My First Roast

When I first started fiddling with cooking, I have discovered that I loved it! Learning to cook Asian cuisines is the first few dishes I've cooked as I missed those very much. Thereafter, slowly ventured into making salads, pastas, western and finally roasting!

Here is my first roast...and the brussel sprouts to go with it ;) My Hubs absolutely loved it! We almost finished the whole chicken to ourselves. The leftovers we kept it for next day's use in the chicken salad. Brilliant!

The second roast I did, the carcass was used to make chicken stock. Somehow getting chicken carcass here is not possible, the markets here only sell chicken for boiling soup (it's just a more skinny chicken).

Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem

I always wanted to visit a zoo since I've moved here and recently, I have done it. Me and my Hubs visited the Burgers Zoo in Arnhem. This zoo is known as the best zoo in the country. We started our journey with lots of traffic jams but in the end it was worth it. The zoo was indeed amazing plus it was a perfect day for an outing like this - sunny but windy with perfect blue sky and scattered clouds.

The zoo was divided into 7 different themes: Desert, Safari, Bush, Ocean, Rimba, Animal Park and Mangrove. We got to see all these animals in their own habitats (or as close as possible). For instance, in the Desert theme, we were introduced to different types of cactus plants, birds, animals and especially the landscape that consists of rock formation which was constructed to depict the rocky part of a desert surroundings. Whereas in the Mangrove theme, we got to experience the humidity and hot conditions in a life-like mangrove habitat with all different kind of birds and plants living there. In the Safari theme on the other hand, huts and long houses as look-out points were built along the way for visitors to view the animals like as if you're in a safari! An eye opener! This is one zoo that is so different from what I'm used to back home (zoo with all the animals in a cage in one big area where most of the animals looked unhealthy and sad).

PS: Have you ever seen a fat and healthy looking vultures? I did in this zoo! Where are all the evil, skinny and wrinkly looking vultures have gone to? *Duh*
By the time we have finished touring the whole zoo, we were smacked into the rush hours so we decided to detour and visited Arnhem city. We'd our drinks and dinner on the terrace with the sun beating on our faces before heading back home. We'd thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on that day though we were tired after 5 hours of walking (in order to cover the whole zoo.) This is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

How I Became A Domestic Gal

A few of my friends (god blessed them as I don't get too many visitors) that came to visit me since I've moved to this part of the world have commented that I'm soooo domesticated now. I'm hardly me. Well, for those people who knew me before, I can assure you they will be shock to see me. Once a career-minded working gal and now a domesticated 'housewife'.

The transformation begins rapidly when I got here. As my Hubs has to work, so that leaves me at home with all the time in the world - to do all the housework. Though my Hubs offered to help me during the weekends but I wanted us to enjoy our weekends together doing things and not staying at home cleaning the apartment. Hence everything has been done before weekend :P

The lifestyle here does not really encourage eating out everyday as it is an expensive affair and we don't have a housemaid to do all the housework. Hence, here I am, THE highly paid 'maid' who has to learn how to cook and now cooks every evening (can't have us eating Maggi mee and fried eggs all the time), cleans the apartment every Friday, does the laundry, bakes occasionally though somehow that doesn't pulls off :( and home-bound most of the time especially during bad weather. Unfortunately for me at this time of global crisis, getting employed is almost a mission impossible. MNCs are not hiring at the moment, local companies will not hire me as I do not speak their language so it's almost a dead end here. Therefore, to keep myself sane, I have to keep myself busy with stuff; DVD drama series watching, reading, playing X-box and PS3, internet browsing and chatting etc.

Believe it or not, I can hardly recognise myself these days. I do wonder who am I now? Am I still me?? I don't used to cook, clean and stay home kind of person and now I'm all that. So 'un-happening' anymore. Bear in mind, I used to be a big time party gal *wink* and now I'm a retiree.

