matcha love: Matcha-Lemon marble swirl pound cake

Oh Matcha. Matcha matcha matcha. Show me a person who doesn't love matcha and I'd like to bring him or her to a place to enjoy matcha in all its wondrous forms. Ochacha (my favorite matcha cafe) would be a good place to start. Seriously, there are times when I entertain thoughts of perhaps opening a matcha themed cafe next time. Of course, I'd probably try to throw in a few healthy dishes that can be eaten for lunch/dinner but there would also be some really funky matcha latte art involved. Now to first figure out how to make a proper matcha drink. 

That said, I could love Matcha for the calming effects it has on me or for the fact that it's got a gazillion health benefits - it purportedly improves memory and concentration, boosts your immune system, increases energy levels, ups your metabolism rate (and hopefully burns off those calories at the same time), and improves your cholesterol profile. More than enough reasons to start drinking it on a regular basis if you ask me. One thing I love doing is incorporating Matcha into baked goods because it just makes it seem a tad healthier. ;p So far I've tried Matcha Shortbread Cookies , Matcha financiers (post about those to come soon!) and most recently, Matcha and Lemon pound cake. Pound cakes are probably the easiest to bake for me. Cookies, I have some trouble with because I find it tough to get them crispy AND thin at the same time. But with pound cakes, all it needs is a good batter, into the oven it goes and within 20-30 minutes, a thing of beauty/major yum emerges.






(Matcha and lemon marble pound cake, with hot green tea on the side, of course ;D) 

I remember baking these on a late Sunday afternoon and by the time these came out, it was that golden hour between 5 - 6 pm, with the Sunday dampening down its golden rays and the neighbourhood quietening down as people start getting settling down/ready for dinner. It's probably one of my favorite times of the week. Give this a go with THIS recipe from Joy the Baker, whose recipes, I might add, have always worked out really well. :) I probably cut down the sugar content to half or two-thirds and it still tasted really good. I might add more matcha the next time I make this just to give it a stronger flavour. And thank god for youtube because I'd never marbled a cake before but I learnt how to with this video. Tell me how it works out if you try this too! xoxo

this place called home

One of the books I'm currently reading now is "What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast". Yeah, I'm that kind of person. I kinda have a weakness for self-help/improvement books because I do think that the mind can influence everything in life. Basically it's about how people utilise and make the most of their time. With weekends for example, while most people would want to just laze around on the couch and while away their time catching up on movies with a 10 hour marathon, there are people who make it a point to plan out their weekends so that they don't waste them away. (According to the book, because I sure don't harbour quotes like these in my mind at any one time) Anatole France once wrote, "Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another". I suppose that has a ring of truth to it. But mainly if the alternate form of labour is something one is passionate and enthusiastic about. Then through indulging in it (even if it might be challenging or tough in itself), one would find a sort of pleasure from having achieved something, if not external, then internal peace of mind at being able to do something for oneself.
For me, it's a constant struggle. Work gets so tiring that most of the time all I want to do is lie in bed during my free time/sleep in on the glorious mornings when I don't have to work. Almost always, I'm still trying to figure out how to make full use of time - to cherish it, relish it and yet not get stressed out by its finiteness. It's a different form of stress, because once you have it, the thought that it could slip away adds to the burden of not wanting to while it away thoughtlessly. Ever felt that way? 

But I digress. One of the things recommended by the author was to create a list of 100 Dreams - things to work into weekends so that each one becomes meaningful and not wasted away by the time spent deciding what to do. One of the things on my list would have to be Photography + Exploration. Ok that makes two. But they would have to be hand in hand. In the past few weeks whenever I go out with Donald, we try to explore areas that we haven't been to before in SG. I tend to bring my darling Minolta along while he snaps away with his iPhone5. It's great that he's into photography a lot more now because recently he's discovered the wonders of Vscocam and has been making full use of it in Instagram. ;p (Do check out his Instagram feed and follow along because he's got some great stuff there. *coughshamelesspluggingcough*) It always feels like there are so many places to explore, so many bits of SG to (re-)discover. And even if it's walking by the usual places like Orchard, sometimes it's so dang fun to put on touristy sunglasses. New perspectives always keep things fresh. 

