2011: The Year That Was.

2011 has been a year of many new things for me, and most (that I can think of) are good, if not great.

The year started with my restarting my routine of running. Since I stayed near Gurney Drive, I had my own personal stretch of 'gym' (when it doesn't rain) with natural sea breeze (when the wind DOES blow. Definitely not pleasant when its low tide tho..haha!). It was quite pleasant and the running bug bite me for quite a bit. Decided to register myself for 21k run for Penang Bridge International Marathon when registration opened and stuck to a regular regime. Kinda slacked off during the rainy season but picked it back up just in time for the bridge run and successfully finish the marathon, faster than my target too :D

PBIM itself was quite an experience of a lifetime. To have the Penang CM, Mr Lim Guan Eng join the bunch of crazy runners in the ungodly hours of the morning to officiate the marathon, earned him heaps of respect from QJ and myself. Hats off, YB. Running on the empty and quiet bridge while the skies were pitch dark with a bunch of other crazy people who should otherwise be asleep at this ungodly hour, was surprisingly very motivating and rather fun! One of the best things throughout the run was...100Plus. Never did 100Plus taste so goddamned good. Aaaahhh... :P HAHA! If nothing gets in the way, I'd definitely go again next year, and I won't be running alone XD

Another one of the best things that happened in 2011 came during my birthday this year. Darling QJ came up to Penang to celebrate with me and gave me a box. Small parcel with a huge pricetag came in the form of an iPhone4. Life has never been the same ever since I got this lil baby. Did so much with it. It is my organizer, my reminder, calendar, directory, messenger, social tool, my recipe book, my notepad, my alarm clock, camera, and toy. The only thing I did not use it for is for music. For that, I have the iPod. Shall not leave that to waste :D

Even took it with me during my runs. Helps me track my pace, my route, time, etc. Nifty lil app by Nike (tho I hate their shoes). Here's a route map of the run on Penang Bridge. The route map for my hike to Kerachut beach was even more fascinating...

Spending another year away from QJ was getting too much to bear. The trips to visit each other always seem too short and time was never enough. After 2 years being apart, I finally got a job in Melaka, and came 'home' to him. Happy to say I'm so much happier now, both at work and with him. There are things I missed terribly back home in SP (parents, aunt, dog, home, stupid nieces)...but I guess it can't be helped :/ ....and definitely doesn't help that the stupid CM of this state doesn't wanna fly to Penang. Instead, he wants to fly from Melaka to Subang. What the F. Nicely done sir. Nicely done. Dear people of Melaka: wake up please? Vote properly next election...else you'll be having more inoperable monorails stranded all over the state. 

Moving was a bitch. Running PBIM 10x over wouldn't have been so bad as my packing AND moving experience. Yuck. I hate moving. Gah! Saying farewell to the family was a pain too...tho it does help that I have some warm home made food to bring back and munch in the car.

2011 is also a year that I've picked up some confidence and started some cakes and cookie sales :D ....so if any of you guys wants cookies (festive or otherwise)....you know where to look! :P ..haha! Colleagues and friends were among the first of my customers...and hopefully this will open to more in the future (then I can quit my job and work from home and take leave whenever I want to...buahahaha!). Most of my family's birthday cake was also made by yours truly...hehe...great for practice, and its even cheaper than the ones outside ;P ...win win?

2011 has also been a year of many marriages, engagements, proposals and some break ups. Couldn't make it to most of my friend's weddings and none of the really close ones got married. For QJ and myself....we're still single but not available :D ....nyehehe...so please do not forget our portion of ang pau this coming CNY ya? 

Come to think of it, we didn't do much travelling in 2011 (apart from Melaka-Penang travels..that doesn't exactly count!). Hopefully this will change in 2012 :D Bali, yes QJ?

All in all, 2011 has been a relatively quiet, pleasant year with occasional sparks of fireworks that leave a trail of warmth in the heart. As much as the passing of one year to the next is just a change in how I write the date, I do wish that it'll be a sweeter one, with more treasured friends and memories and hopefully for a better life lived filled with many happy moments.

Happy New Year :)

Signing off,

Kristine & QJ

p/s: I DID my annual Christmas Mall Deco thingy....haven't gotten the time to actually post everything up yet. Procrastinating, lazy, etc. Its on my FB if you wanna see ;P

Cookies cakes and etc

Those closer to me would notice that I've taken up baking a lil more seriously as of late. Attempted and experimented with few new cakes. Have also started small scale business for cookies/cakes (my customers being my colleagues. Hehe). It's a great boost to confidence as well as to experience and skills now that I've been baking far more often than I used to. Starting a proper business may not be too difficult and too far off afterall (I hope). Baby steps. At least I've started walking.

