As a main computer, it has a few downsides. First, it doesn’t include an optical drive. I had to migrate my old DVD burner into an external USB enclosure in order to run any CDs or DVDs. Second, it has an integrated graphics card, which means that it can’t handle many of today’s games (could be a good thing :P). From time to time, playing 720p H264 videos will lag. As for Bluray videos, the audio and video will go out of sync so badly, it’s impossible to enjoy. Third, the original harddrive size is very small, a mere 40GB. With the recovery partition and Windows XP files, I’m left with only about 30GB to work with. Luckily, that’s solvable!

I have an external IDE enclosure with a 250GB drive as well as an SATA dock with a 120GB drive. While those somewhat solve my space problems, it’s not a great solution. Software usually requires to be installed on the C: drive. Also, needing to connect and turn on all these enclosures to get some file can be annoying. It also means I can’t take much with me elsewhere. Therefore, I wanted to upgrade the harddrive of the x60s. Fortunately, Lenovo changed the configuration of the X series with the x60. It uses typical 2.5″ laptop harddrives instead of 1.8″ one which was in earlier models. I begin looking for deals for a larger capacity laptop drive. And I found one 2 weeks ago. A 320GB 7200rpm Hitachi 2.5″ harddrive for $79.99CAD. In addition, there’s a $20USD mail-in-rebate, making the total price slightly over $65 included tax.

After picking up the new harddrive, I inserted it into my SATA dock and begin cloning it with Acronis Migration Easy. I did some manual setting to ensure that the recovery partition remains at 4.3GB. The default setting will enlarge the partitions proportionally which the Thinkpad won’t like. After some time, the cloning finished. I opened the harddrive slot on the side, took out the old harddrive and slide in the new one. Power on. BIOS screen appears. Then I’m met with a blank screen with a continuously blinking cursor. Normally, the Windows XP screen will appear. Rather puzzled by this, I thought maybe the cloning went wrong. I process to re-clone the harddrive but nothing changed. I adjusted the setting to leave the partitions as it is but it refuse to go pass that same blinking cursor. I started searching on various forums and even switched to using the more feature-filled Acronis True Image. I tried ‘fixing’ the master boot record. Yet, nothing works. By that time, I’ve cloned the drive at least 10 times, and moved it in and out of the harddrive slot more times than that. I was rather frustrated when I came across someone with the exact same problem as me. And the good news is he solved it. For whatever reason, the new harddrive needs to be in the laptop when the cloning occurs. So I burnt a boot disc with the cloning software, insert the new harddrive into the laptop, put the boot disc into external DVD drive, put old drive into SATA dock. Power on everything. Laptop boots up from disc and I was able to run the cloning process. After half an hour or so, the cloning completes. I power down everything and turn on the laptop with the new harddrive. It works!

Although there’s no noticeable difference in the performance with the speed increase (5400rpm -> 7200rpm), I have a lot more space with work with. I’ve always wanted to play with Linux. So I immediately downloaded Ubuntu. But I didn’t want to run dual boot so I looked for a virtualization software. I had used VMWare before but it requires a commercial license. I browsed through a list of virtual machines and decided to try Virtualbox, which is free. Virtual machines allow running multiple OS simultaneously. While it’s convenient, it also uses a lot of RAM. Hence, I decided to upgrade my RAM as well.

I’ve already upgraded my RAM once to 1.5GB since buying the laptop. I decided to get a 2GB stick to get the maximum 3GB recognized by Windows XP. SODIMM RAM prices have drop quite a bit since my last purchase. I picked up a Cosair 2GB RAM for $24. The same RAM was outrageously listed for $82 at Futureshop.

RAM installation went a lot smoother than harddrive upgrade. I took out the 512MB stick and inserted the 2GB. Everything worked as it should. With the new 320GB harddrive and 3GB of RAM, I think I’ll continue using this older laptop for awhile, although I might grab a 22″ monitor to dual monitor with.

