miachenyze

When I first started work and stayed back quite a lot about half the time, I thought that perhaps that was a tight period.

But this year, it seems like there's no letting up. The week before last, I'd promised myself I'd leave by 7. Well, last week I did manage to somewhat hover around that range, leaving about 7.30pm on most nights.

And this week, it's "business as usual".

I suspect the only "lull period" would be end of year when Christmas comes and no one wants to work. But that's such a long way away. )=

Looking through the photos here suddenly makes me miss Canada. Sorta wonder if we would have felt better, moved on with our lives, if we had indeed bought that gorgeous house.

It was so far in and so out of the way when it comes to public transport, but it was such a magnificent house with a beautiful tranquil view of the woods, that I almost considered it possible to live there.

Taking medical leave tomorrow to clear a bunch of medical to-do items off my list. It still sounds ridiculous to me to have to "time" my sick leave, but I gotta admit, it's inevitable. Unless the illness is truly debilitating, it's so much more trouble than it's worth to take leave on a day where you've got tastings or meeting to attend to. You just can't let yourself fall ill when it's inconvenient - even if you know something's round the corner, denial is the order of the day.

My eyes did not use to be so bothersome. I'm really at a loss as to why I keep getting eye infections of the blue these days. One of my bosses suggested hives, but it doesn't seem like it, and I haven't been eating anything out of the ordinary, so chances of this being a food allergy seems rather slim too. It's just so annoying when I have the squint the whole day because my eyelids are swollen. Grrr. Well, I've never enjoyed putting on eye make up anyway, and I'm even more wary of it with this issue.

I would much prefer to go for TCM for this and my worsening sinus problem, but I do need a referral to the National Skin Centre for (gasp!) other skin issues so I'm stuck with a visit to the polyclinic. )= And I should (that's the key word) make an appointment chez dentiste to get my on-again-off-again toothache checked but I think my medical budget for the year will not be able to take it. Bleah!

A Tour of America's Test Kitchen

I want want want want to work there! If only there were such facilities here in Singapore too, that test things so rigorously for Asian recipes and with products found here. Or if at least I can buy some of their discarded products during their sales. Boo!

It is unthinkable to accept anything less.

Sound
A five second tune
Transports
Across distance – land, air, water;
Across time – years – backwards;
Across emotions – deep and murky.
Relief, please, from the long arms of Sound.

I am flabbergasted. Awestruck. Bowled over. And humbled too.

I just stumbled, one and a half year belatedly I will admit, upon the news about a certain (then) 12-year-old David Fishman: a boy serious enough about his enjoyment of food and Zagat aspirations that he wrote his tasting notes dutifully in a leather-bound notebook, and even gives restaurants ratings based on a 25-point scale each for food, ambience, and service.

That was so much more than I have ever done, or do now. I am silly and assume that I'll remember but procrastinated memories tend to fade and although the essence of interest or disdain would remain, they're usually insufficient for writing properly.

Ah, how I am shamed to get my act together.

I also dearly wish that David Fishman would write, preferably somewhere online and free so that I can have access to his reviews. I would so love to read longer pieces; the anecdotes in the two articles hinted of thoughtful and dilligent analyses. I'm actually more interested in getting to know his style and the way he thinks, rather than getting a list of restaurants out of him. In fact, I just managed to email Ms. Susan Dominus of the original NYT article to ask if she knows whether he has a regular publication (blog, or more). To be honest, I'm not putting too much hope into a reply - it has after all been more than a year, but no harm in trying!

I have a certain, psychotic (Christie Scollon would not approve) obsession with food. Even acquaintances pick up the vibes quite easily, "wow you're really quite crazy about food, huh?" In this digital age of blogs and social media, small talk over my food obsession often leads to the dreaded question: "so do you keep a food blog since you know/eat at so many places?"

The answer, woefully, is no. In all truthfulness, it's a 0.25no. Bloody odd way of putting it, right? Well this is how I compute it. I sorta, do, have a blog. But this glass is half-empty because content is so sparse and I'm ashamed to admit this half-hearted side to me. That makes it a 0.5no, and I again halve the marks for sparsity.

I'm trying to bulk up my near non-existent food-related writing. Let's ignore the blog for a while - the layout alone will probably deter me from getting much done, but I'm trying to rev up articles for the SMU Gourmet Club at least. I've a few, and the website is http://www.smugourmetclub.com/ As usual, I'm a bit shy to overtly plug, so just read everything and support the Gourmet Club! We're really trying to make our presence much more regular, and holistic (ie. recipes, cultural meanings etc) - and feedback is always good!

