1. Tango classes
2. Full body health check & blood sugar test.
3. Go for a cheap ‘sleep in & drink cold drinks by the beach’ trip together
4. Find a home.
5. E to get back her 60kg weight & The Guy to stop smoking.
6. Spend at least 6 hours each weekend playing games, both online & off.
7. Eat at one ‘exotic’ ethnic restaurant once a month.

Happily, we have had some items done, and some still need working on.

1. Tango classes
     Not yet started. :OP Apart from checking out http://abrazosclub.com/ and asking around at Cathay’s Jitterbug, we still haven’t started on the vertical Tango yet.

2. Full body health check & blood sugar test.

     Done! We both have disturbingly  high cholesterol levels and we’ll have to check in again in 2012. By a stroke of pure luck, the laksa stall which The Guy patronised every weekend for the past decade, closed shop permanently. Consequently, the Guy’s cholesterol level is slowly ebbing down. 

3. Go for a cheap ‘sleep in & drink cold drinks by the beach’ trip together

Phuket 11Nov – 14Nov 2012.

4. Find a home

We missed the launch of the cheaper BTOs in the East due to our work schedules. The launch of the East-side ECs & DBSSs got us into squabbles with each other on our housing needs and financing options. Finally, we found a place luxe enough for him, cheap enough for me. Best of all, opposition home-ground. A good place indeed. Now, with a ticket no of 466, have a 20% chance of getting a home we want. 

5. E to get back her 60kg weight & The Guy to stop smoking.

Well, I am still fat and The Guy is still smoking. We need to work harder.

6. Spend at least 6 hours each weekend playing games, both online & off.

This was a tongue-in-cheek to do. The Guy used to spend hours upon hours gaming. I would occasionally get very addicted to whatever game passed my way. Thankfully, we got too occupied this year to game so much. That said, The Guy gamed enough to cover our quota for sure.

7. Eat at one ‘exotic’ ethnic restaurant once a month.

Greedy is an adjective owned by us. We out-did this to-do. We ate

1. Cambodian (on our 1st anniversary)
2. Vietnamese
3. Thai (of cos!)
4. Burmese (we went back to our 1st makan place)
5. Taiwanese
6. Japanese ( Great sushi at Itacho)
7. Korean (The Guy’s unfavourite cuisine)
8. Mexican
9. Nepalese
10. Indian (Range of common to posh, from home cooked to eat-outs & a buffet too)
11. Italian (Oh, Basilico! Mio amore!)
12. Swedish
13. Turkish 
14. Chinese! (Yea, real Chinese Food by Real Chinese people in Chinatown. The wait staff told us so.)

That’s about 1/2 the to-do list accomplished. I’m eager to see what else we’ll get up to next year and to see if we ought to carry over some of these undone to-dos.

Happiness is a check against a to-do list.

We get better with practice, but what if we have been getting it wrong all along?

The scenery of what is to be? I know not.

A couple of days ago, I was in a goodish mood in an ‘as good as it gets’ moment, and there it struck me that I had no more interest or liking for my job. No yearning to continue on in this job role. No longer was there a position I wanted to consolidate or another issue I wanted to sort out. There’s probably a limit to administrative work that I can tolerate, and even then, I’m not the best role – modeler for administrative role.

In retrospect, I enjoyed sorting out the kinks of the systems and seeing things get simpler and better. And seeing how things can get with some simple people & resource management.

But it is very much time to bid adieu to both the work and the folks.

You either keep up in stony silence or growl a little at me.

After all, you’ve done your duty. You’ve explained, more than once, that words are cheap, and saying ‘I love you’s cheapen the meaning of those blistering words.

I get petulant. Put on a pout. Remind you that you once said you’ll tell me every day that you love me. I took every day to mean every 24 hours cycle (give or take a couple of sleeping hours).

You shrug off my reminder. That was then. Then, of course, referring to when we were dating. In the here and now, I better be able to see for myself that you love me in all that you do for me.

My sulk mirrors yours and the laundry list of disenchantment stretches itself a little more. I hang back a little. I’ll pester you with the same request, maybe differently phrased, another time. I will.

~ ~ ~

I pester you with the same query again.

This time, you are driving down the road in the rain. It’s another spent weekend. There’s traffic light turning from amber to red. You come to a stop and still the rain pelts down.

“Do you love me?”

“What do you think?”

“I think you do.”

“That’s right.”

It’s a signal. The light goes green and we go on our way together.

]]> http://celadona.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/this-is-how-you-say-i-love-you-part-1/feed/ 0 celadona http://celadona.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/yesterdays-dinnerlady-iron-chef/ http://celadona.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/yesterdays-dinnerlady-iron-chef/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:02:03 +0000 celadona http://celadona.wordpress.com/?p=448 ]]> To the astonishment of his family, The Guy abruptly announced after lunch yesterday, “we’ll cook dinner tonight.”

