Donuts - Singapore vs Malaysia

新加坡目前刮起甜甜圈旋风，几乎在每个市政每几步都有一间店在卖甜甜圈。 现在流行的甜甜圈不是那种小时候吃的炸面包撒上糖粉的东西而是“内有乾坤”，“外有花衣裳”而“价格不非”甜甜圈！

好奇的我看见新开张的甜甜圈连锁店，不禁怀疑到底是多好吃的东西可以吸引那么多人，不惜时间和精力的在排队。我决定就当一会儿贪新鲜和怕输的新加坡人，跟着排排看。新店吸引很多好奇的眼光，但没有什么人排队，很快就轮到我。厨房出甜甜圈的速度比不上顾客的需求，轮到我时已经没剩下没什么口味了，所以我只好等在一旁等慢条斯理的厨房把我要的口味做出来。

我等了将近会30分钟，那香蕉朱古力口味的甜甜圈始终没办法出来见人。粗心大意的店员也没有告诉我香蕉朱古力口味的甜甜圈没了，让我像傻瓜一样白白的等。生气但看在他们第一天开张的我于是“提点”了在那里驻守的经理，希望他们会改善服务态度。 经理也很关切的道歉，解释第一天的混乱是难免的，希望我谅解，以后在光顾。 他真的不需要那么客气，我一定不会有下一次排队买"华而不实"的甜甜圈了！！！

我搞不清楚新加坡人是怎么了，那甜甜圈的确比邻里的蛋糕店卖的松软，但也没有很好吃。它们不止油腻还非常甜，甜到让人担心一定会得糖尿病的甜，怎么能送进口里吃阿？我吃了一个就开始担心了，甜到让人害怕，怎么会那么多人买呢？我搞不清楚人们在想什么。。。

再来已经有那么多人开甜甜圈连锁店，几乎每两三步就会碰到一间，怎么还会有人想都没想，还是嫌钱太多，还在盲目的开甜甜圈连锁店呢？我觉得甜甜圈连锁店已经快要成为当年的泡泡茶店一样，泡沫随时破灭。。。 傻瓜的有钱人，把钱投资比较稳定的地方吧。

马来西亚也有甜甜圈连锁店，看看它们和新加坡有什么不同吧。它们一样的油腻和非常甜，应该跟香烟一样附上警告:

Warning: The following might cause diabetics.

我大概这一辈子都不会再碰甜甜圈了。

Malaysia's Dunkin Donuts. They are not made fresh, so tasted cold and greasy. Too sweet for me, in fact they are too sweet for human consumption.

Singapore's Munchie Donuts. Chaotic service. No one knows what they are doing. Slow kitchen workers. The design looked nice, but I messed them up. The dough is softer, but also too sugary and sweet. I cannot take it, also think that they are too sweet for human consumption.

Packaging

Malaysia's still celebrating Hari Raya Puasa, thus the cartoony packaging.

Yes, Singapore's packaging. Not really impressive. The slogan - One is not enough. Yeah, get more kitchen helpers !#%!^#$@*$^*#&$^ !!!

80's 天王天后 - 张国荣和梅艳芳

前天看电视刚好转台看到陈慧琳和陈小春唱已故天王天后的歌曲，我差点晕倒。

他们分别唱了张国荣和梅艳芳的“无心睡眠”和“梦伴”。我觉得他们两人的台风和歌声有待加强，根本没办法表现出张国荣和梅艳芳在台上表演的那种魅力。尤其陈慧琳在开始的时候拿着Mic stand猛摇摆，让我看得朦喳喳。。。她不像是跳舞，也不像在跟着节拍舞动，看不出她在干什么。后来听着音乐才领悟到她或许在模仿梅艳芳吧，很差的在模仿。。。WTH ！！！再来，她的声音小到背景音乐都掩盖过她了，好狼狈, 好差强人意的的表演。

你必须看到张国荣和梅艳芳在八十年代的表演，才可以体会为什么他们会受人爱戴和崇拜。 当然，现在看那时候的服装可能会觉得很“土”，很怪，但那时后流行的是这样嘛。我想再也没有人可以取代他们两了。尤其现在的新一代的歌手几乎都没有实力和舞台魅力，根本不能登大雅之堂。目前有实力和舞台魅力就数张惠妹最好,她算是有实力和舞台魅力的歌手了。

他们红的时候，我才两三岁，多亏Youtube让这些经典音像从现！

永远的Leslie和Anita

Photosophize Discovery II - Beautiful One

I discovered leaves of my lime plant are chewed up and missing ! Something must be growing on the plant. Armed with my sharp eyes, I set out to look for the culprit.

