Happy New Year 2012

I can't believe 2011 is ending and 2012 is just  3 days away. I have been religiously writing my resolution each year but I am far from achieving all of them. Here's a recap of my 2011 resolutions:

1. Stop Procrastination - I need to be more proactive and perform the tasks I have listed according to priority. ---> I still need to work on this, procrastination is still one of my bad habits.

2. Time management - I need to rise early and go to bed early. To get to work by 8 am and get home by 6pm --> I achieved this unintentionally since I usually get to work by 7.30am, sharing a taxi with the rest of my colleagues. I need to keep this routine when I get home.
3. Health - Exercise at least 3 times a week! (swimming and going to the gym) -->Failed. Basically, no exercise when I'm here (except when I'm travelling!). I need to work on this!
4. Finance - Start a passive income channel (e.g: online biz, gold investment) --> Still nothing :(
5. Work - Improve on my programming skills (NI SW and scripting) --> Still lacking, need to improve!
6. Attitude - Improve on my self belief and confidence! --> Need more work!
7. Lifestyle - Read at least 1 book a quarter and learn to bake cake! --> Baking cakes, yes,but book...err nope :(
 
My 2012 New Year Resolutions:
 
1. Family : Spend more time with my hubby & family. I have been away from home too long.
2. Lifestyle : Cook 3 meals a week at home.
                   : Bake at least once a month.
3. Health   : Continue with my yoga class.
                  : Swim once a week
                  : Eat my oats 4 times a week & loads of fibre and fruits
4. Financial : Start stock investment.
                   : Business ideas
                   : Increase my home loan mortgage payment by 50%.  
                   : Read financial & economic news every week!
5. Work : Write automation scripts.
             : Process improvement ideas (at least 1 per quarter)
             : Study work material 2 times a week
6. Attitude : Improve on my concentration!
                   : Socialise more with friends.
                   : Improve on my Self-belief
                  
Alright, I have to make sure I stick to this and stay true to my resolutions!!!
 
Happy New Year everyone!! :)
                                  

Christmas 2011

Finally it snowed in Debrecen on the 17th December 2011.
We decided to go to the city center that day since there is a Christmas Market there too. Colorful lights, fresh snow and freezing cold, definitely brought in the Christmas spirit!

It's snowing! or "esik a hó" (in Hungarian!). There's a big Christmas tree in front of the Yellow church too!

I decided to bake some Christmas cuppies and muffins for my colleagues...The muffins baked were very healthy and wholesome wholewheat banana honey walnut muffins!

The bigger muffins doesn't look very presentable, thus I decided to give the smaller cupcakes to my colleagues instead.

All wrapped up, with homemade Christmas greeting cards.

On 19th December, some of my colleagues came over to my apartment for some Palinka shots prior to our annual Manufacturing dinner which is held at the same apartment I stayed at.

A newcomer to the family

Presenting my lil' niece, E Jean..

Please mind the photo quality, picture was captured from my webcam!
Isn't she a cutie? :)

My first banana walnut cake

It's a lazy weekend. Rather than doing nothing, I decided to bake a cake since I have all the basic baking ingredients needed. While scouring through the web for some ideas of what to bake, I decided to bake a banana walnut cake since I have a few over-ripe bananas sitting in the fridge. Also, since I am a novice in cake-baking, banana cake seems like a good choice since it is touted to be one of the simplest cake to make! haha.. Luckily, a friend of mine actually bought a hand mixer and creaming the sugar and butter with mixer definitely help to speed things up!
Recipe has been adapted from here. I have reduced the amount of brown sugar by at least 10% of the recommended amount since I dislike the cake to be too sweet. I didn't have much confident when I stirred all the ingredients in, but I guess this is indeed a no-brainer cake to bake after all ..Here's the outcome of the cake, not perfect but definitely edible! hehe...

Fresh from the oven! Love the aroma!

Cooling down..

Removed from the loaf pan.

Tada...my banana walnut cake!

Note: The slightly burnt area you see were actually that of the skin of the walnuts.
A lesson to learn: I need to embed the walnut into the mixture next time rather than exposing them since the thin walnut skin gets burnt easily. Either that or I will have to remove the flaky skin on the walnut.

As for the taste, still as yummy!!

I will definitely be making this again :)

Frosty Day

Today, I woke up to an -8 degrees temperature outside. When I looked out from my apartment's window, what I could see was only a white landscape..icy, cold and foggy...I initially thought that it was snowing, but apparently that's not the case..it is just freeze or frost or you can call it just ice covering all over the place..The landscape looked surreal, it was really cool to be frank, it's like living in a refrigerator, or perhaps freezer in this case since it is below freezing temperature..check out the pictures!

