



And then I put all the cocktail fruits in a huge tray....
And then I pour the liquid agar-agar into the tray with the cocktail fruits! And this is a pic of the agar forming. I made two of these huge trays and we had a whole tray leftover cause nobody had time for dessert. So they put it in the fridge for the children the next day.
And this is Changis and his wife. Changis is from Iran and teaches Farsi. He's one of my colleagues.
This is one of the performances we had. Well actually the only performance. Cause the rest of us just did like presentations. The woman sang some Indian songs. I don't know if it was in Hindi. And the boy, who's her son played the alto clarinet thing. I have a video of them but I don't know if I can be bothered to put it up. Hmm..India..in East Asia?
These are just random strangers, some of the other people who were there. Parents and teachers I guess. I don't know any of them.
And this is Hathairat and me. Hathairat teaches Thai and she gave a funny presentation on Thailand right before me. She's also my mentor at the school and is really nice.
Now on to other things. So it was Valentine's day last week too wasn't it? Well we didn't really do anything. Jonas and I cooked a bit together. Fried sliced potatoes with steak which was really delicious by the way, but I was so stressed out about the Asian Night thing I didn't have time to make dessert. So I made that a few days after.
These are Molten Chocolate Cakes. And I'd been obsessing about them in months!
Found the recipe on www.joyofbaking.com and I actually splurged on good quality chocolates for these.
I'm thinking about trying out another version of this cake which is even richer and more sinful. Instead of just underbaking the cake for the oozy centre bit, some recipes call for ganache balls. A bit troublesome but might just be worth the effort. :)
One last thing to add before I end. We had a snowstorm yesterday. Again. Except this time we have loads and loads of snow. It was snowing all of yesterday. I had trouble opening the door to take these pics. How annoying. I wish I can just stay indoors forever.
Here's how much snow there was on the front doorstep.
More snow.
And yet more snow.
And the idiot that ploughed the snow decided to pile everything up right in front of our garage of course.
Okay that's all from me. Damn that's a lot of pics. Hope it doesn't take forever to upload!
*renee*
Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high
Okay I just got home from the East Asian Night at Klostergårdsskolan and I thought I'd blog a bit while I'm on this high from the whole thing. It turned out really really really good!
At first I was nervous as hell and even forgot my baju kurong and baju kebaya at home when this teacher Malin came and fetched me. We drove all the way from Kävlinge to Lund and I was starting to unpack all the food when I realised that I had totally forgotten my clothes. It felt terrible! But thank God Malin was so sweet and nice and offered to drive me back. Shit I felt so bad but she kept saying it was okay.
So everyone was like wow, really nice clothes you have on! And it felt so weird to have a baju kurong on me after all this while. Haha the last time I had it on me was when I got married! It felt a bit rimas too.
And then the presentation bit was so scary. Over a hundred parents, teachers and students were there so I was really nervous but it went really well. Haha I even got everyone to sing and clap along to Siti Nurhaliza's Joget Berhibur song. That was fun, being able to show everyone a bit of myself and my culture. And then I almost had tears in my eyes when this Indian woman came up and sang. It sounded a little weird but it was really touching. I took a video I can upload. In fact I'll upload some pics and stuff later.
Everyone came up to me and was like you did such a good job! It was really interesting to hear about Singapore and the Malay culture! Okay, so maybe they were just being nice but it felt really nice to hear that. And I'm invited to their International Festival in May and stuff. So I'm gonna need all my baju kurong back cause I'll actually be wearing them again! Whee!
Oooh I can't wait to talk to my sisters! Love you girls!
*renee*
Oh at first I thought I'd cheat and just use jello powder cause I couldn't find agar-agar powder in Kävlinge. I thought about using gelatin but I just found out that it's made from pigs' bones and crap, so that's really really really gross. So I bought halal jello powder, orange and strawberry flavours. But after the guy said that 120 people were coming, I realised that 2 packets of jello weren't gonna be enough so I went to the ICA supermarket in Lund and the first thing I came across while looking for jello powder is agar-agar powder of course. It was really expensive (almost 10 times the cost of jello) and it's some kinda Japanese brand so I'm really worried. I don't even know how much I need! Here's what it looks like:
I thought I'd skip the real agar-agar and go with jello but of course the supermarket didn't have any jello. So I bought 2 packets of these agar flakes and I'm thinking about making layered agar-agar. So one layer with real agar-agar and the other with jello. It can't be so hard right? Just cook and let set. I hope it's easy. I'm gonna try make one batch? tonight and then Insyallah it'll turn out perfect and I'll have enough to make at least 1-2 more batches tomorrow.
And then I have to prepare some pictures and my presentation on Singapore/Malaysia/ the Malay culture. I'm thinking of doing a powerpoint presentation and starting with a short intro on Singapore and then just talk about the Malay culture then. Not really sure what I'll talk about. I have about 20 minutes. Should I let them listen to a Malay song maybe? Cindai? Something by Nuraniza Idris? Oh I'll be wearing something traditional too. Should i wear my white baju kurong or the pink-purple kebaya? Urgh! I need help! So stressful! And should I fry the epok-epok tomorrow on on Thursday? Thank god I just have 2 hours of lessons on Thursday and maybe this other teacher's gonna fetch me so I don't have to lug everything around on my bicycle and on the train and then on the bus. Oh my God I hope that teacher fetches me!
What else? Oh Jonas is really really nice today. He actually cooked for me! From scratch! It was a kinda pasta bolognese. He's never made that before so I was really impressed. It tasted really good too. I was so hungry I ate everything up and forgot to take a picture and then there was a tiny bit left in the pan so I decided to take a pic of that. Here it is!
