Scientific (experimental) protocol can (should) be adjusted when experiments go wrong. that's one of the fun yet frustrating parts about science. it seems that i've been using a non-optimal method for bread-baking. so i've turned to a youtube baker whose loaves i quite like, and am going to replicate his procedure to see if that brings me any luck. my starter also showed significant expansion last night, so that gives me hope.

this new procedure calls for lower hydration - between 60 to 65% for the protein content of my flour (13%). apparently too much water can cause the bread to go flat - makes sense, since the dough is more liquid and the gluten may not be able to hold the structure. so i'm using 310g of water to 500g of flour. another point is the amount of starter used. starter is like a catalyst, so having more of it will speed up the reaction to a greater extent. the recommendation is 10% for an overnight loaf, 20% if you want to bake on the same day. i figured i'll go for the middle ground of 15%. what i'll also do differently this time is monitor the rise of the dough by taking a small sample and tracking its increase in volume. i'm looking for a 40 to 50% increase in size. it should happen within 12 hours, but if it doesn't...we'll worry about it at a later stage.

last major modification - the kneading style. previously, i did stretch and folds, which do work. this time, i'll do that and and additional step involving creating more tension in the dough, so that it hold its shape better as a ball instead of as a blob. this makes me wish that i had more countertop space for kneading! my supervisor tells me that one of my predecessors loved to cook; i don't know how she managed it with such little space. then again, the layout of the kitchen may have been different during her time.

since i'm already blogging, might as well continue. i've more or less gotten the hang of cycling, although i must admit to still not being very good. the new bike is taking some getting used to, particularly the posture and the gear shifting. there are 2 main problems with the latter thing - (1) i have to shift gears while pedalling (unlike on my grocery bike, where the internal gear hub means i can shift even at a standstill), and (2) the sequence of gears is opposite that of my grocery bike. i'm considering changing the grips on the handlebars to something softer; the current ones leave marks on my palms after riding for a while. my goal is to have a few cycling days a week, although i'll need to find new cycling paths since i've explored my area and the main part of the town quite thoroughly already. there's this other part of town (where my colleague lives) that is mostly residential, so i figure that'll be safer...although there's a higher chance of bumping into my kids there too. that can be a pro or a con depending on several factors.

main errand for today is getting groceries in the city. i managed to get a 5% off discount coupon, which i intend to use to stock my fridge up. also have to go to daiso to consider getting more bike accessories, a seat cover being the foremost on my mind. another thing is doing some cleanup in preparation for rubbish disposal day tomorrow. been lagging behind on household chores, namely cleaning and gardening. the days are getting shorter, which means that summer is almost over. weather forecast says that temperatures should dip back to sub-30 degree levels sometime next month. that can't happen soon enough! the heat's been horrible. better get showered and go to the supermarket soon!

-random thought of the day: Getting stiff shoulders.-

Preliminary sourdough notes (to be updated when this most current loaf comes out of the oven) - i've settled into a comfortable protocol that is convenient and allows me to adjust parameters easily. like i was telling my colleagues, baking is kind of like scientific experimentation. and since i've got a ton of experience in that regard, it follows that baking shouldn't be too far out of my comfort zone...except for getting sticky and gross hands. funny that for someone who works with his hands so much, i don't like to get them sticky or oily.

ingredients i use are: 450g bread flour, 310 to 320g water, 90 to 100g starter, 12g salt.

procedure: i mix the water and the starter (trying to dissolve it); and separately mix the flour and the salt. then, i add the solids to the liquids and mix until a wet dough forms, which i knead for a few minutes and leave alone for an hour or two. after that, i do stretch and folds. as the name implies, i stretch the dough out and fold it on top of itself. pro tip: use wet hands. i aim for 5 to 6 sets of stretch and folds, spaced 20 minutes apart.

mid-point bread update: it looks like it's risen! although it might be another big air pocket. i'll only know later.

