…is now blooming in my garden!

After a slight scare of not having any blossoms at all last year on the cherry tree (although, we DID only plant it last year), this year it seems to be doing much better. Slightly dissapointed that it turned out to be white blooms instead of the bright pink ones that I have been seeing on other cherry trees, but hopefully the cherries will be sweet and ripe in July!

Somehow I think cherry blossoms here are slightly later than Japan’s sakura season - or is that plum blossoms??

Rice, as we all know, is an Asian thing. Rice noodle, rice flour, fried rice, rice porridge, glutunious rice…the list goes on. The one thing that I could never get used to is sweeten rice - and in Malaysia this comes in the guise of pulut hitam.

Rice pudding is a traditional dessert here in the UK, something that I had always sworn off. Hey, I rather go for a trifle anytime if you ask me. Strangely enough, it can also be eaten warm or cold. Bacon made this once, and it consists of milk,rice, milk,cream and flavourings like vanilla pods or cinnamon. I think the one bacon made had vanilla essence (eh, we were poor then ok - I rather stick with vanilla pods any time). We had it hot, and it was like a strange sweeten rice porridge…bizzare.

I’ve never had it ever since, and it must be 2.5 years since bacon made it. Bacon still has it occasionally, as it is sold in the yoghurt shelves here…he eats it for breakfast instead of yoghurt. I was starving today as I was walking into the train station, where this woman was handing out rice pudding samples. Yes, one of the great things of working in town is getting free samples handed out to you all the time…I love it!

Yes they come prettily packaged as well. In case you’re wondering wtf is rhubarb, it looks like a red-stalked celery. Sour tasting, I never understand the English craze for rhubarb. Saying that, I have planted one in my garden so we shall see when it grows. Anyway, it is usually so sour, it is only made into a jam like consistency with tons and tons of sugar.

Decided to give rice pudding another try, seeing that I left my banana at home and was really starving. Strangely enough, I enjoyed this creamy confection. Tasting something between ice cream and nasi lemak (its the cream in it I swear!), the glob of rhubarb jam that comes with it made a whole lot of difference. Bacon has his with custard on top as well, but that’s really way too creamy. Dangerous food for breakfast as it is full of cream and carbs (200 calories per pot) but it did keep me full until noon.

Will definately go for it again - yum.

Continuation from the post below - Sufiah had just sold her story to the newspaper that broke her ‘dirty little secret’.With NSFW videos and pictures.

I wonder what will the Boleh Government make of all this. After their grandoise plans of speaking to her mother and saving her soul, she basically just came out saying that prostitution had given her good sex.

This is just one of the few examples of what kiasu parents can turn their child into. I was never pushed that far, due to it being an accepted fact that I was not going to go very far anyway - until I startled eveyone by excelling in college .Of course, it was only the Malaysian kiasu education system that failed me, I did not fail me. People take the piss out of the American education system, but it taught me more in the 4 years what the Malaysian education system could not even achieve 1% of in the 5 years before.

Not everyone are born to be doctors,and parents need to accept that instead of pushing their children way above their limits. Children should be allowed to experience a real childhood of playing and learning and getting to know the world, not forced to stare at times tables all day long. I know parents world over would mumble its for the child’s own good, but I really do wonder if it was more for the parents to have bragging rights, another tumpang glamer incident to live their live through their child.

I vow not to push my child to that sort of limits

And here sitting at the office, I am getting completely sozzled with champagne. Seeing that I have been drinking since 8am, it’s been a slow but steady drinking session - there are still bottles and bottles of opened yet undrunk champagne on the desk next to me.

Was thinking of heading home early,but I think I shall just stay till 5 to finish at least another bottle of champagne..

Ahhhh…I’m starting to love my job

0.59am
*cat scrambled out of the room whilst the wardrobe rattled*

me: OMG WTF?? (no, I don’t speak in abbreviations in my sleep) Is that the wind shaking our house?

bacon: Huh?? Is it me?? Why is the room shaking?

*both of us remembering the day of the tsunami when we had to run down 28 floors*

both: GROANs

Yes, once again I got into an earthquake where it does not usually happens. It did not help that it had been an extremely windy day and I was under the impression, in my sleep-induced brain, that the wind was going to blow the house away. At ritcher scale 5.4 and with us only 3 stories up instead of 28, this was not as bad as the tsunami induced movements, but bad enough for bacon to spend the next 30mins waiting for internet reports of the quake to filter through.

What was odd about it all was that it had been an extremely windy day - it became very calm after the quake with not a puff of wind.

