I have moved!

Hello everybody! Apologize for the rather long period of silence from me. As most of you already know, I was busy moving from Penang to KL. It was an entirely exhausting process and something I would not ever wanna do again. Ever. Or maybe in the next 5 years. *LOL* I took 3 days to pack all the things in my old room and apartment into uncountable number of boxes and bags. My parents and Saucer came to help me load them into TWO cars! It's amazing how one girl can accumulate so many items in the span of 4 years. *phew* I can't imagine how it would be if I didn't sell of my washing machine, TV and TV cabinet. I wouldn't have been able to fit them in at all.

Anyway, we drove from Penang to Kampar first to stay overnight before continuing to KL on the next day. Thankfully, the whole journey was pretty smooth, except for a few idiots crossing my lane without warning and causing me to brake forcefully when I reached KL. The unpacking part was another headache! But I love the new place that I'm staying in. I'll show you the picture in my next post after I upload them ok? :)

Yesterday when Saucer was out working, I had the whole apartment to myself. Since I was bored, I tried to be brave and ventured to the nearest Tesco to do some grocery shopping for dinner. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous driving alone in a foreign area. Armed with the hand-drawn map by Saucer, I started driving and realised that it wasn't that difficult at all. The fact that I went out during working hours was probably helpful as well to avoid traffic congestion.

I bought a lot of stuff from Tesco, but the most significant item was the wok. I wanted to get a good quality stainless steel wok like Dory's but Tesco had very limited choices available. There was only one type of stainless steel wok available and I grabbed the size that I thought would be suitable. It was only RM26! When I got home after that, I started preparing ingredients before cooking.

The wok was washed first and then heated up over the gas stove. When the wok was hot enough, I poured in some olive oil and guess what? *Pop* It was the loudest noise I ever heard! I was so shocked! Then I thought maybe my hand was a bit wet and the water and oil mixed over the hot fire. Fine, I dried my hands and continued cooking. Everything went well for my first dish of stir-fried mushroom chicken. After completing the first task, I carried the wok to the sink to clean it before moving on to my second dish.

After cleaning, I placed the wok over fire again. After a while, I noticed something weird on the base of the wok. I suppose the stainless steel was too thin that under heat, part of the base bent inside! Can you imagine how it looked like? Imagine squeezing an aluminum can. The base was internally bent under the heat hence, it was not flat. That wasn't the worst. After the wok was dry enough, I poured oil into it again. And this time... *POOOOP* It was MUCH louder than the first time I heard. And I actually screamed because I thought the base of the wok exploded. The whole kitchen was filled with smoke. I almost wanted to give up then and there, and then I noticed the wok was still in one piece. It was the heat that caused the bent base to expand OUT this time and back to its original position. It was really scary. And I hated that the smoke filled up the kitchen with droplets of oil and smell everywhere. *sigh*

When Saucer came back, I related the whole incident to him and we agreed that it must have been the thin steel wok. Dory's wok was multi-layered and hence didn't face this situation before. We are going to return the wok later on to Tesco, hopefully they'll allow us to exchange for other items. Really, never trust cheap stuff if it's too cheap to be true. *LOL* The experience gave me a phobia towards stir-frying with wok now. I think for the next few weeks, I'll stick to boiling and steaming. Maybe I should get non-stick pans to avoid the explosion sound. What do you think?

It's my 3rd day here and I welcome everyday with an open heart. New challenges in the form of driving without a GPS (Saucer needs it) proves to be more stressful than it seems. In another 2 days, I'll report to my new company. I'm excited! :)