New Kid On The Blog

31-DEC-2008:

It is a curious thing but as one travels the world getting older and older, it appears that happiness is easier to get used to than despair. The second time you have a rootbeer float for instance, your happiness at sipping the delicious concoction may not be quite as enormous as when you first had a rootbeer float, and the 12th time, your happiness may be still less enormous until rootbeer float begins to offer you very little happiness at all, because you have become used to the taste of vanilla ice-cream and rootbeer mixed together.

However, the second time you find a thumb tack in your rootbeer float, your despair is much greater than the first time when you dismissed the thumb tack as a freak accident rather than part of the scheme of the "soda jerk" (a phrase here which means ice-cream shop employee who is trying to injure your tongue), and by the 12th time you find a thumb tack, your despair is even greater still until you can hardly utter the phrase "rootbeer float" without bursting into tears.

It is almost as if happiness is an acquired taste, like coconut cordial or cerviche, to which you can eventually become accustomed, but despair is something surprising each time you encounter it.

# posted by Skye @ 8:32 am 0 comments

31-DEC-2008:

Today is my birthday. Well, not really. Because of security reasons, my birth date on Facebook is on Dec 31, 1977 - you know how the banks here like to verify your identity using the birth date - but as you may have guessed by now, that's not really my birthday. I didn't believe it when 3 of my friends *had their birthdays* on Jan 1st. Some of you might ask why can't I just remove the birthday from my profile altogether? Well, it's because I like to see my friends getting tricked. Haha! Okay, that's a joke. The truth is that I don't wish to conceal my age from my friends. If only Facebook would let me enter "1977" without an actual date but as you know some parts of Facebook are annoyingly irritating.

So, it started last year when I received a flurry of birthday wishes on Dec 31st. When I politely told them that it wasn't my birthday, I *felt* that some of them were embarrassed (long time friends who still didn't know or remember when my birthday is) and some of them were disappointed (because they really thought it was my birthday). Anyway, it happened again this year, from a different set of people, and guess what, most of the people who wished me a happy birthday this year are my family members! Okay, I don't blame them for not knowing my birthday (or not knowing that I wasn't born on the last day of the year) because (1) My cousins - we only see each other once in a blue moon and some of them are like half my age so we can't possibly be best friends, and (2) My aunts/uncles - they're getting old. :-D

Anyway, for all of you who wished me a happy birthday, thank you very much. I really do like have 2 birthdays in a year (provided only that my age doesn't double), but I also feel bad *deceiving* you. It's 10:45am on Dec 31 2008 and I know it's going to be a good day because I'm home with my family. :-)

Happy birthday to me!

# posted by Skye @ 5:03 am 2 comments

29-DEC-2008:

I forgot to mention this in my previous post. I've been reading 'The Templar Legacy' by Steve Berry and on Christmas eve, I finished the book. Now, everyone knows that the core belief of the Christians is that Jesus died to save sinners and on the 3rd day, he was resurrected. Well, this book actually challenged the resurrection - whether it is a myth or reality. Isn't it a coincidence that I happened to read this on Christmas eve?

Below is an excerpt from the book. Bear in mind that I did not write any of it and it doesn't represent my own opinions.

The heart of Christianity is the resurrection of physical bodies. It's the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise. If Christians will not one day be resurrected, then their faith is useless. No resurrection means the Gospels are all a lie - the Christian faith is only for this life - there's no more after. It's the resurrection that makes everything performed for Christ worthwhile. Other religions preach about paradise and afterlife. But only Christianity offers a God who became man, died for His followers, then rose from the dead to rule forever.

Christians can have a lot of different beliefs in a lot of subjects. But they all agree on the resurrection. It's their universal constant. Jesus rose from the dead for them alone. Death was conquered for them alone. Christ is alive and working toward their redemption. The kingdom of heaven is waiting for them, as they too, will be raised from the dead to live forever with the Lord. There's meaning in every tragedy since the resurrection gives hope for the future.

What if that never happened? What if Christ simply died dust to dust?

Is it true? That Christians believe the resurrection was physical? I'm new to this but I've always thought it was more spiritual than physical. Is it true that the Christians believe that they too will one day be raised from the dead to live forever with the Lord?

