snow and prawn bisque

as you probably already guessed from the title, it snowed today! ah joy!

i just realized yesterday that spring was supposed to begin next month, so the weather should be getting warmer. and i felt sad because i just bought a poofy winter jacket and boots during the boxing day sales and it would be quite wasted if i didnt get to wear them enough. so the snow this morning and afternoon (and even now!) really perked me up! imma wear my poofy jacket tomorrow!

also, on the way home, i bought some avocados and cherries. the cherries were delightfully sweet :D however, i didnt really know what to do with the avocadoes since i rarely ever buy them. i bought them because i know they are bursting with vitamins (remember the "try a new ingredient" thing i had going?).

i did know that the people here used avocados in cooking, so i researched some recipes and came across a really simple one of which i had most ingredients, and just adapted it to fit what i had stored.

super simple chicken and avocado prawn bisque:
1 can baxters chicken broth
1 avocado
small bowl of cooked prawns
some milk

1. puree the prawns and avocado together, adding milk so that the paste wont be too sticky.
2. heat up the chicken broth and mix the paste into the broth. it will produce a creamy soup. dont overboil.
3. serve and nom!

so easy right??? my first attempt at a bisque and it was delicious! err... ok la, kinda cheating coz i used canned soup also =p

close enough to serendipity

wikipedia: Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.

recently i've been thinking of having a hair cut. im so bored with my same-length hair, i was thinking of getting layers to lighten the load and also create shape.

i mentioned before that i was looking up free haircuts online, and i did find some. however, none of those links were successful because none of them that i tried to contact got back to me.

then yesterday after class as i was walking towards the tube station, a woman approached me, introduced herself as a trainee hairstylist and asked if i wanted a free perm. i hesitated a moment because what i wanted was just a haircut, not a perm.

but then again, i do quite like big wavy curls, and i felt that my hair was long enough to pull it off, so i agreed to do it for her. i asked if i could do any perm i like and she said yes. also i asked if she could cut my hair (because i was still after a haircut. wtf.) and she said she could, but we would have to make another appointment after the perm.

so i agreed to let her perm my hair. i know how expensive perms are, having done it before myself, so i would kick myself silly if i refused a FREE perm. my only qualms are if she screws it up, so imma go for huge wavy curls halfway down the length of my hair because those kinda curls dont last long anyway. that way, if she screws up, i can either chop it off or wait till it straightens. *smug about smart thinking*

eh, so scary, she (the hairstylist) just called me while i was typing this post. she wanted to confirm if i was still in for it. haha... she sounded so so happy to have found a hair model. but i guess im the ideal candidate la. hair all one length, hair highlighted but that was nearly 2 years ago, so nearly all gone, rebonded but also nearly 2 years ago; so i have practically virgin hair! *perasan*

she's so excited, and so am i! hope i dont regret this. better take more "before" pictures. wtf

an attempt to fit-ify myself

one night, i was looking up free haircuts (because im cheap like that) online and came across gumtree.com. its a bulletin style website where anyone (i think) can post up anything for others to know about, mostly for jobs.

so i forgot what ad i saw, but i suddenly found myself looking up yoga classes. after checking a dozen websites out, i settled on a physiotherapy centre in st pancras. it was 10pounds a session. quite pricey, but others were either in zone 3/4 or charging wayyy more for a single session. plus, the mats were provided. all i had to bring was myself =p

i am usually free on wednesdays, so i was looking at the timetable for a wednesday class. the only ones available were pilates classes. so i signed up for that instead.

the class was last night. i think it was pretty good considering that i woke up feeling soreness in some areas -which was the intention, so i felt like i actually did something. but still i feel a tinge unsatisfied. i guess slow exercises arent my kinda thing. i barely broke a sweat the whole session. i'd feel much more satisfied if i had sweated it all out and really pushed myself. but then again, i've spent several years in inaction and it ought to be a good idea to slowly ease myself into exercise.

i havent signed up for any other classes because there can only be 8 students a class and the times which i want are fully booked. we'll see how it goes.

maybe i'll forget all about it and become all lazy again. wtf

macaron and hollandaise sauce

macaron and hollandaise sauce?
now why would i combine the two??

simply because the macaron recipe i tried needed 3 egg whites and hollandaise sauce needs 3 egg yolks =p

it was my first attempt making both. and while my macarons looked nothing like macarons, i guess i can say im quite happy with the results :D

although the macarons were not smooth and looked more like cookes than macarons, at least they tasted very much like macarons! so considering that macaron making has a high failure rate, i shall be glad that at least mine taste great =p

as for the hollandaise sauce, i googled "what to do with egg yolks" and out popped the recipe. so i tried it as sauce over my salmon. it tasted ok, not really my kind of thing, but im pretty sure it was a success because it tasted the way it was supposed to (i tried this sauce before), just that i dont generally like many types of sauces =p

so im quite proud of myself for trying out two new recipes today. *pats self on back*

exasperated

it is disturbing that you dont know how disturbing it is.
it is disturbing that i even have to tell you that it is disturbing.
it is disturbing how you cant understand how disturbing it is even after i tell you.
it is disturbing how i think you know that it is disturbing, but you are pretending that you dont.

