makumaro.net

Starting July

Coq au vine (chicken with shallots, mushrooms in a red wine sauce).

Scallops with basil and tomato omelette with a sauce of the same ingredients

To make up for lost time, I’m posting three pictures today. Vyanne’s been very much into French cooking these days, so we’ve had beef bourguignon and coq au vine within the span of a week.

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Yeap, terribly late with this post, and same excuses as before. We’re into the semi finals of the World Cup and I’ve just completed the last bit of shopping for furniture, getting a guest bed and a chair for my study room. Only yesterday I was in my room, having just setup the study table (which could probably be told as another long story) and my computer had taken up residence on it. I stood there, knelt on my knees and one position after another, until I finally got tired of propping myself up. Heh, after that, I just got creative and used the ladder in the room which was previously for painting and sat on the steps. I felt more comfortable in that position but ultimately, it pushed me out the door this morning to get a proper chair.

* * *

Getting used to the idea of living in a house, with more surface area for one to cover. It’s not really an issue now running upstairs and downstairs. The weather’s a little more tolerable, as it’s been the coldest since 1996 (love how you get all these statistics in the local newspapers) as it’s been consecutively less than 14 degrees for a week or something like that. Doesn’t really help when you move into a new space and a larger area means less trapped heat, meaning colder spaces. Had the same issue when I moved into my previous apartment. One just doesn’t really get used to the cold.

* * *

Slowly getting back into the rhythm of things. Not much planned for this month, but I guess that’s alright.

Resumed Scheduling

Haven’t grabbed my camera for a long while now. Only decent picture I took today. I see a lot of interesting cloud formations everyday when I arrive and leave work. Sometimes you get some really wild colours and streaks of light, like a painting in the sky.

* * *

Trying to get used to it all again. Using Lightroom 3 now and had to slowly go through the new and improved Import menu to get the photo off the memory card. Flickr has also redesigned their user interface, so the last 10 minutes was spent trying to get one photo up onto the web for posting. Heh, almost seems like everything is new around here. Even with my desktop it’s in a temporary state sitting on the floor now in one of the bedrooms so the screen isn’t quite at eye level and I do get a little sore bending to get comfortable.

* * *

Feeling a little more relaxed this weekend, recovering from all the moving activities. It was horribly cold the first couple of nights at the new place but it’s since been more tolerable. Now that I feel a little more settled in, I’ve been able to start doing a little more stuff around the house (like setting up desktop I’m typing this on now). It’s still in a state of transition, but I feel that in another month or so, we should have most of the necessary stuff in place before the guest arrive from August onwards.

* * *

Was planning to drive down to the city today to have a run around the park. Came out of work and it was pouring, so I had to throw that idea away. Heh, will just spend a quiet Friday night at home then. Portugal vs Brazil beckons tonight, heh.

A Milestone

Just only the second day in our new place. Heh, moved here officially yesterday and watched the Australia vs Ghana match in the living room. It just feels so different, having been familiar with the same setting for the past 8 years just change overnight.

* * *

The camera is still on hold and I haven’t taken any pictures of late. My body feels a little sluggish from carrying boxes and items up and down. I used to tell people that I didn’t collect too much but I’m starting to think that maybe I collected more than I realised. For each run of moving stuff to the new place, I’d manage to go back to my old room and pack another couple boxes of stuff. Just feeling tired physically these days, and there’s still plenty of unpacking to do. Everything’s just in a mess now but we are slowly getting there.

Spent a big chunk of change on furniture and stuff. Didn’t have any major items to move other than a fridge (which required one removalist and a van) so everything else had to be brand spanking new. At least I have a couch to sit on and a makeshift Ikea coffee table acting as a dining table of sorts as well.

* * *

Heh, just thinking back to so many things. So many habits will be changed. Been staying with my house mate Kheng for the last 10 years and now everyone is moving on. Used to be able to walk 5 minutes in any direction to visit a friend, now it’s a 20 minute drive. I will miss those times.

* * *

Didn’t seem that long ago that I had to take a flight and go all the way to NYC. Only difference was that I knew that it wasn’t permanent, so maybe that is comforting to know. Will need a couple of weeks to get used to the new routines I suppose. Time will tell.