Life is a journey that is homeward bound

Time flies! I have been so busy packing up...so, thank you everyone...for all the love you guys gave me when I left for exchange- all the letters, emails etc! I'll be back to return it to you when i come back to HOT and SUNNY Singapore on 6 July! ;)

Will update my blog only after i return to Singapore because I'm going to be taking a sabbatical from my laptop..haha!

CIAO...hasta la proxima!

Luyi!

Last episode of Top Chef

This was how it looked like in St Gallen last week- temperature was way above 20 degrees. This week however, the temperature dived below 10 degrees again..just as we were all about to put away all our winter clothes!

I feel this inexplicable sense of duty to take a photo of my last cooked-from-scratch dish here. (Over the next few days...i will be distributing or using up excess premixes, pastes, chicken stock cubes WHATEVER..its all systems go). So yea, we had this packet of plain flour, a tap which presents a never-ending source of fresh Swiss water and a whole lot of vegetables in the fridge....

Voila...deep-fried aubergine/ red peppers/ mushroom! the batter is really really simple. you just put any amount of flour..and gradually add in water until you get the right consistency.

And i also wanted to use up all the excess pasta which explains the mix of penne and spaghetti...after finishing our wonderful meal and starting to wash up...i realised that i had forgotten all about the poor fish i had put into the oven to bake! It was one of those you know 35-minute wonders from supermarkets..where you just put the whole thing into the oven and it comes out nice and tasty...so i dragged everybody back to the dining table just. to. eat. that. tasty. fish.

Pray for us

This whole week, i have been busy wallowing in misery and self-pity. Over stupid reasons...like the lack of leafy vegetables in st gallen and exam stress, just to give you some examples of how stupid they are. And all this time i was aware of the natural disasters in myanmar and china.

Shame on me.

It only hit me today after a friend reminded me, that we should be looking at the bigger picture...and be grateful for what we have and what we dont....instead of languishing in our self-created misery which honestly, is a sheer waste of energy.

If you can and want to, lets do this together:

For all the families that have been displaced by bad weather, we pray for shelter and a new beginning for them.

For all the families that have been torn apart by death and grieving, we pray for your hand of comfort and healing to be over them.

For all the rescue workers, we pray that you grant them perseverance and all the help and resources they need to save as many lives as they can.

Dear Lord, please hear us.

**

I am seriously overcome by morbid thoughts...earlier during dinner while watching CNN on TV:

Bingkai: shit...Nigeria oil pipeline explosion! You know what that means?

Me (without hesitation): that the world is coming to an end...

Bingkai: NO....oil price is gonna go up tomorrow!!!

**

Ok i know this is not helping myself in any way, but i just logged onto straitstimes.com and i have just been overwhelmed by even more bad news. Like Mrs Lee Kuan Yew being in a serious condition after suffering a stroke...

Dearest Mummy & Yi-po

Happy Mothers' Day!

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden...

Rhine Falls - the largest plain waterfalls in Europe

They are located in the High Rhine upper course of the river Rhine, in the municipalities of Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen, near the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland and close to the German border. They are 150 m (450 ft) wide and 23 m (75 ft) high. In the winter months, the average water flow is 250 m³/s, while in the summer, the average water flow is 600 m³/s. The Rhine Falls were formed in the last ice age approximately 14,000 to 17,000 years ago.-wikipedia.org

Today we went on this 'excursion' organised for the exchange students to see the Rhine Falls...

Pictures!

So...we were at this...place where we had a really good view of the falls...and i wanted to take a nice video. I did manage to take a video but there was some well...interference...

Schaffhausen...a really nice small town

This week in some pictures and words

On tuesday, it was Bingky's birthday so we had a birthday party! It was real fun and his birthday cake...was an apple crumble baked by a friend of ours, Samuel and his candle was this huge-ass lavander one bought from IKEA! haha.

Today, Bingky treated us both to Sunday brunch...how lovely! It was at this place called 'Stars and Stripes'- best chicken wings and bircher muesli ever!

Spring weather is fantastic!

And yesterday we were at our Thai friends' place for dinner...Maccann managed to take a photo of both of us in our classic/ evergreen poses...

Our friend, Samuel made these pork springrolls from scratch...remarkable!

On Friday and Saturday, we had school from 8 to 4pm! It was a small class of about 13 people...? Oh dear...it was so boring. I hardly say that classes are boring you know seriously. But this class was really....mind-blowingly boring.

So anyway part of this course is about writing...and below is something from one of the readings..i found it quite humorous: (Yes i was that bored!)

Keep it short

Keep the paper as short as possible. Every word must count. As you edit the paper ask yourself constantly, “can I make the same point in less space?” and “Do I really have to say this?” Final papers should be no more than 40 pages. Drafts should be shorter. (Do as I say, not as I do!) Shorter is better.

Don't repeat things. In other words, if you’ve said it once, you don’t have to say it again. Most of all, it uses up extra space and reader’s patience to have to see the same point made over and over again. So, once again, repetition is really a bad idea. (Get the picture?!) “In other words” is a sign of trouble. Go back and say it once, right.

This is the start of the walk back home from school... pretty nice eh? (To walk down not up)