escapades of the elusive kat

So much has happened that... while I don't recall the exact sequence of what happened first, I'm grouping them together by topic.

I went on another 10km run! I was like a couple seconds slower than my last 10km run. I don't plan to run a half marathon (21km) but I do plan to do a training plan towards a half marathon. But I think if I decide to do that I actually have to incorporate some kind of strength training, which would mean a gym, which would mean I'd be too lazy to follow through.

The Line Friends Hotel and the Cafe have finally opened! At least that's one more thing in the DONE part of the task list.

I've been having fun at the ceramics workshop. The timing is a little inconvenient but I've been managing so far. I have 2 planters ready to be final burnt, and 2 more for the first burn then coloring again. Actually one of the dogs has a shaky leg LOL. It actually came off as I was drying it out. Well. Hopefully... it stays!

Sooo.... Mom was recently talking about really missing Nutmeg (our orange cat). At the shelter that I volunteer in, they had a sudden influx of orange cats. I asked how strict they are about the selection process and they said since I'm a volunteer and I'm a "trusted individual", they practically just let me have the cat.

But after staying for a week, the cat isn't really too human-friendly. Probably needs some more time to get used to us.

I spent an afternoon playing with the long feather thing with the cat and the cat now basically sticks to me.

The little rascal is indeed causing quite a bit of trouble (pushed one of my orchid plants down, broke a stem, broke a few pots from my Sis, it's basically a nuisance.

Mom had half a mind to ask me to return the cat (what comes in doesn't go out, sorry) and yesterday, in jest, she told her sister (my aunt), "I can have even more cats if I want!"

And look what happened today!

My Sis was walking Max and another dog-parent-friend said there's a cat at the entrance to the flower shop (but flower shop still closed)

It's tiny! It's the size of my palm! It's Frankenstein Cat! Look at the markings! Orange and brown tiger stripes! And we already have a babysitter in line for that. But no, it's not going to be called FrankenCat because we already have a Frankie (the Frenchie) at home. Don't want so many Franks there.

Parents have arrived Vienna, and gotten to Dad's hometown, and Mom is already complaining (haha)

She sent us some photos of the view of the street from the apartment they are staying. "There's no one out there! There's no pedestrians! It's Tuesday! For some reason no restaurant is open on a Tuesday! This is a dead town!"

Well...

With the thing about it feeling like a ghost town because "nobody's out walking and there are no pedestrians," .... we've known this for a fact since 30 years ago, Mom. It's hardly news to us. Why do you think I hated visiting Dad's hometown with the family when I was a kid?

(Granted, when I visited again a couple years back with my friend, it was completely different and I actually liked it - probably because we had planned activities every single day and would be seeing different things every single day.)

They also complained about the guy that sold them their SIM cards knew nothing about SIM cards. Before they left, Mom wanted me to teach her how to work her dual SIM function. I said I can't exactly show her step by step, because she had to have the second SIM in order for me to be able to simulate the steps to her, but there's no second SIM.

Since their mobile phone plans are under my plan and I'm paying for their phone plans, I said "Just subscribe to the Europe traveling plan and be done with it!" But nooooo they can't do that, because it's super expensive, and she needs a local number in Portugal because she has to get in touch with an old lady in Portugal that doesn't have WhatsApp and will not dial international numbers, so she MUST use a local SIM card when there.

So, next thing we suggested was to get an Austrian SIM card when in the airport, but nooooooo it's more expensive that way (but then we countered that they would most likely know how to deal international phones and what to do and probably how to explain it to you). No. They decided to go to the local supermarkets Billa or Spar or whatever MediaMarkt, I don't even know. That didn't speak English, so Dad couldn't even translate for Mom (coz he very likely doesn't understand half of what the guy says). I hope. I HOPE! When they are in Portugal and have to swap the Austrian card out, they would not swap the wrong card out (fingers crossed and prays).

Oh, and the newest "complaint" from Dad is, "his phone doesn't have the weather app!" I don't really want to teach them over the phone because, it's over the phone, and they are technology-numb. And although I had set Dad's App Store to not need password input when downloading free apps, he hardly ever uses the App Store so I'm not sure if that setting has expired and it will still ask to input a password. And then he'll go all scheisse, schreiklich, and whatever else. Dad, just look at Mom's phone if you want to know the weather. Or better yet. Switch on the local TV. Or the radio.

Oh yeah, the apartment Dad's brother helped him rent is situated on the first floor, and Mom's complaining "there's 18 steps to go up." It seems like she's now planning to stay the remaining 14 days in the apartment and not going out because there's nothing outside anyway, and there's this flight of steps for her to climb, that she can't climb everyday.

