Hubby had an hour to squeeze out from his hectic schedule today to have breakfast with me this morning. We went to Sixteen, a cafe located behind his shop for a quick bite before he headed off to a church to attend the funeral of his old pal, and then to his client’s place.
We shared this Eggstacy plate, composed of a slice of crispy sourdough, two Eggs Benedict, avocado, cashews and rocket salad. We also shared a croissant – this cafe (previously known as LDG) bakes one of the best croissants in town.
Lunch was food from hubby’s shop ~ Bakwan Sayur (Indonesian fried veggie fritters. It’s my favorite and his Indon cook whips up very yummy Bakwan), chicken rendang and fried mackeral with onion sauce (Ikan Masak Hitam).
Sherilyn having her lunch before heading off to college.
Cass ate these dishes for dinner and I rustled up a chicken soup with Chinese cabbage, Shimeji mushrooms and ‘foo pei’. Sherilyn and I only drank soup for dinner. Alycia usually has dinner with her course mates at their dorm. One of her course mates who loves cooking does the cooking and they share the cost of the ingredients.
Delish and comforting chicken soup with Chinese cabbage, Shimeji mushrooms and ‘foo pei’. I can drink this every day and not get sick of it.Love this Beacon chicken soup (RM6 per pack) from Beacon Mart. This frozen chicken soup tastes 100% like homecooked pure chicken soup. Beacon’s seaweed chickens are free from antibiotics and hormones. The mart sells a wide range of antibiotic & hormone-free chickens and organic products. They cater specially to cancer patients from Beacon Hospital, a top cancer specialist hospital in Malaysia.
This week was a pleasant departure from the usual kitchen duties as I savored a variety of delightful dishes without having to slog in the kitchen. With food from hubby’s kitchen gracing our table almost every day, the burden of cooking was significantly lightened. In addition, Sherilyn, was home for a few days as her lecturers opted for online classes, giving us the delightful opportunity to enjoy her cooking.
Food from Catermate – French beans sauteed with turmeric, fried mackeral with fermented soy beans and shallots, and chicken Kuzi.From Catermate – Garoupa fish head curry with lots of veggies.Lunch for Cass – chicken braised with potatoes, sweet and sour fish, sauteed broccoli with carrots (all from Catermate); airfried Shimeji mushrooms with garlic prepped by Sherilyn.
Sherilyn’s cooking took the spotlight this week, and we were more than happy to be her enthusiastic taste testers once again. She has not cooked for a long time due to her busyness, first in her part-time job and now, in college. On one occasion, she cooked our favorite dish of air-fried shimeji mushrooms, proving that you don’t need complex recipes for a delicious meal. The mushrooms were seasoned with olive oil, black pepper, celery salt, and chopped garlic.
Two days ago, she transformed a humble box of Campbell’s beef broth and a mountain of yellow onions into a pot of delightful French Onion soup, topped with cheese and toasted baguette.
Delightful French onion soup. This is labour intensive as it involves a lot of work from peeling and chopping the onions to caramelizing the onions (she did this step in the Thermomix), boiling the caramelized onions with the beef broth and finally broiling the soup with cheese and toasted baguette in the oven.Onion soup with toasted wholemeal bread fingers. I love this pink Le Creuset plate in heart shape.Airfried crispy bread fingers
On my part, I decided to step into the kitchen on Monday and cook up a heartwarming dish of pumpkin and roast pork bones porridge. There’s something deeply satisfying about preparing a simple yet nourishing porridge. Even the finicky hubby liked it and ate a big bowl of porridge.
Comforting pork ribs and pumpkin porridge.
For me, a break from the kitchen can be a welcome relief, especially in the sweltering heat. It’s a chance to enjoy not only the food itself but also the freedom from the relentless demands of meal preparation and the aftermath of cooking from moping the floor to wiping down the stove, washing, drying, and keeping the dishes.
There’s nothing much to update from me this week, except that it’s been a hot, hot week. It’s so hot that I am always drenched in sweat at home, the moment I move about to do chores. So, this is pretty much a good excuse for me to avoid doing stir-fries and anything that involves cranking up the hot stove 😬
Fortunately I’ve been getting food from hubby’s kitchen almost every day. So all I had to do was to prep a simple green veggie dish by blanching in hot water, or a meat dish grilled in the oven or air-fried. No stir-fries and deep-fries in the sauna cum kitchen.
Sherilyn and I have also started discussing on her tertiary education path as the SPM results will be out soon. Basically, she’s interested in taking A-Levels and then, the shocker, she wants to take a degree in architecture.
Say what? I couldn’t believe her choice.
I’m not really keen in her taking this course as it’s an 8-to-11 year course before one becomes a professional architect! 8-11 years! And the money to fund the studies!! And will she have the perseverance to complete the whole course? I’m now breathing on rarefied air!
She definitely needs a full scholarship or some kind souls to fund her 8-11 years of education from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree.
Anyways, the ultimate decision will depend on her SPM results.
Even Haru is feeling the heat and prefers to sleep on the cool floor with body stretched. Delicious chicken satay with thick peanut sauce and Kuih Talam from hubby’s kitchen.Blanched ‘Yeh Heong Far’ flower veggies from my regular organic veggie seller. I drizzled some olive oil on it and used the satay sauce as dressing.The next day, we had beef satay, Roti Jala and chicken curry from hubby’s shop.Yummy for our tummies 😋 The Roti Jala tasted really good and crispy when air-fried the next day.My wrist splint from China (ordered through Lazada) finally arrived after a week. I’ve been wearing a wrist splint to sleep at night for the past 1.5 years to prevent the discomfort of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from disrupting my sleep. And it works like a charm. China-made wrist splints cost a fraction of the price of branded ones sold at local pharmacies and the quality is good. Just make sure you read the reviews first before ordering.
We hardly cook elaborate meals these days. Ever since Maria stopped coming three weeks ago because of bad morning sickness (she’s expecting her 2nd baby), we have not had any other helper coming in. It’s manageable without a helper if we don’t cook.
We get takeout or order from Shopee Food on most days and will blanch a green leafy veggie every day. Sometimes the mil will boil soup, steam fish, steam minced pork or cook porridge. At times I will cook some simple fish or chicken dishes using the air fryer and pressure cooker. Sometimes we’ll boil some dumplings (‘kau ji’), konjac noodles or instant noodles.
I found a seller whose Taiwanese wife makes top-notch Taiwan-style dumplings and have been buying by the bulk from this seller for the past one year. Everyone in the house loves his wife’s dumplings. And on most days, we will have food from hubby’s central kitchen.
Sherilyn and Cass love prepping their own meals. As Sherilyn has been super busy with school activities lately, she’s not cooked for us. However she’ll prep simple food for herself. Cass loves using the Air Fryer to air fry sandwiches, French Toast, broccoli, meat patties and even fried egg.
Here’s a throwback of the meals that we had recently.
From hubby’s kitchen – seafood spaghetti, Brazilian spinach salad with broccoli and cauli and fried onion rings.Big shrimps, mussels and lots of garlic in the seafood pasta. Very yums.MIL treated us to unagi don and sushi on one of the week days last week to celebrate her all-good blood test result.Dinner ordered from Tsuen Wan Restaurant via Shopee Food. I prefer ordering via Shopee Food vs Grab Food and Food Panda as SF has better deals and savings.Our lunch and dinner today from hubby’s kitchen – stir-fried assorted veggies and sambal big prawns.From hubby’s kitchen today – nasi lemak, chicken rendang and fried tofu.From hubby’s kitchen today – fried mackeral fish with chilies and spices. From hubby’s kitchen today – braised chicken with chestnuts.From hubby’s kitchen last Saturday – mini burger and mashed potato.Early dinner at a Filipino cafe two Saturdays ago, with just Sherilyn. While we had dinner, Cass spent two hours walking almost the entire neighborhood alone – something that she’s always wanted to do.Halo-Halo, a popular cold dessert in the Philippines, similar to our Ais Kacang. After Sherilyn and I were done eating at the Filipino cafe, hubs joined us and we segued into another restaurant for our second dinner, all because hubs was craving for Japanese food.Unagi don for hubsSherilyn and I shared a cup of chawan mushi as we were already full from our earlier dinner.
Today has been another hectic day for hubs and his kitchen crew. They prepped over 300 burgers today and will be whipping up 300 more tomorrow for a client’s 2-day event. In addition, they cooked sambal, curries, bolognese sauce, deep fried potato wedges and marinated a whole lamb for BBQ tonight.
