Cooking & Me don't mix

As usual, I am too lazy to record the happenings that took place throughout the week. So here's a little bit of what I did:

Bought a coconut (AU$0.99 for each half) and surprisingly, pandan leaves (AU$1.00 for 3 leaves) were available too.


The boring and difficult part is to grate the coconut.
Unfortunately I have never seen or found any freshly grated coconut sold
at the places I have been to, since late 2000.
Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough.
Anyway, I bought this grater from KL


I decided to try my hand at making Kuih Dadar again.
It turned out to be the ugliest looking edible Kuih Dadar anyone has ever seen!

Cooking and me just don't mix. Before I kidnapped Kiwi G, I have never baked anything nor cooked any other dishes except fry eggs, cook rice and instant noodles! I know I sound spoilt but this is the priviledge of people in Malaysia and Singapore ... who needs to cook when you can get super yummy food at incredibly low prices anywhere, anytime of the day? and the most important thing is, you don't have to wash the dishes, haha.

Other factors as to why I lack interest in cooking is because:

• I only eat white meat. The sight & smell of raw red meat makes me want to throw up. It's been like that since I was a child. I don't even eat cooked red meat, not even char siew bao. Yeah I know, I am weird
  
  
• I only eat certain types of vegetables. I dislike celeries, capsicum, asparagus and
  many more. Yeah I know, I am getting weirder
  
  
• I find it gross to cut a fresh whole chicken and I never eat chicken skin, even if fried crispy - not because of its fat content but I find it gross to eat chicken skin. Yeah I know, I know, I am the weirdest!

Sigh, now I have no choice, I HAVE to cook *LOL* because it is much too expensive to eat out daily. I am sure my in laws would be horrified to see what I have been feeding their one and only son for the past few years *LOL* My poor Kiwi G, he gets his red meat intake during lunch or when we eat out and never once has he complained about my weird eating habits and lack of cooking skills. Thank you Kiwi G, I love you! *muah*

Having said all that, one would think that I am a super slim person ... I WISH! Unfortunately I am OVERweight - I bet I even have high cholesterol now. But there is always room for a McD's soft serve cone or KFC popcorn chicken, hehe.

House Hunting & Lightnings

Went to inspect two homes last Saturday. House prices at the suburbs we are looking at, are still out of our reach. The good news is, prices are expected to slide further due to more likely rate rises by the Reserve Bank in the near future. Over committed investors hogging the properties might be forced to sell as a result of the rate rises. We'll see.

This house has 4 decent sized bedrooms upstairs but downstairs is too compact for our liking.
The asking price is AU$419k



This one is new, has 4 smaller sized bedrooms compared to the one above but
the traffic noise level coming from the busy road right in front of the house was unbearable.
The asking price is AU$420k



While driving around several suburbs, I can't help but snapped a photo of this street name:

We are taking things easy and will continue to house hunt until we find something we really like and of course, within budget as well. But I must say, it gets a little tiring looking for that right home.

Now on to the next topic - lightning. Kiwi G and I have developed a bizarre passion for storm clouds and lightnings. We often watched in awe from our bedroom window, whenever there are lightnings - much prettier than fireworks. Truly, God's work is unfathomable. We decided to capture the mighty lightnings with our old digicam. Man, lightnings sure are fast, Kiwi G managed to snap only 2 out of approximately 500 takes despite using a 0.2 seconds continuous shots mode.

Little Black Book

Lazy me, lazy me! Just so lazy to blog ... actually, been a bit busy too. Greater Union cinemas have this AU$5 ticket on Tuesdays - promo ends March 22.So we took advantage of the dirt cheap tickets and watched "Constantine" last night, pretty good as it was not as scarey as I thought it would be, phew. Keanu sure looks good for a 41 year old gwai lo. All the while I thought he was only about 30 years old.

Speaking of movies, I have been keeping a little black book of movie tickets that me and Kiwi G have watched together (sometimes with friends) since year 1999. I hope to be able to show our descendants (if any) the kind of movies their gramps watched while they were still young ... *ahem* young?? Here are some photos. I like to spice up the pages with some decorations otherwise it looks so boring like the one on the far right which I have yet to find time to dress up, haha.

