我又想家了

第44天在俄勒冈州。。。 我又想家了。
因为爱，我选择离开熟悉的地方， 到一个时差相差16个小时的地方。
当想到妈咪一个人待在家时，我的心还是很痛，眼泪也会不听话的狂奔。
原来我并没想象中的坚强。

Starting a New Chapter of Life in Oregon

This is the 4th day since Erik and I arrived in Oregon. Yep, I'm going to live in Oregon for good. Guess what... I'm currently in a vacation, a long vacation (probably up to 3 months). Yay! Hmm... well I'm kind of not sure how to pass my free time. I guess blogging could probably help out a bit. :P

I think I have tones of work waiting for me to do. Like writing a resume, job searching, doing some programming or self studies... yep, I guess those are what Erik hoping to see too. However, I'm not in the mood for that. My procrastinating attitude is in place again. Uh oh!

Chinese New Year 2011 is coming soon, it is next week! YAY! Angpao! Nope, no angpao for me. I have to start distributing angpao to nieces and nephews beginning 2011. I wonder how Chinese in Oregon celebrate the Chinese New Year. Any open house opportunity so I get to explore that? Nevermind, we will surely be back to Malaysia next year for Chinese New Year. *cross my fingers*

Anyway, I wish my family and friends a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year! Yahoo!

Pizzeria da Baffetto, Italy

Is this the best pizza in Italy? Hmm... I suppose so. It is recommended by Fodor's so my friend and I decided to pay a visit to this place.

Here's the description of Baffetto excerpted from Fodor's Rome's 25 Best...

A tiny, hole-in-the wall classic that has retained its atmosphere and low prices. Expect to wait for a table.

Yep, Fodor's is right about the queue. We took a picture of this pizzeria after we finished our dinner at around 7.30pm.

The founder of Baffetto... the old man in specs (see his picture posted on the wall). hehe!

Check out the poster - As good as mothers milk! (^_~)
We ordered one Pizza Baffetto and another dish with bread topped with tomato. The pizza is delicious, it is thin and crispy, and traditionally cooked in a wood-fire oven.

However, I have to admit that the service wasn't that great. You will be yelled by the owner if you pick your own seating. (^_^') The owner will be unhappy if you fold his menu. Also, you may need to share the long table with other couples or family since the long table can accomodate up to 6 persons.

Because we love the atmosphere of this pizzeria, and the food isn't expensive, we went there again on the second day. This time we were treated well by the waiters. We ordered another pizza studded with cheese and ham, and a tiramisu dessert.

The pizza looked burnt but in fact it tasted great.

Pizza Baffetto again... (^_~)

The tiramisu dessert... yummy! And a closer look of the tiramisu (sorry if the picture looks ugly :P)

Baffetto

Via del Governo Vecchio, 114, Rome, Italy.

Daily 6.30pm - 1am; closed in August

法国与意大利之旅 - 感想

法国 - 俊男、美女、美车。。。 聚集一堂的地方。

意大利 - 俊男美女也蛮多，但是，他们的皮肤较黝黑。我想，这都该归功于伟大的太阳公公吧! 以下这张照片就是我在意大利曝晒了一天的结果 - 脚上明显的出现了一个“X”！

如果要我用几个词来形容夏天的意大利，我想应该是。。。 艺术家、雪糕、红酒、还有pizza。无论何时何地，都可看见人人手上均有一杯雪糕。

雪糕的种类琳琅满目，个个看起来都非常的可口，再加上水果片的点缀，真叫我爱不释手。呵呵！

意大利的艺术家，从街头卖唱到运用spray来作画，个个都精彩，都回味无穷。

这次的欧洲之旅，我竟没带防晒油。我从未想过意大利的太阳竟然比马来西亚的还要猛（不好意思，我表达到好像有两个太阳般 :P）。 还有，法国的天气，虽然阳光普照，但它未必是温和或是凉爽，对怕冷的一族来说，有些时候它还是蛮冷的。。。

总结 - Before leaving for the trip... I'm fair like 白斩鸡; after a day in Italy, I become 烧鸡。

Do you know about Pulau Ketam Stray Dogs Rescue Mission?

