family day out by the beach

for some reason, our family has a tendency to end up at mangrove swamps when we go out. this time, we ended up somewhere in sepang. oh, parents and brother just returned from korea yesterday night. i thought they would be there for two weeks, but it seems it was 8 days, not two weeks. haha.

on the way out today (we were fetching uncle to lcct where he was meeting some friends who were going up to genting) we passed by KLIA which i recently discovered was designed by the metabolist guy, Kisho Kurokawa. I discovered it because I'm currently reading state of fear by Michael Chrichton (who rather likes chaos theory, i realize) and now i'm wondering if mankind is ever able to do anything for the environment and if statistics are ever true and is the world really run by capitalism? and other stuff that reading Michael Chrichton invariably leads me to think. I think someone in the house is a Michael Chrichton fan. We have Jurassic Park, The Lost World, The Andromeda Strain, State of Fear, Timeline, Congo, Next and possibly Sphere, but not sure about that one. Perhaps the fan was me, I don't know. haha.


these are some chocs from korea, we munched them in the car


these are the 'nude' chocs


these are the 72% something bitter chocs which mom likes


we saw some planes


we saw some buildings


we saw some pretty sky


don't be fooled. it looks serene and cool, but it was HOT


nice bench in a corner


it seems like some other world, but actually this is the seabed when the tide is out


that's mom and my brother gideon, braving the heat to check out seabeds when the tide is out


this is my brother isaac


dad disallowed him from going out too far, cos he was afraid he'd get heatstroke, so here he is kicking up a fuss


this is my sis jasmine with a conch shell she found nearby


pretty conch shell


and then they found two


they look really nice on the concrete


host of korean snacks


i LIKE


I like taking pics too :P


the brother and his shells


he's shyshy


shadow at your feet


smiley face, smiley face on the sand :)))


two pretty conch shells and one enthu amateur photographer


really enthu amateur photographer


told ja


and then again


the artist...


...and her art


love...


何方ですか？


pile of pretty looking rubbish!!
enthu amateur photographer: YAYYY!!! *snaps enthusiastically


father son moment
Father: WHY ARE YOUR SHOES SO MUDDY @@
Son: I FOUND SHELL I FOUND SHELL!!!
Father: WASH LEG!
Son: WASH SHELL!!


they found shells by the sea shore


they found crabs too!! CUTE CRABBY!!


and guess what, i ventured out into the heat as well, to see the seabeds when the tide is out


i saw this rottie mix somewhere out


this skinny white thing was following me...discreetly


the wonder of nature...this thing sprouted up pretty fast...


the place was TEEMING with little crabs


third doggie spotted!


the brother went to korea and grew bigger heh


what did the mudskipper say to the crab?
mudskipper: stupid amateur photographer
crab: aye...lets pose...


caught! i told you it was following me!


lots of these little shells around


it retreated!


brother moment...what on earth are they looking at?


catch of the day: a baby crab, a baby king crab, lots of tiny crabs, some living conches and some hermit crabs...i tell you, the reason why we have weird pets in the house is because we always end up in magrove swamps when we go on family outings


dad met an Indian guy who sold us a bag of freshly caught shrimp, which we had for dinnerdinner :)

i asked mom if i could go on exchange during lunch and was a little shocked (i was expecting some ums and ahs and how much will it cost etc from mom at least) when she said: go! must go! it'll be a great experience! nothing you can get at nus! apply as soon as possible!" i then mentioned it might be a bit expensive, especially if i went to europe...then her reply was: that's okay! apply! we're willing to spend the money...exchange will open your eyes! then i said: my grades....ahem, maybe i can't go... then dad piped up: have you heard of prayer? haha. so, with my parents blessing i'm applying for sep and i pray i will be able to go :) hopefully to scotland, haha, but anywhere also can.

seed grenade

image via bldgblog

rhinos are tough nuts

was trying to learn rhino today, and this is about as far as i got (on a beginner level (you won't need help!!) tutorial) and i got stuck at the orientonsurface command to orient the brushes on the brush (well, it's supposed to be a hairbrush) and i need to go off the comp soon and i can't save it because i'm using an evaluation copy, so i get 15 saves (bugger) so this printscreen is the only proof i got this far. hah. goodnite folks.


ha! i still can't figure out the orientonsurface thing, but it was very painful to close the program so i just anyhow do and print screen. this comb is very old and the possessor of which has extremely difficult to manage hair.

occasionally, the owner used it as a toothbrush. well, it looks somewhat toothbrushy too eh? come on lah. dead cells are dead cells.

how great Thou art

bugger cool
taken by shuyun (used with permission)

