Book Review: Eaves of Heaven

The Eaves of Heaven

What a harrowing, poetically narrated tale of life through war after war.

The world failed the Vietnamese over and over, through its French colonial days, the Japanese occupation, civil war and the notorious Vietnam war.

I wish for his childhood experiences for my daughter, and adolescence and adulthood on not even my worst enemy.

The narrator describes his childhood of running through paddy fields, cricket fights, grasshopper hunts, of Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn celebrations.

As his grandmother taught, the eaves of heaven dealt good and bad in cycles. Devastating floods brought death but fertile harvests, and lovely days brought future storms.

The narrator alternates between this idyllic childhood with tales of famine during the Japanese occupation, plunder and wars during the French re-occupation and its fight with the local Resistance, and the Vietnam war itself. His family, once rich feudal landowners, is gradually torn apart with each and every war and ultimately with the fall of Saigon itself.

One thing that struck me throughout this book was that the true heroes of Vietnam are the wives/mothers/stepmothers. The narrator's mother and Aunt skilfully placate warring factions to protect their families. His wife makes difficult long journeys from the city to bring him medicines when he is held captive by the Viet Cong. His stepmother supports the family by selling lottery tickets at the roadside to support the family while his father degenerates into opium addiction. After his patriach uncle dies, the entire family moves from one city to another, while his wife stays behind to "manage the family estate, as great personal cost to her." He never elaborates on what that means.

So many times whilst reading this book I wondered at how much one human soul can possibly endure. 

What is it like to gradually see almost all your childhood acquaintances and your relatives succumb to war, either with their lives or their souls.

What is it like to put your life on the line (whilst serving in the army), trying to lead your men to risk their lives (and yours) while knowing that your commanders are not just corrupt and incompetent, but don't even blink at the prospect of lost lives on their own side?

I read quite a few books on the war in Vietnam, but this is the first one told from a Vietnamese perspective. I look forward to reading more of his works, and just placed an order for this.

On the house, the gym and more reads

As I write this, my head is throbbing, and I am half drunk on Redoxon. This is the freakin' fourth time I've contracted some form of the flu since moving to KL. That's about the same number of times in 2 years in Miri, at most. Lucky girl that I am, though, I am being well looked after. AK has been ensuring that I get my constant supply of water in the bedroom, cooking gao zhi, reheating soup, buying taufu fah (as you can tell I did not lose my appetite) and making sure I take my meds.  It is nice to be loved :)

This business of falling sick at the drop of a hat was what I expected upon moving back. Well, in all honesty I did not expect a lot of things when I moved back. I did not expect us to hit this tremendous snag when we decided on the house we wanted. You'd think that being able to afford the place we wanted was the biggest issue. Well, this wasn't the case. Thanks to that snag we have been "squatting" in AK's parents' place since my company-allocated one month stay in Mont Kiara expired. His folks are easygoing, generous and caring, make no mistake. And I will forever be grateful to them for putting up with Boo and me in their lovely house. But 90%  of my things are in storage, and after 7 years of living on my own, I do miss my (lovely) things. I miss my cookbooks, my Home & Decor magazines, our splurge of a matress, my oven and all my cooking thingamajigs. I miss my Astro PVR, even my perfume. It depresses me even writing about all this. It has caused countless sleepness nights that more than likely contributed to this most recent bout of sickness (why my immune system is so vulnerable is another question).

I refrained from writing about this because, well, I was in kind of a denial about it. But it has been 4 months since we signed the SPA and nothing much has changed. So we now are looking at other options. Litigation is one of them. As you can tell, nothing pleasant. Sometimes I wonder if it's God trying to tell me not to buy that place, that we should settle for something else, use our money to travel, to live it up while we're still young and so-called restless. A clearer sign would be nice.

Big sigh.

