We had a summer that felt like the winter and fall that almost non-existence and when I said non-existence I mean a season that didn’t feel or look like fall.  Not only it was extremely chilly, tree leaves hardly had the opportunity to look beautiful turning yellow, orange and red before they fell off.  Winter gears were already out by September.  

This year, however, is the total opposite of last year.  This year’s summer seems to be fairly long and moving into Fall tomorrow, our temperature is still above 20C which is at least 6 to 8C above the seasonal average.  I am definitely not complaining because it feels so good to still be able to walk around in T-shirt in the late afternoon. 

Look at our weather forecast and check out this Sunday.  The temperature is at a high of 27C and a sun-sun-sunny day!  What a great way to welcome fall eh?

…..and I am determined to be out with my camera this weekend snapping the colors of fall, so stay tuned!

If you like what you are doing, you PLAY your job.”

- by milkitchen inspired by her daughter’s recent vocab development.

Kay was at home with me full time for the last two weeks.  I have to negotiate with her everyday to play alone and let mommy work for a couple of hours.  Sometimes she said she likes to work too and her jobs are coloring, building blocks and putting the puzzles together.  When daddy is home, Kay told daddy ” I go play with my jobs now, ok?” and I guess she is right, playing is her “job” as a kid.

Play your jobs!

Would it be nice if we all get to play with our jobs everyday?  

Not a bad mindset for the ZZZ generation.

Then, we had very warm temperature for the last 2 nights.  There was no wind despite we kept our windows opened, so apart from waking up a few times in the middle of the night, it was already difficult to fall asleep to begin with.  The houses here are built with good insulation, from the bitter cold winter.  That means it is ”too” efficient in retaining the heat we do not need in summer.  A couple of weeks ago when there was a heat dom at the eastern side of the country which brought the temperature up to 50C at certain cities, the government had to send personnels to check on people’s homes, especially those with elderly, to make sure people is coping with the heat. 

And not sure if it is lack of sleep and concerntration, I fell from the stairs during the day.  Thank god it wasn’t from very high but still it was a hard bump on my lower back and hip that sent the utensils and food I was holding flying.  My knee still hurts now.

At work, I was push around by someone unneccessarily.  This person just decided at the very last minute to change some of his timeline and expect some work to be done by the same day.  I told him unfortunately I have not received the information I need to get the work done….so he sent a follow up email to another person and said “If you can send this through, I wanted this to be done by today.”  The first thing he did was ignoring my turn around time.  He never checked on my availability and just assumed he could get me to do it on the same day.  By 3:45pm, I still have not received anything and he was already asking for updates so I told him I don’t have the information to proceed and it is almost the end of the day so the soonest I could get it out to him is Wednesday.  He shot me back an email and said he can’t wait. 

What I don’t get was he knew I wasn’t the one holding up, so why push me and not the other person.  On top of that, he was the one that just decided to alter the timeline at the very last minute.   At 4pm the person finally said she couldn’t get them out and within a minute he replied and said”  It is OK, we can always do it the next time.”

I was this close in picking up the phone and swear at him on his double standard and if he could wait, why did he tell me he can’t wait??  To handle people like that, his task is now at the most bottom of my to do list.   Sorry too bad!  He can push all he wants and complaint all he wants, I am giving the priority to someone else, someone who deserves it.

Then, my lead is going through this phrase at the moment and it is all showing in her moods.  Most days she is very nice and responsive but lately it is as if like she has given up in her work and becoming very snappy.   Her emails are becoming very rude sometimes and I am dissapointed to see that she has let her moods affect her professional front.  Take a break woman, don’t pass on your bad mood and vibes to others!

