Day 39: Pumpkin and spinach pasta

I made something new tonight! I had some pumpkin and spinach to work with. I've been eating rice for the past few days, so tried to make pasta instead. I made a creamy sauce base and put a bit of mustard and lemon juice for some twist. Topped the dish with cheese and baked it

Day 33: Pinakbet Recipe

This is not really an academic post! But so happy with how my pinakbet turned out, so sharing the recipe here. One good thing about the COVID19 lockdown is that I'm cooking a lot more! I definitely have tried a few new dishes.

I'm not very good at measuring stuff, so just eye the amount to your taste and needed yield. This recipe is based on the dish last night:

Ingredients:
3 cloves Garlic
1/2 Onion
1 Tomato
1 thumb Ginger
1 cup Pumpkin
1/2 cup Carrots
1 cup Eggplant
1/4 cup Green beans
1 handful Spinach
1-1/2 tbsp Fish sauce
1 tbsp Soy sauce
Salt
Pepper

Instructions:

• Mince onions and garlic, quarter tomatoes, thinly slice ginger, chop all other vegetables to relatively equal chunky size (1inch for me).
• Use mid-high heat, sautee minced onions and garlic until tender
• Add quartered tomatoes to the pan, season with a bit of salt and pepper. Stir fry until tomatoes are a bit soft.
• Set heat setting to low. Layer the vegetables on top of the sauteed mix: ginger, pumpkin, carrots, eggplant, and green beans. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan, let vegetables cook in its own steam for 10-12 mins. 
• If needed, add a bit of water to prevent the veggies burning. Don't add too much water, you don't want the dish to be too saucy.
• Shake the pan and add soy sauce and fish sauce. Cover the pan and let simmer/steam for another 10-12mins.
• Add a handful of spinach, gently stir into the vegetable mix until leaves wilt
• Add salt and pepper to taste.

All done! 

I think the dish is pretty versatile, you can include other vegetables into it. Traditionally, the vegetables included squash, bitter melon, and okra (but I didn't use any of them in mine). You can add meat into it too. I didn't use shrimp paste, as I'm allergic, but I'm sure it will add depth to the flavour!

Day 5: New Normal

Not much interesting today. I guess it's really about adjusting to this new normal. I got to do a lot more work, I felt much more focused in the afternoon and was able to do a few hours of uninterrupted work! For my work, I'm spending most of my time preparing for our community EEW virtual workshop on the 3rd of April. I do have a list of tasks that I need to work on, but taking things one at a time.

Aside from that, I'm just establishing routines such as waking up normally, having breakfast, going for walks, taking breaks from work. Really mundane things, but feeling a lot more comfortable in this new setting.

We had a big downpour early in the morning, and we expect it will be rainy in the next few days. So I took advantage of the sunny break during midday and went out for my daily solitary walk. Here is a standard sight from my walks, a shadowy patch leading to a view of the bay and the city:



Skipped rice tonight, and I made some stir-fried noodles for dinner:

Day Two: Establishing Routines

This is a time of adjustment. Each day brings about new changes in how we live! Last week was so different from this, and two weeks ago, everything seemed almost normal (even though it wasn't)!

I find it challenging to work from home. All throughout my PhD, I always worked from the office. Home was where I relaxed and took time off research. But work and home will now merge as we move towards full lockdown in the next 24~ hours.

I need to establish some routines. But planning for them is easier than implementing them! I intended to go for a walk this morning before starting work at home. But lazy me just decided to sleep in until 30-minutes before the first online teleconference call. Ah well... tomorrow, I will try again.

I did get to walk outside today in the afternoon after work. I did a loop walk that took around 50-minutes. It gave me some space to pray and contemplate. On my uphill climb, I prayed the rosary. It felt nice to be outside. But it also felt surreal. Every person I saw on the street seemed normal. But I know where we are now and where we are headed is definitely not normal.

Although a bit sad and scared, I remain hopeful.

Work was busy, I attended a few online meeting. Tested the use of online conferencing tools. I wrote-up a low-risk ethics application. I jotted down minutes from meetings. Nothing too strenuous. Did not get to do some of the tasks I intended. But definitely felt tired at the end of the day.

Day 2 dinner: Stir-fried vegetables with rice (again... but using different veggies).

Day One: Social Isolation Starts

Today, the New Zealand government has increased Alert Level 3 in response to COVID19 outbreak. The Alert Level will further be increased to Level 4 on Wednesday. This means that everyone needs to stay at home! We can still go out for walks, but it is encouraged to minimise social interaction with those outside your household. So... don't meet up with friends in the park, don't invite your neighbours over for lunch! The good thing is that essential shops (supermarkets and pharmacies) will remain open.

I'm frankly a little bit afraid, but also hopeful that we are doing the right thing. I knew this total lockdown would happen. But, now that it is happening, I feel like things are so surreal! I don't think I have yet quite cognitively and emotionally processed what this means for how I go about my day-to-day.

Despite all of this, my life as a researcher continues. I am currently working on two projects: (1) low-cost community-engaged Earthquake Early Warning systems, and (2) high-impact weather citizen science. Today, I worked on both. Just going to lay down my accomplishments to feel good about myself:

• Sent out new invites for the EEW virtual workshop that is planned for 3rd of April
• Created a run sheet for the workshop
• Worked through with Emily on the agenda items for the workshop
• Coordinated a group call with HIWeather Citizen Science working group

There also seems to be a list of things I need to work on:

• Coordinate with the speakers for the workshop
• Send more invites for the EEW workshop
• Test ZOOM capabilities for the workshop
• Draft email to be sent out to the participants
• Work on the guidance note
• Write up minutes for QuakeCoRE and HIWeather calls

It all still seems quite busy for me. It may be a good thing, to keep busy! But I got to make sure I also take it easy on myself.

Also, I want to share some lighthearted stuff here (might need to create two separate posts in the future).

Day 1dinner: Stir-fry vegetables with rice: