Bought a Guitar + Words of Gratitude

Hello everyone!

Last week my family and I (on an impulse, you might say) bought a classical guitar :D

So yeah, there she is. Our first ever guitar. I have yet to give her a name. What do you think would be suitable? Leave your suggestions in the comments :)

So far I have managed to play the first few chords of Canon in D (just enough that one can tell what song it is xD), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (kinda), Happy Birthday (kinda), and some basic major chords. Painful blue nooby fingers aside, progress has been rather stagnant, but I plan to watch more tutorials and fool around a bit more with the notes. Hopefully I'll be able to learn some more songs before I have to leave this baby at home when I depart for NZ :')

Also, I just wanted to say a big, big thank you to everyone who's read and commented on my blog!!
I know I haven't been able to post much (purely because I often find myself lacking the topics that would be of interest to you all), but I will definitely try to update more often after I leave for NZ (end of April!). I'll give myself some corporal punishment if I don't.
My blog isn't much at all, but I'm always grateful, elated, and honoured that you're here. 
As always, thank you for visiting and reading! Come back soon! :) 


今まで私のブログを読んでくれてるみんなさん♪
本当にありがとうございました！
これからも頑張って色々投稿して行きますので
また遊びに来てくださいね～　(*´・ω・｀*) ノシ

アリシア

Now listening: Top of the World - Carpenters

Singapore Once More!

Hi! How's everyone doing?

My family and I flew to Singapore to attend my cousin's wedding last week :) To say the least, it was an exciting four nights and four days for me, which included meeting up twice with one of my best friends studying there, roaming around a bright bustling city, indulging in amazing food - once at sinful hours, and so much more.

First off I'll start with some pictures of the infinity pool on the 57th floor of Marina Bay Sands, where I stayed for the first two nights. The hotel was crowded with tourists as it is all-year round, a big percentage coming from countries like China, Japan, and Korea.

Night view

The first night I was there, I decided to bring my phone with me to the pool after seeing other people do the same (i.e. risking their fancy iPhones' fragile little lives). Silly idea, but yolo, I thought.

I didn't know the pool was shallow enough for me to just walk across it, so I swam my way to the edge of the pool, holding my phone above my head with one hand, the other submerged under water to paddle. I didn't want to soil the leather-like casing either. I got some pics, but due to the darkness none of the pictures came out presentable. In the end I splashed some water inside the cable port, but thank goodness my phone was still alive :X

To top it off, they kicked me out literally right after I made my way to the edge of the pool because it was closing time. No regrets though.

The next day, I decided to bring my phone into the pool once more, clutching it high above my head with two hands as I walked carefully across the pool. Having figured out this critical information from experience the other night proved to be of contribution to my rather silly yet rewarding decision. I still ended up dropping one of my hands in the water though, so it was another one-handed picture-taking sesh. Yet this time I produced much better results - accredited to sufficient daylight ↓


Spoiler/destroyer of visual illusions and fantasies: The infinity pool actually has an edge D:

Here are some photos I took from the Skypark! Lesson learned, btw: Always wear pants under your skirt in Singapore. The winds will show no mercy! Apparently it's bad enough on sea level (as I found out while walking along Orchard Road), but the wind did not spare me the trouble of having to repeatedly pull my skirt down whilst attempting to walk around at 57 storeys above ground level.

Also I managed to meet up with one of my best buds, Lala, now a JC student in Singapore. We had a lot of fun just walking around, loitering in arcades, eating, and talking about school, life, and other nonsense.

We'd come across a food fair at Tampines Mall during our first meet-up, and among one of the stalls that were there, one was advertising brownies. We tasted the samples and they tasted great! Maybe a little too sweet for my taste, but still delicious anyway. The attendant proceeded to tell us that their main branch offers message writing services on brownies, that could be done in minutes depending on size. That's when the lady said to stop by for our next birthdays, so she literally spoke an idea to my head. LL's birthday's coming up (it's in two days!), so our visiting that stall was like fate xD

So the next day we were to meet, I made my way to the branch at Dhoby Ghaut and later surprised her with a personalized "Happy Birthday" brownie. It turned out much lovelier than I'd expected :D

 Birthday celebration in advance <3

Then I moved on to Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa for the last two nights, where the wedding took place. The resort was beautiful! They had monkeys and peacocks roaming around as well. I never actually saw any monkeys, but my aunt had heard their chattering one morning. I did see two peahens, though. One had chicks trailing behind her :3

Family Weekend in Bali: Warung Kawah

I'd like to introduce Warung Kawah, run by my awesome cousin, Mona! She's a very talented baker who's just recently opened her own cafe in Cangguh, Bali.

