I WILL WRITE A POST TODAY!!!
Hahaa it has come to such exclaimation and forcing contract on my part to make myself sit down and type out a post. Actually I have much to say, mostly in-between whines and fears and a few gripes.
It's exam season friends!
An entire year of academics have come down to this. Do or die.
DO. There is no room for error. Now that its put that way, its like baking a cake or an order of cupcakes for birthday parties, you can't have a restart. Somehow that just feels different although it's somewhat along the same do or die lane.
Now let me summarize my day, this should be quite easy, because it's so routinely boring.
But kinda necessary. And slightly self-informing as well (more on that later)
(First some of Mickey D's latest temptation, Cinnamon Melts)


(Now I have this crazy urge which I will suppress, to go bake up a batch of pioneer woman's legendary cinnamon rolls)

;but that has to wait):


(heh it looks like mold growing but I assure you its 100% cinnamon-ny goodness)
Mad loveeeee!

I face the hardest part of the day first - Waking up.
After I pry myself from the evil grasps of my blanket or torture myself by not drawing the curtains and letting the 'too-bright-for-sleeping-in' sun wake me up, I make some breakfast and dont enjoy the liberty of watching silly morning tv (for the fear of never getting out of the house; it happens). These days I dont even conjure up yummy breakfasts, its just a pb sandwich or a chicken, cheese and ham wrap when mum makes chicken spreads for me.
Mostly pb sandwiches.
I'm a pb girl, through and through. Now if only I had the super cool kind of nut butters people in the States have. Safeway, walmart, walgreens COME TO ME!
Sometimes I cheat on pb with nutella. Somethings can't be helped. Teehee.



Then I get my ass to the airport not because I'm flying off anywhere but because its 20 minutes away, wifi-equipped, food-equipped, and awesome place to study. No day and no night if you sit in the right places.
Starbucks used to be my haven. Then other people decided it was theirs too. buggers!
Plus I love their coffees, but that's already a given.
Then I took it one level down to, sad to say, mcdonald's. Buy a cuppa (plus they have buy 3 drinks get 1 free) and park myself there for a good part of the day (and night) and have my revision notes, a ton of practice papers and a roomful of strangers for company.



I like studying alone, sometimes. I get (more) things done.
And somedays I need my friends. People keep me sane. Like I said, self-discovery, I think the best way to torture me would be to not give me anyone to talk to. I need people. I need to talk, laugh, poke, disturb, people.
Without those, I think a part of me dies inside. serious.
Yeah technology helps a little, staying connected with people virtually but I need tangible human contact. I guess everyone needs it someway or another. I just need it more.
Even the yummiest of food doesnt replace the lack of human presence and good old plain friendship.
Friends > Food anyday!
But Friends + Food, that's a whole different level of awesome(:


(And this is what friends do when they get bored and get hold of cameras, they swirl them around)


(And toss them around! nooooooooooooooooo! hahahaa)

So recently I've had a few awesome eats all revolving around levels 1 and 2 of T2 of the airport, cos that's where I hide out haha.
And ever since a certain fateful day in Little India I have been going around maniacally trying Indian Naan at every indian joint I see, and getting disappointed more often than not thanks to too high expectations fed off the first naan fest. lol.

I usually don't like Indian food.
Wrinkle my nose at my brother's favourite Masala Thosai. Seriously, what's so nice about soured dough thinly pressed and filled with beans and meat!
That was uptill I found this place called Ananda Bhavan. And there's an outlet right above starbucks at T2. I think its been there since forever but I was just ignorant about its existence until Little India educated me otherwise.


(#1 and #2 of Indian desserts. Half-eaten whoops heehee. Left: Jangiri. Right: no idea, lost the receipt lol)

Usually the naan is awesome to the max especially cheese naan! And the plain thosai, to perfection. Well, there was just this once....
My educated guess was he was hitting up my naan order while trying to tie up another guy's order, using everybody's favourite household equipment.
*drumrolls*


(Spot the abnormality(;)

The Red Rubberband.
Well the look on the guy's face was quite awesome when he realised (in horror) what he put into our naan. Now I've a new indian friend who's especially nice to me when I eat there, forever offering me free drinks and being of awesome service. Heh.
Plus, I've officially become a fan of indian food, and indian dessert.
The ananda bhavan kind.
Although I really have no idea what I'm pointing to or about to order, or even the name (until I look at the receipt after I've ordered), the success and yumminess of the first ever dessert tried have prompted me to give all the others a chance to prove themselves yummy or otherwise.



