new book! August 19, 2010

so excited about my new cookbook!  this is a relatively new passion of mine – cookbooks!  i like cooking and mostly improvise, or cook something i’ve learnt from my mum or look up a recipe online.  i have a feeling my recipe book collection is going to grow.  mmmmmm..

just as well i’m a participant of the dailymuscle transformation camp – i need to work off the results of my cooking experiments!

this book that i bought is modern Japanese cooking by harumi kurihara.  her first book won the ‘recipe book of the year’ award, so i was sold.  haha.  it does seem like it was written for the western audience, it doesn’t claim to be a ‘how-to’ on tradititional Japanese cuisine, which also would be too much for a novice like me to grasp.  i love the Japanese way of eating – small amounts of many types of food, with meticulous attention to detail and freshness of the ingredients.

the other cookbook in my humble collection is a birthday gift from my sister.  it is perhaps the opposite of Japanese cooking – big mounds of  hearty, English (and Italian inspired) fare.. it’s honest to goodness Jamie Oliver.

wow, i guess i really have to cook something now that i’ve talked so much about cooking.  :)  if you’re lucky, i might get around to some cooking and actually putting it up on my blog before slipping into the (almost-year-round) blogger’s block.  ok fine, apathy.  call it whatever you like.  for now, it’s back to admiring the beautiful food photographs.  :D

why i love my job August 18, 2010

because you get to share moments of precocity that you know will disappear in a few years, maybe months.  this little student of mine is 6 and she is really adorable.  i love her to bits but i try not to let it show too much.  :)

she composed a piece called “A Spooky Nightmare” and played it in this lesson.  i was really impressed with her composition because it was pretty scary sounding!  she used the lowest octave, and asked me to pedal for her (too far for her legs!) and proceeded to play a really well-thought out piece that really did sound convincing.  it was in c minor, it had a bit of chromaticism and ended with a big, loud tone cluster in case you weren’t terrified already. since then she’s composed another few pieces, each with a distinct character and mood.  let’s see what’s next!

pushing my limits August 18, 2010

i have just completed my fourth session at the dailymuscle transformation camp. my thighs are promising to hurt a lot tomorrow.  actually, I’m doing a lot better than the first week i went.

i’m not exaggerating when i say that that first week was one of the toughest things i’ve ever had to do..  it was comparable to climbing mount kinabalu, which is another story for another day.  back to the first day, the warm ups were so tiring that i was starting to wonder if i could do this thing.  the instructors were cheerfully piling on the torture and made all the workouts look so easy.   by halfway, i had to stop and fight the waves of nausea that were coming over me.   all desire to ‘save face’ were gone, i knew i couldn’t go on.  the real pain, however was the next 2 days!  i couldn’t even close my car trunk without getting cramps.

and why did i decide to do something so extreme when normally climbing the 3 floors up to my music school is all the exercise i’m getting?  well, i wanted to get fitter, and look better.  just without quite so much sweat and hard work.   yes, yes that’s sounding ridiculous now i know.  haha.

one thing for sure, when you’re doing your 10th push up and your muscles are screaming at you (yes, i know, ten isn’t many..)  you start to have flashbacks of your past life..  erm, i mean your past meals.  like the nasi lemak breakfast, the chips, cheesecake..  at that moment, they stopped being yummy meals but villains taunting my feeble attempts to work them off my waist.

do i feel better?  am i looking better?  i can’t really tell whether i’m looking any different, but i certainly am getting stronger!  like how every week i feel less and less like throwing up.  :)  and there’s something fun about doing all those lunges, squats, push-ups and crawls with other trainees.  oh no, did i say it was fun?

looking at how great our coaches look is a definite motivation.  our female coach has such an amazing body and absolutely not a trace of tummy fat, it’s really a motivation to keep going.  watching the other trainees push themselves hard also makes me wanna be less of a wuss.

no pain no gain, right?

August 16, 2010

do you meet some people and you just hit it off right away?  well, i suppose that’s what happened when i met these guys.  we were assigned the same flat at the halls of residence when i was studying in manchester.

i didn’t know anyone in manchester, so it was a big adventure going to a new country to study music.   after 2 weeks of staying in an empty flat, i was quite ready for some company!  instead of one new flatmate, i got two!  they turned out to be twins!  their parents are malaysian, and we had a lot of things in common.  Jee, Sian and I  decided to share the groceries and take turns cooking and washing. i must have been insane to agree to share cooking and washing with two 19-year olds, but then again, i was only 21.   (we had wok troubles, but otherwise we did turn out some good meals!)

soon, a third cellist joined us.  (yeah, i don’t know how i managed to survive being in close proximity to three cellists for a year, haha.)  he stayed on the same floor and decided that our food was just too good and came and joined the bandwagon.  Jakob is from sweden.  I’m very happy for my three friends because they have worked very  hard and that, combined with their tremendous talent have brought them a lot of places since.  they each have won major competitions and are doing very well indeed in the classical world.

i guess we became such good friends because we were almost like a family unit, staying in the same flat, cooking, arguing about the dishes, and whose turn it was to cook, sharing our ups and downs, arguing about doing the dishes..  oh did i say that already?

well, fast forward 6 years, and we’re still in touch (mainly around our birthdays, haha).  jakob and i have a plan to meet up before we turn 30.  the scary thing is that i don’t have much time left now!  the twins have family here so we got to meet more often, i guess on average once a year.

recently, Sian came to visit KL so here are some pictures from his birthday celebration!  Jee, i hope you had a great birthday too in Manchester!  however, i’m pretty certain your food wasn’t as happening as ours!

Sian, his cousins, one non-cousin, and I

the most amazing freshwater prawn noodles

ultra-sinful, wobbly melt-in-your-mouth pork

if you think that looked like an amazing dinner… well, it was!  we also had bitter gourd with salted egg, and soup.

we went for some drinks after that.  couldn’t get a table initially because the place was packed!  in the end we got a foldable table brought out for us that looked a lot like office furniture.

here a photo with everyone in it! and we got a better table, as you can see.

to end this post, here’s a toast to great friends and great friendships!

happy happy birthday! August 5, 2010

tomorrow is the birthday of 2 of my really good friends.  they share the same birthday.  they were both my housemates in manchester, and they both play the same instrument.  really really well.  they actually also look a lot like each other. (yes, they are related, since you asked)

Happy early birthday to Sian and Jee!!!!!!!  :D  i can’t believe we met all those years ago.  (no need to count exactly how many years…)

Jee, you’re totally missing out!    come to KL lah!

Photos to come soon!