More cupcakes!

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Made these cupcakes the other day. It was supposed to be a wormy dirt cake. I think it does look 'dirty' enough!! hehe!! Still, I wanted to do something pretty, so I made up some pink icing to ice the remaining cakes! Anyway, it was a Double Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and Double Chocolate Cake with Vanilla icing.

Made these on Saturday. Had some mangoes in the house, so decided to make something with them. Was deciding between cupcakes or muffins, and since I wanted to hone my frosting skills, it was cupcakes again. I thought they were starting to look quite good. Have to work a little on the taste though. Couldn't really taste the mangoes. So here it is, Mango Vanilla Cake with Mango Buttercream Frosting.

More cake making attempts!

These were the Racial Harmony Day cupcakes that I made for Hubb's students when they had a little fair that day. It's a chocolate-vanilla swirl. I thought they looked quite good!


Another cake decorating attempt! This was made for MIL's birthday. Was a regular yellow cake layered with mango cream in the middle. My mum said that the cake was too heavy. Gotta try try again. But I was quite pleased with the frosting on top!

2nd attempt at cupcake making!

This time with butter cream. The frosting now stands... but it didn't taste as good as the cream cheese one..

My first cupcake making attempt!!

Suddenly had the urge to start baking again, after I finished my last pack of Hershey's Brownie mix. And after an unsuccessful attempt at making carrot cake (which turned out to be carrot bread), I decided to try baking cupcakes.

The cupcakes turned out pretty well. But the frosting was a disaster. It was just too runny. I do not know how to save that. Also, the frosting was a little too sweet. Hubb ate the cake, he also said that the cake tasted nice. Chocolately, but not too sweet.

Hot from the oven!

The creamy cheese frosting!! I think I added too much butter so it was quite liquidy! It actually dried up a little after I left it in the fridge!

So how do they look?

Holiday's over and work's started!!

As much as I look forward to holidays, I always dread the ending. Call me a pessimist. But I can't help but feel that the holidays disappear so much faster than all the other days. (Maybe I'm just having too much fun. =P)

Our trip to Japan in June was a great getaway for the 3 of us. It was good because we were just by ourselves, out of the country, out of contact with everybody else! We could do anything and everything without anyone asking or saying anything. Also, the feeling of holiday is always the greatest. No deadlines, no chores, nothing. Just pure enjoyment. Ok, this time we had to wash milk bottles all the time. But hey, it was still great fun.

School's started already. The thing about being in a college is that the exams are always after the holidays (unlike in secondary schools, the exams are before the hols). That's means that we do not have to plunge crazily into teaching right after a long hiatus. With 1-2 weeks of exams, the gears start to go into motion. Need to get past the inertia. So this week, we are just marking and marking and marking. Still, the frightening thing is that, this term is going to fly faster than the last. Looking at our work plan, the term is already over!! Woah!! BUT, that would also mean that holidays are coming back again!! HAHAHAAHAH!!! Yes. My life revolves around the coming and going of the holidays!!

Where in the world have I been?

I have traveled to 14 Cities in 10 Countries
See all my travel pages

Hmm.. more places to come? :)

Just a pic for Kieran's blog

Some misc Japan photos

Headed to the Blossom Outlet Mall in Osaka. hmm, the Chelsea one is better.

That's one of the Shinkansen trains we take!

Toys galore!!

Nara Deer Park

Kieran loved the deers there! And they loved him too and tended to follow us around!

Day 5 (6 Jun): Himeiji Castle

Day 4 (5 Jun): Osaka

Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan). Really wonderful place. They boast of a 52m whale shark!!

Doutonbori Street. Just outside our hotel. Loads of food and neon signs!!

Day 3 (4 Jun): Sony Building & Honda showroom

This was taken near the Sony building. Spy looked so adorable sitting there!! btw, he can say "flower"!!

Waiting for the Sony showroom to open.

We got to sit in the S2000 at the Honda showroom!! hehe..

Day 3 (4 Jun): Tsujiki Fish Market

We wanted to wake up really early and go experience the auctions. But Kieran (maybe it was Daddy.. hehe..) hit the alarm button, we think, and the alarm didn't go off. So we reached the market at about 8+ i think. Missed the auctions, but saw the fishmongers cutting and packaging the fish for sale to restaurants and all. It was a crazy place with loads of gasoline tractors racing around, delivering the fish. I think we were in the way of the fish sellers that day. They must be thinking, "stupid tourists" haha.. We also had fresh sushi and sashimi just outside the market. Woohoo.. the salmon belly... woohoo!!!

Day 2 (3 Jun): Asakusa Sensoji Temple

Pretty but expensive sweets!! Can see and drool only..

Asakusa Sensoji Temple. Loads of people.

That's the way the Japanese worship and ask for blessings.

And this is our little Kieran!!

Day 2 (3 Jun): Harajuku & Akihabara

Went to Harajuku to look at all the so-called "funny" dressing. I am just amazed by the efforts that they put into dressing themselves up!!! The entire street was filled with teenagers. Anyway, the crepe tasted really quite good!! Quite an experience for us, to see the "in" fashion of the Japanese.

Our Sim Lim can't fight this! Prices of stuff are really good and there are really LOADS of electronics!! Also, there are lots of teenagers dressed up cosplay style! The entire street was closed that day and you could just walk up and down the street.

