Dull weeks

It's been a quiet month.

Christmas holiday, new year holiday.

Everybody seems to be on leave. Vendors are on leave, purchasing officers are on leave. Unfortunately, I'm not on leave.



Can somebody tell me just how to find the good mood for work during the last two weeks of my December?

Ah yes, can somebody also tell me how to recover from the holiday mood after that?

P.S: There will be 9 (yes, NINE!) long weekends during the year 2009 here in Singapore! Horay to that!!! *Need to schedule my holiday(s)*

Don't wait two weeks to do your ironing

The I-hate-sweeping-the-floor problem is solved with the presence of a new vacuum cleaner... yayy!!

But, unfortunately the ironing problem is remain unsolved... *sigh*

See this...

That's a four days laundry hanging to dry, and a two weeks clothes need to be ironed. And that is even after I sort out some clothes that don't need to be ironed.

Do you know how long did it take for me to finish them all?

Well, after one episode of Desperate Housewife, Private Practice, and Grey's Anatomi... I managed to finish it!


Finally they all are neat, smooth and ready to wear.

.... and I was sleepy all day the next day at work.

My very first steam chocolate cake

I present you...
The very first cake I have ever made without anyone as a mentor around.

Steam chocolate cake.
Tadaaaaa...!!!



It is very easy to make this cake. The taste is good! I mean, really good! (to my taste, that is). And the most important thing of all, neither mixer nor oven are required to make this cake! Yayy!! ...considering the fact that I dont have those two things in my kitchen.

Get the recipe in si tukang nyampah's cooking blog.

I hate sweeping the floor

I hate sweeping the floor, because:

I have to do it with all the windows closed and the fan off, otherwise the already-swept dust would fly here and there as if it has wings, and i hate it when that happen, i mean reealllyy hate it.
I will start sneezing due to the flying dust around me.
Because the fan is turned off, that means i would be soaking wet in sweat doing this tiring floor sweeping.

That's why I need vacuum cleaner now.

Sometimes I miss all the times I had when I was not working

I salute all of you out there who are a working mom.

I'm not a working mom, at least not yet. I'm working, married, but no children yet. Even now I found it is not easy keeping up with house chores while I'm working full time 6 days a week. I can't imagine what to do when I finally have a baby... *hopefully soon, though*

Sometimes I miss all the times I had when I was not working. I can do whatever I want, I can have 'me' time, I can go here and there whenever I want. I can do the house chores without having to rush it just because there won't enough time to do all of it. Beside I have the whole week. I can choose to do my laundry today, and do the ironing tomorrow or the day after, or the day after. I can do the clean up and mopping today or tomorrow, or two days later. I can plan to cook this or that at a second and then shopping for the ingredients the next second, and even cook it right away the next second. I have all the freedom of when to do what. *At this point, I think I love doing house chores*

But not now. I practically only have Saturday and Sunday to do house chores like sweeping and mopping the floor, ironing, grocery shopping, etc. I have to sneak in the rest of the chores into my daily schedule. Every two or three days I have to do the laundry, which I usually do at night, or at dawn right after my morning pray. Bye-bye to hanging all my laundry under the bright sunshine which i love so much. I don't do the ironing regularly anymore. I just do it whenever i want to, or whenever the clothes are piled up too high my laundry basket can no longer hold them in it (that equals to 2 weeks without ironing). Sweeping and mopping the floors is out of question to be done at night after work. Too tired for that, or maybe just too lazy to do that.
I don't cook anything too complicated anymore. Every cook is just a simple, a quick-and-easy-to-prepare one. Instant spaghetti, instant cream of chicken soup, instant pizza, sausage, and of course instant noodles are the must-always-available items. Sometimes I feel guilty to MR about this.. :P

So.. how do I cope with all that?

Well, on Saturday/Sunday I cook A LOT!
I prepare half-done cooked chicken, keep it in the fridge, ready to be fried any time. The good thing is, the chicken can last verrryyy long time in the fridge, up to one month. I have never tried if it more than a month.
I prepare beef stock, lots of it, put it in several plastic bags, freeze them. Then I can just take out one bag whenever I want to make a soup.
I buy lots of fish, season them, and freeze them. After thawing, they're ready to be fried or grilled.

That is how i deal with cooking problems.

