USA: Cathedral of the Saint Mary of the Assumption - San Francisco, California - 8 May 2011

We visited one of the churches in San Francisco - Cathedral of the Saint Mary of the Assumption. It is the principal church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, and is one of San Francisco's Top 25 Buildings.

This church was very different from the other churches -

Firstly, the church was considered controversial not only because of its adherence to the changes in worship from the Vatican Council, but also because of the grandiose scale of the structure. Its supporters argued that it is a magnificent homage to God, but dissenters argued that the funds should have instead been usedto help needy parishioners and instead of erecting this extravagant edifice.

Secondly, the task of building the new cathedral was daunting; San Francisco is earthquake-prone, requiring seismically engineered buildings. The structure is an engineering tour de force. Standing prominently on its hillside site, the hyperbolic paraboloid form is visible from all over the city of San Francisco and truly manifests the modern version of the Gothic cathedrals in Medieval Europe.

The emphatic ascension consists of a square base topped by four hyperbolic paraboloids, thin concrete shells that slope inward and support each other while, from above, forming a giant cross. The structure meets in a cruciform-shaped void overhead. So when you actually look up the ceiling, you will see a giant cross.

This is the entrance leading up to the main door. Such intricate carvings.
And look at the strong wind, making my hair covering my face. Yes, this is normal in the SFO area.

Love the door so much couldn't help but took another picture with it.

Once inside the main hall, this is what you see. There was actually a service going on. So we were not allowed to go to the front of the hall until the service is over. But other than that, we were free to walk about, quietly of course.

When I looked up the ceiling looking for that giant cross, I was in awe. It was so beautiful. I could see the light from the colourful stained glasses which formed the giant cross rom the lofty ceiling. And the place was so quiet and tranquil, it made me feeling calm.

This faceted glass was designed by Professor Gregory Kepes of MIT. The blue glass in the north represents water; the gold and yellow of the south represents the sun and light; the red of the west window represents fire and the green of the east – the Earth.

On the sides of the halls were intricate carvings of Jesus Christ, Mother Mary and other angels I suppose. They were all very delicate and beautiful.

The giant chandelier than hung down in the middle of the hall was beautiful too.

There were also stained glass on the side doors and windows deco. Beautiful. I love stained glass.

At one side of the hall, there is this big pipe organ, which is the first one I've ever seen. I've never seen a pipe organ before, have you? Heard that this pipe organ here was built in 1971 by Fratelli Ruffatti, a famous organ bulder in Padua, Italy. It has 4842 pipes on 89 ranks and 69 stops.

After awhile, we walked out quietly. And we took some photos outside the cathedral. Love the blue skies in SFO.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Saint_Mary_of_the_Assumption
http://www.stmarycathedralsf.org/organ.html
http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/art/sfo_cityguide.pdf

p/s - Click here for more of my USA trip.

One Rainy Afternoon...

we took a big, blue umbrella and went down to our apartment garden.

29 August 2011

We went to our garden's little pavilion and sat there, shaded from the rain and watched the rain.
My little boy was happy munching the box of raisins and cereals I brought down for him.

Together, we watched the pelting rain and watched the koi fish swimming in the pond.
Sitting there, I could smell the rain. The rain was noisy and yet calming. I haven't felt this way before. To be so close to the rain 'til I could smell it.
Normally, I would just run helter skelter away from the rain and indoor. That day was different.

I took the umbrella and camera in my hand, I walked opposite the pond and took a photo of father and son.

I caught Shern feeding daddy some snacks.

It was a nice rainy day to get some family bond so near home. All we need was just a big umbrella and some rain. :)

Yiu-Shern - 26 Months

This post is way outdated, hidden in my draft for almost 3 months.

22 August 2011

Cuti-Cuti Penang
August was the month where Popo, Kong-kong & Yee-Pho went to Singapore for a week. And since Min was still working at that time, left the 3 of us at home whenever Peter gets off work.
I decided to take a break ourselves and break off from our normal routine, so that was the beginning of our daily dose of Cuti-cuti Penang.

