Pig Maw Soup

Growing up, pig maw soup is one of my comfort food. Strangely, I can't remember how did I acquire the taste of pepper or texture of pig maw from young. Why do I enjoy it so much?

Perhaps it is the consequence of consuming a bowl of the soup: the peppery of the soup dispenses into my tummy and stays warm for a long while. Perhaps, it serves as a reminder of my mum to take good care of my weak stomach these days. To her, this peppery soup helps to strengthen weak digestive system.

And over these years, I managed to convince my daughters to eat pig maw too. If I have the time and strength to do the cleaning of the pig maw (usually you would need 20-30 minutes standing by the sink for getting a satisfy result of a pig maw) during weekend, it would appear on our dinning table in one of the weekday after. Conveniently, it has become a one-pot meal for my family. I could easily gather all the needed ingredients and prepare the soup in the morning and boil in the pot of the vacuum thermal cooker for at least 30 minutes long before I head out to work.

So this is my version of pig maw soup-

A Brand New Year

Hello there!

How is your 2014 thus far? I am not any less fun than before. Work is still hectic and I am still huffing and puffing everyday, after-work to race with time to pick up my daughters from the babysitter as shorter time as I could. I think, I am doing much better this year: For the past 18 days of working, I have not exceeded 6.30pm to first see Bomber's cheerful smile.  *Give my self a pat of the back.

Porridge as dinner, just because they love it.

Cooking is part of the routine now. Big part of the routine. Simple food though, at least three out of five. Being away from home, cooking probably is a way for me to recuperate from homesick, to recur my childhood memories. I guess, I am building and storing the girls' too.

As my first born is P3 now, we battle more. Yes, the battle hymn of another tiger mother and the daughter. I always at the exhausted state when dealing with her study after dinner, so is she. We often end up with crash and crash and bang! It is unbearable to see my angel turn into a scary monster. So much as I come to a realisation that I am my parents but she is not me. Old generation harsh parenting may worked on me, it doesn't mean works on her. Whatever happens to her now is partly my mistake of parenting. I have been pondering and trying to change. It is harder than I thought. Fortunately, at this stage the daddy could take over, I step back and manage the house chores, or one-to-one with Bomber.

Those are our weekday. Our hectic weekdays. Less impact on little Bomber though. She is attending PCF Nursery Class, has her meal and rest fixed at the babysitter's place, joyfully plays with her sister when they reunion in the afternoon. 

Jun 2013: Capturing

Like any other year, our 2013 has ups and downs. But I choose to remember the wonderful moments: A jolly celebration of my pa's birthday, accomplishment of an assignment to paint and draw with cardboards, and of course many other little moments. But I think the best of all, must be our visit to Sydney, which I believe it occupies a major part of my entries in 2013.

As  the year coming to a closure and another year approaching, I scrapbook the remarkable moment of ours. I take this time to reflect back on our journey this past year, and remind my self that to live mindfully and happily. Why? Time with children is only moving forward, and I have no ability to replay.

"Time with children runs through our fingers like water as we lift our hands, try to hold, to capture, to fix moments in a lens, a magic circle of images or words. We snap photos, videotape, memorialize while we experience a fast-forward in which there is no replay of even a single instant." - Louise Erdrich

We take family picture every year, during our annual family trip, to portray a family unit is growing older, too.

Creadits: Feifei's, Michelle Coleman, Deca, etc. 

The picture was taken during our visit to Kiama, NSW. 

Happy New Year, everyone;).

Nov 2013: Happy 70, Pa!

My pa is a typical conservative Chinese father: didn't show his love when we were young; left most parenting job to my mum and worked day and night to bring home the bacon. In retrospect, he was quite a distance from me, as a little child. We had little conversation. There would always a long void between us if he drove me to/from school. I could not bring a topic shared with him either.  There were times, I wrote him letters instead. I think I watched too much tv-drama. I needed to vent my frustration of him being bias to my brother, and few other emotions I had as a tween/teenager. From time to time, I placed the letter on his working desk and waited for his return from work to read. Not many letters though, a few. Less than five, I think. It was a way to communicate with him, it was an attempt to closer the distance. 

But he didn't reply anyway. He probably didn't know how to response.

Titans of the Past @ Science Centre Singapore

Have you been to Titans of the Past? If you are interested into dinosaurs and creatures through pre-historic times, you should.

Ever since the girls hook on Dinosaur Train, I learn along with them, bit by bit. As a young child, I learnt that dinosaurs are large, scaly, dangerous lizards that went extinct millions of years ago. But I didn't really catch their names. Not until Jiejie tells me about Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Maiasaurus, Brachiosaurus and some other names that I need more time to grip. 

Review: De Hygienique

November is ending and it is this time of the year that I need to spring clean my house. And for one very reason, mattresses and its related items, sofa and any other upholstery would not be included to the list of things to clean. Ops!

It is cumbersomely inconvenience, see!?

So when I was approached by De Hygienique to do a sponsored post of their services, I began to think of them, mattresses and sofa... how well have them been? It has been 5 years since we moved into this house with all the furniture. I reckoned, it is the time that mattresses and sofa to be cleaned for the first time. Now that it is coming to me, perhaps I should see how exactly it helps me? Especially it mentions that there is an in-built UV light works in disinfecting the mattresses. 

