Farvel Danmark!

And that means, Goodbye Denmark. I don't know when I'll be next time I talk to you blog but I suspect still a bit far from sweet home Malaysia. Not too long though this time, not too long...

Who would've thought the six months of joy amidst trouble have quickly metamorphosed into distant memories. Sure, sure... we always knew the day would come. The day when you have to bid farewell to all the things you're familiar with and start anew just to gradually move closer to another goodbye. As usual, you instinctively think that you're not prepared for this again and again. That's why it's nice to have someone by your side to go through the path. It can get a little scary and heart-breaking. I could've done it alone, brave and strong I make myself to believe. But having your best friend to hold your hand and walk with you definitely helps big time.

Our landlady's eyes keep watering every time we mention anything related to our departure, even as banal as "Thank you for the corns but we already have so much food in the fridge to clear this week." She gave me a tiger eye necklace that I thought I was choosing for her when she asked for my thoughts in the Mons Klint gift store three weeks ago. Why do people always have to make it harder to leave? When Bri left three months ago, I was devastated and thought that it would be a loooong road ahead before my turn. And now here I am, babbling about the sorrow. How long is long enough anyway? 

I hate, hate, hate goodbyes. But like death and tax, it's one of the things you can be certain of in life. I'm just glad at least I have my best friend to share this with.

Alrighty, have to start packing and cleaning the house. I know our landlady is definitely going to cry but no amount of preparation can actually prepare me for that. I just have to keep in mind that I'll be seeing my little sister in no time after two long years. Heh, long...

Alone in the Village of Sleeping Beauties

It's 1.30 in the morning and I'm still wide awake even though I only had four continuous hours of sleep the previous night. The days are long and so it means I'm fasting from about 3 am until 9 pm. Now I'm waiting for the morning prayer before going to bed like what I did last night. My intention was to sleep until noon but I could no longer sleep after 7.30. It's the sun. It doesn't matter that the curtains are double-layered and shut tight, I can still sense the sunlight. Hubs thinks I'm secretly a vampire. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's just a myth that vampires burn in the sun or according to Twilight, glow. Maybe we're simply a little allergic to the bright, warm light.

And it baffles me how I still don't get even a bit tired. I feel like I can stay awake for the whole week. Then again, it may be due to the really sweet muesli I just had. Sugar does make people go hyper, doesn't it? I worked really hard today since morning so I should be exhausted a few hours ago. The thesis submission is due on Monday (yes, this Monday) and my academic supervisor has just given me his feedback on my draft that I sent over a month ago last Friday! To top it off, he's a very detailed person so he had thorough comments on almost every single page of my thesis. I also lost the rock-paper-scissors game to Rafiee so I had to do the laundry, sigh. But I suppose I could've corrected the draft sooner nonetheless if I hadn't been so caught up with the Q Cious Spa website. I'm helping with the webpage and I'm quite proud of it if I may say so myself. Have a look here!

Also, I've just finished watching another brilliant movie called The Whistleblower based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac about her courage in trying to expose the involvement of some United Nations peacekeepers in human trafficking in Bosnia. She was threatened by the big guns in the organisation and was even fired, but that didn't stop her. The revelation is no doubt very appalling but like I said, ignoring the truth doesn't make it go away.

Alright, one hour to go. What else can I do, hmm... 

Alive & Kicking

There are good news, bad news and really bad news. I obviously survived my longest solo presentation that lasted for 35 minutes. 11 people came including the head department and a number of experts in my field. They all loved it so that's the good news.

Bad news is that the head department is one critical man and he asked me LOTS of questions and some were even embedded in other questions! They were like little gremlins rolling towards me. I shot one only to see it multiplied with more ferocious energy. Oh the horror! Mon dieu! I was literally sweating while the other 10 people looked on, silently thanked their lucky stars they weren't in my shoes. But alas, it was over within an hour and I have one less thing to worry about. Now on to the corrections and writing the paper to be submitted to a journal publication.

The worst news has nothing to do with my presentation but everything to do with my state of joy. My old blog has been deleted! Completely and utterly kaput! This is all Friendster wrongdoing. Here comes the nostalgia. My old brain can't store everything so in a way, parts of my memories are gone. My fault for not keeping a copy somewhere else so lesson learned, though in a hard way.

On a different matter, a family member has recently launched a new beauty & slimming spa called Qcious Spa in Kuala Lumpur. The lovely website is still under construction but until then, you can find all the details on this page. They're having some promotions right now so why don't you take a look and see if you can get something out of it.

The day is fading, which means there are only 12 more days left before I leave Denmark. Time sure flies when you stop counting.

Freaking Out!

Okay, I knew all along I had to present my findings to the company but the reality has only recently set in. And I'm FREAKING OUT!