Remember this picture that I took in my last posting?

This is how it looked like now!!

The frosty landscape at the carpark in front of my company. Yes, even at this temperature, some people still ride a bicycle to work!

Looked like it's snowing, don't you think? But no, it's definitely not snow but purely just ice covering the whole area! :P

Change of Seasons

Wow.. 4 months have passed...
I still remembered on the first day I arrived in this country, my heart was filled with trepidation and anxiety...
However,4 months later, and reflecting back, I'm glad I've made this decision to come. How often do we get the experience of living in a foreign country especially in a country where people don't speak English right? :)

As of now, most of us are able to understand some basic Hungarian language and we have adapted to the Hungarian Culture especially food-wise..we must have gotten used to the saltiness in the food! haha..Walking on the street alone is no longer a concern since we could understand and speak a smattering of Hungarian! yay! :D

From summer to autumn and now winter is coming real soon..time fliesssss...Next, I can't wait for the fluffly snowwww!!

Here's some pictures I've dug out from my vast collection on the season of change!


Summer time: View from my balcony


Autumn : View from my balcony



End of Autumn: We see the freeze everyday and the leaves, grasses and ground are always wrapped in a layer of ice every morning..simply beautiful! Temperature has dipped below freezing too!And it's getting so much foggier...

11.11.11

Since this only happens once a century, here's wishing everyone a
Happy 11.11.11!!
I'm definitely lagging behind my posts!!I need to get back to you soon dear bloggie!

12-9-2011

12th Sept 2011.

A special day.

For one, it's Mid-autumn festival! Mooncakes & Lanterns!
And also,D-Day I shall remember forever *wink*
The very day I ended my singlehood too!
Yep, the day I registered.
My ROM.

I'm officially married now! :)

Time flies.. 2.5 weeks to go!

1.5 months whizzed by too quickly in which I think is a good thing. It just meant that I'm enjoying myself here and settling well.

It's funny to think that before I came here, my mind was shrouded with all the negative thoughts and I gave my worst expectation when I came here.
I expected my life to be such a bore since they aren't that many things to do here as Debrecen is a small city. Also, language barrier may complicate matters as not many people speak English here.

Little did I know that in 1.5 months, I've learnt to actually love this place! I was definitely wrong to think that this place will be a boring place! In this summer time alone, I've attended countless festivals and celebrations! People here are really warm, nice and friendly despite the big cultural and language differences! I've come to love the Hungarian language too! Initially I had complained about how difficult the language was. But with constant practice and many good "teachers" helping, my command of language have improved tremendously! As of now, I actually felt like "home" here. And indeed, I am loving it here :).

Tomorrow, I will be heading back home for 2.5 weeks for my home trip. I rarely mention about this, but the main reason is because, I am getting married!! :) Yes, in 2.5 weeks time!

It's indeed a challenge to do my wedding prep many miles away from home. Thankfully, with the advent of technology, almost everything could be done from the internet!

Hopefully, I will have a safe trip home.

Dang! Now I really miss home, as in my home sweet home in Penang!

Vislat! (Goodbye in Hungarian)


Look how tanned I've become!! :|



Scottish thistle thriving at Hungary!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Bloggie!

Wow..time really flies..it's the 3rd anniversary of my blog!!
Happy to note that it's still active for now! Reminder to myself, I have to keep on writing! :)


Here's a pic of myself on a 3-wheeler inconjuction with my blog's 3rd Birthday!!
Woo hoo!!

Jo Reggelt! (means Good morning! in Hungarian)

Got up pretty late today after a tiring trip to Budapest yesterday (will blog more on that later!). This is my brunch for the day.

Leftover fried rice & tiny portion of leftover stirfried chicken&potatoes.

Team dinner

Today, my manager here invited me over for a dinner at Calico Jack, which according to them is one of the best restaurant in Hungary that serves great food! The best part is that the restaurant is within walking distance from my apartment, so I took a 15 minutes walk there.

This is how it looks like from the outside. It is actually built to look like a ship.In the interior there's a lot of pirates decor, and on the top floor, there's even a big steering wheel or helm on the "ship", with a Captain Jack lookalike figurine. Too bad I could not take any photographs since the top floor was closed.

This is the rustic looking menu that resembles a treasure chest,perhaps? :P

The drink I ordered, the lemonade. Love the lemonade here, it's a mixture of lemon and orange slices with fizzy water! So refreshing!

I ordered a soup as entree. This is Norwegian crab soup with salmon. It tasted sooo good!! I simply love to eat fish!!!

