"2 a.m...

... and the rain is falling..."

Well, not really. It has actually stopped raining (finally). But it is 2am, and I am still awake, and this Trademark's song popped into my head.

We went for a childbirth class today -- the last of three sessions. It was quite interesting. To practice our breathing techniques, we were told to hold a cube of ice (okay, just me. SS didn't have to), and try to distract ourselves from the pain due to the cold. (The ice is supposed to simulate pain from the contractions.) In another breathing exercise, SS's job was to help me count the number of breaths. We actually burst out laughing at one point in time coz I didn't trust his counting. Of course he was right -- I mis-counted. A few girly giggles were heard elsewhere with a room, followed by a guy joking "Hey, this is serious stuff okay." I guess everyone was having fun while learning.

Pandan Kaya Cake!

SS and I have been craving for this cake for the longest time... We finally got down to making one last weekend:

Whipping the egg whites, which went quite successfully, even though the recipe made it sound like a million things could go wrong with it.

Ingredients for the "agar" layer. The green liquid in the bowl was a mixture of green bean powder and pandan juice, resulting in a non-Newtonian fluid. Quite fun to play with.

The smell was heavenly! SS took pains to make sure the cake retained its fluffiness, such as flipping the pan upside down to cool.

Almost done! We both agreed that the agar will look nicer if it was greener.

Final product! Woohoo! It tastes better if left in the fridge overnight. I wish I didn't have to know the amount of coconut milk that goes into this though... anyhow, we will definitely be making this again!

CNY fun!

The weekend passed quickly with two days of friends, food and fun! Saturday was spent with SS's classmates at the nearby community center. I was really looking forward to learning how to wrap dumplings (jiaozi), and was hoping that there will still be some left for us to wrap by the time we reached (had to go late coz of piano), but they finished wrapping everything by the time we reached! Such quick hands! Anyhow, we got to eat the dumplings. Yum yum...

And here's the yusheng that SS *painstakingly* prepared:

We managed to get most of the ingredients: cucumber, carrot, white radish, pomelo, pink ginger, sashimi (albeit frozen, and from what I heard from those who ate it, tasteless), and my favourite -- the crispy thingy... (got it from Hana Mart -- it was called Tofu Biscuit, but it really tasted like the real thing)

SS can't wait to sink his teeth into the yusheng...

As "lou hei" is not something which is practised in China, SS did a little bit of explaining on the meaning behind each ingredient. Unfortunately there were so many ingredients and we couldn't remember what each one stood for, so we just made stuff up along the way... as long as it sounded "prosperous"...

Notice the single chopsticks each person is holding. We didn't have enough for everyone, so we had to make do. Amazingly, with teamwork, we actually "lou"-ed pretty high! The trick is to get into rhythm... like rowing a boat, I suppose.

And what's CNY without a little gambling? We played Texas Hold'em... many of us being beginners. We were all honest people, so there wasn't much bluffing. But still fun anyway. Lots of laughter... :) Fortunately we were not playing with real money, coz I had to borrow from the bank multiple times.

We shared out yusheng with Kopi as well... I think he likes it.

Sunday's sumptous potluck with the SG people! Such a wonderful spread: Beef, prawns, fish, dumplings, spring rolls, mushrooms... plus the yusheng as well... Thanks everyone for bringing such delicious food!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Here's wishing a rrroaring year of the Tiger to one and all!

This year, we will be having two potluck dinners with two groups of friends. SS, who is craving for yusheng and durians, (sometimes I wonder how come he is the one having all the cravings) decided that we will try and make our own yusheng for the potluck, and introduce the practice of "lou hei" to his Chinese classmates.

Should be fun! Looking forward to all the good food this weekend. Will post pictures soon!

At last...

I finally glazed my pots!

Here are two of them. First, my set of lotus bowls:

These are glazed in Jade Green, after much contemplating. (I was deciding between just using a clear glaze or Jade.) I am pretty satisfied with how the colour turned out. Quite relieved that all the bowls fit nicely into one another as well. However, these are still too heavy. I wouldn't want to be washing them -- my arms will ache!

I really hope I have a chance to make this again, coz I wanna try another way of making them to see if I can get lighter bowls, and still be able to cut out the lotus pattern.

***

Here's number two:

Front

Back

Glazed in Deep Sea Green and Crayon Blue. This is one of my very few handmade bowls, since I am more comfortable throwing on the wheel. Despite its size, this bowl is light. I realize one of the advantages of handbuilding is that it is easier to make really thin-walled pots. I am happy to have finally made something big and light! :)

Clapotis Completed!

Ta-dah! It's finally done!

Knitting with Rowan Tapestry has been very pleasant, because of the soft and smooshy texture. But the dropping of the stitches did require extra effort, since the yarn splits quite easily. I will definitely want to knit with this yarn again (maybe for the entrelac scarf which has been in my Ravelry queue for the longest time!) And maybe for a smaller project. This shawl turned out to be really huge! In retrospect, I should have decreased the number of repeats to make a shorter one.

Have yet to block this yet, so some of the dropped stitches still look a little warped. But first I have to find a surface large enough to accommodate the whole shawl...

Thanks to Colleen who kindly sent me her leftover yarn so that I can complete the project! :)

On the receiving end of a random act of kindness

I am almost done with my clapotis! Only one small corner to go!


But, there is a slight problem... I ran out of yarn! :(

Thankfully, I found someone on ravelry who has half a skein of this yarn left. And the kind soul has offered to send me the yarn for free, including shipping! I am so touched by her kind gesture! :)

Yay! Now I can't wait for the yarn to arrive for finish up the project (finally)!