As the departure day for my Japan trip draws near, I’m in the final stages of preparation. Earlier this week, I went to the Nippon Travel Agency to purchase the 14 days JR pass. Today’s goal was to do currency exchange. Last time, I went to Japan from Hong Kong and had my aunt help me obtain the Japanese yen. I believe she got them from a bank. It was quite a simple process. It was not the same here.

I’ve kept an eye on the exchange rate for several places including HSBC, TD Canada Trust, and Kingsmark (a currency exchange shop). Normally, the rate at HSBC is the best, with Kingsmark following closely. TD rate is pretty crappy. When I told my dad that, he mentioned that’s probably why they are still making a lot of profits in today’s economy. Anyway, since my dad has an HSBC account, we headed to a nearby branch to ask for some yen. But we were greeted with the reply that they don’t carry any Japanese yen at that branch. The teller directed us to a currency exchange shop in a nearby mall. In the back of my mind, I didn’t think that shop could beat the HSBC rate. So instead, we heading for a different HSBC branch, the Chinatown one. We figured they’ll have some since there might be more Chinese people heading to Japan. But unfortunately, the Japanese yen they have is only available to those with a Japanese yen account. They could only provide a cheque for us, which is pretty useless to me since I’ll have nowhere to cash it in. If we wanted cash, they’ll have to make an order which will take at least 3 days. The teller added that it might be better to leave 7 days as a leverage. That’s already too late for me. We asked her if the main branch will have Japanese yen in cash. After checking with some person in the back, she replied with a ‘no’. She told us to go to a currency exchange shop, which seems to be our only option at that moment. Lastly, she said we can also exchange at the airport. As the stingy traveler that I am, there’s no way I’ll do that. Airport exchange rate is never favourable. I only see it as a last minute resource.

Leaving Chinatown, we head to the Burnaby branch of Kingsmark, a shop which my parents have done exchanges at. I’ve never went to a currency exchange shop before. So it was kind of a new experience. The shop itself is pretty plain. The doors are guarded with metal rails. The counter area is enclosed with some glass with metal rails. There’s only a small area without glass to speak to the staff. It kind of reminds me of these pawn shops I used to see in Chinese movies. Anyway, we asked the staff for some Japanese yen. Turns out, they sold a lot already and there wasn’t enough for us. I asked if they’ll restock by tomorrow and she told us to call in first. Then she said there might be enough at the Richmond location. Another staff called and confirmed there’s enough. Off we go to Richmond. The Richmond branch of Kingsmark is a bit more decorated. There are some plants as well as coins and stamps on display (items which they also sell). So after almost 4 hours and driving across 5 cities, I finally got my Japanese yen. The conclusion from today’s currency exchange trip is that the Japanese yen isn’t as readily available here as Hong Kong. Next time, I should do this earlier.

Route: North Vancouver -> West Vancouver -> Vancouver (Chinatown) -> Burnaby -> Richmond

Anyways, the dead airlines are:
Harmony Airways
JetsGo
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines
I’m lucky that none of these closures affected me. Oasis actually ceased operations just a bit over two months after my return flight. I had intended to delay my flight a bit during that trip but was denied because my ticket did not have that option. Either way, I wouldn’t have extended my stay by two months but it would have been even closer.

On the other hand, the ones still alive are:
Air Canada – I really don’t see this dying or traveling for Canadians might get very problematic.
Westjet – Last I heard, they are still doing fairly well.
Southwest Airlines – I haven’t pay attention to this company since I left US.

My original Japan plan was two weeks in the Tokyo area. My friend, Missa, is teaching English there and her contract will be completed at the end of March. She’ll stay behind for two weeks in April before flying home. This was the window of time I had plan to visit and have her show me around Tokyo and its neighbouring area. However, a little over two weeks ago, another friend of mine had a few days of holiday to use up from work and want to take a short trip to Hiroshima around March. She asked me if I’m interested and I ended up moving my departure date up a week in order to tour Hiroshima before Tokyo.

