escapades of the elusive kat

On my daily dog walk with Frankie this morning, he took me (yes, he decides the route) up the Penha Hill and we walked past a fancy rich people housing estate. He wanted to walk into the non-gated part of it. I tried to liaise with him, explaining that it's just a dead end and we'd have to u-turn and walk back all the way up.

Frankie is a dog (frenchie at that) and doesn't understand any sort of negotiation, so, yeah, we walked down that road and had to u-turn back up. The bastard.

Then we went up the Penha Hill and walked the main road down the other way. We walked past this building that only now I noticed had the words SKYLINE on it. Did a quick internet search and found only one reference.

In the evening I asked Dad and he said it's who-and-who's home and that back then when he drove Father (didn't catch the name) he would drive him to this house (and another one of a local tycoon). He said it's just a residencial house, and that it's huge.

Here's a random old 1976 photo of the Vienna Hilton opening team soon after it opened. A friend of my Dad's on Facebook posted it, Dad isn't tagged but he's an easy find LOL. I just thought I'd archive it myself as well.

When Frankie the Frenchie is bored, he'll find whatever trouble to vex us all. Yesterday morning, a piece of cleaning cloth. And then it's a wrestling match

Random photos of food... Dad sometimes takes the shortcut and just gets IKEA cinnamon rolls. Though, he doesn't follow the instructions on the packaging. The packaging says to just take out and bake it without defrosting. The rolls come out hard when you do it this way. Dad lets the frozen rolls defrost first, then bakes them, and they get all soft and nice and DELICIOUS. Kitty (yes, the cat's name, seriously) was curious. And the other dish with the beautiful sunny side up is the minchi, famous Macanese dish of minced meat and fried cubed potatoes. Usually served with white rice, but I have to minimize the carbs. But the deep fried cubed potatoes were just toooooooo gooooooooood.


La-di-da! I started a tag for Frankie on IG. Since he's the one that decides his dog walking route, I sometimes take some photos of him at certain locations and post it on the dogs' IG, sort of introducing Macau as well, LOL.

On this one he is sitting in front of the A-Ma Temple. Legend has it that when the Portuguese first arrived, they arrived at this "Inner Harbour" and this is where the first conversations of the Portuguese and Chinese was had. The Maritime Museum is also situated here, just across the plaza. Wiki Link because I'm lazy.

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.

Yesterday was my bestie C's birthday. There's 3 of us, me (K), C, and P, that, hm... we're pretty much solid travel buddies and very good friends. Every year for each other's birthdays we try to do something special for each other. They did the crazy special Agnes b Dino cake one year that involved P taking me out for the day and apparently C had to do a mad dash round trip to Hong Kong just to get the cake back to Macau thing...

I did one thing one year when we were in Tokyo where I ordered a cake from a "night time bakery" in Shinjuku and then managed to "accidentally" (totally planned) walk past that bakery at around 10pm and then tell her "oh hey look at that nice cake!" and she was surprised to see a cake with her name on it - and it was hers.

So this year, for C's birthday, we were supposed to dine at a very high-class Chinese restaurant that is under my company. However, in the very last minute, she said her Mom's rich friend invited her family there as well for her birthday, and she asked if we could relocate to a steak house.

Okay.

I wanted to rib her a bit for "ditching us from the prestigious location" so I talked to the restaurant manager if he could kindly arrange for some "Chinese Peach Buns" (traditional birthday buns) for her meal with her Mom's friend and blah blah. I even thought of a funny message plate: all in Chinese, addresing C in her Chinese name, and the message was 人生經驗值UP (Life experience UP) (a very "modern" message) and 福如東海 壽比南山 (a traditionally very traditional phrase for old people birthdays) and signed off by P's and my Chinese names. They were indeed at first surprised that there was a plate of buns that they did not order, and C laughed when she saw the message plate. She knew our Chinese names all along. Totally even if you want to ditch us, we'd make you feel our spirits there with you LOL


And then for her actual birthday, she wanted steak. After much discussion we chose to go to a high-class steak house that was also under my company. The thing is... she wanted to eat meat. And we were going to a steak house, which is a very western concept... so... I got her a roasted suckling pig cake LOL. This is usually the first dish served in a Chinese banquet, be it a wedding banquet, a special birthday banquet, a baby's 100-day celebration banquet. Just as long as it's a Chinese banquet and the first thing served is a roasted suckling pig. Due to some stupid company policy, if we wanted to eat an "outside" cake, we HAD to order the cake from a particular cake shop... so I had no choice but to order from that specific cake shop. At first, I found it a tad expensive, but seeing the final product, it was very, very good. It looked like a suckling pig, the sugar paste was actually very thin... hm... seeing the final thing I realized it wasn't expensive at all. LOOK AT THE PIG'S BUTT!


