huilin

Being the good CG-mates that we are, Jerry and I decided to throw Zj a surprise dinner party for his birthday! It was at a fairly new Italian restaurant in the Holland V district – La Nonna, which I’ve read plenty of good reviews about lately. They gave us the entire top floor to colonise and use for our dinner, which was really conducive for the party atmosphere! The food there was quite delicious as well, with authentic wood-fired pizzas and pretty decent pastas. Thanks to everyone who made it down yesterday even though the arrangements were so last minute!

Pictures of us in the pantry at the Delivery Suites in NUH, stealing a cupcake break in between waiting for and watching deliveries. It was strange to think that every baby we see born today, is exactly 24 years younger than Zj.

I haven’t baked or tried out a new recipe for quite some time, and this afternoon’s session was extremely therapeutic! I really enjoy baking alone, and soaking in the slow, methodical process of mixing, quality checking, and churning out baked goods. It’s the perfect me-time for that 2 to 3 hours or so, and not even my maid or mum interjects or interferes. Although the rainy weather this afternoon wasn’t optimal for turning out the best baked goodies (Yes, even the weather counts!), but it made for a nice rainy afternoon in the kitchen.

This chocolate cupcake recipe (which I modified from Chockylit’s Cupcake Bakeshop blog) turned out really well, with just the right amount of sweetness balanced with a hint of saltiness from all that fleur de sel I added in it. The cake portion was moist and chocolatey, bordering on fudgey. The icing was slightly runny though, and I hope that it doesn’t melt away when I bring a box of these yummies to the hospital tomorrow.

ObGyn has been a terror – the days are long and tiring, and expectations are high! Extremely unused to that since we’re fresh from a 3 week holiday and 2 months of (slack-er) short postings. At least we were assigned to a really good tutor. No matter, for now, I have cupcakes and I’m happy =)

Dad brought home a box of 3 precious Japanese peaches from work last week. Each was the size of a soft ball (i.e HUGE) and true to the Japanese style, swathed in layers of delicate wrapping and cushions. They emitted the sweetest smell, and I was told that each peach cost more than $20, but have no idea where they came from since I am Japanese-illiterate. We sliced them into half, depitted them and ate the sweet, succulent and juicy flesh with a spoon. Most heavenly.

Yummilicious Wasabi ice cream with fun pop-in-your-mouth seaweed pearls and Green tea ice cream with humongous baby cockroach sized red beans from the Bugis shopping centre basement. I liked the spiciness of the wasabi ice cream very much indeed!

Needs to get to the beach asap!

Today was the first day of O&G, and it was a huge shock to my system after 2 months of relaxed short postings with plenty of free time. I have a 35hr marathon school session in NUH tomorrow till Wednesday with 2 full days of classes and a compulsory no-chance-of-escape night call slotted in between. All Mambo plans are shelved till further notice, which was disappointing as I was so looking forward to that. I hope I get to see/do some deliveries tomorrow though.

From Walla walla 2 Friday nights ago, where we caught Ngak and EIC playing to a crowded, sing-along house. Great music, one-for-one beers, and Ngak really does do Chinese songs better.

This was at MOS last Friday night, where we were hanging out, before adjourning to Pump room to catch the fantastic live band there. With darling Celene and some new friends – Auntie Pat, Alison and Jolynn.

I’ve been making the most of this slack-ish Pathology posting, where the mortuary turns me off and flips my guts, and tutorials are mehhh, by heading out more and having some fun. Tomorrow, O&G starts and its time to retreat into my tortoise shell again.

This was how we supported Tao Li at the Singapore swimming final the week before. In class, on a laptop whilst the doctor was droning on and on. Silent cries of jubilation and encouragement ringing throughout the last 2 rows were rampant. That’s Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei on the screen, trashing our Ronald Susilo in Badminton.