Arrowtown

Why, hello there. It's been quite awhile hasn't it! Gosh, the last time I posted I'd envisioned myself posting and sharing photos a little bit more frequently but the past month has whizzed by. I think it's good though, when work goes by quickly. ;p In a way I'm looking forward to the end of this first year of work but there have been so many times during this posting that I've sat back and thought that man, things are going really well at the moment. It's definitely not as stressful as other upcoming postings and I actually do get most Sundays off so... there's so much to be grateful for and to enjoy at the moment. Am hoping I'll always keep feeling that way. 

I just got back from my very first leave since starting work! X) It was such a great trip - to Montreal! A lot of my friends wonder why on earth I would travel to the other end of the earth (nearly, quite literally) for not even 2 weeks (sigh, leave limited to a maximum of 7 days not inclusive of weekends) but seriously, there are always so many reasons to go to Montreal. This time, the MAJOR push factor was the Osheaga music festival with its insane line-up of bands. ;) But ok I'm getting ahead of myself. Before sharing the Montreal photos I feel the compulsive need to at least finish up those from New Zealand. I know you're probably thinking, you just traveled again?! But there are a few things I believe in living for ;) - food, music, travel... amongst other things.

So here's another place to recommend if you ever decide to head to NZ's South Island for a holiday - the gorgeous Arrowtown! 



Aren't the colours just incredible? We'd heard that this was THE place to go to to experience the beautiful autumn foliage and it's a very short drive away from Queenstown, the main town that we did all our crazy adventure sports at.



It's places like these that always make me wish SG had 4 seasons in a year. 4 chances to take a new set of photos with the changing environment each time...4 chances to update your wardrobe... 



This town is peaceful, quiet...perfect for a day trip if you're looking to find some tranquility/to be near nature. Probably a place that I wouldn't mind retiring in. On the left is the picture of the town library. Took this while we were on a walking tour that was supposed to be able the trees in Arrowtown. I kid you not. The title of the talk that we spotted on the brochure was sth akin to An Introduction to the Arrowtown Trees. For some reason at the time we thought it would be a good way to see some Arrowtown sights and learn a little about the place... we didn't last more than 10 minutes into the walk. I'm still hoping they didn't notice us leaving but it was probably a very obvious sight - the only 5 Chinese people in the crowd surreptitiously sneaking off when the group walked on to the next tree.

 
 

Couldn't help notice that there were so many picture-perfect bits in Arrowtown. Plus, the flowers were gorgeousss. It was all I could do to not stop at almost every single one to take a photo.

  

Looking back, that trip really was such good fun. There was a particular Samsung ringtong that we used as our alarm every morning - it's the gentle sound of running water coupled with a soothing melodious melody in the background. Whenever I heard that ringtone at work I'm immediately transported back to the early mornings when we'd hear that ringtone, enjoy it for awhile...then unanimously ignore it (all except for the poor person who had to switch it off heheh). Ok that's all for tonight...off to sleep. Feeling jet-lagged already. I'm SO relieved that the next two days are public holidays - time to catch up with friends, editing/developing photos and sleeeeep. XD xoxo

kaleidoscopic

ZZZ. Kinda tired. I often find myself in this dilemma - when there's time, to sleep or to go out and DO STUFF? More often than not, I end up choosing the latter, especially post-call when I'm actually really tired but there's still that buzz of adrenaline that propels me to do something that I really want to do but only end up half enjoying because I get too fatigued by the end of it. ;p That was quite a long sentence. But essentially, whenever I have free time I keep thinking it's too precious to waste on sleep. But after awhile when the sleep debt builds up, I start to realize that nothing is really that fun when you're too tired to enjoy it.

Most times now my idea of fun is just doing something extremely low-energy. Something that requires minimal effort but accords me a whole lot of inner peace and comfort. Reading for one, is pretty much top on my list now. :) As is scrolling through Instagram and Facebook. Things that you only require your hands/eyes/fingers to move while the rest of your body can remain ensconced on your bed of fluffy pillows and blanket, remaining absolutely motionless.

In other news, here are a couple more photos from my NZ trip :) If you're ever in Christchurch in the South Island, I would highly recommend going to this great cafe - Addington Coffee Co-op. It was a recommendation in our Lonely Planet guidebook (which is really quite impressive because we managed to get a lot of great places from that book) and our very first brunch stop on our very first morning in NZ. Momentous indeed. I just remember us being REALLY hungry and bounding out of our rental car because we were so excited for some food.