So here are some snapshots of my SG. :D 



Random parrot outside a store in Jurong. This one was uncharacteristically...quiet.



Outside Necessary Provisions, a cafe which is apparently really good but EVERYTIME Donald and I have gone there in an attempt to indulge in coffee/a good meal, we've always been thwarted by 1. overcrowded cafe (and they actually did not let us in because they said it was too crowded!) 2. random closing hours 3. trouble outside about 20m away requiring us to call the police (but that's a story for another day). The long and short of it is that we have no managed to get inside...yet.



While walking along Tanjong Pagar after lunch one day.



One of THE coolest, most bad-ass Uncles by far. This guy is just plain awesome. He must be 70 or 80 years of age but by gosh is he FIT. He's always outside Ngee Ann City (at least I've seen him there during the weekends), swinging those humungous hooped beads, sometimes two at a time. He's been featured in the papers a number of times for his fitness regime heh. And when he needs to take a break (probably a toilet break), he just leaves his belongings behind, bucket full of cash/donations included. That's the trusting spirit that's so hard to come by nowadays. One day, I hope to be as daring, healthy, energetic and bold as this dude. I could wax lyrical about him the entire day. X) And he always gives the best poses.



I just adore him. And my sis actually managed to get a free lesson in bead-hooping from him the other day! Will need to find out her story soon.



Ohhh the smell of roasted chestnuts. One of my favourites. :) Managed to catch this chestnut selling uncle outside Liat Towers one evening at Orchard.



House of Tau Sah Piah in Balestier. Really tasty stuff! This was during the CNY period too so those snacks were perfect.



Coffee bean wholesaler in Balestier. Another smell I adore/which excites me but I'm still a tea guzzler more than coffee.



In the gorgeous Plain Vanilla cafe. My only qualm would be that the air-conditioning does not extend to the customer-eating space! If it did, it would be quite perfect. Because the cakes/pastries/cupcakes are DELISH.



Along Haji Lane, there's a vintage clothing store called Dulcetfig which is probably now famous for having 3 resident cats (well at last count, there were 3) in the store. If I ever had a store, I would get my future French Bulldog, Kong, to be the mascot.



One of the few times that cats make my heart melt. :)



Steeples Deli! A family favorite from way back in the day. I have many fond memories of this place. My dad used to bring my sis and me for weekend breakfasts/lunches here all the time last time. And without fail, I would get a classic beef burger (well done for the beef, because well, I was a kid) and a chocolate milkshake. And each time, I would polish off the entire thing. I had a humungous appetite (and belly) at the time and for some reason I used to think showing off how much I could eat was something that would score me brownie points in my parents' eyes. ;p That place had the best smoothies ever though. Rich, creamy, thick...cold... I don't eat beef anymore so if anything I would go back for a smoothie. And they have incredible Rueben sandwiches too. SIGH. <3 (It's at Tanglin Shopping Centre)



Mr Dapper Cat lost in his own thoughts in a store in Tiong Bahru. When I first came across it, I honestly thought it was a statue because it was so still. Until it shifted ever so slightly. Made for a good model.

Going through these photos and all those memories was actually pretty comforting. :) More next time! xoxo

the world may not be enough

(Evening time, with a full heart) 

I only really started reading Murakami's works last year after my boyfriend, Donald, started heavily recommending them to me. I remember dipping my toes into The Wild Sheep Chase many years back and emerging from it completely flummoxed, with no idea what the hell that book was about. I ended up staying away from Murakami since then since I usually like to draw some sort of conclusion from books rather than walk away from it without being able to grasp its core (silly eh, how sometimes we're brought up to think that an experience is only valuable insofar as what you can gain out of it in concrete terms) but it seems that now, more than ever, it's something I tend to crave for. The complete escapist experience that allows you to go into a small, quiet corner away from everything, deeper into yourself and not want to emerge.

