London Chocolate Festival!

Hello everyone!

Today I dragged my housemate to the tenth London Chocolate Festival, a festival celebrating all things chocolate that is held at Southbank. 

Unfortunately, it started to snow really heavily on the way, so we had to wander around the festival collecting snowflakes on our clothes. When we got there, I realised that I'd been to Southbank before - this was where  Ping Pong was located, a restaurant that I'd visited years ago - so much for deja vu! (✿◠‿◠)

Anyway, here are some pretty pretty photos of the stalls:

We made it despite the "snowstorm"!

The first stall we saw was Hotel Chocolat so we ended up buying hot chocolate from them instead of a lesser known stall... >_<

Chocolate violins and scissors~

This stall sold cards with edible chocolate messages in them!

I bought some of this pretty pretty chocolate, but it looks too good to eat... :'(

We managed to get the last two tickets for a chocolate workshop with Damian Allsop who showed us how to make a dessert of Pacari Raw Chocolate, Green Tea Cake and Hot Fruit Gel.

The mirror was a nice touch for those of us sitting at the back~

We got to take part in some tastings too!

This is the green tea meringue mix~

Spreading the fruit gel~

The finished dessert for us to try!

We managed to catch the recipe:

Ganache~ 

1. Dissolve 10g agar in 1l water.
2. Once set, blend and add more water to thin the consistency into a custard or wallpaper paste.
3. Warm it up, then emulsify it with approximately 240g of melted 70% dark chocolate (the one Damian used is Picari chocolate). To do this, add a little bit at a time, then kind of scratch it in to make a shiny elastic mixture - like making a reverse mayo.
4. Leave for 4-5 hours to set. 

Green tea meringue~ 

1. Mix together water and green tea powder to form a paste.
2. Add an equal weight of dextrose, then 10% weight of egg white powder.
3. Blend together, then pipe and dehydrate in an oven at 50 degrees (can leave overnight to set). 

Puree~ 

1. Add carrageenan sea moss powder to blackcurrant puree - or agar (1:10 ratio).
2. Heat to 95 degrees in a big flat pot - thick puree bubbles before it boils.
3. Pour onto a tray to set.
Construct all parts with dark chocolate to look like the dessert in the photo!

So, thanks to this event, chocolate has now been ruined for me forever. I don't think that I can eat Cadbury's or Galaxy anymore, or even Hotel Chocolat without thinking about the awesome samples we got to try at the festival.

Souvenirs that we purchased. The ginger and lemongrass chocolate was to die for! And I'll be giving one of the fruity chocolates to my parents when I go home this Easter! ｡◕‿◕｡

Yishi xxx

Pottery Class: Thrown into the Deep

Hehe, if you do pottery you'll spot the really bad pun, but for those of you that don't, throwing is the term used to describe the work done to a piece of clay on a potter's wheel in order to turn it into a piece of value.

Song of the day: To You by Teen Top (song introduced to me by my dance teacher~)

I thought I'd write about this as I've just started a beginner's taster course in pottery throwing, something I signed up to on a whim after meeting someone else who wanted to explore more creative things here in London. Unfortunately for me, they had to drop out of the course, but it was no big deal - I got to meet some lovely new people and still had a great day.

City Lit, the college where the course is held, is located in central London, near Covent Garden. Today, the weather was stunning, a warm blue sky with hints of spring, wonderful for setting my mood~

The teacher showed us how to prepare the clay, a technique called wedging which squeezes the air bubbles out of the clay. This involved using wire to cut a slab of clay, lifting it up and using gravity to splat it back onto the rest of the clay, a very satisfying process. When we'd squeezed all the air out of the clay and rolled it into bread bun shapes, she took us to the potter's wheel and demonstrated how to transform the ball into something amazing:

I was absolutely speechless, seeing this happen before my very eyes!

And then it was our turn...

The process itself involves taking your clay and centering it on the potter's wheel - making a small cylinder and positioning it right on the centre of the wheel. To achieve this you need really steady hands, good co-ordination and a good control of the speed of the wheel. You're supposed to use your dominant hand and place it on top of the clay, and your less dominant hand to shape the sides, but I found it easier to do it the other way. Once you have a centred piece of clay, you make a hole in the middle, pull the hole out, and then pull the sides up to form your pot.

