Life's Little Pleasures

As someone I don't know anymore wisely once said, "Life is made up of little pleasures." I used to add, "Small victories", and it became my nickname for a time, and I liked it.

I'd conjured it out of irony. Small victories. They are small, no? Une petit peu. Little. Tiny. Miniscule. Nearly insignificant.

But then steps in the word victories. It is a claim, no matter how small, of a battle won. It is something to be proud of. No matter how tiny? Or does it not matter no matter how victorious, because it is so small?

How someone came to view the nickname became a measure of his optimism. It was like a litmus test of faith almost - a glass, half empty? Half full?

I'd like to think I was being ironic. An optimist embarassed to admit to hope. But some people I'd met had flat out gone for small victories like this. And I'd honestly like to say that I thank them, and admire them for their honesty in living.

At the end of the day, when the sun sets and you lock the door and throw away the key - the sum of life is truly made up of little pleasures. We'd hardly remember anything else anyway.

My little pleasures of the day:

1. I rediscovered my oven. Ironically, I'd always prepped myself up with the mindset that my oven had too many bells and whistles. I'd somehow thought there were 4 timer settings (there are only 2) and 4 dials with 4 cooking types (and I could only think of 2: grill and oven - what else is there?!).
   
   It wasn't until today when I studiously read the manual (for the first time, I might add) and approached the oven with a get-to-know-you-bow usually reserved only for hippogriffs, that I realised it wasn't quite as unapproachable as I'd thought it was. It takes approx. 10 minutes top to pre-heat the oven (no setting) and there are only two main oven settings - the grill and the oven - to worry about. The rest were bells and whistles.
   
   One dial was for the light (imagine that! Were the makers of the oven thinking that I'd wanted mood lighting for my chicken?!) and another was for defrosting (probably a good idea in freezer to oven emergencies).
   
   I'd also found out that there were actually only two timers relevant to the course of baking. One, the useful one, which turns off the oven after the stated time, and the other which simply beeps and does nothing except act as a useful reminder to come to the oven and gape at the hopefully not burning dish.
   
   This is helpful. After some time of respectful silence at the oven's glowing door, I think I might actually come to be able to use this thing with some measure of ability. I'd better. I've been scouring baking recipes online already.
   
2. Heston Blumenthal was in search of perfection on TV today. He made what was probably the truly most perfect but more tedious and time consuming bangers and mash and treacle tart with ice cream. Honestly, one thinks, how much effort could possibly go into bangers and mash?
   
   But no! The god of cooking himself blew my mind away by making his own bangers - including, and not limited to, soaking well toasted bread in water before using the water for the bangers, just so that a nice, roasty smell would get into the sausages, and using a gas thingymajig found at the University of Reading to deconstruct golden syrup for treacle tart.
   
   I have to say this, the ice cream took it a step further in the pursuit of gastronomic happiness. He went to Guernsey, milked a cow, and using liquid nitrogen, made ice cream (straight from cow to ice cream) in under 4 minutes. "I never leave home without it. Not picnics, not barbeques, not holidays." says he of his liquid nitro kit. I'd say, if I weren't Heston blooming Blumenthal, I may get stopped by customs for carrying dangerous, potentially pressurized materials to my next Grecian holiday.
   
   That said though, the ice cream made fresh from cow squeezed did look gorgeously delicious. He'd taken a swipe with a finger off the whisk and there was 0.38 seconds there where I contemplated the possibility of licking the television.
   
3. I made a gorgeous dinner and it didn't take any effort at all. I'm going to do more of this in future. The discovery of returned time while dinner is effortlessly baking in the oven is bliss, truly bliss.
   
   So this is life. It starts with a struggle, there is the fall of the proud, and the rise of the humble, good triumphes over evil, there's some decadence involves, and finally, the laurels of success.
   
   The parables of life, summarized in the kitchen.

Small victories, eh? It was an enormous achievement for me (Pope-tongue-in-cheek) to have conquered my oven, battled my fears and now be able to stare confidently at the box of gold that looms before me.

Victories, however small, are victories anyway. In my present time and space, I'd take whatever I can get.

Organizing travel brochures

So a whole stack of travel brochures to assorted places in the world that one tends to collect when going on tour surfaced today. And on a whim, I've found the best way to organize them.

Requires:
One A4 size executive multi pocket folder. The kind that basically has many pockets, tab tags at the top and look like an A4 sized accordion.

Dump brochures in there by city, sorted alphabetically or by region... whatever way you prefer.

Uncountable Nouns

So just out of curiosity, I got the question of what the plural of "luggage" was, luggage? Luggages?

So a bit of trawling around the Net, and a list of uncountable nouns:

accommodation /advice / baggage/ bread / equipment / furniture / garbage / information / knowledge / luggage / money / news / pasta / progress / research / travel / work

The plural of luggage is... luggage.

