New Year Eve Dinner

Didn't go out. Just spend the time at home.

Prepared dinner with aunt. Instead of the few dishes we planned. We decided to cut it down to two dishes as we prepared dinner in the kitchen. So at the end we only had the grilled lamb leg with potatoes; fresh veggies salad; mushroom and wine. Were so full and luckily we didn't bake the apply crumble for dessert. Enjoying our dinner with chat and laugh.

Table of the Night

Wine of Night... HEEE

Salad of the Night

Grilled Lamb Leg... YUMMY

Last Day Of 2007

Yup last day of Year 2007

What have you done?

I worked very hard today at work. We got so many clients visiting us on this last day of the year. According to my colleagues, it wasn't like this last few year. Unexpectedly LOTS lately. Everyone is so exhausted at work I bet. Before joining them in the department, I never thought of how tiring it can be working there. It's just merely my interest to want to work in a hectic and busy place. But this is really very damn hectic. I salute to those who been working there for years. After years of working there still they can be so devoted to the job and clients.

Been wanting to sit down and give a good thought of the new year resolutions but I was so tired that I need to lie down on bed to rest for a while. Couldn't really sleep so just lie down to ease my aching body, especially my back.

Not going out tonight. Too tired to do so. So will be just staying home and had a nice dinner with my aunt. With lots of delicious food hor. KeKeKe. Enjoying ourselves at home.

I am grilling the other 1/3 of the lamb leg which I bought for the xmas party. Now with it in the oven, the smell of it is all over the house ( can even smell it here in the room upstair ). Aunt will make salad, veggies and smashed potatoes. We might have some wine as well (sorry not halalised party for us this time). Will try to snap some photo of our yummy food and blog it, hee.

In doubt if I can still stay awake by midnight. May be YES, may be NO. Anyway, no Taichi lesson tomorrow. So I can afford to wake up late tomorrow. Will be working tomorrow afternoon only.

TWO MORE DAYS

TWO MORE DAYS!!!

Good bye to 2007
Hello to 2008

Overview of 2007

This year passes by so fast. May be it's because I was being transfered to a new department where I had more challenges at work. Work is fun but hectic and tiring (physically mostly). Been feeling so excited about being able to freshen up my long-lost skills as well as learning new skills. Making lots of new friends at the new department. Get to know more people from various departments and not just confined to a department. It was pretty tough at first but as I settled down, things get better as usual. Well there are more to learn and I am looking forward to it. I may not be one of the best but I do try to do my best. Of course I can't be happy and cheerful and treat the clients well all the time but I am trying my best not to let my mood affect me. Trying to be professional can be very challenging with the situation at all also. I admired some of my colleagues who were very patience despite the situation. Salute at them. ^^

It's been a very fruitful year for me. Did a lot of things ( a lot of cooking and baking especially, heee ) and met a lot of people. Talked a lot, shared a lot, thinking a lot as well. Especially been thinking hard what I actually wanna to do in the next 10 years. I just like to think and wish that I can have a life I want and be happy in future. So been thinking hard what I actually like doing and trying to figure out ways to archive it. Also been talking to people to see whether my dream is realistic and workable or not. Received both good and bad feedback as usual. Guess that's just life. Nothing is gonna be good all the times.

May sound weird but cooking is my way of releasing my stress. I like to cook or bake then have others trying my food. Will feel so happy and fulfill with good feedback and will try to perfect it when it's not done well. But it's hard to get people to keep trying the same food over and over again so just need to alternate it with other foods, heee. Tried quite a lot of new recipes the last two months. Almost everytime I go back to my parents' place I will try to make something. More people there to try out mah. Also got maids to help me clean up, hee, I hate cleaning and washing. I love the initial phase, the preparation and making it and cooking/baking it but never like washing the dishes. My hands get dried when I washed too much. Don't like that.

Started this blog in November, after inspired by those blogs I read online. Despite the no longer updated blog of mine in friendster, I still decide to start this new blog. Was having some difficulties trying to decide if it's gonna be a food blog or personal blog. Guess now it's in between the two. Basically it's more of I blog what I like. Can be food related, my thought, my feeling, my complains, or may be in future health related. ^^



The Coming 2008

Well haven't really give a good thought of what I would want to do in this new year. Been extremely busy this month, with work, families and friends. Haven't really have time to sit down and go through it yet. Hopefully I can come up with some sort of new year resolutions by 1st week of January. Normally I will just think about it in my mind. May be for this time I shall actually write it down in one of those notebooks I get long time ago and keep it update every year. Review it every year end to see if I ever archive what I plan. ^^

Halalised Xmas Gathering

Sorry for the late blog. Been busy even after the Halalised Xmas Gathering (all my guests are muslim except one of them) on the 24th Dec. Haven't been able to sit in front of the pc to upload those photo I took during the party. The party turned out quite successful.

