1. Tea time

Have to have it. Tea time is big with my family and I’m a sucka for tea with milk and sugar and a nice/rich tea/custard cream biscuit around late afternoon. If you’re at our house at around 5pm, you’ll find that everybody sorta stops what they’re doing for a coffee/tea and biscuit break.

2. Stephen Colbert

He makes me laugh. Often, out loud.

3. British royal family hoo ha

I’m not sure why, but the drama is so compelling. And the whole William&Kate royal wedding is ridiculous and disgustingly extravagant, but it totally sucks me in. Maybe it’s the colonial heritage. It’s embarassing, really.

Mr Colbert hilariously combines all three in a priceless high tea etiquette session with British royal analyst, Hugo Vickers, in preparation for the royal wedding. Watch it here for a laugh.

High tea etiquette with Stephen Colbert

“Stiff upper lip”

Ping!-ky

Via Gawker

We had a small celebration at work this past Christmas, with Secret Santas and a little tree. To add to the festivities (and since I was a little short on the moolah), I thought I’d bake everyone their Christmas gifts instead. And when celebrating tropical Christmasses south of the Equator, pina colada-esque cupcakes are in order!

With my friend Miriam’s recipe and a little help from some Christmas elves the cousins, we had everything prepped, baked and frosted in a messy, noisy, pineapply wink.

Fresh from the oven

And with a little frosting magic,

Pineapple cupcakes with citrus cream cheese frosting

Citrus cream cheese frosting? GOOD.

Nom nom nomz

Pineapple Cupcakes with Citrus Cream Frosting

Makes 8 – 12

4 slices canned pineapple (or equivalent fresh pineapple)

4 tbsp (2oz)  butter, soften

3/4 cup superfine sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Scant 1 1/4 cup self-rasing flour

2 tbsp juice from the canned pineapple

For the frosting

4 tbsp (2oz) butter, softened

Generous 3/4 cup soft cream cheese

Grated rind of 2 lemons or limes

Scant 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (or just skip this!)

2 tsp lemon/ lime juice

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven – 180 C or 350 F. Use 12 paper cases in a muffin pan or 12 double-layer paper cases.
2. Finely chop the pineapple. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and bear together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg. Add the flour, folding it in gently. Fold in chopped pineapple and pineapple juice. Spoon batter into cases.
3. Bake for 20 minutes till well risen and golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Frosting:

1. Mix(with an electric mixer, preferably) butter and cream cheese in a bowl. Add the lemon/lime rind. Sift sugar into the mixture then mix well. Gradually beat in the juice from the limon/lime adding enough to form spreading consistency.
2. When cupcakes have cooled, spread the frosting on each cake. Store cupcakes in fridge before serving.

Enjoy!

Making cupcakes is fun!

Thanks for playing masak-masak, Fie and Lolly :)

Anatomy of a Cupcake by Allen Hemberger and Sarah Wilson

Follow this link to a making-of video they made for the poster too.

Cupcake recipe to follow…

Funny how having no control over anything whatsoever can be strangely, and incredibly freeing.

When I feel like I have even a little control over a situation, I work my hardest, try my darndest to attempt to make things work; to try my hand at persuading things to turn out the way I’d like them to.

But when there’s absolutely nothing I could possibly do to change a situation, there’s nothing to do but… cease striving. Then, there’s an amazing freedom that comes from just surrendering; just letting go and hoping that things turn out for the best, to turn out the way they’re supposed to.

Looks like Frou Frou was onto something :)

After writing about how the letter “K” can sometimes get on my nerves, textiquette-wise, I was shocked to find 53 comments on my ranty post. There are probably about 2.5 people who read this blog regularly so it just didn’t make any sense. Until I got an email explaining that the post was being featured as a Freshly Pressed post on WordPress’ homepage. And then the hits just kept on coming..

Woah.

Every day, WordPress’s editorial team picks 10-11 posts from its vast blogosphere to be featured as Freshly Pressed on its front page.

