muffins!

successfully baked my chocolate muffins w choc-cherry ice cream (erm, I cheated a little by using ready made Ben & Jerry's cherry garcia ice cream instead of making my own with vanilla ice cream and choc-cherry bar)

But there is always a little story to tell...

I actually baked twice for this dessert - the first time, I can't explain why, but I was so muddle headed and put in 1/8 cup of baking soda instead of 1/8 teaspoon of it!

this is the"chao ta" version - Needless to say, it was a flop - the muffins sunk in the middle... it actually tasted very bitter and "soapy" - yucks!

this is the second try - yummy! brought 4 muffins to HL's project discussion for his team mates - I think they gave the thumbs-up too! :)

nature hike

Last wednesday, I went on a nature hike organised by the I Centre at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve http://jrbp.stanford.edu/), which is located near Stanford's campus in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The weather was perfect - we had an old lady as our docent (she has been one for the past 19 years!). The trail she led us through was very easy to walk, and we can see different types of plants and various stones as we were led through the northern and eastern sides of the hills. Occasionally, we will spot colourful tags on certain plants, indicating some form of research was being done on those flora.

Didn't see any animals, even though we were told deers, rodents and other small animals are found here (and there is a rumour mountain lions inhabit the hills).

portrait

if you are wondering what this is, this is supposed to be ME (although I have to say this is in no way representative of the real me - I like to think I am much prettier than this)!

today is the 4th drawing class (i skipped the 3rd one) - we were told to flip through old arts magazines and tear out pages that are interesting or that we think we can use to come up with a portrait of ourselves.

I only had 3 magazines to browse through, so not that many pictures to choose from (ok, I know these are probably just excuses - I am just not the creative sort) and this is the end result! Awful right?

daylight savings

daylight savings has ended yesterday (Sun 29 Oct at 2am), so we have to turn our time back one hour - this means the time difference between Singapore and SF is now 16 hours (we are behind)

2nd trip to SF city (4 of 4)

some more pictures taken that day...near Yerba Buena Gardens which is part of a city landscape with museums and arts venues beside office, retail and hotel spaces...

2nd trip to SF city (3 of 4)

Next up on our list was the Cable car museum (http://www.cablecarmuseum.com).

It was a rather unappealing tourist attraction, smelling of steel and metal, with the whirring sound of cables running, as it actually houses the real cables used to pull and move the cable cars in use in today's SF city!

Nonetheless, it is a historic monument that is preserved for future generations, so we are glad we made the trip there.

2nd trip to SF city (2 of 4)

after lunch, we went to the Metreon (one of the top attractions according to "Fodor's SF 25 Best guidebook"), but it is nothing more than an entertainment arcade (think Orchard Cineleisure) with theatres, IMAX, games...

the streets of SF are REALLY steep! Look at these:





To get to Grace Cathedral (http://www.gracecathedral.com recommended under Fodor's book as well), we had to walk (no, climb) up the many steep streets before reaching this cathedral perched on the top! But the experience was worth it - it is a massive and impressive building, with beautiful stained glass and decor.

2nd trip to SF city (1 of 4)

we set off bright and early to SF city last Sat, and decided to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from Millbrae Caltrain station, instead of taking the Caltrain right to the end to SF station (coz the BART will stop us right in the city).

our first stop was the Westfield Shopping Centre (http://westfield.com/sanfrancisco/). We had lunch at a foodcourt there (eating out is really expensive - HL's thai beef curry with rice and my steak sandwich cost us US$15, and we couldn't resist trying out the gelato, which cost us another US$4.25 for 2 flavours). Sigh, I have gotten into this habit of counting everything we spent, since we are really watching our wallets now (only outflow, no inflow)...

Orientation trip to Mountain View

this is the 2nd such trip organised by the Int'l Centre. We went to 3 places today in Mountain View. The first one was the Community School of Music and Arts - this fabulous building (great architecture) is open to the public to attend performances and classes in music and arts (thankfully, I found out this place is accessible via the free internal shuttle Marguerite from campus).

The 2nd place was the Centre for the Performing Arts, where we can catch ballet and other performances (hopefully we can see The Nutcracker in Dec)

Finally, we were brought to the Shoreline Lake and Boat House, where canoes, kayaks and sail boats can be rented.

my workplace

yes, this is my work place, sitting behind a counter, tending to the cash register (although I usually spend more time standing and folding clothes in the store).

this is The Stanford Store - it is part of a student business venture (Stanford Student Enterprise), and all profits go back to the student body (which I think partly explains why my wages are so low) =)

pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins!

just some pictures of pumpkins on sale at Half Moon Bay...

my drawing classes

attended the "introduction to drawing" classes twice so far...

the teacher is a bit strange but maybe all artists are like this.

in the first class, he made us hold an object in our hands and feel it, without looking at it (but I sort of "cheated" unknowingly as my eyes were still open when he put it in fellow classmates' hands - he was trying to scare us earlier by implying it was an animal, so I was quite nervous about touching it with my eyes closed)

it is a small brown color prickly fruit from trees (imagine a minature durian)...we are not supposed to draw what we think it is, but rather draw our feelings, and what the object is trying to tell us...(damn abstract)

In the end, I drew a Hindu man carrying a kavadi during Deepavali, as I wanted to express the prickly sensation of the object in my hand. Then we were told to draw what we think it is...

Thank god the 2nd class is "more normal" - we were told to draw a stalk of leaves this time (although the teacher made us listen to some really weird trance-like music while we draw, saying that is his favourite kind of songs).

We were told to draw 3 drawings - the first one focuses on the object itself (what he calls "positive space"), the 2nd one attempts to draw the "negative space" between the object (e.g space between the leaves and/or the stalk), and the 3rd one is supposed to concentrate on the different shades and tones of the leaves...

Anyhow, these are my drawings....

day trip to Half Moon Bay

this is our first road trip here.

We rented a car last Sat to drive to Half Moon Bay as there was an annual Pumpkin Festival held over the weekend. (http://www.miramarevents.com/pumpkinfest/)

As expected (we were warned by our Community Associates in our block that we should set off early to avoid the jam on the single lane road which is the only way into Half Moon Bay), we were stuck on the road for about an hour, before finally reaching our destination.

After lunch at a Japanese restaurant (by the way, it was interesting to observe that all F&B outlets had this notice pasted on their doors that day - "Restrooms are only for customers", which, by the way, was why we had to go to a restaurant for lunch, coz we need to use the restrooms!), we strolled along the Main Street where most of the festivities and contests are held.

We only bought a magnet that day, although there were numerous stalls selling all sorts of art and craft (woodwork, figurines, glass, photos, paintings etc), mainly coz we knew there is no way we can bring those back to Singapore...

Later in the evening, I tried to drive around campus, but "chickened out" after a few rounds on the road, and passed the wheel back to HL - guess I really need more practice to gain more confidence in interacting with other drivers on the roads...

Lanterns

heheh, certainly didn't expect to be able to play with lanterns here for the Mid Autumn Festival, so this was a pleasant surprise.

We were at a BBQ last Sat to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival together with fellow Singaporeans from Stanford and Berkeley, organised by the 2 universities' Singaporeans' society. Met quite a few grad students on A*Star/EDB scholarships, and it turned out one of them was actually my colleague (she was with BMSG at the same office) during my brief stint at Bio*One Capital last year! Small world...

Hard at work (study)

This is the place where HL spends a good part of his time here - focused and concentrating on his books, assignments and readings...