Chocolate Cuppies

This recipe has not been tried and tested by yours truly but I'd just share it with you because the cupcakes in the picture looked really yummy. I got this off the newspaper so it should be okay otherwise people will write in to complain. You will need:

150g unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
150ml water
35g cocoa powder
170g cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine butter, salt and water in a small pot. Cover and cook over low heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is about to boil. Add cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Let it cool completely.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Sift cake flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add caster sugar and mix very well. Add eggs and vanilla extract to the pot of cooled cocoa mixture and beat until smooth, then scrape this mixture into the flour bowl.

Stir with a whisk until smooth, then spoon batter into 12 cupcake paper cases - each should be about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 mins, until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake's centre comes out clean.

That's it folks! Easy peasy. So if you decide to try out this recipe, please let me know how it turns out.

Groggy Froggy

This is unusually early for me. I've been up since 4 am preparing stuff since my supervisor will be coming in to observe me today. The kiddos are blissfully snoring away unaware that I have abandoned them.

After all these years I still get panic attacks when they want to conduct observations. I feel so unnnatural with someone there. When I smile, it feels fake. When I talk, it sounds too chirpy like I've been inhaling helium or something. You know how it feels like when there's a person there observing your every move (or falling asleep with eyes open, I can never tell).

Oh well, I hope it'll be ok. At least it will be over and done with, then I can concentrate on that book review. But I do feel really, really lightheaded and groggy, maybe it's time for that coffee. Hmmm, maybe I'll make a quick trip to Starbucks before my superbly boring course. Did I mention that we have to do a presentation there today as well ... ARRRGH! At least Ms Preggy P is my sidekick. Ciao! Gotta go and bathe now.

The Long Weekend

Short post today, going to dash off to work soon. Just finished reading a few books over the loooong weekend. Tell you more about it another time when I'm not so hurried. We also attended Datin's invite at the ultra-posh Raffles Country Club. Hmmmmm .. we would have never stepped inside if not for Datin, thank you darling, it was an experience.

If you have been looking for the LYCRA TACTEL undies from Marks and Spencer, they are back! Probably for a limited time only so grab yours today! Buy 1 and get the other pack at 1/2 price! Ain't that great. I've already got mine by proxy, thanks again to the lovely Datin.

Managed to shop for kids clothes at GAP. They have got great, great things there! Will be back soooooon ... my credit card shudders. Have a great week everyone! Me ... I'm trying to stay upbeat and positive, hey it's only Tuesday.

Weekend Job

I was waiting for my son to finish his music lesson today when I looked around at all the other mummies and daddies waiting for their assorted offspring when it suddenly hit me ... HEY! I'M ONE OF THEM! As of this year I am an official junior member the League of Parents Who Send Their Kids For All Kinds of Enrichment Lessons. Why a junior member? I haven't chalked up enough waiting outside classes time.

Some people think that I'm torturing my child. Every Saturday morning he goes for music lessons and in the afternoons he attends a phonics class. They say things like letting him enjoy his childhood and I'm tiring him out unnessarily and stuff like that. Most times I don't bother too much about comments like that. It's my kid and I can do what I like. If you want your child's brains to turn to mush, be my guest. Anyway, kids have limitless energy, any idiot with half a brain knows that.

In June, I plan to enrol my son for swimming lessons. What?? Another one you say? I really don't see why not. He enjoys going to the pool so he might as well learn how to survive in the water, unlike me who cannot do much apart from floating like a log. I believe in letting my children learn as much as they can so that they will not be at a disadvantage when they start primary school. At least they will not be sitting at home rotting their brains away from too much television and computer games. As it is they are turning into tv addicts. So these days I have a weekend job, as a personal chauffeur!

Words of Wisdom

I recently had my wisdom tooth taken out. Unlike Datin J who managed to sleep obliviously through the whole process, I was very much awake and traumatized by it. This not very clever tooth of mine decided to grow out sideways embedding itself into my inner cheek. I was all prepared to let it grow out like that, I mean who cares, no one can see it anyway unless it poked right out of my face. Bad move. I should have known that it was going to hurt me when it really grew itself out.

That was why I was in agony a couple of days before term started. I refused to get it pulled out at the dentist because I wanted to have it done at the hospital. But the pain got so bad that I was actually begging Dearest Hub to phone all the dentists nearby and get me an appointment like IMMEDIATELY! I was running a fever too by that time.

