Lincoln's Grateful Birthday

One day before Lincoln's birthday, we went to an orphanage in Batam to celebrate his early birthday party.  This year, I and my wife thought that we should let him celebrate his birthday by sharing his joy with those who are less fortunate.  We want him and Lindsay to learn to be more grateful and cultivate a compassionate spirit, to help others who are in need. 

On this occasion, the lady boss of Little Nyonya Batik and her hubby went along with us to make the event merrier.  I also had a lot of help from my father's staff in making the arrangements.  We decided to celebrate Lincoln's birthday in an orphanage called Yayasan Samaria Fao Kasih.  The orphanage is located near the Hang Nadim airport.  There are 22 children in the orphanage, the youngest is a 5 year old boy while the oldest is an 18 year old girl.  

Yayasan Samaria Fao Kasih - A7R3 + FE 16-35mm F2.8GM

Universal Studios Singapore Trip

Still in the month of June, on my wife's birthday, she asked for a family trip to the Universal Studios Singapore which I gladly obliged to as this would have been our first visit since the park started operations from October 2009.  It was a cloudy day with occasional drizzles which made for a pleasant visit as we escaped the hot sun for most of the day. The park was quite crowded with holiday makers, but not so packed. 

After a quick brekkie at McDonald's Sentosa, we quickly bought our tickets and checked into the park.  

Lindsay Enjoying Her Wrap - A7R2 + Batis 2/25

From the entrance we arrived at the Hollywood zone where shops lined the street leading to the intersection to Madagascar and New York zones. 

June Adventure Cove Waterpark Trip

Well, June is not all gloomy and sorrowful.  There are 2 birthdays to celebrate after all this month.  My wife and I gave Lincoln an early birthday present by bringing him to Adventure Cove Waterpark in Sentosa as he'd been asking to go there for quite some time now.

A Pose Before Venturing In - A7RM2 + FE 24-240mm F.35-6.3 OSS

Both Lincoln and Lindsay were definitely excited from the moment we arrived in Sentosa.  I, however, opted to remain dry as I was in no mood to get wet.  I only went along to take photos. 

Jettisoned June

Yeah.. that's what I'm feeling right now.  Jettisoned.  June has been a month of many departures.  One of my colleagues whom I can usually let loose with in the office resigned abruptly.  After his resignation, two of his buddies from the same department also left...  I've known them for quite a while.  In fact they were some of the last few people in the office who knew me from the containership days.  

Harbourfront - A7R2 + FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS

I have to admit that I'm not taking their departures very well, as such I've been feeling rather down lately.  I can't help but feel like a relic that should have left eons ago.  Unfortunately, lady luck has not been so kind to me at the moment.

Durians in June

T'is the season of the durians.  Fruits aplenty and prices are reasonable. Not rock bottom, but reasonable where you can get a good Musang King (猫山王) for $15/kg.  But my personal preference is actually for the Red Prawns (红虾) so called because of the reddish orange flesh of the durians.  This variety is juicier, sweet all over with no hints of bitterness at all.  

Lots and Lots of Durians - Galaxy Note 9

Marvellous Meringue May

This is my 1^st entry for May.  It’s been a rather busy month with Lincoln’s exams which took place on 2^nd & 3^rd week of the month.  He didn’t do to well this time around, which I found rather frustrating since I’d been accompanying him each night, studying for his exams.  I know he can do the problems, but he just can’t focus long enough to do them during exams.  I’ll find out more about his issues from his teachers next week during the parent teacher meeting. 

I also had time to bake more than usual, although these were more out of curiosity rather than consuming the baked goods fast.  So far I have baked muffins, pies, chiffon cake & cheesecake, so this time I tried my hands at baking butter cake.

In total, I made 3 failed attempts.  Each time I ended up with a cake that was dense instead of fluffy.  I was rather pissed off to be defeated by a recipe on my first attempt and tried again twice.  However, both efforts yielded the same results.  In the end I figured that I haven’t mastered the technique of creaming butter & sugar yet… my egg beating technique is quite sound as demonstrated by my successful attempt at baking a chocolate chiffon cake.  I guess I will need to find more reliable information regarding creaming butter.  

The butter cake I was trying to make was a marble cake, in particular.  So called due to the chocolate swirls emulating the patterns found on a marble slab.  I followed the recipe from a youtuber by the handle Gracious Treatz.  She's a very talented baker with good tutorial videos. 

The ingredients for a marble cake are quite basic: butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, melted chocolate and the usual baking powder & baking soda.  

Ingredients For Marble Cake - Galaxy Note 9