Bought the Turkish raki - tekirdag that's recommended by colleagues local staff. It's distinct anise seed flavor makes it really difficult to cocktail mix.
So far the best I could do is lemon tea one third, some raki and some apple cider mixed with cold ice.
Hi everyone, and welcome to Thiam Guitar Concert. My name is Jennifer , the emcee for this event, and I am so grateful to all of you for coming out and spending your evening with us as we share some beautiful music with you all.
We want to say thank you to parents for investing in music as part of your child’s life. It is a time, energy, and resource commitment to bring your child to lessons, to make them practice, and to do so faithfully every week.
Thank you to these wonderful students for working hard, practicing, and for being brave in sharing your music and abilities with family and friends. We am so proud of each of you, and I am so excited to listen to you tonight.
和风徐徐，阳光明媚，我们弹奏起美好乐章。绿草青青，鸟语花香，我们在这里欢聚一堂。
欢迎来到thiam guitar concert, 我是音乐会的主持人jennifer。在此我十分荣幸能与大家共度这个美好的音乐会，请允许我代表本次音乐会的全体演职人员对各位的光临, 表示热烈的欢迎和衷心的感谢。欢迎大家的到来!
在这美好的日子里我们相聚在ksl esplanade mall
在这里我们要为在场的各位家长奉献一场别开生面的ukulele观摩演奏会
在音乐会之前，请允许我们在此向大家隆重介绍今晚音乐会的主角，他就是我们德才兼备的thiam老师!
参加今天演出的同学们都是Thiam老师的学生。thiam 老师在任教的....年中，培养了近 .....名学生，这些学生的年龄在....岁至....岁之间，在thiam老师的辛勤培育下，他们进步得很快，分别在..........比赛........奖。
今天，部分学生在这里进行观摩演奏，向老师、家长和在场的朋友们汇报自己的学习成绩，展示他们的艺术才华。
我宣布《Thiam guitar concert ---ukulele观摩演奏会》正式开始:
1. 首先出场为大家演奏的是 thiam guitar senior group, 梦菲女孩, yansi+jingkai, 乐彤组合, 她们今天为大家演奏的曲目是.....，请大家欣赏. 女孩子真是多才多艺
2. 接下来出场为大家演奏的是康乐二校基础班 and Niji five,演奏的曲目是...希望大家能够喜欢。
3. 接下来为大家演奏的是大同华小的学生, 她们今天为大家演奏的曲目是 .... 谢谢几位同学给我们带来的精彩表演
4. 接下来我们有请 sg long 基础班 & 进介班, 她们所弹唱的歌曲是大家耳熟能详的歌曲
5. 让我们用最热烈的掌声请出全体学生, 这首歌，相信大家更不会陌生,
6. 能成为这次的主持, 是一种莫大的荣幸和幸福, 有请敬爱的 thiam 伴奏
7. 请欣赏 jing kai & jace , 乐曲表现了在...歌唱的喜悦心情。
8. 歌也听了，ukulele也弹了，你们过瘾了吗? 请大家静静地聆听飞跃音符 (Sg long) 优美 ,
9. 掌声在那里? 请大家再次用热烈的掌声欢迎 thiam guitar grade 1, thiam guitar senior
10. 精彩在后头, 最后出场为大家演奏的全体学生, 有请全体学生集中到舞台，共同合唱歌曲"....."
Final:
尊敬的各位家长及同学们。今天的演奏观摩会到这里就要结束了，在大家的配合下我们取得了预期的效果，同时我们也通过这场演奏会看到了明天的希望。
尽管我们的演奏还不够完美，技法还不够娴熟，但我们从中得以了锻炼，今后我们还要继续努力，强化训练，提高技艺。
让我们再一次感谢各位的参与与支持。
今天的演奏会至此结束了。
今晚的thiam guitar concert音乐会至此结束!
谢谢大家!
再见!
晚安!
That concludes the Thiam Guitar concert! Students, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful performances with us. Parents, family, and friends -thank you for spending your evening with us.
-------------------------------
第1轮抽奖又到了万分紧张的时刻，由请thiam 为我们抽取今天的第1份大奖。
没有抽到的不要气馁，大奖在后头呢!
