autumn.sun.kralingse.plas

the weather is super perfect this week, the sky is so blue today that you wanted to go out to the nature. so you finally settling down with kralingse plas an oasis next to rotterdam - a big city. there is a lake, some nice restaurants/cafes by the water and a wood to meander and wander ...

the sky is clear, the sun is shining and the breeze is cool and crisp. you still feel very comfortable having your brunch alfresco way. the food is typically dutch but the weather is awesome, it is a joy to be able to sit out there to disconnect from the hectic of daily work life and be close to the nature...

trees are about to witter and leaves turn golden color, another season is about to come in full force. soon the trees will become bald but today many people still sailing away in the lake enjoying the autumn sun....

you took a walk to the other side of the lake towards a minang kabau house, it's a indonesian style architecture exists hand in hand alongside the dutch windmill, a good symbol of dutch colonization of the east in the golden era.

the minang kabau house has two restaurants and a cafe... it's busy as expected...

from here you have a good outlook of the skyline of rotterdam city.  not as amazing as the manhattan skyline from brooklyn bridge but still it's quite impressive.

instead walking at the lakeside, you wander into the wood, enjoy the intermittent of sun ray and different types of green...

you feel good and relax to be back to the nature, that's for sure, even for a short while...

you capture a very typical dutch scenery, and  from here you bid goodbye to the nature for it's about time to head to delft to join your bigger family for a sunday church celebration ^^.

cake.and trends.convention

you were at a cake and trends convention last saturday together with a few friends who have the common passion and hobby in baking.

most of the stores are selling the similar products ranging from roll fondant in assorted colors to fondant tooling, cupcake cases, silicon forms. a lot of stalls are set up by english merchants too.

you didn't see any thing particular amazing or cake creation that gives you the "wow" effect.  most of the cake displays are rather not appealing to your taste but they are typical dutch. 

typical dutch meaning using bold and bright colors, not that they are not pretty but these are just not your cup of tea, they are not elegant if you can put it this way.

you bought some silicon forms, some fondant tooling particular the embossers print and some flower cutters even though you don't know if you will have time to try them in the near future.

but it was a nice day out to the convention.

breakfast.at.mayfair

just came back from stuttgart. five days, two cities. what a jetset lifestyle. hopefully not every week is like that. the meeting with client went well, the ratio is 1:11 where you are the only female and the rest of the 11 are german men.  they have to do the meeting in english because yours truly couldn't cope with german conversation. it was rather bizarre to be the odd one, woman and asian among the macho men.  at the end of the meeting, the client wanted you to travel with them to california on the week of 24th october. but you gently decline the offer because you are on a long weekend break to celebrate a special event.  united state is tempting especially going to the san francisco area but you just had too many things penciled down on that week that you don't want to miss.  so a missed opportunity but another one will come by again.  
back to the title of this entry, what you want record is the fresh experience that you had with mayfair, an area of london that's very different from the high street. 
===
you wanted to have an elaborated brunch, sort of the full english breakfast, but you didn't want to do it at the traditional english pub, you almost wanted to go to alain ducasse at the dorchester for the lunch but that will be too rush to combine with the things that you need to get done in a morning before you head to the airport.

so you decided to get lost in mayfair wandering your way toward the oxford street.  you chanced into this lively neighborhood cafe at the start of your journey.

 you decided to give it a try, it looks airily, cozy and relax with the floor length window and the sort of clients that walk in and out....

 you ordered your cappuccino, you changed your mind and opt for a egg royale sandwich as your breakfast, so that you have room later in the afternoon for something else and sitting at one of the long table with a few other guests and read an article in the news about "crunch time as firms seeking for female directors". you asked yourself if you are ambitious to be one and you know the answer is probably no if you have to sacrifice your work and life balance. you are the work hard, play hard, eat hard and pray hard type. you are happy at where you are now.

moving on you start to notice the different architectural style in mayfair, traditional mixed with contemporary. it's a very lively neighborhood, classy but not overshadow by materialism.  some sort of soho/greenwich of manhattan.

 just strolling slowing is already a joy to experience the quietness of mayfair, and the smells of italian coffee, the aroma of full english breakfast and the passerby in their chicattire is an experience.

 there is not a sight of boredom but the excitement of rediscover london in a different way.

 and you get into the details of the doors, walls, pillars all with their unique character

 london now also has the rental bike system like paris and many other european cities only there is not really any cycling path for bicycle riders...

 you walked in to a park belongs to a building or rather a church, green and peaceful, only some mums with stroller, occasionally men in suit walking passed with a cuppa at hand.

it's when you approach oxford street and seeing the traffic at the cross junction, you know your serenity and tranquility of mayfair is over.

so there may be no brunch at alain duccase or breakfast at tiffany, just a simple breakfast at a simple cafe in mayfair made a great morning walk.

