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 The site is pretty outdated.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.
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.
buy buy buy
19/12/2007
I never really need a reason to go shop, just ask Sharks. But since I’ve been here I’ve not really been doing very much of it. Well this month, I made up for it big time.
The spending spree continued today, my day off, and as a reward, KF brought me over to the Toyota dealership to give the Matrix a little zoom-zoom…
I can’t tell if it’s any good or any bad. It moved when I wanted it to, and stopped when I wanted it to. The pedals were a lot softer than expected, so he had to sit through a couple of rough stops. But that was the long and short of it. Was tempting, but we didn’t walk away with one. Sorry, Gino!
Earlier in the day, we headed downtown to a linen outlet that was having a closeout sale. King sized fitted sheets (400 threadcount) at $7.99. No brainer right? Twenty minutes later we walked out of the shop with 4 sets of it. It’s a good thing I like the colour, because it was the only colour left in that size.
Good thing Christmas is around the corner!
Reprieve
06/12/2007
Wore them to sleep last night in a fit of desperation. Not only did they fit well, they didn’t hurt, once they warmed up they were a custom fit, and it *really* blocks out the noise. They are a large wad though, so I kinda halved it, since I’ve relatively small ears anyway.
Next up, ear candling…
always coca cola
12/03/2007
I’ve been watching an awful lot of tv. At this point I’ve probably watched more TV than I’ve slept. With the DVD versions I hard ever even see ads.
Watching Ugly Betty today on Channel 5 I saw this, and I lovesit.
At the supermarket this evening they played Caravan of Love (by the Housemartins) and in between singing completely off-key and walking the aisles I found myself inexplicably picking up a roll of cinnamon bun dough. Costs about $10, you get 8 buns.
It’s sitting in the oven now, after it baked for 10 minutes at 200°C. It gets poofy!
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Update: Left it in too long. Ended up dried out and burnt. That’s what you get for waiting 2 commercial breaks!
three ways to nip that spending spree
08/02/2007
in the bud
- Shop with your spouse or your mom. Not your buddies.
Nothing like the good old “are-you-sure” eyes and the knowing “don’t-you-already-have-something-like-that” perk of the brows to put you off getting the top you don’t need, or the cute bag with stripes that looks like the other cute bag with stripes you already have, except in a different shade of blue. - Look (or re-look) at your finances, investments and other liquid assets (or the lack of it). If that doesn’t depress you, you deserve to shop.
- Re-prioritise your life, like have kids or prepare to move out of the family home or out of the country or do the spiritual thing and really start to believe that the things you own end up owning you.
And if you’re convinced, and want to dash all your shopping plans – you can so afford this: the cutest valentine’s day pressie ever from a no-brandname store. $9 a pop, also great for the Looey-gees of the world who need to make it up to the girl he silently responded to when she professed her undying love to him. Stores are located in Seiyu at Bugis and Bishan, and The Paragon.
Snack of the week
09/01/2007
Been afflicted with a case of the munchies at night lately, and decided to try this: Ryvita Whole Grain Crispbread. I tried the Kavli one before, but it’s kinda cardboardy.
The Ryvita Rye Crispbread Original tastes better than it looks. It’s a little more crisp and less dense than Kavli, so it’s actually crispy. I haven’t tried the sesame one yet, but original tastes fine on its own, or with some cheese.
It’s on offer at Cold Storage right now, $3.20 for a 250g pack.
Disconnected cables
28/12/2006
I tried posting this entry yesterday, but it didn’t happen.
An earthquake in Taiwan today apparently damaged an undersea cable affecting my surfing pleasure. This is very annoying, because it’s taking a really long time for me to get anywhere I need for whatever I want. This is very annoying, considering how anything useful to anyone’s life is across the pond somewhere else other than in Asia.
What’s surprising though, is that while MSN Messenger is mostly down, or spotty, Yahoo! Messenger seems fine. Yay!
In other news, I tried to go shopping today, but was thwarted somewhat by the crowd. However, the trooper I am, I persisted and got myself a nice cake spade (or whatmachacall it) from WMF at Takashimaya for $9.90.
It’s a neat little contraption everyone should have when slicing a cake. How else are you going to lift the slice nicely into a plate? I got my sister-in-law one since with 3 kids, she’s going to be doing lots of cake cutting at her place.
sugar loaf
25/11/2006
Found them Dryell Home Dry Cleaning Kits at the supermarket again. Along with the Scotch Brite toilet brush scubbers.
Ahhhhh… life in Singapore is now complete.
We went for a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator class thing today, and it was fun. I scored 0 in one of the personality preference I thought I would’ve been pretty moderate in, and I’m wondering if I’m trying to feel bad about it or if I genuinely do. Nevertheless. 0. Yikes?
I really could’ve used the MBTI stuff before the last couple of days, but then again, it probably wouldn’t guarantee any better behaviour from me. Apparently the likes of me always thinks I’m right.
There’s a good reason for that: most of the time I am.
Hubris. I’m so full of it.
Who wants to live forever?
19/04/2006
Yet another ear infection
Was supposed to be a horrible (y)ear for my zodiac animal. They were right. It’s uncomfortable, and annoying but at least this time I can hear pretty ok.
Going to be a busy week at the office.
Meanwhile, KF has been going a little nuts with the new printer – so much so that I’ve had to make a few adjustments to my post-it board to accommodate the new photos. My mom though, is pretty pleased with all the new print outs of her precious grandkids.
4R paper used to cost me something like S$8.50 for a pack of 30 (Premium Glossy). Now it’s going for $5.90. Now we get semi-glossy, which I prefer. It’s like getting it printed on matte photo paper. Anyway, that too costs less than what I used to pay, weighing in at $6.30 for a 30 pack. So far, I’ve been sticking to Epson paper, mostly because it’s thick and decent. And also ‘cos KF doesn’t want to switch since he’s happy with the current print outs.
Our favourite toy this week is the 1gb thumbdrive we picked up at Challenger over the weekend. Cost us a neat $73. Damn, I love memory.
