Two things happened on that day.

1. I lodged my application for my de facto partner visa (Subclass 820) at the Dandenong office.

We waited for 3 hours (from 12.30pm to 3.30pm) to see an official, rather than posting it because my current visa would end on Sunday, when the offices weren’t open. After seeing some people who’d arrived an hour after us get called, we decided to ask if we were still in the queue. The lady checked, said we were, then asked me to file a complaint. As I didn’t want to kick up a fuss I started to smile and say that it’s all right, she gave me a very firm look and said that she was serious. The office was affected by the budget cuts and were painfully under-staffed, and every complaint about outrageous wait times would help. When I got back to the seat 5 seconds later, our number was called. Whew!! (I’d certainly submit that complaint, but not till my visa is approved… :P)

1. The boys escaped – both, even though Zac was present when we got home.

We found a section of the fence knocked off, leaving a gap just big enough so that the dogs could squeeze through. Zac was waiting for us when we got home, but no sign of Dion the dumbo at all. I took Zac and started running up to the shops at Rowville Lake, calling for Dion every other step. The Murloc took the car and drove around. Half an hour later, when I had crossed the road and gotten to the the retirement village, I got a call from the Murloc saying he found Dumbo.

Apparently Dion was streaking up Goulburn Drive in great excitement while Zac had crossed the main road and was looking at Dion from there. A few girls saw Dion and called to their mum to bring a collar because there was a dog who was lost! They managed to get his attention and cornered him, slipping the collar on. They didn’t get Zac though, and we guessed he must have run back home and popped through the gap.

It’s the tail end of a working day, and the company website is finally up – there’re only two more details I need to adjust, and they can wait till tomorrow. We’ve been working on a marketing campaign for the company in-house, and it has been quite a journey of discoveries for me.

We’ve exploring direct mail as a personal marketing technique. While JD has magick-ed up a postcard, I have grander (and probably impractical) ideas involving sensory mail (specifically, something called a Magic Window) and handwritten letters. However, there is a chance that they might not be shot down ASAP once I spin some story to them about the “good olde days” and the “personal connection” of seeing my scrawl… :) Come think of it, I probably shouldn’t be posting this, but sooner or later the mail will reach the prospective client’s desk and people will know. At least if they ever google for it, they will know it’s being done with painstaking detail and plans. 

We brought the Shihtzu Malteses (Bella and Candy) home yesterday afternoon. We’ve left a load of instructions for the family and hope that they will remember and follow them. We’ve also left our crate (and the bf’s Thailand souvenir towel on which the dogs have slept for 3 weeks) with them, and we’ll be checking back in 2 weeks. Even the family’s noticed the dramatic reduction in Bella’s dominance, and Candy didn’t pee in the house the moment we let her out of the crate, so that’s a good start.

I really hope they get a better life – no dog, especially when bought specifically for a pet-status, should live a life like they did before.

The boys missed the girls though. Zac checked the house for a fair few hours in all of the rooms when we came back without the girls. I think he misses his girlfriend(s)… :)

It’s been ages since I last posted, so here’s a quick summary of what I’ve been up to:

• Playing Aion (Server: Nezekan)
• Caring for 2 Maltese Shihtzus of a friend’s
• Getting the BF’s new office ready (furniture, painting, signs, rent agreements)
• Preparing for de facto spouse visa application
• Actually moving into the office! Hurray for work/life separation!!
• Working on a top secret campaign for the company… :)

Life has been busy to say the least. If anyone thought having two somewhat trained beagles were a challenge to take care of, try adding two Maltese Shihtzu into the fray! And untrained in every way! By the third day we had them for, I told the BF I wanted to kill one of them… or was it both?

I’m blogging from the office right now… I’ve been here for 2 days now. Yesterday while the BF was out of the office, his colleague and I had much fun using our computers to talk. Corny tech pick up lines abound!! (“Oh baby, you make my software into hardware!”) My desk is a mess right now but I assure you, once the boys move the filing cabinet from the warehouse into the second level office, it’d be all neat.

I am absolutely loving how the BF has a clear distinction between work and personal life now. He never used to switch off, but now he can. I’m helping him in the office for a bit doing secretarial work, organizing paperwork, getting research done for our campaign. It’s also making me more productive because I’m not tempted to slack off and play games. I don’t have any games on my MacBook, and frankly I think it is for the best.

