Why I'm Grateful for the $$$

Views from my hotel room, where I spent the last ten nights....

In the day..


And the night.....

XMas is in the air in KL. Everywhere is beautiful and there are carolling choirs, a harp player and jazz band belting out XMas tunes of yonder year.

It's beautiful.

I've been shopping like crazy, justified, as mum put it, by not going on holiday this year and receiving some nice increments/allowances at work. Just thinking of another walk to KLCC now makes me wanna gag. I refuse to think too much about the total sum, after all, it's all for work (haha)- next year I'll be in the office, and my old tomboy style (as put by my department secretary) has to go out the window. So no more DIY haircuts (hey I was going offshore!), ten dollar tops, drawstring pants, etc. Yeesh.

My life has seen some financially drastic changes since I first started working fresh out of uni. Back then I did work in KL, in an un-nameable company that thrived on deceit and pushing its customers to the brink. I earned RM500 plus comission, if it came in on time. I rented a tiny back room (read: maid's room) in a house in SS11 and took the LRT to work in the Golden Triangle, walking 20 minutes (1 way) to work every day. I remember praying that it wouldn't rain in PJ and KL from 7.15 am to 8 am, and 6 pm to 7 pm cos those were the times I walked to/from the LRT stations from home/my office in the Bukit Bintang area. Every penny counted. I bought my clothes from Carrefour, and my food supplies from the Pasar Malam (20 apples for 7 bucks!). And since I took the LRT at KLCC, this meant that every day I passed by some of the poshest shops in the country - Gucci, Tiffany's, Chopard, Hermes.....I remember staring at the window displays and asking myself the question - should I splurge and tapao nasi lemak for dinner today or open my can of baked beans (lowest price from Giant!) with an egg for dinner? No kidding.

I remember working my ass off at my first real job at a semiconductor factory in Penang. That was when I put down my downpayment (savings from my study loan) for my car.

Last month I finished paying the installments for my car, and put down a downpayment for a condo.

I guess I have a lot to be thankful for. I've been dining and travelling (by cab) on the company for the past 1 week. I ate at the restaurants on the top floor of KLCC, at the new super-posh Pavillion and at Bangsar Village.

I don't blink an eye at the RM10 cab fare from the KL office to KLCC (it takes all of 3 minutes to drive - damn cutthroat) whereas 5 years ago I was walking. No wonder I put on 5 kgs and have to fork out half a thousand for my own elliptical trainer at home in Miri.

There is much to be grateful for. I ain't shopping at Hermes or Gucci yet, but I did buy a new Samsonite cabin luggage and a gorgeous MNG trenchcoat - for my future travels to Europe.

Yes, I foresee travel in my near future. That is one thing to be grateful for.

They say money is not important. Hell yeah.

But I'm grateful for this job anyway. Because I know what it's like earning pittance in a the Capital of Malaysia, smack in the middle of the Golden Triangle, me with my Carrefour knit top in the sea of MNG and Zara, with sprinklings of Gucci and LV thrown in.

Because I know what it's like cringing at the thought of spending Rm50 for my monthly LRT Touch n' Go card, when I know people spend the same amount on a day's worth of parking.

So yeah, I'm grateful for my money, and in turn, grateful for my job.

BTW, I'm banking on my promotion next year to cover my spending....heheh.

ThingsI Miss About Offshore

1) Being the boss, and a lady one at that
2) Free food, anytime of the day - including 6 meals, and all the bought biscuits/cook's cookies/cake I can eat all day
3) Having my laundry done, room tidied every single day, and bathroom scrubbed every single week
4) Smiling almost every moment of the day, just because there are people to smile to
5) Daily exercise without even realizing it
6) Sea breezes/wind - I remember my walkabouts every morning - with the wind in my face, my pumps running, the turbines roaring away - I really felt - not only did I belong, I owned this place. Yeah cocky I know, but I did
7) Dropping onto bed at night exhausted but so fulfilled - all I needed was my phone call to AK (my room had a phone that calls out! - one of 2 in the whole platform that does)
8) Joking over the walkie-talkie - we'd poke each other over the radio, laugh and had a whole lot of fun. It seldom felt like real work when there was so much joking and laughing and general fun-having. Everything feels like an adventure, and fresh when we did
9) Morning meetings at 6 in the morning, when everyone is still groggy and struggling to concentrate, and our Radio Operator would make funny sounds when he tested out the microphone for the OIM
10) Making announcements over the PA system - "Attention Operations Crew" would be turned into "Attention Operation Screw" and everyone would crack up
11) Troubleshooting in the wee hours of the morning with the guys - working till exaustion and getting frustrated that every damn thing we tried seemed to be unable to work, struggling to get the system back. But we were never angry, never snapped or so much as glanced at one another in any way other than grinning and smiling. People not so in the know have the general impression that offshore folk are a bunch of short tempered no-mercy people, but at F23 I have never experienced anything other than civility, friendliness and a whole lot of fun. Woe betide you if you can't take a joke, though
12) The fact that I could never take myself too seriously when I was with these guys. They taught me that work can be fun, that colleagues can be so much more than colleagues -- they can be friend, and so much more - they can actually be family
13) Lunchtime conversations - talking about anything and everything. I have heard stories about one guy's wife who thinks he's cheating on her, one guy who thinks his wife is cheating on him, fishing tales, travel tales, farming tales, cock-fighting, four-wheel-drive buying, stories about cats, kids, rambutan farms, man and wife relationships - how their wives cope with their husbands not around more than half the time, the rising prices of property in Miri (and advice on house buying). I've learned so many life lessons on the lunch table
14) Watching the Thomas Cup badminton match together, cheering like mad along with everyone else
15) Offshore work hard play hard - we'd take half a day off once a fortnight and the guys would set up the karaoke set and belt out tunes like there's no tomorrow. There'd be dancing and Mexico waves and the general slaughtering of cheesy 80's tunes.
16) The adrenaline rush when we solved an issue or found the bloody problem with the *&%^ pump that refuses to run - there's nothing like it
17) Starting up the platform after a shutdown in the middle of the night - it'd be just us and and the silent platform soon to transform into a gas producer. We'd be running around starting the motors, opening valves, and the grand finale - starting our Boeing 737 gas turbine engine, which, when starting, sounds exactly like a plane taking off. Thus the guy manning the PC starting the turbine is would be nicknamed the "pilot". We'd camp out in the room there (cos it takes abotu two hours to start it - if we're lucky) and someone would bring drinks and snacks if the startup took too long.
18) There is no feeling like it - the rush of adrenaline when starting up or solving the problem, then the endorphin rush when we revel in the victory and high-five each other when we get it done. Man, I will never have this feeling again I think. This takes some solid comraderie, and of course, fun all around.
19) Having a friend in the next room. For 2 years I slept in my cosy (read: tiny) single room with one of my OT's next door, a wall separating us of course. Since I am the clumsiest WS in the history of F23, many a time my dropping things would wake himup. He would then knock on the wall, a sign asking me if I am ok. It was nice to have someone next door who cared.
20) Not having to give a damn about how I looked or what I wore - coveralls, hair in a bun or cut short (I even cut my own hair once when I felt it was too long). Not having to worry about what to wear (aargh, I hate that I have to spend time on this every now - looking presentable). No need to spend money on makeup, hair gel, fancy shmancy stuff.
21) Being away from civilization for 2 weeks also safely means that I don't spend any $$ at all for 2 weeks. Which expains how I managed to save and invest quite a nice sum of it :)
22) My offshore allowance!!
23) Learning to speak Iban, and cracking the crew up every time I attempt to speak it - why, I don't know but it really makes my day to crack them up



