Friday, August 22, 2008

Sayonara, My Blue-sky Holidays

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You'll wish that summer could always be here
You'll wish that summer could always be here

These cuppies were so much fun to make!

I think these are the best cuppies I've made so far. I think they look so nice! Haha... Ok I should stop bragging about my babies.

Made this on the last day of my summer hols. I was actually quite busy and again it was a last-minute notice. But I took it up cuz i guess what better way to conclude my summer hols than to bake a batch of summer-themed cuppies.

At first Sophs just told me to have a beach volleyball theme. i had to rake my brain as to how to make the volleyballs. I didn't want to have a plain cuppies with volleyball pattern on top, like what I did previously with my ball-themed cuppies. That'd be too plain. Besides the bday girl is a grown-up girl. So that wouldn't do. So google google google, get some idea, included my own idea, sketch, scratch, sketch and scratch some more and in the end came up with these designs.

Acutally I came up with a nicer design, but factoring in my time availability and my fondant-sculpting skill, I decided against that. Figured, those weren't feasible. You may think those cuppies are easy to make. Maybe they are, but since I'm still quite an amateur, it took me quite a long time to make. Like almost whole day. The cupcakes itself take less than an hr to bake. It's those decorations that took forever.

The volleyball, especially, was quite hard to make. At first I used fondant ball, but the stupid fondant took forever to harden and by the time it get slightly hard, it wasn't a ball shape anymore. Cuz it was soft, it became somewhat oval-ish in shape. Luckily I remembered that I still have some white choc balls in the fridge. So I just covered that in fondant so I can make some pattern, cuz the choc ball itself was quite hard. Took me 3 balls to get it right. The first and second choc ball melted in my hand and had to throw them. Took me sometime to get the stupid pattern right also. haiz... so noob right.

But anyways, I'm quite satisfied with the final product. The design is quite simple now that I think about it. But it's got all the things I love about summer. The blue sky, the sun, the sand, the flip-flop, the water, and the starfish. And am glad when Soph's told me that Dans like all those stuff also. Again, great minds think alike! *grin* :D

Ball-themed Cake and Cuppies

Basketball Cake!

Aunt N called me few weeks ago and asked me to bake for her son's 3rd birthday. She wanted a cake and about 30 cuppies. And she told me only 3 days in advance!

I was quite busy with work plus when I called Soph (my partner in crime heh...) to bake the cake, she couldn't cuz she was busy with school. Oh gosh, I wasn't ready to bake a cake! I only bake cupcakes. My cakes so far were rather pathetic. The last time I tried to bake a sponge cake, it was super bitter and oily, I tossed the whole thing into the bin. And the last time I tried baking devil's food cake, it was so thin and tasted kinda weird too.

Was pretty stressed out cuz time was really tight. I didn't have time to experiment with cake recipes. Moreover, just like last time, she wanted the cakes to be vegan. I only had a little left carob left and was afraid it wouldn't be enough. So far I haven't found a place in Sg that sells carob. Even the organic aisle in the supermarket doesn't carry it. And asking Aunt Di for more carob was out of qn. Paiseh lah... cuz she most probably wouldn't wanna be paid again.

But Aunt N really wanted the cuppies cuz I spose there isn't anyone selling cute vegan cuppies. Sigh... So i just measure everything and make sure I've enough of everything, my time, my carob, my olive oil etc. And then I just used the vegan cupcakes recipe to make the cake and hoped for the best.

Soccer, Basketball and Softball Cuppies

Thank goodness the cake went rather well. Nothing great, but still ok lah. I decorated it as best I could. Took quite awhile to get the icing rather even. At least Aunt N said it was cute. She even added some little balls and colorful candles on top and showed the pic to me. It indeed looked cute. Too bad I don't have those pics. And what's great was that the mini ball decoration she bought was exactly the ones that I made - basketball, softball and soccer ball. We didn't even tell each other. Great minds think alike, I suppose. Haha...


