Winter Wonderland

It was the first New England snow storm yesterday and overnight, this place was transformed into a winter wonderland. Even though I'm not fond of the cold, I was thrilled! It was really pretty and I had forgotten :)

We went to Larz Anderson Park, which had was covered with a blanket of snow. There were people ice-skating at the rink, sledding down the slopes and just walking about.

I'm sorry that our family wasn't here to share this but it's been a long wait :)

Tragedy at Acadia

If you look at the pictures 2 posts back, you'll see W standing on some rocks at the edge of the coast. That's the thunderhole attraction at Acadia National Park. Just over the weekend, Hurricane Bill bypassed the east coast, producing huge crashing waves. Thankfully, the hurricane bypassed Boston, however, at Acadia National Park, thousands of tourists headed towards the rocky coastline to view the magnificent sight of waves crashing upon rocks and there tragedy struck. Some of the tourists were washed off rocks and many sustained fractures. Amongst them, a 7 year old girl, who was washed out to sea with her dad, died. It was pretty shocking and very sad. It reminded me of the tsunami incident in Asia, when people went out to view empty beaches as the sea receded, resulting in high numbers of casualties. I think that many times, we don't respect the power of nature sufficiently. Because we have tamed so much of nature, we sometime forget that nature is much more unpredictable and powerful than we are and we take her for granted.
I guess the same occurs in my walk with God. I frequently forget that He is almighty and omnipotent, just as He is loving and forgiving. That's a sobering and humbling reminder.

This is the link to the story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/08/24/bill.east.coast/index.html

Kite Day

We chanced upon a kite flying day when we were visiting newport and I saw the largest kites being flown. Newport's by the atlantic ocean (you must have already guessed by now that we love the ocean) and there's a really strong breeze blowing inshore during the day. I think I learnt that somewhere in geography that the winds blow offshore in the night, right? Anyway, it was a really pretty sight and it was makes me happy to see families out together having picnics and fathers teaching their sons the finer techniques of kite flying. My favourite kite was the orange porcupine lying on the ground next to the psychedelic pink pig.

Acadia National Park

Summer's really a bustle of activity. It's all that pent up energy I think. Over the last weekend, we were at Acadia National Park, the only National Park within reasonable driving distance. It was a really gorgeous place! Rocky coastline with great hikes through the mountains. We took a 4 hour strenuous hike on the 2nd day and boy, it was a real challenge (only for me of course). During that hike, W's odac and army training was really apparent. As he skipped and hopped over rocks and granite surfaces, I was huffing and puffing and gingerly treading through the same paths. Don't tell anyone but I was overtaken even by little kids. Sigh...

By the third day, we were poofed and opted for more sedentary activities. We went on a nature cruise that brought us to Frenchboro, an isolated offshore island, where the major industry was lobster fishing. The captain of our boat, Steve, pulled up a few lobster traps and introduced us to the fish eat fish world of lobstering. Did you know that in the 1800s, prisons had a rule that you couldn't feed prisoners lobsters more than 3 times a week because it was considered cruel?? I would have undergone voluntary incarceration :) By the way, we got our fill of lobsters. W had this huge 2.5 pounder from a quaint little lobster shack we found.

Farmer's Market

If my previous post led any of you to think that I was walking around moping, I should correct that :)

Was out last week enjoying the wonderful weather and I chanced upon a farmer's market. It was a really pretty sight though I must admit that I couldn't identify alot of the veggies there. I mean, a turnip is a turnip, right? How do I tell the difference between those that are purple, pink. orange, green or white? Needless to say, I have no idea how they're supposed to be cooked so though they look delicious and fresh, I went home empty handed.

In addition to fresh farm produce, there were many stalls selling potted plants too. I'm really amazed by how well flowering plants do here. It seems like it doesn't take much skill to get plants to flower. I still remember our last encounter with a particular plant back home, which had really pretty white flowers at the nursery. Within 2 weeks, the flowers fell off and we never saw any flowers again.. period. You could say that I apart from homo sapiens, I'm not really good with caring for other animal or plant species...

