Local music makes me happy some times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5qY02VeDlg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Country Experience - Bakes Bakes Bakes!

  Living out here in the country has been definitely eye-opening, but occasionally mind-numbing, depressingly isolating and lonely as well. I've had a chance to spend a heap of alone time, reflecting, thinking, planning, reflecting more, organ-idling to my heart's content and finding/re-igniting hobbies and passions. 

For the past 8 months, I thought I would perhaps pick up a new hobby or skill (such as keeping a chook), or hone my existing skills in things like baking or music. Well the chook didn't happen (too troublesome and expensive to keep a chook just for it's eggs), and it recently dawned upon me how much I truly enjoy baking. Not cooking mind you, (I enjoy it, but spend most times microwaving for the sake of ease), but baking some how provides a more long-lasting satisfaction. (Probably because the stuff sits there longer than a plate of fried rice would)

I decided to compile shots of whatever cakes and bakes I've made over the past 8 months! They've all been edited with some ripoff version of instagram so that they look hippy and cool (who says I'm too grandma to use what those youngsters are using these days).

As you can see cupcakes have been my favourite thing to bake. Namely because they're pretty and bringing them to the office is such a joy. This has been one of the best investment hobbies I've had! Even if a batch of more 'atas' cupcakes might cost me a bit to bake (e.g. cream cheese, chocolate etc), the satisfaction from seeing hardworking teacher-mums in the office appreciating that mid-afternoon sugar hit is always worth it. If I can make someone's day or week for a dollar or two, why not right? Plus, I have a soft spot for working mums. :P (I rarely offer their kids cupcakes because they get enough sugar and aren't half as appreciative as their mums. Plus they don't need the sugar, it's their mums who do!)

 

One of the first bakes, Chocolate Easter Cupcakes   

One of the best hits I made, Strawberry Cheese Cupcakes (I know it's a hit when the teachers tell me their orgasmic, haha)

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes (I had a couple of oranges sitting there for a week)

 

My version of Awfully Chocolate's chocolate banana cake, hurhur 

 

Ombre Raspberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing (for my colleague's farewell). She's quite a princess-y girl which was why I thought a pink/purple ombre cake would suit her! 

C

 Coffee Walnut (one of the earlier attempts and hence a rather bbfftttt outcome)

I think these were chocolate malt cupcakes? Awesome stuff when you use Horlicks!

 

 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese! (another orgasmic hit with the ladies) 

 

 And then recently, one of the amazing bakers at church shared her amazing bread recipe with me, you know the ones where you get soft asian white bread? OMG NEW HOBBY!! These were my second attempt the day right after because it was just so addictive baking bread!

 

Simple chocolate ones for an afternoon tea with my colleague and her kids. The kids are massive chocolate fans

 

 

And I thought I would make it look fancy for a bit! But we chucked them in tupperware and headed out to the park anyways, so this was purely for photograpy's sake! These were my first attempts at baking the buns and breads. They were fluffy but not as fluffy as I wanted (and hence the OCD person in me woke up early the next day to try again)

 

 

The original Pumpkin Cream Cheese attempt. I was trying to make them Maroon in honour of the first State of Origin game between the Maroons and Blues. That's when I realised how impossible it is to make maroon with food colouring, haha..

 

One of the random Saturday afternoon bakes.. I think it was raspberry brownies? (You can guess where the ingredients come from, haha)

 

Quite a fail attempt at Peanut Butter Macarons. Hardly any feet here

 

 

And I think these were Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes

I've baked a lot more but often forget to take photos, either that or they kinda half fail so I'm not too impressed with them. Many times I have awfully off days where everything on the baking tray just sucks, hahahaha

Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector (Oil-free) Review

I had heard about the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector from one of our local bloggers early last year (I enjoy the occasional reading of our local bloggers just because it makes me feel connected to home when I feel homesick!). I must admit that I was pretty taken by the BB cream especially since it wasn't that expensive. However, I didn't want to jump in and buy the product immediately as I had always been a dry compact powder kinda person. 

