And They Never Judge....

Playing with the dogs today, I realized just how unconditional their love and affection for us is. They wag their tails without fail, greet me with the widest grin (well, it looks like a grin) and when they look at me with those big brown eyes, it just makes my heart melt. Dogs....they are indeed your best friends when all else fail.

Durian Season is Here!....at the Office ! HA!

I just had to sneak a quick one in here while I am lunching at my desk in the office. While walking to my car to pick up some things earlier, I saw a pick-up truck parked in our office lots and a whole lot of people crowding around the back. Someone was selling durians at the office carpark! OMG! I suspect that someone is an office staff with an orchard or something...

I thought it was hilarious...! This multinational company... and someone selling fruit in its carpark. Priceless !

Well, I could not snap a pic... for obvious reasons..... Ha ha ha!

KL City Here I Come...AGAIN

I have been Missing-in-Action from KL since the last Raya long weekend, after which I was on my long medical leave. That makes it err... almost one month! Well, that just means I have to make my way to KL again this week to check up on the consultants. But I'll stay over the weekend this time with girlfriend Szen and go do some girlie things perhaps. Besides, hubby is still away. Perhaps I might even check out the sales as described by Elaine in her recent post. A little window shopping is always good for the soul.

Hotel this week: Traders Kuala Lumpur
Breakfast: Great selection of food. I love the generous size of the mugs for my morning tea, and the widest selection of juices ever!
Room service: So-so only lah...
Sleep points: Top of my list! Most comfy smooth cotton sheets.
Location: Walking distance from KLCC, buggy service available

Dinner Tonight - Tofu w/ Minced Meat Sauce

Dinner at home again tonight. This time it is tofu with a sauce of minced meat, mushrooms, carrots, onion and garlic. Oh, and topped with home grown spring onions. Yummmmm!


Minced Meat Sauce:
Minced meat (chicken, pork or beef)
Dried shitake mushrooms - soaked
Carrots - diced
Onion and garlic - minced

- Fry onion and garlic until brown, add minced meat and stir fry till half liquid evaporates. Add a dash of fish sauce, oyster sauce, chinese cooking wine, pepper and a pinch of brown sugar. Thicken the sauce with corn starch and pour hot mixture over steamed tofu. Garnish with freshly chopped spring onions.

Travels in Europe

I am reading this book again because it made me laugh out loud when I read it 2 years ago. It might even help me with the current planning of our Europe trip next year.

Weird

I just woke up from a weirder than weird dream of being in a spa run by old fairy beings...

....

I Am An Offshore Wife

It is a lazy Sunday afternoon. While the sky is still overcast, there is some warmth from the sun that is penetrating through the clouds just enough to give a slight glare outside. But looking upwards, the threat of rain is still there.
I am slightly glad the weekend is almost over. Work starts tomorrow and that means from 7am till 5pm, my To-Do list is a no-brainer. And when I knock off from work, there is dinner to cook, the dogs to feed, dishes to wash and it will be time for telly and bed in a blink. Splendid.
Ah the long weekend. Most (if not all) people love it. But for me, it gets too draggy. More so, following events from a few weeks back. I suppose this is the life of an 'offshore wife'. Living in a small city so far away from family and hubby has to be away offshore on a regular basis. I don't even get to ring him because he works night shifts and on a rig, one does not really have the time to hang on the phone with wifey anyway. Sigh... I cannot wait for this year to be over, after which he will be back with a desk job.

*Offshore wife - spouse of a person who works offshore in the oil&gas business.

Monsoon

The Northeast monsoon season for East Malaysia is finally here. I hardly saw a speck of sunbeam all through today. It was all gray and cold and damp. Right now, I am sitting by my windows on the Easterly side of our home; it is raining hard and the breeze is blowing right in. I wonder if the dogs are dry and warm. Marley is probably crouched somewhere letting the rain beat her face - she's a strange one.

Quiet night again, dinner alone. I wonder if it is raining hard (or harder) offshore where hubby is. Monsoon out in the open seas on a oil rig can't be all that fun. Specially if one is not firmly stuck to the seabed. I know, I was on a work barge before and it totally sux! Good thing I don't get sea sick.

I think I will go sit in bed and watch telly now.

Blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

I

AM

SO

B O R E D .....

PRAGUE/VIENNA versus PARIS

Hmm the more I read about my options on the web, the farther I am getting away from Paris. Do I REEEEALLYY have to see the Louvre ?

New Addition

This is the new family member in my mini orchid shed. Please be good and try to survive and bloom like your siblings ok?

What a Beautiful Morning

Woke up today to the sound of raindrops on the roof. The sky is still dull and gray but I am loving it! It is one of those mornings when there is just enough sunlight to light up the day, but not piercing the eyes and there is a cool breeze blowing. I love watching the trees move in the breeze and listen to the leaves rustling.
What a beautiful morning today, and I am enjoying it with a cup of hot tea and buttered toast for breakfast.

Paris or Prague ?

Hubby and I are planning for a holiday next year - Paris or Prague. He will be in the Netherlands for a course for work, afterwhich I plan to join him there and begin our mini Europe holiday. I am so excited!

But hmmm... Paris or Prague ... ? Anyone ?

