Facebook Attack

I was spending quite sometime facebook-ing yesterday, during office hour! ("Illegally" of course).

Joint Facebook through invitation from FI. Didn't sign up immediately, quite lazy since the previous WYAN thingy was not exactly interesting for me. But later MasterChef told me this is an "in" thing and is a must join network, so then I joint.

What is Facebook ah? It's for friend networking with loads of applications to entertain ourselves. I realize that I've got to know a lot of people and especially effective to finally "put a name to the face".

One big difference between Facebook and blogging is the identities - we are all with real names in Facebook. If I were being asked to enter a "Facebook name" I wouldn't have used my full name. The name was given thinking it was just for signing up, but later found out that, that's going to be the name appearing in Facebook. Well, we would have to actually, otherwise when our friends try to search for us in the Facebook network, they won't be able to find us because they will never know what sort of nickname we use.

Anyways, join if you haven't and if you have a desk-bound job like mine, try not to get distracted with all the notification from Facebook.

Congrats!

Congrats babe!

Durian Pudding - Trial and Error

Had quite a lot of durian in proportion to the tart shell from my durian tart making last weekend. So I've decided to attempt the durian pudding (also the lazy option, as opposed to say, durian cake).

I used my existing mango pudding recipe. One problem - the recipe said one mango... hmmm... 1 mango = ?? durian?

So trial and error lah... the result was pudding bit too hard. Perhaps it's very subjective, depends how you would like your pudding to be. TLA and I just went to Ah Yat Abalone for Dim Sum the other day and the mango pudding over there were superb! Soft and creamy... so benchmarking against that, my durian pudding is really very far off. I've jotted down to reduce the amount of gelatin should I make this again.

Luckily TLA tasted a tub right after it's set, because when we had it for our dessert after dinner the following night, the pudding had turned sour. We'd thrown them all away.

Also remembering I'd actually given S-Buddy some pudding to try as well besides the durian tarts. So sms-ed to check how he'd like the tart and warn him that the pudding had potentially turned bad.

His reply on the review was: "yummy".

And he tried the pudding too, the above "yummy" was multi-purposed acting as his comments towards the pudding too. No report of his pudding getting sour so far. Why ah did my pudding turned sour? MasterChef and BIL had a few theory: 1) I kept pudding in fridge when it was not cool down enough; 2) Other ingredient had turned bad (because my durian cream made from the same durian was still alright) 3) Sudden change of temperature in fridge when I move them around... hmmm... I don't think so lah... so I've still not figure out why...

Any advice?

... in pain - part 2

Actually...

Still nursing my shoulder pain, perhaps gym classes last night didn't help with the situation, but then again, didn't mean that it was the cause of my painful recovery right? Injuries take days to recover don't they?

Okay, I did ask for professional advice yesterday on whether I should be doing any gym class.

xxx

From: The Baker
To: Trainer
Time: erm about 5pm ish (due to last minute doubts about doing pump)

Ouch! :( My shoulder is "injured", played squash ytd and must b due to the improper swinging. Now I'm soundin like my trainer haha... think I can still do pump?

From: Trainer
To: The Baker
Time: right after my sms

U mus hav pulled yr shoulder muscle. Give yr shoulder a rest. Do stretching n rotatory exercise. It helps

From: The Baker
To: Trainer
Time: right after his sms

Err... ok, supposed I won b able t manage shoulder track. Can do combat or not?

xxx

No reply... (yet) and I was already at the gym wondering does "give your shoulder a rest" = "no class"? You would have to agree with me that it's quite unclear right?

So there I was as you've seen me last night. Actually, after warming up in combat, the shoulder seemed to have loosen a lot. As I've guessed, couldn't do a "powerful" right hook. Other than that, it was ok, there weren't so many push ups last night (because I didn't do, haha) so, I'd managed combat. I was glad I went to class actually, the class last night was far more happening than the week before. Farid was there to "lead" the orchestra of combat shouting and there were far more professional combaters in class last night contributing to the explosive effect. Even spotted my new blog reader ;)

Pump... huh!!! Surprisingly, I survived chest track alright, I've reduced the weights to 5kg though. What surprised me was my wrong guesses on the tracks that I should be ok, but not -

Squat: It's apparently very painful for the shoulder to balance 20kgs, while the hand remained at an angle. It was extremely painful while lifting the bar over the shoulder!!! OUCH!

Tricep: Killed me... some more got dips and pull-over. I gave up the dips totally. Even the extensions were killing me leave alone the presses.


Combat ended early so pump sort of started on the dot. As a result (perhaps) a first timer to pump (maybe) failed to identify herself as first-time-doing-pump. The scene was really unbearable, and some how distracting, and awkward - because I wasn't even sure if she needed any "reference" from me, or whether I should even be "advising" her anything, hey, I'm not a professional! Finally, after back track, I've fought down my laziness and ignorant (tried to ignore - we don't want to be bothered or bother about other members in class do we?) and went to make a little "report" to Carebear that this particular soul was lost (really lost). BUT THEN. Just when Carebear was trying to give useful and important instructions for the tricep track, she (this newbie) busied herself setting up her bench and bar... It looked to me that she'd completely ignored all the instructions. humpphhh... Anyways, none of my business supposedly.

Left the class after lunges, for sure won't be able to do shoulder track, and I had "give yr shoulder a rest" floating across my head all the time.

xxx

From: Trainer
To: Baker
Time: 7.50pm (but only read at 9.30pm after pump)

I said rest lo. Or if really wanna do jus do it less intense n not al out.

(Whoopsssss... "rest" = "no class" izit?)

From: The Baker
To: Trainer
Time: after much consideration and careful construction of my reply

Opss... joint pump but din do shoulder track! ok will give it a rest tmr :) nite.

Guys... Alwayzzzz listen to your trainer okay, it's important that we don't hurt ourselves during the course of working out ... (Trainer doesn't have to know that I planned to join combat today, does he :p)

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.