gossiping

i'm on duty at school this week, so that means i'm the last person to leave school. and because i was late and tired, i decided to dine out. i went to this one particular restaurant which serves nyonya inspired dishes. the tauke lady is friendly enough, and likes to call female customers "sister". 

last evening, though, she really irritated me. 

i've always been careful about my food and drink intake, but after the heavy-duty workout and the asam laksa i thought that i deserve a treat. i wanted to have rice. she told me the rice has only turmeric and no coconut milk, and the chicken rendang has little coconut milk in it. drinks? i was tempted to have my favourite Season's iced lemon tea, but i asked for plain water instead. i told her i was watching my sugar intake. she asked me if i have ...? and i said no, i don't have diabetes, i'm on a diet.

"but you're a beautiful lady, why do you need to diet?" 

is she blind? i told her i already lost 13kgs. then she commented

"you have lovely skin" and i started to tell her that i'm under medication for my PCOS, and that's why i have smooth skin, but the only thing she caught was " i'm taking pills".

the next thing i knew while i was eating, i heard her talk to a couple who're also eating there. don't you just hate it when you can hear someone discussing you?

and guess what she told the couple - that i'm on slimming pills!

is she crazy? it really irked me that some people think i'll do anything to lose weight. but then these people don't know me, and those who know me, know me that i'll do things the right way - which is why i don't cheat like some other women who are lazy to sweat out and go to slimming centres instead.

that also tells me one thing. that the tauke loves to gossip.

low-fat wholemeal apple cake

today i baked a healthier version of an apple cake. who says you have to forego the sweetest things in life when you're dieting?

the cake is actually a pound cake, but i changed half of the butter to applesauce. because of the amount of liquid, i reduced the number of eggs to only 1 egg. the cake is actually nice, considering that i sort of threw everything in.

low-fat wholemeal apple cake

60g butter

65g applesauce

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

75g brown sugar (i decreased the sugar since there's sugar in the applesauce)

65g plain flour

60g wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g raisins

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped.

creaming method, bake at 175 C for 35 mins or until baked.

my attempt at making low-fat cookies

ever since i started my workout regime, i've been in a dilemma. a major dilemma. i love eating, and yet i've to watch what i eat. no more baking cakes, no more donuts, no more sweet drinks. in short, my life has become dull with no frills to entice me and instead i've to eat like a utilitarian or like a patient in a hospital - i eat to survive.

i use no-added sugar peanut butter and jam on my toasts, and eat low-cholesterol eggs instead of ordinary ones.i now love asam laksa and tom yam, instead of heavy curries and all those coconut milk based dishes. no more nasi lemak for me! instead of eating sweet muffins or buns, i make my own healthier version, using applesauce. 

last 2 weeks i bought Oat Krunch, and i love the dark chocolate ones, love it so much that i'm willing to bake. of course, i don't know the exact recipe, so i googled. in the end, i found a recipe on Allrecipes, only that it isn't low fat, but i decided to substitute margarine with good old applesauce. i was happy because i put all the goodness in - cocoa, rolled oats, wheat germ and wheat bran, raisins, roasted almonds... the only problem is, the cookies werent crispy. they're chewy and a bit soft in texture.

only a few minutes ago i read an article that says that without fat, the cookies won't crisp. oh great.no wonder i had to bake for god knows how long. well i learnt my lesson. next time i'll use a bit of butter alongside the applesauce.

My No Ong Day

Note: "ong" is a chinese word which loosely means "luck".

it happened last wednesday, when i was about to enter my class in English Resource Centre. one of the young teachers informed me that my car had a flat tyre. i was worried then and rushed to where i parked, which was near to the boys toilet.

there it was, my car, with one flat tyre. there was also a distinct smell of urine near the tyre. i had just changed all the 4 tyres the previous day. i felt like weeping, but most importantly i felt at loss. and helpless. didn't know what to do. and at that time i wished i had a husband to call to. i panicked and called the honda service centre hoping they could help. the mechanic who answered my call said it'd take him longer to go through the jam to reach the school.

finally i saw another young teacher, the easy-going shidi. i asked for his help, and he helped to change my tyre. as he was changing the tyre, we talked and i came to a conclusion that one of the students must have done it. i remember scolding a group of boys earlier for creating a mayhem at the back of the hall. and i remember that i scolded the same group of boys the previous day for trying to cut Science class.

the incident shook me so badly that i didn't want to go down and supervise the boys going to the surau. 

you begin to wonder what's happening to all the kids nowadays. all i want to do is make them realise that there is more to life than just idling their life away not doing anything at school, not bothering to study at all. i want them to feel empowered and be able to change their life. but instead, they retaliated and gave a pay back.

why am i here?