White chocolate lemon cheesecake

I think I've turned to baking as a form of escape. It's kinda therapeutic actually and interestingly, like pottery, the cakes only turn out well if I'm calm. I think that I'm not too good with handling negative emotions so busying myself with activities seems to provide temporary if only short-lived peace. It's a little dramatic to liken it to the calm before the storm but I think that the problem usually returns to haunt.

I was reminded of my "peacelessness" yesterday when we attended our first cell group. It was good to be back in a cell group plus one of our friends cooked a really delicious dinner and I tried my first beetroot brownie (which was quite interesting).
We talked about joy and how Christian joy persists despite turmultuous external circumstances because it comes from the Holy Spirit. It dawned on me that I've been quite devoid of that joy for some time now and I was wondering how I could "get it back". I think I'm going to spend more time reading the Bible and praying. Reading the bible usually helps me look at my circumstances from a clearer and more macroscopic perspective. Praying, I believe, helps to change that which I have no control over. The interesting thing is that though I know the better solution, I usually persist in my quick fixes. Maybe it's a form of escapism, because being quiet and reading the bible forces me to reflect and face the problems and deal with them. Well, I'm glad we went to cell.

As for this cheesecake, it tastes as good as it looks! Light and creamy with a lemony aftertaste. Credit goes to the Peabody's website, from whom I copied the recipe. For those of you who want to try it (it's simple, no baking involved!), here's the link to the recipe: http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2009/05/22/weight-a-minute/

Go Sox!

Watched my first baseball game on Tues!! We were watching it from pretty high up but the atmosphere was really great. The fans would cheer for every red sox player that came up to the plate and there were songs that pp would sing along to in between innings. I would really love to go again and sit closer to the field though all tickets are sold out for the rest of the season.

Both W and I were like little kids attending our first baseball game, plus it was so cool that I got to see the sox players live rather than on TV! My fav players are Varitek, the captain/catcher/ guy who looks out for the team and Bay, left-fielder and Mr. cool, both of whom made really great hits that night, Bay with a homer to left as well.

For your info, the sox won it 5-2!

:D

Cape Cod

I haven't been blogging much because the weather's been gloomy the whole of June. It basically rained the whole of June, which was unusual. June's supposed to be the start of warmer months but as they say, "The only thing predictable abt Boston weather is its unpredictability."

Finally, it got a little warmer last weekend so we headed to Cape Cod, where our landlord stays. We had lunch at a beach club and were brought on a mini tour after that. The house you see on the left was where our landlady's grandfather was born (our landlady's in her 70s now). It's currently being inhabited by her cousin, who owns a cranberry business. She was really proud of the house and had multiple paintings of the house hung up in their current home, and she told us many stories about her grandfather and uncle.

Seeing how proud they were of their heritage made me think of mine. I think it's really sad that I never really found out the story of my grandparents. When I asked my paternal grandmother why she decided to come to SG, she looked really embarassed and didn't want to say much. Now that all my grandparents have passed on, it seems like I've lost a huge chunk of my family history. Now that I'm getting older (yes, I admit it), I seem to be much more interested in my culture and heritage. I think that me being away from home really helps too because I've had to describe SG to many pp here. The more I talk about it, the more I realise how unique we are as a nation. Maybe I just miss the satay and chilli crab....

Softball

I played my first softball game today after about 10 years :P
It all started when we found our current church, Highrock Brookline. We decided to visit a church named Highrock Arlington and while we were there, found out that there was a new church plant in Brookline, which was surprisingly similar to our church in SG. They hold the worship services in a school hall and it's a new church with a good heart. The people were the most friendly we'd met in a Boston church so far. In the first week, we were already attending a newcomers' dinner at the pastor's place and we've found really good new friends since :)
Back to softball, so I found out that Highrock fields teams for the Boston Metro Churchs' slow pitch league and I asked if I could be a part of it. They were really nice and let most of the girls who wanted to play onto the team. Now comes the tough part, I'm much older now!! I've got aching body parts in muscle groups which have not been used for 10 years but it's so fun. It's really nice feeling the adrenaline rush, catching a fly ball and making a hit. Of course, I'm not the same player I used to be, like when I hit the ball and forgot to run.... Really thankful for God's blessings still though!