I have been up to a few things nonetheless. The gym is one of them. I have tried almost all the classes offered by Fitness First Empire. I have flailed around like an idiot trying to follow the Aunties at Zumba, and I've bitten off more than I can chew attempting BodyPump with far too heavy weights (I was way too chicken to quit thought, not with a supercute instructor up front. I spent about a week recovering from that episode). My favourites are BodyJam and BodyCombat. I have noticed that I am the only person who attends both, as they are quite different. But they both provide endorphin highs in different ways. I especially love BodyJam and my instructor telling us to "just let go, don't look at what's happenning around you or what others are doing, do what feels good to you." And I did. I always end the class with a big smile on my face. BodyCombat has the ability to make me all sentimental sometimes, as I started learning this class in Miri, where it is taught by a very good friend of mine.


Reading is another. I just completed the sequel to the magnificient book that is the Fall of Giants, Winter of the World. I have been waiting and waiting for this and when I spotted the hardcover at Borders in The Curve, out came the credit card. I have to say, though, Fall of Giants seems more well thought out. WoW, while still good, at times feels a bit rushed, and wasn't so much of a suspense-laden, heartwrenching thriller that was FoG. Maybe it's because I didn't watch Atonement this time. :)

Still, I learnt a lot. I didn't realize how close England came to flirting with Facism, and how the people of London stood with their fellow Jews in the Battle of Cable Street. The book draws comparisons between the German and English anti-fascist movements, and how inaction on the side of Germans, and action in the form of protests (or more like protesting the protest). The story of the Battle of Cable Street, of how Englishmen (mostly the working class, socialists, the Irishmen, communists, sailors) fought their own people for what they believed in. And in doing so, they sent a message loud and clear: Fascism is not welcome in England. And so the movement faded. Germany, of course, is another story altogether.

Red commemorative plaque at Cable Street today. Source

Of folksy tunes and Tudor London

Another weekend, and more stuff I love:

1) Upbeat, folksy tunes with cornets, lots of guitar strumming, an accordian, replete with cheerful "hey" cries throughout the songs. I especially adore Little Talks by the Icelandic indie rock outfit Of Monsters and Men (somehow a lot of music I fancy seem to be coming from Iceland). Another song, Ho Hey, by the Lumineers, is really similar with its intermittent "Ho!", "Hey" throughout the song. Nice pick-me-ups they are, especially when one is trudging through excel spreadsheets.





2) Lately I have been looking forward to the end of the day - when I am done with work and housework and everything else. I am in my pyjamas under the covers, the airconditioning on, a drink (green tea or hot chocolate) by the bedside and a really really good read. Such bliss. Medieval fiction, which I happen to be really crazy about  (Pillars of the Earth, anyone?) I just finished C. J Sansom's Dark Fire and am now trying to pace myself reading Revelation. I read Dissolution some years back and I have to say, some parts of that story really gave me the chills. Sansom makes all the issues of medieval London under Henry VIII come to sordid life. It is the post-Dissolution era. King Henry VIII has severed England's ties with the Pope in the Vatican, and reformation is underway. Benedectine, Franciscan monks who have only known lives of prayer, charity and relative comfort in monasteries (thanks to alms from the devout), not are turned out into the streets helpless to fend for themselves. Orphans, the forsaken, the sick wandering the streets full of filth. Catholic papists and hardline reformers burning each other at stake, depending on the religious leanings king's spouse at that time (he had six after all) and everyone else caught in between. Sansom captures all of this in magnificient, sometimes painful to read, detail. Couple that with some truly intriguing (at times seriously disturbing) murder mysteries that left me guessing all the way, and the trechearous politics of Tudor London (Henry VIII, the Duke of York, and Thomas Cromwell all feature) - and oh, what a thrill these stories are to read.

Hunger and Mighty

I finished two really great reads last week. The first was The Hunger Games Trilogy (if you've been living under a rock, you must have at least heard about the movie and the awesome Jennifer Lawrence).

For a change, I watched the movie before I started reading the book, and thankfully the director/ producers never reallt strayed from the author's plot. So, unlike my experience with Harry Potter, the characters etched in my mind do look like the cast of the movie. I think they did a pretty good job with the casting too, with the bright-eyed, earnest face of Josh Hutcherson playing the pure-hearted Peeta and the darker, heavy-lidded Liam Hensworth playing the proudly anti-establishment, almost vengeful Gale.

