I didn't enjoy it too much this round as I barely knew many, and I felt like I was on my own. There were more coming whom I felt familiar, but it felt like a distance at heart. I can't believe the person I was close to was the one I had trouble team teaching with.



Echo when the presenters present, I went real light with strength but I was shaking towards the end where I went out all the way.

They showered us with snacks, fluids and towels so had a break intermittently.

By the time Plyo came about, I was wondering why did I come here to do this haha. Feeling old.

It did feel great after, when walking back to the car and feeling the wonderful after burn I barely had. Felt like a reset to the body. I still would have preferred to do a workshop just coz I am familiar with more instructors. It's a really lonely journey if one doesn't proactively go out to team teach with others. I am keeping on a low at the moment. Keeping everything on a low.

Hesitant to post anything, but if I do it's all for the inspiration and nothing else, for the better of anyone's wellbeing, for the better of society.

Had a couple of launches over the weekend! They have it's ups and downs, from members loving the candle ambiance, to member threatening to cancel membership just because the Air con wasn't cold enough. I learnt to be more resilient and come up with ideas to manage the class coz hey, I cannot do things beyond my control. Only within, the rest I leave to the universe to sort for me.

And......What do you do before your MIL takes off for a month? Go on a date so she can babysit! She did really well actually, didn’t bother us most times but gave her a set of instructions to follow for nap time routine. She did her own way of feeding Ezra by the spoon too. I guess we can manage by mixing things up abit for him. We went on a Thai massage at Golden Fingers first and man the lady I had was SO GOOD. I asked for Golden Thai version and they said it’s their signature mixing between rubs and stretches. She went from top down with some focus in the legs and back. WOW, she used her ENTIRE body on me. Elbows, fingers and even the legs to get into the big muscles (OMG my hamstrings were TIGHT!). And she released my spine and neck with a few clicks (but safe). I could not fall asleep because it was sore in some areas, so nice in others and only a small area was so so. Gosh, if I come back for this I’ll ask for her again. They might have taken their best two for us lol.

We explored Ponsonby together, after deciding out an Argentinian restaurant on Zomato so we finally were in Ponsonby Central at El Chorizo with wood fire steaks. OMG, meat over load but it was so so so so so so sooooooooooooooooooo good. Not often we have HUGE steak ribs coming off the bone so tender and juicy. dC mentioned his craving was finally satisfied as he could not find this in Singapore nor Malaysia. We wandered along the streets checking out new cafes and restaurants and enjoyed ice cream.


 Back to full mode on Sunday. Swim lessons for Ezra (he was abit off this session, and I almost forgot my togs). He’s such a careful boy. We had lunch at Westfield Pakuranga while waiting for our friends for Ambury farm and off we went. Ezra was really constipated the whole session where he finally poop whilst looking at a bunch of letters. He was left behind most times in terms of walking, looking and touching animals. As well as he was really grumpy because he only had half an hour of nap. I didn’t enjoy the trip myself (not sure why).

Nothing much, hung out at Mid Valley where things has changed abit.
So happen there was a baby show and bump into a really old time friend who used to be a swimmer. He's got a kid who is 2 months shy from E. Big difference in sizes lol.

But the trip has been truly amazing, especially spending time with E. He was initially fussy with eating because of his sore throat, and through the trip he has gotten close to me. Clingy I would perceive. I was of course surprised and touched by his gestures. He now can fall asleep being held with his head over our shoulder and in the stroller.

And through the trip, you just can't stop wondering if your kid is ok as he has actually reduced his eye contact with many but me when he needs milk and this time when he needs a hug. It's hard as we struggle to teach him when he isn't looking. He is babbling and now tries to pronounce numbers. Often around the mall he stops and looks at numbers and letters.

Through the trip one things shakens my mind. With some of his 'milestones' behind, one would think he may have a mild 'Autism Spectrum Disorder' from afar. It's just worrying to see the symptoms read all labeled on him. And so the snowball effect of my thoughts began. Just how I predict death of my loved ones, I have a nature to accept the worse even before the worse may or may not happen. To get over the denial stage because embracing the uncertainties, embracing change is never easy. We too need our security blanket to come back to. So I tend to search hard, to see if he is subtly communicating in his usual conservative and introverted ways. As I too am subtle myself. The things that are listed in the disorder spectrum are the things I do right up to date. But of course I don't think my parents would remember the time I was barely 2.

