A breath of fresh air

Yeeeh...yeehh..... finally project VWM is done.... payment pon dah dapat. What is more important, the client is very pleased with the results. Especially the living room drapes and the string curtain effects. This is the first retro-style home I did this year. Very challenging but nevertheless, fun! Am glad I requested for the additional time extension since I was not happy at all with the living room drapes the first time it was put up. So, kena lah take down and get my staff to rework on that piece to ensure that it was perfect. Ye lah kan, people pay premium for my work, so I've to ensure that they are satisfied with the results. Happy lah sangat!!! Today, another one more small project to settle. This one's for a friend. I'm bartering my services for some paintings. Interesting combo ya?

Mushed

This non-stop working thing is not doing me any good. It's starting to show this morning because my mind is not in tuned with my body movement. My mind is like 3 steps faster than the body. It feels really weird, because it's like having an out of body experience . I can't wait for this week to be over. It's just too much to bear. At least the unit in VWM is almost completed. Just one more pair of curtains that needed some slight tweaking. I'd rather be here right now.

Isn't this great?

Somber mood

This week hasn't gone well at all. Today is no better. It's bad enough having to work almost 18 hours straight yesterday that I have to face another dilemma.

I guess most people know there are certain risks in doing everything, including maintaining a blog. I learned today that penning down one's thoughts aloud can sometimes unintentionally hurt or cause someone to be in trouble. In this case, it was a good friend (you know who you are). I feel bad about it and the only thing I can say is that I am sincerely sorry that it had to happen that way. Perhaps I should have been more discreet or I should have just shut my mouth for good.

I don't know if this is going to help at all, but it will definitely make me think twice before penning my thoughts. Wonder how much more screw ups I am going to make before the week ends.

Mood: Distracted, dissapointed, sad, confused. :-(

Peak and Valleys

My brain is currently working like this chart. It has it's ups and it has it's down. Today is a down. In fact it may be going in tandem with the red line! WAAHHHH!!!! I think I took my stupid pills instead of the clever pills this morning. I had this feeling that I was missing something the entire morning while fixing breakfast and watering the plants. Normally it is the cell phones that I will always forget, but no. I had them tucked in my pocket. Well, I drove away and felt like something was dreadfully wrong. Halfway through, I realized what I've forgotten.....
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My Glasses!!!! **Matilaaa setengah rabun hari nih!!!

It's going to be another looooooooooong day!

Gridlock!

Despite the fuel price hike of up to 63%, most commuters still do not have a choice (or luxury, these days) of access to convenient public transport from their home to work.

The jam along Jalan Kemajuan this morning

Anyone looking for a foreign worker???



The traffic is still bad despite having a traffic police manning the cross junction

Well, managed to get to the office in one piece. Back to the same ol' same ol'...

Last night

Came back pretty late last night since there was some glitch on some last minute work stuff. I didn't feel like working out a storm in the kitchen since I was tired. Nevertheless, since I said that I will make dinner at home now, so, this is it lah...

Instant vegetarian noodles. Sedeh!!!!

Everything seems to be very quiet and still though, last night. Almost Zen like. I enjoyed the calmness while it lasted.

Itchy hands

I have itchy hands... I've decided to change/update my blog's look to make it more umm... snazzy. Yeah right!!! Because of that, I lost like a whole bunch of stuff. Site meter oso dunno how to put back. Arrgghhhh!!! Serve me right! :-(

Chicken soup for the soul?

Hayoo.... here we are talking about food again. I don't think all those serious weight watching and keeping the waistline intact and tummy flat is going to work anymore. Hehehehe... Well, as I was saying, I made some Chinese herbal chicken soup for dinner. Coupled with that, I 've decided to do something that is very foreign in my kitchen, which was to make "steamed-one-dished-rice." Literally translated from a Chinese word, meaning an all-in-one meal. Well, it may be quite a common meal to many other household, particularly the Chinese, but you see, I'm part Peranakan. So, that means I grew up with elaborate, spicy and robust tasting dishes. So, this is something new to me. Nevertheless, I tried my hands on this simple dish.

Fresh from the steamer. Steamed egg custard (chawanmushi) with dori fillet and wolfberries. Steamed rice with salted fish, ginger slices, Chinese greens and enoki mushrooms

Chinese chicken herbal soup

What's cooking inside?

