(9) Cirno's Bakery

Fig and Orange Zest Quickbread

2010-03-31T17:46:00.008+13:00

Wow, it's been almost a year since I last blogged! :O

Anyways, I got this recipe off from Nestle NZ's Hottest Home Baker show.

It was originally Fig and Aniseed, but since we don't have aniseed I substituted it with orange zest.
Didn't have any run, so I just used 1 tsp of vanilla essence instead.

It looks yum!

Ingredients:

Filling

100g dessert figs, stems removed and cut very finely
25ml dark rum
½ tsp of aniseeds, lightly bruised with a pestle and mortar to release the flavours
25 g butter, softened
½ tsp cinnamon

Dough

200g plain flour
15g sugar
15g baking powder
Good pinch of salt
30g butter, softened
100ml milk
½ egg

Apricot Glaze

4 tbsp apricot jam
3 tbsp water

Method

To make the filling mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, ensuring that the figs are not stuck together and you have a paste. Cover and set aside.
To make the dough sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and, using your fingertips, rub into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a jug, whisk together the milk and egg and pour into the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, mix together to form a soft dough. Tip it out onto a floured surface and knead for 10-20 seconds.
Take the dough and shape it into a square. Using a rolling pin, roll out on a lightly floured surface into a approx 25cm square.
Spread the filling evenly on top of the dough sheet, leaving about 1cm free at the bottom edge. Brush the bottom edges with the egg wash, then tightly roll up the dough to form a log, as you would for a swiss roll. Using a sharp knife, make a single lengthwise cut down the middle of the loaf and right the way through, open the lines of dough and filling to face you.
Take the two strands, one in each hand, with the cut side of each strand facing up and twist them around each other. Press the ends firmly together so they do not unwind during baking. Place the twist on a baking tray lined with nonstick baking paper. Place into the preheated oven set at 210°C.
Bake for approx 25 minutes. Turn the tray halfway through baking to ensure even colour.
Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by placing apricot jam and water into a small saucepan and bringing to the boil, stirring constantly. Strain through a sieve.
Remove loaf from the oven and brush with the hot apricot glaze before setting on a wire rack to cool.

A few more images where I didn't twiddle with the lighting on Photoshop...

Lemon Cupcakes

2009-07-30T18:34:00.003+12:00

I received my first ever bakebook form Static from the CNZ Forums. <3 Thank you so much.

I decided to try a recipe on lemon cupcakes. They turned out real well!

Measurements

2009-06-30T17:22:00.003+12:00

Since New Zealand has a unique way of measuring ingredients for baking, I'm clarifying each measurement into metric units.

Below are the measurements used in this blog:

1 cup = 250ml
1/2 cup = 125ml
1/3 cup = 83.3ml
1/4 cup = 62.5ml

1 tablespoon = 15ml
1 teaspoon = 5ml
1/2 teaspoon = 2.5ml
1/4 teaspoon = 1.25ml

It is best to weigh your ingredients if possible, especially flour. Since the humidity each day differs it affects the volume of the flour (it absorbs moisture), and thus using a cup to measure flour would result in different quantities each time. Weighing your flour not only gives you an accurate quantity, but it can also ensure your baking is accurate, reducing mistakes. :)

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2009-06-29T19:45:00.006+12:00

These scrumptious chocolate chip muffins are made without any cocoa. Just chocolate chips. :)

Took the recipe off Joy of Baking, modified slightly.

I reduced the butter, sugar and baking powder. Additionally, I ended up using only about 120g of chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

110g melted butter
2 eggs
240ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
260g flour
125g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g chocolate chips

Method:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk and vanilla essence together.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Stir in the chocolate chips. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula, along with the melted butter. Stir well until just combined. Do not over mix.
Fill each muffin cup up evenly. Sprinkle some chocolate chips on top if you wish.
Preheat oven at 190°C. Place in the centre of the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Super scription of data

2009-06-27T21:38:00.004+12:00

Super scription of data
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei OP
Vocals: Shimamiya Eiko

Oshiemashou ka?
Sono kawari dare ni mo
Iwanai yakusoku shite ne
Yubikiri genman uso tsuitara hari senbon

Oritatamareta mama ugomeiteiru monogatari o
Hirogete misete yo kako mo mirai mo
Super scription of data

Umarekawaru tabi ni umekomareta
Iro no tsuita KURISUTARU
Sono nanairo subete dasorotta toki

Mekurumeku rine wa PURIZUMU no ken de tachikirarete
Kanashimi no KAKERA wa mou doko ni mo nai
Super scription of data

Anata ga nozomu kara
Sore wa itsu datte soko ni aru
Anata ga kaeru nara
Subete ga kawaru
Super scription of data

Mekurumeku rine wa PURIZUMU no ken de tachikirarete
Kanashimi no KAKERA wa mou doko ni mo nai
Super scription of data

You can ignore this, I'm putting it here so I don't lose it. :3

Coffee Walnut Muffins

2009-05-03T20:24:00.004+12:00

As usual, a baked product was due to be produced on every Sunday, I decided to bake some coffee muffins in an attempt to use up the rest of the instant coffee powder. Nevertheless to say, I failed. There was at lest enough left for two batches. Oh well.

As usual, I used raw sugar instead of white sugar. The sweet toothed may want to add an extra 10gs or so.

However, at the end, my batter was a bit dry, so I added water until it felt runny enough but still syrupy.

Ingredients:
Makes about 12 muffins

100g butter
160g sugar
2 eggs
30g coffee powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
120ml milk
120g walnuts
170g flour

Method:

Put softened butter in a mixing bowl. Add sugar in two additions, beat until pale and fluffy. (In my case it was until it was well incorporated).
Add egg, salt, half of the milk and half of the flour, sifted. Mix until it is well incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk, and then the flour. Sift the baking powder in together with the flour.
Add coffee powder and walnuts, mix evenly until well distributed. Your batter should be a nice (dark) chocolate brown.
Bake at 170C for 20~30 minutes.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei 02 Thoughts

2009-04-05T19:49:00.004+12:00

....
The second OVA is finally out! After watching it just now.... here are some of my thoughts...

Initially, I thought that Rika was still in the world where they defeated Takano, and is now living with free from her chains of fate.
However... Rika is thrown into a completely different world, without any tragedy.

First... the Dam War didn't happen. Hinamizawa agreed and worked with the government for a dam to be constructed, without any tragedy at all.

Second... Rena never moved out from Hinamizawa to Ibaraki... resulting in the absence of her mother cheating on her dad and getting a divorce...

Thrid... Nothing bad happened to Satoko, Satoshi is still here, her parents never supported the Dam Construction because the Dam War never happened, and so nothing tragic happened.

Fifth... Irie and Takano isn't here... which means Takano Hifumi never adopted Takano, and so the chain of events streaming from there never happened.

Sixth... Oyashiro-sama's curse didn't happen...

Seventh... Hinamizawa Syndrome doesn't seem to exist... maybe it doesn't exist...

By the time Rika realises that Keiichi wasn't here, I've figured it out - this is the world where Frederica Bernkastel prevented Takano's parents from dying by telling Takano that her parents were going to the department store - the very trigger of the tragic events that will led to the 'normal' Hinamizawa.

Here is the question: what if nothing bad or tragic happened in Hinamizawa? This arc shows the very question that all fans would have asked themselves at one point or another.

But one question hasn't been answered - what happened after the truck was supposed to hit Rika? How did she get thrown into this alien Hinamizawa? An explanation is required here. Where is Hanyuu? Does she not exist in this world? But that's not very likely since she is Oyashiro-sama.

It'll be very interesting to see how this develops out. Very. Interesting.

Blacked Out

2009-02-20T12:58:00.001+13:00

Grab your pitchforks and torches, bubs.

http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

Taiwan Days 65-69

2009-02-03T01:04:00.016+13:00

Thursday, 29th Jan 2009

Nothing much happened today, except that we went to Gran's house for dinner again. It's the 4th in the Lunar Calendar, so today you're meant to invite the God of Wealth into your house. You're supposed to set up an offering table with several specific things and some money, along with some specific foods.

Friday, 30th Jan 2009

Yawn~ woke up early to catch the bus today, I'm bound for Taipei!
Om nom nom, had a quick breakfast, packed up some final things, and set off for Chou Ma, where the buses are. Purchased tickets for $210 NTD each, and waited a bit. Finally, the bus was ready and we got on. Waved goodbye to dad. The bus was nice and roomy, along with some TVs. During the trip a movie was shown... I don't know the name but there was no sound. XD It was about a Police in Rhode Island, US, who got married, and not long after they had 3 black kids... his wife cheated on him but he still loves his kids a lot. The wife ditched Charlie... that's his name, and he was heartbroken. But he's a good dad and a good person. His kids are real smart... but they think that they're not smart. XD
Everyone takes advantage of him and finally one day he cracks and develops a split personality, called Hank, I think. Oh, a random adventure begins...

After arriving in Taipei, we headed for the station. Toilets first... been busting for about 2 hours...
Then, we started shopping in the Taipei Underground Mall. Wow~ the place is big... from no. 80 onwards to about no. 30 it was all games and merchandise stores. Wow! There was even a total doujin shop! I saw TOUHOU GAMES from COMIKET, and Touhou doujins, merchandise, Yukkuri heads, figures, keychains and so on.
Stopping buy Hot Dog Toyz I bought a set of Tales of the Abyss gasha straps and Druaga no Tou gasha straps for $325 NTD. What a bargain!
Also a Prinny keychain on clearance for $200 NTD intended as a b'day present for a friend.
I also saw 2 Ion figures in a lonely what seemed like a clearance box... no one wants him, poor guy. T_T
After having killed my legs some more, we went to Ximen Ding/Shimen Ting by MRT. Heh... very crowded and spazzahs.
Our destination: KT Animanga and Animate. We also tried to find Moe Moe Animanga house but somehow my bro managed to get us even more lost than what we were in the first place. >_>
At Animate I bought 2 boxes of Soul Eater Trading Arts. They were Maka and Liz. I bought issue 20 of Cosmode from Mag Freak downstairs. $536 bucks...
After Ximen, we made our way towards Wan Nen... it's like a mall full of stuff. Very crowded. :<

[RAWR RAWR RAWR @*&#%^@#%^(@ Blogger just erased a whole lot of blog material here due to me using the emoticon ":<" and it thinks it part of HTML and just erased everything until the bold date text. Grrrrr.]

