End of exams

Exams are over. Finally, the last paper of my university life is completed. Words can't describe how relieved I feel. All the hours spent buried in my books are now a thing of the past. I loved learning about economics. But sometimes it gets a little too abstract, a little too dry and mechanical. The mind boggling derivations and the irritating econometrics. Gah, I hate going through regression equations. But I love doing differentials and showing the results in diagrams. Its such a love hate affair.

And now the finish line is passed. 

Goodbye economics, goodbye nus but hello to a brand new life ahead. I am hopeful about what lies before me. Who knows how each one of us will turn out? The possibilities are endless. One thing I am certain - we've got to live life to the fullest.

Pray hard, love deeply, get hurt (who doesn't?), forgive, laugh often, and most importantly let your heart be generous. 

I am loving my life right now.

Moroccan argan hair oil

My first organix product. Their shampoos sits all dressed up in watsons and have such yummy flavours- think 'cherry blossom ginger' and 'pomegranate green tea'. Such a magnet for women with a penchant for pretty things. I have been using their
Argan hair oil for roughly half a year on my parched locks. It works best on damp hair, is non greasy and doesn't weigh your hair down. Priced at around $15, its good enough for those dry hair days when a little taming will do the trick. At times when my split ends are showing and my hair resembles that of a lion's mane, this little sweetie can't help salvage the mess. I hesitate to repurchase, for I am sure there are better products waiting for my discovery. But at the moment, it sits well used on my dressing table, favoured over the liese hair smoothing oil and lotions that are a tad more useless.

Soft, silky and pudding like, almost every beancurd stall have jumped onto the gelatin neoclassical tau huay bandwagon. Famed by old airport road lao ban, it has its fans and detractors. Calls for the traditional and old favourite have surfaced. Love it or hate it, this new creation has become a new commodity in our food scene.

Whinings

It's the last lap of my study journey and I am wishing it's already over. My first paper is on this Saturday. Helps! Studying for macro is so tiring. The content is incredibly heavy. I spent four days on it and am still not done. A total of 13chapters and each chap takes about four to six hours to complete due to three parts -lecture, tutorials and readings. Gah.
I feel fat too- my tummy is growing and my cellulite is visibly showing. Bah. Also i feel like a recluse. Haven't had proper social interaction for almost a week. My family doesn't count because we don't speak. So I talk to myself out loud (yes I have real imaginary conversations with myself and I am that bored). Thank goodness for tv too. I finished 10 episodes of the japanese drama Absolute boyfriend in one night. Guilty as charged but it was so pleasurable. And nighty was soo handsome and cute. Go watch it!

Last day of school

Goodbye dear nus. Goodbye to the juice auntie that gently chid me everytime I drink two cups too many. Goodbye to almost five years of memories. It's been a long journey. I wish deep down in my heart that my journey was easier and that I don't have to learn so many life lessons throughout the way. Nevertheless It's a five years well spent. My experiences go beyond books. The wining and losing at inter hall games, the suppers, the Europe trip, the falling in and out of love. It's been a hell of a roller coaster ride.

My favourite teas

Happy weekend! Its the weekend before my final exams starts. How time flies! I will do an update on my last day in school another time. Its feels almost surreal but I am glad this week has finally come, and the finals are finally here. I will be flying off to europe on May12th. I am so excited. Goodness. 

okays, here's a post about one of my favourite pastime - drinking teas!

I love sipping tea but give me decaf please. Here are the different types that I am currently in love with. From left, you have Kava which has a very unique taste, it makes your tongue a little numb too. Kava tea is absolutely relaxing. It makes me fall asleep within minutes. I drink this whenever I feel a tad too energised when my bedtime is approaching. Drinking too much of this is supposedly bad for the liver. Its best to take everything in moderation. But one good thing is that Kava tea isn't addictive unlike coffee/tea which contains caffeine. 

Golden Mango Green Tea from St Dalfour is my newest favourite. I love mangoes! And the combination of mango with green tea is absolutely divine. It smells so lovely. 

Blueberry green tea makes another delicious drink. Its light and refreshing, add some ice and you have the perfect energising drink on a hot day. I dont know why its stated that it helps in dieting. But weight loss or not, i am keeping this as a favourite.

Lemon and ginger makes another great drink. I normally add this to my favourite light Oolong tea for that extra oomph. A nice twist to the otherwise bland oolong tea.  My mom turns her nose at my crazy combination of east meets west but i love drinking it this way.

