There are days when I wish I was Molly of Orangette, who has so wonderfully, successfully merged her two loves - food and writing. She suffueses family, memories, friends, adventure(!) into her cooking and then spills over into her writing. Or Joycelyn of Kuidaore, who at the very least is Nigella-esque in describing her food, but so much more elegantly so. These are my food lit idols, along with Nigella, of course.
I tend to lurch in between the two in terms of my own blogging, and normally end up with some dry description of some pathetic looking concoction.
But most days I love it. I loved it when I made ice cream for the first time, loved it when I fried my first (and still last) lor bak, loved it when I baked my 1st batch of brownies or when I stayed up till 5 in the morning baking batch after batch of meringue cookies at low heat.
Then again there are days when I feel like I want to be Andy Grove, or Warren Buffet. These are the days when I stalk the corridors of my office like a tiger in prowl, when I speak up at meetings and get involved in making strategic decisions, when I make a difference in the business and want to continue doing so. I feel like flying up the (corporate) ladder, working at a frenzied pace till late hours then come back, exercise (like the well-rounded, ever so disciplined person I intend to be) then read some Ben Graham and watch Bloomberg.
Now seems to be one of those times. Work is picking up and I;m starting to get that all-too-familiar feeling of more responsibilities. I see it as something really positive and am truly grateful for it - am starting to attend a lot more meetings and people are actually asking my opinion and getting me in the loop in the very important decisions. Cool.
But I still want to cook and bake and potter about the kitchen with my mixing bowls and spatulas, cursing my (free) oven and spilling flour into all the tile crevices. I still think I don't make enough money and want my money to work harder for me. I still wanna be thin.
So I've worked out a schedule for myself:
5.45 am - Wake up, make extra-strong coffee. Turn on Bloomberg/CNBC and catch the US markets summary and what President Obama is going to do next
6.10 am - Get on the elliptical for half an hour, followed by 25 crunches on the stability ball and stretches. TV on all the time.
6.45 am - Take a bath, wash and dry hair. Drive to work (2 minutes, haha)
7.15 am - Work. Prioritize tasks, attend meetings. Resolve things sooner by calling people up intead of emailing too much. Clear as much of my Inbox as possible. 10 minutes before wrapping up the day, write down a list of things to do tomorrow.
5.30 pm~6 pm - Go home. Prepare dinner, watch American Idol, Bake. Read Ben Graham in between takes. Take photos of food. Think of better ways to describe them.
10 pm - 10.30 or 11 pm - Read Ben Graham in bed till fall asleep.
Yes, I have to wake up early, I have to make my coffee at home instead of sipping it slowly in the office while my PC starts up. I have to wash my hair in the morning and blowdry it. I have to use my own coffee stash instead of the company's (yes I'm cheap) and I use a lot more leave-in conditioner to avoid my hair going brittle with all the blowdrying. On the plus side I look really groomed nowadays with my coiffured hair :) And I feel like a really zen, disciplined, mature person somehow with this schedule.
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