kitchen adventures

While staying in SF I had access to a real kitchen.  And that was a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a long time… this meant there were some adventures of a culinary variety.  I knew I missed cooking, but I hadn’t realized just how much I missed it.

Some of the SF kitchen adventures were successful, and others were, well, not quite as successful.

Tofu l’Orange.  Sort of.  And yes I am aware that the creator of Duck a l’orange is probably horrified that someone made a recipe with tofu.  We had extra “stuffing” that we just piled on top of the tofu pieces.  Result: Not bad, but I probably wouldn’t make it again as the amount of effort required was not justified in the final product.

Next up.

Veggie Barbeque.  I didn’t make my signature squash with brown sugar and butter, but the results were still pretty good.  Pineapple Slices – I’d rather eat pineapple raw.  Eggplant (aubergine), zucchini and asparagus marinated in an herby-garlicky vinegar marinade – These were pretty good, definitely something to do again.  Somewhere there was also some tofu, though that was less of a success than anything else. 

I can’t give many more details on the veggies because the recipe went something like this…

Open refrigerator.  Add random ingredients to ziplock bag.  This included some soy sauce, some minced garlic, some chili peppers, and a few other things.  Throw in a bunch of herbs and some red-wine vinegar.  Add whatever vegetables we had.  Marinate for a couple hours.  Then grill.  It was far from being a precise science.

And now?

Unfortunately, I’m back to not having great cooking facilities for the next year.  I’ll see what I can do though, but my expectations are not high, since the stovetop I share with 11 other people (yes, you read that correctly) seems to only have two settings – off and burn everything.  Kitchen adventures may soon become more challenging!

big changes

This blog is getting dusty.  Bad me.

Especially given the number of places I’ve “lived” since my last entry.

Clearly that means I left Hong Kong in one piece.

After HK, I went camping in MI.  I’m still freaked out a bit by a lake that has waves…

Shortly after the camping trip, I headed to SF…

And now?

I’m in London.  On leave of absence from work.  Trying to get a handle on the workload (reading list) for an MSc degree.

uhh, right

Clearly I suck at keeping a blog.  My life is just not interesting enough… or I just don’t have the discipline to post regularly.  I’m hoping it is the latter, though I suspect the former might just be a factor.

Anyway… I’ve been in HK for a little under 4 weeks now.  Long enough to make a day trip to Macau (for a team-building work thing which involved go-karts, a long lunch and a casino) and a weekend trip to Bangkok (which involved a lot of Buddhas, as well as some heat and humidity).

Despite the heat and humidity in Bangkok and having a travel companion with food poisoning (not contracted in Bangkok), I had a great time there.  I wish I had more than a weekend to spend in Thailand, but I’ll take what I can get.

Though the entire weekend was good, this sign from the public transit system might have been the most amusing bit of the trip…

where to start?

I don’t know where to start… maybe with geography…

I left Down Under about a month ago.  Came “home” for a few days, then left for vacation.

After vacation, I came back “home” for a few more days.  And now I’m off to another continent for work.  At one point there were 4 continents in the running for where I would be next for work.  In the end, Hong Kong won.  Yes, I know that Hong Kong is not a continent.  I’m oddly amused that I’m headed to HK for work after my vacation there earlier this year.  At least I won’t be totally lost on the public transit system!

elevator etiquette

So my blog has been rather quiet lately. Sorry.

I was in an elevator recently and realized that there is a piece of etiquette on which I am poorly informed. Say you enter a rather crowded elevator and find a spot to stand. A few floors before your floor, all but one person exits the elevator. The one person left happens to be the one you were standing closest to. In an empty elevator, it becomes quickly obvious how close to this person you are standing.

Do you

a) stand still and wait for your floor (sort of invading personal space) or

b) step away from the person (making it seem like you couldn’t stand to be close to a stranger for one more second)?

Both seem weird.

What’s the right answer? Anyone?

home from vacation

Back to reality. But with a changed perspective.

Vacation is lovely. Certainly something I should do more often.

vacation

I’m sort of, almost, technically on vacation!!!  WooHoo!  I haven’t taken a real vacation in more than a year.

Hong Kong… here I come!!!

happiness, pt 26

Happiness is…

~ being content with the last year
~ being excited about the new adventures that come with the new year
~ knowing that I have so many wonderful things in my life to be happy about
~ ending 2007 knowing that I have learned, laughed, and loved a lot, but knowing that there is still more to come

Happy New Year!!!

One advantage to living in Australia is being 19 hours ahead of California.

Which means I’m just about to leave for a NYE party at a friend’s house.

Happy New Year!

2007 was a year of adventure.  Planned and unplanned.
2007 was a year of making new friends and missing old friends I don’t see often enough.
2007 was a year of learning about myself.
2007 was a year of exploring new places and learning the importance of having someplace to call home.

I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything, but I’m excited to see what 2008 will bring.

Farewell to 2007 and welcome to 2008!

Single.  Again.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I miss Thanksgiving more than I thought I would… very odd.  I don’t eat turkey.  I don’t particularly like cranberry sauce (though cranberries in other forms are scrumptious)… but living in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving has made me realize that I do miss  Thanksgiving a bit.  Funny how that works.

happiness, pt 25

Happiness is…

~ finally accomplishing a long time goal (living overseas in a country of my own choosing)
~ visiting a new city and falling in love with it, but knowing that the relationship is best from a distance
~ friends visiting from home
~ missing someone and knowing that I am also missed

radioactive oven?

I learned how to use an oven many, many years ago.  But I’m stumped by the oven in my new apartment.

I see an option for PacMan, various forms of radioactivity, and snow.

Umm… I just want to cook, not be responsible for nuclear fallout!

happiness, pt 24

Happiness is…

~ sitting on the beach at night with a good friend
~ catching up with friends
~ making a dinner at home
~ the hope that I can correct a mistake

brekkie

Tim Tam Slam (also known as my breakfast today)

On a slightly healthier note… Golden Kiwi.  Yummy!

44!

44? You ask.

The number of dinner plates in my corporate apartment. 8 salad plates, 11 wine glasses and 44 dinner plates.

That don’t fit in the dish washer.

I am amused.

8 days of Sydney

Sydney. I’ve been here for a week and a day. Most of the time this just feels like another city I’m staying in for a project. And that someday soon, I’ll return “home” to try to recoup some semblance of a personal life in 48 hours. But the reality is that this is home.

Here. Now. Sydney. Home.

Perhaps the corporate apartment (which is fantastic) is not helping me feel at home. Perhaps I’m not as recovered from jet-lag as I think I am. Perhaps I haven’t felt like I’ve had a home for so long that I don’t remember how to have a home.

Australia has been great. Friendly people. Cute accents. Good food. No, incredibly amazing food.

And, Sydney put on a fireworks show. Just in time to celebrate my arrival. Or APEC. Whichever.

That’s the view from my balcony. Nice, huh?

Before leaving for Australia, I went back to California. Saw family. Saw friends. Saw that side of the Pacific Ocean. Saw the familiar with a new perspective.

And now is time for the new. Which will one day become the familiar.

Life certainly is an adventure and full of surprises!

unanswered question of the week

Will my compass (one of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received) work properly in the Southern Hemisphere?

These are the questions that keep me up at night. OK, not really, but I am curious.

Down Under

I am headed to Australia. For at least 6 months. I leave in just over 3 days.

Still. So. Much. To. Do.

I’m excited. And overwhelmed. And ready to be done with the stateside logistics. But not necessarily ready to say goodbye to everyone and everything I know.

The best part of this news… no winter!

winter

It seems that I spoke too soon.  I will be experiencing winter this year.  In more ways than one.  Yuck.