Day 145 - Niagara Falls - The Beauty of the Falls

Alright, finally got some time to start blogging! I must apologise as I was busy with work and school stuff. This Niagara Trip will be Titled: Beauty, Power, Spice

Part 1: Beauty

The Niagara Falls is definitely a beautiful sight to behold, the rushing water, the lush green trees... its lovely.

We arrived pretty early so we just drove around randomly visiting viewing sites. We started quite down river. Very lovely view, it really gives a feeling of grandness.

Lovely yar?


First place we went to was the 3 sisters island, if you notice the map in the previous post it is in the bottom right corner. The 3 islands were named after 3 sisters (life DUH) and is located on the upper niagara river. The rushing rapids there are very nice to see, i think its best to just let pictures and videos do the talking yar?

The origins

Grp Shot

Videos taken at the 3 sister's isle

View of the fast flow






Next stop was the American Falls, this was the main waterfall on the US side, once again, I believe a picture paints a thousand words.

Trying to taste the water? Little did we know we will get more of this later


The American Falls


That is the Maiden of the Mist in the background

More videos taken at the Falls

We also went close to the canadian side which Terrapin point is at. The canadian falls is also known as Horseshoe Falls due to its shape. It handles about 90% of the water for the entire Niagara falls.

Me Introducing Horseshoe Falls


Horseshoe Falls @ Terrapin point


Rainbow caused by the Mist from the Falls

We also did some other stuff like take the maiden of the mist, cave of the winds etc etc... but those will come in later posts :)

For now Just enjoy the night scene at niagara :)







This is Canada

Ok part 1 is over! Onwards to Part 2(soon :p, I am baking a cheese cake right now )

Day 145 - Niagara Falls - The Intro

This weekend was the memorial day long weekend. Like many other people, we decided to have a road trip to take advantage of the long weekend. This trip was to the beautiful Niagara Falls state park and then we intended to cross over to the canadian side.

The Niagara falls consists of 3 seperate waterfalls. Horseshoe Falls (which is on the Canadian side), the American Falls, and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls next to the American falls. I would think that the Niagara falls is probably one of the most famous waterfalls in the world. When we were at the state park, there were tons of tourist and there were vendors setting up stalls, there seemed to be a carnival like mood in the air.


A map of the area, showing the 3 falls and other areas of interest

For those interested in the history or more data on the falls, just check out wikipedia
which is quite comprehensive and what is there is what I learnt at the Niagara infomation centre and the Niagara Discovery Centre.

p.s: There will be 3 more parts to go for this Niagara trip blog due to the fact i got lots of things to write

Day 143 - Good Luck CN3B and everyone else in NUS

Results being released today(more like several hours already cos i forgot to blog this down due to a SPIN event), hopefully everyone did well.

So Good Luck to everyone from all my friends from CN3B, CHE, anywhere else in NUS and my juniors too!

Too bad my modules here are non examinable muahahahahhaha *evil laughter*

Day 142 - Bunch of New videos

Today in class, my lecturer was talking about japanese trains and how packed it was, remembering i saw a video of it somewhere, i pulled a search:



I also found this cute video on making fish swim in unison:

Recipe: Carrot Cake

Finally I got all the recipes from Peiling (Thanks!!!!!)

Well this is NOT the carrot cake that you normally see in the hawker centres, its a western styled carrot cake. It really has Carrots! NOT fried with eggs and tong cai etc etc

Ingredients:

Dry:

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 ½ cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Wet:

¾ cup oil

3 eggs

2 cups shredded carrots

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰F.
2. Lightly grease and flour a 7” x 11” pan.
3. Make a well in a large bowl with dry ingredients.
4. Add wet ingredients.
5. Mix together until well combined and pour into prepared pan.
6. Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes until spongy on top.
7. Cool, slice and serve.

Recipe : Peanut butter Cheese cake

This has gotta be one of the most sinful cakes I have, combining both peanut butter and cheese yum

Ingredients:

Crust:

Gramham biscuits

Butter, melted

Filling:

1 pack of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup of creamy peanut butter

¾ cup sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tub (8oz) Whipped Topping

Method:

1. Crush biscuits and mix crumbs with butter. Press onto bottom and sides of 9-inch pie plate.
2. Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in the whipped topping. Spoon into crust.
3. Freeze 4 hours or overnight until firm. Ready to serve.

