Ice shaver!

Man, it sure is a hassle uploading pix to Blogger. Third time's the charm. Phew.

Pic is of Mum's chok kodok/chokodok, minus the chilly sauce. I only eat the thing, so I don't know what the complete recipe is. I know there's flour, salt, water, sometimes corn, sometimes prawn.

Mum bought an ice shaver last month but couldn't bring it back by bus. Yesterday, someone from the Prison Dept came by to pass it on to us. The prison network is really extensive, one in every state if I'm not mistaken. Better than a chain of hotels if you're a higher up in the dept. You get to stay in air-conditioned comfort in VIP rooms.

Anyways, I looked up possible ingredients for 'Halo-halo' (use the ice shaver to produce shaved ice for desserts), a speciality from the Philippines. It means 'mix-mix' and you're supposed to mix the bits of pineapple, mango, jellies/cincau, yam, syrup, etc, for that (my stomach is growling) kick.

Mum says making Halo-halo is only worth it when there are a lot of people around. Opening the tin of mixed fruits or filled milk is just a waste for two - three people. I told her that there'd be more to go around. And she said I was greedy! I am NOT! I just appreciate my food more. *grin*

Been adding more quotes to my website. Hate it when there are no Ascii codes for those special characters (vowels with a line above them) that I need for a few Greek proverbs/quotes. Yes, I am geeky that way, I have some of the quotes in their original language as well as the translation. I do this so that whoever is looking through my collection can impress the socks off their friends when they quote the sayings.

Oh yes, I am sure I am not the only one feeling like this. My problem is, I feel inadequate enough as it is. Early thirties, just done with her degree and no career to speak of. When I happened to see a mention of a childhood friend online, I did a little digging and managed to contact her. Just as I expected, she was successful, a manager in a firm. Has her own house in a swanky part of Kuala Lumpur. I guess if I were in her position, I'd be bragging too. Graduated a semester early (and I was shameless to say that I am graduating a semester late) from one of the local universities and earned her Master's degree. *sigh*

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. I know on paper I look like a dismal failure. Heck, off paper I am one too. I am sure that when I tell people what I am doing now (or the lack of it), they just go "Hmmm, poor thing. Pity her parents!" inwardly. You can tell from the sympathetic smile they give. Which is why I prefer to be anti-social. I prefer avoiding people than to suffer the indignity of explaining what I am up to now. What would YOU do? If you had the chance to reconnect with a 'friend' (and by friend, I mean the occasional, "Hi, how are you?"-type of friend and you didn't even know when their birthdays were), and you knew the probability was high that they would be more successful than you were, would you? Or would you just point to the screen and say, "Look! I used to know this person in school" and leave it at that. Then again, if you need to network, the more friends you have, the better, right? Guess that's the time when you need to thicken your skin ad smile.

Perhaps my self-esteem will increase when I finally get a job. I might start in two months. I won't divulge anything right now for fear of jinxing it.

Sorry for the delay in updating. See, it's so much more convenient to subscribe to the feed. You don't need to keep coming and seeing no new updates. =) And I don't need to feel guilty when I see the stats and notice people coming by three times to check for updates. So sorry! A person like me who has no life outside of my home needs to find stuff to blog about. And my online friends can rest assured that I won't take full sections of IM chats to use as filler.

Take care all!