While photographing the little black book, I suddenly remembered my little scrapbook which I called an autograph book where classmates would write something on, towards the end of my secondary school year (aged 17). Here are a few pages:

The cover and my intro page


The pages were decorated by my ex-classmates themselves


This one is cool, a guy friend I met at my first temp job during school holidays
stuck a 5 sen onto the page and wrote "Spend you" hehehe, too cute.
"Spend you" means "give you a shout" or "on me" in Malaysian slang.

Okay, enough blogging for now, I am beginning to feel bored.

Love

Looks like I finally dragged my big fat bum around to make a blog entry. Much to the annoyance of many people, I shall write a little about Valentine's Day. As Kiwi G is less mobile lately due to a hamstring injury suffered at the last cricket game, we stayed home on Feb 14th, our fourth Valentine's Day together. Kiwi G wanted to make me dinner to make up for the special things he would have done and got me on V-day had he not been injured, so I let him and I went about doing my stuff in the study. When dinner was ready, I walked out and awwww, sweet Kiwi G put a table on the balcony and had everything laid out. I was caught by surprise as I thought we would be eating in front of the TV as usual. I am very lazy to type on ... a picture paints a thousand words, so here they are:

A meal made with lots of love.
Mashed potato, mixed vegie, BBQ chicken from Red Lea and orange juice.


Sometime during last week, I managed to make pineapple tarts.
Not bad for a first timer, eh?

Now back to Valentine's Day topic, some of my married friends feel that their husbands are not romantic because they did not get anything on V-day, not even a card. Same goes for their birthdays. I can understand their frustrations. However, love has many languages. People show their love in different ways, it doesn't necessarily has be on a special occasion or through material things. I wish I can send everyone of them a copy of The Five Love Languages by Dr Gary Chapman.

Meanwhile, since last week, Kiwi G and I have been such pigs. Every evening after dinner, we would walk over to Maccas to grab a burger, chicken nuggets and soft serve cones. I guess "Love is Pigging out together!" *Oink Oink*

Potpourri

Been a little lazy to blog. Went to Domaine's Display Village last weekend, and was totally bowled over by the magnificent houses. One house even has piped in music throughout, how cool is that! It would be really nice to have a dream house built by Domaine. But alas, even if we could afford the house, we could not afford the over priced land within 35km from Sydney CBD! Bummer! I guess we should not be so greedy ... greediness kills ... ouch I am feeling the pain. Meanwhile, the house hunting continues.

Rang home (KL) - wished everyone a Happy CNY. To say that I don't miss the CNY atmosphere would be a lie. I miss everything about it.

Submitted my application to IP Australia to trademark a business name. Hope it will be approved.

Touching email

In my work, I get many emails each day, some are funny, some are hurtful (hate mails) while others are extremely touching like this one which I received yesterday (sorry, I had to replace details that would give away of what I do, with a bee, as I wish to keep my work personal):

x--o--o--x--o--o--x

Dear G,
Hi I just wanted you to know how much enjoyment I have gotten from your . I lost my husband of 37 years and didn't really feel like doing anything but came across your and loved it. I have started to do scrap booking for all 15 of my grand children. I am putting the grandkids pictures and there grandpa ect. but mostly like a remembance for there grandpa. and your is what made me want to do it. Now instead of not wanting to get out of bed I can't wait to get up and work on them. Thank you for offering some of your. Just wanted to tell you that you have no idea how much you helped me I know this sounds strange but your has helped me deal with losing my husband. I have something to do now instead of just feeling sorry for myself. thank you I hope you have a very Blessed Day Thanks again
hugs

x--o--o--x--o--o--x

I shed a tear each time I know that I had been given the opportunity, blessing and honour to bring happiness and love to someone through my work. It makes all the hours that I have put in seem so worthwhile. I hope this lady who wrote me, will enjoy the beauty of life once again and to feel much love all around her. "Life" ... don't we all take it for granted at times.

