*345 - apple streusel muffins

Apple streusel muffins. The muffin tops were supposed to be cinnamony crumbly but turned out to be crunchy sugary instead, because I used coarse brown sugar instead of the fine kind. But the ultimate compliment came from the sis who SMSed from work, "U've surpassed urself, the muffins are great. This one can sell."

Beams.

Shall perfect the streusel top one day (: I love having fruit in my bakies (especially nice large chunks) because it feels (deceivingly) healthier. And hey, I always cut down on sugar and butter. Good good.

-

This whole situation. It's complicated. And I can't talk about it, so. I can't bear to hurt you, or you. But it's either one or the other.

-

I had much to say but I'm too tired to articulate. Was dancing in RJ from 10 am to 6 pm today and only left the studio once (to pee). And my knees are covered with bruises (5 on the right and 3 on the left). I'm kind of not looking forward to working upstairs anytime soon because that involves kneeling down, ouch. Then again, I've 2 days to recover so I'll be fine. (:

*344 - fish & co

Blogging backlog. Haha.

Saturday was spent dancing from morning to evening with a 7-11 lunch break in the middle. Very Embarrassing Moment was when I hurtled across the studio like a charging bull at poor Desmond and naturally, the both of us ended up on the floor. Hahaha. The music required me to cross the floor in 2 counts, but it was my fault that I did it with such force! Plus it's my fault that I weigh like an elephant. Sigh.

I got home about 2 hours later than I thought I would, hence was disastrously late for the class dinner at Fish & Co. And by disastrously late, I mean about 2 hours late. Haha! Very coincidentally, I met Ming Zheng at the bus stop outside our place, and it turned out that we were both going to the same area (a few bus stops apart), and we were both supposed to meet our respective friends at 6, and we were both 2 hours late in the end. Cool. One day I shall pass the twins some of my bakies - I don't know why I never thought of that before!


Sherlene Ethel Liru Evelyn. Too cool to smile. As you can see, I am the coolest of all because I have a gun. (We took this because Sherlene never grins in photos so I wanted to learn from her :D But we overdid it. Haha!)


Happy girls! (: But got so many missing.


This is not a camera trick. Joel is really that tall (he bumps his head against the decorations which are miles above my head). Thanks for keeping me company that day (:


About half of the class here. Yay! Very irrelevantly, I think it's cute that the two Jonathans are standing next to each other, and both look, um, mirthful. Hehehe (:

We took a long walk to Timbre after that to watch the coolest PE teacher (ie. Mr Siva) perform with his band. There were loads of RJ fans around us haha. He was fab, but I was sweating and feeling gross from the humidity, and when I'm sweating and feeling gross I generally don't feel like doing anything at all except sulk. So sulk I did, as well as to take sips from drinks that didn't belong to me, and then we all left not long after.

So that was my Saturday, and it's 2 days before the deadline for the NUS application, not that I would change my mind about where I want to go now, but just for the additional security and to keep my options open, I'm going to apply for Science related courses, only because I want to avoid interviews (or I would have applied for business & law double degree), and while I know local uni apps aren't that crucial to me anymore it's kind of scary that I'm treating them with such nonchalance, ... and so I shall go apply this instant. (More fullstops, Evelyn.)

-

I really must think of a gentler way to say "no" to people who ask for my number.

Flirtatious Boy: Excuse me!
Me: Yup?
FB: Can I make an additional order?
Me: Okay! -whips out pen and paper-
FB: Can I have your number?
Me: -stares- Ehehe heh, heh that was a poor attempt, no.

And when they think I'm not looking, the other boys at the table give him high-fives and handshakes, while one friend slinks away from the group to apologise embarrassedly to me.

Of course, it all passed in a jokingly friendly and light-hearted manner, and we grinned and nodded and waved at each other as he left in the end, so I don't think I scared them away from EB permanently. My intention was not to humiliate, and he wasn't. (Just a disclaimer because I'm not as cruel as that!)

-

What happened to applying this very instant? Oops.

(5 minutes later) Okiedokies, applied. Haha!

*343 - settlers cafe

I feel like SUCH a girl because of all the crying. Last night saw Evelyn wielding her ugly horns as she stood up to someone dear to her, for someone dear to her. I'm sorry.

