The Kiss

What’s in a name anyway?

Aside from juggling the meals, errands and my newfound habit in sudoku, plus trying to finish a book (Christopher Paolini's Eragon – yeah, yeah, I do have a thing about children's fantasy books), I've now set to work on choosing names for the new baby. English names aren't the problem – we had a list of both girls and boys' names from our last endeavour with Sara, so that list just deserves a bit of a run-through, but otherwise, we're good.

It's the Chinese name that requires all this hard work. It's all a little perculiar, being Christian and all, but we like to think we've chosen an auspicious name for our child, so hence we start down the road of stroke-counting, element matching, blah blah blah blah.

It's really quite ridiculous, when you think about it, that my reference books are all in English. Written precisely for this slice of the Chinese diaspora that can't handle the language well, but who are trying desparately to remain as Chinese as they can be. Also, not having a geomancer anywhere around makes it all the more necessary that I go through this song and dance routine. Well, that was the case with Sara's birth, but this time, we COULD hire one if we wanted to, but I'm a little sentimental here – I picked Sara's name, so I'll pick this new baby's name too.

All this, mind you, is tedious work. You'll find words you love, only to find it doesn't match the surname, or find that the few combinations that work sound so unwiedly, you chuck them aside. All for a good cause though – we were so proud of Sara's name eventually and I'd like to think we can do the same for this baby too.

Eskimo child

A little blogging madness

Time to get to know the people who can be bothered to swing through my oft-pictureless blog. Here's a bunch of questions and the way you play along is to copy this post and paste it as a new entry for your blog. Change the answers and publish. Do leave a comment if you choose to do this. Hopefully we all get to know each other a little better through this madness.

What time did you get up this morning?
7.15am

Diamonds or pearls?
Neither, frankly. But if I had to choose, it'd be diamonds. Pearls are so…. aging.

What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

What is your favourite TV show?
Since getting here, Project Runway 2. Nothing like the cattiness of a bunch of diva-like designers on a reality show to keep me coming back for more.

What do you usually have for breakfast?
Toast. With ridiculous amounts of butter.

Favourite cuisine?
Hm, it changes. Of late, it's been Chinese. But none of that made-for-foreigners-type junk. The real deal.

What food do you dislike?
Raw carrots, raw celery and raw bean sprouts.

What is your favourite CD at the moment?
Don't really have one. Haven't bought a real CD in ages either. How sad is that?

Morning or night person?
Night. Late night. Doesn't work when you have an early-rising toddler, that I can tell you.

Favourite sandwich?
BLT. And that bacon better be crispy.

What characteristic do you despise?
Arrogance.

Favourite item of clothing?
Of late, track pants. Anything nice and loose around the waist.

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?
If there are no kids involved, I'd love to travel the French or Italian countryside, eating good food and drinking good wine. If we had the family in tow, then it's Hawaii. Again.

What colour is your bathroom?
White.

Favourite brand of clothing?
Gap.

Where would you retire to?
Singapore

What was your most memorable birthday?
I'm struggling here….

Favourite sport to watch?
Sumo.

Who did you least expect to complete this?
Given that I don't get much traffic through here and the little traffic I do get are mostly busy people, I expect no one.

Person you expect to complete it first?
Please see answer to above question.

Person who is least busy?
I'd like not to make enemies here.

When is your birthday?
What's it to you?

What is your shoe size?
8 – yes, I have flippers, not feet.

Pets?
Do children count? No, no pets.

Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us?
Nothing. Nothing exciting ever happens. Just a whole load of stress.

What did you want to be when you were little?
Anyone who's read anything in my blog knows I've always wanted to be a housewife. Noble profession, you know.

What is your favourite flower?
If I had to choose one, I guess it would be sunflowers. I like happy flowers.

What date on the calendar are you looking forward to?
How about 25th Dec?

One word to describe the person who you snaffled this from?
Eh?

Su Doku-ed!

So I am not one to march to my own beat and walk my own path, okay? I am a victim of popular culture and proud of it. As of yesterday, I once more hopped on the popular wagon and joined the millions already jostling for space there. Yes, I have succumbed to the wonderful world of sudoku.

For the uninitiated (can this be possible?), this is a numeric puzzle created by the Japanese a couple of decades ago, something like their answer to the crossword puzzle. The word "su-doku" literally translates to "number" and "alone". Not that it means anything to me, but hey, I was trying to impress anyone reading with my ability to decipher Kanji.