But there's another problem.
Most weekend is well spent outside the house! After a week of not going anywhere except to work, we just crave for some fun: shopping, photo hunting, gathering with friends, etc etc etc. This means, weekend is as unreliable as weekdays for me to do house chores. Doh!

Oh, well... I got dizzy just to think of what to do about it. So, I just let it be... :D. I'll do whatever i need to do, whenever i need to do it.


Note to myself:
Need to buy a vacuum cleaner to solve the tiring task of sweeping the floor and cleaning up furniture of a week (sometimes even two) long dust accumulation.

Tempura party and butter sauce chicken

I share you...



...tempura party and butter sauce chicken


>>Tempura batter
2 cups of rice flour
1 egg yolk
cold water
Mix them all together until all lumps are gone.

Roll shrimp/spinach onto rice flour, dip it in the batter, and then deep fry it.


>>Butter sauce chicken
Season 0.5kg chicken with 1tbs salt, 1tbs pepper, 1/2tbs garlic, 1/4 tbs nutmeg.
Put it in the fridge for at least one hour (i usually leave it overnight)
Fry the chicken.
Prepare another wok, heat it up.
Put 1 teaspoon of oil and about 3 tablespoon of butter, melt it.
Stir fry some yellow onion until fragrant, put the chicken in, mix them well, add about 2tbs sweet soya sauce, mix well.

Crocs Sale

This post is a delayed post. I was going to blog it last week but.. well,.. due to this and that and so many other reasons I didn't.

It's the Crocs sale.

I bet some of you now are smiling while saying... "sale freak". :)

At first, there was crocs sale on the 1st and 2nd of December. But that sale was just a small one carried on some kind of a hallway of some office building. So you can imagine: small space, maybe 5x2m office alley, with so many people all cramped inside digging up these knee high boxes filled with crocs products, they were soaking wet in sweat because there were no proper aircons (it was saturday and sunday, i guess they didn't put the AC for such crowd). The sale price then was around 50% off. I went there on the first day and didn't buy anything.... fortunately....

... because Crocs was having a sale again on 14-16 November.... yayy!!!

That time, it was a more decent one: the sale was in Expo, occupying 1 hall. And now, they reduced the price even more, up to 80%. I remembered I was planning to buy Mary Jane Crocs at the first sale and the price was SGD27.00. On the second sale in Expo, Maryjane costed only SGD20.00, and i think they even lowered it to SGD15.00 on the last day. Crazy! I can't imagine how did the people who buy Crocs on the first sale feel... :P

As a sale freak... *cough*... of course I voluntarily presented myself, and my husband, on the sale. I came on the second day, and I had to join a very long queue just to get inside the hall. It was a 1 hour long queue. After I got in, picked up this and that, I had to queue again to make payment... and this one was a 2 hours queue. I thought each of us were going to buy 2 pairs, max. It turned out that i went home with 3 pair (Cleo, Alice, Troika Womens), and 1 pair (Off Road) for my husband. Well, at least the total was still 4 pairs, right... haha!


This is the queue to get in on my first day there. The queue became so long and the weather were not friendly so the officers had to move the queue into the hall next to the event's hall. Thank God for that.


The queue to make payment, and the crowd in the background.

Here are the victims of our first day at the sale.

In this picture: 3 pairs are mine, 1 pair is my husband's, 2 pairs are my mother in law's and my nephew's, the rest are my housemate's.

(My) total damage: SGD135.00 to get 6 pairs of Crocs.

Second day... we decided to go there again because I want to buy the Cleo sandals for my mother. So there we were. Kind of fed up with all the foot wear, we turned our head to... the apparels. Oh my God, it was also crazy price...adult apparels: SGD8.00 for long sleeves, and SGD5.00 for short sleeves. Kids apparels were reeaallyyy good and veerryy cheap: SGD9.00 for 3 pcs. I think I would have had a panic buying if I already have children. I was sooo eager of buying those cute kid's clothing, I called my friend if she want some for her son... :P .. So, second day, I ended up with 10 pcs of clothes: 2 for me, 2 for my husband, 3 for my nephew. Total damage: SGD38.00 to get 7pcs of clothes.

Oh well... that's another sale freak story of mine...
I love Singapore for these kind of sales... :D

Changi Boardwalk to Changi Beach

Maybe that's why...

Global financial crisis...

