Rabbit-and-Bear-Heads Egg

Tuesday, 26 Feb 08, 10.08pm at home

Hellow my diary,
It's already late at night now but I'm still writing diary. You must be thinking that there must be something very urgent and important till I can't wait till tomorrow morning. No No No. You are wrong. It's bloody non-urgent and the most unimportant blog I've ever written so far.

You see the picture on the left. I just made eggs with rabbit and bear faces! Aren't they cute?? I bought these few months ago but I never had chance to make the eggs. Because, I tried it once and I wasn't successful. The egg that I bought was giant size so these rabbit and bear templates were too small for my eggs. Since then, I thought I wasn't able to use these anymore. Till one day, I tried it again! This time, my eggs were smaller. But still I had problem closing it. I had to slowly push the eggs from left and right, up and bottom, to be able to perfectly fit in the template, close it, and lock it properly with a cute sound of 'click!'. You know, it's the same concept of pushing my tummy's fats into my tight jeans, hold my breath, zip it up, and lock the button! Phew! Only one different thing, which is: I only need one small finger to slowly and gently push the egg in, whereas, I need my both palm of hands to push my sancham into the jeans harshly, cruelly, and brutally!

Anyway, I managed to make these rabbits and bears faces eggs! *Then, what did you do with the eggs?* I made 'Semur Kecap' with those eggs. You know what, those cute faces didn't last long. Once I put them inside the hot black ketchup sauce, they were just back to their original shape. Normal eggs. Normal round eggs. Normal round black eggs! That's good, so I won't feel guilty eating those rabbit and bear heads..

-Abbie-

*Is that all you want to write in the middle of the night???*

TGIH

Friday, 22 Feb 08, 10.30am at home

Hellow little diary..
Today is Friday. My favorite day of the week! Usually people call it TGIF (Thanks God It's Friday). Well, for me now, everyday is like Friday. So, I should say TGIH (Thanks God It's Holiday or Thanks God I'm Housewife)! We have to keep saying thanks in whatever condition we're going through. Yes, my current occupation is "Housewife". In Indonesian, housewife means "Ibu Rumah Tangga". But, I don't like to call myself an Ibu Rumah Tangga because:
- I'm not an 'Ibu' (mother) yet
- I stay in apartment, not in a 'Rumah' (house with garden, fence, and stuff)
- My apartment has emergency fire stairs, but not 'Tangga' (stairs) that usually a 2-storey 'Rumah' has.
In conclusion, I'm not an 'Ibu Penjaga Rumah dan Tangganya' (A mother who takes care of the house and her stairs). So, I think it's more correct if I call myself a housewife, which means a wife who stays in the house. Do you think so?

I like a Japanese word for housewife, which is "Shufu". In Chinese, shufu means teacher. I'm imagining of becoming the kungfu teacher among the monks in the temple when I say "Watashi wa shufu desu!" with setting my voice low, my chin up, and my chest a lil bit in front. I almost put my both hands together on my chest like a shaolin teacher.

People tend to ask a housewife this question "What do you do at home?". This question is similar to "What do you do in the bathroom?" or "What do you do when you're in the office?" When we're in the bathroom, of course we're bathing. When we're in the office, of course we're doing office works. Isn't it too obvious? So, answering the first question: We're at home because... we're wives who stay at home! Where else should we be? *You're not answering, what do you at home?* A housewife, of course she's doing house works! *Isn't that a similar role of "Ibu Penjaga Rumah dan Tangganya"??*

Anyway, enough about renungan pagi. This is what I cooked in the 2nd class of my cooking course. Cooking is part of the house works and this is my way of improving my house-work-skill. *Why?* Because this is what I call " my current achievement" in this field so I want to do it better and better. In whatever role God set us up, we still have to perform the best, rite? That's one way I know on how to say 'Thank You' to Him.

The menu:
1. Kimchi Soup
2. Chichimi (Korean Pancake) + the sauce
3. Pumpkin Ice Cream
4. Ice water?

These last few days, we started something. Something new for us. Something very meaningful for our lives. The most important thing in this life. I really thank God to keep reminding us all these years till we were finally moved! This is our commitment, I'm soooo happy that we managed to start this! Aja Aja Fighting!

-Abbie-

D1or Gifts!

Wednesday, 20 Feb 08, 9.40am at home

Oh my goodness, diary!
I got these wonderful pretty presents from my dearest persons in this world on my bday! I like D1or so much and they gave me these. Thanks God for letting them know what I want!

