26 things for feb 2010:

1. structure
2. follow
3. covet
4. triple
5. hands
6. eye
7. fancy
8. time
9. rainbow
10. sadness
11. stack
12. line up
13. wheels
14. an insect
15. into the air
16. direction
17. new
18. half
19. set up
20. 10 mins away
21. in my mailbox
22. sometimes
23. bottle
24. behind the scenes
25. corner
26. a door

In the middle of all the holiday eating, meeting with people, shopping stuff, I decided to do this month’s 26things in HK and completing another 101.1001 task, which is to use a colour theme. It wasn’t hard to decide on red. Click on each pic for brief notes. Link to full set: here

This was written for the author’s challenge for the radlist yahoo group. It used to be that there were more published authors on the challenge but recently more first-time / unpublished writers have sent in their contributions. I know I need to transition to “real” writing, with my own characters and stuff. So when I saw the signup invitation I started thinking about what I could write. This time the theme is “surprise party” and we could interpret freely.

I’m glad I have an archive of shorts and 5 nanos. I focused on nano 2005, which I hadn’t looked at since more than half of it was lost in the NZ flashdrive death incident. If I were to rework it to an original, most of it had to be rewritten anyway. The most exciting bit was finding that I still had the mindmap, so all isn’t lost.

Then it was a matter of writing building the back story (including changing the gender of one of the MCs) and writing the challenge. The result, party planner, is a nice prequel. The original title of the main story was tight, and I’m tentatively changing it to Melody’s on Church. The setting is now at Franklin TN, where Nissan has its headquarters — I met a Japanese HR manager at a networking event and he was telling me a little about life there. The title is the name of the restaurant, and I’ve further defined its cuisine as Japanese-fusion.

The short is the story of how the MCs met. I’m pretty pleased with it, yes it’s a bit fluffy, but hopefully not clichéd. It’s kinda cute and sweet.

I woke up to a brilliant sunny morning. Perfect for skiing. It was so nice out that I didn’t go to four lakes, instead I ventured a little further to wilmot mountain in wisconsin. I figured it’d be a nice drive, and I can go to four lakes next time I want to ski and the weather (and therefore drive) isn’t as nice.

The weather report there actually showed fog when I left. It’s under 1.5hrs drive, and I got there at around 1pm just as the sun came out. It turned out to be a glorious afternoon and I got in plenty of skiing.

Yes, yes, I know. Compared with everywhere I’d skied, this is a tiny hill with artificial snow. But it was still fun. To get back to pre-accident proficiency I’d have to go back to live in Switzerland, or move to a place with real mountains, and that isn’t going to happen soon. Anyway, back to wilmot. It’s very well organised, with something like 10 chairlifts going up various slopes. The runs are mostly greens and blues, with some blacks — well, the blacks are easy reds IMO. I tried almost all of them, except the baby slopes, the ones at the far side and the mogul run.

Of course I picked one of the busiest weekends of the year to go, so there was a queue for rental and everything else. The queues for the lifts were manageable — there are so many, and they are pretty close together that it’s less than 5 mins to slide to the next one if the queue is too long.

I pretty much skied non-stop for 2-2.5hrs, taking a small break to get a drink from the car. Another thing — the carpark is right next to the mountain, well convenient. By 4pm I was getting tired, the sun had gone and the fog started to roll back in. The place opens till 11pm for night skiing, but I was done for the day. Left at 5pm and was home, showered and eating dinner by 7pm.

I discovered quinoa over the summer and has made it several times as a salad or as the starchy part of a meal. Little did I know, until I read more about it, that chocolate and quinoa go so well together.

This recipe is adapted from here. The author thoughtfully tried to convert American cup measurements to metric but failed in a spectacularly cute way — there is no way on earth that flour and sugar are measured in ml.

3 eggs
150g sugar
100g butter
100g chocolate
225g cooked quinoa
175g flour
1 tsp bp

1. whisk egg and sugar until pale and thick
2. melt butter and chocolate over bain marie
3. add chocolate mixture to egg mixture
4. add quinoa
5. sift in flour and bp
6. bake at 180°C for 30-35mins

Okay, this is just…phenomenal. The quinoa gives it a chewy crunchy texture that is unique and the cake itself is moist and fluffy. I ate a slice, then half of one, then the bits that fell off when I moved it. I’ve never been so lacking in discipline, and I don’t usually like chocolate.

I finished posting my latest story on pens. This will probably be my last. Towards the end I double posted 2 chapters each time, just so I can get it over with and finish. I lost the attachment to that place a long time ago — most of my peers have moved on, there are only a handful of good stories, and they are hard to find amongst the less good ones. I don’t want to be dismissive, since I applaud everyone’s efforts in writing their story, but there has been a noticeable decline in quality over the last few years.

The story I posted was the one I wrote for nano08, with a bit of editing and filling in the parts I left blank. I guess at the end it turned out to be a decent story. The comments, few as they were, talked about how raw and dark it was. The timeframe switches back and forth, between the present, a few years ago and a few weeks ago. I also switched pov between chapters — some were written in first person, some in third. I’m not sure if it was too confusing or whether it made sense. I don’t think any of my writing group even knew I was posting, let alone give me comments.

I was tidying up the html on some of the stories on hidden doors, and surprisingly enjoyed reading some of my early work. Well, those I could stand re-reading anyway. I’m going to have to step up and get back to those days if I have any chance of reaching the published stage.

Come to think of it, making yule log is one of my family’s christmas traditions. This is a nigella like recipe made from a flourless cake mixture and chocolate butter icing.

6 eggs, separated
6oz / 150g sugar
2oz / 50g cocoa powder + 2tbsp for icing
3oz / 75g butter
8oz / 250g icing sugar

1. whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks, then add 50g sugar
2. in a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, rest of sugar until pale and mousse-like, add cocoa powder
3. fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture
4. bake at 180°C for 20mins until cake springs back when pressed
5. cool for 5mins, then turn out to greaseproof paper sprinkled with sugar on a wet tea towel
6. make icing by whisking butter, icing sugar, 2tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp milk
7. spread icing on cake, then roll up like a swiss roll
8. cut off a branch, stick to main branch using icing
9. spread icing all over, sieve icing sugar and decorate

It was too sweet, next time I’ll use crème au buerre filling and ganache as icing.

 

I’m very happy I set myself this goal. I’m not vegetarian, but in the end it was super easy to be a vegetarian for a week. I didn’t miss meat at all and didn’t feel like any of the food was a compromise. Of course it was made easier because I had control over what I cooked and ate. So, a representation of what I ate this week:

• butternut squash and apple bake, with chickpeas and cranberries
• red bell peppers stuffed with tomato and mozarella
• pasta with brie and tomato
• mushroom & asparagus bread pudding
• normal salads with spinach, peppers, tomato and regular ingredients
• cheese pizza — from beggar’s on friday, we also had sausage pizza and I wasn’t even tempted

I hadn’t given savoury bread puddings much thought, because of the whole carb thing. But I was looking for new vegetarian recipes and came across this at 101 cookbooks. And the more I read about it, the more sense it makes that it will be a nice, filling dish for main course or as a side dish.

I cut up about 2/3 of a round of sourdough bread into cubes. The bread needed to be stale, and mine had only been out for a day. So I took as much of the crusty part as possible. Instead of sourdough, I think any type of crusty, heavier-than-sliced-white bread will do.

I then added diced mushroom and asparagus. Ended up about half a punnet of mushrooms and about 12 stalks of asparagus. There really is no need to measure, but put in as much as the pan can fit.

The liquid was a mixture of 2 eggs plus 500ml milk and stock (about 2:1 ratio). The recipe talked about cups, which always confuses me. I used ‘normal’ milk, I think skim milk will be too thin. And because this was vegetarian week I used vegetable stock, any other time I would have used chicken stock.

I let the liquid soak into the bread for a bit, then baked at 200°C for 1 hr until the bread is golden brown. Let the pudding stand for 5-10mins before serving.

It’s good! I’ll definitely make it again. There are so many other vegetables that can be used — peppers, butternut squash, root vegetables.

This is an old recipe revisited. I got this off an early Jamie Oliver series, may even have been the original Naked Chef. Now that’s memories.

It’s so easy to make, no cooking apart from the pasta. I used fettuccine rigate, which is like regular fettuccine except with ridges along the length of the noodle. Basically, cook the pasta, drain and add cubed brie and cherry tomatoes. I used a mixture of fresh and roasted tomatoes. The heat from the pasta will melt the cheese. Season and drizzle with olive oil.

I bought wii fit plus during black friday even though it wasn’t on sale. At the time, I was debating between this wii fit, which I’d always wanted, and the new Tony Hawk skateboarding game.

The first time I started it up, the program did some body measurements — height, weight, bmi, balance. Then there are some basic exercises — yoga, strength training, cardio, which are pretty decent. I tried the balance training ones — skiing, heading a football etc and not only did I suck, it told me I was unbalanced. Heehee.

I did better at the advanced games, and these are fun! Segway, biking, martial arts, flying — all involve some form of balance, cardio or at the very least, moving the body. They really did great on the games.

Its selling point is that it’s a fitness program. Hmm. I’m on the fence on this one. I know people have claimed to have lost weight on wii tennis, I’m just not sure it’s an effective weight loss program. It will benefit people who aren’t active normally. For me, it’s a fun game. It’s not gonna replace running or strength training.

The first time I came across quince paste was in Australia, and I’ve been lucky enough to have had quince paste in my fridge for many years. I had to throw them away when I moved. Which was why I was so ecstatic to see fresh quinces at the store last week.

Quince the fruit looks like a pear, which was a surprise to me. I’d never googled it, for some reason in my little brain I thought it’d look like kumquats for no good reason other than the ‘q’ factor. Heehee.

This time I did google, and learned that in its raw state the fruit is inedible. Mostly it’s cooked and made into a paste or jelly. In Spain it’s called membrillo and is eaten with manchego, a hard cheese made from sheep’s millk — to the extent that it seems to be the national snack.

 

This quince paste recipe is straightforward but time consuming:

1. peel, core and chop 6 quince fruits (about 4-5 pounds)
2. cover with water and simmer for 1-1.5hrs until tender
3. strain water away, blitz until smooth
4. return to pan and cook for 2hrs until thick — took me longer than that
5. dry in low oven (100°C is the lowest mine goes) for 12hrs — again, took me longer than that, and it never really solidified like the commercially bought ones I used to have

Oh, so worth it, so delicious. And I went especially to the new french market to get the manchego cheese. Then I spread the paste over like jam. The manchego is nice, it had a rosemary crust and a mild taste. I’m thinking I can substitute comté or gruyère to pair with the quince.

The idea is always the same: brown the protein, add vegetables, add liquid and cook slowly for 2-3hrs until the meat is tender. Serve over some sort of carb that can mop up the sauce.

I saw oxtail and I was so excited. It’s been a long time. I braised it with a bottle of guinness and several ice cubes of chicken stock. The vegetables were standard mirepoix plus canned tomato. I let the finished product sit in the fridge overnight so the extra fat can solidify to be scraped off.

This was served over potato and turnip mash.

I did this ages ago, long before they got packed up in the shipment. I haven’t had plants for over a year, but these nice aluminium planters are ready for next spring, if I decide to grow anything.

Most people my generation have heard of Ethan Hawke, the epitome of intense and pretty. He of Reality Bites, Before Sunrise and a version of Hamlet. No, he won’t be the first actor to branch out to writing, singing or race car driver, and he won’t be the last.

The Hottest State was published in 1996 and was Mr Hawke’s first novel. The state in the title refers to Texas, where the narrator, William, was from. The novel was set in New York, where William had moved to be an actor. One night at a club he met Sarah, who just moved to New York, and coincidentally lived in an apartment opposite William’s. Soon they began a love affair, the sort that people in their early twenties engaged in — tugs-of-war of emotions, co-dependency, and a tendency to talk a lot and not at all about the important matters. She held off having sex with him for the longest time; they went to meet her mother; went away for a week; then she broke up with him.

The second half of the book was about how William tried to get Sarah back, alternating begging and making a fool of himself with being mad at her and life in general. Heartbroken, or so he thought, he tried to find solace with his friend Samantha, and then returned home to look for his father.

