Sour

I have a weakness for all things creamy such as butter, cream, double cream and so on...but I do have a particular weakness for sourcream and will happily indulge by dousing it over numerous things.

Shrek's magnifique creation

I have to document one of Shrek's many endeavours in the kitchen. This happened a while ago but I do not recall having posted the 'picture is worth a thousand words'. His efforts were not in vain for I think the meal was forgettable. There is always Better luck next time Shrek. I remember having previously mentioning casually Shrek's tendencies to overdo/overkill the theory of throwing together all the ingredients and hoping for the best. Somehow Shrek needs a refreshment course in the culinary art of preparing simple yet delicious meals.

I forgot to add that esthetically speaking it is rather colourful and appealing. Taste wise I can vouch for its originality and authenticity but tastiness, my memory betrays me...

Although I must admit that I do thoroughly enjoy his 'stir-frieds' and his 'mi xao don' which as luck would have it sometime can have too thick or too little sauce depending on chef Shrek's mood... Need I say more.

Shrek the croquer des endives

Shrek is a 'croquer des endives'. He will voluntarily nibble on this delish head of endive like one would crunch and munch on a lollipop. Shrek is indeed an onionhead with a penchance for crunchy salad.

It is one of the more herbivorous side of Shrek albeit sensitive.

Shrek's annoying habit

One of the most annoying things Shrek dreads is when somebody dare to put back non-functional (which should have been discarded) office equipment such as ballpoint pens, liquid paper aka Tipp-Ex and so on and so forth into the desk. He then will (because Murphy's Laws dictates) find the futile office supplies when he is in the need of some liquid paper without the requisite brush for instance. What good is a liquid paper bottle when there is no brush? None whatsoever so whoever dared to put it back hoping to recuperate that darn thing will be lectured for at least 20 minutes or so about the futileness of such an act. Their senses will be questioned...They will be forced to squirm as The All-powerful and knowing Shrek points out their deficiency and unreasonableness and question their sense of judgment..

Who knew that by not spending 2 minutes to throw out the said offensive piece of rubbish one will have to endure 20 minutes of hard core lecture from a no-mercy punisher from hell?

One have got to learn one's lessons well.

Do not incite the wrath of Shrek.

Where life begins

I do not know where the fascination stemmed from but Petit Suisse asked Shrek a very nasty question on the way to school two mornings ago. It seemed that it went something like

'You know how you put seeds into mummy to make her fall pregnant. How exactly does that happen?'

Shrek admittedly was numbed from the shock of such an insightful question from a young and uninitiated little boy. He subsequently half-heartedly gave an incomplete response

'Well, I kiss your mum at length and it happens like that.'

That was a bullshit answer which sufficed and quenched Petit Suisse's thirst for knowledge or curiosity for the moment because he does not know better...but the question is most likely going to come back more fiercely in a few years time...when biology or the human anatomy is going to be employed. Shrek will then have to revise his theory and give a full explanation as to how seeds are planted and ovulation and fertilisation actually occurs no holds barred... I can hardly wait.

Petit Suisse is such a wondrously curious little boy. Bless his heart.

Superficial Shrek

I have no idea what has gotten into Shrek lately. Perhaps it is the fact he has been heavily influenced by 'the Superficial' but he has been paying special and uncharacteristically close attention to his appearance recently. I have caught him sneaking glimpses of his reflection as we walk past the mirrors in shops. He has been introducing gel to his hair in his morning routines while getting ready for work. He even tried (but subsequently removed-it was too uncomfortable he whined) to put a tie on for work...

Maybe he has caught the mid-life crisis bug 10 years early.

Let's wait and see how long this phase lasts...

Full

My bank book cannot be considered full but there are a myriad of other things in my household which could be described as such. The kitchen sink for instance is always full of dirty pots, pans and dishes. The laundry basket is overwhelmingly full of soiled clothes, linen and so forth. My apartment is full of noisy laughter and at times full of tearful tantrum hissy fits. My letterbox is full of crappy ads and monthly bills that incessantly arrive. My basement is full of needless crap that our family has accumulated over the years.My kitchen is full of useless gadgets. My pantry is full of sugar hits for my sweet cravings.
Sometime my home resembles a battlefield that has been hit by bombers and is certainly full of chaos and disorder.
The most important fulfilment is that at the end of a tiring and thoroughly exhausting day I do feel that it is full of love. I do want my children to feel that eventhough their mum might have lost her patience with them that ultimately she thinks that they are worth the sacrifices that she has made -career wise and otherwise and that she loves them in all earnesty.