Cupcake Engineer

I love eating cupcakes. They look so pretty sitting on the trays in the shop, tanalising everyone who passes by. While perusing food blogs, I began to develop a craving for cupcakes over good friday. It was good fortune that I have to pass by Cupcake Engineer at cluny court on the way to church.

I couldn't help but pop in and bought myself a citrusy lemon curd cupcake. The lemon cake was light and airy with a well blend of sweetness. Infused with a small amount of curd in the middle, the sweetness of the cake and the tangy lemon curd blended very well together. It was very yummy. Just felt that a $4 a cupcake, it was a tad expensive. When asked what their best seller is, the 'assistant engineer' couldn't give me a definite answer but replied that they change their flavours frequently so its best to check out their shop or website regularly.

They will make such pretty gifts for girlfriends.

I will be back to try more flavours. Just not too frequently because of the price.

Dim sum @ Swee Choon

I have been so crazy about dim sum recently. I love biting into xiao long bao and drinking the tasty soup inside. Its tricky to eat xlb without the soup spilling all over. But i think I've perfected it - bite a hole in the xlb, drink the soup inside and place the whole xlb into your mouth. 

Custard buns are my next favorite. I love biting into the fluffy custard bun and see the salted egg yolk custard flow out onto my spoon. I'll try to take a perfect photo of the ooze, but photos fail to capture how delicious it really is. 


I have my sister to thank for introducing me to the world of dim sum at Wah Lok. Life is more interesting when we fill it up with exciting food escapades. Hunting for delectable treats around this tiny islands works me up on the inside. Food bonds people and where to find good food is a universal topic.

Met up with gr at swee choon near lavender after lessons on a thursday night. I’ve read so many good reviews about this place that inadvertently I went there with rather high expectations. Sadly swee choon did not live up to its raves. Their mee sua cake (above) was bland mifen bounded together with flour and fried to brown perfection. The flavours blended awakedly together and was unpalatable. 

Their siew mai reminded me of how much I dislike them. I usually avoid siew mai but i thought i will give swee choon’s a shot given that its a popular streetside dim sum cafe. There must be a reason why siew mai goes down well with the majority of the population right? But boy, how wrong was i! The meat didn't taste fresh and I immediately gagged, forcing myself to chew and swallow the remnants of the siew mai. The meat wasn’t fresh, neither was it juicy or succulent.

 

Their har gow was slighty better. The skin was tasteless and thick, the prawn neither delightfully fresh nor juicy. It was bland har gow warpped in thick transparent skin at its best.

The portugese egg tart wasn’t hot neither did it taste exciting. You can get better ones from chinatown.

I took one bite of their fried carrot cake.

Their saving grace was their xiao long bao and custard bun. The soup from the xlb was tasty enough. I had at least two of them. Not the best xlb I have eaten but it was good. Their custard bun was more salty eggish than those in taste paradise. Custard buns should have filling that oozes out upon biting. This tastes like how a good custard bun should. It pales in comparision to the ones at taste paradise of course – those were a class of its own. But I gratefully had 3 custard buns from swee choon on my own. I was a happy girl after eating them.

Artichoke Cafe

Hurray to the long weekend! Time passes so quickly that it seems like my weekend is shortening with lightning speed. Next week will be my last week in the whole of university life. Guangrong and I were feeling peckish for some desserts yesterday. After going down to waterloo street to check out room for desserts (where they have their famous carrot cake), we were disappointed to find out that they were closed for the public holidays. Bummer. Thank goodness guangrong was kind enough to head down onto middle road for another cafe checkout session. Thanks for the navigation session dear friend! And so we hopped over to Artichoke Cafe which was a little tricky to find because it isn't visible from the main road.

 Its a really cosy cafe and I love sitting inside on the high tables and chairs. They serve Moorish food which has middle eastern infuences. The prices range from $20 plus to $60 for a lamb rack to share among 2 to 3 persons.

They didn't have a wide selection of desserts so we settled for Cookie Dough which cost us $14 without gst. Its basically vanilla ice cream ontop sweet cookies. They cookies are baked on the spot so we had to wait approximately 15 minutes for it to arrive. The vanilla ice cream was rich and flavourful but I found the cookie to be overly sweet. 

I will definitely come back for some moorish food and simply because the cafe is great cosy find at bugis area. The staff is polite and friendly too. It feels like an awesome place to go to with girlfriends. They serve wines and sangria too. yays. The only caveat to note is that the kitchen closes at 3pm and the cafe at 4pm to prepare for dinner. They have separate brunch and dinner menus. 

They have seats with cushion outside. Doesn't it look comfortable?