Here are my attempts:

My first try on the wheel. It was very frustrating to make so many mistakes so I ended up discarding this one.

This is the one I was most proud of. After five or six tries, I finally made something that could pass as a Chinese tea cup...or an espresso cup. In the end, I kept two tries which I hope I will get to paint next week! 

As this is a four week course, I'll keep you guys updated on my progress! :)

Yishi xxx

Confuzzled~

So recently, I've become a little confused about who I really am... @_@

I've noticed myself becoming more and more fixated on things like my appearance and my weight, even when I've been told that I don't need to worry about either of these. They're things I never really cared about when I was younger - back then, it was all about how smart I was and what I could achieve. I guess my parents kept me away from those kinds of influences, but they're both something that I've become more aware of once I went to uni and gained my own independence.

I find that I can't help but slip into self-deprecating chats with my friends, and that I may be developing some bi-polar esteem issues. It feels like there is an angel on my shoulder - the old me, telling me that I have nothing to worry about, and then on the other shoulder, a little devil, chipping away at my confidence. I look in the mirror, and see so much wrong with my body, yet, I am unable to have enough will-power to do much about it. I enjoy eating too much, and as for exercise, since I've been diagnosed with knee problems, I only do low impact exercises now, no more running or anything majorly intensive.

Regular thoughts that run through my head when I am out and about:

She's so pretty, her legs are nicer, she has such a small waist, she's so much taller than me...

I think a part of this comes down to me being attracted to people that are usually physically out of my league, a 7 or an 8 to my 5. Studies show that people of similar attractiveness tend to end up together, which is the matching hypothesis. I saw a great example of this on the Discovery Channel's The Science of Sex Appeal, an interesting social documentary you can watch on Youtube. If this is the case, then I can't really compete with the girls that the guys I like are interested in. Which leads to this spiral of self-esteem.

If people are happier with people of similar attractiveness, then I need to lose this shallow way of thinking~

*siiiigh*

Sorry about this depressing post, it was something I needed to get off my chest and I promise to make my next ones happier!

Yishi xxx

Happy New Year!!

Hey everyone!

I hope your new year was passed in style! This is the first time I spent New Year's Eve with friends instead of family - usually, I'm at a dinner party with family friends. Anyway, in my last post, I didn't review the resolutions I set myself for 2012, so I'll do a quick rundown here:

♥ Graduate with a 2.1

    - Achieved!

♥ Decide what I want to do with my life: score a job/get a vocational qualification/teach English abroad?

    - None of the above, eeek. If you could've told me that in a year's time I would be doing a PhD I would've laughed in your face, because in my own bittersweet words, "everyone knows how much I love chemistry". At that point in time, I wanted nothing more than to quit, that's how badly my year was going!

♥ Get some commercial awareness

    - Failed. I didn't even try this time.

♥ Become a better swimmer and master the front crawl

    - Failed. I think I went swimming once in 2012... :'(

♥ Continue with gym and try to lose body fat

    - Failed. I went to the gym a few times, but now that I'm at UCL I have to pay for gym which is a bit off-putting, oh well~

♥ Fix my skin so that it is not so dry

    - Still a work in progress, so 50%.

♥ Improve my foreign language skills laaaah~

    - Failed after a few months, I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't keep this one going but my degree was more important at the time.

♥ Learn how to cook ten new dishes to perfection

    - Congee, udon soup, miso soup, chicken Thai green curry, beef hotpot, potato and leek soup, kimchi fried rice, kimchi stew so 8/10... >_<:;

♥ Find a new style for myself

    - Erm, I'm still not sure what my style is to be honest.

♥ And live each day as if it is my last, with no regrets!

    - Kind of a silly one hehe.

Oh dear, I didn't complete many, did I? Well, here's to a fresh new start in 2013 and a fresh new (mostly) set of resolutions:

♥ Get published in academia.

♥ Go to yoga at least once a week.

♥ Explore London!

♥ Take up dancing classes.

♥ Learn to cook ten new dishes.