I bought a Rukario plushie there for $300 at the same shop that I bought my Rena figure at. My legs were really dying by now. After my legs were very dead, we headed for Yi Ma's house via MRT then bus. I accidently gave the bus driver an extra $20 because I thought that I would get change from a $50 coin. But did you know what? Buses in Taipei don't give change! Most people use cards. So, we had dinner there and I even managed to watch Doraemon!
I slept in a futon that night. I haven't slept in one for at least 4 years. My feet were really sore...

Saturday, 31st Jan 2009

Yawn~ After saying my goodbyes and thanks to our Yi Ma... we headed over to Ximen Ding again. *sigh~* We ended up waiting a long time for Alan's friend to arrive~ meanwhile we were confronted by people trying to sell us things. Heh. My bro bought a little wallet like thing for $300, like supporting the students trying to earn some school fees.
Hah! After our friends arrived, we headed over to Animate. In a frenzy I bought all of the Trading Arts left. The 3 boxes turned out to be Patty, Soul and Death the Kid. TT^TT
I wanted Black*Star.... why... why?!?! Uwahahahaaaaa~~~~ *cries*
Browse, browse, browse.... *GASP!* We found Moe Moe! Wow~ the place is bigger than KT... Oh! Maid Cafe on the 3rd level! Uwah!!!
Timidly, I went up... and was met with an arrangement of gothic lolita clothings. Why no wigs? I need a wig... no, don't ask why. It's better that way. And, the Cafe's always booked full because it's so popular. I saw one maid saying "okaerinasaimase, goshujin-sama". But it was obvious she hasn't learned Japanese because she slurred it.

Then, after that, we went to Taipei Underground Mall again to find Alan's Monthly Undine's.
My feet are like, dead. =_=
Long story short, after that, we bought an obentou for $75 at the Bus Station, and then went home. They were showing House of Flying Daggers on the small TV. So tired.... Zzzzzz...

Sunday, 1st Feb 2009

Well, nothing much happened today. We ended up going to Gran's house for lunch and dinner.
In the afternoon me and my mum went lingerie shopping while my dad and my bro waited in the car. The shop is owned by a friend of my parent's. When we finished, we tried to start up the car but nothing happened. Tried a few more times, but the battery was dead. So while we waited for 5th Uncle to come along and link the batteries together to shock each other, me and my mum went to a drinks shop right next door and had Shaow Shen Chao (shaow sian-chháu), or Mesona. Grass jelly. Yum~ it's a blackish colour and it's really delicious. :9

Monday, 2nd Feb 2009

Phew~ hard work packing stuff into boxes... it's like Tetris but takes a long time and it's heavy and fiddly trying to make the weight balance...
We ended up with 5 boxes of stuff to surface ship back....
In the afternoon my 5th Uncle called me to go and choose my new cellphone! His contract is coming to an end so he can choose a new cell alongside renewing his contract. He doesn't need a new one so that's how I got a cellphone for no money! It's like free! Except buying the extra charger and screen protection stickers... I got a Motorola VE536.
At night, we went to Nana's house, and ended up buying Chou Toufu. This mobile stall's chou toufu was delicious! Just the right crispiness, and nice and soft on the inside. Nice and stinky too! That ended up being 3/4 of my dinner... hohoho, for the rest 1/4 I ate too much noodles... *burp*

Taiwan Days 63-64

2009-01-29T03:13:00.004+13:00

Tuesday, 27th Jan 2009

Today we are destined to go back to Mother's House, because it's Jan the 2nd in the Lunar Calendar. Actually, it's mum's mum, aka my Nana's house that we're going back to. We had lunch and dinner there, all cooked by various people. Apart from the mahjong all day long, TV was watched, and conversations were listened to. All in all, nothing big happened, but I did get another red packet from my Shao Jo Ma and Nana. The spoils? Well.... ;D it's another $2000 to add to the total. So now it's $5300.

Wednesday, 28th Jan 2009

=_= Ergh.... so tired...

Well, I got to laze around the house for a bit before we went to Nana's for lunch. :D
Mum's big sis cooked up a hearty meal for us so that was quite nice. Had some talk and I watched some TV.
We wanted to watch Gake no Ue no Ponyo - Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea, and we wanted to watch the 3:10pm one at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi. So we left Nana's house at around 2pm, and got there at around 2:50pm, I guess. Wow! It was so cute and endearing~ also so pretty... as expected of Ghibli. ^_^
I'd recommend you go watch this... it's really worth it. There was a really long line for the tickets... but we managed to get a seat anyways.
After that, our parents came to pick us up to go to Gran's house for dinner. Wheee~ I also watched Doraemon there too... nice dinner. Oh, I managed to rediscover a book that I brought back to Taiwan when I was in like, year 1-3, and never brought back. It's called "My Fern Hollow Bedtime Book". I remember bringing this book for show and tell and I had a lot of favourite pages. XD
I finished reading the book when Mum stopped by Hill Top again after we got off the car and walked up from the parking lot. Sat there and read while she looked for more stuff. Heh.

So here I am blogging~ I have to sleep early today because it's Jan the 3rd in the Lunar Calenday, and the Mouse Groom is going to marry the Mouse Bride. ;D

Taiwan Days 60-62

2009-01-27T02:09:00.008+13:00

Saturday, Jan 24th 2009

Today is the day before New Year's Eve. We call it Shao Nen Yei, or "Little Year's Eve". Ah, we have to spend a whole day at Gran's house today. Whooo~ Nothing much happened except that I watched some anime, played some Wii, read some stuff and surfed on the net. All of the family crammed into one apartment. Oh boy, there's the New Year atmosphere.

Sunday, Jan 25th 2009

Uwaaah~~~ another full day at Gran's again. This time the whole family + 3rd Uncle's black dog Ler Ler (Happy Happy) came back. Stayed until like, 11:30pm. Today is New Year's Eve, or "Chyu Shi". The Year of the Rat is ending, and the Year of the Ox is coming.
Heh, did pretty much what I did yesterday. But, instead, there's some added blogging material. Whoo!
All the kids and some Uncle and Aunties expect me went to Jin Der Elementary to play basketball. When the came back they told us that they ended up playing baseball because the court was too crowded.
At night all of us went out to let fireworks off. Now, the fireworks they bought is largely different to the ones you usually see in NZ. If you want to buy the ones you see in NZ, they cost a few hundred bucks. Anyways, they bought Chon Ten Pao, or sky rockets. They're little sticks with the firework head stuck on the end of the stick. You prop it up like a rocket, and set it on ~~fire~~, err, I meant set it off. It shoots towards the sky, sometimes making a sound, then blowing up with a bang and a ball of small sparkles. Other times it goes up spinning, and then blowing up.
We also got to play with sparklers, and these fountains things that just sparkle and glitter and stuff.
After a while after we came back, people started giving out red packets! Yay! Do you want to know what's inside them? Money! It's like what you would get for Xmas I guess. ;D
3rd Uncle gave everyone a memorial coin of the Taiwan Aboriginal Culture series, every year a different tribe.
The spoils are.... ;D $3300 NTD!
Overall, it was a fun day, and we came back quite late. I finally got to sleep at around 1am after showering and stuffs. ;o

Monday, Jan 26th 2009

It's the second day of New Year's! Today we go to Nana's house - I'm actually looking forward to seeing my Nana.
*tries to remember what happened that day but fails*
We had lunch cooked by my Yi Ma and mum. Ummm.... I got to watch my daily programs. We stayed to the evening.
Lots of people I can't remember or haven't met before were there. They're supposed to be my relatives but honestly, I don't have much recollection of them.
This is what happens when you procrastinate blogging for too long...
Ah! I got another $2000 for spoils from my red packet. I have $5300 now~
One was from my Shao Yi Ma who went back to her mother's home, and another $1000 was form my Nana.

Taiwan Day 59

2009-01-24T03:22:00.002+13:00

Friday, Jan 23rd 2009

Wow~ I woke up at almost 10 am today. I had a really nice/weird/awesome dream that I can't remember before I woke up. Awwww.
I yukkuri'd and ate a big as rice ball for breakfast, more like brunch though. I couldn't finish it.... eheheh....

Then, when I heard that Dad was going to get lunch for the rest of the family via SCOOTER, my eyes lit up like Nyanko-sensei when he hears that there's sashimi.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I got to ride on a scooter again! Whoooooooooo!
Bought obentous for Alan and Dad and 2nd Uncle. Then we rode a bit to Jhong Shin Vegetarian to mum's lunch.
Anyways~ I pretty much yukkuri'd all day. I went downstairs to 7-Eleven to pick up my +Anima volume 10 that they didn't have stock from my last order. Brrrr.... cold front's arrived. During the past 2 days it's been like, 26°C. And it's supposed to be winter.
The wind's real chilly, since it's from Mainland China and supposedly it's been snowing there.

At night all of us except mum went to eat Ramen in Feng Chia Nightmarket for dinner. Heh~ Dad told the store owner lady that he was 4th Uncle's bro since they often come here. We scored a free small plate of veges. XD
Ramen was nice~ but the real highlight of the evening was cotton candy/candy floss. I'll tell you!

I saw a bike tied up with big bags of candyfloss. Wow. I wanted one. So I got dad to agree to buy some. Ah, blog's here by the way. You can see what the store's like.
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/z123439z
The stall owner was like: "You wanna try making your own floss?"
And I was like: "Eh? ..... OK!"

Weeeeeeee! He taught me how to make it, keep it spinning and move it up and down. Wow~ it ain't easy. But it was real fun~ it was a real big bunch as well. The flavour was 'black sugar', I think it's unprocessed sugar in English. ^o^
He then took a photo of me with my floss, saying that he would stick it on the stall's blog. XDDD Heheheh!
You can go check it out once he puts it on! Wheeeeeeeeee!

It was such a big bunch of floss, and it was only for $30 NTD! That's value!
Yum..... delicious....

Taiwan Days 57-58

2009-01-23T03:23:00.002+13:00

Wednesday, Jan 21st 2009

Cutting to the chase~ for lunch we went to an all vegetarian restaurant that has been open for quite a few years. It's also quite famous. Heh, there was a wedding going on when we got there. Anyways, it was kinda like mostly buffet mixed with yum cha styles. It was quite lovely and I got to taste some new foods that I haven't seen before. Mum also met a former workmate of hers, back before she married Dad. Wow~ long history there.