You probably will have no idea what I'm talking about if you haven't read the book. While most reviews would have you know that the plot revolves around a bunch of kids fighting it out to the death for the entertainment of the masses (like a really sicko reality series), the underlying tale is that of the heroine (unwittingly and sometimes reluctantly) inspiring the people, united or not, to start fighting to overthrow opression by a dictatorship. The masses look to their "mockingjay", their talisman, so to speak, for inspiration and as a symbol of the uprising. I found that the most poignant parts involved Peeta, from the beginning where "accidentally" burns bread so he can give some to the starving Katniss, to his determination even before the first Hunger Games that "I want to die as myself....I don't want them to change me in there", right up to the end when he struggles, painfully, to overcome the "tracking", meaning poisoning of his mind by his torturers.

Mighty Be Our Powers - This is one of the very best books on the (very trendy) subject of the enpowernment of women I have read since Half the Sky. Actually, it is one of the best books I have ever read, full stop.  Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Prize winner, mother, activitst, once insulted by her father and abused by her partner, led a group of women to say, enough is enough, they had enough of war, enough of their children suffering, enough of ordinary men's helplessness.

This book is also a memoir, beginning with how a promising young teenage girl's world is torn apart by civil war. As the tale progresses she is bold and unflinching in both describing the horrors of war (young boys soldiers threatening rape and slaughter, women sharing their sorrows, slaughter of citizens taking refuge in a church). Amazingly, she is equally forthcoming about her mistakes (hooking up with an abusive man - her father, who at her high school graduation pary predicted big things for her, called her a "baby machine", shaming her into taking control, alcoholism). She also writes about the fellow women in her support system - particularly her sister Geneva, who became "the wife" who stayed home and looked after her children while "the husband" Leymah earned the living and did great things. She recognizes that she could not have done what she has done without Geneva. She also points to the people who pushed her beyond what she thought she was capable of - her first boss who challenged her to dig deeper into why her country was thrown into civil war (these things don't just happen, resentment and dissatisfaction has been simmering for years), her partner who encouraged her to pursue her university education and paid her fees, her fellow activist Thelma who pioneered the outreach to women as action parties during times of war. She brought women of varying ethnicities (sometimes at war with each other, ethnic rivalry was the heart of the Liberian civil war anyway), religions (Christians and Muslims), backgrounds (a single mother with little possession, "out of a bush", who wanted to do more; a strong-willed Muslim policewoman; a privileged, upper-class grand dame) to condemn the war, sit in peaceful protest and shame the warlords into a peace agreeement. It is amazing to read, and her descriptions of the complexities of organizing thousands of women in one place in protest, made me feel like I was running with her in a white t-shirt (the protest "uniform") under the hot Liberian sun, handing out water in one hand and holdng up a placard in another.

I have been reading a fair bit of of nonfictions lately (kinda my new thing). Some I have talked about. I have read memoirs about slavery in Sudan and this wondrous tale of a Cambodian lady, who, enslaved in her youth, became a fighter for young girls in Cambodia. They are all heart-wrenchingly tragic and leave the readers with some insight into their respective plights. But Mighty, which dares to reveal so much more than just these tragedies, exposes also the similarities each and every woman share, whether you are a Disney heiress or a Liberian peasant - a willingness to do anything for her children, the endless multitasking, the heartbreak at the suffering of children, that nagging guilt that comes with success, because a mother should be with her children and not go on the road teaching peacemaking. With success, comes sacrifice. Leymah does not gloss over this either.

I came out of this book feeling altogether awed/inspired, useless, ashamed and grateful all at once. Awed by the grim determination of this woman to pull herself out of her personal rut (no one would blame her is she stayed, her country was at being torn apart all around her, for goodness' sake) and make something of herself. How she worked in the day to bring in the money, studied by candelight and her babies' beds towards a university degree. How silly my own "I'm too tired" excuses look now. Inspired by her courage not only to do what she did, but to NOT gloss over her own flaws, mistakes, fears and regrets. She is a human superhuman. And this, to me, is where the true poignancy of the story lies. That every one of us is flawed. It's what you choose to make of it. That one cannot go it alone. That you need to surround yourself with people who will believe in you. That one person can make a difference. That women are truly powerful, but not in the way you would normally think. One reviewer on Amazon put it really succintly when she said, "Make Life deal with YOU."'