♥ Regain my level of fluency in Chinese.

♥ Finish writing one novel!

♥ Draw five new pictures.

♥ Make more effort to keep in contact with people, (write letters)!

♥ No more boys.

May your year be prosperous and filled with joy! :)

Yishi x

Achievements of 2012

Hello my lovelies!

At this time of the year, it's nice to reflect over the last 365 days and to think about some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the year, especially when it comes to making new resolutions. Personally, this year has been one of the best in terms of achievements and growth, but there have also been some down times too, the most standout one being having to let go of someone that I really cared about early on this year. But I guess you have to take the good with the bad, and just learn to get on with your life.

So, now for the summaries. This year, I:

Graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA and MSci woopwoop! This is one of my proudest achievements, because for the first three years of my degree, I really struggled to balance my work and play. My life was ruled by drama. My night would be my day, everything was turned topsy-turvy upside down. I scraped by with meagre grades and lost all confidence in myself because I was struggling so much, always behind, never really understanding anything that I was supposed to have learnt. But then this year, thanks to surrounding myself with a more positive environment, and thanks to some very special people who believed in me, I managed to turn it all around and make both my family and myself proud. There's one person in particular I have to thank, without him as a role model, I don't think I could've pulled myself together~ <3

Following on from that, I accepted a PhD offer at UCL and moved to London to begin grad school in September. All of this happened so fast - it was a last minute application mid-August, interviews in September and an offer made on the same day! Learning how to hunt for a house without being screwed over, and then moving in two weeks later. At that point, I was still doing a summer project in Cambridge, so never had a proper chance to say goodbye to my life there - that summer holds some of my most fondest memories. But having to sort out bills for my new house, organise cleaning rotas etc. made me feel like this was most definitely the start of something new, and that I was finally leaving the bubble of Cambridge and going into the wider world.

Realised that dreams can come true, that the un in the unattainable can disappear with enough confidence, perseverance and erosion. I know I'm being vague, but this applies to a lot of things that have happened to me, nay, that I've made happen. Taking an active role in forging my own destiny instead of sitting in the back seat just along for the ride ~ one of the most valuable lessons that I've learned this year, especially since it applies to everything in life: career, finance and of course, romance. 

Started to take an active interest in my fitness and well being. I started to go running after my exams were over, and in a few months, I went from wanting to give up after two minutes, to being able to run a 5km in just under half an hour! Unfortunately, in between this, I went to Morocco and climbed Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa, and this, combined with me increasing my running distance too quickly, resulted in me getting runner's knee and having to take time out. This was quite upsetting as I wanted to try out for the university lacrosse team at UCL but had to stop all running. Now I'm seeing a physio who is helping me to correct my bio-mechanics as it turns out my natural walk is causing problems, but in the meantime, I've taken up some new things like yoga and flexibility classes.

Added lots of new life experiences to my memories ~ worked as a student campus manager for Unilever, went to Morocco for two weeks, chatted to a milkman at 5am, celebrated my birthday with my beloved chemistry department, ahh, there are too many to list...!

All in all, a fantastic year! :)

Yishi x

Photo Diary: A day at the botanic gardens

Hey everyone!

I haven't done one of these in AGES, so I hope you are just as excited as I am. But first, I want to share this little story.

Song of the day: Super Star by Supernova (<3)

This afternoon in the department, we got an announcement system from the PA telling everyone in the basement to evacuate. Then a minute later, another announcement was made: everyone in the Unilever building evacuate. Puzzled, we returned back to what we were doing but then one final announcement was made: EVERYONE evacuate the building. Everyone in my office burst out laughing before filing outside. Later I found out that someone had dropped a bottle of a chemical which is put in the natural gas system so that if any gas leaks, then you'll be able to smell it. The person who dropped it didn't know what to do, so the chemical began to leak into the air and thus, the basement had to evacuate. People then disposed of the chemical by putting it outside. Unfortunately, they left it by the Unilever building, which had an air vent that sucked the fumes back into the department and circulated it everywhere, forcing all of us to leave.

That made me laugh.

Anyway, during this evacuation, S, Y and I got bored so decided to go to the Botanical Gardens for a little wander.