It’s a small book, less than 200 pages. The writing is sparse, though it took me a while to get into it. Or rather, I never totally got into it. It is one of those books I like, where there was a story, but not completely overshadowed by the characters and what they thought/felt/did. In terms of nano, it’d be classified as a literary fiction.

Most readers would assume that the book was partially autobiographical. I can’t tell one way or the other, it feels like there’s some of the author in William — that’s always the danger of first person narration. I never warmed to William, he seemed kind of a jerk to me. Sarah said it best,

“You don’t love me.” She was gesturing at the ground. “I could be any girl. This is about you.”
“Everything is a big game of pretend with you. ‘Let’s pretend to get married.’ ‘Let’s pretend I’m gonna be a big country star.’”

Perhaps it’s immaturity, and hopefully by the end he would have taken this heartbreak and grown a little.

I finished the book, then got the dvd immediately on netflix. Some of it seemed clearer in the film, written and directed by Mr Hawke. William was still a jerk, Sarah still lacked self-confidence and they both did not communicate. This is one occasion where I think the film complemented the book.

Am I being a jerk if I say “that was easy”? Because, well, it was. I made good progress every day, not always hitting the 5k target, which I later revised down anyway. I got to 50k by the 12th, and this year I even typed it all with capitalisation and punctuation. None of those time saving tricks for me. Plus I didn’t use any dares.

Officially the wordcount is 50,038, which is lower than the Word and writely counts but I don’t really care. There are parts still missing, and will likely remain forever missing.

How do I do it? I think it’s definitely a case of practice. And being relaxed. I have no deadlines except the 30th; my own soft target is always the 15th. I’ve never found writing difficult, provided I have a story. And I outline. For nano I always outline by chapter. For a project manager like me, having a set goal and an outline is something so familiar that I can slip into the process as soon as the first day of november comes round.

I have to think of a decent storyline for next year’s, because this year’s story is the worst I’ve written in my nano career. Heck, my entire writing career. But hey, quality isn’t the point of nano. A lot of people forget that.

Which brings me to a little rant. I’m a nano purist, I make no apologies for it. I’ve been at it long enough to earn it. I see people who are writing a continuation of an existing novel, or rewriting an already written novel, or worrying about editing, and I cringe. That’s not the point. The point is to write a 50k novel from scratch, without editing. We have edmo in march for editing. And I would have thought ‘from scratch’ is self-explanatory. Ah well, that’s other people. It’s a self-challenge and in theory someone can write a single word 50,000 times and still win. Everyone’s mileage varies.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGVMWsAZ8E

Friday was mm’s sis’ anniversary and I said the rosary for her. There’s been too many passings this year, and the prayer was also for everyone.

Peter Mayle is famous for his autobiographical A Year in Provence. I haven’t read it, nor did I see the film, but I’ve always been aware of him. Mr Mayle was a sort of expert on Provence, and France in general. And France is where this little novel, Chasing Cézanne is partially set it. It’s one of those books whose characters think nothing of stomping all over the world. It starts in New York, makes several visits to the south of France, the Caribbean, the English countryside, and of course Provence.

The characters fit the globetrotter type too — our MC, a “dashing” photographer who works for a glamorous magazine, his agent/soon-to-be girlfriend, a powerful editor who constantly reminds me of Anna Wintour, the villain with the Germanic name and the eccentric art dealer who acts as both catalyst and tour guide. Add a scandalous art scam and a little romance and we have the ingredients of a light-hearted comedy romp.

Some reviewers on amazon complain that the characters eat out at restaurants too much, or that Mr Mayle is too keen to show off his knowledge of French cuisine. Blah I say, that’s the point of the book. It’s not supposed to be War and Peace deep, people. If anything, I find the “elaborate” restaurant meals kinda boring, and want even more descriptions. I guess that’s the effect of the passage of time. The book was first published in 1997, those were the days when photography was still done using film, people were beginning to travel as opposed to just laying on the beach, and food programs on TV were mainly instructional (think Delia Smith and how to boil an egg). Foodie terms like velouté, sabayon, amuse-bouche and ceviche weren’t part of our everyday lexicon then, but have become oh so familiar (well, to those of us who are dedicated followers of the food network anyway). In other words, the readers then weren’t as sophisticated as we are now, and were more likely to be wowed by a French word by virtual of that word being French alone.

The art scam itself is pretty unremarkable and the resolution did come rather too quickly, almost like our villain has run out of steam, or has become so bored with the proceedings that he decided not to be a villain any more. It’s still a decent enough book, easy to read, and mostly enjoyable. Mr Mayle does know his food and France, no question. And for the record, I, an amateur cook, have made sabayon and if need be, can produce an amuse-bouche or two, but not in 1997.

I’ve always thought risotto is difficult to make, at least perfect. I knew I’d have to try to make it one day, and with the mushrooms I bought at the farmer’s market early this week, it’s a good opportunity. This recipe is inspired by, no surprise, Elise, with modifications. And I didn’t measure.

1. sauté mushrooms with butter, garlic and cream; set aside
2. meanwhile, heat up a carton vegetable stock to simmering point
3. melt butter in heavy pan, add arborio rice
4. slowly, add stock one ladle at a time, stir until completely absorbed before adding next ladle
5. when all liquid is absorbed and rice cooked, add mushroom mixture
6. season, serve with shavings of pecorino (or parmesan)

The verdict — it was scrumptious!!! I can’t stop eating it. It’s like congee made with cream of mushroom soup. The cream and mushroom flavours really came through. And the rice wasn’t hard to make. All I needed to do was focus on what was going on in the pan and not multi-task. The actually cooking of the rice took about 20mins. Can’t wait till I make it again.

It took me a while to write the next 20 6-word novels, but here they are. A varied bunch, I think. My favourites: #21 for its cheekiness and #33 cos I have a specific idea for that storyline.

For some reason I was under the impression that panna cotta is difficult to make. Perhaps it’s because it tastes so decadent and creamy that it must be hard to make, right?

Oh my, how WRONG.

This recipe is from Chocolate & Zucchini, and even Ms Dusoulier acknowledged how easy it was.

• bring to a simmer 250ml whipping cream, 250ml whole milk and 50g sugar, stirring occasionally to ensure the mixture doesn’t boil
• soak a packet of gelatin in a little water to soften, add to hot cream mixture to dissolve
• cool, then transfer to bowls quickly rinsed with cold water (for easy removal)
• refridgerate for 3 hours or overnight until set
• to make the coulis, chop 250g strawberries and heat with a simple syrup of 50g sugar and 2tbsp water, then blitz till smooth
• decorate with strawberries

It was so good, I had to exert a great deal of self-control not to have a second helping.

This recipe is from a book that is not a cookbook. It’s unusual to find recipes in hidden inside fiction, but that’s what Karin did with Making up for Lost Time, one of my favourite romances of hers. There are other recipes in there I will try, and I really really would like to have a copy of that From the Waterview cookbook that Jamie Onassis wrote.

This is a lighter version of the traditional chicken cacciatore, and like many traditional dishes each cook will do it differently. I diced the vegetables quite large, and kept the sauce thin. I froze the sauce after cooking, to add to the chicken when I was ready to make the dish.

For the cacciatore sauce:

3 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
3 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
2 red peppers, diced
8oz mushrooms, diced
large can plum tomato
oregano, basil

drain artichokes, keeping the liquid
cook carrots in artichoke juice until soft
add garlic, onions, celery, peppers and mushrooms and heat until cooked
add a little red wine to deglaze
add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 1 hour, adding water if too thick

The chicken was baked separately, adding the sauce about 15mins from the end. I served it with rigatoni, perfect for soaking up the sauce.

I read Michael Ridpath’s first book, Free to Trade, when it came out in 1996. It coincided with the beginning of my career in financial services, and it was unspoken required reading. It painted an exciting, if superficial, picture of what it was like to be on the trading floor of one of the bulge bracket firms.

This one, The Marketmaker, was his third book and set in the world of Emerging Markets. The MC was a Russian scholar who found himself needing money and employed at the premier EM Fixed Income brokerage in the City, specialising in Latin American bonds, but aiming to expand into Eastern Europe.

I had it on my shelves for since it was published in 1999, and it was interesting to read about the markets then. It was before the term BRIC was even invented; before the LTCM failure; and just after the Asian financial crisis. Those were the days when the words banker and excess were synonymous, before all the scandals that eventually brought about Sarbanes-Oxley. It was also interesting to remember that the bulge bracket was bigger then, and there were more players on the street.

Our MC started all starry-eyed at the broker. There was a charismatic owner / mentor; a dodgy enforcer type with hints of mafia links; a best friend who had to make a choice between friendship and own gains; a beautiful, smart heroine who the MC fell in love with; even a cockney, pudgy East End boy. He was in turns fascinated by the City and angsty that he’d sold his soul. Then he discovered by accident something suspicious, and a series of seemingly unrelated circumstances only heightened his suspicion. He and his colleague-new lover were kidnapped, and he managed to escape himself but leaving our heroine in the clutches of evil kidnappers. In keeping with the “financial thriller” theme that the writer is known for, there were thinly disguised i-banks to give the feel of authenticity and much technical name dropping. I couldn’t help wondering if Bloomfield Weiss was Goldman Sachs and there’s no prize for guessing who the large Dutch bank KBN was named after.

The first half had some exciting trading scenarios and a touching philanthropic initiative. The beginnings of the romance was always hovering as a possibility. Unfortunately the financial backdrop faded to exactly that, a convenient background. The kidnap was a little too drawn out, and the solution to the story a tad too incredible. I was sympathetic towards our MC at first, but the Like (fb term) didn’t stay. I felt the writer was checking off cliché after cliché, the characters and story was pretty formulaic. Towards the end it read like an airport thriller and while there is nothing wrong with that (airport thrillers tend to be best sellers), the twists and resolution were pedestrian and I couldn’t wait to get to the last page.

Quinoa is new to me, I’ve read many good things about it. I ended up picking at it while cooking and it’s kinda addictive. As usual Elise has the perfect description,

It has this wonderful nutty flavor, that actually doesn’t need much added to it; I used to make a quick batch, pour on some flax seed oil, sprinkle with a little salt, and gobble it up.

This dish is based loosely from a recipe from 100 cookbooks. Well actually, the only things I have in common with Heidi’s recipe are the quinoa and tomatoes. But that’s the point of this recipe, its flexibility and how it’s a great use of whatever vegetables and ingredients are sitting around in the fridge.

1. cook quinoa according to instructions — simmer in double volume of water until completely absorbed, very similar to cooking rice
2. in a frying pan, heat 1 clove of garlic with olive oil, then add the quinoa
3. add vegetables — i had leftover carrots, mushroom and i supplemented them with frozen corn and spinach. Frying them all up it’s a bit like making fried rice
4. add diced baked bread cheese just before turning off the heat
5. season, and dress with red pesto
6. top with dried cranberries and roasted cherry tomato

Basically, any dried robust vegetable can be used. Use tofu, halloumi or feta in place of the baked cheese. This is a completely vegetarian dish, but it didn’t taste like it’s just vegetarian.

I signed and sent my tax return back to my friend AK, who doubles as my tax consultant while I’m on assignment. Last year’s total comp managed to reach a milestone I’d set for myself. It’s a decent amount, although I’m sure it will not be repeated this year cos of the market conditions.

 

I left my flat in the good hands of my parents, who I trust to have better taste than me. Mum did call me a couple of times to make decisions on colour and materials.

So both the bathroom and kitchen were renovated. The pics above were taken just after the movers left in April. The ones below are new. There’s also really beautiful new flooring and closet doors. Papa and Mum made good choices.

 

This was taken a couple of weeks ago at market days. This little girl was dancing at the corner of the stage where the ABBA tribute band was playing. Cute expression and good background. I guess it’s the music as a whole, can’t believe she knows any ABBA songs per se. Way before her time.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3coSedm7o&feature=player_embedded

Bat for Lashes was the first act I stopped to watch at Lollapalooza, just because it was the first stage I came across, and because the music kinda grabbed me. There was a pretty, dark-haired girl and a voice that was, even at an open stage, ethereal. I filed the band’s name away in my head, and went off to see the likes of the Airborne Toxic Event, Vampire Weekend and the Killers.

So at the weekend I decided to browse amazon for their music, and I ended up buying both albums, fur and gold and two suns. Bat for Lashes is actually Natasha Khan, the practice of calling oneself a band continues, in the NIN and Badly Drawn Boy tradition. She’s from Brighton, looks a little like Lily Allen, has a hipster new wave fashion style. She’s been compared to Kate Bush and Bjork and has opened for Radiohead. Thom Yorke is a big fan.

