The agony of navigating

We arrived back safe and sound from our 4-day trip down south many many lovely memories and images of beautiful scenery tucked away in our minds.

The only pill in my jam which still leaves a bitter after taste long after the ordeal is over is this:

Yup, it's navigating. I confess that at one point at the start of the trip, the tension between navigator and driver got so bad that tempers were flaring up to breaking point. It's shameful but it's true.

But let's not dwell on unhappy things... because we eventually managed to settle into an acceptable navigational-driver communication system to enjoy other happy things.

Highlights from our first day include...


Seeing this ideal burial spot... imagine being buried right by the sea... facing the eastern ocean horizon... with the perfume of seabreeze in the air...


Queuing and waiting to sample the best fish&chips; in Wollongong at Boufflers... it was well worth it though!


Enjoying the tranquility at Nan Tiem temple: the largest temple in the southern hemisphere. Or should have been (actually I was still simmering with anger over the navigating issue to fully enjoy the tranquility - sigh)


But in the end, we made peace... before the sun went down on our anger... just as we should...







More photos from Day 1 of NSW southern coast trip found at:
Trip NSW South Coast Apr-06 Day 1

Can't wait to try this wine...

Hubby and I drove up to Hunter Valley last Tuesday (18th April). It's about a one and a half hours drive up north from Sydney... a little further in from Newcastle.

We bought four bottles of wine altogether and tasted so many others... we only tasted mind you... hubby couldn't drink any because he was driving and I decided I wouldn't drink any so he wouldn't feel left out (so basically we had to spit out the wine after we tasted it in our mouth into the bucket specially set aside for this purpose).

Let's see... we bought two bottles at Mt Pleasant Estate: a 2001 Verdelho and a Classic Muscat. Then we bought a lovely Dessert Verdelho from Pokolbin Estate. And finally a sparking Rouge Ambrosia from Peterson's Champagne House. All perfectly lovely.


I am especially keen on the dessert wine. You see the Pokolbon Estate is an extremely small boutique winery and all its wines are not available for sale in the mass market at all. So I imagine that each bottle they produce has a more personalised touch.

What's also unique is the serving suggestion for this wine: over ice with a lemon wedge for some twist. Interesting eh?


But like all special wines, I will want to save it for a really special occasion... and who knows when that will be?


Also at Pokolbin Estate, they had a little corner where we could try their homemade jams, jellies and condiments. I tried this chilli and I tell you it was HOT. No kidding.

I had thought sup sup sui lar how hot can ang-moh's chilli be... and boy was I surprised.

It was so hot that my ears hurt... I could almost feel the smoke coming out from them.

We also bought some chocolate to share with our connect group members. But the chocolate shop/factory was not as fun as the one at Margaret River WA. There was no viewing room to see the chocolate making process and no piles of little chocolate pellets you could try without anyone caring.

But the chocolate here is probably not bad either. I have to exercise self-control not to eat the chocolate before our next connect group.

More photos of our Hunter Valley trip at Hunter Valley Trip Apr-06

New photos uploaded

New photos of our Easter holiday road trips uploaded onto My Photos which includes photos from our trip up to Hunter Valley for wine tasting and down to the southern coast of NSW.

Don't kill the world...

Today is Anzac Day which is a public holiday. Tomorrow it'll be back to work again. MH starts work again tomorrow and I also have to get back into some kind of routine. I've been making excuses that I can't do much work this past week because no one else is working either so I can't get in touch with anyone.

Even back in Singapore, my ex-colleagues had gone away to Thailand for a team retreat (lucky fellows!) so the project I am working on was somewhat put on hold. So really, it's not that I'm lazy (earnest look), I really can't do much at the moment.

So now after coming back from our road trip... it's all unpacking, laundry, restocking groceries, sorting through accumulated letters and emails, settling bills that have arrived while we were away. All these little tasks I suppose it meant to help ease us slowly back to reality and routine.

