My 2017 - An "Exciting" Year Indeed

The word "exciting" could have lead to positivity. For me, it was rather an excitement with ups and downs. I pretty know that many guardian angels surrounded me, thanks all for the kind support and encouragement helping me going through the year.

Work - Much busy and lots to learn. The year ended with well, though some emotion was caught off guard.

Baking @ Home - Panasonic Bread maker is my good friend. With very minimised failure rate,  I will have my bread ready by Monday. To share with my colleague as Monday breakfast, a good start of the week.

I didn't explore many recipe this year. Continue making my bread loaf. Contributed a few recipe to the facebook community too.

corn bread

Assorted bread with my black coffee

Avocado Chia Seed bread

Cooking @ Home - Experimented some recipe, but I seldom cook these days. Partly due to less carbo meal we adapted. I would rather experience cook time and calculate efficiency.

Phillips Pressure Cooker has been my best companion. As well Cosway's Magic Cooker. Both serve well for slow and long soup cooking, and porridge meal.

I have even experimented baking a cake in my pressure cooker. Joined their facebook community of Phillips Pressure Cooking and contributed too.

Porridge with Magic Cooker

Sphagetti with Phillips Pressure Cooker

Pandan cake

Marble Butter Cake

Chocolate Cake

Gardening @ Home - Pretty happy with the return of many fruits harvested from the garden. Banana, Jambu Air, fig, Jackfruit (Nangka), chilli...

Our jackfuit was rather a disappointment, as the soil had been too wet. Causing the fruit wasn't able to sustain long on the tree. It cracked open even before it ripe.

Banana

Jackfruit

Black sesame plant

Figs pruning

Custard apple harvested

Exercises - Reduced outdoor cycling significantly this year. Signed up 2 events this year, neither one I attended. What a failure. Mood and feel has quite been disturbed this year, due to an unhappy incident in Taiwan earlier the year. Disappointment continued with a group of so called friends (past tensed).

Signed up gym with passport entry with Fitness First. Indoor cycling (RPM), Zumba and Yoga classes had been my recent companion.

My new show from Taiwan

Tried Ariel Flow Yoga

I chicken out from CFAL this year

New Gadget - Got myself an Underwater Camera. It's time to say Bye-bye to my GoPro ;)

New camera

Travel - One and only dive trip. Several local road trips. Two business trip cum visiting trip. An unfortunate overseas trip.... that's all for the year!

Gift from a dive master

Street Art Roaming in Singapore

Very colorful

Malacca - backyard hawker which full of mouse

errrrr...

Nice baked sotong

Ahhh... Lucky to attend Emil Chow's concert in Singapore

Singapore Indoor Station

A visit to Raub

Health - Hurt my left elbow, it was diagnosed as Tennis Elbow. On top of that, I twisted my left ankle too. :(

My Tennis Elbow

Friends - Not many gathering this year. Thanks to someone's wedding, that allowed us to have a mini-gathering.

Cheers for a newly wed couple

Greatest personal achievement of the year! - Turned my unnecessary stuffs into cash! With Carousell. Frankly, I have been procrastinating this for many years. Always wanted to sell or donate my stuffs to the "needy". I have been doubtful for some recycling event, if they are able to give away my pre-loved item to someone needy. 

Thanks for the launch and hit of Carousell app. I was influenced by a friend who were able to turned her very old handbags into cash. I finally took a step to clear away some of my pre-loved items at home. It was indeed great experience, the accomplishment felt when I was able to clear out stuffs, and turn it to someone's excitement instead.

Happy in Selling stuffs

I would greatly hope to gain a smooth sailing year in 2018. All the best to myself and other readers who have been following my writings. 

Chennai, Delhi & Noida, India Trip - Nov 2016

As I don't usually blog on my work trip, this is exceptional. Out of the blue, opportunity came by for me to make a short trip to India. A country that I had never thought of going in my life. Though, my photography teacher and his group would certainly love in making a trip there at least once a year.

My trip made me thought and observe lots of things. Obviously, the influence from my photography teacher made me "feel" the life of the people in India. It was "touching", if I am able to use a word to describe. Imagining the situation of living in the past 50 years + air pollution + poor infrastructure + other hard to describe situation.

The advanced and poor, it's just a border apart.

Perhaps my pictures could tell the stories.