Sunday, August 17, 2008

YUI - SUMMER SONG

YUI - SUMMER SONG
Released date: 2 July 2008

1. SUMMER SONG
2. Oh My God
3. Laugh away ~YUI Acoustic Version~
4. SUMMER SONG ~Instrumental~

YUI's 13th single. Just like Laugh Away, I love SUMMER SONG the moment I hear it. The beginning part sounds like a cross between Laugh Away and CHE.R.RY - the accoustic guitar and the keyboard sound. I think the song has been aptly titled as it has a very summery sound and feel to it. The chorus especially has a happy, light feeling. Unfortunately though, I think her voice is a little too squeeky in some parts. The song has unusually many high parts. But I'm not really complaining. The song provides ample fab accoustic and bass sounds, which I love.

The PV is great too. It has all the summer images and colour - the beach, the breeze, sunflowers, a vast field full of little flowers, lemon yellow, grassy green, sky blue, coral blue, baby blue, lots and lotsa blue. Me likeys! The casts are the same from last time and the story is cute. YUI shows more emotion too; she smiles a lot more than usual and even grooves to the music, bobbing up and down while playing her trusty guitar. She looks like having a lot of fun making the video :)

I've got the 2nd track, Oh My God, too. Still undecided on how I feel about it. Don't really like the beginning part. But one thing I'm sure, I love the bass here. It's more pronounced than usual. It's got summer feel also. I think the song will grow on me.

Aa aah..... That reminds me that school re-opens tomorrow and I've got a blardy monday morning class. It's sad to think that today is the last day of my last summer holidays. *Sobs...* Sayonara atashi no saigo no natsu yasumi (Goodbye, my last summer holidays) :'(

Meanwhile, enjoy SUMMER SONG! :):)


YUI - SUMMER SONG
Uploaded by x-zaza-du-29

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Cuppies for Mashimaro

A very belated present for Viny aka the Mashimaro of Statz Farm Family! :D

She only celebrated the bday last sunday cuz well, even during hols i guess it's still hard to get everyone together. I used Vahlrona chocs for the choc cuppies. If you know your chocolates well, you'd know Vahlrona is THE chocolate, it's like the Tiffany's of chocolates.

But as with all things, quality comes with a price, which is why to be honest, I've never used it on my cupcakes before. If i were to use it, it's gonna inflate the price of my cuppies by a lot. haha... Was waiting for a chance to use it and find out what's so great it. Wanted to use it for some special occasion, and I guess Vins is special enough to be the first to try :)

When I opened the packet, sure enough it has the characteristics of a good choc. You see, a good choc has a very sweet chocolatey smell that just with a sniff, you can almost taste it. The first time I got a good whiff of a good handmade choc was when I bought some pralines and truffles froms Sinz choc. So expensive, but omg so so so good! It got the similar smell. And when i taste the Vahlrona choc powder, it's got this nice bitter that tho it's bitter, it doesn't make you scrunch your face and doesn't have that yucky acidic after-taste. Okay, I'm not tt great at describing things, but it's definitely quality stuff. Just take my word for it.

But then again, maybe I'm exaggerating. I think I'm the kind who'll be as happy if you give me a bar of Kit Kat or Godiva (um... ok, Godiva makes me happier :P). In fact, I'm planning to do some choc powder tasting soon. I've got a few brands at home. I'm no choc expert but I'll try to be objective and will tell u the result soon :)

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Can You See What I See

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh
Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, can you see what I see

How apt.

Gawd, I don't fucking care anymore.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

One Tuesday Evening

Yesterday was the first time I go to Dawn's place. We, incl zw and his friend, were supposed to go to the zoo but somebody was so smart that he forgot to get the free tix despite my countless reminders. Hmph, was so pissed! Despite having lived in Sg for more than 8 yrs, I've never been to the zoo. So yea, was kinda looking froward to the trip.

Anyways, in the end I went to d's place for a swim, dinner and bowling. Her house is like soo far, took me almost an hr to reach but i'm kinda in a desperate need to lose some fat before sch stars as I've been pigging out during the hols. Oh did I tell you some bitch stole my shoes at the school gym 2 wks ago? WTF right?

Who in their right mind would steal sports shoes? Most smoo students are like how friggin rich. Besides my shoes aren't the latest model and they were a bit muddy from hiking. But yea, when I came out from showering, my shoes were gone. How unlucky!

