say Minestrone

It's mi-mi-minestrone! :9

From Wikipedia:

Minestrone (Italian: minestra [soup] + -one [augmentative suffix] hence "the big soup," the one with many ingredients) is the name for a variety of thick Italian soups made with vegetables, often with the addition of pasta or rice. Common ingredients include beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock, and tomatoes.

There is no set recipe for minestrone, since it is usually made out of whatever vegetables are in season. It can be vegetarian, contain meat, or contain a meat-based broth (such as chicken stock). Angelo Pellegrini, however, argues that the base of minestrone is bean broth, and thatRoman beans "are the beans to use for genuine minestrone".

Minestrone is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine, and is just about as common as pasta on Italian tables.

Another Italian dish under my belt! I decided to go for Jamie Oliver's (mobile) version of the soup out of convenience. It is still yummers and definitely easier than the fancier ones. Nutritious soup for this frail body of mine. Think celery (normally I would stay away from this), carrot, tomato, onion, garlic, potato and more greens. It's impressive. I never really liked minestrone soup so I am glad this version appeals to me! I have to admit it is comparably more Chinese somehow. Beans + real chicken stock next perhaps? :D

Oh yes...

Happy White Day! ♥ (I'm getting old...)

As it is apparent that 6 of my facebook friends have their birthdays today... happy birthday to them/you! Not forgetting the Valentines: I hope your love has been reciprocated. :D

nails again

I decided to paint my nails with the same design :)

My right hand is always the flawed one...

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a bit of muscle ache. That was enough to make me stay in bed and fall right back into dreamland. So much for determination to get up at half past eight to make up for lectures missed and work out at noon! Grr. I shall be ambitious and wake up at 7.30 tomorrow. :D

It's nice to spend time with myself again. I do need the time especially when there's SO much to do in SO little time. Finance and Law are the modules I am most worried about. I have absolutely no idea what is going on for Finance and Law is just crazy considering how small(bad) my brain space(memory) is. But it's nice to mend things/ settle misunderstandings. The most recent events have made me realised how much more dramatic I have evolved since, maybe, CTC years? Or earlier last year. The good thing about it is someone facilitated bonding time between my housemate and me... although she might have seen the more dramatic side of me.

This is random but I have decided to really go for long hair (chest - waist length)... & maybe loose curls.

1 more week and 6 more days to go!! I am super excited :D

three sins

Too bored.

housemate and PGF

Giving my nails some well-deserved rest. I am having some difficulties in restraining myself from getting them nicely lacquered up though. Lesson learnt: invest in a good base coat.

In the previous post I mentioned that I had a really good week. Apparently it didn't stop there. For the next month or so I had an amazing time with friends. I was given a surprise birthday party organised by the sweetest housemate ever and a potentital good friend. More stories on the latter in a later post. It was a night I never imagined myself having. Ever. But I am glad that I was in good hands. For my dearest housemate who had to go through the spills and stench... and for the PGF who had to stay up just in case I needed assistance: thank you. Neither will I ever forget the surprise by the strike of midnight, when housemate pretended that her room light busted in order to lure me out of my lair. It was quite eeyrie for some reason. I jumped when someone shouted "BOO!". PGF walked out of the bathroom behind me, holding the huge macaron with a red candle on top. They sang the birthday song, I made a wish and blew out the candle. How can I forget such memories?

Once more, thank you both for giving me such an memorable 20th :)

Friends weekend out at Blackpool was fun and inspiring although a bit akward at times. Back in the current, everything is back at the original state. I am spending time with myself once more.

Ciao Bella

Birthday boy, his cake and his sweet housemate :) (and cousin- standing)

I had fun at a birthday party last night! It ended off with the birthday boy being drunk and muttering random things e.g. spilling liquid all over his pants, "I love the wall", "so when I drink I become a woman and when you drink you become a man?!"- inside joke but a really funny one at that. Everyone kept toasting him with birthday drinks! The culprit in red (above picture) supposedly drank 3 shots of pure Vodka straight. I was impressed when she downed one after another like gulp, fill, gulp, fill, gulp!! A short moment later someone told me that it's just plain water. LOL?! But great job everyone! It was real difficult to get him to reach that state.

Anyway...

!!!

code

gedditgeddit??

