关于水灾这回事

相信大家都在电视荧幕上看到了我们昆士兰最近大水灾的消息。

谢谢朋友的关心⋯⋯ 事情侥幸没有我们预料中严重 ～

害你们担心了，我们真的没事⋯⋯ 没事⋯⋯

其实水灾并不是什么大问题，因为我们家刚好坐落在比较高的地区。

目前最严重的反而是超市没有了食物，油站没有了油，机场也跟着关门了。

前几天大树倒下拉断了电线，因而导致多户家没有电源，没有电话线，也没有网路上网。

我也没得上网好几天了⋯⋯ 可怜呐？

上个周末车子驶过桥梁匆匆拍下洪水情景。

水淹之前，这一带原本是干巴巴的小树林。

水淹以后，多棵大树倒下，这小树林在一夜之间化成了一条黄河！多不可思议啊！

拍照当儿，雨下得很大，男人坚持不让我开车门窗拍照，怕我一个不小心掉进河里就完了～

他怕我危险，可是我更怕他一个不留神出车祸呐！

因为当天大雨，所有的交通灯都坏了，十字路口瞬间变成一片混乱⋯⋯

大路中间也多了很多断枝，总之场面很混乱就是了⋯⋯

因为水灾事件，它让我发现了人类可以有多自私，像超市里的食物通通被扫光光了。

男人无奈地问我：只剩下一包甘蓝（Brussel Sprouts）我们买不买啊？

不过这两天天气还像开始转晴了，希望过了这个周末我们就不用天天粗茶淡饭了～

特别感动

现在快凌晨1点钟了，我有点疲累了，可是我想在临睡前把一些愉快的小事情赶快记录下来，我是怕这种感觉会很快消失 ⋯⋯

事情是这样的 ～ ～ ～ ～ ～

今天早早上班的时候，我发现我桌上多了一盒巧克力和一束鲜花。
直觉告诉我说，送花者很可能是我的病人（不可能是男人，因为我知道他每一次送的都是玫瑰花，而这一束不是玫瑰花），可是当我把卡片打开一看，里面的字迹告诉了我，送我礼物的不是个大人而是一个小朋友！这小朋友的名字叫Gabrielle，十岁左右，是同事的女儿。

Gabi 是在两天前因为家里没人照顾才随跟妈妈到公司上班的。刚开始的时候，妈妈是担心孩子调皮而坚持孩子不准离开休息室。休息室进进出出的同事很多，大家都怕她会闷，可是某个时候大家都各忙各的，难免会疏忽了她。有一段时间我刚好空出时间可以陪她，于是我蹲下来问她 “喂，小大人，你闷不闷啊？” 她点点头说她很闷，问我可不可以帮我？我回她说 “好啊，可是我的工作很辛苦很辛苦的，吃苦力又没有钱赚，那你还愿意帮我吗？”

其实我也知道孩子的年龄太小，所以一般比较重要的东西像药物之类的我都不敢让她碰，后来我带她到我全公司最安全的文件处（就处理一些 invoice 等等），拉了张椅子给她坐，然后我皱起双眉，假装认真地跟她说 “这叠文件 we have to put them in date order（抱歉，这句中文我不懂怎么翻译），可是姐姐我又老，眼睛又很blur，那你的工作是 double check 我的工作，你要 make sure 我把日期看准准好吗？你的任务很重要喔！不可以有错喔！” 被我这么激发一下，她真的很认真在帮我工作，而且后来还一直问我 “还有其他什么事要我帮忙吗？”

虽然像这种应该在半小时内就可以完成的工作最后还是被拉长了两个小时，不过能让孩子的妈安心工作，同时也让孩子有个学习的机会我觉得还挺值得的。只是时间过得太快，学校假期结束了，我们的小天使后来没有再来跟着妈妈上班了。

故事就这样 ～ ～  ～ ～

隔天一早，我桌子上就莫名奇妙多了一些小礼物。
卡片上的字体看得出孩子的稚气，很可爱吧？

虽然是很小很小的一件小事，不过还是要谢谢你分享我的愉快！

好了⋯⋯ 人要睡了，晚安 ♥

A great book and A sick day

Sometime last week I had a bad cold which rendered me a day off sick from work.
This is the first time I had an unplanned sick day in the last four years of my service period.

There wasn't much I can do at home apart from reading books. If you have heard of or seen the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, here I was reading another book written by the same author called, Boy - Tales of Childhood. This is a book about the author's childhood recollections, centring around schooling in Britain in the early 20th century.

I am sure the quality of British education wouldn't be much different these days apart from the flogging system which has been abolished some forty-fifty years ago. In my country, many parents still fight hard to send their children to British school because of its higher education standards. As the author's late father had once said, there was some kind of magic about English schooling, and that the education it provided had caused the inhabitants of a small island to become a great nation and a great Empire.

So there I thought to myself - gosh! what he said was very true! Alex is the best living evidence of its (British education) success!

If only I could make one turning point in my life, instead of coming to Australia I promise you I will never turn down the offer to study in England . . .

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爸爸镜头下最真实的画面

那么认真的画面，是刚吵完架么？还是在谈什么大生意？

事隔半年的照片（我的头都黑了整四个月了），当时候是怎么搞得一脸心事重重的捏？

这种神情，通常不是在头痛工作的事情，就是在想着晚餐该煮点什么吃。

因为平日里最伤脑筋的部分就真的只有这两样东西啊⋯⋯

Last Minute Hazelnut Muffins

The other night Alex wanted something sweet after dinner...

