Hmm.....B.O.R.E.D

I'm having investment planning overload! I'm getting very lazy but have to keep the momentum going....just a couple of weeks to go. No let's use days - sounds shorter Yeah so, just a couple of days to go before I take my exam and I'm done till at least end of September! I'm not planning to start with Module 3 even if the study materials arrives before I leave for Malaysia. I hope I'll be able to stop myself from bringing some books back with me to read while I'm bored. But then again....hmmm.....maybe I should!!

My highschool mates and I still keep in touch via email. We have a "chain mail" where we include everyone in our "gang" and send out a mass email. We did that today - it's our chatroom - and apparently for a duration of approximately 8 hours (very rough estimate coz I did not exclude lunch time etc) we had almost 300 mails flying about! And during the declining peak, we have 1 email every minute! Insane or what?? But it's damn fun and you'll laugh your ass off if you ever have the chance to take a peek at the content. No boundaries! Our discussion today started with a friend's upcoming housewarming - we're planning the food, guest list, activities before and after the party, time etc But guess what? The housewarming isn't until 19th September! Yup, that's how crazy we are!

I came to know about this fantastic service through another fellow blogger. You know it's soooo common to shop online and then when you're ready to order, you find clauses like "We don't ship internationally at the moment" or you find that shipping rates to Malaysia/Singapore so freaking expensive when in actual fact the shipping costs is only a fraction of what's advertised? Well, this postal service which I found allows you to have 3 "addresses" - one each in USA, UK and Japan. USA for USA shopping, UK for Europe shopping and Japan for Japan shopping. Once you're ready to check-out, update the shipping addresses with the address given to you. I believe this address is their office in these 3 countries. Once it reaches their office, they will forward your items to you by post. Shipping rates are just a fraction from those published by the merchants who ships internationally. If you've ordered from various merchants from the same country, they will consolidate your items and send them to you at once! Isn't this service heavenly?? But I suddenly just can't think of where to shop from

Anyway, I'm gonna leave you here with my version of huat kueh (Fatt Kou). I'm having writer's block.......hahahaa

YAY!! We've been upgraded!

Wondering what this is all about? Well, we're going back to Malaysia for a 3 week break in September and I've managed to get ourselved upgraded to Business class! Tickets are courtesy of hubby's company, part and parcel of him being an expat, so we get one free ticket back to our home country each year. Of course, like everything else, we're only entitled to economy class seats but since there was nothing which I could get hubby for his birthday (except making him that fabulous carrot cake), I decided to upgrade his seats as a present - more comfortable and since he's NEVER traveled in business class before! It's also a present for moi!

We'll be traveling on Emirates Airlines, so it's Nairobi-Dubai (approximately 5 hours) and Dubai-Singapore (approximately 8 hours) with couple of hours of transit. I've traveled on business class a couple of times before and I think I've gotten use to the comfort of business class. Honestly, for 8 hours? I'd pay to upgrade myself to business which I did. After the few times I have been on business class and then switching back to economy class, you can feel the difference especially for flights longer than 5 hours! So I'm working towards upgrading myself everytime my flight is longer than 5 hours. It's not cheap, granted but it's not healthy either to be confined to that small seat! You get to sleep better which is again good for you! It's honestly money well spent!!

But just to get this upgrade, (I paid for the trip back to Nairobi but used my miles for Nairobi to Singapore) I was at Emirate Airlines' office for a full 2 hours! Can you believe it? For a simple thing? Well problem was my ticket's issued by a travel agent and a policy with all airlines is that they try not to touch any bookings which ticket has been issued by a travel agent. You're supposed to make any changes to that booking with the agent as long as you're still in that country. I initiated this upgrade since last week and whenever I call the agent, she'll give me a whole load of crap saying she's still waiting for Emirates Airlines to mail her with confirmation to go ahead and price I have to pay for this upgrade. She was supposed to call me back but never did so I took matters into my own hand by calling Emirates again yesterday (they were the ones who confirmed that I had to go through my agent when I spoke to them the first time) and explained the situation to them asking them to allow me to by-pass the agent this time. They were nice enough to tell me to come by the office and they'll do this favour for me.