I find her music clever and just that bit whimsical. Descriptions abound from reviewers like magical, dreamy, luminous. I actually can’t stand Kate Bush or Bjork, but Natasha isn’t grating like the former or batty like the latter, she manages to balance pureness of voice with pop; cute whimsy with solid musicianship. She’s indie without trying too hard, if that makes sense. Someone to watch out for, definitely.

I saw this recipe on chocolate et zucchini and immediately thought about all the various courgettes, zucchinis and squashes that are available during the summer months at farmer’s markets.

These are small patty pan (aka scallop, aka button) squash. Only $2 for the punnet. Of course at the farmer’s market the produce are not standard shaped like what you’d get at a supermarket, and that’s part of the charm.

I topped and tailed the squash, slicing into wedges — 8 for a large squash and quartered for smaller ones. Roasted at 200°C with salt and olive oil for 30mins until slightly browned.

In the meantime I made the dressing. And here is where I deviated from Clotilde’s recipe. Instead of mint, chives and coriander I only used mint cos that’s the only one I like. I didn’t have lemons but I had limes, which I thought gave it better flavour. I chopped the mint with lime zest. Mixed with lime juice, a few capers, black pepper and EVOO. I didn’t have paprika or cayenne so I left it out. It was a bit too salty so I added a dash of balsamic vinegar.

When the squash was done, I tossed the wedges and drained chickpeas with the dressing. Oh my, very delicious!

I spent 9 hours (1-10pm) on Sunday at lollapalooza, which is one of America’s prime music festival events. It’s a 3-day event, but as I looked at the lineup, I decided I could only do one day, especially since I had to go to work friday. I was a bit bummed that I missed Depeche Mode on Friday and Gomez, TV on the Radio and Tool on Saturday. Ah well, next year.

 

It was a HOT, HOT, HOT day. We were allowed sealed bottle water, and throughout the day I made sure I was hydrated. Okay, I had 3 Bud Lights in addition to the water, watermelon and smoothies I enjoyed. I also diligently bought and used sunblock; and a cute fedora I bought at one of the stalls. The first pic here shows a fire department “mobile ventilation unit” which they used to fan water for a cooling shower for the participants. The second pic shows what seems to be all 225,000 attendees.

 

There were 8 stages, and with Grant Park 1 mile long, it was essential to plan. There were only a couple of overlaps where I had to decide, most of the time it was obvious who I wanted to see. I caught the end of Bat for Lashes, who I’ve never heard of but will likely buy their album now. Then mid-afternoon it was Airborne Toxic Event, who were more subdued than I expected. I wondered if I should have gone to see Kaiser Chiefs instead. I was fairly close to the stage, although being short it was difficult to see over the shoulders of people in front of me.

A short break afterwards, during which I chomped down a portion of Jack Daniels bbq wings washed down with a watermelon wedge. Then it was back to the same stage to see Vampire Weekend, which got us jumping and doing screams. I only know their most well-known songs, and I sang along like the other audience members.

It was then time to explore the other side of the festival, more food, looking around the stalls, bypassing the autograph area. Found myself in the dance pit section, where DJ Boyz Noise was spinning. Then caught the end of Dan Auerbach before heading to Lou Reed. Unfortunately Lou was disappointing, so I walked the whole mile back to the south end, got a tamale/taco combo, a smoothie and a frozen kefir (like frozen yogurt), my last Bud Light and found a seat on the lawn to wait for The Killers.



Brandon Flowers and gang did not disappoint, opening with Human, rocking hard through their repetoire and finishing with a flourish with Read My Mind, Mr Brightside and All These Things that I’ve Done. We sang “I got soul but I’m not a soldier” over and over and over again, it was brilliant. Two encores later, I joined the thousands on my way home, very satisfied, very buzzed and feeling a little like I was 21 again.

I’ve had this book since it came out in 1997, together with Goodbye Johnny Thunders and Elvis Has Left the Building, Tania Kindersley’s other books. She was someone in my generation, catching the end of the yuppie 80s, the generation for whom it was almost easy to achieve success and wealth, provided we went out to look for them.

This book chronicles the friendship of a small group of young people, from their undergraduate days at Oxford to their burgeoning careers (or not) as they found themselves entering their thirties. The focus was on the narrator, Ashley, and her best friend, Virge.

One of the most noticeable things about this book is its atmosphere. I look for atmosphere in books, in the same way that I look for plot in films. The poignancy reminds me of another “atmospheric” book, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, which I return to again and again when I’m in search of those quiet, deep moments. There are shades of Jake Barnes in Ashley; and a lot of Brett Ashley in Virge.

That the characters are privileged and indulgent and petulant is no question. However, they oh so charming and nonchalant about it, because they didn’t set out to be arrogant. This is a generation that reinvent themselves on a whim, and has very little patience for those who can’t keep up. A side character described Virge as” shallow and fey and smug” but Ashley never felt it. She was upset and angry, but her response to that jibe was that the person could feel whatever he feels about Virge. In a way, Ashley doesn’t feel any need to justify Virge, and by extension herself, to anyone.

Ultimately, it’s about growing up and leaving the comfort of college to face the outside world, which they do in various shades of success.

“No one has told me,” said Virge with sudden violence, “that it was this complicated. Why do they never tell you that?”

Here the atmosphere evoked is This Life, so much so that the characters could almost interchange.

The blurb is that the story is all about friendship. Ashley and Virge are opposites who attract. We hear mainly Ashley’s voice, about her feelings for Virge,

and because i didn’t believe in coincidence, I felt utterly unsurprised that she should be here, back from America on the very day that I had fought my way out of the months of darkness and despair and self-doubt, because she was the one person in the whole wide world who always made me feel that I was lovable and desirable, and good enough.

And later on,

“You do know, Ash, don’t you,” said Virge, “you do know that you are the one I love best. I never loved anyone so much as you.”

I keep waiting for them to cross the line from friends to lovers, which they never do. Perhaps I’m projecting, or perhaps the writer intended this as the pure, unconditional kind of love that can never be tainted, even by sex.

As is life, nothing is perfect and golden forever. Throughout the story, the copious reference of looking back suggests to me that Something Big will happen at the end. And again, to mimic life, it’s not one big event that gives ample warning — it’s a series of littler events that chip away at the perfection, and then finally, something explodes.

The events at the end were actually not unexpected, though just as tragic. The last pages were sad and, again the word is poignant, but it seems to me that a page has been turned. What is past is gone, and there is a future that is more mundane and less rose-tinted.

Don’t ask me why, but that’s just how life is, isn’t it.

This is a recipe from Donna Hay’s A New Cook. I’ve been looking for ways to use the beets I bought at the farmers market earlier this week. The beet greens recipe based on one from Elise Bauer.

marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic rub, s&p
scrub beets, keeping skin on, add olive oil, salt and bake at 180°C for around 40mins until soft enough for a knife to run through
about 15mins before the beets are cooked, brown chicken in a pan and add to the beet pan to finish in oven
wash beet greens thoroughly, remove tough stalks and chop roughly
dice 2 slices of bacon, fry in hot pan
add beet greens to bacon, add water, cover and simmer for 10mins until soft; season with worcester sauce and a little sugar
when everything is ready, peel beets, cut into wedges and serve

I bought a couple of bottles of wine, this is Old Moon old vine zinfandel.

It’s been a while since I visited a new US state, and I deleted a few off an earlier list cos I just drove through them. This new one is genuine, I arrived in Orlando today for a week of combined holiday and conference. This is just a quick snap that I twittered, it was taken as we were walking from our hotel to the restaurant at Downtown Disney. It was threatening to rain, hence the blue-grey sky. There will naturally be a full set of pics and detailed write-ups when the trip is done.

Interesting that wisebread just had an article about the bargains at the local Asian market. That’s exactly what I did, went to the Asian supermarket to get soy sauce and fishballs. I was so happy to see these long beans that I immediately got them, then thought about what i had at home. My fridge and pantry aren’t really that stocked up yet, but I had scallops in the freezer and I usually have bell peppers for salad.

Perhaps unexpected, I’m actually not very good at asian food. The basics of stir-frying I know, even though I hardly do it. Cook the meat first, until almost done then remove. Then cook the vegetables and return the meat at the end to heat through and season. This combination was simple and great. I served it on couscous cos, well, i felt like it. There’s this saying that good food must have colour, smell and taste and i think i achieved that.

One of my favourite memory is picking rich, deep, almost black cherries from the tree. Cherries, at their sweetest, is simply heaven. So when I saw these rainier cherries, I was intrigued. Yellow with red tinge, i thought they’d be more tart than regular cherries. Oh, was I wrong. These were really really good — sweet and with a soft almost creamy texture. Apparently this variety was developed specially at Washington State University and is, no surprise, a big seller in Japan.

I can’t get away with just yesterday’s one line post about the iphone right? Of course not.

So, i’ve had 24 hours with it, is there anything new I can add to the millions of words already out there about the device? No, not really. All I want to do is add this: SQUEEEEEEEE!!!

In a way, I feel like I have 2 years of catching up to do. That I couldn’t be a part of the early adopter crowd, or the 3G excitement last year, only to partake vicariously. But, c’est la vie, I wasn’t living in the correct part of the world. Then again, I am glad that this is my first, that I won’t be holding onto a 2G or a 3G and wishing I can get a 3GS.

Early impressions:
pros — fast, fast, fast. apps. easy to use. easy to sync. apps. beautiful. great functionality (see that apps wall at WWDC this year?)
cons — my fingerprints are all over the screen! luckily i have one of those sticky protectors. and it’s a bit big for my pockets, especially when wearing work clothes, i probably need to get a holster.

Basically, I can see why Apple sold 1 million in the first weekend. I know i’m guilty of disdain / contempt at people who’ve recently jumped on the Apple bandwagon — that i’m no longer the anomaly with the cool computer — i guess it’s either swallow my pride and be one of the masses or get on another train. I suppose I could have gone the Gina Trapani Android route, if it were any manufacturer but Apple i may have. As it is, I’m seeing a long and mutually enjoyable relationship with my iphone(s). And I haven’t even been tempted to jailbreak it yet.

I went to the Apple Store after work and got my iPhone. Enough said.

I’m not going to set any exercise or food challenge. With me moving in, a business trip to London next week and various summer festivals/events coming up, I think I’d be too stressed out to, say, make sure I run 50k or do 500 squats.

I am still going to set some goals, cos it’s fun. So the challenge for June is: complete 10 goals or sub—goals from the 101 tasks in 1001 days list.

Background: way back in December 2007 I set 101 tasks to be completed in 1001 days. I have until August 2010. I kinda screwed up by setting tasks into sub-tasks, which meant I had to finish 238 tasks. Silly me. Anyway, I’m not doing terribly well, so it’s time to try to catch up.

I went for massage in some shape or form for 4 days in a row. Foot massage, spa massage, lymphatic drainage and then facial at L’Occitane. I was feeling quite miserable cos of the throat infection. It was a “Velvety Apple Almond” course. Cleanser, then…oh sweetness…10mins of STEAM treatment!!! It was supposed to be for my face, and both my face and my throat was ever so grateful. A little bit of pain as the therapist squeezed the blackheads off my nose, then a couple of masks. Feeling good afterwards.

Tilt-Shift miniature faking takes a real life picture and manipulates it so it looks like a miniature scale model. This view of Sydney Harbour from top of the gap at Watsons Bay is one of my favourites and is perfect for trying it out. The recommendation for selecting a suitable candidate pic is that the viewpoint is high. So, I’m trying out 2 methods.

This one uses a straightforward photoshop method, according to this tutorial:

1. switch to quick mask mode (hit “q”)
2. choose gradient > reflected gradient
3. draw a line from the centre of the in-focus area to the end will be where the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus is completed
4. return to standard mode
5. play with blur > lens blur
6. increase saturation, adjust curves if necessary

This second one simply uses the online tiltshiftmaker. The gradient and blur effects are pretty similar, but the ability to adjust saturation, colour and curves makes the photoshop method better. Then again, there’s the big price different between a free website and CS3.

This is fun. I can see me doing more tilt-shifts in the future.

