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!!

After some 3 months of procrastination, I finally got down to taking a new photo for my new IC; and uploading various scanned files for the online application. After a few failed attempts to upload photos, I finally succeeded in submitting the application. YAY. And my new address can finally and concurrently be updated haha.

The job search has also come to an end, and I will probably be back to an office life in a couple of weeks' time. I think it's about time even though I still haven't quite figured out what I really want to do. I suppose it will have to be an ongoing process and who knows, perhaps the new job will help me figure that out too.

My baking may take a back seat, but I will try my best to keep the little flame alive! I've been pretty hardworking in my kitchen - at least in the past week or two :) Check out some of my Mother's Day bakes on my food blog or on my FB page :)

I really need to exercise more and watch my diet henceforth :(

Before I knew it, it's already been a week since we came home!

In the week past, besides doing loads of laundry, I went for my first jog in a month (yes, sigh), checked out Tsukada Nojo's curious Bijin Nabe (collagen hot pot) with J, S & 'M', baked 3 cakes (one of which was for sale!) and resumed job hunting efforts. 

In other (happy) news, my little FB cake page is gaining more followers. Help me spread the word too if you like what you see! Also - head over to my food blog for some shots of a lovely cafe we visited in Queenstown during our NZ trip :)

We were blessed with lovely weather for our horseride through some Lord of The Rings film locations this morning in Glenorchy, a scenic small town near Queenstown, NZ.

Lunch at a local cafe was fantastic - had a most delicious grilled vegetable sandwich and chicken salad under the warm sun outdoors :) We also treated ourselves to a sinfully chocolatey but heavenly-tasting slice of brownie. Aargh, at this rate am pretty sure I will return home with a few extra pounds...

We had some luck with the weather yesterday and D got to visit his Hobbiton movie set after all :) today was a little cloudy and occasionally drizzly, but we managed to catch some really pretty glimpses of autumn during our long drive!

It's Day 3 of our New Zealand trip and we haven't been too lucky with the weather. It's been raining everyday, even in Whakatane - supposedly NZ's sunniest city. And so even our plans to visit a volcano island tmr morning had to be ditched :(

The first anniversary trip is starting to remind me of my honeymoon, weather-wise! It's not supposed to be raining all the time now! Hopefully it will turn sunnier, warmer soon..

In between job-hunting and trip-planning the past week, I suddenly came down with fever on Sunday afternoon - and it went up to a high of 40C last night! The fever has been on and off (typically in 3-4 hour blocks); and when the fever is really bad I just cannot muster any energy to do anything at all.. Though I seem to have one/ two other symptoms dengue patients seem to exhibit, we are praying hard it is not dengue... It's too early to tell though. Aargh :(

Here are some photos from our cooking class with local 'celebrity chef' Sam Leong and his wife Forest, at their new restaurant Forest at RWS. And hehe it was chilli crab, not black pepper crab.

The session starts off with a 4-course modern Chinese set lunch at their restaurant (the food was really delicious, we'd definitely go back again), followed by the cooking demo and a little hands-on for participants. Forest taught us how to make red ruby (yay, I will try it next time for house parties) while the husband shared his chilli crab recipe with us. The chilli crab tasted really good (they gave us fresh fleshy Sri Lankan crabs) but we're quite doubtful if we would ever be up to killing live crabs at home. Suspect we'll at most attempt chilli prawns if we're feeling hardworking (preparing blending the various ingredients for the sauce is a lot of work!)

a murderous moment.. 

blended ingredients to go into the sauce.. 

I really liked Forest as she was very sincere and personable. I really didn't expect her to be so warm since you know, they are celebrity chefs... Sam was relatively funny and approachable too, but I still like his wife better. Was pretty surprised/impressed too that the chefs themselves did the washing up after the demos. 

Btw, don't you think Forest looks like a certain local politician?? :P

On a not-so-related note, you can head over to my other blog for some photos of my exam bakes for my professional baking class, if you're interested to take a look! :)

Finally - tomorrow will be the last day of class! And it will be no-stress last day since our exam (today) is over! It's been pretty hectic baking 6 days a week; and I am most happy to take a break from:

-  waking up early for class and standing most of the day
-  dishwashing and scrubbing stubborn cake batter/ sugar syrup/hardened chocolate etc from pans/ mixing bowls. :))

Today's my only day off baking class (yes, I have class on Sun too...) and it so happens that I will end up learning how to cook black pepper crab/ red ruby as part of a short cooking class treat from D :P Have never spent so much time in a 'kitchen' ever!