This evening I have a meeting with a childhood friend that I haven't seen in at least 6 years. Had dinner at Granny's again. I forgot why we got there later than usual. :/
Anyways, after finishing dinner we walked all the way to Yi Jhong Jye's Animanga house called Je Bi. We were supposed to meet her at 7pm, but she ended up coming late, but that's okay. She had kendou lessons beforehands. Wow! She got taller (bit she says he hasn't), and her face hasn't changed dramatically. We spent the evening chatting, took those photos from those machines (i forgot the Eng name for them), went to Kuroi San Rensei since she didn't know about them, and basically spent the whole evening browsing through Animanga houses. :)
It was nice meeting her again after such a long time. ^_^

Thursday, Jan 22nd 2009

Haircut in line today! Dad dropped mum off at the barber's and then came back for me. Whoo! I got to ride a scooter again! Wheeeeeeeeee! Then he dropped me off and went away to do some other stuff. :D
Yay~ I got massage treatment and a nice hairstyle. Woot!
Walked home and was starving for lunch. Turned out that my bro and dad went out for lunch... they came back and dad ended up going buying lunch for mum and me.

After some relaxation and burping (excuse me), it was time to head over to my Nana's. Yay! I got to knead dough again! That feeling under my fingers.... ahhhh.... they were making this sort of... uhhh.... pancake thing? Anyways, it's a sort of 餅. Roll flat, sprinkle salt, sesame oil/lard, some pepper, flavouring/herbs to taste, rolled up, twist and squish. Then roll again. Etc etc.
Fry on a pan thing without a handle.
Yum~ it's really filling.
Talk talk talk, ohhh, Spongebob, talk, watch TV.... passed the time.
Then, it was time for us to leave. Bye bye~

When we got back home (walking), me and my bro headed off to Feng Chia Nightmarket for TEH TURKISH ICE CREAM. HAH. I would sooooooooooo recommend you to eat it at least once. :D
Because.... it's absolutely delicious! Plus...
Ok, he seems like he scoops your ice cream onto a cone. He hands it over to you BUT....
As soon as you think he's going to put it into your hand, he takes it away from you! The whole time the flat metal scoop is sticking to the ice cream, and then ice cream is on the cone...
and then he does it again! Ah! No... my ice cream.... and does it again!
At last, he seems to have put it in your hand, only to fool you again! OH NO! You think the ice cream is going to fall since it's topping over..... only to find that it's yet another trick! :D
OR, he hand you your ice cream on the cone with the scoop.... it's in your hands, but the scoop is still attached.... he takes the scoop away... only to find that he took the ice cream away as well! Arghhh! My ice cream!!! I paid for it you know!!! Aren't you gonna give me my ice cream....?
But don't worry! He grabs another cone and puts the ice cream on.... and hand it to you. Packing the last trick, he makes the ice cream with the cone topple over.... and you think it's gonna fall again! Only to find that he quickly revert it and it's another trick.
Awesome performance. Hehehe....
If there's a line his show is even better, scoop, attach, hit the bells hanging from his trolley stand thing, fall, sleight of hand, etc etc!

Yay! I finally get to eat my ice cream!
Umai! Brainfreeze! Yummy! Different texture and taste.... it's absolutely delicious. And it;s only $30 NTD too.

Taiwan Days 56-57

2009-01-21T03:58:00.004+13:00

Monday, 19th Jan 2009

OK, lesse... for lunch all of us except mum went to a nearby buffet. The stuff was pretty good, free rice and soup, but I just didn't like the garlic flavouring in some of their dishes.
Blah blah, time skip.
For dinner, we went back to Gran's again. Lalala, ok and then on the way home we stopped by at the Kuroi San Rensei's again. Alan wanted to buy that limited edition 300 copies Aria Alicia doll with Aria Shachou. He asked for the price. It was in the low $10,000's. Shock. :O
There's a guy that's saving up money to buy it, or so the shop lady told us.
We went off to the middle shop, the one with heaps of figures. I bought my last volume of a manga series, and looked at a Tales of the Abyss kechain set. Cute. :3
Went home after completing mostly Alan's rounds.

At home, I had to go upstairs to get my icash for 7-Eleven. Huh. Turns out they sold out of Coro Coro. Went and checked Hi-life. Yes, 3 copies. Went upstairs to get money. Bought it. Good thing I took $100 in coins, because it suddenly inflated to $99 instead of the $85 for last month's issue. DX
Uwaaah~!!!
Dad came back and bought Lemon Cake. ♥
Haven't had it in suuuuuuuuuuch a long time. Yummy!

Tuesday, 20th Jan 2009

This morning I had more Lemon Cake. ♥
Then, dad took us by car to the National Museum of Natural Science, and dropped us off. The Mammoth exhibit was there! Wow~ a complete real mammoth called Yukagir. It was evacuated in a near perfect state, frozen in permafrost. I actually saw the real thing, restored. Wow~
Stamps and pamphlets as a souvenir. We even got free notebooks from purchasing the tickets!
Then... we had a look at Microscopic World. Ewww... cockroaches. Ohhh, Dory, Martin/Nemo and that French shrimp guy. :D
Skull in the tank next to it~
Anyways, after my complains about hunger, we searched for Maccies and had lunch there. D:
There was school trip groups and it was so noisy. >o<
After lunch, we went and looked at the Austronesians of Taiwan, Spiritual Life of the Ancient Chinese, Egyptian mummies, Chinese mummies, Oceania Polynesians, and the God of Earth in Taiwan (AKA Tu Di Gong). I really liked the Native Taiwanese's display. :D

Also along with a Bird's eye view show, and a theatrical seasons. That was so awesome. The music composed fitted so well with the program, and the floor rotated slowly, sitting down, you were surrounded by screens that would come out and go back up, showing us different scenes of life throughout the four seasons. A door thing would open from the wall and show us stuff. Wow~ it was truly a magnificent experience.
The Bird's Eye View theatrical worked by having you stand on a platform 3 stories high, looking down into a curved basin where they projected images. The images were awesome, waterfalls, rivers, forests, mountains, etc. It really felt like I was flying through the air...

Then, after killing some short time and toilet breaks (I was so thirsty during the whole time), we went to the souvenir store. Yay! I found the Tu Di Gong keychain as shown on a sign outside the exhibit. I bought it, it was only $50 bucks~
Then, after killing some more time trying the games at the shop, we went downstairs to a science place. Whoo~ haven't been here in a long time~
Had a look around, and then exited the museum. Dad was alreay waiting to pick us up.

Yay! Water in the car! Drank it all, wasn't much. Still thirsty. Then we went to Yein Ayi's house. T_T It was time for my Pokemon DP but the atmosphere wasn't right, so I didn't get to see it, since she was telling mum and dad how Yein Bo Bo passed away.
Anyways, lalala, got charged for parking ($20), we went back to Gran's for dinner.
Left at about 7:35pm. Got home, watched anime, showered, and now I'm blogging.

Taiwan Day 55

2009-01-20T03:44:00.002+13:00

Sunday, 18th Jan 2009

Whooo~ Today's the day for the Shao Fei Jwen~ free money~
Anyways, right to business, we had Kaiten Sushi - Sushi Express. It was $30 for each plate, and on average there are 2 pieces of sushi on a plate. Yum~ we had 19 plates in total, including mine, my bro's and mum's. 5 plates for my 2nd Uncle. Total cost was $750 but 2nd Uncle insisted on paying for us. :O

Dad went to play golf with his old golf mates in the morning. Returned in the afternoon, rested and went to get $3600. Honestly, people were lining up at 6 or 7am in the morning, and then waiting in line for an hour to get theirs. The offices opened at 8am, and closes at 5 pm.
The First Lady rushed in at 4:49:20 to get hers... hohoho. XD

For dinner, we went back to Gran's house, but before that, we headed along to our old house at Shui Lan to visit some neighbours and friends. It was so nostalgic~ but it was weird looking at out house that wasn't our house anymore. It was just.... weird.
But everything was as 'tasty' as I remembered. Ahhh... then, after visiting our neighbour up the street, and the neighbour in front of our house, we went up to Mike Convini Store.
I haven't seen the Mike Lady in a long time... she didn't recognise me, but the store was exactly as I remembered, but they had a new sign. The old one was two stripes on the top and bottom, one big, one small, and "Mai (A) Ker" in the middle. But the new one had a big red smiley face, and "MIKE" down the side near the street, and green colours.
Whoo!
After talking and me buying 'Popping Candy with Lolli Pop' for $10, and rejecting Mike Lady's offer for on the house, we headed back to Gran's house. The old pharmacy on the main street outside is now a 85°C Café. :(
I got a free pink highlighter disguised as medicine cream there from the Pharmacy Ojiisan.

After dinner we stopped by a Service Centre and I bought... more feminine hygenie stuff, to stock up, and with a friend's request. Mum and Dad bought other stuff.

That ended the day, pretty much.

Taiwan Day 54

2009-01-18T17:06:00.005+13:00

Saturday, Jan 17th 2009

Tomorrow we get like, $3600 as spending vouchers from the government. Basically, these vouchers are meant to poke, or make Taiwan's economy in a positive direction. Well, whatever, I just call it the govt's pocket money, or red packet. Heh. ^_^
Waking up at 7:30am this morning, and getting ready, we went by car up to where my Granpa and Papa's grave were. The place is big, and there was a lot of graves piles up on that mountain area. :O
First we went into the Tower, and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Then, for two hours we sent prayers to our deceased ancestors, with a 10 minute break in the middle. After we finished the whole thing, all of us gathered our offerings and headed down to the BURNING TOWERS - also known as Gold/Silver Warehouses. They were basically 2 towers that acted as a furnace for paper money to be burnt. There's silver and gold. I got to burn some gold money, and those 3 cousins kept wanting to burn some so we had to split a whole lot of them up. ^_^;;
After that, we drove by car up the mountain, to where my Grandpa and Papa were resting.

Since the last time we visited was very small, so I only had a faint image of what the grave looks like. Ah, this is the first time I've seen my Papa's photo. My Grandpa I know, since he died 10 years ago. The point of this visit was also because it was his 10th anniversary.
We lit incense and bowed 3 times for respect, and stuck the incense in a pot in front of their grave stones. Also, incense was offered to Tu Di Gong on both sides of the grave area.
Our business was done here and everybody headed back to 4th Uncle's shop to get some lunch. We all ended up going to this hotpot place... hehehe...

In the afternoon mum and me decided to go out and search for that dress shop. After some fruitless searching we finally found a shop - "Party Girls". The oneesan there was so cool - she had the patience to go and pick dresses that suits my type of body, and was teaching me how to dress in the current fashion! I'll need to go buy a "new bra", as that's what she said for the ball.
After me choosing a most suitable dress~ I had to walk all the way back to get dad since he HAS TEH MONEHHH. DX Then walk back again with very sore feet. There was lots of walking and standing in the morning visit. DDDDDDX
After dad arrived I ended up choosing more winter wear with mum and then we bought a whole lot more stuff which ended up costing $4500 NTD in total.