Guess what I found? Caterpillars!

These leaf-eating machines are already in various stages of their life. Some are small in black and white colour; some are already grow so big and fat in green. I read somewhere that some species of caterpillars will disguise themselves to look like bird droppings so that they will not become bird snacks. Those that I find seem to fit into the categories. The bigger ones are armed with fake big eyes to scare off whatever predators.

A few of them have enough and already moved on to the next stage – Pupa. They will hang from a branch and wait for their “big break”. I do not want them on my plant to continue the destruction, but I could not bear to kill them. Thus, I collected them on a plastic container and selectively pick leaves for them to keep them alive.



Unfortunately, they start to climb everywhere, some ended up on our clothes and some even turn pupa in an umbrella! Finally, my mum could not stand them anymore. I was ordered to throw them away. I did however leave most of the pupae untouched. I am curious to see what sort of butterfly had been laying eggs on my plants. However, I kept missing them and end up finding a lot of empty pupae cases.

Then one morning, I saw this beautiful creature waiting for its wings to dry. . .


They seems to remember where they were born at and have since came back to lay their eggs again. OMG!

J.K Rowling Revealed that Dumbledore is a Gay!!!

Shocking news!!!

I was reading it off MSN website. J.K Rowling revealed during a reading session that Dumbledore, whom I quite like and respect, is in fact a gay. She revealed that when someone asked if Dumbledore had ever truly loved anyone. She informed that he has falled for the talented dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald .

Hmm... Not that this will change my impression of him, I still and do like him, but I think this is not suitable to be discussed with children. Especially there are a lot of them reading Harry Potter.

This is not a prejudice against people like them or whatever, but I mean children are innocent and should be as innocent as they could be when young. I would want my children (when I have kids) to be happy and carefree as long as they can be (just like cheekymonikes). I would not want them to be polluted with complicated stuff that young.

There could be serious complications for the children by telling them about the sexual orientation of the characters. They are still young, they need not to know about it. Have she ever considered that what if children or teenagers who like Dumbledore a lot, are influence to be like him? Is this correct? The difference between teaching children to be more acceptance to people who are different and influencing them are a thin line. Her words which already influence a lot of people, might encourage people to go the other way subconsiously.

I guess Harry Potter might comes with NC 16 rating soon. A pity, such an interesting and fantasy story where one imagination runs wild, but is it still suitable for young children?

麻布茶房 - Azabu Sabo ****

(Silly me didn't list the place earlier on. I have amended the entry as well. Realised that I made a lot of grammar mistakes earlier on. Was rushing to get this out fast mah. :P)

After leaving the "boys", we went to a Japanese dessert shop to have Ice-Cream. Just as well, I think Angel needs to cool down...

Japanese Sweet Eats and Tea !

There was a queue forming when we walk past it earlier to our dinner venue. Who knows when we made it back again, the shop was packed. Azabu Sabo sells authenticJap Ice-cream that is made in Hokkaido.

I am amazed at their vast selection of desserts. All of them looked so tempting just by looking at their picture. Besides the typical green tea ice-cream that you will find in a japanese restaurant, they also have baked sweet potatoes, sesame flavoured and strawberries flavoured soft-served ice cream !!! We were spoilt for choice.

I always prefer authentic food, thus ordered the traditional green tea ice-cream with red bean and mochi.




You can taste the good quality green tea in the ice-cream. The sweetness was just right and flavourful without being too sweet. The red bean was so thoroghly cooked, that you almost felt like they melt in your mouth. The mochi , just the right size, is very chewy. The green tea ice-cream actually goes very well with the red bean paste as red bean counters the slightly dry taste that you find in tea. You can easily finish the whole thing off without feeling too guilty.

