Worked overtime today for the first time since...a long time ago. i mean, i usually knock off within 5-10 (sometimes 15) minutes of 4:30pm, but i was about an hour late today. reason being that the kids had a mock test, and i was asked to mark the writing portion. this test is called the 英検 (eiken, which i'm sure is an abbreviation of the actual name). what it is is the english equivalent of the JLPT, different grades and all. most of the kids took grade 3, which i equate to primary 5 or PSLE standard. some took grade pre-2, which is...sec 1 or 2? and one brave soul took grade 2, which i'd say is at about O-level standard. i've seen some grade 1 sample questions, and while the grammar is fairly manageable, the vocabulary can pose a challenge for native speakers who aren't that widely read. i'm somewhat proud to say that i could handle it at a glance. but then, i suppose that would be expected.

not going to talk too much about the kids' performances, but i'll just say that i realize they can't string complex sentences together. i don't blame them for it though; the sec 3 textbook has things that we pick up in primary school. i distinctly remember "use 'which' for animals and things, use 'who' for people" to be something taught in primary school. if pressed to be more exact, i'd say primary 4 or 5. so to go from that to taking an O-level equivalent exam is like that meme - "class time: 1 + 1 = 2. exam time: mercury is the closest planet to the sun. using that info, find the mass of the earth.". to that kid's credit, i saw a fair amount of correct answers for the MCQ section, which gives me hope.

i'm becoming a little fatigued from final fantasy. i suppose it's due to the current content drought, or that people in the guild are requesting (repeatedly) for the same content. it's not their fault, since everyone progresses at a different pace, but that doesn't change the fact that it's becoming repetitive. thankfully, the new expansion is coming out in another 6 weeks or so, which means that there'll be a whole host of new things to look forward to. new story, new zones, new jobs, and modifications to existing jobs being the main attractions. i suppose i should reduce my playtime/login frequency for now, to avoid being turned off from it permanently.

got a few more things on my mind, but i'm kind of tired. it's odd, considering i slept 10 hours last night. i'll update more on the weekend, i guess.

-random thought of the day: No more need for air-con!-

Guild drama intensified to new levels over the past week. it wasn't one particular event, but a combination of several big, unrelated things. without going into too many details, the long story short is some people are immature, others are greedy. i think that's broad enough to cover everything and vague enough to not let any specific thing be pinpointed.

it's quite a strain, to have had so many things happen within a few days. i think the first incident happened on wednesday night and everything ended (for now) early this morning? on my part, i was far removed from everything, because the parties involved are out of my immediate in-game social circle, but of course i still felt it. unfortunately, i did get into a minor altercation with the leader as a byproduct of one of these dramas (my fault, but i think he could have reacted better), and that made me wonder a few things, one of which being where the line between "that's negative behaviour, you should change" and "that's my nature, take it or leave it" is. at the same time, i know his character well enough to know that he'll be ok after an outburst, and the mitigating factor is that the mistake was committed unknowingly on my part (even after taking precautions!). but yes. we won't be best friends, but we don't have to be best friends in order to keep the guild running and play the game together. plus, we (the management on a whole) work well together.

mosquitoes have been appearing again recently. i've been bitten more than 5 times in the last few days, and there was once i caught a mosquito in the act. suffice to say its last meal was interrupted by a painful (i hope) death. it's probably the weather; last time there were mosquitoes was in may or june-ish, when we were coming out of winter. well, at least i know they'll go away again in winter, when the temperature drops.

nothing much else to update on...life is going on as per normal. october is supposed to be cooler and wetter. i like the first thing, not so much the second. the primary school is having sports day, and i'm hoping it won't rain on that day, because it's also on my birthday (if the current plan holds). more importantly, i don't want to be wet and miserable on sports day no matter when it's held. as for my work schedule, it's going to be the standard weekly routine. as far as i know, there are no public holidays in october, so that's a bit of a drag. but it's far from the worst job on earth, so i don't have anything to complain about! 

