LOL

because the exams are killing us and my friends are mad like that:



By Sabs, for the C.o.T:

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I love you, friends!

Wish me luck for my paper tomorrow!

Libby

Its that time of the year again..


I can never figure out for the life of me why we have to have exams at the end of the year, i.e. the best time of the year.

When Singapore finally becomes cool, crisp rain-scented breezes drifting in in delightful gusts as you curl up on your bed - the only time I get to put on a really thick pullover and sleep, waking up randomly to my room that's bathed in warm light because the rest of the world beyond my curtains is dangerous, lashing thunderstorms.

The only time of the year when Singapore isn't being stickily humid or just plain blazing hot. They should hold the exams in the summer - when the last thing I want to do is to jump into my bed and be double boiled to death.

But so much for what I want, its November again, except this time instead of getting all nervy about my internship I am slogging it out in an organized mess of notes and textbooks. At least I was, before I succumbed to a cake-break, something I'm very prone to do whenever exams come a-calling.



To me, Sara Lee's all-butter pound cake is the perfect comfort food in between study breaks, accompanied by a cup of very hot, very sweet, and very milky Earl Grey. The cake itself (in my admittedly humble opinion), is the quintessence of what a butter cake should be. Screw 'butter' chiffon cakes with stale walnuts (yes I'm talking about you, Bengawan Solo), this is cheap AND good. And available at all times of the night at any 7-Eleven or Petrol Kiosk.

Its crumb is lovely - dense, moist, buttery, and lightly sweet with a hint of vanilla - this baby's got BITE. I like cakes I can actually kind of chew - and this cake is so dense it has to be kept in the freezer - I suspect if I leave it out long enough in the open it will distintegrate into a creamy blob of butter. Delicious and hit the spot!

I've been giving in to all kinds of food urges these days. Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwiches, Dark Chocolate with Peppermint, French Fries and Wasabi Mayonnaise, and most strangely, last night, an entire glass of full cream milk and a single Oreo. Because a single Oreo was what my belly felt like having.

I am quite sure I am not pregnant because all the stuff hasn't been vomited out yet - a sure sign the fat's here to stay. Howells. After all that processed food, I decided to make myself some home-made comfort food goodness - since I could control the amount of sugar and butterfat that went in. And .. voila!

Home-made Bread and Butter Pudding with a Vanilla Bean Bourbon Custard Sauce.

This was amazing to me and to K. We singlehandedly polished off 3/4 of the baking tin, savouring the custardy insides and the crisp bread on top, the boozy sultanas, watching CSI on one rainy night. It was yummytummytimes.

I know I sound like a pig but I really need all these things to get me through studying. It keeps me from doing things like blogging (yes I know I PHAILZ), and blog surfing, because I constantly need to do something else besides reading.

Speaking of food and exams, the C.o.T became Dim Sum Dollies for a day two Saturdays ago when we went to Jade @ Fullerton for some post-project deadline relief. It was delightful, how it happened. I'd suddenly remembered that Boons had booked us there like a month ago when everyone had forgot in the rush of all the school stuff..

And when I announced it, unanimous greedy grins lit up the faces of my darling friends. Especially Jle, who perked up from the leftover hotdog she was scarfing (mine) and nodded excitedly. So funny theyall. =)


And so it was that we all woke up early Saturday morning and drove down to Raffles Place. Dim Sum = cure for all ills.

Boons and Yang, enjoying their soup




J and Sabs (and her two breast friends) You know what is sad? I have that exact same dress (Sabs) but when I wear it it sags pathetically in the front. Her's runneth over. =(

Food porn!

Silky fatty charsiew

My popeye soup - double boiled spinach and crabmeat with hawthorne.

Mozzarella Cheese Dumplings (YUM) and Crispy Fried Yam with Black Truffles (DOUBLE YUM)

And the unanimous favourite of the day, wasabi mayonnaise prawns! We ate like 5 dishes of this.

There was a lot more food, but, sorry, I was too busy stuffing my face. I'm very lucky I took any pictures at all. ^^

As Neopets.com would say (VERY RARE)

A photo of Jle! When is the last time I put a picture of her up here? Maybe never!

