ebay

I feel so impossibly violated.

Someone sneaked up on me and snipered off my mamiya tlr (yes, MINE) in the last 4 seconds.

What an unpleasant virgin ebay experience. Ugh.

knit

My eyes are bleary and burning.

I wonder why I'm knitting at this hour when I can be sleeping.

Call it the ten-year-old itch.

Choc Cupcakes

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes! (that kinda look like souffles)

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
6 oz dark chocolate
1 cup buttermilk, split into two 1/2 cups
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar (both white and brown) in a very large bowl, cos you might have an overflowing bowl near the end.

This is, however, easily remedied by dipping your hand in the final mixture and licking it.

*Note: if you do not want to burn calories creaming by hand (so you can eat more cupcakes later without feeling guilt), please use a stand mixer (:

Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over boiling water or in a double-boiler, set aside.

Then, go back to your creamed butter / sugar mixture and add eggs one at a time, mixing well.

Add melted chocolate, mix well.

Pour the vanilla essence and 1/2 cup buttermilk, mix...

Now its time to mix in the dry ingredients: put in the flour and baking soda.

Dump in the other 1/2 cup buttermilk, and mix mix mix.

Spoon mixture into cupcake cups or muffin tin, and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.




- Makes about 35 medium-sized cupcakes -

YUM! Moist soft chocolaty mini-cakes (((:

Darkroom

HA HA HA HAAAAA :D

I printed my first photos in the darkroom today!

Nothing much to brag about, no dodging and burning yet (next week) and only did small ones (4R?) BUT ooooh what fun it was (:

I am really enjoying myself!

And the darkroom people are all nice and fun to work with.


Here's one of the photos I printed:


Mailbox in Macau - Nikon FE2 / 50mm f1.4 / Ilford XP2


Except my print came out the other way. So much for san-ba.

Now I'm feeling tired and would like to sleep. I think I shall bake tomorrow if I have time. TIRED!

Painkillers

I decided to forgo painkillers at lunch, and now the pain is coming in sporadic bursts.

Thankfully, its a lot less sharp then the previous days', and I'm glad resting at home helped (:

I'm still bringing the painkillers tomorrow, just in case.

Weird people

I find it disconcerting when strangers add me on Flickr.

No comments, no notes, no messages, just the sudden addition.

...

I'm soaking up sappy music now -

The Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.

Repeatedly. Hehe (: Such a happy sappy song.

I think I'll wake up in bliss tomorrow...

If the ear doesn't hurt tonight that is. Woke up in the middle of the night with the pain so bad I teared... Stupid ear !

Jun Wan (Go Circle?)

At the go-round-in-circles thing on Sunday that our family does every year.

Its supposed to change your luck, hopefully for the better.

Not that it matters to the younger generation, cos we always have to 'chope' tables for the elderly. It still applies now although I'm 21. Haha (:

It was quite fun to go for this year's, since I hadn't been there for two years - due to teaching piano on Sundays.

Not that I changed my luck though - I only went 2 out of the 3 circles. And now that my ear has inflamed, I can only hope the luck has not appeared yet (:

ANYWAY. Since the pain in my ear has subsided (phew) and hopefully will not come back, I've decided to post some of the photos taken that day.

Here's what Chubby missed on:




Not much missed here, the niece I brought my camera to take photos looked like she was depressed about changing her luck the whole time! Don't worry, you can't be worse off than me now (:




Fortunately the crazy cousin was displaying her weirdness.




I'm beginning to think she likes to stare into space.




Lipton Ice Tea ad.




The niece became happy after all (:

More photos when I feel better.

MIA

I'm going MIA from now.

The pain in my ear is so bad. It feels like my inner ear is being pricked by a thousand red-hot needles. Its so painful its humbling. I've never felt pain that bad, I start crying for no other reason than the pain itself.

My middle ear is numb. My hearing's muffled.

I'm scared I'll go deaf. My doctor's scared it'll affect my brain.

Apparently, my ear is so badly inflamed, the doc can barely see my timpanic membrane.

Got a jab in my butt this morning and various other pills.

I'm so glad now that I didn't refuse the painkillers, cos I ate one already and the pain is still so bad I can barely think.

I'm glad he scared me into taking the 3 days MC when I kept insisting on going to work after seeing him, because I'm afraid for my brain too, and I'm feeling so tired besides the pain which makes me see stars.

I hope my ear gets better. I'm so scared now.

Peyto Lake

Nikon D80 / Tokina 12-24mm / Singh-Ray soft-grad ND filter.

One of the most beautiful lakes in the Rockies (to me), besides Medicine Lake, Moraine Lake, and Waterton Lake.

We drove past (yes, without stopping) Peyto Lake on the way to town of Banff. All the way straight from Jasper, which was quite a few hours drive. Needless to say, the Nanny was tired and required neck massages along the way, and our fuel tank was going low.

When we reached Banff and started our plans to visit the nearby scenics, I was like, hey, Peyto Lake is nearby! (which the map claimed it was) so we set out all the way to Peyto, only to find out that after about 40 minutes we were STILL driving there. Nanny went mad, cos it was on Icefields Parkway, the way that we had gone to Banff by. Kept telling him to turn back to Banff, but he was as stubborn as a mule and drove all the way to Peyto while complaining non-stop. "It better be good!"

At the Peyto turnoff, we realised there was a steep climb to the lake lookout, also known as Bow Summit. More complaining, by the sister too (: unfit people! haha (:

THEN we reached the top! And gosh, it was such a beautiful view, a turquoise lake shaped like a fox, surrounded by majestic mountains and verdant forest.

Haha, then, Nanny stopped complaining (:

Blocked ears

My right ear is completely blocked; I feel partially deaf.

And, I just realised that I can't play the piano when I'm feeling partially deaf.

Sad.. I'd like to practice my chopin etude.

Ho Ching

I cannot believe it!

Ho Ching is stepping down as CEO of Temasek Holdings.

Very little detail was given.

Wow.

Healthy Eating

I realised that I forgot to write down some stuff related to my healthy-eating resolution.

1. Avoid... over-sweetened stuff (i.e. canned drinks)
2. Avoid fried / deep-fried stuff (i.e. Macs)
3. Have lots of veggies and fruits
4. Drink looots of water
5. Avoid overly salty food (i.e. potato chips)
6. Eat healthier versions of food (i.e. whole wheat vs white)
7. Remember to eat breakfast. Snack between meals.

Seagull

Wanted a shot to see the seagull's bokeh... My favourite shot out of the ten.

Somehow, I feel like I've reached a closed door in photography. Although I still love to take photos, I don't have an urge to create something beautiful, something that would stun even me. It hasn't come for quite a long time. I just keep thinking that my burst of enthusiasm left after the South Africa trip. There just aren't photos that make me go, wow, did I take that?

At a loss now.

Sexy TLR!

Hehe, check out that sexy thing!



On loan from Nanda...


And here's a cupcake I baked yesterday.



It was so good my sister ate two, my dad ate a lot (12 left from yesterday night became five today), and my mom ate three when they were fresh out of the oven. Shocking, seeing how she usually takes a small bite.

Just so you know, its cinnamon cupcakes topped with walnuts and cranberries, and given an unhealthy dose of orange juice / brown sugar syrup. YUMMY!

AND! I got a very bad burn on my thumb baking the last batch. Singed it on the hot metal and got an instant bubbling blister. It was so painful, felt like my finger was on FIRE the whole day. Oh well, its leaking blister fluid today. Would have gone to the doctor but parents started complaining. Now I know how that burnt MP feels (: hehe.