Day 1 (2 Jun) : Narita, Tokyo

We landed on the tarmac again. It seems that we keep doing that on our past few trips into Narita airport. We always had to take the bus into the terminal itself. Even though we landed early, we reached the inside of the airport at about the expected time after waiting for the stroller and the bus. After so many trips into Narita Airport, we finally exit the airport to enter Japan itself. Haha.. the last few times to USA, we could only walk around the section of the airport where we waited for our transfer.

Our 1st night in Tokyo. we met up with Si and Vivian. Had ramen for dinner at this place in Shinjuku. Even Kieran had a taste when he woke up!

We are in Japan!

haven't been able to sit down and blog since we arrived in Japan. After 2 days in Tokyo, we are now in Osaka. The trip here was really eventful! Ha.. had to transfer many trains to get here cos we wanted to go down to the Premium outlet at Gotemba to do some shopping. And because of that, we had to transfer a number of trains to get to Osaka. The crazy part was that we had to rush for the Shinkansen, we almost missed it! If we were to miss that train, we would reach Osaka only the next day. It was peak hour at the station where we had to switch trains. If not for kind lady who led us all the way to the Shinkansen line, we really would have missed it. We were RUNNING for the train. Hubb was lugging the 3 bags (luggage, backpack and shopping) and I was carrying Kieran and the stroller and both of us had to run up a whole flight of stairs to get to the train!! By the way, EVERYWHERE in Tokyo (and probably Osaka now) have stairs. It's really crazy carrying the stroller up and down the subway.. phew..

We will be going to the Osaka aquarium today. More updates later!

Weather Forecasts

The weather forecast for the day!!

Woah.. time flies

Kieran is going to be 1 year old in 3 weeks time. To think that he was a helpless little baby only a little while ago, and now, he's grown to be a really playful toddler!!!

Kieran is growing up too quickly. If we are not careful, we will really miss his growing years. It's really amazing to see him take his first steps, speak his first words. I will not give that up for anything in the world.

Working and taking care of Spy is hard. But it is really worth it. I cannot explain the joy that he has brought into my life. He is really an amazing gift to us.

I've been a Mummy for 10 months!

Haven't been blogging much recently, not especially at this blog. I've only had time to record Kieran's milestones over at his blog. Everything I do nowadays will always have Kieran in mind. I guess that's what being a mummy is. :)

There has been lots of changes in our lives in the last 10 months. The biggest change of all would still have to be the arrival of our precious little one. He has singlehandedly turned our lives upside down (in a good way of cos)! I can now understand what it means when people say that your life will only come to a full circle after you have children. I am always amazed and thankful for the joy that Kieran has brought to our lives. The name Kiran (was the name of a Hindu poet, by the way) actually means 'light' or 'sunbeam' in sanskrit. I guess in choosing Kieran, we have inevitably also hoped that he'll be the light in our (and everyone's) lives. And yes, he does bring cheer and joy to us!!

After being a mummy, I find all other things fade in comparison to this huge role. Afterall, the baby is really helpless without his mummy. I always look forward to coming home to Kieran. To see the look on his face, the happiness when he sees his mummy step through the door. I guess that's what is called the mummy-baby bond. I think nothing can destroy that bond. It's God's way of making sure that baby will always be safe in the arms of his mummy.

hmm.. i think i'll go check on Kieran now..

We are back home!

2.5 weeks of holiday just flew by like that. Overall, it was a really good experience going on holiday with a 6 month old baby. Kieran was a very good flier. Better than myself I must say. I always get the bad earaches during descend but Kieran was so good that he didn't cry, whine and didn't even needed his pacifier. He was one happy baby. It was a little tiring for us as Kieran took a little longer to adjust to the changing time zones but he did it without excessive fuss.

I like the idea that we will always bring our children with us when we go on holiday. Afterall, they will only be willing to follow us around for maybe the 1st 12? years of their lives and then they will want to be on their own. Many parents are unwilling to bring their young children abroad as they worry that their kids may fuss etc. I think as long as we remember that everything has to go a little slower, you'll have more things to bring along, everything will be fine. I must say that this trip with Kieran was really fun!

Anyway, coming back to Singapore made me feel that sometimes our service industry is really quite lousy. Service people do not bother to go a little further with your enquiries, they even make it your fault that things do not go THEIR way! I was at Suntec's foodcourt just yesterday with Hubb and PP. We had to park the stroller by the walking aisle (next to the stalls) as that was the only place we could put it. There was still ample walking space after the stroller was placed there. However, the clearing attendant came by, casted a dirty look at us and started shaking his head at us, indicating that we blocked the entire passage way!!! It was only him who could not get across. Btw, there was still space if he was willing to go round the other end. In the US, people will go out of the way to make things easier for parents with strollers. It is not our fault that there was no provisions for strollers. Likewise, in Singapore, we often have to carry the strollers up and down steps as there is just no ramps to push the strollers on.

We like going to California all the time because of the fantastic shopping that we get there. We can get very nice (even brandful) clothes for Kieran for only USD1-3!!! For this price, we'll only get crappy clothes here!! I also like the way sales are really sales in there. Shops are willing to really slash prices during one-day sale (i.e. Black Friday). Also, when they have promotions for bulk purchases, you can save up to a few dollars on the items, unlike when our supermarkets do this, it's like "buy 1 @ $x, buy 3 and you'll save $0.10"!!! Very often you'll see the buy 10 items to save ads in US and you do not even have to buy 10 items and you'll get the item at the reduced price!

That's why we've been going back there for the last 3 years.. haha.. to do our annual shopping spree!!! :)