Friends.

When I was younger, I envisaged having a place and asking friends over to enjoy a nice dinner and a drink over the weekends. Hai, it never happened at all. Having children and tending to them, making sure they do their work already exhaust me those 5 days of the week. Come Saturday and Sunday, I would only want to sleep late and laze around. Where to find the energy to organise party in the evening? On top of that, friends started to have their own family and visiting in laws in the weekends or shopping trips or outings with their children or tuition during the weekend.

Over time, I lost touched with my friends. I married earlier and have children earlier than most of my friends. When they are still working and partying, I was grounded at home changing diapers and singing nursery rhymes to my children. When my children are big enough for me to be out, my friends are stranded themselves with babies. Thus, the distance and eventually lost of friends.

You can say my world revolves around my family. Nothing else, totally boring. If my family is broken, I might become broken as well. Who cares about me? Who think of me? Who loves me? I think I already know the answer. But I have to be strong, I can still go out to make new friends. Do you know that a person could still be lonely with thousands of friends around? Do you know that some could be at peace with only a friend?

Friends can not fill the void just because they are physically there. Yet, friends are needed everywhere. Are you friend to ur closest one? Or merely there physically for appearance sake?

LOL, my closest friend is Belladonna, she is with me most of the time, I am so glad I bought her even though she cost me S$1500. She is my best friend now.

Yellow butter cake recipe

Got this recipe from http://www.grouprecipes.com/22479/yellow-butter-cake.html.

Ingredients
1 1/2 C butter (room temp) no margarine I used 250gm of butter
2 1/2 C granulated sugar ( I like to use raw sugar in this one) I used 2 cups of sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 C all purpose flour (for a lighter cake, use 2 C flour and 1 1/4 C cake flour)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 C milkDirections
In mixer, cream butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.
In seperate bowl, wisk together flour, salt, and baking powder.
Set aside.
On medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture,
making sure each egg is mixed in before adding the next.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl and mix again.
Mix in vanilla, or any other flavoring you want (almond, orange, lemon, rose water).
Add flour mixture and milk to the wet ingredients, alternating the two, starting with the flour. (1/3 flour, then 1/3 milk...etc.)
Scrape sides and bottom of bowl again and give it another quick mix.
Pour into your greased and floured pans.
Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes, until the middle is firm, the top is golden, and the sides pull slightly away from the pan. A toothpick should come out clean (about 160 degrees in the middle). I baked at 180 degrees celsius in my oven for 35 minutes.
This makes about 7 1/2 C batter, which will fill two 8 inch rounds or one 6 inch and one 9 inch. This would fill one big rectangle.
When the cakes are finished, let them sit in the pans for a couple of minutes, and then turn them out onto wire racks to cool. Be sure to use cardboard or another wire rack to flip the cakes over. If you try to pick this up while its warm, it will break. I like to turn my cakes out onto a cake board and then turn it onto the wire rack so that the top side of the cake is up. Spray your wire racks with non stick spray so that you can easily move the cakes when they are cooled.
When you grease your cake pans, be sure never to grease with butter. Butter burns. Always use shortening. I like to use non hydrogenated shortening and the baking sprays with flour in them are wonderful and fast!. My cakes never stick when I use the sprays.


verdict for this cake: YUmmilicious

3 mobile phones all in a day.

Wah! Never in my life to get 3 all in a day. 1, Samsung Soul U900 was bought 4 days ago by my sister who passed it to me today. Then, we went to a PC show at Suntec city and bought one more, Nokia 6500 slide, recontracting my hubby line. This mobile is to be given to my daughter. Using a $50 rebate voucher. When doing payment, we got a surprise when we were told to choose either another phone, Nokia 1208 or a $50Robinson voucher. We chose the formal. Thus, today, we got 3 mobiles in a row.

Now to source for prepaid cards, as both my daughters will be carrying a mobile phone each.
My eldest using my old phone. Nokia 1208 will be giving to my mum as it's really a very basic phone.

14/6/2008, Saturday

Saying it through writing

Some people are so good expressing their thoughts verbally, some just could write them down. I think I am the latter. Most of the time, trying to verbalise what I felt in front of the person makes me tongue tight. Some people are so good at extorting presents from others by being very subtle. Before one knows it, the idea already registered in ones mind to get for them. Those are really good. So what kind are you? Could you articulate your feelings well?