D1or Earrings from Hubby

D1or Necklace from Sis

Actually when my parents came in Dec, they brought the necklace from my sis. And, on one fine sunny day when I was wearing this necklace, I'm not sure whether my beauty was blinding him or it was because of the sunbeams....
Hubby: "Wow, it's best if you're also wearing the matching earrings"
Me: "Yes I know. That's why I'll be buying the earrings"
Hubby: [I saw a bridge in between his two eyebrows. He must be astonished by my beauty to the max till couldn't say anything]
Few weeks passed by.

This is my confession. I want to write it here so that I can remember forever. Last nite we're trying to remember what gift he gave me for my last year's birthday and we still couldn't remember, then I said "I'll go back and check on my little diary". You see, this is very important! Brain can forget, but my little diary can't. This is also very important for me to remember especially when I've doubt about him. You know, girl has never felt enough no matter how much she takes. I never feel full even tough I just eat one big cething of rice, you believe it??

Ok, back to story, yesterday was my birthday, in the morning before he left for work, he booked me for dinner. Earlier, I rejected his invitation by saying that we had meats in the fridge that must be cooked today otherwise it would expire tomorrow bla bla bla. Now I put this in words, I feel that I'm like an old lady who only cares about meats and vegetables and tomatoes and potatoes. At 6.30pm he called me to confirm the dinner at 8pm in Ginza, when I was chatting with my sis in MSN. Initially I didn't mean to dress up since 8pm is almost errr...a bed time. But, she insisted. These are the last minute tips from my sis:
- Wear pretty and sexy dress inside the winter coat
- Do the hair differently
- Put light-but-nice make-up
- Make sure there's no smell from armpits and remove the unnecessary things over there
- Don't quarrel
- Smile mysteriously when first meeting him
- Make him think that he's dating his girlfriend, not his wife!
I was not sure about the last 2 points but I still typed "Ho oh" in MSN and decided to figure these out later since I was busy kruwel2ing my hair.

When I was about to arrive the Ginza station, I sent him sms.
Me: "I'm one stop away from Ginza now. Where are you?"
Him: "I just arrived"
Once arriving, I gave him a call.
Me: "Where are you? Where should we meet?"
Him: "I'm in front of the bookshop, the one that we visited last time"
Me: [Omo, he's outside already! The bookshop is just beside that ****** shop! He must have ahh...] "Which exit door?"
Him: "I dunno"
Me: "Ehh?" [How can he not know? Now I'm sure he had already been a while outside there doing....]
Him: "Meet me at exit A5"
Me: "OKAY!!"
At the exit door, I saw him waving his hand, right across the street, giving signal that I should cross the street. He was standing just in front of that shop! My mind kept thinking, kept analysing, kept guessing. The pedestrian light was on, I was crossing the street.. giving my best 'mysterious' smile to him while walking.. really, that was a very nice feeling! My hard work was paid, he said I looked err.. pretty *ahh malu.. tutupan buku*. Then, he gave me a white shopping bag. I opened the bag, the ribbons, the box, everything, on the street! I didn't care if people thought I was kampungan. It was just out of control! I guess I managed to accomplish the last command from my sis, which is "act like his girlfriend, not his wife". Only a wife would open the gift at home, right?

Anyway, thank you sis, thank you honey.. God has sent both of you to me, to melengkapi satu sama laen.. I mean, melengkapi kebutuhanku.. ^_^

-Abbie-

My First Two Bday Gifts!

Monday, 18 Feb 08, 12.01pm at home

Dear diary,
Today is not my birthday yet, but some people already gave me presents. Is this the 2008 trend? Anyway, I'm touched by what they've done for me. Those are not gifts wrapped by pretty papers and ribbons, not big gifts inside box, not pricey gifts, but these gifts are specially made for me. I love this kind of gifts! Really!

1. The first gift was from a couple of husband and wife in my Saturday fellowship, the Kusumas. They are like our guardians.

2. The second gift was from my dearest cousin, C Safaroni. I guess she's flying to overseas today so she gave me the present one day earlier. Omo omo, she made the 'Manten-Jepun-Nganggo-Blangkon' become a real 'Jebule-Bang-Ron'!

Thank you! I really appreciate it! ^_^

-Abbie-

Val Day!