following that, i try to shape it into a smooth ball. my shaping technique still isn't the best for this step, but what i do is use a bench scraper and my hand to pull/gather the dough together, with the adhesion of the dough to the surface providing an opposing force. once it's in a nice ball, i let it rest at room temperature. and this is where i feel my previous attempts went wrong. i'd always let it rest at room temperature for 1, 2 hours at most before chucking it into the fridge. including the time for stretch and fold and other things, the total bulk fermentation time was about 5 hours (fridge time doesn't count). this time, i let it rest outside almost overnight (total time 9 hours), and in the fridge for 3 more hours because i didn't want to start baking at 5am. the difficulty with getting the fermentation right is that there are competing effects. yeast produces carbon dioxide which should be trapped by the gluten of the flour. at the same time, bacteria produces acid which weakens the gluten so it can't hold air that well. let it ferment for not long enough, and there's no gas in the bread. let it go on for too long, and too much gas escapes. the key is to get good carbon dioxide production while the gluten is still strong, and i think my starter isn't at that balance somehow.

last few steps, i turn the dough out and do 2 sets of letter folds (folding one third of the dough over itself, and the opposite third over that for one set. repeat in the perpendicular direction for set 2). after which the dough is turned upside down (so that the smooth surface is on top), scored, and tossed into a preheated oven at 250 °C  (top and bottom heat, fan off) with several spritzes of water from a small spray bottle. after about 20-30 minutes, depending on the colour of the crust, i'll turn the fan on and switch to 200 °C, bottom heat only. finally after a total bake time of about 50 minutes, i'll pull it out and let it cool on a wire rack for about 3 hours or basically until it's at room temperature. not always though, because sometimes my impatience gets the better of me. but it's best to let it cool.

we're nearing the end of the bake, and before i go to check on it, i want to make some predictions. first, it's going to taste more sour (hopefully more complex, too) due to the longer fermentation time. next, i hope that i will have a better crumb structure, though i'm thinking that i may have a huge air pocket again. my estimate is 60-65% that it will have a huge pocket, but i'm hoping that it won't. 

just pulled it out! preliminary poking suggests the presence of a pocket, although i'm hoping that it might just be an extra fluffy crumb. i'll know for sure once i cut into it. meanwhile, got to bring my bicycle in for a few adjustments (seat and front post). also, mental note to never go shopping with the hybrid bike. there's no good place to put the groceries!

-random thought of the day: COVID got worse again.-

Major hurdle cleared - driving test passed! i now have a japan driving license, which unlike my singapore one, has an expiry date. other differences include 3 remarks: (1) that i don't have to drive with the "beginner's mark" (P-plate equivalent), (2) that i must only drive while wearing my glasses, and (3) that i can only drive automatic transmission vehicles. while my singapore license does allow me to drive vehicles with manual transmission, the fact is i haven't touched a manual car since passing my driving test in 2009. and with the prevalence of automatic cars today, and more importantly in the interest of expediting the process of getting the japan license, i opted to get licensed for automatic vehicles only.

as promised, here's an outline of the process. the information is only applicable to kochi prefecture and is correct as of today, but i make no guarantees for its validity in the future. with disclaimers out of the way, here we go. license conversion is properly called 外国免許切り替え(literally "foreign license conversion"), although it's often abbreviated to 外免切り替え. the first step is to schedule a document check/interview with the driving license centre. the interviewer will ask about your driving history, driving conditions in your home country, the driving test you took, fairly standard stuff. you're required to prove that you were in your home country for at least 3 consecutive months after getting your license, otherwise you'll have to drive with the beginner's mark in japan after getting your japan license. there's a 2 week processing period before you can book test dates, and the earliest available test date may be a week or two later after that. so prepare to wait for about 3 weeks minimum after the document check.

once you have a test date, you'll be informed of what to bring. an important thing is an ID photo (2.4 X 3cm, taken within the last 6 months). while there are self-service machines, i went to a human-operated photo booth to get mine done. cost me about 1700 yen, but i'm buying peace of mind because a photo taken by someone who knows the system is less likely to get rejected. you'll have to reach the license centre by 8:20am to register and pay the exam fee (2550 yen). there'll be an eyesight test (identifying the direction of an opening in a circle), as well as a colour vision test. then, there's the written test (started at 9:15am for me). 10 questions of right/wrong, which should not be a problem to pass. it's mostly common-sensical, although i was caught off-guard by a couple of questions involving road signs with blue backgrounds.