However, sometime last year, I managed to get my hands on a couple of sachet samples from the EKKA and must admit that I totall loved it. The BB cream wasn't gluggy and thick like the asian ones I had tried before despite being able to give pretty decent coverage. It also didn't turn me into a fail geisha, which most of them do especially when I'm a bit browner than those silky Gong-li girls on korean/japanese ads. 

Being a fan of sample advertising (and to encourage Garnier to keep giving out samples to people like me, hurhur) I went to buy a tube of it.

The fatter tube is the original one I bought

I didn't realise that there were actual different versions of this product, and was pretty happy with the original fat tube I got. However, soon after I had bought that tube, I received a rather surprising e-mail from Garnier:

 

Now the last time I remembered ever winning any competition or lucky draw thing was when I was in primary school and Maccas had some lucky draw with every meal purchased (I won a bag or something). Most times, I'm not that lucky. Although I do tend to pick up money on the floor quite often (haha, my mum always finds it funny that I still find money on the floor even at this age!)

I was such a happy chappy when it came into my mailbox! (Aiyo look at that horrible shiny oily skin!)









Now, I have pretty crappy skin, depending on the time of the day/month/year/life cycle. Thankfully, I don't own a good enough camera to show you all the imperfections. So I found the biggest zit I could on my face and decided to do a cover-up test:

Giant pomple (what my sister calls it when it's big and juicy)

I'm no pro at doing these pretty picture things. I do what's the basic necessity of before/after shots. So don't mind the lack of photogenicity (if that is even a word).

After covering it up with the BB cream! TA DAH

And now my face looks slightly less shinier thank goodness.

There was actually quite a significant difference between the oil-free version and the oiled-up version. Although both gave me pretty much the same coverage, I did prefer the oil-free version as it was, well, less oily. Plus, for it's price (I think Coles/Woolies sometimes sells if for under $10 for sale), I think it's a great basic foundation to use when you're on the go! My housemate then still uses it! (I spied three tubes in her room that day, haha, and I myself still have the two tubes, one of which I always carry around in my handbag for the days I forget and leave the house without makeup).

It's been a life-saver for me, especially when I hadn't had a proper house to live in when I first started work, the Garnier BB cream was something I could blindly smear all over my face without a mirror and without any worry of it being uneven or cakey. It spreads like a moisturiser and feels pretty much like one. I must say that garnier has improved a lot on the range and quality of their products recently! (Either that or now I can actually bother/afford them, hurhur)

Stockholm, Sweden in 1.5 days

Some of you might know that I made the crazy journey of spending a collective amount of 50 hours on planes across two weeks to head up to what was meant to be, sunny Zurich to spend some catch up time with the family. My brother-in-law, whom my mum says has 'itchy-backside', had booked a mini 6 day trip to Sweden, Denmark and Finland once he knew I was planning to come up for a trip (meaning that essentially, I only spent about 4 days in the actual Zurich house).

I decided to talk about the places separately since they were all such lovely places, albeit not actually seeing much except the malls.

Stockholm was probably was my favourite of the three. Home to the creators of Ikea, H&M, those yummy Swedish meatballs, Alfred Nobel (and where the Nobel prize ceremonies are held each year), and where the term Stockholm Syndrome came from (duh). One of the creators of a popular app (either Spotify or something like that) is Swedish as well, so they're touted as a fairly innovative society.

Her happy face just 5 seconds before she let out a mouthful of spew on my head. Warm and liquidy.. yum

One thing I remembered most about Stockholm - Poor Ellie was down with a tummy bug! But she's such a precious little bub and didn't fuss that much despite being terribly sick.

This is her 'Oei!! Where my food go!??' look when she dropped it over the edge. Her perpetually drippy nose made her leave her jaw hanging most times and copious amounts of drool moisturised the family and every single piece of furniture at home.

 So back to Stockholm. This was one of the few places where we actually acted like tourists and did 2 tourist-y things! 

1. Buy tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus (because Gaby just gets so thrilled when she sees a bus)

Girls thoroughly enjoying being on the top deck of the bus!

2. Visit a museum called the "Vasa Museum" that houses the only preserved viking ship . 

Peace and calm for the moment before as we walk toward the museum considering the chaotic morning we had.

