Looking into the big picture

That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

RIP Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Practise makes perfect ;-P

As much as I love Apple, really don't get what the hype is all about and why people in hk love to queue up so much. Can you imagine what it would be like if Iphone 5 comes out? Photo taken around noon hour and heard it got pretty crowded in the afternoon.

Met up with Karen for lunch at IFC's Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin.

Open rice gives it more sad faces than happy but I thought the pork chop sandwich was pretty darn good especially with that suddle hint of mustard.

Reminded me of my alien cupcake painting. hehee

Coffee and vanilla gelato with chocolate chips & brownie all mashed up into a crispy waffle cup at Holly Brown. First time trying their desserts and it was really yum but not as good as the Coldstone that I remember.

Shopping in the side streets of Central as K had to buy a short qipao for class. Kinda want to invest in qipao cocktail dress from Shanghai Tang. *xiang yi xiang..

SO. Today I would like to share an amazing red velvet cake that we made last Saturday with J's mom. After all the hard work and 45 minutes of baking, it will turn into something I'd like to call the 'Metamorphisis Cake'. In for a little surprise? Then feel free to try this at home. haha Neways if you see this recipt floating around... I would strongly recommend that you avoid using it unless you want something that looks and tastes like a moist carrot cake. :-P So beware of this recipe from Food Network and can guarantee that 1 bottle of red food coloring is not enough. I think one reason why the center of our cake was so icky was because the recipe called for 3x 9" pans but we only used a casserole looking pan. Oh well, live and learn.

Red Velvet
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp coco
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 (ounce) bottle of red food color
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Cream cheese frosting:
1/2 cup margarine
1 (8 ounce) pkg cream cheese
1 box confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Before entering the oven it was a beautiful shade of raspberry red.

Ta Da! Looks great and super excited to assemble the final masterpiece. Letting it cool while watching 007.

10 minutes later we carefully turned it out of the pan and *plop it goes.. the middle was still goooey and the cake texture was quite oily rather than light n' fluffy. All along the sides it was perfectly fine so a slight change of presentation method. Just a dollop of icing on top. I thought it tasted mamdes but the boys seemed to enjoy it. Oh btw did I mention that instead of one box of confectioner sugar (which we didn't have) we just used 3 small packages of splenda. hahaha Carrot-looking cake + cream cheese+ butter c'est bon! MMmm!! Oh well we definitely deserve a pat on the back for our A+ team effort. :-]

If you guys know any good red velvet recipes that actually uses the right amount of food coloring that makes it actually quite red, please be nice and share. hehe

La Belle Époque

"Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."

Have to somewhat disagree on this quote. I do agree that people who are constantly living in the past are in a permanent state of denial but nostalgia can also be so beautiful. We have to preserve the past and treasure these memories that we've made for ourselves. It is unfortunate that through the passing of time, we tend to loose alot of our cultural heritage be it language, architecture or the simple ways of life. Hong Kong is constantly changing, always demolishing and rebuilding. Constant bombardment of speed and recreating something so fast that after 2 years you don't even remember what the previous space or building looked like. Since we can't stop this change, the only thing we can do to not loose our past completely is to remember and bring back this nostalgia. I wish our city did more to preserve the rich colonial history or created more green landscape that welcomes people to just get out and enjoy roaming the streets that they live in. Anyways I really enjoyed Midnight in Paris. Couldn't wait to buy a croissant and a bottle of wine after the movie ;) Had a nice chuckle at the actors who played Ernest Hemingway and Salvador Dali - Corey S. and Adrien B <3 Seriously I used to think Adrien Brody was alright but the more I see him in movies the more I love his acting! Didn't realize that the actress playing the museum guide is the current First Lady of France! She's beautiful..but I like Marion Cotillard more.

Our camera day last week. (with larger photos hehe) Checking out the LKK Lantern Wonderland during Mid-Autumn Festival. Great day and enjoying the slightly cooler weather already :)










We initially asked this guy to take a photo of us and it was an epic fail. He totally chopped off the background and we thought he would take better photos because he was using a pretty nice camera -_-" Oh well... In the end we just placed the camera on J's backpack and it turned out fine on the first take.

Btw this is so random but I LOVE Junior Masterchef Australia! It's the cutest and most positive tv show that I've seen in a long while. hehe no barking at the contestants like Hell's Kitchen. My fav is Siena who's only 9 but started cooking when she was 3. (wow!) I also thought Pierre was really cute and was quite blown away by his lamb wellington. hehe I even logged into his facebook page to check out his foodie pics. hehe Alrighty have a good week! Ciao =)

Full Moon

I can't believe it's been 10 years since 9/11 and the documentaries airing on tv are still so heartbreaking to watch. What were you doing on September 11 2001? I remember entering grade eleven, having a quick breakfast in our Burnaby townhouse when my dad called and then mom turned on the tv to watch the shocking news. Fast forward in time and halfway around the world, so much has changed and yet the reality remains...we never know what tomorrow might bring. Gotta stay positive, remember these life changing moments and not live your life with regrets.