Awww man, my feet are dead. DX
At night we headed out to Shoa Jo Ma's place for dinner, and I saw my San Jo for the first time in who knows how long years. My Da Jo also came, along with a few other people I recognise but don't know their names. DX
Parents ended up talking to quite late. That pretty much ended the day~

Maid Guitar

2009-01-17T23:55:00.002+13:00

Watch through it. All of it.

Taiwan Day 53

2009-01-17T04:12:00.003+13:00

Friday, Jan 16th 2009

After I woke up today, and Alan vacuumed the floor, I mopped it up with this spray thing. The mop was dry, the dried spray is meant to suck the dirty stuff up. It was fun though, pushing the mop around. But washing it afterwards wasn't so fun but it was OK.
For lunch we went downstairs and ate an obentou that 4th Auntie bought. Mum and Dad went to get mum's teeth done and still haven't returned. That's why we had boxed lunch. Oh well, it was nice. Bit too much garlic for my taste though, in the veges.

Tomorrow we go visit Grandpa's grave, and send him our prayers. I'm supposed to wake up before 7:30am, so I'd better finish up fast.

Tonight, instead of going back to Gran's, we went to Feng Chia Nightmarket with the whole family. Chou Toufu (Smelly Tofu) again, and then fried kumara/yam balls. It was really nice, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Definitely recommended. And then we went shopping/browsing for clothes on the way. I bought some clothes - it's hard to find clothes that I like or suit my tastes. I like to dress simply. I also bought a new Jaga digital watch, my old one has served my well. Then some shoes, and some socks.
Mum just doesn't understand that I'm different, and so it's hard for me to find clothes that I like. Man, she always gets angry over what I pick, since 4/10 we come out of the shop with nothing bought for me. DX
Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah~~~!!!
Then, going back and passing the Turkish Ice Cream guy, we saw that there was a line and he was doing his show. We decided to buy it some other time since it was getting late. So instead, we got 3 cups of Saow Sen Chao (燒仙草) after some searching. Yum~ I haven't tasted this in ages~ mmmmm~

I also ordered my books on Books.com.tw today too, some +Anima and Juuhime. I'm giving Juuhime a go, since the art's real pretty.
Ok, gotta go, I'll finish up tomorrow or something, early start tomorrow morning.

Taiwan Days 51-52

2009-01-15T20:14:00.004+13:00

Wednesday, 14th Jan 2008

Sick......... (≧ロ≦)

Thursday, 15th Jan 2008

Had brunch at Shao Jo Ma's. Curry rice. It was a different type of curry rice. Parents talked for about an hour afterwards. I got to ride a scooter again. Bliss~
Checked my exam results. I did not fail! I can't believe that I got an M in Unfamiliar text and Algebra though. >o<
Dentist appointment at 4pm. I must go and brush my teeth before going, to make it easier for the dentist, and less picking with that sharp tool.
Mannnnnnnn! The drill... was scary. It sure hurt too, when it touched my tooth root. Finally, a white filling instead of silver! :D
I made it in time for Pokemon as well... how nice!
For dinner we went back to Gran's again, and it was vege hotpot this time. Watched Doraemon there, and we stopped by an Organics store on the way home. Enzymes was the target, but we ended up buying a whole load of other stuff apart from enzymes. There's the shopping trap for you.

Taiwan Days 44-50

2009-01-14T04:16:00.012+13:00

Thursday, Jan 8th 2009

(ΘεΘ;) Complete laterz

Friday, Jan 9th 2009

Parents come back tomorrows. Started packing up stuff into boxes - managed to amass quite a lot!

Saturday, Jan 10th 2009

Today my parents come back to Taiwan from NZ. I finished packing up stuff into boxes (3 of them, that's a lot - mostly thanks to the clothes that Gran keeps buying us even when we keep saying "No, don't".) and taped them down, plus one or two more plastic bags full of.... clothes.
On the way there and in 4th Uncle's car, he gave us a little talk about time, and not wasting it, etc, life's lessons, etc.

Sunday, Jan 11th 2009

Today's the first full day in Taiwan for my parents, and the first full day at our new temporary house. After going downstairs and having breakfast at a Hong Ya - the rice milk was exceptionally delicious, the main point for today was for mum to go visit my Nana. We spent the rest of the morning at her apartment, and then headed down for lunch at a vegetarian place not too far away. When we got off the elevator mum met a mother of a friend of hers, and asked where she lived. Level 3, Unit 1. I think. I can't remember the unit.
We walked back home after lunch, and then I can't remember what we did after that. (ΘεΘ;)

Monday, Jan 12th 2009

After having dinner at Gran's we stopped on the way home at a supermarket shop place. But it has no veges and meat and stuff, just general merchandise. I don't know what that type of shop is called in English, it'll be Fu Li Jhong Shin - Service Centre, but mum bought some things and I bought feminine hygiene things.

Tuesday, Jan 13th 2009

Hmmmm, interesting.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665847
Follow up.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665808

Anyways, today, I uh..... doh. This is what you get for not blogging for such a long time.
Ok, we headed over to Shao Jo Ma's for lunch. I had Sour Spicy noodles. It was nice, a different kind of SS noodles. After them talking or an hour, we decided to leave for Vege Market over at Shui Lan. It's quite big for a Vege Market. And no, despite it being called a Vege Market they sell all sorts of stuff. Even hot dog stands. Hang on, we left for the dentist's, check ups and stuff. We then stopped by the Market afterwards. The dentist washed my teeth, some of it was painful, like teeth root pain. But my teeth is whiter now! Not by much, I got dad's yellow teeth genes. DX
We bought candy!!! Candies that only Taiwan produces!!! I think. I like to think of it as Taiwan candy. Ok, and we ended up buying steamed peanuts. They're like, "Once you pop you can't stop." No seriously, I ate one and had the urge to eat more. I ate 3-4 in total. I think a bit more than that before I stopped myself. Ho~
At night we went back to Granny's for dinner. D: For some weird reason I couldn't really consume her cooking. I dunno, is it because I've gone back to eating lighter these days, and her cooking's real heavily flavoured compared to ours?
After finishing dinner, somehow my bro got us to stop by Kuan Fu Road's Kuroi San Rensei, so he could buy stuff that he wanted and his friends wanted. I bought a Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss) figure for my friend.
It ended up being A LOT, a big box and a big Katekyou paper bag made its way into the car and into his room. Lolz. ^_^

It spins right

2009-01-13T04:01:00.001+13:00

Out of randomness, the toilet here flushes in an clockwise direction.
I wonder which way it flushes back in New Zealand? Hmmmm....

I got a Dragon Egg!

2009-01-09T03:20:00.004+13:00

8D

I saw one of my friends and decided to click on it.
Lookie! I got one of my own!

Please click on it as much as you can!!!

Taiwan Days 41-43

2009-01-07T21:16:00.003+13:00

Monday, Jan 5th 2009

Ahhhhhhh.... yukkuri yukkuri.... stayed at home and nothing happened...

Tuesday, Jan 6th 2009

Tuessssssssday! Stayed at home~ watched some shinabns I needed to catch up on~ read a lot of manga and so on~

Wednesday, Jan 7th 2009

Yay! I got to go to the Kuroi San-rensei Animanga houses again today! I bought 2 more Puchi! Eva figures for my friends, and got a Moyashimon gashapon for myself.

This time, the shop that was closed last time at no. 83's 2F was open.
We walked in.
We were met with merchandise.
We browsed.
I lifted my head.
I saw.
I tugged on my bro's sleeve. He saw.
4 plushies. 2 characters. No body.
YUKKURI HEADS!!!!
Big Reimu head, small Reimu head.
Big Marisa head, small Marisa head.
Around $2000 NTD.
OK now, so... WHO WANTS IT I WILL GLADLY BUY IT FOR YOU BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY ME. RAWR.

Taiwan Days 37-40

2009-01-05T18:00:00.004+13:00

Thursday, Jan 1st 2009

Nothing much happened today. Hotpot/shabu shabu for lunch and dinner. It was pretty nice, but something seemed to be missing from the ingredients from what me and my family would usually eat. I can't put my finger on it. It's actually like winter now since a cold front came over. 17°C. It actually closer to a NZ winter now. We went out to see if we could find a larger pot for the hotpot, but we failed. We also tried to find a fatter cord, but we also failed. But I had fun going through Carrefour again and seeing stuffs.

Friday, Jan 2nd 2009

My cousins still get to stay home until Monday. Me and my cousins suddenly decided that we should play LAN AOE 2 Conquerors games and so we had our first game today. They started playing Runescape again, and it was a mendokusai explaining everything 3 times since they can't understand English. Weather's still pretty cold. It's actually cold. Hotpot again for lunch and dinner today.

Saturday, Jan 3rd 2009

More AOE 2 LAN games. It's actually quite fun! This could be addictive... hehehe. Cousins are still as noisy as ever. (>_<) Due to my awesome memory, I can't really remember what happened today. Aww man. What happened to my resolution to blog more often!??! DX

Sunday, Jan 4th 2009

Today we had MOAR AOE Lan games. This time I only made villagers and mass collected resources. By the time I was in Imperial Age I had so much resources that I kept giving them out. Lol. I had like 90 villagers in the end. Villager army!!! XDDDDD
Apart from that, nothing much happened today.

10...

2009-01-01T05:06:00.004+13:00

10...
9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
+ 1 up!
0!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Taiwan Days 35-36

2008-12-31T18:59:00.002+13:00

Tuesday, Dec 30th 2008

It's raining and cold today to go outside. So I ended up staying at home, doing various stuff and watching anime. Not very exciting.

Wednesday, Dec 31st 2008

It's the last day of 2008! Stayed up late until 12am, when the countdown began we watched it on TV since it was too cold to go outside to the nearby Sports Gym to watch the Taichung New Year Leap Celebrations. Anyways, it was the Taipei 101 one, and we counted down from like, 20 seconds, with a rise in volume when we reached ten, and a huge "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" shout at 0. Woooow! Yum yum yum! Happy New Year! Fireworks at Taipei 101 for about 3 minutes, with love hearts included, and then got ready for bed. But you could hear fireworks outside for about an hour before subsiding.
Welcome to 2009.

Note: actually posted this on the 1/1/09, but I like my entries in chronological order. XD

I miss my bed :(

2008-12-31T03:23:00.003+13:00

I can't sleep properly these days.
I miss my bed! Granny's bed is too hard, and the pillows are like, softened rocks. DX
She snores at night, and it's hard to get back to sleep when you get woken up in the middle of the night.
Where's my privacy? I can't even go to the toilet in peace anymore! She sleeps so light that she almost always makes a comment about the light, slippery floor, etc when I go in. DX
"You can't see if you don't turn the light on."
"Careful you don't slip over."
"Put a layer on."
etc, etc.

