mini violets and begonia
22/05/2009
After my success with Spock, my miniature African Violet, subsequent attempts at germinating more from seed were failures. In fact, out of the package of 30 seeds, Spock was the only survivor. Had I known it was so difficult to raise them from seed, I would’ve probably bought a plant to begin with.
I’ve not always had any affection for saintpaulia, mostly because the common ones are the sort of clumsy looking, large, purple (well, violet) variety that often decorate office cubes. My dad had some in his office, but they were sort of blah as well, especially next to his gloxinia, but I suppose the appeal of these furry little fellas is that they make excellent houseplants. They can do with less light than your garden variety bloomers (ha!), and they’re not too fussy if you keep them not too warm and not too cold. I keep Spock in my bedroom where it gets morning sun and give it a sip of water every morning or so. He’s a happy little camper.
When Spock started doing well, I started thinking hey, this African Violet business isn’t so bad at all, so I set about to find them. The problem is, they’re a little hard to find. You can get them from the Osh or Home Depot Nursery, but they’re kind of beat up and sad looking. I didn’t want to order another bunch of seeds and start all over again. Besides, the seeds were like dust, and really hard to manage. Finally, I searched online and found The Violet Barn, home of Rob’s Violets. The site is pretty outdated. In fact, there isn’t even an order form. You type up your order and quantity and do your own math. They send you a note and charge you when they ship. I was apprehensive, but the prices were quite decent and they have a huge variety of violets and begonias. Not just the violet kind of saintpaulia, but they’ve blues, whites, pinks, yellows, reds, greens, semi-doubles, doubles, buttercup shaped, streaked, trailing, standard… It was too easy to get carried away.
Anyway. My order showed up yesterday, but I was out. Afraid that my plants would be deader than dead by the time I got to them, I went to the post office in the morning to pick them up. And was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box. Inside the USPS box was one of those reflective bubble-wrap bags (like the ones they give out with Royce Chocolates to keep them from melting). Inside that bag, were my five little plants surrounded by air-bags.
Each little plant was carefully slipped in plastic (to avoid moisture loss from the soil), painstakingly buffered with foam, then lovingly wrapped in paper so they could stand and not run around inside the box. Given each plant was a miniature, and no more than 2″ large, that was a lot more dedication in one package than I’ve seen in all the other purchases I’ve made online, put together.
Each little plant came out of the box just perfect! I’ve never received a plant in the mail intact that way before, in fact, most times they’re pretty beat up and take a while to recover. I think these babies will do fine in their current little pots for a while – too perfect! Anyway. They’re now sitting in my workroom window – and I can’t be happier with them. Anyway, continuing with my Star Trek theme, I named the saintpaulias Luc and Hugh. Need to name the begonias as well, and the dwarf hidcote so it doesn’t feel left out. Suggestions welcome.
i. can’t. sleep.
21/05/2009
I hate when I can’t get to sleep. I end up stewing over everything that’s been annoying me. Funny. I sleep fine when I’m not annoyed.
Oh, found out the tomato flowers have given way (some of them) to little green fruit! Very excited. And tomorrow I’m expecting a shipment of violets and begonias. Can’t wait!
expectation
20/05/2009
One of the things that make family relations complicated are the expectations they have. Obviously some I’m likely to forgive or perhaps even be grateful for, some which are obligation I’d rank below watching my toenails grow.
For example. My dad expected me to pay him back for my tertiary education. He made no attempts to evade it, sugar coat it or appear wrought by it, he just paid for it with his CPF and had the CPF board claim it back from me piecemeal till I paid it off. I’m cool with that.
On the other hand, my mom expects that her values system is the same as mine. That I suppose isn’t such a longshot, but I do regard family and kinship rather differently than her, unfortunately. While she doesn’t mind mingling with anyone vaguely related, I don’t. So just as she would go out on a limb to do something for someone in the name of family, I suppose I wouldn’t, and would resent doing so. It would probably cause a lot of animosity between us if she didn’t also have Maternal Selective Retention. She only remembers the good bits between us. I am thankful for that.
