Posts Tagged ‘enjoy’

So here I am, alone sitting in the deli’s corner in Menteng Central, mining my own business, which is really, and essentially consist of my diet coke, and sandwich.

In a sense, it’s  a heaven, a run away time, where I can do my own things, thinking only my own being and care nothing of the world and the works around it. And quite frankly, I rarely found my self alone, at least lately.

Usually, when I ‘m not hanging out (or spending quality time) with my girl, I’m always in a company of my mates, and doing nothing useful in particular, like taking a swing in the driving range, chatted on the coffee shop or walking around the mall aimlessly.

But situation changed, and I with some of us caught or occupied in the busy world of trying to make a living, I found my self quite lonely in so many occasion, which suffice to say, its neither fun nor enjoyable.

So here I am, again, alone, typing this sort of grumble, while flashing off my new MacBook Air.

If there is any consolation, well at least my sandwich is crisps and my coke is ice cold.

So, after more than eight months of vacuum, idyllic and absence mind, I am now returning. Not so much with a bang nor any expedited brouhaha, but with simple proclamation that my eight vacuum months, brought out some changes. Some of these changes also the reason why I’m not writing as much as it used too.

Straight to the point these are whats new and whats not

Whats Not

• Job -No surprise here, still work in the same company, still reporting to the same boss, and still doing the same thing (roughly) as I did 8 months ago. Very minor changes though, is that I am trusted with promotion on May, and with that comes bigger responsibility (and paycheck too
• Apartment – Yupppp, still standing tall and proud. I’m still living on the 27th floor on my downtown apartment, overlooking South Jakarta, still sleeping with open curtain so that I can see the city light and occasional star gazing. Again minor additional to the member of my apartment appliances is a new portable stove and boiling pan for some fun sukiyaki time !!!
• Girlfriend - Really not much to tell here.

Whats New

• Car – You got it right my friend, you got it right. I got rid of my 7 years old Vios ad with with the new Chevy Cruze in Black. Bigger car, bigger power, and just pure handsomeness on hands. Two months, and 3000km later, a new top speed record of 200km/h and two small dents on the hood and side body.
• PS3 -This is actually reason why I abandon my creative pursuit and in the 8 months. The result of much idyllic time during one of my annual leave, the console now occupied much of my free hours. But lets be honest, aside from suppressing my creative mind and wasting some of time, the console visual is feast for human sight. Also I think it provides some sort of release on my gf occasional harmful tendencies towards me ( She kicked my ass on Tekken6 9:1)
• iPad – My very first Apple product, enough said.

A lot of things is currently lining up, so I will have more to tell, when this things comes up into play in the next couple of weeks or so. Cheers.

Right, by default I should have said happy new year to you all my dear readers and post a writing about my past achievement and future commitment. But alas, I’m not yet on that level of narcissism nor pretend to my self that all of you care about what I have or have not achieved in the past one year.

So let me get this straight. Firstly, I would like to apologize because I haven’t been post anything in the last week or so, primarily because I have been away overseas, for some holiday and quality time with people that I care.

Secondly, that goes without saying, that my holiday hasn’t been dull, boring or anything like it. Not at all. In fact I’m about to show you some little souvenirs that I’ve obtained during my holiday, things that you might want to consider to obtain when you visit Singapore.

Thirdly, while I’m away and feasting my sight on deluxe good in abundant in the whole length of Orchard Road, I’m toying with an idea of developing several items that I would like but could not acquired. These of course will required some considerable research and trial/error but the result I trust will be worthwhile. In any case, I will inform you when the projects finally realized.

Fourthly, some new things to expect in weeks to come. The arrival of my made to measure Mario Minardi, a tailoring of my black suit, a letter head projects and some delicious recipe to be shared, including some that involved some spices that I acquired in Singapore.

Afraid not, I will assure you what about to come will broaden your perspective. Till the next post, I bid you good night and good luck.

Yesterday was my birthday.  And like any of my previous birthdays, it was full with greetings and wishes from my beloved family, dear friends and colleagues.

Like any other birthday, it was also full of festive occasions, lunch out with team mates, and dinner with best friends. There were also some surprises from my girlfriend and friends along the day.

But what surprise me the most, are the gifts that I received yesterday.

It’s all started by one phone call in late morning, right at the peak moment at the end of the year drowsiness. The voice on the call introduced her self as an admin from Ace Hardware, enquiring whether I’ll be home to receive the delivery. Pretty much clueless, on what was happening I asked, what delivery that she talked about. She explained that she has in her possession an oven toaster and a gift wrap, to which I responded, “I’m not ordering something from Ace, could there be some mistakes ?”

“No sir,” she said,” this is exactly delivery for you, as ordered by…” and behold, my girl friend act with her usual wit, has bought me, a dream machine that will superbly complement my apartment, an oven toaster. Needless  to explain, those of you who familiar with kitchen and cooking, will know how an oven can make your life easier and healthier, imagine of cooking French fries without oil ? Just spread it evenly on the pan, and toast it !!! It will be ready in 10mins.

