31 Dec 2010
How time flies. It's the last day of year 2010. It has been a mix of ups and downs, especially today.
Today is the last working day for my capable finance manager. She has been a good assistant to me at work and a truly good friend and companion too. She transformed my thoughts and ideas into powerful powerpoints and reports. We had lunch together, went for yoga classes together, we exchanged DVDs and cakes that we baked, etc. I particularly miss our cha cha dance session in Hua Hin and shopping spree in Bangkok.
Recently, she started baking and cooking. It seems to be the trend for working with our company ... somehow, staff will start cooking or baking no matter how little we cook or bake. For her farewell, I got her cooking utensils presented in a lovely pink polka dot with ribbon box. I bought 2 pizza trays, pizza cutter, pastry roller, whisker, meat temperature, potato masher and a spring form pan. Hope she will think of me whenever she bakes or cooks. As much as I would like her to stay on with our company, I am happy for her next endeavour.
Fei Yin made me a photobook which was very nicely done with attention to details. I'm missing her already.
Although today is a sudden declaration of public holiday, it's not a rest day for finance personnel who have to close company's year end books. I decided to buy cakes for office staff. It's new year eve and they have to work to meet dateline. Fei Yin and I went down to Coffeebean and bought 12 slices of varieties of cakes and a Latte for my boss, which made him a happy man as he does not like sweet things and he loves coffee.
Looking back to 2010, I've been promoted to Finance Director, a milestone achievement for me in my career. I'm taking my career one step at a time. To me, being a wife and a mother does not mean we can't have our career. It's not easy but it's not impossible, especially if you have a supportive spouse. I'm glad my Hubby understands what corporate life is all about and he is happy if I am happy at work.
In Jun 2010, Hubby and I had our first holiday trip without our kids to Macau, in conjunction with our 8 years wedding anniversary. It was hard for me to leave our kids behind while we had good times. I am happy to have an understanding mother in-law who offered to take care of our kids while we were away. She encouraged us to have time off from kids once in a while to rejuvenate our marriage and love. It was nice that Hubby could pay 100% attention on me and held my hands when we walked.
In 2010 also, our house construction kicked off, after more than a year of planning and designing the house plan, meetings, obtain approval, tender, etc. Luckily, Hubby is handling this project.
In 2010, there were unpleasant happenings too. 2 of my close friends and relative were diagnosed with cancers. There were also a few marriage complication among family and friends. These reminded me to take care of our health and pay attention to our spouse. Somehow, we always neglect our spouse once we have our kids. These also made me realise how important family and friends are to me. They are part of my life.
Today, my boss told me that 2011 will not be a good year for me ... after I bought him a cup of Latte. There will be significant outflow of cash. I hope this relates to our house construction and not any other cash outflow. I also pray that our house construction will progress smoothly without major obstacles. This is Hubby's dream and I'll be happy to see his dream comes true in 2011.
My new year resolution is very simple. I want to spend quality time with my family ... my kids, my Hubby, my parents, my siblings, my friends and family members. They need me and I need them too. I should not take them for granted. They need my attention and care. After all, why do we work so hard? To provide a better and quality living to them, isn't it?
During work day, I spend a significant of my time at work. I am someone who needs "me time" every night before call it a day. I will browse through my emails, Facebook, reading blogs, etc. I also bake quite a bit. Baking is a good stress reliever and I am happy to see my family and friends enjoying my cake. I know I need to hit on to the gym more often to lose my weight and attend more yoga classes which is good for my health. I also like scrapbooking and update my blog. I am not a superwoman and everyone only has 24 hours in a day. With all these activities and hobbies, I've seen myself starting on a project and stopped half way and not getting them done. There were 2 mini album workshops that I've attended and the mini albums were still half done.
I need to live a balance life. An extreme of anything is not good. I need to stay focus too. Else, I will end up nowhere and never do well in anything that I do. It will always be an average results.
I need to pay more attention on my family lifestyle. Live as stress free as possible as stress is bad for health. The one most simple way to achieve this is not to wait for things to be done on last minute. Get things done a head of schedule.
Yes, today my best friend Christina asked me if my Hubby and I are interested to join them for eating, massage and shopping trip to Bangkok in mid 2011. Kids are not allowed and the trip has been booked. Hooray!
Auntie YC invited us to her house for new year eve's dinner. She roasted a chicken, the Jamie Oliver's way.
While Hubby and kids were swimming in the pool, I roasted another chicken, my very first roast chicken. I followed the recipe that I learned from Paul of Food Studio ... rub chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and mustard.
Hubby preferred the chicken roasted by Auntie YC, as a comparison, not that my chicken tasted bad but I've put too much salt that the chicken was salty. Jared ate a lot for dinner and he's weighing 20kg today, whereas, Jaden's weight is 15.2 kg.
Roasted potatoes, carrots, garlic, etc prepared by Auntie YC.
Onion cooked with butter, sugar and red wine. Goes very well with my roasted chicken.
We watched movie and TV at Auntie YC's house in Mt Kiara, while waiting for fireworks to countdown to new year 2011.
View from Auntie YC's balcony.
My simple new year wish ... good health, success and happiness.
By the way, Jaden said "Don't get angry. Be Happy!"
This is my new found, favourite tea time cake. It is Banana Cake, recipe from The Star Online 
I would suggest to use ripe banana as it adds sweetness and nice banana taste to the butter cake. Remember to eat the cake warm too (warm up for 10 seconds in microwave).
This is the link to 
Enjoy it! Be my guess.
Ham and Bacon pizza with parmesan and cheddar cheese.
Paul explained to us the menu and ingredients for Pavlova and also the baking method in details.
Not sure what they were looking at, but they were surely gorgeous.
The kids learned to make pumpkin lanterns.
Jaden refused to have his lunch after his school concert. As such, he was very hungry at the Halloween party. Its good to watch him eating by himself and had so much appetite to eat.
