Stewed lamb for a cold day

My mother often referred to lamb as a "heaty" meat. So when the weather turned cold, she would roast her leg of lamb, a favoruite in our family. Eat it with mint sauce, it not only warmed the body, it warmed the soul too. Mum is very good with her roasted leg of lamb. I have yet to master that skill but for her, everyone praised her for roasting the perfect lamb!

Most mothers would discouraged their daughters from taking lamb during their pregnancy. This is because they fear that when the baby is born, he will have epilepsy. You see, in Chinese, the term 'epilepsy' has the word 'lamb' in it. It is more superstitious than scientific. My mother, on the other hand, would encouraged me to eat more. I remembered just before heading to the hospital to give birth to Kai, mum made me the famous Hainanese lamb soup. She told me that it would be advisable to keep the womb warm for the baby. Mother's explanation made more sense...but to me, it just another wonderful dish to eat and enjoy!

As the weather turned cold over here, I made stewed lamb to keep everyone warm. This wasn't the ususal lamb stew. It was just lamb stewed till tender and cover with the gravy left over during stewing.

With lamb bought from the farm, rosemary from my garden and some gloves of garlic and I have a dish of stewed leg of lamb.

It was stewed till the meat just slipped off from the bone of the leg of the lamb. Yum...mi!

Church was vandalised

This morning we went to church and found out that between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the church was vandalised. Someone had thrown golf balls at the church windows and there were two gapping holes.

Some church members were very quick to get into action. There were glasses splattered all over the chapel and Noah, one of the elderly men went down to the church to sweep away every piece of glass on each pew and on the carpet. He made sure that no one would be hurt.

Some young men, put up cardboards and plastics and pasted up the broken windows as the weather has been bad.

First thing in the service, we prayed for whoever vandalised the church and service went on as usual.

Truly, the church is only a building, it is the people of the church that give it life.

Those four-letter words

We put behind the vandalism incident and Pastor Winters preached on more important issue such as the financial situation in US. It was a good message.

We all know that in our current economic situation, it would never be possible to live a debt-free life. Example, even buying a HDB flat, we would already plunge ourselves into debt. However, the wise would made sure that his debt should be kept below his income level. His credit card bills would be cleared at the end of each month and not rolled over till it snow-balled into an unbelievable and unpayable amount.

The Bible talked about such issues. Proverbs 21: 20 "Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it" A wise man would ensure that his family has the good things but a foolish man empties his house. We don't need to have all of it. Romans 13:8 "Owe no one anything..."The verse speaks clearly for itself. God has never intended us to owe anything to anyone. The borrower is a salve to the lender and we have seen and read about it many times in the papers.

Debt is basically a bad thing, a dangerous thing and it is something which God doesn't want us to have.

Recently, hubby and I were about to buy a big ticket item (before the financial crisis happened). It was a really good buy. The seller requested that we give him a deposit first but more time for him to consider. We were surprised as to why we need to pay a deposit and yet still give him time to sort out his issues. God has always given us wisdom to make informed decisions and we have always believed in the guidance of God. We decided to give him more time but without paying the deposit. During the waiting time, the financial market went into turmoil. We were so thankful that God was on our side. In the end, we decided we should not go ahead with the purchase, we would just wait.

So there goes the four-letter words....WAIT is WISE

All ready for winter?

Past few days have been really cold and friends have given plenty of advice as to what to buy, where to buy cheap but good winter clothings. So, we spent our Saturday, shopping for winter clothes and found more places selling good and cheap winter clothes.


I hope these are enough to keep all of us warm.


When you are at the right place at the right time and they have the right stuff,
you know you've got a good bargain. This pair of flats cost me only US$2.98!

I understand now...

When I was still working in busy Shenton Way, I always wondered why did the Caucasians love to have their lunch under the hot sun. It was a common sight seeing them eating their sandwiches with one hand and the other hand holding a book and reading it under the hot lunch-time sun. While we the locals would be hiding under shades or sitting in air-conditioned food court eating our 'mee-pok ta" (dried noodles).

Having been here for the past seven months, I have since experienced three seasons - spring, summer and now autumn. I fully understand now why the sun is such a joy to have.

When we first arrived, that was in spring, temperature was hovering around 4 - 10 deg C (39 - 50 deg F) then came summer, it was really nice and warm 26 - 32 deg C (80 to 90 deg F) and now it's autumn and it's back to cold days again 10 - 15 deg C (50 - 60 deg F). If you look at it, the sun only made its appearance for about three months in a year and that three months were indeed precious. During those months, all kinds of activities were available. Theme parks were running at full swing, swimming pools were opened, you would probably also spot kiddie pools in every household. It was summer vacation and kids were out in full force playing balls, cycling, skate-boarding.....it was never ending fun.

My summer clothes are all packed up now, there will be no need for them now as I bring out all the warm clothings. As the weather turn cold, activities are greatly reduced. So you can imagine what it will be like in winter. I think I will need some, like what my brother-in-law said "insulation de naturel."

Ann's first field trip

One of the advantages of living in US is that the kids here have wonderful school field trips. They visit farms, planetariums, attend musicals....it is a very different sort of education. And I am a firm believer of such kind of education. Education should be about learning and growing, it should be a never-ending process, it should be about broadening one's horizon and feeding one's soul. Not about mugging, sitting for exams and scoring straight As. If the As come along, be thankful but if they don't, it won't be the end.