Day 139 - 3 out of 4 cakes ain't that bad

Headed down to Angela's (my baking mentor) place for a baking session and also to chill out. Among those who went included Peiling, Timothy, Kaihong and Estee. Wayne showed up in the afternoon.

Angela and her family will be leaving PA for New Jersey this summer cos she has gotten a new job at J & J (one of the largest company in the world, deals with pharma, lifestyle stuff etc etc). Its kindda sad that she is leaving, especially since she had such a positive impact on so many of us NOCians. Well all of us wish her and her family the best! Also maybe there might be chances to visit her in NJ (what a gd excuse for another holiday!)

Ok 4 cakes were made, 1 was a complete flop.... at least in my opinion, it was a complete mush of stuff...

Well 3 out of 4 ain't so bad, so I am gonna post the recipes below!

*Note: I only posted 2 out of 4 recipes cos PEILING has not passed me the other 2 which she photocopied.

Recipe: Pandan Chiffon Cake

Taken from Diana's Desert:

This cake was probably the best out of the 4 in terms of result. It was nice and fluffy and the pandan flavour was very distinct. What I learnt was that pandan is called Screwpine here.

Ingredients: 8 eggs, separated 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 3/4 cup liquid vegetable oil 1 tsp. vanilla extract 3/4 cup coconut milk 1/4 tsp. pandan extract* (see note below) 1/4 tsp. pandan paste* (see note below) (used for flavoring and color) optional 1 cup self-rising flour OR 1 cup cake flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (add ONLY if using cake flour) 1/2 tsp. salt (add ONLY if using cake flour) 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Instructions: 1). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). 2). In a small bowl, combine coconut milk , pandan extract and ovalette (using ovalette is optional). Add the 1/4 tsp. of pandan paste (or 1/4 tsp. green food coloring) to mixture if using (using the pandan paste or green food coloring is optional). Set aside. 3). With an electric mixer OR by hand, beat the egg yolks, sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla until well combined. Beat in coconut milk/pandan extract mixture. 4). Combine flour, baking powder and salt (If using cake flour). *Note: Do not add baking powder or salt if you are using self-rising flour as self-rising flour already has baking powder and salt in it. Sift the self-rising flour (or cake flour, baking powder and salt mixture, if using) three times into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of sifted dry ingredients, and whisk egg mixture into the flour mixture. 5). With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks. Add the cream of tartar and beat until firm peaks form. Fold the beaten egg whites into the flour/egg yolk mixture in two batches using a balloon whisk or rubber spatula. 6). Gently pour the batter into a 9 or 10-inch (23-25 cm) ungreased tube or angel food cake pan. With a spatula, spread batter to even out top. Bake in preheated 350 degrees F (180 C) oven for 45 minutes or until the cake feels spongy to the touch. 7). Remove cake from oven, and carefully invert the pan (upside down) onto a cooling rack. Do not remove cake from pan until completely cooled. Once cake has cooled, run a spatula around the sides and center tube of the pan to release the cake. When you are ready to slice the cake, use a thin sharp knife with serrated blade, and cut with a "sawing" action opposed to slicing through the cake.

Recipe : Hershey's ® Mississippi Mud Cake

This recipe was taken from HersheysKitchens.com:

The only failure, it was a complete mess, the mushmellows were added in too early resulting in a liquid goo that could not solidify into a cake like structure. Lesson learnt! Well its so bad, no picture will be posted

Ingrediants:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup chopped pecans
A bunch of miniature marshmallows
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softenen
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 350 F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2) In large bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; blend into butter mixture. Stir in pecans. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

3) Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Meanwhile, prepare frosting. Remove cake from oven; immediately place marshmallows over top. Return cake to oven 2 to 3 minutes or until marshmallows are soft. Gently spread marshmallows over cake; immediately spread frosting over marshmallow layer. Cool thoroughly before cutting cake into squares. 12 to 15 servings.

4) One-Bowl Buttercream Frosting: In small bowl, beat butter. Blend in powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk; beat to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Blend in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Day 136 - Scientist do know how to have fun too!