After that, must have dessert lah, kan??? So, this is what's been cooking inside the crock pot all night! Bubur pulut hitam with kacang merah. I like this version better than the pure black glutinous rice.
I still remembered a friend from the States commenting that this dish looked like road kill. LOL! But, after tasting it, he changed his mind. He got hooked on to it! Hahahahaha!!! Itulah, don't judge a book by it's cover! Kan?

BTW, since Malim asked for the soup recipe, here it is.

Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup

1 whole free range chicken (ayam kampung) skinned and cut up. If free range is not available, get a mid-sized chicken and make sure that all the skin and fat is removed.
1 packet of chicken soup herbs (You can probably get this in a Chinese medicinal shop at Chinatown. Try looking for the A1 brand if you can. These are vegetarian products, so, I guess they are halal. I bought mine at Giant's regular shelves. )
20 pcs dried wolfberries (kei chee)
8-10 pitted Chinese red dates
5-6 pcs dried longan fruit

Fill up a medium sized stock pot with enough water to cover the chicken and put to boil.
Once water starts to boil, put in the chicken and let the chicken boil on high fire until all the fat starts to float. This is important to achieve a clear consistency broth. You have to start skimming off the fat from the soup at this point. Skim off as much as you can. This is one of the primary reason why a free range chicken is preferred for Oriental soups. They have very little fat. Once done, put the rest of the ingredients into the pot and simmer under low fire for at least 2 hours. Season with salt to taste and serve hot.

Good luck in trying!

Midnight slave

Wookay!!!! So, the kitchen is open again. Hehehehe.. I thought that since I needed something "nutritious," I decided to make some Chinese herbal chicken soup. Nothing fancy or difficult. So, got the ingredients and decided to make it the night before, so that I don't have to wait for it to cook today. So, dengan gigih nye, I started cutting up the chicken and preparing the herbs at 10pm. At the same time, I decided that I wanted some desert as well. So, masak lah jugak bubur pulut hitam, which was my first attempt. I dumped everything into the crock pot, by the way. After honing both the soups, I took a glimpse at the clock and it was 1 AM!!!!! Hayoooo!!! Masak soup oso that long!!!

So, I cleaned everything up, but the bubur pulut hitam was not even half cooked! I was afraid to leave it overnight after hearing horror stories from my sister saying that she burnt her's pitch black because she left her crock pot on overnight. But since I was too tired to wait, I took the chance by leaving it on (it was "low," of course) and went to bed. Lucky thing this morning, it was totally cooked and it wasn't burned. :-) However, it was a real bitch waking up this morning after slaving over the stove at night. This is worse than the 18th century!!! :-(

Will post the pics here soon. I found back my camera. Blek!

Kitchen closed for the day

Yesterday, I decided to take a break from the kitchen. I figured that there was just too much drama to handle, if I were to attempt another one of my slap stick tactics in the kitchen again. Besides, the day didn't go exactly very well also. Felt like the Big Boss above has either decided to test my almost non-existence patience level, or he wanted to have a little comedy, so as usual he has to pick his celestial court jester (aka moi lah!)

Anyway, by the time I dropped off the materials to my seamstresses, it was already 6pm and I've decided to treat myself at this little Japanese restaurant (can't recall the name since the brain's a little "lembek" this morning) at The Curve. I ordered their chicken Katsu set. Food's not bad (the chicken was a little hard though) on the overall and quite value for money. I would love to start taking pictures for this blog but I've to start looking for my camera. I actually can't recall where I left it. I also lost my thumb drive. Sigh!!!

After that, I went straight to Cine Leisure to catch "The Incredible Hulk, which was quite a rave among my neighbors and friend's opinion. It wasn't bad and I liked the CGI works, which was very realistic. The movie was a non-stop action packed thriller. Only part that was a bit "terpesong" was towards the ending, when "Mr Blue" suddenly became "bad." Also, how did Bruce came into contact with him since he was always on the run? Well, let's wait for the sequel,
shall we?

Another misadventure in the kitchen

Yesterday was definitely not one of my greatest days. I was not in the mood for anything and my mind has just decided to stop functioning. Now I know how it feels to be stupid (if there is such a thing, lah!) Anyways, I ambled myself to Starbucks again for some Java therapy and thought that a change of scenery might do me good. Well, it did perk me up a little but I was still too lazy to do anything else. I should have been on my toes ordering the curtain materials as well as the string curtains for my seamstresses to work on it. The dateline is coming up soon. But alas, I procrastinated again. Seeing that I was not going anywhere with my "self-negotiating"tactics, I decided it was best to just go home and make dinner. I took the chicken chops which were marinated the night before and heated the oven so I can pop them chicks in. Made a side salad with home made honey dijon mustard dressing too. Everything turned out great except..... THE GRAVY!!!!! Hayoooo!!!! How can anyone screw up gravy???? Well, I guess after such a long hiatus from the kitchen, these mis-adventures are bound to happen, kan??? kan??? kan???? BTW, Knorr's Barbeque sauce sucks! Wonder when in the world are they going to replenish those yummy Heinz Barbecue sauce???

hoo hum...

