'Tis a good week for pink

Last Friday's photo theme was pink.

As the French say, ça tombe bien, because I went to Sakae Sushi to have their set lunch on that day, and the set lunch comes with a free box of Pocky. They had chocolate and strawberry flavour, but they had run out of chocolate. So we all had to settle for strawberry. (otherwise I would have chosen chocolate)

Anyway, that gives me a pink photo, right on that day!

I half-thought of posting this photo immediately, but after that I thought I would wait to see whether any new photo opportunity popped up. As it turns out, it did.

I bought a set of two pairs of socks, both which came with a pink pattern at the sole.

(Note: This one is my "official" choice for the Photo Friday pic. Because I think I should not take too many photos of photos for Photo Friday :P )

One of the pairs was actually pink... unfortunately I forgot to take a photo before I wore them. And I'm reluctant to pose them for a photo after they've started getting smelly on my feet. So the next photo is just to show you how the socks look like. On the other pair, the grey part is pink instead.

It's really a pity I forgot to take a photo earlier... I could have posed the pink socks with the pink Pocky box!

Held hostage

For how long do we plan to be held hostage by our predecessors? Until when are we going to regard our predecessors as people who can do no wrong? When will we start seeing the flaws in code as flaws, instead of a convoluted way of coding by our godly predecessors?

I am getting waaayyy frustrated at how some people at work are so terrified at modifying the existing code (some parts written more than a decade ago), for fear of introducing a breakage. Even if the code is clearly wrong.

We all make mistakes while coding sometimes. There are times when we fix a bug, and there is a related bug but we forgot to cover it in our fix. After that we are lucky if the scenario that we forgot never happens, and we forget about our fix. (and then years later it might come back and bite us... or whoever we have passed that code on to)

That is why, if in existing code we see something that looks like a missed scenario, we shouldn't lose view that it could have been overlooked. We would have to think about why the scenario was not included, but if after some investigation, we find that all the clues point to it being missed out, we should bravely go ahead and fix this bug. And NOT maintain that "this could be a feature"!

Stepping back into the game

Had a good ping pong session earlier tonight...I am slowly getting my game back. I have been playing a bit for the past three weeks (or was it four?), and at the beginning my warm-up was awful; at each session it took ages before I could play properly without hitting the ball out all the time. But today warm-up was quick, and with only two of us playing (sometimes there are more people and we rotate), we played nine sets in a row, of 21 points each. I can't remember who won the first set, but we were at 1-1 (counting the sets), and I even managed to lead 3-1. Though after that the other guy caught up 3-3, then I won another one but he won the next two (at 3-3 we said we would play to 5 sets to win). Too bad... but still I think I played well.

Hopefully these sessions continue, because it would be a shame to lose my game again. This is probably the best I've been playing since I left INSA.

Food experiments

I tried out a new recipe from Stonesoup called chicken & peppers.

It's really very simple: just put the capsicum (bell peppers) on the chicken, drizzle (generously, they say) with olive oil, and season.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then open and bake for 20-30 minutes until the chicken is golden. I found that I needed to move the peppers around the chicken so that they won't block the chicken from browning.

I used aluminium foil because I didn't have a baking dish with cover that was big enough. This is how it looked when I opened up the aluminium foil after the first 30 minutes.

(However it was a pain to open the aluminium foil packet while the whole packet was still very hot from the oven, so I would recommend using an actual baking dish if you have one.)

And here it's done!

Taste-wise, it was not bad, but I feel it didn't have enough "kick". Maybe I shouldn't have removed the seeds from the capsicum. It felt a bit like those foil-wrapped herb chicken that the Chinese have, with capsicum instead of herbs.

On a separate note, I discovered that we can freeze lemon zest. A friend told me he peels it with a peeler, so I tried it out. Here's the result:

Looks good, and after freezing they don't stick together (I made sure my peeler and my lemon were quite dry), so it should be easy to take some out to use. The real test will be when I take it out of the freezer to use.

I also found that some people put orange zest in their orange smoothie. I need to try that out next time!

A large collection

Some time ago, I started using small packs of milk instead of a one-litre pack. This is so that I do not have to rush to finish the milk. Even though it's possible to finish the milk before it spoils, it actually costs more in the long run because I would be drinking milk when I would usually drink water.

Since using these small packs of milk, I found that I have amassed a large collection of straws.

I was initially going to take a photo of the pile of straws, then decided I could try to spell out large instead! I'm pretty lucky to have just enough straws for this. The horizontal bar in A is missing, but it is largely readable as A (and some fancy fonts have it like this too), so I am satisfied with that. Besides, adding a horizontal bar would mean making the A shorter, so it wouldn't be perfect either!

I think I made a cakebiscuit

I made banana cake. But this time, it's a little different.