Due to the too hard pillow and bed, my spine in my neck has been pushed to the left side. So whenever I tilt my head to the left hard enough, it hurts. >o<

I miss my softer bed. I miss my pillow. I miss my privacy. I wanna sleep on the sofa but if I really do that that'll lead to endless questions and debate, plus I might offend Granny.

Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaah~~~~!

Taiwan Days 31-34

2008-12-30T16:48:00.002+13:00

Saturday, Dec 27th 2008

Nothing much happened today. Mostly stayed home and caught up on some anime. More like, I can't remember. DX

Sunday, Dec 28th 2008

After discovering the joy of the Outside, I convinced Alan along to go to the no. 77 and 79 Animanga shops on Kuan Fu Road. This time, armed with sunlight, I saw that there was a BIGGER and BETTER animanga house up ahead, one or two buildings away. Wow, upon entering I was met with a roomy shop with bookshops stacked up with animanga merchandise. Having a look around, I spotted several sweet heavy as artbooks, and I spotted a Soul Eater Data Book thingy which costs almost $400 NTD.
Going upstairs, we came to a DVD shop, with a R18 section. I shall tell you the story. After browsing the right side of the shop, I started to wander towards the left side. As I turned the corner, I noticed that something was not quite right. All the DVD spine pictures had like, ayashii looking females on it. I stopped, and just as I was about to turn around, my bro said, “I don’t think there’s a need to go in there” just as my suspicions were confirmed. I quickly backed out, and sneaked a peek over to the guy behind the counter. Thankfully he was reading something, and didn’t see me. Later, back on the RIGHT side of that shop, I looked back to the left side, and saw that there was a “If you’re not 18, entry is forbidden” sign on it. ^_^;; I’m so blind, eheheh...
Anyways, the main point is that there are 3 animanga shops right next to each other. Sweet as, only if I had money. DX I gotta wait until my parents AKA ATMs come back

Monday, Dec 29th 2008

Sandy's b'day today. I wished her a happy b'day via email, in big colourful happy font. She reply with a thanks. 8D
I made someone happy today!
Finished Moyashimon today, and watched more ARIA along with some shinbans. Mmm.

Taiwan Day 30

2008-12-26T21:16:00.004+13:00

Friday, Dec 26th 2008

Boxing Day.
In the afternoon me and my bro wanted to go out to that Animanga House at Yi Jhong Jie. Boxing Day shopping. Gift shopping for myself, really. Kinda sad. T_T
Anyways, I managed to buy 4 R18 books... nyahahhahahah!
Also spotted a French curve set... it was cheap so I bought one. Yay!

Photos come soon since I'm using my cousin's lappy. I saw quite a lot of artbooks there, and merchandise.

It's nice to go out and walk. I think I have rediscovered the joy of the Outside.

Taiwan Days 26-29

2008-12-26T20:37:00.003+13:00

Tuesday, Dec 23rd 2008

Today we hitched a ride on 5th Uncle's car to 4th Uncle's shop. There we stayed for an hour or so, using the computer, waiting for 2nd Uncle to come and tell us when it's time. After 2nd Uncle's meeting finished, we went upstairs to his apartment where Joy was also. 2nd Uncle wanted to rest a bit before setting off for lunch, so we watched some Discovery/Animal Planet and then headed towards MOS Burger, where Joy's mum's parents were going to treat us out for lunch. MOS Burger had hamburgers. And rice burgers. What did you expect? It's got burger in the name. XD
It was quite nice, since the whole thing was a set/combo and I was quite full. Nice fries. Nice ketchup.
After parting and saying goodbye, we headed back to Feng Chia where Joy wanted to borrow a Pokemon DVD to watch. So in vain we searched for some video stores near their house but none of them have Pokemon. Then we walked past Formosa Glasses and popped in the shop to see if Joy's contacts were done. She also bought coloured contacts for her school prom. Purple ones.
Fatigue took over so we went home to the shop and waited for some time before heading home home.
This was Joy's last day in Taichung.

Wednesday, Dec 24th 2008

Christmas Eve.
Anime marathon.
Not much done really.
I hoped that Santa might being me something this year.
I have been a good kid. I think.

Thursday, Dec 25th 2008

Christmas. Woke up and accomplied Granny to the market. Bought mainly a huge bag of eggs, some fish and squid, and two bunches of Han Choy.
Anime marathon in the afternoon.
Not much done. Ate a Ferrero Rocher though.
Santa-san ended up not giving me anything again this year. It's the 17th year in a row. :<

Taiwan Day 25

2008-12-23T02:55:00.003+13:00

Monday, Dec 22nd 2008

Today I stayed at home and caught up on like, 15 episodes of various anime, some shinbans, some not. Wow. What an anime filled day! I haven't had one of these in a looooong time. Lesse....

Gundam 00 x1
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki x1
Ah! My Goddess x4
Casshern Sins x2
Tytania x1
Doraemon x1
Tales of the Abyss x4
Hakushaku to Yousei x1

Phew~

My cousin Joy came in the evening today, and she got her period. like me, she gets bad cramps and I lent her my PJ pants since her tummy gets swollen, unlike mine where I can totally see my hip bones. DX Maybe it's because I can't eat anything for the day, and I end up puking out whatever goes in.

On a side note, I'll type up a hate list! <3

People who use nihon-shiki, even though they're not in Japan.
Simplified Chinese.
Period.
Super salty foods.
Snail meat.
My Granny when she starts to buy clothes for us. :< I don't like all of the clothes... jeez... even when I tell her not to buy, she does it... Bah! telling us to eat more when we're already stuffing our face full of food during a meal... telling us to eat until we're full, not to be like, courteous or something. Etc, etc...
Forgetting to blog.
My cousins when they turn real annoying and noisy. Namely those 3. >_>
This list.

Right, I think that's it for tonight! I'll go browse more stuff....

Taiwan Day 24

2008-12-22T03:35:00.003+13:00

Sunday, Dec 21st 2008

Today is Dory's birthday. I wished her happy birthday in BIG COLOURFUL FUN FONT via email.

I don't think much happened today. Umm... ah!
We went to the Natural Science Museum with Joy, 5th Uncle and Auntie and their kids, and my bro with the intentions of going to the Mammoth Exhibition. However, by the time we got there, there wouldn't be enough time to browse the exhibition, so we ended up exploring the other parts of the museum anyway. I haven't been here in a long time! the roaring moving dinos are more realistic than the last time I remember. There was a new exhibition, the Vanishing White Earth, with polar bear and penguin conservation as a theme. Of course, the exhibition was divided into the Arctic and Antarctica. There was some grammatical mistakes in the English captions under the photos. Can't be helped, I guess, since one of the workers told us that it was a private collection.
The kids wanted to go to Maccy's so we ended up going to a Golden Arch. I ordered big fries and ate a left over apple pie which tasted disgusting. That was my first time eating M's apple pies. Never again. Never should've. Never would've. We still had to eat some dinner when we got back. Did I tell you I used up 4 packets of ketchup? Also, I ate a chicken nugget dipped in sweet and sour sauce.
Did I ever mention that chicken tastes different in every country? The nuggets tasted different, and Japanese KFC chicken burger tastes different from NZ.

I'd upload photos if I could.... gimme me a moment...
**** why does Vista gimme me a save image option when I'm trying to upload soemthing?!?!
*fiddles*

Mmm.... baby giant squid.

[insert imaginary pictar replacement here]
Will upload when I work out how this Vista thing works.

Taiwan Days 17-23

2008-12-21T03:09:00.014+13:00

Dec 14th 2008

I was sick the whole day today. Nothing much except that I slept a lot and missed Pokemon movie - the Deoxys one.

Dec 15th 2008

Feeling better today. Still slept a lot and stayed home to recover. My stomach constantly feels bloated, as if there's gas inside.

Dec 16th 2008

My cousin (2nd Uncle's daughter) has returned from Qatar and is staying for about a week. Today she came to Granny's house and stayed all day, mainly using the computer and watching some TV. She has changed a lot!

Dec 17th 2008

Today me and my bro is to accompany our cousin to department store shopping.
after arriving at my 4th Uncle's computer shop, we went upstairs to the 7th floor where my 2nd Uncle's apartment was. I figured I have mild diarrhoea since all my poop isn't solid. DX My stomach kept feeling uncomfortable - I simply just don't know what the hell is wrong with it.

What I have to say is, she changed soooo much from 4 years ago. She's so American-ised, and wears make-up, worries about being pretty, has had boyfriends before - not one but two apparently, and reads those celebrity mags... etc etc. She's only 14 and yet it worries me for her future. D:
We ended up going to Cheng Ping Department Store, where we started off from the first level and looks at various clothes stores. We also went to a pet's accessories shop called Dog Wears Crown where they had 2 white fluffy dogs in the store and a whole lot of luxury pet items like clothes, food and collars, etc.
My stomach constantly felt bloated and had gas in it, it hurt a bit and was uncomfortable, so I ended up being slouchy (posture) for the whole day.
I remember spending ages in the bookstore on top, and saw quite a lot of MOOKs like Megami, Dengeki Hobby magazines and such. Mmm.... and there was a small section for manga.
Blame me for not having time to blog, I forgotten a lot of things. >o< Somehow we ended up at a horse stables place in the evening, and Joy takes private riding lessons here every year. I got to stroke horses' noses there, and then while my cousin went off for her lesson with a private instructor, we watched some TVBS news and there were adorable pandas on it. Aww... it was OK, a bit boring, but after she finished up her lessons we finally got to go home. I ate dinner really late that night. DX
Blogger keeps losing information and this is like, the 8000th time I've types this part out, because everytime I put in a emote with a "<" or a ">" it seems to think that it's an HTML tag and loses the text I type in between a formatting. DX Same thing with previous posts, I'm so sick of this.

Dec 18th 2008

Another department store today! This time, my cousin wants to watch Twilight. My feelings towards that film is like, ergh.... not something I would want to watch. I ended up going in with them anyway... the film was OK, it wasn't all lovey-dovey stuff, there was a bit of action. It was soooo obvious that the Cullens were wearing make-up to achieve the pale face. XDDDD
I received a free Twilight calendar thingy. It's quite small, if anybody wants it, I'll gladly give it to you.
Before we arrived at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi we had ramen at a nearby shop in Feng Chia. Yum! Cheap big bowls around $4 NZD! Wow! Anyways, after the movie, we headed for a BOOK STORE AGAIN YAY! Also, a stationary shop! I can spend ages just browsing the wares in a stationary shop and bookstore. Mmmmm....