you'll know whether you pass or fail within a few minutes of taking the test. after which, you'll pay the fee for the use of the car during the test (800 yen), and attend a briefing (11:30am). this is where your day starts if it's not your first attempt. come in, pay the exam fee (3350 yen combined, and attend the briefing). you'll find out then which of the 3 routes/courses you'll be asked to drive, and the nice police officer may go through the whole route with you and tell you things to look out for. the officer who was in charge of my first attempt did, but the one for my second attempt didn't. you're allowed to ask them questions, so don't be shy. the briefing typically finishes at/before 12 noon, and normally, examinees would be allowed to walk around on the driving circuit for familiarization. i wasn't allowed to walk the grounds on both attempts because there were lightning warnings in effect (even though it was bright and sunny today). in such a case, you can ask the police officer who's examining you whether he'll give you directions. they may not agree, but it never hurts to ask. my examiner was ok with it, so go me for asking!

the test starts at 1pm, so be in the briefing room at least 5 minutes earlier. the examining police officer will decide the order, and you're expected to ride along in the back seat when it's not your turn. even if you're the only candidate for the day, they'll ask a staff member to ride along for your test. i don't know what happens if there are more than 3 candidates, though. maybe some will be made to wait at the starting point. so once you go through the route, the examining officer will give you some feedback/advice. for my first attempt, the advice was that i was going too fast and not checking my blind spots obviously enough. today's advice was that i need to keep to the appropriate side of the lane, and to make a less big right turn in case an opposing vehicle wanted to turn right too. you'll know within 10 minutes of everyone finishing whether you pass or not. if you fail, you can immediately book a follow-up test date (typically one week later at the earliest) and your day ends there.

if you pass, you'll be brought to pay the license fee (2050 yen) and to have your license photo taken (make sure you wear something that you'd want other people to see when they ID you; i find anything with a collar works). another short wait later, and you'll have your new license! be sure to check all your particulars for mistakes, although there shouldn't be any. i also found out that japan licenses are valid for 3 years initially, and they expire on the owner's birthday in the third year, meaning that you have to make an appointment to renew your license within a month before.

on to other things that didn't go so well...starting with bread baking. my past 3 loaves have all had the same problem - there's a HUGE pocket of air between the crust and the main bulk of bread, plus it didn't rise very well. a youtuber i watched says that it's due to underfermentation, which i found contradictory because my first few loaves appeared to be overfermented. might be an issue with the age of the starter - first too old, then now not old enough. i guess i'll get more flour and experiment with longer fermentation times. pretty sure i've got the hang of dough handling and loaf-shaping already.

tried the coconut mooncakes yesterday. they were underwhelming. sure, they tasted and smelled of coconut (not strongly, though), but the texture of the filling was a little too stiff and gummy. would not buy again. as for the others, i might order another round of red bean paste and plain lotus paste mooncakes. salted egg yolk is something i'm not crazy about, and i figure that the 2 lotus paste/salted egg yolk mooncakes from the previous order will stave those cravings off for a while.

brought the newly-bought bicycle to my friendly bike shop while on the way to the driving test. as expected, the brakes need replacing, as do the various cables. add on me wanting to replace the seat, and the grand total comes up to about 13000 to 15000 yen just for repairs. add on the cost of the bike, and you'll see that i'm out 17000 to 19000 yen. for that price, i might as well have tacked on another few thousand yen and got a brand new bike! and in retrospect, maybe that's what i should have done. i wasn't expecting the brakes to cost that much to be replaced. but my consolation is that i won't feel too bad if i mistreat this bike, or in the unlikely event that it gets stolen. well...i hope it'll serve me well. if cycling becomes a thing with me, there'll be plenty of other opportunities to get a new/better bike! one other reason i went for this bike was also because it's a chain drive, unlike my belt drive grocery bike. not that i prefer chain drives; quite the opposite, actually! i'd just wanted to see how much maintenance a chain drive takes, and how it matches up to a belt drive. unfortunately, it didn't have the flippy gear shifters that i was hoping for (my fault for not checking the picture in more detail). instead, gears are shifted by turning a ring that's concentric with the handlebars, just like my current belt drive bike. no biggie. it's still possible to see how chains hold up to belts.

we're at the tail end of summer break. secondary school starts tomorrow, but primary school only starts next week. that means there'll be days where i have to dress formal, and days where i can dress casual (next long window for casual wear is winter break). it'll be fine as long as i don't mistake a formal day for a casual day. not like there'll be much opportunity to do so...i think my only remaining casual days are this friday and next tuesday morning (provided i want to bring a change of clothes or go home to change during lunch). so i guess it'll be ok.