I’ve always found soufflé intimidating. I suppose I shouldn’t, cos I’m not a bad pastry chef. A few weeks ago my friend Car remarked nonchalantly about something or other that I should make chocolate soufflé for her family. It was meant to be a tease, or challenge, or punishment, i can’t remember. I didn’t put up any argument, just said, “okay.”

Not surprisingly there are a lot of recipes. Because I don’t have my cookbooks I focused purely on the ones available online. After a little research I decided on the one at cooking for engineers. It seemed straightforward and I appreciated the step-by-step pictures.

The first challenge was that I didn’t have time to go shopping during the week for the chocolate I wanted to use. At the end I got 2 packs of baking chocolate and mixed the 100% and 54% together.

In a bain marie, melt 8oz chocolate, 1tbsp butter and 60ml double cream. Meanwhile, whisk 5 egg whites with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar till soft peaks, then add 70g sugar and whisk till the stiff peaks stage.

Add 4 egg yolks to the chocolate mixture, then fold in the egg whites. Bake at 190°C for 20mins, serve immediately.

The good news is that it was mostly successful. The soufflés didn’t deflate, and were very rich. The bad news was that the chocolate didn’t work out and it wasn’t sweet enough. It actually wasn’t good enough quality. Next time I’ll use proper high quality chocolate.

 

I was looking at recipes for lamb shanks, and the one by elise which i made last weekend is with roasted root vegetables of carrots, parsnips and rutabaga. I didn’t know what rutabaga was, aside from that it’s related to turnips. When i got one at the supermarket, it turned out that it’s a swede. I was relieved, cos I can deal with swede, though i’d never cooked with it before.

As with root vegetables, the options are to boil, mash or roast. It’s just a matter of dicing them up, tossing in olive oil, season and roast for 1 hour. I added some fresh rosemary cos I had it for the lamb. I’ll use it again, as substitute for sweet potatoes or pumpkin. Or in addition.

This is a simply recipes recipe. I spotted lamb shanks at the supermarket, and decided that this cold weekend would be the perfect opportunity to make it. In steps:

1. wash, trim lamb then season with s&p and coat lightly with flour
2. brown in garlic and onion
3. remove from pan, then add dice carrots and celery. optional is to add leeks, but i don’t like leeks

 

4. return the lamb to the pot, add chicken stock, canned tomato and fresh rosemary
5. simmer for 2.5-3hours until tender
6. meanwhile dice carrots, parsnips and swede, toss in olive oil and season, roast for 1 hour

 

7. make couscous according to packet instructions
8. build the dish: couscous at the bottom
9. then roasted vegetables
10. stack with whole lamb shank
11. drizzle sauce, then sprinkle pepper and rosemary

This was really delicious using vegetables I have in the fridge. The scallops were frozen, in a perfect world I’d get fresh ones. Wash the scallop, driy them over paper towels and pan-fry them in olive oil. Just s&p as seasoning. It only takes a few minutes to get them medium — do NOT cook them completely.

In another pan, cook the rigatoni. When done, drain and add spinach which will cook in the heat of the pasta and pan.

Remove the scallops and quickly toss some yellow pepper pieces into the frying pan. Throw the pasta and spinach in with the peppers to remove the residue at the bottom of the pan. Add a teaspoon of red pesto for flavour.

Arrange the scallops on top of the pasta and veg, add a little black pepper to finish. I suppose a real chef will drizzle over some olive oil but i didn’t do that.

 

saw these in the market. the sign says greenhouse water [generic word for melon], or water courgettes. They look more like cucumbers, although the flower at the top suggests strongly they are in the courgette family. Never seen them this long though.

I never peel courgettes but the skin on these were tough, so i did peel them. Sautéed them in olive oil with some leftover vegetables — pumpkin, carrots, chestnuts. Added half a spoon of red pesto for flavour. Very easy dish to make, very healthy, very tasty. And the water courgettes taste just like regular courgettes, only a little more watery.

I tested on the treadmill at Car’s home on 6 July 2008. At 0% incline I ran 1 mile in 14.31mins. When I went running today on the treadmill here at PT, I thought it’d be interesting to see how I’m doing in terms of speed. Random incline, between 0.4 and 1.6%, ran 1 mile in 12.30mins.

That’s 13.9% faster. Probably can do even better if I run all out.

New Year’s Day is the most popular time to set resolutions. And losing weight / exercising is probably the most popular resolution, like, ever.

I’ve never been one to make resolutions, and originally I didn’t want to post this cos a) i might get complacent and b) i really didn’t want any jinx effect. But it being new year resolution day I think I can afford to give myself some encouragement.

Anyway I discovered the daily plate way back in 2006, but only used it to track food very occasionally (ie when I remembered). When I started running, I used TDP to track food, exercise and weight. It’s a good tool, easy to use, easy to get into a habit of updating. it doesn’t have all the food I eat so I estimate; it overestimates the impact of exercise so I report 5-10mins less, it’s no big deal.

So, yeah, I lost like 15 pounds since October. Pretty neat.

We didn’t go to midnight mass last year, probably because of tiredness or something. This year I’m on my own on Christmas Eve — went with family to the yacht club mulled wine and carols event that finished by 7pm — and the thought of going to midnight mass was strong.

The main cathedral is only 15-20mins walk, it’s on one of my running routes. So I headed out at 11.20pm, and when I got there it was crowded already. No seats left inside, and only a few left at the seating areas they’d set out outside, with big screen tv view.

Before the service the choir sang carols. At one point a soloist sang O Holy Night, my absolute favourite. She was good. Not as good as these ladies but very touching.

I opted to stand during the mass, and it was a nice service conducted by our Cardinal. There were announcers, telling people when to stand and when to sit — there’s usually a lot of people who a) don’t go to church often or b) aren’t Catholic but wanted to experience midnight mass. Before the communion, they announced twice that communion was for baptised Catholics only. The communion inside had holy wine, but not for us outside.

Yes, I don’t go to church often, but I love the belonging feeling everytime I go.

Every Christmas and other holiday, danish butter cookies in their distinctive round blue tin comes out. I defy anyone to say they don’t like these beauties.

So I was reading how Molly from orangette made them. Anyone who regularly reads food blogs will appreciate that orangette isn’t just a food blog with recipes, it’s a full-on foodie experience. Anyway, I was intrigued with the recipe, which was from the December 2008 edition of Gourmet and apparently is one passed down through several generations.

I used scaled down proportions, because I didn’t need so many. It’s easy for me to get the authentic Danish Lurpak butter; I generally use Anchor but Lurpak is only slightly more expensive, and probably worth it to follow the recipe. The American convention of using cups instead of weight fazed me a little, but I’ve converted it.

8oz butter
1/3 cup sugar, or around 3oz
2 cups plain flour, or around 12oz
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 small egg, for eggwash
sugar for sprinkling — the recipe calls for sanding sugar, I just used demerara

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then the recipe says beat the flour and baking soda in using the electric whisk, which…is an invitation for having flour flying everywhere. I folded the dry ingredients in using the more trusty spoon spatula method, only when mostly combined then I whisked the mixture till it was like crumbs.

Work the dough between 2 sheets of clingfilm, then roll out to a rectangle. I found that folding the clingfilms so they form the rectangular shape made rolling much easier, and the dough kept to the shape. Chill in the fridge for at least 30mins.

Remove the top sheet of the clingfilm and cut into 1” squares. This was the shape I liked most, and the easiest to work with. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle the demerara sugar.

Bake at 160C for 15mins. I found it needed an extra 5 mins to get really pale golden brown, I guess it’s my oven. Anyway, watch them till they get pale golden. Cool for 5mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes around 50 cookies.

 

Okay, mine don’t look as pretty as the blue-tinned danish cookies. In fact they look kinda like sad shortbread, and very difficult to photograph (as warned by orangette). But man, they taste decadent.

One of my stand-by ingredients for fruit salad is dragon fruit. It provides texture, bulk and is low in calories. The only thing is that it’s pretty tasteless — an advantage in some ways because it can be paired with stronger tasting fruits.

Except the blood red variety. This has a more distinctive flavour and it colours everything purple and red. It’s so much fun.

I know this by several names — persimmon, sharon fruit and kaki. When ripe it’s soft, stringy and very very sweet. So soft that I like using it as sauce for fruit salad or yogurt. There is another type that has tougher skin and the fruit itself less soft. It gives a funny textured after taste which I don’t quite like. I’m not sure how to distinguish between the two though.

Plentiful during autumn and sold in large packs. My favourites are the Japanese varieties and the ones I used to get in Switzerland, from Italy I think.

I half-heartedly tried running a few times throughout the years, but could never get into it. I got breathless to quickly, my knees hurt, I felt I was going too slowly. The lesson of 2 10km races with no training weren’t heeded properly.

I started being serious about running 2 months ago when I got the ipod. Then I got the nike+ and being able to keep statistics was the biggest motivation. I should have realised that all it took was a geeky angle.

I was very slow initially. Added the inconvenience of street running — traffic, stupid pedestrians who block the whole pavement, dogs and their walkers — meant an inordinate amount stopping and starting. The first record on my nike+ showed a speed of 8min/km, a result of jogging for a block or two, walking, and walking during the final 20mins. Mostly I’ve been keeping in the 7-ish min/km tempo. Occasionally I’d break 7mins.

The knees haven’t stopped hurting, but in only 2 months I’ve done pretty okay. I’ve made an effort to run at least 4-5 times a week; other times I walked or if I’m at a hotel I use the elliptical. One day a week is rest day.

The latest big breakthrough is this weekend when I decided instead of running around the block, to run over to Bowen Road and use the “dedicated” running route. Boy it made such a huge difference! There were a lot of people, but it was never crowded. The initial parts were shared with traffic, but it then quickly became pedestrian only. Conditions were ideal, yesterday I ran until the 3km marker on the route, and including the distance from home it ended up being almost 12km.

Today I selected by distance. 5 mins walking warm-up before starting the workout. Hardly any traffic stops and running all the way, no walking. Turned the voice notification on and stopped the timer at 10km exactly. Then another 10 mins cool down walking home.

1.08 is still slow, I’d like to get to under 30mins per 5km. But as a target reached I feel I deserve a little self-congratulation. There’s lots of room for improvement, plenty of time for building up speed and strength.

Matt Ward (M. Ward) is an indie singer-songwriter from Portland who manages to combine country, blues, pop, and folk into a unique package. He’s toured with Bright Eyes and is mentioned in the same space as the Decemberists, the Shins and Feist. I keep expecting to see his name on the Garden State, or some other Zach Branff film, soundtrack.

Zooey Deschanel (awesome, awesome name) is an actress who has small roles in films like Almost Famous, and increasingly larger roles in films like Elf, and was Trillian on Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Matt and Zooey met on The Go-Getter, in which they sang a duet together. Some correspondences led to the formation of She & Him and their first cd Volume One. The first single, Why don’t you let me stay here, is kinda bouncy and folksy. Another of my favourites is their cover of Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold on Me, when Zooey channels some serious Patsy Cline.

She has a distinctive voice, he has a way of arranging the music that is simple and effective. There’s a cute, retro, kitschy feel to the songs. Paste magazine said in their review,

the 13 songs on Volume One are lovely throwbacks to blissful 60s pop, tastefully arranged and produced by the uber-talented Ward

They should know, they just named She & Him — Volume One as their best album of 2008.

Thought I’d test out the gorman-holbert method on people. Not exactly a portrait, this is a picture of two Japanese kids at Farm Tomita at Furano. Turned out pretty nicely.

This was converted using the gorman-holbert method, named after Greg Gorman and Mac Holbert. It’s another method developed by Rob Carr and gives outstanding results, especially for portraits.

This is from the millenium forest in hokkaido.

• Select Image > Mode > Lab Color to convert the image to Lab mode
• Go to the Channel palette and select the Lightness channel
• Select Image > Mode > Grayscale and discard the “a” and “b” channels
• While holding the Control key click on the Gray channel
• Select > Inverse to select the shadows
• With the shadows selected select Image > Mode > RGB Color to convert back to RGB
• Go to the Layers Palette
• Create a new Solid Color layer
• Select a color from the color chooser
• Change the Blending Mode of the solid color layer to Multiply
• Hit Command-Option-Shift-E to create a new merged layer
• Change the blending mode of the new layer to Overlay. Set opacity to 20%
• Select Filter > Other > High Pass
• Set the radius to 50 pixels

The lighthouse at Rose Bay, Sydney using the same b&w method. This lighthouse as a mosque feel, and i like how the dome at the bottom looks like it’s lighting up the side of the tower.