If only my mum could see me now… hehehe.

Leaving the office now, got loads done. That makes me happy… I can’t wait to start working in Australia properly!

I did this little “sketch” today. At the moment, the BF is out for an appointment. I have put it as his desktop background.

Also, there is a silly looking bird walking across my front yard. It looks like a pigeon with a mohawk.

Editted for more clarity

]]> http://4ting.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/beagle-demands/feed/ 1 Sandra Beagle Demands Pigeon Mohawk http://4ting.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/achtung/ http://4ting.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/achtung/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:09:46 +0000 Sandra http://4ting.wordpress.com/?p=605 ]]>

The German word “achtung” always causes a little cringe of embarrassment in me. I believe it meant “stop” or “danger”, and is pronounced “ahk-tung”. It is a very harsh word phonetically speaking.

When I was working at the Starbucks in Changi Airport T2, I fancied myself a bit of a polyglot. After all, I had managed to sell a bottle of water to a Japanese tourist using mangled Japanese picked up from watching anime (after about 10 minutes of guess-work). I had made it my business to either learn the local greeting of the international traveller I was serving, or to greet them in their language in the first place. At that time I thought it was a brilliant idea so people could feel a little closer to home. Now, I think they laughed because it was a rather WTF experience having this 17 year old Singaporean Chinese speak Japanese or Spanish to them, however badly spoken.

So, the story of “achtung”.

As you might have guessed, it involved German travellers.

I was trying to make some conversation with this family – parents, daughter and son – while they decided what to eat. They told me they were German, and I cast about for any bits of German I knew. All of them were just looking at the menus, at the food display… not paying any real attention to me whatsoever except for the husband, who seemed to be a bit curious about what I could come up with.

“I know only one German word… I think it was achtung!”

Oh, that got their attention all right. And half of the cafe’s, probably. The wife was the one who was most stunned, shocked senseless that this Chinese girl – how dare I – say achtung! in her presence! In hindsight it was probably more disbelief and surprise… though at that moment all I could think of was how to quickly shrink away and hide in a hole.

I still do. I can’t remember what happened after – either I tried to smile and brush it off as me not knowing the meaning of the word, or I ran off to the back room and got someone else to serve them.

Still, I figured that 3 years have passed since the incident, and hopefully they were too jetlagged to bother remembering it. Which is why I thought it was safe enough to put this up for people to read.

If you happen to be part of that German family – I’m very, very shocked for having shocked you in a foreign country in your own language. I’ve repented and never spoken, nor attempted to speak another word of German again.

Not even in private.

Cinnamon Bread: is for nomz

Cinnamon Bread
Ingredients:
Dry:
250g all-purpose flour
200g brown sugar
9g baking powder
2g baking soda
3g ground cinnamon
6g salt
Wet:
235ml buttermilk
55g butter
2 eggs
10ml vanilla extract
Streusel:
25g white sugar
6g ground cinnamon
27g butter

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Make well in middle of dry ingredients, and pour in wet ingredients to mix together.

Dry Ingredients

3. Using a wooden spoon, mix lightly until just combined.

Batter

4. Combine ingredients for streusel, mixing until crumbly.

Struesel

4. Pour half of batter into loaf pan, and sprinkle half of struesel mixture over the batter.

Mid-loaf

5. Pour the rest of batter into the pan, and sprinkle the rest of the struesel mixture over smoothed top.
6. Optional: Using a knife, cut in a light swirling motion to give it a marbled effect.
7. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool on rack while fighting off dogs with violently twitching noses.

In the Oven

Adapted from: AllRecipes.com Cinnamon Bread
Recipe Notes (summarized from comments on the AllRecipes site):

• Double or triple the amount of streusel and put half in middle (which is what I’ve done)
• Replace white sugar with brown sugar (also done)
• Worked well with wholewheat glour (with extra 2 tablespoons of milk)
• Replace vegetable oil with butter (also done – was 60ml of vegetable oil originally)
• Lower temperature for longer baking time = moister bread?
• Also bake-able as muffins.
• Substitutes for buttermilk:
  • For 1 cup of buttermilk – 1 tablespoon of vinegar and fill the rest with milk
  • For 1 cup of buttermilk – 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and one cup of milk

Simple White Bread

I’ve been learning how to bake bread since late last week. This is my third loaf, and I can’t say I don’t enjoy making bread. The transformation of flour and water (and yeast) into something sticky but not gooey under your wooden spoon; the kneading of the dough; the shaping of the loaf – it all invokes a certain feeling in me…

Oh, that’s right. That’s the sound of me becoming a hausfrau, albeit in denial.

