yvp

birthday song
corrinne may

don't worry about that extra line
that's creeping up upon your face
it's just a part of nature's way
to say you've grown a little more
trees have rings and thicker branches
kids' shoes get a little tighter
every year we're getting closer to who we're gonna be
it's time to celebrate the story of how you've come to be

happy birthday my friend
here's to all the years we've shared together
all the fun we've had
you're such a blessing
such a joy in my life
may the good lord bless you
and may all your dreams come true

so light a candle on your cake
for every smile you've helped create
for every heart and every soul
you've known to grow a little more
a few more pounds, a little more grey
don't count the years just count the way
it takes a little time to go from water into wine
don't ever lose the wonder of the child within your eyes

happy birthday my friend
here's to all the years we've shared together
all the fun we've had
it's such a blessing
such a joy in my life
may the good lord bless you
and may all your dreams come true

-

ion is like another vivo =(

one life, one love

just last friday seibu arrived in singapore. and on saturday i jogged 16km in 1:44:27. i've only just finished settling down after the redang trip. (and i'm possibly getting jetlag without even taking a plane, nor crossing time zones.)

looking at the sea everyday, following a freely adjustable schedule, and waiting for the lunch bell to ring can definitely put the mind into neutral.
this was my first time snorkeling. although breathing sea water in wasn't the best experience, i think seeing tonnes of fish swimming around you and looking at corals deep below could be quite sublime (though very terrifying for dawn if she were there). one of the divers also lured out an ultra-big eel that was so long and huge it was quite scary.
other than eating, sleeping and snorkeling, i was spending much time finishing harry potter and the deathly hallows. on the last day we also went to take the banana boat at the nicer stretch of the beach. the sand there was so much finer, and the waves stronger. i just love the blueness of the waters there. (i can't find words other than blue. bluer than blue? cerulean? lapis? turquoise?)
towards the end of the day, the tide at our side of the beach gets really low, and the seabed is exposed for quite some distance. naturally, people would walk far out to see. we found so many sea cucumbers. (so creepy-crawley and gross!) and never try canoeing when the tide is low.
we tried catching one sunrise too. but the ridges at the far end were blocking most of our view. eventually, the sun did emerge. i also liked the clouds that blew over the area often. however, of the three nights there, only one was cloudless, and that was when we saw the most stars.
here is the nicest photo of the trip. it demonstrates my newly-discovered magnifying-glass-function on my camera (thanks to beejuan). it focuses on near objects and blurs out the background!
and here is what i think is my best-composed photo. it brings me such a feeling of getting away from work, from our life. i took it while trying to dry my butt in the sun after one snorkeling session. i think it would look so much better if the magnifying-glass function was used.
on one night we also went karaoke. there was an adorable family singing english songs. but of course seibu trumps all. i think 容祖儿's rendition of 献世 is very nice; some things don't change, like the scar on my leg from the newtonactiverun, indelible.
sometimes i wonder: maybe the way we stay connected to each other is by owing each other things. a book, a burnt cd collection, a baking pan, a dinner treat, an emptied box? in a way, many of us are like staying connected on borrowed time.

then i came to an understanding of one life, one love: sometimes we can't love too many things. it makes us lose focus. if everything is done for fun, then nothing - and no one - is very special, is it?

drunken rose

the rose sets up its defences with pricks and thorns. but all that melts away when doused with liquour. i was trying to remove the permanent marker writings on the movement board, but they were so indelible.

engagement

i have just made the perfect lemon cream. the recipe comes from france's pastry king, pierre hermé. i think this is it!
take one cup sugar and rub it with the zest of three lemons in a heatproof bowl. (and love the feel of rubbing through the sandy rubble.) whisk in four eggs, then 180ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice. set this bowl over simmering water and whisk until the mixture reaches 180F.
strain it into a blender and discard the zest. when the mixture cools to 140F, blend in 300g of butter in five portions.
after all the butter is incorporated, continue blending for three minutes.
and you'll get a lemon cream of dreams. (pour it into a container, press a piece of clingwrap over the surface of the cream, and refrigerate it for at least four hours.)
so of course i baked a pie crust for the cream. well, it was supposed to be a tart crust, but i only had pie crust in the freezer. this time i tried fluting the sides too.
to use the cream, whisk until it loosens. then, spoon it generously into the empty pie shell. swirl the top to make it look classy and pretty.
omg i love how the cream holds itself after the pie is sliced. and it truly is a cream of dreams: so pale, light, elegant. it's perfect!