/———————————————————-

In other news, yes, I’m back safe and sound. Been terribly busy with sleep and also catching up with work - should wind down and I would probably be able to upload pix over the weekend. It just shows how long I have been away, streamyx upload speed was absolutely shocking with only 40 pictures getting through after 2 hours, so I did not upload any of my pix whilst in Malaysia. Lots of stuff happening as well here:

Bad news
I did not get paid for the 3 days I was off sick last month, which really pissed me off with a deduction in salary
Did not manage to pay ccard in time (due yesterday, payment to arrive today) AAARGH.First time I’ve missed a payment of anything!!!

Good news
I won a competition for £20 worth of vouchers. Yippie! I am on a winning streak, after winning a year’s subscription to Cosmo off borders.co.uk as well earlier this year.
We got £250 bequeathed to us in someone’s will.
Bonus news came through and I did not get £0.75 as I expected - far from that. So I’m happy. Investing the whole lot so I don’t blow it on another handbag! Now slightly sloshed on celebratory champers at 10.30am…

OK I really gotta run back to work - I’ve come back on a perfect week where I will be in office by 8am every day for a week - today I clocked in at 7.30am just to help prepare the champers. Hopefully will start blogging again by this weekend.

A couple have been accused of being freaks in a town near me, and bus drivers have been less than receptive of their patronage. In one of the ‘Only in UK’ stories, Dani Graves from Dewsbury have taken to walking his fiancee Tasha Maltby around in public on a leash. Gives a different spin to the term on a short leash innit?

Incesed that bus drivers have been either chasing them out of the buses or just not stopping for them, this lovely couple had taken to complain about the bus drivers’ attitute. One bus driver had insist that they were not allowed in his bus because the company have a “No dogs allowed” policy, with exceptions made on guide dogs only. Understandable no? Since Ms Maltby is only human she really should be allowed…

Quoting the 19 year old girl:

It is definitely discrimination, almost like a hate crime. I am a pet, I generally act animal like and I lead a really easy life. I don’t cook or clean and I don’t go anywhere without Dani. It might seem strange but it makes us both happy. It’s my culture and my choice. It isn’t hurting anyone.

But would YOU allow this anywhere near you?

For the complete article see the Daily Mail

One of my personal resolutions was to get back to blogging 5 days a week like what I used to before I got distracted. Obviously the past week have been empty…and I am seriously not making up excuses, but I was terribly ill.

We went out last saturday night, and when I woke up on Sunday I felt the onslaught of the flu…which is extremely annoying as I had my flu shot just before New Year. Nevermind, I thought it might be something minor. So Monday I felt a little worse for wear but still went to work. Monday night I was feeling worse, but as we were discussing my workload for 2008 I had to turn up on Tuesday. Wednesday saw my snot building up so I skipped work…and Thursday saw me losing my voice completely. So I got bacon to ring the doctors, but they had no appointments till next week. Bastards. This is what happens to socialist countries that nationalise healthcare - there is no private doctors in clinics like the rest of the world. Unless you need a hospital, you do not have a choice of private medical care

So anyway, he called the NHS direct, which is the national call centre for health queries - apparently this minimises the need for people to turn up at doctors if they can get meds from pharmacist. Bacon rattled down the list of my symptoms, including me croaking instead of speaking. When the nurse on the other line insist on speaking to me, bacon told them that they might not understand me (obviously due to me croaking instead of speaking)…and that damned nurse asked if they need an intrepreter! Damnit..you would think her brains would tell her that if I can only croak she won’t understand me.

Lovely nurse still insisted to speaking to me irregardless of the croaking, so I did. She went down some checklist, and if I can still breathe and painfully swallow, I do not need the doctor. Instead, she asked me to go to the pharmacist. Bastards. I hate healthcare here,unless you are dying or dead, they would refuse to entertain you. She did not believe that I had laryngitist, and encouraged my Strepstil OD…even though I said that Strepstils and my cold/flu meds have not been working.

Honestly, I bloody pay for the national healthcare and I demand some sort of bloody service. So on Friday bacon rang the doctors again, and they had an open appointment, which I grabbed immediately. Even with me just saying hello, the doctor told me that he could tell from my croakings that I had laryngitist. And the stupid nurse actually recommended me to stick with my Strepstils??? She even mentioned that there is no point me going to the doctors because he would not prescribe me any antibiotics, only paracetemol. So I am now on a course of penicillin, AS PRESCRIBED BY THE DOCTOR.