After that, I spent several hours reading the Old Testament (whereas before this I had no idea what the Old Testament vs. the New Testament was).

In the end, the conclusion of the book was that Jesus was never physically resurrected (bear in mind that this is only fiction and should not be taken seriously), but his followers who believed in him breathed life into his message and made it live. Here's another except from the book:

In that simple way, death could not contain the man Jesus. A resurrection would occur. Not literal, but spiritual. And within the mind of Simon, the man Jesus had arisen - he lived again - and from that singular beginning, during an autumn six months after the man Jesus was executed, the Christian Church was born.

It has served us well, this myth of Christ. - Pope Leo X (1513 - 1521).

In my opinion, 'The Templar Legacy' is simply better than 'Da Vinci Code'!

# posted by Skye @ 9:01 am 2 comments

29-DEC-2008:

Last year, we spent Christmas in Switzerland. This year we were supposed to spend Christmas in Wales. Daddy had already booked the hotel - a new one which was due to open for business before Christmas - but just a few days before that the hotel e-mailed saying that they were not ready yet and offered us either a full refund or another hotel. He chose the full refund.

On the morning of Dec 25, Dominic and I went to the church (daddy was too lazy to get dressed so we went without him). I kind of expected a grand event with lots of kids (and adults) and perhaps a play, much like the other ones we've attended. But perhaps this is a small neighbourhood, the church was quite empty (but there were more people than usual) and Dominic was the only small kid there. I felt that when he spoke, everybody could hear him. It was quite embarassing and I hope that the people thought he was cute rather than annoying. During hymns and carols, he kept asking what's that song or commented that the music was too slow. He also covered my mouth with his hands and told me to stop singing. And he kept complaining that he couldn't see what was in front. For the record, this was the 2nd time I took Dominic to a church service. The first time was during Easter about 2 years back and that church was crowded and noisy and it didn't matter that he made noise. This time though, I have to say he behaved quite well during that 1 hour (except that he couldn't stop talking). Although there wasn't much of a celebration but at least he got chocolates.

After that we spent the rest of the day at home and I cooked both lunch and dinner. This year daddy got Dominic two presents - a bicycle and a VTech Vsmile TV game console - photos to come later.

On Boxing Day, we attended a friend's Christmas party and had some good food.

We received Christmas gifts.

There was a huge turkey.

And plenty of other food.

They played Jenga.

Dominic sang karaoke.

Then he waited impatiently for ice-cream (we told him he could have ice-cream if he sang a song).

And he got his ice-cream.

So happy!

# posted by Skye @ 5:05 am 0 comments

24-DEC-2008:

In my previous post, we were at the outskirts of Strasbourg in France and attended a friend's wedding dinner. We left the wedding early (at 11:30pm) and on the next day found out from the others that it ended at 2:30am.

Today, after we had brunch, we drove to Strasbourg for another Christmas market. This one was really crowded and Dominic wasn't in a good mood, so we left early. When we got back to the hotel, Dominic started throwing up and that was the start of our *unforgetable* holiday. He had mild fever but was okay after taking Neurofen. I must have sixth sense because I normally don't bring any medication with me when traveling but this time, I dropped by the pharmacy and collected medicine for all 3 of us before we left London.

Lots of people at the market.

The market was in front of a cathedral (I think it's called the Notre Dame) and it was open for visitors.

We decided to have dinner in the hotel that night and we got to the restaurant at 7:30pm. The menu was in French and the people didn't speak any English. On the 1st page, the first two items said "Hummersuppe" or "something-suppe" and I was pretty confident those meant soups. I was going to order one each. The 2nd page was titled "Poisons" which didn't sound delicious. On the 3rd page, the first item said "Poussins" which I believed was chicken - and I was going to order that as well. And further down, I spotted the word "beefsteak" and I was also going to order that. Just then, the bride, groom and his family came down for dinner and asked us to join them. We said yes out of courtesy.