On a whim, I had decided to join the SMUX team for the Tour de Taiwan trip - a 2 week trip of hard cycling around the entire Taiwan island, with an average of 90km per day. And I say whim because the distance per day and the overall duration is going to be a helluva work for a novice cyclist like me, because that 1k+ I'll be spending for this is a good 500euros away from my budget for Europe, and because the tight schedule gives me little rest before my backpacking trip.

Let me elaborate a little more on my pitiful cycling skills.

The common myth that cycling is a skill that sticks with you for life once you pick it up, did not really apply to me. It took perhaps a good six years of on-and-off cycling around East Coast Park for me to gain both confidence and ability to balance the bike on my own before starting off. Previously I needed my dad to support launch me off because once I got on the bike, the wobble would prevent me from moving forward. I was really more of a backseat cyclist on tandem bikes with other people.

When I was in the organizing team for FTB in 2007, we rented bikes for the entire duration of each camp so that we'll be mobile for the activities along the beach. I really wanted to cycle with everyone else over to the campsite from the store, so I'd volunteered to be part of the cycling team. What I failed to emphasize well enough, was that I was still quite a hesitant rider; when the rest took a shortcut through a slope, over the UDMC carpark, I panicked at the drain crossing and rammed into a lamppost. Needless to say, my very encouraging friends were more concerned for the lamp post.

On another cycling afternoon with the zyfie, I don't even remember why, but I'd ended up flying off my bike to land in front. Thankfully I only suffered minor abrasions, but until now, I'm still quite scared of a repeat accident.

Yet I still harboured romantic notions about cycling. I loved the idea of cycling as a main form of transportation and its green promise; I aspired to do cycling-based backpacking trips where you paddle through the scenic country roads of France or Spain.

I struggled to balance my heavy Vélib bikes in Paris and ignored the honking huge trucks as I tried to keep up with Francesca. I am really grateful to her for her generosity in going on a few spins around Paris with someone as inept as I was.

In Amsterdam, I really really wanted to immerse in the city's culture - I wanted to cycle around Amsterdam! Of course, I was again too scared to be on a bike alone, but my best friend was gallant enough to endure Amsterdam on a tandem bike with me. It was awfully fun because the proximity allowed us to chat about the sights we saw, and being the backseat cyclist allowed me to handsfree for some moments to snap a few photos. The hilarious part was that my Dutch friends seemed shocked when we told them of our Amsterdam adventure - they said the traffic was scary and even they wouldn't cycle around, much less on a heavy tandem bike. Made me feel extra proud of ourselves.







Then there was the SMUX night bike. For various reasons, I never got to go until year 4 term so I was crazy excited about it. Things did not get off on a good start; my seat felt very uncomfortable from the first ten minutes, something that had never happened to me on all the times I rented bikes for 2-hour rides. The supper at Changi Village made me super full, and there were so many slopes and chionging for the traffic light that I was really worn out by the time we reached our second last destination at Marina Barrage. Nonetheless, the satisfaction was well worth it.

I know that there's a chance I might not be fully ready for Taiwan when Taiwan looms around. I do worry that I wouldn't be able to train as hard as the rest, because I still lack confidence to cycle around on the roads on my own, and I am also without a bike. A saner part of me realizes that finishing 70km in 9 hours with long lulls of breaks in between is not reflective of the intensity of cycling 90km in a 3.5hours. Nor will I get rest days to recuperate - it's really about two whole weeks of cycling every morning. But I'm of the opinion that sometimes, you've just got to take a whack at it and bluff your way through with sheer enthusiasm. Oh, I'd lived that way for some years, and it'll be nice to get back to that gungho attitude.

My mom usually has to nag at me like crazy for me to do household chores. I don't bother much because 1. her desired tasks tend to be silly things that I don't think are crucial (like, cleaning under the bottles of the fridge? instead of say, doing the dishes) and 2. I am certain that my efforts would be in vain when she messes up the kitchen again in the evening.

That said, I'm generally quite self-motivated to do some cleaning when left to my own devices. They're out of town, and over the past few days I've got the vacuum cleaner out, wiped the dining table, did a few loads of laundry (though I still procrastinate the ironing), and cleaned the whole damn stove top! Heh. To be fair, lots of credit goes to the DG for helping me out and giving advice from the Oracle on how to deal with nasty stains. Heh. Been trying my hand at cooking too, and I'm proud to say that my celery and potato peeling skills have leveled up! I even cry less when I'm cutting onions though they can be more finely chopped.

And I feel even happier now cuz I just saw this on FB, posted by my sister! "house smells so yummy when it's just me and sis! Chenyze LoveFood and her wonderful food experiments."

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