-random thought of the day: So much for stopping baking.-

Back to work tomorrow...for one day before i go on leave again on wednesday for attempt 2 at the driving test. after that though, it's back to the routine of visiting schools, with secondary schools starting on thursday and primary schools starting next week. i'm looking forward to it! it beats sitting in the office all day. plus, interacting with the kids helps me feel younger. have to admit, i'm sort of worried about how much their english might have deteriorated, but there's nothing i can do except to push them more during term time.

so i wanted to talk about 2 main things today. first, i got another bicycle! i's a hybrid bike, ie. it has both mountain bike and road bike features. the owner listed it for 5000 yen, but knocked 1000 yen off after i told him it was in worse condition than his photos showed. i'll probably have to spend a bunch more on servicing and repairs, but the total cost should still be cheaper than getting a new bike, which is around 25000 to 30000 yen or more. right now, i think i want to replace the seat, maybe the chain, get a water bottle holder, and do massive de-rusting. maybe i should have gotten a can of paint to go over the rusted spots. can think about that next time i head to daiso.

while pulling into the daiso parking lot (it's a huge parking lot shared by several buildings), i saw a familiar car out of the corner of my eye. by mega freak coincidence, the cute teacher was there for lunch at suki-ya. if i had still been infatuated with him, i might have interpreted this as a cosmic sign, and approached him to have lunch together. thank goodness common sense prevailed! although i initially assumed he was eating alone, the kaypoh in me wonders if he was actually meeting someone. but well, it's none of my business. i doubt he saw me either, so that's that. nothing big, but i thought i'd mention it because the odds of us meeting like that are miniscule.

other less noteworthy things include getting a haircut (since i was in town, anyway), failing more sourdough loaves (poor rise and too dense), taking advantage of the sunny weather this weekend to do a huge load of laundry, getting my mooncakes in the mail (tau sar - normal; lotus paste with egg yolk - normal; yet to try plain lotus paste and coconut), and doing some simple clothes repair. i'm grateful that i picked up domestic skills, like sewing and cooking. granted that i'm not great at them, but i have enough competence to get by. it makes living alone less scary, because i know i can handle most things.

-random thought of the day: No more big purchases for a while.-

Vaccine-induced weird dreams aren't on the list of side effects, i don't think. yet, i had one after my second jab yesterday. in it, i was in the car with my coach, as we often were after training. he wanted to go to downtown east to try cactus pie, which one of those takeout places that sell pizza by the slice serve (i don't think they do in real life). he parked the car, and gave me money to go and buy it. i don't recall exactly why, but there was a disagreement in that i wanted him to come along, but he wanted to stay by the car and smoke or something. so i went into the building and down to the basement, where i saw the place closing up even though it was only 5pm or so. i had some conversation with the staff, the content of which i don't remember. don't even know if i managed to get the pie or not, but i woke up soon after. the memory of cactus pie was so strong that i actually googled it upon waking up. turns out it exists! but i highly doubt that it's served anywhere in singapore.

my need to find links in things that may not be related led me to wonder why i dreamt about my coach. first thought - it's been 100 days since his passing. superstition says a departed soul can come back to visit their loved ones within 100 days, or at the 100th day (i forget which). it's actually been longer, so that's my one and only hypothesis down. i guess it's just a random thing. you can dream about all sorts of things, after all.

known vaccine side-effects that i did experience include aching at the injection site, headache, and fever. lucky for me, the fever was mild. i ended up sleeping at like 9pm last night to about 10am this morning, when my supervisor messaged me. i'd slept through my alarm! she gave me a less-gentle-than-usual reminder to call in if i wasn't feeling well. normally, i do/would, but i was physically incapable of it this morning. oh well. at least i think i have enough good karma stored up to offset this one occurrence. it's not like i regularly take MCs during term time, anyway.

