"Let them eat cake!"

Currently, I am working at a construction company which is a contractor of the Department of Housing. One of the areas that we manage is Waterloo, notorious as a high crime area.
Australia has one of the best welfare systems in the world. Australia has a very high rate of personal taxation. People pay tax as it is unavoidable. They expect to get benefits from the government in return. They expect that their money will go towards the running of government and the salaries of government employees. Also, they expect the government to provide welfare payments for the poorer members of the community.
On my way to work, I pass a high rise building which is a property of the department of housing. When my manager saw the building from the city, he thought that apartments in the building would be very expensive. The building looks modern and attractive. In Korea, apartment prices are higher than house prices.

Recently, I visited this high rise apartment building with my manager to do an inspection. I was surprised when I saw a studio apartment which was under renovation. The studio apartment was tiny, but it was being converted into a one bedroom unit. I went inside the bedroom to see the size of the room. The room was the size of a single bed. Although the room had a small built-in wardrobe, it would not be possible to use it when a bed was in the room.

At that time, there were a few people from the Department of Housing present. They seemed satisfied with the floor plan. They even commented, “This lounge room looks bigger than before.” I was surprised by their comments. I think that even if they lived alone, they would not want to live in such a tiny place. It reminded me of a jail cell.

I know that the land in Waterloo is quite expensive as it is close to the city. However, the tiny apartments would not be big enough for people to live in comfortably. Somewhere, there is an architect who should feel guilty for designing such tiny apartments.

Who were the apartments designed for? They were not made for the tenants. When the department of housing representatives said “Make one more bedroom”, it sounded like Marie Antoinette’s proclamation: “Let them eat cake!”
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are just my personal opinion.

How to make Kimchi!

On the way home from the church today, James and I dropped by an asian grocery shop to buy Kimchi. A little jar of Kimchi (350g?) was $4.50, so expensive and I could have finished that amount of Kimch in a day. For me, Kimchi is a necessary food as most of Korean people eat Kimchi. Anyway, I decided to make Kimchi by myself. Here are ingredients for making really simple Kimchi;

- 2cabbages
- 3cup of salt
- 2heads of garlic
- Half head of ginger
- Half bunch of shallots
- 1 onion
- Shrimp paste (100g)
- 3 table spoons of fish source
- 2/3 cup of glutinous rice flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups of chilli powder

1. Make salty water and pour it into the chopped cabbages.

2. Leave it for 5hours at least to make the cabbages dehydrated. (This process is very important for the Kimchi taste. After the salting, the cabbage should be crunchy.)

3. Crush the peeled garlic, onion and ginger together. (It is very smelly.^^)

4. Boil the hot water (3cups) to make rice flour water. This water would reduce the unique cabbage smell. Dilute the rice flour in the cold water first and pour it into the boiling water.

5. Wash the salty cabbages in the cold water if it’s too salty. Make sure that the cabbage shouldn’t be so wet.

6. Let’s put the all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix all together.

Now you can have delicious and fresh Kimchi. James loves the Kimchi with Sesame oil. The taste is quite nice. But remember Kimchi is a kind of preserved food. If you want to add extra sesame oil, don’t put it into a whole Kimchi. It’s going to be yucky after few days. ^^

This is me!

Congratulations for my new blog!

I opened a new blog as my boyfriend pushed me to make a new blog for my English practice^^;;
Anyway thank him !! Please fix my incorrect English in the comments.