Anyway, it's not a puzzle for the brilliant. It's a puzzle for the man on the street. I explained to Danny its attraction is somewhat like playing Solitaire or Free Cell in Windows. There are varying degrees of difficulty, but it isn't that difficult that it's offputting. If you keep at it, you can get really good at it. And it's addictive. It's all pretty much like crossword puzzles, if you think about it, but at least you don't have to have a killer vocab to do this one.

So this is now what's been taking up spare time. Sara's somewhat pissed that while she's buzy with her crayons, I'm ignoring her and doing my sudoku puzzle book. She's a little older than when I ignored her for Harry Potter, so I don't think this abandonment will go down to well these days.

Anyway, I pretend that doing these puzzles are good for my brain – give them that little aerobic workout that has been missing since I stopped work. Danny, on the other hand, isn't fooled. He thinks I'm just too free.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Yep, it's finally Christmas Day here and we're in the midst of a heatwave! Well, not quite, but temperatures are actually above zero degrees Celcius, so that's as good as a heatwave. What it does mean, however, is that we have no snow right now, but rather, misty rain and a bit of slush. That's okay though – we're happy to be able to walk outside without our fingers going numb.

It's been a few hours into Christmas morning here, but our gifts remain unopened. Sara's too young to care at this point fortunately. It's really all Danny's fault – he's sleeping in and I figure it'll be best fun if we do this when everyone's awake. No big plans for the day – most things are closed today anyway. Just off to church once everyone's up. They did televise Christmas vigil mass last night, but I didn't last past the opening hymn. I am really getting old – while once I used to be able to attend vigil mass, hang out after that into the wee hours of the morning and then still wake up in time for the earliest mass the next day, I can no longer even stay up till midnight. In case you're wondering, I wasn't being masochistic – I was just in the church choir.

Anyway, here's wishing everyone reading this a happy and blessed Christmas, a quiet week ahead and a good New Year. Time to think about resolutions.

Oh, and here's to having cables back. Merry Christmas from our resident bag lady.

Secrets

CNN was showing a tiny segment last night about an exhibition. People had written secrets on cards anonymously and they were being displayed as art. Funny what passes of art these days. Even stranger is what people are willing to admit publicly when no names are involved. Some even did admissions on video (face hidden). Some aren’t earth-shattering, like “I work for Coke, but I drink Pepsi”. Others are more personal, like this woman who admitted buying cheap gifts and passing them off as expensive. There were some even more probing, involving relationships.

Curious what people are willing to admit in public anonymously. Blogging is a little like that, I suppose. There are many who blog anonymously, many who say a good many things because they think it can’t be traced back to them in person. Admittedly, I try to blog semi-anonymously more for security reasons. You never know what nutcase out there is reading this. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to say things here that I wouldn’t otherwise say to my friends in person – it’s counter intuitive to me. I suppose other people have different logic though and would air their personal opinions that they wouldn’t otherwise say to people around them.

I guess this is what makes blogging and podcasts all so pivotal in the world of media these days. Say as much or as little as you want, and you’ll find an audience, no matter who big or small. Secrets are no longer in the realm of the personal. You can share a secret with someone across cyberspace and find sympathy amongst the faceless when the ones around you offer none.

And the good news is….

Baby Number 2 is normal. Yay. Had a detailed scan done of the new one today, where the technician does things like check ventricles and cerebellum (is that how you spell it?) and all that other vital stuff. We opted NOT to know what the Bean will be, since previous experience has taught us to be skeptical always. But fingers and toes all intact, perfect little nose and mouth and lots of tumbleturns. Technician pronounced Bean being healthy with no observable defects. Doc will check through the report, but we are not expecting anything otherwise. Fingers crossed.

So with all that out of the way, we are finally starting to think of names. Yeah, like an afterthought. Poor Bean – many Bean-related things are being shelved because I have been busy with innane things, like visa applications, goods damaged in our move, taxes and dealing with banks that don’t speak in English. I think this time last pregnancy, I already had all names picked out. This time last pregnancy, I was sleeping my days away, going for yoga, having lunches at the club with other pregnant ladies and attending Pregnancy Group meetings. This pregnancy, I’m hauling my toddler on my errands, I sleep late, nap little and wake up early. Mind you, it’s not all Sara’s fault. Blogging’s to blame too.

