Baking tragedies this week

Apologies for the week-long absence.

We hosted Invest Malaysia 2008, together with Bursa Malaysia and AmInvestment Group. All in all, I think it went pretty well. Of course there were some issues here and there but nothing really major happened and hopefully, everyone managed to get what they wanted out of it!

So, it's the end of the week, I am super exhausted and I can't wait for the weekend! Sigh... But I have class tomorrow. At least I hope to get a good night's sleep tonight.

I've been baking a little to reduce stress. Baked Banana and Honey cupcakes last Saturday. They came out too sweet I think.. But Aunty Rubyann said they were nice! I made them again last night, but with less sugar and more bananas... and included the walnuts which were originally in the recipe. Funnily enough, the cupcakes the second time round tasted less banana-y despite the fact that I used way more bananas. Anyhow, I have 6 of them in a container next to me now and am not inclined to offer anyone.

I just dont get it.. Everytime I bake something to bring to the office, it's not so nice. But when I make it for other ppl, like on Saturday when I made it for church, it was alright!

Oh yes, on Saturday, I also made my first attempt at macaroons. Now Im not sure why, but they came out too bloody sweet that I just left them in the container. I had caster sugar and almond powder. Evelyn thinks its cos the almond powder I used was already sweet so I shd have used less sugar. Perhaps... Sigh..

Last night, I also attempted to make bread. Sadly, the dough did not rise at all as expected. Maybe I did something wrong. But anyhow, it was great to be kneading the dough cos it really helped to reduce stress. Hehe..

With all my baking "mishaps" this past week, I was too depressed to take any pictures.

On the food front, I've had an overdose of fancy Japanese meals the past 2 days.

First was a Wednesday lunch in Wasabi at the Mandarin Oriental. Our conference was held there so I had a nice lunch with my colleagues there. Aunty ordered as usual and it was a lot of food! I told Rommel later that day that there was a plateful of sashimi leftover at the end. We couldn't eat anymore! We had Kumi's No. 1, dobin mushi, sashimi platter, garlic chahan, teppanyaki beef and chicken and tempura moriawase.

Second was Wednesday's dinner - this wasn't fancy la but I was walking around KLCC while waiting for Rommel to pick me up so I bought some sashimi and sushi for dinner from the Isetan supermarket. Also bought a saba fish so Evelyn lightly salted and grilled it in the oven (saba shioyaki) when I got home.

Third was Thursday's lunch with a client - Kampachi at Hotel Equatorial. I had a Saba Shioyaki lunch. This was the same as my dinner actually but I was happy. Had a craving for Saba.

So for today's lunch, I just didn't feel like having Japanese anymore. We ate at Etoile in Equatorial with another client.. I had a Nicoise salad, took a slice of Sunaina's garlic bread and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Now, to decide what to have for dinner.... Hmmm...

And another thing. I have finally submitted my leave for June... am going back to London! Wheee.... Covent Garden, Selfridges, TopShop, Oxford St, Harrods.... Here I come!! That's just the shopping. Also cant wait to eat Belgo's mussels in Covent Garden, FarmerBrown's beef steak sandwiches in Covent Garden, Richoux's scones in Knightsbridge, Imperial China dimsum in Chinatown, Misato in Chinatown.... Gosh the list is practically never ending! I can go on and on about places I really miss in London.

We are also planning to go back to Lourdes. It's in the south of France, nearer towards Spain. Absolutely gorgeous little town where we shall go and be holy and pray. I fell in love with the place when we first visited in the summer of 2005.

In fact, we flew there just 2 days after the London bombings. Yes my family had actually arrived into London the day before the bombings and since my flat was in Covent Garden, let's just say we were smack in the middle of it all. Phones were not working, we were glued to the TV watching for updates, we dashed out to Tesco to get food and bottled water... saw the military walking in the middle of Covent Garden Square... and for most of the time, Covent Garden/Trafalgar Square/Picadilly Circus transformed into one of the scenes from "28 days later". There wasn't a soul around! I remember how surreal those few days were.

So anyway, getting back to my point, we flew to Lourdes 2 days after the bombings. It was a rather poignant time for reflection and prayer. (I remember also having to pray very hard my exam results were ok.) Shen, perhaps this time it's your turn to pray hard that you pass your exams too!!

Rommel was thinking of visiting another place as well, perhaps Majorca (his suggestion) or Barcelona (my suggestion). I've never been to either so am pretty cool with both.

Shen and Patty, can you guys come up with suggestions? I actually feel like going back to Paris as well. I dunno... So many choices!

Okay, that's all for now! Ta...