Don't be rude.

My work can be shitty sometimes.

Sadly, some people seem to think that because you end up working in a supermarket as a check-out girl you do not deserve any basic respect or kindness.

There are people who come through the till without even looking at you or saying 'thank you' after you have packed their shopping for them because they are busy talking on the phone.

There are people who are too busy chatting amongst themselves and forget that they are being served by a human and not a machine.

There are people who complain to you because they cannot find a specific item that they want to buy and seem to think that you own the store.

There are people who become impatient just because you did not hear them correctly the first time and they had to repeat themselves loudly, with hand gestures, and assume you have trouble understanding their language.

There are people who give you a funny look just because they have to wait slightly longer in a queue due to technical errors with the till.

So, next time you are at a supermarket, be nice, because sometimes it does take a lot of effort to be friendly and happy at the till.

Picnic

After two weeks of miserable weather, summer is finally back so we decided to have an impromptu picnic on Evening Hill overlooking Poole Harbour.



If I had known I would use the camera on my mobile so much, I would have opted for a Blackberry Curve with a 3.2megapixel camera instead of a Bold with 2megapixel because this picture just doesn't do the view any justice at all.

Poole Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world (Sydney being the first) and it's a famous spot for watersporting activities like wind-surfing, sailing, kite-surfing, jet-skiing and kayaking. And Sandbanks beach which is located along Poole Harbour, is famous for its high property value. Being the world's fourth most expensive place to live in the world, you can imagine that some of the property there is owned by very rich and famous people. Everytime Steve and I drive past Sandbanks we always try and have a peek inside the grand and beautiful houses and point to a random house and say, "Oh, there's our future home !!" Haha, in our wildest dreams. One can dream, can't they?!

So we threw together some bits and pieces like cooked king prawns in a sweet chillie dip, bread, crisps and a huge box of fruit salad each (with nectarine, pineapple, watermelon and strawberry) which I thoroughly enjoyed.



So after the snack, it was time for a snooze and while I was lying down on the bench I saw this plate and took a picture.



I just think it's extremely sweet to be remembered of so fondly by someone. I wonder if 100 years from now, that bench will still be there with the reminder of how John Herriman used to love Evening Hill.

Then I suddenly noticed that there's a blackberry bush nearby and some of the fruits are ready for picking (me and fruit-picking always go together).



So with the empty container that we had our fruit salad in I started picking the fruits but only ended up with a miserable handful of the fruits which didn't even warrant a picture with the Blackberry.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather is nice again and we can go cycling.

What do dogs dream?

Sasha has two donut beds. During the day she sleeps in her bed downstairs in the dining room and at night she sleeps in her donut bed in our room.

Sasha doesn't bark much. The last time I heard her bark was a few months back, at a squirrel outside the window in the garden.

Sometimes I watch her when she sleeps, her nose twitches and sometimes there is a muffled series of barking coming out through her throat. It's so cute I cannot tell you in words.

I always wonder what she's dreaming of. Chasing after a cat? A squirrel? A ball? Or ...?

Home-made gravy

So this, according to my other half is how you make home-made gravy.

Roast some meat (Chicken, or beef or lamb).

Once the meat's finished roasting, remove the meat to allow to rest (very important, he stressed).

Get rid of as much fat as you can from the roasting tin but not all.

Chop up onion, celery and carrot into small pieces.

Put the roasting tin on the hob.

Throw all the chopped up vegetables into the tin and fry with the fat and the juice from the meat.

Pour a dash of red/white wine into the tin (optional)

Get some good quality stock (from boiling chicken bones or meat bones like beef or lamb, but if you are lazy, use a stock cube mixed with water if you have to but it won't be as good) and add to the roasting tin.

Let it boil for 5 or 10 minutes and then you sieve the liquid and mash the vegetables through the sieve which works as a thickening agent.

And that's real gravy !! Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Hope that helps Doria.

My constant war with the bus!

Now that uni term has come to an end, the usual bus A that I take to go to M&S is no longer operating. So I have to take bus B and get off at Lansdowne, run to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road, and catch M1. Now timing is very very crucial here. For five times in a roll (yes I am keeping count) my B bus arrives at Lansdowne as the M1 pulls away from the bus stop on the other side of the road!! How annoyingly on schedule is that?! I have so far not succeeded in catching the M1 and had to catch 1c which is more expensive because I can't use my discount card.



One day, one day I hope the M1 will be delayed and then I'll manage to catch it somehow!

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Cleaning lady

One of the things we enjoy on a Sunday is a nice Sunday roast. My favourite meat for a roast is usually lamb, although a good rib of beef with yorkshire puddings swimming in gravy is not bad as well. So tonight we roasted a leg of lamb with Steve's famous crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the inside roast potatoes, accompanied by my favourite veg, sweetcorn and runnerbeans, and homemade gravy.

Sometimes when we can get our hands on a half-price Gressingham duck, Steve would marinate the outside and the inside of the duck overnight with five spice, garlic, soya sauce, rice wine, spring onion and other bits and pieces and make a traditional Chinese Roast Duck which I would say is up to Chinatown standard. Knowing my constant craving for Asian food, Steve always tries his best to cook all sorts of Asian cuisine for me. He has recently perfected his special fried rice; massaman chicken curry is also another favourite of mine; fragrant belly pork; and we've made prawn siew mai a few times.

I cannot cook to save my life. I do occasionally, stir-fry some vegetables (I think we are born to do stir-fry) but Steve does the cooking most of the times. So you can guess that my role in the house is cleaning up after the chef. It's a lot easier now that we have a dishwasher but unfortunately you can't shove EVERYTHING in the dishwasher, unless you have a commercial dishwasher which is almost the size of a fridge, haha (that would be nice). But I don't mind cleaning up, apart from scrubbing the baking trays which can sometimes be a pain in the backside.

Usually, we'll finish our dinner with some sort of dessert. But because we're trying our best to be fit and healthy this summer we're foregoing our favourite part of the meal. So no sticky toffee pudding, or bread and butter pudding, or rice pudding with my homemade strawberry jam (yum), or sometimes when I'm up for it, I'll cook 'Bubur pulut hitam', which is the one thing I can cook right, and it's yummy to be eaten cold with coconut cream.

Gosh, this is making me hungry now...

Fun talk

In my line of work, it is inevitable that I meet lots and lots of new people every day and sometimes, you get to have some really fun and interesting conversations with some friendly people. But sometimes, it can go the other way...

Today I had an interestingly peculiar one.

After giving the customer a carrier bag, I said to him ,"That bag's not very strong, I hope you haven't got far to walk."

He said, "Oh, that's very nice of you. No, not far at all. Would you like to escort me?"

Trying to recover, I replied, perhaps a bit too quickly, "Er, no thanks."

He said, "Heh, a bit too old for you huh?"

I said, "He.. he.. he..(a very uncomfortable laugh that indicates I don't know anything else better to say)", as he hastily grabbed his bag and half ran away from my counter...

The lady behind him looking amused, said, "Emm, I see you're being chatted up? Must be really flattering."

"Errr.....he..he.. he.. (again the same uncomfortable laugh)," was all I could manage.

When the lady had left the counter, I thought perhaps I really need to work on being 'tactful' at the right time and not blurt out "No thanks!" faster than lightning... I should have said "Oh as tempting as the offer is, I'm afraid I'm going to turn it down."

What do you think?

Nahhhhh.