Forced cooking again, yes.

So this week, I am back to cooking. Can't say I'm exactly pleased to be cooking, neither do I complain that I actually miss cooking.
But this time, it isn't cooking for myself, it's cooking for my family and the pressure is on. Hmmm, nah not really.
The whole week I only have three mouths to feed, mainly myself (of course), my maid and occasionally, my brother. But cooking for others isn't the same as fending for myself.
I mean, there are days where I don't want to cook, or perhaps get away scoff free with a bowl of cereals and that's all. But this week, I can't do that (damn!)
Everyday it's planning what food to be taken down from the fridge, what meal to cook, when to buy groceries again, and how much to buy or what to buy. Sounds like I'm back in Adelaide again.
Funny part is I rarely do grocery shopping in Singapore, like literally. I do accompany my mom to the supermarket/wet market but that doesn't mean I know the food prices of the food and all, it's more of being physically there and helping her carry the items after she bought them.

I reckon moms ought to leave a life-saving book behind in the house when she ever takes a holidays. I mean, how the hell do you know how to pick a damn pumpkin. Okay, Adelaide pumpkins are way different from the local pumpkins here. My guess, I took the heaviest one. As much as once working in a fruit stall helps me to pick fruits, I'm still a little foreign to picking out every vegetables and fruits. Guess that's when moms come in.

So back again to my forced cooking topic, this week I got the choice to mess the kitchen by A LOT. And of course I got to clean up after that, but it's still fun breaking the rules once in a while and cooking what I want.

So Tuesday lunch started out being simple. Let's not overdo it on the first free day.
Fish slice soup and rice, I can handle that. Plus it's the least calories food and easiest to cook. How hard can I not mess up.

Tuesday dinner was quite unexpected when brother told me he wasn't coming back for dinner.
Guess he wasn't ready for my cooking either, can't blame him either. After all it was a good 9months that I haven't cooked, and who know whether I might end up poisoning him instead. LOL.
So the portion was more suited to three people instead.
Japanese omelet curry rice. Looks too greenish as an overall appearance, but taste is not bad.
Just cheated on the curry by buying the curry cubes from the supermarket. The only thing that I'm not making is curry from scratch.
And over-ripe papaya for dinner.

Wednesday dinner was rather interesting. Lunch wasn't that interesting since we had sandwiches with tuna and Campbell soup. What else to have when we had to finish the almost expiring bread.
For dinner, it was my first experiment cooking pineapple fried rice, and making sweet&sour pork. Wasn't exactly sure how it should be done but spend the whole afternoon on the internet trying to rip a good recipe from a good kind soul who uploaded it onto a random website.
Like all experiment, it was all trials and error. Didn't really look or taste much like the real deal that you can get outside, but for a homecooked meal, I shall self-encourage myself and say 'yea well done'.

For the pineapple fried rice, my brother reckon I should cut the pineapple into even smaller slices and try to get more juice out of them, so the rice would have more taste and fragrance.

 

Thursday was being nonsensical day. It's been way too long since I last baked, though cookies are the only thing I can bake. Until I get my muffin tray and some other stuffs, till then I'm limited in my baking choices. Do want to bake a tiramsu cake this month though, but short of many items to bake the cake. For starters, I need the electric hand mixer, and next I just need a few teaspoon of rum. Anyone would like to provide that small amount for me?

Spend about an hour baking three trays of cookies and making bananas mango milkshake as well. Good for a nice chillout afternoon teabreak.

Friday lunch was another experiment and this time I had my aunt coming over for lunch. Even more pressure much?
My first time cooking for her, to be exact. And I chose to cook laska.
Another reason was my brother (again) wasn't coming back for dinner, which mean (again!) the portion was too much for two, so since my aunt is coming over for lunch, I changed dinner menu to lunch.
I don't think laska have fishball, but I'm just going to add them in 'cause I can. Now that I think about it, wasn't exactly sure why I bought the fishballs either.

No picture for Saturday food though. For brunch, I wasn't fast enough to take the picture of my brother's plate, which had been layout nicely for the picture, but my brother was faster in eating.
Made pancakes, bacon, sausage and sunshine egg upon his request. It's a wonder why the secret to a guy is through his stomach. Dinner was Western as well with chicken chop, mashed potatoes, baked salmon and salad.

So that's for last week meals. One more week to go, and I'm kind of, sort of bored of planning meals already. Rah! How do moms do this everyday, every week, every year?

Buttshots

 So what happen on Good Friday? 
I woke up early!

Pretty much that's my good awesome achievement of the day lately, waking up before 8am and actually doing something.
This time, I'm out on a photography lesson with my friend, learning how to take even nicer pictures, because silly me is definitely still not satisfied with her pictures like most of the time.
And till now, I don't exactly want to do photoshop on my pictures, nor do I have the time for it aka being lazy.