It's life that makes me cry; I rarely cry at movies, never at songs. But I might have started crying at the song just now, only that my speakers chose that very moment to splutter and die, so I didn't. (I'm awfully upset at my speakers though, they're decently new and I don't know what happened.)

Torn.

(No no, don't think of Imbruglia and Torn and rape (at least, that's what I think that song is about) because it's another song altogether.)

-

The Settlers Cafe outing on Friday was meant to be our girly girl outing, but since 2 of the 6 girly girls couldn't make it, we called up some of the guys and it turned into a co-ed outing in the end. Hahaha.


A silly little dragon & stones & bridges game, which I nearly missed because I was about an hour late. Oops! Had to post out earrings lah. Hehe.

What came next was the most mind boggling board game ever - I'm The Boss! A lot of screaming and squabbling and sneaky methods involved in order to secure the business deals. Total chaos, hahaha.


The craftiest business(wo)man happens to be Wadsworth (Gabrielle on the right), whom Gabrielle bears a striking resemblance to! :D


And the other three not-so-crafty businesspeople. Hehehe. Trying to look like our characters!


What is Evelyn doing?? Haha. Jon Tubby Gabrielle Sam Mich. Had a great time, we should do this more often! And hope you liked my bakies. Hehe.

The girls dinnered a little, followed by a gossip session at EB with just Michelle and I cos the rest had to leave. Spent quite a while sipping hot tea (rose buds and marigold, in the picture) and talking about juicy girly stuff (: Nice nice.


With pretty girl Michelle! & thank you for listening. (:

*342 - end in mind

NS has stolen the boys back again and I'm sadder than I ought to be
so seeya in three weeks!

-

A big thank you to the handful of people who rushed to my rescue that day, you know who you are. I'm better now and I'll be fine. (:

-

To begin with the end in mind. Usually a good thing.

-

Mr Bean was such an idiot. Hahaha. Funny how Rowan Atkinson is actually an Oxford grad. Speaking of Rowan Atkinson, I really want to watch Blackadder.

-

Scholarship interview was kind of crappy. She didn't even seem to have heard of Cornell's Hotel Management program and couldn't pronounce "hospitality" on the first few tries. All the hotelies from Cornell that I've talked to had S** scholarships! Surely she ought to have heard of it?

Doom.

-

The past few days have been a whirl of activity. Shall leave you with a few snapshots of my peanut butter and jelly squares, and it seems that you either hate them or love them, or maybe everyone hated them but some people pretended to love them oh no oh no. Hahaha.








Hello from your friendly (and scruffy) baker!

*341 - hellopanda

Some advertising for one of our favourite JC kiddy snacks: Hello Panda! (:





(I love how the wind is blowing through my hair, and how Amy looks impossibly cute.)

*340 - puffy

I've never wished harder for a "rewind" button in my life. Never.

Now all I can do is to keep it on "play" and trust God for the wisdom to handle whatever comes my way.

I know everything will be okay in the end, that I know, but I don't know why things had to happen this way, and I don't know why I had to screw up so majorly.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
- Psalms 1:3

Everything will be fine, right?

I'm not ______ and now I must ______ and ______, and pray that ______, then ______. But ______.

ARGH this is not working. asdfjkl;@$gh

My eyelids are so ridiculously swollen that there's not enough space for my eyes to open and so I'm walking around with my eyes half closed and an ice cube on my eyelids (in a bid to bring down the swelling).

And it doesn't help that I've been randomly crying throughout the day. Even when talking about totally harmless things like giving tuition, or doing irrelevant things like looking for recipes.

I think it's really strange how emotional pain can sometimes be translated into physical pain. It's like a giant hand is constricting me and spreading dull aches across my chest. It hurts, in every way.

*339 - tibet & japan

Our next Asian dance performance was meant to be next week, which would give us ample time to meet for a rehearsal after a month or so of not performing. But on Tuesday night we received word that OMG the performance was actually on Wednesday so meet at laoshi's studio at 9 am the next morning for a run through and then we'll hop off to Katong Convent to perform. Panic.

