. Wonder if I can convince them to let me skip the test and just go straight for the chest X-ray. Argh... hate being poked and zapped!

Anyway, I am really happy this week, coz my mum just took a major step towards taking care of her health! So proud of her! And my dad of course, who went with her for the Dr's appointment (and taped down what the Dr and dietician had to say... I am so amazed....)

M.Y.M.P. absolute acoustic

2009-07-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard this CD was in a CD shop in Illuma, with XT.

I fell in love with their music, but being a very non-compulsive shopper, I left without buying.

Weeks went by with me trying to see if I can get it via "other channels", but no such luck.

So when I bumped into XT at Ion today, I took it as a divine sign that I should just buy the CD.

We went to Titanium and asked for their CD. Strangely, it was hidden in a dark corner (really, it is a corner) of the store.

Apparent from the title, the music is acoustic in nature. The female lead, Juris Fernandez, has a crisp, clear voice. Somehow she reminds me of Angie Hart from Frente!, which really brings back good memories for me, because they accompanied me back in my secondary school days (even though the style of music is very different).

I can imagine listening to this CD while on long road trips, or while driving in SG at night. Very easy-listening, and you will definitely be familiar with some of the songs in the CD, coz they are mostly classic hits. Plus, suckers for love songs like me will be in for a treat!

XT asks me to put some music on my blog... if by some stroke of good luck I manage to get it done, I will put up M.Y.M.P for you guys to have a listen.

Singapore Lights Timelapse

2009-07-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Saw this video clip on Mr Brown's website. Very impressed! Hope you guys will like it too.

Love-hate relationship

2009-07-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

People are so hard to please sometimes.

Me included.

I have been back at work for the past two months. The commute to work was bad. The commute back home was bad. And in between the commuting, there was the non-stop action at work.

At times, I ask myself: Why on earth did I get myself back into this?

But now that I have finished my stint, I kinda miss it.

I am not exactly sure why. The work is stressful, definitely. Everything is either urgent, stat, waiting or ringing. No one wants to stand near the phone, which has been nicknamed "the bomb". Patients tell you that they have been waiting since 11am/3hours ago/longer than the other guy there who came after him but has already collected his meds. Apologies are dispensed together with their meds, together with a silent prayer that in the mad rush, no mistakes are made.

But in adversity, there is solidarity. I have made many new friends, and enjoyed working with my old ones. And it feels good to be of help and to feel appreciated. Not to mention the gossiping, complaining and b****ing sessions, which are pivotal in bringing everyone closer together. (I have hence concluded that although gossiping may be morally bad, it is actually good for bonding. As long as the gossip is not too far from the truth, and doesn't get too mutated.)

I am not sure if I will ever get to work with such a fun bunch of people again. But I am pretty sure we will still keep in touch as friends.

Overindulgence

2009-07-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

With less than two weeks left in SG, I am struggling between eating as much local delicacies as possible, and trying to maintain a healthy diet as far as possible.

This week's tally:

Fish and Co (twice)
- One can never have too much of the fried calamari and the fish and chips!

Kenny Rogers
- Mmmm... Mac and Cheese...

Delhi Restaurant at Little India
- SL recommended this restaurant, and it was really good! Very tasty garlic naan and butter chicken. We also ordered their sizzler's platter, which consists of a variety of meats on a hot plate, and served by pouring whisky over it and lighted up for a flaming effect. Looked pretty impressive, but when every table in the restaurant ordered this dish, the result was a whole bunch of customers choking for air.

Mummy's dinner
- With my favourite food, like roast duck, chicken liver, and veggies with century egg and salted egg... lucky me!

Sushi Tei
- Sashimi, hot pot, tempura, sushi, and yuzu ice cream... heavenly!

It is pretty apparent that my detox plan has failed miserably. The only relatively healthy thing I ate this week was yong tau hoo.

On a separate note, HP6 was a disappointment. I felt that they focused too much on relationships, and under-developed the plot. I mean, it is called "HP and the Half-Blood Prince"! Not "HP and Ginny get together, and so do Hermione and Ron". Snape didn't even explain why he is the Half-Blood Prince!

I do hope that the final HP movie will be better. If it is not possible to squeeze the whole plot into one movie, maybe they should just break the movie into two parts, or make a 5h long movie or something. After all, the last HP book is twice as thick as the first few books, so it makes sense that it will require more screening time.

Another patient story

2009-07-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

I had a patient complaining to me today.

Not about our hospital. But about taking care of her mum.

She was a lady in her 50s, whose mum is already 83. Her mum has limited mobility, so she has to carry her to and from wheelchair to bed/sofa/chair. As she herself is not young, she has difficulty supporting her weight.

In fact she fractured her own wrist once because of that.

Even though the daughter spends much effort to care for the mum, her mum gets on her nerves by saying things that get her down. She doubts her filial piety, saying that she knows her daughter thinks she is a burden. She refuses to move in with her daughter despite numerous requests, yet says that her daughter doesn't visit often enough. She even says that she will rather die than live.

I feel so sorry for the both of them.

I believe the mum is just saying things that she don't really mean. Yet, she says them anyway because those are precisely the things that she fear: being a burden, being alone, dying. Perhaps she thinks that by saying them repeatedly to her daughter, it will be less painful when it really happens.

Maybe she will rather be the one pushing others away, than the one being abandoned.

The daughter, on the other hand, is simply tired. Physically. Emotionally. And I don't blame her. It is not easy putting in so much effort to care for one person, and yet be totally unappreciated.

Caring for the elderly is indeed not easy. I am still trying to wrap my finger around how a parent-child relationship changes/shifts as both grows older. When the child is young, the parent is the authoritative figure. So, when the child has to take care of the parent, does the role reverse? Can the child demand that the parent to go for health checkups, because it is for their own good? And when does this role reversal actually happen? It seems that it usually takes a medical crisis (e.g. stroke, heart attack) for a parent to start accepting advice from their children, and for a child to realize that they need to step up and start taking care of their parents' health. And sometimes that may be too late.

And I have observed that filial piety among siblings is sometimes dependent on your marital status, and your earning power. Often, the unmarried sibling will be the one entrusted to take care of the parents. If all are married, then the more well-off sibling, or the one with least kids will be the one expected to pay for the medical bills.

In the end...

2009-07-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

I finally went to see a GP yesterday night.

Okay okay, so maybe I should have done that in the first place...

The doctor I went to see was very nice and patient. Even though his clinic was supposed to close at 9pm, (I saw him at 9.05pm, and there were still many after me), he examined my foot unhurriedly and in great detail. Gently too. But I still ouch-ed my way through the whole examination.

It hurt more than I expected. Darn.

He pointed to a skeleton poster on the wall and told me the exact point where I injured my foot - the metatarsal. Informative, but the treatment is still the same, no matter where the sprain is.

No prizes for guessing what meds I was prescribed.

I decided to be an obedient, compliant patient and took the painkiller and all. To my surprise, the pain reduced significantly the next morning. I felt like kicking myself (with my good foot) for not going to see a GP sooner.

If the pain is still present tomorrow, I will have to go for an X-ray to rule out a fracture... keeping my fingers crossed now. Don't like to be zapped.

On a separate note, I am still trying to figure out why most people (including me) are averse to painkillers. It is quite a strange thing... I thought by going through a painful tui-na session, my foot will feel better. But I didn't think a harmless painkiller was going to help me.

Maybe it is the no-pain-no-gain mentality.

haiku-ing attempt

2009-07-05T01:27:00.000-07:00

home on a sunday
with jodi as company
and rain pelting down

Unhappy foot

2009-07-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

I sprained my left foot this week. I attribute it to my high heels.

And as if to say "serves-you-right", the ST ran an article on "Killer Heels" today.

"Be realistic. If you spend a lot of time in heels, expect to have problems in later life."

Well, no need to wait till later life. I am having problems right now.

I can't pinpoint the exact moment the injury occurred. (Okay, maybe it was when I ran after bus #268 in my heels ~ I kinda pride myself for being able to run fast in them.) It just starting hurting sometime on Wednesday, and on Friday, it got pretty swollen. That was when I thought I better do something about it.

I decided against seeing a GP for such ailments, coz I believe I will just get some painkillers for them. And being in my line of work and knowing how painkillers work sort of takes the magic (and any placebo effect) out of the medicine. I opted for the alternative(s). After two tui-na sessions (painful ones), a visit to a TCM physician, having my foot wrapped up with a brownish, cooling paste, and swallowing three (dubious-looking) capsules later, my foot still hurts. Maybe it looks a little less swollen than before, but I still walk with a limp. My faith in TCM has since wavered a bit.

I guess you can't hurry such things. Maybe all I can do is keep my foot rested and hope for the best.

And I need a pair of flats! Unless I am brave enough to flip-flop myself to work on Monday...

Sashimi.... mmmmm....

2009-06-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am in debt!

So many people have treated me to lunch/dinner/drinks during the past month (and refuse to let me pay!) I can only say that the next time we meet up, I will be the one to pick up the tab. (And no, I don't care if you have to activate your credit card!) So I owe many of you meals okay. Don't fight with me next time...

I am enjoying my weekend. Went to Liang Court to soak in the "Jappy" atmosphere. Lots of restaurants there that I will love to try in the near future, including one called Saizeriya, which is an Italian restaurant but is priced like a food court. Another called Tampopo looks interesting too. And there is a Vietnamese Coffee place with a wonderful aroma when we walked past it. (Although we ended up in McCafe for coffee coz Dad liked their Mocha.)

While in Kinokuniya, I am reminded again of how much I miss Japanese stationery, and Ponyo (from Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). I wish there is more Ghibli Studio merchandise in SG. I will love to see what a Ponyo soft toy looks like.

Shopping at Meidi-ya was fun. We bought the ingredients to make sushi, as well as swordfish and salmon belly sashimi. I am trying to eat my fill of fish/sashimi here, coz I will be stuck with the frozen ones when I get back! Sighz...

And boy was the sashimi good!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

2009-06-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Thank you baobei for the best gift ever. :) It is going to be hard to top this one...

Extraordinary people

2009-06-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

I found something to look forward to every Sunday morning:

Dr Lee Wei Ling's column on the ST.

Her stories are often inspirational and candid. She shares about the ordinary yet extraordinary people around her, as well as her own life lessons. I feel like I get a full dose of "soul food" every time I read her article, and I do a bit of much needed self-reflection.

Now, I find that I let things slide more easily -- Things that used to upset me the whole day no longer bother me for long anymore. (Or perhaps my skin has gotten thicker over the years?) Moving on is easier now. And I try not to focus on my problems and indulge in self-pity (although I admit I still do at times). I try not to complain/bitch/gossip nowadays, or find someone to blame when things go wrong.

These are made easier as I have people around me with positive vibes.