There's going to be a BBQ party in "the garden" (small plot of land rented for small gardening or outdoor activities). Mom took a video and wow, Onkel definitely outdid himself. It used to have a small wooden cabin-style house/hut (just living room and the outside patio), a small gardening plot and an outdoor toilet. Now, they've made an outdoor kitchen, and have a pond/water feature. It looks larger too, and yes, Onkel managed to rent the next-door plots because the original renters dropped it. I remember as a kid looking for slugs around the garden and pouring salt or sugar (forgot which, but by rationale should be salt I think) on them to kill them.

So my Mom is throwing a fit and her favorite "blame game" right now.

After 3 years of being stuck, Dad really wanted to go back to his homeland Austria to visit his brothers. They're all getting on, and all (except one) are having certain health issues.

The parents' plan, after checking all their doctor's appointments and things that can't be rescheduled, determined they will be traveling in July and part of August. Sure.

So back in February, I made a "hold" on a flight itinerary. It costed around 12k or so, 13k max local money per person to fly. It was actually a good price, and I had advised them that "this is probably as good a price as you'd get on Swiss Air."

Mom said flippantly, "I don't like to get locked in so early on. It's just February!"

So I replied, "as you wish, but once this hold is up (in a few days) the price would change."

Now it's May. Mom wants me to roll out the flights again. Sure. Same flights, now coming up to 18k or so, 19k max. "It's almost double!" She complains.

"I did warn you that if you did not take up the deal last time, the price will change," I replied.

"No! You never did!" She yelled back.

I was so mad, I think I almost combusted. But as all fights with Mom goes, you never win, so I didn't say anything, deciding to just talk to her again in the morning.

So this morning before I left, I asked again, "so, the flights, shall I confirm or continue to wait?"

She was all like "what other choice do we have? Sure, confirm the tickets, when do we have to pay?"

Since I was pretty familiar with the travel agent that I was making all these arrangements, I replied that "they won't be pushing for payment immediately," meaning that, they won't be pushy and say "pay then we issue the tickets." There's a certain level of trust between us. But I also wouldn't abuse this familiarity, so I'd say, better pay within 2 weeks of issuing tickets. That's my personal practice with this travel agent.

Mom, however, bristled. "Had you told me that in February I would have confirmed the tickets!"

Now I couldn't contain my fire. "Withholding payment doesn't mean you can pay upon your return in August, Mom, I would have paid within a few days too. I just meant you don't have to scramble to make the payment today."

Of course, she doesn't give up. "But had I known that then I would have said yes, so now we wouldn't have to pay double the price!"

And of course I couldn't shut up. "Yeah yeah. Blame me all over again for everything now. It's your habit anyway, you are never wrong, isn't it. It's my fault. I am sorry for not persuading you to go ahead and pay for your tickets back in February."

Nevermind that I was planning to eat the cost of the trip. Well, now that she's annoyed me so much, she can pay it herself again.

Actually, just the other day, on Mother's Day, she started a fight with her brother in law. It was so embarrassing.

Mom has a spinster friend, and she says she "feels sorry for her for not having much family," (same friend that "donated" money to my Sister as an act of charity because she was jobless back then, same friend that whenever anything needs to be done I would have to do it for her). So whenever it's these festivities, Mom would invite this friend too.

The common practice with my family is, we go out for weekly Sunday lunches together, what I term the Obligatory Sunday Family Lunch. It's basically Mom's family lunch, in that, the nucleus families of the remaining sisters (they were 4 sisters, now they are 3). The sons of the sister that has passed aren't called for these lunches because they have family of their own. Anyway, the sisters have a joint "wallet" for these weekly lunches.

When it's times like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, and such, the kids (that means, my generation) would pay. But we don't just split evenly, we'll split costs by party size. So say, my family there's 4 persons (Mom, Dad, Sis, and I),  so my Sis and I would pay for the 4 persons. My cousin would pay for her parents (so, 3 persons), and my other 2 sibling cousins would pay for their mom and themselves (so 3 persons as well). Mom would insist to invite her friend during these lunches but that her friend would pay for herself. Fine.

Oh, I forgot to mention, this brother in law worked in a bank before (I was too young to know what he worked as, but I suppose he was a big shot) and so the family usually depended on him for anything money-calculation related.

So on Mother's Day, it was time to pay. My Uncle (so, Mom's brother in law, in case it isn't clear) simply said "so you kids get together and do your numbers." Yes, sure, sir. Since I'm usually the one to do this task amongst that generation of the family (despite one of the cousins actually working at the bank, why isn't she the doing doing this?), I was way ahead and had my nifty excel calculation sheet ready, I just had to plot in the numbers (yes, I love my excel sheets).

