Life

Why are we living in this world?
Sometimes this question will come to my mind and I still haven't found the answer yet.
People born, live, old, sick and die. Then what's the point of this life?
This things suddenly came to my mind again when I've just finished reading a novel called 'Surat Kecil untuk Tuhan' which mean 'A letter to God'. This novel is base on true story. It's a really touching story yet it a story which make you realized of how important this life is.

The story is about a girl, called Gita Sesa Wanda Cantika (Keke), who was diagnosed with cancer when she was 13 years old. She has the same age with me, we born from the same year. I still remember when i was 13 years old, I was still playing at that time, still don't know anything, but in the other part of the world a girl with the same age with me is struggling so hard for her life.
She was struggling for 3 years and on 25 December 2006 she left this world and all the people that she love.
The novel tell us that Keke was a kind girl, she was smart, courageous, and she never feel hopeless even though she knew that she might die because of the cancer. But instead of losing her spirit, she try to accept what God have gave her and she still believe in God, she still believe that God still love her and what she had gone through is just a trial from God.

Can you imagine a 13 years old girl can accept all this hardship? without complaining? She is a role model for all of us. During last couple month of her life, she still joined the school exam even though on the last day of her test she had to ask someone to help her fill the answer sheet because she didn't has the strength to fill the answer anymore. What really amazing is that she got the 3rd rank on her class!
She even act ok to people around her so that they don't worry about her even though she left an extreme pain inside of her body.
She still think of others when her life is between live and death.
I remembered last time when i felt dizzy and i didn't go to work, this make me think, what have i done? my dizziness is nothing compare to her pain!

Some people use drug, some people want to end their live by committing suicide. Why don't we just sit down and think, somewhere in this world people are struggling to keep breathing, then why can't we appreciate our live? the most precious things that God has gave us?
Instead of doing nothing why don't we just use this chance that God has gave us to do something important? we can start with fixing ourselves by throwing away our bad habit and start doing good things!

I'm a type of people who is scare of death, because of what? because I'm scare to leave the people that i love or the people that i love leave me. I know that nothing is everlasting in this world and this make me realized that i need to appreciate more of my life, to be thankful, to show more love to people around me.
I don't want to waste my time anymore since every second count!

The last words that Keke told her family during her very last breath which makes me so amazed of her is that "live harmonious and happy life when Keke left..!"

Last things that i want to share is the words that Keke share with all of us before she left this world.

Surat Kecil untuk Tuhan


Tuhan..
Andai aku bisa kembali..
Aku tidak ingin ada tangisan di dunia ini.
Tuhan..
Andai aku bisa kembali
Aku tidak ingin ada hal yang sama terjadi padaku, terjadi pada siapapun
Tuhan..
Bolehkah aku menulis surat kecil untuk-Mu
Tuhan..
Bolehkan aku memohon satu hak kecil untuk-Mu
Biarkan aku tetap melihat bulan dan bintang
Tuhan..
Bolehkah aku..
Hidup untuk waktu yg lama
Tuhan..
Bolehkah aku..
Tersenyum untuk waktu yang lebih lama
Agar tidak ada lagi air mata dalam hidupku..
Tuhan..
Bolehkan aku menjadi dewasa seperti burung yang terbang sebebasnya dilangit
Tuhan..
Bolehkah engkau tidak pisahkan aku dari ayah dan teman-teman yang aku sayangi.
Tuhan..
Surat kecil ini
Adalah permintaan terakhirku.
Andai aku bisa kembali

Cheese Swiss Roll

Hi there! I haven't been updating my blog for a while.
I've been busy of my assignment, oh gosh! it makes me sick when i heard assignment.
Anyway, lately i've been craving for swiss roll, especially the one which is from my country, the most famous & well know which called Bolu Meranti (the name of the brand). Their swiss roll have different flavor & the one that i like the most is the cheese flavor.
So yesterday i went down to the kitchen & i baked it.
What really surprise me is that it's actually a very easy cake to make, i never imagine that it's that easy!!
I brought some to Uni today & give it to my friends, they love it!! XD

Cheese Swiss Roll


Sponge recipe :
100gr plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
110gr caster sugar
50gr unsalted butter, melted