No, i'm not trying to get serious here and talk about why or how it is happening. I don't consider myself knowledgeable for that. I'll talk about something else.

Here in Singapore, the news has been about how the government expect companies to do retrenchment, if they have to, as the last resort. Cutting down some costs is preferred than retrenchment. To my understanding, it can also mean lowering salary for their employees.

Then, I ask myself these questions:
How would I react if I got my salary cut off?
How would I react if I got retrenched?
How would I react if my husband also got retrenched?

Things are different when you are working in your own country. But, if you are a foreigner, and become jobless because of retrenchment... things can get scary.

It is a good thing that we are not working in an industry. Then we don't need to worry so much about retrenchment, remembering the fact that my husband and I are both foreigner here in Singapore.

Maybe that's why...

So many people out there are having a hard life even long before the global crisis. And things must have gotten worse now for them. I'm just really grateful that my husband and I still have my job without any cut off in our salary, we can still pay our bills or even go shopping to any sale in town, and everything.

I have to be grateful with what I have. So, to show my gratitude, now i have to go back to work ... :D

Cats Legacy

I don't feel like writing anything lately. So I'll just post pictures of cats. I cannot say that they are my cats since I don't take any part in taking care any of them. But I do know them ^_^


This is Buna. She's the kitten in my home in Bandung. My sister and my brother have been taking good care of her. 'Buna' is actually a short form from 'BUNtelan Air', it means 'water bag', literally. She's been called Buna because she's so fat for a 2 months old kitten, just like a water bag. :p



This kitten still hasn't got any name. Let's call her number 1. She's my-brother-in-law's cat.



This is number 1's brother. Let's call him number 2. Sorry, also still no name yet.



Now, she is a step sister of number 1 and number 2. Cat's life can also be so complicated, huh! (LOL)
Number 1, number 2, and their step sister are living in my husband's house, also in Bandung.



This is Bojes Samsudin. Ooh! What a name! (LOL). He's the father of Buna, and he's sooooo big.
I forgot to take photo of Buna's mother.



This little missy here is my friend's cat. Well, it's actually friend-of-the-sister-of-my-brother-in-law's cat (not the same brother in law who owns number 1 and number 2). I bet you are now reading very slowly trying to understand friend-of-the-sister-of-my-brother-in-law's.... (LOL). I forgot her name, i mean the cat.



This is my-brother-in-law's-sister's cat. I forgot her name also, i still mean the cat.

Enjoy!

I love cats!

MIT Open Courseware

Free Online MIT Open Course Materials | Aeronautics & Astronautics
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Aeronautics-and-Astronautics/index.htm

Chained to a bunkbed with a velociraptor?

I could survive for 32 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

1 second, 10 seconds, 32 seconds, 10 minutes.... You'll die anyway... (LOL)

Live Crab Made in China

People can make crabs now?
Can someone teach me how?
Is there a machine for it?


(LOL)

From Bandung, part 2

Food.... food... glorious food...!!!




Bubur Ayam H. Amid, Jl. Padjajaran, Bandung
(Chicken Porridge)




Bakso Malang Mandeep, Jl. Citarum, Bandung
(Malang style meatballs)




Tahu Sumedang, Sumedang.
(Sumedang style fried tofu)




Pangandaran Seafood.




Sate Kambing Pak Gino, Jl. Sunda, Bandung
(Mutton satay)




Lomie Jl. Imam Bonjol, Bandung




.... dan gurilem.


We didn't get the chance to eat:
- Mie Bakso Akung, Jl. Lodaya, Bandung
- Bebek goreng Jl. Holis, Bandung
- Pempek Pak Raden, Jl. Dipatiukur, Bandung
- Daeng Tata Makasar Food, Jl. Setiabudhi, Bandung.
- etc etc etc... *so many I can't even remember anymore*

Due to Hari Raya holidays, they were all still close until our last day in Bandung.
Well, all the more reasons to come to Bandung again... :)

Handwriting personality

Just for fun... ^_^

I took the "handwriting personality" quiz on gURL.com
		my handwriting personality is... sensitive scripter Your handwriting reveals you as a thoughtful, intellectual type who avoids fake people and places where there's lots of noise and crowds. You're probably the one people go to when they're feeling super sad and don't run off at the mouth unless someone hounds you for your opinion. Being creative is probably easy for you, but expressing it in front of a large group is not. You might write in a blog or journal, enjoy things that are old-fashioned or obscure and (maybe) don't get most pop culture references (who cares about 'em anyway?). What does your handwriting reveal about you?

