Down time

I just blew it yesterday. All the frustration and anger. All mixed in one.

Lets see what had happened prior....

It had been two weeks since I had gave this place a vacuum. And as usual, I had to do this all on my own. A good three story climb with the vacuum cleaner. Changing and discarding the clogged dust bin at least four times. And at the end of it, I'm battered and my back is wracked. And now, I'm still contemplating when I should pick up the vacuum cleaner again as my back is still hurting.

For the past many months since we had this stupid extended renovation in the kitchen, the kitchen had been and still in a mess. And for some unknown reason, these bastards had also became deaf while they were in their rooms. No matter how loud I shouted to call them down for dinner, or help set up for dinner, no one came. Super pissed, cause no one ever had the willingness to lend a hand or what. Just sit there n wait for food to drop from the sky. N I had learned from all these months that their slowness, means it will take another 20 mins before we can actually eat something, which by then food will be cold. All the while they just could not see how rushed I had to be so I can put food on the table on time. Do they want the slow cooking their mum does, whereby food will only be served at 9pm? Argh!

Then there's the washing up dishes. His sis kindly took up the role. Which is really helpful. But that was till she realised she can get away with washing up by eating her share quickly and dart upstairs n hibernate. Which means I had to clear up all the washings from dinner and cooking. Isn't this something a child will do? Why am I seeing it on a thirty something? Eric had a good talk with her, so tat had stopped for now. Then there is also the lack of willingness whereby if u don't have it in the sink, she will not wash them. So there is often the jobs where I had to clean up after she had clean up... (Like if i was watching tv or out at bible study, I will be greeted with jobs undone) Do you get what I mean? Sigh....

Then there is the toilet. Everyone uses it. But no one cleans it apart from me, or eric when i howled at him. I still remembered the line his sis told me on the first day we moved back. "Yay! Now there is someone to help me clean the bathroom!"

At that time, I replied "yeah, I can help clean it with you." But, see what I said, With You, not me only. Clearly her sentence means Me only, as she had since then, Never, I repeat,  NEVER cleans the bathroom. And it really pissed me off.

I had been living out of home since I'm 18. And I had lived in shared house since. Independence is like second nature to me. I learned to cook and clean and take care of myself. Plus I had to study full time n even work part time jobs. I even had time to do my St. John volunteering. Compare to here, this family is just Hopeless! What a lazy bum! 

Just as I had predicted, when I stop or refuse to cook, what do they eat? Takeaway pizza. Lazy to the point they do not even want to lift a finger and cook. 

Looking at the wall of wall papers yet to be removed. It is really daunting. I had not even manage to take off the papers from one room! Let alone the whole house. I had pleaded to eric for help. But none came. My back is now so sore tat I cannot stand up for too long. Even standing for cooking hurts. 

I'm glad tat mum n dad came to visit few months back. They had seen the place I am living. They understand the pain I am going through. I told them about the wall papers and things that needed to be done over at the other place. And you know what they say? 

"Do you need two extra hand to come and help? We can fly here for a week to help you." 

My help! 

Why can they so easily offer their help, while those lazy bums around me can't. Only once his sister had so call offered help with the other place. But when the time comes, she gave the excuse of " need to study", when obviously she was just plain lazy. Can you see how sick I am of this place? 

I really appreciate the help offered by my parents. But how can I ask two elderly to work for free on a place tat is not even theirs?! Some more now, my mum had finger joints problems and shoulder problem, plus dad had a poor back too. 

And I also donoe why I am putting myself into this bloody place, working till my back aches and head spin. It is not even mine! Can I claim my medical bills from his parents for hurting my back on their bloody houses? 

This is ridiculous.

Kcan

The frame is up!

This happen last weekend.

The long awaited kitchen frame is finally up!

No longer a gaping hole through the plasterboard and wooden beams. It's now closed!

Eric here pre-joining the three edge of the frame.

Pre-drilling holes on the frame n wall, applying adhesive glue (also called liquid nails), and sticking it up.

The last gap showing before the final piece of frame goes in.

Eric pre-drilling before applying liquid nail adhesive.

Using the glue gun like a pro! It is surprisingly difficult to apply. Needs lots of strength.

And tada! Yay! 