Queen's Day, 30th April

Queen's Day is the annual Dutch holiday in honour of their late Queen Jualiana's birthday. Every year, street parties are held all over the Ranstad (the four largest cities in the country).

The parties started the night before (The Night Before Queen's Day) and lasted thru the next day (The Queen's Day itself). All the streets were jammed packed with party goers dressed in the colour of orange! Beers flow freely and music blarring from cafes to cafes. The canals offer no sanctuary as well as thousand of boats will clog up the city's waterways.

Recently there's a controversy on one of the Queen's Day poster campaign where the faces of world leaders were photoshopped into these interesting posters - One of them depicted two men wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan of "Kiss Me I'm Drunk". The two men depicted in these posters were no other than the President of the United States and the Russian President! Looking at the poster, it is quite funny but definitely not to these 2 gentlemen and their 'camps'. Imagine impeccable image will be tarnished, people in their nation will be outraged etc. Hence, the campaign has been withdrawn and the posters have been stripped off the streets of Holland.

Controversy aside, I will be looking forward to join the 'World's Largest Street Parties' in 2 days time for an eye-opener experience. Stay tuned!

Being An Alien Living Abroad: The Good Vs the Bad

Once upon a time, I thought living abroad was just plain great, well, it is to a certain extent or maybe it's just where I am now but there's this saying, 'there's no place like home'. I can't imagine myself saying this but after 1.5 years of being an alien, it is true. I do miss home especially my friends and family, the food and most of all, the familiarity, the sense of belonging.

From young, I always wanted to go overseas to further my education but unfortunately for me, coming from a typical traditional family, my dad prefers to spend his hard earned money on my sibling (the male).

Now I'm finally in 'overseas' literally not for education but for L-O-V-E. It's a big word and carries a lot of weight. For me, it was a big time sacrifice to give up my job, friends & family and my life for my Hubs especially coming from someone who almost have it all back home (friends, a job, car, family, independence, etc). Perhaps when I'm a decade younger, this will be a great adventure!

Of course, there are times I almost gave up and wanted to pack my bags and go home but then reality sets in. Perhaps I'm just feeling nostalgic as I know my life now is with my Hubs and being an alien is just secondary.

However, for my own well-being, I always believed in writing down the pros and cons of everything that requires extra attention, it somehow helps to lighten my burden. To begin with, here is the list of the :( of being an alien:-

1. Being alone most of the time is my constant companion
2. To learn a whole new language which by the way sounds like you're having something stuck in your throat
3. To adapt to the different culture - they serve vlaai as a 'birthday cake' and no birthday candles which by the way the birthday person pays for it, walking is a 'national' sport (they walked so much!), there's no megamalls and the ever convenient huge parking garages that comes with it, etc)
4. To retake my driving licence and they drive on the other side of the road
5. To adapt to the 4 seasons and reading the weather report is as important as reading the daily news. I used to laugh about it but now I can't live without the weather report before starting to plan my day ahead.
6. To schedule appointment months ahead in my agenda, spontaneous visit is frown upon
7. Taking the public transportation
8. Getting-to-know people from chats and forums (that is definitely a first for me)
9. Carrying plastic bags when I have to do grocery shopping
10. I don't get medicine from the doctors here unless I'm near dying. Paracetamol is the standard medicine given for any sickness - fever, cold, cough, hernia, migraine, sore throat, etc
11. I have to open gifts given to me on the spot with that person standing in front of me :P
12. I carry an umbrella in my handbag!
13. I start to hyperventilate when I see the sun! Totally and utterly happy!
14. At times I do get some sort of negative vibes just because I don't speak the language

The list of :) of being an alien:-

1. The simple pleasures of strolling in a park
2. Using very clean public toilets
3. Relatively safer country to live in
4. You don't have to lock you car doors while driving
5. I have to learn how to cook and it turned out that I do have a hidden talent for it ;)
6. I learn how to be independent
7. I rediscover the pleasure of cycling
8. To balance myself between a city gal vs nature gal
9. To see fat pigeons, birds, ducks, swans roaming freely everywhere without seeing them getting shot or hanging in one of those Chinese restaurants :P
10. There are no stray dogs and cats
11. Amazing to see the season changes from winter to spring, summer to autumn