I came home after work around 3pm that day then started with cooking the sushi rice and preparing the sushi vinegar. Followed by decorating the surprise belated birthday cake for a friend who will be attending the gathering as well. This was my second time actually making a whole cake and got it decorated with fresh cream. All 100% home-made. Even the fresh cream was beaten by myself. Spent about an hour with the cake decoration though. The cake was pre-made the night before. With help of two of my friends whom came early at around 5pm, I managed to finish off other things while they have fun rolling the sushi and making new design for it. I was busy taking care of the lamb leg, chicken wings, veggies and drinks. While I was preparing myself for the party, another two friends came and also help out with the sushi making. Yeah the sushi really take up lot of time, well I guess they have fun with it though.

Dinner didn't start till almost 8.30pm as we were waiting for some guests as it was raining quite heavily at their place. I guess everyone enjoy the food but still got lots of left over. Luckily they tapau all except the veggies. I think veggies is the less favourite food of all. =P

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MENU

Main Course

Grilled Lamb Leg (My family recipe)
Toasted Glutinous Rick Chicken Wings
Assorted Sushi
Buttered Assorted Veggies


Dessert

Mango Pudding
Homemade Creamed Cheese Cake
Deep Fried Ice Cream Bread



Drinks

Lemongrass With Apple Juice



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Table of FoOd!!!

My Favourite Grilled Lamb Leg YUMMY OHHH


Assorted SuSHi OoOo, with new designs... hahahaa.. yummy also...





Our Very Own California Roll


Toasted Glutinous Rice Chicken Wings


Buttered Fried Veggies

The Birthday Cake / Homemade Creamed Cheese Cake


Mango Pudding

Deep Fried Ice Cream Bread

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I decorated another cake the next day (the actual xmas day) as I still have another cheese cake left in the fridge. Sent it to work for those who were working to have little joy of the day. HEeHee. Mum's teaching lah, don't waste the food mah. So just finishing off all the whipping cream I got and also make other happy.

My Season Greeting Cake


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Showed pictures of my decorated cakes to my mum and my uncle, they both commented my wordings were really huge. Well what to do leh. No training at all mah. Self-taught leh. Retrieved my (more than 15 years) memories of how uncle used to do it in the bakery last time. Hmm, afterall it is not that bad right??? No practise at all leh.. kekeke... Comforting myself here....

Preparation For Party

For the last few days, my mind been thinking about what to cook for the coming party. Well I won't say it is a XMAS party though as I am not a Christian so I don't really celebrate CHRISTMAS. May be just throwing a party so that I can have my friends over and catching up with each others. Not going to be a big one, just gonna be a few of my colleagues from work. It's gonna be a halalised (new word I learn from a friend) party as well. Hehehe as most of them are Muslim.

Anyway, managed to come out with my menu of the party yesterday while at work after discussing with a colleague of mine. It will be combination of eastern and western food. To be specific, it's gonna be Japanese, Chinese and Western. Tried to come out with food that I can prepare in advance as I will be working morning duty on 24th. So I need to get the food prepare the day before. Most of the food will be bake as well. And two of my colleagues might come early to help out. So hopefully the party will be going on well.

Went grocery shopping just now as I was afraid I won't have much time for shopping tomorrow. But still I need to drop by Supa Save for some special ingredient which I couldn't find in Hua Ho. As usual, I enjoyed myself a lot during the grocery shopping and ended up with a few things that are not in my list. The usual me.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for me. Need to do more grocery shopping. Also, I will be preparing some food for the Wushu Federation's gathering at night. Then also need to marinate my lamb shoulder for the party on 24th. In fact, it's also the Dong Zhi tomorrow, supposed to eat Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Ball). May be I might make some for myself if really in the mood, hmm, may be should make some to bring to work tomorrow night. Let's see how thing goes.

Miri Trip

Drove down to MIRI with my best friend yesterday for our girl's trip. Didn't do that for months. Guess it's been half a year since we last drove down together. Used to do it almost every 1-2 months. I almost can't recognise the road. Oh yup, as usual, the driver is me. Driving my parents' KIJANG and there we two roamed around MIRI City.

Started our journey pretty as early as 7am from K. B. as we were worried that there would be traffic jam since it's school holiday and public holiday. Anyway, it was quite a smooth journey without traffic jam. Headed to the medical center for a routine check up then off we went for our breakfast around 9am++. Had "red kolomee" near PARKSON, yummy. We both missed that cute curly noodle. Didn't bring along my camera with me so no picture taken --- sorry.