I first discovered it with his book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is really an AMAZING piece of writing. It was the book that I kept by my side wherever I went in Montreal last year and I remember spending mornings at my favorite Olive et Gourmando, choosing the window seat at the end of the room where I could sit quietly, blissfully nibbling on the world's best almond croissant (it's true. i dare you to find a better one), all the while being transported to that inexplicable Murakami world. It has to boil down to the details. One thing I love is how he always has a thing for what the protagonists have for their meals. It's always about the guy whipping up a simple dish of grilled fish... steamed vegetables...miso soup... all of which is so relatable and realistic. I mean you can literally imagine so many youngsters doing that nowadays. Then he throws in the talking cats and mute and live skinning of soldiers (which will leave you scarred . -_- That said, so far I've managed to get through some of his other books (South of the Border, West of the Sun/ Kafka on the Shore.) all of which were perfect little spots for me to escape into from work which just happens to be so tedious and...unenjoyable for a large portion. 

Finally, probably sometime last month (I forget when I actually started), I decided to embark on his magnum opus, 1Q84, which turned out to be pretty darn awesome. It's a lot easier to pick up and dip into in spurts whenever I had time in the evening after work, compared to Wind-Up Bird which really demanded a lot more MIND. It was something to look forward to almost every night after dinner when I just needed something to wind myself down before the next work day. I would switch on the night light, settle down beneath my comforter and feel myself easing into the world of Tengo and Aomame, until I found myself dozing off and unable to continue and then it would be time to sleep. Looking back, it's something I'm thankful for, because this particular rotation at work has been physically so much more draining than before, and at least when I look back on it, I can remember this bit that provided solace; a calm amidst the storm outside. 

Certain books end up defining a period of time in your life because it's almost as if you've split yourself into two - one to carry on with the every day functions of life and the other, retreating and immersing into the other world such that when you return, you've almost always left a part of yourself behind. When I look back now, I'll remember that that was the 1Q84 period of my life. And similarly, Montreal was also the Wind-Up Bird little period of my life.

On a side note, 1Q84 turned out to be a great romantic novel. You can sort of guess at how things will turn out right from the beginning but it's only right at the end that things really started getting sweet, and in Japanese fashion, very quietly and subtly so. 

"He knew too, that it would take time for him to acclimate himself to this new world that had come upon him. His entire way of thinking, his way of seeing things, the way he breathed, the way he moved his body - he would need to adjust and rethink every single element of life. And to do that, he needed to gather together all the time that existed in this world. No - maybe the whole world wouldn't be enough". 

SWEET MUCH?? Donald says Murakami's just pandering to the masses but I REALLY like it when he does. I just lap it all up like rainwater in a desert. 

And as with all lengthier novels that you've invested a part of yourself in, sometimes you just don't feel like letting go of that world. After turning the last page and closing the book, I couldn't get started on a new novel for a couple of days. I just wanted a bit of that world to linger on a bit longer. It's a strange feeling of wistfulness. On the one hand, I can't wait to get to the end of the book, to unravel more of the story. But about 3/4 of the way in, I start getting a little forlorn, knowing that soon, it'll come to an end and I won't be able to replicate the experience again. Because there's nothing like reading a novel for the first time. All the anticipation and wonder of what will happen next can only be experienced that one time. And while I'd like to remain in that world a little longer, going back in to re-read some portions don't quite capture that feeling of getting lost. And once the book is over, there's nothing to do but attempt to hang on to those remaining threads that are fast becoming thin and wispy as life comes back at you with full force. 

