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 :)