Mom bites, "Hey, brother in law, you don't know what's going on so you should just shut up."

The table was flabbergasted. "Why are you talking like that Mom?" I asked.

"He doesn't know what's going on, don't divide the bill evenly!"

"I was never going to split the bill evenly!"

Uncle also was getting riled up, "I was just telling them to settle the bill amongst themselves!"

Not one to be challenged, Mom parried and said "That's none of your business, use your mouth to eat!"

"Mom, stop it! I'm handling the bills! I know what to do!" I tried to stop the fight.

"Well, then you should have told me how much my friend should pay!" She retorted.

WTF. I thought it was MANNERS to not talk about money in public, goddamnit! I had sent the cousins the amount they owed me on a group chat that SHE was on, and I was going to tell Mom's friend the amount after the lunch when not everyone was around the table. WHERE HAS HER MANNERS GONE?????

Mom is seriously getting out of control.

Last night one of my cousins invited us out for dinner. His birthday was hijacked by the lockdown in July, so he hosted this dinner for the family. It was a nice change of pace, as usually for these family parties we go to a lunch buffet place. This restaurant is quite nice. Beachside, a bit far off. But if you ask, is it authentic portuguese food? Hm... Last I heard (that was some 10 years ago) this restaurant is actually owned by three or four guys, none of them Portuguese, 2 Irish, 1 British, and the staff and the cooks are Filipinos. Not casting shade, just sharing the interesting make up of many business venues in town.


The restaurant is very popular so we were only able to get outdoor seating. Even though it was after the mid-Autumn, it was still pretty hot there. But long table, checkered table cloth... it has been FOREVER since the whole extended family came out for a non-buffet and Portuguese dinner.


The food... wasn't anything to tell home about. They were good, but not special fare. I did request for them to order an "Açorda". Host Cousin at first didn't want to order because he has ordered a Seafood Rice (which is known to be a big pot of rice), but when I insisted and said "but none of my Chinese friends want to eat that when we go out for Portuguese meals!" then another cousin agrees, and another cousin agrees, so... Host Cousin has to order it LOL. What this Açorda essentially is bread soaked up in sauce... so... a savory bread and butter pudding maybe? But the bread is so soaked and probably beaten a bit that it's just like baby food and mush. My Chinese friends don't really appreciate that. I like it though. And it wasn't an extra too much food, we did manage to finish everything.

One thing I like about Portuguese cuisine is... desserts. Desserts are usually overly sweet, but sometimes... it HAS to be that sweet!


I was tied between the Biscuit Cake and the Chocolate Mousse, but in the end I decided to choose "Baba de Camelo" because I was always amused by the name... it means... Camel's Saliva LOL... and it's not easily found in other Portuguese restaurants in town (yeah, I can get a chocolate mousse or a biscuit cake almost anywhere). However... well, it wasn't unexpected, but... it was waaaaayyyy toooo sweeeeeet. But oh so good. Because someone else ordered a chocolate mousse, I took a small spoon of it to try, and even the chocolate mousse wasn't that sweet (and the chocolate mousse is supposed to be super sweet).


I had to pay for all the intake of sugar yesterday, so I went for a run today. Hm... I seem to be running better, but I don't think it's because of my sporadic running sessions. I think it's more because I've been doing some workouts daily so I guess I've built some as-of-yet-unseen muscle and resistance. I'll just put the link Darebee.com here. It's free, and you can actually see the actual workouts before trying them out. My issue with Nike is I couldn't see the whole workout list... I need to choose workouts that don't put weight on my wrist, that's why I want to see the full list before I start anything.

Mom was prowling her Facebook feed and came across this photo. Then she called me there. "Look, there you are!"

I looked, and said "nah, that's not me, that's Sis."

Sis came over to look "yeah that's me."

Dad came and looked "both are you are in there!" *points at the 2 wearing the same yellow/blue top*

This caused quite a heated argument along the lines of "I know what my daughter looks like!" (From Mom) and "I don't recall ever being with that group" (from me) and "Look at the hair, that's me!" (My Sis) and.... nothing from Dad, because he's face-blind anyway *rolls eyes*.

The 2 in yellow/blue tops he pointed at are the Twins that used to live opposite of us. The Mom is still there, but the Twins have left. They are guys. See. My Dad pointing at 2 boys to say they are his girls. *rolls eyes*

The "person" in question is the girl in red on the top row (third kid from right). I still look at that and think that is my Sis and not me.

As a kid, people have said "we look almost like twins" but I always thought my Sis and I looked totally different, day and night. But, now I'm stumped by this photo. I know I had been placed in that school for a short while (Mom keeps saying she regrets not keeping me there) but honestly I have no memory from that time.

