August - Signs of Autumn

I've been on a macaons-baking frenzy these 2 weeks.

Can't remember what ignited this mac-craziness in me again,

but yea, I did Chocolate, Lemon and Mint Chocolate macarons. lol.

I guess the happiness dervied from seeing perfectly formed macarons made me look forward to baking more of them. 

The thing about macarons is that they are such finicky little things.

Giving them less-than-perfect conditions will lead to an entire batch of failed macarons. lol.

In the past, sadly, my macarons have always failed.

They were either too damp, feetless, had hollow shells, or collapsed mercilessly after baking.

le sigh.

The good news is that, I finally got myself a new oven and a hand mixer recently,

and the macarons journey has never been smoother. lol.

I really should have gotten the mixer earlier.

I doubt I could ever whisk the egg whites so properly with just my physical arm strength.

Ultimately, I baked too much,

and I ended up feeding my office girls with the macs. haha!

Of the lot, my fav is still the lemon macarons.

The sour lemon curd is definitely an awesome complement to the sugar overloaded mac shells. 

For now, I think it's time for a macaron hiatus

Maybe I will move on to muffins or something (:

The office girls have requested for a banana chocolate cake.

Shall see what I can whip up (:

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Had a gathering with the psych clique.

It's rare where the clique meets out of Yy's house.

(though in the end, it was still board games at his place. lol).

It was even more rare that the agreement was to meet for brunch. 

Simply cuz brunch is too early for working adults like ourselves.

So meeting at 11am at Spruce was really a huge step out of our comfort zone. lol.

Spruce is located at Upper Bukit Timah,

where the old Bukit Timah Fire station is at.

Thank goodness for the huge Spruce signboard that is easily spotted along the road.

Had ordered The Spruce Big Breakkie, eggs done in scrambled style.

It's my fav style, but this one's kind of disappointing.

The portion was small, and the eggs were too dry for my fancy.

The bratwurst was alright, bacon was too dry.

The only saving grace was that the food was hot when served.

Overall, I still prefer the Bukit Timah Saddle club's version.

Here's YY's order. 

Beef burger with wedges.

Guess he was in the lunch mood already!

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Gatherings wise, I also went for a colleague's farewell dinner.

It was at BigBang Korean BBQ restaurant located  near our office.

It's been a long while since I had korean bbq.

The bbqed saba fish was good (:

Soft and flavorful even after bbq-ing.

We sat in there for about 2.5 hours,

and we reeked of oil and smoke all over after that.

omg, it was so bad that I had to ask the boy to come pick me.

I didn't dare to use public transport cuz the smell made me so self-conscious. lol.

*bimbo moment.

Anyway, here's the farewell card we did up.

We were all supposed to give a funny / stupid / dumb / ugly look.

They insisted I didn't look the part. lol!

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On something totally unrelated,

I got myself a Vanity Trove Surprise Box :D

This was the August one, and its theme is Rocket Science. 

It contained so much awesome stuff (:

 Yes, I know.. these are just sample stuff.

But I think it's a good way to explore new products in the market without paying the premium for a an original sized version.
These samples are generously sized, and should suffice to tell if the product's good after the sample trial!

But funnily enough, July's box seems to contain 2 version of the same stuff.

Like 2 bottles of Innershine, 2 types of make-up removal.

I haven't tried most of the stuff, except for the Innershine drinks.

But here's the write-up and list of stuff in the box

Now I'm going to rummage through the box again to see what I can use :D

Can't wait to get September's box! 

oh my, I'm such a sucker for such marketing gimmicks :P