First post in 2009

Happy new year!

I hope it's not too late to wish you all that.

I don't actually celebrate new year, though. To me it's just another day gone by. The only thing new is... Calendar. Everything else is pretty much the same.

I have been coping with the dull weeks trying to find the right mood for work. Luckily, I got it with the arrival of January. At least people are back from their holiday and I can feel the crowd again.
But now.... I want my holiday!
I really really want my holiday!
I miss everyone in Bandung.
I miss the foods in Bandung.
I miss driving.
I miss Bandung.

Only one problem!
It's Chinese New Year holiday on 26-27 this month. In my team, 4 out of 7, who worked under the same supervisor are applying for their leave. They're Chinese, for sure they're celebrating the Chinese New Year. I wonder if my boss would grant my leave application considering the fact that he'll only have 1 staff to work. Let's just hope so. That's why I have been so energized doing my work. I want everything to be done before the end of next week, just in case i can get my leave then I can go without leaving so much work undone.

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.