Reads: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

I have just finished this book and well, the ending is sad (sorry, spoiler ahead). Perhaps I was hoping for a happy ending, since I was reading it at the end of 2016.

31st Firsts - The Darkness and Scorpions

How could I have forgotten to include my first time seeing The Darkness live!?!

The Darkness live in Sepang - every bit like their records!

Cooking Experiments: Spaghetti Carbonara Scrambled

When the cat is out, the mouse comes out to play. It's just so awesome to have all the ingredients at hand and the only 'need' is to get into the mood. Today, after a long day at work and dinner-less, I decided to try cooking carbonara. A friend had said it's really easy and you basically only need eggs!

So I modified a recipe to suit... well, actually I just like modifying things according to gut feel! haha! It turned out...

Somewhat spaghetti carbonara - maybe next time...

Sprouts

I am happy to report that after a week, my little planting experiments have yielded the first sprouts!

First sprouts (l-r): curry plant cutting, desert rose seedlings, bird's eye chili seedling

Here's hoping they will survive and I'll do my part of watering and speaking to them daily! Looks like a butter chicken dish is in the making (maybe in a year's time! haha)

Marveling at God's gift of nature and the starting of life.

I found my 30th firsts for 2016

Picking up from my previous post, I found my 30th firsts experience for this year - being called into impromptu discussions with the President and ED and for the past few days having to join/present at meetings of HODs and senior management. This is what happens when your boss goes on long leave and somehow suddenly so many issues come up on top of all the service agreements due for renewal by year end. A classic case of Murphy's Law.

More Firsts for 2016

Just another half month to the new year and a couple more entries to add to my 2016 stocktake list!

22. First time to Taiwan and smelling chou tofu (smelly tofu)
23. First time flying on business class (this was a pleasant accident during check-in)
24. First time using Uber
25. First time in Taipei 101 and seeing the damper in real life (not as impressive as I remembered it in a documentary)
26. First time in a trampoline park and trying all the stuffs which I wouldn't try on my own choosing
27. First time wall climbing - I made it halfway up
28. Which resulted in my first time wrist injury - immobilized for the whole weekend but thankfully improved by Monday and I didn't need to see the chiropractor (dreaded)
29. First time building a nano block Pokemon!

Pokemon Gengar!

Unfortunately I couldn't think of #30 - another 15 days or so to achieve it!

Desert Rose - Dead and Alive

Every year we have charity sales in the office around September. I got a little desert rose plantling, which I was supposed to love and nurture as advised by my colleague. But by October, my poor desert rose plant lost all its leaves. I didn't dare tell my colleague this, because it was "hard work growing them from the seeds!". I was worried that I was indeed a plant killer!

Desert Rose plant - alive (left); seemingly dead (right)

Baking Experiments: Baked Cheese Tarts

When we were in Japan (a few years back), I remember buying this Pablo 'rare cheese tart' because (1) there was a long queue (kiasu lah) and (2) I was curious why they called it "rare" since I've only seen the term used in steak. It turned out to be a light cheese cake with a wobbly centre - we took the medium rare. At that time, we were greenhorns and put up all our mental barriers that it was too oozy for our schmoozy time.

Recently there's been a craze for Hokkaido baked cheese tarts. A slew of stores have been popping up in all the malls and there are a few brands which are all yellow with black text - I haven't been paying attention, I thought they were all the same. The tarts would sell for around RM5 each (but I've not bought any in Malaysia so far). The only time I had it was in Bangkok earlier this year - and it was gooood!

Bake Cheese Tarts we had while waiting for a seat in After You Cafe in Central World, Bangkok

Of Doppelgangers and Dejavus

Have you ever met someone new and felt that the person was so familiar? Familiar in the sense of looks, character and circumstances. Recently I have met one such person and upon getting to know her, it is uncanny.

Cooking Experiments: Creamy Curry Pasta

Over the weekend I bought some cooking cream in the hopes of trying my hand at carbonara (my fav which causes fatty ass but I probably need some adipose there!). When I got home and started googling for a recipe, to my surprise most of the recipes only used eggs and no cooking cream! A moment of enlightenment for me.

So over to today's lunch. The lunch gang decided that Friday is a splurge day after the crazy week we've had. And so we drove out to the nearby New Chapter by The Owls Cafe. Going into CCC reminded me of the Sponsor a Brick from many many years ago and now I was a stranger entering.

Creamy curry pasta - New Chapter (left) & homemade (right)

Disruption to the Ordinary

Perhaps it's the routine nature of my job but whenever I need to attend an external training, funny things just tend to happen. Yesterday wasn't a fruitful day in terms of knowledge acquisition, but it WAS an interesting day.

Reading and Reflecting

Recently I've somewhat got back into reading - perhaps with the realisation that pretty soon I may not have the luxury of reading for pleasure anymore. Although what I read are from the fiction genre, with every book there is a certain realness when I'm immersed in it and it is inevitable that the mind starts drawing parallels with real life.