cat+yarn=trouble

This is what happens when i leave a ball of yarn lying on the floor.
From there, fattybums managed to wind it round my chair and get it tangled there while freeing himself. XD
On that same day, i tried to make bao again. However, the yeast i used this time was different. previously i used a grainy type of dry yeast. this time i used a cube of yeast that was sort of pasty? it didnt cause my dough to rise nicely at all, and the steamed result was horrible!

it was like eating raw dough. yucks. since i had spent an hour mixing, cutting ingredients, frying them, wrapping the bao.... plus i was very successful the last times, i was REALLY disappointed and wanted to throw it all away. then alex suggested baking them.

at that point, why the hell not, right?
The result was actually pretty alright. quite edible, somewhat tasty. but i think i still prefer my baos steamed!

weird dreams

They say people who dream more often have higher IQs. I wonder what mine is, when i get frequent weird dreams.one of the weirdest since moving here was of my brother giving me a live brain surgery, cutting out some part of my brain. i remember being scared it was painful but it didnt hurt at all, although i could feel it vaguely being cut away. it was so detailed, i could feel the saline water he used to wash my brain with.

but the fun part was that a mass of liquid had formed under my skin after the 'surgery', and i was holding the top of my head together so incision wouldnt split, and BOOM a mass of purple ( in my favourite shade too!) fell on the floor.

best part of all that? i was more worried about my mother finding the incision scar rather than the effects of having part of my brain cut out.

next weird dream was last night, again involving my brother wanting to buy a female friend a birthday present and was ordering 10 turtles and too much goldfish. here's the fun part, the turtles looked somewhat like this :

except its limbs were more rounded, like some hard jellyfish mound. they had the cute smiley faces too btw. ADORABLE. they were selling at 5 for $3.20 and 10 for idontknowhowmuch. well thats the interesting part of the dream. adorable turtles.

then i woke up with a mindfuck. to fall asleep faster, i was imagining being back at sg again in my bed (a highly conditioned place of sleep!). when i woke up, i SWEAR it was like waking up at 6 in sg, the most striking detail being the bathroom light streaming into my face. except there is no light source in the actual room i'm in.

so i got mildly homesick for the morning. now i'm at the workplace, finishing up the xmas gifts and wrapping presents for the staff. down to the last one now!

weather-wise its been CRAPPY. windy,rainy but not that cold at 5 degrees average. i think my body is actually craving SOME sun. maybe i'll go stand in the open for 5 mins if there's sun today.

if.

maybe.

tata!

This morning i woke up at 3:30am despite going to bed at 9:30pm. so after walking around and being sleepy i decided to go back to bed. i woke up again to melodic 'rrrRrrr!'s , and looked down eventually to see...
they snuck into my bed, must have left the door open or something, or they shoved their way in. they were making happy rrrr noises for i dont know what reason, but eventually they started cleaning each other XD


ok, at least the one with the white tip tail was licking fattybums alot, so much that he was purring hehehe. isnt it such an adorable sight to see them care for each other like this??

eventually they broke apart to sleep around..
fattybums!
and of course i cant forget my own baby, who keeps sniffing the kittens and then hissing at them violently. or just hiss when they get near.

except last night when i rubbed her wet fur with a towel as she had been out in the rain, and later used the same towel to rub off a kitten. this time she sniffed him and didnt hiss, was very curious instead haha. so maybe to encourage some peace i should rub them with her scent :P
so yeap, thats her highness looking so drowsy because i'm flashing her when shes trying to sleep XD

nails by me

Two days ago, hilde and raymond came for a visit. It resulted in a mini spa session for hilde with mary cutting her hair while i painted her nails XD

it was fun, lots of laughter and chatter despite the bad windy weather outside. before getting her mini spa, hilde wanted to go to the graveyard to light a candle. i was like 'is that a good idea now? its so windy and stormy'

'thats ok, i got my hat and my mittens..'