So, apparently, that's me up there, looking like my Sis that even I can't recognize myself.

My family, or in my home, it's very rare that we host dinners. Yes, we host the yearly Christmas thing for the family, but friends and family coming over? Not really.

Well, for some weird reason, we are hosting dinner tonight for 2 of my friends. We went to a Portuguese restaurant a few weeks ago and ordered Portugese Baked Duck Rice, and it was awful. So my friends, jokingly, asked if my Dad would cook his Duck rice for them.

Spoke to my Dad and voila, we are hosting dinner.

I thought it would be a casual affair, no frills. But heck, my Mom is going on overdrive. No wonder we rarely host dinners.

Cleaning. The apartment has to be spotlessly clean. And then the plates and chinaware, we need a full set of 6. OMG, the nice one we only have 4! Look in the cupboards to find a complete set of 6!

Dad is going to pair the Portuguese Duck Rice with an Austrian Pancake Beef-stock Soup (Frittatensuppe). And oh no, none of the bowls we have, have 6 pieces.

Then dessert. Mom is worrying about dessert. I said I can just ask one of the girls to bring one of her cakes (the one with a cake shop just down the street by us) and Mom flipped, saying I invited them for dinner, why am I asking them to bring dessert. *rolls eyes* fine. I really was hoping for this to be a casual thing.

Dessert will be... McDonald's soft ice cream with Styrian (Austria) Pumpkin Seed Oil and a piece of brownie crunchie (which I will go pick up later today). But then Mom is screaming again as we do not have enough ice cream bowls of the same set.

Dad, laughing, says we have enough crystal dessert bowls though, and Mom flips again saying THOSE ARE CRYSTAL!

I don't know. I kind of am regretting it LOL.

Enticing preparation photo..... yum yum!

Only for those really interested to hear how we speak as a family (mixture of English, Portuguese, Cantonese, and some Patua, maybe) (I don't recall if there was much Patua spoken in the videos I'll be posting), this is a video-heavy post.

I have 0 video editing skills, so these are all candid and unedited.

First I have the preparations we made for the party. I explain a little bit of what we have. The "cake" I mentioned is a Christmas Cake, I guess. I don't know if it has a proper name, but we have always just called it "Cake". Mom has one age-old Cake that she has kept for maybe 6 years (but I like to joke it's around 35 years), and she takes it out of the freezer every year, pours brandy over it, let it soak, slices a couple slices out to serve, then wraps up the remaining and keeps it in the freezer again.



( More videos and photos and chit chat )
Aaaannndd... finally, my presents haul! Not a bad haul this year. Almost everyone gave bath stuff (I guess it's safe LOL). The funny one was when Cousin Jorge gave out the Victoria's Secret bag, we were all laughing. "You seriously aren't giving us lingerie?" We joked. He replied, "yeah if the size doesn't fit, talk to me!" LOL. It's a set of bath shower and lotion stuff only though. I also got some cash in those envelops, but nowadays we are all going cashless, so I'll probably just go deposit them in the bank after the Chinese New Year.

You know, I’m now typing from my brand new iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, and I also got the Apple Pencil to go with it (a whole full set)... but things have come to a point where even such new gadgets do not excite me anymore.

I wanted to get a new iPad for work-but-not-work. Due to the work nature I seem to be getting, having my own iPad is rather important. I also needed an iPad that had absolutely not ever in history had a connection with my work network. (If it makes any sense). It’s my own iPad, paid from my pocket, I’m using it for work, but I will not let it have any connection with my workplace. Weird. But. Yeah. Not going to explain into details.

Just think that I’m paranoid and I’m doing this so that IT can’t reverse trace this back to me. No, I’m not doing anything illegal. I just need this to be totally isolated from the company network.

But I’m on a road to digress about another thing.

While it was no sweat on my part to pay for this iPad, it has just come to me, how sad the state of things are. I have the financial stability to practically buy any gadget any toy any thing, but local inflation is making it impossible for a single individual to buy an apartment.

I’ve long past the point of wanting to move out (it’s impossible) and since the renovations last year, my Sis and I got our own separate bedrooms, I’ve been happy with that arrangement.

And so here I am, with a spiffy brand new iPad Pro with the pencil so i can draw to my heart’s content and yet I feel no excitement and no inspiration. Meh.

Oh and about renovations... Mom was bitching about high water fees even with Government subsidy... I told her last year that since we were renovating we should replace the toilet but she refused, letting out a slew of verbal abuse about “how naive I am”, “money does not grow on trees”, and “do you think it’s easy to do?”

