last blog for now.....

here i am, sitting here at 1.06 am eating Haagen Dazs ice cream from the tub (have to finish it tonight) and typing this last entry from our home on Stanford campus....

having mixed feelings now - the past few days have been very hectic, with my parents-in-law and brother-in-law arriving from Singapore on Friday for HL's graduation ceremony, which took place today (Sun June 17th), as we brought them around the campus, and also took a trip down to Carmel-by-the sea and Gilroy...

can't believe this day is finally here - when we have to pack up and say goodbye to this place that we called home for the past 9 months! Packing, as usual, is a nightmare, especially when your bags are filled to the brim with things bought over the past few months and gifts to bring back to family and friends in Singapore...

we are sad to leave here, but looking forward to catch up with friends and family back home! all we can say now is - sayonara, adieu, thanks for the memories!!!

gotta wake up at 630am - another 5 hours from now...

san jose day trip

we decided to hop on the Cal train for one last time for a day trip to San Jose yesterday, and visit the Tech Museum, for which i have complimentary guest passes thanks to my big boss who is a regular donor...

we managed to catch an IMAX show, "Hurricane on the Bayou", which is a documentary about Hurricane Katrina, http://www.thetech.org/imax/filmdetail/?movie=HOB&ref=current, and the importance of preserving the rapidly disappearing wetlands in New Orleans which have helped to block some of the hurricanes' devastation in the past.

the Tech Museum is great for kids to learn about science and innovation - we even designed our own bike and roller coaster ride!

lunch was at an original American's diner, Johnny Rockets, complete with hamburgers and milk shakes!

Japanese red bean cake

Japanese red bean cake garnished with (over ripe) raspberries

you can see the red bean bits in the cake

yesterday, after our trip to San Jose in the morning, HL went to play his first 18 hole golf game at Stanford's golf course with his buddies, Hide and Ben, while i spent time with Hide's wife, Yuki, and we baked a cake together, and chatted over English tea and swiss roll.

Yuki is one of the loveliest girls i have ever known, and she is really good at baking and arts and crafts (her apt is adorned with all these shadow box frames that she did, and I have seen and tasted some of her cake/dessert creations before).

I am getting this recipe from her and hope to make in Singapore. :)

Bike trip around campus

we have finally done something that we said we will do right from the beginning - to bike around campus!

you may wonder why we procrastinated for so long...well, one big reason is because both of us don't have bikes here! we belong to a rare breed of students/residents here on campus that don't own a bike. Rather, we have been relying on our leg power and the free shuttle buses and the occasional goodwill of friends who lent HL their bikes when he needs to get to someplace further.

the weather couldn't have been more perfect today for a bike trip. there was only one glitch - the bikes HL borrowed from his friends were way too big and the bike seats too high for me (short legs lah!). Even after adjusting the seat down, i had a bit of trouble navigating the bike initially, and fell down after a mere 5m distance! thankfully, i only bruised my elbow and scrapped my left knee, but the elbow is hurting quite badly now as i type this entry, and i garner yet another scar on my legs! :(

other than that incident, we had a great time cycling around, and went to a few places of significance which are pretty far from campus. 2 of them are the Mausoleum and the Angel of Grief which are the final resting places of Leland Stanford, his wife and son and a memorial created for Jane Lathrop Stanford's brother respectively.

we also went to a farmers' market near our apartment after that, and sampled one of the best popcorn I have ever tasted - light, fluffy with sweet and salty flavours mixed together! Yum!

check out the photos:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDog

End of Course

8 June 2007. Today I checked off my final program deliverable.

By way of a presentation on a proposed business plan that my friend and I gave this morning signified a conclusion to the end of my 10 month MSc Program in Construction Engineering and Management here in Stanford. All I've to do now is to twiddle my thumbs and wait for the results due next week.

It'll be another busy week ahead, filled with packing, returning stuff, administrative work and getting in some final sight seeing, meeting up with friends and saying see you soon to all the good friends, before commencement happens next weekend.

We're missing this place already.

Goodbye exam stress...

trying to do some last minute studying at the train station while waiting for the train

again some last minute cramming of formulas during lunch break

...hello freedom

Yay, I have finally finished my CFA exams on Saturday! What a huge sense of relief! I am just so glad this is finally over and whatever the outcome, I think I have tried my best and happy to move on from here! :)

My First Post

This is my first posting on this blog. Funny that it took me almost to the end of my time here to finally get around to pen something. It's the home run to the end of my course and I'm taking a quick breather away from the assignments, preparing for finals and project work to add a few words.