Of course, the next on the menu is a must have for any Hungarian events, so Palinka it is. (Palinka is a popular Hungarian brew made from fruit juices, basically if you can make jams with it, you can make Palinka!) . This time the Palinka I took is made of pear and I took 1 shot of it..To me it tasted very much like Tequila..surprisingly, I kind of like it! haha! For your information, this drink contains at least 45% alcohol!!

Lastly, my dessert of the day. I did not plan to order this, but my manager insisted that I should try as it is a Hungarian specialty..and the mere mention of the word "chocolate" made me changed my mind quickly! haha..And this is soooooo gooodd!!!It's a sponge cake topped with warm chocolate melts with a hint of rum, together with whipped cream on the side! Soooo fattening but it's too delicious and too hard too resist!!

Alright, you must be wondering what happened to the main course right?? Hahha, actually I have forgotten to take a picture of it! I must be too hungry then! :P Anyway I ordered a pork dish. Basically it was fried pork with breadcrumbs stuffed with bacon and cheese, with potatoes and onions as side. This was yummy too!!!

In conclusion, two thumbs up for this restaurant!! hehe

Finally, a group photo!!! :)..I learnt to say "yum seng" in Hungarian but it was too long for me to remember! haha

After the meal, I walked back home again..A good exercise as I was too stuffed!! I need to shed off some weight too!!

When I reached home, I decided to cook some rice for tomorrow's lunch consumption.

And this is what happened... :(

My burnt rice!! :( A failed attempt to cook rice with my microwave oven..sigh. In my previous attempt, I added too much water and my cooked rice became too soggy. This time around, I reduced the amount of water slightly, but now all I got is this overburnt rice!! Gosh, I really need to improvise my rice cooking formula! Anyway, my shipment is still stuck at the customs at Budapest..and I'm highly anticipating my rice cooker!! When can I get it?? sigh...

HK trip with parents-Outdated post

On 9th to 13th March 2011, I was lucky to be able to explore Hong Kong and Macau with my parents. Myself as the tour guide, this is a diary of our experiences in HK as a reminder to myself. I'll be back one day, for sure :)...Overall, it's an enjoyable trip although tiring at times. I hope my parents enjoyed it as much as I do too...This is a brief account on what we did in HK.,

Day 1 :Bound for HK..in the flight with mom and dad :)


Our Hotel Room, YMCA Salisbury Tsim Tsa Tsui..a highly recommended stay!!


Day 2: Macau, here we come!!
We took a Ferry from the China-Macau Ferry Terminal.


Enjoying the Portuguese Egg Tart outside Koi Kei Bakery. We have bought many boxes of the yummylicious almond cookies too, a popular snack here.


A must visit in Macau is none other than the many casinoes that dotted the area. Reminded me of Las Vegas.


Day 3: We're at Ngong Ping 360 Deg Cable Car ride!. Heading towards the big Buddha statue at Tung Chung.


After climbing so many steps upwards, we manage to reach the top of the Buddha statue! Good job to mom and dad!


Again, my landmark jump! hehe..


After we got down from the cable car, we managed to do some shopping at the Outlet Mall at Ngong Ping called Citigates mall.


At night, we decided to stop by Mongkok. Mongkok, is well known for its many food stalls and the various streets selling unique items..Apart from that, it's also the place where the famous Ladies' Night Market is located. To me, there's nothing special on this market, it look something like our Petaling Street.


Day 4: Wong Tai Sin temple!

After the temple visit, we went to the Central district by the high-speed train. Central district on Hong Kong island is the at the heart of the city, a bustling city with skyscrapers and great shopping malls and shops!! Definitely a shopping paradise for me! hehe. In the picture above, the ascending steps here was a familiar scene. It reminded me of some of the scenes in the HK TVB dramas. Typically these narrow paths are a popular shot for the police and thief/bandits road chase on bikes!! Why I said that? That's because at the time I was there, there's already a filming in progress. Guess who I saw? haha..it's Louise Koo and Daniel Wu!! Too bad I didn't manage to snap any pictures. There's just too many plain-clothes policeman and guards all around that prevented me from taking any pictures! :(

There..this is the best that I could capture..in case you're wondering who, that's Louise Koo with his back facing us! haha! :p


At night, we proceeded to The Peak, the highest lookout point at HK.
In the picture, mom and dad's in the tram. On the way up!


That's me posing in front of the 360 deg viewing platform!


The night view! Too bad it was slightly foggy that day :|


Day 5: Final day!!! A relatively free and easy day. We decided to walk around the HK Avenue of Stars! Actually this place is just right across the street from our hotel! :)


Once again, it's too foggy, can barely see the skyscrapers at HK Island.


The iconic Bruce Lee statue!

And here's some of the food selection we enjoyed here..

Mom and dad enjoying the selection of dim sums here!



This sums up our 5 day, 4 nights trip to HK! :)