<rustling of bill papers>

Good news... we've manage to cut down electricity usage by 25%!!! We used 12kWh over 88 days in our previous bill, and in the recent bill we used only 9Kwh over the same period... now that's an achievement! We're doing our bit for the environment too! Looks like doing little things like using less hot water and switching off all lights and plugs when not in use really do make a difference... or maybe it's just because electricity usage is just lower over the summer. It'll probably go up again in the next bill once the heaters come out of the storeroom. We'll just have to compare it to last year's bill over the same period.

Speaking of the environment, this reminds me of a song my lil' bro Paul sang at his school choir performance a long time ago...

Don't kill the world
Don't let her down
Do not destroy basic ground
Don't kill the world
Our means of life
Lend ears to nature's cry

Don't kill the world
Help her survive
And she'll reward you with life
And don't just talk
Go on and do
The one who wins is you

"Out of office reply"

We had a full-on day today driving up to Hunter Valley for a private wine tour. Took plenty of pictures which I have no time to upload right now because I am preparing for our next trip.

We will be departing tomorrow morning for a 4-day self-drive tour around the southern coast of NSW. Need to collect more material to blog about because you all must be getting so bored of my mundane daily ramblings.

So this is a note to say that I may become a bit MIA for a while (it's just a few days). I may have limited internet connection, but you can still contact me at my personal mobile number. If you do not have my personal mobile number, most likely you are someone I would not want to hear from during that time.

Thank you.

Happy Easter!!!

Today is resurrection Sunday. As part of the special occasion, church was at the Sydney Convention Centre at Darling Harbour just for today. Beautiful day today, a little windy but still definitely beautiful with "...not a cloud in the sky, just the sun in my eyes..."

After service, each of us were given an easter egg.

So cute!

And not just cheapo chocolate but Darrell Lea chocolate easter eggs!

Hubby was especially excited about his...

Or maybe he was just hungry.

Here he is again, happily munching it as we walked to Chinatown.








We were going to 'chup' some seats at Marigold to enjoy dim sum for lunch! Our friends D&G; were going to meet us there to yum cha together. It was an excellent meal. But I got so carried away enjoying the food and chatter that I forgot to take any photos. Oh well, maybe next time.


This is my easter egg.

I'm not eating it yet because I'm a save-for-later kind of person.

I'm hoarding this in my secret hiding place to eat later for my afternoon snack.

See how I hid it? Clever eh? Hubby will never notice.

Shhh... don't tell him ok?

Saturday night dinner: Putting it all together

Tandoori chicken, steamed rice, with side dish of pickled cucumber and onion... pickle recipe found here: cucumber and onion pickle


Time to choose the wine...


Let's go for a Shiraz... it has a slightly spicy edge which should complement the spiciness of the tandoori (aiseh! so expert hor?).


Remnants of our yummy meal. All gone in minutes.

Saturday night dinner: Rice

Do you remember the new favourite toy I received for Christmas? If you need to refresh your memory, check it out here: My New Toy. I don't believe you've seen it in action yet, so let me show you how I use it to steam rice.

Rinse the rice in this special bowl and place inside steamer basket.


Fill steamer with water.


Place steamer basket (with rice bowl) over steamer and set timer for 35 minutes.


Once the timer goes "DING!", voila... perfectly steamed rice every time.

Saturday night dinner: Preparing main dish

I picked up this pack of pre-marinated chicken at Woolworths... tandoori style chicken. On special reduced price for $5.89.


Ooh... can smell the spices already. Quite a lot actually, almost a whole chicken cut into four pieces.


Bake in a 190ºC oven for one hour. May need to turn over pieces once to get even cooking on both sides.

Mmmm... after a few minutes, heavenly spicy smells start to fill the kitchen.


After one hour... tadaa!!! Waaah... smells so goooood.

Hairy ordeal

Friday night, hubby announced that it was time to cut his hair. I knew we were in for a long evening.

You see in February hubby had become the proud new owner of this hair clipper set.

He got it at the Subang Jaya Carrefour during our CNY trip to Malaysia.

He reasoned that instead of paying $12 for every visit to the barber, he could get this and DYI the haircut at home. Except that it was not actually DYI but HDIFM (Honey Do It For Me).