The gardens outside the Museum

Our trip to visiting the Vasa Museum was bumpy and eventful. After suffering two spontaneous vomits and changes of clothes for Ellie (one at the hotel, one at Maccas, not including the one on my head), we finally made our way to catch the hop on hop off bus to the museum, which wasn't actually that far, but took a while due to the traffic in Stockholm.

And right when we're about to get our tickets to enter the museum, dear little Ellie does a third spew of the day, this time, all over daddy's jacket! It's a chaotic moment for everyone and we rush off to wash, dry, change, whatever we can (sour milk ain't that great smelling if it's on you), making our eventful day, much much more eventful than any tour could provide!

Thankfully we managed to catch on to an English tour group within the museum and learn quickly that the Vasa was a great warship built in 1628. But low and behold, guess what, as they set it on it's maiden voyage to fight against I can't remember who, the poor stability of the boat and waves cause it to flip, fill up with water, and sink after sailing barely a kilometer out from the shore! The waters weren't too deep, but the Vasa sat there until 1961 when technology was advanced enough for it to be hauled out of the murky waters. Apparently, the water had actually helped to preserve most of it's structure (something to do with salinity blah blah blah). 

So here we are, staring at this great ship, that never even made it out the waters of Sweden, hahahah... I found that quite funny. But it was pretty marvelous to see a ship built in the 17th century!

 

Of course, how can anyone leave Sweden without eating the yummalicious Swedish meatballs?? Honestly, they actually had a flavour that was pretty similar to the Ikea ones! Except that the quality of the meat was much better, as well as the actual cranberries you can spy on the side of the plate in place of that goopy jam Ikea gives you.

We spent most of the remaining time checking out the malls for cheap baby clothes for the kids, or looking for nappy changing tables, or food, or a place to sit down. Haha, not what you might call an ideal European tour, but being with family and just going through all the chaos together makes it enjoyable and memorable!


Ending off with a nice candid family shot taken after fantastic seafood dinner in Copenhagen.

Everyone was more than happy to stand there appreciating a couple of buskers as we were meant to be walking in the opposite direction with the sun in our faces. I had never felt so blind in my life! Plus the reflections off the cobble stones made it even worse. I hope the girls grow up to appreciate music as much as we do!

Foggy and Unclear

The area around the South Burnett region is slightly elevated at certain regions. This means that the temperature around here is generally several degrees colder than Brisbane. We've had a few cold weeks and days where you would find frost on the grass or on your car if it wasn't parked indoors (unfortunately I'm normally quite blind and unobservant and have yet to see this for myself).

The elevation and mountain ranges also means that we get a fair bit of fog settling in the mornings and nights across large areas. You can sometimes be driving on a clear road, and notice a distinct fog settled over the town ahead as you come to it. 

Up here in the Kingaroy area I've had my fair share of clear gorgeous days. Days like this where you drive home in the sunset feeling all calm, peaceful and thankful for the blessings and opportunities given to you.

 Yet on some mornings as I drive off to work, the land is cloaked in a heavy fog that provides a visibility of perhaps 15-20m (Ok I'm not that good at gauging). It was scary the first time I drove through such thick and heavy fog, but most people are are aware and keep their headlights on. And as long as you're not blind drunk, it's pretty safe driving in fogs (or so I think for now).

 Once again, compare the stark differences between clear skies...

...and heavy fog.

There are many times in my life where I feel that everything is quite crystal clear, where I know or am sure of some things or plans I have for the future. Times where I can see so clearly ahead and think to myself, 'yup that's what I'm going to do and going to be like'. Times where the inner pedantic planner in me has the plan down to the minutest detail. Times where it all feels like this:

These are the Wooroolin Wetlands that are across the street from my place. I like to call it the 'Tree Cemetreee' hurhur.. Basically the land area was flooded during the floods ages ago and all the trees died and the area never dried up.

 But then again, there are also plenty of moments in my life that feel just like that:























 Night driving in the fog can sometimes be scary and fun at the same time. You get to see wisps of fog streaming past your car, and it somehow makes me feel as if I were flying a plane.

