After the crazy chills of January, February has been really mild in comparison, almost spring-like. The buds are emerging, the birds are singing, the sun is out, and it's easy to think that winter is over... except that I doubt it is. I'm sure that at some point in April there will be a slash of snow. Just we wait ( Read more... )

I haven't been writing here as often as I wish I were. It's the usual combination of distractions (fanfic, TV shows) and work (domestic drudgery, offspring, travel planning) and some nights, pure laziness. There's plenty to write about. I just need to carve out a proper pocket of time to sit down and do it. It occurred to me that if I didn't write ( Read more... )

In the days leading up to our friend D's arrival here in Geneva, J and I gave the apartment a thorough clean. She was our first official houseguest so we wanted things to be nice! It's not in *that* bad a state most of the time, but her visit served as a motivation for us to do a big clean-up. Our efforts were continually thwarted by the children, ( Read more... )

I didn't really celebrate my birthday this year because I just didn't feel up to it. I didn't want to meet any friends, I didn't feel like eating with my family (although we'll be doing a family birthday meal together on Sunday) and I didn't want to do anything special. No excitement or anything; it was just a regular ordinary day. And so I spent ( Read more... )

J and I took Bao to the doctor yesterday to get her bili levels checked while my mother babysat The Bun. Like her brother was at birth, Bao is jaundiced. We're hoping that her levels don't peak so high that she has to be hospitalised for phototherapy, but we'll see how things go in the coming days ( Read more... )

Maybe it's my body's way of gearing up for action, but for the last few days I have been seriously craving red meat, namely beef. I thought I'd eaten my fair share at J's birthday dinner earlier this week, but no - I followed that up with a double cheeseburger from McD's (sorry, Bao, but Mom's gotta eat what she's gotta eat), another burger at the ( Read more... )

To celebrate the end of term for me (last day of work, although there's still grading and various other things to do) and the start of J's birthday weekend, I headed to town after class to meet J for a long awaited dinner date. Just the two of us, since my mother was babysitting The Bun. I was early, so I had a nice time browsing the shops by ( Read more... )

My birthday worked out fine in the end. It was pretty low-key, which was what I wanted, and I got to eat a lot of yummy food, which is also what I wanted. I also woke up early to get a headstart on the laundry (in our household, if you don't keep an eye on the laundry pile it turns into a bogey and eats you alive), which is not quite what I wanted ( Read more... )

J and I have been indulging ourselves, food-wise, over the last few weeks. Mainly because we know for the next few months, we won't have as much time (or energy!) to go out and a) have a leisurely dinner, b) eat with both hands at the same time, c) even sit at the dining table at the same time for a meal. I don't write any of this with any ( Read more... )

With London (and Scotland) on the cards in the next few weeks, I have been steeling myself for the horrors of British cooking by reading Nigel Slater's very wonderful Eating For England, in which he writes little vignettes and personal anecdotes about British food culture. Before delving into the book, first let me run through a couple of Top Three ( Read more... )