been busy with a new probate case. Client was particularly naive - he is generally too late. He has been staying with his mother, keeping her company etc for the last few years, and when she passed away recently, he failed to take the necessary precaution against his relatives and "allowed" them to have raided the property and took away documents and jewlleries, when one of those documents could possibly be a will in his favour, which if that were the case, by now, should have been destroyed and would never see daylight. Sigh.

mm had an ok busy weekend. After work on Saturday, mm went to one of the shops that sells baking ingredients, utensils, apparatus etc and City Super. Both were good. Had lunch at one of the local tea house at Wanchai close to the shop mentioned above - tasted great!

Was gonna attend a Yoga class, but mm had had pain on the upper back so she'd left it until next week.

mm had apple crumble in mind - bb no here to make for mm lah! She downloaded Delia Smith's recipe. The recipe was to serve 6 to 8 and mm intended to cut everything by half, hopefully the end result would serve 3 to 4. Sat was too tired and so mm made it yesterday evening, after having been to churches in Central and Kln (ceremony for her Goddaughters). It's pretty bad, kind of a disaster! Firstly, taking bb's advice, mm only measured one-quarter of the sugar in the recipe for the crumble but she forgot to put it - when she remembered that, the crumble was already baking in the oven! The crumble had medium sized lumps and it was difficult for mm to make them into nice little crumbles, like those bb made. mm guessed that's probably because she didn't do it quick enough - the butter was already soft, too soft to make them into nice crumbles.

The recipe suggested a bit of ground cloves. mm tried several places but couldn't get any.

There's no Bramley apples here, so mm used Granny Smith.

Then the custard. mm bought vanilla extract - which Delia recommended as an excellent substitute to vanilla pods; she said vanilla essence was no good. The recipe didn't say how much vanilla extract should be added so mm added several drops to start with. She could only smell milk and egg. She added another 1 or 2 teaspoons; didn't help much either. The custard wasn't thick enough too. You see, this time, mm did the entire measurement so no half-ing, although she used whole milk, as suppose to double cream, which Delia said should be ok. The end product was pretty runny and a bit cuddled as mm brought it to boil (!) in her desperation to get it thickened - unfortunately.

All sounded pretty disasterous, right? mm was disappointed too. Surprisingly, it tasted ok! mm guess : u can't go far wrong with baked apples! :p

mm will give another try to making apple crumble - her favourite dessert ! It was good fun too !

bb will be back tomorrow - yeah! : D

Perhaps she would give some tips to mm?

*******************************************

Bruce called last week - we'll attend a seminar by a Franchisor of creative memory (or thinking or what not??! :P ) tomorrow evening (Monday). Objective is really as part of market research for a possible business, something to do with kid. will see lah.

mm had a marathon of meetings today. The day was quiet before lunch and mm was drafting her monthly article on St. Teresa for the church. Then mm's 1st client called, and they agreed to meet at 3:30pm. Then mm's 2nd client (the one that's involved in a family dispute mentioned in yesterday's post) called to confirm instructions. They agreed to meet at 6pm so that letter of engagement may be signed and cost on account may be given to the firm. mm expected the 2nd meeting to be short but it took nearly 2 hours! mm was sympathetic towards their position and they are new to litigation, and she had to explain her advice on the strategy and way forward again and answer questions again. So eventually, mm was in meetings from 3pm (the 2nd client called and they spoke on the phone) until around 8pm! mm was exhausted!

For purpose of acting for the 2nd client, mm had to report the matter to her boss (Joe). Joe raised the question as to how comfortable we are in involving in probate cases. He said he had only "touched" on contentious probate case! He was honest and mm respected that. mm reminded him of my experience in contentious probate matters and said I intended to involve counsel at early stage, and have advised client of that intention. He suggested sf - yes! mm thought, however, that her boss was easy on this one because the team has been very quiet - to the point that everyone has plenty of capacities! Oops!

bb's comment on mm's post of yesterday made her (mm) day! : D

Had a hard working but very productive weekend. Tidied up the documents that have been on my dining table for some months and cleaned out my fridge on Sat and Sunday respectively. The fridge took me a few hours to do. The things I dumped took up the whole bin for the entire floor! Oops!

