Rooftop and Chimneys

Family Chirstmas Party

2010-12-12T05:56:00.001-08:00

Choice of luggage:

Must bring item:

Mode of transport:

Location:

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

It was the first New England snow storm yesterday and overnight, this place was transformed into a winter wonderland. Even though I'm not fond of the cold, I was thrilled! It was really pretty and I had forgotten :)

We went to Larz Anderson Park, which had was covered with a blanket of snow. There were people ice-skating at the rink, sledding down the slopes and just walking about.

I'm sorry that our family wasn't here to share this but it's been a long wait :)

Tragedy at Acadia

2009-08-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

If you look at the pictures 2 posts back, you'll see W standing on some rocks at the edge of the coast. That's the thunderhole attraction at Acadia National Park. Just over the weekend, Hurricane Bill bypassed the east coast, producing huge crashing waves. Thankfully, the hurricane bypassed Boston, however, at Acadia National Park, thousands of tourists headed towards the rocky coastline to view the magnificent sight of waves crashing upon rocks and there tragedy struck. Some of the tourists were washed off rocks and many sustained fractures. Amongst them, a 7 year old girl, who was washed out to sea with her dad, died. It was pretty shocking and very sad. It reminded me of the tsunami incident in Asia, when people went out to view empty beaches as the sea receded, resulting in high numbers of casualties. I think that many times, we don't respect the power of nature sufficiently. Because we have tamed so much of nature, we sometime forget that nature is much more unpredictable and powerful than we are and we take her for granted.
I guess the same occurs in my walk with God. I frequently forget that He is almighty and omnipotent, just as He is loving and forgiving. That's a sobering and humbling reminder.

This is the link to the story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/08/24/bill.east.coast/index.html

Kite Day

2009-08-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

We chanced upon a kite flying day when we were visiting newport and I saw the largest kites being flown. Newport's by the atlantic ocean (you must have already guessed by now that we love the ocean) and there's a really strong breeze blowing inshore during the day. I think I learnt that somewhere in geography that the winds blow offshore in the night, right? Anyway, it was a really pretty sight and it was makes me happy to see families out together having picnics and fathers teaching their sons the finer techniques of kite flying. My favourite kite was the orange porcupine lying on the ground next to the psychedelic pink pig.

Acadia National Park

2009-08-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Summer's really a bustle of activity. It's all that pent up energy I think. Over the last weekend, we were at Acadia National Park, the only National Park within reasonable driving distance. It was a really gorgeous place! Rocky coastline with great hikes through the mountains. We took a 4 hour strenuous hike on the 2nd day and boy, it was a real challenge (only for me of course). During that hike, W's odac and army training was really apparent. As he skipped and hopped over rocks and granite surfaces, I was huffing and puffing and gingerly treading through the same paths. Don't tell anyone but I was overtaken even by little kids. Sigh...

By the third day, we were poofed and opted for more sedentary activities. We went on a nature cruise that brought us to Frenchboro, an isolated offshore island, where the major industry was lobster fishing. The captain of our boat, Steve, pulled up a few lobster traps and introduced us to the fish eat fish world of lobstering. Did you know that in the 1800s, prisons had a rule that you couldn't feed prisoners lobsters more than 3 times a week because it was considered cruel?? I would have undergone voluntary incarceration :) By the way, we got our fill of lobsters. W had this huge 2.5 pounder from a quaint little lobster shack we found.

Farmer's Market

2009-07-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

If my previous post led any of you to think that I was walking around moping, I should correct that :)

Was out last week enjoying the wonderful weather and I chanced upon a farmer's market. It was a really pretty sight though I must admit that I couldn't identify alot of the veggies there. I mean, a turnip is a turnip, right? How do I tell the difference between those that are purple, pink. orange, green or white? Needless to say, I have no idea how they're supposed to be cooked so though they look delicious and fresh, I went home empty handed.

In addition to fresh farm produce, there were many stalls selling potted plants too. I'm really amazed by how well flowering plants do here. It seems like it doesn't take much skill to get plants to flower. I still remember our last encounter with a particular plant back home, which had really pretty white flowers at the nursery. Within 2 weeks, the flowers fell off and we never saw any flowers again.. period. You could say that I apart from homo sapiens, I'm not really good with caring for other animal or plant species...

White chocolate lemon cheesecake

2009-07-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

I think I've turned to baking as a form of escape. It's kinda therapeutic actually and interestingly, like pottery, the cakes only turn out well if I'm calm. I think that I'm not too good with handling negative emotions so busying myself with activities seems to provide temporary if only short-lived peace. It's a little dramatic to liken it to the calm before the storm but I think that the problem usually returns to haunt.

I was reminded of my "peacelessness" yesterday when we attended our first cell group. It was good to be back in a cell group plus one of our friends cooked a really delicious dinner and I tried my first beetroot brownie (which was quite interesting).
We talked about joy and how Christian joy persists despite turmultuous external circumstances because it comes from the Holy Spirit. It dawned on me that I've been quite devoid of that joy for some time now and I was wondering how I could "get it back". I think I'm going to spend more time reading the Bible and praying. Reading the bible usually helps me look at my circumstances from a clearer and more macroscopic perspective. Praying, I believe, helps to change that which I have no control over. The interesting thing is that though I know the better solution, I usually persist in my quick fixes. Maybe it's a form of escapism, because being quiet and reading the bible forces me to reflect and face the problems and deal with them. Well, I'm glad we went to cell.