***

Just this week, I have met some people who were an inspiration to me. The first was through TPL, who came to know this lady from China living in SG. She is recently widowed, and has to take care of three young kids, the oldest being ten years old. Her husband died of cancer. It was all quite sudden.

TPL and some friends have volunteered to paint her house the next day, so the both of us went to buy some paint. We brought the paint to the lady's house at about 10pm. She was just about to leave for work. She works night shift at a factory, just so that she can spend the day looking after her kids. Her oldest girl is still awake, and greets us with a big smile. It is hard to imagine that this girl has just lost her father.

The lady invited us in, ran into the room, and came out with two cans of drinks. We refused, but she insisted. I am touched that someone in such an unfortunate situation as her can still have such a generous spirit. We left her house with her and walked to the MRT together while we chatted. She only had questions for us, and asked us how we were, never once complaining about the hardships she is facing.

***

The second was a couple. The husband has had a kideney transplant, and has glaucoma in his right eye. Because he can't see that well, his wife takes care of him and his medications, which includes six eyedrops. When I went to their house, the wife had all the medications laid out on the table. She has already painstakingly wrote all the instructions in Mandarin on each bottle of eyedrop, just to make sure she gets it right. She paid close attention to what I had to tell her, and at one point of time went to her room to take out a notebook to jot down what I was saying. She acknowledged that each of the eyedrops have to be administered five minutes apart, and doesn't utter a word of complaint at this time-consuming task. They offered me a drink as I was about to leave. I thank them for the kind gesture, but I have already taken enough of their time. I never seriously thought about the words "in sickness and in health" when I recited my vows, but I think I have seen a prime example that day.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

2009-06-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

When we knew we were going to LA, one of the things we really wanted to do was to watch a recording of a TV show, such as Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy. Unfortunately, the tickets were already gone, waaaaay in advance. So we browsed around, and realised that we could still ask for tickets to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! It was pretty straightforward -- Just mail in a self addressed envelope and tell them three dates which you can make it for the show, and they will send the tickets back. This is supposed to be done six weeks in advance. We didn't, but we still got the tickets anyway (thankfully!)

Cameras were not allowed in the studio. (So sorry guys, no photos of Jay Leno.) In fact, before entering the studio, we had to clear what was dubbed as "airport-style security", complete with metal detectors. Also, they gave out more tickets than there were seats. We were one of the last people in. The rest behind us had to go home. Another lucky break for us.

SS and I were seated separately, coz there were only a few seats left. Our view was slightly blocked -- we couldn't see the Kevin Eubanks and the band very well. Before the show starts, John Melendez warms up the audience and Jay Leno allows fans to ask questions and go onto the stage to take photos with him. Off the screen, Jay Leno comes across as a very down-to-earth person (still dressed in jeans before the show starts). He also semi-seriously asked the audience to "remember to laugh and clap during the monologue", to our amusement.

The show started off with the monologue, followed by "Headlines". The guest stars for that day were Russll Brand and Elizabeth Banks. I had no idea who Russell Brand was, but when he appeared, I remembered seeing him on TV before. Flambouyant, witty and speaking with a British accent, I was beginning to understand the reasons behind his rising popularity in the US. He was here to promote his memoir, "My Booky Wook", which I am sure many members of the audience will go and buy after the show because he was just so charming. I am just going to borrow it from the library, even though I admit I am now a fan of his. Elizabeth Banks was quite animated, but the funniest part of her interview was when she bantered and quibbled with Brand.

The show lasted an hour. We found out that during the commercial breaks, the audience will be entertained by the band, so to us it seemed like a non-stop show for the whole sixty minutes. We were glad that we managed to catch Jay Leno before he leaves the Tonight Show to do his own show.

It's the weekend!

2009-06-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

It really makes a whole lot of difference having a five-day work week instead of five and a half. And I feel like I have gotten quite a bit done on a Saturday morning, when previously I will still be waiting to knock off at this time (about 12 noon now).

Went out for breakfast at the nearby hawker center, and had yummy $2 mee rebus and kopi. Such comfort food at comforting prices!

I also found a recipe that I hope to try this weekend from Mandy's blog:

http://novice-baker.blogspot.com/2007/04/may-there-be-peace.html

The cookies are called World Peace Cookies. Not sure if they work in bringing world peace, but I intend to bring them to the office on Monday, if they turn out edible.

Also, I finally finished tidying up the Disneyland photos! But, when I was trying to upload them, I found out that my Picasa online album is running out of space! I was torn between paying $20USD per year to get more storage, or deleting some albums to make space. I was also thinking of using SS's Picasa instead, since his is still empty. Was also looking at Flickr, but the thought of transferring all the photos over didn't sound too appealing to me...

In the end, I deleted some videos from the album, and managed to squeeze the photos onto the online album. So yes, now my Disneyland photos are up! :) Take a look!

Grumbles...

2009-06-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

I count myself lucky that I got all my important paper work done this week without too many hiccups.

Basic Theory Test -- Passed!
Visa -- Obtained
Driver's license -- Converted

My only grouse is that I didn't have a very pleasant time at SSDC when I went to convert my license. The waiting time was unacceptable, and they were severely understaffed. Only two counters were in operation. So it was no surprise that I got served by a grouchy woman behind the counter. She seemed more interested in finding fault with my application than processing my license for me. Other applicants were also blamed for:

1. Coming on a Saturday (their peak period) instead of a weekday, thus increasing their workload on a Saturday.
2. Not getting an application form to fill up before their number was called. The problem was, there was no obvious sign that we had to pick up an application form anywhere.
3. Someone got scolded for helping his friend to get an extra application form from the counter staff.

I went at about 11am, and my queue number was 180. They were serving number 27. If not for the fact that a kind soul gave me her queue number of 43 (which got called at 1.30pm), I think I would be there the whole day.

So if anyone ever wants to convert their license at SSDC, I strongly suggest that they go on a weekday, even if it means taking half a day off from work. The staff will probably be friendlier and the lines shorter.

LA photos up!

2009-05-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy lately, but I finally got the LA photos up! Read about our LA trip in the photo album!

American Idol Finale

2009-05-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

Kris Allen won. We are slightly disappointed, but the finale show tonight was so entertaining, it actually seemed a little bit anti-climax when the results were announced.

Every segment of the show was enjoyable, starting with the usual introduction of the judges, but this time with a montage on the pet phrases each judge used. (Randy: "for me for you", Kara: "sweetie, honey", Paula and her extensive vocabulary, and Simon's "What?") That was hilarious. The scene where Kris and Adam had to turn the turntable for the Idol Award trohpy also made me laugh.

Other favourite moments included:

1. Allison and Cyndi Lauper singing "Time After Time" (and ending that song with a hanging note that leaves us just wanting for more... I thought that was a nice touch)

2. When Kris Allen's parents were interviewed. They seemed like such nice and sincere people.

3. When the Bikini Girl came out to sing, and Kara burst out singing behind her!!! LOL

I was going to label that as the highlight of tonight's show, until 30 seconds later, Kara did the unthinkable --> she popped open her dress to reveal her bikini! Haha... SS missed that moment coz he was doing the dishes... and we can't seem to find the video online... darn!

We had fun watching the show, with other big names like KISS, Santana and Rod Stewart.

Next up: So you think you can dance!!!

We voted

2009-05-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

... for Adam Lambert!

Kris Allen had some moments, but we feel that overall, Adam is a much stronger performer, and much more interesting to watch. Results will be out tomorrow. Can't wait!

Homemade, handmade

2009-05-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

During our BBQ last week, we had this really rich and creamy green tea ice cream made by Wendy and Wing Fai. Someone even came up with a name for it: WWF green tea ice cream. Although we were told the number of egg yolks that went into the ice cream (eight), it was so good that we decided it was worth clogging our arteries just for this treat.

And when we received the recipe, SS realised that I actually have the book where the recipe came from. "Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking", passed to me from my sister.

SS did most of the work, since I was busy preparing dinner. When it came to the part when we had to leave the ice cream mixture in the freezer, and then stir it once ice crystals form (we did that hourly), I did my part my licking the wooden spatula.

Stirring at t = 2h. The ice cream was ready after freezing for about 4h, but we wanted it to be more solid, so we left it overnight.

Right now, the texture is like Mr Softee. We miss Mr Softee....

Here's my bowl in action!

The next day, SS asked how his ice cream was first thing in the morning. We checked, and it was ready to eat. We scooped out a couple of scoops into my newly made bowl, and topped it with some red bean paste... Yummy!

Psyched!

2009-05-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

Met my advisor for the first time today. She is really friendly and welcoming. We had a discussion on what courses to take and what to do for my thesis, and that got me pretty excited. Looking forward to starting school!

And I got my first bowl back for the semester! It looks chocolatey and yummy. The rest are still waiting to be fired. We will use the bowl for some ice cream tonight, coz it looks like an ice cream bowl. Will post photos up on my bowl "in action" later on.

I am trying out this new thing (ok, actually not so new, but it is new to me). Audiobooks. I borrowed "Charlie Wilson's War" from the library, and am planning to transfer it into my Ipod so that we will be occupied during our flight to CA. I hope it is interesting.

There are 17 CDs to be transferred. I am only at disk 2... This is going to take a while...

Mixed emotions

2009-05-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

:) We are going to Disneyland!

:( No Fantasmic while we are there...

:) We got tickets to see Jay Leno!

:( Swine flu in CA

:) Going home!

:( Possible quarantine upon reaching SG...

***

Today our health minister advises the following:

"As for those contemplating a trip to Mexico, the epicentre of the swine flu outbreak, and affected areas in the United States such as New York, California, Texas and Kansas, the plea from Mr Khaw is: Don't."

Sigh. The law-abiding/minister-obeying part of us is telling us to cancel our trip to CA.

But we have already booked everything in advance. We have checked, and canceling our plans will mean that we won't get anything back. At all.

I asked SS how serious must the swine flu get before we decide not to go to CA. He said: Until there is a travel advisory issued in the US. I thought, hm, that sounds reasonable enough.

So I guess what we can do now is to take precautions and stay healthy. Masks and hand sanitizers are being wiped off the shelves in pharmacies and supermarkets. I am thinking of getting some hand sanitizers for the trip as well. Not too sure about the masks though. I guess it is a good idea to have some for standby, in case we sit next to a sneezing passenger in the plane.

Omigosh, do I sound paranoid or what.

After all, there are (only) 13 confirmed cases in CA so far. And the virus doesn't seem to be as deadly as it was first thought out to be. Sixteen deaths in Mexico. One in US. That is still less than the number of people who die from influenza every year in SG.

***

Okay, off to watch a movie now. One of our favourite websites nowadays is www.hulu.com. Take a look!