The boys and our new friend, the random elephant we found on the table. ;p I like places like these where you never know what you might find. Of course, after the initial novelty of taking photos with the elephant toy, we started asking questions like, to whom does this belong to and... more importantly, where has it been and...WHO HAS TOUCHED IT BEFORE. After that it was outta sight, outta mind.  

BRUNCH. :D The food was so good in our hungry hippo tummies. There's something about the combination of spinach + smoked salmon + eggs benedict + hollandaise sauce that makes it such a winner. Technically it should be pretty easy to cook/assemble once you get the whole poached egg technique down to pat right? But everyone just ends up going to a cafe/restaurant for it. Nonetheless, it's a dish I dream of whipping up next time for a homemade brunch over the weekend. 

Another piece of latte art for the road. And Yisheng over on the right, who always looks like a million dollars, with our elephant friend (before we started questioning its origins). 

Addington Coffee Co-op 

297 Lincoln Rd Addington, 

Christchurch 8024, New Zealand 

+64 3-943 1662

Another reason to love this place is for its great service and comfortable atmosphere. The owner (I presume) was so friendly. He simply came along and struck up a conversation with us, giving us a couple of recommendations for places to go to by car. I suppose this sort of casual bantering among strangers is not uncommon in places that are known for the friendliness of its inhabitants like NZ or Aussie but it's always a nice refreshing change from the culture back in SG. 

Yet another place that I LOVED -- Wanaka. It was a place we stopped at for a mere 2 hours or so on the way from Christchurch to...Fox Glacier? But I totally fell in love with the small-town charm and tranquility of this place. It was just by the lake, Lake Wanaka, and while it was quite a quaint and peaceful place, there was a mini farmer's market out in a park where a school marching band was practising... so much life bubbling beneath its quiet exterior.  It's the kind of place I would consider retiring to. ;)



The amazing 30 apples (at least it seemed that way to us!) for $10 deal from a very friendly Malaysian seller at the mini farmer's market. Those apples were petite but so sweet and juicy and we all got free samples before caving in to that deal. At first we had a whole bunch of ideas for the apples (and I even considered making an apple crumble ;p but of course it never quite materialized once we realized the limitations of our Campervan style journey) and it was fun, having an apple readily available every day within reach. But after awhile it was just like, where are all these apples coming from! 



<3 I do like these photo. A lot. X) And I've no idea what I did but somehow the colours just turned out just the way I like them. I think it's the Wanaka color palette. 




One of my favorite photos of the boys. :)) I can't help but laugh/smile endearingly whenever I see this. It's so THEM. I'm always so glad when I'm able to capture a moment which isn't just about people in a particular place in time, but also brings with it the characters/personalities of the people inside brimming forth. If you knew them, you'd know what i mean. ;) 

Time to chill on my bed before going to sleep. If there's one thing that I really like about working now (if anything), it's that at night, I don't have to study. And that time is perfect for reading. I haven't read for leisure in such a long time but I love being able to cuddle up at night with a book. There really is always a silver lining somewhere. 

xoxo 

grateful for

I can't quite believe how fast time has gone by. So many things have happened in the short span of these two months. My final exams as a student have finally been surmounted. ;p Sadly, there are more exams to come in the next few years but at least this great burdensome one is over and I'll worry about the next ones when the time comes. Work has started and although I'm starting with a relatively 'slack' rotation, it can be so. dang. tiring. Weekends aren't even guaranteed rest days and I'm always pleasantly surprised when I can leave work while the sun is still up(!). I suppose if you expect very little out of things, you'll always be pleasantly surprised.

Today has been one of the most restful days yet. :D One blissful Sunday of no work. I woke up earlier than usual, read Hector and The Search for Lost Time (I do like the Hector series of books quite a bit; it's written in that simplistic sort of way that I know is meant to be able to capture both the child + adult reader but has more meaning for the adult reader)(and at the level my brain is functioning now, I tend to absorb simple things a lot easier Xp), snoozed a little in bed, tucked in beneath my comforters, enjoying the rhythmic breeze of cold air from the air-conditioner beating gently against my face, woke up, read a couple more chapters, snoozed again... until I finally felt rested enough to wake up. :) I've never been a huge fan of the saying, 'you're only know true happiness if you've experienced true sorrow' or something akin to that because I'm not one for much suffering. But there is so much truth in that statement. Days off from work have taken on a quality so sweet and so tantalising - not something I felt until I started work.