by some stroke of luck, this has left me with a 4-day weekend. it would have been 5, except that i failed the driving test the first time and have to retake it this coming wednesday, so i shifted my tuesday leave a day later. i'll blog in detail about the driving test in another post, but long story short is i need to go slower, and make it more obvious when i'm checking my blind spots. although the way i adjust my mirrors is such that i only have small blind spots, but still. it's all about the wayang. hoping that i can pass this time, because that would make life so much easier going forward.

-random thought of the day: Possibly getting another bicycle!-

Equating japan's summer break with the summer break from university, or even the december holidays (singapore schools' version of summer break) turned out to be a mistake on my part. for one, summer break here is only one month-ish long, compared to the 2 or 3 months in the other cases. so i'm having less time to do things than i thought i'd have. but on the positive side, it means i get to go back to the schools sooner, aka. less boring days. got a few things to blog about today, so i'm going to do the no more than 10 sentences per point thing.

while on a garbage disposal project with a few colleagues, my cute colleague told us that he's starting to date a teacher in one of the schools. i'm happy for him! at the same time, i'm sad for myself, because he's really quite a catch, and i feel like i missed out. but i have no business being sad, because it wouldn't have worked out between us in the first place, him being straight and all. besides, finding love isn't easy. all the more reason to be happy for people who've found it. 

think i mentioned it a while ago, but i've been feeling like i'm missing something in my diet. only recently did i try to approach the problem more scientifically by trying to narrow it down; whether it's a flavour, texture, nutrient, or something else. i've tried different forms of carbs, adding more fruits, using chili powder, venturing into cured meat products, all to no avail. maybe it's in my head. i did buy a tube of mustard, and a mustard and butter sandwich with my baked bread did help to curb the feeling a little. maybe i'll do wasabi next.

last sunday (the same day as the typhoon warning), i got invited to a colleague's house for dinner. they're a husband and wife couple, and both of them work in the town hall. despite the wife being in the board of education (and indirectly in charge of me), i actually knew the husband (who works in another department) first because the wife was on maternity leave when i first got here. point of interest - the husband is the guy who i thought was younger than me, when he actually is a few years older! dinner was great; i admire how people can plan a meal and put it together...especially when it's in japanese fashion, ie. the meal is made up of many different small dishes. the most memorable dish for me was the cold dipping noodles (i'm sure they have a japanese name, but i don't know it). it was really refreshing, especially with the present hot weather. the trip home was a little less pleasant, with the rain and wind. not to mention driving in the dark. but i made it back in one piece, so all's well that ends well.

driving license conversion is progressing; my documents cleared the check, and i have a test date for next wednesday. although i didn't think i'd be able to do it, i've more or less memorized all the test routes. makes me wonder if i've been subconsciously holding myself back from other things. or maybe it's the necessity - without my license, i wouldn't be able to go to school A, which would create lots of inconvenience. i'm feeling slightly nervous about the test, in part because of the opaque testing criteria, and in part because this is the first driving test i've taken since 2009. but the good news is that the interval between tests is shorter than i'd thought, so i'm hopeful to get it over and done with by the end of august regardless, or by september at the latest.

another thing i'd never paid much attention to in singapore is mooncakes. while i'd eat a piece or two (or four) if they were lying around, i have never bought (nor would i ever have bought) them for myself. yet, i found myself looking up how to make mooncakes last week. two conclusions: traditional baked mooncakes are above my skill level, and snowskin mooncakes seem easier than i'd thought; so no prizes for guessing which one i'll be trying! my confidence is further bolstered by one of my JET friends, who made the most beautiful snowskin mooncakes with marbled colouring. i ordered a mooncake press off amazon, and it should reach me in a couple of weeks. the plan is to have custard and ganache fillings.  side note: mooncakes are available in japan, where they're called 月餅 (pronounced げっぺい, and not つきもち like i'd originally thought based on the kanji). there's a coconut-filled one available on rakuten that i'm keen to try. stay tuned for experiment updates and a coconut mooncake review!

