Winter Wonderland

Yesh! Moena has finally travelled to winter wonderland! Encountering strong winds, slippery paths and falling snowflakes that keeps getting into her eyes, she was battling hard to stay alive in the harsh conditions in order to build a snowman!

The first snowman I have ever build in my life. The warden asked me what's his name, I blurted out Snowy, so that became his name :X

Snow! That stays! My first time experiencing it! It just started snowing here...

I stayed outside until it was thick enough to build a snowman. I was playing at the car park because the snow there is cleaner, doesn't mix with soil.

My hall mates made snow angels on the floor.

Snow-cat, made by Marie and San-san, my flatmatez. 

Wishes I made for Kirameki Cafe

I think this car belongs to one of the warden?

I also made a bear :D

Snowy ran up to join them. I replaced his scissors with papers so that he doesn't go cutting up stuffs when I'm away.

The biggest snowman around, made by Yung. He even borrowed a shovel to build it.

I made some hot chocolate drink to warm myself up after all the fun in the cold, just like in the movies! ^_^ I even put my toes on the heater to warm them up, hehe.

P.S. I didn't really travel to Winter Wonderland, please don't take my words literally :X 

- Photos were taken on 4 Feb 2012 in Oxford -

Chap Goh Meh 2012

It's Chap Goh Meh festival today (6 Feb 2012), marking the 15th Day, the last day of Chinese New Year celebration. Some say it was the Chinese's valentine's day. Normally on this day there would also be a feast with good food. Ok, I only remember about the food part. There would be 'Tang Yuan' for desserts which symbolises unity, a dessert taking on such occasion. I was not with my family so I kinda felt left out. As my valentine was busy with his new Mac Book and was too tired to wait for me for a chat due to me having classes, I took this as an opportunity, think positive and went exploring at the shops around the streets after my class, in search of something special to cook. Well well, look what I found!

Udon! In fresh packs! Not the instant noodle types. It's only 2 pounds with 3 individual packets inside, comes with seasonings! 

The individual packets. I ate one of them already when I took this pic :3

This is the result! I even bought some leeks, chopped some carrots and celery to go with it. It was delicious!

And some grilled chickens in case I'm still hungry. 

Well, I think 1 packet of udon is too much for dinner. I forgot Udon is quite filling. I didn't get to finish my chicken drumstick. At least I get to eat something special and nice this chap goh meh~! Though I miss okasan's cooking, kiu nyuk, and tang yuan. That's all folks~!

Food loving Moena, signing off~! :D~

Continue To Love

Valentine's Day is near the corner so here's a love poem:

Continue To Love

"After years of darkness,
through learning how to love myself,
I learned to love others,
And brought meaning to life.

So I mustn't forget how to love myself,
because that gave me strength,
purpose, and a bigger heart,
to love those I love around me.

And also because,
that's what makes him attracted to me,
and to fall in love with me
due the abundant love I have to give.

Through all these,
by loving myself,
it'll make me a better person
to fall in love with him"

✾◕ ‿ ◕✾

~ Written by Moena ~

~ Inspired by Isaac ♥ ~

Conclusion? I will still be myself and pursue my dreams to build a better future for us. Secondly, I will continue to enjoy and flourish in my innocent hobby when I have the time :) Thirdly, I will restrict my friendliness to all girls (only) out there~! I'm sorry I might be a bit COLD, hope I didn't put your heart on HOLD... (ok, it sounds like a silly rhyme I learned from Blue Rose XD)

Sincerely, 

Moena 

After reading it back, I was shocked! I sounded like a narcissist.. O.O" 

Suffocating

Lyrics from the song Sayako speaks my feelings now
A person who wants to get away.
A person who does not want to 'live' a 'life'
A person who wants to 'sleep'
A person who wants to 'fly away'
A person who simply, 'wants to die'

Sometimes i'm like that... I don't know is it normal or not. I want someone to pull me close to life, give me a reason to live, not push me away.

Japanese version:  http://youtu.be/nx1FUar5gBg

English version:  http://youtu.be/kggmNFOLzxI

I always need a place to express my feelings, or else these feelings would drown me T.T 

Royal Blood?