I brought Cass to the kitchen to help out in the afternoon after her online Japanese class ended where she spent over 4 hours there. Tomorrow she’ll follow her dad to the kitchen to help prep over 300 burgers. They’ll leave the house before 7 a.m.
Today’s dinner was at Sanuki Udon with just Alycia, the mil and me. Cass was still helping out at her dad’s kitchen and Sherilyn had dinner with her friends after training for javelin and running. Tomorrow morning she has training for cheerleading. This missy just loves busying herself and pushing herself to the max. I think she loves the adrenalin rush flooding her body. Did I tell you that she’s so enervated at the end of each day that she just plonks herself on the floor and sleeps without taking her bath? Don’t ask me why she does that.
WIP for prepping over 600 mini burgers. Good thing there’s an industrial Combi oven with a pan-fry feature to do the job of frying the burger patties.This is our lunch, yums!Our dinner at Sanuki Udon.While mil and Alycia had udon, I had cabbage salad, poached egg and Kushikatsu onion, chicken and sweet potato.
Another busy week whizzed past me in a blink of an eye. This week I’ve been extra busy as I’ve to cook and accompany the mil to the hospital for her post-cataract-surgery follow-up checkup, on top of school runs and my freelance work.
Meals at home this week have been mostly takeout and very simple dishes, from Shopee Food, ordered from Facebook, and from hubby’s shop. However, I will try to blanch some green veggies for lunch and dinner. There will also be steamed sweet corns or sweet potatoes and lots of fresh fruits everyday.
There’s a slight swelling on mil’s cornea, thus she’s unable to undergo surgery for the other eye yet. She has to continue with her 2-hourly eye drops until month end. Her next appointment is on 13 June and I guess I’ll be camping with her at the hospital again 🥱
After 27 months, I’ll finally be going back to Ipoh to meet my parents! And my brother and his family from Singapore too! Thanks to reopened borders with no quarantine and PCR tests, my brother and his family can finally travel back to Malaysia with ease . It will be our family’s first reunion since Chinese New Year in February 2020 – the last month before our lives (and the world) changed forever in March 2020. Our country plunged into the first lockdown on 18 March 2020.
*rejoicing to the song of ‘Reunited’ by Peaches & Herb* 💃
Our trip back to Ipoh will be without Alycia, hubs and mil. I’ll be taking the ETS with Cass and Sherilyn. Alycia has just started her third and last semester of the Foundation in Arts program and will begin her first year in university in September this year. She needs to continue scoring a CGPA of above 3.8 in order to get a partial scholarship for her first year degree program 🙏 .
Today is the last day of school before the 9-day term break for Sherilyn and Cass. The only thing that I look forward to is the 2 hours of extra sleep that I get in the morning. I’ll be missing my quiet time in the morning though when all the girls are in school.
These are some of the extra food from hubby’s kitchen that saved my day in the kitchen!
Chicken curry, satay sauce, and Durian Serawa (durian kaya) to go with Roti Jala, extras from a Hari Raya Open House event.Yummy for my tummy!Mee Siam and Thai fish cake from a Thai-themed event.Thai-style pandan fried chicken (bite-sized boneless chicken thigh). This is SO yummeh!
And this is a throwback photo:
Alycia made French toast for her grandma and me a few days after Mother’s Day as she had to work part-time on Sunday (Mother’s Day) and didn’t have the time to prep anything for us.Not bad for someone who’s like a fish out of water every time she’s in the kitchen and has no interest in cooking.
The past one week I’d been busy arranging for a cataract surgery for the mil at Pantai Hospital. So many things needed to be done from finding her a Chinese ophthalmologist for ease of conversing to arranging for her medical claim from the insurance company, going to the bank to increase her payment limit to making sure that everything is in order on the day of the surgery.
The surgery was held on Friday (yesterday). I told Alycia to accompany her grandma to the hospital as she doesn’t have any class on Fridays for this semester. They spent the entire day at the hospital. Alycia brought along her laptop and did her assignment at Starbucks and continued with the assignment when she got back at night. The assignment was due yesterday.
The surgery went smoothly and the mil is now recuperating at home. The surgery is only for one eye; she still needs another surgery for the other eye a few weeks later. The mil isn’t allowed to bend her neck with the head facing downwards, be exposed to the sunlight or do any cooking for two weeks. The girls take turns to wash grandma’s hair with grandma seated on a chair in the bathroom. When the girls are busy, I help with putting eye drops into mil’s eye (3 types of eye drops/ointment) every few hourly. I’ll also need to accompany the mil to the hospital for a follow-up checkup next week. All these will repeat after two weeks when she goes for the second surgery.