So I was in the lab doing my usual lab work and stuff, when a nice large package came in. It was the replacement glassware that I broke a few days ago in the most amazing chain accident ever. Drop the beaker which knocks into the funnel which........(you get the idea)

I opened up the box, and say a nice phamplet telling me about a Photo contest... wait.. a PHOTO contest in a box of beakers? That sounded pretty weird. So I decided to take a look at the website: http://www.nalgenelabpix.com/

What I found were cool and funny pics taken using lab equipment. Surely scientist with such great minds were not as bored as to actually make up some of these photos. I mean they should have been busy finding the next cure for cancer, the next big medicine, a viable alternative fuel! But we all do need a break in life, so I guess it is a fun thing to do!

Seriously, I will let the captions do the talking.





Maybe I will consider entering the next round of competition, I mean its just thinking of something funny, silly, probably lame using regular lab stuff!

Day 135 - oh oh oh soooo lucky

Was walking to work from the train station when suddenly i noticed dark clouds surrouding me...

As i kept walking on, I heard a slight rumble... a warning of things to come.

Crossing the carpark to reach the lab, i felt wetness hit my skin... I knew it was time to make a run for it. So I just dashed as fast as I could into the lab. Just as the door closed, the skies opened up. The timing was so perfect... the rain and the closing of the door were so in sync.

LUCKY... that's all i can say.

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Ok so I was bored and surfing around, taking a nice break from the last expt. Nothing much in cyberspace land, so I updated this blog with RSS feed. Yes you can now suscribe to my blog, recieve updates on ramblings, rantings, dumb photos, stuff I find on youtube and cake recipes! ok ok... I was bored, can't blame me right?

Back to youtubing...FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Day 134 - BBC's screw up, the tale of 2 Guys

Was just surfing around the more prominant blogs today, then I found this interesting post on Mr Brown's blog.

BBC actually made the mistake of interviewing the wrong guy during one of the news shows. Apparantly they were suppose to interview an IT expert on the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer lawsuit. But it turns out, the poor guy bring interviewed was there for a job interview! Initially word was out that it was a taxi driver, but this was eventually clarified.

The expert's name is Guy Kewney and his "imitation" is Guy Goma. Amazingly why such a mistake could have been made, those 2 guys are literally as different as black and white. Surely BBC should have known how their "expert" would look like.

Check out the poor guy's (pun intended) expression when he realised he is the wrong person:



And here is the BBC report on the incident:



Well, the conclusion of the entire incident is, that GUY can smoke out very well. He throws smoke grenades with the best of them. If I did not know about the actual incident, I might not have noticed it myself.

Day 131 - The barber of terror

After over 5 months, I finally got around to getting a hair cut. With summer coming (not to mention having a strand of hair nearly falling into my expt), I decided that its time to cut my hair. Following Timothy's recommandation($8 per cut, super cheap), I went to this Vietnamese barber at 45th and Locust.

Now the following signs should have warned me that things might be going wrong:

1) Upon entering, you only see aunties there getting a perm for their hair.
2) The barber cutting does not understand what i wanted in english(contary to what tim told me). I tried to tell him, slope, cut short etc etc... no avail.
3) When communicating in mandarin, I believe he only understood short and long in mandarin. So I had to point at a particular part of my hair and say long or short or in between.
4) When cutting my hair, the barber suddenly when "tsk tsk" in the tone what you would make when you made a mistake and it annoyed you.

After that point, my heart skipped a beat.... what could have happened? I had to take off my glasses so I had no idea what was going on. In "Adrian vision"(no glasses) all i see is a black patch around my head going smaller and shorter.

Well when it was all done, the result was decent, any mistake was not visible(if there was any). I was pretty pleased until the barber when removing the cloth around me, poured all the cut hair onto my shorts.... WTH... In the end, all he got was a dollar tip... and he should be pretty glad about that.

Well, my hair is short now!


Taken via webcam as my memory card for my digicam was taken by weijia for her trip to west coast

Day 132 - HAPPY MOTHER's DAY

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Yup nothing more I can say other then that to my mother :)
Sadly I am not in Singpore to celebrate this day, but I always cherish you and Pa everyday.

Day 129 - Accident on the R5... AGAIN

Someone once said, "Lightning does not strike twice in the same place." That person has gotta be Kidding me in my balls. I would definitely like to introduce my friend MURPHY to him/her.

On the way home today from a good dat at work, then the train stopped at Glenside station. The conductor came in... "Ladies and Gentlemen, apparantly some guy got hit by the train ahead of us, so we will be delayed while the police do their job." (At this point Adrian has the urge to say "AGAIN?!??!")