We went to many places in Penang, such as CTY Aquarium, Teluk-Bahang Fisherman Jetty, Adventure Zone, Mega Kiddies World, Ferry Ride, Penang Bird Park, Penang Hill, Youth Park, Teluk Bahang Dam, etc.

I then realized Penang has so many places to visit even with a toddler in tow. And many of these places are free. It makes me more happy because Shern was so happy. I'm sure Shern thought he was on holidays too when Popo, Kong-kong & Yee-pho were not around.


Shern in Car Seat
It was also the starting of me re-introducing the car seat to Shern. I wrote all about the Battle of the Car Seat about a few weeks ago.


Reciting from 1 to 10
Shern learnt how to recite from 1 to 10, thanks to the ad '10 Reasons You Should Choose Thai Airways' on Astro. Well, at least there are some benefits in letting your kids watch ads on tv. :)


Speech
His speech development continues to astonish even me. He learns new words so fast that we could not even afford to mumble any bad words like 'shit'. The other day he started to say 'oh my god' in exactly the same tone I said it. He imitated it so damn well he started to scare me.

He can now recites Nursery Rhymes, in sentences now and not just the last words.
Current favourite is Jack & Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Pussy Cat Pussy Cat, Little Jack Horner and Wee Willy Winkie.


Books
His current favourites are 'The Little Engine That Could' and 'Nursery Rhymes'.
He even adores a Cars themed Lego brochure we got from Toys 'R' Us, asking me to "read" the brochure to him again and again and pointing to Lightning McQueen, Mater and Finn McMissile. Toys R Us would be very happy to know that their brochures has very long lifespan in my house!


Food
Shern is really the MPPP of the house. He eats everything, including char koay teow and hokkien mee. Even this means one mouthful of char koay teow and one sip of water. He is not afraid of spicy.

But luckily, he eats rice quite readily too. But he is not too fond of porridge nowadays. Just like me I guess. And of course his favourites are Yakult and Vitagen.

But when it comes to fruits, he stays far far away. It is really weird you know. Once he sees it, he automatically knows they are fruits and he won't even go near them. Be it apples, oranges, watermelons, kiwis, bananas, etc. Sometimes he tries them when we tried to make them sound so delicious, but usually he spits them out. Fruits are sweet, why doesn't he like them?


Sleep
He now sleeps from around 10pm to 8.30am every night. No waking up for feeds as usual. Still pees in his diapers. There are the occasional dreams where he laughs while sleeping or even talks when he sleeps. All I need it to just pat him and he continues his sleep.

Gone are the days where we need to carry him to sleep (phew!). Really so glad because he weighs a ton now. Ok, not a ton but feels like a ton. All he needs is someone to accompany him to sleep. Drinks 6-7oz of milk. And then he will tosses and turns in bed, and also puts his head on my stomach and all over me, until he falls asleep, which is usually in 15 minutes.


Potty Training
This one fails big time. Screams his head off when he sees the potty. Starts fighting with me about me taking off his diapers and asking me to wear back for him. Cries and wails until his poop disappeared. Sigh.

Now his usual is he hides when he does his big business. When you suddenly hear silence in the house, you will find Shern hiding in a corner doing his big business. And if we go near him, he will asks us to go away. Big business done when he finally comes out from his corner. Sigh.

The Lion King Musical in Marina Bay Sands

I have not blogged about my recent Singapore Trip this time. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to blog about my experience in Universal Studio Singapore or upload photos of me doing the touristy stuff. First of all, I am too lazy. Secondly, I have too many backlog posts.

But one thing I think I need to blog about is The Lion King Musical I attended in Marina Bay Sands. I tell you, that musical took my breath away!

It was my 2nd Broadway Musical I attended. My first being The Beauty & The Beast in 2008 in KL, which was actually nothing compared to this.

I think I watched the movie version 1000 times on tv. I loved it. Always has been a big fan of The Lion King.

Booked for the Sunday Matinee 2pm show.
Ticket prices are from S$65-240. Singapore dollars. Freaking crazy.
We booked the 2nd cheapest seats which is the $85, but we got it at a 20% discount, but which I still find it expensive when convert back into Ringgit.
That's when I really know how bad our Ringgit fares when compared to Singapore Dollars. Shrug.