it is flat out disturbing.

some things you should already know.

asti breakfast

i uploaded some pictures from my phone and discovered these pictures.

since bernie complains that i never post pictures of my travels, here are a couple of pictures taken during breakfast at the guesthouse i stayed at in malta.

as i mentioned before, i didnt really enjoy malta. but if any of you are planning to go to malta, i highly recommend asti guesthouse. its cheap (20euro a night per person), spacious, full of character and the land lady is extremely accommodating. hands down beats many of the hotels i've stayed at in europe.

only gripes i have is that there is no ensuite (for someone who frequents the toilet at night, this is not so good) and there is no carpet, so bring bedroom slippers if you go in winter. unless you dont mind the cold tiles.

on to the breakfast pictures!

bread, cake, jam and butter

breakfast is included in the room rate, so dont expect anything fancy. im not a morning person, so for breakfast, this is good enough for me ;)


random tomato

i always try to eat half my tomato sandwiched in the bread. the other half i discard because i dont like eating tomato alone. the small sweet ones are fine, but the big ones are too much.


blurry picture of the breakfast room


chandelier! (surprisingly clear shot)


i think this might have been a depiction of when christ was born. the picture is too blurry to tell. wtf

malta is a very christian place and especially since we went near xmas, there were christmas decorations everywhere. i have more photos of the guesthouse, and you will see that there are decorations all over the place!

the structure of the guesthouse itself was incredibly unique. most of us are used to the straightforward structure of carefully planned individual buildings, but the buildings in malta are huge tall blocks that meld into each other. and each tenant builds their own home to their own specification. however, as generations come and go, some places are bought over by the building next to theirs and the walls are knocked down to enlarge the buyer's original building (are you still with me??). so there isnt really any 1st floor, 2nd floor kinda thing. its stairs, a corridor of rooms, down the corridor you get more stairs, sometimes a random room at the side of the stairs, winding stairs and in between you get another short corridor of rooms. all very haphazard, but full of character. i'll post pictures of the rest of the guesthouse next time.


angel deco


you can have juice and a choice of coffee or tea. i always choose tea. not a coffee person.

icicles

this was taken a few days ago, but i forgot to post it, so im posting it now.


usually the weather button shows a cloud and either rain or sun or even (but rarely) snow.

this time however, i saw icicles! so i had to be sakai and print screen =p

i dont remember how cold it was that day though. luckily, the temperature has risen since then and hovers at about 7degrees these days.

oh, and im developing a cough. i hope i recover soon, before it gets worse. *touches wood*

on and off emperor

i downloaded the demo version of "emperor: rise of the middle kingdom" last night and finished all the campaigns before i was satisfied and could go to bed.

what an incredibly ridiculous waste of time.

but did i mention how satisfying it was? haha

its odd how addictive this game is to me. my bro has the full version at home, but thats all the way in malaysia. the only game he installed into my laptop (without much consent) was "guild 2". "guild 2" is not even half as nice ok! should have asked him to install "emperor" instead. aish.

i dont know why i suddenly itched to play it last night. i was introduced to this game in form 4 or 5 and was very hooked on it at that time. after a couple of pretty intensive months of playing, i got bored of it. but still played it on and off throughout the years.

oh, the demo version only had one dynasty, so it only took me less than 3 hours to complete all the campaigns. but i only downloaded the game near midnight, hence i ended up sleeping at nearly 4am. fml.

classes tomorrow, court visit and domus dinner on wednesday, and classes and practitioners evening on thursday. its gonna be a draining week.

thank goodness we have friday off this week.

being cheap

i spent the past 2 hours signing up for various free samples online. im expecting alot of stuff via post throughout the next week!

it was mostly tea samples with a few cream samples. hope i get them all! coz im cheap like that. wtf.

anyways, here's a website for those of you who believe in love. not sure if i put it up here before, but i just rediscovered it, so here it is again =p

speaking of which, valentine's day is just around the corner. i'd better start hunting for a present for val!

displacement

i was absorbed in my submission. then i heard some sounds downstairs, and for a disoriented moment, i thought i was home.

there is always noise downstairs at home. its either the tv blaring or the adults talking while us kids have been sent to our rooms to study.

strange.

i guess i do miss home after all :)