Anyways, for dinner, we're going eating in the Feng Chia Nightmarket. That place is sooooooo popular! There was also a Turkish ice-cream guy, this time we saw him actually dishing out ice-cream! The ice-cream looked like play-sough is, and it's quite hard. He's been there for ages, I want an ice-cream next time round.
Since my stomach is still feeling odd, I chose to eat easy-to-digest noodles. It was quite nice, and it was a small bowl, so it filled me up pretty much good since my stomach shrank really seriously these past days. We had some egg cakes afterwards - they were so cute! The cakes anyway, ji dan gao. Yummmy!

Dec 19th 2008

HOT SPRINGS TODAY! My 2nd Uncle has some coupon things so we're going to Ho Yean Shan Hot Springs Recreational Area. I think I got the name right. First, we made a stop at Carrefour to buy some swimsuits. Wow, there's no one-piece's on the shelf. Anyways, my cousin bought a pink and black swim suit which I liked a lot but there was only one L size, so I bought a blue and white swimsuit. The pants were uncomfortable since the seam joining the two pieces together in the middle wasn't flat. >_<>
Oh, the first ride after lunch was a Mid-air Train. The wheels groaned since it was rusty but we sat on it again since the ride was short. That one was really enjoyable because when you look off the side it feels like you really are driving on air. I felt a little pressure that the train could go off the rail at any second because it was so narrow, but when I got off I saw that the wheels were fixed from the side also, and then I felt relieved.
They had a circus show too, at 3pm. It wasn't as entertaining as the Warner Bro's Circus back in NZ, but it sure made time go fast. After the mostly-acrobat-show-with-no-flamethrower-guy, we changed and got ready to soak. Ahhh.... the water felt silky and smooth, which left your skin feeling that way too. They had two massage chairs with bubbling effects, which we hogged near the end when there was no people. For some reason, we started singing songs badly since our voice vibrated when sitting/floating in the chairs, which was fun, but our throats hurt. Haha.
Doing push ups in the water is soooooooo easy, you should all try it some time. XDDD They had a shallow part, so that was where I did push-ups. XD
After a rinse and change of clothing, we headed for home at around 4:45pm - 5pm. By the time we reached Taichung again (the resort was in Miaoli) we were due for dinner with a Ma-bobo and his family. Apparently, he's dad's childhood friend.
Uh-oh. Goodness did I know that the place we were going was a steakhouse on the 11th floor of a Carrefour. AND, it was a full course western-styled meal. You know, like, an appetiser first, then salad, then soup, then mains steak meal, then dessert, then drink. DX
How was my tummy supposed to squish all this in!??! And, there was beef from NZ! The menu said "far away and the world's finest" for the NZ page. =3 *feels proud*
They had 2 pages for steak/the main meal, one was American steak, and the other page was NZ steak. Whoo!
The steaks were all sooooo big! I chose the smallest one, 8 ounces. DX It still looked mighty big to me. That one was $590, but I bet the whole set meal ended up costing more. Since it was on Ma-bobo's house, I didn't know the price.
I had to omochi kaeri my unfinished steak, and made just a little bit more space for Tiramisu dessert which I swapped for with pudding and ice-cream with my 2nd Uncle. Stretching my tummy even more, I drank some herbal honey tea. Ergh. So stuffed. If you want to take to to the "eat until you're full" meals, or full course western meals, you gotta starve me for at least 2 meals, man.
Tired out, took a shower, and went to bed once we got home. Zzz.

Dec 20th 2008

I ate the leftover steak from last night for brunch.
Stayed at home and rested today, nothing interesting.
Light show at night though. Here it goes!
My 2nd Uncle took us by car to an apartment mansion he used to manage. First, he went to greet one of his old workmates, and then after we explored the water feature garden place we headed towards the Charity Christmas Show, which I guess is a bit like Christmas in the Park. First we walked around the festival area and looked at the various stands. After we completed our round, we stood and watched some bellydancers perform on a small stage. When the belly and hip movements were over, we started to head home.
BUT
ON THE WAY
WE SAW
*DUN DUN DUN DUUUUNN~*
A GOAT!!!
No, really, a real mountain goat, the type that they milk and sell the goat's milk, tethered to a tree. The owner guy were hanfing out free samples of the milk, and it tastes real nice, way nicer than the one that Granny is currently buying. It doesn't have that weird strong taste, and it was nicer than cow milk. Mmm.... the goat kept repeatedly trying to eat a wooden sign corresponsing to a tree, and tried to eat some jackets from people petting the goat. I got to stroke the goat, but it kept moving here and there, and turning its head. Its fur was real soft...
Anyways, after 2nd Uncle saud his goodbyes at his old apartment mansion place, we headed home.
What a busy week/half week. DX

Taiwan Days 14-16

2008-12-13T22:28:00.008+13:00

Dec 11th 2008

We went to a City Council place to get out Identity Cards done. It's like a mini-passport you can use within Taiwan only. The lady was real nice, we were able to get it done without Dad having to be there in person, partly because we had all the stamps and documents needed. Heh, lots of forms exchanged hands, were stamped, signed (when they say 'sign here', it actually means 'write you name here', not actually sign your name) and stampled again. While we waited our new cards got printed and laminated, much faster than NZ where you probably had to wait a few days. Yum.
Nice shiny new card, but I'm not gonna post a pic of it because of security issues and such.

Dec 12th 2008

Today was the first day of the Technology Exhibition that came from Taipei to Taichung. There was a money scramble at the opening ceremony but since I didn't know which gate it was I missed it. :< Acer, if I remember correctly. After consulting the stand people he left and went towards some other stand which I can't remember, and then Asus, ending with Vaio/Sony. I told him to look at Sony, because it was a exhibition and you'll never know, but he said that it'll be too expensive. And what did you know, they ended up being fairly reasonably priced. According to an overhead advertising board. Ha.
After that, we wandered around some more, and looked for our 4th Uncle who's in the organising committee. We found him but he was talking to a bunch of other people in the same grey suit as him, so we waited a bit. Then, he was free and we got to exchange a few words with him.
Deciding that it was time to fill my stomach, we left by foot to go back to our 4th Uncle's shop. OH MERCIFUL HEAVENS, it was soooooooo hot, the sun was blazing on the back of your neck, do you even call this winter??!??!?! Ha, funny if someone got heatstroke in winter. It felt like we would, anyway. I felt like "-OVERHEAT- -OVERHEAT-" all the way. /inside joke.

After chilling out in the shop and checking out the grubs, we went to a Chiha Shabu Shabu place. $298 NTD till you're full. I chose the Miso hotpot and ate a whole lot of other stuff there.

3 plates of fries with ketchup
2 waffle cones
1 butter in the middle egg cake
1 plate with a selection of shabu shabu ingredients
3 marshmallow dipped in chocolate on a stick (DIY chocolate fountains!)
1 small cup of hot chocolate
OM NOM NOM

I got pretty full, I can tell you that, yum.
After that, we ended up going to a Department Store's book clearance sale. There was a whole lot of random scattered book collections and such, and a lot of The Da Vinci Codes and a random Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (British ver). They had a selection of Mandarin, Japanese and English books, along with DVDs, CDs, overdue calendars and other random stationary.
I ended up not buying anything. We went home and that was pretty much what we did for the day. Phew~

Dec 13th 2008

Today, well, nothing happened so far. Ya, *nods head*. Though I did take an afternoon nap with my cousins since they sleep on the same bed, and I thought it was funny. I woke up a bit drugged, like last time, so I sat up in bed for a bit before getting off. That was fun though, sleeping in the same bed. Every night, the whole family sleeps together in the same bed because there's simply not enough space in Gran's apartment house.
We might go out tonight to that Taichung Animanga House though. Hehe, we shall see.

So, we did end up going to the Animanga house, and they were two of them as neighbours. How nice! I boguht a Katekyou Hitman Reborn! flask for a friend, and a Katekyou calendar as well. Total cost, $257+299=$556.
Saw some nice things there, gonna buy buy buy at the next chance, hohoho.

Taiwan Days 12-13

2008-12-11T02:20:00.005+13:00

Dec 9th 2008

I didn't do much today but I woke up at around 11am though. XD Filling in on my sleep from trip to Taipei. Lazed around the house and didn't so much.
Then in the afternoon our 3rd Uncle gave us a lift to Lan Tian Photo Shop to get our photos taken so we can get Identity Card thingies. Our 5th Auntie took us there though, and then afterwards our 3rd Uncle gave us a lift back as well. Originally, we intended to go to a nearer photo booth but they were closed so we ended up going to Lan Tian. Their shop is really old, you can tell by the sign outside and the building inside. Nice slice of history.
At night me, my 5th Auntie and cousin put the Xmas tree up and decorated it. It looks really pretty but my youngest cousin Anne kept putting on too much shiny tinsel and other decorations that the tree didn't look so pretty. :< Here are some photos.

A bit blurry, sorry. Tree with lights on.

Tree with tinsel overkill.

Dec 10th 2008

I woke up half and hour later than yesterday, hoho. Nothing interesting much to say except that my youngest cousin is no fun to play with at all. Even when I'm trying to watch Doraemon she takes the remote away and keeps flipping channels until your eyes are like @_@ all the time. Then she doesn't change the channel back when she should which results in me no being able to do anything about it because I don't want to seems like a bully. Then she doesn't eat properly like she should at meals and gives Gran a lot of trouble. Then, last night I wanted to do some colouring because I haven't done it in a long time she said that we should colour the same thing. I was like "nooooo... >_<" and ended up with her trying to colour the same Japoreon as me. Blah. No fun. It's no fun doing stuff with her.... man. I just watched the re-run of Doraemon at 7pm instead, ha. Did I spell Japoreon right? Alan watched Ah! My Goddess! on Animax at 8pm today - it showed 2 episodes in a row but it had no double language. D:

Mmmm.... Ferrero Rocher~

Taiwan Days 4-5

2008-12-01T20:08:00.006+13:00

Dec 1st 2008

Today my 5th Auntie and Uncle took me out along with my cousins to a nearby stationary shop to buy stationary. I bought the red and blue Pilot erasable pens that my friends wanted and some for myself as well. :D
I also bought a self-customisable multi-colour pen of 3 that you can choose to put what colour you want in it. Along with lots of colours. 8D
My 5th Auntie also gave me 3 erasers that are super easy to rub. I remember one of my friends asking me to buy them one of those real easy to erase rubbers so I'll be giving them that. While in the store I also spotted writing card things (a big card that you put underneath the paper, and then write on the paper) with a Shakugan no Shana picture and a Rozen Maiden one. They were cheap so I scored one of each to give to my bro's friends who likes those series.
After we finished stationary shopping we stopped on our way at a 7-Eleven. My Auntie and Uncle bought coffee, my cousins some drinks and I a packet of Shao Man Tou snack. Only $15 NTD, way cheaper than NZ.