December snow

View from the window in my room :)

Hahaha poor car. I was wishing that it'll snow really heavily overnight because it'll be nice to build a snowman for once! I really want to build oneeeeeee. (This was taken from the kitchen window)

It looked kind of similar to the previous photo but it's different. It's supposed to show the marginally thicker snow that has fallen on the ground.

As mentioned in the previous couple of posts, it has been snowing here! The main highlight for waking up today was to see how much of snow has accumulated on the ground. It was not as thick as a couple of years back when it snowed really heavily but it still looked wintery nonetheless! Plus it kept me indoors (UO sample sale is going on + FCUK Grazia deal- 20% off!! One day only) because the thought of balancing on the slippery ground puts me off. I managed to finish my Econs essay in the afternoon yey! I'm quite chirpy now because my tutor is nice enough to accept it even though I handed it in late :D Hehhehheh :D :D

Next up, Accounts essay. Ganbarou~

snood

It's freaking cold in here! The heaters in my room and the hallway, which is right in front of my door (which is open), are both switched on and I'm still freezing my brains out. Seriously. I can feel my skull contracting in this super cruel, bone-chilling coldness! Metoffice (weather forecast) has been putting up updates that snow has fallen on the other parts of the UK. Tomorrow is predicted to be London's turn. I'm definitely not walking out with tights and shorts. My dressing sounds crazy ("tights in Winter?!") but normally 2 layers (100+ denier) of them is sufficient to keep my legs warm... at this time of the year. I guess this year's different. It gets more worrying after I read this:

Some of the snow showers have been frequently heavy with hail and thunder mixed in.

...global warming at play? 2012? (2012 is a freaking scary yet entertaining movie!)

My head is kind of woozy right now. It might be because of the spontaneous coldness but I have a gut feeling that it's because of the weird smell coming from the (BLUE!!) snood I bought today. I made the purchase without realising that it's 100% acrylic. It would have been fine even if I do realise it (it's NAVY blue!), but the smell is really putting me off. Is it paranoia at play or am I really feeling restless? I'm really hesitating at the thought of returning it :(

It IS quite ordinary looking... and acrylic smelling. (I shall assume it's the smell of acrylic)

Let's hope it doesn't snow tomorrow! I'm planning to wedge 2 hours of rush-shopping (more of running errands than anything really) in between the 4 hours break I usually get on Tuesday~ :D

happy together

I am supposed to be sleeping right now, but I just couldn't resist sharing this ultimately sweet sight I see in front of me. I hope it'll stay up forever! Super cute addition to my room teehee :D

Roberto Cavalli oversized labradorite ring

I shall be a foolish student who stays up late to finish my essay and weekly chores, taking breaks every now and to google and oogle at beautiful rings. Statement rings, not any other rings just in case you're wondering. (I have to admit I am the sort who do weird things late at night...)

Here is one.

How cute is that? Reminds me of an evil egg nested in a gold nest. I like how nicely wrapped the centrepiece is. However it's definitely not worth the price: £230. I'd rather get their corset skirt instead.

Okay! End of story :)

Week 6

Though this week has yet to end, I've reached a pre-conclusion that it has been crazily busy and pretty much unpredictable. From getting disappointing looks from my a couple of my tutors to catching Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1 WORLD premiere (must emphasise on how grand it was) red carpet event to spending Friday night coming so close to getting drunk (at home- one step closer to a typical uni student?) and so much more. Everything was sort of planned but the outcomes were completely random, which was extraordinarily fun and different.

Harry Potter red carpet event was madness. I found out about it last week and asked my house-mate if she wanted to join me, which she did. & I'm glad she did because she went kind of all-out with all the cast spotting, picture taking and being part of the crazy crowd behind the metal bars... if you know what I mean. The thought of it may be quite childish and a turn-off(troublesome), but being part of it was fun! Especially when you're physically close to the cast who you have been seeing on the screen for years. The excitement you get makes it all worth it. Oh yea need I mention housemate bonding as well? It's not something that you can do everyday but it's definitely something you'll remember and will be able to reminisce about. :D

We've got some shots of some of the casts! I shall name them by their characters in HP (that's how I recognise them sadly...)

But before that, the venue. It was drizzling initially, which changed to a heavy rain.

We made acquaintance with the security guard on the right :)

Fred and George!!

Fred/ George? Both of them spent the most time walking around, signing, shaking hands and taking pictures with fans.

Neville! I used to dislike him when he was young and short...

Luna Lovegood. Wow I couldn't recognise her at all. She looks so much older.