Butter cream recipe :
200gr unsalted butter
100gr icing sugar
Grated cheddar cheese

Method (sponge cake) :

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Sift the flour and baking powder 3-4 times
• Place egg and sugar in a mixing bowl, mix with electrical mixer on high speed until triple in volume, pale, thick and fluffy. It will takes more than 5 minutes, just be patient :)
• Sift flour 1/3 a times over the egg and sugar mixture, gently fold in the flour using a spatula
• Fold through the melted butter
• Grease the baking tray with non-stick baking paper
• Pour in the mixture, make sure that the mixture reached every 4 corner of the tray, you can also use a spatula to make the surface even
• Bake for 10 minutes or until the surface is golden brown or comes away from the sides of the tray
• Lift up from the baking tray
• Flop the cake upside down, using another baking paper as the base, then remove the cake from the baking paper (the one that the cake stick on)
• Cover the cake with a tray to prevent the cake from drying

Method (Butter cream) :

• Place butter and sugar in a mixing bowl
• Mix with high speed using an electrical mixer until pale and creamy

Method (assembling the cake) :

• Put the golden brown skins of the cake as the base
• Spread the cream & grated cheese as desired
• Slowly roll the cake ( I recommended you to watch the video of how they roll they cake before you roll it yourself, it will helps a lot! )

Egg Tart for Fundraising

I've been so excited about this last week, have been thinking about this!
Well, here's the story..
Last 2 weeks which was on Sunday morning, i was having my breakfast with my sister. I suddenly-randomly asked here about ministry in church. I said that I wanna involved myself for the church.

Then she started to state the ministry one by one, she then came up with fundraising. I remembered she said "oh! do you wanna join my fundraising ministry? actually the family team is going to do the fundraising, but none of them are available for next week fundraising. How if you do the fundraising for next week?".

Of course I replied YES, i want! not because of what, but because of I am very interested on baking stuff.
Both of us then busy of thinking what I'm going to make for the fundraising, and in the end, we end up with Cantonese Egg Tart for the fundraising.

I've baked this before that's why i was quite confident. I was then quickly search for the recipe, from the blog that I followed and also the same recipe that i used before.

Decision was reached, Next Fundraising : Egg Tart

So this was last 2 week story, it means that I've made the egg tart & the fundraising has passed.
I woke up on 7.30am last saturday and started to bake at 8am. Btw, i had 110 order!!

I couldn't slept well the night before because I was too excited & i was kind of afraid that I won't finished it on time, because i was working on saturday night. But indeed! I managed to finished all of them by 3pm. I was so happy even though I almost can feel my right arm. hahaha :D

Here's the recipe which i adopted from Christine's Recipe, she is a great cook!!


Cantonese Egg Tart

 i use cupcakes tin to bake :p

Ingredient of crust :
225g plain flour, sifted
125g unsalted butter
55g icing sugar
1 egg, whisked
a dash of vanilla extract
unsalted butter (for greasing)

Ingredient of custard :
3 eggs
110g caster sugar
225g hot water
85gr evaporated milk
1/2tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method (crust) :

• Place butter at room temperature until softened. Place butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, beat on medium speed with electrical mixer until creamy, light in color and fluffy
• add in whisked egg, half at a time, and beat with low speed
• add vanilla extract and mix well
• add in flour, half a time and knead into dough. make sure all ingredient combine well
• lightly grease tart tin with butter
• roll dough to 1/2 cm thick, line into the tin, lightly press the dough with your thumbs at the same time turn the tin clockwise to make an even tart shell.

Method (custard) :

• add sugar into hot water, mix until completely dissolved
• add eggs and evaporated milk in a mixing bowl, whisked until well combined
• add in sugar water, mix well
• sift egg mixture into a pot to get rid of the foam
• pour in the egg mixture to each tart shell

Method (baking tarts) :

• preheat oven to 200C (fan force)
• bake tart in the second lower rack for 10-15minutes or until the edges are slightly brown 
• move tart to the middle rack, bake for another 10-15 minutes
• in this state, keep eye on the custard, when the custard is slightly puff up, pull open the oven door about 4-5cm to prevent the custard from puffing up.
• bake until the custard is cooked ( insert a toothpick in the middle of the custard, if the toothpick stands on its own, then it's cook)

Tips :)

• try not to under cooked the tart or it won't be crispy.
• I place the tin on the second lower rack at first to cook the tart shell, so that it won't over cooked the edge of the shell and the custard or you will have burn looking edge of the shell.
• prevent the custard from puffing up too high because it will sink when its cooled down.
• I don't put vanilla extract on the custard because it will give an artificial taste on the custard, but it's optional if you want to put it.