-random thought of the day: Maybe I need to pre-cook things.-

Business isn't my thing. i've said that many times before, and i still believe it now. so it seems strange that i'm trying to start up a livestreaming channel wherein lies the possibility of earning some side income, doesn't it? well, i figure that as long as i keep the time/effort invested into it at hobby-level for now, it should be ok.

so far, i've been setting up multiple platforms for streaming. there's twitch, youtube, and facebook live. probably not going to focus on facebook too much, but it's good to claim the name first. i've also decided to set up new accounts for everything, to further divorce my gaming character from me as a person. granted that there will be overlaps, but i don't want those circles to outright clash. maybe i'll reconsider if this thing takes off and i become wildly famous, but i'm happy with the separation for now. i must say, setting things up is easier than i'd thought! literally anyone can start streaming as long as they have a decent computer and internet connection.

just for reference, i'm going to quickly break down what you need to start streaming. bear in mind i'm only slightly further along the streaming path than the average person, so take things you see here with copious amounts of salt. with that said, you'll need:

- a computer

- an internet connection

- streaming software (streamlabs, twitch studio, etc. - one program will suffice)

- a streaming platform (youtube, twitch, etc. - you can have multiple, but at least 1)

- content to stream (a game, activity, etc.)

- microphone and/or webcam (for interacting with viewers and for people to see you)

those are the bare-bones things that you need. well, the last point isn't really a need, but i imagine it helps to boost viewership. oh, i should mention that there are actually 2 primary modes of streaming - you can stream content from your computer (a game, your internet browser) or you can stream the video feed of a webcam. you can even stream both at once! whatever you choose to stream, your streaming software will pick it up and transmit it to the streaming platform that you linked it to, where people can watch the feed. there are other things like extensions which i'm not going to get into because i'm still figuring them out myself.

right now, the one thing that would be the biggest quality-of-life improvement for me is a second monitor. because the game takes up basically my whole screen, i have to alt+tab out to check the stream chat and to do things that aren't in-game (so basically everything else). it also made checking for stream issues (audio, lag) difficult; lucky my guildmates helped out there. i started poking around the buy-sell group to see if anyone had one to let go, but no news yet. it's only been a day, so i suppose i shouldn't expect too much.

a thought came to me yesterday, that JET is actually the perfect time for trying new things. yes, i know that JET causes huge disruptions to the lives that we were used to, but once we settle in somewhat, there is actually a lot of free time! the working hours are quite fixed (they're actually somewhat afraid of making JETs work overtime), and there are lots of things that other staff are expected to do that JETs get a free pass on...traffic safety duty being one example in my situation. i suppose it's good that i came to this realization somewhat early into my JET term.

newbie mistake made! i was recording video last night for use as a filler. it was basically a video of my character doing a looping dancing animation with an audience. i recorded in fullscreen mode, but i realized that i forgot to disable the picture that hides my chatbox when i'm in the normal view. so my pretty video has a picture of a hyena in a corner. well, it's an inconsequential mistake, one which i can fix very easily, and one that has taught me something. mistakes with all 3 of those elements are the best kind!

-random thought of the day: Uploading my first gaming video to YouTube!-

Days are getting shorter. it's about 6:30pm now and it's basically dark. compare this with back in june/july, where sunset was about an hour later! granted, the temperature was also like 7 degrees hotter or so, so it's pros and cons. funny story - i turned my aircon on a couple of nights ago, because the temperature reading on my weather app was higher than normal. i actually woke up sweating! the aircon was blowing warm air into the room for some reason.

personally, i'm ok with shorter, cooler days, considering that i'm quite a homebody and don't stay out all that late anyway. i think the latest i've ever stayed out in japan (excluding overnight stays) is about 9pm, on my first day in kochi. i should apologize to my more international audience, for making a big deal out of something as routine as the change of seasons. it's just that we don't experience this in singapore at all. like, the difference between sunrises and sunsets on different days is probably within 10 minutes.

today is a public holiday in japan - respect for the aged day. i kid you not, that's a thing here. i'm sure that japanese people do stuff like family bonding time or visiting their grandparents on this day, but for me, having no family here in japan, i just did some laundry, bought more stuff from lawson's for the final fantasy mount campaign thing, and cycled around a little. coincidentally or by design, today is also the town's festival day. there were stalls set up near the town shrine, which i saw as i cycled past. didn't stop though, because i didn't bring my wallet. plus, today felt (feels) like kind of a "no human interaction" day for me.

somewhat contradicting the above statement, i went to sign up for twitch. figured i'd give streaming a go. the way i'm looking at it is, i'll be playing the game anyway, so if some people happen to watch me and donate, that's a bonus. i'm going into it with no expectations, and i'm not about to make it my primary source of income. just something i'd thought i'd try. i'm not the most social media-savvy person out there, which also explains why i just made my first twitter account as well. it's all linked to my game character, not to the real-life me that my friends will find more familiar. i'm doing that on purpose, because i still don't see how twitter is meaningful for daily life. for interests or specific purposes, yes, but why tweet when you can blog?

