The Mission Just Kicked Off

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34 hours delayed publishing due to limited access to the internet....

AkiraSabine(AS) has arrived at New Jersey since 2 hours back and the time here is 12 hrs behind her home country's.

OK, so all packing fuss has finally come to an end. Akira's family threw a farewell BBQ bash for her yesterday and she's indeed touched with the effort. Family and friends alike attended and it was great catching up before her departure.

Today, Sunday (May 2nd, 2010) nope.. it's already Monday the 3rd. So yesterday, she did her final packing, bought a lip balm. She was advised to get one as the weather in her destination is very dry unlike what she's been experiencing in her home county, hot and humid all year round.

Throughout the whole evening, she was in her room solving a major issue. Things she planned to bring couldn't fit into her backpack so, she unloaded her bag, went through everything, thought hard if it's an essential , get 1 or 2 items out, and reloaded the bag. She hoped it fitted this time but NO! so you can imagine the number of times she ran through this cycle.

Geez.. there must be a solution to this and of course it had to come to that. So, God bless Akira and she was ready to go. So yeah, it seems the gate has opened and she's supposed to be waiting there instead. The flight's gonna take off 30 mins from now! Ciao!

The satisfied Akira felt a self accomplished. Fuh, finally!

Engrossed in her blogging right at this spot!

They call it Career Break!

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Well, AkiraSabine(AS) shouldn't be spending her time writing here but instead doing her packing which is very critical now. She'll be at the local airport this Sunday and shall arrive at the birth place of Starbucks in more than 24 hours! This is the longest flight, no.. FLIGHTS to her so far and she can't imagine how the experience would be. Lets see if she would put them down in words in future posts.

Well, this morning she was over at the apartment she's been staying sorting out things. Now, those possible items required has been shipped, well not by ship anyway, home here at her parent's place. They're all over the floor and she's gonna get started trimming down things to fit into her backpack.

She's striving to leave in a backpack+daypack. Would it be possible? It doesn't seem likely for now. She's gonna get her creative juice flowing in order to do that. Pick out things to drop and leave back home.

Among the essential items she could think of:-
Clothings - very important! for summer/winter
Medications
Toiletries
Good shoes
Documents to get out and about
Camera, netbook, mobile phone, adaptors to these appliances and of course the universal travel adaptor
Pen and pad
Money, money, money!
Other minor but yet important items

Alrighty, off to take action and wish AS luck!
She'd be a very frustrated traveller if she left something behind!

Other than packing, some pending tasks in her checklist are :-
- To ensure mom has been a good student absorbing lessons well on Gmail and FB.
- To ensure dad's gentle to the Kelisa and she'd be rest assured her baby is well taken care of.
- To pay granny a visit.
- To meet up friends before her departure
- To show up on Saturdays' farewell courtesy of my family members!
- To do the pre-departure mini project as per required.
- To clear and organize things in both homes.
- To do her last 2 days of part time and get her final pay out

Wanderer is off for a longer trip this time. Adios and she hopes after this trip her wanderlust is cured and she shall stay put.

Baking Day: Cotton Cheecake

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AkiraSabine(AS) has thought for a long time to resume her baking. She remembered she had the cream cheese she bought last year(not even in Nov or Dec 09). She will have to use it unless she wished to see another molded cheese she'd seen in the earlier slabs. "But then again, we do have molded cheese or they call it fermented cheese in the market, don't we? The blue cheese, to be exact." AS is too lazy to look the details up. "Readers particularly those who breathe and live on cheese, your enlightenment is much appreciated!"

AS has a recipe she got from the local daily - The Star Newspaper many years back. Here's a link to the online page. She had tried this recipe many times and she thought, "Why not, this time too?!"

So, one fine day over the weekends at her family's home, with recipe in hand, she searched high and low for the equipments and gathered the ingredients she needed. The cleaning, drying and measuring took place followed by the messy egg white-yolk separation, cream beating, sieving, folding in, you name it. AS knew from experience she never can get her eggs separated perfectly. Thus, she chilled the eggs for a while in the freezer before separating and letting them to warm up to room temperature.

The oven door just shut close. The batter looked fine and the baker prayed hard!

What a mystical look and the baker noticed something wrong! "Why is the middle sinking?"

Taking a closer look, the baker told herself, "Stop scaring the hell out of yourself. Everything is under control! "

"See, isn't it? Doesn't it look perfectly professional?"

The baker poked with a fork and took it out. "Cooked to perfection," she smiled to herself. She cut her first rectangular piece. Hmm.. tastes so very NICE! The cheese.. hMMMmm! Simply love it! It's so so soft! You can see it for yourself the fluffy texture from the bits.

However, because AS is honest, she has to concede that the bottom had a thick heavy texture. That was not the first time such thing happened. There had always been a sinking layer at the bottom of the baked result. AS can tell you what it was. It's the sweetened egg white which she mixed in separately. It was frothily smooth and light when she mixed the beaten egg white in but for some reason not to AS's comprehension, it always ended up sinking at the bottom.

Anyone would like to play mentor here? Also, how do you solve the small coagulation(lumps) when you fold your flour into the yolk+cream mixture. Something you normally see when you mix milk powder into hot water.

A Visit To Malaysian Mamak Stalls

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Recipe to limit your calorie intake.

1. Eat a thosai with dhall, fish curry, chutney & a separate plate of sambal. Don't know what sambal is?

2. Down it with hot 'Teh See - kurang manis' (Malay word for tea with Evaporated Milk - less sweet) to warm your heart after a cold wet day.

3. Watch the ESPN shown on the TV there for 15 minutes.

4. Hang around longer enjoying the evening or late night crowd. Read the day's daily post which you have no time for during the day.

5. Now finally, your food's being digested and it's time to pay and move on.

To be concise, thosai is an Indian crispy bread made of rice flour. It has a subtle tinge of sourish taste to it and it's eaten with gravies. An all time favourite of mine and many other Malaysians.

Teh tarik (pulled tea)-Tea with Sweetened Condensed Milk (SCM) pulled to mix, a symbolic drink of the Malaysian mamak stall. However, my preference is still with Teh See, not too sweet to my taste. I will write a blog on the SCM processing plant in one of my future post and tell you the basic procesing of it. F&N Dairies is still the number brand in the country.

The mamak drinks counter. Those are the soft packs of Nescafe, Ovaltine, Milo, and not too sure with one at the right most.

Toot toot....toot TOOOooot

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I've dreamt of a major breakaway.

I've dreamt of cutting all ties.

I've dreamt of an escapade.

I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I know I only live once.

I feel it's time to stop the dream and start the STEAM!



3 months back...