This is a heathlier version compared to those westerners sundae which is soaked with more candies and unhealty stuff. This Jap version is packed with fruits. The normal looking soft-serve ice cream tasted amazingly nice. I read it from somewhere that Hokkaido is famous for their dairy cow!!! Perhaps this is why the soft-served ice cream taste so wonderfully light, smooth, very fresh and milky. It is nothing like those that you get from fast food restaurant which leave an oily, creamy aftertaste on your taste buds. The green tea syrup added a touch of class and aroma to the ice-cream. I can already imagine myself craving for this sundae on a hot day.

The shop has nice decor too. It is very spacious looking. Perhaps it was due the use of white color and glasses. The Japanese mofits, like their Sakura flowers and ancient painting of Japanese courts are reflected everywhere on their wall and seats.

Look, even the chair decorated with an eastern touch.

Anyway, Angel and I love the Kanji name of the shop - 麻布茶房. It sound very classy and exotic like those Kyoto's Teahouses that we read in "Memoirs of a Geisha". Too bad, there are no Geisha around.

The only thing that bothers me are their waitresses' and waiters' uniform. They looked like french maids and stewards copied off from manga comics. They looked off with the decor and the image of the parlour.

Verdict: They deserved 4 Stars!!!! Should try !

Azabu Sabo is at Marina Square #02-170 / 171. :) I will go back and try the rest of the flavours as well especially their baked sweet potato. They served it with Green Tea Ice Cream or Soft Served Ice Cream!!!

Check out their website for their menu and locations - http://www.azabusabo.com.sg/

Boys...

We had a gathering with my poly classmate last friday. The gathering had an eventful start. My friend, Angel, flare up halfway through the gathering. She had wanted and expected the gathering to be small and private, therefore she had only asked a few of us out. Who knows, the three of us had the wrong impression and invited the rest of the poly classmates along.

To be frank, I don't usually wanted to get myself involved in organisng outings. There are a lot of hassles and doesn't pay, epecially when organising outing for mostly "boys"... I wonder why we can be of the same age and they , after training in the army and everything, are still so inmature and irresponsible. I sometimes wonder how we can leave our country to them and let them protect us...

I am in-charge of making reservation at the restaurant and had even catered for extra seats. The "boys" don't even have the courtesy to inform me that there are more people coming. I just don't understand, don't they ever eat out on friday night? Don't they know that everywhere has long quene and seats at restuarant are hard to come by? Even though I feel unhappy about that and even felt disrespectful, but I did not comment on it. However, this sparks off Angel's temper and throughout the dinner she was very quiet.

I have only catered for 6 persons but 4 more persons are going to turn up, so obviously the table is not big enough to accomendate all of us. Those who reached first had to eat fast fast and find ourselves another restaurant for all of us. During the dinner, those inmature and irresponsible boys did not notice the change in her mood and even continue to make silly jokes on each other.

The last straw came when we were looking for other restaurant. You know how teenage boys like to ogle at girls and when they are in a big group, they became this insensitive, arrogant, totally had no respect for their female friends kind of people. All my 24 year-old classmates became those teenager boys. Then, from nowhere, the latecomers joined our gathering with another of their friend which Angel and I have never seen before.

Upon see him, Angel flared up and scolded J for being so insensitive to ask a stranger to join our gathering. She also told him off that they became so childish and inmature when a big bunch of the guys were together. She went on rumbling a bunch of logical reasonings which make me so shocked and amazed at her comments. Usually, for this sort of situation, I was the one to play the black face. (See I was so misunderstood. )

Then she marched off dragging me along...

豁达

豁达：大度 [clear;open-minded;generous]

我不过是凡人，不是神仙，我没那么豁达。

Her Small Secrets

Nice? Like it?

My hobby-craft loving good friend decided to sell some of her creations online. I thought the earrings are special and quite cute. They are quite reasonable priced too - Each pair cost only $8.90 (SGD).

