Working on day off 3

Phone rang about 730am. Meliza came in and said, Jonathan was on the phone for me. Another episode in the series of Kitchen Horrors was about to begin.......

Jonathan: Are you coming to prepare the breakfast with us?
Me: No. I left you and Jay the instructions to make chicken pot pie. Didnt you see it? Just follow them and you will be ok. It is very easy.
Jonathan: I am not really confident and I dont see the chicken pie recipe. I dont know where things are.
Me(annoyed): This is my day off....
Jonathan: Ok...

Click.

I went back up to my bunk. I wanted to sleep more....my bottom bunkmate moaned whole last night and this morning...whine whine whine whine whine and whine....

I jumped back down and went to the kitchen. They were both looking at the Nasi Lemak recipe, probably almost in tears. I told them...no, we are not making that. The instruction you were supposed to look at is on the counter as I pointed and to my amazement, it wasnt there. Good thing I came down. So, the next few minutes I was looking frantically for the instructions. Then I gave up. I went to the computer and reprinted the recipe. I could not understand how the paper just disappeared. The strangest thing happened. I didnt know how I was suddenly inspired to look under the microwave. There I pulled out the instruction that I left on the counter the night before.

IMAGINE MY FURY!

This joke was NOT FUNNY. I dont want to find out who did it because forgiveness is very challenging now.

Anyway, I ended up staying with them until the pie was out of the oven. Instruction wouldnt have helped anyway. They didnt know how to boil the chicken...how to tell if the chicken was cooked, where to look for frozen vegetables, where to look for anything!

In the afternoon, I spat all the fire and brimstones at Faby. She finally said, they will continue to rely on me as long as I am in the kitchen. I need to just not be around, and they will HAVE TO figure things out by themselves.

I took the advice. Afterall I want to be by myself today so that people are safe. Cant even remember the last time I went to Yuen Long completely detached from business.

So I went there and decided to be generous on myself after all my hardwork....I bought 3 amazingwears and 4 scandalouswears. The base will get to see the amazingwears but only my husband gets to see the scandalouswears.

Finally, my fury subsided.

My SR (only used this term in ywam)

5 months post engagement, and 4 months towards the big day. This long distance SR (since Nov 2005) is getting so REAL. What they said about the hardship of intimate relationship is true to me experientially (<--no such word).

There were disagreements;
There were issues of the past;
There were failure of seeing from the other's perspective;
There were unintentional offenses due to PMS;
There were misunderstanding due to ineffective communications;
There were long arguments;
There were tears;
There were sleepless nights; and
There were even the occasional fear of "what if I could get along with anyone on the face of the earth except my only husband".

But, there was never malicious words;
Never unforgiveness;
Never disrespect; and
Never a doubt about this coming marriage.

There was always love;
Always joy;
Always peace;and
Always trust;
But especially love.

Working on day off 2

This is far worse than the first.

I knew I could not possibly have a real day off especially when that was a less than 24 hour notice. Today was a food run day, not just any food run but Culture Night food run. I wasnt ready for this yesterday. Could have done everything last night but I was dead by dinner time. So, I thought..better come in after a night's rest to pick up the ends.

My anger tonight has everything to do with Wellcome Delivers. They dont. I was expecting this delivery yesterday afternoon! I missed it because I was in class. So, I had to come in today for that too. I waited the whole morning till 2pm and I couldnt wait any longer. I called them up. They rescheduled the delivery till 6-8pm tonight. That was fine. Got a check from Joe and was ready for it.

I finished organizing the food run and sent the crew off by 4. Things were normal in the kitchen too. Just when I thought I could get out of here and come back before 6, it started raining. By the time it stopped it was almost 6.

So I sat in here and waited. And waited.

Its past 10 o clock now. I am so angry. This has never happened before! I could just ignored them and go to bed but the dilemma is, I ran out of milk, rice, cereals.... If I missed them again tonight, there will be a famine tomorrow.

So angry.

Like Jonah said, I am angry enough to die.

Nyaahhhhhh

Snakes

Ok. I was born in year 1977. According to the Chinese zodiac, that was the year of the lucky snake. As you know, Chinese new year never falls on the first of January. They are usually between around end of January to mid February every year.

Anyway, mom delivered me two weeks before schedule so I was born right before the Spring Festival of 1977 and closely but slickly avoided the year of the snake. So according to my own superstitious intepretation, throughout my whole life, I am supposed to slickly avoid snakes. I hate them!!! They are ugly, creepy and scary.

Tonight as I was going on a walk, I saw three dead snakes within 1 mile!!! If I were 11 years old, I would be crying in fright. Since I am not, I am just disturbed.

Snakes...Ugggh.

Na qi ya

Last year while we were on outreach, Fifi and I discovered a long historical drama about Nurhaci, the hero that unified the warring Manchurian tribes and established an empire that eventually evolved into the Qing dynasty. The drama was based on true history but kinda twisted with romance and stuff like that. Among the fictional characters, my favorite one was the one called Naqiya (picture), playing one of the many Nurhaci's women...but was never married to him because he executed her father (his excuse for not wanting to marry her).