Well, throughout the year, the toilet has been giving us trouble, from the water closet not working, the pump the not pumping, the chain to the stopper breaking, the stopper not landing on the right spot, and all that jazz....

Poor Dad did what he could each time. He’s replaced a lot of stuff inside the water closet and it seemed that it was fine.

I DID say I was constantly hearing sound of running water but again Mom yells at me. *shrugs*

Well, this month, the water bill was like over the top. The Government has been subsidizing all households for a few months, and the amount of the subsidy is actually enough to cover normal daily use in a family of 4. We have to pay double that, because that is the amount of water we’ve used.

Of course, at first, Mom was complaining that it was I who always let the water run when I shower. Well. Because our water heater is shit, it takes quite a while for me to regulate the water temperature to the right temperature for me. Once I get that temperature, I’d rather let the water run, because lathering myself is actually faster than trying to re-regulate the water again.

However, Mom got some guy to come have a look, and he says, ta-da~! It’s the toilet. The water closet is not properly fixed so water is constantly running.

The high water bill? Not my fault.

I know it’s not in good taste to say “I told you so,” but with all the shit Mom had been giving me about water usage, I did say “I told you so” with much glee. Well, she didn’t have to be so nasty to me in the first place.

The story of Portuguese Egg Tarts in Macau...

Nowadays, in Macau, the famous egg tarts are from Lord Stow. Their marketing is great and they do a lot of interviews recounting how things came to be.

In the beginning, they did tell the story as it is. More recently, they cut out some credit. Specifically, credit to my Dad.

My Dad is an Austrian chef who came to Macau some 40+ years ago. He worked in a hotel back then and got to work with a certain Portuguese celebrity chef. I'm not too sure about that part of the story because I wasn't born yet.

Anyway, he learnt Portuguese cuisine from this Portuguese chef and then he even opened his own restaurant, called the Restaurant 1999. Not sure how the name came to be, but at that time (1980's-early 1990's) the "upcoming big thing" was 1999 when Macau would be returned to China (long story short, Macau was a Portuguese colony, though I read it wasn't exactly that, but anyway).

The restaurant was located in a super lovely "countryside" and I think would have been a great restaurant nowadays, but back then, the location probably wasn't the best place; not everyone had a car. Eventually the restaurant had to close down. Again, I don't know the full story, the short "child-friendly" story I got was: "You Dad just isn't made to run a business." Okay.

During his restaurant years, I distinctly remember his Portuguese Egg Tarts. They were delicious. So this Stow guy wanted to start a bakery/pastry business making these Egg Tarts to supply to hotels. My Dad taught him how to make it. This English guy tweaks the recipe and starts his own business. Next thing you know he is selling these "Famous Portuguese Egg Tarts."

To this day, Mom is absolutely irritated that Dad just taught the guy how to make them egg tarts for free. And he now has a good business. I guess the story "Your Dad just isn't made to run a business" is true LOL. No wonder they say, a true Macanese person will bring their recipes into their graves. That is so true. That is so so so so sooooooooooo true. (I have a "Midnight Cake" recipe from Mom that I'm explicitly told to never ever share to anyone EVER. Duh. Life of a Macanese). Imagine, if it were my Dad that had that business, I could have been living the good life LOL LOL LOL. Just joking. I like my life as it is now.

Anyway, Stow guy then, I don't know, divorces his wife or doesn't or whatever, all I know that there is some kind of rife, and his wife opens another pastry business, Margaret's. Again, Portuguese egg tarts, but something different as well. So there are 2 egg tart business similar to each other (I know one is sweeter than the other, I don't recall which is which).

Now, many small bakeries sell their own egg tarts as well, but the better ones are still these from Lord Stow and Margaret's.

Fast forward to recently, since my friend opened her own French pastry shop down by our street, I had been egging Dad to start making his egg tarts again. They were his specialty when he had his restaurant! My friend even helped to egg him on by offering free reign of her pastry kitchen if he wanted.

Three weeks ago, he made his first batch at home. It was a failure. The egg tart shells didn't come out right. But the stuffing was delicious. Give Dad some slack, it has been some 20 years since he last made his egg tarts. No photos because the egg tarts didn't even look like an egg tart LOL.

Then last week he made his second batch. The shells came out well, but the stuffing lacked a bit of oompf. Maybe cream? Maybe milk? It just felt very airy and light. But by looks they came out well


Today he made his third batch. They looked good and tasted good. Yay. Dad made his egg tarts again!


So, I now have what I know as the true story of how Portuguese Egg Tarts came to be a Macau thing written down. I'm going to eat another egg tart. Bye.