Anyway, for those interested can order through her Yahoo auction page.

http://sg.auctions.yahoo.com/sg/user/hersmallsecret

Or

Can order through me. :)

Ps: Ms Foong, I quite like the ribbon and heart-shaped design earrings. Will I get a pair of those earrings for helping you to advertise? Hee Hee... :P

Build-a-Bear Workshop

Went for dinner with my good friend at Suntec City on Friday. We stumped upon this newly opened shop - Build-a-Bear workshop. For a moment, I thought I was in Neopets' world or something... Because, someone (that smart guy...) had made Neopets' plushie tycoon game (which I always lost...) idea real ! Of course, they didn't used Neopets' name or characters. I had thought the concept was similar.

There were a lot of kids in the shop when we went in. The decoration is very dreamy and kiddy. I was pretty amazed and somewhat excited as I have seen never things like that before. I really thought I was in Neopets' world! See the build-a-bear workshop workflow below:



They are not those "Teddy Bear sewing classes" where you are suppose to sew the bears from stratch shop. They already have the bear skin with head, skin, eyes, nose and mouth done. They only left the last part - stuffing the body of the bear for the customer. Still, you need not stitch them yourselves. They have helpers there to help you with it. I think below are some patterns of bears they have. One of them cost about $29.

Look at these cute cute bear accesssories especially those shoes! If I didn't tell you they are for bears, you would have thought that they are clothings from Kiddy Palace. Hee Hee. They do look real enough for babies though. Not sure if you have to pay extra for them, I assume most likely you have to.

"Love is the stuff inside" - I suppose custom-made bears are stuffed with love. The machine looked like it was some movie prop. Dreamy and surreal.

When your custom-made bear is "borned", it will be issued with a Birth Certificate!

I think it is a good place to shop for birthdays and valentine's presents. The bears can even "talk" as you can insert sort of like pre-recorded message player into it. How cool is that! As the bears are custom-made, they will be very personal and unique gifts. A good place for kids to play and spend time. They would definately cherish the bear more as they made it themselves, whoever that came up with this idea will be earning big bucks.

For those interested, Build-A-Bear Workshop is at Suntec City Tower 3 (in case I am wrong, it is the tower before Carrefour) Level 2 (directly above world of sports). It is next to Gurdian Pharmacy. They are where Towers Records used to be at.

Shall surf Neopets for more business idea...

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

My Malay neighbours brought us some goodies - Sambal Udang, Chicken curry, longtong, cookies and cakes. They are celebrating Hari Raya Puasa today.

Here's wishing them Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri !

爱我的人和我爱的人

最近我的好朋友出现了感情问题。她向在一起几年的男朋友提出分手。两人之间其实并没有什么问题。。。也就是因为没有问题，很平淡的，似乎没有当初刚开始的那种激情了，所以我的好朋友想重新考虑这一段感情。她的男朋友我们一班朋友也见过。他是位老实的好人，对她很体贴，是那种可以嫁了做老公的人。可惜，天时地理都不合，两人都还年轻， 结婚对他们来说的太早了。尤其我朋友今年才24岁，事业才刚起步，有好多事没做，没看过，要怎么安定下来呢？

有天她问我：“你会选择那一个？你爱的人吗？还是一直在你身边的人？”原来这时候，她的初恋男友又出现了，开始和她联络。我的好朋友承认她最爱的是那个曾经伤害过她的初恋男友。虽然对现任的男友有感情，但是没有男方爱她一样那么深。

会选择那一个？你爱的人吗，还是爱你的人？我觉得她应该已经有答案了，只是说她要跟着心里面还是脑里面的想法。她知道初恋男友不是一个很好的对象，可以谈恋爱，但不能托付终生。现任男友固然是个很好的未来伴侣，却是个无趣的恋人。理智人的理智一点想，她应该会选择现任男友。可是感情是不可能理智的，有谁不想和她爱的人在一起呢？所以，她心里一定是在叫她会到初恋男友身边。

我想了想只是说：“你可以和你爱的人在一起，但是如果要嫁的话，最好嫁给爱你的人。因为你爱的人未必会像你爱他那样的爱你，但是在你身边的那个人，一定比较爱你，所以会比较疼惜你。。。”