Anyway, recently I discovered the blog the actor that plays Naqiya and impressive to me, she is so down to earth just like any one of us, non public figures. She writes lots about her family, her work, her friends, and even posted candid shots of them.

So for the sake of it, I linked her blog to my site...to remember a favorite character from my most favorite historical based soap opera.

:)

Old pictures (click on them for larger view)

Judging the age of the little baby his mom(second from right) was holding , Angeline was probably just 2 years old. Notice that there are a few things that have not changed since...
She still thinks she is cute.
She still insists to sit on laps.
She still plays with fluffy toys.



Now from the date stamp, Angeline was 13. A few things have changed...
She has a lot longer hair now.
She weighs a lot more than that now.
She doesnt have the habit of wearing extremely large mens tshirts anymore.

My prominent weakness

I usually blog about my external life. I am a superficial person. Maybe I can have a change today.

Here is my heart, which almost feels like death because there seems like a wall surrounding it. There is hindrance in worship times, I cant concentrate. And there is hindrance in quiet times, I cant concentrate either. I am not exactly sure what this place is. Usually when I am lost, I can feel God's presence relatively quickly. But I think now I am just wrapped in self-sufficiency.

God, I am here to repent. Give my heart a life.

The clock is ticking. Do I have enough time to get to know myself deeply? Only you know this heart, where it has been and what it has gone through. I dont want to recall the past struggles, the threatening voices, and of course all the hurt that went unspoken. Why cant I just admit that I hurt? Why cant I just own up to my own feelings? Now, I cant be this way. The more I try to avoid, the more I am distanced from myself and so the more I am lost. It is disastrous to bring a superficial self into a permanent union.

He has given me his heart to which I have vowed to protect with my own life. But how do I give my own heart to him? How will I respond if he ever hurt me? How do I hold myself from the temptation of hurting him back?

God help me.

A random visitor

Yesterday, Man Lok from last year's COR came to visit the base with her dad and brother. Because everyone else was engaged with business, I had to chat with them to be polite.

Man Lok's dad introduced himself as KK. It was alright. We continued to small chat. Apparently he owns some property in Shui Mei Tsuen, and he is not a Tang!!! He bought over the land from the Tangs in the 70s but never really did anything with it and now he is trying to draft some papers so that the property can be rented properly.

I thought that was interesting.

When I told them my wedding date, he was intrigued. He said, hey that's my wedding anniversary. I then replied, hey you know, I am marrying a KK, in fact a KKK. He said, those are my initials too..KKK. So, is he also a computer engineer????

I thought that was interesting.

See Angeline, connecting with strangers wasnt that bad....

Joe's birthday today

I wanted to make him a boiled egg but I couldnt get up early enough. I had practice session early in the morning because he was leading worship.

So, I made his favorite dinner, fish and chips. I needed to make tartar sauce but we dont have sweet pickled relish. Yesterday I sent Sebastian and Jayakumar, my foodrun crew to get them but they came back with chinese pickled cucumber!!! They said they couldnt find them and the ones they have are in radish which the kitchen already has like a dozen jars of those.

So, I had to carefully wash the radish off the relish. That was the craziest thing I did today-all for Joe.

God bless the good guy.

Yasmin

That is the name of my contraception pill. I have been taking this for 6 days now. No headache, no abnormal period, no cramps, no baby.

I just need a chronic habit to take them.

July 11th....Frank says, in four more months, my life will be over...

Frank: So will you remember us after you are married? Most people just lost their friends after being married because they are too busy with their new life....

Me: silence

(Dont have to be true...Ive never lost Neek even though he has been married for 2.5 years now. Actually I dont have that many very close friends that got married.)

Soccer

World Cup Final, Italy vs France.

Coincidentally, we served pasta with garlic baguette tonight.

I dont watch professional soccer. My personal soccer heroes are Chad, Kevin and maybe Keith. Bethany, Natty and Sophia were quite entertaining too. But Eugenia's kick one time (ended up hitting someone's groin and then his head) was spectacular.

Anyway, I hope the mafia wins.

Working on day off

Today, July 8th must be the most stressful day I can remember.

I woke up with a gasp. Almost 7:00 am. Thank God for 6th sense. I had that feeling if I dont go down to the kitchen and check, something really sad is going to happen. So I dived from my bunk in my pajamas (thank goodness I still have the habit of wearing a full set of undergarments), my sleeping breath, and soggy face, and dragged myself to the kitchen. Nobody was there. So I dialled the Light House really quickly. Took forever for someone to answer and finally Nicky did.

Me: Is Rebecca and Anny coming to prepare the breakfast?
Nicky: Yea actually just gonna be Anny and it is only 7am and breakfast is at 8. I told her she can go at 745. She is in the shower right now, why?
Me: Uhhh...I kinda need them to come and make some pancakes. I think they need a little more time than that. We have to make it nice because the OTF (Olympic Task Force) people might show up.
Nicky: Oh, I didnt know that. I thought it is just gonna be Feeters who arrived. We will come now!