And when I wasn’t expecting my in laws to be here yesterday, the door bell rang.  I opened the door and there was my mother in law holding a bag of food.  On Sunday, Nick has specifically told her not to bring us food this week but she did it anyway.  Arrghhh!!  The frustration I had was they are mostly leftover that she just wanted to get rid of.  The portion of each dish was very inconsistent and logic tells me if she is cooking the food fresh with the numbers of people in mind, the estimation of the portion should be there, if not more, like I used to see her cook in her house.  We have also asked her not to bring rice because we could cook them ourselves, but she brought a container of rice anyway which unfortunately is not enough for 3 persons.   Then, all the dishes are spicy which means Kay can’t have them too.  Maaaybe she is just cooking for her son…..I have very often tell others that my mother in law is the most stubborn person I have came across and again and again she has proven me right. 

Traffic yesterday was especially bad.  I spent about 5 minutes trying to cross a junction and I got to the dayhome about 10 minutes late.  The carer wasn’t very happy and said I have caused her to miss her appointment at 515pm and she might have to pay penalty for rescheduling.  On a normal circumstances I would apologize profusely for causing the delay but yesterday something just strike me that she wasn’t telling the truth.  Firstly, she wasn’t even changed for her appointment when I got there at 510pm.  She looked like she just finished her gardening!!  Secondly, how can she get to her appointment within 15 minutes when the kids she take care off are only going home at 5pm. There is no therapy center nearby or next door so nothing that she could get to within 15 minutes….as she was grumbling to me, I just stared at her blankly.  This is another person that I have been very patient with. Every month she takes some time and day off for medical reason.  I try to symphatize and I continue to pay her for the hours she never worked, meantime trying to juggle work and having Kay at home.  Looks like she has taken it for granted so next month onwards, I am going to be very strict too, I will make sure I get credit back for all the hours she hasn’t really done anything.

After we got home, I was already exhausted but I have to cook something for Kay.  I baked some carrots and fish and as I took the tray out from the oven, it nearly slipped so I tried to grip the handle harder and thought of pulling it out quickly when my arm hit the oven’s door and burn myself.  Ouch Wee!!

Sigh….

Well despite the tireness, the fall, the burn, the being push around and being the punch bag, Nick went out with Kay while I was cooking and bought a standing fan.  Not only that, Kay came home with a box of lemon pudding and presented it to me at the door saying “I love you mommy!”

Yeah, there are going to be bad days under the blue sky sometimes but thank god for my lovely family I will survive those days.

I am a Recruiter by profession for 15 years (hope this won’t give away too much of my age ) and I review candidate’s profiles and resumes at work, every single day.  For years I have learned (and unlearned) a lot from the resumes I came across.  From the experience I gathered, I pretty much know what types of resumes would work for a Recruiter and Hiring Manager and what won’t.  I can talk about these experience until the cow comes home but there is just this one thing that I would like to share today – “How To Create A Relevant Filename for Your Resume.”

I am finding myself wanting to share some advice on this topic because I noticed it is the most common mistake made by candidates in their job search process.  All job seekers know that having a good resume is the most crucial first step in their job search.  Everyone wants their resume to be impressive.  Over the years, I have seen alot of improvement on contents of the resumes but it is amazing (or annoying) to see that people have not learned to be smarter in naming their digital resume files.

Resumes

Do take a vote on the most common resume filenames I have seen…

1. Resume
2. MyResume
3. UpdatedResume
4. CurrentResume
5. NewResume
6. WorkingResume
7. Resume_(date)
8. Resume_(position)
9. Resume_(company’s name)
10. (Position)
11. (Month&Year)

The answer is, ALL OF THEM!!

These filenames may be unique in your personal hard disk but it is too generic when it is sitting in someone else’s hard disk that contains hundreds or thousands of resumes.

When you apply for jobs by emailing and uploading your resume onto the employers’ databases, you want your resume to be easily identified and accessible.  Most time your resume will be downloaded together with the rest of the candidates’ resumes, and being reviewed for the same job.  So you want your resumes to be easily search and pull from the Recruiters and Managers mailboxes and folders by making sure that your name is included in the filename.  This is especially important for revisitation of your profile because it is a good sign that your resumes are being looked into again, so you definitely want to make things handy for these people.

Sure that the search engine nowadays are pretty robust but it stills required efforts and time to look up for someone else’ file that are not named appropriately.