Anyways, d said we would do laps, but in the end we were just chit-chatting in the pool for almost 2 hrs. zw was there also. So while i did a couple of laps, d was happily talking to zw. She even bought this float thing that you can sit on - so much for wanting to exercise. LOL....

Dinner was simple since we already had the sushi that I brought. Sushi didn't turn out as good as the last time I made them. Dunno what went wrong tho. Then we went to Starbowl to find ot that a competition was being held, which took most lanes. So we had to wait. Was quite long and it was getting late. Usu the place is quite empty during weekdays, but just our luck there was a competition. Have I mentioned that I'm unlucky? *sighs...

We almost gave up waiting. One uncle who was plaing alone actually offered us to join him. But that was mayb cuz he saw me n d only. Be when he realised that zw was with us, he regretted giving us the offer. haha...But neways, we didn't join him cuz d didn't want to.

At almost 9.30pm we finally got our lane and played 2 games. d and I were such pathetic bowlers. Our balls kept going to the longkang. So paiseh especially since the competition was still going on. Compared to the score of the guys at our right (the pro's) ours were like -sighs-. I noticed one uncle who was with the competiting teams kept looking at our scoreboard and kept sniggering. *rollseyes* But our second game was better, ok mine was slightly better but d improved tremendously (more than doubled her score) and zw hit the 100. haha...

clockwise: me, dawn, colourful balls and zw

First game

Second

Dejected Dawn and her super eye-catching multicolor socks
Oh btw, the guy at the counted was so anal la. He kept looking at us and told us off, saying that we were disturbing at the competing teams and that we should give way to them. What the? The pros never even complained and they even gave way to us. So friggin annoying! It's not like we played for free. We paid lor! D was saying that the idiot must be single and prolly no gf or even friends to bowl with. I had to agree. *tsktsk...

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Cuppies for PING.SG

This is such an outdated post. But then again, when I think about it, my posts are always outdated. I've a lot of things that I wanna post, but whenever I turn on my lappie for the purpose of updating my blog, I end up watching a drama, read manga online, or my recent activity - reading, replying, deleting emails in my constantly-flooded inbox.

Anyways, 2 weeks ago I got a cuppie order from syls. It was for the anniversary of this online community that she's a member of. I almost rejected the request cuz the organiser wants it to be for the event which falls on Saturday and wants to take it like in the afternoon. As you noe, I got church on Sat and usually i stay in church the whole day cuz there's a lot of activities. Besides I was busy working too, so was afraid that I wouldn't have enough time to bake.

But in the end I took up the job, partly cuz syls my friend, and I always find it hard to say 'no'. Secondly, it was actually quite a new experience since it was the first time i bake for a total stranger, a community at that, called ping.sg. Usually I just bake for like a birthday party of a friend or friend's friend. So they're just casual party and they know I'm an amatuer baker, so they won't be mean if the cuppies don't turn out so well (altho I always ensure they turn out good (; )

So yea, baking for a community... it's like for a corporate. And I needed to really ensure the quality cuz my reputation was at stake. It wasn't just some baking favor that I do for ppl I know, where I can just bake for fun, you know I mean? So yea, was kinda exciting but was a bit apprehensive also.

I had to bake 64 cuppies and need to make some fondant letters to write the happy birthday thing. It's not hard to make fondant topping, but the thing is I only had shape cutters, not letters and forgot to buy cuz there were other things that I needed to buy and I didn't have much time. So in the end, I had to cut the letters one by one using an x-acto knive. A very long and tedious process. Spent a few hours just cutting those letters, such that I work into the Sabbath. Felt a bit bad about it.

But in the end, everything turned out fine. Well, great actually. I was really worried about what ppl would think about my cuppies. So i asked syls to gather their opinions. And my, I had such good reviews. Heheh.... so flattered. Thanks for all the comments!^^

The cuppies were rather simply decorated (cuz I spent most of my time on those damn letters). But I guess they didn't mind :)

People have been telling me that I should start a home bakery and market my cuppies. But I bake not cuz I want to make money (trust me, I don't earn much from my baked goodies). I just like baking. And it's always nice to see people enjoy eating my cakes and hear compliments from them. Besides, I realise from past experiences that I can't mass produce. I get stressed out if I get too many orders. Haha...

