App Review: Flipboard

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Flipboard is one of my most used apps on my iPad (it’s the mini, in case you were wondering!  And I absolutely love it.  It was a gift from my husband 🙂 I should bake him more cookies, it seems to be working ) 🙂  It’s become a digital age magazine, where while watching TV you can browse through saved sites, RSS feeds etc.

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This is how it looks.  I love the format, as its easy to use and easy on the eyes.  Nothing too complicated – which is good as that would contradict the very notion of it being like a magazine.  It’s meant to be relaxing, not complicated.  I usually browse News, Recipes, Blogs, Fashion, etc.  Since I have a blog now, I’ve added it to Flipboard 🙂 And besides, the brownies look far too tempting for it to be denied attention!

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The latest update allows users to save articles to read later and personalize their very own magazine.  This magazine would consist of articles that interest them which they have selected.  I think this feature is extremely helpful when users are commuting on the tube.  That is if they get a seat.  I can’t imagine using my iPad while standing in the tube next to thirty thousand other commuters.  The tubes here are a nightmare.  London should really learn from Japan.  The train system was brilliant 15 years ago compared to the present day tubes.  I seem to be going off tangent! 😉  If you lived in London you’d empathize with me completely.

In a nutshell – things I love about it:

  • Easy to Use
  • Digital Magazine Style that has gone right!
  • Saving articles for later is a brilliant idea (esp for commuting)

 

VERDICT:

TO DOWNLOAD OR NOT TO DOWNLOAD:  TO DOWNLOAD

 

 

Foodie Fridays – Chewy Brownie Cookies!

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Hello food lovers!  😉  I LOVE food – which honestly makes it very hard for me to go on a diet.  Being a vegetarian (this year is my 10 year anniversary) – it’s ironically very easy to become overweight contrary to what some may think.  Many vegetarians do NOT like vegetables. This statement throws many off track – but its true.  My vegetarian friends (okay -and so do I)  love cheese, potatoes, bread etc – essentially food that turns into FAT.  So to combat all that – I regularly detox and try to go to the gym thrice a week. 🙂 Luckily though – I love fruit and veggies – which makes me the ultimate foodie.

My love for food makes me enjoy cooking.  I’m not talking about the before and after which consists of:  cutting, cleaning and washing up!  I enjoy the actual cooking – the mixing of flavors which has the potential to create something absolutely delicious! I usually view different recipe sites while watching TV with my husband at night on Paprika (my previous Technology Tuesday post was on this app).  I recently came across this recipe and thought I must give it a go.

Chewy Brownie Cookie

That’s the snapshot of my Paprika Recipe.  As stated in my notes, I made half the recipe – that’s because of the amount of sugar and calories these little bites of heaven had!  Although, I must admit – they were really yummy.  It’s that bit of brownie that everyone fights for – the chewy bite.  Every cookie was that exact bite.

Things to note if you are vegetarian:  you can substitute ONE EGG = 1/4 cup carnation milk + 1 tsp custard powder.  It always works for me.  I did this for these cookies too – and it would be impossible to tell that they are eggless. Also I didn’t have margarine at home – so I substituted it for unsalted butter and it worked fine 🙂 Happy Baking!

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Bon Appetite! That’s my end product – even the batter was divine.  And yes the next day I went to the gym.  Guilty as charged.

XX

B

Travel Thursdays – Hua Hin

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I absolutely love traveling.  Like Benjamin Disraeli has once said,

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”  My most recent holiday to somewhere completely new was end of January.  I went to Thailand for a cousins wedding & an engagement ceremony!  In between all the parties and functions there was a gap of 3 days.  I finally got quality time with my family (since now we live continents away – Sydney and London often seem like different planets to be honest)!  We all have been to Thailand many times as my mom used to live there in her childhood and we have family there.  My dad decided to take my family to Hua Hin Sheraton Resort. We hired a minivan and off we went!

It was simply beautiful.  Reflecting on it,  there’s definitely more to it than I remember.  It’s tricky how memories are so elusive.  Thankfully, photos capture our memories quite accurately 🙂

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We went there to simply soak in the atmosphere.  Very different from my usual holidays- which you will see in my future Travel Thursday posts.  I usually maximize my time in any country with the desire to cover every inch of it – with no regret!  Yet this time, we were so happy to be with each other, that we just wanted to be.

Our typical two days were :  wake up and make it in time for the buffet breakfast.  A fantastic spread of cold, hot and anything in between!  Asian 5 star hotel breakfast spread puts Europe to shame, sadly.  There were hot pancakes, waffles, potatoes, sausages, hash browns, a table of assorted freshly baked breads, mouth watering exotic Asian fruits such as logans and rambutans, freshly squeezed juices, sandwiches, rice, etc etc.  I was in love.

