Dish of the day

My last half day got me trying a new recipie in the kitchen.

You know when you cook something and have a taste at it and still find you need to put in more salt or more sugar or something else is missing to give the dish that ummmppphhhh?

Surprisingly when I tasted this one wihle it was still simmering in the pan, it didn't need any improvements.

I myself was surprised that I got it right the first time.

And it is proven to be excellent by my most fussy eater who finished a portion I think I could not even have managed!

I didn't follow any recipie....so, I can't really tell you how much to put in....

I would presume I had two hands heapful of mince meat.

To this I marinated it with 1 tbsp oyster sauce,

1 and a half tbsp light soya sauce,

2 swirls round the meat (about 1 tbsp I think) dark soya sauce,

some sugar and some cornflour.

I ommitted the pepper becuase of Little C.

I lightly fried some garlic.

Added the mushrooms and black fungus plus its

2nd round 'essence' (water it was soaked in).

Let it boil a bit while I shaped and threw in the meatballs.

Cut up some Japanese tau fu and dumped it in.

Cooked till it was well....cooked!

Dished out for Little C

then added spring onions and some freshly cut chilli.

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The result!

Note : I find meatballs easier for kids. Once it is cooked, I will break the balls while feeding them. I find that cooking mince meat this way is less 'dry' (more tender) compared to cooking it minced. And Little C's tendency to chew it up and spit it out null.

Tis' is the age.....

This is the age of marvelling....

When Christopher wants to "eat mumm mummm" (he doesn't fully grasps that it is the same meaning, these 2 words!)
......pulls me to the cupboard to open it for him
.....looks at the stuff inside
......sometimes even moves some of the tupperwards around so that he can see what is behind them
.....even looks to see if there is anything new
.....and if there is asking me "What's this?"
.....touches all those packets that are familiar to him, asking himself "mummm, mummmm? .....no no no"
......and then moving on to the next one
.......crocks his head when he reaches something
....deciding, contemplating
.......and then declaring "I want this one."

When daddy just pulls in a car flyer stuck on his windscreen
.....and the little one declares he wants a look at it
......puts is up in right order and smoothens the paper
......and 'reads'
......and looks at me with a question in his eyes
.....(and I pretend to understand and answer him)
.....and I tell him "Honda is Yee Ma (my elder sister's) car, this logo is Toyota, kungkung's (my dad) car, this is mummy's car (perodua logo) and this is daddy's car (proton logo)
......and after telling him once, I ask him "Where is Kungkung's car?"
.....and he points to the Toyota logo going "There!" (in a singsong voice)
....and does it correctly for all the other logos and again a few days later

When he sees a cake and candles
.....and pulls me to "Sing"
....and claps his hands as I sing the happy birthday song
....and when I am done, he pretends to blow at the cake and candle picture

When he is crying
.....and I pull out his teddy
...and do a sing and dance with teddy
....and he stops, watches a bit and then laughs
....and comes over and sings and dances with us!

When he hits me (playfully, though it hurts)
.....and I actually cry (or pretend to cry)
.....and he looks at me worried
....and tries hard to change the situation around
.....and when it doesn't work he calls daddy
......and if daddy is not around, he will look at me
......almost crying
.....and stroke my face

And when it is time to eat or just before bedtime or when we are in church or in sundayschool
....and I tell him "Let's pray"
.....he will look at me and then bow his head
.....and close his eyes
.....and put his hands together
.....waits like 2 seconds
.....then looks up at me again to see if I am done! (cheeky smile on his face)
.....and if I am not, tries really hard to remain quiet with his hands together (but usually gets distracted.....)


When I am feeding him his rice
....and he looks into the plate
.....and points to the carrots declaring "I want this!"
......and points to the meat declaring "This...no no no!"
......and asks for "Soup, want soup" sometimes in between
.......and when he is full declares "No more, no more!"

And the way he understands instructions and does it out so quickly the way it should be done when he wants to
.....like when he wanted to play the piano that day
.....and I told him to put away his water bottle and wash his hands
....poof the bottle went shut (normally he will not remember to close it)
.....run to the table and put it there nicely (sometimes he puts it there but it falls coz it is not balanced properly)
....off he went like a little bullet
...took out his stool to climb on
....waited for me to turn on the water and soap his hands
....Done?
....down he goes and off to dry his hands
.....goes straight into the room
....climbs on the piano bench
...."Meeeeeeee......"
.....he can't understand why I am so slow!

There are marvellous things that he does everyday. It is true at this age, their capacity for learning is so quick and they are so willing to learn. They are growing so fast, becoming so independent yet they still LOVE cuddle time, story reading time, rolling around before bedtime, splashing in the tub, sitting on your lap talking to you, singing and dancing, playing hide and seek....and any simple activity that we do with them.

It is an amazing amazing age....this age of 21+ months.

Classic ladies of old(er) shows

Remember the movie "Mirror has 2 faces"? Heartwarming romance movie. Remembered the first time I watchd it was when I was in Australia. All 8 of us in the dorm sat in the common room and watched it together - 4 Aussies and 4 Malaysians.