Anyways, here's a pic of the cuppies, courtesy of claudia. I've got my own pics, but not uploaded yet. Kinda lazy hee....

Monday, July 21, 2008

Why MPW and LTB might be useful

All of you might know how much I regret to be in SMU, particularly, how much I regret taking accountancy. Most of the modules really don't make sense to me, or rather, are of no interest to me. I'm the kind of person who doesn't even know how much I have in my account. I just spend whenever I feel like it and once in a blue moon, will update my passbook to check the balance. Haven't got an overdraft problem since I don't spend much. So... money matters don't really concern me, which means, accounting and finance modules are horribly dry to me.

Instead, modules that people find as nonsense are actually quite interesting to me, well relatively speaking - relative to the acct and finance mods that is. Mods such as analytical skill (eg. If all A are B, and all B are C, then all A are C), creative thinking, and the likes. And working in my current place, I realise that Management of People at Work (MPW) and Leadership and Team Building (LTB) can be quite useful, esp if I were to have my own business.

Ok I'm being quite long-winded in my intro, but actually I just feel like complaining about my boss. I think he's such a $%^&!$%#!*&*%$^! ass. Actually I've never really had any problem with him. He minds his own business, I mind my own. He comes and goes without acknowledging my existence. Never once had he said hi to me whatsoever. That's fine tho, so long as he doesn't bother me. He doesn't look like he's a bad person either.

But I often talk to the other staff, both the service and the kitchen, during lunch time or when we're quite free, and found out that he's not such a nice person after all. I shan't elaborate on what they told me tho. Since it's their story, not mine. But still, he's not a nice person. Then I start hearing him scolding vulgarities to the kitchen staff. The F-word is somehow quite popular among the ppl who work there.

Then just few weeks ago, because the resto wants to change their menu, they asked the staff to do food-testing. Then I was just talking to my colleague about sushi and sashimi and how a good sashimi depends on the quality of the fish and even the way the chef cut it and stuff like that. And I have not the vague-est how such conversation could offend anyone. But somehow it offended the boss. He was like showing unhappy face and saying stuff like "you all dunno anything lah, you're just wasting money. You think got such good chef in singapore meh? yaddayaddayadda..."

I was like "Huh? What are you so mad about?"

It's just my speculation but you see, the business has been rather slow nowadays, and some say it's because our quality has dropped and stuff. So maybe, just maybe, he felt offended cuz he thought I was talking about hte chef. Ceh... such an easily offended person.

Then today was so busy. Busy like hell. It was full house and even had people waiting to be seated. Never had this occured before in my 4 months working there. So anyways, it was so busy that the kitchen ran out of rice. Which is why the staff had to ask if it's okay for the rice to be changed to udon, at no extra cost (usu. got extra charge).

So neways, there's this one table that had their rice changed to udon. But thing is, I wasn't the one handling hte table and I didn't know they had their rice changed. Then 2 of the orders took quite long to come, and the cust kept asking for it. So went to the pantry to inform the kitchen. Boss was there telling that there's rice now, and told me to ask them if then want rice or udon. Yes, that's exactly what he said "Ask them if they want rice or udon?" that's all.

So of course I had to ask what their order was, so that I know what the problem was, because i didn't even know there was no more rice in the first place. But he just raised his voice and hit the counter-top and said "JUST ASK THEM IF THEY WANT RICE OR UDON?"

What the $%^*! And there was other staff around. You know, scold me is bad, but scold me in front of people is worse, man. Pai seh ar. KNNBCCB!

Dude, I know it's busy and all but no need to shout and I had to know the problem right and need to explain properly right. That's called quality service. Even my supervisor agreed with me. Actually the rest of the staff are quite pissed that the mgt want everything to be done rapido while compromising the quality. No wonder biz has been bad. Today's an exception tho, maybe cuz of the feng shui master he brought in last week. But that's another story.