===
happy friday ^^!

::stuttgart::

greetings from stuttgart.

a city that is new to you too. you know it's a little insane, you just came back from london last night and today you are in stuttgart, germany.

it's a bit too much of traveling in a week but it's an important business meeting.  so after the adoption meeting in the morning, you set off to the airport again. the cloud looks rather interesting and so you snapped a photo from your car....

 a short flight away and you are here. but your hotel is not in the city center.while your heart is tempting you to check out the city on your arrival in the late afternoon, your body is persuading you to stay put enjoy a good dinner and rest early. you chose the later, because you didn't do your homework about the city and so you probably don't know what to check out down town.  there will be always next time if you succeeded in this deal ^^.

so you walk around the area of your nearby the hotel and settling in a beer garden for your dinner.  after all germany is famous for their beer house. a glass of reisling wine and a plate of braadworst with potato salad and green as your dinner. no dessert because you already had your chocolate indulgence at the schiphol airport. you are accompanied by your new book that you picked up from london waterstone - the language of flowers, an interesting read that makes a good company.

a verse in the bible that speaks to your heart today, isaiah 40:20 "He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength”. yes, you may be drained of all strength but your God just affirmed that your strength comes from Him ^^.

::laduree::london::

just got back from london this evening.

it was a wonderful short overnight trip, great in all ways, the workshop went very well, i had a very good night sleep and the wonderful dinner with a friend in london with the spicy food that so hot, spicy and exotic.  love the food, the conversation and the catch up to bits...

between my after work and dinner,  i had a long break. i wanted to try the ritz carlton famous traditional english afternoon tea but they only accept advanced booking and not really welcome solo diner like me.

well, never mind, to me it's just going to be a bit of overlay before the dinner appointment, so i walked to  burlington arcade just opposite ritz where famous french laduree is located.

i tried all the macarons before and the london store doesn't carry the seasonal or limited edition anyway.  what caught my attention is this new cupcake, in dark purple and in green.  i opt for the purple one with a pot of tea.

i was on the phone with another good friend of mine was being layoff by her company. it was quite a sad news and must be a real blow to her, i was just being a listening ear and see if there's anyway i can help. with her capabilities, she should be able to get in to another job in no time. i sincerely hope the best for her and will help pulling string if i can....

frankly speaking the news and the conversation affect my mood for the afternoon tea a bit, but laduree's cup cake is full of substance, the butter cream has an intense almond taste yet not overpowering and it goes very well with the fig on the top and the fig puree inside the cupcake. each bite is a delightful experience full of surprise....

it's a wonderful afternoon tea indeed... not in the ritz's way but laduree way...

and i know it sounds crazy, i am off for another trip tomorrow.

london

i have been silence for a few days, again very busy with my work.  work is dull but traveling gives me a lot of energies...

 just a quick check in from london. i manage to catch a glimpse of the  sunset in the city before the dusk completely too over.

i.apples

apple. i mean apple. the apple that change the world.

a colleague of mine forwarded this illustration to me and i read it somewhere, there are three most important apples in the world (till now).

first apple - the apple (fruit of wisdom) that adam and eve ate, all the way back to the early chapters of genesis in the bible. that's a forbidden fruit and because of the sin, the world we live in is the consequences...

second apple - the guy was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree. isaac newton formed the force of gravity. a pastor once uses the theory of gravity to describe about the existence of God, that whether we believe or not in God's existence, He is like the theory of gravity, you can't see it but it exists...

third apple - steve jobs the ceo who recently stepped down from apple inc and then passed away. the man who has set the trends and transformed the world of technology and computing. ask any two year old kids, they know how to touch screen, steve has made technology so intuitive that even a kid can handle it.

but one thing for sure, men sinned.

second thing i know, God exists.

lastly one thing i learned from steve jobs, pursue life and be passionate of what you like but my conclusion is surely wealth cannot buy health.

i.heart.pumpkin

 take one

 take two

 take three

take four

autumn is definitely here.

happy friday.

