As you guys know, I'm now on my long leave and it has been 3 days but I'm feeling so much freedom! I wake up at about 10.30-11am and then I head to the gym for about 30 minutes before coming home to eat a healthy brunch of oats, yoghurt and chia seeds. Recently, I bought this collagen powder which I'm also mixing into my oats. Although I detest exercising, I must say that this routine has already helped me feel a lot more energised compared to other days.

I managed to run some errands on Monday without rushing from office to Orchard and then home. Although, I must say that my wallet suffered a blow because I was buying a lot of things within a day.

Yesterday was yet another fulfilling day as I met an old friend for lunch at Vivo City's The Queen & Mangosteen. They have lunch sets at $15.90++ and for an additional $1, you get the soup of the day and a free flow of drink (coke/sprite/ice tea).

The soup of the day was Mushroom Soup and it was quite delicious! Not starchy, which is exactly how I like it!

I chose the Braised Oxtail for my mains and I think that it was really worth it! Most of the time, a dish like this would've cost $20 at least. I think it does cost $23 on their ala carte menu. Besides catching up with him over lunch, we also discussed business plans and I'm excited to let you all know about it once it is ready for launch!

After the lunch session, it was another catch-up session with another friend but this time, it was over coffee/tea or in my case, I decided to try Starbucks' latest Lemon Ginger Fizzio with Mango Jelly.

My verdict - too sweet and lacks the ginger and lemon taste. Slurping up the mango jelly was fun though. 

That evening, I even went for an Interactive Film session at a singles' MeetUp which ended with champagne!

It was nice to socialise with singles around my age and not care about work or be tired from work. I was telling some of them there that if I were still working, I wouldn't have attended the event because I knew that I'd be too tired and zombified to think about attending. Loved the organiser's energy and zest for organising the event. We need more folks like her (big shoutout to Ayuri)!

Today, I pampered myself by doing for a pedicure which was long overdue. Even my therapist went "Wow...your nails are so long!" as she knows that I like my toe nails short. Yup, toe nails have to be short while my fingernails can afford to be long. Haha...anyway, like my breezy mood, I opted for a nice bright pastel shade:

If you're able to see the white 'sparkles', that's mine. I brought down my Innisfree white 'glitter' polish down because I knew that I wanted something a little more interesting on my nails and the salon doesn't have this. I also brought my cuticle oil!

After my pedicure, it was a rush to the supermarket to get all the ingredients for my homemade pizza! Yup, the chef/cook in me decided to make a pizza from scratch and you can get the recipe for it here. After I finish this post, it's time to do some serious work by penning down my business investment proposal as well as make some projections. I really hope to be able to pitch for grants soon. Cross my fingers and hope that everything will go well so that I can announce things here soon!

Last week was a super duper busy week, which is why I haven't had the chance to blog. Anyhows, these are some miscellaneous things that I've been up to:

I made what I'd like to call, a mocha tiramisu.  Unlike the traditional tiramisu, I didn't use mascarpone cheese.  Instead, I used chocolate mousse (hence the mocha) which I made using a very simple recipe of marshmallows, good quality chocolate, a little bit of butter and whipped cream.  I baked a coffee sponge cake, doused it in Kahlua (mmm...yummy) and then topped that with my chocolate mousse.  Simply delicious!! I simply googled both recipes...hehe...

On Fri, my colleague braided my hair in this most amazing braid!! Check it out...

Nice? Nice? Nice?  Haha...the great thing about the braid is that my hair didn't fly in a mess that evening and I didn't need to care about it being limp and yucky during that evening's event.

Oh...I've got to show off this pair of earrings that I made.  It's not very well taken because I took it myself using my iphone. :P I originally made this to wear to my cousin's wedding but I changed my outift at the last minute so I didn't wear it in the end.  Do let me know if you like it!  I might consider making a variation of this for Oct 1983!

As I type this, my thighs are aching from my 10km run yesterday morning, my eyes are drooping cos I'm sleepy, my nose is semi-stuck and my stomach hurts.  As you've probably guessed, I'm on medical leave and am at home.  Will rest now...before I start on housework and whats not.

Last thing: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAILEYS!! Today's All Saints' Day and it is also my little angel/devil (depends on his mood) birthday!! Lots of hugs and kisses to my darling poochies who turns a grand age of 7! :)

I finally made something from my wonderful dessert recipe book! On Tues evening, I made white chocolate ice-cream!!

That's the pic of the ice-cream and I topped it off with a drizzle of Kahlua.

I put too much white chocolate as I was being greedy and it turned out a little too sweet but otherwise, it was YUMMY! Adding the Kahlua actually countered the sweetness and added a nice coffee dimension to it.

It's a very simple recipe and you don't need any complicated ice cream making machine. Below is the recipe:

170g (6oz/ 3/4cup) caster sugar
500ml (17 fl oz/ 2 cups) pouring (whipping) cream
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 egg whites
185g melted white chocolate

1. Put the sugar, 125ml (4 fl oz/ 1/2 cup) of water and the cream of tartar in a saucepan. Stir over low heat without boiling until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat slightly, then allow to boil without stirring for 15min or until a teasppon of the mixture dropped into cold water forms a soft ball. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar syrup in a thin stream, beating constantly until thick and glossy.

3. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the egg white mixture. Add the melted chocolate and mix well. Pour into a 1 litre loaf tin. Freeze for 5 hrs or until firm.

Makes 1 litre.

I found that white chocolate doesn't melt as well as milk or dark chocolate since white chocolate is pure cocoa butter. As such, after the white chocolate melts into its gooey lump, I added about 1.5 dessert spoonful of milk to smoothen it. This smoothened consistency is much better to mix it with the cream/egg white mixture. Otherwise, you'd get chocolate lumps - which isn't bad IF you're making chocolate chip ice cream.

The next recipe that I want to try is either the Irish Cream ice cream or the ruby red grapefruit granita. Baileys...mmm.....the hot weather makes the granita sounds good too...mmm.....LOL!