So I rolled up my sleeves and proceeded to get hairy. "It's very easy" said hubby, "Just set to medium and shave all around, then set to short to trim the sides and back". You think so simple ah? It was an ordeal for me because I was in constant fear that I would overshave a section and end up with the botak hair my brother Sam had one time because of his friend's mistake.

I took a long time doing this. Hubby was getting very impatient and tired from sitting in the bathtub. "Don't worry so much" hubby said, "If you make a mistake, just keep cutting bit by bit until it evens out". "Stay still and don't distract me lar!" I interjected.

"Aik! Oh no, I made an uneven spot here!". "Where???" said hubby reaching for a mirror, "Hai, don't get so excited, little bit only... just hurry and finish up".

Finally, over an hour later, I put down the clippers and sat back with a slightly pale look on my face. "It looks terrible!!!" I exclaimed. "No, it looks fine, thanks" hubby said nonchalantly.

I looked at him incredelously as I surveyed the aftermath of the ordeal.

Anyway it's over and I wouldn't have to worry about this for say another 2 months at least?

Torta Cinzia

The latest arrival at serene555's Bakery...

It's a variation on a recipe for Torta Cinzia.

Quite simple actually... here's how I did it:

Leave 1/2 cup sultanas to soak in warm water for 2 hours. Drain and pat dry.

Combine 2 eggs, 1¼ cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup oil (the recipe called for seed oil e.g. corn or palm oil, which I didn't have and so I used olive oil--it turned out okay).

Then fold in 1¾ cup sifted self-raising flour. Add sultanas and grated rind of 1 lemon.

Bake in a preheated 180ºC oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

I served it with some custard poured over the top.

Fresh and simple

I think cuisine experts are now moving back to basics. The common mantra among clebrity chefs nowadays is "always use the freshest ingredients".

When you use the best ingredients, you don't have to do so much to it. Just a touch of this and that without overcomplicating things to retain as much of the original flavours as possible.

Yesterday I went out to pick up from fresh lamb cutlets and asparagus. I cooked the ingredients as simply as possible. I marinated the lamb in just some olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and grilled them in the oven. I steamed the asparagus and served them with some freshly grated parmesan.
Enjoy with steamed rice and some red wine, this made an excellent tasting and healthy meal. Just fresh and simple.

Homemade tomato sauce for pasta

I made my very own homemade fresh tomato sauce last weekend. It was very good. I got the idea from the 'Better Homes and Gardens' show in their Quick & Easy cooking segment.
Just blend some tomatos, garlic, basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper. Then put into a pan and bring just up to boiling. Put in some parmesan shavings as well. Once it starts to boil, turn down heat and mix in freshly cooked pasta. Then serve with some freshly grated parmesan over the top. Voila!

My attempt at custard tarts

We still had a whole carton of custard unopened and unused. It was given out as a free sample at MH's office a couple of weeks ago. The expiry date was approaching soon, so I decided to use it up by trying to make some very crude and simple custard tarts.

I made a simple pastry and baked it, filled it with custard and baked it a little more to harden the custard a bit. It didn't turn out very well because the custard was not the right consistency anyway (too milky and not enough egg). And the pastry was not the soft kind because I didn't know how to make those.

Still, hubby said it was not bad and proceeded to munch them up.

TV life...

Last night, I watched the second episode of this new series 'Hotel Babylon' (preview of first episode down the night before). Because of some strange coincidence, my other favourite series 'Commander in Chief' was not showing (but will resume as usual the following Monday). So I had a chance to check out what this new 'Hotel Babylon' was all about. But come next Monday, I don't know what I'm going to do when these two great shows are showing at the same time on different channels??? Sigh. Choices.

'Hotel Babylon' really is quite an intriguing show. Besides the sexiness and glamour of the characters, the show portrays the behind-the-scenes of the hotel business and show how hotels really work... it was all very clever and interesting. Apparently Hotel Babylon is currently Britain's biggest export after making a successful debut in the US.

I got down the thinking about all the other drama series on TV. Hubby's favourite is CSI which he never misses an episode if he can help it. As I made a mental list of all the current TV series' I know of... I realise that TV drama has really evolved to reflect life more than ever. Now it's no longer just sleazy soap operas about beautiful, rich people, marrying and divorcing one another. TV producers are now into reflecting everyday people, doing everyday jobs, in their everyday life.

