Crimson Heavens

So we came home one time from roaming and first thing I did was open my laptop (ME=iNET ADDICT). I wanted to see if there were any replies for my latest post but my internet was not working…or so I thought. To make the long story short it was just that my wireless router was off…DOH!

I’ve had a lot of those “DUH! Can-I-boink-meself-on-me-head-now?” moments.  Actually, it’s been happening quite often lately and I really would want to know why. I had noticed that aside from when working on my programs, my level of concentration is quite low…I forget to do simple things, like washing the bowl I thawed the chicken on, putting the ice cream in the fridge as soon as we get home from shopping, things like that…And I feel that it is getting worse every day…

I wonder what is happening to me…

I’ve been planning to post some of my recipes online for quite sometime now but I end up too lazy to take pictures of the dishes I had made (BOO TIMI!!!!). Anyway, because of the fact that all veg fried rice looks the same (I just cook it differently…), I figured I don’t need my own picture for that and just get on with posting the recipe….

Timi’s Veg Fried Rice

Ingredients:

For the rice:
1 cup of uncooked long grain rice
1/2 tbsp of salt
water

For for the garlic oil:
approximately 1/4 cup of cooking oil (or less)
6 minced big garlic pods

For the veggies to be mixed:
1 medium carrot cut into small cubes
1/3 cup of green peas
string beans sliced into 1/2″ pieces
1 big onion, sliced

Others:

soy sauce
3 eggs

Directions:

1. Wash the rice thoroughly and let it soak for about half an hour. Let the water boil and then put the rice. When the rice is half-done, put in the salt. Just check on your rice as often as you can because you have to take it out of the fire and drain it just when it is just about to be fully cooked. You can do this earlier and let the rice cool, mixing it lightly with a for. The whole process prevents the rice from sticking together.

2. Take about 3/4 of the oil and fry the garlic on it until the garlic is medium brown. Take the whole thing out and set it aside.

3. Slightly boil the veggies together until they are partially cooked. Drain the veggies. Pour in the remaining oil in the pan and then saute the onions along with the veggies and set this aside.

4. Beat the eggs and also set it aside.

5. It is much better to do the following procedure in batches of two cups of rice so the fried rice is cooked properly and everything is mixed evenly. Make sure that your wok (or frying pan) is hot enough. Take some of your garlic oil (with ample amount of the fried garlic) and let it heat up a bit too, then put your rice, continuously stirring but careful not to break the grains apart and let the rice cook.

6. Add in the veg, and the eggs and approximately a tablespoon of soy sauce. Keep on stirring the rice until the soy sauce is mixed evenly and the eggs had coated almost each and every grain. Add more eggs if you want some egg bits on your fried rice.

Actually, people might say that this is too much of work for just fried rice but it really does make a lot of difference on the taste. The secret of a good fried rice is a half cooked (or frozen rice), very hot wok, and the soy sauce and egg mixed evenly into the rice. The garlic oil not only gives it more of a Filipino twist (sinangag, anyone?) but it gives the dish more of an “oomph!”.

Right now, they’re building this 100-floor giant just a few blocks away from our place. There will be a posh mall, posh movie theatres, rooftop garden and posh offices also on the upper floors…hmmm, interesting…makes me think how they’ll be able to pull it off. Actually in my area, there are probably about more or less 7 construction sites of supposedly high-rise buildings…they had finished constructing a whole bunch of them in the city, three of which has digital signage installed.

Just imagine, Kuwait is a very small country with approximately 3 to 3.5 million population of which, only nearly a third of it are Kuwaiti nationals. Only Kuwaiti nationals are allowed to open businesses and approximately 50% of them are of that age where they can own one and still not all of them do. So what are all those buildings for? I don’t know, but I guess they are planning something big for the country that’s why they’re giving it a HUGE MAKE-OVER.

I mean really, they’ve brought down a lot of old buildings and new ones are popping out left and right. The designs are more of on the modernist styles, with a lot of ‘em blue glass windows, usually having minimum of 20 floors (not sure).

I wonder how the city would look like 4 years from now….

The article regarding the last day of ITP-K web-design workshop came out of the newspaper yesterday. Of course, my name was there and this time, I’m included in the group picture.

Pardon my make-up…I know I look ghoulish (BWAHAHAHA!).

As I mentioned in previous blogposts, I’m very proud of our student’s accomplishments (which might not be something really huge for some people but they really did their best). And I’m really happy that they really did pay attention and learned something from our nonsensical (okay fine, not really nonsensical) babbles for 6 days and they are able to make a website without using Dreamweaver or Frontpage. To my students: YOU ARE JUST ALL FRIGGIN’LY KEWL! YOU RULE! Not that they’re reading my blog anyway…I doubt any of them and even my co-members knew about the existence of this blog.

As for me, well I’ll be back to that usual wake-up-late-loll-in-bed-with-hubby Saturday mornings. CUDDLE-NUMMINESS GALORE!

Anayway, thank you ITP-K for giving me a chance to help out other Filipinos! Mabuhay po!

For all Filipinos currently residing in Kuwait, you are all invited to attend the event “SALABAT WITH LABAT”. It will be held in the OWWA office beside the Philippine Embassy at 6:30pm on Thursday. This is an opportunity to interact (and yes, even party, woohoohoo!) with Labatt Jimenez, various Filipino organizations and other “kabayans”.

That’s all folks. Bow!