Lets just say the second and the third didnt disappoint either. But my indian dessert friend would like to testify otherwise. I promise it tastes like milk chocolate, with a little taste of milk powder-ish kinda feel. You have to love milk and all things dairy and SWEET to love this.
And I think all things white are made up of the same milky-powdery taste.


(Check out my mega thosai, it was sooo big!)

Indian dessert, I will conquer you! hahahaa okay maybe not all but this is definitely not the last you'll be seeing of indian food.
Dinner was a one-person affair in which I had some temporal company in the form of the indian waiter to talk to and I think we would be good friends by the end of my airport studying stint. Heh wait and see. He still keeps offering me free drinks for the rubberband mishap hahah!
I had Gova Laddu(below) for dessert and one giant plain thosai. Awesomeness.
Think I will never eat thosai anywhere else ever.
Its quite chill to sit there, eating thosai with my hands, examining the dessert and hoping its nice cos theres no one to force to eat it if it disgusts me. And just not thinking about school and papers and essays and formulas.


(Coconutty interior)

Dont be fooled by its tiny ball size, even a sweet tooth like me felt the need to down my starbucks tumbler of water after that. And of course after that comes the unescapable sugar-high which I channelled straight into a 4km run. Best run in a long time wheeeeeeeeeee!(:
Oh and as if the outer-shell milk chocolatey coating isnt sweet enough, inside is coconut!
Not the orangey chinese coconut that you see in peanut pancakes but this was grey-ish. I didnt even know what it was until I bit into it. Or rather cut it rather pathetically with the plastic spoon that threatened to break on me anytime.
But I kinda appreciated the sugar-rush(: Put me in a pretty good mood until the adrenaline-endorphin rush took over.
What can I say, I'm a junkie hahaha, in the most natural and healthy way ok!

Eeeep after the promise to blog twice a week and then the uncalled for hiatus, I think nobody wants to read this anymore): ):
I'll be better, baby steps, baby steps.
20 May please come quick, but please let me finish revision to the best of my ability and capability first! What an oxymoronic life I lead.


(hard at work okay!)

*This post is dedicated to my Indian dessert friend, otherwise which this entry would not be penned today and further procrastinated, but now I'm glad I did it. yay

Omg 5 days till I turn 21 and nose deep in papers, ink and clear folders.
INSERT SAD FACE HERE.

Today, I am going to use a sentence that all kids between the ages of 6 to 8 (myself included when I was that age) love to end their essays/composition writing with.
'... and we went home feeling tired but happy.' The end.



(I used to love writing The End at the end of my essays, it made me feel accomplished for some kiddy reason but my teachers told me that real essays don't end like that and all the cool kids didnt have that at the end, so 'the end' became a thing of the past)



But that statement so accurately describes my exact feeling now. I could possibly make it a little more grown up by adding 'and satisfied' and scratching 'the end' but just let me go back to being 6 years old again for awhile? Being an almost-adult is hard. Decisions, responsibilities, obligations and challenges. But we shall save that for another time yes?
Today is all about tired and happy(:
(but I still am up doing this big pictorial post, figures. hahaha)
I'm liking this space more and more!
*check out the cute red pepper kitchen timer wheee



6 hours of sleep last night + early morning wake up alarm would normally bring the inner grumpy dwarf out of me but today held purpose and the incentive of breaking the daily routine.
I was going to see my silly little brother graduate from basic military training. For the life of me I cannot imagine or even begin to picture how that silly little boy who used to irritate me to no end could don the smart 4, operate a rifle, do a 24km route march and pull off a parade.



Decided to brave the boat ride (I tend to get seasick!), the heat, and impending smellyness that just wafts all around you, I cannot even begin to describe the smell of boys in uniform after 24 click. Please imagine.





And being the good student, yes I brought notes along. Tragic or dedication? You tell me.
We had to be seated by 2.30pm and the parade was only going to start at 3.45pm.
1hr 15min of sitting and sweating. Its like watching the National Day Parade (minus the fireworks)



I brought cookies!
(:



But they werent for me. Decided to bake them for the graduating little kid since I didnt have time to do them last week. Chocolate and coffee. I have no idea why he likes coffee so much since he doesnt have anything to be done pertaining to the need of caffeine but yeah I did make those mocha chocolate babies. Did the pre-chilled dough yesterday at 1.30am, which came together in less than 20 min. After much cookie making, I have concurred that the ideal cookie making time is at night. So the dough can be chilled and ready for the next day to be popped into the oven. Easy peasy. Throw away the cling wrap and heyy! no washing! haha(:




Had some quality time with my notes and it was time to take out the camera to have some fun!
But first, mum had go all law abiding on us and filling out the survey form. Who even does that! With super long comments on the section of 'Additional comments'
She suggested that they provide refreshments. Welldone mum, welldone.
I was amused to say the least. I think she was bored. But I know she meant the refreshments bit. Really.
Look at her go. She had fun.