Since returning to Malaysia office been crazy busy. Issues tenders and house works etc.. One Friday I got into accident. Was driving the lil axia on my way to work. Lorry uturned very fast and had to hit emergency brake and hit the motorbike in front. He seems to have small cut on his left wrist. Elderly Chinese man wearing construction suit. He check his motor and me to inspect his body for injury. Nothing visible and asked rm500 settlement. Being 6am in morning I agreed. Next on same day his daughter start contacting asking for hospital fee, motor repair fee can't cover and compensation when he can't work due to injury.
Contacted friends and lawyer. Normally it should settle outside below rm300. This amount being the saman if you go report polis. And by right the settlement stops when party a paid to party b. So this becomes more like a blackmail. The accident report should be made within 24hr.
Went to lodge report and explained on the accident. The police station will file a report and transfer me to traffic department to get statement. Sarjan there will record statement and explain on saman rm300. Since car is also damaged he say we should capture photo to claim for repair (suppose the motor claim). This should be done within 2weeks of report time during their operating hours. Then buy the report for rm4 at the traffic police station.
In summary :
Settle outside below rm300. (I make a mistake of being too sympathetic)
Lodge report if other party want to pursue further claim.
Pay summon rm300. If settle outside fee paid and then lodge the report, Sarjan explain that he will request to return the settlement fee and reporter can claim car or motorbike insurance of other party.
Wife told if driving car that don't insure you.(during register can put more driver) then another rm300 charge to car insurance.
Hole this info helps others as well. Been driving almost 20 years and first time lodging accident report. 😔
Looking back it's been 7 months. Been quite an experience and some time away from home. Really looking back to be home - family, food and ambience. Not to say that balkan is not good, Serbians are in general very polite, strong, passionate and warm people. Probably the few place in the world where its good enough that there is no real Chinatown if it's to be compared anywhere else which i didn't see until over time staying here.
Now looking at statistics , since sitting here at A08 Belgrade departure gate, waiting for flight to Istanbul let's go a little into the numbers. Arrived at Serbia W3 June and leaving W2 Jan , about 7 months duration here.
By tracking spent about RM4.5k all in all , not inclusive of claimable expenses. Rental is pretty crazy in Novi Beogard , A Blok area is about 45ish Eu per night range , only good thing is i got a good deal on one room apartment with separated bath and kictchen area at Belville which is much better than what most people got i think. 4.5k / 7 months = its about RM660 per month. 660/30 = RM 22 per day which is not too shabby in Europe region, but also considering that im home cooking most days and don't splurge unnecessarily on restauran food which can get pretty outrageous high. Will need to compare if this is viable in Malaysia as well haha.
Bought a second hand bike at 12k rsd, used for about 5 months and sell off again at the same website Kupujemprodajem at lower rate of 8k rsd. Pretty convenient to slash down 15-20min walk to 10 min ish daily so its probably worth it, and in addition makes easy commute on weekends for groceries.
Not too sure what's next, will i be travelling more or have the opportunity to stay on in Malaysia projects as much as possible at least for next few years. This is at least the strategy im opting for years ago - second wind stance.
There are things that worked and don't. Electric pots are genius for traveler's but only useful for light cooking since mostly are non stick glazed surface that can easily get damaged. Going from asia to Euro/non asian region its best to bring some dry condiments, worked really well. My sambal chilli 2 bottles lasted till last day here. Would be good to ready some small tools for cooking such as mini cutter/portable blender etc and possible some dry spices which might be a rarity in overseas market.
Jackets - bringing a spare would be sufficient and for winter season its actually necessary to bring that armor thick jacket i've kept in wardrobe ,hmm i think mum's house wardrobe for 10s of years. Practically impossible to use in Malaysia, but for winter it'll be more comfortable to have it. Else match and pair long sleeves or jackets that can wear together to be comfortable. Over packed jackets for this round, i brought 4x pieces which is comsuming too much baggage space in the bag.
Learnt basic oven baking, roast chicken, how to clean , salt brine for juicy meat and freeze store cooking meat. Prepare one pot meals and batch cooking preps. Learning to use frozen corn, frozen peas as good source of nutrients, balance out food nutrition for the body and make own food as much possible. Tested out how to make chilli oil, how to prep lemon sugar (honey probably better option) for ease of use. So much to learn in this area from IG and chat GPT. Solo baked my very first cookies that turned out great, and all in all practice frugality even in foreign environments.