 Anyways, back to what I was saying, many times I have no idea where the hell I'm going, except for the immediate, what is right in front of me. I suddenly have no inkling of what is to come, what I'm going to do, what the future holds. It gets frustrating, confusing, depressing all at the same time. Just following the road as you come to it, not knowing what's ahead unless someone with a headline is coming towards, giving you just enough warning to watch out and not crash.

 

And then sometimes skies are perfect one moment, and as I said, you see a fog that has nestled itself amongst the land ahead of you and suddenly, you can't see nothin'.

Babies! Babies! Babies!

The two week holiday that consisted of 51 hours flying in the air, transits and stops at 8 airports in 7 different countries left me pretty wiped out when I arrived back on Aussie soil two Sundays ago. Albeit feeling more drained than I was refreshed from the 'holiday', I enjoyed every bit of it on hindsight. 

Work, money, professional development and advancement, I'll have my whole life to do it. 

Seeing your nieces gain each milestone, each smelly poo, each cranky night (ok that I don't really miss), each cuddly moment, that just flies past and doesn't come back once it's gone (or at least until I have my own).

 Now I think I haven't put up many photos of them this year, or ever since Ellie was born. Well, at least not as many as I used to when Gaby first came in the picture! But for those of you who know my sister and have missed out, here are the two little rascals she has now..

Little Miss 'Perpetually-shocked' Ellie

Cheeky dominant older 'nazi' Gaby (only because of the funny intonation she has when she speaks!)

I was telling my sister that it was exactly 2 years ago when I made my second trip up to Zurich to see the then 8/9 month old Gaby. (They're almost exactly 2 years apart). Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think I had been up since then (I cannot believe how poor my memory of events are.. I can't even remember what I did this time last year)!

I told her that the 8-9 month age is still my favourite period in all baby-hood. Where they're moderately independent at sitting up so much so that you can leave them there, but not mobile enough to go running around like headless chickens.



PLUS THEY ARE SO SQUISHYYYY

What did I say about that perpetually shocked look. I never imagined my sister would be running around with a double buggy, or 2 prams. I just assumed that children magically walk themselves.



Four years from their wedding and 2 kids later..

...neh neh my sister still looks younger than me lor..

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Star Trek was AMAZING. I simple cannot begin to rave about how everything in the movie was just awesome, from soundtrack, to cheesy light flares. I am no where near a true Trekkie, but merely a convert after their first movie in 2009 (was it?).

I remember that evening when a few guy friends were trying to convince Siyi and I to watch the movie when it came out. We made the typical 'whaaaat.... don't want la... so geeekyyyyy' comments and reluctantly went.

OH MY GOSH WAS THAT THE BEST DECISION EVER.

Perhaps it was the graphics, or the large Imax screen, or the fantastic Dolby Surround sound, but both of us really enjoyed it much more than we expected. I personally enjoy 'prelude' movies that bring you right to the beginning of a story, whether it be one of the Marvel movies or whatever. It just allows typical non-fans like me to follow the story from the start and fell like you haven't missed much.

And you know how sequels are normally pretty shitty? This one was just DA BOMB. Sure there were a few dumb moments in the movie where you'd go riiiighhhttt, but Benedict Cumberbatch was just right on. Such a psycho villan, I felt he did a great job just being so ruthless. I reckon he was better than Bane in Batman. (It's that posh accent that makes him so frightening  I reckon, hahaha).

Country Life

It has been ages since I've shared anything online, in a blink of an eye the next term has gone past right before my eyes! I really count my blessings each day that I work within Education, especially the fact that I have the flexible option of taking student school holidays off as well without actually taking leave! The work might be hard at times, but effectively I am able to actually not work for 8 weeks a year (or more actually!)

6 months out living in the country, and I wouldn't be honest if I said I loved every bit of it. The social isolation can sometimes be a bit discouraging, especially when people ask "so what do you do on the weekends?" and I say "nothing really, sometimes talk to myself?".

But what surprises me though, is how much I actually love staying out here! For one, here's my massive big house (pictures courtesy of a friend who came down and visited and provided awesome Canon shots):

The Differences in the Country (i.e. regional/rural Australia vs Metropolitan)

 1. Larger Spaces (as if Brisbane isn't spacious enough already)

 

I currently stay in a spacious Queenslander with another girl, it looks dodgy on the outside, and I must admit, it doesn't look spanky on the inside, but I reckon it's WAY better than a number of dodgy places I've seen in Brisbane/Sydney!