On an end note, I am going to post this picture that has been making its rounds on Facebook lately. I am at this point in my life when I feel almost suffocated by my own helplessness and self-servitude. I know I need to change, and I have some things in mind. I still have to wait for that move to KL and take some time to settle down, so it's not gonna happen overnight. So until then, this is a reminder.

My tribute to James Macavoy - Nigella Lawson's sweet and salty crunch bars

Oh my, I do believe I have found my culinary equivalent of James McAvoy. My tastebuds are swooning, baby! I know I say this often. But I have fallen head over heels. Like Nigella says, these should definitely come with a warning. Don't make unless you have the willpower of a saint. Don't make if you're trying to portion control. Don't make if you're lonely and food seems to be your only solace these days.

I'll admit it, these days alone in Miri while awaiting my transfer, are pretty lonesome. Stirring, chopping, baking, braising seem to be my chores of choice, perfect activities to while away the hours. That, and blogging about it at all.

Back to the bars - the whole world is crazy for salt in desserts these days. And after tasting these, oh man, I can see why. There's just something about salt that makes chocolate that much more tasty, that heightens its very chocolatey intensity and makes it that much more winsome. Aargh, like I needed another addiction (I have been spending the last weekend ploughing through The Last King of Scotland, Wanted, Starter for 10, The Last Station, The Conspirator, Becoming Jane, and X-Men: First Class (twice, Atonement is too gut-wrenching to warrant repeats. Damn his good acting!)

This new one is serious, folks. I've started talking to myself about it. Like today, for instance - after eating two 2-inch bars (and they are super rich), I think I want another one. No you can't have another one, you'd be cancelling out yesterday's workout. And the ,day after's tomorrow's too. But my lunch was practically no-fat! But you're not even hungry. OK, just a little piece that you "accidentally" broke off. Oh man that was good. Oh well, that piece just looks ugly and doesn't fit in with the rest. I better put it out of its misery. You see what I mean? ??

To add further insult to injury, these are spectacularly easy to make. Trust Nigella to make sure of that, ya?

I made my own salted peanuts for this recipe - roasted them like usual, then tossed them in a hot pan of melted butter and sprinkled a pinch of sea salt flakes over. Also, since I had a pack of salted cashews and macadamias so I thwacked it a bit with a pestle and dumped the contents into the mix. I also used my amaretti that I bought from back from Venice, which turned out to be too sweet to eat by themselves anyways, in place of Nigella's advocated Nestle Crunch (aka golden honeycomb) bars. Oh, and I used all dark chocolate (70% cocoa ) instead of a combination of milk and dark.

Here's Nigella's recipe,from her book and my trusted companion these days, Kitchen.

Sweet and Salty Nut Crunch Bars

Ingredients

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (or 1 heaping cup chips)
4 ounces milk chocolate (or 1/2 cup chips) (or 11 ounces milk chocolate instead) - I used all dark1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons golden syrup (recommended: Lyle's) - I omitted this, they came out OK2 1/4 cups salted peanuts - I used my own homemade roasted salted peanuts, plus a bit of salted nut mix that I had - I think they added a lot of nice additional contrast - buttery macadamia, super crunchy almonds
6 ounces honeycomb candy - I used amaretti. I think these are much nicer than honeycomb - less sweet and more crunch, less sticky on the teeth too
Special equipment: 1 (10-inch) springform pan or 1 rectangular aluminum foil pan approx. 13 by 9 by 2 inches - I used a silicone pan
Line your springform pan with aluminum foil or use a foil pan.

Break up or chop the chocolate into pieces, and drop into a heavy-based saucepan. Add the butter and syrup, put on a low heat, and melt gently together.

Tip the peanuts into a bowl, and crush the honeycomb candy with your hands, letting the golden-glinting rubble fall into the nuts.