Took the stall seats after being prepped by my sis-in-law. Turned out great because The Sands Theatre was not that big, kinda small actually and we could see everything not too far away.

In fact, I did not expect a Theatre to be this small. This was taken from my seat. It was about the size of a large cinema theatre in GSC.

Ok, I am not complaining since this allowed me to have a better view. Anyway, I liked the cozy setting.
I'm not sure if you could see it but on the right and left side of the stage hanging midway are 2 platforms where each platform has a cast each playing with the instruments. You could really see the whole stage and everything in front of you. This is only possible when the Theatre is small enough.

Below photo shows u the seats upstairs. We did not go up but I think stall seats were better since twice during the show, the casts came out from the back door below and also some scene, some of the casts were standing on the alleys of the stall seats.
So I was glad we chose the stall seats.

The moment the musical started, I knew the money spent was well worth it.
I was gobsmacked. It was visually spectacular right from the start.
I was amazed by how much the animals really look like animals. Although the animals are actually human, but they really blend into their roles. The way they moved and the way they tilted their heads. Awesomeness!

photo source: http://www.motherinc.org/review/lion-king-marina-bay-sands-singapore/

Actually we were not allowed to take photos. Which I think is fine since I could then concentrate 100% on watching the musical. Knowing me, if photo-taking was allowed, I would be busy snapping photos although I know 99% they would turn out all blur. So these photos of the show were taken from the net.

During halftime, after toilet break, we took a walk around in front and saw the orchestra pit. Managed to snap a photo before the authorities shooed me away. :)

The casts were really great. Props used was fantastic. Everything was really good. If I didn't know I was attending a broadway musical, I would think that everything was pre-recorded because everything was so smooth, so fluent - their singing, acting and etc.

photo source: http://www.motherinc.org/review/lion-king-marina-bay-sands-singapore/

Below shows Scar and Simba - having a heaty head-on argument. I am still amazed at their brilliant masks. When they tilted their head down, their masks would bend forward in front of their face like below. But when they looked straight, their masks would spring up on top of their head, so I could see their facial expression. Isn't that brilliant or what?

photo source: http://www.motherinc.org/review/lion-king-marina-bay-sands-singapore/

On this musical, I liked the young Simba, which was played by Warren Saga. He was spirited and energetic and really sounded like the Simba in the movie. I was rather sad he grew up and the adult Simba was played by Jonathan Andrew Hume. Except for his well-toned and muscled body, I did not find myself being his #1 fan, which was rather bad since he was supposed to be the hero. But nevertheless, he was still ok. It was just that I liked little Simba more. Haha.

The other casts such as Nala, Timon and Pumba were great. And even the hyenas were terrific. And oohh, I loved Rafiki the wise baboon. She had a powerful voice and really sounded like the Rafiki in the cartoon. Zazu was good too acting his part as the prim and proper hornbill.

photo source: http://superadrianme.com/2011/03/10/the-lion-king-singapore-review/

Overall, I had a wonderful time. Definitely the highlight of my recent Singapore trip.
So if you guys have a chance to go to Singapore, don't miss out this one. ;)

Fake Chocolate Cake

Pillsbury's Moist Supreme Chocolate Cake - 16 August 2011

My friend passed me a box of cake premix that was going to expire in 5 days. She asked me to bake it and not waste it, so I said OK because I couldn't bear to see it gone to waste.

Photo source: http://anne-tan.blogspot.com/2010/06/baking.html

The box says "Pillsbury Moist Supreme Chocolate Cake". Sounds good.
I have not baked any cake using premix before so I was reading intently behind the box for instructions.

They only called for 3 ingredients to be added into the mix: Eggs, Water and Oil.
I was a bit dubious because I have never baked a cake which calls for water. Most calls for milk, buttermilk or yogurt for the liquid content.
And also this calls for oil instead of butter. Hmmm...

After an hour or so, the cake was out from the oven.
So how was it?

It was a midnight bake and you know chocolate cakes do not photograph well, so please bear with me the ugly photos with low lighting and my bad photography skills.