Let me show you what I mean... take any profession or workplace and see if you can list down any TV dramas that are based on that profession. Let's start with the classic doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher, policeman type of professions like...

Doctors, Nurses, Hospital: Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, ER, House, All Saints, Nip/Tuck

Police, Crime Investigation: CSI, Blue Heelers, Medium, Cold Case, Numb3rs

Lawyer: Law & Order, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal

Politics, Government, Military: Commander in Chief, NCIS, JAG

Teachers, School: Boston Public


These are the non-traditional professions which are now under the spotlight in these dramas:

Undertaker, Funeral Home: Six Feet Under

Hotel: Hotel Babylon

Airline: Mile High

Casino: Las Vegas


I thought some other professions which should be interesting to see a drama series on... Chef/Restaurant, Magazine Publishing, Home Builder, Laundromat?

But how about these other professions: Accountant, Engineer, Architect, Business Analyst... Is it possible for a drama series be made based on them? And how would they make it interesting and captivating? Well, they made a show about an undertaker, so who's to say? Don't be surprised that you might see some new series called 'Death & Taxes' featuring some sexy accountants.

My current favourite breakfast...

This is Vegemite. A classic Aussie favourite.



It is currently taking place as one of my favourites on the breakfast table. It has a salty, yeasty taste somewhat similar to Marmite or Bovril.

It taste great spread thinly on toast with margarine. I tried it once with avocado slices... yummy! I also tried some vegemite toast dipped in soft-boiled egg... oooohhhh, syok!

If you don't have vegemite, I think Marmite or Bovril should work just as well. Actually what is with these yeast spreads anyway? I think someone mentioned that they have some health benefits, but now I can't think how these could be healthy at all.

Bovril is also a very versatile product. I remember that when we were sick with fever and to weak to eat, mom would let us eat bread or porridge with bovril. Actually porridge still tastes great with bovril... these two go together naturally. Many Malaysian kids drink hot bovril drink for a bedtime snack (which is just hot water and bovril). Again for health benefits?

Water and bovril are an excellent classic combination. I know of one Cantonese uncle who MUST have soup every day for meals (just like my dad, only this fellow is worse). His wife is of another dialect group that is not as soup-fanatic as he is, so she doesn't cook soup every day. So when there is no soup, he will make his own soup by mixing hot water and Bovril to eat with his rice. Man!!! This guy is truly a soup-fanatic (even my dad is not this bad) this was going a bit too far I think... cannot even survive one meal without soup. But some people are just like that it seems. They feel the meal is incomplete without some salty water to accompany their rice.

So in conclusion, Bovril is good for you (so they say). Marmite too maybe. And not forgetting Vegemite.



SOME TRIVIA FACTS

Bovril was originally invented in 1874 by a Scotsman named John Lawson Johnston to supply to Napoleon's French army who desperately needed Beef. They didn't have enough beef that time, so this beef extract was a marvelous invention at that time. In 2004 Unilever announced that they were changing Bovril's composition from Beef to a yeast extract. According to Unilever, "in blind taste tests 10% didn't notice any difference in taste, 40% preferred the original and 50% preferred the new product."

Marmite first appeared on the scene in 1902. They became a subsidiary under Bovril Limited in 1990 and they are now currently a trademark owned by Unilever.

Vegemite has always been a strong contender of Marmite. The product was first known as "Parwill" from 1928 to 1935, meant as a pun on "Ma-might, but Pa-will", get it? This attempt to expand market share was unsuccessful (maybe people just didn't get it) and the name was eventually changed to Vegemite. Today Vegemite far outsells Marmite and other similar spreads in Australia.

Ngiong Tew Foo: Trial Version 1

Because I was so impatient to satisfy my craving for Ngiong Tew Foo. I went ahead to agak-agak my way around to making my own version...

I made the meat mixture with minced pork, oyster sauce, soy sauce, egg, salt, pepper, sesame oil and cornflour... which I then proceeded to stuff into the tau fu like this:

The sauce was somewhat more elaborate. It was basically a chicken stock, flavoured with some condiments and thickened slightly with cornflour.