Manly Beach

Last Sunday, we went to Manly Beach hoping to catch a glimpse of sunrise ... but thanks to a cloudy morning, the view wasn't spectacular. Snapped a few photos though:

Candid shots of Kiwi G


Manly Beach in the afternoon (this one was taken a few weeks ago)
Don't squint your eyes, guys, there isn't any topless woman in this pic


Manly Beach on a cloudy sunrise


Manly Beach seagulls attacker (yikes! That's the culprit in the background)

Workstation & Kuih Siput

My home workstation - uncensored, as is (messy table = busy person *LOL*)

I work for a pittance from home, unfortunately I am not ready to disclose in this blog, what I do for a living (nothing significant), sorry. Hmm, talking about work is beginning to bore me already.

--xx--oo--xx--oo--xx--oo--xx--oo--xx--oo--xx--oo--xx--oo--xx--oo--

Now, let's move on to a more exciting topic. The last time I had kuih siput (shell shaped cookies) was at age 6 (gee, that was a stone age ago!). Throughout the years I had forgotten about kuih siput's existence or the lack of it until recently. I searched the internet for kuih siput photos (to confirm that my memories of eating them weren't just a figment of my imagination ... you know when you crave for snacks, your mind starts playing tricks on you) but all I got were recipes. Fine, I thought I'd make them myself based on the internet recipes and the vague memory of what they looked like. Voila, not bad except if i remember correctly, the proper mould would create lines on the cookies as you roll them, which make them look like shells? Anyway, here's my version of it - look more like deep fried silk worms:

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day


:: Flag image from www.3dflags.com ::

Storm Clouds

Two recent photos taken from our bedroom window, capturing the menacing storm clouds. I still get fascinated when hails poured down from the sky. We hardly ever get hails in Malaysia (I have not experienced any but I heard from my mom that it did occur). Nature intrigues me.

It has been a rather mild summer this year, by Australian standards.

Lazy Me

Every Saturday (during cricket season), Kiwi G plays for a private Cricket Club at competition level. He absolutely loves sports - tennis, volleyball and soccer being his other favs. Me on the other hand, would rather sit on the couch with a bowl of vanilla flavoured icecream; exercising my eyes, ears, mouth and brain watching TV. Of course the only other exercise I love is walking ... in the shopping mall (4 hours non stop, no problemo). I am just so lazy and not an athletic person at all. I wonder how on earth Kiwi G ended up with me. I guess opposite attracts? Notice how my bloggings are so brief thus far? I am too lazy to even type much *shakes head shamefully*

<---- That's my best friend, lover and hubby in the foreground

Indecent Exposure ... almost

Kiwi G is too funny at times. He had to make an emergency trip home from work at around 10.00am this morning because the tear on the right side of the back of his pants was about to give way *LOL*.

I have raised my concern about the tear several months ago but being the stubborn monkey he is, insisted on keeping and wearing the pants.

*Tsk, tsk* naughty monkey you, Kiwi G, next time, listen to your wife's *professional* advice, you could have gotten a memo for indecent exposure at work *LOL*.

TV Series

On Saturday (15 Jan), Kiwi G and I completed watching Summer Scent episodes from evening till dawn and went to bed only at 6.00am! It's very nice to have a hubby who watches Asian dramas (with English subtitles) so diligently, hehe.

Also watched Legend of Earthsea, a mini series based on the book of the same title. It stars Kristin Kreuk - yeah Lana Lang of the Smallville series which we are ardent fans of. I even dreamt of Tom Welling once (yup, I told Kiwi G about it ... now what are your dirty little minds thinking of ... not that sort of dream, okay). Also stars Shawn Ashmore, the guy who played "Bobby/Iceman" in the movie, "X-men".

Thanks to Kiwi G, I am hooked on a few TV series, namely Alias, 24 (these two are my top fav) and Stargate Atlantis.

However, I am not into Star Trek, Enterprise, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Gallactica all of which Kiwi G is a die hard fan.

Now these are only TV series ... if I start talking about movies ... the list is as long as a dozen toilet rolls.

NOTE for myself: The TV switched on by itself while we were watching something on the laptop. We were spooked for sure. I instantly accused Kiwi G of sitting on the remote but the remote was on the side table. It turned out that I must have accidentally pressed the "Timer" button on the remote earlier in the morning, phew!

