just minishorts.

I believe in the Golden Rule of 'You reap what you sow.' And I believe that it works in all areas of life, especially the subconscious 'requests' to the universe we so subtly transmit all the time.

Like say for example, if you're an attention seeker (and I know most people, including myself, are, to a certain extent), you need to be very, very careful about the kind of attention you're seeking. Because literally, you will always reap what you sow, what happens in life will definitely work in a way that returns and gifts you what you are begging for.

So if you are begging for pity, for the 'oh you poor thing, I so pity you, you so stress at work, you better eat more, aiyoh you so sad,' … if you want that kind of attention, then you need to work on yourself. Notice that you'll probably get it, but because you get it, you'll probably have a pretty sucky life with all the problems that will allow that kind of loving, pitiful attention to gravitate towards you. So do you have a 'I am too thin, problem, and no matter how much I eat I keep losing weight?'

Or do you have a, 'My boss is a slave driver, problem, and I have to stay in the office until 2 am every day.'

You do get stories to tell your friends every time right?

Well I don't like you bitching too much about the choices you make in your life, and constantly asking me to go, 'aiyoh you poor thing, aiyoh, don't lah like that, you hang in there.'

I think… you should just go hang, because you make the choices in your life, you live with them.

…

Wanna seek attention also, seek the ones that matter lah. Seek the ones where people will envy you. It's WAY WAY MORE gratifying, far far more fulfilling and it gives you a lot of energy to create positive energies in this world (me going new age here, don't mind me).

Dunia ini, macam-macam ada.

Today. I am blossoming. Again.

Eric would be super pleased. He says he likes me best like this.

I don't like me best like this. I like me best when I am normal.

I've been having lots of fun this week, and I wanna record some cool things I've experienced and heard over the past few days:

1. I can finally eat bread and butter again. I've been allergic to it for a few weeks, no apparent reason!
2. I found this awesome place in Kepong that serves super yummy ULU YAM LOH MEEN. Smackingly delicious!
3. Had a fun training session this week – I loved the ultimate closing line: the silver rule of closing is: STFU and let the client sign your PO.
4. We're having very fruity weeks at home these days. My fridge is stuffed with apples, oranges, dragonfruit (they call it pitera now, eh?) and kiwi!
5. 'I love how you look these days, Choo Ki.'
6. I had someone flirting with me just now. Its nice, when you're happily married to the love of your life, and still get flirts. Even though he probably was just looking for a fling. Ah. haha.
7. TRANSFORMER's COMING UP next week. I can't wait!!
8. Eric's coming home bearing huggy hugs tonight (he's in Singapore right now).
9. I am meeting someone very important tomorrow at around 11 am.
10. And then going to Tenji at noon tomorrow where I can binge.

All weeks should be so fun.

I've been rather stressed out lately, and my close pals tell me it isn't too good for my psyche. Ok. Shall take their advice, except… these few weeks are totally hectic and I'm back-to-back with trainings and meetings. July will fall in extra early this year so its going to be a busy second half of the year.

Ironic, because just a few months ago I was bitching over how boring it was to be where I was. Well, never complain about where you are.

I was checking out my archives again and then I found this set of photos… of my favourite impress-em-at-potlucks special: The Simple Baked Chicken. I got the recipe from the super cook Adeline from BLC, and have been faithfully relying upon it each time I get invited to 'contribute' a dish.

It always, always impresses.

Now I'm not very good at documenting recipes but this one should be blogged. So here goes my agak-agak something like that version:

Ingredients:

1 Whole Medium chicken, cleaned with feet, head and wing tips cut off
Potpourri of ROOT VEGETABLES:
2 Medium Potatoes, cleaned and cut into cubes
1/2 Small Pumpkin, cut into cubes
1 Large Green onions, cut into 8 pieces
(you can throw other types of root vegetables in, but I stick to these)
1 Whole lemon, skewered with a satay stick

Marinade:
1 small cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika powder
3 tablespoons chopped chinese parsley
1 tablespoon coarsely grained black pepper

So what I do is I mix the marinade up and rub it all over the cleaned chicken (I massage it even under the skin of the chicken. Then I leave the chicken for about 4 hours in the fridge to soak up the marinade. Sometimes when I'm lazy I do this a day ahead, and the chicken gets to bathe in the marinade overnight.

When I'm ready to bake the chicken, I heat up the oven first, at about 200 degrees Celsius. I layer my baking dish with the root vegetables. Then I get the chicken out, and with whatever marinade's that dripping left, I pour it all over the vegetables. I take about 1/2 tablespoon of Himalayan Salt and rub it all over the chicken (under its skin as well), stuff the lemon into the chicken cavity, rest it on the vegetables, pour half a cup of water into the side of the baking dish (so that the vegetables won't dry up so soon… and then I chuck it into the pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes.

At 45 minutes, the bell will ring, but I don't take out the chicken immediately. I let it rest for another 10 minutes or so, take it out, cover with alumimium foil, place it into a nice basket, and I'm off to impress my buddies.

Nehehehe— Baked Chicken is a good trick to show off at potluck meets!