Victory! I passed the first stage of the test. It’s 1 step closer to the place that I dream on so much, Shanghai. This is day 8, 22nd of February, the day that marked the end of my lonely path. I had struggle through the previous days physically and mentally, and I made it. If I succeed in Perth, it also means that I’ll probably survive in Shanghai. I like Shanghai, it’s kind of first sight love to a place. Ever since I was there, I always dream that I could buy a million-dollar condo with sky garden terrace beside the Huang-Pu River.
The day started at early morning when I forced myself to wake up despite I always sleep around 2~3 in the morning. I need to clean up the house before my temporary housemate arrive in the evening. The cleaning job took me 2 hours, which includes vacuum the carpet for the whole house, wiping the dusk off the surfaces and tidy up whatever that not suppose to be in their place. I was quite satisfied with the result as I think that it was way cleaner then the time I moved in. I didn’t take the picture of the living room but the picture clearly state how was the bedroom after cleaning.
As experienced by myself last Friday, my temporary housemate probably will arrive at the house after 5. I was eating bread and Coke when I arrived and I don’t want them to feel the same. I decided to cook them a good meal to welcome them. Another reason is partly because they were kind enough to let me temporary lurk at the house. To cook a serious meal, I need to do serious grocery shopping. So, I went to the neighbourhood store IGA again.
The street at the afternoon was not hot although the sunlight was strong. It is also the wind breeze constantly in the afternoon. I thought that I never talked about how good is the pedestrian system in Perth compared to K.L. In this case, I took the following picture to show the pedestrian pavement. In Perth, the pavement only available on one side of the road, at least 2 to 3 metres from the tars. It was a safety measure for the pedestrian. Another thing that impressed me was the attitude of the drivers. The drivers always let the pedestrian crossed the road first before they drive through.
It was going to be a long list to read for the things I bought in IGA. Frozen Pizzas, eggs, pasta sauce, pasta, shredded cheese, red and white onions, mushrooms, sausages, salted butter, tomatoes and capsium. Before I tell the story of first time serious cooking in Perth, I would like to give the credit to my uncle Stanley in Singapore. He used to teach my mum and I how to cook some simple western food during I was small. I still can recall it now.
It took me some time to make pre-cooking preparation. I had to cut them into small pieces so that I could mix them with the pasta sauce. The pasta need to be cool down properly to mix with butter. The reason to apply butter is to avoid the pasta stick together when being served. Most people do think that majority of guys are not good cook. Believe it or not, I did these all by myself.
After 1 and a half hours of cooking, the end product was like this, pasta with Bolognese or carbonara sauce. The Bolognese contained lots of tomatoes and hot dogs slices while the carbonara was vegetarian dish that contained only mushrooms. I haven’t cook for a long time, but I’m glad I’m still able to manage the basics. Actually, I prefer to cook oriental dish than western ones because oriental dishes have more details to play around with.
My temporary housemate, Daniel (left) and Wai Hang (right) finally arrive around 6. Lonely times are gone with their arrival. When they ate the pasta, I kept laughing inside my heart. They said it was delicious, I thought “Oh mine, I haven’t cooked for sometimes. These foods are only considered passable. The Bolognese sauce is not even look like a real Italian Bolognese, and the onions in the Carbonara sauce are overcooked!” Another thing that worth mention was I still able to maintained a clean kitchen and stove after cooking.
The night was fun. Although there were only 3 of us, we played Mahjong. It’s not a simply Mahjong game, we don’t pay money when lose, instead we drink. The drink was dry Chivas, or some may call it ‘pure’. There were only 3 of us so we could barely finish half bottle before we went to bed. Kind of welcome drink session.
At last, I no longer have to live my life in Perth alone. At least, I have someone to talk to or accompany me while doing grocery shopping. With their company, I’m looking forward to explore more parts of Perth. City area, zoo, tourist sites, clubs etc. But still, I have to wait for Daniel’s Supra to arrive so we could have our own vehicle.
On one last word, thanks to Uncle Stanley and Aunt Lena for visiting my blogspot despite the fact that you guys are busy in Singapore with your work and little Samuel. I wonder how you guys spent your university life especially Uncle Stanley who used to graduated from University of Western Australia, Perth. Perhaps someday, we could chill out together, get some fine wines, and share our experiences that separated for 20 years.
The day started at early morning when I forced myself to wake up despite I always sleep around 2~3 in the morning. I need to clean up the house before my temporary housemate arrive in the evening. The cleaning job took me 2 hours, which includes vacuum the carpet for the whole house, wiping the dusk off the surfaces and tidy up whatever that not suppose to be in their place. I was quite satisfied with the result as I think that it was way cleaner then the time I moved in. I didn’t take the picture of the living room but the picture clearly state how was the bedroom after cleaning.
As experienced by myself last Friday, my temporary housemate probably will arrive at the house after 5. I was eating bread and Coke when I arrived and I don’t want them to feel the same. I decided to cook them a good meal to welcome them. Another reason is partly because they were kind enough to let me temporary lurk at the house. To cook a serious meal, I need to do serious grocery shopping. So, I went to the neighbourhood store IGA again.