Because their family was huge (about 15 of them including kids), it took quite a long time for everyone to be seated and for the waitress to take our orders. Dominic wanted spaghetti but they didn't serve spaghetti in the children's menu (or maybe they did but nobody translated that to us), so we ordered sausages and fries for Dominic. Daddy was told that his main course would come with pasta and Dominic could have some of that. Starters were served at around 8:30pm. Dominic's main (the sausages) came with our starter but he refused to eat it. We kept telling him that his spaghetti was coming. After the starter, we waited close to 1 hour for the mains. By now, Dominic was lying on the table, his head on his arms. When the pasta finally came with daddy's main, he didn't want it anymore. I quickly finished my food and took him up to the room with me, and I told daddy to please eat my dessert for me, because I myself was getting a bit annoyed with these lengthy dinners.

We went up to the room, Dominic had a temperature, I cleaned him up, undressed him and gave him more Neurofen and he fell asleep shortly. I then showered and got to bed myself. Daddy only came up at 12am!!

Dominic continued to have a temperature for the rest of the night and he slept a lot. We checked out of the hotel at 1pm the next day and were the last ones to leave. We drove back to Baden-Baden and in the car, Dom continued to sleep. Since he was ill and we couldn't do any touristy thing, we decided to go for a scenic drive instead. We drove through the Black Forest all the way from Baden-Baden to Freudenstadt (I hope I spelled it right) and here are some of the scenic photos we took on the way. It took us 2 hours to get there but slightly shorter time to get back. All the while, Dominic was asleep and he woke up briefly on and off and we got out of the car for a little sight-seeing.

It reminded me of the Black Forest cake and I wondered why it wasn't black but covered in lots of white cream instead. I guess looking at the snowy scene in this forest, I could understand why.

The next day, our flight was scheduled for 6:40pm and we were planning to do some touristy thing before flying back. However, Dominic continued to be sick and he had started to worry me because normally his fever wouldn't last this long. This was really unusual. We stayed in the hotel the whole day and even extended our stay till 5pm (we would normally be required to check out by 12pm) so that Dominic could rest. Fortunately, he was feeling better by the time we left for the airport. Unfortunately, both daddy and I were beginning to feel ill. Thank God for my 6th sense, we downed two flu/cold pills each and made it back to London. When we got back to London, I was ill for a whole week and it was the worst I've felt in many years. We sent Dominic off to the nursery and for the rest of the week, I did nothing but slept the whole day. If Dominic and I had caught the same bug, then I think he is a strong boy because he recovered much faster than me.

# posted by Skye @ 5:22 pm 0 comments

23-DEC-2008:

My cheeky son turned 3 yesterday! We had wanted to have a small party for him (as usual) but health took a toll on me (and daddy too) so we figured it wasn't such a good idea to have people over and infect them with our flu virus. However, I did manage to bake a cake for him.

First, I baked two chocolate banana cakes and stacked them together.

Then I covered the cake in icing that I made myself. I didn't spend a lot of time with the icing mainly because Dominic was beside me repeating "Mummy, let's eat! Let's eat!" He had been urging us to eat the cake ever since I popped it into the oven!

Then I squeezed decorative icing all around the cake.

Then I wrote Dominic's name. I had wanted to write Happy Birthday Dominic but no time - the boy was making a lot of noise by now!

3 years old, and Dominic is now quite different from a year ago.

• He had started to say things like - I like daddy, I don't like mummy, go away mummy. Some days it was daddy that he didn't like.
• He had also started to say things like - Look daddy, there's a train, and when I (not daddy) replied, he said "Stop mummy. Don't talk to me, I'm just telling daddy".
• He is the master of all excuses. When he didn't want his dinner he would say that the food was hot, not nice, his mouth hurt, he had stomach pain or he was full already. When he wanted me to feed him he would say that the spoon was too heavy or that his hand was tired. When he didn't want a bath, he would say that he was cold, the water was too hot or he wanted to go to bed. Well, just a few examples.
• He likes to say "Silly mummy" when mummy forgot to switch of the lights, dropped something or made any mistakes. He also likes to say "Lousy daddy" when daddy dropped his food, finished all of the snacks or forgot to buy milk.
• He is very good with the Wii now. Daddy bought him Wii Music and he played with it mostly in the evenings, now knowing exactly how to control the "mouse" (as he calls it) on the screen and which buttons to click.
• Instead of just helping me with preparing dinner, he has started to suggest that I put sugar, oil, etc into whatever I'm cooking. As always, he would be very proud and beamed "I'm helping mummy!" While preparing the food, he would make clear what he wouldn't eat, such as "I don't like mushrooms. It's not yummy. I want just rice and broccoli." And I normally give in because now that he knows what exactly went into the food, it's not that easy to *trick* him to eat anymore.
• Daddy thinks that Dominic has a discipline issue because sometimes he refused to do things himself, such as insisting that one of us help him brush his teeth, put on his pants or get his pillow from his room. It would normally result in a lot of crying but daddy insists that no one helps him. This resulted in him taking a longer time to eat, drink milk, brush his teeth, etc. Once, he spent 30 mins putting on his socks.
• Dominic likes to butt in our conversation these days, repeating what we say. Just yesterday, we were talking about money - whether daddy or I saved more - and Dominic butted in "Daddy spent all the money. I want money too!".

