Happy Birthday. Now I am known as elderly

Happy Birthday to me.  Time flies and 39 years of my life is history.

And after today, I will be automatically be included in the national health care insurance know as Eldershield.  An insurance health care scheme for the elderly.  Even though I am matured, but "elderly", I think that is still a long way off and I am still working!!!

This year lots of things happen at work.  Phase 2 of my project was launch after a lot of troubleshooting and solving issues.  My manager and team lead resigned and I am facing the project alone.  Next year will be another round for phase 3 (sign...).  I am supposed to take up another project, but no action was taken from the management and as usual when they can't make a decision, they keep quiet until one day, they will ask me the same question "What is the status now?" and I give them the usual answer "What is the company's plan for this?". In the meantime, I am being dumped with other small projects that is not in my job scope, which means it will not be reflected in my appraisal.  So much for appraisal system.

The personal aspect this year was quite rewarding.  I have got a wonderful nephew who I have to babysit during the sundays.  He is a fun baby but bad-tempered and demanding at times.  I went Free & Easy to Japan, touring Osaka, Beipu, Yufuin and Kyushu region before joining my orchestra for a performance at Kagoshima.  It was a feat to F & E in Japan as most of the population don't really speak English.  I picked up some Japanese, "Arigato", "Simimasei", "yi-ko", "ni-ko", "san-ko".  That's all I know.

New year is coming, hopefully it will be better at the workplace for me in the new year.  I am 40 years old today, I am now known as "elderly" so I will be a happy elder.  :-)

 

SMART Goals

Attended a training on setting SMART goals today.  It is a useful lesson, teaching me how to set goals and how to ensure that the goals are aligned with my department and company goals.  These goals ultimately will be used as my KPI.  In short, my yearly performance will be based on the goals set and whether these goals have been achieved.

So what does SMART stands for then.
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Realistic
T - Time-bound

When I think back on my personal goals through the years, they have been generic ones.  There is no time frame given, no specific target to achieve.  Reason being I don't want to stress myself to complete a target, not when I want to enjoy the process of acquiring the target.  However, without being SMART, these goals keep moving year after year, and they are still goals, which in the later years become hopes.

Now that I have learn about SMART Goals, I will relook at setting my goals/hopes such that they are specific, realistic and attainable.  Also, have a time frame which I can achieve these goals.  If not, set the scope of the goal so that I know how much more for me to go on.

It is now August, nearly 3/4 of the year has passed.  I have not set any goals/hopes this year and I still don't know I should continue last year's hopes. 

So my SMART goal for now is: -
I will think about 2 personal goals by end of October, ie 1 in September and 1 in October.

How does that sound?  Set something that look SMART but actually is not so SMART.  ^_^

Meat dumpling (肉粽)

Ingredients: -
1. Leaves to wrap the bak zhang. (use the leftover from kee zhang)
2. Pork with a little bit of fat. (I prefer five flower meat-五花肉, but you can also use 三层肉)
3. Glutinous rice (1.5kg left over from kee zhang)
4. Chestnuts, shrimp, garlic (lots of garlic so that the rice will taste nicer)
5. Spice (五香粉) for all the frying of pork, chestnuts, shrimp and rice
6. String (not edible, it is for tying the bak zhang)

Preparation: -
1. Wash the leaves. Need to wash thoroughly because the leaves are very dirty. Then soak the leaves with boiling water. Remember to turn the leaves at least once.
2. Soak the rice for at least 6 hours. Then drain the rice. Make sure the rice is dry.
3. Season the pork and leave them overnight in the fridge
4. If you are using dry chestnuts, you will need to soak the chestnuts in boiling water and clean the chestnuts. Then leave the chestnuts overnight.
5. Cut the string about 1.4m length or stretch arms as a rough guide. Tie a loop. There will be 4 dangling strings. Split each string into 4 parts. Each loop will be able to tie 8 bak zhang.

