Driving Drama

Sigh... I was driving down to New Haven to catch the train to NYC but just 10 minutes into the trip, I heard a soft thud and then a knocking sound. Hmm... I thought if I drive a bit slower and ignore the sound, it might go away. Unfortunately, I started seeing smoke emitting from the back of my car through my rear-view mirror. I had to quickly stop the car on the side of the road. At first I thought it might have been the exhaust which caused all the smoke but when I got out and inspected the car, I had a flat. Luckily I had my rental documents with me and I called up the roadside assistance and waited around 45 minutes for the guy to arrive. An old man stopped by and asked me whether I had a phone to call for assistance. What a sweetie! Eravi also came down and kept me company for a while. Phew! I was glad it happened during the day. The roadside assistance came and changed my tyre to the donut. I could only drive a maximum of 35 miles/hr to the rental agency to get a new car. I was not in the best of moods when I got to the rental agency but everyone was really nice. I got a lot of "Are you alright, honey?" and "We'll upgrade you for your inconvenience". Hehe! I got a cool car now... it is a Pontiac Grand Prix. The only problem is that it says it has 0% oil life. Hmm... it is probably due for a service. I just hope it last for another 2 weeks and then I am heading back home!!!

Dog rice

When I was young, we always had a couple of dogs at home. They usually get fed once a day and their meal consists of chunks of meat and rice. We had 2 rice bins at home. One for us to cook and eat, and another one consisting of "dog rice". Basically, dog rice was just normal rice but a bit unpolished and cheaper. Thus, the texture is a bit more coarse. As the years go by... white rice gets a bad rep especially with the Atkins, GI diets around. And guess what? Unpolished rice is now healthier. Hmmm... Well, I decided to give brown rice a try. No harm trying... I don't usually eat much rice but I did buy a small packet of jasmine rice and brown rice. I mix them up when I cook it. It reminds me of dog rice though... just can't get that image out of my head.... It looks just like the rice Sweetie, Jojo, Puteh and Capri use to eat!!

Ice ice baby

I am such a water baby. I drink loads of water, I love swimming, I love scuba diving, I just love water!! I don't do soft drinks, coffee or tea though. Just good, pure, clean (well, as clean as you can get in Malaysia) water...

My chinese element is actually Fire. An excerpt from one of the chinese astrology website: "Those of you born under the influence of the Chinese Element Fire burn through life with your fierce charm, your impulsive enthusiasm and your restless emotions. A natural leader, you inspire with your decisive action and dramatic expression; people can't help but be magnetically drawn to you. Where will you lead your followers? Likely into an exciting adventure of some sort. You're instinctual, but your mind sparks with new ideas and clever solutions."

Water actually douse out fire. Hmm... does that mean we should be enemies? I think not. After all, we all need a little bit of balance in our lives. I definitely can't live without water. I have a bottle of water wherever I go. Back home in Malaysia, I keep a fresh bottle of water in my car all the time. Unfortunately, I found out that i can't do that over here. It is so cold outside that the water in my bottle freezes up (Refer to pic). Lesson learnt: Buy a big handbag so that you can stuff your water bottle in there. Looks like I have to make another trip to the premium outlet to buy that bag from Coach! Haha!

Sunday lunch at Angie's

Angie invited a few of us over to her place for Sunday lunch. Angie roasted a huge chicken and Indu made a big pot of dhal and spinach (sag poneer). I got some frozen roti canai from the asian grocer and brought it over as well. The food was so yummy... the dhal was phenomenal!!! Tasty and just the right consistency!! (as usual, I have no shame... I took back some dhal... hehe!! Will have more of it tomorrow! Yippee!!!) The chicken was also tender and yummy... mmm... Angie also made a trifle for dessert....

Here's Vijay and family. Vijay is holding on to little Anderson.

Angie's enjoying a cup of coffee on her rocking chair. This rocking chair is also very addictive. It is sooooo comfortable and once you sit in it, you wouldn't want to get out!!

Scott is leaving the USA soon and going back home to Australia... do keep in touch!!
Here's Jeff looking a bit exhausted. Thanks for having us over!!!

Redhead

This made me laugh out loud when I read it. Thanks Rach!!

A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.

Impossible!" says the doctor "Show me."