Weekends noon here (night in Malaysia) spent on video calls, teaching kiddo BM which yield some small results. Hopefully it can help her out and keep on continuing, CEO approved this.
Used up 1x shoe throw there, 2 pairs torn socks and one torn tracksuit. All left behind in Balkan.
Laying foundations for the years to come. I guess thats more or less about it, its more or less boarding time. Let me enjoy my Maxi packed and discounted pita bought the night before that. Signing off.
Since today, hmm actually past 2 days are very quiet days in 2024 in office. Just taking time to ponder about in office. Basically not much people here; most either took leave , some showed face a little while in office and dissapeared.
It's now end of 6th month and entering 7th of my journey in Balkanland. ending soon.
Bought my bike here for ease of travel 29-July, initially thinking that i can't drive with M-land license here. Apparently i can like <1 month later.
For 11K rsd the quite new 2nd hand bike was bought at KupujemProdajem aka local mudah.com where people sell and buy 2nd hand stuff. Spent another 600rsd for the red bike chain from the chinese market at Blok 70. 1 week after use, one of the pedal actually fell off , signs of lack of use by previous owner and needed to go for repair at Iron Bike's near Blok 70 or Local wet market as well to refit/lock it back and check air of both tyres. There goes another 200 rsd fees. It's first 1 year life as bicycle is really easy, just sit tight in garage i guess. Now i was working it hard everyday to work haha. In total the cost was 11+ 0.6+0.2 = 11.8 k rsd investment. 2 months later, i discovered that petrol stations have bicycle pumps with correct size to pump tyre at any time so this is also another good things available publicly.
Upon getting notification of my departure, again went back to Kupujem to post advertisement and sell off the bike. Luckily i got a buyer that is looking for a training bike for his son. Sold at 8k rsd ,selling price was 74 Eu or about 8.6k rsd but i gave the buyer an offer that i hoped to closed the deal immediately. Which is pretty good price. Either this or probably left this bike in office garage to rust and rot for 10 years+ haha. Transaction happened on 29-Dec, one week or so after i got my notice. Efficient shit turnover i guess :)
All in all actual used period was actually 5 months. 11.8k - 8 k = thats 3.8k cost for 5 months use. Not so bad actually, 3.8k / 5months = 777rsd per month. Thats coverts back to about rm34 per month. So thats about RM1.1 per day ok la cheaper than taking busese here which i never got around to try actually. Close enough from my previous guesstimation. Return for use value is pretty great, i didnt go too far with this fella considering trying to preserve durability , my stamina-interest diminishing after 20-30mins ride and weather quickly changing to winter soon but its still great to bike to work cutting 15-20min to-fro-work commute to <10min daily one way.
The question will be what's next after this. Well, go home first i guess.
Clearing stock, here is another recipe thats easy fast and delicious. Only few ingredients. Apparently poutine is like a national dish in Canada. Here is what google yields of its origin:
Poutine, a Canadian dish made of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. It first appeared in 1950s rural Québec snack bars and was widely popularized across Canada and beyond in the 1990s. Poutine may be found everywhere from fine dining menus at top restaurants to fast-food chains.
Ingredients:
-either potato to slice and make fried, or frozen fries
- curd , replaced with cheese i have on hand.
- gravy i had from previous roast of chicken, thicken and add soy sauce some flour to thicken. this one could have been more diluted to reduce saltiness.
- variation - added some slice of sausage and half of diced yellow onion. (loved the onion additional flavor).
Bake or Fry potato which ever way to cook it up. I used oven, just dump frozen fries inside preheating oven for 10-15 mins while i get busy on other things. Set 175 C for the fries 18min add sausage slilces . At 5 min left, drop in yellow onion into the oven to bake as well slightly. Gravy leftover just drop the teared chesse slice into gravy and nuke it in the microwave for some hot sauce and melted cheese goodiness. Drizzle on top of fries, sausage and onion mix and serve hot.
Sidenote: being asian, not a simple drip of gravy goes to waste. I nuked gravy together with one slice of white bread from my freezer. Tools to clean up gravy :)
