Knitting

My knitting project is going well.

KT would be pleased to get his scarf before winter ends.

Fingers crossed.

Speaking of which, I don't know if it's my technique that's lacking, but I find knitting a very laborious hobby, and not quite as relaxing as the old ladies make it out to be on television. My fingers feel as if they have been disjointed each time I put the knitting down.

I will keep knitting...

Knitting

New Look + Current Favourites

After 4 years of wearing my hair long, I had them snipped off to shoulder length. I look refreshed, according to my sister, C.

I think so, too.

Current favourite look - lady-like.

I told C that if I have loads of money to spend (disposable income, in economic term), I'd spend them on Christian Dior haute couture.

I saw this dress from the 2009 Spring / Summer collection.



Très joli, n'est-ce pas?

Current favourite TV show - Masterchef on Channel Ten.

I love food shows... and I love watching George Calombaris, he reminds me of Doraemon... recipes and gadgets coming out of his pockets. :P

I love Manu Feildel... too bad he has so little airing time on Masterchef.

Current thought - It's 4:36 am Sunday 17/05/2009. I should be sleeping soon.

New Look + Current Favourites

Stir-Fried Fish Noodles

There's this shop in old town PJ which sells noodles made from fish meat. I've eaten it twice. The noodles are stir-fried kuey tiaw style, very very yummy.

I decided to make fish noodles today.

I bought snapper fillets to make the fish meat. The fish needs to be minced until it is of lighter shade, then kneaded until it is of doughy, rubbery consistency. I added an egg to the paste, which made the dough a little bit sticky and harder to handle. I should have left out the egg. I added a little bit of oil and salt to make it shinier.

I put the fish paste into a piping bag and piped out thin strands into a saucepan of hot boiling water. Once the noodles float up, they were ready to be used.
The noodles needed to be seasoned quite heavily when fried, because I didn't add much salt to the fish paste.

I fried it kuey tiaw style, minus the prawns and cockles (I couldn't find cockles). Yummy yummy. I'll post a picture up when I get the time.

KT liked it, so that was a good thing. My sister that the noodles weren't as chewy as
the one in PJ, which my father thought was because of the snapper; tenggiri (mackerel) would have been a better fish to make fish paste. I didn't process the paste for long, which could have contributed to the lack of chewiness. :P

When I lay my hands on mackerel... :P

Stir-Fried Fish Noodles

Dear Prime Minister

Dear Mr. Rudd,

I've been meaning to write you for a while now. I was glad that you were elected Prime Minister. I know that you would bring about great improvements for Australia.

I know that you've been busy with the economic crisis - I saw on the news that you're flying off to meet the President of the USA. On my part, I have been dealt with a crisis of a different sort. I can assure you that this crisis also affects the lives of others in the same predicament as I.

Ever since I moved out of college and into an apartment, I have been told off on numerous occasions for hanging laundry on the balcony. I have been enlightened on the strata by-law banning laundry from being put out in sight, not in keeping with the overall appearance of the apartment block. I trust that you know such strata by-law.

I find it strange that a progressive country such as Australia, a country vocal on environmental issues, would not have reviewed such a by-law. You can imagine that enforcement of this by-law would result in increased use of the dryer, and increased electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. I understand that this by-law has been implemented to avoid apartment blocks from looking slum-like.

Slum-like, as in, Sydney CBD streets littered with rubbish, the stench of urine in each alleyway, homeless and / or drunk people wandering aimlessly? Surely there ought to be some law banning littering and passing of urine in public areas?

The simple act of drying laundry out in the sun is likened to littering. The analogy eludes me.

I grew up in Malaysia where our laundry are hung out in the sun. There was nothing slum-like in utilising the sun's energy to dry one's laundry. Far better for the environment, not to mention, the pocket. My parents were middle income earners. I am, too.

I believing in the judicious spending of one's income. More importantly, I believe in utilising renewable resources where possible in one's daily living. I am sure that Prime Minister, you share my sentiments.

