aaaaaOUCHhhh!!!

OUCHHH!!!

I woke up with a very sore shoulder this morning... so there's where the "injuries" were. Was not correct for me to say I injured my "arm" yesterday.

Wonder if I can still do combat and pump - experimented with a few moves and I suppose:

Combat - can still do the kicks (of course lah, injured upper body haha), can do punches, upper cuts... I think the move which I couldn't manage would most probably be the hooks. Might not be able to do chest push ups...

Pump - Perhaps can't do shoulder track, but most of all it hurts when I tried to expand my chest by opening my arms and I got this horrible pank of pain - looks like can't do the chest track as well, erm... I mean, perhaps do light weights. Eeewww... push ups are going to be torturing.

Ouch ouchhhhhh...

Merdeka Day Holiday Fun

How's your celebration of the country's 50 years of independence?

On Merdeka Day eve, my boss told me that I had to be in the office early on Monday for a meeting that starts at 8.30am, and as an "exchange", I could go back early then... hummph... it was already 6pm, that was our "legal" time to go back anyways. But since I still wanted to go for my weekly pump regime at MML, I stayed back a while. While checking through the holiday timetable, I saw Hobbes' name under the pump class in question, and after some sms confirmation (because I was confused and puzzled to see that his name was also under Maxis at almost the same time, got 2 Hobbes ah?) well, yay, he was teaching. And I finally remember to tell him that my BBQ (last Saturday) guests said (exclaimed) that he was (is) soooo good looking. Though, I've forgotten to tell little bro that my sis thought he was (look) 22 years old.

The class was quite empty, perhaps everyone has gone for the countdown celebration; or perhaps they have gone home to avoid the traffic (like what MB told me she planned to do - give gym a miss and be home early).

Hobbes was doing extreme heavy weights in class... I was wondering during the back track if he had always used 11kg. Me was with my usual weights, well, actually, I've reduced 1kg for squat, only using 10kg. I thought since I'll be doing 2 cardio classes the next day, perhaps I can give myself a break :p.

Opss... yes my blog title is Merdeka Day fun and I'm still at Merdeka eve...

On Merdeka day I woke up late, waaa... great to catch up with my beauty sleep, my dark eye circle and eye bag were getting really horrendous! Beyond remedy!

I'd called FF LM the day before to book all three - my younger sis the Master Chef; Brother in Law aka BIL and my little cousin sister aka The Little Apprentice (TLA), for a session of gym. I'd planned to join FI's body step (really really missed his BS, have not done a single FI's BS since he came back from Dubai, I used to do like 4 BS a week when I had my older version of gym schedule) and TLA is particularly fond of Body Jam, so I thought of getting her to join FI's Jam, which I'm sure TLA would really enjoy.

So I'd lazily woke up just before noon, had my brunch and headed to LM, allowing extra time to shop prior to gym. Also the parking condition there could be unbelievably difficult, so earlier, better.

Gym was not so crowded, perhaps people had gone travelling out of town. But, surprisingly, body step was packed. Even the membership consultant who had arranged for my guests to enter, was in the class. Right before the class started, FI announced that there will be prize, supposedly for one who had dressed to Merdeka theme (i.e. the Malaysian flag), since then for the one (two actually, two prizes) who performed the best, by FI's standard. While FI was on that note, there were a familiar face up at front of the stage snapping picture of FI. I later saw Shanti (I think that's her name, saw her at Curve, Combat on most Mondays) in the class, and the guy who took the picture... whoops... I don't remember his name.

The class was great, all old tracks which I like partly because I'd missed all the new releases and would definitely look like a clumsy beginner trying to follow through, and most of the old tracks were, well, simply better. One of my all time favorite, which FI said was his, was the Ballroom Blitz (speed track); and I was sort of dragging for that to end and for the last track to unveil because I had a feeling that it might be Final Countdown for FI to complete the torturing "package". Well, it was not, but some equally bad track, with loads of single jump (skiing) to end the track when we were about to faint lacking breathe and energy.