Kennedy Space Center

Here's part 2 of the travelogue: the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It's taken me some time to put this up because there's just been so much going on here after the holiday plus it's June 10 and the weather's still cold and gloomy. Kinda makes me feel like just crawling under the blanket, drinking hot chocolate and sleeping...

Florida, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. It was hot! Hot and humid like SG, you should have seen my happy face when we got off the plane. I almost did a dance of joy in the arrival hall, in full view of the palm trees and people decked in hawaiian-type beach gear.  The most memorable part about the trip (aside from the weather) has to be the visit to the Kennedy Space Center. We had a hard time deciding whether to go to Disney instead actually, but the being able to drive out to the cape tipped the scales otherwise. The Space Center's located on the cape itself in the midst of a wildlife reserve. In addition to all the cool space stuff, we saw alligators, a family of black hogs and lots of different bird species.

In the center picture, that's Astronaut Bob Springer, who had been on a space shuttle mission twice. On the right, if you imagine hard enough, you'll see the space shuttle Endeavor, which is sitting on the launch pad in preparation for the launch on June 13. Just look for the orange tipped nose. On the bottom right, that's the real payload dock where parts of the payload are assembled before it's mounted in the shuttle. These stuff are all headed to the international space station, where 2 Russians, 1 American, 1 Canadian, 1 Belgium (representing Europe) and 1 Japanese are living together in harmony. If only it were true down here. The most cool bit was that we got to see a shuttle being flown back to base on top of a 747! It just so happened that we were there on the exact day that the shuttle was scheduled to return. Yippee! After the space center was shut, we actually headed down to the beach to view it and the shuttle specially flew really close to shore so that all the people on the beach could get a closer look.  So glad we went!!

Finally, the top and left pics were taken by kind-hearted strangers and I just thought it was funny how both took pictures of us and left out the top of the important structures... hee hee 

 

Niagara Falls

We've been out travelling the last 2 weeks, which explains the dearth of posts. I'll post part 1 of the travel series: Niagara Falls!

We drove about 8 hours there, and I was surprised that we made it :) Of course, WL drove the whole way thanks to my previous experience at the wheel in SF. Viewing the falls was really worth the trip! It's really amazing how much water goes over the falls per second. It's said that 20% of the world's fresh water suply goes over the Niagara falls. We took a boat ride- the famous Maid of the Mist- to the base of the falls and experienced a little of the power and glory of God. It's beyond description, just realising that the falls itself is only a small part of the entire creation of God. It was a good moment for me, one of the moments where you feel that you've been transported out of "now" and have been given a glimpse of eternity :)

There are 2 parts to the falls. In the center picture, the falls on the left are part of Buffalo. NY, while the falls to the right belong to Ontario, Canada. We were in Canada, having driven over the causeway bridge, and it gave us a really good view of both falls. Unfortnately, the place has turned into a tourist trap. We didn' take any pictures of it, but next to the falls, there were casinos, amusement parks and such. Sad, right? I thought that the falls itself was worth the trip.

Pâte à choux

I baked cream puffs!

Found a recipe online and it seemed pretty easy to do so I gave it a try. It tured out better than I thought and it was quite surprising because I usually don't like cream puffs much back home. I'm hoping to make a second batch soon.

Sigh.. the only thing that's missing are durians... if only I could make durian puffs like those at Goodwood Hotel... hmmmmm

Anyone care to send some over?

:P

Lobster meal

We bought lobsters the other day and steamed them in a pot. Yum!

Obviously, W did the cooking. Haha.. I didn't have the courage to place the live lobsters into the simmering water though the lobsters seemed pretty sedated already. It took longer to cook than I had planned so as you can tell, we were kinda hungry and cracked open the lobster before we remembered to take a pic of it. So here's our ready to be eaten lobster taken by a couple of famished people :)

Pottery

This is my first finished work of pottery!