V-V-Voldermort. Looks good with nose, no? ;)

Va-va-voom Bellatrix. Real person looks as eccentric as the character.

HAHAHA MRS WEASLEY. Classic. She looks older in person as well.

We did manage to see 2 out of the 3 main casts- Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. Unfortunately we were in the process of shifting position hence we missed out... but we saw them in quite a way. :D

I've told myself to not spend too much on this post as I really have to get started on my virgin Law essay. Omg how do Law students hurdle from essay to essay? The amount of reading is crazy and the amount of writing is even worse. But then again, case readings can be really enjoyable. Anyway before I end this post, my best end to the week/Saturday: I achieved the highest grade for my Microeconomics quiz!! 8D *nerd (sadly greeted with C+ for accounts essay shortly after- what a bummer.)

can't wait to trim my nails!

Terribly dry hands and miserably long fingernails. :(

Parents are in the house! They were away for about 10 days, leaving me with much liberation and an elder brother. It was quite a peaceful time for myself, the house and TV, although these were minimal. I really enjoyed the outdoors time but at the same time somehow missed the homely noise my parents always make. I can say that my life is all about trade-offs with very little best-of-both-worlds situations. Most of the time.

Anyway, I decided to spend the afternoon at home. Chanced upon a couple of pictures which sort of give me an idea of how I would want to re-furnish (decorate, rather) my room this coming fall. My own room! How exciting. I'm thinking of going along with the existing colour template of white, beige and black, which are pretty neutral. Throw in some light patterns, fairy lights (and bed net!) and maybe introduce a sheer lining curtains to the small window in my room. I'm going for warm and soft theme to retain some Spring amidst the cruelly cold Winter. Oh yea and the gloomy rainy London weather too, which is quite a contrast compared to my potential room. So much furniture shopping to do! It's like as if the apartment is mine and I'm never ever going to move out of it. Oh how I wish...

Grr now I'm anticipating my flight back to London, wait till my sister moves back to Singapore and start the decoration! That's a good thing right?..

i love my macaroon

Hehe ♥ (except the funky smell it has).

I was unfortunate enough this early morning to be horrified upon the discovery of something in the office. Guess what is it? My bank statement. Oh my lorddd! All the outflows with no single inflow. Plus I didn't have much saving to start with. Thank goodness for my dad's buffer amount! Interest for overdraft is the last thing I would want to have. It's like poison, sucks the blood out of one from every now and then until one gets in the green zone. I guess my Warehouse dress will have to wait. Either that or farewell. Urgh, definitely disliking this sudden curbing of appetite!

Online shopping has taken over me. I no longer have as much control as I used to have. My resolution to save up is totally disregarded. The reason why I came to such judgement is because I realised some of the good I bought on the net haven't been giving me as much satisfaction as before. In addition, there wasn't as much deliberation on whether I should make the purchase as before. Ahhhhhh impulsive buyer doesn't go with being an Accountant, yes?

Ok I shall stop immersing myself in financial misery. SOLUTIONS SOLUTIONS!

after lunch

Back in the office after a really fulfilling lunch with Reichealll (Rei-chan). We had NYNY at City Link and crossed over to Raffles City Robinsons for a short and thrilling escape. Just the beauty products section. I love love love jumping from brands to brands trying out the many products! How I wish the salespeople will just give us some -much appreciated- lone time without being stared at or talked to. No pictures once again. My camera is gathering dust in my bag.

Pictures of Relish brunch with A.Chen and Grace from a couple of weeks back. Ripped them off Amanda's facebook wakaka! :D

The loft-style cafe/restaurant. I love how naturally bright the place is!

A.Chen and Grace. Behind is the brunch menu written on the blackboard. Nope, they don't change it. It's always there.

Gossiping never goes wrong.

Lol lol.

Group pictureee~

Grace-ness picture.

Grace left after brunch, leaving A.Chen and me to enjoy some Island Creamery on the very hot day. Finally get to enjoy my special cone after so long!! They are always out of it. It's the cone with rainbow sprinkles (?).

Well I thought I had to change my pose now and then... hey at least I tried ok!

Im so boring

New haircut! Not much difference ey? It's the pose.

Another lousy morning. HAIH. Being a good daughter is so difficult. At the same time, I'm positive that being a good mother is an even more challenging feat.