For my next one month, I’ll try to whip up really simple dishes that aren’t too messy and don’t require frying. Oil splatters freak me out! And I’ll arrange for food delivery on days that I’m too busy and tired. When the girls have to go to school, my day begins at 4.45 a.m. and waking up at this hour really zombifies me 😴🥴
Thankfully there’s excess food from hubby’s central kitchen for the past few days and I didn’t have to cook much.
Hubby’s kitchen crew whipped up a Thai-themed menu today for a client’s event and we too had these Thai food for lunch and dinner. The Thai-themed menu continues tomorrow and we’ll be having more Thai food tomorrow 😋
Pad ThaiThai papaya saladThai salad served in dainty cupsKuihOtak-Otak and Thai basil chicken.Chicken chop with mashed potato, broccoli and cauliflower for lunch on Wednesday.
The cat food that I ordered for Haru was delayed for almost a month and was only delivered to me yesterday. I sent umpteen emails to Lazada (with a few ultimatum emails to warn them of impending action from my end) when no one bothered to help me locate the parcel nor acceded to my request for a refund.
Another Covid case has been reported to our condo Management office yesterday 😥. But thankfully the infected resident has only mild symptoms and is now isolating at home. The number of Covid cases in our country has been dipping for the past 3 days. However, the numbers are still very high at over 19,000 cases yesterday.
Going to the supermarket now gives me the jitters. Even though I am fully vaccinated, it does not mean I am 100% protected from the virus. Do you know how many times I sanitize my hands before, during and after each shopping trip? It’s driving me bonkers! I think I have also developed Anthropophobia (fear of people)! I hate how Covid is destroying lives, disrupting our peace, livelihood and sanity. I don’t think life will ever be the same for us again, at least not for the next one to two years.
How has Covid affected you? Please share.
Hainanese chicken rice from Catermate for our lunch today. But this is not for sale yet. Hubs is still perfecting the recipe. The chicken is free from hormones and antibiotics.
If you’re interested to buy chickens that are free from hormones and antibiotics, you can Whatsapp Alan at wa.me/60198981881. The chickens are free-range chickens raised at a farm in Bentong.
A day after Maria was tested positive for Covid, her supervisor was also tested positive. Our condo’s management office arranged for KKM health workers to be dispatched to our condo to perform RT-PCR swab test on all the office staffers, guards and general workers.
And the result: 3 guards and 1 gardener who were asymptomatic were tested positive! I wasn’t at all surprised with the results.
A deep disinfection exercise of our condo was carried out the next day. A new batch of cleaners, gardeners and guards were sent by the respective companies to our condo the next day. These workers have all been tested negative for Covid. But the residents are not taking any chances. With the exception of collecting our food and parcels at the lobby, residents have been advised to stay indoors for the next 2 weeks. I’ve not gone down to exercise since last Wednesday (4th August), which was also the day I received my 2nd dose of AZ vaccine.
Going to the lobby to collect parcels and food now feels like walking into a battlefield. We are ramping up our protection by wearing disposable gloves and KN95 mask each time we go down to collect our stuff. I even bring along a bottle of PECA disinfection water to spray the lift buttons, door handles and the air. Parcels brought into our house are sprayed with PECA water, scissors and blades washed with soap after opening the parcels and our goods wiped with PECA water.
Yesterday a resident from our block was whisked away in an ambulance to a healthcare facility for treatment. We suspect that he’s an expatriate living alone here. This is the first Covid case from our block whereas there were 5 cases from the opposite block over the past 3 months.
We are now feeling the jitters. We are not safe until everyone at home has been vaccinated. I will only feel slightly safer 14 days after my second dose of AZ vaccine. And I won’t feel safe when schools reopen in September because our girls are not vaccinated yet. The current Delta variant is more virulent and more contagious than the previous variants.
Updates On Haru
The piano top has always been Haru’s favorite place. But Grandma is not happy with it. Grandma will threaten Haru with a cane each time she jumps up the piano top. The moment grandma walks away, Haru jumps up the piano top again and does her grooming there, sometimes even having a siesta there😹Haru still gets fascinated with plastic bags. If she sees one on the floor, she will jump into the bag and waits for us to carry her around in the bag 😻
Musang King Durian
Hubs still brings home MK durians everyday. We’re on a roll!! Everyone at home loves durians and we even have them for lunch or dinner.
