Death trap

A newsflash on a 20-year old Britain tourist who was electrocuted to death this morning sent shivers down my spine...

The thought that random, unsuspecting, innocent people likely to get electrocuted from a floor-mounted power sockets which was covered in water because of the rain scares the crap out of me. How anyone can take safety measures so lightly is beyond me.

Article on that can be found here.

I am being reminded once again of not only how fragile we are as a human being, but also a glaring fact as to how unsafe things can really get in and around Thailand. That being said, I don't think being paranoid about safety in this country is a bad thing, especially when there is a small child around.

For me, paranoia about safety is totally acceptable here, and no, I don't think I am over-reacting.

Words of wisdom

I chanced upon this blog written by  "The Good Chinese Mother" when I read the comments section in response to a particular Tiger Mom article from the Guardian.

I have to admit that when I saw her blog address underneath her own comments, I actually gave it a once over. But after reading several more of the comments below hers, the one person who gave a thumbs-up toThe Good Chinese Mother's site provoked my curiosity.

I went on to kaypo on her site, and found her style of writing quite appealing. There is this sense of honesty, so down to earth and oh-so-earnest kind of feeling to it. It was written with so much love, respect and a holy sort of gentleness only experienced mothers would have. She's got a very interesting background too!

Reading on, 2 particular posts had me almost teary eyed. Despite the lump in my throat, I ended the read with a smile on my face. I like her parenting style, and deep inside, I wish I could apply her wisdom to Spud later on in life. From her 2 essays on "Do I have to take a bath" and "Why do I have to go to bed now?", she struck me as someone with the patience of a saint...

So much to learn, and this is one site which has some practical, tried and tested advice which I find extremely useful for our later years in parenting.

I know I just need to work on that thing called patience a little bit more.

No-want Momma mode

Even with a vocabulary that is mainly consisting of utter gobbledygooks, Spud still can, without a doubt,  make her preference very clear...

… like when she expressed her displeasure with a “gahhh!”, and at the same vehemently turned away and even refusing to look at her mother as she clung on tightly onto her Papa.

Not just once, but many, many times over last weekend.

I can play alongside with her, no problem! But, no matter what and how I tried, Spud would not want me to carry her at all. She was all into her Papa and the moment I showed any indication of taking over, or even wanting to carry her in the Mei-Tai, she threw a fit until Silver Bullet takes over. Never mind trying to feed her that day.

Given that it was the first rejection ever, I have to admit that it was quite a big, tight slap on the face! Never mind the fact that I endured all 9 months and several months after that slaving over her, or the fact that I rush home every day just so that I can spend some time with her and put her to bed or that I painstakingly prepared her meals. I mean, my child, for no apparent reason (and not that I was in a foul mood or been scolding her or anything like that) has decided, just out of the blue and basically demanded for her mother to go take a hike.

Suddenly, just like that, Momma is out and Papa is in!

It is not as if that I am jealous that Spud showed a preference for her father; in fact, I love it that both father and child bond really well and that Spud takes to Silver Bullet so very fine. But, to suddenly get rejected like that, man! that kind of hurt.

From the onset, I know it is nothing personal, and I know that I should never take such things personally. I reckon, Spud is probably going through one of those unexplainable toddler phases. However, like I said, it still sort of makes me feel a little upset in a pouty sort of way when she decided that somehow, she did not want to have anything to do with me,

Having done some online research, though, I discovered that it is quite common for toddlers to have preferences and go back and forth on their preferred parent as part of their development. I reckon, given that Spud hardly sees Silver Bullet on the weekday, it could also be her way of catching up with her Papa. That being said, I think perhaps, I should make myself scarce more often! (Hmmmmmmmm...)

I also read that one of the likely reasons she does that is probably because she feels total security, and know that I am there for her. Hence, her rejection towards me may in fact mean that she may be feeling quite secure to explore with other people and that apparently translated to me doing a fabulous job as a mother in with making her feel safe. (Wooohoooo!)

So, those are the comforting words I stumbled upon several websites, and, at this stage I can only bask in that comfort that this is just a phase, And if it isn’t, I guess I should take it in another perspective – her rejection will actually allow me the time to do other things (Woooohoooo!)

Babies and toddlers are such mysteries. And I guess, my little girl is just showing some signs of growing up...