This year, my birthday present to Dominic is a die cast metal Gordon train. He played with it the whole day yesterday, went to bed with it and took it with him the first thing after he woke up this morning. Daddy on the other hand didn't get his son anything. *Lousy daddy*.

Dominic has grown so much and I love him more than ever. He's a great companion and really fun to talk to. Happy Birthday Dominic!

# posted by Skye @ 6:25 am 0 comments

22-DEC-2008:

In the previous post Baden-Baden (Part 1) we left the friend's church wedding and drove south to France finding our hotel in a very small not-even-a-town situated outside of Strasbourg. We were to stay here for the next two nights together with the bride and groom and their family and friends.

There was very little time for us to rest and we went straight to the wedding dinner venue which was supposed to start at 6:30pm, not wanting to be late. We should have known that all wedding dinners regardless of Chinese, French or German are *always* late. Not only were we the first to arrive but all the others were late!

It was a simple dinner with only 7 or 8 tables - our seats pre-arranged and our names labelled at the table where we were supposed to sit. Dominic was placed at a different table from ours and as expected, he kept coming to our table.

The dinner was the most lengthy I've ever been. First, there was cocktail and it was ages before everyone was seated. And then wine was served. It was just typical that the French would feel that wine is more important than food. It must be 8pm by then and I was having hunger pains. Finally, the bread was served. Long after that, we had the starter which was one of my least favourite food - pate. Dominic didn't touch it at all and by now he had downed 3 glasses of orange juice and a coke. I think at about 9pm, we had the 2nd dish which was a piece of fish. It was quite yummy but hardly enough to fill a quarter of my stomach. After the 2nd course, we were to wait forever for the next dish while the guests danced on the dance floor. Since there was nothing to do, we danced too and it was the best part of the dinner. I'm sure Dominic agreed with me too since he had a really great time "dancing" with his friends.

The next time I attend another French wedding dinner, I must remember to bring my own snacks. The 3rd course was sorbet in liquor, which was really weird because as I recall the whole night I've not eaten anything solid yet and now they're serving me dessert? I think the *real* food only came at about 10:30pm - roast veal with vegetables. This was simply delicious. After that, we excused ourselves (at around 11:30pm). It was one of the most fun wedding I've attended (because of the dancing) but it's really advisable to eat dinner before going.

The next morning at brunch, we found out from the rest that the party ended at 2:30am last night.

He copied what his daddy was doing.


And here, he was asking for more juice. At this age, he has very little stranger anxiety and it was really fun to have him enjoy himself and leave us alone to enjoy ourselves.


This dog sat under the table throughout the whole night! Not making any sound at all.

# posted by Skye @ 10:40 am 0 comments

22-DEC-2008:

I finally have time and is well enough to blog about our trip to Germany. It was one of the most unforgettable trip because as you will see, the trip had very adverse effects on our health!

Day 1 - We flew from London Stansted airport to a smal little town in Germany called Baden-Baden. It took us about 2 hours by cab from our home to the airport - not because it was that far but because the cab driver was driving at a snail's pace. The flight itself took 1 hour and 20 mins and it was surprisingly full. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was a poster of two men with the word "Terrorismus" labelled on top.