One thing I've started doing since I started work is writing a little post on Facebook - a little pinch of gratitude for something that happened in the day that I would like to put out to the giant cosmic world. I try to do so almost daily - sometimes I forget, either because I'm too tired to remember or because I'm too busy enjoying my free time outside :D (always swinging between extremes here)(the same way now I'm always either ravenously hungry or excessively replete). Perhaps some people might find it lame, but I think it helps put things into perspective. I have a plan - at the end of the work year, I would've gathered 300 odd lines of gratitude, and I'll print them all out onto tiny slips of paper and make a collage out of it to frame on my wall. Something of a reminder of what most people in my field find is there most trying year of all.

I remember on my first day of work, waking up a little earlier than expected because of those dreadful nerves. And I remember thinking to myself... I'm so grateful that I had the most incredible break ever. I had pretty much the most awesome grad trip(s) with people I love and adore and it was an accumulation of experiences that are wonderful enough to keep me buoyed through hard times for the rest of the year.

One of the places I was able to go to was New Zealand. It was my first time there and I went with a group of my favorite classmates who are so fun, spontaneous and downright crazy that it was the perfect adventure of a lifetime. There are way too many photos I snapped of us there and I'm trying to come up with a more logical way of showing them over the next few posts but here's a little teaser of our time there. :D

Yeah. So I did travel with 4 other guys. But these guys are the most harmless bunch of dudes ever. ;p (And through not helping me undo and re-make my caravan bed so that they would have space to play bridge in the car in the daytime, they never let me forget that I was their bro!)

A kea we met along the way! There was a sign that said DO NOT FEED THE KEA or it will attack your car. And we were like really??? But then... it descended upon our car. More photos next time. ;p



NZ was just full of these random scenic spots! Sometimes we would stop by and take a look around and snap some photos. But other times... especially when the wind blew, we just hopped down for a few minutes and scampered back up into the car.



One thing I LOVE about NZ would have to be all these long quiet highways that stretch on for miles and miles with NO OTHER CAR ahead or behind! There were a couple of times when we just stopped by the road, did a couple of random jump shots RIGHT SMACK in the middle of the road (photographic evidence here).









Adrenaline junkies we are. Mario style! XD 



And this badass Fox Glacier cow with a heart shaped birthmark on its forehead was too cool to not capture. I ended up having to walk reaally close to the fence and was a little worried because these cows were pretty huge and seemed to be edging closer... but like so much of NZ, it was a part of nature in its tranquility.

Alrighty then, time for something else now. The one good thing about starting work is not having to worry about studying on days off (FOR NOW ><) so that definitely frees up time for other things. Haven't had the energy to bake very much but I have had the craving to just read as much as I can now to catch up on some great books. Currently on my reading list is, "Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul" (just because while my heart lies with independent cafes, I have to say Starbucks really got me through my exams and my first few calls in hospital ;p) and... The Little Prince, which is probably about time.

xoxo (I have a feeling the next post won't be too far down the road!)

a pause

I've been listening to some really great songs lately.

're: Stacks' -- Bon Iver 

I think the constant act of studying makes you think about things. Needing to spend hours huddled at a desk flipping through pages (surprisingly dog-eared and highlighted because I can’t seem to remember having gone through those pages at all!), stealing justified breaks in the form of meals/bath times/tv-time (gotta have some of that), makes you wonder what you want to do with your life.

There are times when images of an ideal life come to mind – I’m in a brightly lit kitchen, scooping hunks of pumpkin and roasting pine nuts for what appears to be a pumpkin/butternut squash soup. The walls are white (because everything looks better against a white backdrop) with accents of color in the form of photo frames or knick-knacks on wooden shelves. In the background the soulful strumming of a Kings of Convenience song (at the moment it’s Renegade) or Elbow’s August and September is playing. I make my way out to the dining area to set the table, ‘pad-pad-padding’ in my comfy winter socks because it’s Autumn and there’s a perfect chill in the crisp air. Perhaps I’m having a friend or two over but someone will be bringing a roll of freshly baked baguette from a bakery that we can break and share over the soup. I have no idea what I do for a living but hopefully it’s something that gives me time like this over weekends to take things slow.