One of the [many] great features of photoshop is that we can create and store actions. This is a black and white action from eliot shepard which is based on one by bob carr.

This is the lobby of the Westin in Sydney, the one where they converted the GPO to a swanky hotel, restaurant, shopping complex.

• Convert to Lab Color (Image > Mode > Lab Color)
• Select the Lightness channel (Channels palette > Lightness channel)
• Convert to Grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale)
• Make the new channel the selection (Control-click the thumbnail in the new Gray channel)
• Invert selection (Select > Inverse) (Leave this selection active for the next steps)
• Fill the selection with black (Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color > Select color #000000)
• Tweak the opacity of the fill layer (Layers palette > select Color Fill > set opacity to ~50%)
• Create a new Levels (or Curves if you prefer) adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels)
• Tweak the levels in the adjustment layer as you like
• Select Background Layer (Layers palette > select Background)
• Duplicate layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer)
• Run the High Pass Filter (Filter > Other > High Pass > Radius 10)
• Convert the filtered layer’s blending mode to Hard Light (Layers palette > Select Background copy > set blending to Hard Light)
• Reduce the opacity of the Background copy layer to a good point (I start at 25%)

I started my 101 tasks in 1001 days project on 1 December 2007. To recap, the aim is to assign 101 tasks and then complete them in 1001 days. In my case, I have until 29 August 2010.

It’s been a year, time for a progress report. First, like an ambitious idiot, I set more than 101 tasks, by splitting certain tasks into sub-units. For example #21 is

read 10 books on the bookshelf that I haven’t read before

All in all, including the multiple item tasks, I set a total of 238 tasks for myself. Sigh. Whatever was i thinking of? Anyway, some tasks were easy, like

#2 get an airline adaptor for the mbp

some i can see may prove to be difficult, like

#41 visit India as a tourist

others just take time

#67 10 new restaurants in 10 cities

If I count the main 101 tasks, I’ve done 25.1 (sub-tasks are broken down into 0.1 units); if I count all 238 tasks, I’ve done 59. Either way, I’m at around 25%. Which is NOT GOOD, cos 365/1001 days = 36%, meaning I’m behind. And for an overachiever (heehee) like me, it’s unacceptable.

There are a few tasks which I’ve done but have yet to write up. Even so, I have to get on with it!

I wish I could have taken this from the front but it would have been an invitation to get punched. Or at least majorly scowled on. I was walking from my hotel to the office in London and spotted this girl walking right in front of me. And this lightbulb totally went bing in my head. I mean, fedora, buzz-ish cut, mobile phone glued to ear, low slung jeans, flannel (I think, at least it’s checked) shirt, messenger bag, dunks.

Need I say more?

Helen Sandler used to be the editor of Diva, and still freelances for them though nowadays she’s more known as a poet. I haven’t read Diva in many years and I have a feeling my copy of this book was a freebie with the magazine. Published in 2001, it’s Helen Sandler’s proper book about “sanity, secrets and cybersex”.

Some of it seems at once to be both relevant and dated. People still IM and email and (may be) do cybersex. But there’s so much more to online life today that the protagonists would simply be overwhelmed — all the social networking, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, twitters, tumblrs and just completely conducting one’s life online — all pretty unthinkable in the early part of the millenium.

It’s a nice book to read on the plane, not too heavy and just enough humour mixed with angst to make the story interesting. The main character, Joss, tends to whinge and feel sorry for herself way too much but I suppose we all do that. Weird neighbours, well-meaning friends, boring job, a relationship without commitment are all familiar in real life. Meeting someone online and falling in love may seem a novel idea in 2001, but nowadays it’s almost a norm.

Like I said, the writing is light and funny. There are bits between chapters providing insights from the point of view of a side character that are amusing. The main characters are real enough, though in the spirit of being light, not hugely developed. Not a book that left me deeply affected, I enjoyed it.

I think I’ll try to make it a habit, read one of the bookshelf books when I’m travelling.

I’m so glad I made myself do nano this year, and was not too overly freaked out about it. I think I’ve learned a couple of lessons: a) I can write 50k words fairly easily and b) keep to reasonable wordcount targets. Looking back, nano 2008 is characterised by an almost laissez-faire approach. I actually enjoyed it. Naturally nano 2009 may not be the same, I may end up stressing about it, trying to get 5,000 words in every day. The standard has been set, that I finish no later than the 15th.

There’s a thread on the forums called “nano isn’t a chore for me” and I think this is where I find myself this year. I keep wanting to place a qualifier, that it is this year rather than all nanos going forward because I don’t want to jinx anything. I see a lot of people for which writing 50k words is very painful, needing word wars, sprints, write or die or small gifts to keep going. Well, bully for them and I really think that they will get a lot of satisfaction out of winning.

What keeps me going, and makes me return year after year, is the sense of achievement. And the sense of belonging (although I keep very quiet and never post in the forums) to a community. People ‘in the know’ when I mention nano, will immediately get it and there’s a strong bond when I meet another nano-ite. It’s a special feeling.

I know the quality of this year’s novel isn’t great, that I tend to use the same simple words rather than trying to think of a more appropriate description. But surprisingly, aside from not capitalising, the draft is in pretty good grammatical and spelling shape. I’m also easily distracted — I’d write 300 or 500 or 1,000 words and then I need to go do something like reading, check greader or play on facebook. This to me forms part and parcel of the whole experience.

And so, what until november 2009? I think I’ve written myself out of writer’s block a little. I will try to edit this story for publication — either at pens or change the names and…gasp, oh the pressure…go for real. I’ll need to finish those CM wips and dust off Atonement. Making it a 101 task was a brilliant idea, I think that was the final push.

Final official wordcount is 51,477. I have a bunch of winner’s badges, the certificate and of course the chart.

Imagine this.

The oldest rapid transit system in the world. 11 lines, 268 stations. 400 km (250 miles) of track. Over one billion passenger journeys per year. 55% above ground.

The Tube. Not known by any other name.

Here’s a train on the Hammersmith & City line at Barbican station, taken on a Saturday morning. The whole Circle Line was closed that day, together with a huge chunk of the Metropolitan from Wembley Park and a smattering of odd stations. I mean, give it a break, it’s almost 150 years old.

Belgo isn’t exactly new new — I’d eaten there before, many years ago. I’ve always wanted to try their beat-the-clock menu — you pay according to the time on your order, so if the order is 5.45pm, you pay §5.45 — but we usually have something else to do between 5 and 6.30pm on a weekday. Anyway, the reason it makes this list is because it’s become my go-to restaurant, especially if I’m a) on my own and b) in Central London. With branches in several locations, and I have the one in Chalk Farm in mind, it could have become our special place, since L’Ecluse is gone.

Belgo offers Belgian food (duh). This means moules frites and beer. How can they go wrong? There is a separate menu for beer, offering on tap, monastery brewed, fruit beers, white beer and speciality (aka strong) beers. I had a Chimay Bleu, 9% dark ale and considered the classic Chimay. I also tried one of the fruit beers — the waiter suggested the Floris Apple, but I found it tasted too much like cider, nothing special.

Oh, moules frites. I had moules provençal, ie in tomato and garlic sauce. Very very nice. The kilo pot disappeared far too quickly. There were other items on the menu like chicken, sausage and steak but I question anyone who goes to Belgo and not order mussels. The frites were more like British chips to be honest, but notice how they automatically comes with mayonnaise? Gets another star in my books.

I heard this song from The Airborne Toxic Event on the plane, and had to scroll back and listen again. What caught my ear was how much like Chasing Cars it sounded. And I’m big on Snow Patrol. No wonder, this LA group has been compared with The Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse. Mixed reviews, mostly with critics wanting more from them than sounding like yet another one of those bands.

But you know what? I don’t care that they don’t sound quite original, it’s the style I like and there’s never too much of a good thing with stuff you like.

and all of these memories come rushing
like feral waves to your mind
of the curl of your bodies
like two perfect circles entwined

I bought a stack of CDs lately, the new ones from: Kings of Leon, Jason Mraz, Keane, Airborne Toxic Event, James Morrison, Katy Perry, Oasis. I’ve gone back to buying physical CDs, for no good reason that I feel like it.

So now I have over 10,000 songs in my iTunes library. Most are ripped from CDs, quite a few are freebies from everywhere and, okay, there’s a bunch that comes from frostwire.

My great-aunt and aunt are visiting — I hadn’t seen them in years and years. When Mum told me they are visiting, and that they plan to go to the cemetery, I made sure I booked my flight back from Chicago to ensure I’m home today.

My grandfather passed away in 1992 and my grandmother in 2002. I can still remember how I found out. I was in London in 1992, fresh out of college and newly with mm. We’d been at Margate on Sunday and I got the call early Monday morning from my dad. I felt guilty that while everyone was at the hospital I was out having fun at the beach, though being 8000 miles away and unaware of the situation there was nothing to be guilty about. I got a ticket that day and it was a long, lonely plane ride to the funeral.

I was home in 2002, fresh back from Zurich. My grandmother had had a stroke a couple of years prior and was being cared for by Mum and my uncle. Mum called on Saturday morning, I dressed quickly and was lucky that the first taxi I flagged down knew the way to the hospital, even directing me to where the entrance was when we got there.

I don’t consider it morbid to visit my grandparents and great-grandparents in the cemetery. I suppose it could be a scary place at night but in the light of day all I feel is respect and a sense of purpose. How can there possibly be malignant forces present at such an overwhelmingly Catholic place?

Bret Easton Ellis defined my writing. I was very affected by Less than Zero and American Psycho. Not so much The Rules of Attraction but still. It’s the style, the tightness of language and ultimately the blank emptiness of his characters, his stories and his locations that got me. Deeply.

The Informers came out in 1994. My copy is actually signed, I bought it in London. Strange that it’s taken me 14 years to finally sit down and read it. I’d tried numerous times, but never got round to finishing. When I’m stuck on a plane with no access to my books, it’s a good incentive to finish.

Not so much a novel as a collection of short stories about a group of people who are loosely interconnected. Almost all written in first person and, honestly, it sometimes took me a few pages to figure out who was narrating.

Nothing of import went on. Set in opulent LA we had people doing drugs, doing each other, aimlessly going from one place to another, and not even death can pull them out of their self-absorption. The actions shock, but are not written to shock. Some of the chapters held my interest more than others. Some of the characters I could recognise — Julian, Tad, Alana and Blair from Less than Zero, or just characters with the same names. Tim was just like Clay. Sean. The characters are grotesque, in their tanned, Porsche-driving, Spago-dining ways. But they are just who they are. He doesn’t judge, or glamorise, he just paints the picture.

Now I need to read Glamorama.

More Chile pictures. This is of the vina del mar coastline. Converted to b&w using the same gradient method.

I hadn’t chatted with K for ages and she showed up on chat tonight. It was great to catch up. Reminds me of my visit last July. This is one of the parks in Santiago. Converted to b&w simply by:

add adjustment layer > gradient > b&w adjust levels, curves or add burn /soft light adjustment layers to increase depth

Something good came out of being jetlagged and can’t sleep. I ended up Friday night (well, Saturday early hours) writing a response to the fractured fairy tales weekly potluck challenge on the Bella/Spinsters Ink Books Forum. The idea is to create a new fairy tale or fable, “fractured”, or in our case, “queered”.

My first idea was to write one about Goldilocks, the jock, the femme and the baby butch. But someone else posted one about Goldilocks and the thick-haired bears before I even started. Sure, I could have written my version, but I didn’t want to seem like I was competing, you know. Especially cos the other entry was by one of the published authors, all of whom I feel have a superior status than us readers on the forum. I’m not complaining or anything, but my experience with forums is that any time an admin or moderator posts, it has more impact somehow.

It didn’t matter, there are so many fairy tales to choose from. So I started thinking about Cinderella, and it was so darned easy to queer it up. Give her a toolbelt and change her name to Dell, cos “Cinderella” is so girlie. Add 2 evil stepsisters (Lipstyck and Celesbyan), a sassy fairy godmother, a Princess Charming and instead of glass slippers, rainbow crocs. It was always going to be modernised, so I put in references to twitter, 2009 cars and Rachel Maddow. Hee.