Thursday, 14 Feb 08, 11.38am at home

Dear diary,
Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I know, I have too much free time so I can make this useless childish thing. I spent my whole morning to prepare this, not so perfect though, I'll still give space for improvements. *You're so kind. You're preparing this for your neighbor's daughter!* Omo, actually errr.. I'm preparing this for my one and only family member in this town, who is no more and no less.. none else.. is.. ahh.. I'm too shy to tell you. You know who, I know who.. I know who, you know who.. that's enough. Hopefully he won't open this blog till tonight.

-Abbie-

p.s Just treat it as if this is how Japanese celebrates Val Day and this is what the Japanese girl gives to the guy. And I'm just following the tradition. Good, I'm feeling better now.

Lasagna

Tuesday, 12 Feb 08, 1.12pm at home

Dear my diary,
I learned how to make lasagna, hot salad sauce, cappuccino, and choco snack last week! It was fun! You see, I managed to make lasagna! I think I'm over excited now, but I'm so happy that I managed to make it! My cooking sensei taught me in Japanese. My classmate also spoke Japanese. I also spoke Japanese although my vocabularies that I used in the class were only: sumimasen (sorry), honto (really?), eh? (with raising one of my eyebrows), and ganbate (come on!).

Last weekend was a long weekend here. 3-days day off. It was a good break after a long tiring 5-days working. Well, I didn't feel the direct effect since I'm not working now but at least there was an indirect effect like; I didn't need to wake up early in the morning, I didn't have to prepare breakfast at 7am. And, I had chance to sort of 'showing-off' my lasagna cooking skill in front of my husband! I already bought the bowl, prepared the materials and the necessary & the unnecessary equipments. *Lasagna is a such sinful food! Lots of cheese, milk, cream, butter, oil, fats Fats FATS!!* Of course I realise this very important point. I always remember my never-ending diet. How can I forget if I have to face mirror every day. So, I came up with a new low-fat-not-really-delicious-but-that's-okay-lasagna recipe!
- I changed the milk to non-fat milk
- I cut the portion of milk by half and replaced it with more flour
- I cut the portion of butter by more than half
- I didn't use cheese at all
- I used chicken meat instead of pork meat
- I didn't use cooking oil, just used the meat oil that came out naturally when it's being cooked
- I used only 1 egg instead of 3 eggs
- I put two innocent rabbits on top of it, so it doesn't look too sinful.

I don't have an oven at home, so I used microwave. The result was not so good but it's still eatable. I had to remove the outer skin (the one with the rabbits) since the skin's very hard and I didn't want to sin more by eating those innocent rabbits. It should be covered with cheese that melts on the outer skin and I should use more eggs to make the skin so it won't be as hard as this now. Yes, I know my mistakes. One day, if I have slimmed down a bit, I'll make a lasagna with full of cheese and eggs!

-Abbie-

Gong Xi Fa Chai!!

Thursday, 7 Feb 08, 10.00am at home

Happy Chinese New Year, Diary!!
Last night I had dinner with my husband and some of our friends in Omotesando. That was a good feeling. At least I felt that I was not alone on the CNY night. Friends are also family, aren't they? For the last 26 years, I always spent my CNY night by having dinner with my family and ate Chinese Misoa in the first morning of New Year.

This morning, I cooked misoa, for me and for my husband. There's a saying that we must eat misoa before going out from home so that we'll be protected from the rain. I don't believe this kind of superstitious thing but I still want to continue this Chinese tradition in my generation and I'll still pass it to my next generation and my next next generation. Am I thinking too far? It's because I still want to feel the CNY mood every year. My mum said that I must cook Misoa for my own family in CNY, one day. I guess that 'one day' came too fast. That 'one day' is today! Today is my first time I spend CNY with my 'own' family. And I've started it with cooking 2 bowls of hot misoa this morning. I should also buy some oranges today and some red envelops? Ohh, that's the missing thing! Angpao! I don't get any angpao this year, or have not received yet?? Am I hoping too much?

There's one more Chinese tradition I should follow today, I should not sweep the floor; the dirtier the floor is, the more good things (money) will come. Yohoo..!! Without any guilt.. just let it dirty.. by the way, is there any term and condition for this custom? I mean, something like, we should not clean the floor IF ONLY there are guests coming to the house?? Because it does make sense; the more guests means the more angpaos received, then the dirtier the floor will be. So, we should not clean the floor till the next morning since today is the day to greet our guests! How if there's no guest coming to the house? So no angpao, yes, it makes sense. So, how about the cleaning issue? Ah ah, usually I also don't clean the floor everyday, so don't pretend to be Ms.Clean!