Had a game of 'find the little green son/brother' and a slew of photos ensued. Some, not by choice but by insistent orders of a very excited mother 'take this!', 'look there!', 'take, take, take'.
Okaaay I'll just keep clicking then..



FOUND! hahah(:



Some formation and drill thingy



Ooh look, no hair! haha



Then came the 'putting on the cap for the son' bit which we had to brave the smell. Oh gosh. I wanted very much to be a dolphin/seal for 10 minutes so that I could hold my breath. Hahaha ok I kid, dolphins are smelly too!



Then comes ceremonial cap throwing.
So my kid brother has survived 9 weeks of the army. He looks quite happy with the cookie you think! Yay. Now he needs a bath.



Quite worth the late night and early morning wake up to make these cookies to see people eating them like this. The cookies were pretty yum if I may say so myself. If the chocolate + coffee combination doesnt float your boat or give you an instant boost I dont know what would.
End of parade! Spot the difference. Before and after.



O for Orion. Which my dear mother thought stood for O for Onion.
Does look pretty alike but a whole world of difference. Needless to say I got a good laugh out of it.
'Hi, I'm from Onion company' joke much!!



And then it was 6pm! So we spent 5 hours waiting around for the 45min parade. eeeesh
He needed a bath, so home it was. Then dinner at Everything With Fries. Awesome.
I was super hungry by then. 1 pc bread + 2 oreos the entire day. Ravenous now! Stuck my head out of the car to try and snap the pretty sky outside the ferry terminal. Very unlike usual Singapore scenery.



Tried to get mum to take a decent photo of us and the pretty sky. This is what I got. Total fail. Mum's are awesome and all but behind a camera, yep this is as good as it gets. hahaaa. WHAT IS THIS!



And then onto dinner!



This time I got to try all the different fries cos I made them order different flavours heh.



And after that 4 of us demolished 1 nutella tart in about.....1 minute, literally.
Please excuse the blurry picture, people were impatient. Quite understandable if you're sitting in front of this.



It was so fast if you blinked three times slowly I promise you, you would only get a bite. But sharing desserts is (: A little sweet end to a meal which I love but not too much till you dont want it anymore.



Came home, decided to go for an impromptu run which turned out to be sprint intervals and hill climbs. Legs totally game over after that but the feeling of conquering hills and sprints is pretty cool. 5.6km worth of that, now I just want to sit and never get up.

See, 'tired and happy' pretty aptly describes the day aye! And if you need an instant perk-me-up. Please make those cookies, they would make anyone happy. Even grumpy the dwarf(:
I got the recipe from Kim@Lovintheoven and yes if you love coffee like I do my starbucks, please add all 3 tablespoons of instant coffee. No regrets there(:



School tomorrow. I can almost smell the weekend.

The End(;

I think I'm a bad blogger. Food or otherwise, still bad. I tell people a story, oh wait, half a story and I traipse off somewhere and return only when I feel like it.
My html does not allow me to reply comments, I dont link people (I should! I will get that up soon) I dont organise the sidebar. And I dont post enough food. Bad person. badbadbad! hahaha but you have to understand, its exam season and I might have exam fever and am going a little crazy.
But today I come with healthy(ier) food. Does that make me a little better heh(;
(see! veggies!)



With an entry, comes a story, and these days I just dont have stories to tell now. Everyday is the same, no, almost. With the slight unimportant exception of what I am currently revising, the coffee/tea I drink, the time I daydream from my books, the time I get up to pee, what I eat for dinner (because that's not up to my control but whats cooking in the kitchen)
That might sound like a lot is different, but trust me it is not.
I need excitement in my life, but that has to wait. Waiting is hard. I dont like waiting.
But waiting makes me a better person. I think..

About 7 weeks.



It will come really fast, I just know it, yet time crawls by ever so slowly. How oxymoronic can I sound. You have no idea. Sometimes I wish the world could work my way. It would go something like this. When you're doing something boring but necessary, time stands still, stopping. So as to allow you to do what you have to get done. When its all done and ready, time ticks on again, leaving you the entire rest of the day to enjoy and laugh and play and eat.

