Home sweet home

The past few days have been glorious. I'm starting to notice a few factors that almost guarantee holiday and home bliss:

1) Meals with the family, with great funny conversation and great Penang food. Also, and very importantly so, making sure I visit my grandmother who raised me for many years. Sadly, she is in a home for the aged now.

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2) Putting aside the grimness for next year, and instead, reading my gifted Calvin and Hobbes collection (my all time favourite comic strip) in bed.

3) Morning walks around the lovely hilly area my parents live in. They're lucky that their condo sits right beside a water catchment area = verdant jungle = cool and quiet. There's even a waterfall that can be seen from their balcony. My walks are my time with nature and myself. How I wish I lived with these surroundings every single day!

4) Great end of the year sale finds :) These comfy flats with unexpected tie details were 70% off at Vincci+, a more upmarket sister to the cheapo brand that's been around forever

Merry Christmas

Tis the most wonderful time of the year.

December Nowness

Currently reading:

1) More Terrible Than Death: Violence, Drugs, and America's War in Columbia.
I have taken a great interest in current affairs lately, and have finished From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey, a powerful story about the triumph of human spirit, about spiritual and political awakening, in Burma. The story of a young tribesman who survived through an uprising and deadly crackdown, fighting in malaria-infested jungles to study English Lit in Cambridge, juxtaposed against the hauntingly beautiful descriptions of the Burmese landscape, tribal traditions and spirituality, and unimaginable horrors of human shields, landmines and just pure, plain fear and despair. I was left awed, disgusted, depressed, respectful. Next read is this one on Columbia. I have thus far found this book sometimes downright disturbing to read, especially with no happy ending in sight, but I push on anyway. I want to get my hands on Anna Politkovskaya's works next.

2) Christmas-themed reads: Donna Hay magazine, Nigella Christmas. Both 'zine and book boast truly exquisite styling and photography.

On the iPad:

1) Martha Stewart Living, December and January issues (I just could not resist January's kitchen designs cover story) - everyone needs a dose of frivolity every now and then. Ideas for home decor and care, entertaining, quick suppers and gorgeously taken photos.
2) George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm
3) Conrad Thomas's Heart of Darkness

Glimpses of Andalusia - Cordoba

Blazing sun and cloudless sky. Sandy terrains dotted with palm trees that make me think of Palm Spring. Except Palm spring doesn't have a 14th century castle towering imposingly in the background.



In the Mezquita, traces of Christianity in what was a predominantly Muslim (and gloriously so) structures. It almost seems as if, with the original Muslim/Ottoman structure of the Mezquita so glorious and grand, the re-conquerors (the takeover of Spain by the Christians from the Muslim rulers) only managed to "Christian-ize" only a part of the structure. They did do a spectacular job of it though, and the white-plastered, gold-trimmed area of the Mezquita they altered now sticks out like a sore, but heavily jeweled thumb.





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Amazing wrought iron details that cast the most spectacular shadows.



Whitewashed walls, blue pots and greenery in courtyard gardens, amongst narrow alleyways once meant for pedestrians and one-horse carriages. Every turn a surprise and yet echoes of the familiar white-green, accented with bursts of colours from the blooms painstakingly cultivated by the Cordobans.








Cordoba, Andalusia - October 2011.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

The iPad and my newly purchased iPhone 4s will be my undoing. So far I've already succumbed to subscibing both ELLE and Martha Stewart Living on Zinio.

Love, love the ideas in MSL, so much so that I decided to try out these decidedly cute sounding chocolate crackle cookies. What I liked about them - so easy to make, no creaming required, just melt butter and chocolate together and stir in the rest. No need to bust out the mixer or elbow grease. I rolled these in both icing sugar (as recommended) and demerara sugar, which gave a nice crunch. In fact I prefer the demerara sugar coated ones better - no icing sugar flying everywhere and the crunch contrasted nicely with the softer cookie.

Noel

It is that time of the year, when the malls are decked out in all their garish glory, where fake trees in purple and white and gold are decked out in all sparkly spangly things.

It is that time of the year when I re-attempt to put a very grumpy Boo Boo in a Santa hat.

This year, maybe jaded from all the spending I did this year, the urge to shop eludes me. I just cannot wait to get home.

Welcome Angel.

Boo Boo asleep while mama relaxes (AK: So what else is new??)

One of my few Christmas deco purchases this year - an adorable FAT Santa.

And three sparkly stockings + December reads.

A little visitor.

Roundup

This year will be the beginning of change. First, I WILL BE MOVING BACK to the Peninsular! Being able to see my family more than three or four times a year, getting our OWN place, having my parents/brothers/cousins stay come over for weekends, celebrations or just dinner, these are just a few of the things that I plan to do once we get back. Plus all this, of course.


Having said all that, it was not an easy decision to give up on a posting opportunity to come back on local. Having grown up, studied and worked local, I have always dreamt of what it's like to live abroad. But as AK said, we've been away long enough. It's time to go home.


And another year passed by. Here's a lookback:


I read quite a bit (could have been more), quite a few on my newfound interest no less. The best one so far is Nouriel Roubini's Crisis Economics. Damning, fascinating and powerfully informative all at once. I plan to continue my learning and education on the state of world finance and economics. One of the gravest mistakes I ever made was to invest solely based on little details and not taking into account the bigger, more serious picture. I am playing catch-up now, and no doubt it has been made all the more difficult given today's votality and uncertainties, but it is hugely fascinating and most of all, truly essential.


I cooked and baked quite a bit. Nothing groundbreaking like making pizza or bread or gyoza for the first time, more of revisitations of my past successes and little tweaks here and there. Fun nevertheless.


I travelled! India, Bali, Bangkok, Seville, Cordoba, Venice and London! I am so thankful for the opportunity. India especially, I have been wanting to go for like, forever! And finally I decided to just DO IT, coming back feeling altogether overwhelmed, grateful, sorry and ecstatic. Next year will be year of travel austerity for me, as I expect my finances to be tied up in a new home, and other things involved with settling down. So the plan is to cut down on travel and instead visit BKK to shop for home stuff and maybe another sojourn to Sri Lanka or Vietnam, both of which have been on my list of must-go's for the looongest time.


Most importantlt from now on, I resolve to be more myself. To practice confidence, to NOT be afraid of who I really am and most of all, to not be afraid to show it. I am an emotional, tear-easy shopaholic who loves to cook, who dreams of entertaining, who travels because she seeks both spiritual and material fulfillment. Who still dreams of being successful on the virtue of writing about food. Who loves football and the act of watching it with father and brother. Who would rather stay home and re-arrange the furnishings than go out drinking till wee hours. Who would rather spend money on a cast-iron teapot than a pair of really pretty shoes, much to the horror of her best friend. Who really appreciates the simple joy of a sparkling clean home, as well as brunching with her friends. Who invests. Who voraciously devours news and information on economics. Who sobbed uncontrollably reading both Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and Nicholas Kristoff's Half the Sky. Who keeps up to date with what is happenning in the world. Who thinks her cat is the cutest, most precious thing in the whole world. This is who I am.