Death by Chocolate - Chocolate Espresso Fudge Cake

2009-04-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

I met a really nice lady friend, C, at pottery recently. Not only is she good at making pots, she also has very good recipes to share. She lent me "Death by Chocolate" by Marcel Desaulniers and recommended that I try the Chocolate Espresso Fudge Cake. She also mentioned that the cake takes two days to make. My initial thought was, oh well, I will start with something simpler first.

But when I went home and went through the recipes in the book with SS, he was all for the two-day-chocolate-cake. Talk about challenging ourselves...

We wanted to start baking the cake on Sunday, but because of Maisy's demise, I was in no mood. So we did it on Monday night instead. We bought cheapo ingredients for everything except the chocolate, which we used Ghirardelli. (Totally worth the money!)

The cake consisted of three parts: The chocolate cake itself, the espresso ganache, and the chocolate espresso buttercream. The cake was baked on Monday and refrigerated, while the ganache and buttercream were made on Tuesday, and then the cake was assembled.

Everything went pretty smoothly. We didn't have a double boiler, so we just made do with a small pot inside a big pot. We didn't have a slicer to slice the cake horizontally into layers, so we used dental floss. (Yes, they are clean, unflavoured, and they work. So there!) We followed the instructions all the way, until the last part where we had to pipe the ganache using a star-shaped tip, which we didn't have. So we topped the cake with strawberries and just piped it with a cone made from parchment paper with the tip snipped off.

SS did all the spreading of the ganache and buttercream, using a fake plastic credit card as a spatula. He is getting really good at this.

I piped the words. There wasn't enough space for the English words, so we piped it in Chinese instead.

We brought the cake to CY's birthday tonight. The cake was very "solid" (i.e. hard to cut), and someone commented that it is very "high density and there probably isn't any air inside". But it tasted really rich and chocolatey, and I really enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't stuff myself with the buffet food before that.

I wish we had taken a photo of the inside of the cake, coz the layers looked quite nice. All in all, it was a fun experience. No doubt it was a long process, but Marcel Desaulniers gave very precise instructions which helped tremendously. I am thinking of getting the book now... :P

Pottery sneak peek

2009-04-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

I went into a bowl-making frenzy this semester. I think I must have made more than ten. I really like making them, coz they are relatively simple, and most importantly, they don't need handles.

Here are the ones ready for bisque firing:

And these are ready for glaze firing:

This is my favourite for this semester so far. (I say so far because I believe I am totally capable of destroying the piece when I glaze it.) It started off as a bowl, then someone commented that it will look nice with a lid, so I made a lid for it.

Roach Hill Downs - Our first cockroach race!

2009-04-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

SS was really anxious to get to the Roach Racing. We missed it at the Indiana State Fair last year, so we made it a point to go for this one. We were running late, and were one of the last few ushered into the LT before the race started.

The Roach Race Track. The "spectator" roaches are all dead or fake roaches. I thought it was very creative of them to dress them up like people.

The commentator for the race was extremely good. He was this old uncle figure who cracked a lot of jokes, and had the ability to speak non-stop during the race. There was a lady translating what he said into sign language, which I thought was extremely difficult because of the amount of adjectives and alliteration he used in his speech. At one point of time, he cheekily said a string of words which I suspect may not be real words, turned to the lady, and said "Now, try translating that!"

Before the race started, the commentator introduced his helpers for the show: Four teenage girls in yellow Bug Bowl tees, whom, when asked what they will like to be when they grow up, all coincidentally answered "entomologist". And I think to myself that I don't even know such a word existed when I was a teenager.

There were three competitors for the first race, in which each roach has to pull a tractor with a school flag behind it, namely Notre Dame, Indiana University and Purdue University. (The first two, of course, are arch-rivals of Purdue.) Each roach was introduced with a lot of ra-ra (just like how they introduce wrestlers before they enter the ring). The girls held up the roaches and their respective tractor for all to see, before placing them on the starting line.

The race was over in like three seconds. Indiana University needed a bit of nudging, and was still at the starting line when the race was over. No prizes for guessing who the winner is. We highly suspect that the race is rigged! We just don't know how they do it.

For the scond race, five kids were "volunteered" to come on to stage and hold on to one roach each while the roaches were being introduced. They each received a buggy-cap with feelers for their services. The kid with the winning roach will receive a prize, while the ones with the losers will have to eat up the roach. (Of course, he was kidding, but I think for a while, the kids really believed him.)

As the bell rang for the start of the second race, all five roaches ran off into the round racetrack. The problem was, some of the roaches ran in the wrong direction, and the commentator had to use a stick to push them back the right way. It was really hard to keep track of the number of rounds each roach ran, especially when they were scrambling everywhere, and changing direction every few seconds or so. In the end, a winner was announced (true or not, no one really knows), and everyone cheered for it.

We thoroughly enjoyed the race, and highly recommend it to everyone. We also learnt quite a bit about our six-legged friends. I don't feel as much animosity towards them now.

Spring Fest 2009

2009-04-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went for the annual Spring Fest in Purdue. The highlight was the Bug Bowl at the department of entomology. (Yup, I learnt a new word that day.) We got to hold a lot of creepy crawlies, which I thought was really fun. There was also a Roach Race. No kidding.

We have uploaded the photos on our Picasa album. Stay tuned for a more detailed blog post on our adventures with the buggies!

Crossing the rainbow bridge

2009-04-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

We have been receiving updates from Dr Wolf this entire week on Maisy's progress. On Saturday, we were told that she was starting to eat and groom herself, and there is almost no bleeding from her bladder, and we could bring her home on Sunday.

So it was quite a shock to us when Dr Wolf called on Sunday to tell us that Maisy had passed away that morning.

We drove over to take a last look at Maisy and to say goodbye to her.

We don't really know for sure why she died so suddenly. Jean says that sometimes these things happen: they seem to get better and then they just crash.

We'll miss you Maisy!

New apartment + sick piggy

2009-04-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

We just shifted to a bigger apartment last weekend. Thanks to all who contributed their muscles and sweat! We couldn't have done it without you guys!

Apparently, Maisy doesn't like the new apartment too much. On Sunday, she stopped eating and stayed in her pigloo all day long. We have learnt to recognize such signs to mean that a GP is sick, so early Monday morning, we brought her to the vet.

As it turns out, she has a bladder infection, is very weak, and in lots of pain. She was given general anaesthetic and her bladder was flushed. The discharge that came out was rather bloody and thick. We had to leave her with Dr Wolf who would monitor her. Later that day, we received a call telling us that the X-ray showed a few small stones in her urinary tract. Poor girl.

The only piece of good news is that she can still pee. Right now, she is on antibiotics (and pain meds) for the bladder infection. When she gets better and stronger, Dr Wolf will then see what we should do about the stones. Hopefully no surgery is needed.

SS and I were half-joking that maybe the feng-shui in this apartment is not good for Maisy... Get well soon Maisy!

Bonus baby piggy!

2009-04-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Remember this piggy?

We fostered her together with a mummy pig last year. In December, the mummy pig gave birth to twin boys, and all four piggies stayed together with us till January when we had to return to SG.

So we returned them to our vet. Everyone had their attention on the babies coz they were so cute and all. Then someone picked up this piggy and said"I think this one may be pregnant too!"

That was quite a surprise to us. This piggy has been with us for two months, and we didn't notice that she was getting bigger. She was a little grouchy at times, and in fact bit the other mummy on the ear once. I gave her a scolding, and thought about separating her from the rest for a while. In retrospect, maybe it was the hormones that made her grouchy. Now I feel bad about scolding a mummy pig.

To cut the long story short, we just found out that she gave birth to a baby boy soon after, and that they are ready for adoption.

Clapotis in progress

2009-03-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

I started this project in February, and I am only halfway through.

It is much bigger than I expected! My biggest project so far. But I am having fun doing it. It can get quite repetitive at times, but that makes it a good project to do when I am watching TV.

This is a pattern from Knitty. Thanks gals for recommending this to me! It is a good knit for someone of my level. Not too challenging that I will have to pull my hair out once in a while, and not boring such I that I will lose my interest.

The fun part about this shawl is that you can drop stitches and create rows like these. My only complaint is that this yarn (Rowan Tapestry) splits very easily, and thus the dropped stitches don't fall off as easily. I actually have to "tear" some of the stitches apart at times. However, texture-wise, this yarn is absolutely smooshy and soft. Love it!

I did a little calculation. It takes me a little over an hour to do one repeat (12 rows). I still have five more repeats to go before I start decreasing. Then, pulling apart the dropped stitches takes about 15 mins. I took about 2 weeks when I did the increase, so the decrease should take about the same time. At this rate, and given that I don't make any mistakes and I don't need to frog anything, it should take me...

... quite a while more to finish this project.

Ah well, at least I am enjoying the process :)

Spring is in the air!

2009-03-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

The weather was so good we just had to go outdoors and snap some photos.

Yup, and I have updated some more photos in our Picasa album. Enjoy!

St Patrick's weekend in Chicago

2009-03-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the blatant neglect of my blog... Too many things have happened recently, including the demise of my Vaio... Attempts to resuscitate it have failed, so we are sharing one computer now, which is not too bad. I am trying to cut down on the amount of time I spend aimlessly on the internet anyway. Been busy filling up many application forms as well and keeping my fingers crossed. Lastly, we are moving to another apartment... lots of things to keep us occupied...

And spring is here! Wooohooo! More photos on that later.

***

We went to Chicago for St Paddy's Day last weekend. Had a great Irish-green time there.

Note the Irish green lights on top of the Wrigley Building. Incidentally, lights on the John Hancock Tower and other skyscrapers were also lighted green in the spirit of St Paddy.

One of the highlights of the celebration ~ The dyeing of the Chicago River to a bright Irish green. We were there to watch the river change colour. Photos to be uploaded in Picasa soon. (And those of you who know me will know that "soon" will take a while... :P)

The big parade! With my favourite frog, Kermit! Of course, anything that is green can be part of the parade, even if it has nothing to do with St Paddy whatsoever.

Going home

2008-12-30T15:03:00.000-08:00

"Ice Art" on our windows.
This is what happens when it is -16C outside -- you get ice on your windows. Inside.

We will be back in SG in about a week or so. It is quite a challenge to have just enough food to last us until Wednesday (the day that we leave). We don't dare to buy much when we go grocery shopping now. We are now low on rice and surviving on other carbos like noodles and pasta.

Preparing a meal with a near-empty fridge poses a challenge too. Many a times I find myself staring at the open fridge, waiting for inspiration or divine intervention.

Food-related-problems aside, we are pretty excited to go back. This is evident from the numerous times that SS claimed "Hmm... I can smell chicken rice leh... you sure you are not cooking chicken rice?"