In-laws and I went to the 8-o’clock morning mass last Friday and roamed for a while in the city. We had to go to the sports-shop near the church to see if they have those nice self-colored t-shirts for hubby since he’ll be needing some to wear underneath (it’s his trademark…ha!). Anyway, the store is not that big, but they sell sports wear, exercise equipment, and sports equipment. We came back home at about 11:30am and I had to go and prepare a nice Friday lunch for the whole family. I made sarsyadong fish fillet separately for mom since she likes it a lot and it’s one of the few dishes she can eat, as well as mixed fried rice and spicy hot prawns (my own recipe kinda) for the rest of us. I finished cooking by almost 3 pm (quite late for lunch, but we usually eat at 2pm so it’s okay) coz I had to clean ‘em prawns and do the dicin’ and slicin’. We didn’t go out at night, but I had to prepare for the Web Design Workshop that was to be held the day after.

Saturday started off with the first session of the Web Design Workshop that I had mentioned in an earlier post. Hubby and I arrived at the venue at 8:40am (we usually wake up at 10am during Saturdays) and left place at about 1:20pm. We actually were able to take our afternoon nap but, we decided to go to Farwaniya in the evening just like that. We roamed like crazy ’til 12am and took the opportunity to go to that branch of Alghanim Electronics to see something to get for hubby’s 20kd gift certificate. We browsed for a specific HDMI cable which can connect his PC with older TV model’s that do not have HDMI slots but I don’t think something like that does exist. Poor hubby. Anyway, we came home and finished dinner at 1am (!!!).

I’m still feeling groggy. I hate the fact that I had to go to work today…I just want to sleep…Bah!

I find it weird that I miss my country A LOT 8 months after coming back from a 1 1/2 months vacation and I never felt home-sick within those 3 years that I stayed in Kuwait before that…GAHH!!! GUSTO KONG UMUWI ULETTTT (I wanna go back home again)!!!

I miss my family and friends, my city (QC RULES!), the malls (OH YES, THE MALLS), Red Ribbon cakes, the cafés filled with people—the filthy-rich college brats, the young artists with their guitars, the beautiful colegialas, executives, teenagers—, the colorful jeepneys, the metro-trains, the food (ISAW sa UP and AUTHENTIC SISIG ANYONE?)… *long sigh*…Alas, I won’t be able to go back this year *another long sigh*.

Plus! I DON’T HAVE FILIPINO FRIENDS HERE. Well, ok, our system analyst is a Filipino and he does invite us whenever there’s a party in his house…and there’s my mom’s old old Filipino hairstylist…Lovely lady…But they are more of acquaintances than friends…I am also working in a company where there are only 2 Filipinos (The SA and me). Of course, it is probably partly my fault since I can be su-huch a snob (and a weirdo) but…I dunno, I’ve always been very picky…and I have not yet met a Filipino here in Kuwait who I don’t find at all impertinent (except for the people mentioned earlier). I am sorry but the truth is, they friggin scared the hell outta me…I mean sure, they’re friendly BUT….

1. They ask too many questions…Ano ba! Daig pa si Boy Abunda kung mag-interview! And to think they just met you like…JUST NOW?

Example: I want to buy a lipstick. Filipina saleslady approaches me. She sees mah hubby. “Asawa mo? Anong lahi? Mabait ba sha? Baket wala pa kayo anak?” (Is he your husband? Wot nationality? Is he nice? How come you don’t have kids yet?) *Timi runs away….*

2. They give you advice when YOU DON’T NEED IT. THEY DUNNO WOT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT MOST OF THE TIME EITHER.

Example: Parlor. Filipina hairdresser cuts my hair (not the one who does Mama’s hair ha). “Naku iha, pabili ka sa asawa mo ng lupa at bahay sa Pinas. At least pag iniwan ka me bahay ka dun! Uso ba naman ang divorce ngayon. Dapat iniisip mo yan. Lalo na ibang lahi asawa mo (You should ask your husband to buy you a house and lot in the Philippines. At least if he leaves you, you still have your own house there. Divorce is so common these days. You should think about these things, specially that your husband is not Filipino.)” *Timi glares at the lady*. “Ay pana (from the Indian-pana kakana-kana rhyme) pala asawa mo no? Kuripot ba naman mga yan. Yan ang mahirap pag pana ang asawa, ayaw nya ng gagastos. Anyway, dapat wais ka talaga, eh kung bigla ka iwan di pano ka na? (Oh, your hubby is an Indian right? Too bad, they are all cheapskates. That’s the disadvantage with having an Indian husband, they won’t let you spend at all. Anyway, you have to be wise, what if suddenly he leaves you what will happen to you?” *Timi glares at the lady again.*

I can frigging buy mah own house and lot if I want to, thank you very much! I have a bloody job and I can use mah own bloody salary. And besides, sorry to say, mah hubby’s people give more importance to the sanctity of marriage than other Filipinos do nowadays. Not only that, family pride and self-dignity (as a man) is very important. They care a lot of what other people will say. And even in instances where falling in love with the spouse is not required (like arranged marriages), the man will ALWAYS DO THEIR DUTY and take care of their family no matter what. Di lahat ng Indians kuripot…Kung alam nyo lang kung gano kalakas maglustay ng salapi ang mga Indians na kilala ko, kayo ang manghihinayang. Sa totoo lang mas kuripot pa ako sa asawa ko…

I really don’t like it when people generalize…

Oh well…I’m sorry if ever I said something bad (Dun think I did but sorry anyway…), I am just writing my own experiences. I know that NOT ALL FILIPINOS ARE LIKE THEM (It’s just that I still have to meet ‘em nice ones) and I also know these people are just trying to start a conversation, but…GAH! Scary! Scary! Scary!

It would be great to find a friend who’s really close by… I mean, someone I can call up anytime of the day and chat with on the phone without thinking about long distance charges. Bah! Uwi na lang kaya ako for good?