Camwhoring in the toilet. I love my polka-dotted light blue ribbon pumps. My star buy from a day of exhaustive shopping at CP. J is wearing her tranny heels and looks like the girlfriend of a rockstar!

Group pic!

And finally...

K and I - didn't think he was there, did you? =)

Anyway I'm so happy K gets along with ALL my friends. I'm glad he makes the effort to get to know them, relate to them, and be nice to them. I don't know if he knows how much I appreciate it, but I hope you're reading this, Babbuleh!

Now if only I could stop judging his friends.

But its tough! I like to think its tough because my friends are nice and chio and normal and his are, well, mostly what I would call a motely crue assortment of Julie's Biscuits.

But I know I need to try to make myself more approachable. And not do stupid things like bring along a book when I go for one of their friends' gatherings - I got judged severely for that - but what can I say? I honestly prefered a book to their company.

OK OK enough on that topic I can see I'm getting bitchy. Well its just going to be one of those things I need to work on in our relationship! Which I'm glad to say is coming along really good now - our quarrels are an estimated (and whopping) 70% less than they used to be and I think I could really start liking this 'settled down' thing, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey.

Fizzy Babbuleh, thank you for driving to my place every morning so I can drive your very fuel-efficient car (and not my fuel-guzzling one) to school and make it on time for lessons. Thank you for making time for me almost every day for the past two terrible weeks and loving me despite my fats and bad temper.

K's really been an angel! As part of my neverending series of exam 'breaks', we caught 2012 on Saturday at Iluma.

The movie was okay, I guess. It didn't crack me up and make me cry the way Independence Day did, or scare the beejeezus out of me like The Day After Tomorrow, but it was pretty value for money leave-your-brain-at-the-door stuff. K and I have decided that if the world comes to an end, Singaporeans will all obediently head down to their nearest MRT Stations (a.k.a bomb shelters) and huddle in government issued blankets and eat canned food like Ayam Brand Tuna until the Tsunami comes and drowns us all.

I am actually okay with the idea of the world ending tomorrow. I think there's no point really speculating about when the end is nigh because Jesus tells us that no one knows when He is coming, not even Himself, and that He will come when we least expect it.

So we could all be sitting ducks waiting for 2012 to come around the corner when it might actually be sometime in 2011. SO I think the best way to deal with all this Armageddon stuff is just to make sure you're ready to go, any time. Have a clear conscience and tell everyone you love them everyday, and then you'll be prepared for anything.

Went for dinner (against our better judgements) at Bugis NYDC after the movie, and as usual it was good service and crappy bland food.

K and our Earl Grey Elephancinno. No kick, no bite.

Coffee Club's Earl Grey Vanilla beats this, anytime.

And because recently I haven't been taking pictures of myself (bad hair, fat body, what can I say)

No I am not actually an angel. Angels stay home and study, not go gallivanting in town with their boyfriends.

Okay everyone got to hit the books again. Sorry my blog is so dead nowadays, once the holidays are around I promise to update more frequently! HKG and Indonesia this December, interesting combination.

Next post will be about Skin Food recommendations - I've tried my entire stash already -guilty face- and here's the best of the best. Individual reviews to come. ^^

Clockwise (TOP LEFT): Salmon Undereye Dark Circle Patch, Coffee Body Scrub, Gold Caviar Powder Ball, Agave Cactus BB Cream, Celery Soft Foam, and (!!!) Peach Sakae Pore BB Cream

Stay tuned, and study hard everyone!

xoxo

Libby

(P/S I miss you Biff! Why aren't you online!)

yay!

Yay because all the Skin Food products are here!

I'm super excited about them. Ordered a whole stash for myself and so far I've tried out what has got to be the super-est BB Cream ever. Even better than my Mushroom BB Cream. I've only been using it two days but I've already gotten about 10 compliments for my skin.