Sara’s starting to acknowledge that Mommy’s big tummy isn’t quite the same as her big tummy and has now learnt to talk to the tummy, much the way Pappy talks to the tummy. She’ll say good morning to it, give it a kiss and talk her babble to it on good days. I figure all this loving towards the unknown will evaporate once it becomes reality, but in the meantime, I’m just enjoying her not being jealous of a lump. She’ll be a good older sister, but goodness knows the adjustment will be tough on everyone initially.

DVD versus cinema

When do you rent a DVD and when to do you go to the cinema? When you have children and help is limited, this is a criticial choice.

• Chick flicks: DVD material. No question. I don't even watch them if I can.
• Heavy going, cerebral type movies: Most definitely DVD. Mostly because (a) we can rewind and listen to the dialogue again and (b) we can switch those English subs on because even though we are English-speaking, we're just hopeless at accents sometimes.
• Action movies: Depending on what it is and who it stars, but mostly gets relagated to the DVD section. No, not even Brad Pitt can get me to the cinema these days.
• Comedies: DVD. Don't waste time.
• Movies heavy on SFX, typically of the fantasy or scifi category: If it's a pet movie of mine, big screen. No way I'm watching these at home. What's the point? If it's any other fantasy/scifi, I can be convinced to stay home.
• Movies with beautiful cinematography and big sweeping shots of landscapes or battle scenes: I could live with a DVD version, but sometimes you just gotta watch it big screen. The Last Samurai was certainly worth it.

Next movie: The Chronicles of Narnia. Not a pet movie, so I can wait for the DVD, but if the opportunity presents itself, I'll be off to the cinema.

Childhood food meme

KY of Little Foot Steps tagged me for a childhood food meme. Gonna have to think hard about this one….

1. Kaka: Available in all school canteens way back before I even got into Primary One. My brother used to bring them back for me. Loved the little freebie toys that came in the packets. My favourite flavour was the chicken-flavoured kaka. Later on, we had a friend who decided to christen our guinea pig's waste as kaka and that was the end – never ate it again. This is what it looks like (thanks to dsng.net). I don't think you could even find it these days.
2. Ondeh ondeh: My mom used to make this and still makes this on request. It's green rice flour balls that hold all that lovely melty gula melaka (palm sugar) in its centre. And best of all, it's rolled in coconut. Here's a picture of it (scroll down). We ate it often growing up. Still love it – Mom, if you're reading this, I'd like to put in a request for you to make it again the next time we're home.
3. Putu piring: Elusive Malay dessert that has all but disappeared in Singapore. It has coconut, it has gula melaka – need I say more? I never really ate it all that often growing up, but it was one of those foods that just stuck in my head because I would have LOVED to have eaten a hell lot more of it. Example of what the final product looks like. Write-up on how it's made.
4. Bubur hitam: Okay, okay. You get the idea. I'm a coconut-loving, nonya-kueh-loving type of gal. Another favourite at home. My mom made this all the time and continues to treat me with it whenever we're home. Growing up, this often beat my grandma's fung teow sui (red bean soup) hands down, not because my grandma's dessert wasn't good, but it's just that it had no coconut. For the longest time, I couldn't differentiate between red beans and black glutinous rice. I used to hunt for the coconut milk regardless of what the dessert actually was, only to be sorely disappointed to learn that red bean soup doesn't need coconut milk. I found a picture here, although it's not a very good one. Some call it pulut hitam, but at home we call it bubur hitam. Hitam being black, bubur being porridge and pulut being rice. You go figure it out yourself.
5. Potato patties: This one has no picture to be found. I think this is my grandma's own recipe, but it is very basic, so perhaps it's just her version of something already out there. She used to make this as a special treat for us and recently before leaving Tokyo, I had talked Danny into attempting this at home. Failed miserably and I still don't know why. Anyway, it's essentially mashed potatoes and minced pork mixed together and deep fried as patties. Eaten with nothing more than ketchup. My grandma used to make this as a treat for us when we were still in primary school It made for great lunch – not the usual rice and veggie, but something fried and with tomato sauce. A child's dream meal!

Okay, I'm now suppose to list five other people (including myself) who got tagged to do this meme. I don't actually know all of them, since I'm not a very active and wide-reading blogger, but here goes: KY, earth ember, Helen, Zara's mom and myself.

Now comes the harder bit. Tagging other people. Like I said, I don't know too many other blogs/bloggers, but here goes: brownbreadicecream, To Short Term Memories, Hunnybunz and Mumspotter.