You have to remember, you are competing with someone for a job and the competition does not start from the interview process.  It starts from the moment you clicked that “Apply” button.  How you named your files is also a reflection of your attributes.  Do you have a logical thinking?  Are you a detail person? Are you a people person that you are capable to think for others situation instead of yours first?       

So always always include your name as part of the filename and I mean your name spell in full.  If you have a very long name like “Jason William George-Michael White” and you don’t want to include all of them in the filename, always pick the one you go by AND follow by your lastname or sirname.  For example “Jason White_Resume” or “George-Michael White_Resume”.  Don’t use abbrievation or try to challenge others’ memories by naming your file with just one name, like ”JWGMW_Resume”, “Jason_Resume” or “White_Resume”.    The chances are they won’t remember your lastname or there may be too many Jason(s) to be able to identify which resume belongs to you.  The abbrievation doesn’t mean anything too even you have the word “resume” as part of the filename.  I also do not find filenames such as “JWhite_Resume” or “JasonW_Resume” helpful.  Sometimes letters that are connected like this might be read as something else and it takes one’s brain a few seconds to search and to relate. 

Also, avoid using your nickname or short name.  If you are William avoid using ”Bill” or “Will” on the filename or if you are David avoid using “Dave”.  “Samantha” or “Jonathan” should always spell in full instead of ”Sam” or “Jon”.  The naming should be consistent with what you put on your resume.  I am sure you got the idea.           

You may also have different versions of resumes based on the types of roles you are applying for but I would not suggest that you include the job title as part of the filename, not unless you are a very very organize person and you are very sure you will attach or upload the right version of resume everytime.  I have seen candidates that include the position as part of the filename but applied to positions that say something else.  This always create  doubts and confusion to the Managers, especially the two positions are very different in fields.  The best way to help you organize and locate the different versions of resumes  on your hard disk is to save the files in separate folders that named according to the types of jobs or job titles.   Always remember to make things easy for the Recruiters and the Managers. The reality is if you are not naming your files properly, you can hardly expect others to do that for you.  You just have to take your chances of your resumes being missed or tossed by taking such shortcuts. 

The same thing applies to cover letter.  If you are not specific in naming your files, Recruiters or Managers might attached or shared the wrong files.  The end results? Someone else’ profiles will end up being reviewed instead of yours. 

By giving your resume and cover letters more specific and relevant filenames, you help yourself by making things easy for others. Surprisingly, a lot of job seekers don’t understand that so they continued to let their resume buried in the folder with the rest of the files that also yelled “RESUMES!!”.

Hope you will find this topic helpful.  If you are the 50% that take your resume file’s naming conventions seriously, I congratulate you.  If you are the other 50% that never thought of making your filenames more specific, maybe today is a good day to start.

Here is a funny article I came across on File Naming Conventions.  For your reading pleasure.  

http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/file-naming-conventions.aspx

You are the very first few that saw the revamp version of my blog.  So here is a little walkthrough of what I have done.

I have

• updated my write up about this blog and me and if you read that you will figure out what “Old News” is;
• changed the theme of my blog.  Not very different from the previous theme because I wanted to stick to something that has a wider view of my posts and an option for a header photo. (I really think all the space on the side is a waste but there is nothing much I can do about the layout really);
• made minor changes to the widget;
• selected a new range of default avatars for you;
• treated myself an early birthday gift by upgrading the font, and last but not least
• a new background and header photo of my new home with blue sky!   

While there will be more comestic updates on my blog, and there will be on going updates as I can see from now, I have decided I will open it to public today.

Hope you like what you see and read and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment box.

Have a good weekend everyone and I hope the sky is as blue as it can be at your end!

Happy Birthday Canada!!

Wow, can’t believe it has been a year since I started this blog.  I honestly have lost track of time until I wanted to write something about our Canada day and thought “Hmmm….am I having a Deja Vu moment?  I thought I have just written one?” 

Indeed I had blogged about it on July 2 last year, the second day I started this blog.  Feel free to click here if you are interested to read about it.