Take the melted chocolate mixture off the heat and stir in the peanuts and crushed honeycomb candy, then tip straight into the springform pan or foil pan. Smooth the top of the mixture as much as you can, pressing down with a silicon spatula or vinyl-disposable-gloved hand. Put into the refrigerator for about 4 hours, and once set, cut into slices as desired.

Bits of today

Besides breakfast, a few other things I enjoyed:-

Taylor Swift's wholly enthusiastic, super fun and totally awesome farmhouse ragamuffin-style tongue in cheek (in her own sweet style of course) Grammy performance. Also, a nod to REAL music this year I feel - wins by Adele for Record of the Year and Bon Iver (whose Holocene I was, and still am, enamoured with) for Best New Artist as opposed to Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Bravo. I did feel that Nicki Minaj's performance really spoilt this year's show. Crass, extremely disrespectful and just a very very transparent cry for attention. Shame on the producers for allowing this. I mean, I'm all for a little controversy and shock factors here and there and I seldom get offended by Hollywood's religious references but I was by this one, deeply offended. Had to say it.

I re-watched this three times though. To all the so-called critics who say that Taylor can't sing, OUCH! Love love love.

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My new foldable Joseph Joseph chopping board. No more spilling of diced onions when transferring from board to pan.

Re-reading of one of my favourite books of all time. Anyone who has even the most fleeting desire for volunteerism or the slightest interest in world issues should read this.

The sight of this baby of mine enjoying home after a few nights of boarding at the vet's. Curves are beautiful!

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

Teriyaki Hamburgers

AK loves burgers, and I've been making my own for some time now. I've learnt a couple of neat tricks by now, e.g. some freshly ground coriander can surprisingly uplift a couple of ounces of ground beef, that bacon fat can make it practically orgasmic - I kid you not, try it yourself. That all that machine ground meat can never beat lovingly hand-minced (unfortunately, sigh).


I discovered a Japanese version of the burger when I purchased Harumi Kurihara's Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking at one of Amazon's online sales months ago, but never got round trying it until last weekend. You basically use a mixture of beef and pork, raw onions (I normally soften mine first, preferably in the aforementioned bacon fat), and - the Japanese touch here - homemade teriyaki sauce. It just so happenned that I have a bottle of mirin I bought from yonks back that I intended to use to make katsudon. However the recipe intimated me so much (read it here) - all that deep frying and timing etc etc that I never got around to trying it out.

Making my own teriyaki sauce, on the other hand, was super easy and dare I say, much cheaper than buying my own chemical-laded version - although having said that, the soy sauce I used probably contained a preservative or two. Two-thirds soy and one-third mirin. Add a bit of sugar and rice wine vinegar to taste (I used about a teaspoon to make one cup of teriyaki). I also threw in a clove of garlic (slightly crushed) and grated in some ginger. This sauce, as Harumi says, can be used to marinate meats and seafood, stir fry veggies, basically your all-round hero. I modified her recipe slightly, incorporating a little of the teriyaki into the burgers instead of just salt - just to echo the sauce and amplify the Japanese tinge.

The burgers were accompanied by (as Harumi recommended) plain boiled potatoes and carrots microwaved in butter and salt. Everything is topped with spoonfuls of the delicous teriyaki sauce. We did find the potatoes slightly too bland for our liking though. So for our dinner (i.e. burger round #2 - I made enough for 2 meals) I roasted them a la Nigella, parboiled and tossed around in flour then roasted in preheated oil over high heat for the ultimate potato experience (golden and crunchy on the outside, creamy within).

Reunion

For once, I am looking forward to a weekend in Miri. Well, I always look forward to weekends actually.

But now I will be snuggling up with two very excellent companions.

Babies, you left me hanging for a VERY VERY long time.

Yes, you, Ken Follett, I got your Pillars of the Earth at a London bookstore and you never left me in peace, even managing to distract me from the pleasures of a business class flight from London to KL. You then left me at World Without End, and I was miserable for a long time looking for a similar fix.