Unlike most normal people, I enjoy making and doing presentation. So although I've been doing this for years without breaking a sweat, it started to dawn on me when one of my supervisors put out a public invitation for my thesis presentation this Monday, that this is my first industrial presentation! All those presentations have been in front of academicians, students, friends or strangers sometimes. Giving a presentation to a bunch of professional consultants, engineers and managers may be a different thing.... or perhaps not? Well even if they are poles apart, there's always a first time for everything right? 

Okay, I just need to calm down. If you don't hear from me by next week, I've probably fallen into a coma due to stage fright, nothing serious.

A Drive to Remember

I dreamed of Nicolas Cage doing a new adventure movie (waiting for the third National Treasure over here!) and I woke up late with a pair of wobbly legs, feeling disoriented. That's what you usually get after a road trip and a hilly, bumpy hike.

I love road trips but only when the routes are new to me and somebody else is driving. The local food that you take your chances on, the antics you see on the road, the continuous slideshow on your window and the random stops for some fresh air. It has been a while since we were on the road in a car, last time was in Hungary where we drove in a sedan of strangers to hike a mountain near the border of Slovakia. So when our landlady offered us a drive to one of most beautiful places in Denmark, we said yes. Our destination was the limestone Cliffs of Møn in the island of Møn in the South-East of the country.

Travelling with a 65-year-old can actually be fun. We had a number of pit stops understandably, where we picked fresh peas and wheat and had bottles of homemade juices and warm herbal tea. We drove through a quaint town called Stege and into a forest where at one point in the rain with no other car in sight, I seriously thought we were lost until a glass building emerged out of nowhere which happened to be a museum. In the middle of a forest, go figure. 

Wheat fields, wind mills, rain, sun, white cliffs, forest, little towns, families in caravans, tattooed men driving big trucks, rich folks with yachts... it's a drive to remember.

One for the Books

Trying to finish writing a proper book that has a slight chance of being published demonstrated that proof-reading three times does not guarantee error / boredom-free. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. Alright, I naively thought it was like writing a blog but with more focus and length (also less whine). Not only you have to make sure each sentence is grammatically correct and complements the whole paragraph of which should complement the whole chapter, you have to confirm the facts and at the same time sound interesting. This is going to take longer than I anticipated, eight months may not be so realistic when I'm only doing it part-time. But well, if it's a process that I have to go through before that glimpse of light, then that's that.

Time for a break and eat some cookies. They have been serving pork as the main dish for many days now that I'm more starving after lunch than before. This growling tummy of mine with a mind of its own isn't helping with the writing.

Cooking Up a Storm

Being the eldest daughter and having a father who's picky about his food made me a mediocre cook. I had to help my Mama in the kitchen and sometimes stepped up to the plate whenever she went outstation. My Ayah is a really good cook but he's not fond of survival cooking. He's more of the AFC kind of fella, a gourmet. 

My husband, as lovable as he is now, was a terrible cook. He was raised in a house of testosterone with three other brothers and to top it off, my mother-in-law loves cooking more than I love cats. And that, is saying a lot. None of them had to cook at home.

We then got married and moved to the apartment to live on our own. His first attempt was surprisingly a success, if you could get past the raw bits of chicken. I cooked for fun once in a while but we mostly bought our meals because in Malaysia, it's cheaper to buy for two than to cook a proper meal.

Six months later, we moved to a foreign land where things are five times more expensive. We wanted to save for travel, so we both started to cook. At first it was more like cooking to survive, then gradually it progressed into cooking to enjoy and we try healthy cooking as much as possible such as using non-fat milk instead of coconut milk or stir-fry / grill / bake instead of deep-fry, etc.

With my classes and work, Rafiee has had a really good practice at culinary and this was especially proved during Eid last year. He made beef rendang, ayam masak merah (chicken in chilli sauce?) and sayur lodeh from scratch.

They were amazing, I didn't miss Malaysia at all in the presence of the cuisine. The funny part is we seldom cook together because we have our own system. Usually he waits for me to finish before he starts. The arrangement is vital in order to keep the peace in our household. Last weekend however, we collaborated on a stuffed roast chicken.

It's his favourite dish to make as it's so simple and yet tastes so good you want to lick all your fingers down to the plate. I'm not a big fan because I feel that only the skin tastes great, the chicken meat is well, chicken meat. He makes gravy most of the time but when I saw the big opening in the chicken, I suddenly felt like filling the void. And voila, I made stuffing!

The best part is it didn't take long. The marinating task probably takes 10 minutes then you just leave it. The stuffing takes another 10 minutes. Then you just stuff it in. I made my own bread crumbs then mixed them with chicken broth, butter, milk, herbs & spices, spring onion, mushrooms, fresh parsley, salt, pepper and finally a beaten egg. You can have so many variations! Next time I'll put chillies and garlic.

Over the years, we keep updating our mothers how we fare with cooking. I think they may be expecting some demonstrations when we get home. That's quite nerve-wracking. We never tried cooking under pressure so that may be a problem. Well, I guess we just have to keep experimenting then... hmm, that's not necessarily a bad thing.