Pooh Talk

A friend was hiring an ayi (a ayi?) the other day and she was interviewing some candidates. Finally she settled on this auntie looking (no surprise here) FABULOUS cook who whips up 5 dishes for a normal lunch. When asked to cook for a 'party', she questioned if 20 different types of dishes are enuff. My friend raved and raved about her smart choice esp since she didn't ask for much as salary. There is this thing abt hiring an ayi here which speaks much of Sporeans - we are the SAME, hiring Filipinos in Spore and hiring ayis here. We compare what we give to other pple and then b#$@& abt them not cleaning well enuff or their cooking sucks. I am not used to this at all even tho P did hire an ayi. He pays her above average but she doesn't clean as squeaky spick and span as I would have wished. Heck, she doesnt even need to cook for us and only comes in twice a week but she gets 1.5 times more than this great chef I hear :) But hey, at least we trust her I suppose. Things do not disappear when she is here, hence, we follow the same philosophy as the Spore govt: pay enuff NOT to temp her to rip us off. Not sure if this is an excuse for being "kai zi".... but as long as I do not have to do ironing and moping, I am FINE :)

The sand storm in BJ is not as bad as to bury us in sand but it did cover most cars and buildings in dust and mite and when the wind picks up, HAH - beware those outdoors and unprotected!! It also doesn't help that those cotton like strands add to the blanket swirls of dust and sand that threatens your eyes, nose, etc. Tough to breathe properly... It also did rain a little, which makes it worse since it was neither heavy a pour to wash away the sand nor light enuff to ignore. And you cannot avoid bathing once you get home coz you just feel icky.... really hope it will die down soon..... the sky looks terrible with the sun turning orange with the screen of brown....

Was unable to log on to this blog for some time... not sure if it was censored or something. Event TV here is censored sometimes - they just back out the who segment and it can be pretty frustrating. Few things happened: started salsa classes and another friend V came to BJ, finished knitting my first SHAWL. Yes, it was supposed to be a scarf but it became a shawl in the end :) Few things never change: still struggling with French, trying out new receipes and checking out new restaurants. Went to this French/Belgium dessert lounge last night (Le Palais). The stuff are named in French but they use a lot of Belgium choc. Or do they speak French in Belgium? Desserts are (in my friends and P's view) great!! and gourmet type you know. But somehow I found them a tad sweet and I prefer my le gateau (cake in French) a bit more of the gateau side than choc choc choc. Le Palais cakes and desserts are very rich in choc (dark, white, rum, etc etc) and the lounge is very posh and they even serve alcohol (which is nice but we didnt try their wines) but I still prefer Tasty Taste (another cake place but it's more of a Kopi Bean type of style).