My mom is from a royal bloodline, from her great grandmother's side. Too bad the inheritance were splashed and wasted by her grandfather. My mom always look different than other girls around her that time. Though she grows up from a poor and harsh condition, she's always so fair, pretty, slim, and gentle when she's young yet strong enough to flourish and take up the burden of raising us by herself. The toughness of reality has battered by mom with battle scars yet she stands like a sunflower, still smiling and enjoying our everyday life and counting her blessings from God. Queen material I say :P

My auntie from my father's side was staying with us for the holidays. Last night during dinner with her she suddenly mentioned that their side has royal blood, she found out when she went to China the last time. She mentioned that our family came from the emperor 'liu pang', I'm not familiar with chinese history so I'm not so sure if I've spelled it correctly. My mom joked around by calling my rich auntie "my royal highness" lolx! 

Well well, seems that I'm a descendant from 2 royal bloodlines! I'm surprised! Probably it was already mingled with other normal people bloodline along the way, but it was fun hearing stories and imagining I'm some run away royal family who escaped death by the Mongolian invasion a long time ago. I'm now just a normal reality warrior who is fighting her everyday assignments in order to graduate D: Wish I can use my 'princess powers' to tell my imaginary soldiers to do it for me, hahaha! 

Princess signing off~! 

Yes I know I should stop dreaming :X

Songstress Yuna Photoshoot

Okay, this photoshoot is a last minute one. It was supposed to be an outing to Sutera Harbour for swimming with my family and cousins on Christmas day. Well my sis Becky and cousin Grace wanted to do some shots. I was sick, can't go for swimming so I gladly tagged along for the photo session. We grabbed our costume and transformed into our characters at the hotel room. 

Mum wanted me to spend some quality time with my family and cousins so this photoshoot is ideal. We had Rachel and Peggy along to help out. 

My cosplay: Songstress Yuna (Final Fantasy X-2)

Peace pose with Rikku!

P.S. I was too lazy to watermark all the photos :P

Yuna signing off~!

Winter Solstice Night

Minna, Happy Winter Solstice Night~ 

It's when daylight was the shortest and my tummy gets hungrier earliest! Seriously! I always feel hungry when the day gets darker. I'm so used to eating dinner at ~7pm in Malaysia where it gets dark the same time all year round. But now when I'm engaged in battles in oxford... my tummy just find it as an excuse to eat more ^^" I ended up eating my dinner at 4.30pm, I played around honed my skills in the kitchen a bit, hehe.

Winter Solstice Night, or like how my hakka family culture calls it 'Guo Dong' (过冬), the actual name was 冬至. The name signifies it well, it was a festival to prepare us for the winter months ahead (like there's any winter in such a hot country in malaysia :X), anyways, it's still an important festival for us to celebrate. Normally families will get together to eat a wonderful home cooked meal and then we will prepare sweetened desserts called 'Tang Yuan' (汤圆) which signifies togetherness. However, this year is so different for me... I am away from my family and so I only realised today is the day for us to celebrate when I got a phone call from Isaac >.< 

Well, I don't know how to get the ingredients for making Tang Yuan but I could make myself a very special meal~! 

So, TaDa!

Noodles & chawan mushi! And a bowl of healthy dessert.

I used pasta noodles and the soup base is made from shoyu + sukiyaki sauce + paparika powder with some seasonings leftover from instant noodle packets. Then I decorated the top with fried buta niku and some sweet gem lettuce.

Dessert is made from apple + pear + carrot + salt + squeezed lemon (I often preserve them in fridge like that) 

Here comes the verdict of my noodlee dish, this is also first time trying a soup base dish........ 

*drum rolling*

IT'S DELICIOUS!!!! ^^

Wahh....I'm so happy!!!

Next is the chawan mushi:

OISHII!!!!

I'm so proud of my chawan mushi, it's also my first time making it. To make it, just beat 1 egg + chicken stock + shoyu + salt + pepper + water and some optional butaniku inside. Then steam for about 20~30 minutes.   

It's not a perfect smooth texture, I forgot to lower the heat which caused some bubbles to build up. Well, it's still FuWa FuWa~! :D~

Thank you for looking at the photos of my amateur cookings ^‿^

I think I might be too busy to blog soon so Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year Minna~!