The sun, the sea and the fishes

Just got back from an extremely fruitful and exhausting trip to Pulau Aur over the weekend; successfully completed 5 dives and am now a certified PADI open water diver :)

Didn't take much pictures mainly because i had too much gear to handle (the entire diving gear plus air cylinder are more than a handful) and was too tired most of the time (my entire body's aching like crazy frm muscle cramps & sun burns).

Arriving @ diver's lodge (our accommodation on the island) close to 7am on Sat


Brilliant view from our humble abode


View of diver's lodge from the water


Our dive gear


After a couple of dives on Sat


On the whole it wasn't as scary an experience as i imagined it would be; couple of my friends told me the 1st dive is usually quite frightening but i found it quite thrilling. I'll probably never forget that mixed feeling of apprehension & excitement while waiting for my turn to descend for the 1st time. The rest of the dives were pretty alright with the exception of my 4th dive- had trouble equalizing my right ear when i first descended (probably due to the tiredness) which resulted in extreme sharp pain & I had to surface to clear the pressure.

Was somewhat disappointed by the view underwater though- always imagined very clear waters, loads of colourful corals, fishes and marine creatures but it wasn't really like that, especially for the corals which were mostly dead or half dead. Perhaps its got to do with the location 'cause they were saying that Tioman has much more colourful corals. In fact, i find the view during my snorkeling experience in Redang some years back even more beautiful and that was only snorkeling! Oh wells, maybe i'll get a chance to dive in those places another time. For now, it's back to r&r before i go back to work tomorrow :(

Rainbow Cake

This week has been a most terrible one for me- exhaustion, blunders, wounds, bruises, aches and more...it's probably the worse week ever since i started working but with that said, i don't want to go into the details. Blunders are lessons one learn from and life goes on as usual.

On a side note, i had cake therapy this afternoon (though with all the mess about, the process might have been more stressful than therapeutic). Anyway, i got a rainbow cake recipe off Omnomicon some weeks ago and have been meaning to try it out since the end result looks so pretty!

First, the white cake mix batter


Then, dividing the batter into 6 portions, each portion filled with a rainbow colour (doesn't this look like art class for the kids?)


Spreading the batter in layers (was supposed to make 2 layers of cake but the first was undercooked and smashed up when i removed it from the oven so i was left with 1 layer)


And the only cake layer i was left turned out far from perfect as the top cracked while baking :(


What it looks like inside


With chocolate sauce


To tell the truth, it doesn't taste that nice- very artificial and play-dough like. A kid would probably love it though. Very "alice-in-wonderland". Speaking of which, i caught the movie on fri with cchua and it was average. Nothing spectacular but nothing exceptionally bad as well. Probably 'cause we all know the story already. "Pan's Labyrinth" still remains my favourite dark fairytale movie.

Dogs & food (do not mix)

When im free, im really free. When im busy, i can hardly breathe. Starting last week, assignments and deadlines have been flying in all at once. The rest of March will involve plenty of burned weekends, analyses and report writing :(

I can't wait for April as there might be a possible (dive) trip to M'sia then!

CNY is special this year since its my year!
The second batch of p tarts made on the eve of CNY



My aunt's extremely cute terrier!


French dinner and more with auntie sk and family



Last bt not least, i had one of those impulsive spree moments 2wks ago & wasted almost $50 on a bunch of really sweet and cool-looking stickers + mini posties from arty knick knack shop, Cat Socrates.


The latest 44 Scotland St novel is as good as the previous one and slow me has only recently started appreciating Agatha Christie's works. How nice is it to have a library near your workplace!

Bunnies...

Lovely lovelie lovely! Reminds me so much of dear Coco

Saturday bakin'

Since my dad's not well enough to get us the nice pineapple tarts frm Joo Chiat this yr, i decided to try making the very delectable snack the first time ever last night. Thank goodness the result was ok (it doesn't look very pretty but it tastes rather nice) 'cause i would be really sad if i had to throw away a whole bunch of inedible tarts.

Initially thought it was gonna be a flop 'cause i only found out that i did not have enough plain flour at the last min - so i used 2 cups instead of 3- and i didn't know how much to cut down for the butter, so ended up using too much. Plus, i actually read the recipe wrongly and added double the required amount of icing sugar for the pastry. Also, I wanted to try the open tart recipe bt i couldn't find the cookie cutter at the supermarket yesterday so had to settle with the closed style.

The filling which was cooked for ard 30-45mins.


First batch of tarts (too huge and the pastry crumbles v easily probably 'cause i tried substituting too much corn flour for the lack of plain flour)


Apparently the 2nd batch tastes nicer.


Bottling 'em up!


On a side note, some lagsana-like breadcrumb dish my mom made for lunch today!

Junkie

I've got a new food combi to add to my list of fave meals.

Domino's pizza with ice-cold beer!! Though it all goes happily down to my hips and stays there..

First post of the year

Here's a really good satirical MV by The Decemberists.



Really have to applaud whoever wrote the amazingly witty lyrics which pokes fun at so many stuff in a single song.