Before we collected our rented car from the airport we saw a man (most probably British) coming back to the Hertz counter complaining that his rented car was "tiny". Forunately, ours was a good size Peugeot being able to fit the 3 of us, the car seat, Dominic's buggy and our luggage. Daddy spent some time setting up the sat nav while I figured out how to install the car seat. During all these, Dominic was waiting patiently and never complained once. He had been extremely good throughout the whole journey.

With the help of the sat nav, daddy drove us to the hotel easily. It looked easy to me but it must have been challenging for him, having to drive in the darkness where half the streets had no street lamps, and not to mention having to drive on the wrong side of the road. He later told me that it was a bit challenging having to shift gears using the right hand instead of the left. Without the sat nav, we would never manage to find the place. Over the next 3 days, we were to thank the sat nav for saving our lives again and again.

Express by Holiday Inn - The hotel room was spacious, nicely decorated and the cheapest daddy could find.

Day 2 - The next morning, after breakfast we drove into town where we spent most of the morning at the Christmas market sampling food (and looking for parking). It was next to impossible to find a place to park and it reminded me of KL - Mid Valley ... 1 Utama ... you get the idea.

These are grapes covered in sugar. The layer of sugar was so sweet that even Dom didn't like it - he only wanted the grapes.

We thought this was like the Chinese steamed pau and was really surprised when the man poured custard sauce on it. I don't remember what it's called anymore.

In the afternoon, we attended a friend's church wedding - which was the sole reason we made this trip. The wedding reception and dinner was on the same night but in France, so after the church wedding we drove off immediately hoping we could make it on time and not lose our way. As it turned out, the sat nav was amazing again.

To be continued ....

This is the groom and the couple's son who is the same age as Dominic. Over here, many of them like to have kids first (and call each other boyfriend and girlfriend) before getting married.

# posted by Skye @ 5:37 am 0 comments

20-DEC-2008:

We made these cards a few weeks ago, we received them just before we left for Germany and when we got back, I fell ill and now it's too late to send them to anyone. I managed to send one back to Dom's nursery though. I guess I'll keep the rest for next year. :-) Anyway, here's the digital version: Dominic, daddy and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

While we were at it, we also took a few family photos.

# posted by Skye @ 7:00 pm 0 comments

19-DEC-2008:

Since we got back from Germany on Monday night, both Daddy and I had not been to work because of the illness that we caught at the end of the trip. Daddy didn't look like he was in a bad shape but I felt truly horrible - more sick than I could remember. First, there was the fever which lasted for 4 days - the longest I could remember. Normally, it wouldn't last more than 24 hours for me. And then there was the constant coughing that made my sides ache and my throat sore. There was the nausea too - could be due to hunger since my appetite hasn't been great, or it could be due to the phlegm that was constantly stuck in my throat or nose or wherever. I felt hungry but the thought of food didn't appeal to me. Interestingly, the best thing I've had since Monday was Maggi Kari Letup. The worst was when the nose started to block, which made it impossible to get some shut eye. And finally, there was the diarrhoea which I suspected was due to the medication but it persisted even after I stopped all medication.

Today is Dominic's last day at the nursery before it closes for Christmas. It is also 3 days before his birthday and I had promised him that he'll have a birthday party in school with all his friends. He had celebrated many birthdays over the year but never his own and he had waited a long time for his turn. I had intended to bake him a cake and decorate it with Winnie the Pooh characters but the only thing I've cooked this week was peanut butter toast, therefore I've compensated by getting him 3 beautifully decorated birthday cakes (1 large and 2 tiny ones) from the supermarket. As I'm typing now, Dominic is having what seems to be a very special Christmas lunch with red table cloths, red plates and cups.

I often feel emotional, with this heavy feeling in my heart which is both sad and excited (more sad than excited, I guess) when the year draws to an end and things come to a closure. It feels to me like it is the end of the end and whatever new beginning the end might bring will be something different and new. Next year, the school fees are revised and it will cost £100 more per month due to escalating cost. There will be people pulling out of the nursery because of this. It was nostalgic to see Dominic say goodbye to all his friends, some of which might not even return after the new year. We will need to adapt to a new routine for the next 2 weeks and also when school begins again after those 2 weeks.

