4 days to go!

Don Quijote for Spanish foood and Salt Grill by Luke Mangan (I had no idea Ion Orchard had a 55th floor!) Good food and quality time with the fam this weekend :) It was extra special cos cla hardly has time to eat out now that she's so busy with school work! Missing chenno though, but really looking forward to the fact that she'll be back in a couple of weeks.

There's loads to do this week.. but I mainly have to start packing because 2 weeks worth of stuff I need while i'm in the USA (Chicago/Evanston--St. Louis--NYC!!) can't be stuffed into a suitcase last minute! Plus opportunities have been opening up and i'm exploring them more everyday :) Trusting God to direct my paths as I wait for more doors to open and decide which ones to go through.

Blueberry Pancakes

{evidently very pleased with my pancakes- PS Cafe}

Blessed Easter everyone! :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dinner was really really good- the atmosphere is way more laidback than Forlino's, and with more homely fresh-tasting food :) Great place to have a meal, the staff are friendly and personable and best of all, daddy loved it!

Speaking of dad.. Happy happy (belated) Birthday! Thank you for everything; even though sometimes we get annoyed when you lurk at our doorways to see what we're doing/if we're there, I secretly love how you do that every night without fail even if just to ask how our day went :) Being the only man in a house full of girls can't be easy (haha) but we're all so thankful for you and your gentle and loving spirit. Love you Daddy!

Waiting for the Sun

Baked Blondies for the first time yesterday and they were really yummy!! Kinda like the opposite of brownies- almost the same texture but butterscotch instead of chocolate :) Andd It's daddy's birthday today! I'll do a proper post after dinner at Osvaldo's later.. Can't wait, but I really wish Chen was here :(

I'm not the biggest fan of the weather now, it's so gloomy!! All the grey and so much wind/rain.. Oh well 7 more days here and we're off :)

Cheesecake

My first attempt at baking a cheesecake- No problems with the taste (reallyyy yum with a glass of milk) but I think I slightly underbaked it! Part of the side crumbled off which basically gives me zero points for presentation, but otherwise I think it turned out pretty okay. When school starts I'm really gonna miss the luxury of spending my days this way, but for now i'm definitely making the most of it :)

Lemon Bars

Made reallyyyy YUM lemon bars a few days back and they turned out great- crumbly buttery base and a thin cake-like lemony layer on top. My family loved it and so did I, but I love all sorts of dessert with lemon in it so I might be slightly biased. It was really good though, and easy to make. :) You can get the recipe here!

Over the Weekend

Had a nice dinner with Mum, Dad and clare on Friday

Went to Sun with Moon at Wheelock, in my opinion it's the best place you can have a good Japanese meal without spending too much :) We all miss Chen lots, it's a general consensus that meals don't feel complete without her there.. Only 2 weeks before she's back though!
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Went for Jo's Housewarming on Saturday!

Really enjoyed myself just seeing everyone and eating yummy penangplace food :P And when just the 3 of us were left, it was nice talking and laughing together- like how we did throughout our upper sec lives :) We have SO MANY photos of just the 3 of us, and there's gonna be many more to come. Treasure both you a lot!

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And had the loveliest afternoon (with great company and food to boot!) I've had in awhile today... :)

AWESOME Italian food at Pietra Santa at Portsdown Road, I highly recommend this place to anyone who is looking for quality italian food at reasonable prices. Of the many italian restaurants we've been to, I think this place easily falls within our top 3 choices. :) Plus we ate outdoors and on the whole Portsdown has a really outdoorsy relaxed feel to it, so it was great.

Woke up late today so didn't go to church, but managed to have a relaxing and long lunch with my favourite people, and then swam with daddy and clarebear in the evening so i'm thankful and glad for that.

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WOW ok this is a seriously long post.. But it was a great weekend, so i'm more than happy to be documenting it :)

P.S/ You know what? Only 3 more weeks!!! How insanely fast is that?? :)

DIY Donuts


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Made these with the help of clarebear earlier in the week, cos I was hit by a sudden desire to make donuts. Got the recipe online, bought a couple of donut cutters and we were good to go!

They tasted really good though, all crispy and nice on the outside and soft and warm inside. The one problem I had with this batch was that it was a little too bready for my liking, I prefer mine more chewy and doughy. It's subjective though, because clara loved them the way they were. I'm gonna try again soon till I get the perfect donut (in my opinion, at least), so that means I gotta tweak the recipe a bit and have fun experimenting!

Laidback Saturdays

Today is one of the rare Saturdays that I got out of bed early- I was up by half past 8! It felt great though, I usually only get up after 930 and then that's almost half the morning gone.

Mum and Dad are having guests over tonight and we're doing Italian for dinner, so we went to Holland Village for breakfast then spent the rest of the morning doing grocery shopping and running errands. It's good spending time with my parents, talking over breakfast and laughing over the silliest things- we laugh like crazy then a minute later we forget why it was so funny in the first place!

And I really enjoyed my morning because I loveloveLOVE grocery shopping! I could spend all day just looking at produce and deciding what to put into the trolley. Like today we got awesome basil in the form of a PLANT- you actually pluck the leaves off yourself! Plus lime cordial that I've been looking all over for, fizzy water, peach and apricot yoghurt, instant hot chocolate... Haha I could go on and on :)

We went into a gem of a baking shop at Chip Bee Gardens too, not pantry magic (great stuff but really overpriced), but furthur up the hill. It's a small crowded store with shelf after shelf FULL of affordable baking accessories- I bought christmas cookie cutters, a mini whisk, breadpans for individual portions, donut moulds.. And the total bill was way cheaper than what we expected. It absolutely made my day. :)

Gonna sort out all my books now and tidy up the studyroom (and my own room as well) and then I'll go down and help with dinner.

I love Saturdays like these!