See it? See it?! That's my post! On a highly frequented web page! :D I'm (kinda) famous!

Needless to say, this created a huge spike in my site traffic and in the comments -

Nada, nada, nada... Woah!

I didn’t even know one could get featured on WordPress.com like that. We’ll just call it a happy accident. To find out  about what it actually means to be Freshly Pressed, I did a little research and learned more from Joy, WordPress’ Editorial Czar herself : Five ways to get  featured on Freshly Pressed

To all who visited (whether you left a comment or not), thank you for dropping by! :D

Some of my favourite comments:

She.Is.Just.A.Rat / Sep 16 2010 12:26 am

Well…at least it wasn’t a “…”

- So true.

Andrea Simpson – Conflicted Mean Girl / Sep 15 2010 10:30 pm

K.

Li Li / Sep 16 2010 12:49 am

I use the dreaded K when I am responding to something that a co-worker has text me that I don’t like. You know, the ol’ “hey, i am running late can you cover my class?”

What I really want to reply is “Uh. H*LL no. Get your a$$ here on time.” But that isn’t professional– or being a team player– so I settle for the short and brusque K. I feel that it gets my point across. ;)

milieus / Sep 16 2010 12:19 am

I yelled at my mom for saying “OK” to me in a text. By yelled, I mean texted angrily. I completely agree with you 100%! I took the effort to type to you, so you can spend a second typing to me too.

- I just love the thought of yelling translated through text =  ”texting angrily”. Hahahaha…

Dipa Kalawi / Sep 17 2010 3:22 pm

In my country they were called “ALAY” language, in nasty writing “4L4Y”

- “Nasty writing”, hahaha..

politeandparanoid / Sep 16 2010 9:02 am

so funny & true. next time i’m going to try “okie dokes” =)

- Aw, that just warms my heart! :)

Now, admittedly, being concise is not my strongpoint; eventhough poetry training taught me to value brevity. And I do. But I’m kiasu and like to make the most of my 10cents per text, so my text messages are like an everyday poetic endeavour to squish the most meaning I can into the least amount of characters. But it’s just kinda sad when you send an extensive text on the cusp of becoming TWO texts (but with vowels cleverly edited out so it stays on the 10cent side of that equation), like:

“Hving drinks @Thirsty’s in XYZ, by Q’s plce. Wanna come by later if you’re done w work? We’re sitting upstairs, but if you can’t find us jst holla, kay?”

…and all you get in reply is:

That’s not monosyllabic. Not even mono-lexiconic. That’s a poor, lonely mono-alphabet :( It doesn’t say if you agree, if you’re gonna be there, or if you’re just acknowledging the fact that the text was received. I’d settle for “K, thx”…(even though neither of those are actual words).

Me? I like to soften the blow a little with a  ”Kay :)” or an “Okie dokes.” or a “Righty-o”.  It just adds a little warmth to the message, dontcha think?

Is this just me being neurotic? Or does anyone else feel the sharp, abrupt sting of a brusque “k.”?

Watching/listening to How to be Alone just reminded me of the vast distance between being alone and loneliness; between silence and emptiness.

In the “endless quest for company” and incessant strivings to fill up the empty spaces between words, it’s easy to forget how happy I can be when all is still, and I’m completely content spending time not among others, not mucking around online and not thinking about work or school or plans and next steps. It’s almost easier not to be alone and to be absorbed by the noise and busyness, but I think making the effort to cross the distance from everyday chaos into quiet and alone can be incredibly rewarding.

Lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless

And lonely is healing if you make it…

…Cos if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed

Cos noise doesn’t mean company and busyness doesn’t mean fulfillment. Great spoken word, gorgeous little video. What a happy little reminder =)

For more on the poet, Tanya Davis, visit her site. And more on the filmmaker Andrea Dorfman here.