'yeah i was worried about the candle'

*insert lots of laughter* but really, in a stormy weather i was wondering how to keep the candle lit XD...

eventually got round to doing her nails. had to dig out the right shade of purple, find matching glitter color and started work on them. it didnt feel like it took too long to do, and i quite like this design cuz its quite sweet and suits most occasions.

after hilde's nails were done, it was on to mary's. for her i used a goldish base they picked, although i was inclined to a greenish color XD then started painting the one stroke roses for her. wah its much harder painting on a hand because unlike a piece of paper or plastic, i cant rotate the hand anyway i wish! but overall the results look okay. looking forward to doing butterfly nails for her next!
yesterday mary and robert left for their holiday, but due to storms their flight couldnt proceed and they were given a hotel room in molde as compensation. today their flight has managed to take off i think, they havent called yet so i'm abit surprised.

the storm was so bad that the greenhouse on the veranda had its panels blown out and blown across the balcony. very luckily it did not go OVER the balcony and smash to bits. i had trouble sleeping at night too because of the random noises the storm makes.

today the weather is still cloudy and windy, but at least its not storming!

so i did my nails today XD


it was pretty quick and easy to do, just that in between i had to go grocery shopping so while changing my clothes and putting on shoes i managed to ruin the thumbs abit . but its fixed, so yay. looking forward to december, where i shall have xmas and winter designs! :D

fattybums

Raymond brought me a cable for the iphone today, so hooray i can finally upload pics!! Its quite hard to show you the fattiness of fattybums & bro but i try. They are slightly shorter in length compared to lilo but waaay heavier XD.
Gimme food gimme food
Yum, food!

more food plz?!?!
i r so cutepwease gimme fud.

so yeah, they're really cute. lilo still is very hostile towards them, but then again so is tobias.
We figured out why one kitten is much fatter than the other- he's smarter. Alex used a torchlight to send them chasing and running after the light, and fattybums stopped a few seconds later and noticed the source, and stopped chasing.

the other went chasing for a good while more XD right now i feel like stepping on fattybums because as i was typing this, he came here wanting to cuddle on my lap. as i rolled my chair over to raymond so he could have him, the little bugger FARTED ON MY LAP. GAH.

anyway.

As per tradition, mary bought everyone xmas scratchcards, although this year she bought a more expensive one because it has higher winning stakes. i hope i win something big this year X)
i have another advent calendar from Hilde,which she bought in amsterdam. ITS SO CUUUUTE. i'm a sucker for miniatures so yeah XD and i can actually open the little flaps up!

lastly, a pic taken right before we entered the storm on the boat. it was quite a strong rainbow, with a much fainter outer ring if you notice.
shall blog about nails next hehehehhe

no pictures today because i forgot to bring my iphone cable. stupidstupidstupid. right before i left i also noted it going 'ah, must pack my cable!'. then i got distracted because our stupid cat was hiding and forgot to pack it T_T

the cat actually knows when we're going to leave. so she disappeared in the house and we had to search high and low for her. found her hiding BEHIND a stack of clothes in a shelf of my cupboard. had to drag her out of there and shove her in her cage.

the trip was stormy, so my poor baby puked twice (guess who had to hold a tissue in front of the cage each time she projectile pukes and wipe up the messes after?) and at one point it got abit scary too. alex always washes her in a sink afterward at hustad, so she's clean. and ever since then i havent seen her around. its storming outside now so i shall have to go out and take a quick look for her. she doesnt like the other cats in the house,except tobias and max.

the kittens have grown FAT. one of them more so then the other and i renamed him fattybums. shall post pics when i can!

cheatz

Making chicken rice today! yumyumyum... i used a different chicken rice paste and its filling the apartment with a heavenly scent! cant wait till alex gets home from gym so we can eat together :D

Finally posted pics of this up, i made them long ago but intended to make a set of 6. i simply cant be bothered though -.-
This was made on the same day as the above... again, lost interest in making a full set of 6. i contended with making just one more for a set of 4. hopefully someone will still buy them?
Yesterday i made store-bought tang yuan hehehe. it was 20nkr a packet, which isnt so bad for 10 tang yuan with lots of yummy peanuts in it! For a moment i forgot how to cook tang yuan (since my experience mainly is rolling them up or eating them) but luckily i didnt dump them into my 'soup' directly to boil.
so i boiled them in plain water, and when they floated i washed them in cold water before putting them into...
heated soya bean milk! hahahahaha.

i was very happy to find that they have Yeos in the asian stores here, i've seen it for a long time now and finally here's a good use for it hohoho
needless to say, i enjoyed my tang yuan without the hassle of having to make it by myself. Can hardly find the ingredients for it here anyway, so this will do for now.