As for me, I have started a list of things to do when I am back:

1. Book dental appointment
2. Book Basic Theory Test
3. Repair specs
4. Repair watch (funny how everything starts to fall apart just when I am about to go back to SG)

This is just the beginning. Of course there are other important things like spend time with family, and catch up with friends, but I decided not to put them on a list coz I can't strike them off. (I mean, you can't say, okay, I have spent enough time with my family *strike that off the list*)

Coincidentally, I have been reminded to do some self-reflection before the New Year begins by both a well-meaning friend and my dad, on the same day. Get my priorities readjusted... make and hopefully keep some New Year resolutions...

In the meantime, here's wishing everyone an exciting New Year's Eve, and a great 2009 ahead!

Christmas bakes

2008-12-24T17:50:00.000-08:00

We went for a cookie-packing session where we helped pack cookies which will be given to prisoners to spread some Christmas cheer. They were really strict about the way the cookies were packed, and the quality, so any broken pieces were rejected. (And made their way to our tummies) They were really yummy!

So we decided to do a bit of baking on our own, and spread some Christmas cheer.

Here are the Snickerdoodles (cinnamon sugar cookies):

We also made some peanut butter cookies:

And then we packed them up...

and gave them away!

Merry Christmas everyone!

2008 fall/winter pottery collection: Part 2

2008-12-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

Besides my yunomis, I also made some mugs and vases. (Some of my mugs unwittingly became vases when the handles fell off.)

This is my homework: The pot that I made for the leaf project. I finally decided to glaze it in Pine Green.

I am so relieved that Pine Green did not turn out streaky like it sometimes likes to do. Hence I had pretty even tones all over the pot. The leaf carving turned out great. I couldn't ask for more. This is officially my favourite work, to date.

The twin mugs that I made:

Glazed in Nutmeg, then Marigold on certain parts only. The Marigold portion turned out okay, but Nutmeg was super-streaky. I didn't expect that to happen, and I still don't know what went wrong. My previous Nutmeg bowl had no such problems. Nevertheless, the mugs still look nice from certain angles. :)

Next is a little mug in Periwinkle:

I didn't want the mug to look too boring with just a layer of glaze, so I tried to give it some colour graduation -- I dipped the mug in the glaze three times, each time to a shallower depth, such that the lowest third of the mug gets three layers of glaze, the middle section gets two, and the top has only one layer. The result is a slightly deeper lilac for the bottom half. I guess there is not much diff in glazing it twice or thrice.

Next is my round-belly mug:

Glazed in Nutmeg, and then Pine Green for the bottom. Again, Nutmeg is streaky and uneven, but other than that, I like this glaze combination. I shall make some pots with this glaze combination in mind. :)

Lastly is my vase with the lucky-cloud carving:

Unfortunately, the lucky-cloud is not very lucky. Kena blocked out by the glaze... (Wah... all my time spent carving gone down the drain)

Okay, enough whining. It is my own fault anyway. What was I thinking glazing it in not two, but three layers of glaze?! (I used two layers of Auburn + one layer of Moody Blue. Coz when I glazed the first layer of Auburn, it looked soooo thin I thought I could still see the pot. Sigh...

These are all my compelted pots for this semester. I still have some unglazed ones, but those will have to wait till 2009!

2008 fall/winter pottery collection: Part 1

2008-12-19T13:39:00.001-08:00

I got my pots back!

It was pretty exciting when I went to collect the pots, coz I had no idea how they will turn out. But overall I am very happy with how the glazes turned out!

Here is one of my yunomis:

This is glazed in Peachy then Nutmeg. I really like the colours on this cup. There are peeks of light purple on the brown, and there is a nice combination of matte and glassy surfaces. The throwing rings inside the cup also showed up nicely.

Another yunomi here glazed in Deep Sea Green then Crayon Blue:

A little disappointed with this one because the surface decoration (scratched out using a comb) was obscured by the glaze. I guess two layers of glaze is too thick for this. I should have made the carvings deeper, or just stick to one layer of glaze next time.

I like the foot of this yunomi, but unfortunately, there is a crack in the inside of the cup. I am not sure if I made the crack while I was carving out the foot. Will make this foot again next time.

My last yunomi is glazed in Jade Green:

SS likes this one, but I just can't stop staring at the streaks on some parts of the cup -- they make the colours look uneven. Other than that, the glaze pooled nicely in the carvings and in the leaf-foot as well!

Around the neighbourhood - Winter Edition

2008-12-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

Winter can be quite pretty even when it is not snowing. Here's a snapshot of what I saw during a short walk around our apartment one evening.

Snowflakes!

2008-12-15T12:23:00.000-08:00

I love to stare at our car's windscreen when it is snowing :)

Guess what happened next...

2008-12-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

These photos were taken on our new toy, the Panasonic Lumix FZ28.

Deadline: 18th Dec

2008-12-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

That is the last date for glaze-firing.

And these are all the pots that I have which are ready for glazing:

Now all I need are:
1. Glazing ideas
2. Courage
3. A miracle, or a bit of luck (Just a bit, I am not too greedy)

***

In retrospect, I did get some inspiration on glazing today. While at the studio, one of the experienced potters was collecting her pots - a vase, two very pretty bowls with lids, and a mug. And ALL of them have wonderful glaze combinations, which she kindly shared with us:

1. Periwinkle and Black
2. Ohata and Nutmeg

The other two consists of one of the green glazes (maybe pine green?) and something blue... I guess I will have to figure that out myself... Note to self: Write down the glazes that I use for each pot. My memory is no longer reliable.

***

Didn't have a productive day at pottery today though. Killed a bowl while trimming it. So I decided to throw another bowl to make up for it. I wedged up 2lb of clay and tried to center it on the wheel. I must have tried for about 20 mins, and I probably lost 1lb of clay in the process, before I gave up and just went on to make the well and pull up the walls. But of course, uncentered clay is bound to fail, which was exactly what happened -- the walls collapsed.

But I didn't want to give up, and tried again with another 2lb of clay. Another 20 mins of centering passed, and I was getting tired. (The clay I was using today is a bit harder than what I am used to.) Not to mentioned a little bit fed up. It didn't make sense to me that what I could do yesterday, I cannot do today. Anyways, I just went ahead (again) to pull up my walls using uncentered clay, and obviously things didn't work out, and I ended up with a lump of clay again.

While trying to center my third (and last) ball of clay, the guy who is in charge of the building, P, came into the studio. He usually visits and chit-chats with the potters here. Nice uncle. He stopped in front of my wheel, and asked, "So what are you making today?"

I peered at my bag full of the scraps of clay from the last two attempts. "Looks to me like crap..."

He laughed. And I explained that I was trying to make a bowl, but I don't think it is going to happen, and I am getting tired, and I need my dinner (8pm, cold, snowing outside). A fellow potter (amazing-guy-who-made-20-bowls-for-Christmas-presents) overheard and said "Yeah, it is one of those days huh." He said that he has days like that too, and if he gets tired, he will stop throwing, coz it won't be enjoyable anymore.

And that was when I decided I should just throw in the towel for the day.

I haven't figured out when I need to be determined, and when I should stop hitting my head against the wall. Need to learn that.

Twins!

2008-12-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

Snowie gave birth to two healthy babies yesterday morning! They share the same birthday as SS's bro, which we thought was a nice coincidence.

We didn't catch her in labour, but we are pretty sure that the piggies were just born when we took these photos:

9.00am: The newborns still helpless and wet. In a while, Snowie would lick them all over to fluff up their fur. I read somewhere that this will help to turn off the genes that make the babies feel "less fearful of the unknown and less neurotic". I hope that's true, coz Snowie herself seems pretty neurotic to me at times.

Yes, these babies can be differentiated. One is completely white, and the other has a black patch over both eyes. Both these traits can be seen in Snowie, which makes us wonder how their Daddy looks like...

Snowie showing her better-looking side (The side with the undamaged eye), and baby just beginning to open his/her eyes.

Same day, 7.00pm: The babies look much cuter now! They are up and running about. GP babies are pretty independent and can eat hay just like adults within days. It is a good thing there are only two babies, so they can both drink mummy's milk at the same time -- no need to fight.

We took them out of the cage to cuddle. They are sooo tiny! I love their ears. They will move up and down when they wheek... :)

The babies will be staying with Snowie and Booboo. No need to separate them since GPs are not like hamsters and won't eat their young. We still don't know if they are boys or girls. But if any of them are boys, they will have to leave the girls camp when they are 4 - 6 weeks old, which is usually the time they wean off as well.

Thanksgiving Steamboat

2008-11-27T11:37:00.001-08:00

The turkey was absent from our Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, so were its other fowl friends. We had a steamboat instead. It was sumptious!

We had yummy shabu-shabu beef and pork. Sally brought really big and fresh prawns and grouper (with bones painstakingly removed ). And there was lamb too! We really couldn't ask for more.

With sub-zero temperatures outside, it was really nice to be indoors eating steaming hot food. In fact, the windows did steam up halfway through dinner.

Happy hungry people about to dig in!

Foot-trimming and split-rim bowl

2008-11-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

I trimmed my yunomis and added some surface decorations. It is easy to have fun when you don't have to worry about what your end product is going to be, and just be content with what you get. I used some of the studio tools to dig, scratch and scoop the clay off the surface. For the one on the right, I used a paddle and hit the pot while it is leather hard to give it a more organic-looking surface.

I tried new ways of trimming the foot of a pot as well. I must say these foots (? or feet?) are much more interesting and fun to do than the usual ring foot that we see on our regular pots/mugs/plates.

Another experiment: A split rim bowl.

The first time I did it, I split the rim so much that half of the rim actually came off. So I cut off the rim neatly, and tried again.

I almost made the same mistake again, but stopped myself just in time. It is pretty difficult to get a nice even split which is deep enough, and yet not cutting the rim off. And for some reason, I kept cutting crumbs of wet clay in the in-between-space. I just left them there for now, coz I didn't want to fuss with it and spoil the rim. After the rim-splitting, I used a rib tool to join parts of the rim together to get the end product that you see here.

I think this is a subtle way to dress up a simple bowl. The space in between the rims can also pool glazes which can have quite a nice effect. (I hope!)

Now I just need to worry about trimming the bowl. I hope the rim will still allow the bowl to sit nicely while it is inverted.

Jewelry and carving

2008-11-24T17:15:00.001-08:00

We had a jewelry making class this semester, which I missed coz I was out of town. But I tried to make some anyway. These are the pendents that I made.

I just rolled out a thin sheet of clay and used a cookie cutter to cut out the squares. Then when the clay is a little bit harder, I carved out the patterns and poked a hole using those stirrers from Starbucks.

Glazing them was the hard part. I can't dip them like I do when I glaze my pots, coz these are too small. So the glaze has to be painted on instead. It worked fine for pine green and jade green. But when I tried to use a combination of moody blue and auburn, the colours didn't show up...