As for this cheesecake, it tastes as good as it looks! Light and creamy with a lemony aftertaste. Credit goes to the Peabody's website, from whom I copied the recipe. For those of you who want to try it (it's simple, no baking involved!), here's the link to the recipe: http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2009/05/22/weight-a-minute/

Go Sox!

2009-07-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

Watched my first baseball game on Tues!! We were watching it from pretty high up but the atmosphere was really great. The fans would cheer for every red sox player that came up to the plate and there were songs that pp would sing along to in between innings. I would really love to go again and sit closer to the field though all tickets are sold out for the rest of the season.

Both W and I were like little kids attending our first baseball game, plus it was so cool that I got to see the sox players live rather than on TV! My fav players are Varitek, the captain/catcher/ guy who looks out for the team and Bay, left-fielder and Mr. cool, both of whom made really great hits that night, Bay with a homer to left as well.

For your info, the sox won it 5-2!

Cape Cod

2009-07-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much because the weather's been gloomy the whole of June. It basically rained the whole of June, which was unusual. June's supposed to be the start of warmer months but as they say, "The only thing predictable abt Boston weather is its unpredictability."

Finally, it got a little warmer last weekend so we headed to Cape Cod, where our landlord stays. We had lunch at a beach club and were brought on a mini tour after that. The house you see on the left was where our landlady's grandfather was born (our landlady's in her 70s now). It's currently being inhabited by her cousin, who owns a cranberry business. She was really proud of the house and had multiple paintings of the house hung up in their current home, and she told us many stories about her grandfather and uncle.

Seeing how proud they were of their heritage made me think of mine. I think it's really sad that I never really found out the story of my grandparents. When I asked my paternal grandmother why she decided to come to SG, she looked really embarassed and didn't want to say much. Now that all my grandparents have passed on, it seems like I've lost a huge chunk of my family history. Now that I'm getting older (yes, I admit it), I seem to be much more interested in my culture and heritage. I think that me being away from home really helps too because I've had to describe SG to many pp here. The more I talk about it, the more I realise how unique we are as a nation. Maybe I just miss the satay and chilli crab....

Softball

2009-06-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

I played my first softball game today after about 10 years :P
It all started when we found our current church, Highrock Brookline. We decided to visit a church named Highrock Arlington and while we were there, found out that there was a new church plant in Brookline, which was surprisingly similar to our church in SG. They hold the worship services in a school hall and it's a new church with a good heart. The people were the most friendly we'd met in a Boston church so far. In the first week, we were already attending a newcomers' dinner at the pastor's place and we've found really good new friends since :)
Back to softball, so I found out that Highrock fields teams for the Boston Metro Churchs' slow pitch league and I asked if I could be a part of it. They were really nice and let most of the girls who wanted to play onto the team. Now comes the tough part, I'm much older now!! I've got aching body parts in muscle groups which have not been used for 10 years but it's so fun. It's really nice feeling the adrenaline rush, catching a fly ball and making a hit. Of course, I'm not the same player I used to be, like when I hit the ball and forgot to run.... Really thankful for God's blessings still though!

Kennedy Space Center

2009-06-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here's part 2 of the travelogue: the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It's taken me some time to put this up because there's just been so much going on here after the holiday plus it's June 10 and the weather's still cold and gloomy. Kinda makes me feel like just crawling under the blanket, drinking hot chocolate and sleeping...

Florida, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. It was hot! Hot and humid like SG, you should have seen my happy face when we got off the plane. I almost did a dance of joy in the arrival hall, in full view of the palm trees and people decked in hawaiian-type beach gear. The most memorable part about the trip (aside from the weather) has to be the visit to the Kennedy Space Center. We had a hard time deciding whether to go to Disney instead actually, but the being able to drive out to the cape tipped the scales otherwise. The Space Center's located on the cape itself in the midst of a wildlife reserve. In addition to all the cool space stuff, we saw alligators, a family of black hogs and lots of different bird species.

In the center picture, that's Astronaut Bob Springer, who had been on a space shuttle mission twice. On the right, if you imagine hard enough, you'll see the space shuttle Endeavor, which is sitting on the launch pad in preparation for the launch on June 13. Just look for the orange tipped nose. On the bottom right, that's the real payload dock where parts of the payload are assembled before it's mounted in the shuttle. These stuff are all headed to the international space station, where 2 Russians, 1 American, 1 Canadian, 1 Belgium (representing Europe) and 1 Japanese are living together in harmony. If only it were true down here. The most cool bit was that we got to see a shuttle being flown back to base on top of a 747! It just so happened that we were there on the exact day that the shuttle was scheduled to return. Yippee! After the space center was shut, we actually headed down to the beach to view it and the shuttle specially flew really close to shore so that all the people on the beach could get a closer look. So glad we went!!