I'm going to review all the stuff I got later, along with pics! Can't wait to blog about the Gold Caviar Powder Ball too.. was itching to get it last time I was in Seoul but resisted and now I've gone ahead and bought it anyway.. -_-

Also yay because tomorrow is the last project deadline I have and I'm almost done. But the bad part is that exams are exactly a week away from tomorrow and I haven't even gotten started on revision. Not to mention FYP after that.. I'm never going to be able to get some slack, am I.

Every time I get panic attacks about work, I use my calming words and do my make-up all over again. Its amazing how therapeutic the systematic application of slap on your face can be

Especially when its good slap.

Be right back!

Exhausted

I'm so tired now just allowing my eyes to close might result in a massive shutdown of my body. I haven't had any real appetite for about a week now, besides yesterday when I finally got a break off the schoolwork and headed to Ikea with the C.o.T.

Even then I could barely finish 8 measly mini meatballs and felt sick for hours after from having too much food in my stomach - I then woke up later at 4 am to throw up because I had a stress-fueled nightmare.

I don't care what all the working people say about how much they wish they were students again. I'm going to get through this shitty semester and the next, but after I'm done with it, I'm done. I wouldn't go through all this again for the world.

Three down, two to go - a big 40% assignment due next Wednesday, another 20% due on Monday, and the exams barely two weeks away (and the dust still on my readings). Of course, FYP looms over like a big black ghoul through all this - and its not disappearing for another 5 months or so.

I think after graduating I might be able to wax lyrical and be all nostalgic about the first two years of university life, but never the final year - I have never drunk as much coffee, eaten or slept as little, cried as much, or SPENT as much since .. well... since never. My mother took a look at my dark circles yesterday and asked my dad if it had been a panda they'd adopted 21 years ago.

The blissful post-PI summer holidays seem like a thousand years ago. I need two days.. just give me two worry free days of sleeping in till late, brunch with K, sleepy rainy afternoons snoozing on the couch half-watching crime show re-runs, and hot creamy clam chowder for dinner with Angela's Ashes.

And then I promise I can face just about anything.

But where are these two days you tell me? WHERE!! DO'NT HAVEEE.... argh.

weekends of the past and present

Here I am, back with my erstwhile blog post, more because I'm bored in class than anything else. It feels good to be blogging on a Mac again, but I'm not about to regret the purchase of my new pale pink laptop, Candy. Speaking of which, I'd meant to get some pictures of her, but of course, tardy tardy. =( Next post!

The past two weekends have flown by in a flurry of activity - mostly work related, so my Saturdays and Sundays were packed with the desperation of a 21 year old trying to make the most of her last year of laissez faire student life.

Last week was our 'culture night'. K and I have resolved to spend at least one date every two months enriching our very plebian and non-artistic brains. We started simple with Sing Dollar, but I fear we might've over-estimated ourselves a little last week with the ASEAN Korean Cultural Festival.

Tickets were invitation-only (Thank you Cass and The Korean Embassy!) and it was held at the University Cultural Centre.

So we sallied forth, at least K sallied forth, until he got into the first car accident of his six long years on the road ( He insists he passed his driving last year - when he was finally legal - making him, or so he would like to believe, all of 18 years old).

He langgar-ed a cab that'd suddenly braked and ended up destroying about five different plates on the car hood.

It was a very unhappy looking boyfriend who finally appeared in front of my house with his white steed a little worse for wear. The damage? $ 1000. I would like to say it was a lesson learnt, but apparently not, because he continues to drive like a madman, without his seat belt on, with no regard whatsoever towards his safety or mine. -_-

I decided to look nice for the occasion, despite suffering from puffy eyes from chronic late nights and overwork, as well as possibly water retention from staving off midnight hunger pangs (it all goes to the hips!) Wore my new floral woodsy-style dress with the brown ribbon lace-up front.

Yes I know I look funny here but the point is the dress! ^^

Went to coffee club in a vain attempt to cheer K up but he refused to be made happy - his obstinacy extending to his deliberate ordering of some gross strawberry cough medicine-eque slushy instead of his favourite iced-passion tea. And then when I told him to smile.. this is what I got:

Guess I can't say he didn't try!

Things got better at the Festival though, we were sitting just across from all the diplomats and ambassadors of various illustrious nations, and it gets better, because we were given better seats than.. drumroll.. the Ambassador of Mexico and his very La-la-latina looking wife.