Barbra Streisand (Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn) are all classic ladies whom I will always cherish. Shows the like of Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Hello Dolly...all musicals I wish for Christopher to see and love and sing along as well.

Looked up "I finally found someone", a duet by Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams. It is the theme song for the show "Mirror has 2 faces".

Bryan Adams is a great singer....his death, maybe I will mourn. The hype over the weekend of MJ is really too much. Truth be told, MJ is a great singer but an eccentric guy...not really a fan.

Walking along the yellow brick road of movies brings me back to another movie that I loved when I was younger - "Pretty Woman". Love the fairytale romance. Love the casual defiance, self assuming attitude of Julia Roberts...yet managing still to capture the heart of Richard Gere. And in the end falling herself, with a kiss on the lips.

Thought and memory of the day.

OK folks...going back to my Barbra Streisand Youtube playlist. Remember to put on a song and sing it today. It sure cheers up a Monday morning.

Restoration of my beloved C.Steinbert

I can't recall my first piano lesson. I can't recall how I felt the first time I played the piano.

My first real recollection of the piano came when I was about 6 years. We had just returned from my daddy's friend's house and his daughter had played Oh Suzanna! for us (can't remember if it was by heart). And I remembered my daddy commenting that we cannot do that. Cannot play one decent piece on the piano for other people to hear. I remembered he mentioning it many times. I remembered I was furious. I then remember coming home and ransacking the pieces I had in search for Oh Suzanna! (I think) as well. And I practised and practised and practised. I practised so long that my mum told me to stop. That is sounded really nice already. I didn't stop. There were still mistakes. I still didn't know it by heart.

My parents must have learnt something about me that day. As for me....that day remains a one day thing.

But over the years, I did go from grade to grade under the ABRSM syllabus. And whenever we moved, our C. Steinbert followed us as well. To Kuching, Kuantan, Ipoh, KL and back to Ipoh.

The moves made our (can't say mine since my sister has a stake in it) piano really sick - externally. And becuase we were not really playing it since we completed our Grade 8, the internals have somewhat deteriorated as well.

So, why the ressurrection now?

Well, it was instigated by my son mainly. He loves musical instruments and has been at it for 5-6 months now. Also, I have a deep feeling of wanting to play again. Though I reckon my son's interest will supersede mine!

Now, to get the piano from Ipoh to KL, there were some things that I needed to do first. One was to find out the cost of restoring the piano and moving it versus buying a second hand one here. And two if the piano could withstand another move.

Moving a piano is a delicate business. It should always be done by a paino mover who is PRO in just moving pianos. General movers who have the 'expertise' don't count! A piano cannot be dragged at any cost.

I would say "Thank God" many times in this quest of mime. A few searches for people in KL allowed me to cross paths with a guy who could transport and perform a overhaul for my C.Steinbert. But he also advised me to get someone in Ipoh to look at it first to see if there were any unrepairable cracks.

Google searched and came across Syarikat Alat-alat Muzik Weng Lee. Mr David Hoe surprisngly was specialized in C. Steinbergs. In fact the only factory for C. Steinbergs IS IN Ipoh! Thank God!

If I had moved it over and got someone here to do the overhaul, they could have had to bring it back to David back in Ipoh anyway.....given the extent of repair work required for my C. Steinbert.

What surprised me was that when David saw the piano, he knew at once that my parents bought it from this particular shop in Penang and that the piano was 29 years old (all true, by the way). Impressive!

So, C. Steinbert has been with him now for about 1 and a half weeks. David emails me every other day on the progress of the repairs and calls me when important decision have to be made. I thank God that my C. Steinbert is in good hands. It is all tuned now and ready to come back to us.

It has set me back some RM3100 (minus tuning when it arrives) but given that our C.Steinbert is ALL European and nothing Japanese, he says and I agree that it is worth it. The quality of sound (and worth) is really different.

So....sometime next month, I will be busier than ever. Hope the neighbours don't complain.

By the way....for all of you who have (or plan to have) a piano, this website gives you alot of tips of what to buy, how to maintain, where to keep a piano.

Music and words are the 2 greatest passive active things in the world.

About blogging

This is a rant. A serious 'need to get it out of my chest' rant.

Since I started blogging...I realised two main things.

1) You can't blog daily about the little problems in your life even though all you want to do is to get it out of your chest. Coz no one wants to read daily on how bad you are doing or what is your latest problem. We all have problems too, so get on with life!
2) People have opinions and will leave it as a comment...no matter how it would make you feel or if it will spoil your day. After all, they don't really know you all that well, so how can you expect them to know what will make you upset. And well, you did write about it.

I know some who have private blogs to spill their beans...coz the only way for them to let it out really is by writing. And they sure knew earlier than me on the two points above.

I have this stand now...if I have nothing neutral, or nothing nice to say.....think hard and leave something neutral or nothing at all.

Wondering now if indeed the tongue is sharper.....after all isn't it harder being 'not nice' when the person can look you in the eye?