After booking my ticket, I started looking up information on Hiroshima such as sightseeing spots, hotel, food, transportation. This is my first time planning a trip to a location where the main language isn’t a language I know. While there are a lot of English sites with information on Hiroshima, the Japanese ones always provide more information. Additionally, many official site of tourist locations are in Japanese only. I literally got a headache looking for hotels one night. This site I was using, Rakuten, showed a lot more hotel listings on its Japanese site than English site. Cheaper ones too. Eventually, my friend and I ended up booking the hotel on the hotel’s official sites, both of which are in pure Japanese.

Another thing that gave me a headache is transportation. The train system in Japan is so complicated. There are A LOT OF trains running in Japan but they are operated by various companies. I intended to buy the JR pass which allows unlimited riding on the JR trains including Shinkansen train. However, that also means I’ll have to pay for trips on non-JR trains. With this being a budget trip, I’d like to avoid that as much as possible. Since the city of Hiroshima is not that big, we had to plan which other neighbouring towns to visit while minimizing the traveling time.

Trip planning is serious business. :P More to come later…

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I actually have the headgear on wrong here. The golden part is put on lower than it is supposed to be and thus the eyes are covered. This is fixed in latter photos.

Box art. Side text says “onihige no daibuyou” which I’ll loosely translate to devil-bearded warrior.

Included with the Gundam is a 4 page comic in Chinese as well as a coaster looking thing.

Stealing Bupo’s background cardboard from another Sangokuden set she bought, I took a few shots of Kanu on my laptop surface.

Although I enjoy putting these models together, I’m terrible at applying the stickers. Also, I lack the markers to do extra colouring. Hence, the Ooga Ryuugetsu Dou, Kanu’s weapon, is a bit plain-looking.

A back view of Kanu.

Headgear is now fixed and eyes are more apparent.

This background is supposed to be the Peach Garden where Ryuubi, Kanu and Chouhi sworn their oath of brotherhood.

This next background is just a random battle field, raged with fire.

The last picture and this picture are taken in the same position with the lighting moved.

Borrowing bupo’s transparent version of Kanu, it’s a shot of Kanu twins!

I think the transparent weapon looks better but otherwise, I like my Kanu.

Macro face shot. Check out the devil beard! It looks kind of ugly in my opinion. haha.

Lots of ‘antlers’ everywhere. This one on the right shoulder is a bit loose and falls off often.

These two are the same shots with different focus.

Even with macro, the focus went to the body. I had to keep the body out of view, focus and then move the camera over to include the body to take this shot.

The weather this year had been a little crazy. There was an overwhelming amount of snowfall in Vancouver. Good thing my friends rented a truck. Or else the drive to Whistler would be very ‘fun’. We departed around 6:30 in the morning. It was still pitch black outside and all my pictures turns out to be nothing but darkness. We arrived at the village around 8:30. After parking our car, we changed at one of the hotels and headed to rental shop where my friends got their boarding equipments. Then the long wait in the line for the Whistler Gondola followed. It was a beautiful day though.

Our first stop was the bunny hill runs. It took me awhile to get used boarding again. Since it’s my friends first time boarding, we stayed at this run for a bit while they try to get a hang of the sport. Good thing the weather was great. The sky was clear and sunny. It was cold, at around -15C, but at least visibility was great.

Although Vancouver got a lot of snow, there was actually less snow than normal on the slopes. Since it didn’t snow on the days before, parts of the run are very icy, making it slightly dangerous.

After a few tries down the bunny hill, we took the Whistler Gondola to the peak for lunch. Since this was a midway stop for the Gondola, we had to wait for people to get off in order to board.

As expected, the cafeteria at the peak was incredibly crowded. It took sometime to find a spot. I had soup and sandwich. The soup was a bit salty but the sandwich was good. The three of them each had a poutine and I snatched some fries off of them.