So I went to the office this morning - very early and I was greeted by the lady at the desk saying no they cannot do that for me! I explained that the lady I spoke to yesterday has agreed which is why I gave up my beauty sleep! Thank goodness I remembered the name of the lady whom I spoke to. (Remember, always take the name of the person you're speaking to!) Anyway, Emirates called my agent to find out why they refuse to issue for me and my agent gave a load of bullshit even to her saying she didn't know she was allowed to do that bla bla bla bla..... Huh so my agent hasn't even started the process for me! She was lying to my this whole time saying she was waiting for Emirates' email!!! LIAR!!!! OK, a note, I can't choose who my agent is because this ticket is booked via the company hubby works at and they are the agent for the company nominated by the HQ in Denmark. It's a global nomination so yeah, this agent is not a local company. Anyway, the kind lady at Emirates agreed to do this as a one-off because I started giving her poor Ann story then I met with another problem - credit card wouldn't let the transaction through!!!! WTF?!!? Luckily I brought 2 cards with me - called both banks and both banks told me the main problem is with that payment, my credit limit would have been exceeded.

Begged Direct Access to let this one transaction pass through - WTH, I was only USD300 short and it's not my fault that Maybank takes 2 days to clear my direct bank transfer! Otherwise I wouldn't even be short of USD300! They said it will take at least a couple of hours because they have to submit the request to credit department. Fine, fair enough but I said it's an emergency and only one transaction! I don't need a permanent increase. Well sorry mam we can't do it. But I'm here at the ticketing office! Sorry mam......OK I'll go to another bank. Public Bank was so nice! The lady I was speaking to told me my limit is RMXXXX which is why transaction was declined. I said but it was RMXXXX before but she couldn't tell me why. Anyway told her the same story and asked if she could just increase the limit for this transaction. Asked me when can I pay-off this extra amount, told her by today via bank transfer. She told me to hold for a minute or 2 and taa-daaa settled!!!! Wow!!!! And finally, payment went through, upgrade done. So choose Public Bank!!!

Hubby's laptop has gone cranky today and internet is slow (using my trusted USB modem again) so will not be uploading any food pics today. Will, instead, hehehe, upload "proof" of my business class ticket and also new flowers I got for our house this week! I've decided against the usual roses and went for carnations instead. I think it looks really pretty (and more expensive too!)

Only in Africa.....

I just have to post this one right now eventhough I said to myself no posts during the weekends. This is hilarious and happens only in Africa (I think so)

These photos were taken from my house - was captured from my room and my balcony OK. I heard the noises but either I was too engrossed by what I was doing at the time or I was just plain slow in reacting to it. So I didn't manage to get the best shot but you can still see what I'm talking about. It's hilarious! This happened at around 5pm Kenyan time (GMT +8) today.

Just so that you know, this road outside my house is a pretty busy road - lots of cars at all hours except during the night.

PS: You might not be able to see it because I'm stupid enough to not include them while capturing, but there there's a long queue of cars waiting patiently behind the herd, waiting for the right moment to overtake. Not a horn was sounded. And I mean these cows weren't just gonna walk right back to where they belong yah. They were parading!! That's how patient the Africans/Kenyans are and that's exactly what they do normally in their everyday life as well, something which we cannot tolerate because they take everything so easy! Everything is Pole Pole (in Swahile, pronounced as po-le) which means slowly. And I really mean ssssllllloooowwww to the extreme! If you tell them to hurry, you're in a rush they will tell you POLE POLE. Sometimes you just feel like strangling them.

How insensitive can one get? Men - URGH!

I received an email from one of my closest friend (one of my best friends) today. OK just a little history about us - we have known each other since 11 years-old which means we've been friends for more than half of our lifetimes now (nope, you don't have to know how long we've known each other for) and we sat next to each other in school, in tuition classes and everywhere else we go! So you can imagine, there isn't such thing as over-indulgence So we grew up, went to different colleges then universities and then started working but we're always in touch, maybe not as frequently as we used/liked to, but we were as close as ever during those times when we meet. We could tell each other anything and talking about everything under the sky. We can go on talking forever! We almost did that once - we chatted from night till day before we made ourselves go to bed because we had a wedding to attend and we had to look our best.

