Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Chestnuts

I was always tempted to make brussels sprouts with bacon but it was hard to find good looking sprouts at the supermarket. So I was very excited when I found this frozen pack of brussels sprouts with chestnuts.

I decided to try making it using Rachael Ray's recipe. It looked quite straight forward and I was cautious not to overcook the sprouts. The problem with sprouts is that most places tend to overcook it, making it very bitter and unappetizing. That was my first experience with sprouts and I never wanted to try it again until I tried a friend's version which made it so tasty. I decided the trick was the bacon and possibly butter. Butter tends to make everything tastes amazing.

Ingredients

• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed, small spouts left whole, larger spouts halved
• Salt and pepper, to your taste
• 1 cup chicken broth

Directions

Brown bacon in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate. Add extra-virgin olive oil to the pan, 1 turn. Add shallots to the pan and saute 1 to 2 minutes. Add Brussels spouts and coat in oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook Brussels sprouts 2 to 3 minutes to begin to soften, then add broth. Bring broth to a bubble, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Cook 10 minutes, until tender. Transfer sprouts to a serving dish with a slotted spoon and top with cooked bacon bits.

My version was still not as great as my friend's but at least they were not bitter. Instead they were crunchy and had a subtle nutty flavor. I think I should have continued cooking the sprouts in the bacon grease. I was concerned about it being too oily so I removed the grease and cooked in another pot. Plus I overlooked that chestnuts would take a longer cooking time unlike the sprouts so they were a bit dry and hard. I had to remove the chestnuts and cooked them in water for a little longer. Another thing I tweaked was the use of onions. I prefer it to shallots.

I will need to try making this again. I hope sprouts will be available year round, instead of during this Thanksgiving/Christmas period.

Recipe from Rachael Ray - Foodnetwork.com

Linguine Carbonara

I was introduced to Rick Stein's cooking by a friend and I happened to chance upon his clip on making Carbonara the Italian way. It looked so easy that I was inspired to try making it. The selling point was that no cream was used at all. Maybe I am getting older but now I find myself preferring pasta which is simple and light. No more heavy sauces, I just want something made with olive oil and herbs or white wine.

Apparently the Italian carbonara typically consists of guanciale (pancetta or bacon are fine too), pecorino cheese (made of ewe's milk) and eggs. Cream is used outside of Italy and is the version most of us are familiar with.

Real Italian carbonara doesn't use parmesan and cream.

Ingredients

• 400g/14oz dried spaghetti

• 175g/6¼oz piece smoked pancetta, rind removed

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• handful flatleaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

• 3 large free-range eggs, beaten

• 50g/1¾oz pecorino sardo maturo (mature Sardinian pecorino), finely grated

• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation method

1. Bring 4.5 litres/8 pints water to the boil in a large saucepan with eight teaspoons salt. Add the spaghetti and cook for nine minutes, or until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, cut the pancetta into lardons (short little strips), about 6mm/1¼in wide.

3. Heat a large, deep frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the oil and the pancetta and fry until lightly golden. Add the garlic and parsley and cook for a few seconds, then remove from the heat and set aside.

4. Drain the spaghetti well, tip into the frying pan with the pancetta, garlic and parsley, add the beaten eggs and half the grated pecorino cheese and toss together well.

5. Season to taste with a little salt and black pepper. The heat from the spaghetti will be sufficient to partly cook the egg, but still leave it moist and creamy. Take to the table and serve in warmed pasta bowls, sprinkled with the rest of the cheese.

It is hard to find pecorino cheese and it took me going to 4-5 supermarkets before I found it. Even then only pecorino romano is available. It works equally well, and is endorsed by my Italian friends who helped me on my quest on finding the cheese.

I found it at 360 marketplace and Jasons marketplace. Pancetta was out of stock so I used the normal streaky bacon.

The portion is huge and can feed 4-6 people, so invite more people for the meal. I used about 100gm of the cheese as I felt it was not flavorful enough but you could probably season it to your liking.

Mangia!

Recipe from Rick Stein - BBC Food Recipes.

15 January 2011 - Homecooked Italian Dinner

After obsessing for a few days on finding pecorino cheese to make a true Italian pasta carbonara, it finally came to fruition over the weekend. I found the cheese! Yay!

The pretty box is from Icing Room where C bought muffins from for dessert. Unfortunately the box cannot be kept since there are marks on it from the muffins.

Bruschetta and garlic bread. I am particularly proud of this simple starter as I actually made the garlic butter to spread on the bread.

Linguine Carbonara - so simple that it is unbelievable. I followed Rick Stein's recipe and it was as easy as ABC once you find all the ingredients. No cream is involved in making this, making it a light carbonara which is the Italian way.

I happened to find a pack of brussels sprouts and chestnuts and just had to try making it. I used Rachael Ray's recipe which was also relatively fuss free.