Why did I have the urge, pls refer to Adrian's Great Adventure

So I got off the train took a walk around, asked the conductor a few qns. Turns out someone did indeed got knocked down by the train ahead of mine. There were quite alot of police around. Being the typical Singaporean, I went around taking pictures with my camera phone. Sadly I have no way of uploading them >< (no cable to connect to my laptop)

Anyway I had a good chat with the conductor:

Adrian: What happened?
Conductor: Someone was crossing the tracks and the train hit him... I think he did not survive
Adrian: Yeaaa I guess its pretty hard to survive being knocked down by a train
Conductor: Yup.. very hard
*Awakward Silence*
Adrian: So how do I get to Centre City?

Well I knew this was Glenside, so there was a bus to Frenrock where i can take the broadstreet subway... then it started raining so I chose to stay on the train where is nice and warm. I made myself comfortable and went to sleep. Eventually they cleared the body and life went on as usual.

Day 124 - Bucks County Road Trip

The florida gang (me, deliang, cat, weijia and steph) decided to take a nice roadtrip around the bucks county region. The bucks county region has 3 zones, nature, culture and historical. We mainly focused on the nature zone going to the national parks.

The entire trip was essentially visiting places with nice view, going to wineries to try wine for free and the Strawberry Festival at Peddler's market.

Winery:

Lots of free wine, I think i tried close to 15+ types. There was also free food, eg: cheese, jam and crackers.


Lots and lots of bottles!


Barrels where the wine are stored and aged




This photo was OBVIOUSLY staged

Parks:

Went to a total of 3 parks, Ringing Rocks, Naximacon and Lake Towhee. Nice Places for photoshoots, but I think the nicest, and coolest was Ringing Rocks. The name ringing rocks was given to the place cos there are lots of rocks in the area and if you hit them with a hammer, some do give off a nice ringing sound. In fact, some people do it for fun, I ran into this group who were hammering away at the rocks and they were the ones who explained to me the reason for the name. Cool huh? Well ringing rocks is also home to Bucks County's highest waterfall... which is more like a trickle now... it sort of dried up for now... maybe when there is a rainy season it might be flowing.


The rocks that ring


The waterfall





Strawberry Festival:

Well.... its a festival and its about strawberries! It just happened that on this weekend at the Peddler's market at Lakasa. There were lots of strawberry related stuff like shirts, food, more food and more food. It was pretty crowded that day, lots of people from around the area. Heck there were even tour buses ferrying people in!


Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and fritters FRY


Final pdt


For desert, strawberry short cake

Recipe: Cheese Cake ver 1.1 with Choc mousse ver 1.0

Ver 1.1 of my Cheese Cake (Lemon ver) with a Choc Mousse topping


Ingrediant

Batter:
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. ground lemon peel (can put more if you want)
4 eggs
2 tbs of flour ( It prevents breaking of the cheese, recommanded step)

Crust:
1 3/4 cup of graham crumbs
8 oz of butter
A pinch of lemon zest chopped up

Choc Mousse
8 oz mascarpone Cheese
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
1/4 cup of sugar (I wanted it to be less sweet to contrast the cake)
Milk to taste (I think I added in about 1/4 cup)
Dash of Coffee

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350F

Add the crumb ingrediants together and stir until crumbs look wet. Then coat the 9inch pan with the crumbs to form the crust. Then put into oven for 10 mins and let it cool on a wire rack.

In a large bowl beat cream cheese until creamy. Whisk(or use medium speed) add sugar gradually, then vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon peel(zest). Blend well.

Add eggs, one at a time and beat at medium speed for ten minutes, until fluffy. Pour into curst.

Put into over, drop the temp to 200F, and wait... and wait... and wait

It will be about 3hr. It depends on several variables, so check in from time to time. Use the toothpick test.

After baking, cool it for 20 min then slowly loosen the crust from the pan and Chill in fridge for 5hrs minimum.

Making the mousse:
Add the Mascarpone cheese, cocoa and sugar. Mix well. Add a dash of coffee and the milk and stir until smooth.

I spread the mousse on the cake and placed whatever remaining mousse into the fridge for around 3 hrs.


Top View (I tried the iron chef style presentation of mousse on a spoon)

Side View

Thanks Cat for taking the pics!!!