My thoughts as others would perceive is how would I react should the worse come? Right now it's devastation. Right now I would be in sheer denial. Often we take things for granted and this has shaken me. I just hop I am doing the right thing. Or perhaps something to get me closer to him so that he can manage to get by with my support.

Anyway, flying home felt long as I had to stay awake to beat the jetlag. I saw a couple of movies though which was touching and fun. X-men Apocalypse and The Intern. Getting out of the airport was long through bio security but it didn't take long to get out of the plane and immigration.

Yes yes, I wana kick start this blog going. I know I have made a few recent trips to the same countries but don't really wana bore as the experiences are similar. What I am gutted about though is that all my picture albums have been removed from a previous website :(

I will start off by a post from Singapore! Land I live currently on does have it's own traveling experiences ;)

So watch this space...

Today marks 2 years and 1 day since I first arrived London....

And it is a day before my tenancy expires...

So many friends made, so many things enjoyed, so many endless experienced gained mentally and emotionally, lessons learn, cherished and not forgetting, so many things accumulated =P.

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go. I am again anxious, scared for the uncertainties of my life / phase ahead, yet excited and happy. Contradictory, as well as it seems that everything fell through and it's too good to be true. I've got lots to catch up on my roots, for I have been away far too long.

The journey towards this decision only happened in less than 2 months. Devastated initially, I cannot believe how amazingly fated to come across one shut door and then spot the open door without hesitation even without knowing. Cheezy, I know but maybe I should tell the story.

Everything was going well after my bike ride from London to Paris. We won another job, team is all busy, I'm was given confidence to be given more tasks. So we took steps to get our visa renewed. After one night of seeing the consultant, it went downhill (but I was thankful). It got more and more complicated and the chances of us renewing for the next 3 years became slimmer. There was a 'jolt' to the system, after hitting a brick wall when we have exhausted all resources. And then we come across asking ourselves: Do we want to stay, are we happy leaving, do we want to sacrifice our pay for this visa. But the questions of wanting to stay all stopped when one of us have to leave the country regardless.

So where to go? We asked ourselves next...and thus emails and our CV's were sent out to friends and family over the globe, seeing where the wind blows. One event that sparked me to explore the alternatives was that there was a 1.2bn job in Australia, and that job needed 400 engineers like me. That really opened me up in relief, and in curiosity to go find out more.

NZ - In the hopes of getting a citizenship was turned down due to a new rule
Aus - Visa applications were place on halt until end of June
Dubai - Slim chances as it's not picking up
Singapore - haven't tried before and it could be as bad as the UK

After finding out that we have to completely forfeit one of our 2 flights to Asia which took a bit of a chunk of our money, we finally decide to head to Asia to take a breather, use the other flight and try our luck for a couple of months before heading home to NZ. And I can't believe how things fell into place from that decision. It's like something we didn't ask for but came without us trying too hard. Friend mentioned that there is a job opening in Singapore and needed someone exactly like me to be on board. Phone interview came and went and they offered immediately. I was solely relying on this as it was difficult to look for jobs on the website. I never knew that although Singapore is small, it is not like the UK. There were jobs 10 times bigger than what I'm doing, clients who are top in the corporate world and this company is also well known for being part of the Beijing Olympic Games.

And to sum everything up with one final 'spice', D also landed himself with something promising =)

Yes, I write to remember, to remember that as sappy as it sounds, I am so thankful just to follow my intuition, to have faith lead us when the unexpected comes. I write to share the experience that I haven't come across, write to tell about a change in phase, a change in life, the chaos, the excitement, the sadness, the people that effected me and how I have effected them, growing up emotionally, mentally, I write before I have no more time to write. And I love to read back the times where I was young and fresh.

I find that keeping your heads up, being positive, staying happy, knowing that things will always be better makes a difference to preparing the unexpected future. I have stop believing in cynicism, for I'd rather call it optimistic and believing. I am stubborn to be one to be honest, and I don't believe that the world is bad even though there was attempts in people pick pocketing us, insults, political dramas. I just see it as a mere reminder to be weary, to acknowledge that they are around and that it is up to me to make the decision: a lesson to be more alert or a negative thought to tell us that the world is dangerous?

London has made me stronger and tougher in a way, and yet more caring and generous in another way. It has made me get to know myself more, it has brought the best out of me and yet my life ahead will bring out more surprises about me.

I don't know where I'm going with this so I better stop...spent about 2 days just trying to write this post! Crazy, shows that my mind is not settled as yet haha.

Anyway,onwards to a new journey!!