The restaurant helped us slice the cake (we had 3 thin slices from the beautiful butt), we even made a joke to "skin the pig" because for a usual roasted suckling pig, you eat the skin first, it's supposed to be nice and crispy.

C was surprised a second time... LOL!

I don't know how our surprise and gimmick game will go next year. I don't know how to top my own ideas next year. Oh boy!

I really like the "foreign" name for this Chinese dish 酸菜魚 - Sauerkraut Fish! Sauerkraut... it's German, but many people here who really only learnt English as a second language wouldn't know what it is... and then they are all scratching their heads, "what's that?"

I went out with my bestie yesterday to try this famous "Sauerkraut Fish" restaurant chain from China,  太二酸菜魚 Taier Suan Cai Yu (Taier Sauerkraut Fish). They have a... host? bouncer? Host!... that is hugging a fish plushie (my first WTF? moment LOL). And then going into the restaurant, after the host announces "table for 2", a server leads us to our table, but as he does that, ALL the servers start chanting something. Maaaajjjjooorrr WTF?????? LOL! Maybe it's a Northern Chinese Restaurant thing? Because I remember some 20 years ago, there was a specialty northern chinese tribal restaurant in town and they had a similar walk-in experience as well.

So we get this box to try to draw out "fortune sticks" by shaking it. Again, must be some new "cool" slang but of northern China or mandarin variety, even my friend didn't understand what it meant.


Century egg, but with quail egg instead of duck egg, so it's mini! and it's more yellow than black? Ah, I actually saw a documentary about this - it's just the egg wasn't left to ferment long enough. There's less... I don't know what, carbon? sulphate? whatever, or something, so that's why it's not black. Despite the very red oil and the red past on top, it wasn't all that spicy, I was able to eat it. As for the "Sauerkraut fish", it's a sliced fish in a soup base cooked with preserved cabbage (thus, sauerkraut) and again, although there's quite a bit of chilli and ALOT of peppercorns, it wasn't overwhelmingly hot. It was nice.


After lunch, we went to one of the crystal shops I like to shop at, and the girl offered to read my friend's 五行 5 elements. For a detailed reading, she's gonna charge of course, so she only gave some very basic reading... saying my friend has "wealth" but she has no "store", so she can't really save up money. Also some pointers about her being not good with Fire and Water.

I asked for a read as well, and for me, I have no "wealth" but I have a lot of "stores" (in fact, I have 3 "stores")... but I can't save up money because, I have no money LOL.

I told my friend to give me all her money LOL.

Apparently I'm not good with Fire and Wood... pity, I have such a pretty red garnet bracelet. But this little insight tells me I need more yellow (to attract wealth) and white (metal), blue (water) are good for me.

Of course, I can always just say, "I don't believe in this kind of thing!" and wear all my red stones (fire) all the same LOL LOL LOL. But I am indeed now in the market for something yellow. But next month only. Because I saw a very pretty flourite bracelet (it's purple! and gradually turns to green or aquamarin on one side!) so I need pace my spending!

It's the Austrian National Day today!


I don't know the history, I don't know the innings and outings of what happened and why... this is so shameful!

I'm here only for the food. I eventually have to repost these photos for this week's GAMD challenge, but since today's menu is special, here's a first view! Dad served a Knœdelsuppe (dumpling soup) and Wiener Schnitzel with tomato salad. The semolina dumplings were still raw, the schnitzel should have been OK, but because my German class has (finally) started and I did not want to miss the first class, so I got home really late and had cooled down schnitzel instead, and that was tough. (My original plan was to skip today as it was supposed to be the 5th class).

I'm stuffed.

My friend's sister came up with new seasonal cakes again, so I went and gave it a try. Mom's a bit miffed that this time I had to pay for the cakes (my friend used to just give me the cakes for free), but I said it's the government spending money anyway, and my friend had new staff in there and didn't really know who I was, so I couldn't very well just walk away LOL.