And incidentally to add to the list after a debate in the office between Koreans, Singaporeans and Australians, fish is uncountable too.

The yummiest carbonated non-soft drink of summer

I think I've just discovered the yummiest carbonated non-soft drink for summer. Recently I've been into a sparkling water phase (I think it's summer) and been concocting all sorts of sparkling water drinks I can think of.

Elderflower and Apple Teaser

Ingredients:
Elderflower cordial
Apple juice concentrate/cordial
Sparkling water

Pour elderflower cordial to 1/4 glass. Top another 1/4 glass with apple cordial or concentrate. Fill up the rest with sparkling water.

It's delish!!

Turtle Karmasutra

You find strange things on random techy blog sites these days:

http://www.lostgarden.com/turtle_main.htm

How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!

How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.
- Alexander Pope

So I finally managed to catch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the telly. I was given a really good review of the movie, and I think, although surreal, the film did hit me, like a Darren Aronofsky's movie (much less dark, however).

I pride myself as someone who values memories. I used to tell myself, almost as a personal mantra that we live our lives in the pursuit of happy memories. That happiness is only as the memory is fleeting, we try to hold on to it like gold dust.

It's quite apt that this movie's changed that impression quite a bit.

I realise now that I will forget more than I will remember, that I will have impressions more than I will have recollections. Perhaps with that in mind, it is more important to have a pure heart than a spotless mind, for then at least, we get to make up our own minds.

It's interesting that what I got out of the movie was a strong theme of personal authenticity and self-determination. And ironic also that in that self-determination came a strange theme of fate, of "liking someone and not knowing why, just because". Almost as if our preferences came through more strongly than our choices or past choices, and that almost inevitably, we end up falling for the same person, for the same type of person, we look for things that remind us of that one true love we almost seemed to have used to know.

I wonder if that's really true.

---

incidentally, i did want to mention that i do recognize that alex pope said "how happy is the blameless Vestal's lot" as a sardonic question disguised as an exclamation. to be blameless is to also be empty, meaningless and blank, without the weight of choice and consequence. the liberty of the lack of responsibility is naturally also the restraint of having "each wish resign'd". if we want only what we're given - is that happiness?

Damien Rice presenting "9" on KCRW

New post, and be warned this is a very large video file, although absolutely worth it for the sheer pleasure of watching Damien play the piano. This is him presenting (ie. playing live) the songs on the album "9". First few minutes on "9 Crimes" is quietly thrilling.

9

I'm back into a Damien Rice phase, and I never realised how much I love the quiet angst of "9 Crimes". It is the piano, honestly, that gets me. It's that repetitive, quiet, simple (I could so play this!) chord that echoes throughout the entire song. Oh, and Lisa Hannigan's voice. (Aarrgh that she does not have a band or a professional album of her own. She has a uniquely Portisheadish voice.)

Leave me out in the waste
This is not what I do
It's the wrong kind of place
To be thinking of you
It's the wrong time
For somebody new
It's a small crime
And I've got no excuse...

Summer Rains

Well, nothing to worry about, but I just thought I'd document for the sake of amusement that I've received my first flood warning notification in the mail this afternoon upon getting home. Looks like they're really serious about my place flooding up in the wee hours of tomorrow morning, with the possibility of closure along my road.

I have been "advised (to) make reasonable provision for personal needs as your movements could be restricted" by the Reading Borough Council. I take it that this means forwarding your phone to work from home, making sure you have enough to eat and stocking up from the Tesco's next door before they close. All this I have done.

Jokes of building arks and learning to swim have been flooding (no pun intended) my office social mailbox already, thanks to the idea that people are getting hesistant to come to work since my office is technically (a bit far out... but technically) in a flood risk area. It's more like looking for an excuse not to come to work, if you ask me, but hey, I'm all for it!

In Reading and Caversham, high water levels are expected to be reached at
about 0700 BST.

Reading Borough Council said river levels are unlikely to rise more
than 12ins (0.3m), and the Kennet, Lambourn and Loddon are not expected to
flood.

Mr Abbott added: "There could be flooding of some properties. Levels in
Reading, however, are not expected to be anything like we have had in
Oxfordshire."

Considering that my apartment building has a lovely river view of the Thames, it may flood up to my ground floor. (Boy, would I love to see that happen.) That is, if the water manages to somehow rise high enough from the small Thames tributary stream that is honorarily part of the river, cross an old bowling green, cycle lawn and football field before reaching the front steps of my backyard. (Not to worry, folks at home, I live on the 2nd floor - 3rd floor in Singapore terms).

I'm rather looking with envy at the ducks and swans roaming happily along the river banks and wishing that I had webbed feet. They are in the meantime merrily being traffic obstacles in the way of every car, bicycle and pedestrian haplessly trying to stay dry and look like they had just discovered duck heaven.