I do want my children to be able to read this blog one day and feel proud of their mum. They need to know that no matter what their mum loved and loves them wholeheartedly.

I had a tendency to be much more optimistic before having children but the older I am the more pessimistic I have become. I think idealism has been unfortunately quashed by harsh reality. I do however believe that children need to follow their own paths and pursue their dreams...importance lies in trying and giving it your all. The end result sometime can be disheartening but being resilient and resistant enough to go on is what differentiates a doer from a nay-sayer.

Shrek's new title

Shrek has a new title to add to his impressive list : that of IRON MAN.

hehehe

Revelation

I have long known that this blog is my personal web space and that the only audience I have so far is Shrek. sob sob

It was intended to be my semi-personal journal which would showcase my capacity and potential as a writer but I have discovered that most of the time I am just rambling as I am in no mind to formulate 'something that would appeal to the general masses'.

I have asked myself time and again what separates the merely personal and boring blogs from those that end up with book deals.. (be it a memoir, mostly memoir or foodie)

The answer is I truly do not know. The quality of writing on some of these blogs which have secured book deals is questionable at best. It comes down to the circumstances and luck of the draw. Although it helps if one pretended to be more illustrious/scandalous or have some attributes such as being repressed and finally blossoming into a social butterfly. Although I have noticed that people often mistake commonplace embellishment of scenarios for wit.

A while ago I registered as a writer on essaywriters.net. Soon after I realised that it was in fact where people could pass off/plagiarise others work as their own. One offer ones services as a writer and one gets such projects as 'essay on history' or law...in short actual university and college papers where the clients want to purchase an essay written by writers on essaywriters.net and put their names on these works and submitting them to profs and teachers. I soon lost interest. I wanted to be freelancer not someone paid to do others homework.

I also submitted some original poems to poetry.com.
Imagine my naive jubilation at the fact that all the poems I submitted were selected and awarded the prestigious 'Editors Choice' as well as included in the next publication 'An anthology of poetry' . I realised that anyone who submit any poem will be awarded with an Editors Choice and be subsequently bombarded with invitations to attend the supposed International gathering of poets worldwide as well as ads to buy the pre-published anthologies, plaques, etc etc...in short a scam to sell stuff. I lost interest and stopped hoping for my chance to shine with a few published poems to my name.

I have also registered for such hideous parasites as hits4paid.com or emailcash.com.au

Most of these give the impression that one will make money with no capital invested, no work involved just a simple click on an ad and one will be awarded with 'points'. It is a big waste of time as the time invested in these useless and inane activities will render the actual measly gain a futile effort. It is not worth a damn!

My point in venting about all this is that I have many a frustration with all the scams and crap out there. I have learned a thing or two and will be the wiser for it. Although I did fall for these tricks I have not been a hapless pigeon because I did not actually lose anything valuable other than some time....which to Shrek is worth more than money,,.Time is money. Woe woe woe is me

My favourite time-wasting activities

I have a few activities I indulge in when I manage to put the kids to bed and have a bit of time to veg out.

I used to watch completely trashy reality-TV on MTV. I am ashamed...but it passed the time and I did lobotomise after a hard day at the day-care (more like the war-zone) juggling 3 under-6 warriors.
I admit that I find it more and more irritating and annoying and my level of tolerance for such rubbish is at an end.

My new found activities include facebooking (it's so bloody trendy nowadays) and surfing 'celebrity/people' watch sites.

I have had a bad influence on Shrek as he shares this same passion: surfing the 'people' sites....complete rubbish but it makes us feel warm inside to know that without make-up artists, plastic surgeons, beauty salons, stylists and pro photographers who meticulously photoshop these celebs, they look rubbish too...Some of them manage to look worse than hell even with plastic surgery, make-up and money and fame.

My favourite surfing pasttime involves ogling food porn and uhmming and ahming and all the while learning new techniques and tricks of the trade. It has been insightful to discover new ways to prepare the same old ingredients.



Otherwise Shrek is a die-hard techie fan and he reveres airplanes. He is very passionate about airliners.com a site dedicated to people like him who like plane watching and spend time discussing all aspects of aviation and aerien travel.

I also look at ordinary people's blogs who post mundane daily meanderings because I can relate to them at some level. It is amazing that with the age of technology people all over are reunited by special interests or just pure curiosity. I read these blogs much the same way as I would scan down a celebrity site because the chance of me ever crossing these people in real life is minus zilch. Somehow I feel rather connected by the commonalities, a sense of belonging to this cyber community and disconnected from reality at the same time. It does not foster any relationships but nevertheless it brings some moments of comfort and serenity when strangers are as self-deprecating and dead-pan humorous as I am.