i've identified a gap in my food stores at home. i have "healthy" stuff - food that must be cooked for a long time before eating (fish, chicken, rice). i usually have some form of not-substantial snack food (baked bread, chocolate) too. what i don't have is the in-between - substantial food that is quick and easy to cook. i suppose i could count eggs in this category, or maybe raw vegetables for a salad. but i'm thinking more towards meat/protein. canned food does come to mind, but can disposal is horribly annoying here. dried food, then? a lot of it is unhealthy due to high salt levels and preservatives, though. maybe i need to keep some ready-to-eat meals from the convenience store handy. nothing stands out as a particularly good solution right now, but i'll think over it and settle upon something.

-random thought of the day: Setting streaming up is more complicated than I'd thought!-

Reading chemical engineer cousin's latest blog post (about her weird dream) before going to bed last night must have influenced my subconscious as well. like her, i dreamt of her dad (my uncle). only that he was teaching a class i was taking or supposed to be TA-ing in some educational institution. the venue was reminiscent of a seminar room in utown, so let's say it was a university-level class. he asked me to assess student presentations. i don't remember what the theme was, but it was some kind of performance art...like a dance, or some other choreographed routine. this bit might have been from watching my secondary school kids practice their dance and cheerleading routines for sports day. he passed me a stack of evaluation sheets, and i saw that the first student (a girl) was named "castaloca". google has informed me that it's the name of a few companies, but certainly not the name of a human being. not one that has an internet presence, anyway.

school got cancelled today due to heavy rain. a typhoon is passing through the area, which explains why it rained for about 18 hours. annoying thing was the nobody informed me about it. i would have dressed casually (and gone later) if i'd known! i think this was one of those times where the 2 bodies in charge of me (the school and the board of education) each assumed that the other would inform me. considering it's the first time, i'm not too upset. i plan on asking my supervisor about it next week, though.

on the bright side, i made the snap decision to take the last 2 hours off work, so i got home early and am just relaxing now. i think it was a good decision overall. considering that i have 37 days of leave, of which i must clear 17 by end-july next year. it's not often that i get to take leave too, with school and whatnot. also, i'd hate to be out in a crowd with bad weather going on. "crowd" being relative here, of course. tasks for today are making mooncake skin and filling. my system last time (wake up early to assemble) seems to be good. i made...27(?) mooncakes in 2 hours then, with a break in between. i'd say each mooncake takes about 4 minutes on average, not counting when i mess up and have to re-roll the skin out (which happens more often than i'd like). good news is tomorrow's slated to be sunny, so sports day should proceed as planned. one of my colleagues warned me that it'd be hot though, because a wave of hot air follows a typhoon. interesting that we don't learn this as common knowledge in singapore, because of our protected geographical location. or maybe it was taught in pure geography, which i didn't take in sec 3 and 4.

-random thought of the day: Been falling asleep in the evenings recently.-

Caramelized/baked figs didn't go as well as planned, because i made quite a rookie mistake. i only paid attention to the sugar closest to the door (that i could see most clearly). it hadn't melted, so i kept the timer going. what i didn't realize was that it was also the furthest from the heat source, and was thus receiving the least heat. the sugar in the middle and further back in the oven had already melted, bubbled up and burnt! good thing that the figs were cheap, still edible, and that i had the presence of mind to use a foil-lined baking tray! cleanup was no more painful than throwing the foil layer (with all the nasty burnt sugar and carbon deposits) away.

due to the figs being a little burnt, i don't have the clearest impression of how they tasted. the one word that comes to mind is (wait for it...) plant-y. to sound more sophisticated, vegetal. like, it's obviously not a meat/animal product. there's a kind of fragrance to it, too. i want to say floral, but i don't trust my memory about that description. well, there's always next time.

half-day of work yesterday, and i was supposed to do either cleaning or gardening during my afternoon off. i did the tiniest bit of vacuuming, so that somewhat counts. my carpet is feeling a little gritty under my feet though, and i think my futon is overdue for an airing. this saturday before going for sports day 2, i guess. living alone is great and all, but sometimes i wish the less palatable chores would magically do themselves.

been riding my bicycles to the convenience store to buy chicken for the final fantasy campaign. my guildmates want it too, so i've got to eat 4 to 5 times more chicken than if i were getting it for myself only. i've got it for myself and someone else, which leaves 4 more to go. good thing that i'm trying to get more exercise in! also now that i've got 2 bicycles, i can do some comparisons between them. my grocery bike is heavier, more sturdy, more comfortable, and has a basket for carrying stuff in. the biggest upside is i can shift gears even when i'm not pedalling! but the gear ratios are a little non-optimal, and the weight of the bike itself means that it's really difficult to climb inclines even in gear 1.

as for my hybrid bike, it's much lighter, has 6 gears instead of 5, but there's no cargo space (save for a water bottle holder) and the overall riding experience is a little less comfortable because i feel the bumps more. not to mention the hard handgrips that leave marks on my palms, but i'm getting used to that. interestingly, i can move off quite easily in second and even third gear on the hybrid bike, whereas it's first gear or nothing for the grocery bike. if you ask me now which one i enjoy riding more, i'd say the hybrid bike. then again, each bike shines under different scenarios, so maybe that isn't a fair question.

the weather took a turn for the colder today! i think it's the first time since may that temperatures dropped below 20 degrees. not getting my hopes up yet, because we're still set for a few more 30-degree days in the next 1 to 2 weeks, and most of the cold today came from the rain anyway. but i am looking forward to colder weather starting soon, hopefully by next week. 

-random thought of the day: Cold weather is sleepy weather.-

Latest impulse buy: figs. i've had dried figs as part of a trail mix type thing before, and they didn't really taste of anything to me. but over the years, i've seen enough fig recipes on the internet to get curious about them. common adjectives that i've seen being used to describe them are "jammy" and "sweet", so that kind of gives me an idea of what to expect. even if they taste bad to me, 200 yen for the knowledge is acceptable in my book. should cook them soon, considering i bought them on thursday.

cooking updates: the last sourdough loaf had an airier/softer texture, but didn't hold its shape that well. that's expected, due to the higher hydration. makes me think i should do more gluten development or cheat by baking it in a loaf tin. something to bear in mind for the next time. the second batch of mooncakes turned out way better than the first. i think part of it was allowing the custard to thicken up more. the recipe's guideline was "thicken until you can draw a line and see the bottom of the pot", which i did this time. the first time, i stopped at pourable consistency (which i prefer), thinking that it would thicken up more upon chilling. it did, but not to the required extent. the dough too, was less sticky and more manageable. it's probably a good practice to work with cold components when doing the assembly. unfortunately, i forgot to take photos of this recent batch. pity, because they looked amazing! i'm using blue food colouring, but not kneading it completely into the dough. so the dough ends up looking a light greenish-blue, with deeper blue-green streaks running through it...like a piece of jade! i must say that i'm impressed at how less effort results in a better-looking finished product in this case.

i spoke to the teacher who doesn't drink milk for school lunch, he told me that it's not because he's lactose-intolerant, but it's to keep his calorie count down. i figure one small mooncake wouldn't hurt. before talking to him, i made a contingency in case he couldn't have too much milk, and tried to prepare chocolate ganache with coconut milk. yes, i know chocolate contains milk as well, but i was hoping to reduce the amount by substituting most of it out and using dark chocolate. the other driving factor was the thought that coconut and chocolate is a pairing that i like, so coconut milk chocolate ganache would taste good. spoiler: it doesn't taste of coconut at all! i don't know if it's because the chocolate flavour is too strong, or because the coconut milk i used was kind of bleh. i'd know for sure if i had access to my favourite brand of coconut cream, but it's ridiculously expensive here. for the record, i did only use the cream from the top of the can of coconut milk. even then, no coconut taste.

sports day: my first sports day in japan was definitely memorable. it was the first sunny sports day in 6 years, and my ego wants to believe it's because i was there. but there are infinitely more probable reasons than that. it illustrated one thing about japan that i find quite beautiful - that even though it's a competition, there are still opportunities for bonding and seeing the good in others. there was a fun parent-child relay, where one segment was decided by lottery. one of the possible draws was that the student had to say something good about the parent, and the parent had to say something good about the student. i heard things like "thank you for doing the housework every day", and a long string of japanese which i didn't understand, that ended in "i love you". i bet it sounds cheesy and cringey as anything to a typical singaporean, but over here, it was really heartwarming. i think this is the closest i've come to wanting to have a family and kid of my own...but still no. i also came to the realization that i'll miss this year's graduating students from school C a whole lot. unlike their seniors, i had more time with them, and they engaged with me more. conversely, the graduating kids from school A are deathly quiet, unlike their seniors. it works out, i guess, since both schools' graduation ceremonies are on the same day and i can only attend one.

