Whoa

I am horrible at this blog thing, aren't I?:D

I don't have any pictures of food. Heck, I haven't even really cooked anything proper for a long time. I just have zero motivation to make anything nice! Not to mention, my diet started last week so everything I want to make, I can't eat so what is the point, really? Haha

We're almost done with the wedding. We are SO looking forward to the holiday! I am enjoying my job but it is somewhat difficult (in a nice way but also the pressure to perform is....) and is bloody faraway from where I live. I spend half my day commuting. Wedding planning itself is just..painful. The nice bits are picking out your dress, flowers, the venue.. that kind of thing. Everything else is just sh*t really.

The venue annoys me to death. Everything has a ridiculous price tag but we don't have a choice because we've commited. So right, somehow a 40-person wedding is going to cost us RM100 000. Looking at it in Ringgit terms is giving me a heart attack ugh. It's not like it's even fancy! My shoes are from China! Our band is dinky! My earrings aren't even diamonds! We don't even get a honeymoon! Hahaha I have to laugh just thinking of the band, sorry:-P

All in all, I AM excited though. I just hope it won't rain and that no one gets hurt/misses their flights/ loses their luggage/ ill etc. I try not to be such a Debbie Downer but I really wish we had eloped just so I don't have to worry about our guests...

Right..bedtime. Night!

Wedding Planning

I am enjoying most of it! I am so excited and I can't wait to get married already. Also, I'm terrified that it will be a total flop.

Invitations 
I absolutely LOVE them. These are probably the most beautiful invitations I have ever seen. Yes, it was very expensive and yes, people will just throw them into the dustbin but they make me happy.

Dress
I bought my dress!! This was quite a journey. I went to about 4 stores (I went 3 times to the store where I bought the dress so I basically tried on dresses about 7 times haha). First dress was a total disaster. I thought I would never find the one. I'm not VERY short (although I AM short compared to a Dutch person. I am 5ft 3") but all the dresses had humungous ball gown skirts (and not just a bit but huge. Like so huge, the Dutchman would have to stand 1.5 metres away from me). And the styles they have here.... were just sort of thrashy and I wanted something elegant.

Finally, feeling guilty and thinking that I would never find the one, I settled on one which looked great on me but wasn't really my style. Of course I felt like sh*t after that, I felt almost embarassed that people would think that is something I would pick so I cancelled the dress a few days later. As I had already paid a significant deposit for the dress, I had to pick THE dress from the same store.

Anyway, I ended up in something I didn't expect but it gave the look I was aiming for (elegant, romantic, classic). Woohoo! I never thought I could ever get a Pronovias but after adjusting the budget a little bit (i.e. less money for flowers :( ), it was possible to get my dream dress. Yay!

Rings
Again, ended up being totally different from what we wanted but it was really comfortable and the rings were the only ones which actually didn't make our fingers look stupid. The one thing which was significantly underbudget;-)  

Guests
Very happy with the turnout on my side. Sadly, most of Dutchman's friends are too poor and half his direct family will not be attending (afraid of flying, no money, babies). I feel sorry for him as this wedding shebang was his wish (I wanted to elope).

Venue
Slightly problematic. It is a high-end venue and expensive. However, because our wedding is relatively small and they are used to mad Russian millionnaires, our wedding basically does not generate a great amount of revenue (it is a lot to us but not them). Thus, we are small fry and treated as such.

Flowers
I want peonies but they are not available. Ah well. Not sure what the options are...

So many things to organize but in a way, it's quite fun having an almost free rein (except obviously budget restrictions) to plan an event;) 

 

2011

was a great year.

i) Got engaged
ii) Passed my internship with flying colours and then almost failing it because my boss felt slighted over my report (the comments were frankly nothing..something like "while I wish the internship could've been more challenging, I do not regret having chosen for this company". School laughed like mad about it and passed me anyway.
iii) Got a new member of the family (the cat)
iv) Dutchman got a new job
v) Parents' visit (last time was 3 years ago)
vi) Got legally married!

2012 will be challeging as I'll have a new job and will be navigating through life as an adult (job, etc.) but it could also be very fulfilling and I know I'll enjoy wedding planning, hunting for our first home and all that stuff;)

All the best for 2012!

Nyonya's Christmas/Sinterklaas Rock Road

150g 70% dark chocolat, broken into small pieces
250g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces
175g butter, sliced
4tbs golden syrup
150g amaretti, crushed into various sizes
150g pepernoten , crushed into various sizes (I used mine whole as they were pretty small- the ones from the AH bakker)
150g pink & white marshmallows, cut into small pieces or just use mini marshmallows
100g glacé cherries
50g dried cranberries



1) Melt the chocolate and butter (bain marie). Add the syrup.

2) In the meantime, prepare your amaretti and pepernoten (basically just crushing them with a rolling pin). Please make sure that you don't crush it too finely- you want them to be in bits and pieces. Cut your marshmallows with scissors. Chop the cherries into smaller pieces (if preferred. I used mine whole).

3) When chocolate mixture has melted, mix to combine evenly.

4) Add the crushed pepernoten and amaretti into the chocolate and mix.

5) Then, add everything else.

6) Pour mixture into a (I used Pyrex) pan and leave it in the fridge to harden (about 2 hours). Slice with a strong, sharp knife and sprinkle icing sugar before serving.

P/S: I think the quality of the chocolate isn't very important in this case. I used Valrhona which is quite expensive (about 23 euro for this recipe) but couldn't taste the difference!

The Turkish Airlines Saga Continues....