It took us the whole day to put it up. After this, we still have to fill up the gaps, sand, paint.....

That should be for another day.

I had also spent the whole of yesterday morning stripping off the grout on one of the bathroom shower wall. Will apply the grout tomorrow, God willing. 

I'm now officially the handy woman in the house. Feeling man-ly. Haha.

Kcan

Busy Bee

Now that Eric had gone back to the uni. I'm now left with stuff that were left half done and needs me to finish up. That's so not new, consider I had to keep an eye all the time and pick up the things lazy people just gracefully left behind. *Roll eyes*

There are 3 main things that are on my plate now.

1. Leaking grout in the downstairs bathroom. This was annoying as the person who lay the tiles (probably some doggy trades people), used Concrete instead of Grout. And this makes taking out the joining groove difficult. I had already blunt a grout removing blade from my electric multifunction tool. There is also the difficulty of having the new grout to join onto the old grout/concrete. *bleah!*
2. Wall paper in the other house. That whole place is literally all wrapped up from floor to ceiling with wall paper. It will be a messy job trying to take it down. Not to mention there are various other things wrong with the place. *sighs*
3. Painting the fence. Something I won't mind doing and will give this moldy place a good fresh paint of same look. (well, it's the same colour) 

Hope this will occupy  me for a while and get things moving. Hated it that the kitchen renovations are still half done, with the kitchen still in a mess and things overflowing to the other rooms/corridor due to the dust n dirt. Now that he is back in uni, I really wonder when it will be done. =S

On another note, I had a bit of catch up with my ex-colleague D yesterday. Initially wanted to ask her when my ex-boss is going to be back from his holiday (a friend wanted to see a doctor, so I recommend him, since there are no others I knew), but instead, I got the news that she had quit! Ha. 

She said things had gotten from bad to worse since I had left last year. She was over worked, under paid (I don't think he had given her a good pay to begin with) and this year, he did not deliver what he had promised on the pay rise. (Even dragging me down by saying that I was over paid *rolled eyes*)

She also mention that his Greed had not change a bit since I left, but seems to have grown a whole lot BIGGER! He now charges a whopping $247 for his initial consultation!! (Why? Cause there are a highly likely chance that the patients will not return due to the high fees, so he 'make up' on the loss by charging astronomical sum in the first visit. Through the years, I had observed new patient turn over rate for him was so high and retention rate so low... as low as only 1 in 10 will actually complete the treatment cycle. However, new patients will still continues to come, because of his self-declared Reputation as the 'guru' in the area, PLUS he had the $$$ to splash around to make his reputation big with media advertising and connections)

Talking about splashing $$, I was told he had bought 3 pieces of land in Bali to 'invest' and build houses. So his patients are his cash cows, feeding his extravagant lifestyle. Demand and supply you'd say. Well, Canberra had it's unique community of people. High earners, career minded women who wanted to give birth later n later, not to mention the IVF clinics that are making lots of money too. 

I am sad that people who genuinely needed his help, people who had to give up their income just to see him, were treated as 2nd-class patients.

Sigh...

On the other hand, I am happy that D is happy and enjoying her work as a Chinese medicine doctor in a busy clinic in Sydney. Her health is much better now and she is also doing part time Honours at her uni too!

*yay! great ending for her*

Oh yes, before I end off, I had FINALLY manage to call through to the HR personal of the clinic I had interest of working at weeks ago. This is ridiculous!

What made me more mad was that she actually gave me the SUPER LAME EXCUSE of:

'Oh, we are having trouble with our email system for a few weeks. I had replied to your email, but I think the system is having trouble to keeping track... blah  blah blah...' 

Seriously, people lying with their EYES wide open. For goodness sake, does a quick reply via text, phone call voice mail etc also cannot? I  had sent in like 2 emails and 2 voice mails and 4 calls to your clinic  (all in the span of the last 3 weeks) to try to reach you. And you give me this excuse?! Even tried to MIA with being sick.

Anyhow, I had no desire to be working there anymore, BUT I do appreciate that you can let me know SOONER, so I don't have to keep waiting FOR TIME IS PRECIOUS!

Inconsiderate.

kcan

Bush dance

YeeeeeHaaa!

It was the bush dance night for our church last night. It was a way people can come and gather and have fun together, plus inviting their friends to church events.