# posted by Skye @ 7:24 am 0 comments

11-DEC-2008:

I am about to pack for our Germany trip and I'm wondering if I should put Dominic on nappies during our holidays. He doesn't use nappies now except bedtime but from previous experiences I know that we'll be on the run all the time when we're traveling and it won't be easy looking for a public toilet. Plus, normally Dom will just fall asleep in his buggy when he's tired and there will be no such thing as getting him to wee-wee first before taking a nap because basically we won't know when he will fall asleep. And since it's winter, we can't just pull down his pants and say wee-wee in that bush over there (we actually did that a few times in London and in Malaysia - hehe - daddy said it was natural fertilizer for the plants).

This time though we'll traveling to the outskirts of Germany and hence will be driving. What my aunt used to do was to keep an empty bottle in the car that her son could pee into. I think maybe I'll do that too. That is if he doesn't refuse to pee into the bottle. I can imagine him saying "Mummy, I want the toilet. I don't like the bottle." I think nappies are so much more convenient. Heh!

# posted by Skye @ 5:30 am 0 comments

10-DEC-2008:

When *somebody* tagged me in a photo on Facebook and I haven't seen that *somebody* since probably I was 15, I knew that photo would have to be from the good old times when we were young, carefree and naive. This photo was taken when we were 13. For those of you who knew me back then, no doubt you'll spot me easily so I hope you don't give it away, ok.

Looking at this photo and at every face, it was overwhelming recalling the crazy times we've had and seeing how everyone has turned out to be. I, for example, was one of the most tom-boyish and undomestic girl (if feels weird even to refer to myself as a girl). Who would have thought that I would one day be a domestic goddess *ahem* who cooks 7 days a week? But then come to think of it, we were ALL tomboys who liked to stand on tables and play football using that *seed* that fell from the tree - does anyone remember that? And the sensible geeky, specky maths genius Leng Ai is now gorgeous and elegant, not to mention did some pretty crazy stuffs - not that sensible after all it seems? :p And my buddy who sat next to me in class in now a HR director with a multi-national company! Ellen as usual had her own opinions and knew exactly what she wanted. Who else would sit in a science class, drop Add Maths and take art instead?

Looking at this photo, I also realized that I was never classmates with Lan - or were we in the same class in Standard 6? And Suet See is not in this picture - perhaps we were only classmates in Form 4/5? Seriously, my memory is not helping.

I also remember that I was rather close to this girl Sook Yean (she's in the photo) who also called herself Cynthia. But when I hooked up with her recently via Facebook, she has changed her name to Rachel. Heh!

# posted by Skye @ 11:20 am 0 comments

10-DEC-2008:

Dominic has a rash on his right hand that has persisted for a whole week. Yesterday, since I was feeling sick myself, I decided to skive off work and took the opportunity to get Dominic checked out by a doctor. The appointment with the doctor was at 2:40pm and I told the nursery that I would be picking him up at 2:30pm. He normally takes a nap from 1pm to 2:45pm and I requested the staff to wake him up a little bit earlier that day.

The doctor said that it was mild eczema and all he needs is moisturizing. So I sent Dom back to the nursery and went to the pharmacy to pick up his prescription.

Dom came home at 5:30pm as usual and no difference from any other day, we sat down for dinner together at 6pm. Since he wasn't done yet when I was, I left him at the table to eat while I did the dishes, and when I came back, he was fast alseep and snoring at the dinner table!

So I bathed him and got him ready for bed and he slept from 7:30pm last night till 7:30 this morning. Today, I asked his carer if he had a nap yesterday afternoon and as I suspected, he didn't. She had decided to keep him awake because she thought it would be better than waking up a grumpy toddler in the middle of his nap.

# posted by Skye @ 6:35 am 0 comments

8-DEC-2008:

At work, I have recently been upgraded to a 20-inch widescreen High Definition flat screen LCD TV which is now sitting side by side with my monitor, which means while typing on the keyboard and 'working' I can now glance sideways to watch TV. *BIG GRIN*. The only downside is that I can't turn the volume on. I can of course plug on earphones but that would be too conspicuous, therefore I turned on the subtitles instead.

