2012 Book Reading Challenge

Hello! Here's a list of the books that I have completed reading in 2012. The only thing I regretted was not giving myself ample "rest time" in between each book so that I can write a decent review for each. As you will see later on, there was a huge imbalance for certain months last year lol. Proper reading time management will be a goal of mine this year.

Those in bold font are my favorites :)

January
#1 - How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O' Neal
#2 - Fashionably Late by Beth Kendrick
#3 - Love in Bloom by Sheila Roberts
#4 - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

February
#5 - nil 

March
#5 - I Heart Vegas by Lindsey Kelk
#6 - I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
#7 - Bikini Season by Sheila Roberts

April
#8 - Chicken Soup for the Soul Teacher Tales
#9 - Set up in Soho by Dee Davis
#10 - Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

 May
#11 - How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean
#12 - Too Close for Comfort by Clare Dowling

June
(nil again. Eeps)

July
#13 - Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

August
#14 - Night Road by Kristin Hannah
#15 - Old School Ties by Kate Harrison
#16 - Thin, Rich, Pretty by Beth Harbison

September
#17 - The Bake-off by Beth Kendrick
#18 - Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#19 - I Heart Paris by Lindsey Kelk October
#20 - Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
#21 - Home Front by Kristin Hannah
#22 - What You Wish For by Kerry Reichs
#23 - Calling Romeo by Alexandra Potter

October
(nil.)

November
#24 - Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
#25 - Where We Belong by Emily Giffin
#26 - Missing Persons by Nicci Gerrard
#27 - A Weekend with Mr Darcy by Victoria Connelly
#28 - Secrets of a Shoe Addict by Beth Harbison
#29 - The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire Lazebnik

December
#30 - Winter Wonderland by Belinda Jones
#31 - Operation Sunshine by Jenny Colgan
#32 - The Twenty Year Itch by Linda Kelsey
#33 - There's Cake In My Future by Kim Gruenenfelder
#34 - The Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service by Beth Kendrick
#35 - The Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts 
#36 - On Strike for Christmas by Sheila Roberts
#37 - Angel Lane by Sheila Roberts
#38 - Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan
#39 - Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan
#40 - Ellie Andrews has Second Thoughts by Ruth Saberton
#41 - Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison
#42 - Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick
#43 - Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
#44 - Christmas at Tiffany's by Karen Swan
#45 - Walking Back to Happiness by Lucy Dillon
#46 - Home Again by Kristin Hannah
#47 - The Charm Bracelet by Melissa Hill
#48 - Last Christmas by Julia Williams
#49 - Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
#50 - Summer Daydreams by Carole Matthews

Jar of happiness.

Happy 2013! :) I am stoked & a lil anxious at the same time for this is the year where I'm going to graduate from university. I have in mind certain career options that I'm going to pursue once I have graduated but I am still keeping my doors open. I am also going to try out more challenging recipes & share them with ya here if they turn out successful. I don't think you will want to know how many times I have failed in the kitchen lol. Volcano tops, cracked tops, sunken middles; mishaps are prone to happen even to the very best bakers, what not to mention a novice like me! :P

I look back at 2012 with nothing but a certain amount of distaste. It was so emotionally draining on the personal front but I learnt loads from it. Like walking away from toxic relationships & chasing after my own happiness.

Speaking of happiness, I saw a photo on Facebook yesterday and it piqued my interest. I had never been big on such.. self-help things. In fact, I don't think it could be even qualified as self-help lol. But hey what the heck, I'm going to give it a shot and see what the new year is going to bring. :)

& therefore, this is my own jar! :) I originally intended it to store cookies that I'm going to bake but I think keeping track of the good&happy things that happened to me is more important.. It allows me to dwell lesser on negativity, and also be thankful for the people who made these happiness possible. 

That very first piece, was dedicated to a girlfriend of mine whom I call Meggy. She had an extra bag of homemade Oreo fudge, & knowing that her madhat friend here is a big fan of oreos, she packed them up nicely & gave them to me! =) Thanks so much!

The new year has barely begun but I've already "signed up" for the Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge! :) This time, I'm going to up the ante by setting a goal of 60 books, of which 1 of them must be a Classic (for instance, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens & the like), & 3 non-fiction. You can check out a list of what I have read last year by clicking on the tab above! I strongly recommend giving Kristin Hannah a try; her novels are so emotional & she explores a wide variety of themes. My favorite novel from her has to be Winter Garden! I'd been wanting to buy a copy for myself after returning the library's copy. If you want something more light-hearted but just as good, you can check out novels written by Jenny Colgan! Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe was brilliant, but you MAY find the ending for the sequel Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe a tad exasperating.

Wherever you are right now, I hope that you will create your own happiness, hold your head up high and be kind to one another.

Happy 2013. :) 

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