Finally, the top and left pics were taken by kind-hearted strangers and I just thought it was funny how both took pictures of us and left out the top of the important structures... hee hee

Niagara Falls

2009-06-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

We've been out travelling the last 2 weeks, which explains the dearth of posts. I'll post part 1 of the travel series: Niagara Falls!

We drove about 8 hours there, and I was surprised that we made it :) Of course, WL drove the whole way thanks to my previous experience at the wheel in SF. Viewing the falls was really worth the trip! It's really amazing how much water goes over the falls per second. It's said that 20% of the world's fresh water suply goes over the Niagara falls. We took a boat ride- the famous Maid of the Mist- to the base of the falls and experienced a little of the power and glory of God. It's beyond description, just realising that the falls itself is only a small part of the entire creation of God. It was a good moment for me, one of the moments where you feel that you've been transported out of "now" and have been given a glimpse of eternity :)

There are 2 parts to the falls. In the center picture, the falls on the left are part of Buffalo. NY, while the falls to the right belong to Ontario, Canada. We were in Canada, having driven over the causeway bridge, and it gave us a really good view of both falls. Unfortnately, the place has turned into a tourist trap. We didn' take any pictures of it, but next to the falls, there were casinos, amusement parks and such. Sad, right? I thought that the falls itself was worth the trip.

Pâte à choux

2009-05-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

I baked cream puffs!

Found a recipe online and it seemed pretty easy to do so I gave it a try. It tured out better than I thought and it was quite surprising because I usually don't like cream puffs much back home. I'm hoping to make a second batch soon.

Sigh.. the only thing that's missing are durians... if only I could make durian puffs like those at Goodwood Hotel... hmmmmm

Anyone care to send some over?

Lobster meal

2009-05-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

We bought lobsters the other day and steamed them in a pot. Yum!

Obviously, W did the cooking. Haha.. I didn't have the courage to place the live lobsters into the simmering water though the lobsters seemed pretty sedated already. It took longer to cook than I had planned so as you can tell, we were kinda hungry and cracked open the lobster before we remembered to take a pic of it. So here's our ready to be eaten lobster taken by a couple of famished people :)

Pottery

2009-05-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

This is my first finished work of pottery!

I've been attending pottery classes for a few weeks and wheelthrowing's been tougher than I thought. I accidentally got into an intermediate class (there was no indication of it being an intermediate class when I signed up online) and ended up throwing pieces of pottery next to pp who were making really beautiful and awesome shapes. I guess it's encourages one to improve at a faster rate :)

I'm pretty hooked now, the process of creating a piece of pottery is quite therapeutic. I find it relaxing and it appeals to my creative side. Of course, I've been learning about patience as well. There are immediate repercussions to actions caused by my type A personality. I really hope that I'll be able to throw more than bowls and plates soon. I finally made a cylindrical vessel that day, but I tried too hard to shape it and it ended up in the scrap barrel instead...

Swine Flu

2009-05-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

Everybody should have heard abt the swine flu or H1N1 situation by now, esp the pp from back home, where dramatic measures seem to have been taken. Many pp have been asking us how the situation is here. As of today, there are are 34 confirmed cases of swine flu in Massachusetts but none of these people seem to be staying in our area. Other than the news we get from the TV, and N95 masks being sold out, everyone here seems to be going about normally in their daily lifes. At W's hospital, no extraordinary measures seem to be taken ie. temperature monitoring, masks for all with patient contact.

So far, I've had 2 reactions to the situation. The first is that I'm strangely unconcerned about our safety. Ok, maybe it's not so strange that I'm quite at peace. When I first heard of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and how some pp in the US have been infected, my first reaction was 'SARS again?' but that was quickly followed by a reminder of how God protected W and I through the SARS situation despite us having been in close contact with patients. I know that God who protected us then will keep us safe again and that He knows better than I do about the whole situation and how things are going to turn out. Anyway, we've got way too much food in the freezer and if we've got to stay home for some time, it should feed us for a looong time :)

The second is that I started to think about the end times that the Bible talked about and what that means. In Matthew 24: 5-8, it says
For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
I'm just wondering what this whole thing is all about. There's been lots of natural disasters in the recent years, calamities that have not occured for 10s or 100s of years: the tsunami, floods, earthquakes, now a flu pandemic? What's happnening? Is this really just a consequence of the human race destroying earth with global warming or is there something else?

I find that in times like this, I'm reminded that my life on earth is finite, that many of the things which I consider important are actually immaterial in the time of death. Work, money and many other problems start to fade away and I start seeing a little of the big picture. I only get to live once and I would really like to learn to walk with God during my life here, I would also like to love and enjoy my family more and I would like to make my life count by helping others with their life. I've been very thankful for the break that I'm enjoying, I've had time to think through all the stuff that I've been doing and to decide what's actually important. We're just thankful to be able to live life a little differently now.

Rockport

2009-05-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

We visited Rockport over the last weekend. It was a beautiful trip, the sun was out and everybody was in T shirts and shorts. They told us that it was summer-type weather. I was just happy to see the awesome ocean views.

Rockport's a small town, known for its crafts shops. There were a few stores selling paintings, pottery and other crafts and it's a good place to browse and admire artist's works. It's quite a popular place and has many small diners, ice cream shops and bakeries. We bought ourselves some lobster, fish cakes and stuffed clams and carried them to the rocks, where we had a mini picnic by the atlantic ocean. We were too full after that to get an ice cream plus i think I've had an overload of ice cream for the moment.