They were still in the VIP area, but squished to the side, two rows behind us. Of course he wasn't happy about it. He proceeded to register his complaint to the Korean organizer, who then passed on the message to the Korean head secretary, who made a big mistake by simply waving them off (literally! literally bo-chup wave) and attending to Mr and Mrs Kenya/Zimbabwe/African country instead.

Needless to say, Mr and Mrs Mexico got up and left in a huff, and I was rewarded with a mouth and noseful of expensive French perfume as they made their grand .. exit.

The concert itself was pretty interesting, starting off with some local performances, including a sitar-playing Indian troupe (K: " Shouldn't they be off celebrating Deepavali? No wonder they sound so buay song." - I had to explain to him they were singing a LAMENT song) I loved the Korean performances.. at least the first five, especially the folk songs and the zither players.

K of course made no pretensions to being able to appreciate the dances and kept insisting his Mongolian CD sounded better so I think maybe we're better off to chick flick vs horror zombie flick movie-nites instead. But it was an interesting experience - especially when the B-boys (breakdancers came on stage) and performed the Sparkling Korea song with the beautiful zither players - unfortunately no videos/photos allowed.

I was also moved to tears when Arirang was performed - it was soul-stirring, deeply Oriental, and just so tranquil. Supper after that was at 126 at Geylang. I'd heard some good things about the dimsum there from friends, so K and I decided to check it out since I was craving for some good shrimp chee cheong fun anyway. Luckily for me the shrimp cheong fun turned out to be good - silky cheong fun, fresh shrimp, and a really unique XO sauce generously ladled on.

Unluckily for me, my lotus wrapped rice came with a worm. And it wasn't just any worm - it was a BUG. It had big black eyes, a mealy, cloudy white body (it might have been transparent before it got steamed into the lotus rice), and I nearly didn't see it, if picky ole me didn't push the chestnuts around to get to the rice first.

I felt distinctly nauseous after that, and it didn't help that the place was filthy (could have been the hour), with prawn shells littered on the floor, bits of dried rice stuck to the table and the sides of the stools, and water-stained utensils.

Offending rice + so-so hargow.

Very tasty Cheong Fun

What took the cake has got to be the way the staff handled by complaint. I decided to ask them what the hell that was in my rice, and showed the basket to them. The woman had the gall to reply

"Baby Prawn"

WHAT THE (*&(*&)(. A baby prawn looks like a PRAWN. Not a MEALWORM that's bloated and swollen and off-white. I got really pissed when she kept insisting and even asked me to eat it first. Eat a worm. Yeah, right.

The boss came over and immediately identified it for what it was - an overgrown maggot - and promptly offered me a replacement. But too late - anyone who serves a worm and asks the customer to sample the worm deserves to be fired - or in the Singaporean context, 're-trained'

The only thing I found quite cute was how the drinks were served extra big in a microwaveable bowl but even that was slightly disturbing - my honey lemon had been sloshed in and looked/smelled distinctly like very foamy soap water. Call me a food snob but I'm sticking to Imperial Treasure and Hua Ting. Its not like 126 was that cheap either.

Doesn't the foam look like soap??

This weekend was spent more lazily - just shopping and hanging out - but I came to the conclusion that I have been stress-shopping. The realization only really hit me when five separate packages of clothes and whatchamacallit arrived in the mail.

On top of this I have bought another five dresses over the past two week at various places.

I also succumbed to the make-up junkie in me and ordered another $100-odd worth of Skin Food products - okay so that was an investment in good skin, but my most frivolous and useless buy of the year so far must be this: My heart shaped goat hair pink makeup brush, which smiled at me from a jar marked $ 51 at Isetan's most recent Japan fair.

I tried, I swear I did. I looked at other, cheaper brushes, half convinced myself that synthetic was more environmentally friendly, that I go through my brushes so often I only need average-quality ones, but the moment the Japanese salesmen brushed my arm with that pink silky soft puff, I parted with $51, and I only realized what I'd done when it was in the bag and I saw K's look of utter disbelief.