I guess there are times when I think of little things in my life that I’d like to have but I can’t see the overall picture or how things like that would even fit in. These give me hope, though. The thought that one day in the distant future I’ll be able to experience something like that and it’s coming, just that I need to get through the present with its own share of obstacles first.

I want to have faith that in the future something like that will be possible but at the same time, I worry that dwelling too much on what-might-be detracts from fully appreciating everything that is happening right now. It’s this constant ambiguity of emotions that characterizes moments when I break off from studying and simply stare off because my brain needs a break.

A friend of mine said to me recently though, that there’s no point worrying so much because what will be, will be, and that life has a way of getting us there. Some people scoff at quasi-sentimental and philosophical statements like these but I lap ‘em up like a dog licking up remnants of a delicious apple pie. I love the idea that we can store our worries away, pack ‘em up in a satchel and toss them into a dark room for the time being, because our path is taken care of and wherever we’re meant to be, we’ll get there. Just thinking about that brings a sense of calm and quells the ball of anxiety within me whenever I think about the exams and then working life that lies ahead. 

'In the Open' -- Benjamin Francis Leftwich And because sometimes, music captures a feeling better than words. Give it a go. 
xoxo

The Perfect X'mas Cookies

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! :D Here's wishing you guys a very belated Merry Xmas. December has just come and gone in practically the blink of an eye! It's been a tiring, busy busy month but you know what? It's been punctuated with so many fun moments - lots and lots of GOOD FOOD with friends and family... as much baking as I could sneak into my schedule without feeling overly guilty about not spending that same time studying...meeting up with people who've come back from overseas for holidays...and just feeling Xmassy and happy all round whenever I look at the decorations at Orchard Road or listen to the Xmas songs that are on a loop at the supermarket whenever I hop in for grocery shopping. :D It's all the small things that add up to a nice Christmassy feel. Can't quite believe that it's over already :( BUT on the bright side, there are many more Christmasses to look forward to AND one can never stay too sad about the passing of Xmas and the New Year because there's always Chinese New Year to look forward to! In fact, I wouldn't mind celebrating as many holidays as possible because then there'd always be something to look forward to. One of the things I love most about SG would have to be the number of public holidays contributed by the different racial groups. Moaaaarrr please. 

This year I had a nice long list of things I wanted to bake during the Xmas season and I'm proud to say that I managed quite a number of them! :D If you must know, the list included things like:
- ginger snaps 
- gingerbread men 
- strawberry linzer cookies 
- matcha shortbread cookies 
- regular shortbread cookies 
- christmas stollen 
- christmas cake 
- cranberry and pistachio biscotti 

HMM now that I look through it, I only managed about half the list. I'll have to try the other half next year. I must say though that the verdict I've reached for this year is that the perfect Xmas cookies to bake are... SHORTBREAD COOKIES! For so many reasons -- 1. Who doesn't love and CRISPY, BUTTERY piece of shortbread cookie? It's one of my favourites! 2. The dough can be chilled and then rolled out to be cut in so many different shapes and sizes. 3. You can alter the flavour slightly by adding melted chocolate ;p yumyum 4. They are incredibly easy to decorate; in fact, they are kinda like basic sugar cookies except richer. In that way, you can add sprinkles, granulated sugar, layer frosting on top... the works. Here's what I did this year:



Ta-dah! :) It's a mini shortbread cookie Xmas tree! I ended up giving this to my Secret Santee (if there's such a word) as part of her present but it's pretty good to bake for any Xmas party as an edible piece of decoration.




With the actual Xmas tree in the background... (Yeah, no real big tree for my family. ;p This mini one was from Muji and I quite adore it. Except for the fact that it was messily decorated with random ornaments I scrounged up from past Xmasses.)

AND, another way that you can jazz up these shortbread cookies which I seriously like:



Drizzling them with melted chocolate! :D This was the first time I tried it out and though it was rather messy, I like how it turned out semi-artistic...in a rather haphazard manner.