But in the end I felt that we performed even better than the first two times, and the floor wasn't as slippery, and the audience was good, and they roared with laughter every time we waggled our heads during the Tibetan dance so that was good fun, and I didn't screw up my speech this time, and laoshi commented that I sounded like an air stewardess when introducing the dance.


Pretty girls prettying up! In laoshi's studio, which I think looks very white and heavenly in this photo.


Cheryl and I being amused at our thickly lined eyes and absence of lipstick. My hair was hard as a helmet from all the gel, ew. And! Look at my fashion disaster: my bright blue tube with rotting plastic straps (costume) under my deep red tank (what I wore there).


Behold, the Tibetan costume. With really long heavy sleeves and a garish apron and for goodness sakes a golden pao thingy on our heads.


The suicide rate in Japan is the highest in the world. (I used to know the statistics because I actually memorised them for GP haha!)


Me and Wanjun again. (My legs are bent; I'm not actually that short! Hahaha.)


Xinqin whirling around on stage! (:


Tibetans and Japanese! Hahaha aren't we a sight!

Anyway there are Koreans and Xing Jiangs and Thais but because of all the hustle and bustle of stripping backstage (in front of staring kids no less) and zipping/pinning each other into the costumes in between dances, I didn't take any photos of us in those costumes. I shall try during the next few performances though. Haha! Worth having pictorial evidence of the strange things we do when we're young. One day when I'm all grown up I'll print out my crazy photos and embarrass my kids to death by putting up the album for display in my home. Heeheehee.

*338 - pampered

It seems that people look at me and cannot believe that I'm capable of doing household chores - it's as though Evelyn can't possibly know how to wash dishes, or empty the trash, or operate the stove, or sweep the floor, etc.

Which, of course, brings me back to that horribly embarrassing moment a few months ago when Mr Boss found me sitting in desperation on the floor with the vacuum cleaner on my lap, calling up a fellow colleague in a panic and asking him how to turn the vacuum on, because I was too embarrassed to ask Mr Boss for help. (Turns out that I didn't know I had to plug it into the wall socket. Kinda slipped my mind that vacuum cleaners run on electricity, hahaha.) (It's just that my family doesn't even own a vacuum cleaner, okay!)

Well, just sayin'. I might be pampered, but probably not as much as you think! (:

*337 - oreo oreo oreo

(Does anyone remember how to sing the oreo song?)

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes! (: With cookies & cream frosting to boot.



Yes, more baking, I can see everyone shaking their heads at me already. Well, feast your eyes! :D



(Bad photos this time, because of the lack of natural lighting.)

I baked these from 8 to 11 pm, because time just flew by when I was having fun with the decorating. I've never actually used frosting before, because I think it's unnecessary calories - but this time, I really wanted to try, so I cut down on the sugar in the cupcake and used a nice thin layer of frosting on all the cupcakes. Just the right sugary-ness. (:

Some ended up looking rather horrible but I got better as I worked my way through the 35 cupcakes, and my latest aspiration is to pack my bag, fly off to Paris, and work in a patisserie and help them decorate their desserts. Yay! Hahaha. (:


Oh yeah, the insides are full of cookie goodness as well (:

And because 35 cupcakes are way too many for a family of 5, I carted some off to give to my friends ... and even one for my dance laoshi (: Because we had a performance that day. Which I shall talk about another time haha. And of course, I saved a few for the one who gets to sample ALL my bakies!


Forcing Wanjun and Xinqin (who had taken a bite of her cupcake!) to pose with their cupcakes, made by the beaming girl on the right. Hahaha. (Just after the performance, to explain the gelled back hair, the gold eyeshadow and the rest of the makeup.)

Baking makes me hehehehappy (:

Baking makes me fffffat as well ):

Haha and I shall be off to bake for the girlygirls whom I'm meeting later in the day, but having said that, if I turn up empty handed it means my baking experiment failed. Hehee.

-

"God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." Romans 12:3

It's always on hindsight when I receive good news that I wonder why I had to stress myself out so much instead of having faith and leaning on His strength instead of mine. He's never failed to pour out His undeserved and unearned favour on little me and even when I think I'm stuck in a rut, everything turns out to be smooth sailing in the end.

I think I never really dare to dream big and would rather stress out and worry because when you dream big, you either climb real high or fall real low. I hardly even dare to acknowledge to myself the extent of my longing for something. (Perfect grades, accomplishing this or that, etc.) Because I'm scared I won't get it.

Have faith, Evelyn.

And now I'm pretty certain of my future, the next few years and beyond are going to be simple awesome because my Daddy in heaven has paved the way for me. I know where to go and what to do and my future is no longer a murky mess and it feels good, it really does.

My Daddy in heaven rocks my socks. (:

*336 - fruitytutty (banana & lychee)

To continue ...

After a fruitful choreographing session, Banana and Lychee went on their way to Clarke Quay (distracted along the way by slurpees and pants on sale) to visit Brewerkz, which is where Amy works!

(Bad pun, I know.)


I love the colours. Definitely a plus to be able to work and peer out at such a beautiful sight!


Happy with our grilled wings (:


Happy with my half of the giant burger which we shared (:


And happy with our black bottom pie (:

We ordered one appetizer, one main course, and one dessert, ate for 2 hours, and were so so full after that that we had to sit and digest for a while before being able to stand up without pain. In fact, the moment I got up and we started strolling (ie. not walking even remotely fast) I immediately got a stitch. Hahaha.

Oh and how could I forget to mention, thanks to the lunchtime discount (20%!) and staff discount (50%!!!!! OMG) we ended up paying $10 each for the meal. Terrific.




Touristy fun! (:


More (embarrassing) touristy fun! (:

Yay, so finally we had our hot date which we had been eagerly discussing for ages. So happy happy happy! (: Finding a common time to meet up with friends is awfully difficult nowadays but Lychee will always make time for Banana (:

-

Check out my dance filled week:

MON jazz & lyrical (with some nifty partnerwork for once because there were lots of guys in lyrical class!)
TUE choreographing with Amy
WED rehearsal and performance at Katong Convent
THU (today) alumni practice
SAT fascination practice

No such thing as too much dance (:

*335 - back to school

Lots of funny videos from our choreographing session today - one of which I converted into a series of photos for amusement's sake. Watch as my eye gets stabbed by the ribbon stick!




Followed by some self-timer fun, which didn't really work except for this photo:



Foot not (yet) pointed, awkward arms, and head turning to peer at Amy - bad form, and poor Amy caught mid taking off, but cool nonetheless! It was the first and only (out of what, 20?) self-timed photos that actually captured anything close to a split! Hahaha. So insane.

The end result:

*334 - miracle

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

PRAISE GOD

It's all God's grace

really

Thank You Lord

I can hardly believe it

It's like a dream come true

It's been a while since I've literally cried with happiness

:')

*333 - an apple a day

Today's creation: Apple cinnamon bars! (:

Way too sweet for me though. It could be because I added more apples than the recipe required, and dumped in some raisins too (which are surprisingly sweet and sticky - maybe because I soaked them for once). Let's just pretend it's just some additional "natural" sweetness, hehe.

-

So sleepy today after a late night from watching Step Up. Which incidentally is the worst ever movie I've ever watched, I think. And I'm not just anyhow saying lehh, I really think it's The Worst movie. The plot and the script really sucked to the core - you know something's seriously wrong when you and your sister scream with laughter when the little brother dies.

That being said, the dancing was okay, and watching Tyler learn to dance was cute because that really is what boys look like when they learn modern dance. And this means there is yet hope for our boys! (Ok Desmond if you see this I'm kidding you're not half bad hehe.)

-

I only worked $45 worth of hours last week, and this coming week I'm only working $40 worth of hours. I guess that's what happens when everybody wants to work and there aren't enough slots to go around. I seriously need to get down to finding an alternative source of income. Thank goodness there's a dance performance at the end of this month, so that's some extra cash to sustain me for now.

Oh well, at least I'm generally not the high maintenance sort of girl. I shop around a lot, online and um in person, but I don't buy a lot. I'm not impulsive, and I'm tremendously picky.