I'm not sure I'm able to ever get over leaving my second home. Offshore life might be tough in some ways - I think I aged more than a few times the years I spent offshore, but I loved the company, and the work. I loved running up and down the platform, seeing this, saying that, just being so busy that there was no time to think - living in the moment every single second. I loved surviving on a combination of caffeine and adrenaline. I loved climbing like a monkey all over the glycol regen skid. I loved scaling the KA crane and the getting jelly legs up there - but the view! I loved staying up all night in the mighty cold KA equipment room trying to start up the gas turbine. I loved it when we were all sprawled on the floor of the room due to exaustion and frustration - that we were in it together. I loved going to office do's with my crew - moving in a group and feeling like we were a gang or something. I loved our teambuilding dinners where we would sit together at a table cos we did not fit in anywhere else. I loved the frequent SMS-ing when we were onshore. I love the morning meetings, when it would my turn to divvy up the work for the day, when I would say good morning and it would a resounding chorus "Good Mo-or-rning"I loved that even that could be fun, cos we decided that it would be, just like that.I loved confiding and complaining to my crew, and they'd listen and then confide and complain too.
I guess God really blessed me when He decided that I should go there. I never thought that I'd fit in. In fact I always thought of myself as someone ruthlessly ruthlessly professional and efficient, and that that was the only way to be at work, that the work was all that mattered.
Now I know better. The team matters. The cook matters. The painter matters. The boat people matter. They matter. People matter. Once one realizes what really really matters, then the work just flows thereafter.

Advent is Upon Us

We're getting into the XMas mood.....




Obviously, grumpy old Baby (was that an oxymoron??) is not very happy we forced the Santa hat on him...well, isn't Christmas something to be looking forward to as a family? :)

Just me and my Baby

Baby making himself at home.

Gimme attention NOW....

Hogging my laptop....

And this rug at our entrance he adopted....

Hogging the best corner of the sofa, and looking so cute curled up there that I don't have the heart to get rid of him...

Of course, being male, hogging the remote...

I spent some time home alone last week, since both AK and landlord S were travelling for work. It's nice to have the whole house to myself - I can eat and sleep whenever I want, mess up the place, hog the sofa and the TV - yup, livin' it out on the solitary ain't all that bad.

Except that I did have company, and very entertaining company at that. One thing that I do when S isn't around (when our landlord is not around - shhh..she actually doesn't allow him in the house) is let our poor Baby into the house. And that I did. We had a jolly good time together, Baby and I. He took it upon himself to trail behind me everywhere I went, and even made himself comfy curling up near my stomach on my bed (which resulted me in not getting a wink of sleep that night due to fear of crushing him should I turn over).

Well, that's over now. Poor Baby has been banished outside now that the landlord is back...sigh.

Lovin' Loh Mai Kai

I made this purely to fulfill AK's cravings (men have cravings too you know). He'd been eating super mediocre MSG-laden 3-ringgit LMK's at a Miri Old Town Cafe outlet (so far we have only really liked the Lam Mee there). So I decided to make some for him. Glutinuous rice, flavoured with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, some pork/chicken/both, shitake mushrooms = surprisingly good.

Like I said, I have never been a big fan of LMK, but have to say that this is really nice. The seasonings are foolproof every time - I only added a little extra soy sauce (not sure why - maybe the brand we have is not too salty).

Reminder to self: Do NOT steam this like normal rice. DRAIN away the water before steaming the moist grains. I forgot about this when cooking for a second time and ended up with a big ball of glutininous rice mush. Attempted to "dry out" the mixture by microwaving/frying longer, but as the Malays put it, nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Heh. We still ate it and it was still good, though. Credit to the seasonings!!

Anyway, thanks, Amy Beh. You made AK a very happy man.