Anyway. Not many people is in the office right now! I'm enjoying the "tranquility" and the slice of sea view from here. Beautiful fluffy bunch of clouds + gentle sun + listening to MP3 = calming. Oh darns. I just jinxed it. My senior is here :(

Lunch and Kino with Mila later!! Hehehehehe~

rabbit

Gotta release this urge of blogging. It's immense. I can't control it! I'm glad I am feeling it since I haven't been updating for quite some time. As usual, being an OL have been sucking so much of my time and energy away. I feel fatter already because of the long-ish office hours. My butt is officially stuck onto this chair. Need I mention that I'm growing horizontally? :'(

Anyhoo. I just finished downloading a couple of scanned JMags (!!). MINA's September cover caught my eyes. I really like it. Navy blue background and the slightly dark shade of red (bunny ears hat) really appeals to me. It complements the model's hair real well! My superbly stubborn stand on anti-dyeing of the hair is dying (pun intended). Kao Liese's heavy advertisement is to blame. Chiffon Beige is now my ideal artificial hair colour, since Ash Grey/Brown won't have too much of a change on my hair. It's something like the hair colour of this month's MINA cover girl. It's like a more golden shade of Ash Grey/Brown. You know what? I shall upload it for illustrative purpose. Credits obviously goes to MINA ♥

La couleur des cheveux est tres belle! (omg my French is really deteriorating)

Speaking of languages. I must brush up on my English and French!! Anyone wants to donate grammar books of the two languages mentioned? :D

Mila had a low budget lunch with me today!! Though my taste buds had to compromise with the (not really) low budget, it was quite a good one due to the company. I had fun getting lost (mentally) at Watsons and Sasa with Mi-chan. I honestly think places that sells beauty products is one of the funnest place you can hang out with your (girl)friends. Plus the samples. Minus the salesperson! Electronics and furniture is another. Oh yes. Pet shops too. Amusement parks... Why does it seem like there are so many fun places to hang out suddenly?!?!!

Last week was pretty eventful. Wisdom tooth extraction was not as scary as I expected. Yes there was sawing, drilling and hammering but thanks to the >5 shots of anaesthetic, the pain and terror was discounted to zilch. I didn't feel any pain at all! It was just a little bit of impact which lasted at most 5 minutes. The sound of the whole process was the scariest part! Eh no, the anaesthetic part was the scariest. To cut the long story short, I was injected with a little too much anaesthetic (dentist was scared that I would feel the pain) that I couldn't move the whole left part of my face! I couldn't blink my left eye, I couldn't move the left half of my lips... when I laught it's like a crooked smile! I felt ultra retarded and it was super scary. THANK goodness the effect didn't last long. It wore off within an hour. As a whole, the extraction was made a lot more manageable as I think I was in the right hands. Thanks Naz's mom!! It could have been a nightmare. :) (really enjoyed the 1 week break I had after the extraction too)

Relish with Grace and Amanda on the previous Saturday. I had a delightful time catching up with these two. & listening to the gossips/ social facts. I might have revealed that I'm a facebook stalker, which personally I think is not a bad thing. Being informative is a good thing, no? Come to think of the company, I think Amanda grew taller. It's either her hair/ short skirt or she really did grew taller! Grace is giving more matured vibes than before. (sorry if this came out weird, but I really do think/feel so)

Anyway. Relish is a restaurant located on the 2nd floor of Cluny Court. If any of you do go down, MUST TRY: Coconut Gula Melaka smoothie/milkshake (can't remember what's the end). It's a definite yummo! I really like their parmesan wings but some people thinks that it's alright. It does cost pretty much for half a dozen of wings ($9).

Alrighty! Back to doing tasks. I'm now a courier girl. Downgraded from "HR Manager". Afterwhich, HOME! Hopefully...

plans for summer

One of the bad things with updating less is that sometimes you come back with so many things to talk about but none of which you can remember accurately. Or as excitingly. Another boohoo is I tend to lose the urge to blog. (Nooooo~) I shall prevent that from happening!

Tomorrow marks the 2nd week of being in Singapore. All I remember is being outdoors with either my mom, beloved or Rachel (since Mila was in Jakarta). Oh yea and bumping into a couple of people too! Since the GSS (Great Singapore Sale) is on, there's not much point staying home. Unless, of course, my parents decided to ground me once more. I've enjoyed the past 2 weeks! I've ate (inevitably gained weight as well), played and caught up with some people. Ahh good times.

