Of New Years & Cakes

Hi there,

Welcome to my third blog!!

You know what?? I’m really enjoying writing these blogs.  It gives me great pleasure that many of you are also enjoying reading them.

Chinese New Year

I’d like to take this opportunity also to wish you a Happy New Chinese Year!! 

Really and truly the Chinese year started on Monday (23^rd Jan), but here we’re still celebrating it.  Yesterday in fact our Chinese friends through the Loyola International Club organized a sort of Chinese Night were we immersed ourselves in some Chinese culture.  I must admit that I was really impressed, and now I surely want to go to China!!  Tomorrow I might also join some friends who are going to China Town for the New Year’s parade. 

Also, during the international night we had a quiz, and I somehow won the quiz, yeay!!  As a prize I was given a Chinese artefact, which represents one of the famous facial make-ups of the Chinese opera.

This week we had a number of sunny days.  It’s still freezing, when you go out. However on my desk behind this large glass pane, I feel quite warm, and can stay with just a T-shirt on.  This makes me feel really at home - you know sunny warm Malta.  So how can I forget you, when even the weather wants me to think of you? 

This week’s political news from Malta were quite amusing.  It has been like a very well written soap opera, with its climaxes, anti-climax, dark moments and funny moments.  And all the suspense which could be felt even from here.  Some blogs are having a feast of the situation and some youtube videos are really very very funny.  For my non-Maltese readers in a nutshell there is a political crisis in Malta, which is not due to the international financial crisis, but for some other reason which only one member of parliament really understands.  

I was also obviously quite curious of the outcome of the famous vote of no-confidence.  When I woke up on Wednesday morning, everything was ready. (Here we are 7 hours late remember..) I was quite surprised to see that Pjazza San Gorg was full of people.  Don’t these people have anything better to do?  Well the saga is not fully over.  Will see how it develops….

Social Justice & Community Development

This was my second week of learning.  I am finding the subjects really interesting and I’m enjoying every bit of it.  Later on, during the year, I hope to share with you some of this knowledge I’m gaining.  I’m enjoying it also because now I have more time to read.  Nevertheless sometimes it’s really hard to spend a whole day reading, especially since the readings aren’t novels.  It’s good that my silent companion Tina keeps me company in these moments.  By the way, she’s still alive and kicking :), and sends her regards to all her new fans.  I’m jealous she got more attention than me in my last blog.

Madeira cake

Today I also ventured into the area of baking.  The reason wasn’t really because I felt like a cake, but because I’ve realised that the eggs I bought are about to expire (Didn’t know that eggs expire).   I had bought a pack of 10 eggs originally and used only 2.  My options were to either throw away these 8 eggs or else cook a lot of things using eggs.  So this weekend I planned a ‘Cooking with eggs’ marathon.  I hope that this doesn’t have devastating consequences on my cholesterol.   Anyway, my first recipe was a Madeira cake.  This uses 3 eggs, and isn’t very complex to do. And here is the result:

Not bad eh….

Actually, I’m quite proud of the result, especially when you consider that I didn’t have anything with which to weigh the ingredients.  Not withstanding this, I somehow managed through my first baking assignment.  The only defect of this cake is that it crumbles.  Will someone ask Karmen Tedesco or Nancy for the reason?  You may rest assured that crumbled or not crumbled it will still be devoured.  Tomorrow I plan to cook a quiche, using another 3 eggs.  That leaves me with 2.  I still have to plan what to do with these last 2.  Any suggestions??  I’ll keep you posted. 

That’s enough for today.  I'm off to have some Madeira Cake.  Have a strong week!!