After that we headed to PARKSON, our favourite stop. NOPE not PARKSON but the POPULAR bookstore there. HAHAHA. We spent almost 3 hours browsing the books and stationery. That's usual for the two of us. I ended up with about 25 books and magazines. Scary right? Guess that's normal for me if I go down once a while only. Most of them are cookery books and magazines. Some related to herbal cooking. Gotten myself few books on cookies making, as Chinese New Year is nearby, I am starting to think what type of cookies to make for this year. Even planning to take few days off before Chinese New Year so that I can have time to bake those cookies. Don't want to be like this year where I was baking from early morning till midnight for kueh mor and cornflake cookies last minute. So for the next few weeks I will try out some of the recipes to finalise my cookies selection.

Back to our trip, after satisfying our crave for BOOK, we went on to roam around PARKSON for shoes at BATA. Feeling like we were doing our Chinese New Year shopping already with SALES everywhere. Well, we both bought the same pair of sandal ( as we both like it coincidently). I went on to buy another 2 pairs of slippers for home use and outdoor. Believe it or not, I don't have slippers at home. hahahaa.

Then we drove around to the Joss Stick and prayer related shop for her to get the prayer stuff for her mum. Forgotten how to go there, but at the end we managed to find out way. Not bad huh.

Our last stop of the day as usual would be boulevard. Reached there almost 2.3opm. Alot of people as usual, driving around to get parking, didn't get the free parking, just parked at the paid parking since the parking coupon we had were going to expired by end of the month so we might as well used it. Went to Optic care, getting myself a pair of new glasses. The last time I had a new pair was back in 2000 ( I did get the lens changed, which was back in 2003), so thinking of treating myself with a new ones. Oh man, I almost think that I am so out of fashion. I couldn't get used to the new frame, luckily i got the patience optometrist who just let me keep on trying on different frame. Managed to get one both my friend and I were satisfied. Got a shock, when was told the price of the frame. Altogether with the lens, it cost me almost double what I used to pay for a pair of glasses. My conclusion, my monthly disposable contact lens with the solution are still cheaper then. Anyway, I still get that glasses for my "Xmas" present ( though I am not a Christian.) <--- Siok Sendiri Saja.

While waiting for the glasses to be readied. We went around shopping as usual. Took our late lunch at one of the stall, just sotong ball, crab balls, crab stick, fish stick, etc,... hahaha.. simple yet delicious. Then as usual I went to the Union bookstore to check out any interesting book. Hmmm, gotten myself two dictionaries instead, one is the chinese idiom and chinese dictionary. Why? Well I am thinking of creating another blog which I will write in chinese. hehehehe... So I need the dictionaries for references. Still a thought... Day dreaming now..

So we departed Miri around 5.30pm, praying hard that there won't be traffic jam. Luckily GOD heard us and we were in Kuala Belait by 6.15pm. Send my friend back to her house and I reached Lumut around 6.40pm. Took dinner, talked to mum, told her not to buy any cookies for CNY as I will make cookies. By the time I reached BSB I am almost half dead. So tired. Couldn't even wake up for my early morning Tai Chi today.

Looking Forward

Looking forward for the new week to come with a better luck. This week was kinda not smooth for me. The muscle cramp and diarrhea and the failure of testing new recipe.

Went back Lumut yesterday, then only noticed that I forgot to bring two of the important cables home for the portable machine. Because of that I couldn't perform electro-acupuncture for grandma and mommy. Then trying to make the peanut glutinous flour ball with new method and it didn't turn out good. Well the appearance looked yummy (to me) but it's hard when it get cooler. In fact the last attempt was better even though the appearance is not that good.

Peanut Glutinous Ball

Anyway, also made the steamed milk pudding again but this time I forget to strain the egg mixture before mixing into the milk. Luckily the pudding still turn out alright.

Thought that my diarrhea was over so I tried to take the roasted duck mommy bought from Miri, and still it give me the nauseating feeling due to the excessive oil. Guess I better just be good and take blend diet for the mean time first. The nauseating feeling ain't that good.

Looking forward for the new week to start and hope that everything will be fine soon.

This week might be interesting as my little cousin is here spending the days with me. So got someone to talk to at home. Not going to be home alone again. Okay okay, am not home alone all the time as I got two family members recently, that's ming and yang.... but.... they don't speak in human language, they bark... =p

Yup got the two of them recently, two naughty yet shy little ones. Both white in colour, one boy and one girl. Two months old. The girl is more playful compare to the boy. Glad to have them.

Bad Days

Luck was not by my side yesterday as well as today.

Was caught by muscle cramp due to sudden increased physical activities the last few days. My left lower cuff muscle suddenly cramped while at work yesterday evening. Making it so difficult to do thing. Having to move around slowly. Luckily it was alright after a night of rest and my dear colleague let me had a more relaxing delegation at work today. So basically the cramp was gone.