And there we have it: Cinderella, Modern and Gay. I don’t think I’ve ever written a post so explicitly gay on this website, so enjoy it.

I had just over half an hour to spare today so I hung out at HMV listening to new releases. The station that had the new James Morrison and Daniel Powter also featured someone I’d never heard of before, Jason Mraz. I listened to We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things and immediately picked it up, as well as his previous CD, Mr A-Z.

I can’t find a lot of articles on him, but it doesn’t matter. A peek at his website confirmed my first impressions — quirky, fun, nerdy and downright left of centre. The Hawaiian influence reminds me of Jack Johnson except I’m liking Jason Mraz whereas I can’t get into Jack Johnson at all.

I tend to listen to too much depressing indie rock, this cheerfulness is a nice change.

This was a quick dish I threw together cos I didn’t want to spend too much time prepping and cooking. I got the peeled shrimps from the supermarket. Fresh but packaged. Normally I’d go for the larger fresh (still swimming) prawns, cook a large batch and freeze them.

I sautéed the shrimps and set them aside. While the pasta was cooking I chopped up a couple of ripe tomatoes and reduced them till they were soft and just like a sauce.

When the pasta was ready, I tossed everything together.

Simple and quick. Not a jar of sauce in sight.

This is one of my favourite photos. I took it in San Francisco and I’ve used it as a base when I want to try out various photoshop effects. original | movie-like effect

As the last picture, converted using the lab color method.

Tram interior, San Francisco. original

Converted to b&w using the lab color method in this tutorial. Pretty straightforward: convert to lab color, select lightness channel, copy, revert to rgb color, paste into r, g and b channels, save image. Adjust curves, levels, channels as needed.

This is the second in the New Zealand series I converted to b&w. It’s from the willow bank wildlife reserve in christchurch. Original.

I dunno. I think it’s overcontrasted, making it seem like one of those very old b&w pictures. Ah well. Next in the series I’m gonna try another technique.

I had always wanted to learn black & white photography and in the days of film camera I tried taking a couple of rolls of b&w film. Was never really happy with the results. No surprise.

With the advent of digital photography, it’s not as if we can get b&w memory cards. Taking b&w pictures can be done using a filter. Some cameras have in camera settings. The other method is to post process. Photoshop, iPhoto and all photo editing software has this functionality.

Even within photoshop there are several methods. This tutorial has simple to follow instructions. Also, this one.

This picture was of the Cardrona Hotel on that lonely road between Queenstown and Wanaka, New Zealand. I tried the simplest channel mixer method and set it to black&white infra red filter. Then used levels and curves to add contrast. original colour version.

They come to me in drips and drabs, but here are the first 20. The first 8 are my entries for the forum challenge. The winning entry was the first one.

It’s not exactly based on any real event or whatever, it was just a feeling. Symbolism, if you will. The idea is to create sufficient depth so the readers’ minds can take it to the next step. The other ones that I like are #15 and 20. And then there’s #6, which appeals to the geek in me.

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Ernest Hemingway called this 6-word story his best work. In those concise few words, he told a story, but not the whole story. I think the idea is to introduce enough elements in order for the readers to interpret the story. Why were the shoes never worn? Miscarriage? Duplicate baby gifts? Why are they being sold? Where did this ad appear? The brevity and complexity are outstanding.

It’s a popular writing challenge topic. Blackbook magazine ran one in 2004, from 25 influential writers.

“Forgive me!” “What for?” “Never mind.” — John Updike

He remembered something that never happened. — AM Homes

All her life: half a house. — Jamie O’Neill

Wired magazine ran one for 6-word sci-fi stories.

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. — Joss Whedon

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly. — Orson Scott Card

Corpse parts missing. Doctor buys yacht. — Margaret Atwood

Commas, see, add, like, nada, okay? — Gregory Maguire

Smith magazine took it one step further by asking for contributions to 6 word memoirs from the public. A book came out of that exercise.

Recently on a writing forum I visit, there was a 6-word novel challenge which attracted a lot of entries. This week I found out that one of my entries came in the top 3. Wow. The prize is a signed copy of a book by the author who posted the challenge. Except I already have that book, so she was very kind and promised me a signed copy of her next book.

It was fun to do, and I’m going to amend my 101 in 1001 list, replacing a duplicate entry with the task of writing 101 6-word novels. I’m going to post these on the 6wordnovel twitter account I created for this purpose.

mm and I have a few joint investments. The lumpsum account we opened 5 years ago was a pooled account so we qualified for a larger bonus, and it has grown pretty well since. The markets are down, so we lost some of the gains, but looking at the longer term it’s doing fine.

It’s gotten to the point when we can split the account and open our own single name accounts. Same reasoning…to get a new account bonus. Plus our investment philosophies are sometimes slightly different. She thinks about it more, and actively follows the market. I tend to be more laid back and conservative. This probably means she gets better returns, but it’s fine by me.

So after my big trip to Chile, seeing the prosperity there and talking to K a little, I’ve been wanting to put some money into Latin America. Not a lot, but as a diversification. Mostly, our FA says she’s not as familiar with the market and if we were to put money in Latam why not Eastern Europe or BRIC?

Today we went to sign documents for the account and we ended up deciding to put a little into Latam. The fund she recommended was Templeton Latin America Fund [pdf] and I put 2% of my portfolio there. We maxed out on # of funds at 10. The mix is 25% hedge fund, 25% student accommodation, 35% fixed income and only 15% equities. We’ll switch from FI to equities in stages, the aim is 70% equities but this is too much of a bear market to do that in one go.

We have a proliferation of gift fruit baskets lately. Aside from the expected apples, oranges, grapes, bananas and mangoes there are a lot of these crisp, crunchy, juicy apple pears. Great in a fruit salad or on their own.

Properly called nashi pears, these are not a cross between apples and pears but are actually part of the pear family. Called commonly apple pears cos of their shape.

When we were at the hoosoka viewpoint at kushiro wetlands, I rotated through and took a series of 7-8 kinda sorta overlapping pictures.

Autostitching in photoshop appears to be straightforward according to this tutorial. I tried, but the results using Auto-Align weren’t good, the contrast and exposure between pictures didn’t match at all. I guess it’s because there was too much green and the details aren’t clear enough to distinguish using an automated program.

I ended up eyeballing most of it, matching layers adjusting levels, curves and exposure layer by layer. The Auto-Blend function was useful though, took some guesswork out of the exercise. For the remaining parts I did some smudging and copying to eliminate as much of the obvious line up points as possible.

Together with staying at home and not spending money, I enjoyed a silent weekend. I called Mum Friday evening and we chatted for about 15 minutes; the next person I spoke to was mm when I called to wake her up at 6.30am this morning. In between, no people interaction, what bliss. Last time I tried for a no-speaking weekend, Mum called on Sunday to invite me out to dinner and ruined it. She didn’t laugh at me when I told her she’d ruined things, she knows me well enough to know that I mean it when I say I want a quiet weekend.

I have poor verbal skills anyway, which perhaps is surprising since I have decent written skills so you’d think I know how to string a sentence together. I don’t mind talking to people I know or on topics I’m interested in, but not for any length of time. People who can’t.stop.talking amaze and irritate me. Yes, I mean you, the one who nattered and yabbered continuously for the entire time I was on the bus.

May be I’m anti-social. So what. When there is no talking, no harm is done.

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Lyrics from Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode. I found another video of them performing the song on the roof of the WTC but it creeped me out too much to post it.

I wanted to include this task in 101.1001 but I didn’t want to name it cos it’s deeply personal. It involved being disciplined and reaching certain milestones a certain number of times during one day (either a 24 hr period or from waking to sleeping). I’ve tried a few times before but have come up short. I’m glad I finally managed it.

The rules are simple:

We are not allowed to spend any money on anything, no matter what. In other words, we can’t make a run to the store to buy food, we can’t spend money on any sort of entertainment, and so on.

No additional expense on utilities (eg no premium movies on cable). They even updated recently with a list of 100 things to do over a money-free weekend.

It’s very straightforward for me. All I did was stay home. I didn’t do grocery shopping — I have enough food for the weekend and even through Monday and Tuesday so I can do shopping during the week. I wasn’t tempted to buy anything from amazon, I didn’t pay any bills, in fact I didn’t even speak to anyone between talking to Mum on the phone friday night and going to bed sunday night.

I read, napped, played computer games, did a couple of food memes, enjoyed several foot massages on my uSqueeze, made fruit salad, made lunch for Monday.

This type of weekend, I never want to end.

    

It has been 5 years, it was a long wait, but it was well worth it.

We took over 1,500 pictures which I’ve trimmed down to 873 and 8 videos in 3 flickr sets: part 1 | part 2 | part 3

There’s a thread in one of the flickr groups called the 5-shots-a-trip game where you’re supposed to show a trip using only 5 pictures. My choices were based on what they brought to me:

• something new — marimo
• something breathtaking — sunset at bibaushi
• something delicate — millenium forest
• something indulgent — the joy of hot springs
• something fulfilling — all that seafood

The whole trip has been written up:

day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6 | day 7 | day 8 | day 9

Not including flights, hotel and car rental we spent ¥307,823, or approx $2,800 so double that for the whole trip. I’ve broken down the cash spending into categories.

Should really take out mm’s Burberry shopping. Heehee.

We want to go back already. Even with 2 trips there are so many places in Hokkaido we hadn’t explored. The far south Hakodate, the ice boats at Abashiri, the tiny islands off the NW side, Jozenkei Onsen, skiing at Niseko and many more.

An old New York Times article so aptly described why visitors to this magnificent island return to it again and again.

[T]he primary difference between Hokkaido and the rest of this heavily industrialized, crowded country is that it is still raw and largely unsettled. Hokkaido is Japan’s frontier and looks the part. In a country where little goes to waste, the Japanese have set aside large expanses of this countryside.

We’ll try not to let 5 years lapse before our next visit.

 

I needed to get new pillows cos the old ones are 10 years old and have gotten soft. I’ve been using the neck support pillows for a long time. The old ones I got from a regular store, it’s the first time I’ve seen them without the cover and it turns out that they are a sponge.

The new ones, on the right, are memory foam pillows by tempur. Needless to say they’re stiffer and more supportive, not only cos they are new but I suppose the technology is better.

Jetlag has been bad. I don’t know why I’m not completely exhausted cos I’ve been waking up at stupid hours all week. 1am, 3am, 4am, 5am. I give up on trying to get back to sleep once it gets to around 5.30am.

I took this at just before 6am from my study. The sky was full of reds and oranges for just those few minutes. The trees around the swimming pool act as a good foreground to the skyscrapers in the background.

I entered this for the flickr 888 event. Some people actually take pictures of three 8s, I wish I had the opportunity to do that.

The air-conditioner in my bedroom should have been replaced 3 years ago, I just never got round to it. Lately it’s been making such a racket that I have difficulties sleeping (jetlag notwithstanding). Once I decided, I acted quickly. Went to the electronics store on Tuesday and bought 2 — one for the study too since it’s as old as the one in the bedroom. Originally they were supposed to be delivered yesterday but it got cancelled because of the typhoon. Today they arrived. It took the technicians about an hour to install both, they even took the old ones away.

All in all, a nice deal. I didn’t get fancy ones, just store branded. It’s fine for the time being.

One of the specialist chefs at the Peking Garden restaurant in Hong Kong. This is one of the best restaurants for Peking duck and when we were there on a Saturday lunchtime, the ducks were served non-stop.

The duck would come out of the kitchen, shiny and fresh. The waiter would present it to the table for inspection, then it goes to the chef’s station. Diners have a choice of skin only or skin with meat. In short precise strokes the chef slices even portions onto an oval platter with a duck handle.

It’s one of the greatest dishes in the world, and you can see the focus and expertise in this chef’s action.

mm belongs to a traditional sports club, nothing fancy but lots of activities. It also has one of the oldest and most active bowling facility around.

We’ve been meaning to go, but never find the time. So today we made a special effort. Had to wait half an hour, which we spent watching some really good players. You can tell they’re good players by their robotic wrist guards, own shoes and own balls — often one player will have 2-3 balls.

My grandfather played in the league and my dad isn’t bad either. Me? I used to play a bit, but now I’m totally out of practice. After a few bowls I realise I need one of those wrist support cos I was all over the place. I managed to get 107 and 114; mm got 105 and 98. We had a really enjoyable time.

