memory

Tomorrow the theme at church is going to be "Memories", apparently. I was rung up and asked to be one of three people who will share a few of their vivid memories of anything. Hm, I thought. What will mine be?

Sometime during the years 1988-1990

Finding out that some food (generally my favourite) is bad for you. Before, I had thought that my parents wouldn't give me more dessert or chocolate or whatever because they didn't have any more, or they wanted it for themselves. The day I found out that when I was a rich grown-up, I still wouldn't be able to eat all the chocolate I wanted - that was the day I lost my innocence. I compare it to finding out about death.

1993

My big brother married a Chinese Malaysian woman, and so at their wedding there was a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony. I was one of the family members chosen - because I was younger, I would serve them tea and they would give me a red envelope with a whole FIVE DOLLAR NOTE in it. It was very exciting.

When the ceremony was announced at the wedding reception, my mother poked me in the arm. "This is your turn," she said. "Off you go." I walked nervously out of the crowd towards the tea table, and everyone started laughing at me. It was NOT my turn. I felt completely humiliated as everyone laughed at me and said how cute, and I had to walk back into the crowd, and then out again when it was my real turn. Mum apologised but I have never quite forgotten the embarrassment, even though I think now, "well, it wasn't THAT bad, as embarrassments go".

2001

Reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time.

I re-read it recently, after a long time of not reading it, and besides enjoying it HUGELY, I got very vivid flashbacks to when I read it the first time - a feeling of absolute delight that an author like this existed. It felt like my own discovery.

domesticity

I share meals with two of my flatmates, so I cook at least once a week now. Which is great, because if it's only once or twice a week I have the energy to try new things, be creative. Some of the things have turned out beautifully so I thought I'd share them with you! Starting with this:

Butter chicken soup

I ate the leftovers for lunch today and only remembered halfway through to document the process for you. Here is half a bowl of the yummiest soup I've had in a while. Unfortunately you can't see the white blob of yoghurt and the coriander scattered on top - because I ate them! - but it looked very pretty at the start.

I got this recipe a long time ago from a recipe book called "Destitute Gourmet", but didn't use it until last night.

Marinade for chicken:

1 TB lemon juice          1 t coriander            1 t grated fresh ginger

1 t cumin                       1 t chilli powder       2 cloves garlic, crushed

(I cheated and used already crushed garlic and ginger.)

Soup ingredients:

1 large boneless chicken breast        1 TB butter

1 finely chopped onion                       1 t coriander

1 t cumin                                               1/4 t chilli powder

1 t ginger                                               1 can diced tomatoes (with juice) [400g/1 lb]

3 cups chicken stock                           1/4 cup basmati rice

2 TB tomato paste                              1 TB plain flour

2 TB brown sugar                               1/4 cup cream or milk

Natural yoghurt and fresh coriander to garnish

Marinade thin slices of the chicken for at least one hour in the fridge.

To make the soup, melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add marinated chicken and chopped onion. Stir constantly until chicken is sealed and the onion is soft. Add the dried spices and ginger, then stir in the tomatoes and chicken stock.

When simmering, pour in the basmati rice, stir, and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix together the tomato paste and flour and whisk this, a little at a time, into the soup. Add the brown sugar and cream, and season to taste. Serve in soup bowls with a dollop of natural yoghurt and some chopped fresh coriander. Provide some torn-up naan bread for dunking. (Although I just used a baguette and that was better than fine!)

Such a yummy meal. If I do say so myself, I don't think I've ever had a nicer soup. And there are so many things in its favour - butter chicken without the fattiness of the original curry; a more authentic-tasting butter chicken without the skody Westernization that tastes like, well, butter and chicken; it's really quick - probably about 30-40 minutes including preparation; almost all the ingredients are things that we would have in the pantry or freezer anyway. The only things I had to go and buy were the coriander, which totally makes the meal (and which is now growing on our kitchen windowsill), a tiny tub of natural yoghurt, and the baguette.

It's a really good hearty meal for winter (we are freezing in our student flat, and meals have to warm us) but I have a feeling it would not be too much in summer either. It serves probably about four hungry people as a main, or if it was an entree it would serve six easily.

three degrees of separation

The godfather of the pastor at my church was an interpreter for the British Embassy in Moscow. He met Stalin on numerous occasions. To use the bathroom in the Kremlin from the room where diplomatic negotiations were carried out, he had to walk through Stalin's bedroom (one single iron bed sitting in the middle of the room). He heard the Soviet leaders cracking jokes which made no sense at all then but make all the sense in the world now. He heard them talking about people who had been discovered as not very "loyal" and had been "shifted" to "another department".

