Coffee

French Press
I bought one 8 cup Bodum coffee press for Rizal’s birthday this year. He now can’t live without coffee and I concluded he is now a serious coffee addict. I can’t take espresso but he worship it. He was eyeing for Bodum brands eversince I could remember. Cewah…tak nak brand Tesco or Dunnes Store. Minum kopi pun kene penapis yang branded.

To me a coffee press works just like our Melayu way of making coffee la. You put some ground coffee into a jug, then pour boiling water and brew for a couple of minutes then before pouring into a cup you tapis dia la. Well the same thing this French press is except the tapis is stuck to the lid of the jug. I don’t know how much does it cost for a French Press in Malaysia but it’s like EUR 8.00 for an 8 cup coffee press at Dunnes Store.
Filter Coffee Maker
This is the one I got for my birthday, it was Marks & Spencer. This is the one we usually see in Hollywood movies whenever there were scenes of people waking up and headed for the kithchen to get some coffee from the coffee maker. Now I got one! I haven’t tried it yet since my kitchen is just the size of my bathroom. I’m more comfortable using the coffee press. I don’t drinck that much coffee anyway to be making the whole jug.

The one I got does not need you to go and buy the filters. The filters are like kertas turas that we use in labs during our chemistry class. I think Tesco sells these things. But my coffe maker has its own washable filter.

It still uses ground coffee, so if you still like instant freeze dried coffee like Nescafe, you can forget about all these coffee gadgets coz to coffee lovers, you haven’t moved on to the next level yet. Hahaha!

So this coffee maker has a water tank that boils water. Then you put some ground coffee into the filter and wait for the magic to happen. Something like how a breadmaker works la. Tiba-tiba je ada kopi dalam jug sudah…
Coffee machine
This is the one I am aiming for right now for a year. Well, I just want to bring back to Malaysia later on when I want to move out of Ireland. This is the exact thing you see in Starbucks except the mini version of the coffee machine.

It’s got filter coffee maker, espresso maker and milk frother all in one. You can make almost everything from this machine. From hot water to capuccino, americano, café latte, espresso. You can even use the milk frother and add it to your hot chocolate for a better creamier taste. And it also has cup warmer so your coffee doesn’t get cold very quickly. Uumm…maybe that only applies here in cold countries. Our coffee easily gets cold if the cup isn’t warm. They even warm the plates before putting food in it. So I guess the cup warmer only made sense here.

And If you are lucky you could get a good bargain for this machine. A manual machine only cost like GBP 70.00. The digital or automatic ones like those you tekan-tekan je in Ikea could cost up to double.

I always berangan having this machine at my house in Malaysia so I could invite my friends over for coffee and not having to spend on expensive Starbucks coffee.

But talking about coffee, if you are like Rizal now, you will need to know more about the coffee bean pulak dah. Punye banyak jenis and dia punya strong tak strong pun ada nombor. And usually to store ground coffee ni leceh sikit, mostly cannot use for more than 2 weeks. Coz once the vaccumed package is opened, it will lose it’s freshness after a few days if it is not stored in air-tight container. Nanti rasa macam lemau. So don’t go and buy big packs if you don’t drink coffee that much. Oh, and must follow instructions on how many coffe you need for a cup.

I love hot chocolate…

Emmet yang unik

Emmet ni kan…ada sesuatu yang unik. I don’t know where it came from. But it’s very very…..unique.

Like for instance when I wear a sweater with a zipper at the front. If he sees the zipper is not fastened, he would pull my hands, telling me to fasten it. And then only he would continue asking for his milk.

And numerous times, when Rizal was helping me carry my handbag while I carry Emmet in my arms, he would get angry and tell Daddy to give the handbag back to me.

And when I hang San Hung’s handbag to the buggy handle so that she could hold Emmet’s hand while walking, he would immediately tell Aunty San Hung to take back her handbag and hold it herself.

And when someone else was helping me pushing the buggy while I hold Emmet’s hand, he would tell that person off and ask me and only me to push the buggy while still holding his hand.

And when I passed his bowl of rice to Daddy so that Daddy would continue feeding him while I can go and prepare Daddy’s dinner, he would get angry and tell Daddy to give the bowl back to me.
Yes…very unique indeed…

Birthday

I think this is the first surprise birthday celebration I have ever had.

Maybe because I didn’t expect it to be celebrated a day earlier. But I guess since it was Sunday, it just made sense so that everybody was out of their way from work.

And Rizal planned it all, not one surprise but two!

First, on that Sunday, he said we should go out to find my present but he wanted to leave Emmet at Aymi’s place. Then Aymi texted me about her ordering Nasi Lemak from a friend of ours. I was craving for a Nasi Lemak and immediately ordered 2 pax and asked her to keep them so that I could get them later when I send Emmet.

And when I got there, a bunch of friends started singing and presented me with a cake!

Then we hang out until Emmet fell asleep. Rizal said he wanted to bring me to dinner, just the two of us. So we left Emmet who was still sleeping and went to Grafton street. We found a small Thai restaurant in some alley and I asked Rizal if he was sure it was a decent restaurant. Then he mumbled something about reading a review in the magazine about the restaurant.

The thing is, once we got there the door was locked. We tried knocking but no answer. I took a peek at the nearest window and saw just a couple inside. Then we tried knocking again, harder. Still no answer. So I tried peeking into the farther window and was surprised to see a table with another set of friends! They were also surprised to see me and got the ‘kantoi’ look. Ahahah…

The restaurant was very nice but too small. We were glad we didn’t bring Emmet along. Otherwise he would knock everything out.

So I got a cofee maker, a hand blender (the most thing that I needed since mine broke during Hari Raya the other day), a spa set, shopping card, a brooch and flowers!

Thank you all especially to Rizal who quite successfully planned all this or in other words, instructed our friends to do it. Haaha….