We did invite Eric's sis n aunt, but sadly they did not make it. Non the less, so many people turned up! 'About 200 people turned up!' , I heard from today's church service.
We had lots of food, live band music and of course many children n adults dressed up in their cowboy n dance girl attire.
Eric n I made a big pot of pumpkin soup n home-made Bready bread. (White n whole meal) With the multicultural mix of people at church, we had lots of food from fried rice-es ( few families cooked them), stews, chicken wings, pasta bake, salads, pies, steam buns, fried dumplings, sushi, soups (we are the only one making soup), curries, pizzas, chilli pot (!!), (take a deep breathe), and desserts such as cakes, ice cream puffs, wan-wan biscuits, more chocolate cakes, ice creams!
Haha, we had so much food left overs despite record number of people attending.

Just in case you are wondering why I can list out the food there yesterday.... Well, I was standing at the food table the whole night, organizing and arranging the various yummy food when people arrive to the event. It's a bring-a-dish event. Some Chinese brought their home cook chicken,  which consist of chicken wings with lots (and I mean LOTS!) of dried chili n Sichuan pepper. Oh my gosh, I was SO afraid that the kiddies there may mistaken them as red capsicum and put it in their plates. And by the end of the day when I get to queue up for my food, there were hardly any chicken wings left but a whole pot of dried chillies. Haha. I must say, the flavor was very yummy. But maybe not for a family event like yesterday where there were so many children around.

I hope the church will sent us the photos taken that day in the coming week. Will update you all with photos when I get them.

Eric is going back to uni tomorrow. Here comes another semester.

Kcan

Old house

Eric and I had been busy with the renovations at home for the last two weeks. It seems to be going no where as time is just not enough! When we fixed a tap, the other decides to leaks. Then the other one, and another one. Grrrr!

Anyhow, to add to our frustration, we now are in possess of another old house that is in need of renovation. Yes, an old house. It was their first home in Australia, and it is in great need of a love n facelift.  Hopefully, in due time, when we are finish with the renovations here in this big hell house, we can start moving to the other place and start living and doing the renovation there at the same time. 

Yay! Can't wait to be able to live away from the in-laws. 

So today's the day where I set foot into the place. They always talked about it but I had not been here before. It is not too far from where we are now. Basically they did not move out of the suburb. The house looks old from the outside. Large fenced off yard in the front and a small garden in the back. Entering from the front door, you can sense the age of the house, through the yellowed walls papers, faded carpets, hanging lights, old rugged door with old style handles....

Oh my, the whole house is filled with wall papered walls! Imagine the work needed to get rid of them and paint the walls. >_<

And the kitchen is in a great need of a change of face. 

And the old dirty curtains. I wonder how can you live with dirty curtains with dust n all on it? I even saw spiderweb on one of them, guess they did not move the curtains at all.

There are lots of things to be done. But glad that at least this will be a much better place to stay than a house with junk n endless work to do. (Aka: doing things for people who are incapable due to laziness)

Thank you for the blessings that comes so unexpectedly. 

Kcan

Waiting game

It had been almost 3 weeks since I had first sent in my expression of interest for a job ad on the TCM newsletter. I had gone twice to meet up with the clinic to check out the space and see how I can work there... Possibly.

Well you see, while Eric n I are still stuck in this space, trying to clean up the junk n all. It would be a good idea to take a break n work outside this space. Even if it is just few days a week. So Eric encourage me to sent in my expression of interest to the ad. But working at a clinic can be tricky, as they would not like you to live n work too close to them, so as to snatch business from them. Therefore from the start, I let them know that I am working at my own clinic and am seeing patients. The clinic I was interested in is at the infamous Kingscross, well far away from where I am staying. So that is ok. 

Last week Wednesday, Eric n I took a train ride into the city so that i can meet up with the HR person of the clinic. The meet up went quite well and the person showed me the clinic space ( which is tiny!) and what sort of things are included in the 60-40 split. Well, basically I had to provide everything that I use in treatment, from needles, heat lamp, herbs, machines.... They only gave you the room n help you with the admin n advertising side.

They need someone urgently, as there are no one doing the Wednesday shift while the other days are just half filled. 

So I told the person I may need a day or two to decide and if yes, I should be able to work in two weeks.... Which is next Monday!

So... What happened now. 

I am just annoyed and pissed that the person had not replied my email which I sent last Friday. Tried calling the number she gave me on the name card she gave me, no one picked up. I left a voice mail. Then still no reply on Wednesday ( yesterday). So I called again. This time, the phone call just go straight into voice mail. (Meaning that the mobile  is switched off or they just reject my call)

So I called up the clinic and to my surprise, the HR person had been away for the whole week. So the person on the phone wanted me to email the HR instead with regards to all matters. 

And so I did, another email and still no reply.

Seriously, I am done waiting. She is the worst person to be doing HR job, considering the people I had correspondence with before they recommended me to contact her, had have speedy responses. If you really need someone to work there, at least response! 

Don't expect me to start work on Monday. 

Bleah.

Kcan

DIY renovations

Dad n mum came for a short surprised visit last week. They only bought the tickets 1 day prior! But sadly, the weather had been storming non-stop while they were here. Even our trip to the Blue mountains, only allows us to see a fog filled views. 

We manage to catch a glimps of scenery, but we had to be quick, as the heavy fog draws like a curtain, closing in quickly.

Anyhow, the rain finally stopped the day they flew back to Perth. Oh how I love the sunshine! For the whole of this week, I had been doing lots of laundry washing and making full use of the beautiful sunshine. 

And as our visitors had gone, Eric n I started on our DIY projects around the house. 

1: There is the kitchen window frame that had been chewed up by the termites. Thus we need to replace the beams and frame. A huge project, that is still undergoing. Currently day 4!

This was how the kitchen window had been looking like since I've moved in early in the year. Pest control done, killed all the ants. Now just need to patch it up.

Eric started by measuring the plaster board to patch up the gaps. 

Doing all the measuring up. Created lots of dust. I got quite pissed off on the first day as he did not cover the things around the kitchen and dust flies all over. Guys... *roll eyes*

The first plaster board is up! Yay!

At the end of day 1, all the 3 plaster board are up. And finally, the kitchen wall is sealed.

Day 2:

We added the joint compound to join the plaster board together. Kinda like a cement. Had to apply many layers. Lots of waiting time. Realised that the beams behind the walls are not straight! So some places are budging out more than others. So had to put more compound to level it.

Eric's artwork is on the right, while I did the left side. Hehe. Who's one is nicer?

We had to leave it overnight to dry.

Day 3:

Me applying another layer to seal it. Looking good.

Today, we redo the sillicon grout at the wall. Nice n white. It was black with mold before.

We had to stop here as we will be having guest staying over the weekend. Next step for us will be to add a final coating layer, sand it down, then out the frame up, and finally paint it!

Will update more as we go.

Kcan

Invisible

Today while out at Westfield shopping, I witness a very saddening event. So much so that I felt disgusted at the lack of humane compassion in our society.

Eric n I were bursting to find a toilet before starting our shopping at Aldi. As I enter the female toilet, I saw a young Indian lady sitting right next to the hand washing basin, On The FLOOR. Yes, you are right, on the dirty toilet floor. And in her arms, is a small baby, nursing on her breast. 

As I was bursting to get to the toilet, I took a quick glance at her direction and quickly rush into a cubicle. While reliving myself ( sorry for the imagery), I wondered in my mind, what she was doing? How long has she been sitting on the floor for? Does she needs help? Does she knows that there are parenting rooms to safely breast feed in a hygienic environment? 

As I came out of my cubicle, I saw many women, glancing/ staring at her direction, before exiting the toilet. Why did no one approach her? 

I approached her. And with very simple English, I asked if she knows there are a very comfortable parenting room just around the corner. ( yes, I did washed my hands)

Waving her over and showing her the parenting room sign on the wall ( basically a baby sign), I ushered her into the parenting room, that is just 2 doors down the hallway. To tell the truth, I had never been into one before and I had always wanted to find out what is in there. There in the parenting room, welcoming us is a big comfortable sofa. Along the walls are two microwaves (for heating up baby milk/food) and nappy change tables. Gesturing her to take a sit here on the sofa instead, I said "comfortable". 

"Ok, yes, ok" was her replied. Confirming my suspicion that she could be a new migrant and not know much English. The baby gave me a big smile that melts my heart. I left them to continue the baby's meal time. However, I feel sorry that women in our society had failed to care for her. How could a women (many already with or past the age of having children) just turn a blind eye to a fellow woman, sitting in the middle of the toilet floor, breast feeding her baby! This is so degrading.

While waiting for Eric to come out of the toilet, I saw the woman carrying her son out to meet with her husband. She pointed to him the parenting room sign on the wall. I hope they will not have such experience again.

Kcan

Last paper!

Today will mark the last exam for Eric's first semester!
How quick time flies.
Hope he does well and have a good celebrations with his coursemate tonight.

For me, I shall enjoy my evening with my home make french baguette and heading out to easy english bible study.
This shall be my first time joining them. Looking into doing ministry work there, teaching people about the bible. Please pray for me as I look into this ministry at church and the opportunity to serve.

Hope you have a good evening too!

kcan

Sweet Potato Hee Pan

Thank you Hakka Chan for the recipe!
If you'd like to visit her blog with this recipe, here is the link to Hakka Chan.

The recipe for  Hee Pan. As usual, I did a little alteration to the recipe as I go. Mainly because the dough seems quite dry with the amount of water given. I half the recipe given by Hakka Chan. =)
In the end, I made 25 little golden Hee Pan.

200 g Steamed sweet potatoes
250 g Glutinous flour
350 g Plain flour
100 g Rice flour
100 g sugar
325 ml Lukewarm water (I mixed the water from my steamed sweet potatos with plain water)
2 tbsp cooking oil for the dough
1 tbsp yeast (I dissolved it with some lukewarm water from above)
2 tbsp cooking oil for moulding.

Use a good big wide pot as the amount of flours added to be quite a big dough. A good pot with flat base will be ideal.

1. Sieve the flours and mix it all together with sweet potatoes, sugar and oil.
2. Make a well in the center of the mix and add the lukewarm water slowly, using your finger to slowly mix the flour to the water to form a sticky soft dough. 
3. When well mix, add in the dissolved yeast into the dough. Gently kneading and mixing it. (If by this time, the dough is still quite dry and not sticking together, add more lukewarm water by sprinkling it onto the dough with your fingers. This helps to prevent adding too much water by accident.)
4. Knead the soft dough for 20 mins, till it forms a nice dough that does not sticks to your finger or the pot.
5. (I will be putting a video up on how to knead a dough)
6. When the dough is smooth and soft, let it rest for 1 hr in a warm place. (In my case, it is the oven which I had warmed up slightly) The size of  the dough will be around double in size. If not, let it sit for a little longer.
7. During the waiting time, wash and cut up banana leaves into squares, or baking paper if you don't have. Banana leaves helps gives a nice fragrance when steamed. Let the banana leaves dry.
8. When the 1 hr is up, give the dough a few strong knead to push out all the air trapped inside the dough.
9. Moisten the palm with some oil and pinch some dough. Mold it into even ball size and place it on the banana leaf. Flatten the top slightly. Let it rise again for about 30 mins.
10. Heat up the water and when the water is boiling, put the dough+leaf onto the steam rack and steam for around 15-20mins.
11. When the time is up, be careful lifting up the steaming lid. Avoid dropping the water onto the buns, or it will turn 'ugly'. 
12. Cool it on a rack or on top of old newspaper to absorb/evaporate the steam. When it is cooled, keep it in an air tight container. 

I love my Hee Pan cooled than hot from the oven. =) How about you?

My verdict: Taste wise, yummy! Size wise,  I wonder if the weather is too cold for the yeast to work. Haha. I may add a little more water next time so that the dough is softer and 'sticky-er' so that the real shape of Hee Pan can be made. =p

But non-the-less, this recipe shall be in my book for  years to come! ^_^

(if you don't have sweet potatos, can just omit them. May need to add more water. If you like yours pink, add a drop of pink food dye at step 4.)

The dough after rising.

Making into small balls. Letting it rise again.

Stacking them up in Steamy! Can't wait!

Tada! Just hot out of the steamer. =)

Yummmmm~!

Hope you enjoy it too!

kcan

Exciting time awaits!

I grew up in a Hakka village in Malaysia, with both my mum n grandma's family being Hakka.