And as for YOU, Mr. George R. R. Martin, we go back much further, don't we? You reeled me in with A Song of Ice and Fire the day I innocently wandered into the bookstore near my university and somehow you called out to me amongst dozens of others more gaudily clad than you. You made me spend my precious government study loan money and then had me sacrifice my studies/sleep/every waking moment I could spare on you. You then had the audacity to killed my hero and left me seriously depressed (I know I say this often, but I mean it this time) - I cried, I sobbed, I tried to think of a dozen different ways of how it could have panned out. I even introduced my brothers to you, and you disappointed them as well. NOW, after 8 years (and no one else measuring up) you call out to me again.

Boys, it's good to have you (both) back.




You'd better not let me down this time.

Everyday Essentials and More

Just some stuff I use every day:

1) Aquamoist whitening cream. I'm a huge believer in NOT spending an arm and a leg on beauty products, and am not the kind of girl that fusses about with creams and masks and such. I do the basic essentials - cleanse (Cetaphil), moisturise, protect (see below). No toner, no masks, no serums. This cool hyarulonic acid-based gel fits nicely into this routine. I really love this product to bits - goes on like a dream, locks in the moisture, and the price - what's not to like? I've become really kiasu with this - since I have yet to find it in Miri, I lugged back three jars of this back from KL last month. And since it's considerably cheaper, I sometimes use it on my arms, elbows, legs - whenever I feel a bit dry. I have, much to the delight of my wallet and my skin, given up on my Origins night cream (messed up my skin, I ended up using it as a body cream - the day one is fine though) and L'occitane shea butter. Nothing wrong with the L'occitane product really - it was a lifesaver during those European vacations and really is so good for travel - i.e. dry cabin air, hotel airconditioning). But since I cut back on the travel, it was getting too rich for normal everyday use in this tropical clime.

2) Lancome mascara - my cousin gifted me a tube for Christmas in 2008, and I've been buying my own ever since. I use it to darken my brows as well since I can't master the art of using an eyebrow pencil - this just thickens and darkens my brows. Along with foundation from The Body Shop and a super eyeliner from Estee Lauder that my parents gifted me for Christmas (yes my family is obviously trying to hint at something), it has become a part of my daily routine.

3) SunPlay SPF47 "Powdery White" sunblock. I'm a total Japanese cosmetic convert. They are cheaper and suit me much better than the Origins and Neutrogenas. Case in point - Sunplay sunblock which have accompanied me from my offshore days (SPF 130 - beat that!) and all my travels. For the face, this slim tube goes on like a dream and mattifies my skin in one go - all for less than 50 bucks a pop.

4) Assortment of earrings from my travels that I love and try to wear as often as I can - silver "feather" ones from Bali, black drop earrings enamelled in green and gold.

5) Gifted Estee Lauder eyeliner - from my parents, to encourage me to wear more face gunk. I put this one on days when I have had a real good night's rest (cos that means I won't be rubbing my eyes much, or when I feel like

6) Compact powder from the Body Shop.

7) One of the prettiest things I own and actually use - gold lace-like headband from Diva Australia.

Reading:

1) The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, author . My daily bedtime read since this weekend past. Call me guillibe, but Mr. Canfield's simple words have already helped a little in lifting me out of the funk I felt I was in. I now feel more in charge of my own fate, more positive mentally, after just a couple hours' worth of reading

2) EndGame - The End of the Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything by John Mauldin. Am currently on a diet of books on economics and finance – for one, because I feel like I missed this element of investing in the last 2-3 years, of having a macro view on things, our world is so interconnected, bla bla bla. The other reason is, well, I kind love the subject. I’ve already finished How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes by the Schiff brothers (a nice, cutely illustrated introduction to the subject - they managed to mix in some pretty nice jabs at Ben Bernanke and the US administration too), The Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recession and Depression by Martin D. Weiss (on hyper-inflation, the inefficiencies of the current government in tackling them and best of all, how to safeguard oneself) and Game Over - How You Can Prosper in A Shattered Economy by Stephen Leeb. So far I like Leeb's book the best - it was published well over two years ago in 2009 and his prediction, on gold especially, has been spot on. Wish I had read it earlier.