But because we haven't been baking much at home lately- so there is no flour, no butter, no cream, no yoghurt, no gelatine, no cocoa powder, no full cream milk, no fruit, no ice cream, no pastry and no caster sugar!!! 

What still left in the pantry were:

1. one full packet + one opened packet of 350g hazelnut meals
2. 3 eggs in the fridge
3. some raw sugar
4. canola oil for cooking
5. vanilla essence
6. baking powder
7. a little almond milk left in the fridge, and most pathetically,
8. 6 squares of 70% cadbury dark chocolates from xmas that we still haven't finished eating!!! (melted)
After mixing everything, then off it goes into the hot oven preheated at 180°C and bake for 15 minutes.

BUT guess what?!!!
Despite so limited ingredients to work with, I am so so so glad that I still able to whip up a tray of 10 what I call the Last Minute Flourless Hazelnut Muffins from the Leftovers!!!

This is a from-scratch recipe with no measurement needed other than baking powder (1 tsp).

It may not look the best but the taste is soooo original and just heavennnnnn!

I really like the bite-y texture from the hazelnut meals~
And it is safe to say that this recipe is much healthier without flour.

Enjoy!

Spiced Burnt Caramel Ice Cream (first attempt)

Summer time let's have plenty of ice cream and a bit of fun churning your own at home!

My first attempt in making Spiced Burnt Caramel Ice Cream!!!

(Recipe adapted from Taste.com)

Overall self-rating:

 ✔ JUST PASSED ✔

Look: ♥♥♥♥♡  4/5

Taste: ♥♥♥♡♡  3/5

Texture: ♥♥♡♡♡ 2/5

One big part of my failure was due to the lack of deep taste from star anise and cinnamon.

The sweet caramel pretty much dominated the entire flavour.

I must say though, at first glance, it looks pretty impressive! 

But I need to work on the ice cream texture and try to keep it as creamy smooth as possible. 

Wait for me... I will be back with the second attempt ^^

Xmas Party 2012 (Part II)

<< Happy New Year Bloggers! >>

This is my second post of the day. I am hardly this dedicated ^__^

Do you know? 

Since many weeks ago, I was already thinking about what to wear to the xmas party...

mainly because that will help determine how much weight I need to lose before that evening...

Initially I was sort of leaning towards a pair of dainty pink dress like this.

Because not only does it look cute but it may also make me look less chubby.

But on the other hand I am also afraid that I might look a little childish for the event?

A sequin black dress can be sexy but it might be a bit too hot for a summer evening?

 Cheongsam is sophisticated yet elegant!
But that would mean I need to shed even more weight before the party!

I know it is kind of hard too choose which dress to wear...
After all they are all very different dresses catering for very different occasions...

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This is what I wore to the party last year...
A very simple but nice black cocktail dress...
But I am hoping that I won't have to wear the same dress again this year =)

Anyway..... 

 It was a scorching hot 42℃ on the day we were supposed to have our xmas party.
We thought it might be over 100 guests attending but only half the number turned up that night.
There were more than enough entertainments such as DJ, dance floor and a bar to serve drinks.
There were, of course, plenty of pretty girls and handsome boys on the evening too...
But a lot of them were too drunk even before the party started *sigh*

Unfortunately, only one person brought along camera.
 So I have only a handful of pictures to share this time ^^

These three women in the picture are like second mothers to me at work~

This is a picture of me with my very gentleman Pharmacist colleague + half of my face got smudged away by someone's fingerprint!

And yeah! In the end I decided to wear cheongsam to the party. So did you guess it right?

其实很久没穿旗袍了，当晚因为害怕会隆起小肚腩，所以都不敢吃太多～

Some pictures of my precious juniors and their partners...

They are all aged between 16-19 but look so grown up without their school uniforms!
Most of them are much much taller than me and have better figures than me too! How unfair~

这些孩子都是我的学生，国家的未来栋梁～

Young man on the left is our third year Pharmacy student.

And next to him is my best friend Adrian the Oppa Gangnam style!

That evening wasn't just all about chit chatting, drinking and dancing.

We had secret santa in between but everyone was too busy reaping off the presents!

 So no one had actually taken any picture of the major highlight of that evening.

Here comes more pictures from the iPhone!

Don't we all look like vampires with red eyes?

And some silly pictures taken at the photo booth...

I haven't played this for a long time since I left the high school!

I have always wanted to explore a bit of crazy fun at the photo booth~

It was a very fun night but because Alex did not come along, so in the end I decided to take off early to accompany my darling man for the rest of my evening =)

It is amazing how the year has gone by so quickly...

2012 is gone already yet I still have so many things I wish I could have accomplished last year.

Let's hope 2013 will be an even better year for everyone.

Thanks for reading and with lots of love - happy new year to you again!

喜欢圣诞节的原因，不是因为期待会下雪，也不是因为期待有礼物收，

而是因为这一天让我感觉特别安稳、特别满足。

希望你亦会是如此，祝你2013幸福快乐。

Stepping into Year 2013

What is better than starting a brand new year with raw fish 鱼生？

Raw fish = Yu Sang = symbol of abundance, prosperity and good fortune.

Happy New Year to you my fellow bloggers!!!

NB: I hope you like my sushi anyway =)