Minuses

One of the many reasons why I dread living in Geneva in winter is its grey sky, absence of sunshine and lack of fruits save the nightmarish apples which are either sour or mushy/powdery. I as well as my offsprings all love fruits, exotic fruits in particular.

My mum who lives in Sydney has not missed any opportunites to rub salt into my wound of missing out on FRUITS glorious FRUITS by nonchalantly dropping hints that she is able to enjoy boundless bounty of cherries, luscious mangoes, sweet apricots, grapes, plums which renders me green with envy. She has not even started on all the exotic loot such as durian, mangosteen, jackfruit, rhambutan and so on and so forth.

If I see another apple, orange or banana I will literally go ape or bananas !

My ever burgeoning list of dispensable kitchen appliances.

I have a list of semi-useful kitchen appliances and gadgets/tools. I am more than certain that all of these purchases seemed like a good idea at the time and it was in no way impulsive buying. Scoff scoff...

Below is the non-exhaustive list:

1. The icecream/sorbet maker - I was really eager and excited when I received this as a gift. There were so many ice cream recipes I was inspired to try but the motivation has been replaced by fatigue and other priorities. I have yet to open the carton/packaging which goes to show how useful this machine has been to me.
2. The donut maker: I have not opened the packaging and it is not high on my priority list to do so either. The plus is that is it supposed to be a healthy version of donuts as it does not involve deep-frying. Although the deep-frying sometime is indispensable to the tasty factor.
3. The rotiserrie grill : I recuperated this from my aunt in Vietnam,apparently it consumes a lot of electricity and she had only ever used it once. I myself have used it occasionally since the
4. The bread maker: I have used this sporadically since its arrival in my kitchen. As always it was an acquisition I was very excited to finally secure but it has been sitting dormant in the corner for a little while waiting to be revived. I have not been altogether satisfied with the results it has yielded so far hence my reluctance and hesitation in attempting to give it some more workout.
5. The juice extractor: In theory very healthy and so forth but a bit unwieldy. It is a budget buster as well because it's pricey to extract fresh juice from fruits and veggies. The juice yielded cannot be preserved very long either. I have used it to extract apple and carrot juice but have not been adventurous enough to try with exotic flavours...
6. The Charlotte : A multi-function mincer that minces, shreds and slices and is so versatile it has become Shrek's newest best friend.. He is enamored with it.
7. The coffee machine : Solely Shrek's wake-up call because he is unbearably stroppy, lethargic and utterly unfathomable before coffee. Coffee is his drug.

The next acquisition will have to be essential because the kitchen is becoming crowded with all these needless or semi-useful appliances.

My lack of green thumb

I see the sorry state of the indoor plants that I have and wonder why I prolong their suffering. I do really want to revive and keep them until spring which is a long 3 months away from now. I am pathetic ! Two measly plants... and they are dying on me.

Shrek has been busying himself relentlessly slogging away at his day and night job so my endeavour to entrust him with the caring for the plants is to no avail.

It is getting rather desperate...all the more so when I feel like I hardly have time to do anything other than occupying and entertaining and feeding and general upkeeping the 3 and a 1/2 kids I have.

I will refrain from posting actual pictures of the pooor poor things. The real reason is I would have to take photos, upload and that takes precious time away from my other main activities.

Green thumb

I received a plant for my homewarming back in November and another one end of December. I am hoping that they will last until spring at least. Given my track record at keeping plants so far the plants do not have a very likely chance of survival. I do not have a green thumb though I do think that one does not really need to be to keep two plants from lasting 2 months. I even eschewed the likelihood of wilting from water shortage by spending luxuriously on a pressure sprayer. It is impressive as only enthusiastic gardeners can claim to have this tool.

Plants are complicated and seem high-maintainance: too much water- they die, not enough water they die, too much or too little sunlight they die, exposure to frostbite-death ...the list is endless. I cannot vouch for all their neediness..


I will bestow this all important duty of caring for the plants to my beloved Shrekkie.

Oyster Opener

It is no secret that I love seafood and in particular lobster, scallops, oysters and abalones. Shrek has been spoiling me by opening dozens upon dozens of oysters (at very affordable prices) and only eating nominally leaving me and Petite Suissesse to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

The bowl cut

Shrek thought it was a good idea to figuratively put a bowl on King Minimoy's head and cut around it.

It sure looks cute !

King Moy will have fond memories as the bowl cut has been captured on camera.