A layer of polluted air

The sun and day consider good, API lower

Managed to get a shot, while day was still fine

Horse ride sharing the road

Tuk Tuk too

Delhi Gate

Bicycle too

Welcome to Noida

All kinds of transport and people heading to earn their livings

Poor holly cows surviving life with trash

MGO - What's the green dot for -> It's vegetarian safe

The journey...

• I had a transit flight to Chennai before heading to Delhi. Glad I didn't had a check in luggage, and was just pulling a light weight cabin luggage. The transit to domestic (Jet Airways) needed me to walk across the building, which is parallel but was under renovation.
• The feeling of those renovating buildings caught the feeling of 1970s airport.
• It's not recommended to travel as lone lady in India, glad I had another local lady came along, we took the tuk-tuk shuttle just 2min away
• I was told Delhi airport wasn't that safe, and I was blessed to have other male colleagues waited for me at the arrival hall
• Throughout the trip, all male colleagues were my body guards
• The street could be scary, hence I didn't at all walk around over the weekend... I spent time reading, day dreaming, watching Cartoon Network and nap all day long :)
• Overall experience... hmm [unexplainable]

2015 in review

It's the usual me to make a quick review in wrapping up the year. Especially on the last day of my year end vacation. 2015 was rather a rough year, particularly at work and some emotion at home.

Nevertheless, I had great company, family and friends who always with me getting through the unpleasant moment, and safely.

What's gone for 2015?...

1. Travel - Didn't have many overseas trip, probably due to the unpleasant news carried over from 2014. Only had one trip to Osaka Japan, while the other two was business trips to Singapore and the States. 2 dive trips, and a few local road trips with friends and families.

2. Collection - Lego, 1st heart shaped Lego was my own souvenir bought from Lego store @ Rinku Premium Outlet, Osaka. Later in the year, I had several other boxes of Friends and X'mas collection as gift. :)

3. Kitchen Gadget - Kuvings slow juicer, Krups Coffee grinder

4. Stress Relieve tools - Essential Oils, coloring book

5. Exercise - Upgraded my ride from a foldie to MTB, continued my regular Yoga and Zumba classes

6. Eat Healthy - My lunch pack routine has became regular, ate raw foods, especially those cooked on the same morning. It's easy, and I enjoy planning my meals in advance. Overnight rolled oat has been a regular twice weekly breakfast, combination of some fresh fruits and cereal.

7. Edible Garden - New crops successfully planted and harvested, i.e. red long bean, sweet potato leaves (both red and common green), English spearmint, edame beans & asparagus (seeds bought from Daiso Japan), delima (local pomegranate)

8. Family - The arrival of a niece and a nephew, both were born just 1 day apart

What's coming for 2016?....

1. Health is the most important asset among others, besides myself, I am hoping all my family members and friends will be blessed with good health.

2. Reduces stress at work

3. Improve on certain posture in Yoga (I still can't do sit-up, shy me)

4. Enjoy my life to the fullest! More dive trips and overseas travel retreats?


Wishing everyone all the best for 2016! May the force be with all of us.... Happy new year!

My bread making journey...

I could see most mommy will bake for kids, I would say mine is bake for colleagues. Glad that I have a bread lover colleague, no matter rainy or sunshine, she won't hesitate bread or flour to be precise.

Marking the close-to-1 year journey of bread making. I had fun with this kitchen gadget, good buy, in particularly its yeast separation function. My success rate is close to 95% thus far. Despite at once, silly me who missed out the yeast entirely.

Panasonic Breadmaker SD-P104. It cater for smaller volume, between 250g-300g of bread. Perfect size for me, as I could get it finish daily, eat freshly. With the ready "pao" flour, I made steamed bun too, aka "pao". My preference is always wheatmeal bread, with a ratio of 250g High Protein and 30g wheatmeal flour. I didn't quite like the recommended recipe, as it would harden the texture of bread.

I didn't take my picture when I did loaf of breads. Until I joined a FB group where we need to submit our so called "homework"... there goes my creativity and eagerness to try on various variety of breads. I started to make buns with Dough Mode. Perfectly well for a person like me who hates kneading flour. With the breadmaker, I wouldn't need to stress my wrist and its just effortless.

I don't mind taking out the ready dough, flatted them on a table mat, release the excess air in the dough, then let it proof for another hour.

My breadmaking journey thus far...

Otak-Otak bun

Black pepper cheese bun

The inner cheese

Green tea loaf

Pork belly steamed bun

Read bean akuzi swirl loaf

Wholemeal fluffy bun

Wholemeal long loaf

Pan baked Mozarella cheese bun