Happy Birthday Daddy!

19th April 2011 was my dad's birthday. At that time, both my parents were on holiday at Eastern Europe...so we decided to have my dad's birthday celebration during lunch today. Given that my parents just got back last night and would probably still be tired from the trip, we decided to buy food and have the family birthday gathering at home.

Of course, the highlight for me was the cake and desserts. My sister got it from Bisou :) The banofee pie is nice and of course everyone's favourite. She also bought the red velvet to try it out....verdict...we all prefer the home made red velvet :P The red velvet is nice and moist but a bit lacking in the cocoa and also the cheese in the cream cheese.

Banofee Pie

Red Velvet

Nutella Cake

new york new york deli

Today Azmir and I went to go have lunch at this place called new york new york deli. It has a nice selection of sandwiches, burgers, pasta. The thing I like about the sandwiches is also that I get to choose wholemeal bread. I don't fancy white bread unless I really don't have a choice.

As for their desserts, they appear to have a nice selection though I can't comment much about the taste cause I haven't tried them all. Today we ordered the mudpie with ice cream. It was nice but not as rich and chocolate-y as I expected and would like it to be.

Laughter is the best medicine

I was at the hairdresser yesterday getting a haircut and treatment which made me go through more than 4 magazines while waiting for my treatment to be done. I then came across an article about the power of laughter in relieving stress. This is not something new but when I read the bit about how certain hospital patients are given comedies to watch, it made me realise that I have not been watching much comedy lately.

I remember last time in University, my housemates and I would watch a string of comedies during dinner every night. I used to get a good dose of laughter and then I would start doing my coursework until the wee hours. Stress levels under control. I did the same during bar school too.

Now, by the time I get back from work which is usually around 10 pm, there are no more comedies on TV but dramas. So I would normally have dinner while watching shows like Criminal Minds, NCIS and Castle. Don't get me wrong, these shows are great, but not necessarily your first option at laughter.

Which got me thinking, I think I may need to watch more comedies to keep my stress levels in check. Have a good dose of laughter everyday.

So my mission, to watch more comedies!

My self-evaluation

I realised it's been a while since I last updated my blog. It's been pretty much a rollercoaster ride ever since I started work after my marriage leave.

Last Thursday I was rushing to complete my personal self evaluation which is needed for my performance evaluation at the end of May. It took so long to complete and made me think about where I am now in my career. Can't believe that soon I will be in my third year of practice. One more year and I will be a mid-level associate.

As I was completing this form at about 9 pm, my boss passed my room and saw that I was doing it and said "doing your evaluation? you need to make sure you don't burn out!" I gave her a confused look and said jokingly that there is no column in the form for me to put that :P Then she said make sure I take enough breaks from work, if not I will burn out and she cannot afford to have me resign.

Coming from someone I look up to, it actually gave me some motivation to persevere under these challenging times. I think if there is anyone I aspire to be like, it would be her...a partner who manages to balance work and family.

She is basically a superwoman...she runs up and down the courts conducting hearings and carrying heavy court bags during like her 8th month of pregnancy, can do 2 court hearings at one time and she even could bbm my colleagues less than 1 hour after giving birth chasing for submissions that she wants to review! When we asked her about it when she came back from maternity leave she justified it by saying that the pain is during giving birth and after that you have nothing to do cause the nurses take the baby so she can review the work. We were all just like :O

And on top of all that, her priority is still her son....during her hectic schedule she will leave during lunch to pick him up from school so that she can spend a bit more time with him everyday. I honestly don't know how she does it.

On another note, last month I went for a 3 day Company trip at Phuket. There was a lot of free and easy time so it was nice. My colleague and I also went for a cooking class at Momtri Boathouse and I learnt how to make several Thai dishes including Pad Thai! It was fun :) So now I just have to find the time to actually make it :P