This year we continue to do what a typical Canadian does on the Canada Day. We went to the City Hall for events.   There were events at various locations around the City and we choose City Hall this year because City Hall is just right by the Chinatown, where the lion dance performance took place.  Also, we could conveniently parked our car, had lunch at Chinatown (always appreciate a good hearty Chinese meal) and then continue with the rest of the activities by foot. 

There were alot going on inside the City Hall building as well as the surrounding.  Cultural performance, face painting, arts and crafts, petting zoo, games, photo sessions, food and people dipping in the fountain and etc are all parts of the celebrations.

People in their patriotic ensembles.

It was also pure fun watching people in their Canadian and bright red outfits, gadgets and the painting they have on them.  I was also hoping to get some free pancakes too.  Some locations do give out pancakes, unfortunately they don’t have them at City Hall.

Kate in a red hat. Red symbolize Canada's color which can be seen everywhere on the day of the celebration.

This year we have Will & Kate celebrating the Canada day with us too, at Ottawa.  Kate has put on this little red hat that went along with the theme. I think  I saw maple leaves on that hat too!

She was just elegant.

Fireworks and Edmonton City skyline

In the evening, we watched a movie at home and then watched fireworks from our nook, through our patio door, a wonderful way to end our day.  Though it will be even more exciting if I could write a post about it on the same day but tireness and forgetful took the better of me.

Looking back at my postings for the last one year, I find that I have subconciously made this blog a comfort place for myself.   A place where I rely on leaving my thoughts with no worry of judgement, a place where I trust in dealing with my emotional roller coaster rides when all else fail and a place that captured my first year experience and relocating to Canada.

I have comments about the nice header of my blog so I am under pressure now to find a better image for my blog's new look but I will be OK. Stay tuned for the revamped look now.

Moving forward, I hope my postings, and life in Canada, will get better and better…and maybe, just maybe, I will post a photo of myself in Kate’s red hat for the Canada Day next year.

With that, this blog will be under renovation for the next couple of weeks. 

Make sure you come back for more of anything under my sky!!

Pedestrian Crossings

There are pedestrian crossings everywhere in our city.  Wherever there is a road, and I mean including a busy four-lane road, you can almost certain that there will be a pedestrian crossing somewhere.  The pedestrian crossings are particularly prominent at the school and park areas.  I think these are good ways of taking care of the pedestrians’ safety by mninimizing the chances of jaywalking.  In Canada, pedestrians have the right of way over cars.  That means drivers have to come to a complete stop when someone is crossing the road.  Unlike where I came from, majority of the people do put these crossings into good use and drivers are diligent in stopping for the pedestrians

Pedestrian crossings at the exit from a circle / roundabout.

As good as it may seem, what I don’t understand is the pedestrian crossings that are located right at the exits from a traffic circle a.k.a. roundabout. Cars in a traffic circle usually have to maintain certain speed and they exit from the appropriate lanes.  Having the pedestrian crossings located right at the exit from the circles, in my opinion, does not make sense because it is causing danger both to the pedestrians and drivers.   Firstly, as a driver, there are so many traffic one has to watch out in the circle.  On top of that the road ahead is not straight which means restricted visibility at times.  With a pedestrian crossing located right at the exit from the circle, it means pedestrians have the right to cross the road regardless of the traffic, and so they will.  That also means drivers have to come to a complete stop at the exit from the circle when there are people crossing the road, while other traffic in the circles are expected to maintain their speed…….doesn’t this sound dangerous to you?

This is just something I cannot comprehend.  Everytime I passby a circle and see those pedestrian crossings, I grind my teeth.  This is probably the most illogical traffic systems I have seen.

My Walk-In Closet

Walk-in-closet, not mine but similar except this one is tidier.

I lurv my walk-in closet!  Not because it is spacious but I can actually change my clothes in there.  It feels like a dressing room, only it is filled with all my lovely clothing.  Well, may be that’s what a walk-in closet is meant for but I was  not accustomed to that given I never had a closet that I could walk in to in the past, so this is definitely something new to me.