3) My Father's Daughter , Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook debut – well technically I haven’t started on this yet. The truth is, I want to hate her – she’s everything I want to be and does everything I want to do – except the actress part, although who hasn’t dreamt of singing at the Grammy’s eh? – according to her supercool blog This is GOOP (love the title), she cooks with her kids, she bakes pizza in her own wood-fired oven, explores hidden nooks and crannies in familiar and new cities, AND damnit, I really do love her personal style. Yes, when I grow up I want to be Gwyneth Paltrow.

Note: Yes it's confirmed - I do love it! Love the rustic but elegant table settings. the photos of her and her parents, her and her kids, the clothes she has on, the wonderful looking produce. And the fact that breakfast is a whole chapter!

Blogs I am currently frequenting:

1) littlepaperplanes, a travel+lifestyle+personal blog. Oh to throw such extravagant parties! The fantastical table settings! The house that looks like a page off Vogue Home or Elle Decoration! The garden surrounded by the house(and no I did not get the order wrong)! Maldives, Goa, Napa, New York via The Escapist! I live vicariously through this one. Oh, and I think I'm slowly heading towards being a pack rat too, albeit one with less expensive taste.

2) Cupcakes and Cashmere – love the way Emily mixes and match Zara with higher-end stuff, re-styles vintage/flea market furnishings - especially love how she spray-painted her flea-market find candlesticks black here (so chic), and all that cooking!

Listening to:
1) The Band Perry's If I Die Young, over and over again. The lyrics are happy and haunting at the same time
2) The Cary Brothers' Belong. Gray's Anatomy has the BEST music, and what often happens is I find myself scrambling for a pen and my little notebook to copy down the lyrics of the mysterious songs and Googling the song later. So many of great finds – the Avett Brothers, the Carey Brothers, I have GA to thank for that
3) Mumford and Sons – love their folksy music. The Cave, especially performed live at tge Grammys, absolutely rocks.

Pit Stop

I just don't get Bieber Fever. Sign of ageing, perhaps? Maturing *snort* I'll take it. Love Taylor Swift though. Oh, and totally Anti-Miley.

My current obsession: football. Cesc Fabregas is genius.

Current sitcom that BOTH AK and I love - How I Met Your Mother. Current reality show I'm into - not Amazing Race, not Wipeout, NOT Jerseyshore or the Kardashians - Top Chef. And Criminal Minds has the most beautiful music.

Current read: Ghosts of Spain - Travels Through Its Silent Past by Giles Bennet. I don't have a very good record of reading non-fiction, factual books. I slogged through the last one (Bury Me Standing). But this one has me flipping and flipping in bed till my eyes water. The more I read about Spain (on Wikipedia mostly), the more I am fascinated by this "Nation of Nations", where different regions still cannot stand each other (Catalans and Basques call themselves Anti-Madrilistas), where football is the new "war" of the autonomies, but thanksfully this does not apply to team compositions, where Castillians and Asturians are as celebrated as the Catalans in Barcelona FC, the pride of Catalonia and a Basque plays for Real Madrid. Of course, this is how it should be but it fascinates me (football in general) how the sport crosses old borders and brings sworn enemies together. Spain is the only Western European country that not only retained is traditional folk dance/music - flamenco, and not only is it retained, it has flourished in both traditional and morphed versions.

Current trend I am sporting - Indian-style tunic tops, cosy cardigans (with ruffles - in black, open cardigans - in heather gray). Large rings I wear on my index finger.

On British Cookbooks, and Chocohotopots (Ms. Lawson trumps)

I guess it goes without saying that I am THE hugest fan of the lady who delights in sinfully rich, decadent (she uses half a kilo of chocolate to make 12 cookies) food, and terribly unapologetic she is about it too (I do not put a price on someone's comfort). I love watching Jamie Oliver but the lone book of his I own goes unused, just because I find his writing too simplistic (the adjectives fantastic and pukka can only carry you so far) and uninspiring. Nigel Slater has a dry wit and that is always the truth, and gives such graphic descriptions of the food - "glorious dripping and jelly.........., the gelatinous bones, sucked or not..., the crunchy, sticky bits of skin and potato stuck to the pan ( I love Real Cooking, and am currently enjoying The Kitchen Diaries.