Loh Mai Kai (Recipe from here)

Ingredients
250g glutinous rice
2 cups water
100g chicken meat
50g lean pork meat (Deb: Can mix and match meats - sometimes I use all pork or all chicken - makes no difference)
1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), thinly slicedblack (Deb: I normally don't bother with this)Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into thin slices (Deb: as many as you like! We like lots)
5 shallots, sliced

Seasoning (A):
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Shao Hsing Hua Tiau wine
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp oil1 tsp cornflour

Seasoning (B):
1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce (Deb: I had to add a couple dashes more) ; 1 tsp pepper; 1 tsp sugar; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 Tbsp oil; 1 tsp sesame oil; 1 tsp dark soy sauce ; 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for two to three hours.
Drain away the water, steam it for 30 minutes.

Cut chicken and pork meat into slices. Marinate with seasoning (A) for about one to two hours.
Heat oil in a wok and saute shallots till fragrant. Add mushroom slices and stir fry quickly then dish up.
Add cooked glutinous rice and seasoning (B) and water. Stir fry well for five minutes.
Grease four medium-size rice bowls. Add some fried shallots and mushroom slices, a few slices of Chinese sausages and seasoned chicken and pork slices.
Fill up with glutinous rice and press down with a ladle.Steam for 30-40 minutes.
Turn over the rice bowl onto a plate and serve Loh Mai Kai with chilli sauce

We don't have rice bowls (just really big soup bowls) hence the glass mug

Penang Lor Bak

Truth: The Brothers Grumps (Dom and Dan) and I hate Chinese New Year visiting. The stifling Penang-at-the-beginning-of the-year heat, seeing people whom we were once close to (e.g. Dom and Dan's babysitters when they were still in diapers - Dan's 18 now, and Dom's 21). The conversations in Hokkien or Cantonese of which me can make neither head nor tail of, so we just smile politely and busy ourselves eating all the CNY cookies our hosts put out while driving each other crazy.

There is one thing that we will gladly make the annual pilgrimage for though. Dan's Babysitter's, or Auntie Ng's (Ex I mean) lor bak.

Small chunks of sweet, spice-laden pork, the natural sweetness enhanced by 5-spicepowder with water chestnuts encased in a crispy, salty beancurd wrapper. Dip the rolls in the starchy, sticky sweet-savoury sauce ( lor) or spicy-sweet-slighly-sour chilli sauce, or, our favourite, tongue-numbing, seriously addictive sambal belachan (Auntie Ng's way).

So yes, visiting is ok and we pay our respects and Gong Xi Fa Cai and all that, but all we really want is the lor bak. Not ang pow money, not prosperity and long life.

Hand cutting the pork makes all the difference when you eat the rolls. Purchased ground pork or using the food processor just don't cut it. You want to feel the chew of the meaty morsels in your mouth, small enough that you can easily swallow the big bite of the roll you took so greedily, but not that small, so that it provides just the amount of resiliance and oh-so-satisfying chew - much more satisfying oral-wise than, say, a burger. You'll still be able to get strands of meat stuck in your teeth with this one.

Long hours of marinating ensures that the sweet savouriness permeates the meat. Making my own lor bak and removing all traces of pork fat (so many stalls in Penang don't do this - couple the fat with the deep frying and mostly it's an inedible mass of heart attack-inducing gunk) guarantees that each bite will turn out a wonderful mixture of chewy-yet-yielding chunks of meat, with the freshness and crunch from the water chestnuts, coupled with the addictively crispy beancurd skin. The 5-spice powder is then the magic ingredient that becomes the catalyst that makes this great.

Penang Lor Bak

450g lean pork
6 water chestnuts
1 large onion1 small egg
Couple stalks spring onions
1 large beancurd sheet

Seasoning:
Dash of pepper
2 tsp five-spice powder
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
cornflourtoothpicks

Mise en place:
Slice the pork into smallest pieces your patience can muster - don't be tempted by the food processor or even to buy ground pork - you'd be ruining it!I sliced mine into 3-4 mm cubes

Peel and slice the water chestnuts into similarly sized small piecesSame with the onion and spring onions

1) Mix up the pork dice, onions, water chestnuts and seasoning together. Leave to marinate for 6 - 8 hours
2) Add the egg and enough cornflour to make reduce the wateriness of the mixture to a paste like consistency (add a little and mix as you go along - I ended up adding about 3 tbsp)
3) Spread out your beancurd sheet. Wipe the sheet with a damp cloth to remove some of the salt
4) I separated mine into 8 pieces
5) Put approximately 4 tbsp pork mixture into each beancurd sheet (leave a 2 cm allowance on the sides of the sheet). Use your spoon to compact the mixture as much as possible
6) Roll up the sheet, twist the ends (like a Christmas cracker) and secure with toothpicks
7) Place the rolls in a bowl with a tight cover (I used my Pyrex dish) and steam for half an hour
8) After the rolls have finished steaming, heat up your oil in your deep fryer/wok/pan. Test with a small piece of beancurd. It should turn a deep brown pretty fast. Deep fry the rolls till dark brown and crispy.
9) Carefully remove the toothpicks (I found that twisting the toothpicks before pulling them out them made them easier to remove without too much damage to my pretty little frills )
10) Serve with the lor sauce

Brown Sauce for Penang Lobak
Recipe by Amy Beh http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1324

Ingredients
2 tbsp dark soy sauce2 tbsp castor sugar
1/8 tsp Chinese five spice powder (ng heong fun)
1/8 tsp salt4-5 tbsp water

1-2 tbsp corn flour or tapioca flour, mixed with 3 tbsp water
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Method
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepot. B
ring to a low simmering boil over a gentle heat until it turns starchy and sticky
Stir occasionally until sauce turns smooth.
Add in egg white and stir with a fork to form fine strands.
Set aside to cool and use this as a dipping sauce for serving lor bak rolls.

Market Moron and a Mushroom Pasta

I fear old ladies.