On another topic, have also recently secured a job in Melaka. In other words, I'm finally going back and QJ couldn't be happier. It also means it's back to me cooking and you on the dishes allrite dear? Kekekekeke /ebil. Huge change, hope everything works out allright.

Now if only the jam would ease and I can get home sooner. I'm freezing and starving in the bus and I've got a tonne of baking to be done by tmr, in time for colleagues celebrating Deepavali! XD

Some of the things I'll be working on tonite:

Jam tarts

Moist chocolate

Midnight Chef in Me: Scones

I have the tendency to somehow, one way or another start baking/cooking around midnight. Be it cuz I had a nap right after work, or that I got too distracted with some shows I've been watching on my PC. Yesterday was no exception.

Thankfully, scones are really easy to make and it took less than 15 mins before it was ready to be popped onto the oven for baking.







15 mins in the oven later and voila. 'Supper' if you will. Glad my first attempt of scones turned out well but I suppose the recipe was rather foolproof. Hee!






Best served with Devon clotted cream and jam, or lemon curd (will attempt this weekend or so).

Some other bakers advices that to enjoy fresh scones, freeze the dough for the leftover scones and only bake them when you want to eat them. I reheated mine in the oven (put them in closed container and sprinkle a lil water) and they turned our warm and fluffy, but I don't suppose they'll taste that great after more than 3 days. I'll see how my frozen batches turn out ;)

Plain Scones By Amy Beh from Kuali.com

Ingredients

375g self-raising flour, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
50g butter
180ml UHT milk
(I add in 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)
125ml water (won't use all. I used only very little)

Method

Put sifted flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Lightly rub in butter. (i took a little bit of the flour and put into blender with cubed frozen butter and blended until they look like rough breadcrumbs. then pour mixture into flour mixture)
Use a palate knife to stir in milk. Add just enough water to mix until a soft sticky dough is formed.
Turn out dough onto a lightly-floured tabletop. Quickly but lightly knead dough until it is smooth. Flatten out dough evenly to about 2cm thick. Use a 5cm round cutter to cut out the dough into rounds.
Place scones in lightly-greased baking pans. Brush scones with a little milk and bake in a preheated oven at 240 ºC for 15 minutes. Serve scones with a jam of your choice.


Makes about 10 scones depending on thickness and size

Video and recipe from Joy of baking: http://joyofbaking.com/scones.html

Caking spree

Aunt and my 2 elf-assistants. Cake was not disastrous eventho they kept bugging us to 'help' us.

I've been on a cake making spree lately. Spent last weekend making Black Forest and Moist Chocolate Cake. Both turned out pretty well, especially the moist choco cake considering it was the first time I attempted this recipe taken from a magazine probably older than I am. Hee!

Mini-black forest cake for myself

Sis liked the Black Forrest cake (it all kinda started from her, the whole caking adventure) and this 4th attempt turned out pretty well and QJ absolutely love the moist choco cake. Happy to say that I've started very small scale sales of these 2 cakes. Hopefully this will bring to further culinary career path/business. Hehe.

Yummy moist chocolate cake. Really not bad for a first attempt.

Now I better start jogging again least I gain back the weight I've lost with all the desserts I have in my fridge. Kekeke.

Cake 'sweating' in the damp room right after taking it out from the fridge. Eek!

Peekaboo!

Here's a cutie pie. Born to the family on Father's Day. Quite the bundle of joy to spend time with, my niece.

Greenies

I would fork out RM10 for the damned bitch but would think once/twice/trice when splurging on some nice lunch at werk, cuz she knows how to steal my heart.

Can't wait to see her tonight.

The iPhone Blogger app

So Blogger's finally got their own iPhone Blogger app...which is great. But I really wish they let me type with the horizontal keyboard instead of the tiny vertical one only. Urgh. Well, it's not like I blog much these days anyway haha!! We'll see if this'll make me blog more often. :P

Here's a pic we took from Tokyo Street, Pavillion, last weekend during my epicly long vacation with QJ

Thank you (for the safe ride)!

I rely on public transportation, mainly the bus, rather heavily. Sometimes it's out of convenience, sometimes out of financial reasons, sometimes out of necessity. I rely on the local bus to get home from work. Fortunately for me, I live in Penang...and there's Rapid Penang. I can't praise them enough for their awesomeness and efficiency. There might be a lil minus points here and there...but overall relying on their service daily, I'd say they are the best public transportation in Malaysia. Perhaps even beating KL's services. Heck, they have an iPhone app to track their busses' ETA. How cool is that?