Now the next gift, would have rather long story.

As many of my friends already know, and complains to me about it, I am one of those person who resent Blackberry,  don’t even start to ask why ? Because then you will incite a thesis long explanation on why I resent BB. Anyway, because of this resentment, and knowing that all my friends have been complaining in many occasion on my attitude towards BB, I have no doubt that, they will buy me one for my birthday (knowing for sure that there is no chance I will buy it myself).

So when they handled a box, reasonably heavy and beautifully wrap, I kind of said to my self, this is it, my penultimate end of blackberry resentment, because, no matter how I hate the stuff, there is no way, not even a single way, that I will disrespect a gift that my dearest friends have given me. And whilst slowly dismantled the wrappings, layer by layer, I imagined how my days going to be with a BB in my pocket, texting, and browsing, without the slightest care with the real worlds that surrounds you. Slowly, but surely, at those minutes, I fell into state of acceptance, that I will join the club of virtual autism, that have walked the earth for the last one year.

Alas, I could never been more wrong then that. As the box opened, and the plastic unwrapped, I carefully laid my hand on the soft, beautiful, smooth black colored fabric, a super 150 wool suit, that so soft, it felt almost like a silk. A fabric so perfect and so proper to be turned into a black suit or dinner jacket that I have in mind for my beloved cousin wedding next April.

I couldn’t help by wonder, at that time, out of everything in this world that could be turned and wrapped as a gift, my friends have pick for me a beautiful clothes that I can turn into a suit, almost like knowing for sure that I would deeply, deeply, appreciate and love it. And they were right. This piece of clothes, are the best gift I have ever received from them. It was very thoughtful, considerate and sincere, that I couldn’t wish for better gifts that night.

They could be selfish. I mean if my prophecy turned out to be correct, and they did get me a BB for my present, I will still be happy and they will be happy too, because then they can have me in their BBM anytime. But such selfishness is non existence in our friendship, as they have proved. Instead they gave me, something that I have never thought, never expected, never asked, and yet I very much valued, appreciated, loved and cared for. Fair to say, it was one of the best gift from the best of friends ever.

This makes me think, maybe, just maybe, if I have to swallow my own spit and get my self a BB like they wants me to do for almost a year now, it will be for the most right and unselfish reason.

For whatever reason, I felt craving for aglio olio this morning. Naturally, spaghetti aglio olio is my quick win solution for my after work hunger. It’s quick, can be made in more a dozen variation, cheap and pretty brainless. The procedure is easy, and its only by series of unfortunate events you can make it wrong.

So today, I found that my craving for this particular meal, despite the nature of holiday what would allow me to do more elaborate recipe, was a bit odd.

And so after a really quick cold shower (habits derived from years of “mandi pake gayung”) I drove to Oakwood’s Ranch Market to get the supplies. Fortunately, I’ve got pretty much everything stocked in my kitchen, so my brief shop this morning only resulted in baguette, diced garlic , and 200 grams of sliced chicken breast. Other then that these are my ensemble.

The Ingredient
200 g of sliced chicken breast
2 spoons of diced garlic
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Fish Sauce
Salt and Pepper

The Pasta

• Cook the pasta al dente (boil the water, put the pasta in, don’t break just twist and release, wait as recommended by the pack). There is no need to put salt or oil into the boiling water.
• When it cooked, dry the water it
• Heat up a frying pan, when its hot, set the fire to mid, pour a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil.
• Throw in a full spoon of diced garlic.
• Soon after you can smell the unique sweet smell of garlic in the olive, and the color turned yellowish quickly
• Throw all the pasta in, give, a good toss
• Heat up the fire, and give another rounds of toss. The idea is to make sure that all parts of the spaghetti get in touch with the garlic and oil as quick as possible
• Throw 3 pinches of salt, give another round of toss
• By now, your pasta should be looked all oily. Turn the heat off, garnish with fresh parsley (or dried one)

Cooked spaghetti, see how the oil glitters under the light ?

The Topping
To be completely frank with you, the topping can be anything of your choice. For this particular I used slided boneless chicken breast, because its cheap and easy to cook

• Start by pan fried the chicken sliced in low heat, until it gets the mid brown cooked on each sides
• If the pan get to water because of the oil from the chicken, throw the oil out, until it reasonably dry, and add slight amount of cooking oil/
• Add one full spoon of garlic, followed by several squirts of fish sauce
• Stir fried very quickly, ensure that you don’t get the garlic burned or fried

Cooked Chicken, notice the brown-ish tone ?

Garnish
- Readied the cooked pasta on the plate
- Put on the chicken as topping
- Sprinkle some fresh (or dried parsley)
- Add some chili flakes (my favorite is shrimp flavored)

Bon Appetit  !!!

Spaghetti Aglio Olio original take

Spaghetti Aglio Olio as garnished by Fery with added pickled garlic !