Thanks to a cancelled church service, I found myself drifting from my normal area wet market and to a bigger, much more well stocked one about a 15 minute drive away.

There I found a pretty nice array of imported vegetables, including fresh mushrooms!! Fresh button and shitake mushrooms. I read the price was RM3/5 for 1 kilo of mushrooms, and since fresh mushrooms hardly weigh anything, I thought, well, this must be my lucky day - what a find!

Bleargh. It was RM5 for 100 grams of fresh buttons and Rm3 for 100 grams of fresh shitake. *Slap forehead*. By this time I was too scared of the little old lady selling them to give them back.

Well, I picked them, packed them, paid for them and had to hunt for a recipe that would showcase these mushrooms as mush as possible. 13 bucks worth of button and shitake mushrooms - I'd better put them to good use.

Cream of musroom soup? I don't have cream or butter or bay leaves, and am not willing to spend any more on this dish. Bleh. Mushroom omellette? Not special enough!

I want my mushrooms to be star (s).

After some stressing, I settled on this recipe by Wolfgand Puck, chef to Hollywood elite . Go Wild With Mushrooms! This would do justice to my grossly overpriced purchase. (After all, the whole reason why I cook is so we don't have to pay more for our food, which is why I'm ranting)

Spagetthi with Shitake Mushrooms, Poached Chicken and Carrot Ribbons
Adapted from here

Serves 2

Mushroom Essence
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
150 g fresh shiitake mushrooms
2 large dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons each finely diced carrot and onion
2 teaspoons minced shallot
150 ml chicken stock (I made my own from chicken carcasses, then kept the meat from the carcasses)
Dash ground black pepper

Mushroom Sauce
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil , plus one extra
200g shiitake mushrooms
1 heaping tablespoon minced shallot
2 teaspoons minced garlic
200 ml chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pasta
200g dried spagetthi
1 tbsp oyster sauce
Chicken stock (I used a few drops of concentrated chicken stock)
1 cm knob of ginger, sliced thinly
1 small carrot

For all the mushrooms, remove stems from caps and use your fingers to pull them apart into small fibrous shreds. Slice the caps thinly. Use only the caps for the essence and sauce. Set the torn stalks aside.

Soak the dried shitake mushrooms in hot water (1/4 cup) for 20 mins or more. Quarter the mushrooms, leave the stalks on. Don't discard the soaking water.

At least 1 hour before serving, or up to 1 month ahead, make the Mushroom Essence. In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms (dried and the portion of the fresh, carrot, onion and shallot and saute stirring constantly, 2 minutes more. Reduce the heat to medium, add the broth and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes more.

Fish the dried mushroom pieces out of the pan, place in a food processor along with 1 tbsp of the mixture, add the soaking water. Puree the mixture ands return to the pan.

Set the mixture aside to cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree.

About 30 minutes before serving time, place the ginger slices, chicken stock and oyster sauce in a stockpot. Top up with water as necessary and bring to boil.

Meanwhile, make the Mushroom Sauce: In a large saute pan, heat the oil over high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute stirring continuously, for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat, stir in the shallot, garlic and a bit more olive oil, and continue cooking.

Stir in the stock and 4 tablespoons of the Mushroom Essence. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and cook gently for 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and keep warm.

Heat 1 more tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium high heat , add 1 tbsp essence and 2 tbsp chicken stock. Add the shredded mushroom stalks and continue cooking until the liquid had reduced.

Meanwhile, put the spagetthi into the boiling water. Cook until tender but still slightly chewy, following the manufacturer suggested cooking time. About 4 minutes before the pasta is done, add the carrot ribbons to the water

Pour the pasta and carrot ribbons into a colander to drain. Add them to the sauce and gently toss to coat well. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan. Taste again and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Optional - but I found this to be a real nice addition - since I was making stock from chicken carcasses I bought dirt cheap at the aforementioned market , I salvaged the chicken flesh from the bones, shredded the meat and added a few drops of Maggie Seasoning to the mixture for flavour. I found that this gave a nice extra chewy something to the pasta and made it a bit more filling.

Evenly divide the pasta, mushrooms, carrot ribbons and sauce among 4 large serving plates, add the shredded chicken meat, if using, and serve.

It was delicious - we loved the intense mushroom flavour of the sauce and it felt great to be able to (almost) recreate some sort of restaurant style meal, instead of the simpler stuff I like to do at home.

Justice is served.

Me need hug - NOW! ~Criminal Minds~

8TV, 11.45 pm - To be creeped out

The girls are way too attractive to be FBI-lah....why are there no frumpy lady FBI agents? Hmph.

Handsome FBI guy agent I can buy, though. Both super hunky specimens (not talking about the young limp-haired blondie or the old man).

Damned creepy. Serial killers, aargh.

*hide face behind pillow*

Sleep is Sweet & So Is Cintan Mee

Finally home after all the craziness for the past 3 weeks. (2 nights KL, 1 night Penang, 6 hours travel back to Miri, training in Miri+caught in the bloody rain, offshore F23 10 nights+flu & fever+shutdown maintenance, then back for daily 1-hour-each-to-and-fro-driving Miri to and from Brunei for training for 5 days+last minute cramming for my exam last Wed+flying off to Foreign platform and hurriedly completing my assignment there. I know I've been ranting about the same thing for some time, but I promise this is the last - I am free now after all. (Yay!)

Am back and finally able to breathe, eat and sleep whenever I want. Now I should be able to shake of the remnants of this pesky flu bug (still a bit of a sniffle and tickles in the throat, but overall much better - after 2 weeks, the longest ever I had the flu)

And boy, am I doing that (the sleeping and eating).

It didn't take me too long once I got home - after some channel surfing, dozed off on the couch for 3 hours. Sleep has not felt that wonderful for the longest time - I felt like I was floating. Ahh, sleep high. Sweet is the only word that comes to mind.