the cough is persisting. i've had it for a little more than a week now? good news is i've gone past the stage of coughing up green phlegm, to something that's a little more colourless. that signals to me that i'm on the mend...in time for purportedly worse side-effects after my second jab this thursday. my guildmates have been describing their symptoms, and i don't feel very encouraged by them. well, at least i can take unrecorded leave due to vaccine-related effects, plus school isn't in session so there's no guilt.

if i play my cards right, i may have a 5-day weekend next week, from friday to tuesday. i foresee more bread-baking, gaming, and if the weather holds, laundry and cycling. want to try making a pickled cucumber salad too, and maybe make a small batch of mooncake skin, just for testing purposes.

-random thought of the day: Life is becoming busier than I'd thought!-

Curiosity got the better of me, so i made another loaf of sourdough last night. my confidence was bolstered by my starter looking really good, so i thought the outcome would be different this time round. sadly for me, the loaf still turned out flat, but with smaller and more numerous air bubbles throughout.

i think the dough is overfermenting. the main giveaway to me is that it doesn't hold its shape well towards the end, despite me working it a fair bit beforehand, and it forming a decent-looking ball. another possible hypothesis is that the flour is absorbing too much water. so, since tomorrow is a holiday, i'm going to try making one more loaf - 55 to 60% hydration as opposed to the 66 to 75% recipe that i've been following, using less volume of a fresher starter. i might shuffle some of the steps around as well, to better suit my timeline. i'm currently thinking of letting the loaf hang out in the fridge first to develop flavour, then do final proofing just before baking. i also need to find some form of heat-resistant, long-handled implement with which to shove the loaf into the oven.

was quite proud of myself yesterday, because for the first time, i cycled into town for groceries, and to the bike shop to get some adjustments done. brought the nice bike shop guy some kueh lapis, and he decided not to charge me for the adjustments. i should do that more often! so what we did was to get my handlebars lowered and aligned, my seat angled more downwards, and my tyre pressure checked. it feels a little better, though i have to admit that i'm still not the most confident on narrow roads. i had 2 falls. actually, more like one fall and one very abrupt stop that pitched me forward and to the left (not over the handlebars, thankfully). i'm fine, save for a bruised ego and some minor scrapes on my hands and feet. might have rolled my ankle a little too, because it feels a little tender when i apply pressure on it with my hands, but there are no issues with walking.

there's a typhoon warning for this evening, meaning that i should do any last-minute shopping and stuff while the weather holds. it's currently pretty sunny, so i'm thinking of another cycle into town to get flour and maybe more grapes. i finally gave in to curiosity and bought a small bunch of shine muscat grapes. 450 yen for like, 8 of them? anyway, it totally wasn't worth it to me. they tasted like a bigger version of the standard green-skinned grape. i'd rather spend money on kyoho grapes, but only the seedless kind. oddly, i don't regret it. it's a small enough sum that i don't mind it "wasting" it...although it's not really wasted since it's an experience.

right - the sky is looking greyer. i'd better get moving. maybe i'll swing my the smaller supermarket to see if they have oysters in stock too.

-random thought of the day: Learning new things!-

11:40am is probably the latest i've ever woken up in japan. well, i did get up at 6+ for rubbish disposal, then went back to sleep. it's because the kueh lapis took longer than i'd thought it would - until about 2am, to be precise. i had to do each batch individually. drawbacks of not having a big pot to steam things in.

thankfully, it was well-received! people in the office generally like coconut (to my surprise). one colleague said that japanese people like coconut, but don't know how to cook with it. most of the office had gone out for lunch, but i managed to catch both my superintendent and vice-superintendent. they both gave it a thumbs up, which was nice. my vice-superintendent looks very severe (short hair, all business, no nonsense kind of lady), but she's actually really nice. today, she cracked a joke, asking me when my next day off was (with the hint that i should make it again). i was caught off-guard and replied directly to the question. also because my japanese brain doesn't work for an hour or two just after waking up. on the way back home, i thought of a better reply - something along the lines of "my next day off depends on when you give me one"! but the moment had passed, unfortunately. it's hard to think of witty comebacks quickly in a language with which you're not familiar/confident. ah well. something else for me to brush up/work on while i'm here.

