Being 25

Salam.

Welcome to another birthday post of mine! There's nothing new to report, but a year has passed from my last birthday post. This is going to be a very short post, as there's nothing much to talk about, really. I'm celebrating my birthday, alone, while fasting & with eating window of only 5 hours. Literally, I'm still full from my iftar but I still need to eat something for my suhoor, so yeah. I will try to bake my birthday cake (a simple cheesecake with raspberry compote) because no matter what, a birthday should have a cake! I'll put the recipe at the bottom of this post, just because, and it's something like a birthday gift from me to my blog.

Highlights from my last birthday would be I'm in Salford now, 3 months away from finishing my studies. Next would be all the places I've visited in the last 9 months (I couldn't log everything, I'm very sorry). Pretty much that's it! Told ya, it's nothing much. But, I did logged my EU Trip (Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3) but Part 4 is still being written, I couldn't find time to finish it.  Plus, I went to my 2nd KPOP concert that is B.A.P concert in London (LOE London 2016), I probably will log about it, but don't hold it though, I might not! I even visited Harry Potter studio while I'm in London (again, I might log about it, I may not please spare me).

I'll be celebrating Eid with couple of my Malaysian friends, luckily I met them like I celebrated my Eid Adh alone and I have classes on that day too. Sigh, again luckily for Eid Fitr, I don't have classes but I will be submitting my proposal 2 days after Eid. I probably won't be celebrating like I usually did in Malaysia, just a simple food spread & gathering with friends.

With that, Happy 25th Birthday dear self. You have come a long way, you can do this you are more than capable of doing this. Chin up, shoulders straight, smile. Life is good, dear self, life is good.

Happy birthday <3

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Simple Cheesecake 

(Taken from: CakeAddicted.com)

**For a 7-inch pan**

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600g cream cheese

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

2 cup cookie crumble

1/2 cup (113g) butter, melted

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Preheat oven @ 180℃. Melt butter, mix with crumbled cookie, pressed into buttered springform/loose based 7-inch pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 150℃.

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Mix cream cheese & sugar+salt until well blended. Just use a whisk or wooden spoon (seriously). Mix in sour cream & flour. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Fold in lemon zest. Pour into baked crust. Bake for 60 minutes, cake should set around the edges but still jiggly & wiggly in the centre. Turn off the oven, left the cake to cool in the oven for an hour or so. Popped into fridge to chill for minimum 4 hours before cutting into it.

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Notes: I used fan forced oven for this. I might need to tweak the baking time when I'm back to using electric oven. But start checking from 45 minutes mark.

EU Trip Part 3: Brussels ; 26.12.2015

Brussels - city of waffle, fries, chocolate & beer.

Brussels is a lovely city, although the truth is there's nothing much to see in Brussels. Apparently there's more to see in Antwerp compared to Brussels, but I like Brussels as to me its a very diverse city. There's a lot of immigrants compared to other cities in Belgium, and its not actually that safe to walk around at night, but its a bustling city nevertheless.

We arrived in Brussels in the afternoon of Boxing Day. Luckily for us (or unfortunately, whichever it seems fit), Brussels - or Belgium in general - do not exactly do Boxing Day. Apparently, January is when they had this crazy sale (similar to Boxing Day, instead of one day, they allocate one month). So, the city isn't as crowded as it seemed. Or so we thought. We met up with our cousin who has been living in Brussels for awhile as part of his PhD research. We trusted him to take us around the town, for the one day we spend in Brussels.

We dropped by our hotel first, Novotel to check in and drop our luggage. People will say, oh wow Novotel, expensive ones. But we got good deals through Agoda and we really just one a hotel that's in front of the train station, and this one is literally right in front of Brussels MiDi. And, by the way, with a GOOD deal, we got a VERY GOOD room, like it's HUGE! And worth the money, of course. Right after that, we went to his house for lunch. We ate hot rice (BLESS!) with some of the dry side dishes his mom sent over via my sister. All of this while watching Carrie on Netflix, and by the way the movie is not as good as the first one apparently. His house is on the topmost floor, with a sunroof and as you probably know, most houses in European countries do not have lift, and we hike up a very narrow stairs to reach his flat. Phew. Here's couple of pics from his sunroof, gorgeous weather tho in Brussels, I'm in love!