哪里?

for the first time, i cried after watching 不能说的秘密. i think i finally understand it. and he was playing godowsky's version of the swan when she walked into the hall.

i keep craving sour things now. like a puckery lemon tart.

leitmotif

had a first court experience with jia en. apparently the first case we saw was the inmate-trio thingy that appeared in the news recently.

i'm so tired this week. work just comes in in dribs and drabs. sometimes a huge one makes its way onto my list. other times there's just nothing to do, and i just fall asleep. i do so want to watch harry potter.

am i like a maid?

and here's a look into a kaleidoscope. thanks, beejuan!

begin

i wanted to make a lemon meringue pie, but the meringue failed to form peaks, so i thought i could just pour the lemon curd in and bake the pie without the meringue. i suppose i had the wrong expectations: i wanted a smooth and creamy baked curd, but in the end i got some ugly grainy-looking mess. it's like oprah winfrey's line all over again.

but i happened to read jia en's dorie greenspan book and found a short writing about lemon cream. yes, what i had imagined was a lemon cream pie, and i couldn't have gotten it by baking the lemon curd. even though the ingredients for lemon curd and cream are the same, their different methods of preparation gives them distinct textures.
so i had to live with the ugly pie. the taste turned out to be very sharp, probably because i reduced the sugar in the curd. it's definitely big on lemon flavour. and the crust? sufficiently thick, almost perfect, i think. i thought i had added too much water when i made the dough in a large batch, and over-kneaded it, but the proportion of butter was still high enough to give a short and tender crust. (i went below the 2:1 ratio by quite a bit in order to get a richer dough.)
and speaking of dorie greenspan, jia en and i made our variation of her variation of her best chocolate chip cookies. we call ours 'almond peanut-butter chocolate-chip cookies'. in her introduction to the recipe, she says she'd found the perfect ratio of white to brown sugar, giving just the right chew and flavour to the cookie. and i too think the proportion is perfect (though jeffrey cookies are in their own way perfect as well).

i think the best buy was the ghirardelli chocolate chips. ntuc has given me two surprises in two days: first it was the gold medal all-purpose flour yesterday, and today it was the ghirardelli chocolate chips.

the peanut butter taste was subtle, and the dough baked up to give very nicely rounded cookies. i think i'll need to hold jia en's book hostage.

a little night music

balance

harper's island is getting just plain ridiculous. two people can shoot at wakefield and miss, and that's with him standing so firmly at one spot. it's almost as if he expects them to miss him entirely.

denial leadin' daniel

at four months to ORD, i suddenly discover that water-shining boots can be quite fun, therapeutic even. is this all a bit too late?

after a week of intensive parade rehearsals and singing, sugar, fried chicken and chocolate, i now have a sore throat. and i still think we were too abused: from painting and preparing the vehicles to ending up in the marching contingent. i'm losing hair, getting old.

the moons this week also reached extreme fullness.

and then i was asked a question: can you get cornered in a round room? maybe, and you'd stand in the doorway and cry. what else could the simple act of folding a blanket mean?

cherie

oh my god it keeps raining today. even being caged in an air-conditioned room doesn't stop you from feeling the gloom. in fact, what's needed is a warm blanket and a huggable bear.

留恋.榴莲

is it a sin to be eating durians using a spoon, and without chilling them first? i don't know, and don't care, because i just haev to eat them now, and i don't want to get my fingers into them.

anyhow, the cello is fixed, and now it's chopin sonata time.

circumstance

oh. my. god. a slipped sound pole rolling around in a cello.

the tiger book

i have another entry for the matrix:

rocket socket pocket

after XBW, you would expect to get some rest. instead CAO COC was thrown our way, and so i am tasked to drive again, though in a very different manner this time. nevertheless, i had to paint a vehicle. and painting it is just as tiring as anything.

today i found out that aubergine was in fact the same as eggplant. (because nigella sometimes cooks with aubergine, and i always thought they looked like eggplant, but it never occurred to me that they would be the same thing.) i tried running the 8km today, but found that it was incredibly difficult to do so. there was also some news of a lost puppy =(

the hot weather is beginning to give way to some heavy rainstorms. and then you reach the mood where you feel like you need a hug. but then, what does it feel like to 'feel like you need a hug'? just shrug off the feeling?

is love a set of chemical reactions that stimulate the brain, or is it a set of emotions and feelings? (and what's the difference between emotion and feeling?) when you say 'what did you delete it for?!' and 'what the SHIT?!', don't you sound very angry? but what does it feel like to be angry? i think giselle would know. i keep failing this week.

last tuesday night was dreamy, magical, ephemeral even. weiyang drove to west coast where we had mcdonald's - gasp - for dinner. but more importantly we went to serangoon to meet sonya for dessert at the baby wink shop. ah the brit-ish accent.

<3 you deep deep? 刻不容缓: go with the impulse before the impulse goes away.

i think this dress is perfect. why, why do disney princesses just have that kind of appeal?