Dessert - muffins from Icing Room. We had it warm with a scoop of ripple ice cream and a cup of tea from Toast Box. Yummy.

The meal was all the more better with great company and conversation.

New Year's Eve 2010 Dinner

A real pine Christmas tree makes all the difference. The subtle scent of fresh pine permeated the home, intertwining with the smell of delicious home cooked food, just enveloped us when we stepped into N&S's domicile. S is Swede, so there are lots of Swedish influence in the food.

We started with Glogg, a traditional Swedish mulled wine, which was absolutely delightful with raisins and almonds. Paired it with ginger thins, and I could tell it was going to be a great evening. This was followed by a glass of sparkling pinot noir Joy (no calling it champagne since all the sparkling wines we had for the night were not produced in the town of Champagne) with raspberries. Interesting.

The food! Oh the glorious food. They have outdone themselves with the spread. Chili hotdog with sour cream was surprisingly good. I would never have thought chili sausage could be so yummy with sour cream. Home baked lingonberry bread with a fresh wedge of gouda.

The flank steak was superb and it was the first dish to be gone. S made it using the Sous Vide method and it was such a marvel. Every part of the steak was equally tender and juicy due to the vacuum cooking style. Apparently sous vide is commonly used for massive cooking in restaurant/hotel/caterer kitchens.

My favorite dish of the evening - brussels sprouts with turkey bacon and chestnuts. I never liked brussels sprouts as they tend to be bitter and overcooked. But after tasting other friends' method of cooking it with bacon and chestnuts, I became a convert. Somehow they were not overcooked or bitter, instead they were crunchy and sweet. Who would have thought brussels sprouts could taste so good.

Lamb chops with herbs, salad with quail eggs, cubed cheese, tomatoes and greens, Swedish starter with smoked salmon, caviar and sour cream and gherkins on mini pancake and homemade coleslaw.

A jar of home made pickles, asparagus drizzled with balsamic vinegar, baked penne with ricotta and baby potatoes with fresh rosemary.

Dessert - reconstructed chocolate cake from Bengawan Solo. S sliced the cake and added chocolate ganache all over it and topped it with strawberries and raspberries. What a smart way of making dessert. It so happened that we could see the top of Marina Bay Sands from the apartment, so we got to see the fireworks which were set off when 2011 arrived. We had more sparkling wine and dessert wine and port to end the evening.

It was a certainly an evening of excellent company, fantastic food, awesome conversation and rocking good times.

2010 left with a bang and 2011 entered with much joy and laughter.

I love my friends, both old and new, far and near. Thank you for the many years, days and hours of knowing each other and may there be many more to come.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

I have been wanting to make this for the longest time. Well, ever since I read about it from Not Quite Nigella. It looks fairly simple and easy to do, which is quite up my alley. After many many months of procrastinating, I finally decided to try making it as Christmas gifts for my work colleagues. It was a success, so I went on to make it for Christmas lunch.

Ingredients:
A packet of dark chocolate chips or cooking chocolate (I have used Nestle, Tulip and Aalst and they turned out well)
A pack of wooden skewers
Silicone ice-cube trays
Mini marshmallows

Method:
1. Melt chocolate in a bowl on medium heat in the microwave. I keyed in 3 minutes, but will stop it every 30 seconds to check or stir the chocolate.
2. Spoon the melted chocolate into the silicone ice cube trays. This is the tricky part, as it is quite hard not to make a mess of it.
3. Place mini marshmallows on the chocolate.
4. Put into fridge for 5-10 minutes for chocolate to set.
5. Pull out from fridge to insert the skewers and put back into fridge to set.
6. Pop the chocolate out when they are ready.

I usually leave them in the fridge overnight so that the chocolate gets very hard as Singapore weather is so warm and I do not want them to melt when giving to friends.

This is after 2 hours in the fridge. I took them out for photography as I thought they are ready. But it is better to leave it for longer as the chocolate is not rock hard yet.

I have 2 trays - flower and butterfly. I am making a smaller batch to give to people this week.

See the chocolate smudge. The chocolate is not fully hardened. These sticks will be packaged into the clear bags which you can get from Daiso. Or you can also use a ziplock sandwich bag and print instructions on it.

This is meant to be a hot chocolate on a stick, so you stir it into a mug of warm milk with mini marshmallows floating. But you can also eat it as a chocolate candy.

Enjoy!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2010 has left. 2011 has arrived.

2010 was a year of change (career wise) for me. It was not a bad year, nor was it a spectacular year.

The most memorable incident for 2010 would be the flooding of Orchard Road.

May 2011 be an awesome year, filled with many good times and joy and laughter and continued good health for everyone.

Auction for Makeup

A friend will be leaving Singapore for a year and in the process of packing and clearing her place, she decided to give away her cosmetics (mostly new or used just a smidgen) to her friends who appreciate makeup.

