where's the light

i know i said that i wanna do a bachelor of commerce in service marketing, hospitality and tourim. but why does the application requires a bloody interview and you know what, since i am here in singapore i have to send in a video kinda interview. well according to the website the video must be five minutes in length answering the list of questions below.

1) Why do you want to study marketing, tourism and hospitality management?
- oh man, i dunno. seems fun and sounds exciting i guess

2) Why do you want to study at UNSW?
- well isn't it obvious, cause unsw is the only university that offers such a degree combination.

3) How keen are you about a career in the tourism and hospitality management industry?
- Lets just say i do not see myself working in an industry that is non htm.

4) What are your career goals when you graduate from this degree?
- well i wanna be a cabin crew. gosh, i can't believe a degree holder is gonna get such a simple job. well no i wanna do public relations/marketing for a hotel. *the peninsula and four seasons comes to mind*

5) What are your main leadership or other achievements to date?
- let me get back to you after my national service, i'll achieve something.

6) What experience have you had serving customers in part time jobs, or working with people in community service, and what have you learned from that experience?
- i learnt blah blah blah

7) How much do you know about the tourism hospitality industry?
- well so much five minutes isnt gonna be enough but lets just say i know enough to be on the competitive side.

8) What other relevant qualifications do you have?
- how about i flash my resume or pages of my portfolio. sounds good yeah.

alright enough of rubbish and crap. i really need to start drawing mind maps and flow charts to get the answers in a logical and organised format. nothing more comforting then a pen and fresh sheet of paper. black ink of course and with the breeze blowing, the clouds drifting by on a nice sunny afternoon. i can smell the flowers already.

help.

the addiction to travel

for those who have fallen in love with traveling, it can be quite a problem as it's like a lifetime addiction. the desire to explore places, taste different kinds of food and meet the locals. traveling opens one's eyes and lifts the soul, just throw all your troubles away and kick back for an adventure that's never the same.

taiwan is really a destination that beckons one to return, and the fun only gets better when you travel with friends from those crazy rebellious secondary school days. the ten days away was hectic i tell you, with less than six hours of sleep a day, we trashed the weather and walk like crazy people.

getting together and taking a holiday trip together after not hanging out for nearly three years seems like the ideal plan to strengthen our bonds before we get enlisted. afterall friendship never fades and the time spent holidaying was indeed nothing dramatic but all the same special to me.

i felt kinda depress as the plane left hong kong for singapore, it's as though an amazing journey, a dream has come to an end. like all good things will somehow come to an ending. ahhh how depressing and what's even more depressing is that we'll be enlistning soon. my physical self is here but my heart and soul are overseas.

somehow it feels like a parting of ways, the prospect of serving the nation is certainly a really major chapter as it changes many things. i feel that even going away for further studies is less of a pain. suddenly the situation becomes one of uncertainty, some will begin working while others are preparing to leave the country for studies.

i wonder what will happen, once we were together sharing almost similar days of school and play. ahhh but the feeling of get togethers after what seems like many moons later is something heartwarming and i look forward to them.

glorious sunshine

the french make creme like no one else and pierre herme's creme de citron is simple the most outrageously full of tangy bliss. i just love the cheerful colour. the creme is pretty hard to make in the sense that it requires lotsa work and steps. the critical one being stirring the lemon sugar egg concoction over simmering water to get the mixture to curdle.

zesting the sunny yellow citrus fruit is another one of my favourites, the tangy refreshing aroma of the lemon simply kisses you. but the fun only starts from there. rubbing the sugar and lemon zest over simmering water, that's when one can attain a state of high. all natural aroma therapy, the many joys of baking.

although the recipe seems somewhat doubtful in stirring up a smooth, silky and light creme, gosh you gotta make it to believe it for yourself. the pate sucree recipe that i used called for a generous amount of unsalted butter too, with the addition of confectioners sugar and ground almond.

about the dough, it's really hard to work with in singapore due to the temperature as they dough was way softer then normal short crust dough. but when the tarte shells were baking in the over, they smelled really good. ahh yes, i had to take the trouble of freezing each cut out rounds for a min or two just to get it a little more firm to lift it and line the muffin tins. but all was worth it, that i can say for sure.

