I've been so freakin busy since the last entry. So busy until I didn't even watch my Season 4 Supernatural. It's already episode 10 and I just finished watching episode 4 to 6 last night. 3 episodes back to back... heaven!! And I still have my CSI, CSI NY, CSI Miami, Heroes... I'm way way behind..
Plenty of things happened in between. But first thing first.
I found my lost car key!! I was at AoR 2 days after I lost the car key to pass Fandy some durian ice cream.. and thought I'd give the Lost & Found at United Square a try. Well! Some good lady found it in the carpark and left it at Lost & Found. That saved me $300 bucks. It would have cost that much to get the keys re-coded. And of course Fandy claimed credit for it. Said bringing him ice cream would bring good fortune to me! hahah
Gabriel & Celeste finally got married on 11 Nov. For some reasons, Gabriel did not make any annoucement during the bbq. And he told me about the coming wedding during one of our breakfasts together. I offered to be their official photographer for their ROM. That was when I found out they were only going to have a small wedding dinner for immediate family members.
Oh no! I would not have that. We've known each other for 22 years. 22 years of friendship!! I wasn't going to miss out on his wedding. The rest of the gang too. I told Gabriel I would organise something.
I decided to have the wedding gathering at Vino Vino where Luth and Akie performs. I got Luth and Akie to come in earlier too. I suggested to Gabriel to sing a song for Celeste. He agreed but chose a Mandarin song cos Celeste's into Chinese songs. That became a bit of a challenge for Gabriel. Told Luth & Akie about the Chinese song thing and they had no problem with that. So I downloaded the song for Akie and he figured out the chords quite quickly. He's good! We even had a quick rehearsal a day before the dinner. I arranged for Sam to bring the cake and I would bring the flowers.
So at Vino Vino that night... it was good food, good wine, good music and together with good friends. We had a whale of a time! I highly recommend the place. But call ahead to make sure the boys are performing.

Then came the stressful part... my drums examination on 20 Nov. 20 Nov seemed so far off when I told Rafi in March I would take the Grade 2 exam. And in a blink.. it's here! I wasn't really prepared. So I was rather apprehensive. Especially when I had so much problems with the Ear Tests segment during the practice sessions with Rafi. And I was still having a bit of problem with the 3rd song I chosen for the exam. Well. It was over! Phew! Murphy's Law was in play that day.. those I thought I was ok I fumbled... those I thought I would fumble..I did ok. The tester, from UK, was very friendly and quickly put me at ease when I botched up. That helped cos I was able to continue. I think I did ok. Oh well. Hopefully I didn't get too many points deducted for those mistakes I made.
So what's next? HOKKIADO!!! We are leaving on 15 Dec and will be back 2 days before Christmas. So I have to plan my Christmas dinner gathering before we leave for the trip.

Here's something to help to chase away those Tuesday blues.. we had a long weekend becos of Deepavali Holiday. But like what Leon said.. "long weekend" is actually an oxymoron... it's never long enough.

A group of us had a bbq gathering on Sunday night at our place. Been a while since we met up. And since Monday was a public holiday, I sent out text messages on Friday night to meet. Abit short notice but most could make it. Yay!

But a series of weird events happened to me on Sunday.

I woke up early as usual. Checked my supplies and realised I was short on sone ingredients for the ice cream. So I went to buy the ingredients at about 9am. Reached home at 10.30 and started on the ice cream. As I was measuring out the ingredients, I noticed that the readings on the scale wouldn't stabilise. I thought it might be the batteries so I replaced them. And then the measuring scale wouldn't turn on! I saw water droplets in the display panel so I guess water must have gotten in. I tried to dry it with a hair-blower but all I could get was flickering on the display.

I didn't have another scale and my neighbour is at church. So no choice I had to rush out to buy another scale. The store had run out of the cheaper model. So I had to spend $45 on the more expensive one. Got home only to realise it runs on 9V battery! Argh!

It was already close to 11.30am so I got the kids to come with me to the supermarket. Might as well have lunch too. We got everything we need (I double checked this time) and loaded everything into the car. I went back to return the trolley and when I got back to the car, I COULDN'T FIND MY CAR KEY!!

I definitely had my car key with me cos I unlocked the boot. I searched the car boot. Couldn't find it. Re-traced my steps to the trolley bay. Nope!

In the end I had to call my hubs for the spare key.

By the time we reached home it was close to 2pm. Had to change my ice cream menu a bit so that I could finish them in time for the bbq.

This was one of those days!

And I still haven't found the car key yet.

The moment I see Deepavali decorations up in Little India, I know. It's time for the photomarathon again. It's been a yearly event since 2003 and every year it's in October. And somehow, we would always end up in Little India without fail.

Gu's right. Every time when we took part we would complain like crazy about the tasks, vowing never to sign up again. But when the time comes, we just couldn't resist it. Leon & I signed up already. It's the challenge, I guess.

Leon said this time, he's gonna hang around Suntec City area, no more island-wide chase. I agree. Too tiring to be rushing all over the place to get our shots.

Hopefully the photo themes are a bit more interesting this year. They ought to take hints from websites like http://www.usefilm.com/ or http://www.dpchallenge.com/. Very interesting weekly/monthly photo challenges.

I was at Alan Photo Trading yesterday. Bought the EF24-105 f/4 L IS lens to replace my broken EF25-70mm f/2.8L. The focusing ring on the old lens was damaged during last year's holiday trip. Canon service centre told me they no longer have the parts for this discontinued lens.

I decided to get the EF24-105 because of the the longer zoom, the IS and the lighter weight (even though I'm a sucker for f2.8s). Bought a grey set so it's cheaper.

I need to do a rigorous lens test over the next few days since I'm only given the shop's 7-day exchange warranty. Planning to wake up early this Sunday morning & head down to Changi Beach for some dawn photo-shoot. I've been neglecting my photography for a while. Time to pull the dusty o' tripod from the store-room and get down to some serious shooting. Yeah!

So far my ice cream attempts have been quite successful. The most popular one is the durian ice cream. Everyone who sampled it loved it!

I have given Syafiq a small tub of the durian ice cream. He told me the first thought that came into his mind when he took the 1st scoop of my durian ice cream was he wished he had finished the whole thing before his fiancee arrived. It was the 1st time he felt reluctant to share something with his fiancee.

I gave my Aunt Noy 1 pint. She called to complain it wasn't enough and wanted more. Said she would buy the durians if I don't have the time.

Fandy declared he would not 'friend' me anymore if I did not pass him some more of the durian ice cream.

Looks like I have a winner here.

But I have to give credit where credit is due. The recipe comes from Esther Ho. I think she's working on her website now and will also be publishing an ice cream recipe book soon. I'll link to her website once I have it. The ingredients in her recipes are measured down to the last gram. You can't go wrong if you start with her recipes and once you gain confidence you can start experimenting. Like my neighbour Hui Leng, she made Tom-Yam sorbet. Sounds weird but tastes heavenly. My only complaint about Esther's recipes is the sugar. Too much. For my ice creams & sorbet, I cut the amount of sugar in her recipes by 10% to 40%.

Well, if you're residing in Singapore and would like to learn ice-cream making, drop me an email.

I really enjoy ice cream making. The steps are easy and the ingredients are easily available. No big oily mess to clean up afterwards too.

My friends are coming over for a bbq next weekend and I think Chardonnay sorbet will make a wonderful dessert. I'm trying out this recipe now. Hope it turns out well.