After being so exhausted from eating, we sat and absorbed our surroundings, till it was time for our second meal.  We basically ate, sat, and got massaged. It was heaven.  Definitely how I picture it.

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The best massage I ever had in life – was on the beach. The picture above is of my feet that are about to indulge in a wonderful massage in the perfect atmosphere where I hear the calming effects of the swash and backwash of the waves.  It was peaceful.  Except for my sister who would keep interrupting the beautiful silence. 🙂  It was still perfect.

The hotel overlooked the beach, so we didn’t really have to leave the hotel at all. There were little canopies where you could sit and relax.

It was so easy to do nothing.  Something that is not as easy in a city-based life which we were all used to.  We loved it. Before we knew it, it was time to eat again (yaey to food!)  I absolutely loved the pineapple fried rice.  An authentic Thai dish which was served in a pineapple!  I was in awe.  I had never seen a dish served in a fruit. The flavor exceeded my expectation and it is definitely a dish I would recommend to all.  I had it all three days. 🙂  We ordered new dishes everyday – but one pineapple fried rice was a must.

In addition to that, I loved coconut ice-cream, which was also served in a coconut!  I was so pleased with these refreshing creative ideas of serving food, that I was being the typical foodie tourist.  Taking out a picture of my food before eating it!  It was delish!!  Coconut ice-cream topped up with Thai sticky rice and peanuts.  To top it off, a drizzle of coconut milk was poured over.  You might think that’s a coconut overload, but frankly it was very pleasing to the palette! All the food we had was simply divine.

My mom can speak very fluent Thai, so we didn’t experience any difficulty while ordering.  Otherwise, if I were the one ordering I cannot imagine the consequences of me having to play charades with the waiters!  (I have had an experience like that in Shanghai – while trying to ask the salesgirl if a jacket was waterproof.  Let’s just say it was very comical and I think I might stick to drawing instead of playing charades)

So here we have it! My first entry of Travel Thursdays! Hope you enjoyed reading it, as much as I enjoyed blogging about it.  I would definitely recommend Hua Hin Sheraton Resort as a place to unwind from the city life of Bangkok if you are holidaying in that region.

xx

B

Technology Tuesdays: Paprika (Recipe Manager App)

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Today’s app – PAPRIKA.  My favorite Recipe App!Image

Hello there!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Weekends we mainly eat out and try different restaurants.  Or we go to the same restaurant and end up ordering exactly the same thing to avoid disappointment!  Sounds ironic but when you get to one of your favorite restaurants, you know exactly what would satisfy you and the risk of a new dish is almost frightening.

Weekdays we eat at home, which means I get to show-off my culinary skills or the lack of. haha! Which brings me to today’s featured app – Paprika.  It’s actually the only app I use for recipes.  I usually download mainly free apps unless the paid app proves to be very useful.  I’m quite frugal when it comes to apps (not so when it comes to designer handbags).  We have to save somewhere! 🙂  This app is usually $4.99 and you can check it out here: http://www.paprikaapp.com/blog/ (apparently there’s a sale at the moment!)

Firstly, the APP lets you search for recipes from all over the web through your internet browser.  It also provides suggested supported sites which are very useful.  I especially like to go to AllRecipes and BettyCrocker.   However. there are times I like to go to other sites and Paprika gives me this flexibility.  When you come upon a recipe that you would like to save – instead of a snapshot, it will save it in a uniform template into your recipe organizer.  Prior to this app, I used to snapshot what I liked and had to go through my photo gallery frantically when I was about to try something new.  That was pretty inefficient and time consuming.  Now I am able to save, categorize and store in an effective manner.

Sometimes, you come across a site that is not supported by this app as it cannot differentiate the text in the blog from the recipe.  There is toolbar at the bottom of this app that overcomes this problem.  You are able to manually copy the ingredients, method, title and store it in the template where you can then save.

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The picture above is a snapshot of my Paprika Recipes.  This demonstrates the way in which my recipes are stored.  There is a search button on the top which allows the users to search their own saved recipes.  Also, you are able to save your own recipes in the same format to add to this collection.

Secondly, if technology isn’t quite your “thing”, it allows you to print recipes so you can have them in a recipe file if that’s how you are used to storing them.  I have to admit, that I print some of my recipes instead of taking my iPad or iPhone in the kitchen with me all the time.

The last feature that this app is able to do is – plan meals.  Frankly, I do not use this feature much as I rather plan my recipes weekly.  Also – my husband sometimes doesn’t quite like sticking to the plan and has spontaneous food cravings.  🙂  Eitherway, the picture below shows how this feature can be used.

