So the audition was this morning. Interview went great, audition was quite the traumatic experience of trying to do something I couldn't do and haven't done before. Have been taking crash courses in improvisation on youtube and learnt how to improvise with the blues scale, but since it has to be done polyphonically and atonally, I'm pretty much screwed. Atonal= random pounding on keys maybe? ._. That was kinda how it ended up being like... Anyway, I will be putting off Day 7 till after tomorrow... but for now, blogging to feel a little more alive, ie, blogging therapy. There's all sorts of therapy out there now, what with art and music therapy, there's also food therapy where you eat food and become happier (I can attest that it works very well), and cooking therapy, where chopping, pounding and stirring is therapeutic... then there's the going-out therapy, where you just take a walk and enjoy life, and blogging therapy, where you blog to relieve anger or stress... or simply to revisit some memories....

Anyway, to combine food therapy and blogging therapy... this is a birthday entry =) My birthday was about two weeks ago or so and it was celebrated quite a few times... once with just my dad, once with my whole family except sister who is still in Singapore, and once with tt.

From Birthday

Beginning with this: salad and lobster at a club which my dad has membership to. It's actually really good, because one person pays $2 for membership, and then he can buy a whole group food for the discounted price. Usually, lobster is about $18, but he got it for about $12 ^^~ So this was celebration 1 with my dad, because I was (and still am) in my lobster craze and he decided to treat me to lobster lunch ^^

From Birthday

Dinner with family was at Carlingford's "HoHo" chinese restaurant. I actually really like that restaurant- it's one of the best Chinese restaurants in my opinion, and we used to go there pretty often for lunch, but then ever since we started going to different churches, we stopped having family lunches (I think that's really my fault... since I need to go to work after church... =( I'm sorry). So we had dinner, and decided to take their course meals. Sharkfin soup~! Or a form of it. I'm not too familiar with sharkfin soups, had it only once at a wedding previous to this, but I was really young... regardless, this was really good!

From Birthday

Yum~

From Birthday

=D No surprise, lobster No.2, stir fried with lots of spring onions and ginger. No, I don't eat ginger, it's there for flavoring only.

From Birthday

This may look plain- it's vegetarian, mushrooms and chinese veggies, but it is really good. I actually really enjoy vegetarian dishes... overdose of meat from Singapore? ^^'' I don't understand why people don't like mushrooms... they're not poisonous =( such misunderstood delicacies...

From Birthday

Salted crispy duck with prawn crackers. I can eat endless amounts of prawn crackers.... (no I can't, it's oily, but soooo good and unhealthy)

From Birthday

When the parsley was removed from the top of the fish, this freshly steamed was-alive-just-a-few-minutes-ago fish was so good. I've been wary about eating fish ever since getting a bone stuck in my throat... had to swallow tons of rice to push it down, but that won't keep me away from freshly steamed fish.... it's that good.

From Birthday

Orange =) They had free red bean and sago dessert too, but these are pretty standard complimentary desserts from most good Chinese restaurants.

Then it was my actual birthday, when we went to Birkenhead Point for a look-see. It was huge, we give it that much, but there wasn't a lot to do. Wasn't really in the mood for shopping, and the shops weren't all that interesting either, so... after a quick round or so, up and down the levels, we settled at a cafe for lunch.

From Birthday

My smoked salmon melt. Very very salty. I don't think it's the smoked salmon, they must have sprinkled more salt on top, making it unbearably salty. I heard that if you consume too much sodium, you start losing hair... not that I don't have any to lose, my hair's pretty thick, it runs in the family (my dad still has a thick mob and has awesome bed hair in the morning), but still, an unpleasant thought.

From Birthday

Their soup of the day- also salty, but I mainly took from the top half... so tt got all the salt at the bottom =P have you lost any hair?

From Birthday

tt's spaghetti bolognaise. Didn't try much of it, but I don't think it was that salty.

From Birthday

Present! =D In purple wrapper! =D =D

Inside was:

From Birthday

A graduation bear. Apparently this is a small one, and I will only get the bigger one when I graduate from my masters.... haha... IF I even get into my masters after today's horrible performance =P

From Z

Puzzle 1: Shirakawago. If you think this is hard...

From Birthday

Take a look at this- Puzzle 2: a 2016 pieces sakura scene.... I cannot fathom when I will even complete this... maybe in another 10 years... ;  ; I just want it completed, glued and framed so I can hang it up. Jie~ when you come back for Christmas, those 10 days, can help me make pls?

I really appreciate those gifts though. =) Very thoughtful~

Then it was dinner at Westin Hotel.

From Birthday

These were awesome. Seriously. The sauce... the pieces that have been cut into perfect squares to fit into a checkered pattern on the plate...

From Birthday

Really liked it =)

From Birthday

The lighting was horrible because it was getting dark and they had candles rather than lights illuminating the place, so my camera threw a tantrum and took bad photos for me, but this was a really interesting piece dish. (Argh, music is still in my head... get out!! Audition's over for now!!) This was apple (or was it pear) mash at the bottom, and you can see specks of vanilla pod scrapped and mixed into it, with a taste of cinnamon as well, then the crackling pork belly, lean meat and fat evenly distributed, as good quality meat should (I got that from tt, I can't tell, but it just tasted really good), poached apple bits on top, and garnished with an apple chip. It went really really well together. Loved the apple mash+pork belly combination. This was a really great dish...

So the starters were great, but I have nothing to say about the mains. They were... OK.

From Birthday

From Birthday

Rib and the one on top is lamb stew... ... hm...

From Birthday

Didn't have most of this because I'm not one to take alcohol (imagine pounding headache before falling asleep and getting all hot and flushed after just the slightest intake of alcohol... not pleasant at all), but cheers! =D

Anyway, because it was a Friday, and the end of October, all Sugarhit places were fully booked out, but we decided to stop by Azuma patisserie for dessert anyway~

From Birthday

Wee~ this looks like a mini croquembouche doesn't it? ^^ Was actually hoping that they'll still have their mont blanc, but it was pretty late and they must have ran out.

From Birthday

Strawberry icing sugar and vanilla cream and custard... such a Christmas-sy cake... looks like snow atop a Christmas tree... a very delicious and edible tree that has been nicely decorated~

From Birthday

Also ordered tea for after meal relaxation and to go with the cakes. This is the Azuma house blend.

From Birthday

I don't really remember, but I think it's a blend of hojicha, matcha and genmaicha. Really nice and fragrant. Don't usually like genmaicha by itself... but this blend is good.

From Birthday

Iced matcha with sugar syrup. Hm... not as refreshing as the houseblend.

From Birthday

Got home and it was to a birthday cake from my family =D Chestnut filled cream cake with fruits on top~ guess I got my "mont blanc" afterall, though in quite a different form, but it's ok, this was really good too. Plus, there are chances to grab Azuma's mont blanc in the future anyway, so I'm not too anxious about it~

Post-birthday:

The next morning at 6:30am, I went in to work. When I opened the cash office and turned the lights on, this was on the table:

From Birthday

It was unopened of course, but I was curious and opened it before taking the photo... ^^ some colleagues bought me "lunch" for my birthday.

From Birthday

Ok, you cannot really make curry look "nice", and it's kinda hard not to make it look like mud, or something worse (leaving that to your imagination... let's hope you don't have a sick mind =P) but it was actually really nice. Got me hooked- I must have gone and gotten another 5 boxes after this one. And it was on special last week too =D

BIG thank you to those who remembered my birthday, especially to my family and tt =) *feels loved*~

Next entry will hopefully be Day 7. Now I shall crawl into bed... been awake for more than 20 hours already... sleep is long overdue.