We have quite a huge window in our bedroom, from torso height and up.  The huge windows are fabulous for good airflow and natural lights.  However, they are facing the bedroom windows of our neighbours that’s about 50 meters away.  So if we are not careful, our neighbours will be treated with interesting “views”, and vice versa of course.  That also means there is no changing of my clothes in a corner of the room just in case I have forgotten to lower the blinds.  Yes, I did forget and I have to play duck and crawl several times.  Well, I did say I wasn’t accustomed to changing my clothes inside the walk-in closet. 

But!

Everything is about to change since I have discovered the wonderful fact of changing in my closet. 

Goooood bye to ducking.

Talking Over Someone

Let’s say you were having a conversation with someone and you were talking.  The person didn’t let you finish what you wanted to say and started talking.  You felt you need to finish what you were saying so you continue talking and talking louder.  Instead of stop and listen, this person said you were talking over her.  What do you do in instances like this?  I actually got tongue tight and sometimes I lost my trail of thoughts most times because I was surprised by the reactions.  I thought she was talking over me! 

English is not my first language and to make my case or to impress someone I need to be very conscious of what I said and how I said it, especially the corporate environment I am in where I deal with “Consultants” that seem to have the right thing to say everytime.  Unfortunately, people that speaks perfect English does not equate to people with an open mind.  There are some that do not have the patience in allowing me to speak and they act like it is a waste of time listening to me.   

This has happened a couple of times at work.  There were colleagues that do not hesitate to talk over me in a group call.  Some ignore me when I tried to participate. Some colleagues do not listen with an open heart .  When someone is not speaking perfect English like them, they automatically believe the individual has nothing better to say.   Not that they have anything better things to say too because most times they only raise their voice and speak faster, with the attempt to intimate others.  So lately I have came up with my respond.

“I understand what you are saying.  You have already said that from the beginning of the conversation so if you could let me finish what I have to say………and by the way understanding is not agreeing.”

Duh!

July

Canada Day Celebration. Thousands of people are on the street for events, parade and celebrating.

Edmontonian has this love hate relationship with the month of July.  There are alot of exciting festivals, events and celebration in July;  celebration such as the Canada Day and events relating to street performance, food, heritage, musical and etc.  Afterall, we are called the City of events.   And with 17 hours of daylight a day, there are tones of reasons to be outdoor. 

Funnel cloud please don't touch down.

However, as summer arrives it also means ocassional nasty storms.   Storms that will bring rain, thunder, strong wind, hail that are sometimes golf ball or bigger size and possibly tornados too.  Hence, while having outdoor fun the Edmontonians are faithfully watching the sky and clouds in summer.  The advise is when you see a funnel cloud, take shelter immediately!

Sometimes bad weather happens in the month of June and August too but not as often as the month of July.

I am sticking to Spring as my favourate season. 

Wii

We had a long and harsh winter last year, our first year in Canada.  There was literally no summer and definitely limited outdoor activities so I bought a Wii console, some games and a Will fit sometime around August thinking I could do yoga and play some games at home.  I later changed my mind about taking it out, to avoid any unpleasant comments from my in laws.  After 8 months in the box, my Wii is finally seeing lights!  I am so glad that I bought it because it is a wonderful way to have family fun while keeping ourselves active indoor on a rainy or wintery day.  My favourite game is “Just dance 2″ and lately found a Karaoke game for Glee.  Kay’s favourite is Disney Sing-It and Nick’s favourite is the hockey game. 

Whenever I am playing “Just Dance” or “Sing-It”, I thought about my good friend Jo.  Jo is really good in dancing and singing and I am sure she will enjoy the games as much as I do.  What I like most is the idea of being able to sing and dance with Jo again one day.  I can imagine it will be a blast having fun together and being young again.