Taken on my phone camera from one of my site visits...as well as I finally saw the ocean in the UK at last in my last cycle run. We were out east right up to Southend on Sea. So reminds me of NZ except that they have beach huts over here which is quite nifty to dump your clothes before heading out.

Work load UP, training load UP, eating UP. Hardly have time to be online lately but all is good.

And I still manage to squeeze time to make chocolate truffles! heh.Will post about that later...

And it has actually begun awhile back but thought I'd write something to give you a 'taste' of the life in a day of HG! Last week was supposedly Week 12 out of Week 21 of my 'training' programme to end of April, so yeah...here goes:

• Lunchtime - Boot camp aka Circuit training (press ups, sit ups, squats etc)
• After work - Spins for 45minutes, stretch 15 minutes

• Lunchtime - Spins (my fav killer instructor)

• Lunchtime - Circuits again
• After work - Spins (my fav killer instructor, don't know how he can do it)

• Lunchtime - BREAK, sauunnnaaaa weeeeee

• Lunchtime - tone (like aerobics classes but using weights)

• Woke up at 8am to make an appointment with Fitness First for spin classes
• Spin classes at 9am
• Abworkout from 9.45am to 10am
• Wanted to cycle out but it started raining, so I did an hour on the bicycle machine (ho hum so boring)

• I went into another Fitness First gym wanting to go for Boot Camp and wanting to cycle but the weather was just crap again.
• Did something like Taibo instead for an hour
• An hour on the cross trainer to kill time before Spins
• Spins for 45 minutes, then ab workout for another 15 minutes
• Started at 11.30am, finished by 2.30pm knackered
• Came straight home to bake and decorate for cupcake competition

First training on the road this Saturday! 30mile bike run, am excited :)

Nope, no costume party or nothing. It's not that I didn't want to get involved but dressing up in funny costumes in the cold weather ain't my cup of tea. Yes, I really dislike dressing up against the cold weather. Perhaps I need a new wadrobe (HINT). But hey, all I need is just to snuggle up in bed reading or writing or watching with a cup of tea or hot chocolate by my side. Peaceful. Or maybe I'm growing 'old' lol.

Anyway, weekend was packed with FOOD again. Haha, can't run away from it and it sticks by my side when the cold and dark weather kicks in. There was a last minute gathering occasion and so I took the opportunity to make something again and I made Kuih Serimuka for the first time as well as to get rid of the pandan leaves that is taking up alotta space in the freezer. I too decided to practice on my 'photography' skillz.

Apparently food photos are the hardest of them all so if you master this, you can master anything. Cheh wah. Here's my 'attempt'. I briefly read on some tips online and see how it worked. More info here on my experiences making this Kuih.


Was also focusing alot on my cupcakes for Monday. My first batch sunk, which made my hard sunk 10x more. Sigh, it tasted good regardless so I'm gald I didn't have to throw it away. So I decided to try them again. I know, more you make mistakes, more you learn. But I did feel like I went round in circles by not following instructions but then again, it does clarify things much more just like life. Can't be too perfect, have to try something you don't want to in order to know what you want to do in life. Heh.

Anyway, Friday night was serimuka, sat day was cupcakes and Saturday evening was gathering at friend's place. Ate lotsa KFC and carrot cupcakes made by a friend and played Wii. Coming home was quite scary as I was surrounded by people all dressed up in costumes. Feels really eerie as everyone is hiding their identity that night, brings a good chance for someone to take the advantage and do something evil. Either that, I am getting paranoid these days of watching too much tv and movies.

Sunday was cupcakes again and headed out to dinner at the York & Albany (one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant) with my group of girlfriends. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience even walk to the restaurant as it was a whole different atmosphere altogether as you get off the touristy streets.I bumped into an organic shop where they sold proper organic fruits and veges. The apples were 3 times larger than normal and the chocolate bars were way cheaper than anywhere else I found. Apparently celebreties hang out in this area too since it's very close to Regent's Park (one of the largest in London town).

YEs, I baked through the week. And have created another blog in which I'm not sure whether I want to keep going coz typing down recipes and adding nice photos is tough work! Nevertheless I shall persevere. Am wondering as well as to whether to use this new website as more of a recipe base type info or write about all my food experiences. Hmm, it'll be hard to decide which to use if I were traveling and trying out the food. Too many things to think about for the moment. Would rather just go out there and be more practical instead to begin with = P

Any hoo, below are the cupcakes I baked over the weekend:


I have finally mastered the way of melting marshmallows...it ain't easy as putting them in a pot. The answer is using a little bit of milk ;). Not only that, I was asked to bake a cake for a birthday, in which I've separated the experiences to my new website as it's more descriptive in a way and I've listed the recipes and methods too as well as external links for reference and picture steps...