我的想法是人生很短暂不应该有遗憾，等到过去了才后悔，那时后已经没有办法挽回了，还不如当下想好，决定了就不要后悔。其实，哪个女生不要幸福？女人都渴望有个幸福的家庭吧，只是你爱的人未必会那样的爱你。。。对于爱自己的人往往都很抱歉的辜负了他们的一番好意。 。。人生其实充满遗憾和矛盾。这不禁让我想起裘海正的一首歌曲<<爱我的人和我爱的人>>，恰好反应了很多在情海里奔波人们的心声。

如果是你们，你们会怎么选择？ 选择你爱的人吗，还是爱你的人？

我？我没有选择，因为我也没有问题。没有任何问题。。。

<<爱我的人和我爱的人>>

盼不到我爱的人 我知道我愿意再等
疼不了爱我的人 片刻柔情它骗不了人
我不是无情的人却将你伤的最深
我不忍 我不能
别再认真忘了我的人

离不开我爱的人我知道爱需要缘分
放不下爱我的人 因为了解他多么认真
为什么最真的心 碰不到最好的人
我不问 我不能
拥在怀中 直到他变冷

爱我的人为我痴心不悔
我却为我爱的人甘心一生伤悲
在乎的人始终不对
谁对谁不必虚伪

爱我的人为我付出一切
我却为我爱的人流泪狂乱心碎
爱与被爱同样受罪
为什么不懂拒绝痴情的包围

Photosophize Discovery - Farming Ants at HDB

Caution: Following pictures might cause discomfort and allergy to those very sensitive one.

The Begining

Few years back, I discovered a very small white insect-like living thing (no bigger than a pin head) on a longan fruit. I had wanted to throw it away, but on second thought took pity on it, decided to let it live on my pomegranate plant. It was the start of the problem.


Adaptation

I had totally forgotten about it, until one day when pruning my plant, I saw this very prominent, white, fluffy thing moving on the stalk. It was about the size of a soy bean. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me as it stop moving when I poked it. It looked just like some cotton butt that happen to stick on the plant. I removed it with a stick and with a closer look, discover it is a living thing (not sure if we should use the term insect to describe it).

The white fluffy living have several stages. The "baby" is orange is color, is no bigger than sesame seed and has no white covering. The "adult" is about the size of soy bean at most and has a very thick white fluffy covering.

Disease Begins

Ever since the discovery that one white fluffy living thing, more appeared. In matters of weeks, they invaded my plant. Just like parasites, they suck on the plant sap to live. My bushy plant turn almost bald in weeks and appeared very unhealthy when infested with them.

Getting rid of them is no fun and is like playing hide and seek. You need to have very sharp eyes to spot them. They love shades and often hide in the shaddy side of the plant. Not knowing what they were and how to get rid of them, I used to scrape them off the bark. The photo below is my neighbour's plant. They are affected too.

This is pomegranate plant, not the new year plant - 银柳.

Then one day, at NTUC's plant section, I found a familar picture of the living thing and a solution. Those white things were plant mites ! To get rid of them, one should spray some oil based pesticide to kill them. I didn't buy the pesticide (afraid of poisoning myself too), but instead mixed some cooking oil with water and spray on the plant. Not sure if I had scrap them to extinction or the solution worked, I have not seen those mites on my plant for a while.

Anyway, the mites came back later as I was too busy to tend the plant. I have since thrown it away.

See how they clutter together and suck up the sap of the plant. It weaken them.

See how bad the infestion is. Funny thing is that my neighbour doesn't seem to notice it. He watered the plant every day without fail, but never done anything to remove them.

Evolution

Recently, I discovered something new about the mites. Not that I have nothing to do, but I just happened to spot the strange behaviour. People nowadays just do not bother to observe their surroundings.

The mites are back at full force with some help from the unexpected - Ants ! These strange black ants (they are not the normal black sugar ants) appears to be protecting them. You can see them crawing onto the white mites, but they didn't really harm it. In fact, they appears to be helping them to spread. Ants are acting like farmers rearing those mites like cattles.

These white mites are turning a bit yellow. It seems like they are emitting some liquid which dyed their white coat yellow. The ants might be feeding on the liquid that the mites emittes ! Not only that, the mites used to infest the pomegranate plant only. Now I see a bit of them on my pandan, thai basil and lime plants...