I've been attending pottery classes for a few weeks and wheelthrowing's been tougher than I thought. I accidentally got into an intermediate class (there was no indication of it being an intermediate class when I signed up online) and ended up throwing pieces of pottery next to pp who were making really beautiful and awesome shapes. I guess it's encourages one to improve at a faster rate :)

I'm pretty hooked now, the process of creating a piece of pottery is quite therapeutic. I find it relaxing and it appeals to my creative side. Of course, I've been learning about patience as well. There are immediate repercussions to actions caused by my type A personality. I really hope that I'll be able to throw more than bowls and plates soon. I finally made a cylindrical vessel that day, but I tried too hard to shape it and it ended up in the scrap barrel instead...

Swine Flu

Everybody should have heard abt the swine flu or H1N1 situation by now, esp the pp from back home, where dramatic measures seem to have been taken. Many pp have been asking us how the situation is here. As of today, there are are 34 confirmed cases of swine flu in Massachusetts but none of these people seem to be staying in our area. Other than the news we get from the TV, and N95 masks being sold out, everyone here seems to be going about normally in their daily lifes. At W's hospital, no extraordinary measures seem to be taken ie. temperature monitoring, masks for all with patient contact.

So far, I've had 2 reactions to the situation. The first is that I'm strangely unconcerned about our safety. Ok, maybe it's not so strange that I'm quite at peace. When I first heard of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and how some pp in the US have been infected, my first reaction was 'SARS again?' but that was quickly followed by a reminder of how God protected W and I through the SARS situation despite us having been in close contact with patients. I know that God who protected us then will keep us safe again and that He knows better than I do about the whole situation and how things are going to turn out. Anyway, we've got way too much food in the freezer and if we've got to stay home for some time, it should feed us for a looong time :)

The second is that I started to think about the end times that the Bible talked about and what that means. In Matthew 24: 5-8, it says
For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
I'm just wondering what this whole thing is all about. There's been lots of natural disasters in the recent years, calamities that have not occured for 10s or 100s of years: the tsunami, floods, earthquakes, now a flu pandemic? What's happnening? Is this really just a consequence of the human race destroying earth with global warming or is there something else?

I find that in times like this, I'm reminded that my life on earth is finite, that many of the things which I consider important are actually immaterial in the time of death. Work, money and many other problems start to fade away and I start seeing a little of the big picture. I only get to live once and I would really like to learn to walk with God during my life here, I would also like to love and enjoy my family more and I would like to make my life count by helping others with their life. I've been very thankful for the break that I'm enjoying, I've had time to think through all the stuff that I've been doing and to decide what's actually important. We're just thankful to be able to live life a little differently now.

Rockport

We visited Rockport over the last weekend. It was a beautiful trip, the sun was out and everybody was in T shirts and shorts. They told us that it was summer-type weather. I was just happy to see the awesome ocean views.

Rockport's a small town, known for its crafts shops. There were a few stores selling paintings, pottery and other crafts and it's a good place to browse and admire artist's works. It's quite a popular place and has many small diners, ice cream shops and bakeries. We bought ourselves some lobster, fish cakes and stuffed clams and carried them to the rocks, where we had a mini picnic by the atlantic ocean. We were too full after that to get an ice cream plus i think I've had an overload of ice cream for the moment.

Flowers!

 Yippee! Spring is here and the flowers are blooming. It's one of the prettiest sights I've ever seen and the beauty of the flowers really cheers one up :) These are cherry blossoms at Boston Commons, the central park downtown. There were tulips planted there as well but most of them have not flowered yet. I was so amazed I made a trip down there with the camera just to take shots of the flowers. I think I shall go back there soon to get more pictures!

I was inspired and painted cherry blossoms on my first pottery plate today. I waiting for it to be fired in the kiln. Shall take a picture and post it here once it's done. Hee hee...

Cousins and nieces

We just spent the weekend visiting W's cousin and their really smart and pretty daughters! We had so much fun and really enjoyed their company. I got to read them a bedtime story, have a mini debate, play hide and seek and we had the best grills at their outdoor deck. We'll definitely be visiting more :)

Susan Boyle

For those of you who haven't already watched this youtube video, do watch it. It's definitely worth it! I don't usually post links but this one is really amazing :) I couldn't embed the video because it's been disabled by Britain's Got Talent. Many thanks to my sis who sent me the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Wheels!