Have I talked about what my summer will be like? I'll be spending time picking up some work experience for a huge part of this holiday. Yes! I managed to get an internship at a Corporate Finance firm with the help of an ageless mother (you can report this). It's a small firm where all the staff are seniors in terms of experience and it's quite intimidating if you think about it! My internship will be starting next week, which means I probably will not have as much chance to enjoy carefree times. On a brighter note, my CV will probably be more attractive and who knows who I'll meet in the 2 month period? :D

I was planning to learn Japanese during this break, which is not going to happen due to timetable issues. Brushing up on French (and English ahahaahhaha) during office hours doesn't seem too bad, since I was told that there will be times when there will be completely nothing for me to do. Omggg I can't believe I am going to be working in an office! I've never imagined myself joining the workforce, working on a typical schedule from 9am to 5pm, 5 days a week. Cross my fingers for the existence of office politics. It's a small firm anyway! Oh yes, I've been shopping for work clothes too. It's fun yet demoralising because the clothes are so matured and I feel so old. I still want to wear my tees and shorts! Le sob.

Anyhoo, something more academical: EXAMINATION RESULTS! The day falls on 14th July, about 3 weeks from now. I'm already feeling the butterflies in my stomach. How badly did I do? Omg!!! The jitters is killing me. Even though I initially thought that 40% being the passing rate will not be a problem, HEH, now I realise that I'm being a joke. A foolish, proud and totally idiotic teenager who thinks she can rule the world!* Seriously Inggrid, you think you can easily pass LSE papers? Did you see how crazy difficult the papers were?! Did you realise how retardedly careless you were for Maths and Stats?! Did you realise how bad your time management was for all the papers?!??!! AHHHHHHHHH this is driving me insane! It's super pressurising since LSE does not do resits. It's definitely one of the things that I'm not proud of being a (current) LSE student.

Other than those mentioned, I'll be extracting my wisdom teeth, hopefully sometime soon! I'll be taking summer one day at a time with my results being the next major thing. My beloved's heading to Taiwan in 2 months time for >= 20 days... and I've heard stories which are really unpleasant, but shutting it out! Out out out. Carpe Diem.

'Nuff said for now. A few pictures and then time for me to have some brown lovinggg ;)

I was at the airport a few hours early. 1.5 hours was spent shopping for perfumes, chocolates and random stuff. The other half an hour or so was spent sitting around, on the phone.

View from plane ♥ I always love how endless the sky looks. It's not cool when the sky scrapers are eating so much into panoramic views.

Limitations of a camera and a small aeroplane window. I had a rare window two seater all for myself! However, there were a lot of elderly couples and there was one who snored really loudly. I didn't manage to fall asleep, had a very bad jet lag and fell sick for half a day in Singapore. Lemon Chicken Rice was my choice of plane supper and it was the first time I felt that SIA food is bad.

Pitch dark by take off = gorgeous view of London.

Up, up and away!

SING-A-PORE! :D :D

Met up with Rachel a few days after I reached Singapore. Yong Tau Foo yumm the sauce yumm yumm yumm (hehe Mila)

Then we had tea at Cedele, chatted and read ViVi.

Rachel decided to walk me home because my stomach was feeling upset (AWW HOW SWEET RIGHT!). Then we saw this advertisement for men.

Enlarge to read. By the way, there's a couple more of them being hung up.

Oh yea this was the day when I gave Shaun a surprise. Teheheheheheehehe ♥ love you chubbs!

Ladylike, no?

SNOW CRAB RAMEN!!!

Rei had some ramen with butter, corn and shio pork. Looks really good too! :D

Gyoooooooozaaaaa!

Rei's treat at Coffeebean. Thanks lovelette!

Malibu (or something) was really good!! The cake was disgusting. Literal sponge cake (though it's supposed to be a tiramisu) with green tea powder.

Ended the day feeling super sleepy and the worst part of all: I LOST MY PHONE. Oh my God. I think I left it at the table and it got stolen. Sigh. It's such an old number and it's becoming a part of me. D: Anyway I've a new number now.

Dinner at Shangri-la Japanese restaurant with the Ngs invited by ageless mother.

Yummm $_$

Shaun's brother (what's with the pose), me and beloved.

Who is this skinny guy.

This was taken yesterday. Ageless mother was sending me home after which she went to a rock gig with her sons. Ageless isn't it!

Wow, that wasn't little! Toodlesss all, eat your poodles' noodles!

*I'm joking about the last part, just being dramatic.

P.S.: blogging on Chrome is officially a pain.