BUT... was woken up by acute stomach aching this morning and having diarrhea since then. In fact I did feel abdominal discomfort and nauseating at work also last night. Was quite miserable at work last night with the abdominal discomfort, nauseating and abdominal discomfort.

The diarrhea was quite acute initially, went to toilet 3 times before going to work and another 3 times. Didn't take any medicine, just keep applying my herbal oil. It subsided slowly, by end of my shift this morning, I was basically feeling much much better.

My favourite herbal oil

Only got another episode of diarrhea when reached home. Of course I have been taking lots of fluid to make sure I am not dehydrated. Forget to take ORS, but did drink 100 plus though. Had porridge at lunch and then just corn soup for dinner. No appetite for something else. Just want hot soup. Continue with the herbal oil on and off. So far no more diarrhea and nauseating now but stomach still not feeling that great. Will try to rest well tomorrow as well. Night shift tomorrow.

Spoke to a friend just now, really can't think what is the cause of my acute gastro-enteritis, I have been eating home-cooked food. Mostly like could be the water as the water was quite cloudy for the last two days. Hmm, may be should buy bottled water tomorrow since the water is still not clear yet. Also will continue with herbal oil and blend diet for tomorrow.

Morning Post Night Duty

Last night was hectic at work. Didn't really settle at all throughout the shift. Only had about an hour of cool time in total.



Went off early this morning as requested, as I needed to go to airport to send off a teacher of mine from my ex-school. She is leaving Brunei for good. After sending her off. Went to Tasty Corner at Gadong for a Dim Sum with my parents.






Later dropped by the Gadong open market as mum wanted to get some soil and plants for the garden back in Lumut.





Reached home almost 9am then showered and sleep. Slept till 3pm+. Woke up with slight dizziness and disorientation. As usual did waking up in between, that's why ended up with dizziness. Didn't take any food till dinner. Had my electro-acupuncture (for improving my general system) and back Bio-massage at aunt's alternative clinic. Feeling great now with the tension of the back being relieved a bit. Spent some times refreshing the massage/tuina techniques with the physiotherapist. Telling her the reasons for applying some of the techniques and how it shall be done.

Spent time checking out blogs and updating the format of my blog.

Plan to sleep early tonight if possible as I need to get up early for Tai Chi tomorrow. Yeah am trying to keep it up.

Tai Chi Lesson

Oh Yes!!!

I managed to make it to my first day of Tai Chi lesson on time this morning despite having problem sleeping last night. Okay okay I admitted how much I wished it was raining when my alarm rang this morning. Even check out the window to wish that it was raining out there before I dragged myself into the bathroom to freshen up myself. Took two pieces of crackers and milk. Off me driving to Riverview Hotel. Being the first to arrive there 6.25am, and saw no car nor people there did make me wonder if the class was still commencing or not ( I found out about the class about 2 weeks ago and didn't go till today).

Luckily I saw another two car arrived and I asked them if they were there for Tai Chi. Phew!!! So it's on. The poor coach was injured lately due to accidentally fell into the drain (not sure when, didn't find out), so it was someone else leading the lesson with the coach at the side instructing verbally. Did some stretching and basic steps to loosen up before going into the actual action. Of course being new meaning I am just following others, eyes on others and turning around following the steps. Luckily after the main practise, we the new learners were brought aside to be taught step by step. Honestly I still don't quite remember the steps myself, need to be guided still. First day MAH!!!

Overall, its difficult to wake up initially but it is really nice to work out early in the morning. Hopefully I can keep this up. Will try to go as often as possible. Wish to make it as my routine habit. For that I think I will join the membership ($200 - lifetime). Yeah after I pay I just have to force myself to go for it regularly. Or else I will just let it be and won't complete the lesson like last time. Yup this is not the first time I enrolled in Tai Chi, did joined the Brunei Muara Tai Chi thing last year but couldn't keep it up due to the reason of working shift and feel so inconvenient with having to attend class at night when I would love to hang out with friends or chill at home. Yeah Yeah Yeah, it's just reasonable reasons I gave myself for not keeping with the class. My apologies. Will not give in for any reason this time since the class is held daily from 6.30am till 7.30am which mean I can go any day as long as I am not working morning.

Came home feeling abit sleepy but didn't sleep. Just sat in front of my pc and did some works. Lunch out with friends at Jollibee Utama Bowling. Nice updating gossips with others. As usual, we expressed our frustration over the youth these day... hmmm... hold on... we sound so old then... well may be then... hahhaa... paiseh...

Came home, took a good nap (cause not enough sleep last night and working night shift tonight)... Now just blog before going to work.... Heee