We went for lunch at a pub with some guys from our rival group.

It was a bit rainy so the sky isn't very blue.

There were too many male ducks and only one female.

Since it was a little chilly, we headed for the greenhouses.

It was like a jungle in here. And so warm!

There were lots of pretty flowers, but I saw no sign of the carnivorous plants that were promised.

When I was young, my parents would take me out to visit lots of gardens and botanical places like this.

Can you see the little fishies? ^_^

<3

We didn't really know what this was, or if it was real or not.

And then we saw lots more of them.

I find desert foliage pretty weird but fascinating.

Always wanted a cactus for my room!

Bees <3

As you can see, it was a very productive day indeed... T_T

Although I did get my dissertation finished, and had a quick chat with Unrequited Love.

Hope you guys had a good day too! :)

Yishi x

There ain't no party like a grad party

Hey guys! :)

This is a photo of my lab group in December 2011:

Two of the people have left though... :(

Last night, one of my lab mates held a party at her place, which was themed bright colours to warm up the winter ~ despite it no longer being that cold. But it was still a nice idea, and gave me something to look forward to during the day since I ended up staying in the department until 7pm to finish off some work for E...who then told me that his boss was making him work all weekend so he wouldn't have time to mark it! :'(

Nevermind!

Song of the day: Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 (this came on a few times at the party hehe)

On the plus side, I was really happy that I was finally moving ahead in my synthesis, all thanks to the lovely S who was so helpful. He is quite a character, a wonderful guy full of witty banter and always lights up the lab (in fact, the title of my post is a quote by him). Although he refers to me as the lovable klutz and says he only helps me out to stop me from being a danger and hurting myself... -_-:;

Anyway, this is what I wore to the party:

Click the image to go to my style blog to find out more about this outfit! :)

There, I met my other lab buddies, and was finally introduced to some other chemists. Since I arrived late, S was already tipsy which was odd to see but I liked that he was really nice to me and was with me all evening (OK, I admit it, S is pretty cute~!). In retrospect, I felt really good about myself all night. Maybe it was because I was hanging out with people who were more chilled about life, since they had all graduated. Or maybe it was because I was just getting out there meeting new people ~ for the last few years, I've been pretty social and it's only been this year where I've kinda...stopped... :/

I found it really amusing that in the department, I seem to have gotten a reputation for always wearing heels, leggings and shorts, when a semester ago, no one noticed me for the denim and trainers. Guess my New Year Resolution of style change has been working...maybe?

We took a rainbow photo! :D

There was a really nice cocktail that was butterscotch, ice cream and cream, which tasted so yummy, like Angel Delight! :)

Inevitably, conversation turned to relationships, and it was kinda weird to sit there and listen to the grads chat about being engaged and stuff. I pretty much told S that it was a shame he was engaged (hehe) and also told him the identity of the guy who I had a high school crush on...my supervisor E...much to S's eternal amusement... -_-:;

"It's the brains isn't it?"

But one thing I learned from the grads is that if you like someone, you should tell them because life is too short. And that girls need to be forward. There was a girl I met who was engaged to another guy at the party...after driving away all of his girlfriends for the last few years. She said that she pretty much told him he was going to be hers and proceeded to make it happen.

Totally wish I had that confidence!

Although the situation here is kinda weird since E is my course supervisor so our dynamic is mainly a student teacher one. Which I really don't think I should compromise until after I finish my exams! E also has plans to go to America to do his post doctorate after the summer, and I need to focus on my exams so...what are your opinions and perspectives on this matter?

Yishi xxx

Today I won an iPad 2

And I don't even like Apples.

This afternoon, I experienced the awkward silence when a piece of cotton wool falls into your lab experiment and soaks up the measly single gram of product that you have painstakingly spent the last few months making. Luckily, we managed to recover most of it. As if the day wasn't exciting enough, at 6pm, we had a fire alarm and what I presume to be a real fire at the chemistry department! So I didn't get home until hall was about to close. After cycling home, I bumped into my gym buddy F at the main entrance to my college just as a taxi pulled up.