linked thought: time is passing. sorry for the captain obvious statement, but i mean it as in the time i'm spending in japan is passing as well, ie. every day that goes by is a day closer to the eventual end of my time on JET. granted i have another 4 years-ish at most to go, so it's not the most pressing worry in the world. but sometimes, it's good to be reminded of the passage of time, so that we don't take the present for granted. another reminder to future me while i'm at it: prioritize yourself when making the decision on whether or not to recontract. no matter how much you want to help them with their english, the kids will survive without you. but this is something more suited for an end-of-year post, during which i'll talk about this in greater depth i guess.

future events: i do get offs-in-lieu for sports days, so that's a plus. i have tomorrow afternoon off, so depending on the weather, the plan is to do some weeding in the garden bed. either that, or housework (vacuuming and cleaning). maybe both if i'm feeling hardworking. more good news - the weather forecast says maximum temperatures will be below 30 degrees from today. i guess we're exiting summer. it's about time! now just wait for me to start complaining about the cold. but even if i do complain, i just have to remind myself that i'll take winter weather over summer weather anytime. tomorrow might also be a good time to try biking to work, but we'll see what the forecast says first.

-random thought of the day: Looks like a nice cool day!-

A few years from now, i may look back on today as the day that ruined my diet plan. for you see, i successfully made french pastry cream, aka. creme patissiere (i had to google the spelling to be sure) for the first time today. it's the creamy custard, typically vanilla-flavoured, used to fill cream puffs and eclairs. making it was easier than i'd thought! heat sugar and milk; separately combine egg yolks, cornstarch, and flour; then add the warm milk to the solid mixture with plenty of whisking. the main area where the process could go wrong is in the tempering of the egg yolks. adding the hot milk too fast would cause the eggs to cook. the other potential snag would be heating that combined mixture too quickly, causing it to burn. very easy to do, especially since the mixture doesn't thicken for a good long while then suddenly comes together really quickly. impatient people might turn the heat up and take it too far.

today's cooking projects went (are going) pretty well. the custard is meant to be filling for snowskin mooncakes. the dough wrapper is chilling in the fridge along with the filling. thinking whether i should assemble them tonight or tomorrow. probably tomorrow. unlike the filling, the dough is easy to make, but way more fiddly. it contains both oil and water components, and the glutinous rice flour makes it sticky. checking the fridge makes me think that i may not have thickened the custard enough, but that's what experimentation is about, right? improve on subsequent attempts. although i probably won't be making it very often due to the fiddliness of the dough. makes me worry that ondeh ondeh will be similarly messy. it might not be though, since i used a different kind of glutinous rice flour this time. but there's plenty of time for me to think about that in the future.

other diet-wrecking things...i gave in to curiosity and bought kewpie mayonnaise. it goes great on carbs. i particularly like it on my sourdough! might be the sense of achievement from baking my own bread talking here. i like the original flavour just fine, but the smoky one is amazing. unfortunately, the basic idea of mayonnaise is an emulsion of water in oil, meaning that it's decently calorie-laden. interesting trivia point - someone i knew confessed to be hugely into mayonnaise...like "eat it with a spoon right out of the jar" levels of into mayonnaise. it's not the most healthy, nor do i think it's something worth emulating, but i can understand why. well...maybe not with the standard white kraft mayo. with kewpie, definitely understandable.

speaking of sourdough, i've decided that this high-hydration loaf will be the last loaf of bread i make in a while. as i learnt a while ago, one way to control my food intake is to control food availability. the timing works out well too, because i just used up all of my active starter for this loaf and didn't bother to regenerate any more. i've got a bunch of old starter in the fridge, so i can start up again in about a day or two if i want to. maybe when my remaining flour gets close to expiring. does flour expire though? being a dry good and all, i'd think it can last almost indefinitely provided it's kept right. but the bag has an expiry date, so...i don't know.

final fantasy is running another mount campaign in collaboration with lawson's - a flying pig this time. instead of buying chocolate, i now have to buy "karaage kun", lawson's version of chicken nuggets. well, i say chicken nuggets, but they're nothing like what you'd got at mcdonalds. maybe chicken bites might be more accurate. anyway, i've got to buy 9 boxes of the "light and darkness" flavour (really black pepper and tartar sauce) for one mount. currently, i've bought 2. it's dependent on stock availability as well, but i think i should have enough by this week (assuming i can buy 2 boxes every day). i also got a couple of clear files with some game mascots on them. was tempted to get more, but those can only be obtained with a purchase of chocolate. good thing i'm experimenting with alternate mooncake fillings as well! i was thinking though, one of the teachers in the school doesn't drink milk during school lunch. probably lactose intolerance or something. will he be ok if he eats milk chocolate? should ask him about it the next time i visit the school. worst case there's the standard fallback of red bean paste.

the next week or two are going to be busier than usual, because the secondary schools are having their sports days...which are on saturdays. i'll have to mess around with my schedule to fit off-in-lieus in. come to think of it, i don't actually know if i'll get offs-in-lieu for sports day. have to clarify with the board of education, but i'm thinking that i should be able to get some time off at least. last thing to do tonight is to put the sourdough in the fridge for baking tomorrow. hopefully i'll get a nice crumb structure.