It has been quite some time since I wrote my last blog. I was tied up with kernel related stuff. I wanted to create a diskless RedHat client so I started from how to compile the kernel, make the initial ramdisk and get the client system to boot. The work wasn't easy as I thought (the steps provided online seem straightforward though). But I did manage to get the client system to boot after a week of struggling for this. Yeah!!!

Ahh, I think I'm too far from the main topic. Did you know about Pulau Ketam stray dogs rescue mission? Have a look at the following website if you haven't heard anything of this...

http://www.mycen.com.my/rescue/index.html


This website has become my daily a must-read website since early May. You can also go to the following link to see the daily update of the rescue work.
http://www.mycen.com.my/rescue/updates.html

Ohh ya, the rescue team currently needs the monetary contributions to pay for the transportation, cages, dog food, vet fees and etc. Kindly check out the website to see how you can contribute.

I found a stray kitten or perhaps a lost kitten

I didn't get a good sleep on Thursday night. A kitten was miaowing pitifully outside the house. I went to the garden but failed to locate the kitten as it was too dark to see properly. I didn't know what to do so I prayed to God for keeping the kitten safe.

On the next day, my mum and I went over to our neighbour's house to look for the kitten. OMG! It got stuck underneath the old fish tank. We slowly helped it to get out of the narrow gap. The poor kitten was shivering and I thought it was starving. It was a male kitten with white fur and two sparkling eyes in blue. The neighbour gave the kitten some water and bun. However, it hesitated to take any, probably fearful of its surrounding. We told the neighbour to bring the kitten to somewhere safe or keep it temporarily. The neighbour agreed and kept the kitten inside a pail. The kitten was still maiowing on and off for a couple of hours. We couldn't do much as the neighbour had locked the gate and never came out. So I told my mum that I would bring the kitten to SPCA on the next day morning.

At late night, my brother heard some noise outside our house. Then we heard the kitten's miaow was now coming from the garage. We quickily went outside and saw the kitten in our house. I was pissed off with what my neighbour did. She shouldn't put the kitten in our compound without our acknowledgement. If she needed help, she should come and talk to us and we are willing to assist. We gave the kitten some leftover rice and fish and we were glad that it finished the food. We put the kitten inside a box and left it outside the door as Oscar was very unhappy about the kitten.

So this morning my mum and I brought the kitten to SPCA Penang. Then I was asked to fill in a form to confirm that SPCA has the full right to keep the kitten and carry out any decision. I understand that the kitten may be put to sleep (euthanised) if it is found to be sick or it isn't found home after some time. But I do believe that I made the right choice by sending him here because it will be taken care by a group of passionate animal lovers and its safety is assured here. I went to the cage to visit the kitten before we left the place. It is very tame and it looks very innocent and adorable. I felt miserable to leave it there but I strongly believe the staffs here will find a loving home for the kitten.

If you are a cat person or you have lost a kitten in Paya Terubong area since Apr 30, do contact SPCA asap to get back the kitten. I forgot to snap its picture but it is a small male kitten with white fur and blue eyes.

http://www.spca-penang.net/index.html

Pineapple tarts

I love pinapple tarts very much. It is delicious yet expensive. So I decided to make my own pineapple tarts.

I went to Sunshine to get all the ingredients needed like the wheat flour, corn flour, custard powder, and pineapple.

The pineapple jam was prepared yesterday. My mum helped me in preparing the pineapple and squeezing out the juice. Then we cooked the pinapple in a pot, added some brown sugar to sweeten it. We also used one cinnamon stick and one anise to flavour the pineapple. I used the brown sugar instead of the caster sugar because I don't want the jam to be too sweet.

I followed one of the recipes to prepare the pastry. However, it is really difficult to form the smooth dough. Finally, I managed to get something out with the help of my mum. Yeah... my mum is the best cook ever! Hats off to you mum!

Here are some pictures of my first ever pineapple tarts. The first picture shows the tarts made at the very beginning. They looked a bit ugly huh?!!

After practising on working with the cookies mould, here is what I got.

The cookies or the pastry is kind of dry. You can see the crack on each of the tarts. I guess I shouldn't have used corn flour since it absorbed water from the dough. Hmm... I think I need to keep practising until I get the right recipe.