We walked outside to check out the view afterward. It was gorgeous. That’s the Whistler Gondola to the left.

To the right is the new Peak 2 Peak Gondola. There’s mainly two sides to the Whistler runs, the Whistler side and the Blackcomb side. We started out at the Whistler side.

Next we took the Peak 2 Peak to the Blackcomb side. The gondola is pretty big and can fit up to 28 people. There are seats but not enough for everyone. There are also 1 or 2 of them which has a glass bottom, where you can see down under. We didn’t get on one this time but one of my friend did on the next day.

Since we were the last group of people to board, I didn’t get a seat and stood by the door. It was a bit hard to take pictures. The door windows were all fogged up. I managed to take a video with my hands stretched up.

The whole ride was about 20minutes. As the sign indicated, the ride had only been opened for less than 2 weeks when we went on it.

At various location on the mountain, there are these ‘Sniffle Stations’, which provided kleenex for visitors. Bupo was a fan of them.

It was around 2:30 when we got to the Blackcomb side. At first, we plan to head down altogether on the green runs but Zuka was already exhausted so she headed back to the Whistler side with KK. After figuring out a route down to the bottom on our trail map, Bupo and I headed down. Since Bupo’s also a beginner, I had a lot of opportunities to take pictures while I wait for her.

Since I started snowboarding around 10 years ago, I’ve mostly boarding at my local mountain. I’ve also gone to some mountains in Ontario when I studied there. One of the major difference between those mountain and Whistler is the length of the runs. It’s a much longer ride going from the top of the hill to the bottom. The feeling of a long uninterrupted ride is rather satisfying, if not tiring.

On the nice day, the view is also great. With clear visibility, I didn’t have to focus on the snow all the time and can steal a glance at the surrounding scenery from time to time.

There were many other beginners trying out the slopes at Whistler as well. It reminded me of my first attempt at snowboarding. I can’t quite imagine how overwhelmingly exhausting it would be to head down from the top all the way to the bottom while falling every few seconds. But I guess it might not be as bad as going down a black run, which I did without even knowing what black diamond means.

Due to poor snow condition, part of our planned route was closed down. The other opened runs were blue ones which would not suit Bupo. So the staff recommend that we take the chairlift back up to the peak and take a different chairlift down to a lower section and bypass the closed section.

On the chairlift, we noticed a group of people with a film crew. Not sure what they are filming. Movie? Or maybe just some skiing video?

It was my first time heading down the mountain on a chairlift. It’s different. The wind blows into your face much harder than the upward lift. But then, you also get to see more.

The sun is beginning to set. But regardless, it was pretty cold. While my body was kept warm by my jacket and snow pants, my fingers and toes were freezing. I wore an extra pair of socks on the next day.

A clear view of the Whistler village. After getting off this chairlift, we headed for the bottom but Bupo got tired so she took the chairlift down to the bottom instead. Without Bupo, I boarded non-stop which explains the lack of photos. Towards the bottom, there were a lot of snow machines blowing snow onto the run which create a lovely powdered section. I enjoyed riding down that section a lot!

The next day’s weather was a lot worse compared to the first day’s. Since KK went skiing at the more difficult runs and Zuka and Bupo were too exhausted to do anything, I went boarding solo on the second day. The cloud level was low so visibility wasn’t as good. I ended up heading into a few wrong runs and had to walk back up to get to the right ones.

In the middle of one of the runs, there’s this ‘Tree Fort’ thing. I wasn’t sure what it was. Since there were a ton of kids there, I didn’t check it out either.

It’s my last run down at 3:00pm, which is when the chairlifts close as indicated by the sign (red lights). I think the condition got more foggy.

During the last run, I got really tired midway down the run and had to take several breaks. This never happen at my local mountain where the runs are much shorter. Overall, I really enjoyed my two days of snowboarding at Whistler. I would definitely return if the opportunity arise.