We gave in and bought a car.. and boy are we happy!

As you can see, it's an old Toyota Celica with a sunroof, complete with an ah-beng modified exhaust pipe which goes "vroom" everytime we step on the accelerator (it's so embarassing...) 

You can probably tell whose idea this is :) Now, W's happy that he's got his 2 door sports car at a really cheap price and I'm happy that I get to drive around!

W: The car is really cool.....sun roof, moon roof, cruise control, modified intake system, LOUD exhaust pipe with.... Remote start! Thats why I was grinning....

W's Cornbread

 This is W's first and very successful attempt at baking!

It's cornbread, like those you get at Kenny Rogers.. cool, right?

Finally, one nice day!

 I haven't been blogging much because the weather has just been gloomy with rain and overcast skies. Have just been staying home, working on my volunteer work project and cooking (what else?). Then, there was a really nice day last thursday! The field you see is the softball and sports field of Brookline High School. There were a team of girls having their softball practice. It brought back fond memories :) The coach used the pitching machine to shoot fly balls into the sky and I watched as the girls messed up and missed the balls. Part of it was the glare of the sun when they looked skyward. It really sounds familiar, can still remember getting taught by coach how to block off the sun and catch the ball at the same time. I miss playing softball but I don't think I can bat or field well enough to join a team anymore :( To make up for it, W and I got our tics to one of the Red Sox games! It's really tough to get them, the Bostonians are Red Sox crazy and all the seats were sold out! (Partly because they were selling them secondhand as well). We didn't want to pay some cutthroat price, so we got whatever standing room tickets we could get. I'm just glad to be able to go to a baseball game :D

Ice Cream!

 Those of you who have been reading W's status updates would have heard about our ice cream craze by now :) We can't help it, they are selling Ben and Jerry's for US$3 a pint! Who can resist it? After trying all these ice creams, I realise that I don't like Haagen Dazs much, prefer B&J's and Edy's (also known as Dreyer's back home) Try the Rocky Road, it's really good! Chocolate ice cream with bits of nuts and marshmallows in it. Yum! Of course, I'm hoping to try most of the B&J's flavours. The B&J's factory is located in Vermont, not too far from here, we'll definitely be heading there in one of our road trips :) So far, I really like the strawberry cheesecake and the froyos (frozen yogurts) are good too! If any of you will come and visit, I'll buy you a tub :D

Btw, W says that I've been growing fatter, so I'm trying to limit my ice cream intake :( 

Museum of Fine Arts

 I realised that I haven't put up many pictures recently so I've got a store of them :) This week, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts, I found out that entry was sponsored on Wednesdays after 4pm so I went in for a quick visit. It was really nice!

I think I enjoyed it particularly because I wasn't in a rush and I didn't have an agenda either so I walked around and tried to learn about art. I've finally figured out who the impressionists are, the 2 more famous ones are Monet and Renoir, whose paintings are on the top and lower right respectively. I really like those paintings mainly because they portray light in a beautiful way and it lifts my spirits when I look at them. I'm not great with the names of the paintings, only know that the one by Monet is called the "Haystack", because I saw it at the Chicago MFA as well. Make a guess which famous artist painted the painting on the top left, shouldn't be difficult since Van Gogh's paintings are very distinctive. The middle one is by Rembrandt and the lower left is a portrait painting by a famous portrait artist Sergant. It's a really nice way to spend the afternoon...  

My first cookies!

I baked my first cookies ever! Minus those from home econs and the ones I made in secondary school from a sesame street recipe which turned out too sweet to eat. They came from a recipe for mexican wedding cookies. They tasted not bad, but I think I overbaked them because I made them too big and couldn't estimate the baking time properly. Plus, I made the whole batch by hand and I had aching arms after. Right after that, I decided to buy a hand held mixer :)

I'll be baking my second batch of cookies today! This time, it's going to be a lemon pecan slice and bake sugar cookie adopted off this website: www.joythebaker.com. I really like the website because the pictures are pretty plus looking at the stuff she bakes makes me hungry! I hope the cookies turn out better this time..