Which explains this midnight blogging - hehe.

On a gastronomical note, we ate at the THE WORST RESTAURANT EVER in Miri. 8 bucks for a bowl of rice+margarine+little cheese+thinnest slices of canned mushrooms, and another 8 for pizza with a soggy bready crust and ketchup for the sauce. Ugh. Could not finish the food and ended up with gastric tonight, which is also another reason why I can't sleep.

Well, what else is there to do? I tried drinking hot milk, swallowing Maalox, hot cocoa, Tim Tams, Pringles, milk chocolate, Chinese medicine - small black coloured balls in a capsule (in that order). Until now, no improvement.

Then I gave in. Out came the instant noodles in my trusty microwave. Cintan Duck Soup Flavour, with extra grinds of black pepper. Impatiently watched it spin in the micro. Slurped the hot peppery soup reading this and burnt my tongue stuffing the swollen (kembang) noodles into my mouth. Ahh, bliss.

Me and Tummy are much happier now.

So, well sated, the bed now beckons like a long lost paramour. May our sleep be as sweetly elevating as it was this afternoon.

Nighty nite.

Garden Photos

Photos which I always wanted to put up, taken with AK's camera in the early hours of the morning, when the dewdrops are still wet on the leaves and the air is still heavy and cool. Think I took these some 6 months ago.

Dewdrops clinging to the cowgrass.


Pegaga, growing by our drain. Local Malaysia lore dictates many medicinal uses for it - and it
grows prolifically almost anywhere with stagnant water. I've never tried any of the remedies though - hmm, potent brain tonic and excellent for memory loss....urinary tract infection...tonsilitis, arsenic and snake bite antidote....jaundice...dysentery. Wah, there's an entire pharmacy growing by our stinky drain!!!


Heliconia in my neighbour's garden (most of the grown flowers here are our neighbours...we grow mostly weeds and the occasional pumpkin seedlings - which we then leave to fend for themselves)


Touch-me-nots or Mimosa pudica (wah my biology still hidup). I'm still fascinated by the way their leaves shut when touched.

Don't know the names of these plants (all our neighbours')...wish I could put them into the Google search bar and look up their names....

Demise of A Colleague's Mum & Waiting A-Waiting

Waiting on the chopper now.....

Well, it's supposed to be good news but it truly isn't - the only reason I am on an flight back to Miri is because the guy who I was working with the past 2 days - his mum just passed away this morning and there is an emergency flight diversion to take him home. So conveniently, I am on that flight too.

I was asking to go home, but never at the expense of someone losing his mum...am gaving gulty vibes now. Well, I didn't ask for it, I guess, and given a choice between him having his mum still alive and me going home today, well, it's a no-brainer. Not even a choice even. What's one more night? Nothng.............

We just met two days ago, and started work straightaway, him giving me all that I asked for and more.

He was just telling me last night that she seemed to be stabilizing (she had heart problems), so I can imagine how shocked and devastated he must be feeling now. No, scrap that. I CANNOT imagine what it would be like suddenly losing my mum. Even thinking about it gives me the chills.

To Ahmad, I am truly sorry for your loss. You and your family will be in my prayers.


Random offshore pics:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PA!

Pa (as we call him) and Mum, still got it after 26 years

My dearest papa, him of the lazy Sunday mornings (and afternoons too, come to think of it), Manchester United fan and Penang Gourmet Sleuth celebrates his Birthday today. Stuck offshore in a foreign platform (see previous post), I managed a call this morning to wish him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PA! Wish I were at home in Penang to celebrate with you guys.

If there's anyone who was serious about food, it would be our pa. I remember the rainy evenings with Bak Kut Teh in Air Itam, where he would encourage me to "tambah rice". I don't like BKT anymore, but the memory lingers somehow. We'd drive 45 mins to the BKT stall in Air Itam just to eat from there. His fondness for "tu kha" or pig's trotters and intestines, which I would be Miss Priss about. Taking me to the BEST Indian mee stall in Penang, known only to Penangites. My dad knows them all.

Road Trips! Eating in Ipoh on the way to KL, where we'd - without fail - get hopelessly lost and have to call my uncle to come rescue us.

And - how I wish I inherited this - his still amazing metabolism rate.

Pa also helped me buy a house this year, and I will be forever grateful for that. My kids will know that their grandpa helped mum buy her first house!

He came out of a business partnership and worked for someone else, drawing a salary instead of being his own boss (in other words, no longer a "taukeh") because he knew that that would be better for the future of our family. And it was.

He takes mum (with or without the Brothers Grumps aka Daniel and Dom) on a holiday once a year. They've gone to China and Korea already, with HK next on the list.

His generosity when entertaining - nevermind if there are only 10 adults and 5 kids, order for 30 pax! Better too much than too little - something I always remember when cooking for others.

When I experimented with baking cookies last Christmas, he bought 2 jars to give to his colleagues. That made me like a baker! Not sure if he ended up giving them away though - the cookies ended up in so many shades of brown and sizes that I was a bit embarassed, to tell the truth.

He does yoga!! Cool or what??? Although from what mum tells me, he attempts to do yoga (hehe) Only guy in his class (which he attends with mum, flirting with the other middle-aged ladies).

Pa, take care of your health, try to stay away from those hun chiang, and we love you!

GIMME GIMME F23

It has been 3 weeks since I last spent more than 1 night at home. I was in KL for 2 nights, Penang 1 night, Offshore at my home platform F23 10 nights, Brunei 5 days, now in a foreign platform and missing my old place so so much.

I was a proper pampered princess back in F23, my home platform (and always will be! - sniff)

I'm now sharing a room with a guy, who's working the night shift and this means that I can't enter the room in the daytime - so I have to use the washroom in another guy's room. Almost bumped into that guy today coming out of his toilet - luckily I was decent.