Day 124 - Winds of Change part 2

Looks like the election results are out. PAP back in power with 82 seat out of 84. But overall PAP's vote % dropped from 75% last year to 66% this year. Even in the PM's ward of AMK, he only garnered more then 60% of the votes. To me this is like a good wake up call, PAP has to constantly improve if they want the people's support. Also it is a good sign the opposition are starting to field more quality candidates.

Well at least the winds of change are starting to blow, not as much as I would have liked but its a good start.

I guess the results this time could be attributed to a few factors:

1) Internet as an alternate media to mainstream government controlled media. This allowed people, esp the younger voters to get alternate views on issues and what is going on. It also gives the opposition more press coverage which they usually lack(more like never get any except for Mr Gomez) from the mainstream media.

2) PAP constantly talking about the Gomez issue... too much political mudsligging for people's taste, we see it every election. I would think younger voters like me hate to see such crap and probably others just do not care, then again maybe its just me.

3) PM Lee making a few "bad" statements which gave the opposition lots of chances to rebutt and attack on. The fact he got his press sectary to issue an apology rather then doing it himself also was a bad move.

Well, time for the people to enjoy the PAP promise of upgrading worth 80M, 100M etc etc ^^

Oh... and I also read on some other blogs (search technorati) that there were unusually high spoiled votes in certain areas.... I wonder why?

p.s T-Mobile is terrible.... they told me to SUCK thumb over my sms issue...grrrrr

Day 123 - Winds Of Change (?)

Its 8am in Singapore right now, it is definitely not an ordinary Saturday... its Polling Day. Singaporeans go to the polls to day to elect who they want into Parliment. No surprise which party will win.

This 2006 Sg election, I believe is a the most exciting election to date, from my experience, I did not experience the 1959 type of election. From the perspective of someone overseas, it is definitely a very interesting election this time round. The ruling party did not return to power on nomination day, the opposition is fielding what seem to be a credible team at a certain GRC. Besides reading the regular news from ChannelnewsAsia, I also read some election related blogs. sgrally and yawningbread are some very good sources. It is interesting to see the turnout at opposition rallys, especially WP(workers party), reminds me of some rock concert or even the malaysian cup fever days.

Winds of change are blowing... causing this is the internet. The internet has provided alternate sources of media regarding the elections. No more pro-govt news paper reports only. Election blogs provide alternate views and coverage of opposition rallys which regular media(newspapers) do not cover. Youtube is a very powerful medium, election rally speeches were placed on it, this gives many people to listen to every rally speech.

The internet is certainly a powerful medium for communication, what I displeased me was the attempt to restrict blogs, podcasts etc etc during the election period... WHY? The world has moved forward, our election process should not be left behind in the 60s. Why are we a 1st world country when the forms of media are restricted? Fortunately this has not stopped people from posting in forums, doing election blogs, posting on youtubes. The internet is evolving, and this wave cannot be stopped. (as you can see I am a huge fan of open media, participatory media)

Anyway as a view from the outside, I think the James Gomez issue is blown out of proportion. Come on, give that man a bloody break. Personally, I do not give a damn about this issue, why should so much time be spent talking over this incident? Why should so much time and space in the mainstream media be dedicated to it? I am more interested to know WHAT are the plans for Singapore's future, WHAT are the bread and butter issues. NOT some stupid election form incident.

Well I will be watching the results with great anticipation, while i cannot predict the overall results, I think overall the ruling party will garner a lower percentage of the votes, but they will maintain a strong grip on the government. I am not expecting the opposition to win many GRCs, even in Aljunied where the "best" chance is... that is probably gonna be a very close fight. Possible opposition victory are: PP, Hougang and probably CCK.

p.s SOME IDIOT TAPPED INTO MY HP NUMBER AND SENT 32 SMSes which cost 10cents each....

Day 121 - Wicked

Shen Zhi gave me the url to this website http://thewicked.sgblogging.com/wicked/ Its a very tough puzzle blog where you gotta solve clues to progress. It test your thinking skills and in a way computer knowledge. Damn still on lvl 27

Day 117 - Chicken Rice for the Soul

So I attempted to make Chicken rice today. Like the final skill a master teaches his diciples, my mum taught me this just before I left. This is the first time I am doing it on a large scale.

Anyway it turns out the rice had a gd smell, but lacking in taste. I believe my chicken stock was not done well enough. Oh well there is always next time.

Law, Weijia, Cat, Deliang, Andy, Steph and me

I chopped up the entire chicken, not bad eh?

Complete Spread