Borders and Enrolment

My dad brought us out to Borders to get some books and i bought 2. One is "Latin made Simple" and the other is "Practical Guide to Phonetics and Phonology".

Today is the start of enrolment and i chose 4 courses which i am interested in.

1. Phonology
2. Chinese Cinema
3. Social Contexts - Linguistics
4. Shakespeare; Stage and Text

BUT.. there is a clash between 1 and 4 and i can't decide which one to give up. So for now i can only cross my fingers and hope that they add more tutorial classes so that there might be no clashes.

>.<

Brownies! Again!

I made brownies again the day before i left for Singapore. It was to eat on the plane but there were extras so i brought them back to Singapore. Turns out that they were a hit and everyone loved them! YAY!

This time i made a smaller batch and used better chocolates and made them into mini cupcakes for better presentation and transportation.

Do they look much much better? They taste really good too! Not for the faint-hearted though - they are definitely a treat.

Just in case you guys want the recipe again and this is truly a simple simple recipe from Nigella Lawson! Also, since this is my second time making this, i eyeballed alot of the ingredients which really makes no big difference. There are also some small changes that can be made - like the amount of butter.

Ingredients

300gm Unsalted Butter
300gm Dark Chocolate - either the small drops or big chunks
6 eggs
1 1/2 cup caster sugar - i reduced this a little as a few commented that it was a wee sweet
1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
1 - 1 1/2 cups of plain flour - depending on how cakey you like
1 teaspoon Salt - i actually forgot about this - so i guess it really isn't important?
Any amount of milk chocolate and/or white chocolate drops

Directions

1. Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a big pot.
2. While melting slowly over low heat, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence.
3. When the chocolate mixture has completely melted and relatively cooled, add in the egg mixture and mix together. (Make sure the chocolate is not too hot or else you will end up with chocolate scrambled eggs!)
4. Fold in the flour into the mixture carefully a little at a time.
5. Place into baking dish or muffin trays as you wish and bake.
6. For the small ones like mine, bake at 180 degree Celsius for 15 minutes - bake longer or shorter if you like it drier or gooey respectively. You can also insert a fork or toothpick to see if it comes out clean.

Comments

1. I use caster sugar which is finer and does not seem as sweet as white sugar.
2. The original recipe called for 1/2 a cup of white and 1/2 cup of milk chocolate drops - but you can add as little or as much as you like. I have not tried, but i'm sure you could add walnuts or any nuts for that matter as well.
3. I reduced the amount of butter but it still is quite an amount - haven't tried reducing it even more as i needed to clear the butter - if you tried it with a lower amount of butter - let me know how it turns out.  
4. Try to use good quality dark chocolate for the are the foundation of this brownie.

I hope you guys will try and enjoy this recipe because i know everyone has and i hope you will too!

Back in Singapore!

Hello!

I am finally back.

It is SO hot!

I couldn't sleep with the air con and had to endure the heat. It is so hot here....ahhh....

Today we're having a family BBQ. Hopefully we will have a great time.

Can't wait to play the wii we have at home. I played it once and i'm kinda inclined to get one back to play in Sydney. =)

I'm having a great time now with my little nephews.

I woke up at 0730 this morning and went out to have breakfast with my parents. Then we went to fetch my aunt and nephews and went to a market to get the ingredients for the BBQ. We also bought mangosteens! I love them! Very Very Nice!

Can't wait to settle in and start going out and having fun!

Converted Earrings!

I finally converted a earring.

I bought this earring at a shop for $3 and went about to convert it. It took cutting my nails, tweezers and a stapler to complete this mission.

The most complains heard about clip-ons are that they are uncomfortable and painful. That is not totally true. The converters i bought are amazingly comfortable. It all depends on quality. I bought a batch of clip-ons from a girl in UK and they were not of good quality which meant that they are not that comfortable. People also don't realise that you can manually widen the curvature of the clip so as to increase or release the tension.

 

This was a fish hook earring - so i went about to dismantle the fish hooks and the ring that you see on the earring is original. All that i did was to remove the fish hooks and put in place the converters. Takes a little thinking to find weird tools to do the job but it finally happened. I am so happy! Yay!

The converters are really good and i was thinking of maybe selling them or something. Anyways, if you guys have any friends who are interested in clip-ons and converters, LET ME KNOW!

One more thing, i have decided not to perm my hair but to go through the ritual of straightening then curling my hair whenever necessary. I don't do it as well as the hairdresser - but it will do - much better than if i were to leave it alone. =)

Haircut!

I just had a hair cut from the salon downstairs. It's called "Twelve Fingers" and its run by Koreans.

The hairdresser i got was really nice and friendly. This is the best place i ever went to get my hair cut. There were communication problems being that her english isn't too fluent, but it went well and i'm really quite happy with the results - so is fish. I have curls in the picture but that's temporary, it will be straight after i wash my hair.

It cost me $45 to cut - expensive by Singapore's standard, but i think its relatively worth it - they are very meticulous in their cutting - i was there for nearly 2 hours. I did a treatment which costs $50 - it's a very quick and simple one - they have an intensive one for $99 - but i decided on the normal one first since it was my first time there. Whether or not it is worth the money would be decided after i have washed my hair and see how it feels. Also i hope that my hair looks ok even after i have washed it.

Fish also shaved his hair which cost $18 - more expensive than Singapore's $8 but he said that his hairdresser was also meticulous and showed care towards how the hair looked rather than just shaving it down recklessly.

She also also gave me the complimentary curls and a small bottle "smoothing fluid". The products there are quite cool. This is it's description:

this bottle contains:
a whole bunch of waaaaaahhhhhhh, 36 long and misty glances from across the room, 28 neck cracking head turns, 2 solid job offers, 8 fancy a f@#k type suggestions.

It's called 'easy tiger'. As the tube says, it is a gift to those who want to stop blaming their genes for the erroneous ways of their hair. The brand is evo and their motto is 'saving ordinary humans from themselves'.

HaHa..very funky.

I will be cutting my hair from here from now on until the inevitable day i return to Singapore and never return.