O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul! my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

blogging is beginning to bore me. shall i be closing down this blog?
on a separate note, i think i have a cold. ATISHOOOO. I caught it from my little brother, who was going on and on at church today @@ ATISHOOO CHOOACHOOO. darn the rather cold weather. oh, but perfect weather for puff pastry. heh

of grapes (just grapes)

photo via mccullagh
not going to bake anything today...so will post a funny story sis told us at dinner two nights ago. it's about how we ended up with a fridge full of grapes:

well, it seems that one day mom and dad went shopping together, and as usual dad would wander off to the fruit section with the shopping cart and mom would wander off to get her groceries. dad likes to walk really fast, so mom doesn't like shopping with him. after getting some household stuff, my mom set off to look for dad and stumbled upon the grape section where the grapes were going at 50% off. being mom, she immediately picked up a few bags of those grapes, only to find my dad just around the corner, looking at the rather more expensive grapes. thus, i assume the following dialogue ensued:

mom: eh, dun buy that one, so expensive, the other side got grapes going at 50% off, and they don't look bad.

dad: no lah, those grapes are going to be rotten soon. these ones are better!

mom: but we don't need so many grapes! i don't care i'm buying these and you can go buy your grapes and eat those yourself.

dad: okay, suit yourself! but i'm buying these grapes.

so they pile grapes into the shopping cart, and erm, they got between them 8kg worth of grapes. according to sis, the whole cart was grapes. i wonder what the person at the counter thought. next they fly off to korea and leave me, my sis, my little brother and my uncle to finish off 4kg of grapes in a week.

@@
-the end-

links
tofu
meatballs
baklava
eggs and tomatoes
chocolate mud cake
portuguese custard tarts
sicilian orange cake
argh

oh no, the chocolate cake was quite nice...only you have to remember to let it warm up a bit after you refrigerate it, then it's melt in the mouth yummy, but you can't eat too much in one go cos it's extremely rich.
the terrible thing is, although i remain skinny after eating loads of food (i want to be chubby leh), i have this risk of diabetes (runs in mom's side of the family) so i can't take too much sweet food...

of grapes and chocolate cakes

sidetrack: eehh, i can read yuta's blog! i can read yuta's blog!! (well, a bit...)

i was thinking of baking a grape cake (when i do i'll tell you why) but it's uncle's birthday and i can't risk another failure...so i baked a chocolate cake, butthis cake doesn't seem very birthday-ish either, don't you think?

the cake is mainly made up of dark chocolate and butter (two sticks)


melt the butter and melt the chocolate in the butter


add a cup of sugar and stir


it's beginning to look like fondue


add 5 eggs and 1Tflour, well combine and pour into pan
bake at 180C for 25 min


yummy batter


it's supposed to crack on top and fall when it comes out of the oven. the centre is supposed to be wobbly, but mine wasn't. maybe the oven too hot?


the batter tasted quite nice (well, it's chocolate, butter and sugar)
i hope the cake tastes good. i should make a simple sponge next time, and decorate it for birthdays, rather than try rich cakes like this. this isn't really birthday like! haha

recipe here

i watched 2012 on the family laptop with sis last night. we used the laptop cos the tv is kaput. i kind of like it. i felt it was right that mankind should face the end with an act of kindness rather than cruelty.
very nice
also, i realize my smallness in the world at large...i believe that if it were the end of the world, and if anyone had to decide who was to live and who was to die, i wouldn't survive at all! haha

also, i am brought back to the lesson i learned back in year1sem1: that humility and passion is the strongest virtue of any architect. although an architect may need a certain amount of ego to fight for their ideas, the best architect, the one who will stand the test of time, is a humble one.

just like i realized in year two my mistake that an architect does not read, on the contrary, the more he reads and widens his knowledge, the stronger and more meaningful his designs will be.

well, when i saw all those famous and beautiful buildings go down, the collapse of infrastructure...well, never was the feeling stronger of the futility of what i do. but still, i love what i am doing, and people really do have to live in some sort of shelter :p

brown butter blondies

i cannot bake already leh. the blondies looked like a very rich sponge, not like blondies at all. real blondies look like this. i cannot stand it already @@ why their blondies look so nice?

hmm. nevermind lah, i may be able to bake again at the end of the holidays. i realize now hor, that i cannot cook, i can only bake (sometimes) so this means that i think i will try and be an architect after all (i was considering becoming a housewife after a talk with christy the night before she left for her india mission trip).

recipe here, btw. i halved the recipe (roughly) and halved the sugar too, but then it was still very sweet

2.5 sticks butter
2.25 cups flour
1.5t baking powder
1.5t salt
2 cups brown sugar
0.5 cups granulated sugar
(oh, maybe cos i used fine granulated sugar rather than granulated)
3 large eggs
(i used 3 small eggs...that might have been too much, specially since i halved the other ingredients)
2.5t vanilla extract
(left this out because we seem to have run out)

1_preheat oven to 178C. Line, butter, flour 9inch by 13inch tin
2_heat butter over medium heat till golden brown. cool
3_whisk flour, baking powder, salt
4_combine butter and sugar. add eggs+vanilla. add flour mixture.
5_bake 35-40min