Tokoro at the Langham Hotel HK opened earlier this year to much fanfare. It sells itself as The Spirit of Roppongi where the theatre of robatayaki and the flavours of authentic Japanese cuisine come together. A robata is a busy open space where a team under chef Takanori Hirayama grill the freshest of seafood, meats and vegetables.

mm and I went with a friend who suggested this place. We started with a supreme 18-piece sushi plate and a lobster salad. Fairly standard cold appetisers, fresh and crisply prepared.

The grilled foods included the chef’s special minced chicken skewers, scallops with mushroom in its own juice, tempura and kurobuta pork chops. Kurobuta pork is the pork equivalent of wagyu beef, coming across as slightly crunchy and well marbled.

Dessert was a tofu mousse with red bean, green tea and lime cremes, and an fantastic apple sorbet. I couldn’t help it, I kept taking spoonfuls of mm’s sorbet. Hee.

 
They even had wine flights — we shared a pinot noir and a chardonnay selection of 3 glasses each. As an indulgence I even tried a sake cocktail — sakarina was made with sake, lime juice and a little sugar.

I tasted a tiny slice of heaven today. I’ve heard about courgette (aka zucchini in some parts of the world) flowers and how delicate they are. There are recipes for deep fried or stuffed with cheese and all looks good.

So Car’s grandmother received a small handful of freshly picked courgette flowers yesterday. They can’t keep so she had to prepare them today. First she cleaned them carefully, then parboiled in water until they were soft. Even after parboiling the orange colour was still dominant. She then dipped them in a batter made from flour, baking powder (obviously SR flour will also do), water and beaten egg. She then pan fried them. There was leftover batter so it became a sort of frittata-like fritter.

It took all of 10 minutes for the plate to disappear. Very delicioius.

I’ve been to many good restaurants in Chicago, mostly as a guest of my work colleagues. But none had the impression that Hamburger Mary’s made.

I’d been out in the sun watching the parade, then got rained on; the bus ride to the restaurant was long and full of traffic; I was dehydrated and hungry. So to be greeted by a larger than life plastic waitress with a huge burger in her hands gave me a big smile. This is a franchise chain started in 1972 with several branches all over the US. It’s a kinda burger joint, a kinda bar, quaint and a little camp. Beer on tap included Miller’s and Sapporo, food was the expected American casual burger fare.

I had a guacamole burger. The beef was good! Juicy, nicely flavoured and came with a giant steak knife stabbed in the middle of it. I had coleslaw with it, not having enough energy to face fries or mashed potatoes.

Strange that I pick a burger place for this entry, but it’s my choice if I had to bring anyone out for a meal.

It’s Mum’s birthday and Mother’s Day, so she deserves something special. I said I’d make a cake. I used to make cheesecakes, but this time I wanted something I’d never made before, so she can try something new.

This apple & blackberry crumble cake recipe is from bbc good food. It’s one of the more involved recipes I’ve tried. Nothing difficult, just time consuming and fiddly.

For the cake:
150g unsalted butter
150g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g crème fraiche

For the fruit topping:
25g unsalted butter
1 tbsp sugar
4 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges
150g blackberries

For the crumble topping:
50g unsalted butter
50g soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
75g plain flour
50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Step 1: make the crumble topping
melt the butter, then mix in the sugar, cinnamon, flour and nuts. Set aside

Step 2: prepare the apples
melt the butter in a frying pan, add the sugar and apple wedges
cook for 10-15mins until the apples and soft and golden. Set aside to cool

Step 3: make the cake
cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
add eggs one at a time
fold in flour, baking powder
add crème fraîche

Step 4: assemble
spoon roughly 2/3 of the cake mixture into a round cake tin
scatter 1/3 crumble mixture
top with the remaining cake mixture
scatter 1/3 crumble mixture
arrange apple and blackberries
top with remaining crumble mixture

bake at 190°C for 1.5 hours, covering with foil halfway through if crumble browns too quickly
cool for 10 mins then cool on wire rack
serve with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup and crème fraîche

From Delia’s winter collection. Yes, I know it’s May and it’s not winter, but who cares when there’s brownies? I don’t usually like nuts, but this was good.

1oz each of macadamia, pecan, hazelnut, brazil nut
2oz dark chocolate
4oz butter
2 large eggs
8oz granulated sugar
2oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Roughly chop and roast the nuts for exactly 8 minutes
Melt chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water
Cool, then mix in all the other ingredients
Bake at 180°C for 30 mins, cool, then cut into squares

It all started with this week’s friday food fiesta topic, which was olives. It got me thinking how I can use olives to make a quick and simple dish. Aside from serving them on their own as tapas of course.

It was unbelievably easy to make with this. I had all the ingredients in my fridge. Tossed cooked penne in a generous dollop of red pesto, then added pitted kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and the last of my jar of peppadew. Season, adding a little dried basil. An altogether sweet combination. Worth making again, just as soon as I get more peppadew.

This is a Donna Hay recipe (though I don’t understand why she doesn’t take advantage of the internet and post some of her recipes on her website). Very simple and easy to make.

marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil and pepper
place on grill
add limes to grill halfway through
serve on a bed of salad, i used a red salad of carrot, tomato, yellow pepper and sweetcorn

I had the leftovers cold today, as a grilled chicken salad and it was just as good.

This is a New York Times recipe, a great way of combining the special (asparagus) with the mundane (eggs). It really is very simple and surprisingly, very delicious. The recipe calls for cheese, which should work wonders. Of course I don’t like cheese in my pasta so there.

Timing is important, so all the ingredients are ready at the same time.

put water to boil and cook spaghetti
in a frying pan heat olive oil and add 2 cloves of garlic, crush the garlic to infuse the flavour into the oil
when garlic is beginning to brown, remove and toss in chopped asparagus, fry quickly
drain pasta, reserve a little cooking water
toss asparagus with pasta and the reserved liquid
crack an egg into the frying pan and fry quickly until the whites are just set
plate pasta and put egg on top
when ready to eat break the egg, allowing the yolk to run into the warm pasta which will cook the egg

I like this picture. It was taken at Pitt Street Mall in Sydney; I’d just came up from the Myers food court and it was the string quartet that caught my attention. There was quite a large crowd, and they were good. It was only after a while that I noticed the mime. My intention was to contrast the stillness of the mime against the musicians but there were too many pedestrians distracting the background. I’m glad I got the movement effect of the passers-by walking past.

Because of Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank’s Nobel Prize, we’re pretty familiar with the concept of microfinancing. Lenders pool together to lend small amounts to the borrowers in mostly poorer countries who don’t have access to the traditional bank loan facilities. Over time, the loan amount is repaid. This is an good way to connect people who want to help with people who need help.

One of the more accessible organisations, and certainly one that fully uses the advantages of the internet, is kiva. Kiva describes how its members can participate simply as:

Choose an Entrepreneur, Lend, Get Repaid

A few months ago, around Christmas and New Year, there was so much attention (helped by coverage on Oprah) that there were a shortage of loans requested and lenders were limited to $25 each. Now that the year is underway and the New Year resolution fever died down, things are back to normal. I decided to wait at Christmas, and I find that it was a good decision.

Scrolling through almost 30 pages of loans reqested, the loan amounts requested were small (a few hundred dollars, not many over $1,000). Most of the purposes were to buy goods for resale, retail, transportation, construction, and home improvement. Some are near their target already. I was caught by the entry for a lady in Benin. I have to admit I won’t be able to point out Benin in a map, but it didn’t matter.

I put down $50. Payment is through PayPal (who doesn’t charge their usual fee for kiva). Kiva collects the funds then distributes to the Field Partner for further dissemination to the entrepreneur.

It felt good to be able to help someone. It’s a small amount for me, but if it can help make a difference, then I’m only too happy to do my part. Virginie Bahini, I wish you the best.

 
Tokyo’s subway system is a maze. It’s large, and extensive, and can be confusing. 14 lines, 280+ stations and almost 8 millions passengers daily. Imagine the level of computerisation and control. On top of that, there’s the Yamanote line of the JR that is like the Circle Line, running in a circle connecting all the important stations.

These were taken at around 6pm at Ginza on the Ginza line. Surprisingly it wasn’t as crowded as I expected on the train but the station itself was very busy. There really wasn’t sufficient room or lighting, but Photoshop did the rest.

For reference, here’s the Tokyo subway system map.

There are tens of thousands of restaurants in Tokyo. In a busy district such as Shibuya, Shinjuku or Ginza, entire buildings are taken up by restaurants, one on each floor. The problem for non-Japanese speakers is that it’s hard to figure out what is offered inside. Some restaurants helpfully provide plastic models but I suspect the good ones don’t, cos they don’t need the advertisement.

Staples of Japanese food are well known — sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, grilled food, noodle bars, deep fried pork chop, shabu shabu and tempura. That these have become so ingrained internationally is a testament to the popularity of Japanese food.

If ever there is a restaurant I will return to again and again, it’s Ginza Tenkuni, which has been serving tempura since 1885. From a small beginning as a street stall it now occupies a whole building in one of the most expensive areas in Tokyo. The restaurant has 4 floors, and it’s interesting that each floor serves a slightly different style (and price) of tempura.

• basement — counter table but don’t be fooled, dinner starts at ¥10,500
• ground (what they call first) floor — casual seated tables, a simple bowl of tempura on rice for only ¥1,000 to larger sets up to ¥4,725
• second floor — banquet floor with table setting or tatami room, sets start at ¥6,300
• third floor — large tatami room for banquets, tempura is fried at the table

I’ve only eaten on the ground floor, but the selection is already enticing enough. Even a simple set comes with sashimi, pickles, side dish and miso soup

A more sophistical set is the bento box. It comes delicately presented, with several side dishes, soup and flavoured rice.

The best set I’ve enjoyed is a special winter set. It starts with a small salad, moving onto a plate with grilled fish and tiny small bowls of accompaniment.

There’s also sashimi and finally tempura of large prawn, small prawns, fish and vegetables. There’s even a scoop of ice cream to end.

It took me almost 3 months to write 9,000 words, which is kinda shameful if I think about it. I know I can do better but I’ve been in bad form for a couple of years. Still, I finished The Dressmaker’s Hands yesterday. It’s not a CM, cos it’s set in an undefined historical period and it’s too much of a cop-out to force coffee in there someplace. So I created a new category for these non-CM short stories.

The premise is based on the segment of the film Eros called The Hand. That film was split into 3 segments by 3 directors — Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderberg and Michelangelo Antonioni. For me the segments decreased in quailty so by the time I got to Michelangelo Antonioni’s I was utterly bored. Anyway, Wong’s segment provided inspiration for my story, down to the title. It can be classified as erotica, with a small plot. I feel like a fraud every time I write a sex scene. By committing those emotions into words I’m implying that I know what I’m talking about. Heh. Will anyone believe me when I say all I have to offer is a good imagination?

Like I said, 9,000 words. Car said “so your entire story is shorter than one of my chapters, eh?” Heehee. Even more evilly, I’m posting in 4 parts because there are time gaps between each small part. In any event, my long stories are usually of 1,500 to 2,500 words each chapter, so I’m not deviating from my norm here.

All the restaurants I went to on the trip to Pairs were new. I hadn’t been back in Paris for 6+ years, and my eating habits have changed somewhat since then. I remember always looking out for moules frites and though I still love the dish, I’m looking for something different.

If I were to return to Paris in the near future, and I’m only allowed to pick just one restaurant to revisit, I’d choose Aux Lyonnais. Yes, it’s probably the most touristy of the bunch, but there were dishes on the menu that intrigued me, and I want to try. I was extremely adventurous and tried the tripes but as we were leaving I looked over at a nearby table and saw someone tucking into the most scrumptious looking calves liver — thick, soft and cooked pink. Then every review I read talks about quenelle de brochet et ecrevisses, so how can I not try it?

And the île flottante aux pralines roses et tarte aux pralines, so worth trying again. Though next time I will try the soufflé (didn’t this time cos of the wait) and definitely the creamy St. Marcellin cheese my colleague had.

I got invited to the departmental steering committee meeting in Paris. It was a last minute affair — one minute I was going, the next I wasn’t, then it was on again. There was a bit of a scramble to get tickets earlier this week.

I got to the in-town check-in early. There was no wait at the counter where I was promptly told that business class was full so I was being upgraded to first. First class. On a 12-hour flight. Oh man.