Flowers!

2009-04-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Yippee! Spring is here and the flowers are blooming. It's one of the prettiest sights I've ever seen and the beauty of the flowers really cheers one up :) These are cherry blossoms at Boston Commons, the central park downtown. There were tulips planted there as well but most of them have not flowered yet. I was so amazed I made a trip down there with the camera just to take shots of the flowers. I think I shall go back there soon to get more pictures!

I was inspired and painted cherry blossoms on my first pottery plate today. I waiting for it to be fired in the kiln. Shall take a picture and post it here once it's done. Hee hee...

Cousins and nieces

2009-04-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

We just spent the weekend visiting W's cousin and their really smart and pretty daughters! We had so much fun and really enjoyed their company. I got to read them a bedtime story, have a mini debate, play hide and seek and we had the best grills at their outdoor deck. We'll definitely be visiting more :)

Susan Boyle

2009-04-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't already watched this youtube video, do watch it. It's definitely worth it! I don't usually post links but this one is really amazing :) I couldn't embed the video because it's been disabled by Britain's Got Talent. Many thanks to my sis who sent me the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Wheels!

2009-04-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

We gave in and bought a car.. and boy are we happy!

As you can see, it's an old Toyota Celica with a sunroof, complete with an ah-beng modified exhaust pipe which goes "vroom" everytime we step on the accelerator (it's so embarassing...)

You can probably tell whose idea this is :) Now, W's happy that he's got his 2 door sports car at a really cheap price and I'm happy that I get to drive around!

W: The car is really cool.....sun roof, moon roof, cruise control, modified intake system, LOUD exhaust pipe with.... Remote start! Thats why I was grinning....

W's Cornbread

2009-04-13T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is W's first and very successful attempt at baking!

It's cornbread, like those you get at Kenny Rogers.. cool, right?

Finally, one nice day!

2009-04-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much because the weather has just been gloomy with rain and overcast skies. Have just been staying home, working on my volunteer work project and cooking (what else?). Then, there was a really nice day last thursday! The field you see is the softball and sports field of Brookline High School. There were a team of girls having their softball practice. It brought back fond memories :) The coach used the pitching machine to shoot fly balls into the sky and I watched as the girls messed up and missed the balls. Part of it was the glare of the sun when they looked skyward. It really sounds familiar, can still remember getting taught by coach how to block off the sun and catch the ball at the same time. I miss playing softball but I don't think I can bat or field well enough to join a team anymore :( To make up for it, W and I got our tics to one of the Red Sox games! It's really tough to get them, the Bostonians are Red Sox crazy and all the seats were sold out! (Partly because they were selling them secondhand as well). We didn't want to pay some cutthroat price, so we got whatever standing room tickets we could get. I'm just glad to be able to go to a baseball game :D

Ice Cream!

2009-04-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have been reading W's status updates would have heard about our ice cream craze by now :) We can't help it, they are selling Ben and Jerry's for US$3 a pint! Who can resist it? After trying all these ice creams, I realise that I don't like Haagen Dazs much, prefer B&J's and Edy's (also known as Dreyer's back home) Try the Rocky Road, it's really good! Chocolate ice cream with bits of nuts and marshmallows in it. Yum! Of course, I'm hoping to try most of the B&J's flavours. The B&J's factory is located in Vermont, not too far from here, we'll definitely be heading there in one of our road trips :) So far, I really like the strawberry cheesecake and the froyos (frozen yogurts) are good too! If any of you will come and visit, I'll buy you a tub :D

Btw, W says that I've been growing fatter, so I'm trying to limit my ice cream intake :(

Museum of Fine Arts

2009-03-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

I realised that I haven't put up many pictures recently so I've got a store of them :) This week, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts, I found out that entry was sponsored on Wednesdays after 4pm so I went in for a quick visit. It was really nice!

I think I enjoyed it particularly because I wasn't in a rush and I didn't have an agenda either so I walked around and tried to learn about art. I've finally figured out who the impressionists are, the 2 more famous ones are Monet and Renoir, whose paintings are on the top and lower right respectively. I really like those paintings mainly because they portray light in a beautiful way and it lifts my spirits when I look at them. I'm not great with the names of the paintings, only know that the one by Monet is called the "Haystack", because I saw it at the Chicago MFA as well. Make a guess which famous artist painted the painting on the top left, shouldn't be difficult since Van Gogh's paintings are very distinctive. The middle one is by Rembrandt and the lower left is a portrait painting by a famous portrait artist Sergant. It's a really nice way to spend the afternoon...

My first cookies!

2009-03-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

I baked my first cookies ever! Minus those from home econs and the ones I made in secondary school from a sesame street recipe which turned out too sweet to eat. They came from a recipe for mexican wedding cookies. They tasted not bad, but I think I overbaked them because I made them too big and couldn't estimate the baking time properly. Plus, I made the whole batch by hand and I had aching arms after. Right after that, I decided to buy a hand held mixer :)

I'll be baking my second batch of cookies today! This time, it's going to be a lemon pecan slice and bake sugar cookie adopted off this website: www.joythebaker.com. I really like the website because the pictures are pretty plus looking at the stuff she bakes makes me hungry! I hope the cookies turn out better this time..

