Scored a Kiss!

Okay, I scored a kiss on camera~! Yay! George gave me a birthday kiss and a heart-shaped pendant that is beautiful! Love it! It is sooooo sweet of him to get me something that may have well been quite expensive. However, it is not the kiss that made me snigger in evil delight as i look upon this picture with fond memories but how my kids and grand kids and great grand kids would react when they see me sporting a stupid pose. imagine this,
"Oh My God,... Grandma looks like an idiot! She poses like someone who just went to Japan, took a dip in a whole lot of sweet saccharin sugar and came back brainwashed."
Hahahah,.... and so it shall be a great reminder of how we should act stupid sometimes. It brings a smile to my face when it reminds me of experiences and memories of my life. Not anyone else's life but mine and mine only.

A Little Recipe for an Appetizer

200g of feta Cheese (full fat goat's cheese)
75g of pine nuts, toasted to a nice golden brown
6-8 tablespoons of olive oil
20 g of chives, coarsely chopped up (approx. 1cm length)
3-4 cloves of garlic, depending on how spicy you prefer
1 small to medium sized tomato, finely chopped up
6 black olives, pitted and finely coarsely (Kalamata olives can also be used if you cannot find black olives)
a generous dash of black pepper
some honey for light drizzling
crackers or toasted slices of baguettes

Directions:

Wash and dry your hands! Now that we are all set to prepare a simple appetizer, make sure that you are hungry! This recipe can be prepared a few a hours before serving or just before consumption. So, do not fret about it and here we go!
Chop up the feta cheese into small cubes (approx. 5x5mm cubes). Put the feta in a mixing bowl. Then toast the pine nuts lightly till you get a light shade of golden brown. You can try using the toaster oven, if not you can also toast the nuts in a pan on medium heat. Make sure that you stir the nuts around occasionally so that they do not get burnt. When it is done, remove the nuts from the heat and leave them to cool down.
Next, chop the garlic finely and throw them into the mixing bowl with the feta once it's done. According to the notes i mentioned with the ingredients, throw in the chives, tomato and olives when they are done. Now add the olive oil and mix it altogether gently. You do not want it to become a mush as the feta is rather crumbly.
No salt is need as the feta is rather saltish. Add a generous dash of black pepper. You can choose to eat this with crackers or toasted baguette slices. To bring out a little bit more of a flavour to this, you can choose to drizzle a very little wee-bit of honey on the top. Do not add to much as honey can be a bit over powering.
If the dish is not to be served immediately, remember to keep it in the fridge in a closed container. You don't want to loose the moisture!!

Hope that you will enjoy it! Let me know what you think!

Petals Falling: A Realisation

I remember my days back in the UK when i was living in a kind of denial in London and Manchester. I'm not saying that my current situation is my chosen reality, but when you believe that perception is reality then I am living in a sort of semi-reality for now. It is not my kind of society. I feel like I do not belong. In London, I do.

But the essential question is - DOES IT REALLY MATTER? For me, Yes and No. Why did i say that i was living in denial when i was in the UK? The reason is simple. Though i love the life that i have led there, it was like a semi-charmed life where I was free. (free in today's context and not in totality) I was allowed to decide for myself what kind of life i wanted to live and my thoughts were not barraged with the multitudes of 'shoulds, coulds and i told you so's'. BUT in the end I knew that i still had to return. In returning, i would be giving up these experiences that i hold dear to me. I denied that possible and plausible fact that i will not end up in the UK for the rest of my life. Perhaps my sanity needs this. Yes, of course it matters, in a very selfish way.

But my culture does not really condone thoughts like that - selfish freedom and space from family. Fillial piety is a very important value that I learnt through my mother and my mother's mother. Family and friends are important to me. Especially after realising that I should be spending more time and effort of the people whom i really care about. Showering them with my attention and tantrums are very rewarding. It's way of letting them know that I care and that I love them for all their warts, farts, breath and size. So, No it does not really matter where i live. For now - I think. (Though i have realised that i have become a little more impatient and short fused having returned to this tiny island last year.)

That is the irony of it all. If only i could have everything all at once. And having been conditioned from a generation of youths who should not question nor fight for rights, I should act like most of my peers? To that, i adamantly say NO. i will not fall back onto the well that i have managed to climb out of. So, to the urban myth in Singapore where it is believed that it is better not to question the authorities and only seek to please - BOLLOCKs to that! I will question and i will doubt. I belong to me, not to a place or for name's sake.

PS - To those who are reading this, you know who you are and just so you know that i love you all and i do cherished our relationships/friendships a lot!

(This picture was taken at the end of March of 2006 in Nara, Japan.)

VeVe, Curly & Me at BillyBomber's

Here we are at Billy's. We were celebrating VeVe's birthday and in the process of it we have become camera whores? Hahaha,... luckily we did not strike cutsey poses or make extra stupendous faces... though we do sometimes, okay a lot of the time. It's the reality of age that sets in. Man,... I have got a lot of catching up to do! And as for the situation that i mentioned in the previous post,... I will prevail soon enough!

Where is My Brain?!

To Be Continued,...

Don't Call This a Diary!

Like so many others before me, I am starting a BLOG that i will try my darnest to keep. It's like a diary or rather a warped view into my wacky world? No, my world sure, not too sure about the wacky bit,... and IF i have the tenacity to keep it. I think i like a book where i can scrbble on better. Though i don't necessarily write my thoughts all the time, i will trryyyy!!!!

I am not going to be jealous of others who can do it and i,... just cannot be bothered! Hahahaha,... okay, I can't. A lacking of discipline. Well, here i am eating cheese doodoos, George laughs whenever he hears me calling it cheese doodoos, (it's actually cheese doodles), and that's because he feels that it smells dog poo or sometimes dog food. And after rotting for the most of today, I realised that i have just eaten salmon, eel, veg, rice, cheese doodoos, pineapple, coffee, bread, tomatoes, cake and cookies,... that is a lot no? And I wondered, what happened to me? I used to be flowing with words and ideas in my head, eager to write or create. But not I am just deflated. Flat-OUT.

I need to be inspired and feel creative. But not at home. I think, having proclaimed and exclaimed that my home is my private sanctuary, it has finally ring truth. I blank out at home. Leave my brain somewhere i can't seem to find and i excite at the thought of the Simpsons being aired on TV. That's It. It's a SIGN. I need a get a job, my freedom is going to be cut short and I cannot become a couch potato! I CANNOT!

To Be Continued,...