Just one week ago, my world suddenly came crumbling down on me. All was well when I turned in on Fri night, but I came down with a sudden high fever early Sat morning. The next day, my high fever persisted, and my taste buds went haywire. Everything from apples to watermelons had a bitter aftertaste, and only toast slathered with copious amounts of sour-sweet orange marmalade tasted somewhat edible. The fear of DENGUE loomed overhead all Sunday as I miserably wondered whether to get a dengue test done at the GP's.

Fast forward one week. And so it was DENGUE fever. Having to draw blood for daily blood counts was no fun at all, but I feel incredibly blessed that my dengue didn't turn out to be that serious. My shins are still covered with dengue rashes - but no severe headaches, no eye pain, nor the notorious bone or joint pains. I went home to recuperate for most of the week - while there was a fair amount of nagging from the parents, it also turns out I got to spend some quality time with them while resting. It was nice, as it's been a while since I really got the chance to do that.

Mum was also pretty bent on preparing anything that people tell her will get me on my feet again - frogs legs steamed with bittergourd, kiwis, papaya leaf juice... Actually papaya leaf juice was my contribution - part hearsay from people and part hearsay from internet sources. Enzymes in freshly extracted papaya leaf juice apparently helps to increase platelet levels - so I shared this little tit bit with my parents and the in-laws. Nice FIL found papaya leaves for me from the neighbourhood and I enthusiastically blended them and squeezed out a concentrated few tablespoons of the bitter concoction myself the first night.

Later I became less enthusiastic about drinking it, as one article I came across cautioned that such substances can affect the accurate reading of my platelet levels (apparently platelet levels will naturally rise on the 6th/ 7th day from onset of fever as part of natural recover process) but alas the 'seed' was planted and there was no escape from drinking more papaya leaf juice as my parents kept nagging me to continue the doses... [I later endured a 2nd 'dose' but soon managed to discontinue without fresh new supplies of leaves :P]

Am still feeling the general fatigue from dengue, but am SO SO happy that I am almost well again. After a week of 'house arrest', it felt great being able to just go out and enjoy some fresh air (healthily)! Nonetheless it's still peak dengue season now - do be careful everyone and if you really end up getting dengue, drink A LOT of water to keep hydrated the entire time!

I have been getting up at 715am for work the past few weeks, and my body clock is now attuned to waking up around 715am. Even on weekends! Which is quite annoying :(

On the brighter side, everything has been going decently well at work - with some time to bake on the weekends too. There is loads to pick up, but at least I actually feel quite happy! :)

Hello again! 

I know - I've abandoned my blog for so long that half of you have probably stopped frequenting this blog! But well, for the few faithful ones who still drop by, here are some updates on what I've been up to! 

Had a double birthday celebration at New Majestic restaurant this afternoon and dinner ended with some really delightful desserts, longevity buns for mum's 60th and a lovely family photo. We had also unintentionally arranged ourselves really symmetrically and aesthetically :P 

After lunch we also found these cool couple seats at the hotel lobby and decided to take some fun shots. It's been a while since I took such nice photos with my sis, and so they made me quite happy :) 

Last weekend we also took an early wedding anniversary trip to Maldives. Beautiful waters and trip, though it would have been much more pleasant if we hadn't booked ourselves into such an ulu resort.. Internal transfers including the domestic flight took almost as long as our flight from SG to MALE! 

Baking-wise, all is good but after my busy and tiring Christmas I somewhat decided that it might not be so wise to bake for a living after all. Well, I can't say for sure I won't do it in the future, but I guess I won't be doing it for now. Will keep it on the side as a hobby for time being. And quite excited to do more leisure baking and go back to making all kinds of random cakes and stuff again! Hope to master non-cake bakes such as scones and breads this year :) - like these maple oat scones I baked last month! 

And so tmr I start a new phase of my life. Hope all will be good :) 

Have a joyful, healthful and fulfilling 2014 dear friends! 

P/S: not forgetting the little bugger who sticks ard my house. A really defensive and cautious cat that I've named San San. The relationship is really one-sided sometimes I really wonder why I bother at all. Maybe I over-empathise with its stray plight and maybe cos I have been sticking around the house too much. Take care little one. 