Skipped the conditioning track, which I wish now that I had stayed for, to change into my Jam outfit (ya ya... like I told MB, me and my vain reasons...) and to get into the queue with sis/MC and TLA. Erm... there was no line, but the class was quite filled nevertheless, where did everyone come from? The class was superb fun! Mixture of familiar old tracks and new (well, not new release, just new for me since I've not done them before), short individual tracks instead of those performance tracks. I think I must have looked quite groove for some tracks and suddenly looked clumsy for certain. In one of the tracks, as a result of standing too near to each other, I kept clashing into TLA... haha... but TLA with her higher confidence (since that was her 3rd Jam class) got some approving nods from FI in the class... MC who didn't like Jam much enjoyed herself immensely as well.

After more coke/ ice lemon tea/ 100 plus, we headed to the steam bath before getting ourselves cleaned to go home. BIL was ready long before us since he didn't join the class, but worked himself out using every single machine in the gym (yes, he said every single one).

I felt so worked out myself having done 2 hours of cardio. It was especially great to catch up with FI's classes, I nearly forget how entertaining and motivating his classes were.

All in all, my week's of workout was not bad, 4 days of gym and I went for squash with the same suspects plus my uncle. But ouch! I've "injured" my right arm, I've swung my racket too hard aiming for "killer" smash each time while playing with uncle, so due to the speedy repetitive and odd angle (trying to "save the ball") of swingings, I nearly got a disjoint arm after one especially furious one. Luckily my arm is still intact, but I'm not very sure whether my condition will get better or worse tomorrow, hopefully I can still do pump tomorrow!

Durian Tart - 2nd Attempt

My recent entries made it look as though I'm a big fan of the king of fruits...

The only reason I'm making the tart again is, I've got an sms from SMS-Buddy, "I wan d durian tart, that night potong steam din get to eat it"

Well ok, it was my fault that he didn't get to eat it, erm partially my fault. Since I didn't keep it in the fridge while waiting for him to pick up the tarts, they went bad. But if he were to come earlier, the tart might still stay good. :p (OF COURSE he said it was not my fault... heh)

Anyways, I also have a new tart pastry recipe, which MasterChef said tasted better, so tried making that. The portion of this pastry dough was smaller, so I didn't make enough to try it myself. My two food tasters so far was MC and TheLittleApprentice. They said indeed this was nicer than the last tart pastry I made. Alright, so change of tart recipe then.

The filling... got some durian from Jaya Jusco on Friday. Was lazy to go "shop" at the durian stalls by the road. Decided to get the more "whitish" looking ones because I found the yellowish ones more difficult to puree. It was 3 packets for RM25, due to limited choice, had to get a mixture of D24, D99 (Don't ask me, I don't know much about the categories) and Durian Susu (?). After mum's sampling of the durians, she said D24 was still the best. (ooookaaay...)

The last time I made the durian cream filling, I had a hard time piping it because the nozzle kept being block by the durian which I didn't really puree fine enough. I still find it hard to puree the durian. MC said put them through a sieve (does it look like I'm that patient to put the flesh of perhaps 20 durians through a tiny-hole sieve???). So, blender it was. Still, hard to make it real fine unless I made the durian more liquid for the blender, which means what, add more milk? (I did add milk to blend the durian because since I was using milk to cook the cream anyways. But I didn't really turn the durian into durian milk shake type to blend). The result was, still blocked nozzle but manageable.

There were two parts of the filling, the custard, which was supposed to be used to dazzle on top of the cream, but I made some adjustment and have them fill the base of the tart pastry instead; and the durian cream - which I've modified too and hence couldn't achieve the nice consistency like the recipe book, which gave a really defined and neat piped cream.

The durian cream was a mixture of this durian custard and whipped cream. Due to laziness (big mistake) I didn't whip up another batch of whipped cream (over whipped the first batch a little bit) and used the slightly liquidized whipped cream, plus instead of using the (non-UHT) whip topping, I used UHT whipping cream (because I only need 200ml and the whip topping cream comes in 1liter, would be a waste. If I get the UHT cream instead, I can use the remaining later for pana cotta, oh, yum...). Oppss... side track...

So, the result was still a very "lame" looking durian cream. Ok, the other reason for the cream to fail to form nice peak was because I've added much more durian puree than the supposed recipe, so those amount of whipped cream couldn't have held up the durian puree.

