. . . what's new? part II . . .

assalamualaikum

ok since i feel a bit more interested on blogging today, i'll just spill out what i've been meaning to say. perhaps it is easier to do it according to what i can remember (i hope)...

updates on the apartment and life in it...

not really an easy task of starting from scratch. not that i have the ability to purchase everything in one go, its just that i don't want to get unnecessary stuff at unnecessary times for unnecessary waste of space as well as energy. oh i forgot, unnecessary waste of mon-neh! so i promised myself to go slow on it since i'm not in a rush and i ain't bitching too much nowadays after i got the necessary items.

i guess my main target is to stay alive and happy... both has been covered after purchasing the fridge, stove, freezer, washing machine and a tv set (^_^) i'm pretty much happy with that. the washing machine works wonders for me. i love the smell of fresh washed clothes. i recently bought the freezer and by Allah's name, it saved my culinary life. i can store more meat and fish products which will probably (fingers crossed) will last me more than two months if i maintain my 'trying-to-averagely-lower-food-consumption'.

with the small extra amount of money as well, i bought a plant bucket and several useful herbs that i really love to use in my daily cooking. at least i have a small green life in my kitchen. i bought a few of them which were readily grown from the market and some were packed seeds so you can grow them yourselves. and i am happy to say that almost all of the seeds that i've planted have grown into cute baby leaves... even the chili seeds that mum sent to me a year ago! hehehe... well i do admit not all of them are healthily growing. the ones that i've planted are doing ok, the ones that were pre-bought looks like they are struggling for life. my dill has totally died, my mint and thyme as well as the rosemary are surviving, i can't tell whether my parsley is well or not (the leaves are kinda crumpled) and lastly my coriander looks like its becoming a celery! hahaha... yes i don't have a green thumb but hey, no harm done in trying.

most of the menus i make nowadays are italian based. aka very simple cooking. ok ok ok... aka very lazy BUT delicious cooking (this usually includes pasta). hehehehe... i am very amused by the fact that they are easy and fun to make. i have yet to try roasting and pastry making... the last 2 weekends i tried my hands on basic frying (i know its a normal thing among cooks but i have never tried cooking in large batches) and fat removal from beef by boiling. i understand now on sealing the flavors inside the meats or fish, hence making me want to try and experiment more on how to impress my own palette. in my own words, i am trying to tweak up my experiments on my culinary skills.

i managed to get recent pictures of my loving family as well as my beautiful mama bear, gonna put them up soon on my walls. so far, pictures are the only things that i can hold to and makes me feel so close to them :') i love you all...

viewing pleasures...

yes it does sound rather kinky but i assure you its not... maybe... ahem! moving on... lately after the Supernatural series, i delve into other tv shows. Caprica, How I Met Your Mother, Justified, Glee, FlashForward, Fringe... lots to mention. that doesn't include movies yet, we'll get to that later. but recently i managed to finish off Lost. as i said to mama bear, the more i see Lost, the more lost i get. it took me quite a while to understand it. the ending was severely bittersweet altho there were some other questions in mind but mostly i am satisfied with it. it was rather long compared to the other series i watched. i felt like each episode lasted for like more than 2 hrs. my interest now is on Fringe as it has a common impact on me when X-Files was my top priority. the only reason that i watched Lost was because it has ended and that i can download it in one go as well as to prevent me from getting over excited on waiting for the next episode to come. trust me, i really hate suspenses and hanging story lines... i want to get the bottom of it as soon as i can take my next breath.

i hope there will be some more interesting shows. i'm pretty much sad with Supernatural's ending and i am surely hoping there will be more!

i only managed to catch Prince of Persia, this year at the movies. i wanted to go and see Iron Man 2 but there was a movie streaming site that obviously saved my life (well, in this case my wallet) both are good. nothing much could be expected. even Nightmare on Elm Street was so-so.

ASEAN Sports...

scrabble was not entirely what i expected but i did give it my best. its still one of my favorite games after pool.

to my surprise we didi very well in Darts and managed to get a Gold medal! wohooo! big ups goes to the team, Amb Erih-Fauzi-Gerome for doing so well in the game. yes i was in it too. the last time i remember playing it was when i was like below 10 yrs old and that was just for filling in my time. i am definitely going for it again next year!

i backed out from pool this year to give an opportunity to my colleague since he didnt get to play last year altho he didnt manage to go thru the 2nd round. no worries Gerome! as long as we have fun, that matters the most. congrats to Amb Erih for attaining the Silver medal. there wasn't as many competitors this year compared to the last. to my two female officers, Mali and Tina, congrats for getting Silver and Gold respectively (yes, i absolutely had no doubt that those medals were to fall in your hands without even trying that much) hehehe...

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i guess that covers most of it. i haven't done any traveling but insyallah when theres time (and money) i will post up something...

wassalam