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What I have or have not been doing..

mookxi — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:45:25 +0000

I have not been blogging of late. Very sorry. You know, it’s the usual excuses: work, life, play. They all get in the way. And funnily enough, I haven’t felt like there’s been a lack of channels for me to vent out pent up anger, stress and what not. It must mean that instead I’ve been verbally discussing my life with real live people, as opposed to the online kind. Not that you’re not real, but I’m sure there are thousands of bots out there making my stats look really high when in fact my only readership consists only of:

1. My parents (how sad);

2. Nicole; and

3. a handful of loyal blogger friends (thank you !).

Really do apologise (I find it funny that still after all these years since writing a journal at age six, I still write like I have an audience). I promise I have good reasons.

1. Started a new business with Thom — more on this later.

2. Finished up with the graduate program (so sad)

3. Christmas/new year/holiday obligations.

For now, all I have for you is this rather ridiculous (I am ridiculous on camera, I’ve been told !) video on hair and perming. You may think this may be a little narcissistic but I swear people ask me about it so I thought this might be useful / interesting. Please note that I don’t particularly like being on video, which is why there is a lot of awkward hand gestures and “umming” and “ahhhing”.

What I learned in Market Risk

mookxi — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:36:26 +0000

1. What an array is and how you can use it in a sentence

Meaning: A collection of items (according to Excel Help)

“Richard, look at all the array on your table !”

2. A query isn’t a question

3. How to “drag and dump”

4. LANA is ‘loans approved not advanced’, not a person

5. The difference between Vten, Vload, V- etc.

6. How to pronounce “Zvakanaka”

7. The perils of unsupported tools

8. Lots of of Excel shortcuts (e.g. f4 to get rid of the dollar signs)

9. John drinks about 2 or more cans of coke a day, Richard drinks 3 cups of black tea

10. There is a secret stash of food somewhere kept by Internal Audit (Richard knows where it is)

11. John’s highlight of his career is hiring Richard

12. If someone talks about haircuts, it’s not about going to the salon

Overall, I had a very enjoyable rotation at work. I learned lots and now it’s time to move on to something else. Here’s what else has been happening besides work:

mookxi — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:05:12 +0000

I just thought you should know that I got a new pair of shoes. Maybe I am one of those people that has an addiction problem. But mine is very specific. Specifically, I like these handmade shoes from Folk. They’re very comfortable you see and the leather quality is superb ! They don’t need to be worn in !

Anyway, moving on to my next favourite subject: FOOD ! Like I said in my previous post, I am about to share with you a very delicious recipe which is perfect for days where you want to satisfy your chocolate cravings or you’re not feeling so good because someone died and you want to feel marginally better.

Hershey’s “perfectly chocolate” chocolate cake with Nutella filling

Ingredients:

- 2 cups sugar
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa (From Costco. If you don’t have this, you can use any unsweetened cocoa)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- Nutella (use however much as you like !)

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180°C. Grease and flour two 23cm round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

3. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

4. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

5. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

6. Spread Nutella on the top of one of the layers and stick both layers together. EAT !

Sayang means ‘love’

mookxi — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:40:08 +0000

Nicole said I should post something. So for her entertainment, I am. I haven’t really felt like blogging much over the past couple of weeks. For those of you who don’t know (probably a lot of you, because I never really told anyone), the love of my life, my baby, best friend and dog Sayang died on the 15th of June. I think Bel & I will forever be sorry that we weren’t there with her when it happened but I suppose we have to try and hang on to the good memories, the ones that truly reflect the kind of dog she was rather than one I have engrained. The one where I walk out in the garden and uncover the blankets and she’s lying in eternal sleep in a cardboard box ready to be carried out into her grave. The story of how we ended up getting Sayang in the first place is quite an amusing one. Mum bought Sayang on a whim, without any consultation with my dad and I remember him being very cross about it, but she said that while she and her best friend were in the pet store, Sayang had kept staring at her with those “take me home” eyes so that she just had to get her. And I remember the power of her convicting eyes (can eyes be convicting ?). In fact she had a profound impact on each and everyone of us, even my (typical cold hard exterior, never sheds a tear, Asian) dad. And while Bel & I were at a friend’s house, she came home to pick us up with Sayang in her arms and my friend had thought it was for her ! I feel so blessed to have had such an amazing companion while growing up. In many ways, she is the epitome my childhood. I will forever remember and love her.

To end this sad post, I thought I should post something a bit ‘lighter’ cause’ not everyone likes talking or hearing about death. This is a chocolate cake made using Hershey’s cocoa with a Nutella filling (good call Bel). Bel & I have been baking a lot (pizzas, cakes, roulades), which is maybe our way of dealing with things. It’s been yummy. (Recipe to follow in possible next post)

The day I came back from Perth

mookxi — Mon, 28 May 2012 09:51:18 +0000

I spent a lovely weekend in Perth to escape the horribly, rainy Melbourne weather. Oh, and also to pop in to visit a friend in Perth for his birthday. I honestly didn’t have any high expectations of what Perth was going to be like but turns out it’s such a beautiful place. Warm, cloud-less days (according to Tian, only one out of every ten weekends it’s miserable), sparse clean spaces, and pristine beaches. That would sum up my Perth experience. Plus kareoke and angry birds (it was mating season for the seagulls) ! Now I’m getting closer to crossing off my goal to visit all the states in Australia. All I have left is Tasmania & NT ! Photo overload ahead –>

The day I signed up for an Anzac biscuit cook-off

mookxi — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:27:08 +0000

Past:

shanghai dumplings (xiao long bao)

I love you’s & “that’s nice”

ukulele –

Present:

Pleats please

Playing Clair de Lune on grand pianos

Season 2 Game of Thrones

Future:

Anzac biscuit competition

Hack & throw away broken pieces of glass

Clunes & Yarra Valley

AND..

Family trip — London 2013 !

The day I became a creature of habbit

mookxi — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:10:42 +0000

My favourite Malaysian restaurant had been closed for ages due to renovations & rebranding. Finally on Monday, PappaRich opened to the public and yummy asam laksa was mine once more. If you haven’t ever tried it, I insist that you must at least once in your life time ! I’m going there again tonight with Nicole making it the third time this week !

Last night we went to PM24 where mum attempted to speak French to the waitress ~ “l’addition s’il vous plaît !!“. It was really cute. We were there with his parents & mine to celebrate Thomas’s 25th anniversary of his existence into the world (although it’s not till Sunday — apparently, according to his parents, he has always made a big deal of his birthday and so here begins his birthday week !). And I will be flying off to Brisbane for work for a couple of days on the 18th so that explains all the manga reading material for the plane :-) I’ve always been so great at packing light.

The week that rained I ..

mookxi — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:37:09 +0000

attempted making cheddar, beer and mustard pull-apart bread (it turned out DELICIOUS !),

feasted on jelly custard with Nicole,

walked to work in my shiny black shoes,

and drank custard cider at Melbourne Food & Wine festival. There was also a free ferry ride from along the Yarra which I took advantage of (& thankfully there was no motion sickness). I’ll also be going to a 20 years, 20 canapes, 20 wines on the 10th which I’m excited about because I’ve never really participated in any of their events !

That’s all folks. And my weekend is over.

I must be having too much fun

mookxi — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:44:00 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts. I started work the next day I arrived back from Japan and have been working in the new job ever since. It’s been fun and trying at times but I’m learning a lot. Last week was spent in San Remo where 19 of us supergrads soaked up the sun and learned a lot about the super industry and each other. I feel pretty lucky to be a part of this program & have met so many wonderful, inspiration, intelligent people. It’ll be interesting to see where I’ll end up by the end of the year. I also have another interstate trip to look forward to in March in Brisbane where I’ll be attending a conference for the major super funds and meeting lots of key speakers, industry leaders, and my mentor !

Besides all the traveling, eating, and working, I’ve been busking for the first time & also performed at Stage Fright which was absolutely nerve-wreaking and exhilarating ! I hope to perform again someday, whether it be on the street or on stage. Naturally I feel like a shy person (can’t tell can you ? :-P) and this year has really challenged me to put myself out there a lot more.

Highlights of the trip: Studio Ghibli & the cat bus, attempting to speak Japanese (crappily, but hey, at least I tried !), amazing food & cheap eats, the fashhhion, pretty men with stylish man bags, 10-story stationary stores (aka stationary heaven !), manga library, cycling through Kyoto, snow, super efficient trains which come every 2 minutes, and polite & attentive shop assistants. I’m sure there were more but those are off the top of my head !

Lowlights: Not being able to eat and drink on the street while walking/doing stuff. I know, I know — means less litter and less people eating smelly foods on trains but I must be so used to eating on the go that I don’t think I could do without for a prolonged period of time.

Weird lights: Japanese highschoolers following a very scared and timid Thomas who they asked to be in a photo with. They kept giggling and calling him “handsome” which amused me greatly at the time, particularly because he looked SO CONFUSED –> o.O. I was disappointed that no one ever came up and offered him a modelling contract though, which I hear is quite common over there if you’re Caucasian and at least six foot tall !

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks .. there are thousands so I just picked a handful !

1-2. Tokyo CBD 3. 5am at the fish market 4. Udon ordered from a vending machine 5. Manga museum in Kyoto 6-8. Kyoto 9. Takoyaki 10. Donuts in Minami-Aoyama 11. Thomas posing 12. Statue in Studio Ghibli 13. Akihabara (electronics / bookstore district)

I hope you all are having a wonderful 2012 so far !

This post relates to goal #10.

Kung hei fat choi hong bao na lai !

mookxi — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:36:19 +0000

After working non-stop for 6 months, it’s finally my turn for a holiday. I will be in Japan from 24th of January for nearly 2 weeks and will have tonnes of stories & pictures to share with you in February ! Also gong hai fat choi to all those celebrating (I hope you got lots of red packet :-b) ! Amy was right in saying that we’re lucky to get another chance to start the new year afresh if things didn’t quite to go plan the first time around on the 1st, considering that Chinese New Year is on the 23rd of January this year. I’m quite nervous and excited about 2012. New job, Japan, could be the end of the world, the start of some newfound challenges & ventures, or a year that will push me to new limits. Whatever comes my way, the dragon is ready (aka bring it on .. slightly joking) ! All I have to say is, I have a rather large collection of red under garments.

Oh, I also got a hair cut. For some reason I like to document these relatively trivial things on my blog.

Mind my creepy stare. I have a thing for top hats these days !

This post relates to goal #10.