Cheesecake

Before the semester gets any busier, I decided to bake cheesecake since a few of my friends really like them.

Gotten this recipe from a blog site http://cookingismypassion.blogspot.com/ and modified it a little myself (to make it easier for me =p):

250g Short biscuits crushed (use 'Digestive' cookies or 'Nice' by Arnotts)

140 gms butter melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

500 gms cream cheese (softened)

300gm sour cream

3/4 cup castor sugar

2 tbsp good berry jam

1 punnet strawberries sliced

3 eggs

Mix melted butter, crushed biscuits and brown sugar in a large bowl. Press mixture firmly into base and sides of a 22cm spring form cheesecake pan. Cover with clingwrap and pop into the freezer. Beat in a large bowl, cheese, sour cream and castor sugar. Add in eggs one at a time and beat till smooth. Arrange berries on the biscuit base and spread jam evenly on top. Cover berries with cheese mixture and spread evenly. Bake in preheated 160 degree oven for 45minutes till fairly set in the center. Leave the cake to cool in the oven with the door slightly ajar (helps prevent the cake from cracking). Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Trying to safe cost, I used canned strawberry instead of fresh ones. I blended them and spread them on the biscuit base instead of the jam. It did not turn out that good because there wasn't enough strawberry. So, it became more like a plain cheesecake. It was a little burnt too. Opss. Learnt a lesson from there but overall, the cake wasn't too bad.I also refrigerate it overnight to make sure it was hard enough to be eaten. Though it did not look as good as the recipe, I am glad a lot of people liked it.

Deaf or dumb

Have you experience telling someone a story but no response was given after? Or have you complain about something and response given was not satisfactory? Do you feel that sometimes you are talking to a wall rather than a human being? It is very frustrated to be in this situation. What is the point of talking when keeping quiet is a better option. I have accounted many of this kind of situations. Once, something happen and so I complained to two friends about it. The responses that I got was so different. One said "there is nothing you can do about it" and just walked away. No comfort words were given at all. Puzzled as I am, I wonder why can't one just give some comforting words since they can't help. It can help the person in trouble to feel at least a little better. Another friend had a totally opposite response. Although she didn't know how to solve my problems but she said "I will try to ask around". Eventhough it does not give any guarantee that she can help me to solve it but it is the words being said that makes me feel better. I did not expect much solution from that friend since she was not an expert in that area but she did went around asking people and came back to me with a solution. I am not sure whether did it solve the problem but at least the problem is not longer a problem now. Just see the differences in the responses given. It makes you realize who your true friends are. It makes me wonder as well how deep is my relationship with the friend giving the former response. We have been friends for a couple of years now and I thought we were close, but somehow... it is rather dissapointing. In another instances, have you ever have to start a conversation most of the time? It is seriously getting on my nerves now as I feel that if I do not start a conversation then the conversation will not happen at all? It will then be as if we are a total stranger to each other. And what make matter worst is when I try to make a conversation but all I get is just a single word answer. It is like I am doing all the asking and hungry for answers. A conversation will not last long if it doesn't go two ways. I am sick of trying to strike a conversation all the time. Why should I bother starting a conversation when the others are not interested in it. Or maybe I should accept the fact that people are just not interested in talking to me. The problem is with me and not others. Hence, when you do not get a response or a satisfactory reply, is either the other person did not hear what you said or just not bother by it. Deaf or dumb?

Same, a little similar, a little different and the total opposite

This world is just filled with so much different personalities. Ranging from one end to the other. One's personality will fall somewhere within that range. And if you are luckily enough, you will find someone with a similar personality, clicking instantly and becoming best buddies or life-long partner. You share everything together; having the same thoughts and same reactions and even able to read each others mind at times. A little apart, there are some people who are not exactly like yourself but you can get along well. You enjoy their company, hanging out together and a little disagreement once in a while. You may not agree with each other all the time, staying put at your own opinion and protecting it. At times, one party will give way and follows your decisions. Others is your turn to give way. Addition, both can discuss and coming up with a conclusion together. But when no one wants to give way and cant get along, that is when problems start. A distance will grow from there. And when that happen, two outcomes will occur: Firstly, there is no big a deal about the disagreement, both will eventually forget about it and get along again. This is when you get to learn more about your friend, helps you to understand them better and knowing how to react the next time it happen again. A friendship will be built then onwards. Secondly, the distance just got further. You begin to disagree more often or perhaps on many things. No one wants to give in at all or discussing about it. This can happen more easily if one is a stubborn person or others may call this standing strong on ones principles. Eventually, you dislikes each other's company, not hanging out as much as you used to. A further apart from your personality, are people who are quite different from oneself. They may have different way of thinking and acting. They do things differently. Is not a total bad thing. You can still be friends but you just don't share everything together. Same things are left unshared because of the feelings that that person may not understand how you feel and you may waste time trying to convience them or worst get into a fight. So you are still friends but a distance is kept. But nonetheless, there are people who are personalities aparts but you are still close to them. Probably opposites attract. You enjoy exchanging different views and doing stuff differently once in a while. It can be good fun. It is good in a sense that you have more variety in life rather than just sticking to the people who are similar to youself. However, sometimes you can be rather puzzled or amazed. Not understanding how one can react in a way that you may never think off. Interesting. And lastly, is at the opposite end of the range. Someone that you just can never get along. You are very different from each other. You may never be friends as you only sees the bad side of a person. Everything that the person does or say is not good enough with you. You will find fault in every little thing he/she does. So the best is to avoid each other and no one gets hurt. I know that it is difficult to categorized everyone. It is just a rough overview. Many people fall in between those categories. It is hard to have a black and white in this area. The outcomes arent that simple, it can be heartaching at time especially when you care but just cant get along. At some point, when you cant get along with most thing, feeling that everything is so different, you will feel lonely and thinking what went wrong. Nevertheless if the outcome is good, you can be having a tremendous time of your life! I guess then it will beats everything else; all the fights and heart-breaking.

