Saturday 13 October 2012

Exchange in Switzerland Part 4

Time for the least serious part of my exchange posts thus far! ;)

How to be a Domestic Goddess (wannabe)

In Switzerland, I started learning how to cook and make my own meals every day. My most successful dishes to date: ABC Soup (first picture) and beef stew (second last picture). Those are my tried and tested favourites of all the recipes I've tried so far. I let my apartment mates try those two dishes, and they loved them too. Means a lot to an amateur like me! Look out for my future travel series posts - maybe one of them will be about food, where I'll teach you how to whip up some dishes like these; they're pretty easy!


I also learned how to make a really delicious and easy to make breakfast: toasted banana bread. All you need is a banana, slice(s) of bread, butter, sugar, cinnamon powder and an oven - try making it for your significant other and bring them toasted banana bread for breakfast in bed. They'll adore you to bits after that ;)


Not content at just making breakfast, lunch and dinner, I also tried my hand at some dessert - homemade lemon curd that I had with meringues and chocolate biscuits.


It was heavenly, and I was surprised that I succeeded on my first try. I even let my flatmates try it and they loved it too :) As a huge fan of dessert, this was a momentous first step in the direction of making my own desserts. I'm really excited at trying out other recipes, but have yet to attempt them. Of course I'll chronicle my progress on my blog as and when things do happen!

Before the vainest (and possibly most uninteresting part of this post), here are a few amusing pictures I have which didn't really fit into any of the other posts. A humorous melange, if you will.


And now, for the vainest part of part IV of this travelogue (part I, II and III are linked here) - my FOTDs, OOTDs and nail polish!

Here's my bare face without any make up at all, for reference:


I know it's horrible; I don't even take that many FOTD and OOTD shots - but here's a collage of about... 2 days worth of FOTDs and OOTDS.


Fully guilty of not taking more, haha. I should be doing that more when I'm travelling along other parts of Europe, starting with Dublin next week, mostly to visit Lester :)

As for my Europe nail polish adventures, I've actually been updating them pretty frequently on Facebook (follow the link)! I haven't actually painted my nails over here because they either 1) chip because I'm scrubbing pots too hard (ahem some people over here are sloppy about dishwashing 2) are growing out too slowly. Nails really grow much more slowly in temperate climates! I will, however, be painting them soon as I can.

I currently have about 20 in my stash over here, not counting back ups and some extras I will be selling when I return to Singapore ;)

Here are bottle shots of some of my favourites:

1. Essence Special Effect Toppers - glittery, colourful, fabulous. Enough said.


Some bottle shots of my favourites from the lot that I've amassed:


2. Some Essence Colour3 goodness - this particular colour isn't available in Singapore:


3. And of course Essence Nail Polish, a must have:


4. Last but not least, Catrice - I've never tried this brand before so I'm quite excited!


Also, since taking this picture, I've added another dark brown (I swear it looks like melted dark chocolate) Catrice shade to my stash, et voilà, I come to the end of my vain post ;)

I'll be updating Part V whenever I have enough things to say/pictures to post, so do look out for it! In the meantime,

1) Do check out Parts I, II and III of my posts

2) Look forward to me resuming normal posting with some long overdue event posts (Paula's Choice High Tea, GlamoGirls Glam Rocks Media Launch), product reviews (Korres products) and -wait for it- some extremely useful travel beauty/make up/skincare/food/miscellaneous tips!

Just from me to you, dear readers, because I know how much you love travelling. Having travelled for quite a bit, I have the duty of letting you know what worked best for me, and hopefully it would help you too :)

À la prochaine fois! (French: 'til the next time!)


Rachel loves sharing about the beautiful things in life from different perspectives. She writes on beauty and lifestyle in Cherchez Beauté , and does more abstract stuff on Antelune . When she's not writing, she's playing with her dog Holly, doodling and reading fiction. You can follow her on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .