Kids these days...

I quite like that phrase. Although it sometimes makes me feel old saying it, I like that the "..." part is filled with endless possibilities. Good stuff, bad stuff, head-shaking stuff.

I love working with kids. Not only are they adorable, but I like that they are full of surprises. Sometimes they just come up with things that you'll never think of. However, of late (i.e. the last time I worked with kids) I find that there are times that I am disappointed with how kids are now and I tend to compare them with how my childhood was like.

Back then, my friends and I never had mobile phones, many of us didn't have handheld videogames, we didn't have "tuitions" (unless those extra-curricular stuff like art and music classes, or some kind of sport), we spent most of our evenings running around the neigbourhood or playing in the front/back yards. I used to catch bugs in small plastic bottles and collect tadpoles from drains.

When I worked with 8-11 year olds two years back, sometimes it just gets exasperating. They don't know stuff, they don't want to learn new stuff, the easiest way to keep them in place is to leave them with their handheld games. They're rude, to each other, to people who are older than them. It makes you wonder: what is the new generation coming to? (I sometimes also wonder "What are their parents teaching them?")

And sometimes I pity them. They spend half their day in school, and then in addition to that they are made to attend after-school classes, and on top of that they have tuition classes to go to. I know it is a lot more competitive in the academic world today, but still, isn't that robbing them of their childhood? It makes me sad.

If you watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, it makes you think even more about what kids know about stuff these days. Like, they don't even know how potatoes or tomatoes look like. They know burgers and fries though. Sad, really.

But then comes another reality show which has minimal drama and a whole lot of inspiration and hope: Junior MasterChef Australia. 8 to 12 year olds COOKING. With honest-to-goodness skills. Awesome talent. SO ADORABLE. OMG. Making things like souffle, duxelle, meringue...it's just amazing. Such a must-watch.

Like I said, kids...always full of surprises :) It really gives one Hope.

The Tale of Abandonment: Finale

There's no Part 2. The poor thing went to kitty heaven last night :(

I was pretty devastated, of course. The many guides on the Internet actually gave me hope that I could keep the baby cat alive.

Oh well. Like someone told me (while I was crying on the phone, goodness..), at least it didn't die a painful and agonising death -- bitten/eaten alive by carnivorous ants, or drowning, etc. It had warm milk three times, a nice box with rags, so I hope when it died it felt pretty comfortable.

This is just so sad.

The Tale of Abandonment: Part 1

Meet the poor thing, which spent almost half the night in the wet cold drain, abandoned by its mother right after it was born. It was mewing so pitifully, calling out "Mommy...mommy...don't leave me here." Gah. It was such a heartbreaking sound. But we didn't dare touch it, for fear if once our scents get onto it, its mother will abandon it for real.

I finally picked it up with some rags and put it in an empty tissue box. So that at least it's not that cold and wet.

Its mother didn't come. It's been more than twelve hours. A definite case of abandonment. The ants came. Those evil carnivorous ones. When I found it this morning there were a few of the ants biting the poor thing. They were attracted by the bloody thing which was attached to the poor thing by its umbilical cord.

I got rid of the ants, tied the cord and cut it; and decided to try giving it a chance to live. It's still called the poor thing because naming it would just make me more attached to it. If it survives, I'll name it Thing.

Now the poor thing is (I hope) warm and clean. I got it to consume a little bit of warm milk and got it to pee. Later when we have obtained syringes, I could feed it again.

*sigh* The poor thing.

*fingers crossed*

Happy 2011

It's a new year! So good wishes and all that.

Health.
Happiness.

Joy.

Jubilation.
Love.
Luck.
New hope.
New excitement.

The older one gets, the less public rants should be up. I apologise for the previous post. No resolutions this year, just an overall determination to make this year even better than the last.

Happy New Year!

Just Report Spam

Alright.

Let's begin by saying "What is wrong with the people in this world?"

What has happened to Courtesy? To Decorum?

It's odd when random stupid people whom I don't know decide to annoy the hell out of me, they tend to form some pact and do it consecutively in waves.