Still, like I mentioned to a friend, baking (and cooking, for that matter), is a labour of love… And the BF certainly loves his loaves!

Simple White Bread – Baking: A Commonsense Guide, Murdoch Books
Preparation time: 30 min+
Total cooking time: 40 minutes
Makes: 1 loaf

Ingredients:
2½ teaspoons (7g) instant dried yeast
1 teaspoon caster (superfine) sugar
450g (1 lb or 3⅔ cups) white strong flour

1. Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over 150ml (5 fl oz) warm water in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then leave in a draught-free place for 10 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy.

2. Combine the flour and 2 teaspoons salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment and make a well in the centre. Add another 150ml (5 fl oz) warm water to the yeast mixture, then pour the mixture into the well. With the mixer set to the lowest speed, mix for 2 minutes, or until a dough forms. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough for another 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.

Alternatively, mix the dough by hand using a wooden spoon, then turn out onto a floured work surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

As I don’t have a mixer yet, I did this using the wooden spoon way. I admit I was very liberal in my mixing of ingredients: First, I mixed salt and flour in the bowl, made the well, poured in the yeast mixture and then slowly added 150ml of warm water in. I did it this way mostly because the yeast had foamed up so powerfully in the mug I was using that there was no space to add more warm water to it. And frankly, who wants to have to wash an extra bowl if one could help it?

3. Grease a large bowl with oil, then transfer the dough to the bowl, turning the dough to coat in the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a draught-free place for 1 – 1½ hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

I used melted butter to grease the bowl and to coat the dough. I only had olive oil and I wasn’t sure I wanted to taste olive oil on my bread. Seems to work as well.

4. Knock back the dough by punching it gently, then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Shape into a rounded oval and transfer to a greased baking tray. Cover loosely with a damp cloth and leave for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F/Gas 5).

I learned a fair bit about shaping bread from this video tutorial on The Fresh Loaf.

5. Using a sharp knife, make three diagonal slashes, about 4 cm (1½ in) apart, on the top of the loaf. Bake for 40 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I followed the recommended 40 minutes without checking at 20 minutes the state of the bread. I have now learned my mistake:

Yes, it got rather burnt on the sides and the bottom of the bread. Next time I would bake for 20 – 30 minutes rather than 40 which is obviously too long.

I also made an egg wash (basically, a beaten egg) to coat the top of the loaf before baking. My previous breads always came out with a pale crust despite cooking through, and egg wash helps the top brown nicely with a golden glaze. There is more information about egg wash here.

My bread was soft and chewy but not too dense. The crust was crunchy and on the whole, if I ignore the darkened bits, this was the best bread I’ve baked thus far.

Note: I bought the book for AU$36.99 (with a AU$30 Christmas gift card from last year)… but there are other alternatives. :)

Before I begin, allow me to apologize for being an over-sharer.

16 August
06:30 – Got up to pee yet again. This infection is getting on my nerves. I’ve been waking up at 3 hour intervals to relieve myself. I think I even accidentally witched on the bedroom light and seared the BF’s eyeballs. The scream of pain will forever guilt me. Weather’s pretty bad too – noisy, howling winds throughout the night. (At 05:30 I’d gotten up to pee, and was kept awake by Dion’s snores for about 15 minutes… so maybe it wasn’t as loud as I thought.)

Well, it’s Sunday. A weekend. I’d promised the BF to let him wake up to weekend scones, so I might as well get started. Only three ingredients, it can’t be that difficult…

I’ve been going into the bedroom to check on the BF’s state of consciousness every half an hour since 07:00. It’s now 08:30, and that man is still in bed! I can’t believe it! He says he usually wakes at 08:30 anyway. I think I shall bring in a bit of hot sconey goodness to wake him up.

Grumpy man.

After he realized he wasn’t going to get any more sleep (“It’s my BIRTHDAY!”) I got into bed with him and we had a bit of a snuggle (with the boys too) and discussed how very old I am and how he’s going to trade me in for a younger mail-order girlfriend.