I also made some earrings, which many people say look like turtle shells. It was fun to make, but not so fun to glaze. Auburn (the only brownish looking turtle shell) turned out really runny looking... not good...

***

I was looking for a nice swirly pattern when I saw this:

So I decided to carve my pot with a "lucky cloud" pattern which is found on the Beijing Olympic torch.

And here is the carved pot!

Fun! I finished it in one afternoon, but my carving tool has worn out. Technically it can still be used, but it is now a potentially dangerous weapon. Time to buy a new carving tool...

Yunomis, facets and spikes

2008-11-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

I had a good week in the studio. One of the potters brought a Japanese friend to the studio, and I had a nice chat with her. (In English though, coz I forgot almost all the Japanese that I learned. The only two times I spoke in Jap were "Hajimemashite" and "ni-jiu-nana" when she asked for my age.) She did pottery many years ago in Japan, but she wants to pick it up again. So she will be joining us next semester. I am excited! I really love Japanese pottery and it will be great to actually see it done by a native Japanese.

Coincidentally, I was planning to throw some Japanese tea bowls on that very day. They are handle-less mugs, which a lot of my previous mugs unwittingly become anyway. I thought tea bowls were called "chawans" (茶碗) in Jap, so I told the Jap lady I was going to throw some "chawans". She saw my mug and corrected me. "For rice, we call it "gohan chawan". This is a yunomi (湯のみ)." Ooh, I can't wait to learn more about Japanese pottery from her.

So here are my three yunomis, freshly thrown. Going to trim them next week.

I am still trying to make a pot with a wide body and a really narrow opening. This is as far as I got. As you can see, the opening can still be so much smaller.

Next pot: My first attempt at faceting. I left the walls really thick, just in case I cut too deep when I use the cheese slicer to slice off the edges of the pot. Then I made the pot rounder on the wheel my pushing out the walls using my trusty rib tool. Unfortunately, when I tried to trim the pot, I realized that the facets made it hard for me to center my pot to trim it. I couldn't use the Giffin Grip nor the chuck, which means that I have to center it all on my own. I didn't manage to do a very good job at trimming it, so this pot is going to be smashed and thrown into my bag of scraps.

I went to YouTube to check out some videos by Simon Leach, and decided that I shall trim my pot before I facet it for my next attempt. I believe it will be easier, although the effect will be slightly different.

Another experiment: Using coloured clay to make tiny spikes, then bisque firing them. These will then be attached/poked into to our unfired pots, for an interesting look. Here are some spikes made by the class. It is interesting how everyone has a different idea of how spikes should be.

Class Challenge - Nature Pots

2008-11-21T14:16:00.000-08:00

This semester, we have a class challenge project. We were given this:

and we were supposed to make a pot using this as a theme. The leaf can be incorporated into the pot in any way. It could be a handle, a lid, a foot. It could be a plate, a bowl, a mug. It could be made into a surface decoration. Anything.

I brainstormed a little. Initially I wanted to try handbuilding a pot with multiple curled leaves. But it turned out much harder than I thought - the edges of the clay dried up too fast, and I couldn't make the individual leaves fast enough. By the time I finished making the leaves, the edges were too brittle and weak to "glue" together. Hence, I had to abandon the idea.

I decided to stick to what I am familiar with -- throwing on the wheel. Sigh, so unadventurous ya... But handbuilding is really much much harder than it looks. Not to mention that a lot of planning has to be involved. No doubt throwing also requires planning, but I find that I enjoy going with the flow of the clay.

And that was what I did, and this was what I got:

Nice and round, with a little rib action on the lip of the pot. And of course I had to somehow incorporate the leaf idea into the pot. I found a neat leaf pattern on the Internet, and decided to use it on this pot. Spent an afternoon carving it out... Having the clay at the right stage of dryness really speeds up the carving process.

It is being bisque fired now. Next step is glazing. I am torn between glazing it in green (for green leaves in summer) or brown (for crunchy brown leaves in autumn). If I choose brown, I will definitely use nutmeg, because carved patterns show up pretty well with nutmeg. As for green, I may pick pine green. But pine green tends to give unexpected streaks across the pot.... Hmmm, I will think about it.

Flosss - Take 2

2008-11-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

We did another round of baking last Sunday. At midnight. Not that we planned to, but after letting the dough rise, twice, it got pretty late.

The man behind the dough

Dough, before rising

After rising! It really goes "boing" when you touch it... :)

After egg-wash, and before going into the oven. We decided to play around with the dough and make hot-dog buns too.

The Flosss! Much softer this time! We used the sweet dough recipe off the Gourmet magazine website, the same place where we saw the video for kneading. And we used mayo and sugar for the cream. Tastes almost the same, but still not quite there yet!

Caterpillar Bread! So fun to make!

Competition

2008-11-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Look what came through the mail last week:

Very impressive box, containing a book featuring the art work, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a soundtrack, a mousepad, some game cards, the game itself (of course), and an exclusive in-game pet called Frosty.

The new World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition!

Looks like something is going to compete for SS's attention with me for the days to come... maybe the game won't be the only "wrath" that SS is going to get... teehee...

New piggies!

2008-11-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

Another two new piggies! This time, we are fostering two Abyssinian females.

The previous owner of these GPs was a lady who had over 70 GPs in her house! She actually started rearing a few, thinking they were all the same sex. And when some of them got pregnant, she tried to separate the boy piggies from the girl piggies. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell the boys from the girls as well as she thought she could, and after 8 months of breeding, she ended up with 70 piggies.

And that was when she finally realised she needed help and called the animal rescue. Apparently, she did not have enough cages, and there was a lot of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions for the GPs. And there were others that were actually running around in the house, without a cage.

***

We brought these two back on a Sunday afternoon. As soon as we propped their cage out of our car, it started snowing! Hence, we decided to call the white piggy Snowie. (Ok, very unimaginative, but I am running out of names for piggies. Any suggestions? ). The brown one still doesn't have a name yet, but we will just call her BooBoo in the meantime. (Like a Jane Doe for piggies)

Snowy is pregnant, and has a bad right eye. We are not sure if she can see through that eye, but she is behaving normally. I guess GPs don't really depend on their eyes as much as they use their nose. She is the more vocal of the two, and starting to become a bit of a bully to BooBoo!

BooBoo actually gave birth to a baby just recently, but her baby didn't survive. The poor mummy is quite traumatised. She hides most of the time, and every little noise scares her.

We hope we will get to see Snowie's babies before we fly back to SG. Dr Becker has kindly agreed to help us babysit Kopi and Maisy while we are away. Those two better behave themselves!

Oh, and Maisy has mastered the art of biting the cage (violently) to demand for food. She learnt that from Kopi. Now she does it everytime I open the fridge. Grrr...

Falling handles

2008-11-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

I made these mugs some time back. Was playing around with handles. If you have noticed, the one on the extreme right doesn't have a handle. That's because it has fallen off.

And then, right after this photo was taken, another two handles fell off...

I think I am numb to falling handles already... sigh.

Note to self:
1. Make stronger handles next time
2. Shake the magic water before use
3. Score the sites of attachment like mad
4. Use plenty of magic water to stick the handle on
5. Stay away from the handle after it is attached! (Stop fussing with it!)

Piggie Pix by Pro!

2008-11-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

We have Shih-Ping to thank for these wonderful photos of Maisy and Kopi! She really does wonders with her camera!

I think it is amazing that she actually got a good shot of Maisy cleaning her mouth!

Anyone knows the secret recipe?

2008-11-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

For the "egg cream" that is applied onto BreadTalk's Flosss bun, that is.

Tried to google it, but it seems to be a closely guarded secret. The BreadTalk website simply states that it is an "egg cream". I remember seeing it before at the BreadTalk bakeries -- the consistency does look like beaten egg whites. But I will be very surprised if you tell me that they use raw eggs on their buns. Maybe there is a way to sterilise the egg whites without cooking them. *ponder ponder*

Anyway, SS was craving for Flosss, so I decided to give it a try. I used Mandy's recipe, and religiously watched the video she posted on her blog. The chef Richard Bertinet (love his French accent! Now you know why I watched it religiously...) made kneading the dough looked oh-so-easy. But when it came to our turn, our dough was nowhere as elastic as his. What he did with just a few flips of his hands, we struggled with twenty minutes of pulling, throwing, stretching, rolling... All these just to "fold air" into the dough in a bid to make it light and airy.

Sadly, the buns turned out pretty dense. Not like the soft fluffy ones from BreadTalk. What went wrong? It could have been the yeast. Maybe I killed it when I added it into water that was too warm for it... It could have been that we didn't knead it enough... Or could it be the ingredients? I did substitute milk powder with milk... did that make a difference? Maybe we didn't let the bread prove for long enough... Maybe it was just a lousy day for bread-making... Sigh... I need to check my almanac next time...

Raku with horsehair pot

2008-11-09T20:18:00.001-08:00

I was MIA in pottery for quite a while because I was running all over the place. And the very week when I returned was the week of the Raku party. I didn't have time to make anything in raku clay. But when I told Gail that I wasn't going to attend the party, she said I could try firing one of my B-mix pots instead. I was glad that I did! Coz here's what I got:

I was really glad to get the clear glaze to do all that crackling! Unfortunately, the crackling is mostly on the inside of the pot. The outside only has a few loud cracklines that look pretty unrefined.

I also tried using horsehair for the first time. Yes, it is real hair from the horse's tail!

So what happens is that when the kiln is at approx 1800F, my pot will be transferred from the kiln to the "horsehair station". (It is just a piece of brick on the ground for me to place my hot pot on.) I have a window period of a minute or so to "burn" the horsehair on my pot. All I have to do is grab the horsehair and let it touch the pot, and it will disintegrate and leave a black mark on the pot. Yup, the pot is that hot.

So the black marks you see are actually the horsehair marks. Mine are not so nice. I found out that it was because I was too greedy -- I grabbed a bunch of horsehair and tried to burn them all at the same time. It resulted in thick lines with no character at all. A better idea will be to burn them on one by one, in different directions. Ah well, have to wait for the next raku party...

XJ's Birthday!

2008-11-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Made this cake for XJ's birthday today!

It was supposed to be a surprise cake. Me and Linnet asked XJ to have dinner together, like we regularly do, the families in PV. Nothing about her birthday was mentioned to her. And we were hoping that she wouldn't suspect anything. Just come for the dinner, then we surprise her with the cake and wish her happy birthday...

Then, this afternoon, when me and XJ met for lunch, she asked me:

"Do you know any bakeries around here?"

Me: Erm, well... there aren't any bakeries per se around here. (Not like BreadTalk in SG) Why?

XJ: I want to buy a cake.

Me: Er... Why leh?

XJ: It's my birthday!

Me: Ya, I know....! Er, no need to buy lah!