Smoke Alarm

No picture today but thought I'd just tell everyone the story of "How I set off the smoke alarm". One good thing that came out of it is that I now know that the smoke alarm in my apartment works. I must say first that it's not a result of my poor culinary skills!! I was doing everything right, except I chose to use the 2nd untested oven in the kitchen and I suspect that it hasn't been used for years... After preheating the oven at high heat, I opened it and placed the chicken on the shelf (the other oven was set at a different temperature and was holding my trays of cookies), and lo and behold! A great cloud of smoke engulfed the kitchen and quickly migrated east to the hall. I had a split second decision to make: to close the oven door or not. I made the wrong choice: leave it open, maybe the oven will cool down and the fumes will cease. As I stared in horror at the hazy gas that overtook the hall, a loud beep started to sound. I rushed to the smoke alarm by the room (my poor friend who was staying with us, jet-lagged and catching a nap was jolted awake by now) and realised that there was no 'off' button. There was no way to turn off the sound! I imagined scenes of firefighters breaking down my door, neighbours rushing out of the building. Just as I was about to climb on a chair and prod some sense into the obstinate contraption, it stopped on its own. It had an automatic sensor! I just had to get the smoke out of the apartment! I opened the door, welcomed in the freezing chill and opened the door to the kitchen which led out to the hallway. I was quite pleased with how the air started to clear but it did not last. Soon, I heard a voice in the corridor and before me stood a European lady with an irate expression advising me to close the door because the smell of the "cooking" was permeating the corridor. Sigh.. what an embarassing day. I shut the door after a short mumble about smoke alarms and clearing air, and proceeded to apologise profusely to the friend who was rudely awakened and introduced to a cold front. At a time like this, you can't possibly expect me to take a picture, right?
p.s. If you would like to know, both the cookies and chicken are well and were happily enjoyed :)

Spring?

It's officially the first day of spring! And the temperature here today's 0 degC!! Haha, so much for spring... Weather here's so unpredictable, it changes from day to day. Over the last weekend, we had warm temperatures, a berry in the amazingly hardy plant in the balcony and all seemed to be in place. But by Monday, it was close to freezing point again. It was funny when I was chatting with my mum and she was perspiring in her cotton tank top and I was wrapped up in my pullover. I'm still trying to get used to this, W obviously loves the cooler weather. When we went for a walk, I wore 3 layers with a scarf and he wore 2 T shirts only! No jacket or scarf and he was teasing me the whole way... can't help it if I don't have much adipose tissue to store warmth :P Btw, W took these nice shots

Pancakes!

I found a recipe for really yummy buttermilk pancakes! Almost as good as the ones I had at the Les Amis cafe at Botanic Gardens. I made the batter and W helped to cook them so he thinks that they are really good because he made them. I'm still trying to convince him that cooking was the easiest part. Anyway, I'm really pleased because they are so yummy and easy to make, I think I'll be having pancakes for the next few weekends :) I love pancakes!

Hanging out

Some friends came by to visit last week and we were out for lunch. Boston's supposed to be famous for its lobsters and clam chowder so we headed to a nice seafood restaurant for lunch. I decided to skip the lobster (no way I was finishing that on my own!) and had a really yummy clam chowder. I must admit that I haven't had any lobsters since we've been here.. somehow, I don't really fancy seafood cooked western style. Give me chilli or steamed crab anyday! 

As for the statue, that's John Harvard sitting in the Harvard Yard. Notice a gold sheen on his left foot? That's because everyone rubs his foot when they visit, I have no idea why.. We postulated that intelligence somehow gets conducted from that foot. I didn't rub it though so it didn't benefit my IQ score at all.. 

Carrot Ginger Muffins

We had an eventful week- it was W's bd and he loves carrot cakes so I followed a Martha Steward recipe for carrot ginger muffins with an orange cream cheese frosting :) It turned out yummy! Was quite pleased actually and W liked it alot. In fact, we had extra frosting and we gobbled it up as well. Can you tell that we're already putting on weight?