KOREA & TAIWAN

I think I will start with a brief overview of my 18 days trip to Taiwan and Korea during my semester break. TAIWAN Spending only 3 days in Taipei wasn't really enough. But the main agenda for the trip was to try out Taiwanese food and did that successfully. Due to my noobness in Chinese, I cant really describe in detail what I did or what I ate. All I did was just tagging along Sailo (my housemate) and Siew Ching (her sister). I had no involvement in any planning, what more in ordering food. Haha. Everything was decided for me which makes my life easier, thank you for that. Despite that, and more in Korea I felt useless sometimes. Depending on others all the time due to language barrier was not fun. What more the feeling of troubling others makes me hold back; not voicing too much and be easy-going. Thus, I vowed that the next time I go travelling, I would rather go to an English speaking country. Nevertheless, it was still an exciting experience, a different experience.

KOREA My arrival to Seoul was exciting as two of my friends were waiting, Tina (beloved Korean friend) and Tanya (friends for 16 years) who were my host as well.

Tina ~ thanks for your time, missing you always

Tanya ~ missing you & 'dubu', crazy together forever

Later on the trip, had a reunion with Yue Jung and Hye Rim. It was wonderful to be able to see each other again for a long time. Catching up, updating each other and talking about the good old times. It was just simply wonderful. One of the memorable moment was when we met up with Yue Jung. Sailo and mine trip to Korea was kept secret from her and the gathering was a set up. The moment she saw us in the subway station, she was so shocked. Not believing it that we were there in Korea. It was great.

The long-awaited reunion

One thing not to be miss when travelling was to try to local foods. I have done that well throughout the whole trip, trying almost all the Korean food, with different food each meal.

Trying Korean food for lunch

More food for dinner

What we ate for SUPPER!

Seoul was just so happening. There were so many cafes around that one could just spend hours hanging out, chatting. There is a night life!

Visiting the tourist spots was just to complete the tour. We visited a lot of places, some that even the locals did not know about it. Trying out costumes and posing to take photos was interesting and fun.

Trying out Korean traditional dress aka Hanbok at Insadong

In North Korea army uniform and olden-days school uniform

Jumping so happily in front of the Gyeongbokgung Palace =P

We took another brave step by travelling to Busan and Jeju Island by ourselves. With the limited knowledge on Korean language that Sailo knows, we survived. What would I have done without you, thanks a lot! It was interesting, trying to break the language barrier to understand each other. It was funny too. No offence to any Koreans, but when I spoke to them in English, they replied in Korean. It happened a couple of time and mostly I just pretended that I understood what they said. I wonder do they think I knew Korean but just wanted to speak English or they did not bother if I understood Korean? Amusing.

Visited more places in Jeju and Busan

That was basically how my trip went. There were much more things that we do, but I guess this is enough. It was my first overseas trip, inpromptu and last minute planning. It did turn out quite well. It was great and amazing. Looking forward for more trips like this!!

The Birth

Rebirth of my blog. I was actually satisfied with using friendster's blog since I blog only once in a blue moon. However since this blog was created by one beloved friend of mine, I decided to go ahead with it and give it a try. Hopefully it will be alive. I did not know that my previous posts were actually interesting to others. For me, they were just somewhere to write something to express some thoughts. But I am glad that you people enjoyed it. I reckon this blog will be for friends to see what I have to say about life. It will not be much update about my daily life, more of thoughts that come with it. So, do leave some comments so that I know how others think or feel about some aspect of life too. Cheers! Lastly, for my first post, I would give a big thanks to Celest for starting this blog for me. Without you, I dont think I will create one. Haha. Thanks gal and missing you lots.