I was making half a recipe, and usually when I make half a recipe, I use a smaller cake pan. But previously I had made cupcakes before, with a small recipe. So I thought I would make cupcakes, to save cleaning the cake pan.

But cupcakes are more troublesome to prepare, because you have to spoon the batter into the individual cups, taking care not to spill it outside the paper cups. So I thought, let's try this non-stick pan that I have. The pan is actually the size of a normal square cake, but I decided that I would just end up with a really short cake. And it would shorten the baking time.

It looks just like a normal cake, really...

...until you cut into it.

It is seriously very flat! Haha...

Taste-wise, it's perfectly fine, but there is a feeling of not eating cake, because where's the body of the cake? I think I shall call this a cakebiscuit, because it is so thin that it's more like a biscuit. However the texture is still soft like a cake (unless if I bake it for a longer time, maybe, which might dry it out. Nope, not gonna try that)

Pros:
The cake was done in 20 minutes, versus 30-40 minutes for a full-sized cake.
There is more of the crispy exterior to eat.
The cake cools more quickly too, since it's thin!

Cons:
Where's my cake? The fluffy interior is almost non-existent.

One thing that makes me very happy about using this cake pan is that it is totally non-stick, and cleaning it is going to be really easy. Usually I grease my tin cake pan and the cake edges still stick to it, then I have to scrape the bits off and there are lots of cake bits in the sink after I clean the cake pan. For this one, I didn't even need to grease it and the cake still comes totally off.

The only bad thing about non-stick pans is the maintenance...I have to use one specific knife to cut the cake in the pan so as not to spoil the non-stick coating. (and I'm actually lucky that I have that one specific knife!) That was the reason why I specifically looked for a tin cake pan previously... so that I didn't have to worry about which utensil to use to cut the cake.

But to make half-sized cakes that still have a bite to it, and to save myself from the cleaning hassle, I might need to get myself a non-stick loaf pan, so that the cake will turn out properly like a cake!

Edit the next day:
Actually after the cake cooled down, the top crust became softer and it did taste more like a cake after all! So maybe I don't need a loaf pan :P

In the mirror

This week's Photo Friday theme is reflection. I took a few photos, but I think this is the best one.

That is the mirror on my driver's seat visor (because the Viva is a ladies' car), and reflected is my office.

Before that I had taken another photo when I saw the half-moon clearly at dawn one morning.

However the photo is slightly spoilt by the reflection of the window frame...my hand couldn't reach out far enough for the window frame to be excluded from the photo! The moon also looks slightly different in the photo... blurred and bigger (bigger because it's blurred, I guess). The actual moon was a half-moon, but in the photo it looks more than half. I guess it's because the focus of the camera was on the mirror here, not on the moon.

As today's bonus, I saw a Pichu!

This car was in front of mine at a long queue at the Pisa Corner traffic light. So I had plenty of time to snap a photo.

Penang Hill - Part 3 (the train)

Have you seen part 1 and part 2?

This part 3 is solely dedicated to the trains. This is because putting the photos of the trains in the previous posts would have made them a little too long.

When riding the train up, we were in a middle compartment and couldn't take proper photos.

This photo was taken from the upper station. I can't remember whether the train was coming or leaving.

Then when going downhill, I was at the topmost compartment, so I managed to snap quite a number of photos. Here are some of the better ones.

After reaching the bottom of the hill, we managed to see a train coming down. Again, I relied heavily on my camera's zoom. :D 

The white thing at the bottom of the photos are the roof of the lower station.

Today's food

I previously wrote about a congee stall that I tried in Pisa Corner. Today I was there to buy the lamb satay that I am always raving about (not sure whether I've raved about it here before, but I did mention it in that congee post).

I took a photo of the congee stall, and of the satay stall too.

Doesn't the congee stall makes you want to try it?

I took the photos quickly, but I think the satay stall people might have seen me taking the photos. This is because they brought me my satay just as I finished putting my camera away... Oops, that's a little embarrassing.

It wasn't until I came home and was looking at the photos that I noticed the "good news" notice on the stall. And it's not clear enough to read on my photo. I'd better check it out next time...

And since I'm posting about the satay stall, it's best to post a photo of the satay as well.

To be honest, the last few times I've had it, the satay is not as tender as it was before. The taste is still the same and is really good, but I remember it being more tender in the past. However maybe it is tougher because I ordered for take-away and it overcooked a little in the plastic bag? I'm not sure...

Since I'm posting, here's another photo, of my lunch.

This is sambal petai fried rice at Beyond Veggie (a vegetarian restaurant by Secret Recipe). It has been open for ages at Elit Avenue, but this is my first time there. It was an appreciation lunch for those of us who worked on urgent MR17 (that's what they call our software release) issues.