Anyway, back to the email I received from her. She recently sprained her ankle and had to stay home - apparently it's really bad. When her other half came back from work on her 1st day of injury, the first thing he told her was he was going out with his colleague for a drink. I have no idea what time that was but I presume it was rather late already because she told me she's feeling really hungry but her ankle hurts so it's difficult for her to walk to the kitchen. I so totally understand what she's saying and how she felt - she felt hurt and pissed. I would too - won't you? When you're hurt or unwell, you just want your other half to be around to pamper you and make you feel loved/wanted. I usually get this from ladies that their men will leave them alone even if they are not feeling well. I get this too often and I must say I totally know how it feels to be in that situation because I have been a victim of that too! How insensitive and selfish can one get? Put yourself in our shoes, how would you feel if your wife/girlfriend left you alone to go out shopping or coffee with her chums? You prolly will love the time alone with your gadgets I bet BUT it's not like that with girls! Why can't you just see and understand that we're different species so our needs & wants are different! Stop putting yourself first for 1 second....pleaseeeeeee.......

I don't know what happened to her after that. I just know that her boyfriend went out anyway although I'm not sure if she voiced out her displeasure or not. She hasn't replied to my email yet, so I'm waiting for more on what happened after that. She stopped the topic at she's feeling very hungry. ARRGHHHH.......men!!! Honestly! I can go on and on and on about how I feel about men but I'm going to stop here and practice some self-control - ok personal opinon, not trying to start a war here because I/we ain't perfect either right? But hey this is MY blog, I can say whatever I want and however I want it. Heh heh.....If I don't like your comments, I'll just delete 'em!

To those of you who thinks my hubby is a lucky man because of all these food I make, think again! Hahaha....I'm sure he'll tell you otherwise too. I mean I'm an amateur when it comes to cooking yeah so it does taste different from how it looks. He might not think that being my guinea pig is lucky at all! If the food's good then maybe he can still tolerate with me but if the food's no good what incentive is there for him to tolerate me and still thinks he's lucky? Fat chance!

So anyway, wanna see what my hubby has to shove into his stomach everynight? Here's the menu for last night:


















Bak Kut Teh - chinese herbal soup when translated literally means pork ribs tea - doesn't look that clear this time but it's really good. My bak kut teh is famous amongst the Malaysians in Nairobi. Always have request to have bak kut teh lunches. Other than herbs and pork ribs, it's got mushrooms, chinese cabbage, lots of garlic and seasonings.

















Yau char kwai - chinese fried fritters - this is, I don't know have lost count how many times I've tried but anyway, this is the most successful so far and taste most similar to the yau char kwai I know. It's to dip into the soup. It's simply made of flour.
















First dish + side dish: Stir-fry french beans with dried chillies in soy sauce + cut cili padi (bird's eye chilli) in dark soy sauce as a dip for the pork in the soup

So what have baked recently?

This was the question my sister asked me the moment she saw me online on MSN yesterday - after a long long time and that's the first question! Not even how have you been etc but what have I baked recently? How should I take that? It can be seen as a compliment right? Although I'm not sure which angle should I look at it from. And I mean I just baked like 2 weeks ago for hubby's birthday! I wasn't planning to bake - I told her maybe on Friday coz that's when I take things the easiest - finish off my household chores (ie cleaning) in the morning, stay online for sometime, maybe study just a little then usually I start experimenting with food. But after chatting with her, I had this urge to try out the new cupcake recipe recommended by my cousin and so I did! It was really simple and quick to do. It didn't take me much time at all! So I ended up with 9 vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frostings at the end of the day.



A closer look at how these cupcakes look like before frosting is put on them.

















And now let's dress them up with vanilla frostings!

































As usual, I made the frostings from scratch but I'm just wondering if they should harden or it should stay creamy? Mine stayed creamy. I'm wondering if fact that I put in 50g less icing sugar has anything to do with it? I stayed with the recipe for everything else but the icing sugar. We're not a fan of sweets - not too much anyway - so I thought I might just reduce a little. The experience from carrot cake told me that I had too much icing sugar in the frosting. Anyway, you can see from the pic (I hope you can) that after a couple of minutes of beating, it's really soft and fluffy! It really feels soft and fluffy when you touch/taste it. When I read the description that you're suppose to beat it till it's soft and fluffy, I was like WTF - what's the supposed to mean? And mind you, I used a spoon not mixer or beater. Hard labour ok!



See how light and fluffy it is??