But taste wise... I supposed it was ok... still waiting for feedback from SB. Met up with SB lunch time at KLCC, so that I can pass him the durian tarts while they were still fresh, no chance of them turning bad (hopefully they don't turn watery!). Also gave him 2 small tubs of durian pudding to sample. If he said it's ok, then it's ok on my record since SB is my final judge for my recipes (especially on the SB-inspired series)

Made one specially for MC which is only durian custard, she said it's nicer without the cream part.

BBQ

Had a BBQ last Saturday at house. MasterChef requested for one originally for her two overseas visitors, her students from college. Later I thought perhaps I'll just invite a few more friends, the more the merrier right. But, since the house is not that huge, can't accommodate that many people, so there were only a few guests of honour.

MasterChef and BIL prepared the savoury items, got them marinated days before and I took care of the dessert items - made party choc cupcakes and some tarts. Tried to combine the Pana Cotta with tart, it was quite a flop, it's not staying in the menu, but the Pana Cotta on its own was good, only need minor adjustment to the recipe and it will be a keeper. Story of the making of dessert in another entry.

Got satay from Hj Samuri, the famous Kajang Satay, which later formed the easiest item to BBQ (just need to reheat on the stove). I had my cousin bro came to help me set up the BBQ stove and had the fire up and ready.

After a whole day of preparation, we've managed to put together a BBQ menu like this:

xxx

Starters

Potato Salad

On The Grill

Prawns Skewer

Sotong Skewer

Chicken Skewer

Lamb Chop with homemade mint sauce

Vegetable Skewer with cumin and chilli flakes

Kajang Satay with peanut sauce

Chicken Balls

Frankfurters

Side Dishes

French Fries

Chicken Nuggets

Desserts

Chocolate Cupcakes

Pana Cotta

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Tarts

Fruits - Mango, Langsat and Rambutan

Lychee Cocktail

xxx

MasterChef went out to fetch her students later the evening while we stay behind to prepare, and snack on whatever cooked item we laid our hands on... the fries was a heat as our temporary measure to hunger, it went particularly well with mayonnaise (with chilli powder).

By the time Little Bro and Hobbes arrived I was already quite full... so I've diverted my attention and energy to whisking them towards the BBQ stoves and making sure they piled up their plates. Even the boys didn't seem to do that well, can't even manage to fill in desserts. So take away it was... together with some little gifts from London.

The only one who had managed to eat the cake was little Daniel.

Before the BBQ ended, sleepiness suddenly caught up with me, without sounding too rude, I was suggesting for my guests to retire early (10pm already?) to get some good rest :p.

Got comments that the mint sauce was really good and compliment the lamb chop really well, well done MasterChef! The sotong was also a heat, that was my favorite too besides the vege skewers. It was fun gathering around preparing your own food "professionally" under the cozy (though boiling hot) atmosphere.

smile... SMILE!!!

Me: "If you wait up all night, you will have a very natural out-of-bed-look tomorrow"

Him: "Hahaha... of course I won't wait. Will just wake up early tomorrow morning to call..."

Me: "Oh ok... then go to bed... which means I can also go to sleep now..."

Him: "Ya go to bed, it's late. Sorry to keep you awake... nite"

Having such IM conversation at midnight with a guy sounded so romantic, but just that it was not, simply because the him was not honey (which reminded me then to text honey to check if he was getting better with his injuries), but my boss... humphhhh... I know - even if your boss is a workaholic, it doesn't mean that you have to be one right? That's what I thought. Not.

Yesterday was not a busy day at work, so at about 6.15pm, I was all packed up ready to leave for gym. Early in the morning, I told Carebear I must try to do both combat and pump since I did really bad last week in terms of my workout especially for cardio. Towards noon I heard that "Rain Gal" (I don't know if this nickname has been accepted, only that "Korean Gal" suggested this. Together, the Rain Gal and Korean Gal will form Kimchi Gals... hmmm) is fasting today and won't be at gym. Thinking that it will be boring doing combat alone, I thought of only doing stepper before pump.