Who would have thought that Spud can be as fickle, if not more than our cats!

Rainbow coloured ants

So. It does seem like you ARE what you eat...

I generally hate, hate, hate ants. I cannot stand them, and a long time back when I was about 7 or 8 years old, one of my foot endured a massive hole for weeks because of them. But that is not the point I was going to make in my post today.

What I wanted to share is this article I found on Stomp. Check out these ants. Check out the colours! Are they not just fascinating? How crazy insane is that?!
 

Curry Day: Chicken & Potato Curry

"Hooray! Hooray! It’s a curry-curry day
What a world of fun for everyone, curry-curry day
Hooray! Hooray! It’s a curry-curry day
Sing a curry song, skip along, curry-curry day"

To be honest, I don't know why the above Boney M song has been spinning in my head since last night after I cooked my pot of curry....And while cooking, I cannot help but agree that we Singaporeans do get our priorities right when it comes to food! I mean, where in the world would curry be making such huge headlines all around the world!

Anyways, I know I'm supposed to cook it only on Sunday, but I decided to start the night before simply because, curry usually tastes better after you keep it overnight. All I have to do is heat it up again and simmer it on slow boil prior to our iftar dinner tomorrow, and the curry will be richer in taste. As they saying goes, "Good Curry, No Hurry!" (OK I am super lame queen of the week!)

As I am writing this in my bid to post a pciture of my chicken and potato curry dish in support of Cook and Share a Pot of Curry, I also realised that I actually have not posted my curry recipe despite making it for hundred of times now.

So here goes, and I hope you like it as much as we do.

Ingredients A:

• 1-1.5 kg of chicken (cut in pieces)
• 4 potatoes quartered
• springs of curry leaves
• 2 tomatoes (cut in half - optional)
• Carrots (optional)
• 2 red chillies sliced
• 6 red shallots (sliced finely)
• 5-7 tbsp curry powder (I use a Singapore brand called "Earthen Pot" which my parents kindly hauled several packets for me when they come by for a visit)
• 250ml coconut cream (otherwise known as santan in Malay)
• A thumbsized tamarind paste
• some olive oil
• About 500 ml of water
• Salt to taste

 

Ingredients B (to be blended):

• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 large red onions
• About 10 pieces blanched almonds
• 1 thumbsie piece of ginger
• 2 candlenuts (alternative: brazil nut or macadamia nut)
• 4-6 pieces fenugreek (biji halba)
• 1 tspn black mustard seeds

 

Method:

1. Blend all ingredients in B and set aside
2. Marinade chicken with some of the blended paste for about 15 minutes
3. Separately dissolve the taarind paste in about half a cup of hot water to extract tamarind juice - set aside
4. Heat the pot, and when warm enough, roast the curry powder (without oil) until fragrant and slightly brown (be careful not to burn it!). Add curry leaves and shallots - stir fry for about 5 minutes
5. Add in the blended ingredients to the curry powder and mix them altogether
6. Put in a generous portion of olive oil into the mixture and fry them for another 10-15 minutes.
7. Add in the chicken and potatoes and mix them in
8. Add in about 500 ml of water to make a gravy(more water if you prefer it to be more diluted), salt to taste and tamarind juice prepared earlier
9. Cover and simmer for about 20-30 minutes
10. Add in coconut milk and tomatoes15 minutes before removing it from the heat
11. Remove from heat when chicken is tender and serve hot

My curry bubblign away on the stove...

Chicken and Potato Curry served hot for dinner!

Note:
My first curry recipe actually came from the back of the package of "Earthen Pot" Curry Powder, and over the years, I have experimented and modified the original recipe a bit here and there in my bid to get that perfect and addictive curry taste. What really made a difference was the use of fenugreek, mustard seeds, and most importantly that dash of tamarind!

āp kā khānā svādiṣṭa ho! (Apparently google says this is "Bon Appetite" when said in Hindi)

Wall graphics

I have a new-found appreciation for decorative wall stickers and I think they are the best invention ever!

Called the “Stik em up graphic”, I swear they are god-sent! They are really easy to use, definitely idiot-proof and although you need patience, they can be easily removed without going into too much trouble.