Korean dramas

Kiwi G and I are into Korean dramas lately. "Autumn Tale" was the first Korean drama I have ever watched and it certainly got me hooked on other contemporary Korean dramas now. We particularly enjoyed the following:


AUTUMN TALE

• The main actress, Song Hye Gyo is so sweet
  
• This teenage actress, Moon Geun Young has big beautiful baby eyes and extremely talented
  
• The hills and mountains are fairytale like
  

WINTER SONATA

• I love the main actress', Choi Ji Woo Choi Ji Woo fan site winter coats
  
• The snow resort in this drama is totally breathtaking!
  

SUMMER SCENT

• I absolutely adore all of this actress' dresses in the drama! I also love her hairclips, earrings, ribbons, hats and handbags. They are so very pretty and sweet. Son Yae Jin Official Website Son Yae Jin
  

Oh I better go now, am still watching Summer Scent.

Butter Cookies

Made butter cookies (Malaysian Chinese style) yesterday. Modified the recipe by adding some cocoa powder.

Roti Paratha

I have almost gone cuckoo, desired, yearned and waited, four looong years for Malaysian made frozen Roti Paratha (AU$2.40-3.40 per packet of 5pcs) to finally come to Sydney! Imagine my tears of joy! Perhaps it was already available sooner and I didn't look hard enough. Nevertheless, it's the perfect answer to Mamak's roti canai! No more paying AU$7 for one or two pieces of roti canai at the local Malaysian restaurants here. I wonder when will they come up with instant nasi lemak ... mmm yummm

Meanwhile Kiwi G finds packaged drinks convenient and tasty ... definitely a break from his usual Diet Vanilla Coke. Also a good fix for this week's expected blazing summer heat!

This Friday's temp is expected to hit 40C! Time for beach wear.

First blog thoughts for 2005

Finally got this blog up and running (not quite). Still requires tweaking. Too tired after visiting the PC Fair at UNSW and shopping at the Asian grocers in Kingsford this afternoon. Anyway, this blog is just an experiment - I thought it would be cool to reflect on my "diary" in a year's time. Shall write more tomorrow.

Link Exchange

Link Exchange - Add your link on this blog

Hi, did you just surfed onto this blog and would you like to exchange links with me? If so, please feel free to leave your blog URL and blog title onto the comment box below and I'll take care of the rest. I would appreciate very much if you would kindly provide a reciprocal link to this blog g8g.blogspot.com with the description "G&G in Sydney", thank you! Have a great day!


NOTE: I apologize that I would not be able to exchange links with blogs/sites that contain or encourages vulgarity, pornography, racism, occult, self harm and drug abuse. In summary, your blog must be family friendly.

About Me

• A Malaysian Chinese happily married & madly in love with an NBC (New Zealand Born Chinese). Together we have an Aussie baby. That makes up a happy multinational family.
  
  
• Residing in Sydney, Australia since Oct 2000
  
  
• Grateful to God for letting us plant and sow the seed of our love -
  our first little bub was born on May 27th, 2006
  
  
• My occupation - boss of myself
  
  
• Dislike: Talking about myself.
  Will update this section as and when I think of something

Links

BUBBA BLOGS

BabyBokChoi

Life as a Married Woman

Moments in my Life

Yeloh Powah

Msau-SQ's Playground

Crumbs in Life

Brandon & Ethan

Rambling Moo

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Woof & Arf

The Blue Ranger

Baby Boon

Bubba Stuff

My Baby Talk

Gordon & Malcolm

PapiMami

My Kids, My Life, My Everything

Monster Brat

FOOD YUMMY YUM YUM

Msau's Recipe

Kooky Culinary

BentoPet

Foodnotes

Masak Masak

Kuishinbo~Meow

Asian Vegan

MISCELLANEOUS

Ramblings of an e-Trader

She Rambles On

From Emily To You

Shop with wHOisBaBy

Let's Shop & Buy

Los Angeles My Home

MamaBok

The Crazy Chinese Woman

Listening..Learning..Living

Shannon Chong

Talk This Talk That

GatorByte Comp & Entertainment

SQKiKi Simple Tech

Hop Around With Me

Talk This Talk That

My Thoughts, My Life.

Health Freak Mommy

Just My Rambling

Buildurempire.com

Kerry's World

Mommibee

BuzzyBee Garden

CupCake Memories