Roller Coaster

Secure, fear, sad, grateful,happy, gave up, peaceful are just of the words to describe it.Most people love the thrills a roller coaster gives. Others just prefer to walk on level ground. Still others who are forced on it just shut their eyes and think of calm sea and quiet countryside while keeping busy with all kinds of physical activities.

Apple Crumble my style

A very simple version,
I CRUMBLE CRUST

150 g flour
75 g butter, soften
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg

use knife and then fingers to get crumbs texture
75 g brown sugar
added last just distribute on top or stir in

II APPLE

20 g melted butter/ margarine
6 green apple skinned, core, sliced thinly for faster cooking time
75 g sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon / nutmeg

optional,
raisins soaked in wine, juice or water till soft
lemon juice

Put everything in pot and cook, stirring to prevent burning till apple is soft
adjust sugar, and lemon to taste
add flour bit by bit till consistency is thick

Pour onto greased pie dish, sprinkle crumble
Bake at 200 Celsius till golden brown

I haven't tried it here but apparently, one can substitute apple for pears, plums or gooseberries (idea for oversea student!)

Chicken Rice simple style- courtesy of PE and a bit of changes

Preparation of chicken

Chicken thigh
1 score for easier cooking and better marinating,
2 season with salt, pepper and wine, sesame oil, soya sauce( put what u have for people oversea who don't have everything)

• alternatively, can chop chicken too
• can remove skin but then chicken oil, not so nice

Preparation of rice
1 wash rice

optional
fry rice with oil around 3 min

2 Fry ginger(use pepper as alternative), garlic and onion in oil
3 put in rice
4 place chicken on top of rice
5 cook rice
6 serve with any vege you can find like cucumber or carrot or sang choy

enjoy

I actually haven't tried this style yet but for the benefit of overseas people, need to put on blog first.
boil rice with water / chicken stock

Menopausing or What?

At 53, I am suppose to be reaching menopause. So say my doctor. He has very positive hopes judging by the way he is prescribing the drugs. Well, I don't think my flow is stopping if that is what menopausing is all about. The month he stop my drug, my pains and agony comes back and off again I will troop to his office.
But I do have hot flushes off and on.I do have mood swings but are they all due to the menopause? That I don't know.All I know is that waves of depression comes often until I don't want to talk about it. And when I don't want to talk about it, I becomes very quiet.And when I am quiet, I think of a lot of things. And let's not talk about what I am thinking.

Dedicated to SH, JF and PE

Last Friday, 4 of us met up before J goes back to Texas. It started off to be a breakfast meeting. It ended up a full day of chatting, talking, revealing thoughts, memories, keeping up news, sharing, laughter plus a few wake up jabs for me. One was that we started as colleagues 31 years ago, enjoyed our journey through our courtship, early days of marriage, childbirth and close friendship.

As the turn out, one got married and moved off to US, one left the profession, another moved on to another school and I was left behind in BB.(Ironically,they join the school one year before me so actually I joined the group in 1980 when I was transferred there)

J came back off and on and we met up every time she did and we saw her baby girl grown up to be a lovely princess. SH was in another school and we actually did not see each other that much.Especially when PE was working with hubby and I was going through the years in school. Each have a hectic life being a wife and mother. Years down the line, we got back together physically and the friendship blossomed again.We have all passed the half century line, our children are all grown up and we spoke of holidays together. We even spoke of morbid happenings too and how we should face it.

Well, true friendship doesn't die, it just went off to sleep and woke up at an appropriate time.We spoke of sharing more and more and seeing each other more often now that we are ladies of leisure.I don't know if it will materialised but it definitely warm the heart to think that we are there for each other.

I don't know what will happen for the next 20 years but at present all I know is that all of us treasured this friendship, glad that we are friends and want to be for each other.

I, Me and Myself part II

All said and done in the last blog, I now has the chance to do what I say. But will I? Very tempted to but I know it is an emotional decision made out of frustration. So should I?

The push factor is strong.The brain factor is also strong so is the heart. Who will win?

I, Me and Myself

Was at J's mum's wake. Together with the discomfort I was feeling the last 2 weeks, it was a lousy combination.Got me thinking.Good part is that I am ready and have no fear.These last 10 months sees a change in myself and my attitude to many things. I learn to let go and let loose. I feel comforted with things around. I discover, face, accept and confirm many of my innermost feelings.In short I rediscover myself. I think it is good, at least to me.Maybe not to others but another thing I learn is to sometimes place myself first.I spend a large part of my life thinking about others. Not to be mistaken, I don't regret loving (I seldom regret anything I do). I am glad I did and I still do but as in life, we need to change. We advice a lot(most people have a lot to say about anything and anyone) but at some time, it is time to look into the mirror. It is time to stop waiting and to stop anticipating. It is time to just go on.