Thursday 27 June 2013

If there's a scalpel involved .....it's surgery

So on Tuesday I got an epidermal cyst removed from the middle of my back.
It was infected and the doctor tried to cure it with a shitload of antibiotics but that obviously didn't work so he had to cut, squeeze and drain out fluid, sebaceous build up and blood.  He then packed the little hole he made with gauze to allow fluid to drain and patched me up.  Wednesday I had to go see him again to change the dressing.
yes that is blood seeping out!
 I was in pain with  the cyst getting infected and am relieved than he has cut it all out but recovery is slow and I am still in pain  I guess when one does put scalpel to skin, pain is expected!. I am getting better but sleeping on my back is still too uncomfortable and I cant really do much physical stuff.

I am on another week of antibiotics and painkillers and hopefully when I fly out to NZ on Monday night, I will be all recovered.
One thing though, it's been hard to accept that I can't do everything on my own and do require help to change the dressing on my back. So mum will be coming over each day to change the dressing after I have my shower. Humbling experience actually, to acknowledge that I am not superwoman and do need help......occasionally.

Saturday 22 June 2013

room without a view....

I live in the epitome of an urbanised city and any view of trees and openness is highly prized.  Even if it is at a major intersection.  I have had that view as my front window overlooks a junction of busy roads  Its not the best of views but it does give me a sense of not being caged in.   I live on the 13th floor of what is our Housing Development Board (HDB) type of flats (apartments) for the masses.  They are subsidised housing which the government introduced in the 60's so that all Singaporeans could own their own homes.  They all kind of look the same, ugly blocks of flats but the majority of us live in these estates in land scarce Singapore.

view on a good day
the crane
When they built the flats, the HDB used any means available to cut costs, hence the lack of back doors and fire escapes (which I have lamented about in past posts) and lifts that do not stop at every floor.
I have to take the lift to the 11th floor and walk up two flights of stairs to get to my unit.  Its a strange layout but I enjoy the privacy as I don't have strange people wandering around corridors peering into my living room and bedroom (that's what happens  to the flats on the corridor levels) and I only have one neighbour on the same floor.

Our ruling fathers, dish out 'upgrading' packages to keep us sweet and recently my estate was included in one such exercise.  We were to get a lift that would serve every floor.  This too is subsidised but we do pay a nominal amount (it is a couple of grand but) It was like a catch 22 for me.  I would lose my view, but get a lift that came right up to my front door.  I am getting older and the stairs aren't my best friend especially when carrying bags of groceries.  But my view!


If they had thought it out properly in the first place, we wouldn't have these ugly add on's and I wouldn't be deprived of uninterrupted views .  Hindsight.....


view on a bad day with haze
no more views?

Thursday 20 June 2013

just...cant....breathe

I have been asthmatic since I was a child, breathing to me was always an effort.  I envied people running and playing sports without having that dreaded tightness in the chest and gasping for each injection of oxygen to the lungs.  I have never known what it is like to breathe easy.
When I was a child, there were no inhalers or quick fixes to breathe better, I was on steroid oral medication to open up the lungs.  I was fed crocodile meat (it does taste like chicken) , bat soup and god knows what other home remedies my mother heard about and had to try, to ease my suffering. Nothing worked.

I blame my asthma for me being so socially awkward and inept, as I was always sick and never played with the rest of my siblings and the neighbourhood kids.  I learned to be alone and to make up stories in my head and keep myself entertained. My own company was pretty good.

10am view today
When I got older the asthma was better managed but I was not one of the lucky ones that would outgrow the asthma, it stayed.  There were some days when I was bad but on the whole I managed it pretty well and with the Ventolin Inhaler I had a constant shot available should I feel the tightness come on.   As an adult I managed it so well that I actually started smoking even (on and off for about 10 years) .....but not anymore.  Have been smoke free for the last 3 years this February.

I live with asthma and I do what I can to stay away from potential triggers, but when the tiny island I live on starts to look like one big smoking room...... well then I am fucked.

sat image of hotspots and the yellow cloud is the smoke
Farmers and big plantations in Indonesia clear their land by using a rather easy method, the slash and burn method.  Its easy to set fire to the crop/plants/trees and then put it out.  What this does is that it creates hotspots throughout Indonesia and yes Malaysia has been doing it as well but in smaller areas. ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Countries) came up with a Trans Boundry Haze agreement in 2002 which ten ASEAN countries signed but not Indonesia.  They still havent.