Gosh, I should start renaming my lables too to make it look more informative rather than personal...if I bother,sigh.

Decisions decisions. Anyway, am procrastinating in bed as I type. I should get up, get a go and head out to make of this weekend!

Guess what?
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I got another blog...
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Check out: KitchenVirginTil27

And so I put my hand up to help out with a friend selling cupcakes at the market for the first time of my life. She didn't want to do it alone and I was keen to take on this challenge. And what an adventure last week was! It wasn't just that that took up my time but workload has somehow slammed me too as well as my baby was leaving me too! I'm glad I pulled through.

Anyway, it all started with us setting up our stall at the Pop-up market held at the Truman Brewery on Bricklane Road, one of the famous streets known for indian restaurants. This market is held once every month with a different theme, being this weekend to be Vintage. So we had to come up with some vintage decorations...with pastel colours. And so this is how the week started...

Monday - Bought stationary for the displays, and some ingredients from Sainsbury
Tuesday - Started doing up the poster, getting more ingredients from Sainsbury
Wednesday - bought bananas, made first banana and victorian spongecake
Thursday - Bake another banana and Victorian spongecake, place the earlier cakes into the fridge
Friday - All on cupcakes and icing......with chocolate ganache (liquid chocolate)
Saturday - cupcakes didn't sell, made chocolate fudge brownies instead and ice the 2nd batch of cakes

The real challenging part was storing and organising things in my small little kitchen. Oh and not forgetting that I did most mixing with just a hand mixer and muscles and bones haha.

Anyway, here are some clips of the weekend. More on my album :)


Check out more photos here

The moment I wrote the sentence above, there are so many flashbacks of memories of us, with 2 significant ones that had a huge impact on me, and one on you.

Change. It is constant and consistent, yet contradictory to one's life as it happens for the rest of one's life forever and ever. One word, one big meaning, one huge impact to one's life. There is no point in becoming afraid of it, nor despise it because it will there, implanted in one's soul like a birthmark.

This is the cake I would make for you on your birthday while you have a picnic at Botanical Gardens. I dedicate it to you :)

How many ways do I love thee? In three's:

• DEFINITELY coming out of the room drenched in my own salty wet sweat, even in winter.
• Able to push myself to the absolute and uttermost maximum.
• Painless, injury freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......what more can a person want!

And, I get to do it all year round, :)

Funny that

Hen's do; the bride to be's mum is a close friend of my ex-gymnast friend's mum! And they are both now in NZ.

And then here I was trying to make Hainanese Chicken Rice at a friend's place and along came a guy whom I have never met in my life who knows my mum because she taught in the same high school he was in.

And then I finally caught up with ex-gymnast friend of mine who has seen me around NZ for the whole time but never knew that I was there until I left for London. And the freakiest part was that her dad is a close friend of D's dad! And he didn't recognise me!

World is getting tinnier and tinnier as I am growing older and older..........

So many things has been happenig lately. Shall update soon :)

Super brief highlights that happened in the last 10 days was:

• Trip to South Italy for 7 days
• Making Cupcakes at a Hen's Do
• London 10km Run

Till then, will keep you posted!

Was figuring out twice why the whip cream went straight from liquid to curdel with no half way or in between! Spent 6 tubs to figure out that I should leave the cream in the freezer for 10mins so that it hardens.

Note to self: When it comes to icing, the bowl has to be FREEZING COLD and whipping is done in a bowl over a bowl of ice for it to work....something so important for summer right now.

Till then, the day I am Zombified o.O

I wonder whether these are new side effects of experiencing London summer. Am awake, unsettled in the wee hours of the morning. Neighbors were banging down their door at 3am. Birds started chirping at 4am. Train started moving at 5am. Stomach is growling.

As I head out for a breather, it felt like 7.30am in Malaysia. It was that warm and that bright. Now imagine that without the fan nor air-conditioning going.

I'm sure one would find it too warm to sleep.

Doesn't help either when I haven't finish decorating my cake and keep thinking of ways to improve it. It's 1.5 hours before the shop opens.

Am I suffering from mild insomnia?It has been 2 days so far...funny how it always happens close to the weekend :P