The redhead takes her finger, pushes on her left breast and screams,then she pushes her elbow and screams in even more agony. She pushes her knee and screams; likewise she pushes her ankle and screams. Everywhere she touches makes her scream.

The doctor says, "You're not really a redhead, are you?"
"Well, no" she says, "I'm actually a blonde."
"I thought so," the doctor says. "Your finger is broken."

Then and Now

Then: Drive half an hour just to shop? Are you mad???
Now: Hey.... the premium shopping outlet is just a couple of hours away! Jom... let's go!

Then: The shop is just round the corner... I'll just walk there....
Now: The community trash bin is situated just outside my apartment building - Walk in the freezing cold? Nah... I think I better drive there.

Then: It took me a whole day to download Desperate Housewives with Streamyx.
Now: It takes me less than half an hour to download Desperate Housewives with my high-speed internet.

Then: I used a video recorder. Must set it at the precise time. No one can touch the Astro channels, no one can switch on the video when it is set.
Now: I use the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Just set what series you want to tape and it automatically searches all channels for you.

Then: I'll just have take-away. Plentiful and good food all around me and I can get it at any time.
Now: I have to cook everything myself.

Then: I washed my dishes by hand.
Now: My new best friend - the dishwasher!!

Then: -10 degrees celcius?!! *Wear thermals, layer clothing, winter jacket, scarf, beanie, gloves, sensible water-proof shoes*...
Now: -9 degrees celcius?!! Woo hoo!! *Ditch the thermals, wear a t-shirt with the winter jacket and head out with slippers*!

How my life have changed since I arrived in America....

Oh woe... its snow...

Well... I thought it was safe to stay in when it snowed. I was peeking out of my windows and was seeing loads of people shovelling the snow from around their cars.... WHAM! It hit me! If your car gets buried under the snow and then the snow melts a bit and then hardens again, your car will be buried in hard-core ice. Yikes! I immediately decided that I'll go down and try and sweep some snow away from my car. I mean, I have done it quite a few times already so how hard can it be??

Unfortunately, it looks like the weather was playing a cruel joke on me. Quite a few cars were buried under the snow.

The snow around my car was knee high. And how did I know that? Well, I stepped right into the snow and confirmed it was knee-high. I got my little ice scraper and scraped the snow off my car. Then I thought, since I am driving an SUV, it wouldn't be that difficult to just climb over the snow.... after all, it is not as if I have a shovel with me. I started my car, put it in reverse and stepped on the gas pedal. Vroom vroom.... yeah... my car was still at the same spot. Vroom vroom... yep... its not moving.... vroom vroom... sigh... looks like I have to shovel the snow away from my car.... Now... did I mention that I don't own a shovel?

Well... I was looking around helplessly trying to see whether I could con someone to lend me his shovel but unfortunately, no one was around as everyone already did their shovelling before I went down. All of a sudden... in my time of need, I had an inspiration... it was just like Star Wars when Luke Skywalker hears Obi-wan Kenobi saying "Use the force, Luke!". But for me, it was like "Use the dustbin, Pin!"... I dashed back into my apartment, grabbed a dustbin and went back out there. Scooped snow with my trusty bin and finally managed to get a small path clear for my car to get out. I decided to drive around a bit and see whether I could find another car park that was clear of snow... heh heh... obviously, I didn't want to repeat the whole saga again tomorrow morning! Unfortunately, there wasn't another available car park so I went back to mine and drove in and out a bit so that my tyre will create a path for me.
It is still snowing... looks like I might be late for work tomorrow...

Sunday breakfast at Raju's

I usually have oats in the morning. However, on Sundays in Malaysia, I love going to Raju's in Section 5 for a banana leaf meal. My favourite - paper thosai with one scoop of dhal and overflowing with chicken curry plus the coconut chutney and the chilli onion (lots and lots of this - only available on weekends). Also, the fried tenggiri fish (don't know what this variety of fish is called in English), fried chicken and chicken masala complements the meal nicely. I usually have a "limau ais kosong" (lime juice - no sugar) to go with the meal because it makes me feel less guilty. Don't ask me why but somewhere in my mind, it tells me that it will negate the oily and sinful food. Anyways, I am miles away from Malaysia but I found frozen roti canai in the asian grocery store last week. I just make my own chicken curry and pan fry the roti canai and voila! My own banana leaf meal... albeit... without the banana leaf.