Only newsworthy thing that happened this week was that I bumped in to Mdm Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice showing the visiting Australia Foreign Minister Downer around the University. It was a very discrete event and I was one of a few students that happened to be at the main quad on Thursday morning. Would have stopped to say hi if not because I was on the way on take a midterm and that they were surrounded by a ring of Secret Service Personnel. Not quite the recommended way to get my stay here extended.

french desserts #2

this is the teacher, a French lady, whose Swedish husband is here for his PhD

busy in action in the kitchen (for this class, i was the only non-Japanese in a class of 6 students)

this is a picture from the previous French crepe class

learnt how to make another common French dessert, profiteroles.

it is usually eaten with ice cream in the middle (it looks like a cream puff pastry, but it is much lighter and fluffier) and hot chocolate sauce drizzled on top, with fresh fruits on the side!

the dough pastry used for this dessert can also be used to make French éclairs and other French desserts - i was hoping to try making éclairs when we go back to Singapore (that is, after I get my own oven)

De Young Museum and Strybing Arboretum

went on a Wednesday tour organized by the I-center last week to De Young Museum and Strybing Arboretum in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens (yes, despite my "busy" studying schedule, I decided I should make the most of my remaining time here to enjoy San Francisco and its wonderful places of interest).

the weather was perfect that day, and we started our trip with a visit to the 8th floor Observatory at the De Young Museum where we had a bird's eye view of the Golden Gate Park and beyond. The De Young Museum's architecture tries to blend the building with its nature surroundings, and the Arboretum was a great place to stroll through with separate areas dedicated to flora from different parts of the world.

at the end of the trip, I was quite thrilled to see a family of ducklings with the mother duck enjoying the afternoon sun by the pond! we don't get to see much of this in a concrete jungle like Singapore...

these are the pictures from the trip:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDgA

Panic

it is funny how panic always sets in when you realized you ONLY have 3 weeks left before the exam day! it does not matter that you have consistently studied during the past 3.5 months, because a lot of it comes down to memorizing the stuff that you have read and understood, in the last 2 weeks or so before the D day!

every time during this period for the past 4 times I have taken this exam (2 successful occasions for Levels I and II, 2 failed attempts for Level III), it is the same kind of panicky feeling, and the same feelings of despair, regret (at signing up), promises of never to sign up again if I fail, praying hard I can memorize all the important stuff that is gonna show up on that day...

oh well, i can only try my best and hope for a miracle!

Spidey 3

yup, we went to watch Spiderman 3 with fellow residents of Barnes Court last Sunday! Free! Yay!

For those who haven't watched it yet, I don't want to divulge too much of the plot. But it follows pretty much the previous 2 series, with Pete and MJ still in a tussle over their relationship, Spiderman trying to catch bad guys but this time round, there are a few new elements that came into play...

go watch it, especially if you are a big Spiderman fan!

french desserts #1

started a French dessert class on Thursday - we learnt how to make crepes, a staple dessert item on French menus.

the recipe is surprisingly easy - it is just flour, eggs and milk, very much like pancakes! the secret lies in the swirling of the batter in the pan to create a crispy, thin crepe that you can easily whisk off the pan later.

we had fun in the kitchen, and the teacher bought so many fillings for us to choose from to go with the crepes! there was nutella, jams, ice creams, fresh fruits...it is really up to your imagination how you want to create your own crepe!

these are the 2 crepes i brought back home for HL and me...

my office

yes, this is the office that I have occupied for the past 4 months working as a "senior accountant" in a venture capital company (the truth is, the job nature is more like an a/cs assistant. But hey, this is Silicon Valley, and people give themselves big titles and big pay checks for their jobs here!)

Not bad for a part time contract position. I got my own room, there are 2 windows in the room, letting the sunlight stream in...heck, i even got a potted plant in my room!

food glorious food

maybe it is due to our impending return to Singapore, but I have been thinking a lot lately about food back in Singapore....these are some of the foodstuff i daydreamed about....

breakfast: the fish or pork and egg porridge, mee chiang kueh, char bee hoon with vegetables and fishcake, you tiao and "butterfly" pastry;

lunch: fishball noodles, yong tow hoo, chicken rice

dinner: BBQ fish and squid, hokkien mee, char kueh teow

dessert: cheng teng, ice kachang, ice jelly

....and knowing that I can soon lay my hands on these foods just make them more irresistible!
:P

disastrous breakouts

for the past week or so, angry red pimples have been popping up on my face...can't understand why i am still getting acne breakouts at the grand old age of 31, or why sometimes, my face seems fine, but other times, those pores just got clogged so easily and out pops a pimple!

