Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Problems
Well, this week is athlete's foot week. Monday started fine, but by the afternoon my foot started to feel tender. Tuesday night I had trouble sleeping, with a bit of a fever. By Tuesday morning, my foot was swollen, and glands as well. Still, a good excuse to sit on the couch all day and skip the gym.... I managed to finish the first half of Private Practice season 2, then a movie, and the first four episodes of Brothers and Sisters. Last night was another feverish night, so this morning I went to the doctor. I'd been thinking that it might be something more than athlete's foot, but the doctor confirmed that it was just infected. So I am now armed with antibiotics, creme, and nurofen... Another day on the couch keeping my foot up, rubbing in creme and popping pills, and hopefully it should be ok in a couple of days.
Should I put pictures on the blog? Suspect this is not as interesting as some of the cooking/travelling things...
Should I put pictures on the blog? Suspect this is not as interesting as some of the cooking/travelling things...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
What is your Hobbit Name?
Mine is "Mungo Brambleburr of Bindale Wood"....
Click here to find your Hobbit Name, and tell us what it is.
Click here to find your Hobbit Name, and tell us what it is.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Not much to say
Well I realised that I have not updated the blog for a while. That is really because there has not been much to say.
Sonia is in Bangkok at the moment, dodging bullets (joke). Things are calm, as usual, despite what the papers/TV say. It will be interesting to see how things develop, as there is clearly a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes. I suspect it will not be too long before Thaksin is back in the country.
We are off to an ANZAC Ball on Saturday evening. A combination of the NZ Society of Hong Kong (we are members), the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, and a couple of unimportant Australian associations. The Ball's theme is uniforms, which seems a little strange. Usually these things are themed around things that are a little easier to dress up - like "White" or "Glamour" or "Las Vegas" or something equally inane. We are going in normal Ball stuff, as neither of us own a uniform of any sort. Unless you count business suits as uniforms (some would).
We made biscotti last weekend, chocolate flavour. It has turned out quite well, although it could do with being a little dryer and harder. But the recipe (click here) did tell us in advance that it would be a little soft in the middle. And I don't consider pistachios a valid part of a cake, cookie, or biscotti, so we didn't add them. Also because we didn't have any...
I bought some marshmallows, ready to make another lot of sickly sweet, gooey brownies this coming weekend. Which brings me to the gym. Or maybe that should be drives me to the gym? To atone? They are still renovating the gym. There are subtle signs that suggest it might be close to the end, one of which is a sign saying that the cardio machines will be unavailable after 10pm this Friday night. I have been to the gym a few times on Friday nights, but never that late...
Sonia is in Bangkok at the moment, dodging bullets (joke). Things are calm, as usual, despite what the papers/TV say. It will be interesting to see how things develop, as there is clearly a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes. I suspect it will not be too long before Thaksin is back in the country.
We are off to an ANZAC Ball on Saturday evening. A combination of the NZ Society of Hong Kong (we are members), the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, and a couple of unimportant Australian associations. The Ball's theme is uniforms, which seems a little strange. Usually these things are themed around things that are a little easier to dress up - like "White" or "Glamour" or "Las Vegas" or something equally inane. We are going in normal Ball stuff, as neither of us own a uniform of any sort. Unless you count business suits as uniforms (some would).
We made biscotti last weekend, chocolate flavour. It has turned out quite well, although it could do with being a little dryer and harder. But the recipe (click here) did tell us in advance that it would be a little soft in the middle. And I don't consider pistachios a valid part of a cake, cookie, or biscotti, so we didn't add them. Also because we didn't have any...
I bought some marshmallows, ready to make another lot of sickly sweet, gooey brownies this coming weekend. Which brings me to the gym. Or maybe that should be drives me to the gym? To atone? They are still renovating the gym. There are subtle signs that suggest it might be close to the end, one of which is a sign saying that the cardio machines will be unavailable after 10pm this Friday night. I have been to the gym a few times on Friday nights, but never that late...
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Thankyou Sharon
At least one of the relatives is able to extract information from Jonathan. Although given the responses I suspect that Sharon and Daryl resorted to sitting Lui down at a wooden table with spotlights shining on her and extracting the answers directly.... Lui: Apologies if D&S went over the top in encouraging the release of any specific information :-) And I no longer look anything like the wedding photo that is on top of the bookshelf in Mum and Dad's house.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Surreal moments in Hong Kong
We have just come home from having kebabs for dinner. We went to a cheap Turkish place in one of the less salubrious places. The food was fine, and there was lots of it.
On the way back we were sitting on the tram, working our slow way through the centre of Hong Kong. We saw a bus passing us (they go faster than the tram). As the rear of the bus came up level with the tram, we saw a strange sight through the windows of the bus....
A drunk, asian, Elvis, standing up in the back of the bus, swaying backwards and forwards, hanging on for dear life to the pole.... in his white Elvis suite, complete with sequins.
Only in Hong Kong.
On the way back we were sitting on the tram, working our slow way through the centre of Hong Kong. We saw a bus passing us (they go faster than the tram). As the rear of the bus came up level with the tram, we saw a strange sight through the windows of the bus....
A drunk, asian, Elvis, standing up in the back of the bus, swaying backwards and forwards, hanging on for dear life to the pole.... in his white Elvis suite, complete with sequins.
Only in Hong Kong.
Monday, April 13, 2009
New Sunday habit
In what looks like becoming a new habit each Sunday, yesterday afternoon I decided to try making cupcakes. Everyone says they are easy, so it should be more difficult for me to stuff them up compared to the previous challenges involved in Sonia's birthday cake.