The real work: -
1. Cut and dice the garlic until it is very fine. You can use a dicer to do it. Need about 2 gloves.
2. Fry the chestnuts and leave them aside
3. Fry the shrimp and leave them aside
4. Fry the pork and leave them aside, make sure there are a lot of oil and gravy because these will be use to loosen the rice during wrapping.
5. Fry the garlic and rice and leave them aside, remember to put in some salt. Be generous with the cooking oil, otherwise the rice will stick to the wok.
6. Wrap the rice with the leaves. Put in the ingredients (pork, chestnuts, shrimp)
7. Halfway through the wrapping, start boiling a pot of water.
8. Once the wrapping is done, put the bak zhang into the pot of boiling water. Boil for 15 mins, transfer the bak zhang and the hot water into the thermal pot.
9. Let the bak zhang steam in the thermal pot for 60 mins. Transfer the bak zhang and water to the normal pot and boil for 10 mins. Then transfer the boiling bak zhang back to the thermal pot.
10. Let the bak zhang steam for another half hour.
11. Take out the bak zhang and let it drip dry. Once it is cool, it is ready for serving.

Note: -
If you are not using a thermal pot, you can boil on fire for 45-60mins. Turn the bak zhang around 25-30mins.

Alkaline dumpling (碱水粽)

Ingredients: -
1. Leaves to wrap the kee zhang. (I normally buy 1 packet from Sheng Siong)
2. Alkaline rock (a little bit will do, otherwise the kee zhang will be very bitter)
3. Glutinous rice (1.5 Kg can make about 28 kee zhang. You can buy 2.5kg pack and use the rest for bak zhang)
4. Red bean paste (if you want some flavour, I prefer it plain with icing sugar)
5. String (not edible, it is for tying the kee zhang)

Preparation: -
1. Wash the leaves. Need to wash thoroughly because the leaves are very dirty. Then soak the leaves with boiling water. Remember to turn the leaves at least once.
2. Soak the rice for at least 12 hours. Then drain the rice. Make sure the rice is dry.
3. Cut the string about 1.4m length or stretch arms as a rough guide. Tie a loop. There will be 4 dangling strings. Split each string into 4 parts. Each loop will be able to tie 8 kee zhang.

The real work: -
1. Crush the alkaline rock. Make sure they are very fine and powdery. Add some warm water to the alkaline and stir.
2. Pour the alkaline into the rice and mix thoroughly. The colour of the rice should be slightly yellowish. Don't add too much alkaline until it turn very yellow, it will be very bitter.
3. Wrap the rice with the leaves.
4. Halfway through the wrapping, start boiling a pot of water.
5. Once the wrapping is done, put the kee zhang into the pot of boiling water. Boil for 30 mins, transfer the kee zhang and the hot water into the thermal pot.
6. Let the kee zhang steam in the thermal pot for 75 mins - 90 mins. Shift the position of the kee zhang every 45 mins.
7. Transfer the kee zhang and water to the normal pot and boil for 10 mins. Then transfer the boiling kee zhang back to the thermal pot.
8. Let the kee zhang steam for another 2 hour.
9. Take out the kee zhang and let it drip dry. Once it is cool, it is ready for serving.

端午节 – 包粽子

我以为会轻松自在，其实不然。包粽子是需要很多功夫和时间。虽然很累但却很满足、很有成就感。:-)

已经是第二年自己包粽子，但还是会记不起一些过程。我想我应该把步骤记在博客里，方便以后参考。

给我时间先整理一下吧。

现在让你们流一下口水，我包的粽子。不过得先谢谢我姑姑，是她的猪肉让我的粽子如此好吃。


碱水粽



肉粽



端午节

要来了！！！ 今年会像去年一样，自己裹粽子。已有棕叶，只剩下买糯米、香菇、猪肉等材料。

9日开始裹碱水粽 (alkaline dumpling)。11日裹肉粽。12日拜拜祖先和吃粽子。

日子本来就应该这样轻松自在。

:)

Shifting office

I am going to shift office. Yes, from basement level to level 3. People may have thought that it is a big jump in level (upgrade?), nah for you info it is not.

I was originally seated in a U-shape cubicle. When the office was temporary shifted to basement, it became a L-shape open desk. Now that we are shifting to our final location, it become a l-shape hot desk.

It is such a pitiful space. I am wondering how am I going to squeeze all my files and document in the l-shape desk.

