Last year I made resolutions for the first time in my life…listing out items that I would like to finish in the 365 days. Now that it is the end of my time limit….how did I do? Well, let’s see…

Home
To finish decorating the house to resemble a home. To plot escape route and possibly move countries. Two totally contradicting resolutions, but it will be either one or the other.
To plant a tree and start a brand new garden. Planting my friends’ favourite plants and flowers always reminds me of them,if you want to be reminded, tell me what your flower is!

Result: Finished decorating (somewhat) but now no chance to escape at all. Planted a cherry tree but no chance of a new garden.

Self
To lose 5+kg and return to the gym. Start Yoga lessons to correct posture and internal peace
To make an effort to go out more often and love my friends more.To appreciate the friends I keep and cease-and-desist those not worth keeping (like slash and burn). To get over the sickening feeling of homesickness.

Result: More like +10kg. Never saw the inside of a gym. Started Pilates classes, but that quickly went to pot when the instructer keeps failing to turn up. Slash and burn worked.

Hobbies
To make salt dough creations. Finish my origami book with all it’s examples.Take massage classes. Cook proper Malaysian dishes instead of the same old easy student-y dishes. Conquer the art of making Nasi Lemak. Take more photos and get a SLR for more hobbyist shots.

Result: Salt dough did not go further than buying a book. Origami book is still in progress. Am now a qualified Indian Head Massage practitioner.Cooking wise, I had vastly improved over the past 365 days, and have grown to be very adventurous ingreddients wise. I had learn to trust my tingling tastebuds when imagining recipies. Made Nasi Lemak amongst other things. Got an SLR but life got in the way of taking more pictures.

Travel
Would be happy in Ibiza (target time - April). Or if ££ permitting, Phuket with the girls and boy. Get to Glastonbury in end June. Bring parents around UK in July.A longer trip back to KL - preferably with an island break.

Result: Done Ibiza in May. Got to Glastonbury in June and came back nearly in tears with the endless rain. Parents never arrived in the UK. Did not make it back to KL in 2007, but I did get to Prague in August. Did not do much of UK, did not even make it to London at all this year which is outrageous

Career
To find a career that I really want. Do not succumb to work related stress. To develope a more zen-like approach at work.Make more friends at work, irregardless if I move or not.To have a proper saving account instead of splashing it all out on the house and touring the world. Pay off all house-related debts - other than mortgage and car

Result: Move jobs twice.Now in something that I believe I can remain content in for some time to come, which is encouraging. All the hard work of job hunting has come to an end at last after nearly a whole year. Getting better at friends-at-work thing.I had a proper savings account, which had dwindled to near nothingness in the past two weeks. Blame it on xmas spluge, visa price & after Christmas sales. And not to mention my tickets to KL for Feb. Sigh. However, finance wise should look up next year as Bacon would have gotten a 40% pay rise from his current salary.

And here’s wishing a happy & succesful New 2008 to everyone!!!!!

And I nearly forgot. The word settlement in my passport scares me to no end - does indefinate leave to remain means I am indefinately stuck here in rainy england?

In a way, receiving my ‘official’ status puts me in a more comfortable position in this nanny state. It enables me to claim benefits, or go on social security…not like I ever would. But if I had kids, I would be able to claim child relief, and if I ever become unemployed I would be able to claim benefits as well. This sticker would also enable me to pay a very low price for classes that I would want to take in university - at last, resident prices rather than the ubiquitious ‘International Student’ fees that most of us were made to fork up during our university days.

Do I feel any different? No, not really. But I do feel safer…at least I have a chance to claim on the exhorbitant tax that I pay -somewhat like insurance?

So yea…one more step closer to being ‘English’

Santa certainly arrived in our household…

Tiffany’s Paloma Picasso’s Loving heart pendant

….and matching earrings

I love bacon, do you? And no, I did not pick them myself, it was hidden in my santa. Funnily enough,two weeks ago, I did sign for it when it arrived as I was outside when the postman arrived .Bacon nearly fainted when he saw he holding a package and snatched it away from me..:).

Ahh…season of giving and all that nonsense. Online shops have started their clearance sales ith 50% off all gifts - trick is you don’t get it until the new year, rendering it obsolete as a chrismas present. Just makes me feel a tad prissy; so I will be buying gifts for myself now online. Yes, consumerism is the death of Christmas..

Making most of the food to be served tomorrow today so that I get a little time to myself tomorrow to just graze on snacks. Aren’t I clever. Bear in mind that this is the first time I am making all parts of a Christmas dinner myself being one of the brats the grew up with maids; my menu for tomorrow is:

Starter
Glass noodle salad with mixed seafood

Mains
Turkey with sausagemeat stuffing & bacon wrapped sausages and hotdogs
Baked marmalade ham
Brussels sprouts
Mashed carrot & swede
Roast king edward potatoes
Mulled wine red cabbage

Dessert
Christmas pudding with brandy custard and cream (store bought)

Menu with pictures to follow after Christmas. Let’s hope I don’t blow it k! Have a great Christmas all, remember, Christmas sales starts on 26th December!!!!