*332 - itchy itchy scratchy scratchy

(Brief explanation: "crazy in love" was taken after Elisa suggested that I stick out my tongue in a cutesy way. Didn't work. And my eyes really were itching like crazy, but I didn't want to make them red by rubbing them!)

*331 - do it for me

Dancing in the amphi nearly killed me because 1. grimy 2. the rough patches HURT me 3. no aircon (bimbotic whining) 4. open for anyone walking past to see (shy lah, giggle).

Dance partner Des wasn't around so I was Kris for the day and danced with Kohzy, who is super tall so getting lifted felt like an amusement park ride to me, quite fun! But polygamy is bad, so Desmond come back soon. Hehehe. :P

Was pleasantly surprised on the way out of school by the very distinctively Joan-ish voice which went "Evelyn?!" And now I'm very proud to say that I know the first female tenor in RJ choir ever! Hehehe I had to sit down to finish laughing and calm my feeble heart after I heard the news.

And speaking of Joan, our estate's up for en bloc sale! Which is a very very significant occasion for me because I've been living in this ancient little house for my entire life! And more! (As in, the family settled here even before I was born.) Much as I love my cosy mismatched lil house, I can't wait to move out, and Elisa & I are already having fits of happiness at the thought of taking charge of the designing of the new house. Ooooh. I think I will be very very sad when we have to move, but for now, wheee. Exciting prospects!

Other exciting news include getting accepted by Babson (Shib you were right!) but no news yet from the 2 other more prestigious universities. And I haven't even applied for the local unis - something lifescience related might be nice but unless I study until the PhD level, I'll be stuck washing test tubes for a living. So I'm exaggerating, but. We'll see.

-

The recent hawker food lifestyle change is doing good for my pocket, no doubt, but the same cannot be said for my tummy. Displayed my sad ignorance of hawker fare yet again when wondering out loud what mee hoon looked like. It kind of reminded me of the times in school where everyone tried their best to teach me the difference between mee pok and mee kia and mee swa so I could order food from the noodle stall without panic.

-

Long car rides, popping by this place or that on the spur of the moment, chatting with the windows rolled down.

Some days we should just take it easy. Leave the deadlines and the worries behind us. Just, you know, chill, and go where our whims and fancies take us. No need for elaborate plans, no need to dress up or pretty up, no need to talk much even. Just floating along, unperturbed by everything around us, blissfully, in our cosy little bubble worlds.

-

Of course, that only lasts a while.

But still.

-

I actually went to bed, tossed and turned and fretted, bounced out again and started dancing. (And now blogging.) To BananAmy if you've read all the way until here, I NEED YOUR HELP! I have the steps but I need to put the ribbons in. Short short one, very easy lah. I also need to have a date with you because it's been a looooong time. (:

-

Diphenoxylate hydrochloride and atropine sulphate? Wha..? Chemistry was never my forte, haha. And by the way, j, who are you ah? :P

And my bakies aren't yummy enough to be sold! I'm working on it though. (: Baking is my new hobby, seeing myself get so tremendously excited over recipes makes even ME laugh at me.

*330 - head in the clouds

I nearly tore off my fingernail at work while making desserts in a flurry yesterday. (Something to do with catching my fingernail while struggling to open a box of oreos, silly me.) Time to cut the fingernails! I don't keep them super long for vanity's sake, it's laziness, plus the fact that my fingers feel tender and naked when my nails are too short.

Okay, I just trimmed them. (:

-

Since I'm sort of on the topic of work: last night, I tried the lavender tea, and discovered it to be the foulest tea I've ever tasted. Lavender, in small amounts, smells heavenly, but as a drink, it's kind of nasty. (Similar concept to drinking perfume or, um, eating flowers.) I tried diluting the tea, I tried adding honey, but in the end I couldn't take more than a sip or two.

Shudder.



The reason why I'm talking about this is the fact that upon discovering that I actually have a pot of dried organic lavender flowers at home, I got all excited and decided to bake maple lavender biscotti.

Now I'm wondering if I should continue with my plans because if my lavender biscotti turns out as inedible as my lavender tea turned out undrinkable, I would be very, very sad.

-

Since I'm sort of on the topic of work again: I need to get down to bringing my camera to work, because they just jazzed up the interior with these humongous pictures of the food/drinks/desserts. Yum.