Here is a picture of the results. The recipe said it would make 24 - in actual fact it made 20 (for those of you who are observant, the missing ones have been eaten). The chocolate ones are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chunks, raisins, rum flavouring, and chocolate butter cream icing. The other ones are plain with lemon butter cream icing.
The next photos are the story of making Sonia's birthday cake. The first one is of the cake after taking out of the oven, and trying to get it out of the tin.
And you need to see what the turntable from the oven/microwave looked like after taking the cake off it. The detritus that you see is part of what spilled over the side of the cake tin. Remember that this is what is left after I
And of course you need to understand what sort of oven we are cooking with...
Below is a picture of the cake at the end of the process. It actually looked ok (IMHO), and tasted fine.
Here is a picture of the results. The recipe said it would make 24 - in actual fact it made 20 (for those of you who are observant, the missing ones have been eaten). The chocolate ones are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chunks, raisins, rum flavouring, and chocolate butter cream icing. The other ones are plain with lemon butter cream icing.
The next photos are the story of making Sonia's birthday cake. The first one is of the cake after taking out of the oven, and trying to get it out of the tin.
And you need to see what the turntable from the oven/microwave looked like after taking the cake off it. The detritus that you see is part of what spilled over the side of the cake tin. Remember that this is what is left after I
- scraped it off with a spoon so that it would not spill over the side of the turntable onto the floor of the microwave, and
- scooped some of the cake mixture out of the cake tin (while it was cooking) using a jug that I use for making milk for coffee...
And of course you need to understand what sort of oven we are cooking with...
Below is a picture of the cake at the end of the process. It actually looked ok (IMHO), and tasted fine.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Noodles
Today's lunch was Udon noodles, with bits of left-over chicken breast. The broth was a combination of dashi and tare no moto.
Dashi is a fish-based stock, made from seaweed and bonito flakes. It's very thin, with a fairly delicate flavour. It does tend to smell up the apartment when I make it. Tare no moto is a combination of soy sauce, mirin, and a little brown sugar. It's quick thick, and is basically the flavouring. To make the broth, you mix 5-1 dashi to flavouring.
Very nice! We should have put spring onions in it, but not having any we decided to have the noodles anyway.
Dashi is a fish-based stock, made from seaweed and bonito flakes. It's very thin, with a fairly delicate flavour. It does tend to smell up the apartment when I make it. Tare no moto is a combination of soy sauce, mirin, and a little brown sugar. It's quick thick, and is basically the flavouring. To make the broth, you mix 5-1 dashi to flavouring.
Very nice! We should have put spring onions in it, but not having any we decided to have the noodles anyway.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
What to say?
Well, Sonia is back in Bangkok this week. HK is alternately sunny and raining/overcast. Or is it just smog? Hard to tell sometimes.
The gym is being renovated at the moment. Instead of the old 3 floors, they are now taking up 5 (level 2 up to level 6). And of course they build the changing rooms on level 5. With stairs.
The worst bit is the noise that goes with the renovations. They are keeping the gym open while doing it, alternatively closing off a floor while they renovate. At the moment, level 3 is closed and there are jackhammer noises coming from it all the time. The stairwells look like they had a major water leak at some point in the renovations and the carpet is starting to smell. Yummmm!
Still, all the other floors are pretty much completed so it should not be much longer. Level 6 will be the "Group Fitness" area - aerobics, "spin classes" (what a joke!), etc. Level 5 is the changing areas. Level 4 is the strength floor - lots of free weights and machines. Level 3 will be the treadmills, bikes, and step machines. Level 2 will be a cafe (healthy food of course - not).
The gym is being renovated at the moment. Instead of the old 3 floors, they are now taking up 5 (level 2 up to level 6). And of course they build the changing rooms on level 5. With stairs.
The worst bit is the noise that goes with the renovations. They are keeping the gym open while doing it, alternatively closing off a floor while they renovate. At the moment, level 3 is closed and there are jackhammer noises coming from it all the time. The stairwells look like they had a major water leak at some point in the renovations and the carpet is starting to smell. Yummmm!
Still, all the other floors are pretty much completed so it should not be much longer. Level 6 will be the "Group Fitness" area - aerobics, "spin classes" (what a joke!), etc. Level 5 is the changing areas. Level 4 is the strength floor - lots of free weights and machines. Level 3 will be the treadmills, bikes, and step machines. Level 2 will be a cafe (healthy food of course - not).
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Birthdays
Today is Sonia's birthday, as many will know. I took the momentous step of attempting to bake and ice a chocolate cake. The chocolate cake recipe is the Black Magic one on the Chelsea Sugar website.
All started out ok, mixing the cake stuff in a saucepan because the only bowl is a little (actually a lot) small. Then the fun started.
The only oven we have is a combination microwave, grill, convection thing that sits on the bench. Basically a microwave on half a course of steroids... We decided that the convection setting would be best because microwaving a cake is not a great move.
After about 10 minutes in there, the cake had an afro! Then it continued to rise. And kept going... Until there was able mixture flowing freely onto the spinning table. I ended up getting the metal jug used for frothing the milk for coffee and scooping mixture out... I guess I should not have filled the tin so much?
The cake tastes nice, albeit a little on the "wet" side. The thick cooked icing makes up for that. I took a few photos and will put them up shortly so you can all admire my handiwork.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
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