Now that I am on the other side and have to bake every single day the rest of the month with hardly any time nor energy to do other things during the day, I really wished I could just bake for leisure. The so-called 'dream job' is turning into a nightmare this month, and I feel like I have generally under-charged and underpaid :( I hope I survive the rest of the month, can somehow manage to keep healthy/sane and not end up too sleep-deprived...

I've recently developed some kind of attachment for cats, and I suspect it's because of how graceful and beautiful these creatures can be. I guess I am shallow that way :P Regardless whether they are strays or not, they all sit in a certain elegant manner, sleep so cutely and can make faces that make you go awww. Not all cats are equal though - some cats look more devious than others. E.g. there's always this lean cat sitting tall on the bonnet of some car every time I walk to the MRT and I swear he has a slightly evil look and stare!

Recently one guy started hanging out at my garden. Not IN my garden to be exact, but along the perimeter of my house - usually sleeping or just lazing and watching the world go by. He (or she) is the only cat I don't actively try to shoo out of my house - for whatever reasons. His fur seems to be somewhat ruffled/ imperfect and maybe deep down it made me feel sorry for him. I wouldn't want to be a stray - with nowhere to go, no one to like me etc. And so I decided to let him be. Share my garden - until he decides to be ungrateful and poo in my garden.

Earlier this week - I saw him hanging out again, and I decided to bring him some milk. After some initial hesitation (and after I hid behind my gate), he came forward to drink from the container! And I was thrilled to bits seeing him lick the milk with his little tongue. The guy got disinterested in the milk after a while, but I felt happy to have made his evening a little better that day (so I think). BUT - we are yet to be friends. He definitely keeps a distance, and I don't push it either. As with humans, I guess relationships take time to develop!

And so here's Part I of my juvenile and amateurish cat adventures. Not sure if I will get to Part II, but if there's any significant development worthy of an update, you will hear it here :P  Enjoy the rest of the week!

This afternoon I received the first cheque ever for a batch of 220 cookies I baked for a customer/friend. Seriously it was not a lot of money - but I felt pretty emotional about it. A really tangible feeling that I had worked really hard to earn it!

To be honest, I have not felt this way about my paycheck in a long time, probably not since my very first paycheck. As a salaried civil servant the money typically "appears" in your bank account without fail you eventually start to take a decent and stable stream of income for granted. And I never really thought that I would appreciate and actually miss this sense of financial security.

You know how parents always caution "that money is not easy to make"- I can definitely identify with that right now! From a financial point of view, that's probably not something I should be too happy about. On the other hand, it also puts things into perspective; and makes me think about others who don't have it easy yet have to grit their teeth to eke out a living - how it must be like for them..

It's back to the 'daily grind' after an extended holiday!

These days, I don't shop much for clothes - so while I was in land of high street labels I ended up frequenting the supermarkets the most. Selfridges food hall; Waitrose; M&S... I think 2/3 of my 'spoils' from the trip were groceries/ baking-related stuff. Madness! At times I got so carried away thinking I'd need XX ingredient for some imaginary cake that I haven't even conceptualised properly - that I bought quite a few things first before really knowing what I'd use them for! Am also running out of storage space in my kitchen! That's a kiasu baker for you :P

Am trying to cook up a Christmas menu of sorts this week/ next week. I've already had a few failed attempts last week, hopefully my luck will improve this week! I literally think about what cakes to make/ try all day long... So while I don't have a 9-5 job for now, life is pretty stressful too, in a pretty different way. I suppose I should be happy/ relieved that I am still relatively passionate about baking - and hopefully it will somehow work out monetarily in the longer term...

A month in cakes

It's been quite busy the past one month - after 25 cake orders and one pop-up sale I think I am ready for a break! And so we are off to a holiday in Croatia/ London (mainly Croatia) to recharge :) And I hope to come home refreshed and full of good ideas for my Christmas menu! Though tiring, I am quite thankful to have been blessed with decently good business and hopefully the orders will keep coming in.