Not only that, the partition are low and everyone can see what is on your screen when they stand up. It was such as bad bad design for a software developer who needs to concentrate.

There are also insufficient cabinet/cupboards to store all our project files, documents and softwares. I have got 2 big boxes of my personal files and 5 big boxes of project files. During the shift, I think I will just continue to dump them on the floor like what I am doing in the basement office. There is NO SPACE to put them at all!!!

Oh yah, another crap everyone will now start asking me "where is who and who seating?", because I am seated in the first desk from the main door, so now I have an additional role of becoming the office receptionist.

I really need to be creative and think of ways to squeeze my barang barang and oh yes, make everyone self service for whoever they are looking for!!!

But the office design is really crap!!!

Chicken curry ... mmmm

Last sunday, I decided that I would like to cook curry for dinner.  Yeah, chicken curry. 

So my sister and I went to NTUC to buy chicken wings, drumsticks, coconut milk, curry leaves and lemongrass.  The curry paste was bought quite some time ago.

We spent time figuring out the steps to cook and finally this is what we did.

1. Fry the garlic and onion until there is a nice smell coming out of the pot.  You will need quite a bit of oil.
2. Put in the curry paste and fry.
3. Pour in the coconut milk and water.
4. When the gravy starts to boil, add in the chicken wings, drumsticks and potatoes.
5. When the whole pot boils, turn down the fire.
6. Simmer until the chicken is cooked.  You can use a chopstick to poke through the chicken, if it went through it means the chicken is cook.  And also check that the pototes are soft.

THAT IS IT!!!  Scope a bowl of rice and pour the chicken curry into it and it is a nice dinner.

Oh ya, you will need to marinate the chicken wings and drumsticks with sugar, sesame oil and pepper first.  Buy the NTUC brand coconut milk (200ml) and for water you will need 300ml to 400ml, depending how thick you want the curry to be.

Sorry, forgot to take pictures as it smells so nice that everybody started eating immediately.

One of my achievement ... :)

新年快乐！！！

又到了农历新年的时候。经过5天的吃喝玩乐，明天就要开工了。

想起来还有点“累”。新年前的大扫除、新年时的拜年活动、新年后到寺庙补运。总觉得每天都在忙，休息不够。

就这样，一年就过去了。真是时间不饶人，很快的下一个新年又要来。我想我应该好好珍惜家人、做自己想要做的事、不要顾虑太多，毕竟今天不知明天事。

好了，这里就祝自己和大家：

身体健康
万事如意
工作顺利

下个 blog entry 见!!!

Beginnings of new year ... and house cleaning

Another new year has begun.

The thing about new year is that the lunar new year will just be around the corner, and you will be busy cleaning up the house and throwing old stuffs away until you forgot or too tired to celebrate the NEW YEAR.

Yesterday was my Chinese Birthday and as usual I nua the whole day watching dramas. Well, birthday mah, should not work too hard.  Today, it rain and still raining. I doubt it will stop soon, looks like 长命雨 to me!!!

Anyway, since it's the beginning of the new year, it is time I sit down and relook at the events that happen last year and maybe make some plans for the new year.

Here goes.

Last year, my hopes were listed
1. Learn to use my new toy, HappyCall Pan.
2. Buy my own house.
3. Buy a scooter/bicycle to commute.
4. Complete my company website revamp project. Learn Sharepoint.
5. Grade 9 Erhu exam.
6. Pick up pop piano.

Of the 6, I managed to fulfil 3 1/2, not bad.  I bought a scooter (Vespa, codename Warrior) and now it become my main transport for work. I cooked with my HappyCall until now it looks like a wornout pan even though I did not cook very frequently. My company website project was completed, but I am still learning Sharepoint. Surprisingly, I passed my Grade 9 Erhu exam even though it is not in the priority list.

Besides the list, I went overseas twice (Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai) to perform. After Shanghai performance, I went free&easy to Suzhou and Hangzhou with my sister.

So am I going to continue this unfinished list or move on to a new list? I don't know. But I am still hoping that I can buy my own house this way, continue my Sharepoint lessons. I also hope that one day, I am able to go trekking overseas.

OK, now I will just keep everything open until I settled my housecleaning. Back to cleaning ...