hot.afternoon.tea

the high tea was planned a few weeks ahead, and none of you expected a hot day like that saturday.

the apartment is on the 6th floor, and so you have the good overview of den haag city. your host has a lovely home.  the windows were wide open but there was just no wind to cool the temperature down. so yo had a "hot" afternoon tea with these lovely ladies.

rather international mix from different ethenic groups from various indonesia islands to costa rica, korean, dutch and yours truly from malaysia. you all know each other rather well, most of them you see them once a week on sunday. but this was the occasion that you all really avail yourselves to come and get to know each other better.

everyone brought something to share. those who are passionate with cooking or baking seize the chance to showcase the talents. others who confessed cooking is not their cup of tea also brought something ready made from store.

you made the the sweet pink ispahan cupcakes, the mini quiche with tuna went really fast that afternoon.

your rosemary cheese chili savory scones was a hit too.  there were some store bought traditional english scones too.  young coconut cake and apple cake.

in short, the table overflows with food, both sweet and savory. and different sorts of tea of course. your host is a teapot collector, so you got to see the different fancy teapots put into good use.

the weather finally cooled down in the evening....

and you were not done for the day actually, you left here with a couple and continue to enjoy your warmest saturday of the year in the city, dining alfronso outdoor. 

sleep.scones

you slept rather well last night and woke up at 10 am this morning.

you checked your work emails and received a couple of emails with compliments about yesterday's workshop.  after finishing a few important errands for work, you resort to your bedroom. dive in your bed and there you knock off again... till about 3pm when you stomach is shouting for food. obviously you slept way past the lunch hour.

you fed your stomach with some leftover soup from last night, you thought you would start clearing your desk but you adjourned to your bed again and hit the sack...

you slept very well, more like you are having a jet lag but in reality you body is just screaming for rest. since when quality sleep becomes precious to you?

set aside the sleepiness that you cherish, you baked some savory scones last saturday.  these scones are made with rosemary, cheese and chili powder.

 the chili gives beautiful red spots to the scones

and you will add additional teaspoon of chili powder to get the kick next time.

moving on to the next assignment, it will not be as giant or as complex the one you did yesterday.  the thrill is it involves traveling to one of your favorite cities - london.

yes, london is calling next week ^^.

it's over

it’s over. it’s a little surreal but it’s over. something that has been burdening you for more than 3 weeks is now come to an end. phew!

relief. the burden is lifted from your shoulder.

you hope that you will be able to sleep tonight, because you haven’t been sleeping well the last three weeks. what happened is you have been entrusted a deal that worth 3.5 million euro anda make or break deal.  that's the kind of pressure that you are enduring, it's part of the job as you are paid and expect to cope with it.

you delivered the presentation or rather the proof of concept today, it's thumb up from your co-worker and from your client. it's complex, let's put it this way.  you learned your lesson too that it is not by your might or your power but by the spirit of the Lord that you could deliver in flying colors. you remember you started three weeks ago completely clueless on what you are suppose to present and how to go about to do it, but yes, it's over.

you hope that your headache will go away too now that the 3.5 million burden is no longer on you.

late.summer

i mean summer comes extremely late this year. it's already fall but we only got the real summer weather last week. saturday was the warmest but sunday was warm enough to chill at the beach side cafe till late night too...

 copacabana at scheveningen beach

 with a bunch of fellows from our church after the sunday service and a quick noisy dinner at simonis nearby

 how i wish i could lounge here till wee hours ...

but life goes on, tomorrow is another working day...

pink.october

 first day of october. how about something pink for a hightea that you are attending in the afternoon?

ispahan cupcakes. for the pink october month.

so you whipped up some unconventional buttercream using cooked flour in milk and a lot less butter and sugar.  it taste as yummy as butter cream or rather more closer to whipped cream and you add rapsberry puree to the cream.

you try to form a pink ribbon shape, october is always the annual breast cancer awareness month. but you think the cupcakes are a little too plain...

 and so you decorate with dried rose bud...

 but eventually settle with fresh red berry, if you still have some red roses in your garden you will decorate it with the rose petal instead....

after all the key ingredients in ispahan are rose, almond, lychee, raspberry and pink in color.

and with this, your want to dedicate ispahan cupcakes to all your female in your family, your girlfriends near and afar... wishing them health and blessings from heaven above.

welcome october. for you the fall has not arrive, in fact the warmest summer of 28+c just shows up...