To family and friends who got something from me, thanks for being so nice and supportive. I really appreciate it; and certainly won't be mad if you choose to order cakes from cake shops from time to time :P Guess most of us appreciate some kind of variety/novelty once in a while, but do help me to spread the word!

Here's a few photos of the month past, in cakes (all photos taken with my iPhone) :)

Part of an order of 4 items for 3 birthday boys - raspberry white chocolate muffins and chamomile lavender cupcakes

A cream cheese rosette chocolate cake for E's mum's birthday. Made this more diabetic-friendly with less sugar and special low glycemic index (GI) sugar, since her dad is on a diabetic diet.

Our little pop-up sale at Merely Ice Cream on 21 Sep. The husband was nice and supportive, and helped to co-man the little stall the entire afternoon!

This has to be the cutest cake I made in the past month - a rilakkuma strawberry shortcake for a 1-yr old girl :)

A dark chocolate olive oil cake an ex-colleague bought to thank her son's teacher for PSLE coaching. 

D's friends have been pretty supportive of my baked goods, and one of them pre-ordered three things I was going to bake for my pop-up sale. And so I spent the whole of today baking; and felt like dying collapsing at the end of the day. Achy feet, backache, rough hands - so this is what full-time baking feels like! Sigh - this is also my most lowly-paid job since I started working!

I also spent close to an hour this morning trying to figure out how to get my new Cuisinart food processor to chop nuts nicely, only to realise at the end of it that I am still better off hand-chopping my pecans and walnuts. The food processor (even at the chop setting) is far too powerful and chops my nuts into minuscule pieces quickly (so you don't feel any nut crunch when biting into the cake), or if I don't chop them so much they remain large and unevenly chopped. Zesting is another task I now do regularly (since I like things fresh) - and i think it's about time to get a better/ more ergonomically designed zester so as to be nicer to my hands/ fingers :P

It was satisfying though to pack all my lovingly baked goods away nicely into boxes etc, but baking full-time is really tiring. Perhaps I would get used to it - I can't possibly be giving up after 2 weeks :P Anyways, today was an unusually xiong1 day - though it would be worse on Friday preparing for the 21 Sept bake sale. What did I get myself into?! OK I shall quit complaining and try to recuperate a little the next two days and plan less physically demanding tasks! :)

The new improved and beautified version of my date pecan walnut loaf (made with spelt flour!) with cream cheese frosting and toasted nuts

Chamomile lavender cupcakes, blueberry lemon almond cake + date pecan loaf

This is my first week as an OMO cake lady; and thankfully I've been relatively motivated and disciplined so far! I have to admit too that it's great to have a flexible schedule, and not have to waste my time and energy getting upset over annoying people you cannot change. Of course, it can get a little lonely at times, but that's something I can still manage ok :)

I've finalised and sent in my namecard design for printing, and also started to think about what to offer at my pop-up bakery later this month! Also started experimenting possible new offerings, one of which is likely to be the earl grey lavender cupcake with honey swiss meringue buttercream frosting. I also want to create a minimalist Japanese-influenced photography style for my cakes, and this is the first of many photos that I hope to take!

Today I 心血来潮, and decided to drag mum, sis and D to go watch 我的朋友，我的同学，我爱过的一切 together. I don't really know many 新谣 songs, but it reminded me how Chinese songs and lyrics can be really nice and meaningful :) Coincidentally, the movie also made several references to my favorite quote in one of my favorite books! The ending was quite blah though :P

Anyways, I think this is the nicest song in the movie.

It's been a packed but fulfilling long weekend :)

Thurs and Fri were mostly spent fulfilling cake orders - actually it all started on Wed night. Finished one cake then and then another cake cum 12 cupcakes the next morning. The cake marathon continued on Fri where I spent half the day making a cake for a church friend's one-year old child. While I generally prefer to do simple/ elegant-looking cakes, somehow this cute elephant cake won me quite a few new fans. And I found myself in a difficult position - perhaps I should learn to be more flexible, and it seems like anything that will make kids happy is likely to sell pretty well...