E: “We? Who are you referring to as ‘we’?”

The Guy: “Well, you of cos. & I’ll help you out.”

Not exactly the easy Sunday evening I had in mind.

Guy’s Mom quipped, ” That’s nice. Then I’ll get an idea of how you youngsters cook these days.”

Guy’s Bro injected, “The Guy cooking dinner? E, So long as you are also cooking, I’ll eat.”

Great, that’s dinner for 6 then. The Guy, His Mom, His Dad, His Bro, His Bro’s Darling & me.

E: “Eh…okay Guy, I’ll lend you a hand.”

I get mini bouts of anxiety.Almost all the time these days. Shallow breathing, tense muscles & some mild flutter of irritation and the general feeling of wanting to get away from it all.

In my the naggy corner of my mind, Cooking for The Guy’s family = Assessment of Prospective Maybe Family Member to be.

Back in The Guy’s room, I tried not to sulk. “What exactly are you planning to cook?”

He doesn’t know.

E (spoken): How about cooking my signature dish of minchi? (Beef mince with mini cubes of fried potato over rice & topped with a sunny side up egg.)

Guy: Sure.

E (Thought-bubble): Phew, at least I can turn out something decent… And hopefully not fall from grace for being a shoddy cook.

Guy: We’ll see what we can find in the kitchen too.

Over at the kitchen, Guy’s Mom is rinsing out a pot of live clams. There’s a bunch of choice romaine lettuce on the counter. Purple onions, rinsed & quartered. A pack of  frozen chicken wings & what? A frozen roast chicken? None of which are minchi ingredients.

I looked at The Guy sadly & sighed discreetly. The Guy tried to snuck the frozen chicken back into the freezer but failed to. Who cooks 2 chicken dishes in a family meal?

Could I Iron-Chef it all out?

It’s 6pm.

I chuck the defrosted wings into the a pot. Lugged some ketchup, soy sauce & chinese cooking wine over the pale wings. The Guy is peeling up garlic. “Please remove the roots, dear,” I bleated. His eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t boss me around.”

I leave the wings as they were and went to play Starcraft. 2 victorious battles later, I slunk to the kitchen again.

It’s 7.30pm. Really time to start cooking.

Back in the kitchen, the rice cooker is puffing with fragrant jasmine rice. The Guy had prepared the rice while I was battling little terrans.

I spot some left over thinly sliced pork belly in the freezer, lifted them out and sloshed some abalone sauce (no oyster sauce in the fridge) over them

I’m heating some oil up with the minced garlic. The sizzling starts and the aroma of browning garlic wafts up. The wings and marinate are slipped into the pan. When the wings turn white, I shove in the chopped onions, some tomatoes and a bit more ketchup.

As an afterthought, I asked The Guy if there were chillis in his home. He fishes out a couple of tight red padis, chops them and slides them into the pot.

We leave the wings to stew.

The clams get slaughtered next. Heated oil doused with garlic again, then I’m placing the live clams into the pot. I’m unsure of what to do next. I give the clams a stir.

“Didn’t you want to boil them?” asked The Guy.

Earlier in the afternoon, I told The Guy, “We’re going to cook the clams in a simple manner. Boil them in salted water, then serve them with melted butter.” The Guy loves butter and was satisfied with the proposal.

Now, he cast a perturbed eye on the clams, wondering about the dip-in- melted-butter part. He looks at me mournfully.

E: Well, maybe we could add some butter in now.

The Guy takes out all the butter in his fridge. He’s expecting to use a third of the 500g block. I oblige and cut most of it onto the clams. Melted butter on any food adds to his happiness quotient.

E: Do you happen to have any white wine? The cheap kind?

The Guy helpfully pull out an unopened bottle. “It’s cheap,” he intones.

“Great, then we can use it.”

Most of the clams have given up their little umami ghosts by then. We cast a wet blanket of Sauvignon over them and clamped the lid on.

I refrained from sprinkling coriander over the clams, because The Guy & Guy’s Bro hate the fragrant leaf.

It’s 7.50pm.

I taste the chicken wing stew. The padi sets off a slow burn. I let The Guy test some. “Did you deseed them?”

The Guy: Most of them, but I think my dad won’t be able to take the heat.”

E: “I’ll tone it down with some sugar before it’s served. The stew will burn if I add sugar now.”

There’s egg tofu & golden needle mushrooms in the fridge. The Guy wants them cook, just in case 3 dishes aren’t enough for 6 mouths. I thinking of cooking them in spicy bean sauce.

Round 3 of garlic sauteeing in hot oil before the marinated pork belly hits the fats. They turn cooked pork grey and we chuck the romaine lettuce and toss in more abalone sauce again. In a flash, the lettuce are ready to be served.