The street at the afternoon was not hot although the sunlight was strong. It is also the wind breeze constantly in the afternoon. I thought that I never talked about how good is the pedestrian system in Perth compared to K.L. In this case, I took the following picture to show the pedestrian pavement. In Perth, the pavement only available on one side of the road, at least 2 to 3 metres from the tars. It was a safety measure for the pedestrian. Another thing that impressed me was the attitude of the drivers. The drivers always let the pedestrian crossed the road first before they drive through.
It was going to be a long list to read for the things I bought in IGA. Frozen Pizzas, eggs, pasta sauce, pasta, shredded cheese, red and white onions, mushrooms, sausages, salted butter, tomatoes and capsium. Before I tell the story of first time serious cooking in Perth, I would like to give the credit to my uncle Stanley in Singapore. He used to teach my mum and I how to cook some simple western food during I was small. I still can recall it now.
It took me some time to make pre-cooking preparation. I had to cut them into small pieces so that I could mix them with the pasta sauce. The pasta need to be cool down properly to mix with butter. The reason to apply butter is to avoid the pasta stick together when being served. Most people do think that majority of guys are not good cook. Believe it or not, I did these all by myself.
After 1 and a half hours of cooking, the end product was like this, pasta with Bolognese or carbonara sauce. The Bolognese contained lots of tomatoes and hot dogs slices while the carbonara was vegetarian dish that contained only mushrooms. I haven’t cook for a long time, but I’m glad I’m still able to manage the basics. Actually, I prefer to cook oriental dish than western ones because oriental dishes have more details to play around with.
My temporary housemate, Daniel (left) and Wai Hang (right) finally arrive around 6. Lonely times are gone with their arrival. When they ate the pasta, I kept laughing inside my heart. They said it was delicious, I thought “Oh mine, I haven’t cooked for sometimes. These foods are only considered passable. The Bolognese sauce is not even look like a real Italian Bolognese, and the onions in the Carbonara sauce are overcooked!” Another thing that worth mention was I still able to maintained a clean kitchen and stove after cooking.
The night was fun. Although there were only 3 of us, we played Mahjong. It’s not a simply Mahjong game, we don’t pay money when lose, instead we drink. The drink was dry Chivas, or some may call it ‘pure’. There were only 3 of us so we could barely finish half bottle before we went to bed. Kind of welcome drink session.
At last, I no longer have to live my life in Perth alone. At least, I have someone to talk to or accompany me while doing grocery shopping. With their company, I’m looking forward to explore more parts of Perth. City area, zoo, tourist sites, clubs etc. But still, I have to wait for Daniel’s Supra to arrive so we could have our own vehicle.
On one last word, thanks to Uncle Stanley and Aunt Lena for visiting my blogspot despite the fact that you guys are busy in Singapore with your work and little Samuel. I wonder how you guys spent your university life especially Uncle Stanley who used to graduated from University of Western Australia, Perth. Perhaps someday, we could chill out together, get some fine wines, and share our experiences that separated for 20 years.
4 comments:
Good Sunday Morning!
Sam and I just covered Day 8 of your life down-under while waiting for Stanley to come home from the wet market with chee cheong fun!
I am sure he will be very touched when he reads the parts about you giving him credit to cooking lessons and also good old days @UWA.
Bravo to the cooking and such neat and clean prepwk and final product presentation! Great job, man! : )
Cheers, Lena & Samuel
ps. does Sheanne have any blog? Sam was asking coz he said wants to look at it too!
Glad to learn that you have managed to "survive" the lonely period. I AM CERTAIN that this triumph will later impact your professional career since there will be many of such "lonely" periods. Meaning you are left alone to face the situation and are expected to survive & come out with solutions. Bear in mind on what my professor said long time ago about the University's role is to train us to survive in the market & in life. Not just the knowledge gained but, the skills sets needed to solve problems.
Thanks for giving me the credit for the cooking lesson. I am glad to have had the opportunity to spend the time with you & your family in KL. I am looking forward to be able to spend time to chill-out with you & your family during my retirement; Hopefully it will come soon. Ha Haaaa !
Stanley
Hey,
Wow, u can cook? Awesome! =) Not many guys will cook, and 'can' cook too..haha.. You shud be proud of urself ^^ *hehe*
Oh btw, thanks for dropping by my blog too. It's a pleasure having new blog readers =) Anyway,which clip do you mean? D latest one on my post or d Ipod player on d left panel of my blog? If u mean d one on post, here's d codes I copied from internet :
( Opps..i cant paste it here cos d HTML cannot be accepted by comment box, so if u wan it,i can email to u k?^^ )
-aLLYSa-
hey shaun, u must hav realised, freshly cooked food juz tastes so much better and healthier than burgers n pizza right? ^^ i like 2 say u got influenced by ur best friend, but then i nvr actually taught u how to cook or any recipes. =( if u ever need tips or recipes, ask me! ^^
hey, ur room looks clean, neat n tidy! i think ur off to a good start!
tip 1: all oil while boiling the speghetti noodles so they wont stick (although authentic italian cehfs will juz say dats bullshit) and also add some salt to bring the flavour of the noodles out.
tip 2: even tho authentic italian chefs say a original taglatelli ala bologna (speghetti bolognese) consists of more than 30 ingredients, try adding a few to variate ur flavours to ur liking. mine is tabasco + bay leaves + lea n pearins sauce.
Post a Comment