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Last Friday was the opening of the Richmond Olympic Oval, which is the venue built for the long track speed skating event of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There was a ceremony held there with various performances. The admission was free. So my sister and I went to check it out.

The events began at 4:30, with the opening ceremony held at 6:00. We arrived around 5:00 and there was a long line queued up to get inside. Incidentally, it snowed earlier that day. Although it had change to rain by the evening, it was still freezing cold. I had a tough time taking pictures since it was so dark and my hands were shaking uncontrollably.

The lines wrapped around the building. At first, we were directed to the head of the line by some of the staff on the streets, which was a complete waste of time since we had to walk all the way to the back of line from the front. >.< There were a few interesting structures around the outside of the oval.

Most notably were these reddish net things. Accompanying them were some shallow ponds with bridges for people to walk across. I can only use ‘interesting’ to describe these nets since I really have no idea what they are suppose to be or if they signify anything. After all, I’m not a very artsy person and I don’t know how to appreciate such abstract structures.

Along the backside of the building were these wooden covers. In fact, the whole roof of the building is built primarily from pine beetle lumber. I wish the cover was one whole piece instead of these individual piece with gaps in between. It was terrible as a cover for rain. :P Not to mention, the man in line in front of us keep opening and closing his umbrella and moving it around in our faces. I was honestly quite annoyed and worried that he’s going to poke our eyes out.

There were still signs of constructions underway even though it was the opening day. There were areas outside that were fenced off. And then there was the random fence placed beside the line with the event schedule for the main stage.

Also along the lines were several booths. We didn’t go check them out since we were busying lining up. I feel sorry for the ones working the booths. It was quite cold and with the rain, hardly anyone was visiting them.

This was the final stretch of the line. At the very front, beyond the entrance, there was a big screen broadcasting the performance happening on the main stage.

There were also numerous ‘waterfalls’ located dispersively along the back. I’m not sure what they are. There’s a first nation pattern carved onto it. I wonder if it’s a water drain. It’s just the opening day and there’s already a bunch of greenish moss all over the craving. =/

After an approximately half an hour wait, we are finally entering the oval. As we enter, we were given the event pamphlet. I pulled off my hood, shook off some of the rain on my jacket and attempted to warm up from the indoor heat.

Right in front of us was the track. I originally thought it would be like an ice rink but I was wrong. It’s a track. The centre section is not covered with ice. In fact, there a stairway that leads to downstairs in the middle.

My sister and I weren’t exact sure what’s suppose to happen. So we found an empty spot beside the track and waited, hoping that we’ll be able to see whatever is going on later. Soon, I began to notice that it’s not all the warm inside either. It is a skating track after all.

This is the wood roof which is curved to resemble the neck of a blue heron, the symbol of the oval. I think there was an event earlier, before the oval was built, where they allow citizens to sign their names on the wood. We missed that event so our signatures ain’t up there.

To one end of the track was the main stage. There were very limited seating. Needless to say, we didn’t get in. At the time, the performers was the Aeriosa Dance Society. You can kind of see them hanging above the bright yellow glare.

It was nearing 6:00 and we began to see people coming on the track. First up is the Canadian speed skating team. Behind them are the three mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Some cute figure skaters ensued, followed by a lot of little league hockey players.

Also scattered around were members of the Richmond Youth Honour Choir. A lot of them didn’t know how to skate. It was quite entertaining watching them. haha.

Soon, we noticed some fireworks sprang up from the main stage and we assumed that the oval is officially opened. I have to say that it’s a pretty poor arrangement. The main stage was so isolated. There were no broadcast of what’s going on there inside the rink.

Those screens up there is facing the main stage. Basically, unless you’re sitting in those limited number of seats, you don’t really know what’s going on there.

After the first round of skating, the ice is all scratched up.

Towards the back, on the second floor, was what seem to be VIP rooms. There was some sort of party hosted there. Of course, it was for the important guest attending this opening. Everyone was dressed up.