If you’re looking for good quality MK durians, you can give Alan a call or Whatsapp him at wa.me/60198981881
Heavenly combo – Roti Jala with Serawa Durian at RM28/set. Hubs cooked these himself as his two chefs are still not back at work. They’re staying at an area that’s under EMCO.
Sorry for the lack of updates. As usual, life without Maria around helping me has been tough. Ever since I accepted a job offer to work from home, I have even lesser time on hand to update my blogs. I only have 2 hours each night to do my writing and assignments. I still can’t sacrifice my one hour of me-time every morning to exercise and meditate. It gives me the tranquility that I need.
Late last week, Maria was absent from work as a cleaner at our condo. She wasn’t feeling well. She had body aches, felt dizzy and had chills. When she Whatspped me to tell me her symptoms, I was quite positive that she may be infected. I nagged her to get tested as she was reluctant and sad to say, still very ignorant on the Covid symptoms and severity. Yesterday my worst nightmare came true. Maria was tested positive for Covid-19😭.
Ever since Maria did the Covid swab test on Sunday, she has not been answering my calls or Whatsapp messages, which got me even more suspicious. It was her friend, another cleaner at our condo who reluctantly told me the news yesterday. I will give Maria space and time to grieve and accept her fate before I try to Whatsapp her again to check on her.
When the area that Maria is staying turned into a Covid cluster early last week, I was quite certain that Maria would get infected. She and her friends stay above a shop and I can imagine how crowded the shophouse is. Crowded and unhygienic conditions are the main cause of infection among foreign workers. I would Whatsapp Maria everyday to remind her how grave the Covid situation is at our neighborhood, especially where she’s staying. I would remind her to put on her mask even at home as she’s sharing with friends. I would remind her not to gallivant about and to follow SOPs strictly. I guess she was somewhat lax. The Delta variant is airborne and is travelling around the world at a scorching pace. Anyone who’s lax can get infected as the virus is at every corner, waiting to find a host.
Now, something about the Covid self-test kit. Last week, the plaza management of where Maria stays did a Covid test using self-test kits on all the foreign workers staying at the shophouses. Maria was tested negative. Two days later when she developed symptoms, I urged her to get a Covid swab test done. But she bought a self-test kit and was tested negative. I am not sure if she did the test correctly. The Covid swab test done at a clinic finally tested her positive on Sunday. The Covid self-test kits are not 100% accurate and I would urge you to get a proper swab test done at a clinic if you have symptoms of Covid.
With this, it looks like Maria will not be able to return to our home to work anytime soon. According to the MOH, the Covid virus will remain in an infected person’s body for 3 months but the virus will not infect anyone. But we are not taking any risk. I have a highly vulnerable old folk at home and 3 daughters who are not vaccinated yet. The road ahead is too foggy with no light at the end. The Covid situation in the Klang Valley is still extremely grave and everyday I hear of someone I know getting infected. Yesterday, I found out from Facebook that our hairdresser’s husband died. He was only in his early 50s. These days when you see obituary of someone who’s still young, you can’t help but to point the cause of the death to Covid. A chap from my mum’s church in Ipoh recently died of Covid. He died after receiving his second dose of the Covid vax.
I think I would give Maria at least 5 months to fully recover before we can safely have her back into our home. My mil may even stigmatize Maria but I pray that she will not 🙏. Many things can happen in a span of 5 months. Maria may even choose to go back to Indonesia for good to be with her toddler son after she’s recovered. I don’t know. Things are very uncertain and there’s nothing that we can plan now with Covid still lurking around at every nook and corner.
Tomorrow is my second dose vaccination day. Honestly after hearing news of people dying after receiving their second dose, I am feeling a tad edgy. But avoiding the vaccination is something that no one should choose in view of how fast and furious the Delta variant is spreading.
I cannot fathom how children will be allowed to go back to school next month when the government made an about-turn again on the vaccination for children aged 12 years and above. The decision is now a NO go for children aged 12 years and above to get vaccinated. Though I would really love for my girls to go back to school and college, I know I am going to be worried sick of them when they do. When schools reopened this year, almost every school in the country had positive Covid cases. Two weeks into opening, schools were ordered to be closed again.