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Related articles

The birth of my blog

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Starting a blog is always so difficult.  Actually starting anything is tough.  I spent a full 3 minutes staring at the screen and then I thought, if I don’t start- I never will.  So here I am starting.
I’m not sure exactly what I want from this blog to be honest.  But then again – what do we actually want from life?  It’s a learning experience and through experience you then realize what you don’t want, or if you’re lucky what you want.  I somehow have realized what I do want from life. I want to be happy – in any given situation.  It sounds so simple but it’s really not – but that’s what I want. So I try engaging in things that make me happy!

I thought blogging would be nice, a place where I put my thoughts/feelings/ideas up there.  A place to share, to learn and to grow.  Even if no one ever reads this (that would be pretty sad, and I am hoping to not be THAT  boring! hahaha) – still it will be a place where I just connect.

What I’ve been up to lately besides starting a blog, finally, after much contemplation (I must add!) – is  suffering the reprecussions of migrating.  I am “studying” for my “Life in UK Exam” to get a PR here.   I don’t know where the 2 years have flown and it’s time to be legally grounded here!  I finally got to book for this exam and I didn’t realise being a citizen meant knowing about the Norman Conquest, the Anglo Saxons and even the national food that they eat in Wales.  To add to the irony – we are expected to know what time April Fools jokes go on till.  Does anyone even know there is a time limit?  That sounds like a joke itself.  Just FYI it’s technically until 12pm only. HUH? So I will have to know these facts otherwise I will have to retake the exam and waste 50 pounds.

I’ve been researching on the mobile app industry.  It’s crazy.  It’s something I am actually very interested in right now.  On Tuesdays – I intend to blog on this –  it’ll be my Technology Tuesdays.  Where I plan to review apps that I personally like, or that have caught my eye! The app-mobile industry is unequivocally thriving.  There are questions that seem absurd and simply do not have a realistic answer to them.  For instance, how does a teenager make 30 million from selling a single app?  Does that even make sense?  Yet, it happens.  Although there are 750, 000 plus apps in the industry, you could get lucky with an offer that you’d be stupid to refuse. I guess the odds are greater than the national lottery.  Yet, if I were to make an app (not program it as I’m not that technological savvy) – how would I go about it?  How would I advertise it?
Currently, we (my husband and I) have been brainstorming a few ideas and hope to launch an app this year.  To get out there, to get in the app industry even if it goes unseen.
At least it’s a start. It’s a birth, like the birth of my blog.

 

xx

B

About Me

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bandhnakaur Hi there! I’m Bandhna pronounced as ban-the-na.  It’s a bit tough for most people. but what’s life without a challenge?  It’s a Sanskrit name that translates to worship – just FYI.  My friends call me B – easier on the tongue I’m guessing! Welcome to my bubble, my world.  I love all things that sparkle and try to add a bit of spark to my everyday life. May it add spark to yours too! Multiculturalism – I’m a living example of that! A Singaporean Punjabi, brought up in Kobe Japan.  Moved back to Singapore after 12 years due to a literal earth-shaking experience, “The Great Hanshin Earthquake 1995”.  Which was terrifying I must add, but I guess what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.  Subsequently, I moved to Singapore for 7-8 years.  Then it was time to move again.  This time to a different continent- Australia.  Lived in Sydney and at foundation year topped the cohort in Legal Studies (was given prize money and an award – yaey!)  Subsequently, I enrolled in a double degree (BA + LAW).  However, Law didn’t seem to be right for me and I ended up deferring my law degree.  I completed my BA with a double major in Economics and Sociology and graduated 🙂 The bells of destiny rang once again – it was time to fly to Singapore for my wedding with a Malaysian born Punjabi who resided in London. TIME TO MOVE ONCE AGAIN. So now, for now, I live in London.  I try to make the most out of life and try to explore Europe whenever possible. All this moving has made me appreciate anthropology and the study of different cultures.   I have a natural flair for travelling and I think “B” could very well stand for Butterfly!

This quote describes my passion for travel:

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page””– St Augustine

In this blog I hope to capture interesting parts of the world through my eyes.  Perception stems from background, and I believe if your background is so diverse your perception will not be limited due to a greater exposure and understanding of the world. My interest lies in Apps, Globe-Trotting, Fashion & Vegetarian Food – all of which I will be writing about.  My passion is wide-spread as you can see 🙂 ONE STRONG PASSION I DO HAVE IS FOOD – I absolutely love food. It’s the love of my life. I’ve been vegetarian for 10 years now and love experimenting with new recipes, so I might make you hungry with some of my eats.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you! My biggest accomplishment so far is summed up in one word –  ENVYLOPE.  An app that was approved at the first submission to Apple with zero prior knowledge on how to make it.  I recently self-learnt U/I Designing for Apps and am so thrilled to say that I am the Co-Founder of Envylope.  My husband (sole-developer) and I launched our own company – Appsolute Pixels where we intend to bring all sorts of Apps.

I like ‘likes’ and I love ‘comments’.  Look forward to hearing from you! xx B