Civilisation

Oooooo... tall buildings.... ooooo.... sign boards with advertisements.... ooooooo... flashing lights....

This is what I call civilisation!! Hahaha!!

Important news!

I was thinking of going shopping this weekend at the premium outlet in Massachusets but guess what? I was surfing the web and I found out that there is a sale going on the week after!! OMG! My favourite four letters!! S-A-L-E!! Heh heh... I think I will wait until the week after to go to the outlet.
I think I will have a yoga weekend this coming weekend. I want to try one of the speciality class from West Hartford Yoga. Oh yes, Seane Corne is doing a workshop there as well but I won't be attending it. I wanted to go for yoga yesterday but my legs were aching after my trip to New York. Hmm... I reckon I am getting old.

Ethiopian food in New Haven

We had a night out mid-week last week. It was fun! We went down to New Haven and met up with some people working in Sikorski. It was quite a big group. Probably over 20 people. Luckily I managed to get a ride with some of the girls. I wouldn't be able to find my way to the restaurant... I am just so crap with directions and have gotten lost so many times since I got here. I am a bit paranoid now when I have to go to a new place.
We had appetizers and they served some prawn salad thing and nachos. Yes, very ethiopian... ?!?! Oh well...

The food were mainly like stews and we get the bread rolls... the bread is soft and sour. In fact, it taste a bit like thosai and you use your hands to eat... so it was kinda like a banana leaf meal...

There was so much to eat so I couldn't have dessert but the desserts look really good. Maybe next time I go there, I'll just have dessert. Hahahaha!

Andersen's first birthday

I got a little toy for Andersen... it was a little plastic "cd player". There is a big button in the middle and 3 small buttons on the top. If you press the middle button, the cd will spin and will stop at an animal, for example: Dog. Then, a voice will say "DOG!" and then a nursery song will play that has that word in it. After that, the sound that the animal makes will come on... "WOOF!". The 3 little buttons on top will allow you to replay which part you want, i.e. Animal name, song or animal sound.

My brother-in-law describes this toy as "Animal roulette".

Angie and Jeff baked 2 cakes!! YUMMY! One was a carrot cake baked by Jeff and you can have ice cream with 3 flavours on it (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) and the other was a chiffon cake and you eat it with raspberries and blackberries and whipped cream.

Andersen had a slice of carrot cake and managed to eat half of it. I think he missed his mouth when trying to eat the other half. He is so cute. I am always very entertained watching him eat.

I had a slice of the chiffon cake myself with whipped cream and berries. YUM! I love raspberries. I reckon I got addicted to raspberries when I was in the UK and I went raspberry picking with Jenny.

Ohhh... I learnt a new dessert from Angie today. Get the puff pastry, and cut it into squares and bake it. Then get the custard from the can. When the pastry is done, make a custard sandwich with the pastry shells. Arrange in on a plate and then sprinkle icing sugar over it. Jeff said you can sprinkle cocoa over it as well to get the chocolate taste. I think I am going to attempt that when Jenny comes and visit me over here.


Andersen had a lot of presents but he had difficulty opening them. Luckily his big sister and cousins were around to help him. I think they were more than willing to help him open up all his presents as that is something a kid loves to do... opening up pressies!!

Here's a picture of grandpa Bill with Andersen and Chloe.

Spaghetti

I made spaghetti for dinner the other day. YUM. Of course, I cheated. I got the bottled sauce but I put in other stuff as well. I stirfried some garlic and minced chicken, added in some chopped carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and the sauce. Stir... stir... stir... and voila! Its done! Unfortunately, I concentrated too much on making the sauce, I forgot about the spaghetti. Doh! I had to quickly boil some so that I could eat. I was starving by the time the noodles were soft! I cut some little bird's eye chillies and dumped it into the sauce as well. My fav!

However, my spaghetti sauce cannot be compared with the one my mum makes. My sister-in-law's sister enjoyed it so much until she was eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 days. I kid you not!! This is definitely a true story...

Adorable Kiera

Look at this beautiful little girl!! A little princess... I got her a little Disney princess sticker book for her featuring cartoon characters like Ariel, Princess Jasmin and all. Actually, I love stickers so I was hoping that she would let me help her stick a few in the book. Haha!

It is really hard to get Kiera to pose for a photo. She loves to make funny faces at the camera and so I was really happy I managed to get a good photo of her on her little toy bicycle.

Char Koon

Just next to my client's office is a big Stop & Shop supermarket and there is this express noodle shop called Char Koon. One of the most popular noodle dish is the Malay Curry Noodles as shown in the picture below. When I arrived onsite, one of the questions I got was "Is malay curry noodles actually a real dish in Malaysia?". Anyway, I was quite curious to see what this "malay curry noodle" was actually like. So I ventured into Char Koon on ordered it. Hmm... it is meehoon goreng (a.k.a described as angel-hair pasta) with chicken & shrimp & mushroom curry poured on top. And they top it off with some boiled spinach. Hmm... don't recall seeing such a dish in Malaysia. It was quite yummy though... but the servings were huge!! It can easily feed 2 people!! Well, I reckon I can probably cook this myself... but I have to wait a while before I try it. After eating this, I felt a bit sick because it was just too much. So no curry noodles for me for a while...

My latest addiction

I was introduced to this by Bill from work. He said it was the main contributor to his big beer belly. I can totally understand why! It is delicious! YUM YUM YUM! The texture is something like a banana cake and it has the slight pistachio taste and the top is covered with the crushed walnuts... which was what I ate first!

The view from my bedroom window

I woke up to a snowstorm today!! It looks so pretty when you are in the apartment.... but the moment you go out, you enter a battlefield... Luckily the snow was soft this morning. I didn't really have to scrape any ice off the windscreen. I just had to sweep all the snow off. It was quite thick. On my car, there was about 3-4 inches of snow. It was snowing so heavily when I was sweeping off the snow... hmm... I was considering working from home but I figured since I was home bound majority of the time I was here, it might be good to show my face in the office today. I also made a quick trip to the neighbourhood post office and managed to send off my tax returns for my UK tax. Hope it gets to the tax people on time. It usually takes me around 10 minutes to get to work (although I have only gone into the office once so far) but today it took me 1 hour! Gosh... the I-91 highway was packed and you can't really drive fast because it was so slippery. My car actually skidded when I was turning a corner. The big snowflakes were also pelting down on my windscreen. Luckily, my wipers were working well. I also learnt how to use the back wipers in the SUV as well. Yay! *Pat on shoulder*...

Hollywood lights

One of the things I like in my apartment is what I call the "Hollywood lights"!! I only have one ceiling light in the whole apartment and that is in the kitchen. In my bathroom however, I have these Hollywood lights - light bulbs at the top of my mirror. Everytime I go into the bathroom and look in the mirror, I feel like a movie star for some reason. I think it is because I remember seeing lights like these in the dressing rooms of movie stars - where they sit in front of the mirror and get their make-up done. Hahaha! Cheap thrill for me every morning...

Screwing around

Hahaha! Suggestive title but not so kinky... I had a problem when moving into my apartment. The stupid furniture rental company didn't set up my dining table for me. They left it on the floor and then when I opened the box, I found the legs but no screws to screw it on. Hmph! I had no dining table for the whole weekend. Actually, I use the dining table as an office table anyways.... Don't really eat on the table. I am usually on the sofa watching TV and eating at the same time.... hahahaha! This is very bad because I am not eating "consciously" which is something that most diet professionals recommend. Sigh... I might have to break that habit soon. I called up the rental agency today and they sent someone to set up the table for me with apologies. Apologies??? What the hell is that? Where are my free goodies?? Oh well... at least I have a table to work on now....

Don't eat yellow snow

Ok... here's the popular pose with the snowball. Before you do this, please check whether the snow is white or yellow. You wouldn't want to eat yellow snow.... Someone might have gotten drunk the night before and had major bladder control problems and pee-ed on the snow... eeyyeeuuuch!
Oh... when I was making the snowball, the cleaner lady caught me. She must be wondering what this crazy Malaysian girl is doing and whether I was going to pelt anyone with all my snowballs... no one else is around here during the day though....
Don't I look cute in my red beanie? (ok ok... self-praise is no praise...) Hmm.. I think I look like the cartoon character Tin Tin. There was one episode where he wore something like that as well. I guess all I need now to complete the look is a little white dog.