(Darn, secret's out! *Kicking myself*)

***

Anyway, we had a good dinner. Sally brought her delicious seafood-veggie stirfry. Linnet made yummy chicken herbal soup and braised chicken (very good... she's going to sell this for the SG Food Fest in mid Nov), and I brought a stir fry kai-lan and fried egg. And the cake of course. The birthday girl gets to rest today. :)

And when it came to the cake, we did the one-candle-is-enough-already thing, which thoroughly confused the kids. Hannah kept thinking it is baby Irwynn's one-year-old birthday, even though that is still in about two months' time.

As for the taste test, it was passable for a first time. I actually made a cake and cut it into two layers (cheating!), instead of baking two separate layers, as written in the recipe. Perhaps that is why the cake feels a bit too dense. Mistake number two is that I used whipped cream instead of frosting. I learnt that whipped cream doesn't stay on top of cakes very well -- they actually get absorbed into the cake. That's why you can still see the "exposed" cake at the sides.

4 Nov 2008 - A history-making night

2008-11-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

It was indeed a historic moment while watching the US presidential elections last night.

The polls closed over here at 6pm Eastern time. And polls in the west coast and Alaska were not expected to close till at least four hours later due to time difference across the states. Hence I was expecting a long night, and gearing myself to stay up till at least 3 - 4am.

To my surprise, the winner was announced around 11pm, with Senator McCain making his very gracious concession speech. He almost made me feel sorry that he lost.

And then at midnight, Obama made his victory speech in front of thousands at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. It was such a grand sight. All the cheering, the chanting, the emotions. It must mean a lot for the African-American community to see Obama becoming the first black American President.

Roland Martin, CNN contributer:

"African-American parents, when their children said, " I want to be a doctor, I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a politician, an astronaut," they could always point to an African-American who achieved it. But whenever a kid said, "I want to be president," I literally saw black parents say, "Son, or daughter, you might think of being something else." I have nine neices and four nephews, and... I can actually say (you can be president) and mean it."

I'm in love!

2008-11-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

With Joe Hisaishi again!

Was playing around with my piano (thanks baobei!) when I suddenly remembered that I used to play Joe Hisaishi's songs on the piano. Argh, but my book is back in SG!

For those of you who think you don't know who Joe Hisaishi is, think again. If you know Princess Mononoke, Totoro, Spirited Away, or Howl's Moving Castle, then you have heard his music.

Since I didn't have the scores, the next best thing is to listen to the songs. So we went to our best friend on the Net - YouTube, and here are some gems that we found! Take a listen!

Howl's Moving Castle - Main Theme

Summer -- Joe Hisaishi himself on the piano.

Princess Mononoke -- Using gu-zheng, er-hu, violin and piano as a quartet. Who would have thought that Chinese and Western instruments played together can make such beautiful music! Simply brilliant...

Ah I wanna go for a Joe Hisaishi concert!!!

I wonder who is going to stay here in three days' time....

2008-11-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the White House. Elections is next Tuesday and I am quite excited over it. Ya I am the type who will stay up to watch the votes being counted, right to the very end, even though everyone knows PAP is going to win. I don't count myself as politically-savvy, but there is just something about watching the results being rolled out in real time that makes my adrenaline run. As if I am living in a history-changing moment...

And I found out today that I am not the only one. (Phew, I am not weird)

So next Tuesday night, I will be glued to CNN (not on TV though, coz my TV has been sent for repair for two months liao and still they haven't managed to fix it! Grr... Talk about efficiency!) on the Net, for a potential nail-biting finish between McCain and Obama.

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about my Washington DC trip. Yeah, saw the White House from afar. Like standing at Woodlands and looking at JB like that.

I guess when you tell people you have been to DC, they will definitely say "Oh, so you saw the White House ya?" True, but that is not what DC is all about. In fact, there were so many other things that I liked about DC more than President Bush's house. My favourites, in no particular order, are:

1. The National Gallery of Art (Free!)
2. The U.S. Holocaust Museum (Free!)
3. The U.S Capitol (Free!)
4. The Washington Monument (Free!)
5. The International Spy Museum (Okay this one not free...)

DC is really the place to go for Museum lovers.

Anyhows, I have posted my DC photos up on my web album, with captions. So here is a short snippet:

From the Air and Space Museum:
Space food that the astronauts eat in space. The black one is Shrimp Scampi. No, it is not rotten, just dehydrated. There is one Mac and Cheese, but I cannot remember which one it is coz they all look the same. Yellow. I wonder how Hainanese Chicken Rice and Char Kway Teow will look like as space food. Until then, I think no Singaporean will be willing to go to space bah.

The Washington Monument. Very grand obelisk standing at 555 feet and 5.5 inches tall. Can see it almost anywhere in DC, thus it served as a very good landmark for finding out bearings. We actually managed to go all the way up. The view was fabulous. But if we get to go again, we will go up in the evening -- the sun will be better for taking photos then.

Guess what this is!

2008-11-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

(a) Sheep that got lost while on its way to Noah's Ark
(b) Baa Baa Black Sheep who bleached himself after watching MJ
(c) Sheep working as security guard for Millenium Park in Chicago
(d) Sheep mowing the lawn for Millenium Park in Chicago

Answer: (d)

I kid you not.

This is a lawnmower. Yes, in the shape of a sheep. Made of styrofoam. We saw this as part of the "WIRED NextFest" exhibition in Millenium Park. They have some uber-cool stuff!

Meet Keepon! So cute right... This benign-looking softie is designed by the Japanese (no surprises there) to interact with children, especially autistic kids. His eyes have cameras so that he can really "see" you. He reminds me of Beaker from the Muppets. (Meep Meep!)

This is a game called "Brainball". The aim of the game is to be more relaxed than your opponent. Here is how it goes: Two players sit on opposite side of the table and get wired up (see the black bands tied around the ladies' head?) and hence get their brainwaves measured (alpha and theta waves, to be exact). When the game starts, the metal ball at the center of the table will start moving towards the more kancheong fella. Loser is the one who gets the ball landed in the "base" (ya, the white circle) on his side.

We tried it. Fun game. Gosh, it is hard to stay calm when you see the ball rolling towards you...

If the colour scheme looks kinda familiar to you, that's because these are printer inks. Solid blocks of ink called, you guessed it, Solid Ink. By Xerox. Doubles up as Christmas tree ornaments.

WIRED NextFest is a really interesting exhibition. I am glad we stumbled upon it. It encompasses art, tech, science, and at times, humour.

My favourite is still Mower.

Thomas Friedman Lecture

2008-09-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

I must admit that he was pretty entertaining. At one point in the lecture, when he commented that the US was in a perpetual state of election campaigning, the audience started clapping in agreement. He then said half-jokingly, " Don't interrupt me, I am in a groove here!"

Speaking of groove, he said that America has lost its groove after 9/11. Everything seems to be in a mess: healthcare, economy, the war... So his new book is supposed to urge Americans to help America find its groove back.

"Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America."

That was what put me off when I first read the back cover of the book. How important is American leadership in today's world? And if we talk about being green, Europe and Canada are already way ahead in terms of environmental awareness and recycling. To top it off, America has the highest energy usage per capita in the world. If America intends to be the world's leader, it will be good if she takes a good look at her own backyard first.

Otherwise, the lecture was an insightful one. He pointed out how the level of freedom/democracy of a country can be affected by the price of oil. He was clearly very comfortable as a speaker, pacing around the stage as he rattled off the thoughts in his head.

After the lecture, there was a book-signing session. We brought along our book "The World is Flat" for him to autograph. Security was tight. Lots of people queueing up. But he kept smiling the whole time.

I feel compelled to read his new book now. And re-read The World is Flat. And watch An Inconvenient Truth.

***

Another handle of my mug fell off today. :( I am guessing that it was because I did not use Magic Water when I was attaching it on. I usually do it, but for this mug, I though water was good enough since the clay was still wet. Ah well...

Shakespeare revisited

2008-09-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

Attended a lecture on Shakespeare today. I can't call myself a literature buff, but I thought it will be interesting to hear what a lecture on Shakespeare will be like nowadays, given that my last lit lesson was more than ten years ago. (Stop trying to count my age people)

Prof David Bevington presented on "'As You Like It' on Stage and in Film." Admitedly, I couldn't understand everything because Shakespeare is still pretty foreign to me. But it is interesting how the same play can be played out in so many different ways. (i.e. changing it to modern-day setting)

Prof Peter Holland spoke on "Passing Through: Shakespeare, Internet and Performance." His talk was peppered with videos from the internet and YouTube. We saw a "music video" called "My Name is MacBeth" featuring Lego MacBeth, and Lego Star Wars figurines starring as the three witches. The story of MacBeth is told in the form of a rap from Eminem - "My Name Is". Beware: vulgarities present.

Prof Bevington also touched on how theatre productions are not limited to real life now. There are actually people on Second Life who set up their own theatre productions. They recreated Globe Theatre in this virtual world and act out Hamlet in their virtual lives... Seems like anything is possible on the computer nowadays.

I am glad that my mind has been opened up a bit more with this lecture. Tomorrow, we have got tickets to listen to Thomas Friedman, author of the book "The World is Flat". He is going to speak about his new book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America." (Okay I read the back cover of the book and felt a slight tinge of dislike for the tone that he used... but I shall try and cast that out of my mind and listen to him tomorrow with an unbiased mind)

Broke off...

2008-09-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

The handle for one of my mugs, that is. (The one with the dry mug and the wet handle)

And it broke off with a chunk of the mug as well, so I had to destroy the mug.

Went for yoga class today. I was having a some backache, and the yoga helped. But now, the pain has returned. I guess I have to practise doing it everyday. Still cannot remember all the moves. And my yoga mat is in SG. In the meantime, I will try and do it by putting a towel on the floor, or on the bed.

Back to the wheel

2008-09-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Mid-autumn festival went by just like that. Heavy rain and strong winds lasted throughout the whole Sunday, perhaps the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Hence we did not see the full moon, nor did the neighbourhood kids play with lanterns. We have a box of mooncakes from Bengawan Solo which Shisheng's mum brought over. As expected, now there is only one mooncake left. It probably wouldn't last long as well.

***

After some glazing setbacks, I went back to the wheel again, to lift my spirits a bit. I am happy to present the following pots! I am currently trying to practise throwing cylinders, hence all the pots you see are cylindrical, or modifications of the cylinder. Yes, it is back to basics for me!

I am pretty happy with the cut-out patterns for this vase. The cutting was done with a blade during the leather-hard stage, when the clay is not too soft and not too hard. This is actually attempt #2, coz attempt #1 was too hard by the time I tried to cut it. When it came out of the bisque kiln, one of the teachers at the studio commented that it looked really nice! Sometimes I feel that the people around here can be too generous with their compliments, but for once I felt that I deserved it!