I remember long time ago, younger me used to be ordered by my mother to carry the mattresses, blankets, pillows and bolsters, even sofa cushions to sun outside our house, yearly, at least. Back then, mattresses were not as bulky as now, but, it would be dreadful if Mr Sun decided a sudden shift of duty with Ms Rain.

Sounds like De Hygienique is my old pal

"De Hygienique is Singapore's leading soft furnishing cleaning service provider, specialising in cleaning and sanitising of mattress, carpet/rug and upholstery. They are the first professional cleaning service provider in Singapore to introduce soft furnishing cleaning treatment using 100% dry, or low moisture, and chemical safe cleaning technologies from Europe."

So, yes, I was curious enough to take up the offer, find out and learn about latest technology able to bring Mr Sun home to serve... me. Professionally.

Sept 2013: Turning Eight

Together with her hair triggered temper, my first born is entering into her Eight, getting very close to Tween. I decided to make her work harder on the day we celebrate her birthday.

To activate PLAY and optimum the joy level of the birthday child, we went back to The Polliwogs @ Robinson Walk.

NSW 2013: Kiama Blowhole

After half a day spent in Illawarra Fly, we headed to Kiama for trying our luck to meet the ever famous blowhole. Kiama Blowhole, apparently is the largest in the world.

In geology, a blowhole is formed as sea caves grow landwards and upwards into vertical shafts and expose themsleves towards the surface, which can result in blasts of water from the top the blowholes. The smaller the opening, the larger the spray and during a high tide is when the spray can be the most powerful.

It was not high tide when we were there. But the girls were stunned by the eruption of water through the hole. Breathtakingly, the openness of the coastal was amazingly stunning, though the weather still gloomy.

Happily, the girls ran to see their very first blowhole (in life) as well as the spectacular coastal scenery.

And we had some great family time here. The girls chased after the birds. Here and there.

The daddy rolled the girls down the slope. One by one. (Good heavens! I have two only.)

No toy, no gadget, we had so much fun here. So, so much fun! We had our family photo shot done here too.

We continued our exploratory to Kiama's Little Blowhole.

Little, it is. And we called both bothholes, jiejie (big sister) and meimei (small sister).

Do you know that, Kiama Blowhole is one of the six best blowholes in Australia? It is also part of the Grand Pacific Drive, hence one of the "must go" places along the way down south from Sydney. 

On the side note, my aunt was telling me that, when she brought her sister-in-law here, it was low tide, no eruption of water and totally a disappointment to go all the way there.

However, I realised that the blowhole became secondary to us, the breathtaking scenery and the openness of the space made us stay on longer than we thought.

Getting there

Both of the Blowholes are located in Kiama, South Coast of NSW. The main Blowhole is located on Blowhole Point and the Little Blowhole is located on Marsden Head. 

It took us about 45 minutes drive from Illawarra Fly to Kiama Blowhole. We then took Princes Highway to return to Shellharbour, and home sweet home right after sun set. 

Admission and car parking: Free

But, to catch a spectacular eruptions of water through the hole, you have to avoid low tide. In addition, a blue sky kind of weather would make a joyful memory to the visit.  

NSW 2013: Illawarra Fly Treetop Walk

One of the agenda in this trip of ours was experiencing one of Australia's premier rainforest walk.

Little did I know, the treetop walk at Illawarra Fly was suspended, swaying and averagely 25 metres from the ground.

My legs were a little shaking when I walked through the elevated steel walkway. Extremely scary when I can't stop my mind popping the scenario of "what-if" those swaying cantilever arms broke and we all fell down, all the way down. Highest, 50m down, that is. 

At that point of time, I saw my self heavier than 800 wombats. Even though the signboard said the cantilevers can hold a maximum weight of 28 tonne or 800 wombats. 

Do you think acrophobia is rational to analyse exactly how much is "28 tonne or 800 wombats"?

Making Props for Voyage of Dreams: Only Believe.

When I thought I lost the ability to play with colours,
Sarah of The Playful Parents assigned me to make some props.

Making props, by using recycled cardboards. Specifically mentioned by Sarah

I interpreted as, "Do painting with cardboard, aunty!"

Life, should call back those colours to befriend with me once again!

I took it up without much thought of my packed schedule. 

It was only two months later (like somewhere three weeks ago?), I started to paint.

Of course, how can I miss the opportunity to let the girls have some fun too?

Play. Love. Bond., below is one of their joint-effort of work.
I did the final touch-up. Little here, and little there.

Surprisingly, Little Bomber has a good sense of brushing and mixing colour.
Jiejie, on the other hand, learnt dipping her coloured brush for the first time from her mum.

All the fun was done in between time. (I don't really have time)

Layer by layer. Sign after sign.

Play. Love. Bond. One of my favourite here.

The more I do, the more I get hang of it.

Something extraordinary happened last night.

The welcome mat in MamaJ's Natural History Museum popped into my mind.

All the sudden, I had a strong urge to try out her's way of painting.

I shaped the letters with washi tape, double checked the spelling.
Then held the brush and ran wild with rainbow colours over the words.

In the end, the rainbow sign put a smile on my face.

'Cause it is very much telling myself that, the skill of playing with colour is back. 

So is the ability of stirring brain juice for new attempt!

We're the Playful Parents, inspired by MamaJ.

Coming Sunday, 13 October 2013,

come join the fun of Voyage of Dreams: Only Believe at Central Library (Bugis)
(click for more detail)

It is FREE Event.

And PLEASE, take one or two signs from the Photo Booth to snap away!
(Even if you don't like it, give some face, ok?)