Ann was excited when she knew she was going on a field trip with her class. They were going to the Strawberry Acres. We have been there twice but every trip was different because they have a very huge orchard and at different time of the year, different fruits were available for picking.

Over here in the US, when pre-schoolers go on field trips, one parent has to come along. It was great that hubby took time off to come along with us. Ann was very happy, she has always been a daddy's little girl.


Different classroom setting with a different kind of teacher. Some short history on how Strawberry Acres started


Indoor lesson has ended, now for outdoor lesson


Part of the orchard


It's apple season now, a lesson on how to pluck apples. Listening attentively


Now, the real thing, picking apples


It was tough job, picking apples...finally rest and snack time


Time to visit other parts of the farm. The animals! Somehow, animals and kids have a special bond.


This is not a sand-box. It's a corn-box. These corn are dried and inside the box, are treasures.
The kids were suposed to dig up the treasures!


I suppose you can call this a pumpkin patch.


These are the royal gala apples


Cortland apples. We plucked these to bring home to enjoy


Red delicious apples. The difference between Cortland and Red delicious apples is in their size. Cortland apples
are bigger in size.

I am not an apple person but these apples are the most crispy, fresh and juicy apples I have ever tasted in my whole life.

Other than apples, they also have peaches which hubby came and plucked in August...


...and raspberries

It was one very enjoyable field trip for Ann and all her little friends. If you have a chance to bring your kids to any orchards, make sure you give them the opportunity to see, feel, smell and pick their own fruits. It is one great science lesson. When we were in Melbourne, Kai and Ann also had the opportunity to pluck strawberries and they thoroughly enjoyed it. By the way, although the place is called Strawberry Acres, they don't grow strawberries!?


Finally...my turn to be embraced by mother nature!

MacDonald birthday party

Everywhere we go, we are bound to attend at least one MacDonald birthday party. Here, Ronald MacDonald actually makes his appearance. Yes, what's a MacDonald party without Ronald.

Ann was invited to one such birthday party and she had...FUN!


Indoor playground where the party was held


Ronald didn't just appear, he performed...did juggling...


...autographed...


...took pictures with the kids! That's what I call a MacDonald birthday party


Ann with some of her classmates and the birthday boy

TV is not all evil

Ann came looking for me this morning in the living room.

Ann : "Mummy, you know what is molecule?"

Me : (Astonished, dumbfounded, shocked) Err...what is it?

Ann : Molecule is in the air and we can smell them....(she walked away, with a very pleased look)

Ann learned alot from TV programmes and this was just one of them. Hubby and I allowed our kids to watch TV programmes but we are very selective. From our experiences in raising up these two children, we have realised that TV programmes have helped them in their learning process. The TV set should never be a nanny to our kids. We should be responsible parents in sifting out what are the good and beneficial programmes for our kids.

Back at home, Kai loved to watch the National Geographic channel with his dad. It was one programe which really enlarged his general knowledge.

So this morning, Ann proved to us once again, that TV is not all evil!

A day out at sea

It was a Saturday morning, it was sunny but the wind was chilly. We drove for about 2 hours to one of the harbour at New Jersey to meet up with hubby's colleague and his wife. They were going to bring us out on their boat. It was exciting for all of us. We were grateful. Since coming here, we have met many new friends who were not only friendly but very generous indeed. We have been invited to many homes, to have a taste of the local lives, to many outings...basically to experience life here in the US.

We set off early that Saturday morning...


On our way there, we saw beautiful seaside.
Many families were already out fishing and having their picnics


The harbour


Yes, this is a boat.


The name of the boat, Fandango which is a name of a Mexican dance


The cabins. 6 can sleep comfortably


The 'living room' of the boat


Under the law, all children must wear life jackets when going out to sea. Must say that I was really proud of both Kai and Ann.
They had their life vest on from 1pm to 6pm when we returned to the harbour. That was 5 hours in those life vest.
And you know how uncomfortable that thing was. They never complained!


Found their spot and all ready to go.


Hubby's colleague, skipper Bob giving us a lesson on how the engine helps the boat to move. Hi,hi captain!


Skipper's assistant, Ann, she is Bob's loving wife. Yes, she has the same name as little Ann


All ready to go....can you spot little Ann?


A modern day draw-bridge. As our boat was pretty big, the bridge has to be drawn up for us to pass


All aboard....


This boat brings you to NYC. USD45 per trip


Beautiful houses lined the shore. Some of these houses cost as much as USD4 millions. Some of these houses belong
to some of the Hollywood stars


Kai and Ann making themselves very comfortable.


Guess, who came to visit? It was not a shark....


...a school of dolphins. Very amazing, never seen these wild dolphins before. It was a beautiful sight.


What's boating without fishing. Kai's fishing lesson with the skipper!



Hubby caught 2 fishes. A sea robin which actually croaked like a frog and a baby shark. Of course, we released them back into the sea


Kai doing a 'Leonardo DiCaprio in Titantic'. Boys just want to have fun.

After a long day at sea, the skippers decided that we should head for the harbour before night time. As it is now autumn, it gets dark pretty early.
It was a good thing we got back early as I managed to witness and capture one of the most beautiful creations of God...sunset.




Simply awesome...


One last meal onboard with the skippers before we head home. A simple but deli-cious meal of fish kebabs and pesto pasta!

Thank you for such a wonderful time. We deeply appreciate the hospitality.