After lunch, he drove us to the city, and decided to ditch the car and walk instead, since its easier to walk rather than trying to get a parking slot. We walked for 4 hours (?) or so, around the old city of Brussels, taking in the architecture and the crowd. Brussels is wonderful, a must visit although it isn't much but its worth the trip. We were introduced to authentic Belgian waffles (apparently, there's two types of Belgium waggle - liege & brussels). I don't have the pictures since we decidedly to munch on the waffles as soon as we get it, but yeah there's two types. Then, we walked through series of long corridors (shopping malls - but in long stretches of hall), passing by dozens of chocolatiers - high end & affordable - before settling with buying chocolates for my parents at Pierre Marcolini (the high end ones) and Leonidas (the affordable ones). And, it turns out the city's Christmas market is still going on, so we walked through it, oh and the crowd is crazyyyyy! But we aimed to find a churros stand because we need to eat churros, so we walked until the end of the market when we finally found a churros stand. Then, we stopped at Fritland, a famous fries store for the famous Brussels' fries. We reached our hotel at around 8 p.m., dead tired and after a quick shower and flicking through the TV, we just passed out. And que, onslaught of pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

This is where we get the waffles, there's few stores littered across the city, you can't miss out!

And, yeah the fries store!

Our train to London isn't until 2 p.m., so spent the morning lazying around the room ,trying to sort out our luggage because it's a mess, and also taking to advantage the spacious room to do it (lucky us because our London room is so tiny). We met up with our cousin for quick lunch, but before that he walked us around the other side of the old city that we didn't get to see yesterday. It's Sunday and everything is quiet minus the bustling Sunday market in front of our hotel. We are pretty drained actually because we have been on the go for the last  few days and the tiredness starting to crept up, but overall Brussels is lovely!

note: all pictures taken using HTC E8, no filters applied

Total spending in Brussels

Thalys (Amsterdam - Brussels): £49/2 pax
Hotel: £58/1 night + €7.50 VAT Tax ‎

Transportation (2 pax): N/A

Food: €26.80 incl. snacks
Shopping (incl. souvenirs): €71.60

EU Trip Part 2: Amsterdam ; 24-25.12.2016

From Paris, we took Thalys (high speed train) to Amsterdam on Christmas Eve. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with super-strong wind, literally feels like we will blown away. Short walk from the central station is our hotel, a decent hotel called 'Avenue Hotel'. The room is small but sufficient enough for us, we don't really need fancy room. The location is just perfect for us, although it is not located at the center of the city but we always preferred any accommodation that nearby the central station rather than the city itself.

We walked around the hotel area that evening, although its Christmas Eve, the vibe is not very festive, but its the nice kind of vibe. There's still people around, shops are open, and we found a small halal outlet on one of the small alleys. We ate there during our stay in Amsterdam, its cheap enough as everything in Amsterdam is expensive.

The next day, its Christmas Day! We didn't expect a lot of people around the city, as its Christmas yknow, we assumed people will be celebrating it in their home or something. But, alas, there's quite a large group of people at the city, but its fine since we dont exactly went into any of the musuems or attractions, we just walking around the area and take in as much as we can. Oh, and we walked all the way to the centre, without taking any public transportation, its like 20 minutes? Since it's chilly, we do not feel tired (at first) lol but the walk back to the hotel is a torture. But, overall we see a lot more by just walking around. And, here comes the onslaught of pictures!

Amsterdam is my favourite city amongst all the cities I have visited (Seoul not included, I'm in love with Seoul btw). Would definitely come back for another visit, if I have opportunity to do so!


note: all pictures taken using HTC E8, no filters applied

Total spending in Amsterdam

Thalys Train (Paris Nord-Amsterdam Centraal): £98/2 pax
Hotel: £167/2 nights + €8.95 VAT Tax ‎

Transportation (2 pax): N/A

Food: €35.70 incl. snacks
Shopping (incl. souvenirs): €18.97