Pizza Lunch and Casserole

BY THE TIME I GOT HOME this morning SM had already got the pizza dough done and I didn't get a chance to try making it ..... In any case I got to making the pizza before it was baked.

Ingredients:

- Apply generous amount of tomato paste to the pizza base.
- Put some mushroom and sliced fresh tomato pieces on the pizza base. Add chopped garlic.
- Next put some sliced ham. I used ham off the bone in thin slices.
- Then add generous amount of mozzarella cheese and then the pizzas are ready to be baked in high heat (220 C) in the oven for 10 minutes or when the cheese melts and the base is crusty.
- Add some sliced olives for taste
- Add fresh parsley when ready to serve

Next time when we make the pizzas we will add chorizo sausage slices and picked chili to make the pizza more exotic. We should also use buffalo mozzarella instead of mozzarella cheese.

I will ask SM to make the bases thinner.

Here's another dish I cooked yesterday:- Chorizo sausages Casserole in crushed tomato with bacon slices, garden peas, red onions, and free-range chicken.

Very wintry, hearty dish. Served as a casserole or soup. Good for winter dinner. Chorizos are available from local delis. I bought a pair of 300g chorizos at about $7.

Chorizo sausages Casserole

Happy Go Lucky

TALI'S AN EX-CLASS MATE OF MINE and we were friends since the early 70's. That's a long time. Tali's the first amongst us who became a grandfather; and this was an incredible feat. No matter what happens no one can take that away from him.

Throughout his youth Tali's been a happy-go-lucky sort of person, he was always playful but not over board. He always adopted an attitude that things would work out in the end. Sure enough things did work out for him in life. A beautiful family, kids that adore him, home in Ipoh, friends around him, a business he's re-building. If ever one wants a can-do person one will find it in Tali.

Tali's Blog will be one of self-discovery and I hope he finds joy in writing his diary and finds solace and fulfillment in it. I hope he writes something about his school life so I can re-live some of the past. I still remember he was amongst the first to ride a motor bike to school whilst we were biking, and he was an active member of the school brass band, an able trombonist(?). He also busied himself with his red crescent activities, so pretty much an all-rounder.

Tali and me in the front row

Tali and us have found the first 50 years of our lives rolled by pretty quickly. A life as in anyone else, is filled with all the bitter sweet moments..... No one can guarantee what will happen in the next 5 days let alone the next 50 years but Tali's attitude is come what may, I will be happy!

To this end I wish Tali all the good luck he needs, knowing that good luck is created by people who are willing to work for it. I sincerely hope one day in the near future that Tali will be able to fulfill his dream of having a happy place open to all his friends to meet and have a relaxed time with a welcome drink! I know I will be there.

YOU RAISE ME UP

When you are lonely, sad, heart-broken, disappointed, down; play this song by Westlife and your spirits will be lifted and you shall be energized again!
When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up...
To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up...
To more than I can be.

There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up...
To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up...
To more than I can be.

You raise me up...
To more than I can be.

Dinner At Darren's

Young Derrick

TONIGHT WE GOT INVITED by Darren, again, for dinner. Linda cooked the main dish Ayam Merah and Emilie her daughter prepared some sticky date pudding. And we decided to bring wine and 一品窝. This is a dish commonly eaten by Malaysians and is also known as 菜脚 or 酸菜. A friend of mine (Tali) who saw the photo of the dish I emailed him, said he was hungry after seeing it and suggested to me to list the recipe. Here it is:

芥菜 vegetable - 2 large bunches, good for 6 to 8 people
Garlic - 4 bulbs, smashed
Dried chilies - 10 to 15 pieces, to taste
Dried Assam - 5 to 8 pieces, to taste
Fish sauce - quantity to taste
Roast Duck - 5 to 10 pieces, to taste
Sardine with in tomato sauce - 1 can 425g
Champignon mushrooms - 1 can 425g
Dried Chinese mushrooms - 8 to 10 pieces, sliced in halves and soaked in hot water for 20 minutes

- Pour 2 liters of hot water into a stockpot. Bring the water to boil.
- Placed the vegetable which has been cut into large generous portions into the stockpot
- Add garlic, dried chilies, dried assam, roast duck pieces, mushrooms and sardine into the pot
- Add fish sauce to taste
- Let the contents cook under simmering fire for 2 hours

Voila!

If you like you can vary the recipe by adding some fresh prawns or fish balls and they will certainly add flavors to the dish. It is best eaten steaming hot. A good wine to go with the dish is Moscato or any other fruity wine.

After dinner we sampled sticky date pudding and ice cream baked by Emilie. Yum. She is quite talented I must say. She has no prior baking experience except from school. She got the recipe from "Masterchef" and learn to bake it by watching the tv program!