 Happy Baking and Good Luck XD!!

Chocolate macaroon tart

As what i've said from my last post, i'll post about baking on my next post. And here it is, I baked Chocolate macaroon tart yesterday. I suddenly have the urge to bake yesterday, so I opened my Donna Hay's chocolate essentials book & end up decided to bake this macaroon tart.

Actually the original recipe is Raspberry macaroon tart, but I don't put the raspberry.
Anyway, I'll share you the recipe which adopted from Donna Hay :)

Raspberry macaroon tarts


Tart:
3 egg white
165ml sugar (I used white sugar)
3 cups (225g) desiccated coconut


Chocolate filling:
2 eggs
125ml cream
125g dark chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons self-raising flour, sifted

Method :

• Preheat the oven to 140C (280F)
• Combine egg whites, sugar and coconut in a mixing bowl to make the macaroon tarts
• Grease 2 x 5 cm tart tins and with removable bases
• Press over firmly over the base and the sides
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the macaroon shells are firm 
• To make the filling, place cream and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth, put aside
• Place eggs and sugar in a bowl with electric mixer and beat with high speed until light and creamy
• Fold in flour
• Fold in the chocolate mixture
• Spoon the mixture into macaroon shells, bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is just firm
• Cool in the tins
• Serve 15 

I actually make two recipe of the chocolate filling and end up with a lot of them left, so I just pour them into the mini cupcakes tin & bake them.
They turn out like mini sponge cake :)

miniSTUFF

Currently i've been so crazy of mini stuff XD!!
Well, what i mean as mini stuff is cute lil toys which have mini size, here's some picture to make it clear.

 cute mini macaroons

Re-ment Rainbow Deli Spaghetti set

So far i've got 3 set, but i've just photographed 2 of them. Another 5 set has just arrived & i'm going to the post to take it this afternoon. I've been waiting for more than 2 months for the last 5 set which make me kind of desperate, but anyway! it's finally arrived!!

I bought all this Re-ment stuff from e-bay & they're originally from Japan. Haven't been planning to buy more set since i haven't play with all of them. xoxo

Yea! recently i've just got my 50mm f/1.8 mark II. Both of this photos I took with my 50mm. It works really well and BTW, it's my 20th birthday from my sister. Even though at first she said that she won't give me anything which related to photography for my present (which she thinks that useless) but in the end she gave me this. LOL

Something strike me just now when i look at others blog, why i haven't been baking for so long? where has all my passion gone?? well, the reason is that i'm on diet at the moment (actually all the moment), because it's so hard to control you appetite here, i always feel like eating all the time! geeez to the MAX

But then I think of baking some cakes that i've been dreaming to bake and besides, i want to take photo of it with my 50mm.hahaha!

Well, i'll make sure that my next post is about my next baking :D

Bloggerwhore

Just realized that i haven't been updating my blog for a while. i miss outdoor photo hunting so much X(

crazy fat awesome single date

Hi, blogger. how do you do?
Haven't been updating my blog for ages but finally i got something interesting to post.
Yesterday is my day off, i don't work, i don't have uni & basically i don't have anything that i need to do yesterday, so the night before yesterday i've planned to explore the city again, which is alone, as usual.
Well, people might think that i'm strange because i love to hang out alone than with others. The reason that i found is that i feel more comfortable, i can do what i want to do regardless about others. I love to take photos, so it won't be comfortable if I stop in one spot to take heaps of photos of same object while someone is waiting besides me.
Ok, enough of the confession, now i want to share about my single date yesterday! (so excited, btw, i can't sleep the night before yesterday because i was too excited XD)

I went out from home at about 9:30, without having my breakfast because i've planned to have breakfast outside. I head to Flinders Lane, just realized there are heaps of cafe & restaurant there, all of them makes me "wow". I should come again to have so coffee or snack.
Then i walked straight to Degraves Lane & randomly got into a cafe to have my breakfast. The cafe that i went yesterday is Degraves Espresso.