Have a purrfect Christmas!

When I was younger, Dong Zhi, or Tang Chek in Hokkien, was one of the very few times in the year when I was allowed to play with dough. Since moving to this lovely grey and dark country, it now symbolizes the end of the everlasting dark nights. Known as the Winter Solstice,because of the earth’s tilt, earth’s hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and therefore:daylight is the shortest today.

Days then gets longer by about a minute every day,and this goes on until the Summer Solstice, which is the longest day in the year. There is still 24 hours in a day, but with more sunlight as opposed to more darkness. The sun has been setting around 4pm everyday and this had depressed me to no end, as I regularly go for a few days without seeing the sun at all..:(.

The origins of this festival can be traced back to the Yin and Yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in. Round glutinious rice balls seeped in sweet syrup are eaten in celebration of the winter solstice, symbolizing family reunions popular for this festival.

I must admit that it has been some time since I’ve made them myself, preferring to buy frozen ones from the supermarket. However, in the spirit of my me-can-cook, this year I made the more traditional plain ones and the cantonese-styled peanut butter stuffed version popularly available in Hong Kong dessert shops. This was heavily influenced by bacon, who had developed a liking for the peanut butter dessert - just like reeses’ peanut butter cups.

Ingreddients
syrup
2 screwpine leaves (pandan), knotted
2-3 piece of medium rock sugar,
1 liter water

dough
1 cup water
2 cup glutinious rice flour
1tsp olive oil
1tbs sugar

Boil ingreddients for the syrup on a low fire.

Mix ingreddients in a mixing bowl, adding flour as needed. The mixture is of the right consistency when it sticks to the spoon and does not drip down.

Add flour, if needed, to ensure that mixture is not too wet.

Divide dough into bowls, mixing in food coloring. Traditionally, red or pink is used to symbolize prosperity

With a lump of dough between your palms, roll to a smooth, round shape. Coat palms and plate with four so that dough does not stick

For filling, follow similar instructions, but with a larger piece of dough. Flatten out, drop a dollop of peanut butter, and seal. Roll the ball to keep the shape.

Once all dough is utilised, drop the balls into the now-boiling syrup mixture.

Leave boiling for about 5 minutes, by which all the balls should be floating, which means they are cooked

Serve a few balls with enough syrup to cover

Ahhh….I’ve missed plain,chewy Ee(round in hokkien)

Because I am.

All presents bought and prettily wrapped up, with bacon’s present of a dishwasher arriving tomorrow. Bacon’s been apparently hiding my presents from me under his underpants. Christmas day menu all drawn up and house all decorated. Having a mini fake tree this year as I can’t stand cleaning after dropping pines this year.

and mooiness had received his pressie

so have sen hon, who had dissapeared into his closet to enjoy his pepperami.

My favourite glass bauble from habitat

We bought this from the Sunday market at the Rock @ Sydney…

Tell me the back of it does not look like an mini durian!!!

This Friday I’m off to the visa office to palm £950 off them and hopefully will return with a permanent visa - therefore no more trips to the home of the Beatles and Cavern Club @ Liverpool. I am going to try to get on the yellow duck marine though..hehe

…ago I woke up to find both my parents had dissapeared,WITH luggage

I remember tapping my mother’s stomach to feel the kick

I remember the michelin man arms that didn’t go away until he was 7. You had to scrub between the cracks

I remember being extremely annoyed for the next 10 years of my life as everything he does its because ‘he is too young’

I rememeber his first steps…drooling away in his nappy

And he gets a present for his birthday AND mine as well

And I had to share my room with him because he was ‘too young to sleep alone’. Basket..

But there it is. Today my little bro turns 22.

Wahliao.

You know, sometimes you disagree with someone and its like waiting for an accident to happen?

From the very beginning I knew bacon wanted the big move, which completely leaves us without a doubt that we will be living here forever and ever and ever. Extreme depression. However, after my fiasco with my previous job, I know, better than anyone, that the money is not really everything. With the offer to move, he 100% believes that he will be happy in the new company. It does not help that the boss for the internal promotion do not see him with the adoration and admiration that his current bosses does…..what can you do, it’s all about the love and the internal move will remove that for him. I’ve told him, if he’s not careful he will one day end up like the dead pastor in philiphines who married the adoring girl 40 years his junior. Adored, and then assasinated.

So yes, bacon dear will be divorcing his company (irregardless of all that advice we gave him!!) of 11 years. In a way I am proud that he has the balls to leave everything he has and go for what he ‘thinks’ is his dream job. I had always think of him as mr. reliably stable, but this sudden change of ballsy-ness had obviously proven me wrong :). In another way I am so afraid that 5 years down the line he will he so bored with no direction in his career. Or worse, jobless.

With me preaching that happiness should be at a premium vs incoming £££, I just cannot stop someone who had already made up his mind where his happiness lays.Hypocritical I am not. Besides, I want to move to Hong Kong, not him;).

So all we can do now is wish him luck, and hopes he ends up earning enough to enable me more red stilettoes with matching bags.