HERE'S the recipe for the shortbread cookies! It's almost the same one that I used for THESE MATCHA COOKIES awhile back but I had to edit the portion regarding the flour because it was really getting out of hand with the original proportions (way too little in my opinion).

CLASSIC SHORTBREAD COOKIES :D (adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini)

Ingredients: 
- 100 grams of good-quality butter, softened (add 1/4 teaspoon of salt if you use unsalted butter) 
- 50 grams of confectioner's sugar 
- 1 egg yolk 
- 1 and 1/2 cups to 1 and 3/4 cups of flour (as long as you get dough that is not sticky and easy to shape into a round disk to chill in the fridge) 
- 40 grams finely ground almonds 
- 2 tablespoons sugar, preferably an unrefined cane sugar in coarse crystals, such as turbinado or demerara for sprinkling on top (optional)

1. In a medium mixing-bowl, cream together the butter and confectioner's sugar with a spatula. Add the egg yolk and mix it in thoroughly.

2. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt and ground almonds and stir with a whisk to remove any lumps. Add to the first bowl and stir it in until the mixture comes together to form a ball; don't overwork the dough. Lightly shape the dough into a ball. Wrap in cling film and place in the freezer to firm up for 40 minutes (or in the fridge for 2 hours).

3. Preheat the oven to 180° C (360° F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface till about 1/4 inch thick (it's easier to remove from the cookie cutter if it's thicker), adding flour to firm up the dough when necessary. Cut out your cookies with desired cookie cutter and place on parchment paper, about 1.2 inch apart.

4. Slip into the oven and bake for 12 minutes, or until the cookies just begin to turn golden at the edges. Let rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

For the drizzled chocolate effect: It's really simple! Roughly estimate how much chocolate you'd like on your cookies. Since for the pattern I wanted I just needed a teeny bit of melted chocolate on each cookie, I didn't need to melt very much chocolate. I'd say start with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips/bars and either microwave them (around 1 min for 1 ounce) or heat them over a water bath (bain-marie) until they're melted nicely. Let cool down for awhile till lukewarm (or whatever you're able to handle holding in a ziplock/piping bag) and then pour melted chocolate into a ziplock bag with a tiny portion cut off at the tip. Squeeze the melted chocolate out onto the cookies and just drizzle back and forth. Be sure to line the base of the cookies with baking paper so that it's not too messy! :) Then leave to cool.

Psst, just incase you missed it the first time...



:)

xoxo

a touch of Thanksgiving

There are so many holidays that I adore. :) Christmas would probably be my favourite (gift-giving, gorgeous decorations, Santa Claus...what's not to like?) and then there's Chinese New Year since it's the time when everyone gets together (the perfect excuse to gorge on insanely tasty goodies and get a sore throat after). Then there're also ones like Halloween and Thanksgiving that really are Western holidays and aren't celebrated very much by locals in Singapore but having grown up on diet of Baby-Sitter Club and Sweet Valley books, I knew about how these occasions were celebrated and it always seemed like kids in the U.S. (particularly the fictional town of Stonybrook, Connecticut, where the Baby-Sitter series is based :P) had the most fun during those times. I mean, getting the chance to dress up and receive candy for free? What better holiday is there?? So as this time of year comes along and I start to indulge in Fall photos on tumblr, an immense yearning for chilly weather and autumn leaves starts building up inside. I know such a scene isn't quite possible in SG but I figured, might as well get in the spirit of things. So when my Ahpo (grandmama) gave me the cutest little pumpkin that she'd grown from her own backyard, it was only natural that we would use that to make a quintessentially Autumnal Pumpkin Bread. :D





Isn't this a pretty cute pumpkin? Not particularly big but it happened to yield JUST the right amount of pumpkin puree that we needed. And I love how it grew out of my Ahpo's little vegetable garden that has managed to grow quite a number of things over the past few years. When we were younger (I must've been say...5?) she grew the hugest winter-melon fruit that was so big it was even featured in the newspapers! That would've been the perfect opportunity to have a photo in the papers but at that time I was simply terrified of that stupid fat melon because it must've been almost my size. (At least that's what it seemed like to me at the time ><) So my older sis got featured instead. HUMMPH.

I remember her having a recipe for pumpkin bread but she wasn't able to locate it amidst the many dog eared recipe books in her room so we ended up using this recipe for Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread.