Wow, what a ramble. But what can I say? I just love to read. ;)

Here's to a beautiful weekend ahead. 
xoxo 

Compl(i)ments of

Compl(i)ments of is a place I've been meaning to return to ever since I stepped foot into it about a month ago. I stumbled upon it when Donald and I had decided to check out the exhibition - Google Translating Tokyoto , a wonderful cozy exhibition (put up by an insanely creative family who decided to document their trip to Tokyo in the form of a famzine/'family-zine') held at the gallery space in Temporium. Temporium's part diner/gallery/pop-up store which apparently may only be around till the middle of March (!) =( but I'm hoping they'll decide to carry on in that premises. Compl(i)ments of is the diner portion, featuring coffee from everyone's favorite Papa Palheta and beautiful ceramic wares by the ceramics collective Weekend Warrior. Simply put, it's a gorgeous space. The minute I walked in, I could feel my heart quietening down, the way you might feel when walking into a hushed, rarefied space. It's been a long while since I've been to a cafe/place so pretty in its design.




It had been drizzling that afternoon so we skipped through the puddles and raindrops to Temporium. All worth it because the exhibition was great and the rest time after in the cafe was perfect. :)



Isn't that a great way to display the cup and plate? Everything was designed so beautifully in this place; all down to the last detail.



Enjoying a rainy afternoon cappuccino and accompanying biscuits. 



Les perpetual face.  

Temporium 

72 – 74 

DUNLOP STREET SINGAPORE 209400 

(I've been meaning to sign up for one of their courses! They periodically hold courses such as Terrarium-making which would be sooo fun. Do check them out) 

Ever since starting work, I think my social life has definitely taken its toll. But I'm pretty sure most of my colleagues would say the same. It's tough. The first year is always going to tough and we all knew that from the start. More and more, whenever I have free time, one of the things I crave doing is 1. lying in bed with a good book (this past year has been about Murakami)(currently in the middle of his opus, 1Q84) 2. spending time in a quiet place sipping on tea and feeling the stress ebb away. So much of it has been about the search for down time. Without which, I would be a lot more worn out and just plain frazzled. 

So here's to a great rest of the week, with pockets of precious down time purposefully snuck in. ;) 

xoxo

P.S. HAPPY CNY!! 

Happy New Year

It's hard to believe that it's going to be the new year already. This year has been such an incredible one. There were so many things that happened and now that I think back... I can't really think of any other way to describe this year other than EVENTFUL. :)

A couple of reasons why: 1. It's the year I graduated and started work. Oh the PAIN of work and the burden of having to experience the responsibilities as a working adult. No longer can I just take the afternoon off if there are no tutorials or if I just FEEL like taking a break and going off for some foot reflexology. God, I miss those days. But I suppose, there's nothing like finally receiving some money every month that can be put towards travel. ;p And while there have been so many tiring/trying/downright depressing days, I have survived this far... and in a way it's a relief to think that the most difficult Intern year will be finishing soon... ok in another 4 months but that's a teeny detail.

2. It's the year I had the most incredible graduation trip(s) with my mum and a group of the craziest/best travel buddies I could've asked for (recall New Zealand ;p). 'Nuff said. I love those guys I travelled with and I always feel like giving them a great big hug everytime I look through out photos. Ever tried driving a 5 person caravan through the long winding NZ roads for miles and miles with a wonky sound system? Hilarious.

3. It's the year I got to do some great traveling with awesome experiences. :) Not only did I manage to have a great time with my mum in Europe, my grad trip group in New Zealand, but I was also able to go to Montreal, one of my favorite cities, for the Osheaga Festival. That was pretty amazing because it was something I had decided on almost on a whim, after seeing the incredible line up for the 3 day festival. And after I had bought the tickets to the festival it was like... ok now I need to buy the plane tickets. And then everything else fell into place. I loved seeing everyone's shocked expression when I told them I was going to Montreal over ... 8 days? :) I had maxed out my leave for that period of time to travel but it was so worth it. And I DID sort of wipe out the paltry amount in my bank account since I had just started work as well but really... I have no regrets at all. It was such a wonderful, relaxing experience for me. Well, a lot of it was just me walking the streets of Montreal, enjoying the gorgeous late summer - early autumn chilly weather, popping into cafes, finishing up that tome that is The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (and I would definitely recommend that it you're looking for a book to lose yourself in) and walking up early in the mornings feeling slightly stuffy because there was no air conditioning in the Air BnB room that I was staying in but it was so peaceful and quiet nonetheless. Ok after recapping it briefly in my mind, I'm all prepared to go back again. :) But hopefully with some people this time. Montreal is too fantastic a place to experience alone.

