Author: Simonette

A year and a half ago my husband and I moved to Korea. I wanted to write about my life and experiences in Korea along with my current interests. Initially we came to Korea to use it as a stepping stone to immigrate to another country. But now since we’re here we are thinking of making it our new home even if it is just for the next few year as no one knows what the future holds. If you told me ten years ago I will be living in Korea now I would have called you out for bullshitting me. My brother always quotes Robbie Williams by saying “I sit and talk to God and he just laughs at my plans”. This is absolutely true. We have made so many plans with our lives but in the end its not up to us, no matter how much you try to take it into your own hands. So… here we are in Korea, living it up

On the 20th day of Christmas- Pay it forward

December 20, 2016December 19, 2016Leave a comment

This past week I had the most amazing experience. Sometimes with all the things going on in the world you feel like you’ve lost all your faith in humanity but then something happens that reminds you that there are still good people in the world.

Some of our friends did us a huge favor last month and since it’s Christmas I wanted to send them something truly South African for Christmas. They have also been living in a foreign country for the past 6 years and sometimes you really miss things and foods from home. So… off I went onto Facebook and asked if anyone knows of someone who does this kind of special delivery. The next day I received a message from someone I don’t know who said that they’ll be able to help me with my delivery. When I asked her how much she will charge for this she said that she will do it out of her own pocket and that I should consider it as paying it forward. It was such an amazing gesture that it brought tears to my eyes. I was dumbfounded by the fact that a stranger would do that for another stranger, especially in a world where people take others for granted or are eager to cause others harm.

The concept of paying it forward is such an amazing idea. I remember when my husband and I just met. We were driving home from his parents house, he was still living with them, and his only means of income was his monthly allowance from his parents. He took me home and the gas light came on, he told me that we would make it to the nearest gas station. I lived about 35 kilometers from his house. About 2 kilometers from the gas station, the gas ran out and the car died. We had to push the rest of the way, and I was in a dress. Everybody passing us could see that we were in trouble and nobody stopped to help us but then a car driving in the other direction came our way… the 2 men in the car asked us what was wrong and we told them that we ran out of gas. My husband was scared to give strangers money for gas but they didn’t even ask for money. About 10 minutes later they came back with enough gas to take us home and they drove off, after refusing payment. A few years later, my husband saw a young man at the petrol station asking strangers for money for gas, he was a rep who came to Johannesburg to try and sell his products and didn’t have enough money to get back to Pretoria, so my husband game the gas attendant some money for gas. That ways paying it forward, my husband did something for someone that someone else did for him years ago.

I thank God for all the amazing people still left in the world even when we stop believing in goodness especially over this Christmas period.

On the 19th day of Christmas-Bake Day

December 19, 2016December 18, 20163 Comments

This weekend I started baking all those cookies for the kids. Luckily I’ve been freezing some cookie dough prior to this weekend, so I only had to unfreeze those and bake them. I stored them all in plastic with a little note with the dough’s name and bake time on it.

After a whole Saturday of baking I packed the cookies in 10’s and wrapped them in cling wrap until I can pack them in our little bags on Tuesday.

On Sunday morning I baked some more cookies and then started on the icing, which ended up looking like a blood bath 😦

So….. my husband said he’ll do the icing, it turns out he is more creative than I am.

I have a few more batches of cookies to make before Thursday, but at least most of it’s been done.

The lonely Expat Christmas

December 16, 2016December 22, 20161 Comment

When choosing to leave your home country to live in another country, it all sounds really exiting and cool. Truth be told, it is mostly cool and exiting. But then sometimes, its not…

When you leave your home for whatever reason, there will be some unforeseen troubles along the way. Things that will make you miss home. Or sometimes you’ll just need a hug, but there will be no-one to hug you.

One of the things that you need to consider is whether or not you’re willing to give up the precious time that you have with loved ones. One of life’s infinite truths are that we will all die. Its inevitable that someone you know will leave this world, and depending on how long you’re away from home, you might not be there in their final hours of need.

It is a choice that you will have to make before you leave home. You could have spend a few precious moments with that person and you didn’t. But just because you can’t be there in person, make sure that you are there for them in different ways. Remember to call home ever so often. Send Christmas and Birthday gifts. Show them that you care for them even though you’re not there.

One of the things that we have to live with is having no one for Christmas. This year Christmas falls on a Sunday meaning that our Christmas holiday isn’t long enough for us to visit our families. They might put a few minutes aside for us during a Skype call but after that, we’re all alone again, and if they forget to call then you’re whole Christmas is ruined.

This Christmas, remember your loved one in far off distant lands, whether you’re the one away from home, or them. Give them a call or send them a little card just to say I LOVE & MISS YOU!!!!

On the 15th day of Christmas

December 15, 2016December 13, 20162 Comments

Its almost time for me to bake all those cookies for the students at school. Out of all the recipes I’ve picked a few favorites.

I’ve chosen the ones that are the most cost effective, and also ones that the kids will really enjoy.

These were the ones that turned out the best. I really liked the double chocolate crinkle cut cookies but one of my students commented that he didn’t like white powder on his cookies. I’m not a fan of wastage so I’d rather make something that I know they will eat.

In addition we’ll be visiting my brother over New Years and I’ll take them some cookies too.

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On the 14th day of Christmas – Shortbread sticks

December 14, 2016December 13, 20167 Comments

For the past few weeks I’ve been baking every single weekend. It hasn’t been good for my waistline at all… but at least I’ve been able to experiment with various recipes. I feel that I’ve learned a lot these past few weeks. Some of the things might seem obvious to most people but as someone who’s never baked a cookie in her life it wasn’t. I’ve also accumulated a lot of dough. I only baked about 6-10 cookies with each batch, I have frozen the rest of the dough so that I can bake all the cookies this weekend for my schools cookie event next week. From my month of cookie baking I’ve learned the following.

1 Cookies don’t always need eggs. I dint’ know this. When I saw the recipe for the shortbread I thought “this can’t be right”… but turns out, it can.
Use baking parchment paper. This is important for two reasons, firstly it keeps the cookies from spreading too much. Secondly, it decreases the amount of dishes you have to wash afterwards.
Chilling the dough is important. At first I found this really time consuming, I’m not very patient, I want things done immediately, but now I plan ahead. Chilling he dough makes it more manageable and for some reason the cookie just turns out better.
Measuring is important. This past weekend I thought I could get away with not using the instructed amount of cocoa, because its only a flavour , but it turns out, not using the correct amount and not substituting it caused my cookies to be too soft and the spread too much in the pan. The result being extremely big and flat cookies that sticks to the parchment paper and breaks into pieces when you try to remove it.

For today’s cookies I’ve used the rest of the shortbread cookie dough that I had left. I got he original recipe from Sally’s baking addiction. I used her shortbread recipe for her Raspberry Almond thumbprint cookies.

I chilled the dough and rolled little flaky balls of dough in my hand until it formed a ball. I then rolled each little ball of dough into a stick

I baked them for 14 minutes. Once they cooled I melted some chocolate pieces with a tablespoon of milk and dipped the shortbread sticks in the chocolate. Immediately after I sprinkled some rainbow sprinkles on each stick and left the chocolate to dry.

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