Okay I don't know what's wrong with me today. All the pics I take are blurry. Maybe I'm just tired and stressed out. And of course I have problems with my eyes at the same time. My vision is blurred every now and then, I think cause I need to change my contact lenses. I've bought new specs but won't be getting them till Friday. Urgh! And on top of that I have a stye on my left eye. Okay I had to check that up. I didn't know the English word for tembel! It hurts like crazy and I had to put a warm compress on it all of last night but it doesn't seem to hurt so much anymore so hopefully the bloody thing is gone.
Oh and I forgot to mention that Jonas made dessert too! I had to take a pic of that too of course. It was really yummy.
Okay now this feels like a real long-ass post and I still have the agar-agar to make and tomorrows' lessons to plan so I'd better stop here. Ohh one last pic, before I go. Arlin! Girl! I wish you were here! So you can help me with all this! Remember this pic? When you were here a few months ago? And we went to Johannes' and met Aslan's famlily? Johannes' cats are actually Aslan's mom and sister. Oh I should take a pic of them one day.
Okay enough from me. Love you guys! Wish me luck for Thursday!
Lots and lots and lots of love,
Nene
*renee*
Anyway i'll upload a few more pics so Nene won't bug me too much....:p
(Right: ugh...I look so gemuk! I told you we kept eating :p)
(Left: Ok...one of these things had Harsmar!...heheh...And Bernie...I am gonna scream at you for this when I next see you!
Okay, so I have to admit...it was delicious until I found out what it was...
(Right: Dr Sha. Yes we spent hours here. Probley the highlight of our trip...well Bernie's and Emily's anyway...i'm still curious to see if these miracle creams actually do work.)
Ok i'm lazy to upload more pics....if anyone wants to see more...just email me or something...
Later,
A r l i n
Blue
That wife cake thingy looks really weird girl. You should take a pic of the actual cake cause I'm really curious now and just can't imagine what it looks like. So when did you get back from HK? How was the whole trip then?
And Arnee what's wrong with your blog background? It just says something about exceeded image bandwidth or is there something wrong with my computer? Or is it supposed to be like that? Eh why don't you take a pic of your injection? Cause I want to see! Is it big? If it is your BCG, then it'll keep getting bigger and there'll be pus and then the whole thing will just pop after awhile. Nolah I'm kidding. It doesn't hurt all that much. And I can't believe what a chicken you were! :p
I'm okay I guess. Haven't felt like blogging. Nothing new to add. I made banana walnut bread about a week ago and just finished it up today and yesterday Jonas and I made our very own hamburgers and fries and onion rings. The burgers turned out really good but the fries were soggy and we ate too much onion rings so we both felt like puking afterwards.
Things are okay at work. The tengku boy actually told me that his dad is the descendent of the former royal family of Pattani in Southern Thailand and that he doesn't call his dad Bapak or Ayah or Pappa, he calls him Tengku Ku. Weird huh?
And one of the schools I'm teaching at is having an East Asian theme night, with parents and teachers celebrating the cultures of East Asia. And I've been invited to come and give a short presentation of Singapore/Malaysia. The woman in charge asked me to wear some kinda traditional outfit and maybe bring along some kinda dessert or snack. At first I was really excited and told her I would love to do it but now I'm having second thoughts. First of all Singapore/Malaysia's in SOUTHeast Asia. Not really the same. And second what would I talk about anyway? And am I gonna walk around in a baju kurong and freeze my ass? And I was thinking about making epok-epok but now I just feel so lazy.
Or maybe I'm just tired and whiny and need to stop thinking and just get some rest. I've kinda put off reading for a bit too and that's never good. Well I am in the middle of this book but I can't bring myself to read it sometimes. Don't know if it's the book or me. Ah well...
*renee*
First aid
Oh my goodness, why hasn't Arlin written anything in awhile? Girl where are you? I haven't seen you online or talked to you in the longest time! Miss you leh. Guess you've been really busy huh? And aren't you supposed to be in Hong Kong today? And this whole weekend? Damn! I want to go to! Be sure to have loads of fun and take loads of pics and write about everything when you get back.
I just came home from work. Not teaching. In the weekends I've been helping out at this restaurant nearby. Anyways, something really scary happened when I started work today. We all heard a woman screaming and then hurried steps rushing down the stairs. It was Ali's wife, Lahwaz. Ali owns the restaurant and their family lives upstairs. Anyway Lahwaz was screaming like a madwoman and she had their eldest son, Hossain who's like 2 or 3 in her arms. And he was all blue in his face. I'd never seen anything like it before. Apparently he had choked on a piece of grape and couldn't breathe. Shit it was really scary. I think Lahwaz was afraid that he was going to die. We all were. His face was so blue and he was hardly breathing. I don't think anyone really knew first aid so Ali turned the boy upside down and tapped his back real hard and the grape came out. We were all really shaken after that. What if they hadn't succeeded in dislodging the grape? Scary thought.
Which is why I've decided to learn first aid. I'm gonna ask around and see if there are any courses going on. It really is important. So all you people out there, I encourage you to pick it up too. A really useful knowledge and you really never know when you might need it. It can save a life.
Okay that probably sounded corny. Like an ad. Anyways, I miss both my sisters to bits and pieces. I've been cooking as usual but been too lazy to take pics cause I'm the only one writing so much. Don't want to hog all this blog space. :)
Take care Ars!
Lovies,
nene
*renee*
CHEETAH GIRL!!! arnee. st anne rocks!