There's my reliance of services of the local bus, and there's my reliance of the services of the inter-state busses. Since QJ is in Melaka and I'm in Penang, both of us travel a lot. And the busses can't seem to scare me enough whenever they hit the headlines on the front page. So everytime I travel I make sure I go on a reputable company...and I pray I'll open my eyes and I'm at my destination...in one piece.

Which is why everytime that I do get there safely, I can't help but smile and say a lil prayer of thanks. And everytime I get off the bus, I make sure I convey that feeling to the one who stayed up overnight (or be alert throughout the journey, for the daytime drivers as well as for those local bus drivers) to make sure we got to our destination safely.

"Thank you!" or "Terima kasih :) " ....I'll say. As much as I'm groggy or if the bus was too freakin cold or the passanger next to me snored throughout the whole trip, I'd try to remember to thank the drivers. Hardly anyone ever thanks the driver when they get off the local bus but I feel they do deserve the thanks. Afterall, those simple 2 words are pretty effortless and free, but I'm sure it'll make those drivers smile when they hear it (eventho they don't always show it). And hopefully if I do it often enough, others will start saying it too.

So try to make it a practice. Next time, and every time you get off a bus, thank the driver.


p/s: Koff koff. Exceptions are made for those crazy drivers who drive like idiots, and those that for some reason drive like its their first day driving a vehicle and making everyone on the bus late for work.
pp/s: Part of the reason why I wrote this entry is because QJ complained there's cobwebs here. Ha!
ppp/s: QJ played tourist last Monday and even he approved of Rapid Penang... /snickers. LOL!

Celebrating a quarter of century of existence?

(This post is a month and a half late. Haha! I've been busy with my toys)

Where I work, we have this little unspoken tradition of organizing something special whenever one of us is turning a year older. Be it some surprise party, dinner at somewhere special, or outing 'overseas'(via ferry...lol) to the mainland for some good food. Sometimes we'd just buy a delicious cake, or pool money to buy a gift for the birthday girl/boy.

Last year, I was dead sick and plastered on my work table the day before my birthday and they surprised me by turning off all the lights and bringing out a chocolate cake to celebrate with me a day earlier, cuz they were afraid I'd go on MC on my birthday. In a way, the cake chased my fever away. Haha!

This year, they gave me this bag of goodies.

The iPhone

The bloody damn thing may cost about the same as my new i5 PC but hell...I can almost do everything I can do on it, and maybe more. It opens up a whole load of possibility and makes every bloody thing so much more convenient. Thanks to that, I'm able to blog from my bed at this ungodly hour when I can't sleep. I don't even have to go down to use the PC.

Hehe mum did comment that I didn't wanna use her PC anymore when I come home for the weekends after I got my new toy.

Chatting has never been more easier and mobile. Sure I can't type as fast with 2 thumbs but I daresay I might be typing faster and more accurate than some ppl who are using a proper keyboard. Hee!!

Taking photos is such a breeze now. Don't even have to bring along my cam nemore. And the quality's pretty good too. It has it's limitations, but I can live with them. Thanks to that, I'm getting quite good with camphoring...LOL!!!

Aaaaaa but the best thing of all, it was a gift. An awesome crazy freakin wonderful piece of present by my beloved to celebrate my quarter century of existence.

Thanks Dearie. :3 I love it to bits. You too, of course ;3 MWACKS!!!

Thoughts from a moment in life.

Real Love is all about...

...how you've suddenly found your meaning of existance.

It was just another evening in my life, I was relaxing in front of my computer after a long day at work as I stumbled across my significant other's blog, when suddenly, WHAM.

These... thoughts hit me, and refused to budge, the emotions it provoked so overwhelming that I had to put it down in words.

Even then, I struggled.

Moments became minutes, minutes became hours.

All the words that I could muster... failed to convey these thoughts into a form that is satisfactory to me.

Throughout my late teenage years, I struggled heavily over my purpose in life and my reason to live, to the point where I was suffering from bouts of depression.

I'm proud to say I've found the answer.

The first photo on the blogpost says it all, the rest paints the rest of the picture

And I hope to never forget, nor ever have to forget.

http://volvoxx.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-i-spent-my-christmas-2010.html

Animal cruelty spotted in Sungai Petani

:P

CNY: The office gets pimped

Of pot of 'plum blossoms', and hanging red cloth.

2011 and the buzz before CNY

Chinese New Year is barely a week away!

Got all your new clothes yet? :P