When my extended family and I were in Bali over the past weekend, we visited her cafe (or warung) on its opening day, crowding the place beyond its original capacity xD

Now I know you all want to know about the food they have there. Here's what we were served at that day - chocolate cupcake, banana cupcake, and raspberry panna cotta!

I couldn't choose which one I liked best out of the three, but I definitely enjoyed the panna cotta . The sharp, tart taste of raspberry might make your face wrinkle at first, but combined with the soft and mild sweetness of the panna cotta, I could only wish there were more inside the jar :)

The cupcakes I really loved, too. Particularly the chocolate one, because it had cream cheese frosting on top. And anything with cream cheese is a win for me, haha!

For my drink, I opted for the Oreo shake, just because it looked really tempting in my niece's little hands. Other drinks my relatives ordered were the coconut shake, mint cucumber mojito, lemongrass mojito, spinach smoothie, and Snickers shake.

Among the drinks I tried out, I found that I liked the mint cucumber mojito the best, because it was extremely refreshing - exactly the kind of tropical treat that I would be craving for after a long day under the harsh Balinese sun. I liked my Oreo shake, it was just a tad too sweet for me. I loved the fact that there was another Oreo cookie hidden at the bottom of the glass :)

 

Warung Kawah boasts a carefree atmosphere with a rather modest interior, every inch of it meant to be a casual place where anyone can just chill out and relax without a care. The second floor, especially, had this comfy open-ended matress-like couch overlooking the balcony, and a closed room for parties looking for a little more privacy. I sat at the second floor, where I was able to enjoy my snacks and the breeze.

Warung Kawah:

Jl. Batu Bolong 38 b
Canggu, Bali
Tel: +623618469138

E-mail: kawah.batubolong@gmail.com
Tumblr: kawah-tropicaltreats.tumblr.com
Facebook: Kawah Tropical Treats

Be sure to drop by for a tasty tropical treat when you're in Bali! :)

アリシア

Family Weekend in Bali

Helloooo!

Last weekend I had been blessed with the opportunity to travel to Bali! :D We left on Valentine's Day night and stayed there until the night of the 16th. It was a short yet indelible one spent with my maternal extended family :)

We stayed at a beautiful villa called Villa Coraffan in Cangguh. I'd never even heard of the area before, and it was quite far from..well, everywhere. However the views were spectacular! We arrived in the darkness and I was so excited to see that we were surrounded by a paddy field even though it . I couldn't wait to see what it was like in the day, so I went and took pictures after munching down some breakfast prepared by the in-house chef, Mr. Putu.

So without further ado, here are the photos of the paddy fields surrounding our stunning villa!

Next are some photos of our villa! I adored the pool, it was beyond cool. The whole place kind of reminded me of where the cast of ANTM Cycle 20 stayed at while they were shooting in Bali. I thought it was insane!

Welcoming the Year of the Horse

To everyone who celebrates, happy Chinese new year! May the Year of the Horse bring joy, good fortune and health to us all :)

Although somewhat losing in terms of celebrants and "grandness" of festivity compared to the solar new year, virtually every Chindo* family celebrates Chinese new year (lunar new year). It's the one event where us Chindos become more "Chinese" and "in touch with our roots". No sarcasm there. I'm all for cultural things. And anything that comes in a red (or any colour within that spectrum, etc) paper packet ;)

My CNY was celebrated in the same way as previous years, with the CNY Eve spent at my grandma's house, and the other day spent spreading kionghi's and receiving hong bao's (or angpao as we call it) at my other grandma's house.

One thing I am always excited about CNY (other than the angpao's) is the food :D

 

Above is the picture of the awesome potluck that is dimensions apart from the Chinese food of Panda Express and the like. Okay so maybe not every single one of the dishes were of Chinese origin, but yeah. Any attempts of dieting during Sincia (the Chindo name of CNY) is bound to fail.