i love how the tarte shells look unrefine, handmade and pressed into the muffine tins. if you're wondering why there are some lines around the inner sides, i used muffin liners instead of baking paper to weigh the tartes down while baking. saved me the trouble of having to use tarte weights since the muffin liners were rally fitting.

these glorious sunshine are really making me high just by looking at them. somehow i am beginning to take more portrait shots and they do look better then those landscape ones. i have no idea why but i guess its just the tartes and cakes and what have you.

haaah i wonder...

those clear blue skies

i caught accuracy of death today, a movie by masaya kakei starring takeshi kaneshiro as chiba and my eyes found themselves teary at the last moments of the movie. it was a simple yet wonderful storyline, where one can relax and enjoy the time taking in every moment with ease although the rain that was falling continuously in the movie did make the cinema feel a little colder.

the last act by sumiko fuji playing the role of an elderly women working as a hairdresser in a house along the coast made the story complete. a sad yet happy ending. my eyes were watery when she told her life in brief to chiba who seems to have forgotten that many years ago he decided to let her live on rather then taking her soul. at the end, he remembers the meeting with her so many moons ago, another heart warming moment.

there was a few things that she said that was really true; life is indeed precious and special for how we live and the way we live makes it unique to the individual as no one life is the same.

like the sun in the clear blue sky, there's nothing special about the sun but it's important for it brings about life and beauty. just like us, as an individual there's nothing special when compared to everyone, but yet everyone of us is important.

when the rain stops falling and the sky clears, its a sight to behold.

blueberry streusel scones

my first attempt at making them blueberry scones and i love making dough, especially when the recipe says to rub butter into the floor until the mixture starts to resemble bread crumbs. well instead of getting my fingers tired and buttery i chose to use the convenience of technology; a blender.

lately i've been using lot of unsalted butter but thats just a side thought. anyway the blender churns out remarkable bread crumb mixture, fine and consistent. the speed of those metal blades means there is less heat transfered to the mixture as compared to using hands. and when it comes to working with unsalted butter in hot and humid singapore, rubbing in the unsalted butter by hand is not very ideal since the butter melts faster than the salted sibling.

i found this recipe which includes the streusel topping and it sure looks pretty nice, but i guess i will be making the traditional ones when i have the time and those blue fellers again. they do not come cheap here sad to say. my first time photographing the baking procedure and if you noticed, there are some photos missing as i forget at times when i move from on step to the other.

the aroma of the buttery dough and blueberries will fill your kitchen, thats what a warm summer day should smell like, the scent of baking. i love days like these. and yes baking calms the soul.

Dreams pushes us on

i've got to get my act together man, i'm losing my sanity and drive. life has come to a blur and now i feel like a film being played in slow. i have started making plans for the years after national service and sigh i just hope that the ns years will move on by in a blink of an eye. its seriously a pain in the arse to know that in the hospitality and tourism industry time and experience is precious and gosh i have just lose out on two years.

now before i further my studies i am gonna go all out and backpack in japan once more, with the change of season and autumn sweeping the land when i end my national service, its gonna be a glorious travel adventure like the brush of golden sunset hues. i am afterall in love with this country that never fails to amaze whether it's culture, cuisine, nature, architecture or technology.

well enough of my indulgence in traveling. i have decided to pursue my studies in the university of new south wales. yes its the university that my friend remembered as the one that closed its door in singapore. well the bachelor of commerce, service marketing htm is really ideal. i have always been interested in marketing and boy i can never leave the htm industry. its too exciting and fasinating to ever say goodbye too.

anyway its damn dear to be studying overseas. the course will send close to ninety thousand australian dollars into the the economy down under and that does not include the cost of living. i feel faint already. what makes matters worst is that the city of sydney is the capital of tourism for australia and just imagine the accommodation cost and daily expenditure. but i love living overseas and the stint in shanghai has just confirmed that.

haaaa what happens after i get my degree. well i am planning to get a job in sydney with a hotel hopefully four seasons or the observatory hotel. somewhere in the middle i have not thought about it yet but my dream is to work with the peninsula tokyo. i wonder what it takes to get the right to working in the japanese capital. homework time.

i wonder...