It's one those days again... it's not even the middle of the week and I feel like crawling into a hole and die. It was just last Saturday, I felt like I was on top of the world and today, I feel like the pits. Sigh.... I'm not sure if this is a clear sign of burn out or I am just giving myself lots of excuse because I'm plain lazy. I lose focus so easily nowadays and work don't excite me anymore. It's plain boring stuff now. Wonder how am I going to continue those projects with this attitude. It's bad...it's bad..... what am I to do?????

The kitchen is open

Since the increase in fuel prices, I've decided to revisit the kitchen stove which has been long abandoned (my gas tank is more than 1 year old, ok!) for quite a while. I guess it is a good thing because my stomach has been reduced to a slime producing machine during the time when I decided to hang up the "senduk" and "kuali" for good to eat out everyday, in return for some personal time.

Anyway, after almost a year of not touching the stove, naturally, it takes a while to get used to cooking again. First attempt was really bad. Too much salt on everything. I might as well eat ikan masin and "harm choy." Second attempt was suppose to be easier, since it was Western style grilled chicken. Ended up cleaning the entire kitchen for 3 hours because I came back late and decided the frying pan was faster than the oven. So, go figure what happened to the kitchen floor after the frying pan decided to do a fireworks display. The chicken ended up kinda charred on the outside. I'll call it "Blackened Chicken." Hahahahaha!!!

Yesterday was much better. I've decided to go for Asian again. Fried a fish stuffed with sambal belacan, made some stir fry broccoli and some baked beans. Everything turned out nice. Only annoying thing is cleaning up the stove after that and the smell of fried fish lingering in the kitchen till this morning. Sigh... Whatever it is, it's much better than eating outside and then, having to pop those pills every so often when my stomach decided to do the spin cycle.

Cuti cuti Malaysia!!!

I find this article in The Star Online extremely hilarious but at the same time very real to those who are familiar with people who are from BN Land. Read ahead...

Thursday June 12, 2008

Suffer the children ... of some

BRAVE NEW WORLD
By AZMI SHAROM

Without exotic foreign holidays, life will no longer be the same.

The sun was setting as the Proton Perdana crunched up the gravel driveway of the bungalow on Jalan Kia Peng. The man sitting in the back seat was oblivious to the gentle glow of dusk that bathed the large well-manicured gardens.

His heart felt heavy and his stomach was knotted.

He was going to break their hearts and there was no way out.

“We are here, sir.”

The voice of the driver shook him out of his deep thoughts. With a barely audible grunt of thanks, he stepped out and with leaden feet walked towards the door.

Before he reached it, the huge oak edifices swung open. A small woman in a blue uniform retrieved his suitcase and collected his shoes as he slipped them off. He hardly noticed her, either.

From within the house, there were sounds of a loud X Box game in progress and young children shouting. The man walked into the living room. Expensive Italian furniture was arranged around a 40-inch plasma TV, its sleek modernity a stark contrast to the gaudiness of the sofas and armchairs.

A boy and a girl were transfixed by the screen, watching monsters get beheaded. A woman lounged in an armchair, her diamonds glittering.

“Listen, everybody, I must speak to you,” said the man.

“Not now, Papa, we are reaching level five,” said the boy.

“No, now,” said the man.

The sombre tone of his voice cut through the shrill screams from the video game. The children and the woman looked to the man, their normal indifference suddenly replaced by unfamiliar concern.

Seating himself, the man leaned on his elbows and stared at the floor.

In a voice quivering with barely suppressed emotion, he started to speak.

“Darling, children, I am afraid we can’t go to Orlando Disneyland this year.”

“Where are we going then?” asked the girl. “England? Europe?”

“We can only go to somewhere in Asean.”

The gasps from the family just about drowned out the crack in his voice as he finished his sentence. Then the barrage of questions started. Why? What happened? How can this be?