My old place has at least 30 people at a time (when I left it we had over a hundred men), and I ate lunch and dinner with my guys, talking about the days' work, and their wives and kids. Here there are only 14 people on the platform, and the dining room is so small the meals are taken staggeredly. Everyone faces the huge plasma TV. I feel so lonely.

Water here is rationed - no more baths which take half an hour or 24-hour laundry. And the water here is cold.

Excuse me if I sound like a whiny princess. I am really quite tough. Honestly, earnestly.

I wanna go home now.

Funny how you don't miss it until you leave it. I always knew I would miss it, but I never realized how just how much:

I MISS F23!!!! (this is the largest font blogger will let me write in)

Sniff again.

Anyway, in the spirit of being positive, here is a list of things which I plan to do once I get back (ahem):

1) Send my old car to the service center - after driving to and from Brunei 4 days, it's high time for a service (damn the Miri roads - I think they murdered my suspension)

2) Pay papa the rest of the $$$$ I owe him - sorry pa for the delay

3) Wash the pile of laundry from BEFORE I went to KL the last week of October (mum, am sorry I put you to shame with this confession)

4) Mop the floor at home - the last I left it the living room floor had the thinnest film of grease on it - yucky sticky greasy feet, ewww...not looking forward to this....anyway, it'll be a good workout (ahh..sorry again mum)

5) Pay a visit to the Immigration office - I, erm, missed renewing my Sarawak work permit and now have to go and wheedle some officer in town to grant me a new one (again mum pls don't panic) - it's pretty common for us nua (erm, busy) West Malaysians who, for some reason, still need our passports and Work Permits to work in Sarawak. Is Sarawak not part of Malaysia? Do I look like Abu Sayyaf????!!!!!!

6) Send my shoes for repair - 4 pairs and counting. 1 of them is the safety shoe I'm wearing now - the sole is hanging loose like a dog's tongue or something and I'm leaving pieces of black rubber residue wherever I walk. Not good. The other, cheap sandals I bought in Miri (RM16!) and the soles removed themselves on the 1st day I wore them. When will I learn that you get what you pay for? Sigh. Another 2 pairs, erm, have burst their straps more than a year ago. Yes, I am an expert procrastinator and it's more fun to buy new ones anyway....wooh sound like a proper girl I do.

Haven't thought about cooking yet, but I did manage to buy some hard-to-find foodstuff from Brunei, where almost all of their food is imported:

1) All-Bran cereal for the renewed health and weight loss plan

2) Cadbury chocolate, made in Australia - Roast Almond - only BN$3.50 (RM8) for 250 grams.

3) Real Australian Tim Tams! Not made in Shah Alam! AK's favourite (AK, if you're reading this, they're in the fridge - bottom shelf - don't eat them all ya!)

4) Off-price (and just a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit off-colour) apples and pears - only BN$1.20 (~RM2.70) for 6 pears and BN$0.80 (~RM1.85) for 3 big apples. I am kiamsiap and not ashamed of it. No more offshore, no more free meals!

5) A huge doughnut with a sugar coating thick enough to crunch satisfactorily- which I already ate, of course. Very nice.

6) Pringles! Only BN$1.70 each! I bought 2- BBQ and Loaded Baked Potato.

Hmm......re-looking at what I bought...so much for health and weight loss......who was I kidding with Purchase No. 1???? Damnit, shoulda just bought more Tim Tams (dark chocolate) and my fave Ginger Nut cookies instead. Self-delusional at the time I musta been. What's with the Yoda-speak??????!!! I blame it on the lack of sleep and the travel by many modes - plane, chopper, boat, bumpy car ride, Brunei Colleague's Mercedes CLK - both the delusional purchase and the Yoda-ism.

Anyway, I have totally gone against my vow to stay here 3 nights and asked for a chopper diversion to take me home tomorrow. Let's hope that this happens.....All da best to Debbs, may she survive this lonesome offshore trip and also summon the strength and willpower to complete her very ambitious to-do list.

Ta ta.

F23 ROCKS!!!!!!!!

Yessssss!! Started up the plant after 8 days of shutdown with intensive maintenance work.

Have never been so sick offshore before, and coincidentally, so busy. Was with fever the first 2 days I came offshore but could not rest due to the bloody activities. I don't think I've signed my names so many times before.

The worst is over now. YESSS!! Start up! Export! Money flowing from the ground into our pipes! Oops, that did not come out right.

Hope this is a kind of "legacy" I can leave behind, although I am not that delusional - I am only part of the TEAM who started up the platform.

I love my crew, I really do. We totally rocked it today. High fives all around, of course.

Kitchen Workout - Albino Kuih with Nyonya Kaya

I used to be a bit of a health freak and somewhat borderline anorexic. Lay off the fat, sugar, etc etc.

Well, after the weight gain in 2004 (that's a loooong story - 1 bad breakup + the discovery of an underactive thyroid) and EAT EAT EAT is all I can think about lately. And this coming recipe is probable one an anorexic/health freak might not want to touch at all - eggs, coconut milk, sugar.

In the spirit of the global effort to eat local (I know this sounds like an oxymoron but it really isn't), I decided to make one of favourite nyonya kuih - as I call it - Blue Kuih with Kaya. It does go by many other monikers - Pulut Tekan, Pulut Tai Tai.

(Ok, ok, actually I was planning this since I was offshore - oops...)

It's made of glutinous rice, plenty of coconut milk and is coloured with a natural dye derived from a local flower, Bunga Telang (Googling this name produced the scirentific name Cnesmone javanica). And it is served with kaya, our local egg-coconut milk curd.

Not just any kaya. I gotta have the nyonya kind like the ones we buy from the aunties in Penang - thick, rich and smelling of pandan a mile away. The runnier Hainanese type (which tastes mostly like a burnt sugar paste anyway) just won't do.