For lunch my 4th Uncle came to visit along with one of his sons - I can't remember which since he's changed so much. D: I gave him 2 blocks of Whittaker's kingsize chocolates and 2 more to 5th Uncle too. He also took some lip balm as a sample so he can sell some for profit. It was real noisy!

At night all of us went out to Yi Jhong Zhe night market and spent roughly an hour and a half walking around, buying food (hot dogs, ice cream, egg cakes, marinated nibbles), playing crane games and basketball shooter games. It was really fun and reminded me how much I missed night markets.

Dec 2nd 2008

Today I didn't do much except stayed home and watch 2 episodes of Telepathy Shoujo Ran while my Gran and 5th Auntie were taking their afternoon nap. We might do something tonight but I know my cousins are gonna be fighting to play for AOE on this lappy again. Hahaha!
My 3rd Uncle came and visited in the morning and I gave him 2 blocks of Whittaker's kingsize chocolate blocks. After he left, me, Gran and 5th Auntie had wong tong plus noodles for lunch. Phew~ I was so stuffed!

Taiwan Days 1-3

2008-11-29T22:36:00.008+13:00

Wow. It's the 3rd day that I've set my foot on Taiwan soil, but I keep thinking it's the 2nd full day instead of 3, because on the first day I got home, took a shower, and slept.

Nov 27th 2008 - Nov 30th 2008

I'm currently living at my granny's house, and I miss my shower box. T_T
They use a bathtub with a shower head, and the room can't seem to get heated up because of the inconvenient-to-open window. DX
Whenever I get out I shiver, because it's so cold. I have to rub myself down real quick or I'll get a cold, or something. D:
Can't complain though. But I do miss my house.

Everything I've seen these past 3 days are so... nostalgic. Everything comes back to me one by one as I see the sights I used to see every time I come back. Including the drain covers, the crowded streets, THE SCOOTERS THREADING THROUGH THE CARS, the pot plants crammed outside the houses, the convenience stores you can find every 100m or so (lol), the TV stations.... etc. Ahhhhh..... *tears*

Also, the snack foods, the fast internet, the the the... everything. TT^TT

It's good to see my Granny. She has short hair instead of her old curly hairstyle now. She's also... so much more older. :<
My 5th Auntie has gotten prettier from the last time I remember. My cousins (5th Auntie's kids) are 11, 9, and 7. 2 older boys, and a little girl. They've gotten so much bigger, too. D:

I realised that I'd forgotten to bring the portable hardrive back..... but thank goodness I loaded the July Shinbans on D:\ on this lappy. However, I still have to find a time to watch them. Preferably when my Granny goes to sleep in the afternoons and my cousins aren't hogging this lappy playing AOE II Conquerors. Lol.
I miss my J-music already.... but I don't want them asking me why all my music are J, so I'll just have to learn to survive without it for the meanwhile. Or until I figure something out.

My bro joins me on the 4th. Mmm. Then we're all gonna go get a haircut together, my fringe keeps poking me in the eyes, it's annoying.

OH YEAH, my cousins and 5th Uncle and Auntie plays MAPLESTORY XDDDDDDD. In Taiwan they have these chip reader cards to prevent hacking and fraud for most online games. I saw my 5th Auntie's account, it's a cleric lvl 162. Lol. Awesome.

My cousins play a lot of mini games on the internet... I feel sorry for them somewhat because they're still noobish. D: It's a bit sad calling them that but yeah, I was like that too when I was young.

I think that's it so far. I bought a whole lot of snack foods like, Guai Gaui, Kinder Surprise, APPLE BREAD, Ferro Rocher, Caramel Milk Candy, Yakult, PUDDING.... and lots more is due to be bought. MWAHAHAHHAHA.
Ahhhhhh... stuff that you can't get anywhere except Taiwan. Also, I saw a wig shop on my way to Granny's from the airport, it's near her house. I might chance a go at that shop to buy a wig for my Rena cosplay.... I hope.

OK, that's it for me now.
There's Keroro Gunsou on Cartoon Network, Sat, 12-12:30pm, I thinks. Also Ranma 1/2, Ninja Hatori, along with other many anime that are so nostalgic as well. ^o^

Mwah! End it here I thinks.

EDIT: I forgot to add that on my second day back (first full day) my 2nd Uncle took us all out to eat at a Korean shop. Maaaaan~ it was delicious but I was so stuffed as well! I can never eat much for the first meal of the day!

2008-11-22T17:10:00.002+13:00

When I read this on Rumbel's main website.....

So, the time of judgement is upon us and we received a total of 3 C&D (Cease and Desist) letters from FUNimation concerning Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!, Soul Eater and D. Gray-Man.

The phenomena that have henceforth occured are listed below:
- The Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! Famiglia suddenly found themselves being raided by the Millefiore.
- Excalibur was let loose and took over the Soul Eater team who weren't able to resist.
- The DGM group ran out of Innocence and the Earl was victorious.

So, that's it ^^;

I just totally died inside. D: I can't believe it.... no more uncut versions of Soul Eater..... I just hope some other group decides to pick up the uncut version... T_T

I feel like growing taller the Zetsubou way.... noooooooooooooooooooooo..... I can't believe it.... I want to refuse to believe it.... wahahahhahaha~ *wails and bawls*

Looks like I can get the regular prime time slot version now.... DX

Taro Bread Buns

2008-11-08T14:23:00.011+13:00

Well, let's just say that I was browsing this website yesterday and I found a yummy looking recipe that mum wanted me to make.

So that aside, I've started mixing and kneading the dough. But for some reason, the dough was quite hard to and firm even though I added some extra water. It was hard work kneading it, and I managed to get the gluten development somewhere like medium, before the lactic acid in my muscles couldn't take it anymore. So now it's under the bright sun, yeast reproducing and fermenting. :)
We haven't had a sunny day like this ages, so why not take advantage of it? Today's also Election Day in NZ, my parents are going to vote for National while my bro (he's 18 this year) is going to vote for Act. I'm not 18 yet so I can't vote. But even if I could, I wouldn't know who to vote for.

I still have yet to cook the frozen taro that's sitting in the fridge.....

I took lots of photos so I'll post some of them up now. :)

Since my mum's got a cold, so her throat's not feeling so good, I cut the sugar back 20 grams.
I decided not to glaze the buns with eggy milk.... it was too much of a hassle.

Ingredients:

180g water
1/2 tablespoon yeast
320g bread flour
80g cake flour
80g sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon milk powder
1 egg
40g butter (room temperature)

Method:

In a clean bowl mix your flour together. Add the yeast, sugar, salt and milk powder to the flour and mix well until evenly distributed.
Beat the egg in a separate container/bowl before adding to the dry ingredients. Add your water slowly and mix to form a dough.
When you have mixed all the ingredients and cannot see any more flour, add your butter in now. Continue kneading until high gluten development.
Place your dough at a warm place (around 28℃) and let it rise for 2 and a half hours.
Punch the dough down and remove from the bowl.
Divide into 12 pieces, each should be around 60 grams each. Mould the dough pieces into a round shape.
Roll it out with a rolling pin to a oblong shape. Spread the mashed taro on it.
Roll the taro-dough slab up rightly, and cut in the middle, but not completely through. Squash it flat so it has a nice spiral purple-dough pattern.
Brush with eggy milk (or omit) and sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Leave for second proofing at 38℃ for about 55 minutes.
Bake at 190℃ for 15-20 minutes.

I'll update some more as I finish making/baking it!

Ingredients

Cake flour/weak flour/soft flour

Bread flour/strong flour/hard flour
Flour combined

Add in the dry ingredients

Dry ingredients combined

Add in the egg and water

Formed a dough

Add in the slab of butter

All ingredients combined and kneaded

Dough ready to rise
Outside under the sun rising The taro packet Back of the package
Mashed taro (with sugar and butter)
The dough in 12 pieces
Roll it out!
Spread the taro mash up

Roll it into a swirl...
Cut it in half, but not completely through

Squashy

All ready for second proofing

Wow~ mouth watering!

Dekita!!!! Dad got sneaky and ate one already!

Dorayaki take 2

2008-11-06T19:53:00.006+13:00

So, I felt like making Dorayakis again since last time they didn't come out very good. :< Here's the one I used this time.

I had only a little honey left in the bottle so I decided to use it all even though it was a bit much. The resulting dorayaki came out a little sweeter than preferred, but that's OK.
Since I didn't feel like mixing the cornflour and flour together to make cake flour.... I just used normal flour instead.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
100g sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon salad oil
1 1/3 teaspoons baking soda
150g cake flour/normal flour
40-60ml water

Method:

Whip the eggs in a clean bowl. Remember to whip the batter a bit to incorporate the ingredients between each ingredient addition. Add the ingredients in the following order:
Sugar, honey, salad oil then baking soda.
Sift half of the flour and whip into the batter, until smooth. Sift in the rest of the flour and whip until smooth again.
If the dough is tight and/or hard, add a little water to loosen/relax it.
Rest for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Cooking:

Turn on your stove to medium and place a non-stick pan to heat up. The Tefal range is very useful for telling you when it's hot! Turn the heat down to low when the pan is nice and hot.
Pour a bit of the batter in the pan. Remember to stop the batter on the edge of the bowl dripping all over the place.
DO NOT TOUCH THE DORAYAKI UNTIL BUBBLES APPEAR ON ITS SURFACE. This is because if you do, the uncooked batter will get on your spatula, and the side won't brown nicely. :<
Flip the dorayaki when bubbles appear. I repeat, DO NOT TOUCH THE DORAYAKI AGAIN until a minute or two. It won't brown nicely if you're impatient.
Lift the dorayaki out of the pan and place on a plate to cool. It's ready to eat! Serve with a dab of butter and maple/golden syrup. Yum!

YUS DIGITAL CAMERA

2008-10-28T21:59:00.002+13:00

YAAAAAAAAAY! We finally went shopping on Sunday for a digital camera and we decided on the Sony Cybershot package that Noel Lemmings was offering for about $250. It was the Labour Weekend sale... and it came on Monday! (Labour Day). But unfortunately, I was at AuckGeddon for the whole day and unable to bring it to take photos of the awesome cosplayers this year. :<

This also means that I can start taking photos of my baking!!! WOOT! YEAH! HOORAY!

So! Armageddon is a pulp expo held here in NZ, it's the nearest thing to a con.
www.pulpexpo.com for more information.