Instead of bringing out her stash of goodies and letting her friends choose what they want, she decided to make it fun. An auction! But it is a semi blind auction as we were not told of how many items were there for bidding, nor were we given a glimpse of what were available. Instead we just had to bid based on how much we want the item that was being auctioned off then.

We were given replicas of monopoly money (yes, copyright issue but it was for a personal use and not to the public) to bid on the items. All of us started off with $360 and by the end of the auction, I was left with $150 or $160.

It was a fun and hilarious night, bidding then taking breaks for food and back to bidding. We started off slow as we tried to get the hang of it. We did not want to bid too high as we wanted to conserve our cash. Then we decided to just bid for the fun of it, even if we did not want to item, just so we could jack up the prices for those who really did want it. The highest price bid was $200 or so for a Too Faced palette (the two bidders bidding fiercely on it did not realize there were actually 2 Two Faced palette up for bid).

For myself, I was extremely pleased to get the Urban Decay eyeliners (Covet, Graffiti, Electric) which were my favorites. Stila eye/cheek palette, Nars blush, Paul & Joe eye shadow and face blotter and others.

It was a night to remember. I will miss my friend when she is away for the year. Thank you AN for bringing all of us together 6 years ago. I am sure we will have many more years of friendship to celebrate despite the distance.

Thank you also for the cosmetics and for creating memories throughout the years.

Baked Beans on Toast

I must admit. I am never a big fan of baked beans. I think the years of having floury tasting beans in gooey pale tomato sauce over rice when I was growing up quite put me off it. Maybe the brand matters? The local beans are bigger and are not the same as those in found Heinz baked beans which are made of navy beans.

In any case, I was talking to someone about it. He commented that the baked beans (in a pic I took) looked bigger than what he was accustomed to. So being a curious person, that set me off in a flurry of research. I never knew there was so much being written about baked beans :p

I found out the the typical baked beans served in UK is actually navy beans and Heinz blue label is the can to buy. The other Heinz baked beans contained molasses and other variations. The Heinz blue label is vegetarian and only contains tomato sauce.

So I set out to re-create a quintessential British basic breakfast or snack food. Baked beans on toast. It is really simple and took me less than 10 minutes to make.

After googling and finding out more ways to have baked beans, I decided to go with 2 variations. 1. Buttered toast with scrambled eggs and baked beans

2. Buttered toast with melted sliced cheese and baked beans

Ingredients

1 can Heinz blue label baked beans

sliced onions

2 eggs

milk

pepper

grey sea salt

2 slices low fat cheddar cheese (or any cheese you like)

2 slices of thick sliced bread

butter

Method:

1. Heat bread in non-stick pan till it is a bit crispy.

2. Sliced onions. Beat the eggs and add in milk.

3. Remove bread and spread butter on them. Place 2 slices of cheese on 1 slice of bread. Transfer the bread to a toaster oven to melt the cheese and to continue toasting the bread.

4. Melt butter in pan. Add onions till softened. Pour in eggs and scramble the eggs. When it is partially set, sprinkle with sea salt and scramble further. Remove from pan.

5. Pour can of baked beans into pan to heat up.

6. Remove bread from toaster oven and pour baked beans over the toasted bread.

7. Grind pepper over egg and serve.

The trick is to have a thickly buttered toast so that there is a rich underlying taste. I must confess. I still am not a big fan of baked beans. It was not awful and the beans definitely tasted much better than the versions found locally but they did not make me go "wow"!

The French Bakery @ East Coast Road

If you live in the East Coast area, you would probably have stumbled upon The French Bakery. It is a bit of a misnomer as it is not a boulangerie as you would have thought, with no scent of freshly baked bread wafting out from the ovens. Instead it sells cakes and simple pastries such as butter croissants, danishes and chicken pies. There is a tiny selection of bread for sale but they are not the highlight of the store.

It is not a cafe so dining in is not an option. There are a couple of tables and chairs for you to wait though.

148 East Coast Road is in between Joo Chiat Road and East Coast Road, across from Glory and near Savory Fare.

The array of baked sweet goods at the display counter. Prices are reasonable.

The savory baked section with the pies and puffs and rolls and tarts.
Close up of the baked goods.
Cheese Twist - this is simply yummy. Instead of the usual cheddar, they use emmental which has a piquant taste which gives a bit of kick to the crispy and flaky pastry.

The humble butter croissant is excellent too. It is buttery, light, flaky and slightly sweet. It will be fantastic with a cup of cafe au lait or spread with jam. It has been a long time since I had such gorgeous croissant. I wish I live nearer to buy this for breakfast.

The chicken pie is quite average to me. It is reminiscent of the old-school style of chicken pie (but with better crust), so you are in for a treat if you have a hankering for such fare. It is generous with the filling so every bite will have a bit of chicken and veggies.

