A morning out at Gardens by the Bay

I initiated a family outing with parents and sis to Gardens by the Bay yesterday morning.  Having spent quite little time with them in the past few months, I really wanted to be a bit more 'present'. It's nice really that I now have a bit more time to do so.. :)

We chose the wrong day to go lah - I guess it's sch holiday for many kids (day after National Day) and the place was swarmed even though we reached around 10+. After like a 30 min+ wait to buy tickets, we finally entered the 2 conservatories and entered a whole new world of flowers and plants we wld otherwise not be able to see in SG. The Flower Dome was nice, but I was more impressed by the other dome "Cloud Forest" with this huge 7-storey structure covered by all kinds of climbers and shrubs on the exterior. It felt quite out of this world when I was first greeted by the huge waterfall at the entrance..

View from the flower dome - with the Singapore Flyer and city skyline in the background!
Below: Some very pretty and exotic flowers in the Flower Dome

THIS was one of the weirdest plants I found in the Flower Dome - the woolly cactus with funny brown fur growing out from the 'crown'... eeks.

The majestic-looking Cloud Forest structure! 

The rest of the weekend shall be spent nuah-ing around, as I have tried to pack too many things into my week and I actually feel slightly exhausted despite not working.. A few hrs was thus blissfully and brainlessly spent in front of the TV this evening to 'recuperate' a little; I plan to be equally chill tmr and we're gg to go have a nice morning brunch! Really haven't felt so 'light' and carefree in a while! :)

This week's creations!

I am 'settling well' into my state of joblessness and getting more housewifey :P Baked some cranberry and white chocolate cookies on Mon afternoon; and blueberry cheesecake yesterday afternoon. Am getting quite interested in food styling, and have started to amass a mini collection of various knick knacks that can further enhance my food shots. And thankfully it's National Day today; so I was able to share my baked treats with my family - the cookies have been devoured over the past few days and I am now down to 2 pieces of cheesecake in the fridge :)

The cheesecake (with a thin layer of baked sour cream finish) wasn't supposed to be this shallow - but a few cm wider cake pan led to quite a significant fall in height. Well it turned out looking like a cheesecake pie, but actually not too bad lah, it's now slightly healthier with less cheese per slice of cake :P

Cooking is something I am somewhat capable of but enjoy less and prob will never be v good at - because I don't quite fancy the food preparation part, which can be quite stinky or 'gooey'... like getting rid of fats, ending up with garlic-smelling fingers etc. But we had some leftover cheese sausage from the weekend, so I threw together a 'chapalang' pasta with mushroms, grape tomatoes, asparagus and sausage for yesterday's dinner  :) 

Wonders of 3D printing and a lovely book trailer

I came across 2 interesting videos this morning while surfing online - one on 3D printing and another of a book on the topic of happiness.

I've come across several 3D printing videos/ articles during the course of work; but I've mostly seen it used for manufacturing factory parts, home-produced toys and stuff. The vastly improved quality of life that this 3D printed prosthetic arms/ device brings to little Emma here in the video is quite amazing and touching:



I also saw a book 'review' with a very cute animated book trailer. I wish I can draw and sketch like these people - actually our v own Civil Service College is also gradually having a couple of courses on visual facilitation. I've gone for one taught by a civil servant who had the privilege to take one of these classes when The Grove experts came to SG - but it's quite hard to 'get it' if you're not already that talented at sketching/ drawing...

From tmr onwards, I will be relatively free to do whatever I like with my weekdays; and a day or two each week will prob be set aside for baking. I have amassed several to-try recipes from food blogs, lib books and random recipes I come across. If only there's some place I can borrow baking equipment from; cos many recipes require this baking pan or other (or several, to make a layered cake) that I dun alri have and need to buy... :(

With more baking plans in mind, I shld also seriously start exercising more. Have been terribly ill disciplined and lazy the past couple of weeks - wld I be able to get up early tmr morning to go for a morning run? Very questionable, but I shall try... 

Here are some new food photos - last Thurs (my first day of bummer-hood), I made some choc peanut butter ice-cream!

Home-made chocolate & peanut butter ice-cream. The original recipe showed visible swirls of peanut butter - but had I followed the recipe faithfully this treat would be extremely extremely sinful so I cut down on the peanut butter and kinda incorporated my crunch Skippy PB into the choc ice cream instead. 

 My lovely ex-colleague gave me a box of cookies on my last day - I decided to use them as props for my choc peanut butter ice-cream.. Choc cookie ice-cream sandwiches!

I didn't show any shot with the completed cookie - because when I put them tog the ice-cream started oozing out and became not so sightly :P