Our destination for the day is Punggol Waterway.
And one thing I learn, Punggol has a freaking beach.
Which I have yet to find....
Bright side, I don't have to travel down to East Coast to be near the water, not that I'm sure how big Punggol beach is but still, who knew!
Another checklist is to cycle at Punggol at night to see the night view, but that's probably need to be done with a friend 'cause for a girl, it isn't safe to cycle around at night.

Moving on, I was taught the basic functions of the camera, when to use AV mode and when to use TV mode. What's the different between P mode and M mode.
And somehow on M mode, I can't figure out how to increase my exposure properly to make the picture brighter.

To learn, this little guy was chosen to be my model.
Main thing is learning how to capture a moving object clearly, yet at the right angle.
Definitely wasn't easy, and most of the time it was either a buttshot, or a bodyshort. That mean, by the time I focus on the head, and the time when I finally capture the picture, the object moved and instead, the main focus becomes either the body or the butt.

A clear example of a bodyshot.
Clearly the body is seemed as the main focus of the picture instead of the head which is what I wanted.
So what I learned is to anticipate the next movement of my subject, and prepare slightly in advance where my focus point should be.

My awesome buttshot.

I reckon this was the only shot that the head is seemingly clear.
Photography definitely wasn't easy for me, and sometimes you just need the eye for details for the right angle and lightning.
Right now, still in the process of learning and making mistakes.

So what's modeling

So recently I posted on Facebook about receiving two name cards within ten minutes while walking at Orchard Mrt.
Not surprising as mainly Orchard is the main area that modeling agency would send their staff to stand around, and approached random stranger telling them how they have the potential to be a model, take down their name and contact number and give them their name card.
This time I was approached by Create Talents and I-Model.

In the past, I had about 2-3 name cards from I-Model, but I never bothered to check their company out. After all, I mean if they are an established modeling agency, why do they need to send their staff down to Orchard and approach random strangers to join their company.
Certainly if you are a good well-known company, you would not need to resort to such methods, even if the lack of models that you have.
It either mean that something is wrong that you do not have enough models, else it could be a scam.

After about two days later, I received a call from Create Talents, asking for an appointment with me for an interview. This greatly surprised me, as so far, none of the modeling companies called me for an appointment.
As such, I decided to head down and see what they plan to sell me with.

On Wednesday I headed down for my 2pm appointment and found that there was quite a number of people waiting in line for their interview.
Even after filling in the form, I was informed that I needed to wait for an hour before it was my turn to be interview. First thought was like 'what?'. If I needed to wait that long, shouldn't they have informed me earlier or make my appointment later.
Instead I had them to call me when it's my turn while I roamed around Dhoby Gaut.
Eventually at 3.10pm, I received a call and headed back to the agency to meet my interviewee.

I was led to another room, and she started her conversation, first from finding out more about me, to talking about random stuffs.
Somehow we ended up talking for half hour with no relevant to the modeling job, but of places in Malaysia (where she came from), and of a guy whom she worked with, that has modeled and studied before in Australia and how he set up his own event company and hired her models.
Finally we got down to business and she shown me the portfolio of what her company does, from photo shoot, to advertisement (picture and video), to events.
Indeed the event took my interest immediately, and especially when she mentioned about L'Oreal hair show. Why not. You're paid to do their hair show, and get free hair makeover as well by professional. Truly how awesome is that, and for me who loves to change hair color so often.

After showing all the portfolio, she started to explain to me the prices to be paid.
Naturally that is the part that I dreaded, but at the same time I'm curious just how much she plan to make me pay.
She first explained that I need to do about 5 photo shoots to first get my portfolio done, and the 5 themes are casual, elegant, trendy, executive and bridal. After the photo shoot, she would print 500 copies of the pictures to send out to companies to see if they would pick me for their commercial.
And if after the 500 is done giving out, the agency would print out another 500 for free.

Now for the prices...
To do the 5 photo shoots, it would cost $870 in total. And that would include a professional makeup artist and professional photographer.
If I am unable to afford these, I would do 3 photo shoot first, which would cost $470 instead.
And for the printing of 500 copies, it is $5 per copy. The company would subside and pay $2000 on my behalf while I have to fork out the remaining $500 on my own. That $500, on the other hand, is able to be deduced from my future pay. The photo shoot, however, is unable to be done so by that method.
But she did mention again that if ever I want the company to pay for everything, I have to sign a two year contract which mean I would be a full-time model, and every job that comes in, I have to do them whether I like it or not. No rejecting them.

So it's a two way options, either you pay out of your own pocket and have the choice to choose which job you want to model for, or sign a two year contract, pay nothing but no decision in deciding which model job you want or don't want to do.

And she was trying to get me to pay some money then on the spot for the $870. Still said that I don't have to go to discuss with my parents since I'm above 21. LOL.
In the end, I just told her that I would consider the offer and give a call back by Thursday.

