So ... how was your year? Really?

Work. Chaos. Education. Realization.

To sum up the whole of 2010 in a few words.

Life is not worth living without actual challenges, really. For me, this year, represented a bunch of obstacles. All of which, I would like to gladly say, I have gone through, successfully.

Career

Well... to be honest, I was thrown into the inevitable world of Call Center Management after my Boss left.

I went for the interview for the manager post mainly because... I do not want some unknowing twit to run the department, destructing the process as we know it.

At the same time, I was also keen on making some improvements within the project.

And umm... Yeah... to help people... the people who want to move forward.

Friendship

I have learned that I have to be extra cautious of who I decided to have in my circle of friends.

I have made the unfortunate glitch in judgment by allowing someone back into my circle of friends. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but this person waddled (literally) back into my so called 'good books' by playing the victim.

I should have known from the start that when she dropped me off just because someone else I knew played her, that she was just not worth the trouble.

I hate it when I offer my help or advise and then rudely declined. To be on the receiving end of stuff like 'If that's the best you can tell me then you might as well just keep it.' is degrading especially when you know you are trying to help.

And the degradation multiplied when this person who dropped me and my best friend as friends tried to re-waddle back into the circle through Yahoo! Messenger.

The fuck she's thinking? Apa kau ingat aku bodoh ke Biatch?

Friendship to me is the fact that you will still be able to be friends even when you are mad with each other. Joyce and I fought, but we settled it like adults. And she is one of my best friends. Mainly because we understand each other that much.

One thing for sure, if you don't want my friendship, I won't care to give it.

Relationships

UC - He is officially out of my life.

Trey - His son was born. I limit my communication with him.

NSA - I am over thinking that he could be the one.

As a matter of fact, I don't think there's anyone good enough to be in my life.

My body
I lost a total of 12 Kilos.

I went from this :

Bad Hair, Make-up and FAT

To this in 2009, already dropping weight:

And finally, to this in 2010...

And plus, I finally cut my hair the way I always wanted  :



And I get to make new good friends, and also retain the ones I love :

To top it off... I got myself a Sister in Law, and a niece in the works. 

All and all, not a bad year... ;)

I would like to make a toast of the best premium Moet Chandon to everyone. May we have a better year in 2011.

Que Sera Sera...

Is it me or did time just passed toooo damn fast?

It seemed like only yesterday I was writing out my 'Stupid and Short' resolution list.

This was the list that I came up with :

1) Be a better person
This is really not up to me judge, but I think I am a better person now. I know for sure I look better. :)

2) Get that CANON DSLR
I am guilty for not making an effort to buy a camera at all. And now, I am falling in love with a Sony DSLR. Is this bad?

3) Be happy
I am... ermmm... happier if I have enough time for myself.

4) Keep close friends
I managed to do this. But I also managed to weed out those I don't think should be on the list. So openly now, I am not someone who can pretend that I am a friend when people don't want me to be one and then all of the sudden, they want me back through Yahoo! Messenger.

5) Buy a Plasma TV
I didn't because seriously, I don't watch TV, or I didn't have the time to watch TV. Sad but true.

So should I come up with another list?

Envious? Me?

The last time I got envious was when a friend of mine got married. That was like maybe 2 years ago. I was 29 and I was still single.

I was involved with a myriad of men in my twenties. I was dumped and I was also very actively dumping.

I was 10 Kilos heavier and my emotional baggage contains the whole luggage line of LV. I had a lot.

My last post was on people getting married too fast. Was I envious?

Well... I 'am' envious of them having weddings. Not so much on the 'being married' part.

I have my own idea of how my solemnization outfit would be like, how my bersanding ceremony will be like and most importantly, what stuff I want my husband to be should put on those trays. (of course everything should be my favorite brands; e.g : Tod's, Jimmy Choo, Bobbi Brown cosmetics, T&Co jewelry... You know... the works).

Then I realized that what I want is really not so much about being married, it's the wedding.

I don't know how I am going to include my husband in bed sheets shopping, vacations and stuff. I don't have any idea at all on how to include my husband in anything.

I am not going to worry about that too much though. What are the odds of me getting someone now. So I am just going to chill and enjoy my freedom the best I can.

Envious? NONSENSE. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade my friend, can't expect a blueberry pie innit?

Sense and Sensibility

When my new boss asked me if I am married, I answered :

"No. I don't believe in marriage."

To which he replied with 'That's a pretty strong statement.'

It is a strong statement.

Recently one of the blogger in the upscale celebrity world of blogland got hitched. It came to me as a shock. Well, I know that they have been together for some time, but marriage after (I guess, a year?) is pretty... fast.

*Hyperventilating... fuh.. fuh...*

It's just fast.

And then a good friend of mine had recently started a relationship. Barely a month into the relationship, they are already making plans to be engaged in February 2011.

*Hyyy...perrrRRR...VentiLateeeessss*

Please understand first and foremostly that I have nothing against marriage, sure I don't believe in it, but I have nothing against it.

However, at 31, even the idea of starting a new relationship scares me to death. It is nuts to go through all that again. The infatuation, the wondering... and of course, the break - up...

And yes, I know that I am not pretty enough, skinny enough and also my parents are not rich enough for me to qualify as someone's significant other.