This house is probably waaaay older than my mum I'm sure.

And take a good look at my backyard. THAT IS MY BACKYARD. It's the size of 2 HDB 3 bedroom flats I'm sure

 2. Nature is ALWAYS abundant, and photo-worthy scenery is never scarce.

It still amazes me how you can go up to someone and ask, 'So... how large is your property?' and they go without batting an eyelash 'Oh, only 40 acres..." Singaporeans out there - how many of you actually know how big an acre is? Here's some perspective from Google..

1 Acre  = 43,560 sqft = 4046.84 sq m

If you live in a 3 bedroom HDB, that's about 700-900sq feet. A 5 bed room flat according to HDB's website, is about 1,184 sq ft. I CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND THAT NUMBER.

Yes it has been artificially pinkified, but still, so much green and sooo much space!

 These are the wetlands that are just across from my place, by far one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen! This picture was taken without any funny effects or editing, it is what it is!

The view from my back door any given day during the evenings. Picturesque eh?

What my friends called 'Lord of The Rings' hills when we visited my colleagues property.

3. Drinking Rainwater is normal and BETTER than drinking town water

Now this statement sometimes comes to a shock to not only people back home, but even people who have lived in metropolitan Australia all their lives. I didn't think much of it when I initially came out here, but basically, every house would most likely have a rainwater tank behind their house. These tanks collect rainwater run off from the gutter. They go through a couple of filters here and there, and voila, we drink it. Everyone out here tells me sternly 'DON'T DRINK THE TOWN WATER'. This refers to water that is processed by the towns and comes out from most taps in the toilets and what not.

People have different piping systems depending on how they choose to install them when they build their houses. Some only have tank water going to the toilet, some only have it going to the kitchen, some have it going to every pipe in the house. It's such a different world as to how we just buy ready made houses back home and perhaps, fuss about flooring or tiling. Even if you do build your own house in Singapore, you wouldn't be fussing about town vs tank water as well.

 

 Unfortunately, my tank water is rather dirty. The tank and pipes are so old that rust and some form of fungi often come out of the tap as well. I don't drink my own tank water, rather, I drink the tank water at schools where they have clean and well-maintained tanks. It has become so that I find Brisbane town water rather distasteful! My town water basically smells like a combination of sweat, chlorine and iron/blood. It stains the white ceramic tiles yellow, and causes the metal tap heads and pipes to develop blue rust. (Now go back and think of Secondary school Chemistry as to what element might be bringing about blue reside, haha). also, the town water tastes reallllly bad. Like salty and gluggy.

One thing living out here has also made me is grateful. Grateful that when I do go back to Brisbane for a weekend, I can take a shower with my mouth open and not splutter!

But rain water here is much much cleaner than out in the city, because of pollution and all. Hence it is much more acceptable to drink rainwater in the country as opposed to that in the city.

 4. The Cow Culture is Strong here

 Here are a couple of my neighbours! Many people own properties and farms here. I go to the staff room and listen to teachers talking about how their husbands have to do some work on the fencing in the farm, or that they have to maintain the farm or stuff like that. Most of them aren't farmers or anything like that, they just enjoy having a farm as a hobby!

That fence demarcates the boundary between my neighbour's property and mine

 Even my Speechie supervisor has cows! Just for consumption mainly. She explained how they had a mobile butcher come in for a couple hundred dollars to get meat for them. Basically, you call in a mobile butcher who drives in with a portable cool room, he shoots your cow, drains the blood in the cool room for a couple days, takes the skin/hide whatever you call it, chops it up for you and you pack it away. You then have to dispose of the bones and offcuts yourself. She says they normally burn or bury it. A cow gives her husband and her about a year's supply of beef. I'll have to talk more about cows in another post! I've just learnt so much about them!


There are a lot more things about the country that surprise me everyday, and I'll try and pen them all down to share before I become too complacent and ungrateful for all that's out there for me right now!