I pan-fried the Ngiong tew Foo in shallow oil and then dunked them into the chicken stock to simmer a few minutes... and then I fished them out and dished them with my special sauce.


Not bad actually. Next time I will add the garlic, prawn as suggested by mom, and also dad's coriander for some extra zing!

Ngiong Tew Foo inspiration

I suddenly felt like making and eating Ngiong Tew Foo.

I've eaten it plenty of times but I've never made any of it myself.

It looks easy enough, just stuff some mince pork into the beancurd, right?

But I think one key secret is the sauce itself. I want to be able to make the sauce just the right saucy texture, with just the right briny flavoursome taste.

I remember last time at my secondary school canteen, the canteen aunty served yong Ngiong Tew Foo which you could choose to eat with some rice. The sauce was so yummy (and not to salty either!) that I felt quite satisfied just eating just a couple of Ngiong Tew Foo and plain rice, provided that the aunty ladled generous amounts of the sauce onto my plate.

So what's the secret in the sauce? I Googled the recipe online and found so many variations to the recipes that I'm now just utterly confused.

One version says to stew the sauce with soya beans. Another says to use chilli garlic sauce. How? Which version to use? Or should I just try everything together and cross my fingers that it will all come together perfectly in the end...

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Quiz Time!!!

During my flight to Perth on Virgin Blue, the flight attendant gave out some mini quizzes to keep us occupied and amused... with real prizes for the winners too! I didn't win, but the quizzes did help a lot in keeping me mentally occupied during the flight.

Try this one:

Name 10 body parts spelled with 3 letters.

(Nothing rude, offensive or slangy please)

Sounds easy right? I'll bet that after the first 5, you'll really start tearing your brains out...

One, two, three and GO!

Clafoutis: Version 2

My latest culinary creation... voila!
It's a fig and strawberry clafoutis.

Figs are in season now. They have a mild woody-sweetish flavour. Altogether different from the extremely sweet preserved figs I had tried before. Figs need to be cooked slightly with some sugar to bring out their flavour it seems. I tried them fresh with ice-cream, but I think the sweetness of the ice-cream overpowered the figs' mild flavour.

Split seconds...

My most exciting adventure during the Perth weekend happened on Sunday afternoon.

The two Moondine girls and I were skipping happily in East Victoria Park to have lunch at Happy Meals. We were waiting to cross the road, watching out for an break in the flow of cars passing by. Out of sincere gentlemanly courtesy, a silver Toyota Camry stopped and gestured politely for us to cross. We smiled and nodded to the driver as we traipsied gaily across the road...

SCREEEEECH!!! CRASH!!! BANG!!!

(the sound of glass breaking and metal grinding)

The following all happened in a split second... A big, rude four-wheel-drive had crashed straight into the Camry from behind. The Camry jerked sharply forward. My heart pounded as I watched it all happened. My legs felt numb as I started to run forward away from the smashed vehicles.

The three of us regrouped on the other side of the road, trembling slightly as we huddled together, we began to realise what a dangerously close call the incident was. We watched the two vehicles drive on angrily as they searched for place to stop and discuss who was to blame and talk about insurance and money.

Finally after a few moments, we went on to find a place to sit down at Happy Meals. After I had a few sips of hot tea to steady my nerves, I immediately gave thanks to God (not the thoughtless swearing "thank god it's all over" exclamation) but a sincere prayer of thanks for His protection. Because I knew that whole incidence was just a matter of split seconds... a split second difference would have made the outcome completely different.

I will not go into a series of meaningless "what ifs", but I will simply just be grateful.

Eventually we recovered enough to smile and pose for this cute picture...


And I truly thank God that through His protection, the only outcome of the day's adventure was the memory in this picture of the three of us smiling happily. That and a deeper appreciation for grace and protection beyond our understanding for which we will be eternally grateful.

Brekkie @ Moondine

I had fantastic Girl-Time over the weekend.

Saturday started out with this lovely spread...


Mmmmm... pancakes (courtesy of 'yours truly'), with strawberries and banana, and cafe latte.

I'm back!

Yes, I am back.