Cass has been peeling Japanese mangosteens for me for the past two days. It’s really heart-warming to get pampered by her. I told her this “I have always wanted you to pamper me with love but you always protested and tampered with my temper. Today you finally pampered me with love and I cant believe how ample this love is now. You finally tamed my temper” 🥰Sambal sotong that hubs cooked at his central kitchen today. We had a tub for dinner. Tiger prawns masak gulai, cooked by hubs too and an extra tub for us for dinner today.
Hubby’s chefs are staying at an area that’s still under a targeted MCO / EMCO. With no chefs around, hubs has to do all the cooking himself – from preparation to cooking and from Western to Malay cuisines! He’s now a one-leg kick in his kitchen. He spends his free time watching videos on cooking on You Tube 🤭
This pandemic is truly a test of one’s perseverance, tenacity, grit and tolerance to hardship, not only for our family but many other people who have been affected in one way or another. May God see us through this very difficult time 🙏
These are the delectables cooked by Sherilyn on Sunday and Monday.
Sunday – Ratatouille.
Ratatouille – composed of zucchini, egg plant, tomatoes and traffic light colors bell peppers. A healthy dish for all and sundry. It’s labor intensive and time consuming but very yummy.
Monday – grilled chicken and baked smashed potatoes. Both dishes were decadent. If you like French fries, try making baked smashed potatoes. They’re healthier (and crispy too) and so much more yummier. Littered with herbs, black pepper, olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt, the potatoes are really addictive.
When the chicken thighs were in the oven, the sides of the baking paper touched the hot inner walls of the oven and there was fire in the oven! I was out and when I came back, Sherilyn nonchalantly told me that she had to clean up the ashes in the kitchen coz she almost burnt down the kitchen 😲. I have been telling her repeatedly to be extra careful of the sides of the baking paper touching the inner oven walls but 🙄
Baked smashed potatoes – yummiest potato ever. Stans of potato must try this, which is a healthier version of French fries. The outer skin of the potato is super crispy and inner parts are soft.Fish head curry from hubby’s central kitchen, my favorite! So delish I could chomp down the entire portion 😬
I was at my ‘Peace Path’ at 10:30 a.m. yesterday when Cass Whatsapped me to ask me where I was. I sent her this photo to show her where I was.
This ‘Peace Path’ gives me the absolute peace that I need every morning before I start off my long and tiring day. No matter how tight my schedule is, I will try to squeeze out at least 40 minutes a day to brisk walk, jog, pray and meditate around this ‘Peace Path’ at our condo grounds. With Covid-19 unceremoniously disrupting our lives and livelihood, I need this 40-60-minute-a-day time by myself more than ever to seek solace.
After getting my dose of Vitamin D and serotonin, I went to hubby’s central kitchen to get our lunch.
Ikan masak cili berlada (Mackeral fish)Ayam masak gulai (drumsticks)Ayam Masak MerahDeep fried fish bubbling in the wok of hot oil. The aroma wafting in the kitchen is divine! Can you imagine being masked up in KN95 face mask in the kitchen? This is what hubs and his staff have to endure everyday. So do appreciate the food that you order from online sellers. It’s tough hot work.
Today is a no-cooking day for us as our in-house teenager chef still has an on-going online exam. And I still have several articles to submit to my boss for July. Have I told you that I received a job offer several weeks ago? The contract is for 1 year. So amidst my already hectic life without Maria helping me until the Covid situation abates, I now have another ‘helping’ on my already full-to-the-brim plate. But I have no complaints. The job came at an opportune time when any additional side income is a great relief to us.
My treat to the girls for dinner – chicken teriyaki, minced pork katsu and burdock salad from our regular Japanese economy rice shop.
We had some excess food from hubby’s shop today and my thought immediately went to Maria. I’ve been wanting to send her food ever since we told her to stop coming to our house temporarily until the number of Covid cases go down and stabilizes. We have a very vulnerable folk at home and do not want to risk her health. Maria has also been told to take unpaid leave from her job as an office cleaner until the lockdown is lifted. She must be financially very tight now.