This is Kay’s favourite just dance song and dance, and mine too.  Make sure you turn on the speakers. ;)

The Same

Something never changed.  Something like my mother in law and her behaviour.  A lot of people asked if my mother in law has changed since we have moved out from her house.  After living with her for one year and seeing her true colors, I say “not a single bit”.  She is always very different the moment the house’s door swings open.  Outside the house she is this kind, humourous and caring person.  At least she pretends to be but behind closed door she is a wicked queen.  Honestly,  I have to give it to her (and her acting skills).  She is able to put up such a good show outside the house, I believe even I tell others about my experience living with her, many would take it with the pinch of salt.  Anyway,  that’s not my biggest concern.  I don’t think I need to justify my experience to anyone.

So what happened this time?  Since we have moved out, my mother in law started to bring food over once a week.  Not only that, she has brought them in big portion too.  Sometimes with fruits, raw meat or vegetable as well.  Wow! and I said she is not a good mother in law eh? 

Well, if you have a chance to look at the food closely they are usually cold with a layer of oil frozen on top, and if you tasted them you will know they are leftover.  Unfortunately for me, I work from home so I am usually the one that has the “honour” of receiving those food from her.  It’s hard to show excitment and enthusiasm  seeing her, with the amount of leftover I have to deal with at the back of my mind.  On very frustrating days, I have thought of not answering the door but the same time it is not my personality to be rude, so I have yet to do that.

That’s not the end of the story.  After staying with my monster in law for a year, I know she usually cooks fresh food to bring to her daughter in the morning, twice a week.  The first time she brought food over to us, it was around 12pm so the timing was within her schedule.  The food was warm.  The first thing she asked when I answered the door was “have you eaten?” to which I answered I haven’t.  She told me she didn’t know I haven’t taken lunch and the food she brought are meant for our dinner. 

So she assumed I have lunch before noon huh?  Nah….she can care less if I have taken my lunch or if I actually have anything to eat.  She meant she cooked those fresh food for her dearest son i.e. my hubby, and not meant for me to consume as lunch.   I don’t mean to be critical but I can’t think of a reason she would want to highlight those are “for dinner only”. 

Obviously, the subsequent weeks, she started bringing food later in the afternoon, an indication that she doesn’t want me to benefit by having them for lunch.  I never expected her to do anything for me but it is hurtful that she constantly showed me I don’t deserve the least from her.

On one of the Fridays afternoon, she rang the door bell and was shocked when Nick opened the door.  She immediately apologize for the cold food, dropped them and quickly left.  The subsequent Friday the same thing happened.  By the third week, she was probably worried that she will bump into Nick again so she moved the food delivery to the middle of the week, but still in the afternoon. 

Things started to change when we bought her an expansive termopot as mother’s day gift, to replace their worn out kettle.  We also bought a set of cordless phone, a meal paid by me, and the druken chicken that I cooked for my father in law on father’s day.  Suddenly she is bringing warm food before noon twice a week and she would highlight they are warm and there are enough portion for my lunch too. 

Yup, that is my monster in law alright.  Situation has changed, and I guarantee you it is just temporary until the excitment of those expansive items has worn out, but she definitely hasn’t change a bit.

The first thing Kay usually says when she wakes up is “Mommy, I don’t want to go to auntie’s”.  Most times, it takes some sweet talking or distractions before I could get her to finish her milk, change and get into the car.

Today is a little different though.  The carer has a dentist appointment in the morning so I have to send Kay over before 9am.  I usually don’t like the idea of the carer bringing the kids (Kay and her other friend that goes to the same dayhome) to the clinic but when I don’t have other options, I will have to agree to it.  Kay didn’t wake up until 825am today so I made arrangement with the carer to come pick her up by 9am.  There is no way I could get Kay ready and get her there within 35 minutes. The carer called around 850am and asked if she could pick Kay up after her dentist appointment.  I guess I don’t have a choice so I sucked it up and said yes.  The most happiest person was of course no other than Princess Kay.  She thought she doesn’t have to go to auntie’s today.

Between juggling my works and Kay, I let Kay watched some cartoons.  Then, we had yogurt and cereals so she could get a break from the TV. 

This is not Kay but the image is very close to the daily food mess we have to clean up. ;-S

Kay has this bad habit of playing with her food.  When she made a little mess by tossing her cereals on the floor, I said to her out of frustrations “Kay! You know mommy doesn’t like mess….if you do that again mommy is going to send you to auntie’s.”  The mess she made might be cute, but the cleaning up was awful and very time consuming.