If you are interested to know more about this visit MASTERCHEF.

菜脚 or 酸菜 being cooked at home

Ayam Merah, 虾碌， cucumber and boiled eggs, 一品窝 (菜脚)

Peanut butter cookies made by SM. Yum. Good with hot coffee as snacks.

Nice sesame buns and bread baked by SM. Put these in the microwave oven for 20 sec they become soft and nice to eat with margarine and home-made jam

50 Life Lessons

Regina Brett, aged 50, is a columnist for The Plain Dealer in
Cleveland, Ohio. Her column runs on Sunday, Wednesday
and Friday.

Recently, Regina was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She was also a finalist in the same category in 2008. In addition, she recently received the Liberty Bell Award from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association in June and the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association later this summer, both for her efforts to bring Open Discovery to Ohio. You can read more about Regina and all of these awards here. You can check out her most recent columns as well as a limited archive of older columns, including her most requested columns, columns about issues most important to Regina, as well as the columns submitted for the Pulitzer Prize. 50 Life Lessons The single most popular column ever written by Regina was "50 Life Lessons," written for The Plain Dealer when she turned 50 years old in 2006. So, despite what you may have read on the internet, Regina is NOT 90 years old !! You can read the original column here (and a recent column by Regina about the "internet aging process" here). You'll get to read more about the "lessons" in April of 2010 when Grand Central Publishing releases her book, "God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours." Please watch this space for more information. Regina recently gave the keynote address for the Northcoast 99 Award ceremony. You can see that speech here. She was also featured on Oprah & Friends Radio with Dr. Oz. For over 7 years, Regina was a columnist at The Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio. During that time, Regina was diagnosed and successfully treated for breast cancer. Regina wrote 15 columns about her experience that were printed in the pages of The Beacon Journal. Unfortunately, those columns are not currently available on the internet, but we are working to change that. For those of you with access to Nexis, you will find those columns there. You can also find those columns at www.ohio.com for a fee. Need a copy of one of Regina's columns and you just can't find it on the web? Sometimes, the library at The Plain Dealer can help. You can contact them at library@plaind.com. To contact Regina, you can send email to her at rbrett@plaind.com. To leave a voicemail for Regina, please call 216-999-6328.

Regina Brett’s 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here’s an update:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

49 and over it .....

49 soon .....

17885 days or thereabouts .....

There won't be another 49 years .....

THERE ARE A LOT OF REFLECTIONS of late, of things in life, of family and friends, of achievements and of failures, of opportunities and losses. Contemplation is a good thing. It puts things in perspective, doesn't it? No matter what we do and say at the end of the day we contemplate and review the laws that govern us and how we have matched up to their limits and standards. Humanity is such a frail thing that we have nothing to hang on to unless we have an eternal being that we love and believe?




And yet life is a journey. It is an interesting journey. What we do on this journey become the diary of our lives.... As in all journeys we have bitter and sweet moments. As adults we are knowingly and unknowingly pigeon-holed and classified by others all the time as to how our journey has been taken.

" How many children you have? "

" What do you do for a living? "

" How car do you drive? Where do you live? "

" What are your greatest achievements in life? "

Answers to these types of questions tend to define who we are and what we have.

The fact of the matter is these are important aspects to our lives. Our family, our children and grandchildren, what work we do, our material possessions in life and our legacies. But I am afraid some people tend to put more emphasis on these than necessary to make life journey an enriching one.

Yes having a loving family is an obvious top priority in our lives; so are the kind of work we do , are we well looked after in our later stages of life and do we feel fulfilled.

I envy those who can honestly say they are less important than other things in life. I truly do. I think they have a much higher perspective of life than I do. Yet again I have come to realize life is a balance, isn't it? It's good to have a good life just that what is good and what is not so good should not define us by some common societal expectations.
I don't have children yet I am happy that my family is relatively a happy one. It is characterized by a lot of laughter, sharing meals together and having meaningful conversations. Could I have a deeper relationship with my family? Sure I can. What about my friends?

I don't have many material possessions in life yet I am much more fortunate than those who are less well-off and are suffering than I. Could I have more physical possessions? Should I have them? Or why don't I share my possessions with those less well off?

Which brings me to what I have been contemplating lately .....

Should I be living as I have been as an adult as before or should I feel compelled to adopt some meaningful and personal changes? Will these changes create a positive outlook in my life? What would I look for in the life changes?

The answers I am tending towards are no and yes.