Smoke Alarm

2009-03-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

No picture today but thought I'd just tell everyone the story of "How I set off the smoke alarm". One good thing that came out of it is that I now know that the smoke alarm in my apartment works. I must say first that it's not a result of my poor culinary skills!! I was doing everything right, except I chose to use the 2nd untested oven in the kitchen and I suspect that it hasn't been used for years... After preheating the oven at high heat, I opened it and placed the chicken on the shelf (the other oven was set at a different temperature and was holding my trays of cookies), and lo and behold! A great cloud of smoke engulfed the kitchen and quickly migrated east to the hall. I had a split second decision to make: to close the oven door or not. I made the wrong choice: leave it open, maybe the oven will cool down and the fumes will cease. As I stared in horror at the hazy gas that overtook the hall, a loud beep started to sound. I rushed to the smoke alarm by the room (my poor friend who was staying with us, jet-lagged and catching a nap was jolted awake by now) and realised that there was no 'off' button. There was no way to turn off the sound! I imagined scenes of firefighters breaking down my door, neighbours rushing out of the building. Just as I was about to climb on a chair and prod some sense into the obstinate contraption, it stopped on its own. It had an automatic sensor! I just had to get the smoke out of the apartment! I opened the door, welcomed in the freezing chill and opened the door to the kitchen which led out to the hallway. I was quite pleased with how the air started to clear but it did not last. Soon, I heard a voice in the corridor and before me stood a European lady with an irate expression advising me to close the door because the smell of the "cooking" was permeating the corridor. Sigh.. what an embarassing day. I shut the door after a short mumble about smoke alarms and clearing air, and proceeded to apologise profusely to the friend who was rudely awakened and introduced to a cold front. At a time like this, you can't possibly expect me to take a picture, right?
p.s. If you would like to know, both the cookies and chicken are well and were happily enjoyed :)

Spring?

2009-03-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

It's officially the first day of spring! And the temperature here today's 0 degC!! Haha, so much for spring... Weather here's so unpredictable, it changes from day to day. Over the last weekend, we had warm temperatures, a berry in the amazingly hardy plant in the balcony and all seemed to be in place. But by Monday, it was close to freezing point again. It was funny when I was chatting with my mum and she was perspiring in her cotton tank top and I was wrapped up in my pullover. I'm still trying to get used to this, W obviously loves the cooler weather. When we went for a walk, I wore 3 layers with a scarf and he wore 2 T shirts only! No jacket or scarf and he was teasing me the whole way... can't help it if I don't have much adipose tissue to store warmth :P Btw, W took these nice shots

Pancakes!

2009-03-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

I found a recipe for really yummy buttermilk pancakes! Almost as good as the ones I had at the Les Amis cafe at Botanic Gardens. I made the batter and W helped to cook them so he thinks that they are really good because he made them. I'm still trying to convince him that cooking was the easiest part. Anyway, I'm really pleased because they are so yummy and easy to make, I think I'll be having pancakes for the next few weekends :) I love pancakes!

Hanging out

2009-03-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

Some friends came by to visit last week and we were out for lunch. Boston's supposed to be famous for its lobsters and clam chowder so we headed to a nice seafood restaurant for lunch. I decided to skip the lobster (no way I was finishing that on my own!) and had a really yummy clam chowder. I must admit that I haven't had any lobsters since we've been here.. somehow, I don't really fancy seafood cooked western style. Give me chilli or steamed crab anyday!

As for the statue, that's John Harvard sitting in the Harvard Yard. Notice a gold sheen on his left foot? That's because everyone rubs his foot when they visit, I have no idea why.. We postulated that intelligence somehow gets conducted from that foot. I didn't rub it though so it didn't benefit my IQ score at all..

Carrot Ginger Muffins

2009-03-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

We had an eventful week- it was W's bd and he loves carrot cakes so I followed a Martha Steward recipe for carrot ginger muffins with an orange cream cheese frosting :) It turned out yummy! Was quite pleased actually and W liked it alot. In fact, we had extra frosting and we gobbled it up as well. Can you tell that we're already putting on weight?

Chocolate Lava Cake

2009-03-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

I baked my first chocolate lava cake! Didn't get a good picture because I was trying to hurry W to eat it before it gets cold :) It was really easy to make too! Just don't ask me for the recipe because the amount of calories that goes in there is scary...

Glass Flowers

2009-03-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History yesterday. A sec school friend of mine is studying at Harvard and she could enter the museum and bring a friend for free :) I got to see the famed glass flowers. Yep! The flowers you see in the pictures are completely made of glass! When she told me that we were going to see glass flowers, I was thinking of artistic type glass flowers akin to the glass sculptures hanging off the walls in Ritz Carlton (I obviously didn't understand the meaning of natural history). When we got to the exhibit, I was thinking to myself, " Where are the glass flowers?" It took me a while to realise that these were the glass flowers: they were so life-like in texture and in colour, amazing! I think my friend was more entralled with the flowers though, she used to teach bio so she was pointing out the cross sections of the ovaries and other bio-related stuff to me and frankly, much of it was greek to me. When we looked at some natural drawings of fish at another exhibit, the drawings were just too life-like for my liking... maybe I should go to the museum of fine art instead.. hee hee.