Lemon cheese tart sounds like a strange combination but it actually works. The slight tartness of the lemon and the savory cheese make it quite refreshing and not too rich. It goes down very well with a pot of tea.
The chocolate fudge cake is one of the bestsellers. I tried it cold and it was still moist. The chocolate sponge cake is light and covered with a thin coat of chocolate fudge. It is not too sweet and it will actually be great to have it warm and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Another store favorite is the creme brulee. Somehow I am not too impressed with it. It is too eggy for my liking, plus I like my creme brulee to have a thin layer of burnt sugar so that I can crack it with my spoon. To me, that is the fun of having a creme brulee. The hard top layer hiding the soft smooth creamy egg custard. This version is just an egg custard which is not too sweet. To each his own.

Petit fours. These sizes are created for tasting purposes and when they cater for functions. The usual size is much bigger. From top row, left to right:

1. Snow white berry - It is milky creamy with tangy berries in it.

2. Rum chestnut - this reminded me a little of mont blanc. It is sweet like yam and has a strong alcoholic taste. Perfect for those who like a bit of liquor in their dessert.

Middle row, left to right.

3. Raspberry mango - It is sweet and sour, also another store favorite.

4. Passionfruit delight - tangy sweet mousse over a light chocolate sponge base. I like this better.

Bottom row, left to right:

5. Cool lemon chocolate - dark chocolate mousse with lemon. I like it.

6. Icy royale - dark chocolate mousse with a bittersweet aftertaste.

7. Tiramisu - It has a strong coffee taste but the true taste is hard to discern. Maybe because the portion is too tiny to tell.

The usual size of the Icy Royale. This is my absolute favorite.

A French Bakery cannot be without its financier. Over here, there are two versions. Original and green tea flavor. I like both. The green tea version is not too sweet and both have a slight nuttiness in the teacake. I would like this over a madeleine or canele with a cup of tea.

Rum Bola. It is like rum ball, but it is so much more than the stale tasting rum balls sold at the traditional bakeries.

The rum bola is very rich, moist and nutty with rum permeating throughout the small delightful treat. Very nice!

Location

The French Bakery

148 East Coast Road

Tel: 6344 6826

Note: This is an invited review.

Gadgets to get

I guessed it is time to retire most of my electronic stuff as they are considered "old". With age, they are not working as well as they used to. And we all know that most companies actually make their products not to last more than 2 years. This encourage a high turnover so that people need to keep buying their goods and so they can go on making money and hiring people to continue working. Well this may or may not be true but this is a theory I am holding on to on how companies are making the economy goes round.

Gadgets I need to get:

1. Cell phone

--> Nokia phone which was bought in March 2008. Already falling apart with a back cover which will pop out anytime.

2. Digital camera

--> Can anyone say Canon Ixus 50? Bought in September 2005. Well over 5 years now. The pictures are no longer as sharp and often turn out blurry. Probably one of the reasons why I am not posting so much on this blog now.

3. Laptop

--> Samsung Q35 bought in March 2007. I do love this laptop as it has not given me any major problems despite its age. It is very stable. Unfortunately unless there is a way to increase the RAM and processor speed, I will soon need a new one which can handle more programs.

4. Ipod Touch

--> Well, this is a new "want". I just want something small and portable for entertainment value. The new ipod touch looks great and is slim and packs a whole load of functions, including face time.

Thoughts from 25-35 year olds by John S.

I found this over here and it is brilliant! John S. who wrote it seemed to read my thoughts most of the time. Love it!

Thoughts from 25-35 year olds

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter.

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with.

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and I instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

Taking a break

My laptop is driving me nuts as it is "old" (3.5 years and counting) and thus slow. Obviously the specs are no longer up to speed to all the websites which have the latest flash or what nots. So it is frustrating to try surfing the net or even to do simple things like checking my emails or reading news sites.

I have to click many times before the page will move up or down or go to another site. Even my "de-stressing" time i.e. playing Farmville is no longer fun and relaxing for me due to the laptop. Add to that, we changed ISP to Singtel Mio or whatever and I keep seeing the "resolving host" almost every time I go to another website. Another reason to click and refresh so many times.

I cannot even have many programs running on the laptop now. The page will hang for a while if someone messaged me on MSN. So I have also taken to not logging in at times or just ignoring (or not replying instantly because I could not even if I want not ~ the "not responding" message will appear too) my friends who messaged me. Sorry :(

Until I get a new laptop, it will be some time before I update my blog or really have a presence online. Facebook does not count since I only go in there just to continue my farming activity and that is really what I do. I hardly ever have the time to see what is happening with my friends.

The good news is, I have finally shortlisted and decided on the new laptop to get. Now I just need to find the time to go get it. Hopefully it will be very soon. Pretty excited about getting the new laptop though I will definitely miss my current Samsung Q35.