Nasi Lemak

Pure deliciousness

One of the reasons why it’s good to be at Fleishman-Hillard KL -

A pile of tasty nasi lemak up for grabs on an otherwise uneventful Thursday morning at work

Nasi Lemak Day at FHKL

Mm.. what a delicious Thursday

If you don’t know what nasi lemak is, you’re missing out on a cornerstone of Malaysia’s heritage. Think: rice soaked in coconut cream, then steamed with pandan and ginger to creamy, aromatic perfection. Serve with a side of sambal sotong and sambal kerang (a spicy taste-explosion of chilli sauce cooked with cuttlefish and cockles). And to top it all off, crunchy fried anchovies, a fried egg (yolk still slightly runny), roasted peanuts and crisp cucumber slices to take the edge of the heat.

Mmm.. so good.

Photo credits: Seet

Any suggestions for things I should do before I hit a quarter-century?

Over the past couple of days, I’ve thinking about all the things I’ve always wanted to do, things I wanted to achieve “when I grow up”. And then thought about all the things I have done but all I can conclude is that life is strange and mysterious and  so unexpected – you can hope and dream (and we should), but you can’t really know where it’s gonna take you, can you? How frustrating… and freeing at the same time.

I know enough, though, to know that I don’t know very much… and that there’s heaps more to learn =) And I know enough to know that I’m incredibly blessed to have had many, MANY amazing experiences so far:

I’m lucky enough to have a crazy but wonderful family. I had an unparalleled college experience, living in one of the loveliest cities in the world – Seattle. I’ve met extraordinary people who’ve become friends a girl could never live without. Toured fabulous Euro cities for months. Lived in a craptacular apartment in Roma, wandered and gotten completely lost in Roman streets with a map in one hand and gelato in the other. Gotten seasick and hurled into the Mediterranean Sea (whoops).

Hiked the Grand Canyon and felt so small in its vastness.Witnessed desperate need and unbounded Love hand-in-hand in Mafubira, Uganda. Danced like a fiend at concerts, not caring who sees me. Stood in front of a Cezanne, Mondrian, Degas, Pollock, Bernini… in awe.

I’ve gotten a real, grown-up job! I’ve had to say goodbye to many friends, and learned that it’s never easy and it’s not supposed to be. I’ve stood within 5 feet of the Pope – and Jamaica Kincaid (on totally separate occasions). All along the way, I’ve met beautiful, often broken, people who have allowed me the honour of being their friend and who have each, in their own ways, allowed me to learn my own beauty and my own brokenness too.

It’s not much, I guess… No great accomplishments, no Olympic medals (ha!), no literary prizes. But I can’t help but think I’m blessed beyond all reason – with so much more than one could ever hope for in a lifetime, let alone in 25 years.

One month till I’m 25. Any suggestions for things I HAVE to do/read/see/taste/try before the month is up? =)

..tied up with string

These are a few of my favourite things

Some of the things that make me happy at the moment:

* Alex Wong on SYTYCD7. I’ve watched this clip about a dozen times now and it’s still awesome every time. Really need to get around to watching this season! (Thanks for sharing this, Joe!)

* Peter Mayle. Over the last few months, I’ve read three of his books and have enjoyed every one. Favourite of the favourites? A Year in Provence.

* Band of Horses’ Infinite Arms… just makes me.. happy =)

*  Mimpi Murni. I’ve met Murni several times now at local street markets and what-not (and have spent an inordinate amount of money on her stuff, heh). But her work is amazing, and her pieces gorgeous, so it’s all okay! All her jewelry is beautifully handmade and she does this full time. I’m always more than happy to support artists who create unique, handmade items, but Mimpi Murni has stolen my heart with all things pretty and whimsy.

* Driving to work in the morning and hearing Kesha’s Tik Tok or Katy Perry’s California Gurls on the radio. Turn up volume and car dance happily to work. Oh, guilty pleasures. Very, very guilty.

*  Natalie Tran aka communitychannel. So. Hilarious. Her thoughts and observations are incredibly funny (albeit a little crude, so be warned) – I actually LOL. Foserious.

*  Apple cake. Still. I want to eat some now.