Yummy Quiche

2009-03-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

I baked my first quiche!

Now that I've kinda figured out how to make tart pastries, I thought I'd give the quiche a try. It was surprisingly easy to make, I made an olive oil pastry and added spinach and bacon. Only thing was that the dish I used was a little too big, which explains why my quiche looks so flat. Oh well, I've come to realise that there's a steep learning curve to cooking. I'm glad that I've finally started cooking though :) Maybe I'll be able to rival my sis when I get back!

Smoot

2009-03-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

When you walk along Harvard Bridge, you'll stumble upon this strange graffitti on the ground. What in the world is a smoot? An ancient unit of measurement? It turns out to be a 1958 unit of length in the form of freshman Oliver Smoot, who was rolled head over heels over the entire length of the bridge. There are markings on the ground indicating every 10 smoots and the bridge measured 364.4 smoots plus an ear. This famous MIT prank has been preserved through the years as a testament to MIT's innovation and leadership in technological discoveries... Stories like that make me wonder what I missed in my university education but let's not go down that path...

MIT

2009-03-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

This is the famous MIT, where you bump into geeks and techies at every turn of the corridor. Cool place and as usual, I'm impressed by the beautiful architecture. Many of you would have already heard of the famous MIT pranks, how they doll up the dome based on current trends. I've included some of the pictures of the pranks so you'll get a better idea of what I mean. It's really funny.. haha :) I think it also gives me a peek into their philosophy of study hard and play hard. We got to know this guy who graduated from MIT and he was telling us abt this competition he entered where they program a robot to play WOW and the competition is to find out whose robot wins. I was just wondering why anybody would do that since the purpose of playing a video game is to enjoy the process of playing. I think I just don't get it.

Snow Storm

2009-03-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

I'm going to hold off some interesting stories to bring you live news on the snow storm. W says that the Channel News Asia site mentioned the storm. Well, it's been snowing since last night. Snowed lightly the day before, stopped and returned with more gusto last night. When we got up, everything was covered in snow. There's supposed to be 10-15 inches on the ground by the end today. Thankfully for me, I'm warm and toasty at home. Of course, poor W has to trudge through the slosh to get to work. School, even the colleges, are closed for today. When I first heard snow storm, images of hurricanes and cyclones came to mind, but I've found out that the snow storm is our equivalent of the thunderstorm except that this has potentially worse complications. The snow really impacts the pp who have to commute to work, who live in houses or in the suburbs. During the last major storm, electricity supply was cut off at some suburban places, not to mention the increased numbers of accidents, the restricted mobility, the shoveling and the cold.. Just when we thought that it was getting warmer here. At least this tropical girl is admiring the view of her winter wonderland next to the heater...

Beth Israel Deaconess

2009-02-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

Enough of serious stuff... I took a walk yesterday to exercise the non-brain parts of my body and stumbled upon the medical area. The building you see above is the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the famous Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals. I found out that Insulin was first given to a New England patient there in 1922! Wow! I honestly didn't know that insulin had been around for so long.. there's still so much resistance to insulin injections now. I also realised that insulin was discovered for use at about the same time and out of the 4 guys who discovered it, one was a medical student :) 3 cheers for inquisitive and motivated medical students! From the picture on the right, you'll see that they've got a pretty little cafe with outdoor sitting as well. It's obvious why noone is sitting outdoors then.... Just in case you think that there's something wrong with my pictures, the floor is blue in colour. That's the salt they pour on the pavements to encourage snow to melt by decreasing the freezing point water (that sec school physics did come in useful after all). I'm sure they chose blue to reflect the persisting cold. Brrr...

Church

2009-02-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

We've found a church to worship at for the moment. It's called Citylife Church, and is affiliated with the Presbytarian Church of America. We've been there twice and we're going back mainly for the sermons. We've been blessed by the good preaching by Dr Um. For the last 2 weeks, he preached about Gal 5:16-26 on the fruit of the Spirit and it spoke to me.

¹⁶So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. ¹⁹The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I realised that I've been focusing too much on what I do (which people can see) versus who I am (which only God and I can see). I'm lacking in true love, joy, peace etc and though I seem ok on the outside, I would like to be ok inside as well. The most reassuring part was that God was going to help with this seemingly impossible task. I'm actually quite excited about it. It feels like I was walking around with this chip in the shoulder and I've finally figured out what it is and now I'm scheduled for surgery to remove it. :) For those of you who would like to listen to the sermons, here is the link http://www.citylifeboston.org/sermons.htm.

Egg Tarts

2009-02-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

I baked egg tarts today! I'm quite proud of it actually, had really low expectations to begin with. WL says that they were pretty good except for the crust, which was too biscuit-like. I usually like the crumbly biscuit tarts rather than the flaky ones, like those from Bengawan Solo. Am trying to figure out how to make them more crumbly... maybe I should e-mail Bengawan and ask them :) It's probably some super unhealthy trade secret that I will regret knowing, like Breadtalk adding MSG to their breads. So on second thoughts, I'll hold that e-mail. Well, it'll be some time before I try this again. We ate them ALL up in one night, thanks to WL, who egged me on. We were so full we both slept really badly.