I have my mind set on chopping up the roast chicken and adding it to the chicken stew. No point having 2 separate chicken dishes in 1 dinner.

The Guy is incredulous. Without banning me from doing so, he huffily says,”Well, if you must.”

I’m stymied.

“And so how do you plan to serve it then?”

The Guy: “Just heat it thoroughly and serve it as it is.”

E: “I won’t. I am going to make a soup with it. A chicken soup with mushroom and tofu.”

The Guy doesn’t buy my suggestion.

E:”Okay, half of it then. You can serve the other half as it is.”

The Guy:”I don’t see how it is going to work out. Do as you please.”

Of course he meant, “Do whatever you feel like since I can’t stop you anyway.”

I pursed my lips and send the last scrapping of garlic onto oil for the last time this evening. Then the tofu cubes and the mushroom gets their turn in the pan. Knorr’s chicken cube cheats it way through. Everything is soon bubbling. Half of the chopped roasted chicken goes into the soup.

E:”I’m going to add milk to the soup and get watered down cream of chicken soup.”

The Guy is certain I am culinary sinner. He hands me the remaining milk in his fridge.

Guy’s Bro wanders into the kitchen and said,”I think you must be wanting this actually” and hands me an unopened tub of cream.

Guy’s Mom doesn’t trust the cream in her soup. She asks for a bowl for herself and Uncle without the cream.

The milk goes back to the fridge. The soup gets creamed.

I’m done with cooking & I’ve forgotten about adding sugar to the tomato chicken stew.

The stew, the clams, the veg & the chicken & the soup is served with steam rice.

It’s 8.20pm.

Everyone tucks in. There isn’t much conversation. The veg is the first dish to be finished. The soup needed replenishing. The clams deplete and the stewed tomatoes and soft onions are scooped up. The last 2 wings are dished to the guys. Compliments to the Chef & his Assistant are handed out.

Uncle is given a serve of soup with coriander. He gesticulates to the coriander in the soup and pronounces it tastier than the lettuce and wished he could have it with the clams. When he clears finishes his rice and his soup, he sets his bowls down, smiles with effort and says audibly in my direction, “good!”

Some where in the boiled cockles of my heart, his comment is an atonement for all the meals I haven’t cooked for others.

We’ve started on #7. Ate Cambodian food on 1 Jan 2011 for our anniversary.

Then, we have had Taiwanese, Vietnanese & Burmese cuisine too. All in this month itself. Looks like we can accomplish this to-do first.

1. Favouritest accomplishment: Building up a staff team that is able to tell me off when I make mistakes and give suggestions that better mine. Yes, my fragile ego gets bruuuised, but I’m proud of you all.

2. Favouritest addiction: Working overtime. Eeks! I meant squeezing lunch & dinner times to catch up with old friends who agree to travel my work area to accommodate me.

3. Favouritest bed: The king-size Sealy Posturepedic mattress in Harvey Norman. Without a home to call our own, we nearly bought it.

4. Favouritest beverage: Korean yuzu drinks. Get a bottle from a korean shop. Dig a spade of marmalade out. Add water/ice. Tadah!

5. Favouritest book: Greg Mortenson’s Stones into School. The account of a guy’s mission to get villagers to build schools for girls in Pakistan & Afghanistan. Incredible read & a good reminder of what can be accomplished against stacked odds.

6. Favouritest communal activity: Welcoming Mistress Hrin every time she returned to the tiny red dot.

7. Favouritest good news: Getting a 2nd pay raise this year.

8. Favouritest happy moment: When Abba Guy agreed to quit smoking once I become 60kg again.

9. Favouritest haven: Hiding from the maddening crowd in AG’s room & playing his comp.

10. Favouritest kitchen: AG’s mom’s kitchen churning out aglio olio with soya braised chicken.

11. Favouritest knicker: the French Maid nightie. Comfort + kink.

12. Favouritest movie experience: Not a movie per se, but a retrospective screening of the late Yasmin Ahmad’s advertisements. Cuts across race & religion  & time.

13. Favouritest new-comer: None this year though. Met many a nice person, but without the karmic connection or irresistible, just gotta love ‘em feelin’.

14. Favouritest purchase: The amazing Andre Valentino black with snakeskin trimming heels. Under a $100 but I can walk in it while looking taller and having the illusion of saaaxy legs.

15. Favouritest restaurant: A Loy Thai Restaurant at Shaw Tower, best pandan chicken I’ve ever had.

16. Favouritest song: Moody’s Mood for Love &Elliot Yamin’s covers -

17. Favouritest vice: Play-O. Great for self-care. Is it even a vice?

18. Favouritest watering hole: Max Brenner @ Vivio city with the charismatic yan-dao boss… *heart heart*

19. Favouritest website: http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/ makes me very itchy to be on the road again.

20. Have a blessed 2011 everyone!

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

And I wonder where my home will be.