This is what it looked like fresh from the oven after removing it from my bundt pan.

It was my first time using my cheapo bundt pan, and I was disappointed with the 'curves'. The curves were not so significant and thus the cake was not so beautiful. And the colour of the cake was not impressive - too light for my liking because to me, light colour means less chocolate-y taste.

But when I cut into it, I was a little happy because it shows a darker brown in colour, a hope of a more chocolate-y taste.
You could also see that the texture was good. Looks good anyway.

But when I finally took my first bite of that cake, everything went down the drain.
There was no chocolate taste in it at all. It was just a bland cake which was chocolate in colour. No oomph heavenly butter cake taste as well. Nothing.
Bland and dead and fake!

Yes, it tasted so fake because it looks like chocolate cake but tasted nothing like all the other chocolate cakes I've ever baked.
It was not that it was inedible. It was just that it was so..erm...so....fake. Period.

It was such a turn-off after my first bite. I was struggling to finish my slice.
In the end, I opened my bottle of Nutella Spread and slabbed some on my slice so that it finally has some real chocolate-y taste in it!

The only good thing about this cake is the texture. The texture of this cake turned out ok. Rather moist and fine crumbed.

The next morning, I took the cake the cake over to mum's place for everyone to try it out. Everyone ended up eating their slices with Nutella as well.

And needless to say, we did not finish the cake. After everyone had their first slice, nobody went for a second slice. Sigh. So a small part of the cake ended up in the rubbish bin a few days later.
As much as I hate wasting food, I really couldn't finish up the remaining cake.

Then, I told my family this "Now only you all know how nice are my cakes. You wouldn't appreciate my cakes so much if you have not tasted this" =)

After this, I told myself never, ever bake using a premix ever again. Not even a branded one like Pillsbury. Lesson learned.

Maria's Cherry Cake

12 August 2011 - Maria's Cherry Cake

I baked this cake beginning of August and nearly forgotten all about it. The reason is because it is one of those bakes that does not taste as good as it looks.

First of all, maybe because I used only 1 punnet of cherries and it is not enough. Secondly, it may be because I used this tart pan and thus results in the sides being too crisp for my liking. Or it can be due to my oven which gets too hot although it has not browned yet, or simply because it was due to my own noob-ness in baking.

All in all, I find the texture of this cake a little too dry and also lack of the juiciness of the cherries (because I was too cheapo and used only 1 punnet). When I tasted the cake a day later, the texture was even more dry. Sigh. When compared to the Cherry Cake I made more than a year ago, this one is a far cry from it.

I was looking forward to a fluffy kinda texture with juicy cherries in my every bite. :P

But all in all, it is still edible of course, if you don't mind the lack of cherries, and rather dry texture. So let me tell you this, if you want to try out this recipe, please remember to at least double the amount of cherries used, with half of the cherries folded into the batter! :)

This is my batter topped with cherries cut into halves with seed removed, before it went into the oven.

I felt my cherries were kinda wasted because my fresh cherries were still juicy and firm. I should have eaten them fresh. =)

See, the cake was not even that browned yet, and yet the sides were already a 'lil too crisp for my liking. Or are all cakes using tart pan end up like this?

After baking, the cherries were all wrinkly but still juicy.

I sprinkled some icing sugar on top.

See...only the top part had cherries. If there were cherries in the middle part, it would taste so much better!

Recipe: Maria's Cherry Cake (copied from Table for 2)

250gm cherries, cut into half, seeds removed (1 punnet, the recipe called for 1L of cherries, and used whole. That's too expensive and I don't fancy the taste of the baked seed).
100gm butter
125gm icing sugar (reduced from 200gm)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
2 medium eggs (grade c)
150gm all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 150(fan)/170C. Prepare a 9 inch pan. Line the base and grease the sides.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs gradually.
4. Add in vanilla and lemon zest.
5. Sift flour with baking powder and fold into the beaten butter.
6. Spread out the mixture onto prepared pan and arrange halved cherries. No need to press in.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden. When cake has cooled, dust with icing sugar before serving.