We also did a short staycation at New Majestic hotel on Sat night; and explored the familiar neighbourhood of Tanjong Pagar after dinner. Quite a few cool-looking places have popped up in the area since my MND days, and we managed to get some seats for brunch at a nice new cafe in the area this morning. Our Sunday ended on a shiok but unhealthy note at Satay Club besides Gardens by the Bay :)

So sad that this is the end of the nice long weekend; but oh well, I shouldn't be complaining since I've taken the plunge to leave my job and it wouldn't be that long before I regain my flexible schedule again :)

Useful quote for the day:

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves - Carl Jung

It felt good earlier this month to see my bank account balance stop bleeding, but somehow something feels amiss; and I have been feeling a little down about having to work with people who stress me up, who don't appear to value/ like me for who I am, and over a hundred other trivial reasons. Despite the down times, there were occasional rainbows - eg. when my Dad-of-few-words tried to give me some work/life advice. Dad also claims that these tough times will make me stronger, since I'd been spoilt and overprotected by them since young. I don't necessarily disagree with his assessment of my work situation, but only wished it could be a bit easier. Then again, not everyday is bad, and I should just stop whining and be thankful for the happy things I can be happy about! :P

Weekends feel really precious now and I have been having Sun night blues the past few weeks. The work week really tires me out and though I wish I could rest on the weekends I am still trying to keep the little cake business going and so I haven't been resting very much either. Was very 'in the zone' yesterday and baked 3 cakes - 2 for sale and 1 for self-consumption... :) Hoping very hard that most weekends can be as work-free as the one just past, and that I'd soon be able to find a nice balance between work and pursuit of personal interests!

It's a quiet weekend for me - with D off to fancy places for his study trip and me home alone and trying to reconcile and settle into my new (working) life.

Baking for cake orders yesterday was pretty therapeutic on Fri night after a self-assessed not so good day; but the 2nd leg of the baking on Sat morning/ afternoon got somewhat out of hand and caused some temporary anxiety ha. Thankfully all went pretty well in the end and the 2nd weekend order post starting work was successfully delivered. Am in two minds about continuing with baking, esp since the new job is likely to be heavy-going, but I suppose I will just work at it for as long as I can take it!

Also had a leisurely Father's Day lunch with family, and caught up with their adventures at RWS Marine Life earlier in the week. I feel like I have been growing more emotional/sentimental with 'age' and simple pleasures like spending time and catching up with family make me feel contented and happy. Maybe it's also this desire to want to remain connected/ close despite not being physically close anymore.

I have pretty mixed feelings about my new job. While there are several issues I genuinely find interesting (eg. how to attract the really needier ones and not the health conscious types to go for health screening ), some self-imposed stress and little insecurities are getting to me again. And so it's been a bit of a tough start... Must keep reminding myself to be positive and care less about what others think!

It's back to the daily grind for me this week and it feels like my pace of life tripled overnight. It's been ages since I last saw 30 new emails overnight and honeymoon period was practically non-existent :( on the other hand, it was nice to learn new things - just better if there's a bit more time to absorb..!

Now to destress - am on my way to a Jay Chou concert compliments of nice sis! :)

This will be my last week of rest! It suddenly feels surreal to start work again, and a little part of me feels a little worried if I will suddenly find myself unable to get used to working :P I suppose it will be rather tiring initially, but will probably get used to it soon enough.

The last week also feels very precious and I thought quite hard what I might want to do in the last week. In the end, I couldn't really think of anything I REALLY REALLY wanted to do (eg. check out some corner of Singapore worth visiting) before starting work. Maybe it's a sign that I have rested long enough heh. I figured that I will probably continue with some baking experiments, try to spend time with my parents, read a little and just chill. And maybe hunt for a chio laptop bag so that I won't have to lug the ugly black one that typically comes with the issued laptop :)

I have been feeling quite murderous towards grasshoppers lately - after finding numerous grasshopper droppings on my hydrangea pots and even some stuck on my front (sliding) doors!

Thought I had seen the last of the 2 resident grasshoppers (which I caught and threw out) but I discovered a third one this morning!!! I had better double the pesticide dosage. Sadly the damage is already done and it annoys me immensely to see black speckles all over the leaves, flower petals etc.

I hate garden pests!!