4. It's the year of counting blessings. I started this ritual of posting on Facebook every few days something about work that I was grateful for, because I knew that if I didn't actively do something like that, I would just become depressed and full of angst very easily since I don't particularly look forward to work. But counting blessings really does help lift one's mood and overall outlook on life. :) I'm so grateful for the tiniest of things... perhaps a text message in the night while I'm on call that keeps me company... friends/colleagues who can sympathise with everything and who offer an invaluable well of emotional support... warm barley water cooked by my dearest Ahpo (grandmama) when she knows I'm tired out from work (that I happen to be sipping now :D)... the joy of going on leave and packing my luggage in the middle of the week when everyone else has to go in to work the next day hehehe...

Oh it's just a whirlwind of emotions all the time. For every bit that's that much more trying, there's always something else to be grateful/thankful for which buoys my mood and helps me get through things. It's something that I want to continue doing for the rest of my life. Always being grateful for things.

(Happy Christmas. Taken while in Ginza (probably) in Tokyo, Dec 2013.) 

It took me awhile to remember the circumstances around this photo because at first all I could see were the lights... then I saw the person in the photo with her handphone and then it hit me. We were walking around at night when we spotted a bunch of prettily lit Xmas trees that were part of the 'Illumination series' of Xmas decor across town. There were so many tourists taking photos of the same tree and while Donald was not particularly impressed, I thought it would be fun to take a photo of someone taking a photo. :) I'm just glad that the bokeh turned out nicely! Quite unexpected and another reason to love film.

Now it's time for me to settle down and get ready for work tomorrow. Yes, working on New Year's Day and through the night as well. But hopefully it'll be incredibly uneventful and smooth-sailing. I'm just grateful for these quiet moments at home tonight that allowed me to reflect on the past year of events. Facebook's 2013 in Review thingamajiggy sort of prompted this rumination as well.

Here's wishing everyone a blessed New Year ahead. :) Would love to hear about your thoughts on the year past/ahead as well.

Happy New Year.

xoxo

Minolta #1

Something I've been meaning to share with you guys for quite a while now :D -- I bought my first proper film camera a few months back! And boy, has it been such a joy ride shooting film. I had been meaning to get myself a film camera (in fact, I remember spending hours at lectures towards the final months leading up to the exams, googling film cameras and pondering about just which one to get as a starter. the more boring the lecture/the most stressed I felt, the more frantic the googling and the wilder those internal flights of fancy would be) and it just felt like my graduation trip (s) would be the perfect time to make use of one. So I ended up getting a Minolta- X370 off eBay and thankkkk goodnessss it's in great working condition. There WAS a period of time when it got a little wonky causing a 'capping' problem (i actually googled - 'what causes the photos to have a portion unexposed and black??') but miraculously that seemed to have resolved by itself. The camera doctor I brought my baby to see actually said there was nothing wrong physically wrong with it and that I would just have to continue and see how it went, "as that is the nature of film". I remember walking out of The Camera Hospital (trust me, I'm not kidding about the name. ;p) feeling slightly perturbed and more than a little worried. After all, I didn't want to keep shooting if it would only result in close to half the shots cut off and unexposed. But then, amazingly, that problem hasn't really surfaced very much at all anymore. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that when it's extremely bright outside, I tend to make the shutter speed its maximum 1000 rather than leave it to Auto. Who knows? I'm hoping it'll continue performing admirably as it has all this while. :)