Green at last

2009-02-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

We were at the Lagoon at the Boston Common, and it was nice to see green finally! The weather is getting warmer so ice has begun to melt at some places. What you see above is the pond itself, which is still frozen over and WL pretending to ice skate. Seriously, there were people who were trying to ice skate on it. We obviously only kept to the edge: I mean, everyone remembers those movie where you fall through the ice into freeing water, right?

It's really nice to be surrounded by parks and nature, somehow it always reminds me that God is here :)

CHinatown

2009-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

This is Chinatown with the ubiquitous Chinatown gate. The Chinatown here isn't large but it's got everything you would want: good dim sum restaurant (so we were told), good siew yoke place (so we were told) and the chinese supermarket of course! We've been there a few times and we've got our stash of chilli sauce (I finally found the chicken rice chilli sauce.. yippee..), sesame oil, oyster sauce and there's lots of instant noodles, and as you can see from the picture, there's even yeo's packet drinks :) WL found Aik Cheong coffee too! I'm posing with the red plastic cup we found. Haha :) It reminds me of Hong Kong more than home though. I'm still trying to figure out which fish to buy since I can't recognise fishes and I can't identify them by their chinese names. Sad, right?

Walk in the park : more pics

2009-02-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

Walk in the park

2009-02-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

Boston has very beautiful parks. I'm sure they'll be nicer when it's warmer. My fingers were almost frozen by the time I'd finished these photos. As with back home, people feed the ducks despite signs warning us not to and the ducks were so used to it, they happily waded in my direction the moment I came near. Since I didn't have much of an affinity for animals, you could see me escaping from the flock of overly friendly birds.

Bus ride

2009-02-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

I went to Harvard Square yesterday and met up with a friend for lunch. We had really good ramen at a restaurant that had a 2 for 1 deal for Harvard students. Yay! Only thing was that the bowl was huge!! (I keep forgetting that I can't finish one portion of food in any restaurant- even asian ones) The other thing I learnt is that you can add baby spinach to noodle soups and it tastes great still. After lunch, we had bubble tea. It was the nicest bubble tea I've had and the most expensive too. Don't really want to talk about the price, I should bear in mind that they had to fly pearls in from Taiwan and that labour costs here are much higher... but it still doesn't seem to justify the cost for me.

Well, talking about costs, look at the parking rates here at Prudential tower. Prudential Tower can be compared to Raffles City, I guess but parking at US$9 per hour!! I think I'm going to stop complaining about parking costs back home...
The view the Charles River was taken from my bus seat on the way home. Yep, I've figured out how to take a bus and where to get off. It's actually much faster taking a bus to Harvard Square compared with the subway. That's because the subway is arranged radially, with all routes emerging from downtown, so to get to Harvard Square, the subway travels like the sides of a right angled triangle while the bus takes the hypotenuse. (I learnt these trigo stuff while studying for my GRE.. I'm not smarter that a 5th grader)

Cheesecake Factory

2009-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

We had super yummy cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory today! They have the best cheesecakes, with more than 20 flavours to choose from and I'm sure that each slice contains too much cheese, cream and calories. After gobbling down bread, pasta and the cheesecake, Wee-Lee and I were stuffed. Our piece of advice: If you visit the US, you must eat at Cheesecake Factory but do SHARE your food, the portions are huge! We had to walk for hours before the food could digest and by dinner, the cheesecake was still sitting in our tummys. I think cheesecakes and pastas don't make mix well.

Harvard Medical School

2009-02-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

We walked past Harvard Medical School today and I just had to take a picture. It's such an amazing campus, right? It really lives up to its fame, just the buildings alone are enough to inspire medical students. Looking homewards, I have a good excuse for being less inspired :)

Lots of snow!

2009-02-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

I braved the snow yesterday to get some groceries. Since I was out, I thought I'd take a few pictures and get a video of the snowfall as well. There was a snow storm with about 5-6 inches of snow. As you can tell from the pictures, there was snow everywhere, even on the walkway. That made walking quite treacherous because it's easy to slip. It's not too bad having snow fall on your head as long as you've got a hat or a hood (kiasu me had both) because snow's quite light and it melts off almost instantly. I took the picture of the church for auntie Helen: just to let you know that there's a church pretty near by :)

Church and more

2009-02-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

We visited Park Street Church on Sunday and joined the International Student's Fellowship. Someone had recommended it. Though the main service was conducted in a traditional way (think robes and hymns), we were really impressed by the warmth of the Pastor and the leaders at the fellowship. Plus, we had a time of Bible Study and worship singing familiar songs so we were quite happy. After the fellowship ended, we went for a drink at Borders with some new Singaporean friends (it's amazing how many Singaporeans there are in Boston). When we finally took pictures of the church, it was about 5pm and the sun was beginning to set, which explains the lighting. We took a short walk from the church to look for the frog pond at Boston Common because I wanted to check out the ice skating ring there. When we got there, the Zamboni had just completed its round and the ice was pristine but the crowd was huge! I don't think I'll be skating there: too many people. The day's trip ended the usual way with us taking a ride back on the reliable T.