I learnt my lesson. Mother Nature's evolution speed is scary. Never tempt with it. Hai~~ 真的是好心做坏事。。。

Chanel Precision - Eye Tonic Dark Circle Corrector

Ask Yourself:
1. Do you looked very different with and without make-up?
Yes, I do. People probably cannot recognise me if I do not put on any make-up. The differences are my eyes. They need make-up to make them look shaper.

2. Do you have problem covering up your dark circled eyes with concealer?
My concealer has problems covering my dark circles as they are getting worst. Sometimes, people even thought that I put on eye-shadow when I did not.

3.Do you have dark circles that are as prominent as the giant panda?
Hey, that is my nickname...

Dark circles can be caused by:

1. Rubbing your eyes frequently (can cause fine lines as well)
2. Sinus or allegy
3. Insufficient sleep
4. If your parents have it

If you are like me and have the above problems, you need to find a solution fast. I have been read up a lot on how to tackle dark circles. The bad news is that there seems to be no solutions of getting rid of the dark circles permenantly. The most effective way was to massage the eye area gently (with eye cream) to improve the blood circulation. However, you would have to be very gently when massaging that area. The skin around the eyes are very delicate. Too forceful, you might get fine lines around the eyes.

I found this effective solution:

Chanel Precision - Eye Tonic Dark Circle Corrector.

I used quite a few brands of eye cream and tried to massage my eyes, but they didn't really work or have not much effect on my dark circles. I almost wanted to give up and I rely heavily on concealer. I cannot go out without putting on concealer.

Then I read about this Eye Tonic (serum) from Chanel in Her World. The tester used both the Eye Tonic and the eye patch ($174), said that it was quite effective as the panda eyes are reduced and the lines are less visible.

I only brought the eye tonic which cost about $84 for 10 ml. You might think that $84 dollars is very expensive, but the thing is normal off-the-shelves eye cream would have cost about $30 dollars and they are not effective. The other brand that I think really work and is not within my budget is Hylexin. It is supposely can get rid of serious dark circle and cost $218 dollars. Comparatively, for my budget I think Chanel is more worthwhile.

Results? Chanel worked. (for $84 dollars, it better work...) I been using it for 2 weeks and my serious dark circles is significantly reduced and the colour lighten! Of course, one might argued that I would have been massaging when applied the serum, so that is probably part of the reason on why it is more effective. However, the one I used previously, even with the massage, it didn't show significant results, so it is definately the serum that work.

The eye tonic is produced in France, Oui. It definately looked and feel like it is $84 dollars. The design of the bottle unlike your normal bottle is brilliant. It is actually a smart applicator. The white colour bottle is not plastic, but ceramic. It has a roller-ball applicator. (See below.) Before applying, we are asked to shake the bottle. I had thought that was to mix the content up, but it is not only that.

The first time I used it I had a scare. I happily shaked and rolled the serum onto one of my eye lid and under eye. Then when I moved the applicator to the other eye, the serum run dry. My heart stopped. What! $84 dollars for one application? *Heart pumping hard... Just as I panicking, I shaked the bottle again (with cover on), out came the serum. Then I understood.

One shake of serum is just enough to cover one eye on lid and under eye! The shaking actually transfer a part of the serum onto the roller-ball and you have to shake it each time to get the serum onto the roller-ball. When the serum on the roller-ball is used up, you can use the roller-ball applicator to massage your eyes without using up the whole bottle of serum!!! How cool is that ! It will also prevent people from spilling the precious 10 ml of serum.

Immediately when applied, you can feel that the area felt a bit warm. When massage, the tonic also get absored easily. Immediately, you can see that the area lighten up due to light reflection. (Not that I am that lame. It is written in their little booklet.) However with constant use like me, the colour do get lighter. I am very happy now. I hope I will soon be "panda" free!!!

Not sure how many applications the serum will last, I am aiming to use the little bottle for at least one month. I am already planning to keep the bottle when the serum is finished, so that I can use it to massage the eyes.

More Chanel eyes and lips products

Verdict: Chanel Precision Eye Tonic definately work. You can save up a bit to get it if you think it is expensive. However, if you can afford and have serious dark circle, get the $218 dollars Hylexin from Guardian or Watson.