My schedule today? As I told you, I started my day by cooking Misoa and eating it. Then I watched Thukul (Empat Mata - Old and New series) from Youtube just to get laughed for a while before calling my mums and dads and relatives to say Happy New Year. I'll need to go to immigration and attend my cooking class after that. What a busy day, but all has nothing to do with this CNY season, except for the Misoa. It's okay, I'll wear red shirt, white pants, red bag, and red shoes today, and let everyone knows that I'm celebrating Indonesian Independence Day, uh, no, I mean, celebrating Chinese New Year today! Gong Xi Fa Chai! Have a prosperous year, more good things happen in this year!
Aja Aja!!

-Abbie-

Omo, Cooking Course now!

Wednesday, 6 Feb 08, 10.44am at home

Dear my little diary,
Yes, I took culinary course! My good friend asked me. Just started yesterday for the free trial. I'm so lucky that I got a heart-shape chocolate cake for my free trial since it's in the month of Feb, the month of love, the month of cake, the month of sweetness, the month of chocolate. Perfect! This means that I don't need to buy another cake to celebrate Valentine's Day, do I? Honestly, I was thinking of making a heart-shape cake for my husband on the V Day, but..but..but..I have no oven to bake the cake! So, can I use this cake instead, p..l..e..a..s..e..? Still have 8 more days, but that's okay, he will understand my situation since I can't take another trial again. I really want to buy an oven, but, I don't know how long more I can stay in Tokyo. In Japan, on V Day, the girl should give something to the guy on 14th Feb, and the guy will give something to the girl (should not be the same girl?) on 14th March. Funny, rite? Japanese's mind is really different. They are unique, creative, and not-following-what-it's-already-being-followed-by-the-rest!

This is picture of the kitchen studio. Cool, isn't? It is an open kitchen inside an expensive shopping mall, everyone who passes by can see us!

I took the 12x package cooking course from ABC Cooking Studio, not bread course, not cake course! It's cooking course! Cooking means, cooking. You know, mixing the garlic, oil, paprika, and stuff like that. *Japanese food?* Nehik, nehik! We can learn Western food, Korean food, Japanese food, Chinese food, etc, or mix, it's up to us. You know the reasons why I want to take cooking course and not the bread/cake course? It's because:
- I like eating rice
- I don't have oven
- I wanna practice straight away after I reach home
- I have to take the basic bread course (i.e roti tawar, roti isi, roti gula, dll), which I've 'learned' (read: 'seen') how to make it before...from my mum; before learning the more advanced course which I'm interested in (i.e pizza, muffin, egg tart, etc)

There are some interesting rules about learning cooking in Japan:
- We must bring our own aprons and wear!
- We must bring our own slippers (outside shoes are not allowed) and wear!
- We must put our belongings in the provided lockers and lock it
- We must tie our hair
- We must wear rubber gloves when wearing nail polish
- We must wash the cooking equipments, dry, and put them back after using them
- We must clean the table after using
- We must not take picture of others' food, only taking picture of our own food is allowed
- We must eat and finish our own cooked food in the kitchen after cooking, wash the plates, and put them back on the rack, there's a dining table provided
- We must not sell our food and make money to our classmates in the kitchen (outside the kitchen maybe ok)
I had to agree with the rules and sign on it, then I could sign up for the course.

My first cooking class will be tomorrow afternoon. I'll be cooking.... ahh, I'll tell you tomorrow! ^__^

-Abbie-

Second Snow in Tokyo

Wednesday, 6 Feb 08, 9.41am at home

Hi diary,
Again.. another snow in Tokyo on last Sunday. This time, the snow rain never stopped for 24 hours! I can't believe that Tokyo city had become a city in a fridge with ice every where. Before coming to Tokyo, I thought that it's very normal for Tokyo to snow. Actually it's not! So, don't blame me if I was too amazed!! The outside temperature was 0.6C. I did go out on Sunday, to see the Japanese used their transparent umbrellas (specially designed for snowing), to feel how snow fell on my own umbrella, to feel how the strong wind blew the snow upon me, to feel how the melting snow on the street wet my socks, and to let the snow sticked on my jacket and my hair. That was the heaviest snow rain with the strongest wind I've ever experienced in my life! I want to remember this moment and this feeling forever, that's why I put it in writing here. Probably that was my last snow in Tokyo, who knows??

-Abbie-