As We Entered the Mid of July...

I sometimes seemed to have neglected this blog. I'll try to update more frequently, but looking forward for the times I couldn't do so because I'm deep into my PhD work. I've been sick for the past one week and it had been a torture to miss going to the department every morning. Initially I thought it was mere upper respiratory tract infection, then I'd be up and running within two three days. Unfortunately, after being in bed for three days, it worsened where my nose was blocked and cough sounded horrifying. GP to the rescue indeed! I saw the GP on Friday, and the initial diagnosis is throat infection which didn't need any antibiotics. I did double-check with her to ensure it wasn't due to my previous history of acute sinusitis. Her reaction changed totally when I mentioned I had acute sinusitis and she went through my medical history to eventually decide to prescribe me with antibiotics. My GP is on maternity leave, so this lady GP is taking over her patients for the next 6 months. I have no idea why she had such a big change in her decision, but she said that it could be that my sinuses are infected and the coloured phlegm came from the sinus rather than the throat since my lungs are clear. Praise God! If not I'd be still half-dead rather than half-alive.

A friend of ours will be going on a pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, so I plotted and planned with his girlfriend (also our friend) to give him a surprise farewell. I suddenly had the whim of wanting to bake, so I searched and found the butter cake recipe on Rasa Malaysia website. Made a few tweaks, including changing the usage of only AP flour to a 1:1 ratio of AP flour to self-raising flour, melted the butter slightly using the microwave for less than a minute then mixed with caster sugar by hand (since I didn't have an electric mixer), and accidentally added the milk before I mixed in the flour instead of after.. It all went well and my friends loved the fluffiness of the cake, which I slathered with Nutella on top to cover the imperfections.

Speaking of surprises... This was one of the tinier ones.. Ewa and I planned that somehow they would come over and I shall take the cake out. Simple surprise. Matteo and another friend were to come earlier to my place, and they were supposed to "happen to be there" when Ewa and Pol turned up. It happened so the other friend couldn't make it, so it was just Matteo. It all worked out well. Everyone was happy and Pol was delighted to have the cake.

So all the best in his pilgrimage of the Way of St. James! Mission accomplished.

Looking forward to watch finals of World Cup 2014 later, and yeah, to go back to work on Monday!!!

From left: Yours truly, Pol and Matteo; far right Ewa.