We spend a great part of our adult lives making wealth, as for me, some 23 years. in all Many go on to work for 10-15 more years. Some never stop working because they enjoy their career and work and some just have to. I am tending to understand this a little bit more nowadays and think that some lucky ones enjoy a balance of work that satisfy them, more so than others.


Out of the 23 years that I have been in full time employment I have always been challenged and loved a challenge. I have climbed to the epitome of my career in the corporate world, achieving accolades and results many would envy. I have been there and done that. And yet one day when I was 45 I knew the work I was doing to make a living in the corporate world would come to an end soon because I felt for the first time that I was only going to work for the money.

It became obvious for me when I began asking myself what I was really doing waiting for too many a flight at an airport to return home after yet another meaningless business trip. When I would doodle in my office thinking of other activities I would rather be in than stay in a job When I dreaded getting up in the morning and pretending that work was interesting. When I knew many around me were faking it in their quests for better positions and outcomes in the corporate world. I knew for a number of years over that period of time that I needed to do something else rather than being in a job. I was over it. Maybe it would have to be work that I rather enjoy doing, for less money. Maybe I needed to take some time off a regular job. Maybe I would rather not work all together and direct my energies to some other areas of interest. For a number of years, it was a constant struggle of staying in the corporate world and wanting out .....

I guess the test of the pudding is should we know our lives would end in 12 months what would we do differently with the time we have left? The answer would reveal our life priorities.

Then the inevitable happened. The job that I dreaded but provided relative calm and stability to a working man's life; ceased. It's been 15 months since I left that job and a full time employment. Apart from some moments of anxiety related to having to cope with financial commitments I have been much happier as a person on his finite journey .....

I am contemplative. I do not know yet what I want to "do" and "what I will become" but I am more conscious than ever that I am on a life journey and that for once, I can dictate which fork on the road I should go on; and I am allowed to back track if I find I do not want to go on farther than on that track.

I am beginning to realize the power of choice. And that choices define who we are and how we live our lives. Bad and good.

I am more and more hopeful that I shall live life for the next 23 years more fully than I had in the past 23 as a working adult. I do not regret a great deal about the past 23; I am more hopeful I shall not regret having lived it as I sojourn on .....

I guess the significance of the last 15 months for me is that it inspired me to think, and to rethink, every now and then, what exactly is the point of this life. What's worth investing in, putting energy into, cherishing, and re-living again and again? What when we die, would we like to look back on? It is very much a philosophical as well as a realistic mindset.

As in all life journeys I contemplate because I do not have the perfect answers. Yet again I know that for all my wants and needs in the rest of my journey I would be bright-eyed and unafraid of changes that would come my way.....

Butterfly Pink

TODAY'S THE BIRTHDAY OF AN OLD FRIEND of mine. She rang to say hello, out of the blue. Still the familiar voices and laughter. It brought back some memories to me .... good ones. In life we need good memories, the good old days of friendships that we cherish; no matter how far we are apart and how long we have not seen each other. We live for today, no doubt, but we create memories and things that last, forever .....

Happy Birthday Butterfly Pink!

Lunch At Vermont South

WE DECIDED TO HAVE LUNCH WITH FAMILY @ our Vermont South home. SM is responsible for cooking the roast chicken, pickled vegetables (acar), stir fried zucchini with dried shrimps and 东粉 and chiffon cake. I am responsible for cooking the "rice wine" chicken dish (鸡酒)。

Acar, pickled mini carrots, pineapple, onion and sliced red chilli

"Rice Wine" Chicken

Stir fried zuchini with dried shrimps and 东粉

Home made curry puffs

The kids enjoy the beautiful juicy free range roast chicken and potatos

The preparation for the 鸡酒 dish involves cooking sliced young ginger in olive oil for 1-2 minute. Fry 8 eggs with the ginger and set aside.

Then fry more ginger slices in olive oil and cook with the chicken pieces. I use 2 whole free range chicken from Lilydale cut into pieces. Then add some hot water to boil the chicken pieces in the broth for about 5-8 minutes or until almost cooked. Add in a generous amount of Stone's Ginger Wine (available from Dan Murphy's at $8.99 a bottle) to taste and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Do not over-cook the chicken or else the meat will be tough to eat. Since we don't have rice wine I use the ginger wine as a replacement ingredient. Finally lay the fried eggs on top of the chicken broth and pour the remaining broth over it. Then serve hot.

The "rice wine" chicken dish is a fantastic winter dish. All agree. In the end all the food is finished!