***

This mug is a little bit too round for me. Tried to trim off more, but I left it out for too long and it was too dry to trim. Boohoo. But hopefully not too dry to add the handle. I added one and propped it up with a lump of clay. I heard that if you put a wet handle on a dry pot (like in my case) there is a tendency for the handle to fall off by itself. Let's see if that is true... (keeping fingers crossed)

This is my attempt to make two identical mugs. Started out by weighing out roughly 1.5lbs of clay for each mug. (Actually no need so much one, but because I still lose a lot of clay while centering, so have to give myself more clay.) One of the mugs has a dangerously thin base (I went too deep when I made a well in the centered clay). Please please please stay intact!

Here I have added the handles and a "shoulder pad" for each mug. Well, they are not really shoulder pads. More like thumbrests, to make the mug more comfy to hold. The handles are made from a new method (for me) called "pulling the handles". It is a bit like milking a cow. Took quite a while to master, coz I keep on breaking off the clay and got a bunch of short ends instead of a long stretch of clay long enough to make a handle.

***

Saw this profile in one of the Japanese pottery books in the studio, and decided to give it a try. I would say it is about 80% similar to the picture I saw. Just need to trim it a little and add a handle when it is a bit drier and it should be done.

***

The fall classes are starting tomorrow. I have decided to take the morning class instead of the night class because it forces me to wake up early. Also, Tuesday evenings there is a free yoga class, so I am going to give yoga a try.

9999

2008-09-09T11:13:00.001-07:00

I never knew you took these photos of Muffy-Roo and Oreo. Imagine my (pleasant) surprise when I saw them while using your computer to surf the net one afternoon...

I think I know when some of these photos were taken. It was a Saturday and I just finished work and went to your place. (Still in faraway Woodlands at that time) You were still packing, coz you had to leave for Shanghai for one whole semester the next day. I think I was supposed to help, but I was so tired I just fell asleep.

That must have been when you started taking these photos.

Here they are, with captions written by you while you were naming your photos...

"Oreo and Muffy Roo"

"Sharing a milkshake"

"Don't go, Oreo!" (Shouldn't it be "Don't go, Muffy Roo?)

"Luggage"

"Air Travel"

"Lost in Shanghai"

"Brrrr" (Is that Muffy Roo wearing a jacket in Shanghai?")

"I miss her"

You didn't name this one. I guess Muffy Roo made a new friend in Shanghai...

***

Thanks baobei, for brightening up my day. Everyday.

Oh, and Happy Anniversary!

Small kids, Big kids, Old kids

2008-09-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today is Hannah's 6th birthday. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate.

The birthday girl with a special sticker on her.
She just won over 30 tickets on this Spongebob Squarepants machine.

Back in our days, a kid will be the envy of the class if he had his birthday at McDonalds. Over here, it is Chuck E. Cheese's. And it is loads more fun than McD's. They have lots of fun games and rides for kids of all ages!

And when I say all ages, I really mean all ages.

We haven't even ordered the food,
and Shisheng already found his way into a weird yellow capsule.

Not really DDR, but just as tough.
William and Shisheng showing off some moves, or the lack of...

Joshua the Superdad shooting aeroplanes

Myra and Fann getting ready to have some serious fun!

Baby Irwynn enjoying a car ride while Claral takes the wheel.
Xiaojuan supervising the underaged driver...

Claral having fun with Chuck E. (the mascot rat) on the see saw

1. It's a girl, 2. It's a girl, 3. It's a girl!

2008-09-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

Our baby piggies, that is...

Brought them to Dr Becker on Thursday night to see if there were any boys that need to be separated. Turns out that all three of them are girls! I am secretly happy, because that means that mummy can still stay with all her babies! And I can keep them all for a little while longer, since Dr Becker's basement is currently swamped with guinea pigs from all over the state.

Mummy tried to perform an escape act. Twice. Both times it happened while I was cleaning up their cage. She climbed over the walls of her cage and ran under our sofa. Had to patiently lure her out with carrots. Gave her a scolding, but I don't really think she understood.

More pots!

2008-09-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

No, not the kind that you smoke. Just regular ceramic pots by yours truly...

**My two tiny plates**

1. Plates before glazing 2,3,4. After glaze firing

These are my first two attempts at making plates. I count my blessing that no S-cracks appeared. And I think I did a decent job trimming off the extra clay so that they are not too heavy.

I carved on the rim on the smaller plate and glazed it with Moody Blue, Deep Sea Green and Whip White. Not good choices for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the glazes were not those that break at the edges, so they appeared very flat on the carved rim. In retrospect, if I had chosen something like Nutmeg (see my little ice cream bowl), the pattern would have been much clearer and with more depth. Secondly, the overlapping glazes did not create any exciting new colours (e.g. Moody Blue on Whip White still looked blue)

For the bigger plate, I glazed it in Jade, Moody Blue, and Bristol Clear. The Jade and Moody Blue overlap actually gave an interesting matted green colour. It is a little shimmery on some parts, and then becomes a glassy dark green around the edge of the rim. I hope to use this effect on a future project which has an uneven surface so that the contrasting colours will stand out. Another glaze combination to note will be Jade and Bristol -- very tiny bubbles are seen on the surface. Not attractive.

Overall verdict: Not thrilled on how the colours turned out, but hey, at least I finally made something functional. They are currently being used to steam veggies, coz my steamer is so small that all my other plates can't fit in.

**Raku pot**

In my earlier post, I mentioned that I was going to destroy this pot due to an S-crack found at the bottom of the pot. Turns out that the pot could be saved! Gail told me that I could cover the crack using some paper clay, which I did. Aesthetically not the most ideal thing to do, but as long as you don't peek inside the pot or under the pot, you won't see the patch-up spot.

Glazed it in Furguson Blue. It seemed that I must have put too thick a glaze layer on my pot, because the final result is that there was bubbling on the glazed surface. I don't want to be mean, but it looked like a disease to me. In addition, the raku firing did not turn out any attractive metallic colours like it should have. The only thing I was happy about was the profile of this pot.

**Bottle with flower inlay**

1,2. Bottle before glazing, 3,4. Bottle after glaze firing

Huge huge disappointment. I glazed the bottle by dipping it twice: first time right side up, secod time upside down. The result is that the middle section of the bottle has a thicker layer of glaze then the rest of the bottle.

Big mistake.

The purple inlay was obscured on the section of the bottle where the glaze is thicker. What I should have done is to glaze the whole bottle in only one layer of glaze. Easier said than done though, coz I have to think of where I should hold the bottle when I dip it in the glaze, knowing that the parts that I hold will not be glazed. Using tongs will be a bit risky (I tired), as the shape does not allow it to be held securely. Another idea is to stuff a stick snugly into the bottle (since the inside need not be glazed) and dip the bottle in. But the stick will have to be removed very carefully after glazing...

***

Looking at all my pieces, I realise that I still don't know enough about the glazes to choose the right glaze for the right pot. That, plus I need to give more thought on how to glaze a pot. (With tongs? By dipping? By pouring?) Note to self: Spend some time looking at the sample glaze tiles in the studio to study the characteristics of each glaze.

I have decided to stop glazing for a while and concentrate more on throwing on the wheel. That is still the most enjoyable part of pottery for me! And after I have made enough, I shall glaze all of them at one shot. Must make sure all conditions are favourable on that day too, including my mood!

Backtrack...

2008-08-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy week, hence the neglect to my blog.

We were away in Seattle the past weekend. Shisheng's mum was there for a religious conference/ceremony, and we joined her there, along with a few other of her Singaporean friends. School reopened the following Monday, and our plane touched down in Indy at 5am Monday morning. Poor Shisheng only managed to catch a few winks, and then rush off to school. He has a very tight schedule this semester, having to be a teaching assistant for a very heavy module with lab sessions coupled with his increasing workload for his research. I volunteered to help him out with the marking of the students' assignments. That was before I knew there were a total of 105 scripts, and the assignment had like a gazillion questions, and they are not MCQs! Plus, the students were either very studious or very kiasu. Gave answers which were one-paragraph long when one sentence would have sufficed. Come to think of it, that sounds like me when I was a student... *sheepish grin* Now I have a taste of how my teachers must have felt.

Tuesday -- Shisheng's mum and friends (a total of six of them) came over to Indy to visit us. It was nice to have them around as company. Pretty jovial bunch. We were initially worried that they will be bored, since there is nothing really interesting here. But they were so easy-going that in the end it didn't really matter where we went. They were simply happy around one another. We brought them to Walmart, the local shopping mall, the veggie garden and an apple/raspberry/plum orchard for fruit picking.

Poor Shisheng fell sick mid-week, prob due to insufficient rest, driving too much (he has been driving long distances both in Seattle and Indy since Friday) and, as speculated by his mum's friends, because mummy is here to take care of him. Unknown to him, he became the subject of much teasing when we were all having lunch without him (he was resting at home). And some of his baby stories too. Hehehe...

We were slammed with two "summons" within a span of five days too. One for parking and another for speeding. His first speeding ticket. We didn't really feel we deserved one, and we attributed it to the policeman having to meet his nightly "quota". No matter, we still have to pay the very hefty fine. We shall be law-abiding residents from now on, and be cursed by the drivers behind us for keeping to the speed limit.

The six "elders" flew back on Friday. Saturday was a pretty happening day for the region. There was the Farmers Market and Global Fest. We went for both, together with the Chias. Global Fest was really an eye-opener. We learnt tidbits of information about various countries. Easter Egg painting from Ukraine, Rosmaling from Norway, dancing from the Middle East, African art, lacemaking... There was even a food fest showcasing food from different countries. I tried some Turkey food made from lentils. Interesting... but not my kind of food. I guess lentils are not our kind of thing, unlike in Turkey where it is a staple.

We then proceeded to Tippecanoe mall to do some shopping. Poor Joshua had to jagar the kids at the playground while Shisheng, Linnet and me went window shopping. Then Shisheng made an interesting observation that all the adults sitting around the playground are all men. No prizes for guessing where the women have gone.

Bought two pairs of jeans from American Eagle. I am again impressed by the service I get in the US. The jeans are sized by length in addition to the usual size 0, 2, 4 etc... I needed to get a size "2 short" but they only had "2 regular" and "2 long" (a sad reminder of how short my legs are). The sales assistant said that they can order it for me and then ship it directly to my house, at no extra charge! In the end, I paid only $30 for two pairs of jeans! Joshua commented that jeans are very cheap here, and I realised it is true: you can get Levis at USD$30 here, while I bought my Levis in SG for SG$100 plus! Ouch!

Dinner was at Wendy's. If I have a favourite fast food chain, this will have to be it. Lots of greens in the menu. I ordered a BLT salad. I am usually not a salad person, as I prefer my veggies cooked. But the veggies were so fresh and delicious I didn't have a problem munching them down. Shisheng likes the baked potato (yes you can sub fries for baked potato!).