Oh and one more thing. He doesn't look at the people in the eye when he's talking to them. I feel like telling him, "Hey your mother never teach you is it? It's basic courtesy to look at the person you're talking to in the eye, stoops"

I seriously think he doesnt have any people management skill whatsoever. Thru MPW and LTB, at least I know that it's really impt to have a good attitude if you were to be a manager. Or else, you'll have people cursing at you behind your back. But him... pfft.... bad-tempered, scolds vulgarites, get angry for no rhymes or reason, easily offended, rude and like Thes also add at the end... STILL ALIVE SOME MORE.

Actually I've been having this thought. I wonder if I should tell him how bad a manager he is the same time that I resign, which is not too long from now. I mean, I've got nothing to lose. I won't be working there anymore. Not like I will ever go back and mayb, he'll change his attitude. I'll be kinda helping my colleagues to have a nice boss right? Haha... the thought somehow excites me. But then again. it might be too troublesome. We'll see...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How Do I Hate Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

"How do I love thee" was one of the cheesiest poem I had to recite in my secondary school days. But since the whole class had to recite them, one by one of course, the experience wasn't that bad. Quite funny, in fact, since some people just can't put emotion into it, including myself. haha...

But if you were to ask me to recite my own version, called "How do I hate thee!", I can do it close-eyed, with full of emotion easily. And I tell you, my version can take hours to finish. So, obviously I'm feeling an intense hatred towards a certain someone currently. But then again, I feel hatred towards that idiot most of the time since I was an innocent little girl.

Honestly, I think some people do enjoy pissing other people off. They never think how their actions would make other people feel - wait, maybe they actually do, that is how their actions would piss other ppl off. They always look from their own point of view only. They are a bunch of irritating, selfish, unreasonable, conceited, absolutely detestable creatures and most annoyingly, they won't leave you alone.

Why, oh why, are there such creatures in this world? This world would be a gazillion times better place without their existance. But unfortunately, I have to live with one of them. Poor me :(

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

There are a couple of reasons why I wanna work as a waitress despite the long working hours, hardwork and pathetic pay. One of them is due to my love for food. The other is because I get to meet interesting people, which sometimes can be amusing or irritating.

And many interesting people I meet.

This happens last week. Well, actually I dunno if I should classify him as interesting or just plain stupid. What happens was like this…

I was doing my usual duty as a waitress. So he called me to take his order. He inquired about the lunch specials (basically value-for-money lunch sets). It’s ok to inquire; many customers do that to ask for recommendations and to verify. But then he pointed to the first line on the menu which says “Chicken Katsu Curry” and the line after that which says “Rosu (Pork) Katsu Curry” and asked, “Umm, may I know what’s the difference between these two?”

I thought I heard him wrongly. So I asked him, “The difference between these two, sir?”

He said, “Yea, what’s the difference?”

I almost rolled my eyes. I mean, how difficult is it to decipher what those lines mean? Obviously one is chicken and the other is pork. It’s not like the menu is written fully in Japanese, you know.

I was so tempted to say, “One is chicken and the other is pork. DUH!”

But of course, I couldn’t do that and have to smile and answered him, “Well sir, the difference lies in the type of meat. This one (pointing to the first line) is chicken and this one (the other line) is pork.”

He nodded and looked like I just solved a really difficult problem.

Then he flipped the pages and stopped at the “Katsu Curry” section and the “Half-size Curry” section. But then he asked while pointing at the Chicken Katsu at both section, “then what’s the difference between this chicken katsu (pointing at the Katsu Curry section) and this chicken katsu (pointing at the half size one).

Seriously, I had to make a conscious effort not to slap my forehead. I mean, the headlines on both sections are pretty big, you see. So it’s hard not to see. Besides, the prices are different, with the half-size one being cheaper obviously. I wanted to say, “Goodness me, do you even know how to read English? Obviously half-size means smaller portion lah.”

But of course, again, I couldn’t say that. I had to pretend like it was indeed difficult to know the difference between those two chicken katsus and that his questions made total sense and answered, “Well sir, the half-size one is smaller in portion.”

Then he said, “Oooh, ok then. I’ll have this….”

Oh I forgot to mention that he was with an older man and I can swear that man was looking at him as if he couldn’t believe that guy just asked such a ridiculously stupid question. I pity him. I wonder what kind of conversation they had during their lunch.