Kay kept quiet for a few seconds, looked down at her cereals and she started mumbling to herself “mommy no like me….”

I was shocked to hear that because I have definitely never expected this to come from a 2-year old, my own daughter.  Abide I was upset and frustrated, I have to compose myself and change my tone by now.  I stopped the cleaning and reassured her that mommy loves her and mommy only doesn’t like the mess.  I think I repeated it couple of times while she looked down and finally turned to me and said “Mommy likes me.  I like mommy too!” 

Not sure how much she understands what I have said but I guess if she knows what “like” and “no (don’t) like” mean, she will understand “mommy loves you”.  

On this Monday morning, I am dealing with words like “like” and no like” from my 2-year old.  Very soon more ugly word like “hate” might come into the pictures and I pray that I will have the calmness and wisdom to carry out such conversations with my daughter.

Any advice from mommies out there?

I took these food pictures at least a couple of weeks back which mean I cooked these dishes weeks ago and as I was uploading the pictures, I tried to recall what they are and what I have used as the ingredients.

I am hopeless with my memory thesedays so am afraid there will not be any specific recipes I could offer for these dishes as I could not recall all the ingredients.  All I can remember was I enjoyed the cooking process, they are not too complicated to prepare and cook (otherwise I won’t be interested in making them) and they tasted good!

The breakfast bread pudding is one of my favourites, so without further ado, let me introduce these dishes to you…… I mean pictures.

Cod on steamed mixed vege. I can't remember what I have used to make the sauce. Looks like Alfredo but I cannot be sure.

Meatball Spaghetti. This is hell of a meatball! Trust me, nothing special about this dish except the meatballs. They are juicy and very tender. Made with 100% Alberta beef.

Nasi Lemak - Yummm. The peanuts are a little burn. :

 

 

 

Sesame chicken. I cooked this in the Crockpot (slowcooker) for 4 hours? There are many layers of flavours and tastes because I remember putting ingredients such as soya sauce, hoisin sauce, lime, vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil and etc.

Breakfast Bread Pudding – my favourite so far. This was my first attempt and I made another one last weekend. The second attempt was perfect with the sourdough. De-li-cious!!

Nick’s grandma aka Ah Mah, a 89 year old lady, was complaining about the noise and crowd the whole time the party was on.  Ah Mah was all dressed up for the party but she hardly know any of the guests so she was glued to the sofa watching the guests most time and ocassionally showing her irritated expressions (of the noise). 

We did try to keep Ah Mah occupied by chatting with her but with the noise, her soft voice and heavy cantonese chinese accent, it was hard to make sense on most of the things she said.

There was one particular conversation Ah Mah had with a guest that I thought was funny.  During the party, a prime, proper and friendly lady that look like in her early 50s held her plate of food and found a seat next to Ah Mah.  Despite the languages differences, she tried to strike a conversation with Ah Mah.

“Hello auntie, you look really cute today!” The guest said.

“I am not petite! Why do you say I am petite??  I am not petite!!” Ah Mah replied in her own language. 

I was surprised watching Ah Mah’s reactions and was wondering if I heard her correctly.  With her accent I can’t really be sure of what I heard so I have taken a few moments to consider if I should help with the situations.

Before I could say anything, the guest, without a clue of what Ah Mah said, must have sense Ah Mah’s tones and decided to try harder….

“I like your shirt and your accessories, they are very cute!” pointing at Ah Mah’s bracelets.

Now, Ah Mah is perturbed.   “There is no point talking to you!  Just shut up and eat your food!” Ah Mah swings her hand shooing the guest away

The guest is definitely confused by now and she looked at me pleading for helps.  I nodded and tactfully tell her “Grandma said let’s enjoy the food first and have the conversation later.”

The guest smiles in appreciation but I was pretty certain that she was very happy she didn’t have to talk to Ah Mah for the rest of the evening.