The seats were huge — 79” long and 22” between the armrests. They also recline fully into a flat bed. Aside from the usual amenities kit we were given a comfy pajamas and slippers set. It was easy to cocoon myself, and not have to deal with the other passengers.

The entertainment program was the same on-demand as in Business. I watched Bewoulf during dinner. Now dinner, that was different from Business. It was full service, like in a restaurant. The menu:

Caviar and Balik Salmon with Krug grande cuvee

Lobster bisque

Mesclun salad with olive, sun-dried tomato and balsamic vinaigrette

Grilled beef tenderloin with gratin potato, asparagus, carrot and red capsicum
or
Pesto tortellini with tomato sauce and pinenut

Cheeses — cambozola, appenzeller, double gloucester and somerset brie

Fresh seasonal berries

Ice cream

Tea and coffee

I finished the film and went to sleep. Not blankets but a proper duvet. I managed to sleep for 6-ish hours, which is not bad nowadays.

As a flying experience went, it was extremely comfortable. I can only hope I can have another opportunity another time.

When I think of sponge puddings, it’s usually the upturned pudding basin-shaped cake swimming in custard or golden syrup — oversweet, thick and stodgy. After a couple of bites, it leaves me full and wanting fruit or sorbet. I guess it’s an English prerogative, the heavy sponge pudding that shocks the arteries.

Which was why I was so excited to find this recipe from Nigel Slater’s Appetite. It’s been a good book of cooking tips and recipes for me. His website seems to have disappeared but I found an excerpt at The Guardian that quoted this particular page. The best thing is that it’s delicious and very light. The citrus makes sure that it’s not too sweet and gives it a bright tang. I think I left mine in the oven too long and the sauce dried out a bit, but it’s still very yummy — the top is a light (here’s that word again) crust and the bottom is this exquisite custardy, lemony soft sponge. It has to be tasted to give it full credit.

If I were to plate this properly I’d serve it with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or mascarpone or a pretty lemon sauce and a raspberry or two. Accompanied by limoncello, of course.

100g butter
175g sugar
1 lemon + 2 oranges or 4 lemons — I used all lemons this time
4 eggs, separated
40g plain flour
400ml milk

cream the butter and sugar
add egg yolks followed by flour and milk alternatively until the mixture resembles a soft cake batter
add zest and juice of fruit
beat egg whites until stiff peaks and fold into mixture
bake in basin over a roasting tin of water at 180°C for about 1 hour

I cannot believe it’s taken me this long, have I been living under a rock or something? A Popstars phenomenon since 2003, their success can’t be attributed to simply being manufactured fake reality stars. Seventeen consecutive Top 10 singles in the UK can’t be scoffed at.

So anyway, I heard Call the Shots on the plane and thought, “hmm, very catchy.” I had to wait for a second cycle to catch the band’s name and I had to write it down on my bookmark. And that was my introduction to Girls Aloud.

The more I listen, the more I like them. Yes, they’re pure pop. Yes, they sell glamour. Yes, I can’t tell the girls apart. So what? Like my first impression, they have catchy songs and that’s enough nowadays. I went out and bought Tangled Up and I’m enjoying it. It appeals to the part of me looking for instant gratification, ice cream and something different from the broody music I’m usually drawn to. The appeal of girls aloud is loud and clear.

He’s been around since the 1980s, so it hardly qualifies as new. But I’ve never truly gotten into Nine Inch Nails, or more precisely Trent Reznor. I find the music a little too electronic, a little too industrial, for my taste even though peripherally I know I need to explore the music more.

I was glad to be given an excuse when Ghosts I-IV was released. Definitely setting a great example of how the way music should be distributed in this day and age, the album is available in a variety of formats and prices. Tracks 1-9 are available for free download; the whole album for $5; a double CD for $10; a special edition for $75 and an ultra deluxe limited edition for $300. Needless to say, and as an affront to the RIAA, the $300 edition sold out quickly.

I was perfectly happy to pay $5 for the 36-track digital album and also happily found a review that included a little summary of each track. Very useful, especially for an instrumental album like this, where it’s easy to lose track (heh, no pun intended) of the tracks. One reviewer on amazon suggested listening to each section separately, but listening closely for the first few times then letting it wash over me works better for me. I’m at the listen closely stage and liking the variety as well as the different mood that each piece strikes.

It was a short post on mefi but it got my attention. The thing-a-day is simple, during the month of February:

• make one thing (eg project, sketch, exercise) a day
• document this work in anyway necessary to prove to the world that you’ve made something new: write, take pictures, videos, post things online
• entries are posted on the official page, which is a wordpress blog with multiple authors

I made a list of what I could be doing, but it ended up less creative than I intended. I tended to go back to tried and trusted “things” like cooking and photography. I tried drawing, but it really didn’t turn out well. I documented it fully though: here on the website and over at the official site. What I liked were the comments and “I like it” features on the official site. I’m not sure if the site owner(s) will publish statistics, the latest is that 1,418 people signed up and 609 started. I’d be interested to know how many completed the whole 29 days — I suppose I can scroll through the authors list and count the number of people with the required number of posts.

There were a few days when I was struggling for things to do, or more likely time to do them and post. Especially during the week when it was busy as hell at work and I was getting ready to go on vacation. Now that it’s finished I’m sure I’ll miss it, and there are several ideas I hadn’t had time to do. A short summary of what I did each day:

1. made a list of what I could be doing — it was kinda cheating but I wanted to get my thoughts together
2. chicken stock — cooking thing #1; the stock was good
3. made an ebook, and most amusingly, a video of how I made the ebook. now I know I’m nuts
4. care package for hospital visit
5. mediterranean chicken with chickpeas — cooking thing #2, for both thing-a-day and 101.1001
6. badly drawn doodle — yeah that was ugly
7. rkt completion ratio chart — long overdue so it was a good opportunity to update
8. movie poster effect — I really liked that, it turned out pretty
9. brätwurst mit rösti — cooking thing #3, the weekend means I do more cooking
10. butternut and chickpea salad with tahini — cooking thing #4, yep more cooking
11. pickled eggs — cooking thing #5
12. flash animation — it was follow the instructions which I could do, but it doesn’t mean I now know flash
13. running kit — that was kinda cheating cos I didn’t “do” anything except queue up for 2 hours to get my marathon stuff
14. sharpie doodle — it looks juvenile but I’m secretly pleased with it
15. macro shot of clock — that was the first time I consciously used the macro function on the camera, a comment on the main site was like “fantastic! at last a non-flower macro shot
16. origami paper dolls — these had been in my drawer since 1997! My version wasn’t as good as the sample but at least it passed as a final product
17. 10km run — I’m glad I went. my time was slow but what the hell, it’s not a competition
18. baked pasta with tomato & mozzarella — cooking thing #6, and the sole purpose was to use up the mozzarella ball that got delivered to me by mistake
19. grilled tuna head — cooking thing #7, almost cheating cos I merely reheated the food. that it’s part of a tuna head was interesting
20. crystal apple — man, that photo turned out to be awesome
21. bionicle robots — I wish I had more of these to construct and play with
22. travel day — there wasn’t any time that day to do anything but pack and travel. took me 25 hours door to door to get to chicago
23. pandora — god I miss pandora
24. shopping day — got lots done
25. breaded pork chop dinner — cooking thing #8. one of the things I like about visiting is that I get to hang out with Gram and help her with cooking
26. mind maps — it occurred to me that I should be mindmapping this post
27. optical illusion — that one was interesting, and I so want to be able to have the mouseover here but I can’t figure out how to use that javascript for only one post
28. fried rice — cooking thing #9, it was well received
29. a day in the life — wow, i actually completed 3 challenges in one day

One of my 101.1001 tasks is to learn flash. I guess it’s like photoshop and illustrator, the basics are straightforward to learn, once you grasp the toolbar system and understand the concept of layers and timeline. But with such a complex program, to get any good takes a long time.

So I followed an informative video that shows how to create a simple animation with falling text effects in flash. It was fun.

This recipe is adapted from orangette who adapted it from the absolutely fantastic casa moro cookbook. I actually have the first moro cookbook, and it looks like I should get the second one too.

Pumpkin and squashes are high on my favourites list. Creamy soup, roasted as side dishes or as a substitute for mashed potato, there’s nothing that beats the chill of winter than a warming, welcoming squash dish. The tahini adds a touch of arabia to the proceedings, and lifts it up beyond just a warm pumpkin salad.

for the salad Peel a whole butternut and dice into 1-1.5” pieces
Season with olive oil, minced garlic, salt & pepper and mixed spice — the recipe calls for allspice but I didn’t have that
Roast at 200° for 25mins or until soft
At the last 5mins or so chuck in a can of drained chickpeas to warm them up

for the tahini dressing Whisk together 2tbsp tahini, 2tbsp lemon juice, finely minced garlic and sea salt
Add water to dilute
Add oilve oil and whisk to a thick consistency
Season to taste
I found it still too lemony so I added a few drops of sesame oil for balance

assembly After removing from the oven, cool the squash to warm temperature
The recipe uses red onions but I don’t eat onions, so I added celery chopped into small bits for the crunchiness
Toss vegetables in tahini and serve

season 4 chicken portions with cumin, tumeric, salt & pepper (I used drumsticks this time)
brown in a casserole dish or deep pan with garlic
add a can of chick peas and a can of chopped tomatoes
simmer for 25-30mins until chicken is done and the sauce has reduced
throw in green peppers
serve over garlic mash — or cous cous for more mediterranean flavour

I did a lot of flying over the past 6 months. I was 13,000-ish miles, or one long haul flight, away from advancing to gold status on my frequent flyer card. My membership year starts in August so I’m very sure I’ll get there.

Surprise surprise I got a package today congratulating me on reaching gold status. So they didn’t even need me to put in the additional 13,000 miles. woot! Gold means I have priority waitlisting, even more extra baggage allowance. Lounge access and priority boarding applies for all oneworld airlines, not just my home airline. That will be very useful.

This means my airmiles is reset and I have to start another 12 months afresh. Hopefully I can get enough miles. I think a couple of business trips to Chicago will be good enough. I’ve been a member since 1999, I wonder if they’ll give me some benefits next year on my 10th anniversary. Hee.

When I read about layer tennis I thought: “okay, it’s a bunch of designer-bloggers doing their small clique thing again, to show off to the general public why they are so cool and why other uncool people can’t get into their club.”

Well okay that was a little harsh. The idea of layer tennis is that at a pre-determined time (usually 2pm Central time on a Friday), two contestants

swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley”

The file is published to online viewers and a third person provides commentary. Most matches are played in photoshop but there’ve been matches played in after-effects, flash and illustrator. It’s really a test of visual design skills in a short period of time rather than how well they know how to use photoshop filters.

There’s been 15 sessions so far, this weekend’s featured two simultaneous matches and it was touted as a “finale” so I’m not sure if it’s the last scheduled or what.

Do I understand it? Yes I do. And I’m pretty impressed with the creativity and ideas. This is from one of my favourites, between Veerle Pieters and Cindy Li on 11=Jan-08.

It was also interesting to read the participants’ thoughts on the match: Veerle Pieters | Cindy Li. Of course there was a large dose of inside jokes, as they know each other. Not a huge amount of technique commentary, mostly thoughts of how they arrived at each volley. Seemed like fun was had by all.

Did a little clean up today. I have too much stuff — intended presents and just general junk. Threw a bunch of them in a big plastic bag to give to Sis. Apparently my niece’s school will be holding a jumble sale soon so these will be handy. Some of them are still in their original wrapping so hopefully people will buy them.

Here’s 30 of the jumble sale items. Altogether there’s 40 items in the batch.

In the basket is an olive oil jar, 3 small rugby balls, a neck cushion, a pig photo frame. There’s also some tapes of very old sitcoms, a candle set, tiny Paris pictures, toy car, snoopy puzzle, Nigel Slater’s Appetite (which is a duplicate), a portfolio, a couple of umbrellas, a poster, Monty Python rude sayings keychains and a couple of stamp albums I found in my mailbox unexpectedly one day (that’s a story idea). Nice stuff, not rubbish. But still, cluttering up my home.

Also threw away my old scanner, about 50 tapes and other junk that aren’t sellable. Put some old clothes in a bag for Sis’ helper. Total is definitely over 101 items.