Chocolate craving.

It's that time of the month again and this time I'm craving for chocolate, so I decided to bake myself a brownie to satisfy that craving! It's a recipe from Donna Hay, which has the awesome-st iPad cooking/baking app I've ever had.

A mixture of dark and milk chocolate.
Because you can never have too much butter, according to Julia Child (:
Favourite mixer at work (:
Extra chopped up chocolate mixed with the final batter to increase chocolatey-ness (:
Transfer time.
Baked and ready to be indulged in. With a bit of frozen yoghurt or vanilla ice cream on the side, it's the perfect end to my Saturday (:

xoxo, elvyna.

Teddy

Another one of my new found loves (:

Great week at labs, starting Orthopaedics placement next week. Happy times (:

xoxo, elvyna.

Homemade Marmalade.

My Sundays just keep getting better and better. Blessed today by a church member who gave me a jar of homemade marmalade. I could almost feel a tear forming when he gave it to me. I guess I was hormonal as well but still, it's so lovely to know that other people care.

Came home and immediately had the marmalade with the apricot and blackcurrant scone I bought from Winchester yesterday. It was really good. Ahhh. Life is good (:

xoxo, elvyna.

A Valentine's to remember (:

Went to London to celebrate Valentine's day this year. First time celebrating it really. It was really fun going for a mini trip like that. Had lunch at Royal China in Bayswater, which was one of the recommended places in London to go to for Dimsum. They served really good dimsum to be honest, but the portions were small-ish and it was pricey :/

Disclaimer: Picture quality kinda sucks cos I was using my digital instead of DSLR. Felt it was too heavy to lug around in London the whole time :/

Char Siew Cheong Fun! Ordered two of these (:
The usuals.
The tastiest (and also priciest) eggtarts I've ever tasted in my life! The pastry was golden browned to perfection and each layer crumbled and melted in the mouth! (:
Glutinous rice wrapped in leaf (:

Had dinner at Koffman's at the Berkeley. Its not a Micheline star per se, but the head chef is the guy who trained loads of now Michelin-starred chefs around London. My aunt recommended we went to this place so we did. And boy, did it not disappoint! (:
Us (:
Lovely bread selection. Garlic brioche was totally my fav (:
My starter: Terrine of Foie Gras with baguette and brioche.
His: Langoustines and scallops with shellfish broth.
My main: Home-styled, braised beef cheeks in red wine.
His: Pig's trotter stuffed with sweetbread and morsels. (The chef's specialty! Totally recommend it) (:
My date (:
Dessert: Pistachio souffle with pistachio ice cream (: (The fluffiest souffle I've ever tasted! One of their specialities as well)

All in all, it was a great Valentine's celebration, and I think I've gained 5kgs more after that one day meal in London. Oh well, well worth it I'd say (:

xoxo, elvyna.

Breathing in snowflakes.

At the end of a bad day, there's nothing I look forward to than to just get home to the comfort of my bed and wallow in self-pity. Sometimes that's not the case though, as I've learnt.

Take today for example. It was a pretty "meh" day at the labs. A whole day's worth of work wasted when the data analysis machine displayed the most rubbish results ever. So I left for home in a 'not-so-great' mood.

The journey home though, was an interesting one.

1) I met a lovely old man who insisted I took the last seat in the bus but I counter-insisted he did instead. He finally sighed and sat down but was still facing me so we ended up having a conversation about how the weather's so cold and how we thought the bus driver was trying to kill us all with his driving. He even gave me a pat on the back when it was his stop to alight the bus.

2) Winked at a little girl with a pink scooter in the bus and found out she couldn't wink when she started blinking at me intensely instead. Her smile sans her two front teeth only made her all the cuter and made me laugh to myself.

3) I got off at the interchange deciding to walk home instead of letting the bus take me all the way. The cold wind against my face, the little puffs of smoke coming out of my mouth everytime I expired, the sky turning a dusky blue orange with hints of stars behind the clouds. I was just in awe of everything. How it was one of the prettiest things I've seen, how I should be thankful that I'm warm and bundled up although it was so cold, and how, put simply, that I'm breathing and alive.

Suddenly, my day didn't feel as bad as it did when I left the hospital. I guess sometimes it's just about making priorities and looking at things from a different perspective. I must've been so busy lately that somehow I just forgot about all the little things that used to make my day. I mustn't forget, not ever.

Thanks for the reminder God (:

xoxo, elvyna.

It's like wishing for rain in the middle of a desert.

In a blink of an eye, January is gone. We're 1/12 into 2012 but where did all the time go? Time is flying by so quickly it's scary.

Scary knowing in a few months time I would have to be done with lab research and present in front of consultants at the 4th year conference.

Scary knowing that I'll be in my final year of medicine come June.

Scary to even think about graduating as a legit doctor in 2013.

*sigh*

But you know what? Baby steps. It'll all work out in the end, it always does.

xoxo, elvyna.

Happie Chai-knees Niu Yer! (:

The first few weeks of 2012 just seemed to pass by so quickly. I don't know if it's because I've been busy living a routine life (read:labs and research) but where did the past 23 days of my 2012 go? Ah well. It's my second time celebrating CNY away from home but reunion dinner last night with the group was so awesome I didn't actually feel that sad!

The food was great as well (thanks to the housemate and his awesome culinary skills), we had braised pork ribs with black bean, curry chicken, emperor chicken, kung po prawns, spring rolls (the boy made it and it was delicious!), ma po chicken tofu and of course, I made dessert (as usual).

Was a gruelling process making the pineapple jam from scratch but it was well worth it in the end when everyone loved the pineapple tarts! (:

Made apple streusel cake the other day because I was craving for a crumble. Haha. It's so dangerous to know how to bake something you're craving. Lol. Once in a while shouldn't be too bad right? :P
Can't wait for February when I start placements again! I've had enough of labs for now.

xoxo, elvyna.