Cats.

There is one reason i hate washing dishes for a prolonged period. The combination of soap, water and oils in the dishes/pan makes this happen to my hands.
And EACH time i wash with those combinations, my palms actually start itching for the next 5 minutes. its highly annoying. the next house i get, i will have my frikkin dishwasher above all else.

Today's post is titled as such because of my dear pet. She's super cute most of the time, and she's usually quite the perfect pet. toilet trained, cuddly, and not too attention demanding. and cute, lets not forget cute. Every night when i go to bed she will do her crazy happy rolls all over the bed, and cuddle with me X)

Like today, i found her in the storage container we keep our towels. It was left open and she got all comfy inside XD
Now the not-so-cute part. Cats have this tendency to puke now and then... ... she hit a slight portion of my knitting and luckily for her she missed my carebear cushion.

lucky for her.
Have i mentioned she's very nervous around my large stuffed toys? i took them out but had to pack them away because she wouldnt be on the bed with them -.-

i blame alex for messing with a carebear with her when she was a kitten. okaysoiwasvideoingherwhilehewasdoingitbutheydontjudgeme

Finally for today, i spent some time making another attempt at cherry blossom nails :D i love this one much better because you can actually see a flower rather than white dots from afar. only thing is... right now i have such femine pink nails...................

at least i'm getting faster at this ^^
thats all for today!

char siew bao 2!

The craving for bao has yet to die away, so today i made paus again! It might also have something to do with a little bit of pork left in the fridge that i couldnt think of a use of, and since we're leaving in 3 days i figured it would be a good idea to use it up.

attempt 2 went SO much better, i found out we had virgin oil so i used that instead of butter. BIG IMPROVEMENT. i normally love the taste of butter, but in baos its just wrong. my attempts at bao-ing the baos (haha) has also improved slightly.

either that or i'm just showing you the nicest of the lot ya?
:D see!!

i had a little leftover dough so i made rolls rubbed with char siew sauce :P i couldnt find anything else to rub onto it. yesterday's leftover dough was chucked into the oven to see what happens when it bakes. it makes sweet bread, quite ok.
I put the rolls in the rice cooker, i have NO idea how one of them managed to slip through and boil itself.
The baos today tasted better than yesterday's, and i'm very happy with the result. Alex also enjoys them, so i foresee this will become a more regular option for meals. doesn't hurt that the pork i bought that fills about 20 paus costs 17.90 nkr, while the minced beef i use for most other dishes costs 30-40nkr.

Another thing to be happy about- my orchid is growing a new leaf! i'm quite excited since i like flowering plants. right now we mostly have leafy potted plants which are growing very healthily and growing leaves one after another. shall take a pic of them for the next post :)

Char sau pau

Today i attempted to make char sau pau, due to a craving ever since alvin mentioned the magic word..

pau.

so i went out, got my ingredients and started preparing, only to realize that my yeast expired in 2009. and yeast, when mixed with water, STINKS. so i wasnt taking any chances with somethign that expired so long ago. had to go out and get a new pack of yeast, only to get home again to find my baking powder ALSO expired in 2009.

fml?