Our first encounter with them was when we randomly stumbled upon them at Index Mall and decided to buy a few motifs for Spud’s nursery sometime late last year. They come in triangular not-so-fancy cardboard boxes, and prices range from anywhere between 300 baht to 1000 baht, depending on the intricacies and how big the motifs are. Apart from Index Mall, we have seen them at a small corner of SB Furniture stores as well as at B2S Bookstore at Central Chidlom and Paragon.They don't get stocked up regularly, so if you see something you really like, make sure get a few of those or you will not be seeing them again for another half a year!

We have since added a few more different designs in Spud’s room to add a little bit more colour and vibrancy. They also seem to be able to occupy her when she wakes up in the morning before we do.

My current favourite is pictured below and currently pasted pretty on one of the empty walls next to the kitchen. It is like a redundant corner, and for some reason, the image works really well in this area. 

It is a cool image this. And I can’t help but to repeatedly tell the cats whenever they start a ruckus that this is usually what happens to naughty cats – they get plastered to the wall and never comin’ back!

Friday humour

It has all been about curry in the last few days and I came across the following on the facebook wall of Cook and Share a Pot of Curry in my curiosity of what the stats looks like this morning as well as trying to kaypo what people are commenting: :

Comment #1:
So this man fell, and hit his head on a curry pot. Now he's in a korma.

Comment #2 (posted in reply to the above):
Oh no....not another curry joke! It's never a dhaal movement here!

Oklah...I admit they sound quite corny. But, if you "get it", it's actually quite funny! (Still lame, I know...)

And, apparently, this curry movement now has more support than the upcoming presidential elections as published by this article here. How wicked it that!

55,238 and counting...

It is amazing how in just a matter of days since my last post, the number of people supporting the curry movement in Singapore on facebook has already soared to more than 55,000!

Fifty frickin' five thousand, two hundred and thirty eight individuals (and still counting!) will be "attending" the event from almost across the world from Shanghai, to Australia, through the US of A and even The Netherlands. This curry movement is just phenomenally insane!

I have never seen such unity to be honest and I am both impressed and amazed by this..especially since it is a movement for a pot of curry! On the hindsight though, I'm kind of wondering how many of those 'attending' would actually commit to this eventually...

Anyhow, the heat is on. Amazing how I can feel the excitement from here and it makes me feel more excited as I see the number on the counter increases by the minute! Some of the slogans they come up with are hilarious. This one here is one of my favourites:

Source: Facebook Cook and Share a Pot of Curry page

Sunday curry...here I come!

Forced labour

"A boy of 11 called a German police emergency line to complain of "forced labour" after his mother told him to help clean the home."

After reading the article here, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Ahhh...kids these days!

The Gruffalo

We have recently been introduced to a brand new world of The Gruffalo - thanks to (the mom of) Little Dude Baby who gave Spud this charming book as her birthday present a couple of weeks ago.

The book takes the reader on a journey with mouse as he strolls through the wood where he meets a fox, an owl and a snake, who all want to eat him. So, the mouse invents a gruffalo - a monster with terrible tusks, and terrible teeth and terrible jaw and one that spots a poisonous wart on his nose. Little did he know that the Gruffalo exists and as the mouse revisits inhabitants of the wood with the Gruffalo, the mouse successfully convinces the beast that he, the mouse, is the scariest creature in the wood.

A little poetic, and little rhymy, I actually quite like the light humour in it. However, when I first read it (in about 2 minutes flat!), I was quite sure that it will be a few more years before Spud shows some interest in the book. I figured this might be something a little bit too much for a one year old child now, especially when you take the number of words in this book into account (700 of 'em words apparently!).
 
I certainly would not have thought for a second that Spud would be interested in "sophisticated" books just yet given her very short attention span, but strangely enough,  this is certainly one book which she cannot get enough of.
 
Since last weekend, she has been handing us The Gruffalo up to 5x-7x a day, asking us to read to her again and again and again. She has yet to last sitting through the entire book, but she certainly lasted about 6 pages (at minimum) of being read to before she takes off again!
 
She certainly recognises The Gruffalo, for when we ask her about it, she will straight away take off to find the book and hand it to us!
 
I cannot figure out what is it about this book that she is so enthralled with, but I am amazed that out of the many books she has, this is the one and only book she is most interested in. I would have thought the monster looking thing would probably scare the crap out of her, but funnily enough, she actually smiles quite a bit at the illustrations. It goes without saying that The Gruffalo is now her favourite book and I hope that it will last long given the trashing Spud gives the book sometimes.
 