「日本語」 日本語で初ポスト

皆さん、こんにちは！アリシアです。

日本語で投稿したことありませんので、今回は初めてです(*^▽^*)
前から日本語でポストを書きたかったのですが、自信がなくて今さらやってきました。
ミスも 結構あるはずですが、これからも日本語をもっと勉強したいと思います！
いつかペラペラになりたいです～

最近雨は少しずつ止んできました。今日も晴れでした！
今日は二人の友達と美術センターのスタジオでダンスの練習をしてみました。
ある大学のダンス部のメンバーの友達はモダンダンスが大好きで、彼女から教えてもらっていました。
その友達のかっこいいダンスを見てて、ずっと感動していました！
私は他の友達と二人でダンサーの友達を必死に従ってみてて・・・ちょっと情けないでした。笑 
いっぱい練習しないと体が堅くなっちゃうのでいけないって聞くと、ダンサーって大変だなぁと思ってました。
疲れていますが、楽しかったです♪

あと、もうすぐ旧正月なんですよ(^０^)
親戚と再会して一緒に旧正月をお祝いすることを凄く楽しみにしています！
美味しい食品もたくさん食べられます。もちろん全部手作りですね～
今年もレッドパケットいっぱい貰ってくれるのかなー？笑っ

今回はここまでです。
短くてつまらない投稿でしたが、読んでくれてありがとうございました！！
そのうちまた、日本語で投稿していきたいと思いますから
またこのブログに来てくださると嬉しいです！\(≧∇≦)/

アリシア

聴く中： めぐり逢い - アンドレ・ギャニオン (素敵な曲ですなぁ！）

Throwback Photoblog: Malaysia 2013

Japanese Sweet Potato Cake

I tried making this sweet potato cake the other day and it turned out deliciously. It's a very easy, no-frills recipe that anyone can make, so I hope you have fun trying it out!

Ingredients:

• 300ml of milk
• 150g Japanese sweet potato (steamed or baked)
• 80g of sugar
• 50g of hotcake mix (I used all-purpose flour with some baking powder)
• 50g margarine (or butter)
• 2 eggs

1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender or electric mixer.
2. Pour the mixture inside a round pan or oven-safe bowl lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake at 180°C for 40-50 minutes. Leave it in the oven and bake with the remaining heat for an additional 5 minutes if required.

Mine turned out like this :)

Pigging Out in Singapore Twenty-Thirteen

"The only time we're not eating is when we're on the move somewhere." 
- Clarita, my loyal travel companion and local guide in Singapore

Last week (November 14-17), I went on a weekend trip to Singapore to visit my good friends who are studying there (and to eat, duh).

I stayed at my friend's friends' acquaintance's place. They had wi-fi. The place was close to the MRT station. But being the filthy rich EZ-Link cardholders/lazy peeps that we were, we would take the bus (only to get off at the next station) more often than not. We got bread for breakfast and had access to powdered drinks. It was even better because my long-time best friend was staying out with me. When you put two best friends, some air-conditioning, and the almighty Internet in one room, needless to say, sleepless nights were inevitable.

 And selfies too (size has been diminished to ensure readers' sanity).

If I learned something from trying to wake up at a somewhat reasonable hour after staying up so late, NEVER use your favourite song at the time as an alarm. Chances are you won't ever be able to see it the same way again.

If I were to sum up my trip to Singapore, it would look something like this: 65% FOOD, 25% friends, 6% sightseeing, and 4% shopping. Of course I actually ate every single thing with my best friend so that actually makes the "friends" part 99%.

Among the many delicacies we indulged in during those four days of awesomeness were the infamous one-dollar ice cream, Garrett popcorn, Ladurée macarons, Lao Ban bean curd, IKEA's Swedish meatballs (35 meatballs plus two chicken wings), Tip Top curry puffs, and A LOT of Japanese food (curry, mostly).

Collage-Making for Perfectionists

Hey everyone!

Today I'll be sharing some tips for collage-making. I'm not a pro or anything, just here to share some of the lessons I learned (the hard way) while making picture collages of my friends and I.

(I know it's not the best example, but here's the one I made most recently)

1. You can't use one type of glue for everything.

Yes, clueless as I was, I so naïvely thought I could use that almighty UHU glue for everything, bearing in my mind the thought that I "just gotta make 'em stick together!" Bad way of thinking.