J says it looks like a monkey's butt. It does, from some angles, but now I have a very pretty makeup brush I could not afford, so I might as well make the most of it. And buy more pots of blush (which I already did). SIGH.

I think my cross is materialism. I just can't get enough of shopping, its practically an addiction. And trust me, I have it worse than most people. The most horrible part is how I suffer from terrible guilt pangs less than hours after I lug my shopping bags home. Then I eat my way into feeling better, but that's another story altogether.

Attended a small wedding dinner on Sunday as well, decided to wear one of the dresses I got since there's nothing like immediate gratification to get a stressed-out final year shopaholic going again.

The bride was K's friend from way back when (secondary school days) and I agreed to attend only because they didn't have any mutual friends and I figured he would be kind of lonely. The thing about wedding dinners, I've been invited as a 'partner' to about five of K's friends' weddings this month, but declined all except yesterdays. People may think I'm being anti-social, but there are several very practical (and pertinent) reasons why I decided not to go:

1. K will have no quality time with his friends - if I go, he has to spend the evening worrying about whether I'm bored to death or wonder why I cannot 'get along' with whoever has been randomly placed next to me
2. The money - I typically have to give $120+ each wedding. Which to me is an okay amount, but not really if I don't actually know the happy couple. It doesn't make cents (okay, tacky) for me to pay so much to eat the same eight courses at the same five star hotel over and over again, because its not like the wedding suffuses me with fond joy for my beloved friend.
3. My weekends are precious - wedding dinners start late and end late = one weekend day wasted and they are SO IMPORTANT TO ME this final year I need as many as I can get. I don't want to spend my Saturdays and Sundays being hungry and waiting for the next course of 8-treasures braised mushrooms to arrive, since I don't even like the standard wedding fare anyway!
   

Oooh but I love receiving invitations, especiallly the really pretty ones printed on thick, luxe cream embossed paper. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and excited to read the invitations because they inevitably glow with the anticipation of the bride who prepared them. To me, how the wedding invitation looks says a lot about the couple getting married.

On the other hand, I realized that the bigger the wedding, the less blissful the couple looks. In fact, the big weddings I've attended result, most of the time, in a drunk couple (yam seng too many tables) with a distinct glazed, stoned look. Something tells me that they won't be spending the night in wedded bliss.

Sunday's wedding was a small 10-table affair, and the bride was very radiant! I won't put up pictures of the couple here because I don't know them very well and I'm not sure if they would mind. =)

The very pretty wedding cake - white fondant, cream and lilac roses, topped with Precious Moments bridal figurines.

The door-gift -cute printed chocolates

Simple and sweet

Decided to go with a natural look that night - wore a satin bustier dress in nude cream, minimal makeup, and just a really easy side braid with two white camellias.

I know, I know, when is it going to be my turn?

I'm saving my long and rambling entry describing my dream wedding because its too early to really spell things out and SOMEBODY (cannot name names, again) has been shamelessly asking me for my wedding ideas and using them for hers. SOME THINGS CANNOT SHARE OK.

-exhale-

SF updates again! Check out our new shoe cupboard from Sylvanian Families Japan! The roses are tres adorables!

It even comes with a mirror K can do his 'tmd handsome' routine in before he leaves for work. And a shoehorn! I love miniatures! And aren't my new lilac ribbon pumps just so cute!

Ok gushing over dollhouse = not cool. =(

And our new luxury living room.

This set was a pain to set up man.. but K did it all, since he chose it and it is his designated 'man space' he went for reds and browns. Everything is amazingly detailed in this set.. well worth what we paid for it! The fireplace even lights up, but I doubt we'd be needing it in tropical SG - Danni, you could come over and we could set up a jimjilbang right in the middle of my living room!


okay back to Mag Publishing, must finish by today!! 힘내!!

Korean Cosmetics Spree #2

Hi guys!

My Korean Cosmetics Spree #2 closes this Friday - thereafter you'll get all your stuff within 1-1.5 weeks! Do support and shop now to save up to 50% on selected products =)

www.libbyskoreanspree.blogspot.com

XOXO
libby