Things have been pretty good for me and I've been really excited to start driving again in Hong Kong. Two weeks ago I drove (probably for the first time in ages) and I have to admit I was was slightly nervous and a little bit too close to the left hand side. Last night I drove from HK island to Kowloon to visit my grandma at the hospital and then back via the Central tunnel during busy hours. Had a really nice dinner and then dropped off my auntie at Mid-levels before driving home via Magazine Gap road. I felt alot more confident second time round and the turns around those narrow bends were much smoother. :) I think I need to freshen up my parking skills especially when the parking spaces in HK are sooo small but I'm definitely getting the feel of merging amongst those agressive taxi drivers and driving faster along those steep narrow roads. When I used to sit in the passenger seat I was scared of merging, afraid I'd get stuck somewhere because no one would let me into their lane but I think I'm improving and becoming less intimated. Yeeaa loving every moment of it and think J's enjoyment of driving also rubs off on me so I've been itching to get behind the wheel myself. It'd be nice to learn how to drive manual someday :P nehoo I'm going to go driving with dad now at 9:30am (we're such early birds!) and grabbing some breakfast along the way. haha Have a happy mid-autumn festival and going to enjoy this beautiful Tuesday weather. Ciao!

Clear Blue

Shabu shabu at J's place :) I rarely go shopping at Japan Home but we managed to buy these super cute shot glasses for 10-25 dollars, extra plates and 2 electric stoves that looks and works really well. heh One side was for the veggie lovers and the other for 'all in'.


Bought our meats at City Super and tonnsss of my favorite mushrooms. I'm glad mushrooms are good for you because I think I eat too much of it sometimes. :P




Uno jenga + inception music in the background. heh


Just for fun :P The puma stripes fell off after going through the dishwasher. oops.


:)

Leaving a m a r k, literally ;)

A few weekends back J & I had the luxury of going to Boracay for a few days and it was a really memorable trip in a way we didn't expect it. It wasn't all sunshine and beach weather and in the beginning we were worried that we might not even make it to our destination. :P The small plane from Manila to Caticlan seemed to have problems with the faulty oil pressure instrument and when they told us to return to the terminals after we boarded, they weren't confident in telling us if there was another flight or if we had to wait an extra day. Then factor in the typhoon weather which whizzed past the islands bringing buckets of rain & fierce winds..we thought we would be confined indoors the whole time. In the end we were really lucky to fill our time with some relaxing activities like shisha, massage, buggy riding and is definitely a good reminder that company is all that matters. =)


Yeah we were uneasy when we saw our transfer flight. Or at least I was..never been on such a small plane before. That's one of the pilot's arm and they give you bamboo fans in case you got hot before take off. :P

Our trusty ride..


Arrived *yay! After eating only a ham and egg bun in the morning, the first thing on my mind was fooood.


The food on the first night was pretty dang delicious perhaps because I was starving. Generally speaking Filipino dishes are quite simple and they're like the comfort food you get to eat at home. J says the stews are very similar to Persian stews so it's a cuisine that he can easily relate to as well.


I personally loved the beef adobo and would love to re-create that taste sometime in the near future since J bought a recipe book.


By the pool side.


Almost getting blown away..it felt like a T3 or T8 :P


Grilled chicken inasal with rice wrapped in banana leaf. No messing around just come hungry and leave patting your tummy. :)


Sugar overdose on the ride back. Love cornflakes or any type of crunchiness in my dessert.


hehee We ordered room service and shared a club sandwich with carrot sticks and a bottle of red that we bought at D-mall. As you can see we topped it off with some dun dun dun the Fringe :P


The next day we seized the opportunity to visit the tallest point in Boracay.


This lil attraction was soo ghetto with wild animals in cages and extremely dangerous looking zip lines. Despite that, the makeshift viewing area was quite impressive with a pretty nice 360 degree view of the island.


We had fun taking turns driving and drifting on the rocky roads hehe


Following our guide.


Visiting some other beaches around the island.


<3 hehe we really made use of our camera rod. No more couple shots with big faces.
Beer with ice? My first comment was eh..and then I realized how refreshing it tastes


Abit of mexican and filipino food for dinner.


The last day we saw mr. sunshine! We were both so happy that we skipped breakfast and went straight for the beach at 9:30am.




Lunch by the beach/pool side.




Outstretched toes meaning that they're happy =) Love travelling but gotta save up now. No more trips until the end of the year but it won't hurt to daydream abit and plan for other fun activities around town.