I think there's a danger for me, studying history, to treat it like a branch of English literature. Gathering information and sorting it into a pattern; making clever deductions, links, arguments; compartmentalizing and boxing and fitting in; writing with clarity and creativity. All of which is necessary but sometimes masks the fact that this stuff actually happened. It's REAL. It gives me a little shock to be reminded that what I'm doing is something important and something that needs to be remembered, something that really happened to real people who disappeared off the face of the earth.

leaving, on a jet plane

It's all getting real, and when it's getting real, it's getting exciting.

I am holding plane tickets in my hot little hand RIGHT NOW - okay, so a few seconds ago, as right now, I'm typing. They look like this:

Aug 6-7: Christchurch > Sydney > Singapore > London

Sept 29-Oct 1: London > Singapore > Sydney > Christchurch

Along with this is an Oyster card (slightly discounted rates for public transport in London, which is just ridiculously priced from the point of view of New Zealand dollars), a Eurail pass for Eastern Europe, and an ISIC card (international student card).

Free accomodation is practically sorted in London, a HUGE thanks to several acquaintances who have offered to have me to stay (or who agreed to my offer of myself to stay!). Extremely cheap accomodation in Brighton for one week is almost sorted. Probably within the next week flights to Europe will be sorted.

I actually bought the flights a week or two ago, but I was so freaked out by the amount of money they cost, and by the amount of work I have to do before I go, that I didn't really think about it.

Anyway, me? A poor student? Somehow managing to get to Europe this year? I've always expected that, sometime in the next ten years, I would be able to go. But definitely not this soon. That is probably why it didn't seem at all realistic. But now... I'm very, VERY excited. And very grateful.

Dunedin

I went down to Dunedin on the weekend, with one of my sisters and her family, to see two other sisters and their families! Had an absolutely lovely time hanging out with my siblings, their spouses, their kids. We stayed with the sister who has just moved house - and by gum it is a good location. They are still in the city but up the hill and around the peninsula a little, so from their kitchen window they can see out to sea, but if they take a short walk in the other direction, into the reserve right next door, they can see right down the harbour on the other side of the hill.

I went for a walk on Sunday morning to catch some views. I love that sunrise in winter is quite late, so these photos didn't require extreme earliness. That view was quite something.

There's something about Dunedin in the sun that is just - phwoar. It's still freezing cold, but it's the prettiest city. If only it were always sunny there!

I also enjoyed playing with my sister's cute dog, who was a tiny wee puppy last time I saw him and is now a boisterous but reasonably well behaved Jack Russell/bichon frise cross. We took him to the dog park, where he and other dogs delighted us. Example: this hilarious video - Oscar and a big German Shepherd playing hide and seek. Enjoy!

If you're the praying type, I'd appreciate you glancing at the post previous to this.

prayer request

The baby of a facebook friend of mine was kidnapped last night. Please pray.

even Elizabethan playwrights need their privacy

I've been planning planning planning today for my European trip. Tomorrow I will buy tickets, then I will knuckle down and work really really hard so I have enough done by the time I need to go. But today was devoted to travel.

I google-mapped the British Library, where I will be spending most of my time in London, and found this street view picture of it:

View Larger Map

You will probably need to fiddle with this picture a little by turning it slightly to the left and slightly upwards, but...

I think it's hilarious that Google Maps picked up the picture of Shakespeare on the wall of the building and automatically blurred his face! And so I am sharing it with you!

By the way, as I write, there is a rat making merry in our kitchen. It is FREAKING ME OUT. It is at times like this I wish I was a) rich so that I had my own fully rodent-secure house, and b) married so I wasn't lying in bed by myself trying not to feel tense and frightened. The drama over the last week... all caused by one rat and one mouse who have taken up residence in our flat and have so far outwitted all attempts at trapping/murdering them. I used to feel slightly bad about the fact that we have to kill them just because they want somewhere warm to live... I no longer care. I just want to sleep securely.

washing machine from hell

Just a quick note - if you are feeling depressed and need something to cheer you up:

GO TO THIS LINK.

Actually, go to it even if you're already happy. It made my WEEK.

Make sure you read all the comments.

Update: This whole story has gotten pretty crazy - it's been on national news, so far almost 150,000 hits on the page, and a range of t-shirts have come out based on the illustrations. All over the last 24 hours. Crazy! The illustrations are now being sold for charity.