Back at work in the morning and kind of wishing the holidays went on for a little longer. To say Summer has been unexpected is an understatement on all fronts. The weather hasn’t been as good as it should really be, December was very much up in the air for me and funnily enough when one door closes another one opens..
I was going to do a new year post, then I remembered that last year I decided year end conclusions were a much better alternative to making all these resolutions no one really expects to keep anyway.
2010 has been a rather trying year – I have never been away from KL for this long a stretch and it’s driven home again how much family really means. My relationship fell apart, and no one was really to blame. I’d taken on the biggest undertaking of my adult life, and it’s been an amazing test of commitment and learning about priorities and I’ve also given up smoking which was easy at first and but is now really testing the limits of my willpower. My year has been really focused around personal growth and relationships – so while it has been trying it has also been a really productive year. I can’t not drink to that :) 2011, let’s see what you’ve got!
I’ve had a great start to 2011 so far and I hope you have too!
Here’s what I did on new year’s eve – a few of us didn’t have anything planned so we decided we should get together and cook. This was dinner:
Did we do OK or what? The spread looked and tasted amazing! Some of us were armed with our secret family recipes (read: frantic calls to mum in panic) – :)
From J we had ikan bakar (grilled fish) and sambal sotong (calamari sambal), from R we had lontong (vegetable stew), nasi impit (rice cake), satay sauce and mee goreng, from S we had dendeng (beef that is first boiled, fried, pounded, marinated, then fried again – in that order), and I brought the kari ayam (chicken curry) and roti jala (lacy malay crepes).
I almost didn’t make the crepes as I thought there was going to be too much food, but my friends thought I should so I did! I think I did pretty well for a complete newbie:
It’s actually really simple to make. Combine some plain flour (sieve first!), pinch of tumeric powder (more for colour) and pinch of salt, one egg and enough milk to make it fairly thin (like pancake batter). Run it through a strainer and thin it with more milk if it’s still too thick. You want it fairly runny but not too runny. If you’ve ever made pancakes before you’ll know what I mean. I poured my crepe batter into an empty mineral water bottle (hehe) and punctured the cap with two holes to use as a super ghetto roti jala maker – it worked really well. Squeeze the batter onto an oiled non-stick frying pan in spirals to cover the pan. You only need it to cook on one side until slightly brown and you’re done! You will get a slightly chewy texture crepe that will go astonishingly well with chicken curry.
R’s apartment roof was open for the midnight fireworks so up we went, and for the first time since I’ve been in Sydney I got to see the famous fireworks in all its glory. Absolutely stunning! I certainly get what the fuss is all about now.. uh, as Perez would say, amazeballs!
Happy 2011 :)
Having a great start to the new year.
It’s funny that I think of the Chinese New Year as a new start to the year as well as when the calendar says Jan 1. Well having two of these can’t be worse than having just one. If I haven’t done so already – I hope you’ve had a positive start to yours and may you have a happy prosperous year of the tiger ahead!
(Please no Tiger Woods jokes :P)
Over the weekend I have been preoccupied with redecorating my new apartment. I’ve never been accustomed to living in small spaces having grew up in a house, but after living abroad in NZ and then here it’s amazing how much I am liking small apartments. I guess it means there is less cleaning up to do and less chances you forget where you leave things. No wonder people who often have big mansions also often have maids.
Living in a small space (the new digs are approx 400sqf) has also forced me to use space creatively. Up until now still have no microwave, proper TV (in fact the only reason why I have a small TV from a friend is because my parents came to visit and it has now been given to me because my friend has bought a 42″ plasma TV), heating/air conditioning, dining table, home telephone and broadband. These were things I had back when I was living in KL and have taken for granted, but after 18 months without them I’ve come to realise that I don’t really need all of that.
So instead I’ve decided to spend some money on a refrigerator and probably give this place a few new coats of paint. The living room needs a divider and I’ve been looking at some curtains to hang down the middle of it. One of these weekends I will make a trip to Ikea and buy another bookcase. I have no room for my giant stack of shoe racks, but thankfully Ikea Hacker has some ideas on what to do with them..
By the way, if anyone’s interested I found a really cool site via Apartment Therapy – This is a link to all the finalists for Room & Board’s 2009 Small Cool Contest and there are some really clever ideas for small spaces!
I wonder if I have enough ang pau money to buy a George Nelson coconut chair..