Before reaching there, I asked the others what was good. They said, everything is good! I guess it's not bad... but I wouldn't say it's exceptionally good either. I'm a little disappointed in the lack of spiciness (there was a chilli icon beside the dish in the menu, indicating that it was spicy). However it is definitely good in that you don't feel like you're eating vegetarian food. (and yes, that is fake meat satay... so at night I went to have some real meat satay :P )

Edit: In that photo of the satay stall I noticed a Facebook icon at the bottom of that "good news" notice. So I searched for the satay stall on Facebook... and found that it is called Angie's Homemade Satay. Previously there was only the owner/cook there (the one grilling the satay; you can see him in my photo), and then a young guy (the one who takes orders and brings the satay, aka waiter). Lately I did see a lady around... maybe that is Angie. The photo that is stuck on the stall is from years ago...so I'm not sure whether it's that same lady!

Edit 2: Probably the "good news" is that they are doing catering/delivery, because it is advertised on their Facebook page.

Penang Hill - Part 2 (monkey cups and love locks)

Read part 1 here.

There is a photo area where people can take photos with exotic animals. For example, snakes. Of course we didn't go and take photos... but I did manage to zoom in and snap the two parrots there.

This is the food court (astaka), with an owl-shaped swing beside it. The owl is because there is an owl museum there too.

There are monkey cups on Penang Hill, and I guess these status are a tribute to them.

 
They recently opened an area for love locks above the food court 

Frankly, I find the locks rather ugly. Cheap pink and gold hearts that are sold right there on the spot. Why do people do these things??

Anyway, this is a closer view of the owl swing. It was really hard to get a time when no one else was there taking photos. My father was still wandering around above the astaka, so he didn't get to take a photo.

Beside the astaka, there is also an old train compartment. The brochure says that it is a second-generation train coach, used from 1923 to 1977.

Then there is a pearl oyster and a signboard pointing to different cities in the world (I didn't check whether the arrows were pointing in the right direction)

Going up to where the temple and the mosque are, there is a 32-pounder cannon (so says the brochure).

 
The mosque.

Restoration works were going on at the temple, so photos of it are rather ugly at the moment and not worth sharing.

We took a break at the astaka and tried some of the ice desserts that every stall seemed to be selling.

We ordered two to share among the four of us; I snapped photos from both sides because it looks totally different.

There is a famous restaurant called David Brown's on the hilltop, advertised as the highest restaurant in Penang. However we almost missed it because we saw the signboard, saw a restaurant and assumed that was it. However it turned out that we needed to climb up higher before we could see the actual restaurant.

On the way up, there was a banner that my father wanted to take a photo with.

The restaurant. A very nice garden indeed.

Another bird came to visit

I just discovered a hanging nest from my outdoor light fixture. The bird flew out the first time I opened the door, but later on when I tried to take a photo (opening the door very carefully), the bird was sitting in the nest.

I didn't dare to use flash, with the bird there. The photo was also taken with lots of zoom, 14× if not mistaken. (my camera supports up to 7× zoom followed by digital zoom) Partly because I didn't dare to bring the camera too close, either.

Since the nest is rather high up, it's going to be hard to check whether there are any eggs. But seeing the bird sitting there, maybe there are?

If you can't remember the previous bird that visited, you can check it out in this post.

Penang Hill - Part 1 (the Little Village)

During the Chinese New Year holidays, besides going to the Avatar Secret Garden, we also made a trip up Penang Hill.

The station had Chinese New Year decorations up.

The fares:

Walking out from the train station, we can see the viewing deck.

According to the brochure, it is called the Sky Walk. I guess it's because we can walk out to the middle of the sky (sort of).

A little scary if you look down...

The squirrel welcomes us! Penang Hill is home to "black giant squirrels".

Taking a photo with the giant squirrel.

I want a photo too!

Then there is the Love Stroll that we need to pay an admission fee to enter. Needless to say, we didn't pay. :P

This is the map of the Little Village which also costs money to enter. Some parts were open for free admission, so we walked along those paths. The Love Stroll above is part of this too.

This should be going  down to the bee area. This path was not reachable without paying, so the photo was taken at a higher spot.

We couldn't get near to the rabbits either, so this photo is thanks to my camera's zoom.

There are some trishaws and bicycles with pretty lights, and someone collecting donations there. The rabbits are actually beyond this, but the area was cordoned off.

Then there were some dwarf houses.

This house is Grumpy's and the second one is Sneezy's. There were name plates on the houses; see the green and orange tags?

The two houses were side by side as you can see in the picture below. However the other houses were not in this lane; probably they are in one of the paying areas.

Walking down that lane, we look up and see beehive-shaped windows. I suppose this is the back of the bee area (remember the entrance I took a photo of earlier?)

While leaving, I snapped another photo of the bunnies.

Besides being at their houses, the seven dwarves are also saying hi to us at another area.