From Bandung, part 1

As promised, here are some interesting pictures I took while I was in Bandung during the last Hari Raya holiday.

Now, does anybody know what is the meaning of 'Kawasan 7 titik'? There is this big sign right on Jalan Merdeka Bandung, one of the busiest street where one of the most visited mall is located: BIP. The sign says: "Anda memasuki kawasan 7 titik" (It's roughly translated as 'You are entering the 7 points/spots area' in English), signed by Sat.Pol. Kota Bandung. My first reaction when i saw that sign was, of course as you can easily guessed: "What the heck is Kawasan 7 titik?" There was no explanation whatsoever anywhere near it. OK, may be there has been some kind of a socialization about it. Since I no longer live in Bandung, it was no wonder that I know nothing about it. So I asked my friends and family who are living in Bandung. And you know what they say about it? Yup, as you can easily guessed (again): they have no clue about it either. *sigh*

I googled it, and found this link. (The site is in Bahasa Indonesia).

Apparently, 'kawasan 7 titik' is what they say for a... err.. I'm not sure how to say this in English, but it is something like a pilot project for neatness in a special area.

Anyway, my point is, there is this big sign in the middle of hustle bustle of Bandung City, but most of us do not know anything what the meaning of this sign. How can that be? Well, maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe it's just me, and some people around me like my family, my friends who don't know about this. Maybe we just don't update ourselves to what happen around us. Maybe... who knows... :P

(it's kinda hard to talk about this in English, maybe I will blog about it again some other time in Bahasa Indonesia)

Look at that. Waste is still a problem... a big problem I may say... in my lovely city of Bandung. This picture was taken early in the morning around Pasar Simpang in Dago. It's a common view there every morning, and around all wet market in Bandung. Usually by 8 or 9 am, the mountain of garbage is no longer there.
Hmm... it's actually a good opportunity to start a disposal management company. Is anyone interested?

That's all about Bandung. No matter what, I still love Bandung ^_^

I will blog about some (street) food in Bandung later.






P.S: The two pictures are taken by my new red SE G900. Yup! I got one now! With good camera on it, i can now snapshot just about anything interesting that i find along my way. The SE G900 is now officially out of my wishlist. Yayy!!

Post-Holiday Syndrome

*sigh*

Ten days off of work was not enough. I still find myself in a holiday mood.

But let's face it: it's over. I must immediately return to reality, in Singapore that is; living my very own life.

Sad... but a relieve.
I love Bandung, but I have to admit that I have my own problems in Bandung, problems that I don't have to deal with when I'm in Singapore.
I don't miss Singapore while in Bandung, and I don't miss Bandung while in Singapore. I guess I'm in a state where I can consider Singapore as my home now. Beside Bandung.

In Bandung, I never cook. Either my mom, or my mother in law did that for us. Or, MR and I simply just went out to have our meals. I was sooo comfortable with that, it took me 4 days to gather my consciousness that I had to go shop for groceries and must cook our meals.

Anyway...
Life must go on, right.

After a week back to work, I think I have my working spirit back.

*but not my blogging spirit*

I have so many things to tell about the holiday, photos to share. Let's see if I have enough time to do that later.

In the mean time, I'm welcoming myself back to blogging ^_^

Eid Mubarak

Off to Bandung

Tomorrow I will be off to Bandung! Yayy... my lovely hometown. I'll be taking 8 days leave starting tomorrow. I'm so excited about this holiday.

Maaaaa... here i come...~~~!

Facebook, Din?

Argh... another social network. Really, other than plurk, I don't enjoy spending my time on Friendster or Facebook.

I have an account in Friendster since like around the first time it was up on the net. But that's it. I don't explore it much other than adding some friends or approving other friend's invitation. I can't deny that it's a good way to keep in contact with your old friends.

Then came the era of Facebook.
Geez, do i also need to have an account on Facebook? Really, so far I still cannot enjoy a social network site. Not even if it has so many applications like Facebook has. My Friendster account is left abandoned most of the time. It was lucky if it can make me log in for just once in a month.