If you're interested to take a look at my baked goods for the week, you can check out my other blog here :)

I suddenly find myself thrown into baking boot camp! Class overran today (10am to 8pm instead of ending at the official 6pm) and my afternoon after lunch was spent non-stop making cakes. It feels somewhat overwhelming but i suppose it gives me a realistic picture of a baker's life! I am pretty exhausted just after one day and wonder if I will remain so passionate about baking after this :P

Below: My Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty cake "orders" as part of the day's imaginary cake "orders"- the cartoons are made from scratch (piped using pre-printed stencils as reference) using milk/ white chocolate

Come tomorrow, I will commence an intensive 14-day professional full-time baking course with Creative Culinaire. I signed up for this after much deliberation in January - since it was pretty costly and because I was wondering if it was really necessary for me to know all the things taught in this class. After the class, you're supposed to be able to know baking well enough to come up with your own recipes and be confident enough to start your own bakery. Seems like quite a feat in just 14 days - but the chef claims that we will be more than empowered by the end of the class. During the 2-day prep class this Thurs/ Fri just past, she proudly shared that several of her past students have gone on to set up their own shops etc.

For now, my objective is quite simple though - to just learn how to bake better, via understanding the science behind baking, so that I can troubleshoot my own baking failures in future. In an increasingly saturated F&B (bakeries included) marketplace, I don't think I want to put myself through all the stress and headache of setting up and running a physical bakery or cafe. At least not for the time being! I hope I survive the trials of standing most of the day and washing up (everyday for 6 days a week). The chef also joked that she might ask participants to come in in the middle of the night to bake/ occasionally turn off the aircon to simulate real-life conditions. If I remain/ become more passionate about baking after this course, I guess then there is a glimmer of hope for grander dreams heh. Wish me luck!

On a related note - I finally made and blogged about my birthday cake project here :)

I don't think I am ever going to my neighbourhood GP (under Healthway Medical) again unless it's like a life-threatening emergency. After discovering some traces of blood in phlegm (as I had a sore throat) yesterday morning, was slightly freaked out and thus walked across to see the doc though I knew they were not cheap. But having to pay $64.20 for some antibiotics, lozenges and phlegm medicine is just crazy - after consultation, I was pretty sure I wasn't even very sick.

D & I think that they intentionally dispense ATAS-looking drugs (ie. come in premium-looking boxes, with thicker packaging etc) perhaps to somewhat justify the higher fees. Worse still - the antibiotics was not even good and I half suspect it was the culprit for my stomach pain later in afternoon.

Lesson of day for self - Don't fall sick, especially when you are poor and car-less! :P

Today I turned 30 blissfully :)

Though I still have a long way to go in terms of -

a. figuring out my purpose/ calling in life
b. becoming (and remaining) optimistic, determined, focused, confident

and such...

I should also remind myself of and celebrate the countless blessings I've received in the past 3 decades of existence, such as -

a. having selfless, doting, caring parents and a nice sis
b. making wonderful friends along the way and managing to remain in touch with most
c. meeting D and getting married (seriously I was doubtful 5 years ago if I would ever marry)
d. and all the opportunities and other blessings in life I have received because of a, b and c and G.

and I guess many other cool things, but which my forgetful little mind fails to recall

On a more frivolous note - quite a few people asked me if I made my own birthday cake? To be honest I did think about making myself a most lovely 30th birthday cake - in girly pastel colours, with nice romantic ruffles/ rustic-look and all. And it would be the NICEST cake I've made so far. But in the end I couldn't bear washing loads of pans/ plates etc on my birthday/ birthday eve, and so the making of an elegant grand cake was shelved. But lucky me - D still got me a lovely little white chocolate yuzu cake for the occasion.

As for THE birthday cake- maybe I'd still try to do it tomorrow - when I am one day into being 30, and a little bit closer to the determined self I hope I will become :)