Anyways, I entered the cosplay competition for the first time, with my Reimu costume since I couldn't get my Rena costume done. D:
When I was lining up to go on stage for the performance..... I actually experience butterflies for the first time! Well, the music for my skit kinda failed like 3 times before I got it right - it wasn't my cellphone that I was using. But when I did it properly, people cheered and clapped. However, I didn't really notice it because I was so nervous! Later, I watch a YT video of myself - I heard one of my friends shouting "ALICE!!!!! WHOOOOOO!!!", or something along those lines.
Here's the vid:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=JvDqvAcVPcw
About 4:30 minutes in.

I also got Crispin Freeman to write "All hail Brittania!" on the autograph card! ^o^

Ok, piccies of my loot!
http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f256/RollEXE/Auckgeddon 08/
Go browse at your leisure!

I think that's about it... I spent quite a lot on those two days... (Sat and Mon).
I went in cosplay on Monday, for the competition as well. One girl who was cosplaying as someone from Silent Hill (she could jerk like a zombie thing properly!) said something like: "OMG, ARE YOU REIMU?!?! *Insert convo here* TOUHOU IS LIKE, MY CRACK!!!!"
Which was awesome. Then another girl was like: "Hey... aren't you from... Touhou?"
Which makes the tally two! Awesome!
I also attended H!ACP on Sat night..... we had glowsticks and jumping around and dancing and games and lots of cool stuff and had a hell of a night! It was so fun!

I got to meet Kelchup and Sockpanda from the forums, they were so nice! 8D
I miss them already..... TT^TT

Ok, that's it for tonight, gotta go sleep now!

Lemon Chiffon Cupcake!

2008-10-13T21:19:00.005+13:00

Whooo! I baked some chiffon cake yesterday and today and put them in cupcakes instead. They turned out pretty well! Except that when it cools the top sags down so it doesn't look lovely and puffy like when it comes out of the oven. :(

The recipe is the same as Milo Chiffon Cake from Happy Home Baking, but I modified it. ;D

I omitted the cream of tartar since I didn't have any.

Ingredients:
(Makes about 24 cupcakes)

3 tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons lemon zest
80ml hot water
8 egg yolks
70g caster sugar
80ml olive oil
160g self-raising flour
8 egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
100g caster sugar

Method:

Squeeze the juice out of the lemon into a bowl, taking care to take the pips out. Peel the lemon zest now and add it into the juice if you wish. Sieve flour and set aside.
Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until sugar just dissolved. Add in lemon juice, zest, water and oil. Whisk till combined. Sieve over the flour and fold gently with a spatula until flour is fully incorporated into the batter.
In a clean, dry mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add in the sugar in 3 separate additions while beating at high speed till stiff peaks form.
Add the egg white foam into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
Pour batter into separate (large) muffin cups. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170C for 25 ~ 30mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let it cool.

Temaki Sushi

2008-10-10T14:09:00.003+13:00

Wow! I felt like making something today so I proposed that I make sushi for lunch! Having whipped up random ingredients from the fridge, and leftover rice from last night, I looked up real quickly on how to make Temaki sushi.

Well, to be honest, my first one was too big since I didn't cut the nori because I didn't know how big it was supposed to be. But for my second and third ones I cut the nori in half and rolled them up with bits stuffed inside. :D
It actually worked! They had a pointy butt and cone shape. But after a while they started looking like rolled pices of nori instead of cones. Awww..... but somehow I grasped the angle you were supposed to roll them and they got prettier!

Mmmm! They sure tasted nice!

Ingredients:

Nori sheets
Rice (medium grain)
Sushi Seasoning Vingear
Cucumber
Carrot(s)
Pickled gherkins
Pork Floss
Salt

Method:

I followed this video here.
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-temaki

The carrots - grab a peeler and peel the carrot length ways. Try to keep the peels as long as possible. Keep peeling until you are forced to cut the rest of the carrot.
Put them on a plate, sprinkle some salt and sushi vinegar, mix them well abd leave to marinate for a few minutes.

Cucumber - chop it into long strips, removing the pips in the middle beforehand. Chop the strips in half if it is too long.

Our gherkins came in a can so they were already chopped up nicely!

Following the video, I applied the ingredients in this order:

Put rice on nori.
Sprinkled pork floss on rice.
Put the cucumber strips and carrot peels in a diagonally direction on top of the pork floss.
Added gherkins on the side of the cucumber and carrots.
Roll 'em up!

Banana Chiffon Cake

2008-09-03T22:27:00.002+12:00

Guess what? I decided to try make the banana version of chiffon since the bananas are nice and ripe!

Recipe taken from Happy Home Baking (again!).

I would suggest for the egg whites, beat them until they start to get stiff, and then add cream of tartar or some substitute like lemon or vinegar.
Mine didn't become stiff. I think it's because I used balsamic vinegar, I guess. :(

You might to cut back on the sugar a bit, if you're not too fond of sweet things, or you have a lighter preference.

I use caster sugar for the whites and raw sugar for the yolks. It's healthier. :)

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks
75g caster sugar
1/4 & 1/8 teaspoon salt
90ml cooking oil/olive oil
255g banana puree
3/4 teaspoon banana/vanilla essence
165g plain flour
1/4 & 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
6 egg whites
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
150g caster sugar

Method:

Sieve together flour and baking soda, set aside. Mash banana, set aside.
Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until sugar is just dissolved. Add in salt, oil, essence and mashed banana. Whisk till combined. Sieve over the flour mixture and fold gently with a spatula until flour is fully incorporated into the batter.
In a clean, dry mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add in the sugar in 3 separate additions while beating at high speed till stiff peaks form.
Add the egg white foam into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
Pour batter into 26cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Spread and smooth the batter evenly with a spatula. Bang the pan gently on a work surface several times to release the air bubbles trapped in the batter.
Bake for 25 ~ 30mins at 170oC, or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let it cool completely before unmoulding.

Milky Loaf

2008-08-31T17:33:00.003+12:00

I tried making Milky Loaf from Happy Home Baking's blog today. Since I don't have a bread machine I did it all by hand.

I didn't bother to make sure the egg was exactly 70g, but I picked an egg out of the what we had available that weighed nearest to 70g.

Since I don't like using caster sugar, I used raw sugar instead. Healthier too.

I used the block butter that's cheaper than the spreadable ones. :) However that means that it's salted. Since I only use salted butter instead of unsalted ones, the stuff I make turns out to be delicious nonetheless. Today I opened up a different brand of butter, RollingMeadow. It's so much smother and easier to cut than Classic Farm Butter. Hahahha.... I'm going to buy that brand from now on.

My mum uses Himalayan Rock Salt in cooking, so I use it for baking. It has much better texture and flavour than average table salt. Mmmm.....

Since we don't buy fresh milk (it goes off faster than we can drink it), I used milk powder instead. There's not much difference, really.

I had two 23.5cm x 13cm x 6cm loaf pans, so I cut my dough pieces into 6.

Ingredients:

290g fresh milk
70g egg
50g (caster) sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour/high grade flour
8g yeast
80g (unsalted) butter

Method:

Mix milk and egg into a mixing bowl, followed by sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Mix evenly until you have a dough, take it out and on a clean, flat floured surface, knead for 10 minutes.
Add the butter into the dough, and knead for a further 15~20 minutes.
Flour the mixing bowl you had before, put the dough in, and cover with a damp cloth. Let it rise for an hour or so, or until double in size.
Remove the dough onto a clean, flat floured surface. Punch out the gas, and knead very gently for a bit, until most of the gas is out.
Cute your dough int 3 or 6 equal pieces, depending on the size(s) of your loaf pan. Roll into a round ball, and let it 'relax' for 15 minutes. This is so the dough will be easier to roll out and be shaped.
On a lightly floured surface, flatten one piece of dough and roll out into a long oval shape. Roll up the dough swiss-roll style. Do the same for the remaining doughs.
Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape. Roll it up tightly, and roll it as much as you can (one revolution wise), swiss-roll style for the second time. Do the same for the remaining doughs.
Place the doughs in lightly greased/non-stick bread tin/pan. Let the doughs proof for the second time, until it fills up 80% of the tin/pan. Cover it with a damp cloth, or Gladwrap.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180-190C for 30-35 minutes.
Take the bread out of the pan immediately when removed from the oven. Let it cool completely before slicing.

No Digital Camera ):

2008-08-30T18:31:00.003+12:00

My family doesn't have a digital camera... even though I've bugged them for aaaaaaaaaaaages.

That's why I don't have pictures for any of the stuff I bake... awwwwwww.

If you could recommend a digital camera that's really good and suitable, and at a nice price too, please tell me and I'll try get my mum to buy one. :D

Mantou!

2008-08-28T19:13:00.006+12:00

Ingredients:

Flour (all-purpose)
Water
Warm water
Raw sugar
Brown sugar (the unrefined one)
1 teaspoon Yeast

For Poolish:

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon yeast

Last night I prepared some poolish for mantou (steamed buns) that I was going to try and make today.

Unfortunately, we don't have a recipe on the amount of flour and water, so me and my mum improvised.

First, we spread a whole lot of floor on the bench, and chucked our poolish on top.
Knead knead.
Added more flour and made a little well in it, where we poured the water in (yeast and some sugar was dissolved first).

Knead knead, until it was a ball of dough.

Now, for the sugars!!! Add raw sugar to taste, and some brown sugar in the middle of the dough (make a hole first). Knead until the colour is evenly spread out.

Keep adding brown sugar until the dough's a nice caramel colour.

Now, for the muscle training part. :/

Knead, knead, knead, until the lactic acid in your muscle builds up.
You have to knead until it's quite soft.

Set aside, cover with a damp cloth and let it rise for 4 hours, or until double.

------

After our dough almost raised the roof, We spread a WHOLE LOT of flour on the bench again.
Now, for more kneading!!! Yaaaaay!!!

Knead until high gluten has developed. You can test this by using the "window pane" method. Click here for an explanation and photos.

Roll the dough into a fat, long snake.
Cut it into sections, depending on how big you want your mantou to be.

I made some square ones and round ones and rolled up ones. :)

Now, set it aside to proof for another 20-30 mins or so. You may cover it with a damp cloth if you wish.

I haven't steamed it yet, I'm typing this as it's proofing. I'll finish it when we've steamed it!!!

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Mum steamed the mantous in a zhinrong... the round bamboo basket things.
They came out BIIIIIIIIIIG and lovely. Big yeast holes. I think I put too much yeast in... next time I'll reduce it to 1 teaspoon. Hopefully it won't have so much holes next time.

I got a Blogger!

2008-08-17T17:48:00.004+12:00

Nothing to say except to say that I got a Blogger..... finally after much hesitation.

Hope I can fill this blog up with interesting things... but I gotta think about what to put in first. ^_^

That's it for now!