The girls went a little wacko and started showing off their singing skills. They amazed us by singing adult songs such as "You're My Inspiration" (although Linnet claims it sounds more like "You're my perspiraion") and "Lemon Tree" (Claral only knows the part which goes "IIIII-so-laaaa-tion"). This is the result of being on a road trip for 2.5 months and listening to the same CD over and over again.

Claral, Hannah and Irwynn at Wendy's

The coming Monday is Labour Day. Linnet's mum is coming from SG, so we are going to drive down to fetch her, at the same time day-tripping to Indianapolis. I will be the one driving. Have to get enough practice so that I can drive down to the airport by myself when Huiling comes end Sep!

Summertime!

2008-08-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Besides the at-times unbearable heat, summer is really quite an enjoyable time. The days are longer (sun sets around 9pm), and I believe that the extra sunshine we get makes us more cheerful. And gives us more vitamin D too!

Blueberry season! Me, Dewi and Celine went to Prelock Bluberry Farm to pluck blueberries!

Celine helping herself to some fresh blueberries! We can eat as much as we want at the farm for no charge. But those that we bring home cost $1.89 per pound. (Still very cheap compared to those sold in supermarkets. And very much sweeter too!) We were given buckets to hold our pickings. I managed to pluck about four pounds (ok, I confess, I was busy eating!), and Dewi almost filled her bucket, bringing home nearly ten pounds worth of blueberries!

Really tall sunflowers! (Yes, taller than Shisheng!) We found these friendly giants at the veggie garden near our house. They are supposed to be very easy to grow. Maybe we can try growing them next year. :P

Bittergourds growing above us as we walked through a wooden sheltered walkway. Actually it is sheltered because the leaves are so abundant they gave us shade. They are grown by a Chinese couple to sell to the residents here. We bought some Chinese celery (for the piggies) and Chye Sim (for us) from them. Fresh and organic and cheap!

Teapot & Marbling

2008-08-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

I found my teapot!

I am pretty happy with the form of the pot itself. The handle is the right shape and size and not drooping (had to support it with a lump of clay while the handle dries to keep it in shape). The spout is a nice shape, and positioned pretty accurately on the pot. The only thing is that the lower tip of the spout is a tad too low. Which means that I can only fill my pot up to about 75% full, beyond which water will flow out of the spout.

The lid fits! But the shape is a bit too fancy for me. If I could, I would have trimmed more off to get a shorter lid. But I was worried that it will crack, so I left it as it is. Gail suggested that I could glaze it a darker colour compared to the pot itself, to attract attention away from the lid.

***

We learned how to do marbling using slip. Slip is something like super-diluted clay with a floculant added (reminds me of my dosage form design module back in the NUS days).

Marbling is pretty straigtforward, but requires quite a bit of skill to get a perfect print. Otherwise, a lot of air bubbles may form.

Here is my experimental tray with some leaf patterns. I cut out the shapes on newspaper, and placed them on the surface of the marbled slip. The slip will (magically) stick to the newspaper in a uniform layer. Then I placed the newspaper on the tray, and wait for the slip to dry. The two leaves on the right still have the newspaper intact.

A day later, I removed the other two leaves. And Ta Dah!

You can probably see that there is some chipping off on the centre leaf. That is because I was too kan cheong and wanted to take a peak to see if the slip had stuck to the tray. Apparently, it has not, and the slip decided to stick to the newspaper permanently instead. So strictly no peeking when doing marbling.

Three little pigs

2008-08-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

The babies are three days old now! They are quite easy to tell apart. One of them has panda eyes, the other has panda eyes and a black bum, and the last one has a black head and a black bum. Shisheng thinks that the black-headed-piggie is being ostracised, because it is always moving around on its own, while the other two seem more "gum". I think maybe one is a boy and the other two are girls (or vice versa).

And no, we don't know if they are boys or girls yet. We tried, ok. But we have yet to learn the science of sexing a guinea pig yet. Guess we will have to wait for Dr Becker to enlighten us.

Mummy doesn't seem very comfortable with nursing the babies. When the babies want to drink milk, she tries to run away from them. In fact, the only time the babies manage to get their drink is when Mummy is eating something (and hence has to stay put). Hopefully mummy will get the hang of things over the next few days. If not, we may have to resort to making a pellet mush using the Cavy Critical Care powder. That was what one GP owner did when her Mummy GP gave birth to nine(!) babies and could not manage to nurse all of them.

Otherwise, things are looking good. Mummy has regained her previous slim figure and the babies are very much active and healthy. And they are still relatively quiet. (Not like the loud wheekers Huggies and Niblet) We hope that their "volume" will not grow proportionately to their size.

Triplets!

2008-08-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yup, mummy gave birth to three little piggies!

I woke up this morning, and to my surprise, I saw a baby piggy sitting next to mummy!

I was so excited the only words I could sputter were "Baobei! The piggies!", and Shisheng literally jumped out of the bed (I have never seen him get out of bed at such lightning speed before) and zipped to the cage.

"Only one piggy?" We were a little surprised at first, coz we could only see one baby. And we actually weighed mummy the night before. At 1.27kg, we estimated that she should be having three babies. (Each baby is usually 100g, and mummy is prob around 1kg)

And then, as if to answer our question, mummy moved aside, and right behind her were the other two babies!

They are so tiny and adorable! And mummy is so loving, licking their fur the whole time.

We are a little disappointed that we did not catch her in labour, but it is still a joy to see mummy's bundle of joy. :)

A sad week in pottery

2008-08-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

Was hoping that I could take a picute of my assembled teapot before I updated my blog, but somehow, my teapot is no where to be found... I suspect it is still in the kiln. Hopefully it will be found next week.

I collected back quite a few of my finished pieces too, but I am very, very disappointed with the way the glazes turned out. So let me grieve over them for a while, and when i am ready, I will write about them.

So here is what I threw and trimmed these two weeks:

This vase is made using raku clay. I was trying to make a vase with a small opening, and this is the end result! Ok, I am happy. BUT, as I picked up the vase, I realise it was rock heavy! *sigh* Yeah, I wanted to leave the walls thicker so that they can withstand the stresses of having a small opening and a sharp angular profile. Unfortunately, I overdid it. So although the shape is right, the weight is not.

Plus, after leaving the pot to dry for a couple of days, an S-crack is starting to form on the base! *sobz!* I don't think it is going to make it through the bisque firing, not to mention the glaze firing. That leaves me only one option left: to destroy the vase! I still cannot bear to do it yet... But the good thing about clay is that as long as it is not fired, I can re-use it again and again. So I will probably make something else using this raku clay again. Anyway, the raku party has been postponed, so that gives me a bit more time to come up with something.

This is a mug which I made. Playing around with profiles again. The handle is extruded and stuck on, but I made the mistake of sticking on the handle before trimming the pot. But fortunately, the trimming needs only to be done to the bottom of them mug (since I painstakingly trimmed the shape while I was throwing for this particular mug), and I managed to do so without knocking the handle off.

GP update

2008-08-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Kopi watching TV... (It is showing The Greatest American Dog)

This is our new addition to the family... We don't have a name for her yet, but she is definitely pregnant! In the meantime, we are calling her "Mommy". We are keeping a close watch on her, hoping to catch her delivering the babies! Hoping for a smooth delivery too. And yes, you can feel the babies kicking inside her when you feel her tummy! We are having a bet on how many babies she is going to have. Shisheng is guessing three (I wanted to guess three too, but he said it first...), and i am guessing two. We will find out soon! :)

Shoot

2008-07-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Scott asked if we were interested in doing "Skeet and Trap".

"Huh? What's that?"

As I found out, it involves shooting. With a real shotgun. And flying targets.

Okaaayyyyy... I immediately thought "No way!" The thought of holding a real gun gave me the creeps. Being such a klutz, I will be probably be endangering the lives of those around me. Not keen of being charged for manslaughter in the US...

But after some persuasion (if 18-year-old NS men, I mean boys, can do it, I should have no problem right...), I relented, and off we go to the shooting range...

So on a hot Sunday afternoon, six of us drove down to the range, me bring the only girl. Scott brought his own shotgun and ammunition, while the rest of us rented shotguns and bought shells from the range. One round has 25 shells, meaning we will each have 25 tries.

I looked at the row of rifles and wondered which one to choose. Picked one up, and gosh it was much heavier that it looks! Scott helped me to ask the guy for the lightest one. But it wasn't that much lighter anyway. So I lugged the rifle outside and await further instructions, all time time pointing the rifle away from anything and everything...

Scott demo-ed a round of Skeet for us to see. The targets, called clay pigeons (though they are really in the shape of a round discus and not a bird) will fly out of a wooden shed (computer-programmed to do so), and you will have to try and shoot it. Skeet is more difficult than Trap because the target flies horizontally, from left to right or right to left, as opposed to Trap, where the target just flies away from you.

Scott was pretty impressive, shooting most of his targets and making it look sooo easy. And then it was our turn, and the remaining five of us chose to do Trap instead.

Xuan Yao in black and Scott in white. The two pros shooting away, while the rest of us decided that one round is enough for the day. The guy in brown from the range, and he is a real sharp shooter!

See the brown shed in the middle? The red clay pigeons fly out from there, towards the trees. The four black sticks at equal intervals are actually voice-automated thingies. Just shout into it, and your voice will activate the shed to shoot out a flying target for you to shoot. So each us stood by one of these thingies, and the shooting begins! We have to do it one by one, for the safety of everybody and also because only one target can fly out at any one time.

It took me quite a while to get used to the shotgun. Not as easy as I thought. Have to hold it in a certain way on the shoulder, cheek resting next to the stock of the gun, finger on the "safety" button, then aim first, before I can press down the safety button (only then can the gun be shot... it is a safety feature) and press the trigger. The first shot was a real surprise! Of course, it did not hit the target. So I had to re-load the gun. Pull down a lever, slide the ammo in, push up the safety button again so that the gun does not misfire... I had to constantly remind myself to do all the steps correctly, but sometimes I forget to press or un-press the safety button... oops...

After goodness knows how many failed shots, I was beginning to think that I am going to score a big fat egg in this game. The guys managed to shoot a few, which I thought was pretty good. (Since the clay pigeon is really small and fast!) After I got the hang of firing the weapon, I was taught how to aim. Have to try and get it when it is trending upwards; that is when it is the easiest. And have to project where the target will be when the shots reach them... Needs a lot of practice!

I only had a few shells left, when I finally shot one! Woohoo! I attribute it to 99% luck and 1% skill. The guys clapped for me, like it is a huge achievement... hehe...

Final score: 1 out of 25, and a bonus of two days of muscle ache around the shoulder and cheek region.