Monday, February 05, 2007

Working Like the Proverbial Dog...

There's lots of spice in my life right now...

Just not the right kind

The company I work for is in the midst of a merger.

Personally, in terms of anything other than an increase in work for me, this means nothing.

  • Am I getting an increase in pay? No.
  • Am I getting additional perks? No.

But all this nothing actually does mean something…

My office computer and I have increased the depth of our relationship and we spend many hours sinking soulfully into each others gaze – merging ourselves if you will…

And just so you understand, I am not a bigwig in the company, just a secretary. Personal Assistant to the CEO, if you want to make a big deal out of it. Which I don't.

This intensified bond has had a negative effect on my relationship with my significant other – my personal computer. In fact, I have been returning home with my eyes swirling around in my head like Ka's in the Jungle Book. My bare necessities are now sustenance and unconsciousness (with no phones ringing). Forget cultural enrichment or even a night out with friends – my social skills have been reduced to incomprehensible monosyllables…

I do admit to going to my pottery class once a week - mainly so I can take out my anger management issues on the lumps of clay. I can't complain though, there are some decent dividends too.

Mind you, my quality eating moments have decreased significantly too… Actually, they seem to have disappeared.

I honestly can't bring myself to blog about the Israeli version of Kraft dinner (which is what I ate twice last week – once freshly made and once with leftovers). My supplies of homemade frozen meals have been reduced to 0 which is why I resorted to WackyMac.

Spagetti ali oli, is another quickie, or sticky rice with satay sauce, if I remember to soak the rice in the morning – in the morning coffee gets precedence, naturally.

But I digress.

My brainpower, creativity and resources are nil by the time I get home. Weekends are now used to recover so I can work another week.

Admittedly I did make another batch of The Bread this past weekend,

mainly so I could use my newest, smaller sized, casserole.

I wanted to check out how it works, which turns out to be really well.

This time around The Bread was made with white, spelt and whole wheat flours. I used a pair of scissors to cut the top - very effective and made the presentation most professional looking, I thought.

And I did make chili crabs for my Friday night dinner.

But I added red cabbage which lost its colour in my iron wok.

Everything turned an unappetizing shade of blue-grey, which I should have realized would happen, except that my brain was still hiding under the duvet, never having joined my body when I got up on Saturday.

And the cloud ear fungus that I mixed in generously, though it added a great crunchy texture to the dish, didn't add any visual oomph.

Overall, it tasted great, but looked absolutely appalling {the picture was taken about 3 seconds before everything turned blue}

Good thing I didn't have company. Blue food is not as cool as it sounds - it looks cyanotic and even a bit dangerous.

Oh, and just so that you know, I have come home drenched more than a few times in the past couple of weeks – scooters and rain are not a great mix, and all I want to do is get dry, eat something hot and quick, and crawl into bed with my buckwheat heating pad.

Maybe one day, not in the foreseeable future, but sometime sooner rather than later, I hope, I can re-establish my acquaintance with my computer and be more faithful with my blogging.

This is known as Jewish guilt,
Because who is really concerned about this, other than me?

6 comments:

Emily DeVoto, Ph.D., said...

Well, of course you shouldn't feel guilty about not blogging! Because we know from Jewish guilt and it isn't pretty. :)

Sorry to hear your job is no fun. I trust there will be a silver lining in there somewhere...

Unknown said...

what an handsom bread. Mine came too short due to the 20 cm. diameter pot. I'm looking for 16 cm. one if you can help - we can have a deal.
david

Anonymous said...

Once again, welcome back. Can't wait until I am back there and you can cook some blue food for me. CF

burekaboy — said...

what handsome pots [ahaheeemmm, what did i tell u?? we'll talk, missy!].

sorry to hear about the job stress -- unfortunately when it's not your own biz, you end up on the lowest rungs. chasin' carrots just ain't no fun.

umm, was that cynotic or psychotic? i don't "do" blue food. LOL.

now go dry yourself off and rewarm the buckwheat!

aja said...

Hey Emily,
Thanks for the sympathy, I was just feeling particularly sorry for myself. The silver lining is that overall, the people at work are pretty amazing and really nice to work with, it's just that my boss leaves me feeling really, really underappreciated. As to the guilt - well, it comes with the territory 8^}

Hi David,
Thanks for the compliment. Contact me at aj kent{one word} AT 012 DOT net DOT il and we can talk about the casserole. I made this one especially for The Bread because I was having the same problem about it being too flat. This turned out lovely and tall.

Hey CF,
Hurry back and you can have all the blue food you want 8^}

Hey BB,
Thanks for the continued encouragement and compliments - keep them coming I love getting them 8^}

I was once made a special birthday cake by chef friends when I asked why nobody ever made cakes with blue icing - it looked very blue but tasted great - blue spongecake doused with blue curacao spread with blueberry jam and covered in blue buttercream icing, and decorated with purple candied violets - loverly and I was a happy camper.

Dinner, however was a psychotic cyanotic thing - especially seeing as it is really supposed to be red with chilis...

I'm sitting typing away with my buckwheat sitting on my toes keeping them warm. mmmmmmmmm

מיתר44 said...

wrote to your mail some days ago and never got an answer - hope you are well
David