Baking to My Heart's Content

Both are so simple, and make use of cocoa instead of dark chocolate which can be pretty expensive. Thanks to Recipezaar! There's tons of suggestions on the additions you could make, to the brownies especially. I added almonds I roasted myself and milk chocolate chips.

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Whatever Floats Your Boat" Brownies!

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT:
1-2 cup chocolate chips (semisweet, white, butterscotch, peanut butter) or raisins or chopped maraschino cherries or nuts or M&M's or Reese's pieces or miniature marshmallows 16 servings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 inch square pan or line with foil.
In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved. Add sugar and mix well.
Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined. Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not overmix). Fold in"WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT"! Spread in pan and bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Discovering ME

One of the best things about being home in Penang is being able to go for hour-long walks around the area here. One of the nest things about these walks is being totally by myself, with so much space to reflect and think about the years past, and what I'd do differently.

So here's what I've gathered so far:

1) I want to take control - of my time at work, my free time, my career, my life. Too much of "going with the flow" and waiting for things to come to me just cannot cut it anymore. The best years of my life are passing me by and I'd better get a better grip on them.

2) It's all about control - to attend mass on Sunday

3) To do things that feel good later and not now, like exercising, going to church, volunteering my time. Instead of going for endlessly long shopping trips, watching reruns of CSI, you know what I mean. Mindless things that do nothing for my body and spirit.

4) To lower my pride and guard, and call up my friends more often. To have faith in people and give them the benefit of the doubt.

It's not going to be easy. But it has to be done, simple as that.

Looking back at the times since I came back from offshore, the blog entries, reflections of floundering in the office after 2 years of offshore straightforwardness and knowing exactly what to do. I have learnt, some things more that I ever imagined

I really feel like there is only so little time left, and I MUST make the most of what I have and use NOW to achieve my FUTURE.

Take A Bow, '08

In 2008, I have:
1) Lost 10 pounds, almost without effort
2) Found myself struggling for the 1st time to keep up at work3) bitten off more than I can chew - sad to say that I will continue chewing the cud straight into 2009
4) Visited Cambodia, Spain and London
5) Seriously rethinking if I really want an assignment into a temperate country
6) Invested in the stock market for the 1st time, and feeling the pain of it - yikes!
8) Found some new people I could really look up, and, sadly, down on (truthfully, I do, I can't help it)
9) Spent, spent, spent and more money than the past 2 years put together (ah, the perils of workign in KL and having almost 24-hour access to Amazon and eBay)
10) Spent half my life living out of my Samsonite in 5-star hotels in KL - and found myself missing my narrow little bed offshore and my new bed AK bought me;
11) Found myself missing my parents so, so much;
12) Missed out on church quite a lot, shamefully
13) Fractured another foot, balancing it out
14) Said goodbye to 2 good friends - 1 to Kl and 1 to Russia;
15) Had my house broken into, my stuff stolen; and went through the achingly slow processes of getting my life on paper back together again, which led to-
16) more cursing of the bloody Malaysian beauracracy
17) Realised that I have people in my life who really, really love me;
18) Experienced for myself how happy a fat, not-so-little cat can make me;
19) Fought and made up about 3 million times;
20) FINALLY got round to Facabook-ing, and now can't get enough for it :)

2 More Nights ~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~................to our holiday!!

4 nights in Barcelona
4 nights in London

Wish we could spend more time, but the Malaysian ringgit does not stretch that far...

Can't wait!!

New Mobile

Waaay overdue, but I just had to post the photo of my pretty new mobile, complete with the Swarovski strap I made myself. (this was taken in my office, hence the laptop. I make lots of notes with different coloured pens, just to keep it interesting - now who says I'm boring???!!)

The conservative side of me thought it was too Paris Hilton at first but AK convinced me to go along with it. Now we're pretty attached and I've got strangers complimenting me on it!! :)

Celebration!

Dinner at Zaika, the new North Indian restaurant in Miri. Prices were Golden-Triangle-like.



Guess we won't be visiting here so often whilst we still got our business trips to KL...

Birthday pressies to myself - Mulberry Bayswater and LeSportSac bags. LeSportSac has proved itself already during our trip to Cambodia; the Bayswater is gonna rock it somewhere else :)

Enough is Enough

I'm sick and tired of everything. How does one end something like this???!!

I'm sick of being taken for granted.

I'm sick of the frustration, the bellowing sessions.

I want what I want.

This has been long enough.

I deserve better, damnit.

I deserve to be able to look forward to early morning weekends.

I deserve not to be judged just because I want to buy a pretty bag or a food processor.

I used to get away with anything I wanted.

I deserve to be able to eat spicy food whenever I feel ike it and not only have it as a big favour to me. I deserve to eat Indian or Malay food without a shred of guilt whatsoever.

I deserve to not have to clean up after anybody but myself.

I deserve to be taken on vacation planned by someone else rather than myself.

YES I DO.