Well, I finally signed up on Facebook. Why? Because I made a friend signed up on Plurk. So in return, I signed up on Facebook because she had been asking whether I have a Facebook account yet. And now, she's as addicted to Plurk as I am, but I'm still the old me who can not enjoy Facebook. Haha..!

Actually, it is kind of a relieve that I don't enjoy Friendster/Facebook that much. Otherwise, it will take up most my time at the office. Plurk alone is enough to make me busy spending my (so-called) spare time.

You and Me

Always when we fight, I try to make you laugh
Til everything's forgotten, I know you hate that
Always when we fight, I kiss you once or twice
And everything's forgotten, I know you hate that
(The Wannadies - You and Me Song)

18sept2008

I have been leaving this blog without any update for almost one month.

I just stared blankly to my monitor thinking hard about what to write in my blog.

I have been working full time 5 days a week for one month.

Have my life become so boring......

Or is just that I am too lazy to post anything...

.
.
.
OK... let's just hit it.

It's Ramadhan. I always like to have my Ramadhan here in Singapore, this is my fourth. I have blogged about it before. And as I said, having my Ramadhan in Singapore is amazing! Don't ask me why because I cannot explain it specifically. Back in Bandung, you cannot miss the Ramadhan atmosphere: billboard signs, TV programs, everyday life are all related to Ramadhan. Plus, I do my fasting along with many other moslem majority. Compare all that to here in Singapore; the atmosphere is just not there. But yet, i feel it even stronger. I just love it.

But there is a difference between last year and this year Ramadhan. The last time, I did not work full time other than being a full time housewife. But this year I work full time and have to follow office hours: 8.30am-6.00pm. You know what that means? 5 days a week I have less sleep than usual. And that makes me very sleepy during the day.

The good news is... I will have my leave next week. 2 weeks of holiday! Yaayy!! I am so excited, I can hardly wait for next week to come. In fact, I am planning to start packing tonight. Do you think it's too much? Haha... i don't care anyway. I will have my Hari Raya Idul Fitri in Indonesia, around my beloved family.

Well... happy fasting to all moslem sisters and brothers out there.

^_^

A warm morning surprise from my housemates:

A BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Thanks to Ipeh & Saras ^_^

2008 Singapore NDP Show

OK, I know i said that i have planned to upload a few pictures from the last Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) show. So here they are.

Ridha and I had been planning to watch the NDP show since a month before. Our main purpose was to hunt for fireworks pictures. The show was scheduled to start at 6.45pm. But we knew that we had to be in the best spot for taking fireworks photos few hours earlier. At 1pm we got to Raffles City. We met our friends there to discuss where the best spot would be. While we had our lunch, we took some pictures from our friends office. I forgot what floor it was, but we can have a clear view to The Padang (but not the Marina).


Singapore Flag on The Padang. Some volunteers were going sit don on it and form the crescent moon and stars in the flag. We didn't stick around long enough to wait until the formation was complete. So, this picture is all we got.


Can you see a triangular grassland across the lake behind the tall buildings on the left side of the picture? We decided that that was the best spot. We would be far enough from the fireworks and be able to catch some fireworks reflection on the water surface. But check those heavy clouds. Ouch! We were worried about the weather. It could be raining anytime. But of course, we surely hoped not.

So off we went to our photographing spot. We had to be there soon, otherwise all the spaces would be gone. You know what? We were not the only ones who thought that that spot was the best spot. Many people were already there when we got there. I can say, mostly were photographers: be it pros, or amateurs, like us. And it was only 3pm; over 3 hours away from the show. Remember the heavy clouds? They were still there, except that they brought their bright-and-burning-hot sun friend along. Ridha had to put on some sunblocks so he wouldn't get sunburned.


We found our spot, then we set a 'camp' No, i'm kidding. It was not really a camp. We were just making sure that we had enough space for setting up our tripod, and for sitting down.


Nearing the show, the clouds got heavier. We were pretty sure the rain was coming. And we were right. It was raining, not so hard though. But it was enough to make us reconsider whether we would keep our plan go on. Some of us gave up. Some stayed. We stayed. And we were glad we did. The sky were clearing, the clouds are gone. The usual beautiful sky just after the rain.

Here are some from the shows.

Kites

Huge Singapore flag flown over the marina

The Black Knight air show

I don't know what those are. Some kind a birdie balloon with lights in it.

Fireworks

And lots of fireworks

All pictures are by Ridha.
More pictures can be seen here.