Slightly better now, even managed to go out yesterday - admittedly I was drinking non-stop water instead of my usual whiskey. I just need to finish my course of penicillin and I should be ok. Just getting slightly hoarse at the moment, good for bacon as I can’t shout at him like usual. I may completely lose my voice if I listened to the damn nurse who asked me to stick with strepstils.

I sometimes think that the NHS (National Healthcare System) is trying to kill me. Bastards. Bastard Labour Government trying to create a communist country with equal healthcare crap.

my mountain of snot…

When I see this at 4pm, I know that the dark nites are slowly but surely comming to an end.

I am adverse to early darkening of skies. Growing up in Malaysia, the sun sets around 7-7.30pm daily. With sunset comes dinner - my regular dinner time for as long as I can remember had been when the chinese serial starts at 7pm. During my first winter in CA, I had dinner at 5pm (watching Simpsons) in Nov & Dec - my body clock tricking my mind that its late. The problem with having dinner that early is that I am hungry again by 10pm!

The past two months or so in the UK had seen the daylight savings timing enforced, which means the sun have been setting just before 4 each day. It doesn’t really matter as most of the time its gloomy and grey here anyway. But I know from experience that when the skies starts to look blue at 4pm, longer days are on their way.

Incidentaly, it had actually been getting colder with typhoon-like winds lately…don’t let the skies fool you. So yours truly is sick now - I had a flu jab this year and was hoping I won’t be sick. I don’t think I’m sick with flu though, it looks like I’ve missed the main part of the flu and skipped straight to the sorethroat-cough part. Hmmm.

In other news, it is now 30 days to Chinese New Year…:D. I hope cookies are currently being prepared on anticipation of my return…I am partial to home made choc chips - failing which I am VERY partial to Famous Amos freshly baked cookies. Yummm. And KFC mashed potato. Or Ramly Burger Special with ketchup.

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!

However, seeing that bacon’s off to the Big City today and will only be home around 9, we’ll probably make do with traditional chinese takeaway later tonight. Hopefully he will bring me some Krispy Kreme to make up for it. …yumm.I wonder whether they have a thanksgiving edition made out of pumpkin. I believe they did, but that was in my other life.

In other news, the dream is over for England. Outrageously they have not qualified for the Euro 2008, and neither have any of the other countries that makes up Great Britian. As bacon was in one of his stiff upper lip business dinners in the Big City yesterday, I got smses every 5 minutes asking for update, thus ruining my Ugly Betty night - the one where Posh is featured and Betty gets the sack. I actually had to bear watching England basically shooting themselves in the foot by playing outrageously shit - good thing is Steve McLaren their shit manager is now sacked and I don’t need to pen Euro 2008 in my diary next year.

Yesterday was rather exciting for some working in the Leeds city centre. Around lunch time, we were actually not allowed to leave our office, and all we could see from the windows were that the roads were cordorned off empty of pedestrians and vehicles. As there is an overhead bridge right next to where I work, I initially thought that someone had jumped off the bridge; there are bouquets of dried dead flowers by the sides of the bridge presumably for previous victims. This quarantine lasted a good couple of hours.Apparently around 10.40am, an unattended package was found in the Merrion Centre, which is a shopping centre that I walk past everyday on my way to work. A robot was sent in for a ‘controlled explosion’ - and I think the result was this was a false alarm

Do you remember the time before 9-11, where unattended packages were disposed off instead of blown off? This reminds me of Manila, the hotbed of explosions and bomb scares, where armed guards check your bags when you leave or enter any shops, even a 7-11 had armed guards. And as bacon was living literally opposite Glorietta (where a bomb, incidentally, went off a few weeks ago), this was becoming quite concerning. I remmeber the second week he was there, and around 8pm (he was still at work) his friends from the UK and me in KL started ringing him asking if he was ok. A bomb had just gone off in a bus not a mile from where his hotel was. And apparently news like this are not groundbreaking enough for everyone to stop working and head home. He did not even realized it had happened, and actually went to the window and hey presto, he could actually see the remainder of the bus , smoke and all. That was how close it was.

People get used to things happening around them, and over time, fear turns into complacency. I, for one, live about 2-3 miles away from the infamous area in Leeds where most of the London bombers were born and bred, and their family and friends still lives here. I go pass it everyday on my way to work. On my first trip to Leeds, I actually requested bacon that we do NOT go past that area - this was two weeks after the London bombings. Now, not only it does no bother me, I actually find that area fascinating for its blend of middle eastern, polish & asian groceries and takeaways. People always say its shit around here and its dangerous bla bla bla, but honestly, it never bothered me after my first couple of months here.

Does routine really breeds complacency, or does it actually cancels out irrational fear ?