-

And this is still sort of on the topic of work: Walking past the carpark to work yesterday, I was stopped dead in my tracks by the most perculiar sight of a cat merrily peeing on a motorcycle. I didn't know cats peed like that!! It's tail was pointing straight upwards, and its pee was shooting out perfectly horizontally!! Is that normal or was it a cat with powerful peeing skills!!

I stood there gaping for so long that a waiter from the nearby cafe popped out to take a look too. (I quickly went on my way.)

-

I thought that my black & white and/or polkadot loving phases would pass, but apparently not! Somebody stop meee.

I do vaguely recall walking around Millenia Walk with Desmond one day (maybe a month ago) and telling him how pretty this particular white cushion with flowery black designs was. And moments later, we kinda realised that I was wearing a white top with flowery black designs.

Haha.

-

Since I'm already being bimbotic: I need to trim my hair! My fringe is wacky, my layers have grown out, and the top part of my head is flat and shapeless.

I also need to start exercising again, to counteract my appalling food intake. But I kind of like the atrophying-effect slothing has on my leg muscles.

-

The boys have POPped! (: Now this is slightly weird because I wasn't at the ceremony, but I thought this was a very nice picture taken by Justin's daddy:


(Cropped to remove fat-boy-with-camera who was spoiling the photo.)

(Hope you don't mind me putting up the photo!)

Congrats boys (:

-

Brightsparks appears to be down. I can't submit my application. Hoho.

Too many last minute applications, just like mine.

I shall sit here and refresh till it's up.

[edit] SUBMITTED! :D

*329 - I think I've caught the baking bug!

Over the past week or so, I've been steadily depleting my kitchen of its (generally rather extensive) baking products. Got to stock up soon, I've got some nifty recipes up my sleeve that I'm itching to try.

I meant to make something more unusual today but I think someone ate up all the apples, so I had to settle for boring ol' cookies. Spotted a monstrous bunch of bananas while heading downstairs and so I went a-searching for banana cookie recipes. Because who in the world makes banana cookies??

I modified the recipe as I went along. I call them my Choco-banana Cupcake Cookies. Haha! "Cupcake Cookies" because they definitely look like cookies, but the texture within the crunchy outer layer is too cupcakey for a cookie. Oh well, cupcake or cookie, doesn't matter, both good lah. (: And I like how they feel (but aren't necessarily so) a little healthier than normal cookies, because they're not oily/buttery at all, they're not too sweet, and they have banana bits in them (fibre helps you poop)!




If you look closely, you can see the banana chunks and fibres! (:


So chocolatey! (:

*328 - sweeping the clouds away

Next essay to conquer: Share with us (a) the goals you have set for yourself and how you plan to achieve them (b) your career aspirations and the field of work which interests you.

A little strange because I don't set goals for my life per se, I just meet everything in the face and sweat at it till I meet my expectations, and while I do have personal goals here and there, I can't really sort them out into categories, and I certainly don't come up with elaborate plans to achieve them, I just do what's necessary and do what I can, and maybe that's why I'm trundling through life in this rather un-ambitious and haphazard manner.

I strive for excellence, that's for sure, but if you ask me to be all specific about how I'm charting my roads to excellence, I can't really, except to say that my life is in His hands and He's been blessing me all the way and He will continue to bless me and lead me to where I should be.

But that's not quite essay material, I'm afraid.

-


Hello, chauffeur!

Just kidding. (: I'm eternally grateful for all the petrol money, and time, spent on me. One does not take lifts for granted, especially when you live across the country (albeit a small country) (and not quite across, no) from each other.


Monsters emerging from the dark, rawr!

(Well okay, maybe it's just one monster, the one on the right.)

This dashing young lad (cue British accent) makes my gloomy days sunny and sunny days sunnier. (:

-

Important things to do after the scholarship stuff is settled:
* Local uni applications
* Look into driving lessons
* Choreograph to the SUICIDAL song, omg (We didn't realise until we checked up the lyrics)
* Look for Job #2 (For variety's sake! Thinking of giving tuition perhaps? Who wants - my PSLE not bad leh! :D)