I called Maria and arranged a place and time to meet up. I gathered all the excess food from hubby’s shop, gave her a box of Vitamin C effervescent to boost her immune system, packed some snacks, bread and kuih and met her at 99 Speedmart. Before I got down from the car, the MIL who was with me passed a RM50 note to me and asked me to give it to Maria 💗
I am meeting Maria again tomorrow to pass her today’s excess food from hubby’s shop. I’m going to pass her some disposable face masks as well. I was shocked when she told me last year that she washed her disposable masks for reuse! I told her to not do that again and then gave her some thick washable face masks.
Delish Chicken Varuval from hubby’s central kitchen, which we had for dinner today and shared some with Maria.New dessert from Catermate – Pengat Durian / Serawa Durian. This is da bomb, my absolute favorite and ultimate kryptonite. I’ve been eating this dessert for 2 days straight for my breakfast 🤭. All our friends who tried it gave their thumbs up. It’s really 👍Here’s Haru saying “happy weekend”. We all love her to bits. Guess who her most favorite person is in the house? It’s her hooman dad!! She loves to go near me watching me as I go about with the house chores but she doesn’t really like to be stroked 😹
Our country will go into a total lockdown for the second time effective 1 June 2021. All business sectors will be closed except for 17 essential sectors. It looks like Sherilyn and Cass will continue to have online learning for at least 2 or 3 more months. And hubby’s catering business will continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic and lockdown 😭. He’s suffocating. We’re suffocating. I pray that this pandemic will die out. I miss our carefree pre-Covid19 days. Though the days were tiring and hectic, at least our lives were not affected financially.
Ever since the PM announced another lockdown, I’ve been in a dilemma. As the pandemic does not seem to have a near end in sight, I’ve been pondering if I should postpone registering Alycia for the September 2021 intake in college and delay it to January 2022 instead. Hubs has been telling me that it’s pointless for Alycia to start college this year as studies will only be done online and it’s highly unlikely that she can step foot into college yet. Her friends who were registered for the March 2021 intakes have not gone to college yet. But Alycia is raring to start her Foundation program in September this year as she doesn’t want to waste time lollygagging at home. What say everyone? This is such a tough decision to make.
Cass has been working out and running quite a bit lately. Her latest interest is yoga mat exercises with Haru next to her cheering her on and gnawing on the mat.Our lunch from hubby’s central kitchen, Catermate today. I brought my own tiffin carrier to takeaway Mee Siam and Ayam Penyet (Malay style fried chicken). He cooked the dried shrimps sambal today!
Alycia has finally tendered her resignation from the international pre-school and after-school care center. Her last day of work will be 31 May 2021. She’ll spend her time working on her You Tube channel and most probably find another temp job before starting college in September 2021. In between, she’ll be having driving lessons. She’ll be sitting for her online ‘undang-undang’ test this Saturday at the driving school’s head office in Puchong.
Lovely well-thought of Teacher’s Day gifts from the mothers of the two boys whom Alycia’s currently tutoring at the center. The mothers of the two boys are very appreciative and thankful that their sons have shown marked improvement in their studies. On the left is a cookies and cream scented hand sanitizer and the gadget on the right is a Pocket Angel self-defense personal alarm. I think these are such wonderful gifts. Our dinner of Mee Siam and sambal sotong from hubby’s central kitchen, Catermate, yesterday.We also had pan-grilled pre-marinated chicken chop. The chickens that I ordered from freshayamking.com were sent to us yesterday; the chickens are free from antibiotics and growth hormones.Sides of pan-grilled king oyster mushrooms, onions and aubergine. Haru with her new scratch post toy. She’s now almost 5 months old, weighs 2kg and looks like a grown cat. She’s still playful but has mellowed down a wee bit. I miss our 2-month old Haru’s baby face. Her face has changed completely in just 3 months!Big girl already but still cute in our eyes.
Sherilyn made Korokke (Japanese Potato Croquettes) for dinner today. They were super fattening but how can I resist when they’re so so delish and crispy?! I whacked quite a bit and then felt super guilty. All these will slowly come to an end when she goes back to school next week . We’ve all enjoyed a year of being her guinea pigs and will have to wait for the next school hols to try her new recipes again.
Hopefully there will be no more MCO and no more home quarantine, ever!
Hubby cooked these for a VVIP lunch event today:
Pan fried chicken chop.Pan fried salmon.
Do check out Catermate if you need catering or bento boxes delivered to your home or office.
Follow
. We’ve all enjoyed a year of being her guinea pigs and will have to wait for the next school hols to try her new recipes again. 