After the ceremony, a group of people dressed in uniforms come marching down the centre of the track and headed downstairs.

As the skater keep circle around the track, some performers had gather to one side and are practicing their moves. We didn’t stay long enough to see the performance. The events were really going according to the schedule anymore. I was getting hungry and didn’t want to wait for a performance that I don’t know when it’ll start.

To the side were several booths, mostly related to speed skating. At one booth, two speed skaters from the Canadian team were doing autographs. We got one but I still have no clue who the two are.

We decided to check out the upstairs. Just before the stairs was this speed skater statue.

The second floor is essentially a gym. There were a lot of exercising machine lined up. A look back down to the track, you’ll see that the centre section are courts meant for basketball, badminton etc.

There were several public skate sections schedule where anyone is allowed to go onto the track. You can bring your own skates or there were a limited amount of skates for rental. I haven’t skated for so long that I wasn’t in the mood to test this track out.

The rental shop was towards the upper right corner. There was a huge line of people trying to get skates as well as a million others putting them on in that general area.

The speed skater from another prospective. The Richmond Olympic Oval has a seating capacity of 8000. 12 medal events will be held here, where 36 medals will be awarded. I won’t be watching any of those. I didn’t request for the long track speed skating tickets and wasn’t allocated the short track ones. The Olympic events I’ll be attending include Men’s hockey, Ladies’ figure skating, Ladies’ bobsleigh, Men’s Aerials, Ladies’ Snowboard PGS.

This is the first floor where the main entrances are. The entrance we came from was like a back entrance. The main floor consist of the reception area and a bunch of locker rooms.

Found a hockey player haha!

This is the stairs to the middle of the track.

There are a number of plaques around the first floor, one of which is the autographs of the Nation Speed Skating Team. I forgot to look up the two I saw earlier.

I always had the thought of attempting to bake melon bun in mind. Bupo loves them and I like them as well. Last month or so, I came across a post on DC.com of someone making melon bun. I asked for the recipe and today, I finally found some time to attempt it. Some pictures might be blurry since I’m taking the photos while my hands are a mess.

I’m not a very good cook and I never baked bread before. Prior to starting, I had to go grab the ingredients. While I was familiar with most of the ingredients, I had never use yeast before. So when it says ‘1 packet of dry yeast’ in the recipe, it had me scratching my head. I searched around the supermarket’s baking section and found the yeast literally in packets.

It was my first time using yeast so I was a bit unsure of what I was doing. Following the instructions, I were to add the packet of yeast into 1/4 cup of 37C water. However, I don’t have anything to measure temperature so that was one big ‘guesstimation’. The yeast coming out of the package were these tiny brown-ish pebbles. It had kind of a weird smell to it.

I added a bit of sugar to it and let it sit as indicated in the recipe. After 10 minutes, the yeast had risen a bit and turned a bit foamy. Meanwhile, I was struggling with the dough. I didn’t melt the butter so it wasn’t integrating into the dough properly. I had to squash the chunks with a spoon.

After awhile of butter squashing, I gave up. Since I had to kneed it later anyways, it’ll probably melt into the dough on its own at the current room temperature. The dough at the time was fairly sticky. I added in the yeast and it turned into a puddle of muddy water. I began to question whether I’m doing this correct. But the instruction did mention to add flour as necessary to get rid of the stickiness. So I ended up adding a ton of flour until it was ‘kneedable’, which is to say that the dough doesn’t stick to my hands when I touch it.

I pulled out a baking pan as my kneed surface. Sprinkled some flour and kneed away. The problem was I had no idea how to kneed. So I pushed the dough around, added more flour when it got too sticky. Eventually, it felt like bread dough. Or I should say, it felt like what I expect bread dough to be (since I never touch bread dough before).

I was actually a little relieve by now since it didn’t turn out to be a disaster. I washed the bowl and greased it with a bit of oil. In goes the dough and I have to let it sit there for two hours.