There's something incredibly addictive about shooting film. Granted, it IS a more expensive hobby but there are so many facets to it that make it worthwhile. First of all, it's all about delayed gratification. That was something I took awhile to get used to at the beginning. That flustered feeling of uncertainty as the thoughts 'did I manage to capture that shot the way I wanted to??' whizzed through my head. There are times still when I take a second shot if I really REALLY want to capture that moment and I wasn't sure if the first one was taken well or not. Because with film, there really isn't the opportunity for second chances. Each shot is the final product in itself (to a large extent). But in that uncertainty, lies the allure. Because each shot is its end in itself, every shot is unique and cannot be duplicated. With digital cameras, you can take a multitude of shots, often carelessly and in a trigger-happy fashion because there is very minimal opportunity cost in taking yet another, less well-thought through shot. There's always the delete button and there's photoshop. But with film, since every shot does cost that extra bit of money and IS that much more precious, I realised that I started to really think about my shots. I started asking myself each time, is this something worth capturing? Does this moment mean enough for me to want to capture? Am I taking the best shot I can take? Should I take a step back and make sure that the framing and composition is better before I press the button? And in asking these questions, I think I've become a more careful, deliberate photographer. Every photo has to mean something. Every photo that I capture on film has to be a moment or feeling special enough for me to want to hold on to and look back on for years to come. So with the photos I take with film, I tend to be able to associate my feelings about that memory more easily because of all the extra thought I put into it before taking that shot. :) It's definitely a different feeling. For sure, shooting digital is way more convenient and cheaper, but there's a discipline that comes with shooting film that probably benefits me as a someone hoping to grow as a photographer...and as a person.

Plus, with film, I don't feel the need to edit my photos very much. I'm usually really pleased with the colours and the way the photos turn out that after getting them scanned in, usually the most I do is bump up the brightness...maybe tinker with the contrast/exposure a little. Pretty minimal changes. In a way, I just want to keep those photos are authentic as possible. I like the raw feeling of film. It is what is it, for everyone to see.

So here we go, some shots from my very first roll of film. :)



#1. Living Room. (In my best friend's place in Heidelberg)



#2. Buck. (The sweetest, calmest, and possibly oldest, dog that I've known so far.  He belongs to my best friend. I hope he's still going strong now. I love how he always chills on his doggy mattress in a patch of sunlight after breakfast. That's the life.)



#3. Waiting. (In a great cafe called Cafe Nerd in downtown Heidelberg.)



#4. Bicycles. (Spotted along a street in Rio Maggiore, one of the 5 towns that make up the seaside towns of Cinque Terre in Italy.)



#5. Manarola. (I was soooo happy when I was able to capture this shot! :) I'd seen the shot of these incredible houses in the town of Manarola when researching on Cinque Terre for my graduation trip. It was a dream to take a similar shot of all these colorful houses by the cliffside. That day, it happened to be drizzling and my mum and I were trudging along the hiking path, trying to take whatever photos that we could amidst the drizzle. Then as we reached this vantage point, the rain stopped (almost miraculously so!) and out came the sun, bathing everything in a gorgeous patch of sunlight. It couldn't have been more fortuitous.)



#6. The crashing of waves. (At one of the Cinque Terre towns.)



#7. Stairs toward the marina in the town of Corniglia. (Man those stairs were a killer. But they were so, so pretty. There was practically no one taking the same trail so it was a quiet, beautiful, peaceful walk. Those walks where the times when I really got the chance to catch up with my mommers and bond during the trip :))



#8. Manarola flowers. (There were so many lovely flowers all over the Cinque Terre towns! This was at the vantage point in Manarola... where I also happened to bump into a classmate from school. What were the odds eh? But it's a small world after all.)



#9. Rose garden in Corniglia.



#10. Manarola bird.



#11. Sleepy Corniglia cat.



#12. View from our hotel in Paris. 



#13. Just another Parisian street. (I love how so many buildings are many beautiful with the intricately designed grills outside windows.)



#14. A little closer to home.



#15. Lost, possibly forgotten. (After a trip to 7-11.) 