Yesterday we had our worst day of grey skies and smoke filled air, this happens every year from june to September (our dry and hot months) and we expect the haze to come say hi each year, but this year its been really suffocating. the last time it was so bad was 1997 and we seem to have surpassed the conditions of that horrible year.
I monitor our National Environmental Agency website and have it bookmarked and open all day.  it gives us a PSI (pollutant standards index) of the air quality every hour.  I cant open my windows as the flat gets filled with smoke, its our hot and humid season so am really not a happy camper stuck in my sauna of a flat.

Its been awhile since I felt like this......not being able to breathe properly.  one thing though....I am sooo looking forward to New Zealand in 10 days.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

walk a mile in my shoes

the surprising and shocking news yesterday was Nigella being abused by her rich husband in public.
it filled everyones facebook page and the news feeds and all the entertainment programmes.

everyone has an opinion on what she should do and there is even one Melbourne radio host criticising  Nigella and has called a boycott of her cookbooks till she "makes a stand on domestic violence"
Haven't these Aussie radio hosts learnt their lessons, don't they know when to shut up after that debacle of the nurse that committed suicide!

Its never that simple, this domestic violence thing, and until you experience it first hand, do you realise what its all about.  People ask you, why couldn't you just walk away, leave that bastard.........
You cant,  you don't believe you can just walk away, the abuse is not just physical, its emotional as well and you end up believing that you are responsible for being abused, you deserve the beating, you made him do it. He never wanted to hurt you, but because you didn't follow the rules, you had to be punished.

So Aussie DJ get off your high horse and you may have seen domestic violence through a friends eyes but until you walk a mile in her shoes.............
see the Aussie DJ's reply here

Monday 17 June 2013

two blogs or one.....where can I post the gluten free choc chip muffins then

so I had a conversation with son no 1 in Hawaii this afternoon, on Facetime (its like skype but using an apple device) and I mentioned that I should start another blog with just my food and recipes.  He was not happy.
He thinks I shouldn't be giving away family favourites....so I wont be posting any more family recipes for a while....until I persuade him otherwise.....
with me being so sick and not having any GF food readily available I have been eating next to nothing, which is great for weight loss, I have lost 1.5 kgs  in 4 days... but
view from the front window this morning.....the haze!
I would drag myself up to the kitchen and throw some rice in a pot and try to get something edible going.  I made rice porridge, fried rice and as I had run out of my muffins I even had rice and chicken porridge for breakfast this morning....so as I was feeling better today, but not well enough to venture out I made a batch of chocolate chip muffins.( there is also the haze, a blanket of smoke from Indonesia that covers our island and gives people like me with asthma a rather suffocating time. coupled with a bad flu I am just staying home....)


lets start baking





I got the recipe from this website and they turned out pretty good.  I did substitute the milk and used rice milk.
I have made choc chip GF muffins before and they didn't quite turn out, but this time they were better.

1 dozen minus one
the all purpose flour being blended











here again is the recipe for my all purpose Gluten free flour (thanks to the Gluten Free Goddess but somehow I have added in brown rice to the mix and it seems to work!  I should try her original blend...)

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp xantham Gum


Friday 14 June 2013

Cosmic karma

I am not a religious person and I sometimes struggle with accepting that there is a God.
I will probably burn in hell for eternity for my blasphemous views.
However there does come a time in ones life when you seriously think that either the Gods are fucking with you or it's just karma.

To a Sikh (practicing Sikh or not) the meaning of karma, in a nutshell, is that you reap what you sow.....
And right now I seem to be reaping 'benefits' of my recent actions.
 I am in bed today with a very bad cold, sore throat and diarrhea.
People get sick, you may say, it's not necessarily karma that makes you sick, but my deeply ingrained Indian woman's mentality of if I did something wrong someone out there is going to fuck me up for it, hence me getting sick and feeling like shit all day....no pun intended, makes sense. Me getting sick is justifiable punishment for lying to my twin, doing what I said I wont do and believing with blinkers on.

To make matters worse I was supposed to go meet friends today, friends I was looking forward to see and exchange gossip with but now have to give a miss as I am too sick and miserable to go out.

 So in some strange tangled up version of truth and punishment, I have got my just reward! 

Wednesday 12 June 2013

next flight out....qantas

So I am booked to leave  on the 1st of July for New Zealand on Qantas.
As you may well know I do so enjoy trying different airlines service, in flight entertainment and of course the gourmet meals and cutlery that they encase in plastic and watch from the sidelines as you struggle with all the packaging, waiting for something to happen so that they can come and tut tut about the mess you made..... anyway

Its interesting how different airlines operate their in flight service.
SIA are like child minders, reminding us constantly before take off to fasten our seat belts and they wander up and down the aisles like discipline mistresses, reprimanding each and everyone that dares to lean their seat too far back or not fasten their seat belts.
Qatar airways - were the kinder, gentler cousins of the discipline mistresses and masters.