Could it be due to these recent events:

a) return to snacking after staying off chips and my office's M&Ms for a few weeks in an attempt to lose some pounds (and it didn't help that Ben recently gave us a HUGE bag of absolutely heavenly tasting caramel and cheese popcorns his wife bought from Chicago)

b) dirty pillow cases and towels

c) that time of the month

d) all of the above?

In any case, I am just praying that those pimples will subside soon and not leave any permanent marks on my already blemished face! Arrghh!

ikebana #5

Shabu Shabu

This is a Japanese dish, where thin slices of beef (or chicken) are cooked quickly by dipping them in a hot boiling pot of water or stock, along with vegetables and whatever else you feel like adding in. It is extremely tasty and healthy (if you choose lean meat)! Yum!

We went for this meal with Ben at a shabu shabu restaurant in Mountain View last Sunday - as you can see, we had a great time there! :)

individual self-saucing chocolate puddings

this is the name of the dessert - I made it while watching TV at the same time (attempt at multi-tasking), as one of my favorite shows was on - The Amazing Race! :)

Tasted pretty ok but the bottom part was a bit "wet" - not sure whether it is meant to be like that, or I didn't do a good job...

Community Day

this is an annual event at Stanford - sort of like an open house for Stanford's neighbors, i.e. anyone living in the community around here. This year's event was held on April 15th, Sunday.

I went with Sun Sun and family and her neighbors as HL went on a full day field trip out of campus with his classmates. I was a little disappointed at the turnout and programs, but still had fun watching the 2 kids play and we also took the opportunity to visit the Stanford Barn, where the horses for the equestrian team are kept. The kids got to ride on the ponies - too bad I am a little too old & too heavy for that! Ha ha!

this is the link to the pictures:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDbg

ikebana #4

this is the 1st ikebana class in Spring quarter - we have more students in the class compared to Winter quarter. This arrangement uses carnation and baby's breath flowers - simple but stunning

this is what Singapore should be doing....

....if it wants to give a serious boost to its declining birth rates!

Carmel By The Sea & 17 mile drive

Actually this is part of the Spring Break trip, but I omitted to mention in the 2 entries below (this gives you an idea of how much we have done during this break, that I can't keep track of all the places we went to when I was typing the blog entries...)

We drove to Carmel and the 17 mile drive (at Pebble Beach) on Tuesday 27th March. Carmel is a quaint and picturesque town by the Pacific coast with lots of galleries, eateries and houses owned by rich folks. It was nice to stroll down the streets just window shopping and people watching...

Paid $9 entrance fee to drive along the famous 17 mile drive with various points of interest along the way, including the Lone Cypress (purported to be "one of California's most enduring landmarks" - the cypress tree has "prevailed on its rocky perch for over 250 years"), exclusive mansions and of course, the famed Pebble beach golf course...it was extremely windy that day, so I wondered how those guys managed to play golf on the greens when we drove past the course...

This is the link to the pictures taken that day:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDTA

Spring break! (2 of 2)

days 6 to 8 (Mon to Wed 26th to 28th Mar)

drove to San Jose to visit a museum but it was closed on Mon! Got a small scare when driving from San Jose to Milpitas – an engine light came on, indicating a possible malfunction with the transmission system. Had to drive back to the car rental company to switch to another car (PT Cruiser – Chrysler), but not before we went shopping at Milpitas!

Tuesday was also a shopping day, this time at Gilroy, another premium outlet! On Wednesday, we returned the car and took the Cal train to SF city to catch a musical, Jersey Boys, which is about the life story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Before this, I have never heard of this name or the group (but have certainly heard of their songs as I realised during the musical). The show was really entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

days 9 to 13 (Thurs to Sun 29th Mar to 1^st Apr)

flew to Portland Oregon for this last leg of our holiday! The hotel, Four Points by Sheraton, looked a bit disappointing on the outside, but the room is comfortable and has a nice view of the Willamette River, which the hotel is located beside.

We (or rather, I) basically decided to come to Oregon because of its tax-free shopping, but Oregon has many scenic places within a few hours drive from Portland city (like the coastal fishing towns, Historic Columbia River Gorge drive, mountains like Mount Hood and Mount Bachelor etc).

1st day – we walked around the city and did some shopping (again!). Rented a car for the next 2 days and drove to tulip farm in Woodburn (some 45 min away from Portland) and more premium outlets for shopping! Also managed to get to a coastal fishing town, Newport (although it was late in the day already).

The following day, we headed east for the Historic Columbia River Gorge drive (the first scenic highway in the US to gain the distinction of National Historic Landmark), where we marveled at the 2nd tallest non seasonal waterfall in the US (Multnomah Falls - picture shown above) and took on twists and turns in the tree-lined roads...