Reading this book to Spud reminds me of Little Dude Baby. Unfortunately, Little Dude Baby and family have all relocated to Amsterdam not too long ago...which means, one less play date for Spud and for us, a bummer since we now have one less cool and normal family to chill out with when we have sometime over the weekends.
 
We certainly miss them, and we hope that they are settling in well in The Netherlands and getting used to the crappy Dutch weather.
 
I am actually really glad that Spud likes the book, and I hope one of these days, she will be able to sit through the entire reading session. It also goes without saying that if this continues on, there will probably comes a time where we can actually memorise the book, and able to read it with our eyes closed!
 
Our next mission here on:
Try to get our hands on The Gruffalo soft toy. (Silver Bullet's idea, not mine)

Come to think of it, Gruffalo is actually kind of cute!

Cook a pot of curry!

I don't usually click on random event invites sent from my facebook contacts, but I made an exception on this one event because:

• it is about food and
• when I read on what started all this, I whole-heartedly support the cause behind this

The long and short of it is that basically, the so-called "CMC" is a bunch of fuck-all morons, and I think that it is just rude to be insulting such divine food like the authentic Indian curry cooked by your next-door Indian neigbour! [The link to the article can be found here]

Truth be told, Indian curries are one of the bestest food in the world, and something not to be trifled with. To me, the "smellier" the curry, the better it tastes!

Just to make a point on how much I love my curries, I even posted the invite as my status update (something which I never do) PLUS invited more friends to join in the event! (something I also don't often do!).


So, in support of this cause and celebrating "smelly curries", I am going to be whipping up my own pot of curry this Sunday.

I am a Singaporean and I am proud of our curries and I am disappointed that a 3rd party could act as a mediator in support of a non-Singaporean to stop fellow Singaporeans from cooking curries in their own home! How ape-shit is that?!

What I find heart-warming about this is that they now have more than 40,000 people "attending" the event, and even managed a mention on Channel NewsAsia! How cool is that?

Somebody by the name of Samuel Vedanaigam quoted this on the comments page:

"I love my fellow Singaporeans!! We the citizens of Singapore, we are the most unique bunch of people, we fight with each other for the little's things , we are best of friends ,we love our Neighbours, we hate our Neighbours, we marry our fellow Singaporean no matter what race, we hog the roads , we are bad drivers, we speak singlish so no one else in the world can understand us, but when you step on a another Singaporean, we leave our char kuay teow, Roti prata, nasi padang, kaya toast, bacon and eggs and we all cook curry!! United we stand with curry powder in one hand! "

I have to say that it was very well said...makes me feel very Singaporean, indeed.

Curry on, people! Make this Sunday 21st August a curry day for your family. :)

Mess, mess everywhere!

These days, our living room tend to look like as if a bomb has just exploded with toys strewn everywhere across the hallway. In the day, we have almost given up putting her toys back in their rightful place as Spud enjoys making the mess, shuttling from one toy to another.

Some months back, we used to give her just 5 toys per day to play with, and so she would get almost different toys each day so that she will not get bored easily. It was a nice theory that, except that Spud gets bored of her toys after 5 minutes and will be looking for something else.

So, we gave that  5 toys per day idea up quite a while back, and decided to keep all her toys in a make-shift basket. Like most babies, she enjoys making a huge mess and like taking things out of the basket (never putting it back into the basket!), and having a few favourites to play with.

The amount of toys Spud accumulated since before she was even born is actually quite scary, given that we hardly buy her any toys, With only 1 out of 5 toys were bought by us and most of what she has were given to her as gifts, it now kind of look like those toys somehow seem to have mysteriously propagated on their own.

Despite all those myriad of play-things though, Spud still crave for human interaction and attention a lot. Hence, her attention span on those toys tend to be short and I reckon, those toys are more of a distraction for us than for her so we can leave her for a few minutes to attend to other things.

Toys, toys everywhere...I cannot wait till she is a little older to be able to train her to clean up her own mess at the end of the day. (Assuming that's possible at all!*)

Funny how we have become tolerant of such mess; something which I don't think I could ever condone before,  given they can be such potential hazard for adults!