Where is my bus?

2009-02-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

We were at a friend's place on Saturday and we took the Harvard bus to another friend's place for dinner. As we were waiting for the bus, I was introduced to this really cool gadget! It was a real time GPS bus-tracking system. A must-have for impatient Singaporeans: the balloons (blue or pink) tell you where your bus is exactly and it's amazing how much shorter the wait is once you know exactly where your bus is currently. It'll probably be too complicated to implement for the whole of Singapore. What a pity...

Breakfast at Sebastians!

2009-02-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is what we had for brunch on Saturday. It's the nicest looking thing I've cooked so far which doesn't say much about my culinary skills. I was quite happy with the scrambled eggs and baked tomato, which tasted quite good. It was our attempt to replicate the yummy breakfast we used to have at Sebastians, this little restaurant at Greenwood, which has since disappeared. I've got to say something about the waffle: I was intending to make pancakes from scratch but my grandiose plans disappeared when I realised that 32 Aunt Jemima waffles were only selling for $3...

Coolidge Corner

2009-01-30T10:42:00.000-08:00

I walked to Coolidge Corner yesterday. That's where the shops are. The top picture is my attempt to show you that when snow gets muddy, it's a yucky brown. This is to make your impression of snow a little more realistic :) On the bottom right, you'll see a T stop and a T (that's what they call the trains here, the Boston version of the MRT). The T's pretty convenient for us because we live close to one and it brings us to downtown Boston and other places. My only gripe is that it is arranged in a fan shaped pattern radiating out from the center of Boston. So, if you want to travel vertically between lines without a car, it may be faster to walk or take a bus.

I've also set up a tagboard (special thanks to Tessa here, who gave me a powerpoint tutorial, which was essentially an idiot's guide to cbox) so you can leave comments there. That way, I can reply!

I wish I could be at church this sunday to see the new place...

Favorite sofas

2009-01-29T06:33:00.000-08:00

These are my favorite sofas in the apartment :) It's a really nice view out of the patio, seeing the snow over the rooftops and on the ground, bare trees and having the sun come through the window. Great place for a time of reflection. Of course, there's the all-inviting TV if you look at the cabinet on the left. I've discovered that I can watch House most of the nights and I've found the food channel! Have got to improve my culinary skills somehow...

That's the end of the photos we've taken so far. Will have to venture out to take some more, which implies braving cold and wet conditions. Will try to take a pic soon to show you what I mean.

Home

2009-01-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

Putting up pictures since I know we've been slow. So, this is the really nice apartment we were blessed with. For those of you who haven't heard the story yet, we rented this apartment within 2 hours of seeing it and it was the 2nd place we saw on the first day of viewing. It came at an incredibly good price and was fully furnished! I was expecting to sleep on a mattress on the ground for a year but now I've got a bed, many sofas, dining table and a kitchen with cutlery! Very happy with it :) and as you can tell WL and I spend lots of time fighting over who gets to use the Mac.

First Week

2009-01-29T06:07:00.000-08:00

These were some pics we took in the first week. As you can tell, we didn't take much cos it's so cold you don't want to get your fingers out of the glove. This was actually taken during a really nice day. It was snowing most of the day so the streets are all white. Wee-Lee's standing outside a restaurant called 4 burgers which serves just that- 4 type of burgers but they were good and it came with normal or sweet potato fries. Quite yummy :)
The car looked really funny, like it had frosting all over. Of course I'm sure the owner thought otherwise. As for me, I attempted to show you guys how deep the snow gets so I hopped into a heap of snow at Boston Common, a huge park downtown. Big mistake of course, I forgot that snow melts leaving wet jeans...It was quite fun trudging through snow as long as we were careful not to slip, but once the snow melts, it's not nice anymore. Think of walking through a pool of coke slurpee.
We also had the customary cup of coffee at Starbucks. This one was located at Beaconhill, which is a really pretty and upmarket area, like a seen out of a nice part of London. Since I don't drink coffee, the only thing I drink at SB is the green tea fruppuccino, which seemed like a good idea in the warm cosy place. Regretted it once I stepped into the cold :) We had a nice conversation about healthcare with an elderly lady who was enjoying her coffee as well. She had to leave when her transport came. It was a community van which picked the elderly folks up and sent them home. Interesting concept, I'm quite amazed by how active many of the elderly are. They would walk around on their own with walking sticks and frames, invokes too many thoughts to discuss here.

2009-01-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

These were pictures we took on the first few days we were here. The Charles River, which separates Cambridge from Boston was frozen over. It was quite an amazing sight! Makes the cold worth it :)

Greetings from Boston!

2009-01-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I'm finally started a blog!
The picture on the left is the view from our balcony- yes, we have one! The title of this blog reminds me of the blessing that God has given us by providing us with this beautiful apartment and the gorgeous view :)
The snow has been really pretty as long as you're indoors and I'm just blessed to be on this sabbatical, taking a rest and enjoying the view.
I hope to update this blog every couple of days so that you guys will know how we are doing.