After the experience, in my person opinion, I still think it's a scam even if they have done many advertisement and commercial for many companies. From what they have shown me, they have worked a lot with SingTel and L'Oreal which are said to be well-recognized companies. If such, why do they still have to resort to such methods to get models. And how many people that they interviewed actually believed and sign up for the contract to be a model?
I know how the job title of a model might be something that girls would like to be, it shows that that they have the looks, the height and the figure to be a model. And how they have professional artist making them beautiful and photographers to snap the perfect pictures for them.
Still, also with the influence from shows like 'America Next's Top Model' do leave an impression on girls.


That's just my personal opinion on modeling companies, what's yours?

Nonsense ootd

Random pictures of my outfit of the day through the week.
Playing more with my camera lately, and back to the basic of learning how to take more awesome pictures.
As much as I know my compact camera still have some limitations to which the AV mode and the shutter speed can't be that fast, still with what I have, I will make do with it.

For now, here are some nonsense ootd.

No face picture.
Pretty much 'cause I don't really know what face to show. Lol.
For now, super happy over getting a starbucks shirt, been wanting to get one for ages!
And I went mass shorts shopping at AMK Hub, they were like on sales for $5. It's a must-buy-or-regret thing.

Good Friday to everyone and Happy Easter. 

Failed model

So here what's happen on a bored morning, and you have a fully charged camera.
You attempt to find a model and hopefully try to take artistic pictures.
Unfortunately for me, there was only one model available at home.
But that model wasn't in particular font of camera and staying still.

Her first thought was why am I chosen?!
It was a fight between bribing her with biscuits, getting her attention, and getting the pose I want.
Still in the end, none of the pictures turn out well.

And even in some pictures, it looked more as though I'm torturing her to be my model subject.
The big puppies eyes, and her pointy eyes, makes your heart melt for that one moment, before you remember that you can't give in to her whines.

Perhaps another session again, and this time in an outdoor scene, with less bribing (or more).
It's a wonder how restless she is even for a few seconds.
Gone are the days where she listens to your command, now comes the new days where she is the princess and does what she wants, whenever.
Like we learnt, you can't teach old dog new tricks.

Turning 92

Yesterday marks the day my grandma turn 92.
To think at her age, she is still strong, able to walk without much assistant, and even going traveling every year.
I would definitely want to be just like her when I reach that age.
It's indeed a bliss to be celebrating her birthday with her sons & daughters, nieces & nephews and not forgetting even her great grandchildren!
And for that, it's also my first time in four years being back in Singapore to celebrate her birthday.

The lunch took place at Taste Paradise in Ion Orchard.
Best of all, we had a room to ourselves and the ability to make as much noise as possible without disturbing others.

Miss out on taking pictures of the first dish; roasted suckling piglet.
Had it on my phone, but of a poor quality.
The main amusing thing was they stuck cherry as the piglet's eyes.
And my nephew got excited trying to show us a video of how piglet were slaughtered, and hoping that we would lose our appetite after the video, such that he would have more pieces of the roasted piglet skin.

Second dish was my favorite of all the dishes; combination of wasabi and mayonnaise prawn.
Even going to Paradise Inn for meal, I would always try to order that dish.
For this lunch, it was served in a dessert glass, and included were pieces of honey dew and strawberries. Indeed a refreshing dish. Awesome to say, I had three glasses of my prawn for lunch.
Almost went for a fourth, but had to let others have a second glass.

The sixth dish arrived and it was char-grilled spare ribs with sweet plum sauce.
Another dish that I enjoyed for lunch, though by then, I was slightly full.
The ribs were tender and soft and it didn't require much effort to tear the flesh away from the bones.
Full of flavors which melt into your mouth while chewing it. Definitely a dish I need to learn to cook.

Like all course meals, the carbohydrate dish comes at the end.
The fried rice was slightly different, it is cooked with preserved turnips and salted fish.
Disappointed with this dish, was kind of hoping they would serve the fried rice with preserved sausage instead.

With all the meat and vegetables dishes served, the best is served last.
There's always room for dessert.
From the left, we have the pan-fried pumpkin pastry, black glutinous rice and chilled mango puree.
To be bias, I do love mango pudding so I'll vote that the mango puree is the best.

Finally we have the longevity buns to be served.
For this lunch, there is a lot of eating to be done, and after that a lot of exercise is needed to be done to loose the calories.
I don't think I manage to stomach the bun in, after all the eating.

Last but not least, the birthday cake.

The smile on grandma's face... Priceless.
Once upon a time, it used to be me standing beside her and blowing the candles out. After all, I was the youngest cousin and closest to her.
Now it's time for the next generation to take the place.

Ending the post with this picture.
Happy dearest 92th birthday grandma!
You were the one who was always there for me since young, the one who remembered my favorite food and buy them from the market for me to eat. I remembered how when I was young, I would tag along with you to the wet market, observe how you purchase groceries and carried them. The morning breakfast we have at the hawker center of the simple traditional coffee.
In simple words, I love you.