Plus... I am a cocky, sarcastic bitch. Kind, I would like to think, even though I have low tolerance towards incompetence.

And as reflected by one of my best friends, VERY high maintenance.

Both in material and intellectual expectations.
I only have high material expectations because I now can pretty much provide for myself. I expect the man I would end up with (Either in a long term relationship... or marriage) to have control on his own life.

A bonus if he is well groomed and cute... without me pushing him to be... I am done being the mother in a relationship.

But, I am well aware that I am not living in a fantasy world. Even my supposedly gay friend looks like a yeti, how can I expect any straight men to be otherwise...

Congratulations Ninie... and to my good friend... May the engagement plans go through. ;)
As for me, I will continue to hyperventilate, just like the way I did when I got proposed to and ran walked away in panic. Maybe I will stop when the time is right.

Still looking out for that silver lining.

Maybe, Mr. Skelly will turn to my independent dream stud?

Things I would not know unless I Youtubed

Supersizers eat the 70's.. I was born in the late 70's. I know how 70's were like through my parent's pictures.

Whoa, can you imagine the whole earth's population on stilts platforms?

Do you know that Americans don't teach their 5 and 6 year olds to eat with fork and knife? That British schools do?

I learn how to use fork and knife when I was 5. I was a pro at the fork at 4. What the hell?

How do I know this? I YouTubed for Jamie Oliver and watched two epis of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and found out.

When Jamie asked the 'lunch ladies' (School cook) whether they know what are the ingredients in chicken nuggets, the first thing they said was :

'Chicken breasts are the first ingredient.'

There were sodium and MSG among other preservatives in the list, and they don't care about these things. I doubt that there are even 20% real chicken in the nuggets.

I also got to know that Americans's do not know where KFC comes from, despite the fact that it stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

(Sarcy thinks Americans are bizarre) ---> OH YES... she is being nice.

But I also know that somehow, people tend to stereotype, a lot. I am just thankful that I am friends with Americans who know what the hell they are doing or saying.

Cook, woman... COOK!

Recently, I have been having too many things on my plate (Unfortunately, not of the edible kind) to exercise as much as I used to.

The only thing that I have the time (and energy) for would be Yoga. All you need is a yoga mat and peace and quiet (Not a difficult thing to get if you go home at 5 am in the morning).

In all honesty, I miss gym. I miss the huffing and swearing puffing on the stepper and treadmill, the awesome flex of your biceps, triceps and glutes during weight training.

Not to mention checking out every buff bod possible gay men in the gym sweating their orifices out (Oh dear... that's not quite attractive innit?)

But at the moment, until all of my projects are running and not in the middle of constructing, I will have to limit my gym time to once a week on Sundays. *Sigh*

Anyhoo... when it comes to sustaining my level of energy for both work and Yoga, I have added another rice day to my usual once a week rice intake.

It has tremendously improved my energy level. I don't feel as tired anymore.

Of course, everything is proportioned. I cook no more than 2 handful of Herbaponni rice (Which contained considerably lower fat and starch content, and taste just DIVINE).

Due to my uber busy schedule (actually, when you work at night, your time to indulge in 'real' cooking with 'real' ingredients prep time are essentially, virtual) I purchased canned goods like mackerel in tomato sauce and for this week, for the sake of reliving my childhood memories, cuttlefish in soy sauce.

For week 1, I cooked the canned mackerels in soy sauce. If I am to follow my Mum's recipe, the fish is not supposed to be fried. Growing up, I have always hated the fishy taste of the canned mackerels. So I decided to fry the fish first in shallow pool of olive oil (not extra virgin. Extra virgin is ideal for drizzling, but not for cooking) before saute-ing the onions, garlic and red chili. pour in about 1  or 1 and a half table spoon of salty soy sauce and voila!

Ideal to be eaten with rice/ bread.

The second week, I went for classic beef stew. Now, stews are always more divine with dry red wine or a drizzle of dry sherry. Being a health freak, I draw the line when it comes to compromising my beef stew. I go for the classic recipe of lean beef, potatoes, mixed peas and carrots, dry, wonderful red wine and stock.

Not exactly the healthiest of choices, but I believe in staying true to the recipe as far as beef stews are concerned.

I purchased a canned cuttlefish last couple of weeks. The reason why I bought the canned version instead of the fresh variety, aside from trying to evoke my childhood memories, was because I don't personally like to keep fresh meat too long in the fridge. Plus, I wouldn't know when I would actually want to eat the frikkin' thing.

I cooked the canned cuttlefish the only way I know how, braised in a mixture of tamarind and soy sauce.

I threw the soy sauce the cuttlefish came in as it was sweet and is a far cry from what soy sauce is supposed to look like.

 I crushed the garlic and saute it together with the onions and red chili before adding in the cuttlefish. mix the ingredients with the cuttlefish and then after about 2 mins, add in the tamarind juice and drizzle some soy sauce (To your taste) and wait for the gravy to reduce.

Add salt if needed.

Of course, I don't actually cook often. Usually I will settle for some oatmeal porridge and two slices of bread with peanut butter as that was the fastest most convenient power packed breakfast+lunch, which I take at my screwed up time of 7 pm - 9 pm with hot tea.

So whenever I do, I will make sure that I treat myself with the best. ;)