Been over at Ken’s place a lot these days, consuming cups of coffee made by CJ. Heh, he got a decent deal on a similar coffee machine which he couldn’t ship over when he moved from Auckland to Melbourne. Heh, would like to get one and start making proper coffee but I need to buy a more important item first, which is a new house! Then there’s all the other furniture and stuff that comes with it, so as much as I’d like to get one, would have to put it on hold first. Just so you know, a machine, grinder and accessories would set you back about AUD$3,200, and that does not include the free flow of beans and milk you need to purchase to make these cups of coffee. It’s just as terrible an indulgence as photography!

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Went back to the gym for the first time in a couple of months I think. Haven’t been going for my usual runs, so feeling a little sore here and there. Heh, it was a quick workout, but any stretching of the muscles brings the energy levels up.

Purchased this amazing cookbook from the US, but shipped from Malaysia. It was a few emails back and forth just trying to get the cheapest way for the book to reach my hands and as the author was travelling to Malaysia at the time, it was an opportunity for them to send it to me from there.

The book is called South East Asian Flavors by Robert Danhi, and is really a gem of a book, with detailed instructions on how to prepare Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian hawker favourites. The author even took the photographs of the food himself, so there is a wealth of information to absorb. I grew up on a lot of these dishes, and even being able to replicate them would on a plate would make me happy. Heh, would like to prepare some of the recipes from scratch when I have time.

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Also bought a new keyboard for my Eee PC as one of the keys have shorted out and is not functioning. At first I wondered if it was a virus playing up on my netbook, but after booting into Ubuntu and finding the same problem, I knew that the keyboard was defective. I tried to clean the broken key in question but it didn’t work. Since I threw away the box and warranty card with it as I never expected to use it so the only option I had was to look on eBay to find a replacement keyboard. Fortunately they aren’t terribly expensive and I have one on its way from Hong Kong now. Heh, this purchase has got me Googling other stuff for my netbook and I’ve noted solid state drives are available for purchase as well. The Eee PC is great but the built in SSDs are slow, so there is a noticeable lag in launching apps or surfing the web in general. When the prices come down a little, I might purchase a replacement for my netbook to boost performance.

Heh, the world really is global now, when you can shop beyond that local store in the corner on a street near you.