The Girls

Took these pics at our new year gathering this year at my aunt's house. Working on a layout for this. Just wish I had a less retarded pic of myself arrgh!

Barca and food

Would you think of food when you think of Barca? Maybe not, but that's what running through my mind now in my usual post-hol stupor. I'm thinking of the La Boqueria market along La Rambla and the explosion of colours and scents assaulting us when we stepped into the cavernous place. I'll say that we had one of our best brekkies there - seafood for breakfast anyone?
















Juanito's Pinotxo Bar - this legendary bar-style eatery certainly lives up to all the recommendations and awards. The prawns and lobster (or crayfish??) were astonishingly fresh (to my unaccustomed taste buds) and I really enjoyed the pared down style of cooking - grilled with a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of coarse sea salt to be mopped up by the crusty bread! But nothing beats the Xuxos (pronounced chu-chos - we bumbled our way through the Cataluyan language) which was melt-in-the mouth goodness, a mix of feather light flaky pastry and airy custard cream.

Xuxos and Juanito in his cute waistcoat tending the bar.

Pan con tomate - bread rubbed with fresh tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Some books leave you feeling a little light-headed and breathless after the tour de force ending, and unable to grasp reality as your thoughts are clearly still with the story, which at this point, you are unable to convince yourself that all that happened are simply part of the writer's imagination. This book is one of them. I will give it 4.5 stars, the 0.5 stars short of perfect for my inability to understand every idea and thought canvassed in the book.

In the mood for colours

Just a short update on my scrapping endeavours! Noticed that my layouts are all rather colourful lately - it's the spring bug! The explosion of colours everywhere simply lifts my heart. I've got a sinking suspicion that the spring trends (for clothes and scrapbooking!) has busted my erm, half-yearly budget (if I have one)! Scrapbooking is one confusing and contradictory word really. While it professes to use scrap, it's definitely not cheap nor dingy. While it's suppose to be a book, it's more of a collection of individual layouts.

Here's a layout I gave TR for his birthday (just so you know, I scraplifted most of the layouts but tweaked it a little here and there). I finished it surprisingly quickly cos I happened to have the matching colours and embellishment. Once you have the photos in mind, it flows quite easily from there. It's true that I make nicer layouts for others than those I make for my album! Took forever to think of a caption but thought the photos showed how nice his eyes are so...



One of my favourite layouts cos it's so bright and cheery and simple. Had alot of fun punching the "ice cream". Look at the sparkly crystalline icy mint green words - looks yummy enough to eat!



Trying my hand at the shabby chic trend which is so popular nowadays. Had alot of fun again splattering white acrylic paint, distressing paper and layering every possible embellishment in my stash!


Ok finally a layout on myself. The first thing I had to do was explain why I said that I am 25 this year hahaha. Arggh, I'm 26, almost! The most tricky part in this layout was the adhesive fabric strip which I pleated into a flower. It was so sticky that my fingers kept gumming together ick.



By the way, all the pics were taken in Italy. Not very obvious right!

White Day

Guess what's White Day? All I can think of is Shiseido's White Day where they give out White Lucent freebies haha. Apparently, it's a celebration in Japan/S. Korea where the guys reciprocate the gifts they received from girls on V-Day. I think it's just a convenient excuse cooked up by guys who are guilty for forgetting/neglecting/ignoring V-Day.

Anyway, was excitedly surprised to receive a call from recep saying that I have some flowers for me! Not that I can't guess who they were from haha but still, have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for presents and surprises?? Even though I don't think I really deserve flowers and dinner at Pierside cos all I got for TR for V-day was a Malcolm Gladwell book and dinner at The Black Sheep Cafe (and that wasn't even on V-day itself).

I asked him, why White Day? He said that he's very "ha-re" (I take it to mean that he likes Jap stuff). That said, at least he remembers that I only like red roses (none of the pink stuff!).

Very nice alfresco dining

I really like the fresh take on maguro sashimi - with a seaweed tampura skin

Braised beef cheeks with buttery risotto

Definitely my fav dish for tonight - sauteed potatoes in duck fat. SINFUL!

Juicy king prawns with rosti

Why I wanna go to Toronto again

Nutella filled donut balls from http://creampuffsinvenice.ca/. Where else can you find donut balls on every street!

Last year's family vacation

Since I'm in the mood (and partly to delay going to bed cos it brings work the next day closer sigh), I shall put up some pictures of our family vacation to the relatively fuss-free Bintan Lagoon last year. It's really all thanks to my aunt's meticulous planning that everything goes so smoothly each year that we head there. The only unexpected incident this year was the (fatal) visit of a disgustingly enormous centipede.