Wrong date and timing for the past posts

My time and date is 11.30am, 12 June 2008, Thursday. This date 12 June, reminds me of my dead cousin's birthday. He was so young and handsome, yet, he committed suicide, jumped from his bedroom's window. All must die, but just how many years we get to live. Some like it short, some like it long. When the society is harsh, a weak mind can't handles the pressure. Though they appear weak, they are so strong to take their own life. This astounds me more. Usually, when I face pressure around me, I would just grind me teeth and tell myself to pull it through. It is our determine mind that is resilience. As we age, we need to die cause our body deteriotes every second. Even if our mind is resilience, it could probably give us a few more years. Nothing could stop our body from deterioting.

Virtues

My daughter is back from Japan Home stay programme. For 11 days, she was away from us. She made it without any hiccups. Extremely wonderful.

Well, what made me extremely pleased with her was her thoughts and actions. She may be young of age 11years old, but she carry herself with grace already. It was thoughtful of her to think of a walking stick for her grandpa. She got almost everyone something. That includes her granny, her aunties, her sister, her daddy and myself. That's not all, she had something for some of her friends in school as well. With all these actions, one can see that she thinks of everyone even when she is enjoying herself.

She even sacrifice her soft toy to the host family's 6 mths old baby girl when she realised she has no time to get one for her.

All these are virtues she accumulates for herself, which makes me very pleased to know as a mother.

Virtue, is it inborn or learned?
Good virtues brings good karma. I hope she has a very bright future.
Opportunities avast, but one must grab them to assist themselves in achieving their life long goals.

Have the very best

Get the best of everything you need.
This is so unlike me. But over the years, I come to realise regrets only come when I never get the best. Coz of all the discontentment resulted from the things I bought after some use.
So, quality is important.
I list you the examples, I used to purchased bedsheets of 380 threadcount 10 years ago. Then, I thought, if I were buy lesser threadcount I could have more variety of bedsheets at home. Ha, what a silly goose. The bedsheets with lesser threadcount are so rough eventually we stopped using them. As months passed without use, they turn yellowish, thus I disposed them. As for the better threadcount bedsheets, they remain smooth and even smoother over the years. The best ones lasted till now and we still love them.
Next are shoes, I bought cheaper shoes since I thought could have variety. Buying cheap shoes from $10 to $30. They were worn off within 3 weeks. If I buy more shoes that could only last me 3 weeks, then per week my cost is $10 x no of shoes. Whereas, if I paid a good pair of leather shoes for $80, this could last me for a year. Then, I get more saving if I buy a quality one. So go for quality.
Handbags, waistpouches, all these are the same, low quality comes cheaper but do not last. In the end we pay more. Keeping more junks at home.
The most expensive thing is the apartment we live in. Before we were about to purchase this flat, we have to queue for it. During then, prices were at one of the highest. But no choice we needed a place to live in. At first, I wanted a condominium, or executive condo, but I thought, it would be a burden for my husband, afraid it may be tough for him, so decided on a 5 rm instead.
What a joke, HDB flat has no facility like swimming pool, which is good exercise for young kids. My kids love swimming, thus we end up taking bus to swimming pools, or even cycling which is very far from my place. Not a couple of stops but a town away. There were times when we cycled home and our kids fall asleep on the way. Think about it, it's really dangerous, and when we were caught in the rain as well. Then, I thought perhaps we should get a car. So we got the cheaper ones, as I was new to driving. Soon, the car seems to be slower than usual, we bought another one, but petrol consumption is high for this one.
Then, as it is, this flat was never my dream house, so I wanted to upgrade. Little did I know, my husband love this place and didn't want to move. As he said he had some rebate from his company for the first home. If we were to sell, then he won't get the yearly rebate. You see what dilemma I have. First, this was the result of not communicating well, no discussion, no planning, no goal, just get the 2nd best. So I have to hole up here till my husband leave his job. By then, his age would be at a disadvantage to buy another apartment.

So, I foresee my life to be here for another 20 to 30 years till I pass away.
Never to see a dream house at all.

So, my advice is to get the very best for yourself from day 1, so you will never need to regret it later.