Most people know the In-law expectations the best. Mothers-in-law who expect their sons’ wives to fulfill the familial responsibilities as: looking after the household, caring for the husband and family, bearing children, taking care of the parents.
Is it justified to expect it though? The other day I mentioned my quandary to Netjackal, and he gave me the classic: well, your mom did have you (and so expectations are somewhat justified). In my mind, while that’s true, it’s also true that I had no input in the whole “having me” discussion. The decision was not mine, I’m a consequence of it. Of course, I suppose I am grateful for it and everything they did thereafter, but the labour/birthing portion, the way I see it, shouldn’t be put on my tab. My dad’s, maybe. So hey, maybe it should be fathers thanking mothers on a kids birthday – Confucius was too shy to say so, the prude, and instead passed on the responsibilities to the kids. Cop-out.
Then Netjackal changed his line of attack to: well you do owe your mom still and that pretty much did it. I suppose I do.
I hate how parents are right. I suppose if I did birth a kid, I wouldn’t be able NOT to have any expectations from it. So I suppose until I find some way to be better-than-human, reproducing isn’t high on my list of priorities.
the culinary adventures of qoomonster
13/05/2009
I’m by no means a good cook. I cook badly. KF eats it. I make him say he likes it, but he’s so well trained I’ve no idea whether he really does. He eats anything I cook with no complaints, and I appreciate that. He even eats the stuff I can’t bring myself to eat. That’s quite something, eh?
However, every once in a while, when the stars are aligned right, I get lucky and manage to whip up something half decent. Last week I baked some prawns really spiffily in a nice cilantro pesto. They turned out pretty darn amazing, for my standards! They didn’t look really all that hot though.
This week – I decided to try my hand at risotto. I’ve seen a bunch of chefs make it (on tv) so I figured what the heck. Sharks had a recipe somewhere, but I pretty much winged it. I wanted to sear the scallops before popping them in the risotto, but I guess it didn’t work out as planned. Other than that it turned out quite nicely.
Made scones as well today, since I realise I’m kind of addicted to them. Those turned out surprisingly well, too, despite being put together in between breaks watching Fringe on Hulu. Guess breakfast and teatime is going to be pleasant for the rest of the week!
first bud of the season!
12/05/2009
Tah dah!!! My first rosebud ever!!! I’m so pleased!
First, the Lily of the Valley aka Hanazawa Rui bloomed, then now my little Bonica, yeah for Spring!
Can’t wait till the larger roses start doing their thing. 
eek – KF Seetoh on Martha Stewart?
12/05/2009
Apparently it’s a noodle special. He’s there showing off Laksa.
Who knew? He even kept his accent – he sounds like a typical mission school/institution boy.
Very nice. He even sang a little.
I bet the audience has no clue what he’s saying.
in the eye
09/05/2009
F**K doesn’t even begin to express the extreme freakin situation. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth (after a late night movie, which I was originally going to blog about), and when I hit the pump dispenser for the hand soap – I use a lightly diluted mint castille soap mix – it squirted through a hole in the gunk, flew out of the dispenser and hit me right in the right eye.
FUCK!!!! does not begin to express my freaking displeasure.
In fact, I’d rate the magnitude a 9, on the Pissedher Scale, probably a notch below Nero when Spock screwed him over, and Nero yelled SPPOOOCCCKKKKK instead. Who knew them Romulans spoke American, because it certainly sounded like what I yelled in the bathroom.
Get over it, it’s not much of a spoiler.
