30 Random things about me

Never really did any of these "things about me" posts but after seeing it on some other blogs, I decided to have a little fun with one.

Enjoy!

1. I love BLACK. Be it a colour, shade, tone, undertone, or whatever black is, I love black. I can dress up in black from head to toe: black LBD, black leggings, black heels...even my hair's black.

2. I like reptiles. I find them cute. Their beady eyes and dinosaur-like features are adorable to me. Hence, I have 3 pet turtles. They are smart as hell, mind you.

3. I'm more of a tea person than a coffee person but I can tolerate strong black coffee on its own. The caffeine overload makes my lips dry though.

4. I'm a good female driver. Nah, scratch that. I'm a good driver. Period.

5. I'm 5'1 and petite.

6. I love wearing heels. High, high heels.

7. I'm almost fully Chinese. My mum's grandmother was Malay.

8. I'm supposed to be able to speak the Hokkien dialect, Mandarin and Cantonese but I can't. Not very well at least. If I had to make a comparison between all the languages/ dialects I know,

English > Malay > Japanese > Cantonese > Mandarin > Hokkien > Hakka

9. I LOVE Japanese food.

10. My favourite sashimi are: shake/salmon, hotate/scallop, abura bouzu/butter fish.

11. Dark chocolate is the way to go, for me.

12. I love electronic music: Trance, Electro, House, DnB, Psytrance. I love driving really really fast to hardtrance/ fast electronic music in general.

13. I had braces when I was 11. Yeah, the ones on teeth.

14. I find French and German to be sexy languages. I think the Brit accent on a guy is cute.

15. I love watching fashion shows on Youtube in my free time. Favourite designer shows: Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, McQueen & Elie Saab.

16. I'm especially clumsy and I hurt myself quite often. I bump into things and get bruises. Used to hit myself with the racquet whenever I played badminton.

17. I Melbourne Shuffle well to electro. I do it properly at least. And I don't look like I'm having a seizure unlike some people I've seen spazzing out on the "running man".

18. I, for the life of me, do not know how to use Photoshop.

19. As a kid, I used to cry all the time whenever I got my hair cut short.

20. I was featured in a Dutch Lady milk advertisement on a billboard in downtown Kuala Lumpur, when I was 4. Did other print ads as well and a TV ad for Hong Kong bank.

The billboard ad looked like this and that's me far right.

21. Liked Digimon and played with "Digivices" during my tomboy stage. Dropped a Digivice in the toilet bowl by accident and my Agumon died. Haha.

22. My first game console was a Gameboy Pocket with only one game: Pokemon Blue.

23. I've played the piano since I was 6. Received my Trinity performance certificate in 2010.

24. I used to draw a lot in highschool. Got really good too. I'm probably shit now though. Sigh.

25. Don't really have a sweet tooth and I don't indulge in heavy desserts like cakes, cupcakes and all of that. I prefer icy, not-so-sweet desserts.

26. I like tofu/ tau fu/ beancurd.

27. I can barely swim and can't float. In an attempt to float, I will curl into a ball and float to the surface with my face underwater and my bum poking out above water. Fail.

28. I procrastinate. I think I work best under pressure. Sigh.

29. I am shy around new faces. I open up easily with people I'm comfortable with.

30. I used to play chess competitively in school. *proud nerd moment*

If you read through the above, ...wow, thanks, lol.

My Things Have Finally Arrived!!!

Just got back from the Pos Laju office and FINALLY I can has stuff. :3

*this is when you hear the angels sing*

#1

#2

#3

#4

They wrapped my babies so nicely ^__^

#5

#6

#7

I decided to try these on the spot. They're supposed to hold your hair in place...

#9

...and they do!

Well I can't wait to try these products out, especially the BB cream, Hada Labo lotion & the tamagohada cleanser.

I'm like so happy right now...*awesomeface*

I miss Kyoto

Back in 2005, I went on a homestay programme to Kyoto, Japan. I stayed with the Murakami family as the picture above shows.

From left to right, 1) Papa 2) Mama 3) Shuuji (We call him Shu-chan) 4) Natsuka 5) Ryo (I was 3 years his senior but had a crush on him when I was there, haha) 6) Grandpa/ Ojiichan

They treated me like family and were so kind and patient with me. They took me to so many places and their home was amazingly huge for a Japanese home. They had a fireplace and a courtyard and 3 separate houses joined into one! I wish I had taken more pictures!