As the voices rose to a crescendo, the man snapped, tears running down his face as he screamed, “The oil price has gone up and we can’t go on holidays around the world any more!”

“But, darling,” said the woman, “I already told the girls I would bring back for them oranges from Florida. How can I face them in Carcosa at our high tea tomorrow?”

“Papa, you promised Disneyland. I hate you! I hate you!” shrieked the boy as he stormed out of the room.

“Wait, boy!” he called out. “You must try to understand. The whole nation is suffering. We must make sacrifices. It is for the good of the country and for the future.”

But it was too late; the boy had already disappeared into his bedroom. Soon, the sound of heavy rap played at full volume could be heard.

“Oh, darling. Think about the children. How are they going to face their friends at the international school? Where are we going to go on holiday?”

The man wiped away his tears of frustration and held his head as he thought of what to say.

Suddenly, he looked up and with a smile bordering on the maniacal, he said: “What about Singapore? Or we can even go local. Let’s go to A Famosa in Malacca. It’s fun, they have a theme park and an animal and cowboy show. Malaysia Truly Asia! Heh heh heh ...”

His laugh petered out as the girl and the woman stared at him icily, slicing through his forced jollity.

For the longest while, nothing was said. Then the rap music abruptly stopped. The three looked up as the boy walked back to them.

“I understand sacrifice, Papa. And I think I have the solution,” he said.

The family stared at him, hope shining in their eyes. “We can all go to Hong Kong Disneyland!” he exclaimed excitedly.

The man broke down again and buried his face in his hands. Between his gasping sobs, he cried,

“Oh, my son, my poor, poor boy. Don’t you know? Hong Kong is not in Asean.”

“Arrrgghhh!” the boy screamed and ran back to his room, wailing, “I hate you! I hate my life! I want to die!”

The girl, unable to bear the pain any longer, stood up. She loomed over the broken shell that was her father and said, “I know we all have to suffer because of the oil price, Papa. But why do WE have to suffer SO MUCH?” Then she too stalked away.

The man stared into the middle distance.

His pain was almost too much to endure. The only sound in the room was the clinking of his wife’s diamonds as her bosom heaved with racking sobs.

It barely smothered the sound of his shattering heart, for without their exotic foreign holidays, life would never be the same again.

Time management from Mars

I really don't get it with people here... making appointments and keeping up with time doesn't seem to exists here!!! You make appointment with me in the morning and you didn't show up. Now you say, "Let's have the meeting at 4.30pm." Without the slightest regards that I've been waiting for you the entire morning??? This is really fucked up!

Minyak naik lagi

The petrol filling stations were a mad frenzy all over Malaysia when news went buzzing around that the price is going to be jacked up at the stroke of midnight by 40%. You should have seen the queue!!! It was crazy!!! Anyway, to me it's a crisis that can't be helped at this point. But I'm pissed by our Mr "Lah" on how the news was delivered. Sending out the announcement at 6pm yesterday makes you look like a chicken who is is going to piss all over the ground sebab ko nih penakut! Your actions and silly remarks like "telling your rakyat to eat ubi kayu and keledek to substitute the high price of rice" also show how selfish you are. Ko ingat nih masih zaman perang Jepun ker??? Let's see what other stupid remarks you will say. Mebbe I can start a compilation of stupid remarks by Mr Lah and make it a best seller. Blek!!

This is an article that was in The STAR today.

Monday June 2, 2008

Malay students affected

PETALING JAYA: Increasing the quota for non-bumiputras for Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships without increasing the actual number of scholarships has drastically affected the bumiputras, the Umno Youth Education Bureau said.

Its chairman Ahmad Ikmal Ismail said while the bureau agreed with the Government to give more scholarships to non-bumiputras, it did not agree with the way it was done.

“The quota for non-bumiputras has increased from 10% to 45% but the number of total scholarships has remained at 2,000.”

Ahmad Ikmal said this meant that scholarships were being taken from the bumiputras to be given to the non-bumiputras.

“We object to this move because it now means that 700 scholarships for bumiputra students are gone,” he said.

Ahmad Ikmal said a better way would be to use the New Economic Policy concept to increase the number of total scholarships. He said this was to ensure that the bumiputras were not affected and the non-bumiputras would get even more opportunities.

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When will they ever learn that PSD scholarships are meant for deserving students, regardless of race and religion background???? When will this racial game ever end??? Why can't anything be done based on merit alone??? We're back to square one with morons sitting on these positions.