Making and Baking Ciabatta

Ciabatta (just out from the oven)

This is the first time I make and bake ciabatta on my own without any help. They might not be as good (look and taste wise) as those I made the last time (when Richard was beside me showing me every step – photo below), I was still quite happy with the result.

Ciabatta I made & baked (first time, with help)

I put them in different plastic bags then in the freezer. Before I have them for my lunch, I  will either put them in the microwave for 1 minute or in the oven for a few minutes. It is quick, and the ciabatta will be warm and soft.

A Simple Birthday Card

For Katharine

Sowing – rocket, chillies and tomatoes

Seeds for rocket, tomatoes and chillies

Pots for all the seeds and my two Money Trees

Germination - rocket (in only 2 days!)

Felt cases

My very first felt case

A pressie for my lovely mum

A pressie for Beatrice's 9th Birthday

For Emilia and Elise

Another day of some nice food

Sunday, a relaxing day. As I spent most of my day making food yesterday, I wanted to do some drawings instead today. However, I still wanted some nice, comforting food. Started with a fruit pod – blackberries, kiwi, strawberries, redcurrant and blackcurrant, with yogurt and honey topping. Lunch was scramble egg mixed with red chillies, carrot, mushroom, chinese leaf and tomatoes. I had it with the ciabatta I made last weekend. Delicious.

A satisfying day

Getting up in the morning yesterday, I’ve decided to spend my whole day making nice food, food which I’ve never made before. This was the menu:

Lunch: Homemade broccoli soup (with fried mushroom and garlic on the top), served with homemade bread (I made it last weekend for the first time)

Afternoon beverage: Smoothie (strawberry, blackberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant)

Dinner: Mi Hun Kueh/Mian Fen Gao (Malaysia style ‘pasta’ soup)

They were all delicious! Feel satisfied. I enjoyed the food and my day.

Some new drawings

I have been busy in the past few weeks – a lot of traveling for work. This is the first weekend I can just relax and do things I enjoy doing, such as cooking and drawing. I’ve added some new drawings in my ‘drawings and sketches‘ section. Enjoy!

Life is unpredictable

I have a close friend (a Malaysian too) who is currently in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I know her for five years since I was over to the UK. She is a lovely lady with three very young kids. She has just completed her PhD and was waiting for her graduation ceremony. The reason I use “was” instead of “is” is because, she is having a very bizarre disease which none of the doctors in Northern Ireland can diagnose after trying for more than 12 weeks. She was in the intensive care for two months, having serious seizures. 

She is only 34. She had a normal fever and passed out one day without any alarm. Since then, everything has changed. Her husband has created a blog to update friends who concern about her condition - http://chewpslau.blogspot.com/. I was so shocked when I received the bad news. I have been praying hard for her, hoping doctors will find out what is making her sick and that she will recover soon.

Last night, I decided to text (sms) her husband, asking him about her current condition as there was no new update (blog) since early this month. This is his reply: ’she is awake but no communication at all. She lost most of her basic abilities and skills.’ I feel so sorry for her and her family. I did not know what to say to her husband. I know he must heard a lot of ‘I am sorry to hear that’, ‘hope she’ll be fine soon’, etc. Apart from saying that, I really don’t know what I can say to him. I would like to fly back to Belfast to visit her. Her husband thought it might not be a good idea as she couldn’t recognise anyone or speak. His mum and her dad are in the UK too to help to look after the three young kids.

Life is so unpredictable. She is such a kind lady. I really hope things will turn out to be a good, positive one for her and her family.

No new drawing

I was feeling too tired on Monday evening and didn’t get a chance to do any drawings. Last night, I was going to draw some penguins and found out that my graphics tablet is not working properly. Hmm…… Didn’t expect that to happen. I have to use mousepad to draw instead. It was quite hard to control. Anyway, I did a quick one and set it as my header picture. I am still not too happy with the result, but it is definitely better than the default heading image (at least that’s what I thought).

I hope my graphics tablet will work properly soon and I promise I’ll upload more drawings then.

2009年的小企鵝

。。。正在很努力地把這個小企鵝天地弄好，暫時只有把自己一小部份的作品放在‘我的塗鴉天地’。我會盡量抽出時間寫更多小企鵝在英國的故事，放更多小作品。希望你會喜歡。。。