Yours truly,
Suen Yee Chew

Dear Prime Minister

How To Avoid Trapped Arm Whilst Cuddling in Bed

I was Google-ing on how to knit a scarf.

That was how I came across this website. www.videojug.com

I laughed out loud watching it.

How To Avoid Trapped Arm Whilst Cuddling in Bed

The Other

Let me introduce you to Bluey...

Whatcha looking at?

The newest addition of tenants to the apartment.

By far the quietest addition.

Not including the creepy-crawleys, that is.

He loves choy sum, bok choy, carrots, and raisins.

Oh boy, he loves his raisins.

I love picnicking with my best mates, too!

When we brought him home about a month ago, he was a quiet little fellow, so cute and cuddly.

Not anymore.

I have a sneaky feeling that his testicles descended.

I'm still quite metrosexual, you know.

These days, he spends his romp time outside his hutch underneath the couch.

His burrow, my sister calls it.

When he's hungry, and there's nothing in the hutch other than hay, he sits and sulks.

Emo-ing, my sister calls it.

Can't you leave me alone?

'Nuff said.

The Other

Sunflowers

Sunflowers turn their heads toward the sun,
"Look towards the bright future", they seem to say,
"Night took its leave and is on the run,
Why think dark thoughts in the light of day?"

Sunflowers

Checking out

The apartment is in a major start of disarray.

On the 6th day of Chinese New Year, we are packing up a storm in preparation of our moving to the block across the road.

The living room is filled with cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes, empty, half-full, full.

I am here to document this important event.

Fluffing, in other words.

I love that word.

I should be packing, too, but the stomach's growling, and I'm thinking of oh jian (oyster omelette).

So I'm googling for a good recipe. To keep up the energy to pack up.

I liken renting to an extended stay at a hotel.

Check-in, unpack, pack, check-out.

With more than just one suitcase of clothes.

Heaps more.

Checking out

Chinese New Year / Australia Day 2009

Yes, it was yummy!!!

I should realign this picture, but I don't have time. It's obvious KT enjoyed himself!

This is my first year and last year in Australia that the first day of Chinese New Year coincides with Australia Day. I was told by KT that this is a once in a hundred years occurrence.

Chinese New Year, Australia Day or not, a pharmacist works for bread and butter.

And Vegemite, of course.

Thank goodness I start an hour later today, that gives me some time to blog about my Chinese New Year cooking / eating dinner feast.

KT asked me to cooked loh hon chai ( a vegetarian dish) and a fish dish (fish in Chinese sounds the same as abundance).

I pestered my mother for a loh hon chai recipe, and tried it out yesterday night. Great success. :) KT was satisfied.

Fish dish? Oh, not so great success. I wanted to do a salt-crusted snapper, but the Donna Hay recipe turned out too salty. I have to look for a better recipe.

We had sambal prawn, too. Very great success. Spicy to the max. My nosed leaked like a burst pipe. So spicy that my stomach did acrobatics in the toilet, too. Not so appetising.

Chinese New Year morning? A staple - fried battered nian gao with sweet potato. Yummy. And the too salty fish? Fish porridge. Also yummy.

Chinese New Year / Australia Day 2009

Arrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Surprisingly I was quite alert at work, considering my haphazard sleeping schedule.

I even bought all the ingredients to make lad nar before I went to work.

I was all set to cook.

Until I went home, that is.

I just wanted to rest and relax.

So I ordered Thai takeaway.

It fitted the occasion.

I reasoned that I needed to have the lad nar taste fresh in my mind before I experiment with the recipe.

OK, I was downright lazy. :P

With my takeaway lad nar tucked safely in my stomach, I crawled straight into bed. Unhealthy, I know. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhh!!! To think that my colleagues commented that I've lost weight, and now I fall back to my old stinking habits.

If that wasn't bad enough, I had to be woken up by KT to open the door for him at 3am.

Now, at this early hour of 6am Sydney EST time with daylight savings (that's 3am witching hour in Malaysia, when I would still have been nocturnal), I'm still awake!!!

This has to end. Tonight.

Arrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!