I found this picture on my old blog that's still up and wow it's been 5 years since the trip.

We used to write to each other but I stopped replying one summer and that's about it. I still have the letters they sent me and I keep telling myself I must write back.

Let's hope they'd understand my Japanese.

I don't really know what to talk about in the letter or...WAIT I can email them, right?

Which is better though? Email or snail mail? Maybe I'll write by hand and I can draw little doodles on the sides like in previous letters. :)

Yaki Udon

Made this the other day. It is by far one of my yummiest noodle dishes...it makes me so proud *tears* Everyone who tried it said it was goooood. :D

I don't follow the common yaki udon recipes found in Japanese cooking but I use a lot of Japanese seasonings. One of my favourites is by far MIRIN.

Mirin is a sweet Japanese rice wine for cooking that contains about 40-50% sugar. It is used in MANY traditional Japanese dishes...like...A LOT. Even if your dish ain't Japanese but you want it to be, just add...MIRIN! :P

So in the above pic is the exact bottle of mirin (Mizkan Honteri Mirin) that I use and mine's almost empty now. To be honest, I didn't know why I bought it at first but I figured I'd have some use for it later as I like experimenting with Japanese dishes. You know me, I tend to go crazy when shopping at Jusco's Japanese food section. Whenever I'm at the Japanese food aisles, I just HAVE to buy something, haha.

Anyway, here's a list of ingredients for the stir-fried udon:

- A pack of udon (serving for 1)

- Sliced cabbage

- A square block of firm tofu, cut into smaller squares

- 1 Egg

- 1-2 tablespoons of Mirin (start with 1 then adjust according to preference)

- 2 tablespoons of Tsuyu*

* Tsuyu is a Japanese sauce/ soup base made from soy beans. It is similar to soy sauce but not as condensed. A blend of tsuyu, mirin and water usually makes for dipping sauces for Tenpura and Zaru Soba (cold soba).

- 2 teaspoons of Thai/ Vietnamese fish sauce

- 1 teaspoon of thick, dark soy sauce (The really black gooey sauce)

- A few drops of sesame oil (optional)

- Aonori seaweed (topping)

- Katsuo bushi (Bonito flakes)

Instructions

1. Heat a skillet/ pan, add half a tablespoon of oil (it's up to you how much oil you think would suffice, I use non-stick pans so I don't use oil- yay!)

2. Add tofu pieces and allow to brown slightly. After about 5 mins, add cabbage and allow to cook slightly.

3. Add Tsuyu and udon noodles and allow to simmer slightly.

4. Add Mirin and fish sauce and stir around until everything is evenly coated in sauce.

5. Once noodles are tender, make a circle in the pan to expose the middle, with noodles around the sides (looks like a donut). Add egg.

6. The white should start to cook immediately, break yolk with spatula and let it run. Then scramble the egg after 10-15 secs.

7. Mix egg with noodles and stir around until everything's "dry".

8. Top noodles by sprinkling Aonori and Katsuobushi. Serve and makan, bon apetite, tabete. :D

Aonori

Katsuobushi

Well that's one of my original recipes sooo, start cooking and enjoy! <3

Happy Birthday, Peggle Darling

This is Peggle. He's a Red Eared Slider Turtle. He turned 1 this month and he's SO adorable. I hatched him myself a year ago. Out of about 17 eggs, only 2 hatched. The other baby died after a couple of days because it was a "premature" hatchling.

I've had Peggle's mum, Stuart (since I was 11) and Peggle's dad, Sandy (initially my bro's turtle but he's bad with pets- he was like 7 yrs old and already killed (brutally murdered *cough*, I kid) one turtle so I figured it was best if I looked after Sandy) in the same tank back in my old house and they sorta mated and Stuart laid eggs one day...MANY eggs. Took 'em and incubated them and waited patiently for 80 days. :)

Note: I named the mum Stuart because I didn't know much about this species of turtle back then and I thought it was a boy turtle, haha. Sandy, I thought was female because he started growing a longer tail and claws. In the freshwater turtle world, males generally have longer tails and claws than females that they use during the mating process. Durrr...