The Perfect Summer Drink (Non-Alcoholic)

While browsing the BBC's Good Food Magazine, I've found what is probably the most perfect summer drink, and immediately available from the ingredients in my kitchen (how amazing is that?!)

Apple, Mint and Elderflower Spritzer

Ingredients:
1/4 glass cloudy apple juice
2 dashes elderflower cordial
sparkling water
sprig of mint (plucked from what remains of my mint plant - yes, i got one! perfect summer plant!)

Method:
In a glass, pour 1/4 cloudy apple juice. Throw in mint sprig, and top with 2 dashes of elderflower cordial to half glass. Top remainder of the glass with sparkling water.

The result is a fantastically refreshing, fragrant drink. Try it!

Dryer Sheets as limescale remover

Apparently, many people know about this already, but I've just found out and I'm amazed! I've no clue how this works, but it does!

Wetting a tumble dryer sheet and then using it to wipe limescale and soap scum encrusted stuff dissolves the limescale on them, leaving them good as new.

It's quite brilliant actually. One thing though, for severely hard limescale stains, it probably makes more sense to leave the dryer sheet on to soak for a while, then rinse off and dry. They don't work so good with just one wipe. Wonder if thick fabric softener liquid would have the same effect, surely they're made of the same things as dryer sheets?

mijn beschermerengel, i finally find myself going to amsterdam for a day. i didn't realise this, and i don't think it hit me even though my business trip was confirmed until, well. there's a guy working in germany who is originally dutch (well, he still is, he just lives in munich) who's on point to take everyone out for dinner.

it'll be such a new place. i keep finding myself wanting to keep going, it's a short flight, but i never make it.

maybe one day i'll pick up dutch.

As I Like It

Hot Tea
Originally uploaded by metaphoric

The Passion on film

Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (one of my favourite) is coming to film, says she. And Gwyneth Paltrow and Juliet Binoche.

Please please please let Villanelle be played by Juliet Binoche.

I can almost see the film happening already, and I can actually see both Gwyneth Paltrow and Juliet Binoche in it, so I'm looking forward to applauding some exceptional artistic vision.

Akan datang - stay posted.

Prefacing a diary

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
W.B. Yeats

Since I'm in a poetry phase recently, and in a bored and listless state of mind, I do what I love doing best - think up gifts, not to anyone in particular.

This idea came to mind - a diary. One that is filled, with pictures, texts, blog posts... whatever, tracing the life and times of a particular loved one. And this Yeats poem will preface the book.

Garbage Disposal Cleaning

Few people have garbage disposal units in Singapore, but I honestly promise you, once you've had one, it's incredibly difficult to do without one.

Here's a hack I found for cleaning it.

When going about your regular kitchen cleaning, you don't want to overlook your garbage disposal. Especially if food is scraped into the disposal when regularly washing the dishes. To clean grease and leftover food from your disposal and sharpen the blades at the same time, sprinkle liberally with baking soda and pour white vinegar over until it bubbles. Let set ten minutes. Rinse with hot water. Put two or three ice cubes in the disposal and grind. Rinse again with hot water. Now your disposal is clean and odor free.

When your dreams come true without you knowing it

"joy in desire more than desire of joy
hath ever been my passion; mute from far
to love an unknown woman like a star;
to build in dreams no waking could destroy
some island-palace far from life's annoy;
by strength of spirit to force the silver bar
of twilight till the dawn-gates stood ajar,
and gaze on Paradise, a dazzled boy;
to look forth o'er the ocean's grey-lit foam
in the dim morning; and in starry night
upon the myriad-mustered worlds above;
to emulate the unequalled, Greece and Rome,
heroes and deeds, the heads of faith and fight;
to adore thee whom i may scarcely love."
v., love sonnets, john barlas

I think, though this might be a figment purely of my own imagining, that I had actually sat near (not exactly next to) JW on a train to London and had thought she'd looked familiar, nearly almost like JW herself, but bit my tongue asking.

Not that there would be any way of verification at this point, mind. What fools we are, when the object of our childhood dreams and foolish desires lie, hidden, so close yet so far.

I'm of course melodramatizing this. I am chuckling to myself in amusement yesterday when I came across this recently taken photograph of her and realized that it may have well been indeed, with a high degree of probability, my favourite writer herself.

Well, in consolation, at least I now know she frequents Spitalfields and am nearer to her in Reading than I would ever be in Singapore. All the better to chance a glimpse and an autograph.

My life's work is nearly complete:

• Neil Gaiman for the Sandman series of graphic novels
• Tori Amos to sign a copy of Choirgirl
• Jeanette Winterson to sign a copy of Written on the Body or Sexing the Cherry
• Gary Oldman in a music store, to sign a copy of the soundtrack to The Fifth Element in silver. (don't ask)

Polish Poets

Jeanette W (my one true love of poets and writers if there could ever be any) showed me this on her website. She's recently been into Polish writers and culture, and I can see why.