Attended a meeting for bible class teachers last night. Before that, attended the 6pm mass hosted by the Rev. Father recently joined the church. He was good! He's Indian, but his local language was excellent! He's so funny and to the point. Simple message, but big ideas. I like him!

The meeting for the bible class was good too. Very useful for someone like me who needed a bit more training. It's also a good place to exchange ideas. I seated next to Father Lok. A member of my Legion team was there. He came after I did. He asked why did I sat there i.e. next to Father Lok. I said another bible class teacher invited me to sit there, so I did. Then that Legion member didn't say much but for the rest of the meeting, he looked at me strangely, as though I picked that seat deliberately, intending to shine shoes for Father Lok. That idea never came across my mind. Why are they so small and shallow?

Had a meeting with a potential client relating to a family dispute. The meeting went well; I spoke to sf and went over my intended advice, so sure win lah! I think they will confirm instructions to us tomorrow. However, it made me very sad, dealing with family disputes, rows between members of the same family. Sigh.

I joined a Planet Yoga last Thursday. It's a life membership - I paid a fixed amount by monthly instalment (interest free) for 2 years, and some GBP 40 per annum after 100 months i.e. over 8 years! I thought it suits me quite well. You see, I'm not persistent in terms of exercising. So, I won't lose out too much if I use it a while/stop a while ... and so on. Good deal, hur?

It's been very quiet in the office. For me, that happened since around Oct/Nov last year. Recently, no new instructions came through the door at all ! So what do I do during the time in the office? Mainly, surfing on the net and socialising with colleagues. Honestly, I am worried that I'd be made redundant soon. That itself is stress. I don't know what to do if that happens ??! I'm beginning to see how courageous, strong and tough my younger brother has been - he's able to face so much downturns that had happened with his career. I love him and admire him immensely.

I got close to a colleague recently. We both have been looking out for opportunities. I tried a few in the interim. For one I was one of 3 shortlisted for 2nd interview, but had heard nothing since early Jan this year; no, not even a rejection. It's a brand name company, and I later heard from the news that it's income was below expectation. As it's a back office post, the company had probably put the matter on hold.

With this colleague and a friend of mine, we were thinking of a business in cakes and ice-creams, and we had even thought about our target customers and marketing. Last week, a friend from Uni calle. It was a friendly call but later we moved onto discussing forming a playgroup ! We said we'll do some research. I'm keen on the idea of moving away from the industry I'm currently at.

I await however God's plan for me. In my prayers, I ask Him for wisdom as well as love, faith and hope in Him. : )

Attending Sunday mass at the usual chapel. We (member of the service team for that chapel) talked about our CNY gathering held last night. I was responsible for one of the games, which was very well received. I was told they all loved it and they were very happy! hee hee!

Picked up KFC and had chicken/chicken wings with bb at her place. We watched some travel/food programs on the tv and after a while, I dozed on her sofa, leaning on her. zzzzz ... I had a few attempts of making red beam and coconut pudding for CNY gathering, and I therefore had a few late nights. It wouldn't set but later, I figured out what went wrong and corrected it. It was successful ! I gave half to bb, and reserved the other half for my family tonight. bb loved it. She's so nice! : )

Had dinner with my family at the usual restaurant, celebrating mum's birthday. My newphew was really something. His family came last. When he enters, he gave a bouquet to mum. It's handmade, made with clay and paper. It's really nice, and of course, his mother helped a lot as the kid only turned 3 a month or so ago. My other sister in law and I each have a small bouquet too. So sweet of him.

They tried my new pudding and thought it was quite good, although a bit sweet. bb said the same thing later. I have improved on the recipe I found for this dessert. It 's now my own recipe. I will start a notebook and write down my recipes, and hopefully, one day, they will be published ! Yes, I am interested in a career with baking/dessert, and perhaps catering but that would be quite hard I reckon. Anyway, I still have a long way to go. My colleague and a friend have been talking about this. We need to be persistent lah!

bb is back today, but I have Legion and deadline ... !

Well, I got 4 more lai see packets before the 15th of CNY - hee hee