These are the links to the pictures (you will need to copy and paste on browser) -

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDCA

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLC9g

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDKg

Spring break! (1 of 2)

we are back from our 1.5 weeks holiday for spring break! We drove and walked so much during this break, that I was actually quite relieved the holiday was over...I thought the best way to share this holiday is through a chronological order of the days:

day 1 (Wed 21st Mar)
started our day with a delicious breakfast of bagels, then proceeded to collect our rental car (for a week) and drove to the Golden Gate Park in SF city where we spent some time walking around and taking pictures - the weather was perfect!

thereafter we drove to Sausalito, a quaint seaside town north of SF, brimming with artists' lodges and restaurants...it was a pity we didn't have enough time to really explore the place apart from having lunch there and buying 2 drawings from an artist.

Muir woods national park was our next stop, where we spent over an hour walking among gigantic West Coast redwood trees and taking pictures...Ended the day with dinner at Milpitas with my friend, Juliana.

days 2 to 5 (Thurs to Sun 22nd to 25th Mar)
start of Yosemite trip! We drove to Yosemite, a 5 hours drive away from SF. Before reaching Yosemite Valley, we took a short detour to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the body of water that supplies drinking water to SF and the Bay Area.

We stayed at 2 different hotels during this trip, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, which is right smack in the middle of the Valley, and Wawona Hotel, at the southern entrance to the park.

The beautiful thing about the Park is its wilderness, which is easily accessible to the public (only a $20 entrance fee which is good for 7 days) via walking and easy hiking paths and for those who want a challenge, steep and long hiking trails which lead up to the waterfalls and the many granite monoliths in the Park.

As spring season is just starting, certain trails are still closed, but we were glad we went in spring, as the snow is melting and the waterfalls are awesome! Definitely one of the most pretty sights in the Park!

Well, we managed to do a fair bit during the 4 days there – went hiking and walking, saw Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls (picture shown above), Bridal View Falls and Vernal Falls, also saw 2 of the other landmarks – El Capitan and Half Dome, attended a 2 hour Ansel Adams photography walk and tried snow-shoeing for the 1st time in Badger Pass! Another first, we created a small snowman with the ice on the ground!

gourmet burgers

This cool burger joint (called The Counter - Gourmet Burgers) is located at California Avenue, a 10 min walk from our apartment on campus.

We strolled to the cafe yesterday for lunch and ordered the "make your own" burgers where you get to choose which meat patty you want, along with the type of cheese and fillings and bun to go with it.

these 2 burgers cost us USD18! But I must say they are pretty delicious, and I liked the minimalist and clean presentation of the dishes.

wonton noodles

does it look like the real stuff from Singapore? :)

fried carrot cake

we saw a pack of the carrot cake on sale at Marina supermarket and decided to grab it and try our own version of fried carrot cake here...

turned out it tasted ok - we simply added eggs and chai poh (salted turnip bits) - although it is not as good as the Hougang market version, it did taste like a Singaporean dish! :)

ground coffee

I felt like the biggest idiot in this world last Wednesday morning when I woke up for work, and happily wanted to brew myself a nice steaming hot cup of organic blend Starbucks coffee.

As I kept on stirring the coffee, I was wondering why is the damn coffee powder not dissolving in the hot water....then it struck me as I was staring at the coffee package! Ground coffee IS NOT instant coffee!!!

I am sure I am probably the only "goon du" in this world who will mistake ground for instant coffee, although I am sure my "non-Starbucks coffee-drinking" background in Singapore has more or less attributed to this silly mistake!

Actually I bought this from the supermarket as it was on offer, and I decided to "pamper" myself with some "real coffee" while I am here in US, instead of always drinking instant coffee (since there is no kopi tiam coffee here)...

So now, I have to take an extra step every morning to stir the coffee, let it settle down, and try my best to pour out the drink (sans ground coffee residue) into another cup before I can enjoy my drink - sigh, what a price to pay for this silly mistake

daylight savings started!

Daylight savings started yesterday (Sun 11 March at 2am), so we have to turn our clock/watch forward one hour - this means the time difference between Singapore and SF is now back to 15 hours (we are behind).

To help people remember, they came up with this phrase "spring forward, fall back" - so you turn your clock forward an hour in Spring, and turn it back one hour in Fall.

you know spring is coming when you see this...

ikebana #3

This is the best of the 3 flower arrangements I feel...iris and forsythia flowers - spring flowers!

The picture at the bottom was taken when I brought the arrangement back home. The next day, the iris flowers bloomed gloriously! What a beauty!

According to the teacher, there is a 2nd bud below the 1st iris flower, so when it withers, we can pluck away the petals, and the 2nd flower is supposed to come out! Amazing isn't it? :)