Last week, I ordered Sex and the City from pay-per-view movies. For those of you who watched this movie in Malaysia can you tell me if you've missed:
1) The scene where Samantha laid naked pretending to be a sushi dish?
2) The various scenes where Samantha's neighbour Dante was getting on with the boobies?
3) Dante under the shower?
4) The full frontal of Miranda when she was with Steve?

Hmm ... I don't know what else you might have missed.

Last night, we watched Ratatouille (is that how you spell it?). This one is really, really good although a bit bizarre. I also watched Rush Hour 3. This one is probably an old one. It's been playing out for ages but I kept thinking that I've seen it. Next on the list is the Bond movie Quantum of Solace - it has been sitting in the box for ages but Daniel Craig does not appeal to me the way he does to many other women. :-D

# posted by Skye @ 10:41 am 0 comments

8-DEC-2008:

I finished reading Garden of Beasts by Jeffrey Deaver (set in Berlin during Hitler's time) a few weeks ago and I'll be going to Germany this Thursday! I have no love for history, politics or ideologies and yet I can't recall how many times I've stumbled upon a book about the post World War 1 National Socialist empire of Hitler and actually enjoyed what I read. I honestly believe that the experience can leave a mark in me and may be live-changing. *Grin*.

Many years back, I bought this graphic novel collection titled "Maus" by Art Spiegelman for a friend who loves books but does not have the patience for pages of words. Note: Graphic novels are what we call comics but they like to call it graphic novels because it sounds more mature and classy. As usual, I read all of the books before I gave them to the friend as a birthday present (of course, he knew that I've read it first and he didn't mind). Maus talks about the Nazi occupation during the 1930s and 1940s from the point of view of a Jewish family. In the illustrations, the Jewish and Polish are mice and the Nazis are big, muscular cats. I recall that some of the graphics were gruesome - definitely not suitable for kids - but was very educational yet entertaining. Here it was clear which side Art Spiegelman was on - the cats were the bad guys hunting down the mice, which is always the case.

Next, I'm halfway through the The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry which is full of "unsur-unsur Christianity". I wonder if the Fatwa forbids the Muslims from reading such books. :p This one is rather religiously "technical" and reminds me of Da Vinci Code.

Speaking of reading materials, I caught Daddy reading - you're not going to belive this - The Wife From Up North. It's a real life diary of a mother of three! - probably started as a blog and later turned into a book.

# posted by Skye @ 10:09 am 0 comments

3-DEC-2008:

Following the recent Fatwa against yoga in M'sia, a friend forwarded this joke of an email which I find pretty entertaining if you'd like to take a break from whatever you're doing. I hope there isn't a fatwa against the reproduction of such mockery.

Bukhari Hood

Shah Alam

# posted by Skye @ 5:28 am 0 comments

2-DEC-2008:

Looking at the pictures in Cattypants' blog today reminded me that I've just got my first Le Creuset cast iron casserole pot last week and let me tell you, not all pots are the same!

Previously when I was living in M'sia, I used an AMC pot given by my mother-in-law (the mother who feared that her son was not being well-fed by his wife!), which was very expensive according to her. It was stainless steel, very heavy and not easy to clean if you burn or stain it. And it was also NOT non-stick.

After I moved to London, I've since downgraded to an Ikea stainless steel pot (£5 for a set of 3 - value for money!), and I couldn't notice any difference with the AMC one (but don't mention anything to my MIL about it).

Now, with the Le Creuset cast iron, let me tell you it's amazing. First of all, it heats up very quickly and cooks fast. Secondly, it keeps the heat so well that the first time I ate Maggie Mee in it, the soup remained steaming hot until the last drop. Thirdly, it is so easy to clean and doesn't need any scrubbing at all. Finally, it really looks good on the stove. :-)

We have been cooking all sorts of soup since we got it - the perfect food for the cold winter. I ordered it from Amazon and was expecting a larger pot (based on the measurements in the Amazon website) but it turned out to be a small one. We like it anyway so we didn't return it, and now we're thinking of getting a bigger one.

And I'm also looking to buy a new frying pan. Does anyone have any recommendations?

# posted by Skye @ 7:43 am 0 comments