We had a neighbor just across from my grandparents's place, whom make and sold traditional Hakka kuehs from his family home. I remembered following my mum to their place in the afternoons to buy those fresh out of the steamer kuehs. And their sweet aromas just sticks in my memory. Even the burning wood they used to fuel their steamers. Every now and then when I smell the burning fire place, my memory will take me back to my grandparents's place and the aroma from the neighbour's kueh factory. 

Among the many traditional kuehs, my favorite is the the Pink kueh and the vege kueh. Longing to taste the sweet chewy buns, I looked up on the Internet for someone special to post the recipe. And here it is! Hee Pan 喜板. 

Thank you Hakka Chan for the recipe!

At the time of posting, I am now waiting patiently for the kueh to proof in the warm oven. But I can already smell the sweet familiar fragrance. A smell that is so different to making bread. It must be the different rice flours that is commonly used in Asian kuehs. 

Some picture for you to see.

Kneading the dough.

The final product, let to proof in a warm oven or a sunny place. The weather is so cold here. So I had to put it in a warm oven.

Now, I wait.

Will update you again. 

Kcan

Pickled green chilies

Went to the veges shop after bible study on Wednesday to get some eggs. Saw them selling a pack of green chilies at $1/pack!

I don't take much chilies in my meals. But I do love a good pickle green chilies to go with my fried noodles! =D

Firstly, gave mum a called to ask for recipe.

Washed the green chilies and dried them overnight.

Sterilized a glass jar by cooking the bottle n lid in a hot boiling pit of water. Boil for 10 mins.

Leave it to dry. Careful not to touch the insides if the jar n lid.

Using a scissors, cut the chillies straight into the jar.

Add about 4 tablespoon of sugar (I use raw sugar) and pour in white rice vinegar till it covers the top of the chillies. If you have excess amount of lemons or limes at home, you can substitute it for vinegar, giving it a more fruity taste. According to mum, sugars give the chillies a good crunch n colour, instead of turning them soft n yellow. 

I seal it with a glad wrap and cover it with the lid. I placed it in the fridge, and it shall be ready to eat in few days time! =)

Definitely going to buy some noodles for stir fry!

Kcan

After dinner dessert- chocolate pudding

We loves to have some sweet treats after dinner in some weeks. Especially after a long hectic day at work, or in Eric's case, at uni.

I only like desserts that are simple n easy to make. Of course, yummy to eat too! 

We came across this a few weeks ago at our local Coles supermarket. Half price! =D

My first time trying out the Greens Chocolate pudding. 

It was for 4-6 servings. So I made 4 as there's only 3 of us at home now. 

The instructions were simple n straight forward. 

Here's the chocolate puddings, straight out of the oven!

Nice looking cracks in the middle. Looks like a volcano going to erupt. Haha.

Digging into the hot pudding. 

Oh my, the insides were still in liquid form! Just like a chocolate lava cake. *yumm!*

Look at the melting chocolate at the bottom!

Nice and warm for the cold winter nights.

We all finished our share of chocolate pudding and could have no more. 

The puddings were very sweet. So much so that we got sick of eating it after a few bites. So that's why it could have 6 servings.

We kept the remainding pudding in the fridge and had it cold the next day. It tasted like cold custards!

Yumm!

Will try the other Greens products next time they are on half price sale. =D

Kcan

Black sesame bread loaf

The bread basket  rack was empty again. Thinking what kind of bread should I bake this time, I decided to make use of the well expired black sesame powder belonging to my MIL, sitting in the fridge.

I've been trying out with making white loaf from Happy Home Baking. And this recipe has turned out quite well each time. So I decided to modify it with adding in Sesame powder. (more nutritious than just pure white bread)

This is the white bread recipe, as adapted from Happy Home Baking. I had added and do some changes to the ingredients and methods to modify it to a Sesame bread for baking in my bread maker.