After about an hour he finally dragged himself out of bed and cooked breakfast for me – Duckie’s Scrambled Eggs and Bacon on Toast. It was a leisurely breakfast with two salivating beagles staring at our plates, jowls a-quiver whenever the Heavenly Bacon was visible.

Then we spent the day lounging around at home. About late afternoon I settled down to watch Malcolm in the Middle, and the BF emerged out of his den (his study) to demand that I flick to the two footy matches on during the advertisements. (Carlton won, oh Chris Judd you’re my hero! /bats eyelashes.)

Dusk fell, and we got ready for dinner at Sakura, in Glen Waverley. (“OOOOHHHH JAPANESE! HOW DID YOU KNOOOOW I WANTED JAPANESE!” “Cause, I know! /smug”) It was fantastic – for the first time ever in ages The Breakfast Crew rocked up. There was talk, laughter, dog discussion, games, and an endless stream of business talk from two certain people. I caught myself thinking several times that the BF needs a holiday badly. He can’t ever switch off.

And the salmon sashimi. Oh how I’ve missed you raw pink salmon flesh…

When I’ve had time to let the fact that I’m officially no longer a teenager, I will post again.

Accidentally marked my Mac-formatted external partition as “Active” in Computer Management today, so I scoured the net for a solution.

Open up a command prompt and type DISKPART.

Type LIST DISK
Type SELECT DISK n (where n is the number of the old Win98 drive)
Type LIST PARTITION
Type SELECT PARTITION n (where n is the number of the active partition you wish to make inactive)
Type INACTIVE
Type EXIT to exit DISKPART
Type EXIT again to exit the command prompt
Reboot

I really can’t call Windows 7 “Windoze 7″, considering how good it’s been.

My system specifications:
Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger)
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Capacity: 111.79 GB

What I Did:

I didn’t have a DVD burner, so I’d asked a friend to help me burn it the next time he comes to the house. Which would’ve been the next day, but I was too impatient and wanted to try installing Windows 7 without a DVD.

Google to the rescue!

1. I tried Windows 7 as a virtual machine on VMWare first. I was able to install from the ISO direct (available from Microsoft direct here).

2. Got a NTFS-formatted external hard drive. Followed instructions as per PC World’s article up till Step 5.

3. Used Bootcamp to partition 40 GB for Windoze.
a. At this point I ran into some error saying that some files could not be moved. I backed up everything I had to my external and simply reinstalled Mac OS X, installed Bootcamp, and did the partitioning. Time-consuming, but I’ve been wanting to do it anyway.
b. Possibly, uninstalling VMWare and getting rid of all of its files will work (as it did for Parallel users.)

4. Used a HP WinXP Pro SP2 CD to format partition as NTFS (No FAT32 for over 32 GB partitions).
Had it lying around – I’d brought it over from Singapore. (Left my nice long scarf at home though – shows you where my priorities are, eh?)

5. Installed WinXP Pro.

6. Accessed the partition with ISO contents and ran setup.exe directly.

Windows 7 installed over WinXP perfectly. It went without a hitch. I have to say, I am impressed. When Vista came along I didn’t think much of it. The phrase “Various Improvements Similar to Apple” was what I saw Vista as.

Windows 7, however, is another matter. Most programmes will run on 7 as its configurations are similar to Vista’s (or something like that). If 7 is unsure, a dialog will open asking if you want to just run it, or go online to see if there’s any known 7-approved methods of installing it. Most times, just running the installer and the programme as usual is fine.

What I Should Have Done:

1. Get Windows 7 as a virtual machine

2. Get an NTFS-formatted external hard drive and followed PC World’s directions.

3. Depending on if Bootcamp throws up an error, uninstall it and remove all VMWare files, or proceed. Do not restart immediately.

4. Install rEFIt.

5. Restart. The rEFIt menu should come up and show your ISO partition as active. Boot from partition, and install over Bootcamp partition.

I’m not sure if this shorter method would work. For me, when I tried to boot from the ISO partition, rEFIt told me that basically, it couldn’t boot from it for some boot-related reason that I cannot remember. Still, this shorter method was a brainwave I had halfway through the WinXP installation, at which time it was too late for me to exit the installer and try.

I now have Mac OS X Tiger and Windows 7 on my MacBook. I can play games on Windows and still do my normal stuff on Mac OS. I’m loving this freedom, and the ease of installation with Windows 7 just makes it all sweeter.

Man, I feel great.