Hard at work on the Sunday puzzles

Reading a book after a big meal

Asbach Brandy - smooth, non-intrusive, gut-warming
JW Blue Label - aromatic, sharp and extra-smooth
Morris Muscat - aromatic, sweet, woody

Tea and coffee is served. We have curry puffs and chiffon cake for dessert. We also have on this occasion Asbach Brandy (German brandy), Johnny Walker Blue Label Whiskey (very rare whiskey) and Morris Muscat dessert wine (sweet after meal wine, $14.99 at Dan Murphy's). The alcohol is most welcome as we do enjoy a bit of a drink in the winter. It helps with keeping warm, and some say with food digestion and settle the stomach.....

The group says we will meet again next month to celebrate mom's and my birthday.

New Wheels

I TOOK DELIVERY OF my Toyota Aurion from Cannon Toyota today.

Movida

Today Darren, Linda, Emilie, SM and I went for lunch at Movida Spanish Restaurant in the city on my recommendation. Movida is a 2 chef hats restaurant. Arriving at the restaurant at noon we promptly placed our orders for some tapas and racions. We had the following tapas: Fried silky croquette flavoured with leek and mahon cheese, Hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet, and Baby leek wrapped in brik pastry served with a chicken liver parfait.

For racions we had the char grilled lamb, beef waghu and paella.

What a wonderful lunch! And thanks Darren! Every agreed the paella was the best dish out of the day's show but the lamb, the croquette and liver parfait also were high on our list!

We adjourned to Crown Casino and made our way for latte, cappuccino with baked cheese cake at Greco European Grill at South Bank. What a relaxing way to finish the afternoon with some nice company, great coffee and sweets!

A couple of weeks ago we were invited out to the Lows for a dinner of crabs ala Fatty Crabs style, fresh steamed prawns, 四季斗， and fried rice at their Vermont South home. We got to know their have sold their home and will be handing over the property to the new owners in mid July. They are moving to a St Kilda Road apartment to be closer to the city and to enjoy the conveniences of a city dwelling! The Lows are heading back to Asia for a few years but will continue their association with Melbourne no doubt. We are going to miss them.....

QNH setting

QNH is the atm pressure at S.L. (Question Nil Height - what is the atm pressure at nil height i.e. sea level)

1) Set QNH as the reference pressure - altimeter reads height above sea level. E.g. QNH of the day is 1022. We set 1022 in the subscale then the altimeter will read the height of the aircraft above the sea. This is called ALTITUDE.

QFE is the atm pressure at a particular field. FE is Field Elevation.

2) Set QFE then the altimeter will read the height above the field. How do we do that? If the hands of the altimeter are forced to read ZERO while the aeroplane is on the ground the reference pressure will be QFE and the altimeter will read height above the field. This is zero as the a/c is on the ground.

3) If the QNH is again set while the a/c is on the ground at this field the altimeter will once again read the height above the sea. In this case it is called ELEVATION.

Refuelling Aircraft, Seat Belts And Cargo

REFUELING CAO 20.9

1. A/c and ground refuelling equipment shall be:

- 5 m from sealed building
- 6 m from a/c
- 15 m from exposed public area
- unsealed building - 15m if MTOW more than 5700 Kg, 9m if less than 5700 Kg

2. If fuelling equipment is mobile, then it shall be so placed that it can be moved rapidly in the event of a fire. If the fuelling equipment is NOT mobile then the a/c shall be placed that it can be moved away rapidly.

3. No persons on board allowed during fuelling.

4. All engines stop and ignition switches in the "OFF" position.

5. No maintenance work done to the radar, radio, electrical and electronic systems.

6. The a/c and fuelling equipment must be connected to the same electrical potential. If an earth point is available then the a/c and fuelling equipment are connected to it.

7. Footwear worn must be of non-sparking type. No matches, cigarette lighters carried.

8. No smoking or naked fire within 15m.

9. At least 2 fire extinguishers must be positioned between 6m to 15m of the a/c and fuelling equipment or carried on the fuelling equipment.


SEAT BELTS CAO 20.16.3

1. Each crew and each passenger should wear a safety harness or seat belt during take off and landing, in turbulent conditions and when the a/c is flying at a height less than 1000 Ft above the terrain and during an instrument approach.

CARGO CAO 20.16.2

1. All cargo stowed shall be restrained to prevent any article from moving under the max accelerations to be expected in flight, in a heavy landing and in a ground loop.

2. Cargo cannot be carried in any place where it may damage, obstruct or cause failure of flight controls, electrical wiring, pipe lines, and essential a/c equipment.

3. Cargo may be carried on a pax seat if the weight is evenly distributed and is less than 77 Kg.

4. Cargo may be carried on an unoccupied control seat if the MTOW is less than 5700 Kg, it weighs less than 77 Kg, and the cargo or means of restraint does not interfere with flight controls.