Black Sesame Bread loaf

Ingredients
(makes one 600g loaf)

550g bread flour
50g Black Sesame powder
2 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoon caster sugar
1.5 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons milk powder
420ml water 
20g butter, soften at room temperature
Method: (I used a bread maker to mix the ingredients and make into a dough) If you don't have a bread machine, READ THE 2ND PART OF THE STEPS)

1. Add all the ingredients, except the butter, into the bread machine mixing bowl, as according to the steps of adding wet/dry ingredients. Separate the yeast, away from the sugar and salt.
2. Mix the ingredients in the bread maker dough function for about 5-10 mins till all the ingredients all combined to form a non-sticking dough.
3. Add in the butter, and continue to use the dough function to knead it for about 30-40 mins. This will incorporate the butter into the dough. 
4. At the end of the kneading cycle, the dough will no longer sticks to the side of the bowl, and becomes smooth and elastic. To know if the dough is well kneaded through, do a window pane test.
5. Window Pane test: Pinch a small piece of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart. If it is, well done! The dough is now ready for proofing.
6. Take the dough out of the bread machine mixing bowl and placed into a lightly greased (with vegetable oil) mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk. (In the cold winter now, I lightly warm the oven to around 40 degC and let it proof in there)
7. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. (this will stop having big gas holes in the bread when baked) Smooth into round, cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let it rest for another 15-20mins.
8. Roll the dough into a rectangle on a flat surface. Roll it up Swiss-roll style into a log. Remove the kneading blade in the bread maker mixing bowl. Place the log of dough, seam side down, into the bread maker mixing bowl. 
9. Now cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave the dough to proof for the second time for about 40 ~ 50mins, or until double in size, or when the dough has almost reached the rim of the tin.
10. Pop the whole bread maker mixing bowl into the bread maker. Set the bread maker into baking mode. Bake for 50 mins.  Remove from bread maker, unmold immediately and let cool completely before slicing.

Kneading by hand.

1. Mix milk and water.
2. Stir bread flour, caster sugar, salt, and instant yeast in a mixing bowl.
3. Add in milk mixture. Mix the ingredients with hand and slowly form into a dough.
4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough no longer sticks to your hand, becomes smooth and elastic. This should take about 20 mins. Do the window pane test: pinch a small piece of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart. Wrap the butter in the dough and continue to knead until the butter fully incorporates into the dough.
5. Place dough in a lightly greased (with vegetable oil) mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk. (In the cold winter now, I lightly warm the oven to around 40 degC and let it proof in there)
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. (this will stop having big gas holes in the bread when baked) Smooth into round, cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let it rest for another 15-20mins.
7. Roll the dough into a rectangle on a flat surface. Roll it up Swiss-roll style into a log. Place the log of dough, seam side down, into a well greased pullman tin (or a bread loaf tin).
8. Now cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave the dough to proof for the second time for about 40 ~ 50mins, or until double in size, or when the dough has almost reached the rim of the tin.
9. Baked in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 30-35 mins or until golden brown.  Remove from owen, unmold immediately and let cool completely before slicing.

When the bread had cooled down, I like to wrap it in a tea towel to keep it fresh. But If you are in a humid area, I think it will be best to keep it in an air tight container. Home make bread can last for 3 days, though it is best eaten on the day of making. They tend to gets dryer as time goes by too.

Serve with butter and a good cup of coffee. Yum!

Eric and I had lunch that afternoon with toast with Egg n Onion Omelette. Delicious~!

Happy baking!

kcan 

Point location exam

Today is the big day for Eric. It is his first exam of the semester.
1st of  the First~! With many (7 more semesters worth of exams) to come.

We spent the days leading up to and including the weekend, practicing points location. He needed to remember the location of >200+ points. Woow!
And how lucky he is that I had done exactly the same thing back in my good-old-uni-days. It's been almost 8 years from my first acupuncture exam. How quickly time flies.

For me, I felt quite privilege to be of a good help to him and it helps me to re-remember the many lost n forgotten points. *sheepish grin*
I think it is just like what many of my practicing friends and all TCM doctors will agree on. As we start practicing in the real world, we will start  forming accumulating our own favourite points. Points which we have gain quite confident in their abilities and usefulness. And we will get into this routine of using them over n over again. That's why I love going to different Professional Development seminars! At those seminars, I can rediscovers points which I had neglected/forgotten/undermined/teacher's 'not-favourite' points.... or many other reasons.
Learning from people who had used and share their favourite points helps me to learn and using it in my own practise. Thus expanding and incorporating it into my own collection. =)

Hope that my darling boy will do well today. Don't be too nervous and forgets ALL the right location!

kcan