And I must say these cupcakes are pretty good! Those cupcakes which I have eaten (never actually tried baking) are way too dry for our tastes which is why I never bothered with cupcake recipes. But these are really moist! I'm not sure if I have put in too much butter or not but they are really moist, soft and springy. This reminds me that maybe I should really get their recipe book from Amazon. Apparently you can't find them in Singapore, not even Kinokuniya has them! Should start ordering now if I want to bring it back with me to Kenya.

Another sister of mine asked me why do I need to attend flower arranging class when I brought out the topic out of the blue one day. I promised I'm gonna tell her why so I thought why not show her why instead? Picture tells a thousand words right? So sista, do you think I should attend flower arranging classes now eh? We've started buying flowers every week or whenever the flowers wilt to bring some life into the house. It's really a great way to beautify the place. It brightens the whole place up and you just feel alive and happier whenever you see them. They are pretty cheap too! For 20 roses, I'm paying only KSH150 (used to be KSH100 till 2 weeks ago) which is approx RM7.50/USD1.90 and the fillers are KSH50 a bunch, approx RM2.50/USD0.60 and these flowers, if you know how to take care of them, can last up to 2 weeks!!! Pretty cheap way to beautify your house eh? Used to place the flowers in the dining room but have since moved them to the living room. I mean how often do we go into the dining room? Once a day? We spend most of our time in the living room, moreover I place it by the door so hubby will see it whenever he goes/comes through the door before/after a hard's day work which lift his spiritsi considerably. Don't believe it? Try it out! You'll see the difference. Really!

Who caught a glimpse of the eclipse? Raise your hand!

Longest total eclipse of the 21st century happens today!! But apparently many of the places - the viewpoints - were so cloudy, the viewing was a disappointment to many who traveled from afar for this phenomenon which will not happen again until 2132. By that time I should be......well, 6 feet under.

It's one of the coldest day here in Nairobi today and I'm taking it easy with the studying. Taking my own sweet time since I'm almost done now. One more module to go and I'm ready for revision and review questions. This should take me no more than 2 weeks, I hope.

Internet's down again!!! Urgh......idiots so I'm using my USB modem. Thank goodness we only have one more week to go till the end of the month coz I'm damn sure I'm reaching the credit limit soon! You see, this USB modem is part of my hubby's benefit as an expat living in Kenya BUT as with any other perks, there's a limit to it. And the limit's 700MB worth of data transfers per month! Yup, WTF!!! What the hell can you do with 700MB?? So I'm using it very wisely but damn it's so difficult to "ration". I thought limits are based on bandwidth now? I thought limit by data transfer has been outlawed? Well, if they have not, they should! So primitive! And mind you, there isn't an option that says unlimited transfer for a fixed fee. Ah ah....700MB limit is the best package there is. For every 1MB after 700MB, you pay through your nose - costs about RM4.50 for every 1MB thereafter (approximately USD1.20)

I've written to the management of this compound - our Internet works only 20-30% of the time and mind you the provider's Orange, but for the past 2 weeks, it's not working at all not even 0.001%. And power cut in Kenya is extremely common and frequent. Say on average 4 days a week for an average of 4-5 hours. The good thing is the weather here is perfect, power cut or not, we do not need fan or air-conditioning all throughout the year! That's how cooling the weather here is. So power cut is much bearable that way. Think Malaysia 15-20 years ago - that's how frequent out power cuts are. Because of this, I have also written to ask for a general for the compound to be installed. Yes, we don't feel hot when there's a power cut but I do need to eat and who's gonna pay if my foodstuff goes bad? Most importantly, I can't go online, can't watch TV, my boiler doesn't work which means cold water (imagine cold water to shower when it's 17 degrees!) and if my phone battery goes dead how am I going to charge when there's no electricity?? You might as well kill me when that happens.

Ever wonder what do I cook for dinner? What is a typical meal like when I'm the cook? I'm going to post some of our dinners from now on. I'm still an amateur and raw ingredients are very limited so there might not be many such posts. I usually end up repeating my dishes every week or every 2 weeks. I try to keep certain dishes special which I cook only once in a blue moon.


This is broccoli with dried shrimps in oyster sauce. Broccoli is extremely cheap and it's everywhere here in Kenya (it's considered an expensive veg in Malaysia so you don't get to eat it often) so it's part of our diet almost every week but I try to alternate it. There's just that many ways you can cook a broccoli.


This one looks pretty scary huh? It's chicken fillet in hoisin sauce coated with toasted sesame seeds. This is one of my "special" dishes which I try not to serve often and it's also one of my hubby's favourite.


A simple soup - my hubby is a Cantonese and soup plays a big role in a Cantonese household. They usually have soup in at least one of their meals, usually dinner. This is named ABC soup - I don't know why named as such but I supposed because of the simplicity of it. It's got tomatoes, carrots, onions and some put potatoes in them. Just put a couple of pork ribs with them and you'll get a wholesome soup! Very healthy!

A fine dining restaurant tucked neatly away in Nairobi

I have finally bought hubby his birthday dinner after a week's delay. We went to this fine dining place called Lord Erroll (http://www.lord-erroll.com/) and I must say that I'm incredibly impressed with what I saw and experienced. I've never dreamt of ever finding such a little gem in Kenya! Food was just OK (we're giving them the benefit of the doubt) but maybe we just did not order the correct stuff - I mean even the best restaurants in the world have items on the menu which might not taste so good right? Anyway, the ambiance was fantastic! We have no complains at all in that department. You totally will not remember/realise that you're actually in Nairobi!





This is our menu (but I forgot to take pictures of our main course!!!! )
Starter: 1/2 dozen Escargots Bourgogne (KSH 1,000)



Main Course: Turkey Escalope Cordon Bleu (KSH 1,550) - mine
Osso Bucco Gremolata (KSH 1,600) - hubby's

Dessert: Mousse au Chocolate Royale (KSH 650) - mine

Irish Coffee (KSH 750) - hubby's



We had complimentary bread basket (the picture shows incomplete basket coz most of it were in our stomach by the time I remembered to take pics of them ) and avocado with dressing plate.



Exchange rate is approximately USD1 to KSH70.







And yesterday, we managed to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Well, let's just put it mildly that I'm not a fan. But if I'm to be crude, this is the worst HP movie EVER! The worst by a mile! As a matter of fact, I'm not a fan of The Order of Phoenix coz I found it boring. I watched it on DVD in the comfort of my bed and wall-mouted LCD Sony flat screen and yet I had to finish the movie in a few sittings. I just couldn't get myself to sit long enough to finish the show! I got fidgety. But the latest instalment is far far worse than any I've seen. I couldn't just walk out because this time I was watching it in the cinema. And it costs KSH550. I just couldn't wait for it to finish! The only thing that kept me interested was Ron's jokes and there are so few of them nowadays!

Honestly, I was really glad (more than glad actually) when the show ended although I was told that this is only Part 1. There's a Part 2. Why why why?? I mean if they hadn't made the show sooooo boring and draggy, they wouldn't need a Part 2 at all right? Such a waste of money and resources. When I first entered the cinema, I was actually pretty surprised that the hall wasn't full (and to think I went there first thing in the morning at 10am to get tickets for 6pm show! ) but after the show, it's no wonder. I definitely will not go back to the cinema for Part 2. I'll still get DVD for it - will not give up watching but let's just say I'm no longer a fan. I'm surprised that there are people who still think this is the best HP movie ever. Is it me?? Coz even hubby thinks HP movies are getting from bad to worse! He thinks the best are the first 3 and after that it's just downhill.

This week's expenditure is terrible! We spent about KSH 15,000 on groceries alone!! That will last us for the next 3-4 weeks, I hope. We term this "power shopping" and we do it once a month. Hubby feels exhilarated when he gets to fill the shopping cart to the brim which is why he only goes grocery shopping with me once a month now as oppose to weekly shopping which I do alone now. One of the goodies I found was fresh cherries!!! I miss them sooo much!!! The last time I had them was in Italy last Feb. I was just telling hubby a couple of days ago that I miss cherries soo much and there they were when I was buying vegetables for the week, right in front of my eyes! Forget about strawberries this week (strawberries are in our weekly diet - try it - strawberries with castor sugar OR chocolate fondue, yum yum ahhh...heaven). Blardy hell, you can't believe how expensive these cherries are! They were so freaking cheap in Russia and Italy but here, for the price of a tub of cherries, I can get 8 tubs of strawberries! And the verdict? These ones sucks!!! It's not sweet, it's not even sour! It's bland! And they are from Greece.....urgh....poor me......So totally not worth it Oh well....anyway.....

Start of a new week....and we're only a week away before we move into August. Time flies.....*sigh* I'm turning a year older very very soon.....the big 3 is getting real close.....oh well, age is just a number.