Qantas (I have flown them before so can tell you this with certainty) are like the wayward cousins of the discipline mistress.  They told you once and if you weren't adult enough to listen the first time, then its your fucking problem if the plane got into trouble and you were thrown from your seat.....

then we have the things they collect as you land.
SIA - the headphones that you use to watch the movies....they collect them early just when the pilot announces our decent and just when the movies are in their last half hour/15 minutes from the climax of the movie.
Qatar - the blankets - seriously they take our blankets.....
Qantas - nothing, they don't give a fuck

American airlines - I flew this from Houston to Tokyo fleeing the hurricane in 2008.  its been awhile so I do hope they have improved on food, service and entertainment......they actually had that one screen that came down and not individual screens for each passenger.....I am so spoilt!
Air India - if you enjoy bartering with the stewardesses to get your own fucking aisle seat back from that odious man, then by all means this is the airline for you.

Malaysian and Thai - i have flown both to London and no complaints although they also take the headphones back early....must be an Asian airline thing
Budget airlines - no no please no.....but sometimes one has to.....

I will, this time round,  be taking pictures of my gourmet gluten free cardboard meal, someone needs to document the torture.....
two and a half weeks to go before I get another chance to fly and experience another transit lounge this time in Sydney, Australia.  Australia, the destination that makes all Asians feel like drug lords and people smugglers..... I shall so enjoy this next leg of my travels.


Wednesday 5 June 2013

a popular food storage technique

In Singapore we have to have a decent type of food storage system, as its hot and humid and without a system that cools and stores food, we'd be fucked.

Hence the invention of the Refrigerator.....
shit that needs to go into the fridge

new shiny fridge!
I just got a new one!
so I had to clear out the old fridge and I am certain that I have found an alternative to Penicillin or at least a cure for some disease...
I must have had a dozen cultures going on at the same time in bottled jars of tomato paste, cannellini beans, olives, mustard.........
My bottles, jars in  the old  fridge should have come with a health warning.

But now I have this shiny, clean and bright (my old fridge's light went out years ago and I never replaced the bulb) fridge.  Trying to arrange all the jars ( I keep spices, flour, dried food, dried herbs in the fridge) accordingly in the new fridge was quite a challenge, but I managed.
This new purchase concludes my kitchen upgrade..........

Saturday 1 June 2013

free dinners

So on Wednesday night I attended a dinner with my sister, who works in retail, selling alcohol.  She was invited by her suppliers to attend an appreciation dinner thrown by a well known champagne house.
The champagne house was showcasing and pairing their ware with fabulous food.  I did feel a little out of place as I was not the intended recipient of the invite (her boss couldn't make it) but my sister charmed her suppliers into extending the invite to me.
I have attended many such dinners when I was working in the event industry and its usually a great way to learn more about a venue and the food....
Now I know that I only got to go as a free loader attending on behalf of someone else but with my event background its so damn fucking hard to ignore the regretfully unsound choices that were made by the organisers.

Let's start with the venue,
It's an old chapel that was converted to a restaurant a few years ago, a successful restaurant I think but seriously it's not an event venue.  The master of ceremonies could not be heard due to bad acoustics.  It's an old chapel, it's not carpeted, it's got high domed ceilings, a disaster for any sound system! Never ever do an event with speeches in such a place.

The food

the menu
The menu promised so much.......
Aperitif - it was one prawn.....seriously, they gave us one prawn.
first course - my eyes lit up, ooh oysters, how extravagant.......  it was one, yes one bloody oyster and that's it.
Scallop Carpaccio - now I like carpaccio's but was it wise to do a carpaccio for a sit down dinner for approximately 100 diners?  No.  My stomach is still reeling with the after effects of cramps.  I probably got that one raw scallop that was a little off....
Main course - one small portion of fish  and a couple of tiny mushrooms.  and the woman sitting opposite me had a very fishy fish....
By this time I was so hungry I ate the bread (don't forget I am supposed to be eating gluten free)
Dessert -a few slices of tart peaches and sorbet and a spoonful of glutinous rice which I shovelled down my pie hole very quickly.....

I understand that the night was a night to showcase the alcohol, I understand that the main focus was the champagne, but for fucks sake, feed us decent portions of food that is suitable for a sit down 4 course 100 diners meal!  Dont invite people to taste your ware but let it all down with too little food.
So for me, while the food tasted good, the portions and menu choices (obviously they invited people without seafood allergies)  left me quite cold...
I was starving when I got home and went to bed hungry......