How long will I love you?

How long will I love you?
As long as stars are above you,
And longer if I can

How long will I need you?
As long as the seasons need to
Follow their plan

How long will I be with you?
As long as the sea is bound to
Wash upon the sand

How long will I want you?
As long as you want me to,
And longer by far

How long will I hold you?
As long as your father told you,
As long as you can

How long will I give to you?
As long as I live through you,
However long you say

How long will I love you?
As long as stars are above you,
And longer if I may

Friday Dinner Date - Korean BBQ

A few Fridays ago, the boyf brought me on a "Kiss92FM sponsored dinner date" and he brought me to my favourite Korean BBQ place. 

Arirang Korean Restaurant 

#01-07 Liang Seah Place, Liang Seah Street.

6333 0025

It would be safer if you call and make a reservation first as it gets pretty crowded during dinner time. 

The boyf goofing around before dinner.

This is their menu, and the varieties are pretty limited but their food is definitely good!

Still goofing around..... 

and around..... 

and still around. 

This is the interior of the restaurant. The restaurant is pretty small but doesn't this look like the little eateries in Hong Kong ("Cha Chan Teng"). 

Their appetizers which are refillable.

When you're there, please please order their pork! Being a non-pork eater (I always tell other people that I have half-halal.), I absolutely love their pork. The pork is so crispy and nice after bbqing. And if you are like me, one who doesn't eat the fatty part, when it comes to Arirang's pork, I LOVE IT, even the fatty parts!

We took around 1 hour for our dinner and when we were done, we were so full!

The only downside about this restaurant is that because there's always a flow of customers, the servers can get pretty busy and will often forget our orders. So you would have to keep reminding them about your orders, but the delicious food more than compensate for this. 

    and us :) 

Despite being full till the point of exploding, the boyf insisted on eating desserts. So we went to Ah Chew Desserts located next to Arirang and apparently it's pretty famous because there will always be a queue outside. We were lucky and we waited for about 10 minutes and we got a seat!

Cool menu that is inserted under the glass of the table. Cuts down the time needed for servers to bring and keep the menu and preventing damage to the menus! There were many varieties but the boring me chose Mango Sago. 

The desserts were nice but not amazing, so not sure what the hype was about. 

So that concludes our "KISS 92FM sponsored Friday Date night"!

Nails of the week

Haven't done this in a long time. So here's my nails of the week. 

Baking journey - Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes

So, over the past 1 week when I took a weeks leave from work to recover from my facial laser ( I hope to blog about that soon), I had ample of time on my hand as I wasn't able to leave the house to protect my skin from the harsh  sun rays & scaring people with my highly "disfigured" face. 

I decided to indulge myself in my hobby, which is baking. I baked 3 times that week, a chocolate loaf, fruit tarts and finally the Earl Grey tea cupcake. I was very satisfied with my chocolate loaf and I loved loved my earl grey tea cupcake! It was such a success except that the frosting was way too sweet. I guess I should modify the reciepe the next time I baked it again.

Please do not judge my piping skills as this was my first time doing it! Ugly piping skills but delicious cupcake! 

So here goes the recipe. I used the recipe from Nilssons Ambrosia's baking blog.

Ingredients

3 Earl Grey teabags (Tip: According to a friend of mine, it is super important to use a good quality earl grey tea bag like TWG. She recommended Dilmah as well so I used Dilmah & it was pretty good) 

3tbsp just-boiled water

80g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened

280g (10 oz) caster sugar

240g (8 ½ oz) plain flour

1tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

200ml (7fl oz) whole milk

2 large eggs

For the frosting:

50ml (1 ¾ fl oz) whole milk

500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar

160g (5 ½ oz) unsalted butter, softened

(Please modify the amount of ingredients for the frosting yourself because it was way too sweet! 500g of sugar is like diabetes inducing!) 

Method for the cupcake :

Place the teabags in a bowl and add the just-boiled water, then leave to brew for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.

Use a hand-held electric whisk or freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment to mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt on a low speed until the texture of fine breadcrumbs.

Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and whisk by hand. Add the brewed tea, squeezing every last drop from the teabags into the milk mixture, then set the teabags aside for the frosting.

Pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed to combine. Then mix on a medium speed until smooth and thick. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk mixture and beat until all the ingredients have come together and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter between the paper cases, filling each two-thirds full. If there is batter left over, spoon it into more cases in a separate tin. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch, then leave to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully.

Method for the frosting: 

While the cupcakes are cooking, place the used teabags in a small bowl with the milk for the frosting and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the teabags and give them a good squeeze to extract maximum flavour.

Using the electric whisk or freestanding mixer with paddle attachment, whisk the icing sugar with the butter on a low speed until no large lumps of butter remain and the mixture is still powdery. Pour in the tea-infused milk while mixing slowly, then increase the speed to high and whisk until soft and fluffy.

Alright, that's all for baking a cupcake! Pretty simple and easy to follow recipe! 

Hope yours will be a success too! :) 

Vanity Journey - Facial laser with DRx

In my life, I guess the hardest battle that I've to deal with currently, is probably the battle against acne scarring. Why is the journey to good flawless skin such a treacherous one? #firstworldproblems indeed.

I've been going to DRx for my skin problems and I love them & their products because they help to minimize black/white heads and reduce the frequency & size of my pimples if they do occur. One major problem I have with recurring pimples is that they often leave a red mark after they're gone & they would be there for the longest time :( 

So in this post, I will talk about a treatment that I've been going for since 2011. I've gone for about 7 sessions & these laser treatments have dramatically improved my skin condition. This post will be an image heavy post & lots of unglam ugly pictures so please do not judge! 

I've gone for 2 different types of laser, one invasive ( can't remember the name of the laser) but it was to target deeper scars and leave bloody marks all over and it was extremely painful! I went for two sessions of that and then decided to stop because I really couldn't bear the pain and the downtime.

But it helped to improve the appearance of deeper scars!

For the second type of laser, it is call the CO2 fractional laser. It is done for the overall resurfacing of the skin and it is usually quite painful at the upper lip area and the area around the eye.

So this is the condition of my skin before my laser. The main bout of the scars and large pores are at the sides of my cheek and scars on my nose as well 

Before the treatment, I would have to apply a layer of numb cream on my face and let it settle and take effect for about an hour. Normally I would ask the nurse to apply a thick layer as I have very low tolerance for pain!

I do not have pictures of the during but you can easily google it on YouTube. 

This is on the night of the laser treatment. As you can see, the skin will turn a little red after the treatment and it's normal. I regretted telling the doctor not to increase the power of the laser. I shouldn't be so chicken if I had wanted to see greater effects in this session. I NEED to have more courage for my next session. 

The face was actually burning because I had just showered and it was really painful :( 

After the laser treatment, for the next few days, you will be required to put a layer of hylauronic moisturizer (HM) on your face. The purpose of of HM is to moisturize the face while encouraging new cell growth. I dislike this, because it makes my face super oily and I can't lie on sides while I sleep. The feeling is just "eww". 

Day 2 of healing. Not much of a difference except that the face is slightly less red and the 'tiny dots" on the face are starting to turn brownish.

Day 3 of healing. In the last picture,you can see that the scabs have turned brown and are ready to fall off to reveal the new skin! My forehead is less red than the other areas as the doctor had used a lower power for that area as there is not scars on the area.

Normally on day 3, my face will start to itch and I would usually use a facial mist to calm the area and reduce itching!

Day 4. Not much difference from day 3. But skin becomes brownish due to the tiny dots.

Day 5. Scabs have mostly fallen. Skin remains pinkish.

Did a comparison collage between before laser treatment and 5 days after laser treatment. How wonderful is the treatment! I'm really addicted to CO2 treatment as I can see the effects after 1 session. 

But the only thing is, I would need to reduce the interval between each treatments to see better effects. The last time I did this was in March and I had delayed the treatment for 7 months before doing it again October. However, te period of downtime was what had caused the delay as I can't take a week leave so often. 

Day 6. Scabs have mostly fallen & new skin is revealed. Acne scars are much shallower except for some stubborn scars near the nose area and cheek area. But otherwise, I'm really happy with the effects of this treatment.