But the book that sparked my bankruptcy-inducing relationship with Amazon.com, the book that I carry from living room to kitchen to bedroom, that I read whilst forking instant noodles into my mouth, my all-time favourite cookbook, is undoubtedly How to Eat. I contemplated for almost an hour between Domestic Goddess and How to Eat browsing in Kinokuniya (reading and re-reading the covers - that was all I could see since I didn't want to bother the staff to unwrap the plastic) in 2008, and ended up returning to my hotel room and reading the book reviews. This is how I ended up with How to Eat. And I haven't put it down since. I love her prose, the way she describes her Sauternes Custard as "wobbling like the inside of a Reubenesque thigh", love to read about how she feeds her children smoked salmon and liver with apricots (yeuch though), and her sound advice (don't just stick food into the fridge or freezer with no thought of its purpose/plan in mind, most likely you'll end up not using it and chucking it out later - how true it is). And I will be forever grateful for her Best Chocolate Ice Cream in the World recipe.

OK, this one is a bit of a cheat - the recipe is from How to Eat, but the name is from Feast. I switched it up because I just posted the sticky chocolate pudding recipe, and the name in HtE is Gooey Chocolate Puddings, but they are quite different really. While the sticky pudding is like a cake with a thick chocolate sauce, this one is like a rich, hot, molten chocolate with a thin, crisp shell on top. This one, despite its name, is rather more elegant in looks than the homey-looking pudding - a shiny crisp carapace that encapsulates hot, molten chocolate lava underneath. This one you'd be forced to eat in modest teaspoonfuls, otherwise it'd just be too much hot stuff in your mouth. Trust me, I learnt the hard way. :P

Chocohotopots (or Gooey Chocolate Puddings)

125 g best quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
125g unsalted butter
3 large eggs
150g sugar
35g plain flour (preferably 00 flour - I used superfine flour)
butter and flour for preparing ramekins (I used bowls)

Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and suspend over a pan of simmering water. Whisk every now and then until melted. Alternatively, use the microwave in 30-second bursts.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and flour until just blended. Gradually whisk in the melted chocolate and butter. Set aside to rest.

Grease four 250g ramekins with butter and add flour to cover the butter, tapping the ramekins to get rid of the excess. Preheat the oven to 200 degC about half an hour before you want to eat the pudding.

Pour the mixture into the ramekins and put them on a baking sheet in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are firm and cracking slightly and the edges set. Serve immediately and consider providing a jug of cold, cold cream for people to pout over their pudding's hotly deliquescing interior as they eat.

TWILIGHT SUCKS, and other books

Yes it does. Maybe it's because I'm no hormonic teenager anymore.

The writing is grating - mindless chatter of giggly, dizzy teenagers, a sigh here, a glare there, I glared, he growled, blah blah blah. So cliched it makes me wonder, if teenagers of today are all a-ga-ga over this kind of writing, what does that say about the level appreciation of the written word today? Sorry, but when I was an adolescent we were debating Walkabout, sighing at the beauty of The Lord of the Rings. Twilight's "anger flashed in his eyes" schmooze cannot hold a candle to those works.

And it is hardly erotic, mind you. Sighing teenagers, I don't want to be far from you, frolicking in a meadow (how original is that????).

Twilight mania is seriously over-hyped. And I am seriously disappointed (not to mentioned worried)

On the other hand, Jodi Picoult's Change of Hearts is a great read. Told from several perspectives - the mother who lost her husband and daughter to a mentally unstable killer, the priest who questions the meaning of God and his faith, the gay, AIDS-ridden, lifee in the State Prison, the passionate, smart pro bono lawyer who is insecure about her weight and hair. The story is told through their eyes and ears and hearts, and it is a wonderful, sad, touching story. I actually cried at the end and it did make me question my beliefs slightly. Especially the final verdict speech delivered by the judge - it resonated with me somewhat and I found myself in agreement with him every time I read it.

So, in conclusion - Twilight - bleargh, don't bother. Change of Hearts - highly recommended.