Xmas village @ the flyer

The boyfriend won tix to the Xmas Village held near the Singapore Flyer for me and his fam, so off we went on a Friday! It was pretty small; there weren't much to see to be honest. But the crew working there was super polite. :)

We traipsed over from MBS instead of Cityhall since the former was nearer to the flyer. Geeee it was hot that day; it was a nice change from the torrential rainfall that we had been having for the past whole month but my makeup felt as though it was dissolving under the glaring heat. :X 

Pseudo fireplace lol.

I like the house much better in the light, don't you think? :) 

Thereafter, the boyfriend and I made our way to Marche at Vivocity for a dinner with our longtime friends. We were terribly late (sorry about that!) and ordered our usual rosti. The restaurant wasn't crowded surprisingly; I thought it would be what with dinner hour and on a Friday. 

Christmas dinner at the bf's

Happy Boxing Day! :) How was your Christmas?

Mine was great.. I went over to my boyfriend's place for dinner on Christmas Eve and the next day itself. We had steamboat for dinner; it was quite different from the usual steamboat that I had at home, if there was any to begin with because my folks aren't big on that. I enjoyed myself tremendously; the food was decent and the company great. :)

 

Simply pour a tablespoonful of oil onto the grill platter and you're good to go! We had beef, pork, chicken and some fried rice to go along. The smell whetted our appetites; I was pretty sure our neighbours were too. ;) 

I'd also like to share with you a Rosewater cake that I made some weeks ago. I only remembered to take pictures of it when I was about to get started on a slice myself. Sigh!! Furthermore, the cake came out so smooth & even, definitely a first! 

 

I used a teaspoon of good quality rosewater extract for the batter; when I released the oven door, the floral aroma took over the entire kitchen. It was intoxicating! :) I would have liked the color to turn more pinky; it's a lil peachy sooo for subsequent bakes I'll need to remind myself to add another drop of food coloring! 

The cake itself was very light and fluffy; the trick to having a fluffy cake is to NOT overbeat the batter, especially if you're using an electric mixer. When I first started baking, I let the mixer run on longer than I should have. The moment all the ingredients are fully incorporated, STOP. Don't fret that the mixing isn't sufficient; just pop it into the oven and let the heat and cake do it's own magic. ;) 

I topped off the cake with a layer of cream cheese frosting tinged with a light drop of hot pink. Prior to this, I made a chocolate cake for a friend of mine so since I had some left over frosting, I might as well put it to good use! When removed from the fridge, the frosting tasted like ice-cream. I love cream cheese so mine is a lil heavy on that side; some people aren't fans of the tangy-ness associated with it so just reduce the ratio accordingly. :)

12km cycling at Punggol

Happy holidays! I am definitely enjoying mine; it has been so long since I got to have a decent rest, what with juggling work and school simultaneously. On the work side, it has been a challenging and grueling year, but I'm glad my senior class got to move on to the next phase in their lives - secondary school! Admittedly, there were some disappointments; some of them COULD have done better but what's done been done. Plus, if you know me personally as a teacher, I always say that the national exam for the Primary Sixers is not a fair gauge for a 12 year-old's intelligence, and I still stand by it.

But I'm so excited for my students in my senior class! I believe wholeheartedly that they are going to enjoy secondary school and hopefully they will make the best out of it. I had a great time at mine and I looked back at those memories with great fondness. My favorite memory has to be when I was a freshman at high school, walking out with an acquaintance and the two of us got chased by a dog. Our high school was surrounded by bungalows and terrace houses so it is the norm to see big dogs every now and then. We made the stupid mistake of running & it wasn't until the owner finally yelled for its dog. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Fun times. ;)

Anyway. I hardly dared say this but I finally got the hang of cycling. Somewhat. My boyfriend is very persistent about teaching me cycling and I finally caved in. We went gallivanting around Punggol from his place; I.. was not sure if he knew what he would be in for when he plonked me on the back seat of his bicycle while he biked us around.

 

The weather was great; by a stroke of luck, it wasn't raining on that evening. It had been pouring hippos and rhinos for pretty much the entire of November and December. A nice change from the usual hot weather that we were accustomed to. 

 

 

Because the area was still under development, there were some stretches where there wasn't any street lights at all. Darkness shrouded us with the sounds of insects cricking away merrily; pretty thankful to reach the main road where we had a small supper consisting of rice and sambal vegetables. 

And to wrap up the post, I'll leave you with a picture which my boyfriend doctored. 

 

;) x