Dinner Tonight - Ladies Fingers and Pak Cheng Soup

It hasn't stop raining since early afternoon, so I decided to stay home and cook myself dinner instead of going out. Besides, my pot of 'pak cheng' soup had been brewing in the slow cooker since last night.I seem to recall reading somewhere and also heard from a friend that this soup of mixed chinese herbs (Dang Gui included) is good for strengthening the body after illness, particularly for women after losing iron in blood from menstruation or childbirth (or miscarriages for this case). So dinner tonight was 'pak cheng' soup with chicken, ladies finger stir-fried with garlic and dried shrimp and rice.Bon Apetit to me!

Fabian Passed His Exams!

Hubby called from offshore earlier this afternoon and told me the good news that he passed his Round 1 Well Engineering exams. After all those weeks of studying (and myself partially giving up TV surfing), he got his well-deserved results at last.

Congratulations my dear :)

Weekend Plans - Failed So Far...

Of all the 10 things that I said I had wanted to do for this long weekend, I achieved none. Instead I woke up early for breakfast with John (my colleague), went for a facial treat (to clear off the breakouts from the pregnancy), had a late lunch with Bernice (my ex-Miri friend who is now in KL but back for the weekend) and went shopping for a new orchid plant (and bought 2). It is now past five in the evening and starting to rain. I might as well get started with dinner.

My Orchid Plant Has Flowers!

I took the plunge into the unknown and scary realm of orchid planting six months ago. I saw how mom could keep hers alive with minimal care and I did some research on it for a while before buying my first plant. So I got myself some and kept my fingers crossed. Dad even made me a nice little orchid hanging corner beside our main door.At long last, one of them plants bloomed! There are now 3 sprays of purple flowers and 2 on the way. I am very happy!

Making the Change

I have been thinking of asking my boss for a change of in my duties at work for some time now. I have been doing this traveling job for 5 years now and it's been on my mind for a while that I would like to take a break from it for a while to give time for other priorities, namely to start a family and spend more time at home with hubby while he is onshore. But I never did work up enough guts to walk up to the boss to discuss this. In addition to that, pride got in the way. I could never bring myself to put work aside, and admit I cannot be the superwoman who can do it all.

After two weeks of deep thought following the incident, it just hit me. There is no reason to be embarrassed of wanting to put personal reasons ahead of a career. My thoughts are suddenly clear of what I want and how I would like to see my near future commitments to be. If nothing else, at least I broke free of my previous confines of feminist pride.

Filling in the Blanks

I get back to work tomorrow. But only for a day though, as Friday is a public holiday. I am dreading the long weekend, this time. So I think I will make a list of things I will do to make the hours go by faster:

1.) Put away all the travel things from last weekend's wedding trip
2.) Weed the garden
3.) Get a haircut
4.) Shower the dogs
5.) Clean the aquarium
6.) Research for Paris trip next year
7.) Clean the dust off shoes
8.) Make a list of things to buy for next year
9.) Get groceries for meals over the next 5 days
10.) Search for missing portable disk drive

There, ten tasks for the long weekend. That should keep me busy enough, hopefully.

Plastic is Spastic

Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Week for our company this year decided to bring the attention of staff to focus on little things that we can do for the environment. One of it is to try to reduce our use of plastic bags. Now, I wrote 'reduce' as I know it is not so easy to stop using plastic bags altogether as we still require them for purposes such as the function as garbage bags. But we can always start with declining to use plastic bags when all we need to get from the store is a loaf of bread or a carton of milk. We can do without those small bags.
So how do we carry those little bits of shopping when we need to? Well, this year's HSE Week gift is no longer a theme T-Shirt (thank goodness!!!). It is a reusable shopping bag. Not a bad idea....as the company HSE slogan goes..."Little things....big changes"

Moving the TV

It gets a little scary sometimes when I am home alone in this big house and Fabian is offshore (which is quite often nowdays). So after dinner, I rarely remain downstairs unless there is something good on telly. So Fabian decided I should have the TV upstairs in our bedroom so I will have the best of both - the comfort (and sense of security) of being in the bedroom and entertainment. We moved the TV upstairs, fixed a separate ASTRO connection there and voila!Only thing is now, on weekends when I spend most of the day at home and in the living room, there is no TV to watch. Hmmm...well, I can't have everything, can I?

The Many Sleeping Positions of Marley

Mom had always wanted another dog of her own ever since the last of the family dog packed up and went to Canine Heaven after retirement age. So after the break-in at my brother's house at the back, brother decided he should get a dog to watch over the place since our dogs refused to go over.

So that was how we got Marley. She's a really good girl and is now about 7 months old. She is a dashound/terrier mix with the best temperament . Occasionally over the weekend, I would bring her over to snooze on our front porch so she would have some human company.

It's a Life Changing Experience

The loss of an unborn child changes a person. Even though ours was barely 5 weeks old, she was still a person-to-be and is special to us. I would like it to be a 'she' - for all things unknown are always assigned a feminine gender, and it would've been nice to have a girl. Fabian would have loved a girl.

Throughout the two weeks medical leave, I did nothing much but think. Think and think. I had emotional strength to do nothing else. But one thing for sure, this somehow changed the way I had been before. Things that were important are now no longer of value. Priorities shifted. If it is even possible, the love and respect for my husband grew even stronger. I wanted only Fabian to be with me and help me out of my depression.

I used to worry about work, about the review cycles that might make me look bad.... I don't really care now. And suddenly I have a plan of my career for the next few years. Not for glory, but making sure other important things can take priority.

Yes, sometimes it takes a brief tragedy to change a person's outlook on things. Or perhaps to steer you back to the path you were truly meant for.