Thursday, February 21, 2013

I think I am missing you, Europe.

Hello Humans,

I AM OFFICIALLY MISSING MY EUROPE TRIP.

I miss getting lost in unknown areas and finding the right way.
I miss holding maps and camera and treating strangers as bad people.
I miss having bread before meals though that is fattening.
I miss the blue blue sky, the white fluffy clouds and the cold windy weather though the weather sometimes freak me out.
I miss being abroad without much worries, just relax.
I miss travelling, carrying my luggage around and having aches and bruises all over my body.
I miss burning off my fats by walking around streets and gaining back the calories by having 3 ice-creams in a day.
I miss having the thrill to find fellow Singaporeans or people who can speak Mandarin so that we can ask them for direction.
I miss getting home at 10pm or 9pm when the sky is still damn bright.
I miss flying around in planes and calling hostels my home.

I miss you, Europe.

Thanks to my friend who is on exchange. Looking at those photos makes me feels like "Oh I wanna go abroad!". Enough of travel bean. Okay, enough is not exactly enough. What is enough? I don't know. HAHA. So... Just wait and see where's the next stop! Cos I have no idea whether there will be any graduation trip for me.

Loves,
Bean

Thursday, February 14, 2013

I'm a happy girl on v-day

Hello Humans


I'm happy cos:
1) Received val-day present from bbdc that I pass my BTT
2) Pass final evaluation test on first attempt (without any revision! But, got try the practices lah)
3) Completed 5km run within 40mins and adds up to 6.3 within 55mins (well, that's for yesterday but I'm still happy)
4) Instead of 2day cny break, I'm having 8day cny break. *Clap clap* But not much difference actually.

Okay maybe these aren't really great or hard but whee, self-encouragement is good and important (:

It's a bit sian diao that FTT is on early April, that will certainly need more revision thing since it seems harder than btt and we didn't revise before our evaluation test today.

And happy valentines day people! ♥

So what if we're lonely souls on this day right, it can still turn out to be a good one!

Loves,
Bean


Monday, February 04, 2013

Stay over at grandma's place

Hello Humans,

Last week is pretty much an eventful one. (:

For the first time, I stayed over at my paternal grandma's house! HAHA, Shan and I stayed over from Thursday afternoon and left on Saturday morning, and we helped out with our grandma with making abacus yam thing and soon ban, both are Hakka dishes actually. Actually we have been saying that we want to learn how to make these dishes for years and we finally did it! Oh well, we didn't really learn the whole thing cos grandma already prepared the liao (ingredients) before hand just before we reach on Thursday. So... we only learnt half the course.

P.S: This post will mainly of pictures.

So early in the morning on Friday, grandma woke up at 4 plus I guess. But the two of us woke up at 6 plus X: When I was awoke, the yams were already ready! It should take quite long to cook the yam, to make sure it's super soft before proceeding. So from there, I gauged that my grandma woke up at 4 plus!

That's 6 or 7 yams, together with 6 or 7 packets of starch powder.

And they have to be mixed when the yams are still hot!

Grandma mixing them together. It was super hot and dad even bought glove for us but too bad it can't be used. And so, we knead it into a dough, make it into rolls, break them into small pieces and then press them gently to get the shape of abacus. 

And this is how they looks like! 

More and more. We made quite a lot in order to meet the demand for CNY. HAHA.

And that is our breakfast! *loves*

So after eating, back to work! These are all made with love by me, shan, grandma and aunt! HAHA(: it's time to boil them! :D

Joke of the day: I forgot that we were making abacus and we should press two sides of it with one finger each. Instead, I pressed one side with one finger and the other side was pressed against two relaxed fingers. So haha, the nicely shaped abacus that looks like red blood cell (on the right) is the correct one, and the one on the left, is made by yours truly! HAHA. Grandma and aunt was laughing WITH (note it's "with" not "at") me that they have never seen such abacus before and I am truly creative cos instead of abacus, it looks like 元宝. HAHA, I agree much and super proud of my creation. Hmmm.

After boiling, we need to cool them down in order to store them in fridge. So shiok right, fans aiming at them on a hot Friday morning.

And next after making abacus, time to do soon ban! 

Actually the steps for both making soon ban and abacus ARE THE SAME. they are like cousins, same same but different. (:

And this is the liao (ingredient) that I was saying. For abacus that you see above, it's not the final product cos it should be stirred fried together with these ingredient, and that will be done on this Sunday (: As for soon ban, these liao will be wrapped inside the skin! If you're curious of what makes up the liao, i can only remember that there are 豆干,鱿鱼,猪肉,香菇, 豆干丝 etc.

the aroma of yam reminds us of yam paste!!

happy and sweaty shan!

HAHA, cute grandma

cute pose huh!

they working hard while and i... busying with photo taking. :D

我要把你们按扁扁!

so innovative way to have the circle shape! don't need buy those circle cutter! ;D

after cutting out the shape, put the liao.

And then press the edge before steaming! :D

Everything was done by 3plus, so imagine if my grandma were to do it alone, I guess she will split it into two days. And the process was quite tiring where we need to use quite a lot of forces. So we rested before heading to JP for a quick walk while aunt and grandma stayed at home. HAHA.

And this is what we saw on our way. lucky you, you got a lucky shoot. joke that maybe only my sister will know.

And after we were back from our quick JP trip at around 6pm, hello little guest! :D

He's only 5 months old and he's super guai! No crying or whatever, totally not scare of stranger! HAHA. and he let us hug him despite it's the first time seeing us! :D

By the way he's grandson of grandma's neighbour. And he must see my grandma everyday at around that timing. So cute right? :D

Okay, here's my grandma for the last photo. She's playing with this while watching TV. HAHAHAHAH.

And so, this is how I spent my stayover at my grandma's place. We have so much more to learn for abacus and soon ban. not knowing the liao is totally cannot make it to make the dishes. Anyway i hope i wouldn't receive complaints on Sunday regarding my cute abacus for being out of shape or whatsoever.

Tuesday is here again, tomorrow ):

Loves,
bean.

CNY Chinatown Tour 2013

Hello Humans,




CNY is coming in 6 days' time! (:

Shan, Dad and I usually will go Chinatown to walk walk during pre-CNY period to get some CNY feel and to look for some goodies. But this year, we didn't managed to get much stuff cos there isn't much sales and things that caught our eyes. Oh and the cny feel wasn't that strong yet, guess we went "too early" but it's good cos at least it's not so crowded (though squeezing through the crowd can contribute to CNY feel too though,HAHA). Anyway this year, we have one more person joining us! 


And tatah~ that's my brother. HAHA. We had supper at this dessert shop called Chinatown Mei Hong Yuen Dessert. Food are slightly pricey where 1 bowl of dessert (such as almond paste, black sesame pastes etc) costs around $3.00. But anyway, their steamed carrot cake is nice and it was difficult to find seat even when the shop is closing in 15 minutes. 


Carrot cake, 糯米鸡 and 猪肠粉.


I guess these are the 12 zodiac animals that we can find along the road.


Scary pork legs!!


Some random store.


Shan and I wishing you all happy Chinese New Year!


Huat ahhh!

Loves,
Bean