So, as I said, I was all packed up (laptop left behind, locked in the drawer - it will be late when I get home so I don't need my laptop, besides, it's troublesome because I had to bring the laptop with me into the gym since it's dangerous and risky to leave the laptop in the car) and ready to leave, passed by my boss' office (That's the only way out to the entrance!) and I happily bade him farewell when I strode out of the office. Nearly out of the office. I had to do a back-track when I heard him calling... after about 10 minutes discussing the changes for the training manual I'm preparing, I suggested why not I ditch combat class and stay back so as to make sure he had all the required files with details of all the changes... but upon hearing my intention of joining combat, he sent me away telling me that he can call me later tonight. (But... but it's going to be 11pm by the time I reached home) He said he doesn't mind speaking with me at midnight... really. So I went back to collect my laptop and later entered the gym clumsily with my huge gym bag, my handbag, and the laptop bag under my arms while trying to handle the box of chocolate cake with utmost care (I hope they didn't overturn or smashed up with each other/ the box).

Soon as I arrived at gym, I was already distracted by my boss... not physically of course, but I was mentally preparing the information I would need to pass to my boss later when I get home. As a result, I got Carebear indicating for me to smoothen my forehead and reverse the curve of my mouth (to upward). I was quite dazed and puzzled, didn't quite understand why she was prompting me to do so, was I looking too painfully tortured? I thought that's a good expression to project in class haha...

Later in the locker room after pump, when Carebear and I exchanged items, she said "smile, SMILE!" (while passing me my ramekins) and you know what? I was confused because why on earth do I need to be smiling at my ramekins... only seconds later that I realized that she must have meant to tell me to relax and cheer up! I must be in such deep thoughts throughout the class that my eye brows were locked and lips were thin. No wonder lah! Ok, me so blur and far away when I am distracted. Luckily was not in free-style step, I could have just fallen off the board all together.

Earlier on in combat (yes I did combat at the end since my boss sort of released me for combat), I was immensely surprised by the change in the phenomenal Monday combat. The class was quite packed with amateurs (at least it seems like so at where I stood), not to mention the class being umm... extremely quiet - this can be reasoned either me not attending this Monday class for so long and has been mistaken about the change, or simply because Rain Gal was not there.

You know... it's difficult doing combat in silence. In fact, it's difficult doing any class in silence perhaps except for balance or yoga which require total serenity. But this is combat. Supposed to be somewhat furious? Ok... some classes are just quiet, of course we can except that... humphhh...

After a few tracks... I'm sure sooner or later someone will start spare a few kias. But. Don't have.

Muay Thai... for sure it will be noisy by now. Umm... not quite... I thought perhaps I'll just contribute to a few discreet ones? Not that I don't do "screaming" or "shouting" in class, I do that a lot, but the class last night made me think twice because it made me wonder if there were some mutual agreement among all not to make noise? Perhaps there were only some particular moments when you do the kias? Cannot simply shout whenever you like? Got some protocols or something being announced with regards to "the rule of kia-ing in the Monday Combat", perhaps? (Hey, I was absent from that class for two weeks, so who knows right? Do I want to upset anyone?)

Last track... Uwaaa... It was just unbearable...

I didn't care if someone was going to give me a saman for breaking the rules, I just had to content myself with a few stress-releasing-loud-kias before the track ended. There!!!

Later on I did some carefree-whenever-however I want screams in pump - that was, when I wasn't distracted by my mental preparation for my "midnight intimate chat" with boss.

Waaaa.... so tired and I can just feel a tinge of muscle ache now.

Marble Cake Cupcakes

Last week was bad for me in terms of workout - only did 2 pump classes the whole week with no cardio workout. Even so, those 2 pump classes consist one which I've forced myself to wake up 5.30 in the morning to attend a 7am class at LM. Was on leave last Monday and Tuesday, and since I foresee having to sacrifies gym for BBQ preparation later the week, I opt to attend the 7am body pump last Tuesday. Also, since it's FI's class, I can also bring him the long promised marble cake, in the form of cupcake. I actually enjoyed making the swirls for the marble effect.



Finished with butter icing - brandy, chocolate and coffe flavours. (I realized I don't have very good snaps of the end product humphhh...)

Chocolate Cupcakes

Had a BBQ party at home last night, as a welcome back party for my sis and BIL, and since we had overseas guests. Made chocolate cupcakes as my party cupcakes among other desserts.

The usual old fashion chocolate cake recipe but with dark chocolate cream for these cupcakes, instead of milk chocolate cream which I will use for the cake.

Only perhaps 2 persons managed to eat the cupcakes after the feast, kept some for my boss and Carebear (if she is not on diet, haven't got the chance to ask yet!)

The rest of the cupcakes went home with the guests as their desserts once they manage to digest the main courses.