Turkish Airlines initially offered us 300 euro compensation (EU regulations= 600 euro) but we said we wanted 400 euro as the Danish passengers who were bumped off the flight as well, received 400 euros (yes, the 24 +hours we spent together means we had enough time to exchange contact details). Turkish Airlines called the Dutchman on Friday and confirmed. They asked when we could pick it up. We agreed on 3p.m. Saturday at Schiphol Airport.

So today, we left at 1.30p.m. to arrive there at 3p.m.. Guess what happened next?! Arrived at the counter and the Turkish Airlines employee says....

"We have no cash with us at the moment. Perhaps you should come back on a weekday as more people buy tickets then"

We were like WTF!?!?! We had an appointment at 3p.m. to collect the compensation! We drove 1.5 hours! We had to pay 8 euro for parking! We wasted our time! It's a Saturday, ffs!

This is seriously the shittiest airline of all time. Unbelievable.

Beef with Ginger & Spring Onions

I was talking to some Asian ladies the other day and it struck me that Dutchman and I do not eat Asian food very often. We eat pasta, roast chicken, fish, steak, stews etc. instead. I love Asian food but it always seem kind off fiddly to get the taste right and fake Asian food is the most disgusting thing in the whole world( which is why I never buy the Westernized Asian pre-packaged stuff). Anyhoo, last night, I made beef with ginger and spring onions. This is a simple dish- the kind you eat at home at least once a week together with (in my family anyway) stir-fried greens, clear soup and fish.

Fresh ingredients
300g beef, sliced thinly
5 spring onions, chopped into 1-inch pieces
2-inches worth of ginger, sliced


Marinade
1 tbs Chinese oyster sauce
1 tbs ShaoXing wine (maybe a bit more, generous splash heh)
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp corn flour
some pepper


Sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs ShaoXing wine
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp corn flour
2-3 tbs water


1) First, marinade the beef for at least an hour. Combine the ingredients for the sauce before you start cooking.
2) Then, in a saucepan, saute the ginger in the hot oil until soft. If you like, you can also add the white part of the spring onion at this time.
3) When the beef is almost done, add the sauce and the green parts of the spring onions and cook until done. Do not overcook this or the beef will be tough. If you think that the sauce is too watery, you can add some cornflour.



Serve with white rice.

Never Fly With Turkish Airlines

This matter has brought me out of my slumber.

A few months ago, we decided to take a chance on Turkish Airlines. In The Netherlands, Turkish Airlines is probably most famous for crashing next to a highway near Schiphol Airport but heck, it was the 2nd cheapest (cheapest was Egypt Air which sounded a bit dodgy to us) and we really only had to fly for 3 hours on an actual Turkish Airlines plane (codeshare).

That totally did NOT pay off. Our nightmare had just started. Checked in at Dusseldorf Airport and thought it was strange that we did not get our boarding passes for the Istanbul-KL leg (normally, they give all of it to you) but when we asked, the ground staff said that it is policy that we would get it there (LIAR! If you ever face this, don't even believe them!).

Well well..guess what happened! We arrived at Istanbul 3.5 hours before our flight to KL was scheduled to depart and immediately headed towards the counter within the transit hall. Turns out, there was a 'computer problem' so we weren't on the flight. I am not stupid - some of my family members work in the airline industry. This means they are overbooked (which they later admitted).

Was very nice the entire time (me, not them). Told them nicely tat we had booked and paid for these tickets months in advance and that it wasn't our problem if there was a problem with their system or not. Ground staff barely understood English. They told us to come back 1 hour before the flight to check. Fine, came back, was told that we were officially bumped off. Madly pissed as had a wedding to attend and shitloads to do upon arrival (tailor, hen's night etc.).

Assholes at counter then made us wait on the floor whilst they find a connecting flight. Well, assholes couldn't have been the most efficient people as it took them 4 freaking hours (literally) with us sitting on the floor and hanging at the counter (they kept saying "10 minutes, 10 minutes"). Finally, Dutchman and a Swede (who was also bumped off the same flight) barged into the private office, sat next to one of them and got a flight- apparently the only one left which was scheduled to leave at about midnight (to Shanghai and then to KL) so yes, that was a good 12+ hours doing nothing but WAITING for a flight. They did put us in the lounge but no real food (just some lousy dry bread). I freaking hate eating bread for dinner. It makes me feel like Oliver Twist.

Finally, got on the flight. An hour later, captain says someone on board has had a heart attack and we'll be returning to Istanbul. Fine, I guess that's not something they can help and probably cost them heaps of money as well. Plane grounded for 3-4 hours. Arrived in Shanghai, scheduled flight already departed but ground staff at Shanghai were EXCELLENT. They got someone to meet us in the arrivals hall, arranged priority check-in (for the next flight and passport controls) and everything. Got us on the next flight (Air Mauritius) to KL. Finally, we arrived in KL at like 4a.m. a day later (22 hours delay).

Now, this is the part which annoys the shit out of me. Yes, we were shit ass tired. Yes, we were crazily stressed (because missing and then not knowing when your next flight will be when you have shitloads to do when you arrive). Yes, we spent some extra money (calling people from the plane, midnight fares etc.). Yes, our holiday was ruined. Yes, the staff at Istanbul were useless, rude and dumb.

But MOST OF ALL, Turkish Airlines didn't want to compensate us and they were so SNEAKY about it. See, if they had told us about the delay at Dusseldorf (EU), we would have been entitled to 600 euro per person compensation (delay of more than 4 hours, EU Regulation) but they purposely dragged us to Istanbul because Istanbul's not part of the EU and they wouldn't have to compensate anything!  And they call themselves "Europe's Best Airline" HAHAHAHA.

I am going to make it my mission to ensure that everyone knows what a shit airline Turkish Airlines is. I'm going to make sure no one I know ever flies on it again. Certainly, no one will want to -unless they don't care if they arrive as scheduled or not.