Hedonistic much!?



That said, I think the world would not be a very good place, because I dont make very good plans. Ohwell a girl can try to plan.
Only with hard work and completion to some extent, be it a small to-do list or an entire project or just going outside for a run when I reaaaaaaaaaaaaaallly don't want to, can one enjoy the rewards later (chilling, movie, fooooood, friends, going out, resting, the high you get from running). If there's no hard work, even if you do skip straight to the rewards, it doesnt taste as sweet.
Like how coke (the drink ok not drugs!) tastes pretty darn good after 3.6km as opposed to a drinking it say, in a movie?

What can I say, I work well with incentives. So I have mini incentives to get myself through school weeks. Be it baking something super cool or catching movies or chilling with awesome friends, going suntanning by the pool or even buying the next cookbook, cookie book on the list hahaa.
One week at a time yea? So this is also a small (somewhat healthy) incentive to come home to and assemble after some furious revision note writing and countless angsty tutorial fighting sessions. See its not breakfast! hahaha but I can forsee more breakfast-y foods to come.
Riight, and I've gotten my sleep cycle almost ideal which is another step in the right direction yay(:



Oh by the way, see what did I tell you about being a bad blogger, I forget to impart recipes too.
This is super easy like 5 minute easy (or less) but you have to first have quite an awesome mother who makes chicken mayonnaise spreads and puts them in the fridge upon request. An entire bowl for me for the week. happy maxxxx!



So here goes: caesar salad! (my way)

1. Wash romaine lettuce (cut into bite size pieces)
2. Toast bread until very crunchy, cut into breadcrumbs, drizzle olive oil, throw those in
3. Scoop as much chicken as you want(:
4. Mix all together, add ground black pepper
5. Add cherry tomatoes if you have (even more awesome and pretty)
6. Grab whichever cheese you like and add to the pile

EAT.
YUM!

7 weeks!

icandothis
icandothis
icandothis

I really have to say, the last 24 hours have been nothing short of amazing.
It might be the magic of Good Friday or it might be just the fact that I've a pretty awesome God who put awesome people and things and food into my life.

Here's why:
My week was not looking to be a good one seeing that we're entering April already zomg! And a mini manic panic attack was well on its way while I cordoned myself from the rest of the world for a little while to do what needs getting done - quality time with some econs and mathsy equations and all that jazz (or the lack of hm).
Somedays I would feel more accomplished than others but I have to admit, there is only a certain level of satisfaction one can feel coming from daily academics, apart from attaining the finishing line. That would be a different story.
But one thing that makes me really satisfied is the approximately 45 minutes of me-time I make myself get post-studying-pre-dinner-ish (if that makes sense)

Its just me, running shoes, fbts, fringe away from forehead and some darned hills to climb that make me look like a gaping fish out of water trying to run up. But as of today I learnt that hills do have plus points about them ; as do everything in life, however crappy and boring things can get. I don't do hills by choice, its just the ideal route around my estate and everyone does them in one way or another. More on running later.

So Thursday I decided to somewhat reward myself for sitting an entire afternoon with only a cup of tea for company, I went to cold storage.
I have a thing for supermarkets. I don't even know how it started or when for that matter but I love just walking down aisle by aisle. From dairy and milk to pasta to frozen to baking! to cereal, I could go on but you get the drift.
T2 basement, isnt the most bustling place ever and cold storage was freezing but I still went from aisle to aisle anyway. Chanced upon ritter sport chocolate and decided to buy it for a friend.

Decided to run early(ier) before going out.
Going for short runs like these sorta keep me sane and happy and unirritable thanks to post-run-high for a good part of the evening, but with company I had, well, I didnt really need the run(:
Had a pretty awesome mini dinner cos I was quite the hungry monster after sweating bucketloads. Sadly I dont have awesome temperate weather and if I get wind and shade at 6pm that's kinda lucky already(;

Bathed, ate, watched some news and hopped into a cab..
(edit) the evening/night was filled with a lot of chill time, icecream, more icecream much laughter and more talk, food! car rides, chilling in non-descript places and just liking the fact that I dont have to try to be anything. Just me me me. aye (:

Oh and I shall leave this at that with an awesome pint of something yummy (that was consumed in entirety)
strawbie-cheesecake-macadamia-nut



yumdumdumdeedum

And that, is how a crappy week is salvaged (: