rice balls make me happy

I think it's time to admit that I've been working too much and sleeping too little lately.  Even for me, a self confessed workaholic, too much work is a bad thing, no matter how much I like my work and I like to be working.  In the last few days, I've had so little sleep, I think my temper was quite simply on edge yesterday as evident in my morning FB status update and the earlier post made yesterday.  It really doesn't help that I have this colleague in my room at work who complains and complains and complains every single day... it's not constructive at all and I'm a conflict adverse type of person... I find her constant complaining more stressful than trying to complete my shot on time.

Last night, happily, my niece stayed late and waited for me to get home so that we can make onigiri and that made my day so much better. :)

I'm a huge onigiri fan.  On the two previous occasions that I've had the opportunity to visit Japan, I'll have onigiri for breakfast almost everyday.  Recently, I learnt how to make onigiri.  It's really easy.  I learnt it during Japanese class one day and I decided to teach my 8 year old niece how to make them a couple of weeks ago.  She loved it and so we decided to do them again.   The above photo is a photo picture of the rice balls we made  for dinner. :)

Okay... they don't look like much but these rice balls made me very happy.  It's not so much because I like rice or that rice is to the Chinese what pasta is to Italians or etc etc... no, it's much more than that.  My family waited for me to return home so that we could make onigiri TOGETHER.  So while my dad went to buy us some protein from the coffeeshop downstairs, my mum, my niece and I made onigiri together.  And by the time he returned, it was all done and we sat down to have a very happy and satisfying dinner together.

This dinner was definitely the highlight of what has been several very tiring days. Freshly made rice balls, eaten with people you love... BEST THING IN THE WORLD. :)