Of course, I have to ask for trouble. Feeling especially industrious, I made my own nyonya kaya, and blue kuih to go with it. I got the recipe from here, but I did not have any bunga telang (which provides the natural blue colouring) and did not want to buy blue colouring, so it became Albino kuih with kaya.

The kaya recipe is an improvised version of this recipe. I improvised it, omitting the final steaming and just kept stirring it over my makeshift doubleboiler.

The process came up to something equivalent to an arm workout. First of all, I was determined to make it as natural as possible, so I bought my own freshly grated coconut and squeezed the milk from it.

The pandan leaves came from my neighbour's garden, where the plant grows by the fence. Sneaked into the garden in the wee hours in the morning (a habit I developed from working offshore - I'm usually up by 6.30 in the morning, before most people - including my neighbour)

Arm Workout Nyonya Kaya - enough for 1 jar (say, 200 mls?)

4 eggs - as fresh as possible App. 7 tbsp of caster sugar (or to taste) 150 mls coconut milk 1/8 tsp salt 4 pandan leaves, washed and bruised
Combine eggs, salt and sugar in a bowl, stir to combine. Place 2 pandan leaves and the coconut milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Gently heat till just boiling. Slowly pour the coconut milk mixture into the egg mixture, stirring stirring stirring all the time to avoid the eggs scrambling Prepare a double boiler - I just placed a large bowl over a pot of water. Strain the mixture into the double boiler. Add the remaining pandan leaves. Keep stirring until mixture thickens and resembles curds. Don't stop stirring! It took me about 1 hour to reduce my mixture to a curd like texture.

Albino Kuih with Kaya

Life in My Hands

Warning: A bit of drama and plenty of self contemplation ahead...

NO, I did not just give birth. And no, I'm not pregnant either.

It's my job, what else?

What exactly do I do offshore anyway? Pick one:

1) Charm hapless guys to work -

2) Cook for the guys - I catch the fish myself and harpoon turtles, which taste great stewed in a claypot.

3) Offshore entertainer - I serenade men on a cheap karaoke set so they go to sleep happy, albeit slightly disturbed
4) As one of my friends put so eloquently - drive the "oil harvester". Yup, I operate a bad-ass machine with a drill bit the size of a Range Rover. Me and my mean machine, burrowing into dirt at 120 metres water depth, churning up rocks and occasionally accidentally grinding up a fossil or two.

Sorry. Heheh. (and there is no such thing as an oil harvester, or, at least I have not heard of one)

Actually, my work is to, well, give out work. I hate calling it telling the guys what to do, but that's essentially what I do offshore. I don't have the strength to open bolts the size of my fist, so I tell people to do it.

A big part of my job is also making sure people working here are safe. In a live plant, with gas everywhere, every job requires a Permit to Work. Something virtually unheard of if your job is a secretary, teacher, IT guy, eh? Imagine, needing to get permission to do work???

Well, offshore you do. We draw up a legally binding contract where everything needed to avoid certain injury is spelled out and then we sign on it. Like I said, it's legally binding, that's why we need the signatures.

Say, for example, Mr. Big Guy wants to replace a light bulb. So the contract will go something like this:

1) Mr. Big might get electrocuted while he unscrews the lightbulb - so shut off the power supply

2) Mr. Big might fall off the ladder should he reach too far - so assign someone to hold on to the ladder

3) Mr. Big might get blown away if the wind gets too strong - so check the weather forecast 1st

And I make sure that the power supply is shut off, the ladder and the partner are all in place. Then I sign the form. Oh, I try to influence the wind and rain too, not always with success.

I am the last one to sign off, the final gate, if you may. Work starts after that. If do not sign and the guy works, then it's his responsibility if anything happens. After I sign, it becomes mine.

At times, the sheer thought of life in my hands, at the stroke of a pen, overcomes me. You see, I have this innate eager to please, "chin-chai-lah" nature. The quissential Asian. It is natural for me to reason away people's bad behaviour. Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe he's having a bad day cos he just quarreled with his wife. I call it seeing the glass half full. :)

But this will not do offshore. You see, people tend to be lazy. And complacent.

"It's only for a short while, no need-lah."

"I have walk all the way back to isolate the power...nothing is going to happen, Miss, don't worry"

"Why don't you sign first, we'll take care of it later"

"I've been doing this for twenty years - no need to tell me lar (to themselves: you young disrespectful ungrateful know-nothing busybody- sometimes I can practically hear people think this)

Me (fake smile): Pls do this favour for me pls pls pls- and thank you for giving a damn about your own life. (what I really want to say: No wonder-lah you're still doing the same thing after 20 years)

It did not take me long to comprehend that that me being too flexible might also mean me signing a death warrant. *Damn drama!*

It was last week when it happenned. The guys were taking out one of our turbines and replacing it with a new one. The turbine weighs about 4 tons. The engineer, someone whom I deeply respect and have heard nothing but good things about, unscrewed the bolts from the base of the turbine support. Then he gave the go-ahead for one of his techs to unbolt the other side, located underneath the turbine. I saw it happenning - like slow motion - the 4-ton turbine slowly tilt downwards and I put my hand on the shoulder of the tech before he was to go underneath it. The turbine keeled over, and breaking its final support, and crashed down. Had the tech continued what he was doing, the turbine would have crushed his head and upper torso.

I could not sleep that night. We never really know, do we? Life, like some flickle butterfly, can seem to take off in a fleeting. I wondered how we could have avoided the fall in the first place. I wondered how to tackle the always conflicting voices in my head - should I tell him? I might lose his respect, he's THE expert, he should know better than me. I don't want people thinking of me as some kind of paranoid control freak who gets off telling people that they're doing things wrong.