This is the new Melon x Melon flavour. Honestly, I didn't like it. The melon flavour tasted fake-ish, and in parts it was slightly salty?


Ocean was last year Summer's new design and made a comeback this year. It's blue and may look like an, I don't know, beachy-summery flavour, but it's really mint and chocolate. The interesting thing is, it's not the mint-chocolate type of taste (imagine Chocolate chip mint ice cream? Or those After-Eight chocolate thins?) It's really chocolate, and then mint.


Perfume is a secretly new one. I said I've never seen this before but the staff said they've had it for a while. This was a nice surprise. Not too sweet, flavourful Lychee, this was really nice.


My personal favorite is still the Sunflower. This can probably be a meal in itself.


Oh and before you think I'm a glutton and eating 4 cakes, nooooooo. We sliced all 4 cakes into 4 portions and everyone had a try. So techinically I only had one cake haha!

Cakes from Patelier Macau | Facebook | Instagram | Website

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!

It's the last day of the Lunar Year today. As I've mentioned, most companies, if they can afford it, will just let their staff leave either earlier, or even just give a half day off.

This is when people will say 收爐！Literally, it means to extinguish the furnace. It means to close up/pack up for the holidays (imagine a factory has to close up and so extinguishes the furnace), as to the Chinese, the Chinese New Year is a big thing and they'd usually get a week to 10 days of holidays (or even more), and go back home to visit family. Here in Macau, officially we get 3 days of public holidays (the first 3 days). However, this year the government advises people not to travel back to China (or anywhere). I heard one of the big shopping malls actually forbids their staff to leave Macau. How they intend to track that, is anyone's guess.

My friend J is coming all over from her working location (far far away, almost from Coloane Island) to meet me for lunch. I guess she's 20% trying to make up for a booboo she did LOL.

I mentioned about having plans to go to a Vegan buffet the other day? So, it's become a no-go. What happened was, after J asked me and a couple other friends, I was the only one to answer her. She said OK, so I thought she would make appropriate arrangements for that. I didn't hear from her since. Then, I booked myself to get the vaccine and sort of forgot the dinner appointment, I booked it for the same day. So when I input the vaccine booking into my calendar and saw my entry for the dinner, I asked her if it's all confirmed. Coz, if dinner is confirmed, I might push up the vaccine time, as I later find out, after you take the vaccine, you are required to sit at the waiting area for half an hour to see if you get any adverse reaction.

Actually I have to applaud myself to ask her if it's confirmed or not, as... I do know her pretty well. (Read: it's not uncommon that she would stand anyone up, LOL!)

Her excuse this time was, it was a web-promotion, and the website asked for her MPay (an electronic payment platform we have) payment right when she wanted to book it. She was worried it was a scam, and didn't proceed. And didn't inform me about it either. You know, I don't really mind her standing me up (it's sort of half expected) and plans falling apart because of her (not an uncommon thing), but I would appreciate being told about it? She's also somewhat of a lazy texter, she would use the least words (typing) required and sometimes just leave questions unanswered.

The one lazy texting that gets me the most is "29". I don't recall exactly when, but one time I was re-confirming some arrangements, so I asked something like "so when are you going to do it?" It was the 26th or 27th, when I asked on that day, and she answered "29". So I was assuming it meant a couple days later. Then later she calls and asks why I'm not there. So I answered, you said Twenty-Ninth (29). She got miffed and said "I said To-Night (forced similar pronunciation to two-nine with a Cantonese tone)". WTF. I was so mad. But that was the past. I've adopted some Buddhism/Gung-ho mentality and will just go with the flow with this friend. No use getting riled up.

This turned out to be a rant, but she is a friend LOL.

Anyway, the plan for lunch is to go to a new(ish) restaurant, I heard it's opened by a Taiwanese guy, but selling Japanese Unadon (Unagi-don, or Japanese eel on rice). So, I'm going to check it out. I love a good Unadon and since it's impossible to go to Japan now, I'll try this and see if it's any good! (It's still 11:00am here so I'm not posting this at the end of the day) (And since this means the lunch didn't happen yet, it also means that J can certainly stand me up anytime between now and 1pm.) (But I've decided that even if she does cancel on me, I can just go there anyway, coz, it's just along the way going home.)

It's Friday, today's post is supposed to be the Friday Five, but I'm at work and I'm bored (because there's nothing to do).

I could go shred that stack of papers, but I just shredded one stack of papers yesterday. Boss hasn't given me any more explicit instructions to get certain things done, so... I've been sitting around reading.

It's times like this that always make me think: "Should I do something extra in my life?" And then I see ads for iMBAs or courses and I think, "ah, I have so much free time anyway, I should be able to do it," but then after I apply, then I'll get so busy that I can't spare a minute to do any coursework. And I would not take another MBA. I was a thesis away from completing mine some 8 or so years ago, I've written the story one time but I may re-tell it again (I can't find the post).

I did see an iMSM (Master of Science in Management) which looked to be a lot more manageable but then again, it's going to be just a hot-headed decision, so I'll hold for now. Besides, with the amount of money to enroll in one of those, I could get a Vespa! A Vespa reseller has opened in town! I can easily afford one! But then again, I think to myself, do I really need one? So I'm at a standstill. My excuse for myself is "it's a tie between the iMSM and a Vespa", but in truth I'm trying to dissuade myself from both.

In order to add more color to my life, I have now decided that on Fridays, I would eat out for lunch, either with friends or go out for takeaway. Today, I decided to get some takeaway. I ordered from a new (I guess) Pokebowl place. I placed an online order then walked over to the shop from my office. It brought back old memories as this is the area where I went to primary school in. The vaguely yellow building in the deep end of this photo... is the building of my primary school (it's since changed to the Chinese section of the same school).


This is a tiny garden right next to the school. I think I can even eat take out here on nice weather days, so I'm not always cooped up in the office.


I do not recall what this was before, perhaps a library or a "newspaper reading station", but it looks rather unkempt now. It does have a sign saying it's one of the heritage monuments, but if so, why is it not being taken care of? A fleeting memory of this garden though, they had one of those, spinning things for children to play? What do you call those? Like a hand-pushed merry-go-round but without the horses? Had a small accident here (hit my hand on the bar or something as it was spinning) and I fractured the bone in my right ring finger. Had to go in a cast. What hurt most was when the cast came off and the doctor wanted me to try moving it. Ever since then, my right ring finger didn't feel quite right, even when I'm cracking my knuckles, there is something different with that finger.


This wall was part of the back wall of the old Chinese and Portuguese section of my primary school. They've since renovated the wall but kept 2 little blocks of the original old wall and encased them in glass. Huh. Cool? I guess so.


That Pokebowl takeout place was a bit tricky to find as it was inside some side streets that didn't show up clearly on Google maps, but eventually, I found it. On my way back to the office, there's the pineapple monster LOL


The Pokebowl wasn't bad (it was a Build-Your-Own Pokebowl) but the choices lacked vegan variety. I'm trying to go as  vegan as possible whenever I arrange for my own meals. Breakfast is easy, I'm doing it already, my company restaurant has a (very limited) vegan menu, but I should be able to survive 5 meals a week with that (despite being repetitive). But if I decide to eat out, then I have a lot of planning and researching to do. Today is a half fail with this Pokebowl, because it didn't have a lot of options, so I had some seared salmon.


Dinner is a lost cause, as it's my parents who control the dinner menu. Though, last night Mom did mention something about going vegan or eating less meat because of her health issues (they had doctor appointments yesterday) and Mom suddenly comes up with a "I was born in the year of the Ox, I should quit Beef" erm... okay.... weird reasoning, but not unwelcome.... I wonder what Dragon people would avoid LOL. Here's hoping that it actually happens!

Oh and the book I'm reading now is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. I do not remember why I chose this book, I think it was a suggestion from one Goodreads book club or another. My comment as I am progressing on this book is, "Oh, the indignation! The oppression!" And am forever glad I do not have to face such treatment.

First off, thank you deepseasiren! Your Christmas Card made it within this year! LOL! I was actually surprised any mail came in today, because for all government agencies, it's a half working day today.


I decided to skip work today, and went with my friend C over to Coloane (what I like to call the "outskirts" or "countryside" of Macau... but they've started to develope that island, so it's not "countryside" anymore). First, Yuki, the Shiba you will see in photos later, went to the vet to get her eyes checked. Then, we went to this... old shipyard village?


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I thought being a good Catholic is do good during your day-to-day living, and not just doing "facade" work such as "show people you go to Mass and do confessions". I'm sure God would love us more if we actually do good during day-to-day activities. But anyway. I'll skip religion, lest I start a war or some sort here.