continuing from yesterday's thought about my symptoms, another possibility didn't occur to me. it could also be that the vaccine weakened my immune system, and allowed something else (flu virus, etc.) to take hold in my body. and after reading something jedi master posted on facebook, it occurred to me that another way i can tell that i don't have COVID because i still have my sense of taste. of course, it's not foolproof. while loss of taste is a COVID symptom, i don't know if it's a guaranteed symptom - meaning i could have both my sense of taste and COVID. but i'll choose to look on the bright side. plus, it's not like i came into contact with any infected people...right?

kueh lapis pointers! the biggest lesson i learnt yesterday is to use less water for that mass of flour. or, use more flour for that volume of water. the batter came out a little thin, and the last layer didn't set up completely, even after cooling in the fridge. also, it's critical that the steamer water is always at a rolling boil, so that the flours gelatinize better and it cuts more cleanly. the heat wasn't strong enough for the first batch, and i delayed a little too long to top up the steamer water. good thing i had a disclaimer that it tasted better than it looked!

weather forecast says that it's likely to rain tonight and tomorrow. good thing too - rain might make everything cooler. bad point - i have laundry to do. plus, i still have to bring my bike down to the shop. ended up driving today because i woke up with only 25 minutes to spare before the time i promised to bring the food to the office. that included unmoulding, cutting, and packing it as well. the weather is supposed to be good on sunday, so there should be enough time to get everything done before going back to work...especially since monday is a public holiday too!

-random thought of the day: Need to do a lot of washing up.-

It occurred to me that there are 2 main reasons for a gap in my posting schedule. either i have too many things going on (no time to blog), or too few things going on (nothing to blog about). this time, it's more of the latter. summer break in is full swing, so i'm deskwarming at the board of education every day. i don't get why they can't give me the summer off, since i literally can't do anything to help out in the office. yes, i know they have to feel like they're paying me for my time and all that nonsense. i just feel it's not the most productive. to be fair though, finding work for oneself is also an important skill. so that's something i can do.

school has been out for 2 weeks and a bit. in those 2 weeks, i've pushed the license conversion process forward, written out the directions for all 3 courses of the driving test, made more worksheets for the kids, processed the survey results, done the glorified babysitting thing (once so far, today), started going through my JLPT N2 study guide from donkey years ago, typed up a few recipes in japanese, and generally got quite a lot of things done, to my surprise! some days fly by, like yesterday, others proceed at more of a crawl. today took forever, even though i was out of the office for half the day. good thing i'm on summer leave tomorrow.

my scientific training has made me conscious to not associate correlation and causation without ample support. one thing that happened over the past few days really tested that line of thought. as you may know, i got my COVID vaccination last thursday. i experienced some side effects for the next few days, as expected. but yesterday, i developed a slight cough, and a tickle in my throat. knowing how mRNA vaccines work, i know that i couldn't have contracted COVID from the vaccine. since it's not based off an actual virus that's been inactivated, it's not possible that a live virus was introduced into my system in some freak mess-up. which leaves me with the next logical conclusion - that it's an immune response. i'm hoping that i'm on the money with this one, because i don't fancy the idea of catching COVID at all.

cycling has been good; i'm getting more confident on the bike, but there are times when i get distracted and my body instinctively reacts in fear. thankfully, i haven't crashed into anything or anyone, mainly because i brake and stop whenever i feel the slightest bit insecure. still have to figure out how to ride on narrow paths. what's happening now is that i freak out and zig-zag quite a lot, particularly when there's a height difference (a kerb, a drop, etc). i'll probably need to adjust the seat position a little too, but the bolt/nut is rusted and i don't have a wrench. time to visit the friendly bike shop tomorrow!

one more errand tomorrow (bringing kueh lapis for my colleagues), so i can probably get those 2 things done in a single trip. the kueh lapis is liquid-er than last time, so that's worrying me a little. i think it might have been due to insufficient heat. it'll still taste good, just that it'll probably look not as good. well, this is batch 1 of 2 that i plan to make tonight. the next one should go better.

-random thought of the day: 4 day weekend!-