Talk about having double standards.

(Okay, we DO clean it up at the end of the day; there is only so much mess we can take!)

The last lecture

This clip has been around for a good 3 years now, and  I had only stumbled upon this just a few days ago. By the end of the video, I had a lump in my throat and teared a little...humbled by his words and feeling very aware of our mortality.

I thought this is something worth sharing, and I hope it inspires you to look at life from a different perspective.

Quote of the day

I came across the following status update on Facebook recently:

Fake people should have a sign on their neck that says: "Made in China"

Could not help but snigger...

The ball in between

There is something about this picture that I find quite amusing...

And the only reason the ball was in between Fudge's hind legs was because Spud decided that she was going to share her toy and Spud was kind enough to "hand" it over to Fudge by slowly putting it near her when Fudge did not respond as she held out the ball in her hand.

As soon as she put the ball down, Spud turned away and smiled in glee.

Looking at how Fudge looked here, I'm not sure she was too impressed with it! Heh.

12 Months

Spud officially turns 1 this month, and, cliche as it sounds, I cannot believe that a whole year has passed since she was born. When I watch her fast asleep in her cot, I cannot help but be constantly amazed that this little person had actually come out of me. Suddenly, those memories of sleepless nights seemed quite so far away now, and indeed, Spud has added another dimension to our lives.

From the world of babydom to that of a toddler, Spud is becoming quite the clown with her antics; often curious about the things around her and sometimes thinking that she is one of the cats.

She walks like a champ and is fast fine-tuning her sprinting skills in a matter of weeks. When she gets really tired at the end of the day, she hardly ever want to stay still and often walks around like a drunkard who is about to walk herself into a wall  (or whatever that is in her way)

She is speaking a whole lot of words now, too …words in a language which we don’t quite understand and a bunch of gobbledygook. We can, however, decipher a few words when she says “A-go” (i.e “Let’s Go” or at least we think so!) or “Wadah” (i.e. “water” or at least we imagined so!).

She laughs, smiles, babbles and dances around (out of sync like her Papa!) quite a bit and generally a very happy baby; quite a far cry from how she was in her first 6 months of life! .

I’ve never mentioned this before, but when she was born, Spud has this bright sparkle in her eyes…a sparkle so bright that it elicited comments from some, and including a few pediatricians. She still has those sparkles in her eyes, and, I’d love to say that when she smiles, she lights up the whole room (okay. She does! Just like every baby). But, what I actually wanted to say was, when she smiles, the sparkles and along with her eyes disappears because she has such small, almost squinty eyes! (Guess where she gets that from.)

Until yesterday, Spud has been eating her solids okay as compared to a month ago, and, for some reason, eats better as long as she is not being fed by her parents. Sometimes she eats so much that when her stomach bulges, her innie belly-button becomes an outie. Until yesterday, she is all about variety of food – as long as they are new to her, she will willingly eat it.

But the entire eating-well streak seems to have ended. As of yesterday, Spud simply refused to eat any of her solids at breakfast, lunch and dinner; refusing to even open her mouth to new food and rejected some of her favourites.

By the end of the day yesterday, both Silver Bullet and I ran out of steam after spending the entire day trying to get her to down her food. All the tricks which had worked before failed to work this time round. It was frustratingly tiring to feed her as she adamantly refused to even open her mouth, let alone to even take a little bite.

We were at the end of the tether by 6pm yesterday, and out of the blue, Silver Bullet had it in him to give her a piece of saltine cracker which we have lying around. Much to our surprise, Spud actually took to it and eventually polished off all but half of those saltines; the very last pack of saltines we have at home!

Just as we thought she has made some improvements with solids, she threw us a curve ball again. I don’t think we ever have it easy with Spud, and I don’t think she will make an exception to this. In fact, when Silver Bullet asked me if I could think of just one thing when Spud cut us some slack and made it easy for us, I could not think of anything. Actually, we both struggle to think of just one thing as everything with her did require some huge effort!

We have come a long way all three of us. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time, I toyed with the idea of returning her to The Bum and picking her up 10 years later…I still do when she gets difficult.

Okay. Okay. I’m kidding!

Sigh…I envy those parents whose babies sleep all day, not a big fuss-pot and are usually a sea of calmness. I guess the stars have dictated that come hell or high water, a super fuss-pot child would probably suit us better to ensure that we will not be bored. Ever.