nah, i just used the expired baking powder X)

so after leaving the dough to rise for about 20-30 mins ( i couldnt be bothered to wait longer), this is what it looks like. i swear it doesnt look this yellow, its the light.i substituted oil with butter.
while waiting for the dough to rise, i started making the filling. some boiled pork, flour, char sau sauce, chives, seasame oil, sesame seeds, water chesnut and mushrooms . this actually turned out pretty good for me.
when it comes to cooking, i'm a great multi-tasker. so while all that was going on i was preparing the rice cooker to steam my paus in. the stupid metal grill was slightly too big because of the legs, so i manually bent them in to fit. HA.
Last but not least, i cut up some baking paper as base for the paus. they worked wonderfully, better than the paper used in commercially sold paus.

i am a person who expects to get good results on my first try at anything. this pau attempt barely made it XD

lesson learnt: when the recipe says use oil, dont substitute with butter. i can actually taste the butter in the pau so its quite distracting.

lesson 2: when the recipe calls for half a cup of sugar, use half a cup of sugar and not go 'omg really but thats alot! i shall use less!'

lesson 3: people who made 'how to fold pau' tutorials on youtube probably fold a hundred paus a day. do not expect to be as successful on your first try.

XD as per lesson 3, these are my half-assed attempts at folding a pau.
The recipe i used made 10 paus and some leftover dough enough for at least 3 more, but i ran out of filling.

thankfully for my morale, my husband is very supportive of my cooking along with any self-made attempts (like my nails) and i packed some for him and joco to eat after their gym session today.

in other news, i've finished reading another novel already, and i'm putting off starting another because i have 5 more sets of advent calendar gifts to make for the company. back to work! :D

The Ugly Meter

Today i had fun with something called the Ugly Meter found on the itunes store. I was bored, it was free, so why not right?

You take a picture of someone's face, with a guiding frame. My guess that its based on symmetry or just pure randomness. But anyway, my poor baby scored....

Would you cry at that face? you'd go AWWW wouldnt you? it was hilarious XD

Then of course i had to do my hubby too. Unfortunately he was in the living room playing at that time, and the lights were off so he got blinded by the flash after wahaha. But he scored really great. so yay, i dont have an ugly hubby!


Of course i also had to try it on myself right... *egoistically applauses self* NO, i did not try and re-try to get this result. I made only one other attempt prior to this with my glasses on and i scored a 4 XD. damn this thing is biased...

As some have already seen on facebook, i made this nails with grace in mind. ( i wuuvvv u cousin). Behold the miracle of pandas, 6 people like the picture. the colors are very sweet, but such a bitch to work with! thank goodness for a good topcoat to somewhat smoothen it out abit.
You'd think that after my weeks of constant nail polishing and messing around, my nails would look yellow dry and crappy right... WRONG! *gloat* i'm so happy to say i have wonderfully healthy nails. Thats my naked nails with nothing on them hohohohoho.


seriously, i give my nails so much more care when i use polish :P . and i dont nibble on them.

finally got round to finishing a James Rollins book i waited months for to come out... i lost interest in reading for awhile, and now that passion is back with a vengeance. read another short story prequel to the book today, and started on another novel. YAY!

i shall blog again soon!

post #2

yesterday we went to ikea to get my table extension, some jars and meatballs. I did not post any pic of my table extension as i made a few boo-boos with it, by managing to reverse one plank so the exposed woods show... and somehow the mini shelf planks wont fit the slots. so ya. not happy about that.

lesson learnt: do not attempt to build ikea furniture when tired.

Next lesson from Ikea... when you order a medium and large sized menu of meatballs, the only difference seems to be the size of the plate and perhaps an extra potato. mine is the smaller plate... so much for wanting less but hey i'm not complaining X)
I wanted to paint the jars we bought , but i only have acrylic paint at hand. So i decided to test paint onto some glass things i have on my table and the result was pretty ok. however, all it takes is a damp finger carelessly holding onto the painted area to damage and ruin the painting, as i discovered just before completion.

yeaaaah. the photos dont show where i made the smudge, but just the nicer parts XD

cherry blossoms are so pretty X)

and just for fun, i have to post this again here because i think holographic polishes are so cool!
while at ikea, i also saw some polka dotted umbrellas so i took a picture of them thinking Ying might like to see.

i'm off!