Next I prepared the topping part. I almost ran out of flour since I added so much more into the dough than the 1 and 3/4 cups stated in the recipe. I toned down the sugar amount from 10 tablespoons to 8 since I don’t want it to be too sweet. This time, I remember to warm the butter a bit in the microwave first.

The topping turns out to be fairly easy except one thing – lemon peel. When I read the recipe before going out to buy the ingredients, I saw ‘1/2 lemon peel’. Unsure of what it is, I just assume it’s as literal as it sounds. As I prepare this topping, I cut the lemon in half and grated some of the peel off. I had doubts of what I was doing but added them into the mix anyways. If anything, it’ll just taste weird. It won’t kill me.

Two hours later, the dough had expanded quite a bit. I was a bit worry that it’ll be to much. I’ll end up eating bread for the next few meals. >.<

I was told to ‘punch’ it from the recipe. And I did.

The dough deflated like a ball with a hole. I kneed again for 10 minutes or so. Somehow this 10 minutes of kneeding felt a lot more tiring than the last. Phew.. After the all that, there was ‘less’ dough – a more reasonable amount. It’s finally ready to be made into bread.

I took small chunks of the dough and roll them into a ball shape. I was unsure of how much dough I needed for each bun. I don’t know if they expand or not. And if they do, by how much. Then I was afraid that I placed them too close to each other. First time baking bread is rather stressful.

After letting the dough sit for a bit, I added the topping on it. This was really tricky. Honestly, I didn’t know how to approach it at first. I just scope some with my hand and placed it on but the topping sticks to my hands more than the bun. =/ So with much effort, I manage to get them onto the dough. Again, I didn’t how much was enough. This was just an guess.

Baking at 375F, the topping has began to melt. For the longest time, it was in the liquidy form and I was worried that I’ve done something wrong. Soon, I can smell the sweetness of the bread coming from the oven.

Seeing that the topping had turn slightly brown, I took the tray out of the oven. They don’t look exactly like the melon buns from the bakery but I think they turn out decently. Another thing I had trouble with was creating the lines on the topping. Typical melon buns have a pattern on the top. I originally added the pattern before putting them into the oven but they all disappear when it came out.

The next batch was baked in the toaster oven. I tried adding lines when the topping wasn’t crispy yet but it was still very difficult. I’ve concluded that I was definitely doing it improperly and there’s another way to add the pattern.

Third and final batch. I still haven’t master how to put on the topping properly. Nor have I figure out how to shape the dough so that it’ll come out looking like a typical bun. I think the middle top one here looks the best out of all of them.

I ended up wrapping this batch with plastic wrap. It was suggested in the recipe as a way to keep the topping mushy instead of crisp. Frankly, I like the mushy topping more. It’s more natural to me.

I ended with some topping left over and baked them into cookies. For the topping, I was suppose to add in melon essence but I couldn’t find any. I ended up adding some vanilla extract. Technically, the name melon bun came from how it looked and traditionally did not include any melon flavouring.

I ate 2 of the buns. While the bread was decent, I think the topping need some more work. It taste fine but quite different than the melon buns I’ve eaten. Flavour wise, it had a strong lemon taste to it. I think I can lower the amount of lemon peel next time. Bupo also mention that Starbucks sells melon extract so we can try using that next time. Also, I want to figure out how to add the pattern on the topping.

Overall, not bad for a first attempt. :)

My sister and I saw this miniature toy at the candy store last weekend and decided to get one. The glass bottle drinks is a nostalgic snack back from elementary school. I loved the hot Vitasoy during winter months. But the breaks we get are usually too short to finish the drink because it’s too hot.

Originally, we thought the items were all setup already in the box but it turns out we have to put them together ourselves. And that was a pain.

“Finished”. I gave up on the lolipops. The stickers were too hard to put on.

The drinks.

The lolipops. Look how badly the stickers were done. haha.