The week before last, I was called in on Saturday night to work a short shift at the restaurant, so, still sniffling and coughing, I went in and worked hard and went home. I don't care that I worked just long enough to cover parking fees, the experience I get every time I walk into that kitchen is priceless. I decided to stop pansying about and work the germs out of me.

After two weeks, I'm now almost back to 100% (well for me, anyway), back at both workplaces, and getting into the swing of working 5 day shifts and 3 night shifts every week. That's not too bad for an apprentice, not too many hours, and not too few. Besides, I've done it before, I can do it again, but I'm still uncertain I can bounce back every week after a day off with the same zest as I used to.

Tomorrow I have no plans, except to stay in bed, within arm's reach of 'Kitchen Confidential', my recipe book, which I've been scribbling furiously into after every shift at the restaurant, and my mobile phone. As long as I have those 3 things, I'm quite content at this stage to just lay in the comfort of all those blankets and doonas and let the day pass. Even thinking about it now puts a big old smile on my face. Back in the day, I would've slept til 9am, then gone out on an adventure, meet some friends, play frizbee, all the past time activities one should partake of on their day off.

As a general rule, I try to keep my Friday night's free, so I can unwind and relax, but I'm off tonight to have a cooking party at a workmate's place, so that should be interesting. I've no idea what she wants to cook, but I'm sure it'll all be a nice surprise. In fact, I think she was looking at salt and pepper squid, warm prosciutto and bocconcini salad and canolli for dessert.

Oh, and I have new knives! They're absolutely brilliant; one decent sized chef's knife, and one paring knife, both sharp as, well, chef's knives... I found a good little Chinese supermarket in Chinatown with Tah last Wednesday, and we went nuts buying lots of goodies. My pantry now has dried squid, imperial spice (as well as a multitude of other herbs), tapioca pearls (I love that bubble ice tea you get from shopping centre food courts), and Chinese diet tea, which I'm a little iffy about, as I've had quite a few belly-aches from it.