I went and check the pantry. Not enough fruits for lunch. Panic.
I checked all the ingredients for weekend menus. Slightly short of sour cream. Panic. It started to pour. Well, twas still early. I resolved to go to town and pick up all the missing items before lunch.

Breakfast was smoothly over.

The leader of the Kona Dts came to the kitchen.
Zach: Would there be enough food for all of us (13 people)? We are thinking about having lunch here.
Me (panicked...did I miss out on this one too? Anna said to prepare for 40, does it include them? Come on Angeline, do the math....gosh, i m so dead, so confused): Uhhh....have you told Anna about this? I thought she said she only got confirmation for 6 but not the whole team.
Zach: Yea, I was having trouble getting some of the people to confirm about their meal plans until today, but I guess if there's not enough then, that's okay. We will have lunch somewhere else.
Me: I am not sure if we do..maybe just for half of your team. I am so sorry.

Sigh. That's Kona.

I checked into my little office and started ordering online for the following week so that food will be delivered to me on Monday am. It dried up. So, I left to go into town, got everything I needed. Things were starting to go right. Even the sun began to shine too. So, time to take a nap and have an afternoon off.

The phone rang. Grrr...

Me: Hello.
Ms X: Hello. Could I speak with Miss Yong?
Me: Hey Karen, stop it!!
Ms X: This is Wellcome Delivery service,.....
Me (angry): No no no no..no Wellcome today, I didnt order for delivery today!!!!
Ms X: Uhh..Miss Yong, you ordered from our website this morning?
Me (oh no. not Karen giving me a prank call. gasp) : Yeaa....
Ms X: We are sorry, we are not able to deliver on Monday morning because many of the items you ordered are not available.
Me: Well, can you deliver the ones that are availabe on Monday and the rest on Tuesday?
Ms X: Too many items..but let me check and I will confirm with you later.

I went to the kitchen and check how the lunch went. Becca said there were some leftovers. Sebastian took four servings. Greedy..but the food was enough, that was the only thing I cared.

Ms X called again. Wellcome will deliver on Tuesday only!

Check the pantry. Not enough milk, not enough cereals, not enough bread to last for Tuesday. Sigh...what kind of a kitchen manager m I? Looks like another food run is coming up tonight.

Hmm...since I have a little time, I better write up my long dued newsletter.
Interruption. Becca called.

Becca: I cant find coconut milk. I only found one can.
Me: Yea, I am sorry, I forgot about the coconut milk but there are some coconut milk powder we can use. They are all in the curry spice boxes that I bought. Just open it and you will find two packet of things inside and one should be coconut milk powder...
Becca: Uhhh.. I dont understand...
Me: Never mind I will go down and get them for you.


5pm. I went to check the kitchen crew again. I dont even want to describe how stressful it looked. I felt really bad for choosing such difficult recipes for Rebecca. Faby and So Young came to visit. Another emergency meeting in the pantry.

Me: I think this is tough for Rebecca. All her helpers are new Feeters.
Faby: Isnt Anny supposed to be here to help??
Me: The schedule says Brandon and Rebecca for dinner prep. Anny told me she is doing cleanup.
Faby: No!!! I already changed that schedule. Anna and I made it. Anny was supposed to come.
Me: I guess the Feet Staff themselves must have changed things around again. And I dont have the new work schedule in that case.
So Young: Look (pointing to the Sunday's schedule). Rachel will be mad. This is not fair. She is on all prep and clean up.

Anyway, I had to go to town for food run. While I was in Park N Shop, 6pm....
Gasp. I forgot to tell Rebecca where to find the cheese for the saag paneer. I was sure she had no idea what ricotta was. So, I quickly dialled the kitchen. She answered.

Me: Did you find the cheese you are supposed to use?
Becca: No. I couldnt find it.
Me (regretfully): I m so so so sorry I forgot to tell you. They were all in the bag in the same fridge with all the things you used today.
Becca: Oh really? I didnt know that. I wanted to call and ask you but I was too busy. So we just decided to use the regular cheese.
Me: OK. So everything is alright?
Becca: It looks bad but tastes kinda good. The mango casserole is not done yet though. But I think it is alright. The OTF are very late anyway. We havent started eating.

I have to think Greek in order to use of the really expensive but left behind goat cheese.

I think if I were my boss, I would most likely fire myself after this weekend.
What a day!. 830pm now. Gasp. Time to take the pill.

Food

I am back ruling the food service again.

To welcome myself back, I tried two things that I've always wanted to make but never before. Nasi Lemak and fried rice vermicelli (the Filipinos called it Pancit, and the Singaporeans called it Mihun). Both entrees gained huge popularity, especially pancit. My roomate from the Phillipines went crazy over it. On the other hand, my nasi lemak has lots to improve. My other roomate from Korea loves it because it is spicy and she misses Malaysian food. Note to self: soak the anchovies longer and more coconut milk on the rice next time!

Besides that, I think I accidentally discovered how to make Nigerian meat stew. I gave a recipe for dinner to my kitchen crew one night and the stew came out tasted just like the one Tayo made. Coolness!

Fettucine alfredo is my next new project.