It began with those usual 'wrong number' calls. TWO different numbers this time, mind you. They call and then they hang up before I could answer. And when I do, they demand for some person whom I don't know, in some language which I don't understand. If I ask them to repeat themselves or ask them who they are, they will proceed to rudely yell at me for some godforsaken reason. If I tell them it's the wrong number, they will hang up abruptly (no apologies mind you) and then continue calling me over and over again.

Maybe they are blind, so they can't see the same ol' number displayed on their cellphones' screens. Or maybe they are as dumb as potatoes that they can't tell it's the same ol' number they are dialling.

I think if potatoes could talk, they would at least apologise. And what is it with these people who call the wrong number and then yell at the person on the other end as if it's their fault?


And then there's these bunch of people, interns from KPMG (insert sarcastic "ooohhh prestigious Big Four company") , who somehow by mistake have me in their private message-conversation on Facebook. I don't even know how did that happen because I don't know any of them. So after a few messages from these unknown people stating their phone numbers and current location and workplaces, I decided to inform them that they have made a mistake so if they could either remove me from the list (or if they are smart enough, seeing as they are Auditors in KPMG so I thought they are -- but apparently not -- to start a new message chain or whatever it is they are doing).

I was even nice enough to tell them that they wouldn't really want strangers to be privy of their personal information.

But as far as dumb goes, they continued with more contact numbers and then there was this conversation about "I think the *insert name* you tagged is also the wrong one" and "Oh no, not again! I tagged wrong people!".

AGAIN. Means not first time. Duh.

I think the point which took the cake was that they actually had a conversation about having wrong people in the conversation, as if the "wrong people" wouldn't be able to see that, and had absolutely no sense of courtesy to apologise for their mistake.

I didn't know the Recession affected the price of Apologies.

And since they continued to flood my inbox, I guess that qualifies as Spam. So...REPORT SPAM I did.

Maybe I should sell their personal details to telemarketers.

Or send those rude potatoes in Scenario 1 the phone numbers of the rude potatoes in Scenario 2 so that they could have a hashbrown party.

I mean come on, stop annoying people you don't know, and if it's a mistake, just apologise. What's so difficult about that?


p/s: I apologise to all potatoes for inadvertantly insulting them by calling these rude people "potatoes". Oh, and calling potatoes 'dumb'.

Condolences

It's been a rather sad week so before I blog about certain rants, I thought I'd dedicate this entry to a dear friend of mine whose father has passed on. With all due respect, let's all have a moment of silence.

We are deeply saddened by your loss and we are with you during this time of grief. 

May the peace which comes from the memories of love shared, comfort you now and in the days ahead.

* * *

Love always,

Winter Solstice

Brigitte with her eyes so bright,

Looks toward heaven at midnight,

On the longest night of year,

That's the one she holds most dear.

~ Brigitte's Ballad

Bruma, or the Winter's Solstice, marks the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter in most temperate countries. I wonder if it will get dark any earlier here today, being so close to the equator and all...

Being Chinese, it also means it's time for tangyuan (湯圓) -- glutinous rice balls! I know that according to tradition, all these were done to bring about family togetherness, reunion, etc. However, for me, I reckon it is also an excuse to play with dough :) Last year I made a tortoise and a hare out of dough.

This year, I thought I'd make the whole thing from scratch and opted for au naturel colouring. Green from Pandanus amaryllifolius and red from beetroot. Unfortunately, the pandan plant in the backyard isn't really big so I did not had a lot of leaves to work with. After much pounding and some hot water, I only managed to extract a very small bit of green colour and it was rather diluted.

The beetroot however, was easy. The aftermath was like a massacre.

Thus, green dough wasn't as green, just a tinge...almost like white (background):

This year's balls, apart from the usual round ones with gula melaka (palm sugar) in them, and some marshmallow-shaped ones which my housemate made, I made one white elephant, and pink hearts.

Go figure.

For the sweet soup, pandanus, ginger slices, and I added some gula melaka (which explains the different coloured liquid) which were from the hacking of the large chunk of palm sugar for the rice balls.

Note: always boil the glutinous rice balls separately from the sweet soup. You don't want an ugly murky coloured dessert later.

My dough crafts for 2010 :)

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Winter Solstice Festival!

冬至节快乐!