 Menu board inside of the cafe

 Skinny Latte

Egg benedict (poached egg with ham + hollandaise on sour dough)

 view from my seat

unique theater seats

I had a lovely breakfast, love them. will came back again..

Then i head to flinders & walk straight through St Kilda Road. I always wanting to take picture of an old building which cover of green leafs that i saw last time when i cross this road. I kept walking & walking, hope that i can quickly reached the spot but when i saw the building, it was a disappointment. The leafs is no longer green because is autumn, i just rememberd, shoot! I lost all my excitement.

I just took several photos here. Any, it's the Victoria Barracks building.

 coffee shop besides the street

 in the end, i decided to make it looks creepy :P

 Red letter box infront of the building

Next destination: Sensory Lab, Little Collins st.

Well, don't judge from it's name, it's not a lab, but it's a coffee shop. It's a terribly unique coffee shop which i ever seen, the staffs are wearing lab cloth, the design of the shop is like a lab. here's several photos that i took.

 again, my skinny latte

Next Destination: Brunetti, Myer

After finished my coffee, i don't feel like having lunch even though it's more than 12 at the moment. I went to Myer, window shopping, then i was tempted to have dessert. this feet took me to Brunetti (inside Myer), I ordered a mini mix fruit tart & another mini cake which i can't remember the name.

I didn't order any coffee here remembering i've had 2 cup of coffee before.

Next Destination: DFO (Direct Factory Outlet), Southwharf.

I actually didn't plan to go to DFO, but since i don't know where to go & I saw a lot of sale brochure, i thought that DFO might have sale at the moment as well. so i catched 96 tram.

Shop for more than 1 hour & bought myself a Puma running shoes.

I was then headed back to city, planning to try the crepe on Market Lane, which is kind of popular but somehow something stops me. It's the fat that i need to control.lol

Final Destination: HOME <3

Danbo Arrival

I've finally finished all my test,yey! finally have time to update my blog.
I have a lot of things to update, the highlight is Danbo!!
Danbo is finally here, Danbo arrived on 30 March 2011, last wednesday.

Here's the story :

I was checking my bag, checking whether i've took all the things because i was going to work.
suddenly "beeeepppppp!", our apartment bell was ringing.
i looked at the monitor & saw the postman that always deliver post to our apartment, i greet him.
"yes?"
"Hi, delivery for Jessica Novia"
well, this is the first time i use my ebay account to buy things, so it's strange when people said that there's delivery for me, because i usually use my sister ebay account.
then i was like, delivery for me? will it be Danbo?!
I started to feel excited.
"yup,i'm going down now" that's what i finally said.
i went down & take the delivery.
it's a light little box. i was wondering, is this the size of Danbo box? but deep in my mind i pretty sure that it's Danbo.
But then i can't open it, because i need to go to work ASAP at that moment. so all i done was have a quick stare on the box, left it in my room & gone to work.

Time fliessss~~~

I've finished work & arrived home. got my delivery on my hand & start to tear it eagerly (hihihi)

as what it is, it's Danbo inside & then camera on action!!
so surprise that the shipping is very fast, i've left a positive feedback for the seller yesterday. huge thank's to the seller!!

Danbo looks confuse 

"Hi there!" J said

"Hi..who are you?" Danbo said

"I'm J" reply excitedly

"J? nice to meet you. what's my name?"

"Danbo!" J replied

"I'm Danbo!!" Danbo likes it's name

" i love this place! "

That's my mini Danbo. is Danbo he or she? i still don't know, will give Danbo a test to find out Danbo is 'he' or 'she' :)

"Danbo,would you like to pose for me?"

"pose?"

"is this ok?"

"or this one better?"

"errr..."

"i think this one is ok :)"

That's story of my Danbo. more story about Danbo?? haha

p.s. keep your imagination lifely :)