That was just the first of many rolls of film I've taken so far. :) Nowadays I just end up using my Minolta whenever I go out because most of the time even if I do take photos with my digital camera I end up not having the time to edit them quickly enough and they end up in the memory card for months down the road (as you probably have noticed). But with film, I'm always soooooo eager to develop them to find out exactly how they turned out. Each roll is a surprise - not all have turned out right (I'm still working on my focusing since it's a manual lens) but whenever there are a few shots that come out just the way I'd hoped for... it's such a great feeling. 

More soon. :) 

------

Though I had to work both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, it was still pretty great in the after-work hours. It's really only when your weekends aren't guaranteed off that you appreciate every single second off work to the absolute core. I suppose there is some truth to how life's greatest happiness can only be tasted after going through suffering. I never used to like that idea because if there's an option, I'd rather not suffer at all. But there's nothing like the feeling/thrill of fleeing the workplace/switching off the work phone and going off to finally have some fun after work. This weekend I managed to go to this really great exhibition called Google Translating Tokyoto, by the family/art collective, Holycrap.sg. :P Don't you just love the name? It was held in this gorgeous space in Temporium a place that's part gallery/part cafe/part retail store and has possibly one of the prettiest cafes I've been into so far. I've taken a few photos with my minolta and hopefully they come out nicely. It was a cozy exhibition about the family's first trip to Tokyo with their two young kids and armed with a point and shoot camera each, they decided to document their travels and eventual came up with a family zine (FAMzine) to share with others. I think it's such a great idea. And the kids are totally creative and darling. But more on that with photos soon. :) 

Here's to a great week ahead.

xxoo 

best coffee between the earth and sky

One of the most gorgeous places I've been to in my life. EVER.

View from the Mount John Observatory at Lake Tekapo. I guess most people would make the journey there to gaze at stars in the night sky but it's also a perfect place to enjoy brunch in the day with good company.



The waters were THAT clear and the skies a perfect blaze of wispy clouds. I kid you not.



And atop the mountain lies the Astro Cafe , a place that claims to have the best coffee between the earth and the sky. :D Not too sure about that because I tucked in to a deliciously warm cup of hot chocolate since it was cold and chilly up there. The food was regular fare - sandwiches, cakes, financiers... made all the more special because of the location. I wonder how many couples come to this spot for their first date. Wouldn't it be amazing to watch the sunset and then enjoy a feast of stars after? SIGH. 



Meet a regular's adorable god! :) I'm pretty sure he was a regular because well he was one of those congenial old men you'd imagine to be retired but spends his free time walking his dog to funky places to meet new people because he can. And the dog definitely knows his way around the observatory point - look how at home he is. 





Agh if this was a few months ago I would definitely be able to recall his name but for the life of me, I can't now. Gosh has it already been... 7 months since my graduation trip? Time flies so much faster than we ever realize.




Mmm-mmm nothing like hot chocolate with marshmallows for brunch! 



I love the colour of those pretty blue cups against the slate grey stone table. 



What a way to enjoy summer vacation for a kid eh? For anyone, for that matter. 

So once again, another recommendation for your NZ trip. Seriously, I would put this on a bucket list/list of places to visit in one's life!

-----

Ahhh it's the first of December already. I feel like I should be reflecting a little more since it's that time of the year when resolutions need to be made in order to make some improvements in life. But boy, has it been a crazy busy past few months of work. Most days after work all I want to do is either lie in bed doing absolutely nothing but enjoy the peace, quiet and comfort of my blankets or the solace of a good book/tv show. The amazing thing is that I've managed to read more books (for leisure) in the past few months since starting work than I have read probably in the past 1-2 years as a student. ;p For now, it's great because I don't have to force myself to study. There are always pros and cons of any situation and now while the obvious con would be work that I don't always enjoy and find overly draining at times, this is also the year when I can kick back after work and simply do whatever I want to do. I need to remember that and enjoy these times while I still can. 

See? Always in need of more reflection. 

xxoo