Awaiting the Bear

It looks like a mini-bubble, inflating, inflating, inflating.

Well, 1Q earnings are out soon. Then we shall see.

Come on bear, I'm waiting for you with cash in hand and finger on the mouse.

Here's my latest potential catches:

1) ABB
2) Baker Hughes

Bringing Home Home

Phew! I flew ten times this past 2 weeks, but am so happy - because - I was in Penang!! Here's what I did:-

- Ate chilli rempah crab cooked by mum, chilli clams for RM2(!!), LokLok, Char Kuey Kak, popiah - all the best!! And what made my meals even more wonderful, it's mango season now in Penang. Don't you just love seasonal treats? Makeshift mango stalls have mushroomed all over the island, and I have had my fill and more of sweet, succulent slices of sunshine to end all my meals with. Bliss bliss bliss...

- Went a little crazy at the airport over L'occitane products, like my favourite Shea Butter hand cream, a Verbena Eau de Toilette, and the new Cherry Blossom-scented hand cream for mum. Yes, it's nice to give in to my inner girliness once in a while :)

- Bought a dress from French Connection for church; it's shorter, flouncier and more colourful than what I normally wear, but what the heck, am giving it a try. After all, when I'm old and fifty with 4 double chins, tummy flobbing around, am gonna regret not showing off when I could. Erm, did I mention that the dress was purchased with the intention to wear it to church? ;p

- Roamed the streets of Little India (Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling), listening to the thumping but strangely soothing Indian beats....buying up a storm (a turquoise Punjabi Suit with gold filligree patterns, bronze platters with Lotus and Elephant motifs, rosewater for 90 cents(!!) and asoefetida for cooking).

- Finally bought a bit of art - gorgeous recycled paper patterns delicately etched with Javanese figures, and 2 little paintings of Georgetown shophouses. This is what I mean by bringing home home....bits, depictions and momentos of my island hometown to my home now, wherever it may be.

- Stocked up on Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl and Gray's Anatomy

- Gave money to my Grandma and Dom, who will be starting his industrial training next week. Good Luck, Dom!!

If only all weekends were like this. What fun it was, despite the unrelenting island heat.

This weekend, we're off to another island, this time down south....;)

Comfort, Ginger In Ginger Syrup

Last weekend was a sorry one for me. It was, and this is why I maintain my privacy, the time of the month. Time of the month when my lower abdomen feels like pythons writhing in the very inside of me, my legs get "soft" or lembek as is the Malay term for it, they get cold and clammy and feel like they are unable to hold my weight up. Nausea and general exhaustion reign supreme as the emotions of the day. Despite the faithful doses of Evening Primrose Oil and exercise the day before, all the necessary prep before to ensure the least amount of suffering, and much to my chagrin - it's my weekend! - it happens and takes me down like a disease in itself. Dramatic yes, but as much as I wish it is NOT, what I recount is a story that is all truth. And I humbly beg your pardon for my over-the-top descriptions.

So I pad around in my sweatpants, clutching my pillow pathetically, and I want to eat nothing but hot, heaty food (heaty is the kind of food that warms you from the inside, like Bak Kut Teh, curry - no acid and chocolate chocolate chocolate).

But nothing, and I repeat, nothing comforts like ginger. It doesn't work, let me tell you. The nausea, the absurd feeling of coldness in 38-deg C equatorial weather, is all still there. From my various attempts on ways to prevent the dreaded pains, I have found that nothing works like swimming the day before the day. But a combination of a chronically painful right shoulder (doctor's recommendations) and general laziness to pack myself to the company pool after work tend to get in the way of those plans.

Right. To the ginger. Nothing works better to warm the stomach, then the chest, and then the ginger somehow manages to permeate and warm the entire body. Serious comforting for a body in serious need of it, ginger syrup dissolved in warm (no, hot) water and gulped down in desperation and relief.

And what magic it works on an empty stomach too, as part of the first meal of the day. I've been dripping teaspoonfuls of ginger+syrup into my peanut butter sandwich breakfasts all week. Sitting quietly in the office, early bird that I am, chasing away my hunger pangs with this and my thermos of extra-strong Nescafe as my laptop boots itself and the workday begins.

And, the weekafter, on my sofa I sit in solitude on this Saturday morning, with a mug of hot chocolate sweetened with this syrup for, again, breakfast.

View of Saturday morning through my bedroom window

And, maybe later, I will try out Molly Wisenberg's banana cake with crystallized ginger and chocolate chips.

Obviously this jar will not last till my next episode. Fortunately, it's so easy to make it's almost laughable. Cut up the ginger (preferably old) into thin slices (say 5 inches worth), place in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with 12 tablespoons white sugar and 2 cups of water, low heat. I didn't even bother to brush the sides of the pan or anything, just covered it and left to do half and hour on the elliptical while grimacing (at Paula Abdul)/cheering (at Adam Lambert/Chris whatshisname) American Idol along, cleaned the living room and had my bath. Syrup reduces, ginger turns a bit transparent-ish.

Cool, decant to jar, store in the fridge, and snuggle up in the comfort of knowing that comfort is a teaspoon away.