Czeslaw Milosz
Collected Poems 1931-2001

Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills -
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.
Then he wants to use himself and things
So that they stand in the glow of ripeness.
It doesn't matter whether he knows what he serves:
Who serves best doesn't always understand.

The Season for Cherries

Cherries in Summer
Originally uploaded by metaphoric.

At this time of the year, cherries can honestly be the only fruit.

This photo is the only proof left of how succulent these fruits are, since I have eaten the rest.

Whatever the photographs in magazines tell you, all those Marks and Spencer ads (oh, you don't get them outside of England) of how ripe, juicy and tantalizing British cherries are as a summer fruit... they are all true.

These ripe-to-perfection pitted fruits yield soft and sweet after your teeth crush through the first bite of delicate, glossy velvet skin. Even sinking your teeth halfway through the fruit to grit upon the definite pit seems worthwhile.

I'd recently washed and completely enjoyed a bunch, savouring them like rare grapes. While I was at it, I'd decided to take a picture, and it's up to you to believe me when I say that this photo has not been edited and was taken at 8pm in the evening.

The "customary" birthday blog post

Oh, and a poem as a special surprise.

On and around the time of my birthday this year, I took a walk around Chinatown and other places. The theme of this year seemed to be "Reminiscence", and I'd had a nice spa massage (courtesy of Citibank and other faces), had a booking at the Yamaha studio where I'd had an hour of piano playing (or attempts at piano playing) to myself, a fabulous dinner with family and a planned day of times (not dates), wandering, reminiscing, getting back in touch with myself.

This is important. Partly because who you are is defined in parts by who you have been, which defines also who you will become. There is a train of thought that one can never truly know who you are until you look back, revere, and finally accept who you have been, that the mirror only shows you images of the past, light reflected on glass into your eyes split seconds after you have become who you are being.

This is also important because as I move in the semi-nomadic life that I lead, travelling and living from places to places, cities to cities, it is easy to lose track of where I have come from, and lose memories of the place where I was born, and gain new, artificial, reminiscent memories of the place I grew up in. So I treked back memory lane, so to speak.

It was quite an adventure.

I'd discovered a poet, whose father was a great Singaporean photographer, once awarded the Photographer of the Century by the Photographic Society in New York. This is apparently great, a century is a long time, and Andrew Yip now spends his time raising awareness of his father's work - antique photographs of Singapore. One photo in particular struck me, a piece called "Singapore River", which shows the mouth of the Singapore river circa 1900's (I think), still chock a block with bum boats and trading houses. The photograph leads the eye along the line of shophouses at Boat Quay, which still remains today, obviously in a different form. The photo must have been taken from a building whose vantage point is lost today, somewhere near the top of where the Merlion now stands I gauge.

Anyway, I looked at it again today, and a poem came to mind. I suppose it captured what I had noticed of the picture when I saw it, from the time I'd set my eyes on it to the experience of having bought the print. [I shall scan a copy and post it on this post for curiosity.]

On 'Singapore River'

The boats are gone now
Carried away in tides of cliche
Policy sifted the river, its waters swelling now
Not with trade but pride, a tourist lure
In twinkling lights along the quay.

The boat house at the corner stands still
A colonial restaurant today,
A mockery of days
Gone by, almost forgotten, except
For this single, astute eye.

"This one very popular, nearly
All of Australia has a copy somewhere."
In that moment then, you reminded me
Of torrential rain, euphemistic showers
In distant faces at distant hours.

Fashionable Guinea Pig Housing at your doorstep

Kinda thought enuwy would like this one should she end up getting guinea pigs.

Omlet.co.uk sells the eglu for chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits (in different sizes of course!) which comes in trendy colours, are made of non-absorbent plastic, and are delivered straight to your doorstep and, in the case of the chicken eglu at least, set up in your backyard for you with a 28 day money back guarantee!

Sure takes the stress out of having multiple organic furries running around the house while in the city. Delivery to most places in the UK, and comes with an enclosed, fox safe run if you had a garden too.

Duct Tape Wallet

Or how to convert an old and used, torn up and dirty wallets into new and fancy ones using just multi coloured duct tape.

(Now tell me where to buy lime green and fuscia pink duct tape!)

Edible "Paper" Cranes

While surfing for the right way to fold a wonton dumpling (yes, Googling can teach you everything you need to know) - I came across this website by accident.

Apparently, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have taken folding your food to a new level of edible origami. It's amazingly fascinating.

Now I've never been particularly good at origami, nor at frying wontons, but this reminded me of a particularly fun Chinese New Year's dinner where we were all at enuwy's house trying to outdo each other in making creative versions of the deep fried chinese money bags.