I am sure that things will get even more interesting for us as she continues to test our patience when she tots her toddler’s trots which may be worth a post at a later stage. Till then, I’m leaving you readers with these photos below...



1 month: still a blob



2 months: Holding her head up strong

 

3 months: Trying to sit up



4 months: Finally turning over!

5 months: Sitting up and eating solids

6 months: Crawling

7 months: Standing



8 Months: Tumbling around



9 Months: 1st teeth



Month 10: Supported walking

11 Months: Walking

12 months: Toting with Lenny the (snow) Leopard

Until I became a parent, I never fully realised that simple little things like sitting, crawling and walking can be really quite an effort for a little baby to achieve!

Baby-friendly zone

With these colourful brigtly coloured rubber mats in place, our quest in making our home a baby-friendly zone is now accomplished! (Yes, the electrical sockets in the main areas are all baby-proof as well and we do try to make our home as baby-safe as we can)

It took me a while to get used to the colours right in the middle of our living room, though, but now that I have,  I am thinking that just a normal polished brown parquet flooring would look weird to the naked eyes if we ever decide to take these mats off the floor one of these days.

Now there's certainly no denying that this home has got a baby-soon-to-be-toddler in tow!

The In-Trend

Almost everyone in Thailand is sporting the skinny jeans these days, and not only that, it seems that the trend these days amongst Thais is to fold up their jeans like this:



I swear I see this trend sweeping the streets everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE I turn my head. It appears like it is a universal mega-cool style this.  It is not only restricted to the teenagers, but even those in their 40s are also sporting it like it is the coolest trend ever.

On the hindsight, I wonder if the recent bouts of heavy rain we have been having here has got anything to do with it. If it is, I'd say it probably is the more practical thing to do.

But, honestly. I seriously doubt it.

Baby Food: Macaroni

There is something to be said about not having a working laptop and an internet connection. It is great! and I can find the motivation to do OTHER things with less of a rush than usual.

With the time I had when my laptop crashed recently, I decided to get a little creative and spent a little bit more time in the kitchen to make Spud my version of baby macaroni:

By "more time in the kitchen", I meant I actually spent a little over 15 minutes on my feet as opposed to just the usual steam, mash and freeze.

It's a simple recipe of:

• boiled macaroni
• about 3 teaspoon of tomato sauce from a can
• mixed vegetables of carrots and peas

I cooked them all together in a pan for about 10 minutes and they are ready to be eaten. It's bland as hell, but at least Spud's eating it!

Fresh flowers

One of my colleagues was kind enough to share her find with me and gave me some fresh flowers to display on my desk. Her reason for buying the flowers was because she likes this particular type very much, and according to her, they are usually quite hard to come by.

She was all enthusiastic about it and decided to give me half of what she initially bought herself when she saw me walking into the office first thing in the morning. Why she did that though, I have no idea...and, for the life of me, I have no clue what kind of bloom these were as she was not able to give me the name in English. No, they are not roses.

They smelt nice and sat pretty on my desk for 2 days. And then died.

To this day, I still question about the practically of buying fresh flowers...nice to look at, and only to die on you just as quickly...!

Quote of the day

“Your hard-drive crashed because it can no longer handle the bullshit!”

The above was quoted by Silver Bullet in relation to the dynamics of the industry I work in when my hard drive crashed recently in his attempt to offer me some comfort to my misery.

That got a hearty laugh from me. I would never have thought of THAT. I have to say that his remark was superbly priceless! You gotta admit that was very cleverly put and worth a post on its own.

Ahhh...my husband the geek. His honesty can be so brutal.



Wet.Wet.Wet.

It has been raining for the whole day today; not the usual quick half an hour of torrential rain like we get most (if not all) of the time here, but constant drizzles.

It is the kind of weather which makes me want to stay at home in my pajamas and cuddle up in bed, and not worry about having to be at some place or dressing up to go somewhere, or worst, drag my sorry ass to work (something which I have to do today...so, bleahhh!).

It's cool, it's nice and I love the smell of the rain. And yes, I do think I'm happy when it rains. (as long as I am indoors in a TROPICAL country, that is).

There's just something about the rain...and I love it!