But I can't help to hope that one day we will get to move back to Asia. The home of good food and great weather ;)

I Love our Apartment

We're blessed that we have a very nice apartment overlooking the River Maas. This is what I get to see everyday.....different seasons/days different views. My Hubs likes to watch the ships/boats sail by and I must say that liking is contagious. Everybody loves our apartment view. The area we are living is a very nice area indeed - we've a cinema, a grocery store, a few sporting shops and some restaurants in the neighbourhood and all within 3-5 mins walk. The city centre is just 10 mins drive away. It's perfectly located, away from the city centre yet not too far from it (I need at least some civilisation and not tuck away in the countryside :P)
However when the time comes, we have to say goodbye to this nice area, nice view apartment as we would very much like to buy a house for our future extended family with a nice little garden....

Back to the Way of ol' School

It's funny how life turns out to be... since I've moved to this part of the world, I have then discovered so many little delightful things and these are one of the few: Cycling and cross-stitch. Recently me and my Hubs have discovered the wonders of cycling in our city. I've totally forgotten how fun cycling can be. Bear in mind, I haven't cycled for yonkers (not since back in primary schooldays with pigtails and tomboy lifestyle - used to do all sort of basic stunts on my old bike and going out every evening to cycle)! To discover it all over again is so exciting. We have discovered our city in nooks and corners, appreciating the freedom of going anywhere we wanted within our capabilities (my stamina is definitely not there yet) and I absolutely loved it! The best part is parking is free for bicycles! ;) I'm looking for all kind of excuses to bring my bicycle out for a ride especially now we're blessed with good weather during spring (hmm.. perhaps not the past 2 days however good weather will come back soon enough).

I've a confession to make: it was love at first sight when I saw THE bicycle :) The shopowner really nailed it on the spot when he brought it out. It was perfect...metallic soft green with a few motives on it, 7-gears, enclosed & maintenance-free chainguard. It's a woman's bicycle but yet with my petite size, the frame was a tact lower than the standard frames. It wasn't in our plan to buy me a new bicycle. We were looking for a second hand bicycle. Of course, nice things do come with a 'nice' price. And for us it's EUR500 (after a off-season discount). I was appalled! (coming from a person who had a bike when she was 12 years old, a pressie from her daddy, so a little ignorant when it comes to prices of bicycles these days). We left the shop empty handed as we wanted to shop around first in other bicycle shops. After a few days of window shopping, we've decided that we should invest in THE bike that we saw a few days earlier. And here we are, with my new bike. On top of that, I've bought a nice flower power bicycle bag to go with it. The colours just matched ;) Look at that, ain't she a beauty :)
Cross stitch aaah doesn't this hobby ring a familiar bell? I used to do so many cross stitches when I was in my schooling days. It was definitely a craze then. Every girl do cross stitch and I'm no different than the rest! And now I've picked up this hobby as my new project. After decades of not doing it, it was a disaster my first 'masterpiece' :( So that has to be discarded and restarted a second one. The end product of it looked like this....

The imperfect first 'masterpiece' after decades of retirement from it. It's hard work!

Finally I'm Blogging!!!

I can't imagine I'm now blogging! Finally the blog bug has caught up on me *sheepish grin*. I have finally jumped into the wagon to join the mass of people out there who obviously is enjoying this 'fad'. I must say, my first hand experience, it was fun! It's easier than I have expected - with a few clicks on my mouse, I now have my very own blog created in a span of under a minute! Impressive! Next, I will have to figure it out on how to work this blog page since I'm a novice here. It will be on-the-blog-training aka trial and error for me ;) Patience chickee!