PS: Btw, new job came with a renewed offer this morning, more ££ to cover his lost opportunity of subsidies and share options. So yes, now I can honestly say that I feel finacially secure

Interview’s gone well, so now he’s offered the both jobs. Oh jeeze…

However, the promotion is a better pay than is offered by the new company, so this itself kinda kicks the new company out of the way. And a secondment from old to new is impossible now, as it would techinically be a pay cut; promotion of course pays more than a secondment based on current job role. So that rules out the secondment for the moment.

I am picking the promotion within current company,but his now ex-boss has gone to see whether she can offer him more money or not.Sigh…which makes things complicated, as the way I see it, he should stay no matter what, UNLESS she offers him a pay rise the amount of my annual salary (just let me dream on ok…).SIGH. Men…cannot decide.

So yeah…we are currently just taking a break from the endless discussion re: jobs.Let me know what you guys think; he’s just so undecided that we will probably do a secret poll on everyone’s opinion on what he should do at tomorrow’s big family bash!!

Please, release me from this misery;). Otherwise we would be discussing this non stop until tuesday. I think I need to go shopping to celebrate…red stilettoes..

Guess what we had for dinner on Sunday? After spending 3 hours in the kitchen sunday afternoon, I was rewarded by the lovely smell of boiling prawns and pork rib premating throughout the house. Actually, it’s not as nice as it sounds, boiling prawns tend to smell like boiling ham yue (salted fish). And my first blended chilli paste worked out amazingly well, way better than the bottled chilli paste you can buy off the shelf…and more expensive too as shallots are a rare commodity here.

You might remember the last time I tried making this dish - and failed miserably because I cheated. Well, last friday I had an unscratchable itch for prawn mee, and I just HAD to HAVE it. So I came back into town on Saturday and bought a block of frozen head-on prawns. Imported from thailand, naturally. Fresh head on tiger prawns bought in the supermarkets would have costed 3x more than frozen thai ones. Dug my freezer for pork ribs reserved for bah kut teh and we were good to go…well, I had to wait overnight for it all to defrost, which had me salivating over a block of frozen prawns late saturday night.

Ingreddients -

broth
1.5pounds pork ribs
Prawn shells & head, 1lb
3 liter water
Fish sauce
sugar to taste (be careful here, a little goes a long way)

Chilli paste (to blend)
30 dried chilli, deseeded
1 big onion, sliced
10 shallots
3 clove garlic
2 tbs water

Dry ingreddients
1/2 portion rice noodle (soaked in hot water)
1/2 portion egg noodle (quickly blanched)
beansprouts
Kangkung (morning glory/Water spinach)
boiled egg, sliced
sliced pork rib meat
cooked prawns
deepfried shallot flakes to top

Shell and devein prawns. Set prawn meat aside and clean the shells and heads

Pork ribs and prawn shells then are boiled to extract the taste. This should then be left to simmer for at least 2 hours

Whilst simmering, start preparing chilli paste ingreddients.Get someone to deseed the chilli for you;bacon was in pain for the whole day after deseeding 40 chillies. Blend until smooth.

Heat up 3tbs oil in work. Sautee the blended chilli paste for a couple of minutes to release aroma.

Once done, set chilli paste aside. Add half of the chilli paste from earlier into the boiling broth, leaving the remaining paste to add as you wish individually upon serving.

With the remains in the wok, sautee the prawns. This is very important, as it gives it a distinctive kick when the prawns soaks up the remainder of the chilli. Yummy eaten with rice only as well at this point.

Dish out dry ingreddients on bowl. You usually blanch the noodles in boiling water just before serving, but I use the vietnamese method of scooping the soup into the bowl, drain, and rescoop.It works just as well.

You can also blanch the beansprouts and morning glory before adding as well, but I like my vegs crunchy, so I don’t pre-blanch it. One plus point for making this at home is that I can use as much beansprouts as I like! I hate asking for ‘keh tau geh’, cause the hawkers don’t charge for veggies,and they’d stare at you funny when you ask for only extra veggies. I think usually they just ignore my extra veggie request.

Sieve the broth and remove all the prawn heads and shells. Slice the pork ribs. At this point,you can also skim the orangey oily surface of the broth.

Blend the prawn shells and heads to a very smooth paste and add to the boiling broth. At this point, bacon came trotting down to the kitchen wondering why is the blender on. His face blanched when I told him we were having pureed prawn shells, and my lovely prawn puree went down the bin as he threatened not to have anything if I were to add the shells to the broth. Hehe. So that was the end of the blended shell. I had a little taste before throwing the lot away, and it tasted really rich and yummy. So please add the puree into your soup - the hawkers do anyway.

I believe this was one of my better efforts :D. Hokkien mee from scratch - whoever would have thought I had it in me? When I told my mother, she did not actually believed me.HAHAAHAHAH!

One more time…heh.

Ahh. Because I made a whole pot, I have some left for tonight’s dinner. With tempretures hovering at around 3c, this will be a very welcomed treat when I get home tonight…