He managed to secure a 1 o'clock appointment but I went to the doctor in the morning anyway to get painkillers because the pain was killing me. Nope, they didn't help much and I couldn't sleep either and couldn't eat anything. By the time I was sitting outside the dentist's office, I was pretty much resigned to my fate. If only I had known how agonising it would be.

It didn't hurt at all but it was darned hard to pull out. The poor man had to exert all his strength and he took 20 mins of pulling before it finally came out, the feeling was akin to giving birth, you're just relieved that it's out. Let me stress that there was no pain but I could feel the tooth moving, the pressure and the squelching sound when the tooth started coming loose. It was totally gross. Simply gross. At some point I just wanted to jump up and run away like some mad woman.

The extracting part wasn't so bad when you compare it to the recovery period. Half my face was swollen. My gum was swollen. I was too freaked out to eat anything much. Brushing my teeth became a test of courage ... how far do you dare to go. Mostly I took all the pills he gave me and extra dosage of the painkillers. He told me to take only 2 a day but I took 3 or 4. It was that painful. I was so tempted to utilise the 5 days of MC that he gave me but I'm so angelic, I took only 2. And to add salt to the injury, all this pain and suffering cost me a very hefty sum of $350. Hey, I could have bought a lot of things with that kind of money!

Confounded Coughing

I have been plagued by a very icky phlegmy cough since December last year. It varies in intensity but never actually goes away. I suffer most at night when the coughing can get really bad and sometimes I'm even left breathless. And I produce unbelievable amounts of mucus each day. Dearest hub says he suffers along with me because I am so noisy that I wake him and the kids up .. how's that for loving concern!

Even the doctor says that this cough has been going on for way too long. He gave me some really HUGE antibiotics that make me feel extremely lethargic (people who know me understand that the best way to torture me is to make me swallow pills, I can take jabs anytime but not pills). Then I've got this nasal spray thingie that I have to shove up my nose and spray twice a day. It smarts like hell and smells funny to boot. Plus, he sent me for a chest x-ray.

I find going for x-rays a real inconvenience. First of all you have to take off everything you are wearing on the upper half of your body, bra included and put it in a locker. Unfortunately, the clinic's lockers could not be locked. This I do not understand. The lockers actually had locks but no keys (?????). What if someone decided to run off with my clothes or my bra? Am I supposed to wear their ugly gown home then? And all this inconvenience for an x-ray that takes less than 5 seconds. They should really try and come up with a better way to do this. If I wear a bra that has no underwire specially for taking an x-ray would they let me keep it on?

So far my doctor has not called me so I suppose I am not suffering from any chronic lung infection. But then again, he only has my home number and we are not in 70% of the time. But I suppose he could always mail me a letter like my gynae does.

I just hope and pray that this cough goes away soon. I need my beauty sleep! And I need to stay awake at work with all the things that I have to deal with everyday (no I'm not a brain surgeon but I still need to use my brains when I'm at work).

Update on THE BAGEL

Eaten it ... no big deal the bagel was. It's perfectly alright to give it a miss (Unless you are the kind who absolutely must have a tiny taste no matter what! Someone like me that is). The bagel was kind of hard and the tomato slice just tasted so wrong. At least I got a HUGE cappuccino to go with it.

I got this in my mailbox a few days ago ... and I've already tried the cappuccino which is quite decent. I like to bring it home and pour cinnamon powder on top though. Of course it pales in comparison to Starbucks but when you have to make do, can't complain too much. Hey Zak, want to campaign for a Starbucks to be built next to the Seven-E at our place?



And this here is their new brekkie item .. Bagel with Omelette. I sound like I'm advertising for MCD. Think I'll try this today since I have to leave so darn early. Will probably make a pit stop at Lot 1 first. I'll tell you guys if it's worth it. The things I do for food! No wonder we are all getting FATter!

Actually I would have preferred if there was a Burger King outlet around here. I simply lurve their Croissandwich (hmmm ... s

pelling looks odd) meals. Maybe I'll drop by IMM tomorrow. Anyone wanna join me?

But nothing beats having breakfast in KL! All hahal you know! I'm just itching to go there again. I know that I can probably drop by JB but it's just not the same.