The Star Trek movie was a true JJ Abrams vehicle. Complete with all that sci-fi mumbo-jumbo: warp drives, ejecting the core, black holes, rifts in the space-time-continuum, crazyass hungry creatures, aliens – the only thing missing was a conspiracy. I suppose I was hoping for something more Spock, less Kirk. But like Kirk, the movie was full of action, sound and fury, cowboy diplomacy and a big reward for “winging it”. I’m just not a big fan of that whole premise. Haven’t we seen enough of that? It’s so commonplace here it’s acceptable, it’s probably an aspiration for most. I just happen to believe that kind of behaviour should be discouraged to say the least.
Sylar is a pathetic attempt at a reproduction of Spock, failing even more miserably because of the glaring comparison you’re bound to make.
As for entertainment, there was no-one droolworthy, no really cool lines, no mind-blowing action, no crazyass cutting edge technology. Sorry geek fanboys, I was not particularly impressed.
What then, did the Star Trek movie have? Original Spock. Dr Who. Eomer. Hester. At some point the comedy was a relief. Oh, great soundtrack. The stuff you want to have playing in the car when you’re on the freeway. Gotta have it.
What did I think of Star Trek? Weak plot, actors who had big shoes to fill and couldn’t, and stuff that belonged on the other JJ Abrams franchise, the one with the island and the bunch of random looneys running around in it. Was it entertaining? Yes. Lots of action. Lots of comedy. Lots of ka-ba-boom! Do I recommend it? Only to the Trekkies, but then again, if they were trekkies they wouldn’t need a recommendation.
The bottom line? Kirk is an ass. Jean-Luc Picard rules.
There said it.
scones for breakfast
06/05/2009
The first time I had scones, they were round. I was probably 9. My folks carted my brother and I over to the UK for our first European adventure. I saw bears in the Black Forest. We went to some castle for wine tasting. We had Chinese food in France. I think I saw the Eiffel Tower. I don’t remember it very well though fortunately the photos are around somewhere. At home with my folks.
I remember the second time we had scones much better. I was probably 11. We had it in a cafe. They served it with cream, but it was light, more like whipped cream, and jam. I wasn’t really a big fan of butter or dairy growing up, but this was acceptable. I ordered it each time we stopped for tea. Tea and warm scones were quite comforting. We had some at Oxford, right before we walked around, saw a bunch of guys punting down that canal, bought my favourite tee shirt (through my teens – I haven’t really been that attached to my clothes after that), and a souvenir mug which read: Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your children. I thought it was hilarious.
I’ve tried making scones back in Singapore, but never had much success with them. It was always something or the other, sometimes they turned out like stones, other times, they just weren’t worth finishing. I thought I’d try them again, now that I’m equipped, and it was getting all drizzly and rainy here. The first batch was awful. Maybe I forgot the sugar (not likely), or the improvisation of baking soda and half-and-half, but after a couple of bites I had to throw the whole lot out.
I was going to give up. I put it in the backburner, and decided to forget about it. I can buy scones, dammit. I’d probably have to take the bits out of it, because for some reason, people here put stuff in their scones – like raisins, or blueberries. I really prefer mine plain, the way I remember them. That and I really don’t like raisins for the most part. And most dried fruit.
Anyway. The other day, I was out with Dr M at the Half Moon Bay plant Nursery. It was drizzling and foggy there, and we were walking through rows of rose shrubs. This is what I remember the UK to be like, I said. He said, Well, it doesn’t get more UK than this – the rain, and me. But it was the whole thing. Truding through muddy gravel, the drizzle and fog, the accent, the light scent of roses. The only thing missing was the smell of bread at Sainsbury’s and the buttery comfort of scones.
So. That afternoon I bought the bunch of ingredients I was missing, and made a fresh batch of scones the next morning. I’m happy to say they turned out really well. I’ve been having scones with tea for breakfast for a couple of mornings. It’s certainly more appropriate and satisfying than chocolate cream pie for breakfast, at least!
Here’s the recipe for the scones I made. I left out the raisins. The trick is not to over work the dough – rub/cut it in roughly, add wet ingredients, then slap it together. It’s supposed to be crumbly. Not bad for a half-hour job.