I am no saint. And while I'd like to think that I genuinely care for the guys, I have to sign quite a number of permits in one day. It's difficult, not to mention tiring, to care for all of them. Plus there's always the bloody voices in my head. And always resistance. I want people to like me. Why the hell am I getting into a fight with someone to safeguard his life? Why in the world should I give a damn?

For very selfish reasons. Because I don't want the burden of guilt. Because I have read about too many real life cases where lives were lost or destroyed due to lack of control and precaution. Because I know you have a life, a family to feed back home, and I never want to be the one to face them and tell them that I did not do everything I could. Because, even thought we both don't like it, I am responsible for you. Ad I'll do my damn best to make sure that you're as safe as possible, even if you hate me for it. Even if I hate being hated.

So I'll do my best to cajole, wheedle and pretty please and (bloody) thank you to someone so he doesn't get too mad putting his safety stuff in place (it usually involves quite a lot of extra work). I might be a pain in the a**, but I'll try to be as nice a pain in the a** as possible, cos I'm young and trying impress upon people that I have a good attitude.

Just you wait till I rack up my years. Then, I might not be so nice. Heheh..

On the day I was supposed to come back to shore, the abovementioned tech came and shook hands with me, thanking me for "pulling him out". I almost cried there and then. Guess there are rewards for doing this.

Fishing Season

It's fishing season here offshore!

Actually, it's fishing season all year round. Fish here thrive on the food scraps we dispose of into the ocean. Of course, there are other scraps that we throw into the ocean too, if you know what I mean (we're 120 kilometres out - of course it all gets flushed to the sea - after some, erm, processing of course)

Back to the fish. A large school of tuna-lookalikes thrives under our living quarters, ever ready for anything we toss into the sea. Anything that drops down, edible or not, is descended upon like a pack of wolves. It's pretty fascinating to watch.

Almost as constant a presence are the fishermen. While ours is a so-called restricted area, we don't mind them so much as long as they don't endanger themselves hanging out too near our platform. Of course, one never knows if the innocent looking wooden dinghy with the national flag is actually a masquerading member of the Abu Sayyaf or a pirate - but most of the time these folks are actually endangering themselves more than us.

Mind you, we have tons of flammable gas in our piping. Put together a sudden release and a fisherman lighting a cigarette...well, enough said.

Everyone has to make a living right? Cari makan. Company procedures dictate that we should get our standby boat to drive them away, but we try not to set our standby vessel on them if they stay in the "clear" zones. After all, it's a hard life, rocking in their tiny boats and at the mercy of the sun, sea and storms. I wonder how many days at a time they are out, and how their boats hold up to the strong wind and waves we've been experiencing lately.

One of the fishing boats apparently gifted our standby vessel with a catch of theirs - one of the lot living under our quarters. From 20 to 30 metres up where we stand on the platform, they don't look all that big.


As you can see, they are not at all like the average fishes one gets at the local market.


This one was pregnant.


Apparently the flesh is too tough to eat fresh, so our catering crew will salt and dry the flesh. Guess this monster will provide enough salted fish for quite a couple of months. And yes, it is edible, albeit not very delicious. But hey, nothing beats fresh fish right out of the ocean, right?

Disclaimer: Fishing from an offshore platform, is, by my company's rules, illegal. WE DID NOT CATCH THIS FISH.

Just one of the gorgeous views we get every day...

Can't resist showing off (just a little). Looks like something out of a movie, isn't it? The sun's rays shining through the clouds - there's something heavenly about this scene.

Walk on the Beach, 30th Of September

The weekend before I was due to come offshore, AK asked me if I wanted to go to the beach. Lethargic at first and enjoying the comforts of my bed and air conditioning, I was a little reluctant.

So understandably, after I managed to drag myself out of bed, it was a little late in the evening when we got there - the Miri beach named, if memory serves, Hawaii Beach (why, I have absolutely no clue).

And I totally regret that we did not leave the house earlier.

Now, Miri's Hawaii Beach is nothing to shout about, no Phuket or Perhentian. It's no Sabah either. The water quality is dubious, and swimming is usually not recommended, thanks to the nearby offshore platforms and worse, the timber factories upriver.

But it is not all that bad.

When we got there, the waves were rocking and rolling, the wind was blowing salty mist into our faces (made me wonder how my folks offshore were doing - it would be twice as bad offshore).

The beach was surprisingly clean. We saw families clearing the last of their picnics, and met with children putting finishing touches to their sandcastles.

We played with the tiniest little hermit crabs and tried to coax some photos out of them, but found them to be shy little fellas :)

Think this one here is the best we got.


Tiny little things they are.


We did not realise that the sunset was almost upon us, but managed, just in time, to capture it before the sun exited and we were, literally, left in the dark.


Portrait of me in the sand, by AK.

When it got too dark to see clearly (and it did get that dark pretty fast), we had a simple little dinner in town, at a place we had never been to, just to be (a little) adventurous. The food was nothing to shout about, but we did have the best time, just the two of us.

It was one of those times where we were just immersed in the moment, not talking about tomorrow or yesterday. The sun is setting. The children are playing. The wind is blowing. Notice the present tenses? Notice how wonderful it sounds? (to me anyway)

Even now, writing from offshore, I remember almost every detail of that evening because we were in the moment. I'll be the first to admit, we had been living life a bit too hecticly, both of us totally caught up with our work. We still are, but it's nice to take a few pauses now and then.

It may be a sign of getting older, or maybe my Carpe Diem tendencies are not of a high enough standard, but the below realisation has just come to me.

I don't need no exotic vacation or rockin' nightclub to make my weekend worthwhile. (Come to think of it, a vacation to Bangkok or even Sabah sounds good..hmmm...) The walk on the beach (ahem, Hawaii Beach, Miri) made me pretty darn happy.