Little Stories 270 : School Holiday Version 2 •ᴗ•

This was from the Thai theme weekend at my brother's last week. Zakuan went back home to Penang so we had a small mini-gathering together. I forgot all the names of the food, but the Thai squid salad that my sister made was so good, then the green curry and tom yam were also great (those were made by my brother). I was a bit busy this time around, so I only made tofu fried egg and helped around - hehe:

On Spending Time with Sofi During School Holiday:

Af and Sofi were supposed to go back to Raub on Monday, but Af accidentally injured his back when he tried to pick up the luggage the wrong way. So he had a back strain (and I know what that feels like), so he can't go back like planned. 

To improvise the plan, I postponed all my datelines and I went back to Ma's with Sofi because we already promised Sofi about going back to kampung several times. So we spent 3 days at Ma's - Sofi had a blast, and I had semi-anxiety thinking about work (apparently I'm quite bad at compartmentalizing, hah). We went to Seremban, I cooked, and I cleaned the toilets, not that many activities in 3 days but at least Sofi had real fun with Atuk and Tokma outdoors (she even said ok to the idea of leaving me at home to go jalan2 with Tokma - betrayer) =.= 

Af rested well, on Wednesday he drove to pick us up, and then they went back to Raub the next day until the weekend. Leaving me to focus on work. I was home alone for 4 days and this cheeky little girl didn't even want to come back home afterward because all her cousins were there =.= 

So, Sofi managed to spend a week in both kampungs before school started (mission accomplished). 

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On Work:

1. I completed the guidebook and passed the draft to the team before the week ended.
2. I started on the Noko project for the colouring part sample.
3. I finally managed to start working on last week's task by my boss - this was postponed twice, but I completed one part of it. I have several more different tasks that I haven't finished and started. 

I'm supposed to start working full-time starting in January. 

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On Staying At Home Alone:

I've been running low on my social energy all throughout the school holiday because Sofi was super-clingy with me. As an introverted person, I need the time to recharge or I'll be overwhelmed and irritable. Especially if I'm with such an energetic person and Sofi, yes, she's an adorable kid, but her energy is so loud and radiant. 

Then Af and Sofi went back to Raub.

I was home alone for the first time in forever.

So I worked and worked, and worked. I didn't take care of the food intake for sure because it was work time kan, then I felt awful because perut masuk angin, then I started to properly make time to cook and eat, I still slept in early because I still woke up super early, then I had to put it stretches and workout rep in the schedule as well, sebab I can go on working long-hours and it is unhealthy. Then I started having neck and shoulder pain because I didn't have a healthy relationship with work (so I had to use my acupressure mat every night before sleep). This cycle is ridiculous, you can feel the old-age is coming.

Then, I started my period and things went haywire - I was having so many annoying symptoms like fatigue (so I couldn't work), then bloating (so every time I eat I feel awful), then some mixture of mini anxiety, then the lightheadedness and of course, the most epic one, the crying. And yess, the pimple series. I knew it was coming because I had a migraine several days before, then the random palpitation even though I'm off caffeine. But this time, it was a bit dramatic because there were too many symptoms in one shot, by the end of 2023, I was just miserable. I was mentally and physically miserable. But that's what being a woman is. 

I recharged my social battery and missed my bb so much.

Thank you Af for giving me time to work and recharge. 

It was a nice early-birthday present for me.

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On Cooking for Myself:

I looove soup, so I decided to make a chowder - originally a seafood chowder, but I only have salmon in the fridge and I used that. I used all the veggies I had to make the base: onion, garlic, potato, cauliflower, pakchoy, tomato, and mushroom. Boiled them up together and blended them for the base, also, the trick is to put some of the salmon fats and skin in the base soup to give the taste and smell. I didn't have to use any cream, the base was creamy enough from the potato and cauliflower. Put some salmon chunks later. So, all fibers and protein in a soup - easy food cheat for people who are too lazy to eat. 

Then sprinkle some black pepper, mushroom seasoning, and butter for the taste.

I also made a nice tomato soup just baked tomato and garlic for 40 minutes for the soup base. I tried sautee-tomato for the tomato soup base before but it doesn't taste as flavourful as the baked ones: 

 

Note: I've been drafting this post since the early final week of 2023, but I felt awful by the end of the week because of my period so I just kept it in draft until I did the final editing. Bye bye 2023 !