Bored housewife turns blogging as her full time work

Bored housewife turns blogging champ 

By: Sherell Ann Jeffrey 

THE Sabahan blogger who edged out international competitors for 'Jellirific - Get Your Jelly On' blogging challenge, Terri Ng, hopes her blogs will inspire others to explore their talents.

"I started out as a bored housewife who loved to share recipes.

I was known to write my recipes on tissue papers and pass them to friends," said Ng, who resigned from her job as a banker and decided to be a full time housewife when she had her children.

Speaking on her win, the mother of three said: "Winning the competition not only gave me more confidence to cook more daringly and creatively, but also gave my (Hunger Hunger) blog more exposure.

"I'm not just getting mails from people who tell me they love my recipes but also mails that say I can inspire other women like me who like to write and cook to start their own blog.

"It makes me happy if my blog can inspire other people.

A few readers have told me that they also started a food blog after following my blog.

"My family is proud of me, too - mom can cook besides grumble!" said Ng, who started blogging in 2007.

The competition was organised by the Royal Selangor in conjunction with Pink October month to raise awareness of breast cancer as well as to raise funds for breast cancer victims.

The funds would be donated to the Breast Cancer Welfare Association.

Ten international bloggers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, United Kingdom and the United States were invited by the Royal Selangor to compete in 30 consecutive days using the Royal Selangor's pewter jelly mold designed by English designer, Nick Munro.

"When he designed it he was thinking of the majestic mountains.

His tagline was 'love, life and humour'. So it was very appropriate for the awareness campaign.

It's about living," said Ng.

She said when Royal Selangor invited her to join the competition; she never knew that they were involved in the fund raising campaign in October.

"I was very impressed because such fund raising campaigns are a rarity in Malaysia.

So I thought, yes I can do it.

"The requirements were to do a blog for 30 consecutive days and come up with a jelly recipe based on the mold and related to the campaign," she explained.

"We were also encouraged to use local ingredients and that's what I did.

I used things from my garden like tomatoes, sugarcane and longan, among others.

I wanted my recipes to not only be creative but tasty as well," she said.

Speaking on the challenges, she said: "There are times when my internet connection was so bad that I had to go to my husband's office to blog.

"We have to post our blogs by 11.59pm each day, so having internet connections was an additional pressure for me.

"The other challenge I faced was that I'm not that good at photography and I don't like shooting with flash because flash on food is very harsh.

So I tried to shoot before the sun goes down, but in October I remember everyday before 2.30pm it started to get dark so I had to get my jellies prepared well before that.

"The other challenge is our hot weather. In the first week of the competition I threw a lot of jellies because gelatin was so hard to work with especially in our weather. I used gelatin because I wanted it to be clear and transparent and gelatin is the clearest," said Ng, adding that agar-agar and konyakku powder were also used to make her jellies.

She admitted that there were times when she felt like giving up but through perseverance and determination, she got through the challenges.

"Some patriotic Sabahans wrote to me: 'Sabah GoÉbring back the trophy', among others.

"I thought it was not such a big deal until I got a letter from an anonymous person who said 'You have given women inspiration that they can do what you did'. So I thought if it can inspire somebody then it's good," said Ng.

"I've been known to write my recipes on tissue papers so I thought why not start a blog right?

My advice is to find out what you are good at and interested in," she said.

Ng who admits to being shy, did Sabah proud when she won the grand prize after competing against nine other international bloggers.

She won return tickets to Kuala Lumpur for her son, husband and herself plus a return ticket for her daughter from Shanghai; three nights stay at mandarin oriental KL (two rooms), an Olympus Pen Lite E-PL3 camera worth RM3,000.

She also got a special prize of Royal Selangor pewter products for her 'O Christmas trees' jelly.

Visit her blog at www.Hungerhunger.blogspot.com.