-random thought of the day: Stupid heat rashes.-

Kindly ignore everything i've said previously about sourdough baking. i think that i finally hit upon a good method, based on the ratios and guidelines from this recipe. i've gotten a height increase due to the dough rising (although it could just be the lower-hydration loaf holding its shape better). bubbles are more uniform through the loaf, although i wish they were bigger. best part is, i've gotten consistent results over the past 3 loaves, so the method is reproducible! going to try a similar recipe that promises super light bread. not sure how it'll work with my flour though, since 80% hydration is required.

first full week of term 2 is over, and as expected, a lot of kids forgot their english over the summer break. i don't blame them, exactly, because the only time they get to speak english is with us in the classroom! granted, they could speak with their siblings or parents, but while it seems like a reasonable idea to me, it's probably unimaginable for them. good news is that the primary school kids are still enthusiastic (primary 6'es less so), and most of the secondary school kids did their summer homework. i'm sure a few of them copied off their friends, but i'll count it as a win because they still got some writing practice in. i was talking to one of the teachers, who asked me how the kids' english proficiencies could be improved. i opted for the technically correct yet diplomatic answer - it's down to their internal motivation. part of me wanted to suggest the type A sink-or-swim teaching style meant for "elite" students, but it wouldn't be productive at all.

i've been fortunate to have never suffered from heatstroke/heat injury, even in the army. but over here, the threat is more real. my weather app gave this reading on monday - temperature: 31 °C, feels like: 37 °C. it's mad! because of this, the forecasted rainy afternoons (which didn't happen) and my chest feeling a little achy over the past few days, i decided to postpone the bike to work plan for a week or two. the heat's still affected me though, in that i have horrible heat rashes on my arms and legs. google says that it occurs because sweat glands are blocked and become inflamed. perhaps i should scrub the dead skin away more vigorously in the shower...or take a cold bath.

this heat means that i've been using the air-con basically every night, and the fan too. my electricity bill exploded, to about 7500 yen. my normal bill is between 3000 to 5000 at most. then again, a part of the extra power consumption may also be due to my increased oven usage from baking. well...if paying that much means i can keep cool and not sweat while sleeping, then it's totally worth it. maybe i would have saved some money if i could still program auto-shutoff via the remote, but the air-con guy hasn't gotten back in touch yet. i figure using the buttons on the air-con body will be ok for me, since i'll only use the air-con for a couple of months each year anyway.

my horror at learning about the higher electricity bill was partially offset by my supervisor telling me that i was considered a second-year JET as of 01 august (she forgot to mention it earlier, and i thought that it would be only effective this month). what that tangibly means for me is that my pay is increased by 20000 yen a month. i won't see all of it though, because taxes and all that, but i'm still taking home more than previously. that's something to be happy about! i don't think there'll be additional stress from being in my official second year, but we'll see. i should substantiate that by saying that all my stress now is self-inflicted. like, i have a lot of marking to do only because i gave the kids summer homework and writing tasks. none of the teachers asked me to do it; quite the opposite, actually! i asked if i could prepare some materials for the kids. it's a win-win situation. they get to work on their english, i get to kill some time. although the risk is my blood pressure increasing when reading some of their answers!

big weekend of cooking planned! my mooncake mould arrived this past week, so i'm going to be trying my hand at making snowskin mooncakes. like i mentioned before, traditional baked mooncakes are way above my pay grade. but i'm tempted to try making baked shanghai mooncakes, which have a less demanding pastry, and are filled with meat! but let's take things a step at a time. build confidence by getting the easy one right (hopefully), then move to the harder one. i'll also need to get more rice flour and vanilla essence from the smaller supermarket, which means a nice slow cycle there. issue is that a 60% chance of rain is forecasted for tomorrow. hopefully i'll experience the 40% instead.

-random thought of the day: First attempt at making pastry cream tomorrow!-