It's a fairly easy recipe to follow and the only few things to highlight about the recipe would be:



1. When making the pumpkin puree, first cut the pumpkin in half and de-seed it. You can roast it in the oven till it's soft enough to scrape out but my Ahpo had a much quicker method. Just pop the pumpkin parts into the microwave for about 8 to 10 minutes. After that, the pumpkin "flesh" will be visibly softer and more moist which will make it easy to use a spoon to simply scrap the pumpkin flesh off its skin.



2. To get an even puree, it's best to use a food processor and give it a whirr until the pumpkin paste appears even in texture. My Ahpo wanted to go old-school and simply smash it up with the back of a spoon and we tried that at first but once you mix in the other ingredients like the eggs and oil you'll find that it's extremely hard to get it well-mixed. So save yourself the trouble and just blend the pumpkin paste from the start.



Psst, this was the first time EVER that I made use of Cloves. Yeah kinda lame but I couldn't help but take a photo of it since... it's the first time I've seen it in real life. I realised after that though that they're not my favourite spice. A little too strong and ... herby? for my liking. 



Ta-dah! It's really a fairly simple recipe to follow. Just mixing wet and dry ingredients together and pushing it into the oven and hoping for the best. I really was close to praying that this would work out because my dearest Ahpo has started getting a tad senile and when I asked her how to operate the oven in her kitchen, she ended up showing me the wrong buttons for the different functions! Which really panicked me for a minute there so after shoving it in and closing the oven door, I couldn't help but stare nervously for ages (knowing full well I couldn't stare it to rise but it's the same reason people press lift door buttons continuously - gives the mind something to do). Thankfully, after a loooong hour or so, it rose! And I think if I had left it in longer it would've gotten more crispy but I was in a rush to go off so I ended up taking it out when it was still a teeny bit moist on the insides.  



I must say though, that I think my dad liked this bread a lot more than I did. :p For one thing, it ended up a little too moist for my liking (my bad for taking it out when it could've stayed in the oven longer) so it ended up crumbling over easily like a cake. Plus, the mix of spices make it more savoury than sweet and I was hoping for more of a sweet pumpkin type of bread. There's something about the taste/scent of cloves that borders on pungent to me. O_o But according to the reviews on All Recipes.com (by more than 5000 bakers!) it's supposed to be a great traditional Maine recipe. Good enough as a first try for me!
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So to anyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving, what will you all be doing? :) I love the idea that it's an opportunity for everyone to get together, reflect and give thanks for things in life. We don't really need a holiday for that but it sure makes things tastier. Xoxo

weekend bliss

I know, it's been awhile. I have a feeling it's going to be like this for the next few months as schoolwork gets busier and the final exams loom ever closer. But, in the meantime while I still can, I've been trying to fit in some baking, some photography and a teeny bit of photo-editing when I feel up to it. It can be so tiring! But they make all the difference to photos, that's for sure. Here are some photos I took on one of those relaxing weekends in Montreal. Nothing I liked better than to take my time walking all over the place, camera in tow. There were so many beautiful streets there. From the architecture (remember how I mentioned they have those apartments with the staircases that go all the way up to the second floor from the street level? I never got tired of looking at them!), to the quaint accents that personalised individual apartments, to the gorgeous flowers and trees lining the streets... It's such a beautiful, charming city. Ok, 'nuff talking, more photos. :) 







I know, 3 photos of the same exterior? :D (In fact it was probably 10 of them) I couldn't help it. I was so in love with this apartment and the flowers outside! 









I honestly, for the life of me, cannot remember if I've posted this photo on my blog before because I'm pretty sure I've showed it to my friends or whoever is a dog-lover. :D This little adorable thing was just staring out at the streets on the balcony and when I passed by, I couldn't help but want to take a memorable photo of it. This one was excruciating to take because it took me at LEAST 5 minutes of squeaking, "HEY DOGGY!! DOGGYYYYY!!", before it finally deigned to turn its head in the general direction of the camera. Go figure.

--

In other news, I finally replaced my cracked, weather-beaten iPhone 4 with an iPhone 5. :D Majorly happy and now the photos I take with the iPhone just seem so much clearer. Looking forward to taking more shots with Instagram (yesss I'm addicted) and seeing the results.