Using the high pressure tactics that only a seasoned salesman could employ, he managed to convince me to get into a taxi with him and go to a company presentation at the Cambridge Business Park. What sold it to me?

The free pizza.

So we turned up, and I ate a whole pizza's worth of Dominoes. Since I hold no interest in software, I didn't really pay too much attention to the presentations.

Neither did the other guys from Selwyn.

However, from what I gather, the Redgate employees have so much fun that I don't know how they find the time to do any work.

Anyway, there was a raffle, and being the strategic sharks that we are, a group of eight of us decided to pool our tickets together in increase our chances of winning the iPad 2 that was on offer. I had a feeling that 197 was going to be a lucky number but I decided to pool anyway...but sadly, logic failed me for once!

I went for the risk averse route, since the expected return is the same ~ a £400 prize with 8 times less chance of winning, as opposed to £50 with 8 times more chance of winning.

My number was drawn, and I looked onwards in horror as I realised the £400 that could've been mine had now dwindled to a £50 share...

One of the guys, F in fact, actually bailed out of the pool at the last second, but he told me that he'd rather be him than me, since he came and left with nothing, whereas I could've had much more... >__<

We made F take the obligatory photo.

I'm still in shock.

Like, I just don't win things. It's not in my genes.

But since I came here purely on a fluke with no intentions or interest whatsoever, I guess it's just a case of you win some and you lose some, right? So it's funny how quickly things change when the stakes become high. Guess this is why I should never get into gambling.

Guess it's just ironic that the girl who despises all things Apple ends up with the iPad 2.

If you are interested in buying it, do let me know ~ it's white, wireless and has 16GB worth of love...! Plus it comes in a pretty Redgate company bag.

Have you ever won anything of high stakes value before?

Yishi xxx

Photo Diary: Another week in pictures

Hey guys!

As promised, here is a round up of my week. Please enjoy!

Song of the day: Not Fair by Lily Allen (so O and L put this on tonight when they were hanging out in my room and it stuck in my head! I never listened to the lyrics closely before but now I'm like... O_O)

On Monday I cooked the rest of my kimchi with some tuna and made a yummy stew!

The weather was so beautiful on Tuesday that I had to stop to take some photos of the scenery.

I haven't cycled this way in a while for lectures and it was a lovely breath of fresh air!

Pancakes in the evening...

O can flip them like a boss. I, on the other hand, am less than adept at the art of pancake tossing.

We decided to see who could sit against the wall for the longest. I lost... :(

This was Shaun's experiment on Wednesday morning. I've adopted him as my close supervisor and feel a little happier now in the lab.

A crystal heart. The best crystal I have ever made! :)
Credit also goes to Shaun for his help, but he didn't want me to acknowledge him on fb since he thinks he is too cool for science... xD

H came to visit Cambridge so he and I went out for lunch at a Chinese place on Saturday, after my one-on-one supervision with E ~ both of them have been keeping my spirits up! :)

In the afternoon we had a lacrosse match against another college.

We lost, but it was still good fun.

Us modelling our Gryffindor team colours... xD

On the way home, I saw this lovely field of crocus and could not resist this photo opportunity!

Our college cat, Gus, had found a small patch of something on the ground that he really likes since he was going crazy for it!

My pretty new earphones arrived!

Stocking up on tights and food to bring for my lab group!

Last but not least, a package from Singapore arrived on Friday...

I'm so excited about this because it is from Cellnique, an Asian skincare company that have so kindly sent me products to review! :D

I haven't opened the package yet ~ gonna leave it as a surprise treat for after a long day of revision, so watch my style blog for a review coming your way soon! Finally, ever since I saw Izzy's post about her new Black Milk leggings, I have been unable to stop looking at the product website and Facebook page! I am so torn on the purple galaxy ones...

Anyway, I do hope that you are well! Sorry for being MIA for a while from the blogosphere ~ as I said in my last post, I've not been sleeping well recently from emotional/lab/lecture/what-the-hell-do-I-do-with-my-life-next-year stress, so as a result, I've been spending less time online which has also been sad as I miss you guys! I have so many blogs I need to catch up on now, so see you soon in another post! :)

Yishi xxx